The Legend Of Spyro: Love And War Book 2

by Spyro and Cynder lover

With Malefor, now returned to normal and reunited with his long lost lover, the darkness was supposed to disappear as well. But a new dragon has taken over the role of the Dark Master. Unknown to Spyro, this will put his trust to the test for Malefor. Even with peace inside the wall of Warfang, outside is a different story. Many die, many live and even dead, can come back.

10. Chapter 10: That Almost Killed

Chapter 10: That Almost Killed

"Spyro...?!" Malefor cried, standing over Spyro's nearly dead body, and turning around, he cried out, "Ignitus!"

Everyone ran into the room with Cynder being the first one. Seeing her lover's eyes slowly fade and close, she cried out, "Spyro!"

With everyone in the room and circled around his body, Malefor moved over as Ignitus sat down beside him to examine his body. Cynder stood next to Ignitus on his left, holding her lover's paw and weeping over his body. Putting a paw over his chest, the constant pounding of his heart grew slower and slower. He gasped, scaring everyone. Not wanting to tell Cynder the bad news, he instead tried to quickly save his son. Tapping a claw over his body, an hourglass appeared up from his body. Turning the hourglass all the way around, he pushed it back into his body. Everyone waited for Spyro to spring back up from the power, but he didn't. What?! Ignitus cried in his thoughts, quickly going to put his paw back over his son's chest. His heart was still slowing down, and it was now beating dangerously slow. Blood still flowed out his mouth as his breathing had almost completely subsided. Pulling his paw away, everyone looked to see the fear in his face. Looking back down at her lover's body, Cynder cried, "No... no, no, no..."

"Ignitus, hehe, you're, you're, joking...? Right...?" Malefor begged for it to be nothing more then a trick, but the fear on his face made him believe it wasn't, "Ignitus... What... How could the time power... how could it not have worked?! I don't... I don't understand... You have to try again! You can't... you can't just... you..."

From the way he was acting before he... passed out, his body must've used more energy then he could've produced. When he was down for the count, he used his dark power in such a clean and easy manner giving him more speed and power even though he was already out of power... which must mean, Volteer thought about it for a couple more seconds, coming up with possible conclusion for it not working, and he shared it with his red friend, "Ignitus! That's it! He doesn't have enough power in supply! Think of it like a green gem. It gives you energy correct? Well, of course Spyro doesn't have wounds, but he also doesn't have energy!"

"Get to the point!" Cynder cried.

"Sorry... Remember, when you run out of energy, and your body needs energy, but doesn't have any energy to consume, it feeds on anything it can. The time power won't work because I'm assuming it heals someone completely and gives them back the energy they can easily consume. Spyro pushed out his dark and main reserve of energy so he doesn't have any energy to feed on, not even his dark power. He needs stamina or else he will die."

"Stamina...?" Ignitus whispered.

"But even with all the gems in the gem room, where can we find that much energy?"

Looking at his paw, he responded, "I know where."

Tapping a claw over his son's body, everyone wondered why he was using the same time power that didn't work before. Putting one claw at the top of the hourglass, he moved his paw down to the bottom of it. Moving his paw and putting it on the left side, he moved his claw along the outside of the circle that held the hourglass until he reached the left side again. Another hourglass appeared out of the main hour glass with the top and the bottom of the second hourglass facing the left and right. A small circle appeared around the main circle of the hourglass, then a medium size circle around the small one, and finally, a large hour glass appeared around the medium sized circle. Symbols of unknown origins appeared on the hourglass, and everyone watched as he moved the circle to line up certain symbols with other symbols to match in a straight line.

"What are you doing?"

"Spyro needs energy like you said. Well, I haven't just been fixing the Dragon Temple in my free time. After the incident with Carith, the Chronicler spent years, trying to figure out what happened to her. When one of my clones was grabbing some books from one of the shelves, a brick from the temple looked like it had been moved. Turned out, he had a book about everything he had learned about the hourglass, even this. This was one of his many finds."

"How long have you know about this?"

"It was a day ago when we were talking about the future of the Guardians. I feared the same fate and tried to find anything that could help my son in battle. And I was lucky enough to find this."

Lining up the three symbols, the hourglass that pointed to the left and right turned and fazed back into the main hourglass. Turning that hourglass completely, the circles surrounding the hourglass spun with it. Pushing the hourglass into his son's body, Spyro's body shined gold for a couple of seconds before returning back to his purple color. A small grunt emerged from his mouth as he shivered from the pain that still stabbed at him, but as he woke, the pain had completely subsided. The blood from his mouth disappeared as well, and his breathing, along with the beat of his heart, went back to normal. Cynder's eyes lit up along with her smile seeing him open his eyes. Looking up at her, he saw the tears in her eyes. Smiling at her, he whispered, "Sorry I scared you."

"Hehe, scared me? I knew my lover was strong. I wasn't scared at all," Cynder cried happily with a smile, but everyone, even Spyro knew that was a lie.

"No you didn't, you were crying all over his body," Malefor chuckled, and everyone sighed hugely, glad Spyro was alright.

"Carith. Little help."

"Stop picking on her, my love," Carith giggled, standing at his side and bumping her back side against his.

Looking up at his dad, he knew he had pushed himself even though his father told him not to, and he apologized, "Sorry for pushing myself like that. My fears got the best of me, again."

"It's alright, I promise. This actually made good practice for the new time power that the old Chronicler had developed. Which, going back, Malefor, you remember how you thought you failed because you didn't see her wake up? Well, if you would've placed your head on her chest, or even your paw, you would've felt her heart beat, but none of us would've."

"What? How?" Malefor asked, somewhat not wanting to know the answer as he knew it would only make him feel worse about the past.

"Well, The Chronicler had seen that anytime you use the hourglass in it's normal form, one symbol above the hour glass will always be the same. If you were to just simply put the hourglass upside down, rather then completely turning it around, it acts as a defense. The, lets say, victim, remains asleep. No one aside from the owner knows if the body is alive. So, we couldn't have even felt the heart beat, only you. So, only you would've know if she was alive or not. That's also why Carith's body didn't... ahem... decay."

"You son of a Bitch," Claire teased him.

"That would explain why I was so energetic when I first woke up," Carith said to herself.

"So... None of what I did would've ever happened if only I just checked to see if she was alive for sure..." Malefor murmured with a frown, now feeling more terrible then ever.

"But wait. I could understand not being able to tell if she's alive by her heart beat, but what about her breathing? Even the hourglass couldn't have covered that up," Cyril asked.

"It masks the breathing as well. It's a hundred percent effect on anyone or anything to make it seem dead," Ignitus explained, "But the way it mask the breathing is actually quite impressive even for the hourglass. But then again, it was invented by the Ancestors themselves so, I'm not surprised by the power at all..."

Everyone was listening except for Cynder as she was still recovering from what she had see. Looking at her lover, even he was looking up at Ignitus, wondering what really happened. She looked away from him and looked at everyone else to see they were focused on him as he spoke. Smiling with the opportunity, she turned back around and caught her lover by surprise as she gave him a heart warming kiss. No one noticed of course as they continued to listen to Ignitus's explanation, "So, the time power can hold in any oxygen or carbon dioxide so if there was anyone near by, it would stop your breathing while at the same time, still give you the the proper flow of oxygen. Then, when no one is around, it restarts the normal cycle of breathing. And if there was say, wind, it would let you breath in and out, covered by the wind so you wouldn't even know if they were breathing."

"So, what your saying is, I still should've known she was alive, and none of this ever would've happened?" Malefor murmured.

"It's not your fault, this is on the Chronicler. Like I said, he figured this out before he died and he could've told me, but he didn't. I could've been able to tell you that she was alive, but I couldn't. But look on the bright side of things; I always say that things happen for a reason. When the Dark Master almost killed Spyro, and you can back, he trusted you to keep Cynder safe. After that day, as much as he doesn't want to admit it, that's a big reason he didn't kill you, because you came through for him. If that day never happend, he might not have had the same trust for you."

"Yeah... I guess, but..."

"And also, he wouldn't have seen the way you stopped the Dark Master from hurting Carith when she walked up to you. If I would've just shown you Carith, and you came back, no one would really understand or even trust what had happened. If you just walked into Warfang and met Spyro, things could've been a whole lot different. So, it's best I discovered this now then before. So in a way, it's probably best the Chronicler didn't tell me."

"What? You think he was trying to protect me? Please."

"All I'm saying is, if he would've told me, things would've probably been for the worse."

"I'm not going to say I agree with it but... I guess you're kinda right..."

"What are you so worried about?" Claire asked, somewhat surprising everyone, especially Malefor as he looked at her, wondering what she meant by that, "Ignitus told me a lot about the Chronicler, and I asked him about what happened between the old Chronicler and you. The Chronicler kept you there and well, how could you have known what would've happened if the Chronicler tried to keep you from knowing? It's not your fault, and I know you would do anything to keep Carith safe. But I wonder, why did you, or, you know, the dark master, why did he want to blow up the world?"

"Hehe, funny story about that. The Dark Master wanted nothing more then to kill everyone on the earth. I... agreed to it as well. If I was died, I would once again be able to see Carith in the afterlife. But as time went on, I tried to prevent it as I realised I was wrong. I was able to break Cynder and Spyro free of the time crystal by making the Dark creatures believe I was the dark master, and I was able to modify the chain to not kill the two as soon as it was put on them. It was difficult but, I was able to pull through."

"Sounds like there was more of a reason behind what the Dark Master was doing then what we were told back then. And I guess it all makes sense now then it did before. But I don't understand why you would feel bad if you've tried everything you could to help. You even basically saved the two from death along with the whole world by protecting the two, so, why feel so bad?"

"Because of me, when I had agreed to just, let go of everything and let the Dark Master take control, I didn't realize I still had feelings. When looking through the Dark creatures memories, the Dark Master laughed at all the death that he had caused, and, two of those deaths were... Volteer's parents. And another victim I had claimed, supposedly, was Volteer's soon to be and wanted to be, mate. And, If it wasn't for me, you would've probably already been a mate for your lover as well."

Volteer and Claire both did frown from what he had said which only made what he said all the more true because of how real it all was. But Claire's frown turned more into a smile as she looked at Ignitus. Looking at her, he gave her a small smile, hoping she wasn't mad at Malefor for what had happened. Pecking him on the cheek for a second, she pulled away and looked back at Malefor, bringing light to everything that has happened, "Well, I wouldn't say we would've been mates. He was... Looking back, he would try really hard to protect me, and other days, he would kinda, get lazy. It's like he didn't know if he wanted to be in a relationship with me or not. I let my hate take over as well but, I guess couldn't hate the world apparently. Some one just had to come over and give it all back to me, didn't he."

"Hehe. I guess you were just... easy," Ignitus chuckled while Claire giggling as they remembered that conversation from a couple of days ago.

"Ha! Easy. You were truly the easy man during that time. Soon as you saw me, you couldn't resist being with me. Coming into my room while I tried to sleep, asking me to... sleep, with you."

"Hehe, you know, when she puts it like that, day one, you were desperate as Hell for her," Malefor chuckled with his lover and the other Guardians, "Oh, Ignitus, speaking of, sleeping, if you know what I mean, how about you make Claire happy and tell us why you chose her over any other dragoness in the world."

