SECTION 08

THE CHANGING OF MINDS

DATE: JANUARY 3, 251 A.D.E.

TIME: 1518 HOURS

LOCATION: ENGLAND, MILITARY POLICE ACADEMY ASSAULT FRAME TRAINING ARENA

A battlefield stretched out before Astrid, or at least what someone had thought a battlefield should look like. The ground had been pocketed with large craters and strewn with the disabled carcasses of Assault Frames and slabs of steel mimicking fallen buildings.

These series of battles would be the final examination for most of the pilots in AF training; two trainees and their Vikings against a Dragonoid selected at random, barring the Nightmare. It had been a chance for trainees to prove themselves, and show their superiors that they could fight in more than just an open arena or structured maze. It also gave them a last fleeting chance to gain the points needed to pull them up the rankings. Each battle pair was grouped together by their place in the rankings; first was paired with second, third with forth and so on, with the bottom pair being on first so, in Astrid's humble opinion, they wouldn't be close to wetting themselves by the end of the day. As such, it came as no surprise to her at least that her fight was the last battle, and the one everyone had come to see. She knew the observation galleries were full to bursting, the shutters that ran the length of the ceiling had been lowered to reveal everyone from her own squad mates to the Military Police brass gazing down at the 'war-torn' arena below behind thick armoured glass.

Unfortunately for her though, they weren't here to see her.

Hiccup's mech stood at her Viking's back, something she would never have anticipated even being a possibility when she had been told Nu squad had been selected for AF Training. From the bottom of the barrel, he'd crawled up the rankings. Past Waif and Fishlegs, past all the members of Squads Alpha, Lambda, Nu, Rho and Upsilon to reach the number two spot, directly behind her at the top of the heap. For all his talk about wanting to stay out of the limelight, only a few precious performance points separated the two of them. One wrong move from her, or one right move from him, and all her effort into pulling her name out of the mud by becoming the greatest ace of her generation would be wasted. Even so, she knew no matter what happened, it would be a bitter victory. Everyone here was here for Hiccup. Everyone expected him to come out of this fight with the number one ranking in hand. Even her own mother, who had actually been against Astrid going through with AF Training, had high hopes that Hiccup would take the top spot. But to Astrid, a victory would be a victory. That was all that mattered to her now.

Their Dragonoid that had been randomly selected was the workhorse of the enemy. She'd caught sight of the Gronckle-class skulking around the opposite end of the Arena. She could hear the thrum of its rapidly beating wings and caught the occasional glimpse of its' bright red camera amongst the wreckage.

It was getting closer.

"So are we going to work together to take this guy down or what?"

Astrid scowled as Hiccup's uncertain voice crackled over her helmet's headset. It was true some of the trainees would sometimes team up rather than risk losing performance points when going up against the more difficult Dragonoids such as the Zippleback, but this was just a Gronckle, your average grunt mech. She didn't need help to defeat it. Even if she did, Hiccup wasn't high on her list of allies.

"I thought you said you wanted you wanted to stay out of the limelight," she replied dryly.

"I also don't want to get ahead of you. If we work together-"

"You'll just get in my way," Astrid swore she heard his teeth click shut as she snapped at him. "So stay out of this. I'm winning this thing."

"But if we work together-"

"You'll get in my-"

"Target incoming! Three o'clock!"

Concrete exploded at the feet of her Viking as Astrid pulled her mech clear, Hiccup's machine behind her diving for cover as the Gronckle swooped overhead, its camera swinging its gaze across the battlefield until it found a target.

And with Hiccup nowhere in sight, the Dragonoid found its' target in her.

This was what she wanted; a straight up one on one fight, with no one to get between her and her victory.

"You're mine, tin can." Astrid grinned as she pushed her Viking forward. "This time…This time for sure!"

Energy blasts rained from the Gronckle's turrets as Astrid charged, weaving her Viking between the slabs of debris and fallen assault frames to get closer to her target. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as her recoilless rifle belched practice shells across the arena, keeping the Dragonoid from fleeing too far in any direction.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me!" Astrid raised her mech's smoothbore cannon towards the Gronckle's head. All she needed was one perfect shot, and the win was hers-

Her enemy's plasma mortar put an end to such dreams.

Alarms screamed in her ears as a single mortar shot exploded before her Viking's cameras, reducing the smoothbore to slag as the shockwave caused her mech to stagger back.

"No! NO!" Astrid raised the rifle, firing blindly at whatever shapes she could see through the static that consumed her screens. "I can't lose! Not here! NOT TO HIM!"

She could hear the thrum of the Gronckle's wings ringing in her ears as though it was bouncing off the arena's walls and amplifying with every wing beat. She was half blind, half deaf and her ammunition was rapidly depleting in her panicked frenzy.

"Where are you?" alarms screamed at her as she spun the Viking round, its joints pushed to their limits as she tried to lock onto a target she could barely see. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"Mav gar sushir?"

In an instant, it was all over. As her ammo counter hit zero and the strange alien voice filled her speakers, Astrid lurched her Viking around to come face to face with the Gronckle's plasma mortar.

The world around her suddenly went silent. The alarms, the beat of the Dragonoid's wings, even the sound of her own heartbeat was deafened as she stared into the face of death.

This wasn't supposed to happen. There was supposed to be contingents in place to stop Dragonoids from getting too close during training matches…

"Mav gar sushir?"

And then there was the voice; a low metallic monotone that reverberated in her chest, speaking words of a language she didn't understand. The language of the enemy.

"Mav gar sushir?"

"I…I don't understand you!" She bared her teeth at the static-ridden image, her anger quickly overcoming her fear. "And even if I did, you don't have anything to say that I want to hear."

"Mav gar sushir?"

"Shut up! Just shut up right now!"

"Mav gar sushir?"

"SHUT UP!" rage consumed her as threw the remains of her Viking forward. "I WILL DESTROY YOU! I WILL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!"

"Buruk ulur."

The Plasma mortar was charged before she could take a second step, the cockpit bathed in purple light through the screens' static. Her rage evaporated as the fear returned, the whine of the weapon's power drowning out all other sounds in her ears…

"Astrid!"

