The city of New York was shrouded in shadow. Dragons swarmed in the sky above like a hive of bees. There were thousands of them, tens of thousands, of all different species and ages. Hatchlings barely the size of a dog and a number of dragons that were centuries old, rivalling the size of a large truck. But they all had something familiar about them. Every one of the dragons had a blinking red device in the middle of their forehead.

In the centre of the mass was a large metal sphere situated on top of a multi-story building. A sky scraper with a flat roof. The machine was glowing from within, a white light that radiated a strange sort of power outwards. The dragons above were approaching in groups, breathing their respected elements through the crevices built into the machine. Every little bit of power added into it made the white glow become slightly more intense, slightly more powerful.

Watching the spectacle was another group of dragons, around a thousand or so, grouped up at the edge of the city. They were frightened. Nervous chatter circled through them like waves. At the front of the small army was Iraliene and Silver, watching the sky.

"There's... a lot of them," stated the metallic dragoness, looking to the sky, "You think Eldawin would make them attack us?"

"Of course he will," snorted Iraliene, "He wouldn't just let us wonder out there without resistance."

"I'm wondering why he moved the Machine so obviously into the open," it was West that spoke, having taken up a position near the front.

Both dragonesses looked at him.

"Maybe it's easier and quicker to charge it out here," suggested Iraliene, "That is the only reasoning I can think of."

When they had left that morning they had expected to have to explore the city to find an entrance into the underground A.O.D.H base beneath New York. But when they were met with the sight they were currently facing it caused them all to reassess their plan.

"Retrix," said the life dragon, "How many of us do you think you can get in there with your portals?"

The void dragon was also with them, studying the sky above with a small frown. He didn't seem at all fazed by the numbers of the enemy, and there was a calmness about him that made the others slightly confused.

"Including myself...ten, if they were all around my size," he replied with confidence, "But bigger dragons then me... I would say around five."

"We will try for seven," said the life dragoness, "Silver, Gravon, Brand, Delta and Cragin, you are coming with us."

Brand was an older fire dragon that was often seen at important meetings around deciding battle plans and strategies. Delta was a shadow dragoness and one of the best fighters at Sky Mountain. Cragin was a high-ranking telekinetic dragon; one Silver had met before. It seemed Iraliene was gathering some of her stronger fighters into one group.

She then turned to the rest of the crowd, "I want the rest of you to run interference with the dragons above. Protect the lightning dragons around you, for they will be the ones to create the most damage in their ranks. Try not to kill any of them. Remember they are doing this against their will. They do not have a choice in the matter, but stay safe and be smart. Don't try to take on the whole army by yourself but pick at the stragglers. Distract them until we get rid of the machine. If everything goes well... then we shouldn't have any trouble."

There were a number of murmurs from the army as they looked to the sky. This wasn't going to be an easy victory. They all knew it, but they were willing to fight. The humans among their ranks moved to get onto a number of dragon's backs. Everyone within the army had a mind breaker to protect against Eldawin, but somehow Silver suspected that the small device wouldn't do much.

"Silver," said Iraliene, speaking to the dragoness only now, "When you face Eldawin, remember that the weakness of a mind dragon's equilibrium is the conscious. You get to that, and you will win the battle. If you don't you will loose. It is a massive weakness that not even Eldawin himself can find a solution for. It means that... even if you are forced to face him outside of your own equilibrium, you have that small chance of defeating him. Remember that."

The metallic dragoness nodded her head, "I know."

Slowly the small army began to rise into the sky, following the queen of Sky Mountain into the most important battle of their lives. A.O.D.H had yet to notice them it seemed. Either that or they were just ignoring them as they steadily charged up the machine. Dark clouds boiled over the sky, hiding the rising sun. Fires had begun to spread through the city, set out by a number of fire dragons commanded by Eldawin.

Silver focused on controlling her breathing, calming down the excessive nerves swirling through her system. She couldn't afford to second-guess herself. Not again. This time she needed to be sure. She needed to be strong enough to resist everything that Eldawin threw at her. No matter what it was.

