Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Dsplash History: How the Gemwar Ended

Haha, well, this is my cop-out...

So, I really love the Dsplash story, but I don't think I can fully flesh it out and finish it. There are just a ton of events left, and what with grad school I have very limited time to devote to fandom stuff. I also do have an original story in the wings (that's been heavily inspired by my love for HTTYD and other stories on my top ten list, so I'm hoping the idea is at least half-way decent), so that makes it hard for me to devote time to a fan-fiction that probably breaks every copyright law in the universe!

That being said, I do want to write the last two Chronicles. If you've been following the story and want to see how it ends, this is my attempt to very roughly sketch out the events leading up to the finale. I will have at least two more Chronicles, and I plan to write them in full detail. If you want to know what happens between the last Chronicle I write and those last two, feel free to read this. Sorry for the low quality; hopefully the final chapters will be worth slogging through this plot dump ;)



How The Gemwar Ended:

Still distraught from Link’s Death, Hiccup returns to Berk. The island and all the characters harbored there mourn the fallen hero, but no one is more devastated than Skari. Remembering the words of his son, the terrible warning of how the human would break his heart, the skrill succumbs to despair. Skari does stay with Hiccup until the end of the war, but he never leaves the HTTYD dimension. He operates as a queen, protecting the world from potential invasions with an army of dragons. 

Berk was not the only world feeling loss. The characters of the Marvel Universe were deeply hurt by the death of Steve Rogers. Tony Stark seemed especially distraught, and he began working on a dangerous project that he claimed would cover his universe in a suit of armor.

Midna is still injured from the attack of Tabuu. The sunlight she was exposed to is slowly poisoning her. She has kept this hidden. Learning that the brave Hylian that saved her has died actually moves her cold and jaded heart, but she knows she is at death’s door, so she keeps quiet… accepting her fate.

The Doctor returns. He is shocked by the fall of Link, but he does want to bring hope back to Hiccup. He takes Hiccup and Toothless to his own dimension. He has successfully recreated a Reality Bomb, a device that is capable of unmaking any type of matter on a universal scale. He has specifically designed the bomb to only target the molecular structure of the Gemnodes. The bomb is constructed on a massive space station, operated by the Shadow Proclamation. However, upon guessing that Hiccup has entered the Doctor’s world, the Gemnodes make a move. They are more dangerous than ever. The Gemlord is becoming less and less rational, enraged by the death of Venevonix. He blames himself for the General’s death, and he will stop at nothing to secure the safety of his kind. When the Gemnodes first attempt to enter the dimension, the immediately realize that there is a frequency of energy pulsating throughout that universe that would quickly destroy them. They withdraw briefly, but then decide to send Tabuu and a hired army of Daleks into the universe to shut off or destroy the bomb. Tabuu quickly overruns the base, killing countless Judoon. Toothless works to kill the Daleks, and because of his shrouding sphere, he is invisible to their sensors. However, it does not take long for Tabuu to track him and Hiccup down. The Night Fury stares down his old rival, and Hiccup pleads with him to stop his madness. Tabuu ignores him, and after a short but deadly fight, Tabuu captures Toothless in a massive energy crux and pries Hiccup off of him. He enters the control room of the reality bomb and shuts the weapon off. The Daleks bring the Doctor to Tabuu, and both heroes stand helpless as the energy being lets the Gemnodes know that it is safe to enter. Cylewl (The Gemnode who first encountered the Doctor) and Mordeus (A dark-colored Gemnode who specializes in shadow attacks) enter the dimension, eager to bring Hiccup before the Gemlord for a very public execution. They warp directly into the room with the captured heroes. However, Tabuu lets off a massive red wave of energy. He has learned the make-up of the Dalek armor, having used it himself, and he targets it specifically. Thousands of Daleks explode in a moment, to the shock of the Gemnodes and the heroes. Tabuu looks at the stunned Hiccup and tells him, “Do it.” Hiccup reactivates the Reality Bomb, and Tabuu crushes a shrouding sphere, trapping the Gemnodes in the dimension. 

