Cynder landed back in Warfang, mumbling under her breath with anger, her blood bubbling with hatred and rage. She couldn't get Forzen out of her head, and she hated it. She had spent twelve years believing he was dead or being used for evil deeds by Spyro, much like Malefor used her. Either way, he was dead to her; he meant nothing.

Now he had the audacity to come back into her life, and Muras didn't make things any better by wanting to take him in. Forzen could be a spy or have ulterior motives. She didn't trust him. Everything about him made her think of Spyro.

She hadn't even thought of him in twelve years. Everything about him had been wiped from her memory. She couldn't even think of him as a hatchling without feeling disgust and hatred.

Her head was down, staring at her paws as she stomped through the streets of Warfang, many dragons keeping their distance from her. She was very well respected and revered in Warfang, especially after she put an end to Armageddon and helped lead Warfang through the war without guardians, but they knew just how much of a temper she had developed over the last twelve years, and no one wanted to mess with her. She had enough restraint to not burst into violence, but her loud shouts and angry outbursts terrified many.

Cynder blocked out the world around her, not wanting the loud noises of society to add even more noise to her brain; she had enough of it already from the past few minutes. She needed to let it out and cool down.

Taking a sharp turn down the streets and picking up the pace, she headed straight towards the barracks. It was her day off, sure, but she felt some training and beating up some dark dragons in the training ring would be very beneficial to her. She had so much bubbling emotion that it was overwhelming and confusing. She wanted to get rid of it.

Pyron was the first to greet her. He had joined the army about eight months after Armageddon, wanting nothing more than to help serve and fight back against Spyro, after he had caused so much grief to him, his friends and family, and the whole world. The fire dragon had proven himself to be a really strong warrior, and Cynder was really impressed with him.

It was a weird dynamic having been such close friends before, where now she was his general. Since she became a much darker personality over the last twelve years too, she had taken on a lot more of her role as general with him; she didn't have much time for friends, and didn't want them at all in an army setting; she felt getting her friendship more involved in the barracks would cause more problems than needed.

"General Cynder? What are you doing here, isn't it your day off?" he asked, following her as she didn't break a step.

"I just wanted a bit of a spar," she said bluntly.

"Are you okay, Cynder? You seem… way more tense than you normally are, and I know that's saying something," Pyron muttered.

"I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine."

"You sure? It's still quite early; something must have happened for you to be so frustrated already. Tell me what happened."

"No."

"Cynder…"

"No, Pyron," Cynder spat, whirling around and trying to keep her voice down so she didn't start a scene. "I appreciate the friendly gesture but in these barracks, our relationship is not that of a friend, got it?"

Pyron recoiled, looking down sadly as she spoke. He stood there for a while, before giving a very small nod. Cynder huffed and turned around, continuing towards the training rings. It didn't take long for her to realise Pyron was still following her. She growled, turning on him and leading him down a small hallway where they were both out of view.

"We've been through this many times, Pyron. I am your general. We have a job to do in here, and I don't want to get our friendship roped into this thing," Cynder hissed under her breath.

"Many other dragons are friends with the other soldiers. What's wrong with a bit of friendship?" Pyron whispered back.

"The other soldiers are not your general, Pyron. I do not want any lines being blurred here, understand? Our existing friendship has already blurred enough lines. I am not cutting the friendship entirely, but I am putting up boundaries. Respect them."

Pyron blinked, seeming very hurt by this. However, he nodded and stepped back. "I'm sorry, General Cynder," he murmured.

"Thanks. Now leave me be."

"Yes, ma'am," Pyron replied, before turning and walking back out of the hall.

Cynder scoffed, before turning and making her way to the magical training room, which was almost empty. Most of the soldiers seemed to be out in the physical training room, or doing training elsewhere, whether it be in the barracks' gyms, in one of the other training sites throughout Warfang, or even out in the forest.

About nine years ago, Cynder decided to allow groups of soldiers to head out into the forest for more training, whether it be sparring or various drills, usually led by an officer of some sort. It had been good to get everyone out, especially since it usually felt very cramped in the Warfang barracks, despite how massive it was. She'd eventually deemed the forest nearby Warfang safe to do so, and she'd heard nothing but positive results. Occasionally, there would be boot camps and several-day-long exercises being held to help with team-building and training.

