Chapter 9: The Abandoned Son

An awkward air hung over the hut for a good couple of minutes, in one instant our whole mission went up in flames. Spyro had given me direct instructions not to lose that crystal and now it was gone, and with it our chances of ever returning home. I slammed my fist into the ground, cursing under my breath, how the hell could I have been so careless? Dammit!

Eventually, someone had to break the uncomfortable silence, "So… what do we do now?" Jess asked. What do we do now? Without that crystal, we're stuck in the Dragon Realms, and I didn't know where we would be able to find another one.

Kevin shook his head, "We have to find another one, we can't be stuck here while Malefor plots his next attack on our world!" he said, he wasn't wrong, we were needed on Earth, he wasn't targeting the Dragon Realms… yet… with us stuck here it was open season on New Harmony.

We were all in a panic, visions of Malefor laying waste to everything and everyone we've ever cared about swirling in our heads, in an instant we had doomed our world. The only one not in a panic was Zenith, which kinda made sense, it wasn't his world that was defenseless right now. He just sort of stood there with a blank expression on his feline face, strangely… he almost seemed annoyed by our panic, god knows why.

Dean put his hands on his hips, shaking his head at the situation, "We should tell Chief Prowlus, maybe he can help us find another one?" he suggested, it wasn't a bad idea, Prowlus knew this world better than we did, maybe he'd know where we'd be able to find a crystal?

We all left the hut after gathering whatever remained of our supplies back into our bags. We found Prowlus, overseeing a pack of cheetahs rummaging through the damaged huts, he noticed us approach, "Rangers, you look troubled," He said, was it really that obvious?

I sighed, "We have a problem," I said, Prowlus tilted his head in confusion, so I elaborated, "We were given a teleportation crystal by Spyro to get here and eventually return, but it seems the apes tore through our stuff and made off with it during the attack," I explained.

Prowlus sighed, "That's unfortunate," he said, "Those crystals are very hard to come by, The Sorceress' mages guard them jealously, the fact the purple dragon was able to acquire even one of them is impressive," he explained. My heart sank upon hearing this, knowing just how screwed we really where was a tough pill to swallow.

Kevin stepped forward, "So we have to beat up a few magic geeks? Seems doable to me," He said.

However, Prowlus shook his head, "It isn't that simple blue ranger," he sighed, "The Sorceress is desperate to keep the crystals out of the hands of the dragons and their allies, even the most mighty of warriors have been slain trying to get those crystals," he explained.

I sighed, "We have to try," I said, "If we can't get back to the Human Realms, our world will be defenseless against Malefor and his army," I added, it was our only shot at returning home, we had to at least try it.

Prowlus sighed, "I understand," he said, he went to continue, but was cut off by the sounds of shouting, I was only able to make out one word from the various other cries of the cheetahs.

Dragon.

Suddenly a large shadow was cast over us, I looked up to find a large red dragon landing himself right in front of us. The dragon looked a bit aged, about Spyro's age if I were to ballpark it, his head spikes were like his, only the front was thicker, almost like a horn, he had little flame shaped appendages sticking from his jawline and one on his chin acting almost as a goatee. His snout was rounded on the end, almost resembling a beak, his horns were almost identical to Spyro's, yellow and lightening bolt shaped, with two smaller ones sticking out from his temples.

The dragon looked upon us with a wide grin, "I assume you are the Power Rangers Prowlus sent word to us about?" he said, none of us really knew how to react, who was this guy? Why was he here? And could he possibly have worse timing?

The dragon bowed his head, "I am Flame, the Fire Guardian," He introduced himself. Flame? Really? His parents couldn't think of a better name than "Flame"? But this introduction did little to alleviate our confusion, why was he here? "Uhh… what's with the silent treatment? Do I have something in my teeth?" He then asked, picking at his teeth with his sharp claws.

Prowlus decided to break the awkward silence, "Greetings Flame, still as undisciplined and ignorant as always I see," said Prowlus in an annoyed monotone, "How you became Fire Guardian I'll never know," he added with a slight growl.

Flame simply cocked his head, "Chief Prowlus, still have that ten foot stick up your ass I see," He snickered.

Prowlus simply rolled his eyes, "You came at a bad time Flame, it seems the Power Rangers have lost their teleportation crystal, and as such, cannot return home, they were just explaining this to me as you came in," he explained.

