The flap of Butterfly wings...
Once upon a time, Hiccup had a best friend and Toothless a mate.
But through his decision to pick Berk and Astrid over them, they lost the girls.
In one world Hiccup and Leandra lived their lives away from each other…yet destiny is a funny thing.
Their first story "To Belong" was just one of endless possibilities and this here is another one.
Will Hiccup and Leandra finally be together?
Or will destiny repeat itself?
Chapter 2: Freedom
The next few days our dragon riders try to coax out the scarred and confused Christa.
She had to be for a long time a thrall, she mislearned what it meant to be free.
What it meant to not be hurt for the singles thing.
Trying to get her to eat or doing something nice for her, was too much for the girl.
She couldn’t handle it.
Hiccup and Leandra were starting to get desperate.
How could they help this traumatized child, if they didn’t have a clue how to even work through such terrible experiences she had to endure? What they had suffered on Berk was a joke against Christa’s life.
At night when they slept, Christa stood often up and sat down out in the cold.
She didn’t understand Hiccup and Leandra at all.
Why were they so nice to her? Treated her like a human being?
She was a thrall and nothing more.
Anybody could do with her what he wished.
That’s when the dragon with the golden eyes would join her, Starchaser was her name and sat beside her without touching.
The dragon only purred to her.
Like she was singing a lullaby to a babe.
Like her father once did, before the Eldians came for their tribe.
This…she could handle.
Since the dragon didn’t talk, didn’t want to do something for her, wanted to take care of her.
Starchaser just sat with her and purred. Expecting nothing in return.
Before the Eldians came she remembered that her village had been raided sometimes by dragons too.
It was tiny raids, but still a hassle for her people. Her father told her to be careful around dragons, that they would kill you given the chance, yet neither Starchaser nor Toothless was hostile.
They were loving towards each other and their riders and respectful around her.
But given what she had lived as a thrall for the Eldians it shouldn’t shock her that dragons were much kinder than humans.
So that’s why she let Starchaser sit with her.
Sometimes for hours long, while the others slept.
Never tried the dragon to touch her.
She was just near her.
A comforting presence that Christa nearly had forgotten what it felt like.
After a month of living with Hiccup and Leandra on the vacant island, Christa touched Starchaser for the first time.
She had seen the day before how Leandra had given her dragon a good scratch and pet session and…something like curiosity came to the surface.
Christa wanted to know how Starchaser felt.
It was scaly and warm…and comforting.
Starchaser just stayed still and let Christa pet her to her heart’s content. The little human girl was scarred like a rabbit, you needed to be careful around her.
Now, when they were alone together Christa always gave Starchaser pets.
First came the purring to show her that she liked the pets.
Then came the leaning on more for more pets.
Then begs for more pets.
Two more weeks passed and Christa could pet Starchaser as Leandra did.
It was an amazing feeling.
She didn’t know that Leandra was standing in the shadow of the entrance of the cavern and saw her petting Starchaser.
Leandra got an idea and hoped it would work.
(*)
The next day Leandra sat on Starchaser’s saddle and petted behind her.
“Come, Christa, let’s take a morning flight.”
Hiccup and Toothless were shocked to see that the little girl still carefully walked up to the girls and actually sat down behind Leandra!
Sure she wasn’t touching the other human but had no problem holding into the saddle or Starchaser.
Smiling happy that the first phase of her plan worked, Leandra gave Starchaser the go-to fly.
So they flew up the sky, high where the clouds were.
Christa was feeling things…she couldn’t describe them.
No wait…it felt a bit like before her tribe was attacked by the Eldians.
Full wonder she touched the clouds.
Is that what Leandra and Hiccup always felt when they rode their dragons?
This feeling…was it freedom?
A tear escaped Christa’s eye.
Was she truly free now?
After the first successful flight together, Leandra took now Christa always with her to her morning flights with Starchaser.
It seemed to do wonders for the girl.
Later when she talked with Hiccup about it, he agreed that Christa probably was just like them.
A dragon rider at heart.
Maybe her own dragon could help her?
(*)
“It’s so crazy, I really hope it works.”, mumbled Hiccup to Toothless.
It was now six months after they had saved Christa and our quartet with their guest flow together over the Barbaric Archipelago.
They were looking for a herd of wild dragons, in the hope, Christa would bond with one, which in turn would her help to fight against her inner demons.
