Hey guys, I'm back and survived my exams! Whatever you do, do not take multivariate calculus unless you want to be an engineer or physicist. This stuff is horrible, I hate it.

Any-who.. Here's the next chapter, thanks for being patient!

Chapter 25

Eric walked into the lab to find the commander staring at one of the screens, an unpleasant scowl on his face.

"Don't try to think too much, Commander, it's unbecoming of you," he said, announcing his presence in the room.

The commander's scowl deepened. "We don't have time to you your games, Professor." Oh, how Eric loved to play with this man.

"Ah, but we do," Eric smiled lightly, concealing his contempt for the commander, "Since you were so heavy handed with the two Riders and their dragons, we have to give them a few days of recovery before we can begin the real experiments." Eric was furious with the commander and how he had treated the teenagers and their dragons. It delayed his experiments.

"The commander frowned. "What does it matter? They can heal themselves in a short amount of time with their magic."

Eric sighed in frustration. With all the years of being his handler, he would have thought the commander would have bothered to pay attention to what he had been saying the past twelve years. "That's not how it works, Commander. The two we managed to retrieve today are nothing more than children in the eyes of mature Riders. They have only begun to tap into their magical potential. Healing capabilities are out of their range of possibilities for the time being," he explained.

"Then why did we capture them? They're no use to us now as they are."

Eric gave the commander a droll stare. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who overrode my instructions of observing them before moving in for capture."

The other man scoffed, but did not offer a retort. He was only here until Eric provided substantial results, there was no need for him to befriend anyone or listen to them. Eric returned the same feelings, having little to no patience with the man. The commander had been assigned to observe the professor until he was seen fit to operate his lab by himself. Eric had always found himself pleasant to deal with unless someone happened to be stupid and in power. The commander was a prime example of this. And it was showcased today when he had taken his troops, stormed the town, and cornered his daughter and the boy with her. They were posing no threat and he had simply wanted to observe before approaching them. Their dragons had not been with them when they had entered the town, choosing to wait outside of town until their Riders had called them.

"Eric, explain this data to me. What is it saying?" The commander asked gruffly. Still, after twelve years, he could not read any results that happened in this lab, always relying on Eric to translate.

Eric moved to one of the computers and began to scroll through the data, shoving down his frustrations with the other man in the room. He could have fed the commander false information but that would not bring him any closer to having the man removed from his assignment as overseer. The Governments would send a new, less pleasant person in his stead, and Eric simply did not want to take the time to learn a new person each time he tried to pull the cotton over their eyes. So he settled for this brute.

Looking at the lines and lines of data, Eric began to make sense of it all. Before his daughter had been placed in the extractor, she had a majority of her magic, her stores almost full. After she had been removed, she only had roughly a quarter left of what she began with. That was to be expected, they were limited by the extractor's processors.

He moved to a different monitor to sift through more data, this set describing her aura and natural abilities. Eric frowned and hummed to himself thoughtfully. This was new.

"Can you describe to me the moment the two Riders found you and their captured dragons?" he asked. He needed to confirm some points from the data before he can give the commander a full debrief.

"It was a routine hostage situation. We know they are emotionally attached to those giant lizards, so we capitalized on that. What more do you want? You were there."

Eric sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, Commander. You held me against my will inside the plane until we took off again."

The large man waved him off. "Semantics. What do you need to know?"

Eric continued to scroll through the data as he explained. "I already told you what I need to know: Describe to me the moment the Riders found you and their dragons. What happened? Did the girl use magic? Did unexplainable events happen before you threatened to kill both dragons like an idiot?"

The commander crossed his arms, annoyed. "The winds picked up shortly after the girl saw the dragons and confronted me." He said curtly, ignoring the quip Eric had made.

"I see. Anything else? More weather anomalies?"

"The static electricity in the air was much higher after the girl saw the dragons, but they were being electrocuted at the same time, so I doubt it was all her."

Eric nodded and continued to scroll. "Ah, well, that certainly makes sense now."

The commander stiffened. "What makes sense?" he asked, apprehensive.

"The girl has weather magic."

