TLoS: World at War Final

Noon.  This is it.  This is the time to settle matters with the Dark Master and his croonies.  

Dempsey, Spyro, Nikolai and Richtofen nodded together and said their good-byes to the villagers.

"You be careful do you understand me?  I will not tolerate anything bad happening.  I will desecrate your corpses if you die." Toran growled, but a sad twinkle in his eyes.  The humans and the purple dragon nodded.

"We will old timer," assured Dempsey.  "We will."

The group turned to the main crowd that had gathered.  The crowd erupted into applause and roars of hope as the group took to the air and headed to the Well of Souls.  

Lenin took the three humans rather easily.  He seemed to have gotten much better and stronger.  Spyro seemed to have gotten stronger as well.  

"Guys..." Spyro began.  "I must fight Gaul alone..." To his surprise, he only received nods.  Judging on personalities on the past, he suspected that he would receive massive protests.

"Where do you want us then?" Nikolai asked.  

"To rescue Zoid and Cynder. Please...I want them out of there.  I've given this much consideration, and I believe I won't be walking away from this fight."  Spyro started.

The humans laughed.

"What complete utter bullshit..." Dempsey giggled.  He was tearing at the eyes.  "You not walking away? I don't think that's happening.  We'll rescue the prisoners, however, we won't abandon you Spyro.  Be it life or death, we follow you."

The other two humans nodded in agreement.  Spyro smiled.  He probably shouldn't have expected another answer.

"I'm glad to have you at my back, but please release them first." He urged.

Nikolai nodded and said, "Understood."

Lenin and Spyro drifted across the skies high enough that any ape patrols on the ground would mistake them for birds.  They flew and landed in a rather dangerous hotzone that they expected would be filled with guards, but it was empty.  

"Lenin..." Nikolai began.  The Dreadwing looked up curiously.  "Head back to the village.  I could not bear it if anything bad were to happen to you...Please. Go." Lenin took off after a mournful cry and flew back.  

Spyro and the humans got closer to massive black rock.  They could hear the chanting and roaring of the apes, but could see none.  They found a small opening that led into the mountain.  They all took a deep breath and proceeded one by one into the dark interior of the opening.

There was a light, yet eerie droning sound that came from the inside of the mountain.  To the humans, it sounded like a bee hive.  They continued along their way, constantly being annoyed by the droning and enter a massive chamber with many side passages.  The chamber was lit by one giant hanging light with purple fire.  

"This is where we part then Spyro." Dempsey said, checking the mag of his Widow Maker.  Nikolai did the same for his Splatter Gun, and Richtofen for the Afterburner.  "Don't get your assed killed."  Dempsey gave a small smile which the purple dragon returned.

"I understand...good luck." Spyro responded.  He gave one brief nod and then headed down a hallway with Sparx as his only companion.

The humans then chose another hallway and continued down it, silent for the way.

--

Spyro and Sparx spent what must've felt like hours going down a hall of repeating textures.  Not one design seem to change from the constant grey dull stone or dark green crystals that dotted the wall at brief intervals.  Thankfully, no apes have found them.  Or were they just following Spyro and he didn't know it.  

"This place is freaky!" said Sparx.  He flew in erratic patters around his friend.  "Can't we just go?"

"Sparx..." Spyro moaned, shaking his head.

"Fine, rescue Cynder, then go?"

"You haven't been paying any attention what I told the others did you?" Spyro accused, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I did!" Sparx exclaimed, looking hurt.  His expression then turned sheepish.  "Not really."

"I thought not.  I'm going to find this source of darkness and stop it before the two moons eclipse." Spyro couldn't tell what phases the moon were in currently.  He was deep in the mountain and he wasn't sure if he was heading the right way.  He juggled with the thought of being unable to reach to the spot in time, assuming he was going the right way.

"Well can we hurry up then? My wings are getting frisky."

Spyro ignored the last statement and continued walking at the monotonpus pace he set.  Ten minutes later, he noticed a change in scenery.  The crystals were starting to subside and the dark, grey color changed into a lighter, silvery color.  He turned his head back to its normal position and gazed up front.  He could see the end getting closer.  