“I see some Deadly Nadders!”, called Leandra back to them and pointed at a clearing. “Should we try?”
“Why not?”
So they made their dragons land near the Nadder herd.
Christa looked at them in question. She didn’t get why the flow till here and were now near wild dragons.
The girl trusted Starchaser and Toothless, but wild dragons were something different.
“Christa, do you wanna see how one befriends a dragon?”, asked Leandra softly.
Oh…!
They wanted to show her how to make friends with a dragon.
This…this sounded nice.
Shyly she nodded.
Hiccup and Leandra smiled at her.
She still was not used to seeing people smiling at her.
“All right, then watch closely how Hiccup will do it.”
With that Hiccup carefully walked up to the Nadders.
The dragons stared at him curiously. A human who didn’t attack them on sight was not the norm.
A blu-ish Nadder was close to him. So Hiccup did what he did with Toothless long ago and waited for the Nadder.
After a few seconds, he felt its snout.
Smiling he petted his new Nadder friend.
Christa was astonished.
Incredible so you made friends with a dragon?
That’s when she saw something shimmering on the side. For the first time in a long time, she got curious and walked up to it.
“See, Christa, that’s how you make a dragon friend!”, told her Leandra smiling. She turned to the girl beside her. “Do you want to try-“
Leandra stopped herself from talking as she saw that Christa wasn’t beside her anymore.
No, she was petting a dragon.
But not a Nadder.
“That’s a Changewing!”, shouted Hiccup in disbelief, what Leandra thought.
The blond-haired girl didn’t even notice that Leandra and Hiccup were freacking out behind her, feeling truly happy after a long time as she petted her new dragon friend.
As she inspected the shimmer it had turned into a big brownish dragon, who had titled his head curiously at her.
When her blue orbs meet the dragon’s yellow one, Christa feels something strange but wonderful.
Like she had found something she had lost.
She had done it like Hiccup.
Touching the dragon gave her even more of a strange and welcoming feeling.
The dragon liked her pets, purring at her.
Could she take the dragon with her?
Yes, she could.
It came gladly with her and Hiccup, Leandra, and their Night Furries.
So Christa flows for the first time in her life a dragon and feels true freedom.
Up in the sky, where the clouds were, she was just a girl with a dragon.
No slave.
No burden.
No coward.
Just a normal girl.
It meant she was really, really free finally.
She wasn’t a thrall anymore.
After Hiccup told her, that her dragon friend was male, she knew what to name him.
Frihet, freedom.
(*)
Two weeks after Christa tamed Frihet, Leandra, and Hiccup asked her if she wanted to travel with them to Spain.
It was high time for the Night Furries riders to be back on the road, but they wouldn’t leave their new friends behind.
Christa didn’t need long to think about it.
Of course, she would stay with them, follow them.
Her village was no more.
She didn’t have a death wish to return to the Eldians and their mad chieftain Fritz.
There was no place she could go besides into the unknown.
No, she rather stays with her friends. That is what Leandra, Hiccup, and their Night Furries were for her and Frihet.
So two dragon riders became three.
In the early morning, they started their journey to Spain.
Our trio flows for some time above the clouds, thinking nothing bad as Toothless' and Starchaser’s ear plates perk up. Frihet also gets tense, he sensed it too.
The dragons glance over their shoulders to see a disturbance in the blanket of clouds.
A strange and arresting masked warrior rises from the clouds, standing upon something unseen. It's armour and cape flap in the buffeting turbulence.
This warrior eyes the dragon riders, pulling up alongside them.
The teens and the young girl sense the approaching figure in their periphery.
“What in Thor’s name…”, Hiccup trails off as he sees the masked warrior.
Is he dreaming?!
“Is this person flying?”, shrieked Leandra shocked out loud, what he thought.
Little Christa hugs Frihet’s long throat tighter, while her dragon purrs at her in comfort.
The warrior stares blankly at them, tilting his head in curiosity while cutting a menacing silhouette.
Then, just as gradually as he rose, the warrior dips back beneath the clouds, disappearing.
“Okay. No sudden moves!”, tells Hiccup his friends.
Suddenly, the warrior explodes out of the clouds before them, standing atop a large unknown dragon.
They circle the three dragon riders forcing them to tread air. The warrior points a staff toward Hiccup, unnervingly, as he returns to face them.
“Hold on, hold on!”, yells Hiccup.
