Author's Notes:

Hey everyone, hope you are all enjoying the spring weather like I am. Hope everyone is getting ready for the season like I am. Staying trapped inside because sunlight BURNS. (insert 'I am melting' quote here)

Just to make this clear, unless Sparx says that he is in his human form, he is always the lovable, or hate able depending on your own views, dragonfly that we all know. Sorry if that confuses anyone. If you do read along, taking this into account does have the story make more sense.

I also wanted to say that I apologize for the time skips and all, if it triggers you, I do apologize I am trying to get better at this stuff.

Enjoy the show.

Chapter 9: Two Shadows

Sparx POV

One week later, Skylanders Academy

"Ugh." That was the first word that left my conscious mouth in the morning. Then again, I am pretty sure that it would be everyone's first word considering what time it is. Monday Morning. The most infamous day of the week, and its powers are not limited to those who go to school after a nice weekend. Rather almost no one is unaffected by its life draining powers, not even the teachers. I rustle around in my 'bed' as I try to wake myself up. Today was going to be a long day considering that I have to teach one of the earliest classes of the day today.

As I was tossing in my 'bed' my head it the wall that it was positioned up against. Despite the fact that I was teaching at the Skylanders Academy, the Skylanders took every measure to let me know that I was not very welcome here. I opened my eyes after rubbing my head and wiping the sleepiness out of my eyes. The 'house' that I was given was basically no more than a run-down shack that they use to use for gardening storage. Even though my form is small the place is rather cramped for me, being that I had almost no personal items or furniture, and I had to share almost all of my space with larger than me tools that are sharp and could cut me in half. 'It will be fine' they said, 'I don't really see what the problem is?' they said.

I roll my eyes at the memory of being introduced to my new 'home'. Who wants to sleep in a place where things can just fall down and kill you in your sleep? Despite all of this I didn't put up too much of a fuss and I made do with what I have. I try to sleep under a big wheelbarrow so if anything falls it should fall on that first, so things aren't all bad, but could be much worse.

After getting out of bed and flying up to leave the 'house' I pay attention to my surroundings as I try to avoid touching anything along the way. It wouldn't be the first time that I knocked something over and something nearly took my wing off. I managed to leave the 'house' without incident as I moved myself outside.

As I move over to where my class is located, I notice that today was another beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and warm weather. Shame I have to spend most of my time indoors as that is where most of my classes are being held. It is still taking me a while to adjust to the lifestyle of that of a teacher. I mean I have taught and trained people before, but it was mostly on my own terms, I am not very much used to teaching by someone else's rules. That being said the rules here are fine and all but its mostly just a matter of adjusting that makes it difficult.

Along the way to the building I notice someone working out at the training area. I glance over and see that its Stealth Elf and Spyro together. They are both sparring right now with Stealth Elf using her weird teleportation techniques go back and forth across the arena and Spyro trying desperately to hit her. I will admit it does look like they are heaving fun and I was rather tempted to join them but if I did then I would be late for my own class and I rather not get a lecture from that bird, again.

As I approached the building for my class, I took a deep breath and got myself ready. Despite the fact that I have faced countless dangers and un-measurable threats before, I still get the jitters whenever I am about to walk into a room with people waiting for me. I may be able to get a handle on my emotions, but the fear of expectations is something you never really get over, you can only hope to prepare for it and get used to it in the end.

I opened the door by a crack, and I see that most of the students are already having their own conversations and throwing pieces of paper around the room. The thought crossed my mind that I could just leave them to their own devices and just head on back and get some more sleep, but that meant having to explain myself to JV. And that is the last thing I wanted to do. So, I took a deep breath and flew in.

As I flew in the noise and talking didn't cease and instead, I find myself trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of everyone. I never understood why I thought being small was an advantage, it is so easy to get ignored and caught up in someone else's way. I make it to the end of the room with the chalk board and use a little magic to pick up the chalk. The thought had occurred to me that it would be very hard to teach these kids anything if I couldn't write anything on the board.

