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Hmmmmm...things are getting darker...what could happen next?

If you're under 18, please, get outta here. I'm getting tired of writing this over and over 'cuz you're not supposed to be here.

Chaper 20 -- Night Leaves...

Spyro woke up with a start as he heard Cynder crying nearby. He tried to move, but felt himself snared in a dark net. He looked around...the air around him was blurred, but only five feet away from him was Cynder in a similar net, suspended from the ceiling. He reached out towards her but his arm couldn't reach that far.

"Cynder..." he said sadly, and she looked at him. He felt a pang of despair run through her.

"Oh Spyro...why? Why did we have to come out here?"

"We'll get out of this, Cynder..." he replied, but she shuddered. He felt a darkness around her that didn't belong there. "Please...stop crying, I can't stand seeing you so upset..."

"What's it matter anymore?" she said, her paws over her eyes. "Everywhere I go I feel this darkness...and it only helped them track us down...we can't get out of this now..." She sobbed and Spyro felt tears coming to his own eyes. Anger coursed through him and he struggled against the net. A few cords snapped but the rest of the net stayed firm. As he struggled and Cynder silently wept, they both heard a door below open, and Spyro watched as a flood of shadow creatures entered. Another dragon came in--light blue, but through the blurry air Spyro couldn't tell anything else.

"Treat them nicely and make sure they don't escape...we need their genetic coding." The dragon left and Spyro felt a guarding malice in the room. He stopped struggling and grunted.

"Cynder...I'm so sorry about everything..." She only choked in response.

After a while more dragons came in, and Spyro knew that they were about to begin some kind of experimentation. There was an evil hanging in the air, and he wrestled against the net. The dragons laughed at him and he heard machines start up. He looked down and saw the dragons leave, the small army of shadows grouping underneath him...

Suddenly, out in the hallway, sirens went off, and before he knew it he heard the doors to the room violently flung open. He twisted around and saw a white blur shearing through the shadows, flinging them left and right like leaves, knocking the dragon scientists to the side without any second thought as they backed up from the hallway into the room. As the blur moved, it clicked in Spyro's mind...this was what he'd seen in that dream! Solar quickly dispatched every last enemy in the room, flew up to Cynder and Spyro, and cut clean through their nets. Cynder just let herself fall, but Spyro caught her and carried her as he swiftly followed Solar through the hallway.

"I've located the crystal on the maps, but we have to get there NOW," Solar urged. Luckily for them, the hallways were wide enough that they could fly, but Solar's long wingspan meant he had to perfectly align himself with the hallway as they passed through. Solar stopped and Spyro just barely kept from slamming both himself and Cynder into him. Peering around the white shoulder, Spyro saw a team of scientists there, blocking their way.

"You're not leaving this lab!" one of them shouted, and they flew at Solar. Spyro sent a beam of electricity at them from behind Solar and they fell to the floor, twitching and moaning. Their lab armor, apparently, was not very well made against lightning. Solar flashed a smile at Spyro before shooting off again.

"Solar, slow down a bit," Spyro said, and Solar turned around and waited as Spyro carefully slung the despondent Cynder over his back. She was severely depressed for some reason that wasn't fully clear to Spyro, but right now he only wanted to get her out of here. "Don't worry, Cynder...I'll get you safely back to the Temple even if I have to fight this entire lab myself." He felt her heave and a few tears fell onto his back as he raced along after Solar.

They encountered quite a few turns, and Solar growled, deciding walking would be faster and more energy-efficient than slowing and turning mid-flight. Spyro was panting under Cynder's weight, but he forced himself to keep going, knowing that if he stopped or paused for even a second they'd lose precious time to escape.

Spyro wondered at how acute Solar's memory was...they had been running for a while now, and Spyro was about to drop Cynder. The sirens were far off in other tunnels but their monotonous, repetitive moaning was still audible, and Spyro was growing frantic as he desperately wanted to escape that noise. Finally, they came to an elevator shaft, and Spyro gently lay Cynder on the floor of the elevator. She was spaced-out and unresponsive as she just lay there. Spyro felt a sharp pain run through him at the sight of her, and he ran a paw along her face. She merely blinked, continuously staring ahead with unfocused eyes. Spyro laid his paw on her side, and somehow felt that her mind was in turmoil. As the elevator descended, Solar impatiently tapped his hind feet, grunting in frustration.

"You'd think they'd've put a teleporter here instead of this outmoded box," he said to himself, and wrenched the doors open as soon as the trip ended. "I'll carry Cynder, Spyro, you need rest."

Cynder turned her head away from Solar and clenched her eyes shut. Spyro shook his head and tenderly picked her up, sprawling her over his back again. He then followed Solar through the tunnel, and they were confronted with a choice of teleporters.

