A/N: I bet whoever is reading this probably thought that this chapter would never come. To make a long story short I lost interest in writing this, but recently I was talking to my friend about fanfiction in general and it made me want to finish this. I have now decided that I will finish this story, because I would feel terrible stopping halfway through. Anyway sorry that this took so long for me to do.

Ivarik sat up as quickly as he heard a sudden crash as he lay in Spyro's house. Aria looked at him, curiously searching for an answer in his eyes. Ivarik had none though as he shrugged his shoulders, before getting up to find Spyro, with everything that had happened so far he would not simply dismiss the noise as nothing.

The two rushed downstairs to find Spyro talking to Cynder, his tone very forcefully. This alone put Aria on edge; her father was timid and rarely got angry; she had only seen him upset one other time in her life.

"I will not let you go out there alone Spyro, our son is already lost, and I will not lose you too." Cynder pleaded.

"You're not coming with me Cynder, for the exact reason you just said. I am going to find out what the crash was, our son is gone and I intend to find him."

"Then let me come with you!" The black dragoness argued.

"No, you will stay here and watch Aria, I'm not putting anyone else in danger." Spyro said as he turned away from his mate ending the discussion.

"Spyro I am coming with you. I want to find out what happened as badly as you do." Ivarik said walking up to the large purple dragon's side.

"Ivarik, I can't in good conscious, let you follow me."

"Save it." Ivarik said interrupting the dragon. "I don't mean to be rude but you aren't my parent and the only way you will get me to stay here is if you incapacitate me, but I don't think you want to do that."

Spyro stared at the dragon for a short moment. The young one's bravery astounded him, most would be at least nervous, Ivarik seemed sound though as he returned the purple dragon's stare. "I can't really stop you then." Spyro said nodding. "Just promise me that you won't do anything to get yourself hurt, if there is danger let me handle it."

Ivarik had no intention of doing such a thing but to put the dragon's thoughts to rest he simply nodded.

"Wait for me I'll come to-

Aria's last word was pulled from her throat as her mother picked her up the nape of her neck. "If I cannot go then you are definitely not leaving this house. One missing child is more than enough." Cynder said through her teeth.

"What about Ivarik he gets to go out when he wants to." Aria argued as her mother dropped her to the floor.

"Ivarik is older and can take care of himself, and you may have forgotten, but he is not our child." Cynder explained, to the pouting dragoness. "Just be careful." She said to Spyro as he walked out the door.

"When am I not?" He asked with a childish grin on his face, a gesture that made Cynder feel at relative ease.

Spyro and Ivarik took to the air the second they left the house. They didn't have to fly far to find the source of the noise, it seemed the whole city had come out to see it, as they could see dragons moving in one singular direction. Finally, they came to one of the many main squares in the city. In the center was a shattered statue and two dragons, one with brilliant silver scales and the other with dark violet features.

Ivarik was the first to react, speeding down towards the two, Spyro hung back for a moment, his eyes not catching onto the purple figure at first, and instead he saw the carnage in the square. Once the statue had broken the pieces had been flung with horrific speed, crashing into nearby buildings and tearing through walls. It almost looked as though small bombs had been dropped in the area.

"By the ancestors! What happened here?" Ivarik half yelled as he landed next to Taelas' limp body and Lyara who was sitting over him.

"I tried to tell him I did, but he didn't listen." Lyara cried shaking her head, seeming hardly aware the Ivarik was even there at all.

"I could have told you that." Ivarik said moving to pick the dragon up. As he neared the fallen purple dragon though Lyara stood up, and faced him her teeth were bared, but there were tears in her eyes. Ivarik gave her a quizzical look.

"What are you doing?" The dragoness hissed.

"I should ask you the same thing." The lightning dragon said still confused.

"I won't let anyone else hurt him!" She said forcefully.

"Hurt him? I was traveling with him, we met, remember?" The dragon explained looking at her dumbfounded.

"I have never seen you in my life." The dragoness spat.

Ivarik stared at her as if she were crazy. "Right, I am going to take my friend now, and go." Ivarik said speaking the words slowly, as if he was talking to a child. "You can go off by yourself, and make claims about being a goddess or whatever it is that you do in your free time." He said waving his paw at her as if to show her away, as he would do with a fly.

"How did you know that?" The silver dragoness asked suddenly freezing at the words.

"You told us. Oh right sorry, you 'forgot'." He said sarcasm dripping from his words.

The dragoness greeted him with silence obviously trying to sort things out as a puzzled look came over her features. "I'm going to go now." Ivarik said moving towards Taelas again and grabbing one of his paws. It felt cold, and a spike of fear went through the dragon.

He could hardly analyze the problem though, as he was suddenly thrust to the ground, Lyara standing over him.

"What the hell did you do that for?" He asked, as the dragoness herself looked bewildered by her own actions. Lifting a paw, black claws shining in the moonlight, Lyara prepared to strike, and Ivarik moved to block the coming attack. As she moved though her paw fell slowly, and then, to Ivarik's surprise, so did she. The dragoness fell to the ground next to him, unconscious.

Ivarik stood up hastily, and looked at her body. More and more questions began to come into his mind, but he threw them aside as Spyro landed behind him, and he turned to face the adult purple dragon.

"Who is that?" Spyro asked staring at Lyara.

"It's a long story." Ivarik said still sounding puzzled himself.

"Then tell me when we get back to our house, Taelas is looking far from well." Spyro said as he moved to pick up his son, and gently placed him on his back.

