Ch. 15: Aftermath

~Hiccup-200~

Nogard and I flew our way through a ever changing maze of turret fire and tentacles. We had succeeded in making them, the Gravemind and the Green Death, fight each other. Now all we had to do was make sure they both went down. Unfortunately the Green Death was winning. It's powerful plasma beam had already taken off most of the Gravemind's head. One more shot and the Gravemind would be dead and the Scarab would still be in operation.

"Uh, Guys, the Scarab is winning." I said nervously.

"I am fully aware of that obvious detail." Nogard replied pointedly.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head, "Hey Toothless. Do you have that map of the Super Scarab Stormfly made."

"Yes. Why?"

"We need to get inside that thing and overload the power core."

"WHAT!?" They both yell back.

"If we overload it the following explosion will destroy both of them." I explained.

"Are you sure about this?" Toothless asked.

"If either one of those things live, then we're ALL dead... Nogard." I continued, "do you trust me?"

"With my life."

Nogard changes our course and lands on one of the platforms. We got out and quickly made our way to the door. Or, as quickly one can when the ground is shaking from a battle between two giants. We went through the door and walked down the hallways.

We followed the map to one of the areas that Astrid hadn't searched. We were about to reach the first one when we were confronted by several squads of Covenant. We quickly exchanged fire and took cover.

"I guess we're on the right track." Nogard commented as I took several of them out with my Sniper rifle.

After some more gunfire and several grenades later, we had killed them. We quickly made our way down the hallway and several more. Combating several more squads on our way. We finally made our way to the power core.

It was a large wall lined with cord and in the center was a bright blue orb. We set up several charges and rigged them to a detonator. We turned a corner of a hallway and activated the detonator. The explosives blew, leaving several large holes in the wall. The bright blue orb had turned bright red.

"We need to leave." Said Nogard.

"Yeah, no kidding."

We turned and ran, following the map out.

"Five minutes, till power core detonation." Toothless told us.

We reached the ship with one and a half minutes to spare. We got in and took off. The direction we were going in however was into the cave. We quickly turned around, and that was when the engines failed. Apparently they still weren't completely fixed. We ended up crashing right under the Super Scarab. The cockpits bursting opening as we hit the ground. Pieces of debris were falling down on top of us.

I looked around dazed. Thankfully my safety strap kept me held in. I got up to get out, when a piece of debris fell on my head, and everything went dark.

~Nogard~

I got out of my cockpit and looked back up for Hiccup. There was no sign of him. We needed to hurry we only had a minute left.

"Hiccup!" I called out to him.

"Nogard!" A voice called, but it wasn't Hiccup. It was Toothless. He sounded panicked.

"Toothless! What is it!?" I answered, panic starting to creep into my own voice.

"It's Hiccup. He's unconscious and I can't wake him up."

"Hold on." I quickly climbed up to Hiccup's cockpit. I looked in and there was Hiccup. He was lying there, limp, with some debris stuck in there with him.

"Hurry, we don't have much time." Toothless reminded me.

I grabbed Hiccup and pulled. He wouldn't move. I pulled harder but still nothing. I looked again and saw that his left leg was caught under the debris.

"Hurry Nogard, we only have forty-five seconds left."

I quickly looked around, even if I got him out we needed somewhere to take cover. I then spotted an extra bubble shield we had. It somehow flew out of the ship and activated during the crash. I looked back to Hiccup, and his leg.

"Thirty seconds."

I quickly drew out my energy sword. It wouldn't be easy, but I knew what I had to do.

~Astrid-201~

I looked on and saw them land on the Green Death. Then several minutes later they took back off. That was when I saw them crash. I gasped in fear, there was no way they could make it out of there.

Time seemed to slow down and all sound seemed to cease. That is until the Green Death exploded. The fireball engulfed the Green Death, the Gravemind, and a good five hundred yards radius around them. The shockwave knocked us back several yards. All time seemed to draw on even slower as I got to my feet and looked.

The entire world was grey as I looked at the scene before me. Ash from the Gravemind fell from the sky as I slowly walked into ground zero. There were bits and pieces of shrapnel and debris from the Green Death scattered all around. Some as big as myself, some bigger. I suddenly felt an urge and quickly ran into the falling ash. I stopped for a minute to look around. Then I saw it. The bright golden glow of a bubble shield.

Hope sprung up inside of me as I tossed my helmet to the side and ran towards the shield. I was close enough to see someone inside the shield when I froze. The shield faded and left only the sight of Nogard kneeling with his back to me.

My breath caught and my heart stopped as the images of Hiccup's pale, dead face entered my mind. I didn't even notice the tears welling up and falling down my cheeks, or General Stoick coming up to stand next to me.

Nogard looked over his shoulder at me and got up. He was holding something in his arms. He turned towards us, and in his arms was Hiccup's body. I couldn't move for fear that he was dead. But Stoick needed to know. He ran up to Nogard.

"Hiccup!" His voice was full of panic. The first time I or probably anyone had heard that in his voice before.

Regaining myself I ran up as well. Nogard handed Hiccup over to Stoick. I heard a odd sound from my wrist and looked to see Toothless projecting himself on Hiccup's shoulder looking down on him. Toothless then looked to all of us as Stormfly projected herself on my shoulder.

"Don't worry. He's going to be fine." Toothless reassured us with his gummy dragon smile. I gasped in joy and started trying to catch my breath from the relief. Stoick looked ecstatic.

