Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

AN: Sorry about the delayed update; RL issues took priority and meant I couldn't get as much writing done as I would have liked.

The Dragon of Wanheda

Even before he had first started training Toothless, Hiccup liked to think he had a good enough mind that he could understand most things that eluded most of his fellow Vikings, but since coming to visit Clarke's old tribe he was finding himself facing so many things he had never imagined, and a few things he was still struggling to even understand. He just couldn't understand how this 'City of Light' thing was somehow more than a matter of faith, and as for what that box thing had to do with letting Lexa experience it… he didn't doubt that Clarke was telling the truth, but Hiccup felt as though he only knew enough about what was going on here to know that he didn't understand what was going on.

He trusted Clarke enough to accept that there was going to be a reason for all of this, even if he wasn't sure he or any of the original riders would properly understand it, but he was definitely going to try and talk with her about how some of this City of Light stuff worked once it was over. Clarke was still looking anxiously out of the door at some of the other people walking around the camp, and the Commander of the local tribes had been sitting in silence for the last few minutes since she put that thing in her mouth, but Hiccup was completely confused about what any of this was meant to accomplish. The twins and Astrid at least accepted his confused shrug as confirmation that he was just as confused about this as they were, but he just wanted some kind of idea about what the Commander was doing and how it related to this 'City of Light' business…

"It is done," the Commander said, sitting up from the chair and looking around with a strange smile, even as Hiccup heard people start to yell in shock outside the hut.

"OK, what the Thor was that about?" Tuffnut said, looking between the Commander and the nearest window. "Did whatever you were doing have something to do with everyone freaking out outside like that?"

"I was put in contact with the intelligence responsible for the City of Light," Lexa answered, flexing her shoulders as she looked around the small hut before focusing her attention on the window. "I take it those who are panicking outside are those who were initially part of the City of Light?"

"Well, Jaha's looking a bit disappointed about something out there, so I'd say that's a given," Clarke noted, looking through the window herself for a few moments before she looked back with a smile. "Still, it looks like nobody else I knew is freaking out right now, so at least there's that."

"That is good," Lexa nodded at her before she turned to look at Clarke directly. "But we have more potentially pressing concerns, and I believe that we will require your associate… Raven… to investigate the next matter."

"What's the problem?" Clarke asked.

"I have been given coordinates of a place that must be checked to confirm if the entity that controlled the City of Light was merely misinformed or genuinely sought to save others," Lexa explained. "I am… unclear as to the nature of the threat, but I hope that you and others may be able to determine the situation."

"So we just need to go somewhere and see what we find there?" Hiccup noted with a brief smile. "That shouldn't be too hard."

"Truly?" Lexa asked.

"Trust me on this," Clarke observed with a smile. "When you're on dragonback, it's very easy to get around."

Lexa wasn't sure if she should be unnerved or intrigued at the subtle smile on Clarke's face at that comment, but she had a feeling she was about to have a very interesting experience.

Clarke wasn't sure how she had ended up being the one to give the Commander a lift, but she could appreciate that there was no sense in leaving the other woman behind while they followed up on the coordinates Lexa had received. It had taken an hour or so to work out what system was being used to provide the coordinates Lexa had received, but fortunately most of Arkadia in particular was more focused on how Jaha and his former followers were freaking out at the loss of the City of Light.

Once they had confirmed that the coordinates indicated an area only a short flight away for the dragons even if it would have taken at least a few days to walk it, Hiccup had agreed that he, Astrid and Clarke would investigate the coordinates with Lexa and Raven while the twins stayed at the camp to keep an eye on things. Jaha seemed to be too dazed to really be angry about anything, as though some part of him wasn't sure what he had actually done in the last few days, but from what Lexa had explained about the City of Light, Clarke was relatively sure that he would have needed to accept the control chip on his own. The twins had agreed to make sure nothing went wrong anyway, and while Abby had asked Clarke to stay behind she had insisted on joining the expedition to offer a 'balanced' perspective.

There had been some debate about exactly who would ride with whom at first, but Raven had soon managed to dig out some old GPS tracking system they had salvaged from Mount Weather, as well as a few other items. After Lexa had given them the coordinates, Hiccup had volunteered to lead the way, Raven joining him on Toothless, while Lexa flew with Astrid on Stormfly and Clarke followed behind on Griffin. The Night Fury was the fastest dragon and Raven could offer the best understanding of whatever they might find if Clarke's theory about what Lexa had been told about was right, and Stormfly was quick enough that she could keep up with Toothless easily enough, leaving Griffin to basically guard the rear.

Clarke wasn't sure how to feel about the way she had essentially become the 'official' link between the dragon riders, the former Ark residents and the Grounders, but the thing that really surprised her about it was that she actually liked this particular responsibility. Compared to the way things had been before she left after the destruction of Mount Weather, when so many people simultaneously seemed to want her to lead them and complained when she made a decision they didn't like, it was nice to be trusted to have a fair perspective in this situation that didn't put her in a position where she had to make decisions.