"It will be fine, he'll make, I'm sure." Ivarik said as he grabbed Lyara. He was confused by the dragoness, but he didn't feel right leaving her in the street to fend for herself, she seemed to be already confused enough as it was, although if she tried to attack him again, he might not be so hospitable.

Spyro looked back at Ivarik grim faced. "I wish I shared in your optimism young one, but I have lived long enough to see others come and go. Not everyone lives. For my own sake though I desperately hope that you are right."

"They made a process, a plan. It only had a few steps, but they were large steps. Things that would seem impossible and idiotic to any sane dragon, but what did it matter to them, they had already lost their minds. The first step was to find a way to this world."

Taelas' eyes opened abruptly revealing harsh light. With a grunt he struggled to keep his lids open, and let his pupils adjust. "Who's there?" He asked blindly hoping for an answer, he had heard someone just a moment ago. After several moments he blinked away the water that had been gathering on the rims of his eyes. How long had he been asleep?

With a groan of pain he tried to get up, moving himself into a sitting position. His muscles felt tight, stiff, and as he tried to stretch them out he looked around. The dragon suddenly went into shock seeing that he was in what appeared to be the remains of his house. There were fires around him and broken furnishings scattered about like clutter on the ground, as he looked around though he saw no one who could have spoken.

"What the hell happened?" He asked in awe. Not seeing anyone around, the dragon forced himself to stand, causing a wave of wooziness to course through him. He almost fell back over, but with a quick shake of his head he began to steady himself. Finding himself in need of a better vantage point the dragon flapped his wings, experimentally at first. As he miraculously felt no pain the dragon grew more confident and pushed off of the ground, making a short flight up to the top of a crumbling stone wall.

Looking out the dragon's jaw dropped, in horror. He saw Warfang in disarray. Many of the buildings lay smashed, and destroyed. From his view point he could not see the entire city but, it seemed as though the damage that was here probably continued throughout all of the streets. Taelas could see bodies in almost every direction; the more he tried to ignore them the more obvious they were though.

A sudden scream jolted him out of his astonishment, as he jumped in surprise, a rare thing for him. Isolating the scream amongst the other noises that he could hear all over the city, Taelas leapt off of the wall heading for the voice, and hopefully towards some answers.

Only across the street Taelas located the dragoness in distress. To his surprise, and distress it was his sister. Aria stood on a stone path that Taelas had walked so many times before. Confronting her were two creatures that Taelas had never seen before. They looked kind of like the apes that his father used to tell him about, hunched over humanoids, which dragged their arms, their hands just barely touching the ground. They sported large claws and fangs that looked more painful than a dragon's. Unlike the apes though they did not have fur, or even much of a face, besides their mouth of course. Their skin appeared as a grayish-purple plasma, that shifted around like water.

One of the creatures pursuing Aria opened its mouth, and screeched menacingly, the sound felt deafening to Taelas and he could only imagine how loud it was to his sister. The creature jumped immediately following the sound. It tackled Aria thrusting her to the ground. Taelas eyes widened as it tried to snap, which would have surely killed her had she not moved out of the way.

With a swift kick of her hind legs the dragoness sent the beast flying behind her to smash against a nearby house. Taking advantage of the situation Aria hissed defiantly, and spat two spikes of ice, which impaled the creature against the wall, by its arms. The creature screeched again, this time the noise not even seeming to phase the dragoness, she fired a third spike of ice, this one going straight through the creature's gapping maw quieting him permanently.

Taelas was more amazed than anything at his sister's sudden fighting prowess began to swoop down. He quickly noted the other creature, which had been quietly creeping closer to the dragoness. While she had not taken notice, Taelas had, and he landed hard on the thing, stunning it, before baking its head in flames.

When the creature lay dead Taelas stepped off of the body, more than a little tired from the exertion, he had just woken up after all. He looked up at Aria lazily, but she was simply staring at him, as if unbelieving.

"They said you wouldn't make it." Aria cried. "They said you were lost, gone, dead."

"What do you mean?" Taelas asked, between two breaths.

"Taelas, I…I…don- She stuttered as she sprinted over to her brother. The purple drake wrapped her in his wings.

"What happened to you, how did you survive?" Aria asked quickly running her words together as she spoke. "I thought that I would never see you again."

"I woke up in our house, it's completely destroyed." Taelas answered, surprisingly he only just now felt sadness. That place had been his home since he was born and now it was a pile of smoldering rubble. "Aria, listen to me, what is going on here? How long have I been knocked out?"

"Taelas." She said shaking her head, tears in her eyes. "You have been knocked out nearly three months. They said you were in something called a coma."

"What!" The dragon screamed, making his sister jump. "Three months?" He yelled just as loudly.

"Yes, the doctors said that you should be dead from what happened to you after your incident. But because you were a purple dragon you simply went into a comatose state instead. We weren't sure if you would ever wake up." She said hugging her brother again, squeezing him tightly. "I thought I would be alone." She whimpered putting her head against his chest.

Taelas suddenly seemed to stop breathing. "Alone?" He asked, the statement striking him as odd. The horror began to set in as he looked to Aria for an answer that he wasn't sure he wanted to hear.

"Taelas…" Aria said trailing off not wanting to bring up the subject.

"Aria, what do you mean alone?" Taelas repeated.

"Taelas. Mother and father…" She said cutting off again tears welling in her bright forest green eyes.

"What? Aria what happened to them?" He asked frustration setting in along with sorrow.

"Mom and dad are…dead." Aria said tears rolling down her cheeks. Taelas' fell to the ground as the words hit him, their impact greater than any physical wound. As he lay on the ground he didn't speak he just looked stunned, he could feel a burning in his throat and water in his eyes but he ignored it.