"Okay, an elevator, yet they put teleporters here..." Solar shook his head, not seeing the sense of it, but thinking back to the maps he had Spyro follow him through the middle one. Sirens went off behind them but silence fell as they came out in another lab deep within the heart of the mountain. Cynder shuddered on Spyro's back and he knew what was ahead: the darkness of the next crystal. The security doors were locked tight, but Solar roared and cut clean through the deadbolt and forced the thick steel doors open, breaking their tracks in the wall. He panted with the effort but shrugged it off and continued inside. He spoke a strange word and the lights snapped on. Their light seemed to get sucked into the crystal that hovered in the center of the room, wires affixed to it and multiple machines on standby along the walls. Solar turned to Spyro.

"This is the last of the crystals, as I've found out. I thought taking them would alter the energy sources of Paralos, but the archives have absolutely no record of public use of their energy. Only three crystals have survived the experimentations, and you and Cynder carry two of them."

Spyro looked around, and Cynder finally moved of her own will and slid off his back. He looked at her, but she stared at the floor, and he felt intense confusion and sadness emanating from her. He twisted his tail around hers, trying to cheer her up a bit, but she made absolutely no response. A dark feeling assaulted Spyro, and Solar jumped as the purple dragon growled.

"I don't like this...something is definitely here," Spyro said, looking around. Solar's eyes narrowed but he restrained his wrath--he knew full well what was guarding the final crystal.

"Spyro, when it appears, don't make eye contact, and hit it in the tail."

"Huh?" Before Spyro could ask for a repeat, he was blown backwards by a powerful attack of dark energy. Cynder ran to the side and hid in the shadows like a small, frightened animal. Spyro hit the wall but shoved off of it, ignoring the dull pain along his back as he landed, ready to fight back. Solar sprayed ice everywhere, and Spyro yelled in surprise as some ice revealed an invisible tail swinging right at him. Even though he jumped, the tail caught his and sent him into a vertical spiral to the floor. With an almighty yell Solar flew at whatever was attacking them, and Spyro heard his fist crunch against metal with a loud crack, and a split-second later the opposite wall dented and something fell to the floor. Their foe quickly came into view--it was a mutated dragon, with bright glowing yellow eyes. Its armor cracked from the dent of Solar's punch and fell off as the dragon slowly got back up.

"LOOK AWAY! It's an enhanced clone!" Solar shouted, and Spyro averted his eyes from the creature's glowing yellow orbs. He saw a glowing spot on the dragon's tail, but before he could attack it, the rabid beast lunged wih a sharp-fanged snarl at Solar. Spyro took the distraction and stunned the creature by hitting its tail with lightning. Spyro held the power as long as he could, and Solar pummelled the dark mutant in the head and neck as many times as he could before Spyro's breath gave out and he gasped. The dragon immediately snapped out of its paralysis and bent its full rage on Spyro. Spyro leapt at it, bashing his skull against its teeth, and it fell to the side in pain. Solar blasted its tail with ice, and Spyro quickly melted the ice with a perfectly-aimed fireball.

The dragon flew up into the air, gathering the energy from the crystal into itself. Spyro and Solar tried to attack it but there was a powerful field flowing from it, and they were blown backwards as a dark flash blasted from the hideous mutated body. A dark fire seethed across the darkened scales as the being tried its hardest to tear the two dragons apart.

Spyro desperately charged up a blast of lightbreath, and fired when he had his chance. The light blasted straight through the dark flames and focused on the dragon's tail, and the mutant's roar shook the room. Spyro kept his breath going until he felt dizzy. The evil creature immediately pinned Spyro under its huge paw, and whipped Solar into the far wall as the white dragon rushed to Spyro's aid. Spyro couldn't breathe, and his eyesight was wavering as the beast lifted its razor claws to tear his head apart...

Out of the shadows, multiple beams of light flew, and two of them focused on the dark dragon's exposed tail. Cynder screamed as she spent all her energy and rage at the beast, and it finally fell off of Spyro with a defeated roar, exploding in a powerful wave of dark energy. Solar painfully picked himself up off the floor, staring at the enraged Cynder standing there, her back arched, her face contorted with intense anger as she stared at where the dark dragon had been. Spyro gasped for air, dizzy and weak from the weight of the creature, lack of air, and the depletion of his elemental energy. Solar limped and stepped over him, placing his paw on Spyro's head and closing his eyes. Light flowed from the white paw and over Spyro, giving him strength enough to catch his breath.

"Now for the crystal..." he said, glancing up at the star-shaped gem pulsating with dark clouds. Spyro groaned and shakily lifted himself off the floor, standing there for a minute as he reeled. Finally he forced himself to fly up onto the crystal's pedestal. Cynder was sitting on the floor, staring at the floor, completely unaware of what was going on around her.

