CHAPTER 12-CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Spyro was a mental wreck. He had roughly two thousand young dragons under his direction, and on top of that, fewer dragons were enrolling and some parents even removing their children now that word of Sharia's kidnapping had taken place right under his snout. He sat behind his desk and stared at the empty glass case where Austins pistol had been. He still had no idea where it could be, or the identity of the dragon who stole it. But he had at least gotten his stolen student back in one piece. Physically anyway.

Her mental state seemed fine, and Snows examination of her didnt reveal any signs of physical abuse, but she had to have experienced something traumatic during her time in Warfang. What he couldn't begin to guess was what it could have been. She refused to talk to anyone about it, which only further frustrated him. His gaze drifted back to the other artifacts from the war against Malefor. Avalar and its adjacent realms had seen an explosion of progress and growth since the fall of the dark dragon. His armies no longer threatened the blossoming of free societies. Sentient beings began civilizing themselves in droves, the cheetahs, the unicorns, the manweresmalls and numerous other mystical creatures all established villages, cities, and in some cases even empires. Spyro was new to political relations with other species now that they have all come out of hiding, but there was no need for him to do so since all he did was run a school for young dragons. His race was pretty far flung, with no centralized leader or government, but there wasn't really a need for one, as the only wars that ever flared up were usually quickly resolved, as some species armies dwarfed others. Their leaders knew the foolishness of war, and the cost in lives that came with it. The war against Malefor had only ended a short few decades ago, and the horrors of combat were still relatively fresh in those who lived through it. His thoughts were interrupted as Cynder burst into his study with Cloud behind her nearly in tears.

He recognized her expression of worry and instantly stood from his chair before she spoke.

"Whats wrong?"

"Its Psy, Snow found him unconscious in Sharias room!" she said urgently.

"What? Is he ok?" He asked.

"He's in the room across from hers, Sharia said mentioned astral...something, I cant remember what she called it, we can ask her when we get there!"

"Mom is Psy gonna be ok?" Cloud asked with genuine worry in his voice.

"Yes sweetie, I'm sure he is going to be alright." She said scooping him onto her back as she and his dad raced out of their home and flew towards the medical wing.

Cloud held tightly to his mothers neck as he felt his thoughts drift to his brother. They fought almost constantly, but deep down he looked up to him. What could have happened to him in there? What if that Sharia girl he was trying to rescue hurt him somehow? He felt anger rise inside him as the stones on his necklace began to dimly glow. Before he knew it they were on the ground outside the hospital wing of the temple. He followed his parents into the hospital as fast as his short legs could take him while still keeping up with his parents. After a few twists and turns in the sterile hallways, they came to Snow standing outside his room seemingly waiting on them to arrive.

"How is he?" Spyro asked.

"He's stable now, but still unconscious. When I found him, he was near death. He barely had enough energy to breathe. It took an emergency energy transfusion to keep his heart going. We actually had to feed him a red crystal to get the energy to him fast enough to be effective. Before you see him, you might want to ask Sharia what happened. She tried to explain it to me but I had no idea what she was talking about. Maybe you two could make more sense of it." She said softly.

Spyro nodded and put his claw on Clouds shoulder and said

"Go in there and stay with your brother, your mother and I have to talk to Psy's friend." He said as Snow took Clouds claw and led him into the room.

Spyro opened the door and saw Sharia gently crying, though not sobbing or making much noise.

She looked up her visitors and then back down at the sheets covering her.

"Sharia. I'm not here to punish you, I just want to know what happened." He said gently standing beside her, Cynder taking a position beside him.

She bit her lip as she steeled herself to tell elder Spyro what had happened to his son.

"He...he said he could find out what happened to me...I wanted to tell you when you and the other elders would ask me, I swear! But I must have repressed it! I couldn't recall anything, and he said he could retrieve the memory through something called..." She furrowed her brow as she tried to remember the words Psy had used to describe what he did.

"Astral projection. He said he and his friends had researched how to do it. I went to sleep, and when I woke up, he was on his back, and Eldess Snow was telling the nurses to get her energy crystals." She finished, her tears still silently flowing.

"If I just could have remembered them on my own, this never would have happened! I didn't mean for Psy to get hurt, I just wanted to tell you what you wanted to know!" She pled with Spyro as he took in all that was revealed to him. The elder dragon closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them.

"It's not your fault Sharia. I understand you wanting to help us catch whoever kidnapped you. If thats all you know, then I'll leave you to get some rest." Spyro said as he turned to leave, Cynder already half way out the door.

"Elder Spyro..." She said softly as he turned back to her.

"Yes?"

"I...I remember something." She stammered, trying to dry her eyes with her blanket.

"What is it?" He asked turning to face her.

"My captors released me...and after they did, they just left me in an alley. I had barely eaten during my time captured, and I smelled food nearby, so I walked a few blocks to where it was coming from. A nice old manweresmall gave me some food, but after I ate, a few more manweresmalls burst in." She said, she was visibly shaking as she recounted what Psy had managed to bring to the surface of her memory during his brief time in her mind.

"T-then...they held these...things in their hands..." She said now reliving the horror for a second time.

"They made such a loud noise...and they killed...they killed everyone in the tavern!" She said completely breaking down and sobbing into her knees, the blanket covering them slowly absorbing her tears.

It didnt take long for Spyro to connect the missing artifact to what she had witnessed. Whoever stole Austins gun, had somehow figured out a way to make more of them, and apparently ones small enough for manweresmalls to operate, which clearly did nothing to make them less deadly.

He stroked Sharias head reassuringly as she continued to sob, looking up at him from her knees as her eyes were somewhat puffy from crying.

