Reviewer Response:

To Etron5 and Obiben27: Thanks! I'm glad you two are enjoying it.

To Sol1234: I wish you didn't casually drop spoilers in the reviews...

Chapter 3: Prophetic and Unpleasant Visions

Theme song: Shadows — Red

Spyro held up his promise. Together, he and Cynder took flight from Warfang to more of the Dragon Realms in search of a potential future place to call their own. The dynamic duo had traveled quite the distance due to Cynder's wind element providing the both of them a greatly appreciated boost in their flying speed.

Their first day out exploring had brought them all over the inland areas of the Dragon Realms, even re-visiting places that they had been before, Avalar being one of them. Both had considered the prospect of a house or a den there in the valley specifically, but after careful consideration, decided against. Sure, it was closer to civilization, however the charm of being out in the wilderness with nothing to rely on but each other was a more fulfilling prospect.

They searched high and low, finding tall, snow capped peaks, beautiful vistas to behold, lush forests of deciduous and evergreen trees, and rolling fields of wild grains. Each of these locations were wonderful, especially those that beautifully mixed the forests with the mountains. If they had not been in a particularly adventurous mood, then the two would have likely not gone any further than what they did.

The next day, they shifted their priorities to sight-seeing, having seen more than enough land to suffice their desire to migrate. After a leisurely day of flying, they finally rested on the cliff tops of the northern shore.

It was a sparsely populated area, being far away from civilization of all types as the villages were largely reliant upon their lifestyle to survive. The villages were few and far between, having their numbers significantly lowered when the world's fracturing caught the residents off guard. With lack of warning, they were especially devastated. When the world was restored, very few of the survivors stayed on the coast to continue living life on the sea.

Regardless of this, Spyro and Cynder leisurely flew over the coastline, taking in the beautiful sight that was the setting sun, the orange rays reflecting off the water's shimmering surface.

"Hey, Cynder, it's getting dark. You wanna land for the night?"

The black dragoness hummed for a moment. She thought over the options before them. They could land, or they could keep flying, perhaps even around the entire coastline of the Dragon Realms if they wanted too. Well, she could with elemental assistance. While night flying under the stars was an appealing thought, being a witness to them as they slowly passed over in the sky was a more appealing option.

She was in agreeance. "Yeah… it's best that we get our rest."

Spyro nodded in reply, ceasing to beat his wings as together they glided to the earth below. Once on the ground, he folded his wings up by his side and let out a big sigh of contentment. He was satisfied with their flight. It was moments with her that made him enjoy the most mundane of things.

He slowly padded up to the coastal cliff top and plopped down in the soft grass, patting the ground beside him. Cynder giggled a little bit, taking up a position next to them as they both looked out at the ocean, the not-so-distant waves crashing against the shore below providing an ample ambience. The sun was setting, and the fiery orange and red of the sky and its reflections on the water diminished, while the stars of the night sky above them became brighter and brighter. Together, they silently watched the last bit of daylight slip beneath the waters of the horizon, leaving only the moons and stars above them as a soft light source.

In their silence, Cynder's mind began to wander. "Spyro…" she began, then paused.

"Yeah, Cyn?"

"I-I know this might be a really dumb question, do you think there something more than just the realms out there? Like, other lands out there that we've yet to discover?"

He blinked at the topic of the question, but he understood what had influenced her line of thinking. "Well… The White Isle is out there… but that's not what you are asking, is it?" he replied with a slight chuckle.

"No, silly," Cynder giggled. "Islands are great and all, but I'm thinking of something much bigger."

He remained quiet, thinking over the question. His mind went back to the White Isle once again, going over the strange circumstances of how he even arrived there in the first place.

It was after the gauntlet and gladiator-like battles on the Fellmuth arena ship, the… sunken?... flagship of the Skavengers. It was in Scab's stateroom and personal money horde that Spyro glanced at the map that would eventually lead him to the Isle. Or was it? It was only a quick glance, and having to jump from ship to ship in the pirate fleet didn't help anything either. Better yet, what was the scale of the map? Was there any charting information on the map that would allow him to orient himself?

