Eldawin paced down a long and narrow corridor, so narrow that his folded wings nearly brushed either side. The walls and floor were all made from hardened concrete, looking recently stripped of anything that had been connected to it. A.O.D.H was learning that it was better not to have their bases made entirely from metal. Dim lights glowed along the ceiling casting strange shadows over the corridor, but Eldawin payed them no mind. He seemed deep in thought.

Preparations had been going well with the machine. He estimated another week would be enough for it to be finished and ready for use. Raize and Zoralth had been working tirelessly on the project for the past couple of months, and he was quite proud of his grandson for making it all work. His impossible dream was slowly becoming a reality.

But with every solution came another difficulty. This time it was the fact that Sky Mountain had figured out where he was keeping his machine. The mind dragon's frown deepened. That human named Tyler was becoming a real nuisance, maybe it was time he payed the man a small 'visit'. But there was time for that later.

Another problem was the fact Silver was becoming more and more resilient to his assaults. The nightmares he had sent her night after night were having less of an effect, and this was rather troublesome because he was relying on her to be exhausted if it came down to a battle between the two. He sighed softly, he had really thought these mental games with her would work. Obviously not. Maybe it was time to begin the final phase of his plan for her. He had hoped it wouldn't come down to it, but it was either that or kill her, and he would rather avoid her death if at all possible.

He blamed the time dragon, the one that had been helping her all this time. He couldn't understand the drake's motives, which was a new experience for him. He was usually able to read another extremely well, but most of the time he was also in range to get into their mind. However he had never met this dragon, making it extremely difficult to even attempt getting into his head. Maybe it was time he met Time. It was part of the reason he was going toward where he was going.

Finding the end of the corridor, Eldawin pushed the door open with his head, struggling slightly because of the weight. Another dimly lit room was ahead of him, again bare of anything other than grey concrete walls and a think concrete floor. A single desk sat in the middle, one that the Admiral usually acquired, but today it was only the mind dragon in the room.

After making sure that no one was around, he walked over to the middle of the cavern, not so carefully moving the desk out of the way, and sat down on his haunches, ruffling his wings slightly. He was quite sure this would work. He could see no reason for it not to. Of course, he was dealing with Time himself, and the being could be too scared of breaking that meddling rule that he wouldn't come.

Eldawin took a deep breath before roaring out, "O'hen! I think it is time we met!"

He then fell silent, looking around the room expectantly. Nothing happened. With a snort the mind dragon roar out again, "Of course, unless you are frightened, which I definitely understand." A challenge, it would work on almost any male from any species.

But still, nothing happened. He growled softly and slowly got to his feet, feeling slightly disappointed. He had been looking forward to meeting the time drake. In the end, it didn't really matter much. It wouldn't change his plans. Sighing he began to pace toward the door exit, when something changed inside the room. There was a subtle shift in the light and everything around him adopted a strange silver hue. A presence, unlike anything the mind dragon had felt before, appeared, with a conscious so massive that even he had trouble identifying it.

"Hello Eldawin," said O'hen.

The mind dragon turned around, a smile on his maw, "So you decided to come after all."

O'hen was a fair bit bigger than Eldawin had expected, much larger than he had seen in Silver's mind. The pure power he radiated was far greater as well. It reminded him of the power from equilibrium, but... greater in a way. And the drakes mind... it was so... full. So vast. He would catch onto one small thought only to be drawn away to another, and none of it made any sense. It was like this dragon was aware of everything, from a small human boy doing homework in a city apartment to a single dragon drinking with his friends at the Syndicate, and everything in between. It was... overwhelming.

"What do you want, Eldawin?" asked Time, his voice powerful and demanding.

The voice drilled through the room, shaking up the mind dragon. He instantly recognised that he was treading on dangerous ground by demanding O'hen's presence, and if he wasn't careful he would end up in a bad spot, but he doubted the time dragon would kill him. For the first time he was facing a dragon that could not be swayed or destroyed by tricks of the mind, or defeated through strength of the flesh. No, the power he was feeling, it deserved respect.

"I simply wished to speak with you," spoke the mind drake, sitting on his haunches and facing O'hen, eye to eye.

"I do not take upon a physical form lightly, so do not belittle me dragon. I do not come for ideal chatter," grunted the time drake.

"Yet you came here?" Eldawin tilted his head, trying to estimate how far he could push Time, "You probably know everything I am going to say. You know what words to choose that would win you this little game I play, so I am not going to play with you. All I want to know is... why?"

"Why I'm helping Silver?" O'hen paused for a moment, as if trying to figure out what to say next, "Because she needs it. Because I trust that if she is able to pull this off, the world will be a better place for it."

