Spyro looked down towards the floor as to avoid his father's gaze. He had just finished catching Malefor up to speed with what happened in his recent mission to kill Cynder, Ember and Emory. Malefor was confused at first, as he didn't give such an order, but quickly figured that Umbra probably used his powers to alter Spyro's memory. Still, Malefor wasn't sure who he should be more outraged with, his son for revealing so much in public, or Umbra for putting the idea into Spyro's head without consulting him about it first.

"Spyro." Malefor said after a long pause. Hearing his name being called Spyro raised his head a little but still kept it low to the ground. "What you have done will cause me a great deal of trouble." Despite his seemingly calm attitude, Spyro could tell that there was a seething rage hiding under his words. "Not only have you made Umbra a suspect, but you've ruined your own disguise. It will only be a matter of time before they figure out from that blast of your that you are a purple dragon, which is time we don't have!" Malefor began to shout finding it hard to hold in his anger. "Warfang will be on high alert for who knows how long now any sort of surprise attack would be pointless until such a time passes." Malefor had to pause for a moment and take a breath as his rising anger was almost making it hard to find the words to say to scold Spyro.

If it were possible, Spyro would have shook his scales off his body from how badly he was shaking in fear under his father's presence. Even he was only looking at his father through a crystal ball, the sheer might that his words carried were as strong as they were if he was there or not. "Father if I may-" Spyro tried to speak up in his own defense but Malefor quickly silenced him.

"Go get Umbra and get out of my sight!" his father snapped at him.

Spyro hesitated for a moment, feeling a pang in his heart to hear these words, before following orders. Umbra didn't waste too much time keeping Malefor waiting before showing up.

The electric dragon seemed far calmer than Spyro under the presence of Malefor, though that wasn't saying much. At the very least Umbra did a far better job at hiding his nervousness than Spyro did. Umbra bowed before his master, but before he could raise his head, Malefor began to speak. "Explain to me what drove you to alter Spyro's memory?" Though his voice seemed calm, Umbra knew far too well that if he misspoke, then that would be the end of him.

"Young Master Spyro seemed distracted. I altered his mind so he could focus on the mission and what was important. He seemed to have taken a liking to three other young dragons his age, and they were becoming a-" Malefor cut him off before he could say more.

"I told you, Umbra, to dispose of him if he showed any more signs of this." Umbra grew more and more nervous with each word said, as the larger purple dragon began to bear his teeth. "Because of your misguided, hasty, and ill-thought of actions, a lot has been revealed and who knows how long it will take before I'll be able to make my strike, even if the map is found."

"My lord, if I may-" Umbra struggled to speak, as his nerves were starting to get the best of him, and he could only flinch in fear as Malefor cut him off again.

"KNEEL!" Malefor shouted, growing tired of listening to Umbra speak.

The electric dragon did as he was told and knelt as low to the ground as he could, his eyes shut tight and his body shaking as he feared the worse. There was a quiet pause, yet Umbra could feel the glare he was being given by the dragon in the crystal ball. He heard Malefor huff and grumble in annoyance, yet he dared not move till told otherwise.

"You are lucky by the skin of your teeth that you still have a small shred of use to me. You may rise again, but I warn you, you walk on thin ice. One more mistake will cost you dearly." Malefor snarled. Umbra was slow to rise, worried that even a simple act would incite his masters rage. When his underling fully rose, Malefor continued to speak. "After the events of yesterday, our plans will have to change slightly and strings need cutting. You will need to prepare as well, as they will try and connect everything that they found to you. Do whatever it takes to keep your true motives a secret and remove anyone who tries to dig too deep. We cannot afford any more mistakes."

"What of the young Master Spyro? What are your orders for him?" Umbra didn't hear everything, but he heard enough to know that Malefor was no longer in the mood to see or speak to his son today.

