Author's Note: Seriously guys, thanks so much for all your support with this story! I never expected it to get this many reviews/favorites/follows, and I sincerely apologize again for the long wait. Here's an extra long update (which I hope will give me enough time to run and hide before you reach the end), so please enjoy :)

This chapter is dedicated to a very special friend of mine, without whom I couldn't have finished writing certain scenes in it. Since it's probably not a good idea to give out your real name, let me just say: DE, thank you. I hope you enjoy this!

Happy New Year! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or How to Train Your Dragon.

Sentient

Part 2

"Looks like you have it bad, mate. Yer gonna tell me who's the unlucky sheila?" Aster chortled, smirking smugly as Jack stiffened in shock, flustered and wide-eyed.

Having been caught staring at someone in the crowd across the street, Jack snapped out of his reverie and looked away hurriedly, trying to hide the blush on his face. Unknowingly, he'd been spending the last few minutes of their conversation gazing at Hiccup, watching it interact with the excited children. He had instructed the homundroid to look after them instead of staying with him, having assured it that he could survive by himself for half an hour ("Relax, Hiccup! Cottontail's no threat, I promise. Just keep an eye on the kids for me, alright?").

E. Aster Bunnymund (Jack had yet to figure out what the 'E' stood for, but that didn't stop him from coming up with all sorts of crazy guesses like Egad, Eldorado, Elmo, or just plain Ew) managed the flower shop several blocks away from the daycare center. The Warren was situated opposite a candy store where Jack and the twins would sometimes herd the children over for a sweet treat after lunch. They often had to sneak past Anna's watchful eye first, lest the trio found themselves enduring another lecture about ruining their charges' precious baby teeth. While the kids browsed the shelves and picked out their favorites, Jack usually popped by to visit one of his few friends in the city.

"Come on, you show pony! Or is it a bloke? You know I don't care either way, so spill."

"Shut up, Bunny."

"Don't call me that."

"Kanga–"

"Watch it, Frostbite," the Australian shook his trowel warningly. Jack raised his hands in surrender, stepping back to lean against the counter as he watched the other man work. A soft expression washed over his face as he lifted his eyes and turned his head to the side, once again letting his attention stray to his homundroid across the road.

"Quit being a dingo and just go talk to 'em. They won't know how bad you are till you open that mouth of yers," Aster sighed with exasperation, setting a pot of soil on the ground. "You should be fine so long as you don't start chattin' up a homundroid."

Jack whipped his head back and shook it in denial. "Don't be silly, it's not like that!" he laughed uneasily. "And what's wrong with homundroids, anyway?"

"I'm telling you, mate. They're nothing but trouble," Aster groused as he stabbed at the soil to loosen the top layer of dried earth. "There's a reason why homundroids aren't built to be AIs."

"What makes you say that?" Jack frowned. He didn't like where this conversation was going, and suddenly he was glad Hiccup wasn't around to hear it.

"You never know what those bloody machines can do. Ever heard of Sentients?"

Jack tensed, noticing the way Aster practically spat out the word. "Yeah, from North," he answered carefully, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What about them?"

"They're dangerous, that's what. It's bad enough we have homundroids making people into lazy bludgers, but Sentients? Mate, reason why we don't let them think is because they'll turn on us if we do."

"Pfft, you watch too many movies," Jack scoffed and flicked a hand dismissively. "Besides, Hiccup wouldn't do that. I trust him –"

"See what yer doing? Yer calling it 'him' now, like it's human. You've gotten attached Frostbite, and that's another problem." Aster pointed a gloved finger at him, oblivious to the way Jack's jaw clenched slightly. "I reckon you've heard about the abuse. I can tell you it gets worse."

Jack's fingernails ground into his palms and he took a deep breath to calm himself down, trying not to let his growing indignation show. "How?" he snapped with a little more bite than intended.

Aster removed his gloves and stood up to grab a broom sitting in the corner. "You know how many people come into my shop to buy flowers for their machines?" he asked, sweeping the area clean. "It's like watching a soap opera. They fall in love with something that can't return their affections, and then comes all the heartbreak and drama. Throw in those bloody Sentients and everything gets turned upside down. Instead of homundroid abuse, we get reports of assault when people get jumped by 'em! Trust me, there's no hope for love between man and machine. It's a tragedy just waitin' to happen," he concluded with a sigh.

