Memoir VI:

Blinded Courage

It isn't the light of the morning that wakes me but a set of teeth latched gently on my leg and and pulling me forward that does. It jerks me awake as I catch a glimpse of Aurelius pulling me back and toppling me off of whatever I fell asleep on to fall back onto the ground. The noise around me intensifies as I rub the back of my head but it's Toothless' warring roar that switches my gears fully.

Beside me Akio is already crouched, pulling his gloves on and assessing the situation before us. My eyes travel alongside his line of vision to what's happening: Toothless and Aury are fighting Nightmares, ones that seem to be after the Night Fury.

My hand reaches to Ares instantly as I silently count the enemies surrounding us. "They're not many."

"We can deal with them," Akio responds tightening his fists before we both charge into the fray. It turns out to be easy like we predicted but in the midst of tearing apart a Ryuu Dragon much smaller than him, Toothless freezes, his eyes dilating to a ridiculous degree. I'm confused for that split second until he begins to out act baffling me further. Caring not about the Nightmares still left, the Night Fury rushes towards the cliff and jumps as high as he can against it, trying to desperately claw his way up.

Akio jumps into the air avoiding the couple of Nightmares that charged at him before letting his weight take him down and stomping on the two with the soles of his shoes that were enveloped in that energy I've seen on his hands before. Pivoting towards our direction, he arches a brow at Toothless and then towards me. "What's the matter?"

"I-I don't know—" I'd never seen him act that way. Not unless Hiccup's— My stomach sinks at the thought. "...Hiccup." Just as the name leaves me, Toothless reaches the edge of the cliff and I hear his claws dig deep against the granite. He propels himself up and is gone before any of us can react.

"What is it, Ayano!" he shouts, punching another Nightmare away before it reached me.

"It's Hiccup, it has to be!"

Akio's expression goes blank for a moment before his eyes narrow. "His dragon slaying test." His head turns up to where Toothless had climbed out of. "It's today."

We both knew what was wrong then. Something must have happened to Hiccup, something bad enough to make Toothless react so rashly. We have to help them. My train of thought is quickly derailed as another Ryuu Dragon comes my way and without thinking I stick Ares out for it to eat one end. Before it has time to react, I blast out a burst of fire magic making it explode. My eyes scan the area and notice that even with the many we've already dealt with there's still a handful left.

"They won't allow you to leave, Master."

Then I'll make them.

"Aurelius!" And my calling is all it takes.

I don't know what comes over me to call to him with such commanding tone but the Spirit listens and finishes tearing another Nightmare before making haste to my side. Once there, Aurelius doesn't waste a second and charges up an attack in his now open mouth before firing it off and taking all of the Nightmares with it. With the coast clear, I turn to Akio behind me who'd been watching wide eyed this whole time. "Get on."

He opens his mouth as if wanting to protest but shakes his head and the bafflement from before goes away with it as for once he follows without asking questions. I take a few seconds to strap Ares back on its holsters before coming to Aury's side as he lowers his wing to let me climb onto him more easily. Crippling fear straps me to the ground for a second as the thought of flying—of being above ground even when riding Aurelius—comes to mind again.

But I shake it out of my head as soon as it comes. I can't let fear hinder me now. Not when those two are in god knew what kind of trouble. They need us. Pushing my fears aside, I climb onto Aury at the same time as Akio jumps on but instead of straddling on correctly, he adjusts himself so that we're back to back.

My brow furrows at this and when he sees this, Akio merely clicks his tongue. "I'll cover our backs while you guide the stupid lizard to Berk, so hurry it up!"

That's all the explanation I need before I grab onto the side of Aury's neck and lean closer to him. "Let's go, Aury. They need us." An instant after pulling back, Aury shoots into the air. I don't scream this time and instead hold onto him for dear life. As soon as we're out of the canopy and the sky is clear, I focus on the road ahead as he rushes towards Berk.

I'm paying so much attention to what's going on in front of me that I fail to see the blast of energy that makes Aury swerve to the right. This time I do let out a yelp as I look over my shoulder to see a group of Nightmares chasing after us. What catches my attention most of all is the tiny blue one that is perched atop one of bigger Ryuu Dragons.

