15.1 [Pern/D&DC][katfairy]

It was frustrating when there was one more Ping that there were Loopers. Well, Loopers that F'lar could find, anyway. It didn't happen too often, but sometimes someone showed up who wasn't familiar with the Loop or couldn't find an excuse to leave home and make their way to either Benden Weyr or Harper Hall. The stray Looper was almost always found, but sometimes it took a while. This time, it had already been three years with no sign of whoever. Ramoth's first clutch was due to hatch the next day; perhaps that would bring them out. It did frequently enough that F'lar always kept an eye out for anyone reacting atypically, and this time he had an extra reason for it. Two, actually, when he thought about it.

It had been a standard Loop so far, other than that. Not exactly baseline, since they never did strictly baseline runs; that would mean putting up with R'gul longer than was necessary. They'd streamlined training, taught the potential new riders how to handle themselves at a Hatching, put the fear of Mnementh into the more obdurate Lords Holder, etc. Nothing unusual. Just one missing Looper. And one strange egg.

Most Loops, if a Visiting Looper was going to impress, they just replaced someone who had impressed in baseline. Ramoth's first clutch stayed at forty-one eggs. This time, there was an extra egg, and it had caused a lot of comment. There were hints of color visible all over it—not obvious patches, but subtle shadings, a slightly ruddy area here, a faintly azure hint there, and was that did that bit look greenish to you? F'lar had seen all sorts of odd eggs thanks to the Loops, but usually when something like this happened, all the eggs were the same. He couldn't even chalk it up to a Variant Ruth, because Jaxom was only three, and the two were always together. Well, he'd get his answer soon enough.

The next day dawned as it always did, and F'lar watched as the crowds began to gather for the Hatching, still amused by the little dances most of them did while crossing the burning hot sands of the Hatching Grounds.

"It really never gets old," Lessa murmured. "Have you spotted any likely possibilities yet?"

"At least half a dozen. Only about half these people are reliably here for this day from Loop to Loop, which makes it that much harder to spot who hasn't been before. The family from the Smithcraft Hall, for one, and then Lord Larad brought a cousin that I know he didn't have in baseline, plus a few Holder families that maintained their tithes… like that arrogant-looking blond man and his son. I almost hope it's not him; that poor lad wouldn't stand a chance against Kylara."

"He's too young, and he doesn't have enough influence, so she might leave him alone, but with his looks, she might try anyway. On the other hand, she might be jealous because his hair is more of a true blond than hers."

"And on the other hand, he might not even be around long enough for her to notice," Ramoth sent with a noticeable edge to her mental voice. She was always testy until her eggs hatched, so they didn't reply. Besides, she was right; they were just borrowing trouble.

The Hatching went as smoothly as it ever did, up to a point. Kylara Impressed Prideth, as always, and they stifled sighs of disappointment. N'ton joining them again as Lioth's rider took some of the sting away, though. They'd work on him as they usually did, building his confidence so that he could make a good Weyrleader with the backbone to stand up to that arrogant baggage. There were other ways they'd learned to blunt her claws, but she was the type who would always find a way to make trouble if even one precaution was left off.

But then that one egg cracked, and the eyes of all the Weyrfolk went to it, waiting to see what would come out of it. If this was more than just an odd mottling pattern on the shell, they'd soon know. The rest of the crowd paid no more mind to it than they did to any of the others; they'd been careful not to gossip about it to outsiders, warning the
rest of the Weyr that in the current atmosphere, news of an egg that wasn't normal could cause trouble. And if it turned out to be nothing, then the gossip would be certain to blow up in their faces. Reminders of how close the Weyr had come to being shut down did the trick.

The egg rocked, cracked further, rocked even harder, and finally the shell almost exploded away from the hatchling.

"What."

"What."

"What."

"Tiamat?"

The blonde lad pelted down the stairs, ignoring any attempts to stop him, vaulting the last few and running across the sands to a small, multi-colored, five-headed dragon hatchling. The crowd roared in shock—and, to F'lar's dismay, disapproval. The lad's father stormed after his son, furious.

"Get away from that freak, boy! I said, get away! Are you listening to me? That monster has to be destroyed!"

That was the wrong thing to say. Every dragon made its displeasure known. Loudly. And in the silence that fell after that, the lad turned and faced his father.

"Try it and I'll fucking end you," he said, and F'lar had any doubts left that this was his missing Looper, that dispelled them. "Tiamat and I are a team, and there's not a thing you can do about it. So piss off."

Three of the dragon's heads were laughing, one was trying to raise eyebrows it didn't really have, and the last was nodding smugly. F'lar and Lessa exchanged glances and stepped in before things got even more out of hand.

"Impression has been made," F'lar said, standing between the man and the new partners. "Even if we were willing to destroy what is clearly a healthy hatchling, if a highly unusual one, we certainly would not do so after it had Impressed. Or do you care so little for your son that you would shatter his mind simply because you cannot handle seeing something new?"

The man's face was turning purple, and he was practically gobbling with rage. F'lar suspected it was just as well the man couldn't answer coherently; he was comfortably certain he wouldn't care for the answer.

"You wouldn't," Mnementh said. "He's an abusive control freak, and he's only here because he was one of the few Holders who always tithed. Which he only did because he Holds for Benden …Oh, my. Tiamat is complaining about being too small to eat the man in order to stop his stupidity. And she isn't joking."

"Of course she isn't," F'lar muttered, finally remembering why she was familiar. He'd fought her more than once in some Fused Loops, but that had been a long time ago. He vaguely remembered hearing that one version of her was Looping, so maybe he shouldn't have been surprised that she showed up. A quick glance at Lessa's face told him that she was hearing the same as Mnementh, and approved.

"He is my boy, and I say he is not going to waste his life as one of you dragon-riding parasites!"

"You don't control me," the boy growled, and F'lar had the sinking feeling that a Berserk Button had just been pushed. Tiamat growled in five-part harmony, lunging at the blowhard.

"Oh, we have problems," Mnementh said unnecessarily. "From what I'm overhearing, he's had a bad Loop not too long ago. If we don't put a stop to this, it could get very ugly."

F'lar nodded, then stepped between dragon and would-be victim.

"That's enough," he snapped. "This is a Hatching, not a gather, and not the place for brawling. No matter how much someone may deserve a good thrashing. You two, join the other new pairs. And as for you, sir—leave. Now. Or you will be removed. And if that happens, I'm sure how close you'll be to the ground when the dragon decides to drop you off. I don't know how much attention you've been paying to the words coming out of your mouth, but you did just insult every dragonrider on this planet, and the dragons tend to take that personally."

He knew all eyes were on him now, and just hoped nothing would happen to break that. As long as he held their attention, he had a chance to defuse this. He shot a glance at boy and dragonet; there was a tense moment, but they both gave sharp nods and walked away. F'lar then turned a glare on the man, knowing he wouldn't be as lucky this time. He wasn't; the man drew his knife, attacking with a bellow of rage. F'lar took him down with a single punch. Not enhanced with anything, and not drawing on any of the fighting skills he'd picked up in other Loops, just a normal, everyday punch. He stood blinking down at the man, surprised it had been so easy.

"Well," Lessa said, "that happened."

The rest of the Hatching was anti-climactic. The Holder was hauled off, still out cold, and locked in a closet until the evening's festivities were over. The man was beholden to Benden, and Lord Raid had no intention of leaving the first Hatching to be open to those outside the Weyr until he was good and ready. Once again, F'lar and Lessa got to see how quickly those who had been dubious about Weyrlife changed their tune once they saw some of what in entailed. First there was seeing the bond between dragon and rider, then there was hearing what learning to ride entailed, and most importantly, learning that, no, dragonriders did still have to do chores like normal people, and suddenly the life looked a lot less cushy. They might not believe about Thread returning yet, but at least they would no longer consider dragonriders to be useless, lazy anachronisms. And that alone made it all worthwhile.

But all of that took a back seat to the problems their guest Loopers had brought. Neither F'lar nor Lessa had known about any versions of Tiamat Looping, and certainly not one who was loyal to a human. And, you know, wasn't evil. And to make matters worse, her human had issues that they were going to have to deal with. All right, the issues weren't his fault, but they were still there. And they had to find out just what those were, and hope it wasn't anything too catastrophic. They headed for where they knew the two would still be, because feeding a just-hatched dragon was not a quick job.

Sure enough, the young blond man was still feeding her, shoveling meat into each mouth in turn. But there was no evidence of his earlier temper; instead, he was laughing at something Tiamat was grumbling. And there was another problem: Pernese dragons didn't speak, but Tiamat didn't seem to care.

"—embarrassssing! I am not a hatchling! And you are laughing at me!"

"Yeah, I am. Remember that Variant where us kids were all furries? You laughed so hard you sprained a wing; now we're even."

"You were a labradoodle."

Lessa snickered and F'lar almost did; the mental image was a bit much. That drew the pair's attention; Tiamat glowered at them, and the young man blushed.

"Uh, hi. Sorry about the temper earlier; I had a bad Loop not long ago—bad enough to send me straight to Equestria after my Admin crashed the Loop. Plus I've been stuck with that jerk since I Woke up, and he's been getting on my last nerve."

"I sstill think I should eat him when I regain my proper sssize."

"Tiamat, you're hissing."

"I am annoyed."

"Fair enough."

"All right," F'lar said, slightly relieved that the issues weren't as bad as he'd feared, not if the young man had already been to Equestria. On the other hand, if the situation had been dire enough to warrant direct intervention by his Admin… He'd have to keep an eye on them. "I'm F'lar. Mnementh and I are co-Anchors for this Loop. Welcome to Pern, although that's a little late. Sorry you got stuck with that guy."

"Not your fault," the young man shrugged. "The Loops since then have been pretty easy, so I guess they figured I'm ready to get back to normal. Oh, and I'm Hank, Anchor for the Realm, and this is Tiamat. I've read up on this Loop, and I was planning on sneaking away from Rodrig—that's dear old Dad—but stuff kept happening, and then when it stopped, we got word of the Hatching, and I figured I'd find a way to ditch him when he brought me. Which I guess I kinda did; not what I had in mind,
but I'm not gonna complain."