Cynder eventually stepped into a ring, sighing as she rolled her head to loosen her neck a little bit, before she closed her eyes and conjured her enemies, picturing them in her mind. When she opened her eyes, she saw her opponents materialise in the ring before her: a fearbringer, a shadowclaw, and a venomfang.

The venomfang was the first to lunge, its snarling, green maw dripping with venom. Cynder stepped back, lashing out with her claws and striking the venomfang across the eye. It stumbled backwards, shaking its head and throwing green blood around in the process, before it took a firm stance and spat some globs of venom at Cynder. She dodged two of them, but knowing her immunity to the poison element, she hardly cared whether they hit her or not, feeling the toxic green liquid splash over her.

Immediately after, Cynder was tackled to the ground by the shadowclaw, who had leapt at her from behind. She tensed, throwing half of her body upwards and causing the shadowclaw to fall headfirst over her. She then breathed a heavy gale of wind, sending the shadowclaw flying into the fearbringer that was rushing towards her. They both collided, falling to the ground with hideous snarls.

Cynder stood, narrowly dodging a swipe at her eye from the venomfang, payback for slicing open its eye a few seconds earlier. Cynder growled, breathing shadow fire at the venomfang. It screeched as it burned inside the black inferno. It leapt out from the inferno at her, sending her sprawling on the ground.

The venomfang clawed at her chest, drawing dark blood, before Cynder sliced back at the venomfang, tearing open its flanks and gut. She sliced out some of its intestines, and it let out a pained screech as it fell off Cynder, writhing in pain.

She raised her tailblade to end the venomfang, but was interrupted by a loud shriek. She ducked, watching two bright red orbs of phantom fright flying over her. She turned as the fearbringer opened its maw again, ready to release a siren scream. Cynder released her own before it could, causing it to stumble backwards, shaking its head vigorously to re-orientate itself. The fear element couldn't put a fearbringer into a fear coma, a luxury that Cynder herself did not have, but it could confuse and disorientate one, allowing Cynder extra time to focus on other opponents.

In Cynder's case, said opponent was the shadowclaw that had lunged at her, maw wide open. Quickly, she swung her tailblade around, which found the shadowclaw's lashing tongue. The wet muscle came flying off to the side with a spray of black, inky blood, but the shadowclaw continued its descent on her, biting down into her throat. She could feel its blood mingling with her own, and it stung profusely.

Swinging her tailblade around again, she stabbed the shadowclaw in the flank several times, before it cried out in pain, releasing her throat from its jaws and stepping back in pain. She then stepped forward and swiftly sliced off the shadowclaw's head.

A splatter of venom on Cynder's side alerted her of the downed venomfang, which was struggling to its paws as rivers of dark green blood streamed down its abdomen. She breathed more shadow fire at it, causing it to stumble back down to the ground with a growl as its flesh burned.

While it was distracted by its burning flesh, Cynder turned to the fearbringer that had finally managed to reorient itself, and was now lunging at her. She lowered her head and thrust it forward, stabbing the fearbringer in the neck with her long, powerful horns. She felt a shower of blood wash over her head.

Lifting it up into the air, she then threw the fearbringer to the side. It tried to get up, but Cynder knocked it back down to the ground as she leapt on top of it. She was about to tear open its throat, but she immediately dived to the ground as a siren scream tore from the fearbringer's mouth. It was quicker to stand back up than she was, and so released another siren scream, which actually hit her this time.

She cursed; luckily a regular fearbringer's fear element wasn't as potent on her as it would be on a normal dragon—Fa'roth, the fearbringer general, was the only one to put her in bad fear comas, as he was significantly stronger than the average fearbringer; he had once put her in a thirty-two-hour fear coma that Vetar described to be hellish to watch. She knew due to her resistance that she would be able to recover quickly, but she was definitely quite impaired now.

What she really dreaded was what she would see in this fear coma, as her vision started to twirl and distort grotesquely.

