Learning to Coexist
Light and dark are inextricably linked to one another. Where one surges in power, the other must accumulate strength to match, and where the power of one wanes, so too will the force behind it's counterpart.
All things are made of two sides.
The light side; their good, their kindness, their nobility and selflessness.
The dark side; their evil, their heartlessness, their cruelty and selfishness.
No one being can exist without one of their halves and it is unknown what would happen to a creature to possess only half of the requirements for living. No book nor legend details such a being and many thought the very existence of such a creature impossible.
As with many things in skylands, however, legend and myth were all too common to be written off as impossible, and the tale of the split light and dark sides of a being is already beginning to unfold.
A serene breeze flowed through the falling forest at the crack of dawn one fine morning. There was hardly a sound throughout what remained of a once lush, green forest that had long since been reduced to the decaying husk that it was now. The only life that could be found within being the swamplands, the wildlife in the form of chompies (and that crackpot wizard with the sock puppet), and most notably, a purple dragon tailing what seemed to be the ghostly apparition of a wise old mage.
"How long do you think it'll take us to get to the realm you banished my ancestors to, Eon?" rang the words of the young dragon, shattering the serenity that juxtaposed so harshly against the visuals of the decaying trees around them. The horns adorning his head were on a swivel, his eyes darting to and fro. He seemed to be on the lookout for anything residing in the forest that could bring harm to himself, or the mage before him, though he wasn't too sure how the whole 'being an ethereal ghost astral projecting onto this plane of existence' thing affected his ability to be harmed yet.
"Now, Spyro. These things can take some time! These realms are more than just a little hop, skip and a jump between one another, you know." Responded that grand wizard by the name of Eon, the leader figure and current sole possessor of the knowledge and means to take Spyro to his ancestors. "They're more of a, uh, jump, leap and 'several thousand mile journey traversable only through teleportation' away from one another, so not too far!"
The response only served to elicit a groan from the skylander trailing him, and drawing a chuckle from his own throat simultaneously. He must admit that he was enjoying the alone time he had been given with his friend, an almost reminiscent feeling washing over him as he floated through the forests where he had first found the young dragon fending off a horde of chompies.
Another groan sounded and Eon scoffed, turning to face the purple dragon accompanying him, arms folded in minor annoyance. "Oh come now, it wasn't that bad of an oversimplification of the treacherous journey we are about to embark upo-" The mage's words were cut short however as he turned to see his companion hunched low to the ground, wings spread in a fighting stance while staring down a set of nearby branches, seemingly snapped from their respective trees with force.
Emanating from the bush was the groaning sound heard mere moments before, sounding almost like Spyro's had, or at least enough to fool Eon into believing it was.
Glancing over his shoulder, the heliotropic dragon spoke in a voice barely above a whisper "Stay here, I'll check it out." before stalking his way over to the branches without a second's hesitation. He had been through hell, he had felt his bones crush under his indestructible scales at the claws of Malefor. He had felt his light ripped away and devoured by the evil Sorcerer, Strykore. He had watched as his evil other decimated every shred of trust and kinship his fellow skylanders had in him.
Whatever lay behind these branches stood no chance against the new and improved Spyro the Dragon!
A scream that could only be described as high pitched and girlish sprang forth from Spyro's lips, his whole form rearing up on his hind legs before falling backwards and skittering away to hide behind the ghostly apparition of his master (hey, he said new and improved, not impervious to fear!). The aforementioned mage sprang to action, his hands balled into fists and began to glow with the powers of light that coursed through his figure, preparing to obliterate whatever foul creature had scared his friend so thoroughly.
Spyro curled into a ball, peering between Eon's legs to keep a watchful, unwavering eye on the set of couldn't bring himself to believe what he had seen after getting close enough to see clearly over the branches. It had to be fake, some trick of the light or even just a bad dream brought to the real world by an evil force like Dream Catcher. a slight whimper sounded from him like the ones a newborn puppy would create upon meeting something new that frightened them.
Knowing that he would get no answers by asking his dragon companion, and knowing the longer he waited to find out what the danger was for himself, Eon willed himself to take a few tentative steps in the direction of the disturbance.
Slowly, the monster motionlessly made itself visible to the eyes of Eon as he stepped forward further and further. Residing before him was a sight he thought he would never see. A small crater at the end of a long line in the soil of the forest, almost as though something had crashed and skidded in the dirt right along to the branches. Residing within said crater was a creature as black as ash, fearsome metallic looking, silver coloured horns crowned the creature's head with matching armored plates trailing down its chest. At the end of the creature's tail resided a layered, spiked tail tip that belonged to only one species of dragon.
"B-But how? We fought at the academy, I-I destroyed him! You all saw it, he can't be here... He can't be!" chimed in the purple progenitor for the dragon in front of them. He was wordless as he finally managed to pry himself from his own tight ball and creep up to the unconscious mirror image of himself hidden amongst the dead thicket of the forest. He was terrified of his mirror for a reason he could not discern, the very sight of the dark dragon striking fear into his very core.
"No, Spyro, we saw a dazzling flash of light and we saw you come back to us, we saw absolutely nothing as to the fate of your dark counterpart here, my friend." Eon began to relax at the sight of the darkened version of his close friend, recognizing the position he was in as the fetal position, showing he was both unconscious and most likely injured.
