Author's Notes:

My entry to another writer's challenge on Discord. Estimated word count, about 2700.

Prompt: Time is a power that Spyro can wield in The Eternal Night, yet it is never seen again after the ending of the game. Write your take on what could have happened to this potent power awakened within our purple hero. Flesh out your crazy theories through a oneshot of Spyro learning more about himself and his wicked capabilities.

Note: the short story borrows from Aimless lore, much like my other oneshot "Discovery". This means that the Bianca here is NOT the same character as in the original games. Once again, this story is not considered a part of Aimless canon. It's just me having fun. Also trying to show how I would approach Spyro engaging in combat.

Enjoy!

Faustian Bargain

"Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all."

- Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name

"YOU? You did that?"

Spyro growled. Anger seethed through his veins. His body ached from all the scars that hadn't healed yet. He knew he shouldn't do this, that he should restrain his fury, but his mind kept revisiting the horror. He recalled the cadavers lying in their bedding, their eyes turned into glass. The corpses that blanketed the once vibrant streets of a great city he once called home.

Overwhelming power gathered in his scales. A purple light from within illuminated the walls of the cave, brightening—intensifying by the second.

His target: a cream-furred rabbit opposite him. She reached up to his breast at full height, and his body was far bulkier than hers. It defied common sense for anyone like her to listen to him from just a few wingspans away with a condescending smirk etched onto her features.

"If that didn't happen—if, if you didn't kill—if you didn't murder him—

"He would still be alive today, I know. Things wouldn't have gone the same way and Warfang would still be the same as it had been for years."

"Then why?" Spyro roared. "Why, Bianca? We didn't do anything to you. We treated you like allies—like friends! We even had you meet Joshua years ago and you repay us with this?"

"Remember when you first visited this region, Spyro? Remember the talk we had before? I am a magus, and magi only care for two things."

Benefits and knowledge, she was about to say. Spyro knew her answer, and to him that was unforgivable. Having no bottom line was the most despicable thing anyone could say. "I'll make you pay!" He lunged at the rabbit, fangs aimed for her upper torso. He moved at breakneck speeds, enhanced by Convexity itself.

The space in front of her never seemed to end. He felt she was getting farther and farther, yet all the sorceress did was stand on a magic circle. He unleashed a ray of purple light from his maw.

It streamed forth and cleaved the distance like it wasn't there. Bianca leapt out of the way, discarding her hooded cloak and throwing a silver disc at the dragon. It split into three—nine—no, twenty-seven copies and bombarded his location.

Spyro felt sluggish in this distorted space. He struggled to move his legs. It felt like swimming through mud. He focused on the mana inside him, yet for some reason it failed him. Failed to respond to his call. He had experienced this once in Volteer's experiments with Joshua, but this time it was different. Before, the sensation felt as though his mana had nowhere to go.

Now, it felt like someone—something actively suppressed them.

He eyed the rabbit sorceress floating in the air. She held a glowing sword, radiating the aura of the Dragon Realms' four elements. It felt wrong to him. Was it the source of the suppression? He had to destroy it!

Spyro turned to the last thing he had in his command. The power of time. He tapped into this forbidden knowledge sealed in his head, using a unique resource of magic only the Purple Dragon could access to slow time to a crawl. The figurative mud clinging to his paws fell away. He rushed to Bianca, flapped his wings, and took flight, claws aimed at her neck.

Then her blue eyes suddenly turned grey. They shone with power. To his complete surprise, Bianca spoke, "You're not the only one who can do that."

Then she moved, completely unimpeded by Dragon Time. With magical flight the sorceress sped to him. She evaded his claws effortlessly. He kicked out with a hindleg, but she brought her sword up and blocked it. He felt his claws scrape across its miniature, dragon-shaped guard.

In one final gambit, his prehensile tail lashed out, hoping to catch the witch with its sharp tip. Yet she eluded them as though she had eyes at the back of her head.

Bianca swung her weapon at Spyro. He barely dodged the blade, and in front of his eyes, a wave of lightning shot out and nearly struck him too. He flapped his wings and retreated backwards. A thrust went straight for his previous position, and this time twin spheres of ice and fire materialized from nowhere. Caught off-guard, the orbs pelted his hide.

Spyro fell three wingspans down to the cave floor and out of the distorted space. Sensing an attack if he dared to take his time, the Savior rolled and kicked off into a somersault. Knowing he could use his elements again, he flicked up his tail vertically, and a blade of wind went with it. As he landed, corporeal waves of darkness pooled around him. He sank into it, fully intending to perform one of Cynder's favorite moves.

