I sat there for a while, thinking about the dream I just had. If I was right, and so far the theory was right three for three, my cousin was dead. Furthermore, I now knew who killed all of us and it didn't help any. After a while Jacy and Ryan woke up and asked where we were going next. I slowly got up and prepared to take off when we heard a buzzing sound. We looked around for the source and I saw three creatures coming at us fast. I instantly realized what these machines were and was terrified.

"Uhh, guys?" I asked "Any idea why transformers would be here?"

Jacy muttered something under her breath. "Ōum ĭ Jiā ripped these things out of their universe to serve him."

"Great." I said. I looked over at Ryan who was in disbelief. "Insecticons." He said.

"Insecticons? I think I've heard of those." I said "Who are they?"

Ryan looked over at us. "Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback. Very unstable Decepticons that are ravenous for energy, very likely they sensed our bioenergy and now were on the menu. The most dangerous is Bombshell, the rhino beetle. Don't let him sting you or he'll inject mind control circuits into you."

The robots closed on us and one of them, the grass hopper transformed to robot mode, the other to shot grenades and mortars at us. Jacy opened her wings and the explosives dove to the ground and exploded harmlessly.

"I got the big one!" I shouted and leapt at the grasshopper. Bad move, he rolled on his back and just as I came down on him he delivered a double kick that sent me flying into the air. I was in too much pain to open my wings and simply fell to earth a few hundred yards off. I coughed and saw blood. I tried to get up and felt an explosive pain in my chest. I was pretty sure at least one rib was broken. I could only lay there and watch as my friends battled outnumbered.

One of the insecticons shot a blot of lightning at Jacy, a bamboo sprouted from the ground in front of her, attracting the lightning. Afterwards, Jacy opened her wings and the bamboo came out of the ground and flew at the insecticon. It hit and penetrated at a joint, causing on of his legs to start twitching uncontrollably. Meanwhile, Ryan was fighting Kickback and Bombshell. Ryan had double thorn whips and was fighting hand to hand with Kickback, who was three times his size. I saw Bombshell coming up from behind, preparing to sting Ryan. I took a deep breath to warn him, but had to let it out as once again my chest exploded in pain. In a last ditch effort, I summoned all my strength and shot a large energy blast, it exploded on bombshell, knocking him back, his head cannon hanging listlessly to the side.

Ryan, meanwhile was using his size to his advantage, he wrapped the vines around Kickback's legs and pulled himself between them, then took off, pulling Kickback onto his face. Ryan than detached the vines and let then fall to the ground. The He pulled a seed out of his bag. "Hey kickback! Wanna snack?" He shouted. Kickback looked up and scanned the seed. Upon seeing it's huge power supply, he charged Ryan.

Ryan threw the seed, which Kickback caught in his mouth. Ryan smiled smugly. "Gotcha." Suddenly, Kickback stopped in his tracks, a moment later he started screaming as leaves and twigs pushed out of his joints, within moments, the giant bush had grown out of his mouth and punched through his body and took root. It continued to grow till it pushed him apart from the inside, leaving a beautiful bush surrounded by scrap metal.

Shrapnel and Bombshell saw what happened and decided it wasn't worth the time. "We'll be back-back-back-back." Shrapnel said as they took off.

After Ryan and Jacy were sure they were gone, they went to get me. "Hey man, you alright?" Ryan asked. I tried standing, but the pain was too much and I slumped back down.

"No, I think I broke a rib or four. I think I can walk on my hind legs though. Jacy helped me up while Ryan grew a small tree. Once I was on my hind legs, I cut a branch off the tree with my tail and used it as a walking stick.

We continued our journey and eventually came across a village in the distance. It was arranged like a western town, one street with houses on one side, shops on the other. At the end of the street was what appeared to be the house of the town elder or leader. There were children playing in the streets and dragons coming in and out of the shops. I looked at the others. "We're here. The pull stopped."

We went into a valley and lost sight of the town. When we came out and could see the town again, we were surprised.

