~Raize~

Let me out! Let me out! LET ME OUT!

AAARGH!

* * *

It was strange, living out of time. Everything felt, almost hazy, like in a dream state. The invisible floor, made from stars and empty space, and the swirling galaxies that were everywhere, didn't help the feeling. There was no night and day, so Silver only slept when she felt like it, and without being able to move she was incredibly bored. However, her back slowly healed and eventually they began to allow her to walk around. It was slow going at first, and every step sent a jagged bolt of pain through her, but slowly she began to gain her old mobility back.

When she wasn't trying to walk around or wallow in boredom, she talked to Serel, or O'hen when he was around. They made interesting characters, and the stories they told were so far fetched that they hardly seemed to be true, but they assured her they were. It seemed many strange things had happened during the passage of time.

"Hey Serel," asked Silver, as she slowly walked around the timeless cave, exercising her back, "I just realised something."

"What?" replied the green dragoness, walking beside in case she needed help.

"Well, you say you're from the past right?"

"Your past, yes."

"But I thought life dragons didn't come into being until only a few hundred years ago, with Iraliene being the first," Silver titled her head, looking at her, "If that is so... then how come you're alive before her."

Serel's eyes flashed in understanding, "Aaah, I had assumed you knew. No, this Iraliene you spoke of wasn't the first life dragon, and neither your father the first metallic dragon. In my time metal dragons and life dragons and all other species of dragons are actually quite numerous, though metal dragons are considered a rarer species."

"What?" Silver stopped walking, staring at the life dragoness in disbelief.

Serel chuckled, "It's true. In fact, in my time, there are twenty different species of dragons."

"But..." the metal dragon blinked, not quite understanding her.

"You look surprised."

"But... how is that possible. I mean, Iraliene didn't even have life dragon presents, and I have a friend, Retrix, who is the first of his kind. A void dragon. He has a light dragon and dark dragon as his parents."

"Void dragon?" Serel frowned, thinking for a moment before her eyes widened, "Does he have purple scales, and the ability to rip open space?"

"Yes," Silver bobbed her head.

"Aaah, yes we have them. Though we call them rift dragons, not void dragons. Quite annoying really, especially to fight, with their teleporting and all that," she snorted.

"But... how does that work?" The silver dragoness frowned, "I mean, there are no other void dragons in the world, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only metallic one."

Serel nodded her head, thinking for a moment, "Well, O'hen explained it to me like this. You see, at the end of the second age there was a massive war between two factions of dragons. This war completely rips the world apart, with nearly a thousand dragons with the power of equilibrium and some of the greatest fighters in the history of dragon kind. However this war was a dark moment, and eventually the dragon race ended up destroying itself, leaving the world free for the taking. Humans rose up in the space that dragons had left, and they took over the world. A small group of dragons managed to survive, the seven basic species: fire, water, wind, earth, light, dark and, of course, time. Though O'hen doesn't really count. Not including our mystical friend, there were twenty-three dragons left, and they slowly started repopulating the earth. For some odd reason, the species that had since gone extinct began to rise up again, first being electric and so on and so forth, until you have what you have now."

"Okay," Silver still found it confusing, but in a way it made sense, "What are the twenty species of dragons anyway?"

"Well, there are the ones you know. The seven main elements, then electric, ice, acid and so on and so forth. The ones that aren't in your time...." The life dragon thought for a moment, "You have gravity don't you."

Silver nodded.

"Okay, and you have rift as well, that means there is only chaos, crystal, spirit and... weather. Wait, weather dragons did come back, but then went extinct again," the life dragon looked at Silver.

"I didn't know that," The metal dragon titled her head.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that did happen. I remember O'hen being angry about it," Serel chuckled slightly.

* * *

"Well done Silver!" the time drake called out as the silver dragoness slowly glided around the cave, only barely beating her wings, "I would say you're nearly ready to head back!"

Silver grinned down at him and beat her wings again in an attempt to fly faster, and only hissed in pain as her still slightly damaged spine protested against activity. Not wanting to experience it again she slowly glided down to the floor and landed as softly as she was able to. With a smile she glanced at the two. She could fly again! It seemed like forever since she was last able to leave the ground.

"Here," Serel poured a small amount of life energy into Silver' back, reducing the dull pain that had begun to throb once again.

"You sure you can't heal it directly from here?" asked the metal dragon.

"I wish I could, but backs are very hard to heal, and I think you may still have a small crack somewhere in there," she sighed, "A more skilled healer probably would be able to, but as I said, I'm not very powerful."

"It's fine. You did your best," Silver said.

"You're healing faster then I expected," O'hen stated, walking over to them, his ominous power washing through the room, "It's good. I'd say that you'd be ready soon."

"Great! This place is getting a bit boring... no offence," she added quickly.

