Chapter 3: A Struggle for Control

The next morning was a real joy for Spyro as he opened his eyes, the sunlight outside hit them and caused him to wince and raise his hand to block out the light so he didn't go blind from the light, which he never thought he would think. He got up and walked over to the window, looking out to see everything that he couldn't see last night, which was multiple training yards with practice dummies, each one looking to be for a specific form of training from sword combat all the way to learning how to fly what he could only guess would be a ship.

He heard a knock at the door and turned to look at the door and then to himself in a full body mirror that was in the room, making sure he wasn't exposed or caught with his pants down. He was still wearing his old clothes that he had on when he was attacked, a plain green shirt with his work jeans, but his shirt had a large hole on the lower left hand side of the stomach and remembered that he was nailed in the back at the chest near the right shoulder blade. Before he could change his shirt, Kairi walked in with a flash of what he guessed to be more of that foul liquid for him to drink.

"Morning." She said. "Slept well?"

"As well as I could." Spyro replied, subconsciously removing his shirt.

He was about to put it back on after he realized that he took it off in front of a girl, but looked and found that he was no longer chubby, but instead ripped and looking like he could take on a mugger. Still, he was about to put the damaged shirt back on, but Kairi only giggled after watching him do that like it was a common thing she sees everyday.

"Relax there Romeo." Kairi said. "I'm not interested."

"That's fine by me." Spyro said. "I didn't mean to take the shirt off in front of you."

"It's ok." Kairi replied. "You're not the first one to take their shirt off in front of me."

"Wait really?" Spyro asked, surprised that someone actually did that to her before.

"Yes really." She replied. "I accidentally walked in on Sora and he was taking his off. You should have seen how red his face was."

Spyro tried to imagine Sora red in the face after having a girl walk in on his changing his shirt and just got a chuckle out of it, thinking to himself that he's lucky she walked in on him doing that instead of her walking in on him changing his pants, then he'd really die of embarrassment. Spyro took the shirt that the good fairies left for him out from the pile and put it on, surprised to feel how light it was and how comfortable it is, making a mental note to himself to thank them for the clothing.

"Yellow looks good on you." Kairi said, looking as him and then the shoulder guards. "But I think those guards are a bit over kill."

"It was actually Master Yen Sid who had them made." Spyro replied. "He had the good fairies make them for me, saying they are a symbol of the Prince of Light and Darkness."

"A Prince?" Kairi asked. "Well, welcome to the team."

"Thanks." Spyro replied. "And you and everyone else don't need to refer to me by any royal term or title. Just call me Spyro."

Kairi nodded her head, acknowledging what she heard, but a sudden hissing noise came from the flask, causing both to look down at it and and see it bubble quickly and green smoke coming off of it.

"Whoops. Forgot about that." Kairi said, taking a blue orb out of her pocket and dropping it into the flask, calming it down. "Better get this to Master Yen Sid."

She turned around and ran out the door, but stopped for a second and faced Spyro.

"Almost forgot." She Said. "Master Yen Sid said you should go down to the training yards. Sora and Riku will get you started. And make sure to take the 'Holocrons,' whatever those are."

She then ran down the hall towards Master Yen Sid's study with the flask of who knows what. Spyro started changing into the new clothing and then looked himself in the mirror, admiring how light and good it looked to him, admiring the new look. He then looked to the shoulder guards and reached for them to put on, but they both flew off the dresser, startling him, but a second later, the white dragon head guard went onto his right shoulder with what sounded like a click once on while the black dragon head guard attached itself to his left shoulder with another click, locking both onto his shoulders. Spyro reached up the the black dragon head guard and gave it a couple of tugs to make sure it was firmly in place and to his surprise, it didn't even budge from there, but when he moved his shoulders, it felt like wearing a bowl over it, restricting movement.

"Yeah, this will be a problem." Spyro said. "Need some more movement in these shoulders for swinging a sword around. Might need to speak with the Good Fairies about this."

"You called?" Asked Maryweather, spooking Spyro.

"Where did you come from!?" Spyro asked.

"We were heading to our room when we heard you talking." Fauna said. "We heard you might need to talk to us."

"Yeah I do." Spyro replied. "First of all, thanks for the clothes. They feel great."

"Oh, you're welcome." Flora responded. "They were the easiest part. It was the guards that was the problem."

