Broken Hearts
"Not into the lightning zone," Jim cuts in. "Remember, head for the tree in the one-to-two-o'clock sector. If you find you're running out of time, move over one more. Don't even think about going back on the beach, though, until I can assess the damage."
Hiccup takes Jack's face in his hands. "Don't worry. I'll see you at midnight." he gives him a kiss and—before he can object any further, the brunette lets go and turn to Astrid. "Ready?"
"Why not?" says Astrid with a shrug. "You guard, I'll unwind. We can trade off later."
Without further discussion, the two heads down the slope. As they descend, Astrid placed a quick pat on the brunette's shoulder and says, "I'll claim I never said this, but your boyfriend's all right. It's cool that he really want to protect you, in the expense of his own life. Don't know a whole lot of idiots who are that selfless."
Hiccup didn't know what to say about the idiot part, but he agreed with her in the selfless part. Since he did volunteer for his sister. He recalled the reaping, seemingly so long ago, and feels nostalgic. He sighed wistfully.
Things were so much simpler when I thought my only problem was dying then...
:::::
Astrid and Hiccup moves at a pretty good pace, one manning the coil, the other keeping watch. About halfway down, they hear the clicking beginning to rise, indicating it's after eleven.
"Better hurry," The blond says. "I want to put a lot of distance between me and that water before the lightning hits. Just in case Jim miscalculated something."
"I'll take the coil for a while," The brunette says. It's harder work laying out the wire than guarding, and she's had a long turn.
"Here," Astrid says, passing Hiccup the coil.
Both of their hands are still on the metal cylinder when there's a slight vibration. Suddenly the thin golden wire from above springs down at them, bunching in tangled loops and curls around their wrists. Then the severed end snakes up to their feet. It only takes a second to register this rapid turn of events. Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other, but neither of them has to say it. Someone not far above them has cut the wire. And they will be on the two at any moment. Hiccup's hand frees itself from the wire and has just closed on the feathers of an arrow when the metal cylinder smashes into the side of his head. The next thing he knows, he's lying on his back in the vines, a terrible pain in his left temple, with Toothless checking in on him, his eyes filled in worry—if it's possible for a cat's eye to fill with worry..
Something's wrong with my eyes.
Hiccup's vision blurs in and out of focus as he strains to make the two moons floating up in the sky into one. It's hard to breathe, and he realizes Astrid's sitting on his chest, pinning him at the shoulders with her knees.
There's a stab in Hiccup's left forearm. Toothless hisses at the blond and tried pouncing, but the blond blocks him easily enough. Hiccup tries to jerk away but he's still too incapacitated. Astrid's digging something, Hiccup assumes it's the point of her knife, into his flesh, twisting it around. There's an excruciating ripping sensation and warmth runs down his wrist, filling his palm. She swipes down his arm and coats half his freckled face with his own blood.
"Stay down!" Astrid hisses, taking Toothless and taking him with her. Her weight leaves the brunette's body and he's alone.
Stay down? Hiccup thinks. What? What is happening?
Hiccup's eyes shut, blocking out the inconsistent world, as he tries to make sense of his situation. All he can think of is Astrid shoving Ben to the beach.
Just stay down, will you?
But she didn't attack Ben. Not like this. And Hiccup's not Ben, anyway.
Just stay down, will you?
It echoes around inside his brain. Footsteps coming. Two pairs. Heavy, not trying to conceal their whereabouts. Gaston's voice.
"He's good as dead! Come on, Zeera!" Feet moving into the night.
Am I?
Hiccup drifts in and out of consciousness looking for an answer.
Am I as good as dead?
The brunette's in no position to make an argument to the contrary. In fact, rational thinking is a struggle. This much he does know; Astrid attacked him. Smashed that cylinder into his head. Cut his arm, probably doing irreparable damage to veins and arteries, and then Gaston and Zeera showed up before she had time to finish Hiccup off.
The alliance is over.
Jean, Zuko and Astrid must have had an agreement to turn on them tonight. Hiccup should have agreed with Jack and take off this morning. The brunette doesn't know where Jim stands, but a small part of him hopes he wasn't in on this betrayal.
Now I'm fair game, and so is Jack.
And that's when it hits him.
Jack! His eyes fly open in panic.
Jack is waiting up by the tree, unsuspecting and off guard. Maybe they have even killed him already.
"No," Hiccup chokes at the possibility.
That wire was cut from a short distance away by the Highs. Jack and Jim and Jean and Zuko—they can't know what's going on down there. They can only be wondering what has happened, why the wire has gone slack or maybe even sprung back to the tree.
This, in itself, can't be a signal to kill, can it? Surely this was just Astrid deciding the time had come to break with us.
Kill Hiccup.
Escape from the Highs.
Then bring Jean and Zuko into the fight as soon as possible.
I don't know. I don't know.
Hiccup only knows that he must get back to Jack and keep him alive. It takes every ounce of will he had to push up into a sitting position and drag himself up the side of a tree to his feet. It's lucky he had something to hold on to because the jungle's tilting back and forth. Without any warning, Hiccup leans forward and vomit up the seafood feast, heaving until there can't possibly be an oyster left in his body.
Trembling and slick with sweat, the brunette assess his physical condition. As he lifts up his damaged arm, blood sprays him in the face and the world makes another alarming shift. Hiccup squeezes his eyes shut and cling to the tree until things steady a little. Then Hiccup takes a few careful steps to a neighboring tree, pull off some moss, and without examining the wound further, tightly bandages his arm.
Better. Definitely better not to see it.
Then Hiccup allows his hand to tentatively touch his head wound. There's a huge lump but not too much blood. Obviously he's got some internal damage, but he doesn't seem in danger of bleeding to death. At least not through his head. The brunette dries his hands on moss and get a shaky grip on his bow with his damaged left arm. Secure the notch of an arrow to the string. Make his feet move up the slope.
