Fist thing I need to say is, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to post. With the new school year came a new load of work to do every week. All the revising and studying completely destroyed my inspiration and I had little time to write anything up. If you all knew how close I was to just deleting my account and forgetting about it forever, you'd hunt me down and kill me. I really am sorry for the wait and I hope it has not put you all off. Anyway, here is the long awaited update to the story. I hope you enjoy it and if not, let me know why and I'll sulk for a few days and then try to improve.

Chapter 8 : Into the New World

The first thing that Ember was aware of was a growing feeling of pain spreading up through her body. Her hands and feet felt numb and her head weighed a tonne. She could feel a slight pressure on her stomach, and wasn't sure wether it was and object or just her body reacting to the time jump.

"Time jump...it obviously worked...but now where...?"

Her head was throbbing still and a

smashing sound in the distance was all her ears could pick up. That was, until her head cleared a little.

"Breathing...Im not alone...,"

Ember, with difficulty, dragged her frozen hand up to her side, scraping her claws along what may have been the ground and felt around for a solid surface that she could push herself up with. Her eyes were still glued shut and un-responsive. Even if she really wanted to, opening her eyes at this time was not an option. Then her hand made contact with a warm, slightly damp 'thing,' just to her right. Her hand wandered over it, trying to determine what the hell it was.

"Flair?" She thought, with a sudden surge of worry.

Somehow, she had to determine if he was alright. If he was hurt, she was all alone (where ever she was) without a guide. She let her hand go limp, allowing gravity to take control and tell her which way was down. With a quick 'flump,' her hand hit a cold surface and, as if acting by itself, pushed. Her aching body rolled over onto her front and what ever had been on top of her fell to the floor with a metallic 'chink'. She didn't care what it was at this time, she was concerned for her allies' safety. She regained some control over her other hand, and used it to force her upper half into a sitting position. She winced as a sharp pain shot up through her spine and split into her wings. She must've landed harder then she anticipated. She knew that the only way to examine Flair's condition properly was to see the damage. Her eyes hurt as she tried to open them, as if they were coated in some sort of liquid fire.

"Come on, get your act together! You can't give up yet!" This thought kept itself streaming through her head as she attempted to open her eyes once more.

The same pain hit her again, but this time, it began to subside a little. A blurred split in the surrounding darkness was all she could manage. Using her recovering vision, she searched around her for Flair. Thoughts ran through her head that made her blood run cold. If he was dead, it was her fault. She was the one who opened the portal and pushed him inside. She had brought about this new location, so she had to take responsibility for what ever condition he was in. She spotted a purple blotch, just next to her. The shape of which, resembled her accomplice. Her head pounded against her skull and her wings were still completely dead. Her tail had fully recovered though, and that was a promising start. She rolled herself over to him and reached out to feel for a pulse. As soon as her fingers touched his warm, purple scaled neck, he twitched and woke up.

"Whoa!" he gasped as he bolted up into a similar position to Ember. He was glancing around wildly as the shock of the time-travel wore off and was panting heavily as if he had been running for miles. His pale face wore an expression of surprise as he seemed to recall the surroundings. As his eyes wandered around, they fell upon Ember, lying exhausted next to him. His face changed immediately to a look of concern and he reached out to comfort her.

"You don't look so good... how do you feel?" he asked her, saving his other, more trying questions until after he had established her condition.

"I-...Im fine,...I just need a little time to recover...that's all," she told him, wincing with every breath.

She had her head against his scaled chest and she could feel his strong, quite accelerated, heartbeat. She felt comforted by his presence, mostly because he resembled Spyro so much.

"I don't mean to change to subject or anything, but, what just happened? Are we in a different dimension or something?" queried Flair, giving the surroundings one more curious glance.

"What makes you think that?" responded Ember, looking up into his eyes with a look of curiosity.

"Well, this place looks like an old Draconic Military outpost from my time," informed Flair, releasing Ember and steadily getting to his feet.

"Oh My GOD!" yelped Ember, staring in horror at her confused friend.

"What?! What's wrong?!" he asked her, looking worried as he followed her stare. Just above his left leg, frighteningly close to his groin, was a piece of bloody, torn flesh that was still oozing a steady stream of thick, crimson blood.

