Days blurred into weeks, and weeks blurred into months, until the sense of time had all but disappeared. Silver had no idea how long she ended up building the machine, but it became an almost natural routine. Get up early in the morning and work until late at night with a small break in the middle. It was mentally exhausting, and often it didn't take long for the metallic dragoness to fall to sleep.

The way they made the machine confused her. The dome was getting closer to completion and looked stranger every day. It had long ravines cut into the side, snaking over the surface and leading to the very centre, where Silver had just begun to build a small sphere that looked as if it was meant to hold something. What it was she hadn't figured out yet. Nor had she figured out the purpose of the machine.

Diana had been rather good with Silver as well, making sure she was fed every second day as well as bathed and cleaned. She kept a tight schedule, and was very annoyed when she was forced to leave the dragoness at the small lift every day. Often, at night, she would talk to Silver, wishing the dragon could talk back but not knowing that she could. Another frustrating regulation of this place.

The end of every week was what Silver looked forward to. It was the time when she was allowed a break from the continuous breathing of metal. She was able to talk to her brother, and get to know some of the other dragons around the area as well. Many seemed eager to know her, and she found herself retelling many of her stories, like the escape from D.E.D, or the fight against Firefly. Telling the dragons stories helped her sanity as well; for she was beginning to find herself in despair. The sickness never came back, but she wished it would, for it would give her another chance to see the sky.

After a couple of months her dreams of past, future and present also faded, but her final dream stuck in her mind. She assumed it was towards the end of the first age, with humans riding on the backs of dragons into a large battle. That vision made her a little confused and all the more interested in the dragons of that time.

One morning something changed in her routine however. She woke up to the grating of metal against metal as the door for her stable was opened, and looked up to see Diana there, as usual. Behind her stood The Admiral. This caused Silver to quickly stand to her feet, weary of the man. She saw him occasionally when he came to check on her progress, but since her sickness he had kept himself at arms length.

Diana stepped to the side, allowing The Admiral in. He looked around the cage, before turning his steely gaze on the dragoness. She shuffled a little uncomfortably, and lowered her eyes. A small smile formed on his face.

"Good news Silver, today we are going to be doing something different," he said, "At the age of nine we perform an inspection of a dragons physical, mental and emotional capabilities. It used to be ten, but we changed it, and now it's your turn to go through this inspection."

She looked up at him with a small frown, going to talk but finding herself unable to. He saw her look and smiled again.

"Today is your hatching day, so congratulations!" he said.

Hey eyes widened and a small growl came from her. That couldn't be right. If it was her ninth hatching day then it meant she had spent over nine months in this horrible place, being controlled and manipulated by humans. A small shiver ran through her, it couldn't have been that long. A growl escaped her throat.

"I see you still haven't found your manners," his eyes narrowed slightly, "But there is not much we can do about that I'm afraid. Now come on."

He turned and walked out of the cage, followed by Diana with her stoic expression. Silver hesitated, before slowly walking out from the cage as well. Eyes instantly went to her, as they usually did, the dragons from their stables watching as she walked away.

Once again she was led through AODH, though in a different direction then before. They entered another large chamber, which was very unlike most other places. For one thing it was empty, almost, with a ring of water in the centre and ten other dragons standing with their handlers. Much to Silver's glee Blaze was there, looking extremely board. He grinned when he saw her, surprised that they actually decided to bring her here.

The other dragons were a little surprised as well. There were two other fire drakes, besides Blaze, a lightning dragon that seemed very annoyed at the proceedings. He snorted when he saw Silver. A water dragoness was also there, looking very nervous. She had drawn in her wings and had her tail curled around her leg, making herself as small as possible.

Silver was forced to sit next to a rather confident looking wind dragon, which glanced at her with a slight smirk. She didn't know his name, but had often seen him around, watching her. She felt the urge to bite him, but resisted. The other dragons were two earth females, an ice drake and an acid drake.

"Okay, now that you are all here, let us begin!" A human Silver hadn't seen before walked over to her with a notebook in hand. He looked at the dragoness with a frown, and noted something on his book, "What is her health like?"

"She's relatively healthy," Diana responded, "But she is often tired and exhausted."

The man nodded, "Yes, I can see." He walked forward and knelt down beside her foreleg, and ran a finger down the back of one of her claws, "Her talons are a little dull, and she is quite thin. How often is she fed?"

"Once every two days," Diana stated.

He nodded, that was usual for most dragons, "And what does she do?"

