darkSpyro

Just a fanfic I wrote. It's a bit unevenly paced, I confess, but it should serve its purpose. I intend to make several more stories that are affected by this.
[Note: This story uses Doomslicer's Guide to Skylands, the link can be found in my guestbook. If you don’t want to read that, all you need to know is that Caretaker 3 is the real name of the Ruins’ Weapon Master (Weapon Master refers to the subspecies of Arkeyans), and he can detach from his stand and equip legs and wings. Tr’Dictatrix is the Trolls’ female leader, though the true leader of the Trolls, called Trolane, is a mysterious character who never shows his face; some believe he is merely a myth. The Shroud is a fan-made place I created.]


Stealth Elf looked across a hellish abyss. A tear fell from her eye. The universe once known as Skylands was no more. Outside herself, there were only a few survivors. There was no hope. The devastation was complete. Not even the Undead Realms had survived. A magic aura protected the survivors from the extreme heat, and magical totems gave small amounts of food and water, but then, what was the point of even existing at this point? Meanwhile, Spyro sat beneath the food-giving life totem. It gave a small sense of relaxation to the young dragon. “Peace,” he thought, “is the only thing left. I suppose that’s the one good thing about a destroyed universe, there’s absolute tranquility.” Spyro tried to smile at this, but somehow he only felt worse. But just as he felt like death might be better than this empty life, a strange thing happened. It could be best described as a flashback or vision. He saw Cynder, Sparx, and himself, battling a massive creature, then another purple dragon, and then he was restoring what looked like another broken world. He knew that he had been in other universes, along with Cynder and others; Hugo had done some studies on them and made a term for the phenomenon. He really didn’t have any memory of it, as Hugo stated it seemed like he and Sparx had done it twice. What could have happened in this other universe? Did he hold powers that he had yet to tap into? If only Eon were here, he’d know what to do. Spyro remembered the feeling he had had when restoring that other world, and tried to emulate it. Nothing happened.

He felt a wave of despair. He tried again. Nothing. He then remembered, he had felt similar once when he went Dark. But there was no Darkness with which to absorb, the destruction had destroyed even it. Spyro paused, and began sobbing. He embraced his sadness, his anger, his guilt, his rage, his misery, all his negative emotions. With a painful yell, he turned black and silver. Everyone came rushing over. “What happened?!” they asked. But Dark Spyro did not appear to hear them. With great pain, he began to shoot purple beams of energy. He then concentrated, and with difficulty crafted the beams into a sphere. He fired this sphere at another island, and it disintegrated in dust. But instead of the dust blowing away, it began to swirl around an aperture, which sucked in the dust and several surrounding isles. “Intriguing. You appear to have spawned a small singularity. What is your purpose for… unless… are you attempted to engage in prochronism?” asked Drobot. “If… you… mean… change things… then yes… I am…” Dark Spyro replied in a shaking voice. “Now… behold… the power of… Convexity!”

Let us take a step back a month or so and learn of how Skylands’ destruction took place. The Core had been fluctuating for several hours. Hugo and Caretaker 3 had been working hard to find out why. It was a time of celebration, Liberation Day, when the defeat of the tyrannical Arkeyans 10,000 years ago by the first Skylanders was celebrated. All the Skylanders were there, except for a team that had been in the Outlands, in the Shroud to be exact, who had been taking longer to perform their mission than expected. Cali was with them, hoping to find some artifacts. The Core’s fluctuations were not posing any danger, so the celebrations continued. Suddenly, a massive rift-like portal opened up! A massive ship emerged, appearing to be a Spectral Dreadnought, converted for use by the Trolls, a few kilometers away from the core. The civilians were evacuated, and the Skylanders prepared for battle. As the ship approached, the Core’s fluctuations got more intense. Caretaker 3 appeared to be stunned (or as close as an Arkeyan can be to looking stunned) while looking at the ship. “Oh great weapon master, what is that? And why are you so worried?” inquired Hugo. “That… that ship… it wields the Inversed Engine… but how can this be? I personally saw to its destruction!” was the Arkeyan’s reply, as a holograms popped up in front of his hands. “What is that?” asked Hugo, growing worried. “A device recovered by the Arkeyans. It was discovered capable of creating black holes and rifts. When its powers destroyed a remote planet where it was being experimented on, we immediately saw to its destruction. We also destroyed all records of its existence. It appears to have been reconstructed, and would seem to be powering the ship.” Hugo quickly ordered all Skylanders to be ready, and activated the Core’s new defense system. The ship was in firing range, and the defense systems quickly unleashed a barrage of energy on it. The ship continued to approach, and started firing.

