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Well here is the 22nd installment of the Spyro Chronicles; I hope you can forgive the delay. Well enjoy!

Chapter 22: The Archilles

The UERMC Nighthawk's engines flared, showing that she was still capable of flight, which was a miracle to Wagner. They put all the fuel that they could find on board and Wagner assembled a team to board the Archilles for the second part of the plan. They had failed to find survivors at Alpha but nonetheless they were going to assault the Archilles and get its stash of fuel. All they had to do now that they were at the temple was get ready for the next assault.

Cynder stood in Spyro's room, balling from the memories of him walking inside of it. She imagined him walking up to her and kissing her lightly on the cheek, her even returning the kiss but air only greeted her lips. She couldn't bear to be without him any longer, she wanted his embrace and she wanted to be loved.

Allison watched Cynder try to kiss the air and knew that she was still stricken with grief over Spyro. She sighed and Karson walked up and saw Cynder inside of the room.

"We need to help her..." Allison said to him.

"There's nothing we can do... the only person who can help her is Spyro but he isn't here." Lt. Wagner came up behind them and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Karson, Allison, listen, I want this to go underway as soon as possible so get over to the balcony. I need to speak with Cynder alone." They both nodded and reluctantly left to the balcony.

"Cynder? Mind if I have a word?" Wagner asked, walking into the room and removing his helmet.

She turned and greeted him with her teary green eyes. She looked back at the floor as Wagner approached. He sat down on Spyro's bed and invited her to do the same. She just sat where she was and Wagner sighed.

"Look Cynder, I know it must be painful, but right now we need all the help we can get. That ship up there is infested with creatures and we need that fuel to get to Tall Plains. We have a team to go there, but I need you to be on the Nighthawk that extracts them. The apes probably know about what we are trying to do and will try to stop us. I need someone powerful to be present to help get the team out of there."

Wagner reached out and placed his fingers under her muzzle and brought it up to where her tear ridden eyes met his own.

"Cynder... I need you to be that powerful one. Would Spyro want you sulking around? The only reason why he did this was to protect you. The least you can do is use this time to act and to save anyone else you can. Do you think you can do that?"

Cynder looked up at him and nodded, tears falling from her eyes as she did so. Wagner smiled at her and she jumped onto the bed where Wagner sat. Wagner placed his hand on her and began to rub it. Cynder let out a sob and Wagner finished his rub with a pat on her shoulder. At this time Karson stepped into the room and waited for Wagner to see him and get up.

"Is everything ready?" The officer asked him.

"Yes sir, the teams are in place and everything is go."

"Good, let's get this over with." Wagner said as he got up and walked over to the door. He turned back and saw Cynder get up off the bed and walk over to the doorway. She eyed Spyro's bed one last time before leaving. Before she exited the door she muttered one last sentence.

"Goodbye... Spyro..." With that they left the room and walked out to the balcony where the last Marines sat in anticipation of the assault.

Karson and Allison sat in the troop bay of the Nighthawk as it speed in the sky towards the formally human controlled warship. The plan called for a strike team to be inserted into the ship, locate the supplies and use a life pod to escape. When the pod crashed, the Nighthawk would swoop in with a recovery team and they would extract the strike team. From there they would go back to the temple, outfit and rest and then launch a one way strike on Tall Plains.

The strike team consisted of Karson, Allison, Wagner, Henderson, Linburg, and Karlos. The other marines would wait at the temple and be part of the recovery team. As they headed out over the forest, many signs of the conflict that had riddled the realms for the past few weeks were starting to show. Craters dotted the landscape, areas were scorched by explosions, pillars of smoke rose from the forest and fires dotted the once peaceful forest.

Spyro and Cynder had once spoke of how this place had been hammered by war before, and of course the Darkmaster was to blame. He led his armies in a siege against the dragons and this grueling scenario was repeating itself for probably the third or forth time. And like before, the fate of the dragon realms lay in the hands of a small bunch of dedicated people.

They had once had an entire army of Marines and Lakadors waging war against the Darkmaster. Now there was less then 15 active combatants waging a futile resistance against the Darkmaster. Karson dreaded the moment that they would inevitably fight him. According to Spyro, it had been a pain in the ass to defeat him the first time. Who knew just how powerful he had become and weapons he was waiting to use against them. Only time would tell and they would have to be ready. Even without his brothers there, he knew that they would have to fight and fight to the very end. If they didn't, then this entire place and possibly all of life would be purged into darkness.

