Chapter One:
Surprises
Disclaimer: Hahaha—no. I do not, nor will I ever, own any media showcased in this piece of fanfiction. They all belong to their respective creators and owners. The only thing I (barely) own is this piece are the written works and the original characters within it.
Warnings: There will be cursing, violence, mild nudity, blood, gore, and a few other minor things under the rainbow with this fic.
Notes: For those of you who have enjoyed the completed work of Left Behind and the ongoing Dying Light, welcome! Crash is an expansive universe in the works that encompasses those two pieces! I've worked a little backwards, but there is a point to it, and I hope to achieve that "Aha!" moment once you've read up on things! Please, enjoy this story as I've enjoyed writing it…and thinking about it…and slowly creating art for it! The crashed-into-you tumblr account is currently up and running, so anyone who wishes to have a more interactive Q&A session, please feel free to drop by! Headcanons, curiousities, and the like are also welcome!
Now, without further ado, please enjoy Crash!
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"It's been a big day, what with the abduction, and all."
-Simon, "Firefly"
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The village of Berk wasn't right. There were no cries of its peoples ringing out in the night air. There were no hearths blazing in the heart of every home. The blacksmith shop was cold to the touch, the bellows unused, and the tools clanking gently in the empty wind. Even the ships were abandoned, empty of any occupants, their sails reefed and the lines swaying as they remained moored to the docks. Dragons of every size and colour and shape milled about the homes, creating furrows in the painted wood with their enormous claws, crooning a mourning dirge for their lost riders.
The air was still fresh with their scents, but their home was empty. Even the fluffy, woolly sheep were missing.
Valka stood alone in the center square of the village, looking up the hilly steps that led to Meade Hall. She heard no rallying bellows coming from there, but she mounted the steps all the same. Cloudjumper followed, as quiet as a gentle breeze behind her, a silent sentinel that had her back. The heavy doors took coaxing, but she managed to slip inside, and Cloudjumper nudged it open to permit himself in as well. Valka waited for her eyes to adjust, but it didn't take them long.
Inside was just as empty as the village and the homes that crawled atop the hills they inhabited. The smoky remnants of the torches hung heavy in the air, long after they had been snuffed out.
Everything was just as Valka remembered it last.
Except…what was that?
Valka narrowed her eyes, grip tightening on her crook as she crept closer, adopting a lower profile as she snuck between long tables. Everything was as it was the night before, when the village was filled with life—except the villagers were now missing. Her son was missing. Toothless was missing. Her future daughter-in-law was missing. Valka stopped suddenly when she saw what it was that was amiss, lying in the middle of Meade Hall and she rushed forward.
Another person. The first soul she's seen. Cloudjumper hummed louder, slinking close behind as Valka dropped to her knees when she was close enough. She hesitated on touching them at first, taken aback once she was near. They were unconscious, lying on their backside, but clearly alive.
It was a young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties, and her garments were the most un-Viking set of clothes Valka has ever laid eyes on in her life. Her top was cut off at the shoulders, showing off an array of scars leading all the way down from shoulders to wrists. And on her head—a pair of wolf ears, a tail sprouting out her backside and her feet were paws. Valka stared for a long time, unsure of what to make of her.
Valka stared, stricken with a mixture of worry, fascination, and awe. What manner of beast was she?
Her questions fled from her mind when the young woman stirred and slowly but surely, rolled over to her side away from the older woman, grumbling away and rubbing at her head. The wolf ears flicked and twitched, showing that yes indeed, they really were attached to her head.
The woman froze suddenly, back stiff and shoulders drawn taut as she glanced over her shoulder at Valka. A few wordless, awkward seconds passed between them before the woman squawked loudly and scrambled to her feet—paws, Valka corrected herself—and tumbled right back down onto her buttocks, every strand of fur on her tail standing on end in response. Valka jumped herself, her staff brought up and thrust forward. Cloudjumper howled, the air rumbling heavily with his very voice.
"Who are you? Where are the villagers? What have you done with them?"
Fury began to seep into her, white-hot and powerful, like the burst of a dragon's flame.