"Yeah, I agree with you on that." Spyro said. "Makes moving my shoulders pretty difficult. Is there a way to allow more movement in them?"

"Oh deer, I'm afraid that is gonna be difficult for us." Fauna replied. "The materials are made to be resistant to all enchantments and magics. Your best chance is to go to the Moogle and see if they can fix it."

"I see." Spyro replied. "Well, thanks anyways. And again, I love the clothing. It's really light and comfortable."

"You're welcome dear." Flora said. "And while you're there, make sure to stock up on some basic necessities. They will be the difference between victory and defeat."

The three Good fairies left him alone and he went down the hall the opposite direction down the hall, but ran into Riku as he was coming out of another room, thankful to run into him out of the blue.

"Hey Riku." Spyro said. "What's up?"

Riku looked to his left and saw Spyro coming towards him, smiling to himself, pleased to finally see a new face.

"Hey newbie." Riku responded. "Slept well last night?"

"As well as it could be." Spyro replied. "How about you?"

"Like a rock." Riku replied. "I was just on my way to the training grounds. Wanna tag along?"

"Sure." Spyro replied. "Besides, I might get lost in this tower."

"I highly doubt it." Riku commented. "All you would need to do is continue down the stairs to the entry way. You can't miss it."

Both of the teens walked down the hall until they reached a set of stairs that went towards a door with a down arrow. Not thinking much of it, Spyro and Riku went through, only for him to see an empty void with two other sets of stairs that continued down, but each had a door at the end of each side.

"If you are thinking of jumping to the next set of stairs, forget it." Riku said. "Sora tried that a while ago, only to face plant into a barrier, making himself look like a fool. Not that isn't already one."

"I heard that!" Shouted Sora, who was running behind them. "I just thought it would have been faster to get from the top to the bottom."

"Whatever you say Sora." Riku said. "Right now, we need to get to the training yard. Master Yen Sid wants us to get the new guy started on his training. That is if you're not too busy flirting with Kairi."

"Hey I wasn't flirting." Sora said, easily taking the bait, which made both Riku and Spyro laugh.

Sora grumbled to himself while trying to hide his blush, realizing that Riku was messing with him again like he does about every time.

"Why do I keep falling for that?" Sora asked.

"Because you're easy to mess with." Riku answered, punching him in the shoulder lightly. "Come on, let's get moving before Master Yen Sid makes us scrub the floors with a toothbrush."

The three of them walked down the stairs through several different rooms that seem to connect to each set until they reached the front entrance of the tower and out into the fields where the transiting areas were. Before Spyro could ask which one they were going to first, he saw both of the teens walk over to what looked like a sandlot and on the side looked like wooden bat wrapped in blue foam, wands, and another sword, but with a guard. Riku took one of the foam covered swords and tossed it to Spyro as he walked up to the lot, catching it without even thinking about it.

"This section is called the sandlot." Riku explained. "Here we practice sword play with each other and have a fun round of Struggle."

"Struggle?" Spyro asked.

"It's tones of fun." Sora said. "The rules are simple. Each player starts with a hundred orbs each. The one with the most orbs at the end of sixty seconds wins."

"Ok, so how do I get the orbs?" Spyro asked.

"Easy." Riku said, smacking Spyro hard in the head, which scattered purple orbs. "You hit your opponent and pick them up."

Riku picked up several of the orbs as he ran towards Spyro, who leapt into the air and blocked Riku's strike. Thankful to block this attack, he pushed Riku away and charged to hit him, but Spyro had never used a sword before and took wide swings to hit, only for Riku to sidestep and block the flimsy and clumsy attacks every time he tried to land a hit. Riku was ahead by 17 orbs and all he was doing was just blocking and running away, not even putting up a fight.

"Is that the best you can do?" Riku asked, trying to sucker him into attacking again. "Don't tell me you're out of steam already."

Spyro was breathing heavily as he was running out of energy to continue, but just got back up and charged again to hit, but the timer went off, indicating that the match was over for them. Riku tossed the training sword to Sora and walked over to Spyro as he breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath.

"Don't sweat it bud." RIku said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "It takes a lot of practice and training to be good at Struggle. You can't expect to be good at it all the time. Plus, this is just training and we are trying to determine how good you are with a blade."

