A.I.: Orphans of Terra (HTTYD)

29

Chapter 29

Hiccup watched Drago stiffen. The bulky man left his spot behind the microscope and marched towards Hiccup. "What did you say?!" He bellowed, grabbing onto Hiccup's green shirt and shaking him.

Hiccup grimaced at the closeness but still kept his ground. Suddenly the doors behind them clicked shut as the automatic lock was engaged.

"What... the!" Drago grumbled as he stopped glaring at Hiccup for a moment and stared at the doors. "Open them up."

"Unfortunately I cannot do that given your highly agitated state." Astrid chirped. "Now I would suggest you release Hiccup so that we can talk about this like civil people."

Drago muttered something under his breath that Hiccup didn't catch but he did let go of Hiccup's shirt. "There is nothing to talk about!"

"Then why did you look like a ghost slapped you in the face when I mentioned Subject J. Or rather...... Dr. Johann Trader?" Hiccup raised a brow while putting some space between him and the man lest he be shaken again. "You used to be colleagues, right?" Hiccup pressed. "And you claimed to have amnesia but you nearly flinched when I brought up Subject J. A term you shouldn't have been familiar with."

"Boy..... don't go digging into places that aren't any of your business." Drago warned with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"You mean, don't go prodding into why Project Re-genesis was completed but never activated or maybe it's the Hofferson's human experiments and how Astrid is connected?!" Hiccup questioned as Drago's eyes nearly popped out. "For a man who has amnesia you seem to hint you know a lot more than is going on."

"Boy...... you..... You....." Drago growled. "Fine, but we can't talk here. The room isn't secure."

"On the contrary. The room is very secure." Astrid's voice filled the room. "I have looped the surveillance footage since before Hiccup arrived. No one knows we are here."

"You're just as sneaky as your parents." Drago muttered as he glared at the ceiling. "Should have known."

"My parents?" Astrid questioned. "So you're confirming that I was human and that I had.......... Parents?"

"I wouldn't even call them parents......." Drago muttered. "Ugh.... we need to sit down for this."

"You don't really have amnesia do you?" Hiccup questioned as he looked around for a seat.

"Had boy. Had." Drago gruffly answered as he dragged one of the workstation chairs from behind the desk. "I got my memory back years ago. I just didn't think some lanky fishbone and his computer girlfriend would be the ones to expose me."

"HEY!" Both Hiccup and Astrid scowled.

"Hiccup isn't lanky! He's very..... Muscular." Astrid giggled which caused Hiccup's cheeks to flare pink. Drago raised a brow but didn't comment on the very, and it was very, obvious flirting.

"Moving on." Hiccup said quickly. "What can you tell us?"

'Why would you even care boy? Drago muttered. "From what I heard you've distanced yourself from your people."

Hiccup ran a hand through his hair before he looked Drago straight in the eye. "I might have done that. I might still hold resentment to my father." He muttered. Who was Hiccup kidding, he held a damn lot of resentment. "But do you really think I wish for any of them to die or get hurt?" He then questioned.

"Fine, but even if I tell you. It's not like anyone would believe you anyways." Drago muttered.

Hiccup wordlessly gestured for Drago to continue and the man scowled at him before muttering. "I did have amnesia, it just didn't last so long as people may think." He stated. "I got my memories back a day and a half after the whole thing and I found out what happened to Johann and the rest of my colleagues then."

"So what? You pretended all these years that you didn't remember?" Hiccup raised a brow,

"What did you expect me to do?" Drago growled. "Hank and Mary are fanatical about their research. If I showed even an inkling that I remembered then I'd be the next on the chopping block. I liked my brain intact, thank you very much!"

"So what exactly happened and who are Astrid's parents?" Hiccup queried.

"You've known who Astrid's parents were since the beginning. Although they think more of themselves as 'handlers'." Drago stated as he crossed his arms. "Astrid is the biological daughter of Hank and Mary."

"WHAT?!" Astrid shouted and Hiccup's eyes widened. "They're my WHAT?!"

"They experimented on their own daughter?" Hiccup was rather breathless as he leaned forward.

"Boy, they didn't even think of her as a human being!" Drago snarled. "I only had input in the preliminary stages." He admitted. "They needed a geneticist......."

"And you didn't want to be killed.... Got it......." Hiccup was less than impressed at the man's actions even if he got how Drago kept himself alive all these years.

"When Subject J failed, Mary and Hank theorized that it was because the human consciousness they had uploaded, had previous experiences and morals. They came upon the concept that to make the perfect A.I. they needed a person with a blank slate. No human experiences whatsoever."

"But that's........... Impossible." Hiccup mumbled as Astrid cursed in his earpiece.

"Not impossible, just improbable." Drago stated. "They simply decided to grow a human that they could control. And therefore they needed a geneticist."

"So...... Astrid is Hank and Mary's biological child?" Hiccup asked just to be sure.

"They donated their genetic material to make her." Drago muttered. "She was synthesized and grown in a test tube before using the cloning cylinders to make her reach an appropriate age. Neither of the Hoffersons wanted to wait for her to grow normally. According to them it would cause the probability of defiance to increase."

"I was just a moldable puppet to them?!" Astrid sounded quite enraged as the lights in the lab flickered for a moment.

"Is there any chance of Astrid returning to her previous body?" Hiccup asked.

"No," Drago bluntly said. "The preserved body is clinically dead."

"Then why.........." Hiccup started asking.

"Did they keep it?" Drago finished the sentence. "What do you think boy?" The gruff man then asked. "They are sociopaths. They believe in their immortality research. Why wouldn't they keep a trophy of their greatest creation?"

"That's just sick!" Hiccup exclaimed as he couldn't sit still anymore. He started pacing in a circle in the lab and both Drago and Astrid were quiet for a few moments. Suddenly Hiccup stopped as if he had just realized something. "Astrid can't return to her previous body......... but can she return to another body? Like a clone?"

"The Midas drug......" Drago started but Hiccup cut him off.

"It won't be a problem since we have an original sample." Hiccup stated. This however was probably the wrong thing to say since Drago leapt out of his chair and grabbed Hiccup by the front of his shirt again.

"YOU HAVE WHAT?!" The man shouted as Hiccup was shaken more than the first time.

"The..... H-Hofferson..... Had some vials stored away....." Hiccup managed to get out while he was being shaken. Drago stopped for a moment and stared at the fishbone with widened eyes. "Astrid is analyzing them still."

"This....... Changes everything......" Drago muttered as he let go of Hiccup so suddenly. The man looked completely lost in thought for a moment before muttering. "This changes it all."

"What do you mean? I know we might reverse the Midas drug effects and all......"

"Not that!" Drago growled. "Project Re-genesis. This changes it all. No samples were supposed to have been left."

"What does terraforming the planet with nanobots have to do with the Midas drug?" Hiccup pondered aloud.

"Re-genesis is not just about terraforming the planet and getting back resources." Drago huffed. "It started as a secret operation years ago that involved global euthanasia."

AN: DUN DUN DUNNN...... things are getting heavy... Oh dear..... I will try to update either Monday or Tuesday.