"Oh Ancestors, not this again," Volteer chuckled.

"Why, what happened?"

"He pulled the most, mushy come back for her ever when she asked that."

"Oh do please tell, now I'm very interested."

"Oh, I'm surprised Claire held back from kissing Ignitus after what he said..."

"Okay! Getting back to the topic on paw..." Claire nervously said, trying to change the subject.

"And when he flexed out his muscles using his power, I thought Claire was going to go for it, if you know what I mean?"

"Volteer! Topic change!"

"Alright, alright."

"Okay, but going back. Long story made short, I would say it was worth going through what I had to to end up here. I was able to find out the truth about what really happened which now makes me feel bad for hating you, I was able to meet the happiest group of dragons I've ever seen, and, I was able to have a girls day out with your lover and Cynder... And... I couldn't ask for more. I was even able to find someone to care for me again so, I wouldn't say that, you messed up everyone's life."

"Yeah, and as for Ersa, we still done even know if she's... died. But I believe she isn't thanks to Spyro. And knowing you and how you plan things, your probably messed up along the way so, I still don't hate you for what happened. I would still kick you if you were almost died before I healed you but, lets just see how things turn out in the future."

"Hehe, damn Volteer, I can't tell if the Dark Master is more cold blooded or you. You stop my heart and want to kick me when I'm down?"

"Kicking you while your down is just a dream I have, nothing more."

"Well, at least you'd heal me so, that's maybe a plus?"

"Yeah, one gem for a gaping hole in your chest should help enough."

"We're in a training room, you really want to fight it out now?"

"Um..." Spyro mumbled, pulling away from the endless amount of kissing he was doing with his lover to talk with everyone, and with the small mumble from him, everyone looked at him as he spoke, "Speaking of fighting in the training room, since we are all already up here, what do you say you all get some training in yourself? I mean, after what happened, Terrador, you said you'd owe me one. I would like to use that now."

"Um, well, I guess we can," Terrador agreed as he didn't really see a problem as to why they shouldn't.

"Damn it, Malefor," Cynder cursed, "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut and let me have time with, Spyro."

"Wha, Volteer started it! He was talking a lot of trash and I rightfully retaliated," Malefor defended himself.

Cynder sighed, knowing it would be hopeless to fight with him, and she had already kissed her lover so much, so the feeling of fear and sadness was gone. Backing up a bit from her lover, she reached out a paw to help him up. He grabbed her paw and she pulled him up. His bone felt like it had just popped out of place which caused him to growl gently as he didn't want anyone to know he was still not feeling all to well. Standing to his paws, his body was flexed from the training, and now as his lover looked at him, she was felt anger once again for Malefor opening his mouth, Damn you, Malefor. Slightly shaking his body to try and loosen up his body, it only made things worse as the pain started to feel stronger as he continued.

"So, what are we going to do? If we fight you, we aren't going to be up here for very long. So what do you suppose we do?" Terrador asked.

"Well, you all are definitely not going to go through what I did, so..."

All the Guardians sighed hugely from his words before he could even finish which made Spyro's suspicion grow, "What are you all sighing for? You all didn't even see what I was doing. Which also makes me a little curious how you all got here. Did Malefor get you after I told him to fetch you all... or before. And your sweat is kind of proving my point. And here I was thinking Malefor came through so well."

"No no no, I did. The reason they are sweating is because I told them what was happening. When you told me to get the Guardians, I kicked the door as hard as I could to open it instead of waiting. I ran down and Ignitus used his powers to bring us back up here. That's why it seemed like it took no time at all... hehe," Malefor chuckled at the end of his sentence, trying to hide what really happened to hopefully get himself closer to being friends with him.

"Well... You could've killed me and no one would've really noticed since I already had so many cuts and scrapes. So, I guess I will give you another point to help you get closer to being my friend, sound fair?"

"Yes! Absolutely!"

"Hehe, alright, calm down."

"Speaking of cuts and scrapes, how were you able to, you know, take such damage like the way you did? Usually when something stabs right through you, or anyone for that matter, they would tap out and heal, but you, you wouldn't go down. How were you able to do that? And since you didn't have the support of the darkness at all until the end, this was all shear power just coming from you during it all."

"Yeah, and you pulled out one of the dragon's tail blades to stab another which was pretty bad ass," Terrador chuckled.

"Well, it wasn't easy. Pulling out his tail blade was basically causing me two kinds of pain; when his tail blade stabbed me, and when I pulled it out, both of which caused me to feel pain and bleed. I figured it would be best to do it this way because, two times the pain, two times the chance I have to get stronger and learn to deal with pain like that so if it ever happened, I'd be fine. But when your muscles flex to a point they want to burst, you don't exactly have fun afterwards."

"You are done training, mister," Cynder made very clear as she remembered that moment as well, along with other moments of him pushing his body, "Unfortunately, I woke up a little bit ago and saw some of what you were going through. What do you think I would rather wake up to; My Love laying in bed with me and kissing me, or him getting stabbed and bleeding on the ground almost dying?"

"Oh... You saw some of that... Sorry, I didn't want you to. I was hoping you would've came in and stopped me. Which, speaking of, going back to my suspicion, how could Ignitus be telling everyone what was happening if he was up here?"

"Oh, obviously it was a clone. You act like Ignitus would send himself to anyone of us. He's too busy using his main body to stay with, Claire," Malefor joked, now wondering why he doesn't just use a clone to stay with Claire instead, "You know, we talk to a clone a lot of times unless you're with Claire and we are near, but why don't you stick Claire with a clone and go off and do something else?"

"Jealous?" Claire giggled.

"Jealous? Of what?"

"Someone what's some caring from his friend, but I'm am taking that all away from you, aren't I?"

"Your bark is worse then your bite, I can tell you that now... Mainly because you're right."

"Well, I'm here now. What do you need?" Ignitus asked.

"Well, nothing now but, maybe something in the future."

"Creepy and sketchy all at the same time with you right now. Well, looks like Volteer won't be the only one who likes Ignitus. Looks like you're joining the club, Malefor," Spyro joked with him just to embarrass the three.

"There are just some days, some days when I wish I had killed you when I had the chance, especially the chance I just had. But since your suspicious ass won't leave it alone, I was hoping he could give me more information on my powers like how he did to you. And, I was wondering if there would be a way if I could get the time power as well. I mean, you had it like, twice, right?"

"How did you know about the first time?"

"Well I mean, who else would've frozen you in that time Crystal? The Chronicler? Please, that time Crystal saved you, he would never do something that would help anyone."

"Well then, yes, I did get it twice."

"So then, Ignitus, what do I need to do to get my own time power? I have the same attributes as Spyro. I'm purple, better looking, and having an extra ability so, shouldn't I be able to use it as well?"

"Well, I can't give you the time power, Malefor," Ignitus said with a slight frown, almost as if he already had a reason for why, "Because you were once the Dark Master, if it happened again, then you would have the power of time at your disposal. And the last thing the Ancestors want is for light and dark to have an all out battle with each having the power of time. It could cause a lot of problems."

"Happen again? Then what's the point of me training to control the darkness if even the Ancestors think I'm going to become the Dark Master again? Does that mean I'm screwed either way?"

"They are mysterious when it comes to their plan. I'm sure we don't have to worry about the Dark Master ever again but, it's just for safety. If I could give you the time power, I would, trust me."

Malefor sighed, wishing he could feel the safety that Spyro feels, knowing he could just heal anyone when ever he wanted to.

"Speaking of Malefor having an extra ability, how did he get an extra ability and I didn't?" Spyro asked.

"Because his mother was a wind Dragon and his father was a fire dragon. So, when he was born, his first ability was technically wind. And since he was born a purple dragon, he gained all the other elements as well. Hehe, which is funny to think about because, seeing Malefor have white scales would be the cutest thing to see."

"Yeah, what ever," Malefor grumbled with a small smile, "Going off topic about my scales, how about we talk about what you did with your time power. I definitely have never seen that before. And yeah, I know you just discovered the book and all to help you with that but, what did all those symbols mean? The bigger the circle, the more symbols that appeared in them. And, I know my alphabet and all but, those were not words, nor were they letters."

"New form of the time power?" Spyro asked with a raised brow as he looked at Ignitus, "I'm listening."

"Hehe, no way, not today, Spyro. You've done enough training for today," Ignitus disagreed with a slight nervous chuckle seeing Cynder's reaction as he knew she wanted time with her lover, and he didn't want to take more time away by allowing him to train even more.

"Alright, fine. I guess you are kinda right... But just kinda give me a little juicy detail on how it's better then the original hourglass."

"Well... I guess I could at least tell you that. Compared to the original hourglass, this one works almost two times if not more better then the original. When I tried to heal you with the time power, it only refills your energy to its max limit, and it can't do that for the darkness for obvious reasons. But with this newer version, it's able to give you the energy at your max limit, and continue to do so until you are fully healed. That way, instead of me using two or three of the time power, I can just use one to save energy."

"Oh, sounds pretty juicy. And since Malefor talked about symbols, that must mean there is something even better hiding behind this new hourglass."

"No more training for today, understand?" Cynder commanded, earning a quick nod from her lover.

"Well... even though I can't train... could I still help the Guardians?"

"Help how?"

"I will be sitting next to you with my wing draped over you while I talk and observe."

"Hum..."

"I can also help Malefor which would make Carith happy."

"Well that helps out one of the girls, but what about, Claire."

"Um... I don't really know. What is it you want, Claire?"

"Hehe, well, I'm assuming when you mean, Guardians, you are referring to the other three and not Ignitus. Am I correct?" Claire asked as she already had an idea of what she wanted, and from that question alone, Spyro had already pieced together what she probably wanted, but she still wanted to hear her say it.

"Of course."

"Well then, I would like some more time with Ignitus. Could've had all the time in the world but because you were training, Ignitus couldn't lay down with me long enough to have a conversation because he was to busy worrying about you. So if you would so kindly, refrain from hurting yourself and the other Guardians. That way, me and Ignitus can talk all we want without problems."

"Easiest request I've ever gotten."

"Wh... what?!" Malefor cried out, "Easy? Easy?! That's easy for you? A simple, don't get yourself hurt? So then what about you being my friend isn't easy?"

"You know, maybe you are right. Maybe I should be your friend."

"Well you don't...! Wait... what...?"

"Because friend has the word end in it, kinda like what I want to do with your life, end, it."

"Of course you go and ruin the joy and happiness I felt for a second. I should kill you right now. You can barely stand so you wouldn't put up much of a fight."

"Neither did you when me and Cynder fought you in that volcano."

"You act like I was trying. Either way I saw it, I was going to end up where I wanted to be. Plus, I can guarantee that Cynder did all the work back there while you two fought me. I couldn't tell if I was fighting a Hatchling, or a whiny little Hatchling who thought he just lost his father."

Taking a step up and swinging past his lover, Spyro stood with his tail right at Malefor's neck with a smile, "Who was the whiner who thought his lover had dead even though it was his fault in the first place?"

Putting his tail blade against Spyro's neck, Malefor growled back at him with a smile, "I was just making sure I got to this exact moment so I could kill you. I already have your trust, and soon, I'll have your friendship, then I can put my plan into action."

Gently elbowing Volteer in his shoulder, Terrador joked with him, "Hey look, your boyfriends are fighting."

