Silver woke to a strange feeling of warmth running down the length of her body. It was slightly uncomfortable, her normally shell-covered scales sending strange tingles through her, and yet it was comforting at the same time. It took her a moment to realise that the culprit of the warmth was lying next to her, a wing draped over her unprotected back. The yellow drake was still fast asleep, seeming to be peacefully dreaming. It made her smile.

Being careful not to wake Zepos, Silver carefully slid out from under his wing, shivering as her scales brushed against his wing. With a slight side step and a jump she leapt out into the open air, again shivering as cool wind brushed past her. She hated this form. Rather quickly she let her normal metal shell to expand back out over tail, neck and wings and let loose a small sigh of relief, the comfortable weight settling across her shoulders.

It was still early morning, the sun only slightly rising in the horizon. A mist of dew draped over the beach and ocean, creating an almost heavenly look, light beams cutting through the fog. A cold chill ran through a northerly sea breeze, stirring the forest. It was the only sound, besides the quiet snoring from a certain yellow dragon.

"You know, you should try being in you unprotected state more often," said a voice from behind Silver, causing the dragoness to jump in surprise.

"Merene... I didn't know you were awake," Silver spoke, turning around to face the small mind dragon.

"I didn't sleep," she replied, sitting down on her haunches and yawning as if to prove her point.

"Why not?"

"Couldn't. There were a lot of hunters around last night that had seen the display set off by our purple friend, and a number of them came this way. I had to keep up a constant illusion to keep them away," she said.

"Oh... thanks," Silver didn't know what else to say.

Merene chuckled, "Think nothing of it. My job is to keep you out of harms way as much as I can, thus I do this."

The metallic dragon snorted, "A bodyguard ha? I thought you were a diplomat."

The mind dragoness grinned in reply, "Well I'm a little bit off both."

"Never would of guessed," Silver muttered under her breath, turning to look out over the ocean once again.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, watching the dim morning waves lap softly against white sand. It was a peaceful place, and it was only now that they began to realise how peaceful. It was like a forest grove, but instead of a lake it was the ocean, stretching out in its vastness, past the glowing morning fog.

"We should get going. It's dangerous to stay here any longer," Merene spoke, breaking the silence.

"Okay," Silver sighed, turning and walked toward Zepos, who was still fast asleep against the sand.

She nudged him with her snout, causing him to stir and grumble slightly.

"Come on Zepos, time to wake up," she said, "We need to get going."

The lightning dragon opened one dreary eye, gazing up at her. With a small sigh he got to his feet and shook himself off, getting rid of any sand that was still covering his stomach. He looked at the two females, slightly annoyed at being woken up, but ready to leave.

After a small meal of fish that they managed to grab from the ocean the trio set off over the ocean. It would take a couple of hours to traverse, at least according to the map, until they came to the islands of Indonesia or Malaysia, which ever came first. It was around the same place Silver and Zepos had been captured by D.E.D and they all agreed to be much more careful this time.

* * *

'Hold on for a sec,' said Merene suddenly to her companions.

They all stopped in midair, looking at the mind dragoness as she concentrated on the surrounding area. It was around midday and the three of them had finally arrived at the line of islands leading down into Australia, though where they actually were they had no idea. They had managed to keep out of sight of any human beings for the while, but it was only a matter of time before they crossed them.

'What is it?' Silver asked mentally

'I think its.... D.E.D. Yes, definitely D.E.D. They are having a meeting or some sought in a gorge on the island over there,' she said.

'Well let's not go over there then,' replied Zepos with a snort, turning to fly in the other direction.

'Why not?' the silver dragon replied, an idea coming to her head, 'Merene said they were having a meeting. Maybe we could eaves drop on their conversation and find out a few things.'

'We're dragons Silver. We aren't that stealthy. They'll find us relatively easily, and I really don't want to get captured again.'

'No with Merene with us,' Silver turned toward the mind dragon, 'You can create an illusion over us, making it so it seems like we aren't there?'

Merene nodded, 'Yes, though it depends on how many of them there are and the strength of their will.'

'Of course, but it shouldn't be that difficult?'

'I guess not.'

Silver grinned and tilted her head in Zepos's direction. The lightning dragon sighed, shaking his head. They were going to get in a huge amount of trouble these days with all the risks they were taking.

'Fine, but if I even think we've been spotted we are getting out of there,' said Zepos.

'Of course,' said Merene.

Silver took the lead, flying over to the small island just off the coast of a much larger one. Two peaks spiralled from it, far smaller then what the dragons normally saw but impressive nether the less. There was no beach on the island, and smallish trees dotted the cliff side in groves. Disturbed seagulls fluttered around the peaks, their incessant cawing shrieking through the air.

The course of the birds' disturbance became evident as they got closer. Black clothed soldiers posted themselves on small outcrops in the rock and a wind dragon was floating in the air just between the peaks, observant eyes on the sky above. Silver's first instinct was to rise as high as she could and hide herself in the clouds, but she remembered that Merene was with them. She forced herself to relax and trust the mind dragon's power.

'You sure about this,' said a rather sceptical Zepos.

'Of course I am. You think I haven't done this before?' Merene snorted, 'This is the easy part.'

The mind dragon took the lead, flying quickly through the air right toward the wind dragon. Both Silver and Zepos let loose a small sigh or relief as she passed right by him without the slightest amount of trouble. They followed her, passing by the wind dragon as well, just like they were invisible.