Karson looked out and saw that they were approaching the Archilles. They neared an open hanger bay and the craft descended low enough for them to jump off. The team disengaged the aircraft and proceeded into the hanger bay. The ship hadn't changed much, the only thing different was that they were the only humans left on board the craft. An eerie silence filled the ship as they left the hanger bay in search for a supply room. The supply rooms were located near the hanger bays and had a direct link to the life pods on the same end of the ship.

As they entered the supply room they found a good amount of fuel that would for sure get them to Tall Plains and then some. Karson was a little surprised that they didn't get jumped by the Plague as soon as they set foot in the ship. Now the only problem was getting the fuel to the pods quickly. They set the fuel on a trolley and began to move it to the nearest life pod bay. They reached the bay with no resistance at all.

As they tried to open the doors to get inside the door would not accept any access codes.

"What the hell?" Henderson asked as he typed furiously on the data pad.

"Here's your problem." Karson held up a chewed through piece of wire.

"Damn, the Plague must have cut all the circuits running to these pods, we will have to find another way out." Wagner said. They started to move the equipment through the Archilles in an attempt to find another life pod bay. What they found were sounds all around them, following their every move.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Linburg said in a worried feeling.

"Damn it boy your gonna jinx us!" Karlos yelled to Linburg. The hull of the ship moaned and claw marks could be heard all around them. The empty halls only amplified the sound, causing it to echo amongst the men.

Something then moved in the shadows and the lights cut off. A scream echoed through the halls and every marine in the hall way opened fire.

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Spyro flew over the mushrooms, scanning the ground for any signs of movement. He had been flying for a bit and the morning air felt great against his scales after that terrible night. He still bore the scars of his decision; several scars ran across his chest, a testament to what he had tried to do to himself the night before. He had to find Cynder; he wanted to tell her that he loved her and that he would never leave her again.

It wasn't long before he noticed how low he was flying. His wings felt extremely tired as did he himself. He swooped in onto a mushroom and leapt the rest of the distance to the ground. He decided to walk the rest of the journey. As he walked he saw the Archilles still airborne, a single Nighthawk flying away from it and back to the temple in the distance. Spyro picked up speed and raced towards the distance human ship.

As he went farther he felt strange, like his stomach was getting queasy. As he went farther into the foliage and mushrooms he saw small fires and smashed mushrooms lying all around. Pieces of large blue metal shards littered the ground as well. Some pieces were more then several times Spyro's size. As he looked around he noticed even larger pieces of wreckage dotting the area. This was all too much for a single fighter or drop ship, there was just way too big of fragments to just be from them.

It then hit Spyro as he saw an enormous piece of wreckage that was easily several hundred feet in length and height. Spyro was obviously standing in the crash site of the Lakador cruiser that had blown up earlier. The queasiness was more then likely from radiation and it wasn't a good idea for Spyro to hang around any longer. He darted away from the destruction as quickly as he could but soon dashed behind a large piece of hull as he spotted several apes digging through the remains of the ship.

As Spyro watched he saw them picking up pieces of metal, intact rifles, pieces of armor and what not. Spyro didn't want to know what they had planned for that metal. As he watched his foot pressed hard against a twig lying on the ground next to him and it snapped. The sudden sound caused all of the apes to look at the young dragon who quickly gulped at muttered "Uh oh..."

The apes let out their usual battle cry and yelps as they leapt and approached Spyro. Spyro left his cover and pasted his battle face on and quickly met the first ape with a kick to the groin. The ape flew backwards, only to be replaced by another which Spyro flicked away with his tail. Spyro leapt back as more dashed at him. He lifted one up with his horns and met him in the air with one of his melee attacks which sent the ape back to the ground and right into a cluster of apes. They all toppled over and Spyro let loose a jet of ice which froze them where they stood.

Spyro felt as though he had more energy, more power. He didn't know where this came from though but he didn't care really. In fact he liked it. If it gave him the strength to see Cynder again then it was worth whatever it was. He dashed out of the area and into the forest again. He kept up a steady pace, moving out of his path as he had to avoid stalks and mushrooms. He nearly lost his balance as he came to a halt right at the Silver River's edge. As he crossed the river he noticed a cave on the other side. Upon entering he remembered this cave. It was the same cave in which he and Cynder had first admitted their love and where they first mated.

As the memories flooded back Spyro smiled. He remembered their feelings toward each other and how much they had loved each other. He had been a fool to leave her. He would protect her... though he had to be there with her. He would be there always for her and he would always love her... just like she loved him.