Jack.
His dying wish. His promise. To keep him alive. Hiccup's heart lifts a bit when he realizes he must be alive because no cannon has fired. Maybe Astrid was acting alone, knowing Jean and Zuko would side with her once her intentions were clear. Although it's hard to guess what goes on between those three. Hiccup considers of how they looked to her for confirmation before they'd agree to help set Jim's trap.
There's a much deeper alliance based on years of friendship and who knows what else. Therefore, if Astrid has turned on Hiccup, the brunette should no longer trust either Jean or Zuko. He reaches this conclusion only seconds before he hears someone running down the slope towards him. Neither Jack nor Jim could move at this pace. Hiccup ducks behind a curtain of vines, concealing himself just in time.
Jean flies by him, his skin shadowy with medicine, leaping through the undergrowth like a deer. He soon reaches the sight of Hiccup's attack, must see the blood. "Astrid! Hiccup!" he calls.
The brunette stays put until he goes in the direction Astrid and the Highs took. Hiccup moves as quickly as he can without sending the world into a whirl. His head throbs with the rapid beat of his heart. The insects, possibly excited by the smell of blood, have increased their clicking until it's a continuous roar in his ears. No, wait. Maybe his ears are actually ringing from the hit. Until the insects shut up, it will be impossible to tell. But when the insects go silent, the lightning will start. Hiccup had to move faster. He had to get to his boyfriend.
The boom of a cannon pulls him up short. Someone has died.
Hiccup knows that with everyone running around armed and scared right now, it could be anybody. But whoever it is, the brunette believes the death will trigger a kind of free-for-all out here in the night. People will kill first and wonder about their motives later. Hiccup forces his legs into a run.
Something snags his feet and Hiccup sprawls out on the ground. He feels it wrapping around him, entwining him in sharp fibers.
A net!
It must be one of Jean's fancy nets, positioned to trap him, and Jean must be nearby, trident in hand. Hiccup flails around for a moment, only working the web more tightly around him, and then Hiccup catches a glimpse of it in the moonlight. Confused, Hiccup lifts his arm and see it's entangled in shimmering golden threads.
It's not one of Jean's nets at all, but Jim's wire.
Hiccup carefully rises to his feet and finds he's in a patch of the stuff that caught on a trunk on its way back to the lightning tree. Slowly he disengages himself from the wire, step out of its reach, and continue uphill. On the good side, he's on the right path and have not been so disoriented by the head injury as to lose his sense of direction. On the bad side, the wire has reminded him of the oncoming lightning storm. The brunette can still hear the insects, but thinks that they are to fade.
The brunette keeps the loops of wire a few feet to his left as a guide as he runs but takes great care not to touch them. If those insects are fading and the first bolt is about to strike the tree, then all its power will come surging down that wire and anyone in contact with it will die. The tree swims into view, its trunk festooned with gold. Hiccup slows down, try to move with some stealth, but he's really just lucky to be upright. He looks for a sign of the others.
No one.
No one is there.
~o~
"Jack?" Hiccup calls softly. "Jack?" A soft moan answers him and the brunette whips around to find a figure lying higher up on the ground. "Jim!" he exclaims.
The brunette hurries and kneels beside Jim. The moan must have been involuntary. The pony-tailed brunette's not conscious, although Hiccup can see no wound except a gash below the crook of his elbow. He grabs a nearby handful of moss and clumsily wraps it while he tries to rouse Jim.
"Jim! Jim, what's going on! Who cut you? Jim!" Hiccup shakes him in the way one should never shake an injured person, but he doesn't know what else to do.
Jim moans again and briefly raises a hand to ward him off. This is when Hiccup notices he's holding a knife, one Jack was carrying earlier which is wrapped loosely in wire. Perplexed, Hiccup stands and lift the wire, confirming it's attached back at the tree. He also sees a trail of blood a few meters from them, and some knives he'd seen Zuko sharpen this morning, and Hiccup contemplates that Jean and Zuko are still working together with Astrid.
It takes him a moment to remember the second, much shorter strand that Jim wounded around a branch and left on the ground before he even began his design on the tree. Hiccup had thought it had some electrical significance, had been set aside to be used later. But it never was, because there's probably a good twenty, twenty-five yards here. Hiccup squints hard up the hill and realize they're only a few paces from the force field. There's the telltale square, high up and to my right, just as it was this morning.
What did Jim do?
Did he actually try to drive the knife into the force field the way Jack did by accident?
And what's the deal with the wire?
Was this his backup plan?
If electrifying the water failed, did he mean to send the lightning bolt's energy into the force field?
What would that do, anyway?
Nothing?
A great deal?
Fry us all?
The force field must mostly be energy, too, Hiccup considers. The one in the Training Center was invisible. This one seems to somehow mirror the jungle. But the brunette had never seen it falter when Jack's spear point struck it and when his arrows hit.
The real world lies right behind it.
Hiccup's ears are not ringing. It was the insects after all. He knows that now because they are dying out quickly and he hears nothing but the jungle sounds.
Jim is useless. Hiccup can't rouse him. He can't save him. He doesn't know what Jim was trying to do with the knife and the wire and he's incapable of explaining. The moss bandage on his arm is soaked and there's no use fooling himself. Hiccup's so light-headed he'll black out in a matter of minutes. He's got to get away from this tree and—
"Hiccup!"
The brunette hears his voice though he's a far distance away. But what is he doing? Jack must have figured out that everyone is hunting them by now.
"Hiccup!"
Hiccup can't protect him. He can't move fast or far and his shooting abilities are questionable at best. He does the one thing he can to draw the attackers away from Jack and over to himself. "Jack!" he screams out. "Jack! I'm here! Jack!"
