A thin stream of elronium metal slid down Silver's throat as she carefully added another coat to the edge of a steadily growing wall. She coughed slightly as she did, the metal coming out forcefully and uneven, spraying from her mouth. She shook her head with a small groan, a pulse running through her head, before looking back at what she had been working on. Forming the end of her tail into a blade she began to scrape off the unneeded elronium.

She had been working like this for weeks, or at least that's what she had heard from the rather talkative scientists who constantly meandered around with seemingly nothing to do other then watch her or play with the many strange machines set around the area. They were constantly surprised by Silver as well, impressed with the accuracy at which she managed to breath her metal and create the machine.

Silver was sitting on a platform that could rise and descend, with a strange contraption under it similar to a spring. It allowed her to get to the higher parts of the machine without having to fly, which was very useful since it was difficult to be so accurate while flying.

Another cough struck Silver's body, and she groaned again, taking a small break from creating the machine and lying down on the cool metal surface of the platform. There was a horrible throbbing in her skull, and her throat was raspy and sore. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but this small dose of sickness had been plaguing her for the past couple of days, and hadn't been getting better.

Breathing as deeply as she could she forced herself to her feet and looked toward the sharp edge of the half finished wall she was creating. Angling the metal she began to work again, adding a little then taking a bit off with her tail, then repeating the process. It was slow work, but it kept her mind focused on what she was doing, not what she was building. From what she had gathered from the scientists she knew that this was supposed to be some sought of weapon. What it did however was a mystery even to them.

The hours of the day slowly dragged by and Silver found herself suffering from more and more coughing fits. Stars danced before her eyes and spells of dizziness assaulted her. Every time this happened she took a step back and closed her eyes to refocus. She hated this, everything about it. The place she was in, what she was supposed to be building, the overwhelming amount of humans and the docile dragons. She missed the sky, the feeling of natural winds breezing under he wings. She missed her friends and found herself longing for the comfort of Celestia, or Zepos.

For a moment the thought of changing her decision of making the machine. She often did, but forced the thought from her mind. No, she couldn't do that either. A shudder ran through her from a small chill that wound up her spine. She had never been sick before, or at least not that she remembered. Dragon's rarely got sick. It was horrible.

"Dylan, I think something is wrong with the dragoness," she heard the voice of one of the humans speaking, "She looks unwell."

"Yes, she seems to have been deteriating for the passed couple of days," replied the other human, Dylan, "Silver! Would you come down here for a moment please."

The metal dragon looked tiredly down at them, before the device forced her to obey. She opened her wings and leapt off the small platform she had been sitting on, going to glide down to the ground below. She had done this many times before, easily, but this time all strength seemed to have left her and her wings folded under her weight. With a grunt she hit the ground, hard. She groaned again as that headache formed through her skull, pounding her head like a drum.

The two humans cried out in alarm and she vaguely heard them calling for help as they ran over to her. Their voices bounced back and forward in her head unintelligibly, causing her to whimper slightly. All she wanted to do was close her eyes, curl up and sleep. Another cough ran through her.

A couple of minutes later she felt a hand on her jaw. She didn't even have the energy to attempt to snap at it. The hand lifted her head up and she found herself staring into the eyes of The Admiral. She blinked with a small hiss, before coughing again.

"Someone get a doctor down here," he ordered, and the scientists around him scrambled into action.

* * *

They transported Silver to a empty room not far from the machine and The Admiral sat with her while they waited. He was silent, thinking it seemed, and Silver didn't have the energy to talk. It hurt to even breath. Why did she feel this way? Another shiver ran through her and she glanced at him again with a small growl. He ignored her.

The door suddenly screeched open and another human walked in with a bag of tools hanging beside him. He was a short human, with neatly trimmed hair and more white clothes, though different then what the scientists usually wore. He eyed the two in the room, before walking over to Silver and kneeling by her.

"Sir," he said to the Admiral.

"Can you tell what is wrong with her?" asked the A.O.D.H leader.

The doctor sighed softly, running a hand over the dragoness's metal covered head. The cool feeling was rather surprising for the doctor, for usually sick dragons had a rather warm body temperature. She was quite obviously unwell however. He could tell by the lack of energy and drooping wings.

"Is this metal... usually on her?" The doctor asked, to which the Admiral replied with a curt nod, "Can she remove it?"

"Yes, Silver, remove the shell from your head," he ordered.

She snorted slightly but allowed the elronium metal to retract from her head leaving it open. She shivered slightly as the human doctor once again placed a hand against her head. He left it there for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly as the heat radiating from that point.

"Open your mouth please," he said.

Silver did as she was told, though only just. She only barely found the energy to do so. She watched as the doctor studied the inside before gesturing for her to close it once more. He got up and walked around her, nodding thoughtfully to himself before turning back to The Admiral.

