~Raize~

Noise. Have you ever heard it? It's like rain. Comforting, but once you're caught in it you suddenly wish to flee. It reminds me of pain, but I think I would prefer pain. It numbs the surroundings, makes it easier to think. To plan. To focus. Noise distracts you and sometimes I wish I could just phase it out all together, but that's impossible.

Humph. I'm starting to feel tired now. A slow wariness slowly seeping into my body and mind. I don't know why. It's like my body if finally deciding to try and stop me from doing this. I was warned of it. But I can't stop. Not now. Not when I've gotten so far.

I can feel it now, just writhing below the surface like a dormant flame, ready to explode forth in a fury. It calls to me, like a bird for its mate. It wants me. I want it. Oh, I wish I could speed up the process, but to do so I would have to take drastic measures, something I'm not willing to do. So I'll just keep going as I'm going. The same pattern. I'm thinking of changing it up soon, maybe add a flying element to it. That would help... I think. But when I try my wings won't move like they are supposed to.

My sister was worried for me, but she's gone now. An advantage to noise is it reveals things. And rumours have been said that the metal dragon has left Sky Mountain. I suspect that they are right, though I have no idea why. Maybe she has gone to exact revenge, maybe she is on a mission, or maybe she just ran away? She always wanted to run away.

Once upon a time I would have chased after her, flown into the world with her, but now... It's hard to explain. This wariness is making it hard to think. The world has a haze around it. Like a fog. Engulfing everything. Apparently it's normal, apparently it helps, but maybe I should really stop. Just for a moment.

But the power is oh so close. Just a little further. Just push a little more. Defeat myself once again. Maybe after that.... Maybe I can sleep.

* * *

Silver watched as the mass of sparkling blue slowly stretched into the horizon accompanied by puffs of white and the occasional rich green. To most dragons it would seem beautiful, amazing even, but the sight of the ocean only filled Silver with frustration. The ocean and her hadn't agreed in the past, and now she was once again forced to embrace its vastness.

The sun was low in the horizon, spreading a cascading array of oranges, purples and yellows across the rather flat surface of the water. Fish danced in an out of the rays, sending ripples through the ocean and creating blinking lights. Silver's shell was shining the colour of the ocean as well, the reflection painting a glare of the landscape. She wasn't too worried about it, as Merene had managed to create an illusion around her that made the shell shine a little less brilliantly to any who happened to glance toward their location.

She glanced over to her partners. They had been flying for three days now, three days of passing over hard and pure land. Maybe the occasional river or lake. But there would always be land. Now however water would be the majority in this new stretch of the journey.

'We should land for the night and head out in the morning,' thought Silver to the mind dragon.

Merene had a surprising amount of stamina for her species of dragon, and never once asked for their pace to slow or for a rest break, even if she looked like she needed it. Sure, she wasn't as fit as her two companions but that would quickly be fixed by the end of the journey. If anything the mind dragon was flying better then she had at the start, the awkwardness of it slowly disappearing as she learned from the other two dragons.

'Good... idea,' she replied, looking and sounding tired.

The three of them slowly circled down toward a flat stretch of beach where land kissed the endless ocean blue. The bright sand looked barely touched besides the swirling wind gusts and crab tracks, and as Silver landed she couldn't help but feel a little guilty at the size of her footprints on the unbroken shore.

It had been a hard three days for the dragons. When they passed through the border of China it seemed dragon co-operations were instantly on their tail and it had taken a lot longer then expected to cross through the countries that lined the southern corner of China. They were constantly forced to go into hiding, or run. Merene had proved herself very useful then, being able to create illusions that enabled them to slip by unseen, but it had just exhausted her all the faster.

Silver rested her tired wings by her sides and looked into the ocean in front of them. There were islands far to the left, and that was good because it was the direction they were heading. She was just a little unsure of heading that way, because last time they were captured by D.E.D. Hopefully that wouldn't be a problem now.

