FSE

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Home stretch now, but it's not quite over yet...

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Chapter 24 -- But As The Night Darkens...

That night took a turn for the worse. As Spyro and Cynder sat on the balcony, looking at the stars, a sharp, icy wind whipped through, and in mere minutes the sky was overrun with reddish-black clouds leaping with lightning. The wind screamed around them as they struggled to get back into the temple. The large door closed behind them but did nothing to relieve the sudden sense of fear and malice that pervaded the air.

"They're attacking from underground!" Terrador yelled over the howling of the wind against the temple walls. The far door opened and closed as Ignitus and Volteer ran in, closely followed by Cyril as he limped into the room.

"We're no match for them now," Ignitus groaned, his head hanging. "The Dark Master has increased their strength beyond ours now."

"There is a power source behind their strength," Volteer grunted. "I'm sincerely postive an accurate assault on their energy core should diminish their power enough for direct combat."

"Does he ever speak normally?" Cynder whispered, and Spyro sniggered. "Where is this energy core?" she asked out loud as Spyro opened his mouth to ask.

"In the sub-levels of the temple are secret rooms; they've somehow excavated and reached those rooms, planting their power sources there," Cyril explained. "I managed to destroy one while it was in transit, but I paid the price for my over-confidence against them..."

"How do we get to these secret rooms?" Spyro asked, ready to go.

"If you recall, Spyro, when I asked you to clear the temple after we first met?" Ignitus asked, and Spyro nodded. "Then you should remember finding a secret pathway used by small animals?" Again Spyro nodded. "One of the walls there is a secret door into the maze that connects the rooms. There aren't many, but it will be a challenge, and time is of the essence. Splitting up, true, would be faster, but the maze is complex and you and Cynder will get easily lost if you separate."

A hideous voice seemed to laugh in triumph against the temple as it shook under the force of the wind.

"I'm afraid we're too late...he's returned again," Ignitus moaned despairingly.

"We were too late when I defeated Cynder, Gaul, and the Dark Master," Spyro said, an angered look on his face, "Apparently I was too late when I found you, Ignitus. And yet here we are instead of under Cynder's malicious rule or the Dark Master's iron grip."

"Don't talk about me like that!" Cynder said, punching him rather hard in the shoulder but getting no physical reaction from him.

"I meant the old you, the one the Dark Master controlled. The evil, corrupt Cynder, not the pretty light-wielding one you've become."

"That's better. Now let's get going before anything else happens."

"Yes...I suppose Spyro does have a point," Ignitus sighed, straightening up. "Well, then, get going."

"Better late than never," Spyro said, and he and Cynder ran into the tunnel as the doors opened for them.

Ignitus' eyes followed them, and he shook his head. "I sense that Cynder in the end will play a vital role...though what it is, I cannot see."

Spyro roared and launched a fury of ice bolts at a tall ape standing before him. It fell over and disappeared, and he rushed over and helped Cynder up.

"I can't believe I used those things in my army," she said, rubbing her head.

"Why?"

"They suck! You killed it in mere seconds, no wonder you got to me so quickly back then!"

Spyro laughed. "Did it hit you too hard?"

"Well, knocking me out of a jump like that hurt, but I'll survive."

They had so far managed to shatter fifteen power crystals, and were hunting down the last ten. When news of their assault had spread through the tunnels, the enemy had moved a few, and by now they'd killed five shadows carrying the crystals.

"Where are the rest of these things?" Spyro asked, frustrated as he rounded a corner into a by now familiar crossing between two hallways.

"I think I can help," came a voice behind them, and they jumped and saw Sparx behind them. "No time for mushiness, I thought you'd need help and here I am. What's the job this time? Fighting more apes? Crashing an evil party?"

"Sparx, it's so good to see you again...right now we need to find ten more power crystals and destroy them before we can take on the Dark Master's forces."

"After this I'm outta here, I can't stand the feel of this place," Sparx said with a shudder. "Too dark and creepy. The swamp's a lot more peaceful and, y'know, un-evil right now."

