Before continuing, I would like to apologise to the readers who found the 'Doctor Who' tie in to be a bad idea. Please note that it was only included in two chapters so the tie in isn't really significant. Also, remember, this is my second ever fic and I'm still experimenting with new ideas and I decided to try a 'tie in.' It may please some of you to know that the Doctor will not be making any further appearances in the story.

The Penultimate Adventure

"Where am I?" was the first thought that ran through the awakening Ember's mind. Her eyes felt as if they weighed a tonn and, though she struggled furiously to open them, stayed closed. The next thing she became aware of was a tight aching from her wrists which, as her body began to wake, she realised were chained above her head in heavy metal bonds. She felt her fingers twitch, sending stabs of pain through her arms and shoulders. It felt as though she had been there for ages.

The dull clinking of her shackles hurt her ears and she began to become aware of other noises floating around the location. The steady, distant dripping of water bounced around her, the rhythm of the liquid's impact threatened to lull her back to sleep. She felt so weak, so tired that sleep seemed like a good plan.

"What about Spyro?" she asked herself mentally. The instant this notion arrived in her head, her eyes snapped open and her head jolted up. Each of her muscles tensed, ready for action and her entire body became suddenly alert. The image she saw took little time to register in her brain. She was in a relatively large, dimly lit chamber. Wide, damp bricks formed the walls and glistened in the dull green light.

Her heart began to accelerate, along with her breathing rate. Panic was starting to take hold and Ember was fighting to keep from screaming. That moment, as she attempted to move her wings out from under her, a horrific pain erupted from them. She yelped quietly and bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut and wishing the feeling away.

She summoned her bravery and opened her sapphire eyes to discover the cause of the agony. Both of her wings had been skewered, and effectively pinned up, by two gigantic iron spikes. Dried blood coated the holes in the membrane and formed streaks down the walls.

Silvery tears began to run down her pink snout-scales and fall to the cobbled floor, mingling with the stale blood that stained the stones. She stared for a while at the gruesome tare on her left wing, gazing at the mangled flesh. Another thought arrived in her mind.

She turned her attention to the rest of her body and began to check for further damage. Under the metal of her bonds, the scales were sore but unbroken. There was a long scratch down the side of her right arm, as if someone had tried to rip her arm off but not succeeded.

Looking down, she discovered that her stomach plating had been pierced by something sharp and obviously not clean. Along with the dry blood, some sort of black grime was smeared around the wound. The way it had been smudged around clearly indicated that someone or something had been rubbing it's hands over her body as she'd been un-conscious. Her eyes widened in horror and disgust as she realised that lots of the grime covered her thighs, abdomen and the fork of her legs.

The thought of one of Evil's lackey's touching her made her insides churn. She wanted to curl up and sink into the floor, disappearing completely from the world. Unable to do this, she began to scream. As she screamed, tears streamed down her snout, down her neck and dropped to the ground. She heaved her entire body forwards, desperately trying to yank the chains out of the wall. Failing, she tried again, lunging away from the stone wall, only to be snagged violently back.

"You won't escape, Ember..."

The familiar eerie voice filled her head, followed by a sudden burning anger from the very depths of her soul.

"YOU BASTARD!" she screamed, still squirming away from the wall as best as she could.

"After all this time, I expected better from you," he stepped into view, out of the dark and into the dull light.

His black, tar-like scales glistened in the light and his eyes bore into Ember's very soul. The sight of him after all that she's been through made her want to vomit.

"I don't suppose I ever could expect better from you," Ember snapped back, yanking ferociously o the chains.

"A fair response, but still under my expectations. Evan after the death of your mate, you are still no stronger," Evil smiled a dark, sharp-toothed grin as her eyes filled with hate.

"Even after you had your throat ripped out, you're still no smarter," Ember said, smirking slightly as Evil's smile disappeared, replaced by an equally hate filled look.

"I may have been temporarily set back, but believe me, I am prepared this time," Evil explained, his smile beginning to return.