The mind dragon snorted, "A better place for it? You seriously can't tell me that if humans are allowed to stay on this world that everything will be better? Look at what's happening. If I hadn't taken over A.O.D.H the dragon population would likely be dead or dying. Humans are ruining us. You can't tell me that, if Silver does manage to win, that she will not have great trouble in the future."

Time shrugged with a grim smile, "Sometimes, it depends on how it all works out."

"Sometimes? Sometimes!" he growled, "I cannot accept that as an answer. The risk of our race dying out is too great."

"And you don't think the future you have planned won't have its difficulties Eldawin? You seem to forget that it was dragons that allowed humans to rise in the first place. It was dragons that destroyed each other until you were so small in number that you became insignificant, forcing your race to start over again. That had nothing to do with humans."

"That me be true, but it was humans who didn't allow us to rise up again. It was humans who downed us and forced us to choose between hiding, and captivity. We never wanted this, and with the dawn of a new age I aim for it to once again be an age where dragons can fly free of this earth."

"But without the human race."

"Of course. You are Time. You know what they have done, what they'll continue to do. They deserve to be wiped from the face of the earth. You are a dragon yourself, surely you want your own race to be free once again?"

O'hen chuckled softly, shaking his head, "That is where you make a mistake Eldawin. I am not a dragon, I am time. That is who, and what I am. I merely choose to take upon this form because, well, I like it. That is the only reason. I could appear in front of you as a human, or any sort of animal. You want to know why I am trying to help Silver? Because I am apart of every race, wether that be dragon, human, bird or fish, and I fight for the survival of them all."

The mind dragon fell silent, surprised for the first time in a long time. He glared at Time, suddenly feeling angry, and finally understanding why O'hen had chosen the side he had.

"Very well then," growled Eldawin, "If you will not reconsider then I will be forced to make you!"

He focused suddenly on the mind of the time dragon, pushing into his conscious and piecing through the endless array of memories. O'hen frowned, growling softly and shaking his head as he took a small step back. Eldawin narrowed his eyes, baring his teeth as he continued... but there was just so much. It was like attempting to control the ocean. There was no way he would be able to encompass everything that was time, but he tried anyway, determined not to loose. A headache began to throb in his skull as centuries of information swept through him, too much information to even process. It was an overload, and if he continued, he knew he wouldn't last much longer. With a cry the mind dragon yanked himself from O'hen's mind, staggering backwards and breathing heavily, and the time drake was barely phased.

"Even you, with all your power, cannot control time, Eldawin," O'hen turned away from him, "We will not see each other again. I wish you well."

And he disappeared, fading back into the endless array of time. Eldawin roared out, swinging his paw around and shattering the wooden desk. He looked to the roof, snarling.

"There will be a reckoning upon human kind! A reckoning that I will bring forth, a reckoning that you will not be able to stop! I promise you! I promise you!"

Furious the mind dragon turned and stalked out of the cavern, more determined then ever to bring forth his machine and win the war.

* * *

"New York?" Iraliene tilted her head, surprised.

They had all gathered inside the life dragon's cave again, and were listening as Tyler revealed the location of The Machine. Almost everyone of importance was there, including a number of humans. Silver was sitting at the side in silence, just listening, or at least trying her best to do so.

"Yes, that's right," Tyler said with a grin, "Eldawin has been hiding his machine in New York."

"How... why would he hide it there?" asked one of the humans, seeming a little confused.

"Well, it is home to one of the largest A.O.D.H bases in the world, well, in size anyway. It doesn't have as many dragons as the average base, considering it is built under the city and to get dragons inside is a bit of a chore, but there are still a number through the base. But it is also a perfect place to hide the machine, simply because it will be a lot harder for us to search for it in a populated area."

"Where is New York?" asked Silver, not having heard of it before.

"It's a large and prominent coastal city in the north-east corner of the United States of America," Iraliene replied, "I'm surprised you haven't heard of it before. It's one of the most well known human cities in the world."

The metal dragoness shrugged, "I haven't heard of it."

"And how did you manage to find the machine?" asked one of the dragons turning the conversation back to Tyler.

"Well..." Tyler grinned, "It's a bit of a long story. You see, A.O.D.H didn't have any records of it, stored on a computer anyway, nor did they have any evidence of anything to do with the machine. But after some digging I found something strangely odd. A number of A.O.D.H airliners had a pattern of constantly travelling from New York to the Maldives, over the course of the past couple of months, but what was strange about those planes is that there was nothing in them, or at least nothing logged. They've been doing this constantly over the passed couple of months, and another abnormal thing about it is that when they refuel, they always use more fuel on the way back then the way their."

