Jurien walked down the grey metallic hallway, the steal capped boots on his feet sending echoing rings that bounced back and forth, irritating his heightened sense of hearing. He winced slightly, the scar on his throat glistening as he gulped, ignoring the small amount of piecing pain that came as he repeated the action.

The hallway was empty, and eerie. It was large enough to allow a medium sized dragon to walk through comfortably, but not fly. However there was nothing else in the hallway at the moment. No dragons nor humans, and the only presence was the dimly lit white lights embedded in the ceiling. They would need to be replaced soon; at the rate they were deteriating.

However, none of it bothered Jurien. He was used to it, as he walked down these corridors nearly every day. What really bothered him was the reason he was walking down the metal encased tunnel in the first place. The Admiral had called him. It was the first time since he was demoted that they were going to talk together, and with his new rank of corporal he hoped it wasn't to take that away as well. The thought made him angry, and he longed to twist the gun from its hoister on his hip and pierce the other man's skull with a bullet. But that would be impossible.

He stopped at the end of the hallway, coming to a large door. Most of the time this room was used to test the mental capabilities of dragons, but now it was going to be a test on Jurien's patience for the man on the other side. Not hesitating for a moment the voiceless dragon hunter opened a smaller door to the right, hauling it open with a metallic screech.

Inside was a large room with a single light on a desk in the centre. Darkness surrounded the room, and there was nothing visible outside the light. Not the walls, nor the roof, or even the door Jurien had just walked through. He didn't even flinch at it. He was used to the darkness, it was the man that sat at the desk in the centre of the room that truly frightened him, if only for an unknown reason.

Testing his footsteps and walking with the greatest air of calmness and superiority he could, Jurien stepped into the light, his eyes narrowing slightly as he got used to the rather bright glare. The Admiral sat at the desk, watching him with a sinister gaze and a cold smile. His combed black hair sat neatly on his head, and his dark blue, almost black, uniform wound smartly across large shoulders and lean figure.

"Good day to you, Jurien," The Admiral spoke in his foreboding tone of voice.

The scarred man merely grunted in response, not able to reply.

"I assume you want to know why I brought you here?"

Jurien only nodded once, standing at ease in front of The Admiral's desk.

"We have decided it is time to move forward with plan three. I know it is a little earlier then expected... but the target has become rather erratic of late, and we do not want to loose any chance of capturing her and bringing her here."

A frown formed across the hunter's face.

"Everything else is already in place. Our forces have mobilised along the coast of China, spread out. Sky Mountain knows of our presence, but doesn't know what we plan to do. All we need is you to join them on the front line. You are a vital part of this plan, my friend."

Jurien couldn't help but let out an eager smile. They needed him again. Of course they would. He helped start this operation, and he would be the one to help finish it. But he wouldn't do this for free. They would need to give him something in return. The Admiral had already planned this out however, and knew the look in the other man's eyes all to well.

"If you succeed in your mission, we will give you your old position back. One of the heads of A.O.D.H. But only afterwards, is this understood."

A nod was the answer.

"Good. Your job will be to lure the target out into an open area, away from the impending battle. From there you will merely need to stall her until we can set our plan in place. That should be easy enough for someone of your calibre."

Again the hunter smiled.

"However, under no circumstance are you to kill her. I will make this plain and simple. Her life is more important then yours. If she dies, so do you."

At this Jurien let a small snarl cross his face. Of course they would say that. Though he had no doubt that The Admiral's threat was not a simple façade, he would go through with it should the time come, and Jurien didn't necessarily want to die just at this moment. He gave a grunt of understanding.

"Good, you are dismissed," The Admiral waved his hand, and looked back down at the paper in front of him.

The hunter performed an about turn, and marched regally out of the darkened room and away from his superior as quickly as possible, not willing to stay another moment in the place.

'We have that settled then,' the mental voice swam through the room once Jurien had disappeared, causing The Admiral to smile.

"Yes," replied the human, settling his elbows on the desk, "I just hope this plan works. The other two didn't."

'The other two weren't meant to.'

"Yes, I know. But it confuses me what you're attempting to achieve old friend. You say you want to capture the silver dragon as quickly as possible, but over the past month you had plenty of chance, and failed to do so."

'It wasn't time. When she rescued the void dragon, it put less strain on me. When she escaped from Eldawin's Syndicate, it allowed me to rid the world of a dragon that was not needed.'

"I know. It is what you said. But after that, you had plenty of chance."

