OK, first off, if there is ever some disclaimers I need to put, then of course, I don't own the Spyro series. And before you read this, this will involve my fan character named Crevasse, which is explained in my account profile. And no, I'm not planning to start any relationship parts for a while. Well, for this chapter, at least. I don't know... it depends on what comes to my mind. And now, I use the term 'Dragona', which is my term for the purple element that Spyro had in the last battle with Cynder in ANB.

The Holy Dragoness of Darkness-Chapter 17
The Awakening Dawn of the Past

(before I forget, my perception of what the Dark Master looks like can be found in my profile)

My memory is toying with me...

Fully recovering from the fall, she stood up and harnessed the area around her. "Seems familiar..." she thought. She tried hard to remember what this place was. After some seconds, images suddenly appeared in her eyes, and those images appeared in the field she is looking at. It looked like a flashback of some sort...

Cynder's lair is where hope goes to die. she heard, she didn't move her head to see where it came from, for she knew perfectly that this was a saying of the past. But then a scene appeared in front of her.

"Next time that I say I wanna face Cynder, why don't you go and punch me in the mouth?"

"No problem."

Seeing this, she backed off a bit. "...they really prepared to face me... that's how they found me..." Cynder thought. This scene was indeed the time when Spyro and Sparx entered this area, near this castle. "...what worse could I see here?" Cynder thought. After a few seconds, she saw the image of Spyro stand on 2 legs and look to the left sky. She looked in that direction, too. Then she saw a large black dragon with red wings flying through the sky and going to the peak of that castle. "...I hate it." she thinks again, remembering that moment of time when she flew always to this place. "...damn, what am I doing? No time to waste, it's time to get there." she says, then blockes out the current thoughts in her mind, vanishing every trace of illusions in her eyes, then proceeded on.

Back at the trail where Cynder flew through, Spyro and Ember are tracing the path perfectly. "It then went down here..." Ember says. "Down there... wait, does that mean she FELL?" Spyro suddenly reacted. "I hope not. Flying vertically isn't a problem, you know." Ember replies. "Oh, I sure hope so... alright, I can see the place. Fly through." Spyro commands, then both of them flew around that castle, then landed on a terrace somewhere near the top. "NOW we find her." Spyro says. "But, but... this place freaks me out! It's so quiet!" Ember complains to Spyro. "Oh don't worry about it. It may look like some kind of mansion with whtie and black diamonds all around the walls and floor, but there's nothing here, trust me." Spyro tries to comfort her. "Have you been here before?" Ember asks. "It seems vageuly familiar." the purple dragon replies. "Alright then, let's go. Spl-" Spyro unfinishes a sentence, when Ember suddenly shouts at him. "No no no no no I don't want to split up!" she suddenly shouted, then clings to him so tight. (oops, this was not supposed to happen) "...OK OK fine, we'll go together. Just be sure you don't scream too loud, OK?" Spyro commands her. "O...OK..." she replies, then they walk random paths just to find that black dragon.

Meanwhile, on another terrace near the top of the castle, Crevasse was just looking out the window, standing silent there. His mind was a bit blank and from his face, all you could tell was there was nothing you can tell. "She's near..." he senses. "...and she's ready. Who knows what motivation is inside her to get to the root of this? Just a little more work and I'm done here... her powers are enough and supplementary for what I plan for her to do..." he says, then after that, he did some other movements from his hand, facing at him and looking at it. "...Darkness will be turned to Dragona if this turns out successful..." he says while a dark aura was circling his hand. "...and Dragona is the ultimate key to the banishment of everything." he continues. He then suddenly waved his hand and pushed the air behind him, thus making the aura fire a small fog in the direction that he pushed. But then it didn't hit the wall, it hit something, or rather yet, someone. Standing there in the way was Red, who was apparently scheduled to be there. "Now that the elements are complete, all I need is a bit more from the others." the dragon of magic says. "Promise me that this will go as planned, and I have plans for the Dark One's foolishness in order to make this work." the hound dragon says.

"Do remember that this is only between us for now."

"I've been hiding this for a long time now, and I think the time when Cynder will know this is planned right."

"Hm, true. She might not be empowered if you didn't get her this motivated."

"And when she's sent back to the realm, it's your job and hers afterwards."

"Wait, don't forget the other 2 small ones. They have an extraordinary power that I might need to complete the breakout..."

"...you found power inside my niece?"

"Her affiliation to nature is a lot more powerful than you know, Crevasse. I have to wonder why you are her uncle, seeing that you don't even know her fully."

"I never said I was interested in her powers, Red... well, whatever's the case, after I make my move, I'm done... and that might be literal..."

"...are you serious?"

"The Dark Master has more than anyone knows; even I am not sure of his full extent."

"...I do not want to hear any more. In any case... good luck."
After saying this, Red flew out of the castle and went a pathway where no one except him and Crevasse knew, and it leads back to the hound dragon's lair.

