Ezio could see light ahead. His lungs were burning with how long he had actually been underwater. Yes his functions had slowed down, and the fact that he was a dragon meant extended breathing time.

That still didn't keep his head from going light, or his lungs screaming at him that they needed air.

iJust a little further./i

He felt something knock his elbow and look over to find an unconscious Kali hovering by him, bubbles slowly rising form her mouth. Her time had run out, and she needed air now. He looked around and found Frost close by as well in a similar condition. He grabbed the two and kicked as hard as he could, propelling himself towards the surface. He tried using his elements, but his energy was running low, and he could do little except let the pressure push him forwards, and kick with all his might. Finally, he felt his head breach the surface.

"THERE!" He heard Blaze shout over him as the sounds of battles came back to life. He looked around to find a surfaced submarine, the same one that had helped him out earlier, and hauled both females onto it's prow, finally dragging himself along. He felt two people grab the two dragonesses, and finally someone with warm skin grab him and drag him upwards as well. He looked up to see Nova administering mouth to mouth with Kali.

iLeast if Kali wakes up to find Nova standing over her, she won't go ballistic./i

Finally, after five cycles of mouth to mouth, water began to dribble out of Kali's mouth.

"No..." There was a very quiet rumble, and finally, the water gushed forth. There must have been at least four gallons worth, and Kali's eyes snapped up, coughing so violently that she even spewed a bit of blood and saliva.

"Oh thank god Kali, are you alright?" Ezio asked dragging himself forwards.

"Yes." She said simply, lying back and resting. She finally looked as if she were at peace, no more internal conflicts. Nova looked over at Frost, but found the dragoness was already on her feet. Blaze looked odd to Ezio, but he pushed that out of his mind for the time being.

"Come on guys, lets MOVE!" The group looked up to see Spyro and Cynder hovering in mid air. In the background, the allied forces were retreating. The main bulk of there force was still going, and if Ezio could give a rough estimate, he'd say 70% of the force was still in fighting shape, but that was dying quickly. Ezio heard a massive explosion and turned to see the America, split in two, sink into the ocean. Suddenly, Ezio spotted a craft fall out of the afts side hanger, a red and white helicopter that looked like a Sea Stallion.

"Marine one." Ezio shouted. The group as one turned to watch as the chopper fell into the ocean, and one by one the different dragons saluted, Spyro and Cynder landing to watch.

"Come on guys, lets get out of here." Spyro said as the last part of the stern disappeared from view.

It took most of the day to find enough rallied forces to actually form a task group, consisting of one full Fleet Carrier, an American old CVN-68 nicknamed the defiance, the last of the great Nimitz class carriers. With it was two Light Carriers, seven gun cruisers, and eighteen frigates. There were also four PT gunboats, and two subs, one of them a brand new Capillary drive silent runner. The other forces were either destroyed or lost, and with the unfamiliar terrain and the magnetic scrambling of Saturn's nearby rings, plus the lack of Gps, they really were lost.

"The problem is the countries have relied to much on technology. We have had to resort to old time methods that are incredibly inaccurate at best, since all the methods were developed on earth." Ezio explained to Blaze. There was suddenly a roar heard over the water, and then a voice chirped over the radio.

"Spyro. Defiance, this is special guest alpha, vectoring in." Spyro called over the coms.

"What did you find, Spyro?" Kali asked over the radio, worry thick in her voice.

"Nothing. It is confirmed, the president and his commanders went down with the America." Spyro called over the radio.

"My god, the entire command structure of the US was decimated! Spyro - " Nova was starting to mildly panic.

"First things first, we need to find shelter and land." Spyro ordered quickly before hysteria could set in.

"I know of a place, sir." Ezio said quietly.

Ezio did indeed know of one place. He had discovered it while using his light element. A small mountain island with a perfect cove, large, and it hid the ships almost entirely from anything on sea level outside. However, from the air the island was perfectly visible, and somewhat exposed, but it left a great amount of room for firepower to be launched.

Ezio had never landed on the island, and wouldn't have found it except for the occasional disruption of light from the moon on a certain nighttime flight way from the camp when he was held prisoner by Malefor. It was these flights that had allowed them to plan without being overheard. The Island was relatively large, and was in fact part of a chain of similar Islands. The main one was half the size of Iceland, and completely uninhabited. It also held a network of decent sized rivers, just large enough to hold the main carrier. The other ships hid among the smaller Islands, and using high speed hovercraft it was ten minutes from the farthest possible boat. A command structure was quickly set up. The captain of the defiance gathered all the members and friends of Alpha squad together, to have a chat.