"None taken," he laughed, "Why do you think I leave here so often?"

She nodded and then asked a question that had been on her mind for a while, "Hey, if I can ask you, what happened to my friends after that fight that left me like this? I mean, they were pretty batted and bruised. You said they were fine, but I just want to know."

"I can do better then tell you, I can show you," the time dragon said with a grin, "Watch this."

He turned and walked toward the white spider web energy that represented time. Slowly it began to move, scrolling along the wall. It began to get faster and faster until it came to a sudden stop. The white energy grew, almost, zooming into a specific strand of the web. Images flashed by of different events, to fast for Silver to see them, until it stopped, revealing the inside of a large cave. It was raining on the outside, with thunder and lightning. A waterfall formed by the rain fell over the mouth of the cave in large gullets of water, cascading into the ocean below. Two dragons sat in the cave. Merene, who was glaring in Silver's direction, and Retrix, who was curled up in the corner of the cave with one wing tucked closely to his side and the other limply stretched out.

"Where's Zepos?" asked Silver, not finding the electric dragon anywhere.

"He's there, we are just watching from his point of view. I found his timeline, basically, and this is what happens about a day after your disappearance from his point of view," explained O'hen.

"Why'd you do it?" Zepos's voice growled throughout the cave and Silver's view shifted as the lightning dragon rose to his feet.

It was a little strange, watching events from another dragon's point of view, but interesting at the same time. By his voice, Silver could tell that the drake was angry with Merene for something, but she couldn't tell what. Part of her wondered whether Zepos blamed the mind dragoness for her disappearance. She hoped not.

"Because they were our enemies," hissed back Merene, seemingly just as angry.

"They were helpless!" insisted the lightning drake, taking a step forward.

"Do you hesitate to kill when you have a chance?"

"Depends on the chance. Not when they have just been knocked unconscious and don't propose a threat."

The mind dragonesses snorted and turned away, shuffling her wings, "They were only humans. The dragons are still alive."

"That does not make it any less horrible! You walked over to them, when they were unconscious, and simply slit their throats! All of them!"

"Well what should I have done then? Left them there so they could come after us later. I think not. They were the ones who attacked us remember. They should have expected to be killed."

"Yes, but..." there was hesitation in the drake's voice, "It was still wrong."

"What happened?" asked Silver, turning away from the image and looking at O'hen with a frown.

"When I saved you, I also took the liberty of knocking every one of the hunters out, including Tetrad, to allow the others time to escape. It seems that Merene thought she would take the advantage of this and cut the human's throats while they were unconscious," the time dragon replied.

"Well get used to it Zepos, because sometimes we need to do the wrong thing to get the right outcome. If I didn't kill them, then they would have found us again by now and I don't think that mystical being who took Silver would help us again."

"You're wrong," Retrix's voice suddenly echoed through the cave, pained and quiet, but strong at the same time, "You didn't kill those humans because of need Merene, you killed them out of hate, and no matter what you accomplished by doing so, you still had anger in your movements and actions. Killing because of anger... that is wrong."

Merene growled again, "You killed plenty of them yourself, and you attempted to kill the dragons as well."

"That was out of self-defence," the void dragon gazed directly at the dragoness, "What you did was pure rage. Pure hate. That was what fuelled you."

"They're dragon hunters! Damned dragon hunters!" Merene swore, "Do you know what they do! They place collars around dragons and torture them until the dragon gives up their freedom to do what ever they are told! They deserved to die."

"Maybe so. But that isn't the reason you killed them."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because you had the same look in your eye when you killed Thylo."

The mind dragon growled again, "You two are weak. Silver would agree with me."

"No she wouldn't," snarled Zepos, "She would have taken the opportunity to flee, because even she realises that you don't kill anything for petty reasons."

"Petty reasons? Petty reasons! You two make me sick," Merene's claws scratched the ground as she narrowed her eyes and her legs bunched, like she was going to bounce.

A tense silence echoed through their cave, and for a moment Silver really thought a fight would break out amongst them, before Merene turned away with a growl. She walked away from the two drakes and lay near the entrance of the cave. There was an audible sigh of relief from Zepos and Retrix just continued to watch the mind dragon.

The image suddenly flicked and faded, time once again becoming the single line of white energy that fed through everything and everyone. The silver dragoness stared at the wall for a moment, a little shocked at what she had just seen. It seemed that her three friends weren't exactly on the best terms at that moment, and then there was Merene. Silver had to agree with the two drakes, she wouldn't kill an unconscious human, even if they were an enemy.

She sat down, still looking ahead and not seeing anything. What had happened to Merene in Eldawin's Syndicate? The mind dragoness hadn't been the same since.

* * *

"You're just about ready," said O'hen, watching as Silver twisted in the air, performing one of her many tricks as she came for a speedy landing, skidding to a stop, her claws causing sparks to fly on the invisible floor surface.