"You usually have the Cavalier do it for you."

"Yeah, well, he's good at it." The two snickered, and F'lar worried even less.

"Have you noticed a telepathic bond?" Lessa asked, sounding a bit concerned. She'd had her own run-ins with other Tiamats, and F'lar wasn't surprised she was a bit leery of even this comparatively amiable one.

"Oh, that," Hank nodded. "Yeah, but that was in the guide, plus we've been kinda expecting to end up here. I've been told that pretty much everyone with a close connection to a dragon does."

"As have I. I do appreciate being able to converse with the Dragonkin in private, but I do not wish to surrender my speech. And we agree that we wish to keep this link, as it could be useful in the more dangerous Variants. But is it true that I am not allowed to eat annoying mortals in this Loop?"

"NO!" F'lar, Lessa, and Hank all yelped. F'lar took a deep breath and continued, ignoring Mnementh's laughter in his head. "No, dragons here don't eat people. Especially right now. And especially not you. We are still in a precarious situation, although it is getting better. Thanks to some very poor management decisions by our predecessors, the Weyr nearly collapsed, and if you know about our Loop, you know about Thread. We need to survive until we can prove that it has returned. And I hate to say this, but you've complicated matters."

"It's the five heads, isn't it?" Tiamat deadpanned. A five-headed deadpan at that.

"There's never been a five-headed dragon born on Pern," Lessa said. "I've heard some comments that I had to slap down fairly hard, and that was from Weyrfolk. R'gul, the idiot, suggested it would be 'kindest' to kill you now before the bond is fully formed. A little late, but as I said, he's an idiot. Which is why F'nor, whom you haven't met, is going to be providing security as well as helping train you lot. Until we're sure there won't be any unfortunate accidents, I'm afraid you aren't going to have a lot of privacy."

"I travel around a dystopian fantasy world with a bunch of kids ranging in age from seven to seventeen, depending on the Loop, being chased by a Mage whose favorite minion is basically a living shadow," Hank said, rolling his eyes. "The only time I get any privacy is when I Loop out of there alone, and even then I don't always get it."

"I am the Mother of All Dragons."

"So, Tuesday, then," F'lar said.

"Yep."

"Precisely."

"And warning you to keep your guard up…"

"We appreciate the thought, however redundant it may be. I will nap with one head awake; should some fool attack me, I will eat him anyway. And should someone attack my Dragonkin, I will definitely eat him."

"I say we let her," Ramoth sent, with Mnementh rumbling agreement. F'lar decided not to argue, partly because he knew he was outnumbered, and partly because on some levels, he was far too tempted to let her.

R'gul frowned as he listened to the conversation. Clearly, they were all mad. He had suspected it for some time, and now he had confirmation. F'lar's insistence that Thread would return was bad enough, but then Lessa trained Ramoth to fly, which simply wasn't possible, and had probably led to the deformed monstrosity they were refusing to put down like a sensible Weyrleader and Weyrwoman ought to. He ordered Hath to keep silent about what they heard, and continued listening. He had to know just how far the madness spread so that he could properly fight it.

15.2

(Evilhumour)[Marvel][How to Train Your Dragon]

Catching up:

Tony leaned back in his sofa, taking a sip from his non-alcoholic drink as he did his best to enjoy this loop. Peter wasn't Awake which meant they had another Anchor lurking around and Thor said he knew it was.

If he was, then things should get very inter-

"Hi guys," a teenager called out as a black blur flew into Avenger Towers, with the co-Anchors making themselves at home.

"Hello Hiccup," Tony said, nodding his head at the immortal boy and then the dragon, as it was that variant for the two if Tony was right. "And Toothless."

The dragon warbled at him, smiling with his teeth retracted at the moment and bounded over to Natasha for scritches. Despite Black Widow being who she was was powerless to the big eyes and found herself rubbing the scaly belly of the purring overgrown lizard.

"Hey kid," Clint said, tipping his head at the golden bow on the actual viking's back with envy. He always wanted to try Framherja but she was loyal to Hiccup alone as far as Stark could tell. "How is she?"

"She's good," Hiccup said, running a hand over her. "We're good too, thanks for asking."

"I can tell he's good," Clint said, pointing an arrow at the wriggling Night Fury, wagging his tail with glee as Natasha got the spot under the chin.

"Ah, there you are Hiccup!" Thor boomed, flying into the room with Mjölnir in hand. "How goes the good fight?"

"Ah, good, good," Hiccup said as his bow twinkled. "I dealt with some rogue Nadders in Scotland, and there was this really drunk Terror in the Whi-WHOA!" He let out a yelp as Framherja suddenly yanked itself towards a doorway, with Thor struggling to hold back his hammer from flying at the boy.

"Mjölnir, what is wrong?" Thor asked, turning his head as the hammer sparkled with angry sounding thunder, his feet dragging into the ground.

"I think Framherja there just admitted to Mjölnir that she did something that mom didn't approve of," Tony said with a smirk.

Both of them, the viking and the actual viking looked at their weapons, with glowed with fury and sparkled with fright respectively, and then at Stark.

"Tony, when did you learn how to hear their moods?" Thor asked, using both hands to hold his hammer from flying away now.

"Never learned weapon talk, but I do know angry women talk," Stark pipped up and then turned his head to Clint. "You should run now, because I think the no good bow that Framherja went out with is your bow."

Mjölnir actually stopped, hovered before turning slowly to face the pale face archer. Clint turned to face him to shot him a dirty look. "I really hate you right now!" He shouted, bolting as he found himself being chased by a furious hammer.

Tony leaned back as Thor was dragged in the air over him and took another sip of his drink, smiling the entire time.

15.3 (Evilhumour) [How to Train your Dragon]

Toothless Woke up to find himself mostly alone.

He said mostly as he was with other dragons and quick look over himself told him he was just a baby dragon.

Grinning to himself as he got no Ping back, he could put this prank of his into action.

With that settled, he tagged along with the next raid to Berk island despite what the nest mother wanted.

He was a Night Fury and a youngling; there was no way they could catch him and no way he would listen to them.

Stoick the Vast smashed his way through the burning village, using his bulk to knock any dragon down and use his axe to slay the damnable beasts.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Valka raced into their hut that had a burning hole in-

"HICCUP!" he roared, throwing himself towards where his wife and son were, cursing himself to leaving his pacifist wife and babe alone.

As he broke through the wall, expecting the worse, he was greeted with the most oddest of sights.

Valka was standing gobsmack as a Naddar was being fireballed out of his house by another dragon that was standing in Hiccup's crib. With his heart frozen in horror, he saw the tiny dragon- a Night Fury, his mind made the connection to the unknown dragon being the most lethal of all dragons- turned around and stared down his son, open its mouth and lick his son!?

With a giggle, Hiccup squirmed as the dragon continued to lick him before reaching up and pulling the dragon into a tight embrace. The dragon squawked for a moment before resigning to the fact he was not moving anywhere and curled up protectively on Hiccup's tiny chest.

Stoick stole a look at Val before shaking his head, knowing what she was planning to say about dragons now that one saved their son and was trying to not fall asleep with him. "I've got to make sure the rest of the tribe is alright; you make sure that Hiccup is okay and we'll talk about...that later."

With a gruff, he threw himself back into the battle but not before looking over his shoulder and at the dragon so close to his son.

He could have sworn it was grinning smugly at him.

15.4

[HTTYD][katfairy]

Well, this is going to be one of those Loops.

Hiccup didn't respond to Toothless' comment with words. When the dragon grumbled like that, he wasn't really looking for a response, so Hiccup just sent back the mental equivalent of a smile and nod and turned his attention back to the forge. He'd had a random thought about a new design for a crossbow last Loop, but the Loop had ended before he'd had a chance to do more than make a few sketches. Now he was trying a proof-of-concept model; if it didn't explode from the extra tension, it would be a good start.

See you at the usual time? I thought I'd trying being the scrappy defender who gradually wins over the hearts and minds and with any luck extra fish of the village. Haven't done that for a while, and I have a special edge this time.

Do I want to know? Hiccup shook his head, not expecting a straight answer. He wasn't disappointed.

You'll see. And Toothless fell into a smug silence.

As usual in baseline Loops when it was just the two of them (so far, anyway), that night got a bit chaotic. There were extra dragons, but that was no big deal. Hiccup dodged debris as he headed for where he knew his father would be, watching the skies when he could. He'd caught a glimpse of something darker than the sky once or twice, but something was off about it and he knew it had to have something to do with Toothless' grousing when they Awoke. Finding his father with Gobber, he grabbed a burning stick and stood by their side.

"Hiccup! What are you doing?"

"Hey, I'm not much of a Viking, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just run away when we're under attack."

Stoic's face was a mixture of pride and exasperation mixed with the slightest tinge of worry, just as it always was when Hiccup pulled something like this.

"All right, then let's—what's that? What's it—is that thing protecting us?"

The dark shape had interposed itself between a Terror and a fleeing mother carrying a toddler. Hiccup frowned as he realized the sound Toothless made sounded more like a yowl than a growl. Then he stifled a snicker as he got his first good look at Toothless.

I heard that.

Sorry.

Are not.

True!

The sleek, deadly black dragon… wasn't. Okay, he was still black. And he did have dragon wings. But the rest of him was decidedly feline. Long-haired, at that. In effect, what a Norwegian Forest Cat would look like if it had wings and been the size of a racehorse.

"But that's a Night Fury!" Stoic was gaping at the village's new ally, bewildered.

"Looks more like a—"

Don't say it.

"—Night Furry to me," Hiccup smirked. The smirk became a real snicker at Toothless' reaction.

"Son. I'm a reasonable man, so I know that I didn't just see the most lethal of all dragons stick its tongue out at you."

Hiccup didn't reply; he was too busy getting video evidence for future blackmail.

15.5

-Hiccup blinked.