"I'm gonna be honest here Spyro. It makes me nervous to be talking to something besides a human, but I'll do my best to treat you as one. As far as this war goes, I know nothing f how to fight it, and thus I defer to you. This entire provisional fleet is under your command." The captain announced when they were all gathered.

"Then this is the true forming of the united earth forces. We now have nowhere near the amount of firepower we should have to go toe to toe with Malefor's forces. We need something a bit more strategic." Spyro said looking around, "And for the first time, I've run out of ideas."

"Wait, what?" Blaze looked surprised, and Frost, whom was by his side more now, also raised her eyebrows.

"I need to think upon it, form a plan. You guys need to relax and rest, you've all got bags under your eyes." Spyro said, walking away with Cynder following him.

"Heh, speak for himself eh? I've not seen a dragon as tired as him since the second war." Frost said quietly.

"Come on guys, lets go hunker down on dry land finally. It'll be like a vacation." Kali said, moving towards the gang-plank that had been extended from the carrier, which was anchored in the middle of the river. The river was so small you could actually cross it via the carrier. Ezio had a feeling it was actually two Islands very close to each other simply.

It was odd, but as he disembarked from the carrier, Ezio had the wildest feeling he was being watched, his sixth sense kicking in. Suddenly, there was a battle cry, and Ezio turned just in time to see a flash of white, a whistling sound, and brought his guard up just in time to block the attack, a gunmetal grey tail spade ringing against his bright glittering silver one. Suddenly, all the humans were rushing around trying to find weapons, and the rest of the dragons were trying to get in to fight against this new threat.

However, the attacks were coming so fast and violently that Ezio was having a hard time even seeing his target, the creature was blurring so much. There was even a point where Nova used her element and hit nothing but air, despite the shot's extreme speed.

Ezio could barely keep up, and he never got a clear look at the attacker. He felt his energy wan quickly from the recent battles, and finally was forced to use dragon time.

And finally, he realized what was going on. The enemy was using time to speed themselves up. Ezio slammed all his effort into time, and finally a young dragoness appeared in front of him, still moving exceptionally fast ad her technics for hand-to-hand were well developed, even if they were rough around the edges. Finally, Ezio pushed back with his gravity element, surprising the dragoness and drawing her in, finally grabbing her around the throat and holding his blade against her neck. She still struggled violently, and Ezio noticed very quickly the numerous spikes were very sharp. He also fund that she was unusual even for a dragoness, as she had so many odd body parts that he had never seen before.

Finally, as Ezio lost control on time, the dragoness speed back up again and the purple dragon had a tough time holding onto the female.

"ENOUGH, young one!" He finally shouted after a particularly powerful jerk, "Give it up!"

"Like hell I will Malefor! Let me go, damn it, let go!" She stamped so quickly on his paw that his joints dislocated.

"Blast it, someone grab her!" Nova jumped forwards and grabbed the dragoness's hind legs, pushing with all her might and toppling the warrior. The dragon continued t struggle, despite Ezio's tail blade breaking skin.

"Get off me! LEGGO OF ME DAMNIT!"

"Enough, youngling!" Ezio shouted, "You are cornered and defeated."

The dragoness went into an explosive fit of violent swearing making oaths of revenge. Finally, Ezio shouted over the dragoness.

"Peace my friend. I am not your enemy."

"To hell with that! I know your face bastard, and any who ally themselves alongside them are no friend of mine. Release me Malefor, and feel my wrath!"

"It is not I whom is Malefor!" Ezio said, still struggling as the dragoness was putting up an incredible fight, "Someone grab her!"

Nova ran up and grabbed the dragoness's hind paws, and together they forced the dragoness to the ground, where she still struggled.

"ENOUGH!" Ezio looked up and saw Spyro standing there, with Cynder by his side. The dragoness also looked up, and stopped struggling immediately.

"Spyro?" She whispered, "The legendary one? What the hell are you doing here. And let me go dammit, whoever you are!"

"You gonna stop trying to kill me?" Ezio said quietly.

"I agree to stop trying to kill you till I find out who you are." She said. Ezio got up, and Nova, rather reluctantly, got off her hind legs, which she was sitting on. The dragoness stood up straight watching Spyro.

"Your name?" Spyro said shortly.

"Katana, sir."

"And your element?" Spyro said. Ezio had never seen him stair at someone with such intensity.

"Time." There was an intake of breath from Nova, Frost, and Blaze. Ezio nodded slightly, confirming her story.

"That's a rare and powerful element, Katana. And difficult to control. I'm surprise you wield it so well." Spyro said, watching her closely.

