PROLOGUE: A WAR LONG FORGOTTEN

WAR.

It's a concept that humanity is well versed in, something that we've taken part in time and time again. For as long as history can remember, human civilization has known war after war, our world practically being built upon it. It's stuck with us for millennia, following humanity like the plague as we waged battles in its name, thrusting sharp blades of iron into the chests of our enemies; or piercing their flesh and skin with a tiny millimeter bullet.

Throughout the years, there has been no shortage of wars, deadly battles have constantly been started for various reasons throughout our time. People wanting to claim more land for their empire; conquerers trying to take over neighboring countries to gain more power for themselves; dictators attempting to assume control of all the global powers, seeking to steal the world's freedom and put it under oppressive rule.

Wars that burn on for years and years, not stopping until one side loses or surrenders. Grueling battles that claim life after life, spilling blood upon the earth, and leaving the ground stained in crimson. These were the kinds of horrors that left wives widowed, children orphaned, and families fractured. These were the kinds of nightmares that continued unhindered for generations.

From the Roman-Persian Wars as one of the longest battles in human history: to the Pequot war of the new world. To the English and US civil wars that divided nations, and the American revolution in the fight for independence. All the way up to WW1 and WW2, the most deadly and devastating wars ever to affect the world.

Throughout all of human civilization and across history, wars like these have left a great impact on our society. These many skirmishes through our time shaped our world in ways many couldn't have imagined, leaving large marks in the pages of history, and deep scars upon our many lands.

We've been battered, bruised, bloodied, and broken, each and every war only helping to add on to all the pain they've caused us. Every fight and battle that we've endured over the years, has left us with great wounds, gashes that run deep in our memory.

Horrific, nightmarish wars that have scarred us in more ways than one, terrifying events that were some of the hardest things we've ever had to face.

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But, what if someone told you...that all the wars we've fought...all the horrors we've endured, all the lives lost on the battlefield. What if someone were to tell you...

...that they were nothing when set side by side to something that'd happened long ago; what if someone were to tell you, that every war throughout history, paled in comparison, to an event long past.

What if someone were to tell you, that there had been an ancient war...one, that humanity had no memory of whatsoever. A war that was fought not amongst ourselves, but between humanity and another party. A war that was so traumatic, and costly, that the human race had chosen to forget about it altogether - a war we no longer remember, but our opponents do.

What if you were also told, that this war was never resolved, that it had never officially been brought to an end and that our old enemy was looking to finish it.

What if someone were to tell you, that there had been an ancient war, one that outmatched all others we've ever fought, a war that had long since vanished from the pages of history. A war that was more deadly, more terrifying, more costly, and more painful, than any of the ones in recent memory. A war unlike anything the world has ever seen, a war against an enemy the people of earth could never imagine.

A war...that was getting ready to gear up...once again!

The skies above New York City were filled with dark smoke that blotted out the sun. Their source being countless fires that burned all over the island, engulfing everything in turmoil. Craters of various sizes pockmarked the streets of Manhatten, while rubble and burning cars lay scattered all across the roads. Buildings crumbled and collapsed, the victims of an unrelenting assault on the city while people fled for their lives in terror. New York had quickly gone from a bustling city to a war zone, with the ones responsible for all the pain and suffering; responsible for all the death and destruction, continuing their attack on our world.

Military forces had been brought in to fight back against the ones responsible for the attack, tanks rolled heavily through the streets, and fighter jets soared loudly in the skies above the city. But one quick look and it became clear that they were obviously outmatched and outgunned - their forces dropping like flies as they hopelessly tried to beat back this superior foe.

Over in the remains of times square, standing side by side, was a small group of eight remarkable people, fighting against the ones that threatened the safety of the world. They stood as one, a tight-knit team of heroes who had been through hell and had fought tooth and nail to get to this moment; a group of underdogs who had started off as ordinary people, only to become something far greater.

Opposite the group, standing amongst the wrecked billboards and tv screens of the now desecrated tourist attraction, stood the perpetrators of this heinous attack. Dragons of various colors surrounded the group, looking down at them with scowls on their muzzles as their tails and claws twitched anxiously.

