SECTION 07

A TASTE OF OIL

DATE: DECEMBER 30, 250 A.D.E.

TIME: 1408 HOURS

LOCATION: THE DOME, EAST SECTOR SEVEN, MOBILE FORTRESS HARBOUR, DOCKING PORT THREE

It wasn't the return home Stoic had imagined.

Always the optimist, he'd seen the Dauntless cruising smoothly across the land towards his beloved Dome with victory in hand. His casualties would be light, and what men remained would be tired but happy at a job well done.

Then again, reality was a harsh mistress.

Dauntless was long gone. Her wreckage, gouged with holes melted through by intense energy fire, was now somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic, as was most of her crew and Assault Frames. The Dragonoids had torn her apart with brutal efficiency, the dead long gone before they knew an energy blast had even pieced the bulkheads. Stoic himself had only survived due to Spitelout dragging his semi-conscious form to the lifeboats, yelling something he could barely hear over the explosions about the Military Police and Alex. He stayed awake long enough to see Dauntless be swallowed up by the waves before the concussion took him, much to his embarrassment. Now a single Assault Frame Transport dragged itself into port; listing badly to one side, its hull scorched with plasma burns. Her launch bay, now missing two of its Assault Frames, had become a makeshift medical bay, Dauntless' wounded lain out on rugs or even bare deck as medics and volunteers darted between them. Stoic had not stayed with them for long. Once he'd come back to the world of the living and been bandaged up, he headed up to the Bridge, away from the pain and screaming. He'd failed these men and women. He'd failed those who had died. All staying in the launch bay did was remind him of how badly he'd screwed up.

Gobber was waiting for the transport to come in, along with the families and friends of those who had set off with the fleet and most of The Dome's medical division. Miranda Gothi wasn't among them, the General noted thankfully. The last thing he really wanted to do was face the Mayor right now.

He was the last man off the transport, a practice he and every Military Police commander before him had taken up since the start of this war. It told everyone that there was no one left on board, and those that hadn't been reunited with friends and loved ones should just go home.

He didn't say a word as he walked away from the dock, Gobber falling in line beside him. He didn't look at the tearful reunions or listen to the sounds of mournful crying. He just kept walking. Even Gobber didn't speak until they reached Central Tower and the General's office within it.

"It didn' go well then I take it."

"It didn't go, period," Stoic grunted quietly. "We didn't even get to the beaches, Fergus. We lost the first AF Transport in the first attack with all hands. Dauntless sunk as we tried to retreat after the tenth try to get through. They just kept coming, beating us back."

"At least they didn' go after the lifeboats," Gobber said hopefully. "Gregorio, ye've got half the crew in tha' transport. Half a crew back is better than no crew at all."

"It's still only half," Stoic retorted, slumping into his chair, "and we lost most of the Assault Frames. I hope you had a better Christmas then I did."

"Not bad, not bad," the major shrugged casually as he dumped himself into a nearby chair, ignoring the protesting creak. "Made some good choices with the AF recruits. Astrid Hofferson's up at the top o' the rankings o' course," a sly smile crossed his friend's face. "We had a few surprises though at who currently comin' second."

"Egil's boy finally get his act together did he?"

"Snotlout? Nah. Try again."

"One of the Thornston twins?"

"Nope."

"Surely not Ingerman?"

"Ooh, close! But no."

…

"It's not Waif is it?"

"Now ya getting desperate." Gobber chortled smugly. "Think closer ta home," He tossed The Dome's newspaper onto the desk between them. "Or ye could look up the Rankings board. Thatta work too."

Stoic gave Craigson a strange look, before opening the paper to the back pages with a heavy sigh.

As he took in the article he needed, however, he almost crumpled the tabloid in surprise. He stared at Gobber over its' top, open-mouthed. The major merely continued to grin.

"Is it April 1st already?"

"Far from it," Gobber leaned his head in his synthetic hand with a lazy smile. "Gregorio, tha' boy o' yours is incredible. I've never in my long life seen someone take down Dragonoids the way 'e does. It's…effortless. It's like 'e knows where and when to strike in an instant. 'E's threatening Astrid o' all people. If 'e keeps it up, 'e might even surpass her as the top o' the class."

The General leant back in his chair, slowly digesting the information. Hiccup…no, Alexander McKrillen, was being praised as an ace Assault Frame pilot. A soldier to rival all his peers. Something stirred in his chest, pride he hoped. Maybe sheer amazement mixed with a little sorrow at not being able to have been home to see this miraculous transformation.