“We are dragon riders like you, we come in peace!”, adds Leandra.
Christa nods her head rapidly.
Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet growl in warning.
Suddenly, they're ambushed from behind.
Hiccup, Leandra, and Christa are plucked off of their dragons by other dragons and carried off.
“Toothless!”, screams Hiccup for his dragon, who can’t fly on his own.
Starchaser and Frihet try to reach to falling down Night Furry but get ambushed by other dragons too.
The last what our three dragon riders see is Toothless who falls into the ocean.
(*)
Hiccup shivers in the claws of the dragon, surrounded by the strange flock full of breeds he's never seen. He looks back for Toothless, now long gone.
“HEY! YOU LEFT MY DRAGON BACK THERE! HE CAN'T FLY ON HIS OWN! HE'LL DROWN!”, growls Hiccup at the masked warrior, who leads the dragon flock.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO STARCHASER AND FRIHET?”, yells Leandra for herself and Christa.
The young girl shivers also in the claws of her dragon kidnapper and has to fight her tears.
First a human prisoner and now a dragon one?
Wasn’t she free?
Why did this happen?
The warrior offers no response to them, seemingly immune to the cold as he leads the dragon flock across the polar night an alien landscape, harsh and foreboding.
Out of the fog looms epic ice formations, jagged, and spiked, like an impregnable fortress.
The young dragon riders would be sure in awe if they weren’t currently worried for their dragons and themselves.
The dragon flock dives into its jagged folds. The wild ride suddenly gives way to multilevel, cavernous chambers made of ice and columns of basalt rock.
It's heavily populated with dragons of all kinds, looming in the shadows.
Leandra, Christa, and Hiccup get dropped in the centre.
Both teens help Christa up, who formally clings to Leandra for protection. The older girl hugs her back, trying her best to comfort her.
Hiccup knows he isn’t built like a warrior, but he would protect the girls as best as he could.
He stands before them calling out into the darkness: “We have to head back for my dragon! Also, give my friends their dragons back. Christa needs Frihet.”
As to prove his point he hears how Christa whimpers, as best as she can with a cut-out tongue.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”, mumbles Leandra to her. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”
A hissing dragon closes in, sniffing, leering, and aggressive.
Hiccup holds his hands up to show he isn’t armed, then puts a handout and looks away.
The warrior watches keenly from the shadows, as the dragon coo curies at Hiccup, before he touches with his snout the hand of the young boy.
Several aggressive dragons close in behind the three dragon riders. Hearing their hisses, Leandra pets Christa on the head and says to her: “Just do what you did with Frihet. You know that dragons are our friends.”
Still, a bit frightened Christa lets go of Leandra and does as the older girl says.
Leandra does the same too.
After a few heartbeats, both girls feel a dragon snout in their hands.
This seems to calm down the other dragons as well.
The warrior tilted his masked head, curious. He dismounts his dragon and approaches Hiccup and the girls.
“Who are you?”, asks Hiccup.
Christa is again hugging Leandra who looks at the warrior in caution.
“You must be a dragon rider like us, why did you kidnap us?”, she wants to know.
He circles them in silence, taking them in.
This boy who is clearly from a Viking village, the tanned girl in a Viking dress but clearly a foreigner, and the little scarred girl in a dress who seems a bit too big for her. Clearly, it belonged to the older girl once and was sewn to fit the younger one.
“Do you even understand what we are saying?”, wondered Hiccup frustrated.
In answer the warrior whirls and hammers his staff.
In response, three large dragons ascend from the depths, carrying Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet.
Hiccup and Leandra say the name of their dragon relieved, while Christa smiles big.
Toothless is dumped on the ground next to Hiccup, sopping wet. Hiccup rushes to him, petting him reassuringly. Toothless coos in relief.
“It's okay. I'm glad to see you, too, bud. You really had me worried there.”
Next Starchaser and Frihet get dumped before their riders.
Christa just hugs Frihet tightly, who wraps himself formally around her, while Leandra gives Starchaser a lot of kisses on her head.
“Oh Star, thank the lord, you are okay!”
Her dragon nuzzles her in a way that spells that she is glad that Leandra is okay too.
The warrior rattles his staff at a nearby dragon.
In response, it and the surrounding dragons produce firelight from their throats, spotlighting the three dragon riders and their dragons.
Then he sets down his staff and shield, and approaches Hiccup, cautiously and animal-like.
