Chapter Ninety-One: Old friends and foes, new destinations
Although everyone was exhausted from the previous day's events, Hiccup urged them to leave the bay and sail out of that miserable place.
Which turned out to be a good thing. The collapse of the mountain triggered a row of explosions all around the archipelago.
Hiccup just hoped that the slaves he'd freed would make it out safely.
So only when he deemed it far enough away from that dreadful place he allowed his friends to go to sleep.
Proper introductions, as well as new plans would be made in the morning.
Hiccup himself couldn't sleep.
He felt like a caged dragon, restlessly walking up and down on deck.
The events on the Isle of Tomorrow had shaken him more than he'd thought.
He'd thought he'd seen evil before but now he was sure he'd really seen it.
How…how could someone do this to his own kind? Not just enslave dragons but humans as well?
He was no stranger to slavery and the slaves he'd seen had not been treated well, yes, but they had been treated far better than Humongous and his fellow slaves had been.
The thought of the Fat Lord made Hiccups blood boil with rage and made him burst into fire at random moments.
H was so caught up in his thoughts and inner anger that he nearly missed it.
He only felt it in the air.
It shifted, moving strangely, alerting his senses.
The mist, that had been a constant companion, shifted as if pulled by invisible strings.
Warily Hiccup made a step back as it shifted and thickened and started to take form.
Hiccups breath hitched in his throat as the misty figure opened its eyes.
"Hello Hiccup. What a nice evening it is to be out here, don't you think?"
"What are you doing here? Get off this ship before…"
"Before you what? Kill me? Good luck trying." Darkness sneered and the mist shifted closer.
Hiccup growled.
"You miserable wretched little pig-headed shit-faced demon." Hiccup growled.
Darkness pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eyes. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"You…it's your fault all those people had to suffer for years!" he hissed.
Darkness crossed his arms. "Oh really? I don't think so little Hiccup."
He dissolved and the mist-column moved right through Hiccups chest.
Hiccup felt as if someone sucker-punched him and fell to the ground.
Darkness took form behind him again, the mist constantly shifting.
"Yes you! You poison people with your words. You make them do bad things." Hiccup wheezed and got to his feet.
Darkness laughed.
"Oh really Hiccup? Do you really believe that?"
"I know so."
"Well, that is wrong I'm afraid. You see Hiccup, I merely encourage people, I maybe whisper ideas into their minds, whisper in their dreams, show them possibilities. But I don't need to make people evil. They already are. You know the concept of your souls being half white, half dark. Your actions decide which dominates; you decide which side to show. I don't have anything to do with the decisions you make. Because, after all, people don't have to listen to what I tell them, do they?"
"You could make them." Hiccup panted.
"If I could I would have conquered the Nine Worlds ages ago. No Hiccup. As much as people will doubt in the future, you do have a free will and you can make your own choices. I can't influence that. Just like the gods I can pull little strings and change here and there a few things but it all comes down to people like you in the end. Why do you think I, and the gods too, are so interested in you. You, you hold all the strings that hold this world together. If you joined me, you'd let them all go and chaos would rule with you, and me of course, as the kings. We'd be powerful and rule human kind with a firm grip."
Hiccup snorted.
"And why, pray tell, would I want that?"
Darkness smiled in an unsettling way.
"You know why. Deep inside you know it. You know that you, if you took it, had the power to get rid of all those people that are like the Fat Lord. People that do horrible things to humans and dragons and other animals, you know you could rid the world of them; you even think you would make it a better world. You are a natural born leader Hiccup. You know you could do it. With me you can! I can give you the power. You could rule the world after your own rules."
"And I'm correct assuming that you will just lay back and let me do so." Hiccup said sarcastically.
"Despite what you think, my feud doesn't lie with the humans. I use them to get what I want but I have nothing against them. Quite the opposite actually, humans make me strong. No, I have a different problem. It's the gods. All I would do is destroying them. But I need your help for that. You would become my vessel in the physical world and help me kill the gods."
"Gods are immortal."
"But they can be banned and fade."
"But I won't, so stop trying to turn me. You said it yourself, you can talk but I don't have to listen. You have done too much that has affected me in the worst possible ways. Nothing could ever make me work for you."
Darkness was now the one that snorted.
"But you're not siding with the gods either." He said smugly and drifted closer.
"Because they have hurt you too. Maybe more than I have even." He mumbled with a sly grin.
"Fuck. OFF!" Hiccup growled.
"You didn't turn out to be the little Soldier of the Light they wanted you to be. They wanted to get rid of you. Am I right?"
