Chapter 2: Three Choices


The hallway was long, narrow, and of course made of metal. It stretched on forever, the only light was from white panels lining the top of the roof. It was just large enough to fit a dragon, but not large enough to fly. There was nothing else in the hallway, no other pathways inside and no doors, except for the one leading into the corridor and one at the end.

Through the corridor walked a group of humans, all in the black uniforms of A.O.D.H with guns held to their chests. In the middle of the group walked a single dragon with a silver shell. She seemed nervous, looking around the corridor as if she had seen it before. Whenever she hesitated the humans pushed her forward more, until at last they reached the large door at the end.

There was no hesitation as the door was pushed open, revealing an inky blackness on the inside. It almost beckoned them forward, drawing them inside with a mixture of fear and dread. The dragoness in their midst let out a growl of fear, and attempted to back up, but a sharp hit to the soft scales on her side caused her to whimper and take a step forward.

"In you go!" said one of the humans with a laugh.

She whimpered again, lowering her head and walking into the pitch-black darkness.

Silver's eyes snapped open, her breathing heavy and uneven. She shivered softly, blinking rapidly as she tried to recover from the dream. Another one that could happen soon in the future. Very soon. The hallway had been A.O.D.H, and she wasn't much older either. Calming herself down the silver dragoness slowly got to her feet, groaning softly as she stretched her wings.

The dreams were still there, a side affect of her time spent out of time. They came and went every so often. Usually they were quite good, and she didn't see anything important, like a human going to work in the morning or some dragon of the past sparring against one of their trainers. It was very interesting, and a lot of the dreams were very educational, but it was ones like these that she hated the most. Nightmares of her own future.

Shivering again she forced herself to forget about the dream. It was only a possible future anyway, not something that was certain to happen. She walked over to the stable door and looked outside. She couldn't tell what time of day it was, but there were a number of other dragons sleeping in the stables around her. She snorted quietly and turned around, sitting near her nest. She was hungry, and now bored. There was nothing to do in prison.

Sighing she studied the layout again. It was a reasonably sturdy place, with little to no weaknesses in the bars and metal. Along the back wall ran some sort of metallic pipe. For a moment she stared at it, before snorting softly and turning away. She could probably cut through the bars with her tail if she wanted to, but in the end it would probably do more harm then good. With the device on her head she wouldn't be able to escape anyway.

Sighing softly she curled around herself again and lay down, avoiding the nest of sticks and straw in the left hand corner. She would rather sleep on the metal floor then in that. An idea came to her. Seeing as there really was little else to do she decided on making her own nest of metal, if she could. Gathering elronium in her throat she began to carefully sculpt the bottom of her nest, using her tongue and tail to create a smooth surface. At least she could still use her element, unlike when she had been captured by D.E.D.

For a couple of hours she worked on the nest. It was slow work, but she was used to it. Making things with her metal was one of her favourite past times. So she sat down, slowly working. It usually took her about five hours to make a full nest, and she had plenty of time.

When she was about halfway done the sound of clanging feet on the floor caused her to raise her head in interest. Standing up on her feet she walked over to the stable door and looked out to see Diana walking toward her. The human looked a little tired, but otherwise as formidable as ever. Silver grumbled slightly. She hoped they would at least give her something to eat soon.

"You're up?" the dragon handler said with a raised eyebrow.

'Obviously,' Silver thought to herself, but was unable to say it out loud.

Diana studied the dragoness for a moment, before walking to the latched door and swinging it open, "Come on, you must be hungry. And you need a bath."

Silver growled lowly and felt herself try and lash out at the human once again, and once again she was stopped. The human raised her eyebrow, one of her favourite expressions it seemed, and shook her head. She turned around and began to walk away, gesturing to Silver to follow her.

The dragoness rumbled softly, but padded after the human, glancing into the stables next to her as she did. There were one or two dragons awake, but most were still asleep. There were a number of different species around, but to Silver's surprise most of them were rare, with life, light and dark. There was also a single gravity dragon sitting, awake, in one of the cages, watching Silver carefully as she passed. There weren't any mind dragons, which confused her slightly because it wasn't exactly difficult to capture one. If they could get a gravity dragon they could get a mind dragon. Shrugging to herself she decided to worry about it later.

