Many of you may have noticed already; but I have an exciting announcement to make!

Look up, and it is my pleasure to present the finally completed front cover art of The Legend of Spyro: A Duel with Destiny!

I'm really happy with how it's turned out; writing this fanfiction has been an amazing experience and I would like to thank you all so much for joining me in this journey.

The full sized picture can be found on my Deviantart page, I rarely post things there, but when I have new pieces of art that's where you'll find them.

With that it's time for Hope to make his return; the final stage of the story is here.

Enjoy!

A purple flash of light and a shockwave made the leaves shake. Dust kicked up in a small circle, centred on the dry bank of a shallow river. A dragon emerged from the glowing light, surrounded by trees and wilderness in every direction; nobody else was around to see.

The purple drake fell to the ground, gasping for breath; eyes closed. He grabbed and squeezed the dirt below his paws, grateful to feel it again. His scales healed slowly as he lay there; the normal smooth sheen had been corroded away to a rough and burned surface. He was exhausted, his stay in convexity had been safe, but the burning scalding nature of that place had given him no chance to heal, and he was still struggling to recover.

The feeling of drifting in space was still with him; not knowing up from down, falling forever. The radiating light of the stars slowly burning his flesh and the constant sting of the deep cuts which had been left on him after the battle.

It had not been a pleasant experience. Not at all.

After long minutes Spyro opened his eyes; pale lilac irises with faint threatening flickers of yellow hiding below. It was morning, he wasn't sure how many days he had been in convexity, struggling to heal his wounds.

He looked around, trying to judge where he was. His best guess was that he'd emerged somewhere to the north of Warfang; above the volcano in the empty lands that lay between Warfang and the Legacy Sea.

Hope had retreated, for now. Spyro instinctively knew that he had a few days; perhaps even a week if he was careful. But if he found himself frustrated, or he thought of… certain events… then Hope could be mere minutes away from coming screaming and raging back to the surface.

Hope had been deeply hurt, not just physically but emotionally. Spyro could feel how hurt and angry he was; confused and afraid. Hope was at a tipping point between love and hate for Cynder.

This was the only chance Spyro was going to get; he knew he had to do everything he could possibly do to limit Hope's power.

Spyro had been given time; enough time to take himself somewhere safe; somewhere that he could do no harm… and he had the perfect location in mind.

Somewhere that might… He didn't even dare finish the thought.

Hope wouldn't let Spyro turn himself in to Warfang; he would burst free and attack the moment he realised Spyro was handing himself in; or if he realised there was a trap coming.

But what if Hope walked into the trap by his own will?

Spyro groaned as he spread his wings, his muscles were stiff and sore; but Hope had learned a trick for that and Spyro remembered how to do it. A gentle breeze caught Spyro's wings and helped his takeoff, holding him aloft without needing to flap too hard. He glanced up at the sun, judging that it was morning and using it to orient himself; turning and beginning to slowly fly north.

"Where are you taking us?" Hope's voice coiled in Spyro's mind.

Spyro tensed slightly, fearing that he had been wrong and he was about to lose control; but there was no stabbing pain in his mind or dark power building up inside his chest. He sighed in relief. "The Legacy sea, far away from every other dragon."

"There's nothing left for me down there." Hope said bitterly. "You can take us there, you will never fly back again. I will consume you, and then return to burn this world down."

"We can look for the chroniclers island again." Spyro said, ignoring Hope's taunt. "It's the only source of information about black dragons."

Hope growled dismissively, falling silent; but Spyro could practically feel wheels turning in Hope's mind as he thought over what Spyro had just told him.

Hope was desperate for Cynder to love him. He had been so utterly sure she would, that her refusal had broken everything that Hope thought he knew about the world. He knew that Cynder's dark side was gone, that it had never really gotten to live in the first place. He knew that there was no stone tablet, no law of the universe, not even a destiny; nothing which said that he would have Cynder's love.

But Hope ignored all of that, he looked for justification desperately. He lied to himself, and he knew he was lying to himself, and he forced himself to not care. It was the only way he could believe his life had a purpose.

Not even Cynder's betrayal had shattered his conviction. It had only detached him further from reality. He had to believe this because he didn't have anything else; and so he would go on believing it blind to the entire world.

In the end… Spyro pitied him.

It was only because of this aspect of Hope's nature; that even though the dark purple dragon knew that his own path was self destructive, but that he refused to see the truth of it. That was the only reason why this might work.

Hope would kill himself just for the sake of preserving his delusion for even a second longer. Nothing else mattered to him anymore. This was the kind of zealous devotion to a cause that the cruellest cults in the world would gladly kill to inspire in their followers, the suicidal belief of a fanatic who would walk to their death with a smile on their face.