"Cynder! Please, snap out of it!" Spyro shouted, but she didn't respond. He was angry with her, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for her...she was struggling with something so badly she couldn't function outside of herself. Spyro felt Solar's paws on his back.

"I may not be able to fill the crystal, but I can give you the energy to cleanse it...at least I hope."

Spyro gritted his teeth, slowly and hesitantly reaching for the crystal. With grim determination he laid his paws on it and held tight to it. He roared as the burning darkness flowed along his forelegs, but at the same time he felt healing light flowing from Solar's paws into him. They were both incredibly weary, and several times the light in the crystal began to fade, but Spyro refused to give up. He looked at Cynder through his pain-teared eyes, and a sudden anger at what had happened to her flared up in him, and the light from him quickly eradicated the shadow in the crystal. There was the typical burst of light from the star as it was healed of the darkness, and Spyro fell to the floor, exhausted. Solar grunted and landed nearby, drained. The crystal floated down to him, and he stared at it as it came to him and faded.

Though they were all weary, their fight wasn't over yet. The lack of dark energy suddenly sent the room into meltdown as the machines overheated, and loud, panicking alarms began sounding.

"EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY," came a mechanized voice from unseen speakers, and an escape pad appeared in the room. Spyro started for it but Solar grabbed his tail.

"It leads to where all the other scientists are going to be," Solar warned. "We need to fly out of here, NOW."

"But how?" Spyro cried. He just had enough energy to stand up, but flying?

"There's a secret escape pad inside the elevator shaft that leads to the portal we used to get here in the first place. But we need to leave." As he ended, sparks flew from the ceiling as the control units overheated and began falling apart. Spyro picked up Cynder again and stumbled as he followed Solar into the hallway. The elevator had been taken up to the highest level, but in the shaft, lower down, they saw an emergency portal. As Solar activated it, there was a loud explosion behind them as the teleporters malfunctioned, and Spyro and Cynder nearly fell into the elevator shaft. Solar finally got the escape activated and they fell into it as it turned from sideways against the wall to horizontal across the vertical tunnel. They landed on the floor in front of the blue portal home, and Solar grabbed both of them and threw them through the portal just before he himself was blown through by a tremendous explosion.

Spyro and Cynder woke up later in a cave around a fire. Solar was nearby, in a sleep so deep he might as well have been dead. Spyro crawled over to Cynder, but she turned her head away, a tear falling from her eye. Outside, the mountain wind whipped violently by the cave mouth, a loud whistling scream boring into their ears.

"Cynder...please, tell me what's wrong...I can't stand seeing you like this..."

She simply sighed and put her head on the ground. He was hurt...why was she suddenly so sullen and depressed? With a heavy sigh he stood up and slowly paced around the fire until he was across from her. She closed her eyes and sniffed, and he looked on sadly. What was wrong with her?

The nght went on with an unending wind. At length Solar finally showed some signs of life and groaned in his sleep, slowly getting up. He saw Spyro lying there, tears running down his face, and across the fire he saw Cynder, similarly sprawled but fast asleep, a tired, sad look on her face. Spyro didn't see or hear Solar leave the cave as he lay there hovering between consciousness and sleep. Solar returned to find Spyro sitting at the mouth of the cave, shivering, staring out into the night blizzard. He put down the sticks and small dead tree he was carrying and ushered Spyro inside. Spyro offered no resistance and just lay on the floor, gazing forlornly at Cynder. Solar put the dead tree on the fire. Though it was tiny, it instantly blazed up and threw a bright, warm light trhought the tiny cavern. The white dragon sat down next to Spyro.

"She's been through a lot...I'm afraid my outburst scared her a bit too much..."

"He's attacking her," Spyro said softly, and Solar looked at him. "I can feel her feelings...she's under attack..."

Solar looked back at Cynder. "That dark field is gone, Spyro..."

"That's not it," Spyro replied, still looking at the small black dragoness. "He's put thoughts in her head, but I can't tell what, because she won't tell me anything."

Solar sighed, thinking, but he came up with nothing. With a heavier sigh he stood up and went outside, leaving Spyro alone. After a while Spyro fell forward, asleep without even realizing it. Solar sat there in the snowblast of the mountain's fury, and even though he was used to the cold, he shivered...Flare came back to his mind and he clenched his eyes.

"Flare...I'm so sorry...you deserve better than a monster..." He lay down in the snow, his tears freezing against his scales. He snapped his head up when he heard her sweet laughter.

"Oh, Solar...what better to protect me but a monster? The ice monster I fell in love with?"

"But Flare...I don't want to hurt you...if something happens..."

"I know you too well, my poor stupid dragon...you won't hurt me."

