Skylands Legends

10.1 The Calm Before

Anxious. That was a word Spyro never thought would be used to describe him. He had always been confident and self-assured in all of his actions. He had never really felt fear or anxiety for anything. He just went into everything and did his best, believing that would be enough. And it usually was.

But now he had this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. His heart would randomly flutter and his mind was racing at a million miles an hour. He had never felt this way before a battle. It was always just a sense of calm before the storm of battle hit. But now he could only focus on all the ways his plan could go wrong. And how it would all be his fault.

At the meeting last night they had decided to go with his plan after Pop Fizz had grabbed some materials and demonstrated the pure strength and durability of Anhydroladium. Latch and Splat then quickly put together a plan with it before sending the bottle beasts and Mabu Defense Force to work executing it.

Spyro had then spent a restless night alone in one of the many guest rooms in the castle. Laying there in bed he had realized how used to the feeling of Cynder lying next to him he was. And how much he missed it.

After a couple hours of having a staring contest with the ceiling, he had gotten up to go for a walk in the castle.

He wandered aimlessly through the halls anxious for the coming battle, hoping to eventually clear his head. Things only got worse when he met Pop Fizz's doctor.

After not having slept for more than twenty four hours, calling Spyro somewhat delirious could be interpreted as an understatement. So when he came upon the ex-villain Dr. Krankcase in the hallway, he had just assumed that he'd actually fallen asleep and was now dreaming.

The illusion was wiped away once Dr. Krankcase put his arm around his shoulders and started manically laughing. The feel of the Krankcase's worn gloves against his scales felt all too real.

Spyro reacted instantly and threw the villain to the ground. He then summoned up some fire in his chest and prepared to cook the evil scientist when he heard Splat yell. He paused as the violet faun came running up to put herself between him and Dr. Krankcase.

"Stop!" She said, "What are you doing? He's with us, Spyro!"

It took a moment for him to process this. Pop Fizz had turned to Dr. Krankcase for help? That's insane! Krankcase had been the villain to design the Golden Queen's Ultimate Weapon back in the day, a tool that had almost conquered the Skylands for the Doom Raiders. Not to mention, the man was the literal definition of a mad scientist.

Spyro felt himself clenching his fists as he looked at the laughing doctor. "Why?" He said through gritted teeth.

"Why?" Splat repeated back confused.

"Why is he the one that is helping Pop Fizz." Spyro said, not taking his eyes off of Krankcase. "That man isn't just evil, he's insane!"

"Precisely," Dr. Krankcase answered, rising to his feet. "You are precisely correct." He paused as he started to giggle. His four wooden legs tapped rapidly across the ground in excitement. "I am insane. Which means I know better than any other what Pop Fizz is going through, therefore, I can help the most." He broke out into another laugh.

"I don't think that's how it works." Spyro said.

Splat nodded and held her hands out to pacify him. "Probably not," she agreed. "But they have been helping each other. And Pop likes having him around. It was Krankcase who actually made the connection between Pop's sanity and his beast potions. And he..."

Spyro remembered tuning her out after that and heading back to his room numbly. He couldn't understand why everyone was so forgiving of these villains. These monsters terrorized the world not even a decade ago and now they were just supposed to be accepted back into society like nothing ever happened. It wasn't right.