The Electric Dragon

Chapter 9: Different Circumstances

Cole walked through a field of grass. Besides the forest and mountains in the distance, there was nothing that could be seen but endless hills. The sky itself did not even hold a cloud.

'Where am I? What happened?' he thought, 'This place... it's so calm, and peaceful, but I've never been here before in my life. Is this... is this Spyro's world?'

"Oh, it's peaceful now, but when I'm down with it, it'll be anything but that." said a deep, and rather dark voice right behind Cole. He whipped around to see a huge dragon, far larger than Spyro, that faintly resembled the purple dragon himself. His scales were a very dark purple, with sharp white horns pointing in many directions. "And you are?" Cole asked savagely; the presence of this beast made him hate the dragon for reasons unknown.

"You may call me the Dark Master," he responded, acting as if he was a king.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Cole said with a slight smile, "I prefer to keep things informal."

The Dark Master growled at the conduit, "Then you can call me Malefor, you ungrateful human." he nearly shouted.

"Ungrateful?" Cole asked with a hint of mockery, "I don't think I have any reason to be grateful for you."

Malefor lowered his head at Cole's level, and the conduit took a step back, and waved his hand in front of his face. "Whew, your breath really stinks," he harassed, keeping a smile from forming.

The Dark Master ignored this remark, and angrily said, "I have brought you here in the dream realm to ask a simple question that even a cretin like yourself can answer."

Cole pointed a finger at him, "Takes one to know one, buddy." he said with a slight chuckle. However, Malefor's words made the conduit think. He was in the dream realm. And this monster wants to ask a question to him? Cole knew something wasn't right, especially since he was getting a bad vibe from this guy.

The Dark Master, yet again, ignored his jesting, "Why do you align yourself with the purple dragon, Spyro, hmm?" Malefor began walking a circle around the conduit while speaking. "How do you know that he is even telling the truth? You have no knowledge of the world he came from, yet you believe every word he speaks."

Cole remained stationary, but his eyes did not avert from the dragon's for even a second. He crossed his arms and furrowed his brow "And I'm supposed to believe every word you say? Besides, he has more than proved himself to be a man of his word." Secretly to Malefor, however, Cole thought Spyro as almost a better of himself. He respects him to no end, which is the reason he hasn't questioned if what Spyro said was a lie or not.

"You are ignorant then," Malefor said, still circling around the electric man. "He only wants destruction, he has hidden this from you to have you blindly follow him and help meet this goal."

Cole did not miss a beat as he replied, "Now I know that's a lie. From what I saw, his intentions are anything but evil. Trust me, I should know. I won't believe a word your saying, so you only wasted your time."

Malefor stopped his pacing around the conduit and stood right in front of him; Cole could see that he has infuriated the dragon considerably. The dragon slammed his paw into the earth. "You fool! You dare defy me! I'm only helping you!"

"No, you're not," Cole said with a serious tone, "You're trying to get me to turn on my friend. I may not have all the facts, but I know a villain when I see one. Faced a lot myself." He said the last part to himself as he reflected all the enemies he faced back in Empire City.

"Do you forget what he tried to do to you when he became his true form?" Malefor said.

"I just had about enough of your questions. I'm going to wake up, forget all about this, and continue helping Spyro. Like I said before, you're wasting your time."

With that, Cole turned around and walked away. As he did, everything around him became blurry and faded. He could hear the dragon behind him roar in anger before everything disappeared, and darkness was the only thing he could see.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Cole woke with a start; he quickly sat up from what he was laying on, and placed a hand on his head. 'Man, that was weird. I guess I should be careful around that Malefor guy. I wonder what Spyro-'

He stopped in realization of the events before the dream. He looked around; he was back in Zeke's apartment, alone on the couch which he was resting on. 'We survived, but how?' he thought to himself.

The door opposite the couch opened and out came Zeke. He closed the door softly behind him, and walked over to Cole with hands on his hips. "Damn, brother, back from the dead, are we?" He said with a laugh.

"Good to see you too, Zeke," Cole said with a smile as he stood up from the couch. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened to me, would you?"

Zeke gave another chuckle, "Not surprised you don't remember; Come with me, we have to head to the garage." After this, he turned back around and walked to the door he came through with Cole following behind to the staircase leading down. The conduit hoped he didn't miss anything while he was out.

"Right, well, Spyro came back with you frozen like a Popsicle " he began. "At first, everyone thought the worst, but Spyro explained that you guys were about to drown. He froze you to avoid you touching the water, and swam you to the surface. We thawed you out, and had you rest on the couch. You were like that for hours."

Cole looked down in thought, 'I wish Spyro would stop having these crazy ideas, I wonder how Cynder puts up with them.' The thought of the black dragoness brought him on to the next issue. "Cynder, is she...?"

Zeke stopped while heading down the stairs before answering, "She's fine, you were able to get the antidote in time. She's yet to wake up though, which is where we're heading."

Cole sighed in relief as they continued downward, 'Good, so she didn't die, I bet Spyro is celebrating.' They entered the garage to find no one in the room, besides Cynder, not even Spyro. "Hey, where is everyone?" he asked quizzically

Zeke turned to face him, "Kuo went to spy on the Militia, Nix is doing whatever she does with her free time, and Spyro is resting." He paused for a second, "under strict orders."

Cole laughed at that; he knew Kuo had made Spyro rest, and couldn't help but giggle at that. Zeke joined in, and after awhile, they calmed down.

