Originally this was supposed to be in the new chapter buuut, it didn't work out, still I thought this was too good to simply throw away so...here it is (plus this might buy me some more time to finish the actual chapter ~') It maybe lacking the level of attention of my usual chapters (or not, I'll let you guys decide that) but I still thought it was pretty good.

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"Cynder...hey Cynder wake up." "leave her alone Spyro, she might actually wake up." "uhhm, I WANT her to wake up Sparx." "why? So she can try and kill us again!?" "that wasn't her fault Sparx, you know that." "yeah well, I do...question is does SHE know that?" "she's not evil Sparx, she deserves a second chance, and I'm willing to give it to her" "well don't expect me to come save you when she tries to kill you again." "Sparx come back...(sigh)...she's not evil...I trust her...why can't he?" Cynder could feel Spyro's paw on her shoulder, "come on Cynder, we're going to be late," he said as he shook her with his paw.

Cynder slowly opened her eyes and yawned in an attempt to make it look like as if she had just woken up. In reality she had barely gotten any sleep at all, a mixture of guilt, regret, and sadness had made it impossible for her to fall asleep without having nightmares. Cynder stretched her body and sighed, that's five days without a good night's rest...not that I deserve any rest at all, she thought as she looked down at the ground, a sad expression on her face.

"...Cynder?...are..are you okay?" Spyro asked, Cynder could sense concern in his voice, which really confused her. Why would he be concerned about me?..I..I tried to kill him, Cynder's thoughts were interrupted as Spyro touched her paw with his, "if you want we could just go for a walk, sure the guardians might get angry but.." he stopped as Cynder shook her head and moved her paw away from underneath his.

"no I'm...it's fine lets just..go," she said as she walked towards the inside of the temple, her gaze still on the ground, why does he care so much? She wondered as she kept walking. She glanced at Spyro who had caught up to her and was now walking beside her, she quickly looked back at the ground when Spyro turned to look at her, a second chance?...why would anyone say that I deserve that?...and of all people...why would he?

Cynder thought about this as they walked through the many halls of the temple, "Don't be too hard on yourself Cynder, you should be happy, you're free now...right?" asked Spyro, in an attempt to get Cynder's hopes up. "...I should've been smashed along with the rest," she whispered, Spyro didn't really hear anything but even so he could tell that his attempt failed.

"...please don't be sad Cynder...I want you to be happy," he said with a smile. Cynder sighed and stopped, Spyro's smile faded as he stopped beside her. "...what's there to be happy about...I killed a lot of people...I-I almost killed YOU...I..." Cynder's voice cracked as she stopped, tears were running down her face as she thought more about it. Spyro looked at her with concern in his eyes, what do I say?...what can I say?

Spyro sat there thinking about what to say as he saw Cynder's crying worsen, "but...th-that wasn't your fault,"he said, the way he said that made it sound as if he wasn't sure about it, but it only sounded like that because he had just come up with it on the spot. "Wasn't it?.." she cleared her tears with her paws, but were quickly replaced, "I ki..killed them Spyro...IT WAS ME!...it was me...now everyone hates me...why shouldn't they...you should've let me di!" she looked up in surprise as Spyro pulled her into a tight hug.

"you're not alone Cynder...you have me...and...I'll never hate you, no matter how many say I should...I don't want you to be hurt anymore," he said, Cynder could hear sadness in his voice. ….why...why would he say this...why is he so concerned about me? I tried to kill him...so, "why?" she asked out loud accidentally, part of her hoped that he had heard her, that he would say something to her that would make her feel better...that would make her...understand.

"because I like you...you're my friend." that last part shocked her, f..f-friend?...I have a...friend? She didn't know how to feel about that, she felt something, she just, didn't know if it was happiness, or sadness. Cynder half laughed, half cried as she rested her head on his shoulder and grabbed onto him as tightly as possible, scared that she would wake up to her old life if she let go. Spyro held onto her as she cried on his shoulder, why am I crying?...why does he see me as a friend...why am I happy about it, thoughts like this cluttered her mind as she continued crying on his shoulder.