It was empty.

The children were gone, No one was outside, all the doors were closed and the shutters drawn. We entered the street and looked around. All the shops had closed signs on them. We knocked on a few doors, aside from some shuffling noises there was no answer. We made our way to the leaders house and knocked. "Excuse me, but we need your help. Something told us to come here and our friends need help."

Nothing.

I got an idea from something Spyder did once. A ball of shadow appeared in my hand, I press my palm to the lock and felt around for the tumblers, they slid into place and I opened the door, only to be met with a painfully hot blast of wind that blew us all off our feet and into the dirt several yards away. "We don't like outsiders or trespassers." A voice said. I looked up and was shocked. (That's been happening a lot.)

He was a dragon, but not one at the same time. He had a human body covered in light green scales, his feet were dragon like with human elements too. His hands were like ours, basically human with claws. His head was mostly dragon, but shorter than most. His horns were short and his tail matched his height with nothing on the tip. His large green and blue wings poked out of the back of the leather vest he wore. With nothing under the vest he had heavy cotton pants with hard leather plates sewn into them.

He began a complex series of movements, which I found familiar. (It look's like Ba-Gua) I thought. Then we were thrown up into the air by another gust, then the dragon stepped forward and punched, loosing a column of fire that turned into a field of fire below us. We opened our wings and glided to safety. The dragoon then began a series of violent punches and kicks that send balls, blasts and walls of fire toward us. Jacy opened her wings and they all flew straight up and fizzled out.

The dragon then moved his arms in a circle and a sphere of visible air formed under him. He jumped on it and rode it towards us. It was then I had a good idea who we were fighting. "Jacy, Ryan! Get out of here, NOW!" They took flight and the dragon bore down on me, a sphere of blue energy appearing in his hand. He thrust it out and shouted "RASENGAN!"

I braced myself and the attack passed through me, my body tuning to smoke then re-solidifying. I turned to face him. "I can't fight you! I'm hurt!"

"Then you shouldn't have come here!" He said. "I'm the village protector. Until I'm called to a higher purpose, I stay here to defend these people." He then made another Rasengan, but I was surprised when it burst into flames. (This must be the fire element version of RasenShurikan.) I though. Not wanting to take the chance, I focused on something, ANYTHING that would defend me from this. I opened my eyes. A mass of shadow appeared on my arm and spread up and down to form some kind of shield. The dragon then threw the missile shouting "RASENMETEOR!" the missile hit the shield and made a "pss." Sound and vanished. Me and my opponent were shocked at the shields effectiveness.

I knew exactly who I was fighting now. I dropped the shield and it turned to smoke and vanished. "Kenji, I wont fight you."

"What?!" he said "How do you know my name?"

I closed my eyes and there was a flash of light. When it cleared, I was standing there as a human, holding onto a log twice my height for support. I smiled at Kenjis face as he recognized me. "Lucky guess." I said.

"James?! I thought you were dead!"

"Yeah." I said. "I've been getting that a lot lately. Can we talk now? Something led us to you. And Spyros been captured."

"WHAT?!" He shouted. "Come on in. we'll talk. Hang on a second." He then shouted "It's alright, they're friends! You can come out!"

Doors opened and faces peered out as we went inside to talk.

The others sat down. I stayed up as it hurt to bend my torso. Kenji noticed this. "James, why don't you sit down?"

I looked at him, "First, you have to understand there are thing going on that don't make sense. With that in mind, I got my ribs broken in a fight with the Insecticons."

"Insecticons? You mean like, Transformers?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah, exactly."

"What happened to them?"

Ryan spoke up. "I killed one, the rest ran off."

"Dang." Kenji said before turning to me. "So what were you saying about Spyro?"

I started from the beginning, telling them all how I woke up as a dragon and befriended Spyro and his family. Then how they started vanishing and the measures the guardians took to ensure everyone's safety. I told them about my escape and finding Ryan. Then I told Jacy and Kenji about our journey until Jacy found us with Ryan's input.