Flame's expression dropped upon hearing this, his jovial upbeat personality becoming much more grave, "Do you have a plan in place?" he asked.

Prowlus looked to me before bringing his eyes back to Flame, "The Rangers seem poised to raid The Sorceress' castle to acquire a new crystal, I was trying to explain to them the dangers involved with such a plan," he explained to the fire dragon.

Flame nodded, "It's brave, I'll give them that," he said rather dryly, "But it's also suicide, we've tried many times to raid that castle, each time ended in miserable failure," he explained.

I shook my head, "But we can't just sit here and do nothing either! Our world is defenseless right now!" I said, I knew it was dangerous, but what other choice did we have? It's not like another crystal is going to magically appear out of nowhere!

Flame sighed, "I know, but you're no help to your world dead either," he pointed out, "If we're going to get you a teleportation crystal, we need to do it right, come with me, we'll discuss this with the other guardians in Warfang," he then instructed us.

Later...

So we agreed to go with Flame to Warfang, we grabbed what little remained of our supplies and said our goodbyes to the cheetahs, Zenith taking time to say goodbye to his family he probably wouldn't be seeing for a long time after this, if ever. I could imagine how hard this was for him, to just up and leave everything he ever knew and loved to join us on our quest, but with the fate of two worlds riding on us, sacrifices needed to be made.

We all met up with Flame, who began to lead us to Warfang, the whole group was silent as we trudged through the wilderness, the sounds of birds chirping being the only thing breaking the silence of our little hike, the weight of our plight hanging heavy over each of us.

I couldn't help but think of my own family, my mother, my little excuse of going on a trip with my friends was only going to work on her for so long, god if I died here… she'd never know… spending the rest of her life wondering where I was, clinging onto the foolish hope I was out there somewhere when in reality I'd be rotting away in a whole other world.

I tried to move my mind away from that thought, I couldn't focus on something like that right now, I was supposed to be the leader of this team, I needed to keep my attention on the task at hand here. I couldn't let my mind ravage itself with worry… as hard as it was to do so.

"So..." Flame began, trying to break the awkward silence, "You guys been Power Rangers long?" He asked.

None of us were all that willing to answer, none of us really in the mood for small talk given the grave situation we found ourselves in, Flame seemed to figure this out after a good twenty seconds of awkward silence. "We heard rumors that Spyro had vanished to create Power Rangers, when I got Prowlus' message that you guys were in his village, I had to see for myself," He explained. "I have to admit, things have been a bit rough over the past couple decades since Spyro vanished, the apes have risen in power and their attacks are becoming more bold," he added.

I happened notice Zenith glaring at us out the corner of my eye as Flame said this, but whatever it was that bothered him he seemed to wish to keep to himself as he said nothing. "But.. I shouldn't worry you five with that, we can handle the apes fine enough on our own," said Flame, "Malefor on the other hand? I doubt we could survive another attack from him, considering the world was almost destroyed the last time he attacked us," he added.

Thanks for confirming how much I've messed up, I was still kicking myself for losing that crystal, I had even forgotten I had it in that backpack, god I suck at this super hero thing!

Eventually, we came up to a rather large wall, "Wow… that's a big wall," commented Kevin.

Flame sighed, "It's unfortunately very necessary, ya know, with the apes and all," He explained. Flame then lead us to the gate, guarded by two moles of all things, they wore golden armor and held long spears in their hands, but they were comically short in stature, only coming up to my waist in height.

The two guards let us through without a word, I guess us being with the Fire Guardian was enough for them to wave us through without so much as a second thought.

The gates opened with a loud creak, revealing the gorgeous fantasy like city of Warfang, stone buildings towered over the hustle and bustle of the townsfolk below, they were all a mix of animal people and dragons of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. It felt like I had just landed in someone's D&D book. Flame lead us through the crowded streets, as onlookers stared in wonder at what to them, must seem like otherworldly creatures.

I tried to not let the wandering gazes of the passers by get to me, but having an entire city's eyes on you was kinda hard to ignore. "They're staring at us," squeaked Jess, with her social anxiety this must have been killing her right now.

Kevin put a hand on her shoulder, "Well, in a town of dragons and animal people, we are kinda the freaks here," He said rather matter-of-factly, he wasn't wrong though, we were the standouts here, Spyro had mentioned that humans didn't exist in this world, so the weird looks kinda made sense.

