Several months have passed since Cynder's critical wing injury and the dragon has spent them all at the Academy hospital. Now, she was finally allowed to leave, but without the ability to fly anymore. The door to her room was open and she was free to go whenever she wanted, but the Skylander couldn't get herself out of bed. A life without flying, unimaginable. She asked for every possible option, but all of them had a risk of failing her wings during flight. Cynder looked outside of the window, birds glided elegantly through the sky. The Undead Skylander sighed before turning her head to the door again, where she spotted Whirlwind passing by. She thought about the unicorn dragon for a moment, until it sparked an idea.
"Whirlwind!" Cynder called after the head of the hospital.
Whirlwind stopped and looked inside. She entered and stood in the middle of her patient's room. "Do you need anything, Cynder?" The Air Skylander was normally quite friendly and open, but as soon as she faced Cynder she looked like any doctor that doesn't truly care for their patient's well-being.
After seeing the look on her face, Cynder wasn't sure anymore if talking to Whirlwind was a good idea, but it was her last hope. "I know you told me that there is nothing you can do about my wing, and I don't want to bother you anymore." Whirlwind didn't blink an eye and neutrally stared at Cynder who hesitated to continue. "But I know what your horn is capable of. Maybe you could-"
"I'm sorry Cynder, but you know very well that I only use my powers in lethal emergencies." Whirlwind was known for her healing abilities that she could perform with the rainbow magic from her horn, but she didn't use them for any simple trifle. "I am sorry that you won't be able to fly anymore, but I can't help you. You will have to learn to live with it."
Without giving her another look, the feathered dragon turned around and was about to visit her next client. Cynder couldn't let her leave just like that, she knew the true reason behind her behavior. "This is about what I did, isn't it?"
Whirlwind halted. She took a deep breath and remembered what the dragoness was talking about. "I'm treating you like I would treat any other patient." Even though that wasn't entirely true, Whirlwind wanted to move on. "It's nothing personal."
The dragon finally left and Cynder was alone again. There were many things that the Undead Skylander regrets, but none of them got close to what she did to Whirlwind all those years ago.
Many hundred years ago, before Eon has even funded the current Skylanders, Cynder still served under Malefor. As the Black Dragon, she spread terror and destruction across the entire Skylands and it wasn't until Malefor was defeated and Spyro freed her that she could be herself and become a Skylander. But there was a time when the dragon grew curious and asked Malefor for a favor.
Cynder just entered the cold fog that covered the top of the underworld. Even though the world knew her as the Black Dragon, her real name has always been Cynder, but the only one to ever call her that was the Undead King Malefor. She flew in between the dangerous rocks and caves that were present throughout the entire underworld, until she finally reached her home. The dark energy that covered her body looked like black smoke, fading as it moved upwards with sharp motions. That look made her almost invisible in the dark area, only her striking white eyes could always be seen.
Malefor has been waiting for his most dangerous ally. The giant dragon wore no armor back then, everyone could see the pale purple scales on his body and the several scars he has gained over centuries of trying to take over Skylands.
"You're late." Malefor's first words after his servant returned from another day of terrorizing innocent people. "What took you so long?"
"They fought back." Cynder's voice was raspy, almost distorted. She practically hissed the words with such a dark tone that you could feel it running down your spine.
"It looks like they are finally foolish enough to defend themselves." Malefor chuckled, no one in Skylands could match his powers so far, and he didn't think anyone ever would. "If they value their lives, they will surrender to me. It's just a matter of time."
Cynder didn't want to admit it, but she always wanted to know why she had to attack and torture people in order for Malefor to be happy. She didn't understand why he barely gets out of his cave to face them himself. Even though she's had years behind her, deep inside the dragoness did feel guilt. She could never tell Malefor that though. After all, he did raise her like his own daughter.
"Master." The Black Dragon started to speak. "Why do I always have to hurt people?"
"What kind of question is that?" The king was displeased with the behavior of the dragon that he took under his wing for so many years. "That's what your powers are for. Once they realize that they stand no chance they will give in."
"What if I don't want to keep terrorizing them?" Cynder was full of confidence but lost it as soon as she saw the look on Malefor's face.
"Are you denying me?" The villain towered himself over the relatively small dragon and threatened her in case she thought of betraying him.
"No, of course not! I just want to know what those beings are like, maybe there's an easier way to convince them." Cynder gulped and moved backwards, afraid that she would get punished for her disobedience.
Malefor looked at his intimidated minion for a few more moments before smiling sinisterly. "You're right."
"I am?" Cynder was surprised and raised her head up to hear more.
"Yes, maybe you should look for another way." Malefor was a master of manipulating others to achieve his goals, and Cynder was no exception. "It's time for you to see what this world is truly like."