The purple drake flew quietly, watching trees drift by below them. Hope was going to fall for it, he had to fall for it. It was the last sensible idea that Spyro had.

"It's not." Hope said.

Spyro's heart leapt with nerves, but he kept his mind calm. "What's not what?"

"The Library of the Chronicler is not the only source of information about Cynder. There is somewhere else where we can learn the truth about Cynder's destiny. Fly east. Do it!"

Spyro twitched his wings, arcing around to begin travelling east.

"Where are we going?"

Hope chuckled. "Back to where we looked for answers in the beginning. But we did not look hard enough."

Spyro remained silent. Hope continued triumphantly, solidifying the idea that Spyro had fed him; the idea that hopefully would lead to him trapping himself.

"We're going to Darkmire's tomb. If we can't read about them then we'll just have to speak to one."

Malefor gazed around the circle of dragons. All of the guardians were present, including Imperia, along with Cynder. Ignitus was between Terrador and Cynder, his expression was sombre and thoughtful. Also in the room were Cyria, the apprentice ice guardian and Seizo, the apprentice earth guardian.

"A dragon like Cynder or Flare, who's abilities usually require a high amount of mana expenditure over a short amount of time, needs to use mana crystals or rest and meditate after a few hours of using their magic before being able to use their power again. Even if they haven't exerted themselves physically. In contrast a dragon like Imperia requires almost no mana to use her abilities, as such she could use all but her most powerful magic for days without running out because her natural regeneration is enough to balance out the cost."

The others nodded, Malefor got the impression that what he'd just said was basic information to them, but it had been something that back in his old time hadn't really been commonly taught. No matter, they knew and that's what was important.

"As a dragon trains they increase their natural regeneration along with their total capacity, while also learning to be less wasteful with their magic, allowing them to start to use higher and higher level techniques without tiring themselves out. However Dark Spyro, or Hope as he's calling himself, is getting closer and closer to breaking that limit. Every day that goes by his passive mana regeneration gets higher and higher."

"Does his regeneration have a limit?" Terrador asked.

"There is no limit. He'll regain his energy so fast that it will be impossible to wear him down. At that point he will no longer need to sleep, and no amount of damage or forced mana expenditure will keep him down. At that point he will regain mana faster than even a dark crystal could absorb it, and it will be impossible to stop him without killing him. He could use all of his power on one massive fireball the size of the entire city, and he won't even feel the drain a moment later."

"How long do we have before that point?"

"Not long. A few months, perhaps." Malefor said. "But there is some good news: His regeneration increases faster than anything we've ever seen, but his control will not. As long as he is at maximum capacity he will simply radiate the excess magic and waste it. In under a year he'll be able to throw a fireball the size of Warfang and not suffer any consequences, but it would take him a hundred years to increase his control and his storage capacity enough to drop a fireball which obliterated the entire continent."

"The Dark Master had been around for way longer than that." Cynder commented. "Why didn't he ever make a mega fireball?"

"The Dark Master wasn't able to improve his storage ability while in Convexity, despite being alive for a long time. His physical progress was stalled by his lack of ability to control his body, but with my knowledge of magic theory and meditation practices he could have done it sooner rather than later. I estimate I could reach that power level myself within a hundred years."

There was an uncomfortable glance between some of the others in the room at that comment.

Imperia decided to move the conversation along. "What about the destroyer?"

"Hope would take years to learn to use the Destroyer. Months in the absolute best possible circumstance even taking into account him progressing faster than I had first expected. We have plenty to worry about, but Hope activating the Destroyer is not an imminent threat; that at least I can guarantee."

Cynder frowned. Malefor had failed to warn them that Hope could escape into Convexity when they cornered him. She hoped that he had his 'calculations' accurate this time. Although she did know how to stop the destroyer if it was raised again. Fly inside it and burst it's heart. The first time it had been difficult, she and Spyro had both nearly had their tails burned off, but between her and Imperia she was sure they could do it. She nodded slightly, deciding she agreed with what Malefor had told them.

"So even if we can exhaust Dark Spyro's mana supply he would still recover unnaturally fast?" Cyril frowned thoughtfully.

"Indeed. If we can make him expend all his power it would only take him minutes to recharge, although it might take him hours or days to heal damage to his body."

"What's to stop him staying in convexity for months and reaching this level of infinite power generation without us finding a way to capture him?"

