Sky Mountain was silent, deathly so. There were no dragons flying out in the open sky. No cries of laughter or joy from troublesome hatchlings. From the burnt forest below clouds of smoke rose and the remnants of fire flickered away at a fallen tree. A broken pile of metal machinery sat in the middle of a number of fallen trunks. The left overs of the massive battle that had taken place.

Above it all flew a lone red dragon. He was rather small fire drake, little older then eight. But there was something about him that created a sense of fear. The red scales radiated an aura of power that was enough to make most dragons wary. His head was hanging low, not really seeing anything as if he was deep in thought.

With a flap of his wings he glided around to the entrance of Sky Mountain, trying to ignore the scent of burning flesh from the large piles of ash on either side of the entrance. It had been a stupid idea to burn the bodies there. Shivering slightly he skidded to a halt and slowly padded inside. There were a few dragons about, talking in low voices, but everything had slowed down now. The battle had taken a large toll. The counted dead was nearly a thousand, including two extremely rare gravity dragons, putting their number down to eight.

The fire dragon slowly walked passed them, drawing many a gaze as he did. His red scales seemed to shine in the light, as if they were flawless in every way. There were no scratches or scars, nor even a slight blemish. It was like he preened himself to perfection. However his glum expression and drooping wings spoke words. He wasn't to be approached right now, and many dragons headed the warning. Except for one.

A deep purple dragon trotted up toward him, another drake with a slightly worried expression. He looked tired as well, his scales not shining with their normal brilliance.

"Raize... you alright?" he asked.

The red dragon, Raize, looked up toward him, quickly nodding his head, "Yeah.... Just... missing my sister is all."

The other drake nodded his head in understanding, "Don't worry, we'll get her back. We have to."

"I know Retrix, I know," replied Raize with a strained grin.

The void dragon didn't know the true reason behind his mood, and he aimed to keep it that way. No one could know, not just yet anyway. It could only be revealed when the time was right, at least that's what he had been told.

"Hey, Iraliene sent me to get you. We are to have a meeting of sorts up in her cave," Retrix said, turning and opening his wings, "We are to get there as quickly as possible."

The two of them took to the air, flying through the silence of the mountain once again. Despite the fact that they had lost a number of dragons in the battle, they had also freed numerous amounts from A.O.D.H. There were a lot of new dragons around, and many of them were dazed and a little overwhelmed by the new way of life.

Both drakes entered The Nest, a large cavern dotted with thousands of caves. They flew toward the very top, where a cave sat, big enough to fit a number of dragons. They flew inside. There was a split in the cave, leading in three different directions. The two drakes went right, knowing exactly where to go.

The cave opened up into another large cavern, nowhere near as big as The Nest, but reasonably sized, enough to hold nearly a hundred dragons comfortably. It was usually quite busy, but that day there seemed to be only a few dragons there. They looked up as the others walked in, pausing their conversation for a moment.

"Retrix, Raize, good to see you," said the largest of them, a light green dragoness who was seen as the leader of Sky Mountain. Iraliene.

"What's this all about?" asked the young fire drake, glancing at the rest of the dragons with them.

As expected her son was there, Gravon. He was a gravity dragon that was very self-confident, although after Silver had defeated him in a clash about a week before the battle he had been quieter then usual, and had withdrawn. A number of other rarer dragons were there that Raize didn't recognise. There was one dragon there that surprised him however. Zepos, a lightning dragon that was in love with his sister, Silver.

"We are discussing what to do next," stated Gravon with an annoyed sigh.

"No, we are going to figure out how to rescue Silver," said Zepos with a snort.

"If we can," added Iraliene, sending a small glare in the lightning drake's direction.

"Okay," Raize said, joining the circle with Retrix, it now made sense why both Zepos and him had been asked to come. Being her brother, they assumed he wanted to rescue her. He sat down, curling his tail behind him, wondering what sort of plans and ideas they already had.

"Why is it so important we do this anyway?" asked Gravon with a snort, "We're weakened as it is, and we have no idea where she is being kept. But we can assume she is heavily guarded, after the effort they took to capture her."

"Yes," spoke a dark dragon, "No offence to you, Zepos, but she is one dragon. Though she may be the only one of her kind she isn't worth the lives it would take to rescue her once again."

"Yes she is!" growled Zepos, "She's done a lot for Sky Mountain, risked her life for this place. Why would we not risk our lives to rescue her?"

"Because to do so would be death! We cannot afford to loose many more of our numbers! As Gravon has so rightly stated, we are weakened, and in trying to rescue her we would likely loose more dragons then we save," said another dragon, a life male that was around thirty years old.

"You don't know that. We could... we could attack the base where she is being held and rescue the dragons there. I'll go with the attack force. I know how to get the devices off," argued the lightning drake, glancing almost desperately toward Retrix and Raize, "You two would come as well right? Raize's equilibrium would destroy them."

All the dragons glanced toward Raize at once. He looked over them, seeming overly calm, "I'm sure I could. But we don't know whether they have more of those weapons that could defeat me. What would happen then?"

Zepos opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again not thinking of a suitable response. He was right after all.

"We're going about this the wrong way," Retrix spoke up now, gaining their attention, "What we need to do is find out which A.O.D.H base she is in around the world, then monitor that base. When she is sent out from there then we attack and rescue her. We don't need to risk our lives trying to destroy anything else. It'll be quick and easy."

