In Every World
(rough draft)
A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl
Summary: Sci-fi AU. Hiccup doesn't know why he's mysteriously drawn to the giant alien robot that killed everyone who tried to pilot it, but when he's the last thing standing between his city and annihilation, he'll find out.
A/N: Don't complain about the censoring. Read this fic on AO3 or DeviantArt if it bothers you.
I imagine the dramechs as, basically, Gundams.
o.o.o
Hiccup had always been strongly drawn to the dramechs in a way he couldn't explain, but his father never let him get close. The best Hiccup could hope for was for the lab technicians to be so distracted that no one noticed him slipping into the control room or hangar and quietly settling himself in a corner.
He could watch the dramechs for hours at a time. Days. His fingers itched to work on them, and every once in a while, he did manage to sneak in some tinkering.
Mostly, he had to settle for watching the other teens, the real pilots, climbing in and out of their dramechs and running maneuvers on the practice fields and boasting of their prowess during meals or rec time.
"Dad, please...just give me a chance, just give me one chance, I'll-"
"You don't know what you're asking, Hiccup. Those are soldiers. You'd be expected to fight."
"I can fight!"
"The physical strain on the pilots is enormous, Hiccup. You don't have the strength, stamina or body type for it, you'd never last through a single flight."
"Ruff and Tuff are barely bigger than I am!"
"But they're not nearly as...fragile."
It stung, and for a moment, Hiccup couldn't speak.
"You'd have to deal with that," Stoick said, gesturing into the hangar where Snotlout had stumbled frantically out of Hookfang and was now puking, "and a lot worse. Piloting a dramech is not a game."
"I can do it, Dad."
"We don't even have a spare dramech for you to use."
"There's Night Fur-"
"ENOUGH, HICCUP."
Night Fury was the original, the dramech of probable alien origin that had been found in the desert fifty years ago, that all the other dramechs been retro-engineered from. No one had ever been able to get Night Fury to work; the most persistent pilots and engineers had died trying.
Despite the dramech's dangerous and mysterious history, Hiccup had never felt frightened of it. It sat gathering dust at the far end of the hangar, used only for research or reference.
Hiccup found himself feeling sorry for it. Sometimes he would take his tablet out to where Night Fury rested and just work there in the dramech's silent company. He'd had more than one dream where Night Fury looked back at him with glowing green eyes. Night Fury made better company than any human he knew.
o.o.o.o.o
"So, Astrid..." He knew this was dumb, he knew there was absolutely no way Astrid Hofferson would let him within a stone's throw of her dramech...but she was so beautiful. He couldn't help himself around her, the mere sight of her reduced him to sheer (unreliable) instinct. "D'you think maybe tonight...you could show me what was giving you trouble with Stormfly, and maybe afterward-"
"Get out of my face, Hiccup."
o.o.o.o.o
The pilots, though ultimately victorious, had had a difficult time with this battle. Hookfang in particular was in bad shape; although Hiccup briefly got distracted when Astrid passed him ("Oh, man, that looks bad, do you need me to-?" "MOVE YOUR CARCASS"), he was otherwise completely consumed with worry for the fiercest dramech.
He watched the technicians like a hawk. They did all right for the most part, but when he tried to point out that they'd made a mistake during the surface ignition calibration, he got chased off. Hiccup's frustration kept him up until past midnight, when the hangar was deserted. He was able to sneak in and fix the calibration, after which he did a thorough overall check and started working on the smaller issues that the techs hadn't gotten to.
Hiccup worked for about three hours. He was sunk deeply in the Zone, making steady progress, feeling energized and productive, when a large hand seized him and jerked him out of Hookfang's cockpit. Hiccup let out a cry of fear when he found himself almost dangling off the side of the dramech. "What are you doing to Hookfang?" Snotlout snarled.
Hiccup was gasping, struggling in vain to get a foothold. "I'm...I'm fixing him...!"
"Don't touch my dramech, you hear me? Don't touch my dramech!" He shook Hiccup, then gave him such a long, appraising look that Hiccup was terrified the other boy would just let go and watch him fall to his death. "Snotlout, please!"
"You're always skulking around the place because you still haven't figured out that you don't belong here. You think you-"
"Someone help me!" Hiccup screamed.