"Umm..." the woman went to answer, but came up short, not actually knowing what Silver did all the time, "I... don't know."

"She is working on something for me," said The Admiral suddenly, who was standing and watching.

The human with the notepad frowned and glanced at his leader, before nodding, "If you say so sir. She may need some extra nutrition, and whatever you are doing to her maybe let her have the occasional break. She looks as if she is in less then average condition."

The Admiral only nodded his head. Silver was unsure at whether or not he agreed with this human. The other dragons were checked through in a similar fashion. The human would ask questions, and the handlers would answer. He seemed quite impressed with Blaze and another one of the earth dragons, while the others he was quite critical of. Especially the water dragon, whom Silver learned was a dragoness called Reha.

Once the human was satisfied with what he had learnt he walked back to the front and began speaking, "The physical challenge will begin momentarily. We will be testing the dragon's combat strength and strategic thinking. First, we will start with Blaze. Enter the island."

Silver's brother glanced at her with a small grin, before opening his wings and gliding over to the centre, landing on a metal platform in the middle of the ring of water. He folded his wings and sat down, looking back at the human with a board look.

"And begin!"

For a moment nothing happened, and Blaze looked slightly confused. Part of the island suddenly screeched, causing all the dragons to jump in surprise. It descended into a ramp. The clanking of metal on metal sounded from the newly formed hole. Blaze growled, spreading his weight and wings and narrowing his eyes.

Gunfire abruptly sounded from the hole. Silver let out a small cry of alarm, and the other dragons growled. Blaze leapt backwards with a snarl, shielding himself with his wing as much as he could as bullets peppered him. With a roar he unleashed a barrage of fire into the hole, and the bullets stopped. Silence followed, everyone waiting eagerly for what would happen next.

The same sound of metal against metal came from within again, and the fire dragon backed away from the hole, afraid of more gunfire. The strange sounds revealed themselves to be a squad of human soldiers; at least they had a human shape. Their colour was quite different though, and it seemed as though they were made from metal.

"What the heck?" Silver growled in Drakin.

The metal soldiers each had a firearm of some sort, and there were about ten of them, all with guns facing toward the fire dragon. Blaze growled and leapt the air with a burst of flame, turning one of them into a puddle of molten iron, then let out a roar as the bullets rained into him. He twisted and tried to avoid, but the soldiers were surprisingly accurate, and even if they weren't it was hard to avoid that many firearms at once.

The fire dragon swooped down over them and unleashed a burst of flame, burning another two of them. He landed in their midst, using his extra size and weight to crush one, then swinging his tail around and knocking one into the pool of water. Bullets rained onto his scales from the remaining five, forcing him back as he tried to shield himself. A worried whimper escaped Silver, wondering how he was still alive. Dragon scales were tough, but even under gunfire like that they couldn't hold. When she looked closer she realised that the bullets didn't actually piece his scales, and seemed to almost bounce off instead. She frowned slightly, wondering how that was possible.

With a roar Blaze leapt into the air again, raining fire down on them. They fell easily and the fire drake let out a grin, glancing back at those who were watching the spectacle. Silver grinned back.

"Don't get distracted!" she called, hearing another squad coming up the ramp.

He turned around, the fierce grin causing her to smile. She hadn't seen her brother like this in a long time. He had always enjoyed a good fight. For the next half hour he was pushed to his limit, battling the continuous stream of robotic creatures. At first it was only humanoids, but after the fifth round came large machines that reminded Silver of tanks. Blaze took extra care to take them out as quickly as possible, for they packed an enormous punch and at one point he had nearly been knocking into the water from the sky.

It was when the robotic dragons started appearing when he seriously ran into trouble. He managed to defeat the first one, throwing it into surrounding water, but when it was two on one he fell. He landed in the water with a massive splash, and instantly a siren went off, causing the machines to stop attacking and make their way back into the island.

Blaze hauled himself to try land, and collapsed, breathing heavily. A few of his scales were cracked and some had even been torn off, leaving bloody gashes in his side. A healer dragon had arrived while he had been fighting and she quickly healed him. Blaze responded with a small and thankful smile.

"Next!" called the human, writing something down on his notepad.

They went through the dragons one at a time. Some did well while others were knocked out rather quickly. Reha was defeated in the second round, and Silver didn't find herself surprised. The water dragoness seemed a little inadequate, and had probably spent a large amount of her life in A.O.D.H.

