A/N: Waaaah, it's been like...foreverrr since I uploaded something. Have an old piece that I wrote months ago. Can't say whether or not I like it, but I do like the idea behind it. Maybe I'll rework this later...or write something similar, anyway. Enjoyyyy~

Predecessor

"You should not have returned, Valour."

"I told you, I don't go by that name any more."

The harsh sounds of battle, shrieking in their ears. They did not hear; shrouded in an intangible veil that none could see. His eyes were sad, sunken in his withered face, as he gazed upon the purple dragon. Once vibrant scales were dim and lustreless, even in the warm light of the hungry fires below.

"Perhaps not. But, to me, you will always be Valour, my son."

"I'm not your son. I never was your son, Searus. There is no blood shared between us."

The old fire guardian closed his tired eyes, his old wings beating slow and steady with the wind. The heat was nigh on unbearable, but he did not feel it. He felt nothing; just numb. Even the dying shrieks of his comrades fell upon deaf ears.

"Is it truly the blood we are born with that decides who our family is? You will always be my son."

His eyes opened and met those of the dragon hovering before him, silhouetted in an ash-streaked, dawn sky. But the eyes that stared back were not the eyes he remembered. They were cruel, cold, merciless, and filled with a hate that chilled his tired bones to the very core. They were not Valour's eyes.

"You are nothing to me, old one. None of these pitiful dragons are. You taught me everything you knew; you wanted me to be something better! But the instant I started to surpass you, you cast me away! I was strong! Stronger than all of you! I could have been so much more!"

"Yes. You could have." The guardian's eyes were dry, but his wounds wept for him. He could not feel their sting any longer, though they bit deep to his bones. They were nothing in the face of the numbness inside.

"But you banished me. Why? Were you jealous? Were you afraid? I thought you wanted me to be stronger! I thought you would have been proud!"

"And you still do not understand, my son. We had no choice."

"You had a choice." His voice was cold, like shards of jagged ice. "But you blew it."

"Forgive me, Valour."

"My name is Malefor!" His shriek of rage rent the air, splitting the sky in a jagged gash of anguished fury. The screams below reached higher pitches as the flames burst with extra life, rising to touch the bloody clouds. Stone grated on stone as the temple began to crumble.

The fire guardian closed his eyes as the beats of his tired wings grew slower, "I tried, my son. I tried. And I am sorry."

"You aren't sorry. You've just given up. You're pathetic."

"No, Valour," the old dragon wheezed, wings slowing, "I have nothing left to give up. You were all there ever was."

His wing beats stopped, and he plunged soundlessly towards the flames that consumed the earth below. The purple dragon watched emotionlessly as the old guardian disappeared into the raging inferno. Sparks launched skyward as though in welcome. Behind him, the sun rose ever higher into the ash-choked sky and the clouds were streaked with blood. Malefor's eyes glittered with reflected fire.

"A fitting end; that you should die by the very flames you gave me, old one. Now, the sun rises on my victory."

With a final shrieking howl of shattering stone, the last standing remnants of the Dragon Temple collapsed into the raging firestorm.

Hey look another A/N: So... Who wants me to upload the next chapter of RD, like...right now?

Thanks for reading, dearies. ;]