*screams* WASN'T SEASON 6 AMAZING?! I think it's my favorite season yet! Great plots, great whump, great character development... I loved seeing Older Hiccup in Younger Hiccup's clothes, Snotlout writing a book, Ruffnut becoming a wing-maiden, Dagur marrying Mala, Viggo turning good, all the Hiccup!whump, Hiccstrid kisses… gods, DreamWorks gave us everything and more. :) IF ONLY THERE WERE MORE SEASONS!
What was your guys' favorite episode? Mine was probably Darkest Night or King of Dragons, Part 2. But, AHHHHH. I cried a lot when the last episode ended... :( This was the final season… we only have HTTYD 3 left!
On a side note, this isn't the only what-if I'm going to make for Season 6! Soon, I'll be releasing a what-if for Darkest Night. What if Hiccup was the one to get ambushed instead of Stoick? ALSO, I'll be putting all my other stories on hold until I finish this and the Darkest Night what-if. Sorry!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I have so far! I'll be updating pretty frequently, but it shouldn't be longer than 3-4 chapters. :) Please enjoy, fave, follow, and review! Thanks!
Chapter One: Red Blade
It wasn't fair. And it was unsportsmanlike.
Hiccup glared at Krogan and Johann from across the cave.
The two of them - adults - were against him. Just him. They were experienced fighters; he was an experienced dragon rider. They had been fighting in battles for years; he'd just learned how to use a sword correctly. The odds just didn't even up.
But there was no way was he turning back now. There was a dragon egg in danger and if he could keep it from Krogan and Johann just a little bit longer, Toothless would be able to handle the rest once he broke through the fallen ice that now trapped Hiccup inside the cave.
The three men stared at each other for another long moment and then Krogan began to run towards him with a black expression. Johann followed quickly.
Panicking in front of two men, Hiccup readied his shield, taking in a deep breath, and squeezed. The waiting bola inside was aimed at Krogan. It flew out and tangled around the man's legs, and he fell to the ground with a grunt.
No time to spare, Hiccup returned his sword to the sheath on his back, and had only just taken the egg off the ground when-
SLAM!
He was suddenly knocked over. Blinking dazedly, he found himself sprawled on the ground and watched with a groan as the egg rolled away. An angry-looking Johann once again slammed him against the ice, and Hiccup gasped.
Johann reared back his fist and started to beat at him, pounding against his face and chest almost violently. Hiccup grunted and tried to pull away, but the older man was simply too strong to fight back against; he was too powerful. Johann had more upper body strength than Hiccup had first given him credit for.
Fists pounded ruthlessly against his face, and he could almost feel the bruises beginning to come out. Yet he was unable to roll away, suddenly too weak to even move.
That's when Johann stopped. And for a moment, Hiccup almost believed he was going to cease with the fighting, but to no avail. Johann dragged him back up by his shoulders and then smacked him back against the ice again where his head thumped painfully.
He drew back his fist again and Hiccup braced himself for the next beating. But it never came. Instead, Johann suddenly revealed a knife from his hand and started to raise it.
A dazed Hiccup looked up, and gasped.
It was almost like what happened next was in slow motion. Hiccup saw the knife coming down towards him, but his limbs refused to move. The ice was cool against his skin as he leaned back, but he couldn't seem to think about getting out of the way as the knife was plunged. He scooted away slowly- as fast as he could in his trance-like state-, but the weapon still refused to stop.
It was interesting, Hiccup mused as the sharp edge of the blade brushed against his abdomen and cut through the shirt cloth, that he didn't even feel anything. It was like it hadn't touched him in the first place, though he'd seen that it had.
Using that moment, Hiccup balled up his fist and punched out. He landed a solid hit on the side of Johann's face and, while the man was stunned, he kicked him. Johann went flying back, tumbling across the ice. Hiccup was surprised he'd actually managed to beat him, however briefly.
He stumbled up from the ground, holding his aching stomach as he limped towards the egg. He had to get there. He had to. It was his responsibility.
He was nearing the egg, too, when suddenly something painful flared up inside of him and his knees buckled; he fell to the floor.
Hiccup slowly took his hand away from his tunic, realizing that something was very wrong. He held it up to where he could see and sucked in a breath.
It was stained red.
And when he looked at the ground below him, drops of red were also splattered across the white ice.
Coming to his senses, he looked up and saw Krogan coming his way. Gasping, he got to his feet and stood protectively in front of the egg. "No! Don't you touch it!"
"I'm not much for taking orders, Hiccup," Krogan sneered, twirling the bola around in his hand. He aimed it, preparing to throw and knock the egg away from Hiccup, but stopped when a roar came from outside the cave.