Spyro nodded and he and Cynder watched as the gold dragonfly quickly shot down a hallway. After a brief time he returned and led them through the maze to the crystals. There were three of them, tossed in a corner, and a good whack from Spyro's horns totalled them. Sparx led them back to where they'd been and sought out more crystals.

"Y'know, back when I first came here he said he wasn't good at geometry, yet he's not getting lost here," Spyro laughed to himself.

"I heard that!" Sparx shouted from where he was. "And you still haven't taken my advice on that salad for your weight, big boy!"

Spyro rolled his eyes and Cynder laughed. "Am I missing something?"

"When I learned to fly, Sparx kept on hammering me about being 'overweight'...he couldn't believe I could fly."

"Overweight? My purple dragon?" She ran her paw over him. "Naaah...you're perfect as you are."

"I'm gonna hurl if you two lovebirds don't can it," Sparx shouted, and they laughed and Cynder pecked Spyro on the cheek. The dragonfly returned shortly, and led them to two more crystals, and from there to one more. Once again he led them back to that area and scoped out the last four.

"I just hope we can get outta here," Spyro said, looking around. "I was so focused on getting that one shadow I didn't pay attention to where we were..." He looked around, and Cynder felt a sense of worry suddenly wash over him.

"Spyro?"

"Where's Solar?"

Cynder looked around and noticed that he wasn't there with them. "Wait...have we seen him at all since we returned from the river this afternoon?"

Spyro paused. "Actually...not really...where could he be?" Spyro looked around in vain, worried about their icy companion.

"Well, while you two think about it, why not destroy two more evil-glowy crystal things over here?" Sparx asked, and led them to two more power crystals. Spyro grinned as Cynder completely trashed the dark gems with a satisfied yell.

"Oh yeah...man does this feel good," she said, feeling a strange power rise in her. Spyro sensed it and grew worried--it was a bit too much like what he felt from her back when he fought against her. She felt his thoughts and turned to him. "What is it?"

"Cynder...I can feel you growing more competitive...it feels too much like your old self."

Shock came into her eyes and she calmed down. "Really? Oh no...it's that darkness still in me..."

"Your chance will come to let it loose," Spyro said, "just don't let it take you, okay?" She nodded and nuzzled his face, and they both followed a disgruntled Sparx once again back to their usual spot in the hallway junction as he sought out the last crystals.

"I can't believe my own brother...falling for someone that tried to kill us...though I guess I did call her 'sexy' accidentally that day...guess I put it in his head..." they heard him echoing through the tunnels. Cynder looked at Spyro with a highly amused expression.

"Wait, did he really call me sexy back then?" she asked in disbelief.

"When I fought you in your tower and you took that crystal, Ignitus told me about how you and I were from the same group of eggs, and I was asking why you were so...y'know, grown-up, but Sparx filled in for me like always with his comments..." Spyro laughed. "'Evil, monstrous...big...sexy...'and his usual 'Whoops, did I say that?'"

Cynder burst out laughing and Sparx came back.

"Did I miss something here?"

"Not...not really," Cynder laughed, "apparently you like big evil girls with attitude."

"Oh geez..." Sparx groaned, hiding his face in his hands as Spyro and Cynder laughed. "Spyro...did you HAVE to tell her about that day?"

"Hey, you've said worse before...just gettin' ya back for all the insults over the years. Now what of those crystals?"

Sparx groaned and led them through the hallway, still shaking his head. Spyro and Cynder smashed the last two crystals, and felt a powerful surge of dark energy through the air as the two crystals shattered. The air vibrated and they heard a deep bass humming that shook their brains in their skulls.

"This isn't right!" Cynder screamed over the noise. Her stomach churned in the tumult and she almost threw up.

"Come on, we gotta get outta here!" Spyro shouted, and they raced through the hallways. Something was pulling at them through the walls, and suddenly the floor under them gave way as they were pulled backwards through the walls, which had somehow gone from solid to mere visions as the two dragons were sucked headlong into a dark vortex. Sparx yelled in surprise but it was too late--everything snapped back to mormalcy and Spyro and Cynder were gone.

* * * *

Spyro groaned as he felt someone shaking him awake. He opened his eyes and through his swimming vision he saw Cynder's frightened face over him.

