~Backstage~

Zayril: Sorry about this chapter guys for being a bit late...I was out.

Alec: Out you were.

Richer: *Looks down* Oooh! Malefor! You were so close!

Malefor: *bows head*I know.

Felix: What do you mean Richer?

Josh: Uh...Felix, you're to young to know about that.

Felix: About what?

Spirit: Felix...drop the subject.

Nomex: Don't worry Mal. We get to do it off screen anyway.

Malefor: *perks up* Really!

Zayril: Okay...disclaimers please.

Felix: What are they going to do?

Everyone except Felix: FELIX.

Felix: Okay..okay...

Alec, Felix and Spirit: Viperwatcher owns nothing except his characters.

Richer, Nomex and Malefor: Other canon characters are owned by their respective companies.

Zayril: To people who don't like the story, just don't read it.

EXTRA DISCLAIMERS: Richer1992 owns the characters Spirit, Krystal, Amy and Despair.

Chapter 21

Nighttime Action

Josh felt numb as he felt that the world seemed to have gone white. The last images he saw were of Despair pushing him of to the side. But for what reason, he didn't know. But what he did know was that he could finally utilize his element, which was ice. He was no longer weak. Along with the sense of going numb, it seemed as if ears were filled with nothing but white noise. He couldn't hear anything. He couldn't even hear his own breathing! Let alone his heartbeat. It was as if everything…was in a standstill.

Then, as quickly as it began, everything reverted back.

Sounds and sights overwhelmed Josh's sensory receptors, making him basically feel dizzy from the rush of things. Sound came back, and the first thing he heard was a loud thud. And then he felt his body collide with something hard. Apparently it was solid ground.

"Oof!" he grunted as he rolled as his momentum from Despair's push carried him. After maintaining equilibrium, he coughed as he tried to stand up. Apparently, the damage that his Ice Fury created was beyond what he expected. It really was a fury. There were some trees that fell down along with some icicles stabbed into them. There was even a crater! From where he stood earlier it seemed.

"Josh!" called out a voice that surprised him. It was Demex's voice. He turned around was surprised to see Demex.

"Are you okay?" he asked him. His human-turned dragon best friend approached him.

"I'm fine. I only got bruised when I crashed down the ground. What the heck happened? Why did it suddenly go night time?" asked Demex.

"I don't know." then Josh realized something. "Where's Despair!"

The two dragons looked around, Josh looking for his other friend frantically. Out of haste, he checked the crater earlier and found him, lying on the ground. He was wounded and had a few open wounds and gashes, along with lacerations.

"Despair! Are you okay!" he asked. But he got no response. Despair was unconscious.

"C'mon Demex! We have to help him!" he exclaimed. Demex shook his head.

"We won't be able to carry him. With my state, I'd only make it worse. You can't carry him alone." reasoned Demex.

"Well what do we do then?" asked Josh, beginning to panic.

"Not panic of course. C'mon, let's get help from the Temple." said Demex, and then he headed to the direction of the forest, following the trail going back to Temple.

"Don't worry Despair, we'll come back for you." shouted Josh before running after Demex.

Whilst heading back with Demex, Josh looked up at the sky. What he saw completely surprised him. Up until now, he didn't realize what time it was.

But now, seeing the sky, and looking around him, he realized what time it was. It was nighttime now. The moon was up. Wasn't it just afternoon earlier? They didn't that long in training did they? Maybe they did…

"You noticed it too?" asked Demex to him, catching him off guard.

"Noticed what?" asked Josh in between breaths. He was panting now as they ran as fast as they could.

"The time." stated Demex.

"Maybe...we just took that long in training." suggested Josh.

"Maybe…" replied Demex

0 0 0 0 0

"Wow…I really missed a lot didn't I?" asked Nomex sheepishly.

"You have missed a lot." replied Malefor with a smile. Malefor sat close to Nomex and nuzzled her face.

"I really missed you a lot." said Malefor looking at her directly in the eyes. "You don't know how much I was pained to think that you had died."

"I missed you too." replied Nomex, licking him in the cheek. Malefor just shivered in delight. He missed how she made her shiver.

"You've been lacking affection haven't you?" she asked mischievously. Malefor, playing along, put on a sad, needy, whimpering face and nodded. Nomex patted his head and kissed him.