One of the dragons, in particular, stood out from the rest, his purple scales unique among the crowd of fire-breathing reptiles. Looking down at the small group of humans, Spyro opened his mouth to speak, his voice coming out as powerful and commanding. "Give up Jace, you can't stop this. Humanity has had it coming for a long time!"

One of the group stepped forward. He was garbed in a white and black outfit that was torn and shredded, while blood seeped out from various wounds on the young man's body. He looked up at the purple dragon with a scowl on his bloody and dirtied face. "That's not going to happen, we're not going to let you do this!" He said firmly.

Standing next to Spyro was Cynder, her obsidian black scales absorbing all the sunlight that managed to break through the heavy cover of smoke overhead. She stared down at Jace, her voice filled with just as much power as Spyro's. "You wanting to protect your world is commendable, heroic even, but your actions here today will amount to nothing! Peace cannot be brought to the universe until this world has fallen!"

"Bringing "peace" by killing us all? Your definition of the word must be completely different than ours!" Snarked Jace's golden-haired teammate, Amber.

"I know what this must look like to you." Spyro began, trying to sway the humans and bring them around. "But trust me, this is the only way forward! In the interest of the greater good, humanity must perish today!"

Jace shot back at Spyro. "I think we all know what you really mean by "greater good", and trust me, there is nothing greater or good about it!"

"ALL of you, for the last time, please step aside. Surrender now and on my word and authority you and your friends will be spared." Cynder offered, what sounded like sympathy in her voice.

Spyro backed her up. "Jace, please! Have you and your team stand down, and the eight of you will be shown mercy. After everything you've been put through to get to this moment, you've more than earned the chance to walk away. Take that chance, your lives will be spared, and you'll be able to live out the rest of your days on some uninhabited planet."

Jace regarded them with heavy skepticism. "And doom our kind to extinction? not a chance! We're not going to let you destroy our world! We will do everything in our power to stop you!" He cried out at Spyro, Cynder, and every other dragon there. "Besides, how are we supposed to know you're even telling the truth, how do we it's not another one of your deceitful lies?"

"There is nothing you can do to stop this!" Spyro roared, spittle flying from his mouth. "You know what your ancestors did!"

"And you, yours!" Jace replied in kind.

Tsunami, a blue seawing looked down at Jace, a baffled look on her face. "There's no way you can win this! Just surrender and make it easier on all of us. Who in the hell do you think you are?"

Jace looked up and met Tsunami's eyes, before turning his gaze to look upon every other dragon there. "Shouldn't you know know that by now; shouldn't you know who we are?" He asked them plainly. "Well, I'll tell you. We are the ones, with the power to stand up to the likes of you; We are the ones, who have the strength to defend those in need. We are the ones, whom the fires of war forged into those capable to fend off the coming storm; We are the ones who, through your actions, discovered the truth, and a way to stop your plans."

"We are the ones who drive fear into your hearts! We are the ones you have dreaded for eons! We are the ones who can take you down!" As he spoke, a soft glow began to emanate from behind his eyes, as powerful energy began to well up within him. "Because we are the FATED!"

How would you react, if the characters from Spyro and Wings of Fire, suddenly opened a portal to Earth, one that connected our world to theirs, a world they shared together. What if, they claimed to have been real all along, watching humanity from afar, and were now extending an olive branch as a symbol of friendship, peace, and prosperity for us.

If you were like the rest of the world, you would have accepted them with open arms, taking their offer of friendship without question and welcoming them into our homes. You would have thought, that this was the most incredible thing to have happened in the history of the world. That dragons were real, and they were here to be friends with us, offering us peace and gifts in a show of good faith.

Or what if, you chose to dig deeper, to look closer than everyone else, and wound up finding something not meant for your eyes. What if, you looked past all the smiles and friendly waves given by the dragons; looked past all the assurances that they just want peace and friendship from us, and you ended up finding something far worse. What if, you found dark secrets and sinister plans that you were not supposed to see. What if, you discovered that all their talk about peace and prosperity was just a big, fat lie; a front for them to work on their true plans - the destruction of humanity.

