The mountains were coming into view, they were heading north, so the days grew oh so longer and the nights oh so colder. This was one such night, they were almost there, but there was no moon, and it threatened to rain. As sharp as a dragon's sight is, they couldn't fly blind in a storm.

The group settled down and tried to get some sleep, but soon after they drifted off, the rain started. Because of their northern location and the cold front coming in, the rain came down hard and cold. As they tried to erect a shelter of some sort, they found the rain started to freeze to their scales. Finally Spyro and another earth dragon grew tired and combined their powers to carve a small cliff into the land with a large, but stable overhang. As everyone gathered underneath, Ryan used his powers to grow plants along the lip, creating a thick curtain that sheltered them from the rain, all the while, telling Spyro how he did it.

Selena formed a ball of magic that hovered in the air, providing light while Flame tried to get a fire going in the wet grass.

With Ryan coaching; Spyro delved into this strange new power and focused similarly, to how he fueled his earth element. Also giving it the life of fire. After a few failed attempts, Spyro successfully used the nature element to grow a tree devoid of water, perfect for burning.

After the fire was started, Everyone gathered around to thaw. Spyro sat next to his wife, Cynder. Their son, Fever lay next to his fiancée, Spyder. Spyros daughter, Selena sat with Ryan, still dating. The new fire guardian sat with Sei, Cynders brother as they talked about their past adventures. Icera stayed to herself, reminiscing while Perrin and Jacy sat together, talking about their lives before they became dragons. Also there were several other dragons, part of a spec-ops force, they were mostly fire, but out of the five there were an earth dragon, and surprisingly a poison dragon by the name of Cyan.

Cyan was used to either being mistaken for an earth dragon because of his green color (which is how he ended up on the force in the first place) or receiving almost as many looks as Cynder used to. He stared at her, they had been good friends during the war and it had devastated him when the news came that she had died deep in the core. When she with Spyro emerged unscathed a few weeks later, he realized he felt an attraction to her, but before he could announce his feelings, she had begun seeing Spyro publicly. It crushed him at first, but he soon realized that he was happy because she was. Spyro was a good friend too and he would never do anything to betray them.

Eventually everyone had fallen asleep, and as the fire died down, the storm lessened and eventually abated some time before dawn. When they awoke, they left their shelter to find the morning greeting them with a field of grass to the horizon. Glittering as a million frosted blades of grass caught the morning sun, which poked through the clouds. The remaining moisture in the air refracting the light and sent it to earth in golden rays, a rainbow arching over the sun was set off by the blue and pink sky. The crisp, clean tasting air finalized what could be described as the perfect morning.

It betrayed none of the carnage that was soon to follow.

Warfang

Zoulu had eventually stopped crying long enough to realize she was alone, everyone had said they were leaving, and now there was no one else around. She also realized she was hungry. She got up and went to the kitchen. When she got there, she found Sparx and his family, Shimmer, and his son. Lumi.

Seeing the surprised look on her face, Sparx said "Babysitting, and no, were not leaving. You should eat, from what Spyro said, you haven't had any food in three days at least."

"Wow, three days?" she wondered, then went to the cabinets and found something to eat. As she sat down at the table, Lumi said "Hey Zoulu? How come you're still here?" His comment made the wounds open all over again as she remembered what happened. Suddenly she didn't feel like eating.

Seeing her face, Shimmer said, "Quit Lumi, she's been going through a lot lately and probably doesn't want to talk about it."

Lumi's crimson glow dimmed somewhat, "Oh, sorry Zoulu."

"It's nothing to worry about." She mumbled as she got up from the table.

"Whoa little lady, Where do you think you're going?" Sparx said as he flitted in front of her.

"Out."

"But where?" he persisted.

"OUT." She growled in a low voice, her head still pointing at the ground, but sparks started to fly from her. Sparx quickly got out of range and she left before anything else could be said.

As she left the house, she leapt into the air and took off, straining her wings, relishing the pain that distracted her from her pain. Not realizing where she was going, she found herself in the clearing where she first met Valcor. She alighted on the ground and walked over to the marker Valcor made, which as she now knew, told Valcor of his parents' atrocities, as well as not their death dates, as she thought, but their birthdays and the days they turned from the light to walk in darkness. Zoulu felt a pressure well up inside her chest, and desperately wanting to release it, she unleashed the fullest extent of her powers.

Back at Spyros house, Sparx was talking with Valcor, who had shown up wanting to try to make peace with Spyro.

"Look, buddy. I've got no beef with you. You didn't try to eat me, so you're cool in my book, but my brother gave me specific instructions. I won't tell him you were here though."

Valcor sighed, "Isn't there anything I could do to prove I'm not a threat?"

"Sorry, It's not me you have to prove yourself too, plus she's not even here."

"What? I thought you said she stayed behind?"