A small valley met them. It was rounded, with the two mountains creating giant walls all round. A grove of trees sprouted in the centre with a clearing and a massive opening of a cave that was so dark not even dragon eyes could piece the veil. A group of men occupied the clearing, all dressed in black camouflage and heavily armed. Two of them seemed to be discussing something, and one was dressed in something far different then the other, more a white scientist robe then battle armour. There were two dragons there as well. One was a mind dragon, who sat back from the proceedings with his head lowered, and another was an electric dragon with an ugly scar on his leg and a menacing snarl over his face.

Silver, Zepos and Merene landed in the clearing as well, as far as they could from the rest of the humans and their dragons. The mind dragoness quickly beckoned them into the forest and they hid beneath the trees. Why they needed to hide Silver didn't know, but she guessed there was some purpose behind it. Maybe it was easier to keep themselves invisible.

"That's Krita and Cert," Zepos whispered to Silver out loud.

"It is!"

She had just recognised them. It had been a while since she had seen either of the collarless dragons of D.E.D. She was slightly surprised they were still part of them. After Silver had helped rescue all the dragons under their care and destroy the base in the process she had suspected that they would be punished somehow. She was glad Krita was okay. He had helped quite a lot with the escape and hadn't been caught. But Cert was another thing all together. Silver and the lightning dragon had fought, but she had managed to disable him rather easily once she had her full armour on. The scar on his leg was her doing.

"What do you mean he's not dead?" the startled voice of one of the human soldiers rang through her ears.

"After the incident we managed to secure his body. Yes, he was badly damaged, practically dead if you will, but, after months of work, we have finally managed to bring him back!" was the eager and triumphant reply.

"How? His internal organs had been ripped to pieces and he had lost enough blood to kill two dragons? Not to mention the numerous wounds he had received."

"It's a wonder what robotics can do my friend. A wonder indeed. Not only have we brought our loyal friend back to life, but we improved him as well. Now he is stronger, faster, more agile, more powerful. Oh... I am looking forward to seeing what he can do."

"Show me."

"Of course," the human in white said, "Tetrad my friend, why don't you come out here and join us!"

There was a movement in the darkness of the cave, and slowly another dragon emerged. But it was different that its two companions. At first glance one could tell it was an earth dragon, and a rather large one as well. Large green wings stretched from its back and numerous battle scars covered the dull scales. It had what looked like an angry snarl across its maw and rage in its eyes. But that wasn't the most surprising factor. Metal coated parts of its body, giving it an iron tail and metallic claws. The metal wound up its legs covering part of its underbelly and side. One of its eyes was robotic, a piece of metal embedded within its skull.

'Get back!' hissed Merene in their minds, 'I can't manipulate that dragon's mind. It can see us!'

All three of them quickly backed further into the forest, hiding themselves in the shadows. Silver darkened her shell and lay down on her stomach; hiding herself as much as she could while the other two lay behind a row of bushes, hugging the ground with their bodies. Dragon's were not the stealthiest of creatures, so they each had to be extremely careful not to make any movements.

'Tetrad. I can't believe he's still alive,' Silver thought to herself, watching the newly made dragon from her hiding place.

The sight of the earth dragon sickened her. She was quite sure that she had killed him when they had escaped D.E.D. Obviously not. Growling to herself she glanced over to where Zepos was, seeing a worried look on his maw.

"What did you do to him?" the soldier who had been talking before said.

"Made him better. Made him stronger, faster and more powerful, with greater control over his draconic element. What's more is we have replaced his organic mind with a robotic one, so it cannot be manipulated by mental attacks. It hasn't changed who he is. He is still very loyal to our course, and looking for revenge for the dragon that did this to him," the man in white said, looking over at Tetrad.

The earth dragon nodded his great head, gazing around. The red iris of his metallic eye moved in an unnerving fashion, shrinking and growing, taking in all the surrounding area with uncanny accuracy.

"I am here to serve," he said, his grunting voice broken and painful, "I will help kill the dragoness that did this to me."

"Good, though we would prefer to avoid killing her just yet. Her metal made this possible," The man in white said, "If we can get more of it then maybe we could create more things like you, and destroy A.O.D.H."

Tetrad looked down at the human with a surprising amount of loathing, "She is dangerous."

"I know, but she is also useful," replied the scientist.

The earth dragon snorted and went back to gazing into the surrounding area. The human in white seemed slightly intimidated by Tetrad, but still he held himself up and looked at the soldier he had been talking to.

"Tetrad will help you find her. Our contacts have spotted the silver dragon flying in this direction. Keep an eye out for her, but be careful. As he said, she is very dangerous."

"Yes sir," the soldier nodded, glancing at the large earth dragon, "We will begin immediately."

"Good, now would you like to come inside out small base? We can discuss more in there."

The scientist turned and walked into the cave. The soldiers followed with Tetrad and the other two dragons. The large earth dragon had one last glance around the area, before turning and following them inside, his lumbering metallic tail swaying dangerously behind him. The three spies waited for a couple of minutes before slowly making their way back out into the opening.

"Curse my metal," Silver hissed, looking into the dark cave, "How did they manage to get it?"

"They probably melted the stuff that you breathed in the fight at the base and used that," said Merene, "But let's not talk about that. We need to get out of here. That dragon, Tetrad, his mind... it's like its not there. I can't manipulate something I can't find."

"Good idea," Zepos shivered, "I thought he had seen us for a moment there."

Silver nodded, "Then lets go."

They took to the air, Merene covering them in illusion once more. They flew out away from the two mountains as fast as their wings could carry them.

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Hey guys! New chapter! Sorry it took so long to get out, been very busy lately. Vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. Next chapter will be out when I can get it out. See Ya!

Pennator^^