This is definitely not my best chapter yet. but it works and keeps the story moving along, so i guess it's fine.

poll's still up, by the way. i revised it, though. i deleted it and redid it, excluding the 'Someone else' choice (considering the fact that it's kinda obvious it's either Spyro or Cynder). so if you had changed your mind after you voted, you can vote again.

also, seen as there's something out of Prototype (and i mean blood and gore), tell me if i need to change the rating, okay?

Chapter 25: One way is clear, but the other is clouded.

Location: 46 miles East of Riftside. Asgard Dimension.

Date: January 7th. 7:38 AM

Character: Spyro.

Spyro looked over the snow-covered terrain that spread out all around him. The gray clouds hung low, as usual, which worsened his mood.

Spyro blinked when a snowflake landed in his eye and got up. Maria said that it's very likely that anyone within a thousand miles of here would most likely go to a place called Riftside. That probably means the group that saved Cynder went there as well.

And if they're there, than most likely Cynder is there as well. Cynder knows that the best option is to stay with them, no matter how dangerous their leader might be.

"You're really worried about her, don't you?"

Spyro looked behind him to see Flame. "Flame, she was taking almost literally right out of my claws. The last time I saw her she was screaming in pure fear as something dragged her away. HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK I FEEL?"

Flame backed up a pace. "Okay, you do remember that I'm just as torn up as you are, right?"

Spyro got up and walked past him. "Sorry, Flame. I guess I don't know what's gotten into me."

Flame sighed and followed. "Look, we should just get going. The sooner we get to Riftside, the closer we are to hopefully finding Cynder."

Spyro nodded. "I know, it's just that it's at least a few hours flight to get there. Because we can't leave John and the others behind, though, it's going to take one or two days. Anything could happen to Cynder in that amount of time."

Flame patted him on the back. "Look, I also want to find her. And defeat Malefor. The sooner we get that done, the sooner I can be with my family again."

Spyro sighed. "Ember and Drake must miss you terribly by now."

Flame sat down, his eyes going distant as he thought about his mate and his offspring. "You're probably right." He said.

"Flame, I didn't mean to worry you." Spyro answered. "I'm worried about Ember as well. She's like a sister to me."

Flame sighed. "I know, I know." He said.

Spyro looked at the four humans a few yards away. Maria was talking with Grey, Angie was asleep in one of the vehicles, and John was looking at a map of the area.

"Well, what direction are we going in next?" Spyro asked. "East or south?"

"West, actually." John answered. "We should be within site of Riftside by tomorrow evening." He looked at the sky. "At least, I think we should. No telling how much damage the roads have taken in a whole year."

Spyro looked at Angie. "You mind telling me how a 9-year-old got caught up in this disaster?" he asked. "I thought there were evacuation plans set just in case something like this happened."

"Yeah well, the authorities weren't exactly expecting a 300-foot-tall flying behemoth to attack cities." Maria answered. "Flint was supposed to be secure. But obviously that wasn't the case. And we used the evac plans to get out off Flint."

Spyro shook his head. "Well, we should probably get going." He said.

Location: Chronicler Library.

Character: Ignitus.

Ignitus flipped through a couple more pages in Light's book, not wanting to read about blood shed at the moment. I shudder to think that a 15-year-old is capable of such carnage without second thought. He thought. Light's like Malefor, only worse because while Malefor was insane, Light still has a mind and he's still killing brutally. The only things that make it better are the facts that he has a reason and he's Malefor's enemy.

He had just gotten to when Light was standing guard on December 29th around 12:03 PM when someone brushed his shoulder.

He looked up to see a black dragoness. One he recognized.

"Sarah." He said calmly, smiling broadly. He book-marked the page he was on and got up.

Sarah smiled and leaned against her mate. "You've been worried about those two dragons again, haven't you?" she asked kindly.

She looked like Cynder when she was under Malefor's control, but with slightly longer horns and not so menacing, and she didn't wear shackles. Ignitus was thanking the Ancestors everyday since he had learned that Sarah was also chosen to be a Chronicler.

He still didn't know why when his scales had turned from the dark red they were to the pale blue of chronicler he had taken the place of, the other dragons still had their original color. Sarah said that all the dragons were pale blue for the first year and a half after they became a chronicler, then they regained their original colors. The one Ignitus took the place of was pale blue before he became a chronicler (the old Chronicler, not Ignitus).

Ignitus sighed again. "Sarah, I can't help it. I have to know if they're alright."

Sarah shook her head. "Ignitus, I know you're worried, but I think we have to just wait until the other books go back to normal."

Ignitus sighed. He knew she was right, but something was nagging at him. He picked up the book again. "Sarah, I know you're right, but I just can't settle down until I know for sure that they're alive."

Sarah smiled, kissing Ignitus. "And that's a good thing." She said. "You just want to be a good father."

