Silver woke up, once again, with the moon still high in the sky and dawn not even close to approaching. Another nightmare. Another sleepless night. She allowed herself to calm down, laying her head once again on the nest. She was still tired, still very, very tired, but it was slowly waring off. She was beginning to win, and that was all that mattered.

She couldn't remember how long it had been since that first raid on A.O.D.H, there had been so many. Months, probably. Those months had been spent training, endlessly, building up towards the battle she knew was to come. Sky Mountain was preparing as well, trying to destroy as many hunter bases as possible. It wasn't often they were successful, and Silver didn't like the idea of using her equilibrium again, remembering the repercussions of doing so.

Instead, she focused on her mind, strengthening herself against the continued assaults, night after night. Eldawin was relentless, but so was she. Taking in O'hen's advice, she fought against the monsters that plagued her. She still didn't manage to get much sleep, but she managed to get more. She wasn't struggling to stay awake during the day anymore, and she was more alert. But she was still exhausted.

Her training with the time dragon had changed as well. They still met, though in the afternoons now, but she was no longer controlling her metal. Instead he put her through numerous mental exercises, teaching her how to control her breathing, and keep a clear mind during combat. Half the time she seemed to just sit there, eyes closed, just... feeling the area around her. It had been strange at first, and occasionally she had even drifted off to sleep, but the more she did it the more she began to notice everything around her. It was like everything had a... presence, one that was very noticeable if looked for. She found it helped to remove her shell, her sensitive scales able to feel even the slightest drift in the air.

The dragoness sighed softly, laying her head against the cool metal nest. Time seemed to move so fast, and she felt as though they were getting nothing done. Every A.O.D.H base they did manage to capture, only ended up in a small amount of dragons actually staying at Sky Mountain, the rest leaving, unable to fight for the race they hated. Every time one left, it hurt, and made her feel like the war was useless.

Silver grunted softly, curling up a little tighter in her nest and closing her eyes again, trying to find the sleep that wouldn't come. She stay there till dawn, and as the sun rose so did she. It was still earlier than she would have liked, but it wasn't like she was going to be able to do anything else. With a flap of her wings she launched herself from the exit of her cave and into the sky, the morning light causing her wings to glitter in the sky.

Awaiting her at Sky Mountain was a sight that made her hesitate a moment. She blinked in slight surprise, gliding down and landing at the entrance. She smiled at the human waiting for her.

"Morning Greg, you're up early," she said.

The young boy wasn't so much of a boy anymore. He was now fifteen years of age and was starting to fill out into a man. His eyes still glowed with curiosity, and he still had that boyish charm that Silver remembered. But he was starting to grow up, like all of them were. She suspected that he would become something great in his later years... if he lived that long.

"Yeah," he smiled back, "I heard that you usually come down here early in the morning, and I thought that since we haven't really caught up in a while, it'd be good if I could join you for... whatever you do at this time of day."

She chuckled, "Okay then. It is true, we haven't 'hung out' in a while."

Silver lowered herself to the ground, "Come on, get on, I'll fly you there."

His eyes widened slightly, "You sure? I mean... I thought you didn't like people getting on your back."

"I don't, but I've done it a lot recently, and it'll be far quicker then walking," she rolled her eyes, "Just hold on. My back is quite slippery."

Shaking slightly from excitement Greg carefully pulled himself onto her back, sitting just in front of her wings. He gripped her horns, wrapping his legs a little tightly around her neck, but she accepted it. She doubted Greg had ridden many dragons before. She flapped her wings and was once again in the air, making sure to be gentle. She allowed herself to fall into a glide, getting used to the extra weight on her back. It was strange how having extra weight added to a flight made it just that little more difficult. But it wasn't too bad. Silver had flown with a dragon on her back before.

They made their way into the Training Centre. It was a quiet time of day, a time when only the really dedicated fighters came to practice. Silver was often amongst them, sparring with the occasional dragon and even teaching some that were not the best in combat. It was tiresome work, but she enjoyed it.