The light disappeared as the sound of metal on metal screeched in Astrid's ears, the plasma mortar disappearing from her view the instant before she heard the heavy thud of the Dragonoid's weapon firing. Burning plasma missed her Viking by inches as it screamed past, slamming into the wrecked Assault Frame behind her before she even had time to realise how close to death she had come.

What came next was all a blur to her. Maybe the downed Viking hadn't been as safe for mock battles as it could have been. Maybe there had still been hydrogen fuel left in the engine. All Astrid knew was the moment the plasma crashed into the wreckage of the mech, the Viking exploded in a brilliant blue fireball that swept across the arena. The explosion so nearby caused the shockwaves to blow Astrid's Viking clear off its feet, its pilot screaming in terror as she was tossed about inside the cockpit like a rag doll. She felt pain spasm through he body as her mech crashed to the ground, alarms shrieking in her ears as it rolled over several times before coming to a halt with a sickening crunch against a nearby barricade.

The lights of the cockpit suddenly dimmed, maybe from a loss of power or maybe simply because of an oncoming concussion. Astrid could feel consciousness slipping away as she weakly tried to free herself from the safety harness but to no avail. As she let the darkness consume her, the last thing she heard was the heavy thump of a smoothbore cannon, and a siren announcing the battle to be over.

"…-strid! Astrid can yo-…Ast-…Astrid!"

A voice broke through the darkness, warm hands on Astrid's shoulders contrasting sharply with the strange cold feeling that was seeping through the back of her pilot armour. The voice itself was dulled by a ringing in her ears, but it was loud enough for her to realise at least one thing.

She was still alive.

Astrid opened her eyes…and immediately regretted it, the blinding white lights on the Arena's ceiling causing spots to dance across her vision and pain to slice through her brain.

"Hey, stay with me now," Hiccup's voice came from somewhere above as his blurred face blotted out the lights. "The medics will be here in a minute. Are you okay?"

"Depends," her body protested as she forced herself to sit upright, shaking off Hiccup's hands in the process. She pushed the pain away as she forced Hiccup's face to sharpen. "How badly did you beat me?"

Hiccup didn't have to reply. As she looked up to the observation galleries, she knew the wail of sirens from oncoming ambulances and fire trucks would have been drowned out by the cheers of the roaring crowd. She could see General Stoic looking on proudly at his son, her squadmates jumping and hollering like wild animals and shouting the victor's name.

Astrid didn't need to read lips to know it wasn't her name they were calling.

She thought she would have felt angry or sick, rather than the hollow feeling that was currently settling in her stomach. It was that familiar drained feeling she'd felt before; the feeling of resignation. First place had been all that mattered to her. Nothing less than that would have given her the distance she wanted from her father and his actions.

But now, none of it mattered. She glanced over to where Hiccup had parked his own Assault Frame nearby. Parked being the least heroic way of describing the display before her. While her own Viking lay in a crumpled heap, layers of fire suppressing foam being sprayed onto whatever flames tried to push through the armoured plate, Hiccup's machine stood over the wrecked remains of the Gronckle, the Dragonoid's head crumpled in from the force of a point-blank shot. Red paint had splattered across the Assault Frame from the back blast of the close-range shot, staining the giant mech's armour like blood from a fresh kill. It was an image she knew would be plastered across the front page of The Dome's newspapers, and it sickened her to know her name wouldn't be associated with it. At best, she would be a footnote at the bottom of the article, overshadowed by her own subordinate. Because of him, no one would remember her as the best AF pilot of her generation. Because of him, Astrid knew the people of The Dome would always see her as Arthur Hofferson's daughter.

And to her own disgust, Hiccup wasn't even smug about his victory. He wasn't gloating or basking in the praise that would have made it so much easier for her to hate him. If anything, Astrid thought he looked sick and pale, trying his hardest to avert his eyes from the grisly display he had created.

It was almost mocking really, so Astrid thought, that the one who had taken her rightful victory was so disgusted by the sight of it.

DATE: JANUARY 7, 251 A.D.E.

TIME: 1547 HOURS

LOCATION: THE DOME, EAST SECTOR THREE, REFUGEE DISTRICT, COWELL'S EATERY & BAR

In 139 A.D.E., around twenty years after The Dome had been completed, her citizens had woken up one fine day to discover tales of their home had spread across the world. The remains of humanity had heard of their success at repelling the Dragonoids, and now they wanted in. The Dome Council had been hard pressed to turn away their fellow man with so few humans left in the world, and thus the Refugee District had been created.

Beginning as a tent town wedged into a corner of The Dome near the Harbour (Back then having simply been one of the main gates into the interior before the creation of the mobile fortresses), it had grown into buildings of stone and glass that spanned most of East Sector and housed almost a third of The Dome's population. While most of The Dome's buildings were fairly uniform in design, the Refugee District had essentially been built by refugees for refugees, resulting in a mishmash of different cultural designs from Asia to the Americas and everything in-between.

Cowell's was an establishment where several of these cultures clashed. Originally built to resemble an American 1950's Diner, it had gradually picked up influences from its various owners of the past century, from German to French, Indian to Japanese. Each had left their mark, including its current owner, who was currently trying to return it to its original feel without losing the quirks that came with its' history.

Astrid didn't know why her feet had decided to take her here after she'd been discharged by the Medical Devision. Maybe it was because it was so quiet, the plastic booths and stools at the bar practically empty after the lunch rush as the jukebox in the corner quietly played some centuries old song about lithium flowers and incredible math. In fact, aside from the owner, only one other customer was in the narrow establishment; seated at the bar, hunched over a large slice of apple pie.

She only had to take one look at his lanky frame and dark brown hair for her eyes to narrow in irritation.

"Are you following me?"

Hiccup looked up from his slice of pie with tired eyes. For someone who was the talk of The Dome, Astrid thought her subordinate (former subordinate she reluctantly reminded herself) looked as though he hadn't slept in days. His eyes were heavy-lidded and ringed with dark circles, his civilian clothes rumpled and haphazard and his hair mussed and sticking up at odd angles. He gazed at Astrid for a moment longer than she thought was necessary, before going back to his food.

