"There it is," breathed Firefly, impressed.

The large group of dragons had flown in through the mountains, and because there was no longer an illusion covering Sky Mountain, its wonder was in plain sight. The massive peak rose high above the surroundings, clouds floating around the top with the lowering sun casting a long shadow. Unlike most mountains it didn't have snow present at the tip.

"It's so... green," exclaimed another dragon, admiring the forest that had grown within the crater.

Silver chuckled at that. She wondered how long most of her group had stayed within Antarctica. As safe as it was, it was still a wasteland. Very little grew and it was always incredibly cold. But here... they had a chance to see what life was like on the outside of the Syndicate, in the other dragon haven.

The group circled down into the large crater surrounding Sky Mountain. They attracted quite a bit of attention. There were many groups of dragons flying in the sky when they arrived, twisting and turning through the air. It looked as though they were training together. Some, much to many of their surprise, even had humans on their backs.

The metal dragoness glided down toward the entrance to Sky Mountain to see numerous others waiting there for them. At the forefront was Iraliene, her green scales and size standing out amongst the rest of the dragons. Next to her stood Zepos, the lightning drake seeming genuinely ecstatic. Retrix sat beside him, on his haunches with a smile on his face. He was excited, but was keeping his emotions in check for now. Others were there as well, West, Reha, Blaze, Celestia, Krita, all watching as she flew in with a small army at her back.

It had taken them nearly eight days to reach the haven. Many of the dragons hadn't flown such long distances before. They had been forced to take frequent rest stops, much to Silver's annoyance, but it had given her a chance for a greater amount of training with O'hen, and allowed her to get to know many of the dragons that had decided to fight. It quickly became obvious that they would need more training, if just to keep themselves from exhausting during the battles to come.

"Well, Silver, this is a pleasant surprise," stated Iraliene as she took in the large amount of extra forces.

"It was for me as well," chuckled the dragoness.

Iraliene nodded her head with a smile, before turning to the dragons standing behind them, "You must be Firefly, I assume?"

The fire dragoness nodded her head, eyeing the queen with a tilted head. They seemed to size each other up for a moment, taking in everything from the other. Iraliene was far bigger then Firefly, but the fire dragon had a greater presence, and was more intimidating. Silver couldn't help but stifle a laugh. The two of them were very similar yet very different at the same time.

While they talked to each other Silver turned to her friends. She walked up to them with a small grin. Zepos, unable to help himself any longer, quickly rushed forward, welcoming her with a hug. She hesitated for a moment, before laughing and nuzzling him on his neck.

"I told you I would be back before you knew it," she said as he stepped back.

"I know... but it doesn't make me worry any less," he replied with a small blush.

"I can protect myself."

"Yeah... but... I just don't want to see you in any more danger then you have to be," he looked to his paws, tail, moving slowly behind him.

Silver's mind flashed back to the time just over a week ago. Her encounter with Eldawin. The only other person that knew was O'hen... but he knew everything. She shivered softly, before looking at him again with a smile.

"Thank you," she said.

He smiled slightly.

Silver turned to the others, "How'd your mission go Retrix?"

"Great! Well, as good as it could have gone anyway. There weren't as many dragons there as I remembered," he replied, stepping forward, "But we managed to get around fifty eight more to join our cause, along with many of the human tribes that lived in the mountains."

"Oh? You carried them here?" she said, surprised.

"Most of them, the rest have gone out into the world to see what they can find out about A.O.D.H, and if they can find the machine. It seems they've hidden it reasonably well, without putting it on any of their files or on a network of any sort. Otherwise Tyler would have found it by now."

"Are you close?" asked Silver.

"We think so, but how would we know. The ex-handlers have identified the general location of many A.O.D.H bases throughout the world. We have over two hundred marked as known locations. We suspect there are still a few more hidden ones around that we haven't been able to find, but other then that we've at least narrowed down where The Machine could be. But we'll talk about that more later," he smiled, giving her a hug as well, "We've all been a little worried."

Silver rolled her eyes with a laugh "I'm back now, hopefully for a while."

"Yes," he grinned, "That would be good."

