This chapter's not my best one, but it's better than most of my crappy ones. I'm slowly getting work done on Demonised, although I've got a lot more important stuff to do that's getting in the way of it, but it's all stuff I mainly enjoy, so I'm not that annoyed. And I'm writing much longer chapters now, too, so it may take a while for updates, so I apologise.

But hopefully you all enjoy this chapter.

Two weeks passed. Cynder had had two more nightmares, but luckily, she had been able to suppress her screams so she didn't scare Forzen. It was also lucky that she hadn't fallen into shock either. Although, she had had these nightmares in the middle of the day while she was napping (the nightmares and endless research had taken a lot out of her), so she hadn't had one in the middle of the night since the 'torture' nightmare, and they hadn't been as intense as the 'torture' nightmare.

Her first nightmare had left her lost and alone in a dark forest, much like the 'bloodlust' nightmare, although instead of an attack from the blood dragons, she found an old, abandoned wooden shack. Cynder had walked into the dusty, dingy shack, and then everything went dark before the red eyes appeared and the word 'trauma' was muttered before she woke up.

Her second nightmare had made her relive Spyro's corruption just after Ignitus died in the Belt of Fire eight years ago. Although this time, it was different. Spyro had attacked her before she could rescue him from the darkness that had claimed his body, and he had broken free from the magic chains that bound them together, his body pulsing with so much raw energy that Cynder got herself badly beaten. Cynder blacked out and the red eyes appeared. The word muttered was 'betrayal', and Cynder now had five words to work within her research: death, bloodlust, torture, trauma, and betrayal.

And she had no idea what they meant.

She had told the guardians, but they were as stumped as she was about what the nightmares meant. Cynder had told Pyron and Freeze about the nightmares as well, as they wanted to help Cynder figure out what the nightmares well, and Pyron and Freeze were confused as well. Cynder had even asked Rubblerust, but he said he had absolutely no idea what the nightmares could mean, and simply dismissed them as 'just nightmares', not willing to believe that they had anything to do with reality.

But aside from the nightmares and the failed research sessions she had had, life was going well for her and Spyro. Forzen had made a few friends, and Pyron and Freeze had come to meet him about five days after he hatched, and Forzen loved the extra company. A few of Forzen's few friends were slightly older than him, aging from about two months to one year, but little two-week-old Forzen didn't care. He loved having others to play with, and he was always his happy self; he'd only ever cried a few times, which was normally when he was hungry, and the one time he stubbed his paw on a cobblestone brick.

But there was something that happened this one day that messed up everything Cynder thought about her dreams. She was doing some research on war and torture, wanting to decipher the dream that had completely put her into shock the night Forzen hatched. She found a page of all the important war leaders that had existed in the past, complete with portraits of them. Malefor was the last one, as Cynder expected, but Cynder turned the page and saw in big purple writing across both pages something that shocked her.

Another will succumb to the darkness.

Cynder immediately borrowed the book from the library and flew off quickly to find the guardians. The first guardian she found was Terrador. "Terrador! I think I found something regarding my nightmares!" Cynder cried as she landed next to him.

Terrador turned and looked at Cynder's terror-stricken face. He turned back to the earth dragoness he was talking to and asked her to wait a moment. He then turned back to Cynder and asked her to show him what she had found. She opened to the page with the list of war leaders. "I found this, a page of war leaders from the past. But I turned the page, and found this," Cynder said, turning the page as she did so.

Terrador gasped, filled with horror at what the words across the two pages read. "But who?" he asked after composing himself. "Who will succumb to the darkness?"

"I don't know, but I'm starting to get worried," Cynder said. "Progress on the research is slow, but when we do find something, it is mind-breaking."

"Show Pyron and Freeze. They should see this. I'll tell Volteer and Cyril when I get the chance. Thank you." Terrador said, and Cynder flew off.

What could it mean? 'Another will succumb to the darkness,' Cynder thought.

Cynder showed Pyron and Freeze, and they too had no idea who the message could be referring to, but they figured that whoever it would be, the outcome would not be good at all. Electrika was with them, and for some reason, she suspected Spyro.

"No! There is no way Spyro would become the next warlord! He's not like that! He's not like them! He's not like him!" Cynder shouted at Electrika when she brought up Spyro's name.