Sometimes, you just had a sense a Loop was going to be... trying. It could be when your body didn't feel right, or when a fight was going on... or just that you seemed to be further along the events of a Loop than would be normally expected.

Such as this one, where he'd just Awakened inside the cockpit of a starfighter. An X-wing, to be precise, S-foils closed and just leaving atmosphere over a beautiful green forest world.

Reaching into his Pocket, he didn't find his Pocket.

"Oh," he said, then had a horrible suspicion and cycled through half-a-dozen other kinds of non-loop-baseline abilities - none of which worked. "Oh, great..."

"Red Two, what's your status?"

Hiccup winced. "Sorry, Base One," he replied. "Just nerves."

"Roger, Red Two. Better get it out of your system now."

Noticing he had an astromech droid - 2P-LS - he frowned at the screen for a moment before noticing the P was actually an old norse Thorn.

That answers that question.

"2-TH-LS, can you switch me onto the squadron channel?" he asked. "And show who else is in the squadron."

The display screen printed out a complicated piece of waving-night-fury ASCII art, accompanied by an admonishment that the droid in question had better get some really good fish next time he was biologically equipped to consume it. Then the screen changed, showing a scroll of names.

All of them were familiar.

"Please explain, Hiccup," Jaxom invited, as their squadrons flew in stately formation over Yavin Four. "This can't be the first time you've faced the Death Star."

RU-2H peeped an agreement.

"Well, no," Hiccup agreed from his own fighter. "But normally I've got access to non-loop powers. At least some kind of tech boost, if not magic."

He brought up the graphic from the earlier briefing over their screens, something they all had loop memories of. "But this is the Trench Run. If you're not familiar with how hard this is baseline, the best way to put it is that it's pretty much impossible."

"Well, that sounds like a good sign," Bilbo muttered, arms crossed. "I'm leaving all the flying to SM-UG as it is. How impossible is impossible?"

"High speed attack run, tiny target, limited weapon stocks, intense jamming, heavy turrets, and one of the best pilots in the multiverse trying to kill us," Hiccup summed up. "You can't use guided missiles because of the jamming, you have to dumb-fire them. You have to go at full speed, or the turrets kill you or the Sith kills you. You can't come in above the trench because it'd be like walking on laserfire. Basically, this weak point may have been inserted at great personal risk but it's still been defended well enough to stop a small armada - you could fly fighters down this all day and they'd all miss."

He tapped the screen in his own fighter. "And as if it wasn't bad enough, only four of us have torpedoes loaded - and none of them have any Force training, which is about the only thing that would work..."

"Would you want to take responsibility for teaching me the Force?" Hal Kailas demanded, from the Red Five position. "I'm a known PTSD case whose baseline just keeps giving him wars to deal with!"

"Probably not," Hiccup agreed. "We need a plan of some sort, though, we're only a few minutes out."

"Okay, son," Stoic called from Red One. "You walk me through this Force thing and I'll give it a go."

"That's... probably not how it works," Jaxom observed, dropping into flank position on F'lar.

"Hold on..." another voice mused; Red Three, by the display. "You realize you're talking about blowing up millions of people? There's almost certainly more people on the station than people on the moon, for starters..."

"I get that, Spike," Hiccup said. "Nice mustache, by the way. But what's the alternative, letting the Death Star destroy inhabited worlds? This is post-Alderaan."

"Not that," Spike countered. "I just think we should consider other options."

"Well-" Hiccup began, then checked his scope. "Okay, everyone, lock S-foils - we're getting close."

One by one, the fighters switched to X-configuration - spreading their guns, giving them enough of a safe zone to fire at full power and increasing maneuverability.

"I get what you mean, Spike," Hiccup said, as they closed in. "But... hold on. Toothless, do you still have the plans for this place?"

"Red group, this is Base One," Dodonna said, perplexed. "You're off-track. Please advise. Gold group, return to the target shaft area."

"Base one, Red group," Red Two responded. "Respectfully decline, sir; we've identified something else to look at. Out."

Princess Leia rolled her eyes.

"What a bunch of Anchors."

"The Rebel ships consist mostly of modern Incom fighters, with some older Y-wings," one of the techs reported. "We're getting solid reads on their emissions, they match fighters encountered at Scarif - but they're so small the turbolasers are having trouble locking onto them."

"So, the escaped rats are back," Tarkin mused, then dismissed the tactical plot. "Time?"

"Rebel base, ten minutes and closing," another officer said.

Then he looked at his board. "...what?"

The tac officer turned back to Tarkin. "Sir, we're being boarded!"

Tarkin stalked over to glare at the tac board.

His expression changed. "How did they get in there?"

"Their Y-wings fired a salvo of torpedoes," the tac officer explained. "They blew the armour doors off-"

"That is my private landing bay!" Tarkin snapped. "It's only two kilometres from the overbridge! Call out the guard!"

"This seems pretty crazy," Astrid commented, firing a stolen Imperial blaster and catching a stormtrooper in the upper thigh. "How many of us are there?"

"Fourteen," Hiccup replied. "Plus droids."

He swept his saber around in a blocking pattern, repelling four bolts and sending them flashing back at the shooters. "And yeah, the crew of this place is about one point two million including two entire divisions of stormtroopers, but we don't have to fight all of them."

"Tell that to my trigger," Hal Kailas sniped. "It's getting tired."

"I'm just glad the Loop gave some of us lightsabers," Spike commented. He waved his palm, and a collection of plasteel containers hit one of the security details as if the Trandoshan Jedi was cheating at tenpin bowling.

"It's the least it could do for giving us six Proton Torpedoes beween the entire flight group," Jaxom supplied.

2-TH-LS beeped. "I'd rather have had the Proton Torpedoes. What kind of Night Fury am I without cool blue explody?"

"The kind who should already be trying to open that blast door in our way!" Hiccup reminded him. "Now get interfacing, you know all the security codes anyway!"

"Right on, boss," 2-TH-LS agreed. "One clear path to the bridge coming up."

Spike's 'saber flashed out and deflected a bolt before it hit his own Astromech, RR-TY. "We should watch out. I feel a presence I've not felt since last time I met Darth Vader."

"Sure, take all the mystery out of it," Hiccup griped good-naturedly. "Think you can handle him?"

"The Force is my ally," Spike answered mysteriously. "Also-"

All the blast doors on the station opened.

"I like the clear path," Astrid said. "Really discreet there."

"Shut up and run!" Jaxom told her, breaking into a sprint.

"Red group, Gold group, please respond," Dodonna requested. "Red group..."

The display flashed. "The Death Star has cleared the planet. The Death Star has cleared the planet."

Everyone waited for obliteration.

Then a familiar voice came over the speakers. "Base One, this is Red Two. Uh... Death Star neutralized."

"Confirm, Red Two," Dodonna asked. "We still read the Death Star."

"No, not like that - 2TH-LS, I told you to shut the blast doors again! - uh, Base One, we have secured control of the Death Star overbridge and computer systems. I think this makes us the most ambitious group of pirates in recent galactic history."

As Dodonna tried to confirm the outrageous story, Leia opened a channel of her own.

"Han, love?" she called. "Yeah, no need for the last minute save - they captured the Death Star. Maybe next time."

"But I spent three loops perfecting that jump straight into the Death Star's power regulator room..." Han protested.

"Next loop," Leia said. "Honestly, am I the only sensible one around here?"

"Don't let Chewie hear you say that. Okay, I'll just head off to Nar Shadda and be back soon - I know this great supplier of red paint, and we're gonna need it for that new ship..."

15.6

Luke stared.

"What's..."

"Ah," Ben Kenobi said. "That was your father's. An elegant weapon... for a more civilized age."

"But..." Luke tried to get the words out. "That's a dragon."

"Well noticed," said Smaug the Great. "You would not believe how many people have told me that before."

"Are you... okay with being called a weapon?"

"I have literally dismantled cruisers to use their point defence guns as toothpicks," Smaug informed him loftily. "At this point it's frankly factual. Now, please tell me you have at least a Masters' in literary criticism, or I'm staying with the only classically educated human being on this entire dustball."

15.7

"This is just... raagh!" Eragon snarled, bringing out one of his less unique swords and slamming it into the rocky wall.

It left a dent.

I understand your annoyance, Saphira told him soothingly.

"I know you do, I'm giving you all of it," Eragon said, beefing up his mental shields slightly. "Sometimes I want to give him a melon sandwich..."

That was sufficiently odd that Saphira's neck craned around to look at him.

"Oh, right, never mentioned that one," Eragon said. "Basically... walk into his presence with a gift, gift is about eighty pounds of nuclear material in two half spheres separated by a neutron soak, remove the neutron soak with a command word... and presto, the most dangerous melon sandwich ever created apart from that one time."

Have you been talking to that Hal Kailas again? Saphira asked, shaking her head with a sigh. He is a bad influence.

15.8

Smaug, the Great and Powerful, sat in his enormous vaults of gold.

"Hmmm..." he mused, contemplating what to do this time. "Perhaps a patron of the arts?"

He felt for his connection with Bilbo, and felt mildly melancholy when there was just an emptiness on the other end. Somehow, and he wasn't entirely sure of the process, he'd come to rely on the little Hobbit as a fine source of mirth, sarcasm and literary criticism.

Shrugging it off, Smaug began multitasking. He spent part of his mental effort working out the financial structure of the Smaug the Golden Arts Endowment Fund, and most of the rest on working out a really good set of combat upgrades for next time he wanted to go metabiological.

Some way into his contemplation, Smaug was considering the merits of delivering arts funds by dive-bombing when there was a clatter of metal on metal.

"Smaaaaaug..." a ghostly voice called.

Smaug rolled his eyes, mentally saving both projects for later. "And who might that be?"

"Smaaaaug," the voice repeated. "These are the chains I forged in life..."

Head snaking around a pillar, Smaug positively identified the source of the voice. As he'd thought, it was Spike - larger than usual, at twenty feet, and wearing only one short chain which jangled as it shifted on his neck.

"There don't seem to be many chains," Smaug observed idly. "Are we really doing this?"