She landed at the edge, allowing Greg to slip from her back. He looked around in slight awe at the surrounding area. The massive roof was high above them, and the walls around glowed with elemental light as the few dragons inside flung around fire and water, aiming to hit their partner. A life dragon was on duty near the edge, looking insanely bored.

"Wow, this is cool!" the human exclaimed, "Dragon's in battle are seriously one of the most awesome things I've seen."

Silver laughed, "Oh, here we only play around. In a real battle we're a lot more terrifying."

"I bet," he nodded his head in agreement.

"Hey Silver!" a dragon called.

The metallic dragoness responded turning around and letting herself smile, "Faen, it's unusual to see you down here."

Faen was the name of the feathered dragoness Silver had rescued from A.O.D.H all those months ago. She was, as suspected, a light dragon, an incredibly rare species of light dragon at that. Similar to how Kunder was a rare species of ice dragon. She had been of great interest to many around Sky Mountain, especially some of the Chinese scientists. However Tyler had been surprisingly protective over her, and insisted that she be excused from any research that they had wanted. Iraliene had agreed, and so had the scientists, although rather hesitantly.

The relationship between Faen and Tyler was a surprisingly close one, closer then any relationship between a dragon and human Silver had seen before. Apparently Tyler had been the light dragon's handler in A.O.D.H, and during that time they had grown quite close. When Tyler escaped, he had promised to come back for her, and he had.

Silver wasn't quite sure how deep their relationship was, but if Tyler was a dragon, or Faen a human, she would say that the two were in love, but when asked the light dragon had insisted that the two were only very close friends. It confused Silver slightly, but it made her glad to see that a dragon and human were so close to one another.

"Tyler's busy at the moment. He apparently made some 'big breakthrough' in his search for that machine, but he isn't saying anything until he is absolutely sure," she replied with a small sigh, before looking down at Greg, "Who's this?"

"Faen, meet Greg. I lived with his family a while back, just after I had escaped from Dragon Valley," Silver replied.

"Aah, pleased to meet you young sir," the feathered dragon bowed her head slightly.

"Likewise," Greg grinned, "I've never seen a dragon with feathers before."

Faen laughed, "I doubt you have. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one."

"That's cool!"

Silver chuckled softly at the interaction. Out of all the dragons they had rescued, Faen had seemed to settle into this new way of life the easiest. She was more comfortable around humans than any other dragon Silver had seen. It was surprising, considering the fact she had spent most of her life captured in A.O.D.H.

As the two talked Silver looked around the area again. There were a few dragons down here that she knew, namely Kunder and Firefly, who were sparring in one corner. The ice dragon was doing surprisingly well against the dragoness, managing at least to keep her weay, but it was quite obvious who had the upper hand as Firefly managed to pin the drake to the ground with a wash of flame and a pounce.

Retrix was also there, but had yet to notice her. He seemed to be concentrating on something, and as Silver watched he began to glow with energy. His form seemed to almost shimmer, before he lapsed, relaxing with a small sigh and a growl, the purple energy fading. Leaving Faen and Greg to continue talking, Silver moved over to the drake.

"Hello," she said, hopping up beside him.

He nearly jumped in surprise, glancing at her, "Oh, hey Silver."

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

He turned to face her, "Nothing much, just trying to figure something out."

"Figure what out?"

"I don't know yet," he grinned slightly, "I'm beginning to experiment with my element a bit more, and feel like I'm on the brink of discovering something new with it, but every time I try I just can't seem to find out what."

"Oh?"

"It's a little confusing to explain, but I know that there is something else, and being the only void dragon alive, it's up to me to figure out how to properly use my element... right?"

"Very true," Silver agreed, "Do you think you would be able to do something like I can do with my metal? You know, control that purple energy with your mind?"

"Maybe, that's what I'm thinking, but I don't have the connection you have to your element, so it's going to be a fair bit harder for me to figure this out," he sighed, sitting down on his haunches.