"I…I have to talk to him."

"Ye won't find 'im," Gobber spoke up before Stoic had even reached the door. The general looked back cautiously.

"Why? Where is he?"

"Not around here I can tell ye that much," Gobber sighed. "'E tends to wander off most afternoons. Don' really blame 'im. I think 'e just wants ta get away from it all." he chuckled again. "I think the life of a celebrity is a bit rough for 'im. 'E can barely get away from the Arena before being swarmed by his new fans."

Gregorio ran a hand through his hair, a bewildered smile crossing his bearded face. "Alex has fans? Never thought I'd see the day. But I have to talk to him-"

"Just relax," the General felt a metal hand on his shoulder as Gobber smiled encouragingly. "'E'll be back before ya know it. Just wait for him back home Gregorio. It's not like e's gonna leave the country!"

TIME: 1552 HOURS (LOCAL TIME)

LOCATION: FRANCE, PARIS AIRSPACE

I was flying. Not as fast as the first time and not nearly as high, but I was up in the air and loving every minute of it.

The Night Fury in its' Dragonoid mode hummed contentedly around me, as though the mech itself was happy to be back in the skies. In the co-pilot's seat behind me, Ruusaan was also in high spirits. She was humming a tune to herself as she ran diagnostics and watched the radar for signs of Dragonoids in the area.

We were both fairly apprehensive about running into other mech's while I made the final tests. Escaping the British Isles without alerting the Military Police had been easy enough. Even if we'd been caught we could have just fled and the outposts would have waved us off as a scouting party. It would be harder to explain why you were trying to run away when the people you were fleeing from came from the same race as those that built the Dragonoid you were flying of course. The first sign of trouble and I kicked in the afterburners, sending the Night Fury into the upper atmosphere where Nadders (the most likely mech we'd encounter) wouldn't be able to reach us.

I flexed my hands inside my 'borrowed' pilot suit uneasily, resisting the urge to tug at my helmet. France spread out in all directions below us as we followed the River Seine into the country's former capital.

When you were born and raised in The Dome, you tended to forget exactly how much devastation this war had brought to the world. The once bustling metropolis below us was now an abandoned city of the dead. Massive craters pocketed the landscape, buildings that had survived their initial blast having long since fallen over their edges into the basins. Some had filled up with rainwater over the years, the few that had hit near the river now forming strange little harbours that looked like someone had taken great bites out of the land. As with the village near The Dome, most of the city had aged and decayed with no one to maintain it. Unlike the village, however, nature hadn't reclaimed the city. Parkland was overgrown to be sure, but that was it. The landscape below was just a desolate wasteland of broken mortar, brick and glass.

Which made it an ideal place to put the Night Fury through its paces with theoretically no one to bother us.

"You alright back there?" I glanced behind me, giving a halfway thumbs up. Ruusaan smiled giving me a full one in return.

"Ni tsikala."

I'm ready.

"Alright then," I settled back into my own chair, one hand held up to help convey my words. "We're going to take it nice and slow. We're in no rush. Let's start with some turns shall we?"

Ca'furor banked effortlessly into wide circles at my command, the ruins of Paris quickly taking up my left-hand screen as we soared over skyscrapers and broken houses.

"So fah so gud?" Ruusaan asked.

"So far so good," I agreed. The Night Fury was holding up well for all the tinkering it had had to endure. "Alright, we know she can go in a circle without complaining, let's see what she can do in a straight line."

Paris below became a blur as the Dragonoid shot across the sky in a burst of speed. Ruusaan whooped in delight behind me as I pulled reduced speed over the city's outskirts. She was just happy to be out of the crater I realised. After spending two months with only me for company in the English countryside, any change of scenery would be no doubt have been nice.

"If she holds up this well for our trip, I don't think we'll have much to worry about." I smiled confidently behind me. "Alright, lets circle round and practice a few more manoeuvres, then…whoa!"

A bright shaft of light screamed the Night Fury, missing our Dragonoid by inches as it split the sky. I could feel the heat as the energy dissipated. If that had been any closer…

"What was that!?" I shouted over the alarm, struggling to stabilise the mech. "It just came out of nowhere."

"Hallex! Aru'ela!"

"Hostiles?" I glanced behind me, Ruusaan busy studying the radar. "From where? We're nowhere near The Dome and even if we were there's no way we'd be in a Viking's weapon range…unless…" realisation dawned, "unless we're not dealing with human hostiles. But if that was a Dragonoid…" I turned back to the forward camera, "what was it doing so far from Washington Crater? Where did it come from?"