The Gemnodes shield themselves from the blast, but they are not able to fully protect themselves. They begin to shriek and cry out in agony, fear, and sadness. The Doctor breaths in shock, stepping forward to try and talk to Hiccup who is still holding down the controls. Toothless steps between them and snarls, and Tabuu lashes out and grabs the Doctor with an energy tendril. The screams of agony become louder. The psychic undertones of the Gemnodes makes everyone near them feel the fear and grief they are experiencing, and the Doctor shouts out to Hiccup, “We can capture them, we can do something, there has to be another way!” Tabuu shuts him up, and Hiccup looks straight at the dying beings. His heart burns with anger. He remembers Link, and his face goes dark. But then, the screams trigger a memory in his head. He remembers Dagur’s death. He remembers passively letting the dragons rip his enemy to shreds. Suddenly, Hiccup recalls Link thanking him for changing him, telling Hiccup not to stop and not to let the Gemnodes change him. Hiccup shuts off the device. Tabuu is infuriated, lashing out at the Viking, but Toothless blasts him into a thousand glass-like shards. The Gemnodes stand. Mordeus moves forward, but Cylewl grabs him. “Are you insane. We need to leave. NOW.” The Gemnodes escape, and the world sits in quiet desolation. The Doctor walks up. “Your brother would be proud. He followed you because he trusted your heart.” 

Tabuu reforms. He is blazingly furious, but he knows his only hope is to join Hiccup now that he has revealed himself as a traitor. He decides to stay in the Doctor’s dimension because he is particularly powerful there. He warns Hiccup that his weak heart would get him and everyone he cared about killed, and Hiccup deeply worries that what he says is true. 

Hiccup and the Doctor return to Berk. Hiccup decides to return the Triforce to Link’s dimension. He takes the Master Sword and Toothless, and together they leave alone. Upon entering Link’s world, the Master Sword glows, and Fi emerges. The Spirit of the sword knows everything that has happened. She then says there is someone waking up, someone that they need to meet. Fi leads the boy and dragon to an ancient temple, and inside is Zelda, frozen in a golden crystal. The Triforce on Hiccup’s hand glows, and the crystal breaks. Zelda wakes and looks for Link. Hiccup’s face falls, and his stomach flips. He gasps and turns away, clutching his mouth. This was her. This was the girl Link was so sure he would never see again. She had been waiting, frozen in time, waiting for his return. She would have waited forever for him. Fi explains what has happened, and Zelda loses all composure. She begins to weep. Eventually, Hiccup pulls himself together, walks up to her, and hugs her tightly. “He never forgot you.” 

Zelda takes Hiccup’s Triforce, opens the sacred realm using the power of the Goddess, and stores the Triforce there, safe from dark hands. She and Hiccup believe that, one day, the Triforce will reincarnate the fallen hero, and they decide to return after that time has passed (recall, time passes very quickly in the Zelda dimension). Hiccup leaves on Toothless, returning to his world, while Zelda once again freezes herself, allowing only the Master Sword to unlock her seal. 

Hiccup begins to send dozens of characters back to their worlds. Fortunately, Tabuu created a clever trap to free all the characters the Gemnodes were holding prisoner. He gave Luigi a piece of the Gemshard he had been entrusted with, and the green plumber had freed everyone. However, the Gemnodes were not done with their campaign of horror, and they continued to dump characters into Hiccup’s world with the horrible devices of death strapped to them. A character from a random world died each day. The Doctor tried to find a way to stop the device, but in the end, the characters would utter, “How many more?” and then be killed. Finally, a brilliant British detective fell into the world, and Sherlock and the Doctor discovered that Gemnode technology would not harm another Gemnode. With that information, and in the nick of time, the Doctor placed a shard of Sardilic close to the blast radius of the device, and Sherlock was spared from death. After that, the characters the Gemnodes threw in were hidden in the massive shrouding sphere area that had been taken from Takanuva’s sanctuary, and the Gemnodes presumed they were dying. The Doctor and Sherlock were able to save many characters, including Dipper and Mabel Pines. 

