The world began to regain reality slowly. First were the noises. Unearthly screams echoing in a yet unknown place. The dull murmur of voices in a softened background. Then there were the smells. Dragon blood spilled on a wet concrete floor. Overworked machines and animal manure. Burning wood. An overwhelming human stench, not the clean type.

Then as the world began to make light Silver began to realise other things. There were heavy weights on her shoulders, legs, tail and wings. Something was snapped over he muzzle, tightly, only allowing her to breathe through her nose. A grey wall stood straight upwards in front of her with a small metal door standing straight against it. The concrete floor was slippery and wet and smelled of something unhealthy. Dim white lights shone from what she assumed was the roof of the enclosure but as she tried to look upwards she realised her neck was also chained.

A scream sounded behind her wall causing her to meep in surprise. She instantly went to cover her head with her wings, trying to block out the sound, but her wings were trapped. The sound suddenly stopped, much to her relief. But it was small relief. As he mind began to reach working order once again she began to feel fear. What was this place? It couldn't be the A.O.D.H because her mind wasn't being controlled. At least she didn't think it was. It didn't seem any different then before. She couldn't check for the device, but why would they have her changed up if they already controlled her.

She shivered as a distasted thought entered her mind. They could be doing it while she was awake, putting that thing into her. It had happened to her father, and he said it had been the most painful thing he had ever experienced. The pain had nearly broken him. And her father was the strongest dragon she knew.

'Think Silver,' she told herself, trying to control the fear that was threatening to arise in her, 'You can get out of this. Just ignore your feelings. For now.'

She closed her eyes again, feeling out the bonds that trapped her wings, tail and legs. As far as she knew, they were either iron or steel. Easy enough to cut through. She focused on the edges of her wings, and the metal around them began to shimmer and ripple like water. The blunt limb began to reform, becoming sharper and sharper until it was an edge that could cut diamond. It was a trick her father had taught her. When she was born her wings had been naturally sharp but soon enough she had learned to dull the edges. Wrestling another dragon with limbs that could kill with a single swipe didn't bode well, so it had been the first part of her powers she had learnt to control. Now it was effortless.

With a small grin she began to move her wings as much as she could, slowly sawing away at the metal bonds. If she could put more force behind her movements it would be quicker but her lack of movement made it a little difficult. As long as they didn't check up on her before then... or had a camera inside the cage.

A sudden creak startled her and she instantly stopped cutting away the metallic bonds. Her wing rippled and became normal again and she looked over at the intrusion. A man walked inside the enclosure with a notepad in his hand. An expensive blue suit covered him with a gun holder at one side and what looked like a TV remote at the other. He had a set of glasses neatly set on his face, enlarging dark brown eyes. He looked up from his notepad and frowned, glancing at the bound dragon. The bounds around her muzzle suddenly loosened, allowing her to open her mouth slightly.

"Name?" he said in a monotone voice.

Silver didn't answer, too startled by the question to do so. What was this? An interrogation or something.

"Name," the man insisted.

An angry growl erupted from her throat, "Why should I tell..."

She didn't make it half way through her sentence before pain erupted across her body. It was so sudden. So unexpected. It felt as if every nerve, bone, artery and blood vessel was being ripped apart by stinging needles. She screamed, not being able to help herself. There was no way to stop it. No way to defend from it. Her metallic screech echoed throughout the room and into the enclosures around her. It was so loud even the man covered his ears with a grimace.

Then the pain stopped, just as suddenly as it had started. Her tensed muscles fell limp against the ground as she gasped for breath, taking in deep draughts of air. The man was gazing critically at her, as if the pain was her fault.

"When I ask I expect you to answer," he said threateningly, "Name."

"Silver," she said, the shock of the pain loosening her tongue.

"Age?" said the man.

"Why do you need to...." She screamed as the pain erupted again, then stopped.

"Age?" the man asked again.

"Seven and a half," she half gasped.

"Species?"

She hesitated for a moment. The man looked up from where he had been writing her answers on a sheet of paper. He raised an eyebrow as if asking 'do you want it to happen again?'

"Metallic dragon," she gave in.

"Powers?"

"Aaah... a breath of liquid metal, shoot spikes from my tail... um," she thought for a moment. If she gave these people everything about her she couldn't surprise them in any way, couldn't escape.