"Ka'gaht aay'han."

From her chair, Ruusaan pivoted a secondary camera to the right, a smaller screen before me showing a magnified view. On the ground, I could see a fairground or amusement park of some kind. I could pick out several large buildings poking out amidst a small overgrown forest, most noticeably a large castle that looked like he had been taken straight out of a fairytale. That wasn't important though. What was important was the Dragonoid that was taking off from the tops of its spires.

My first thought was a Nightmare. It had the same general shape and wingspan. Then I noticed how…broken the armour looked. It was scarred and jagged, as though it had been repaired with the plating of several other mechs several times over. I could also pick out several additions that looked severely out of place. Someone had tricked this Dragonoid out and not cared for looks. I could see powerful thrusters for a mech twice the Nightmare's size. I could see a concussion wave cannon off a Thunder-drum slung underneath; a very old kind of Dragonoid from a time when we just nicknamed our enemy's mechs rather than try to pronounce their actual titles. The wings had also been salvaged from a Timber-jack, another older variant that had had the ability to tear through even The Dome's armour with the incredibly sharp blades along its wings. Even more bizarrely, I could make out at least one smoothbore cannon from a Viking Assault Frame mounted between the energy cannons. Two other Dragonoids were also in the air, both models long since out of use by the aliens themselves. One was a full Thunder-drum; a short stout machine no longer than five metres; little more than a cockpit, concussion wave cannon and a large pair of VTOL rotors attached to its sides. The other mech had once been a Scrill; the Nightmare's predecessor. Old files had shown that it was slower than the machine that replaced it, but this 'upgraded' model was screaming across the battlefield faster than any other machine I'd ever seen, save for the Night Fury of course.

Behind me, I heard Ruusaan growl as she watched the battle on her own screens. She knew as well as I did that these machines hadn't come from Washington Crater. I'd heard the stories of course…mostly from Gobber…of ageing Dragonoid mechs that attacked humans and aliens alike. The A.I. within had lost its master and had managed to survive the battle that had ejected or killed its pilot. Somehow, they managed to repair and enhance with the armour and weapons of their enemies. But with no orders to follow, they were no better than beasts. With no one to control them, they would attack anything, kill anything and leave destruction in their wake.

"Ruusaan. You know who these guys are right?"

My companion nodded, her words laced with barely contained rage, "Te Echoy'la."

"The Lost eh?" I smirked as I gunned the accelerator. "We have a name for them too: Boneknappers."

I steeled myself quietly as I pushed the Night Fury forward, my hands flexing around the control sticks. I was about to enter a battle in a flying mech whose weapons I'd never thought I'd even need to use. I was afraid, no doubts there, but there was also that niggling feeling at the back of my mind. What if I froze up again? I doubted these A.I. would be as forgiving if I hesitated. There was nowhere to run. All three Dragonoids were swooping towards us now, but could I really…

I froze as I felt Ruusaan's hand on my shoulder. I looked back to see her smiling down at me gently.

"Ganar mirshko, Hallex. Ni ganar besbe'trayce ke'gyce."

I blinked at her in confusion, then looked down at the translation matrix on my computer.

Have courage. I have weapons control.

"I do the flying, you do the shooting huh?" She made it sound easy. Just put on a brave face and hope for the best. There was nowhere to run. Sometimes all you could do was stand and fight. "As good a plan as any I guess."

I gave Ruusaan a thankful smile, and turned my attention back to the battle, lining the Scrill up in my sights as it arced through the air.

This was it, do or die time. As I heard the targeting computer ping in confirmed lock-on, I found myself looking away when Ruusaan pulled the trigger.

The Night Fury shuddered from kickback as a pair of bright blue bursts of energy erupted from the Dragonoid's back-mounted plasma energy cannons. The Scrill never stood a chance. As its comrades streaked clear, the energy blasts ripped through its armour as though it had been made of tin foil. As I turned back to the screen, I watched with a mixture of horror and amazement as the mech quickly became a flailing twisting ball of burning metal. It sailed through the air in a wide arc overhead, crashing through the roof of some kind of giant observatory on the other side of the complex before erupting into a fantastic explosion of burning white light.

I'd done it…I'd actually shot down a Dragonoid.

…

Sort of.

The Thunder-Drum pulled out of its saving dive as its comrade exploded, turning its massive cannon towards us as the Nightmare keeping back as though to observe.

