Silver woke slowly as a strangely refreshing feeling ran through her body. It made her sigh in relief. The intense pain slowly washed away, replaced by a soothing sensation. It made her smile slightly, not having remembered a time when she felt this good, It made her want to keep her eyes closed and drift to sleep, but curiosity got the better of her. Instead she opened her eyes, wondering what the source of this strange feeling was, and she saw a life dragon standing above her, the last remnants of green energy pouring out of its mouth and into her.

Slowly the life dragon, a male she now realised, stepped away from her, looking utterly exhausted. He staggered slightly before shaking himself and looking behind him at another dragon that Silver couldn't see yet. Their words were muddled when they spoke and slowly the life dragon nodded his head, before turning and leaving her field of vision.

Silver stayed as she was, revelling in the last amounts of life energy that had been put into her, before it slowly disappeared to be replaced by the cold of an ice floor and a heavy wave of heat coming from in front of her. Briefly she wondered what had happened for her to end up in such a state, then she remembered. Her head shot up, followed by small whimper as a headache raged her. She groaned.

"You're awake," said the musical voice of the dragoness that had defeated her.

Silver waited until the pain in her head had died away before looking up. Firefly was sitting on the other side of a set of bars, which had just recently slid back into place. The fire dragon's gaze bored into her, questioning, evaluating.... and relieved. The strange heat that often wound through the air around Firefly was less then usual, and her wings were loose at her side, showing exhaustion.

A sudden realisation hit Silver. She had lost. That meant no freedom. Not completing her mission. Being handed of to A.O.D.H. A gulp ran through her and she glanced around the cages around her. Zepos was watching her, his eyes sad and questioning, while Retrix looked strangely angry. Not at Silver, but at Firefly.

"Are you feeling alright?" the fire dragoness asked, genuinely worried.

Silver lowered her head, "I... I guess."

Firefly sighed, "I didn't want to win you know. I didn't want to have to defeat you, but Zoralth gave the order that no matter what you had to stay captured. At first I assumed it was because you held important information on Eldawin's Syndicate, that you would give to D.E.D. Now... I don't know."

The metal dragon raised her head, looking at Firefly and feeling slightly relieved. She opened her mouth to speak but stopped again, glancing around. She was back in the prison, and Thylo's warning rang through her. The mind dragon was likely watching at this very moment, and wouldn't let her say anything that would give away Zoralth and himself.

"If you're worried about Thylo, he isn't going to here anything. I knocked him out before I came in here, just to make sure," said Firefly.

Silver's eyes widened in surprise.

The other dragoness chuckled, "Don't look so surprised. I know how that worm operates, and I didn't want to take the chance that he was making you forcibly withhold information."

A sigh of relief escaped Silver, "Thank you."

"Don't, the only reason I did so is because I want answers. We made a deal, and I'm going to see it through."

The silver dragon nodded, "Go ahead."

"Why are you in here? Yeah, there's always the fact that you could be working for D.E.D, but I'm thinking that was a ploy. Did you make Zoralth mad at you or something?"

The metal dragoness hesitated, "I don't know if you will believe me, but at least here me out. Remember that night with the dancing?"

"Yes. Of course. It was a little hard not to, since you crashed it," Firefly chuckled slightly.

"Well, at one point I had left to go take a brake and get some fresher air..." Silver talked through what happened, a little nervously, not knowing if the fire dragon would believe her or not. When she was finished she looked up at the other dragoness, waiting for a reply.

Firefly sat where she was, a mixture of shock, anger and disbelief running through her face, "Are you sure of this."

"Yes," replied Silver confidently, before lowering her gaze once more, "Please believe me. I don't want to go to A.O.D.H, and I'll do anything, anything at all, to get away from here."

The fire dragon closed her eyes, as if thinking for a moment, before opening them, "Either you are a very good liar, or you are telling the truth. Either way it doesn't matter. You don't deserve to be in here, for whatever reason. You're not with D.E.D, you have too strong a will to be broken by humans, and no one in their right mind would willingly work for A.O.D.H. If you have been lying at me, then I will personally hunt you down and kill you."

"That mean's you're setting me free?" Silver asked, daring to hope.

