Everything the Light Touches

Sorry, it's been quite a while since I last posted a Chronicle! This one isn't too long, but for those of you who haven't gotten the chance to ask around and figure out some of the history of Dsplash, this Chronicle will give you that. It serves two purposes. First, it gives you an idea of what has and is happening back in the Gemnode dimension. Second, it introduces you to a character who has been helping the "good guys" for some time, but I've not gotten the chance to talk about him properly in any Chronicle. This story is stuffed with cameos, and each cameo does have a back story, so if it triggers your curiosity, I would be happy to answer any questions left in the comments.

Click the read more to see the story.

Dimension Splash Chronicles

Event: Everything the Light Touches

Pov: Takanuva

Time: Year 9.0-10.15 of Hiccup and Link’s existence in the game

     Light. Warm, washing energy that bathed the planet daily. That was the element of Takanuva, his power, and his only escape. Six hundred years he had been hiding in the underwater Haven of Light, six hundred years he had been safe from the Gemnodes’ wrath. He could never leave, not physically at least. If he did he would be found, and there was no way he could combat such deadly foes. He had killed a Gemnode when the creature was trying to abduct him, and that single action sentenced him to an endless life of fear. So, the mighty Seventh Toa spent his days in hiding, pacing the round white rooms and staring off into space. But Takanuva was not simply staring, no, his mask was far more wonderful than that. The golden Khohi he wore allowed his vision to travel far and wide, and wherever there was light, there he could see. For six hundred years he had patiently watched the outside world, but now the watch was coming to an end.

     Things had changed drastically in the last six months. Before that everything had been progressing as normal. The Gemnodes had continued to abduct more and more people and the wars had become more and more violent. Takanuva had taken particular interest in the wars with Loki. His mask had never allowed him to find the base of the Rebels, but he had always hoped that they would win. When Loki finally had captured a strange, scrawny boy, Takanuva had assumed that the war was over. The entire rebel army had been routed, and thousands were being tossed into captivity and threatened with deletion. He had watched as the boy stood before a merciless trail and threatened with countless, heinous punishments for his so-called crimes. Takanuva wondered what the boy had done to so enrage so many. He looked very normal, but perhaps he had done things at night, in the dark, and out of Takanuva’s sight. Still, the boy had only been around for nine years that Takanuva could remember, and in that time he had managed to make enemies with the most powerful villains in the world. Everyone seemed to have some deep reason for loathing him. Darth Vader, Lord Shen, The Witch King of Agmar, and most of all the Golden Dragon. The trial had gotten out of hand because each leader wished to punish Hiccup personally, and in the end the Chitauri were forced to grab Hiccup and pull him out of the room. The head of Loki’s army announced that Hiccup would be brought to Asgard and that Loki himself would decide the punishment. 

     Takanuva pitied the young man. So small, so apparently weak and frail, and yet surrounded by hate and power. But Hiccup surprised Takanuva, and the young Viking’s cunning allowed him to lead a powerful force into Asgard beneath Loki’s radar. Just as Loki was reveling in his victory, Hiccup outwitted and defeated him. Without Loki’s armies keeping order, the world soon returned to normal, or so it seemed.

     But Hiccup would not stop, and as Takanuva watched he started to understand why this boy was so universally deplored. He had a sense of right and wrong that was almost unassailable, and he was ridiculously self sacrificing in his efforts to make the world a better place. He was a system breaker, but not only that, he was a system breaker who was willing to pay the price. His brother had warned him not to, but Hiccup  continued studying the Gemnodes. Takanuva watched him with utter fascination, trying to peak over his shoulder through the candlelight so as to glimpse his journal. The boy was unraveling mysteries that Takanuva had been unable to grasp even after six hundred years of searching... Though to be fair it is very hard to read books and ask questions when you are using light vision. 