Yes, I will draw them in, any in my vicinity, away from Jack and over to me and the lightning tree that will soon be a weapon in and of itself.
"I'm here! I'm here!"
Jack won't make it. Assuming that he's been attacked or injured in a fight. He will never make it in time.
"Jack!"
It's working. Hiccup can hear them coming. Two of them. Crashing through the jungle. His knees start to give out and he sinks down next to Jim, resting his weight on his heels. His bow and arrow lifts into position.
If the I can take them out, will Jack survive the rest?
Zeera and Jean reach the lightning tree. They can't see him, sitting above them on the slope, his skin camouflaged in ointment. The brunette homes in on Zeera's neck. With any luck, when he kills her, Jean will duck behind the tree for cover just as the lightning bolt strikes. And it will be any second. There's only a faint insect click here and there.
I can kill them now. I can kill them both.
Another cannon.
"HICCUP!" Jack's voice howls for his boyfriend.
But this time the brunette doesn't answer. Jim still breathes faintly beside him. He and Hiccup will soon die. Jean and Zeera will die.
Jack is alive.
Three cannons have sounded.
Gaston, Astrid, Zuko, Eret. Two of them are already dead. That will leave Jack with only two Lights to kill. And that is the very best Hiccup can do.
One enemy.
Enemy. Enemy.
The word is tugging at a recent memory. Pulling it into the present.
The look on Aster's face.
Snowflake, when you're in the arena…
The scowl, the misgiving.
What?
He hears his boyfriend's voice tighten as he bristles at some unspoken accusation.
You just remember who the enemy is, Aster says. That's all.
Aster's last words of advice to them, even if it was directed to Jack.
Why would they need reminding?
They have always known who the enemy is. Who starves and tortures and kills them in the arena. Who will soon kill everyone Hiccup loves. His bow drops as his meaning registers.
Yes, I know who the enemy is.
And they're not the the other Lights.
Hiccup finally sees Jim's knife with clear eyes. His shaking hands slide the wire from the hilt, wind it around the arrow just above the feathers, and secure it with a knot picked up in training. Hiccup rises, turning to the force field, fully revealing himself but no longer caring.
Only caring about where he should direct his tip, where Jim would have driven the knife if he'd been able to choose.
Hiccup's bow tilts up at the wavering square, the flaw, the—what did they call it that day?—The chink in the armor. Hiccup lets the arrow fly, sees it hit its mark and vanish, pulling the thread of gold behind it. His hair stands on end and the lightning strikes the tree. A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. He's thrown backward to the ground, body useless, paralyzed, eyes frozen wide, as feathery bits of matter rain down on him. Hiccup can't reach Jack, as much as he would like just one more chance to embrace him, to kiss him. He can't even reach his pearl. Hiccup's eyes strain to capture one last image of beauty to take with him. Right before the explosions begins, he finds a star.
Everything seems to erupt at once.
The earth explodes into showers of dirt and plant matter. Trees burst into flames. Even the sky fills with brightly colored blossoms of light. Hiccup can't think why the sky's being bombed until he realizes the Game makers are shooting off fireworks up there, while the real destruction occurs on the ground. Just in case it's not enough fun watching the obliteration of the arena and the remaining Lights.
Or perhaps to illuminate our gory ends.
Will they let anyone survive?
Will there be a victor of the Seventy-fifth Nightmare Games?
Maybe not. After all, what is this Thawfest Quell but—what was it President Pitchiner read from the card?
a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of Berk...
Not even the strongest of the strong will triumph.
Perhaps they never intended to have a victor in these Games at all. Or perhaps Hiccup's final act of rebellion forced their hand.
I'm sorry, Jack, Hiccup thinks. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. Save you? More likely I stole your last chance at life, condemned you, by destroying the force field. I did this... I did...
Maybe, if they had all played by the rules, Hiccup considers that they might have let Jack live. The hovercraft materializes above the brunette without warning. If it was quiet, and a bird perched close at hand, Hiccup would have heard the jungle go silent and then the bird's call that precedes the appearance of Berk's aircraft.
But Hiccup's ears could never make out anything so delicate in this bombardment.
The claw drops from the underside until it's directly overhead. The metal talons slide under the brunette.
Hiccup wanted to scream, run, smash his way out of it but he's frozen, helpless to do anything but fervently hope he'll die before he reaches the shadowy figures awaiting him above. They have not spared Hiccup's life to crown him victor but to make his death as slow and public as possible. His worst fears are confirmed when the face that greets him inside the hovercraft belongs to Dimitri Sudayev, Head Game maker. What a mess the brunette had made of his beautiful Games with the clever ticking clock and the field of victors. Dimitri will suffer for his failure, probably lose his life, but not before he sees Hiccup is punished. His hand reaches for the brunette, Hiccup wonders if it's to strike him, but he does something worse. With his thumb and his forefinger, he slides Hiccup's eyelids shut, sentencing him to the vulnerability of darkness.
They can do anything to Hiccup now and the brunette will not even see it coming. His heart pounds so hard the blood begins to stream from beneath his soaked moss bandage. His thoughts grow foggy. Possibly he can bleed to death before they can revive him after all. In his mind, Hiccup whispers a thank-you to Astrid Hofferson for the excellent wound she inflicted as he blacks out.
~o~
When Hiccup swims back into semi consciousness, he can feel he's lying on a padded table. There's the pinching sensation of tubes in his left arm. They are trying to keep the brunette alive because, if he slid quietly, privately into death, it will be a victory. Hiccup's still largely unable to move, opens his eyelids, raises his head. But his right arm has regained a little motion. It flops across his body, feeling like a flipper—no, something less animated, like a club.