I don't know why but I thought that after I had written up on the board, I thought that the students would take notice of me, turns out that was just a fantasy as they continued to talk just as loud and uncaring as before. I sighed and shook my head trying to think of a way to get their attention, when suddenly it hit me. Or to be more precise it hit their ears hard, as I made a shadow like hand scrape its fingers up against the chalk board. I then got to see the looks on all of their faces to see the shock and horror that I had managed to sneak up on all of them and catch them all by surprise. Oh yeah this is why I like being small, it is so much easier to surprise people like this.

One of my students, the green one that looks like some vegetable, asked me, "Uh professor Sparx, how long where you in the class room?"

Ugh I don't think I would ever hate hearing my name being called after what felt like an eternity of wanting to hear anyone say my name. Professor?! Seriously?!

"Long enough. Now I hope you all are already to start class because we have a lot of ground to cover today." I flew over to point with my whole body towards what I had written on the board and said aloud, "Transformation, Conjuration, and Teleportation. Believe me you never know when learning about this stuff can save you in a bind."

Cynder POV

Classes have never felt so boring lately. I mean ever since I had those nightmares, everything else feels so small and pathetic. Especially my fears of showing everyone what a 'good student' that I am. I mean I do like doing some of the stuff that I do, but really, I have been using most of it as a way to prove to others that I am not a bad guy. I mean drama captain really!?

It really hurt when I had those nightmares of mine, and I didn't think that they would ever stop. It was literally the reflection of my life over and over again. Each time I would be doing one evil deed or another feeling trapped and helpless to do anything else about it, and each time I felt more and more afraid of myself. Or to be precise I was afraid of who I might become. An evil monster.

But just when I was about to give up, Jester came. I know it sounds a little too cliché, but he really did help me. Not like he did anything weird or something like that he just, you know, helped me get over it. Showed me that even in the nightmares something good can come of it. That I can't always control where I come from or what others expect of me, only how I react to them.

Despite having this new found respect for someone, who is surprisingly not a Skylander, I still can't get over the fact that he is now teaching one of my least favorite classes. Advanced Magical Association and Decisions, or as everyone calls them A-MAD class. Its one of the many required electives that we have to take at the academy, even though almost no one really learns anything from it. It used to be taught by Professor Pop Fizz which usually meant that it was just a matter of time before he had to call of the class due to him either forgetting to show up or drinking too many potions at once and having something weird happen. Now that Sparx is teaching it, it has turned into an actual class that is way over our heads.

"Okay class can anyone actual tell the difference between conjuration and teleportation?" Professor Sparx says breaking me out of my train of thought. I looked around the room to see that no one was raising their hands. It has been like this for a week now, either no one tries to answer his questions, or they honestly don't know. This made me feel a little bad for the professor as he was really trying to make the class fun even if the subject is boring. He even called it A-MAD class before which actual got a few giggles from the class, me included.

"No one? Seriously?" the professor asks in mock response to the lack of response from the rest of the class. I don't really know why but I felt compelled to raise my paw to try and answer the easy question. "Yes Cynder, thank you for raising your paw, do you need to go to the bathroom or something or what?" he said in what was a clear reference to the first person who raised their hand in his class. He was so excited that someone finally did that only to find that they merely wanted to go to the bathroom.

"Actually, professor I wanted to answer your question." I said to defend myself I still don't like it when I am put in the center of attention, even for a moment. I cleared my throat and said, "Teleportation spells take one thing or person and move it to another location while Conjuration spells make stuff out of thin air." Easiest question to answer to anyone who opens the book.

"That is correct Cynder, but that was not exactly what I was asking for. Great job though." He said with a smile on his face, as he began to draw something on the board. "However, to be able to tell the difference between these two different types of magics is very difficult in combat, as there is very little time to figure this out." As he was saying this, he drew a circle on the board to that had really weird symbols and other things written inside of it.

"What I mean is that while both spells are fundamentally different, they can produce the same results." Just as he was finished saying this a large intricate circle was drawn up on the board. The professor snapped his fingers and instantly there were papers on all of our desks. On each of them were one of the things that student dream about in nightmares.

"A pop quiz?!" One of her fellow classmates screamed out in horror. There once sacred and free class had just been turned on its head and had been defiled with this one sheet of paper. 'Wait a minute only one page? That cannot seem right.'