"You realise if you hide anything from us then you will get much worse then you have," said the man.

'Worse? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to give a few more,' she thought, "I can make my wings sharp, breath metal spikes and balls, and transform my tail into stuff."

She hoped that gave her enough leeway. They didn't know she could darken her shell or that she could make it grow over her whole body. That would give her some advantage.

"Thankyou," said the man, writing down the last pieces of information of his paper.

He began to walk over to her and pulled what she recognised as a measuring tape out of his pocket. He pulled out the end and began to measure different points of her neck. At one point he stepped up on her paw causing her to growl, but she quickly stopped herself. She didn't want to risk that torture again.

He seemed to nod to himself and stepped back from her. He called out some measurements into the air and some sought of machine began to move above her. Her head was lifted up into the air, exposing her neck. Something descended from above her and wrapped tightly around her neck, just before her wings. It wound around both her shell and bare scales. At first she thought it was trying to choke her and she tried to thrash, but another bout of pain defeated her. To her relief it didn't choke her, but it did sit in an uncomfortable way.

The chains around her feet, wings and tail retracted suddenly, leaving her free. At first she didn't move, exhausted. Her body was tingling slightly, experiencing severe trauma from the torture. Her eyes were swimming and everything seemed to fading in and out of vision. Yet as her vision cleared her mind seemed to register that she was free again. She quickly jumped to her feet and gathered a clot of metal in her throat, ready to solidify the man that caused her so much pain, but as she was about to release her element the coil around her neck tightened... and then pain. Instead of metal releasing from her maw it was another earth shattering scream. She collapsed to the floor, he body seizing until the pain came to a sudden end.

A small whimper escaped her throat. It was all too much. Her body and mind couldn't handle it any more. Darkness welcomed her.

* * *

She woke again to the sound of a bell being rung. She lay still for a moment, taking a moment for her mind to catch up with her body. Slowly she forced herself from the floor, slowly getting up onto all fours. The uncomfortable collar around her neck was still there, holding her captive.

She looked around the room with interest. The chains that had held her were lying limply on the floor but somehow she didn't think she was free. That final bout of torture had come about without the chains being attached. It was the collar that did it. She reached around with her tail, forming it into a blade and stuck it on the collar. As soon as she did a zap went through her body, causing her to jump. It didn't hurt as much as what had happened before, and lasted for less then a second, but it was enough to warn her away from medalling with the device.

The concrete wall in front of her suddenly let out a loud screech as it opened. The blue suited man was standing there with a bored expression on his face. Silver's first instinct was to attack him but she quickly realised it would do more harm then good. Instead she restrained herself, staring at him as if trying to kill him with a look.

"Follow the path, second turn to the left," he sighed, "If you try to stray from it, you will be electrocuted. If you try to harm anyone on the way, you will be electrocuted. Basically if you do anything that even remotely looks like you are about to escape, you will be electrocuted. Got that?"

Silver nodded, choosing not the answer the man. Instead she padded out of the cage. It wasn't worth getting electrocuted again. At least until she found a way to escape. The fact that the pain was sourced from electricity gave her a lot of information, and she couldn't help but grin. All she needed to do was get into her full-metal state and she would be invincible. The only problem was the collar was wound so tightly around her neck she doubted she could.

Other dragons were making their way out of the cages as well. At least ten that Silver counted. Most of them were fire dragons, with two earth dragons and what looked like a wind dragon... and Zepos? Silver couldn't help but let a cry of happiness as she saw her friend.

Zepos looked up at her and smiled as she ran up to him, "Silver."

"Zepos, they got you too?" she said, feeling guilty relief about not being the only one trapped.

"Yeah, they did," he looked around with an angry expression.

There was a collar wound around his neck as well. It looked like two ropes coiled around each other and tightened, but made of metal. It looked strange against Zepos's yellow scales. Greyish black against yellow. Silver decided she didn't like it around him.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking around.

"I don't know," replied the electric dragon, "But it isn't A.O.D.H."

"What?"

"Yeah I know. It seems we have run into another dragon capturing association, and frankly, so far, I like these people less."

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Hey guys! New chapter! The stories entering a more interesting stage now :) Vote if you enjoyed and tell me what you thought. Next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^