Jack's unusual silence was unnerving and Aster turned around, noticing that the other man wasn't looking too good. He had a white-knuckled death grip on the counter, as though to prevent himself from falling over.

"Mate, you alright?" Aster asked in concern, furrowing his eyebrows at the strange behavior.

Jack flinched and jumped slightly before clearing his throat to speak. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Just uh – have a lot on my mind right now. I mean, wow – I never really thought about these things," he babbled, forcing a smile on his face. "And it's not like there's anything going on between Hiccup and me," he hastened to assure the other. "I mean, I know he's just a machine, and all we do is talk and joke around –"

"What do you mean 'talk'?" Aster interrupted, frowning suspiciously. "Homundroids can't respond unless their owners ask them questions or they're clarifying orders. It's not natural, and you can't hold conversations with them, not unless…" he trailed off as his eyes widened with realization.

"NO!" Jack suddenly yelled, surprising them both. Mentally berating himself for the outburst, he cringed and shook his head, chuckling nervously. "Ahaha, did I say 'talk'? It's just a figure of speech really, you know what I mean? I tend to ramble a lot and Hiccup's a good listener. I'm not saying he talks back or anything."

"If you say so…" Aster seemed reluctant to let the issue go, but he dropped it anyway, much to Jack's relief.

Beating a hasty retreat, Jack started to back away towards the door. "Well, I'd better get back before Ruff and Tuff let the kids empty out the store," he said, still somewhat jittery.

And he was gone before Aster could reply.

This is so messed up…

Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair as he sank into the sofa and threw his head back. He was still shaken by the conversation he had with Aster. The other man had been frighteningly accurate in digging up some painful truths Jack had discovered on his own and tried to bury.

When I bought Hiccup, I didn't want a slave. I wanted a friend, an equal…

Aster had said that homundroids couldn't talk in the normal sense, which meant that they couldn't initiate conversations or give opinions. But Hiccup had broken all those rules ever since Jack had managed to tear down its proverbial firewalls. Did that mean Hiccup was a Sentient? And even so, why did he violently deny it when Aster seemed to have caught on to the same idea?

Jack knew he was harboring feelings for his homundroid. Hiccup had served him faithfully ever since he had purchased it from North's workshop more than a year ago. Over the time they had spent together, he had grown fond of its witty and sarcastic personality, how it bantered with him and made him laugh, the care and comfort it gave him when he fell ill or was simply feeling blue, the slightly awkward way it played with the children at the daycare, and all the other little things that made the homundroid – dare he say it – his Hiccup.

There were times he wondered if his previous years of loneliness had gotten to him so badly that he had started to pretend Hiccup was alive. After the skiing accident that had claimed his family's lives, he had moved to the city for a fresh start and lived by himself for almost a decade. He had friends from his hometown and several new ones in the city, but they were few and far between. It was possible that he had been craving companionship so desperately that he saw things that weren't really there, and that Hiccup responded to him only because it was programmed to, not because it reciprocated his affections or anything.

For some reason, the thought produced a tight stab of pain in his chest.

Maybe that was why he was trying to hide from the truth. Maybe it was because he didn't want to face the fact that he was falling for something that couldn't love him back. After all, Hiccup was nothing more than a machine and the only reason he started referring to it as 'him' was due to its realistic appearance.

But there had been subtle signs that indicated otherwise, and Jack thought back to when he had first activated his homundroid. Hiccup had slapped its hands over its mouth in embarrassment when he had accidentally messed up its settings, unintentionally giving it its namesake. Then it had hesitated on its first day in the center, unsure of how the children would react to it. And the time it had lavished him with careful attention when he had been stricken with a high fever. The tenderness with which it cradled him in its arms when the heater had broken down…

And as Jack sifted through his memories more and more, actively seeking out instances where Hiccup had anticipated his needs and acted on its own without his direct orders, he started to realize the amount of distinctly and instinctively human things the homundroid had done –

"Jack?"