"You've said that at least a thousand time," grunted the dragoness, flapping her wings a few more times and narrowing her eyes at the small amount of dull throbbing in her lower back.

"I know," the time dragon laughed, "But I would say you could even leave now if you wished to."

"Really?" Silver's head perked up in excitement, "Can I?"

"Hey, hey, not so hasty young one," snorted Serel, "You're still not completely healed."

"I know, I know, but as long as I'm not forced to fight anything dangerous once I get back I should be alright," stated Silver, "I mean, the injury is little less then a bruise now."

"But it's a bruise running along your spine, and if not carefully treated you could end up in a worse shape then when you started," said the life dragon seriously.

"I know, I know, but I really think I'm healed enough. I can barely feel it now!" the silver dragoness insisted, jumping the air and flapping her wings, "See!"

Serel shook her head with a sigh, and couldn't help but let a small smile cross her maw, "Okay, fine. I will give you one last check, and if I deem you ready, you can go. Okay?"

Silver nodded and turned, letting her metal shell open up where the injury was situated, just below her wings, almost practically in the middle. The scales there had been pushed apart and the pale yellow skin below was bruised and purple, but the injury wasn't as bad as it looked... anymore.

"Hey O'hen," Silver asked, "Are there any techniques the metal dragons prior to my father and I used that we don't know about?"

"Why do you want to know?" O'hen said.

"Because, well, I've lost numerous fights recently, and I want to get better," she said.

"You're already really good, one of the best in your time really."

"Yes, but it's still not enough. Please, can you tell me."

He sighed, "Okay. I will tell you this. The best metal dragons learnt how to fight without their shells, completely vulnerable to attacks and wounds."

"Really?" Silver frowned, wondering why they would do such a thing.

"Well, they didn't completely fight without their shells, but instead of keeping it in one spot at the same size, they made it flow around their body, like water, and it never stopped moving. One moment their shell only covered their left wing, and then the next it was underbelly, and then head. It's quite an amazing thing to watch really."

"It seems simpler just to reach equilibrium," muttered Silver.

"That would work to," chuckled O'hen.

"Can I ask you a question?" the dragoness said, suddenly curious of something.

"You just did," the time dragon grinned.

Silver rolled her eyes before asking, "How did you reach equilibrium?"

A smile spread across O'hen's maw, "I was... created with it."

"What?" she frowned, not understanding.

"Another history lesson I see," he chuckled, "Have you ever heard of the legend of the seven elements?"

She shook her head.

"Well, it goes similar to this. Back when the world was first formed there existed seven beings. They had no physical bodies or forms unless they chose so, and were extremely powerful, some of the most powerful creatures in the entire universe. They were called the seven elements, and with their bodies the Earth was first formed. At first, there was Water and Darkness, then came Light, bringing her brilliance to the world. Then there was Earth, creating mountains and land formations with ease. After Earth came Sky. He was an excited creature who loved the thrill of the chase. Soon after followed Fire, a ravaging blaze that brought heat, warmth and the strength of emotion. Finally, the last element, Time, was placed into the world, to keep a record of every thing that happened within."

"I don't see how this answers my question," the dragoness tilted her head.

O'hen chuckled, "In an ancient, long forgotten language these elements were named. In this language, O'hen means time. In that legend I am the seventh element."

"What?"

"Silver, I'm not a time dragon, I am time. The physical form of time."

The dragoness blinked, still not quite understanding.

He sighed, "When a dragon reaches equilibrium, they become their own form of element. So, in a sense, I am always in equilibrium... even right now, standing in front of you. That white energy that represents time, I am that. It is part of me. I am everywhere within time, everywhere."

"Okay, I still don't understand it though," she said.

"That's the simplest way I can explain it," replied O'hen, "Maybe when you're older you will understand."

"Done!" Serel suddenly exclaimed, "You're still a little tender in that spot, but otherwise you should be good to go."

Silver glanced back at the life dragoness with a smile, "That is awesome. Thankyou Serel, for everything."

"Don't be," the life dragon bowed slightly, "It was my pleasure."

The dragoness glanced back at O'hen, "Can we go?"

"Sure, but just before we go, I just want to warn you that dragons that come here often have some... side effects when they go back to time," he said.

"Yeah...?" Silver frowned.

"They have dreams, visions sometimes, of past, future and present events," said O'hen, "Let's just say for the next couple of months don't expect to sleep too well."

"Thanks for the warning," muttered Silver, before shaking herself, "So... how does this thing work?"

"Well..." the time dragon grinned, "Depends on where you want to go."

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

Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. I'm sorry if this chapter was a little boring. It was one of those history ones, where stories are told :) The next chapter will be out as soon as I can get it. Until then... See Ya!

Pennator^^