Toothless snarls and circles Hiccup defensively, but then instantly yields to the stranger's outstretched hand. With a quick, disarming gesture, the warrior lays Toothless down in a state of bliss.
Of course, Starchaser wants to protect her mate, but the same trick works on her too.
Now two blissful Night Furries lay on the ground.
Frihet gets ready to spit his acid, yet one upward gesture from the warrior, and he is a blissed-out dragon too.
Hiccup and the girls are astonished.
The warrior's hand continues toward Hiccup's face. He recoils, but the warrior persists, finding the faint scar on Hiccup's chin, glinting in the firelight.
Their kidnapper gasps and retreats a few steps.
“Hiccup?”, says surprisingly a female voice, shaking with emotions. “Could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?”
“Uh, should I... should I know you?”, asks Hiccup and looks to Leandra and Christa who shrug their shoulders at him.
They haven’t the faintest idea what is going on right now too.
“No. You were only a babe...”, starts the strange woman who slowly removes here mask.
A beautiful woman with green eyes and her auburn hair in three braids was hiding behind it.
Leandra and Christa look from her to Hiccup and back.
These two… look like they could be related!
What?!
The woman’s eyes meet Hiccups, equally wide-eyed and aghast.
“... but a mother never forgets.”, she ends her sentence.
Hiccup stammers, tongue-tied, aghast.
Christa has wide eyes and blinks.
Leandra is the only one who sums up the situation in perfection: “What the heck?!”
(*)
Our three dragon riders run after the woman through tightly winding corridors.
“Hold on! Wait just a minute! Come back here!”, calls Hiccup after her.
“This way. Come.”, is the only answer of the woman.
“You can't just say something like that and run off! You're my mother?! I mean, what the -- do you grasp how INSANE it sounds?!”, he shouts after her. “I have questions!”
“We all have questions. Didn’t you tell me your mother was eaten by a dragon?!”, reminds him, Leandra, holding hands with Christa, so she can keep up with them.
They follow Hiccup’s supposed mom over the difficult terrain. Together and helping each other clamber over a tall rock.
“That’s what everyone told me back home, I mean-“
He is lost for words as he sees where they are now.
A giant ice chamber teeming with ferns, waterfalls, hot springs, and thousands of new dragons.
Even Leandra and Christa stop walking with their chins on the floor.
Neither of the three has seen something that beautiful.
Their dragons join them, curiously looking around.
Hiccup spots his….mother clinging to a basalt overhang, watching him and the girls.
“This is where you've been for 15 years?”
“You believe her!”, whisper-shouts Leandra shocked, and even Christa gives him a look alla are you crazy?
“She looks how my father always described her.”, he gives them one reason. “Also she knows my name. Leandra, you didn’t use my name the whole time we were here with her, so how else should she know it?”
The two girls look at each other and then shrug.
Well, they can’t say anything against it and so long as Hiccup’s mom didn’t hurt them they would accept this.
Crazy as it was.
Hiccup’s mom nods from her perch answering the question of her son.
“You've been rescuing them.”, declares the boy.
She nods again, this time with a smile.
“Unbelievable.”
“I wanna add an uff to it.”, pipes Leandra up.
Christa nods in agreement.
This whole thing got crazier by the minute!
Hiccup’s supposed dead mom wasn’t dead but a dragon rider, like them, and a dragon rescuer.
Wow!
“You're not upset?”, ask him his mother unsure.
“What? No. I don't know. It's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. It's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady.”, blabs Hiccup what comes to his mind.
He is still reeling too, okay?
She chuckles, and using her dragon's wing, lowers herself to the ground like a skilled acrobat.
“At least I'm not boring... right?”
“I suppose there is that... one... specific... thing...”
Excited dragons rush up to greet the three dragon riders and their dragons. The humans pet a few, marvelling at the vast dragon utopia before them.
“Maybe it’s time we introduce ourselves.”, says Leandra and grins crookedly at Hiccup’s mom. “It’s not every day you meet the dead mom of your best friend. I’m Leandra Alvarez, it’s nice to meet you…erm…Mrs. Haddock?”
Mrs. Haddock gives her a reassuring smile.
“Please a friend of my son can call me Valka.”
“Valka, okay, noted.”
“And who is the little one?”
Valka crouches down to see into Christa’s eyes, she is approaching her as one would do with a baby dragon.
