Zepos was sitting in one of the long corridors of the upper areas of Sky Mountain. The Lab to be exact. It was strangely quite for the time of day it was. There weren't any shambling or shouting from the many human scientists that occupied that part of the mountain. There were no grumbling dragons, taking their turn with giving some more scientific analysis that was required of the peace treaty between them and China. The whole mountain seemed silent, glum almost.
The lightning drake glanced at the large dragon-sized door to his left, his tail tapping anxiously on the floor. It had been less than a day since they had arrived back, and Silver had been instantly rushed to the medical bays that were also in The Lab. It was a place where dragons were brought when they had severe injuries that life dragons struggled to heal by themselves. Apparently Silver was hurt a lot more than she had seemed to be.
He sighed. Part of him wanted her to wake up as soon as possible. The fact that she hadn't already worried him more than he cared to admit. But the other part was afraid. He knew he would have to be the one to tell her what had happened to Retrix, and he knew that it would likely break her apart. He didn't want to see her like that... not again.
The door suddenly creaked open, causing him to flinch and look up in surprise. A life dragon stuck his head out and nodded to Zepos to come in. Inside the room it was rather spacious. It needed to be as there were a number of other dragons in the room as well as a few humans working with a number of machines.
Laying on a long bed, sleeping peacefully, was Silver. She was breathing evenly now, her mouth slightly open and her wings sprawled out. At first glance there seemed to be nothing wrong, but she had been asleep for three days, which was cause enough to worry.
"Do you know what's wrong?" Zepos asked the life dragon.
There was a sigh in response, "She will be alright, or at least she will recover... mostly."
"Mostly?"
"She pushed her body far further than she should have Zepos, far further than was healthy, further than what should have been possible. She used up so much in that battle... it'll take a long time for her to return to her former self, if she ever does."
"Oh..."
"But I wouldn't worry too much," said the life dragon, "Most of her wounds we've managed to fix quite quickly. She had too many broken ribs to count, a fractured pelvis, ripped out scales, some severe burning, all gone. Honestly... she is one strong dragon to have survived all of that. There is one thing though... her wings were broken it seemed, but it's like she has melded the bones back together with her own metal. They haven't been done quite right however, and the bones can't exactly heal when there is a lump of metal in the way. But it shouldn't be too much of a problem. When she does wake up we can ask her to remove it."
Zepos nodded his head, still not entirely convinced with what the life dragon had said. Silver had pushed herself far past what her body could take. It had been evident at the end. Whether or not she would still be the same after that exertion he didn't know.
He turned to walk out of the room when Silver suddenly moved. He froze, looking at her. She rumbled softly and her eyes half opened as she woke very slowly. The lightning drake quickly walked over to her, and her eyes instantly locked onto him.
"Aaargh... Zepos?" she murmured, sounding like she still was asleep.
"It's me," he replied nervously.
"What... what happened?" she tried to lift her head only to groan in pain.
"Hey, hey, stay still. You are in no condition to move."
She relaxed, obviously agreeing, "Okay."
Zepos was silent, watching her. It seemed as though she hadn't quite caught up to the events that had transpired quite yet. She scanned the room, taking in the equipment around her and the silent observers watching them, both human and dragon. She frowned slightly, as if trying to figure out why she had ended up there.
"Zepos... why am I in the medical wing of Sky Mountain?" she asked, seeming a bit more awake now.
"You don't... don't remember?" he replied.
"I... there was a battle," she said slowly, everything seeming to rush back into her, "And... and I won... against Eldawin... I won. But... then... the Machine!"
She tried to push herself up again only to groan in pain and lower her head down, panicking slightly.
"Hey, hey, the Machine has been taken care of. We are no longer in danger," said Zepos gently, trying to calm her down.
She looked at him, frowning slightly as if trying to figure out how they had stopped it. With a small sigh she relaxed into the bed, and everyone in the room had silent breaths of relief. But Zepos was nervous, because he knew what she would ask next.
"H... how did you stop it?" she asked.
Again a silence descended upon the room. Zepos hesitated, the words stuck in his throat. He didn't want to tell her, he couldn't tell her... but he didn't want to lie about it either. He knew that if he waited too long, when she finally did find out it would be far worse off than telling her now. Slowly he took a deep breath, lowering his head.
"R...Retrix... He stopped it," he said.
"Retrix?"
Zepos nodded his head silently.
"But how?"