"You don't seem to be able to understand. No amount of preparation is going to save you," Ember threatened, a knowing smile spreading across her face.

Ember had made an observation that may possibly free her from her bonds, but she had to wait for Evil to leave.

"Brave words, coming from one who has no idea what was done to her during her time un-conscious,"Evil's face seemed to light up with a dark delight, as if what he was about to say next was the best thing he could ever imagined, and for someone so evil, that wasn't a good thing.

Ember fell silent, unsure what to do or say, until finally she gained the courage to ask, "What did you do to me?"

Evil's manic grin sent Ember's mind racing, "It's not what I did, but what my allies did. I allowed them to have some 'fun' with you whilst you were out."

Ember couldn't speak. Her entire body slouched slightly and she suddenly felt as if she would never be clean again. Images filled her mind. Wether they were of her creation, or given to her by Evil, she could not tell, but they forced more tears to escape her eyes, and a roller coaster of emotion to rack through her.

"Do not worry, I made sure they were gentle... or at least, I made sure they did not do any permanent damage. But, just in case, don't be surprised if you are unable to walk," Evil's expression was unreadable, but he retained his delighted look, ever-so-slightly.

Ember was silent for minutes, staring at the floor before slowly looking up, fixing Evil with an emotionless stare and speaking slowly, "I'll give you some advice... to you and your lackeys... run... run as fast and as far as you possibly can... because now you'll never stop me."

An expression crossed Evil's face for a split second... she didn't catch it, but she knew he had been affected by what she had said. He concealed it with another grin and turned to the shadows, "We're not going anywhere... and neither are you."

In a brief movement, he was gone. Ember stared at the spot he had been standing in. Her eyes held no sign of life, despite being open. She did not move for minutes, making sure Evil was gone, before soundlessly turning to the bonds that held her right hand and heating them with raging flames from her throat.

They glowed red and softened, weakening to a point where Ember was able to slip her hand through the molten metal. She repeated the process with her other hand and after moments of roaring fire it was free. She would have been thankful that the heat did not affect her scales, but her mind remained blank and numb.

With a sickening noise of flesh against both metal and stone, the metal spikes that held her wings fell with a clatter to the floor. She fell forwards, twisting in the air to avoid hurting herself badly, and focussing her flames on the chains at her feet. Moments of heat and an eventual click let her know that they had opened and she was free.

She should have felt proud of herself, but no emotion passed through her. She felt nothing, not even the warm blood that was now spilling from her wings and staining the floor. She had a single objective in mind and the only thing she would let distract her was the fact that Flair was probably imprisoned nearby. She got up, ignoring the protest from her legs and lower half.

He had been right, she was finding it difficult to walk. She climbed the stairs slowly and half way around the turn in the steps, she spotted two guards either side of a metal gate. Instantly her eyes narrowed, a familiar feeling of precision, lethality and rage coursed through her as she slowly sank to all fours. Her teeth slowly bared and she prowled forwards, sinking her claws into the stone beneath her as she crept closer to her prey.

One of them had seen her and signalled the guard next to her. Both of them raised spear-like weapons and charged forwards. Without having to think, Ember leapt at the one on the left with an off-wall bound and sank her teeth into his face, a warm black liquid spilling into her lower jaw. She could sense the other guard about to attack her and quickly swiped her tail at him, skewering him with the heart-like tip of her tail and holding him against the wall.

She got up from the guard beneath her, ripping it's head off as she went. She turned and continued up the steps, flicking the other being off her tail without even looking back. The door flew off it's hinges from the punch that she delivered as she headed into the small chamber. She spotted another gate, similar to the one she had just dismantled.

Her vision altered slightly, for a split second. She saw through the gate, picking up a thermal trace of a life-form that was being held in the cell on the other side of the gate. She began moving again, grabbing the gate and pushing it down the steps, following it down to the room below and heading for the unconscious body of Flair that hung on the far wall in a similar fashion to her. The only difference was that he was much cleaner. She walked up to his side and began to heat the metal of the shackles that bound him. He stirred, mumbling something under his breath and flickering his eyes slightly.

