It has almost been a full year since Malefor has been defeated, and a full year since Spyro and Cynder went missing. Many had been in mourning for the fallen duo. A statue was placed in the center of Warfang to pay respects for the dead and one of Ignitus was placed next to it for the great fallen leader of the dragon guardians. Soon after, Terrador took control as the leader of the dragon guardians. But we'll get to this part later now let's go see what has happened to our two favorite dragons.
Destroyed dragon temple Malefor's old lair 1 year after his defeat
Spyro slowly stirred awake. He felt like he hadn't moved for a year. After cracking several joints, and just shake everything in general, he took in his surroundings. It was the same place where they had battle Malefor. But instead of a stone cold floor it now was covered in grass and sunlight seeped. But it was still a little dim to see much else to see, vines now hung through the cracks in the ceiling, giving off the aura of peace. But Spyro felt like something was missing.
Then it hit him. Where was Cynder? "Cynder, Cynder, where are you?" Spyro called out; panic beginning to take root in his voice.
"Spyro, just five more minutes." Cynder was under some grass that had grown around her over the year. But it was still too dark to clearly see her.
Spyro made his way over to the sleeping grass covered dragoness panic subsiding; she was spread out in a comfortable position and sleeping peacefully.
"Five more minutes huh?" Spyro grinned;he got close to her and whispered. "Fine you can sleep for longer, but the hatchlings will be disappointed that they didn't see both mom and dad this morning." When Spyro finished Cynder's eyes shot open with some panic.
"Wait, what hatchlings?" Cynder's thoughts were mixed until she saw Spyro laughing to himself. "Not funny Spyro." Cynder said, with annoyance in her voice accompanied with a blush.
"Why did the thought of using hatchlings enter your mind to wake me up first?" Cynder asked. "Planning on having a family soon huh." She proceeded to tease him, walking by and letting her tail glide under his chin.
"Uh-I um- how long do you think we've been asleep?" Spyro said, trying to distract to avoid her last question, and his firey blush as well.
"I doubt it's been long." She answered, gazing around the grass and vine covered room. "Although, I may be wrong." She said.
Spyro looked around for a minute and took a guess, "Where are we Malefor's lair? We never left it." said Spyro, relived that Cynder drop her other question.
"Well what are we standing around here for? Let's get out of here, Malefor's dead now right, so let's head back to Warfang." chirped Cynder, feeling a burst of energy. "And don't think you're getting away from my question Spyro." She finished smiling, and then proceeded to find an exit to the room.
Spyro sighed and dropped his head; he should have known she wouldn't have been deterred that so easily; soon following Cynder to assist in finding an exit. As they moved around the room, it started to become apparent that their muscles were weak from a year of no movement.
Cynder already tried after what should've been a simple walk, was now completely winded. spyro was also in a similar situation after such a simple action. As spyro and cynder laid collasped on the floor hours passed and the sun slowly shifted in the sky evently showing a on place for escape
"why do I feel so weak!" Cynder complained, unable to move anymore.
"i don't know, but I feel the same way!" Spyro answered, collapsing on the ground from exhaustion. As Spyro and Cynder laid collapsed on the floor hours passed and the sun slowly shifted in the sky eventually showing on a place for escape. After gaining enough energy back they flew through it.
They left out of a crack in the ceiling that was just large enough for them to pass though, since the path they came in over a year ago caved in. As Spyro and Cynder made it to the surface their eyes had to readjust to the light, akin to the room they were in which was dark. They were greeted by the sight of ruins of the old dragon temple. It was scatter about after its fall from the sky where Malefor had placed the majestic structure. Viewing the ruins only reminded Cynder about how much destruction she caused under Malefor.
"I feel horrible, I helped Malefor accomplish and destroy so much that lead up to this," said Cynder with sorrow in her voice.
Spyro finding Cynder once more blaming herself for Malefors doing, "Cynder, it's not you're..." Spyro stop mid sentence, with his eyes widening, wondering if what he was he was seeing was true, the dragoness in front of him who once held scales blacker than coal were now turning purple! The old scales began to turn to dust and simply fall off to reveal a untarnished dark purple scales.