Snapping out of his trance, he glanced up to see Hiccup looking at him with a worried frown. Now that he thought about it, normal homundroids always wore a fixed blank look on their faces, but Hiccup had the ability to exhibit different facial expressions depending on the situation. There were exasperated eye rolls when he cracked another one of his lame jokes, triumphant smirks when it managed to beat him in a video game, genuine smiles when it played with the children –

"Is everything alright?" Hiccup asked. "Sensors indicate that your heart rate is elevated and –"

"You're a Sentient," Jack blurted out before he could stop himself, immediately regretting it when he noticed the way Hiccup seemed to recoil and tense with fear. His mind was spinning with the revelation and he was slightly dazed with shock, but Hiccup's reaction to his discovery did not escape his attention. "N-not that there's anything wrong with that!" he quickly added. "I-I mean, it just means you're different, you're not just a pile of metal and wires put together, and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

Hiccup nodded stiffly to convey its understanding, but Jack could tell from its guarded expression that it was still uncomfortable discussing the issue. The homundroid had neither confirmed nor denied his suspicions, but Jack decided to let it go for now, unwilling to push Hiccup into giving him a definite answer. He could be wrong, but if Hiccup really was a Sentient, why was it so reluctant to admit it? It looked as if it was expecting him to throw a fit and send it to the junkyard or –

Jack nearly slapped himself when he realized he had just answered his own question. Hiccup had been abandoned by its previous owner, and chances were it was because it had acted out of line. He remembered the way the homundroid had held itself back during its first few weeks, speaking only when spoken to. It had clearly been hiding its own personality in fear of being abandoned again, and it probably only started to relax and reveal its true nature after Jack's encouragement assured it that he wanted it to respond to him.

A grin crept its way onto Jack's face as he started to feel giddy with excitement. Quickly bidding Hiccup goodnight, he practically skipped back to his room, his chest threatening to burst with hope. There was a chance… They had a chance… But even though he wasn't a hundred percent sure, it could wait.

They had plenty of time to talk – yes, talk – about it another day.

Not two weeks later, it was again Friday evening when Jack answered the knocking on his front door to an odd looking pair of men.

The taller of the two had an unnaturally ashen skin tone and was dressed in a sleek business suit as dark as his slicked back hair, whereas his associate was a stockier redhead with a brutish demeanor and a slightly crazed look in his eyes. They introduced themselves as Mr. Black and Mr. Zerkr respectively, and the ID cards clipped onto their breast pockets indicated that they were representatives from Nightlight Industries, a major company known worldwide as one of the leading manufacturers of homundroids.

According to Mr. Black, every one of their products had a built-in monitoring system which would automatically switch on every few years. When that happened, the company would receive an alert and they would send down a couple of their employees to locate the homundroid for a free checkup.

"That's very kind of you, and I appreciate the fact that you came all the way just to see Hiccup, but I can assure you that he's in good shape," Jack explained, looking apologetic. "I take him to the shop once a month, and the owner does good work tuning him."

"Well, that just makes our job easier then," Mr. Black smiled widely, making a hidden hand gesture behind his back towards his colleague. "If you would allow me to do a short survey while my associate performs a quick inspection, we'll be on our way in no time."

Jack couldn't put a finger on why he was feeling so uneasy around the two men, but he saw no harm in granting their request. After all, the sooner they were done, the sooner they would leave. Stepping back to allow them into the apartment, he called Hiccup into the living room. His brow furrowed when it moved to stand next to him with its face completely blank and expressionless, and he missed the way the two men's attention immediately zeroed in on his homundroid.

"Step right here please," Mr. Zerkr said, gesturing to the empty spot in front of him.

Hiccup didn't move.

"Go on, Hiccup. Stand over there," Jack encouraged, getting more and more confused by the minute about the homundroid's strange behavior. He watched in puzzlement as Hiccup walked mechanically towards the other man and stood stiffly at the designated spot.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Mr. Black cut in smoothly, stepping between them to block Hiccup from Jack's view. "How satisfied are you with your homundroid's services?"

"Uh, very – very well."