     But Takanuva knew what would happen. When he felt he could wait no longer, he appeared in light form to Hiccup in his room. The boy’s dragon had snarled at him, and who could blame him? The two of them had just narrowly escaped a Roman trap that had forced Toothless into his darkest, most beastly state of mind, and nearly broken Hiccup’s courage forever. Takanuva tried to be quick, he knew a Gemnode might could use the hologram to track his location, but Hiccup needed to be warned. The Toa spoke quickly, but Hiccup told him that he could not stop. In admiration and heartbreak Takanuva had left the boy standing there in courageous determination to stop what he called The Purpose. 

     Takanuva’s warning was not without grounds, for on that very day the Toa watched in horror as Hiccup was stabbed to death by a blood-red Gemnode named Oninonix Ruby. Takanuva watched and felt grief stabbing into his robotic chest as Hiccup’s closest friends gathered around as the life slipped out of the boy. That was it, it was all over. Takanuva felt sure that no one would ever stand up to the Gemnodes again after that. Hiccup had been sentenced to endless deletion, and though Takanuva had only heard whispers of the creature held in the deletion void, his heart knew to tremble for anyone who would meet the monster known as Sardilic. In grief Takanuva had turned his gaze elsewhere, trying to keep his mind off the hopelessness of his plight. Hiccup had given him a ray to grasp for, a faint little light in all the darkness. Link learned about Takanuva from the most recent notes in Hiccup’s journal, and Takanuva obliged the young elf with one and only one visit. He appeared to Link via hologram, and he gave him his deepest sympathy. The young man was angry, he was unwilling to continue playing a game whose rule-makers had murdered his brother. Takanuva offered to let Link join him in the Haven of Light, but he confessed that he could never speak where it was hidden. The information was far too sensitive. All Takanuva could do was advise Link to shroud himself and keep his head down. That is how Takanuva had survived so many years, and it was the only strategy that seemed to work in this terrible, terrible world.

     But the darkness of Hiccup’s deletion was destroyed in a blaze of light as Link, Hiccup, Astrid, and Tabuu used Souldrinker, the very weapon of Hiccup’s demise, to create Deathquencher, a knife that could bring someone back from deletion. Of course, Hiccup needed to be hidden right away, and Link, through clever though questionable negotiations with a man named Jim, had discovered where Takanuva was hiding. So, much to Takanuva’s surprise, Toothless and Hiccup had burst one morning into his underwater sanctuary. Takanuva had tried to greet Hiccup warmly, but the boy was in a terrible shape. He was absolutely terrified of his own dragon, and the Toa could feel Toothless’s own heart breaking as he watched Hiccup suffering from panic attacks. Apparently the legends of Sardilic were nothing compared to the reality. Hiccup would confine himself for several days, sitting alone. Takanuva tried to come in and speak to him, and after several attempts Hiccup finally opened up. Ironically, the fact that Takanuva was an utter stranger made it much easier for Hiccup to speak to him, and the boy spilled out a heart-wrenching tale of lifetimes lived in terrible, terrible dreams. Dreams one could feel, dreams one couldn’t doubt, and dreams in which everything one valued was destroyed bit by bit. Still, after a while, Takanuva’s warmth and kindness seemed to break the spell. Hiccup asked for Toothless, and he and the dragon spent days on end quietly in one another’s company. Hiccup was still nervous, but strangely the fear was more of himself than of Toothless. He even forced himself to sleep up against his dragon’s side. Of course... sleep was more work than being awake as Hiccup’s dreams tormented him with their horrid reminders of all he had seen and suffered.

     When Link brought Astrid, Stoick, and Gobber to the Haven, Hiccup was both overjoyed and sick with horror. He would not explain why, but he would not let Astrid and Toothless be in the room with him at the same time. Link had begun to bring Hiccup back into common sense, and together they began to plan and plot on how the Gemnodes could finally be stopped. It was good for Hiccup to be distracted from himself, and eventually he, Toothless and Link went to free a strange dragon named Skari. Takanuva noted that Toothless did not look too keen concerning the proposition, and Hiccup had admitted that he was not surprised. The three had left Astrid behind, much to the young woman’s protests. But Hiccup was firm. He said that the best way she could help him was by staying safe, for being there for him if he came back. That wasn’t enough to convince her, but the fact that Hiccup had spasms when she and Toothless were close together was. So, with great worry Astrid, Stoick, Gobber, and Takanuva watched as Hiccup left the safety of the Haven. 