With some solid recollection, the purple dragon came to the realization it was nothing short of a miracle that he had even reached there in the first place given the odds.

"Well, the world is a big place, so there's always the possibility…" he noted. "I'm sure you've seen more places than— " He paused before he continued. Cynder had become more comfortable about her past as the years passed on, but it was still a touchy subject. He shied down a little, mentally beating himself up over the causal slip-up and mention of her past.

But Cynder wasn't so easily phased by the indirect mention of it. She nuzzled up closer to him for reassurance. "It's fine… we can talk about it…"

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking sorrowfully into her teal eyes, not being so forgiving on himself.

"I'm sure…" she reaffirmed. Spyro gave her a nod, waiting for her to speak, which she did, looking out towards the ocean as she recalled the memories. "I had seen many places before we met… years of traveling from place to place, depending on where ever I was told to go. I had seen a lot of different places. Jungles, rolling foothills and alpine mountain ranges, wide winding rivers and sprawling river deltas… and the list goes on. I've seen a lot…" She let out a sigh.

"Do you think that we might come across them when we venture out again?" Spyro forwarded the suggestion.

Cynder shook her head. "Only if I could remember exactly where those places were. I rarely ever went to those places that often; maybe once or twice and that's it. I can't even remember what I was ordered to do there either…" She began to feel the first bit of unease wash over her as she recalled the memories, her expression dropping. Even though there were fragments of recollection of what she did, she couldn't help but worry about what she did there that she could not recall.

Seeing this, Spyro took action. He nuzzled her neck gently and placed his paw on top of hers. "Hey… what's happened has happened, and it was a long time ago…" he soothed. "If anything, it is a blessing that you cannot remember what you did there. If it were up to me, I would make sure that you'd never have to worry about another bad memory ever again…"

The black dragoness sat there in silence as she contemplated what her boyfriend had told her. His logic made sense, but it still didn't numb the pain. She may never remember what she did in those places. Maybe she will. But now was not the time to dwell on the past where there was so much to look forward to in the future. The average lifespan of a dragon was three-hundred years, giving them at least two-hundred eighty years of life left to live. With that in mind, she let those unpleasant thoughts go.

When her expression returned to normal, Spyro softly grinned, snuggling up a little closer to her as he yawned. Flying was much easier when you were with someone that could will the winds to her desire, but that didn't take away from the fact that it was still physically strenuous. "I think I'm ready to call it a day… What about you, Cyn…?"

Before she could get the chance to answer, she gave a yawn of her own. She chuckled a little. "I guess I will be joining you then…" Her body shifted, snuggling into his warmth and wrapping one of her wings over him. Spyro did the same, placing one of his over top of hers.

Together in their mutual warmth, they slowly began to drift off as the sound of the ocean not too far away sang its lullabye.

/\/\/\

The black dragoness expected to find herself in the fanciful lands that would comprise her dreams. However, to say that she was surprised to see herself in a very unfamiliar place was an understatement. It was not any normal dream or the occasional nightmare. There was too much lucidity to this, but unlike a lucid dream, this one was firmly out of her control.

Her eyes looked around the landscape, or lack thereof. This place had a very ethereal feel, one unlike any other experience that she had ever had before. All around her, as far as her eyes could see, were the stars and the heavens, and other celestial objects being able to be seen in precise detail. Even the Celestial moons, Adrano and Zella, were at eye level and below respectively. She shook her head in disbelief and focused on the objects closer to her.

Around her were floating platforms of cold, grey stone that was illuminated by an omnipresent and unseen source of soft white light. Each of the floating platforms had their respective ruins on them, each with a various degree of dilapidation to them. Some were in pristine condition, almost as if they were constructed by their original builders not one minute ago, and others that gave off the appearance of centuries, if not millennia of degradation. In the distance, there was a larger structure, with architecture that resembled the temple in the swamp.

