It had been two weeks since the destroyer. We had all been recuperating, none more so than Spyro. He had lost most of his tail. As it turned out, he used it for balance more than he had realized. He could walk fine, but could hardly fly and found fighting almost impossible. But we all helped as much as possible, Valcor seemed to want to help to prove he was really on our side, whereas Selena and Icera were spending a lot of time to themselves, saying it was not only for Spyro, but the common good.

Personally, I was glad when Volteer called me for another mission. When I arrived, the four guardians were there, Flame, Icera, Terrador, and Volteer. Cyril had taken to wandering the city where anyone could come to him with problems.

When I came in, Volteer looked troubled, he was pacing and muttering to himself.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Ah, young dragon, I'm glad you're here!" Volteer said, the fact that he wasn't using big words troubled me. "It would seem Amphertiti, my choice for guardian, has expired recently, something about a fire."

"I see. So what would you have me do?"

Volteer shook his head. "I spent ten years searching, and now the perfect candidate is gone!" He looked over at me, a hint of a smile on his face. "However, this doesn't mean I'm unprepared. There's a dragoness I met a long time ago, her name is Ondonna. However, all those years ago, in my youth, I only met her once, then it was like she never existed… If you could find her, she might be able to take my place."

"Volteer, if she's as old as you, wouldn't that defeat the purpose?" Icera asked.

"Naïve dragon, not everything is what it appears." He replied before turning back to me. "James, I know it will be difficult, but she's the only one I can trust."

So now here I am, chasing ghost's. I asked all over the city, looked in the library, birth records, all turned up nothing. It was really starting to get to me, I was considering telling Volteer it was impossible, but some part of me wanted to keep trying.

After a few days of fruitless searching, I had decided to vent, I went to a training room and set up dummies to attack. AS the battle started, I didn't even really pay attention, I just kind of went through the moves and watched them fall before me. After a few minutes of endless dummies, they froze. I turned to the control panel and saw Valcor there. "Mind if I jump in?"

I shrugged. "Be my guest." He punched a button and the dummies returned to standby, I watched them retreat and turned to him, He was crouched, in a ready stance. Then I realized what he meant. "Awww…sh-" Just then he leapt at me, I had to use my teleportation just to get out of the way, then I countered with a slash of the tail, which was blocked by his own jagged blade. We both grinned and parried, we flew apart and immediately leapt at each other, He brought his wing spikes out to stab at me, I swept my wing blades up and knocked them to the side, but his speed trumped as we collided in midair, he landed on top of me, his wing spike aimed at my throat.

"Nice try." He said.

"Don't count me out yet!" I yelled as I ducked my head and rammed his spikes with my horns, I twisted my head; catching them both as I rolled. Midway, he kicked us apart. We stood about tem body lengths apart. Valcor was grinning from ear to ear. "Zoulu wasn't lying about you."

"What'd she say?" I asked.

"That you were one of the strongest dragons she's ever met and that you push her to new heights."

That definitely surprised me. "Wow, to be honest I could say the same about her."

Valcor nodded. "Yeah, she says she's training and one day she'll try and beat you, I came to see if you all that." Then he leapt at me, spinning as he whipped out his tail blade. I jumped and flipped in midair, slashing down with my own blade and knocking his to the ground, then I flared my wings and halted my spin, bringing my tail into an uppercut, which ha parried with crossed wing spikes.

Barely a foot from each other, he said, "Although, I can tell something's been bothering you lately, what's up?"

I shoved us apart and said, "Nothing, Volteer wants me to find someone that doesn't exist, says her name is Ondonna."

Valcor froze, shock on his face. "Who?"

I puzzled over his reaction. "Wait, do you know her?"

"I- uh, why does Volteer want to see her?"

"He said that he met her a long time ago and wants her to take his place."

He stood there for a moment, eyes closed, then suddenly he leapt at me unnaturally fast, I was able to raise a guard, but that's all I was able to do as he threw blow after blow, after so many blows, he hooked his claws around my blade and knocked it away, bringing his own to bear. I froze, clearly beaten, however, he was gasping for breath, we both were.

He backed away. "I can introduce you. Meet us in half an hour, the fountain." Then he turned and left. I fell onto my haunches. He was fast, and it was as if he knew exactly how I'd move.

At any rate, a half hour went by fast and soon me and Volteer were at the fountain. I looked around us at the scene; I had never been to this part of the city before. The fountain had two spouts shaped like equine dragon heads. One pointed up while the other was down, they emptied into a rectangular pool that was a haven for bird life. Here and there, children played in the square while parents kept a watchful eye from the park-like balconies above.

From around the corner came Zoulu, I called her over. When she got there, she asked "Hey, you guys here to meet Valcor too?"