"Are you deaf or something? I said 'Go'. Or I will kick your ass."
"We both know that it's not time. At least not yet. But don't worry, we'll fight. Eventually."
"So you know I'd never join you." Hiccup said smugly.
Darkness laughed. "We'd fight, no matter what you decide."
He started to circle Hiccup, wisps of mist ghostly touching his cheeks and neck, making goose-bumps appear of his arms.
"Tell me Hiccup" he said, changing the tone "Did you enjoy killing the fat Lord?"
Hiccup stiffened.
"I didn't kill him."
"Of course you did. You led him outside, you left him with those dragons, and you wanted him to die for what he did to your little seer-friend, whom I will destroy come the time, just so you know. You cannot fool me Hiccup. You enjoyed him being killed."
"I didn't stay to watch."
But Darkness ignored is protests and went on.
"And those guards, the ones with the Lord and ones the cart, you killed those people."
"Because they deserved it." Hiccup said stiffly. "They were cold-hearted murderer and slave-traders. They mistreated dragons and only had thought of gold in their heads." He said heatedly.
"Wrong!" Darkness sang and again passed through Hiccup, this time form the side.
The chill was nearly unbearable.
"They were scared. They did what they had to do or it would have been them between the dragon's teeth. They did what they had to do to survive. To ensure the survival of their loved ones. Yes, you heard m right. Most of them had families that were slaves. Those few that had their families in the village nearly didn't earn enough to care for them. They had to work hard everyday. And now there are fatherless children and widows that don't know how they shall survive. All because of you." Darkness murmured.
"No." Hiccup whispered fiercely.
"Oh yes." Darkness hissed gleefully.
"You just don't want to believe it Hiccup. You think so much in black in white, yet you yourself are an ominous shade of grey. Why can't others be? Why does one action condemn them all but not you? Admit it, you enjoyed killing and these guards were human somewhere inside of them."
The agony his words woke in Hiccup was indescribable.
He'd attacked those guards without second thought. His main goal had been to safe Illiona and himself.
He felt positively sick.
"Go away." He whispered.
"I'm so proud Hiccup. You're developing nicely." Darkness whispered into his eyes.
Hiccup wouldn't be able to see it and there was no one there to truly witness it but his rage came back full force and not just his arms blazed alight with white brining hot fire but also his eyes dissolved and flames licked in the eye-sockets.
Flames danced through his hair and his fists were clenched.
He punched through the misty-figure of Darkness and although it extinguished the flames on his arm, the fire in his eyes and hair kept burning.
The essence of Darkness fled but Hiccup still shouted: "I AM NO ONES SECRET WEAPON. I AM HUMAN AND I CHOSE WHAT TO DO. YOU DON'T GET TO SAY ANYTHING! YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"
There were a few tense seconds of silence, then someone cleared their throat behind him.
He swirled around, only to find Kate standing there, still in her night-gown, looking at him with barely hidden worry.
"Are you done…shouting at the night or…?" she asked.
He sighed exhausted and offered her a tired smiled.
"Did I wake you?"
"Well you were stomping above my cabin. It's a miracle no one else woke up."
"I'm sorry."
She uncrossed her arms and stepped closer to him.
Putting her hands on his shoulders she said silently: "Don't let him get to you like that."
He snorted.
"You're one to talk. You are not the rope in a tug of war. At every second turn someone waits to bestow his or her unwanted opinion on me and what I have to do and what not and what is important and what not. Honestly, how did I end up here? I can't remember." He growled.
She sighed.
"Hiccup, you may not like it but you chose to be here. Nobody ever really made you do any of this. You could've refused many times. You are here because it's the right thing to do, because you are a just person and as such you are above things like Darkness and even the gods. You are the only one with an impartial view on the things. And now stop complaining and go to bed because heaven help us, the really big things lie ahead of us."
.
.
.
.
The atmosphere at the breakfast-table was a…strange one.
As Hiccup sat down at the head of the table and looked at his gathered friends, a strange warm sensation of love, gratitude, unity and friendship filled him.
Forgotten was the previous night's incident. For now.
He wasn't the only one that felt it by the slightly confused looks on the other's faces.
He sighed and smiled.
"So, everybody, please meet Illiona. Our seer." He said and pointed at the small girl. She blushed when everybody looked at her and said warm words of welcome.
She had a shower and Hope had treated her many, luckily superficial, injuries with her healing magic and she looked a lot better than twenty-four hours ago. Even if the cloth she wore were at least three times too big.