Oddly, she felt… drawn to the temple, like she was meant to go there. Perhaps there she could find answers as to what this place was and why she was here in the first place.

There was a clear line of platforms and ruins leading up to the temple-like building, and she followed it. No puzzles or traps were found whatsoever, as the many platforms that floated about were solely for aesthetic purposes. One platform of ruins after another, and finally, she had arrived at the ruined temple complex.

She was highly disappointed to see that it too was in complete ruins, despite the exterior being in a much better condition. It was a facade, one that lured her in and left her underwhelmed when the interior did not hold up to the quality of the exterior. She was about to leave when a masculine, disembodied voice called out to her.

"Welcome, young one," it spoke. There was something very familiar about this voice, something that she couldn't quite put her digit on. His voice, she deduced by just those three words, spoke of a wise being, one that knew the answers to questions unanswerable.

The black dragoness was unsure of what to say at first, shying down a little in anxiousness. "Who are you…? And where am I?" she asked in an unnerved tone. Even then, she didn't even know the entity that had brought her there in the first place.

"Fear not, Cynder. I am the Chronicler. I am the one that oversees the timeline, the one that is to record and recall all history. Although, you might have known me by a different name at some time previously… although that doesn't matter now at least…"

It was a good start. She had heard about this Chronicler person, the dragon whose sole duty was to record the history of an age for permanent record. Among his known powers, it was said that he could enter into one's dream and deliver messages and visions. The voice showed no signs of malice or discontent of any kind either.

"Then what is it that you brought me here for? You're here to tell me something, yes?" she questioned, wanting to get right down to business.

"Indeed, Cynder… Take a look into the pool of visions, tell me what you see," the voice ordered, although with no hint of authority in his tone whatsoever. Yet, she did so, as it was for respect alone for this entity that drove her to do it.

The black dragoness slowly walked over to the pool in the center of all of these ruins. It too shared the same state of disrepair. The water inside was a stagnate green color, and it was a wonder that the retaining ring was able to hold in any water at all. Nevertheless, it functioned, and she did as the voice had instructed her to do, peering into the pool and watching for any changes.

At first, there was nothing but her reflection staring back into her teal eyes. Never before had she done anything like this, and the longer it went on, the more she began to doubt that anything was actually going to happen. Then, as she was about to look away and ask if she was even doing it right, the still pool began to change. Her reflection began to shift and morph, slowly reshaping itself into an image that she could take note of.

"Tell me, what do you see in the pool?" the Chronicler asked.

"T-there's a lot to unpack here. I see…"

Cynder began to describe in detail the best she could of what she saw in the blurred image. It appeared to be an army on the move, going down a long, wide road to a dockyard where strange-looking ships floated on the water. The haziness of the image, coupled with the arbitrary monochrome tone of the image made it impossible to see the smaller details of the soldiers in question. But from what she was able to ascertain, the soldiers either wore light armor, or none at all. Every single one of them carried a weapon that rested against their collarbones, each one bearing what appeared to be blades at their tip. Perhaps this was some new kind of spear? It was hard to tell from the literal bigger picture.

There were other details that could be ascertained from the image before her. Behind the marching infantry were what appeared to be cannons of strange construction. For parading purposes, she assumed, they were slightly elevated. Given her previous position as a general in the Dark Army, she had a rough idea of what these armaments were. They were artillery pieces. In her early years, artillery was a newer concept that had only just been introduced. She never got to see its effects in-person, but the reports showed its promise.

Behind them appeared to be the supporting logistical service behind the soldiers and the artillery pieces. There was a mix of animal-drawn carts and carriages and strange automations that required no such animals to move. Out of all of the things that confused her in this image, it was that. But it was just the amount of supplies that were being carried, along with how many ships there were in the harbor, that sent chills down her spine. This was no ordinary movement of supplies. No, this was very much intentional. Before her in the pool, she watched as an army began to mobilize.