"What? My life revolves around you now?" he grunted nonchalantly. "I like the pie here, alright? You should try some, best thing short of my mum's cooking." He glanced up at the owner. "No offence."

The blonde bartender shrugged with an easy smile, before turning an expectant gaze on Astrid. It took a few moments for her to make up her mind, but she slowly nodded her head as she approached the bar.

She didn't sit down until the owner had returned with another slice of pie. Even then, the only reason she sat down on the stool next to Hiccup's was because the bartender had placed it there.

"You look like death," she muttered as she dug in.

"And you're feeling better," Hiccup smirked in return. "I was starting to get worried."

"I don't want your pity, Hiccup," Astrid forced the hot anger into her voice at the thought. "It's not like I was comatose or anything anyway. You won, end of story." she sent a glare his way, "You want me to congratulate you?"

"Not really. I didn't want this kind of attention, remember?" Hiccup reached into his jacket pocket. "I was worried because I wanted to give this to you before I head out. The Hospital was a bit too exposed to the media for my liking."

Astrid watched with suspicious eyes as he pulled out a small sheet of paper, folded in half, and smoothed it out on the counter between them. The seal of the Military Police caught her eye almost immediately at the top of the page, but it was words that followed that made her drop her fork in surprise:

From: Gregorio McKrillen, General-in-Chief of The Dome Military Police Force.

To: ….

We, reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage, and good Conduct, do by these Presents Constitute and Appoint you to be an Officer of The Dome Military Police Force, holding the rank of 2nd Lieutenant from the day of…

"This is an officer's commission." Astrid stared at Hiccup with wide eyes. "This is your officer's commission."

"Actually, I want it to be your officer's commission," Hiccup smiled slightly, clearly enjoying her surprise. "That's why I asked Dad to leave the name blank. I told you I didn't want this Astrid, and I'm not going to need it either. A commission is a big thing. It's a guaranteed career with the Military Police after we've completed compulsory service, you know that."

"I said-"

"I know, I know!" He rolled his eyes as she scowled darkly from being interrupted, "You don't want my pity, I get that. That's not why I'm doing this. If you don't take it, I'm going to give it to Fishlegs, or Waif or even Snotlout if I have too! I. Don't. Want. It." He turned away from her. "I'm not going to need it where I'm going."

"And where, pray tell, are you planning to go?" Astrid pushed the commission back to him angrily. "Even if you turn down this promotion for whatever insane reason you've cooked up, you still have to complete compulsory service as long as you live in The Do-"

The realisation hit her cold, like a punch to the gut. He didn't look her in the eye, preferring instead to take great interest in the last few mouthfuls of pie before him.

"Oh no. No no no. You can't be that stupid."

"I'm not being stupi-"

"The hell you aren't!" She grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing him to look at her. "Hiccup, you can't leave The Dome! You'd never survive out there by yourself."

He turned away from her. "I can handle it."

"You can barely handle yourself!" She felt a pang of satisfaction as he winced. "Hiccup, there's nothing but death and Dragonoids out there. Where are you going to go? The Isle is empty, there's nowhere for you to go! Nowhere safe anyway."

Hiccup laughed humourlessly. "I didn't know you cared Astrid," he waved at the bartender. "Bill please."

His words cut deep, a knot in her chest clenching hard.

"I hate you, Alex," she said softly. "For what you did. For what you tried to make me believe, but…I don't want to see you dead."

Hiccup smiled at her as he stood up and paid both bills, a strange sad smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I would have thought you'd be happier about this Astrid," he replied quietly as he headed for the door. "This is what you wanted right? After today, you won't have to see me at all."

As Astrid watched him leave, she surprised even herself when she had no answer for him.

DATE: JANUARY 8, 251 A.D.E.

TIME: 0803 HOURS

LOCATION: ENGLAND, SIX KLICKS SOUTHEAST OF DOME TERRITORY

Sneaking out of The Dome had been easy. Dad had been working late almost every night since his return, not a surprise considering the loss of life that had resulted from the disaster the mission had become. As such, it wasn't hard to pack a small bag of essentials and get past The Dome parameter in the early hours without sounding any alarms. Neither was it particularly hard to 'borrow' a pistol and a couple of magazines worth of ammunition for it from Outpost 83RK's weapon stores and a motorcycle from its garage.

Leaving The Dome behind however had been harder than I thought. It wasn't as though I was moving house, after all. I was leaving everything I had ever known behind. I'd made sure to keep the flexi-steel shell that I had called home out of my sight for the journey out to where the Night Fury lay. I knew that if I looked back, I might start thinking this was all just a bad idea.

That said, what little I had pulled together to make a plan was shaky at best. I had no real destination in mind, just so long as it was as far from The Dome as I could get. I'd heard rumours from the Refugee District about other human settlements that disliked The Dome and how it tried to bring all humans together into one place. Many saw it as painting a big target for the Dragonoids to destroy, and with it most of humanity's remains.

My plan, such as it was, was to find one of these smaller settlements and integrate with them, maybe as an engineer or soldier if I was desperate enough.

But my first objective was to get Ruusaan back to Washington Crater. I wasn't about to let my own mistakes get in the way of the original plan, and I saw no reason to stop Ruusaan from going home just because I was imposing exile on myself. I was also still going to dump the Night Fury once I'd returned from America, but only after I'd located a settlement far from The Dome to quietly call my new home. Most probably wouldn't take kindly to having a Dragonoid around, and they might see the Fury as something that might draw the enemy in.

I sighed as I pulled the motorbike up onto the side of the road beside the field. There were so many things that could go wrong, and they were all running through my head as I rigged the bike's IFF to start transmitting in seventy-two hours. I forced my problems to the back of my mind as reached for the tarp covering the supplies I'd bundled into the trailer. Right now I was just had to focus on each issue as it came up, in this case getting everything loaded onto the Night Fury and getting Ruusaan back to Washington Crater without being seen.

The thought stayed with me until a pair of long black boot-clad feet slammed into my chest.