She laughed, "Oh, come on. I think you've done quite well considering you had no one to teach you about all this."

He responded with a laugh of his own, "That's true."

They fell silent and Silver hesitated. She had noticed that, especially over the past week, both drakes that she loved seemed a little nervous around her. It was like they wanted to ask her a question, but were unsure of how to approach her with it. It was making her immensely frustrated, as conversations with them were becoming more and more difficult, but she decided to be patient. They would ask whatever it was eventually.

Suddenly Retrix seemed to perk up, "Hey, you remember that challenge you and Celestia made a couple of months ago?"

Silver frowned slightly, before grinning, "Yeah?"

"You want to finally take us up on that challenge? I can go and grab the others," he said.

"Alright," she smirked, "If you think you two guys have even the slightest chance."

Retrix laughed, "Don't get cocky Silver, you could be surprised."

She grunted, rolling her eyes, "If you say so."

The void dragon responded with a slight huff, before chuckling and leaping through a rift. It was still unusual, seeing him disappear into thin air through a hole that appeared out of nowhere. She sighed softly, flapping her wings and shaking herself, warming up for the fight to come.

True to his word, Retrix came back a couple of minutes later with Zepos and Celestia by his side. Silver grinned and padded up to them. It had been a while since she had sparred with any of her friends. Everyone always was busy, either planning, or out on scouting missions, or fighting against the dragon hunters of the world. Not to mention was the fact that knowledge of Sky Mountain was beginning to leak out into the world. It kept everyone on their talons.

"Morning," said Silver with a small smile.

"Morning Silver," said Celestia, nudging her friend with her snout, "You're looking better every day."

The metallic dragoness laughed, "I'm feeling better every day."

"So you ready to finally show these two boys whose boss?" Celestia chuckled, turning her gaze back on Retrix and Zepos.

The lightning drake simply snorted, rolling his eyes, while Retrix grinned. He seemed excited about this as well. He had long been wanting to battle with Silver again, as he was pretty sure the last time they did she had let him win. Or at least in part had done so. And that hadn't really been a fight either. He was a bit wary as well, because he knew that Silver had also immensely grown in power since then, and wasn't quite sure what she could do.

"So, what will be the rules for this? No drawing blood? No lethal blows? No elements? What?" asked Zepos, lashing his tail.

"How about, if a dragon manages to pin you down, you're out," suggested Silver, "And, just make sure not to kill each other."

"Ha, fair enough," said the lightning drake, shaking himself down.

"Let's do this then, us two verse you two," Celestia gestured to herself and Silver.

Retrix grinned, then without warning pounced, aiming for Silver. The metallic dragoness let out a small snort of alarm, but despite her tiredness she had been training her instincts for almost a year now, and was able to react in an instant. She twisted, pulling her right wing up in an uppercut. She made sure her wing was blunted, and didn't swing as hard as she could. Hard enough to give him a bit of a bruise though.

Retrix grunted as he staggered backwards and Silver, using the momentum of the punch, pulled herself into the air with a slight laugh. She wasn't surprised he had focused on her first. Retrix was an incredibly strategic dragon, and even if this was just a practice fight he had most definitely thought out the best way to win, and that likely involved taking her out as quickly as possible.

She turned to look at Celestia, only to find that Zepos had also made a move while she had been distracted. He had tackled the light dragon, and being the stronger of the two, had managed to take her to the ground. But she wasn't about to give up so easily. Before he was able to pin her properly, Celestia opened her mouth and a bright light flashed from within her maw, temporarily stunning the drake. In the same moment she kicked upward with her hind legs, managing enough force to push him off her. She then flapped her wings, quickly joining Silver in the air.

"Hey! We weren't ready!" she growled.

Zepos shook his head, recovering from the temporary blindness and turned up to look at her with a slight smile, "Isn't the whole meaning of battle to take someone by surprise?"