"SHIT!" he yelled, clutching the injury and collapsing to his knees in pain. Ember forced herself up and leapt to his side, prying his hands away and looking around for something to stop the flow. An old medical kit, or what resembled the remains of one, hung loosely on the wall at the other end of the small, dusty room. She got to her feet, shaking slightly as she attempted to balance.

"Flair, listen! LISTEN!" she yelled as he groaned in pain(and partial embarrassment), "You need to leave it alone, okay? Im gonna get you that med-kit at the other end of the hall."

She felt another sharp pain shoot up through her spine as she headed for the kit. After a number of painstaking minutes, she reached her destination and ripped the kit violently off of the wall. Tearing the cove off, she rummaged around inside the case, chucking some of the useless contents away onto the dusty floor. A couple of empty pots, an assortment of empty bandage boxes and a number of broken needles later, she came across a box that contained a number of items, including a bandage. She grabbed it and threw the remainder of the kit to the floor, amongst the range of items that were already there. She ran back, enjoying the new strength she had in her legs. They seemed fully recovered but still unsteady.

"You know, I only have so much blood inside me left, so feel free to take as long as you want!" moaned Flair, impatiently.

"Ember seriously wanted to whack him over the head with the medical tin, but thought otherwise when she noticed the growing pool of blood around his middle.

"Okay, I need to clean the area first and then I can give you this bandage," stated Ember, quite calm for a dragon in her situation.

"It had to right there, didn't it? It just had to be in some place awkward, didn't it?" complained Flair, now feeling slightly dizzy, but ignoring the pain. He had sustained many injuries throughout his military career, so he was used to the pains and aches that accompanied his life. This however, was not an injury sustained during a mission. This one was not being treated by authorised medical staff. This one was being seen to by someone that he'd only met a couple of hours ago (if that time-scale still applies after all the switching and shifting through time).

Ember found a cotton cleaning swab and used it to wipe away the blood surrounding the wound. She threw the cotton ball the floor and started unwrapping the bandage.

"This might hurt a little," she said quickly as she applied the thin piece of fabric.

"Ow...ow...ow-ow-OW!"

After moments of painful application, the bandage was applied and the bleeding had stopped.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" asked Ember, packing the kit away.

"It wasn't bad, it was horrific!" he complained again.

Ember helped him to his feet and they both walked over to a small bench at the side of the room.

"How does it feel?" asked Ember, glancing at his bandaged groin.

"It feels awkward...kinda uncomfortable...hey, what am I gonna do if I need to...you know...go?" asked Flair with a grimace.

"Erm, you'll have to hold it until...well..., only go if you really have to, okay?" replied Ember, glancing around in an embarrassed fashion, avoiding Flair's eyes.

Flair, seeing her becoming uncomfortable, chose this moment to wind her up. With a devilish grin he asked, "So, er, will the bandage hold if I get-?"

But Ember cut him off with a glare that pierced his very soul. With a moments silence in-between, Flair burst out laughing, maniacally.

"I hate you...," was all Ember said.

"I can't believe you actually took me seriously! HA ha HA!" laughed Flair.

"Okay, now, after all that, can we please get going now?"

"Sure, there ought to be an exit hatch up that ladder over there, but you'll need to get down to the sub-basement first and restore power to this level of the outpost. Obviously I can't go, coz' I'm injured, so I'll stay up here and guide you through using the intercom over there," he said, pointing at the intercom system hanging on a hook on the far wall.

"Erm, I don't suppose you've noticed, but there's a gaping hole in the floor over there, and there isn't enough room the fly over that gap to reach the intercom," Ember pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I'll teach you to wall run first, then you can get across," chirped Flair, quite content considering he had a chunk of skin torn off under that bandage.

"And I suppose you'll tell me which buttons to press on the controller? And maybe you ought to give me a light gem when im done?" quipped Ember, raising an eyebrow.

"Erm.. What?" asked Flair, puzzled.

"Never mind. So, what's this wall jump thing?"