"Wait a sec!" Kenji yelled, turning to Jacy. "Jacy, it's you?!"

"Sure is." She said.

Kenji turned to me. "How many other people are here that we know?"

"So far I only know about us."

They all turned to me. Jacy asked the question I had been dreading. "What are you talking about?"

I turned my back to them. "There's something I haven't told any of you. I've had these dreams. In them I'm human. The first one I woke up in a morgue." I said before turning to face them again. "I thought it was real until I looked down and saw myself. I was dead."

"Shot" Jacy said.

"Wait, You know?" I asked her.

"Of course! Before I woke up as a dragon, you'd been dead for about a year."

I thought about this for a minute before continuing. "The second dream, I was back in our house, then I heard a gun. I ran in to see what happened and I saw… someone… standing in your room. "He" shot you. The next dream I had I was in a city, I saw the same person from the last dream so I followed him. I saw him come up behind Ryan and stab him. Then the last dream I was in Your house Kenji. I knew what would happen and tried to stop it, but the same guy shot you too."

When I finished, they were staring open mouthed at me. "So wait." Jacy said. "You mean were all dead?"

"Well, we died, yes. But were alive now. I think it's some kind of reincarnation thing."

I then continued my story about how we beat Jacy, learned about Ōum ĭ Jiā and his plans to destroy every world, and freed her, then about our travels to Kenji's town. WhenI was caught up with the present, I continued.

"From here, we're planning to rescue Spyro and his family. Once they're free, I'm going to find Ōum ĭ Jiā and stop him."

"What about us?" Jacy said.

"Well, dragons mature later than humans, around 30, so I imagine you'll stay at the dragon temple. In history class-"

"CLASS?!" they yelled.

"Yes, dragons have school too. It's actually stuff we can use though, half the classes are stuff like combat, element and flight training. Anyway in history, we learned that a few dragons have made a life before they came of age, but they never went through the right of passage and were considered children the rest of their lives. So really you can do whatever you want after this."

After a silence, Kenji spoke up. "Well I'm with you."

I looked at him "What?"

"I'm more powerful than I look, and that's saying something. If this Ōum ĭ Jiā is as strong as you guys say, your going to need all the help you can get."

"Me too" Jacy said. "I'm partly responsible for everything, and you're my brother, we gotta stick together here."

"I'm in." Ryan said. "I can't go back to the forest and don't know anything about dragon life so I'll stay with you guys."

I looked at everyone and started tearing. "Thanks everyone."

"Hey look!" Jacy said "James's crying!"

Despite the pain I whipped my tail to her throat. "If your staying with me, rule number one: We are NOT being rude to each other. Got it?" I took the blade away and heard a crack, then a searing pain in my chest. I took a breath to scream, but couldn't. From what I figured, one of the ribs punctured a lung. I was gripped with terror as I collapsed.

"JAMES!" Jacy shouted. She ran over and I could see her hands covered in a dark purple haze, She put her hands on top of my head, then strained them through me! Her hands passed through my body and I could feel an ultimate cold and malevolent presence where her hands were, I wanted to run, but was gasping for breath. When she got to my chest, she pulled her hands out. The haze vanished. She turned to the others. "His lungs, punctured, he'll die soon if we don't do something. My vision went black and I heard no more.

"Aw man," I said "He's already out. Kenji, do you have anything that might help?"

"I have a spell that might help, but I need three giant flowers." He said, watching Jacy trying to wake James up.

"No problem." I said as I reached in my bag and pulled out three seeds. I focused my mana on them and grew them into three beautiful flowers half our height.

"Thanks Ryan." Kenji said he raised his hands and the flowers arranged themselves in a triangle around James, Jacy got out of the way as there was a flash of green light. "Curaga!" Kenji shouted, and the flowers exploded, the tiny petals swirling in a vortex around James before vanishing into thin air.

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was the pain was gone. I got up and looked at everyone. "What happened?"