Clarke didn't know what it was about Hiccup that made him such a good leader, to the extent that even Lexa seemed to respect him. Clarke doubted the Commander would just 'obey' Hiccup if he ever tried to give her an order, but she knew that Hiccup wouldn't expect something like that anyway, so she wasn't going to make a particularly big deal about it. She was happy enough being given the freedom to ride Griffin and help out when she could without having to deal with people 'needing' her to take charge.

Maybe it was just the fact that she was actually living in a world at peace now, but so long as there wasn't going to be some terrible surprise waiting at the end of this particular search, Clarke could see herself actually coming to enjoy Earth again…

"Uh… I think we're almost there," Raven's voice called out from where she was squatting behind Hiccup on Toothless's back. "If you just… yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it down there…"

Following the direction that Raven was pointing in, Clarke soon saw what Lexa must have been directing them to. It was hard to make out in full given the plants that had grown over it since the initial apocalypse, but there had definitely been buildings here once, and judging by the large towers sticking out from the surrounding plants…

Granted, Clarke was basing this assumption on various surviving clips of The Simpsons, but this definitely at least looked like one of the old nuclear power plants, which raised some disturbing questions about the reasons why Lexa had been directed here. As the dragons flew down towards the plant, Toothless began to circle the overgrown structure, leaving Stormfly and Griffin to fall into formation behind him. Clarke wondered what they were looking for at first, but she soon realised when Toothless began to descend towards a large area that they had been looking for the entrance to the plant. From what she remembered of those old shows, this open area had probably been the car park before everything went wrong and the buildings were abandoned.

"OK," Astrid looked around as she and Lexa got off Stormfly and walked over to join Hiccup, Raven and Clarke. "So now that we're all here… what's the big deal about this place?"

"Long story short?" Raven said. "A long time ago, this place provided power to other cities nearby, but if it was abandoned at some point… well, things could get bad."

"How bad?" Hiccup asked.

"Bad enough that I'd like to be sure what we're dealing with before I commit to anything," Raven said, taking another item out of her bag that Clarke vaguely recognised from other shows. As the other three watched in confusion, Raven waved the radiation detector around for a few moments and then put it back in her bag. "OK, everything seems safe so far-"

"Safe?" Lexa looked curiously at Raven. "Is there something wrong about this place?"

"Again, long story, but if these things had broken down… well, it'd be dangerous for us just to be this close to this place," Raven continued. "I'd already checked we were safe up in the air before we landed, but I had to be sure there wasn't something down here."

"Like how we only notice how hot volcanoes are when we actually get close to them?" Hiccup asked.

"That… actually works, yeah," Raven nodded at him before indicating the building ahead. "OK, we'll have to guess a bit once we're inside, but if I can lead the way, I'll make sure we don't… have any unpleasant surprises, and we'll work it out from there?"

"Not exactly the first time we've gone inside somewhere when we don't know what we're looking for," Hiccup noted as he exchanged glances with Astrid before indicating the path ahead. "Lead on."

With that, Raven started to lead the way into the building, the other four humans just behind her while the three dragons gathered around in the former car park. Clarke briefly thought about waving them along after her, but decided that would be too much; there was no reason to think they'd need the dragons inside here, and frankly it might get a bit too cramped with those three in the corridors as well. The dragons were all loud enough that they could call her and the others if anything happened, but taking them along right now would just make things more difficult.

For a while, the walk through the plant didn't offer them anything more interesting than more darkened corridors and half-open doors, even if Clarke saw a few old offices that confirmed this place had been in active use before the nuclear apocalypse. Hiccup in particular looked at the old computers with a certain cautious intrigue that left Clarke wondering what he might have known about the world before everything went wrong, even if she had no way to actually ask that question.

"So… what is this?" Clarke asked, moving forward to stand closer to Raven. "I mean, it's a nuclear plant, I get that, but the way it's set up…"

"Pretty sure it's one of the mega-reactors they built back in the day just before everything went down," Raven explained. "There was a big catastrophe a while before everything went wrong, and scientists set up a bunch of these to stop any disaster like that happening again. They were supposed to be more secure and a more stable source of long-term power, but the problem is that these reactors were never meant to be left alone for this length of time, so if they were never maintained…"

"Second nuclear apocalypse?" Clarke asked apprehensively, mind flashing to the image of Griffin and the other dragons being incinerated by nuclear fallout while she had to try and get the Riders into some kind of new fallout bunker.

She was only just becoming comfortable with the idea of having dragons in her life, but the thought of losing them because the world ended again…

"Maybe, but so far…" Raven studied the device in her hand for a moment before she shrugged. "I mean, if this place had broken down when the rest of the world went to Hell, I think we'd have detected something by now…"

"Good point," Clarke nodded at her friend, even as she studied the halls around her. "So… we just need to find some… central control room, right? Like the equivalent of… wherever Homer Simpson worked?"