"Not good!"

Concussion waves are invisible, but the sheer force of a direct blast was enough to crack the armour of Assault Frames with a single hit. Even as I rolled out of the way I could feel the trailing ends of the attack shudder through the Night Fury as the blast swept past at the speed of sound. Instinct told me to return fire. Ruusaan seemed to read my mind. She pulled the secondary fire trigger, a spray of bullets belching from the Vulcan cannons peppering the enemy Dragonoid's mismatched armour before it pulled up violently and took off into the clouds.

"Damn," I cursed as the mech fell off radar, "Those Thunder-Drum's are faster than they look!"

"Laam ogir!"

"Yeah I know, I'm on it!"

The clouds parted for another wall of sound as I pushed the Night Fury forwards into a series of evasive manoeuvres. I caught sight of new craters erupting into existence behind us as the missed attacks slammed into the ground in the rear cameras, another assault shimmering through the air as it grazed our Dragonoid's wings.

"This isn't good." I bit my lip in irritation. "He's right in our weak spot." It made sense. I was fighting Dragonoids with Dragonoids. They would have to be royally stupid not to exploit the weaknesses of variants in their own machines, and the Boneknappers' A.I.s obviously hadn't survived this long by being stupid. "What do we do? We're dead if that thing keeps attacking us from above.

"Diende mhi am."

"We what?" I glanced behind me in confusion, watching as Ruusaan's fingers blurred across a console she'd pulled down from the ceiling. "What are you doing? Ruusaan this is no time to…"

I froze as suddenly my chair was bathed in bright blue lights from all sides, my hands flying to my head as I felt pain spasm down from my brain throughout my entire body. It was as though someone was lowering me slowly head first into a pool of ice-cold water. In a matter of moments, it felt like my own blood had turned to ice. As the pain reached its peak I watched through half-closed eyes the Dragonoid's language suddenly flared across all screens, the strange triangular letters quickly shifting and morphing into English.

"Neural…Linkage?"

On the outside, the Night Fury was changing too.

Before the Thunder-Drum Intelligence's cameras, it watched as thrusters extended into legs, fingers uncurled and arms moved away from the main body as shoulder blades extended. The chest section rotated a hundred and eighty degrees so it was now facing upward, the wings folded back into an angel formation as the main cannons arced over to click into place between them. Finally, as the hands pulled the mech's shield and rifle from their moorings, its and the pointed plate sunk between the shoulder blades, one last transformation rotated into view; a long thin pointed humanoid head, vents on its 'cheeks' melding into the vulcan cannons on either side, parallel with its thin dark green visor.

The A.I. barely had time to react to the sudden transformation before a bolt of green energy from the Night Fury's rifle sliced through his Dragonoid's armour like a knife through butter.

"Buruk. Buruk. Bur-"

The intelligence of the Nightmare heard its comrade's cry and watched the Thunderdrum explode in a fiery ball of heat and debris, his attacker not even stopping as he turned to face the remaining Boneknapper head on.

The A.I. managed to eject its Dragonoid's concussion wave cannon before another energy blast reduced it to shrapnel, the sudden weight lost from its mech's underside giving it the speed it needed to avoid the rest of the barrage. The intelligence might have grinned if it had a mouth as it barrel rolled its machines effortlessly through the Night Fury's attacks. Whoever was piloting the Night Fury, it was clear they had little if any real battle experience. He or she had gotten lucky with their attacks up until now. It banked the Dragonoid high into the sky, the sunlight glinting off the blades of the Timber-jack wings as it fell into a steep dive, its target clear…

Until the Night Fury attached its rifle to its leg with a magnetic clank.

With nowhere to go but down, the Nightmare's Intelligence could only watch in confusion as the humanoid mech before it pulled one of the cruciform longswords from its sheath along the back energy cannons and shot towards him with a burst of speed. It had no time to even react as the swords missed one of the Timber-jack wings' blades completely, severing the appendage off at the joints as the onyx mech screamed over the Nightmare in a single rolling motion.

Alarms screamed in the empty cockpit as the A.I. struggled to regain control of its flailing machine, the Nightmare's enlarged thrusters now the only things keeping the Dragonoid in the air.

But the Night Fury wasn't done. Crossing its arms protectively over its chest so its shield protected the cockpit, the back-mounted cannons arcing over to lock into a forward firing position on each shoulder, its wings spread wide.