"Don't worry. I'm going to give you all the affection you want. Starting no—"

Nomex didn't get her chance to finish her sentence, because all of a sudden, the intimacy between them was broken. Broken by a piercing cry; that came from outside. It was a howling cry of pain that pierced the silence. More so, it came from outside; at the Temple grounds. Malefor's eyes widened when he heard it. He recognized the scream. It came from…Delnok.

"Oh no; Delnok!" he shouted standing up, and getting serious.

"What was that!" exclaimed Nomex.

"I'll go check it out. Stay here Nomex." said Malefor. Nomex was about to refuse, but trusted Malefor's judgment. She nodded and watched as Malefor ran out of the room.

0 0 0 0 0

"How's the cold?" asked Delnok to her younger brother. Spyro sniffed, which in turn made the mucus audibly moved in his nostrils.

"Still the same; probably getting worse; at this rate, I might develop Draconic Flu." said Spyro, sounding quite nasally.

"Where are the kids?" he asked, looking around. "Aren't you supposed to be watching over them?"

"They're with Spirit and Krystal. They seem to enjoy babysitting. Serenity's there as well." replied Delnok.

"Have you seen Cynder around?" Delnok raised a brow.

"Isn't she supposed to be with you?" Spyro shook his head.

"I haven't seen her lately." said Spyro.

"Speaking of which, where is Demex, Despair and Josh?" asked Delnok, looking outwards to the forest. The two of them were at the Temple grounds, basking themselves in the moonlight.

"They were out training out in the forest. They didn't want to bother the daily Temple activities and all. They should be back any minute now." said Spyro. Delnok nodded. Then somebody came out off the Temple. It was Felix.

Felix was about to open his mouth and was about to ask something when all of a sudden something disturbed the night.

A loud hissing sound became apparent as it echoed through the area. Then a strong gush of wind blew over the two of them. Delnok's eyes widened at the sight and he knew Spyro's was as well. A large oval had appeared on top the area they were, and was the main cause of the blasting of the wind. It seemed obscured and faded, but it was sure as heck there. One word came to mind. It was a Portal; caused by, no doubt, the unstable Portal Fluxes.

And to make matters worse, something jumped out of the Portal. It somehow gave Delnok the faint image of a Predator but it looked a bit more…menacing. Its hide was shadow black, and he swore he could see faint wisps of smoke emitting from it, making it seem like it was made of gas; and its eyes were darker than blood red. Its head darted left and right, sniffing the air for its supposed prey. When its head turned to the three of them, he swore, it made his entire body lock up from the sudden rush of…fear.

"Oh snap…" said Delnok. "Felix, run to the Temple NOW!"

"But—"

"No arguing." Felix nodded and ran back to the entrance and watched the fight.

And then the fight began. The…thing saw them and locked on. It charged, running at the two dragons. Unluckily enough, the prey chosen was none other than Delnok. Spyro blew some ice shots at it, but its quick speed evaded it. It pounced with its maw opened and it speared Delnok. The bite landed on his torso, and quickly did its damage. This was confirmed when Delnok howled loudly with pain, piercing the night's silence. It was howling scream of agony.

"DELNOK!" cried out Spyro. He just saw his brother go down. That was the point in time that he just lost it and went all out. Spyro roared and unleashed a strong torrent of earth shots at his enemy. Before it could even dodge it, Spyro unleashed a hail of icicles followed by an inferno of pyrotechnical flames. The enemy was lucky to dodge the earth shots, as for the latter part…he didn't come out. Literally; he didn't. Spyro went overkill.

After confirming that the monster was gone, Spyro checked over his brother, and saw that his torso was bleeding badly. A gash came from it and was oozing blood. Luckily, it wasn't fatal, but left untreated, he'd die due to loss of blood. And at this point, Felix came out of the Temple to check over his uncle. But he noticed something Spyro didn't. There was another one, and it was rearing up to attack Spyro.

Seeing this, he instantly charged and fired a technique he had been practicing. It consisted of him having to fire his Flame Shot consecutively, up to about 10 times, the last one being one big explosion. Of course, he still couldn't get the explosion correctly, but everything was ridining on this so he decided to use this. He hoped that his earlier training sessions with Ignitus, when he was there earlier, was worth it.

Felix fired. 1…2…3…. Consecutive shot after shot hit the thing making it stagger. Spyro was surprised at what was going and saw what Felix was attacking. Spyro himself was familiar with this technique and realized that this was hard for someone, especially with Felix's age. 7…8…9….Felix came to the last part, and charged his largest fireball yet. It was bigger than him! Launching it, it struck the staggering enemy and dissipated into a gas of smoke.