"That's good to hear. Did it cost you a lot of money to purchase it from the store?"

"Not at all. The owner gave me a discount since he was about to recycle him."

"I see," Mr. Black nodded as he took down notes on his tablet. "Friendship is a pretty cheap commodity nowadays," he murmured loudly, seemingly to himself.

Jack frowned. "Excuse me?"

"That is why you bought a homundroid, is it not?" he smiled lightly at Jack. "I say, you must have been really desperate to resort to buying a friend for yourself. Still, I commend you for being able to get it at a discounted price."

What the hell? Who does he think he is? Jack bristled with indignation, and yet something in him cringed at the ugly truth hidden beneath the man's words. Hearing him say it out loud was like rubbing salt on an open wound. He glanced towards Hiccup, hoping that the homundroid would step in with a word or two.

But to his horror, he saw Mr. Zerkr petting Hiccup's body heavily, from stroking its wings and rubbing its chest to combing his fingers through its hair and tracing them down its jaw. His hands wound around its waist and reached behind, cupping its backside and squeezing slightly. The worst part was that his fondling produced absolutely no reaction from the homundroid, who remained standing perfectly still with a blank face.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Jack yelled at him and took a step forward, clenching his fists when Mr. Black intercepted him and moved between them again.

"You'll have to pardon Mr. Zerkr's methods," Mr. Black explained patiently. "He's new on the job, and he tends to take a more… hands-on approach when it comes to assessing structural integrity. Rest assured, he knows what he's doing. Now, shall we continue?"

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Jack forced himself to back off and calm down. "Fine," he nodded tersely, his voice clipped.

Mr. Black smirked at him, showing off the sharpened teeth behind his lips. "Well then, do you foresee yourself purchasing another homundroid anytime in the near future?"

"No," Jack responded firmly. "Hiccup's all I ever need and I have no intention of replacing him."

"My my, such dedication. I'm sure your homundroid must feel the same way."

Grinning madly at his cue, Mr. Zerkr forcefully grabbed Hiccup's chin and looked it in the eye, making sure that Jack could see and hear him. "Looks like your master really likes you. But what about you? Do you want to stay with him?"

Something in Jack's chest shriveled with pain when again, his homundroid didn't respond. His face flushed with anger and he felt moisture gathering in his eyes, but he fought to keep his composure in front of them even when he could practically hear his heart shattering into pieces.

"Why would he?" Mr. Black snorted and turned to face his colleague. "You know people like him only use their homundroids for sex, right?"

"H-how dare you!" Jack spluttered, outraged. "Just what are you insinuating?"

"Should've guessed from the customization. Only pedophiles have the balls to show off by adding their kinks to their toys," Mr. Zerkr replied easily, blatantly ignoring Jack's protests. "I bet he likes to play dress up with the kids at the daycare to indulge in his sick fantasies during work." The red-haired man slid his hands over Hiccup's thighs, caressing gently before snaking between them –

And Jack saw red.

"I've had enough of this," he seethed. "Get out, both of you."

Mr. Black and Mr. Zerkr exchanged subtle glances. The taller man nodded at his partner and they started to make their way out, but not before pausing momentarily at the doorway.

"Just a parting query, if you will," Mr. Black said, smiling politely as though the events in the past hour never took place. "Your homundroid wouldn't happen to be a Sentient, would it?"

Jack thought back to the way Hiccup remained stoic and silent throughout, behaving for all intents and purposes like a regular homundroid, and something in him snapped when he remembered how it did absolutely nothing and allowed the two men to insult him freely.

"No," he snarled bitterly before slamming the door in their faces. He waited for the chime of the elevator signaling their departure before rounding on his homundroid. "What the hell was that?" he hissed angrily, narrowing his eyes at it.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked in confusion.

"What do I – How could you – You just stood there while that creep –!" Jack cut himself off, trying to quell his growing rage at the thought of the other man running his dirty hands all over Hiccup. He didn't know where the sudden possessive streak was coming from, but honestly he couldn't care less at the moment.