The last thing the Nightmare's A.I. saw was the humanoid mech throwing its arms wide before a pair of pillars of bright blue light erupted from the powerful cannons, the sheer force of impact with its own machine sending his Dragonoid careening into the castle before it power source enveloped everything in an explosion of burning white.

I slumped back in my chair, my eyes wide as I watched the castle become engulfed by the Boneknapper's destruction. Light seemed to shine from every window before the building was consumed, the towers disintegrating from the shockwaves of the explosion as debris was sent scattering in all directions. By the time the light faded, all that was left was a crater and the smouldering foundations. Whatever that A.I. had been putting in its' engines, it sure sent it off with a bang.

I felt…different. As though something was energising every nerve of my body. Now in its humanoid form, it felt like the Night Fury was responding to my thoughts, as though it had become another part of me. I needed to look left, and the head turned left. I wanted a melee weapon and it drew one of the swords and fought with them well too.

"This is…incredible," I breathed. "I knew the Dragonoids were advanced, but this…" I looked back at Ruusaan. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Then I saw her face, sombre look with sad regretful eyes. "Ni vaabir'naas copaanir aht kadala gar."

I didn't get a chance to read the translation.

Pain suddenly seared through my entire body, as though someone had set my nerves ablaze with white-hot flame. I screamed as I clutched at my head, trying to claw at the pain inside as the Night Fury did the same. I could feel the Dragonoid tumble through the sky as darkness consumed my vision, alarms blaring and mixing with my screams as Ruusaan tried to regain control.

The world was dark and silent, save for the crackling of a fire somewhere nearby and the chirping of crickets.

My body felt like it had been encased in lead. Everything ached from the tiniest movement, not that it was easy for my heavy limbs to move around much, not with something warm and soft wrapped around my sluggish form.

'Huh. I'm alive. Always a plus.'

Groggily I forced my eyes open, grateful for the orange hues of sunset and the soft glow of firelight than the blinding afternoon sun I was expecting. Actually, I wasn't expecting to be outside at all, the last memories of the Night Fury and those last moments of pain flashing through my mind. I could see the shadowed form of the Dragonoid, returned to its dragon form, across from the fire, lit from behind by the dying embers of the fantasy castle off in the distance. I tried to sit up, only for the warm, soft thing to tighten around me in the form of long black-clad arms. I looked up at their owner with a tired smile, my head resting on her shoulder.

"You know, if we're going to make a habit of this, people might start talking."

Ruusaan didn't reply. She didn't even smile or make eye contact. She just held me tight, just as she had done after my impromptu first flight with the Night Fury, her eyes distant as she stared into the fire's flames.

"Ni vaabir'naas copaanir aht kadala gar."

Now that we weren't in the middle of combat, I had a chance to process her words. I recognised a few of them, specifically kadala; hurt.

"You didn't want to hurt me? Gar…kadala ni?" I guessed, freeing one hand to sign with. Ruusaan nodded, not even a twitch of a smile at the corners of her lips that usually came with my botched attempts to speak her language. I frowned uncomfortably, before gently prising her arms off me. She resisted at first but relented quickly. She refused to look at me as I sat up, choosing instead to draw her knees up to her chest, her arms coming round her legs tightly like a child fending off the cold.

"Ni ceta, Hallex." her voice was small and soft, slightly muffled from talking into her arms. "Ni aabir'naas mirdir bal gar kadala."

I didn't need a translation matrix to understand she was trying to apologise. I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, half-consciously realising Ruusaan had removed my helmet while I'd been knocked out. I remembered the feeling of the device the translation matrix had called Neural Linkage as it had powered up, and the pain that had pulsed through my body five minutes later. But in those five minutes, I'd gained control of the Night Fury's humanoid form. It had been as though the Dragonoid had become an extension of my own body, and without that sudden edge, I had no doubt the Boneknappers would have ripped the Night Fury to shreds. I turned my gaze to the fire.

"You don't have to apologise. We were in a tight spot, and you know more about Ca'furor than I do, and…" I glanced over at her, her still blank look telling me my friend hadn't understood a word I'd said. I smiled slightly. It's easy to forget you don't speak the same language when you have a translation matrix between you. I wracked my brains for the right words to make her understand. After a few moments of awkward silence, I turned to face my friend fully, hoping my memory wasn't going to make a fool of me. "Nayc linibar par ceta. "Ni sanyc gar."

No need for sorry. I trust you. At least that's what I was trying to say.

For a moment, Ruusaan didn't say anything. She just stared at me with wide eyes over her folded arms.