"You never know. He's been slightly unstable recently. I've seen him. Remember what he did to the training arena?" Electrika asked.

"That was just an accident! I don't know how you could just say that Spyro will be the next warlord! Because he won't!" Cynder snapped. "Just because he and Malefor were both purple dragons, doesn't mean that Spyro will become just like him!"

"Fine, have it your way. But if it is Spyro, don't come crying to me saying I was right," Electrika snarled, whirling around and stalking off.

"Ignore her, Cynder. She's always been highly suspicious of things like that," Pyron explained, a sad look on his face.

"I know, and I'm to blame. I killed her family, and now she's been wary of everything because that was the only way she could survive as a child," Cynder said, shrugging. "I'm still surprised she came up to me and said, 'Oh! Can we be friends now? I forgive you!'"

"Yeah, we were kind of shocked, too, but Electrika has her own reasoning for what she does. I think she truly does see a change in you." Freeze said softly, her gaze soft and gentle.

Cynder nodded. "Thanks," she said. "Anyway, the sun's going down. I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright, goodbye," Pyron called as Cynder turned and walked home.

"Cynder, wake up," an unfamiliar voice said, cutting through Cynder's sleep.

She slowly opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar red dragon. His breath was hard and voice trembling as he tried to wake her. Cynder's eyes adjusted and saw that the red dragon had three large, bronze, crown-like horns on his head which turned backwards in a similar fashion to Spyro's. His chest scales, tailblade and back spines were also bronze, but the most peculiar thing about this fire dragon was that he had purple eyes. Most fire dragons had red or orange eyes. "Who the hell are you?" Cynder asked.

The dragon didn't answer her, but instead, gave a little yelp as a large explosion boomed above their heads. It was then that Cynder realised where she was. Warfang. Not another siege, Cynder thought.

But it was a siege. And it was night, too. The bright moon Adrano was absent from the sky, the green, ghoulish light of Zella shining down on Warfang. Dark dragons with green stripes were everywhere, shooting green liquid in every direction. Poison? Cynder thought. Poison dragons?!

The odd fire dragon's voice ripped through her thoughts. "Get up, Cynder!" he cried as a poison dragon lunged at him, knocking him to the ground.

Cynder attempted to pick herself up off the ground, but something was stopping her. Pain. She looked down at her body to see bleeding wounds all over her body. What happened?! Cynder thought, beads of sweat beginning to form around her forehead.

Eventually, she managed to stand up, but was knocked to the ground as a poison dragon attacked her, pinning her to the ground, her chest and belly exposed to the razor-sharp claws that were already digging into her shoulders. She winced at the sight of the savage glare and hideous grin on the dragon's face, drool pooling around its lips and small droplets of venom dripping off its fangs in long strings which vibrated with the heavy breath the dragon exhaled. With all her might, Cynder used her hind legs and pushed upwards, sending the poison dragon flying off her. She got up quickly and let out a loud shriek as she sent pulsating red sound waves towards the poison dragon.

Or… tried to, anyway.

Nothing came out of her mouth except a normal scream. However, the scream was enough to faze the poison dragon, but not for long. She crouched, prepared to attack the poison dragon physically until a loud shout stopped her. A shadowy dragon, the exact same one to the one in her very first nightmare, had thrown the fire dragon she had seen earlier to the ground. The fire dragon begged pitifully to the shadow-cloaked dragon, but it ignored his cries.

And, while Cynder was distracted, she felt claws cut into her side, and everything went black. Red eyes appeared, followed by one word.

"Reunion."

Cynder shuddered as she awoke. She had already witnessed the horrors of that siege, for she had already seen it in her first nightmare, so she wasn't as horror-stricken as she was before. But the dragon. The very odd fire dragon that was telling her to get up. Who was he? The voice said 'reunion'. Do I know that dragon? Cynder thought.

She went to go wake up Spyro but stopped as she felt Forzen stirring beside her. She looked down at the purple hatchling with worry. Have I awoken him? I wasn't as scared by that nightmare, but I shuddered. He might have woken up, Cynder thought.