This is what happened to a small group of eight individuals, they looked closer and discovered the truth. Uncovering a dark conspiracy that upended their lives and turned their world on its head. They found out what the future had planned; a dark foreboding presence on the distant horizon. They learned what the dragons had planned for the human race, and most importantly...

...The means to stop it.

And it all started, with one man.

Droplets of rainwater came pouring down from the night sky, impacting upon the peaceful forest floor with a pitter-patter, as they nourished all the trees, bushes, and flowers like mana from heaven. Aside from the sounds of rainfall, the forest was completely silent, there were no birds chirping or squawking, no insects buzzing, no squirrels squeaking or scurrying along tree branches, there was only the serene picture of rain coming down on a peaceful forest at night.

That peace wasn't to last, however, as a man suddenly came tearing through the dense underbrush, breaking leaves and branches, in a desperate attempt to escape his pursuers. He could hear them chase after him as he ran, hot on his heels as they sought to recapture him after his escape.

He ran as fast as he could through the forest while constantly trying to evade and lose the ones chasing him. He tumbled through the foliage, his muscles and lungs burning unbearably as leaves and twigs lashed against his skin. He clutched a cylindrical device close to his chest, holding it tightly while he ran.

After a few minutes of running, it appeared that he'd lost his pursuers, as the sounds they made as they chased him seemed to gradually die down. Deciding to keep moving to be safe, he kept on running for a while moving in what he hoped was the right direction for where he was trying to get.

Soon, he broke free of the tree line and came to stop at the crest of a grassy hill. Looking out in the distance, he could make out a large clearing, within which was set up a large, open-faced complex. It was filled with machinery and crates, and in the center of the area rested a large ring-shaped portal, which judging by the red glow coming from it, was currently active.

He spotted several dragons all standing guard around the portal, diligently watching over the machine with unwavering resolve. He bemoaned at the sight, they must have been alerted about his escape and increased security around the gateway. He'd been hoping to use it to get home, but now that wasn't an option. So that left him with having to figure out something else, and as he looked at the open portal, an idea came to him. He couldn't use it to escape anymore, but if it was active then maybe he'd be able to get a call through to the other side?

"FIND HIM!" Roared a voice from back the way he'd come - they were getting closer.

Deciding it best to try out his theory later in a safer environment, he quickly left his spot on the hilltop and ran back into the forest for cover. He hurried through the trees once more, running blindly as he tried to get away. It wasn't long before one of his pursuers spotted him and began to chase after him once more. He listened as his pursuers tore through the woods after him, chancing a look back, he saw flashes of purple and gold, and black and magenta.

As soon as he saw them gaining on him, he started pushing his legs to go faster, pouring in everything he had as he tried to get away.

He needed to find shelter, somewhere he could hide out for a while and lay low until they gave up. He couldn't keep running forever, as it stood now, it was only a matter of time until they caught up with him. He needed to figure something out - and fast.

As he ran those thoughts through his head, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and wound up tripping on a tree root. He was sent crashing to the ground, his body smacking painfully on the dirt. The device he was holding flew out of his grip, tumbling a few feet away from him on the rain-soaked soil. He found himself rolling around on the ground in pain, the air forced from his lungs after the sudden fall.

As he groaned in pain and shock from his fall, his eyes happened to fall on an object over to his left. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, it was as if his tripping had a silver-lining to it. From where he lay, there rested a cave opening not twenty feet away from him, inviting him closer like a warm fireplace in the middle of winter.

Clutching his chest, he slowly got to his feet, still somewhat dazed from falling. Grabbing the device, he tucked it close, before he made for the cave, hobbling towards it as he sought the shelter it would offer.

He quickly pulled himself inside, narrowly being spotted by the black one as he did so. Crawling to the edge of the cave, he approached a cluster of stalagmites and quickly hid the device among them, making sure it was fully concealed by the towers of rock formations. Once he was confident that it was safely hidden from view, he moved to a different part of the cave to avoid drawing attention to it should he be found.

Reaching for his pocket, he stuck his hand in and pulled out his cellphone. He held it gingerly in his hands, it seemed relatively okay, it didn't appear as if the rainwater managed to get to it. He placed his finger over the power button and attempted to turn it on. At first, there seemed to be no sign that the phone would turn on, as the screen remained blank, but after a few moments of waiting the phone lit up, and he released a sigh of relief.

