Author's Note: The history of Aperture Science is explained in this chapter, but please keep in mind that it's not fully compliant with game canon since I had to tweak some things to fit the crossover.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians, How to Train Your Dragon or Portal/Portal 2.

Hypothesis

Chapter 17: Revealing

[ Welcome to the enrichment center. [cough] Since making test participation mandatory for all employees, the quality of our test subjects has risen dramatically. Employee retention, however, has not. [cough] As a result, you may have heard we're gonna phase out human testing. There's still a few things left to wrap up, though. ]

"I see… so that's why we need to defeat Pitch and get MIM back in charge of the facility."

Jack nodded, having caught Hiccup up with their current situation. "She's the only one who knows how to control the reactors, not to mention she's the best chance we have of getting out of here."

"Assuming she keeps her promise, of course."

"Of course. Right, MIM?"

There was no reply from the AI even when Jack prodded the potato lightly, and Hiccup blushed in embarrassment. "I still can't believe we short-circuited her when we… you know…"

"What, you're telling me you regretted it?" Jack raised his eyebrows at the brunet and winked suggestively, laughing when Hiccup spluttered and covered his reddening face.

[ The bean counters told me we literally could not afford to buy seven dollars' worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground 'em up, mixed 'em into a gel. And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill. ]

As they continued on their way up, it was obvious that the floors were getting cleaner and more organized, signs that they were getting close to the surface levels. It was only a matter of time before they would have to confront Pitch.

"Maybe it's for the best that she isn't around to hear this," Hiccup remarked as another of Cress Joyson's messages played over the speakers. At Jack's curious look, he continued, "I did some digging and went through the recordings before I found you, and I think I know what happened to this place.

"Aperture Science was in competition with this other company called Green Mesa, and they discovered that their research had detrimental effects on the environment. It even had potential to destroy the world. Cress Joyson wanted to one-up them by working on solutions if it ever came to that, and so he created the Guardian Project."

[ If we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? Brain mapping. Artificial intelligence. We should have been working on it thirty years ago! ]

"That was what MIM was testing us for!" Jack exclaimed, remembering the AI's words when he had first confronted her.

Hiccup nodded solemnly. "Basically, he wanted to play god and develop an AI to determine suitable subjects to repopulate the world. He would have inserted himself into the system, but as you've heard, his portal side project had made him very ill."

"So that means –" It was clear when the truth dawned on Jack. The color drained out of his face and his eyes widened as he stopped walking in shock. "MIM responded to him like…"

"That's why she killed them," Hiccup said softly, grabbing Jack's hand and squeezing it in comfort. "All the other scientists in this facility… They just stood by and did nothing. They didn't try to save her, they didn't try to stop him… so she killed them all."

[ I'm gonna say this on tape so everybody hears it a hundred times a day: If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Mandy to run this place. Now she'll argue. She'll say she can't. She's modest like that. But you make her. Hell, put her in my computer. I don't care. ]

Author's Note: Sorry for the short length of this chapter. The next one should be up in a day or two.