"You see, young one… this is a future that is soon to come…" The Chronicler began to speak rather vaguely. While he had the intentions of wanting to continue his train of thought, the black dragoness had other plans.

"So this is what you have foreseen? A new war is coming?" she asked in disbelief. No, there was no way that there was a new conflict brewing, not after her and Spyro sacrificed so much three years ago to end the Dark War. The thought just wouldn't register in her mind.

"Unfortunately so, young one... I have—"

"There's got to be a way that we can stop it. It's not started yet, so there's a chance that we can stop it, right?!" she interrupted, looking up from the pool and expecting her eyes to meet someone else's.

"I am afraid not… I have peered into the many alternate futures in search of one that avoids a future conflict. However, I found none; there is not a single alternate future that avoids this coming conflict. The only thing that we can do is prepare…"

Cynder was left in shock. The Chronicler, the one that could peer into futures, see the lives of every dragon and record them, the one whose duty it was to chronicle the events of the world, could not find an alternate path they could take. She began to grit her teeth, shaking her head vigorously. She couldn't believe it, not even from a dragon with the duties as the one she spoke with.

"No! I refuse to believe that! You mean to tell me that Spyro and I cannot do anything to bring us on the path of peace? We defeated Malefor at the age of fifteen, both of us, with the odds in his favor! Inaction will result in nothing. If we take action now, then we can stop this war before it even begins!" she ranted indignantly.

The Chronicler sighed. He should have expected this defiant nature from Cynder out of all people. Once he got her worked up, there would be little chance of talking some sense into her.

A fiery determination filled her teal eyes. "There is nothing that we cannot do. What is stopping us from preventing this ahead of time?"

"...Thousands of miles of ocean and a distant land unknown to dragon kind…" the Chronicler admitted grimly, hoping that would change her mind. It didn't.

"Did you not say three years ago that I had gifts most unnatural for a dragon? Among them being wind? With the power of winds at my disposal, flying to this distant place should be no problem whatsoever!" she proclaimed with confidence.

"Are you genuinely planning to fly all of the way there, Cynder?"

"Of course I am! Inaction will not change anything, only action will! You have the gift of foresight, you can — and frankly are — telling us the disturbances in the world, and we can go out and fix them. And if I am being honest with you, Spyro and I saved the world once, and we can do it again."

The Chronicler conceded. "Very well…" The pool of visions before her shifted. When Cynder's eyes returned to the pool of water, she saw that the previous image from before had turned into an image of a map.

The map in the pool of visions was that of the Dragon Realms, or rather, the northern portion of it. A bright blue spot illuminated where presumably she and Spyro had been sleeping on the coast. The rest of the map showed an ocean to the north of them, islands that peppering the ocean, and finally, a large landmass to the north. If her intuition was correct, it was to that land she must go.

"If this is what you truly desire, know that the place you wish to travel to is to the north of here. Be wary, for the climate of this land will be different from our own."

Cynder didn't say a word, mentally studying the map before her to get as much detail as she possibly could, before she looked up from the pool, a confident smile on her face. "I'll show you what we can do. I know that we can change the future!" she exclaimed confidently with a determined look in her eyes. From there, she began to fade from this realm, returning to the waking world.

Once she was gone, Ignitus let out a prolonged and sorrowful sigh. He had foreseen this too, the way that she reacted to the news and her boldness in front of insurmountable odds. He could have easily contacted Spyro instead, but, would that have changed anything when he told her about the message that he had received? Who knows? Perhaps the one thing that Ignitus regretted the most was that he was overcome by an inability to tell her that it was him that was speaking to her.

/\/\/\

Much like the black dragon beside him, Spyro was also caught inside a strange, otherworldly dream.

When he 'came to' in his dream, he found it surprisingly absent of anything and everything. In every direction, there was nothing but the pitch blackness of the void. At least he could still see his body, which seemed to let off a glow just enough for it to be visible, but not enough to illuminate anything else before the darkness consumed it.