"Silver," came a voice to her side and she turned her head to see Zepos flying beside her.

She smiled at him, "You ready?"

"Not really," he said, "But I'll fight."

"That's all I can ask of you," she hesitated a moment, "But... be safe."

"I'll try my best," he grunted, "And the same goes for you... I... I don't want you to die today."

"I'll try my best," she repeated with a slight grin.

He nodded at her before turning to fly back into the midst of the army. Silver watched him, before turning back towards the masses above. They had finally seen them, and a number of the dragons had turned to fly toward them, not seeming especially friendly. She took a deep breath and looked toward Retrix.

"Alright," said the void dragon, "Here we go."

He opened a portal in front of them and dove through. The six other dragons that were going with him followed, one after the other. Silver went last, bracing herself slightly for the cold she was about to face. She entered the void with a small growl as all of her senses were almost completely shut down and she could only feel cold.

* * *

The seven dragons reappeared in the midst of the city. There was a moment of disorientation from most of the dragons in the group before they realised where exactly they were. The machine was on the building next to them, situated at the top, pouring out enormous amounts of energy that reminded Silver of something like an equilibrium.

A number of dragons were surrounding it, breathing streams of fire, light and life energy into The Machine. It seemed to wash over the surface of the elronium before slipping into the crevices and down into the hungry element stone within. Silver could feel the pull of her elronium and she pulled slightly at it with a smile. If she wanted to she could instantly rip the Machine apart.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you,' Eldawin's voice echoed through her mind causing her to growl.

'And why not?' she replied mentally to the mind drake, looking around, trying to find him.

'Don't be a fool Silver. That metal covering is the only thing keeping the element stone inside stable. The instant you rip it apart it will destabilise and unleash its energy at a rate I wouldn't be able to control, and with the power inside it at this current moment, it would kill every living thing in the Americas.'

'So you do have a failsafe against me then,' she grunted.

'I wouldn't allow it to be that easy. Of course, you could still rip it apart and doom us all.'

Silver growled angrily and winged her way upwards toward the dragons above her. She opened her maw, breathing her liquid metal upwards. Instantly she took control of it, using it to wrap around the dragons like a rope, and pulling them together. There were a few yelps of surprise as the elronium metal instantly trapped them.

Retrix was behind her. He disappeared into a portal and reappeared right in front of the machine. He let out a deep breath and focused on the area behind it, beginning to open a large portal, one that would be big enough to accommodate the size of the massive dome of metal. The others quickly moved up behind him, protecting him while he created the portal. There plan was simple enough. Get Retrix in there as quickly as possible. The quicker the better.

'Sorry fools,' sighed Eldawin.

Suddenly the Mind Breakers around their necks hissed and fizzled, before dying. There were a few growls of surprise, and then a mental wave of pain assaulted the dragons. Retrix roared out in pain, the portal he was opening closed instead and he faulted, shaking his head. A flaming fireball suddenly appeared from below them, shooting upwards at the void dragon. He let out a roar of surprise as he was hit in the underbelly, the fire scorching his scales.

Iraliene snarled angrily and with a quick breath of life energy healed the void dragon from the physical injury, but the mental pain was something she couldn't combat. Raize had appeared below them from seemingly nowhere and was flying upwards at an impressive speed. He targeted the void dragon, charging into him and knocking him into the sky.

Retrix grunted in pain as he was thrown upwards, but was able to recover quickly and disappeared through a void portal before Raize was able to continue his assault. He appeared next to Silver, breathing a little heavily but otherwise unharmed.

"Damn," he said, "It seems rushing it won't work either."

Silver nodded her head with a snarl.

* * *

Zepos spiralled through the air, dodging past a ball of fire and narrowly missing a blast of darkness. He opened his mouth and fired a bolt of lighting at the fire dragon. He aimed it directly for the device, and was spot on. It ran through both dragon and machine, before it was disable and the drake fell from the sky. Zepos let himself smile slight. He was getting good at this.