Flame lead us to a very large looking temple, two statues stood at it's front, one was clearly Spyro, but I didn't recognize the one on his left, it looked to be a rather slender dragon, an odd pattern etched into it's stone forehead, it appeared to have bracelets on it's front legs, and a choker around the neck, I'd have to ask Spyro about it when we got back home, assuming we ever did that is…

We entered the temple, and it was quite different from the one Spyro hung out in, as it was much more ornate and dare I say, modern, it was still a medieval fantasy temple, but it seemed much more defined and thought out with torches lining the halls, banners with the elemental symbols lining the walls, and solid stone floors. We were lead into a large room, where four other dragons were waiting for us.

One was a slender looking blue ice dragon, with pale blue scales and purple underbelly, it's snout was more of a beak than a snout, it's horns straight and white, it's eyes a piercing bright blue. The second was a copper colored earth dragon, with horns that almost looked like they were made of wood that curled inwards like that of a ram, green head spikes dotted the base of it's head up to the tip of it's tail that ended in a mace like appendage. The third was a rather timid looking yellow electric dragon, his coloration was almost exactly like Jess' zord, yellow with purple horns and head spike, his figure was a bit think in comparison to the average male dragon, showing this dragon was the brain over brawn type.

However, the fourth dragon was a curious one, it was black in color, kinda resembled the statue outside, but this dragon had a much thicker build, and a snout that resembled Spyro's more than the mystery dragon's. The dragon seemed to just glare at us with piercing emerald eyes.

The ice dragon was the first to speak, "I assume these are the fabled Power Rangers?" The dragon asked in a smooth, feminine voice.

The earth dragon ran his dark brown eyes up and down our figures, "Such small, feeble looking creatures they are," He said in a booming base of a voice.

The electric dragon stammered a bit, "Wh… what are they? Th.. they kinda look like… h… hairless apes," He said.

Flame nodded, "These are indeed the Power Rangers, the purple dragon's chosen champions," He said rather proudly for some reason.

The black dragon seemed to growl at the mention of the purple dragon, as if the very thought of Spyro bothered him for some reason.

The other dragons puzzled at us for a good long while, not sure what to make of us, to be honest I didn't blame them, we did look like average, boring humans on the surface, I mean, save for Zenith who was an average, boring cheetah man, but you get the point. I imagine they'd expected valiant looking heroes with flowing hair and muscles the size of cantaloupes, not Joe Boring and the twig brigade.

Flame turned to us, "Rangers, these are my fellow Guardians," He said, he then pointed to the large earth dragon, "Sunshine here is Tremor, don't let him fool you, under that tough guy act he plays he's actually a big ol' softy," He said, Tremor simply snorted.

He then pointed towards the ice dragon, "This is Koria, the ice guardian, she's the resident kill joy of the group," He said.

Koria shook her head, "Someone has to keep you in line Flame," she commented.

He then moved onto the electric dragon, "And this little social butterfly here is Bolt, what he lacks in bravery he makes up for in intelligence,"he introduced Bolt, the yellow dragon only offering a weak hand wave in response.

However, the mysterious black dragon had yet to be introduced, I went to ask, but Kevin beat me to it, "So who's tall, dark, and angsty over there?" he asked, Kevin I swear to god, if you get us torched I'm blaming you.

The dragon growled slightly, I don't know what his problem was, but he just seemed to really dislike us for some reason. Flame looked to the dragon, "Oh… that's Sol, he's-" Flame began before "Sol" cut him off.

"I have no interest in being buddy buddy with these… things! I'd rather they just left!" He snarled, well hello to you too! The dragon sounded like he was a young adult, early twenties if I were to guess. I don't know why he was so upset we were here, none of us had even met this guy before.

Koria glared at Sol, "Sol! These are our honored guests! A dragon of your lineage should show more decorum than this!" She berated Sol.

However, this seemed to only fan the flames, "NO! I want them gone! NOW!" He snapped.

Okay you gothic iguana, I'm not going to sit here and take your misplaced angst! "Dude! What's your damage?! We haven't even said a word to you and you're acting like we killed your hamster or something!" I snapped, I was not good at hiding my anger, I never liked being mistreated, especially like this!

Sol glared at me, "I didn't ask for your input ape! You wanna know what my "damage" is? Why don't you ask your "mentor" why he abandoned us to create a team of clowns!" Sol snapped before storming off, an awkward silence following afterwards.