"Did I say something wrong?" I panicked at the awkward silence. "I'm sorry! If it was something rude I didn't mean it! I mean-amph!"

All brain function seemed to stop as Ruusaan bowled me over in a flurry of movement, crushing me against her in a tight hug as she rested her head against my shoulder.

"R-Ruusaan?" I could feel my elbows digging into the ground as I tried to hold the two of us up. "W-w-what are you-"

"Ne'johaa." I knew I'd been told to shut up, but my friend's voice was soft and quiet. "Ni vaabir'naas copaanir gar aht haa'taylir ni pir'ekulor."

I tensed as I caught sight of tears trailing down her face out of the corner of my eye, but Ruusaan only hugged me tighter when I tried to move away, and I could feel her smile against my neck. Did that mean she was happy? Did I get it right?

I sighed quietly, turning my gaze to the first stars as they began to shine in the darkening sky as a heavy confused feeling settled in my chest.

My gut was conflicting with my brain…again. Eighteen years of people telling me Dragonoids were bloodthirsty killers was warring with an exact opposite example that currently had her arms around my neck. My brain kept insisting that every family had its black sheep. One example of the species didn't represent all aspects of the species as a whole after all. But, my gut countered, if one Dragonoid was against the norm, whose to say there weren't others? Even after the death of Arthur Hofferson, there were still people like him who just wanted to end with as little bloodshed as possible. Who was to say if there weren't like-minded Dragonoids in Washington Crater? And maybe…

I stopped the train of thought abruptly as I realised I was getting in over my head. If I couldn't even convince my own father that I wasn't worth the AF training process, what chance did I have trying to convince Dragonoids to pursue a path of peace?

Not that it mattered anyway. Soon Ruusaan would be back with her kind, I would be back with mine, the Night Fury would be left to rust at the bottom of the Atlantic and that would be the end of it.

And besides, right now I had a more pressing matter on my mind.

"Ruusaan…my arms are falling asleep here."

TIME: 2327 HOURS (LOCAL TIME)

LOCATION: THE DOME, WEST SECTOR FIVE, MCKRILLEN RESIDENCE

My eyes were itching with tiredness as I practically fell through the front door, as though my body had decided spending several hours comatose didn't count as sleep. The Dome itself was almost silent, most people getting ready for tomorrow's New Year celebrations, and that suited me just fine. These days, the fewer people who saw me, the better in my humble opinion. And the day of final examinations, when Astrid would take all this fame off my shoulders, was two weeks too far off.

I thumbed through the Night Fury's files on my tablet as I shut the door, the screen's pale glow the only light in the darkened hallway as I trudged towards the stairs and bed. The Dragonoid had been no worse for wear after the battle and the Neural Linkage (or N-Link as I'd shortened it to on my notes) incident. Should everything go smoothly, all that was left to do was wait for the next Dragonoid raid and Ruusaan would be well on her way home. If only it they hadn't been so quiet-

"You're home late."

"Gah!"

I must have jumped a foot in the air as my father's massive form seemed to materialise out of the shadows of the living room door. He seemed tired and haggard, his features lit by the lampposts outside the living room window, but he watched me calmly, his face unnervingly unreadable.

"Dad! Hi! You're back!" I grinned a bit too forcefully as I tried to hide the tablet behind my back, my free hand fumbling for the hallway light, "And you're home!…in the dark."

"I was waiting for you," Stoic winced slightly as the overhead light flickered on, but generally his expression didn't change. His voice was quiet and calm, something that naturally filled me with dread. "You've been keeping secrets from me, Alex. Gobber told me everything."

"G-Gobber told you…" my throat was quickly drying out, my blood running cold as I subconsciously inched back towards the door. "Look if he's said anything about a house party that was his idea…and it was his house-"

"Did you honestly believe you could hide it from me forever?" the general advanced on me dangerously, quickening my own back-pedalling. "You should know this by now Alex. There is no secret, not in this Dome, not on this island, that I do not quickly get wind of."

"Ah…y-yeah I'm pretty sure you've mentioned that befo-"

"So," my back hit the door with an audible thud as Stoic leaned down ominously, "I think it's time you and I had a little chat…about Dragonoids."

Across the other side of The Dome, I'd swear I heard someone drop a pin in the deathly silence. My father stared down expectantly, no doubt fully aware of the terror I was feeling right now. Nightmares of assault frames swarming the village crater filled my mind, of soldiers and guns surrounding the Night Fury, of Ruusaan in their sights, seconds away from…

And then, the images vanished as my father began to laugh. He laughed loud, picking me up in a bone-crushing bear hug that lifted me off my feet, my tablet falling to the floor with a clatter.

