Alright, here it is. My first ever fanfiction submission! I have to say I'm very excited, and I hope that this story can live up to the standard set by some of the stories out there already. We'll see!

Anyway, without any further ado, my fanfiction debut!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of the Legend of Spyro series, nor any of the characters depicted therein. I do, however, own any and all OC's that appear in this story.

Prologue:

Blackness. All around, infinite and all-consuming. Nothing was visible anywhere. His eyes were useless in the absolute darkness. He might as well have been blind.

He was falling. Tumbling, spinning endlessly. But whether it was fast or slow, or how far he had travelled already, he had no idea. He was helpless in the dark, nothing to help him gain his bearings, nothing to act as a reference.

His whole body ached horribly from the blast of convexity he had taken to his chest, seemingly only moments before. Fury welled up inside him. How had those two weak, pathetic hatchlings been able to resist his power? And not just resist it, but overpower it? Their faces flashed in his mind, watching with stunned looks on their expressions as he was dragged down beneath the crystalline surface of the world's core by those five spectral dragons.

How long ago had that been? Seconds? Days? Time no longer seemed to have any meaning within the absolute darkness that imprisoned him. At least he could take some small comfort in the fact that his mission to destroy the world had succeeded before those two hated dragons had defeated him.

Just then, from somewhere below him—at least, he thought it was below him; in his present situation it was impossible to tell—he saw a flicker of light. A second later it came again, brighter this time. Then, without warning, the blackness around him was replaced by blinding light as an enormous portal-like opening appeared beneath him, swirls of white and various shades of purple surrounding an ominous black centre. He recognized it easily.

A portal into the realm of Convexity, where he had been imprisoned for so many years.

"NOOOO!" he shouted frantically as he plummeted straight for the portal, but the thunderous rumble coming from the portal drowned out his cry the instant it was past his jaws.

He struggled furiously to stop his tumbling and open his wings to escape, but in the end it was futile. The portal was pulling him in like he was the prey of some starving beast. No force in the world could resist it. Only seconds after the portal had appeared, he disappeared inside it.

The tremendous rumbling sound he had heard before was deafening here. It pounded mercilessly against his ears, causing his head to throb with agony, and all the while the swirling lights assaulted his vision and the tumbling threatened to make him completely ill. He no longer had the will to struggle. He simply curled up into a ball, closing his eyes and praying that it would all end.

His prayers were answered several long seconds later. He gave a startled cry as he felt a tremendous lurch forward. Then he felt himself land face first on something quite solid and growled in pain as his whole weight came crashing down on his neck. He collapsed in a heap on his side, panting heavily, his head spinning like he had never imagined it could. He had to consciously force himself to keep from vomiting. He didn't know where he was, but at that current moment he couldn't care less.

"Well, well," a deep, menacing voice rumbled slowly from somewhere behind him. "Look who's returned. The Dark Master himself."

Malefor immediately went rigid, holding his breath as a shiver ran through the length of his body. He would recognize that voice anywhere. It was more chilling than anything he had ever heard in his life, deeper and more distorted in sound than even his own voice, resembling more the sound boulders made when they ground against each other than the voice of any living creature.

The voice of death. At least that was what Malefor expected it meant now.

Slowly he opened his eyes to find that he was sprawled out on a rough stone floor. Damp stone walls surrounded him as well as a low, heavy rock ceiling. There were several small cave-like recesses in the wall, just big enough for a dragon to dwell in, but they were all empty now. Turning his head, Malefor then caught sight of the raised stone ring that dominated the centre of the floor, its centre swirling with the tempest-like convexity portal from which he had emerged. Even as he watched there was a bright flash of white and purple light as the portal collapsed in on itself and disappeared with a crash of thunder, leaving nothing but smooth stone within the ring. Now the only light within that enclosed space came from the veins of dark crystal that poked out from the walls and ceiling, casting the underground chamber in a dim, evil violet glow.

"Get up," the terrible voice snapped suddenly in disgust.