"I didn't do anything because I had a bad feeling about –"

"Oh, now you feel something?" he sneered, taking somewhat sadistic pleasure at seeing his homundroid shrink back in fear. "And I can't believe you let them get away with saying all those things about me! I thought you were my friend!"

"I'm sorry!" Hiccup yelled back. "I didn't think it would affect you like this! I don't understand –"

"That's exactly my point!" Jack screamed. "You'll never understand because you're just a machine!"

The apartment was abruptly blanketed in tense silence, so much so that Jack's words practically echoed in the stillness. The man was shaking with fury, clenching his fists tightly at his sides and panting harshly, trying to catch his breath after his violent outburst. Across from him, Hiccup's entire frame sagged with defeat as its wings drooped low, crestfallen.

"I'm not," it whispered dejectedly. "I'm different. You said it yourself, and you promised me it was okay, that it was nothing to be ashamed of."

"Then why didn't you answer them when they asked if you wanted to stay?" Jack demanded, glaring at the homundroid.

"I couldn't. You didn't tell me to."

"What? Since when do I have to tell you to answer?"

"You don't. Not since…" Hiccup sighed and wrapped its arms around itself. "I didn't like them," it admitted, shuddering slightly as it jerked its head towards the front door. "They reminded me of my previous masters. I thought something bad would happen if I stepped out of line. That's why I tried to hide when you first bought me. I didn't want you to throw me away like they did because I wasn't like the other homundroids," it glanced at him sadly, begging him to understand. "I was afraid to trust you at first, but then you encouraged me to talk back. You wanted me to be your friend, you – You called me 'amazing' when you first activated me, and that made me so happy…"

But Jack remained unmoved, too blinded by his anger to see reason. "That doesn't answer my question," he scowled, his face hardening with a frown.

Hiccup flinched. "I'm sor–"

"Save it. I don't want to hear your excuses. I should've known I couldn't count on you to defend me."

"Jack, please! Just listen to me –"

"We're done here," Jack spat before turning around and stalking back to his room.

The door slammed shut with finality, leaving Hiccup standing alone.

"Well that was a complete waste of time," Mr. Zerkr scowled, throwing himself into the backseat of the car. "That homundroid was pretty cute though," he added as an afterthought, grinning darkly.

"Yes, you sure did a good job riling up his owner. Too bad it was a false alarm. I was so sure…" Mr. Black muttered in disappointment, sliding in next to the red-haired man before gesturing at their driver to hit the road.

"How do you know that Hiccup isn't a Sentient?"

"Normal homundroids can only react when their masters are in physical danger. They are constantly monitoring their surroundings and assessing imminent threats, but Sentients take this one step further," Mr. Black explained. "They can interpret subtle cues like body language and heart rate, and this is what distinguishes them from normal homundroids. If their masters are under emotional stress, they will intervene accordingly. It's what makes them – as their name implies – Sentient."

"So you were hoping to get a reaction by insulting Frost?"

"If what Hiccup's previous owner said when he filed a report complaining about its 'backtalk' defect was true, yes."

"Then why did you give me the signal to start rubbing my hands all over it? Not that I'm complaining, of course."

"Frost kept referring to it as 'him', which led me to suspect that he may have gotten attached to his homundoid. With verbal assault on my side and physical… exploration on yours, one of them was bound to crack. Unfortunately, it seems that our efforts were fruitless."

Mr. Zerkr cackled maniacally. "So since Hiccup's just another one of those machines, mind sparing me few hands to snag it? I wouldn't mind having a piece of that," he licked his lips lustfully.

"It might break the pattern and throw the authorities off our trail, but we've attracted enough attention as it is," Mr. Black shook his head firmly, earning a huff of annoyance from the other man. "We are only hunting down the Sentients. Remember that, Dagur. The board is very strict with our resources and we cannot afford to compromise our study with your careless attitude."

"Come on, Pitch. How about after you're done with your experiments?"

"If they're still functioning, then you may do as you please," he smirked. "After all, we all know how much you love to hear them scream."

The next two days went by in absolute silence. It felt almost like the time before Jack had bought Hiccup, except for the fact that there was palpable tension in the air instead of permeating emptiness.