"Now" Hiccup said "We are at a special point in our journey. I, or respectively we, have been to all the seven nations, more or less. We've tried to reason with the people; have tried to ally ourselves with them, as it was my task. A united nation would be able to fight Darkness, a united army would fight and win, or so the theory. But apparently those were naïve illusions. The people don't believe in the old tales anymore. They think of them as mere fairytales. Dragons are either cattle or pests, the meaning of friendship and loyalty has decreased. Everybody fights for his own goals alone.
But that has to stop.
The seven nations have been at war for far too long. Their hatred at one another has made negotiations sometimes impossible" he tried not to look at George but everybody that had been to Port East knew what he was talking about "Or in other cases it came to a series of unfortunate events that…made in difficult to convince them differently" Hiccup and Josh winced as they thought back at Baratellum and what had happened with the Ice Queen "And sometimes we couldn't even try because it would have killed us instantly" Hiccup mumbled thinking back to City of Fallen Heroes "Or we were simply not successful. All in all we can say that did a pretty banged up job. Not that I'm blaming anyone of you, I'm just saying as it is. But that doesn't change anything at the fact that Darkness grows stronger and sooner or later, when the time is right will invade our world and with the followers he has, he will overthrew every nation and plunge our world in darkness and despair. We also know that we can't let that happen. We may have failed our initial quest but I'll be damned if we can't find a way to stop this from happening anyway. He's made this personal. It's not just about the gods or the world anymore. It's about so much more.
Still we are way too few to fight an invasion alone. So, suggestions anybody what we're going to do?" he summed everything up and looked around.
There was silence.
Then Illiona sighed.
"There is still hope that it might never gets as far as to an actual war. We have one last as up our sleeves, one last advantage that we have to use. If we take it we might turn the page for the better. You know what I am talking about." She said silently.
"Alvin is Darkness's right hand here on earth, as long as Darkness is not strong enough to rise and break free from its shackles, Alvin does his bidding. He's influenced and partly controlled by Darkness. He will use Alvin to open a portal into this world and Alvin will act as its host so he can take a physical form and destroy this earth. Or rule it. Or kill the gods. Or what-ever. So the only way to pretend a full outgrown war from happening is by killing Alvin." She elaborated for the others.
"Couldn't Darkness just get another host?" George asked.
Illiona shook her head.
"A host has to be strong enough to host such powers and such incredible powerful presences in his or her body. The search for the ideal host is a long one and often fruitless. And the host has to be willing, he has to agree to host a godly being, be it good or bad. If he or she doesn't agree then no one can enter their body and mind and take them over." She muttered.
Hiccup sighed. "Be that as it may, that still doesn't mean that I can kill Alvin."
"It's not like you haven't killed before Hiccup." Illiona said silently, reminding him at what had happened in the woods of the Isle of Tomorrow.
Her words painfully reminded him of what Darkness had said last night.
"And I regret those deaths." He whispered.
"You can't feel sorry for Alvin. He tried to kill us many times!" Josh argued.
"And yet I do. He's just another misguided soul, corrupted by Darkness. I'm sure if he had the chance, he would redeem himself."
Illiona sighed.
"Hiccup, have you ever considered that this I what Alvin wants?"
Hiccup looked at her with barely hidden disgust. "How can someone want this? It's horrible."
"Sometimes people are just like that Hiccup. You might think it's horrible whereas they might think it's the right thing. You can't condemn them for what they believe in." Conner said firmly.
"Not everybody is good Hiccup. Many choose to be…well…evil." Kate said, referring to what Darkness had said.
"I simply cannot accept that. Why would someone have pleasure in seeing others in pain?" he asked.
"It's sick but they simply do. They feel stronger then." George said. "My uncle was like that. He himself was a nobody, but whenever he tortured others he felt like he was someone."
Hiccup's eyes darkened. "People like that shouldn't be alive." He growled.
The others looked concerned at each other.
"What kind of portal?" Kate asked, trying to change the topic.
Illiona fidgeted with her many bracelets.
"When Darkness was first chained in the first war, back when humans rode dragons into battle and they were a united folk, they opened a portal into the endless abyss of the outskirts of the universe for Darkness to stay there for all eternity. Where they once banished it, is also the only place where he can get back into the physical world."
"Alright and where is that place? Maybe if we get there before Alvin we'll have an advantage." Hope said.
"I don't know about advantages but I know where the place is. I've seen a lot of possible futures in the last few weeks. Good ones and bad ones. Likely ones and not so likely ones. But I too thought of what you said."
"Alright, so where is it?" Conner asked.
"Berk." Illiona said.