The purple dragon was silent, and it was clear that he was pondering this over. He then spoke aloud his thoughts. "Though it was your actions that altered his mind, it was still his failings and his poor decision making that caused us so much trouble… Kill him. Leave his body for dead and use it as leverage if need be to clear your name of any issues that come your way." Umbra was rather shocked to hear such an order, but he bowed his head to his master.

"It shall be done. I will not fail you."

Malefor growled at Umbra. "For your own sake, you better not." Without another word, the crystal ball went blank, leaving the electric dragon alone in the room. He took a deep breath before signing, rather surprised that he got off so easily. That being said, he couldn't help but feel rather sorry for the young master and his fate, but ultimately shrugged off this feeling. There was no point in feeling sorry for those beneath his master's gaze. He turned around and left, he needed to plan. The moment he left the room, he was greeted by Spyro.

"What did father say?" He asked, not hearing anything outside of a few shouting. He seemed very worried, though that was mostly due to the fact that he heard a lot less shouting from his father when Umbra was in there than he received.

Umbra gave Spyro a small smile, hoping to reassure the young drake. "Your father is will to forgive, so long as we make it up to him by doing a few tasks and quickly." Spyro did like the sound of this, but he grew worried again when Umbra dropped his smile. "Don't think that this is over though, it will be a while before the master will truly forgive what happened."

Spyro lowered his gaze to the ground. "Yeah I know…" he clenched his teeth together as he thought back to his failings. "What is father's first order?" he asked raising his head back up.

"A simple one." Umbra walked over to a table and wrote down an address on a piece of paper and handed it to Spyro. "An agent belonging to the master will be stopping by at this location. You are to meet him and take the package he will have with him. Inside will more materials for the exploration team in the tunnels. Afterwards, you are to report back here for further instructions." Spyro gave a firm nod before taking into consideration how long those workers have been down there. Spyro arrived nearly a month ago, and his allies not to long after, and yet they still have made little to no progress navigating their way through the cave systems below the city. He shook his head, refocusing on the task at hand and took the paper.

"Alright then. What will you be doing?"

Umbra gave the young purple dragon a small, tired and weary smile. "I need to prepare for any incoming fingers pointing my way for my involvement in your little fight and get a fall guy ready for anything that slips through the cracks." Umbra's voice cracked just the tiniest bit.

Spyro bowed his head again, knowing that it was his fault that Umbra had to go do such things, and he mistakenly took his voice crack for disappointment. Spyro then grabbed the paper, bowed to Umbra and wished him farewell, before leaving the underground hole. Umbra's eyes started to water as he watched the purple dragon leave. Spyro had been with Umbra the majority of his life. From hatchling to young drake, Umbra had supported Spyro. What's done must be done. Farewell, young master.

Cynder suddenly awoke from her dream unaware of where she was or how she got there. She looked at her surroundings and realized that she was in a hospital bed. She was confused at first as to how she got there when her memory of yesterday hit her like a ton of bricks. That would probably explain the wrenching pain she felt all over her body all of a sudden. She gripped her side and collapsed onto her side as she accidentally reopened her wounds upon moving.

"Try not to move too much." A mole nurse instructed as she walked in. She hurried over to Cynder as she noticed her bandages turning red.

"What… happened?" Cynder struggled to speak due to her throat being dry, and a faint taste of blood in her mouth. "How long have I been out?"

"Shhhh, easy now." The nurse said trying to sooth Cynder. "Just lay still as I fix you up." Cynder was reluctant but listened to the nurse in the end. Thankfully the mole didn't take too long to finish up. "There you go sweetie, not just lay down and try not to move too much, ok?"

Cynder gave the nurse a nod. "I will, but could you at least answer my questions?" The nurse gave the black dragoness a disappointed look as she would much rather have Cynder rest.

"I suppose, but you need to promise me that you'll get some rest." the nurse said, giving the same tone of voice that her father gave her when he was scolding her.

Cynder huffed but nodded again. "Alright I promise."

