Authors Note's

Fair warning for what is up ahead. There is some pretty gruesome scenes and things might get a little graphic. I am keeping this PG-13 ish but if you don't want to read those parts just look for the end of the battle (I will let you know so that you won't have to go looking for it.)

Chapter 10: Better left unsaid

Spyro POV

A thick cloud of smoke and dust hung in the air as the figure slowly gains shape. The first thing that I saw was those dark red eyes. I always knew that I had red eyes but for some reason they look brighter with the black night like scales and the dark grey horns from his head. The words that he uttered, sent a chill down my spine as I was remined of times better left forgotten. "Remember me? Skylanders." He started to emerge from the creator that he had created, slowly walking up as if it was no different then walking down a simple hall. Despite the fact that the creator was easily over ten times his size he seemed virtually unharmed and seemed to be walking without any injury sustained. "What? All stares and no comments? I thought at least one of you would say something by now."

He turns to look at all of my teammates one at a time keeping a very calm and casual appearance on his face as if it was the same for window shopping on things that he liked. "It seems like the gangs all here." He then looks to Cynder and Sparx who are just as awestruck as the rest of us about what is going on. "And it seems like you brought extras to the party, great." He then starts to walk up closer to me his expression changing from his light demeanor to a more serious look as his eyes concentrate on me. All the while I remain frozen in place like someone had pinned me to my position, and despite that I couldn't see my teammates, judging from the lack of movement, it seems like they were in the same position as me.

He stops his walk just a few steps away from me, starting right at me, "What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost. Pretty ironic as I had you fight quite literally a few ghosts from 'our' past." The words that reach my ears are laced with a malice I never thought I could hear from my own voice. "Did you like them? I really hope you did because it cost me quite a bit to get them made." He then shifts his predator glance behind me, and I see that he is looking directly at Cynder. "Although it seems like I will be able to pay it back in full sooner than expected."

As I turned to face him, he vanished. It was as if he really was a ghost, one moment he was standing in front of me the next he was gone. As much as I deeply wished this was true, I then heard a gasp come from behind me and saw that somehow Dark Spyro had appeared right in front of Cynder holding her by the throat. He seemed to just be holding her there suspended in the air for a few moments, slowly making her lose her breath until suddenly, a giant disembodied fist punched Dark Spyro in his side sending him flying. The fist then rapidly faded away into nothing as I saw Sparx lower his hands staring intently at Dark Spyro. His eyes were burning with anger, as if his stare could burn a whole in someone.

(PG-13 warning here,)

From where Dark Spyro had landed I saw the rubble move and out came Dark Spyro, seemingly unscratched. "Well that was just rude." He said while twisting his body as if he was stretching, "I knew I wasn't going to get a very welcome greeting and all, but I never expected you to be the first to strike, Kronos." At that moment I saw Sparx go wide eyed, as he lowered his hands and stare at disbelief at Dark Spyro. In all the time that I had spent with Sparx and all the times that my 'memories' shared with me I have never seen the look on his face. It wasn't just simple disbelief that was on his face it was something more, like a primal terror written on him, as if Dark Spyro had just opened up pandoras box. "How …" Sparx never got to finish his sentence as Dark Spyro had disappeared, leaving behind what I can make out to be a few thin bolts of a dark purple lighting. I then turned my head in the direction of Sparx.

I heard a scream.

This scream wasn't one of joy or shock or anything like that it was a scream of terror. Sparx lay on the ground unmoving, with a whole in his chest. I stand there stock still as I was frozen with shock.

In an uncaring tone Dark Spyro looks down at Sparx's corpse, "That is what you get for interrupting my reunion with Cynder." He then turns to face Cynder using his tail to smack Sparx around in the dirt. But before he could pull another vanishing act again, I heard a yell. It was coming from Jet-Vac as he pointed his Vat-gun at Dark Spyro and fired rapidly as he could. This seemed to have broken the spell that had fallen on everyone as they all started to join in on his battle cry and started to charge towards Dark Spyro. I start to join them in their call being filled up with the energy that they are radiating and start to flap my wings as fast as I can to reach Dark Spyro along with the rest of my team.