He cried--he knew they were somehow speaking across a great distance, but it didn't help him in the least.

"Flare...please, tell me where you are..."

"I can't...I've tried so hard, Solar...I'm only allowed to give clues. I'm so sorry, Solar..." She was crying. "I really, really miss you..."

"I remember Aurora," he said, but she was gone as the wind continued its ruthless assault on him. He sniffed as he tried not to cry and sneezed as the cold air partially froze the inside of his nose. With a frustrated grunt he turned quickly and went inside.

Morning came bitter but it quickly warmed as Spyro carried the depressed Cynder on his back. The entire flight was silent, and when they were finally clear of the mountains they landed and had something to eat. Cynder ate two berries and refused anything else, still not speaking or looking at the two males as they tried their hardest to get her to tell them what was wrong. With a frustrated grunt, Spyro finally put her on his back again.

"Cynder, you're not making this easy on any of us," he said, and she buried her face against the back of his neck as he took off after Solar. They flew as fast as they possibly could, and made it back to the Dragon Temple late at night. Spyro slumped to the floor, thoroughly worn out. Solar picked up both Spyro and Cynder and carried them to their bed. Cynder was already asleep--she had been for half the trip. Spyro wrapped her in his arms and wings and cried silently...what was wrong with his mate? What was going on behind that beautiful but troubled face?

"Cynder...please...it hurts me so much when you're like this...please, tell me what's wrong!" he begged, slowly and fitfully falling asleep.

Sparx was well enough to fly the next day, but his celebration wasn't much as everyone quickly found out about Spyro and Cynder's struggle. Sparx was confused until he saw Spyro and Cynder in that huge bed, asleep. Ignitus called him away and explained what had happened while the dragonfly had been sick. Solar came in and the two were quickly introduced as Solar insisted on tending to Spyro and Cynder. For a while Sparx was silent as he watched the white dragon pour light energy into the two young dragons. The dragonfly buzzed out of the room and hovered over the balcony until Spyro finally trudged outside and lay down on the stone flooring.

"Hey, purple buddy! ... Something wrong?"

"Oh...hey Sparx..." Spyro muttered.

"What is this around here? I nearly lose my life, and here I am, good as new, and everyone's all depressed? What did I do for this?"

"Nothing, Sparx," Spyro replied. "It's Cynder..."

"Ahhhh...I heard about you two," the dragonfly said, trying to get a smile or something from Spyro. "Is it really true?"

"Is what true?"

"You know! You pairing up with the dragon that tried to kill us a while back!" He meant it in fun, but Spyro only sighed.

"I'm sorry, Sparx...I'm just....yeah, it's true, but...things just aren't going well right now."

"I see..." Sparx wasn't feeling his goofy self anymore, and looked out over the mushroom forest. "Well, if there's nothing for me to do here anymore, I'm gonna go visit home..."

Spyro looked up at him, but put his head back down. "Whatever you want, Sparx. Go have fun..."

Sparx looked at him for a bit, then with a sigh he flew off and headed back to the swamp. Spyro watched him fly away, mouthing a goodbye, and stayed still for a while before shaking his head and heading into the temple aimlessly.

Later that night, Spyro walked out onto the balcony, sensing Cynder feeling lonely and sad. She didn't even look at him as he sat next to her. A pained look on his face, he nuzzled against her.

"Cynder...please, my love, what's wrong?"

She sighed and held back tears. "I keep bringing darkness into our life together...to everyone around us...I'm no more than the Dark Master's tool..." She hopped up onto the railing and Spyro stood up, alarmed.

"Cynder?!"

"I can't stay here anymore...I can't keep bringing you harm..." She shuddered as she tried to restrain a sob. "I can't stand seeing everything happening because he's still using me..."

"Cynder, please, no...stop it!"

"I can't," she sighed, and tears fell from her eyes. "You're better off without me, Spyro..."

"That's not true!" he said, jumping to his feet. "I swore I'd protect you, Cynder! And I will!!"

"But you can't," she said, crying, and he stopped. "This shadow is still in me...you can't hold it back any more than I can..." She was choking as she spoke.

"Please...Cynder..." Spyro begged desperately.

"I'm so sorry...g-goodbye, Spyro," Cynder sputtered, and took off, leaving Spyro in a state of shock and confusion. As she flew off, she heard him roar in sheer despair. The pain in his voice brought her to the edge and she screamed with him, tears running down her face in torrents, her wings still carrying her small black frame into the distance.

Spyro roared until his lungs gave out and he fell to the floor. His paw hit something gold and shiny, and it sent him into an uncontrollable wave of tears as he picked up the bracelet.

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but it's not over yet! This is only chapter 20 and there's 25...I'm putting up chapter 21 right after this, don't wanna leave you hanging too long!