The Innocent Behind the Monster
#2 of Dawn of the New Era
Here is the first part, tell me what do you think.
Chapter 1: The Innocent Behind the Monster
Present Day...
The new purple dragon, Spyro, and the black dragon, Cynder, were now fighting the last battle with Malefor, the Dark Master, whose was very mad. There was simply no way he could be defeated by those two younglings, not after everything he had gone through to get to this moment. As for the young dragons, they were just trying to do their best to defeat the mad evil dragon and save the world and everyone they lived for.
Malefor, ticked off by those two for their interference, just screamed, "You cannot defeat me, I'm eternal." Soon after he said those words he exhaled his most powerful convexity breath, which the two young dragons countered with their own breaths of convexity.
The breaths collided, making the walls tremble with the energy. The young dragons were using their strength to deal with all the power the Dark Master could muster. But they were still fighting, because they had things that the evil dragon don't have: they have something worth fighting for.
They both had a whole world that they wanted to save. Spyro had his brother Sparx, the guardians and Cynder, his best friend. Cynder had all the people she knew now, the wish to redeem herself for all the pain she caused and Spyro, the one that saved her and that she came to love. Spyro said to Cynder "Just hang on." The young dragons mustered power they both didn't know they had and advanced along with their breath, that won the battle power with the dark master hitting him with great power that brought him down to the crystal in the center of the world.
The two young dragons landed on the crystal, both slightly panting due to the effort they put in that last attack.
"We did it." said Cynder. But almost immediately after that they heard a moaning. They looked to see the Dark Master getting up with a lot of effort and start limping slowly to them.
"I'll kill you." he managed to rasp between pants. "I'll kill you both." the young dragons were startled by this; he managed to fight even after all that he suffered? But those where empty threats. It was practically over. He was completely exhausted. Every word he said, every move he made, everything took all his remaining strength. It was taking all his power to just not fall dead right there. He would not survive another attack, and while he knew that, he just refused to let be defeated.
Spyro and Cynder take fighting positions, ready for the last attack from the evil dragon. But then, something happened.
In front of the two, between then and Malefor, appeared a strong, blinding light, which startled then all, but not more than what happened after. The light took the form of three dragons that were completelly made of light, and were facing the young dragons, like they were protecting Malefor from them.
The young dragons returned to the combat stance, thinking that it was another trick of the Dark Master, but the dragons turned away from them and were now facing Malefor.
"What is this?" Asked the confused dragon. Then the three dragons made of light them jumped against him, tackling him as they melted on him, covering his body with a bright light. The two young dragons now had become very confused. Malefor just screamed and struggled desperately, trying to get rid of the light dragons that he could feel crawling over his body and even going to inside of him. But then he heard voices, voices that talked to him and that sounded strangely familiar.
"Malefor, please, stop this." said the first, feminine voice.
"We're not here to hurt you." said the second voice, this too a female.
"Don't fight against us, just let us help." said the third voice, that was the one of a male.
Something on those voices calmed down the Dark Master, making him stop struggling, and soon after he lay down, his consciousness fading. The two young dragons watched, amazed, as the dragon know as the Dark Master laid in the ground as he started to shrink, till he was in the same size as Spyro and Cynder. The light then died down and revealed a much younger dragon, around the same age of the two heroes.
The two were staring at the now young Dark Master, till Cynder asked, "What happened?"
"I-I don't know." Spyro said. They would have checked better the young one in front of them, but their thoughts got interrupted by the quake that shook the world, a strong reminder that it was breaking apart.
"What we do now?" asked a desperate Cynder, only to have Spyro answering, "I don't know."
Then in this moment Spyro heard a voice, Ignitus' voice, inside his head, saying.
"Spyro, when a dragon dies, he not truly leaves this world, he brings a new light, a hope to the future."
After hearing those words he opened his eyes, his mind plenty sure of what to do.
"Cynder, get out of here."
"No Spyro, let's run away."
"For were Cynder?" the purple dragon asked sadly. "The world is breaking apart, but I think I can fix it."
Cynder looked at him with a determinate look as she said, "Then I'm with you."
The young dragon looked at his companion, in part worried for her, in part impressed by her spirit and grateful for being suck a good and loyal friend. At this he raised from the ground, his body starting to glow in a purple light. Cynder watched as his body glowed stronger and stronger, amazed for suck a display. They could not survive, she could not have another chance, and she had to say it now. Gathering all her courage she managed to whisper to Spyro three words:
"I love you."
As she said that the light became blinding, and spread to the very world, making it resume its course, and making the world that was breaking apart be whole again.
The prophecy finally got fulfilled.