"How, how did this happen?" He asked. When no answer came he looked to his sister who was on the ground as well, and still sobbing. "Aria, listen to me!" The dragon yelled getting her attention, his desperation causing his temper to flare. "I know, how you are feeling but please," He said his voice returning to normal. "Please tell me what happened."

"After you went into a coma, Sol and Arum began to attack places all over the world. Everyone knew of them, and as they destroyed towns and cities, their numbers grew. They began to open portals all across the world, letting in those…creatures." Aria said looking to the one she had speared to the wall.

"The second step was not so tough, and for two that had gone insane it was a surprisingly smart move. Open portals and summon those who were on the other side of the void."

Taelas heard the voice and immediately stood up, spinning around trying to find whoever had spoken.

"Taelas what's wrong?" Aria sniffled looking at him and the surrounding area.

"Did you hear that?" He asked staring back down at his sister.

"No, I didn't hear anything, what was it?" She asked a little worried, as she began to compose herself once more.

Taelas paused for a moment. "Probably nothing, I'm still tired, that's probably it." He bluffed trying to make something up to put his own mind at ease.

Sitting back down he continued. "So Spyro and Cynder are…" He trailed off unable to finish the question. Aria simply nodded not wanting to confirm it with words.

"How did they…die?" He said his voice breaking on the last word.

"I'm sorry Taelas, I cannot, repeat it, I just can't." She said shaking her head.

"Alright, it's fine, maybe I'll ask you later. Tell me then, what is going on inside of Warfang, are Sol and Arum here?"

"Yes, they are. Taelas there is something you should know." Aria said her voice suddenly ominous. Taelas raised a brow asking for her to answer.

"Warfang. Warfang is the last city on this planet. Sol and Arum, they have destroyed and killed nearly all of our kind." Aria said. "We are endangered."

"What but how? Why?" Taelas asked astounded.

"Everyone who has seen them, and lived says that, it is there plan. Lyara said that they want to destroy everything, to rebuild, from the beginning. Us, this city, the remaining few here, we are all that is left." She said her words hitting Taelas heavily.

"Even the most deranged person can sense danger to some sort of degree. Kill or be killed, a fairly simply rule to follow, and one that was not difficult either. The third step was to end the life that was living here, and kill any who sought to thwart their rule."

This time when Taelas heard the voice he simply didn't react, although it scared him enough to make him twitch. He was beginning to realize that there was no one talking to him. No dragon was next to him whispering words into his ears. No, it was in his thoughts, the whispers were coming from inside his head.

"Are you alright?" His sister asked again.

"Yes, fine, where are the others, Ivarik, Syra, are any of them left?" Taelas asked dreading the answer.

"Yes, they were both still alive the last time that I saw them." Aria clarified. "In fact Ivarik should still be nearby."

"Alright, we need to move, before more of those things come." Taelas said standing up and gently pulled his sister up as well.

"Taelas, you are here, aren't you?" Aria asked looking up at her brother.

"Of cours-

The dragon was cut off as there was a large explosion nearby. A yellow drake, who Taelas knew to be Ivarik. The golden dragon came out of the smoke, backpedaling through the air before shooting a blast of lightning back into the smoldering air. There were a few resounding screams, but the dragon drowned them out with more crackling lightning, until no further noises came.

"Aria, I told you to stay- The words fell from the dragon's mouth as he saw who was before him. "Taelas, you're alive?"

"Everyone is really surprised by that." The purple dragon said, and Aria flicked her paw tapping him on the shoulder.

"You have been in a coma for three months." Ivarik said.

"I know, I had Aria fill me in, on everything." Taelas said nodding to his sister.

"I imagine this isn't what you were expecting to wake up to." Ivarik said.

"It doesn't matter, what's happened has happened, now we need to find Syra, then we can go from there, where is she?" Taelas asked. He didn't want Ivarik to mention his parents, he had heard it once and that was more than he ever wanted to hear.

"She ran off to find her parents; she was heading for her home." Ivarik explained.

"Alright, let's go, no one should be alone out here." Taelas said. The others nodded as they lifted off into the air. As Taelas flew he noted the destruction once more, he was right in his previous assumption it seemed to span the entire city. The sky was black with smoke from the fires, and the screams, and calls of desperate dragons could be heard all over the city.

Only a block from Syra's house Taelas noted a mother and her child running from some of the creatures. The mother was injured preventing her from flying, and the child was too small to lift himself from the ground, and he could hardly keep up with his parent.

Taelas began to make a downward turn, meaning to land and help.

"Taelas stop!" Ivarik said sternly, halting the dragon.

"What why?" Taelas asked.

"We can't stop to save everyone, there are too many." Ivarik said and shook his head looking away from Taelas as he spoke. "We have to take care of our own, and no one else."

"You want me to turn my back on them?" Taelas asked.

"You don't understand." Ivarik argued.

"What I don't understand is you! I'm helping them you can do whatever you want." Taelas said spinning about and launching towards the fleeing family.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Ivarik growled looking at Aria.

The blue dragoness watched her brother land, and begin to unleash elements on the beasts making them temporarily scatter.

"I had to explain to him about the situation of the world, and the fact that our parents are dead! I'll not be the one to tell him this." The dragoness hissed.

"Let's just get down there." Ivarik said, as he veered downward. "I'm not leaving him to die."