A blast of wind suddenly hit him, and he grunted as he was thrown to the side, right out of the way of a boulder from an attacking earth dragon. He flipped around and blasted the earth drake with lightning, once again disabling the device on its head.

"Watch out lightning dragon," roared out West as he came around from the side, "You're not just fighting one enemy out here."

"Thanks!" Zepos called back as a bolt of fiery heat narrowly went by, singeing his scales.

The other drake spiralled around, sending a strong blast of wind at the attacking dragoness, knocking her off balanced. Zepos let lightning sizzle out from his maw once again and another device was disabled in an instant. It was surprisingly easy to overload them.

"These dragons are so slow!" said West as he flew around Zepos, keeping multiple enemies at bay with wind gusts, while the lighting drake picked them off with his bolts of electricity.

"I know!"

It was rather strange. Despite the shear numbers they were facing Zepos was finding it rather easy to dodge past them, keeping himself one step ahead at all times. It was like they were just throwing out half hearted attempts to attack him. West was helping, but he was still doing far better than he knew he should. It was like the other dragons lacked energy.

Lightning ran down his body as he quickly moved out of the way of a large telekinetic dragon that attempted to tackle him from the sky. Another bolt of lightning killed the device in the dragon's head and it fell from the sky unconscious. Definitely way too easy. Not that he was complaining. But they were still only on the edge. The main swarm of dragons had yet to attack.

* * *

In the middle of the battle Silver was finding it far more difficult. Fresh dragons were coming at her from all angles and the constant pain in her head made it difficult to think. Elements battered at her from all sides, with only her metallic shell being able to withstand the constant assault.

Iraliene and the other five had formed into a circle, trying their best to defend themselves, but there was nowhere to hide. Retrix was filtering through the dragons, disappearing and reappearing so often it was hard to keep track of him, but even with his abilities he was struggling to keep ahead of the amount of dragons trying to attack him.

The life dragon was the biggest of them all, and was the biggest target. Fire, earth and ice all assaulted her, driving her back into the corner of the building. Life energy was moving around her, quickly healing up any wounds that hit her, but she could only withstand so much.

They weren't going to last much longer. Not when it was seven again a thousand. Silver was tempted to unleash her equilibrium, but with Eldawin missing, she doubted she could have the impact she wanted. She needed someway to draw him out into the open. Or someway to allow Retrix enough time to pull the Machine through a portal.

An idea suddenly hit her and she quickly ducked away from the dragon she was grappling with. She turned to look at the Machine and connected with the elronium metal. Slowly she began to pull at it, and smiled as it slowly began to rise into the sky.

'NO!' Eldawin's voice rang through her head like a tidal wave, but she ignored it, focusing entirely on her task.

She didn't last long however as something hit her in the side, hard. She found herself falling through the air, dazed. Blinking she shook her head and quickly righted herself, hovering for a moment, only to have a large dragon grasp her by the throat and slam her into the large wall behind her. She let out a cough, glad she was in her full metal form, and looked up at the dragon.

"There you are," she grunted with a slight smile.

"You really are a fool Silver," said Eldawin with a growl, "You were not going to get far with the Machine."

"And they say you're a mind reader," said the dragoness with a chuckle.

He studied her for a moment, likely going through her head for any plan she had, "All you wanted to do was get me out into the open ay? Well it's too bad for you when the others don't even see us."

"All I needed to know is that you were here," said Silver, curling her tail around Eldawin's.

The mind dragon frowned for a moment, before letting out a roar as spikes erupted from her tail, stabbing through his. He snarled letting her go and she spun, swinging her wing in an arc and cutting a line across his chest. He backed away with a growl and attempted to strike at her mind, but something had changed about her compared to the last time they had met. There was no more hesitation in her movements or thoughts, no more doubt. Only a stone cold determination. Much like what he had seen in her equilibrium. There was nothing he could use to gain a foothold.

With a growl he launched himself upwards away from the dragoness, but she followed, not willing to allow him an escape this time. He would have to change her state of mind somehow. With a growl he dodged past a metallic blast of metal. Two dragons came at Silver from both sides, grabbing her and pulling her down.

