Phew. Sometimes I think the whole world is against me. I think my new unlucky number is 14. This chapter is a result of hard work – physically hard work. In order: First my laptop breaks down, my mom gets angry at her boyfriend and they split up (!), she has a mental breakdown while I'm in school and they get back together at the end of the first evening (the hell?). I borrowed my mom's boyfriend's computer to write the first half. Then that computer breaks down and I write some more on a school computer. When I get home I spend three hours repairing the first computer and when that worked I finished writing this chapter. Then, the internet and our phones went down because a wire was cut and after travelling to my father I could use his computer to publish this. Oh, and on another note, my backup (USB-drive) vanished. Guh. And the supermarket stopped showing HTTYD. Guh times two because I now have to remember again. Longest rant ever? No, but the longest I've written at least. Finally the random statistic for today: 800 hits; O_O and we jump skipped 700 hits as well, oh my :-). And I haven't even spellchecked chapter 13! Sorry, I will get around to that. Hope you like this chapter as well. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and co. is owned by Eoin Colfer. Hiccup and co. is owned by Dreamworks. I own the plot though .

Act 1: Past.

Chapter 14: Nest.

The boat scraped against yet another cliff. And yet again they had reacted only just in time before being cruelly sunk to the bottom of an inescapable grave. Just to enter another, Artemis thought. Listening to Toothless when he wasn't completely out of it, when he wasn't seeing the ghost of the dictator everywhere, it did not sound like there was any kind of gold at the end of the rainbow. Just another monster and another way to die. Where was Hiccup? Had he failed to encourage Hiccup? Or had Hiccup failed? How much time had passed?

Stoick wasn't pleased with the situation either. At first it had seemed so easy; just follow the dragon's turning head as it listened to where it was supposed to go. Now however he cursed as yet again the limits of his reaction speed was being tested – they'd even lost a ship behind them. No one had died though, as the surrounding ships had been quick with the ropes and the men who had fallen in the water were good willed by Odin. A bit irritated as to whether or not the labyrinth would ever end, they continued through the mists of Hel.

Toothless was having hallucinations. The Queen singing did that to a dragon when she was really angry – it was the way she could make a single target stand still for long enough for her to eat it, a simple defensive mechanism much like Artemis' hypnotic ability although this one only needed to be heard. The downfall of that evolution was that the hypnotic effect could be broken. Each time Artemis asked a question; "Are you ok?", "Do you know where we are?" or even "Toothless, what time is it!" Toothless returned to reality and was able to say a few words to answer the question before sinking into confusion and mindlessness again.

They'd been under way for five hours now total. Half an hour had passed since they'd exited the relatively safe waters around Berk and entered these tense waters. Gobber had tried to break the tension when they'd passed a destroyed Viking ship that had been hoisted up to about three meters above sealevel ("I was wondering where that went"), but the tension remained. The sun had long gone because of the mist, though the light of the midnight sun could still be seen if you looked up. Artemis guessed that if he was still on Earth, he'd be at some very northbound island, perhaps the Faroe Islands or some undiscovered island southwest of Svalbard. It was pretty cold, but he didn't find it particularly bad and he'd heard Svalbard was iced over so he didn't think he was that far north. Of course all of this information passed through Artemis in just ten seconds, but for those ten seconds he didn't think of his most likely fate. And suddenly the boat stilled with a loud crash.

Stoick walked to the front of the boat. After quickly surmising the surroundings – an unidentifiable noise roamed the area making it hard to think clearly, a large mountain loomed over the ships threatening to scare everyone away by its sheer presence – he said: "We're here," and jumped off, landing on a rocky beach. Immediately the noise went away. The mists had actually cleared around the island and it was possible to see about a hundred meters in each direction though trying to see off the island was still impossible. Stoick felt elated and relieved, but the situation was still a bit tense. They had made their way to the island and now the dragons had no way to hide. Now would be the beginning of the real battle. As for the… devil… he had no further use for it. After making a short round and barking a few orders to set up their trebuchets and catapults he climbed onto the ship again.