The nurse wasn't sure if she believes Cynder, but still kept her end of the deal. "You were attacked and hurt badly. From what I've heard, it was due to a Zealot. Now I don't know any details outside of that. It was all that I heard down the grapevine. If you want to know more, maybe try asking your dad when he wakes up." hearing this made Cynder's heart skip a beat.

"Wait, he's here?" Cynder attempted to stand up in a panic, worried that something bad happened to her father, but the mole showed a surprising amount of strength and forced Cynder to lay back down.

"He is fine. He wasn't nearly as bad as you and the others from the little scuffle. You've only been out for a couple of hours dear, so please try to get some more sleep."

Cynder was about to but she couldn't help but worry about her friends as well. "What about the others, will they make it?" The nurse gave Cynder a warm smile, which did help her feel a little better.

"Yes, Emory, and Ember will be alright, they just need to rest up for a bit more, like you should be." Cynder knew that the nurse wasn't going to let her leave the bed and she couldn't help but grumble a bit before doing as she was told and laid her head back down to rest.

Emory was the next to wake up, though he didn't panic like Cynder did when he woke up. He was quick to realize where he was, partly due to the fact that he had spent so much time in a hospital the past few days. Moments after he woke up though, his body felt the pain from the previous beating he received, along with a growing headache.

The same nurse that helped Cynder walked in on Emory and noticed that he was awake a moving around a bit, mostly just groaning and shifting about uncomfortably. "Try to take it easy now, you've been through a lot the past few days." It was only when she spoke that Emory noticed her.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you Emory." Emory turned a bit so that he could face the mole beside him.

Emory shook his head. "It's alright Meesa, you didn't spook me or anything." he said, giving the mole a friendly smile. Since Emory had been coming and going from the hospital several times recently, he had started to learn some of the staff members, such as the nurse beside him.

Meesa, was glad to hear that he was doing alright, but her smile turned serious quickly. "I thought that you said you'd stay out of here for a while the last time we treated you." She said in a near scolding tone. Emory's smile wavered.

"Well… I didn't plan on coming in today, or really anytime this year…" he paused to think about to what happened recently. He tried to forget about the fact that Spyro betrayed them, or whatever that thing was that was impersonating him. "Things sort of just happened." Bringing up Spyro in his head, made him think more about the 'battle' he went through, which led him to worry about his comrades that were with him at the time. "Are Ember and Cynder alright?" The nurse put a paw on his shoulder, trying to make him feel a little calmer.

"They are both fine. Just like you, they are hurt, but they will live. You actually seem to have gotten the least of it out of the four of you."

"Four?" Emory was confused at first, but then the nurse explained that Terrador was also in the hospital, and how he tried to fight their attacker.

This didn't help Emory feel any better as he began to worry about what was to come. If Terrador didn't stand much of a chance, then what hope did he have? Emory balled his paws up and clenched his teeth as he started to blame himself for not being able to protect and help either Ember or Cynder, and for failing so quickly and easily. He even blamed himself for Terrador's injuries.

Meesa shook him gently, which caused him a bit of pain, but snapped him out of his thoughts. "You need to relax. I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, but you shouldn't be stressing yourself over whatever it is you're thinking."

Emory sighed, knowing that the nurse was right, but he wasn't sure if he could let this go. Still for her sake he lied and agreed to relax a bit. The nurse seemed content with this and began to check to see how his wounds were progressing. "Your injuries seem to be healing nicely Emory. You are a very lucky dragon. You should be out of here in a few days' time, so long as you don't make any sudden moments. Emory was glad to hear that least.

"Am I good enough to see Cynder?" Emory asked, sounding hopeful. The nurse inhaled as she thought about it, and if she should even let him.

"I… suppose, it wouldn't hurt if you did, though I would have to have you wheeled over there. I don't want to risk you reopening your wounds. Cynder is also bedridden, so she has to stay. I don't want her to be moving around a lot so you can see her so long as you promise that you'll keep her in bed if she tries to move out of it."

