Chapter 6: The Truth
Brace yourselves. It's about to get emotional.
Astrid sat crossed-armed in the middle of Sticky's apartment room. Cat Noir had abandoned the piano mid-song to watch the tribute video on his staff-phone-whatchamathingy.
Every now and again, the black-clad teenager would lean towards his female companion with a suggestive look, only for her to gently push him away with one hand.
Just when Astrid would think it was over, he'd loop the video back to the beginning and play it all over again.
It was on its sixth time through the song, Cat Noir singing along to a few of the lyrics, when Astrid decided she'd had enough.
"Will you please stop?" she asked through gritted teeth. He was making it really hard for her to not punch him where it hurt the most.
He shrugged it off. "Yeah, in a minute."
"You have to admit," Blaze said, "the song is pretty catchy." She gave her trainer a friendly nudge.
Admittedly, Astrid was beginning the like the song just the tiniest bit. And there was a minute part of her that wanted to see if what Sticky had said about the video was correct.
Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her, and she stood up and strode up to Cat Noir to take a look at the video for herself.
She ended up getting an eyeful of that first kiss with Hiccup from a spectator's point of view. Her eyes widened at the sight, and she quickly turned away, cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment.
Then, all of a sudden, the music stopped.
Astrid went from sheepish to confused in less than an instant. "What did you do?"
"I turned it off," Cat Noir said nonchalantly. "Just like you asked me to." He pressed a button on his staff-phone, folding it up before tucking it into his belt.
Astrid turned to face him, dumbstruck for a brief moment, before she angrily demanded, "Why didn't you do that in the first place?! Why'd you wait?!"
He leaned in a little, wearing the smuggest of smiles. "I just wanted to see the look on your face."
Eyes flashing dangerously, Astrid clenched one hand into a fist, reared back, and, in one swift movement, socked him right in the nose.
Cat Noir went flying back, shocked more than hurt, thanks to his magic cat ring enhancing his durability.
Ladybug stared wide-eyed at what had just occurred. "Did you just punch Cat Noir in the face?"
"It's how I deal with obnoxious flirts back home," Astrid said by way of answer.
"Moral of the story," Blaze said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "Antagonizing a Hofferson is hazardous to your health."
Sticky, who had been hovering near the refrigerator, let out a good-natured chuckle. Once everything had settled down, the Shiny Poipole opened the fridge to see what was available for eating. Her eyes landed on a partially-eaten rotisserie chicken and a Ziploc bag full of nuggets. "If you guys are hungry, there's plenty of chicken left over."
Stormfly squawked eagerly at the word "chicken".
There was an odd noise, like a cross between a chirp and a groan, and the most unusual-looking Pokémon Astrid had ever seen squeezed through the doorway that led to the apartment's bedroom. It had a small yellow upper body with two long wings shaped like lightning bolts on its arms, a long neck that connected to a raptor-like head with closed eyes and a red spot on each cheek. The lower body, colored pink and green, was much wider, with two green legs with pink claws, and pink stripes and spikes.
"Stegoraptor!" Sticky exclaimed when she spotted the creature. "I nearly forgot about you! I'm glad to see you're safe! Come on, it's almost time for dinner!"
The Dracozolt chirp-groaned again, wagging their tail happily and sending some framed photos tumbling off the nearby walls and shelves. Then they bounded over to the kitchen, eager to see what everyone would be having for supper.
As everyone else migrated to the dining area, Ladybug stayed behind to help Cat Noir up off the floor. "Thanks," he uttered, rubbing his sore nose with his ring hand.
She walked away wordlessly, an amused and giddy smile on her face.
Cat Noir had all of ten seconds to wonder what that was about before his staff-phone beeped, indicating he had a new message. He grabbed it and slid it open to see what his lady had texted to him.
You're a real CAT-sanova.
He laughed dryly.
Heather and Brandyn's group had barely been in the apartment for ten minutes when the floor was suddenly riddled with blueprints. They could hardly walk to any part of the room without stepping on a stray corner.
And the stepbrothers were still making more of them.
