Broken shards of ice scattered around Cynder, but the portal was already gone, and their chance to capture Hope had gone with it.

Cynder whirled towards Cyril and roared angrily at him. "What was that!? You stopped me!"

Cyril shook his head. "I'm sorry Cynder. But it was too dangerous."

She snarled and turned away, dismissing him even as he tried to keep justifying himself. Instead she turned towards Malefor. "You! Why didn't you warn us that he could do that? We could have had him!"

"Maybe we could have had him if you had told us that he was in the city when you first had a chance." Malefor snapped back.

Cynder took a furious step towards him, she was angry enough to cut his throat, to stab him with a poison that would make his blood boil, to rip his heart straight out of his chest and stamp on it.

She turned again, forcing herself not to give in to her anger. The shadows swirled around her and she vanished.

She emerged in Spyro's room; it was silent and dark, untouched by the fighting. The windows covered by curtains. She walked slowly across the room, curled up in the bed, and screamed into the pillow.

How had everything been going so right, only for Spyro to disappear from them again?

She still had magic, she was barely even tired. With Malefor and Hope both exhausted it should have been easy for her to use the rest of her strength and help from the Guardians to capture Hope.

It was hardly a minute later that she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Hey, it's me. May I come in?"

Cynder wiped her eyes of a few tears and sat up. "Yes of course."

Imperia nudged the door open and stepped inside. She must have excused herself from the rest of the dragons and come directly to Spyro's home. She walked straight to Cynder and sat down in the bed next to her, wrapping a warm and comfortable wing over her shoulders.

"You found me quickly. Am I really that predictable?"

"Well…" She laughed softly. "Maybe a little bit. I knew you'd come to Spyro's room because you'd want to be alone, but somewhere comforting and familiar, and he is definitely foremost in your thoughts right now."

Cynder nodded and sighed softly. "We were so close…"

Imperia gently brushed a tear from Cynder's cheek. "The guardians told me that you put yourself between dark Spyro and the underground; you saved the lives of everybody in Warfang. I know we didn't catch him; but like Cyril said we've fought so hard to make sure nobody died today, and you especially. I'm so so proud of you Cynder."

Cynder smiled faintly as the silver dragoness hugged her tighter. "Thanks… but we didn't save Spyro."

"We didn't set out to save Spyro this time; he came to us and he hit us where we are most vulnerable. We did what we could to contain him, but what's most important for now is that we kept everyone safe."

The silver dragoness flicked her wing and with a soft gust of wind all the curtains around the room opened, letting in rays of sunlight which illuminated the room and lit up the drawings on the walls.

"I didn't even think of it that way." Cynder admitted. "I was doing everything to save Spyro, I wasn't really trying to protect anyone else. Does that make me selfish?"

"Now now, don't be so harsh on yourself." Imperia chastised her gently. "I know you went looking to make sure Ember was okay; and I know that you put yourself in dark Spyro's way when he was going towards the underground. You might have been focused on saving Spyro; but you did everything you could to keep all of Warfang safe and alive as well."

"But did I?" Cynder asked. "I could have gone and got help earlier. But I… didn't. Malefor was right about that."

Imperia waited a few moments to see if Cynder would continue; but the black dragoness stayed silent. Imperia leaned closer, giving Cynder a reassuring squeeze. "Why didn't you?"

"Because… well… It's hard to describe." She said. "I wanted to give Hope a chance; there was just something about him… something dark that felt like it was pulling me in."

Imperia tilted her head. "I think I understand what you mean about feeling pulled in; if you want to talk about it. But there is one thing I don't understand; what does 'giving hope a chance' mean? You were trying to talk him into coming quietly?"

Cynder shook her head. "No, Hope as a name. That's what Dark Spyro is calling himself: Hope. It's a name that's meant to represent how he feels about me and about his transformation."

"I see." Imperia nodded. "Hope… It's a nice name. So when you say giving him a chance…"

"He had something to tell me, and I listened." Cynder admitted. "Now I feel wrong, dirty. He spoke like I was the only thing in the world that mattered; he promised me anything I wanted."

"He asked you to run away with him."