Despite his self-harming thoughts, he was rather glad to hear that he could see Cynder and hoped to see her soon. "Can I see her now then?"

The nurse chuckled at Emory's enthusiasm to see the black dragoness. "She's sleeping currently, but I'll keep an eye on her. You can see her once she wakes up again. Do we have a deal?" the nurse outstretched her tiny paw for him to shake it to which Emory gladly accepted. Smiling again, the nurse left Emory to brew in his own thoughts. The young dragon laid his head down against the pillow and let out a sigh. Being forced to wait on something was never something he really liked doing, though it was something he had started to get accustomed to. He couldn't help but laugh a little as he thought about the fact that he's been in a hospital a lot the past month.

There was the time he tried to protect Cynder and Ember from a group of Malefor's thugs and failed. There was the time he was training with… someone? He didn't recall who, just that it ended with him being pretty badly hurt. Now yet again he found himself on the receiving end of a bad beating that left him hurt. At least this time he didn't have anything that could have been fatal. The small smile on his face slowly began to disappear the more he thought about all of this. Each time he wound up here, was due to the fact that he couldn't protect himself or those around him.

Just like before…

Emory shook his head to clear the memory, but only made his slight headache worse, and in turn, made the memory clearer. A scream. A cry for help. The desperate and hopelessness that Emory felt as he watched… No. He will not dwell on the past. But that part of his past was like a loaded poison crossbow. It was impossible to ignore, and easy to reach.

Emory once again arrived at the orange scene. Flickering heat raced across his scales and was contrasted from the constant cold wind. They were above a canyon in a vacation home their parents had saved up so much to buy. The lowering star illuminated only the foundation of the burning house.

Bandits had robbed the place in their early sleep and burned the house. It was only after the fire had reached the room of Emory's parents that they awoke and started to evacuate. Emory woken by his mother banging on his door, telling him to wake up. The moment he did, he felt his lungs burning and his eyes started to water as his room was starting to fill up with smoke at an alarming rate.

The parents panicked, all parental instinct forgotten. Turing to run, they forgot their hatchling and two young drakes. Emory tried. He tried to carry them both out of the house. A piece of the ceiling crashed down upon them, making Emory drop the two. The Hatchling died instantly. The other dragon struggled and squirmed and screamed as he burned. Emory only had his tail pinned. He got free and tried to rescue his brother. But the heat was too much. The smoke seared his eyes. His lunged burned. Emory had to run out, the dying screams crying out for help behind him.

Tears swelled up in Emory's eyes as he tried to push the thoughts back down again and repress them in hopes to forget it all, something he knew he never truly could do. He was only thankful that there was a knock on his door and Meesa walked back into his room. "Cynder's awake now dear if you still want to see her. Is everything alright?" She asked noticing his tears. Emory did his best to wipe them away from his eyes and he shook his head.

"I'll be fine." In the back of his head he questioned how long it had been since he started daydreaming about the incident. The mole was hesitant at first, but figured it was best not to question him about such things. She walked up to him pushing a wheelchair. "Is that really necessary?"

Meesa nodded. "I'm afraid so, hospital policy for anyone in your sort of condition. While you will be fine in a few days, it's best that you don't move about too much." Emory wasn't so keen on the idea but didn't fight back. He started to move into the wheelchair only to find it a little difficult due to aches and pains in his body, leaving Meesa to help him into it. Once in the chair she wheeled him to Cynder's room, which was a lot closer than he would have expected. They stopped in front of a door and Meesa knocked on it before opening it up and calling out to Cynder saying "You've got a visitor Cynder, I hope you don't mind us intruding."

Cynder turned her head and looked at the door, wondering who would possibly be visiting her, and was happily surprised to see Emory being wheeled in. "Hey Cynder'' Emory waved to her as they came in.

Cynder turned the wave with a weak smile, still feeling rather sore. "What brings you here?" Meesa parked Emory ring in front of Cynder's bed before leaving the room to give the two sometime alone with one another.