Diana lead her through a number of corridors that reminded Silver of D.E.D, though instead of concrete walls it was all made from metal, like the one in her dream. She shivered slightly at the thought. They came to another door, which lead into a room with white tiles and a pool of water in the middle. Along the walls were all assortments of gadgets and on the other side a control panel with numerous leavers and buttons.

"We'll feed you first," sighed Diana, "Now watch closely, I expect you to do this in the future."

The human walked over to the control panel and hit a rather large red button on one side. There was a grating sound as a slab in the roof moved, sliding away and revealing a large tube. A deer dropped from it, hitting the ground with a large thud, some of the bones breaking as it did. Silver blinked in surprise, taking a step back. She glanced at the pipe, then the deer, then the pipe again.

"Eat up," said the woman with a small sigh, "I'm sure your hungry."

The dragoness looked at the human, before turning back to the deer with a frown. Slowly she opened her mouth and took a tentative bite. A rumble of appreciation ran through her and she instantly dug in, not able to help herself. It had been nearly four days since her last meal, and she was starving. As weird as it was to have deer dropping from the roof, she couldn't deny that it was a useful system.

Once Silver had finished her meal she licked the blood from her lips and nose, before picking up what was left of the corpse and looking around. Back in Sky Mountain the left overs were collected if fire pits that were accessible in most main areas of the mountain. Here though, she had no idea what to do. Diana seemed surprised at her actions and frowned slightly.

"Just chuck the scraps over in that corner," she said, pointing toward the place.

Silver nodded and walked over, putting the carcass down before glancing back at the human, wondering what to do next. It was obvious that this room was used for more then just feeding. Her eyes wondered to the pool of water and she narrowed her eyes, having a guess at what would happen.

Diana saw her looking at the water ad grinned slightly, "In you get. I'm betting you've never had a proper scrub down your entire life."

The dragoness snorted, but did as she was told. She padded over to the water and put her paw in, finding it surprisingly warm. Almost hot. She glanced at the human again, wishing there was some way they could communicate, but every time she tried to speak English the device stopped her. Even her voice was being controlled.

Diana mistook Silver's hesitation as fear and said in a soothing tone, "Come on, it's not going to hurt you. Many dragons enjoy a good bath."

Silver rumbled softly and looked at the water, 'Oh, stuff it all.'

She stepped in, the warm water feeling surprisingly nice against her soft scales. A quiet purr rumbled through her before she could stop herself. The human was right, this did feel nice. Any hesitation gone the dragoness slipped in, letting out a sigh of pleasure. The water felt amazing against her scales. She found it wasn't as deep as she expected and it was rather easy to lie down, which she did, another soft rumble of satisfaction escaping her.

"Told you, you would like it," Diana said with a grin, watching her.

Silver didn't listen and simply closed her eyes, letting the water soak through her. It was amazing. In the back of her mind she replayed something her father had said back when they all lived in Dragon Valley, her first home. He said that the only thing he missed about being under the control of the humans was the baths. Back then she thought it was strange, but now she understood.

"There we go, now we can begin. But first, could you remove your shell? If you can of course," the handler said.

Silver glanced at her and growled, but the device forced her to obey. Her shell rippled across her back and began to contract, shrinking off her wings and tail. Deciding to try something new she focused the metal on her head, making it form a elronium ring on her left horn. Diana seemed slightly startled by the transformation, and she studied the dragoness with interest.

For Silver, the feeling of the water over her bare back caused her to whimper slightly. It was still strange for her, being without her shell, and while she was getting more used to it her scales were still surprisingly sensitive. So sensitive that the warm water nearly burned her and she shifted uncomfortably. But it didn't take her long to get used to the water again.

Diana studied her with a small frown. She was surprised to see two large grey scars on either side of the dragoness' spine. It was very difficult to scar a dragon. Their scales were usually quite hard and difficult to break. Silver's scales may be softer then other dragons, but the metal shell usually protected her back, and that was nearly impossible to get through. Whatever had caused those scars would have been quiet powerful indeed. Diana wondered what had happened to her.

There was a sudden knock at the door, causing both the dragon and the handler to look over at it in surprise. It creaked open, pushed from the other side, and the human that now held Silver's hate walked in. The dragoness instantly growled, her metal shell growing back over her back and she rose from the water. Diana stood up straight, saluting the man that had walked in.