Stars blitzed across my vision as my lungs screamed for air, the kick sending me sailing through the rusted fence with an ugly screech and into the long grass beyond it. My vision blurred painfully as my brain tried to force my body to remember how to breathe, my limbs shaky as I tried to get back to my feet.

"…Ow…"

"That was for stealing the supplies," a cold feminine voice from above me was cruelly indifferent to my pain. A swift follow-up kick to the chest forced me onto my back. "That was for forcing me to follow you out here. And this-" a new pain struck down below as the voice's owner planted another kick straight into my groin, "-is for everything else."

I curled up protectively around my numbing private parts with a painful groan, scowling darkly at the voice's owner as she stood over me with a triumphant smirk plastered across her face.

"Y-you know…I'm pretty sure I only deserved about a third of that."

"What? You thought I was just going to let you get killed out here?" Astrid folded her arms across her chest as I gingerly got to my feet. "Anyway, you're a soldier Hiccup. You know what the brass does to guys that go AWOL?"

"That's only if I'm caught," I dusted myself off with as much dignity as I could, "and like most deserters, being caught isn't exactly high on my list of things to do today."

"Well, that worked out well didn't it?" Astrid smirked again. "We can't be more than six klicks from the parameter, right? That was some escape plan you had there, smart guy."

Putting aside Astrid's amazing judge of distance, the question of how she had had the foresight to hide in my trailer was beginning to bug me. It wasn't as though I'd packed everything a few days beforehand, which meant she must have seen me hook it up to the motorcycle about an hour ago.

Her clothes were also looking rumpled and creased, from her khaki pants to her sky blue shirt and grey bomber jacket. Even her usually pristine braid had a few stray hairs poking out at odd angles, as though she had been sleeping with it made up.

Did that mean…?

"Have you been following me?"

Astrid flinched, apparently caught off guard by the question. It was only for an instant, however, her gaze hardening as though to cover the slip of her mask.

"A soldier gone AWOL isn't just bad for you, it will be bad for the squad. I'm not about to let you put a black mark on my record just because playing soldier doesn't suit you anymore. That said…" she cast an unimpressed gaze across the field, "if this is your idea of living in exile, I'm starting to think I didn't have much to worry about," she smirked at me again. "Were you just going to hide out here until people stopped talking about you, or did you really think your dad wouldn't think to look for you right under his nose?"

"If I say yes, will you go home and pretend you never saw me?"

"Oh, now you look like you have something to hide." she took a step towards me, the smirk never leaving her face. I took an uneasy step back, "And that's good, because I wanted an excuse to ask you about things that just haven't been making sense to me." She took another step. I took another back in turn. "You don't just get to the top of the pile and then try to get out of it, right?" She was advancing now, and I could do nothing but back-pedal into the grass. "So if you're going to be leaving anyway, you may as well tell me your secret. How'd you get so good at taking out Dragonoids?"

I smiled tightly and locked my legs, refusing to move an inch more even when Astrid came up to me nose-to-nose. I had no idea how far we were from the lip of the crater, and I didn't want to risk Astrid catching sight of the Night Fury through the long grass. Or worse, actually falling in.

So I stood still, and smiled.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said quietly, "so please, walk away and forget you saw me. You can take the bike if you like. The supplies too. Just…leave me alone."

"You're not helping yourself," her humourless smile mirrored my own. "I want to know what's going on, Hiccup. No one just gets as good as you did. Especially you. You had something on your side, and you're going to tell me your secret."

I knew I shouldn't say it, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You…can't make me?"

"Can't I?" even though the smile never left her face, I could still hear the incredulous tone in Astrid's voice. "Are you going to try and stop me?"

"Me? No."

I saw her look of confusion for only a moment before she vanished from sight, plucked from the ground by a humanoid shaped blur clad in black as it leapt over us, her screams echoing over the field followed swiftly by the unique sound of two people being rolled down a crater's side.

"Ruusaan? Different story."

Astrid forced down the bile at the back of her throat as she felt herself tumble down a steep slope, her elbows and legs banging into rocky earth as the black blur on top of her that was keeping her wrists in a vice-like grip insured she couldn't escape even if she wanted too.

That all changed the moment they hit the bottom of the slope. Pain shot across Astrid's chest as the blur kicked her away hard and sent her sprawling like a rag doll thrown across a room by an angry child. Her mouth tasted of copper as she bit down on her lip and crashed to the ground, again pushing away the urge to throw up as she rolled to a stop facing the early morning sky.

The blur wasn't done. Astrid had barely caught her breath before she found its' weight thrown against her, the blade of a large lethal looking knife in its humanoid hand pressed against her throat.

She could see a single eye staring down at her through a hole in a helmet's visor; an iris of emerald green, surrounded by white, split from top to bottom by a narrow black slit of a pupil.

"Who…what are you?" Even as she asked the question, Astrid felt she already knew the answer.

"Ruusaan!" The sound of Hiccup's voice broke her from her stupor. She could hear him scrambling down the slope off to one side, but she didn't dare break eye contact with the alien above her. "Let her go!"

The eye darted towards him, then settled back on her.

"Dalyc la eyn aru'ela Hallex." the muffled voice that came from behind the helmet was high and surprisingly feminine. "Ni nuhaatyc-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Hiccup's voice was louder now. She could feel his footsteps through the ground as he approached. "She's not the enemy you hear!? Nayc aru'ela! Now get off her before you do something we'll both regret."

The alien didn't move.

"Pir be'chaaj, Ruusaan!"

With an annoyed growl, the alien (she refused to call it what she already knew it was until she had been told) pushed itself off her and to its feet, one hand sheathing the knife while the other pulled the helmet off its head and tossed it angrily to one side. Astrid stared open-mouthed at the alien's face behind the mask. She took in its' long narrow face, looking slightly too small atop its' thick armour, bone-white skin, eyes set just enough into the skull to be noticeable and jet black hair flowing over small ridges of bone where its ears should be and down to the small of her back…

And as it snarled in Hiccup's direction, she couldn't take her eyes off a row of long pointed teeth hidden behind its pale lips.

"Dalyc la eyn aru'ela Hallex!" It…she?…glared down at Hiccup angrily, standing a good few feet taller than the human before her. "Dalyc keh aht kadala gar!"

