CHAPTER 1- THE BLEAK FUTURE.

Scarecrows. That was the codename given to Sky's squadron of elite commandos. In the years after the plutonian campaign, the newly formed United Draconic Alliance had formed his squadron out of necessity. Along with the other six they created using only the most valiant and competent warriors in all the realms. Sky lead his squad through the thick jungle and Blaze spoke up.

"Sarge, what exactly are we looking for?"

"According to your dad, 'any threat to the security of the U.D.A.' I have no idea what qualifies as a threat however. God forbid we get a competent briefing before we get sent to places like this."

"Ey sarge! There's some dead guys ova heh!"

"where Griffon?" Sky stopped and walked over to where he was pointing and sure enough, about six or so UDA soldiers were laying in the entrance to a trail. They had been there for a few days in the jungle heat. It smelled terrible to say the least.

"They look like paratroopers, 68th division I'd say. Well get started. Get some holes for these males, we'll bury them right. We owe them that at least."

They dug the graves for the fallen and took their dog tags, putting them in their graves and marking them with the rifle bayonet stuck in the dirt and the flak helmets on them.

"Looks like a machine gun nest sarge. I think we should go around it."

"You don't get paid to think Griffon. We're not going around it."

"Why not?" Blaze asked

"What would you rather do? Have us leave it here for the next poor bastards to get killed? We're taking it out."

"What about calling in an air strike?"

"The air force isn't gonna waste ordinance on one machine gun."

"There is good cover all over the trail. Just keep your head down and watch for land mines. Let's do this." All of the squad simultaneously began firing and moved behind the barriers closest to them.

Gunfire rattled overhead and explosions rattled the earth below as sky's special operations squad hid cover in the dense jungle of a distant realm. Sky, was instructing them as to their next course of action.

"Scarecrows! We can't stay here! Get out of my ass, and move up that trail!" he shouted as he reloaded his M16.

"You heard sarge! Lets go kick some ass!" Blaze said running to advance on their attackers, dodging grenades as he went and looking back occasionally to see if the others were still behind him, and still in one piece.

Sky was still behind the barrier, trying to fix the jam in his weapon.

"Fuck! Human technology is an ounce of help and a pound of trouble!" he said to himself, throwing the weapon to the ground and drawing his small automatic submachine gun, the MP5.

He laid down suppressive fire and moved forward until he found sufficient cover next to codename 'Python', his squad's demolitions expert.

"What's the count?" he shouted as a mortar exploded right in front of the large fallen tree they hid behind.

"We got two of them on the machine gun, and we got a sniper on the top of the pillbox, and two spotters calling in these damn mortars!"

Sky used hand signals, he told Blaze and codename 'Griffon' to flank right while he and Python flanked left. They acted swiftly, moving from blast crater to crater, firing on the machine gunners, killing one.

They reached the pill box and Sky released a burst of bullets, killing the two spotters and using a grenade to clear the rest of the bunker.

The machine gun fell silent as the rest of his squad rejoined him on the hill.

"Bring the survivors over here if you find any." Sky said, resting on a wall of sandbags.

They searched the bunker for any Intel they could find.

"I got a survivah here sarge!" Griffon said dragging him over to Sky.

"Good job Griffon." Sky said looking down at the wounded fighter with the utmost disdain.

"You…cant…beat…all…of…us…" he gasped, blood pouring out of his wounds.

"I don't plan on beating you. I plan on killing you. Your so called 'revolution' will be crushed. And I will kill Xavier with my bare hands. Blaze take care of this guy and let's go."

Blaze pulled out his sidearm hesitated for a split second, then shot the wounded in the forehead.

Sky noticed this and addressed his soldiers.

"Guys, it's not going to get any easier."

He pulled out a piece of paper from his camo uniform pocket and read it aloud

"TO ALL SQUAD LEADERS, YOU ARE TO INTERROGATE ANY POWS YOU FIND. ONCE ALL USEFUL INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED, TERMINATE THEM IMMEDIATELY.

Those orders were straight from the supreme commander himself, commandant Spyro. It was easy killing gnorcs and rynocs wasn't it? They didn't look like us…but these are dragons. Are own kind…and we have to kill them before they kill us."

While they were listening to their sergeant, another sniper in the bell tower of a temple nearby lined up his shot. Sky was lined up in his crosshairs, since he had singled himself out by addressing the squad. The sniper took a deep breath, closed one eye, and squeezed the trigger.

His shot rang out through the jungle, and his squad watched in horror as Sky fell to his knees and then onto the ground.

"SNIPER!" Griffon yelled

"I GOT HIM!" Blaze said as he used his grenade launcher on his M16 to blow the sniper away.

The other four members of his squad dove for cover, but came out seeing Sky's condition.

They then crowded around their fallen leader.

'It can't end here…I wont die here…I've got to kill Xavier…' he thought as his vision began to blur. He heard the voices of his teammates before he blacked out, possibly forever.

"Hang on sarge! You ain't dying here!"

Flashback

Sky had moved out of Spyro's cave and into his own with his mate Emerald. She was perfect for him, keeping his reckless streak in check most of the time. His nickname was scarface, for his scar that went from above his right eyebrow to the right corner of his mouth, but no one dared call him that while he was around. He had finally got unpacked and he stood at its entrance, he was lucky enough to get a coveted place on a cliff overlooking the whole dragon village, the only way to get to it was by flight. Emerald approached him and hugged him from behind.

"Well…we're done. Come inside and relax."

"I can't…" Sky said sadly. Emerald knew why he couldn't. One of his squad members had been captured by Ghastly gnorc's forces, tortured for days, then killed. Sure, they had their revenge, they delivered Ghastly's head on a platter to Ignitus, but he still couldn't get over private Gino's death. He was the squad leader, it was his job to keep them safe, and to let one get captured, tortured and killed was utter failure in his mind.

"It wasn't you're fault Sky. There wasn't anything you could've done. He got lost, and wandered into them."

Sky was silent as he stared into the setting sun over the hills. His silent, impenetrable demeanor was what Emerald hated the most.

"Don't shut me out Sky… I want to help"

He was trained to show no emotion, to kill without remorse and do the unthinkable, should it need to be done.

"What happened to the Sky I knew? The carefree boy who always wanted to have fun and who…"

Her voice trailed off as a tear formed in her eyes.

"I still love you Emerald, but the kid I was is dead, this is who I am now, this is who I have to be."

She ran into the cave in tears and he just stood where he was, still emotionless. He would have to leave for another mission in a few hours. He decided to leave early, not saying a word to his mate.

End flashback.

He couldn't feel his left arm. The bullet had entered his left shoulder, missing a major artery by inches. Sky could feel the blood pooling behind his head and neck.

'Damn guns…humans make combat so impersonal…'

"MEDIC!!" he heard as his vision faded even more, the distant sound of a helicopter fast approaching.

His last thought before slipping into darkness:

"How…how could this have happened? I'm sorry Emerald…I…love…you…"