'No, she was taken away then, not allowing me any chance. And when she came back we had already entered China.'

The Admiral sighed softly and shuffled the papers in front of him, placing them to one side, "And you are sure this plan will work?"

'Yes. I have no doubt, unless the dragoness is more heartless then I have judged her to be.'

"And if it fails?"

'It won't.'

"And if it fails?" The Admiral repeated.

'Then it will be my turn to get involved in this little scheme of ours.'

"Good," he sat back in his chair, resting his back, his eyes glazed over in thought. The mental voice went silent.

* * *

Silver's back slammed against the wall and she let out a small oomph of surprise, then grunted as a flaming wing cracked into her stomach, driving all the air out of her body. The full metal elronium shell protected her against most of the damage, but it still hurt. Not letting the other dragon get the better of her so easily, she twisted her tail, forming it into a blunt weapon and sweeping it out at the fire drake, causing him to leap backwards and allowing her time to recover from the attack.

The two dragons growled at each other, waiting for a moment, before the fire drake sat back and laughed.

"I am finally a better fighter then you," Raize said triumphantly, fanning his wings out.

"Don't get too cocky, brother of mine," snorted Silver, "I'm not beaten yet."

"I won the last round, and the one before that," he replied with a smirk, standing up again and crouching ready to pounce, or leap away.

"That's because you got my by surprise," she growled back.

"That's my speciality," Raize boasted back, before jumping upwards as Silver's tail swung at his unguarded legs with her tail.

Instead of coming to the ground again he flapped his wings, soaring skywards. Without hesitation the dragoness followed after her brother, ready to give the beating he deserved. However he was a wirily fighter, and easily twisted out of the way of her next attack. He slammed his tail across her protected metal neck, leaving a red line in the metal where his tail had scorched it. Silver didn't even feel it, and again tried to attack her brother only to have him dodge and get out of the way again.

"You're annoying!" Silver growled in frustration as she sent a volley of blunted spikes from her mouth toward him.

Raize hit them out of the air with his flaming wings and merely grinned back, "Gonna have to do better then that."

"Aargh!" his sister charged him, and he dodged out of the way again, before throwing a punch with his wings, using flame to strengthen the attack and knock her back to the ground. Before she had a chance to get back up he landed on her, driving her into the stone once more. She yowled in annoyance and tried to throw him off. She was slightly stronger then her brother, and a bit bigger as well, but he had an unshakable grasp on her neck, and in the end she had to admit defeat... again.

"Since when did you become so good?" growled Silver with annoyance, swishing her tail, both angry and embarrassed at another defeat at his paws.

"Hey, I've always been this good," Raize joked with a grin.

"No you haven't."

"Oh fine. Frezron said that since I've reach equilibrium it has change my body as well. Now I can control fire a lot better, and make it more powerful as well. And also my body is generally stronger and more agile then the average dragon."

"That's unfair," snorted the dragoness.

"Hey, you're metal shell is unfair. Besides, if this were a real fight I doubt I would defeat you so easily, if it all."

"That's definitely true," muttered Silver.

"Oh, stop being such a soar loser," he laughed and ducked under a wing stroke from his sister.

It had been a couple of days since Silver had defeated Gravon, and since then the challenges she had been issued with had been very minimal. Many dragons backed out of their fight with her, fearful with what would become of them should they challenge her. It made her much more relaxed, and the few fights she had fought since then also easier to focus on, though many of the drakes seemed to refrain from fight her full on. Apparently she had been close to pushing herself to the point of equilibrium in the final points of the fight with Gravon, but she didn't remember doing that. All she had felt was the intense desire to defeat the dragon standing in front of her.

The gravity dragon had also been a lot more wary of her as well, and the two hadn't talked since the fight, much to Silver's relief. It was a little unnerving to have dragons afraid of her though. She didn't see herself as a particularly frightening dragoness. Intimidating maybe, but definitely not frightening. She couldn't help it however, and her times spent training with Raize had grown more and more frequent. She enjoyed sparring with her brother, even if he did win most of their scuffles. He seemed to be able to read her every move, and counter it with ease. It made her increasingly annoyed, as she used to be the better out of the two. Though he was right, it wasn't a real fight and somewhere inside her Silver suspected that Raize wasn't quite as good a fighter as Firefly was.

There were other dragons around the arena as well, some training and others watching the two siblings as they rested for a couple of minutes. As she glanced around, she noticed another group of dragons enter the arena. She let a smile spread across her face. Retrix and Zepos were both walking next to each other, chatting about something that Silver couldn't pick up.