Hiccup had no real motor coordination, no proof that he even still had fingers. Yet he manages to swing his arm around until he rips the tubes out. A beeping goes off but Hiccup can't stay awake to find out who it will summon. The next time he surfaces, the brunette's hands are tied down to the table, the tubes back in his arm. Hiccup can open his eyes and lift his head slightly, though. He's in a large room with low ceilings and a silvery light. There are two rows of beds facing each other. The brunette can hear the breathing of what he assumes are his fellow victors. Directly across from the brunette sees Zuko with about ten different machines hooked up to him.
Just let us die! Hiccup screams in his mind.
The brunette slams his head back hard on the table and go out again.
When he finally, truly, wakes up, the restraints are gone. Hiccup raises his hand and find he had fingers that can move at his command again. The brunette pushes himself to a sitting position and holds on to the padded table until the room settles into focus. His left arm is bandaged but the tubes dangle off stands by the bed. He's alone except for Zuko, who still lies in front of him, being sustained by his army of machines. There are other empty beds, but he couldn't tell for whom.
Where are the others, then? Jack, Jean, Jim, Zeera and … and... one more, right?
Either Astrid or Eret or Gaston was still alive when the bombs began. He's sure they'll want to make an example of them all.
But where have they taken them? Moved them from hospital to prison? "Jack..."
Hiccup so wanted to protect him. He's still resolved to. Since he had failed to keep him safe in life, he must find him, kill him now before Berk gets to choose the agonizing means of his death. Hiccup slides his leg and prosthetic off the table and looks around for a weapon. There are a few syringes sealed in sterile plastic on a table near Zuko's bed.
Perfect.
All he needed is air and a clear shot at one of his veins. Hiccup pauses for a moment, considers killing Zuko. But if he does, the monitors will start beeping and he'll be caught before he gets to Jack. Hiccup makes a silent promise to return and finish him off if he can. He's naked except for a thin hospital gown, so the brunette slips the syringe under the bandage that covers the wound on his arm. There are no guards at the door. No doubt he's miles beneath the Training Center or in some Berk stronghold, and the possibility of his escape is nonexistent. It doesn't matter. Hiccup's not escaping, just finishing a job. He creeps down a narrow hallway to a metal door that stands slightly ajar...
And feels something at his feet.
"Toothless!" He forgets where he is for a moment, bends down to hug the cat to his chest. "Oh gods, you're alive! Bud, I can't—"
Then he hears voices and stiffens. Hiccup takes out the syringe and grips it in his hand. Flattening himself against the wall, Toothless curled to his chest with more sense than him to be quiet as Hiccup listens to the voices inside.
"Communications are down in Seven, Ten, and Twelve. But Eleven has control of transportation now, so there's at least a hope of them getting some food out."
Dimitri Sudayev. Hiccup vaguely recalls the voice. Although he's only really spoken with him once.
"Forget the food for a moment, Dim-wit! How about him? He's just as important to the cause as Hiccup is!"
Hiccup had to pause, Jim? He made it alive?
"I wish I can get them all, Jimbo. But you know as well as I do that there's nothing left we can do."
"Don't call me Jimbo! Save my friends, damn it!"
"Don't you think I would by now if I could?"
A hoarse voice asked a question.
"No, I'm sorry. There's no way I can get you to Four either. But I've given special orders for his retrieval if possible. It's the best I can do, Jean."
Jean.
Hiccup's mind struggles to make sense of the conversation, of the fact that it's taking place between Dimitri Sudavey, his supposedly dead lover, and Jean.
Is Jean so near and dear to Berk that he'll be excused his crimes? Or did both he and Zuko really have no idea what Jim intended?
Jean croaks out something else. Something heavy with despair. "Don't be stupid. That's the bloody worst thing you could do. Get him killed for sure. As long as you're alive, they'll keep himalive for bait," says Aster.
Says Aster!
Hiccup drops Toothless and bangs through the door and stumbles into the room. Aster, Dimitri, and two very beat-up Jean and Jim sits around a table laid with a meal no one is eating. Daylight streams in the curved windows, and in the distance Hiccup sees the top of a forest of trees.
They are flying.
"Done knocking yourself out, anklebiter?" says Aster, the annoyance clear in his voice.
But as he careens forward he steps up and catches his wrists, steadying Hiccup.
The man looks at the brunette's hand. "So it's you and a syringe against Berk? See, this is why you should stick leaving strategies to others."
Hiccup stares at him uncomprehendingly.
"Drop it."
Hiccup feels the pressure increase on his right wrists until his hand is forced to open and the brunette releases the syringe. Toothless makes a high leap for his master's arms, snuggling in protectively. Hiccup absently strokes his fur.
"And I suppose you couldn't get to Morph on time, either?"
"Jim, I love you and all, but please shut up." Dimitri groans, holding the bridge of his nose. "You already broke my nose, isn't that enough?"
Jim scoffs, "You are such a baby."
"At least I'm not a whining one..."
Aster shakes his head in annoyance, before settling Hiccup in a chair next to Jean. Dimitri puts a bowl of broth in front of him. Jim places a bowl of milk down for Toothless
A roll.
Slips a spoon into his freckled hand.
"Eat," Dimitri says in a much kinder voice than Aster used or the one he used on Jim a little earlier.
Aster sits directly in front of his brunette Light. "Hiccup, I'm going to explain what happened. I don't want you to ask any questions until I'm through. Do you understand?"
Hiccup nods numbly. And this is what the mentor tells the boy.
There was a plan to break them out of the arena from the moment the Quell was announced. The victor Lights from 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it. Dimitri Sudayev has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow Berk. He made sure the wire was among the weapons, the one that Jim claimed he invented.