"How is any of this relevant?" grunted Gravon, sitting beside his mother.

"Well, for a plane to use more fuel it needs to have extra weight, and I guess that they've been taking elronium from Diego Garcia, the island that Silver destroyed, and taking it back to New York to continue building the machine, and haven't logged the metal digitally so that no one can hack into it. Unfortunately they didn't realise how good I was."

"This is all you have to base this on?" asked Iraliene, "No other evidence?"

"Well... there have been numerous reports of far hotter-than-normal weather in New York for those past months as well, and the heat is radiating from the ground, not from the sky. I'm guessing it is the excess heat needed to melt and remould the elronium metal. It would take... massive amounts of it."

The queen of Sky Mountain was silent for a moment, looking at the dragon's around her as if thinking, "Are you sure?"

"I am ninety nine percent sure that this is where the machine is. Everything fits into place," said Tyler.

"If I may," said Retrix, stepping forward and causing them all to turn toward him, "There is a simple way we could find out."

"Oh?" Iraliene tilted her head.

"Well... send in Silver. She could easily sense out the amount of elronium metal that is there," he glanced at her, "If she wants to of course."

The metal dragoness hesitated for a moment, looking at him in slight surprise, before glancing at Iraliene and smiling sightly, dipping her head, "Yes, I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult. Though Eldawin would likely attempt to stop us if we went."

"Let me worry about that," grinned Tyler, putting his hand on the mind breaker he kept on his belt.

"Very well then, it is settled. Silver, I want you to gather a group of dragons to go with you, around a hundred if you can," said Iraliene, "And this time I will be joining you, as I would like to get a scope of the field of battle. It seems humans will be a large part of this battle in the end. And we'll need a base of operations. Maybe a days flight from New York, a place where we can be out of range of Eldawin's mental abilities."

'Is there such a place?' thought Silver, though she didn't say it out loud.

"I know of a place," spoke Liam for the first time, "It's perfect, just under a day's flight from the city, on dragon back anyway."

"Good, where is it?" asked Iraliene.

"Dragon Valley, or what used to be Dragon Valley," grinned the human, "Silver and Blaze's old home. It's long since been abandoned, and despite that attack a couple of years ago, has been untouched by humans. It has enough caves to hold a small army as well."

Silver stared at Liam in surprise, blinking. Dragon Valley? Her old home. The place was but a distant memory to her, a fond memory and a devastating one. The thought of going back there... was something she hadn't really considered. Returning to the place where her journey had started, her birth home... Suddenly she was very eager to leave.

"Well, to Dragon Valley it is," said the life dragoness with a small smile, "Silver, gather those you want to come. We leave tomorrow morning."

* * *

The metallic dragoness sat at the edge of the room, thinking. So much had happened that day, and she was still trying to catch up with it all. Her head felt like it had been overloaded with information. She was returning to her home, the place where she had grown up. She had finally chosen a mate, the one she wanted to be with, but it was all confusing to her at the same time, and she couldn't help but wonder whether she had made the right choice. And it seemed as though the war was getting closer and closer to a finish, one that she both dreaded and dreamed off.

She looked up and hesitated when she spotted Zepos plodding slowly to the exit of the cave. After a small struggle with herself she trotted over to the lightning dragon, calling his name. He turned, surprised when he saw her, and she could see an inner struggle before he smiled, very slightly.

"Hey," she said, "I would be good if you could join us."

Zepos tilted his head, "You mean heading back to America... I... I don't know."

"Come on, we'll be heading back home. I thought you would be overjoyed to return to Dragon Valley," she tried to convince him.

"Yeah but..." he stopped.

They both knew why he was hesitating. He was hurting, Silver could easily see it as much as he tried to hide it. It made her pity the drake, and she couldn't help but feel guilty knowing she was the cause. But she couldn't let guilt be the reason behind her choice.

"Zepos... I... I know I hurt you, and I'm sorry," she began softly, "But you are still one of my closest friends. I still love you, and I hope that... we can still at least try to be friends. Please."

He hesitated, looking at her and struggling with himself all over again, before sighing softly and forcing a smile, "Okay... I'll join you."

"Great!" Silver grinned, "I'll see you tomorrow morning then, bright and early."

"Bright and early," he repeated, before turning around and quickly moving out of the cave.

She watched him go, before turning around and shaking her head, hoping that he would recover. Hoping that he would find someone. Sighing she exited the cave as well, looking for the others she wanted to join this small group.

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Hey guys! New chapter. I hope you enjoyed, vote if you did and comment what you thought. The next one will be out as soon as I can get it. See ya!

Pennator^^