Forzen kicked out with a high-pitched grunt, and rolled over, falling silent as he breathed softly through his nose. There was a wide smile etched across his face, and Cynder sighed with relief that she hadn't woken him. She turned to Spyro, who was sprawled out on his back, jaws open and tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Spyro, wake up," she said quietly, shaking Spyro, but he stayed asleep, so she tried again. "Hey, Spyro. Wake up."

Spyro let out a quiet mumble and twitched, but he didn't wake up. Cynder swatted him across the cheek, which caused his eyes to open abruptly as he brought in a large intake of breath, which released a sound somewhere between a snort and a hoarse wheeze. Spyro winced and brought a paw to his neck, which was pained from his snort. He looked up at Cynder, who was trying without prevail to hide her smirk. "What was that for?" Spyro asked.

"I had another dream. It was one of those ones, but this one wasn't as frightening as the others, however. But I am just as confused about it as the others," Cynder explained.

"You should go tell the guardians," Spyro said, getting up.

"No, stay here. We have a son now, remember? I'll go by myself," Cynder snapped quietly, receiving a scowl from Spyro. "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself, okay?"

And with that, Cynder turned and left, leaving Spyro and Forzen alone. She walked towards the Warfang Temple in the dark of night, the full moons looming eerily over her. She shuddered. How can such a beautiful place like Warfang fall so much? It looked even worse than in the Dark War when Spyro and I fought the Golem, Cynder thought.

She entered the Warfang Temple and walked down the hall to the guardians' rooms. She knocked on Terrador's door, calling out as she did so. "Terrador? Come out, please. I had another nightmare."

There was a pause, and then the door opened, revealing the tired earth guardian. "Cynder. Come in," Terrador greeted, and Cynder walked into the room. "What's wrong?"

"I had another nightmare," Cynder repeated.

"Oh. O-o-okay. I'll go fetch Volteer and Cyril," Terrador said, leaving quite quickly.

Terrador returned after a while, with two very tired guardians by his side. By the looks of it, Cyril just wanted to cut to the chase. "Go on. What happened?" Cyril asked.

"Well, first off, I saw the siege on Warfang again. The same one as the one I had in my first nightmare. Well, at least I think it was the same one. The dragon of shadows was there, too, but there were some things that were in my dream that confused me," Cynder explained, before going on to recall her dream. "I wasn't frightened when I woke up, as I'd already experienced those horrors in my first nightmare. But the odd fire dragon was something that really confused me. I don't know what it's all about."

"Intriguing. The odd thing that I get from it was the word 'reunion' at the end of your nightmare. You may know this dragon, though you may not know it," Terrador suggested.

"That's what I thought, too," Cynder said. "But the question is, who is that dragon?"

"And what could his begging cries mean, as well?" Cyril questioned.

"This is all very perplexing, but I suggest we must leave research and speculation until the morning. I'm dreadfully and incredibly exhausted," Volteer yawned.

"I agree. Can you come and see us in the morning, if possible?" Terrador asked.

"Yes, I think that's possible," Cynder replied.

"Okay, that's all settled. You can return home now," Terrador said.

"Alright. See you guys later," Cynder said, turning and leaving the Warfang Temple to go home.

As she went home, her thoughts lingered on the six nightmares she'd had. What do they all mean? she thought. I really need to get to the bottom of these nightmares, or I could be dreading it.

To 'IllusionMaster17', last chapter was only the beginning of the horror/gore content. It gets much worse, trust me. This story's quite dark, therefore there'll be a lot of devastating scenes, most of which will be character deaths (there's a lot in Demonised alone, not including the other four parts of Purple Legacy). Forzen's birth was also something I really enjoyed writing, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

To 'Derick Lindsey', the 'torture' nightmare's probably as intense as they get, but each nightmare will still be enough to send a shiver down Cynder's spine at least, something that not much can do given Cynder's past. The 'torture' nightmare also comes across as incredibly bad as it's one of three (I think) nightmares that I explain in complete detail as Cynder experiences it. It's also good to see conflicting opinions on Forzen; I can see why you're still sceptical. For his real purpose, you'll just have to wait and see… just like that grey dragon.

Anyway, all that's done. See you soon, depending on how quickly I get this action sequence I'm working on written.