"She's not…I mean…" Hiccup gave an annoyed sigh before trying again. "Dalyc gai la Astrid. Dalyc gai burc'ya, bal dalyc ne'naas suvarir."

The alien's eyes widened, just as Astrid felt her jaw drop at what she was seeing. Hiccup was talking in a language no human had even fully understood without the help of a translation matrix in front of them, and once more, the alien was responding to him.

The alien stared at Hiccup, then turned its (her?) gaze to Astrid with narrowed eyes. It turned back to Hiccup.

"Riduur?"

"What!? N-no! What gave you that…" whatever the alien had said had made Hiccup's face turn beet red. He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily as he tried to regain his composure. "No, it's nothing like that. She's just…" he glanced over at her, as though looking for inspiration. As he met her eyes however, whatever embarrassment he'd been feeling evaporated. When he turned back to the alien, Astrid watched a strange calm come over him, as though looking at her had forced the feeling away.

The thought made her feel cold for some reason.

"Dalyc la Alor." he said simply. "Bal burc'ya."

The alien gave Hiccup a hard stare, before turning its gaze back to Astrid. It seemed to glare at her, its eyes accusing her of…something. After a moment more, it turned and walked away without a backward glance.

"Gar taylir haamyc ol'averde, Hallex."

"Yeah well, you're a Dragonoid, so you can't really talk." Hiccup rolled his eyes with a bitter smile as he turned back to Astrid, offering her his hand. "Are you alright?" Astrid scowled up at him in response. "Don't look at me like that. I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I told you to go back to The Dome. If you'd just done tha-"

She kicked him, hard. The sound of her boot connecting with the side of his face making for a satisfying thud as he was forced to the ground. The Dragonoid was on its feet before he had hit the ground. It ran towards her with frightening speed as Astrid pulled herself to her feet, knife in its' hand and poised to attack.

"Ruusaan!"

The Dragonoid stopped giving Hiccup a disbelieving look as he struggled to get back up, rubbing his jaw sorely.

"Hallex! Dalyc kadala gar!"

"And from where she's standing she has every right to." he glanced at Astrid, then turned back to the Dragonoid. "Gar chaah dalyc."

The alien stared incredulously. "Ni chaah dalyc!?"

"You're really so surprised? Have you even-"

"Stop ignoring me!"

Hiccup's shoulders slumped, turning back to her with a hard stare. She glared at him in return, her hands balled into shaking fists.

"You've sunk so low, Hiccup."
"I haven't sunk at-"

"You've sided with them, Hiccup! The enemy we've been fighting for two and a half centuries!"

"I haven't sided with anyone." Hiccup's voice was a deadly calm, which only enraged her even more. "I'm not a traitor Astrid."

"Well, you're doing a great impression of one!" She reached out to grab him by the shirt, only to pull back when the Dragonoid bared her teeth. She settled for another glare. "There's a Dragonoid behind you, and you're….talking with it like its' just another-"

"Person?"

"Human being." Astrid's eyes narrowed to slits. "And that thing isn't human Hiccup. Its' killed billions of us-"

"Ruusaan hasn't killed anyone." There was venom in his voice now, a dark note that actually caught Astrid off guard as he stepped towards her. "Ruusaan got shot down by me on her first sortie, and Ruusaan hasn't even hurt anyone since she landed here. I know what the Dragonoids have done. Don't you dare think I've forgotten, but I also know that I can't blame Ruusaan for every death in this war, just like she can't blame you for every Dragonoid we've shot down." He frowned as Astrid rolled her eyes. "Your dad said-"

"My dad said a lot of things," Astrid snapped, "and look where it got him. I'm not my father Hiccup, I know who my enemies are. And if you've sided with that one," she turned her glare on the Dragonoid, who merely growled in response, "then you're just as bad as all of them."

Hiccup didn't reply. He didn't move when she backed up one step, then another and another. His only movement was to stop the Dragonoid from following her when she turned to break into a full run, determined to get back to The Dome and tell…someone of what she'd seen.

It took all her effort to ignore the heavy feeling in her chest when she realised he wasn't going to even try to stop her.

"Dah da-dah, mhi kyrayc."

"No, we'll be long gone by the time she gets back." I smiled sadly as I watched Astrid scrambled up the crater's side and disappear over the lip. "I'll give her a minute to figure out the keys for the bike aren't in the ignition and then we can pack up and head out okay?"

I looked up at Ruusaan, then realised I hadn't done anything to help her understand me.

"Erm…ba'slanar…I don't know the word for 'soon' alright? Just…be ready to go? Ar tsikala aht ba'slanar?"

Ruusaan stared at me, a troubled look in her eyes that I'd never seen before. It didn't help my mood.

"Or you can just stand around looking lost," I pushed past her and stalked off towards the Night Fury. "If that helps you, then fine, you can do that too."

I couldn't decide if I was angry or upset. I felt like kicking the ever living daylights out of the next rock that crossed my path, but at the same time, I just wanted to cry. Leaving was supposed to be easy; just load up the Night Fury and jet off for Washington Crater. And if Astrid hadn't been following me…

Just thinking about her brought on a new wave of emotions, my hands balling into fists as I slumped down beside the pool and the grave of the Night Fury's pilot.

I wanted to hate her. I wanted to hate Astrid for putting me through this. If it had been anyone else, if it had been Snotlout, Patrick or even my own father, I could have taken off and left The Dome behind without a backward glance.

But because it was Astrid…

"Gar baatir par dalyc."

I glanced up Ruusaan as she settled down beside me, a strangely blank yet somewhat sad look on her face as she stared out across the water. It was almost as though she was forcibly stopping herself from showing any emotion at all.

"Care? What, for Astrid? What makes you say that?" I asked, this time with my usual array of hand signals.

Ruusaan shrugged, not looking at me directly. "Gar liser haa'taylir bic o'r gar troan. Gar vaabir'naas copaanir dalyc or'parguur aht gar."

Or'parguur. Hate. I laughed hollowly. "It doesn't matter if Astrid hates me or not. Anyway, she's hated me for years. What's she going to do, despise me a bit more?"

