The two dragons brought the unconscious Fox Dragon back to the New Temple in the outskirts of Warfang. Two days later, they found Blaze and Hunter nearly at at each others' throat and, cautiously, brought them back too.

Hunter had to be chained up due to his attitude, Blaze helped around the city while they waited for Skyler's wounds to heal which was taking longer than normal.

SKYLER'S NIGHTMARE:

"You destroyed our world, so don't come back!" said Jak grabbing Skyler by the throat then going Dark.

"I did it to prevent a disaster!"

"No, you are Rage." said Naruto his eyes going ruby red.

"No! I'd never give Rage control again! He's dead!"

"Yeah, right. You plan to double cross us the moment we let our gaurd down, just like you did to me." said Daxter.

"That wasn't me!"

"Shut up and die you freak!" said Dark Jak.

"Yeah! Die freak!" chimed in Daxter.

Soon thousands of voices were saying "Die Freak!" and Skyler couldn't stand it.

Skyler was tossing and turning while sleeping and kept mumbling "No" every 10 seconds and then something weird happened.

"NO!" screamed Skyler at the top of his lungs as a bright light enveloped him and then he fell to the floor and the rest of the night was spent in a peaceful slumber.

Spyro and Cynder had heard Skyler scream in the middle of the night and it was now early morning and both went to his room, to be shocked by the dragon that was in the room.

The dragon had greenish-orange fur and scales, instead of 15 tails now had only one but it was covered in spikes and the tip looked knife-like, had 4 horns on its head 2 going back like Spyro's, the other two looking more ram-like, his eyes were a peaceful blue but they held sadness and pain, the left eye had a red black "X" thru it, the right side of his face had scars, but what really confused them was the age: he no longer looked like a elder dragon yet young, but now their age. He also had black and white splotches on his fur and scales, his wings seemed to arc small amounts of blue and orange lightning.

The dragon kept looking at the raising sun for a good twenty minutes which seemed to give him a golden glow before he turned to the two other dragons.

"Good morning." said Skyler walking over to the stunned dragons.

"What happened to you?" asked Spyro.

"Don't know. I do know that I lost the world jump ability and my morph ability. But I can still go bipedal." with that said he stood up on his hinde legs then went back to all fours.

"I meant, before you looked as big as Terrador in height, but now you're our age."

"I don't know why that happened, but it is kind of nice to be younger a bit."

Suddenly a white tiger pounces on Skyler.

"Hey boss. Glad to see you're alright." said Blaze happily.

"Don't tackle me like that. I'm still sore."

"Sorry."

Getting up Skyler walks out of the building and looks at the city.

"Pretty cool isn't it?" said Spyro following.

"Yeah..." was all Skyler could say,"I'm gonna go see what the city's like from the air. See you two love-birds later."

Both Spyro and Cynder stutter at hearing this.

"You can't hide most emotions from me. Besides, I'm not gonna tease you about it."

And with that Skyler was in the sky looking at the city and it was magnificent, he see some structures though were being repaired and guessed a war took place some time again.

SUNSET

Skyler was heading back to the room his new friends had given him when he started hearing cheering and then the sound of a female screaming in pain and knew that it was Cynder.

'Wonder why Spyro isn't here. Must be busy.'

Walking over two the crowd, he saw two red-scaled Dragons beating on Cynder. Walking calmly thru the crowd, he came into the center and the two bullies saw him.

"Back off Earth boy! This has nothing to do with you." said the bigger one and delivered a swift kick into Cynder's jaw.

"My scales might be green, but Earth is not my strongest element...This is!" and with that a stream of greenish-orange acid fire came from Skyler's mouth and enveloped the bully who flailed in pain as he felt his scales boil and melt.

The second one charged him and was caught off guard as Skyler went bipedal and grabbed the bully's horn and lifted him off them ground before slamming him down again. The onlookers saw some of the second bullies teeth splatter on the ground.

The first one had put out the painful fire that had enveloped him and tried to jump on the greenish-orange dragon's back, but was stopped as the dragon's tail wrapped around his neck and the owner turned around and looked him in the face.

"Why?"

"She's a witch. She's the Dark Master's puppet!" spat the bully.

"I know, but what's in the past is done. I don't see evil in her, but you...you have a black heart...now lets see if you get picked on when your true colors are exposed." with those final words, the bully's scales began to go from red to black-red, his eyes went from crimson to black and then he fell to the ground and looked at his paws in shock.

"W-what you'd do to me?" asked the stunned bully.

"Brought your black heart to the surface. So we'll see who's worse. You or Cynder." with those words Skyler went over to Cynder and helped her up.

The second bully then got up and spoke.

"So far Cynder seems better than you, Vulcanus." said the second bully with a bloody grin.

"Shut it Crater!" growled Vulcanus and smacked Crater's face with his tail.

"Like I said, you're nothing but a bully who takes pleasure in other peoples misery." said Skyler helping Cynder walk away and the crowd "ooh"ed at that statement.

"Yeah? Well, you're...you're...a...a...COWARD!"

They heard a gasp from the crowd and everyone turned to see Blaze in his robot form.

"Please tell me you did NOT just say the 'c' word to Skyler!" said Blaze with his eyes big.

"I'm sorry Blaze but I heard him quite clearly." said Skyler darkly.

Letting go of Cynder gently, he stormed up to Vulcanus and towered over him as his eyes went from blue to orange.

"You think the shadows she created were bad? You haven't seen nothing!" said Skyler as the black blotches on his scales and fur began to spread over his entire body.

Blaze went over to Cynder and helped her away from the growing darkness that began to surround Skyler. Looking back Cynder saw something that made her heart jump into her throat. Skyler had gone Dark, like Spyro would, but this darkness felt...worse and scarier than Spyro's as the black figure grabbed Vulcanus by his neck but that was the last she saw as a demonic roar pierced the air and Vulcanus' screams of pain became strangled as black fog enveloped the two and then they were gone. Looking at up at the tiger robot, she saw not only worry but fear in those clam, friendly blue eyes as he helped her along.

Cynder wondered if this should be mentioned to Spyro and the Elders and fear leapt into her like nothing before did.

END CHAPTER

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