Ghost's Reign Chapter 46: Inflicting all the Grief I've Felt, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 46, everybody! Fortunately only a month gap this time, still a lot of snarly writing but I think we're getting through it finally. Chapter title is a line from "Fever Dreaming" by Dayshifter, not sure how I found the lyrics because screaming death metal isn't my thing, but I can't deny that that line describes Obake right now.

Moving on, I'm sure you all can guess why this was snarly for me to write. Obake needs a whole lot of serious therapy—just look at that eye twitchin'. And yes Gogo's referencing Jurassic Park, while Hiro is once again referencing The Good Dinosaur and Obake is referencing Kung-Fu Panda 2. Also yes we're calling out "Countdown to Catastrophe" I am taking Obake's last scene out back and shooting it.

Tadashi did not.

"What is this, he catches wind of his old alpha and decided 'hey, I didn't chase him away far enough'?" Tadashi grumbled, perched on a high outcropping alongside the other dragons.

"You killed our old one," Hiro pointed out.

"So the moral of the story is 'make sure he's dead this time,'" Gogo said, shifting a little and glancing back at Momakase, who looked mutinous. "Pretty sure my Yokai is willing to do the deed if you ask nicely."

Personally Tadashi thought she looked willing enough that he wouldn't even need to ask, but it still bore the question of why were they doing this to begin with. Glance back at Obake, glowering across at nothing, arms crossed and looking extremely uncomfortable. And furious—he could practically feel the anger roiling off of him.

"Hey," Hiro noised, pawing at Obake. "Hey—focus on me. This—we'll get through this, we just need to stick together." Press his head against Obake's chest. "Wherever it is you're going, stop. Come back to us. Come back to me."

Tadashi kept an eye on them, trying to parse through everything while keeping an eye out for danger...Obake was such a tangled mess—a ball of squirming eels, as Violet had said—that it was hard to get to the root of whatever it was that was bothering him. Did seem to be winding down somewhat as he registered Hiro pushing against him and purring, trying to anchor him in the here and now, where he needed to be; Tadashi could get behind chasing off dragon hunters, but anything else? Well right now that was endangering everybody, currently they had a scant handful of dragons, Narcissus tagging along while his mate and the Zippleback flew back to their flight to warn them of the danger.

"We're going to have to move again this is getting ridiculous," Narcissus muttered under his breath.

"You could move in with us," the Gronkle offered.

"No thanks, we've already done the whole 'live under a queen' thing and none of us are in a hurry to do it again."

"My suggestion is to catch yourself a not-dragon," Not-Sensitive said. "We've already established they're useful."

"Okay if we're going to be stuck here waiting we're going over why nest-snatching is a bad thing," the Gronkle said, glowering at him.

"Like you've had any complaints—"

"Quiet, all of you!" Gogo barked suddenly—for a split-second Tadashi thought she was sick of the conversation, realized they were looking at the same thing a heartbeat later. "The hunters are back."

"Ah, finally," Obake noised, spotting the same thing, anger thrumming back. "Abigail Callaghan, your reunion awaits."

This was a bad idea.

Oh he knew it, and even if he didn't Momakase had told him frequently enough—it was just—everything. Frustration and anger at how his life had gone, what he'd become—if she hadn't saved him then none of this would have happened—

The dragons can be the hero and get rid of the obake.

Everything that had happened with the Yokai was his fault, just for existing.

Every last drop of poison in his life, every snide comment, every foul moment, was bubbling angrily in him, wanting to lash out—from the moment he had decided to turn weaponry on the dragons and give Callaghan the idea had been him lashing out. He was tired of it all, tired of being nothing, and if he could turn that pain outward he was more than happy to make it so—

You're not nothing.

Realized that he had been glaring at nothing, his mask the only thing keeping his cursed glowing face from showing, that what jounced him out of his angry circling thoughts was pressure against his chest, purring—Hiro, trying to anchor him.

Hiro, the moment he had stopped trying to solve his problems with pain, instead doing something he hadn't tried in years, of being constructive instead of destructive—

For the first time in a long time, he had enjoyed a moment without his ghosts.