Cole walked past Zeke and up to the bed that allowed the black dragoness, Cynder, to rest comfortably, and smiled. He didn't see any difference between when she was poisoned and now, but he knew she was truly safe at last.

In that moment, Cynder opened her eyes suddenly, revealing her emerald eyes. The eyes furrowed to a scowl from anger. Next thing he knew, she was standing on the bed in a defensive pose. "Who are you?!" She demanded, "You're with Bertrand aren't you!"

Cole tried to defuse the situation, "Okay, look, we won't hurt you." He raised his hands to try to calm her down.

However, Cynder wasn't having any of it; She slashed one of his arms, which he retracted to his body with a hiss of pain. "I've heard that before, monster!" She yelled.

Cole still wanted to try to do this the hard way: talking to her and convincing her that they were good. It would be difficult without the purple dragon, but the conduit had to try. "We don't work for Bertrand, we-"

He didn't have a chance to finish, as Cynder shot a beam of Convexity at him, knocking him to the garage floor. 'Twice in a day? What are the odds?' he sarcastically thought to himself. He tried to pull himself up, his scratched arm nursing his slightly burned stomach, when Cynder pounced on him with a furious face. "Answer me!" she demanded again, "Who are you!?"

Cole grimanced from the pain in his arm and stomach, but answered none the less. "I'm Cole MacGrath, he's..." Cole was going to say Zeke, but noticed he was alone in the room with the black dragoness. 'Either he left before Cynder woke up, or he went to get Spyro. Either way, I'm on my own for now.' He knew being angry with her and attacking her would not prove his case of innocence, so he continued the compose way.

"I know about you and Spyro, he's just a few floors up." he attempted

"I don't believe you, I have no reason to believe any of you creatures." She said with a dark tone.

"That, I can understand," Cole said, "Please, just listen, I can explain everything."

She stared at him, and then scratched him across the face with her claws, he hissed in pain again, and his vision became blurry. "Just shut up!" She screamed, "All any of you have done is either capture me, fear me, or experiment on me! I just want to leave and go home!"

She raised her claw to slash him again in fierce anger; Cole closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, and awaited for the attack. However, fate had other plans, "Cynder! Stop!" She looked up with the same hating face, but softened it when she saw who spoke. It was Spyro, her love, and he had a terrified and worried look on him.

"S-Spyro?" she said in disbelief, lowering her claw; she never thought she would see him again, after what she's been through. She thought him lost in this world, never to meet each other again. Yet here he was, right in front of her, in the doorway that led to the apartments above.

"Yes, Cynder," he said in a soothing voice. "It's me." He glanced down at Cole, then back to Cynder, "Can you please get off my friend?" he asked with not a hint of anger or rage. She flinched at what he called Cole and hastily moved back to allow the conduit to get up. He rested on the ground a few more seconds, and got up slowly. He felt numb all over from the pain he received from Cynder, 'And I just got up too' he thought.

Cynder trotted past him and up to Spyro. She stopped a foot away from him, as if to study him, to see if it really was Spyro. She felt tears welling up in her emerald eyes, and she hugged him while pouting quietly. He hugged her back, "It's alright, Cynder," he said with the same soothing voice. "You don't have to worry now. I'm here, and I'm never leaving your side again." At that, Cynder hugged him harder.

Despite almost being mauled by Cynder, Cole smiled, glad that Spyro had finally reunited with the one he truly loved. He limped to the bed that Cynder rested, and sat down. He didn't want to interrupt their reunification because of his injuries; he knew that they both wanted this right now.

Cynder broke from their hug and nuzzled Spyro; he closed his eyes with some tears falling. Soon, the dragoness broke off, Spyro was a bit surprised by this, and when he opened his eyes, found her turning around and heading towards Cole. He understood what she was doing, and knew the conduit would not hold a grudge.

As for Cole, he was confused why she would come back to him. He knew that they haven't seen each other for days, not knowing if the other was alive or not. So why would she come back to him? Cynder stood in front of him, staring into his eyes, before looking down in shame, "I'm sorry," she said sincerely, "I didn't know you were a friend of Spyro's." As she said this, tears began to drip from her snout. Cole gave a look of understanding, and spoke.

"It's nothing, really," he said trying to convince her; it failed however.

"It's more than nothing," she choked, she looked back up at him with tears flowing down her cheeks, "I nearly killed you, blaming you for what happened to me, but you still didn't attack me. You..." She broke her gaze, and looked to the floor again, composing herself for what she was bout to say. She looked back up before resuming, "You tried to comfort me and convince me, but I wouldn't listen." She was crying hard at this point, closing her eyes to stop the tears; she could never forgive herself for what she nearly did to him.

"Hey, come on now, you had your reasons," She opened her teary eyes to see Cole's compassionate ones. "Ever since you came here, you have been hounded and locked away by us humans. I wouldn't expect you to feel anything but hatred to us. In fact, that was one of the reasons why I didn't defend myself." He patted her on the head with a caring smile, "I forgave you before you even said your sorry."

At that, Cynder jumped up and hugged the conduit, catching him by surprise, "Thank you... thank you..." was all he heard behind her sobs. He hugged her back; knowing that she was honestly apologetic, not that he needed a hug to know that.

While hugging her, Cole petted and comforted her, and it struck him, 'She's almost exactly like Trish,' he thought with a smile, and before he could stop it, a tear went down his own cheek, across the scratch mark that still lingered on his face.