Said lover was in charge of blowing a hole in the force field. The bread they received in the arena was code for the time of the rescue. The district where the bread originated indicated the day. Three. The number of rolls the hour. Twenty-four. The hovercraft belongs to District 13. Nico and Will, the young men he met at the woods from 8, were right about its existence and its defense capabilities. They're settled in and offering their own contributions there. They are currently on a very roundabout journey to District 13.
Meanwhile, most of the districts in Berk are in full-scale rebellion. Aster stops to see if the brunette's following. Or maybe the mentor is done for the moment. It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which he was a piece, just as he was meant to be a piece in the Nightmare Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Nightmare Games, Hiccup knew he was being played with.
"You didn't tell me." the brunette's voice is as ragged as Jean's.
"Neither you nor Jack were told. We couldn't risk it," says Dimitri. "I was even worried you might mention my indiscretion with the watch during the Games." He pulls out his pocket watch and runs his thumb across the crystal, lighting up the Nightfury. "Of course, when I showed you this, I was merely tipping you off about the arena. As a mentor. I thought it might be a first step toward gaining your trust. I never dreamed you'd be a Light again."
"I still don't understand why Jack and I weren't let in on the plan,"
"Because once the force field blew, you'd be the first ones they'd try to capture, and the less you knew, the better," says Aster.
"The first ones? Why?" Hiccup frowns, trying to hang on to the train of thought.
"For the same reason the rest of us agreed to die to keep you alive," Jean answers.
"No, Astrid tried to kill me,"
"Astrid knocked you out to cut the tracker from your arm and lead Gaston and Zeera away from you," says Jim.
"What?" Hiccup's head aches so and he wants them to stop talking in circles. "I don't know what you're—"
"We had to save you because you're the Nightfury, Hiccup," says Dimitri. "While you live, the revolution lives."
The dragon, Toothless, the pin, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the groom suit that changed colors.
I am the Nightfury.
The one that survived despite Berk's plans, the same way Toothless had. The symbol of the rebellion. It's what Hiccup suspected in the woods when he found Nico and Will escaping. Though he's never really understood the magnitude. But then, Hiccup wasn't meant to understand. He thinks of Aster's sneering at his plans to flee District 12, start his own uprising, even the very notion that District 13 could exist.
Subterfuges and deceptions.
And if Aster could do that, behind his mask of sarcasm and aloofness, so convincingly and for so long, what else has he lied about?
I know what else. "Jack," The brunette whispers, his heart sinking.
"Of course, we bloody wanted both of you. You're the Nightfury, he's the Frostbite," says Aster. "Ideally, you guys started this together, so you two are supposed to finish this together."
Aster's words are matter-of-fact, his expression unchanged, but he can't hide the tinge of gray that colors his face.
"Where is Jack?" Hiccup demands, almost desperately, but at the same time, he didn't want to hear it.
"He was picked up by Berk along with Astrid and Zeera," says Aster, and finally has the decency to drop his gaze.
And that was it, the dam was broken, flood gates were released, and Hiccup tries to stand, but he immediately collapses to the floor. Toothless is on him a second later but it doesn't help or stop him from crying out in anguish, it doesn't stop the tears from flowing, and it's all Aster can do to prevent the boy from killing himself once more by reaching for the syringe, they couldn't lose him, too. Hiccup's the Nightfury, he's the Nightfury—
No I'm not! Toothless is, it's Toothless! I'm not the Nightfury, I couldn't even liberate my own lover, I can't—
The brunette's back on his table, his body restrained, his wrists tied down, so he slams his head in desperation again and again against the table. Toothless doesn't make a fuss when Jim handles him, probably the guy's taken care of him while Hiccup was passed out. A needle pokes his arm and the brunette's head hurts so badly he stops fighting and simply wails in a horrible, dying-animal way, until his voice gives out. The drug causes sedation, not sleep, so the brunette's trapped in fuzzy, dully aching misery for what seems like always. They reinsert their tubes and talk to Hiccup in soothing voices that never reaches him.
All he can think of is Jack, lying on a similar table somewhere, while they try to break him for information he doesn't even have.
"Hiccup. Hiccup, I'm sorry." Jean's voice comes from the bed next to the brunette and slips into his consciousness. Perhaps because they're in the same kind of pain. "I wanted to go back for him and Astrid, but I couldn't move."
Hiccup doesn't answer. Jean Kirschtein's good intentions mean less than nothing.
"It's better for him than Astrid." Zuko says, and it seems his somewhat recovered from whatever happened to him. "They'll figure out Jack doesn't know anything pretty fast. And they won't kill him if they think they can use him against you,"
"Like bait?" Hiccup says to the ceiling. "Like how they'll use Armin for bait, for Jean?"
If he was himself, he would be apologetic after hearing Jean weeping but the brunette can't bring himself to care. They probably won't even bother to question him, Armin's so far gone. Gone right off the deep end years ago in his Games. There's a good chance Hiccup's headed in the same direction. Maybe he's already going crazy and no one has the heart to tell him.
I feel crazy enough.
"I wish he was dead," Jean says. "I wish they were all dead and we were, too. It would be best."
There's no good response to that. Hiccup can hardly dispute it since he was walking around with a syringe to kill Jack when he found them.
Do I really want him dead? Hiccup considers this for a moment before shaking his head fiercely, No! What I want ... what I want is to have him back, he's my knight, like Pitchiner said that time before the tour, he's my guardian, I can't do this without him... But I'll never get him back now.
Even if the rebel forces could somehow overthrow Berk, Hiccup was sure President Pitchiner's last act would be to cut Jack's throat.
No. I will never get him back. So then dead is best.
But will Jack know that or will he keep fighting? He's so strong, Hiccup believes he may last longer than he would if the situation was reversed.