"We're used to working in our backyard," Phineas explained as he and Ferb kept working. "So, we've had to tone down a few of our bigger projects. We'll start off small, with the licorice dispenser, and then gradually work our way up, so it's easier on the rest of us. It'd probably be pretty weird and surprising for you guys if we, say, turned the whole room upside down, right? But it'd still be fun! I mean, just think of all the cool things you could do on the ceiling!"
"Are we sure these kids aren't crazy?" Ra whispered to Camazotz.
"They're certainly imaginative," she whispered in reply.
Oblivious to their conversation, Phineas carried on describing his big ideas. "Hey, you guys are engaged, right?" he asked Heather and Brandyn. When they both nodded in affirmation, he enthused, "Give us a few hours, and Ferb and I will throw you the biggest and best wedding bash ever!"
"We appreciate what you're trying to do," Brandyn said as politely as he could, "but we really don't need anything big and fancy. You're welcome to help us figure out the details, though."
"Well, we have helped plan a wedding before," Phineas said, "I think we can tone it down a bit, right Ferb?"
The silent stepbrother gave them a thumbs-up.
"And maybe we can help with some of your big ideas," Heather offered.
"Awesome!" Phineas's entire face lit up.
Ninjark, who had been foraging the pantry for food, asked the triangle-headed boy, "Where do you think that pet of yours ran off to?"
"Perry wanders off all the time," Phineas explained. "We don't know where he goes, but he always comes back."
"But there's a horde of mutant virus zombies outside," Ra said.
"What he means," Camazotz said gently, "is that this might not be the best time and place for Perry to be wandering off on his own."
Just like that, Phineas's entire demeanor changed. "Right, I hadn't thought about that." He hung his head with worry. "Gosh, I'd be devastated if something happened to him."
Fortunately for the Flynn-Fletcher boys, their beloved pet platypus was still in action.
Agent P had faced an unusual zombie apocalypse before, but this was much more dangerous than a bunch of simple-minded, static pharmacists. He'd managed to evade the mutant virus zombies by hiding under a manhole cover, but he knew he'd only be safe under the street for a limited amount of time.
Maybe if he could somehow make himself look like the more animalistic zombies...
He lifted the manhole cover enough to peek out without being seen, and studied them carefully.
Bluish tint? He could pass that with his teal body and a bit of makeup.
Protein spikes? He'd had to make do with whatever scraps he could find in the alleys.
A zombified Swift the Nargacuga came dangerously close to Agent P's hiding place, forcing him to close the manhole.
Maybe they'd find him, and maybe he'd get infected. But he was willing to take that risk if it meant that Phineas and Ferb would be safe. The boys were his family, and he'd do anything to protect them, from mutant virus zombies or otherwise.
For the longest time, the room was silent.
Peril shook her head. "No," she said. "My brother is dead. Kestrel killed him!"
"No, she didn't," Adhesive insisted. "We thought so, too, until one of the most recent books about the main Wings of Fire universe featured a SkyWing dragonet that didn't have any fire."
The six dragons looked at him like he'd just sprouted three extra heads in from of them. "What are you talking about?" Tsunami asked.
Snivels scanned the room, finding a bookshelf against the far wall and zipping over to it. Once he found what he needed, he grabbed it and rushed right back.
"Look!" The Servine held up the book and pointed at the cover. "Clay, that's you! That's you on the cover!"
It was one of Adhesive's copies of The Dragonet Prophecy. Everyone could clearly see the MudWing Dragonet of Destiny soaring on the cover.
"The stories of the Multiverse are publicized in forms of media in universes like this one," Adhesive tried to explain. "The Wings of Fire books are like a one-way window to the canon timeline; they allow us to see what is going on without actually being there."
"I've read some of them," Snivels said, handing the book to Hiccup. "Everything Osprey said at Kestrel's trial was true, except he didn't know where the brother went after he was thrown in the river. No one knows. But we do." He let out a deep breath to calm himself. "Here's what happened."
Sensing that they would be in for a wild ride of emotions, the six dragons all sat down and listened intently.
Snivels didn't waste any time. He went straight to it.