"Of course. I wouldn't be much of a friend otherwise. Besides, you won in that fight. By forcing me into equilibrium you won. As I said before, not many dragons have pushed me that far, so congratulations."

Firefly walked over to the hanging icicles and hit the middle one with her tail. The ice slowly began to move, retracting upwards into the roof, one by one. The fire dragoness stepped to the side, allowing Silver to walk through, which she did, gladly.

"Won't you get in trouble for this?" asked the metal dragon.

Firefly chuckled again, "What are they going to do? It's not like I have anyone close they can threaten, and they need me. Even if they are working for A.O.D.H, without me they wouldn't hold out against D.E.D for very long."

"You could come with us, get away from this horrible place," suggested Silver.

The older dragoness shook her head, "No. As much as I'm sure you hate this place.... I don't. I've lived here my entire life, and its not something I can simply move away from."

"But... you can't stay here."

"Silver. We will meet again. Trust me on that, and maybe next time you will have reached equilibrium as well. You're getting close," Firefly smiled sadly again, "You remind me of me when I was younger, always looking for adventure and getting yourself in trouble. I'm glad I met you, but don't end up like me. You have no idea the amount of things I would do differently I was allowed to live life again."

The metal dragon nodded, "Okay. I can't force you to come."

"Good, now lets get you two drakes out of here. I give you half-an-hour, maybe less. You better get going," Firefly walked over and freed Retrix and Zepos, letting the two of them get out, "Now go."

The three dragons nodded and trotted over to the exit of Cinder Prison. Silver stopped and looked back at Firefly, who was watching them go with an unreadable expression.

"Thank you, again."

"Don't. Now we're even," the fire dragoness smiled.

Silver grinned and then ran out after the two males. They wound through the maze of caves, Retrix leading the way. He seemed to have a good sense of direction, and lead them through with a sense that he knew where they were going. They needed to get out of the Syndicate as quickly as possible. There was only one problem. How were they going to get out without being noticed? There was always rushing through and hoping they could get to the end without getting caught, but somehow Silver doubted that would work. She was only grateful they hadn't passed any other dragons so far.

They came around a corner and Retrix stopped, spotting the exit at the end. Zepos ran headfirst into him with a grunt, causing him to stagger. The void dragon growled slightly, but gazed back down the corridor to the entrance, staring at a dragon that was blocking their way. Silver's heart fell when she saw who it was.

"Where do you three think you're going?" Thylo hissed, sitting at the entrance with wings folded and a gleam running through his eyes.

A growl escaped Retrix, and Zepos narrowed his eyes. The dragoness took a step back and gulped. This couldn't be happening. She thought that Firefly had knocked Thylo out.

The mind dragon snorted, "Yes, that fire lizard will get what's coming to her for what she did to me. I'll make sure of that, but first, I'm going to take you back to where you came from."

"We're not going back there," growled Retrix, taking a step forward and spread his wings.

"Oh, I didn't mean you two drakes. You're free to go. A.O.D.H doesn't want you. No, they want the dragoness," a grin spread over Thylo's maw, "But if you insist on standing in my way... I'll rip you apart. I'll warp you until you don't even recognise each other. I will destroy you. Please resist, and I love seeing dragons squirm as they're mentality is destroyed."

"We're not going to leave her," growled Zepos, taking a step forward with electricity sparking through his body.

"Good. Then you can suffer!" Thylo laughed in glee and his eyes glimmered as he threw forth a surge of mental energy.

The three dragons flinched. Silver put up her wing. They waited for the wave of pain. Everything was silent... and nothing happened. Thylo frowned and tried again, and again, but it didn't change the outcome. It was like there was something blocking him from manipulating the other dragon's minds.

"What is happening?" he growled, taking half a step back worriedly.

The three dragons looked at each other, then back at Thylo. Retrix growled slightly, taking a step forward and getting ready to pounce.

"Tell me, Thylo, you like watching dragon's squirm. You like to torture and kill them, and rip them apart, but can you withstand it yourself?" came a voice from behind them, stopping Retrix.