"That's a very good question." Malefor nodded. "Convexity is inimical to life, it burns the eyes and skin, the air there is like poison. His body simply can't stay there unprotected. He might wield convexity, it might give him his power, but it will kill him."

Cynder tensed. "How long?"

"His instincts will protect him. He will portal back again before the damage becomes fatal. The maximum amount of time he can stay there before he has to 'come up for air' so to speak is perhaps two weeks, most likely less. After that he'll be able to heal and go back there again, if he decides to."

"How do we find them, then?" Cynder sighed sadly. What could they do if Hope and Spyro just showed up somewhere random, rested, and then vanished back into Convexity? They couldn't search everywhere… "Are there any limits to where he can reappear?"

"Somewhere he knows. Somewhere he's already been, even if only briefly. He won't be able to control exactly where, but he can make sure it's not near Warfang. Where has Spyro been? Do you have a map where we can track his journeys?"

Imperia whirled and dashed out of the room. "I'll get one!"

"Spyro has travelled widely. He freed myself and the other guardians from imprisonment in far flung corners of the land." Terrador said to them.

"We can at least rule out a few places." Volteer said. "Spyro has never been further east than Shattershelf, nor further northeast than the ice dragon kingdoms. He has been to the north to the Legacy Sea once when he was brought to the White Isle to see the chronicler. I don't know how far he has gone out there."

"How about south and west?" Malefor asked.

"Not nearly so far." Volteer said.

Imperia came zipping back into the room with a map and immediately started drawing crosses on it. "I've taken Spyro to see the Twilight Falls, we went to the mushroom forest, we went to…"

The pattern quickly started to emerge, and Volteer had been quite right. The vast majority of Spyro's travelling had been to the northeast. Crosses marked Imperia circled several locations away from any major towns. The largest circle was over the ruins of the old Dragon Temple.

"We found evidence of Dark Spyro there from our first search party. Claw marks and stone prototypes for Orcs and Golems."

"He wouldn't go back there." Malefor said. He gazed keenly at the map. "Although even knowing that it would be foolish not to check."

"So we send out search parties again?" Cyril asked. "Well at least everyone will remember the safety briefing… although I don't imagine we'll have so many volunteers this time. We combed every area for miles upon miles, and Dark Spyro slipped past it all and showed up right back here. Nobody will be comfortable leaving their loved ones to search when Dark Spyro seems much more likely to come back here again."

"And what would we even do if we found him?" Terrador asked. "We had a plan before, we had Ignitus and Imperia preparing a trapped room for him…" It was his turn to sigh. It all looked so hopeless.

Malefor gritted his teeth. "We still have the soul crystal, which the real Spyro will be drawn back to if we outright kill him."

Cynder hissed in dissatisfaction, not even needing words to make her opinion clear.

"I agree completely, Cynder." Malefor nodded to her. "But we are severely running out of choices."

"Perhaps we can use Cynder as bait." Ignitus said with visible reluctance. "Cynder you don't owe me that kind of trust, but if you were willing then it might give us a chance."

Cynder nodded thoughtfully. "You keep on talking about this book with the picture of a black dragoness crying in some dark cave. If you guys make me cry I reserve the right to stab any of you, but if it helped Spyro then I'd be willing to play along and be the bait."

"Would Spyr- uh, Hope, still care for Cynder enough for that?" Terrador's apprentice Seizo spoke up. He had put his ridiculous golden glasses away for once, self conscious before a big meeting probably. Cynder felt a bit of sympathy for him and sent an encouraging smile. Imperia was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. One or both of them made him blush and shuffle his paws, but he seemed to find it reassuring. "Would Hope engage in a rescue attempt, or would he be going in to try and attack?"

"He would almost certainly be going to help me." Cynder said confidently. "Don't get me wrong I turned him down firmly, but not ten seconds later he was declaring his undying love for the Terror of The Skies."

This caused an uncomfortable stir among the room. Cynder's former self still struck dread into the hearts of all of them, even Cyria, Seizo and Malefor who had not ever been directly exposed to the Terror of The Skies still had their own memories of the fear she had inspired.

Cynder didn't take it personally, the idea of her dark side and Spyro's dark side together was terrifying. There was simply no better word for it. Together they would be a genuine extinction event.

"Luckily that's impossible." Imperia smiled. "And doubly lucky that Hope doesn't know it's impossible."

There were several glances to Cynder; as if seeking confirmation.

The black dragoness shrugged helplessly.