After the world was restored, in the valley of Avalar, everyone was coming out of their hideouts, looking around, and then they knew who to thank to.
In the sky, could be seen a star formation that resembled the purple dragon named Spyro.
In the Chronicler's library, the old dragon was busy looking at his books.
"Yeah, everything had gone well. But yet, it is far from over." he said.
"And now, with this new era, a new chronicler must take the role. And it's up to you, Ignitus." The former fire guardian walked from the shadows and toward the blue dragon.
"What do you mean by saying that it's far from over?" asked the red dragon.
"I mean, my friend, that the danger for the dragon realms still existing."
The fire dragon got shocked by this statement. "But Malefor is defeated."
"Malefor wasn't responsible for his acts."
"What?"
"He got forced to act this way for another, many more powerful force. The real danger for this world still lurks in the shadows."
Ignitus was very much surprised for this revelation. Malefor wasn't the real treat to the world? But then who was? And, if this force was far more powerful than him, than what would happen to the world?
"What may be done?" he asked the chronicler worriedly.
The ancient dragon simply said "The books in here have many of the answers. But here's what I can say to you: the two young dragons that saved the world this time will be our greatest hope, along with the others, especially Malefor." These were his last words before he faded in a bright light. The job had now been passed to Ignitus, making his appearance change, making from him the new chronicler.
Ignitus only sighed as he said. "Yeah, young dragon, it seems like your mission isn't over yet."
In a field in the realms, three forms were lying in the grass, one black and two purple. One of the purple forms, Spyro, slowly opened his eyes, looking around, seeing Cynder lying in the same field as him.
"Cynder!" he bolted and ran to her.
"Cynder! Cynder! Please wake up!" He said shaking her, hoping that she was alright.
He got relieved when she opened her eyes and asked "Spyro?"
"Cynder! Oh, thank the ancestors!"
The black dragoness got up and looked around, seeing the place where they were in that moment. "Then... We did it?"
"Yeah, I think we did."
That was when they heard a groaning coming from behind then. They looked around to see the now younger Malefor lying in the grass, still unconscious. They were at first scared, but soon they overcome this and looked a little closer. He indeed looked a lot younger, around their age, his secondary set of horns seemed that had just started to bud, but there were something more: the evil aura they could feel around him when they fought was now gone.
Cynder then asked "What we do with him?"
Spyro got to thinking and then said "Better take him back to Warfang with us. Maybe the guardians know what to do."
They managed to hold in Malefor and raise fly carrying him. And then they started to head back to Warfang.
During the trip Cynder was kinda awkward. She talked to Spyro.
"Spyro?"
"Huh?"
"About what I said in the core of the world..."
"What?"
Cynder was surprised by this and said "Yes, what I said back there. Did you hear me, didn't you?
Spyro tough a little and said.
"No, I think I didn't, I think that when I used up all my energy to put the world back together I must have blanked out. What did you said?"
"Wha- No, nothing. I mean, it was nothing important." She said quickly.
"Oh, ok than." Spyro answered.
He didn't hear her! It had taken all of her courage to say that in that critical moment and he simply didn't hear her. And she would never have courage enough to say that again.
As for Spyro, he was just wondering what was going on with Cynder. He always admired her for her strength and her heart. And to tell the truth, he actually loved her, but didn't tell because he was too afraid that she would reject him.
And so the two dragons keep their way back to Warfang, carrying the third dragon and without saying one more word.
They got across entire fields of grass and rivers. Luckily they knew enough of the topography to know the way back to the dragon city just by the field. They flew for a few hours, and the great city Warfang was in view at the midday.
They fast approached the gate of the dragon city, landing around twenty feet from it. They gently deposited the now young Dark Master on the ground and looked to the gates, quite unsure of what to do.
They knew that if they bring him inside the city he could very well cause serious damage, but if they leave him alone he could escape, and if one of them stayed to watch him he could attack and, they shuddered, even kill one of them. They keep thinking on this problem till they heard voices.
"There they are. They survived." screamed Hunter's voice. That seemed it was coming closer.
The two young dragons turned around and saw the elders and the cheetahs coming right to them. And they saw a little yellow glow coming very fast towards then. It was Sparx.
"Spyro, you're alive buddy." Sparx said happily, hugging the dragon's nose. Spyro could only smile back to his adoptive brother and say "Yeah, it's good to see you again."
Soon the others reached then. There were much talking and some people were cheering. Terrador then spoke "So it's it. Malefor is gone."
The two young dragons shared a look.
"Well, about that..." Spyro said and started to explain of what happened, making the cheetahs talk among then and the guardians adopted a serious look.