The woman flung her hands forward, waving them in surrender.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a second, lady! I have no fucking idea what you're talking about, all right? Just—put the stick down and tell your big guy—or is it a girl? Fuck it, your—holy shit, that's a dragon. Okay, cool, I think I can work with that. Um…tell your dragon to stand down. I seriously don't know what you're going on about."
Valka narrowed her eyes. Cloudjumper continued to rumble menacingly. The woman flicked her gaze—mismatched, her left eye a bright gold and her right eye a smoky blue-grey—between Valka and Cloudjumper, her wolf ears pressed firmly against her head. There was concern and fascination written plainly on her face, but no fear, strangely. She began to stare longer periods of time at Cloudjumper, eyes raking over his powerful form until she seemed to forget about Valka entirely.
"That's…that's a dragon…isn't it?" She finally inquired, a quiet awe filling her voice. Valka stared at the woman, a moment of confusion stealing away with her.
"Yes, it is. And you haven't answered my questions. What have you done with my village and my people? My son?"
She spat out the last with a bite to it, like a steel blade, but the woman showed no concern. If anything, she looked more annoyed now.
"Look, lady. I did answer you. I have no idea what you're talking about. And another thing—where the hell am I? No, really. I don't know."
Valka narrowed her eyes at the woman, but the rumbling growl from Cloudjumper lessened considerably. She turned her head only a fraction to glance at the Stormcutter. Slowly, she straightened herself up and lifted her staff from the woman's direction and coolly assessed her a little more closely.
"You…don't know where you are? Truly?"
The woman's ears, in return, peeled themselves away from her head and back upright as she nodded.
"Yes. I'm being very clear on that point. I have no idea where I am, who you are, or what's going on. I literally just woke up on the floor of this…" She glanced around. "Place. I don't know—what is this place?"
Valka considered her for a moment longer.
"You're in the Meade Hall, in the center of the Village of Berk."
"Berk? Where's that?"
"Do you truly not know where you are?" Valka pressed more stringently. She exchanged a glance with Cloudjumper.
"Not a damned clue."
Valka eyed her with more scrutiny. "Where do you hail from?"
"Um…SoCal. Southern California. Los Angeles area." The woman answered, scratching the back of her head. Valka noticed her tail was beginning to smooth out, but it was still long, large, and bushy.
"I've never heard of such places."
"I've never heard of Berk, so we're square."
"So we are." Valka conceded grudgingly. She allowed a pause to pass between them. "Tell me—do you remember what you were doing before you awoke here?"
"I…" The woman's voice trailed off and her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "I was…coming home. I was…at war. I think. It's…kind of fuzzy, but I-I was…flying in from deployment. And then there was gunshots. People—people running. Screaming."
A far off look stole over the woman's face, her eyes distant and glassy. "I remember the gunman. But not everything and then he…shot me." She reached up suddenly, tapping at the side of her left temple. "Right here." She blinked several times and drew a long breathe, bringing her confused gaze back to bear on Valka. "I should be dead right now."
Valka gaped at her openly, unsure of what to make of the woman's mutterings. It made no sense, what she was saying. What war was she speaking of?
"Where is this place again?"
Valka blinked. "It's one of many isles that are a part of the Barbaric Archipelago."
The woman stared at her dumbly.
"The…Barbaric…" She shook her head, bringing a hand to her face. "I'm sorry, the what now? That doesn't…sound like an actual place. Where, exactly, on a world map would I find this place? Is that…easier to answer? Like, are we close to America? Or Europe?"
Valka stared right back, feeling just as stupid. Or perhaps it wasn't stupidity that was striking her in the moment, but just plain confusion.
"I…don't believe we're anywhere close to answering one another."
"Possibly not." The woman cocked her head to the side, and she almost seemed to perk up, if the tentative smile she offered the older woman was anything to go by. She extended her hand out toward her and she could see that the other woman's hand was tipped with claws. "I'm…I'm Lupin."