"Can you tell what's wrong?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded to himself, "How long has she been here?"

"Over two weeks now."

"I thought so. It is not unusual for a dragon to grow sick during their first two to three weeks here."

"Why is that?"

"I am unable to diagnose it exactly, but I believe it could be a mixture of stress, depression and a strange diet. In the wild dragons usually go for up to three or four days without food, where as here we feed them often. This is probably just her bodies way of getting used to the new way of life."

The Admiral nodded thoughtfully, "How long until she gets better?"

The doctor shrugged, "Could be anytime in the following week. Until then I suggest you let her rest and recover. Maybe even give her a bit of fresh air, that'll definitely help."

He nodded with a small sigh before standing up, "Thankyou for your help. You may now leave."

The doctor saluted before turning and walking out of the room with the bag he had come with. Silver watched him go, before laying her head back down on the ground, the ache coming back again. She curled up around herself and shuddered slightly as a chill ran down her back.

"Come on Silver, you can rest once you get back to your stable," said The Admiral.

* * *

For the next couple of days Silver found herself in Diana's care again. The human was surprisingly caring, and it seemed she had grown a soft spot for the young dragoness. As much as she didn't like to admit it, she was beginning to like her as well, even if she did think of Silver as little more then an animal.

At one point Diana brought the dragoness into the open air again, and Silver couldn't help but hum in delight at the cool natural wind running over her body. She couldn't fly of course, which was a little disappointing, but it was good to be reminded that the freedom of the blue sky was still there. For a moment she considered an attempted escape, but in the end she doubted she would make it that far. Even without the device she was in no condition to fly across the ocean.

Diana brought her back inside and Silver could only watch as the sky once again became but a memory. She was left in the dragon hanger to spend some time with the other dragons. Even if she was sick, she didn't want to miss the opportunity to talk with her brother. They had become reasonably close again over the passed couple of weeks, when she had a break anyway. She lay down in a corner of the area with Blaze, and talked, or at least listened to him talk.

"Hey," he said with a small smile, "Feeling any better?"

"Better then yesterday," she said with a tired grin, "But... well you know."

Blaze had suffered from something similar during his first few weeks and knew how she was feeling. It had been a horrible couple of days, some of the worst of his life, but he had eventually grown better, even if he hadn't yet managed to find a way out of this place.

"Well, if anything it slows down the production of the machine," he replied with a small smile.

"Yeah," she chuckled, then coughed again.

A commotion toward one side of the room gained their attention. Silver growled slightly, wondering what was going on. Blaze seemed to know however and got up from where he had been laying, looking out over the hanger toward the point of restlessness. He sighed, and smiled slightly.

"Brace yourself Silver. This is the time of month when hatchlings under one year old are allowed to mingle with the older dragons. I don't know why they keep us separate in the first place, but this is a day many dragons look forward to."

The excited yelps and growls echoed throughout the area as nearly five hundred dragon hatchlings were allowed into the area. Silver winced slightly, the loud growls not good for her head. Maybe it had been a bad idea to come there that day. Blaze sat down near her again with a small smile.

"A few will probably come over here. They would want to see the silver dragon as well," he said.

"Oh... great," she muttered to herself.

He laughed slightly, "Don't worry. Once they see how sick you are they'll stay far away."

They sat together in silence, watching as different dragons met up with their hatchlings. It was a sight to see, since many of them rarely got to find their parents. Silver watched with a small smile, and once again questioned whether or not it had been a good idea to build the machine. The older she got the more she wanted her own hatchlings. She sighed, maybe once she got out of this place she finally might try for her own.

The two of them sat together and watched, until Silver's eye was drawn to something interesting. A flash of purple scales. Her eyes widened slightly as she spotted a small void hatchlings running along with a number of other different species. It was male, and stopped to look at her. As he did she couldn't help but see Retrix in him, and froze. They were basically the same, in every way, except this hatchling was far smaller. He watched her for a moment, before running back to play with his friends.

She smiled slightly and sighed, laying her head on her paws as another headache went through her. Blaze had seen it and frowned slightly, wondering what it had been about. She had told him about the void dragon, and he knew it had something to do with that.

A few hours passed and Diana once again came to collect Silver and it was back into the stables, and sleep.

* * *

Four days later Silver was well enough to start working again, which she did, once again creating the machine that she so despised. Her longing for the sky increased even more. It had been three weeks now since she had been able to truly fly, and was beginning to grow tired of it. But without anyway to fight back against the device, she just lowered her head and continued to work and build.

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Hey guys! Another new chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out when I can get it. Oh, and tell me what you think of the new cover. See ya!

Pennator^^