     Of course Hiccup, Link, and Toothless were shrouded, so Takanuva had been completely unable to watch them. He did, however, see a large green, evil looking dragon stalking along the Great River about a week and a half after Hiccup had left the Haven, and he worried that perhaps it was stalking him. When Hiccup suddenly became visible and was pulled by the monster through a rift, Takanuva knew that the worst had come to pass. He could not bring himself to tell Astrid, but when another portal suddenly opened, a faint glimmer of hope flicked in Takanuva’s eyes. Perhaps Hiccup and Link had been successful, maybe they had found  a way to create rifts themselves. Takanuva could only hope, but he dared not tell Stoick or Astrid. The worry would destroy them. Thankfully, within two days Takanuva’s hopes were justified. Gemnodes flooded in masse into the dimension and began offering massive rewards of power or freedom to anyone who would capture Hiccup, or even anyone who would give them information concerning his whereabouts. He was called a great and terrible criminal, and some believed it, but most were curious... what was his crime?

     Now Takanuva was stuck, unsure of what to do next. For years he had been content hiding, but Hiccup was fighting, and he was becoming a beacon for many to follow. If the Gemnodes could not find him, perhaps Hiccup was gaining some sort of upper hand. Whatever was going on, Takanuva wanted to help. Things were still not going well in the Gemnodes world. The United States army had made a massive attack on Berk lead by a powerful new secret weapon known as a Jaeger. This massive, metal colossus had been designed by Stark Industries so as to battle off the Kaiju threat, but now it had a darker purpose. Stoick, Astrid, and Gobber had nearly forced Takanuva to let them leave, but Hiccup was clever yet again. To escape the Haven of Light, one needed to swim up from the bottom of the ocean. Hiccup, Toothless, and Link had air gems making such a trip possible, but no one else could leave the Haven. So, whether they liked it or not, the Hooligans would be forced to sit and do exactly what Hiccup needed them to do, stay safe, stay out of sight. Takanuva tried to explain this to them, tried hard and succeeded in convincing Astrid that the worst thing that could happen to Hiccup would be coming back and finding her or Stoick in the clutches of the Gemnodes. Takanuva described the battle to them as best he could. Spitelout had used a brilliant strategy with Timberjacks so as to force the helicopters carrying the Jaeger into the ocean much further away than was originally planned. But then Spitelout’s secret weapon proved to be much less affective. The Doomfang was sent to battle the Jaeger, and the massive dragon attacked with deadly, icy force. Unfortunately the Jaeger was specially designed to fight huge creatures, and it was not long before the Doomfang was impaled and sent tumbling back into the surf, staining it a terrible red. At that many of the Berkians lost heart, and the American forces would have all but routed them if it were not for the actions of Stitch and Link’s Terrible Terror. The two of them managed to sneak their way in through cracks in the Jaeger’s command pod, and after the Terrible Terror dealt with both pilots, Stitch set the nuclear reactor into overdrive, destroying the Jaeger in a massive explosion and damaging the American fleet beyond repair. The U.S. forces pulled out, but the battle had cost Berk greatly. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Ruffnut had all been captured. The village was in ashes and the Jaeger had slaughtered dozens of courageous dragons and riders. 

     And so Takanuva watched, watched and grieved to see Stoick’s village and people slaughtered. But there was nothing he could do, nothing any of them could do. They could only hope that Hiccup would find a way to stop The Purpose, find a way to battle the Gemnodes so that everyone could escape this world of endless war. As Takanuva looked over the contorted, heart broken faces of Stoick, Gobber, and Astrid, he desperately wished he could do more than watch. And he would, now he felt sure of it. He stood tall, his white forming gleaming bright. When Hiccup needed him, he would be there. He had watched far, far too long. It was time for dawn to break, it was time for the Toa of Light to leave his Haven and never hide again.