"I wouldn't go that far, young Retrix," Iraliene spoke this time, "I doubt they would let her be freed again so easily. If she is even sent out for any reason they won't be sending her alone."

"Yes, but as long as she's out in the open it would be relatively easy. I could simply tackle her into the void and bring her to a place where a lightning dragon could get the device off her head," he replied with a shrug of her wings, "No one would be risking their lives."

There was silence for a moment around the circle as the dragons considered what he had said. One by one they nodded their heads in agreement. It was a good idea.

"There's only one problem with that," Raize spoke up, "How do we know they will send her out?"

"Why wouldn't they?" snorted Zepos, "She's a excellent fighter and could easily capture dragons for them."

"True, but do they want more dragons?"

"A.O.D.H always wants more dragons," muttered a mind dragon.

"Actually, Raize may have a point," Retrix frowned, "The times we were attacked, they really were only after Silver, and when I was under their control, my only order was to find her."

"That wasn't my only order," retorted Zepos.

Both of the drakes had spent a small portion of their lives under A.O.D.H's control, only to be set free by Silver later, and they both felt the need to rescue the dragoness.

"That was nearly a year ago," said Raize, flicking his tail, "And they would have learnt from... my father. I doubt they would take the risk again."

"Yeah but..." Zepos hesitated.

"Look. I want to rescue her as much as you guys do. She's my sister after all, but I want to look at this logically. Would they really need to send her out when the reason they have her in the first place was for her metal?"

"Depends on what they need the metal for," suggested Retrix.

"My guess is they're building something, and they need Silver for that. If that's the reason they need her, then why send her out?" said the fire dragon.

"That's only an if," said Zepos.

"And even if that is the reason, doesn't mean we could still find her and the base she is in. If they do send her out, then we can get her," said Retrix.

"Okay," Raize nodded his head, "Is everyone else okay with that?"

Iraliene nodded her head, and so did a number of other dragons. Gravon just snorted, looking away. The group then split up after the queen had given them a number of jobs to do. Now they would just need to wait until they found her.

* * *

Silver walked nervously into the large open hangar where most of the other dragons were milling around or simply talking. Diana closed the large door behind her with a large clang, leaving her alone for now. A few in the crowd glanced toward her in surprise, and their voices washed through the air.

"It's her."

She hesitated, looking around at the staring eyes. In many of them she saw sorrow, awe and a mixture of other emotions that she couldn't place. She was surprised at how many of them had heard of her, but she guessed that A.O.D.H had been after her for so long she had become quiet a common job for them. Someone that they constantly had to keep watch for. There was a movement in the crowd as an acid dragon suddenly walked forward.

"Hello," she said with a kind smile, "My name's Daeli."

Silver smiled back and she bobbed her head in greeting, "Silver."

"We all know who you are," said the other dragoness, "You're the one who A.O.D.H went after for a long time."

"Yeah... well they finally succeeded," Silver lowered her head slightly, looking at the ground.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Daeli replied, nudging her with her snout, "You avoided them for a longer time then us."

The metal dragon looked up at her with a slight smile, studying her. She was slightly larger, maybe ten years old. She had the dark green of most acid dragons with splashes of red, yellow and lime under her legs. The poisonous scorpion like tail lay curled up behind her, and sparkling yellow eyes shone outwards.

Silver opened her moth to reply when a shout from within the crowd cut her off, "Silver!"

A fire dragon had leapt upwards and was now flying toward them. He was a large drake, who at first glance Silver would guess to be nine or ten, but as he got closer she couldn't help but let out a gasp of surprise. There was no doubt about it, he was Blaze.

He landed beside them and threw his wings around the metallic dragoness, not seeming to care about the others who were watching them. She hesitated, before hugging him back with a small smile. There was silence, before he drew back, looking at her with a mixture of excitement and relief.

"I... hello," he said, trying to find the right words but not able to.

"Hey Blaze. It's good to see you again," replied Silver, nudging him with her muzzle, "It's been a while."

"Too long," he said with a grin, "Far too long. I'm glad to see you're alright, well... as alright as you can be in this situation."

"Yeah," she chuckled slightly, looking at him.

She was surprised how big he had grown. He had always been a large dragon, the biggest of the three, but that size had increased a lot. He was a full foot longer then Silver was, and he was taller as well, which was strange for a fire dragon. The metallic species was generally the larger one. But it suited him.

"I take it you two know each other?" said Daeli, seeming a little confused with their behaviour.

"Yes! She's my sister," Blaze turned to face the acid dragon.

"Really?" Daeli frowned, looking between the two, "I guess I can see a slight resemblance, though you usually can't tell between two different species anyway."

"Yeah, but she's definitely my sister," he wrapped a wing around Silver, overjoyed about finally finding her again, "You must tell me everything that's happened. Everything."

Silver nodded her head with a half-hearted grin. She felt a bit guilty. With everything that she had been doing she had barely thought about her captured brother, though if there had been a chance to rescue him she readily would have taken it. And even with their reunion she couldn't bring herself to fully enjoy it. Besides, there was the decision that had to be made within two days. One that would likely change her life.

"Come on! Out of the way everyone," Blaze yelled at the other dragons, "Give her some room."

She smiled slightly, that decision could wait.For now, she would catch up with her brother.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. Sorry it's slightly shorter than usual, it was a little difficult to write :) Anyway, next chapter will be out as soon as I can get it. See Ya!   

Pennator^^