"Slanar aht dalyc."

"Go to her?" I stared at my friend incredulously. "Ruusaan, I'm telling you there's no point. By the time she gets back to The Dome-"

"Hyu need ta go!"

My brain ground to a halt, my mind barely registering Ruusaan's hands as they grasped my shoulders in a vice-like grip, her eyes boring into mine with a look of desperation and sadness.

Ruusaan was trying to speak English. It wasn't as though I hadn't heard her try before, and it was far from perfect, but any previous attempt to speak my language had always been repeating things I said to her. Here, she was actually trying to form a sentence on her own.

"Hyu need ta go." she repeated, her voice cracking. "Hyu need ta hexplain. Gaa'taylir dalyc liser; Heylp herr see. Sthop her hate fer hyu."

I stared at her in stunned silence, trying to force my mind back into action. She was trying so hard to make me understand that she was using a language she barely understood.

"Why…why does this matter to you?" I received a blank look. "Tion'jor ne ibic baatir gar? It doesn't matter to me what Astrid thinks of me after we leave her…"

My voice failed me as Ruusaan smiled; a small quiet smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Ni or'parguur bic tion'tuur gar copaani trikar'la." was all she said.

TIME: 0817 HOURS

LOCATION: ENGLAND, FIVE KLICKS SOUTH EAST OF DOME TERRITORY

Astrid ran with long strides, cursing ignitions and their need for keys with every step along the cracked road past the ruins of the church. She'd given up on the bike quickly, stopping only to let the air out of both tyres to at least give herself more time to escape, and maybe enough time to bring in reinforcements. She was already kicking herself for forgetting to bring a radio, but if she could just get to one of the outposts, everything would fall into place.

She glanced over her shoulder, the heavy feeling in her chest swiftly returned as she saw the empty road behind her in the morning sun. He wasn't even trying to catch her, not that he could outrun her anyway. Astrid turned back to the road, quickening her pace. Hiccup was making this too easy for her. That irritated her for some reason.

Up ahead, the road split into a T-junction. One road lead up the side of the hill, the route Hiccup had driven out on from Outpost 83RK. The other lead further down into the valley, but was cut off from The Dome by a large tree most likely felled from the heavy autumn storms, big enough to be an annoyance to anyone on a motorbike yet just small enough for someone to leap over with enough momentum. Astrid grinned, quickening her pace towards the log. She pushed off the cracked tarmac with all her might, one hand bracing her against the bark as she vaulted over the log…

And with the scream of a Dragonoid's thrusters, continued up into the air.

For an instant, her heart seemed to stop. As something yanked from behind up into the clouds, she watched with an open mouth as her legs dangled listlessly over the ground that was getting further away with every second.

Then she looked up, straight into the giant glowing green visor of an assault frame sized humanoid head.

To her private disgust, she screamed like a little girl.

The giant head paid her no mind, scooping her up into its hands as it soared up into the air in a wide arc, back towards the ruins of the church. Dust and debris were shaken loose from the tower as the giant approached, grass wilting and tombstones toppling below from the backwash of its thrusters as it hovered near the ancient building.

Pain splashed through her knees and palms as she was unceremoniously dropped onto the tower's roof, bringing her screaming to an abrupt end.

Astrid didn't stop to wait to see what happened next. Back on her feet in an instant, her eyes darted across the tiled roof, desperate for a way down and away from the dark shadow that now hung over her.

To her dismay, all that surrounded her was broken tiles and holes showing the stone floor below to be very far away.

"I need you to stop for a moment." Hiccup's voice was loud in her ears, loud enough to be heard over the deafening sound of the thrusters as the giant landed near to the tower. "I'll let you down in a minute I promise."

Astrid grit her teeth at her own stupidity as she realised now it could only be a Dragonoid that had captured her. A Dragonoid pilot needed a Dragonoid to pilot after all, even if the mech was more humanoid than dragonish. She glared defiantly up into the visor of the giant, her fists clenched at her sides. It was one thing for Hiccup to have sided with them, but to pilot their machines…

"I want to explain, and I want you to listen." His voice was still infuriatingly calm. "Please, just give me a chance-"

"I am not listening to anything you have to say!" The anger blazed within her, words spilling from her mouth in a torrent. "There is nothing you could say that could justify this!"

"Then I won't speak," the hatch in the Dragonoid's chest opened up with a hiss as the thrusters died, Hiccup pulling himself out of the cockpit, "but please Astrid, just talk to her. I'm not asking that you become best friends or anything. I just want you to see that at least one Dragonoid isn't the war thirsty demon you think she is."

Astrid glared up at him, eyes narrowed, fists clenched at her sides. He scowled down at her, and for a moment she thought he might actually leave her to rot…

But then his shoulders slumped.

"Fine," he shrugged as he stepped back into the cockpit. "At least I can say I tried." Astrid stepped back as a mecha-sized came down palm up beside her. "Hop on. I'll let you off an hour or two away from here, I promise."

Astrid eyed the hand warily and the robot it was attached to.

"Or I can leave and you can try and get down yourself. I'm not picky at this point."

The sergeant scowled, but bit down on an acid retort. Almost every fibre of her being told her to stay away from Hiccup and his Dragonoid, both machine and alien life form. Instinct screamed at her to turn away, to find her own way down the tower and get back to the Dome, maybe fast enough to warn the others of Hiccup's betrayal before he was out of the Military Police's reach…

It was to her complete disbelief that she found her feet moving her towards the hand, hands slowly pulling her past its' giant fingers into the palm of the mech's hand.

"See? Was that so hard?"

She glowered up into the mech's face, bracing a hand against one of the fingers so Hiccup wouldn't see it shaking.

"Get. Me. Down…Now."

"Alright, alright, just give me a second…"

Seconds passed, the mecha standing silently over her. A full minute passed before her anger overcame her.

"NOW HICCUP!"

The roar of the Dragonoid's thrusters was her reply. Beneath her feet, the mech's hand twisted out from under her, pain flashing through her shoulder as she hit the metal palm. Then the fingers closed around her, holding her tight in her grasp as the great machine transformed and roared into the sky.