Malefor cringed at the sound, but nonetheless he obeyed. It took him several moments, but eventually he was on his feet and had gathered a semblance of stability. Slowly, hesitantly, he turned around until he was facing the source of the voice. At first he saw nothing, but then an enormous figure emerged from the shadows, moving with slow, purposeful strides. As he stepped into the light of the crystals Malefor recognized him as the one he had so desperately hoped it wouldn't be.

"Master," he choked, his voice almost failing him.

"Malefor," the huge purple dragon snarled in reply, his eyes flashing with fury.

Malefor cringed again and was unable to hold his master's gaze. The purple dragon before him was certainly a terrifying sight. He stood well over a head taller than Malefor, every inch of his body bulging with muscle. His dark purple scales looked more like plates of hardened armour than anything, but even so his body was covered in large scars attesting to many, many years of fighting for survival. His chest, wings, horns and crest were a jet black in colour, while his talons and the vicious spikes on his shoulders, along his spine and on the tips of his wings were a steel-grey that glinted in the dim light. His eyes were the worst of all, blazing a deep bloody red except for the feral slits for pupils.

"Once again you have failed, Malefor," the dragon rumbled. "For all your strength, all your unmatched power, you have been struck down."

He said the words strength and power with such disgust that Malefor couldn't help but shy away from the other dragon, curling his body defensively as if expecting to receive a blow at any moment.

"But I didn't fail," he protested in a quavering voice. "The Destroyer was resurrected. The world is crumbling even as we speak."

"Is it?" was the doubtful reply. "Are you so certain?"

"Yes! I saw it!"

"Then your eyes deceived you."

Malefor was stunned silent. Could it be? No, he had seen it! The Destroyer had completed its journey. Before falling into the volcano, he had clearly seen the world being consumed by a wave of fire, the ground splitting and cracking as if being forced out from the inside. The world had to have been destroyed!

"Have a look for yourself," his master instructed, gesturing with a wing toward the stone ring in the floor.

Malefor looked, and at the same time the stone surface within the ring shimmered and seemed to melt away, a glowing liquid-like surface replacing it that appeared almost exactly like an oversized vision pool. Then the glowing colours shifted, resolving into a recognizable image.

He gasped in disbelief when he saw the world, as if from far out in space through the ring in the floor, several large pieces of it floating freely above the remainder of the planet. But the pieces weren't drifting away and breaking apart. Instead they were slowly floating back down toward the planet, fusing together until they looked as if they had never been separated in the first place. A glowing orb of bright purple energy enveloped the entirety of the planet, pulling it back together from the inside.

"How?" Malefor demanded incredulously. "How is this possible? The world should be breaking apart even now!"

A feeling almost akin to despair surged through him as he watched the last pieces of land settle back in place and the purple orb dissipated, leaving the world whole and renewed. It was true. He had failed. He had been so close to succeeding. Just a few moments longer and his destiny would have been fulfilled. Instead, everything he had spent so long fighting for had just been dashed.

"Like I said," the larger dragon sneered, "just as before, you have failed. And as you know, failure is not something I take well."

"But it wasn't my fault!" Malefor exclaimed. "Everything was going exactly as I had planned it! It was that purple whelp! If he hadn't gone rogue and fought against me instead of following his destiny, the world would be in pieces right now!"

"He didn't go rogue."

Malefor faltered, and for a long moment all he could do was stare at his master with an expression of utter disbelief.

"What?" he managed at last. "What do you mean? He was fighting against me instead of fighting to bring about the world's destruction like he should have been!"

"No Malefor. He fulfilled the exact purpose I sent him for."

Again Malefor was stunned silent.

"But I don't understand," he stammered. "Why would you send him to fight me?"

"Because I knew you couldn't be trusted anymore, Malefor," the other dragon snapped furiously. "Even if I hadn't sent Spyro and you had succeeded in destroying the world, you would never have honoured your oaths to me."

"What...what are you talking about?"

"You know full well! Your mission in that world, your entire reason for being, was to end my imprisonment here in this wasteland!"