As he left the cave he heard some sounds coming from the forest ahead of him. They sounded like distant gunfire and were more then likely marines in need of support. Soon Spyro was dashing to the source of the sound, and into the unknown.

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Anderson hit the dirt, narrowly avoiding a sword slash. He recovered and rolled to the side and picked himself off of the ground. The ape that was attacking him let out a roar before coming again. Anderson met his sword with the butt of his SMG and hit it back. The ape staggered but swung again. Anderson managed to bring his SMG to bear and he blocked the swing and locked himself in a stalemate with the ape. Though the ape was shorter it managed to keep on Anderson. Anderson finally let up, allowing the ape to fall into his own weight. Anderson then refreshed his strength and threw the surprised ape off of him. He swung his SMG until it was to bear and squeezed off a short burst. It was enough to blow the ape to the ground.

Anderson then turned his attention to the other two apes that were engaging them. Robinson had his hands full, trying to fend off the two apes that were swinging a club and sword at him. Anderson managed to put a burst into the back of one of them but the other knocked Robinson to the ground and thrust his sword deep into the soldiers back.

"NOOOO!!!!!" Anderson shouted as he threw his SMG down in rage and dove at the ape. He knocked him off of the marine and onto the ground. Anderson unsheathed his combat knife and ran at the ape who managed to get his sword back up. The ape knocked Anderson's combat knife out of his hands with the sword and delivered a swing to the chest. Anderson's armor withstood the blade but he was still hit with the force behind the swing and fell over onto his back.

The ape let out a howl of victory and approached the HACO. He used his sword again but Anderson rolled out of the way. He saw his M10 lying next to him and retrieved it. He pointed it at the ape and pulled the trigger. The ape didn't last long with a fury of 9mm flooding his chest. He flipped onto his back and skidded about a foot from the impact.

Anderson got to his feet and ran to the motionless Robinson. He flipped the marine over and saw that his eyes stared vacantly into the void and that the sword had gone all the way through. Private Robinson was dead. He held the soldier in his arms and felt a trickle of water flowing down his face. This would be the first of many soldiers to fall under his command. What had been a trip to the bathroom had turned into Anderson's worst screw up ever. Because of him, Robinson was dead.

At this point the rest of the squad ran up, attracted by the sounds of gunfire. As they ran up they saw Anderson holding onto a dead Robinson. Riley ran up and put his hand on Robinson's head and sighed. He had been their first casualty of the day, but he wouldn't be the last. Not by a long shot.

"Sir? We have to get moving, those apes heard that and are no doubt on their way here right now." Tamez said to the Cpl. Anderson who got up, looked the soldier in the eyes, and walked off towards a large clearing. The others sighed and followed close behind.

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Linburg yelled as he fired his M74D from the hip, as did the rest. The lights flickered back on, revealing that a small group of Plague had tried to rush them, but they had failed. The soldiers recovered and reloaded their assault rifles.

"Come on, life pods are this way!" Wagner yelled and soon they were back underway. The other life pod bay was next to theirs, but many sealed bulk heads forced the team to take turns, detours, side passages, and a number of other alternatives. Many of them were infested with Plague who didn't want the human team to leave, ever.

As they neared the second pod bay a cluster of Plague attacked them again. Karson blasted a group with fire while Allison froze several and stopped them dead in their tracks. The other marines fired their rifles and picked off the others. While they did this, Karlos and Henderson moved the trolley down the hall with the vital fuel. As they were preoccupied with the Plague in front of them, two fell from above and grabbed Karlos. The force in which they did caused him to fall to the floor while struggling to keep them at bay.

Henderson grabbed one of them and managed to toss it onto the deck. He then engaged it using his pistol which made short work of the creature. However, as he turned to Karlos, he just looked in time to see the soldier get bit in the neck.

"SHIT!" Wagner saw this and used his rifle like a club, knocking the Plague clean off of Karlos and into a wall. The other marines blasted it with assault rifle fire which silenced it quickly. Karlos slumped to the deck, blood and dark liquid oozing from his neck.

"Karlos can you hear me?!" Linburg said to him as he shook Karlos who started to shake and fidget. Wagner drew his pistol and pointed it at Karlos who stared at his commanding officer.

"Linburg step away from Karlos." Wagner said coolly. Linburg looked up and looked the officer in the eye. He didn't back away from Karlos though.

