I uploaded this chapter to the site and found it had been turned into a terrifying wall of gibberish. I've been messing around with it to try to fix it, but I may have missed some things. If some words are in bold, but look like they shouldn't be, then let me know. If any code language is still here, or anything else that is weird, I'd be grateful if you told me. :D

Story now:

"This reunion is touching, but we have more pressing matters to attend to."

Cynder glanced at Flare, then at Cyril; wondering if the ice dragon had somehow changed his voice. But no, he looked surprised as well. Flare was the one who had spoken.

Volteer looked at Flare with concern. "You don't seem exactly pleased..."

"I'm feeling a lot of things at the moment." Flare said stiffly.

Cyril raised an eyebrow at her, seeming doubtful.

Flare frowned at him. "What? We don't have time to waste on this. I'll sort out my numerous issues with Imperia and her behaviour later on."

"I agree, however I'm slightly surprised to hear you say it." Cyril said. "You have more self control than I thought you did."

Flare didn't deign to respond to that directly, she instead looked at Volteer. "Don't worry about me."

"I'm worried." Imperia put in, gazing at Flare with concern.

"You should be." Flare told the silver dragoness.

Imperia responded with a hesitant giggle and looked away, but there seemed to be some sort of understanding between her and Flare. Imperia knew she was in trouble, but she was on speaking terms with Flare still; at least until Flare thought that the world was safe enough for the two of them to sort things out.

"Now, we all need to talk about Spyro." The fire dragoness said, turning to look at Cynder.

"Are you sure?" Ignitus asked the fire dragoness. "We can give you and Imperia some time alone I'm sure, if you want it."

Flare shook her head mutely.

"Very well..." Ignitus said eventually. "I suppose that with that out of the way we should find and talk to Malefor."

From the top of the room a dragon cleared their throat, Cynder glanced up at the spiral stairs Malefor had left by, the purple dragon was barely visible standing on the top steps. "I've been listening since I heard the door open." He made his way slowly down the stairs until he reached the floor. "I wasn't originally planning to eavesdrop, but once I knew Cynder and Imperia were no longer alone I felt that my presence might be needed at any moment."

Nobody replied. Cyril attempted to catch Malefor's gaze, planning to stare him down, but Malefor's eyes roamed over the group, not giving him a chance. Flare watched the purple dragon calculatingly, while most of the others were looking fearful or unsure. Imperia had hidden her head under Volteer's wings, while Volteer and Cynder looked mildly friendly, or at least not hostile.

"You all have good reason to be nervous, and little reason to trust me. But I mean no harm to any of you, and even without proof of that I assume that you're all aware Spyro is a much greater danger than I am." The purple dragon chuckled softly.

"If you wanted to destroy the world you'd have done it already, but Spyro will be figuring out how to do it right now, probably." Cynder said, although the words felt completely abnormal coming from her mouth. The idea of Spyro destroying the world was just… wrong. "It seems like he's still as smart as usual, even though he's turned dark."

"That's not entirely true." Malefor responded. "Destroying the world is a very difficult and time consuming feat. I would need months of preperation, perhaps longer, and Spyro having to learn it all by instinct could take him years. He would need to master the art of creating living beasts from stone, fire and magic. I imagine he might try his skills at creating orcs, but I doubt he would succeed without practice."

Cynder nodded in understanding.

"If Spyro were to send a golem against us, then I would be slightly worried about him being able to create a Destroyer, but creating a golem even if you know how to do it can take a week or more. I was fortunate in my time, to discover ancient forgotten constructs far below the surface of the earth. A small army of pre-made soldiers. The Dark Master copied their design when he was building the golem that attacked Warfang, he did not invent it himself."

"Sometimes you speak as if it was you, and sometimes you speak as if it was another dragon." Volteer said thoughtfully. "Are you trying to indemnify your identity?"

Malefor was taken aback. "Am I trying to… what?" He knew, roughly, what Volteer had asked him, but the electric dragon continued before Malefor had a chance to collect his thoughts and respond.