* * *

Silver let out a small sigh as she glided above the forest, enjoying the cool night air on her wings. Her shell had retreated from her back, as she really didn't see a need for it at this moment. Besides, the feeling of wind brushing over her scales helped relax her, calm her down. She needed it after the past couple of days.

After the welcome Iraliene had invited many of the dragons up to her cave. It had been the most crowded she had ever seen it. There the queen had spoken to them, making sure everyone knew what they were getting into. Many were nervous; Silver could see that easily, but there was also a determination in them. They weren't going to back down.

But there was another problem. No one knew what Eldawin was truly capable off, not even Silver, and that frightened her more then she could imagine. And then there was that threat. So far he hadn't tried anything, as far as she knew, but it was coming, and coming soon.

The thought made her sigh and she banked in the air, gliding down to her cave. She landed at the entrance and looked around once again. It was startlingly silent, and for a moment she expected O'hen to appear out of nowhere again. But there was no one. She stepped inside, and hesitated, looking around with a small growl. There were shadows masking the surface of the rocky walls, made from her metallic dragons that still occupied most of the space within the cave. She shivered softly and looked back at the mountain, before snorting at herself.

"Am I afraid of the dark now?" she grunted, shaking her head.

The fear subsided and she padded over to the metallic nest situated at the back of the cave. She curled herself inside it, laying her head on her tail and closing her eyes. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was exhausted. It seemed as though she had been flying nonstop for the past couple of weeks, and it would do her good to get a peaceful nights sleep. With that thought in mind she closed her eyes, quickly sinking into the embrace of sleep.

* * *

Silver woke up, suddenly, looking around startled. She was still in her cave. The moon was high in the sky. The metallic statues were sitting silently in their various positions, watching out over her. A light breeze washed through the cave, creating a slight chill in the air. Silence was the only sound that she could hear. But there was something out there, something that had woken her up.

Slowly the dragoness began to move, getting up from her nest and stepping onto the cool stone floor. She glanced around, pacing forward slowly, ready for anything, but nothing happened. There was no attack, no sudden appearance of the dragon she half expected to appear. Nothing. Frowning she forced herself to relax. There was nothing.

'Why?' she asked herself with a shuddering breath, 'I'm just being paranoid. Aargh."

Shaking her head she turned to pace back to her nest, when a voice startled her, 'You should be.'

The dragoness froze, before slowly turning around. Nothing. Only the same cave that she had seen before. The still statues. The cool night breeze. The dim light of the moon shining in through the entrance of the cave. It was all the same. But she had heard something. She knew it.

"Who's there?" she growled, spreading her wings a little and allowing her metal shell to grow outwards.

A movement between her statues drew her attention. Frowning she slowly began to move forward, stepping lightly. Her heart was beating hard against her chest and she had to prevent herself from shaking. What was this? What was happening to her?

"Show yourself! Are you a mind dragon? Is that you, Eldawin?" she growled.

"No... its me," A shining dragon stepped forward and Silver froze, staring in shock.

Slowly she began to move backwards, not believing it. Refusing to believe it. It couldn't be true. It was impossible.

"Silver... what are you doing? It's me. I'm back," said Elron, her father, taking a step forward and tilting his head in concern.

"No... no! Stop! This is an illusion! Stop it! You can't!" Silver cried out, glancing around her cave.

"Silver, are you alright?" her father spoke, moving forward to her as if to comfort her.

"No, you're not real! STOP!" she staggered backwards, breathing heavily, "You're not here. You're not really here."

"But I would be," his voice suddenly became deeper, harsher, "I would be here."

Elron moved forward, his presence taking a larger portion of the cave, spreading out around the dragoness. His eyes shone red with malice, the metal around his back spreading to cover his entire body. He looked down at her with a snarl, blood slowly dripping from between his teeth.

"I would be alive! If you had been there!"

Silver let out a cry, staggering backwards away from him, trying to increase the distance as much as she could, but she wasn't able to get away. He continued to grow, expanding throughout the room and before Silver had a chance to react he brought his tail down on her, and everything became black.

* * *

"Murderer!" It was Silver's own voice that spoke, sounding out throughout the darkness.