Taelas looked at the four creatures, which were jumping back and forth, menacingly, as they tried to decide when, and where to attack. The first creature to attack leapt forward, and Taelas rolled to the side bringing his tail down, stabbing the creature through its skull as it landed where he had just been. The second creature tackled the dragon, but Taelas quickly took the advantage, as they brawled on the ground the dragon reared his neck back and bit through the creature's semi-solid neck. Letting the body fall to the ground, Taelas got back up to find the third beast running away, having seen its friends die it felt that it had no chance. Taelas didn't give it the opportunity. Slamming his paw into the stone path, a massive stone spike jutted out of the ground impaling the last creature, the dragon turned away leaving it to writhe for a few moments on the earth before at least dying.

Ivarik and Aria landed next to the dragon, who was suddenly feeling weak once again, he had to remember that he was far from his full strength.

"Are you alright?" Aria asked concerned.

"Fine, just tired." Taelas answered.

"You shouldn't overdo it." She responded.

"Uh, perhaps we should go." Ivarik said stepping in.

"I want to make sure that, those two are okay." Taelas argued.

"I don't know if that is the best idea." Ivarik said obviously trying to stop the dragon.

Ignoring him, Taelas turned around to face the adult dragoness. "Hi are you o-

Taelas was cut off mid-sentence as the dragoness lashed out whipping her bladed tail in front of her, and slapping the purple dragon's face with the dull end of the blade, although it was still enough to make him bleed slightly.

"By the ancestors, what is wrong with you?" Taelas yelled in confusion as he looked back at the adult, and felt the wound on his face.

"You should be happy that I didn't kill you." The dragoness said.

"What do you mean?" Taelas asked.

"Don't play dumb with me dragon you know what you let happen." The dragoness spat. "All of this, this is your fault! The purple dragon is supposed to protect us from any threat, you were to be our safeguard, and instead you were the one to let our race fall." The dragoness turned, and sprinted away with her child before Taelas could even respond to the harsh criticisms.

"What did she mean?" Taelas asked his voice sounding broken. "What did I do?"

"The dragons of the world believe that you allowed all of this to happen. A purple dragon by prophecy is supposed to deliver our race from any threat, but now…" Ivarik trailed off not wanting to finish his statement.

"I am the reason for all of this?" Taelas asked his voice that of a child again.

"We do not blame you Taelas. The populace is blinded by prophecy, they do not know anything." Aria said trying to comfort him.

"But are they right?" Taelas asked. Both of the dragons could only shrug. Aria shook her head from side to side, but the gesture was a weak one.

"Your father was a hero. He ended Malefor's reign. You, the next purple dragon of descent, a hero who disappeared in their time of need, a betrayer to your people." The voice rattled off through Taelas' mind.

"Let's, let's just go." Taelas mumbled obviously distraught.

Aria moved to comfort him, but she was too late as he jumped back into the air and she and Ivarik were simply forced to follow him. Taelas led them directly to Syra's home. The purple dragon did happen to see one other group of dragons, but he ignored them, fearing the same situation that had occurred before.

Touching down only a minute later Taelas arrived at Syra's home to hear a racket. Throwing caution to the wind the dragon moved into the shattered house at a quickened pace. Just through the doorway the scene was splayed out before Taelas' eyes. Syra plunged her tail blade into one of the ghastly creature's mouths killing it. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she pulled the blade out.

"Syra." Taelas said slowly, trying not to alarm the dragoness in her fragile state. Before the purple dragon could make another move the red dragoness had spun around, her tail blade inches from his snout. Breathing heavily Taelas looked from the pointed metal and back to Syra. "Syra, it's me, Tae-

"Don't talk to me! I should kill you right now!"

"What? What are you talking about, it's me." Taelas answered confused. "Syra, what happened to your face, that cut…" The dragon trailed off.

"This isn't about me, and I'm done talking, you're just a damned imposter anyway. The real Taelas is dead!" The crimson dragoness said before plunging her tail forward.

Taelas dodged out of the way, the dragoness' tail clipping the side of his mouth, making him taste blood. Aria stepped in having only just caught up to the dragon. Walking through the door she took in the scene in an instant. "Syra what are you doing?" She screamed as the dragoness lunged at her brother once more.

Taelas dodged out of the way, but Syra continued her assault. Being fed up with evasion Taelas locked his hind legs, and grabbed Syra's forepaws. "Stop!" He yelled only getting the first word out before Syra head-butted him making him fall over sputtering.

As Syra moved in for a kill Aria reacted faster. With a burst of speed the dragoness charged forward ramming the Syra and sending her against the far wall. Before she could recover the dragoness harnessed her icy element freezing the crimson dragoness to the wall.

Taelas slowly got back up as he watched Syra struggle against her frosty prison.

"What is wrong with you?" Taelas yelled at the struggling dragoness.

"I know what you are." Syra spat, it's a dishonor to all of us for you to mimic him.

Taelas was about to argue when he felt a paw on his shoulder. Ivarik stepped up next to Taelas. "I know what's wrong with her. She thinks you are a mimic, she might even think all of us are."

"Mimic?"

"You have seen the creatures that are attacking the city. Some can take the form of anything that they see." Ivarik explained.

"Syra." Taelas said turning back to the still entrapped dragoness. "It's me, really me. I know I've been gone for a while, but I just woke up. Please you have to believe me."

"Aria." The dragoness said ignoring Taelas completely. "Is it true?"

The blue dragoness paused for more than a few seconds. "Yes." She said finally. "It is true. I don't know how, but he must have woken up."

Syra nodded in response. "I'll take your word for now." The dragoness paused and there was a blinding burst of fire and light. When the dragons could see again Syra was on the floor the ice melted. She looked at Taelas, her brow furled. "If you make one false move however, you'll be dead before you can even comprehend what happened."