"He's waking up!" she shrieked, but it sounded like she was a mile away.

"Good, about time!" came a familiar voice, and Spyro felt a healing coolness reach him from what seemed like a thousand leagues away, slowly bringing him back. "Yeah, he really doesn't take well to inter-dinemnsional transportation like that."

A really bad smell came to Spyro's nose and he sneezed, suddenly snapping into reality with a powerful jerk that made him reel as he sat up. Cynder screamed and hugged him, and he felt tears of relief falling on him from her eyes.

"What is that awful smell?" he asked, his voice croaking, and he coughed and swallowed.

"We're in some parallel evil dimension, much like the one the Portal of Convexity lies in," Cynder explained as she held onto him. "Remember you chasing me there?"

"Yeah...this place feels as unreal as that place did. But why can't I see anything farther out there?"

"Shadow has dominated here," Solar explained, and Spyro turned his head to see the white dragon nearby. "The Dark Master has been using this realm as a stepping-stone between your world and Paralos, and as such, many of his powerful creatures reside here."

"Oh great..." Spyro groaned, and suddenly lurched in Cynder's arms as his stomach heaved. Nothing happened, though, and he sighed in relief as the pain quickly faded. "Solar, where were you?"

Solar looked at the dark-purple ground. A few bubbles of strange, evil blue gas seemed to rise up through the translucent terrain they sat on. "I sensed a wave of evil approaching, and when I went to investigate, I was captured and they tested this trap on me."

"What trap?"

"The one they set up while we were fighting that raid on the temple; the one you two fell into an hour ago. That's what the distraction of the raid was for. And the Dark Master used the crystals for two purposes: either to power his forces and overwhelm the Temple, or to bring you here to him when he comes back. Now that the crystals are destroyed, Ignitus and the elders won't take long to fight off the attackers, but we're trapped here unless we find a way out."

After Solar made sure Spyro was ready to go again, they slowly set off. This world was very strange and foreboding, and everywhere they turned there was a feeling of evil malice, of watchfulness waiting for them to stray into a trap. The translucent purple ground and blue gas bubbles pulsated with a strange, sickening light. A black fog surrounded them, giving them no more than ten feet of viewing distance.

"Can we do anything about this darkness?" Cynder asked. "I hate it..."

"Light might help a bit," Solar said. Cynder breathed a few short blasts of random light beams, and they all heard an ear-splitting shriek and moaning as the fog completely vanished. A strange, blob-like creature jumped up out of the ground and grew to Spyro's height. Spyro quickly knocked it up into the air, and Cynder jumped up so the blob was between them. In a quick succession of blows the two dragons pummelled the blob back and forth, with Spyro finally setting it alight and slamming it to the ground.

They continued on through the dark realm until they came across a huge plate of ground with a long pit in it, and lining the pit floor were razor-sharp spikes. There was seemingly no end to the pit as they looked to the sides.

"Guess we gotta fly over it," Solar groaned. "Though I don't trust this."

Spyro tested their luck by jumping up. Instantly, huge shadowy eels appeared and began spewing fire at them. Spyro and Solar froze them solid and Cynder shattered them. One eel stretched high up into the air as it stood on the very edge of the pit, gathering energy into its slimy maw.

"Freeze it!" Solar said, and he and Spyro froze it and knocked it over. It fell into the pit and shattered, creating a makeshift stepping-stone setup that they quickly ran across before the ice and creature melted and disappeared.

After a while they felt a malicious presence sweep over them, and Spyro looked up with a growl to see a huge, shadowy dragon-shape fly overhead. "There he is...he knows we're here."

Cynder shivered and stuck to Spyro's side, and he draped his wing over her as she buried her face against his neck.

"He's challenging us," Solar said, his ice-blue eyes on fire with a sudden, vicious vengeance as the Dark Master's shadowy form flew to what looked like a gigantic mountain far ahead. "He's leading us into a trap, but we have no choice as to whether or not we fall for it in order to get to him."

Spyro groaned and led Cynder on as he followed Solar. Surprisingly, they encountered no more enemies--apparently the Dark Master's presence had scared them all into hiding.