Does he think he has a chance of surviving? Does he even care if he does? He wasn't planning on it, anyway.
Jack had already signed off on life. Maybe, if he knows Hiccup was rescued, he's even happy. Feels he fulfilled his mission to keep his lover alive. Hiccup gives up. Stops speaking, responding, refuses food and water. They can pump whatever they want into his arm, but it takes more than that to keep a person going once he's lost the will to live. Hiccup even had a funny notion that if he did die, maybe Jack will be allowed to live. Not as a free person but as a Sandys or something, waiting on the future Lights of District 12. Then maybe he could find some way to escape. Hiccup's death could, in fact, still save him.
If it can't, no matter.
It's enough to die of spite. To punish Aster, who, of all the people in this rotting world, has turned Jack and Hiccup into pieces in his Games. They trusted him. They put what was precious in Aster's hands. And he had betrayed them.
See, this is why you should stick leaving strategies to others he said.
Yeah right, Aster, so you could take away those I love since you don't have anyone else to loveyourself...
Now Hiccup obviously can't tell a friend from an enemy. A lot of people come by to talk to him, but he makes all their words sound like the clicking of the insects in the jungle. Meaningless and distant. Dangerous, but only if approached. Whenever the words start to become distinct, Hiccup moans until they give the brunette more painkillers and that fixes things right up. Until one time, Hiccup opens his eyes and find someone he cannot block out looking down at him. Someone who will not plead, or explain, or think he can alter his design with entreaties, because he is some aware how Hiccup operates.
"Dad,"
"Hey, son."
The large man reaches down and pulls the brunette in his arms for an embrace. One side of his face has been burned fairly recently. His arm is in a sling, and Hiccup can see bandages under his apron.
What has happened to him? How is he even here? Something very bad has happened back home.
It is not so much a question of forgetting Jack as remembering the others. All it takes is one look at Stoick and they come surging into the present, demanding to be acknowledged.
"Mom?" Hiccup gasps. "Snotlout? Jack's family?"
"They're alive. Jack's own as well. Jamie got us out in time," Stoick says.
"They're not in District Twelve?"
"After the Games, they sent in planes. Dropped firebombs." He hesitates. "Well, you know what happened to the Hob."
Hiccup does know. He saw it go up. That old warehouse embedded with snow.
"They're not in District Twelve?"
As if saying it will somehow fend off the truth. "Hiccup, son," Stoick says softly.
Hiccup recognizes that voice. Back then, it's the same one his father used to approach wounded animals before he delivers a deathblow. He instinctively raises his hand to block his father's words but Stoick catches it and holds on tightly.
"Don't," Hiccup pleads.
But Stoick is not one to deliver honey first before throwing the hatchet. "Hiccup, there is no District Twelve."
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
DEFENDER ROUTE
Perhaps they never intended to have a victor in these Games at all. Or perhaps Hiccup's final act of rebellion forced their hand.
I'm sorry, Jack, Hiccup thinks. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. Save you? More likely I stole your last chance at life, condemned you, by destroying the force field. I did this... I did...
Maybe, if they had all played by the rules, Hiccup considers that they might have let Jack live. The hovercraft materializes above the brunette without warning. If it was quiet, and a bird perched close at hand, Hiccup would have heard the jungle go silent and then the bird's call that precedes the appearance of Berk's aircraft. But Hiccup's ears could never make out anything so delicate in this bombardment. Suddenly, Jack finally reaches him after all.
"Jack!" Hiccup cried out, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's neck. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry about the force field! Now they'll kill us both, I'm sorry I couldn't save you!" He sobbed.'
Jack returns the embraces his boyfriend just as desperately. "It's okay, it's okay. I—I think it's better this way," he pulls back to plant a soft kiss on his lover's lips, before pulling back. But they're faces were still close enough to be touching. "At least—we die together, right?"
That was the only consolation. Hiccup was with Jack. Even if they're to be tortured brutally before dying, at least they'd suffer together.
Then the claw drops from the underside until it's directly overhead and the metal talons slide under the brunette.
Hiccup wanted to scream, run, smash his way out of it, Jack wished he had his spear, maybe it could do more and free his boyfriend but they're both frozen, helpless to do anything. Jack just hangs on to Hiccup and the brunette holds him close as they're being brought up. They have not spared Hiccup's and Jack's life to crown them as dual victors once again but to make their deaths as slow and public as possible. Their worst fears are confirmed when the face that greets them inside the hovercraft belongs to Dimitri Sudayev, Head Game maker. What a mess Jack and Hiccup had made of his beautiful Games with the clever ticking clock and the field of victors. Dimitri will suffer for his failure, probably lose his life, but not before he sees Jack and Hiccup are punished. Suddenly, Jack yells in anger and protest as he's being pulled away from his boyfriend and pinned down to another table. He screams bloody murder as Dimitri's hand reaches for the brunette, as if to strike Hiccup, but he does something worse. With his thumb and his forefinger, he slides Hiccup's eyelids shut, sentencing him to the vulnerability of darkness.
And whoever is on him injects something to Jack's bloodstream and he feels the effects of the sleeping drug almost as instantly as the syrup Hiccup had given so long ago that knocked him out at the cave.
~o~
When Hiccup swims back into semi consciousness, he can feel he's lying on a padded table. There's the pinching sensation of tubes in his left arm. They are trying to keep the brunette alive because, if he slid quietly, privately into death, it will be a victory. Hiccup's still largely unable to move, opens his eyelids, raises his head. But his right arm has regained a little motion. It flops across his body, feeling like a flipper—no, something less animated, like a club.