Malefor inhaled and gathered his undead energy before spewing an enormous purple flame right at Cynder. The dragon shielded herself with her wings and thought that this would be her end, but after Malefor stopped, she was still alive. Cynder opened her eyes and saw that her wings were no longer pitch black but shades of purple. She looked at her claws and tail, purple scales all over her body. Her eyes had icy blue pupils and the undead energy that she emitted was gone, this was her true self.
"What did you do?" Cynder still observed herself and couldn't believe her eyes.
"I removed the undead aura that you possessed for all those years. This is your pure body." Malefor felt pity for his daughter figure looking so pathetically weak, but he wanted to grant her the wish of seeing the Skylands from a different perspective. "Now go, see for yourself what it's like to be one of them. And do not disappoint me."
"I won't master, I promise." Cynder smiled with genuine joy before ascending into the air and swirling upwards, exiting the underworld.
Malefor was certain that his plan would succeed and that this would eliminate any doubts Cynder had. She would see the Skylands that despises the undead ever since he could remember.
Cynder was soaring through the sky with a feeling she never felt before. For the first time in her life she could do whatever she wanted, not listening to any orders. No one recognized the Black Dragon and didn't look twice when they saw the cheerful dragon fly by. She inhaled the fresh air that she felt across her face and that allowed her to gently glide in between the clouds. She looked up to see something strange. It was a circular bow spanning across the sky in every imaginable color. Cynder has never seen something this beautiful before. Suddenly, she felt herself colliding with something. The dragon was crashing down before she caught herself and spread her wings to keep herself from falling. When she looked up, she saw a creature with pale blue feathers approach her.
"I'm so sorry, are you okay?" The worried dragon was in front of the reformed Cynder and felt embarrassed for her clumsiness.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Cynder shook her head as she stared into the other dragon's dark blue eyes with light blue irises bolting from side to side nervously. "I was just so mesmerized by that… thing." Cynder looked up to gaze at the fascinating appearance once more and get lost in its colors.
"You mean the rainbow?" The creature was humored by the fact that she didn't know what it was and smiled. "It's actually mine."
"You own it?" Cynder made big eyes after hearing that the stranger owned something like that.
The feathered dragon laughed. "No, I made it." She then proceeded to light up the horn on top of her forehead and shoot a colorful beam, creating another rainbow across the sky.
"Wow." Cynder was fascinated and couldn't keep her eyes off the incredible sight. She looked over to her newfound friend and realized that they didn't know each other's names yet. "I'm Cynder, by the way."
"Whirlwind." The dragon hybrid smiled and was glad to have found a companion that was so amazed by her powers. "Nice to meet you."
The two dragons decided to spend the rest of the day together. Cynder told Whirlwind that she's not familiar with many parts of Skylands and Whirlwind was happy to give her a tour of her homeland.
High up in the clouds, there were the Dragon Isles. A collection of islands featuring many ancient buildings and sculptures. It was the home of many dragons, who all greeted Cynder as she flew by.
Down below, there was the Valley of the Unicorns. Islands, all connected so that the flightless creatures could cross and visit each other. They were delighted to see Whirlwind leave a rainbow trail behind her as she passed by.
Whirlwind was the daughter of one of the mightiest dragon warriors on the isles and one of the most beautiful unicorns of the valley. Her father showed her how to maneuver herself through the skies while her mother taught her how to handle her powers. They were a happy family. However, the others of their kind weren't as fond of the hybrid. For many years she was shunned by both races and excluded, making her feel miserable. But after showing them how amazing a combination between two different species can be, everyone had a change of heart and finally accepted the unicorn dragon.
The two friends flew some more together, laughing and sight seeing everything that Whirlwind could show Cynder. They soon reached a foggy area, making it hard for the dragons to see.
"Where are we now, Whirlwind?" As the Black Dragon, Cynder would usually use the fog to her advantage, but she could barely see anything with her regular eyes.
"I'm not sure." Whirlwind squinted her eyes as well to see, until she finally recognized the place. The dragon slowed down as her pupils shrunk and her eyes opened wide. Cynder looked over to her friend and wasn't sure what was happening, until they finally exited the fog and arrived at islands covered with ruins. "No…" Whirlwind landed on top of the biggest island and looked around herself.
"Where are we exactly?" Cynder observed the place as well and was slightly disturbed by all the destruction surrounding them, it was a dark turn from the cheerful landscapes they just visited.
Whirlwind didn't say a word and only walked forward, pure horror in her eyes. Cynder could tell that she wasn't afraid, but rather sad. They finally arrived at a spot where Whirlwind stopped and sat down. It was a large ruin, which seemed to be the remains of a house. The roof crumbled down onto the floor and the shards of the glass window was scattered across the debris, it was a gruesome sight. "This was my home." Whirlwind finally answered with tears forming in her eyes.