Pulling his tail blade forward and slapping Terrador's gut, he grunted loudly, trying to hold in the pain that just shot through his body. With the two fighting back and forth, Claire also made a joke about Spyro and Malefor as the two fought back and forth with one another, "Aw, you two would make an amazing couple. You have your fights, you have your jokes, and you laugh with one another. Well Cynder, looks like you have some competition."

Cynder giggled with the other two girls while Spyro and Malefor blushed red. They both scuffed at one another and pulled their tail blades away from one another and back to the ground. For Spyro, his body still didn't feel as though he had completely recovered, so pulling his tail blade back to the ground took a little more effort then he thought. Malefor along with almost everyone else had seen the pain on his face, and he felt bad for him but didn't want to say anything as he knew he would get picked on. With everyone calmed down once again, Spyro turned towards the Guardians and asked, "Alright, going back. I do want to train you three in hopes that you can become near as strong as my base form. So I'm just making sure that you three are ready?"

They all sighed, scared to even train because of what happened last time, but they all nodded.

"Just, try to be a little more, gentle. That way we don't have to fly out to the Dragon Temple again to chill out in the hot water," Terrador pleaded, somewhat starting the feel a phantom version of the pain as he remembered the fight, "And uh, also, I'm just wondering if we are going to have to be pulling tail blades out of our chest while we fight..."

"Don't worry, none of that. For now, I just need to see where you all are at, so no tail blade to the chest... yet."

"Yet?"

"Hehe, don't worry about it."

Turning away from the Guardians, he looked at Malefor and wondered if he would like to practice his dark power as well, "So, what do you say, Malefor? You want to give the dark power a little more training? I just don't want you to get overdramatic again and cry all over the floor because you think I'm going to kill you."

"Hehe, what ever. Just wait until something happens between you and Cynder again. I will be the first one to make fun of you for it," Malefor chuckled, but the way he said it kinda made him sound like he wanted something to happen, so he quickly clarified, "Not that I want something to happen as I would love to continue to enjoy this peace but... you know what I mean."

"It's okay, I understand. You don't have to if you don't want to. I mean it when I say I trust you. If something happens, I can help."

"Yeah but... you're already not completely healed, and I don't want to risk anything with everyone here so, I will just stick to my base form and train with the Guardians. Who knows, could bring back some fun memories when I use to train with the Guardians back then."

"Sounds fair to me," Spyro paused as he looked over at the Guardians and he continued, "Alright, we are all going to get ready. You three along with Malefor will stay in the center of the training room while the rest of us are going to hang out over by the front door. I will guide you if need be. But to start off, I'm going to send a couple of dark dragons at you at a low level to see where you all are at. If it's easy, I will make it more difficult until you can't continue, Alright?"

"Great..." Cyril sighed.

"Okay but, is it okay if Ignitus kinda helps out real quick?" Terrador asked

"With what?" Spyro asked.

"Well uh, the training room is a, little broken and, seeing your blood all of the place kinda makes me a little, uncomfortable."

"Understandable. Ignitus, can you help out."

"Yep, I got it," Ignitus agreed.

Tapping his claw on the ground, a white circle appeared on the ground and went all across the floor, repairing the floor and erasing any signs of blood. The white circle went up to the walls doing the same that it had done while it was on the floor. As it reached the ceiling, the circle closed in on itself and disappeared. The training room was now completely repaired once again and blood free. Cynder sighed as seeing the blood almost made her feel uncomfortable as well, and with the blood gone, her, along with everyone else, felt a little better. As Spyro turned and walked towards the wall nearest to the door, everyone knew what to do as he had explained it. The three Guardians and Malefor stayed in the middle of the training room while the other four followed Spyro. Sitting down a couple of steps from the door, Spyro pulled up his wing and smiled as Cynder approached. She smiled back at him. Snuggling her head into the side of his neck, she turned her body around to face forward and snuggled her side up against her lover's. Draping his wing over her, she nuzzled her forehead on his neck and laid her head down on his shoulder afterwards.

"It's about time I have this back," Cynder giggled, finally once again able to feel calm and comfortable.

"Hehe, sorry. I will... I will promise it won't happen again. But like Ignitus and I agreed, if you want me to stop training, just tell me. I know I might be, difficult, but with you, I'm sure everything will be fine," Spyro apologized as he had now come back to his senses and was no longer interested in training.

"Hehe, that's because, all it would take is me saying I would leave you for you to stop training."

"Hehe... yeah... But... you aren't leaving me... right?"

"Well, depends on how the day turns out. If things stay like this, you'll be fine."

"Sounds easy enough."

Ignitus walked over and sat down next to Spyro, and soon followed Claire as she sat next to him, and finally, Carith sat down next to her. The Guardians and Malefor awaited instructions on what they were going to be doing, and it didn't take long for them to receive the awaited instructions from Spyro, "Alright, with everyone in position, we are going to start off with something... simple. I'm going to throw a single dark dragon at you all and you all have to coordinate what you'll be doing. Now keep in mind, I'm going off of how strong I think you all are. This also means that this dark dragon will probably be a little stronger then Malefor, just to give you an idea on what you'll be dealing with."

Cyril sighed and grumbled towards Malefor, "I really hope you are a lot weaker then Spyro thinks you are."

At the end of the training room, a dark dragon appeared behind the four. They all turned around to see the dark dragon which was similar to that of Spyro's dark form. Huddling around in a circle, the four talked it out about what they think would be best, and Malefor was the first to speak, "Alright, Terrador, you can take most of the hits so you run down middle. I will go above, Volteer goes left and Cyril goes right. What do you say?"

"What makes you think he will just attack me?" Terrador asked.

"Because, you have some muscle still so, maybe he will see you as a bigger threat."

"Screw that. He isn't going to look up while he is attacking so you are getting the easy job, and you aren't getting out of this one. How about the weakest goes up? I vote, Volteer."

"You're a Bitch man," Volteer cursed.

"Or how about we just do what we did with those dark creatures when Warfang was attacked?" Cyril suggested.

"You mean the; Elements Of Devastation?!" Malefor cried happily.

"You really need to find a new name for that. I know you came up with it but, come on, you couldn't think of something better."

"Well, Planetary Devastation was already taken. I was also thinking about Galick Gun, All For One, or even Overkill but... couldn't use any since they were already taken..."

"No one here knows what any of those references are."

"Hehe... I do," Volteer smiled.

"What ever, point is, we can use it. I bring the fire, you all bring your elements, and bam, easy win," Malefor went back to explaining.

"Two things, one of which, how do you remember that we used that during the attack? I thought you were in the back fighting the other two."

"Dark creatures. I see what they see when I want to."

"Oh... okay. And another thing, you do realize if we go all out using that move, we could destroy most of the building which could fall on the citizens down underneath the mountain, right?"

"That is what Ignitus is for. And even if he doesn't help, Dragons have wings. No one would be stupid enough to just stand there and watch as the building comes down. So come on, lets bring back some good old times."

Everyone aside from Malefor sighed, but they had to agree.

"Alright, I guess it's worth a shot. Maybe if we just deal with this dark dragon, Spyro will call it a day and we can all go back to bed," Cyril agreed.

"There you go."

As the four spoke about their plan, they were just about to finish talking. Ignitus heard the entire conversation and hinted towards Spyro to help make it more difficult for the four, "Hey, Spyro."

Spyro looked at his father and asked, "What's up?"

"So, when ever you two were fighting the dark master, the Guardians were protecting Warfang which you already know. But, what you didn't know is that they used a move that Malefor helped all of us learn back then. I know the name sounds wired but, Malefor came up with it. It's called; Elements Of Devastation. Basically what they do is they combine all the element in a sort of beam. It's a little complicated to explain but, just know you could use this to your advantage. They have to stand still and charge up so, make it difficult for them."

"Hehe, Alright... You think you could teach me how to do it?"

"Spyro," Cynder whispered with a little bit of a growl

"Never mind," Spyro chuckled with a nervous smile.

The four turned around to face Spyro and Malefor called out, "Alright, ready!"

Spyro nodded at the four and they all turned around to face the dragon. The dark dragon took on his fighting stance along with the other four. Sticking with the plan, the four opened their mouths and charged up each of their elements to use against the dark dragon. It smiled at the four as it took a step forward and disappeared. Malefor's eyes went wide as the dragon appeared underneath him and slammed his mouth shut. The fire from his mouth erupted out of his nose as he was flung back. Knowing it wouldn't be complete, they still tried to use their elements. The three shot their elements in a beam right at the dark dragon. As they approached, he shielded himself with his wings. As the elements hit his wings, it absorbed into his body. The Guardians all shivered in shock that he was able to absorb their elements. Standing back up to his paws, Malefor wiped his paw across his face. Walking back up to the group, he whispered to Terrador, "Lets both just rush middle."

"Fine by me," Terrador growled as he looked at the Dark dragon.

Running at the dark dragon, Cyril and Volteer went different ways as one went right and one went to the dark dragons left. As they all rushed in to attack, the dark dragon swung his tail blade around, erupting a ring of fire. Cyril and Terrador quickly stopped in their tracks as they both placed a wall in front of them with their elements. As Malefor through up a wall of earth, he saw Volteer had no cover. Putting a claw out, he raised it, causing a wall of rock to appear in front of his friend. Ducking behind the wall, Volteer thanked, "Thank you."

Spyro smiled to see he used what he taught him.

"Malefor protecting his friends? That's unheard of, am I right?" Ignitus joked, seeing what his son would say about it.

"I use to think so... not anymore," Spyro said with a smile, causing the other four to smile at his words.

Jumping over his rock wall, Malefor took a slice at the dragon with his tail blade and just barely missed as he had dodged backwards. Terrador jumped over his wall and helped out. The two swung their tail blades constantly trying to hopefully get a hit, but they were just barely missing each time. Luckily, the dark dragon wasn't able to attack as well while the two attacked him. Cyril and Volteer jumped over their walls and ran over to assist. Swinging their tail blades at the dark dragon as well, he used this to his advantage. Grabbing Volteer and Cyril's tail blade, he yanked the two in front of him. Malefor and Terrador were already mid swing with their tail blade and couldn't react in time to stop. Malefor's tail blade stabbed into Cyril's shoulder while Terrador's tail blade stabbed into Volteer's shoulder as well. The two growled in pain, and Malefor cried, "Cyril!"

"Volteer!" Terrador cried as well.

Cyril grabbed Malefor's tail blade and yanked it out of him with a slight chuckle, "Watch were you're swinging, you bastard."

Volteer did the same as he pulled out Terrador's tail blade and joked too, "Who's side are you two on anyway?"

"Are you two okay?" Malefor asked, even though he watched as the two just shuck it off.

"Compared to what Spyro went through, this is nothing," Cyril chuckled.

The dark dragon took this opportunity as Cyril and Volteer's back was turned. Using his wing, he propelled himself forward. Malefor saw it at the corner of his eye. Using his wing, he pushed Cyril to the side and put a paw out right in front of him. The dark dragon used this opportunity to use his tail blade to try and take out Malefor as he knew he was the strongest of the four. A wall of earth appeared in front of the dragon as his tail blade hit the rock wall, along with his face. The tail blade had already went through the wall and hit Malefor in his chest, but he had hoped for this. Grabbing what he could see of the dragon's tail, he cut it clean off with his tail balde. Ripping the tail blade from his chest, Malefor growled, "Kill it now!"