You can't kill a ghost.

It wasn't going away, but Hiro kept it muted until the moment the broken Yokai fleet sailed into view—fly high and circle around, aware of the dragons rumbling beneath and around him—just one blast and the elder Callaghan would never darken his doorstep again—

Glance at the Nightmare with the dark shape clinging to it, details obscured by the layered clothing and dragon spines. Yes, that would be the simpler option, but he had a point to prove, a worldview to shatter, pain that he lived with on the daily that he was more than happy to try to give away. Wave to her and point, direct Tadashi down—the black dragon was definitely questioning his logic, but swooped low and slow over the aft deck of the Hiro no Gumi, just enough to let Obake drop down noiselessly, wincing when that jostled his ribs. Abigail followed—

So did Momakase.

"You're not needed for this particular exercise," he hissed at her.

"Well seeing as how you lost your marbles, I wanted to be handy for when you needed to hear I told you so," she hissed back.

Huff, ignore her, lead Abigail down, cautiously avoiding the night watch as he led her to Callaghan's cabin—stood to the side and indicated the door. "Ladies first."

She narrowed her eyes at him, went to the door and turned the handle, pushing it open with her shoulder like her father did—he couldn't help but peek in, wanting a glimpse of Callaghan's face, wanting to hear when Abigail broke—

The cabin was empty.

Panic was starting to sizzle through that burning anger as this sank in—why wasn't he here he always favored this cabin was there something wrong on another ship? Or—no that wasn't possible. Obake had gotten lucky with his mutiny because the dragons decided to back him up; someone trying it on this fleet would have been gutted and thrown overboard, especially with his loss to Obake still smarting.

"You're telling me my father would run a ship like this?" Abigail asked as he ducked in and started hunting for maps, logbooks, something to act as a clue to explain his absence—

Momakase hissing an alarm gave him just enough time to duck into a corner and squish behind a cabinet, barely enough time and cover to hide himself as Callaghan himself came barging in, sword drawn, spoiling for a fight—

Froze when he registered Abigail, startled at the sight of her father all battle-ready—

Dropped the sword when she asked "Dad?"

Okay you know what in retrospect being here was a bad idea he didn't need to see the two Callaghans hugging and having the touching moment—start cautiously sidling for the door, doing his best to be small and unseen—

"But—no," Callaghan said, pulling away from her. "How are you here? You were snatched by a dragon—you're supposed to be dead."

And now Obake really had a reason to be elsewhere, as Abigail tried and failed to explain to him that the dragons weren't just fell beasts that tormented them—no one really wanted to hear that they were wrong, especially when their decisions led to a lot of bloodshed. Learning that his dead daughter wasn't dead and in need of avenging...in retrospect there wasn't a universe out there where this would have turned out well and he was an idiot for orchestrating this—

And then worse: Callaghan accusing this all of being a fell trick, spinning away from her angrily—

Snatching up a sword quickly when he spotted Obake.

Obake froze, knew he was screwed even before Callaghan used the tip of the sword to flip his mask off and reveal half his face glowing in solid panic.

"Is now a bad time?" he managed finally.

Oh they were dead they were so dead Callaghan was in there killing Obake she just knew it.

Momakase, meanwhile, was doing her best to be as unassuming as possible and hoping that no one had discovered the guy she had knocked out. His mask was way too big on her head but it was better than being straight-out recognized. Mince around the railing, trying to stay close enough to hear what was going on in the cabin, scanning frantically for the dragons—they wouldn't come down here, would they? Please don't try to swoop in and save the day this was a small fleet of dragon-killers if they came down here none of them would leave alive—

Movement made her glance up—stomach clenched at the sight of the two Night Furies clinging to the yardarm, peering down with concern—no no no shoo—

Jump so hard the mask went flying off, spin to the cabin where angry bellowing could now be heard—sounded like it was getting trashed in there—

Which was enough for Hiro, idiot little dragon that he was—hit the deck and blasted the door in one clean movement, sending everyone scurrying—she bolted for him with the intent to scoop him up and keep running—

Obake dove out of the smoking hole, hitting the deck and rolling—Hiro dodged her, scrambled for Obake—

Who was busy scrambling back, doing his best to distance himself from Callaghan, knocking the rest of the broken door out of the way and stepping through, focused entirely on Obake and ignoring his daughter behind him squawking at him to stop—

"What are you doing here?" Callaghan demanded.