I looked more closely at the paper that I was sitting on my desk and other than the words "Pop quiz" written on it in big bold letters there was nothing else on the paper. There wasn't even a backside to it. I looked up from the paper and I just started to notice that everyone else in the class was hollering at the professor saying how this was 'unfair' and 'Professor Pop Fizz never gave us a Pop quiz'. Despite the fact that the entire class was yelling at him the professor just floated there looking at everyone like he didn't have a care in the world.

After a minute or so the professor raised his hands and started raising his voice a little so that it could be heard above the rest of the class. "Alright, alright I think that is enough heckling for on day class." His little hands were being put into motion as to single the rest of the class to calm down. "Now before you all start raising your voices again why don't one of you actually take a look at your 'Pop quiz' that I gave you." He used his fingers to create air quotes to put emphases on the words 'Pop quiz'.

I looked around and it seems a lot of other people in my class were actually taking a look at the quiz and were also seeing at how odd it was. I then raised my hand and said, "Uh professor, there seems to be a mistake on my quiz, as in I don't actually have one." Man, I hate being the center of attention like that.

The professor smiles at me and says, "well you are right about one thing Cynder, there is no real Pop quiz." He then flies up to the board and erases a small part of the circle that he had created. At the very instant that he did this all of the papers that suddenly appeared at our desks, turned to dust before our very eyes, as if they were never even there to begin with. "The actual Pop quiz was realizing that there was no Pop quiz." The professor says with a dry chuckle to himself.

"This is a good example to see what conjuration does and how it is different from teleportation. While teleportation requires you to move something from one location to another, conjuration can just make it appear out of thin air. But while it can make anything there are limits to what can be made including certain restrictions as to how to keep it." He then points to our desks. "Like how I made all of you a single paper that had the words Pop quiz on it but that was all that was on the paper. The moment I damaged the magic circle the papers all disappeared. In other words, while I can make anything, I want real I can only do so for a limited amount of time and in some cases, it can be ended early."

The professor starts to move around the room looking around seeing that he clearly got all of the student's attention. "Now can anyone tell me…" Before the professor could finish that sentence the doors to the classroom busted open and Pop fizz and Eruptor both came running into the room.

"Sparx you have to come immediately, its Spyro. Again." Said Eruptor with a worried expression on his face.

Without hesitation Professor Sparx quickly flew out the front door with the other professors quickly behind him. Whatever was happening with Spyro right now it had to be dangerous, I just hope that the Spyro is going to be all right.

Sparx POV

"Where is he?"

"He is at the training ground with Stealth Elf right now." The lava guy responds as he is trying to keep up with me as I am flying near my top speed. It took me a while to get used to being myself, in more ways then one as I was not used to being able to fly like the little guy I am. However, I am not the only one trying to get used to my 'old self' again. Spyro is too for that matter.

Ever since our little fight, Spyro has been having little episodes rather frequently. Well I say 'little episodes' but in actuality its more like he is trying to prevent a massive surge of power from overtaking him. I really don't want to use the term, 'a time bomb waiting to blow' but unfortunately, that is kind of an accurate description of what is going on. The annoying thing is that almost anything can trigger it to go off, but most of it is just emotional or metal stress that the guy feels at the time. Because of this Spyro has to be under constant surveillance by one or more members of his team, which I was against the idea at first because I believed that it would only make things worse. But the rest of the Skylanders had managed to convince me that it was for the best. After all we wouldn't want Spyro to accidentally blow up the academy because no one saw it coming.

What was really surprising to me about what to do about Spyro's episodes was that the Skylanders actually took my opinion into account. This may seem like a 'no-big-deal' but to me I was shocked to say the least. Other than Stealth Elf, I don't believe that a single Skylander likes to be around me. I mean I am to blame for trying to tear the team apart, kidnapping one of their members, attacking and provoking all of the members, but that doesn't make me all bad. Right? I am not so sure any more, I mean its not like I wanted to do those things, but they were kind of a means to an end, which doesn't really help me out either. Regardless of my moral dilemma, Spyro needs my help and currently I am the only one here who can suppress his 'little episodes'.

We managed to reach Spyro and Stealth Elf just in time as I see that Spyro is floating in the air without flapping his wings and his eyes got that blank pupil-less look that he has when he is overflowing. I look behind me to see that the blue and lava guy are right behind me, each giving me a nod letting me know that I can get to work on helping Spyro out.