"Kestrel entered the SkyWing breeding program, like Osprey said, and had an egg that turned out to contain twin dragonets. One of them, the female, had too much fire, while the brother didn't have enough, if any. Queen Scarlet ordered Kestrel to kill both dragonets, but she ran away with them instead. She was caught by the river. Scarlet told Kestrel she'd let her go free if she killed one of her dragonets. Kestrel had less than a minute to come up with a plan. She decided to pretend to kill her son and throw him into the river. We believe the idea was that if he survived, she would come back for him later, and then flee to the Talons of Peace with both dragonets."
"Everybody would think that Kestrel obeyed the order," Adhesive said, "and she'd raise her dragonets safely out of Scarlet's reach. It was a perfect plan."
"Not quite perfect," Snivels said somberly. "She didn't count on one thing."
Hiccup didn't have to ask. He had a feeling he already knew. "Scarlet."
Snivels nodded. "The queen went back on her word. She ordered her guards to kill the daughter and bring Kestrel back for a biased trial. Kestrel tried to flee with her dragonet, but she was burned by Peril's firescales, and ended up leaving her behind. She followed the river to find her son, but he'd already been found and rescued by a young human girl named Wren, who'd been left out as a sacrifice for the dragons by her own people. When Kestrel couldn't find her son, she must have figured he'd drowned. And she couldn't go back for Peril because she believed Scarlet would have killed the dragonet the first chance she got. Kestrel lost both of her dragonets, and had become a wanted fugitive; she believed she had no reason to return to the Sky Kingdom. That's why she never went back for Peril, or Sky. Returning to the kingdom with Scarlet still on the throne would have been suicide.
"Kestrel never knew that her son was still alive. The night she died, Blister and Morrowseer had lured her out with a fake message that the Dragonets of Destiny were in danger. They killed her on the edge of the SeaWing kingdom. She wasn't the nicest dragon, I know, but she tried to save Peril, and Sky, and the Dragonets of Destiny. She died for those five...and she would have died for her dragonets, too."
The whole time Snivels and Adhesive explained the story, the tile floor had been smoking under Peril's touch. The SkyWing started shaking, and the smoking intensified. Everyone in the room inched away, expecting her to explode into a ball of raging fire-filled fury.
She let out a shaky breath, and, to everyone's surprise, burst out into full-body sobs.
"Peril..." Clay had never seen this side of her before. He wanted to help her, but he wasn't sure what he could do or say without making her feel worse that she already was.
"She tried to save me," she choked out, "she tried to save my brother. I blamed her for what happened...but it wasn't her fault. I should have been better! The things I said to her...I was so mean...why didn't I go with her when I had the chance?! I could have saved her, like she tried to save me! And now..." She buried her face in her talons. "...she's gone. Kestrel's dead, and it's all my fault! I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, Mother!"
Clay's heart ached for her.
"Good going," Glory snarked. "Are there any other potentially mind-blowing truths you'd like to bestow upon us, Oh Great Leafy One?"
"NightWings get their powers by hatching under the full moons," Snivels blurted. "One moon gives them either mind-reading or foresight, two grants both, and three makes both powers stronger."
Starflight looked devastated. "But...that would mean..."
"You would have had those powers," Snivels finished for him. "If you'd hatched outside the cave, under the moons. I'm so sorry, Starflight."
The NightWing dragonet collapsed into a heap on the floor. To learn he'd been that close to getting real, honest-to-goodness NightWing powers of his own...it was just too much for his poor, studious brain to handle.
"It's okay, Starflight," said Sunny. "You're still a great dragon, even without powers."
He looked a bit better after hearing her say that.
"Don't listen to what all those volcano dragons told you," Snivels said. "You don't need special powers to be a hero, Starflight. You've already proven that you're a real NightWing, no matter what Morrowseer, or Fierceteeth, or anyone else says!"
Starflight picked himself up off the floor, looking much better. "Thanks," he muttered.
"So," Clay said, "Peril's brother is alive?"
Adhesive shrugged. "I mean, we don't know for sure, but -"
"You're not sure?" Tsunami snapped. "You're not sure, Mr. Window-Watching Weirdo?!"
"Well, we don't know everything about your universe, okay?!" Snivels shouted back. "Kuro said you're from a parallel timeline, remember? All we know is that Starflight was blinded in the volcanic eruption in the canon timeline, and this version of him wasn't!" He took a minute to calm himself. "So, we're not sure, but, we do think...yes, Peril's brother might be alive. That's...that is what I'm hoping for right now."