Valka waited, cautious as ever, before she crept closer and carefully took the other woman's hand in her own. Lupin squeezed, her smaller hand giving Valka's a vigorous pump or two.
"Valka."
"Okay, Valka," Lupin expelled a breath, glancing up at the dragon still hovering behind Valka. "And him?"
"Cloudjumper."
"Cloudjumper. All right. Hello there."
Cloudjumper huffed back, tilting his head and blinked one eye and then the other, lowing softly.
"I think…we might need to look at a map so we can get on the right page."
"I believe you may be right."
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Valka brought Lupin to a home she hasn't seen in nearly twenty years, before she was reunited with her people, her son, her village. It was just as empty now as it was earlier that morning when she awoke and found the village of Berk empty save for the dragons.
Hiccup had a map in the house, a compiled and detailed one, with pages continuously added on for every newly discovered island, glacier, and spit of land he and Toothless explored. She wished she could believe, if she told herself enough times, that he was simply on yet another excursion doing just that. Deep in her heart, however, she knew this to be a false tale to make herself feel better. Something was just so wrong and so strange. This woman's odd tale was only enforcing that.
Valka brought out the map, carefully unfolding each page and smoothing it out with care on the heavy oak dining table. When it was completely out, she presented it to the woman with a sweeping hand.
"This is the Barbaric Archipelago. We are here," Valka poked at the island of Berk. The woman furrowed her brow.
"Are those runes?"
"Yes."
"As in, Norse runes?"
"Yes," Valka repeated, this time a little more slowly.
"Wait…you—are you a Viking?"
"Yes."
"…huh. Okay then. That's…huh."
"Is there something wrong with my being a Viking?"
"You should be speaking Norse."
"I am speaking Norse."
"No, you're speaking English."
"That grating language the Anglo-Saxons speak?"
Lupin scowled a little, her ears pressing back against her head and her tail puffing up slightly.
"I…think something is wrong here."
"Oh, you don't say?"
Lupin scowled a bit more, but seemed to be biting back a retort and instead turned her attention to the assorted parchment before her. Her expression melted away into pure fascination and she reached out, gently brushing her fingertips against the pages.
"We'll worry about language barriers suddenly being lifted and we're somehow speaking one another's mother tongue to one another later on. One thing at a time. Do you have any more paper? And something I can write with?"
Valka nodded and went to fetch the requested items. When she came back, she found Lupin staring carefully around Valka's home quietly. She stooped over, plucking something off the wooden floorboards and turned it over in her hands, enthrallment plastered over her face. Valka instantly recognized what the other woman had picked up: a black scale from Toothless' hide. A shaft of sunlight peeking through the cracks of the window shutters struck it just right, giving it an iridescent obsidian shimmer.
Lupin turned back to Valka, flipping the scale over the tops of her fingers like one would a coin. Valka carefully pushed Hiccup's map to the side, and placed a few pieces of parchment on the table, alongside one of Hiccup's many charcoal sticks. Lupin stood beside Valka and the first thought that crossed the older woman's head was, So short, like a child!
She barely reached Valka's shoulder, if she didn't count those pointed triangular ears atop Lupin's head. The second thought lanced through her first mere moments after glancing at the scars that littered the smaller woman's shoulders. Raking claw marks and massive bites have left their mark on her body, as well as the long, pale scar on her face were signs of a hardened life.
Valka turned her attention to what Lupin was doing, shaking away the questions that kept prying their way into her head.
Steady, practiced hands were lightly sketching out misshapen forms on the parchment, unrecognizable at first until familiarity began to slowly dawn on Valka. The coastlines were familiar to her. It wasn't perfect, but it was generally enough for her to identify.
"The mainland."
"Europe," Lupin simply replied. "So…if you're a Viking, than that means we're…hmm."
Lupin took another parchment, and repeated the process, this time drawing the coastline of unfamiliar territory. Valka stared with a growing frown tugging at her lips as she watched the other woman finish off sketching the form of some untouched land she wasn't acquainted with. Valka carefully picked the parchment up, staring over the bloated mass.
"What territory is this?"