Unfortunately, the Gemnodes follow many returning characters. Kirby and King DeeDeeDee are both killed, and Meta Knight is trapped in the Galaxia darkness when his cape is burnt right as he tries to teleport. Aang is sent home, only to be surrounded and killed in a massive battle with four Gemnodes. 

Hiccup decides to return to the world of Zelda, barely daring to hope that Link would be alive and unchanged. Before he leaves, he is summoned to the dungeon of Berk. Loki is there, and he tells Hiccup that Midna is dying. Hiccup does not trust his old foe, but upon searching for Midna, he finds her hiding in the dark attic of a remote Berk hut. She is turning a bleached white. He promises they will find some way to heal her, but she informs him that there is no way for her to return home. She has been pulled from the future of the current Zelda timeline, and she worries she would cease to exist if she entered her own world. Hiccup says he will think of something and says he will bring help from her world. She marvels at his determination and begins to think that her view of humanity and the world of light might be wrong. Hiccup enters the world of Zelda and immediately has to run for his life as he and Toothless are chased by a pair of Gemnodes. Using the advice of Fi, Hiccup is able to manipulate time in order to escape from his pursuers. 

Still very wary of being caught, Hiccup and Toothless follow Fi yet again to Zelda’s resting place. The world is a much darker place, with one side of the horizon looking black… almost as if the sky itself had been burned to cinders. Hiccup wakes Zelda, and they use Fi to track the location of the Triforce of Courage. After a long journey, they cross a desert and find a colossal arena. Inside, a young boy clad in green is about to be publicly executed. Ganondorf is watching along with a huge crowd of people as young Link is being lowered into a pit with a terrible, dragon-like monster at the bottom. Hiccup and Toothless rocket over, and Toothless shoots one of the chains constraining Link, while Zelda blinds the crowd, the monster, and Ganondorf with a burst of light. Link, however, has his own plans. With his free hand, he reaches into his pouch and pulls out a pale mask. He dons it, and with a horrible scream, he transforms into an adult version of himself with pale eyes, shiny white armor, and a massive sword shaped like a helix. Hiccup looks on in shock. The being in front of him looked and fought so much like his lost brother. In just a few blows, this Fierce Deity Link had killed the monster in the pit. Ganondorf was stunned as Link swung his sword and released a huge slice of magical energy. To Hiccup and Zelda’s shock, this blast not only hit Ganondorf but also dozens of bystanders. Link continued to attack, completely ignoring how many people were dying at his hand. Eventually, Hiccup grabbed his hand, telling him to stop. He cast Hiccup to the ground, pointing his massive blade at his chest. However, Hiccup would not be bested. Using the skills his brother had taught him, he rolled back, distracting Link while Toothless leaped onto him, barely able to contain the strength of this otherworldly form. Toothless bit Link directly on the face, and as Zelda held him still with magic, the dragon ripped the mask off, reverting the Hylian to his young body.

Neither Hiccup nor Zelda knew what to do, and the young Link crumpled and began to cry. He seemed traumatized and broken, nothing like the Link they had known before. They did not know whether they could trust him, but they knew if they left him behind, the Gemnodes would eventually find and kill him. They picked him up, put him on Toothless, and flew out of the dimension. Hiccup’s heart ached. This boy’s monstrous form fought like his brother had, but it had no control, no heart, no goodness. Then this child, he was weak, afraid… he was nothing like Link.

For the first time, Zelda enters the HTTYD dimension, and Hiccup takes her to Midna. She believes she can heal the imp, but only if she is a world that allows for powerful magic. Hiccup decides to bring Zelda and Midna along with him when he returns the characters from the Lord of The Rings Universe… but he knows this will be extremely risky as the Gemnodes could surely attack.