Cynder was in shock. She looked at her friend whose tears were now running down her face and dripped to the ground. "What happened?" Cynder asked in a curious, but gentle tone.
"It was a day like every other." Whirlwind's voice was shaking from the crying, but she tried her best to tell the tragic story. "Me and my parents were at home spending time together, when suddenly we heard thunder."
Cynder experienced many storms throughout her life, but she remembered one which was unlike any other. Something about this place reminded her of it.
"We thought it was just a regular storm, but then we heard screaming." Whirlwind inhaled abruptly as even more tears appeared in her eyes. "I rushed over to the door to see what was going on and as soon as I opened it…"
The dragon broke down while sobbing and Cynder immediately put her claw on her friend's shoulder to comfort her. "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it."
Whirlwind shook her head and insisted to finish. "I turned around and all I saw were those dark flames."
Cynder slowly moved her claw away and started to remember something, but she didn't know why.
"It was an attack on our peaceful village. Unicorns and dragons alike were killed, dozens." Whirlwind built herself back up and stopped her sobbing. The tears in her eyes decreased and her expression suddenly became furious, clenching her teeth and arching her eyebrows. "It was the Black Dragon."
Cynder was paralyzed. With that name, she finally remembered. Years ago, Malefor ordered her to destroy the village of the dragons and unicorns. This was that same village. She killed dozens of innocent creatures, including Whirlwind's parents, but the survivor didn't know that. Whirlwind has spent the day with the murderer of her parents, showing her what she has done and sharing everything with her. Cynder felt beyond terrible, she couldn't bear being close to the hybrid. "I'm sorry, I have to go."
Whirlwind looked up and before she could say a word the dragoness was gone. Cynder now realized why Malefor allowed her to go on this trip. He wanted her to see what a monster she truly was and how much damage she has caused. The dragon wiped the tears out of her eyes as she speeded back to her home, the underworld.
In Malefor's lair, the disturbed Cynder finally returned. Furiously she landed on the cold ground and approached her father figure who has patiently been waiting for her.
"And, how did it go?" Malefor already knew that Cynder would be upset, but he didn't expect it to this extent.
"How could you!?" The dragoness yelled at the top of her lungs. "How could you make me do all those terrible things?"
"Cynder, calm down." Malefor wasn't concerned in the slightest and wanted to hear about his minion's latest experience. "What did you see?"
"Destruction, chaos, death!" Cynder was in rage. She wasn't only angry at the king, but also at herself for allowing him to use her like that. "You raised me to be a weapon, a messenger of death. They didn't deserve to die!"
"I knew you'd manage to fail at the simplest mission." Malefor was rather annoyed than angered after seeing how resistant his most deadly assistant has become. "And besides, I never forced you to do anything, you willingly followed my orders."
"Because I had no choice!" Cynder looked around herself and finally saw the truth. She saw all the skulls and bones around the area and realized that the scars on Malefor's body were not scars from brave battles, but scars created by innocent creatures that tried to defend themselves. And she was just as bad as him. "You saved me before I even hatched just to do this to me?"
Malefor laughed after hearing that sentence. He always told Cynder that he saved her from a deadly fate in her homeland, but he actually kidnapped her after slaughtering most of her kind. "I never saved you, foolish child. I stole you."
"What?" Cynder was confused about that statement. She thought about it and suddenly it all made sense. She was just like Whirlwind, her real parents were killed and she was left alone and defenseless, the perfect opportunity for Malefor to gain an ally. "You never wanted to save me?" She asked that question with disbelief, but deep inside she always knew that it was the truth.
"Of course not." Malefor finally told the truth for once. "You stem from a rare kind of dragons and your powers were too great to pass out on."
Cynder couldn't believe it. Her entire life was a lie. She didn't grow up with her real parents, but instead became one of the most feared creatures in all of Skylands. The dragon clenched her teeth and closed her eyes as tears ran down her face. She took a deep breath before looking up and into Malefor's wicked eyes. "I hate you."
"Good." Malefor's final word before he charged up his flame breath and once again unleashed it towards Cynder.
The Undead King transformed her back into the Black Dragon, this time suppressing her free will completely and making her nothing more than a hate driven puppet of dark energy that only lived to kill.
In the present, after Cynder was freed from Malefor's wicked curse and found her true self, she was still laying in her bed, staring at the door leading into her room. Whirlwind was her last chance to fix her wing, but she couldn't expect such a favor from her after what she's done, and she knew that. To her surprise however, the feathered hybrid returned to her room.
Cynder looked at her. They didn't exchange a word. She was about to ask why she returned, but then Whirlwind spoke up.