"Ah-ah-ah—I came to deliver a message," Obake managed finally. "Alvin the Treacherous wanted you to know that he was punching you the next time he saw you."

She figured that wouldn't be the best response, although she'd be hard-pressed to say what would have been—Callaghan bellowed, charged—Hiro flashed between them, teeth bared, squawked when Obake grabbed him and rolled—

Tadashi thunked into the spot they vacated, spinning around and slapping Callaghan back with his tail.

"Get them!" he roared, making the other Yokai hop to—

Momakase drew her own swords, looking for all the world like she was going to help right up to the point where she launched off of Tadashi's back to take a guy's head off.

That only incensed Callaghan further—quickly devolved into a frantic fight with no room to maneuver, Tadashi doing his best to keep the Yokai off of them as the other dragons flew in, some flaming the other ships as others tried to dip in to grab them—the Gronkle from the one nest was hovering just out of reach, barking frantically at them and trying to get close enough for them to leap over—

The Nightmare bellowed angrily at Callaghan elbowing his daughter back, dove in, head angling to grab her and go—

The head kept going, skidding slack-jawed up to her, the rest of the body arrested by Callaghan bringing his sword down on its neck.

The Gronkle howled in grief, Abigail froze, horrified—Obake, distracted by something that the rest of the Yokai were treating as a routine action—

Momakase wasn't, there'd be time later to process right now demanded action of her—stabbed and slashed and hacked, finally got to a point where she could ram Obake onto Tadashi's back, Hiro leaping after him and barking—had more room to leap and spin once they took off, swords slashing, knowing the unfortunate truth that the Yokai would have that same advantage—

White-hot fire immolated a Yokai right as Gogo swooped down and snatched Momakase up, claws gripping her arms and wings powering away, tail lashing to spray the boat with spines, barely avoiding arrows shooting up at them—the Gronkle took advantage of this distraction, of Narcissus setting the sail on fire, grabbed Abigail and fled after them.

Gogo warbled worriedly at her when she sighed—waved the Nadder off, she had lost her swords in the rescue and had to mourn losing what had been a decent set.

And that was before having to digest everything else.

Tadashi had been checking behind them frequently, finally swooped in for a landing on a low sandy island when it became clear the Gronkle wouldn't last much longer.

Nor would its rider, judging by the way Abigail staggered away after they landed.

Obake slid off, minced over to her, unsure of his current emotions. He had wanted this. He had wanted her broken like this, to have that image she still held of her father shattered, to inflict even a fraction of the pain he had endured over the years.

But something had changed in past months, subtle enough that he hadn't noticed, and now when faced with a ruin of his own making...

This was his fault. All the pain and suffering the Yokai had caused—that was his fault. He could blame her all he liked for saving him, but the incident that had caused that event—that had been his doing.

The events leading up to the Nightmare dead and Abigail sobbing on a beach were his doing as well, and no platitudes were ever going to undo all of that.

Look at Momakase for help, shook his head when she gestured at Gogo—she sighed, closed her eyes for the longest time...opened them and walked over to Abigail, crouched down next to her.

"What will you do now?" she asked, not unkindly; she wasn't wired for comforting, but she'd still do better than the one who orchestrated the whole tragedy.

Walk away, realizing now the futility of this—of his attempt to run away. He'd never outrun his old ghosts, that towering mass of blackness that was his life—everything he had ever done with his life, and what did it boil down to? He was nothing—nothing—he was nothing more than the monster his old village had made him out to be.

You can't kill a ghost.

That had been his nebulous plan, that he had been unable to articulate beyond just mindlessly fleeing—kill that ghost, outrun what he was—if he could just get far enough then maybe he could get out from under that crushing weight...but no. No that was in his bones, flared up with every strong emotion he had—he was nothing more than a revenant who had lost his taste for killing.