"Yes he did. I really am that predictable, huh?" Cynder inspected her claws, looking down.

Imperia smiled and wrapped her tail around Cynder. "Only to Spyro and me. You should have seen how much Malefor agonises over how to deal with you; it's honestly quite cute. Only the dragons you trust have an easy time guessing what you're thinking, and sometimes not even then!"

"Even I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes." Cynder smiled wryly. "I certainly didn't then. I couldn't think anything, my thoughts were all just getting tangled up in each other and I couldn't get Hope out of my mind."

Imperia nodded sympathetically. "I know how you felt. I remember years and years ago when I linked myself to the Dark Master."

"You what?" Cynder stared.

"Oh, heehee, right. I didn't tell you about that. I only told the other guardians while I was in my cell."

Imperia blushed.

"Well; long ago when I was trying to convince the guardians that wind dragons could be guardians my best evidence was the legend saying the purple dragon could master the wind element. So I decided to go to the source and try to find proof. I summoned the spirit of the Dark Master at the well of souls. It was quite an experience; what mattered was that it allowed me to link with Malefor too; but I did get a few moments directly exposed to the Dark Master."

She shivered slightly.

"It was like being electrocuted, it was like he was seeing right into my soul, I could feel his eyes like they were burning inside my brain, I could feel all his hatred for living things, he wanted to tear my magic from my body and consume it. I can imagine the feeling you got was somewhat similar, but with a lot less killing intent."

"I guess so." Cynder nodded. "I felt it right in my heart; I wanted to be with him. All the things he said were things I wanted, things I might have said to him in a slightly different situation."

"But you didn't go with him in the end. You felt that feeling and you chose to resist it."

"I nearly gave into it. That's why I didn't call anyone, why we only had the morning to prepare. I didn't slip away from him… I just waited. I wanted to see what he was like. I would have gone I think, if my dark side was still there. He was calling to her, calling to something inside me; and while she wasn't there… there was still some part of me, the real me, that was tempted."

"You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. You can talk to me about it anytime; you know you can talk to me about anything anytime. But I'm just going to ask… were you raped?"

Cynder's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No! Not at all. But I did… do things… with him." She looked down, ashamed. "Does that make me bad? Does it make me shallow? I shouldn't have done it… I feel dirty now."

Imperia shook her head. "No, it doesn't make you any of those things. He offered you something you've wanted all your life but never gotten; freedom and love and respect. Of course you considered his offer."

Cynder shook her head. "You've always given me freedom and respect. Not everyone in Warfang has; but things are looking better."

Imperia giggled lightly before replying.

"You're right. I have given you freedom and respect; many of us have done our part to give you a fair chance at living a happy life. So you also had to evaluate the love side of things."

"Well I didn't think of it in those terms…" Cynder said, blushing. "But yes. That's kind of what I was feeling at the time."

"And there is nothing wrong with that. Although… he mustn't have been all that good."

"Good at what?"

"Good in bed."

"Huh? Why do you assume that?"

"Well you stayed, didn't you?"

"That has nothing to do with- urgh, you're the most immature dragon I've ever met!"

"So he was good then?" Imperia asked playfully.

"Will you quit it?" Cynder said with a laugh. "I'm sure you're dying to know the details; but-"

"I tried dying to know the details. It didn't help." Imperia responded jokingly.

"Because he stabbed you with a spear when you tried to chat him up."

"I wasn't chatting him up I was talking him down." She said defensively.

"Well he rejected you quite violently in the end either way."

"It certainly wasn't the kind of spearing I was hoping he'd do." Imperia muttered.

Cynder glared at Imperia. "I swear I will break your jaw. See how you like being unable to talk for a month."

The threat was completely empty and they both knew it, considering Imperia's continued smile and the fact that Cynder snorted with laughter after a few seconds of her angry scowl.

"Seriously though; why are you talking about this? It's completely inappropriate."

"Mostly to cheer you up." Imperia said warmly.

"Oh." Cynder blinked; realising that she was, in fact, feeling somewhat better. "Thanks."

"Think nothing of it." Imperia hugged her again.