Artemis noticed the murder in the other man's eyes. He knew he had to step in front of Toothless if Stoick tried anything and he racked his brain trying to think of a way to persuade Stoick to wait with his pointless bloodshed. He had to assume Hiccup was somehow on his way to his location now and he needed to hold the fortress here. So when Stoick drew his huge axe, Artemis responded: "You shouldn't do that just yet."

"And why not? If we leave it alive, it's possible for the other dragons to free… it during the battle and it will strike us down without mercy. So why should we not do the same when we have the chance?"

"First, I'm staying with the dragon. Do you think anyone or anything could possibly get past me? Second, if we kill it now the surprise attack is ruined. The dragon's death wail will even bring morale to them all making them even more interested in your demise. For these two reasons, continue setting up the perimeter and then prepare to strike. We could for instance bring this one home and make it the last kill." Artemis lifted his eyebrow invitingly and whispered so only Stoick could hear it: "You could make… the stranger… kill it and he would be redeemed."

At this Stoick stepped back, shocked by the amount of sense the boy was making. Sometimes he forgot he was speaking to someone who had witnessed the birth of the world. It was a bit unnerving, but he acknowledged the logic. "So be it. The beast gets to live another day."

Toothless growled at his statement, but settled down again quickly. It was safest to assume a friendly manner right now as to not strengthen Stoick's argument. Luckily Stoick had already returned to helping other ships dock on the shore, and begin building the first of the trebuchets. Toothless felt better now that the Queen's song had stopped – he wasn't in the psychedelic land anymore – but returning to reality was a harsh reminder. Hiccup was somewhere unknown (Toothless tried to find the bond he'd felt when Hiccup was in danger; if he could locate Hiccup as he had done before it could give some answers as to where he was, but Toothless didn't know how to activate the bond at will). He was captured and would likely die either from Viking hands or by being eaten as a traitor. Life always seemed infinitely fun in these situations.

Toothless had been in deep a few times before, but it had usually amounted to: "You didn't bring back enough food last time, and you are next if the quota is not restored during the next raid!" or "Stupid hatchling, fire might be your friend, but don't relish in it – you will burn from the inside out if you do not respect it." The first had been a time when he had overslept and had not protected the others, upon which the end result was a lot of them ended up as meals. The second was further back; he'd tried to swallow the fire he had just blown – a very stupid idea. But both of these had ended in a warning and then everything had been righted as he didn't do either again. This time it seemed, he would not get a warning.

And as it seemed the time of warnings was over and stuff was actually happening Toothless drew his attention to the beach in front of the boat. Red-beard (yeah, his name was Stoick, Toothless knew, but it was easier to remember Red-beard) had gathered the rest of the big shot Vikings around him and pointed at some sort of drawing.

Artemis was amongst the brightest strategists on that side of the globe, but he wasn't allowed to interfere with the plan Stoick had made. If they discussed internally how to frontally assault the mountain – Artemis actually questioned if it was a volcano, but that was a sidetrack – then more time would pass than Artemis cutting cleanly through and telling them how they should probably spread out rather than use their numbers; if the dragons had some sort of… way of instantly finishing off a large number standing close to each other, then it would be in their best interest to spread into three or five groups and come from multiple sides. However, Artemis realized he would not have to say anything as Stoick began drawing on the ground with a stick.

The diagram showed three groups attacking the mountain from different sides – one frontal assault and two flanks. He accompanied the diagram with a few words: "When we crack this mountain open, Hel is going to break out…" "…in my undies. Good thing I brought extras!" Gobber commented.

Stoick lifted a hand and total silence immediately fell over all the Vikings. This was the signal. "No matter how this ends…" Stoick said. He tasted the words, tried to find meaning in what he was about to do. But deep inside of him – past all the "Viking's blood and honor", his quest for revenge, his disowned son, broken promises, crushed happiness and secret curses – he felt no happiness for war. For battle, yes. If he needed to defend his honor he would gladly battle. But war, for the sake of war… no. It reminded him of Artemis' story and he wondered if war wasn't what had set off the prophecy of Ragnarok in the first place. And now they just did it again. And only because that was the way of the Vikings. In this moment, Stoick realized exactly how many things were lost in a war. But he could not ponder over this anymore, there was no stopping now and he finished: "It ends today!"