Volteer nodded. "Affirmative. He has set a rendezvous with he and I to procreate an individual I've been yearning to affiliate with for quite an extensive period of time now, why just last week I-"

I cleared my throat, stopping Volteer. "We get it."

Volteer hung his head, "Why does everyone insist on terminating my converses before I have attained the purpose of them?"

Just then, Valcor glided down. He landed and I asked "So? Where is she?"

"She'll be here as soon as I explain something. This dragon you want to meet, she's not really dragon, she's more of a spirit that chooses to take dragon form."

"Inconceivable!" Volteer exclaimed "How is it that you came by this knowledge?"

I felt an energy surging from him; he began glowing and everyone near stopped what he or she was doing to gawk. When the glow faded, his scales had changed to a vibrant pink, he seemed to have a faint pink flame covering his body, but it did nothing to him. When he spoke, I was surprised that he had a female voice.

"He knows because we told him."

After an awkward pause, Zoulu spoke first. "Umm, Valcor?"

He/she shook his/her head, "I'm not Valcor, My name is Ondonna, I'm a celestial being that chooses to inhabit Valcors soul and provide guidance and help. Valcor has graciously allowed me to reveal myself in this roundabout manner. He still sees and hears everything you say, but until he decides otherwise, I can use his body." Ondonna turned to Volteer and looked him up and down with a look of desire, "Well now, it certainly has been a while."

Volteer blushed. "I-I, uh you don't seem to have aged a day Ondonna."

She smiled. "That's because I don't age. You on the other hand, seem to have gotten better with age."

Zoulu stepped between them "I don't know who you are, but I don't like someone talking to someone else like that in Valcors body."

Ondonna nodded. "The girlfriend. I understand."

Zoulu blushed "I-I don't know what your talking about."

Ondonna laughed, "Oh relax! This body is still male, so I couldn't try anything if I wanted! Besides, what makes Valcor happy makes us happy."

"That's the second time you spoke in plural." I said. "Is there more than one of you?"

"Yes, while I embody everything positive about Valcor, Yin you could say, so is there a Yang spirit within Valcor, the incarnation of his negative half. However, He will reveal himself when he is ready. But at any rate, I know why you asked to meet me Volteer, I'm afraid I cannot help you."

"What?" Volteer said, "Why not?"

The flames around her body grew more intense. "Because you see, this time I chose the fire element."

"Wait," I said, "You chose?"

"That's right; I've been to this world many times before, under many guises. After Valcor has aged into oblivion, I will come many times more. However," She said, her voice beginning to echo. "I believe Valcor could help you if you ask nicely."

With that there was another flare and when it faded, Valcor had taken Ondonnas place. He looked slightly disoriented and wobbled. "Man, I never get used to that."

Zoulu walked over to him. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Valcor chuckled, "I needed to wait until you trusted me, When we first met, if I had told you I had voices in my head, what would you have thought?"

Zoulu smiled. "I guess you're right." Then she slapped him in the face with her tail. "Just don't hide anything from me again!"

I thought to myself. "Ondonna's right on the mark about them. I hope they tell each other their feelings soon."

Volteer interrupted the "moment", saying "So Valcor? What is your disposition towards Ondonnas proposition?"

"Umm… I'm, uhh superfluous to the idea?"

Volteer stared at him as if he was an alien. "You're mighty strange."

I laughed. "Valcor, He asked you if you would become guardian, and you told him you're not needed for you to be guardian."

Valcor got red in the face. "I didn't know! Why didn't you just use normal words?" He yelled at Volteer, who broke down again.

"Really? This is just how I converse to a standard degree and everyone is begrudged to me on account of it!"

I smiled. Volteer will be Volteer.

After things had calmed, Valcor said, "But anyways, I'd be honored Volteer."

We had gone back to the temple to announce the situation to everyone else. After the situation had been explained many times, Valcors test began. The first half I would be of no use; it was basically a quiz on virtually every subject imaginable, I myself only knew a few questions.

With almost every question, Valcor seemed to have trouble, and then it was as if he suddenly knew. He got every question right. I tried delving into his mind a few times and only met his mental wall. At one point, I thought I felt a huge mind that could only be Ondonna, but it was like a mirage. I guessed that Ondonna was supplying him with answers, which was technically ok as her memories were as much his.

After he aced the test, it was my turn. I wasn't looking forward to the duel, I could tell he would be even harder than Icera. In our match earlier that day, we had been even until he tapped into some vast power and trounced me without even using his element. I knew I would have to use everything in my arsenal just to stay in the game.

As we took our places I could tell I wouldn't have enough time to charge a fury, so I used the time before the fight actually started to separate my energy. AS Volteer yelled Start, I slammed light and shadow energy back together and opened my mouth as a double helix of white and black flew out, ripping through the wall behind Valcor, who simply wasn't there anymore.