"Noted." Taelas said nodding innocently.

"Syra, why did you come here?" Ivarik said interrupting the two. "We have to get to the guardian tower."

"My parents. I wanted to make sure that they were alright, that they got out or something." The dragoness answered.

"And?" Taelas asked worry in his voice. He had known Aegis and Azshea since he was a child.

Syra didn't respond, her mouth feeling dry. She vaguely nodded to the ground, and the hall that led back into the house. "I was attacked when I entered." The dragoness said her voice breaking.

Taelas peered at the floor in the direction she had indicated. He could clearly see a blood trail that led back into the house. "The monsters…when I first saw them, they were already covered in blood." The dragoness explained staring at the ground as her eyes growing moist.

"Syra, it's okay." Aria said walking over to her friend, and pulling her close. "Would you like us to go check the-

"No, I will go, please come with me. Please." She said with a sniffle. Aria stared her friend in the eye and nodded solemnly.

Together the group made their way back into the house, following the trail of blood across the floor. The red stain eventually turned off into a side room. Syra suddenly stopped before the entrance. She had said she would go in, but now she could not bear to find out what she already knew to be true.

Seeing her hesitance, Taelas stepped past them. "I'll take a look." He said nodding to Syra who didn't visual respond, and so Taelas continued. The purple dragon purposely turned his head downward as he entered the room so that he could take a second to brace himself. As he slowly turned his eyes upward the dragon grimaced, and cursed softly as he looked upon Syra's parents. Their bodies lay mangled in the corner, they were clearly dead, and Taelas felt no need to further prolong his visit there. The dragon turned around, and proceeded out of the room. Turning back to Syra Taelas shook his head sadly.

The red dragoness fought to hold back her tears, as the truth was now completely clear. The dragoness's head fell into Aria, as she silently wept. There was silence for a while, no one wanting to disturb the dragoness' mourning. Silently Taelas was saying his own prayers for the dead. Thankfully for both Taelas and Ivarik, Aria was the one to speak up.

"Syra." She said gently bringing the dragoness from her mourning. "Syra, we have to go. Do you think that you will be okay for now?"

The dragoness sniffled. "I can move." Slowly bringing her head back up, she continued. "I…I don't think that I want to stay here any longer, not anymore."

Aria nodded, before turning to Taelas. "Would you lead, we need to get to the guardian tower." The dragoness explained.

Taelas nodded firmly and without a word walked past the two. If they had looked at him closer they might have noticed that the purple dragon's own eyes were growing misty. The death of his own family had already hit him hard. He had held back much of his emotion, so that he could focus on the carnage around him, but this was growing to be too much. Since he had woken up it had been a long road of pain and grief.

"Put your, thoughts behind you and come to the tower." The voice whispered in his mind again. Taelas opened his mouth to scream, but caught himself at the last second.

"Taelas are you alright?" Ivarik asked, noting the purple dragon as his jaw dropped randomly and his facial muscles being clenched.

"I'm fine." The dragon said as he moved on. Perhaps inadvertently Taelas had been given an answer. 'Come to the tower.' Whoever was speaking to him was there, and he was going to find out who.

The group of four made their way back out onto the street. After a quick scan of the area, Taelas could see the guardian tower off in the distance, stretching out above the other smaller buildings of Warfang. It was burning in several places and it was apparent that the siege that had befallen the city had left its mark on the tower as well.

"Come on lets go." Taelas said as he lifted off into the sky, the others following in close pursuit. Taelas, knowing the city like the back of his paw, quickly guided them to one of the fewer main streets in town. It was wide enough that it could probably fight ten adult dragons side by side. More importantly than its size was the fact that it led straight to the tower, this saved them the trouble of having to navigate through the cramped winding backstreets.

Flying above the street Taelas could see that many others had tried to make the journey or were still trying to. Most all of them had been cut down by the savage beasts. Not seeing many other options however Taelas didn't change course, and continued flying down the street, hoping that he could avoid the fights on the ground.

Just as he thought he was safe however the dragon was suddenly tackled in midflight. Taelas spun out of control as the creature grabbed at his back scratching him with sharp talons. Thinking on the fly the dragon jerked his body so that he came crashing down backward smashing whatever had grappled onto him. Slightly dazed the dragon stood up and turned around to see his assailant.

The creature's frame appeared to be a much larger version of an ordinary bird, what made it odd were its features. It had a scaly lizard like skin and leathery wings. This one was a sunburst color. but a quick glance to the sky, where more of the creatures were, told Taelas that they came in all shades. This one was slowly recovering from the hit it had taken flailing on the ground before Taelas spat a piercing spike of ice into its chest, killing it.

"We call them ghasts." Ivarik said landing quickly next to Taelas. "Are you all right?"

"No, not at all!" Taelas yelled, the sudden outburst being enough to make even Ivarik flinch. "By the ancestors look at what's happened! Three months ago this was a thriving city." Taelas screamed pointing to a fallen dragon nearby Taelas continued. "It had dragons living their lives naturally! Everything was peaceful, how could it all have changed like this!"

Ivarik shrugged having no answer to the raging dragon, Aria and Syra only watched the purple dragon looking forlorn.

Again there was a similar intrusion into the dragon's mind by the same voice. "The world needs heroes, Taelas. Prophecy dictates that the purple-

"Shut up! I don't know who you are, but you've got the wrong dragon." Taelas screamed in his mind blotting out the voice. "My father was the one who had a prophecy, I'm no hero."

With silence returning to his mind the dragon addressed the others. "Come on let's just go, we can't fly we'll have to run the rest of the way." Taelas muttered as he turned from the three and continued towards the tower.