Flame finally decided to break the silence, "Right… we'll deal with that… later," he said awkwardly, trying to change the subject, "The Power Rangers have come here with a problem, it seems they've lost their teleportation crystal during an ape attack and need to acquire a new one, they plan on stealing one from the mages," He explained.

The other guardians looked to each other, before turning to us "That's suicide!" said Tremor, "The Power Rangers are too important to risk on such a mission, if that wicked sorceress kills them no one will be left to stop Malefor!" he exclaimed.

Koria seemed to agree, "We can't risk the fate of both worlds on something as insignificant as a crystal," she said.

Insignificant?! Our worldis in danger! "You've gotta be kidding me! We need to get back! We just barely stopped his first full scale attack on our home before coming here, he isn't going to lick his wounds for long if he finds out we're here and unable to stop him from leveling our city!" I snapped, I wasn't going to lose everything I loved and cared about because of some pompous dragons who decided to play nanny!

However, Koria glared at me, "Do not raise your voice at me human! You're too valuable to risk to recklessly! You may be willing to throw away your life but we are not!" She snapped at me.

However, "A… actually… I may have a solution," stammered Bolt, all eyes were on him which caused him to fidget a little before clarifying, "I… I've been having some sc… scouts study their crystal farms for a month now… I… I found out this morning from their re...reports that s… some patches are less guarded th… than others due to the recent loss of man power due to Malefor's revival and war effort, if we… we sent the Power Rangers to one of those patches, they might be able to overwhelm their guards and acquire a crystal," He suggested.

Tremor thought it over, "That might just work," He said.

However there was a catch of course, "But we'd have to wait until nightfall, since the Sorceress regularly checks on each farm during the day," He explained.

Whatever, I'll take it, a few hours of waiting was much better than an eternity stuck in a foreign world. "Then we wait until nightfall, I'm not leaving anything to chance," I said, "One way or another, we're going to be there to protect our world when Malefor resumes his attacks," I said.

Meanwhile…

Malefor's Castle...

I hated waiting, I felt humiliated that the Power Rangers even managed to best me, weakened or not. They were beneath me, but they would pay dearly for this humiliation, but not now, I needed to heal and plan.

However, I heard a commotion outside of my chambers, I rose to my feet, my body ached but I could bear it, I entered the main hall to find a group of mages were surrounding something, "What reason do you have to intrude upon our castle ape?!" I heard Scorn accost someone.

I moved in closer to see a group of apes had somehow found it's way into our hidden fortress, one of them had a teleportation crystal in it's hand, the ape in front noticed me, "Well well, if it isn't our old employer," He said, I had forgotten how vile these creatures were, their hideous faces and pungent smells offended my senses.

I growled, "If you've come here for revenge I can tell you now you will regret it, I've crippled your race before and I could easily do it again," I snarled, I hadn't forgotten how their kind tried to betray me last time, the fools thought themselves conquerors, but were merely brutes with delusions of grandeur

However, "No not revenge, it's been half a century Malefor, it's ancient history," The ape said, "We simply wish to… reestablish our alliance," He offered.

I stormed over to the primate, grabbing him by the throat, "I haven't forgotten how our last "alliance" went! If you think me foolish enough to play into your hands again you are sorely mistaken!" I roared.

The ape was terrified, struggling for air as he squirmed uselessly in my claws, "Wait! Wait! We… we have information!… A...about the Power Rangers!" He squeaked out.

How would he know of the Power Rangers? They were of the human realms weren't they? Intrigued, I let him go, dropping him to the stone floor of the castle, he sputtered and gasped for air before elaborating, "They're in the dragon realms… w… we encountered them in the cheetah village of Avalar, th… that's how we got here… we… we stole a teleportation crystal from one of their satchels…" He explained between gasps.

They were in the Dragon Realms? For what reason I had no clue, possibly in search of allies, however with their crystal gone, they were no doubt trapped in the Dragon Realms. But I knew better than to think they wouldn't find another eventually, they were a tenacious bunch, I turned to Scorn, "Warn The Sorceress, no doubt they will attempt to raid her farms for crystals," I instructed the wolf mage, he bowed before going off to do just that.

I then turned my attention to the apes, "You wish for an alliance apes, for what reason should I believe you won't betray me again?" I asked the ape, I knew these vile creatures more than anyone, they were a cutthroat lot, always looking for a path to power.