He removed his hand and went back to the other side of the sandlot and reached out his hand and caught the blade after Sora tossed it back to him. He got into a stance, ready to fight again and Spyro did the same, but knew he was gonna get his rear kicked again. Both he and Riku charged towards each other and both swung their weapons, connecting to each other, but Riku pushed Spyro back and uppercutted him with the training sword, knocking the orbs off of him again. Spyro was knocked for a loop, but got his bearings and charged again, but kept getting hit every time, leaving him with only a few orbs left.

"Twenty seconds!" Sora shouted. "Riku in the lead with 187 orbs. Spyro with only 13 left. Riku is gonna win with a slam dunk!"

Spyro couldn't believe he was gonna lose again on the second round, so he charged again screaming a battle cry to at least get a single hit in, but was instead blocked and nailed by Riku again on top of the head, causing the last of his orbs to be dropped. As Spyro fell, it felt like time slowed down all around him like he was when he was hit by that icicle, but instead he felt something inside reach out to him and give him strength. He then looked up and saw himself standing on the side lines, but felt like something was different, more like it was him, but with a hilt in his hand. Before he could think, he hit the ground with a loud thud and with it a head ache.

"That's two." Sora said. "One more round and RIku wins."

"Sora, this is just training." Riku replied, chuckling. "Not a competition."

While they spoke, Spyro got back up and could feel his body ache all over as he could feel the bruises starting to form where Riku hit him, but when he looked back to where he saw himself, he half expected him to be gone, but instead his other self was still there, but what scared him the most was that a second one walked up with another hilt, but his eyes were yellow with red on the outside of the irises.

"He will win again." Spyro's yellow eyed self said. "You're gonna need to get angry. And you're gonna need to be ready to learn how to harness that anger into hate. Hate into pain. And pain into wrath."

"Ignore him." His third self said. "Anger is not the correct path. That is the way of the dark side. Balance yourself and let your power flow. Allow the Force to guide your motions and let it show you what you need to do."

"That is the way of a weakling." His dark side said. "Balance will only get you so far. Eventually you need to give in and destroy. Let your anger flow through you and let it mold you into a true warrior."

Spyro looked between his two other selves confused at seeing both of them, one light and the other dark, but then both of them reached out their hands and held them in the air for a second, but then both holocrons appeared in their hands, the cube shaped holocron in the hand of his light side and the d4 dice shaped one in his dark sides hand. After a second, the points on each of them turned and levitated a few inches away from their respected holocron and knowledge in illegible writing appeared in front of him as if it expected him to translate it for himself.

"Each of them holds power." His dark side self said. "Access to vast vaults of information that you can use. Master both and you will be unstoppable."

"But keep in mind that not all knowledge is to be used." His light side self said. "Train yourself well. The use of knowledge like this can be tempting and will cause you to walk a dangerous path."

Seconds after that, both of them disappeared, but the holocrons stayed in the air still opened and the information in them still showing in a language he couldn't understand, but then he felt something change inside of him as he felt stronger than he did before and felt faster than before, but felt his temper flare as he was sick of losing all the time, whether its a friendly competition or not, it caused him to feel anger. But the strangest thing was that he didn't feel anymore pain or aches when he allowed his anger to flow, so he picked the wooden sword back up and walked back into the ring, ready for another round. At that moment, Kairi and Master Yen Sid walked over to the side of the lot, next to the scoreboard with Sora.

"Riku winning again?" Kairi asked in a playful tone.

"Yep." Sora replied, putting his hands behind his head. "Scores 2-0, Riku leading. Third round determines the winner."

"Obviously it will be Riku." Kairi said. "Only one who can best Riku is you Sora."

That compliment caused Sora to blush and then fumble a bit with the timer before the third round started. Back at the lot, Riku and Spyro got into their stances, Riku with his training sword over and his hand and arm extended out, fully open while Spyro just held his weapon in front of his, blade pointing up in front of his face and arm behind his back. They stood there on opposite sides of each other, waiting for the round to start and when Sora raised his hand up, both got ready to attack. Sora swiftly brought his hand down and both combatants charged each other, getting closer and closer until Riku swung his blade to get a hit in, but Spyro just leapt into the air and flipped over him, with his whole body turning until it was upside down, looking up, which is down in his current position. Riku watched as he charged, following Spyro visually, but before he could make a more to hit him, his opponent swung his sword and struck his back, making multiple blue orbs fall from him and dropping Riku at the same time.