"She did, but-" Suddenly there was a massive roar that shook the ground, They all turned to the noise to see a column of yellow light at least a half mile wide shoot into the sky, vaporizing the clouds for miles. Valcor could feel the energy course through him, making him want to send out a bolt in turn, but he also felt distilled emotion sweep over him, the dragonflies felt it too, as they shrunk back from the source. The pain he could feel alarmed Valcor, and he knew of only two dragons beside himself who could generate that kind of power and Spyro wasn't here.

Valcor charged lightning into his legs and prepared to take off before Sparx flew in front of him. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Zoulus the only one capable of a blast like that, besides me. And not even I could survive releasing that much energy all at once."

Sparx looked taken aback, "You mean?"

Valcor nodded, "If another electricity dragon doesn't reach her soon, she'll have killed herself." With that he released the stored energy in his legs and jumped, hurling himself into the air so fast he had to close his eyes. He opened his wings halfway and poured electricity into his muscles, flapping his wings in muscle spasms faster than he could move normally. Soon he could hear nothing as he left sound behind, within minutes he reached Zoulu, he arced down and skidded to a stop amidst the charred forest around him. He ran to Zoulus side and found her unconscious.

He touched her and delved into the few powers inherited from his father, he opened his eyes and saw the world as it truly is, everything was made of light, stronger life forces had brighter light, whereas objects like stone appeared as transparent, ghost-like. He looked at Zoulu and gasped, her light was almost non existent, if he were in a cave where a firefly would blind you, he would barely be able to see her life-force.

His father, the dark master, Malefor, had used this power to detect his enemies before they showed themselves, and to exert his will over someone, like Cynder. Valcor put it to better use, he felt his own energy, a supernova in a galaxy of light, and created a metaphorical pathway between their souls. In his eyes though, he could see a river of light taking his energy and pouring it into her.

It seemed no matter how much he gave her, her hungry body used it to correct the imbalance of power and it slipped away, like filling a barrel with no bottom. Eventually he could feel her energy rise somewhat. Encouraged by this, he put more energy into her, within moments he was too tired to continue. Satisfied she wouldn't die he cut the connection and looked at himself, shocked to see he has lost a massive amount of energy.

His vision blurred, then returned to normal, and he saw Zoulu, unconscious but breathing, as well as a group of dragons, moles and cheetahs around them. His vision blurred again and this time went black.

Northern mountain range

They had come. Kenji had lured these walking corpses too similar to zombies for his comfort to the foothills of the mountains. He hoped with their partial brain death they would be able to scale the cliffs here and they would be able to pick them off from safety.

He had his remaining forces in position, as the monsters came into range, the cheetahs let loose volley after volley of flaming arrows, they had soaked the ground earlier in pitch, and as the monsters walked on it, it combusted, the beasts unfortunate enough to be in it would be cremated. As they watched, more creatures stopped before the blaze and reached out to touch it; their limbs burned, but hey felt nothing and stood there, transfixed as they burned. Suddenly, Kenji heard a scream to his left, he turned to see a voidling disemboweling a cheetah, several more were close behind.

The zombies heard too, and as one, they turned to the source and ignoring the flames, lurched toward them. Kenji cursed as he saw them emerge from the flames, not stopping until their bodies were gone; they now had to fight walking fireballs! Kenji released a blast of wind in a thrust of his hand, Throwing up the flames and making them much hotter, a few corpses in the blaze finally dropped, more were pushed into the inferno. Kenji then raised his other hand above his head and a blue ball of fire formed, he threw it into their midst and had time to watch it explode, throwing bodies everywhere before he heard a roar, He turned to see a voidling bearing down on him.

He smiled, as the stone beast hit him, he grabbed it and rolled with the force, throwing the creature to the ground where it's skull shattered, the rest turning to dust. He got up and saw several more converging on him. He waved his arm and a crescent of flames flew from them and made the voidlings halt for a moment. In that moment Kenji had held his hand out, the air shimmered, and formed into a sword with a gold hilt, a bluish blade, the entire thing was shaped like a key. "Keberdu." He whispered, then ran at the voidlings, the keyblade bursting into flames. He slashed at the first one, and with some resistance, he put a large gash in the side, it glowed orange. He turned and went to one knee, severing the hind legs at the knee, then launched into the air, performed a single flip, and midway through, slashed and cleaved the skull of the beast in two.

"One down." Kenji said, looking at the opposition, "A million to go." He ran at another voidling attacking a dragon.

As the fight wore on, they had lost another five men. The zombies couldn't get to them and were easy pickings, but the voidlings were a large threat. Just when Kenji thought they had the upper hand, He saw forms on the horizon. He turned to see several flying things headed their way. Relived the reinforcements had made it; he waved his hand in greeting. He saw a gleam of light from the leader, which grew into a beam that nearly took his hand off. Kenji dropped to the ground and upon closer examination, saw these were something else entirely.