Seven muffled sounds of machines of war doing their unfair jobs could be heard followed by seven stabbing sounds of rocks swishing through the air like a siren's song and seven loud explosions of noise were heard to end the overture to war. Stoick ran forward as a hole appeared in the side of the mountain. It looked like they'd struck a wound in the darkest reaches of Hel itself, as on the other side of the hole lay a bottomless dark hole. Stoick stared into the darkness, trying to assess the situation and figure out what to do.

Artemis stood on the ship next to Toothless, when the next signal was made from Stoick. A resin-soaked boulder was lighted on fire and shot off towards the black door. It soared over Stoick and as it passed a dreadful sound – not unlike a nest of bats who are exposed to light – exploded out of the opening. Shrieks of pain and freedom came from the opening and though Artemis could distinguish these two cries as the most dominant of the immense amount of voices coming from the mountain, he froze when he heard something rumbling that no one else seemed to hear – something underneath the other voices.

With a war cry Stoick charged into the darkness. Suddenly dragons of all sizes and colors thrashed to get out of the hole behind him. Stoick swung his massive hammer at some of them to keep them at bay, while his other hand rested on the hilt of the axe, but all of the dragons seemed content at running away. After ten seconds of confusion all of the dragons were airborne and fleeing from something like their life depended on it. Which Stoick supposed made sense – after all, their lives did depend on it – but still, usually the dragons would have been all over them by now. They didn't even look back. Stoick returned to the entrance of the cave staring at the escaping dragons. Gobber asked: "Is that it?"

Someone shouted: "We've done it!" Toothless snorted. If a dragon would have the ability to pale, then Toothless would have been a ghost right now. Both he and Artemis heard the rumbling voice that was so deep it could not be heard clearly over the noise of the cheering Vikings… yet. It said: "Run, run to the sky. It will not help you. Crawl, crawl into the ground. It will not hide you. Fear, fear me worms for I am Mordana, the Queen of this world and you have just freed my anger. It shall be swift and merciful in the eyes of the world, slow and painful in the eyes of my enemies and just and true in the eyes of those who wish to serve me, for they have seen the light. I am the harbinger of destruction, the chosen one of the Sky Lord to end this world and start the next and you have interfered with my plans. I shall erase all trace of your existence. You may not beg your gods for mercy for I ate them all to satisfy my hunger. And one day I shall eat the world and give birth to a new one. I am…"

Artemis paled as the monologue continued. This did not bode well. It reminded him too much of Opal, but this voice was far more along the path of madness than even Opal. Toothless thrashed to get away, but he was locked in his own portable prison and it still held him.

And then Stoick saw Artemis' face which had gone far paler than any living creature should be able to, he saw the dra…de… forget it, dragon thrashing trying to escape as well and now he heard the rumbling noise…

"This… this isn't over!" he yelled. "Form your ranks! Hold together!" Stoick turned around to face whatever was coming. And he knew that whatever was coming was bad. But he'd been in worse. The feelings of melancholy over a war they should not fight was vanishing in the rushes of adrenalin he was feeling as cracks formed all over the dark hole all nearing the exit. Stoick nearly passed out from what he was seeing. Had it not been for a faint vision of Hiccup shouting 'you don't know what you're up against' he would most likely have been trampled flat right then and there. But as it were, he now knew what he was up against and it really was unlike anything he'd ever seen; but he'd still been prepared for something and that preparation made him able to jump out of the way as the entire mountain crumbled around him. "Get clear," he screamed at the front platoon of soldiers.

Artemis gasped. Several people screamed. Toothless thrashed wildly trying to escape his bonds. Artemis wanted to move, to help Toothless get out of his bonds, but he could not. The word fear did not even cross his mind. Nothing crossed his mind. He just stood gaping – a single memory of Toothless telling him of the dragon dictator making its way through his brain – at the sheer disbelief of the size of the dragon that was crushing the mountain to get out. An absolutely massive dragon – not even this word could describe the dragon's size – exploded outwards of the mountain.