Silver spun around and her eyes widened. Merene was sitting behind them, her tail lashing slightly with rage in her eyes. Her frail body looked scarred, and one of her legs was bleeding, but other then that she looked fine. If anything she looked like she was about to destroy the whole Syndicate.

"You!?" growled Thylo in surprise, "How did you get out!"

"You're mental barrier surrounding my cage disappeared for a couple of minutes. I took control of one of the prison guards and he gladly freed me," Merene chuckled, walking forward with calm confidence, only limping slightly because of her leg, "I must say they were rather hard to control, having a very strong will for such despicable dragons. Don't know how long you could have held them there for."

The mind drake growled again, though he seemed to gain in confidence now that he knew that there was a reason why his attack didn't work, "You think you will be able to defeat me! I'll destroy you, and then your friends, those you hold so dear."

Merene glanced at the three other dragons and smiled slightly, "Let me take care of this pathetic excuse of a lizard. Please. I've been wanting to do this ever since I got here."

"Be my guest," said Silver with a small smile, glad to have her friend back.

The mind dragon nodded and walked to the front, and titled her head.

"Okay, hatchling, you dare face me by yourself? I am one of the oldest mind dragons alive, grandson to Eldawin himself! I will show you my mastery of the mind."

"Ooh scary. All mind dragons are descended from Eldawin, you idiot," the mind dragoness tilted her head and there was a subtle shift in the air as she cast an illusion on Thylo.

Silver blinked. She couldn't see what Merene had done, but she assumed that Thylo could, for he took a step back as a frown ascended on his maw. Suddenly a smile widened on his face and he laughed, shaking his head.

"Bugs? Black bugs? That's all you could come up with," the mind drake stamped down on something invisible on the ground, "I must congratulate you on creating such a real illusion... but bugs?"

Merene only smiled. Suddenly the dragon yelped, jumping up and lashing his tail at something. He growled, taking a step back, then roaring again. He staggered backwards, slashing at the ground with his claws trying to defeat some invisible enemy. Panic began to descend upon him as he desperately tried to move back, lashing out at the invisible enemies.

"What... what are you doing? Stop! Aaargh! Get them off! Get them off!" he suddenly screamed, staggering backwards.

He began to desperately scrape at his legs with his talons, drawing blood, all the while screaming and roaring in pain. Suddenly he collapsed to the ground, scratching at himself as he rolled around in agony, ripping at his scales and body. Blood began to run from his self-made wounds as he continued to scream.

"Stop! Stop it! Get them off! Please!"

Silver watched in shock, finding herself frozen. Thylo writhed on the ground, ripping out more scales as he continued to beg. Blood began to pool around him, staining the ground red. Retrix took a step forward and growled.

"That's enough Merene," he said.

The mind dragoness tilted her head toward him and was silent for a moment, "He hurt Silver."

She turned back to the mind drake and her eyes pulsed. Suddenly Thylo screamed, reached around with his paw, and in a single movement tore his own throat out. His body instantly went limp and his paw collapsed to the ground, covered in flesh and blood. A gaping hole was all that was left on the underside of his neck as the light drained from his eyes. Silver stood solid, unable to tear her gaze away from the dead mind dragon. Bile rose in her mouth and she turned away, coughing.

Zepos gulped and shivered, glancing at Merene. The mind dragoness took a deep breath before turning and looking at the three dragons. There was no remorse in her eyes. She wasn't sorry for what she had done, but she did seem a bit uneasy by it. Taking a breath she regained her resolve.

"Let's go. I can cover us with illusion and get us out of here, before others arrive," she said.

Retrix shivered slightly before nodding, "Come on."

Silver took a deep breath. She stood up a little straighter and walked toward the entrance, not looking at the bloodied corpse of Thylo. They exited Zoralth's palace. Merene covered them in illusion and they continued there way through the Syndicate. None of them talked to each other, each of them shocked in there own way.

They reached the large stone wall that was the exit of Eldawin's Syndicate. Merene made the earth dragon that guarded the wall open it through her mind manipulation, and together they flew into the large tunnel they had entered through, and toward freedom. But none of them could find it in themselves to forget what had just happened.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. I'll get the next chapter out as soon as I'm able.