Terror gripped Astrid's mind, and she screamed once more.

Something had gone wrong.

The Night Fury was acting on its own. Without word or warning, it had rocketed into the sky, transformed into its Dragonoid mode and now soared high up towards the thermosphere.

And Astrid was still outside.

I had no idea how I managed to move against the gravity crushing down on me, but somehow I managed to pull myself out of the cockpit chair, the hatch bursting open with an angry hiss as I kicked the emergency release. The wind howled in my ears as I dropped down onto the shield, the air already far colder in my lungs than it had been on the ground. The Night Fury was rocketing upwards at a shallow angle, but the last time it had been out of control I had breached the stratosphere in minutes. That memory alone was reason enough to hurry now.

Astrid was screaming, her eyes focused on the ground rapidly shrinking below her as she struggled in the Night Fury's grasp. The mech's fingers held her tight against its' palm, just hard enough to keep her stuck in its' grasp. My body felt like lead as I practically dragged myself across the shield, eyes always on my sergeant, and never on the empty air that I was one wrong step from falling into.

"Astrid!"

Somehow she heard me over the whistling wind and the roar of the thrusters, the screams stopping in an instant as she saw me above her with hand outstretched. The fear disappeared, replaced by anger as she swatted the hand away. I stared at her exasperatedly, watching as struggled against the Dragonoid's grip.

"Really? You're doing this now?"

She glared up at me, before going back to tugging desperately at her single trapped arm. "I don't need your help, Hiccup!"

"I'm not saying you do, but you're less likely to die out here if you accept it just this once." I reached out again. "Come on Astrid, don't be a-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She swung wildly with her free fist, eyes wide and teeth bared "I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! I'LL NEVER NEED YOU-"

"TAKE MY HAND HOFFERSON!"

She stared at me, mouth agape, and I glared back with all the fury I could muster. I was done being nice. I was done trying to fix everything. If she couldn't even let go of her stupid hatred at fifty thousand feet, what chance did I have to change her mind on the ground?

I still wasn't going to let her die though.

I took advantage of her stupor, leaning out dangerously far to catch the arm frozen mid-swing. Her fingers worked on their own, almost automatically latching around my wrist as I gripped I returned in kind. I braced myself and pulled back hard, precious inches gained as the horizon slowly curved and the air quickly thinned. As her other arm came free, Astrid's brain seemed to catch up with her body. She started to struggle again, this time wiggling closer to freedom with every pull. With a sudden jolt, she came clear, my grip almost lost on the shield as she crashed into me.

I couldn't stop. I kept moving back along the shield. My lungs screamed for air. Spots danced across my vision. My body felt like dead weight and Astrid felt just as heavy, half dragged behind me. My fingers slipped on the edge of the hatch as I blacked out. First for a second, then three…

As the stars of the universe glowed overhead, I felt my grip slide away completely from the Night Fury's freezing metal…

Astrid saw Alex fall.

She had looked up when she'd felt his hand go slack in hers, just in time to see his other hand miss the hatch as his body slumped.

Her mouth screamed his name, her frozen legs pushing her forward with arms wide as she watched her friend fall. Her body seemed to ignore everything. The numbness of her limbs, the whistling in her ears now drowning out all other sound and the taste of jagged ice stinging her tongue. All she could see was Alex falling away, past her and down to the ground far below. All she could think about was catching him.

His feet hadn't even left the shield when she caught him.

Adrenaline now pushed her forward. Her lungs burned, her vision was fading and Alex felt heavy in her arms. But she managed to move forward, one urgent step after another until her shoulder slammed into the hatch door.

There was a hiss. The slab of metal swung up, taking Astrid and Alex with it. Darkness swallowed them both, and with it came blissful silence. For a little while anyway.

"Hatch sealed. Cockpit is airtight. Airflow stable. Query Pilot: are you incapacitated?"

Astrid didn't care who was talking or where the voice was coming from. She just lay atop the hatch door, breathing heavily, grinning like a maniac, and solemnly swearing never to take oxygen for granted ever again. She was still alive. They were still alive. Astrid and Alex were still alive…

Her smile disappeared in an instant as she looked down and took in Alex's silent face.

He was so cold, his body crusted with frost and ice. His eyes were closed, his face peaceful. Dead to the world…But not dead to her.

"Wake up." she tried to make it sound like an order, but the quake in her voice shattered that illusion. "Wake up now, Hiccup. You can't just do all this and then die on me. You hear me? Hiccup! HICCUP!" He didn't move, didn't react when she shook him. "…Alex?…"

She refused to panic, refused to let the dread creeping into her thoughts overtake her. She brushed away the frost and ice with urgent hands, ignored trembling fingers as she struggled with the zip on his jacket and pulled it apart to press an ear to his chest.

It was a painful, endless moment before she finally heard his heartbeat. Faint and slow, but a heartbeat all the same. Alex was alive, and with this realisation came warmth and relief flowing through Astrid's body. She held him tight to her, ignoring the wetness that threatened to spill from her eyes.

"I hate you," she whispered into his hair. "I hate that you do this to me."

Alex didn't reply. He was still cold against her skin and Astrid suspected that she wasn't much warmer. She pulled them up into the nearest chair, shedding her own coat and covering them both with it like a blanket, pulling Alex's jacket over their heads. In the darkness she curled up with him, arms around his neck, holding him close. She took comfort in his heart thudding faintly against her chest and the rhythmic breathing on her neck. Alex was alive, and she wasn't alone in this strange machine.

"Stable orbit established. Query Pilot: are you incapacitated?"

The Night Fury shuddered, and Astrid suddenly found herself floating away from the chair.

For an instant, confusion and panic set in. She pushed the jacket off her head as her arms pin wheeled, only to wrap around Alex tightly as a new fear overtook her. Everything felt too light. Every movement seemed to give too little resistance with no inertia. A barely remembered science class from her childhood reminded her that there was no gravity in outer space, but stress and panic pushed such important memories to the back of her mind until…until she caught sight of the camera screens.