"Did you want to do it?" Whirlwind lost her cold attitude and was as vulnerable as the day the dragons met. "Did you want to kill my parents?"
"No, Whirlwind of course not." Cynder was baffled that she would even think that, but she didn't blame her. She did unspeakable things as the Black Dragon, things she could never make up for. "I regret everything I've done as the Black Dragon, everything."
"But you did it anyway." Whirlwind was angry, but it was overwhelmed by the sadness in her voice. "You took countless innocent lives."
"I didn't have a choice." Cynder wasn't trying to justify her actions, but she wanted to explain her side of the story. "Malefor kidnapped me. He raised me to be a weapon, a killer. I never knew what was wrong and what was right until the day I met you and saw what I did, then I finally realized."
"Then why did you go back to him?" Whirlwind used her claws to wipe the tears out of her eyes and calmed down. "Why didn't you just leave?"
"He would've found me." Cynder thought about running away, but that could have lured Malefor out and he would've killed even more. "And I wanted to confront him, but he had full control over me. There was nothing I could do, I'm sorry."
Whirlwind inhaled and closed her eyes before opening them again and looking at Cynder without anger or sadness, but more so relief. "When Spyro told us that the Black Dragon would join the Skylanders, I was furious. I wanted to confront whoever they were and…"
Cynder sensed by the tone of her voice what she wanted to do, but Whirlwind couldn't get the words through her lips.
"When I saw that it was you, I was confused. Then I became angry, I felt betrayed." Whirlwind looked at the window next to Cynder to see the sun shining through the glass. "I didn't want anything to do with you, but I watched you. I was afraid that you had evil intentions, but I was wrong."
Cynder felt relieved after hearing that the dragon didn't believe that she was truly evil after all, but she also didn't understand why.
"You worked so hard to prove to everyone that you're not the Black Dragon anymore and that this is who you truly are." Whirlwind could form her mouth into a slight smile as she looked at the friend she lost over the years. "I believe you that the Black Dragon was just Malefor's creation, not the dragon who's sacrificed her wings to protect her allies."
They both looked at the broken wing. It was upsetting to see it so limp and lifeless, constantly reminding the Undead Skylander that she could never use it again. Before Cynder looked back at the unicorn, who moved closer to the injured wing. Her horn started to glow, and she lowered her head to touch Cynder's wing with it. The Skylander's eyes opened wide as she witnessed Whirlwind using her powers to magically undo the damage and heal the wing.
Whirlwind raised her head and moved away to give Cynder some space. The dragoness tried to move her wing, and after months of failed attempts, it finally worked. She could move it in every possible direction, and she didn't feel any pain while doing so. Whirlwind smiled while watching the overjoyed dragon flap her wings, nearly hitting the ceiling in the process. "You deserve this, you've proven that."
Cynder stopped her movements and looked over to Whirlwind with a happy smile. She knew that she could never fix the damage she's done, but she wanted to try her best to prevent anything like that from happening again. "Thank you."
With a nod, Whirlwind excused herself and left the room, going on to fulfill her other duties in the hospital. Meanwhile Cynder finally threw the sheets on top her body aside and sprinted out of bed. Right away, she used her wings to dash through the hallway and out into the open. She flew high up into the sky and inhaled the air. She has never been this happy to fly again, and she would never forget Whirlwind's gesture.
Deep down below even the lowest of islands was the underworld. As gloomy and cold as always, it was covered with fog protecting it from unwanted visitors. Deep in the heart of the unsettling place, was the Creepy Citadel, one of the underworld's most prominent structures.
Malefor has spent the last few months there, unwillingly. The dragon was sitting on the edge of one of the many bridges leading to the castle and looked upwards. With a swift flap of his wings, the Undead King rose up into the air and flew at an immense speed. He kept his eyes on the dark surroundings and focused on an opening in the distance. Moments before he could reach it, something hit him right in the spine. The dragon roared in pain as his wings were bombarded with undead magic, until he could no longer keep himself in the air and crashed down onto a nearby decaying island.
"You're not going anywhere on my watch." A haunting voice appeared behind him.
The dragon turned his head to see Hex, who held a skull engulfed with purple energy in her hand to threaten him. "You can't keep me here forever. I will find a way to escape!"
Hex responded to that by using her magic to pull Malefor's head right in front of her. Even though she was just the size of his muzzle, the witch had the dragon fully under her control. "If you ever try that again I will tear your wings off your body and bury you alive." She released him before she floated back to the citadel that she resides in during her stay in the underworld. "You may have tricked me with the immortal bond that you forged, but now you will pay the price for it."
Malefor looked after the sorceress as she entered the building and retreated to her chamber. She was able to keep him from escaping for months now, but the dragon started to come up with another idea to escape the underworld and finally wreak havock across Skylands.