"Indem- ah… erm… Avoid responsibility for what you once did? I for one won't hold you responsible for any atrocities, crimes or acts of villainy that your dark self committed, performed, caused or intended."

"I see..." Malefor glanced at the others, checking to make sure that he wasn't the only one thrown by Volteer's strange personality. "Well I'm not attempting to do that. The change between myself and my dark form was not immediate or complete. Spyro's won't be either. He will fade between his two personalities, and for the most part he'll be aware of what his dark side has done."

"You mean he could come back?" Cynder asked.

"Yes, and I expect that he will several times over the coming months. If we haven't been able to help him by then. It was during the times when I regained control from the Dark Master that I made and enacted my plan to seal myself away from the world. Spyro will almost certainly try to do the same thing. Hopefully he comes back here and hands himself over to us; but Dark Spyro may not allow him to do that."

"Yes I can imagine that going poorly." Volteer agreed. "We don't seem adequately prepared for the eventuality of Dark Spyro turning up here uninvited, even if he only does it because Spyro tried to surrender."

"So what will he do?" Cynder asked. "You know Dark Spyro, and we know Spyro, so surely between us we can figure out where he'll be."

"I expect he'll have sought out somewhere isolated, and probably somewhere he feels safe. I believe he was raised in a swamp? I expect he'll have returned there."

"Or perhaps the dragon temple..." Volteer mused.

"There is nothing but a crater left in it's place, and I doubt he'll go there; but it's worth searching." Malefor agreed.

"Searching? We want to search for him?" Cyril asked sceptically.

"He'll find us easily enough once he's ready to take us on, so we might as well try to find him first." Malefor responded. "We'll need search parties looking for wild orcs, and any other signs of Dark Spyro attempting to develop his powers."

"For posterity's sake I'd like to just let you know that there is a network, a labyrinth, a whole maze of tunnels below the dragon temple. Parts of it will still be there, maybe even most of it." Volteer said.

"Well that makes it all the more important that we search it."

"These search parties you speak of would be Warfang dragons? I can't be the only one who objects to the idea of Malefor placing so much as a single one of our dragons in harms way." Cyril said curtly.

"Agreed." Flare said. "However as soon as we tell them what we're looking for we will have more volunteers than we can handle."

"What?" Cynder looked puzzled. "Why?"

Flare looked at the black dragoness, managing a faint smile. "Regrettably you've never known much kindness from the general populace of Warfang, but there are many dragons there who would willingly risk their lives to help Spyro. Even after years everyone is still grateful for what he's done, and his reputation for being kind and helpful has only grown stronger over time." Flare told her.

"I see… That's nice, although it certainly doesn't make me feel all that much better about how 'popular' I am." Cynder said, letting only the tiniest hint of bitterness into her voice. She doubted she'd have much enjoyed being hailed as a hero, but at least it would have been nice to get the chance to try it. Besides, no matter how much she disliked it surely it would have been better than being hated.

Ember, who hadn't thought she had anything to add to this conversation, saw her chance to make a small contribution. "It's ok Cynder. You've convinced me, and the rest of Warfang should be pretty easy compared to that." She wrapped a comforting wing over the black dragoness' narrow shoulders.

Cynder responded with a grateful smile, and Ember felt a small glow of happiness in her chest. Perhaps her contribution wasn't as small to Cynder as she'd thought.

"So we have almost certainly got volunteers to look for Dark Spyro." Flare gazed at Malefor. "Would they be in danger if they found him?"

"I can't be sure." Malefor said reluctantly. "He has the ability to detect, hunt and kill almost anyone who finds him. But I doubt he will be on his guard, and even if he does realise someone has found him it's possible he will ignore them or let them go."

Cyril huffed. "Oh yes it's possible, but is it likely? Dark Spyro is a savage, a monster."

"Perhaps… but he is still Spyro." Malefor said. "I expect that he'll be more familiar than you think."