Pulling the rock wall down, the four all went in for an attack. Each stabbed their tail bales into either his neck body or wings. With a loud cry, the dark dragon exploded into a dark cloud before disappearing. The four were a little out of breath, but a big breath in and a big breath out was easily able to fix that for the four. The four all smiled at one another, glad they were able to accomplish something together. Looking over at Spyro, they all wondered how they did. Spyro smiled and gave his honest opinion, "Seems like all of you are on different levels, and together, you all show that your able to accomplish something. But now that I've seen how you all fight, now you are all going to be fighting individually, each with a different dark dragon with different strengths. During this battle, I'm not looking for how fast or how well you can kill your enemy, but something else. And lets see if one of you can figure out what it is by the end of it."

The four all nodded at him with smiles, glad that they were at least doing well enough.

"Alright, restart back to the middle of the training room. Ignitus, if you'd be so kind as to help reset everything?"

"Man, the Ancestors are going to be pissed when they find out how much power I've been using but, I think I can do this once more before I get in trouble," Ignitus chuckled, tapping a claw on the ground which caused a circle of white light to appear, "Which means, Spyro, if any one gets hurt, you're going to have to use your time power on the four. so... Hopefully that won't almost kill you along the way either."

Spyro could only let out a nervous chuckle as now he was debating on just calling the training off. The circle of light went across the walls and the floors, breaking the walls of elements and cleaning the ground to make it look brand new. As the circle approached the four, it went up their bodies, down their back, and off their tail blades. As it did this, it healed any and all wounds that they had sustained during the battle. The white circle went up the walls and finally made it's way to the ceiling where it came together and disappeared. With the training room clear, the four walked back to their starting position in the middle of the room. With them ready, dark dragons spawned against the back walls.

"Hey, Malefor," Spyro called out.

Looking back at him, Malefor asked, "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"These aren't real, just remember that. Sometimes in battle, your opponent isn't going to play fair, and neither should you. But just like before, don't be afraid to kill the Dark dragon at any point. This is only training, and I won't feel bad or think less of you if you go for the kill. And to throw in some motivation, I will think a little more highly of you if you are able to kill the dark dragon fast enough, just hinting."

He smiled wide and before turning his head back to face the dark dragon, he agreed with himself, "Right!"

With that in mind, he didn't waste anymore time and rushed into battle with fire erupting out of his mouth as he attacked. The Guardians ran up along the sides of him to help as well. Watching as the four fought, Ignitus was curious as to what his son was looking for in this battle, "So, you're looking for something else? What might that something be?"

"You'll know when they are done. And plus, thought you could read minds? You should've known what I was thinking," Spyro chuckled.

"Well, I was mainly focusing on the fact that you were making Malefor smile. I know I make the dreams and all but, I'm pretty sure I trapped myself in one and I just don't realise it."

"I can pinch you if you want me to?"

"What? No. You'll dig your claws in my scales rather then doing a simple pinch."

"Yeah, maybe... But going back to the whole, making Malefor smile thing, it's clearly for the ladies. By making Malefor smile, he's happy, which makes Carith happy, which she then tells my lover about what an amazing job I'm doing, which makes her happy, which then she kisses me and makes me happy. And it's such an easy cycle."

"Hehe, sounds pretty simple. A simple task for a big reward."

"Yeah. You should know as well about how amazing it is to kiss someone... oh... oops..."

"What?!" Claire cried, looking at Ignitus with wide eyes.

"No no no, he's joking, he's just joking. I've never kissed anyone before in my life."

"Hehe, which is still sad because you are like what, mid thirties and you still haven't kissed anyone? I'm only sixteen and I have it all," Spyro chuckled, causing Ignitus to blush slightly as with his son saying it out loud, it did sound kinda bad.

"Yeah yeah, what ever. Not everyone gets chained up and falls in love every Friday. All because I haven't kissed someone doesn't make it sad."

"I can change that..." Claire whispered, biting her lip with anticipation.

"What?" Ignitus asked as he looked at her.

"Nothing! Just, wondering about things... Actually, now that you brought it up, the, chain? What happened?"

"Well, we brought it up before but I guess we never really discussed it. Basically, after I helped Cynder then she helped me back, I froze us in a time Crystal for three years. When we were later broken out of it, we had been chained together by a chain. After we beat the Dark Master, it disappeared and we don't know where it went. But from us being broken out, all the way to the battle of the Dark Master, we had it on the whole time.," Spyro explained.

"I miss that chain," Cynder was open and honest about, causing her lover to blush with a chuckle.

"So, you were chained together for a while I'm assuming... Then tell me honestly, Cynder, why did you stay with Spyro afterwards? Not being rude in asking, I just wonder. Did you stay because the chain forced you into loving him, or did you really love him even before the chain was put on?"

"Well, I... I ran away at one point when we were at the Dragon Temple from guilt. If I had never run away, I would've never released the Dark Master, and the three year war that happened would've never happened... And I'm sorry for that."

"Cynder, please. You think I'm upset? I've learned from Ignitus when it comes to his way of thinking. If you haven't done that, Malefor probably wouldn't be here and neither would I. And, with my previous lover, like I said, looking back, I wouldn't say he was... The best. Which is terrible for me to say, but..."

"I looked back into his past. Apparently, he made a bet with another guy that he couldn't get down and dirty with Claire in the next month," Ignitus interrupted, causing everyone aside from Claire to gasp as she had already heard about this from a conversation she had with him before.

"But... I thought..." Cynder was at a lost for words for what she just heard

"I thought he was a good guy too but, what did I know I guess," Claire giggled slightly.

"Well, even though those times weren't the best, what do you think about what you have now?" Carith asked, seeing a smile already creep along Claire's face.

"I can say with a smile that I have everything, and everyone, that I want. There is something missing but, I will just have to wait and work for it."

"Wait? Hehe, Claire, I'm the Chronicler, say you want something and I can get it for you," Ignitus said.

"Oh don't worry, lets just say, this isn't something you can get, but earn."

"Earn?"

"But, Cynder, going back to the Chain, how did it feel after it was gone? I'm assuming you still felt terrible for what happened in the past and you tried to run away again?"

"She tried to kill me," Spyro joked with a chuckle.

"I totally did not," Cynder rolled her eyes with a smile, "What really happened was... I wasn't going to make it, if Spyro was died, I will just say that. As I looked around, I... I jumped on top of him not knowing it was him and put my tail blade to his neck so... that was... not as fun as I thought the day was going to be."

"I even teased her by asking if she was going to kill me, which, now that I think about how the old days were, it was pretty stupid. Cynder was already scared of her past and not wanting to hurt anyone, and here I am, joking about how she would kill me, all while I was also laid out on the ground near death from the fight."

"Holy Ancestors... How did you survive?" Claire asked, seeing the two look at one another with smiles.

"Well, this was a pretty, crazy week to say the least. Just in a week, Cynder saved me from the volcano even as weak as she was, she saved me by protecting and healing me when at any point, she could've left me, and I would've died. And I was stabbed in the heart by an arrow, which she saved me from. I don't know why she put up with me, I don't have a clue, but she saved me... a lot."

"Hehe. Well, Cynder, what do you have to say?"

"Well, of course I saved you because I loved you. And you want to talk about saving? I won't go through all of them as there are way to many to count, but the main ways he saved me was from: Myself, The Destroyer, the Dark Master, my Nightmares, and so much more. But now that I've learned about the Chronicler, thanks, Ignitus, you ass."

"What did I do?" Ignitus asked.

"When we first got back to Warfang, and me and Spyro were separated, you gave me that nightmare which was a lot more then I could handle. Don't care if you apologised for it that one day, I'm still mad at you."

"Which, I am sorry about, once again. It was just supposed to help show the Guardians that you two were never supposed to, and never should be, separated. And even though you two were separated, you didn't even see what Spyro did when he heard your cry."

"Now that you mention it, I don't really remember much aside from his warmth and words."

"Lets just say, he kicked off the bed so hard, he broke it in half. Then he punched his door so hard, it broke off the hinges and slammed right into the wall. Hehe, that bed and door were victims that I never wanted to put into everything that was happening."

"Aw, Spyro, you did that for me?"

"Well... you know... Thinking back again... maybe I should've just busted through the wall to get to your room... Hehe," Spyro chuckled.

"Either way, you were still my Purple Guardian, even back then."

With the two moving in for a kiss, a loud cry was heard from Terrador, "Look Out!"

Running up and standing in front of Cynder, he spread out his wings and clenched his eyes shut as he braced himself for what ever he was supposed to have avoided. Something had flown past and hit the wall they were standing near with a loud cracking sound. Once again, another cry was heard, but not from Terrador, instead, it was from Claire, "Ignitus!"

Pulling his wings down and opening his eyes, he looked at his father and froze. A pointed rock in the shape similar to a spear stabbed right through Ignitus's neck. The pointed part was in the wall, but it was long enough to poke out the front of he neck. It was thin, thinner then the size of a claw which only made it look more painful. The four that were fighting didn't even realize what had happened as the sounds of battling and yelling at each other for support blocked out Claire's cry. Not wasting any more time, Spyro ran up and tapped a claw on Ignitus's chest to heal him. Grabbing the rock, Spyro cried, "Alright, I'm going to pull this out, and then I'm going to heal you, okay. It's going to hurt, and I'm sorry just... just... why are you laughing?"

Laughter erupted out of Ignitus as he couldn't keep it together which confused everyone. But what confused them even more was, as he laughed, he was passing right through the rock as if it wasn't even there. Pulling his claw back which made the hour glass disappear, Spyro wanted to know answers, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, Claire had already beaten him to it with a commanding voice, "Ignitus, answers, now."

He quickly stopped laughing and instead swallowed hard. Grabbing the rock from his neck, it disintegrated into a white light. With the rock gone, there was no hole in Ignitus's neck at all which made Claire believe he was just a clone, "Wait... Ignitus... you, you aren't a, clone, are you?"

"What? No, of course not. I would never leave a clone with you," Ignitus said, now feeling bad that he had scared Claire into making her think he was going to die.

"I... I trust you but, I also still want proof. As well as an explanation as to what happened."

"You're right... Sorry if I scared you..."

"Just, tell me if you are okay, then I can be as well."

"Hehe, yes ma'am. Alright, I will tell the truth. So, I'm sure I've said before but, a dark creature can not attack the Chronicler because of the whole, light and dark thing. But honestly, nothing can attack the Chronicler until The Chronicler himself attacks back. So, that little rock can't touch me as long as I don't do anything to retaliate. That's why, way back, when me and Spyro fought, he was able to instantly attack me, because I attacked first. So, with my power, I can just faze through stuff if I want."

"And... how do I know you aren't a clone."

"Well, that's even easier to explain. Unlike a clone, I can bleed, clones can't. And just so I can show you," Ignitus paused as a bright white light appeared in front of him, causing everyone to squint their eyes a little, "I'm going to be using this clone as a demonstration."