Malefor glanced around at the dank cavern in which they were standing, as well as toward the only opening that led to the surface, through which he knew there was nothing but burned stone plains surrounded by lakes of lava and populated by monstrous creatures of darkness; the Dark Realms.

"But instead, you planned on remaking the world for yourself," his master continued. "Even before your first failure when you were sealed away in the realm of Convexity, I could see your true intentions. Even if you had succeeded in remaking the world, you would never have released me."

"Th-that's not true," Malefor stammered, feeling his fear rising by the second as his master's voice darkened with anger and malice.

"Don't lie to me!" the larger dragon roared. "Your intentions have always been painfully easy to read. You would have left me to rot here while you ruled over your new world. Did you really think you could escape me, Malefor? Did you think you could just turn your back on me, and there would be no consequences?"

Malefor was unable to reply, his fear constricting his throat to the point that it was difficult to breathe.

"You have some nerve, thinking that you were strong enough to escape me. You should have realized, Malefor, that nothing can ever stand against me, not even one of my own kind." He reached up and tore a broad chunk of crystal from the roof of the cavern, throwing it against the stone floor and smashing it beneath a forepaw, turning it to nothing more than dark purple dust. "Nothing! So you see, that's why Spyro fought against you. It wasn't because he turned away from me, like you did. It was to put you in your place. He was fulfilling my purpose for him all along."

He took a menacing step forward, then another, and Malefor began backing away fearfully. But then, to his dismay, he was brought to a sudden halt as his rump struck the rock wall. He could see his master closing in on him from his left. Growing desperate, he spun to his right to try and circle around the chamber and reach the exit of the cavern, but to his utter surprise he found his way blocked by another dragon, though this one was far smaller than he was. He looked to be little more than a hatchling. But then Malefor realized that he looked immensely familiar, with his bright purple scales and his golden wings, chest, and horns.

Impossible! he thought in dismay. How did he get here?

But he soon realized his mistake. Though the young dragon standing before him looked a great deal like Spyro at first glance, upon closer inspection Malefor realized that there were subtle differences between the two. This dragon was of the same age and nearly identical build, but his wings, chest, horns and crest were of a slightly darker shade than Spyro's, more of a bronze than gold, and his horns angled back more sharply. His crest was also slightly more pronounced, forming a single fleshy piece instead of the series of smaller pieces Spyro bore, and his snout was a little thinner. There were also thin streaks of faint bronze colouring across his back and shoulders, not to mention the numerous scars, most prominent of which was a pair of silvery slash marks running from his left brow down to the centre of his muzzle, crossing his eyelid. It looked to Malefor as though the young dragon was lucky he hadn't lost an eye, but as such it was undamaged.

His eyes. They were the biggest difference, between him and Spyro, and they held Malefor's attention the longest. They had a deep reddish tinge to them that gave them a far darker appearance than Spyro's, a look that was only accented by the glint of dark pleasure in them as he gazed up at Malefor with a superior smirk on his face.

"I was able to tolerate one failure from you, Malefor," his master snarled as he closed in on his victim, "because even though you were unable to stand up against the Guardians in the past I was impressed by your manipulation of the apes and later Cynder to maintain your influence in the Dragon Realms. But I can never accept this kind of blatant betrayal."

"Master, please," Malefor begged. "Just give me one more chance."

The larger dragon's scowl deepened, his blazing red eyes flashing with rage.

"You had your chance, Malefor, and you squandered it by turning against me. Now it's time for a younger, more trustworthy generation to carry out my plans."

Malefor glanced toward the younger dragon again, and he could see his smirk growing wider. Then, suddenly, without any warning, Malefor felt a wave of agony surge through his body as his master drove the talons of his right forepaw deep into his chest. Malefor screamed as he felt every ounce of strength he had left rushing out of him, sucked away by his master, his very life force draining away with each second that passed. The excruciating pain was the last thing he was aware of before his body broke apart in a flash of convexity, crumbling away and leaving no sign at all that he had ever even existed in the first place.

And there you have it! Hope it was interesting. If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to throw in a review. More to come soon.