Crash and Spyro, A Friendship Across Lifetimes

Chapter 18: Off their Chests

SPYRO was breathing heavily after awaking from his dream. He never remembered what happened in Avalar before, but it hit him like a flood right now. "Ignitus..." he thought to himself. That night in Avalar was almost six years ago, and he was so young during that time. Spyro couldn't recollect what happened after he returned to Artisans Realm that night, and couldn't understand why he had forgotten about that night, either. Ignitus was like a father to Spyro; he adored him growing up and always wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Why couldn't he remember it until now? What happened to him? Did the Sorceress kill him?

Spyro's mind was racing until he looked over at a burned out fire and an orange creature resting beside it. Spyro then recalled that he was in the Peace Keepers Realm and his mission to free all Dragons was still underway. He got up and a blue glowing Sparx followed him. He walked over towards Crash to wake him up, but stopped when he noticed the tears streaming down his face. He whispered, "I love you, too" almost inaudibly to himself and shifted into a curled up position. "What's going on with him?" Spyro thought to himself. He placed his front paw on Crash's shoulder and nudged Crash to wake him up. After the third push, Crash abruptly woke up and gasped for air. He panted for a few before he looked at Spyro. He wiped his eyes off with his hands and stood up.

"Are you okay, Crash?" Spyro asked concernedly. He didn't respond immediately, and was facing away from Spyro when he responded.

"I'm... fine" Crash said with his SAD. Spyro could tell even with Crash using the SAD that whatever it was he dreamt about was really affecting him. His composure was shaken, and so was his body. Speaking of shaking, Spyro himself was shaking, too. Spyro may have temporarily forgotten about it, but his dream had really rattled him.

"I guess we should get going" Spyro said after a long pause.

"Yeah" Crash responded with his SAD.

Crash and Spyro exited the castle they had taken refuge in and walked out into red, arid dessert. It was about an hour past sunrise, and Crystal Dragons littered the landscape. This was the army of the Peace Keeper's Realm. Neither Crash nor Spyro felt like talking. Each of their respective dreams had definitely upset them significantly. Crash had tried to forget about Tawna, but again her death replayed in his head, and again his dream was just as painful as when he had to bury her body on that beach. Spyro could not stop thinking about Ignitus. The Sorceress had to have killed him that night. But he was with his friend. Spyro couldn't remember his name, but his skin color was purple. Did that mean something for him, too? There wasn't any way Spyro could answer these questions, and it frustrated him to no end.

"Where are we going!?" Spyro finally yelled out as he and Crash came across a small lake.

"I... I don't...." Crash couldn't finish his sentence even using his SAD. He wasn't really concentrating on directions, instead lost in thought about Tawna, Coco, N-Gin, and Dr. Cortex. He was having trouble holding back his anguish.

"How are we supposed to get to Gnasty Gnork? Maybe we should just use the portal we came here and get Aku-Aku to set the destination to the Realm of the Gnorks, like it originally was."

Crash didn't respond immediately. Only when Spyro snapped at him for a response did he talk. "The portal to the Realm of the Gnorks will lead us into a trap. But I don't know how else we can get there." Crash said using his SAD.

"I can handle the Gnorks, and I won't let my people be entrapped in crystal any longer than they need to be. Now make Aku-Aku activate the portal near the castle and change the destination."

"Don't you think you're underestimating Gnasty? He seems quite powerful if he can systematically enslave an entire population into crystals?"

"I said I can handle it!" Spyro anger caused Crash to walk back a few steps. He wasn't sure just how irritable Spyro was.

"Look," Spyro said more calmly, "I'm the only Dragon left, and I have to save my people. Now open the portal to Gnasty Gnork's Realm."

Crash felt this was too reckless, and he couldn't be responsible if Spyro died in his attempt to free the Dragons. He couldn't have another body on his conscience.

"Okay, but only If I'm going too" Crash proclaimed.

"I don't need your help, Crash" Spyro responded.

"Maybe your right, Spyro, but I going to help anyway. How do you expect to use the portal to get home if you succeed?"

Crash had a point, and there wasn't any good reason not to accept his help on this. Crash had saved his life back in Artisans.

"Alright Crash. I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier, it's just that..." Spyro wasn't sure how to word how dream last night was upsetting him so much. "... I didn't sleep very well."

"Bad dream?" Crash asked.

"How did you know?" Spyro said in astonishment. He couldn't have known what he was dreaming about, could he?

"Lucky guess."

"I 'guess' you also weren't having a pleasant dream last night, considering how much you were crying when I woke you up." Spyro jab was supposed to be sarcastic, but Crash looked away once Spyro finished talking. "Crash, I didn't mean to make fun of you."

"It's okay. I can only suppress that memory for so long before it comes back full force."

"What memory?"

Crash sighed before he answered Spyro's question. "The day the love of my life died."

Spyro had never been in love before. Sure there was Ember, but that was only one-sided. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose someone that close to you. Then he thought of Ignitus again. Sure he wasn't a female, but Spyro was so close with him, and now he had been gone for six years and Spyro just remembered now.

Spyro hadn't even considered Cynder.

"When I told you I was the only one of my kind, I was lying. Her name was Tawna, and although I had only loved here for five months, it was the best time of my life. We... we were even going to have a child together." Crash was begging to lose it again, but the SAD allowed him to get through the story without choking up. "But she was terminally ill. I don't know if you remember me saying this, but Tawna and I were creations of an evil scientist. The process he used to create me was imperfect. And when he repeated that process on Tawna, it had a side effect. I only learned of this after she died, but the scientist, Dr. Cortex, had tried to cure her of this ailment and failed, so he was going to euthanize her. I didn't know this at the time, so when I overheard him giving the order to kill her, I broke her out of his lair and we escaped and lived together for four months. It was because of her that I broke free of Cortex's control."

Crash fell to his knees and covered his eyes with his palms. Spyro didn't know what to do. He knew Crash was from the future, but had no idea his life was that rough. Sparx flew to the ground in front of Crash and look up at him. Crash, upon noticing him, wiped his tears away and stood up.

"That was four years from when I was brought to the past accidently. But I still can't stop thinking about it. I... just wish our time together could have been longer." Crash sniffled and tried to regain his composure. "Alright, let's go. I won't keep you waiting anymore."

"Wait, Crash. I'm sorry about what I said earlier, and I'm also sorry for yelling at you, too. It was wrong of me. I also had a dream last night, and I need to get it off my chest."

Spyro sat down and Crash joined him.