"What does that have to do with anything to do with the experiment?"

It did not actually affect the experiment but it was quite interesting. All other subjects had very normal magic types, all within the range of manipulating one element. But having weather magic combined a variety of magic types together.

"Do not worry, Commander," Eric assured. "This information is simply intriguing. I wonder if she will be able to isolate the different types of magic…" he wandered off in thought. His mind was racing though a new series of experiments to test his new theory.

"Professor. I'm sure the Governments would love to fund some of your new ideas, but we have another assignment that is more pressing at the moment."

Eric blinked, stopping his racing thought. "Ah, yes, my apologies, Commander." Damn he really needed to get a better handle on that.

"What else can you tell me about the data?"

Eric moved to a new bank of monitors. "We can confirm that her magic is the same as an Elder. Comparing it with the data on hand… Ah, yes, her magical capabilities exceed the Elder's."

The commander nodded. "Good. What's the next step?"

"We have to wait for the machine to finish cycling through the magic we extracted today. Then we can see what the boy can do." Eric saved all the data and printed it off for his files.

"Good, good. I'm going to go check on those reptiles we have now, they should be waking up soon." The commander told him. Eric noticed a masochistic gleam in his eyes.

"Don't do anything rash. They are intelligent creatures and should be treated respectfully, Commander." Eric warned.

"Yeah, yeah," the man grumbled, waving off the professor over his shoulder.

His scales hurt. His wings hurt. This whole situation was turning into a nightmare.

Mercury raised his heavy eyelids and eyed the cave he was chained in. He was muzzled and had a short leash attached to the floor. All of his claws were tethered together with more chains, just his elbows and ankles. All of which he would deal with without complaint, but what made his scale bristle was the worst part of his containment.

His wings had been pinned down to the ground, fully outstretched. Any movement was painful. He could not move them unless he wanted to tear his wings to shreds. The rusty smell of blood flooded his nostrils through the muzzle, leaving him feeling dizzy. Blood never phased him, he was a dragon, and blood came with being a predator. But having to smell his own blood left him feeling cornered and wounded. He was ready to strike at anything that moved.

He growled angrily. If the people who had done this to him would not have done it when Ash had activated the bond, his wings would not have been nailed to the ground. Having the bond activated rendered him unconscious each time it happened to him.

He heard rustling and the clinking of chains off to the side and he saw Feuer open his eyes. They glowed slightly in the dark because of their vibrant color.

He had been spared from being pseudo crucified by being less rowdy than he had been. Mercury had only struggled because Ash's condition was deteriorating, he had felt her magic being ripped away at an alarming rate, causing him to fall into a panic. Normally he was the calm and collected one between them, but she had called out to him so desperately that he was forced into action.

Then the bond had been activated and he was forced into Ash's mental space, leaving his body void of his presence. That was when the soldiers took the time to nail him down.

He was furious! He would be lucky to have his wing membranes heal all the way and not leave holes or tears. Mercury roared in frustration through the muzzle.

If you keep that up, you'll tear your wings, Feuer advised.

I know, Mercury growled back. He absently tried to rustle his wings in agitation and he felt some of the thin membrane tear in one or two places. He whined in pain, laying his wings as flat as he could, fresh blood dripped onto the ground.

Feuer rattled his chains, just as agitated. He had been muzzled and his claws chained together, but he was not forced to crouch against the floor unnaturally.

Can you feel them? Mercury asked once they had settled again. Feuer had gotten as close as he could to comfort the silver dragon. The two of them had grown quite close since Jason and Feuer had joined their household. Despite Mercury's constant pestering at times, they treated each other like nest-mates. Well, as close to nest-mates as they could get. Brothers would be a good term for them.

No, my connection with Jason is not nearly as strong as yours is with Ashley. Feuer responded.

I can't reach her either. Ash's magical signature is so faint that I can't from a connection with it.

So we are stuck waiting till it is back?

Unfortunately. Mercury glared towards the opening of the cave. He was going to get out of this and find Ash.

A half hour of attempting to light the entrance of the cave on fire with simply his eyes, the commander walked in, an evil gleam in his eyes. Mercury and Feuer both elicited menacing sounds, filling the cave with their snarls.

