First thing I'm sorry for my rant of anger the other day. I posted after I found out that I had three papers to do along with studying for a chemistry test and my two midterm tests. Fun right. I do have to tell everyone that there with be delays in posting since I'm pretty busy and I'm working on two other stories which I probably should at least get a chapter done in each now that I think of it since I haven't opened those documents in over a month. Sorry I'm ranting again, this is what happens when I get stressed out. Well before I start ranting again, enjoy and please R&R.

Chapter 8: Shadows Reveal

"Ray!" Pika screamed.

This caused Spyro, Sunflare, and Moonicus to look back in concern. Pika began to run back when Moonicus stopped her.

"Pika," the ice dragon said, "I'll go and help him, help finish the mission."

Pika reluctantly turned and followed Sunflare and Spyro as Moonicus sprinted through the forest to the area where they left Ray, hoping he wasn't gone.

Moonicus continued despite the tired feeling his legs were sending to his brain. He wouldn't stop until he found his friend. A few minutes past and Moonicus found a landscape that was destroyed. Trees were splintered, stone spikes rutted up out of the ground and there was a small area of flat ground which was where he sighted his blue metallic friend. He took to the air to avoid the maze of rocks and landed by Ray's form.

Spyro, Sunflare, and Pika reached a small cave. The entrance was only five feet high and about three feet wide.

"This is it," Sunflare stated, "It's the only place that would suitable for a shadow dragon around here. Go on in and we will cover the entrance."

"Thank you for your help," Spyro said, "I enjoyed the time I spent with everyone."

"As did we," Sunflare replied.

Spyro turned and said to Pika, "Pika, I hope Ray is ok."

She simply nodded as tears ran down her face. Spyro turned and enter the cave heading into the darkness. Sunflare and Pika watched the forest around them for the Black Claws.

Moonicus was hunched over Ray's body. A metal plate lay on the ground next to him. The ice dragon was playing with the many wires and components within Ray, desperately hoping to fix what was damaged. He placed wires across each other and suddenly sparks fell from them and Ray's eyes opened.

"Moon…icus," he whispered.

"I'm here Ray," Moonicus replied.

"They…are heading…towards…the…group…" Ray informed, "Go…and help…I'm…done…"

"No don't say that Ray," Moonicus argued, "You know that I can repair you."

"Can you…save my…life…is the…quest…ion…" Ray replied.

"I can try," the ice dragon said.

Ray shook his head, "Go…and tell…Pika…that I…love her."

"I will do so," Moonicus said accepting that he had lost his friend.

Moonicus got up and took to the air and headed back towards the group.

Rosa entered the small clearing in front of the cave and said, "Well we have you cornered now and with that buckle of bolts out of the way it will be easier to kill you."

"I will kill you for what you have done to Ray," Pika roared.

"How touching," Rosa said, "You love that fool who couldn't fight if his life depended on it. He was no match for me even with his fancy armor and weapons. He even pegged for mercy before I bathed my claws in his blood."

Pika threw herself at the dragoness and least loose a powerful bolt of lightning that struck Rosa. Rosa was thrown into a tree where Pika stabbed her claws into her side. Rosa roared in pain and unleashed a stream of black mist from her mouth, but Pika was too fast for the mist and evaded it. Pika's tail crashed into the side of Rosa's head was she tried to envelop Pika in the mist.

Rosa fell over and looked over to her left. About thirty feet away was her bag of crystals. If she could reach it she could easily kill the dragoness she was fighting. She had wished that the crystals lasted longer once they were consumed, but that wasn't the case. She quickly scrambled over to the bag, but when she was just about to reach it a series of lightning bolts crashed into the ground around it. Several of the bolts struck the bag causing it to burn while a few other bolts hit the crystals causing them to explode in a blast of dark red colored fire.

Rosa screamed as her source of power was lost to her. She glared at Pika with fury, just like the glare that Pika was giving her.

"Hurts to lose the most important thing in life doesn't it?" Pika asked in an angry tone.

Rosa screeched as she dove at Pika.

At this point T9 and Rex joined the fight. Sunflare was forced to deal with both of them. While T9 was bombarding Sunflare with is weapons, Rex was trying to beat the crap out of him. Sunflare was good at the art of evasion and really enjoyed seeing the giant dragon getting more aggravated every time he missed. Sunflare fired a jet of flames at Rex who growled and swung his foreleg at him, knocking Sunflare to the ground.