The ape coughed as he rose to his feet, "W… we barely survived our encounter with the Power Rangers… if they defeat you no doubt we're next… besides… we've gotta be better than your grublins right?" He said.

He had a point, the Grublins were practically useless against the Power Rangers, and were an unnecessary drain on my already dwindled power, with the apes in their place I would be free to regain my power more naturally, "Fine, however if you attempt to betray me again, a curse on your kind will be the least of your worries," I threatened him, the apes quivered, but agreed. "Now go… return to your realm and bring your armies," I ordered them, the bumbling baboons left in a hurry.

I turned to Rikor, "I want you and Scorn to keep an eye on them, if they show any signs of dissension, I want you to stomp it out! Is that understood?" I asked the bumbling lizard, Rikor nodded

For now I'd work with the apes, but I knew I would have to… humble them at some point, they were strong creatures but not too bright, I doubt they'd learn from their past mistakes… but I had a means of dealing with them, for now, the Power Rangers were my top concern…

Meanwhile…

Dragon Temple, Warfang…

We had decided to pass the time before we set out on our mission to train, the guardians offered us their dojo to practice in, Dylan agreed and well, here we were.

The Dragon Dojo was unlike any gym I'd been too, I doubt there was a gym in the human realms that had magical, living training dummies. I don't know how in the hell they got those things to move on their own but they did, and not once did it ever stop being weird.

But I had to admit, it did help me sharpen my fighting skills, having a sparring partner I couldn't actually hurt. I never really fancied myself a fighter before becoming the green ranger, but after a while of fighting Grublins and other monsters as a Power Ranger I was beginning to pick up on some of the moves my ranger form planted in my head, man was that weird once you really stopped to think about it.

The training dummy I was sparring with suddenly got me with a sweep to the leg, sending me to the ground, causing Kevin to laugh, "Dude, you just got schooled by a living sack of twigs and straw," he laughed.

I got back to my feet, "Whatever man, it just caught me off guard is all," I said, the dummy just stood there, waiting for me to resume, however I felt myself tiring a bit, "Why don't you take it on tough guy? See how well you do," I challenged Kevin.

Kevin shrugged, "Alright," he said before taking my place, sparring with the training dummy, as I went to the corner of the room to take a breather, I noticed someone watching us from the doorway, it was that black dragon from earlier, what was his name again? "Sol"?

The dude seemed lost in thought as he watched Kevin spar with the dummy, I decided to approach, seeing if I could pick his brain a bit, "Hey dude, what's up?" I greeted.

Sol seemed startled, but quickly collected himself, turning his emerald gaze to me, "I don't want to talk to you," he growled.

I shook my head, "Come on man, don't be like that, we're all on the same side here, there's no need to be so hostile," I said, I didn't really get what Sol's problem was, every other dragon here seemed quite friendly, which admittedly was kind of ironic giving how dragons are usually portrayed in media and folklore. But for some reason, Sol seemed to be the only one who had a problem with us. "Come on man, what's on your mind?" I asked, I knew if I could just get him to talk to me I could get him to warm up to us a bit more.

Sol sighed, "It's not you specifically, it's who created you," He said, this only confused me more. It seemed his issue wasn't with us, but our "creator" I guess he meant Spyro, but why he would have an issue with him I had no clue. Maybe he felt that Spyro abandoned his world to the mercy of the apes? That was my only guess. However, Sol turned to me, "Tell me… what is he like? The purple dragon?" He suddenly asked me.

What a weird question, it seemed to come out of nowhere, but I tried to answer as best I could, "He's a cool dude, a bit protective sometimes, but he does his best, he even reaches out to us when we're down," I said, recalling the time Spyro talked to me when I was bummed about being beaten by Bianca.

Sol seemed to take a while to digest the answer I gave him, "Did he ever mention having family? A mate?" He asked, another strange question.

I shook my head, "No… he never really talks about his life before summoning us really," I admitted, it seemed kinda weird we never really got to know Spyro that well, he seemed oddly tight lipped about his life, but then again, I knew better than to butt myself into someone's personal life.

Sol closed his eyes, "Of course," he said rather flatly before suddenly leaving. I didn't really know what to think of that interaction, I mean, at least I got him to talk to me, that had to count for something.

"Dean!"