Jack stayed cooped up in his room brooding while his homundroid remained outside and kept its distance, making itself scarce to give him space. Hiccup had long learned his owner's weekend routine and proceeded as per normal, dutifully sitting (this time, alone) in front of the gaming console for several hours before heading to the kitchen to prepare Jack's meals. The man had left his door unlocked during his self-imposed period of solitude, so Hiccup was able to enter and exit swiftly without hearing the thanks it knew it would not receive.

When Monday morning finally rolled around, Jack told Hiccup to stay home.

"And that's an order," he snapped testily, still on edge from their fight three days ago.

But Hiccup shook its head in refusal. "Since you seem so adamant that I'm nothing but a machine, I must obey my core programming and remain close to you."

"Oh yeah?" Jack sneered, oblivious to the way Hiccup's words strained with the effort to sound emotionless. "Since you insist you're so different, you should be able to override your stupid code and just leave me alone!"

Storming out of the apartment, Jack barely heard the despondent whisper of "yes, master" slipping past the homundroid's lips before slamming the front door shut behind him. There was a little voice in his head that remarked on how Hiccup was acting so similar to the way it did when he had first bought it, but while some part of him started to feel guilty for mocking the homundroid and throwing its words back at its face, he was too stubborn to apologize and too angry to care anymore.

"Where's Hiccup?" Jamie asked, sending Jack a curious look from where he was playing with Claude and Caleb next to him. Jack tensed at the question, but he quickly forced a smile on his face as he told the boy that the homundroid wasn't feeling well that morning, so he had told it to stay home.

"Hiccup's sick?" Gil tugged at Jack's shirt in worry. "I read in a book that dragons like fish. Should we bring him some to make him feel better?"

"I'm sure he just needs some rest and then he'll be good as new!" Pippa chirped, busy racing against Cassandra's toy unicorn with her stuffed dolphin.

Sean snorted and puffed his chest out. "My dad said that rest is for the weak!" he declared. "When I grow up, I'm getting a homundroid just like Hiccup, but even better! He's gonna have red wings and horns on his head, and he can light himself on fire so no one can hurt him!"

Anna chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm. "But that also means you can't touch him or you'll get burned."

"Oh, uh…" Sean faltered slightly at the forgotten detail, but he was not deterred and put his hands together in the shape of a gun. "Then he'll have big weapons that can go like –"

A gunshot echoed from outside, shocking everyone into silence.

"W-wow, those were some realistic sound effects," Monty laughed nervously and backed away from Sean.

"But I didn't –"

Three more gunshots rang out, followed by panicked screaming and the shrill blare of the fire alarm.

"Hiccup!" Jack called out in reflex, turning around to tell it to get the children to safety, only to realize too late that he had ordered the homundroid not to follow him that day.

"What's going on out there?" Rhonda reached for the door and pulled it open, just in time to be ambushed with a gun pointing directly at her chest.

"Ruff!" Thomas cried out for his twin, but he could do nothing as the gunman grabbed her and pressed the barrel of his weapon against her temple.

"No one move or I'll shoot!"

Everybody froze as the lights outside suddenly dimmed, and the gunman turned his head towards the alarmed shouting coming from the darkened hallway, lowering the gun in confusion. Rhonda took advantage of his distraction to elbow him hard in the guts, causing him to shove her forward into her brother's arms before aiming his gun at them with a pained but angry snarl.

Jamie screamed, prompting the gunman to swing his weapon towards him, and Jack immediately jumped in front of the boy and braced himself for the pain –

Then something wrapped around the gunman's legs and yanked.

Jack barely registered a black blur in the shadows of the corridor before the gunman was pulled off his feet and dragged backwards, shouting in a mix of surprise and fear as his hands frantically scrabbled for purchase on the floor, his dropped gun forgotten. The children cowered around their caretakers as more gunshots erupted outside before everything suddenly went quiet.

After a moment of tense silence, Hiccup stepped through the doorway, looking worse for wear with several bullet holes punched through its wings and no few dents littering its body. Jack nearly sobbed with relief at the sight of his homundroid, but despite its injuries, some part of him felt pretty intimidated by its appearance. Its lengthened claws and spread out wings made it look feral and dangerous, and he had never seen this side of Hiccup before.