"Just run up to the wall with as much momentum as you can muster, and start running against the wall,"stated Flair, as if he'd done it thousands of times.

"If I fall and die, I'm coming back to haunt you," she said, her voice full of venom.

She turned to face the wall. It seemed to be miles away, even though it was only a couple of metres. Ember leant back, and then pelted herself forwards, gathering all the momentum that she could. The wall was approaching fast, the black pit started looking bigger. Ember reached the edge of the floor and leapt. She dove through the air at the grey, cracked wall and spun her lower half around in the air, ready to hit the wall. She felt the thin plaster under her claws and she instantly drove all the strength that she had into her legs. Her feet pounded against the wall, leaving crumbled footprints in their wake. She could feel the force of gravity beginning to triumph over the force of momentum and forced a jump that strained the muscles in her legs.

'Thump!'

Her body hit the floor on the other side and collapsed into a roll that sent her spinning into the intercom. She grabbed it and swung herself up smoothly, with little effort. Ember then turned around and headed back towards the wall. She leapt again and sliced through the air towards the wall. She slammed her feet into the cold, weak stone and ploughed her way across the wall, this time using her claws to keep herself up. Another leap, and she landed on the other side.

"Here's the intercom, next job?" asked Ember, with less enthusiasm then Flair expected.

"Go down to the sub-basement. The door is over there. Take this though," He said, and handed Ember a small, metal, spider-like device.

"This is?" asked Ember, poking the little gizmo with her claw.

"It's an uplink to this," he informed, holding up a small, wrist computer, "Using this, I'll be able to hack into any door or computer that you encounter down there. I'll need to check on the new military code first though, as this is a completely different outpost to the one that I remember."

"Right, so you hack everything that gets in my way and I just walk around until I find a power switch?" stated Ember, raising both eyebrows and folding her arms.

"Not quite. There might be some, er, resistance down there. So, just in case, take one of the guns that you took from the white floaty place," he said, indicating to the set of guns hidden underneath a small square of fabric.

"Oh... you... saw me take them?"asked Ember, giving him an innocent, hopeful look.

"Im not stupid, you know," replied Flair.

"You could've fooled me," mumbled Ember under her breath.

"Look, I've had enough training to recognise the sound of guns in a bag, okay?" Flair told her, shrugging as he grinned.

"Why didn't you stop me taking them then?" asked Ember, curious as to why he had let her, when he had seemed so adamant that she leave them behind.

"Well, I figured you were just taking them for examination or something," Flair told her, waving his arm as if he didn't care.

"Well, actually they're for protection,"she told him, giving him a 'Duh,' look as she turned towards the guns. She whipped out a semi-automatic and loaded it with ammo.

"So, why does your time of Dragons use guns? What happened to good ol' fire-breath?" asked Ember, smiling, and smoking at the nostrils.

"Erm, we've had a lott'a stuff removed and altered, so I'm not sure what I got inside me, 'cept the valuables," he grinned.

Ember gave him a look that one might use when amused by a small child's immature joke.

"Im surprised you even have them," stated Ember, grinning at him with her shining fangs.

"Oh har har har, at least I have a better sense of humour," he said, rolling his eyes.

"In your dreams," laughed Ember, standing up and glancing around, looking for the door.

"Hmph, the Sub-basement's entrance is over there, by that small console," Informed Flair, half heartedly setting up his computer.

"Contact me once you get you computer up and running?" asked Ember, scratching her shoulder and heading for the door.

"I will, and Ember?" called Flair, not looking at her, but stopping his work on the computer whilst he spoke.

"Yes?" asked Ember turning to face him.

"Thanks for...well, you get the idea... be careful," he said, resuming his work on the technology.

Ember smiled, and tapped the console button. With a hissing noise, followed by a loud groaning of metal, the blast door opened, and Ember ran into the darkness, leaving the light behind.

Well, it's not much, but it gets the idea across. A big thanks to Lithe, again, for waking me up and keeping me going. Also a big thanks to all of your reviews last time. The next chapter shouldn't take as long, since now I have a general idea of where Im taking this.

Also, Steph, if you are reading this, let me write what I want to write and take my stories where I want to take them!

Until next time...