"Hey guys!" The dragoness called, padding over to the two dragons.

"Silver," Zepos greeted with a tired grin. There was something bothering the lighting drake, and Silver could probably guess what it was.

The fights she had been in over the past couple of days had all been rather difficult, only the more powerful drakes having both the strength and courage to face her. None had defeated her yet, but she was sure there were a few out there that were capable of it. She was beginning to get worried that she would get defeated soon as well, for the more she fought the more dragons were able to study her tactics and manoeuvrers, devising a strategy for her demise. She really wished one of the drakes standing in front of her would be the next challenger.

"What are you two doing here?" asked the dragoness.

"I came to find you," Retrix said. He seemed exited about something, and nervous at the same time. It was unlike him to be this fidgety, his tail swinging nervously behind him and he seemed to be tensing his legs and wings ever so slightly, "Met with Zepos on the way."

"Oh... what for?"

"Just wanted to come see you train," he replied with a small grin.

"Okay..." Silver frowned.

"You want to see me kick her but again?" Raize grinned, coming up behind them.

"That won't happen again," muttered the metal dragon with a snort.

"Yeah sure," Retrix laughed slightly at Silver's glare.

"I wouldn't mind either," Zepos said, "You seem to have grown better Raize."

"I have!" the fire drake puffed his chest out slightly, reminding Silver of an overgrown peacock.

"Stop showing off. This time I'm going to win," the dragoness said, padding away from them into an empty area.

Raize followed eagerly, a line of fire running from the tip of his tail and up to his spine before flickering out. A few of the dragons behind gasped in surprise and Silver rolled her eyes. Her brother loved to be the centre of attention. As smart as he could be, he really was a huge douche sometimes.

She turned to face him; this time determined not to loose, and crouched down low, her wings spread out once again, ready to fight. Raize copied her stance, his grin focused into a calm demeanour. He knew Silver would be fighting more seriously in this confrontation, and was ready for her.

Suddenly, as if both dragons had the same thought, they leapt forward. Right before they collided a burst of fire came from Raize's wings, boosting him forward, giving him far more force then the dragoness. She grunted in surprise as she was thrown backwards, Raize landing on top of her, using his fire to keep control of their descent into the ground and making sure Silver didn't try to flip them over mid-flight.

"You never learn, do you?" Raize said, pinning her to the floor, his paw on her throat.

"Oh, I think I do," Silver grinned, causing her brother to tilt his head in confusion.

The dragoness suddenly kicked upwards with her right hind leg, right into drake's crutch. Now, male dragons are usually quite protected in that area, but if hit hard enough it still caused an extreme amount of pain. More then the usual strike anyway. Raize let out a yelp and jumped upwards, quickly rolling to the side and away from her and coming to a stand still, moaning softy as he curled up, his eyes closed as he tried to fight off the sudden overwhelming pain, his own hind legs moving closer together. Silver laughed as she got up and placed a bladed tail tip to his neck.

"I win," she said, feeling rather proud of herself.

"That... was... aaargh," gasped Raize as another fresh wave of pain lanced through him.

A few of the dragons around them were laughing as well. It was a weakness every male dragon had, and Silver simply took advantage of it. She made a mental note to try it with her next challenger, depending on who it was that is. Turning around she approached the Retrix and Zepos once again.

"That was dirty Silver," said Zepos, though Silver didn't miss the amused grin on his muzzle.

She shrugged, "It worked."

Retrix nodded slightly, seeming to be deep in thought. Silver frowned, wondering what he was thinking about, before he nodded to himself and turned to face her, his gaze confident and challenging at the same time. The dragoness frowned slightly, wondering what he was trying to understand.

"I've figured it out," he said with a small grin.

"Ha?"

"I've figured out what you want us to do," he repeated, shuffling his wings.

Silver was silent, studying him with her piecing yellow eyes. She really hoped he was talking about what she thought he was talking about.

"Silver," the void dragon took a deep breath, taking a glance at Zepos, "I challenge you for the right to be your mate."

The dragons around them gasped in surprise, and the lightning dragon simply stared at him, as if shocked by his sudden announcement. Silver looked into his eyes, and found confidence there. He really had figured out what she had been trying to show them. Her heart jumped slightly and she let out a small breath, excited and nervous at the same time. Oh, she really hoped he was right. But there was only one way to find out.

"Retrix, I accept your challenge," she would test him.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment what you think will happen next! What is AODH planning? Give me your thoughts :) Next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^