"Akio, the squirrel—"

"I know!" he shouts back over the air that's rushing past us. But even as he charges his attack, the energy on both his hands now, he's reluctant to attack again after missing the first couple of ones. "My hits won't reach them."

It's almost like they're learning. They know what to expect from Akio and I. If they manage to follow us all the way back to Berk, they'll ambush the whole village. We can't let that happen.

What can we do?

"As things stand now?" Rinto says, "Improvise."

Sounds like a plan. I give one last glance behind me to the few targets I have as I make out my plan. My stomach turns just thinking about what I'm thinking of doing but I swallow that before yelling at Akio behind me. "Turn around and hold onto Aury real tight!"

He's in the middle of asking me what I'm talking about but I see that he's listening to me all the same. Good. Leaning over to Aury, I let him in on the plan. "Fly over them, Aury, and get ready to catch."

The Spirit doesn't acknowledge me but seeing his wings begin to tuck in little by little tell me he's readying himself to do as I say. I silently pray to live through this and clench my jaw shut just as Aury speeds up a second before sharply turning upward. The movement is sudden but I manage to keep my eyes open as he goes for a half circle above the Nightmares. Just as he reaches the highest peak of his turn, I loosen my legs around him and let go. All my muscles tighten at feeling nothing underneath me but I force myself to move midair as I reach down to Ares and extend it into one of the Nightmares as I fall on top of it. I hop between Ryuu Dragons as fast as I can, jumping to another as soon as the one I'm on begins to disappear. When the blue Nightmare and the Ryuu Dragon are the only ones left, I jump directly to attack it with the warhammer extended. My arm comes back and I swing as hard as I can towards it but before the mallet connects, it's blue tail ignites and swings upward. The motion brings with it a trail of blue mist that solidifies into black ice in an instant effectively blocking my attack.

Shocked by the sudden block that it pulled out of its ass, I'm not able to think about my landing. There are no other Nightmares left but as I'm falling and my dread mounts higher, the sudden stop that I experience both hurts me and fills me with relief as I slam belly down against Aury's back. Hands quickly come to hold me down against Aury as I struggle to not look down and petrify myself further. A weak smile quirks at the edges of my lips as I glance up at Akio.

"Thanks," I mumble.

"You crazy ass bi—" The turn and stop that Aurelius takes so suddenly stops him from finishing that. My eyes come up as I sit upright on Aury and I'm face to face with the blue Nightmare on his ice-covered mount. It stares right at us, blank, beady, and wide-eyed. It floats there and the attack I'm expecting just never comes. Instead, it tilts its head sideways as if listening to something before the Ryuu Dragon it is on pivots and flies away.

Aury lingers in the air as we watch it retreat. Akio is the one that speaks first as he turns sideways to me. "We shouldn't let it get away."

My head shakes in agreement. "But we can't chase after it." Turning to glance over my shoulder, I manage to see Berk over the end of the forest. "Hiccup and Toothless need us more."

Akio glares at me then. "It's only going to continue to wreak havoc the more we wait. We can't let it get away, Ayano."

This time I don't reply. My hand comes over Aury's neck and taps him a couple of times. "Take us to Berk, Aury." He doesn't hesitate; Aurelius turns and shoots out towards the village.

They're gone.

Every last ship, every last viking except for children and the elderly, their all gone. The sight of Berk so empty leaves a sinking feeling in my stomach but I don't let it linger as I tap Aury and guide it towards the training grounds. I don't bother with telling Aury to lay low when there's nobody here to notice us. The moment I see the arena empty except for a handful of kids, my eyes widen and a small smile comes to my lips out of relief.

"What are they doing…?" Akio mumbles under his breath as we come closer and closer to the training grounds.

The small smile instantly turns into a grin the moment I see Hiccup pull open one of the doors and enters it. "Improvising."

Aurelius lands with a loud thud on top of the broken cage that sits over the training grounds and perches there as all their heads shoot upward to stare at us. A small pat to his head makes Aury lower his head so that Akio and I are visible to the group that's waiting on Hiccup to come out of the cage.