Clay stood up and padded over to the sobbing SkyWing. He sat down next to Peril, draping one wing over her back. She leaned onto his shoulder, her eyes rubbed red from all the crying.
"It's not your fault," he told her. "You didn't know; none of us knew." He twined his tail around hers. "If you want...we could help you find Sky, when we all go home and stop the war."
Peril shook her head. "It won't change what happened," she said, "or what I did. My whole life I've been told that no one would ever love me, that I had no family, that I was only good for killing things. And I let myself believe it, even though there was a part of me that felt like something wasn't right. I let myself become a monster, because I didn't think there was anything else I could be!"
Hiccup started forward. "Peril, it's okay -"
"No, it's not!" she roared at him. "You don't know what it's like to be hated by everyone you know for something you can't help! To have all of your choices made for you by someone who doesn't care what you think or feel! To screw up and ruin everything every time you try to do what's right! To be rejected and treated like an outcast!"
"Actually," Hiccup said, remarkably unfazed by her anger, "I do. That was every day of my life."
The SkyWing's hard, stony expression softened a great deal as her anger faded away. "Really?" she asked in a voice so small and quiet that no one would believe it came from her.
Hiccup nodded firmly. "Yes."
I'm too different. I'm not good for anything. No one loves me. Those thoughts rang louder and louder in Hiccup's head. What Peril was describing - That's a lot like what I went through. I had nothing - no friends, no family. Everyone thought I would never amount to anything. But now I do.
It was at that moment that Himinn finally spoke up. "This is great. This is awesome. You know, you guys are breaking down walls, you're bonding, it's important."
Everyone turned to look at her, some of them glaring.
"I just ruined the moment, didn't I?" Himinn asked rhetorically. "Well, I wanted to be part of the conversation, okay? I'm not just gonna sit in a corner like a lump the whole time we're in here."
"No one's asking you to," Snivels said.
"Wait, the whole time?" asked Tsunami, "How long are we going to be here?!"
"Hopefully not long," Adhesive said, "Kuro will be here with backup soon, I'm sure of it!"
"We should get settled in the meantime," Hiccup said by way of suggestion. "Rest up and regain our energy. Going back out there, it'll take everything we've got, and then some."
"That means you, too, little Rathlings," his Servine companion said to the pair of juvenile monsters curled up around each other. "No staying up late tonight, understand? Bedtime's at eight, and no later."
Rathi snorted, startling Ratha a little.
"I call dibs on the couch," Himinn declared, not caring that most of it was already taken by Typhoon. She knew, sooner or later, the Windwalker would forgive her.
As much as Peril wanted Clay to stay with her, she knew he'd be happier sleeping in a pile with the other dragonets. So, she let him go to his friends. She was used to being alone, anyway (though it didn't make her any less upset). The firescales SkyWing waited until everyone else was situated a fair distance away from her before laying down in what she hoped was the least flammable part of the room - right in the middle.
Hiccup was being buried in a pile of scales and leaves, courtesy of Toothless, Snivels, Ratha and Rathi, when he spotted Peril curled up alone on the floor. Seeing her there reminded him of all those lonely nights where he'd lie in bed, trying to fall asleep, while his father was out on late-night chiefing duties with Brumous.
"She shouldn't have to be alone," he said, mostly to himself.
Snivels heard him. "You've still got that book, right?" he asked.
"The one you handed me earlier?" said Hiccup. "Yeah, why?"
The Servine twitched his tail towards the SkyWing. "Why don't you go and read it to her? I think she could use a friend right now."
Taking his partner's words to heart, Hiccup extracted himself from the pile of reptilian creatures, book in hand, and slowly inched toward Peril.
"What do you want?" she asked, turning her head away and curling herself tighter. It seemed like she was trying to make herself as small as possible.
He sat down next to her. "You don't have to be alone anymore," he told her gently. He instinctively reached out to pat her shoulder, but flinched away at the intense heat radiating off her scales.
"This is why I can't have friends," Peril said. "Who'd want to hang around a dragon who could burn them to a crisp if she's not careful?"