And at that point Malefor came outside of the Temple.

0 0 0 0 0

When Demex and Josh arrived at the Temple, they were both out of breath and Josh felt that he'd collapse from the exhaustion. The amount of power he used on his fury, plus the stress he received from the running came together and overwhelmed his body. Normally, someone who was used to doing this, like Demex for example wouldn't have problems. But Josh wasn't like Demex, and this made him falter.

"I….need…to….catch…my…breath!" he said, before falling down the ground, his muscles aching. His breathing was ragged and he seemed like he was wheezing.

"You're out of shape Josh." remarked Demex, who wasn't fairing better himself. He was going to collapse as well any minute, from the exhaustion himself.

But he was only pushed onwards by the fact that Despair needed help.

When the Temple came into view, they saw Malefor standing beside Spyro and Felix, as they looked at Delnok get carried away by Spirit and Amy to the infirmary.

"What happened?" asked Demex.

"What happened to you two?" counter asked Malefor.

"Despair…needs…help." panted Josh, and then he collapsed then and there, losing connection with reality.

0 0 0 0 0

The air was still and had a slight chill. The moon was up at the sky, against the starry backdrop. The trees did not sway for there was no wind. It was silent, like everything had died. Slowly, the stillness was disturbed as a being came to. His body ached as he grimaced in pain, trying to stand on all fours. He couldn't help but look in shock as he saw the smoking crater he was in. The land was cracked as the earth contained gashes, signifying the destruction that had happen. With each step panging him with pain, he climbed out. Rocks shifted, beads of sweat dripping, he slowly came out, exposing his physical features to the world. The once lustrous and shining scales were now covered with streaks of red, no doubt blood. Open gashes and lacerations littered his body, with bruises on his underbelly. He looked around warily, as if searching and scanning for something which resulted to nothing.

Pushing himself forward, he began to walk, walk away from ground zero. He was actually surprised at the amount of destruction that had been conjured up. Some trees had missing branches; some had been uprooted and laid flat and dead on the floor. Others were left with nothing but an upturned soil, the tree nowhere in sight, no doubt a few miles away from their location.

But of course, due to the extent of his injuries, he didn't have a lot to go with. In just a few minutes, his vision began to blur at the edges. His body began to falter; his tail beginning to sag. Not a few seconds later, his body severed the connection of his brain to his body. His body toppled to the ground, his eyes closed and stayed still. He was out cold; passed out; bleeding out, his injuries that was beginning to spell death in blood red letters.

Then, a rustle became audible; just moments after he had passed out.

The leaves parted from a nearby bush as a paw moved them away. Three figures came out. One, a cobalt blue dragon, gasped as he saw the lifeless body. The other, a red dragon, much smaller than the former, since he was a child, looked around warily. The third and last, was a purple dragon, as big as the first one, stood guard beside the blue as he checked over him.

"How is he?" asked the purple one, his voice deeper, nearly going to baritone.

"Not good Spyro; he's lost too much blood. We need to get him to the Temple as soon as possible." he answered whilst checking over the blood soaked dragon.

"Okay then," Spyro turned to the red dragon. "Felix, you help me give some cover while Demex carries him back to the Temple. We'll cover your father in case a Predator decides to appear on this of all nights."

Felix nodded. "You got it uncle."

The son and uncle then went to formation, Felix in front, Spyro at the back, Demex in the middle with the dragon. They needed to get him to safety. Slowly, the trio marched, heading out of the forest.

"I hope you don't die Despair." said Demex. "Josh was so worried about you."

"What in the world happened back there?" asked Spyro, inhaling some mucus.

"Josh learnt his fury. At the same time one of those…things arrived. Despair was close to Josh when he pushed him out of the way of the thing that attacked. Unluckily, he pushed just at the same time his fury blasted." said Demex.

"So that's why Despair's so wounded." said Felix.

Author's Notes: (To all my readers)

Yes, from what I was saying at the backstage, that was what I was implying Malefor and Nomex were about to do. You know what I mean right? And to point out, the chapter title has actually multiple meanings. About...3. Malefor and Nomex's failed escapade. Delnok, Spyro and Felix's scene. Demex and Josh's scene at the beginning.

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