"I wanted to see if you were ok" Emory answered, which made Cynder give him a questionable look in return.

"We were nearly killed by Spyro, or whatever that thing was, and that Zealot. The fact that we are still breathing is a miracle all on its own in my opinion." Emory wanted to say something against that, but knew she was right.

"Well, I also just wanted to see you again." Emory paused to choose his next words, leaving Cynder rather surprised when she heard this, but before she could jump to any conclusion, he finished his sentence. "As I wanted to apologies for being so useless in that fight."

"Oh…" Cynder felt a small pain in her chest hearing this. She kind of liked the idea of him seeing her just to see her, but his reasoning made this meeting with her seemed like he was doing this for himself more than for her. This thinking surprised her. "Well it's ok Emory, I don't think there was anything any of us could have done to stop them. Again, we just got really lucky."

Emory shook his head. "No, there were plenty of things I could have done. I could have stopped talking about that stupid map like you said, I could have listened to Ember's concerns about that plan, I... I…" he hung his head in shame, feeling as if this whole thing was on his paws.

The map. I should find the map. Emory thought. But the map was pushed out of his of his mind. Just as his mind began to wonder back to the fire, he felt a paw being placed on top of his own and saw that it was Cynder's. He looked at her shocked, thinking that she would hate him. She should be hating him. It's his fault everyone got hurt.

She looked at him worried, and a little scared. "Why are you blaming yourself for all of this?"

Emory's surprised look faded back to the sad look he had before. "I… I can't help it." He turned his head away from her, feeling himself grow shy and nervous. The eye contact wasn't helping either. "I've… lost people close to... "Emory paused. "I lost close family because I wasn't strong enough to protect them." He balled his paws up as a growing rage started to swell. "And because I wasn't strong enough to stop all those people who've tried to hurt me, or Ember, or even you, you all ended up hurt. Like you said it was a miracle that we all made it out alive."

He pulled his paw away from hers, feeling that their mere contact was wrong, that he didn't deserve it till he could make amends for his failings of the past. He placed his paw against Cynder's bed and pushed away from it slightly so that he could turn his wheelchair towards the door. He opened his mouth and was about to call out to Meesa to wheel him away but stopped when he heard Cynder wincing painfully.

He turned his head back to Cynder to see what was wrong and was met with the sight of Cynder mere inches from him just before she put her arms around him, embracing him in a hug. Emory was speechless. He didn't expect Cynder to hug him. If anything, he expected only pure hated from her. But then Emory remembered the painful rejections after all the times he asked her out. A small smile slowly crept along his face the longer she held him, and he reached around to hug her back, however, the moment he touched her, she winced in pain causing Emory to reel back. "I'm so sorry Cynder." he said quickly, hoping that he didn't hurt her to badly. Such thoughts were quickly dashed as Cynder shook her head, as she tried to lay back down in her bed as best as she could without further hurting herself.

"I'm fine, you just touched a sore spot." She took a deep breath, trying to relax herself once again. She glanced back to him and gave him a smile, to show that she was going to be ok. "You seemed like you needed a hug."

A warm feeling washed over Emory's heart and he felt his trouble just disappearing for the time being. "Thank you Cynder." he said as he grew nervous. He didn't really realize it till it was over, but it had been such a long time since someone actually hugged him, and it felt really good to do so again. Cynder waved her paw at him.

"It was no problem at all." Emory wasn't the only one who was surprised by the hug, as Cynder shocked herself. Despite all the faults that she found in Emory, how he bothered her to no end in school, how he was obsessed with a map, and his bazar need to be strong, Cynder could see a dragon who she had grown to enjoy and admire… and maybe even… She shook her head, removing such thoughts from her mind, only then to realize that the two had sat in silence for a while. Emory wasn't looking at her, though she could tell he was nervous about the whole ordeal now. Cynder pondered for a moment for something to say or to do to and despite her efforts to think of something else, only one thing really came to mind. A part of her hated it, and herself for having such thoughts, but she would be lying if she said she completely disliked it. "Say Emory…" She paused, unsure if she should even ask this, considering recent events. "After we get out of here… did you…" Cynder stopped again, mentally growling at herself for being so nervous about asking such a simple question. She wasn't even sure why she was being shy about it, it is just one question.