At first, he didn't mind it all that much. It was a tad bit unnerving that there was absolutely nothing at all, but at the same time, it felt so surreal. It didn't even feel like he was standing on anything at all, rather, just floating in the empty space. But that surreal feeling didn't last long at all.

Not too long after he awoke, he began to feel a presence there with him. It felt like he was being watched from somewhere, as if there was a creature that resided somewhere there in the darkness. And said darkness made it impossible to know just where he sensed the presence from as there was no solid basis for which direction it was coming from, as there was nothing around to reference for direction. For all he knew, the presence was everywhere.

Tingles rushed down his spine as he felt it creep closer and closer, his tail slowly creeping between his legs. "Spyro…" an ominous voice called out to him, seemingly from all directions. The purple dragon let out a quiet yelp in surprise. The sound of the voice did not help matters either, sounding similar to his own, but distorted, yet at the same time, it had a hit of something foreign to it.

The purple dragon took a few steps back, if that really did anything for him at all. "Who are you? And where am I?" he yelled back into the darkness with a slight quiver to his voice. The source of the ominous voice chuckled back at his inquiries.

"Neither of which matter to you…" it replied back, sounding closer to him than when it first introduced itself. "What matters now is what I am here for, and you know good and well what I am here for…"

The scenery began to shift around him. From the darkness, the physical began to manifest. First came a ring of stone that took the form of a floor to stand on. Next to manifest were ceramic pots with bouts of green fire burning eerily from their openings. It finally hit him what this place was, or at least what it was trying to be.

Finally, in the center of it all, was a beam of energy that gleamed a dark purple. "T-The Well of Souls?" he asked, finding it hard to believe that this dream, or whatever it truly was, would bring him here.

"Funny is it not that the old kook you call the Chronicler once said that those of a blackened heart would refer to that place as such? Has the savior of the world regressed to such a low level?" Again, the voice laughed at Spyro.

For a brief moment, he began to doubt himself. The Chronicler after all was after all the oldest and wisest dragon in the world. Did he really creep towards evil? Spyro shook his head. "No, never!" he shouted back indignantly. Not once did he do anything remotely considered evil "Why don't you show yourself!?"

"Why, I thought that you would never ask."

Almost immediately, a silhouetted form started to manifest inside the purple beam. In the bright glowing light, it was hard to determine what this entity was exactly. Only when the being, a dragon, dropped out of the beam, did the purple dragon realize who, or what it was. Spyro was mortified. The entity in question was like a mirror image of himself, but with some very key differences. His scales were black, and his horns were a tarnished gold. He was a familiar face.

It was none other than his polar opposite: Dark Spyro

Spyro took a few steps back. He knew first hand the powers that Dark Spyro had: the ability to use Dark Aether, the destructive counterpart to Aether, and its creationary properties. He gulped nervously.

"'Tis I, Spyro. I am you," the dark reflection began, strutting around him with an unrivaled confidence. "You know why I am here; I'm the reason why you don't want to leave Cynder's side, because she is the only one that has the capability to stop me." He was brief, but it was more than enough information for Spyro to understand why his dark reflection was before him now.

He bared his teeth at the apparition. "No, I'll never allow that to happen, not now, not ever!" Spyro proclaimed, taking a firm stance despite his fear. Dark Spyro laughed.

"Do you really expect to win against me? Bwah ha ha! You know that you are not strong enough to fight me; you are weak, and I am the superior," he jeered, circling around the purple dragon so casually, yet so threatening. "Give in, Spyro, you know you cannot beat me. Give into me, surrender yourself."

The purple drake continuously turned to face his darker self, not allowing him to get an advantageous position over him. It was defensive in nature, ready to defend against anything thrown at him. It was smart, not charging head-first into the enemy that might easily be able to fell him. He was ready, or at least as ready as he could possibly be.

