Chapter Seventy-Six: It's not a good day indeed -Part 2-

Loki dropped from the hole in the ceiling right onto the pile of bones Conner had just finished cleaning. There were several cracking noises before the god straightened up.

Hope and Conner, who both didn't know who that was, backed away both drawing their weapons. "What the…" Hope exclaimed.

Kate, George and Josh recognized the stranger. They had seen him shortly before but never up close. They reached for their weapons but were unsure if they really should draw them. After all, this was a god.

Hiccup ignored the god's battle-armor and his tattered cape and the scratches on his face and arms. His gaze was fixed on the god's eyes.

Loki looked around, spotted Hiccup and a wide smile appeared on his face. Hiccup didn't reply it.

Loki jumped over to him and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, which also stayed unreturned.

"HICCUP! Thank the gods you are alright brother!" Loki let go and held Hiccup on arms-length. "Are you alright, are you well, unharmed? Gods I was so worried when I couldn't reach you! You were gone; you had disappeared from our radars. I was so worried." He muttered and began checking Hiccup for none-existing injuries.

Somehow Lokis words ignited anger in Hiccup. Anger that he hadn't known had been there. But it wasn't just anger. It was also hate, loathing, pain, sickness and the sharp feeling of betrayal.

"But you are fine, you are good. Gods above if something had happened… I was especially concerned after I heard what happened with Alvin a few days ago!"

The hot knot of emotions rose from Hiccups stomach to his chest, into his throat and up into his head. It was everywhere. It consumed him. Small flames were dancing across his hands.

Finally Loki was finished with his mother-hen-inspection and was smiling brightly at him, waiting for his reaction, as was everybody else.

Slowly Hiccup looked up at the god and was very satisfied when he saw Loki flinch.

He was beyond pissed!

"You…have the nerve…to show your…stupid…godforsaken face…around here? Around me? Now?" Hiccup asked softly, silently but with loathing clear in his voice.

His hands were fists. Flames licked the skin, begging to be released.

Lokis smiled lessened a bit but it was still there.

"What are you talking about? Aren't you happy to see me after this long time?"

Long time. Long time indeed.

Hiccup tried to control the shaking of his raging body but it was so damn hard. It took all his self-control not to blow up in the god's face then and there, for he knew it would only damage his friends but not the god.

"Two months. Two months Loki. I haven't heard from you in nearly two fucking godforsaken months!" Hiccup was still talking softly and somehow that made it even worse.

Loki flinched again.

"Ah, yes… About that. Hiccup, I know I promised you I would try but…"

"Exactly" Hiccup interrupted him "You promised me. You said you would be there, you said you wouldn't give a shit to what your family wants from you, you said you'd walk with me. You said you'd be there if I needed you. You said you'd do everything in your power to help me." His voice grew slightly louder and bitterer. "You must be weaker than I thought you were if you can't even keep track of me."

His eyes were cold and hard.

Darkness's word echoed though his head.

"By the way, have you heard anything from your… divine… friends?"

He hadn't. There had been no answers when they had been captured in Port East, there had been no help, when they had encountered Alvin for the first time after escaping, there hadn't been any respond when Kate was bitten by that monster and was slowly dying. There clearly had been no help when they had made their way through the desert and there had been no help when they were dying from thirst. No help with Hope or Namhera. No help when they had been drugged by Alvin and when Darkness talked to Hiccup. No help when the Revatoren had attacked.

Even though Hiccup had prayed to the gods many times.

Where had his brother been all those times?

No, now that they were safe and sound for the first time in a very long time, Loki made his grand entrance and said that he'd been concerned, 'concerned when he couldn't spot him on his radar'.

What a poor excuse.

If he's been a volcano with a lid up until now, then the lid flew off this very moment.

He grabbed the god by the collar and shouted as flames licked over his whole body:

"I WAS BEGGING LOKI!" he screamed into the stunned god's face.