The light from the phone cast a soft glow on him, illuminating his bronze skin and weary face, as well as his tattered clothing.

Navigating to the little phone icon on the menu, he tapped on one of the contacts he had and brought it up to his ear, while praying for it to work. The line rang for a few moments, and soon a voice came from the other end.

"Hello?"

"Vanessa?" He cried, his voice full of worry and fear. "It's me! You need to listen, you and the rest of the world are in grave danger! Infiscape has done something terrible; they betrayed everyone!"

"Wait, wait! What are you talking about? What's going on?" Came the worried voice of a young woman.

"I'm trying to tell you! Infiscape... the dragons are coming, they are not to be trusted! You need to go into hiding!" He told her urgently. "Infiscape and the dragons will be coming after you next because of your connection to me - you need to hide and lay low!"

"What do you- your not making any sense, you sound crazy!"

"I know I do, but you need to listen to me! You need to hide Vanessa, you need to hide from the dragons and Infiscape, they can't know who you are! And most importantly...!"

"There you are!"

Before he had a chance to finish talking to the girl on the phone, a dragon found him huddled in the cave and quickly dragged him out, causing him to drop the phone in the process.

He was pulled out into the pouring rain once more, where the dragon stood over him, his purple scales almost indistinguishable in the dark.

Spyro glared down at the man with daggers for eyes. "Where is it? Tell me, now!" He demanded.

Swallowing his fears and acting as confident as he could, the man looked up at Spyro and replied. "I'd rather die than tell you!"

"That can be arranged." Came the voice of a female. The man looked in the direction of the speaker and found Cynder approaching him. "Tell us where the device is Anthony." She said in a scolding tone. "We can not allow it to fall into human hands! We can not allow your ilk to rise again!"

Anthony looked at both of them and then shouted. "You're insane if you think I'll help you! You are never going to find it, you can torture me all you want, but I will never tell you!"

"Really? Well, I think you'll find that we can be very...persuasive!" She said ominously. Right after she said that a big Mudwing came crashing through the trees, earning the attention of Spyro and Cynder. Waving down the Mudwing, Cynder nodded her head in the direction of Anthony and spoke. "Clay, will you please take the prisoner to the interrogation room, we need to know where he hid that device." She told him.

Nodding in response, Clay walked forward and clamped his teeth down on Anthony's shirt. Lifting him off the ground, Clay walked off with the man, his screams of protests dying as they faded from sight amidst the treeline.

Cynder spoke. "Infiscape better hurry up and get us access to their world as they promised."

"They will, we just have to wait a little longer until they give the go-ahead. Then we can deny them the chance to rise again." Spyro said, easing her thoughts.

As they left the area, Cynder stated the obvious. "Of course they're going to fight back; they aren't going to just let us destroy their world, they won't be able to stop us, but they'll still try."

Spyro glanced at her, then chuckled. "Yeah, just wait until we make our move, they'll never see it coming, I want to see the looks on their faces when they realize they can't beat us. There is nothing, and no one that can stop us..."

Okay now before you say anything, yes, I know that this is technically a crossover, I even moved it over to the crossover section at one point after starting it here. The only reason I'm moving it back now though was because it was getting hardly any attention over in the other category, I had it there for the batter half of a year, and in that time the interaction was minuscule at best. So like I said, I'm bringing back to the regular fics, where I'm hoping more people will be able to see and enjoy it.

I'm excited for the Fated. Characters like Spyro and the Dragonets of Destiny are usually seen as the good guys, but I've been wanting to see how they'd fare as the antagonists, to see them conspiring against humanity. I've looked, but I just have not been able to find anything like this.

Now, before we go any further with this story, I'd like to clarify one thing: the characters that you'll see in the Fated, like Spyro, Cynder, and Glory, are completely different from the versions that you might be familiar with from the books or games; in this, they are not the same as their canon counterparts - these are darker, alternate versions that do not act like the ones you know. Just wanted to make sure you were all aware of that.

I really hope you like The Fated.

Now, without any further ado - what's an ado anyway? - on with the show.