Every one on the sidelines saw what he did and watched him land like he had practiced that for years, but were more shocked to watch Spyro actually knock Riku down and out with a single strike like he was just a light weight in a boxing match. But he just got back up and walked a bit before shaking his head to get his bearings again. He then turned to face his opponent again and raised his weapons, keeping and eye on Spyro as he picked up his orbs.

"Ok, nice flip." Riku said. "You won't catch me off guard like that again."

But as he faced him, he saw Spyro's eyes were changed from the purple that they were to yellow with red at the outermost part of the iris. He couldn't help but stare at the color of his eyes as they were now and raise his guard, not knowing what to expect next as this was entirely new to him, but before he could react, Spyro charged towards him and swung his bat, striking him in the stomach and taking the wind out of him. More orbs dropped, but he backed away, realizing that this turned from a friendly match to a cage match as he blocked multiple blows to avoid being hit again, but Spyro's flurry of attacks kept getting faster and faster until he couldn't block anymore and got hit out of the ring and onto the side, freaking everyone out. Sora tried to run to Riku, but Spyro immediately got in the way and had the foam bat raised to him.

"Dude, what's up with you?" Sora asked. "I need to make sure Riku is ok."

Spyro didn't answer as he just threw the bat away and he conjured a blade made from black fire, making everyone summon their keyblades to defend themselves.

"Not good." Sora said.

"Not good indeed." Spyro said, his entire being getting covered in dark energy, but not turning into a Heartless as his eyes went from yellow-red to complete white, the aura growing dragon wings and horns.

"Master Yen Sid." Sora said. "What do we do?"

"The darkness from his Dragonic magics has taken hold." Master Yen Sid replied. "Combined with his other abilities, he will be a formidable foe. Prepare to defend yourself!"

Elsewhere, within Spyro, he woke up in his bed back home and in his room where he had his writing desk, his games and TV, even his two chihuahuas next to him, sleeping happily next to him in his bed. He sat up, disturbing them from their sleep and immediately got swarmed by the two loving dogs as they licked his nose, his eyes, and even his ears as they each wanted to show him their affection. He had to move them off of himself and then got up from the bed, yawning as he did.

"Weird dream." He said to himself.

He got up from the bed and went out of his room and into the bathroom to freshen up before work, getting ready to remove his clothing so he can get a shower in before work, but as he started, he felt a sudden chill down his spine and felt that something was off. He looked in the mirror again and only saw himself in his black and blue pajamas, looking tired, but pleased to be alive. Not thinking much of it, he took his shirt off and walked to the shower to turn the water on, but then a hand in a black gauntlet grabbed his arm, startling him to look at who grabbed him, only to see his dark side smiling at him.

"This is one shower you're gonna need to miss." He said.

Spyro was immediately pulled out of the shower and out of the bathroom into a deep dark void, falling down it again as if this was becoming a regular occurrence in his life now as if it was a running gag on the comedy channel. As he fell, he looked to his left and saw his dark side fall next to him, smiling with glee.

"This is a fine mess you're in." He said, righting himself up and laying down like he was on a bed and leaning his head back with his hands behind it like he was on a lawn chair. "It seems your darkness has finally caught you off guard."

"What do you mean?" Spyro asked.

"You know that sudden burst of power you got?" He asked. "A sudden jolt to your energy and a hop in your step like you could take on anyone?"

Spyro was confused for a second, but nodded his head, remembering that at the end of the second match, he suddenly felt stronger and faster like someone had just given him a five hour energy drink.

"You see, you allowed anger to get you." Dark side Spyro said. "By letting your negative emotions flow, you give into rage, allowing you to become stronger, but also making you more vulnerable to the temptation of power."

He spun himself aroundand fell in the same direction as Spyro, crossing his arms.

"However, it wasn't your anger that took control." He continued. "It was the darker side of your power. A more... corrupted side of your dragons power."

As he said it, he corrected himself and landed on his feet on another platform and used the Force to catch Spyro, levitating him gently onto the ground. Spyro got up and looked around, finding nothing but darkness until he looked down and saw the glass panel platform with him just like the last time, but this time the dragon next to him was black with a dark orange underbelly and horns with white eyes. He immediately remembered what happened to the original Spyro in his game and realized what he meant, looking around frantically to find those weapons he had the first time, but were no where in sight, but instead he saw his light side there instead, approaching them.