“That’s Christa…mom.”, tests Hiccup for the first time calling her this. “She is a former thrall, her old master cut out her tongue so she can’t talk.”
“You poor dear!”, Valka gasps. “No one will hurt you here, I promise.”
Christa gives her a shy smile.
That’s when Frihet snuggles up to Christa like he wants to say just try it and I will acid you back to the stone age.
“Incredible, you three made friends with dragons.”, can’t Valka help herself to say.
She never imagined her son would become a dragon rider. When she thought about him, she hoped he was more like his father. No one should be like her on Berk.
But these three weren’t on Berk.
Valka wonders what the story is behind this.
Asking now wouldn’t be wise, besides she was so curious about the two Night Furries before her.
“Can I... ?”, she asks her son and Leandra for permission, who nods at her.
She pets the two black dragons, who nuzzled her softly.
“Oh, they are beautiful. They may be the last of their kind.”
“Then it’s good that they are mates.”, explains Leandra. “Green eye is Toothless Hiccup male dragon and gold eye is Starchaser my female dragon. And our Changewing friend is Frihet, male too.”
“Night Furrie hatchling I would love to see this.”, gushes Valka, inspecting the talons as Toothless and Starchaser roll onto their backs, nuzzling her.
“And look, he's your age! No wonder you get along so well.”
Hiccup smiles, astounded by Toothless' affection for Valka.
“Our girl here is actually older, seventeen. How old are you Leandra?”
“Sixteen, Valka.”
Leandra gives her dragon a smug look.
“So you are older than me, heh Star.”
Starchaser gives a little huff.
“Toothless your mate is older than you? Do you have a thing for older girls or what?”, jokes Hiccup with his dragon, who huffs also at him.
Meanwhile, Valka checks Toothless teeth. They recede into the gums at her touch.
“And retractable teeth? Ah! How did you manage to—“
“--I found him in the woods. He was shot down and wounded. Starchaser found us a few days later.”
Valka winces and offers a sympathetic nod as she stands to caress a few of her own rescued dragons.
“This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist's iron traps.”, she tells the kids, who look at each other in confusion. Who is this Dragog Blood Fist? “This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting. And this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare... then left to die alone and scared. And what of this? Did Drago or his trappers do this, too?”
“Erm…mom…”
“Erm…Valka…”
“Yes, dears?”
“Who is Dragog Blood Fist?”
The older woman blinks at them before she turns white as a sheet.
“You kids don’t know? Drago Bludvist is a madman who captures dragons! He is a vile human being who does anything to get his hands on dragons. I still don’t know why he does it. He doesn’t kill them…he just keeps them in cages.”
“Asshole!”, declares Leandra.
Christa frowns and Hiccup nods in agreement.
“Heh. Well, the crazy thing is...”, starts Hiccup to explain to his mom Toothless condition. “I'm actually the one who shot him down.”
His mother glares, confused.
“Because he wanted to be a Viking.”, adds Leandra. “Turned out he isn’t on and doesn’t want to be one.”
“What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?”
“I will never know… Me and Leandra actually run away from Berk and saved Christa from being hunted down like a pig.”
Valka blinked at the sheepish grins the kids gave her.
“All right, I think we need to sit down and talk. Come with me.”
(*)
The humans and the dragon riders are all around sitting in the cave Valka has turned into a little flat.
Hiccup and Leandra are finishing their tale, Christa drinking a cup of tea Valka had made for her and the older woman listening attentively.
“…And that’s about it. We were on our way to Spain before you snatched us up Mom.”, finishes Hiccup.
Valka can’t help but shake her head and smile bittersweet at him.
“To think you are just like me. You couldn’t kill a dragon. I hoped for you that you were more like your father, no one should get through what I expired on Berk, but hoping was fruitless.”, she signs.
“Valka do you mind telling us your story?”, asks Leandra. “I think it’s only fair.”
Of course, she would and the two teenagers and child listened to Valka’s story of the faithful night that changed her life.
“…It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you'd be safer if I did.”, she ends and you can clearly see the remorse in her eyes.
If she only had known what her son had to endure without her, that he was like her…she would have snatched him and Leandra up and Christa too.
Hiccup considers his mother’s tale, then raises his eyes to hers, seeing the sting of remorse.
“How did you survive?”
Here she smiles and pets her owl-like dragon.
“Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm me. He must've thought I belonged here...come I will show you.”