(No longer PG-13 rated your welcome)

Despite the fact that we were rampaging towards him, Dark Spyro only casually turns his head to face us and for a spit second, I could have sworn I saw his eyes change. And before we could do anything else the earth beneath Dark Spyro moved rapidly, like water flowing, and taking shape in front of us, blocking our path to him. Using my wings, I rapidly ascended over the newly formed barrier in an attempt to get to Dark Spyro. However, by the time that I had reach the top I found that Dark Spyro wasn't there. I look forward beyond to see that he had managed to grab Cynder and has her unconscious body over his back. He turns to look at me with a smirk on his face, and his eyes giving me a wide knowing smile like he is getting amusement from this. "I will leave what's his face with you." He spreads his wings which now somehow look wider and longer than before and gives them a single push as a gust of wind forces me back in recoil. I never thought that so much power could come from a single flap of wings, but despite the large amount of wind rushing past my ears I could still hear Dark Spyro speak perfectly. "As a parting gift to you I will give you one piece of advice. Ask him who Kronos is if you want to know everything about Sparx and what he has done. Because believe me when I say this, you will thank me for what I have done for you."

And with those parting words he flew up in the sky so fast, it would make Stealth Elf green with envy. I just stood there on the ground lost and confused as I turned to Sparx who still lay motionless on the ground. All I could think about at the time was that I had failed him, I had let my brother down. Whatever the reason was, whether it was the exhaustion of the fight or the mental and emotional strain of Dark Spyro, my eyes slowly started to close as I lost consciousness.

Eruptor's POV

The ride bake to base was the worst part. It wasn't the fact that we had failed in the mission to protect everyone, since the villagers themselves were safe, but the fact that we lost a cadet and another member of our team was unconscious. That was hard but the hardest part was yet to come. We had to tell Spyro that Jester had died. Although I should say that it was 'Sparx' that had died but I never did warm up to his other side. After all, even if he could fool the rest of the Skylanders, he wasn't going to fool me. I had enough of all the scheming that he had pulled off as Jester, and I honestly cannot tell what is going on through his head but I knew one thing the moment he appeared in front of us that he was bad news, and so far I had been right, for the most part.

However, the news of about Spyro's 'second soul' residing inside of him shocked me. And if it wasn't for the fact that Spyro himself had explained and told everyone himself, I never was going to believe it. The fact that it was Jester that told Spyro about all of this, made me even more suspicious. Regardless of that matter there was so much I don't understand about Jester and the things he has done in the past. But what was really troubling me was Jester's inconstancies. He would make countless plays of power and cunning in one moment and then rushed to execute them the next. Like coming up with deceiving plans that manipulate others is like breathing to him.

Then there was Jesters past. When it came down to it, we knew very little. What we do know so far is only what he told us and that doesn't amount to much, as for all we know it could be a lie. But even if all of what he told us is true, that still leaves about, according to him, 10,000 years unaccounted for. What did he do? What did he see? What did he learn during all that time? When I tried to get some more information out of him on the subject, he was vague and lacked any real detail. He seemed most warry around me, meaning that he was being cautious with what he said around me. In other words, he was aware that I haven't fully trusted him, and he is dancing on tiptoes around me, which only makes me more curious. Although now I guess I won't be getting anything out of him now that he is gone.

As soon as I reached that thought we had managed to land back at the academy with long and sullen looks upon our faces. The only saving grace that we had so far was that Spyro hadn't woken up yet, meaning that we had time to prepare. Although the more I think about it, I am not sure whether or not that is a blessing or a curse.

The first one to break the silence was Stealth Elf, "I think we should take Spyro to the main room. I think it will be easiest to tell him what happened to Cynder and Sparx." I could tell that there was more that she wanted to say or show, perks of being friends with her for years. But the downside of that knowledge was that I had no idea what it was that she wanted to say. I find that sometimes the things might be better without me being so 'brainy' all the time.

We managed to lay down Spyro on the sofa and put Sparx on Master Eon's desk. We then stood in front of Sparx's body as we were trying hard to not make it the first thing that Spyro sees when he wakes up. Then we waited. Waited for Spyro to wake up. Waited for us to come up with something to say on how to break the news. Waiting for time to end, but in the end, it was Spyro who woke up first.

He groaned and stirred as he was slowly waking up from being knocked unconscious. His bright red eyes started to slowly come open as he started to look around the room with confusion in his eyes. "What happened?" is all he could get out of his mouth it seems. I figured something like this was going to happen as this is something that happens a lot to people who go through a shocking moment before receiving a massive blow to the head. Ironically enough this rather specific set of events happens often for Skylanders that there was a study done by an old professor working on brain damage some years before we arrived. I believe…

"You were knocked out by your other half Spyro." Stealth Elf said in response to Spyro's question. Stupid head of mine going off on tangents, I may be able to think ten times faster then my teammates but if I have 100 more things to think it doesn't help. "We carried you here as you were knocked unconscious. Do you remember anything Spyro?" Stealth Elf asked with a solemn look upon her face.