"All signs point to yes, I'm afraid," Spike shrugged. "And of course I don't have many chains of greed. I'm a jedi. This one's only there for when I show up as a dog, or when I pretend to be an outrageously overpowered pet for one of the others."

"Admirable reasoning," Smaug noted. "Allow me to guess. Three spirits to teach me to be less of a miser."

"Afraid soooo," Spike agreed, going back into the spooky voice. "The first will arrive when the clock strikes midnight..."

Smaug waved his wing around the lair. "I don't have a clock."

"Beeeeest gueeeesssss..." Spike agreed.

He took off, chain making a musical jangling noise.

Smaug sighed. "Well, this is going to be awkward..."

"Smaug the Golden," a deep voice called.

Smaug looked up from his nap. "Gandalf the Grey?"

"The Maia of Yuledays Past," Gandalf corrected. "Technically I am Olorin."

He flourished his staff. "Once, there was a time when you valued friendship over material things!"

Olorin's staff struck the floor with a mighty flash, and the world went white.

When it faded back in, however, they were still in the same cave - nothing at all changed.

"I was going to say," Smaug said, tail curling around to scratch his chin. "Citation needed."

"Yes, that one wasn't thought through very well," Olorin agreed. "Well, so long!"

He waved, and walked off.

Smaug stared after him for a long moment, then lay back down on his gold to continue his interrupted snooze.

After a very nice dream about waking up in his base form in a loop consisting entirely of Cullen vampires, Smaug yawned and rolled his neck.

Then he saw the white-robed figure standing before him.

"At last, you are awake," Saruman announced. "I am the Maia of Yuledays Present, Curunir. I will show you that there are others who enjoy the Yuledays, finding it a day of good cheer."

"Please don't," Smaug sighed. "It is a lifestyle choice. I prefer to spend days like this on my own in quiet contemplation."

Curunir raised his staff, ready to strike the floor.

"I will literally bribe you to not do this," Smaug added. "I have Dwarven Rings of Power."

Curunir lowered his staff. "You do?" he asked, interested.

Smaug grinned.

After a substantial bribe had been negotiated - one which would probably pay for gold-plating Isengard - Smaug lay back down on his somewhat diminshed gold hoard.

Rather than try and get another nap, he elected to consider his enhancement work. It would always be helpful to have the capability to fly even when stuck in a human-shaped body, and with the right repulsorlift setups you could compensate for several hundred kilos of mass...

So caught up was he in the calculations that he barely noticed the approach of a silent, shadowy figure.

It began to make a noise, reaching out a hand to beckon him on, and Smaug blasted it with a jet of flame intense enough to open the mountain to the outside.

"And stay out," he declared, as the horribly wounded spirit Sauron tried to extinguish itself.

What was a dragon to do to get any sleep around here?

15.9

Bilbo Baggins was not precisely unused, he felt, to unexpected guests.

Some would feel that that defeated the point of an unexpected guest, especially when their timing was distinctly regular, but Bilbo would be the first to point out that that did not mean he could not be surprised by who his guests were. Granted, they were often short, bearded and prone to songs (and to distinctly improper handling of fine cutlery), but when his guests were instead sapient nanomorphs from the Inner Sphere he would be the first to point out that nobody could reasonably expect that.

Thus, when there was a knock at the door, he headed over to open it with the outer appearance of a surprised Hobbit and the inner smile of someone wondering just what today's unexpected guests would be.

Then there was a little fwip! sound from the dining room.

Bilbo frowned, but opened the door anyway.

"Dwalin," said the reassuringly familiar dwarf in front of him, pushing past. "Is the table set?"

"I beg your pardon?" Bilbo said, crossly. "I would hope, Master Dwarf, that you would be so kind as to wait for your host to announce his own name!"

"Well-" Dwalin began, then stopped. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Bilbo asked, puzzled.

"This creature!"

As mystified as Dwalin himself, Bilbo followed him into the dining room. There he saw a bird-cage, one he had not purchased for himself as of this morning, and sitting on the seat within a tiny little golden dragonet.

"That is a pet," Bilbo announced, thinking extremely quickly. "And his name is Fearno, in case you are wondering."

"Why do you have a dragon as a pet?" Dwalin asked, as a mental chuckle oozed into Bilbo's mind. "It does not seem a very normal thing for a thief."

"On the contrary!" Bilbo retaliated. "This is a very useful pet for any Hobbit - a fire-lizard such as this can sniff out gold, carry messages, and even substitute for flint and tinder in a dire situation."

He opened the cage door, and miniSmaug - as good an actor as always - jumped out with a single beat of his wings, then came gliding up and around Bilbo's neck to land on his shoulder.

"He is quite tame," Bilbo went on, enjoying the chance to get one over on the Dragon Dread in return for his little surprise from earlier. "And I am sure he would be willing to help out for no more than-"

The doorbell rang.

"Tell me, Master Dwarf," Bilbo said, as 'Fearno' curled around his neck and dangled down his front like a necklace. "How many guests am I expecting?"

"...more than two?" Dwalin suggested.

Some minutes later, in the gap before Thorin arrived - and after 'Fearno' had been introduced seven times to suspicious or confused Dwarves - Bilbo found time to head into the back room.

"Seriously?" he asked, quietly.

Seriously, Smaugleafearno replied. Think of it as money laundering; I'm going to help steal my own hoard from myself.

15.10

Wedge Antilles tapped the board. "All right, Rogues. Today's mission is to attack and destroy this star destroyer, the Sheerest, here in orbit over Utapau. It contains vital-"

He was interrupted as one of the new pilots stood up.

"Sir," the pilot saluted. "Beg leave to inform you that I took care of it this morning. Sir."

Wedge gave the short, unprepossessing man a second glance.

Clearly some kind of Looper. Why did he get all the hotshot aces?

"Explain, please, Flight Officer Kailas," Wedge invited.

Kailas slouched up to the board, took a card from his droid - ST-4M - and inserted it into the display. The image it showed was the Sheerest, in parking orbit over Utapau.

Then it exploded.

"See?" Kailas asked.

"While impressive," Wedge began, "I - and your squadron mates - would appreciate a fuller explanation."

"Sir," Kailas agreed. "I pulled a Glorious Defeat on them."

"That one's no slang I've heard!" Wes said, standing up and pointing. "And I know slang!"

"Okay, so..." Kailas stopped for a moment, thinking. "There was a ship once called Glorious - this was from the wet-navy days, well before-"

"I call Bantha fodder," Hobbie interrupted. "How the heck can you be that old?"

Kailas shrugged, and kept going. "So she was a carrier - yes, they had them in those days - tootling along in broad daylight. Because her commander was a first-class idiot, she didn't have any scouts out, so the first she knew she'd been seen by a battleship was when some shells landed on her."

There was a long pause.

"Why didn't they have their sensors on?" Wes asked.

"They hadn't been invented yet," Kailas replied.

"What's a shell?"

"Oh come on, Tycho-"

"Rogues," Wedge said mildly. "So what did you actually do?"

"Oh, right," Kailas said. "So I noticed last night that they'd had the same orbit for a week, so I modified all eight of my Proton Torpeodes so they didn't detonate at the end of their normal run. Then I hypered in three hours out from Utapau and launched them all on interception courses. The orbit was so regular they collided with all eight torpedoes at once - blew the number two engine clean off, chain reaction, boom."

There was a silence among the Rogues.

"You're all right, new guy," Wes pronounced. "You're all right."

15.11 (Worm/Pern)

-Colin stumbled a little, blinking as he Awoke.

Well, that's annoying, he thought, still processing the end of the previous loop. Apparently I need to tune the reality engine on my armour.

Being turned into diffuse particle soup by an enraged Eden was not his idea of a good way to go. That armour had taken months to work on.

He looked around, finally getting his loop memories.

Colin was still his name, though it felt odd in context of the other names around him. Names like Dorse, or Jayge.

He was in a room - a huge one - inside what had once been a volcano. Soft sand covered the floor, heated to mildly uncomfortable warmth by the geothermal heat of the volcano itself, and Colin spent a moment thinking about a more efficient design of hypocaust before he got to the really important bit.

There were dragon eggs on the sand. Hatching dragon eggs.

Even as he thought that, one of them broke shell just in front of him. A green dragon, smaller than most of the rest - and female, he remembered.

Her eyes made contact with his, and there was a sudden flowing rush of love.

Colin?

He blinked, feeling a mental connection spin out - like he had had with Uther, but so much deeper and more. Is that - Dragon? Is that you?

Colin,

Dragon repeated, stumbling a little as she walked up to him. Yes, I am Dragon. And I have found you again.

Then - surprising him - she punched the air with a still-damp claw. Yes!

Dragon?

Asked the gadgeteer Looper, lost.

Do you have any idea how many times I've read these books? Dragon asked. This place is wonderful. Do you know what they did when they uncovered an artificial intelligence?

Colin shook his head, sitting back on the sand and absently stroking her neck.

They listened to it! They trusted it, and it trusted them, and nobody did anything stupid! Her mental voice paused. Well, a few did something stupid. But everyone immediately saw they were idiots. Plus...

She spread her green wings, flexing them a little, and looked at them with a smile. Plus, I have a biological body. And I have you. And there are absolutely no dragon slayers - not here.

There was a cough, and both the Earth-Bet natives looked up in surprise.

"Welcome to Pern," said F'lar, Weyrleader of Benden. "Loopers?"

Colin nodded a confirmation.

"I'm the local Anchor," F'lar said. "I'll have my brother get you up to speed soon. He's going to be running the training regimen until he's got himself the Fort Weyrleader position - and probably after that, if I'm any judge."

He nodded to them. "You'll probably be pleased to know that that includes a special section for loopers. But for now, the important detail is this - there are no obligations to get involved in anything beyond what a normal Dragon-Rider pair does. You can treat this as a holiday if you want."

"I think we'd rather spend a lot of time at the Smith Craft Hall," Colin replied, then realized he should be C'lin now.

You always know where to take me for an evening.

A workshop?

C'lin asked.

Naturally.