The commander just laughed at them, reveling in their anger. The two dragons could feel the contempt towards them rolling off of him in waves. He thought they were simple minded animals. How wrong he was.

Smoke leaked out of Mercury's muzzle and he slashed his tail. What was this man doing here? What did he want with them?

The commander began to walk around the silver dragon, appraising it. "It's amazing that the little girl we just finished torturing is able to handle you," he sneered.

Mercury felt his blood run cold with anger. They actually tortured Ash? Why? She could barely even stand up right when they were brought here, what information could they have wanted from her? Could have gotten?

His growling intensified, just short of roaring at the man.

"Oh, can you beasts understand me?" The commander stopped circling him and stood in front of his nose. Mercury could smell the sweat from the man that clung to his uniform.

Mercury snarled and pulled at the chains keeping his head down. He hated being forced into this submissive position.

The commander grinned at him. "Maybe we will finally find out what makes you tick, little dragon. Maybe your little Rider too." He was sick to inflict torture on anyone willingly, it was whole other level to suggest dissection.

Mercury never had the taste for human flesh before, but this man was testing his reasons for avoiding it. There would be nothing more he would like to do but to use this man's bones as tooth picks.

The commander saw the fury in his eyes and laughed before he turned to Feuer. If his eyes could produce fire, they would have been bonfires at this point. His tail was lashing back and forth and he had half spread his wings, making himself look bigger. His scales were bristling and if it were not for the chains holding him against the wall, the commander would have been shredded and turned to ash from the heat that the black and orange dragon was giving off.

"Then there's you," the commander began. "The boy who rides you…he's quite protective, isn't he. Why is that? What could have made him like that?" He walked around Feuer, just out of reach from his tail and wings.

The dragon's eyes snapped in fear and anger, demanding to know what the commander was getting at. He would not lower himself to speak with such a despicable man.

"Oh, yes, wasn't there an incident about three years back? Ah, maybe it was four? It was such a long time ago… But it was up in the Spine, was it not?"

Mercury glanced at Feuer, was that where they were from? Feuer, what is he talking about?

The other dragon glanced at him. The night Garrett and Nova died.

The commander paused and snapped his fingers in revelation, his eyes lighting up. "Yes, that's it! You were there, near one of our energy plants when you were spotted. We almost had that older Rider contained before he committed suicide and escaped us." He began to walk around again, a smile on his face. "He would have been a much better subject. And that dragon? Oh boy…it had atleast ten feet on the both of you. Perfect specimen."

He turned his back on the both of them and headed to the cave's entrance. "Oh well," he sighed, "You two will just have to do. Hope you will survive…" And he was gone, his booted footsteps echoing off the tunnel wall.

Mercury felt all of his muscles relax, no longer feeling threatened. He heard Feuer sigh and make himself comfortable next to him.

That was rather unpleasant, he said.

That is the kind way of putting it. Feuer rolled his eyes.

Mercury turned his stormy gaze to the cave's opening once more. He searched for Ash. She was much deeper into the mountain than they were. Her magic was still just out of reach, not enough for him to grab onto so he could check on her. Jason was no better.

They were forced to stay in the cave. And wait.

Okay, so exams are basically over, only one more till my spring break and that's next week. Literally skipping town that night to be home with my doggies.. :) Have I mentioned I have 5 dogs? I'm not kidding. :P

Onto reviews!

The Age of Awesomeness: Here's the update, hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the compliment! It's much appreciated. :)

Nechochwen: Ash's father is quite the character, isn't he? He's quite fun to write, finally someway to put my psychology class to use!

Nikolasowa: Glad you enjoyed it!

Keep the reviews coming! I love knowing that my readers are enjoying this story, it gives me the warm fuzzy feeling inside and I sit grinning like an idiot at my computer for who knows how long because of all of you sweet and helpful words. I wish I were joking, but I'm not. :P

That's all I got for now, peeps. Hope you enjoyed. See you next chapter! And remember what I said about calculus!

Until next time!
Mogey