While I was chanting getting ready to cast the spell to help Spyro out, Stealth Elf was dangerously close to Spyro trying to calm him down. "Everything is going to be fine Spyro, you don't need to worry anymore." Despite the fact that several pieces of equipment were flying around him and each one nearly missing her, she sounded pretty calming or at the very least, not all that scarred. I know I would be if I was in her shoes, but I cannot let myself be distracted as I closed my eyes to focus on my spell.

It was then that we heard a booming voice. It was loud and strong like the sound of thunder after a big crash of lighting from the sky. It spooked everyone as the voice was coming from Spyro, "I don't want to hurt you." Despite the fact that this voice could scare even the fearless, he sounded like he was in distress and was trying to hold back. Almost as if he was the one that was scared.

Thankfully I had finished casting my spell and I was all set to stop anything else from happening. I quickly flew in straight towards Spyro. Never in my life was I so happy to be small. Because thanks to that I was able to doge all of the major debris that was flying all over the place. That being said it was no simple task to fly up to the big guy. It took all of my effort to fly as straight as possible that I nearly lost concentration on the spell that we needed.

The moment I managed to touch Spyro with my hand I activated my spell and took all of the big guy's excess energy to another dimension. After that Spyros eyes regained their color as his body slowly descends and the wind slows down. Once Spyro had all paws on the ground I removed my hand from his head and fell down to the ground, exhausted.

I give a wry chuckle to the big guy before my I close my eyes as I feel my consciousness slip away.

Spyro's POV

I can never get over how big of a help Sparx is despite his size. I guess it goes to show that little packages can bring big surprises. I bring down my front paws to try to scoop him up and place him on my back. I take my time in doing this act as I want to make sure that I do not hurt him or stir him from his sleep. After taking great care with slow and careful movement I have him balanced on my back.

I look around me and see that Eurptor and Stealth Elf are coming out of cover and doing some surveys of the damage I caused, again. This would be the third time this week since I have had another episode and each time it happens; I always manage to cause a large amount of damage to my surroundings. Thankfully no one has been hurt yet, but I feel like that is only a matter of time if I cannot learn to control myself.

"Well since I got Sparx on my back I fly him over to the library and get him some rest. See you guys later." It feels so embarrassing leaving my friends like this, but I also know that there is nothing that I can do in situations like this. As I fly back, I recall that it wasn't all that long ago that I found out that I literally cannot do much in the way of being a hero other than fighting the bad guys. Which I was fine with, until I became one then I found that I was even better at fighting the good guys. I shake my head, clearing my head of those thoughts, "man I really know how to make myself depressed."

As I reach the Library, I notice that Cynder is waiting at the door. I call out to her, "Hey Cynder, what are you doing here?"

She turns to face me with a look of surprise on her face, "trying to talk to Headmistress Kassondra. What are you doing here?"

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to answer that question as I really don't want to say, 'I nearly blew up an island while training and Sparx had to stop me, so I am taking him to the Library to rest.' So, I did the next best thing, "Uh, I am, well." I show her Sparx lying on my back and she gasps in surprise shock, not that I blame her.

"What happened to Professor Sparx?" she asks as she gets really close to my back to look over the guy.

I am trying my best to come up with a convenient excuse or a clever thing to say to explain the situation. But my mind starts going blank. "Uh…" then it dawned on me something I did back when I wasn't myself and I haven't perfected the art of lying. I remember Strykore telling me that the best way to cover up the truth is by telling only half of it. "There was a training accident, and this was the end result." There that isn't a lie and I didn't disclose the fact that I did anything. Perfect.

Cynder gives me a questioning look as if to say that I should elaborate a little more. I however, just flash a big toothy grin silently pleading to not ask any further. It was not easy to try to convince the rest of the academy about who Sparx really is. The story that we told all of them was that Sparx was an old magic professor here at the academy and that he came back out of retirement. Everyone for the most part bought it, except for Cynder. She never said that she felt anything about Sparx, but I could tell that she knew more, but probably wasn't certain of anything just yet. Just after a long enough moment to make the silence between the two of us awkward we here the sounds of the most annoying villain in all of Skylands.

"But mom, surly you know more about your time with dad than that?" He says in a pleading tone as I see both him and Kassondra are coming closer into view. "And what's with the stuff about you not telling me anymore until I get older? How old do I have to be?"