He…he wasn't mad. Why wasn't he mad? That thought alone made the dread feelings return.

"Ah my boy! I hoped this day would come!" Stoic grinned from ear to ear as he practically carried me into the living room. "You've no idea how long I've been waiting for this, son. Well, actually you probably do…"

My dad's ramblings quickly muted as he set me down, my legs giving way and letting my body fall into the well-worn armchair behind me, my tired brain working in overdrive. There's no way Gregorio McKrillen would be this ecstatic to find his only son had been trying to help a Dragoind back to Washington Crater, let alone the fact I'd been keeping an almost fully functional Dragonoid mech barely six klicks from The Dome's parameter. The fact Gobber had apparently told him about Ruusaan also didn't sit right with me. There was no way I could see that would stop Gobber from trying to hunt the Night Fury down himself if he'd had even a suspicion that it was close by, short of tying him to a raft and pushing him out to sea. That meant Stoic had to betalking about something else. Something Dragonoid-related…

…

If it hadn't looked suspicious, I might have tried to bury my face in my hands at my own stupidity.

"You're talking about AF Training."

"Of course I am!" My father gave me a strange look but couldn't keep the grin off his face. "What else would I be talking about? All those years, Alex! I'll admit, I almost gave up on you, I don't deny it, but my God I'm glad I weathered it out for you! All this time you were holding back on me, I can't believe it!"

I smiled faintly as the giant of a man before me was practically dancing like a kid at Christmas and singing my praises. I suppose a part of me was happy. I mean this is what I wanted, right? My dad was…proud of me. Proud of what I'd accomplished, what I'd done. This one moment should have meant more to me than all the fame and attention I'd had this past month combined.

So why did it feel more like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach?

Maybe it was because I was essentially cheating. No one else who entered into the arena knew the key phrases for the Dragonoids' A.I. after all, so how could I accept my dad's newfound adoration for essentially stopping the enemy in its tracks and giving them a fresh coat of red paint?

But it was more than that, I realised. It was more about Ruusaan. When I was around here, it felt like everything I knew about her race was wrong. Worse, because I now knew what was piloting those mechs into battle, I could no longer see Dragonoids as soulless metal killing machines. It made me sick to my stomach to think that pretty soon I would be expected to go against people like Ruusaan. Sure, many of them probably wanted to see humans dead for whatever reason, but maybe there were others like Ruusaan; good people who were only doing their jobs…or duty.

My own father was praising me because he thought I could kill Dragonoids, and I realised I didn't want that kind of pride from him. I just wanted him to be proud of me for being…me.

"Dad," I started quietly, to try and bring him down gently. "It's kinda late, and I'll be fit for nothing for the New Year if I don't get some sleep so…do you mind if we pick this up in the morning?"

It was as though someone had pressed pause on a video recording. It might have been funny watching all my father's energy come to an abrupt halt like that. It might have been, if the reason he was so ecstatic wasn't making me feel sick to my stomach.

Stoic gave me an embarrassed smile, one hand rubbing the back of his neck guiltily.

"Sorry, guess it is a bit late to be energetic right?" He laughed uneasily, and I tried to half-heartedly do the same for his sake. "But no this has been a good…talk?"

He seemed unsure, and I didn't blame him. When most conversations between us usually ended in shouting matches, I'll admit it felt a little strange to end on such a quiet note.

"Yeah, good talk Dad," I wasn't sure if I should hug him or not as I went past him into the hallway to collect my tablet, so I settled for a pat on the arm instead, "and we can talk more in the morning okay?"

"Yes, you're right. Good talk, good talk." Stoic nodded to himself as he awkwardly followed me into the hallway. "I will say this though before you go," I felt a pair of heavy hands fall on my shoulders as I stood up. "You've done good, son. No, you've done great."

I smiled as best I could, even though I didn't want to. What else could I do? It was either that or tell him I'd spent the best part of a month in the company of one of our enemy, and that everything that had made him so proud of me was a lie.

Dragonoid Translations

"Ni tsikala."
(I'm ready)

"Hallex! Aru'ela!"
(Alex! Hostiles!)

"Ka'gaht aay'han."
(South-east.)

"Te Echoy'la."
(The Lost)

"Ganar mirshko, Hallex. Ni ganar besbe'trayce ke'gyce."
(Have courage, Alex. I have weapon control.)