It took them a while but they finally reached the mountain slope, and a fierce wind suddenly whipped at them. They wound around the slope until they found an opening, and entered the gigantic system of caves and tunnels leading deeper into the mountain. The rocks of the walls seemed to glow with an evil energy, and they heard a deep laughing from the very walls itself as the Dark Master watched them.

"Show your ugly face you coward," Spyro snarled. "Purple dragons don't hide in their own shadows, no matter how powerful they are."

"Oh, but I am far more than a purple dragon, Spyro," replied the voice, seemingly from the air itself. It grated on their brains with its malice, and Cynder felt her anger surging. "With my power you could easily overcome my evil desires and set things straight."

"Tempting but no," Spyro growled. "I don't want any more power than I already have."

"Everyone secretly wants more power," the voice chuckled at him. "Even your friend Solar here is envious of your abilities."

"And I don't blame him," Spyro smirked. "True, I wish I was stronger, but that would only make me like you--a coward that hides in his own shadows, behind his own powers, making others fight for him because he's too lazy and prideful in his own abilities to do the job himself."

"Spyro, what are you doing?" Cynder whispered fearfully against him.

"Telling him off for abandoning his role as a purple dragon," Spyro said audibly. "And with any luck he'll show himself instead of trying to drain our energy through the walls like he's doing now."

The air suddenly stopped pulsing and they heard a sinister growl as a dark form of Spyro materialized before them. Its red eyes glittered evilly with a vicious flame of pure hatred and corruption. Cynder pulled away from Spyro and bristled like a cat at the shadow standing before them. The shadow-Spyro sat back and glanced at her.

"Ah yes..young Cynder...my proud fighting force that has betrayed me."

"You betrayed all dragon-kind, I returned to where I rightfully belonged," she snarled.

The Dark Master calmly looked her over. "I see you and your boyfriend have both grown considerably since our last meeting..."

"My MATE you mean," she growled, her eyes never leaving him.

"Ah yes, I heard about that...Spyro, you really wished to win her over from me by laying her a few times? Under the pretense of mateship?"

"You speak like that about me or her again and you won't have a voice to speak with," Spyro snorted. 'I love her, and whether or not she really loves me in return I don't care. Even if she tried to kill me now I'd still protect her."

Cynder half-smiled as she realized his game he was playing.

"Love...such a pitiful misconception," sighed the black shadow before them, turning his back a bit to them with an amused air. "Love is what pulls you away from becoming your true self. It's nothing more than a selfish lust to have one to yourself."

"If it were so selfish, why would I protect her and not go on to another?"

The Dark Master opened his mouth and fumbled, and Spyro cockily raised his eyebrow with a smirk. The shadow shrugged. "Your loss." He turned back around and caught Spyro's eyes with his, and sparks seemed to fly between them. Cynder sensed a calmness about Spyro, and somehow she knew he was using his love for her to combat this evil entity. Eventually the Dark Master shuddered and backed away. "What power is this that I cannot stand against?!"

"Guess you'll hafta find out as we defeat you again," Spyro said with a shrug.

"Oh, so it's a fight now, is it?"

"You started the fight when you turned to darkness, don't try projecting it on me."

"Getting smart-mouthed now, are we?" the shadow-Spyro growled, and suddenly all four of them were walled in by a powerful electric barrier.

The ensuing battle was vicious and long as the three dragons took on the Dark Master's shadowy form. Spyro was the Dark Master's main target, and several times he stunned Spyro and tried to take him over. Every time, though, Cynder thwarted him with a blast of light. Finally he turned into intangible shadow as Solar lunged at him with a powerful punch that ended up shattering the wall behind the shadow.

"It would seem my prized possession has discovered the power I sensed in her long ago," the Dark Master sneered. "I had so hoped to manipulate her power, but instead it is being used against me. I am not pleased."

"I sure hope you aren't!!" Cynder screeched, and the shadow suddenly vanished, the barrier disappearing. They looked around, confused.

"We didn't kill him yet," Solar growled. "He's still there, he's just toying with us."

A strange, glowing orb appeared, and pyro suddenly felt a familiar energy from it. They heard that evil, air-trembling laugh again.