Ignitus sighed, folding a wing around his mate. "Yeah, I know." He said.

He turned the page. Sarah read with him…

"'Damn it!' Light yelled as he cut another zombie in half, vertically. As the zombie split in two and the two halves peeled away from each other with blood and gore falling out of each half, he looked around. Nothing.

Light sat back down. 'About damn time these things actually let up.' he looked at his watch. Then he looked around, shotgun held ready for another 4 shots.

He started as he heard someone shouting. It sounded odd, like it wasn't human, but he could make out the word clearly, if it was a word and not a name.

'CCYYYYNNNNDDEEEEEER!'…

A few seconds later the book fell from Ignitus' claws and fell to the floor, landing on its spine.

Sarah, who had read the name at the same time, looked at Ignitus. "Well, I guess your hunch was right." She said slowly.

Ignitus got up. "Sarah, where's Valhalla?" he asked. Valhalla was the new Head Chronicler, mostly because she knew just as much as the old Head Chronicler. Ignitus still wasn't sure about how he felt about having a human teenager as a leader, but right now he didn't care.

"Sarah, where is she?"

"As far as I know, she's on the upper level." She said. "Why?"

"Whatever is going on, there are two universes intertwining. That might be to Malefor's advantage."

"So? What can we do? We can't go to Avalar, remember?"

Ignitus looked at his mate straight in the eye. "Avalar and any other realm in the Vespera dimension, no. Asgard, on the other hand, we can get to."

Sarah nodded. "So you intend-"

"I'm going to find a way to Asgard."

Location: Riftside. Asgard dimension.

8:35 AM.

Character: Cynder.

"Focus, Will. You're letting the energy spill out all over the place."

"Sorry, Cynder." Will said, focusing the sphere of Shadow energy into a tighter sphere, drawing back the energy that was spilling out.

Cynder watched with a critical eye, secretly admiring Will's concentration. Will is an impressive student. She thought. He pays attention to what I say, isn't afraid to ask questions when necessary, and tries his best to do what I say. He's still having trouble keeping the Shadow magic focused enough to handle the higher level spells, but he's really good. "Okay, try firing."

Will looked at the target 30 feet down the street. It was really just a collection of rubble pieces welded together to look like a person. He took a breath, then fired the spell on the exhale.

The sphere arced toward the target, then for some reason stopped two inches from the target's surface and dissipated.

Will sighed. "What did I do wrong this time?" he asked.

"Not that much, really." Cynder replied. "It looks like you just tried to focus on the target, but you might've had a laps in concentration which caused the spell to lock on to that area in front of it. It happened to me a couple times. That particular spell is the most accurate spell I know of, but only if you focus hard enough on what you're trying to hit."

"Hey, dragon."

Cynder sighed with irritation as she turned to look at Light, who was watching from the side of the road. "What?" she asked in a low voice, making it quite clear she was aggravated.

Light sighed. "Can I talk to you for a minute. Alone?"

Character: Light.

"Okay, what is it now?" the dragon growled.

Light leaned against the wall of the church. Not sure how I feel about being in here. He thought. "It's about Natalie." He said.

The dragon growled. "Honestly Light, I've made it quite clear several times already that I'm not going to take advantage-"

"That isn't what this is about."

The dragon blinked. "Than what is this about?"

Light sighed. "I saw you talking with Natalie yesterday." He started. "And I saw her laughing."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Light ran his hand over his face. "Natalie's probably told you that she's an orphan, right?" he asked.

The dragon nodded. "Yes, and?"

Light took a deep breath. "Let me tell you what happened. When she was only six, she had a family. A kind mother and father. They never once failed to bring a smile to her face. She was cheerful all the time."

"Well, that's nice." The dragon said. "I'm not going to lie; I envy her. I didn't have anyone to call a family for most of my life."

"Well, that might actually be a good thing." Light said. "Natalie was always cheerful, she had a big grin on her face every time I saw her. She was so happy with her family." Light sighed sadly. "Then suddenly her mother and father were dead."

The dragon looked at him. "What?"

Light rubbed the back of his neck. "That was the saddest I've ever seen Natalie." He said. "It happened right in front of her. It was a gas explosion by the river. The bad thing is that the city was told that that station wasn't exactly up to date with safety. Or security. Natalie was just walking along, following her parents. Someone told me that she was laughing. Then Natalie thought she saw something in the river and stopped to look at it. Thinking back, that was what saved her life. Just a few seconds after stopping, the station exploded. Natalie's parents were caught right in the blast, and she was thrown clear across the road and threw the windshield of a truck. It was a miracle that she was still alive. Her parents, on the other hand, were not nearly as lucky." Light swallowed, feeling nauseous when he remembered that time. "All that was left of them and twenty other people were charred remains. I don't think Natalie could have been more upset."