"Wrr."

Blink, realize that Hiro had planted himself in front of Obake, halting his progress—watch as the little dragon drew a circle before flicking several shell fragments in it. Circle around, reach and start scratching out runes—Hiro. Tadashi. Aunt Cass. Look at him pointedly before flicking another shell into the circle, labeling that one Obake.

He watched blankly as Hiro circled the shells again, cutting it deeper—his rudimentary way of explaining his family—

His way of saying that despite his beliefs, Obake did have someplace to belong.

Look over at Momakase and Abigail, blearily noting how small the island was—look back at Hiro, at the way the little Fury was desperately trying to get this notion across—

Slowly sagged to his knees, Hiro watching him carefully before putting his paws on Obake's chest and resting his head on his shoulders—didn't protest when Obake hugged him, gingerly at first and then tight enough that his own ribs creaked in protest, suddenly desperately needing an anchor—he couldn't let his emotions out, not now, not with witnesses, he didn't want people feeling sorry for him he didn't deserve it—couldn't disguise the way his face kept flickering erratically, like how a lid would rattle and dance as the pot it was on fought to boil over.

Did eventually get to the point where his breathing became less erratic, his spine less tight—slowly let go, taking note of his surroundings. Tadashi seemed to be trying to comfort the Gronkle, and the two Nadders were monitoring the horizon they had fled, keeping an eye out for pursuit. As for the two women, they were still where he had left them.

And eventually, he'd have to return.

Sigh, gently stroke Hiro's head before cupping it and resting his forehead against the broad black spade. Smiled a little when Hiro warbled at him.

"Good dragon," he assured him, one last pat before forcing himself back to his feet—always pushing himself back up, despite everything, despite wanting to let that apathy eat him alive, he couldn't allow it. There was too much to do.

He couldn't allow it because there were others also trying to push him back up.

Mince back over to the women, still unsure of what to say, but knowing he'd be hearing something soon—Abigail seemed cried out, at least. Momakase glanced at him, at her—

"So what's the verdict?" he asked finally. Might as well brace himself.

"She says she's going back to the nest," Momakase told him.

Abigail nodded, not looking at either of them. "I'm sorry," she said, wiping at an eye with the heel of her hand. "I should have believed you."

"I shouldn't have taken you there," Obake said.

She shook her head. "I don't think—I couldn't believe you otherwise. Wouldn't. But I wish I had. If I had—" Look out at nothing. "That Nightmare—that was the one that snatched me. I-I was always so...so conflicted on how I felt about it, but it never did anything bad to me."

"Aside from the one big thing," Momakase muttered, ignoring Obake's sharp warning glance. Fair enough, he had a different point to focus on—if that dragon had truly been the one to kidnap Abigail...it meant that Callaghan had finally exacted his vengeance on the dragon that stole his daughter. And, likely, he didn't and never would realize it—to him, it would be just another whatever today was.

And that was the problem with that gaping pit, he realized—nothing would ever be enough. They both were struggling to fill a cup that had had the bottom knocked out, and it just couldn't be done.

Look down at a nudge to his leg, saw Hiro looking up at him...no. There was a way, it was possible...but it required addressing the hole, working to patch it, acknowledging that it could never be made as it was before, but at least making it so it could hold something again.

Abigail stood, wiping her eyes as the Gronkle came over...finally looked at him. "I'm sorry."

Deep sigh. "I am too. For everything."

Sad nod as she looked away, them watching as she climbed on the Gronkle, as the Gronkle slowly buzzed away. Narcissus watched, touched a wing to Gogo and chittered something at her before flying away as well.

Momakase stood next to him, watching him with a concern he didn't deserve. "What do we do now?"

If only he had an answer to that.

"We focus on putting distance between us and Callaghan for now," he told her. Which Callaghan, it didn't matter. He just needed to get away, they needed to get away, find someplace safe to recoup.

And, perhaps, finally address those old ghosts.