"Spyro what's wrong?" Asked the black dragoness, her new scales color going unnoticed to her
"Um, well look." Spyro sprayed some ice on to a nearby wall, making a somewhat reflective surface, "Just come look Cynder," said Spyro still surprised.
"Okay, what's wrong...?" Cynder stopped talking because of what she saw. Her scales were no longer black, but now were a dark purple. "W-What? But how?" to say Cynder was surprised would be a massive understatement. She was shocked, and on some level horrified as well. "Why is this happening?" said Cynder, surprised by the sudden change.
"It's not a bad thing, Cynder. Maybe this is what your real scale color is, before being if it helps, Sparx once ate berries that turned him pink for a week. Come on; let's try to get back to Warfang." Spyro said, trying to comfort Cynder.
"Yeah, alright," said Cynder, still a bit shocked at the change, but still managed to laugh at the their favorite dragonfly being pink. Suddenly cynder was hit with a wave of exhuastion and apin
"Spyro, I can't move!" Cynder told spyro, somehow getting a sentence thourgh all the pain.
Spyro himself was starting to feel something similar, "Alright, we'll stop for the night," responded the male purple dragon, "But let's try to find shelter first. I think there's a storm coming," said Spyro as he gazed over into the distance where dark clouds were brewing. After searching for awhile, they found another piece of the old dragon temple. Lucky for them, this part had a roof on it still, "Come on Cynder. Let's get some rest."
Cynder nodded and both proceeded into the ruins. For some reason, Cynder thought she had been here before. She was almost certain she was here before it was... Before she could remember, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head.
A group of apes pulled in a cage with an eight year old dragon in it. 'Mistress Cynder, the dark master's son has been captured,' said a random lowly ape.
"Good, now be gone you poor excuse for a creature," Cynder said to the ape.
"Yes mistress." The ape ran away as fast as he could, not wanting to anger Cynder and get killed.
Cynder made her way over to the cage, "Well, if it isn't our little run away." The dragon inside the cage snarled and lashed at the bars. "Your father has been looking for you," said the Terror of the Skies to the caged dragon.
"You and Malefor will fail! The purple dragon of legend will STOP YOU!" said the dragon.
"All will fall under his control, even you. Why can't you accept that?" said the large corrupted dragon.
"Because that demon killed his mate, my mom!" the young dragon let out a small amount of convexity at the Terror of the Skies. Cynder reeled back at the sight of that element. Malefor burned the former ape king before Gaul with it, nothing was left of the old ape.
Cynder broke out of the stupor and shot a shadow fire at the caged dragon, giving him three burn marks across his right eye. The dragon squirmed back and forth in the cage trying to relief the pain until he passed out. "Gaul"' shouted Cynder.
The ape king quickly arrived. Although he hated her, he didn't want to die, "Yes mistress Cynder?"
"Take him to his cell now," Cynder told the ape.
"Yes mistress." Gaul let out screech calling two other apes to help. Then they took the passed out dragon to his cell.
"Cynder, wake up please!" Spyro had been trying for the past hour to wake Cynder, getting more worried with each passing minute. Cynder open her teal/green eyes, finally waking up, "Cynder are you okay?" asked Spyro as he got closer. Cynder stirred awake and out of her flashback, "Cynder what happened?"
"I don't know. I think it was a memory of my time as the, Terror of the Skies" Cynder said, not liking her old name.
"Really, what did it show you Cynder?" asked Spyro, worried about what she saw.
"It showed a young dragon. He would probably be our age now. I think the dragon was Malefor's son," said Cynder. Spyro felt fear. If Malefor was powerful enough to destroy the planet, would his be capable of much more devastating power. "The apes caught him and put him in a cage. He seemed to hate his father. Something about Malefor killing his mother, it was only a week before you defeated my corrupted form, i think." finished Cynder.