"Wait a minute," said Meadow, how was among the cheetahs. "Did you bring him here!" He said sounding outraged.
"He was weak and almost dead." Spyro said in defense "And after what have happened we didn't know what to do."
They were so distracted that they didn't notice that the former Dark Master had tiredly opened his eyes and was now trying to get up. Sparx noticed and his face adopted a terrified look. "G-guys."
"You didn't know what to do? I'll tell you what you should have done, you should have killed him." screamed Meadow.
"Guys..." Sparx called again, seeing the other purple dragon starting to get to his feet.
"Meadow, please, I'm sure that they only did what they thought being the best." Hunter interjected.
The young purple dragon Malefor was almost on his feet, Sparx was completelly terrified "Guys."
"Please, silence." Said Terrador in a firm tone. "We are all confused, but now we must ponder about the problem we have in paws."
"GUYS!" Sparx screamed. The others finally noticed him and followed his look. Their faces paled as they saw the now young Malefor finally getting to his feet.
Everyone reacted quickly. The cheetahs aimed their bows and the two young heroes and the elders assumed fighting poses, ready for any attack. But it never came.
The young Malefor blinked his eyes, that were no longer that yellow, evil-looking ones, but instead were normal, friendly and of a royal purple. He looked straight to the young dragons.
"You-you two..." he said. His voice was now different, a lot younger, and that secondary evil tone was gone, actually, that voice sounded really nice to hear. The younger Malefor looked everyone around him, and the destroyed wal.
"This place... No, it cannot be..." He said, more to himself then to anyone else.
He suddenly started to move. Everyone expected him to attack, but instead he gone till a great rock that was around and started to slam his head against it.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" He repeated every time he hit his head in the rock. This startled everyone how was in there.
Spyro gone till him and make him stop "What are you doing?" the younger Dark Master looked at him scared for a few moments, then whispered to himself "It wasn't a dream..."
"What?"
"It wasn't a dream..." He repeated, but a little louder, but still seemed that he was talking to himself. "IT WASN'T A DREAM!" He screamed on the top of his lungs, startling everyone even most, before he fell over again unconscious.
There was a deep silence in the place. Most of people, especially Sparx, were like, 'What the hell just happened?' Meadow then stepped forward with a knife draw, advancing against the unconscious form of the former Dark Master.
Spyro noticed him and stepped in his way. "What are you going to do?"
"What it looks like? I'm going to get rid of him once and for all."
Spyro never really liked the Dark Master, but after what had happened he didn't think that he could let him be harmed. He didn't know exactly why, but for some reason he couldn't let him be harmed. "I-I'm not letting you do this." He said to Meadow with a determinate tone.
"What, are you on his side now? Just get out of my way."
Then Terrador interjected. "Meadow, calm down."
"But-"
"I know your feelings, but in the light of what had happened it would be foolish to act without knowing what is going on." This argument defeated the cheetah, which reluctantly sheathed his knife again and walked back to his place.
"What about him?" asked Cynder gesturing towards the young Malefor.
Terrador got to think, and then said "We're bringing him inside. We'll put him in a room and enchant a spell to prevent him from escaping. You two will keep an eye on him, just for precaution, while we discuss what to do now." That's when the earth dragon noticed one thing. "Where's Ignitus?"
Spyro and Cynder shared a sad look, and then they started to tell everyone the sad fate of the fire guardian.
Far from there, a dark dragon with red markings all over his body was sitting on a throne when one of his minions, a little dark humanoid that seemed made of shadows with red glowing eyes, walked to him and spoke, "Master Balthazar, Malefor got defeated."
"I know you dumb head. If he wasn't then the world would be destroyed." The black dragon named Balthazar retorted harshly.
Then the figure said, "And he got purified."
"WHAT?"
"Yes master, somehow he got purified from the darkness you inserted on him." said the small figure to his master. "The two young dragons how defeated him take him to the city of Warfang. He is now on jurisdiction of the guardians."
Balthazar could only look away and say to himself, "This wasn't in my plans." He then turned to his minion and said, "I didn't expect this, but it is not big deal. Prepare to send some of our forces to Warfang. It's time to remind them of who is the real Dark Master."
Back in Warfang, the young dragon known as Malefor was put in a locked room, in a bed in the ground. And now he was moving very much, lost in a dream.
(Malefor's Dream)
He was in the middle of a great field, he was surrounded. Every side he looked he saw several dragons, cheetahs and other creatures. All of them were looking at him with hate and despise.
"Here is he." said one cheetah. "The Dark Master. The one how did all of this to our world."