"Beard of Thor, what is that?" Gobber exclaimed as he and Stoick watched the monster shaking off the tons of stone that rattled off its huge body. The bluish dragon turned its head and glared at them – like they were ants – and Stoick felt had to agree with Gobbers statement, but found himself unable to say anything. His knees were buckling, his life passing by in fragmented memories, before everything came back to him and he simply said "Odin help us," before turning and running.

With an earsplitting roar, Artemis was brought out of his trance and he turned to Toothless who was still in need of his help. Artemis fumbled with the locks on the bond, but he managed to release one side of the lock. He tried to get up and around Toothless to get to the second lock, but something interfered…

Stoick was recovering from the shock of the appearance of the big lump – this was the true devil – but he had enough sense to yell an order: "Fire the catapults!" To credit the catapults last shot would be pointless; they did about as much damage as toothpicks do to a mountain. One of the front catapults was eaten. Someone screamed: "Get to the ships!" At this Stoick put his foot down, that would definitely be a wrong move. The dragon would simply flame them when they got on the ships. He tried to counteract the scream by yelling: "No… NO!"

But at this point, that helped about as much as one could expect. The dragon opened its massive jaws and a huge burst of fire came out, engulfing half the ships in the first burst alone. It then turned its head while keeping a continuous stream of fire towards the other half of the ships. Now all of them were on fire. It was pure chaos. Casualties were inevitable but it was impossible to say what had happened to each individual person. However…

… Artemis was thrown overboard. As he had tried to move around Toothless, he found himself dumbstruck at the massive horizontal pillar of fire that came towards him. He moved backwards – not fast enough, not fast enough! – and tripped on a rope. Falling backwards over the railing as the rope went around his ankle, the fire stream reached the boat he was on, and for one moment, Artemis was in hell. Everything was burning – his eyes, his clothes, his body – and he couldn't think, couldn't feel himself falling. And then he hit the water and everything came back to him. He had no air in his lungs; everything had been exhaled upon contact with the flames and he now desperately needed air.

Artemis wasn't the greatest swimmer and he could feel despair shutting down his functions as the torrent tried to drag him to the bottom of the sea. He swam with all his might, but there was no fighting it. Artemis realized, he was gone. He had no realistic chance of reaching air at this point, Toothless was still fighting his bonds and no one had seen him fall into the ocean. Everything was over.

Artemis could only stare as the torrent turned him around… and there was light. Something was ripping him apart, he could not see, he could not breathe, he was… With a burst Artemis exploded through a portal into a familiar room. Getting up slowly, looking around he saw several familiar people looking at him and he knew he was dead. It was Butler – good old, Domovoi – Holly, No 1, Qwan and even Foaly staring at him through a laptop. Artemis tried to find words to reassure them, but Butler came first: "Artemis?"

"Yes, old friend, I have died. Is this our eternal resting place? The next plane of existence? The life beyond?"

Holly cried out: "Artemis, you're safe!" And without any further words she threw herself around his neck and pulled him closer to her. "I thought you were dead…" Holly cried upon his shoulder.

Artemis asked: "Is this a dream? Am I… alive? How?"

No 1 flexed his fingers: "The two of us," he gestured to Qwan, "figured it'd be a good test to test some theories on alternate universes. We didn't actually expect to succeed… but the result: We found you!"

Artemis was still dazed. "But, how?"

Foaly couldn't help but throw in a snide remark: "That's Artemis in a nutshell. As soon as he gets back he asks questions, even when they don't make sense. You should know Fowl this is going up on the Internet. 'Artemis Fowl coming back from time travel: "Is this our eternal resting place?"' Priceless. Just priceless." Foaly had tried to imitate the surrealism in Artemis voice (he failed miserably) and now he was cracking up over his own joke.

"Stop bothering Artemis, Foaly, I have been nervous and you know I don't do 'nervous' well. You don't want to have a 'previously nervous, now angry' Butler coming down to you, would you?" Butler said threateningly while the centaur suddenly choked on his sniggering. Butler turned to Artemis again: "Artemis… you're back."