"Well…up here, this is Canada. We're probably a lot closer to these coastlines here, to the west," Lupin motioned to the northeastern section of the coastlines. Valka has heard of raiding parties extending out to some untouched wilderness to the west before, but the Hairy Hooligans have never ventured that far out. They've raided and traded away to those in the southeast more often than naught, as it was closer to the Barbaric Archipelago.
"Down here, however, is America. Or the United States, whichever. There's, ah, fifty territories in total, and I'm…from way over here. To the far west, on the other coast." Lupin motioned on the parchment, tapping delicately to the aforementioned coastline. "Below our country, is Mexico, Central America, and that prime piece of land down there is South America."
"I've never heard of such places before."
"So I've gathered." Lupin paused thoughtfully, meeting Valka's gaze. "I'm going to take a very wild guess here and say that we're not exactly on the same page anymore. Or even the same century."
"What?"
"The Vikings don't exist anymore. Not-not in my…time period."
"What does that mean? I don't understand." Valka just wanted things to make sense. Perhaps she was dreaming of this entire encounter. She hoped she was, because that meant she was bound to wake soon.
"Valka, either you're in my century, or I'm in yours. It sounds insane, but I'm starting to think we're in the middle of something weirder than weird right now and it's not the good kind of weird, either." Lupin pulled a face, looking vaguely displeased. "Frankly, I'm starting to think it's a shitty kind of weird. The kind of weird you can't wash off your hands of."
The older woman gawked at the smaller woman openly before she burst out laughing. The absolute bluntness of her entire statement was just so ridiculous, she couldn't help it. Lupin looked unamused as she stared on until Valka's laughter petered out.
"What? I think I can prove it."
"How?"
"Show me how to fly on one of those dragons and we'll make for the mainland—Scotland or Britain or Ireland, or wherever's closest."
"That's days away," Valka replied, skepticism rising high in her voice.
"Do we have any fast dragons?"
Valka's stomach twisted like a knife had plunged itself in it, sharp and painful as she thought of Hiccup and Toothless.
"No," she said quietly, hoarsely. "No, they are…gone. We'll have to make do with the dragons we have." She thought for a moment. "It would be easier if we took only one dragon, though."
"If…if you say so."
"I do."
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Cloudjumper proved, once again, to be a steadfast companion in transport. He carried both Valka and Lupin with little trouble to the northern shores of a country Lupin called 'Scotland' within three days' time. It was a brisk, yet chilly spring night. Valka didn't want to risk being seen, so they kept their travels strictly on a night schedule.
"There's a trading port a few miles up along the coast," Valka cried above the howl of the wind, more for Lupin's sake than her own.
"I have no clue what's what in this place, I just know if either of us sees something we're familiar with, we'll have our answer."
Lupin, strangely, would not tell Valka what she would consider 'familiar' to herself. If anything, Valka was almost considering her a mad woman, but with the absolute conviction and earnestness she expressed her theory—it was difficult to ignore that passion.
Valka had Cloudjumper land in the outermost hills away from the port village. She and Lupin gathered their packs and within minutes, were hiking toward civilization. The closer they came to Thurso, the more Valka felt her heart rise up like a hard lump in her throat whilst her stomach both twisted in agony and dropped away in anxiety.
Thurso was not as she remembered, even if it has been quite some time since her last commute. Change was inevitable. It was human nature, but this…this was much too much.
The glow of lights that illuminated the streets were not lanterns or campfires or hearths. The roads were not of compacted dirt or cobbled stones. The homes were not of comely wooden structures nor were they of sturdy brick, mortar, or stone.
This was a town completely unlike any she's come across before and it wasn't long before Valka simply stopped walking to gawk with wide eyes and a pounding heart. The longer she stared, the more details her eyes picked out that marked the stranger things so unlike what she knew. Even in the dark of the night, Valka could see that this place was changed so much, she was beginning to believe Lupin's wild tale of misplaced centuries. It wasn't long before Lupin noticed her companion had dropped away from her side.