She blinked in surprise, opening her eyes to find herself in what looked like a forest, full with a shining green light trickling through the trees. Birds chirped and laughed in the trees, singing their sweet melodies and a nearby stream ran by, made with pristine water. However, what was strange about the scenario was there was another metal dragon standing in front of her. Another female. One that looked exactly like her, but as she had been when she was younger.

"Murderer!" the other Silver yelled again.

"Wh... what do you mean?" she blinked, staring at her younger self in shock.

"Look... look at what you did!" the other metal dragoness said, pointing a claw to the river, tears in her eyes.

Silver looked at the river, and her heart almost stopped. The water was becoming red with blood, and then the first body floated by. It was a human with his throat cut out, eyes lifeless and void. It looked as though he had been slaughtered without mercy, and had died slowly. A second body followed, this time a dragon. One Silver recognised. It was Tetrad, still ripped into his various pieces as if had just happened a minute ago. Then came another dragon. And then another human. And then another, and then another, and then another, until the river was flooded with bodies.

Silver took a step back in shock, shaking her head, "I don't remember this."

"You... you don't remember? You don't remember!" roared the other Silver, "Then maybe this will help you to."

The world fell away, and the dragoness grunted as she landed on a new ground covered in metal. Standing up she shook herself again and looked around at her new surroundings. It was a corridor of the A.O.D.H base at Diego Garcia, or what had once been the A.O.D.H base at Diego Garcia. But there was something different about it.

A red alarm was blaring loudly and there was a strange rumbling, as if an earthquake had started below them. But it was no earthquake. It was something far harsher. Far more horrific. A number of dragons were quickly running through the base, moving as quickly as they could in the confined area, but it wasn't quick enough. Without warning a large metal pillar smashed through the roof of the corridor, descending down onto the dragons. One was able to let out a yelp, before it crushed them into the ground followed by the sound of flesh and bone being crunched.

Silver's eyes widened in horror and she took a small step backwards. Screams echoed through her mind, as did images of more deaths caused by the metallic equilibrium. A male water dragon hit by a lightning strike directly in the heart, killed instantly. A female ice dragon, trying desperately to get up the top, but just before she made it her wings were torn off by another pillar. She fell to the ground with a cry, wingless and unable to escape the horrid death through drowning that befell her. A hatchling, void, helpless as rubble fell from the broken roof, crushing it's back, followed by a torrent of water.

"No... no, stop it," Silver staggered backwards, shaking her head as the images continued to flash through her head, "Stop!"

"No," a voice replied, "I warned you of what would happen Silver. I told you not to continue, yet you did. This is the consequence of your insubordination. You called me a murderer, but you have killed far more dragons than I have."

Silver let out a cry as she watched as dragon after dragon after dragon was killed, murdered, by her equilibrium. Murdered in that fit of uncontrollable emotion. In that moment of weakness. Another killed by drowning. Another killed by decapitation. Another killed by lightning. And it continued, both humans and dragons, over and over in her head until she was curled in a ball in this nightmare of a world, crying out.

* * *

Silver woke screaming, tears in her eyes and her breathing coming in ragged gasps. It took a couple of moment to realise that she was once again in the real world. The cave was as silent as she remembered it, nothing but the still statues watching over her. Taking deep breaths she forced herself to calm down, forcing her heart to slow. It had been dream, all just a dream.

'Or had it?' she looked around the cave, searching for the telltale signs of a mind dragon. Nothing, "So that's what you are going to do to me... Eldawin."

She shook slightly and forced herself to relax, before getting up out of her nest. It was still night, the moon still in the sky, but after that... she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night. So instead she padded out of the cave, half expecting her father to jump out from behind her statues again. But nothing happened. She breathed out, her heart still pounding in her chest.

She leapt out into the sky, still a little shaky, but able to keep herself up. Her wing joints were stiff and sore, but as they began to warm up it was easier to fly. The moon was full that night, shining rather brilliantly. It bathed the forest in a blue radiance, illuminating the many animals that came out. It was the safest time for them, as dragons weren't inherently nocturnal.