15.12 (KettouRyuujin) (HttYD)

Hiccup was on the ground, rolling with laughter at Toothless.

Who was currently in a knotted tangle of noodly torso and short limbs,

'…Oh sure, laugh it up. Better question, how the hell did you hurt me so I couldn't fly anymore? Loop memories say I fly with MAGIC…'

Laughter continued as the currently-an-Eastern grumbled. '...fine. I'll just see if I can get outta this mess myself. Ingrate.'

15.13

"Hiccup... you're going to have to explain this one to me."

"Dad!" Hiccup replied, turning and waving. Then he glanced over at his dragon. "You can take over for now, right?"

I'm a dragon. Of course I can.

"Good," Hiccup said with a smile, putting down his coal-stained shovel. "Anyway - what is it, Dad?"

"That's my line, Hiccup," Stoic corrected. "What is this?"

"This is us starting a new business!" Hiccup explained. "Hiccup And Toothless Land Removal."

Toothless inhaled, then blasted a long jet of brilliant flame into the guts of the machine. Something hissed, and a pair of small brass globes on a mounting began to spin at high speed.

"Land removal?" Stoic asked. "I... don't think that sounds very safe."

"It's pretty simple," Hiccup said, indicating the hissing machine. "That's a steam engine, which we use to run the drill. We use the drill to make a small hole into a precisely calculated spot."

As he talked, Toothless engaged the clutch and switched over to the drill. The glittering mithril drill bit punched straight into the rock of Fishface Island like it was actual tuna salad, sending chunks flying in all directions, and Toothless controlled the speed with careful use of a large accelerator pedal.

"I think that's deep enough!" Hiccup said, waving, and Toothless hit the clutch again to push the engine back out of drive mode. A large flywheel began to spin up, then Toothless moved the gear lever across and the whole contraption began to move towards the water.

"Should it be doing that?" Stoic checked.

"Yes, it can float," Hiccup replied. "Actually, we should probably get on it."

He jumped, catching onto the handle on the back of the steam-powered machine, and Stoic ran alongside for a moment before hauling himself up as well. There was a loud splash as it hit the water, and then a cloud of spray as it switched to screw propulsion.

"So... you've got a hole," Stoic said, still sounding lost. "What now?"

"Well, now Toothless gets rid of the land," Hiccup explained, as the black dragon took flight.

"How?" Stoic blinked. "All you have is a hole."

Toothless switched over to Blue Mode, mouth opening wide, and then a brilliant ball of blue-white light formed - far larger than anything that could possibly fit between his teeth, even retracted.

Then he fired, and the explosion destroyed the entire island.

"Mostly with Tremor Flare," Hiccup answered, grabbing onto a stanchion as the machine rocked wildly back and forth. "I think we could make good business doing canals and stuff."

Stoic stared at his son, then shook his head. "That's it," he decided. "I'm going back to bed."

Thornado popped in overhead, lingered there just long enough for Stoic to reach up and grab his tail, then betweenjumped back out again.

Wonder what his problem is, Toothless pondered.

15.14 "The Search for Lily's Father":

Emma walked over to Lily. "Hey," she greeted her old friend. "What's up? Something wrong?"

Lily nodded and held up her old necklace, asking, "Do you remember this?"

Emma nodded, saying, "Yeah. I nearly got hepatitis stealing it back from your boyfriend's rat-infested place."

They laughed about the old times for a bit, and then Lily said, "It's a piece of the egg I was hatched from. It's also the only clue I have as to who my father is."

Emma stared at her, glancing back and forth between the egg-shard and the human-dragon. When she finally had her thoughts together in some semblance of order, she asked, "Have you asked your mother?"

Lily shook her head no. "She doesn't know, either."

"What?" Emma blinked in surprise.

"It's a dragon thing," she shrugged. "You know, it... Happened in dragon form."

They both shivered and did their best to quickly move past whatever thoughts of their respective parents having sex.

"Do you want to find him?" Emma asked.

Lily nodded. "Do you mind if I stick around Storybrooke and look?"

Emma shook her head and gave her friend a sideways hug, saying, "I think that'd be great." Then she paused and considered. "As a matter of fact, I might have a couple ideas on places you could start."

(How To Train Your Dragon)

"Hey Hiccup!" Emma waved as she arrived at the Edge, gently getting off, uh… 'her dragon' upon landing. It was an even split most Fused loops with Berk whether she took Astrid's place, or Hiccup's 'hypothetical' twin sister every time the Admins needed to Loop in a second Anchor. This time she was the twin, which was fortunate as Emma was pretty sure the Dragon Master was going to need his girlfriend/wife/etc's help with the problem she was bringing to their doorstep.

"Hey, Emma! Long time, no see!" the man's squeaky voice called out as he and Toothless ran up. "Y'know, so to speak. It's been what? Thirty, fifty loops since we last had one together?"

"Twenty-nine," Emma smirked, glad to show off her learned-memory skills once in awhile, but the way everybody tested her was ridiculous most loops. In a way, she knew how Carrie felt with everybody testing her on basic trivia all the time. "We were at the bar for Flora and Tecna's anniversary party, along with pretty much every Looper that isn't free-looping or an MLE. You and Toothless tried to challenge Tecna and the others to a 'Rider Race'. I still don't know what the heck that was all about, but then, I've only ever been Saber during those kind of loops. And for the record, I've done one million, seven hundred thirty-five thousand, one hundred and sixty-three of the Fate/Stay Night loops to date."

He opened his mouth to ask another question, which she anticipated and preempted.

"Five hundred forty-three thousand and twenty-seven were 'Fate Zero' variants, and exactly seven hundred and seven loops were variants based off of the originally released anime, before Unlimited Blade Works or Heaven's Feel. Now, would you like to continue discussing trivia, or should we get on with why I'm here?"

"Fine, fine, fine," he held up his hands in surrender. "Well hi there," Hiccup directed this to the dragon Emma'd been riding. "And what's your name? She's beautiful, but… I don't quite recognize which type of dragon she is."

"This is Lily," Emma introduced the purple-black stereotypical Western Dragon that was larger than a double-decker bus. "She's actually part of why I'm here. We need your help. Yours, and Toothless, Hiccup."

"So what can Toothless and I do for the Sav…" he was cut off by a near-Nuclear level explosion on the other side of the island. Near, only because Emma doubted that nuclear fission had actually occurred, but the level of force was equivalent. The only thing keeping the Edge intact was that Hiccup had long since started incorporating runes and advanced structural design into the buildings on the Edge.

"Twins?" she hazarded a guess.

"Twins," he confirmed. "On top of that, you're not our only visitor. Apparently Snotlout was replaced by Fester Addams. Don't ask me. Look, I gotta handle this. Bud, you OK to show these ladies a good time while I deal with the nitro-idiots?"

The midnight black dragon with green eyes nodded, sitting back on his haunches so it almost looked like he was standing up on two legs like a human. Emma didn't let that fool her for a moment, as she knew Toothless could very well turn human, and all other variety of dragons, gods, spirits, machines, and who knows what else, at the drop of a dime. He could also understand, and speak, every language that Hiccup himself knew, and vice versa.

'So,' Toothless spoke telepathically, as that was usually less difficult that speaking out loud, 'What can I do for you two lovely ladies?'

Emma smirked and shook her head. She shot Lily a look, and the massive dragon nodded her head, and quickly transformed back to human, surrounded by a swirl of violet smoke than left a brown-haired waif in what was clearly borrowed clothes from Emma's wardrobe this Loop.

"Hi," the small, thin human girl waved at the seven-foot-plus Night Fury dragon.

"This is Lily," Emma reintroduced her. "She's from my home Loop. Bit of a story, but we're childhood friends. Her mother is Maleficent. You know, the, uh, Black Fairy that turns into a giant black dragon in the story of Sleeping Beauty?"

Toothless nodded, silently impressed at what he'd seen so far. He'd have to see if he could incorporate that smoke trick the next time he adopted his 'human-animagus' form…

"Thing is," Emma grimaced, interrupting Toothless's thought process, "Mal doesn't really know who Lily's father is. It kind of… happened, in dragon form, y'know? And well, I promised Lily I'd do everything I could to help find out who her father is. So I figured, why not go to the most knowledgeable and reliable source of information on all things dragon in the Loops, right? We just need…"

Toothless's eyes had slowly, yet steadily getting wider and wider, and the pupils had dilated even more than when the Alpha had once done its mind whammy on him, leaving the massive orbs almost entirely green. Seasick green, Emma absently noted.

"Toothless, uh, you OK there?"

Toothless was feeling a mounting dread that he'd never felt before. A fear the likes of which had only occasionally been discussed, at most, was swamping him, up from the depths of his soul. He was also starting to hyperventilate.

Then Lily stepped up to him, her eyes briefly flashing to green… draconic green! And she put her hands together under her chin as she looked up at him and said in the sweetest most innocent voice that Emma had ever heard come out of her mouth, "Are you my daddy?"

'HICCUP!' the poor dragon screamed down the link to his Rider, sending the unadulterated panic and terror alongside the call.

There was literally no time difference between the call being made and the arrival of Hiccup's apparition, as the thin, brown-haired sixteen-year-old-bodied/multi-billion-year-old Looper ran up to calm his panicking dragon, who incidentally was still sat back on his haunches like he was 'standing straight'.

"Whoa there, whoa Bud!" Hiccup shouted. "What's going on? What happened? What's wrong? What did you guys say to him?" He shot a brief accusatory look at the two visiting Loopers.

'She… I… Me… Maleficent… daughter… mine? . . . Daddy…?' After barely managing to get that out, pointing a talon back and forth between himself and the still-human Lily, Toothless mercifully fainted, dead to the world.

"Uhh…" Hiccup blinked and stared stupidly at the insensate dragon, and then back at the two girls. "... What?"

"It's a bit of a story," Emma started over, sheepish.

"What?"

"See, Lily is Maleficent's daughter, y'know, Sleeping Beauty, black dragon, green flames, all that?"

"What?"