Hiccup had no real motor coordination, no proof that he even still had fingers. Yet he manages to swing his arm around until he rips the tubes out. A beeping goes off but Hiccup can't stay awake to find out who it will summon. The next time he surfaces, the brunette's hands are tied down to the table, the tubes back in his arm. Hiccup can open his eyes and lift his head slightly, though. He's in a large room with low ceilings and a silvery light. There are two rows of beds facing each other. The brunette can hear the breathing of what he assumes are his fellow victors. Directly across from the brunette sees Zuko with about ten different machines hooked up to him.
Just let us die! Hiccup screams in his mind.
The brunette slams his head back hard on the table and go out again.
When he finally, truly, wakes up, the restraints are gone. Hiccup raises his hand and find he had fingers that can move at his command again. The brunette pushes himself to a sitting position and holds on to the padded table until the room settles into focus. His left arm is bandaged but the tubes dangle off stands by the bed. He's alone except for Zuko, who still lies in front of him, being sustained by his army of machines. There are other empty beds, but he couldn't tell for whom.
Where are the others, then? Jack, Jean, Jim, Zeera and...and...one more, right?
Either Astrid or Eret or Gaston was still alive when the bombs began. He's sure they'll want to make an example of them all.
But where have they taken them? Moved them from hospital to prison? "Jack..."
Hiccup so wanted to protect him. He's still resolved to. Since he had failed to keep him safe in life, he must find him, kill him now before Berk gets to choose the agonizing means of his death. Hiccup slides his leg and prosthetic off the table and looks around for a weapon. There are a few syringes sealed in sterile plastic on a table near Zuko's bed.
Perfect.
All he needed is air and a clear shot at one of his veins. Hiccup pauses for a moment, considers killing Zuko. But if he does, the monitors will start beeping and he'll be caught before he gets to Jack. Hiccup makes a silent promise to return and finish him off if he can. He's naked except for a thin hospital gown, so the brunette slips the syringe under the bandage that covers the wound on his arm. There are no guards at the door. No doubt he's miles beneath the Training Center or in some Berk stronghold, and the possibility of his escape is nonexistent. It doesn't matter. Hiccup's not escaping, just finishing a job. He creeps down a narrow hallway to a metal door that stands slightly ajar.
Someone is behind it.
"Jack!" He forgets where he is and what he was intending to do to Jack as he buries his face to the front of his boyfriend's. "Oh gods! How are you—"
Then he hears voices and stiffens. Jack cupped his boyfriend's face and speaks soothingly. "It's okay, it's okay," Hiccup just continues staring, uncomprehending. Jack takes his hand and makes him drop the syringe. "You'll understand soon enough, just come with me."
And Jack leads him to a room, but as they hear voices, the white-haired teen stops, not wanting to interrupt whatever it was.
"Communications are down in Seven, Ten, and Twelve. But Eleven has control of transportation now, so there's at least a hope of them getting some food out."
Dimitri Sudayev. Hiccup vaguely recalls the voice. Although he's only really spoken with him once.
"Forget the food for a moment, Dim-wit! How about him? I'll forgive you for failing Morph, but don't let Hiccup go through it too!"
Hiccup had to pause, Jim? He made it alive?
"I wish I can get them all, Jimbo. But you know as well as I do that there's nothing left we can do."
"Don't call me Jimbo! Save him, damn it!"
"Don't you think I would by now if I could?"
Jean asked a question, despite of his hoarse voice. Hiccup couldn't hear it though, but Jack could. He doesn't tell his boyfriend, though.
"No, I'm sorry. There's no way I can get you to Four either. But I've given special orders for his retrieval if possible. It's the best I can do, Jean."
Jean.
Hiccup's mind struggles to make sense of the conversation, of the fact that it's taking place between Dimitri Sudavey, his supposedly dead lover, and Jean.
Is Jean so near and dear to Berk that he'll be excused his crimes? Or did both he and Zuko really have no idea what Jim intended? And was Jim excused because of Dimitri?
Jean croaks out something else. Something heavy with despair.
"Don't be stupid. That's the bloody worst thing you could do. Get him killed for sure. As long as you're alive, they'll keep himalive for bait," says Aster.
Aster! "ASTER!"
Jack finally coughs to get their attention, figuring that it was okay to interrupt now. Aster, Dimitri, and two very beat-up Jean and Jim sits around a table laid with a meal no one is eating. Daylight streams in the curved windows, and in the distance Hiccup sees the top of a forest of trees.
They are flying.
"Done knocking yourself out, anklebiter? Or did showpony just knock you awake?" asked Aster, the annoyance clear in his voice.
Jim looks at him, "Are you hungry? There's some bouillabaisse stew left. My godfather's old family recipe." he comes over and with Jack, helps Hiccup to settle in a chair next to Jean.
Dimitri puts the bowl of broth in front of him.
A roll.
Jack slips a spoon into his freckled hand. "Eat," he says in a much kinder voice than Aster used.
Aster sits directly in front of his Lights. "Hiccup, now that you're awake, I'm going to explain to you and Jack what happened. I don't want either one of you to ask any questions until I'm through. Do you understand?"
Hiccup nods numbly, Jack doesn't say anything though. And this is what the mentor tells boys.
There was a plan to break them out of the arena from the moment the Quell was announced. The victor Lights from 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it. Dimitri Sudayev has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow Berk. He made sure the wire was among the weapons, the one that Jim claimed he invented.
Said lover was in charge of blowing a hole in the force field. The bread they received in the arena was code for the time of the rescue. The district where the bread originated indicated the day. Three. The number of rolls the hour. Twenty-four. The hovercraft belongs to District 13. Nico and Will, the young men he met at the woods from 8, were right about its existence and its defense capabilities. They're settled in and offering their own contributions there. They are currently on a very roundabout journey to District 13.