"My father, before he died taught me close combat maneuvers, but my element I taught myself." Katana said, watching the others out of the corner of her eye.

"Your father?"

"A shadow force lieutenant, whom was more loyal to his mate than to Malefor. It was my mothers wish, before she died, wished for me to have a full life. My father, whom was a drunk, thought the best way for me to live was to teach me how to survive." She said quietly. She seemed nervous. Though Ezio thought if he were surrounded by three purple dragons and three guardians, he would be nervous as well.

"Ezio, a word." Spyro said suddenly, and gesturing a short ways away as some of the humans started to catch up. Several rifles were aimed at the dragoness, but she just grinned back.

"How good is she?" Spyro asked quietly, with Ezio facing him a short distance away. Cynder was also listening in.

"Very. In fact, if it weren't for that her story fits in, I'd say she was lying. The attacks are fast and accurate, and if she can really use her element that well, I'd say she's a natural." Ezio said. Spyro stared at him.

"A natural time user?" Spyro said in incredulity.

"Yeah, why not? And Spyro, she's that good. I only slowed time down enough to fight her, not match her, and she was still pushing my limits. She musta had time slowed down 100 times more than normal, and if I tried to do that, I'd pass out. We gotta test her limits." Ezio said, looking over his shoulder at the youngling. Based on her size, since she was twice as small as himself even, she must have been eighteen or nineteen years old.

"Even still, time is a difficult element, even for me. A natural user I thought to be impossible." Spyro said quietly, "If a vergence of elements was to happen, don't you think it would have been prophesied? And don't you think Malefor would have taken advantage of it?"

"It could be possible Malefor didn't know, but I doubt that happens. But think about it, if she's that good, she could escape from Malefor and stay hidden. I didn't know about her." Ezio murmured.

"And Spyro, look at you. You didn't exactly come riding in on a golden horse. You had as humble of beginnings as she." Cynder said by his side.

"Well, I don't exactly go around telling everyone I was a dragonfly, do I?" Spyro sniped back, smiling. Sparx just chuckled without saying anything.

"Quiet Sparx."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Didn't have to..."

"Maybe we should ask Kali about her. If anyone would know of a secret child among the shadow force, Kali would know." Ezio said, looking back at the dragoness.

"Where is she?" Cynder asked.

"Being as helpful as possible right now, I think she's trying to make up for all the mistakes she made." Spyro said.

"I'll get her." Ezio lit his light element, and a minute later, flapping wings could be heard before the two touched down in the tropical forest clearing. Katana took an instinctive step backwards.

"Who're you?" Katana asked quietly.

"Former shadow force lieutenant. Your younger, so if you really were a babe among the forces, I would know."

"And?"

"She was. Your lucky, I only heard of you once, when you escaped. Her story checks out Spyro, I was there trying to chase her down." Kali said quietly, still watching the dragoness.

"You seem like you know her..." Ezio said, watching the two.

"I was the only one fast enough to catch her. The only person to ever beat me in a fair fight. And I regretted it too. It took a month for my wing to stitch up. Malefor was going to confront her, but he was in France when it happened." Kali said. Katana backed up even further.

"I'm not going to hold it against you young one, but when I saw you, it was in the dark, and all was confusing. I mistook you for a much bigger dragoness. How on earth can someone so young beat a pro?" Kali said.

"I don't know, combat always came naturally to me." She said quietly.

"Perhaps her education has lacked. I'm telling you Spyro, if she's a vergence - " Spyro stopped Ezio in his musings.

"If she is indeed a vergence, then I will train her personally myself. AFTER this entire thing is done. Till then we need to find out how much she knows."

"EXCUSE me!" It was Katana, "I don't like it when people talk abut me and I don't know what they are saying. It means tough times are ahead of me."

"Tough times are ahead of us all young one." Spyro said approaching her. He stood two feet higher than her, and felt odd looking down at someone so powerful, "We all have tough times. With the issue of the president being dead, and our command ship being down - "

"You mean that massive carrier?" Katana piped up, "I could see the smoke from miles away. You guys are lucky to have made it out, Malefor just wanted to wear you down, and lure you into a point of vulnerability."

Spyro stared. They all stared, since they knew she was exactly right. The way the president had formed the attack plan was too go gung ho and all out, the classic American way.

"Now we have a different problem on our hands. Because the call was "Retreat immediately" our forces are now scattered about the moo, and with no way of navigation, nor finding location, even by ancient methods, we are on our own here." Spyro finished off, "Basically put, 30% of our forces died, but we are down in strength by 90%."