"He's alive! You brought him back alive!" He said turning to Nogard. Who just nodded back.

Stoick must have seen how much I cared for him, because the next thing he did was hand Hiccup's body over to me.

"Take good care of him." He said, looking me in the eye.

"I will." I responded. He then turned back to Nogard and offered him his hand in thanks. Nogard took it and they shook.

"Thank you. For saving my son."

"Well...most of him." Gobber said coming up behind Stoick.

I then looked down at Hiccup and gasped.

~Hiccup-200~

I slowly woke up from my unconscious state to find myself in my bed in a place that looked a lot like the barracks. I sat up, looked around, and confirmed it, these were defiantly the barracks. What was I doing here? Oh great. I'm dead.

That was when Toothless projected himself no my lap. He looked extremely happy.

"Hiccup! HiccuphiccuphiccupHiccup! You're awake!" He said as he started bouncing around.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Or I think I am?" I turned to get out of bed. I set my right foot down. Then my left, it wasn't until the metal 'clink' that I noticed something wrong. I looked down and saw that I was out of my armor and my boot was off. Wait, boot? Instead of my normal flesh and bone left foot, there was a metal prosthetic similar to the one Gobber had.

I felt my breathing start to get heavy as I took this all in. Since when do you lose limbs in death? Toothless was now sitting at my feet, looking at the prosthesis, then me.

"Sorry, but it had to come off. You wouldn't have lived otherwise."

"You mean I'm alive."

"And well. Except for the foot of course."

"What? How?"

"You were unconscious and some debris trapped your leg in the cockpit. Nogard had to cut it off, or else we wouldn't had made it to the bubble shield in time. Thankfully the heat from the plasma blade cartelized the wound instantly, so you didn't bleed out."

I figured I'd have to face it sooner or later, so sooner it was. I put on my gear, and slowly got up from the bed. I stood, but was a little wobbly. It wasn't easy standing on a foot and a fake foot, when you've been standing on two feet your entire life.

I took in a deep breath and stepped forward. I stumbled immediately and fell forward onto the bed in front of me.

"Might I suggest holding onto something."

"Thanks bud." I said sarcastically as I raised myself back up.

Now using the ends of the beds for support, I made my way to the door. By the time I reached the last bed, I had gotten somewhat used to the fake foot. I grasped the doorknob and twisted. I opened the door and there was a Phantom right there before me. I gasped and quickly close the door.

"Attack!"

"Haha, no silly." Toothless laughed at me.

"What?" This was getting too confusing.

"Just take a look." He said gesturing for the door.

I opened it again and saw the Phantom, helping move supplies around the base?

"Come on guys, lets go!" I hear Snotlout yell to a group of soldiers and Elites as they run across the compound with a football in his hand.

Everywhere I looked there were humans and Elites working, talking, and having fun together. I was utterly dumbstruck. There was only one conclusion.

"I knew it. I'm dead."

I heard chuckling and looked to see both my dad and Nogard standing behind me laughing.

"No, you're not dead yet." Said Nogard.

"But you gave it your best shot." My dad finished.

"So," my dad continued, "what do you think?"

I looked out to see several Spartans and Elites come rushing up to us.

"Hey look! It's Hiccup!" They shouted.

My father turned to me, a look of sincere admiration in his eyes. "It turns out all we needed was a little more of, this."

"You just gestured to all of me?"

He just smiled back at me.

"Well, most of you. That bit there is my handywork." Said Gobber pointing to my leg. "Ya think it will do?"

I looked back down at my half missing leg. "I can make a few modifications." I said sarcastically, and for once people actually laughed. I was enjoying this moment, until someone hit me hard on the shoulder. I turned to see Astrid glaring at me.

"That's, for scaring me." I was dumbstruck, again.

"W-what is it always going to be this way? Because..." I never finished though. Because just then she grabbed me by my chestplate, and pulled me into a full on kiss on the mouth. It was two seconds but felt like a lifetime before she let me go.

"I could get used to it." I said dumbly, making her smile.

Gobber then handed me the one thing I didn't have. My helmet.

"Welcome home, Captain Hiccup." Captain. Wow. That's a surprise.

"Come on Hiccup." Nogard called, "lets go try out the new ship, since the old one was totaled."

I followed Nogard into the hanger and saw that he had remade our ship. Just like the old one, only with newer parts and a more perfected design. He even still made it so that one cockpit steered, while the other fired the weapons.

"Why'd you keep it like this?"

"Because. Never break up a team."

I smiled back at him as I got in. Astrid hopped in after me.

"Hey. I'm part of this team too you know."

This, is Berk. It storms nine months of the year, and droughts the other three. With the war going on, the place is tasteless and violent. The people are even more so. The only upsides, are our allies. While most people have humans or computers. We have, Elites.

We took off with my cockpit still open, and me and Astrid's helmets off. It felt so good to be in the open air again. We flew fast and dangerously through the base and around it. Whooping, hollering, and Yahooing the entire time.

So guys, how did you like it. Sad that it has to end, well it doesn't. See, I've already started work on a sequel, but I had some writer's block with it. That added to me already working on other stories, plus a lack of motivation to keep writing it at the time, and it's pretty much gone into storage. I might bring it out and start working on it again if you guys want. It might not be for a while though. So until next time...

Wolffury out.