"We need to move now." He said. "His darkness is growing stronger. We won't defeat it on our own."

"You're right about that."

All three of them looked up to see his darkness float down towards them with his sword in hand and grinning like a lunatic. When his feet touched the ground, the purple glass turned black and corrupted the entire image to show that it was in complete control with the Jedi version wearing Sith robes and a red light saber, the horse no longer there, the chaos version of him with a maniacal grin and a dark aura around him and he himself as a heartless.

"That's better." He said. "Seems more... me, wouldn't you say?"

"I would say not." Spyro's light side said, igniting his purple lightsaber. "Release your hold on the original immediately."

"As much as I like what you did, I have to agree with my other half." His dark side said, igniting his red saber and stood next to the light as if they were pals. "Continue to remain in control and we all die."

"I think not." His darkness said, flicking his wrist, summoning black flames that separated Spyro from his light and dark side selves. "This is between me and him."

Spyro looked to his force sides and got nervous as he didn't know what to do as he only just started training. That's when he felt a familiar feeling in his hand, on his arm, and on his back. He looked down and saw the shield on his arm and sword back in his hand like they could sense his fear. He faced his darkness and raised his shield, deflecting its sword and swinging to hit it, only for his darkness to deflect the attack and make him stagger. Then he felt a sharp pain go across his side where Dark Spyro had hit after deflecting. He didn't feel any blood, but felt the steering heat and staggered away to avoid being burned again, but raised his shield again and blocked an incoming strike and kept it raised as it wailed him him with its sword.

"Focus Spyro." His light side shouted. "Let the Force guild you."

"An excellent idea." Dark Spyro said. He extended his hand and knocked Spyro's shield off and then force chocked him, lifting him into the air and then pushed him to the flames, burning him severely and then threw him onto the ground while he moaned in pain from the burns and the choking. "Thanks for the advice."

Both light and dark were horrified to watch their original self get thrown around like a rag doll and toasted by dark magic while they couldn't do anything about it as the flames were too hot and whenever they tried to use the force to make a path, the flames just burned brighter, forcing them to stop.

"You are so pathetic." Dark Spyro said. "How can you be a Prince if you are too afraid to even use your power or even accept your own darkness? You don't have what it takes to even be a Junior Hero like your new friend Sora. All you can do is juts cower behind someone else, let someone else make your decisions, and just let others do your work. Now stay down like a good little weakling and let me do your duties as the true Prince of Light and Darkness."

He turned away from Spyro and walked to the edge of the platform and looked up as if watching something in the air, while also conjuring chains and chaining Spyro, raising him up and forced him to watch as his darker self attempted to kill his new friends. While back in the real world, Sora was battling Dark Spyro, each exchanging blows and blocking them, seemingly evenly matched, but Dark Spyro used his Force abilities to sometimes throw random objects like weapon racks and foam swords and other times he would pick Sora up and toss him away and use his magic to do some damage. Sora charged Dark Spyro again and when their weapons connected, they each pushed against the other to try and push them back, but this wasn't exactly Sora's plan as all he did was buy Kairi enough time to get Riku and escape while he distracted him, but also to try something he thought was crazy.

"Spyro, I know you're in there." He spoke out. "I know what it is like. To be trapped inside of yourself and not being able to control your darkness."

"Silence boy." Dark Spyro said, shocking Sora. "Spyro is not here to listen to your words."

He broke off the engagement and swung his blade to his Sora, but instead, Sora blocked the attack, staggering him, and pointed his Keyblade at him.

"Blizzara!" Sora shouted, extinguishing the burning sword and freezing Dark Spyro to the spot.

Sora then ran up to Dark Spyro and knocked the sword out of his hand and grabbed the hand to prevent him from reaching for it or calling it again.

"Spyro, I know you are scared," Sora shouted. "But you are stronger than you believe. Yes, I too am scared of when my darkness comes out when I use my Drives, but I don't let that stop me because I know that no matter what, there is more good coming from them than bad."

Back inside of Spyro's heart, he looked up to the air and saw what his darker half was seeing, Sora right in his face, struggling to keep his hand from getting its blade back and heard everything Sora was saying, but didn't know if he could do it as he was still weak from the previous fight, chained, and bloodied. He felt his strength draining from his body as his head started to spin, blending everything together until he couldn't keep his eyes open and longer, passing out on the spot.