Artemis tried to get this statement to fit. Looking at the faces of his friends, No 1 grinning excitedly for no reason at all, Qwan with a more dignified happy smile, Holly with a huge grin standing beside him, Butler with aftershock effects of Artemis return apparent in his eyes – but still very happy – and Foaly firing off irritating comments to everyone who wanted to hear. It felt like he was back… and yet something was off.

Foaly still tried to start a conversation: "…should have invited Mulch, would've been much more interesting to actually have someone to speak to. People, DO SOMETHING!"

Artemis turned around and saw immediately what was wrong. The portal was still there. Water was dripping into the room from the soaked rope that was still attached to the portal. And he knew he had to go back. He knew why he had to go back. Well, he guessed why, but his guesses were usually spot on. Now he just needed confirmation.

"No 1… you said you didn't expect to succeed. Why?"

"Well… because you were in an alternate universe. The energy required… it would be… it should be impossible… It should have killed you, Artemis, but it didn't!"

"No, I am very much alive, thank you. However, I can't stay." At this the entire room burst out: "WHAT?"

"I can't stay," Artemis continued calmly, "The only reason I am alive and talking to you is because I'm still part of the alternate universe, see?" Artemis lifted the rope that was still attached to his right leg. "This rope ties me to the alternate universe, which means the only energy you are using is to keep the time stream open – that isn't very challenging. However if this rope leaves me, then you will need to actually transport me into this time – something that would, as you said, kill me. I can conclude that I, myself, will need to find a way home from the alternate timeline. And I need to go back now…" Artemis didn't continue. They didn't need to know there was a war going on. "I'll find my way back, I promise. Just wait for me."

Sheer disbelief was present from most of the room's occupants, Butler having heard a similar version of the end of his speech before, but both Qwan and Foaly reached the same conclusion as Artemis. "He's… he's right. We can't do it. We shouldn't have been able to do it, because we couldn't do it properly. We must… let him go," said Qwan carefully.

Holly lashed out. "Then one of us should go with him."

"It's not possible, Holly," Foaly said sadly, "you'd die just as Artemis would die if he took the rope off. The travel is supposed to kill you. What happened anyway, Artemis? How did you survive the one-way trip to the alternate universe?"

"No time to explain, Foaly. Just… take care of yourselves," all of the room's inhabitants questioned whether this was really Artemis saying that statement, "and I'll come back. For good, next time."

"Can't you…" Holly tried, but stopped herself. Can't you take off the rope, take a chance, we can't lose you again…I can't. But it was an impossible question. If it went wrong, Artemis would die. But now he had to go and that could end just as badly, and they wouldn't even know about it. Sometimes the world felt like it was against Artemis and Holly ever meeting, and it showed it by trying to separate them by throwing them into impossible situations. Holly looked up at Artemis as he said: "Bye."

And with that word and a sharp pain in his chest Artemis stepped back. Once again… a sharp light, everything happening all at once and suddenly he was in the ocean again. There was no current anymore; apparently that had been caused by the portal. Artemis still needed air though. Swimming to the surface, he gasped for air as he broke through the barrier.

The world was on fire around him. Every ship was on fire, chaos was dictating the battlefield so that no one could get an overview and least of all Artemis who had enough trouble in staying above the water. Artemis quickly swam to the boat with Toothless on it. The dragon was okay, although scared of the fire around it and still being caught in its bonds. But the fright vanished when Artemis climbed back on the boat.

"Artemis! You're okay!" Toothless tried to look at Artemis, but found himself unable to actually turn his head and confirm it wasn't a ghost walking towards him. Artemis grinned painfully, consequences of his choice still weighing heavily on him, but he still liked seeing the dragon happy to see him. This was neither time nor place though. "Toothless, what's happening?"

"Other dragons came to help…" Before anything else could be said a dragon, a Deadly Nadder by the looks of it, came very close to the burning boat dropping off a passenger before returning out of the smoking and fiery valleys of the burning Viking armada with an order from the small figure now standing between Artemis and Toothless. It was Hiccup.