Celestia snorted, then let out a startled yelp as she was suddenly shoved out of midair from behind. Silver blinked in surprise and growled when she realised that Retrix had teleported behind them while she had been distracted with the other fight. He managed to tackle Celestia to the ground, where he kept her, well and truly pinned. It all happened before Silver was able to do anything to help.

"Always pay attention," said Retrix to her, before stepping off and letting her to her feet.

Celestia huffed in annoyance and looked up at Silver, who was still hovering above them. They exchanged a glance and the metallic dragon nodded her head in silent agreement with her friend. A life dragon was waiting and healed Celestia with a quick breath of green energy, even though she wasn't too badly hurt.

Silver turned her gaze back to the two drakes. They were going to play dirty in this fight it seemed, using every trick in the book to win. She had half expected it though. In a fight like this she was quite sure they would attempt everything in their power to win. Part of the male pride she guessed. But she wasn't about to let them have their way so easily.

Opening her mouth she breathed a blob of metal at Zepos assuming he would be slightly easier to hit then the void drake. However he simply dashed out of the way, using his lightning to speed his movements and within a moment he was in the air, heading toward her. Retrix let a rift open beneath him and fell into the void, reappearing just above Silver in an attempt to trap her from escaping Zepos's charge.

She pulled in her wings and dropped instead, falling toward the floor and allowing both drakes to fly after her. It would be a fair bit harder trying to get both of them, but she was confident in victory here. With all the hard work she had put in these past few months she knew what she had to do.

With a growl she flipped in the air, twisting around and flinging numerous tail spikes behind her. They were the blunt type, but they still hurt when they hit. Zepos dodged out of the way, moving swiftly through the air and steadily catching up to her, while Retrix stay back, watching and waiting to see what she would do next.

The dragoness did something that neither of them expected however. She paused the metal spikes in the air as she flew, and simply flung them back in the opposite direction. Retrix, seeing what was happening, growled and disappeared through a portal, appearing just in time to push Zepos out of the way and into another rift, before finally stopping a little closer to the roof with a stunned lightning drake.

The metal spikes narrowly missed both drakes before Silver stopped them right in front of her. She looked up at the two of them and tilted her head. Retrix's portals were certainly going to be annoying. They always were in these sorts of fights. But she wouldn't let them get away that easily. With a snort the spikes shot straight upwards toward them, and just as she expected Retrix opened a rift right in their path, so Silver simply redirected the path around the surprised drake, and before they could even attempt to dodged the spikes wound around them, lengthening into long ropes of elronium, tying the two drakes together back to back.

And just like that, the fight was over. With a grin the dragoness lowered them down to the ground, finding herself laughing at their startled expressions. She allowed the elronium to move from their body, untying them and letting the metal move back into her shell.

"Wow," said Retrix as he got to his feet, "I knew that O'hen was teaching you how to control your metal... but I had no idea you could do that with it!"

Silver chuckled softly, "Oh... that was nothing really. But I did expect a little more from you two."

"You took us by surprise," muttered Zepos, stretching his wings.

"Yeah! Go Silver!" Celestia roared out as she hopped over to her friend's side, "That was some seriously cool stuff!"

The metal dragoness flushed slightly under the praise, "Well... ever since I reached equilibrium I've been learning all these new skills. I don't think I would be able to do this otherwise."

"Hmm, no. I reckon you would have figured it out without your equilibrium," Celestia smiled slightly and nudged her.

"Maybe," the two of them shared a grin, then Silver turned to the two drakes, "Better luck next time guys."

"Yeah, next time I'll be ready for your new tricks," said Retrix with a snort.

"Tricks?" Silver tilted her head, "What about you two, with your 'tricks'."

"Got me there," Retrix smiled, "But how else were we supposed to win."

"Very true," she sighed, "I suppose you can't defeat me in a fair fight."

"You know what, I'm not even going to argue with that."

They all laughed together. It was always good to have moments like this. These three dragons were the ones that Silver considered her closes companions and friends. She couldn't imagine life without them, and likely wouldn't have come this far if she hadn't had their help. Sure there were others out there that had certainly helped, but every time she returned Sky Mountain these were the three she looked forward to seeing the most.