"You've done well Sharia. Just get some rest, and try to eat something. You've been through more than anyone your age should have to go through. We'll find those responsible, I promise you." He said as he turned and left with Cynder and then entered Psy's room, where Cloud, Januz and Zyrnoth were all sitting around Psy's bed. His head was bandaged and a few clear crystals were on the table beside him, having been used up of their energy.

Cynder walked to her sons bedside and took his hand, while Spyro looked to his friends.

"So boys, which one of you wants to tell me what Astral projection is? Or, why you thought it would be a good idea." He said sternly.

Both Zyrnoth and Januz looked at each other and swallowed in apprehension.

"J-Januz, I think you should field this one..." Zyrnoth said nervously, the both of them knowing punishment was inescapable this time.

"Well...Its projecting yourself into someone else's mind...to see their memories or to...alter or erase them..." He said with a I-know-I'm-in-trouble-but-if-smile-I-might-not-seem-so-guilty, grin.

Spyro was not amused, but wasn't angry either.

"And what, may I ask were you trying to accomplish by gallivanting into Ms. Sharias mind?"

Zyrnoth looked to his friend, and knew the truth was going to come out. 'I guess I'll at least be strong by the time Elder Spyro gets done training us into the ground...' he thought.

"We were trying to erase her memory of my uncle Puff rescuing her...we didn't actually save her...he did." He admitted, waiting tensely for Elder Spyro's retribution.

Spyro put a his palm on his face and sighed.

"I know I've taught all of you better than that!" He snapped.

"If you had just told me the truth from the get go, we wouldn't be in this situation. If there is one thing that destroys a dragons trust, it's lying." Spyro said.

"Now we will discuss punishment later, right now I want to know where you got such an idea as to try and perform this...astral projecting."

"Well...I don't want to point claws or anything...but Psy came to us with it. It's astral projection by the way." Januz said, then immediately regretted correcting the person who held their fate in his claws, receiving an elbow from Zyrnoth.

Spyro's attention was drawn to Psy as he began to stir in his bed. He opened his eyes and saw his mom and brother leaning over him.

"Oh Psy! Thank the ancestors you're okay! Cynder said hugging him tightly.

"What happened? I have, the worst headache..." He said putting a palm on his bandaged head.

"Well you should, you hit your head on the floor pretty hard." Snow said entering the room to check his bandages.

He saw Spyro standing at the foot of his bed, and then realized how much trouble he and his friends were in.

"Oh boy." He said seeing his father.

"Oh boy is right! What the heck were you thinking Psy?" Spyro demanded.

"We didnt want to get in trouble for running off to find Sharia, and we figured if we didnt come back with her, you'd punish us!" He pled with his dad.

"Well you're right, I will be punishing the three of you! But not for running off. For lying to me about who rescued her." He said sternly as Cloud giggled behind him.

"I dont know what you're laughing about mister, you are in just as much trouble." He said, which quickly wiped the smile off his younger brother's face.

"Aw what? You said they werent in trouble for running away! I didnt lie to you!"

"Yes, but you are way too young to be running off like that! You nearly scared your mother and I half to death!" Spyro said as he walked to the side of Psy's bed.

"Get some rest. Elder Flame will be here tomorrow to deliver the assignments you missed while you were gone." his father said as Snow shooed them all out of the room, as visiting hours were drawing to a close. Psy could hear his little brother trying to bargain with his dad all the way down the hallway.

Psy couldn't believe it. Three weeks of schoolwork? This had to qualify as cruel and unusual punishment.

He folded his arms sat back on his bed, which had about four pillows on it allowing him to sit up. He was about to try and get some sleep when he remembered Sharia could communicate with him telepathically! He just hoped he was still awake.

'Hey Sharia...you still up?'

'Yeah...I'm sorry about what happened Psy...'

'Its not your fault, I guess I wasn't as good at astral projection as I thought...'

'Yeah, well you did retrieve those repressed memories...Though I cant say I'm glad to have them back... but you did what you said you would! You didn't see any embarrassing ones did you?'

'No...it actually didn't take me too long to find.'

'Well thats good. Why did you pass out?'

'I guess I didn't have a very good exit strategy...'

'What happened to you in there? Eldess Snow said you were nearly dead when she came in.'

There was a pause in their mental conversation before Psy answered.

'When you project yourself into someones head, their subconscious knows you don't belong there and tries to kick you out. But you can't fight the subconscious or you risk damaging whoever you projected into permanently. I outran yours for a while, but eventually she caught up with me and...kicked me out.'

'And onto the floor.' Sharia responded with a slight giggle.

'What did my subconscious look like?'

'It was pretty much just you...except...well your eyes were black. Thats how I knew it wasn't you, and to start running.' He said with a small nervous laugh. The truth was that thing scared him pretty good.

'Sounds creepy.'

'You have no idea.'

'Alright Psy, it was nice talking to you, but I'm going back to sleep. Goodnight!'

'Night Sharia.'

XXX

Marchino sat in his office with about fifteen rather large (by manweresmall standards) moles standing in front of him.

"You all have your targets. Make sure you are not seen by anyone, and if you are, eliminate anyone you even think may have gotten a good look at you. Understand? You are to wait one week from this day, then you carry out the attacks. Spare no one, this has to be the most brutal domestic attack in Warfang history in order to get the backing of the populace. Is this clear?"

The lead Manweresmall with an eyepatch saluted and responded with a gruff "Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

Trouble is a brewing! I know people are reading this, I've got a traffic counter! Tell me you like it! tell me you hate it!(although if you hate it, why are you reading it?) Just say something about it, its been 3 new chaps and no one is telling me what they think! cant get better without feedback folks! end rant.