The group traveled silently, but did not make it very far. As they worked their way up the road the creatures that had been attacking the downed dragons turned their attention, specifically towards Taelas. "Stay close, and make for the tower." The purple dragon said as he charged forward to meet the first attacker.

The ape like creature swung its arms in an arc. The violet drake judged the speed of the limbs as they closed in from the sides and with quick, but careful calculation Taelas rolled to the side then doubled back leaping through the air and crunching his teeth down on one of the beast's arms. Pulling the arm forward jerked the beast down to its knees, its body collapsing as if there were no bones to hold it up. When its head was on the ground Taelas spat a spike of ice, piercing what he assumed to be the creature's head, and snapping it down to the ground.

Ignoring the now twitching and dying creature Taelas and the others sprinted past. As they ran forward they collided with more and more of the creatures. The dragons split various times fending off the ever increasing amount of monsters that were swarming the streets. As the dragons fought the horde the ghastly bodies started to stack up on the sides of the street, lying next to the bodies of now dead dragons. Each of the young ones took note of their dead kin, the slaughter fully apparent to them all. Under less pressing circumstances they would have dropped all else and given some sort of respect to them, but at the moment their compassion was overridden by their anger, and their fight for survival.

The fighting continued the group gaining ground inch by inch as they edged their way closer to the guardian tower. However their fatigue was growing with every swipe, breath, roll, and leap. Aria pierced down with her bladed tail severing a beast's head from its neck. With the cut the beast seemed to liquefy its shifting blackish skin slowly dissolving into a gel like substance.

Aria flicked her tail ridding it of the thick liquid. Turning around she noted Taelas who had just finished slaying his own opponent. Breathing noticeable he turned to her and gave her a small nod. She returned the gesture, at the very least she still had her brother, and that alone made her feel as though she would always be safe. There was a nagging feeling that she had though. That Taelas was not alright, how could he be after waking up to so much destruction and chaos. His physical health worried her too; he seemed to be tired already. Perhaps it was just a side effect from his coma or maybe it was something else.

Her attention was drawn from the purple dragon as she heard a loud gurgling, and swishing sound. The sound was akin to rushing water. Turning her head to face the path before them she noted the creatures before them, all of them vibrating their watery bodies waving like the ocean during a thunderous storm. At first it was small but over a few short seconds the frequency of the waves increased distorting the figures more than they already were. Eventually the single bodies of the beings were so distorted that they appeared as one large blob.

"What in the world are they doing?" Taelas asked as he walked over to Aria his eyes fixated on the abomination all the while.

"I've heard of this happening before." Aria said drawing her brother's attention back to her. He hadn't been expecting an answer; he easily forgot how much she had changed while he had been comatose.

"What is it?" He asked curious.

"They are forming into one giant being, a destructive force. They do it when they want to level a structure, or kill a tough enemy." Aria explained her voice quivering slightly as realization set in.

"The guardian tower." Taelas surmised.

"Or us." Aria said looking back to all of the dead bodies of the creatures behind them. "We can't let it destroy us or the tower Taelas, it's the last stronghold for every dragon in this city. If it is destroyed…" The dragoness trailed off, her worries keeping her from saying anything further.

"It's okay Aria." Taelas said as he watched the massive blob of darkness begin to morph into a colossal version of the smaller monsters that they had been fighting. As it expanded it slowly knocked over buildings on the side of the street, shooting dust and debris into the air. "We'll kill it before it can destroy anything or anyone."

"Taelas no one has killed one of these things before." Aria pleaded. "We need to run, fly past it and-

The dragoness chocked on her next words as Taelas tackled her across the ground landing several feet away. There was a sudden crash as a massive black fist smashed into the stone path where they had been moments ago. Aria had been so busy trying to discourage Taelas that she hadn't noticed the creature's full transformation and attack. This, she thought, was the exact reason why she was happy to have Taelas as her brother and have him back.

"How can we destroy it if we don't fight it?" Taelas asked, not really looking for an answer, for he already knew it.

The purple drake rolled away from her downed sister, and got to his paws, launching himself into the air, to face this behemoth at eye level. Hovering about fifty feet in the air Taelas stared at the creature which hardly seemed to acknowledge him. He could only be half sure about this though as there were no eyes or facial features, except for a mouth for him to go off of. Ivarik was the first to come up next to him, closely followed by Syra.

"You can't really believe that you can take this thing down, do you Taelas?" Ivarik asked looking from the creature to him, and back again.

"Does it have any weak spots that we know of?" Taelas asked ignoring the comment.

"I'll take that as a yes you do think you can kill it." Ivarik said rolling his eyes.

"We don't know any weak spots, that's why no one has killed one." Syra said emphasizing the last part of the statement.

"Then I guess we will have to do without." Taelas said before diving forward.

He heard the other two yell after him but Taelas ignored them. If they simply ran from this thing they would just have to fight it later. Diving through the air Taelas spiraled downward his body suddenly bursting into flames. The spinning fiery bullet sliced clean through the creature's right arm, leaving a gaping hole. The sludge like limb fell to the ground, attached but now useless.

Coming out of the dive Taelas landed on the ground his speed forcing him to slide across the stone. Turning as he slid the dragon loosed a bolt of lightning sending pulses of electricity up and down the creature, as well as pushing Taelas back further.

The flurry of attacks had more than gathered the beast's attention, and it began an extremely slow turn trying to face its attacker. Taelas started to move again meaning to give it no time to react, but he was stopped by Syra, who landed in front of him.