"He's a monster. A demon that was sent from hell just to cause death and suffering." said a mole.
The young Malefor, who was scared and hurt by those words tried to defend himself. "I-it wasn't my fault. T-that black dragon. He was the real responsible."
"So it was him how destroyed our homes, how killed our loved ones, how tried to destroy the very world?" asked a dragon.
"Well, no but..."
"It was you. You did all of this. The black dragon only give you the power to do so." another dragon said, his voice filled with hate. "You're the one who brought all this to the world."
"B-but I..." the young purple dragon tried to talk, but his toughts were interrupted by one voice that come behind him.
"They're right."
The young dragon turned around to see a great dragon, red with an orange underbelly and wing membrane; he had dark red eyes, and a stern look. "They had always been right."
"Father!" the young dragon said.
The older dragon that was his father just looked him with anger and disgust. "They have been right all along. You really were nothing but a monster."
"Dad..." the young dragon said, his heart starting to sink.
"You had always been a great and immeasurable problem. You had always been a burden to me and your mother since you hatched, and this was your greatest deception ever." the fire dragon continued his tirade. "I should have killed you after you left your egg. I never loved you anyway."
This was too much for the poor little dragon, his eyes started to get went and tears run down his face. He didn't try to hide then, as he used to do in front of his father, at this point it didn't matter. It didn't matter because his father, the one he always wanted to please, the one he always wanted being proud of him, now was telling him that he was his biggest disgust, it didn't have any way of this becoming worse.
"And here I thought I've wasted my time with you." said a second, feminine voice.
He opened his eyes and looked up to see a new dragon, a female that was green with wood in her underbelly and wing membrane, her eyes of a jade green. He instantly recognized her. "Mom!"
She had a look that was for great disapproval. "Since you hatched I took care of you, have protected you, cheered you up. If I knew you're going to do those things, I would have killed you right way and not wasted anymore of my time." She said harshly to the young dragon, that was now completely destroyed "The only good thing of this all, is that after you're looked up in that dimensional prison, I was finally free of you."
This was all that the young dragon could take. He started to cry and sob his heart now in pieces.
"You know, they're right," Talked a third voice, this one dark and scary, from behind him. He quickly turned around, and faced himself. His other self, the one that came to be know as the Dark Master.
"Look around, we made them pay, we made everyone that make us suffer pay with their own suffering. We got everything we always wanted."
"NO!" the young Malefor screamed. "You're wrong, I just wanted the others to respect me, to look at me with pride, I-I never wanted anyone to suffer... I NEVER WANTED ANY OF THIS!"
The Dark Master only smiled and said, "Maybe, but yet we did it, now everyone knows us, everyone fears us. No one will ever forgive us for what we have done, no one will ever accept us back, and no one will ever forgive YOU." And with those words he started to laugh, that terrible, blood freezing laugh.
The young dragon was devastated, terrified. "No, no. NOOOOOOOO."
The young Malefor woke up screaming. He looked around panting, the memories of his nightmare still fresh in his mind. Then everything came back to him. The things he had done, the way he fought the two dragons, the way he was defeated, the look in everyone's face when he first woke up.
His heart was completely in misery. He started then to cry uncontrollably. All he ever wanted was that the others respected him, that they were proud of him. He just wanted to be loved.
And now, he was the Dark Master, the one that everyone knew as the greatest of all monsters. It didn't matter that he wasn't in control of himself, didn't mattered that he regretted it and wanted to redeem himself, they would always see him as a monster, and he knew that nothing would change it.
They all hated him, they all saw him as a monster, and he saw himself as a monster beyond all forgiveness. All the ones that could be on his side were now long gone, along with everything he ever had in his life.
He had nothing more to live for.
Outside the room, Spyro and Cynder were guarding the locked door, in the case of the former Dark Master tried to escape while the guardians argued to decide what to do now. They were both in front of the door, sitting on their hind quarters, Sparx constantly flying around then.
"Sooo, the guy just tried to kill you and destroy the world, and you two decided just to bring him here?" said Sparx. "Well, it was not your brightest idea."
"It seemed the best thing to do," Spyro retorted. "And Cynder surely agrees with me."
"Yeah, evil dragon, evil dragoness, it seems like they are feeling like a family." Cynder gave Sparx a death glare.
Then they heard a scream coming from inside the room, it was short, but yet they heard. "I think he got problems." Cynder said, but Sparx quickly put in the middle.
"Oh, you're simply going in for hearing a scream from him? It can very well be a trap." As soon as Sparx said those words they could hear a small crying come from the room.
"Sparx, maybe we should see if he's okay," said Spyro.