"Laam ogir!"
(Up there!)

"Diende mhi am."
(Then we change.)

"Buruk. Buruk. Bur-"
(Danger. Danger. Dan-)

"Ni vaabir'naas copaanir aht kadala gar."
(I didn't want to hurt you.)

"Ni ceta Hallex. Ni aabir'naas mirdir bal gar kadala."
(I'm sorry Alex. I didn't think and you were hurt.)

"Nayc linibar par ceta. "Ni sanyc gar."
(No need for sorry. I trust you.)

"Ne'johaa. Ni vaabir'naas copaanir gar aht haa'taylir ni pir'ekulor."
(Shut up. I don't want you to see me cry.)

Author's Notes

So, this was the chapter where things started to slow down, at least from a writing perspective. The battle over Disneyland was the first real divergence from the plot of the movie that didn't have any relation to movie events (Alex's flight into the upper atmosphere can be related to the 'New Tail' sequence of the movie, last chapter had some basis on the montage sequence, etc.) and was included because I realised that Alex and Ruusaan needed to be shown piloting and fighting with the Night Fury before the final battle to make it believable. In HttyD it's not as big an issue, because Toothless is a living being. he knows his strengths and weaknesses and how to fire plasma blast, and Hiccup is largely just there to keep him up in the air. As such, his battle was written in to not only give Alex a taste of actual battle experience, but also to showcase the Night Fury's abilities to the reader.

The main reason for the slow down however came from a scene that didn't make the cut. I had an idea that during the battle, Alex and Ruusaan were going to have been aided by a community of Humans and Dragonoids that lived in the ruins of Disneyland, and would have helped nurse Alex back to health after the fall. Their appearance was supposed to help showcase the Dragonoids species, as the aliens of the community had been exiled from Washington Crater due to their outspoken views on the war. They also had a larger role to play towards the end of the story, but I'll explain that at a later less spoilery date. In the end, the scenes was cut because I was getting bogged down with it. Writing had slowed to a crawl for the first time and I just felt that the scene was adding as much to the narrative as I would have liked. I kept what I wrote though, and I might upload it as a 'bonus deleted scene' after the end of the story.

Originally, the Boneknappers were supposed to be a Dragonoid patrol, but went through changes when I realised Ruusaan would probably have conflicting issues about going up against her own people, while Alex was having conflicting issues about fighting in general. The Boneknappers were originally a pirate gang, either of rogue Dragonoid species or Humans of a Fallout-esque Raider gang, but this didn't set well with the 'not-so'different' angle I was trying to portray. I changed them to being completely rogue A.I. to make them nothing more than targets neither Alex nor Ruusaan would have problems shooting down.

Neural Linkage, more commonly known as the N-Link, was a device I developed for an original novel series as a way of explaining how a Humanoid giant robot coupld be operated. I'm obviously not the first person to come up with the concept (the five minute timer is a shout out to Neon Genesis Evangelion), but I've always struggled to describe how such mecha moves in relation to how a pilot operates it (usually with pedals and control sticks) so Dragonoid seemed as good a place as any to see how prospective audiences would accept it.

If you've read either of my previous mecha-infusion fics, AVATAR: Last of the Black Core or AVATAR: Hunt for the Courier (and I'm still really sorry to you for never being able to finish that series), you might remember that I used to compile an OST at the beginning of the fics of music from various anime that either helped me during the writing process or I felt suited the scenes now that they had giant robots in them. I didn't do this with Dragonoid because HttyD's soundtrack fits just as well with Dragonoids as it did with Dragons, but at this juncture, when things original scenes will start to become more frequent, I'd thought I'd share the music pieces that helped inspire the writing where applicable. According to my notes, the first 1:40 of Track thirteen of Kill La Kill's OST, 'KiLL LA KiLL', was the primary musical inspiration for the initial Boneknapper attack, while 'Coupling Mode', Track four of disc two of the Gundam SEED ripoff Buddy Complex's OST. Considering these are anime from 2013 and 2014, it's possible these were tracks I used during the rewriting process. Either that, or I spent a lot longer on this chapter than I thought I did (and I really don't want to think that I potentially spent four years writing two chapters). 'Test Drive' played its' part in the events prior to the battle of course until about the 1:20 mark, although I think 'The Cove' was playing more in my head more than 'Not so Fireproof' for Alex and Ruusaan's heart to heart.

Alright, that's all for today. Thank you for reading all you have so far, and I wish you all the very best for the new year!