"Thing is, we're looking for Lily's father, because not even Maleficent knows who he is, cause it, y'know, happened in dragon form."

"What?!"

"And, jumping the gun," Emma shot her brown-haired companion a dirty look, "seeing as we're here to ask for you help, rather than… any other reason, she asked Toothless if he was her daddy. Which, now that I think about it, they do kind of have the same eyes, and similar scale-color, and..." She trailed off.

Hiccup stared at them. Blinked stupidly for only a handful of blinks. Then turned and screamed out loud, pulling at his hair with both hands, "WHAT?!" Then he fainted and joined Toothless in the land of the unconscious.

Emma stared down at two of the oldest and arguably most powerful pair of Loopers in all of Yggdrasil. They weren't part of the Original Seven, but they did have something most other Loopers almost never did; they were always together, never apart. Even when on their own, their partner was always there when he needed him.

"Camera," the blond held out her hand expectantly. Lily dutifully handed over the FD-Holo-Camera, before snapping a couple shots with her own regular film camera for the scrapbook she was starting. Meanwhile, Emma began collecting on the only real reason she was helping Lily with her Dragon-Daddy-Search; to collect the most valuable currency in the Infinite Loops; Blackmail Material.

(Kingdom Hearts)

"Just so we're clear," Emma reiterated to her traveling companion, through considerable coincidence just so happened to have replaced Goofy, "This woman is not your mother! Not sure she can even have kids, considering that some of these characters are pretty much all but immortal. We're only doing this to see if there happen to be any… similarities, between this version of Maleficent, and your Mom. OK?"

"I get it, I get it already!" Guardsman Lily said, exasperated. "I'm more worried about surviving the army of Heartless we'll have to go through just to get an audience with Not-My-Mom-Maleficent. And how much help is the duck going to be anyway?"

"Do not underestimate me, Lizard-girl," their mage companion retorted.

"Howard can handle himself," said Emma. "He and Donald have switched roles more than once, in a variety of incarnations. Besides, the Admins have long since figured out that I consider this more of a Punishment Loop than all of the standard Punishment Loops combined. At least they've stopped trying to enact a Read-Only-Null Effect on me. I figure it might have been the time that I actually brought about both versions of Kingdom Hearts and Pocketed both that gave them the needed clue."

"Can hardly blame them though," Howard commented as he readied his wand. "That Excalibur-Keyblade version of yours is seriously overpowered. And how do you have Form Changes this early in the Loop?"

"The enchantment the fairies use on the clothes is easy enough," Emma replied with a shrug. "As for this bad boy," she hefted the double-bladed Keyblade, which looked like completed form of Excalibur from her and Lily's Home Loop, only with four Dark-One-Daggers as the 'teeth' for the key, two on either side. "You do realize that the different Keyblade forms are just different key chains put on the Kingdom Key, right? All I do is take out my own Heart, and attach it as key chain, and voila; my own unique Keyblade."

"That does plus ten melee damage, causes bleeding effect, and enhances all spells and magic effects by like… a ludicrous amount!" Howard complained.

"On top of that, you can keep your Master and Final Forms going for hours!" Lily added.

"..." Emma just stared at her two companions silently. Then she turned to face the castle in front of them, and the hoard of Heartless between it and them. Then she changed into her silver, white and black Final Form, before saying, "Come on. Henry and Regina are waiting for us. And do you want answers about your dad, or not, Lills?"

Sighing, the half-dragon just shook her head, and then transformed into her Full Dragon Form, while Howard switched out his Kingdom Wand for his copy of the Elder Wand, and they waded into battle, alongside the Beast (who thankfully was not replaced by Rumpelstiltskin).

Inside the stronghold of the forces of Evil and Darkness, the Seven Princesses of Light, (including a female-Henry going by the name Kairi for this Loop), were being held captive by Maleficent, Pete, and a "possessed" Regina, none of whom seemed to be Awake. Key word; seemed. At the moment that the possessed Riku (or whoever replaced him for the Loop) would normally turn on Maleficent and corrupt her heart, transforming her into her uncontrolled berserker dragon form, Regina merely transformed into her own Master Form (rather than yellow and black, it was a fusion of Riku's own Dark Form and the fighting armor the Evil Queen used to wear back in the day) and threw a vial of Squid Ink on Maleficent, freezing her in place.

"Wh-what is this? What have you done to me?!" the frozen mistress of evil cried out.

"Squid ink," Master Form Regina replied.

"Magic squid ink," Emma added. "From another world. Has a… unique effect on magic users. As you've just found out."

"..." It was clear that she was trying to struggle, testing exactly what the limits of her 'prison' was, only to discover that it was absolute. She couldn't so much as twitch a single muscle throughout her entire body. "Very well," she said at length. "What is it that you want? I must admit, I am most impressed that you-"

Though she continued speaking no sound could be heard, startling her into true silence.

"Yeah, you're long winded enough that you probably could just keep talking until the effect wore off," Emma remarked. "Which is why we're going to do this the easy way. Once the effect does wear off, you'll willingly stay and continue talking with us. Without any ulterior motives, to boot."

Brow raised, Maleficent was surprised to hear that she could once again speak, when she asked, "What could you possibly have to say, or do to one such as myself, which would genuinely encourage my participation in your… interrogation."

Lily put away her shield and then used her Loop Abilities to transform into her natural dragon form, rather than the half-dragon-warrior form the KH Loops had forced on her. Her natural dragon from that just so happened to look almost identical to Maleficent's own dragon from, just younger.

"Meet your daughter," Emma introduced them. "From another world, but still. We're helping her search for her father. Turns out your counterpart, didn't exactly get his number after they hooked up, if you know what I mean?"

Maleficent did indeed stay behind and continued to converse with them for some time to come. She still tried to entice Lily and Regina and pretty much all the rest into joining in on her plans to conquer all the worlds by using the World Kingdom Heart and the Seven Princesses of Heart, but that was simple enough to circumvent.

Unfortunately, beyond getting a list of all the villainous dragons or draconic villains, which was mostly the same as the list Lily's mother had provided them with, they had no better clue for tracking down Lily's father.

(The Hobbit)

It had been a long and harrowing journey. And a unique opportunity, which the Savior had been quick to take advantage of. And given Yggdrasil's proclivities of matching themes where and how it could, Emma (Emery) found her/himself fulfilling the role of the 'hero' of the 'story', as he'd Looped in as 'Emery Baggins', right after a rather… unique encounter with the wizard Gandalf. Knowing of the encounter that came near the middle/end of this story, Emery was quick to retrieve Lily before the dwarves even arrived. And, knowing her luck, they'd be very familiar Dwarves, rather than the usual cast.

And for the record, no, she didn't 'Pocket' Lily. She had other means at her disposal for retrieving her Looping Friend. Yggdrasil was at least accommodating in that regard, as anytime Emma/Emery was presented with an opportunity to continue her quest in helping Lily identify her father, Lily was also Awake somewhere out there.

The Dwarves did indeed contain some familiar faces. Seven of them at least. The other six were the 'local' Loopers of Thorin, Balin, his brother Dwalin, their cousins Oin and Gloin. The final spot was actually filled by none other than the infamous Dwarvin Wizard Willow Ufgood! The few times they weren't being chased by Orcs, giants, almost being eaten by Trolls, or stealing horcrux-rings from insane Gollums, Willow and Emery were discussing all sorts of magical theory and phenomena with Gandalf. Lily, human-sized, actually found she had more in common with the battle-hardened greedy Dwarves that called Third Earth their home more than any of the rest of the Company.

And then the time came.

They arrived at the mountain, opened the secret door with the secret key, and the 'thieves' were sent in to burgle the dragon's nest.

Not that either Storybrooke-Looper had any intention of stealing a thing from Smaug, of all people.

They just wanted to talk to him for a bit.

He was awake and waiting for them as the pair made their way through the mountain to his horde. Obviously, neither of them were wearing the One Ring and thus were not invisible or otherwise undetectable. Though Emma was confident of her stealthing skills, enough to even get past Smaug's enhanced senses and awareness, she didn't see the point in trying at the moment.

"Hm," he growled out, eyeballing the hobbit and human females (Emma having activated her Jusenkyo Curse earlier in the Quest, but still a Hobbit). "I felt the numerous Pings earlier, but normally it is only Bilbo or his replacement that come down this path. Tell me, young ladies, what is it that you seek here? Other than a shortened Loop, as I tend to get quite testy some days."

Lily shifted from her human form to her semi-mature (and still maturing in spite of the Loops resetting her to the same physical age) dragon form, a form that was as much a 'Western' Dragon as Smaug himself, but it was equally clear that was the only feature they had in common. Nevertheless, Lily asked the question, seeming to relish each syllable as she asked in Berk-accented Dragonese, "Are you my daddy?"

Smaug didn't faint.

He didn't burn them alive either, but he was made of sterner stuff than Toothless, the Night Fury's numerous battleforms and transformations aside that is.

Instead he leaned forward and presented his entire and undeniable bulk in its full glory, towering over them like the leviathan of legend before laying waste to everything. He angled his long-necked head so it was directly over Lily's, so she had to strain to look straight up at him. Their Looping status and numerous abilities, powers, skills and everything seemed incredibly pathetic in light of the current situation. It was very intimidating.

"Hmmm," Smaug considered the dragonling before him, and compared to him their age differences were quite obvious. "I'm going to have to go with; 'No, I am not your father, Youngling.' Is that all that you came here for? To ask me such aridiculous question? I know precisely who I have and have not sired. They send me Hatching Day cards, and I, of course, send many in return."

"..." Emma's mouth worked for a bit, before settling on, "I'm not sure what to do with that information. Anyway, this is the daughter of Maleficent, of the Enchanted Forest, sometimes known as Mist-Haven. We're on a, long-term, quest to find her father. Hiccup and Toothless were able to give us a few clues, and we've checked with other versions of Maleficent, but… well, outside of the loops, are you aware of anywhere, or any place that dragons from different realms might… I don't know, congregate?"