"I…"
Lupin slinked back up the road toward Valka, concern written plainly on her face. She gave a glance over her shoulder to the town at her backside, then returned her attention to Valka.
"We don't have to go down there, if you don't want."
Valka's mouth grew dry and it took her a few precious moments to remember how to speak.
"No. No, I…I want to see."
"Um…well, then I guess it's a good thing it's really late. I think you'd get more than a few stares."
Valka's question was answered before she even asked as she took one look at her attire. From the way Lupin phrased her comment, Valka would quite possibly stand out like a sore thumb, whereas Lupin herself would most likely blend in easily. She had even somehow hidden her animal features away. Her feet were bare and she so much shorter without her paws aiding in her height. Despite the night's chill, Lupin didn't seem to notice.
"Is there a tailor I can visit, to fit me with new clothing?"
"Not at this hour." Lupin replied, hesitated, continued, "We can wander around for a little while, if you'd like. While everyone's asleep and nobody can see. I think we already know which century we're in now, and…I dunno, I don't want you getting…overwhelmed."
Again, she hesitated. "And I'd like to get going before the night's over, if that's okay? We don't have dragons in this century. People might…freak out."
"'Freak out'?"
"You know…go crazy, and not in the good way. Some might think it's amazing, but then there's the people that would want to trap Cloudjumper. Cage him. Hurt him."
Valka's gaze darkened as a familiarity in that sense came over her. She nodded, realizing it was perhaps very sage advice. There was no point in lingering, as tempting as it was to explore this new world.
Lupin led the way into Thurso. It has grown, Valka noted immediately. They treaded along a smoothly paved road—a sidewalk, Lupin commented. She pointed out the darker, wider band of road running parallel to the sidewalk and told Valka that was where cars and trucks drove.
"There's a car. That metal thing with the wheels."
It was a strange apparatus, and painted as brightly as a beetle's shell; dark green with a streak of black in the right light.
"They go faster than a horse can run. Some can go even faster than Cloudjumper can fly."
"Amazing," Valka said, unable to contain the awe in her voice. They pressed further into the port village, passing by tall buildings and homes alike. They passed beneath pole beams as tall as Cloudjumper, if he stood straight up, with glowing tips at the end.
"Electricity will become a thing, but uh…it'll be long after the Vikings."
"What happened? To our people?"
"I…don't really remember that part of my history, it wasn't really covered in my education," Lupin said sheepishly, offering an apologetic, awkward smile to Valka. "If I had my phone still, I'd look it up."
Valka reserved her questions for a later time. As much as she wanted to know about this place, this century, at the same time, she had no interests in immersing herself in the culture of this new world. She had many and more questions building up inside her, bubbling away, and against her better judgement she finally blurted out, "How do I get home?"
Lupin lifted her gaze away from a glass display of a storefront—a clothing store, from the looks of it, with statues wearing clothes and shoes. They were gaudy and flimsy looking garments, offering no protection from the cold and the damp like a pelt of furs and wool might. In that moment, her face had morphed from vaguely curious at the display to disappointingly pity and contrite as she stared at the older woman.
"I…don't know, Valka. This is kind of new to me. I've never met someone from another century like this before. I'm sorry."
"Perhaps we can be of help," a new voice intruded upon them, bright and cheery. It immediately set Lupin to bristling and Valka reached for a staff she did not have on her person. Lupin insisted that the older woman leave it behind with Cloudjumper and reluctantly, she had done so. Now she was regretting the decision.
"I didn't even hear them. Where the hell did they come from?" Lupin muttered darkly. Just as Valka had left her staff behind, Lupin had somehow hidden away her more feral features to look normal—except for the bare feet.
A few dozen yards further down the sidewalk from the two women stood two men. Both were dressed smartly in black, all sharp angles and straight lines were Valka's impression. The two men approached at a nonchalant pace, passing beneath shadows between the streetlights. When they came underneath one, Valka noticed immediately that the two men were identical.
Twins were a rare commodity amongst Vikings and those from the mainland alike.