"I WAS PRAYING FOR SOMEONE TOE HELP US, TO GUIDE US, TO SAVE US! You promised you'd be there! You weren't! Damn it all to hell Loki, WE WERE DYING! More than once! But you didn't give a damn. You didn't answer my prayers, MY CALLS FOR HELP!" he shouted and shook the god as all the anger and hate consumed his thoughts.

"We could have died in that desert and you probably WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED!"

Hiccups chest was heaving and he looked ready to murder the god.

"But you didn't care!" he hissed low and dangerous.

Loki swallowed. He knew he shouldn't have listened to Thor.

Now it was too late. He knew he'd screwed up. Big time.

"I know Hiccup and I'm so so sorry. Gods you can't even imagine how sorry I am. I wanted to come, I really wanted to but…" "Let me guess, you had your own battles? Thor didn't allow it?"

Loki froze. "How did you…"

"I saw and heard everything. How easily Thor convinced you to stay, how back-bone-less you really are and that I was a fool to believe that the god of lies and trickery would give a damn shit for a mortal like me!"

"How did you…" Loki tried again but again Hiccup interrupted him.

"Do you know how we survived the desert? What saved us when we had no food, no water, when Kate was dying from poison? It weren't the gods, I can tell you that much.

It wasn't me or any other human. Guess what saved us in form of a sandstorm that threw us halfway across the whole desert and kept us alive." He seethed venomously.

Loki opened his mouth to respond but Hiccup again interrupted him.

"Don't bother. You would never guess it. But I'm going to be so honest with you, even though you don't show me that kindness."

Hiccup finally let go of the god's collar and the flames died down. Only smoke remained around him.

"It was Darkness." Hiccup hissed and waited for the god to react to those news.

Loki looked…shell-shocked.

Understandable.

You didn't hear every day that your archenemy saved your hero's live.

Hiccup was shaking his head.

"It's ironic, isn't it? I…the gods champion" he spat the word like it was pure poison "am saved by the god's worst enemy."

But Loki quickly regained his posture, even though he spluttered his first words.

"Hiccup, you can't trust him! Whatever he did, he did it because of a reason. That can only mean trouble!"

Hiccup laughed but it was a cold and dry, sarcastic laugh.

"Really Loki? How naïve do you think I am? Of course he didn't do it because he's such a nice guy. Yet when I was on the brink of death it was him who saved me and not the so called 'great divine gods of Asgard, the save-keepers of the nine worlds'. Of course I don't trust him. Only two weeks later he tried to kill me again. He's taken control of the Outcast. But if we look at it as a whole, neither have you given me real reason to trust you with my life ever again."

Loki opened and closed his mouth again.

"Hiccup…" he tried "I know you are angry with me. I know you probably hate me right now but you must understand…"

"UNDERSTAND? How do you expect me to understand any of this, when you leave me alone with only the vaguest idea of what to do? How could I ever understand?"

Hiccups eyes were literally blazing with flames.

"Go and unite the seven nations, stop the evil Darkness, make right what your ancestor did wrong. I will help you. You are our hero. The one the prophecies speak off! Loki you demand from me to make the impossible possible! I don't even know half of it, yet you leave me fighting against all evils that are thrown at me. Do you know that these people here have helped me more than you gods combined?" Hiccup shouted and pointed at the frozen human teens around the fire.

Loki glanced briefly at them.

"Hiccup, the things I did and didn't do have their reasons. You see fate has to be left alone. You can't mess with the future. Trying to prevent it creates it in first place."

"So if I had died in the desert that had been according to fates plan?" Hiccup asked dryly and again the flames came to life.

"No but certain things happen for a reason and…"

"Oh hell, you know what Loki? Screw you!" Hiccup hissed and his eyes blazed with fury. HE had enough of the gods excuses.

"What?" the god asked sharply, slowly getting annoyed about being interrupted all the time.

"You heard me." The boy, no young man, said.

"Screw you."

Hiccup made a small step forward.

"You and everyone else. Screw you all! The other gods, your sorry excuses and your dumb lies and hypocritical behavior. Go and find someone who believes this bull-shit you try to sell as the truth."