A pair of glowing silver eyes alerted him to Bianca's attack. The rabbit materialized in front of him out of nowhere, her sword held high. Her fingers ensconced in bright orange light, she slid them across its onyx blade before making several inscrutable motions at impossibly accelerated speeds. Spyro felt terror grip him when he sensed the familiar thrum of Dragon Time on his scales. H-how... it didn't make any sense—Bianca wasn't a dragon!

The prismatic lightning dancing around the sword vanished, and the pink wing—a shrunken dragon wing!—attached to it radiated immense power. "Hup!" Bianca bellowed and stabbed at the air directly above her.

Whatever the sorceress did halted Spyro's descent into his shadow pool. "W-w-whoa!" The Savior stammered. Bianca's magic not only interfered with his. It shot him straight out of the incorporeal element and up to the ceiling, where its visible features seemed distorted.

He slammed into dense, solid rock too quickly for him to react. One of his dorsal fins broke off in the crash. He did not fall back down. He was stuck there. It felt as though gravity itself ceased working properly.

Grunting in pain, Spyro unleashed a plume of fire below in hopes of catching the witch. The oppressive, foreign sensation pinning him to the ceiling vanished.

The Purple Dragon of Legend channeled his mana into the earth. With a kick from his powerful hindlegs, he rocketed towards a cave tunnel large enough to fit a single adult dragon. He needed to escape. Forget about making a deal with her, he told himself. Forget about the arrangement. If this magus was responsible for the tragedy—if she and her Mistress started the series of events that led to Warfang's current state, then there was no hope of getting the help he wanted. The help he needed.

By the Lifebringer, why didn't he listen to Cynder? He should've listened to her... should've waited for her to recover from her injuries—

A sharp, agonizing pain ripped through Spyro's right flank. He was dumbfounded to see Bianca there in midair, casually lifting her sword as though the dragon just willingly flew into its cutting edge.

"There is no escape from my Eyes of Time."

Spyro plummeted to the cave floor. He crashed into the rock. He yowled excruciatingly. Something broke. Weakly, the great Hero of the Dragon Realms lifted his snout, turned it to the right...

And saw his right wing completely severed from his body. An ugly gash cut deep across his underbelly. Blood flowed out in thick streams. He felt lightheaded.

Sorceress Bianca floated down next to the defeated dragon, once again looking small in comparison. Her boots fell in step beside the red puddle oozing from his body. Her hooded cloak flew into her hand of its own accord. Spyro braced himself for a finishing blow. But as she donned her cloak, the grey shine in her eyes faded and revealed tones of ocean blue. Whew. Spring of Fortune, she wasn't going to kill him.

"Spyro," said the witch, "as much as I'd like to have my way with you, I cannot do it. The World Will just lost the Second Transcendent not too long ago. I am sure he is livid." She returned her sword into its sleeves. Strange, how could it even fit in there?

Bianca ignored the questions in his eyes and kept talking. "So if I do anything to you, Azeroth himself will manifest a soul body near here and pursue me until I suffer his eternal wrath. He will not care whether or not you instigated our fight." He was confused. Why was she talking as though the Ancestors actively intervened in the world? Even the Chronicler couldn't exert his influence in the mortal realm.

With a tiny wave of her hand, Spyro's severed wing went airborne. It floated slowly towards him until it finally took position right next to the bloody stump. "I will heal you, but it will hurt."

Palm facing the Purple Dragon, a green light flooded him and enveloped him completely. His entire body tingled as it would normally do when he absorbed the aura of red spirit gems. Then his right side burst into unforgettable torment. He shrieked. He clawed uselessly at the floor, writhing.

Spyro knew only pain for what felt like hours. It seared his head and rendered the dragon unable to think, even feel, for the entire time.

When it was done, when the light faded away, he looked again and saw that all the damage had been undone. His wings were whole. His flank, unsullied save for a long scar. Ancestors. Cynder would definitely ask him about that when he got back.

"You better not attack me anymore," Bianca broke the silence. "Just because you are the Purple Dragon does not mean you are invincible." She snorted. "Especially when fighting a sorceress in her own lair."

Spyro trembled. "I want to... I-I want to do everything in my power t-to obliterate you for what you've done." He scowled. "But... I know better."

Bianca scoffed her approval. "Good." She withdrew her deceivingly frail-looking hands into the sleeves of her cloak and loomed over him. "When you first came here, you came asking for my help."

"Why did you tell me those things in the first place? I, I-I wouldn't have lunged at you. I, would've still considered you a, a friend."

"Think of it as my favor. My transparency ensures you know what you're getting into. Now speak. What does the great savior of this world wish from me?"

Spyro picked himself up and got on all fours. He stepped away from his blood. His body was shaky. It still remembered the trauma of losing a wing and receiving a horrendous slash wound. He was feeling these unnatural tremors all over his upper body.

