I had a just opened my eyes when the lingering memories of my final moments came back to me in a single gasp. I shoot upright, swallowing hard as I brace myself on my hands. Inhaling a deep breath, my lungs fill with fresh air and oddly…no pain or even discomfort whatsoever. I felt great actually.
I look down at my limbs only to cry out in relief. I had been afraid to look down earlier because of what had happened, but now I couldn't help but hug my torso. Back together at last. "What the hell happened to me?"
A few minutes go by as my mind catches up. I might not know all the answers of why this was happening to me or where I was, but I do that I should be very much dead. Finally scanning my surroundings revealed nothing but an endless expanse of white. I blink harshly, trying to find some sort of horoizon or source of colour. Nothing but a blank void. "Am I in purgatory or something?"
No sooner had I spoke, colour began to bleed into the world and I suddenly found myself reliving my own memories, but this time as an outsider. A ghost. In one memory I'm watching myself get thrown through a building while in another I see Homelanders red eyes moments before he cuts through 'real me', but then the scene fades again and another one takes its place-
Wait a minute, this wasn't right. I had never been able to transform fully into a dragon so why was this scene, this memory I never had before showing me this? What was this? Who were these people?
Deep within me, despite not seeing this beast until now, I knew its name. "Monstrous Nightmare…" The red and black dragon was literally a nightmare to deal with if the amount of burnt Viking corpses by my feet said anything about it. I watched from a wary distance, despite knowing it couldn't see me, it's shear size made me back up instinctively.
It carried on a war path, letting out furious spews of flame as crawled. It's scales scorched the earth with a mere touch from its batlike wings, long tail coiling like a snake as it charred Vikings to the bones. Only staring closer allowed me to realise it was wearing a metal collar of some kind. A prisoner.
Frame after frame showed me glimpses of Vikings, dragons, samurai, knights, and warriors of many different kinds. Some were faint and vague, wondering into my vision before disappearing in a blink, others were so vivid I could hear the sounds within and smell the smoke.
"(Y/n) (l/n) the unyielding..." I look behind me towards the smooth voice to find a dark-skinned man dressed in gold armour with eyes like honey. Part of me instinctively knows this to be a god or maybe the god. I'm not sure and I rush to bow showing some form of respect. "Raise your head, we have much to discuss about your fate."
I lift my head, my eyes wide and shoulders tense. "My fate?" There's a shine to his gold eyes as if appraising me. "Yes." He waves a hand, drawing my focus back onto the scene playing about us both. "Not one life have you lived carefree without pain and suffering."
I swallow harshly, looking at the dead body of a young teenage girl beneath my feet. She looked familiar. "These are my past lives, right?" "Correct. This girl's name was Kugisaki Nobara. You died quite young that time." The celestial being shakes its head, despairing at the image.
The scene drifts away as I hear the girls name being called out by a familiar distant voice, but it's gone before I could grasp who. "Why?" Those gold eyes find mine again. "Why is this happening to me? Why in every universe, why in every timeline do these things happen to me?"
"The writers are sadistic." "What?" "What?"
He clears his throat, gesturing again to the scene playing around us. "What I meant to say, is that I want to give you a second chance, despite having every horrible event happen to you, you still stayed good, even when you had every reason not to."
I focus on the events happening around me and the glimpses it allows me to see into the other worlds. It's all very strange, seeing my own life play again and again in different bodies and time and space. In some there's foreign places and climates I'd never imagined existed, and architecture and technology I'd never seen before. "Am I going to get reincarnated again?" I whisper disappointed, I missed my family, I miss those rare halcyon days.
"Not quite... Do you want to return to your world? Take revenge? Bring true peace both to yourself and others?"
I remain silent, mind focused on the memory of a man who claims himself a hero and yet kills without reason while others are powerless to stop him. My world needed someone strong, dependable and kind. A natural born leader who others will strive to mimic and follow without question. Only one Viking came to mind, the late chief of Berk, Stoick the Vast. Yes, a man like that would do well in a ruthless world like this one.
"What do you mean 'not quite'?" I turn to him, another question on my lips. "What's the catch?" He smiles at me, a beautiful sight. "I cannot turn back time and I cannot bring back the dead, that is beyond my realm of power but…I can grant seven wishes. Seven for every past life."
My breath catches in my throat. This was my chance I'd been praying for. Seven wishes?? I had to make them count. "For my first wish…I want to be able to shapeshift into the forms of my previous lives and retain their abilities."
The angelic being smiles, satisfied with the request. "Done. Your second wish?" I pause, eager to get back to my world but not wanting to rush this perfect opportunity. "I wish…" I think of Homelander and the Seven. Plans already forming in my mind on how I would destroy Vought. If I was successful, I wouldn't always be around and would need to make a generation of capable hero's to defend the people long after I'm gone.
"To have an island." Faint memories from another life come back to me. "One like Berk that is surrounded by mists that will keep it hidden and safe. There I can train and raise true heros."
We talk for awhile longer and my wishes play out as follows.
1. Ability to shapeshift into past selves and retain their abilities
2. Hidden island in the Bermuda to train hero's
3. Ability to shapeshift into full dragons, wyverns, sea serpents etc
4. Have my past selves able to split from me or remain with me in ghost form
5. Ability to absorb, use and redistribute powers of fallen foes
6. Have future foresight
7. Homelanders powers
"Your wishes are complete. Are you ready to return?" The scenes all fade away back to white. With his words it feels like a missing puzzle has been connected, power running through my veins untampered. I look down at my hands and squeeze, before my eyes my hands start to change, becoming large and meaty, the type of hands I knew crushed dragon skulls and saved many lives from the dragon scourge.
I now find myself in the form of Stoick the vast, large and imposing at 6'9. "I see you've made your choice, good luck....Stoick." With that, my surroundings fade and when I open my eyes next, the wash of bright light leaves and there's the burning sigil beneath my feet. I was finally at home, island of Berk.