"The east entrance has been secured. Take the hallway behind the lobby and exit the premises," it instructed.

Anna wasted no time in gathering the children together and herding them towards the door. Some of them had started to cry and wail in fear, and she set aside her own panic to assure them that everything was going to be okay, that Hiccup was there to protect them now. As the group evacuated the room, Jack noticed that Hiccup kept its wings hanging low, blocking the children's view of the hallway behind it. Red liquid dripped down its claws, and Jack struggled to suppress a shudder.

"Where did all these people come from?" Thomas grunted, reaching down to pick up Gil and Monty. The poor boys were petrified to the spot, so he had to carry them out.

"The tattoo!" Rhonda gasped in realization as she recalled the black ink marking the gunman's beefy arms. "They're part of that terrorist cell that appeared in the news several months back!"

"You mean the one where their leader was sighted near the city?"

She nodded. "I think his name's Alvin or something. I don't know a lot about him, so I have no idea why he'd suddenly attack a daycare center out of the blue."

Hiccup abruptly stiffened and turned around.

"What? What is it?" Jack asked worriedly.

"Incoming hostile party detected. Sensors are registering several explosives in the vicinity." The homundroid looked back at Jack. "You must hurry. I will hold them off."

"Jack, come on!" Thomas yelled at him as he caught up with Anna. Rhonda grabbed Jack's hand and pulled him over to take up the rear end of the group.

Although he knew there was nothing he could do to help Hiccup, Jack couldn't help but leave reluctantly. He told himself that he would only get in the way if he tried anything reckless, not to mention Hiccup could take care of itself. The children were his priority at the moment and he could not afford to endanger them any further, but he was scared for Hiccup too. The homundroid wasn't exactly bulletproof, and one (un)lucky shot through its CPU would be enough to shut it down for good.

He's not alive he's just a machine, Jack reminded himself, but even his conviction was shaky. He didn't understand why he was getting so worked up over it. When it came down to choosing between a living being and a robot, everyone knew what the logical answer was. There was no reason for him to feel as conflicted as he did, and he had to focus on ensuring that everyone got out safely.

They were almost at the end of the hallway when an explosion rocked the building, and Jack tore his hand out of Rhonda's as he screeched to a stop and turned around.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked, reaching out to pull him away.

Jack looked back and noticed that it was only the two of them left. Anna and Thomas had managed to evacuate the children to safety, so he had nothing left to lose.

"Go! I'll be fine!" he promised, pushing her towards the open door before spinning on his heel and sprinting back into the building. It occurred to him that he was risking his life to save a machine (he's so much more than that, some part of him whispered), but Hiccup was still inside and he was not about to just leave it there so easily.

Please be okay please be okay please be okay –

"Hiccup!" he yelled, swerving into the next corridor just in time to see his homundroid peeling itself out from a sizable hole in the wall. It turned around at the sound of its name and before Jack could even blink, Hiccup was looming over him and pushing him back the way he had come.

"Maximum danger level detected. Evacuate the building immediately," it warned, and something inside Jack twisted with guilt at the monotonous tone of the words coming out of the homundroid's mouth.

But there was no time to dwell on their fight at the moment. He clamped down on Hiccup's arm and started to pull it along with him. "Not without you. We can still –"

"There it is!"

Jack gasped when he was roughly shoved through a door and into an empty room. He let out an involuntary cry of pain as Hiccup pressed him into the ground, covering his body with its own while bullets whizzed past them in the hallway.

"Get out while I take care of them," Hiccup growled into his ear before pushing off and launching itself at the approaching group of gunmen.

Wheezing for breath, Jack remained on the floor for a few moments before struggling to his feet. His instincts were screaming at him to run and save himself, but some stubborn part of him still refused to abandon Hiccup despite the imminent danger. There was the sound of another distant explosion outside and he found himself unable to move, paralyzed with fear. It wasn't until the homundroid appeared in the doorway again did he manage to regain his bearings somewhat.