So they follow her out again to the edge of the raised natural terrace, overlooking the steamy oasis with its flowing hot spring waterfalls.
Half-submerged in the warm lake below, a massive white dragon with pronounced, mammoth-like tusks rests benevolently on the banks, his stately countenance like that of a lion surrounded by his pride.
“Dios mio, it’s huge!”, can’t Leandra help herself.
Hiccup is speechless, while Christa’s chin is on the floor.
“In the home of the great Bewilderbeast.”, continues Valka her sentence from before. “The alpha species. One of very few that still exist. Every nest has its queen, but this is the king of all dragons.”
Dragons land and bow reverentially to the Bewilderbeast. Valka gestures to the spiked ice ceiling that acts as a sweating greenhouse.
“With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest. A safe haven for dragons everywhere. He protects us. We all live under his care. And his command.”
“Incredible.”, declares Hiccup, while Leandra and Christa nod in agreement.
They pass an eggshell-littered nursery.
Hatchlings dart out of it, greeting them excitedly and inciting chaos. Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet are overwhelmed by their manic picking and scratching.
Cloudjumper baulks and sends them scattering.
“All but the babies, of course...”, chuckles Valka, as the hatchlings clamber on top of the Bewilderbeast and play on his massive tusks, despite his authority. “... who listens to no one.”
The Bewilderbeast lets out a frosty snort, sending off the youngsters to spread more mischief.
Now awakened, the Bewilderbeast raises his gargantuan head to take a closer look at the three young dragon riders, coming eyes to massive eye.
Valka bows in his presence, as do Toothless, Starchaser, and Frihet.
“I've lived among them for 15 years, Hiccup, Leandra, and Christa learning their ways, discovering their secrets...”
The gentle giant dragon acknowledges Hiccup and the girls with another icy snort, slicking back Hiccup's hair in a frosty veneer. Icicles are formed on the dresses of the girls.
The older woman laughs.
“He likes you three.”
“Wow.”
“Dios mio.”
Christa smiles just happy.
“You kids must be hungry.”, says Valka to them.
“Uh, yeah. I could eat.”, agrees Hiccup.
“Me too!”, tells also Leandra.
Shyly raising her hand, Christa means she could eat too.
“Good. It's feeding time.”
(*)
Christa is actually Ymir Fritz or as I like to call her more Ymir the founder from Shingeki No Kyojin or Attack on Titan.
My headcanon is that King Fritz, this bitch ass motherfucker cocksucker, gave Christa the name Ymir after Ymir the Norse Giant God since Eldians are based on the Vikings.
Christa is her real name I believe because when Frieda read the story of the devil and Ymir to Historia she called the girl Christa.
It makes sense that the direct descendants of Ymir and King Shit knew the real name of Ymir the founder.
So she will be called by her name Christa and not the slave name Ymir.
I choose the Changewing for Christa as a dragon because I think a dragon who spits acid is really cool and special for our Christa.
I was tempted to call him Eren, but Frihet-Freedom is better. XD
Tatakae! XD
I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Till next time my loves .3.
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Hear me out:
Soulmate au where soulmarks were created by the Isu to ensure that the right matches would be made in order to get to the chosen one.
They appear the moment two soulmates see each other for the first time, and they start itching after a few days of separation. After a week or so, they start burning.
By the time Desmond is born soulmarks are exceptionally rare, so he does not expect to get one himself, (and by all means he shouldn't get one, since we know that he is the chosen one) but he does, and it's right after he wakes up in Abstergo's Rome facility.
He's really hoping that his soulmate is the cute blonde lady, and not the crazy old guy.
(Ideally this would start as a Desmond/Lucy story only to then switch to a deconstruction of the soulmate trope as they both fall in love with different people instead. Time travel might be involved, for AltDes purpuses.)
(It's up to you whether Desmond and Lucy's soulmarks are a mistake on the Isu's part or something more sinister, maybe Juno's plan to get a new body by being reborn as Lucy's daughter after Desmond dies to save the world? Of course this would imply that in this timeline she doesn't kill her in Brotherhood...)
Or…
It’s a man-made created soulmark?
Like Abstergo managed to get the device that had been used to add the soulmark into humans and they tried to reverse engineer it?
It’s not perfect but they managed to make it work and all they have to do is inject a person with the ‘solution’ from the device that makes use of other chemical components that would trigger the ‘soulmate symptoms’ plus a secret ingredient.