"He... he took the machine into the void... so it didn't effect our world."
Silver frowned slightly, the consequence of what he was saying hadn't quite hit her yet. Her tiredness was making it a little hard to think clearly, but there was clearly something she was missing. Zepos waited patiently, watching her carefully... and a little nervously. There was sadness in his eyes.
"But... for that to happen... Retrix would have had to bring it into the void and... and let it detonate there," she said, her voice shaking, "But... but he got out right?"
Zepos looked to the ground.
"Zepos... please tell me he got out," she begged.
Slowly the lightning dragon shook his head, "He... he didn't even have time to close the portal before the Machine went off."
When she didn't say anything he looked up at her. She was staring at him, shock and disbelief written over her face. Her clear yellow eyes were glassy with tears. Slowly her head fell back down onto the bed and her body shuddered with a long drawn out breath.
"Silver... I'm... sorry," Zepos said, not knowing what else to say.
"Wh... why?"
"Because... he loved you."
"I know why!" she suddenly cried out, her tears now flowing freely, "But... why did it have to happen? Why does it always happen?"
This time he couldn't answer, because he was asking the same question himself. So many of the dragons Silver loved had died. Her mother, father, brother and friend, but this was worse. This was far worse. Retrix had been the one dragon Silver had wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and now he had been ripped away from her. She had loved the void dragon in a way he had never understood, well, hadn't understood until that day Retrix had sacrificed himself.
She was looking at him again now, demanding an answer to the impossible question. There were things he could say of course. 'These things just happen'. 'It was fate'. 'Because dragons die in war'. But none of it would help. None of it would make the difference she needed.
Instead he simply told the truth. "I... I don't know."
And she cried, she cried and cried, her sorrowful keens of loss echoing through Sky Mountain. The other dragons and humans left the room, leaving the two of them alone. Zepos carefully climbed up next to her and gently put his wing over her. It was like the time he had spent with her after her father had died and she had descended into depression. This time... he knew it would be harder.
* * *
The days went by exceedingly slowly. Silver spent most of the time sleeping or resting. She didn't eat much, and rarely spoke. Many worried about her. Celestia often came to see her, as did Blaze, but she refused to open up to anyone. When Zepos came around he simply lay down next to her, and that was comfort enough. He knew she would talk when she was ready.
It was a week after the battle when she could finally begin walking around, though many kept an eye on her. She was shaky at her first few steps, but steadily regained her strength. She also allowed them to operate on her wings, though it hurt when she drew the metal out.
The night after she finally began walking she spent with Zepos in his cave. She still didn't talk much, but seemed to be getting slowly better. The next morning the lightning dragon brought back a large goat-like creature to the cave, to find her sitting on the edge, just looking out over The Nest. He landed carefully beside her and let the corpse drop to the ground.
"Hey," he said, a little surprised to see her there.
"Hey," she replied.
He sat down next to her and tilted his head "What's going on?"
"Nothing much," she responded softly, "The Nest is a lot quieter than usual."
Zepos nodded his head, "Yeah, since Iraliene's death everyone has been a bit... solemn it seems. No one is willing to take her place."
"Not even Gravon?"
"No... he's been suffering nearly as much as..." he hesitated, looking at her.
"Nearly as much as me," she sighed, finishing his sentence.
He nodded his head slowly. For a moment neither of them said nothing, before Silver turned to look at the lightning dragon. There were still tears there, but she seemed to be holding them back, trying her best not to let her sorrow overtake her once again.
"Thank you," she said.
He blinked, "For what?"
"For... staying by me. I don't deserve it."
"Silver... you do. You have been through so much recently... and you need someone who will be there," he said, "You saved the world. You did everything right."
"Well... not exactly. I led you on... I should have let you know who I'd chosen from the start," she said, lowering her head, "Instead of letting you hope."
"That wouldn't have changed the fact that I love you," he replied softly.
She looked at him and hesitated, "Zepos... I..."
"I know, I don't expect you to be looking for someone so soon after... you know. But I'm going to be there for you Silver... no matter what you decide to do, or where you decide to go. I just want you to know that," he said looking at her.
Something had changed about him. Silver realised that now. He seemed surer of himself. It was as if something had clicked inside him, and now he was looking forward to something. He was sure of what he wanted to do.
"Okay," she smiled slightly, for the first time since she had woken up.
He smiled back, "Now, you need something to eat. I caught this for you."