"W-Well what do we do? We can't just leave him here, right?" asked Spyro, gaining more confidence to match his master, standing tall rather than crouched and shy. His eyes wandered over the curled up form of his dark twin, able to get a close look at him for the first time without having to fight for his life.
Eon's eyes seemed to darken for a moment as his balled up fists dropped to his sides, a deep and troubled sigh leaving him as he turned to face Spyro. He dropped onto one knee and looked him in the eyes before speaking in a solemn tone.
"This may be difficult for you to watch, as I understand that he is just a version of yourself. But he must be destroyed. Beings of evil have no place in our realm, especially those who would serve Strykore. He must not be permitted to live."
The words weighed heavy on Spyro. He had never truly seen anyone die. His parents were banished, not dead. Every time he fought someone, it ended with them being defeated and sent to cloud-cracker prison. Even Strykore had been sent to a prison realm rather than being destroyed in cold blood.
Yet this version of him, his darkness, was to be killed with no remorse or chance to become someone better than he was while under the dark influences of Strykore? The skylands, though filled with light, could be truly cruel sometimes.
"I… I understand, Eon. Just do it." the dragon relented, the emotion in his voice evident. He wasn't sure why he was feeling this way as such, but he had a feeling his subconscious wasn't too happy about giving the order of a death sentence to what was essentially another part of him.
In any case, what's done is done, and Spyro understood that everyone with ties to Strykore had to be eliminated. Especially those with the kinds of powers dark Spyro possess.
"Thank you for understanding, old friend. I will finish off this creature and we can continue our journey to find your ancient ancestors." Eon finalised the conversation with another slight sigh. Destroying this entity felt wrong to him as well, it was as though he was about to do to Spyro what he had done to the poor dragon's kind so many eons ago.
He shook his head to rid the thoughts from within and took aim with his hands, pointing both directly at the groaning ball of dark scales behind the dead branches, and began to recite a powerful spell that darkened the skies above him.
Even in his ghostly form, it was plain to see that the powerful mage had the powers of light surging through him, his eyes and hands glowing a brilliant blue as the spell began to reach its apex.
Spyro turned away from the scene unfolding before him, unable to watch a mirror of himself be vanquished without even a chance to defend himself from the oncoming death. "Everyone has a choice… good and bad, light and dark… it isn't black and white. There are grey areas. In every choice someone makes they have the choice to be good or evil. Just because you are born evil, doesn't mean you have to be evil." his own words rang in his ears at a deafening volume, the apparent hypocrisy within them causing Spyro to develop a headache, both of his clawed paws coming to his head as he collapsed to the ground with a pained groan.
The screaming match in his head with his subconscious was only worsened by the thundering and crackling of lightning coming from the sky above as the power of Eon's spell began to channel through to his hands, the sounds of the wind, the thunder and Eon's own powerful words overwhelming the purple dragon.
Finally, a beam of flawless blue light shot from the master mage's hands and struck the dark projection of his closest friend directly in the chest, immediately causing an arc of electricity to flow through the dark scaled heel.
What Eon had not anticipated, however, was the screams of the purple dragon behind him.
Turning his head rapidly while keeping his powers focused on melting away the armour of the being before him, Eon saw a sight that shook him to the very core.
Spyro was writhing on the floor of the forest, a brilliant blue light coming from his chest and equally blue electricity arcing around his frame. Flicking his eyes between the dark and light versions of the same dragon, Eon came to a shattering realisation that they both possessed identical damaged markings that mirrored one another flawlessly..Immediately he dispelled the power he had been wielding into the sky with a mighty yell, hoping to end the suffering of his pupil at the cost of allowing the darkness to survive..
Panting heavily, the ghostly apparition of the wizard dropped to his knees while Spyro let out one last pained screech before falling unconscious from the intense pain.. Eon looked over both his friend and the evil counterpart, both having the exact same hexed pattern seared into their flesh by the intense heat of the lightning that had surged through them both. Eon could barely choke back the lump in his throat as he realised the mistake he had made. Smoke rose from both unconscious dragons and the foul stench of burnt flesh wafted into the air surrounding the wizard of light in a sickening fashion.
"They… They are linked…" Eon spoke breathlessly. He had realised too late to stop the damage he had done. Dark Spyro was not just a mirror of the real heroic dragon, he was a literal copy of him. If you stare into a mirror and pinch yourself both you and your reflection react to the pain.
Spyro and his dark Counterpart could not only feel the pain of one another, they received the damage of one another also. When Eon had cast his spell to eradicate the world of the dark dragon, all that power, all the destructive energy that went into destroying the protective, indestructible scales of the dark one had also surged into the frame of his closest friend with mirrored results.
As long as Spyro lived, so too would the dark counterpart that was his darkness, so long as the darkness still existed, Spyro would continue to live, if either of the dragons were to be snuffed out, so too would the life of their twin.
Eon formed a bubble around both injured dragons, lifting them seamlessly off of the ground before beginning to make haste back towards the academy, a dragon floating on either side of him while twitching from the pain every so often. He had to get them back to the academy so he could treat them both and get his Spyro back to full health. He was unsure what he would do with the darkness that presided over his shoulder, floating along with both he and Spyro, but he knew he had no choice but to nurse him back to health.
He couldn't stand to see Spyro in pain. If getting Spyro back to his cocky, healthy self meant nourishing his darkness back to life too?
That was a sacrifice that the sage wizard was willing to make.