Hiccup flooded with relief. He knew exactly what kind of roar that was, and which dragon it belonged to. "Toothless!"
The sound of crashing ice filled the cave as the Night Fury's plasma blast cleared the last of the debris. He bounded into view, roaring at Krogan and Johann.
"Stay back, dragon," Krogan growled. "Or else I'll kill you with only a flick of my hand."
Toothless snarled back.
While this was going on, Hiccup bent over and retrieved the dragon egg, moving over to his dragon with his eyes still kept on his enemies. "I don't want to hurt you, Krogan," he said. "Or you, Johann. Please, just let us-"
"Get them already, Krogan!" Johann yelled, rubbing his jaw.
Krogan grinned and didn't hesitate in the slightest to throw the bola at Toothless. "Bud, look out!" Hiccup called out in fear, waving his dragon over to safety. Toothless ducked before the flying weapon could hit him and pranced over to Hiccup's side.
Relieved, Hiccup mounted his dragon, egg in hand, and leaned forward, groaning slightly when his throbbing stomach protested. "What do you say we get out of here and leave this two behind, bud?" he asked.
Toothless snorted in agreement, preparing to take off.
"You can't escape it, Hiccup," Johann yelled, waving his knife around. "This war will go on for years, and you can't stop it!" His eyes narrowed. "And when the time finally comes, I will kill you, Hiccup Haddock! I will kill you!"
Hiccup bit his lip. He didn't want to leave Johann and Krogan behind in the cave, unguarded and on the loose, but what other choice did he have? He couldn't just kill them.
As if in response, a faint roar echoed from below the cliff walls. Toothless growled, shaking his head like something was interfering with his senses. "Woah, take it easy, bud," Hiccup said worriedly. He looked around. What was going on?
The ice walls around him trembled, and the sound got louder. A blast of ice spewed from over the side of the cave, and Johann paled. "No. It can't be… not yet…"
A roar interrupted whatever he was going to say next, and another explosion of ice blasted from over the cliff. Whatever dragon was down there had been disturbed by all the noise and clearly wasn't happy about it. Johann and Krogan anxiously ducked for cover against the upcoming blizzard and Hiccup pressed himself against Toothless's back as snow erupted all around them.
Ten long seconds passed, the roaring of ice nearly deafening until it finally died down into a slight hum. Hiccup peeked open his eyes, hoping it was over, and brushed the snow off of his shoulders, as well as Toothless. Then he looked up.
He gasped.
Krogan and Johann were frozen in place, encased in a thick sheet of ice.
The cave rumbled again, and Hiccup swallowed. There was no time to dwell on that any longer. "Let's get out of here, bud," he said as he stuffed the egg into his saddlebag. "The others might need our help."
Toothless grunted, and took off.
The riders yelled out joyfully as the last of the dragons flew away, a Singetail happily spraying fire around a grinning Astrid as it left the battle scene. All the dragons were free now.
Astrid grinned, feeling both relieved and victorious that they had won the battle. They'd stopped Johann and Krogan and their Dragon Flyers, and now no more Hunters would ever roam the archipelago again.
"Woo-hoo!" Tuff cheered, waving to the departing dragons as they flew off. "Who defeated the Hunters? We did. Who made the biggest explosions while doing it? I did!"
Astrid laughed, feeling a sense of peace fill her. Everything was the way it should be. No dragons would be in danger again. The Hunter ships were either blown up or had already surrendered, and she knew they wouldn't be hurting anyone else for a long, long time.
But still, something nagged at her mind. Something that felt… wrong. But everything had been taken care of, right? The Hunters were defeated, the dragons freed, Johann and Krogan left with no more power… but… but...
Suddenly, she gasped. "Wait. Guys. Where's Hiccup?"
The riders silenced.
"He's not here?" Fishlegs asked.
Astrid shook her head, a shadow crossing her expression. "We need to find him. If he's not here yet but we've already defeated the Flyers, then..."
The riders didn't need any more prompting. In a mute agreement, they turned their dragons around and started flying towards Berserker Island, all wondering the same thing...
Where was Hiccup?
Hiccup and Toothless maneuvered through falling pieces of ice and rocks through the narrow tunnel ways, both wondering if they'd ever get out until Hiccup spotted a bright light that shone from the other side.
He smiled, relieved. "Thank Thor. There it is, bud. Our way out. We made it. We made and we… we- aghhh…"
He gripped his stomach as a red-hot fire burned inside, suddenly feeling woozy from flying and his knife wound combined. His face ached from the beating he'd succumbed to earlier, and he faintly wondered if it would bruise as the back of his head began to throb.