Silver turned to look ahead, just flying, not really knowing where she was going. She didn't want to enter the mountain, knowing that there would likely be a few dragons still up. She knew that many Syndicate dragons liked to stay up late at night, mostly drinking, talking or doing... other things. She wouldn't be surprised if some from Sky Mountain adopted these habits.

She sighed at the thought and slowly began to glide around the mountain, getting higher and higher. Before she realised it she was at the peak, circling around it like a bird of prey. She looked over the sky, seeing far into the distance over the rest of the mountain range. At the very edge of the horizon the sun was slowly coming up, but she estimated it would be another hour or so before that sunlight reached Sky Mountain.

She looked down at the peak of the mountain, and blinked. There was a small cave situated right at the top, about ten metres before the peak. It looked just big enough for a large dragon to fit through and had a number of plants growing around the edge. How they managed to do so while at high altitudes she had no idea.

She flapped her wings a couple of times and came into a landing, trotting into the cave and looking around. It was mostly empty, besides one object toward the edge. One which caused her to freeze. It was at that moment that she remembered this cave, the highest on in Sky Mountain. She had avoided visiting it until now, and she knew why.

To the edge lay her father's body. Or the metal shell he had left behind. Any flesh had long since decayed in the passage of time. Instead, laying on the earthen ground, was something that looked like a sleeping metallic statue. If she didn't know any better, she would say that it looked as though he were still alive, and would wake up at any moment.

Feeling herself begging to tear up again she walked over to the body and sat down, looking at him. Her nightmare came back to her, and she shivered softly before shaking her head. Her father wasn't like that. He wouldn't have blamed her for his death... and she knew she shouldn't do it either. But she couldn't help it. If she had been a couple of seconds faster she would have saved him. If she could do what she could do now, she could have saved him.

She tilted her head as she looked at the elronium shell that was the only thing left of Elron. The only thing left of the mightiest metal dragon to ever live. She had no doubt that he would likely have mastered his element if he had been alive for a longer period of time. He might have been able to do it without reaching equilibrium. She smiled at the thought.

Deciding to try something, she closed her eyes and attempted to reach out her mind to the metal, only to find that she wasn't able to make a connection. Not like what she could with her own elronium anyway. The shell was just as dead and silent as the dragon it belonged to.

"Silver?" a voice startled her.

She let out a yelp, twisting around and without thinking launching a tail spike in the direction of the voice. There was a cry of alarm and a flash of yellow scales, and right before the target hit Silver grabbed it with her mind, and it came to a halt in midair, right before the dragon's nose.

"Oh my gosh! Zepos! Are you alright?!" Silver said, quickly running over to the startled lightning dragon.

"Yeah," he said, eyes crossed as he looked down at the spike still hovering in the air.

Silver grunted and pulled the metal back into her shell, "I... I'm sorry. You startled me."

"It's fine," he said, letting out a small breath of relief as the spike disappeared, "If I had known you were going to shoot stuff at me I wouldn't have come in."

"Sorry," she shuffled slightly, looking at her feet, "It's... It's been a rough night. How did you find me?"

Zepos shook himself and looked at her with a little concern, "I... aaah, I saw you flying up here and decided to follow, wondering what was wrong."

"Oh... what are you doing up so early then?" she said.

"I usually wake up around this time," he explained, "I like to come up here and sit and watch the sunrise, thinking about things. You know."

Silver tilted her head, not expecting the answer. She chuckled softly and walked out to the entrance of the cave, looking out to the horizon, before turning to face him again, "You mind if I join you this time?"

He smiled, "Not at all. It would be good to have some company for once."

She smiled at him and nodded her head. He padded over to the entrance as well and sat down on his haunches, glancing at her, before looking out over the horizon again. The sun was still slowly rising, its light just reaching the edge of the mountain range. Without thinking about it, Silver leaned into Zepos, rumbling softly as she felt the terrors of the night meld away. He glanced down at her, a little surprised, before smiling and putting a wing around her. He didn't know what had happened to her, or why she had been in this cave, looking as though she had been crying. But she seemed alright now.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. vote if you did and comment what you thought. This was an... interesting chapter to write. Took me far longer then I expected. The next chapter will be out as soon as I can get it. See Ya!

Pennator^^