"Sir what are you..." Linburg started but saw Wagner pointing his pistol directly at Karlos.

"Wait sir! Maybe there's anoth-"Linburg argued but was promptly cut off by Wagner again.

"No there isn't, step back Linburg! That's an order!" Wagner barked, Linburg shot him a look of disgust as he slowly got up and walked away. Wagner continued to point the pistol at Karlos who began to shake uncontrollably and his eyes began to turn a darker shade. Wagner worked the pistol's slide and Karlos began to have muscle spasms as his genetic make up was being reassembled into that of a Plague. Even with all this going on, Karlos managed to salute the man before him. Karson could have sworn he heard a sniff from Wagner as he fire the pistol.

A crack blew the silence of the halls away as Wagner fire the weapon. Karlos slumped over onto the deck, a hole sizzling on his forehead.

"Linburg... grab the fuel and load one of the pods... we're getting the hell out of here..." Wagner said, a deep and suppressed cry in his voice.

"Fine, sir." Linburg said as he walked off, pure hatred in his voice. Wagner paid this no mind and looked at the soldier he had just killed. He saluted the dead marine and looked at Allison.

"Sir? Are you alright?" She asked him.

"I'm... fine..." Wagner replied back to her. He walked into the life pod and the others followed close behind. Once they were inside of the pod they felt the ship shudder and accelerate as it left the ship and over the forest. Even though Allison was the one flying, she shot a glance at Wagner who she was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his hands on his face. She wondered just how much that killing affected him, though she couldn't ponder too much on the subject as the pod raced across the forest beneath them.

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Spyro darted through the forest and tried to gain flight but for some reason his wings would not catch the wind. They seemed flimsy and weak and he was forced to run through the mushrooms to find where the gunfire had originated. As he dashed into a clearing, he was met with a most unpleasant surprise.

He saw two dead apes along with a marine lying on his back, a stab wound clearly marked on his chest. The ground was littered with bullet casings and blood. Spyro felt queasy at first but noticed that the sight of blood stabilized him. He felt invigorated as he approached the dead marine and sniffed his blood. The cent of iron filled his nostrils and he felt oddly satisfied. He banished these thoughts from his head and walked over to another clearing, shooting glances back at the corpse the whole way.

As Spyro continued he started to feel weak. His wings felt like they had been in use for days without end and he was starting to feel as if his insides were rearranging themselves within him. As he continued he noticed that there were moments where blood would cut off from his head for a split second, temporarily causing Spyro to loose his footing and stumble. He started to fight off the urge to drop where he stood as he continued to walk, loosing energy as he continued. Spyro didn't know what was causing it though, that fight earlier hadn't really drained him. He hadn't done anything that he would have considered "extreme". And yet there he was, nearly dragging himself through the forest as he tried to find anyone who might be in the area.

Spyro heard a loud sound and looked up. He saw a craft come out of the port side of the Archilles and shoot overhead. The object went out of his view and he heard a bang several hundred yards to the right of him. It wasn't long after that that he saw a Nighthawk drop ship soar in the air, and straight for the object. It must have been the life boat. This was Spyro's chance. He had to reach it in time. He ran off towards the crash site but soon collapsed onto the ground. The exhaustion coupled with the radiation proved too much and Spyro was knocked out where he lay.

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Anderson was almost in a daze like state. Ever since he was forced to watch that soldier die because of his screw up, he had been walking in-coherently. Time and time again one of his fellow soldiers had to stop him from walking over a dead tree stump or even from walking off a cliff edge. Suddenly an object soared overhead and crashed a few dozen yards from their position. The object brought Anderson back to reality and soon he was moving like the HACO he was.

"Picante! Front and Center!" Anderson whispered, trying to maintain a degree of stealth. Picante ran up in a semi-crouch position and stopped beside Anderson who was crouched as well. He used a hand signal to usher the rest of the men into the same position.

"Picante, take O'Brian and scout out what that thing was, we will move to that position up ahead and cover your exit." Anderson whispered, pointing to a hill which overlooked the crash site. Picante nodded and ran in a crouched position with O'Brian to the hill. The rest of the squad followed but stopped at the base of the hill.

Picante used his sniper rifle to zoom in on the target and found that it was a life pod which had crashed. He saw a few marines walk out of the back and scan the area around them. Picante was about to call Anderson and tell him that there were friendlies in the area when he spotted an ape in the corner of his eye and knew that there was going to be trouble. The ape turned out to be one of ten shadow apes which emerged from the mushroom line. Two of them wielded .50 cal Browning M2s which looked as though they were ripped off a jeep. The others carried either an assault rifle or a sword. The two with the 50s opened up first. The marines in the pod immediately dropped to the ground. Anderson ran up, attracted by the sounds of gunfire.