"Good luck, Spyro, against the very essence of your brother."

With that the orb of energy unleashed a beam of electricity that flew around itself and Spyro, isolating them from Cynder and Solar.

"What is this?" Spyro asked.

"Well, it would've been an exact, far more powerful and of course far bigger copy, but thanks to Solar here breaking my bond with Sparx, you get to fight this enhanced little power-orb. Have fun," the evil voice sneered, and Spyro was suddenly enveloped in a powerful electric blanket.

"NOOOO!!!" Cynder shrieked, ignoring the fact that pounding on the electric field made her jerk backwards. Solar grabbed her and held her steady as she struggled to rush to Spyro's aid.

"Cynder, there's nothing you can do, he has to face it."

"But how?!" she cried as she saw Spyro suddenly become levitated in the air and repeatedly rammed into the electric field.

"I had a feeling the Dark Master would use the energy he drained from Sparx in this final battle, but only Spyro can defeat it. I'm afraid we have no choice but to weather this out."

"How about I entertain you two while Spyro dies?" came that evil voice, and it laughed hideously as the cavern walls expanded and several huge apes in shadow-armor appeared.

Spyro watched helplessly as he was flung about the electric dome by this strange energy orb, watching as his two friends fought for their life in a hectic battle against a multitude of ape commanders much like what he'd faced trying to get to Cynder when she was still under the Dark Master's control. Rage flew trough him and he somehow snapped the bonds holding him in the air and blasted the orb in front of him with an explosive flame-bomb. The exlosion stunned it, and the individual explosive chunks that were thrown off bounced off the electric field and blew up by the orb. Spyro leapt up and head-bashed it through the field, and the elecricity died off. The orb turned into a liquid shadow as Cynder and Solar double-teamed and brought down the last ape. Spyro remembered that dream he'd had a while back of fighting in this very situation...

"Cynder!" Spyro shouted as the dark blob splattered the hideous glowing walls with shadow and concealing itself against that darkness. "Cynder, teamwork!"

Cynder blasted the shadowed walls with a few rapid beams of random-direction light, and the dark orb gave a low moan and flew into view. Spyro knocked it up into the air, and Cynder jumped up, along with Solar. The three dragons began bashing the shadowed orb back and forth between each other, sometimes releasing a breath atack on it as they hit it. Finally, Cynder felt Spyro's idea arise, and she kncked the stunned orb into the air. Spyro wheeled around, freezing time as he brought his tail around. It struck the orb with a resounding crack as the time-field snapped, and there was a hideous reek and scream as the orb vaporized.

"You're too late still!" the Dark Master called through the air and ground, laughing.

"Too late for what? I've been too late for almost everything," Spyro replied.

"And now it finally works against you," the dark, grating voice sneered, and the floor seemed to open up yet remain under them as a scene unfolded against and beneath the stone. The Dragon Temple was shrouded in a thick cloud of evil malice, and every which way was battle. Ignitus took a heavy blow to the head as a troll caught him with its club; from Tall Plains, Cane the Atllama leader was failing against a crowd of six apes, and his tribe was scattered--some beaten, some still fighting desperately to save their own lives. Cyril was hurriedly freezing foes but they still came at him. The Temple was being overrun as they stood there, unable to assist. Spyro felt a surge of hatred flow through him as Ignitus fell and the vision faded. "Your meager army is no match for mine, especially now that I am going to rid them of their final hope and take back what is rightfully mine."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Spyro snarled.

"Your body and power. You have failed in your duty to protect them all; now I shall claim your power and use it the way you should have from the start, as any purple dragon should do."

"You will not have me," Spyro said. "Nor will you have Cynder. I can tell that's what you're thinking; either me or Cynder now."

"Ah, but Solar here is also powerful. If you'll recall, he is the last living specimen from my testing. Even without your powers or those I still have in Cynder, I can still use Solar quite effectively."

Solar bristled, his eyes visibly lighting up in his rage. The Dark Master appeared again, and Solar snarled in pure, outright rage.