Small ships departed, and a figure stood on the bow of the ship. Looking at his holographic displays, Caretaker 3 quickly called out that that figure was none other than Tr’Dictatrix, the mighty empress of the Trolls. “As humiliating as this may be to you all, I have taken the liberty of asking for aid among the Drow. As Kaos has vanished, the Drow have stopped their conquest and a treaty has been signed, as you know. They will not hesitate to fight against the Trolls. They also must realize that if the Trolls take control of the Ruins, they’ll be able to conquer Skylands much more easily. We’ll need their aerial prowess to keep that ship from approaching.” stated the Arkeyan, “They will be here momentarily.” The fighting was growing more intense, and the ship slowly approached. Troops had landed on the outermost area of the Ruins, and Skylanders and Mabu Defense Force agents were attempting to intercept them. The Drow arrived and mowed down the Troll’s smaller ships that were bringing troops down to the ground, but several got through. The battle raged on, but though the besieged fought valiantly, the ship drew closer and closer. The empress had now landed, having not even taken a ship but rather having bounded from ship to ship and isle to isle. The defending Mabu were forced into a hasty retreat, and she soon destroyed some of the outer defense systems. Wearing powerful ancient gauntlets, she soon dispatched several Skylanders who had tried to stop her. Boomer approached her, stopping her rampage. “Hello, old friend.” She said in both a flirtatious and chilling voice.
“You ain’t mine friend anymore!” “You never did master fine speech. Shame, you could have been quite a king. Had you stayed on a little longer, you wouldn’t have missed my rise to power.” “Eh, you ain’t that powerful. Everyone knowed that Trolane is da real power behind the Trolls.” “Slience! Trolane is little more than a shadow, I rule the Trolls, and very soon all of Skylands! I guess you shan’t be there to enjoy it!” She angrily replied, and began her attack on Boomer. Boomer knew her well though, having played with her as a child, and having prepared for her once it was known she was approaching, managed to touch her green skin with an onion, knowing her allergy. Now fully enraged, she conjured up a wall of fire and surrounded Boomer, before she started slowing down and dizzying. Drill Sergeant quickly used his Auto-Blaster (which was both a weapon and a hacking tool) to deactivate her guantlets and removed them. As he carried them away, however, she smiled, and just as he got far away enough, the guantlets released a large explosion that rocked the Ruins. During this distraction, several Troll mecha landed and proceeded to damage the defense grid, disabling a large amount of the remaining defense systems. “I will not let the Core fall once more!” yelled Hugo! “Retreat as fast as possible; I believe I may have a plan!” Emergency defense systems came online, and provided cover as the remaining defenders fell back. These systems soon fell, however, and the Trolls advanced. The empress, now back on board the main ship, called a halt to the Trolls, and made an announcement. “Surrender now, and be given a chance at life, or I shall be forced to use this ship’s true power.”

Everyone looked at each other. “She does not know the power she commands. Were she to use it, there would be no hope. I suggest we at least feign surrendering.” “Never, we shall not surrender, nor shall we not keep our word. I still have a plan” Replied Hugo. “WE SHALL NOT SURRENDER TO YOU!” yelled (most of) the defenders. “So be it… fools.” Replied the empress. The troops advanced. Just as they approached the Core, with all the Skylanders staying back, Hugo approached and typed in commands on the input panel. “You guys might want to stop! No turning back!” he yelled, and as they approached, pressed a button. The Core began firing beams out, instantly transporting whatever they touched to random points across the universe. Unfortunately, the Core’s fluctuations had not been taken into effect in Hugo’s calculations, and the beams soon spread out of control. The central beacon beam began to distort, and the ship began to get struck by the beams. “Fire!” yelled the empress, and out of the back of the ship, not yet damaged by the beams, rose a pillar. And out of that pillar, a dark, distorted, spectral beam fired at the Skylanders. But due to Core’s fluctuations, it struck it instead. And what happened next struck fear into even the bravest of beings.
A dark energy crept up the Core’s central beam. “That is going become a singularity!” yelled the weapon master. “Retreat! Repeat! RETREAT!” screamed Hugo. “No… it is no use… it is over…” stated Caretaker 3, sadly. “Attention: the Core will momentarily inverse, and will become a massive black hole. I conjecture that most if not all Skylands will be destroyed by the resulting chain reaction. You have a few moments to make peace with your death.” He announced to all. A holographic telepresence of the weapon master popped up in front of the Empress. “I hope you are satisfied with this outcome… fool.” He angrily stated.
Meanwhile, in a dark, far off fortress, the masked being known as Trolane had watched the battle. “Ah… just as I expected. That girl might have conquered the Ruins, but the lure of using such power was too great. Her mistake I suppose.” he stated to no one in general. “Begin emergency phase-shift protocol,” he yelled into a communication system. “Brace yourselves!”
Unbeknownst to them, the team of Skylanders that had been in the Shroud were not far away from this fortress. They had just arrived at a small island with several magical totems that were providing them and some residential sheep with resources. “Most unusual. The surrounding space has distorted.” Stated Drobot. “I sense something, but not here… something unimaginably horrific… it’s happening at the Ruins I think.” Said Ninjini. Her altered clone, Scarlet, agreed. “I sense it as well… all at the Ruins are in intense pain… anticipation of it to be more accurate…” Suddenly, a communication popped up. Hugo appeared in it. “Friends… in a few moments… well… most of Skylands will be destroyed… I just thought you guys should be warned…” “WHAT?!?” yelled everyone.