He and Snotlout were both startled when a heavy clanking sound echoed from the depths of the hangar. "Who's there?!" Snotlout shouted. There was no reply, but two spots of bright green light began to glow in the shadows.
Snotlout dragged Hiccup back over the edge and flung him toward the escalation harness. "Get away from my dramech. Don't ever touch it again."
"Okay...okay, no problem, okay..." Hiccup descended shakily, but instead of leaving the hangar, he hurried toward the shadowed end, which felt safer. By the time he reached Night Fury, the dramech was quiet and dark again, but Hiccup still made his way up to the mech's shoulder and curled up there. "You saved me, didn't you," he whispered. "I don't know how you knew or why you cared, but you saved me." He ended up falling asleep right there on Night Fury. His dreams were very strange.
o.o.o.o.o
By the time Hiccup was fifteen years old, he'd made his peace with his lot in life. He graduated high school early and began to study college-level engineering. He knew he would never be allowed to pilot a dramech, but if he worked very hard, he might get to work on the machines in between battles. He told himself it was enough.
o.o.o.o.o
The battle was a complete disaster. All five mechs had been incapacitated; Fishlegs had been rushed to the hospital, and the other pilots were all injured; the army had nothing but ordinary firepower now. It was woefully inadequate against the advancing enemy.
Hiccup made up his mind when he saw one [*censored because FFN is stupid*] mech crush his old school. It was heading straight for dramech headquarters now; nothing but a dramech would be able to engage it successfully, and they had run out of all other options.
No one stopped him. Everyone was too frantic and distracted to notice Hiccup or realize what he was up to. He strapped himself in the cockpit and closed the hatch, but paused before starting the ignition sequence. "Night Fury," he said. "Can you hear me?" He wondered if he was just imagining the low hum of warming up machinery. "Hey, so...I know you've been - unhappy with everyone else who tried to do this." He took a deep breath. "But...okay, so, I'm really desperate, and I REALLY like you, and...well, if you do kill me, could you please at least help us stop the [*censored because FFN is stupid*] first? Please?" He felt a gradual surrounding warmth, almost as if the pilot seat was embracing him. "I just...feel like I have to do this." Hiccup drew in one more breath, then settled the helmet in place and activated the ignition switch.
Pain shot through his head and he cried out, wondering if Night Fury was going to kill him like it had killed the others, without letting him see even a moment of battle.
But the pain gradually faded, though it was difficult for Hiccup to recover because an overwhelming rushing took its place.
"When when when when WHEN, looking looking! Where?! Mine, my one, where?! Not Him not Him go away go away; YOU. Him?! My one?! Mine, my- SCAN."
Hiccup cried out again. He couldn't move, the seat clamped tightly around him. He felt multiple pricks and sensed blood leaving his body; lights flashed in his eyes; he could feel the alien being in his mind...!
"MINE. MY ONE."
Hiccup was sobbing, because he suddenly knew beyond a doubt that Night Fury was sobbing, too, with relief and excitement and anger.
"My one! My one! HERE WITH ME MINE FINALLY WHERE WERE YOU?!"
"I'm sorry, Fury, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-!"
"HERE NOW. GOOD GOOD VERY GOOD. FIGHT."
Hiccup no longer felt restrained. He felt consumed, but in a powerful way, as if he had become one with Night Fury. The dramech's arms and legs were his own; the dramech's power was his, too. They had work to do. "Let's go, Fury!"
o.o.o.o.o
It was hard. Hiccup went dizzy and retched at first, until Night Fury made adjustments and took on more of the physical strain itself. This meant that Hiccup had to do more of the strategizing and computer work, but he felt up to the task. He felt like his mind was half computer already, like he and Night Fury were freely sharing their brains.
It immediately became clear that Night Fury's abilities exceeded those of all the human-made dramechs. It was faster and more agile and powerful, it cut through [*censored because FFN is stupid*] mechs like butter. Any enemy attacks that managed to make contact practically bounced off. Night Fury mowed down the entire invading force in less than ten minutes, then basked in its victory with a purr that seemed to vibrate in Hiccup's bones and bathe him in warmth. "You are amazing," Hiccup whispered, drenched in sweat but feeling incredible.