The blood of the intended ‘partner’.
This isn’t how the device actually worked. The device itself used the DNA as seen in the calculations to set up the solutions which would be added to the humans’ genes using another device but Abstergo can’t find the device itself (the device is actually the Eye in the Grand Temple as that’s the one which has the capabilities to see into the future and thus can connect with the Calculations stable enough for the Capitoline Triad to add in the solutions into the Calculations) without the need of any injections to the targets.
So, Abstergo make do with creating an injection, calling it ‘YN-001’ and they injected it to both Desmond and Lucy while Desmond was unconscious so it only triggered when he first got out of the Animus and his eyes met Lucy’s.
Why?
Because by making Desmond believe that Lucy is his soulmate, he’d be easier to control for Project Siren.
But it all come crashing down when Juno controlled Desmond in the Colosseum vault, calling Lucy an abomination and showing everyone using the golden holograms that Lucy and Vidic had injected Desmond with YN-001 to make him believe Lucy is his soulmate.
If you want Lucy to live, Desmond’s feelings for her (which he believed to be love because he did believe he and Lucy were soulmates) makes him able to control his body before he stabs Lucy and he managed to strike a little to the right, missing her vital organs instead.
He still falls in a coma and Clay tells him the truth of Juno’s words. How the soulmate system had been created to ensure that Desmond was born. It was never about fated love or true happiness, it had always been to ensure the birth of the chosen one.
So… AC Revelations happen with Desmond jaded because of Lucy’s betrayal and the truth about the entire soulmate system.
When AC3 rolls around, Desmond actually confronts Bill and asked if he ever loved Desmond’s mother.
The hesitation in Bill’s voice as he tells him that he cared for his wife and she cared for him as well was all Desmond needed to know that they might have been soulmates but his parents didn’t even love one another.
So what did that mean for Ezio?
For Altaïr?
Ezio got the courage to leave the Brotherhood because he believed that Sofia was his soulmate and that they were meant to be together.
Altaïr married Maria and raised a family with her for decades because of the soulmark they shared.
Did that invalidate their feelings?
Did that invalidate their love for one another?
Desmond didn’t want to believe it.
Because if that was true…
If the whole soulmate system was meant to ensure that people would give birth to individuals that would later end up becoming part of Desmond Miles’ genes…
Then… didn’t that meant the feelings soulmates held for one another were their chains?
That they were unable to break from?
Unorganized Notes (AltDes because I was given an option and I will take it XD):
Desmond is under the impression that the soulmate system can influence feelings. It does not. The soulmate system relies on humans believing they are meant to fall in love with their soulmate to work. It can only trigger hormones and the burning sensation if they’re not with their soulmate but, other than that, the feelings are their own.
Desmond doesn’t believe this as he did fell in love with Lucy but her betrayal and the truth about the soulmate system made him believe that his own feelings were 'created' beyond his control and the only way to finally stop the feelings is after their ‘part’ of the calculations is done (which is true as Bill and his wife have been separated since the attack on the Farm and Bill doesn’t show any pain that should have come from the ‘burning’).
Desmond gets sent back in time a few months before the start of AC1 (late June 1191). From there, Altaïr and Desmond meet and they fall in love.
Desmond’s love for Altaïr is real for him because it’s not the soulmate system. However, he also knows that Altaïr would fall in love with his soulmate once they met. Altaïr doesn’t believe he has a soulmate and his feelings for Desmond are real for him as well. He also knows that Desmond hates the very concept of soulmates while Altaïr actually holds it in a high regard because his own parents were soulmates and he lost both of them at such an early age that he wished to believe they had been happy.
Desmond knows that and that’s why he could never tell Altaïr the truth about the soulmate system. It would be cruel and… Desmond loves Altaïr too much to tell him that his parents had him to ensure that Desmond Miles would be born.
Desmond is also jaded enough to tell Altaïr that once he meets his soulmate, he will ‘forget’ about Desmond so… Desmond doesn’t care how fast they were moving. He only had a few months with Altaïr and he was greedy enough to take and take as much as he could until Altaïr would no longer be by his side.
Altaïr wants to show Desmond that he won’t go anywhere even if his soulmate were to appear so he indulges all of Desmond’s wishes.
Altaïr and Desmond’s relationship is a secret… with only Kadar knowing about it because he saw the both of them together once and he promised not to say anything.