They had a quick look around the area for a cave but, not finding any, decided to spend the night under a small grove of trees that stretched out over the sand. It was a rather beautiful place, and one of the few times any of them had actually slept outside.

Silver lay her head down with a sigh watching as the sun slowly descended into the skyline, "I think, when this is all over, I would like to make a nest outside."

Zepos nodded in agreement, "It's rather beautiful, isn't it."

"Hmmm."

The last of the daylight sky slowly disappeared as the glowing ball that was the sun made the last of its trip into the horizon. It had been a long time since Silver had seen it, and the sight made her feel relaxed. She used to find it annoying, but now that she was learning to dull her shell with ease she had no problem with it. She definitely agreed with Zepos. It was beautiful.

"One of the few things in nature that still are," muttered Merene with a sigh, looking around the surroundings.

"Yeah," Silver replied.

They lay in silence for a moment, enjoying the serenity of the ocean and surrounding countryside, when Merene's head shot up, a small snarl escaping her maw and she slowly got to her feet. Both Silver and Zepos hesitated a moment before getting up themselves.

"What's wrong?" asked Zepos.

"Something's coming. A dragon I think. And it's travelling fast, faster then anything I've seen before," the mind dragon replied, "It's A.O.D.H."

"A.O.D.H?" Silver growled.

"Yes. Though as I said, it's like nothing I've seen before," Merene replied, her muzzle scrunched up in a fierce frown as she concentrated, "And it keeps... jumping in and out of existence. Like, for one moment I have it then I don't, then I find it again. It makes it incredibly difficult to track, but it's definitely coming this way."

"How long do we have?"

"One m.... no wait, ten seconds if I have to guess."

Silver nodded and took a deep breath, letting her heart beat rise and adrenaline flow through her. She had hoped to avoid fighting other dragons during this trip but it seemed that it would not be so. Sure, Zepos and her had a plan if they did find any dragons captured by A.O.D.H, and it should easily work, the problem was getting a chance to put it into practice during the fight.

"Now!" yelled Merene.

At first nothing happened, and they thought the mind dragon could be just hallucination, when a strange dark shape flew across the newly risen half moon, before disappearing into the night sky. Zepos growled and Silver's eyes narrowed, looking closely around the sky for any other movements. If she had to guess then she thought the dragon was a darkness dragon, able to hide in the dark of night with ease. It would also explain the fact that Merene could not read its mind. Apparently it was hard to find a dark dragon if it was in the shadow realm, and place they could go to. Silver didn't know much about it, but she was sure it was quite a useful tool.

'No, not a shadow dragon,' whispered Merene mentally, 'Something different. Strange.'

Silver frowned. A sudden thump in the ground behind them caused the three dragons to spin around, facing the new threat. Silver froze, Zepos growled and Merene took a step back in fear. Standing in front of them, wings open and eyes narrowed, was a species of dragon Silver had never seen before.

It had dark purple scales that got slightly lighter as it wound around its underbelly. Glowing purple eyes shone from its head, piecing the gloom around it and a row of smallish spikes ran across its back and down the end of its tail. Four horns sprouted from the back of its head, two on each side, and a strange violet light shone from inside its slightly open maw.

It was male, and quite young, around Silver's age, but for some reason it looked older. From the look of his body and the way the dragon held his wings he looked like he was fighting himself, trying to stop. The reason for it was quite evident. A bright neon red light shone on its head, showing the mind-controlling device that was trademark A.O.D.H.

The three dragons stared at the new comer warily, unsure of what they were seeing. It was undoubtedly a new species, and somewhere in the back of Silver's mind she remembered Iraliene warning them about a new species of dragon captured by A.O.D.H, though she was surprised they actually sent it after her, at least she assumed it was them.

"Who are you?" it was Zepos who spoke.

The dragon struggled with itself for a moment, obviously straining, "My name... is Retrix. My orders are... too capture... the silver dragon."

'Of course,' thought Silver with a small snarl. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? What was so important? Yes, she was the only metallic dragon in the world but still, why couldn't they just forget about her? They were fine before metallic dragons.