I turned to see Zenith standing behind me, "Nightfall is fast approaching, we should make preparations," he said. I noticed through the other doorway that the light outside was beginning to dim, meaning we needed to get ready for our little raid of The Sorceress' crystal patch.

Later…

We all gathered in the Guardian's chambers, Dylan and Flame going over the game plan, I was a bit nervous I admit, but I knew we'd have to bring our A-game if we were going to get that crystal. Flame was going to take us to Bolt's scouts who would lead us to the patch they found.

Flame insisted we ride on his back and he fly us there, claiming it would take less time than going on foot. Of course there was concern the weight of all five of us would be too much for the aging fire dragon to carry, but he insisted he could take it.

We all got on, and as soon as we were all sat on his back, he took off, trying to simply stay on the thing was a struggle, as it was very clear Flame wasn't used to passengers.

However I must admit, riding on a dragon was awesome! Man I loved being a Power Ranger sometimes. I watched as the scenery passed us by, we weren't flying too high, I guess Flame was trying to make us less noticeable by hanging low and sticking to the trees as much as he could. Although the latter resulted in a few of us getting whacked by tree branches, thankfully none of them causing anyone to fall off, but that didn't make it any more pleasant.

Finally, Flame took us in for a landing, where two armored moles were waiting for us. Flame landed softly on the grass, "Alright Power Rangers, this is your stop," He said, lowering himself so we could get off, after we did so, he wished us luck and flew off, leaving us with the two moles.

The moles lead us to the crystal farm, stopping at a nearby shrubbery, "So those are the crystals we need?" Jess asked.

"Yes," One of the moles answered, "But you need to grab one of the glowing ones, The Sorceress enchants the crystals gradually over time, so the brighter it glows, the more magic it has," he then explained.

I did notice a few of them were dimmer than others, "She gathers very specific crystals, ones capable of holding the magic she stores in them," the other mole explained. I also saw the mages that were currently guarding them, there were about five at most, although with how dark it was coupled with the fact they were all wearing black made it difficult to make them out.

Dylan stood up, "Well then, shall we?" He asked, readying his morpher.

We all nodded, getting ready to morph, "It's morphin' time!" Dylan shouted.

"Legendary Dragon! Power of Red Fire!"

"Legendary Dragon! Power of Blue Ice!"

"Legendary Dragon! Power of Green Earth!"

"Legendary Dragon! Power of Yellow Electricity!"

"Legendary Dragon! Power of the Purple Dragon!"

We all leaped out from the bushes, doing a flip in the air before landing in front of the rather surprised mages, "Okay guys, we need one of those crystals you're guarding, you can either give them up or we do this the hard way, what do you say?" Dylan asked them.

The mages instantly went on the offensive, "Well you got your answer Dylan!" Kevin said before kicking one of the mages in the head, sending him flipping in the air before landing on the ground.

The mage I was fighting was trying to get me with magic blasts, but I was too quick for him, dodging each shot, "Come on man! I dodge defenders on the football field every Friday night!" I began before nailing him right in the head with a thrust kick, "You really think you can hit me with your lame magic shots?" I finished, the goon had no response save for a pained groan.

I looked to see Zenith dealing with his own goon, knocking him down with a crushing roundhouse kick, "Quit fooling around Dean! Get one of those crystals so we can get out of here!" He barked at me.

Zenith really needed to learn to be a team player, but I did as he said, finding a particularly bright crystal, "This one will do," I said as I reached for it.

However, before I could grab it, I felt something really hard hit me in the stomach, I flew backwards, tumbling across the ground before managing to catch myself. When I managed to pick myself up, I saw an all too familiar canine face greet me.

"Power Rangers..." Said Scorn, "We must stop meeting like this," He quipped, he was flanked on both sides by more mages, "Keep them away from the crystals! They must not be allowed to return to the human realms!" he ordered the mages.

Scorn quickly lunged at me, I summoned my ax as quickly as I could, just barely managing to block his sword, "Scorn?! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be crying about losing to us for the fiftieth time?" I said.

Scorn kicked me to the ground again, "The apes told us of your little trip to the Dragon Realms, I'm here to make sure it's your… permanent resting place!" Scorn growled before trying to stab me, but I managed to roll myself out of the way in time.

Suddenly Scorn found himself struck by Zenith's weird purple lightening, what did he call it? "Aether"? "You came in vain wolf! You won't stop us!" Said Zenith.