She let out a snarl as one bit down on her neck. They were both bigger than her, one being an earth dragon and the other being a lightning, and with the extra weight of her metal it was impossible to continue upwards. With a roar she focused her attention on the two immediate threats.

They pulled her down onto the roof of a nearby building, slamming her onto her back and holding her there. She lashed her tail, turning the end into metal club and bringing it down on the earth dragon's foot. He grunted in pain but didn't let go. The lightning dragon opened his mouth instead and unleashed a million volts of electricity into her body. It startled her slightly, but she quickly used the lightning against the two dragons, redirecting it into the earth dragon holding her down. He instantly let go, falling over unconscious as the machine in his head popped and fizzled.

Silver rolled to her feet, growling at the lightning dragon. He hesitated for a moment, but the device in his head forced him to attack. So he did, leaping at Silver with a roar. She brought up her wing to meet him, slamming it into the side of his jaw. There was a slight crunch under her wing, and he fell to the ground, limp and unconscious. She winced slightly.

"Sorry," she said, before looking to the sky again, trying to find the mind dragon amidst the crowd above.

* * *

Blaze swung through the air, slamming his tail into an ice dragoness, and allowing a nearby lightning dragon to pull off the finishing blow. He felt a little sorry for her, knowing she hadn't chosen to do this, but was forced to. He was glad they had managed to set her free though, at least for the moment.

On his back Liam had his rifle. He was a quick shot with it, pulling it up and firing a small electronic 'bug' that attached onto a surface and immediately sent out a pulse designed to disable the devices. It didn't work quite as well as a lightning bolt, but it was better than bullets.

Tyler and Faen flew up next to them. The young human on the feathered dragon's back had a strangely wild look in his eye and a determined frown on his face. The light dragoness seemed to be a little worried as she opened her mouth, letting a beam of light strike another dragon across the chest.

"It seems our 'distraction' isn't working!" yelled Tyler, pointing toward where the machine was.

Blaze looked down at it and growled slightly. It seemed the seven that had travelled into the midst of it were being specifically targeted. Iraliene and her group had been pressed back into the tower, and were now being attacked from all directions. There were just too many of them for even the most powerful dragons of Sky Mountain to really stand up to.

"Why hasn't Silver gone into equilibrium yet?" Blaze asked.

"I don't know," replied Faen, "Maybe something is stopping her."

Blaze gritted his teeth, "Well we need to help them somehow. Come on!"

He turned and beat his wings, pushing himself down to where his sister was fighting. Faen quickly followed, as did a number of other dragons, but they didn't make it far before a clump of A.O.D.H controlled dragons found them, and stopped them in their tracks.

* * *

Eldawin glided threw the heart of his army, watching the dragons around his Machine battle. His eyes and mind took in all details. How tired each dragon was. How much power they had used. How long they could continue fighting. He had sent the few that had spent their power on the Machine already to hold back the pitifully small army Sky Mountain had brought. He had been worried for a moment at the beginning of the battle when Retrix nearly managed to take the Machine into the void, but after that he was quite sure he had managed to overwhelm them all.

The only problem was Silver. Her mind was hard this time, and it was requiring all his effort to simply stop her from touching the power of equilibrium inside her. He knew that if she did it would make this battle a fair bit harder. He wanted to avoid a battle of equilbria if at all possible. He needed someway to break into her mind again. To make her loose focus and concentration. If he wasn't being forced to control all the dragons around him, then it would be a simple matter. But he couldn't afford to do that again, not at this moment. The last time he had controlled her he had been forced to almost relinquish control of every dragon he had. Beforehand he had made sure all dragons were locked down and secure so they didn't break from his control when he had gone against the dragoness. Now, he wasn't able to do that.

He looked at Retrix, who continued to zip in and out of the void, only striking at opportune moments. Eldawin would attack him, but every time he went into the void Eldawin lost contact with his mind. It made it extremely difficult to focus on him. Zepos was another choice, but they were so far apart at that moment that even if he did harm the lightning dragon Silver wouldn't realise until after the battle. He looked around for a moment more, and he grinned as he found his target.