"Finally!" he exclaimed and ran to it with Sparx right behind him.  He skidded to a stop and was greeted by a large silver chamber, not unlike the one he was in when he and the humans parted ways.  Instead of a large purple fire, this particular chamber was illuminated by a large green fire.  

Spyro looked around and noticed that this room only had one other direction to go: forward.  The purple dragon sighed with relief and headed to the entryway.  A sudden chanting and guttural laughing alarmed him.  Looking all over the chamber, he could hear it growing louder, but could see nothing.  He took a battle stance and waited for someone, or something, to make a move.  

A pile of rocks fell from the roof of the chamber and onto the ground.  Once the dust from the collapse subsided, he could there was an ape wearing grey spiked metal armor with no helmet snarling at him.  The ape looked up and the ceiling had more holes erupt as apes descended and landed next to their comrade.  

"Hmmph." Spyro snorted and he blew fire.  The ape screamed as the fire superheated the metal armor and literally cooked the ape alive.  His companions watched with blank stares as the ape shrieked and collapse to ground on fire with smoldering red metal armor.  A few twitches and the body lay still.  The apes turned their ugly heads to the purple dragon in unison and snarled.  They all charged at him at once, but Spyro was ready.  He let loose a torrent of ice that froze two apes in their tracks while the others leaped out of the way.  He released an electrical bolt that caught the remaining four.  They were paralyzed as the electricity coursed through their body, each of them shrieking with immense pain.  A single yellow bolt seem to connect the four of them to Spyro's open jaw as he amplified the power of the electricity.  

"HA!" Spyro exclaimed with a wide grin on his face.  After he stopped the flow of elecetricity, the apes fell to the ground, charred and smoking.  He then swung his tail at the frozen apes and shattered them into many pieces.

When it was clear that there was no more reason for him to be there, he headed down the entryway again unopposed.  The hallway in which he traversed was significantly shorter, but still seemed like it took an hour to finish crossing.  Spyro sighed in relief and exhaustion as he came across a giant room with bones littered about.  His relief didn't come from the bones, but rather being able to take a short rest.  He observed each of the piles of bones and individual ones that lied about.  He shook his head in disgust and continued on.  

--

"Damn it, this is stupid." Dempsey growled as he cleaned the blood off of his gun.  Not that long ago, they were ambushed by a massive group of apes, but it was a futile attempt.  The human technology far outdid their surprise and numbers.  Corpses littered the ground and puddles of blood and meat were every where.

"As much as I love destroying zhese beasts," Richtofen said, reloading his Afterburner.  "I say ve hurry.  I don't vant be caught trying to fight endless  hordes of apes like zhose undead demons."  

The other two nodded in affirmative and continued on their way.  They had no way of knowing this was the right direction.  The ape attack either ment two things.  They were getting close to somewhere vital or they just happened upon a room with many apes in it.  The former was a more optimal option.  The hallways didn't change at all.  It was the same, bland structure they had been traversing for quite some time.  

"How much further?" groaned Dempsey.  

"How should I know?"  Richtofen shot back, glaring.  

A sudden chattering of guttural voices made them stop in their tracks.

"It's coming from up front..." Nikolai whispered.  They strained their eyes to see in the dark corridor.  They could make the shapes of a few apes heading down the corridor.  Apparently, they hadn't heard the fighting that happened earlier.  They made a left turn as the corridor made a fork and walked down the hall.

"Grr...can we kill the black dragon?  The one with that blue line on his side." one of them growled.

"I wish, that runt has been nothing but trouble since we first imprisoned him.  Always fighting..." another one responded.  

"Quiet!" The commander barked.  The two apes shut up instantly.  "We have to feed the prisoners today and I don't want to hear your bellyaching the entire way."

The humans grinned at each other.  Looks like they were going the right way after all.  They quickly and quietly followed the small squad of apes, maintaining a distance of about fifty feet.  They had worried that the apes would look back, to see if they were being followed.  The apes had not done that at all, or at least, not yet.  