"Don't tell me you're giving up already?" Riku said.

Spyro's eyes shot open and looked around to find where he was or if he was in view on the creek, but he wasn't there or anywhere, however he could hear him like he was there. Looking around, he saw the flames that kept both of his Force sides from coming to help him, but also saw Riku, his back towards them and smiling like he found something amusing, but a golden aura was surrounding him like he was a ghost.

"You are stronger than he thinks." Riku said and having his Keyblade, The Way of the Dawn, in his hand. "He is underestimating your true potential. You just need to let go."

"Let go of what?" Spyro asked, his head dangling down to look at the floor. "I have nothing to keep me going, let alone to let go. He's right. I'm too weak."

"So, you're giving up, huh?" Riku asked, crossing his arms. "That doesn't seem like something a Keyblade master would do, let alone a Prince. Maybe you aren't cut out to be one. Maybe you're ok to allow this thing to hurt your friends and even your family."

Spyro's head immediately shot up and felt his anger rise up inside of him after what Riku just said.

"Maybe he'll find your father more of a challenge." Riku said. "And he might just use your mother for target practice."

"Shut up!" Spyro shouted, immediately catching Dark Spyros attention. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"

"What are you gonna do about it?" Riku asked. "You gonna just be chained there and scream at me until my ears bleed. You wanna do something, let go of your fear and fight. Fight like there is no tomorrow. Or are you just as useless here as you are at home?"

That last comment was the final straw for Spyro as he focused his anger and built up the force inside of him, charging it up to where it was even visible for everyone to see as a bubble of energy and electricity. Before Dark Spyro could do anything, Spyro pulled hard on the chains to where his arms could cross and swiftly extended them out while letting out an enraged howl, letting all the power he built up out as a massive shockwave that extinguished the flames and knocked his darker self off the platform while breaking the chains. He collapsed to the ground, exhausted from letting all that power out at once. He looked up and saw Riku had extended his hand out to help him up, which made him realize that Riku did that on purpose to get him angry and even though he was still ticked, he took Riku's hand and got back up with his help.

"You see, that wasn't so bad." Riku said. "You just needed the right push."

"Could have just cut the chains off yourself and not have me go full Sith mode." Spyro said, leering at Riku.

"Now where's the fun in that?" RIku asked. "Plus, I wanted you to see it's ok to get angry. You just need to know how to use that anger while also understanding that you are in control. Your power is nothing to fear at all. You aren't the first to fall to darkness and I doubt you will be the last."

Riku reached into his pouch and pulled out a bottle with a blue liquid and tossed it into the air above Spyro and it turned into blue dust. He didn't understand what was going on, but felt his strength return and felt his power recharge as if he had an energy drink. A second later, they looked to where Dark Spyro fell and saw him fly and land on the platform with his blade in his hand burning brightly.

"You got this." Riku said. "Remember, your power is your own, you just need to not fear to use it."

Riku disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Spyro with his darker self and his force selves, who ran towards him and stood between him and his darkness. Dark Spyro however looked annoyed and drew a second blade, but this one was covered in corrosive poison and the fumes off it were enough to make a strong man pass out.

"I don't know how you did that, but you won't be able to do it again." Dark Spyro said. "This time I'm going to destroy you and take total control!"

His force selves were gonna charge at him, but Spyro put his hand on their shoulders, stoping them and getting their attention. He walked towards his darker self, but all of them could feel something was different about him.

"You're right about one thing. I always relied on others to make some of my decisions." He said, extending out his hand. "I always relied on others to make the decisions and to give ideas because I always feared that what I would say or do might turn out bad. But now, I fear nothing."

That's when a flash of light illuminated in his hand for a second and at the same second, a Keyblade was in his hand. Its design was the same as what appeared in the stain glass under their feet, but was longer than what was in the glass and looked leaner to make it easier to handle. Dark Spyro backed away when he saw the blade, but then stood his ground again to get ready for a fight, raising both his weapons in a protective stance.

"You think an oversize door key is going to scare me?" He asked, shaking where he stood. "I am absolute power! I am the darkness in your heart! I am you!"

"And yet there is something you don't have and I do." Spyro replied, getting into a stance that Obi-wan used against Darth Maul. "I have friends who are there for me. And who are willing to help me get back onto the right path."