Scorn got up, a wicked smirk on his face, "So this is why you came here? You've managed to pick yourself up a little friend!" He sneered, "It matters not, he will die with the rest of you!" He snarled before swinging at us with his sword.

Zenith and I tried to defend ourselves, but it seemed even Zenith had a hard time keeping up with Scorn's swordplay, as he managed to catch Zenith with a slash to the chest, sparks exploded as the cheetah warrior fell to the ground. "How easily you fall! A shame your time as a ranger must be cut so short!" He said before trying to stab poor Zenith through the chest.

Thinking quickly, I kicked Scorn's blade right out of his hands, "Forget it Scorn! You aren't picking off any of my friends while I'm around!" I said, taking full advantage of him being unarmed, slashing him twice in the chest with my ax. Scorn tumbled across the ground before managing to catch himself.

An audible growl was heard from the wolf mage as he clutched his chest, "Don't get cocky green ranger! You'll all die here eventually!" He growled.

I took the opportunity to help Zenith to his feet, "You okay dude?" I asked the feline power ranger as I helped him up.

Zenith nodded, "Yes," he said, although his tone seemed uncertain, like he wasn't expecting me to save him.

I shook it off, "Come on! Let's take wolf boy down a peg!" I said, pumping my fist, Zenith and I both took fighting stances.

Scorn growled, "The only ones getting taken down today are YOU!" He yelled before launching himself at us like a lion on a kill, slashing at his with his claws, managing to get me in the chest, however Zenith managed to catch him with a knee to the gut, causing Scorn to stumble back.

I quickly capitalized, nailing him with a jumping drop kick, knocking him to the ground. Scorn quickly got back up, throwing a few kicks of his own, but I managed to block a few. Zenith cocked his fist back as it crackled with Aether, "AETHER KNUCKLE!" He called out, he then nailed Scorn right in the kisser with his Aether charged fist, sending him flying backwards a good ten yards.

Scorn slowly got up, as the other rangers joined our side, "Give up Scorn! You've lost again!" I said.

However, Scorn quickly snatched a crystal from it's place, "That's what you think Power Rangers! Without this you have no chance of returning home! The other crystals in this patch don't have nearly enough charge to get you all back to your precious mentor!" He growled, I looked to the patch and he was right, the other crystals were rather dim looking, and the only one with a decent amount of charge was currently in Scorn's hands, poised to be broken over his knee.

I had to think fast, I dug my hand into the ground, "Think fast!" I said before a wave of rock came careening towards Scorn before hitting him flush, knocking the crystal from his hands as he fell to the ground.

I quickly rushed to catch it, managing to snag it before it managed to hit the ground, "Dean Mack with the crucial catch!" I quipped to myself.

Scorn got back to his feet, "You win this time Power Rangers! But next time we meet! You will all perish!" He growled before doing his vanishing act again.

I looked to the crystal in my hand, "You always say that man but you never deliver," I chuckled.

The others joined me, cheering and celebrating, another victory for the Dragon Legend Power Rangers!

Later…

We all unmorphed and gathered around, telling Spyro through our morphers about our encounter, "Good work rangers, you managed to turn a potentially bad situation around and completed your task of finding the fifth morpher to boot," said the purple dragon. "Your work in the Dragon Realms is done for now, return to the temple," He then instructed us.

We got set to do just that when suddenly…

"So you really are still alive"

We all turned to see Sol had somehow found us, how the hell did he find us? More importantly, why did he follow us here? Spyro himself seemed quite confused, "I… I'm sorry… do I know you?" he asked in confusion.

Sol glared at the hologram of our mentor, seething hatred in his eyes, "You mean you don't recognize me purple dragon? You don't see her in me?" he spat, none of us knew what to do, just sort of standing to the side as the black dragon glared at the holographic dragon.

Spyro shook off his confusion, "Look, I don't know who you are or who you think I am, but I've never seen you in my life!" He snapped.

This only made Sol growl, "I should have figured you wouldn't… you didn't care about me or my mother! Only about creating your stupid little Power Rangers!" He snarled, no one dared utter a word, not sure what would happen if we tried to step in. "What do you have to say for yourself Purple Dragon?" Inquired Sol.

"Or… should I call you… father?"

A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUH! Looks like Spyro left more behind in the Dragon Realms than he thought! The title of the chapter makes a lot more sense now doesn't it?

What does this mean for our heroes? Well you'll just have to wait and see won't you?