After following the group of about fifteen minutes, the apes came to a chamber that was remarkably different.  There were chains on the grounds and empty cages all over the place.  There was a corridor to the left that seemed to go down into the lower levels.  From the looks of it, the humans guessed it was the prison.  

"Perfect..." Dempsey thought to himself.  The apes trudged into the corridor and descended into the darkness.  The humans were quietly following, waiting for them to lead the humans to what they thought was Zoidius and Cynder.

--

Zoidius sat in his cage, moping.  Of course, why wouldn't he mope.  The food was terrible, the conditions were atrocious, and what's more, he was a prisoner.  The others had shared his misery.  Dragons shouldn't be cooped up like this.  They deserved to be free and flying through the air.  Of course, the apes didn't care what the dragons should deserve.  They were only their to amplify the misery of the dragons.  Zoidius lost track of the time.  He never had it to begin with, but he suspected meal time would be soon.

"Goody Goody..." he mumbled.  "I can't wait to feast on festering meat."

As if on cue, he could hear the door on the other end of the dungeon clank open.  Three apes, two grunts and one commander came in with sacks of meat.  To everyone's surprise though, flashes of purple light and pieces of flying flesh and armor soon occured.  The apes collapsed dead and Zoidius gasped.  Only one force was known to have done that.  

"Dempsey?! Dempsey! Richtofen?!" he called.  

"Quiet down!" Kiah urged.  Zoidius ignored her and continued calling.

Three shadowy figures came up and searched the bodies of the apes.  He couldn't see the exact features of the figures, but he knew it was the humans.  He heard a jingle of keys and one of the figures came closer.  As soon as he stepped into the light, Zoidius could see it was Nikolai.

"Nikolai!" he laughed with relief.  

"Hello comrade!" Nikolai laughed in return as he opened the cage.  Zoidius hopped out and stretched his limbs.  

"Free the others." Zoid instructed.  Nikolai did so and opened the other cages.  The remaining dragons hopped out as well, but stared at the humans.  They had never seen one, and they looked similar to the apes.  

"You're a human?" Aven said with some doubt.  He expected from the stories, that the humans were to be much larger.  

"Yes we are asshole." Dempsey growled.  "You're welcome."

"Ohh, you're weird." Kiah mumbled as she inspected Nikolai.  The Russian didn't seem to notice or care and he walked to his human friends.  

"Come on! Now isn't the time to be satisfying our curiosity." Polner commanded, with surprising authority behind her voice. "Zoid, grab your friends and lets get out of here."  

"Nein." Richtofen said, shaking his head. "Ve have unfinished business here vith Spyro.  You guys get out of here."  

"Alright, then I stay." Zoidius said.  The other dragons looked at him with wide-eyes.

"Are you stupid?" Kiah asked.  "Come with us and get out of here."

"No Kiah. There is one more dragon here that I will not leave behind." he growled adamantly. He was referencing to Cynder. "Besides I've been itching to sink my claws into the flesh of these apes."

"Be careful then." Relic urged and she ran out with the others.  Kiah gave Zoidius one final concerned glance, then followed the others.

--

Spyro panted as he crawled away.  He was ambushed by another set of apes, but this time they were more successful.  He managed to take three of them out, but their giant commander inflicted some pretty bad wounds on him.

"HA! This is the mighty purple dragon? Bah!" The commander twirled his sword around lifted it over his head to deliver the killing blow.  Spyro, with a bloody grin, stabbed his tail blade into the stomach of the commander.  With wide-eyes, the commander looked down and saw the purple tail turn red with his blood.  

Spyro yanked it out, taking chunks of flesh and fur, and the commander fell to his knees, grasping the wound.  Spyro shot a fire ball at the commander's head and it exploded.  When the some cleared, he could see the body was charred and the head was missing.  Spyro turned to the remaining apes, but they threw down their weapons and fled for their lives.  Spyro laughed and walked down another corridor.  Sparx came out of his hiding place and flew with him.

Spyro limped as best as he could.  His left front leg was cut pretty badly and his sides had gash marks on them.  Fortunately, the apes often hoarded the crystals he needed.  Now the only challenge was to find one of these hoards.  This particular corridor had many doors to it and each one contained an empty room.  He growled as he kept searching, hoping to find red crystals to staunch the bleeding and seal his wounds.  