"Yo," I call out with a wave of my hand to salute them, "You guys getting a ride too?"

"What in Odin's name is that?" Snotlout points at Aury, a bit taken aback by the sight of him over them.

"Shiny," Ruffnut and Tuffnut mumble together in amazement.

"T-That dragon doesn't appear in any of our books," Fishlegs cries, equally amazed as he is terrified by that prospect. "Golden dragons don't exist."

That gets me to laugh and I pat Aury's head playfully as he grumbles in his throat giddy from it. "Guess Aury's special then. Right, boy?"

"I think you guys should be less preoccupied about this dragon and more about those." Akio gives a slight nod over to the open doors as Hiccup brings out the dragons they had used for training and teaches the kids how to interact with them. As they do that, Aurelius steps back to let them fly out after being mounted.

One by one, they rise in their dragons more comfortably and confidently than ever and hover in the sky to wait for Astrid and Hiccup as they rise on the back of the same dragon. At seeing this, my brow furrows, "Where's Toothless?"

"My dad took him." A forlorn expression came over him as he said this but renewed determination masked it well enough as he looked back at me. "They're headed to the dragon's nest using Toothless to guide them."

"But that beast dragon we saw—it'll kill them," Akio pointed out with a shake of his head.

"We know," Astrid agreed, holding tightly onto her dragon's neck, "which is why we're going too."

There isn't much for me to do except nod as we join them in the air. "Lead the way."

It's quite amazing how fast they adapted to riding their dragons. Frankly, I'm surprised I got used to riding Aury so quickly. The fear that clung to me, although not entirely gone, isn't as crippling as before. I can mostly let it slide for now knowing that there's more important things to worry about.

The moment we enter the fog, I know that we're nearing the nest more and more and I hurry Aurelius after the others while leaning closer to his head. Akio does the same, lowering himself as close to me as he's okay with, and making the drag less for Aury as we travel side by side the rest of the kids.

"You really think we can defeat that thing?" Akio asks. He's shouting over the wind that rushes over us but even then I barely hear him.

"I think so?"

"That's not assuring at all."

I know that but it's all I have. Even if Hiccup gets Toothless back, that would still only be six dragons against the behemoth that is that dragon we saw in the nest. And that's not mentioning the Nightmares that could appear with that blue squirrel who could apparently control them there as well.

And if Hiccup and the others are going to focus on that dragon then we need to keep the threat of the squirrel away from them. Lifting my head, I find the Nadder he is on and catch his attention with the wave of my hand overhead. "You remember those monsters from before? The ones that attacked you and Toothless?"

"You mean the most horrifying creatures I've ever seen in my life aside from the dragon we're about to face?" He scoffs, not to be condescending but to hide the fear and nervousness that I see in his eyes, "Not at all. But let's say I do, what about them?"

"One of them is controlling that big ole one we saw at the nest. Or at least trying to." It's hard to explain but in reality, there isn't a need for them to understand it so in depth. All I need them to get is what Akio and I will be occupying ourselves with. "All I'm saying is to not worry about it!"

"Oh, thanks!" he snarkily remarks, "reminding me of it controlling the biggest dragon we've ever seen just washes all my anxiety away."

"Don't you sass me!" I shout at him but quiet down when I see we're exiting the fog. As it clears, I notice the island we entered before from afar and from here even see that the dragon in question is already out and trying to kill the vikings that scamper off for their lives. "Just focus on getting Toothless back and about the safety of your people! Akio and I'll deal with the twerp and any of the Nightmares."

"Then you better get ready because I see one up ahead!" he calls out, pointing towards the dragon ahead of us. True to word, there's the squirrel from before perched on the dragon's forehead, its ice traveling down and coming into one of its eyes.

My sight narrows as I pat Aury on the side of the head. "Can you shoot it down?" Aury roared before opening its mouth to let energy build before unleashing a blast of fire magic that hit its target. The blue Nightmare shakes from the direct hit but it's the ice on the dragon that takes my attention. That ice breaks and the dragon's pupils dilate as it snaps out of the squirrel's control. It begins to shake its head violently now that it's free of its control and although the squirrel tries its best, with no footing to stand, it stumbles and falls off the dragon's head.