Finally it was Silver's turn. She flew over to the island, her tail flickering anxiously. A memory came to her of a story her father used to tell. It was back when he was in A.O.D.H, the first time. He had done an inspection similar to this, and set the record for the longest a dragon had survived in this challenge. She wondered if he still held the record.

Taking a deep breath she sat down on her haunches and closed her eyes. It had been a long time since she had fought, and if what the man had said from before, she wasn't exactly in the best condition for something like this either. A slight shudder ran through her, but she forced her mind to focus, thinking only on what was about to transpire, remembering everything that the other dragons had been through. Blaze had been the furthest, reaching wave twenty-one. She aimed further. Especially since her father had reached wave seventy... something. She couldn't quite remember.

The ramp fell down, allowing the first wave to come out. Silver's eyes snapped opened and she flicked her tail in the slightest of movements, wanting to conserve energy. The spike pieced through the heart of the robotic human coming up the steps, sending the power core into the wall. The robot fell to the floor. She snorted, that was surprisingly easy.

The next wave came quickly. A group of ten much like what Blaze faced. She didn't wait for them to come out and summoned metal to her throat, forcing it out at high pressure and creating a storm of bullets from her own mouth. Three fell, arms and legs torn off and wires torn through. They returned fire, and Silver simply put up her wing, blocking it, the ringing of metal sounding through the room. She twisted and sent a number of spikes into the group dispatching a couple more before taking to the air. It was a mistake, and she let out a grunt as their bullets hit her stomach, the soft scales not doing much to protect her.

Her metal shell instantly grew up and over her, protecting her underbelly until she was invulnerable. The projectiles simply bounced off her, creating sparks as they did. She turned and hovered, letting them hit her, and opened her maw, covering them in liquid elronium. They were instantly frozen. Silver landed on the island again and let her shell return to normal, waiting for the next wave. The other dragons watched in interest. Besides Blaze, none of them had seen a metallic dragon fight before.

The next wave Silver passed easily as well. A group of fifteen humanoids in which she dispatched with minimum effort. It didn't take her long to realise that her body wasn't quite keeping up with her. By the fifth wave she was beginning to feel a little hard of breath and her wings were feeling slightly weary.

On the seventh wave the first large machine entered the battlefield. It looked like a tank, but smaller and instead of having the two large wheels on either side it had four, much like a car. Its turret instantly focused on her, but before it had a chance to fire Silver covered the end of its gun with metal. It misfired, the massive clunk sounding as the bullet shell hit the elronium sung through the battlefield. She leapt forward toward the machine, flipping in the air and slamming her wing into the centre, the sharp elronium easily cutting through steel.

She stepped back and glanced at the human who was supposed to be inspecting them, challenging. He raised his eyebrow, slightly impressed. Then the next round started, and the dragoness continued to fight. She swept through round after round, finishing them as quickly as possible. Her wings began to ache and her breath began coming in with ragged gasps.

As wave twenty came around she found herself face to face with the first robotic dragon. It snarled and roared at her as it came charging up the ramp, directly towards her. Silvers eyes narrowed. The dragon was bigger then her, heavier more likely as well. So instead of facing it head on she simply stepped to the side as it came through. With a small snarl she swung her wing at its legs as hard as she could with the energy she had left. The sharp edge sliced through the limb easily, and Silver used her tail to trip the dragon up from its hind legs. The robot tumbled multiple times before rolling into the water. Silver let out a grunt of satisfaction, taking a couple of moments to catch her breath, before facing toward the next round. This was the one her brother Blaze managed to get to.

Shaking off the feeling of light-headedness that overcame her she turned toward the next challenge confronting her. A growl escaped her as she stagged, but she shook it off again. No, she would continue to fight this battle. No matter what.

The next two robotic dragons came out quickly, but instead of charging forward like the other one did they took to the sky, their metallic wings beating in unison. She let out a grunt of annoyance and opened her wings, taking to the air and challenging them with a roar. The two dragons seemed to work together, and came toward her with a sudden burst of speed, one slightly in front of the other.

Silver growled and flapped her wings, sending herself toward them. As she came near she attempted a manoeuvre she had done many times before. Flipping in the air and cutting her wing through one of the dragons. She mistimed however, her exhaustion getting to her, and while she managed to scrape the sharp edge of her wing along one dragon's neck, the other slammed into her, causing her to cry out.