"Wait, why do you say mostly? What's the rest of the reason?"

"Because I'm really curious and I am indeed the most immature dragon you're likely to ever meet." Imperia admitted with a smile.

"Oh, right. Of course. Well if it'll stop you prying for a while, Hope was fine in bed, but that didn't matter to me. The reason I stayed was because no matter how much he promised me or how well his plans matched the things that I wanted… he wasn't Spyro. He could never be Spyro; and if I have to choose between him and Spyro then I pick Spyro everytime."

"That is incredibly sweet of you Cynder. I understand now. I am still curious about Hope's-"

"Shut up."

"Shutting up now."

Cynder and Imperia sat in comfortable silence for a few moments; until eventually Cynder spoke again. "Cyril didn't let me chase after Hope."

"I'd have tried to stop you too, I must admit. If I'd been able to push you away from the portal with my wind I'd have done it. But I know how much he means to you, and he means a lot to me too; if I had been closest to the portal… well…" She laughed slightly. "I'd have hopped through it without hesitation; just like you tried to do."

"That would have been a bad idea." Cynder said.

"Would you have tried to stop me?" Imperia asked.

Cynder nodded. "Of course I would have."

Imperia spoke again. "So you can understand why he stopped you, right?"

"But I care about you. Why would Cyril stop me?"

"I've always admired Cyril. He's brave, he's determined, he's strong. He's never been the brightest scale on the dragon's back though."

"Uhh, what?" Cynder frowned, trying to see where Imperia was going with this.

"Oh he's clever, don't get me wrong. No, what Cyril lacks isn't intelligence; he lacks imagination. Like his precious ice element he is rigid and brittle, resistant to change. He hates improvising and inventing."

"Your point being?"

"Cyril has been unwilling to let go of what your dark side did in the past not because he hates you; but because he struggles to see you as an ally after already deciding you were an enemy. He lacks the imagination to see how you can be helpful, and he lacks the optimism to visualise a bright future with you in it. His caution has served him well in the past, but his cynical nature makes him struggle to adapt."

"He lacks all the things that you have, you mean." Cynder pointed out.

"Well yes, and that's why I wanted to be your friend. I lack his calmness, caution, and patience. I freely admit to being a reckless fool. Also don't tell him I said this but he's probably a better fighter than me too."

"Oh really? Well I'd like to see him try to beat Hope in single combat."

"I didn't beat Hope in single combat though. He stabbed me, as you keep on pointing out."

"Only because you got careless."

"True. Okay, how about this? Cyril is a better fighter; but I'm the best of the best when it comes to running away."

"Aside from when you're too busy talking to run I can agree with that. So what does this have to do with Cyril stopping me going through the portal? This just makes it sound like what he should have done was let me go through it and hope I died there."

"Long ago he would have; but not anymore. He sees you for what you are now; he was the one who said you protected the citizens of Warfang when Hope was about to go looking for them. He does care about you Cynder."

"Oh…" Cynder nodded, her eyes distant. She supposed that she'd seen the signs of this coming; he had been chilly but polite to her, most of the time, ever since she'd come back to Warfang. Maybe he really did care about her… or at least not hate her. After a moment she smiled slightly. "I'm glad to hear that. I'm not pleased he stopped me; but if that really was his reason then I guess that's… nice."

"It's not just Cyril." Imperia smiled. "Warfang's perception of you is changing rapidly. More and more they're recognising you as a hero."

Cynder tilted her head. "Um, why?"

"You've been heroing lately. You were the one who saved Shattershelf by defeating the dark army. You were also the one who killed Magmar, the leader of the Old Fire dragons. Now you're going to get credit for protecting the city from Dark Spyro."

Cynder blinked. "But I wasn't doing all that much. Anyone could have beaten the army of orcs; I killed Magmar in self defence and only because Ember saved me; and even with Malefor there I couldn't capture Hope. Also 'heroing'? I feel like you made that word up."

"I conjugated it." Imperia said playfully. "I put an ing on the end."

"So you made it up."

"Well… sort of. Also I can't get past the fact that you just said 'anyone could beat an army of orcs'. It's cute you think that."