Meanwhile, young Link is isolated. Hiccup struggles to relate to the child, as he is so much like his lost brother, yet at the same time so flawed and different. The Doctor sees this tension, and he pulls the young Hylian aside and shows him the TARDIS. The Doctor then explains to young Link why Hiccup rescued him, but also why it is so hard for the Viking to show him affection. Young Link unbottles for the first time and explains how he got the mask, but also how he failed to save his world. He tried to stop a Malevolent force from crashing a moon into his world, but in the end, he ran in terror to avoid the apocalypse. He was given the Fierce Deity Mask by the Skull Kid, the very child who had caused the calamity Link had failed to stop. The Skull Kid wanted someone to play with, and he felt giving a fellow child unlimited power would be entertaining. The Doctor advises young Link against using the mask unless absolutely necessary but encourages him to keep trying to be a hero.

Hiccup and Zelda take Midna to the Lord of The Rings Dimension, opening two portals at the same time. One portal serves to return the Lord of the Rings characters to their home, and Hiccup gives Frodo a worried hug farewell before they both enter their separate rifts. The second portal is used by Toothless, Zelda, Midna, and Hiccup. Young Link asks to come, but Hiccup does not want him to… worrying he will either get killed or kill someone. However, the Doctor spoke to Hiccup, telling him of the boy’s struggles, and Hiccup decided to entrust young Link with the Master Sword. He put his hand on the lad’s shoulder and told him to keep the island safe. Astrid and the Doctor are left in charge of Berk. 

Several unexpected events unfold. The first is that none of the Gemnodes pursue anyone into the Lord of the Rings universe. This is because they lost a comrade there hundreds of years ago to Morgoth, and they are still somewhat afraid to enter any world where one of them has fallen. Unfortunately, the Gemnodes had been planning a different kind of invasion. The deleted Golden Dragon had begged for his freedom and a chance to kill Hiccup himself. The Gemnodes were not convinced he had high chances of success, but they did allow him and his fellow dragon zealots to have a Gemshard and to enter the HTTYD universe in order to hunt and kill Hiccup. They invaded shortly after Hiccup left.

In the Lord of The Rings universe, Zelda gives her Tri-Force of Wisdom to Midna, saving her life and allowing her to exist in the world of light without any risk of harm. Shaken to her core by the selflessness of Zelda, Midna vows to stand against the Gemnodes by their side, and begins to openly become more kind and caring towards Hiccup and Toothless… who she had treated with manipulation and contempt in the past.

Meanwhile, the dragon zealots lead a bloody battle against Berk. Most of the powerful warriors that Hiccup had been harboring had been returned to their worlds, leaving Berk less defended than it should have been. Years of being oppressed by the Berserker tribe had also drastically reduced Berk’s ability to defend itself, and while Stoick and Gobber held their own valiantly, they were not able to protect their village from devastation. In the chaos, the Berk prison was smashed open, and Loki slipped out into the battle. Astrid and Stormfly battled the Blue Dragon, and in the end, the colossal beast died with an axe between his eyes, but not before he electrocuted Stormfly and Astrid, nearly killing them both. The Golden Dragon saw this as an opportunity, and he snatched Astrid from Stormfly’s back, knocked the Nadder unconscious, and then pinned the young woman to the ground. Right as he was about to finish her, an arrow whizzed from the chaos around him and struck him directly in the eye, blinding him. As he reeled and roared, a small bomb detonated near the other side of his face, just barely missing his second gleaming eye. Young Link rushed forward, grabbed Astrid’s hand, and pulled her away from the monstrous golden reptile. She was seriously wounded, and Link stood between her and the enemy, hand’s trembling as he drew the Master Sword.

However, before the Golden Dragon launched his vicious assault, a charming voice rung out from the smoke. Loki emerged and called the dragon his pet, infuriating him even further. However, Loki scolded the dragon for missing his prize, claiming he was wasting valuable time and that his window to finish off Hiccup was closing. Loki added that he wanted to assist in putting the wretched boy to death and claimed he could lead the Golden Dragon straight to him. The Golden Dragon agreed, grudgingly, and Loki mounted him and guided him and the other dragons off of Berk. 