"Oh, come on, are you falling for the old trick of the false crying? It's emotional blackmail. When we were young and mom and dad were angry with me I did it almost every time, it usually worked."
Soon the crying became weaker and seemingly stopped.
"See? Everything a theater." Said Sparx like someone saying to someone else that the sky is blue.
"You don't worry with him?" asked Cynder to the dragonfly.
"After he tried to destroy the world and kill everyone? Let me think-NO."
"Well, I think it don't make any bad just checking." Spyro said picking the key in his neck and unlocking the door. They opened it to see the room. It was pretty good and well illuminated. In the ground was the small circular bed with white sheets that the former Dark Master was supose to be in. But the said dragon wasn't in sight.
Spyro looked at the room and tried "Malefor? Are you there?"
Sparx was hiding behind Spyro's horn and said weakly "If you're thinking in attacking, better think twice, bub. Those two will kick your ass again." But there was no answer.
"Maybe he had flown away." tried Cynder.
"No, remember what the guardians said, the magic they put in this room voids the breath powers and the flying, or they would not have put him on a room with a window."
Sparx looked to the said window and said "Well, maybe they're wrong, look!"
The two young dragons looked over to see now the young Malefor on the window. At first they tough that he was going to escape, but then they noticed it didn't seem like this, he was with his head down and they could still hear small sobs coming from him. He seemed not have noticed that the three were now there.
"What is he doing?" asked Cynder. Immediately after this words, he moved his wings to the front of his body, and a ripping sound was heard when he used his claws to rend his wings, crying in pain.
This completely startled everyone.
"Wow."
"What the..."
"Ohh, mad dragon, mad dragon, let's get outta here before he see us." Sparx whispered to the two. But the two young dragons didn't take any attention on him, their eyes still focused on the young Malefor, with his severed, bleeding wings, and seemed now be looking at the sky. Suddenly it hit then: he was going to jump.
"No, wait." Spyro tried to say, but Malefor had already thrown himself from the window.
What the two dragons did next they did without thinking twice: they ran and flew to the window, diving to catch the former Dark Master while he fell.
Malefor was just there, without moving, without screaming, just waiting to hit the ground and finish this for once, to finally pay for everything he did. Then Spyro and Cynder flew to him fast, they grabbed him by his front legs and opened their wings, saving him from just a few meters before he hit the ground.
Malefor, surprised for not hitting the ground, opened his eyes and looked to the sides to see Spyro and Cynder holding on him. They had just saved his life.
The two young heroes placed the dragon on the ground gently, Malefor just looked at them with a questioning look, before asking, "Why?"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Why didn't you just let me fall?" Malefor repeated the question "Why did you saved me?"
The two were kinda confused by this question, but Spyro stepped forward and said "Because it seemed like the right thing to do. I mean, we would not let someone just kill himself, no matter what he had done, right?"
"I would let him." said Sparx, who was hit by Cynder's tail.
The young Malefor looked at Spyro and Cynder like they had just grown second heads, his eyes then started to water.
"Spyro, Cynder, I... I don't deserve this." He started to cry again without any control, surprising the two and leaving then really worried. "After all the things I've done, after all I've tried to do, especially to you two, I don't deserve you to save my life, I don't deserve you being nice to me, I don't deserve anyone being nice to me." He said in tears.
"Yah know? I agree with the nutty dragon," said Sparx.
"I didn't want any of this, but it wasn't my choice, I couldn't control myself." Malefor cried.
Everyone got surprised by this statement. "Wait, couldn't control yourself? What do you mean?" asked Spyro.
"He is nuts, he took too much blows of you two in the head, his brain is completely scrambled." said Sparx matter of factly.
"It was him," Malefor continued. "That black dragon, he was the responsible for this. He put that thing on me that make me do those things."
"Wait, what black dragon?" asked Cynder.
"That black dragon, the one with glowing red marks." Before they could say anymore things, they heard the sound of the alarm. They knew that the city was under attack.
"Oh my. What it is now?"
"Well it's obvious. The thing that was left of the apes came to take back their boss." said Sparx.
"I don't think so." said Spyro, without knowing exactly what he was implying, maybe it was his instincts "Better we go, perhaps we can help."
And with this the two young dragons come to the center of the event, leaving the young Malefor alone. He looked to the ground, tears still forming in his eyes. He indeed was very sad, and believed the words of the dragonfly were true. But, if it was really his fault, it was his responsibility to help face this. Maybe the apes would still obey him, maybe he could order then to stop and leave, and if not, he could at least help to kick them out of the city. With this thought, he wiped out the tears that were left, looked to the directions Spyro and Cynder had gone and followed right after.