"Go for it," Spyro grinned at him, and the Dark Master was suddenly at the mercy of Solar's wrath. Cynder was scared, but no longer feared Solar as he bent his entire life's suffering and seething hatred and rage on the shadow that had messed up his whole life. Spyro and Cynder helped with an occasional fireball or other elemental blast to keep the dark dragon off-balance as Solar spun madly, a living whirlwind of joints and claws and ice power fueled with insane rage. With one final, impressive motion, he grabbed the Dark Master by the neck, choked him with one solid grip that could shatter steel, threw him into the air, and sliced through him with the crystal at the tip of his lithe white tail. The evil shadow let loose a gut-wrenchingly deep moan of despair as he flew through the wall, the rock shattering from the impact and revealing another chamber beyond. Solar landed and grunted as his rage drained, leaving him exhausted but satisfied. He charged at the wall and in three swift jabs opened the hole enough that he and Spyro and Cynder could pass through into the next chamber. The shadow-Spyro lay there, horribly mangled from the brawl, but stood up and shifted into a tall, evil dragon with cruel horns and long wings. Even though he was shadow still, his body gave off an evil purple glow.

"Such power..." he said in awe as he scanned Solar, "it's such a pity you never joined me; instead you wasted your strengths guarding a pathetic city that, in the end, never even needed you." Solar launched a blast of ice at him, but the Dark Master vanished into the pulsing air. "If you wish to defeat me, you must find me." With that they were plunged into darkness and they felt him leave.

"I can't see!" Cynder shouted, and Spyro felt her cling to him. He wrapped his wing around her and opened his mouth, unleashing a toned-down lightbreath that briefly lit the room. Unfortunately, the darkness was so thick that the beam hardly gave anything to go by.

"Spyro! Cynder! The crystals!" Solar said, and they all released the light crystals at once. The room seemed to light up with the power of the cleansed, glowing four-point gemstone stars as they turned and faced each other from where they hovered.

"It doesn't help much..." Cynder groaned.

"Hang on," Spyro said, thinking rapidly. This seemed familiar...

** "Three lights in the dark of the evil night shall shine forth, but two will outshine all else." **

"Spyro?" Solar asked, stepping towards him.

"Solar, remember the prophecy you told me of? 'Three lights...two will outshine all else'?"

Solar briefly paused. "Yes...I remember now..."

Spyro thought of how much he loved Cynder, and suddenly his light crystal blazed forth and the cavern grew a bit brighter. Cynder gaped at him.

"How are you doing that?"

"Thinking of you," he smiled, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She got the hint and focused on her feelings for him, and Solar grinned in awe as her crystal's light melded with that of Spyro's crystal, and the entire cavern was lit enough for them to see where they were going amidst the thick evil fog. They led the way, and Solar brought up the rear with his lit crystal. Something was trying to grab at them from behind, but olar's light prevented it. Cynder leaned against Spyro and he put his wing over her, their love powering the crystals as they wandered the halls, seeking their foe. Cynder felt the Dark Master cringing before the onslaught of their love and light, and in fifteen minutes they finally found him in a cavern almost right by the mountain's outer edge--they could hear the evil wind howling ever so faintly through the stone wall. The walls lit up as the light energy pervaded them and energized them, driving out the Dark Master's evil control and partially cleansing the rock.

"So you've found me," he snarled, his wings quivering. "And now I take what belongs to me after my long waiting." He rushed over to Cynder, but a blast of light rent through his shadowy head and sent him flying back. Spyro closed his mouth and the three crystals faded back to their owners, their light still glowing throughout the room. The huge evil dragon slowly picked himself up, glaring malevolently and spitefully at Spyro. "You shall not defeat me so easily, stupid lizard," he said, and the final confrontation truly began as several protective crystals appeared around the Dark Master and a system of evil plating covered his body.