"I wish I was some kind of expert and I could tell you. Whatever darkness was once inside me definitely died when Spyro fought it and destroyed it in convexity. There is still some part of me that's broken, I could feel Hope calling to the place where she once was. With enough of his own darkness to fill it up Hope might might be able to bring the Terror of The Skies back. But the Dark Master tried that on me once before, and with Spyro's words I was able to push through it. I can't say it's impossible that I'd ever be turned dark again… but the Terror of The Skies will never return in all her glory. She is gone."

Cynder gazed around for another moment, before looking down at her paws. Imperia's wing came to rest comfortingly on her back, and when Cynder looked up she found to her surprise that every single one of the dragons in the circle; even Cyril and Malefor, had all stepped forwards or made some small gesture of reassurance.

She had been brave, and she had given them the honest answer… And they had accepted it.

It was a healing moment for her, one of the biggest of the many slow steps on her path forwards. She smiled, looking up at them all and standing straighter.

"But I'm still here." She said.

"So we have bait, but no trap. And a search area, but potentially no search parties." Cyril summarised. "It's better than nothing; but things are not looking good."

"We also have a fallback plan in the soul crystal, but no primary plan." Malefor added.

"Talking Hope down into turning back to Spyro is no longer an option; he is really mad now." Cynder said. "So how do we change him back properly? Let's start there and talk about capturing him later."

"Some means of forcibly separating the two aspects of his personality." Malefor said. "One such way is through the use of the soul crystal, and the other…" He paused. "The planet's core."

"It looks identical to the crystal." Cynder commented.

"Indeed it does. They're made of the same material. If we could lure Hope into the planet's core and weaken him enough… The problem is that not even I know exactly what happened down there. The plan was to outright kill the dark master and use the crystal yet again, but something else happened down there. Something which pulled the Dark Master straight out of his body without killing me along with it. Yes, I died down there as well, but that wasn't a completely direct result of the soul splitting. It's also what gave me the idea of trying to extract Dark Spyro into the crystal, rather than preserving light Spyro in the crystal while his body died; effectively using the crystal in the opposite way to how we have done before."

"That could permanently break the crystal." Seizo frowned. "An irreplaceable magical artefact."

Malefor nodded. "True, but Spyro is the last dragon we need it for, hopefully. I would rather lose the crystal and not lose Spyro, which I'm sure you all appreciate." He chuckled slightly as he glanced around at the others. "I am also not so sure it is irreplaceable. We may not be able to create more currently; but it's possible someday we will be able to do so."

Seizo nodded. "Lost knowledge can be un-lost. We're always learning new things."

"We'll need to plan more. Perhaps we can lure Spyro into the core of the planet somehow." Malefor said thoughtfully.

The others all looked at him with varying levels of scepticism.

"Erm… we don't know how to do that." Volteer admitted. "It's extraordinary, unheard of, mystical, untested. Insofar as I know only yourself, Cynder and Spyro ever ended up there, and neither Spyro nor Cynder knew exactly how it occurred."

"The Destroyer opened a path." Malefor sighed. "Not something I would want to recreate. Normally the way is blocked by the very purest form of the Belt of Fire."

"Boiling lava." Ignitus said helpfully.

"So what can we do?" Terrador asked.

"Let's save it here for today. Everybody go your separate ways and think over the problem." Imperia said with a warm smile. She held up the map. "We have this, and we have full cooperation from Malefor, Cynder and Ignitus. This is huge progress. Anybody who wants a copy… erm… well maps are expensive and I've drawn all over this one… But just let me know and I'll figure something out!"

"I was wondering about that." Seizo muttered. "Maps are expensive. I should know because I spent thirty hours drawing one once."

"Well there is no better way to end a meeting on a positive note than to let Imperia get the final word." Flare said with a slight laugh. "Thankyou all for coming, if anybody has anything urgent to share at anytime then please come to Cyril or myself. If you have a good idea then wait to share it until tomorrow when we'll meet again, give it a chance to develop. Okay, meeting dismissed!"

Malefor heard soft footsteps entering his room. There were still two guards at his door, Malefor had spoken politely with both of them. It turned out that the guards knew Imperia very well and had been relatively inclined to like him. He felt comfortable enough with them being there.

Fittingly enough when he turned around those footsteps belonged to Imperia. The silver dragoness smiled warmly to him, and Malefor felt his heart flutter slightly. It was sometimes still hard to believe she was real. A thousand conversations with her, while he had been floating in the darkness of convexity, somehow still hadn't quite prepared him for seeing her in person.

"You did well." She said, smiling. "Back years ago I always wondered how you would do talking to the guardians about some issue or other. I wasn't expecting this particular issue, but still. It was good to see."

Malefor nodded. "Thankyou. It's unfortunate we couldn't make more progress."

