Chapter 11: The Final Countdown

Talwyn woke up, her head numb. As she looked around with dreary eyes, she spotted several shapes in her room. Raising her hands and rubbing her eyes, they focused. Everyone but Spyro and Clank were there, waiting for her to wake up. Ratchet was in a chair, head slumped, snoring lightly. Talwyn looked and saw that he was holding her hand as he slept.

"Ratchet" she asked, her voice sounding exhausted.

Ratchet snapped awake, and saw Talwyn awake.

"Hey babe; you okay? You remember anything?" Ratchet asked.

"Yes, I remember everything" she responded. She raised her left hand, checking her ring finger. The ring was gone. She looked at Ratchet with questioning eyes.

"I took it for safe keeping." He said, reaching into his pocket, he pulled the ring out. He placed the ring back on her finger. She smiled faintly, and then fell back asleep.

"Ratchet" Ratchet heard a voice say. Turning, he saw Clank and Spyro. Ratchet looked at Spyro for a moment, the usually happy dragon having a gloomy expression. "We got the info out of Kayla" Clank said.

"How?" Ratchet asked. He noticed Spyro shudder at the question.

"I had to do terrible things to make her talk. I had to snap both her kneecaps, break her fingers, and bite off her toes, I…" Spyro shook his head, tears in his eyes. Cynder came over and nuzzled him, trying to sooth him.

"What did you get out of her?" Ratchet asked.

"Tachyon's hiding place." Spyro said. Ratchet called Quark over to him. He told Cronk and Zephyr to watch over Talwyn. Slipping out quietly, Ratchet, Quark, Clank, Spyro and Cynder began forming the plan.

Meanwhile…

Tachyon walked in a circle around a crystal, cackling to himself in evil delight.

"Soon, very soon, you shall have your revenge, as will I." Tachyon said. The crystal pulsed, and then began to pulse rapidly. Suddenly, it let out a small shockwave, and the pulsing stopped. "Not yet, you're not at full strength. But soon, you will be." Tachyon assured, still walking around the crystal.

Meanwhile…

Ratchet was arming himself with his best weapons and armor. Clank simply armed himself with his zoni-ray; a weapon he designed during his stay at the great clock. Quark found the biggest rocket launcher available, and hoisted it on his shoulder, delighted. Spyro and Cynder had gone to their house, and were adorning their armor as well.

After all of them had finished, they had met at the city center. Ratchet, his face hidden behind an all-black set of armor, pressed a button on his belt. Aphelion flew down to him.

"How was she fixed exactly?" Ratchet asked.

"We sent our best mechanics on it, dragons only, no Lombax tampering has been done." Cynder told him.

Ratchet got in, followed by Quark and Clank. As the cockpit closed, Aphelion's engines sputtered to life. Spyro and Cynder lowered their bodies as they spread their wings. Aphelion took off, and Spyro and Cynder followed. Clank entered the location of the hid out into Aphelion's GPS. She found it, and then adjusted her directions.

Ratchet was very worried about Spyro. Spyro had hardly spoken since the plan was formed, and still had a gloomy, almost dark, look in his eyes. Ratchet turned on Aphelion's speakers.

"Spyro, what's wrong?" Ratchet asked.

"I know you're not the only one to lose someone to Tachyon, but he struck very close to home with me." Spyro said. "The old fire guardian, Ignitus, was more than a mentor to me, he was a father; the first dragon I ever encountered. Over the course of my first adventure, I freed the other three guardians, who taught me how to use my other three breath attacks. Ignitus died during the course of my third adventure, which was a horrible blow. So much so, that the other side of me, the darker side, came out." Cynder visibly shuddered as she remembered how evil Spyro had gotten.

"A few months after we defeated Malefor, Tachyon came through a portal, much like you did. We made the mistake of trusting him, and kept him secret from the Lombaxes. But as the months went on, we found dragons missing here and there. It wasn't until the bodies of the other three guardians were found that I finally made the connection. Tachyon is a monster, without empathy, and will kill any and all living things, mostly just because he can." A dark shadow, almost black, began crawling up Spyro's neck, but then faded out.

"That cragmite killed my family, and I will make him pay." Spyro said darkly.

"And he killed mine also, and I want to kill him as badly as you do. But remember what you told me; a cool head in a heated situation is the best weapon you have." Spyro remembered telling him that as they got ready. Sometimes, Spyro needed to heed his own advice. He calmed down. The heroes flew to the location, steeling themselves for the final encounter.

Meanwhile…

Nurses were running around the nursery, it was chaos. The cragmite attack had knocked out all power, including the back-up. The dragon eggs stored there had to be incubated according to their specific element. Without any power, they would not hatch. As they nurses were scrambling to get what little power they could, they failed to notice that eight, newly laid eggs, began wobbling, and their shells began to crack.

Two apologies. First, sorry I haven't updated in a long time. When you have a summer class where all you do is write, it's hard to write anything else. Second, sorry for the short chapter, but I had to get this one out before FF locked out my story. But Talwyn got her memory back, and the showdown is next chapter. I think chapter 12 will be the final, I don't know yet. Also, I decided to abandon my All-stars fanfic; I simply lacked the motivation and the history of all the other games to make it happen. But I did start writing a Godzilla fanfic, which will be uploaded probably end of this year beginning of next year. Shout out to Lucy the cat, Blue thunderfanracing, and Foenix Nightshade for keeping up with this story. Comment and review. Until next time, take care! ;)