Then… June 1191 came and it’s up to you if Kadar survived or not.
Throughout Altaïr’s hunt for the Seven, Desmond is the only person who stayed by his side, not judging him for his failures. Some of the Assassins and informants try to help Altaïr because they wanted to but their actions are tainted by Al Mualim’s orders to make Altaïr work for their support. Because of this, Altaïr feels isolated with Desmond being the only one who stayed by his side. Desmond doesn’t stop him from thinking that because he knows their time together was slowly coming to a close so he holds Altaïr as tightly as he could for the few remaining weeks they have left.
Until…
September 1191 rolled around and Altaïr meets Maria Thorpe. His soulmark appears at the same time hers did and they both stared at each other with wide eyes before Altaïr runs away.
Instead of going to Malik like in canon, he goes to Desmond and Desmond knows just by looking at the rattled expression on Altaïr’s face that he had met Maria. He unclasped Altaïr’s hidden blade and stares at his soulmark, marking Altaïr’s left arm, before saying goodbye. Altaïr tries to stop him but Desmond tells him that the soulmark cannot be erased and Altaïr is ‘destined’ to be with Maria.
“Maybe… maybe in six years… you will remember that you loved me. Maybe…”
Altaïr promises never to forget his love for Desmond but Desmond believes he will forget it. Instead of saying that though, Desmond just smiles at him and tells him he has to go to Malik and save the Brotherhood.
The rest of the plot happens and Altaïr returns to Jerusalem as soon as he could even as he took the mantle of mentor. Instead, he finds Desmond’s home empty and… Maria there, holding a letter that Desmond had given her when she had been looking for Altaïr.
So, more angst happen here and there, Altaïr refuses to fall in love with Maria, Maria is torn between wanting to hate Altaïr and pitying him because she can see how much Altaïr was in pain, and…
Well, we can go for various endings for this one…
Possible Endings:
Downer-ish ending: Altaïr and Maria do fall in love in the end but Maria will always know that Altaïr’s feelings for her paled in comparison to how he feels for Desmond. When Sef is born, their soulmark stop trying to burn them if they try to leave each other’s side but, at that point, Altaïr loved his sons too much to abandon them. (If you want to turn this into a bittersweet complicated ending: Desmond visits after Sef’s birth and he asks Altaïr if he remembers how he loved him, Altaïr replies he never forgot and Desmond would have to live with the guilt of hurting Altaïr needlessly but still remaining by his side and becoming Altaïr’s lover who has a strained relationship with Maria)
Good-ish ending: Kadar stops Desmond from actually leaving and Altaïr manages to catch up, begging Desmond to stay by his side. His soulmark with Maria forces Maria and Altaïr to be near with one another every few days but Maria knows Altaïr’s heart belongs to Desmond. Desmond feels guilty for hurting Maria but Maria just waves it off as she has no reason to fall in love with a man in love with someone else. Maria and Altaïr’s chains finally break when Sef is born and Maria leaves Masyaf as she had always felt like a stranger in the Brotherhood (happy ending for Maria and our KadMar agenda: she goes stay with Kadar in Jerusalem instead and this could end up as romantic or platonic).
‘Golden’ ending: Altaïr uses the Apple to find a way to erase his and Maria’s soulmark with Maria being his ally as she doesn’t want to have a soulmark of a man who is obviously in love with another person. The Apple brings them to an Isu temple and Desmond is also there because, the truth was, he couldn’t bury his feelings for Altaïr and he wanted to be selfish for once so he was looking for a way to erase Altaïr’s soulmark so he can ‘remember’ Desmond. They end up using the device in that Isu temple after Altaïr tells Desmond that he never stopped loving him and the reason why they’re there is to erase his soulmark as well. Maria’s just there, feeling pity for the pain the two had gone through but also annoyed because a lot of the drama wouldn’t have happened if. They. Had. Talked. To. Each. Other. Instead. Of. Desmond. Running. Away. In. The. First. Place. Anyway, happy ending with Altaïr finally erasing his and Maria’s soulmark and Maria goes her own merry way with her dreams of wanting to find her own path.
(sidebar: if you want a soulmate AU AltDes, then may I suggest Zero Eclipse? The soulmate mark is an Isu invention in that one too (by the Isu Inanna) with a similar premise of ‘you will earn your soulmark if you do what we want you to do and follow the Calculation we chose’)
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