Emory looked back up at her, curious as to what she wanted to say. The long pause made his mind wonder a bit as to what she could be wanting, but he said nothing as to give her the time to figure out what she wanted to say. 'Now he's watching me act like a buffoon.' Cynder grumbled to herself. She tried again to ask him what was on her mind, but it always got caught in her throat. At this point, Emory could tell that something was wrong and this time he extended his paw and placed it on top of her own.

"If it's too hard of a thing to ask, you don't have to Cynder." This only made Cynder huff and look away.

"I can say it just fine." she said, acting like the hot head Emory remembered her being, which only made him smile as the more he thought about it, it had been a long while since he had seen her act like this.

A smirk formed along his face. "Oh yeah, then why don't you just ask me already Cynder if it is so easy for you?" This in turn earned him a glare from the black dragoness.

"Fine!" she said with another huff. "I just wanted to ask you that after we leave if you wanted to…." she paused again as the words got lost in her throat.

Rage started to build inside of her, as she grew more and more irritated with herself. Watching Emory snicker at her expense didn't help much either. She would have hit him, if she wasn't feeling sore all over. Thankfully for her, Emory didn't spend a lot of time mocking her and instead pulled his paw away from her.

"Why don't you tell me tomorrow or something? I don't think we will be going anywhere soon anyhow." Cynder shrugged, knowing that he was right, but felt rather bad that she couldn't get the words out.

Emory turned his chair again and shouted for Meesa. The nurse walked in, and he asked her if she could wheel him back to his room, all the while Cynder watched quietly, feeling rather disappointed that he was leaving. After Emory left, and the door shut. Cynder laid her head down against the pillow again and sighed.

"Smooth move Cynder." She grumbled to herself bitterly. She looked down on the other side of the room, where there was a mirror against the wall. With her reflection looking back at her, she took the time to practice her words. After all, she felt like she was going to be saying this a lot in the future, even if a part of her hated doing so. "Emory, would you like to hang out with me?"

As Emory was being pushed back to his room, he heard a commotion going on behind him. He wasn't sure what was going on, as all he could hear was the staff members demanding that someone stay in their room.

Nurses and doctors started to move about as they tried to stop Terrador from moving, insisting that he stayed put, but they were met with a huff and surprising amount of strength as he pushed past them all. Terrador had only recently woken up and once the memories of last night came back to him, he was quick to act, moving to his feet so that he could leave. The staff saw him exiting his room and did their best to stop him, but he wasn't going to listen to him. He was in pain, his whole body was wrecked by it with each step he took, however he held it in. After what he saw yesterday, learning who the Zealot truly was, and connecting it with some of the things that have been happening around the city, like the assault on his daughter by Malefor's thugs, as well as the increasing suspicious activities going on outside of the city walls, was enough motivation to keep him going. He needed to warn his higher ups, the city guards, everyone! He didn't want to admit it, but in the back of his mind he knew that all of this could mean only one thing. Malefor was coming, and they needed to prepare.

Hours passed by before Ember woke up, though a large part of her wished she didn't as the more she woke up, the more pain she felt around her body as her senses returned to her. She started to groan in pain, which caught the attention of one of the nurses who was passing by. Ember attempted to move as a cheetah walked up to her but her aching body stopped her from doing much. "Just relax now Ember, you are safe and in good hands." It took the pink dragoness a moment to realize what he was talking about before realizing that she was in a hospital again. "I'm sorry to do this to you Ember, but I'm going to need to change your bandages. It might hurt a bit." Ember gave him a sour look but complied, nonetheless.