"Nothing!" Spyro growled again as he slammed a door shut.  He kept searching.  After another forty doors, he finally found a lone red crystal cluster.  Smiling, he bashed them with his horns, spasming as his neck muscles protested.  The cluster shattered and each individual piece merged with him and closed his wounds rather nicely.  

"Much better..." he sighed with relief.  Once that was done with, he ran down the corridor to save time.  Plus, the apes were attacking in greater numbers and he didn't want to get caught by too many of them at once.  The hallway ended and he found himself stepping out into the dark cold air.  He looked up to see that the two moons were nearly together.  He turned his head back down as he saw infront of him a large red beam shoot down into the ground.  He looked inside with wide eyes, but could see nothing.

"What is this?" he half-heartedly asked Sparx.

"It looks like the entrance to a horrible pit of despair, of which we will never escape.  But we should we go in to make sure." Sparx laughed and dived into the pit.  Spyro sighed and shook his head.

"He's weird." he mumbled to himself.  He then jumped into the pit and landed in a massive antechamber that looked suspiciously like an arena.  

"Where are we?" he asked.

"More importantly, what's that smell?" Sparx yacked as he plugged his nose.

To his immense surprise, the empty braziers suddenly bursted into green dazling light and illuminated the chamber.  Spyro could see apes lined up on the walls with one particular one with a giant green eye and horned helmet.  He immediately knew it was Gaul.

"HA HA HA HA! The purple whelpling..." Gaul laughed maniacally, "it's fitting that you should be here tonight.  We are to bear witness to the dawn of a new age and the failue of your pathetic race of dragons!"  

"I wouldn't miss it Gaul." Spyro growled, scowling at the master of the apes.

"Then please..." Gaul stood up and aimed a staff at him. "Have a seat!"  The staff emitted a green beam and Spyro yelped in surprise as he was forced to the ground.

"Foolish dragon!" Gaul laughed again, bobbing his ugly head. "You are no match."

"I've made it this far, haven't I?" Spyro groaned as he stood up again.

"Yes..." Gaul nodded. "You've been quite elusive.  Had I but known that all it would take would be your miserable amity for Cynder..." Gaul turned back to his throne and took a seat.  "How tragic, that she be the one to destroy you!"  

Spyro was knocked to the ground by Cynder, who flew in out of nowhere.  Spyro managed to throw her off and rolled back onto his feet.  

"AHH! The nightmare never ends!" Sparx exclaimed.

"You don't need to do this Cynder..." Spyro urged as he struggled to focus on the black dragoness.

"Just like old times, eh Spyro?" To his surprise, she then lifted her wing to mask the next sentence.  "Same as last time.  Line me up with his staff." She smiled and winked. She lowered her wing again and the two dragons circled each other with a snarl on their faces.  

Spyro inched himself so that his back was turned to Gaul.  Cynder then leaped at him, but suddenly changed direction so she lunged at Gaul instead.  The ape king looked up in surprise and got up from his throne.  However, Cynder was fast enough and Gaul snatched her out of the air.  

"This isn't over!" he growled and threw Cynder into the wall.  She came back to the ground, out cold.  

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" came a voice.  Everyone turned their heads back to the hole Spyro flew in from.  Three humans rappelled in with rope and a black dragon landed next to them, his red eyes glaring at Gaul.  The voice was Dempsey's.

"Destroy them! The whelp is mine!" Gaul ordered.  The apes jumped down from the alcove and approached the humans.  This move was their last mistake as the humans turned them into bloody messes.  

Gaul growled and stabbed the staff into the ground and caused a massive force field to protect him and Spyro.

"No one will interfere. It's just you and me whelp." The humans and Zoidius were pounding on the shield, but it was no use.  They could only watch as Spyro was getting ready to fight the ape king.

Spyro watched with a scowl as Gaul jumped down, being able to pass through the force field and discarding the staff.  He then put his hands behind his back and pulled out two massive swords.  Spyro backed up and waited for him to make the first move.  