She looked down at the corpse of the dead creature and felt her stomach grumble. She was very hungry, having not had much to eat at all since the battle. Without even hesitating she quickly bit down on the meat, quickly eating up all she could. Zepos was a little surprised at her ferocity, but was glad to see she had regained at least a little strength.
Once she was done she looked up at him, then down at the red bones left over, "Oh... were you going to have some?"
He laughed and shook his head, "No. I had a big meal yesterday. I'm fine."
She nodded her head and licked her lips free of blood. Zepos grabbed the left over bones and threw them down a small hole at one corner of the cave. The scraps would end up somewhere deep below Sky Mountain, where it would be burned to ashes by a number of fire dragons who worked there. It was a good system.
"The life dragon that was looking after you when you were sleeping wanted to have a last check on you today," Zepos said, "Wanted to make sure there were no more problems. Apparently he was suspicious of something."
"Oh?" Silver frowned, "Well... okay. But I feel fine... if a little tired."
"It's just a last check up," he said, "You never know, a bone might still not be healing properly or something and you just can't feel it."
"Alright."
The two of them leapt out from the cave and out into the air. Silver was still a little wobbly, her wings still not quite strong enough to handle a full flight, but it was enough to get up into The Labs. They made it to the place where Silver had spent most of her time that week, and walked inside.
The life dragon, a drake named Terrenand, was already there. He was talking to a few of the humans that also roamed through that part of the mountain. There were a number of other dragons still recovering from the battle laying in adjacent areas, and Silver wasn't the only one who had been badly injured.
"Silver! Good to see you up and walking," he exclaimed when he saw the dragoness, "You seem brighter today."
Silver nodded her head in greeting, "I'm feeling much better thank you."
"Great!" he exclaimed, "Well, this shouldn't take too long, so, if you remove your shell for a moment we can have a look to make sure your wings have healed properly."
She did as she was told, with absolutely no hesitation. After fighting Eldawin without her shell... it wasn't nearly as frightening leaving it off. She half wondered if it would be a better idea to just leave it like that all the time. She felt freer like that anyway.
"It's all good," said Terrenand, nodding his head, "Healed up nicely."
She smiled , "Good. Is there anything else?"
"Actually there is something," he said, causing the two dragons to frown.
"What? Did you miss something?" Zepos queried.
"No. It's nothing bad... at least I hope not."
"You hope not?"
"Yes, I'm sure you two are aware of a life dragon's ability to detect life forms?" he asked, which was answered with a nod of the head, "Well, throughout this week something had been nagging at me. You see, Silver, whenever you're around it I haven't really been detecting one life form. I've been detecting four."
"Four?" Silver frowned, "What does that mean."
He smiled slightly, "Now, I don't mean this to sound rude or prying, but... have you mated recently?"
The dragoness blinked, slightly flustered at the question, "I... aaah..."
"You don't have to tell me with who, just yes or no."
Silver glanced at Zepos, who was smiling slightly at her, as if he already knew. She felt herself blush slightly and nodded her head, shuffling her wings and looking to the ground.
"No need to be embarrassed, we've all done it before. Or at least I have," he chuckled slightly, "But I have some good news for you, because, unless you have some massively large worms in your system, I would say you're gravid."
"Gravid?" her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Yes."
"But... well... I thought you had to... 'do it'... multiple times before there was a chance of that happening."
"There's always a chance, and though yes, you are right, sometimes it just occurs when 'it' only happens once."
Silver sat down on her haunches, suddenly feeling a little light headed. At first she was overwhelmed by the information. She had never suspected that she would become pregnant from her first time. But the more she thought about it the more excited she became. She was gravid, it was a little scary yes, but it also meant that she would having Retrix's hatchlings. Void hatchlings.
She smiled, feeling another tear come to her eye. This time it wasn't a tear of sadness. Zepos tilted his head and lightly nuzzled her. She responded with a warm purr. The life dragon smiled slightly at the two.
"Th... thank you," she said to Terrenand.
""It's all good," he responded, "It'll be nice having another metal dragon around."
"Not just a metal dragon," Zepos replied, "But void as well."
"Void?"
Silver nodded her head with a happy purr, "It seemed that species of dragon didn't fall after all."
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Hey guys! New chapter! A bit shorter this time, but it is nearing the end so they probably will be. Vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. The last chapter will be out tomorrow! See Ya!
Pennator^^