Cynder dove in front of Spyro, shattering several dark crystals hovering around the Dark Master with her multi-directional lightbreath. Solar delivered a shattering punch to the shadow-armor the huge dragon wore, and within minutes the Dark Master was reduced from a gigantic, evil terror to a dragon just a little bigger than Solar, flying through the air, gathering dark energy to himself and blasting at the three dragons. The chamber was slowly growing as the hideous being raged on against his enemies. He screamed in agony as Cynder unleashed her Fire Fury, roasting him in a white-hot pillar of volcanic flames. Solar followed with an Ice Fury that froze the entire chamber, the resulting shards impaling the Dark Master as they shattered and flew at him. Cynder went into a mad flurry of melee blows, the darkness in her growing again as she used its influence to avenge her years of torment under the Master's evil dominion.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!" he shouted, and blasted them all backwards in a Dark Fury that slammed them against the stone walls. "Now Cynder's remaining power will be mine, and with that, I will crush you all!" Cynder opened her eyes as his shadowy claw reached out towards her, a ball of destructive dark energy forming around his claws. Spyro blasted the Dark Master's evil paw, and the evil entity screamed as the shadowy power forming his paw was seared away with the light energy. He snapped at Spyro as the purple dragon flew at him, and received a destructive fireball to the face as Spyro raced past him. The Dark Master's tail crushed Spyro against the wall, and Spyro fell to the floor as the evil dragon lifted his other paw and pointed it at Cynder, again gaining dark energy. Solar jumped up and grabbed the Dark Master's arm, and the light energy that flowed from his paws shattered the Master's arm. Solar was flung back and skidded along the floor past Cynder as the evil dragon charged up his breath, aiming straight for Cynder. She was trying to get up, but she was too badly hurt.

"No...please..." she begged helplessly. A stray energy beam hit her and knocked her out briefly.

Spyro watched, struggling to his feet, but when she was hit, his rage boiled over. This was that dream he had not wanted to tell her...this was that moment. He knew what he had to do and he did not second-guess. He had to protect her. The Dark Master could not have her. HE WOULD NOT HAVE HER. Gathering all his power and strength, Spyro leapt forward and barrelled towards the Dark Master's gaping mouth and the dark energy gathering there, thinking only of Cynder's safety.

Cynder opened her eyes and struggled to sit up as Spyro raced towards that huge shadow, and heard him roar as the Dark Master unleashed his built-up power. Time energy flew around Spyro as he darted forward recklessly.

"CYYNDEERRRR!!!!" Spyro screamed at the top of his lungs as he leapt into the path of the beam with a hyper-powerful blast of light aimed directly at the Dark Master...the manifestation of a Light Fury. As if in slow-motion, Cynder saw it all...

The dark beam hit Spyro...he shook violently under the powerful stress as the light energy around him raged...the dark beam backfired and hit the Dark Master as he reached out to grab Spyro...the explosion of the shadow and light sent Spyro headlong into the wall as the Light Fury blasted the Dark Master ruthlessly...he fell with a sickening thud and skidded over to Cynder as the Dark Master's shadowy form flooded over him in a last-ditch effort and vaporized around him with a deep, wailing groan of defeat...

Cynder sat in shock as Spyro lay there, and Solar lifted his head to see Cynder painfully crawl over to Spyro. She sat up and held his head in her arms, listening desperately against his mouth for any signs of life.

"Spyro...please, Spyro..." she said, shaking him, but he was completely limp. "Oh no...please...please, no..." she sobbed, feeling his chest desperately for a breath...a heartbeat...a pulse...a muscle-twitch...anything...

Solar shakily stood up and stepped towards Cynder. "Cynder..." He looked at the ground, shuddering as he restrained sobs. "I should've known...that was the vision...I should've done something..."

She shook her head desperately, tears flying from her eyes.

"No, it can't be! He wouldn't leave me! Spyro, please, I'm begging you! Please, DON'T DIE!!!!" She clutched his head to her ruby chest as she cried, desperately hoping against everything that had happened that he was still alive...that his selfless action to save her wasn't his end.

But he had given himself for her safety...he had stopped the Dark Master's final attempt to regain Cynder's power.

Spyro, that purple elemental machine that had again brought down the Dark Master...Spyro, the savior of the dragon realms...Spyro, the only one that had ever truly loved Cynder and cared for her...he had given everything of himself in his love for his emerald-eyed, ruby-bellied, night-scaled mate.

Spyro, the most powerful dragon short of the defeated Dark Master...was himself defeated.

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just keep reading...when the next chapter comes out, just keep going.