Spyro didn't think a son would ever go against his father, let alone Malefor's son, "Cynder, where is that dragon now?"
"If I remember, it would be here in this part of the dragon temple. We used it as a prison. We also brought other things here. A few other dragons, to young ones at that, even some eggs and a few old dragon relics that would have threatened Malefor's rule," responded Cynder, "If I'm right, he would be in the void vault. The apes put him there to cancel out his powers, as it would any dragons. It should be down this way." Cynder and Spyro proceeded down a staircase to the lower levels. The lower part of the ruin was full with old room's cells and dragon archives. As the path went on, Cynder began to feel that sharp pain in the back of her head once more.
Cynder paced in front of a dark container like object that contained their "guest".
"It's hard to comprehend why you would define your father?" Cynder began to chastise the young dragon. It got a small response from the dragon.
"What happens between me and that monster is our business, and is none of yours!" he retorted.
"Come now young of Malefor, certainly you don't want to be punished more." Cynder threatened him.
The blue dragon scoffed. "Go ahead punish me as much as you want, I know you won't kill me though, he won't let you." he continued. "And know this dragoness when I get out of here and we ever meet again...you won't live for long." he finished in a deadly tone, with convexity leaking from his maw making Cynder's scales crawl at the sight.
"Mistress Cynder, Cynder!" she heard a voice call to her, drawing her away from this vision.
"Cynder! Cynder Come on! WAKE UP!" Spyro began to panic; this was the second time she had passed out for no visible reason, maybe another vision? At the moment he didn't care he just wanted to see Cynder awake and safe.
Cynder began to stir. "Hmm, the visions are starting to become a bit of an annoyance". Cynder mumbled as she got up.
Spyro let out a sigh of relief, seeing that Cynder was now up and about again. "Another vision?"
"Yeah, it was another memory about a confrontation between me and the son of Malefor."
"Anything interesting about it?" Spyro questioned her.
"Not really, the only thing I really felt from this one was...Well fear." She answered.
"Fear?"
"Yeah, I guess he was the only dragon aside from you Spyro, which ever really sent chills down my spine during my time as the Terror of the Skies." Cynder stated. A crack of thunder boomed thought-out the halls of the building they were in.
"Did this vision, I don't maybe tell you want happened to him?" Spyro asked.
Cynder shook her head. "No...These visions might start to become more common, I think I might remember things I would rather not ever know." She said to Spyro.
"Alright Cynder, I won't ask you about what you experience anymore in your visions." Spyro said.
An hour later
The structure itself was massive, when Malefor fell by Spyro and Cynder's efforts; it lost its place in the sky where Malefor placed it. It hurled to the ground along with the rest of ancient dragon temple, imbedding itself about two miles into the ground; with only the top showing.
"So this place was used as a prison?" Spyro asked, as they continued their trek inward through the structure.
"Yes, during my time as the Terror of the Skies I had many creatures imprisoned here even the guardians went through and we're held here at one time." Said the purple dragoness. "Malefor's son, we had to put him in a special cell made by Malefor, in order to hold him, the apes liked calling it the void vault"
"Void vault?" Spyro questioned, as they descended further in.
"Malefor knew that his son would surpass him on all levels of power, and if left alone to stand against him, he would become a threat... so Malefor, before he was sealed away in the well of souls, he made us hunt for his son day and night until we found him. When we did Malefor forged a cage, cell, or container of some sort, to seal his son in until we could turn him to our side." Cynder said.
"How cruel was Malefor, and to think I was living out a normal life in swamps while this happened to everyone else, I wish I could've been out there fighting sooner." Spyro said beginning to feel dejected.
"Spyro, if you were their earlier Malefor might have ended up corrupting you... like he did me." Cynder told the purple dragon of legend.
Spyro was about to respond to Cynder, when a sound of something rushing began to roar behind them.
"Cynder! What's that sound?"
It only took a moment for Cynder to realize were they were in the building. Her eyes widened. "Spyro! Run we're in the aqueducts!" Cynder yelled and ran past Spyro.