As the light died down, a clone of Ignitus appeared in front of him. The clone raised his paw up to chest level and turned it out upside down. Ignitus used his claw and stabbed his claw into his clone's paw. Taking his claw out, the clone raised his paw for everyone to see, but there was nothing there aside from a hole where he had stabbed his clone. Now, doing the same as before, he only switched to who he was doing it to. Ignitus raised up his paw and flipped it upside down at chest level. His clone stabbed his claw into him. Pulling his claw out, blood spilled from out of Ignitus's paw, along with blood being on the clone's. Putting a claw over the wound, he let it sit there for a second before pulling his claw back down to the ground. The wound was now completely healed, and all the blood from his paw had disappeared. As Ignitus spoke, his clone disappeared into a white light, "So, as you can see, aside from the white light, my clone's can't bleed. The reason for this is actually funny. Because the Chronicler has so much energy, he can make thousands of clone's. And if all of those clone's had blood, well, there are thousands of reasons this could go wrong. Hehe, here's a funny one. The Ancestors think that the Chronicler could go crazy and kill his clones for the Hell of it just to see bloodshed."

"Damn... what have the Ancestors lived through?" Spyro chuckled.

"Who knows... Well... I do, but last time I tried to talk about their past, especially to Malefor, didn't work out too well."

"Well... all that matters is your safe. Just glad Malefor wasn't looking or else he would pick on me for nearly crying because of what you pulled."

"I'm sorry, I truly am. And I'm especially sorry to you, Claire, didn't mean to scare you that badly."

She sighed hugely and already found a way for him to make it up to her, "Just, cuddle with me and don't let go, understand?"

"I've been wanting to do that all day."

Snuggling up with one another once again, Claire laid her head down on Ignitus's shoulder and sighed softly, trying to calm herself down and to get the thought out of her mind. Looking at the two as they cuddled and looking at the battle Malefor was in with the other Guardians, Carith looked over to Spyro and asked, "So, Spyro, I was wondering when I would be able to snuggle back up with my lover. It's been a while."

"Hehe, don't worry. If they don't finish up here soon, I will call off the training. I can see that most of them are getting tired, so it shouldn't be too long now," Spyro explained, making her feel a little better.

Carith nodded with a smile and continued to watch the fight, and Spyro was about too as well, but Cynder said something to him, "So, tell me, what were you really trying to prove?"

"Oh no, what did I do?"

"Nothing. It's just, when ever Terrador said look out, instead of freezing time and grabbing it out of mid air, or moving at lightning speed, why did you choose to quickly throw up your wings in front of me and protect me? Not saying it wasn't romantic or anything, just wondering."

"Well, I've been trying to deal with some of my problems without using my abilities. And i know for a fact, Ignitus saw it coming before I even did. And if I would've gotten hit by that, well, it would've hurt like Hell but, I would've gotten up, dusted it off, and healed myself. I've been trying to see what kind of pain I can take before it becomes more then too much."

"Focusing on training instead of a way to kiss me, okay."

"No its..."

"No, it's fine, I understand."

He sighed with a smile, seeing her look away from him with her own smile. Putting his paw on the other side of her face, she willingly moved her face towards his. Moving in and kissing his lover, he could feel himself becoming a lot calmer then he thought he could be, not knowing he was tensed and worried, which got him thinking, What do I have to be worried about...? Oh yeah... Training, or loving, Cynder... I would say I've had enough training for one day, maybe week... So, I will take the week off... maybe longer. Pulling away from the kiss, even Cynder could tell he was stressed by the kiss, "Seems like someone wasn't completely their old self. The kiss got better and better as we kissed. You feeling better?"

"Hehe, just, deciding between training and loving you should've been obvious. I should've just stayed in bed with you."

"Well, I wouldn't say it was all bad. I was able to see those muscles flex again. I bet you make Terrador jealous."

"How, the guy doesn't have as much muscle as before."

"Wow... That was a sick burn."

"Oh! I didn't mean it like that."

Looking at Terrador as he fought, she did had to agree that he was growing his muscle back, "Well, if you keep training him, definitely not at all for the rest of the week, but if you keep training him, he might be his old self very soon."

"That's my hope; Getting the Guardians back to where and who they should be."

The four were each knocked down onto the floor in the middle of the training room, violently breathing as they were out of breath and power. The dark dragons surrounded them in a circle. Struggling to stand back to their paws, each of them faced their opponents in a weak fighting stance. In the circle, Malefor faced his opponent away from the door, Volteer faced his towards the door, and Terrador and Cyril's opponent were facing the gem room and away from the gem room. Volteer knew they couldn't keep this up, and tried to think of a plan, and as he thought about what Spyro said, he was able to come up with a plan in only a second, "Guys... I have a better idea. Not to pull us down or anything but, me, Terrador, and Cyril... We are not as strong as, Malefor, but you know who's stronger then us?"

"What are you planning?" Cyril asked, seeing the Dark dragons take a step, he quickly said, "Because what ever you're planning you better hurry up and say it!"

"Strength in numbers my dear, Cyril. If we all focus are attention on Malefor's opponent, he will be the strongest of the four. Malefor can take out the three easily while we hold off the fourth, that being his dark counterpart. I would say we could all focus on just Malefor's counterpart first, but that would leave the other three who could still beat us down, so it's better if we go with the first idea."

"You want me to take on the three of them?!" Malefor cried, almost wanting to just pass out right then and there.

"Malefor, it's a win-win. You take out the three while we hold off the your counterpart. You look good in front of Carith while you fight the three, and you can join in and help us defeat the last dark dragon that was supposed to be yours. Hopefully at this point, he will already be weakened."

"Oh, hell... Well, your plans haven't failed me yet. When ever you're ready."

"When they take the next step, Malefor, switch to the front, we will switch quickly to the Dark dragon in the back. If they come after us, you have the speed. Remember our strengths and weaknesses. Terrador's the strongest, I am the smartness, and Cyril is the fastest. Take out which ever one you believe would be easier for you. I would say my dark clone, Cyril's, then Terrador's, but I don't have time to explain why..."

Just as Volteer said that, the dark dragons took another step. Everyone went for the plan. Volteer flew up and around towards the back of the room behind the Dark dragon. Terrador and Cyril turned and ran to the back as well, but the Dark dragon that was fighting Cyril tried to stop him. Malefor saw this as he turned around to face the three. Raising his paw and pointing a claw in front of him, he lifted it, causing a rock wall to come from out of the ground. The dark dragon slammed right into it and was knocked back by it. As he fell to the floor, the other two dragons attacked him. Dodging most of their attacks, Malefor growled in his thoughts as the two switched spots and constantly tried to claw at him, Yeah, attack your dark clone first, Great plan, Volteer! How the hell do I tell them apart from one another! Getting slashed in the side of the face, he had it and yelled, "Enough!"

Grabbing the two by the neck, he slammed them to the ground and onto their backs. They both dug their claws into his arms and slashed his side with their tail blade. Opening his mouth to shot them with a arrow shaped rock, he stopped and struggled for a second. Even with the pain, he looked up at Spyro, scared to know what he would think of him if he did what he was about to do right in front of him. Spyro smiled at him and yelled out, "Remember what I said! I want to be satisfied with your performance, not dissatisfied! The better you do, and the sooner you finish, the more training we can do, together!"

His words gave him the motivation he needed to go all out against the Dark dragons. The pain from his arms were becoming more sever as he let them dig their claws into his arms for far too long. Charging up the small, rock like spear in his mouth, he shot it right at the dark dragon's head on the left. It slammed right into his head and hit the floor with a loud crack. The dark dragon couldn't even let out a scream as it simply exploded into a cloud of darkness and disappeared. Looking over at the next dragon, he charged up to do the same thing. Just as he was about to use it, the other dark dragon tackled into his side. Getting knocked off the dragon, Malefor's back hit the ground, causing his little rock spear to shoot out of his mouth and hit the ceiling. Rolling over and standing back to his paws, he trembled slightly, and looking down at the damage they did to his arms, he wasn't surprised. His scales had been ripped and torn, and the flesh and blood that spilled from his now damage arms made him shiver slightly. As the two dark dragons stood in front of him, he chuckled, "I sure hope I killed the Volteer clone."

With Malefor fighting his battle, the Guardians continued to fight there battle as well, keeping the Dark dragon near the back wall and away from their friend. With every attack they made, they were quickly taken down. Cyril went in for an attack, but the dark dragon swung around and hit him in the side of his face with his tail blade. Cyril's body hit the wall, which made Volteer run in to keep the dragon from doing anymore damage. The dark dragon tried to do the same, but missed. Volteer had ducked underneath his tail blade attack and went up to punch his neck. At the same time, Terrador came down from above and elbowed the dragon's head. As Volteer's punch hit his chin, his head was forced up from the hit, and only a second later, Terrador's elbow came down right on the dragon's head, nearly breaking it's neck. Terrador hit the ground from being so exhausted, along with the dragon's face hitting the ground as well from the attack. Volteer grabbed Terrador and flew him back a little away from the dragon. As the Dark dragon stood, he growled as he was now furious. Just as Cyril pulled himself out of the wall, the dragon turned around and attacked him. Grabbing his neck and pinning him to the wall once again, he cut his tail blade right into Cyril's stomach. And with a violent cry, his body went limp.

"Cyril!" Volteer and Terrador cried.

Hearing the cries, Malefor looked over to see what had happened. The blood that spilled out his friend's gut as he was pinned to the wall, and the faint feeling of passing out, he knew he had to do something quick. As the dragons rushed him as he was distracted, it proved to be the wrong decision. As they slashed at him, he grabbed one of their arms while dodging the other dark dragon. Spinning around and pulling the dragon down to the ground, he slashed the neck of the other dragon. With the dragon he had on the ground, he quickly charged up his little arrow rock in his mouth and shot the Dark dragon in the head, causing it to explode in a dark cloud and disappear. Looking back at the other dragon whom had has neck covered with his paw, he took a couple of steps before the dragon tried to strike with his paw. Hitting his paw out of the way, Malefor used his claws and swung it up and right at the opening gash he made with his tail blade on his neck. His claws went through the dragons neck, and he killed it. As it exploded into a black cloud, he turned around and saw the last dark dragon was pulling his tail blade out of Cyril's gut. As Cyril's body feel to the ground, his almost lifeless body angered him. Volteer and Terrador were already nearly out of breath, and the same went for Malefor, but he knew he couldn't give up now. Silently running behind, he tried to sneak up on the dark dragon. The dragon slowly walked forward, causing the two to shiver as they prepared for a fight. But, they saw Malefor walk slowly from behind the dragon, so they knew they had to take one for the team. Running up to attack, the two were easily taken out. Volteer was stabbed on the side of his face hard enough to make him hit the ground, and Terrador was grabbed by the neck afterwards. The dark dragon dug his claws into Terrador's neck, causing blood to spill out and down his neck. His cries were loud enough to cover up Malefor's steps as he ran up from behind him. Reaching his arm around, he grabbed the dragon by the neck, causing him to let go of Terrador. As he pulled the dragon back, he threw his body to the floor and stabbed his tail blade right into his neck. The dragon froze for a second, and for that second, all that was heard was the violent breathing coming from the four. The dark dragon exploded into a dark cloud and disappeared. As it did, everyone was ready to celebrate, and Malefor almost sat down, but he quickly remembered, Cyril! Looking over at him, he ran over to his body. As Terrador and Volteer tried to stand up, they were successful, but only barely. They were able to walk over and check on Cyril as well. Ignitus chuckled and joked, "Well, Spyro, feel like healing everyone."

