The Silver Revenge

Chapter 20: The Touch of Power

~Raize~

I'm doing something wrong. It's the only explanation. All my training, meditation, pushing myself. It should have happened by now. I can feel it, right below the surface, like a volcano ready to come forth. Its enraging! But for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. Maybe I'm just not powerful enough yet, or maybe I haven't pushed myself quite that far. I mean, no one's ever tried to reach that point.

Wait, that might be it. That might be the solution! Oh I'm so stupid. That must be it, it's the only explanation. I need to stop trying, or at least stop trying consciously. Everyone else who has reached this point has done so without knowing it. They've pushed themselves past their limits through emotion and going past what they were physically and mentally capable off. They lost control, and this whole time I've been in control. I've been the one making the calls, I've been the one that's been calling the shots and thinking and planning. I need to stop.

But I need something to help me do that, something to drive me over the boundary from rationality to irrationality. To a point that can't be explained by logic or science. The question is, what can I do? What can get me over that point? There are a few things but I don't think that would work, but then again... there's always my anger. My anger for him.

* * *

'I can do this. I can do this. I will do this,' the thoughts swirled through the mind of the silver dragoness constantly, going back and forth like a pendulum. She had never, once, felt this anxious before a fight. Not when she faced her father, or Frezron, or anyone else. She guessed the difference was she knew what Firefly could do, or at least part of what she could do, and it was a little intimidating. It didn't help that Silver considered the fire dragoness a friend.

She looked up when the mental introduction of Firefly and her came through. It still made her a little nervous, but she had gotten used to it and didn't jump whenever Thylo's voice went through her head. Taking a deep breath she focused on clearing her head once more, like she had done before the fight with Rocky.

'Just focus,' she thought to herself, taking deep breaths. This would be one of the most important fights of her life. She couldn't afford to loose.

Slowly the icicles that held her in retracted into the roof, creating an ominous opening that lead out into the arena. Everything was deathly silent outside, and the excitement and awe of the crowd washed down into the arena. Taking one more breath Silver got up from where she had been sitting and slowly began to walk up the icy ramp and into the arena. Cheering greeted her, but she didn't listen to it, her eyes only on the beautiful fire dragoness who was sitting calmly in the centre of the field.

The metal dragon stopped as they made eye contact, hesitant. Firefly tilted her head, as if saddened, but there was something else in her gaze. Disappointment, anger, regret. Something had happened between them in the time that Silver had been trapped in Cinder Prison. And there was also the power. It had never been so prominent before, but now waves of heat cascaded from the fire dragoness and throughout the rest of the stadium. The raw power behind it was something that Silver had never experience before, and she was beginning to realise why Firefly had never lost a battle in the five years since she had reached equilibrium. Any dragon that did want to fight her would go in scared and wary, knowledgeable of the power she wielded.

"Silver," Firefly's voice didn't have the usual musical seductiveness that was part of her character; instead it was calm, unwavering.

"Firefly," the younger dragoness replied with as much confidence as she could muster, which wasn't a lot.

A sad smile crossed over Firefly's maw. She was genuinely upset. Silver could see that now. She didn't want this fight to happen any more then Silver did, but it couldn't be stopped, and for a moment the metal dragon wondered whether Firefly knew about what was in store for Silver, should she loose. She hoped not.