They were handsome, to say the least. Dark hair that was only slightly tousled; sharp yet endearingly angled faced; thin at the waist and broad in the shoulders, but nothing compared to Viking standards. They were closer in build to Hiccup than anything, if Valka was to be honest. But they were taller than her son, she noted as well.
The two men stopped when they were close enough to reach out and touch her or Lupin. Lupin was still bristling, and she retreated a few steps away. The man on the left was cheerier in countenance, while the other had a more neutral, if slightly bored, look upon his face.
Left smiled broadly between them, his dark eyes bright as he looked between the two women. He appeared to not be offended at all by Lupin's pointed retreat.
"Well now! I was expecting you both to be here at a much later date, but this works out rather splendidly!"
"And who the hell are you? The Creep Brigade? How did you know we'd be here, were you following us somehow? Or were you just conveniently waiting for us in the town?"
Valka was beginning to feel a sense of unease stealing over her as well. She trusted Lupin's immediate suspicion of the new arrivals. She was reminded rather strangely of a dragon's behavior and it was startlingly refreshing to trust a person's instinct.
"Oh, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort. We teleported here."
From the look on Lupin's startled face, there was familiarity in the answer presented.
"You…have teleporters. That's…"
"Chimera Dynamics' strictly monitored technology, yes. One of the perks of working for the company. We have access to teleporters and more."
"Chimera Dynamics? Wait…you two work for Xerxes?"
"Indeed," the man on the right answered this time, and he sounded mildly irritated. "We have been monitoring you both ever since you left Berk."
"You've been following us?" Valka didn't like this. Lupin scowled, the muscles in her tight jaw were twitching as though she would like nothing more than to lash out and tear the two men apart.
"Tracking you, yes. We didn't know where you would end up, so we did the minimal and waited, before teleporting here to meet with you."
"Why?" Lupin asked sharply before stopping altogether, realization dawning on her features. "Chimera Dynamics has something to do with Valka and that Viking village being in modern day times, doesn't it? But…how? And for what reason? Just who the hell are you guys?"
"Ah, how rude of us. Yes, of course—I am Scribe, and this is my younger twin brother, Scribble." The amiable of the two men introduced them in turn, and gave a short bow at the waist, smiling all the while.
"You're older than me by only seven minutes." Scribble muttered, rolling his eyes.
"I'm still seven minutes older, dear brother, so you'd best remember that." Scribe 'tsked' his brother, then turned back to Valka and Lupin. "And to answer your other questions, Miss Ferus…yes, Chimera Dynamics had a hand in the stranger things happening, although public knowledge is…limited."
"Of course it is," Lupin scoffed, looking skeptical and suspicious of the two men. "You're avoiding answering me."
The two men shared a look—one of hesitance and reluctance.
"We have several things we need to discuss, and one of those topics include what you, Miss Ferus, were doing in that village in the first place. And Miss Haddock," Scribe turned to Valka and she stiffened when his pale eyes came to rest on her. "You have questions as well, I can see them already lining themselves up in your eyes. We'll do our best to accommodate that."
Valka remained unconvinced, but what choice did either of them have?
Plenty, her mind supplied, working quickly. We could return to Berk. I don't trust them. There's something wrong with this whole thing.
Her instinct has rarely been wrong and she was feeling it rear its head up in full force, screaming at her to not let her guard down around these two men. Judging from the guarded expression on Lupin's face, she was feeling similarly. There was a kind of kinship in that moment between them, when Lupin met Valka's gaze with one of her own, a look that said she wasn't completely on board with all they were saying either.
"Now, I know that this is rather unorthodox—but Xerxes has no idea we're here. If he knew anything of this meeting, it…would not go over well when we returned to headquarters."
Open astonishment spread across Lupin's face in that moment. She narrowed her eyes, appraising the two men in a hesitantly new light.
"So you're disobeying an order," she ventured, and they nodded. A grin split across her face and a rather mischievous light grew in her eyes. "Shiny. So why don't you hurry up and tell us what the hell is going on here and how we can fix it. Starting with how I'm not dead and we end with how Valka and that Viking village and all those dragons got here in modern times."
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