She winced as she was forced to sit up, but it made it easier for her to look around the room. "Where are the others, did they make it out ok?" Ember asked as the last of her bandages were removed. She caught a glance at them and noticed several red spots, staining them. The nurse didn't answer her till he started to reapply new ones to her.

"Your friends are all ok and safe with us." Hearing this was a relief to her as she let out a relaxing sigh.

"I'm glad to hear…" She looked around the room some more but couldn't see a window around. "What time of day is it?"

The nurse chuckled a tiny bit from hearing that. "Maybe it's just due to the fact that you were in here recently, but you've been out all day. The sun just finish setting. It's night time now."

On the opposite side of Warfang, Spyro roamed the streets in his zealot uniform once again as he did his best to stay as hidden as possible. He wasn't sure if word of his attack had been spread throughout the city yet, but he wasn't going to take any chances. There weren't many people out and about this time of night thankfully for him, but anytime he saw or heard someone nearby, he panicked and did his best to hide, or move out of sight. This made reaching his destination harder, and more panic inducing, but Spyro wasn't sure what else to do.

He stopped and hid behind a corner, to take a moment to try and relax himself. "Father forgave you Spyro." he spoke to himself, hoping that this would help. "Just get this job done and return home. Dad will get his map, take over this city, purge this city of criminals, and then we can live in peace once again…" Saying this to himself didn't help to much as he started to question what he was doing, but he shook his head. "Father has never steered you wrong before Spyro. His will is for the best of everyone." He still couldn't shake this empty feeling in his chest that came and went ever since he came to Warfang, and when he did, he couldn't help himself but think about what he was doing and why.

In Spyro's eyes, his father truly wanted what was best for this world, and Spyro happily followed him. He truly believed that Malefor was right, and that if he was allowed to invade, he could fix this broken world. It was like his father had stated before he was sent here. "A few ugly weeds shouldn't be allowed to ruin a wonderful garden, but the flowers refuse to fight back, thinking that the weeds are just wonderful as they are. You and me Spyro, we aren't pretty flowers, yet we aren't weeds either. We are what the flowers need to stay healthy and beautiful. It is our job to remove those weeds. Permanently. Even if it means getting our paws dirty, it is for the better."

Spyro smiled a tiny bit, as he recalled his father's other ridiculous analogies of what their mission was, and it had gotten to the point where he just assumed his father like making a spectacle out of their quest. His smile slowly dimmed. Spyro couldn't blame his father though making it sound this way. To him at least, it helped lessen the pain he felt in his chest when he took a life.

Seventeen people were dead because of him. That number sat with him for some time. Three were those goons that Malefor had sent, and the rest were the guards he fought the other day and it wasn't until he spoke to Umbra about it that he learned about what he had done.

The void in his chest grew heavier on him. "Those guards... "He knew fully well that they were not the weeds that his father spoke of and he started to wonder… was he and his father the weed? Spyro realized what he was thinking and quickly shook his head. "No, I can't doubt him, I won't!" he continued to grumble to himself. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, as his mind thought back to when he was still with his family. "Mom…" He balled his paws into fists as painful memories started to fill his head once again. His eyes began to water, and his body shook with a mixture of anger, regret, and sorrow, all of which filled in the void inside of his chest till he was once again determined that he was on the right path.

It took him a moment to realize that he had been standing in one place for a far longer time than he meant to. He picked himself back up and continued his walk towards the alleyway where he was meant to meet up with a supplier, hiding whenever needed till he reached his destination. When he reached it though, there wasn't anyone around and he began to wonder if maybe his contact also ran into some troubles reaching this point.

Spyro's body suddenly jerked forwards, and his claws digging into the ground as a strange hot pain filled his body starting from his back near his spine. His eye's widened with terror and his body shook as his brain slowly realized what was causing his pain. With a shaky head, Spyro looked behind him to find a hooded cheetah smirking devilishly as he held the dagger that he plunged into the purple dragon. It took a moment for his brain to kick in once again and he tried to swipe at his assailants, but the moment he raised his paw to attack, the cheetah jumped back, just before a similar searing hot pain shot through him. Reacting more quickly this time, he saw another similarly hooded cheetah had appeared beside him, stabbing his other side.