Meanwhile, most of the districts in Berk are in full-scale rebellion. Aster stops to see if the brunette's following. Or maybe the mentor is done for the moment. It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which he was a piece, just as he was meant to be a piece in the Nightmare Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Nightmare Games, Hiccup knew he was being played with.
"You didn't tell us." the brunette's voice is as ragged as Jean's.
"Neither you nor Jack were told. We couldn't risk it," says Dimitri. "I was even worried you might mention my indiscretion with the watch during the Games." He pulls out his pocket watch and runs his thumb across the crystal, lighting up the Nightfury. "Of course, when I showed you this, I was merely tipping you off about the arena. As a mentor. I thought it might be a first step toward gaining your trust. I never dreamed you two would be Lights again."
"I still don't understand why Hiccup and I weren't let in on the plan,"
"Because once the force field blew, you'd be the first ones they'd try to capture, and the less you knew, the better," says Aster.
"The first ones? Why?" Hiccup frowns, trying to hang on to the train of thought.
"For the same reason the rest of us agreed to die to keep you two alive," Jean answers.
"No, Astrid tried to kill me,"
Jack's head whipped at that, and he glared at Jean. "Why would she do that?"
"Astrid knocked him out to cut the tracker from Hiccup's arm, same as Zuko did for you, and lead Gaston and Zeera away from him," says Jean.
"What?" Hiccup's head aches so and he wants them to stop talking in circles. "I don't know what you're—"
"We had to save you guys because you're the Nightfury, Hiccup, and Jack's the Frostbite that started the hail plaguing Berk now." says Dimitri. "While you two live, the revolution lives."
The dragon, Toothless, the pin, the watch, the cracker, the groom suit that changed colors.
His volunteer. His refusal. The berries. The love he had for his fellow Light.
For the rebellion.
It's what Hiccup suspected in the woods when he found Nico and Will escaping. Though he's never really understood the magnitude. But then, Jack and Hiccup weren't meant to understand. And then he considers what they wanted, for Jack and Hiccup to lead the rebellion. And the brunette was supposed to represent the Nightfury, but he wasn't the Nightfury, he wasn't—
"Toothless," The brunette's eyes widens at the realization, his heart sinking. "Where is Toothless?" Hiccup demands, almost desperately, but at the same time, he didn't want to hear it.
"He was picked up by Berk along with Astrid and Zeera," says Aster, and finally has the decency to drop his gaze.
Technically, Hiccup's unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do, especially if the target is unprepared. The brunette lunges across the table and rakes his down Aster's face, causing blood to flow and damage to one eye. Then Jack and Jim are trying to drag the green-eyed brunette, and Hiccup knows it's all Aster can do not to rip Hiccup apart, but he's the Nightfury. Hiccup's the Nightfury and all because they couldn't save the real one.
Jean comes out of his own stupor and helps Jack and Jim so now Hiccup's back on his table, his body restrained, his wrists tied down, as they get medicine on him to calm down, Jack settles in, placing his boyfriend's head on his lap, and starts to hum the little song he sung to him in what seems like ages ago.
But even that does little to help. All Hiccup can think of is Toothless, probably already chained in his dragon form because he's sure his control on his transformation would be bad in the face of enemies, like in those times he saved Hiccup when he was in danger.
"Hiccup, I'm sorry." Jim's voice comes from somewhere Hiccup can't turn his head to see. "I wanted to go back for them, for Toothless and Astrid, but they—"
"You couldn't move, Jim," Zuko interrupts, now awakened. "none of us could."
Hiccup doesn't answer. Maybe later, he could afford to appreciate Jim Hawkin's good intentions. But he didn't feel very appreciative now.
"It's better for the cat than Astrid. They can't question a feline, after all," says Zuko.
"Not unless they find out he's the Nightfury dragon itself in disguise." Jack says spitefully, and all eyes widen and stare at him, wondering if he was pulling their leg. "Believe me or not, I don't care. But I wouldn't lie about that."
"I have to talk to Dimitri about this." Jim leaves the room in haste.
Jack can't bring himself to care, instead, he goes back to comforting his boyfriend the best that he can. Later, they're alone in the room. Occasionally given food, but they weren't in a very social mood. Hiccup didn't feel like speaking to anyone, and neither did Jack. Maybe not in the same degree, but Toothless had meant something to him too.
Until someone comes in, and even if Jack's initial response was to glare at the person until they finish their business to get out, he catches himself. Because he finds someone that neither he or Hiccup can block out coming in. Someone who will not plead, or explain, or think they can despise her entreaties, because she alone has the most compassionate heart unlike the rest of her people.
"Tooth," Jack whispers.
Hiccup immediately sits up as well, and the kind woman immediately goes in for a hug. The brunette returns it eagerly.
"I'm sorry, sweeties, I really am."
She pulls away and reaches out to embrace Jack as well. Her comfort reminds them of that time, at their reaping, at the square. And they can't help it. It is not so much a question of forgetting Toothless as remembering the others. All it takes is one look at Tooth's appearance, so far away from her Berk attire and, hauntingly enough, more like a District dweller. And they come surging into the present, demanding to be acknowledged.
"Emma?" Jack gasps. "Mom? Jamie?"
Hiccup grabs the woman's hand too, "My parents? Snotlout?"
"They're all alive, your families and yes, Jamie. Aster got them out in time," she says. "so please, don't be so hard on him."
They ignore her plea for the mean time. "They're not in District Twelve?" Jack asked.
"After the Games, they sent in planes. Dropped firebombs." She hesitates. "Well, you know what happened during the last war."
They did know. And a new kind of horror begins to rise up inside them as they imagine firebombs hitting their home.
"They're not in District Twelve?" Hiccup repeats weakly.
Tooth takes a deep breath and breaks it to them, "Sweethearts, there is no District Twelve."