"Admiral sir," she said regally, shooting a glare at Silver, "What gives us this honour?"

"Oh, no reason," The Admiral smiled grimly at the metal dragon, who only narrowed her eyes in response, "I just wanted to check up on her is all."

Diana frowned slightly at that. It was unusual to have one of the most important people in A.O.D.H check up to see on a single dragon's wellbeing, no matter how rare they were. Silver may have been a special case however, as she knew that The Admiral had been personally involved in the dragoness' capture. That was a first as well.

"She's doing well sir. I found her wide awake this morning and was just cleaning her up before sending her in with the other dragons," Diana said.

"Good, good. If you wouldn't mind stepping outside Diana, I would like to have a personal evaluation of her."

"Sir?"

"I won't take to long, hopefully, so if you please," he gestured toward the door.

The woman hesitated, before nodding and marching out of the room, making sure to close the door afterwards. Silver watched her go with a small amount of fear. What did The Admiral have planned for her? She looked over at him once again and growled.

"You may speak freely Silver," said The Admiral with a wave of his hand.

"What do you want?" she snapped instantly, finally able to speak her mind to the humans.

"Oh, wow. You know I control you right? I can make you do an assortment of things that would disgust you to the very core, and you wouldn't be able to do a single thing about it. If I were in your place I would be trying my best to please my superiors, not threaten them," he said, leaning against the white wall.

She rumbled in anger, and didn't answer him, glaring at him with all the anger and hate she could muster. He didn't flinch under her stare, and simply looked back, his calm demeanour and cold eyes piecing into her, until she turned away, not finding herself able to hold his gaze. There was something sinister about it, something that made her shiver.

"Now, I am here because the leader of A.O.D.H has sent me personally. He has deemed it fit, for reasons I am unable to understand, to give you a choice of your future work for A.O.D.H," he said.

Silver looked at him in interest, wondering what he was talking about.

"Now, you can choose one of three options. The first option is to help us in building our final project. A machine, one that requires elronium to be able to function. I will not tell you what it does, but in your completion of it you will be set free again."

Silver's eyes widened, not expecting what the man had said at all.

"The second option is to breed, give us a number of eggs in the next couple of months. Once we have three other metal dragons we will also set you free," he crossed his arms, looking at her expectantly.

"What's the third option?" Silver asked.

"The third option is to resist," he grinned, "But if you choose this one, we will make you do both of the other options, and once you have finished either the machine, or had your hatchlings, instead of setting you free we will kill you."

A growl rumbled through her and she narrowed her eyes, "So there's really only two options?"

"I'm glad you see it that way," The Admiral grinned, "Would you like me to give you more information?"

The dragoness nodded her head.

"Should you choose to help us build, you will be working hard, mostly by yourself with little free time to do as you wish or meet with other dragons. You will be given meals once every two days, and maybe one day a week where you can have a break to spend your time as you wish. This option will likely take you longer. Your father has already completed the outer shell of this machine, but that took him one and a half years. To complete the rest will take you a year or more."

"Oh...."

"Yes, oh. If you choose the second option, you will be forced to mate with a dragon of our choosing once a day until we are sure you are gravid. Then you will be treated well until you have your hatchlings. Then we repeat the process until we have three other metal dragons. If you have eggs every three months it should take less then a year. During the times when you are free, you can do whatever you wish. We won't stop you. You will be given a meal every day, and likely a bath as well."

"Sounds like you want me to get fat," muttered Silver, though she couldn't help but admit that this second option was a lot more desirable then the first... besides the important fact that she would be forced to mate... again.

She sighed softly. She had been expecting something of the sought to happen to her, but she hadn't expected to be given a choice about it. She hesitated, thinking it through. If only she knew the machine they were building. Her thoughts of what they were went through her head, and she had many ideas, none of them extremely dangerous.

"Do I have time to think about it?" she asked.

"Of course," The Admiral said with a smile, "You have two days. Oh, and remember not to speak any human languages unless told otherwise."

He turned away from her and walked out of the room, leaving the dragoness sitting in the water, thinking through what had just happened. Diana entered soon after, looking a little worried. She didn't say anything about what had just happened and simply moved over to the control panel.

"Let's continue shall we," the human said, and the dragoness only nodded slightly.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I got this one out quickly :) Vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. Next chapter will be out soon! See Ya!

Pennator^^

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