She groaned as she struggled to her paws, staring at the fearbringer as it grew many spikes over every inch of its body, growing more fangs as well as a second tongue that lashed out at her. The fearbringer stepped back in shock as it watched Cynder stand, as such a feat was usually almost impossible for the average dragon.

It was times like these that Cynder was glad to have these dark elements that granted her resistance against the dark dragons, or complete immunity in the case of the venomfangs.

Growling savagely, she staggered forward, increasing speed as she swung her tailblade at the monstrous fearbringer before her, spraying blood everywhere. In her vision, the blood was greatly overexaggerated, and soon the whole world around her was red. She gritted her teeth and howled through her hallucinations and ringing ears, before swinging her tailblade at the fearbringer once more, finally slicing off its head, watching it roll across the ground towards the venomfang.

Cynder stepped slowly towards the burning, bleeding venomfang, noticing as the dead, sightless eyes of the decapitated fearbringer's head was following her as she walked. She froze and almost collapsed to the ground in fear, but gripped the ground with her claws, focusing her gaze solely on the venomfang, praying to the ancestors that the fear coma would only last a few more moments.

She closed in on the venomfang, whose efforts to fight back had since vanished. It lay there on the ground, staring into Cynder's eyes, acknowledging its impending death. Glowing green eyes covered its body, as every single one stared at her. The massive gaping wound in its gut was replaced by another maw, horrid fangs decorating the edges of it as a grotesque tongue hung limply out of the stomach-maw.

Wanting to be done with the venomfang, visually skewed by her fear coma, Cynder thrust her claws into the venomfang's head, hacking away at it, before reaching into the gorey cranium and yanking out the green gem inside its head, silencing the venomfang.

Satisfaction filled her as she looked over the carnage of the three dark dragons, but with the rage and adrenaline starting to leave her body, the fear of the fear coma finally started to take more control. She sank to the ground, breathing heavily and trying not to scream. Cynder looked around her, watching as the three dark dragons slowly began to morph into something else: corpses of other dragons.

One of them was a lightning dragoness, and Cynder's heart lurched as she recognised the dragoness as the one she had killed during Armageddon; the one who had begged to be killed so she could be with her son, both of which who had been possessed by Naar'voth, and shortly after killed by Cynder. The tears began to sting her eyes as Cynder remembered the five-year-old youngling who had already been possessed by the time she had found him.

The second was another dragoness. The ice dragoness wasn't a still corpse like the lightning one, but she was definitely dying. She muttered out a few names with a weak voice, and it took Cynder a moment to pick them out. "Vetar… Embarol… Bronlin…"

When Cynder looked closer, she noticed the ice dragoness' belly was large and rounded; she was carrying another egg. Cynder gasped as she realised this was Fronen, Vetar's dead mate, who she had killed several years ago as the Terror of the Skies. Fronen continued uttering those names, blood spilling from her lips as she spoke.

She became very close to breaking down when she saw the third corpse change. It wasn't a dragon she herself had killed, but this dragon's death had shaken her terribly when it happened. It was Terrador, the first of the guardians that Spyro had murdered during the Toxic Hour. The earth guardian's body was still covered in dark, wet blood, which flooded from his head as his empty, white eyes, rolled up in the back of his head, seemed to cut right into her soul.

She knew Terrador was safe with the ancestors after seeing him during Armageddon when she met Aloelle. She knew he was safe, perfect and whole again. But it sickened her to see him in this state again. She was afraid of him in this state.

The visions of the three corpses were way worse than the monstrous distortions that the fearbringer and venomfang had undertaken beforehand. These corpses were personal to her. They had contributed to her many levels of trauma and fear. She hated the way fear comas did this, delving deep into her psyche to pull out her deepest fears, her trauma, the events that she wanted nothing more than to forget.

It's just an illusion. I'm hallucinating, Cynder reassured herself mentally, with no success as her heartbeat continued to rise at a rapid pace; she felt herself lowering to the ground as she cowered in fear. It's not real. It's not real.