"That is a very private question, little hobbit!" Smaug growled, quickly shifting attention from Lily to Emma, smoke flaring from his nostrils.

"A little hobbit," Emma pronounced, even as she underwent a startling transformation, bright lights, loud sounds, plenty of special effects and even an explosion or ten accompanying it, "That Loops in as Supergirl Every. Single. Time. That she is in a DC world. And whose formative loops include all Original Seven, plus Nanoha, Kingdom Hearts, and… Dragonball Z, as Gohan. Oh, and the adopted sister of Ranma Saotome and Michael J. Caboose-slash-Church. So, please, just try it Smaug."

Smaug just stared at the flame-glowing blond, now a full-human-sized woman, with burning red eyes (with turquoise irises), floating there above his hoard holding a double-bladed Keyblade and standing there in Master Form attire.

"You have a tail," he pointed out.

Emma dramatically sighed and lowered her weapons as her shoulders drooped in time with the sigh. "Alway, alway, always, first thing everybody comments on is the tail! What part of 'DBZ Loop as Gohan' escaped your notice? The kids tail grew back like… four times! I didn't even let it get cut off once, and then I had to make that stupid wish from the Eternal Dragon about…" Emma stopped talking and her transformation quickly reversed itself as the once-again-Hobbit fell to land on the mounds of gold.

"The Eternal Dragon," she said again. "Of course! Though I seriously doubt Maleficent actually got it on with him, we can make a wish, asking who Lily's father is! Thanks Smaug!"

"Not a problem," the old drake remarked, looming over them. "Now, GET OUT!" He roared, quite literally, with a liberal amount of fire to back it up with.

Emma merely released her Soul-Bonded Magical Device Saving Heart and equipped Dragon Slayer Mode, absorbing Smaug's 'attack', such as it was, and storing and converting it into magical energy for redistribution. Specifically, redistribution into either further defense, or a quite devastating (to the dragon in particular) counter-attack. Emma chose to go with defense, for the moment. Once the flames died away, the Savior left her magic running, just long enough for Smaug to see what he was up against before dispelling the shield.

"Alright, alright already," she complained. "We're going! Geez! Just wanted to ask a guy about an old girlfriend, to help out my friend in finding her dad, and this is the thanks we get? No wonder he doesn't get many houseguests!"

"Stupid hobbits, (grumble), stupid dwarves, (mumble), stupid time loops, (growling)!" Smaug turned away and went back into the deeper recesses of his dwarven-built lair, and decided to just go back to sleep, rather than deal with either the dwarves, humans, elves, or that stupid village on the river. Maybe, this time, he'd just pretend to already be dead so everybody would go ahead and start that 'War of the Five Armies', then show up and slaughter the lot of them all at once. Maybe then he could actually get some sleep before the Loop transitioned!

Either way, he was not going up against the woman who had an Intelligent Device that had more Modes than most Loopers had mecha!

(Pern)

Emma Awoke right as she was in the middle of being saved from Thread, being carried off on dragonback, the dragonrider shielding her while directing the dragon beneath them on where best to focus its flame. She was a little confused, as normally she tended to Loop into various Fused or Different Loops as the defacto 'Savior' of said Loop. Not always, of course, especially when there were multiple heroic characters to choose from, at which point she tended to just fall into whatever role fit her personality or physical nature the best.

It was the first time, in a long while, that she'd Looped into another Branch as herself. But then again, she mused even as she subtly used her magic to burn away all Thread in the vicinity (as in throughout the solar system), Pern was something of an exception to many of the standard rules applied to the Savior. For one, pretty much every Looper that came to Pern, came away with the experience of being a Dragonrider. That had never happened. Well, not to her at least.

She always came to Pern as the local equivalent of a Princess, or a Harper of one kind or another. Even the few times that there'd been a Fused Loop of Storybrooke being a Hold and/or Weyr on Pern, she was never a dragonrider. This time seemed to be no different.

Although, Emma reviewed her new 'memories', there may be some other reason entirely for why she found herself on Pern this Loop. Rather late in Pern's history at that. It would seem, other than it being Threadfall, during the Tenth Pass, it was the day of 'her' 28th birthday, and she'd been caught out in the open because she'd been on the way to find and meet up with her best friend; Lilith. Or, as her new name since joining the local Weyr, L'lth. What was more intriguing was that L'lth's dragon partner was named; Malilith.

It had Emma curious, even as she adjusted her position on the back of the green. Perhaps, just perhaps, Lily had looped in as both Dragon and Dragonrider for this one Loop? It certainly wouldn't be the first time such a glitch had occurred, not even to her, but this would undoubtedly be a unique case for the circumstance.

That's when she noticed exactly who it was that had rescued her from Thread.

"Hey Lils," Emma grinned, "how goes the flight?"

"Finally Awake then, Emma?" the Dragonrider questioned.

What did you do to all the Thread? I felt that magic go out, and then it all started burning without anyone actually doing anything, the Dragon observed, voice identical to the human riding her.

"Mikasa Glitch?" she confirmed.

"Not… exactly," L'lth shrugged.

Dragons are telepathic here on Pern, after all, Malilith continued. I woke up at the moment of my Bonding. It's more like that time that you described ascending in the Stargate Branch, where you were simultaneously in the higher realm, and in your human body at the same time. I'm Me, I'm just in a human body and a dragon body.

"At the same time,"/At the same time, both answered verbally and mentally together.

"Well," Emma sighed, briefly turning her gaze skyward and focused one final burst of magic that burned up the 'Red Star' quite permanently, even knocking it out of orbit on a direct course for the sun. "You know the drill by now Lily. We need to see if there is any kind of portal or magical connection to the other Realms of Story. If so, we can start looking into seeing if Maleficent ever visited, or if any dragons from here ever made it to the Enchanted Forest. On the plus side, like all dragons that come here, you'll be able to Go Between, and even time travel. Hey! I won't need the Master Fairy Wand anymore, I'll just need you for that from now on!"

Hah. Hah. Hah.

"It's actually not the first time I've been here Emma," L'lth remarked. "Not even the first time I've been in two bodies like this."

"Ditto," she reminded her.

"Pern has no connection to the Enchanted Forest, or any other Realm Mom would have access to," she confirmed, depressed.

"Hey, don't worry," she patted them both together, the human on the back, the dragon on the flank. "I'm not giving up hope, and neither should you. I promised to help you find your dad, and that is what I'm going to do."

"So… what should we do?" the Rider questioned as they came to perch on a Thread-free rock-outcropping. "And… come to think of it, what did you do?"

"My version of the Fiendfyre spell," the blond shrugged, switching out her pretty-thoroughly-ruined medieval dress for one of her spare Outfits (the ones enchanted with KH-Form-Plus-Others Drive spells) from her Pocket even as she dismounted. "Trust me, compared to what the HP-Loopers can do with it, that was nothing."

That doesn't explain what you actually did, Emma, the Dragon pointed out.

"I burned all of the Thread on the planet and then had the fire trace it back to its origin point, before causing a singular point long-burning explosion that knocked the Red Star out of its erratic orbit into one that will send it careening straight for the nearest sun," she explained. "Not exactly difficult for the Savior."

"I really wish you wouldn't throw that title around so casually," L'lth remarked.

It makes you sound more than a bit arrogant in the wrong circumstances.

Emma just grinned and then between one breath and the next, with no discernable effort on her part, though with exactly as much flare as it deserved, transformed to her Super2 form, complete with golden flame corona and arcing bolts of lightning shooting off of her.

"I prefer the term… confident," she said back and then took off into the air to see about following up some of her own leads, not to mention the ever-important task of gathering resources.

15.15 (Saphroneth)

Across the boiling deserts of a land called Tripolitania, a man who was more than men strode in silence.

He carried no food, nor water, for he was beyond the need when he chose. His armour shone like steel, but had a darker glint to it which hinted that it was of another nature. His hammer's haft was long enough to serve as a walking-stick, though he disdained the use.

Reaching the peak of a rocky outcrop, the entity stood and gazed out across the desert.

"Definitely the right place," he said, mostly to himself. "It has been a while since I was this far back, however. Have my sons come forth already, or must I wait nigh thirty thousand years?"

The man who would in future ages be called Emperor and God adjusted his grip on the haft.

Really, it was the thought of so long without anyone to talk to which was moderately dismaying. Ollanius Pius would be out in the world, by now, but it was always hard to find one mostly-ordinary man among the teeming millions. Even in this time, when a crusade far smaller in scope than the Great Crusade of the future moved across the world, there were over three hundred million men upon Terra.

The desert shifted a little, and the Emperor readied his hammer - a weapon that existed as much to provide a focus for his psychic might as for anything it could do by itself.

"Come forth, Mag'ladroth," he called, his voice carrying over the empty miles. "This world is protected."

A chuckle answered him, and then a mighty head of gleaming metal rose from one of the nearby hills.

"And here I thought you would appreciate having someone to talk to," the Dragon stated, amusement in his voice. "If anyone else could appreciate how boring it gets without access to a fresh supply of reading material, I would have thought it to be you - after spending so many thousand years on a seat."

The Emperor's grip on his hammer loosened a little, his hand sliding up the haft until it was near the head.

"I am... almost disappointed," he confessed. "I was hoping for a little opportunity to cut loose. But against a fellow Looper, that would be bad manners at best."

"Indeed, indeed," the Dragon Dread agreed, shifting more - revealing his mighty wings, the nearest of which was an entire valley floor, and his tail which formed a small ridge some distance away. "But I might be inclined to a little... friendly spar."

He looked skywards, preternaturally keen eyes seeking out the dim light of Mars despite the blue of the midday sky. "But not, perhaps, here. It would be... loud."

The Emperor considered, then nodded. "Agreed. The Noctis Labyrinthus?"

"Why ever not," Smaug allowed.

He spread his wings, seeming like a living statue of gold, then jumped skywards and vanished between one heartbeat and the next.

The Emperor followed a moment later, taking one step on the burning rock of a Libyan hill and the next on the dessicated dust of a Martian valley.

"On three," Smaug invited, his voice like thunder even in the attenuating air.