Imperia shrugged slightly. "I was just happy to see everyone in the same room, talking and getting along and willing to work together."

"I'm glad you were in the room." Malefor said.

Imperia smiled coyly to him. "Oh?"

"Glad your trial was resolved quickly and in your favour." Malefor continued.

"Oh." Imperia pouted slightly, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Malefor chuckled slightly. "That's how a 'tease' works, right? Did I get you?"

Imperia laughed. "I actually thought you were serious! Nobody else who teases me is that hard to read!"

"Hmm, well I can understand that. I can never be sure when you're serious either." Malefor admitted.

"Well not never, I hope." Imperia said. "When I'm really serious I'd like to think it's possible to tell."

Sure enough Malefor could tell she'd switched to her serious mode. "I was glad you were there. I'm always glad when you're around." He said.

Imperia smiled in pure happiness. "It's exciting isn't it? We're so close to the end of the plan. I mean… obviously we've got one of the hardest parts still to go, but you're walking around again! I'm amazed we made it this far."

Malefor nodded, Imperia's enthusiasm was infectious. "You're right. It is exciting. It's… freedom."

He raised his paw, turning it left and right, wiggling his claws.

"It seemed such a low priority, to move my fingers. Any physical activity really. In my mind I thought I remembered what they all felt like. But nothing really compares to doing them, really doing them."

Imperia stepped closer and clasped his paw in hers. Her paw was incredibly soft and warm, as was her smile.

She didn't even need to say anything, the implications were clear.

"Surely there are reasons why this can't work…" Malefor said quietly. "You have two of the most remarkable dragons I know as mates, you have your guardianship back. Am I culturally out of touch? How can this be so easy for you to offer?"

Imperia laughed slightly. "You worry too much. There are reasons why all kinds of things shouldn't work. But I'm content to take whatever we have between us slowly, I'm not even sure what it is yet, and it fascinates me."

"That paw touch wasn't exactly taking things slowly…"

"You mean this paw touch?" In a sudden gentle movement they were chest to chest, he wasn't even sure if he had been pulled or if she had stepped in. Her closeness was intoxicating; but then she moved back and it was gone.

Her smile was playful, but so genuine.

The moment had passed, but it's aftereffects were still strong in his mind, and something told him that the moment could come back at any second, if he just knew the proper words to ask for it… or perhaps he already knew the words and simply lacked the courage to find them.

"Sometimes I can't tell if I'm insane, or if you are." Malefor said to her.

Imperia giggled lightly, releasing her touch on his paw and making herself at home on his couch. "Oh it's me. I freely admit that the insane one is me. And yet for some reason I'm also the one who often does the things which make the most sense. Sanity really is worth nothing, if it disrupts your priorities."

"I don't know what my priorities are…" Malefor sighed.

Imperia smiled; a smile which was much more than just flirtation. A smile of pure acceptance and friendship. "Well I know that no matter what they are I'll support you in them. We haven't just met after all. While this is a new situation for the both of us I know who you are, I know you as well as I know anybody else in this world."

Malefor felt a slight lump in his throat. Stupid emotions. Always coming when things got… well… emotional. He forced a slight grin onto his face as he attempted to make a joke. "Unless I decide my priority is indiscriminate murder, right?"

"It won't be murder. I wouldn't offer my full support if I didn't trust you with it." Imperia replied.

Well there went Malefor's attempt to de-escalate the level of emotion he was feeling. He looked away so Imperia wouldn't see the sudden tears her heartfelt response had brought to his eyes. "That really means a lot to me…"

Writing Imperia is so much fun (or more accurately letting Imperia write herself) is so much fun. I'm really happy to give Imperia and Malefor a real chance to talk one on one. I also just love ship teasing characters!

Their relationship is a very interesting one; on one side is one of the most social and flirty dragonesses in Warfang, and on the other is, well, Malefor. For a while in the story I worried they wouldn't actually work well as a potential romantic pair; but it turns out Imperia works with everyone. Shoutout to Imperia for being so good to write! Speaking of which Imperia is going to get her chance to have a minor appearance in The Age of Ash, by Mrs Dox234; a Gothic and elegant Spyro fanfiction which I very much recommend reading.

Let me know how you feel about Spyro, Malefor, Hope, Cynder and Imperia in this chapter; I'm very happy with this chapter. Do you think Spyro's plan is going to work? What happens if it doesn't? And what happens if it does?

Thanks as always for reading!

"If you have no pride then you have no honour and no shame. It does you harm to have too much pride, but having none means you can allow yourself to do terrible things."

-4Dragons