PT awoke and glanced out his room's window. The sky was turning a light pink as the sun broke through the clouds. He grunted and spun his legs off the bed. As he hopped to his feet, there was knock at the door. PT crossed the room and opened it to find Samara, much to his surprise.

"Samara," PT said, nodding to the dragoness.

"PT," she said. She had a begging tone in her voice that she didn't have last night. "Can I talk to you?" PT nodded and stepped to the side, allowing the black dragoness to step into the room. He plopped down on the bed and Samara sat down in front of him, staring at him with large blue eyes.

"What is it?" he asked. Samara sighed and shook her head.

"It's Diablo." PT cocked a brow.

"What about him?" Samara looked back up at him.

"It's him seeing you again." PT fixed her with a puzzled look. "He… He never talked when we were studying under Malefor," she explained. "But when he fell, we had to look out for each other." PT knit his fingers together and rested his head on his knuckles.

"So you got to know him more?" he said, raising his brows suggestively.

"No!" she said. "Not like that. He… He talked about you, a lot." PT nodded again. "He really missed you." PT nodded again, not saying a word. "He wishes that he could've told you. He's scared that you hate him for leaving." PT placed a hand on Samara's shoulder.

"How could I be mad?" he asked. "I just found my best friend who was missing for five years." Samara breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's… That's good." She stood and made her way to the door.

"Samara." The black dragoness turned to look back at PT.

"Yes?"

"You care about him a lot, don't you?" Samara's blue eyes widened.

"How… How did you—" PT chuckled and held up a finger, grinning.

"Diablo's not the kind person to have someone else come and talk about these things for him. If he felt like I needed to know, he'd tell me himself." He pointed at Samara. "You came here of your own volition. It's obvious you worry about him, but I think it's something more. Am I correct?"

Samara just looked at the floor.

"I… I love him," she confessed. PT cupped her chin and looked into her eyes.

"Why do you sound ashamed?" he asked.

"I… I don't know. I'm… just scared that he doesn't feel that way about me." PT smiled gently at her.

"Him not feeling how you feel won't make him stop being your friend, that's not how he rolls." Samara nodded.

"I have one more question for you," she said.

"Go ahead."

"Do you think we could come with you guys back to Warfang?"

"I don't see why not," PT answered. "The Guardians will want to know about you two." Samara beamed.

"Wow! The Guardians?! I can't believe it! Wait! Even Volteer?!" PT cocked a brow.

"Why Volteer?" Samara looked at him as if he asked why he couldn't find his eyes.

"He's the Guardian of Lightning," she explained.

"Oh." PT grinned. "Come with me." He led her out the door and down the hall. She gave him a puzzled look as he stopped outside a door identical to his.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just trust me." PT wrapped on the door. A second later, it opened, and Samara's eyes widened.

"Can I help you?" Volteer asked. PT nodded.

"Samara here wanted to meet you Volteer," he explained. Volteer smiled at the black dragoness.

"Hello Samara," he said, smiling at her. "How are you this morning?"

Come on! Samara screamed at herself. Say something!

"Yes." PT slapped his forehead and Volteer chuckled to himself.

"Relax," he said. "I'm just a normal dragon like you. I'm sorry about what happened to you and Diablo. If we had known, we would have done something about Malefor much sooner."

"D-Don't worry about it," Samara said. "It happened a long time ago, there's nothing you could have done." She turned back to PT. "Thanks for this PT. I'm going to get Diablo." With that, she turned and strode down the hall.

"She seemed nice." PT and Volteer turned to see Karos, Axos, and Dynamo making their way down the hall.

"We need to talk to you, Volteer," Axos said.

"About what?" the Lightning Guardian asked.

"We would like to accompany you all back to Warfang." Volteer thought for a moment.

"I see no reason to decline," he finally said.

"Brilliant!" Axos said. "Gather your things everyone. I'll prepare a Boulder." PT wondered what a boulder was and two hours later got his answer.