Cyril continued to look annoyed, but he sighed and looked away. "If dragons, who are aware of the risk, do in fact volunteer; then I'll organise the search parties. Somebody trustworthy needs to be taking care of their safety."

Malefor ignored Cyril's thinly veiled insult. There was more that he needed to explain, perhaps the most important thing of all.

"Dark Spyro will be looking for something to do with his power. The Dark Master took the things that were important to me and tried to accomplish them in his own way, he was obsessed with his… with… his studies of convexity."

"You're not telling us something." Volteer said immediately. Malefor's hesitation was obvious,

"You're right. It's not something important for you to know or else I would tell you. In fact it is something I strongly advise you to not ask about."

"A sensitive subject?" Volteer queried.

"Yes." Malefor responded coldly. "All that matters is that Dark Spyro will want to find something to do. We should try to get to him before he chooses to do something… aggressive."

Hope stretched his wings, hissing softly, his demeanour was confident and intimidating.

Suna watched, uncomfortable. He knew something was very wrong, both from Spyro's words and from his appearance. He glanced at Ceara, the blue fire dragoness who had brought Spyro here, right into the centre of Shattershelf, she looked terrified.

"We need to have a chat about Cynder?" Suna repeated what Hope had told him. "That's good. I hope she's ok, she was pretty worried for you when I last saw her."

"She was ok, for a while. But then she was scared of me. I can't let her be scared of me, can I? You understand."

"Well… I can sort of understand why she might have been scared of you. You're honestly looking a little bit creepy right now, Spyro. Do you need a doctor or anything?"

"Appearance. Yes." Hope said thoughtfully. "I wonder if Cynder would think you look better than I do. I wonder if she would care… You are a handsome male."

"Uhh, yes..." The fire dragon nodded.

"Are you popular with females? You act like you are." Hope glanced briefly at Ceara, and thought he noticed the faintest of blushes, although it could have just been because she was afraid.

"Spyro I don't like where this conversation is going. You weren't this jealous before. Cynder isn't the only girl who I've flirted with recently if that's what you want to know. Still if it means so much to you personally then I'll leave her alone."

Hope laughed. "I'm not jealous! You think I'd be scared of losing Cynder to you? You are nothing. I'm only here because you can be of use to me."

"Of use?" Suna asked warily.

Ceara took this opportunity to scamper away, darting out of the training ground as quickly as she could go. Suna didn't blame her for running, although he really desperately hoped that she had the good sense to call the city guards. Hope noticed her leave, but he didn't care, he barely even thought of her.

"You can be useful. Although I don't need you to be alive." Hope grinned. He began to advance, then circled left, inviting Suna to match his movements.

Suna circled to his left, keeping himself at an equal distance from Hope. He hesitated momentarily once his back was to the exit, trying to decide if he should make a break for it.

"Try it." Hope chuckled.

Suna took a step backward, crouching slightly as he did so. Hope took a step forwards, only to yelp and cover his face with a wing as Suna spat a fireball at him. The flames stuck harmlessly to Hope's scales, only annoying him. He growled at the other dragon, lowering his wing as he stepped forwards again, only for another fireball to hit him directly on his head. The impact was painful this time, but still no threat, however it was enough for Suna to turn tail and dash towards the door.

Hope hissed in anger, the wind coiled around him and launched him forwards. He accelerated after the other dragon, slamming into him clumsily but forcefully.

Both dragons went sprawling, but Hope rolled to his feet in between Suna and the door.

"You'd have to go through me, little dragon."

"Spyro please, I don't want to fight you. We said we were friends."

"I'm not Spyro, and the dragons who he claimed to befriend mean nothing to me. I'm what Spyro was always meant to be, finally free of his confusion, his fear, and his undeveloped morality. My name is Hope."

Suna frowned. "Hope?"

"Yes?"

"Sorry, I'm just questioning your name choice. It's not exactly a scary name." Suna did a nervous yet surprisingly accurate imitation of Hope's voice. "Abandon all hope, fool who dares to challenge the mighty… Hope?" He trailed off, shrugging helplessly.