"Well, guess what 'Retrix'," she spat the name, "I'm not going. And I will fight my hardest not to go. Tell your overlords that!"

The purple dragon looked strangely hurt at what she said. It wasn't exactly his fault that he was put in this situation. He had no choice. Silver knew that, but it didn't stop her from being incredibly angry. This was the organisation the killed her father. They wouldn't get her too.

Retrix only nodded once, before opening his maw. The glow suddenly intensified, and Silver felt a strange shiver ran through her, like everything was suddenly turning cold.

'Get out of the way!' screamed Merene in their heads.

Silver and Zepos didn't hesitate. They dived out of the way right before a beam of purple energy sliced through the air, right where they had been. The energy seemed to suck the heat out of the air and caused the temperature to drop rapidly. The tree trunks behind them were incinerated where the laser cut through it like it wasn't there.

The purple dragon roared, closing his eyes and staggering backwards. Silver quickly pushed herself to her feet and launched herself toward him, and at the same time let her armour fall around her body creating the full metal armour metallic dragons were so famous for. She knocked the battling dragon to the ground, quickly pinning him.

"Now Zepos!" she yelled.

But before the lightning dragon had a chance to react the ground below Retrix opened, revealing a black... void. Silver growled in surprise and jumped upwards, flapping her wings to take herself into the air. The male fell through the hole and it closed after him. Suddenly something smashed into her back, hard. She growled in annoyance and was staggered in the air, managing to keep her wings. She snapped in the direction she had thought the attacker went but was surprised when an extremely hard hit went into her stomach. She grunted as she was thrown higher into the air, before a blast of energy hit her.

Cold rushed through her and she roared in annoyance. Her trusty armour held against the onslaught however and she was quickly able to role out of the beam before her shell froze on her. She hated the cold. Spying the purple dragon she flung a volley of tail spikes toward him, but he saw what was coming and flapped his wings once, propelling himself forward before... disappearing.

Silver growled, and then roared again as the purple dragon crashed into her back. Spinning around she lashed out with her wing, only to be surprised with another attack to the back, followed by the underside, then the head, then the tail, then the back again. The metallic dragon was being thrown around the air like a rag dole, and she couldn't land a hit on the annoying creature.

Finally she had had enough. Opening her wings she formed metal spikes all over her body, metal flowing like liquid, before propelling them outwards at a high speed. She was rewarded by a resounding screech as the new species was impaled in the leg by a long metallic shaft. This time when he disappeared it wasn't to attack, rather retreat. He appeared a couple of hundred metres away, hovering.

"Come on!" yelled Silver, "Is that all you got!?"

She was tired of hiding. She was going to show A.O.D.H that they couldn't control her. She was going to rob them of something important to them, just like they did her.

'Merene, tell Zepos to be ready,' she said.

'Done,' the mind dragon replied.

Retrix roared out at her, obviously just as angry as she was. She doubted he had ever come up against something as hard to defeat as her before. The metal that covered her body was the strongest in the universe. Her will was iron and her skill was something unseen in a dragon as young as her. Any other dragon would have been defeated in the first few strikes, but not her.

The purple dragon roared out and propelled himself forward in the sky. Silver prepared herself for the attack, taking a deep breath and letting spikes once again grow from her body. He wouldn't escape this time.

However he did something unexpected. As he disappeared instead of coming from behind like Silver had expected, he reappeared right in front of her. They clashed in midair and Silver was thrown backwards by a surprising amount of force from such a young dragon.

The lightning bolt that Zepos had prepared went wide, missing the two dragons by a couple of metres. They went tumbling through the air and Silver, being the one not in control of their clash, did the only thing she could, and held onto the other dragon. The air rippled below them, before tearing open once again, revealing the black void, and the two dragons fell into it.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you thought. Finally a cliff hanger eh? Been looking forward to getting these out into this book... finally lol. Next chapter will be out as soon as I can get it. See Ya!

Pennator^