"Wait what's an aqueduct!" as Spyro finished that question, he felt and saw a massive torrent of water slam into him and soon Cynder. The impact knocked both of them out, as well as taking them with it, into the dark depths of the prison.
Hours later, Spyro lay upon a dark and dank shore deep underground. Spyro began to stir awake only to see a figure of an ape above him, panic overtaking him slammed his tail into the ape as hard as he could, but instead of hearing a flesh tearing sound he heard stone breaking and hitting the floor. Scrambling to his feet, Spyro got a better look at the figure, it was an ape sure but made out of stone. Spyro got a view of the rest of the room; strange crystals lined the walls giving of small amounts of light. The room was filled with stone apes, in different motions, running, leaning back and starting at something in the distant dark. He heard rustling in the darkness, "Malefor?"The dark master was the only one he could think of, to cause such evil to the apes. Soon the dark master's form stepped forth from the shadows. Two dark clawed came forth from behind Malefor hands shot out of the darkness grabbing Spyro as soon as they emerged with great speed, Spyro struggled against the claws trying to get free but to no avail. Two blood red eyes opened in the darkness, staring straight at him.
"Spyro." a light but very familiar voice called out to him. "Spyro, listen to me." it continued. "Be prepared, Malefor was only the beginning front of a much larger storm to come" Spyro tried to speak but found he couldn't. "Now is not the time for questions Spyro... answers will come in time be patience, but also be wary, a dark storm this realm hasn't known for thousands of years... will soon return." Spyro felt the claws grasp on him loosen dropping him back on the ground. "Wait what do you mean Malefor was only the front." Spyro called out, but received no answer. Spyro then began to feel a light headed feeling come over him, before he was jerked from the dream. Spyro awoke with a jolt, he felt the cold touch of water around him, quickly realising that he was under water and running out of air, in a attempt to use his wings to get to the surface. Spyro found his wings caught under a rock that was moved over them, from the cascading waters. "Spyro a purple dragon can learn all elements... but a purple dragon of legend is a master of them all, and has traits of other dragons, now let the water dragon inside you come forth". Spyro didn't hear the voice but for reasons unknown he began to breathe underwater. Taking this chance he swung his tail back hitting and smashing the rocks and effectively freeing his wings. Looking around Spyro saw his Dragoness companion, Cynder was caught under a few large stones and struggling to hold her breath, using his wings to travel through the water towards Cynder, using his tail and claws he was able to get Cynder loose and drag her and himself to a shore nearby.
After dragging him and Cynder to shore, gasping for air, not realizing that he had been breathing underwater even for a small amount of time. Soon Cynder began coughing to rid her body of the water that had gotten into her lungs.
"Sorry Spyro, I should've realized sooner we we're in the aqueducts." she tried to apologize.
"Its fine Cynder, you haven't been here for years, I'm not going to blame you for it." Spyro said back.
"Do you know where we are now?"
Getting up Cynder looked around to see where they were.
"This should be the very end of the aqueducts; we're in the central cistern." Cynder said looking at the center of the room, where all the water was funneling into. "We're near the living quarters now; we might as well go the- Spyro look over there." Cynder finished in a hushed voice. Spyro looked over to where Cynder was looking. Sitting on an outstretched rock platform near the center of the cistern stood the dark figure of a young dragon cornered by a larger one
The larger dragon was about their age. He was little larger than Spyro. His scales were a dark blue color with a tint of purple with a bluish gray underbelly. He had three scars over his right eye. His eyes were a dark green. On the end of his tail was a long slim spear like blade. His horns jetted back slightly, and mid way moved just a inch in, then jetted back again, and he had one near the back of his head that went straight back but curved a bit. Although Spyro couldn't indicate what element that larger one might wield.
The younger one seemed to be about 5 maybe 6 years old, light blue scales, red eyes, and two slightly curved horns. Soon the larger dragon looked over in their direction, he seemed to jump a little probably surprised at their presences. The larger one motioned to the little one who just nodded, and took off flying in another direction, the large one took one last look at them before letting out a roar that echoed though the caves.