Spyro knew he had to, even though there would be a lot of pain to follow, "It's gonna hurt like Hell but, I don't want you to get in trouble with the Ancestors so, I will definitely do it."

"Hehe, don't worry. My clone had a talk and since nothing else happens today, they said I could heal them."

"They know what else is going to happen today? You had a talk with the Ancestors?!"

"Ahem! So, uh, we are supposed to be helping them, Remember?"

Cyril was just barely able to open his eyes, and seeing Malefor, he chuckled as he made a joke, "Let me guess... everything that's happened was all just a dream... we are still in the war. You knocked us all out while we were fighting... And you're about to kill me... aren't you..."

"Shut up, Cyril," Malefor chuckled, earning a small chuckle from the other Guardians as well.

"Please, if this was the war, Malefor would be a little Hatchling and hide out while his dark forces attacked," Terrador chuckled.

"Look, getting the Destroyer out was a lot more difficult then the Dark Master thought, alright. Don't blame me."

"Good thing it took so long for you to get the Destroyer out. We surely would've lost if you had summoned it sooner."

"Well, technically, no one even stopped it. The Dark Master did in fact successfully complete its mission... Which was to jump in a volcano..." Stopping his sentence, he looked to see Cynder and asked about what she had said to him when he first came back, "Hey, Cynder, Remember way back when I first came back and you told me to jump in a volcano?"

"Hehe, no, I told you to reverse time and burn in Hell inside of that volcano," Cynder giggled from the memory, causing everyone to chuckle or giggle as well.

"Wow. You were a boss when I first came back. Hehe, but remember what happened in the gem room when I first came back. You thought I had chuckled and was trying to kill you, you were like, 'No, my Spyro, please don't hurt him, I love him'."

"Shut up..." Cynder blushed, causing everyone to laugh again.

"Quit picking on my lover, Malefor. Or else I will bring up what happened in the training room with your dark power incident," Spyro threatened with a smile and a chuckle.

"Oh you would, wouldn't you," Malefor said with a small blush as well, embarrassed about that moment.

"Hehe... Now this feels even more... like a dream," Cyril faintly chuckled, as his breathing slowed, and he closed his eyes.

"Cyril! Cyril!"

"Dude, chill out... I'm just trying to rest," Cyril grumbled, opening his eyes back up again.

"Don't close your eyes then! If you're injured badly, and you close your eyes like you're dying, then of course I'm gonna freak!"

"Well... to be honest... I'm about to."

"Ignitus, could you, or do you need me to?" Spyro asked.

"I got it," Ignitus said.

Tapping a claw on the ground, a white circle appeared on the floor near his claw. The white circle moved over everyone's body, healing them completely of any wounds or blood stains. It did the same for the whole training room, cleaning and putting everything back in place making it look brand new. As the circle reached the roof, it closed tighter and disappeared. The Guardians and Malefor all felt so much better as they were able to see a more clearly now and breath without worry. Reaching his tail blade out, Malefor smiled at Cyril, and he smiled back. Putting his paw on his tail blade, he helped his friend stand. Looking at Spyro, Malefor wondered how he did during the battle, "So, how did we do? I mean, hehe, I did take all of them out so, you know."

"Well, you remember how I said I was looking for something at the beginning of the battle? Well, it wasn't how fast or how well you did against your enemy, but how well you did, together, against the enemy. Volteer, Terrador, Cyril, and you too, Malefor. You all showed that you work well together. You knew what you needed to do, together, with out having to rely on words to give your position away. Like when Terrador and Volteer attacked. Because you two did this, Malefor was able to run up from behind and kill his target," Spyro gave his honest opinion on how well they did, and to everyone's surprise, even their own, they did pretty well.

"Hurt like a Bitch when he grabbed my neck though," Terrador grumbled, moving his paw around his neck as if he could still feel the pain.

"Neck?! Try gut!" Cyril cried, putting his paw on his stomach.

"What? While I was fighting and getting constantly clawed at in the arms, I looked away, looked at Spyro, looked back at the dragon, killed one, and couldn't kill the other. The entire time my arms were being clawed out. You all should learn what real pain is," Malefor said, feeling as though he had the most pain out of all the other three.

"Well, no matter the pain, one day, you might have to go through it again, but at least you will be ready. You all preformed very well, and when backed into a corner, I would say having someone like Volteer will make life a whole lot easier. You all did well, and I'm proud to see you all aren't as out of shape as I thought you all were. So, as a reward, I will not make you four train for the rest of the week... or at the very least, I will try. But if you do want to train, I'm always here," Spyro once again congratulated the four on their performance of how well they did as a team.

"Spyro?" Cynder whispered.

"Hehe, that is, if my lover approves, then I will always be here... for probably about a minute."

"Speaking of, lover approves," Carith said with a raised brow and a smile, she looked at her lover and waved a claw over towards her, "I need to, approve, that this training did something."

Malefor chuckled with a blush, seeing everyone look at him, wondering what he was going to do. He of course couldn't resist, and he walked over to his lover's side. Draping his wing over her back, she nuzzled his neck for a couple of seconds and felt something a little different that she liked. Pulling her head back, she agreed with herself, "Oh yeah, this training of yours has definitely paid off. I wonder what other, New experiences, we can have. I wonder how it feels to kiss you now."

Carith blushed slightly as she realised she was the only one talking, and everyone looked at her with blushes as well.

"I'm allowed to think and say what ever I want about me lover, alright?"

They all agreed with nods, and they all went back to talking about other things. Malefor nudged her with his elbow, and she wondered what he wanted. He gestured his head towards the door, and she obeyed. Turning away from everyone, the two walked away from the crowd and over towards the door. Approaching the wall, he turned to see the whole training room and him and his lover sat down. She was confused and asked, "I thought we were going back to our room?"

Raising his wing up to block his face, he teased her, "Why go back to our room when we can kiss right here?"

"Oh," Carith purred, pulling up her wing and blocking her side of her face.

"Well, I guess we can all agree that Malefor is still definitely stronger then the three of us, that's for sure," Terrador sighed as he admitted it, but he didn't feel bad as it actually made him smile, "I know saying something like that isn't the best thing to say but... I remember when he couldn't even take even one of us out. And to see how much he has grown since then is... I'm glad I've lived to see it... I wonder what else I will grow up and see that will surprise me."

"Well, since Malefor and Carith aren't here, and I know the girls will probably talk about this next time they have another girls day but, what if you lived to see him have a hatchling with Carith?"

Everyone blushed from even the thought, but Terrador pushed through his blush and was honest, "I don't know. Malefor just doesn't really have the guts to doing something like that. But, if the two do become mates, then come back to me on the Hatchling thing. I don't know if I will be able to control myself if that day comes though."

"So, you believe it will happen though?"

"Well... I definitely can hope. If you don't kill the poor man, I'm sure his chances go from zero to a hundred pretty quick."

"Alright, i get it. I said I wouldn't kill him, and I apologized for what I did."

"Hehe... He's a good guy though. I know, hopefully, sooner or later, he will have that chance."

The way the two talked about mates and Hatchlings made Volteer frown. Looking over at the two as they covered their faces and kissed, he wondered what life would be like if he still had his friend, his wished to be lover and mate. Cyril saw this and wanted to help him out. Walking over to his side, he put a paw on his shoulder and Volteer looked over at him.

"Don't worry, someone's out there for you too," Cyril said, trying to cheer him up.

"It's not just someone that I want though... How do you think life would've been if me and Ersa were still together? Do you think, we would've been at the point Spyro and Malefor are with their lovers?" Volteer asked, thinking about it more and more, and he wish he didn't as it only made him more depressed as he did.

"Hey, Spyro thinks she is out there and so do I. When you see her again, tell her, okay?"

"Hehe, after getting past my mountain of tears, I will try."

A yawn emerged from Spyro's mouth, soon after causing his lover to yawn along with some of the others. Ignitus chuckled as he stopped yawning and asked, "Well, does this mean the day is over? The moon is slowly rising right now as we speak so, do you all want to do anything else?"

"Hell no," Terrador chuckled, "I've got my work out in. I'm ready to lay back down and have a good night's rest."

"I can agree to that," Cyril agreed.

"Alright then. Do any of you need anything from me before I go? Me and Claire are going to head down now. That is, also of course, unless you have any questions yourself, Claire," Ignitus asked, looking at her to see if she needed or wanted to do anything else while they were still there.

"I guess I just have to say, congrats to you all for doing so well. I'm glad that, in the end, everyone was alright. And, Spyro... For tomorrow, which I'm sure Cynder already has you locked in for bed, try not to do anything that will make Ignitus fear for your life. I was barley able to cuddle with him in bed because he saw the training you were going through," Claire said with a giggle, seeing the small blush on Cynder's face.

"Hehe, of course. I'm sorry for interrupting your time. Thank you though, Ignitus, for doing that. Checking up on me and making sure I was okay," Spyro thanked his father for being there when he needed him.

"Anytime," Ignitus said with a smile.

"Oh, and, one last thing before we do go. Spyro, I wanted to thank you for what you did for Ignitus back then. He talked a lot about how much of a help you were and I wanted to thank you as well," Claire remembered from a couple of days ago when she talked with him about the Chronicler.

"He was a mess, I can tell you that," Spyro chuckled.

"What ever," Ignitus chuckled as well.

Nuzzling her neck against the side of his, Claire asked, "Now, where were we?"

He smiled at her and the two turned to walk out of the training room. As they approached the door, Ignitus said, "Goodnight you two."

In between kisses, Malefor was able to say, "Good... Night..."

"Well, I guess that means we should be heading off to bed as well. Thank you, Spyro. I really did need to train again. Aside from being grabbed by the neck and have claws dug into my neck, it was pretty fun fighting with everyone again. We can definitely do it again sometime when ever you are free," Terrador thanked kindly, feeling like getting back into battle once again.

"Of course. I'm all for another battle. And unlike the Dark dragons, I will go a little easier on you all... And not dig my claws in your neck," Spyro chuckled, glad he was able to get the Guardians to train a little.

"I look forward to it then. Goodnight you two," Terrador said as he walked away.

"Goodnight Terrador," Spyro said in unison with Cynder.

"Well, I don't really have much to say aside from the fact I almost died... And I laid on the floor... And everyone just watched," Cyril joked.

"Hehe, sorry Cyril. Ignitus said he was going to use his power but took his sweet time. When ever you go to bed, make sure to yell at him for me."

"Hehe, alright. I will see you all in the morning."

"Of course."

As Cyril walked away, all that was left was Volteer, and compared to the others, he needed to talk with Spyro, "Spyro I... when you were talking about mates and Hatchlings I... it brought up thoughts about Ersa again and I... I just can't take it anymore. I've read a lot of books and everything to help keep my mind off it but... I can't take it any longer. I need to know if she is alive or not."

Spyro looked at Cynder, wondering what her input would be. She could only sigh with a smile, and she had to agree, "Alright, fine. But after you are done with your search, you and me need some alone time, understand?"

"Yes ma'am," Spyro agreed happily.