Gaul roared and leaped into the air with his two swords held high above him.  Spyro narrowly dodged and the sword tips dug itself into the ground where he was standing.  Gaul pulled them out quickly, but not before Spyro unleashed a barrage of fireballs.  Gaul held his swords up in a cross and it helped protect his face and upperbody from the heat and shrapnel, but his legs burned a little.  

Spyro was wide eyed as he expected Gaul to roar in pain or limp around, but Gaul charged at him as if he wasn't injured at all.  Spyro rolled to the side, but Gaul kicked him.  Spyro flew through the air and rolled on the ground about ten feet away.  Spyro quickly stooded up, shaking himself back into focus.  Gaul did one more leap and Spyro shot ice at him.  Though not stopping the blow, it did slow Gaul down and he moved slower as Spyro managed to roll away.  However, the force of the attack Gaul unleased caused the ground to break and fall into the lower level.  Spyro could hear Zoidius and the humans curse as they lost sight of him.

Gaul awoke as few seconds later and looked around.  He couldn't see Spyro anywhere.  He quickly stood up and readied his swords again.  He looked up, down, left, right, but the purple dragon was nowhere to be seen.  The two moons finally made the crossing and a large purple beam shot straight into the center of the arena.  Dazzled by the light, Gaul shielded his eyes as they adjusted.  Once they did, he watched with great surprise to find the purple dragon inside the beam.  Once he flew out, Gaul was even more surprised to find that Spyro's scales turned black completely and his horns were orange.  When Spyro opened his eyes, there were no pupils.

This, however, did not stop Gaul from charging at the dragon with his swords lowered.  The new Spyro simply side stepped it and released a purple blast from his mouth.  The force pushed Gaul back and had him grunt in pain.  Dark Spyro simply unleashed more and pieces of Gaul's armor were blown off.  Gaul's grunts turned into screams of pain as each blast hit his now exposed body.

"What are you waiting for dragon? Finish me!" The ape king demanded, panting and on his knees.  Dark Spyro merely stared at him and Gaul laughed.  "HAHAHAHAHA! Coward!"

Gaul picked his swords up and slowly limped to Dark Spyro.  Dark Spyro laughed in a very distorted voice and levitated into the air.  A wave of dark energy surronded Dark Spyro and unleashed itself in a massive shockwave.  Gaul screamed as he was caught in the wave.  He was immediately turned to stone.  On the second wave, the petrified Gaul shattered to pieces.

The force field had disappeared with Gaul's death and the humans with Sparx, Zoidius and Cynder looked down the hole.  They couldn't see anything.

To their utter surprise, Spyro soon flew up through the purple beam.  Everyone was wide eyed.

"Oh no..." Cynder muttered with worry.

Everyone was too shocked to say anything else until Cynder gathered enough courage.

"Spyro stop!" she yelled.  Dark Spyro turned his head to her.

"I...I can't...I..." Dark Spyro murmured sadly, as he quickly flashed back to his normal self.  His dark side then took over.

Cynder quickly flew up and knocked him out of the beam.

After he came to, he looked up sadly.  "I'm sorry...I couldn't stop..." The others gathered around him and helped him up.

The ground shook violently as the purple beam grew larger.  

"Time to go!" Zoidius exclaimed.  Before any of them could react, rocks started to fall from the ceiling and seal the entrances.  

"Oh no! We're trapped!"  Spyro cried in despair.  The humans looked around with terrified expressions and the other two dragons just looked at the ground sadly.

In his head, the Chroniclet began to speak, "Ride out this storm and live to fight another day."  Suddenly Spyro got an idea.

"Guys, get close to me!" he ordered.  They all gave each other glances then did as Spyro asked.  

He lifted his wings and then released a bright orange aura.  After the finishing of the collapse of the entire mountain, two cloaked figures came up to the ruins and observed a massive orange crystal.  Encased in the crystal was Spyro, Zoidius and Cynder huddled together with the humans crouching and facing different directions, as if protecting them.

"How long do you think it'll be?" asked one of the figures.

"I do not know my friend..." responded his friend. "But until then...we must remain vigilant."