"Then our next plan of attack should not be all out. We need t strike NOW." Ezio looked over. It was a human he had never met before, chisel jawed and strong in build, yet very slender. He was dressed in a flight suit, and held a fighter helmet, the one of an F-35, under his right arm.

"Ariel squad?" Ezio spoke up.

"Ariel lead, mighty Ezio. If the stories are indeed correct, then your one hell of a pilot." The man said smiling, "You can call me by my call-sign, Lancer."

"Lancer? Hehe, the stories you've heard are correct, but you need not listen to them, you've flown against me once already, and if I might say so, that put my piloting skills to the test." Lancer looked confused at first, but then his eyes went wide, and his grip on his helmet lightened so much that it was dangling by a finger once he realized what was happening and he regained composure.

"I knew I heard your voice once before! You were the pilot of that B-17 half a year ago! I thought you were human!"

"I was. Your in a new world now Lancer, where normal rules don't apply, so be careful where you step."

"The pilot is right, a strike sooner rather than later would be smart, but were not going t attack right this instant. While Malefor knew we would be on the planet at some point, and thus had spies watching us, I bet he didn't know that we would be on his turf at some point. We should be safe fr a little bit, and in the mean time, we need to do some intelligence gathering." Spyro said, "And fortuneatly, I think we have just the person for the job now."

The group looked at Katana then.

"Awe, come on!"

"I said no!"

iThis female is ridiculously stubborn./i Nova thought to herself as she watch Spyro try and convince her to do this little bit of scouting for them.

"Why not?"

"Why do you need me?"

"Because anyone able bodied enough is too recognizable. All of alpha squadron has fought the shadow force long enough for every single one of them to know our faces. Your the only one powerful enough to go in under a disguise and try and find a weakness in their defense with any chance of success." Spyro said. They had been at this for nearly two hours, despite the fact that Katana had tried to run.

"Then make it a suicide mission, damnit, I said no!" She backed away again as if to run, but she had run out of places to hide. "Malefor and his blasted forces you might not be, but I still want you off my Island!"

"Will you fight me if I said I won't leave?"

"You know I couldn't do that, you'd have the ability then to throw me in your stockades." Katana however looked as if she wished nothing more though, than to strike out and smack the purple dragon.

"Then as far as I can tell, it's my Island, not - "

SMACK. It wasn't very hard, but it was enough to send the dragon sprawling to the ground. His skin even was unmarked, but the whole of alpha squadron still lept upon her as she snarled at Spyro.

"YOU DARE TRY AND CLAIM MY OWN HOME, THE ISLAND I CALLED MY RESTING PLACE YOURS BY SHEER FORCE THEN YOUR NO BETTER THAN THE ONE YOU FIGHT!" Despite the fact that Katana was held back by three dragons, she struggled so much using her element to aid her that she actually got free once. The dragons stood behind her to keep her from striking against Spyro rolled to his feet, but refrained from holding her back again.

"Orders, Spyro?" Ezio said, indicating it was Spyros situation, not his own. Not only that, but while Ezio might be stronger than Spyro, he never did want to even lead a dragon into battle or through it. He lacked the experience Spyro had.

"Leave her be. Katana, if you care so much for your home, then why do you not help us?"

"Because my life is worth more than my home. I shall leave if you continue to claim this place as your own." She replied, "Although I like it not. This place has been my home since my father died, and I have guarded it vigorously."

"Either your life or your home it matters not, at some point Malefor will take it without your assistance."

"Why do you say that?" She asked, suddenly contrite.

"Because we lack the power to beat him, so we must win through finesse. If no one can do this scouting, then we might as well go into hiding for a long time, until someone strong enough to beat him comes about. Either that, or we run from earth, and never look back." he said, "I know not what lies among the stars, but rest assured, there is a home out there for us somewhere just as nice as the current ones of today."

Katana looked as if she regretted what she said.

"Also you should know I would never forcefully take someones home from them. I only ask that you let us bunk here for a while."

"You may rest on my land. And if I said yes to your request of this mission, would you lend me as much support as I ask?" Katana asked watching him.

"Of course."

"Then when this goes down, I want your two best warriors to escort me there and hide just off the camps perimeter. If anything happens, they should be there in seconds." Katana said, looking around at the dragons surrounding her. They were all much taller than her, but that's not what intimidated her.

"Deal. Frost, can you get her ready? Nova, Ezio, you shall accompany her." The three dragons stepped forwards, "We'll leave you too it. We do this in one week Nova. In that time, Frost will show you how you will be disguised, and Kali will enlighten you on how the camps of the shadow forces work.