"Thank you... both of you. I'm sorry to take him away Cynder but... I can't go another day without knowing," Volteer admitted.

"I know what it's like to love someone and then lose them. When me and Spyro first got out of the volcano and I thought I had lost him... there were a lot of times when something would happen and I wanted to give up, but, with Spyro, I never wanted to after that. I hope when you find her, you will be able to experience what it's like to love as well. And you've read books about kissing... probably, and when they said it's good, that's an understatement."

"Hehe, I'm shaking with excitement right now."

"Now go get some rest. Spyro and I, probably along with the other two, will be down at the Guardians Chambers as soon as we can, okay?"

"Yes! Of course! Thank you! Both of you."

Volteer was now more excited more then ever for the next day and quickly ran towards the door and out of the training room. As he got to the hall, he stopped, and saw the Guardians were all still standing around near the door, and he questioned, "Uh... what's going on?"

"Instead of us going individually, we were all just going to teleport into the Sleeping Chambers," Terrador said.

"Why?"

"Because hearing the door constantly close and shut as we all walk into the Chambers... no one would be able to get some sleep," Cyril explained.

"Oh... how does Claire feel about wasting time? She could've already been laying down and talking with Ignitus."

"Kinda hard to talk with him if I say something romantic and it gets interrupt by a door opening, one of you apologizing, and then one of you shutting the door as you walked in the room," Claire giggled.

"Fair points."

"Alright, you all know what to do. Close your eyes and prepare for the magic to happen," Ignitus said, causing everyone to close their eyes.

Everyone did as they were told and closed their eyes. For a second, it was silent, but after that second, Ignitus broke the silence, "Alright, we are here."

Opening their eyes, they were all in the Sleeping Chambers right in front of the door. Turning and walking with Claire, Ignitus walked with her towards their bed. With the two heading to their bed, the other three followed behind and went towards their beds. Jumping up onto their beds and laying down, Volteer spoke as he laid down on his bed, "It's been a long time since we fought with, Malefor. Which... didn't realize it until now but, this is our first time fighting along side our friend after more then thirteen years... It's crazy to even say something like that."

As Terrador laid his paws out in front of him, he laid his head down and chuckled at Volteer's words as he couldn't believe it himself, "I was wondering why I was enjoying the training so much. It's good to see that he is still as strong as ever... And now that you talk about it, now realising how important that training session was... I kinda wish we would've continued. It would've helped us train, it would've help him train, and we would all be happy in the end... like the good old days."

"Hehe, the good old days? You mean the days where we would train him and injury him, or even nearly kill him accidentally?" Ignitus chuckled as he snuggled up to Claire with his head over hers as her head was laid down over his paws.

"Hehe, okay, maybe not those old days... Maybe the days as in, the month that Malefor and Carith had together when they were in love. Aside from that one time where he turned for a second... And some other times, but with Carith there, it was pretty easy to get past any situation that was thrown our way... I miss his sense of humor."

"We all missed him, lets be honest. We have just been having a pretty good life so far after he has come back that we don't even remember there being a war. The only real sign of the war is, of course... what we lost, but we don't blame him for that. With us healed and looking younger then before, it's like we never went through anything at all," Cyril joined in as he believed life has been pretty well to them.

"Yeah, seeing Malefor after what had happened... I know I'm supposed to be the tough one out of all of us but, when he came back, and when the next day rolled around and he looked like his young self again... I about lost it with tears... But I know he would've picked on me about it and told me to stay strong... And I tried... I should've just cried right then and there to hear him make some stupid joke," Terrador chuckled along with the other Guardians.

"I don't know which one is more stupid; The games he makes up, or the jokes he makes," Cyril chuckled.

"Well, I would rather have joking, game making Malefor over the Dark Master any day. And it's fun to see Spyro yell at him when he says something stupid. At least he knows what we are all thinking when he starts yelling at him," Ignitus said, and everyone agreed about that, "And it's also good to see Malefor and Spyro have made progress on their friendship. Not wanting to jinx us but... If those two do become friends one day, I feel like it will be smooth sailing from now and forever. That's my..."

A loud strike of thunder interrupted Ignitus as it lit up the room white before a loud and thunderous roar nearly shuck the whole building. Everyone jumped from the sudden storm, and it even sacred Ignitus, which made him wonder himself, That's wired... Its not supposed to be storming at all tonight. Where is this weather coming from? As he thought about it, every else wondered as well. Soon followed storm clouds that covered the sky, making it pitch black outside. Rain then started to pour down heavily over the building with small roars of thunder from here to here.

"I guess that means we are off to bed. We can talk some more in the morning... I'm kinda already missing those four," Terrador said, closing his eyes as he tried to fall asleep.

"I agree on that. Sooner we go to bed, the sooner and better our day will be tomorrow," Volteer happily said, trying to contain his excitement as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

"Great... can't wait to almost fall asleep, and then a huge strike of thunder wakes me... it's bound to happen," Cyril grumbled as he closed his eyes and tired to sleep.

"I don't know what everyone is complaining about. Then again, I'm snuggled up to you so... I know no matter the storm, I can sleep happily," Claire whispered, closing her eyes, and said one last thing before going to sleep herself, "Goodnight, Ignitus... I hope we can talk more soon."

"Of course we will... Goodnight Claire," Ignitus whispered, still eyes wide open as he was confused about what was happening.

One of my clones needs to figure out what is happening. It doesn't make any sense for it to be raining... But, then again, some days, there wouldn't be a cloud in the sky, then seconds later there would be a hail storm so... I guess I shouldn't bother with it. I've barely spent anytime with Claire, and I haven't spoken to her all that much... she probably hates me for that. I need to focus all my attention on her tomorrow... And I need to apologize. As Ignitus agreed with himself, he decided it would be best to ignore it and focus on what is more important to him. Pulling his head up and pecking Claire on her forehead, she smiled slightly as she was still a little bit awake. Laying his head back down over the top of her neck, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

---

With the Guardians gone, all that was left was Malefor and his lover, who were still kissing with their wings up. The two walked over to the other two, and as Spyro sat, he looked over at his lover to say something, but as he did, she turned away with a frown, making him a little worried about what he did. He tried to speak to her again, but the other two were done kissing and pulled their wings down, focusing their attention on him with big smiles.

"Wow... Okay, sorry, Spyro. Didn't know that would be so enjoyable... Ahem. So, what's up?" Malefor asked, still trying to recover from the kissing he did with his lover.

"Oh, I just wanted to congratulate you on your victory against the dragons. You seemed a little, brutal, to say the lease when you killed those dragons. I thought I trusted you but, after that display, it's going to take some time for you to earn my trust again," Spyro chuckled as he joked with him, but it still shuck Malefor up a little as he didn't know for a second if he was lying or not.

"Hehe, don't be an ass. You said I could go all out, and I did. And Cyril was injured and Terrador was having the blood squeezed out of him like jelly by that dragon. I wasn't going to take my time on that."

"Alright, fine, fair enough. But, to be honest... I can't believe I am about to say this but, how would you feel if, one day, me and you train together and master blue fire, together?"

"What?!" Malefor's face lit up with a smile.

"Ugh... smiling Malefor is creepy. But, yes, really. I am going to try and take another step forward with you in terms of us being... acquaintance. Still going to need a few days before I can see if you are friend worthy but, you are getting there, I can tell you that much for sure."

"Hehe, be careful, Spyro, you make his face light up even a little more, you might break my lover's face, then I will never be able to kiss him," Carith giggled as the smile on Malefor's face made her smile as well, and even when he tried not to smile to stay serious, he failed miserably.

"I... I... Uh... Yes... Yes of course! I will keep trying my best, Spyro," Malefor said.

"Alright, well, you have done enough today. Rest up for now, and in the near future, we will train again, alright. Hopefully tomorrow will be a pretty, smooth day. Volteer wants me to help him find Ersa so, that's gonna be a fun one."

When he mentioned the dragoness, Ersa, it was able to break the smile on his face as he knew what could've happened to her, "Spyro... You said tomorrow would be a smooth day...? How smooth will it be when you, or someone else like Ignitus, has to break the news that she is dead...? I don't mean to, put you down or anything but, you gave him a lot of hope on her survival... what will he think of you if she's dead?"

"I'm not going to worry about it. Ignitus said that the Chronicler wrote down her death but... I don't believe it... I can't believe it. I... I have prepared, somewhat, if Volteer finds out and it turns out she is dead, but I hope it won't come to that... The most we can do is talk to him, and if things get out of control... It won't come to that."

"I hope Volteer still finds someone to love, if it's Ersa or not, as long as he is happy, that's what matters, right?"

"Yeah... But I don't know if he will be happy with anyone else but, Ersa."

"Well, he needs to find someone. I want to have another girls day out," Carith interrupted, trying to lighten things up a little bit more, "True, we didn't have the best experience last time but, who knows, with another girl, we could have loads more fun talking about what ever it is we are feeling like talking about... After that kiss me and Malefor had, I can't see myself talking about finding a new lover soon so, that's out the window."

"We will know for sure by tomorrow, that's for sure."

"Both fifty fifty on how tomorrow is going to go but, I guess we should be well rested either way. So we are going to head off to bed. We will see you in the morning you two," Malefor said, both scared and hopeful for tomorrow.

Just as the two turned to leave, Carith stopped and so did Malefor. Ducking her head next to Spyro's, Carith whispered, "You haven't been kissed Cynder as much as you should, have you?"

As she pulled her head back, he face palmed as he realised it was a mistake that he should've seen but was so busy with other things, he forgot. With that little information, the two turned and walked out of the training room and towards their room. Now feeling terrible, he turned to her and she turned towards him as he apologised, "I'm sorry, Cynder. I was busy making sure Malefor was okay, along with the Guardians and what I had observed along with my training, the thing with Volteer, my strength to protect everyone it's... it's been all over the place... I'm sorry that I've been putting other things before you."

She still didn't speak, but instead, she raised a brow, wondering if he had anything else to say, and seeing her reaction, he did, "Seeing those two kissing for so long makes you wish we were doing that, doesn't it...? Well, I want to make it up to you. I will kiss you for as long as you can stay awake."

Shaking her head, he chuckled knowing she wanted more, "Hehe, okay... What about, all night until the sun comes up?"

She raised a brow with a smile and finally decided to speak, "Oh no mister, you are going to need a lot more to make up. I'm not going to settle for a kiss a day, and then you want to make it up at the end of the day."

"You're right... I... I make a Spyro Promise, this will never happen again."

"Oh, a, Spyro, Promise? Sounds like the rest of my life is going to be pretty good for making a promise on that. What is the promise on?"

"For tonight, i will kiss you for as long as you want. Come tomorrow, when I help Volteer, I will kiss you when we leave to search, and come back. And of course when we wake up and fall asleep. But if we have any free time, it will be spent with my lips locked with yours. And to avoid any embarrassment, we can cover our faces with our wings as we kiss. Sound like a pretty good promise?"

"Indeed. I just wanted to kiss you more because... of what happened. I needed that feeling after seeing what happened... And after hearing that the time power didn't work on you I... I..."

"Hey, Cynder, it's okay, I'm fine, and I will not do something like that ever again unless you are there to stop me at any point... Here, lets go lay down so we don't have to worry about those memories being brought up. And it will also give us time to start kissing the night away with you to make you feel better. How does that sound?"