Within seconds, he dropped into her arms and was lowered to the ground. He woke slowly, gazing up into her eyes as she watched over him, smiling a relieved smile.

"... h-hey," he greeted, struggling to form words.

"Hey," she smiled, stroking his head sympathetically.

She lifted him onto her shoulder, careful not to put pressure on any of his wounds as she went. She reached the top of the stairs and set him down again, shaking him gently by the shoulder.

"I'm up... I'm okay...," he muttered, waking fully and looking around at the broken gate, blood-stained ground and dully-lit chamber, "Re-decorating without me?"

"I made a start, but I need your help," Ember explained, smiling at him warmly.

"Then you only had to ask...," he said, grinning as best he could, trying to ignore the pain from the various scratches that covered his body.

He slowly lifted himself off the ground and stood up. He looked at Ember with a small smile but stopped when he spotted her wounds.

"... what did they-?" he began, running a hand softly over her right wing.

"It doesn't matter... they don't hurt anymore," she replied, almost distantly.

Flair looked at her, his face bore an apologetic look and he couldn't find any way to continue the discussion. Both of them were jolted out of the moment by the sound of yelling from the halls above them.

Ember turned to him and explained, "I'm going after Evil. This has to stop and the only way to stop this happening is if we destroy the cause of all this."

"You can't take him on like this, you're in no condition to-," Flair began, before Ember cut in again,

"We have no choice. Now that we're out, we only have one chance and I intend to make it count," she told him, avoiding his eyes.

"What if he kills you?" Flair asked, lifting her head gently so that she was looking into his eyes.

"He can't... I'm not going to let him," she said, a note of confidence in her voice that almost made him believe her.

"I'm not going to try to stop you. I know what this means to you and I understand... he must be one heck of a guy for you to go to all this trouble to save him...," Flair commented, referring to Ember's lost mate.

"He was... All this happened because he wasn't there to stop it. Once he's back... it'll be right again..." she said, a note of hope in her voice.

Flair frowned, a curious expression played over his face, as if something had just clicked into place and he needed confirmation.

"What was his name?" he asked, tilting his head ever so slightly and giving her a questioning look.

"Spyro... Spyro the dragon...," she answered, smiling to herself and staring into space, picturing him in her head. A quiet tear made it's way down her cheek and landed without a sound on the cold floor.

Flair's eyes widened as the information hit him like a brick. Ember hadn't noticed, and was unaware that he was now grinning in dis-belief at her. A guard burst into the room and hurled itself at them. Flair spun onto his back and thrashed his legs out at him, sending him flying into the stairs.

"We have to go," called Ember, making her way to the stairs that led to the hallways above.

"Right behind you," Flair replied, grinning to himself as he chased her up the stone steps.

Moments later, after avoiding patrols of guards and creatures that their imagination could only begin to wonder what they were, they found themselves standing at the door to the castles central chamber and the throne room of Evil.

"I expected guards to be here...," Flair stated, looking around, breathing heavily after the running they had done.

"Evil isn't the type to have bodyguards... he thinks he's a God," Ember explained walking up to the door and staring up at it as if it were an entrance to everything she hated.

"I suppose that makes sense," Flair commented, shrugging slightly as he checked down each of the passages leading to the room they were in to make sure they had not been spotted and followed.

"Ready?" Ember asked, a hint of anxiousness in her voice, though she tried to keep it out.

"Go for it," Flair said, walking up to her and bracing himself.

In a blur of movement, Ember's foot slammed against the wood of the heavy doors and as the wood splintered, the doors swung messily open to reveal an enormous chamber, stood in the middle of which, was Evil...

"I've been expecting you...,"

I just want to apologise again for the time I took uploading this and I also want to apologise for this chapter being so short. It is very difficult though, to revise for GCSE's, End of Year examinations, Tae Kwon Do exams and write two stories at the same time, but now that the holidays are here, things should speed up. I must admit that my enthusiasm for this story had diminished, but I won't stop till it's over...