Kassandra releases a heavy sigh and responds, "Old enough until you stop asking for it non-stop, or better yet when you are no longer interested." She then turns her head towards me and Cynder. " And what is that you two want?"

I was about to answer when Cynder spoke up first and called out, " I was actually looking for you Headmistress Kassandra. I was hoping that we could have a little talk about some of the 'problems' I have been having." This was news to my ears I had no idea what kind of problems Cynder would be having or why she would need Kassandra for her help.

Kassandra seems to understand immediately what she is talking about and takes a moment to excuse herself from her son. She then turns her head towards me and gives me a look, " And what about you Spyro? Why are you here?" I then lower my back on a small angle to reveal Sparx lying on my back blissfully passed out. Kassandra seemed to understand what was going on or a least enough to know what I wanted. "Okay" she says with the authority of a leader, "Cynder you come with me while the boys will wait out here for a moment."

Clearly being unhappy, Kaos pouts crossing his arms. He then turns to me and sees that Sparx is lying on my back. "What is that loser doing here?" Kaos says with a snarky tone in his voice, clearly expressing his distaste in seeing the gold dragonfly on my back.

The initial shock of dealing with Cynder had better prepared me for this as I said almost reflexive like. "Training incident." As if that was all that needed to be said. Kaos looks at me questioningly and then shrugs his shoulders like he really didn't particularly care. Curiosity getting the better of me I asked "Weren't you like his biggest fan or something? It's just hard to believe that you call him a loser when like a week ago you were giving him non-stop praise."

Kaos looks at me with what I would describe as almost embarrassment, the kind you have when you know you made a mistake but refuse to admit it. "Fan is a little over kill, I merely was surprised that the guy even existed in the first place. I mean after all he was just a comic book character before he was real, to me at least." Kaos then quickly turns back to face me with a look of anticipation clearly written all over his face. "Enough about that guy. Are you finally going to tell me about my father and some of the stuff of what he was like?"

The sudden change of subject was a little weird for me and I had trouble forming words in my head yet alone in my mouth. "Uhh" was about the only thing that I could think of at the time. I really didn't want to lie to him especially since I did promise to tell him but right now was not a good time and I needed to let him know that. "Look now is not a good time to be talking about this okay?" I was hopping that Kaos was going to read what I wasn't saying but he just pouts and folds his arms up as he stares at me with unpleasant eyes. Not really feeling like dealing with this right now I decided to tell him the whole truth as to why I couldn't talk about it right now. "Look I can't really talk about Eon right now because of the way my body is behaving. Any time I get too emotionally excited or something my new 'powers' start to surge out of control. When they start going out of control, I start breaking things and hurting people around me. The only one that can stop that from happing is currently on my back and passed out at this stage. So, I am sorry, but I cannot tell you about Master Eon until after my situation is 'handled'."

The look that Kaos gave me was not one that I was hopping to see. I was hopping to see understanding or even just the smallest bit of sympathy or compassion from the guy as I truly do feel guilty for not upholding my promise. But what I got was him furring his brows and asking me "Then when would be a good time? Tomorrow, a week, moth, years?!" He then starts shouting at me getting very upset, " I have done nothing but be patient with everyone one and all I get is being pushed to the side to be either forgotten about or to be treated like an extra. All I want is answers and no one is giving them to me. I mean is it too much to ask about my father that was never there my entire life!?"

Kaos's words hurt deeply. I know exactly how it feels to be like that as when Master Eon was the one that was keeping me in the dark. I knew that I wanted answers more than anything and I was willing to go to any lengths to get them. I sighed in defeat to his words and told him "Look, I don't know when I will have full control of my powers but the next time Sparx wakes up and we have a moment together I will answers any questions you have with Sparx in the room in case things go south. I know that isn't what I promised you first but right now that is the absolute best that I can offer. I hope that can accept my offer."

Kaos looks at me confused at first but then slowly his anger and frustration start to melt away. He quickly turns around facing away from me and says in a high and mighty voice, "Well you are right about that being not what you originally promised me, but since you are so helpless right now I guess I could be kind enough to take it. Although you will still owe me one for not keeping your first promise and I tend to collect on my debts ten-fold so be prepared." Even though he sounds like he is taking pity on me I know that he means well, after the little bit of time that I spent with him, I can tell at least that much.