"What the hell?" He asked as he walked up beside Picante.

"Sir, we have friendlies down there! They are pinned down and need support!"

"Copy, alright squad front and center!" Anderson yelled to his squad who formed up on the hill. The apes hammered the position with assault rifle fire, but the ones wielding the 50s had stopped firing and were yelling at the marines in the pod. The marines in the pod fired back, but the .22 ammo was useless against the shadow apes. That presented a problem for Anderson, the most powerful weapon they had were frag grenades and they only had 3 of them. They would have to use them and possibly commandeer those .50s.

"Alright, Tamez, Riley, your with me! Picante, O'Brian, stay here and cover us with the sniper!" Anderson ordered.

"Yes sir!" Picante replied. Anderson ran through the mushrooms that lined the open area in which the pod had crashed in. The terrain was pretty flat, minus the cliff that overlooked the pod. The apes controlled the far side of the field and Anderson wanted to get behind them by using the mushrooms. As the trio of marines neared the apes, they pulled out their fragmentation grenades and prepared to pull the pins. Anderson used hand signals to coordinate the throw. As he finished they nodded and they chucked the grenades underneath the shadow apes.

The three grenades they threw detonated, throwing lethal shrapnel and explosive force to the apes they were underneath. One of the apes wielding the .50 cal machine gun was shredded as the shrapnel blew through his unprotected underside. Three others were blown apart and one was thrown from where he stood and landed on his back. The ape was injured but it was still able to fight.

"Fire! Now!" Anderson yelled to the two marines beside him. The mushrooms exploded in assault and sub machine gun fire as they opened up on the weary apes. As the smoke from the explosions cleared away, terror struck Anderson. One of the apes wielding the .50 turrets had survived and turned the machine gun on them. The marines in the pod opened up as well, hammering the surviving apes with machine gun fire. A few frag grenades flew from the marines in the pod and the other shadow apes were shredded. Only one ape remained, the one with the .50 cal. It roared as it fired on the life pod, its armor piercing rounds blowing straight through the pods thin walls. The marines hit the deck and some continued to fire at the monster.

"Son of a bitch! What the hell do we do now?!" Riley yelled as he watched the ape hammer the marines in the life pod. Suddenly the ape with the .50 exploded, his armor flying outward and body parts accompanying them. Anderson stared blankly at the dead ape and wondered where that came from. That was too powerful to be a frag grenade, the only other weapon that could do that would be a...

"Sir look!" Tamez yelled to Anderson who saw what the private was looking at. He saw several figures on top of the cliff overlooking the pod. One of them was clutching onto a rocket launcher while others carried assault rifles and other rifles. Many were marines while some were Lakadors.

The marines down in the life pod cheered and got out to see the marines that had saved them. Anderson motioned to the ones beside him and they joined the marines in the center. Picante and O'Brian also ran up. Anderson saw that one of the marines in the opening was a Lieutenant. He saluted the officer and he saluted back.

"Sir! Cpl. Thomas Anderson, HACO 223 Beta Division!"

"Lt. Wagner, Psi Company, who are the others with you and where did you come from? Did you retreat from the temple?"

"No sir, we crashed while on route back to the temple in a Nighthawk and we have been on the move ever since. Another one is also from the Archilles and the three over there are from Psi Company sir."

"So those three are from Psi?" The Cpl. Nodded.

"You three, front and center!" He yelled to the three marines who ran up and saluted their commanding officer. As they talked, the other cluster of marines and Lakadors walked down the cliff and joined the others in the center.

"Yahade'!" Karson yelled as he saw one of the Lakadors approaching. The two braced into a short hug before Karson broke away and smiled. Yahade did the same.

"Lieutenant, sir!" Said another marine as he approached Wagner, a Second Lieutenant emblem apparent on his shoulder.

"Lieutenant Buckman reporting sir!"

"Buckman, glad to see you made it, give me a status report on the rest of Task Force 2." Wagner said to the other officer who began to lead Wagner away from the group to give him the report.