"The Simpsons?" Raven looked at Clarke with a slight smile.

"Hey, a lot of those clips survived, and it's a funny show," Clarke retorted, allowing herself a smile before she saw a door up ahead with more distinctive damage on it. "Look at this!"

As Hiccup, Astrid and Lexa hurried to join them, Clarke noticed that Astrid in particular was looking at the door with a new sense of intensity in her gaze, even if Hiccup also looked as though something had occurred to him.

"What is it?" Lexa said, looking curiously at the two Dragon Riders.

"The burn damage around this door…" Astrid said, walking over to run her hand carefully over the charred and melted walls. "This must have happened quite some time ago… it's too cool, and there's all this dust instead of ash… but this is definitely what happens when something's struck by Nadder fire."

"Nadder?" Lexa repeated, before she looked at Astrid with new understanding. "That is… you ride such a creature, correct?"

"Yeah," Astrid nodded at the Commander before she looked at Clarke. "But this is so far from our islands… what would a dragon have been doing here so long ago on its own?"

"I… have a theory about that," Raven said, before she looked apologetically at the three non-Ark residents. "But if this is gonna make sense, Clarke and I need to check this place out first."

"Just you two?" Astrid asked.

"It… keeps things simple," Clarke said, looking apologetically at Hiccup. "We can explain things in more detail later, but…"

"…OK," Hiccup nodded at her after a moment's thought, before giving her a slight smile. "I mean, you're not the twins; if you want to be alone with something, I trust you're not going to just blow it up."

Clarke chose to just accept the compliment in the spirit with which it was intended and headed into the room through the damaged doors, followed by Raven. Her friend soon took up the lead as they walked down the next corridor, her detector still held before her as she constantly checked and double-checked for any radiation. They passed through another couple of fire-damaged doors that showed a similar sign of Nadder-induced damage, until they reached a large control room at the other end. Like the rest of the building, the equipment was clearly worn from years of relative exposure to the elements even if the facility was still in good shape overall. That said, even with Clarke's limited experience, it looked like most of this equipment had come through whatever had happened basically intact, and she wouldn't be surprised if at least some of these panels were still in working order…

"OK," Raven said, after she had spent a few moments looking over the control panels. "Keeping in mind that I never actually studied these things in detail- I didn't exactly think I'd ever need to know about them- but as far as I can tell, these panels might have worn out a bit, but everything essential got explicitly switched off ages ago."

"Switched off?" Clarke repeated, quickly going over what she remembered about radiation. "But… if this is a power plant, shouldn't the radiation of the power supply still be a problem?"

"Yeah, but with the reactors themselves turned off, the main radioactive power cores would basically be running down and decaying," Raven affirmed as she indicated a set of doors on the other side of the room with no sign of fire damage. "I mean, I wouldn't recommend going further into the cores without an anti-radiation suit, but unless someone turned everything back on we're not going to have a big boom from this one any time soon."

"OK, that makes sense," Clarke nodded in cautious thought. "And I'd guess that the Nadders were here because… maybe someone from the Dragon Sanctuary came here after the missiles had gone off to make sure these places wouldn't be a problem later?"

"Someone came all the way from those islands just to turn these things off?" Raven said, her tone partially sceptical and partly thoughtful. "Long way to go for something that wouldn't be a problem for some time…"

"But it fits the facts," Clarke pointed out. "I mean, when… everything happened, with the nukes shutting down most technology with EMPs if it wasn't damaged outright, dragons would have been the fastest way to get around. It cost so much to even go to the Sanctuary in the first place that there was probably someone there after the missiles went off who was at least smart enough to realise what would happen if he did nothing. If someone could find the right dragon to make the trip, and at least knew where they were going…"

"Lot of ifs, but it makes sense," Raven said, a cautious smile on her face. "And if they got to one power plant like that… maybe they got to some of the others?"

"Are there that many power plants like this?"

"I'd need to check, but from what I read in history, I think there was only ever a couple of dozen mega reactors built… and I'd need to look up where they are," Raven shook her head, slamming her hand against the wall in frustration. "And they're probably fairly far out anyway; even if I could find where they all were, I couldn't exactly check them all personally…"

"Unless you had a dragon."

"Say what?" Raven looked sharply at Clarke.

"If you had your own dragon… and you had somewhere you could look up where those reactors were… it could work," Clarke looked thoughtfully at her friend. This was a bit of a leap for her, and she'd want to ask Hiccup about it before she made a more explicit offer to her friend, but if she was right, she might be able to at least give Raven something to start with…

AN 2: As you can probably guess, Raven will be joining everyone at the Edge for a few chapters until she gains a dragon of her own. I have a few ideas for what she'll get (and it won't happen for a few chapters anyway), but if anyone has a 'vote' for a particular type of dragon, I'll take it on board; my only condition is that it's a fast dragon (so basically anything along the lines of a Gronckle is off the table)