"Best," Night Fury exulted smugly. "Best, me and my one that I FINALLY FOUND, we are very much good ones best."
Hiccup didn't want to leave the cockpit, but he knew he had to face his father sooner or later. Night Fury sensed his apprehension and 'hugged' him protectively. "I have to, Fury. It will be all right. Obviously you haven't killed me yet, and now that they've seen what we can do together, they can't keep us apart anymore."
"My one that I was LOOKING FOR belongs to me, alive alive not kill Him my one that I love...!"
Tears came to Hiccup's eyes. "Thank you, Fury." Eventually, he managed to coax the dramech to let him go. He emerged from the cockpit to find Night Fury surrounded by armed soldiers from headquarters. Stoick's face was pale, his expression furious. "HICCUP!"
Hiccup paused before descending. "Listen, Dad," he said loudly. "I'm a dramech pilot now."
"How are you alive?!"
"I'm fine. Night Fury is mine now, and I'm his."
"Get down here, Hiccup!"
"DAD." As if to back him up, Night Fury's eyes flared and the wing-like engines on its back raised a bit. The humans below went very quiet. "Dad. Are you listening to me?"
"...Hiccup." This time, Stoick sounded near tears.
"Things need to change, starting right now."
At first, it was hard to get anyone to believe what had happened. It took a lot of demonstrations before Hiccup managed to truly convince everyone that Night Fury, the impossible prototype, had accepted him and him alone as its pilot.
"Why you, though?!" Astrid fumed. "Of all people, it chooses you?!"
"I...I don't know why."
That night, which Hiccup was spending in the safe haven of his new dramech, Night Fury told him privately. "Worlds, worlds, worlds, many worlds, me and you together. You and me together ALWAYS, all bodies. We always win, me and you. When we are apart, we lose; when we are together, we win.
"They got mad. They hate us, hate we are better than them. They made a world with you but no me. This world is wrong bad WRONG, they made it, but they didn't make a me to be with you! They thought they could win.
"But you are very smart. You said, 'Toothless that I love, go away from me here and be with me in there. We won here, and when you are with me in there, we will win in that world, too.' We cried and cried, you there lost me forever, but that is a happy safe world with your WIFE and BABIES that you love. This world is bad, and you are alone here. So I come to be with you. Waited and waited and waited for you, my one. We are together, we will win now; we are the best."
"You sent your essence into an imperishable body," Hiccup whispered. "You preserved yourself inside this world until you met me."
"My Hiccup that I very much love."
Hiccup cried a little bit, suspecting that the surge of grief and joy and horror and longing he was feeling were strengthened by echoes of his shadows in other worlds. "I didn't know what I was missing until now."
"We will win. We will be happy now."
"Yes! Yes...!"
o.o.o
A/N: I don't remember how I got the idea for this story, all I know is that I wrote it back in September 2016 (I think). Finally posted it because I bought a tablet for the specific purpose of being able to type or write digitally even when I'm away from my computer, and this fic was the first full story I chose to use the tablet for.
As far as I know at this time, there won't be any more of this AU; it's just a one-shot.
For anyone who needs to know who Hiccup's AU wife was, I was vaguely imagining her as Astrid, but feel free to pick whatever ship floats your boat.
Although I honestly do miss writing for HTTYD and still love HiccTooth and the movies (the show, not so much...), my muse has moved on to the Batman fandom. I don't want to make any promises I'll end up breaking, so here are the facts:
I'm currently working on a Batman fic called The Birds Who Smile, which is turning out to be much longer than I thought it would be. I really want to finish this, and it might hurt my chances if I attempt to draft another fic before reaching my goal; the only exception I might make is an old contest prize I still owe someone.
I think about Carried Off a lot, and that fic is pretty much at the top of my list of old WIPs I hope to return to someday.
I have several completed one-shots sitting around in my notebooks, some of them for HTTYD (one of them takes place in my Dragon Treasure AU); now that I have a tablet, those one-shots have a better chance of getting typed than they did before. Progress will be slow, though, since typing on a tablet is not fun and the keyboard I bought for it is only useful immediately after charging.