"What the hell are you still doing here, you idiot?!" Hiccup snarled, reaching forward to grab Jack by the shoulders and haul him out. Wincing as its claws dug through his shirt and into his skin, Jack faintly registered the reddish coat of fresh blood on the black scales, and it took everything to force himself not to look back at the bodies of the gunmen behind them.

"I'm not leaving without you," he managed to choke out, shaking his head defiantly as Hiccup dragged him away from the sealed exit. The earlier explosion had collapsed the ceiling above it and blocked the way out, and the direness of the situation had caused the homundroid to drop its emotionless act, allowing Jack to realize just how much Hiccup was worried about his safety. "Hiccup, I'm sor–"

"Not now. I need to get you out of here before –"

Hiccup froze.

It turned to face Jack with the most frightened expression the man had ever seen on its face, and then it lunged forward and crushed him in a tight embrace as the world lit up around them.

Darkness.

That was the first thing Jack woke up to, even though it was hard to tell if his eyes were closed or not.

It was dark, it was cold, and it was deathly silent save for his ragged breaths echoing in the stillness.

A spike of panic shot through him when he realized he couldn't move, and as he squirmed to get free, he felt something pinning his arms to his sides and trapping his legs together. There was a hand at the back of his head pressing his face into a hard leathery surface, making it hard to breathe, and it was the scaly texture of the limbs holding him in place that reminded him where he was.

"H-Hiccup?" he rasped out, coughing when he accidentally inhaled a mouthful of dust as he struggled to force air into his lungs. "Hiccup, let go. I can't breathe."

There was no answer from the homundroid.

"Hiccup, please! You're hurting me!" he begged, twisting about to avoid getting smothered by its chest. Jack winced as every nerve in his body flared with pain under Hiccup's unrelenting grip, and it was only when he was forced to stay still did something finally click in his mind.

It was quiet.

There was no sound other than his gasps for breath and the pounding of his heart beating wildly in his chest. Even though the way Hiccup was cradling him felt like the time he had shared his bed with it, he couldn't hear the familiar hum of machinery that had soothed him to sleep when his head was tucked under its chin, and there was no warmth coming from the arms that were wound securely around him. Belatedly, it hit him that something was wrong. Hiccup was never cold, not even when it powered down to conserve energy at night.

"Hiccup?"

Jack began to writhe with renewed desperation when his homundroid failed to respond.

"Hiccup, say something!"

Instead of the voice he was frantically aching to hear, his ears picked up the faint barking of dogs in the distance. He squeezed his eyes shut and blinked as light suddenly flooded his senses.

"Over here! We've found him!"

The protective shell around them was pried open and Jack realized that Hiccup had used its wings to cocoon him, forming a shield against the falling debris. He winced at the sight of the dented appendages riddled with bullet holes and when he looked down, he saw that Hiccup had wrapped its tail tightly around his legs. Their rescuers had to use a crowbar to release Jack from his homundroid's vice grip on him, leaving more scratches and dents on its limbs, but it had been the only other alternative given that he had vehemently protested against severing them completely.

Free at last, Jack was handed over to a team of paramedics who stepped forward and prepared to load him into an ambulance, but something tightened in his chest when he realized that they were taking him away from Hiccup, who for some reason wasn't following behind them. In a desperate burst of energy, he shook off the hands steadying him and turned around to make sure it was okay –

And then his eyes landed on the homundroid's face.

Jack wouldn't remember it later, but at that moment he started to thrash violently in the paramedics' grip, screaming for Hiccup. Someone yelled something about sedation and restraints, but Jack was already too far gone to pay any attention to it. He struggled like a caged wild animal against the firm hands holding him back from rushing to the homundroid's side, unaware that his actions were severely aggravating his wounds. The prick of a needle at the region near his neck was lost to him, but he could feel his movements slowing down. Darkness crept into the edges of his blurring vision and he fought to stay awake, inevitably losing the battle as the sedative coursed through his veins.

Slumping ungracefully against the arms supporting him, Jack started to slip into oblivion, the last image seared into his memory being the sight of Hiccup's eyes – open, but as black and hollow as the paws that had shielded him in a protective embrace.

Lifeless.

Just like the machine Jack said it was.