* * *

Iraliene growled as a claw sliced through her scales. She responded by cracking the dragon responsible across the jaw with her tail, knocking him away, the wound quickly healing. Brand had fallen not to long ago. As far as she knew he hadn't been killed, but it didn't seem likely.

Delta, Cragin and Gravon were doing their best to hold off the army, but it wasn't looking promising. They had been split up from Silver and Retrix. Iraliene had seen the silver dragoness fighting atop a roof, and the void dragon was doing his best to avoid Raize, who had made it his mission to hunt him down.

The life dragon was loosing energy quickly. She couldn't continue to both heal herself and her allies for much longer, and using her energy to drain the life force of the dragons attacking was something she refused to do. A growl escaped her. Though she may not have a choice.

The pressure against them suddenly increased. Delta was the next to fall, caught by a rock in the stomach and forced into the tower behind them. She fell from the sky. Retrix came to try and help, appearing and blasting his purple beam at the same earth dragon, but he was forced to retreat once again as Raize quickly found the void dragon in his unrelenting chase.

Iraliene let out a roar and opened her maw, piecing through the crowd with her own green energy. The plan hadn't work how it should have. Somehow Eldawin had broken through the mind breakers. Somehow he had ruined the only chance of victory they had. Unless... Iraliene looked over to the silver dragon.

Suddenly a dragon appeared in front of the queen of Sky Mountain. She blinked in surprise, instantly recognising the mind drake. She was bigger than him, but not by much. His eyes narrowed at her and she snarled.

"Eldawin," she growled.

"Hello Iraliene, long time no see," he replied, "I'm afraid that this battle, for you anyway, is at an end. You never no, maybe we'll see each other in the afterlife. If you believe in such a thing."

He touched his talon to the dragoness's head and a shock rang through her. Her body stopped moving, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fell from the sky, limp and unmoving.

"MUM!" screamed Gravon as he spun around, seeing Eldawin for the first time.

He used his gravity to slam the mind drake into the tower, but was quickly incapacitated. Eldawin growled as he used his mind to force the gravity dragon into a sleep, and let him fall after his dead mother, not wanting to kill such a rare species.

He looked to the sky, making eye contact with Silver. She had seen the whole thing, and had been unable to help. He had made sure of that. He felt something in her mind click and instantly took advantage of it, driving his mind into hers with all the power he could muster, without loosing control of the dragons around him.

She cried out in pain, faltering in the air, struggling to stay in the sky. Slowly she sank down to the building with the machine on it and landed heavily, falling to the ground and clutching her head with her paws. He had her, well and truly.

He smiled slightly and flapped his wings to fly up to her. It was sad that he had been forced to kill the life dragon, but in the end she had lived a long enough life either way. He could now continue his mission without too much worry. By the end of the day the human race would be no more, and the others would see how right he was.

Something suddenly hit him in the side, hard, and he grunted at the force of it. He blinked once, and everything became black, and cold... so, so very cold. He tried to take a breath, but nothing made its way into his mouth. He tried to roar out, but no sound came from his mouth. But the worst part of it, the most horrifying aspect, was the fact that every mind he had become connected with... disappeared. All but one. His eyes widened as he realised just what had happened.

The real world was back as quickly as it had disappeared, and he was once again slammed into a building, this time by Retrix. The void drake then spun back around and before he could even catch onto his mind had disappeared once again. All around him the battle had frozen, and the dragons of A.O.D.H were just hovering in the air, no longer under the control of the devices in their head.

"No," Eldawin whispered as the full consequence of what the void dragon had just done hit him, "NO!"

Then everything became a hundred times worse. The power of equilibrium rippled through the sky. An equilibrium that he had felt before. One that he had tried so hard to prevent. But it was already to late as Silver finally managed to pull out the power that she had been blocked from, and she brought it out in force.

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Hey guys! New chapter. This one came out very quickly :) Hopefully the next one will be out at this speed as well. Anyway, vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out very quickly. See Ya!

Pennator^^