"I see." Hope laughed. "I'll ask Cynder what she thinks of that. However I never actually wanted an intimidating name. I am hope in more than just my name. Someday everyone will understand."

"Now that was scary." Suna admitted.

Hope laughed and began to stalk towards the fire dragon. When Spyro had sparred against Suna he had used his speed to his advantage, because the other dragon was better in close combat. But Hope had no disadvantage, he could do whatever he wanted.

Suna backed away slightly, but realised that he didn't really have any choice besides fighting. As Hope closed in he suddenly darted forwards. Hope was ready for him, but Suna slid to one side at the last moment and slashed the purple dragon on the foreleg with his tail.

Hope yelped in surprise, but lashed out with a counterstrike that sent Suna sprawling on the ground. He glanced at his scales, almost disappointed that Suna had done no damage. He would have liked to see it heal.

Suna felt even more fearful now that he'd experienced just how physically strong Spyro had become. His side was bruised, although nothing had been broken. He rubbed his ribs, trying to stop himself from going numb as he got to his feet. "Ouch..."

"It's impressive, isn't it? I wonder how strong I am, exactly." Hope darted forwards, Suna slashed him on the jaw hard enough to draw blood, but Hope simply slammed Suna's head into the ground and stunned him.

Suna groaned and struggled, but he could do nothing; Hope stood on his throat. The dark purple dragon examined the blood on his cheek, licking it off even as the wounds began to heal. It was healing faster than his wounds had after his fight with Malefor, but it was still frustratingly slow.

A clamour from the door drew Hope's attention. Dozens of fire dragons had come running into the room and were shouting for him to back away from Suna. He ignored them, until Asha walked through the group and approached him.

She was barely worth talking to, but at least she was more interesting than the guard dragons. Hope gave her a smile. "I hear that you've been promoted. I'm disappointed that Magmar is dead, I would have liked to test my abilities on him before confronting Flare."

"What's the meaning of this?" Asha asked sternly. She seemed utterly unintimidated by Hope; which impressed the purple dragon a little bit. "Spyro, you're speaking nonsense and threatening dragons who you've only ever been kind to in the past. I can understand your dislike for my dead brother, but this is taking things too far."

Hope laughed. Asha was so serious and commanding. She was as powerless as she was ignorant, but she had courage. "I hate your dead brother for daring to harm Cynder. But this has nothing to do with that, and my name isn't Spyro."

"Dark Spyro." Asha hissed. Most of the guards seemed to understand the significance of what she'd said, and some of them had already worked it out for themselves. A ripple of fear passed through the squad.

"Call me Hope. And if you don't like my name then I'll tear your head off." Hope turned back to Suna. "Sorry about the interruption. What were we doing again?" He laughed. "Nevermind, I don't care. I am curious to know if I actually could pull a dragon's head off. So unless you have any objections I'll use you as a test subject, okay?"

Suna's eyes went wide with terror, despite Hope standing on his throat he managed to choke out a word."Cynder..."

Asha began to stride forwards, there was no way she would allow Hope to try his threat without a fight.

Hope, however, couldn't ignore what Suna had said, he lifted his foot so the fire drake could speak. "What about her?"

"Won't she be angry if you kill me?" Suna asked desperately. Hope seemed very concerned about her, so if he had Cynder's protection then maybe he would be able to keep his head attached for a little while longer.

Hope faltered. "Well… no?" He didn't sound certain. His voice suddenly returning to a much more natural tone. "I'm doing this to show her I care. She wouldn't be angry would she?" He gazed down at Suna with a frown. "She did seem to like you. Like a pet, or a plaything, maybe? I shouldn't take that away from her."

Asha stopped, seeing that Hope had become less aggressive. Suna nodded to him, but didn't dare to speak.