The dragon scraped her back with its dull claws, the metal scraping against her elronium shell. She growled and used her own claws to try and stab upwards and into the dragon's chest. They weren't sharp enough however, and instead she felt her paw get jarred. With a snarl she let metal slide down her leg and form over her claws, before trying again. This time she ripped the robot's chest out, depowering it. They were still falling however, and when she saw where they were going she let out a cry of alarm.

With a flap of her wings Silver pulled herself from the now dead robot's grasp, flinging herself away from the water and landing hard on the island. A low groan escaped her, pain running up and down her body and a strange ringing sounded through her head. The sky went blurry.

Shaking her head she slowly got to her feet, finding it surprisingly difficult. She wheezed in oxygen, breathing heavily, before looking up at the final dragon, her eyes narrowed. It charged down toward her, seeming angered by the destruction of its partner. She wouldn't be fast enough to dodge it so instead she expanded her shell, shining in her full metal form. The dragon crashed into her, slamming her into the ground with a loud bang. She grunted again, blackness rolling over her. A couple of seconds later she was conscious again, the dragon dragging her toward the water.

With a snarl she lashed upwards with her tail, piecing through the robot's jaw and up into its head. The wires inside sparked before the dragon collapsed on top of her. She grunted again, but found herself with barely enough strength to keep her eyes open. Instead she relaxed, breathing heavily. The metal slid away until she was in her normal form again. The next round started, and she was quickly defeated as the new dragon came forward and cracked her over the head with its tail.

* * *

Minutes later she came too, the refreshing energy of a life dragon pouring through her. She purred softly, enjoying the rush it gave her, the feeling of strength. Something she had missed for the past nine months. The sounds of the area came into her head, the sounds of two humans arguing. It caused her to growl in discomfort.

"No. She is needed for more important things then that," a voice she recognised as The Admiral stated.

"But you saw what she did. And that was in her condition. She would be just as good a fighter as the first metal dragon was if we trained her. Imagine the amount of dragons we could catch. Plus, by breeding her as well, we'll have more metallic dragons," the other human said.

"No," it was stern, begging no argument, "The decision has already been made, by the leader himself. No one comes above him. And that is all there is to say about it. Do I make myself clear?"

There was a hesitation, "Yes sir."

"Good, now give your reviews on those other dragons. I'm taking Silver down to test her mental capabilities."

Footsteps echoed through the room as The Admiral walked toward the now conscious dragoness. Silver looked up at him, wondering what that argument had been about. With a scowl he gestured for her to get up, which she did. He marched out of the hangar, leaving her a little confused as to whether or not to follow him. The device made the choice for her and she found herself walking forwards. Diana followed silently.

They made another trip through A.O.D.H, down stairways and a lift or two, until they reached one last door. There were a group of humans standing there, eyes on the dragoness. She glared back at them, before glancing toward the door that was supposed to reveal the next destination.

"Diana, you will stay here and wait. You four come with me. You are to escort the dragoness to mental testing," ordered The Admiral.

They opened the door, revealing a long hallway that was darker then usual, and the end was almost invisible. Silver shivered slightly as she walked inside, a sense of deja'vu washed over her and she blinked, shaking her head. A small yelp escaped her when the door closed behind with an ominous bang. The humans laughed.

Slowly they began to move forward. The dragoness glanced around nervously, a small bubble of fear growing inside of her with every step. Why did this place seem so familiar? She was sure she had seen it before. Her claws created echoes along the metallic hallway, and dimmed lights flicked every once and a while from above. The humans in front and behind her marched onward solemnly, their silent steps not helping Silver's unease. When had she been here?

The end of the hallway came across them quiet suddenly, and she stopped. It was another metal door, one that seemed a little too large, even for A.O.D.H. It was more then big enough to fit any dragon she had met, even Iraliene. One of the humans walked forward and pushed open the door, revealing what was on the inside.

Instantly Silver's memory was rekindled. This was the place from her dream all those months ago, the nightmare that made her wake up frightened and scared. An inky blackness met her. A blackness so thick that it was impossible to see through. So thick that it snuffed out any light that dared enter. She growled and backed away but a hard hit to the soft scales of her hard leg made her jump forward with a whimper.

"In you go!" laughed the human who had hit her.

She lowered her head and whimpered again, before stepping forward into the inky blackness.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys! New chapter! A nice and long one for you :) It actually turned out to be quite a bit longer then I expected. Anyway, vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. Next chapter will be out when I have the time to write. See Ya!

Pennator^^