Spyro seemed to be thinking hard over the subject as if the memory itself was painful. He seemed to have come to some form of realization and when he uttered his next words it seemed like he was going to break down. "Sparx…"

"Ugh. Did anyone get the licenses plate on the truck that hit me?"

The words came from behind us. There should have been no one there and yet it did. I turned around to see that something impossible happened. Sparx was flying right above the desk that we had placed him on, with no whole in his chest. He looked at us with a perplexed look to his face as if he was unsure of what was going on. Then he looked behind him as if he thought that we were looking behind him. Upon realizing that there was nothing out of the ordinary he then turned back and faced the rest of us and just replied, "What?" As if we could explain what was going on.

I recalled the injury that Sparx had obtained from the fight and both Jet-Vac and Pop Fizz confirmed that his heart had stopped. The wound itself was impressive to say the least. Despite that fact that Sparx is smaller than my 'hand' the whole in his chest was dead center of his body. There was no way that we could do anything at the time to heal the wound or bring the little guy back. Yet somehow, he came back on his own and what's more is that the hole in his body is completely gone and looks like he never sustained any injury at all. To top that all off he is making wise cracks to boot.

Jet-Vac was the first to answer Sparx's question, with another question of course, "Your alive? How is that even possible?"

Sparx then looked over to Jet-Vac and suddenly his face lit up as he answered the question. "Oh! now I get what is going on. I thought something was on my face. Well I don't know if you guys remember this, but I did say that there was a lot more to my powers then what I revealed. One of them being that I am basically immortal." He said so matter of fact like that it seemed like we where simpletons for not figuring it out earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually thought that.

Spyro was starting to break up into tears as he slowly started to approach Sparx. "I thought I lost you back there."

"Hey! Hey! Easy on the water works buddy. I may be a drama guy but don't go all crying over me. I told you I am basically immortal." He says trying to calm Spyro down, while reassuring him that everything was going to be alright. The look that Sparx made told me a lot about how he feels. He showed signs of relaxation, and content. This combined with how he was acting told me that he was glad that nothing serious had happened to Spyro and that he feels comfortable around the him. Despite the fact that Sparx is a sneaky person who is withholding stuff from us, he sure does feel comfortable around Spyro.

As Spyro stopped crying, he sniffles out a question, as a look of confusion crosses his face. "Hey Sparx, who is Kronos?" In that moment all looks of content and relaxation vaporized from his face as it was replaced with shock and panic. Something about Kronos makes him feel very uncomfortable. He looks around and notices that we all see the worried expression on his face. Because of our recent encounters with Master Eon, we have come to recognize this face and we know what it means. A secret of his is about to be exposed.

"Uh, nothing really. I mean that phrase doesn't really mean that much. It just something that …" He was saying these words as he was looking to each of us clearly trying to hide what he knows. Then he stops mid-sentence as he looks to Spyro. He goes from trying to be convincing to frozen in place so fast if you blinked you would have missed it. "… you guys may want to sit down for this. Please." Even though he has only been here for about two weeks. Even Pop could tell. He never once used the word please.

We sat down and waited for him to continue, having the is look of deep focus on his face. After a little while of pacing back and forth threw the air he stopped and faced us. "Where do I even begin?" He then turned around and started to fly over to the desk to stop just a few inches away from its edge.

"I have mentioned before that I had to travel to other worlds to find Spyro's soul, right? Well what I neglected to tell you was the how I managed to do so. I wouldn't mind explaining the finer details, but I am certain that none of you have lifespans long enough for me to be able to do so, so I will give the smaller version. I was able to travel to other worlds because of my job. What my job is exactly, or rather what I have to do for my job is I have to make sure certain things happen. I know that is very vague as far as job descriptions goes but it is no less true. My job was to travel to other worlds and prevent certain events or people from doing certain things. I could use any method or process or whatever I could get my hands on to achieve that purpose. In my line of work there is no such thing as a coincidence or fate or destiny, ultimately it came down to how well I did my job."