"Taelas, we have to go now!" She begged trying to push the dragon in the opposite direction of the creature.

"Why? This thing isn't so tough." Taelas argued, as he watched the massive creature closely, he didn't want to be caught off guard.

"You don't understand Taelas; if it catches you then you will die there are no second chances when you fight one of these things." She said her tone so serious that it made even Taelas tense up. "You're attack slowed it, but it won't last, we have to go. Now!" She said yelling the last word for emphasis.

"I can't just- Taelas interrupted himself as he watched in horror, the massive creature turning with unnatural speed. "Syra!" He could only yell her name before the blow was struck. The dragoness reacting quicker than he could have thought possible, shoving him away and when Taelas looked again she was gone swept up in a large dark fist.

"Taelas!" She heard the dragoness scream. It took him a split second to locate the dragoness, caught in the beast's grasp.

"Run!" She screamed the exclamation was followed by a sickening crunch and Syra's body went limp. Taelas seemed to go numb as he stared at his friend's body still caught in the behemoth's fist, the last vestiges of her life draining away from her body.

The creature, hearing the snap as well flicked its wrist, tossing Syra's body back into its opened mouth, devouring her whole. Taelas quivered in silent rage as the creature focused on him once more. With lightning speed and precision the same massive hand shot forward, seeking to claim his life as well.

Taelas heard the screams of the others, warning him of the imminent danger. He didn't heed their words. Standing his ground the dragon's maw opened wide, a focused burst of violet light stretching forth. The arm stopped dead in its tracks, shaking slightly as if it could not push through the light. The beam widened and grew engulfing the creature. There was a ghoulish shriek that pierced the air as the massive creature began to writhe and shrink. Like a plant in the sun the giant shrank, and shriveled bending and contorting until it simply crumpled up and blew away dissolving like its smaller brethren.

When the being was gone Taelas shut his mouth with great effort. He had only been told of that power, that he held. He had never used it before, and honestly did not know how to summon it. As his mind began to run circles he felt his muscles give in to exhaustion, and he fell on his haunches and then down completely, the attack draining him.

"Taelas are you alright?" He heard a voice say close to him. It was Aria she had a paw on his shoulder, and was shaking him gently.

"Syra. She is?" He asked, already knowing the answer, he had seen it with his own eyes but he couldn't believe it. He could see Aria, tears welling in her eyes, as she nodded slowly.

Seeing the answer that he already knew to be true Taelas closed his eyes trying to hold back tears. A few moments passed in silence as Ivarik walked up next to them, his head hung low.

"It was my fault." Taelas said. "I was the one who wanted to fight. I was the one who got her killed." Taelas said his voice breaking. As he pushed himself back to a sitting position, the movement taking him a great amount of effort.

"It wasn't your fault Taelas." Ivarik said.

"Yes, it wasn't anyone's fault." Aria said putting a wing around him and pulling him close. It was an odd feeling for the purple dragon as the current role had always been reversed, with him comforting Aria. "Syra was a great dragoness, and none of us nor anyone else will forget about her." The dragons sat for a few moments, none of them speaking. The silence was broken only by Aria's soft sobs, Taelas and even Ivarik felt the same way but held back their tears.

After several minutes passed Ivarik spoke. "I don't want to be disrespectful, but we need to move, least the beasts catch up to us once more." The other two nodded in agreement and Aria helped Taelas back to paws which now felt wobbly under him.

"You've taxed yourself too much Taelas." Aria said as they continued to the tower, which was growing very close now, with no monsters in sight. "You cannot use such an attack after just coming out of a coma, you should be more careful."

"It had to be done Aria, it saved our lives." Taelas said quietly, as he found it hard to raise his voice to a more audible level.

The dragoness couldn't give anymore comments on the subject as she was interrupted by two other dragons. Two guards both armored and battle ready met the three just in front of the tower. At first they had looks of concern mixed with happiness to see dragons still arriving from the city. Then their eyes fell on Taelas and they immediately scowled.

"Why have you brought him here?" One of the guards asked spitting on the ground in front of them.

"He saved our lives." Aria explained. "You have no right to refuse us now let us pass, he needs to lie down."

"I say leave him here." The other guard said. "He allowed this to happen, he failed all of us."

"You have no right to say that!" Aria argued, "He just came out of a coma, how could he have done anything."

Neither of the guards responded for a few seconds as they stared at the girl. "I say we kill him." One said a bigger and burlier one, who was obviously an earth dragon, a declared by his blunt features and emerald green scales. The other dragon nodded his own approval and before any of the younger dragons could react there was a rumbling of stone. Aria and Ivarik were suddenly encompassed by the rock covering most of their bodies, and keeping them from moving at all.

Taelas was still exhausted from his own fights so much so that he couldn't even help his friends or prevent the other dragon's attacks.

The smaller of the two dragons was the first to strike, leaping forward and spinning while angling himself so that his tail came down first crushing Taelas down into the stone. The dragon groaned as he felt his body breaking. To add to his pain as the guard's tail was drug away he let the pointed tip slid across the purple dragon's scales leaving a thin but deep wound down his back.

Taelas screamed in pain as he pushed himself back up to all fours. Standing there shaking he watched as the larger earth dragon rushed towards him, mouth opening, showing his razor sharp teeth. In the blink of an eye there was a flash of white light and the crackle of electricity. The violet dragon spat lightning at the earth dragon, the shock paralyzing him in place and make him convulse uncontrollable.