Hope sighed in annoyance. "I can't kill you. But that's the whole reason I came here. What do I do now?" He glanced over at Asha, but kept his voice low enough that only Suna could clearly hear him. He ran a claw over Suna's scales, testing their hardness. "It's a bit embarrassing, isn't it?"

"Spyro?" Asha asked warily. "Are you able to hear me?"

"That's a good question." Hope responded to her. "But I'm still in control if that's what you were wondering." His mood brightened considerably as an idea struck him. "I know how to make sure I didn't waste my trip! I'm sure that Cynder will be fine with it. If it really bothers her then she can just look at you from only your right side."

"My right si-?" Suna began, but then Hope grabbed his left wing in a crushingly tight grip. "Wait! No! Spyro no!"

"Well I have to do something." Hope said in a reasonable sounding voice.

He yanked on Suna's wing, and the fire dragon screamed in pain. Asha spat a fireball and began to charge at him, but Hope used a fury of lightning to force her to remain at a distance. The fireball burned his shoulder but he didn't even notice. He gave Suna's wing a twist, feeling muscles snap and bones creak.

It wasn't easy, a dragon's wings were firmly attached, and their bones were very strong. Hope twisted it again, he was using far more of his strength then he had assumed he would need. Eventually something gave out, and Hope felt Suna's wingjoint break. Suna was screaming constantly now, struggling as hard as he could but with no success.

Suna's scaly hide, as well as some tendons, were all that kept his wing attached now, the young fire dragon was crying uncontrollably. Hope grunted with effort as he yanked again, even harder, and finally the wing came tearing free.

He dropped it, panting slightly, and wiped blood off his paws. "Well that was interesting. Let Cynder know that I visited. Asha, I hope to kill you someday soon; but until then I bid you good day and have a nice life." He gave Suna one final kick. "Stop crying, it'll be regrown in about a year, assuming I haven't changed my mind and killed you by then."

The dark dragon gave Asha and her guards a mocking bow, then glanced around.

"Now how do I get out of here? Or more accurately… how many of you do I need to kill before Asha will let me out of here?"

Asha gestured to three dragons. "Go and clear the streets along the path from here to the gates."

"And don't forget to set a few traps while your at it." Hope said coldly.

Asha hesitated, and Hope stalked up to her.

"Nobody leaves except me." He ordered. "Unless you want to lead the way?"

Asha nodded. "Very well, I'll lead you out of the city." She turned and walked towards the door.

Hope followed at a polite distance, although he was quite confident he'd be able to kill her before she could react if he wanted to. Asha walked stiffly, leading him out of the room and down the corridors of the city. She curtly gestured everyone out of the way when they crossed her path. "You're angry, aren't you?" Hope said. "Is it because you hate feeling helpless? I can walk in here and pull a dragon's wing off, and all you can do is be a glorified escort." He laughed.

"I hope that the Warfang dragons can save you, but if they can't then I will be forced to hunt you down and kill you."

"An empty threat, I think. But don't worry, I won't take it personally." Hope laughed again.

They walked through the streets without incident, and soon reached the city gates. Asha ordered the main gates to be opened for him. Hope didn't let his guard down until he was standing just outside.

"No tricks or traps? I'm surprised at you." He said with a smile.

"I was tempted to try some of them, but it would have had to be an attempt to kill you, as we have no traps suitable for taking prisoners. But out of respect for what Spyro and Cynder did for us I decided to let you live."

"You keep telling yourself that. I'll see you again later." Hope laughed and spread his wings, taking to the air and flying away.

He had done good work already. Suna wouldn't die, but Cynder would undoubtedly appreciate and understand what he was trying to show her. It was perfect.

But maybe… maybe she needed to be reassured, she wasn't thinking on his level yet. Perhaps he ought to tell her, face to face.

What is Malefor hiding? Will Hope go to Cynder, and what will he do if he does?

I have a song planned out for Hope, another song that is, but the time is not yet right.

I'm planning to try my hand at drawing another pretty picture, of Cynder and Spyro this time. Wish me luck!

-4Dragons