They looked like guivers, semi-retarded poisonous cousins of the dragons with no front legs, but they were larger. Furthermore, they had what looked like trails of smoke or tentacles coming off their backs, the whites of their eyes were black with glowing red irises. Kenji threw a fireball at them, but at that range, they had plenty of time to avoid. Within minutes, they were upon them. If their chances had been bad before, they were hopeless now. These things were clearly very intelligent, and the darkness that came from them showed they were being controlled somehow.

After dueling one in the air for several minutes, Kenji released his Keberdus power, It burst into flame, then a gust of wind extinguished it, leaving the new blade in it's place.

The keyblade had grown in width, splitting down the middle, the front part was shaped like a thin machete, the back part like a straight ninja sword, a prong coming off it like a tooth of a key and exploding into a flash shape at the end. The hand guard was open unlike most keyblades and the entire thing radiated power.

Kenji flew at the creature, swinging Keberdu, the creature blocked the first blow with a talon and thrust forward with it's bony skull. Kenji dodged to the side and stabbed at a horn, it slipped between the two blades and Kenji twisted, flipping the whole creature and the force snapping its neck. It fell to the ground, where zombies converged on it.

Kenji was about to go for the next one when he looked down and saw a flash of purple, He followed the light and saw Spyro on the ground, surrounded by dragons. Lenji let out a whoop and flew down to join them.

When he got there, Spyro came up to him. "Heard you could use some help."

Kenji nodded. "You arrived just in time, shall we?" As one, they jumped into the air.

Warfang

Eventually, Zoulu came to and after many accounts of what happened, realized how foolish her actions were and how she owed her life to Valcor. She thought to herself, "I don't care what happens now, if he'll have me, I'm staying with Valcor." She walked to the hospital and went to his room, where he still slept. James was up and about, but only with assistance. They met in the hall and Zoulu shared everything that had happened recently with him, almost breaking down again.

"Hey, Zoulu." James said. "Don't be that way. As a human, I was as emotional as a brick, and I still cried more than you did. You have a strong heart, crying won't change the situation and you need to be strong to support Valcor, remember he's going through this too, and he almost gave his life for you."

Zoulu nodded and they walked to his room. When they got there, They found him awake, reading a scroll he had delivered. He looked up and his intense purple eyes lit up when they saw Zoulu.

"Hey! I thought you'd never come! I've been bored in here by myself! I would have left ages ago, but they won't let me until my energy recovers, or some bull like that."

James smiled. "I know what you mean. I'm itching to be out there, helping my family."

Valcor nodded. "So, Zoulu, feeling better?"

Zoulu felt her face grow hot. "Yeah, thanks to you."

He waved it off. "Eh, don't mention it, I'm sure you would have done the same for me." He said, then looked at her with a certain amount of uncertainty, "Right?"

"Of course!" She said quickly. She turned to James, "Could we have a minute alone?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea, what with dad and all?" James asked.

"If Dad doesn't like it, he knows where to shove it." Zoulu said venomously.

"Dang…" was all James said as he made his way out.

Zoulu turned back to Valcor and walked over. "Valcor, why did you save me?"

Valcors dark purple scales turned a little darker around the face. "The same reason you spent a week crying. The same reason I risked meeting Spyro in the first place. I really like you Zoulu, and I'm hoping we can get everything straightened out with your family so we can see each other again."

"But you almost gave your life for mine!" She exclaimed.

"And I'd do it again, you're the only one who thinks my life has worth, so if you died, what would I have to live for?"

Zoulu averted her eyes. "Wow." She thought. "Does he really feel that strongly toward me?" She was about to ask another question, but suddenly Valcor was as taught as a bowstring. "What?" She asked.

"It's… something bad." He said. "His eyes grew wide "Something really bad!" He got up and ran to the window.

"Valcor, what are you doing?"

"Sorry, but if I don't, I have a horrible feeling they're going to die!"

"What? Who?" She asked.

"EVERYONE!" He shouted, and with a blast of lightning, shot off into the sky, disappearing over the horizon in less than a minute. Zoulu could only watch him go.

Mountain pass

Spyro and Kenji had led the monsters into a narrow pass Spyro said it was insanity, as they now had no escape, but Kenji insisted that where he came from, there was an ancient battle where a small group of warriors held off the worlds largest army this way.

"And what happened in this battle?" Spyro asked.

"They felled over a million enemies!" Kenji said.

"Kenji, what happened?"

"Well, they uh, fought to the last man." He finished sheepishly.

Spyro rolled his eyes. "Great, you've led us into a deathtrap." Soon after, though, he saw the wisdom in this plan. The enemy couldn't surround them, so they could focus their defense into a small area, as the bodies piled around them, Spyro thought it might actually work.

The universe just loved proving him wrong.

There was a great rumbling and a mountain just stood up! Spyros eyes along with everyone else grew wide in horror as they witnessed the impossible.

The Destroyer.