Remembering how fast he was, I started to jump, but before I could even bend my knees he appeared behind me, ramming me to the floor, I lost focus on the chaos and it jumbled, causing an explosion in my mouth, had I not phased into shadow, my jaw would have been torn off.

Valcor spoke, and I could hear his and Ondonnas voice at the same time. "Chaos… You'll do well to be more careful. The shadows can't save you forever." Then he vanished again, I teleported above the battlefield, but as soon as I reappeared, he was there! a wave of electricity came off him and sent me to the ground. He landed a ways off, thinking I was paralyzed.

I grinned and opened my mouth and shot a beam of light, which he dodged by appearing five feet to the right. This was the fastest I had ever seen anyone move, but I had a way around speed. I leapt to my feet and just as he vanished, I used dragon time.

Everything froze and even though I had stopped time, he was still moving! It was like the bullets in the matrix, but still! The only thing I could think of was that he could surpass the speed of light. True enough I could see a disturbance around him, as if some energy was shielding him from reversing time on himself. I walked up to him, shock very slowly showing on his face, and then I charged my claws with light and hit him. I resumed normal time and watched a crater appear in the wall, Valcor in the middle.

Everyone was speechless, from their point of view, we both vanished and reappeared in the same instant, Valcor flying into the wall so fast it looked like he was never there. AS he slid to the ground, he got up dazed. "How- how did?"

I grinned, "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve." I released dragon time again, but nothing happened.

"Crap! What's happening?"

Ondonna spoke thorough Valcor again. "Honestly, you command such power without knowing its limits? Dragon times power use is vast, very likely you only had one in you."

"But, back at the prison, I did it many times…"

"And I could feel it; The Chronicler was lending you strength." Then, He leapt at me again, but in that time, I had successfully charged my light fury. I flared my wings as thousands of bolts of light flew from my chest, each one having the strength of a bomb. I had personally seen this move obliterate a five story regenerating robot, so after the deadly rain stopped, I was surprised to see he was still standing. Unmarked!

He was standing in a cloak of pink fire, burning brightly, which buckled and exploded outward, I threw up a shadow wall and felt it hiss though the air on either side. I dropped the wall and saw Valcor standing, apparently charging his own fury. I flew to the other side of the room and watched as he released and…nothing.

"What was that?" I yelled.

"Wait for it." He replied.

I was puzzling over it when suddenly I couldn't stay airborne anymore. I was sucked to the ground, which exploded on contact, a million lightning bolts flying from my body and arcing to every surface in the arena. And I felt each of those bolts.

When it finally faded, I was writhing on the floor as Valcor came up. "I electrified the floor creating a strong electromagnetic field in the process. Did you know the body contains trace amounts of iron? Normally it doesn't affect us, but with a field that strong, I'm surprised the ceiling didn't cave on you."

"I chuckled, saying "You have to learn to stop doing that… wasting time." I told him as released the shadow fury I'd been storing since I got hit with his. I knew two furies in a row would be pushing it, but it was my only chance. Everything went black as all the light in the area was sucked into me, giving me strength along with all the sound. Valcor was now effectively blind and deaf.

While the fury lasted, I pushed myself to my feet and limped a few paces away, charging a light blast, putting everything I had into it. of course it was invisible in the void. I used my mental powers to find his mind, and was surprised at yet another change, he seemed… impossible. Hard to explain in words. But suddenly I felt a blast that both burned and froze at once and the fury along with my attack faded.

I found myself on the ground, Valcor pinning me. In a last ditch attempt, I released a mass of light, creating a blinding flare. AS he screamed in agony, I pushed him off me and scrambled away. I charged my final attack once more as he stumbled straight at me. "I-I don't need my eyes!" He said, again speaking with two voices, but the second one sounded male this time, he had some kind of dark aura around him. "I'll tear you're ****ing head off!"

I released my light blast, the wave of energy so intense that it felt like I'd be torn apart just from being this close, it hit him… and reflected! It hit the aura, jumped over him, and took out the wall behind him.

That was all I had in me, I went down to the ground, exhausted and waited for the head ripping, but the aura had seemed to disappear and he had calmed down. "Was that the other spirit just now?" I thought. "To think he had enough power to reflect that attack."

Valcor walked over and helped me to my feet. "That was tough James. If it hadn't been for that… intervention earlier, I think I'd be worse for wear."

I nodded. "But why'd you stop?"

"I'm guessing you've made your own assumptions as t what that was? Well that spirit… he helps me, don't get me wrong. And he's actually pretty decent, but I think that last attack would have actually hurt me bad. He… came out on his own to save me. Had I let him finish the battle though, lets just say when he smells blood in the water, he won't stop unless I make him."

I nodded. I got on my own feet and left Valcor to the guardians as I made my way to my room. Perrin wasn't there, most likely at med school, so I curled up and went to sleep.