She glanced at the two drakes, feeling herself study them for a moment. The two she loved. It had been a while since she had shared anything intimate with them, the last being that moment by the sunrise with Zepos, but she felt as though there was a strain being put on them. She could see it. Maybe it was part of the reason they were a little more hesitant around her now. She had made her choice out of the two. She hadn't changed her mind, but she was afraid that if she did reveal that choice, she would hurt at least one of them. She knew she would, and she felt like she wouldn't be able to do that.

Zepos caught her looking at tilted his head. He opened his mouth to say something then hesitated, sighing softly. He turned to look at the exit of the training area.

"What is it Zepos?" asked Silver, suddenly a little annoyed at this question they were obviously wanting to ask her.

He seemed surprised, "What do you mean?"

"You were about to say something," she insisted, not letting him get away with it this time.

Again he hesitated, "It's nothing you need to worry about."

She could tell he was lying, "Come on. You've been acting like this all week. You too Retrix. It's like there's something you guys want to tell me, but you're too scared to even try. It can't be that bad surely. Just ask me what you want to ask me."

The two drakes glanced at each other. Celestia was silent, sitting back on her haunches and watching. She had a fair idea of what was about to transpire, as she had overheard them talking about it before. And she agreed, it was about time it came into the open, but she knew that Silver would be very unsure in how to answer. Or at least, she wouldn't want to answer the question that was coming.

"Silver, it's been half a year since you arrived back from A.O.D.H," Zepos began talking, slowly at first, "And, well, Retrix and I know that you... love us, and we both know that you also made a choice, over a year ago now, a choice of who you wanted."

The dragoness was silent, looking at the two with slight surprise.

"Well, we've been talking, and we want to know, I need to know, which one of us you chose," he said, holding himself up a little straighter and looking at her, "We've been waiting for you to finally reveal who... but it's difficult, and honestly Silver, we can't wait forever."

She froze for a moment as she realised what they were asking, not expecting that at all. She turned to look at Celestia, who simply tilted her head as if in agreement with the drakes.

"I... I can't," she stuttered, "Can't we just wait until after this war?"

Zepos shook his head, "By that point one of us, all of us, may be dead."

"But..."

"Silver, we aren't asking you to mate with one of us," Retrix sighed softly, "We wouldn't go that far. All we are asking is which one of us you chose that day. What was your choice?"

Silver was silent for a moment, looking to her paws a little nervously and curling her tail. This was a complete surprise for her, but she knew they were right, as much as she didn't want them to be. However there was just that one little factor that kept her from tell them.

"I... can't," she said again, shaking her head.

"Silver, please," Zepos half begged.

"No I..."

"Why? Can you at least tell as why you can't?" he tried.

"Zepos I..."

"Why?!"

"Because I don't want to break your heart!" Silver suddenly exploded, looking at Zepos with regret. Then she repeated what she had said, sorrowfully and quietly, lowering her head, "Because... because I don't want to break your heart."

It took the three of them a moment to realise what she was saying. Retrix was completely silent, looking at her and then Zepos, and then back to her. The dragons around them had grown quiet, listening in on the conversation, all holding their breath, waiting to see the reaction the revelation caused.

"Silver!" the voice pieced through the dense quiet of the room, causing all the dragons and human alike to look up in surprise.

A man raced into the Training Centre, warn out and puffing in exhaustion. He quickly found her in the crowd and pushed his way through toward her, still trying to catch his breath as he moved.

"Tyler?" Silver blinked, relieved at the distraction.

"I found it!" he exclaimed.

"Found what?"

"The Machine! I found where they are keeping The Machine!"

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed, vote if you did and comment what you thought. Sorry this took me so long to get out, but it was an incredibly difficult chapter to write. Probably why it is so long as well. For those of you unhappy with Silver's choice... remember that it isn't the end of the book yet. Thing's could change, but I'm not saying that it will. I'll get the next chapter out asap. See Ya!