Loki was slowly turning red.

"What do you think gives you the right to speak to me like that?" he asked growling.

"I have every damn right in the world! I have enough! You abandoned me; you lied to me and betrayed me! You are nothing but a trickster and you don't care for me at all! But don't worry; I'm not going to make that mistake again."

Hiccup raised his finger.

"I'm done with you all. You want me to be alright with what you do and accept everything and follow your command blindly. Well, that's not me! Just leave me alone because that's what you can do best!"

His word echoes through the cave.

He took a deep breath. He felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders now that he told the god everything.

"Hiccup you must listen, this is not the time for such things. You are in grave danger!"

"Oh, you realized that very early. Give the man a prize."

Loki growled slightly. "You don't understand. Illiona, the seer prayed to us. She had bad news. I imminently went to get more concrete answers."

"Great. When she says there is danger you jump but if we are dying you remain seated." Hiccup growled.

"HICCUP! LISTEN! What the oracle says is important. For all of us. She saw Alvin tell your father that you are still alive. Darkness is messing up everything. He's moving northwards. We need you to…"

"Oh no, no, no, no! I will never gain do anything for you! Never again!" Hiccup shouted.

He was about to turn around when Loki said coldly, his previous words forgotten: "What, you're giving up on the quest? Are going to prove them all right in their assumptions and what they think of you?"

Hiccup slowly turned back around.

His face was set in stone.

"I don't answer to you. Not anymore." He growled.

"Now leave. Leave and don't come back. Ever again!"

Hiccup hated how his voice broke near the end. How weak he sounded.

With a sigh the god nodded in defeat and whispered: "Just one last word of advice: Don't make the same mistakes again. You are smarter than that. I know you will eventually find the right oath. Just don't trust Darkness. If you won't listen to us, don't listen to anyone but yourself."

With that he disappeared.

.

.

.

Hiccup felt drained after his argument with Loki.

As he lay on his bed he thought about it again and again.

He'd cut of all ties that bounded him to the gods.

But was his mission really over? The quest he'd sat out on? Could he just…stop it?

He wasn't sure.

The thought of giving up had never…occurred to him if he was honest. Yes, there were the hard times but not once had he thought about giving in or up.

HE wasn't sure he could.

Not after all that he'd been trough.

Not after all he'd put his friends through.

He owed it to them.

They were part of this world too. They would die should he stop now.

HE couldn't let that happen.

Not now where he finally had found real friends and companions.

He had Toothless, his best friend and soul-mate. He had Josh, his new human best friend and brother. He had Kate, who was like a sister and his best friend too. He had Hope who was his friend. Even George was part of his adventure.

And he wanted to defeat Darkness because he had seen what it had done to this planet.

No, this wasn't over as Loki had assumed.

This was still going on.

The game was still on, as Darkness had said.

Darkness.

Another thing he couldn't quite figure out.

What where his motives? Why did he do what he'd done?

Most importantly, what would he do in future?

The doubt stayed.

The fears and paranoia stayed too.

He turned around and stared into the darkness. The sound of running water was all there was next to the heavy breathing of both humans and animals.

The future.

Loki had mentioned Illiona and something about Alvin and his father.

His heart started pumping.

He needed to know what was going on.

And Illiona was probably the only one who knew.

AN: So, there is the big argument I have waited to post. It's not as perfect as it should be but it'll do the job. The message has to be clear. Hiccup is pissed off by the gods and turns away from them. Very bad!

Also Alvin is making trouble.

And Darkness is getting stronger.

And generally things don't look so peachy.

IMPORTANT: I'm on holiday now because summer-break is finally here, yay! Three weeks in Sweden where I will only be able to write the old fashioned way. On paper. So don't wonder if you don't hear anything for the next weeks from me.

Still: read, review and have fun. Tell others about this story, whatever.

See you all soon,

Kate!

PS: Yes, Hiccup will have a love-life! You can guess if you want.