Almost as if the realization of the pain in his face had sent out a signal to the rest of his body, other bits of him began to let him know they'd been hurt, too. Examining the back of his left hand, he saw his knuckles were swelling visibly and turning a deep shade of blue.
There was also something painful going on under his tunic. His stomach burned and his shirt felt wet. He looked down to get a good look at his right side, where the pain ached worst.
He drew a sharp breath when he saw all the blood. Then he remembered Toothless. But thankfully, his dragon was too focused on escaping the crumbling ice cave to notice what was going on with his rider.
Hiccup pushed down gingerly with his fingers where the blood was oozing thickest. He winced. There it was. A slit, more than an inch wide, where the flesh gave beneath his touch. Strange. He didn't even remember Johann cutting that deep.
Stifling a groan, Hiccup shook his head. He wouldn't worry about it right now. There was a battle to win, and friends to help. No time to be wasted in feeling sorry for himself.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the end of the tunnel. Once they were outside, Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief. At least they weren't in danger of collapsing tunnels anymore. "Alright, bud," he said. "We don't know what to expect, so let's be careful. Okay, drop down here… we need to formulate a plan..."
Toothless bobbed his head, diving to where Hiccup was pointing at. He landed with a gentle thud, but that was all it took for the ache in Hiccup's side to double. Being jolted about in the saddle made it so that the pain began to wash through his middle in great waves, pulsing in his stomach and burning like dragon fire.
He panted heavily, barely aware of lowering himself from Toothless until he realized he had stumbled several feet away. The world was a hot blaze of pain around him, tinted with red and spots of blackness.
He knew he needed to help the other riders, but where were they? Was the battle already over? He didn't see anything going on.
"Hiccup!"
Silhouettes of dragons floated before him in the sky and he could faintly make out the form of Astrid atop the lead dragon. The others were too blurry to make out.
"Hey, Hiccup, are you alright?"
Hiccup nodded, not trusting himself to speak, but he didn't remove his hands from his stomach. The pain was getting worse, not better. It wasn't fading away like he first thought it would. Something was seriously wrong.
The riders landed in front of him and Astrid instantly dismounted to race over. She wrapped her arms around Hiccup, shoulders trembling with relief. "Thor, I didn't know what happened to you. You hadn't come back, and.. And I.. Hiccup? Hey, Hiccup, what's wrong?"
Hiccup winced, trying to block out his discomfort. He could barely catch his breath against the stabbing pain in his stomach.
Astrid's arms fell to her sides and she stepped back to look him over. A hand flew to her mouth when she glanced at his middle, where the shirt was stained red. "Hiccup. what… what happened to you?"
Hiccup looked down at his side, confused. He looked through the cut cloth to inspect any damage that had been done and saw that the wound was bigger than he'd remembered. It was angrier, all swollen around the edges. Not sure of what else to do, Hiccup only shrugged. "Johann had a knife."
"You were... stabbed!" Astrid stared at him in disbelief. "Hiccup. Gods. We... are you… gods… we need to get you to a healer!"
The other riders exchanged glances, equally horrified.
Hiccup rubbed his temple. "Astrid, I'm fine. I just... I need to sit…"
His mind decided that enough was enough and he lost whatever pallor he had left. His legs buckled from beneath him, and he felt himself tumbling to the ground but couldn't prevent the descent. The next thing he was vaguely aware of was people calling his name and of someone holding him closely, but nothing really seemed to matter very much. All of a sudden, he felt tired and closed his eyes.
"Hiccup?" That was Astrid's voice, he recognized. But why did she sound so worried? Was someone hurt? "Hiccup, stay with me. Stay right here. Open your eyes... look at me..."
Hiccup struggled to obey her, but his eyelids felt so heavy.
"Just hold on," Astrid pleaded, desperation filling her voice. "Everything will be fine. I'm right here, and I won't go anywhere... just stay with me a little longer… we're going to get you help..."
In the background, Hiccup could hear the voices of Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins and Heather. They all sounded concerned and he wished he could see them. But it was too dark now; everything was black and the pain was growing again. Astrid continued to talk to him, but he couldn't make out the words. Nothing seemed to exist except this unbearable pain.
His breathing became rapid and shallow, and with one last moan, Hiccup parted with his consciousness and started to slip into an uneasy slumber.
The last thing he could think was that he had done it. He'd stopped it all.
He just hadn't expected to give his life in the process.
I'll just leave this here. *skips away*