"What did he do that for?" Spyro asked.
"I don't know…" Cynder responded.
The flapping of wings was her behind them, and before either of two could even think, Spyro and Cynder were both ram into form behind separating them in two different directions. Cynder was knocked flat on her back in pain and still exhausted from almost passing out underwater.
Spyro on the other hand, had a whole other hand or claw of problems dealt to him now, before him were two ice dragons seemly ready to murder him. Spyro not one for taking being attacked lightly, he got into a defensive stance. As the two charged him, the female went to the right and the male left, the female swung her bladed tail at Spyro who dodged, but the tail grazed his right horn. 'Why did that hit me?' Spyro thought. Not aware that a year passed and had taken a toll on his body in effect making him slower. The male took his turn at Spyro next swiping at the purple dragon from the side hitting Spyros foreleg and followed it up with an ice blast. Spyro being over powered at moment and determined to turn that around, inhaling deeply, intending to push back the two ice dragons with a breath of fire. The two ice dragons tensed knowing what purple dragons were capable of. Spyro exhaled but it only released a gust of hot wind. The two ice dragons wore a passive yet shocked expression on their faces. 'Not the best time for my powers to decide to go out again.' Spyro thought. Shaking their expressions off their faces, the two ice dragons continued their attack Spyro try to distance him from them but to no avail. The two continued their onslaught on the purple dragon. blow for blow was traded between the three, even though Spyro had experience on his side the purple dragon could not overcome the year that had escaped him, as now he was beginning to be pushed back by the two dragons, and was soon pinned two the ground with his wings frozen to the ground, unable to move or use his elemental powers.
"Azodro, Aulosrin, good job." Spyro could see the two dragon's faces swell with pride at the dark scaled dragon's words. The dragon now turned his attention to the pinned purple dragon and shook his head. "Shameful." he said.
"What?"
"I never thought that I would ever see a purple dragon so weak at your age." He stated to Spyro.
"Now keep him down, I have a few questions for him." the blue scaled dragon told the two ice dragons. Cynder began slowly getting to her feet quietly as to not draw any attention to herself yet.
"You can move as silently as you want, but I know your there."
Soon Cynder found the blue scaled dragon looming over her. He slammed his claw onto her back to keep her down. "Hmm never thought I would see you again, your form and scale color might have changed, but I still recognize you, the black dragon Cynder Terror of the Skies!" the blue dragon said, anger and malevolence starting to grow in his voice.
"That's the Terror of the Skies..." Aulosrin said flatly.
"Really, she doesn't look like much." Azodro stated.
"Have I taught you nothing Azodro?" he questioned the ice dragon. "Her form might have changed, but it's unlikely she has lost any power."
"But Malefor's gone now right?" said Aulosrin. "How could she still be here, wasn't his entire minion army made using dark spells."
"That's not who she is anymore!" Spyro spoke up not wanting any of this to continue.
"That's what you believe huh?" the blue dragon asked Spyro. "For all you know she could be deceiving you!"
"She is not; she is no longer underneath Malefor's grasp." Spyro defended Cynder.
"Why do you defend her?"
"She was my first friend of my kind, she pulled me through dark times and helped me put down the Dark Master." Spyro finished.
"Wait you put down Malefor!" asked the blue dragon removing his claw from Cynder. "Then you must be the purple dragon of legend."
"If you are the purple dragon of legend that was foretold to bring the downfall of Malefor... why do you associate yourself with his prime general, who ravaged the lands of thousands? Why would you even trust her?" He stated to Spyro questioning Cynder's loyalty to the current and past purple dragon of legend.
Cynder stood up and faced the blue dragon. "Look, I'm not sure what I did to you while I was with Malefor, but I will not stand by as you hound Spyro. For whatever its worth I'm sorry." She finished.
The blue dragon stood there with a mild expression of shock, awe, and anger, before taking on stern and clam look. "Perhaps I was acting irrationally, fine then explain yourself. You get to explain your hand in killing my mother!"