Her eyes darted around between the lightning dragoness, Fronen and Terrador. Each one of them got more overwhelming to look at the more she looked between them. She didn't know which one she hated looking at the most.

"IT'S NOT REAL!" she found herself screaming, screwing her eyes shut and digging her claws into her temples.

All at once, the sounds stopped. Everything went quiet, and it felt normal again. She opened her eyes, and the red, blood-stained world had returned to its normal colour, and the bodies of the lightning dragoness, Fronen and Terrador faded back into the corpses of the dark dragons that she had killed. Eventually, they too started to fade, the magical hold over them ceasing, causing their bodies to dematerialise into dust.

The blood and decimated venomfang guts remained.

She shook her head to calm herself down, taking deep breaths to slow her heartbeat. She sighed, feeling peace enter her soul as she broke free from the fear coma. She didn't know how long she had spent inside the fear coma; it must have only been five minutes but it felt like ages to her. She closed her eyes, but the terrible images of her fear coma still lingered.

Cynder shook her head again, before standing up. At the very least, she had gotten her adrenaline rush to help combat the deep rage and hatred that she was feeling earlier. She did feel much better, despite getting retraumatised through her fear coma.

Just when she thought she could finally have a break, she heard the doors to the training room burst open, before Vetar's voice reached her ears. "Cynder? Are you alright?" he asked, rushing up to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cynder replied.

"Are you sure? I heard that you'd ended up in a fear coma."

"I promise, I'm fine," Cynder said sternly. "What do you want?"

"Muras came to ask where you were," Vetar said, and Cynder immediately groaned, knowing she wouldn't be able to get a break from Muras or Forzen. "A purple youngling was with him too. Cynder, that might be your son!"

Cynder scoffed, rolling her eyes with a scowl. "Oh, I already know about that ancestor-damned dragon. I don't want him in my life but Muras has forced it onto me that we bring him in."

"Wait, you don't…? He doesn't look to be corrupted or evil in any way; I don't get what the problem is! He's your son, Cynder!" Vetar cried. "I… I would give anything to have my kids back! I'd give anything to actually see my son! You can't just throw this away; this is something to be treasured!"

"Well, if you want a son then you can take Forzen for me," Cynder murmured.

"He's your son, Cynder. I don't know what your problem with him is but I want to see you out there with him now."

"You can't order me around. I'm in charge."

"Technically, I am. It's your day off, remember? You put me in charge. I don't know what you're doing here and it's not like we're under siege or anything where we need you regardless of whether it's your day off or not. It looks to me like you came here to run away from an important family situation, which I'm sure you know is not the way to do it. Now go out there. They're at the front door waiting."

Cynder swallowed the curse she so wanted to throw at Vetar. He wasn't wrong; she wasn't supposed to even be here today, and she was definitely running from Forzen. She hated how right Vetar was.

She let out a low growl, before stomping off towards the front door.

Hey all, bit of a shorter one but Chapter 3 is also completely ready to go so I plan to have that out in a few days' time! This chapter and Chapter 3 were originally written as one but I thought they would be better fitted to be separate chapters so I split them up (that's why Chapter 3's already fully written lol). The part that ended up being Chapter 3 was also quite long and I felt it was a bit big having all of this be one chapter lol.

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Dragon of Mystery: Yup, Cynder's relationship with Forzen in this story is a bit of a rough one, but it's to be expected with everything she's been through and what she associates Forzen to now. And yeah, you're definitely on the mark with Forzen being the titular Outcast lol; we'll definitely see a lot more of that popping up throughout the story.

deathman9999: Thanks for the review, and I'm really happy to hear that you've been liking my work so far! I can't speak too much on outcomes and what's still yet to come especially by the end of the full five-part series, but there's definitely gonna be some interesting things that'll happen lol. :)

Agwa:It's totally fine lol, I'm just happy people are reading and enjoying it! I really appreciate the reviews you've been starting to leave though, and I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying it :)

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Expect Chapter 3 within the next couple of days (trying to space things out to give people time to read this one, and also to get a start on Chapter 4... and to finish Chapter 15 of GEM as well lol). Have a great day/night everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!