“My dear friends, we were attacked, by the Trolls… they used an ancient device on the Core, but it went wrong and now it’s going to fully destroy itself. We’ve got a half hour at most.” Explained Hugo. “You can all say goodbye to all your friends at the Ruins at least.” With this, several more magic holograms popped up. After saying goodbye to everyone in general (as due to the celebrations, almost everyone they knew was at the Ruins), Spyro personally said goodbye to Sparx, Trigger Happy, and Gill Grunt. Everyone was in tears. It was most painful saying goodbye to Cynder, whom he had become especially close to. The others said their personal goodbyes to their closest friends. Hugo announced to all that judging by the state of the Core, they had only one or two minutes left. A hush fell over all. Bash ran as fast as he could and kissed Flashwing, who didn’t seem to mind. And then… the Core began to suck the entire Ruins (along with the surrounding areas) into its central beam, and then unleashed a massive explosion.

When the team in the Shroud woke up, they were shocked to find that, wonder of wonders, they were still alive! How they had survived was unknown to them (though the residents of the hidden nearby fortress knew that through turning the surrounding area somewhat intangible, they had averted part of the disaster), but the surrounding area was burnt and torn. The totems remained, and Ninjini used them to conjure up a protective aura on everyone, as the heat was intense, and everything aflame.
Sprocket soon found out what had caused the distortion and saved them. “I think there were several of these all around in this area. I can’t say I know who put them here, but it kept us alive. The tech seems to be a mixture of Arkeyan, Troll, and possibly others. Judging by some of the other stuff I found, I think we’re near some outpost, and this island stored some of their stuff.”

“Come quickly! Come quickly!” screeched Sonic Boom. “I’ve found shelter! Now my hatchlings can rest at last!” “It would seem to be some sort of storage unit. It looks like it goes underground, so that will protect us from some of the fiery debris, and might have some useful items inside.” Sprocket said, looking it over. “It’s nice that we can survive and all, but think about it a moment! We may be the last living creatures in the universe! And even if we can survive here, so what? We’ll all die out eventually, and then what? There’ll be no life here. Nothing left of a once glorious universe. I’m sorry… it’s just… I can’t stop thinking about it…” Cali sadly stated. “I’m sorry, now you’re all probably thinking about it as well… I just don’t like the idea of living out my days pretty much alone” “It’s fine, I understand, we’re all trying to deal with this. We aren’t quite alone though…” Scarlet replied. “Whoever made those devices is probably alive, maybe even nearby. In fact,” then lowering her voice, “I think I can sense something.” Ninjini joined in. “The universe isn’t as… silent as it should be. We aren’t alone…”

While attempts to find whoever else was out there were made, no one could fly far enough through the fiery weather to see anything, and after a fortnight, Scarlet and Ninjini stated that they sensed silence once more. In truth, the being known as Trolane has survived, along with some of his staff, but they had left their broken fortress to a destination unknown. No longer having any hope to find others still alive, the group had fallen into the depths of despair. They tried to keep busy, but eventually there wasn’t hardly anything to do except wait for the totems to produce food and water. Sonic Boom had explored the other isles and islands, but none were as well preserved as this one. Some were asking whether or not it was even worth going on…

Returning to the present…

Dark Spyro had been honing his Convexity abilities for a couple of days. Sprocket and Drobot soon found out that they could not stay here indefinitely. The skies were quickly cooling. They would not stay fiery, eventually, the atmosphere would cool and break up and they would be in empty space. Even their protective auras could not help once that happened. They had, however, built a makeshift scanner out of some salvaged tech. They had found the remains of some fortress (Trolane’s, unbeknownst to them). Dark Spyro had managed to figure how out to use Convexity to teleport, and with a little more practice was able to transport everyone to the fortress. Now that survival would not be near as easy, those who had doubted whether living was worth it now realized that they really did want to live.

Once at the broken fort, they stayed there for another couple of days. The sky was no longer glowing red, and instead had cooled down considerably and was turning blue. While he had gained impressive teleportation abilities, Dark Spyro still could not control Convexity to its fullest and gain manipulation of time. Drobot and Sprocket were busy studying the technology and ruins. By accident, Drobot’s central armor energy core reactivated part of the ruin’s computers. He then began to set to work emitting blasts of energy to reenergize other computers and repairing them. Intrigued, he began looking through the database. “Fascinating! My fellow survivors, you will in all probability be most pleased. I have discovered that the coordinates of an island up in the former Highlands. It is described as a ‘Waypoint of Worlds’. It appears that this data was most recently accessed, though due to the damages it is impossible to determine that fully, so whoever built this place might have departed for there. I advocate going there. We lack time; the atmosphere is continuing to degrade. It is no exaggeration that this may be our ultimate hope for survival. Dark Spyro, if you would be so kind as to transport us to these coordinates?” “My pleasure…”