"But you can make it stop, right?" Hiccup asked. "I mean, when you don't need to use it?" In his mind, he was comparing the SkyWing's firescales to the Monstrous Nightmare's ability to set itself aflame. If firescales were anything like that, surely Peril would have a way to extinguish her fire, right?
Snivels could tell what his friend was thinking. He shook his head sadly. "She's not a Monstrous Nightmare, Hiccup." When the Pyrrhian dragons gave him looks of confusion, he explained, "It's a species of dragon where we're from. They have the ability to set themselves on fire, and they can extinguish the flames when they don't need them."
"Well, I can't," Peril sighed, "even if I wanted to. Scarlet would have never allowed it, anyway."
Hiccup's heart sank. Being unable to touch anyone or anything without burning them severely...he couldn't even begin to imagine that kind of life. Sure, his childhood wasn't the greatest, either, but at least he could touch people without hurting them. They were the ones who did most of the hurting, anyway, both physical and emotional.
"I'm sorry you had to live a life like that," he said sincerely.
"I try not to let it bother me," she said. "Clay's the only dragon who can touch me without getting burned. He was the first real friend I ever had, besides Osprey. But I betrayed his trust because I didn't want him to leave. I just wish I could be the kind of dragon he deserves."
Hiccup trembled in sympathy. Thinking back to his once-hopeless crush on Astrid, he could understand how Peril felt about Clay - someone she was in love with and wanted to be loved by, but seemed to do all the wrong things in the presence of.
"You can be that dragon," Hiccup said supportively. "And you don't have to change yourself to do it. You can just be you. That's how I got so many friends on my side - because with them I could be, always and honestly, myself."
"And what if myself is a notorious death monster?" Peril asked, her voice heavy with self-loathing.
"If that's really how you feel," said Hiccup, "then that's all you'll ever be. You can be more. You can be better. You're the one who decides how the rest of your life is going to turn out."
"Scarlet never gave me a choice," she said in that small, quiet, un-Peril-like voice.
Hiccup gave her a friendly smile. "If there's anything that I've learned, it's this - we always have a choice. It's just not always easy to make the right one. You just have to listen to what your heart's telling you. Some really close friends of mine taught me that."
Snivels and Toothless both smiled at Hiccup's mention of them.
Peril finally lifted her head and turned to look Hiccup in the eye. "So, you really want to be my friend?"
"Everyone needs friends," he said by way of answer. "Believe me, I should know." He held the book up so she could see it. "So...would it be okay if I read this to you?"
Peril thought for a moment before nodding. "Sure."
Smiling, Hiccup opened the book, and was immediately greeted by an illustrated guide of the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia.
"I'd recommend starting with the prologue," Snivels spoke up from his spot in the middle of a cuddly Night Fury and two equally cuddly Rathlings. "Though the prophecy at the beginning is pretty important." He said the word as though it were a drop of poison on his tongue.
Hiccup's mind buzzed with wonder, but he pushed it aside as his eyes scanned the mystical words at the end of the seven-page guide. If he knew Snivels, and he knew him quite well, he'd probably figure out what the Servine was talking about later.
Right after the prophecy came the prologue.
"'A dragon was trying to hide in the storm'," Hiccup read aloud. "'Lightning flickered across the dark clouds.'" He squinted at the next word, which was unfamiliar to him. "Hiveye...?"
"Hvitur," Snivels corrected, speaking slowly to make sure Hiccup heard him right.
The trainer nodded at his partner in thanks before continuing to read. "'Hvitur clutched his fragile cargo closer. If he could make it over the mountains, he'd be safe. He'd escaped the sky dragons' palace unseen. And the secret cave was so close...'"
I did say Hiccup/Windracer and Peril could be friends. It feels good for me to be making it happen. I think what Peril needs is a friend who truly understands what she's been through and wants to help her become the best version of herself.
Of course, Starflight needs some love, too. Poor NightWing.
It would be way too cruel for Peril to learn the truth about her brother and have him be dead in the universe she's from. He's there and he's alive. But Peril's journey to find Sky is a whole other story that I haven't written yet.
I wish I could say Adhesive's right that they'll only be there a short while...but he's not. It's going to be a loooooooooooooong quarantine.
In the meantime, some reviews would be greatly appreciated.