"Well they're pushovers."

"Don't get me wrong, many of the guardians plus a handful of other high powered dragons could fight an army of orcs to a standstill at least, and possibly win if they got lucky; but still I find it adorable you dismiss orcs so easily."

"I don't just dismiss them; I know they're dangerous. I have been hit by them in the past and it's not fun. But to a dragon like you? You'd laugh at them."

"Aw you flatter me."

"The point is that I just so happened to be the one to kill the orcs. It wasn't any special heroic thing."

"Why would a heroic deed be something only one person can do? Sure you weren't the only thing stopping the army from entering the city, but you still stood in their way and that was brave of you. What I'm saying is that you've done a lot. Magmar was basically Warfang's public enemy number one; and you were the one who beat him."

"But I thought that I was supposed to be the one everyone hated in Warfang."

The silver dragoness laughed. "You were, but not anymore. And with Spyro not being here at the moment you've essentially been promoted into his role: everyone will admire you and respect you and look to you to save them. You'll probably get officially honoured with a parade and a statue."

"I have so many problems with that."

"Care to list them?"

"Yes, actually I would. Firstly: I'm not Warfang's babysitter. I hate babies and sitting them. Secondly, saying that Spyro is just 'not here' is a very mildly spoken way of saying he's in mortal danger and we need to help him. I thought everyone loved Spyro, why would they try to replace him with me? Is he really that disposable to them? And thirdly there is already a statue of me. You had it made after Spyro and I saved the world, remember? It's probably nothing but rubble at the moment, but there was a statue of both of us with our names on it, plus a parade, and it never made people respect me much before."

Imperia snorted with laughter. Cynder scowled.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing. Just trying to imagine you as a babysitter." The silver dragoness struggled to stop laughing.

"Well quit it. If Warfang expects me to save their asses all the time then that's just stupid."

"Well that is what the guardians are for; and Spyro was pretty much a sixth guardian in their minds."

"Are you describing yourself and the other guardians as babysitters?"

"Well… kind of. But it's much more glamorous than that."

"You're a glamorous babysitter?" Cynder raised her eyebrow.

"It's me, Cynder dear. I make everything look glamourous."

"Hmph, well I can't argue with that. I don't like the idea of being the officially designated Sixth Rescuer of Warfang though. Like I said, I hate babysitting. And what about saving Spyro? Do they just not care anymore? I become the new Spyro, Malefor becomes the new Cynder and people cross the street to avoid him; and they expect everything to just be ok?"

"Of course they want to save Spyro. It's just people are scared, and they want someone to believe in. That's you."

"Which brings me back to my third point. Their belief has never lasted long before; why would it be any different now? What's the point in even discussing this?"

"Well… last time you did everything in your power to avoid getting honour for saving the world. You tried to fade into the background and let Spyro get all the attention."

"He literally had to drag me to the parade." Cynder smiled faintly at the memory.

"Do you mean literally literally?"

"Yes, I know what literally means. I mean he grabbed me by the tail and dragged me into the preparation area."

"Oh I wish I'd seen that." Imperia laughed softly. "I'm glad you did do the parade; but it was clear you didn't want to be there and everyone in Warfang picked up on that and started to wonder if there was some sinister reason why you looked so out of place."

"There was no sinister reason. I just didn't want to be there."

"It's simple psychology: Sometimes it's easier for people to look at someone acting like they don't belong and assume that they there's something wrong with them; rather than looking harder to see if you've been treating them wrongly yourself."

"People are stupid."

"I'm pretty sure that's Malefor's favourite phrase."

"Hmph…"

"You sound unimpressed. Don't you want to share a phrase with Malefor?"

"I don't know." Cynder sighed. "I'm still not all that comfortable with him. I know he's your friend or… something."

"Or something, hopefully. But I'm not sure what the something is yet."

"I'm still trying to not think about the implications of that."

"Aww…"

"I guess I'm just not used to having a good reputation. I'm looking at it like it's going to turn sour at any moment. I don't trust crowds. I barely even trust individuals."

"Aside from me?" Imperia asked hopefully.