"Wow" was all Spyro could say as he stared at the massive vehicle. PT had to agree. The thing was the length of a full-size airliner and had the height of a one-story house.

"This looks like a HEMTT," Diablo commented. PT had to admit, he was right.

"What's a HEMTT?" Axos asked.

"It's a vehicle used in military convoys where we're from," PT answered. "They look like this, only smaller." He whistled as he walked by the treads. Instead of wheels like the one's used by the Marines, this thing had massive tank treads.

"What kind of guns are those?" Diablo asked, pointing to the six emplacements that sat on top of the wedge-shaped behemoth.

"Valkyrie 6.6 COILZ," Dynamo answered. "Newest model of coil guns." PT and Diablo's eyes widened, and they just stared at each other.

"Amazing!" PT exclaimed, slapping his forehead. Spyro cocked his head to the side.

"What's a coil gun?" Dynamo chuckled and beckoned for Spyro to follow him. The two-legged dragon leapt with unseen strength onto the top of the vehicle, which may have been maybe thirty feet tall. Spyro spread his wings and followed the dragon up to the gun emplacement. Dynamo pointed at one of the two long metal cylinders.

"These barrels are lined with metal coils," he explained. "A canister of metal shells is fed into that loading bank. He pointed to a small rectangular slot. "A battery is activated when you depress the trigger and charges the first coil. The metal shell is shot down the barrel, once the last coil turns off and the one in front of the shell activates."

"How powerful is the gun?" Spyro asked.

"It can pierce six inches of solid steel." Spyros's amethyst eyes widened. No dragon he knew even wore armor that thick. Axos chuckled and patted the metal chassis.

"This should get us to Warfang in maybe a day. Its top speed is about fifty miles an hour." PT whistled again.

"Combustion engine?" he asked. Dynamo shook his head.

"It uses crystals. The crystals are designed to be power cells for our equipment and, in emergencies, can be used as explosives." Diablo whistled. As Dynamo thudded back to the floor, Karos entered with a satchel thrown over her shoulder, behind her stood another Avian. He was maybe two inches taller than her and wirier than Axos.

"Karos, good, that means everyone's here," Axos said. Karos stepped to the side, letting the male Avian behind her step forward. Together, they walked over to Vylor, who was loading some provisions onto a supply ramp.

"Vylor?" The Scimitar of Light yelped and the box he was carrying landed on the ramp and burst open, spilling food all over the floor. Vylor muttered to himself as he stooped down to pick up his mess.

"Y-Yes Karos?" he stuttered. She placed a hand on the other Avian's bicep.

"This is Devan," she said. "My boyfriend." Her eyes widened as Vylor's gold-armored fist crushed an apple in his hand. Vylor stood and looked at the Avian, who fixed him with an icy glare. Vylor extended his hand and Devan reciprocated.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Devan," Vylor said painfully. The Avian nodded curtly.

"Devan, this is Vylor, the one who healed that arrow wound I was telling you about." Devan grunted.

"Will you excuse me one moment?" Vylor ask. He didn't even wait for a response as he turned on his heel and strode over to the side of the Boulder. Karos winced as he bashed his head against the side of it, the impact ringing like a church bell.

"You okay?" Karos asked. Vylor turned and nodded.

"Yes," he growled. "I'm fine." Karos nodded and stood on her tiptoes. She pecked Devan on the cheek and to Vylor, it felt like getting hit in the stomach.

"I'm going to get my stuff put on board," she said as she hurried up the ramp. "You two behave." Once she was out of view, Vylor turned to get more stuff loaded, but his task was interrupted when something slammed him against the hull of the Boulder.

"Listen, nightlight," Devan growled. "You get between me and her, I'll tear your balls off and make you eat them." Vylor nodded and fixed him with the same steely glare.

"Roger that," he growled. Devan released Vylor and stalked up the ramp. Vylor stuffed the rest of the food back into the box and carried it up the ramp, completely unaware of the purple dragon who saw the whole thing go down.

