The Legend of Spyro: A Duel with Destiny

The Battlefield

Rapidfire chapters, woooo!

Or at least rapid for me. Let's get the final chapter of prep out of the way before it's time for the big showdown. Darkmire can wait, Hope has to go down.

Cynder had a difficult time explaining what had occurred while she had been trapped in the prison cell with Darkmire. She tried to lay it out in order, starting with their conversation, then moving into how the space within the cell had started to change. How she'd been able to walk impossibly far in one direction, how she'd been submerged in a pool of blood, and how she'd travelled through a crack in the wall which had taken her miles deep into the mountain.

She noticed Malefor was looking at her like he was trying to decide if she was crazy or not. Spyro and Imperia were listening intently, but knowing that she was being judged disrupted her out of her explanation flow.

She reset and started to explain the general overview of the conversation, beginning with the fact that they'd quickly been taken into illusory worlds and changed location a dozen times during the confrontation.

This immediately derailed the conversation again, with Imperia eagerly starting to question the mechanics of how exactly it worked.

Cynder wrenched the conversation back on track and finished outlining what had happened in the order it happened; finally finishing her explanation with when Darkmire had retreated back and given Pleasure control again. The way that the other girl had been comatose at first, and that once she'd been jolted awake she'd been acting strangely. She ended by expressing her fear that Pleasure might have forgotten about her.

"That sounds like quite an ordeal." Malefor said.

Spyro scooted himself over from where he had been sitting, settling in next to Cynder and gently putting his wing over her. "It's going to be okay. She's still our friend and we'll make it work out. Don't beat yourself up over any of it. You did amazingly."

"She agreed to come in there with me, and now look at her." Cynder said, looking at where Pleasure was curled up asleep on the bed nearby. "Okay she looks kind of peaceful right at this exact second... but she was so brave coming with me and all she got was suffering..."

"But you were able to reach out to her somehow. That's huge Cynder. This new realisation about your fear element might be enough to save us both. Fear doesn't seem like the right name for it anymore though."

"The emotion element." Imperia suggested helpfully.

"You reached out to Pleasure with compassion." Spyro said with a smile, holding Cynder's paw. "Maybe it should be the compassion element? Or the love element."

"No." Cynder said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not being a love dragon."

"Love dragon? I think that's got a nice ring to it." Imperia said.

"No. Shut up." Cynder growled.

"Come on. It's great!" Spyro said brightly. "Cynder the love dragon."

"You guys are the worst." Cynder muttered. "Malefor, back me up here."

Malefor cleared his throat. "Well it's not technically accurate-"

"Exactly!"

"But it's also not incorrect. And from a branding perspective-"

"Urgh, not you too." Cynder said with a glare. "Fine. I discovered that I was a love dragon all along, then. Are you happy now?"

Imperia giggled delightedly. "Extremely!"

Spyro nodded in agreement.

"Maybe evil was the right choice all along." Cynder said grouchily.