Cutting off his attack Taelas noted the other ice dragon charge his element before firing several icicles through the air like arrows from a bowstring. Taelas ducked the first before rolling away. In his injured state however he was not nearly fast enough to dodge. Two of the projectiles grazed his scales cutting wounds across his side.

The purple dragon felt his body simply stop working. First his front legs gave out and then his back ones. He coughed and sputtered as he fell to the ground, blood streaming from his fresh and open wounds.

Both of the other dragons moved forward. Taelas listened to them, hearing vague words as they seemed like they were far away from him. It sounded as though they were trying to decide who would take the killing blow. He could also hear Aria begging him to get back up. She was crying, he could tell.

Finally the green dragon pushed the other aside decided to take Taelas' life himself. The dragon pulled his tail back and aimed it straight for the dragon's heart.

"Stop!" Someone yelled behind the two, making the two guards stiffen instantly. Taelas was too far gone to truly understand who it was that had saved him.

The two guards separated, allowing two other dragons to pass. One who was a full adult like his parents had been, and the other a smaller dragoness who was more akin to his own age.

"Return to your posts, both of you!" Blaze yelled, sending the dragons scrambling back away from them. The rocks that had been chocking Aria and Ivarik fell to the ground once again lifeless, releasing the dragons. Aria ran to her brother collapsing next to him and trying to pick him back up, and stem the blood flow from his body. Ivarik instead of going to Taelas approached Blaze who was watching the siblings in silence, not knowing what to say.

"Lyara, what do you think?" Ivarik said turning to the silver dragoness standing silently next to Blaze.

The dragoness deciphered the vague question. "Our fate is grim." She said simply.

"You don't mean that…" Ivarik trailed off the seriousness of the answer setting in.

"The prophecy has faltered." Lyara said darkly, as she stared at Taelas, meeting the dragon's eyes.

"You!" Taelas yelled suddenly coming back into the moment, his body jogged back into action by the dragoness' voice. "You're the one…" He said as he stood up and stumbled forward.

"Taelas stop, you need to lie down!" Aria pushed trying to settle him down.

Ignoring her Taelas continued slowly closing the gap between them. "You have spoken to me. In my mind."

"Taelas, correct?" Lyara asked looking more to Aria than the dragon.

Aria nodded. "Please he isn't himself right now; he only woke up an hour ago."

"I see." Lyara said turning back to the purple drake. "Taelas I have only met you once, the time that you found me, before you were attacked by Sol and Arum."

"No!" The dragon yelled making all the others around him jump. "Ever since I woke up, I have heard your voice, speaking to me, telling me things." Taelas said. "Why?" He asked, and getting no answer he repeated the question.

"He is tired, and has been through a lot of stress." Aria said.

"Perhaps I can help." Lyara said, stretching out a paw to touch him. The purple dragon recoiled from her touch, but couldn't get far as his body wouldn't allow him to move. After a moment of struggle the dragoness' paw pressed gently on his crest.

Taelas felt his body go limp, and his mind go blank. His vision darkened as he fell to ground. As his vision faded to the blackness of sleep he heard the same voice in his head.

"You have come back from the brink, only to be shoved over the edge again."

As soon as the words stopped Taelas woke up shooting up into a sitting position. It was as if he hadn't slept at all, his weariness seeping in once more. He turned his head slowly to see Aria sitting next to him along with Ivarik. The dragoness was leaning on him, her head near to his, and his wing covering her. Surprising to Taelas was that neither of them looked at ease. Both in fact looked awestruck and paralyzed, as if frozen in time. It was then that sound came back to Taelas' ears, as if he had come up from below water. All around him were screams, crying, and fighting. Looking forward Taelas saw the chaos and destruction. The tower had been overrun. Dragons were being slaughtered everywhere, their blood staining the stone a permanent crimson.

To his horror he saw in front of him Lyara standing before Sol and Arum. The massive dragons took up most all of Taelas' vision, their stature more immense than any creature Taelas had known. It was Arum that broke into action first. Rearing back his head he spat a typhoon of black fire that engulfed Lyara, when the barrage of fire faded the silver dragoness was no-where to be seen.

Both the dragons cackled manically as they proceeded forward, their eyes locking on Taelas, and those near to him. Before the purple dragon could think to react it was already over, not that he would have been able to do anything in his state anyway.

Sol spat some sort of crystalline glowing projectiles. They resembled spikes of ice, but upon further inspection anyone could tell that they were made of a much tougher and stranger material. The spikes came like rainfall slicing through everyone around him, Taelas being the only one spared. Taelas noted with a breaking heart that even Aria and Ivarik had not managed to save themselves. It appeared as though Ivarik had tried to shield Aria from the attack, but it did nothing to stop the hail of crystal which devastated them.

"I almost don't believe it." Arum said bringing Taelas' attention back to him. "The same purple dragon, you should be dead!" Arum spat.

"He doesn't look too good as it is Arum." Sol said softly. "Perhaps we should allow him time to recover."

"You were always the nice one Sol." Arum laughed. "But this is a matter that derives not from kindness, this one must die." He said approaching the dragon and lifting his deadly pointed tail. "Darkness has fallen on you young dragon." He said as he plunged his tail forward.

This time there was no one to save the drake. The violet dragon felt the blade penetrate his chest. The only luck that he had was that he was already so numb so that he hardly felt anything at all. As he fell to the ground his last bits of life leaving him, he heard Lyara's voice one last time. It was as clear as crystal.

"You have been to the brink and back, the prophecy has been laid out before you, you're path set in stone. This world is yours to protect."

A/N: Because I feel I should say this. This is not the end of the story, maybe you weren't even thinking that, but I just want to make sure that everyone knows it is not over yet.