This shocked his darkness as he expected him to just give up and let his fear and despair win over, but instead he found courage and hope, refusing to give in as he did before. Both of them stood absolutely still, waiting for the either one to make a move, but each refusing to do so. Getting impatient, Dark Spyro let out a battle howl and charged at him, doing a flip over his head to deal a deadly blow, but Spyro just turned his body to follow his dark sides movements and swung his Keyblade overhead and striking the head and chest, making him fall to the ground motionless.

Before he could approach him, Dark Spyro pushed up to try and move, but just fell back down, groaning in pain. Spyro looked around to see if his Force selves were there and found them, but all they did was nod their heads and turn into the Holocrons, disappearing from the area. He then looked back to his darker self and approached, hearing him coughing and gasping in pain, trying to get up, but failing.

"Y-you think... you won?" He asked, summoning the strength to turn his body to look at him. "Y-you cannot... destroy... me. I am you, ... you are me. I will always be there... to corrupt you."

Spyro didn't pay him any mind, but felt genuinely remorseful for what he did and very sorry of his darker self. He knelt down next to him and slid his hands underneath his back and lifted him up until he placed his other half's head in his lap.

"That maybe true, but that doesn't mean that you and I should be against each other." Spyro replied. "We are the same person, just different sides. Just know I hold no grudge towards you. I only hope that we can find common ground and merge our power together."

His darker half looked at him, amused by his words and just smiled to himself, finding his kind heart to be something to laugh at before he closed his eyes and disappeared into a dark cloud, leaving Spyro behind as the glass reverted back to what it was before, looking to the air and wondering if he was strong enough to resist his own darkness. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to gather his thoughts and when he opened them again, he was back in his room at Master Yen Sids tower, lying there with a major headache and feeling sore all over.

He sat up slowly so as to avoid too much pain and looked to his right to see everyone was sitting there looking anxious and worried. He didn't understand at first, but the memories of what went on in his heart and what happened at the Sandlot came rushing back to him, causing him to look away from everyone as he couldn't stand look them in the eyes after what happened.

"Looks like you're back with us." Sora said, giving him his goofy smile. "For a second I thought we would have needed to destroy you."

"Probably would have been better if you did." Spyro said, swinging his feet out and putting his head in his hands, on the verge of tears. "I tried to kill you and I seriously harmed Riku. I don't deserve to be here."

"Stop beating yourself up." Sora said, walking over. "In the end, you won your first battle against darkness."

"But I lost control." Spyro said. "I tried to kill Sora and -"

He then received a quick hit to the shoulder, not too bad of a hit, but just enough to get him to get him to stop talking.

"Hey, if there is one person who understands what it's like, it's Riku." Sora said. "He was tricked by Maleficent into thinking that I abandoned him and made him give into the darkness. It took us some time to get him to stop putting himself down, but he eventually understood that we are his friends."

"That and you kept on pestering me everyday with that phrase." Riku said, which made Sora stick by is tongue out.

"What phrase?" Spyro asked.

"Hakuna Matata." Sora answered.

"Hakuna Matata?" Spyro asked, remembering what it meant a second later.

"Yeah. It means 'No worries.'" Sora replied.

"For the rest of your days!" Spyro I said, getting up and singing the song.

[Spyro and Sora] "It's our problem free, philosophy, Hakuna Matata."

Kairi smiled, happy to see their new friend was getting along with everyone, but Riku just face smacked and groaned, wishing he hand's said anything about the phrase Sora uses all the time.

"Hey, Sora." Spyro asked. "I remembered that you have some drives that you use in combat. Think you can teach me how to use them?"

"Sure thing." Sora replied. "But not every drive will be the same for everyone. Yours might be a bit different with your powers."

The to of them wrapped their arm around each others shoulders and walked out of the room having a laugh about the song they sung. Master Yen Sid was pleased that Spyro was getting along with everyone and left the room, returning to his study. He walked to his desk and pulled out a large pouch with the two dragons on the outside and opened it, revealing a large number of tomes and scrolls in it.

"He will be ready for these." He said. "But until then, training is what he needs."

There came a knock at the door, getting his attention. He put the bag back in the large draw that he pulled it from and faced the door again.

"Come in." He said.

When the door opened, a Moogle came walking in with a large package on its back, somehow able to carry it without breaking a sweat as what was in it was clanging against each other, giving the hint it was made out of metal.