Meanwhile, Cynder is making her way to the top of the castle. She's hopped on the first elevator, and she's past halfway there. "...too quiet, this place DOES look abandoned now... I wonder if anything even happened ever since I left..." she notices, as she sees the corpses of Electric Leeches, the broken body pieces of the Electric Goliaths, and some decomposing goon bodies that was under her army before. Trying to block out every memory she had, she quickly sprinted through everything instead of just walking, in hopes that no horrible flashback would come back to her. She eventually came to the second elevator that leads her to the very top of the tower. "Fortunately these 2 are still functional..." she notices, seeing as how broken the electric power of the area has been completely shut down. The elevator then rose up, and she noticed the broken electric orbs at the sides at some levels.

She was definitely not the only creature wandering around. Spyro and Ember are still a bit lost as to where they should start looking. The purple dragon is trying to recall everything he could the last time he went here, and Ember is just following his back, a bit freaked out by the 'scary' decoration of the castle. When suddenly there was a thunderstrike outside, Ember suddenly ran to Spyro, screamed out in fright and then grasped his horns so furious, making the purple dragon fall over and trip. "Quit it, will you? It's just lightning..." Spyro gets irritated. "I...I just can't stay here for too long!" Ember says while frightened. "...come on, let's go, we don't have time to waste." Spyro ends the conversation, then they continue looking for the black dragon.

Not long after that, Spyro noticed something familiar. There were pillars powered by violet and blue crystals that were sticking out of the ground. These pillars were stair-like and led to different heights. "...there!" Spyro concluded. "Yes, I remember now. There are 3 rooms of which pillars are coming out of the ground and will lead you to a higher destination, and these 3 rooms are all connecting each other! And since there are no more disturbances, all of these pillars are activated. From here, it's pretty much straightforward. We have to hurry, come on!" the purple dragon exclaims, then both of them sprinted through that pathway. THey eventually got to the first elevator, but they noticed one thing: The elevator wasn't down there. "What the...?" Ember says, as she got confused as to why the elevator was not there. "It just means someone used it to go up here... which leads me to another question, are there only 3 creatures in here?" Spyro branches out a lot of ideas. "Oh I sure hope so..." Ember says in a bit of a scared voice. "Wh... who knows what might just spring out of nowhere?..." she continues, but the sign of fear is evident now. Then another lightning struck outside. THis made Ember scream very loud again, and this time she grabbed on to Spyro's tail, and accidentally pulled it too hard. "OW! Stop it, would you?!" Spyro gets evidently irritated and an angry voice could be heard. "So...sorry, I... I just can't cope up with this!" Ember replies in fright. "...alright, alright... here's what I recommend you do... as I walk, keep looking at my back... think of something else. And I'll tell you when we get there." Spyro commands her. "...O...OK..." she ends the conversation. The elevator finally went down to them. So they hopped on and was in for a long wait.

The black dragon then got to the top. The first thing she noticed was the broken mini-roof on top, which she seemed to have broke before. "...a big hole like that... goes to show how disgusting that form can be..." Cynder remembers her previous days. Before she was able to move, her mind made an illusion. She saw the form of the Dark Master in front of her. "...and they are the 4 guardians that are they key to my freedom. Sap them of their power, and give all of them to me..." the image said. Then she sees another image; a large black dragon with red wings that is exactly on her location. "Yes, master. This won't be a problem. I've set all locations for their very hidden imprisonment." that large form said. "...I can't believe I even agreed to him..." Cynder reacts, remembering that this is actually a conversation that happened in the past. She couldn't remove that memory of hers, and she was disturbed a bit. But then she saw a door just right in front of her, leading to the interior of the tower. "...was that there before?" she got confused, not remembering about the place anymore. "...maybe I just didn't notice, seeing as 'I' caged Ignitus in front of that..." she reacted. She then didn't care anymore and went straight for the door. But before she can get there, 4 large forms suddenly flew to her. "You can't just proceed alone!" one of them said. "You may just be leading yourself into a lot of trouble..." another said, which she had recognized to be Ignitus' voice. All 4 guardians were there, and they were all telling her to not approach that door any further and go back to the homes. Cynder was just staring blankly at the ground. When she finally got irritated, she quickly raised her head up, and quickly shouted. "Get out of here." she shouts, while her eyes suddenly became glowing red with a lot of power circulating around her. Seeing this, all 4 guardians backed up a bit, then they all flew away. "Scary..." Cyril thought. "...the others! The 2 little ones are still wandering around the interior of this enormous location!" Volteer tells them. "Then we have to find them... tell them that it's not safe here." Terrador agrees and concludes. "I'll be the one to do that. You other 3 go back and find as much as help as you can. I sense that this disaster is going to really happen again..." Cyril commands them. They all agreed and the guardian of fire, earth, and lightning all flew away, while Cyril quickly flew around the castle looking for signs of the 2 small dragons named Spyro and Ember.

Cynder still had the same look on her face as she entered the door. Everything was so blank, and the castle looked so infested with the thunderstorm going outside.

"Welcome back."

TBC...

...darn, save me from the lamity! I couldn't find anyway to lengthen the period before the actions are taken upon Cynder... which probably will be done in the next 1-3 chapters or so... anyways, here it is.