"Well, you passed out and Ryan and Kenji used some kind of weird magic to heal you." Jacy said.

"Thanks" I told them before rounding on Jacy, I stood up, my head brushing the ceiling and gathered two balls of light energy in my hands. "You've got some explaining to do. That… thing you did to me, that was dark magic! I thought you said you were on our side!"

Jacy had lowered herself to the floor, "I am! My exposure to Ōum ĭ Jiā's magic gave me these powers! Like Cynder!"

The light faded and I lowered myself to the floor. "Fine. That makes sense, I suppose, but I'll be watching you. Like Sparx."

Kenji said goodbye to the town and we left for destination unknown. Jacy hadn't taken Spyro this way, So the plants couldn't tell Ryan which way to go, and Jacy didn't know this area, so we headed east. All was uneventful until I suddenly felt a huge pull, like the ones that lead me to my friends, but so strong it took all my strength and even some mana not to take off in that direction as fast as I could.

"Guys, I've gotta go!" I said.

"Hey man," Kenji said "There's some trees down there, have fun."

"That's not funny! I mean something's pulling me north, it's too strong for me to resist. You guys stay here, I've never felt anything this strong and I don't want to risk your safety. I'll come back when I figure this out." Before they could talk, I turned and headed north, I used my light to create a blast of energy behind me, I accelerated so fast I had to close my to avoid losing them. After a while, I got tired and had to land. I ran for a while before I couldn't move anymore. I eventually fell asleep thinking about the pull.

When I woke up, I was human. "##$ing #&^+! Not this again!" I headed through the dream making a vow to stop this person from dieing even if I had to kill myself. I was in a shadowy haze, after I had lost hope of finding my way out, it faded and I could see where I was. "Oh no." I whispered and ran up the steps and tried to open the door, it was locked. I remembered something I read in the transformation scroll. It's technically possible to use your element while transformed, but it's extremely unstable and more likely to cause harm to yourself than your target. Ignoring the warning, I gathered a ball of light and blasted the doorknob and deadbolt out of the door and kicked the door open. My mother in law wasn't there and seeing as the car was gone, I assumed my sister in law was too. I ran to my wife's room and tried to open the door. It was locked. "Go away!" I heard Perrin yell "I have a knife!"

Hearing Perrins voice after so long was like angels singing, but there was no time for that. "Perrin it's James! We have to get you out of here!"

The door opened and Perrin ran out and into my arms. "James! I thought you were dead! I was at the funeral. What happened? And what was that noise?"

"Sorry, I had to get in and there will be time to explain everything later, right now we have to get out of here, someone's coming here to kill you or Laura."

"What? How do you know?"

"Long story, but you have to trust me on this."

"Alright" She said. "Let me get my shoes. Go get Laura."

Laura was in Perrins room, she saw me and was confused for a minute, then toddled over to me. I picked her up and she hugged me. I hugger back then heard Perrin. "What are you doing here? Wait! What?! No-"

I put Laura down and ran to the living room to see Perrin in the arms of… him, he let go and she slid to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on his clothes. She hit the ground and rolled over, her throat was slashed. She was still breathing! I ran to her and held her head and tried to stop the bleeding. She looked at me "why?" she wheezed before she closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

I noticed I was crying as a tear fell onto her eye and slid down her cheek, almost as if she had shed it. I put her down and whipped around and shot a beam of light at the man, he dodged it and raised his hands. I was surrounded by black smoke and was paralyzed. "Tsk Tsk. James" he said. "We both know you know about time-space enough to know what'll happen if you kill me. Besides. I've got to finish here."

I spit on him. "You bastard! How could you even think of doing this? First Perrin, and now you'll finish?! She's just a two year old!"

"It's for the best." He said and left me to go to Perrins room. I started crying more and begging him not to. Then I heard a gunshot and woke up screaming in the wilderness." I screamed into the night until my throat hurt to much to make noise, then began walking in the direction of the pull under the quarter moon.