Loki led the Golden dragon straight into a swarm of dragons being led by Skari, and the Skrill bristled in fury to see his old master. This would be the second time he killed him, but this time there would be no escape from death. The Skrill ordered his swarm, and they tore the dragon zealots apart. The Golden Dragon looked back at Loki, furious at the Asgardian, but Loki held up the Gemshard that had been entrusted to the Golden Dragon, smirked, and then dove off into the air, vanishing into a rift. Before the Golden Dragon could pursue him, Skari grabbed onto him and drove him into the Spiral. In a brilliant flash of gold and lightning, the two dragons plummeted towards the sea, but only the corpse of the golden dragon hit the waves.

Hiccup returned to find Berk in flames, but the Lord of the Rings characters had been safely returned home, his father and friends were safe, and the Doctor informed him that young Link had behaved heroically. Encouraged by this, despite the devastation around him, Hiccup decided to try to move into the end game. He needed to capture a Gemnode. After much deliberation and planning, he and the Doctor decided upon a course of action. As far as he could tell, the Gemnodes who had taken the characters initially were usually the ones who hunted them down and killed them if they were returned home. Hiccup knew Eminis Sapphire was his best bet at negotiations, and he also knew that she was the one who had taken Jack Frost.

Jack Frost had been kidnapped under unusual circumstances. The Gemnodes used him to guard the desolate comet Frostburn, and he was told that if he slacked in his duties they would kill his sister who he had previously lost his old life saving, Mary Overland. Hiccup wondered if time traveling backward could weaken the Gemnodes, since characters pulled into their own worlds automatically aged up to meet their time streams. The Doctor felt this could be the case but noted that they had very little evidence to go on. Hiccup, Toothless, Midna, Zelda, young Link, and the Doctor all left for the Doctor’s universe, and the Gemnodes did not pursue them for fear of the reality bomb.

The Doctor did his very best to calculate how he would need to time travel in order to reach the time when Mary Overland would still be young and living in Jack’s dimension. After traveling back using the TARDIS, Jack used Hiccup’s Gemshard to reach for his sister, bringing the TARDIS into a rift and into his world. The Gemnodes noticed this immediately, and Jack Frost intentionally used no Shrouding Sphere in order to bait her to him. Eminis requested to go alone, as she anticipated needing to kill Mary as a punishment for Jack and did not want the others to witness. Upon arriving in his world, she did not target him but instead went straight to his sister. She found the young girl near the very ice her brother had fallen into, and she psychically suspended the child in the air. However, instead of killing her, Eminis shifted forms into that of a young girl as well, and then the Gemnode fell to her knees and began to weep uncontrollably. Everything for miles and miles felt the psychic pulse of this grief, and no one could keep from feeling immense, unutterable sadness. Eminis looked the young girl in the eyes and asked her why it had all come to this, why had Venevonix had to die, and when would the war end? When would they finally be safe and together? 

Before Mary could say anything, Jack flew in and grabbed her. Pulling her away from the Gemnode. The Doctor walked up slowly behind her, breaking a Shrouding Sphere and trapping them all in that dimension. He hoped she would stay in the child-like form, hoped he could speak with her, but she turned and faced him, and the small eyes of the child burst into scarlet flame, and the tiny body exploded as crystals erupted from it. The Gemnode stood before him in full might and glory, withering the woods around them and turning them to white ash. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word she fired a brilliant blast of energy towards him. Before the blast could connect, young Link jumped in the way and deflected it. He stood in his Fierce Deity form, exuding huge amounts of magic and aura, glaring into the Gemnode with soulless eyes. She was the embodiment of more emotions than any other soul could feel, and he was a vacuum that might consume them all. Midna and Zelda did their best to support him in the battle, and for a while it looked as though he might could win as he delivered blow after blow against her magical barrier, constantly forcing her to stay on the defensive. 

However, she would not be beaten, not even by something as monstrous as the Fierce Deity. She grabbed his face with an ice whip, ripped off the mask, and then slammed him to the ground. Midna and Zelda both launched furious magic attacks, but her barrier absorbed them and then blasted them back, knocking both princesses unconscious. Eminis raised her hand to stand it through young Link, but she was suddenly struck by a bolt from Toothless. Hiccup had decided it would be best if he did not enter the battle, feeling it would provoke her, but now he had no choice. Toothless shot again, but this time his bolt was absorbed by her shield. She cast young Link aside, face Hiccup, and in a shriek of unspeakable fury, immitted a pulse of ice that froze the very air solid. Hiccup and Toothless were caught, midflight, suspended in the giant spire of ice.