Rex was about to jab his claws into him when Sunflare launched a fireball, which struck Rex's chest. Rex fell this time to the ground and pounced on top of the giant. T9 fired a pair of missiles at Sunflare who jumped off of Rex as the missiles closed in, exploding as they hit Rex. Sunflare smiled at his works using his enemies' weapons against each other.

Spyro was deep in the cave now and he was surprised that it was so long. He came to a large cavern. In the middle of the cavern was a lake that dominated the cavern. There was a small island off towards one side of the lake with a cliff on it. Spyro took to the air and landed on the small island.

Immediately upon landing the Shadow appeared and starred into Spyro's eyes. Spyro took a step back, but realized that it meant no harm to him. Spyro relaxed and the Shadow continued to stare at him for several minutes before it turned and disappeared.

Spyro looked around for the shadow dragon that conjured the shadow. On the top of the cliff Spyro caught of glimpse of a small black dragon that disappeared from his view. Spyro began to make his way up the path that led to the cliffs over look when a small black dragon with grey chest scales and silver claws and horns passed him. His eyes were a deep orange color. His wings were grey and his tail spike was identical to Spyro's, but it was silver colored. The dragon walked past him and got a drink from the lake.

He was a youngling, no older than two years of age. It was amazing that this dragon could survive on his own and how healthy he looked. Spyro then remembered what he was supposed to do. How could he kill such an innocent young dragon he knew nothing about, but it killed several dragons already and who knows how many more might die by this dragon. Still this dragon was probably the last of his kind he couldn't just kill it.

The dragon finished its drink and looked back to Spyro and raced towards him. Spyro was at first startled, but when the dragon nuzzled his foreleg and Spyro realized that the dragon was of no threat and only wanted some attention. Spyro couldn't kill the young one so he decided that he would take the dragon back with him. He would adopt this young one and raise it with Ember. They would raise this dragon to become a loved dragon that would become part of society in Warfang.

Spyro lowered his head and nuzzled the young dragon who purred in response. Spyro picked up the little dragon by the neck with his mouth and placed the dragon on his back. The dragon seemed happy to have some much attention and began climbing up Spyro's neck and sat upon his head.

Spyro couldn't help but smile and chuckle, "You can stay up there if you like."

The dragon made a high pitched noise which Spyro guessed was a roar.

"Ok," Spyro said, "Let's get you home."

T9 was preparing to utilize all weapon systems where a rain of icicles crashed into him. Moonicus burst through the forest and created a blizzard of ice and snow, freezing T9 where he stood.

T9, unable to attack or move simply watched the battle. Rex stood up enraged by the missiles that hit him. Rex's roar was grand and fearsome, but that did nothing to Sunflare or Moonicus. The giant dragon charged forward at the two dragons. Moonicus created a wall of icicles and shot them forward at Rex. Many of these found their mark and dug into Rex's scales. He roared and that was when Sunflare unleashed an inferno of fire. This wall of fire flew towards Rex and knocked the brute to the ground dazed.

Pika had Rosa pinned to the ground and she smiled cruelly as she knew that she would avenge her dear Ray. She was about to thrust her claws into Rosa's neck when a high pitched roar caused everyone to look at the cave entrance.

There stood Spyro with the young shadow dragon that sat on his head. Rosa's eyes widened and knocked Pika off of her. She scrambled to her feet and began running towards the cover of the forest.

"Rex let's go," Rosa shouted as she fled, "That dragon will be the death of all of you."

Sunflare approached Spyro and asked, "So is this the troublemaker?"

"He is," Spyro replied.

"You didn't kill it?" Sunflare asked confused.

"I couldn't, he's so young and meant no harm," Spyro said.

"What? Didn't mean any harm?" Moonicus said, "It killed at least four dragons."

"Doesn't mean it was intentional," Spyro argued, "Look at him does he look like a killer?"

The group's attention turned to the young dragon and much to Sunflare's surprise the dragon was staring at him and sniffing at his forehead.

"He's pretty cute," Pika said starting to finally cheer up a bit.

"Fine," Sunflare said, "I'll trust your judgment Spyro."

With that decided they left heading back to find Ray.