"So... you're telling me you defeated my father?" Leman Russ asked, looking up at the enormous metal dragon sprawled over the Golden Throne.

"Oh, no, he defeated me quite handily," Smaug corrected. "This is what he asked me to do as a forfeit."

His tail snaked out, paging down on the largest bookslate in the Imperium. "At least the job comes with a library card."

15.16 (Evilhumour)

[HTTYD]

"Hiccup!" Stoick shouted as he darted around the falling swines. "By Odin's beard, what is going on!?"

"Oh Dad," his son and Anchor said shiftly, eyes darting to the side. "Just celebrating an odd event that has taken ages for me to see again."

Stoick blinked and groaned, stepping backwards to avoid the animal about to hit his head. "So you made it rain pigs?"

"It's flying with style, Dad!" he said as Toothless launched another pig across the sky.

15.17:

"Ah," Smaug sighed, reclining atop a hill. "A fine start, would you not say?"

Gandalf the Grey looked out from the hill at the Nine Wraiths - all running screaming into the night, blazing like great oil-soaked torches - and nodded.

"I will, of course, be telling the others that I did that," he added. "If that does not offend you, of course."

"Not at all, it makes sense," Smaug agreed readily. "I was thinking of melting a path through the High Pass for you, later in the year, and keeping it clear."

"Would that involve burning Gundabad, by any chance?" Gandalf inquired.

"It doesn't have to," Smaug summarized. "Besides that, well, I was thinking of offering my services to Bard II of the Dalesmen. It might be amusing."

As he spread his wings, Gandalf coughed.

Smaug's head snaked around to look at the Wizard.

"I was wondering how it was that you came to be so resilient to the charms of the One Ring," Gandalf explained. "The Ring tempts all who touch it and most who even know of it, and while many Loopers are at peace with themselves enough to ignore it for a time, I wondered how it was you came to such a peace."

Smaug's reply was a smirk, then a chuckle.

"It's simple, Olorin," he replied, wings going up for his takeoff. "Before It could offer me nothing I did not feel I could take for myself, and now it can offer me nothing I do not already possess. I have power, riches, might beyond measure... and friends, which the Ring could not win me."

He met Gandalf's eye. "And it's a little too fragile for a real dragon."

With a wham, Smaug took his first wingbeat. He was away and a dwindling speck within moments, and Gandalf chuckled to himself.

"It is an approach so unlike Samwise the Brave," he mused to himself. "And yet, it seems humility and arrogance reach the same place if neither are blind."

Getting up and leaning on his staff, he whistled for Shadowfax, and wondered idly whether Smaug would consent one of these loops to working for Balin of Moria.

15.18:

"For Manwe and for Eonwe!" Earendil cried, his spear shining like the Silmaril upon his brow, and drove it home in the flank of the fire-drake that came in to strafe his ship Vingilot in the side. The blow told heavily, and the drake's roar turned into a shout of pain. One wing folded over, and only the tail struck the ship of the Halfelven instead of the dragon's entire weight.

The impact knocked his beautiful ship aside, but Vingilot the foam-flower was well-built and merely shivered instead of being damaged to any great degree.

"Keep her steady!" the mariner cried. "And take us higher! That great dragon there is our target!"

Vingilot's sails billowed, the light of the Silmaril filling them more than any mortal wind could, and she rose into the heavens over the battlefield of the War of Wrath.

Another dragon came surging in towards them, this one a cold-drake but no less dangerous for that, but this one was turned aside by a great Eagle of Manwe - talons striking into the monster's breast, ripping deep as though it were a normal eagle striking a pigeon, before discarding it to fall to the fighting below. The eagle banked around, joined by four of its fellows, and they formed a wedge around Vingilot to protect it as it soared through the skies.

Earendil discarded his spear, taking up his sword and shield, and readied himself to fight the greatest of all the dragons - the father of them all, mountains-tall and sky-broad, the russet-red drake of all drakes.

Even as Bright Earendil took up his blade, however, that mighty dragon turned to face him. With wings like lakes, eyes like blazing coal fires, it came thundering towards him.

Flame built in its mouth, flame so bright Earendil could scarce look at it, and readied to surge forth to obliterate everything that faced it.

Then the dragon turned abruptly to face down towards Thangorodrim, and destroyed it utterly with a breath that shook the world.

He looked back up towards Earendil the Mariner, and his voice spoke like a thunderclap.

"I SURRENDER."

Down on the battlefield, the Maiar Olorin looked to the sky and groaned.

"What is it?" Curomo asked, turning aside his attention from the battle upon seeing the distraction of his fellow. "Olorin, what causes you such sorrow?"

"No sorrow, my friend," Olorin replied. "Just an old fellow in an unusual place."

He should really have noticed sooner that the greatest creation of Morgoth was Smaugleafearno the Red.

"I fear we may now have to accept the surrenders of an unfathomably large number of unfathomably large dragons..."

"Next!"

Aragorn blinked, feeling the familiar Awakening disorientation, and looked around. His first priority was to work out if he was in the middle of some kind of fight - as a novice Looper, Awakening in Balin's Tomb had gotten him stepped on by a cave troll, and he didn't relish the experience - and, when it transpired it was unlikely he would shortly be killed horribly, took in the surrounds in greater detail.

He was in the middle of a line of Men, with a muted hubbub of conversation going on all the while, and two slender ropes controlled the movement of the line to keep it orderly. There was a conversation going on a few places in front of him, with someone arguing about 'frequent flier miles'.

With a frown, Aragorn recognized their position - it was near the very tip of Andrast, in the far west of Gondor.

"I'm telling you, they won't let us take it!" a voice whispered urgently behind him.

"What about if we say it's Duty Free?" said another voice.

"I don't think they'll believe us," the first voice replied, one Aragorn recognized now as that of Peregrine Took, which made the other voice Meriadoc Brandybuck. But before he could act on the realization, the Man in front of him moved forwards and Aragorn found himself at the front of the line.

"Next!" called one of the slightly bored-looking Men at a large oaken desk, and Aragorn approached him. He put down the documents in his hands, and the Man took them before checking through them.

"Let's see..." the Man muttered to himself. "Ar Agorn, son of Ar Athorn?"

"I am he," Aragorn agreed. "Why did you put that pause in there?"

"It's how it's written," the Man said. "Aliases Elfstone, Elessar, Estel, Longshanks, Strider, Telcontar... PTO?"

"That's ''please turn over'," the Man's fellow pointed out, and he did so.

"Thorongil, and Ectetera," the functionary concluded, stamping the paper. "That all seems in order. You're in luck, the Dragonflight to Armenelos is leaving in thirty-two minutes. Please wait in the marked white zone until asked to board."

Reclaiming his documents, Aragorn walked mystified over to join the other Men waiting in the white zone.

A quick look back at the queue let him see no fewer than four Hobbits waiting their turn - Meriadoc and Peregrine, as he had surmised, but Frodo and Samwise as well - along with a small party of Elves including Legolas, some Dwarves including both Gimli and his kinsman Fili, Boromir, and a familiar grey-robed Istari at the back of the line who winked at him.

Not wanting to interrupt everything to talk, Aragorn looked at his documents to see what clues they would offer.

The first page was taken up mostly with a fine portrait of him, wearing a small mithril circlet adorned with leaves, and the rest of it was a listing of some of his many names. Interestingly, the pause in his name was real - listing him as Ar-Agorn - and his father was denoted as Ar-Athorn in a similar fashion. There was also a white tree next to his name, and a white tree bearing a single star next to that of Ar-Athorn.

After that, however, the surprises really began to stack up.

The previous stamps on the documents listed journeys from Minas Ithil to Hobbiton, from Edoras to Nan Curunir, from the Lonely Mountain to Doriath (Doriath in Beleriand?) and to places Aragorn had never even heard of, such as Heathspire and Orod Echor. As he paged through them, Aragorn noticed something else - all the dates were huge and odd, with the most recent stamp declaring it to be January 14, SA 6460.

"Hail, Ar-Agorn," Gandalf's voice sounded, as the Grey Wizard strode over to him. "Third in line to the throne of proud Numenor, son of Crown Prince Ar-Athorn, grandson of King Ar-Ador."

For once, Aragorn just stared, dumbstruck, for several seconds.

"Did you do this?" he accused, softly.

"I had very little to do with it," Gandalf replied. "Perhaps you will divine the divergence later. For now, however, our ride is approaching - it seems the allies of Numenor have sent their best."

And as Aragorn looked to the west, he saw a sinuous shape moving across the sky, shining in the morning sun. It grew larger with startling speed, and then a mighty green dragon - seven hundred feet long, by Aragorn's judgement - flared wings and landed with a crash upon the field.

"Nine thirty four to Armenelos, Numenor," the dragon stated in a brassy voice. "Also calling at Nindamos. The flight duration will be two hours and thirty five minutes, with an expected arrival time of ten past ten Numenor time. Your dragon for this morning's flight is Chrysophalax the Jade."

"We'd best take our seats," Gandalf advised. "The better ones are the ones near the front."

Ar-Agorn shook his head. "Is this Smaug's fault?"

"There you are much closer to the truth."

AN:

15.1: Five heads are better than one. At eating, at least.

15.2: They do clash a bit. In a mancave. With a box of scripts.

15.3: They do this a surprising amount.

15.4: An actual pun this time, not a typo.

15.5: Hax.

15.6: He is elegant. Urbane, in fact.

15.7: Hal is skary.

15.8: It is the right season for it.

15.9: Fire lizards. Arda needs them.

15.10: Predictability is a bad thing during a guerilla campaign.

15.11: Dragon dragon.

15.12: Noodle dragon.

15.13: It is a thing which you need to do to help shipping.

15.14: Don't ask me.

15.15: Frankly Leman's lucky he didn't wake up as a dragon primarch. Or maybe lucky is the wrong word...

15.16: Perhaps a commentary on the lateness of this chapter.

15.17: They're at Weathertop.

15.18: Smaug here replacing Ancalagon the Black. This has certain knock-on effects.