As his body finally started processing what was going on, Spyro jumped back trying to get a bit of distance between him and his two assailants, each of which he noticed pulled out another knife. He attempted to make a stance to prepare for their next attack but flinched as he felt more pain rack through his body with his sudden movement. The cheetahs took this opportunity. In an attempt to save himself, Spyro did his best to move out of the way of their attacks, but it did little good as Spyro would feel two more blades pierce his scales with ease, one in his arm as he tried to block the attack, the other, on the upper part of his side. Both cheetahs pulled their knives out of his body before he could retaliate again.

Spyro started to sway, his uniform growing heavy, staining red as his blood started to soak into its fibers. The pain was quickly growing numb, but his body was becoming cold and his movement sluggish. His mind started to become dazed, yet a small fire in him stayed lit, keeping him awake and moving. For now, at least. He wasn't sure who these people were or why they were attacking him, but he wasn't going to die. He took off of mask and tossed it aside carelessly, letting it skip across the road and bore his teeth at his attackers.

With whatever kind of strength, he could still muster, Spyro threw himself at one of the cheetahs, catching them a little off guard, and sunk his teeth into his arm, making him drop his weapon. Before the cheetah could do much else, Spyro's mouth glowed a bright purple for a moment before a beam of convexity shot out, tearing away at whatever stood in front of him. He could hear the cheetah howling in pain. Behind him he heard the other assailant running at him. He whatever was left of the cheetah's arm and turned to face the other one, this time feeling far more prepared.

Spyro dodged the first swipe with some ease, though he was met with more pain running up his body due to the two blades still lodged in his side. The cheetah reacted quickly to Spyro's movements and tried to kick him, but once again Spyro moved out of the way. Seeing an opportunity, Spyro bit into the outstretched limb and his maw started to glow purple once again, but before he could fire his shot, the cheetah slashed at his head, leaving a deep cut along his muzzle. Spyro yelped and let the cheetah's leg go.

The wounds on his body started to take their toll on Spyro, as his vision started to blur, and it grew harder to stand. He shook his head trying to keep some sense of reality. The cheetah was holding his wounded leg, which would probably leave him limping for a while. Wanting to press his advantage, Spyro charged the cheetah, dodging out of the way of another swing and head butted his opponent, sending him falling onto his back with a heavy thud. Spyro began to pant, finding it rather hard to breath now. He needed to end this face and patch himself up soon if he wanted to make it out of this fight alive.

The assassin started to get up, but Spyro wasn't going to let him. He pressed his weight down on the cheetahs' chest, just as a purple light shined out of the purple dragon's maw. Fearing for his life, the cheetah swung his knife which found its way into Spyro's shoulder just as he fired another blast of convexity. The blow caught the young dragon off guard, and he shifted his body, making him miss his shot. The cheetah took this moment of hesitation to push Spyro off of him and retreat a few feet away from him. Spyro growled, wishing more to end the man before him. He took a step forward, but his leg gave out from under him, causing the purple dragon to stumble and fall. He tried to stand back up, but his body was to weak due to blood loss and his injuries. All he could do was watch with blurry eyes, as the cheetah limped closer to him and yank out one of the knives still inside him. The last thing Spyro saw that night was the cheetah's devilish smirk, and a flash of silver as he swung his blade.

Hey guys, I'm really sorry for making you all wait for this new chapter. I take full responsibility for that one as I've been procrastinating a lot the past couple weeks. I'll make sure to get the next one out much sooner. I do hope you all enjoy this chapter though!

Welp. Between school and laziness, I basically did nothing to help with the completion of this chapter apart from a few ideas and opinions voiced by yours truly. I apologize for the wait that you have suffered through and hope you will not think any bad of us.