Light noticed that there was something of a tear in the dragon's eye.

He continued. "She just couldn't stop crying. She cried for hours that day. Nothing I did could cheer her up even a little bit." Light rubbed his eyes. "I didn't see Natalie the next day. Or the day after that. I was worried because no one knew where she was." Light sighed again. "I found her at the river, right where her parents died. She was just pacing back and forth, as if she was waiting for her parents to come back, like they've done whenever they left for a long time. She paced like that for days, weeks, months. She'd sit down when she was tired, then she'd get up and start pacing again." Light looked at the church altar. "It was a couple days after she stopped pacing when her negative feelings somehow caused her telekinetic abilities to go absolutely haywire. She was just walking down the street, when suddenly the skyscraper a couple blocks away was torn in two. A lot of people died that day. The unfortunate thing was, it was one of her friends that found out that she was the cause of it. She was upset enough as it was, but having to deal with accidentally killing innocent people like that was even harder on her. It was like the cheerful Natalie I knew died along with her parents."

The dragon sighed. "She hasn't laughed at all since that day, hasn't she?" it asked.

Light nodded. "That's basically why I'm talking to you. Something about you is helping her regain what cheer she has left. I didn't see her smile again until just two days after we helped you get out of Cauldur's lab."

The dragon looked at him. "The way you said that-"

"I know Natalie spent the night in the same room you did. And she trusts you completely. I hope it's the right choice."

"So you're starting to trust me?" the dragon asked.

Light thought about it. "Sort of." He said. "I trust you enough that I'm not uncomfortable with Natalie being around you. But not enough to actually not keep an eye on you."

"I didn't expect you not to." The dragon said. "Although, can you stop calling me 'dragon'? I do have a name."

"Well, what the hell is it?" Light asked.

"Cynder."

Light had a sudden flashback to when he heard that name echoing through Flint. "Nice name." He said. Okay, someone shouted its name, who was it?

Ah, gees. What if I could've prevented the lab's explosion and gotten the anti-virus by preventing this thing's capture?

Location: Chronicler Library.

Character: Ignitus.

Ignitus glared at the 16-year-old human in front of him.

And he couldn't have been more ticked off.

"Let me get this straight," he said in a low voice, voicing his anger. "In order to get to Asgard, I have to use DARK MAGIC?"

Valhalla pushed her long black hair out of her eyes and said, "Yeah, pretty much."

Ignitus said the first thing that came to mind, "ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE? WHOSE GOD DAMN IDEA WAS THIS?"

"Ignitus. Calm the hell down." Valhalla said carefully. "That requirement was in place for centuries. I don't know whose idea it was, but that's what is necessary. And don't think I did not try any other way; I did. Nothing worked."

Ignitus growled deeply and walked away. Sarah was right beside him. "Ignitus, this isn't like you at all." She said.

"Sarah," Ignitus started. "I have to help them. I can't just let them do this alone, especially when they're up against a more powerful foe this time around. I have to help them." He flexed his claws. "But in order to do that, I have to drop myself to the same level as Malefor! Tell me; how do I do what's right when I have to do something that's wrong first?"

Sarah sighed, licking Ignitus. "My dear, you want to help them, but just think about it for a minute; you said so yourself that dark magic is only evil if used for evil, right?"

Ignitus sighed, folding a wing around his mate. "I know." He said. He looked around. "Do you have any idea where Malefor's book is?"

Sarah looked at him. "Why do you want that?"

"The least I can do is find out how Malefor survived what Spyro and Cynder did to him. Then I can tell one of the Guardians about it."

"If Valhalla lets you." She said. "Only the head chronicler can use the crystal, remember?"

Several hours later Ignitus read the last page of Malefor's book.

"'NNNOOOO!' Malefor screamed as the ancestors sealed him away in the crystal in the planet's core.

Malefor was dragged deeper and deeper in the depths of the crystal. Then suddenly there was a bright flash.

Malefor woke up in a stone building, in the center of a steel platform. He got up, and looked around.

There was a white human standing not far away.

Malefor smiled. 'Well my counterpart, looks like you made good on our little bargain'."

Ignitus put the book back. Following that there was a short little line of messed up letters that meant that the book was disrupted. But Ignitus knew what had happened.

The crystal Spyro and Cynder sealed Malefor away in was really some type of portal.

"Damn." Ignitus said out loud.

"What's wrong?"

Ignitus looked to his right to see Clara by his paw. "Nothing, young one." he said quietly.

"Does it have anything to do with that question you asked Valhalla?" Clara asked. Ignitus nodded. "Well, take the first chance you get. That's what my mother used to say."

Before Ignitus could say anything, Clara walked off, skipping and humming.

Ignitus stared after her. The way she said that… some Chroniclers can see into the future. Did Clara also obtain this gift?