Even so, he made his request. "I, I don't care how you came to have D-Dragon Time. I need you to teach me. Help me learn to use it better."

"Why? Doing that just might bite me back."

He shut his eyes. "Bianca, I know I just attacked you. I won't apologize for it and I don't have to explain myself since you're the one who started this mess."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I want those two dead," Spyro said, callously. A cool rage bubbled beneath his scales. "The Empire must pay."

"My sentiments are with you, Spyro," Bianca replied. A tiny smile briefly appeared on her muzzle. "However, simply because our aims align doesn't mean I'll help you for free. As a magus, I must ask: what does the vessel of the World Will offer in exchange for my tutelage?"

Spyro looked at the rabbit in the eye. "My full cooperation with your plan." He recalled the disturbing sight he saw in a chamber at the very back of the cave before Bianca pushed him out.

It was a horrific sight, he recalled. Dried blood streaked across almost every surface in the chamber, and it was littered with dragon bones. It housed a glass container, within which floated an emaciated, comatose dragoness with a missing wing. Seeing her shook him to the core; she was just a few years younger than him. Her life consisted of nothing more than endless sleep, trapped inside multiple, overlapping arrays of complex magic.

"I... I will also, I will also overlook the, the"—the hero swallowed the anger, the disgust rising to his tongue—"t-the horr—the things I saw back there."

"Hmmm... Your silence is a plus, but unnecessary. I have multiple lairs across the continent and it is easy to move her elsewhere." Bianca sneered. "I am more interested in this 'full cooperation' you mentioned. You think I have a plan? Elaborate."

"I've been thinking about what I saw before. If you're strong enough to best me like that, then you should be able to take those two on. But you're not. That tells me you're avoiding a direct assault."

"What if I just don't care?"

"I saw your reaction that day, Bianca. Someone who cared wouldn't do that."

"Ah, you noticed," she mumbled to herself. She smiled. "So, if I'm avoiding a direct assault.."

"Then you're formulating a plan. I don't know what it is, I don't know what the details are, but, whatever it is, you will have my full cooperation. I will also get Cynder to join me."

"Even if it means killing innocents?"

"I'm making a deal with a demon here," said Spyro. "I don't need to repeat myself."

"Are you certain about this, Spyro?" He shivered under her gaze.

Spyro steeled his eyes. "I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm doing this to make them pay and save the world from them, so yes. I'm certain. I have your neck."

She chuckled. "Spoken as if you were Azeroth the Infinite himself. In another world, this is what you call a 'Faustian bargain'. I commend you for jumping into one for the greater good."

"...Now what?"

"Now we have an arrangement. Later I will make a magical contract for it, and you will sign it in blood. The backlash for breaking the contract will be severe, but it will take neither your life nor your soul."

She waved at him in dismissal. "We can return to Warfang together, first thing tomorrow. The trip won't take two weeks like the last time."

For the first time, Bianca turned her back on him. She was—she merely appeared vulnerable to a sneak attack. Spyro wouldn't do it anyway. It went against his honor. He'd never go back on his word unless it meant the entire world to him. "Where are you—

"Come with me. I'll show you to your chamber. I'll give you a, an introductory lesson to Dragon Time, and we can continue the rest in Warfang. I'm not a dragon, but I have a lot more experience with that magic than you ever did. Is minor time acceleration really the only thing you can do with it?"

Spyro thought back to the first time he learned about this power, during the Eternal Night over ten years ago. He hadn't been able to access Dragon Time after the grublins released them from stasis, but it started coming back several cycles after Malefor was dealt with.

Back then it was a time of peace. A time of coexistence. There wasn't any need to pursue even greater power than before. After defeating a monster that threatened all of the Dragon Realms, Spyro thought it was enough to simply stay sharp and keep the peace.

He had made a few mistakes along the way—some of them he might have regretted—but none were so irredeemable as his decision to forgo accumulating more power and instead enjoy life as it happened.

His paws shivered. He shouldn't have gotten arrogant. He should've kept training for his own personal advancement—kept preparing. That was his one job as the hero, the renowned Savior of the Dragon Realms. Perhaps he would've been ready then. Perhaps catastrophe wouldn't have fallen upon the city he loved.

"Yes," he answered, hiding his regrets, his shame. "That's all."

"Never bothered testing its limits, did you?" Bianca noted as she led the Purple Dragon away from this room. "You must've lacked the motivation. Well, we can start with the basics first. Minor time acceleration is the least you can do with it. You can get away with so much more than that. Let me explain..."

Never again, Spyro swore to himself, to the world he lived in. He would never become complacent again.

Author's notes:

Alright so... a liiitle bit of explanation of what happened to Spyro's time magic during DotD. All nicely wrapped up in his adult self making a deal with the devil. XD