I hugged Adrian one last time before he teleported away again. It's been too long since I last saw him and the others. But I had to come back.

He'd left me just outside the Academy grounds, as per my request. We'd startled a few cadets, Cynder being among them. The other Undead dragon flew over to me.

"Vexelle! Are you alright?" She asked, a worried look on her face. "Yeah, what's wrong?" I ask. "Didn't you hear?" She seems shocked. "I thought you went out on that mission to locate a dark relic!"

"I did, but the Skylanders abandoned me so I left with my friend," I shrug. "Wait, they just abandoned you?!" She asks, her attention now on that. "Yeah, Stealth Elf got annoyed with me when I told them I found a relic, so she yelled at me for a bit and then left. The others just walked off as well. The plan was that I'd find it, then show them where it was. Guess not."

"That's ridiculous!" Cynder shook her head. "I'll have to talk to Spyro about all that. I can't believe they'd all just abandon you like that, especially after they made you go all that way!"

"Yeah," I agree wholeheartedly. "Hey, I was just going to assess the damage of my home, wanna come?"

"Sure, it'll be cool to see the place," she nods. "There's not much to see," I warn her, but we start walking all the same.

We talk as we head down there. She seems to enjoy complaining about her class work. "So now thanks to Jet Vac we have another quiz!" She moans. "Can you believe it? We're supposed to use our free time as free time, not as time to do extra work that we're supposed to be doing in class! Why do we need to study in our free time?"

"Because the system is badly flawed," I reply. "Exactly!" She agreed. "And Jet Vac always says that if we waste his time in class, he'll waste our time in return by keeping us back after class. Does he even realise he's wasting our time anyway? I mean come on, I-"

She stops when she realises I'm no longer moving. "Are you ok?" She asks me, following my locked gaze.

The trees surrounding my tiny clearing have all been lost due to the fire, leaving a larger training space. The cave itself is surprisingly normal, except with a little wooden sign above it saying 'Vexelle's Cave' in a clear, neat scrawl. There's even a substitute door, which is just a large leaf hung in the entrance.

"Someone's been here," I say. "And they were some kind of decorator. And they rebuilt the cave. It was supposed to just be a pile of boulders by now after Stealth Elf collapsed the roof on my head."

"She did what?!"

I laugh. "Long story short, there was a forest fire that took out a little bit of the roof, so the rest of it was unsteady. She teleported onto the roof and it collapsed under her. I just so happened to be trapped inside by the fire. The whole thing came down on my head."

While Cynder laughed, the leaf door started to shift. We both shut up and looked around to see what it was. We weren't expecting to find Spyro hurrying out, then stopping when he saw us. Well, his eyes were locked on me.

"Vexelle! There you are! I've been looking all over for you! We need your help! For real this time!"

"Spyro, is it true that you all abandoned Vexelle when she was just trying to help you find a dark relic?" Cynder asked. "What? Look, I'll talk to you later, ok? Right now, I need Vexelle's help! Stealth Elf's been taken over by some kind of darkness and apparently Aura Dragons can stop it!"

"Wait, are you talking about...?" I shake my head. "Show me where she is, I'll see what I can do. I can't promise I can help, though." Spyro nods and starts flying. I follow.

"I have Vexelle!" Spyro announces as he leads me into the Academy. I realise we're in the same room that I spent most of my recovery time in. "Where is she?" I ask Sprocket since the other Skylanders wouldn't bother answering if I tried and frankly their master, who was the only other person in the room, wasn't exactly high on my list of people I enjoy making conversation with.

"She's right here, we have no clue what's wrong with her," Sprocket answers, gesturing to where Stealth Elf is laid on a table-bed thingy like I was. She looked pale and weak. I walk over and examine her thoroughly. Then I check her aura.

"Yeah, I know what's up," I say. "Have you guys ever had to deal with a sort of dark curse thing that drains the energy of whoever's affected? It can sometimes make them act evil and it seriously weakens them."

"That's kind of like what happened to Master Eon that one time!" Spyro said. "Well, it's like that," I shrug. "I can get it sorted, but the risks are high."

"What will happen to her if you don't do it?" Sprocket asks. "Then she'll die," I reply simply. Silence fills the room for a moment due to my bluntness. "And if you do it? What will happen to her then?" Spyro asks. "To her? She'll make a fast recovery if everything works out as planned and she won't suffer any side effects. It'll only take a minute or two, as well. But for me-"

"Do it!"

"Guys, if I-"

"Please, Vexelle!" Spyro practically begs, not letting me finish. "Spyro, listen to me for one se-" "Come on!" He does it again. "You need to do this, Vexelle! She'll die otherwise! She can't die!"

"You have to save Elfie!" Eruptor insists, glaring at me. If looks could kill, well... technically I wouldn't be dead because I would've killed him weeks ago, but you get what I mean.

Eventually, I just sigh, seeing no way out of this. "Fine, fine, I'll do it. But I-"

"Do it, then!" Spyro says. "We don't know how much time she has!"

Sighing again, I get to work.