The Night Fury was parallel to the Earth; the ground far below them and the void of space above. The inky expanse filled Dragonoid's cameras, Earth a curved sliver of blue at the bottom of the screens. But it wasn't a sheet of black that greeted Astrid's eyes, but a trillion points of light scattered across the cosmos.

Stars…how long had it been since she had just stopped at looked at the stars? How long had it been since she had been filled with wonder at the sheer number that dotted the night sky? The universe had once been a source of fascination for her, before her father's death and Alex's…and everything else. But now she was here, the dim cockpit lit up by the unending cosmos, that same childish wonder pushed away years of despair and lies, hatred and discipline. For this one moment, she was seven years old again, hair in pigtails, the metal side of The Dome cool against her back. She reached out to touch the central screen, as though doing so would make the image before her ever more real. A question from history came to her mind, from a time when such questions seemed important to her young mind.

"The Dragonoids," she asked aloud, barely a whisper. "Which star do you think they're from?"

"What does it matter where they came from?" A weak voice replied. "They're here now, aren't they?"

Astrid glanced up, realising too late that Alex had floated away from her in the zero gravity. He was awake though, hovering above her head with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. There was a quietness in his voice too, sad and distant. Astrid frowned, a heavy feeling knotting in her chest. Not for the first time.

"How long was I out?"

"I…I'm not sure." How long had it been? Minutes? Hours? They had moved into Earth's shadow now, the light of the sun haloing their home. "Not long. Maybe a half hour."

"Where are we?"

"In orbit, I think."

"In orbit? Really?" he scowled, aiming a weak kick at the nearest bulkhead. "Thank you for nothing, you useless robot."

"Query Pilot: are you incapacitated?"

"No, I'm very much alive, no thanks to you." Alex pushed down, past Astrid to the cockpit chair. She watched as he tried to move the control sticks, his feet bouncing harmlessly off the pedals. "And I'm still locked out. Why am I still locked out?"

"Recall signal has been activated."

Alex stopped, eyes wide. He turned to face the glowing blue orb at the cockpit's rear where Astrid realised the Dragonoid's A.I. was stored.

"What recall signal?"

"In times of emergency, the High Superior may recall all available units to the Rock of The Assembled. Recall signal has been activated."

Alex turned pale. Paler than normal.

"There's a seat behind me. Strap yourself in. Now."

Now Astrid felt uneasy. "What's going o-"

"Don't argue." He shot her a glare; irritated but also afraid. "We'll probably re-enter Earth's atmosphere soon and I don't need any more problems right now."

Astrid bit her lip, but did as she was asked. The more she spoke with this new Alexander McKrillen, the less she liked him. Not that she'd liked the old Alexander much either, she had to remind herself.

The chair was too big for her, built for someone with larger hands and longer legs. She managed to tighten the straps enough to secure her to the hard leather and she held tight to the armrests for good measure.

"Alright I'm in." she sounded calm, at least in her ears. She was just glad Alex couldn't see how white her knuckles had turned as she clenched her hands around the armrest. "Now what's going on? What's the Rock of The Assembled?"

"Somewhere we shouldn't be," Alex scowled, his hands flexing around the control sticks. "Rock of The Assembled, Ruus beh Tsad Droten, is the name of the Dragonoid ship that came down two and half centuries ago." he turned to face her, his face grim. "Astrid, the recall signal is taking us to Washington Crater."

She didn't have time to ask him how he knew this. Without word or warning, the Night Fury suddenly nose-dived down towards the Earth, fire and heat trailing in its' wake.

Dragonoid Translations

"Mav gar sushir?"
(Will you listen?)

"Buruk ulur."
(Danger detected.)

"Dalyc la eyn aru'ela Hallex. Ni nuhaatyc-"
(She is an enemy Alex. I can't-)

"Nayc aru'ela!"
(No enemy!)

"Pir be'chaaj Ruusaan!"
(Get away Ruusaan!)

"Dalyc la eyn aru'ela Hallex! Dalyc keh aht kadala gar!"
(She is an enemy Alex! She tried to hurt you!)

"Dalyc gai la Astrid. Dalyc gai burc'ya, bal dalyc ne'naas suvarir."
(Her name is Astrid. She is a friend, and she doesn't understand.)

"Riduur?"
(Girlfriend?)
Note: The actual word here means partner, but is also used to generally mean someone close to you, namely boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. Girlfriend is just how Hiccup interprets it.

"Dalyc la Alor. Bal burc'ya"
(She is my Superior. And a friend.)

"Gar taylir haamyc ol'averde Hallex."
(You keep unusual company Alex.)

"Hallex! Dalyc kadala gar!"
(Alex! She hurt you!)

"Gar chaah dalyc."
(You scare her.)

"Ni chaah dalyc!?"
(I scare her?!)

"Dah da-dah, mhi kyrayc."
(Da da da, we dead.)

"…ba'slanar…"
(…leave…)

"Ar tsikala aht ba'slanar?"
(Be ready to leave?)

"Gar baatir par dalyc."
(You care for her.)

"Gar liser haa'taylir bic o'r gar troan. Gar vaabir'naas copaanir dalyc or'parguur aht gar."
(You can see it in your face. You don't want her to hate you.)

"Slanar aht dalyc."
(Go to her.)

"gaa'taylir dalyc liser."
(Help her see.)

"Tion'jor ne ibic baatir gar?"
(Why does this worry you?)

"Ni or'parguur bic tion'tuur gar copaani trikar'la."
(I hate it when you are sad.)

Author's Notes

Cowell's Eatery and Bar was inspired by Harry's, a cafe seen in the anime 'Witch Hunter Robin'. Its' mismatch of cultures is my personal in-joke, as I wasn't sure what kind of place it was going to be. I wanted it to be a place Alex and co would meet up at after training and missions and such, but in the end this was the only scene I used it for.

The music on the jukebox is Lithium Flower, the ending credits song from the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, as sung by Scott Matthew. No real reason why, I just really like that song.

I'll leave you to figure out who the bartender (and owner) is supposed to be.

Not much to say today, mostly because what I want to talk about would be spoiling future chapters. Next time we're steering back into original territory, so I hope you'll look forward to that.

See you next time!