"Sorry for being late sir, kupo." He said. "Took a long time to find the materials needed and even longer to synthesize, kupo."

"That's quite alright." Master Yen Sid said. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

"I did, kupo." The Moogle replied.

He walked up to Master Yen Sid and passed the package up to him, then walked out the door. Yen Sid then put the package on the desk and unwrapped it, revealing two arm guards, but made of the same metal as the shoulder guard and with a small screen just at the base of where the wrist was. As he was about to call for someone, he looked up and saw Sora and Spyro walking to him with smiles on their faces.

"Master yen Sid, is it alright for me to train Spyro for a while?" Sora asked. "I have a feeling that I might have more to teach him than what Riku could."

"I concur." Master Yen Sid replied. "What you know may prove useful."

"Sweet, let's go Spyro." Sora said, the two bumping fists.

"Just a moment you two." Master Yen Sid said, making both of them turn to face him. "I have something for Spyro that he might find useful."

He got up and picked up the weights, walking towards them. He motioned for Spyro to lift his arms and as he did, Master Yen Sid slid the new pieces of armor onto his arms and his hand through the gloves, locking them on. He tapped on the screen and the number 5x appeared on it. Spyro didn't understand what was going on, but all of a sudden, his whole body felt heavier and he struggled to not fall down, even with Sora helping.

"These pieces of armor are special." He said. "They use the Gravity spell to increase the gravitational pull around you. This will help you with building up your strength and speed. Use them only hen training or working out as they will push you to your limit."

"Great." Spyro said, struggling to stand straight. "This feels like something from Dragon Ball Z, except its armor instead of a room."

"You will get use to them." Master Yen Sid said. "Whenever you feel like they are getting light, you can tap the screen and it will display options for what you want to train in."

"Right, great." Spyro said. "So, how do I turn them off?"

"Just tap the screen twice and it will deactivate." Replied Master Yen Sid. Spyro tried it, and his body felt lighter as gravity around him returned to normal. "Now then, you two best get some rest. You may continue your training tomorrow."

The two of the saluted Master Yen Sid and walked out of his office, heading back to their rooms to end the day with a good night sleep. As Spyro entered his room, he saw a some of his belongings in a chair and his old clothes on the dresser, patched up and fully restored. He smiled to himself, pleased that the Good Fairies repaired them, but went to the chair and picked up his wallet and his phone, Turing it on and scrolling to the photo of when he and his family went on vacation over a month ago before any of this happened.

"Don't worry about me, mom and dad." He said to the picture. "I'm ok. And I promise, I'll come visit."

He then went to dial his parents to let them know he was safe and everything was ok, but the call couldn't connect as he was on another world and he doubt that he could call anyone from where he was currently. Before he put his phone down, he saw a note on the head of the seat addressed to him. He picked it o]up and opened the note to see what was in it.

Dear Spyro,

Sorry about the shoulder guards being to restrictive as we never made armor before and it was our first time making something like that as we are used to cloths, enchanted blades and shields. To make up for it, we repaired your old clothing and tinkered with this strange device you had in your pocket. We found that it was dead, so we used our magic to make it never run out of power so you can use it whenever you like. Also, we asked Master Yen Sid about it and according to him its called a phone. We used it and managed to get a hold of your parents to let them know what had happened. It took some convincing, but they fully support no matter what you do, so they gave us your remaining devices and electronics so you wouldn't feel bored. Long distance calls will be a problem, but given enough time, we can figure out how to allow for long distance calls between worlds so you can talk to them anytime you like. Now get some rest as tomorrow you have a lot of training ahead of you.

Sincerely,

Flora, Fauna, and Maryweather

Spyro could not believe what he was reading and checked his phone again to see the battery percentage, finding that they were right and the battery was fully charged and wasn't going down at all along with the tablet and everything else they sent. He felt a tear roll down his eye, not because he can use the devices without them dying, to him, that wasn't important because what was important to him was they were supporting him no matter what as that is what a parent does, support their child and make sure they are happy.

He took his phone and tablet to the bed and put them on the night stand so they can be close by if he needs to call them, if the Good Fairies figure out how to make phone reception between worlds possible. He thought to himself that he can ask the Moogles if they can help them with that, but for the time being, he was glad his parents understood what happened and could rest comfortably, knowing that someday he can go back home and visit them and talk to them about his adventures.