He took a moment to look around and see the looks on everyone's face. I am not sure what exactly he saw but he looked saddened as he took a deep breath and continued on. "The point being here was that I lied, tricked, deceived, and even convinced others to do what 'had to be done'. These events, or things that I was to make sure happen were mostly tragedies. I used others to create terrible events that effected many worlds and I am the one responsible for them coming to pass. The only reason how I am able to keep moving from world to world is that no one knows that it was me that was pulling the strings. I did everything without ever telling anyone who I was. Kronos was the name given to me to represent all of the tragedies that I have caused." Sparx then lowered his head down quietly.

"I am sorry for asking this but what kind of things did you do? Specifically?" It was Pop who asked this question. I am not sure whether he meant anything by that or not but asking this seemed to put Sparx in even a worse mood as I could see he sink even lower to the ground, slowly falling from up high. While I was curious as well there are some things that even I won't ask, or at least not right away. While Sparx was trying to come to terms with what to say I stole a glace at Spyro trying to see what he looked like hearing all of this. I didn't get a good look at his face, while standing behind him, but I could tell that this was very shocking for him to hear. No surprise there as it is shocking to all of us, but he seemed to be very upset by this. The only reason why I thought this in the first place was that he was completely still. The kind of unnaturally still one has when they get angry.

Sparx then picked up his head and looked Spyro straight in the eye and I will never forget what he said after. "I am the one who caused Spyro to have no blood relatives left." A cold silence fell upon the room as what Sparx just said seeped into us. Before we could anyone could really react Sparx started to continue, for the fist time giving us details as to what he has done. "You have already learned that I can transform myself into anyone, and that I was once the teacher for Kassandra. What you didn't know and neither did anyone for that matter was that I was the one that taught Strykore how to steal another person's light. I was also the one that secretly implanted the powers that Eon used to send Spyro's ancestors into another world, wherever that may be." Sparx then sat down on the desk indicating that his explanation was done.

We sat there in silent contemplation trying to absorb the information that was being given to us. Speechless was an understatement. Given from what Eon had told us and all that we had went through, none of what has happened to us would have happened if Sparx hadn't done what he did. I turned to Spyro looking to see if he was taking it any better then the rest of us. Instead all I heard was "How many?" it was the quietest question I have ever heard but to the rest of us he might as well of shouted it.

Sparx looked visibly confused by the question and simply responded in a defeated tone, "how many what?" The look on Sparx's face was contorted with emotion, uneasy was simply the best way to describe it.

Spyro took a deep breath and raised his head, looking at Sparx directly, and spoke in a clear and slow voice saying, "how many have you affected, not just us, but how many people have suffered like we did? How many individual lives affected by your actions?" You could feel the anger in his voice like a pressure coming down on you like a ton of bricks. I haven't seen Spyro this angry before and it scared me.

I wasn't the only one scared though as Sparx's face went from bad to worse in an instant. He tried to turn his head away from Spyro and looked down to the ground as if to try and figure it out. This apparently seemed to anger Spyro even more as he then shouted "HOW MANY SPARX! ANSWER ME!"

Sparx jumped back from Spyro and as I looked around so have the rest of us. We have never once seen Spyro get angry like this before, and for the first time since we found out that he was turned evil. We were instinctively scared of him. Scared of what he could do. Sparx then took a deep breath raised his head and looked Spyro in the eyes, "I have no idea. The only real answer I can give is all of them." I could see that the emotion on Sparx's face start to fade away as he gave the most factual answer that he could provide. To be honest, I am not sure what kind of answer Spyro was looking for, but it seemed that when Sparx gave his answer he seemed to visibly relax. Although that isn't very true either as even pop could still see that Spyro was very angry right now. It would be more accurate to say that Spyro had cooled down enough to not be yelling anymore.

What Spyro did next, after spending a hot minute of just staring at Sparx, was turn away from Sparx and start to head towards the door. No one tried to stop him, and everyone immediately got out of his way. The main reason for this was that we could visibly see the magic pouring out of his body, one false move and he could explode with energy and the pained look on his face told us a lot. Either he was doing everything he could to not blow up right now or that he was so angry that not even our voices could penetrate him, either one would be best to give him some space. Before he left, Spyro turned his face to look back and said, "you know, that dra- the other me said that I would thank him for what he did. And right now, all I wish is that when you went down, you should have stayed down. At least then you would have died as my brother." Those words were laced with so much hate that I could have sworn that they could kill. And without so much of a response, Spyro leapt off and flew into the distance. I turned to look at Sparx one more time before heading out of the room myself and he just stood there with a blank expression on his face. And for the first time since I have encountered him, I saw a crack in his mental mask.