Vylor slumped against his bunk. He didn't feel like eating, but even less like being around Karos and Devan. He knew he could mop the floor with the Avian, but he knew how much it would hurt Karos, something he knew he would never do. His thoughts were pulled away from that when a knock at his door got his attention. His yellow eyes widened when he found Spyro standing in the doorway.

"Can we talk?" he asked. Vylor sighed and stepped to the side, allowing the purple dragon into the room.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Karos." Vylor froze and Spyro saw his shoulders slump.

"What about her?" Spyro walked over and placed a paw on his shoulder.

"About how her being with Devan is hurting you." Vylor shook his head and walked over to a small table in the corner. On the table were two small glasses and a bottle of Avian whiskey. Vylor poured two cups and left one on the table in case Spyro wanted it.

"What's there to talk about?" the Scimitar of Light asked. "She seems happy with him. who am I to interfere with that?" Spyro raised an eye ridge.

"Aren't you jealous?" Vylor chuckled.

"Oh, of course. Every time I see them together it feels like acid is coursing through my veins." He smiled at Spyro. On the inside, the purple dragon was appalled. He had said that so nonchalantly, as if it didn't matter. Vylor drained the shot glass in one gulp and grunted. He placed the glass back down and picked up the whole bottle. Spyro's eyes widened when he took another swig straight from the bottle.

"That whiskey is pretty strong stuff," he said. "Are you sure you can take it?" Vylor shrugged.

"Doesn't matter if I can handle it. Might as well drown my sorrows in excessive amounts of alcohol before I die."

"You say that as if you are dying." Vylor gave Spyro a look that said really? His amethyst eyes widened. "YOU'RE DYING?!"

"Keep your voice down," Vylor said. He sighed and sat down on his bed.

"You seem perfectly fine to me," Spyro said. Vylor chuckled again.

"What's killing me isn't on the outside," Vylor said. "It's on the inside." Spyro cocked his head.

"You're sick?"

"Not sick, per se," Vylor said. He thumped his chest. "I have a bad heart."

"I thought you didn't have hearts." Vylor nodded.

"Not literal hearts. Those little sacs of tissue you guys have. We have elemental crystals. I'm what's called Frata Nova."

"What's that?" Spyro asked. Vylor rested his elbows on his knees.

"It translates literally to 'Fractured Heart.'" He thumped his chest again. "My crystal is cracked. The crystals power our elemental power. All the elemental energy instead of going where it's supposed to, it seeps out of the crack and tries to find somewhere to go."

"Where is yours going?" Spyro asked.

"It's trying to go to Karos," Vylor replied. "That's what makes me feel love." Spyro understood now, but did that mean that he couldn't choose who he loved. As if knowing what he was thinking, Vylor chuckled.

"The energy that leaks is me," he explained. "My condition is essentially gradual internal bleeding."

"Can't Karos just absorb that energy?" Vylor sighed and shook his head.

"Elemental power must be willingly given and willingly accepted." Spyro racked his brain for an answer.

"Can't you just tell Karos how you feel?" Vylor shook his head again.

"If I do, Devan will turn on me, and maybe Karos." He shouted and punched the wall by his headboard, caving the metal. "Besides," he said, calming down. "She's probably happier with him than she would be with me." That was all Spyro needed to hear. Vylor really did love her. He would rather her be happy than himself. He patted the Scimitar on the back and stood to leave. Before exiting, he turned back to the Scimitar.

"How long do you have?" he asked.

"Another week, if I'm lucky." Spyro nodded and turned, before he stepped over the threshold, Vylor spoke up.

"Spyro." The purple dragon turned back to the Scimitar. "Thank you for giving me what little solace you can. It eases the pain of knowing that I'm dying just a little bit, but it eases it nonetheless." Spyro nodded.

"Sleep well, Vylor," he said. The Scimitar nodded and his door slid shut. Spyro plodded down the hall, thinking to himself how he could save his friend. His friend who was being eaten alive by his own despair.