"Aside from you, Spyro, Ember and a couple of others."

"Is Ember really on the list? That's wonderful! I'm a little bit surprised though."

"Well you're still on the list and you were working with Malefor and tricking me all my life."

"Yeah… sorry…"

"Don't worry; I'm going to keep using that against you probably forever, but only because I finally have something that you can't just shrug off. I do trust you; I really do." She hugged Imperia with her wing. "Come here."

Imperia returned the hug warmly. "Thanks Cynder."

"You're hard to tease." Cynder said.

"I take that as a compliment."

"You take everything as a compliment; that's why you're hard to tease."

The two of them enjoyed the hug for a minute. Cynder rubbed her head with a paw.

"It feels like it's been a long day, and it's barely morning."

"You have a lot to work through. You need time to rest, which is hopefully what this is. Is talking to me restful?"

"Oh sure, being driven insane is a deeply relaxing experience."

Imperia giggled. "It certainly is. But seriously, is it?"

"Talking to you?" Cynder nodded. "Yes. This has been a relief."

Imperia smiled. "Do you want to go and debrief with the others now?"

Cynder hesitated. "I was kind of nasty. I should apologise."

"I doubt you'll be the only one to apologise... Are you ready to go back?"

Cynder nodded. "Yes."

A bright darkness shone through Hope's closed eyes; leaving him unable to sleep or even fall unconscious.

Power broiled through his veins; but it was not the natural mana of dragons and it did nothing to aid in his healing.

Convexity brought only destruction to things in the normal world.

His body was brimful of energy, and yet still unbearably tired. Everything seemed to have self contradictory elements in Convexity; it only made him feel even more frustrated and pained.

The darkness dimmed down to a tolerable level. Hope opened his one good eye, the other was healing slowly but still crusted over with blood.

He was floating in nothingness; as he floated he was slowly turning, turning away from that bright painful light.

What was it? Hope looked over his shoulder and saw a star, or perhaps a planet. The massive orb was floating beside him, and he was orbiting it. That was the source of the light that was keeping him awake. It seemed to radiate darkness, and yet the darkness was lighting up the empty void and making his eyes sore. He wanted to move further away from it, but he was too exhausted to even flap his wings.

He was rotating back around towards the convexity star, and too tired to look away.

Perhaps that was where dragons like himself and… others he didn't want to think about… got their beams of convexity energy, by channelling the inferno at the centre of a star like that one.

Perhaps that was also why he was uncomfortably close to it; he'd instinctively opened a portal to a relatively high energy part of convexity because he was used to using it at high power. It was lucky he hadn't emerged any closer.

His wings were hurting, a constant tearing pain; he looked back at them out of the corner of his eye and almost whimpered, he was able to see his bone structure clearly and huge sections of his red and gold wing scales were missing. Acknowledging the extent of the damage made it start to hurt more, Hope groaned miserably.

He just wanted this all to stop.

And it did.

Spyro looked out across Convexity, confused for a few moments. Where was he? Why was he here? Was he in the dark master's prison? For a moment he felt a surge of hope in his chest, proper hope, not his dark side; but the memories started to come back to him and he realised quickly that he wasn't being safely contained, he wasn't getting rescued by Cynder and the others.

Hope had fled through a portal and escaped; they'd nearly had him. He remembered Hope's fear, they'd beaten him. Cynder, the guardians, Imperia! She was alive!

Spyro laughed softly in relief as he found that memory. She was alive, Imperia was alive. It hurt to laugh, he felt like he had a massive bruise coming up on his throat and his jaw was equally sore. Cynder had given him a thorough beating. He would definitely have to thank her for it later.

He'd been feeling the pain this whole time, all of his senses cut off but still getting the pain. The good news was that he was coping with it, and now that Hope had gone for a while he had a chance to think, and maybe even to get back to Warfang and turn himself in.

He hissed softly with effort as he raised a paw, his claw digging into nothingness. He tried to open a portal back, but it was harder getting out of convexity from inside than it was to get there from outside. He growled, trying to force his claw to cut; but at different times the portal felt as solid as trying to cut through stone, or so fragile that it would just disappear and he would be left just waving at empty nothingness. He was just too weak to open it.