"Hehe, best idea you've had all day."

Standing up and walking out of the training room, they walked to their room.

---

With Carith walking over to the bed, Malefor shut the door behind them and walked to the bed afterwards. Jumping up on the bed, turning herself around and laying on her belly as she faced the door, Malefor followed behind as he did the same as her. As he made it up on the bed, he turned around and faced the door as he laid down. Draping a wing over her back, he laid his head down and closed his eyes. She was surprised to see he was going to sleep so early, and he even had nothing to say, but he did say one thing, "Goodnight, my love... See you in the morning."

It was strange to her as usually there was something on his mind, something he was afraid of, or confused about. She knew he was ready to sleep, but she had to know why he was so calm, "Alright, tell me what is really going on here. I don't think, since the time we have come back, you have never just wanted to go right to bed. Are you that tired? Was our time we spent kissing forever so enjoyable? I have to know what has changed."

With a smile on his face, he sighed. Opening his eyes but still keeping his head laid down on the bed, he explained, "Well... I have nothing to really talk about, nothing that has confused me, or angered me. I have everything I want as of right now, and I don't think there is really anything else for me to do right now. I'm happy with the way the day turned out. Hehe, of course, aside from what happened with Cyril during the training match but... all things considered... I'm truly happy, and I can say that with honesty."

"Oh, now you're truly happy. So, does that mean when I came back, you weren't truly happy? You were only, semi-happy?"

"What? No, of course not. You were the one who kissed me and changed me back to myself."

"Volteer probably could've done the same thing."

"Haha, yeah right. He wanted nothing more then to kill me that entire time. But what I mean by, being truly happy is... This is the first time, in more then thirteen years, that I have fought along side the Guardians once again. I have gained their trust back, I was able to see Ignitus find someone he loves, and I have you back. Cynder trusts me enough to take off her chains and never put them back on, and Spyro... He finally trusts me, and I feel like, slowly, but surely, if I keep it up, I will be his friend, and then... all that's left is for the other three Guardians to find lover's... Then everyone will be truly happy."

"Well, when you put it like that, it does sound like today went pretty well."

"Aside from what happened with Spyro as well."

"Oh yeah... that too. But what about the whole thing with, Ersa? Didn't you say something happened."

"That... that's going to change the way Volteer sees me, and I know it. On the off chance that she is alive, my life and his will only get better. But if she's died... I don't know what I'll do... I don't know what he will do, or what Spyro will think of me... So, for now, I'm trying to enjoy this time of happiness I have before tomorrow. There's no telling what will happen then..."

"I have hope that she is still..."

A flashing light lit up the room as thunder struck the ground causing a loud boom to follow, scaring both the two as their scales felt like they had stuck up on end. The two looked at one another because of how scared they were and started to laugh as it freaked them out a lot more then they had thought. Seeing how scared her fierce lover had gotten, she joked with him, "I can't believe my lover who is supposed to protect me from anything gets scared of a little thunder."

"Little? What is little to you? That came out of nowhere. I bet you that even scared Spyro, and I'm also betting you it scared the Guardians."

"You are right about one thing though, that came out of nowhere... Hopefully the storm doesn't wake us up in our sleep."

"Well, if it does, I will be there to protect you. After all, if lightning hits me, I will be fine. I have the ability after all."

"My hero," Carith purred, nuzzling the side of her cheek against his.

Laying her head down next to his, she closed her eyes and he did the same. Hearing him softly breath was so soothing to her even when the sounds of thunder and rain tried to interrupt it. Trying to ignore the storm, she focused on his breathing and whispered, "Goodnight, my love."

---

Laying down on the bed and facing the door, Cynder watched as Spyro followed behind after he had shut the door. Jumping up onto the bed, he put his paw on her side, and she raised a brow wondering what he was doing. He lightly pushed his paw, and she fell over onto her side. Walking around to her back, he laid himself over her back and looked at her with a smile as he succeeded in trapping her, "With you on your side, and me over your back, how could you possibly think to escape from me?"

"Oh no, what ever shall I do. If only I had a shadow ability so I could faze through the bed so I can get out of your clutches," Cynder giggled as she turned her head, and seeing him chuckle with a nervous smile, she knew he got him.

"I can't let that happen. I'm going to need to take that power from you before you can use it."

"And how do you..."

Locking lips with her, she let out a slight moan as it was a surprise to her and the feeling made it all so much better. She couldn't keep her head up to look back at him while they kissed and let her head go slightly limp. Her lips slipped off his as her head laid down on the bed, slightly panting with a smile from the kiss. Standing up off her back, he walked in front of her and laid down. Crossing his paws out in front of him, he laid his head down and looked at her. His face was inches away from hers, and he teased her some more, "Now that I've, absorbed your shadow ability into my body, how else do you plan to escape?"

"Hehe... you are strong, I will give you that... But, how will you be able to keep me here, if I poison you and run..."

Once again, before she could finish her sentence, he locked lips with her. As they kissed, Cynder pulled her head up slightly and had a thought go through her mind as the kissed they shared felt incredible, Is he really... taking away my powers? She knew it wasn't true, but she couldn't help but think about it from the way and how smooth he kissed her. Pulling away from the kiss ever so slowly, Spyro chuckled as he saw her lover's head hit the bed with her tongue hanging out. He could tell she was enjoying herself, and continued to play around with her, "Your poison is gone, and so is your shadow ability. All that's left is your fear, and wind. So, if you want to keep those abilities, I suggest you don't try and escape."

"I... I... Spyro..." Putting her tongue back in her mouth, she had to break character as she did wonder, "Spyro, are you sure you aren't actually taking away my powers?"

"Hehe, what do you mean?"

"I don't know... something about the way you kiss me, and the way you talk to me, you just... make it feel so... real."

"Well, try and use one of your powers on me and see if you still have them."

"Well, you said you took shadow and poison. I don't want to want to leave you by going through the bed with my shadow ability, and I definitely do not want to poison you at all... So, how about this, I will not escape, if you give me my powers back? Sound fair?"

"Just so you know you get your powers back, you might feel something."

"Feel what...?"

Pushing into the kiss, it seemed just as amazing before, but she didn't feel anything different. And just as she thought about what he was saying, her eyes went wide as he used a little bit of lightning to make the kiss feel even better. With the lightning adding to the pleasure of the kiss, her eyes slowly closed as she could barley even kiss him anymore. Just as he had pulled away, her face laid down on the bed with a blush and a smile. Spyro chuckled as he whispered in a teasing manner, "Did you, get you powers back?"

"Y...yes...I believe... I did."

"Oh no... I didn't break you, did I? Maybe the lightning to make the kiss more, pleasurable, was probably a little over board."

"Do not... apologise. Don't you dare... apologize."

"Oh... Hehe, yes ma'am."

Trying to turn over on her stomach, she failed and instead, she rolled over to her other side and hit Spyro's side as she couldn't even feel her body. Moving his head up and putting both his paws on the bed, Cynder moved her head over his paws and looked up at him. Looking down at her, he asked, "Do you need some help?"

"Hehe, you might have given me my powers back, but you took most of my energy when you did."

He chuckled and helped her roll over so she could lay on her belly. As he helped her, she almost rolled back over to her other side, but Spyro caught her with his wing. Scouting up against her side, she leaned her body against his side for support. Laying her head on his shoulder, she sighed and thanked him, "Thank you, for the help... Seeing you almost die once again made the kiss a little more enjoyable for me to feel... Hehe, You could say, as of right now, I'm probably weaker then a hatchling but... Going back... If you do train again, only train when I'm there so I can keep an eye on you... please."

"Of course, I promise. I pushed myself a little to far not thinking about myself when I was training. All I cared about was your safety and everyone else's. I'm sorry you had to see me that way. But, I do wonder. Did Malefor really go and get the Guardians or, were they already there watching me? You can tell me the truth or a lie but, I just wonder."

She sighed, not wanting to tell him the truth as to help Malefor out more by making him become closer friends with Spyro, but she had to tell the truth in hopes that more good would come from it, "The truth is... we were watching you for a while. Everyone had come up already and Ignitus couldn't rest without knowing you were okay. So, when you wanted Malefor to get the Guardians well... we were already there... But that doesn't mean he wouldn't have tried his hardest. He was scared for you, and..."

"He would've done everything he could to save me, I know. I saw the fear in his eyes when I was slowly fading. Even though the Guardians were already there, he was still scared for my life. I left him alone to protect you while you slept, and, he did... At least, I'm hoping he did."

"Hehe, yes, he did. Carith woke up before me though."

"I just... I will give it some more time. I would say he is, closer then I ever thought he would get to being, my friend, but he has a long way to go... I just hope that he doesn't slip up and make a mistake... What do you think would've happened if the Guardians weren't there near the training room... would I have..."

A flashing white light lit up the room followed by a loud boom as thunder struck the ground, scaring both the two as they shivered from the sudden storm. Both of them put a paw over their chest with huge sighs as that scared them more then they had thought. Putting their paws back on to the bed, Cynder was glad the thunder had cut him off before he had finished, "Even the thunder doesn't like the idea of you bring up your death... I don't like to think about what would've happened but, knowing Malefor, he would've saved your life either way, with or without Ignitus. And Ignitus knows all. He could've just appeared in the room, healed you, and disappeared so, I'm not worried about what could've happened."

"Yeah... you're right."

"Of course I am. Like how I'm right that, one day, you and Malefor will become the best of friends. And, unlike the old Chronicler, I know you won't betray him the way the Chronicler did. He's already been through a lot, and, I know what it was like being treated like a monster. Not by you of course, but by Sparks. I don't want Malefor to have to suffer for what happened. It's better to move on from it. You aren't dead and things turned out pretty good in my life so... I am happy, and I know he is too."

"Because of Carith?"

"Because of everyone in his life. You being his friend would only seal the Dark Master away for life. I mean, of course Carith already locked him away and threw away the key along with all the Guardians but, you being his friend, you might be able to put a second lock on the Dark Master, making sure he is double locked and definitely unable to escape."

"Hehe... when you put it like that, sounds like a good idea. But, I do promise, if he keeps his act together like he is now... I'm sure in the next couple of weeks... I will see what will happen."

Ducking her head underneath his and laying her head down on his paws, she whispered, "You'll make the right choice, you always do, and you make me proud every time you do."

Laying his head on the top of hers, he chuckled as he asked, "Did I make you proud this night."

"Oh yeah."

Her reaction made him chuckle, "Hehe, I'm glad... Thank you, Cynder... I love you."

"I love you too. Just remember that promise you made to me, about tomorrow."

"I made a, Spyro Promise on it, of course I would never forget."

"Sweet..."

Closing her eyes, cuddle with her love, she feel asleep with a smile, but Spyro was still having trouble as he hadn't really prepared for tomorrow at all, I still don't even really know if tomorrow will be as good as I want it to be, or as good as it needs to be. Even if Ersa isn't in Warfang, that means that she could just be somewhere else, and I could tell him that. But, knowing Ignitus, he wouldn't want us to leave Warfang and he'd tell Volteer the truth as he doesn't want to see him suffer... At a lost of what to do, he knew no matter what would happen, he would be there for Volteer. Closing his eyes, he feel asleep with the thought on his mind.