Artemis couldn't help himself. And this time his smile was genuine: "Hiccup, you made it."

"I did. Quickly Artemis, help me with the lock."

Before any of them could say anything else a massive foot came from nowhere, stomping onto the boat and sinking it. Hiccup and Artemis screamed while Toothless roared, but immediately the world of air became replaced by the world of water.

Artemis quickly swam to the shore. He was wet and cold – the water was extremely cold, now that he noticed it – and he couldn't see Hiccup or Toothless anywhere. Then he realized they were still in the water. Without thinking he jumped into the water as another figure did the same behind him. It was Stoick.

The huge Viking quickly swam down to the unconscious Hiccup and grabbed him and Artemis, much to Toothless' dismay. The dragon fought its hardest to get free of the chains, but he could only watch as all three were taken to the surface. Incredibly, Red-beard came back. Stopping in front of him and just staring into his eyes. And there it all was – revenge, blood, hatred, love, family, forgiveness – and Toothless tried to grunt, he'd seen enough. Then the Viking came close to his head… and he was free, the headlock was off! Quickly shaking off the splinters of his prison he stared again at the Re- at Stoick and decided he was good enough. He'd gotten it from Artemis that this person was Hiccup's father and Stoick had just saved his life, so Toothless grabbed Stoick and with a powerful jump, he flew out of the water, deposited him at the shore and landed on a nearby rock. He roared to Hiccup to hurry.

Hiccup rapidly got up and crawled up onto Toothless saddle. "You got it, bud." He fumbled with the ropes trying to fasten himself, but before they could fly off Stoick stopped them. "Hiccup!"

Stoick had had a revelation. It wasn't very often a Viking as stubborn as him accepted change, but there were some things you just couldn't argue about. Now Stoick just wanted to ask Hiccup forgiveness, he wanted to be more with him from now on, he wanted to apologize, he wanted to be… a father. He'd never actually been one. Even though he'd taken the promise with his dying wife, he'd never actually done anything. But that was going to change: "I'm…I'm sorry… f-for everything."

"Yeah, me too."

Stoick was suddenly afraid. What if Hiccup would die in this fight? How could he have been so careless, thinking about bringing Hiccup into the war and how they would be so... happy together when they were fighting and now that it wasn't daydreaming or prayer to the gods, everything seemed so much closer and deadlier. Stoick had not had many moments when he was truly afraid for his life, but this was because he'd never been raised that way. However he feared for Hiccup's life. After all, he was the only one who could do something about this mess. "You… you don't have to go up there, Hiccup."

Hiccup smirked. "We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard." Those words, so far away. The same words he'd always said when they were attempting the impossible and beating the odds. Stoick returned the smile: "I'm proud… to call you my son."

"Thanks, Dad."

Artemis had respectfully kept his distance from the two. Although he couldn't help but smile yet again when he thought of how he could actually check off the first part of his plan to be successful. Maybe there was still hope. However he didn't expect what came next. Toothless turned and said: "You win the game. Climb up."

Artemis blinked. "C'mon, hurry and get on. Before long, we won't have anyone left to save."

Artemis blinked again. Oh no. He didn't like where this was going. One thing was sitting in a jet plane – he'd actually built his own – another was sitting on a dragon. One thing was a mild ride in good fun and a whole other thing was flying to save the lives of hundreds of Vikings getting eaten by the largest dragon to have ever graced the surface. But there was no arguing with a dragon. Artemis knew that. And so he got onto the dragon and using the leftovers of the rope around his ankle to make a knot he tied himself to Hiccup. He would probably need that lifeline.

"Ok, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Artemis said in a trembling voice. This was not part of the plan. Definitely not. I must think about happy things, Artemis thought as the dragon got ready to pounce upwards. Something, anything to distract him from what was happening or what was about to happen. I won the game? Oh! And then they were off.

I really hope I can end part 1 with a bang. And hopefully everything will sort of quiet down a bit during the next few days so I can check chapter 13 and finish off part 1 in style. Hopefully. Two more days and the end of part 1 coming up.