Spyro gave up on that with a sigh. With nothing constructive to do he began to sort through the memories of the morning and the night that had come before it.

The memories came back to him newest first, forcing him to figure out everything while working backwards.

He remembered Malefor flying at him; turning, their beams of convexity meeting and exploding together, searing his scales and his flesh.

Warfang hadn't looked good after that, he remembered the destroyed chunks of stone, the dragon temple reduced to a pile of rubble. He hoped nobody aside from himself and Malefor had been hurt.

Memories of the fight leading up to that came back to him, they'd nearly had him; so nearly…

Spyro clenched his paws as he remembered shooting his beam of convexity at Cynder; he could hardly believe that Hope had done that. He could see Cynder vanishing in a blaze of light. He knew she had survived just fine, but the memory was still awful.

In his minds eye Spyro relived the fight, wincing in sympathy as he saw Cynder and Malefor taking turns battering his dark version with attack after attack, they'd given him quite a beatdown, although he'd hit back just as hard. He hoped that everyone in Warfang was alright.

They hadn't been trying to drive him off, or to kill him; they must have had some sort of a plan. A binding circle of some kind, if Spyro had to guess.

Finally his memory landed on the night spent with Cynder. Spyro flushed, not sure how to feel about what he saw. It was quite hard to stop looking though. Cynder was so beautiful.

He replayed the encounter forwards, starting from the morning in order to get a more accurate view of what had happened.

He felt Hope's pain as everything that he had thought was going perfectly turned to nothing in his paws.

Hope must be hating him right now for being chosen by Cynder, or he would be if he hadn't become fixated on Cynder's dark side instead.

Spyro realised that Cynder and the others had given him a precious opportunity. Hope was desperate, panicked, and searching for some reassurance or evidence that he was right. Hope was vulnerable while he was like this, unable to think clearly.

It was true that Spyro might not be able to defeat Hope directly, but perhaps he could still exercise some control over his actions, enough to lead Hope into-

He hurriedly cut the thought off, replacing it with memories of Cynder, not even daring to think it all the way in case Hope realised how close he was to being trapped.

He just needed to put an idea into Hope mind, the dark dragon's obsessive nature would do the rest. Eventually Hope would wake up and try to take him over again, that would be his chance.

This had been where he had first really seen Cynder; he had come to Convexity to fight her for the last time. Of course he'd encountered her before then, the huge dark shadow that had chased him through Munitions Forge, and then during a frantic fight on top of the fortress in Concurrent Skies; but it had been against the backdrop of Convexity that he had first really gotten to look at her.

Spyro could easily picture her circling, flying around the prison of the Dark Master while he had scrambled and flown up to try and catch her.

She looked so much now like she did then; tall, lean, beautiful and terrifying. She was less tall now, shorter than he was; although admittedly she was still pretty terrifying when she wanted to be.

He tried closing his eyes, frowning when he found it didn't help. The light still shone through. He wasn't going to get much sleep, then.

Spyro sighed softly; wondering what the others were doing right now. They'd nearly caught him, he imagined they were licking their wounds and planning a new attempt. He certainly hoped they were.

Imperia was somehow alive. He smiled to himself; wondering how she had managed that. Had Hope just not aimed the spear very well? He didn't know, but he was glad that she was alright.

They were going to try and help him, and he had a plan now; he could do something. All he had to do was remain positive until he saw his chance.

It's much later in the day than I usually aim for; but it's still a Friday. I did it!

It was interesting trying to calm the pace of the story down after the previous chapter; I hope that it wasn't too much of a sudden shift.

Lately I've been trying to learn game design and programming; I would love to create a Spyro based game that includes elements from my story. It's confusing and progress is slow, but during my trying to figure out the C sharp programming language I've stumbled upon my new favorite phrase:

Quaternion Lerp

Every time I see it I have to smile. It's just such a silly set of words. XD

Wish me luck in figuring out what it means; all I know so far is that it has to do with maths.

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Feel free to leave a review, and as always

Thanks for reading!

-4Dragons