Age of the Dragons (HTTYD Fanfiction)

Chapter 66

Second to last chapter!!! I can't believe The Returning Series is nearly complete!

Hiccup smiled as he walked down into the base of operations. Now that there was no threat, the doors were open, and the operatives were passing through openly and freely.

It was truly a remarkable sight that Hiccup saw as he strolled down the streets, just an ordinary citizen without his mask. All around, people had smiled at him, something Hiccup had never seen before.

But he shook himself out of his reverie as he walked through the inner door into the base.

And there were all the original riders and their dragons, gathered at the forefront of their families. Hiccup grinned, as Shadow bounded up to him. "Well! Look what we have here!"

Then, Hiccup's parents rushed up, and pulled him into a tight embrace. In a few seconds, the other riders and their families joined in, gathering in a tremendous group hug.

Sarah chuckled, twirling a screwdriver. "Well, as touching as this is," she said, "we didn't bring you here without reason, Hiccup."

And she walked over to the Core Rip meter. Dread washed over Hiccup once more. In the excitement of the battle, Hiccup had nearly forgotten about the impending doom of the world in just fifteen years.

Yet it seemed that the meter was predicting fourteen! Hiccup was surprised. He rubbed his eyes, but the numbers did not vanish. "Wha..." he started.

Christopher sighed. "There's good news, and bad news." he said gravely. Hiccup felt dread welling up in his stomach. Uh oh... "The good news," Christopher explained, "is that we discovered the cause of Core Rip."

Hiccup looked shocked. That truly was good news! But why did everyone look so grave? "The bad news," Christopher said, "is that the cause is technology."

Hiccup gasped, as the pieces of the puzzle fit together. "Of course! And considering the technology that covers the world..." his eyes widened. "The only hope for us is to destroy technology for good!"

Then he groaned, and sat down again. "No, that won't work! People can't change that quickly!!!" He paced the room. "There has to be some other way..."

Then, suddenly, there was the whoosh of the inner door opening, and Timothy descended into the room, holding a Night Fury mass-transmitter. He hurried to the device, and frowned as he looked upon it, before turning to Christopher.

"Sir," he said worriedly, "the tests don't appear to be working." Christopher looked puzzled. "What?" Timothy scratched his head embarrassedly. "Well, I've been testing the specific effects of core rip using this transmitter, but it seems to not only be not affecting the time left, but repairing it! Could we have gotten the cause wrong?"

Hiccup looked hard at the transmitter, as if it might hold some secret he didn't understand, but he could think of nothing. Then, suddenly, he had an idea.

"Christopher," he said, "revert the transmitter." Christopher looked even more confused, but he grabbed the Night Fury console, and released it from the control, reverting it back to blue. Hiccup switched it to a remote channel, and blasted it out. Sure enough the counter changed from "14 Years, 5 Months, 2 Weeks, 3 Days, 7 Hours, 35 Minutes, and 19 seconds" to "14 Years, 5 Months, 2 Weeks, 3 Days, 7 Hours, 34 Minutes, and 45 seconds"

Hiccup grabbed his Night Fury transmitter, and transformed it back, blasting it in the exact same way. And sure enough, the estimate reverted back by about two minutes!