But all was not over. The ice glowed blue, then white, and then exploded. The Night Fury emerged, burning a radiant blue. Toothless would not back down. He would not lose. He fired off a blast that was stronger than any he had fired before. Eminis went to block it, but her shield suddenly failed. Shocked, she looked to see the Doctor pointing his foolish little device at her. Could he really have matched her frequency after so little time? Before she could attack him, Toothless fired again. Again. Again. Each bolt rattled into the crystal form and then exploded with an unbearable sound. Eminis began to bow beneath the sheer force of the attack, but then it stopped. She looked up to see the dragon, it’s eyes full of anger and vengeance, and then there was the boy. He looked down at her with fiery conviction and yelled one word: yield. 

She retorted back, the air stinging with her anger. She asked how she could ever surrender to someone who had murdered Venevonix, but Hiccup asked how she could refuse the mercy of someone who had lost his brother to the madness of the Gemnodes war. He warned her that warned her that if she would not surrender, he would have Toothless end her, he would avenge his brother, and there would be no hesitation or regret. Stunned by the unstoppable drive edging Hiccup’s words, Eminis asked what he would have her do. He answered: negotiate a peace.

Eminis was brought back to the TARDIS and placed in a chamber lined with Shrouding Spheres, keeping her from warping. Hiccup asked how she could condone the war, how the Gemnodes could slaughter so many. She claimed it was to protect themselves, but he pointed out how many Gemnodes had died for nothing. He claimed they were powerful enough and that seeking godhood was nothing more than madness and pride. She denied it, but Hiccup pointed out what had happened to Sardilic. He asked her if the green Gemnode had always been so monstrous, and this broke her. She confessed that she and Sardilic had once been the closest friends in the entire family of Gemnodes, but how she had watched him succumb to the allure of power and control over the eons. By the end, she did not even recognize him. Hiccup asked if the same thing was not already happening to every other Gemnode, and she agreed it was… but she had no idea how it could be stopped. Hiccup said the answer was simple: abandon the purpose. Live with the power they had, and never again act as though they were the gods of others. He promised he would do everything he could to protect them if they agreed to end the war… and asked her forgiveness for the deaths of her friends. Shocked beyond words, Eminis agreed to help.

The plan was to use Eminis as a willing bargaining chip. She would be the ticket to an audience with the Gemlord, and she would help to argue Hiccup’s cause. The Doctor agreed to meet the Gemnodes in order to set up the parlay. The Timelord used a Gemshard to enter their world for the first time, but he was confident they would not kill him and risk losing Eminis. He gave them the terms of the meeting, and they grudgingly agreed. However, they set the location of the meeting to be the tallest point of the city of Minas Tirith. The Doctor agreed, and the date was set to be the end of the year in that Universe. However, before the Doctor left, Oninonix Ruby approached him, placing his hand on the left side of the Doctor’s chest, and whispering: you know what is right.

All the characters left on Berk rejoiced at the return of the Doctor. Hiccup, Toothless, the Doctor, young Link, and Eminis were the only characters who were allowed to enter the parlay when the time came, but Astrid was concerned. She did not trust the Gemnodes and felt certain that it was a trap of some sort. Because of that, she convinced Midna, Zelda, and Link’s Terrible Terror to go throughout the many universes where heroes had been returned, giving them a message: Meet at Minas Tirith, but only if a portal is opened in your world. 

After nearly a month of waiting and preparation in the HTTYD dimension, the time had come. It was the dawn of the final day. Eminis, Hiccup, Midna, and the Doctor had spent the entire month discussing what could be done, how peace could be reached, the history of the Gemnodes… not a single mystery was held back. Both sides were utterly transparent, and so as the sun rose Hiccup could not help but feel a twinge of hope, but it was mixed with an ocean of dread. This was his only shot. Hiccup believed that that day would either mark the end of the Gemwar, or the final victory of the Purpose. 

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