Some floating island during sunset

For some reason I decided to tail Sparx and see what he was going to do. I have no real clue as to why I felt the need to do so, maybe curiosity, but I carried on regardless. I watched him slowly descend to a floating island in the not so far distance. It was approaching sunset now and if it wasn't for the mood that Sparx's revelation had made it would been very relaxing and a beautiful sight to behold. But for Sparx I don't think he came to this spot for any purpose, I think he just wanted to get away from everything and find a place in peace. At least that was what I would do.

The next thing I see Sparx do is sit down and do nothing. No sounds, no magic, just looking at the sunset doing nothing. I watch him from a distance for over an hour and he still just staring ahead. I couldn't see his face from behind him and after waiting for a long period of time I moved out from hiding and approached him. I don't know what made me do this, and I asked myself 'what am I doing here' several times. But every time I tried to move away or leave him alone, I just kept on thinking back to the crack that I saw in his mental mask. I kept thinking 'what was that for and why did he show it then?' He has never done anything without a purpose behind it, but whenever I tired to figure out what it was for, I came up blank.

It wasn't until that I was a few feet away from him that he took notice of me. He turned to me and I saw a look of surprise on his face. "You were the last person I expected to see." He said with a lace of sarcasm in his voice. "What did you come here for? To gloat? Say 'I knew you were bad all along' or something?" He then turned back towards the sunset as he awaited my response. Honestly those thoughts did come to my mind before but that wasn't why I came over to see him. I guess having him come at me like the way he did made me say " I wanted to know what was that that made you crack open."

This seemed to have confused Sparx and he turned to look at me in the eyes. And for the briefest moment I thought I saw something, but before I could even see what it was it was gone. He then studied me and gave a look of recognition as if he figured out what my poorly worded question meant. "Oh that. Look some things are better left unsaid okay?" He then turned to face the sunset again as if that answer was enough to satisfy me.

I don't know why exactly but I felt betrayed at that moment. Maybe it was because of the fact that he could read me, but I couldn't read him. Maybe it was that he said he revealed everything to us but was now saying that he wasn't going to tell me something, like he was still keeping secrets. Whatever it was it angered me, and I shouted, "what is it that you could possibly feel the need to hide from us? What is your major scheme now that we know what you did? What are you not telling me and why?"

Sparx seemed to raise his head up after hearing what I said, and he just turned and looked at me. His only response to my questions was this, "I don't want to make excuses for what I have done. I don't feel the need to say it because I don't feel like I deserve a chance to defend myself or what I have done." Those words, for some reason, have struck a chord with me as he looked at me with nothing but sincerity. Like he honestly believes that he is beyond redemption even if he feels nothing but sorrow for what he has done. He then turns away from me a second time and stares back at the sunset.

I felt, for the second time today, as though I have just learned something about Sparx that he didn't mean to reveal about himself. I almost wanted to get angry at him for avoiding my questions, but I realized that in a way he did answer them. He told me that what he held back in saying were things that would sound like excuses or something that would make him seem less evil. Like a villain taking acts of redemption. He didn't want to say them because he feels like he deserves punishment and he is just trying to take it. I never thought that I would ever feel this way, least of all with Sparx, but I actually felt empathy for the little guy. If I had made a mistake, the first thing I would do was do something to make up for it to amend myself. It seems like he did the same thing but, instead of trying to defend himself he is just taking it. I guess what everyone says about me is true, despite being hard and rough on the outside I am really a softy on the inside. I decided to, against my previous judgment of the guy, hear him out and say, "you know if you want I could 'pretend' not to listen as you talk to yourself."

This time instead of letting him turn around to face me I sat at the ledge of the island with him. And the only thing I saw when I looked at him was a sight I will never forget for the rest of my life. Instead of seeing a mastermind with a grand scheme in the background. Instead of seeing a liar saying anything to get what he wants when it's convenient for him. Instead of seeing an emotionless person who commits atrocious acts and admits to them with out a care in the world. I saw a man/ insect break down.

And for the rest of the night he cried his little heart out in front of me.

Chapter 11: To Forgive Oneself

Authors Footnotes:

I cannot tell you all how hard it was for me to write this chapter. Not only because it was hard for me to write as a story but how difficult it was to convey what Sparx had done and how others would react. Not all people are terrible, but I also believe that even terrible people have hearts too. The story will go on and I promise you viewers this: Life goes on and with it the good bad and ugly. Thanks for reading and I look forward to writing more again.

Yours Truly,

D. Jester