Her crying stopped after a while, she was embarrassed for having cried so much, but she felt worse about letting him comfort her when she knew that she didn't deserve it. Spyro simply sat there, still holding onto her as she rested her head on his shoulder, please feel better Cynder, he thought as he loosened his hold on her. He moved her so that he could see her face, "...feeling better?" he asked, his head tilted to one side in wonder, Cynder sighed and gently nodded her head, this made Spyro smile slightly, "good, because I'm pretty sure Volteer won't be happy about us being late.

Spyro could hear a small giggle escape her muzzle, this made him smile even more, "come on," he said, looking back at her as she let go of him and they started walking towards the training arena. "...okay," she said quietly to the point that Spyro could barely hear it. Spyro and Cynder raced through the temple's halls, hoping that they could make up for lost time. "(huff...huff)we're...never gonna make it in time..it's all my fault, if I hadn't-" "we'll make it Cynder, just (huff)...just keep running!" he cried as they ran as fast as they could towards a large door ahead of them.

Volteer sat inside the arena, the large statue already underneath the floor. He had been waiting for the two young dragons for some time now, and he had grown inpatient, "Where could they possibly be? They are taking an exorbitant amount of time to arrive." Volteer was about to go looking for the two when the door opened behind him. Volteer looked around to see the two dragons in question, looking quite exhausted as they lay on the ground in front of him.

"would you be inclined as to elucidate the motive for your dilatory entrance?" asked Volteer as he sat back down. Cynder tilted her head in confusion as she looked to Spyro for translation. Spyro just smiled and looked over at the guardian, "sorry Volteer, I overslept so Cynder had to go find me," he explained. Cynder just looked at him with a confused expression, "is this true Cynder?" asked Volteer, snapping her out of her thoughts.

".uhm...yeah I, didn't really know where he was sleeping so, I had to go look for him," she said, trying to be as calm as possible. Volteer sighed and looked at them, "you shouldn't oversleep young dragon, there are many responsibilities for which you must be ready to partake in should the need arise," he explained as a dummy appeared in front of them, "but for now I simply require you to use all of your energy, and blast this dummy," he said as he pointed at the large dummy with a claw.

"uhm...okay?" said Spyro, quite confused at the simplistic task, "..why?" he asked as he looked back at the guardian. "never mind the reason Spyro, simply blast it," he said as he looked at the dummy, "this seem like a trap to you?" he asked Cynder as he walked next to her. She simply shrugged and began barraging the dummy with poison and shadow blasts, Spyro could do little more than fly in for an attack as his breath was still nowhere to be seen.

Eventually Cynder ran out of energy and sighed as the dummy stood unfazed by her attacks, "uhm...did I do something wrong? Or is the dummy just broken?" she asked as she and Spyro both looked back at the guardian confused. Volteer simply chuckled as he looked down at them, "no, I assure you the dummy is in extraordinary conditions, that was simply the introduction into the true lesson," he explained, raising more questions than he did answers, "you see, at your young age you require aid in recovering energy to use for your elemental breaths, however, Spyro have you ever seen any of us use anything to recover after a long battle?" he asked as he looked down at Spyro.

"no, not really, I don't think you've ever run out of energy like us," said Spyro as he thought back to the few battles he saw the guardians fight. Volteer nodded and smiled, "quite, that is because of our age, we are older and we no longer require an external source in order to recover our energy, however it does become harder to recover the older you get," he explained as the dummy disappeared having served its purpose. "actually, when Ignitus and I were trying to get into the temple, he used a fire furry to defeat some apes and said that it got harder to recover as he got older," said Spyro as he remembered that day.

"precisely, Ignitus's old age does make it harder to recover from large attacks, but he can recover with time, much like you both will as the years pass." he explained. Spyro and Cynder both nodded in understanding as Volteer went on to explain how it all worked, and at what age they would most likely begin producing their own energy.

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Welp, hope you liked it, not half bad if I do say so myself...really wish I could've found a place for this in the chapter..oh well, still here so I suppose it's not all bad. Listen about the next chapter...uhh..I really have no idea when it'll come out...I, well I have a lot of stuff to do and, well I've had a lot of problems with time and, sorry for all these excuses...I...could've tried harder. Next chapter will be out...I honestly don't know, but hopefully soon...yeah...soon.

..peace you guys. I hope you enjoyed it.