As touching as the moment was it was suddenly interrupted by Kassondra yelling at the top of her lungs "SKYLANDERS ASSMEBLE" from right behind the door. The noise was so loud that I felt Sparx start to wake on my bake as I felt him stir awake. Within a moment the rest of the team was gathered in the main room with Cynder present as well. Although I was curious about what they were talking about and why she was still here, before I could voice my opinion Kassondra spoke first, "Alright listen up, Skylanders. I got a stress call coming from the Crumbling Mountains saying that they are being attacked by 'some type of ghost monsters' as they called it. I need you to go out there and stop them from destroying the town." She then motioned to Cynder who was standing by her side. "Take Cynder here with you as she has spent most of here life in the Cadaverous Crypts, so she is familiar with ghosts and the like."

With time being of the essence and the rest of team ready to depart we were just starting to head over when Sparx shouted, "Wait let me come with you I might also be able to provide some support and not to mention it might not be a good idea for Spyro to go and fight given his condition, unattended." I looked around the room, the logic making sense to me, but I could see that there was still the look of mistrust and apprehension written on some of my teammates faces. However, with time being short as it is and the distance from here to the Crumbling Mountains being far there wasn't a whole lot of room to argue. So Sparx was tagging along for the first time helping out the Skylanders.

The trip over was quite and filled with tension. There wasn't much that needed to be said other than a few questions that was asked by Cynder. Such things like 'what works on hitting ghosts?' and 'do positions work on them or do they just phase right threw them?' Cynder answered them as best as she could but there was only so much that she could answer with her experience of never actually fighting one. Mostly due to her overprotective father.

We ended up arriving to the town to see it be half on fire and the villagers screaming as they were running around in full on panic mode. We landed in a secure area and got a good look at the 'ghost monsters' that they were to fight. To call them a ghost was a little misleading as they had bones that made up their body however their bones were see through and they were like a lime green in color. Their bodies did resemble something of a monster, but it also could be described as smoothing like a beast that walks on two legs. They had very large shoulders and upper bodies while their lower bodies looked thin. Despite this being the first time that I have ever seen them, they look vaguely familiar.

Quickly shaking my head to get ready, I start the offensive with by diving into the sky getting the aerial advantage. Meanwhile Jet-Vac and Eruptor both head in from the front launching their mid-range attacks at the ghosts, gaining their attention. I then dash towards the ground using my fire breath to torch the guys further and catching the few that are staring to run away, making sure that none escape. As I am finishing up the round up of stragglers, Stealth Elf, Pop Fizz and Cynder all work together to stop these ghosts in their tracks.

All in all, we are doing great work and while Sparx may not have been doing much to help us in combat he was helping the residents find shelter and protecting them from flying debris so that we could fight without too much worry as the island itself is pretty small. For a little guy and first time ever working with us he really does know how to read the flow of battle and find the best way to assist. The battle itself was wrapping up fairly quickly, something which made me nervous. 'What are these things and why do they seem familiar to me?' was all I could think about as I was fighting them off.

Just as we are about to finish off the last one, a boom sound can be heard in the distance and hurling towards the center of town is what can only be describe as a black fireball. It lands creating a huge creator and large amounts of smoke and dust. Then something could be seen moving in the cloud of dust. It wasn't very large considering the whole that it just made, but the shape looked vaguely familiar.

It was then that the shadowy figure spoke, and it sent chills down my spine. It said in a cocky tone laced with malice only three words but within that moment it was as if I had just entered my worst nightmare "Remember me? Skylanders." Out emerged the one thing in the whole world that I feared and hated the most. Out emerged what can only be called Dark Spyro.

Chapter 10: Better left unsaid

Authors Footnotes:

Hey everyone, sorry again for being so late. I had a lot go on in my life for the past couple of months and I struggled to handle them. This is not me trying to give an excuse only to present my perspective on things. Regardless I will be finishing this story and I am happy to announce that I am working on creating a 'little' prequal/ sequel to this story as I kind of just got more and more into it. This time I plan on working out the details before I start writing so hopefully things turn out to be smoother and better written as a result. Hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter and the more that is to come.

Yours Truly,

D Jester.