"Sir, not so good. About a half hour before we launched we were hit hard by ape forces which blew right through us. There was this one ape that had this unimaginable power which just hammered us. We tried to rally a defense but we couldn't. I got as many survivors as I could and retreated east. We picked up some Lakadors on the way but all that's left is what you see with me. 2nd and 3rd Platoons got separated so I don't know if there is anyone out there we can find, but so far, this is it."

"Well I have some bad news as well..." Wagner started but stopped and recalled the events of the past few days. He sat down on the ground to catch his breathe as did Buckman.

"For starters, the temple has fallen, several marines are dead or missing, Spyro has gone missing, possibly KIA, Cynder's heart broken, and it seems as though we are the last people fighting the Darkmaster who now has a sure way to come back." The officer explained.

"So in other words it's a FUBAR situation..." Buckman stated with a depressed manner.

"Yea, that just about sums it up... Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition..." Wagner said as he kicked a rock on ground before standing back up.

"But sir, if Colonel Dyke is dead or missing, then you are the commanding officer of all UER forces here."

"Hmm, never thought about it like that but I guess your right."

"Well sir, what do we do now?"

"Well, right now I have formulated a plan to assault Tall Plains and fire the final solution. Right now we have a Nighthawk with fuel we just raided from the Archilles that we can use to get to Tall Plains and that Nighthawk is on its way here right now to pick us up. Shouldn't be long before we get this operation done here."

"And what about Spyro sir, you said he was missing or possibly dead?"

"We ran into some new hostile that tried to make Spyro side with him and Spyro almost did. Spyro felt guilty about it so he took off and we haven't heard from him since. That was a day ago and I have a gut feeling something happened to the poor bastard so I don't know anything else."

At that moment a large yell broke the silence and several apes emerged from the sanctity of the mushrooms. Most were either unarmed or had swords, none carried a rifle. The marines poured gunfire as did the Lakadors. Soon a new weapon joined in the fight, a .50 cal machine gun mounted on the belly of the Nighthawk drop ship. The apes retreated back into the forest when the Nighthawk came and the marines cheered as the drop ship landed. The rest of the 1st Task Force along with Cynder poured out of the troop bay and greeted the strike team along with the new marines from the 2nd task force.

The marines quickly boarded the drop ship and it speed up and left the site. As it speed along Cynder couldn't help but feel something, as did Wagner. She felt as though something important was down in the mushrooms and she couldn't shake the feeling off. Suddenly it hit her like a rock.

"Turn this thing around." She said to the pilots.

"What?" One of the pilots asked.

"You heard me! Turn this thing around!" Cynder yelled to the pilots who looked at each other. The Marines and Lakadors looked at Cynder with confusion in their eyes. Wagner realized what she was talking about and joined her in the cockpit.

"You heard her, turn this thing around." Wagner ordered. The pilots looked at each other once more before letting out a sigh.

"Right sir." They turned the craft around and it soared back to the crash site.

"There, in that mushroom line." Cynder said, pointing to an area in the mushrooms with her claws.

"Right, put her down!" Wagner ordered again. The ship landed and Wagner and Cynder came out of the troop bay.

"The rest of you stay here, we will scope this out." The officer said as he landed on the ground and followed Cynder into the mushrooms. As they went they saw what they were looking for, a purple dragon lying in the pathway. It was Spyro. An ape was hovering over Spyro, checking to see if he was dead. Cynder saw this ape and blindly charged him and knocked him into the mushrooms before clawing it in the face. Wagner approached Spyro and felt for a pulse. He was relieved to find it still there.

"Cynder! He's alright!"

"Oh Spyro! I missed you!" Cynder sobbed, placing her muzzle on Spyro's unconscious form.

"C'mon, lets get him out of here." As Wagner said that, he grabbed Spyro and carried him back to the drop ship. Many of the Marines cheered as they saw Spyro in Wagner's arms but there was no time for celebration, they were still not finished and would soon be on the move again. As they boarded the craft the Nighthawk speed up and back towards the temple. Cynder nuzzled against Spyro, she was so happy to know that he was fine and not going to die. This was probably the happiest she had ever been in a long time. She had her love and her life back, and it was all thanks to Wagner who kept her together and encouraged her to keep going.

Now that the whole gang was back together, they would have all the more chance of victory and now Wagner was sure they could stand a chance with Spyro back and with these new forces. Maybe they could beat back the Darkmaster and the Plague. And maybe, just maybe, they might just make it back home.

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End of Chapter 22

Well I hope that sooths you guys, hopefully I can get the next chapter up, but only time will tell! Until then, you will just have to ask REAL nicely or wait. Lol.