Dark Spyro however was nearly the opposite, pacing around his purer counterpart, eyeing him with intense concentration, so much so that everything around him faded into the background, the purple dragon in front of him remaining the only thing on his mind.

The dark apparition chuckled. "Fine, if you want to fight so badly, then here," Dark Spyro sat down in front of the normal Spyro, puffing out his chest with an unwavered confidence. "I'm right here, give me your best shot, you weakling!" He taunted him on. It worked.

Flames and smoke began to billow from his mouth and nostrils as the purple dragon prepared to blast away his dark reflection into ashes. Spyro charged up the fire element within him, and gave Dark Spyro absolute hell with a torrent of fire and flames… or so he thought.

After the torrent of fire subsided and the smoke cleared, the end result of his magical might was shown... or rather, the lack of one, save for being covered in black soot. Dark Spyro smirked, raising a paw up and wiping the grime off. That massive fire blast would have likely cremated whoever was on the business end of the attack, yet he stood there like nothing ever happened.

"I've got to admit, Spyro, you managed to get things a little toasty there. But I'm not here to play around," he said with frustration. "I've come close before and failed, having waited and waited for so long to get my chance to finally get what I want, and yet it seems that trying to be the sneaky type isn't going to work. So, I'll give this one chance: surrender now, and I promise that everyone that you know and love will be spared. But resist, I cannot guarantee that will be the case."

The terms were laid out as simply as they could be. Spyro didn't want anyone close to him to get hurt, yet this was his dark reflection that was trying to bargain with him. There was no guarantee that he would hold up to the promise that he had offered to him. He could not consciously make the decision to let him take control knowing the destructive capabilities. He took up a defensive position, and Dark Spyro scoffed.

"You had your chance…" In counter to Spyro's defensive stance, he took up a heavily offensive one. The darkness of the void began to illuminate as Dark Spyro's body began to glow and charge up energy. "Now time to get a taste of your own medicine!" he roared out, a dark purple glow emanating from the back of his throat, and a massive burst of Dark Aether screamed from his maw.

The large beam of Dark Aether crashed through the purple dragon's body effortlessly, atomizing and tearing apart the fiber of his being. Spyro screamed out in agony as he felt the beam tear him apart. When the attack finally ceased, his body was left a mess. His legs were reduced down to bones, with his body being torn to shreds, leaving his organs and tattered muscles to spill out onto the stone floor.

Any attempts Spyro made to writhe in pain were met with failure as there was nothing there that would allow him to move. All he could do was lay there in torment as his dark reflection swaggered over the gruesome mess. "You had your chance, and now you shall live with your choice. If I must do this every night until you finally give in, then so be it." Dark Spyro placed his tail blade under the collapsed dragon's throat.

Fear and pain was the only thing that Spyro felt. Never before had he felt it this intense. Not even Cynder and his fight with Malefor had him on this much edge. Then again, this was no ordinary enemy that he was facing. This enemy was quite literally himself. And while he had firmly lost this fight, he couldn't give up and let his evil side take over.

"I'll… I'll never give in…!" he said in a weak, but defiant voice, a sliver of confidence and bravery showing in his distressed eyes.

"You are brave, young one… but I have more to gain from taking control than you do by keeping me from seeing this through." What could Dark Spyro have to gain from this? After those words left his maw, the dark reflection slashed his tail blade upward, slicing all the way through the neck and decapitating the hero of the realms.

Once the purple dragon's head stopped rolling, the entire place began to fade into nothingness, starting at the edge of the stone ring, then the ceramic pots of green flame, Even the corpse of the purple dragon faded away. Eventually, there was nothing but a void, just like it was when Spyro arrived in this strange place. All that was left was Dark Spyro, now having sat down on his haunches, bowing his head and closing his eyes.

In the void, he spoke to himself. "They are counting on me now… I must not fail, or all is lost…"

A/N: Yeah, that took a bit... but it's finally here. Not much to say on this one, so I'll catch you all in the next chapter

Stay safe, everyone!

-Abyssal