Far to the side, Hiccup shouts his orders out to the group but we don't hear it. We separate from them the moment we see the cyan Nightmare fall from its perch. Neither Akio nor I are close enough to be able to attack it but Aury is fast enough to build more magic to fire once more. The fireball shoots out and it certainly would've hit had the Nightmare not snapped back into action. Quicker than even I can see, it shoots two simultaneous ice beams from his tail and head. The one that reaches first is the one that he shoots from his foggy head down onto the ground; the instant it touches the floor, it solidifies into that black ice from before giving him standing ground. A fraction of a second later, its tail sweeps out and creates a shield of black ice that blocks Aury's fireball completely.

That again.

Not letting our speed waver, I push Aury further through the smoke screen caused by the impact and crash against the thin ice pillar it made. Akio yells at me over the ruckus of it falling but I ignore him and simply focus on helping Aury land properly. He does—somewhat—but struggles a bit to stop his momentum and turn at the sametime which forces him to stop abruptly and jolts us out of our seats. Although we both scramble to our feet, we do so just in time to see the squirrel summon a large horde of Nightmares, half of which are airborne and impeding the dragons from getting near the bigger one. It's then that I catch a glimpse of how it rapidly infects it, the fog from its head and tail spreading faster than anything I've seen and seeping right into the Nightmares making their eyes shine from red to his same cyan blue.

"Did you see that?"

The nod of my head is the only answer he gets just as the Yoggy Rams and Tetsu Blazes begin their rampage. A blaze burst out in a huge blast that take us both by surprise. Luckily, Aurelius jumps into the fray then and shoots a blast of his own to counter it. A huge smokescreen comes out of it giving me a split second to think.

There's a vague count in my head of how many we're dealing with and I ask Rinto to confirm it from what she also saw. "Not far off, master. They're forty-five with at least three quarters airborne."

"Akio." Mercurial eyes turn to me wide and attentive, his hands in fists just as ready to strike whatever dared come his way. That, in itself, answers my question before I even ask it. "There's maybe forty-five of them from my count and ten stuck to the ground, squirrel not included. You think you can—"

"Of course I can." His brow furrows indignantly and he pulls his arms back to hold his stance, his fists engulfed in that dark energy I'm familiar with seeing now. "You and your lizard clear off the skies for them."

Trusting that he's capable enough to deal with those few himself, I run towards Aurelius and jump onto his back before leaning in closer to his head. This time I don't need to say anything to him as he immediately takes off avoiding the blazing flames that come after us. My eyes catch a glimpse of the blue Nightmare as we fly by it and it beady stare follows me until I break it and focus forward.

"Be cautious, master," Rinto reminds me as Aury hovers just a few feet away from the horde that's been attacking Hiccup and the others as they try to distract the grand dragon. "They're great in numbers. And that's besides the fact that you're not a great fighter in the air."

"That's alright." A grin comes to me as I extend Ares and bring it out of its holster with the mallet at the ready. Underneath me, I feel Aury rumble deep in his throat and feel the heat from the magic that's building up inside him, ready to fire at a moment's notice. "Aurelius has got me covered."

A simply tap is all he needs to fly off and shoot as he goes. His bursts are powerful enough to pop out of existence any Nightmare it hits. Those he misses or that manage to avoid his magic are the ones I focus on with Ares' mallet. That they're infected makes it a little harder for me to pop them but with every turn Aurelius makes, he keeps shooting and I keep on batting those I missed out on the first roundabout. It's strange how easily we get in sync but it's something that I won't complain about. Just as I'm hitting another one out of the ballpark, Astrid's voice booms over the noise.

"He's up!" And as I turn to see for myself, I catch the glimpse of a black dragon zooming in towards the battle. But as Toothless flies towards the dragon, my eyes catch the sight of a Ryuu Dragon—the last one left in my hit list—heading straight towards Toothless and Hiccup's trajectory.

"No, you don't," I hiss under my breath and give a quick glance over the surroundings. The mountains—they're creating a good shade for me to climb. There's no hesitation in me as I jump off of Aury while using the shadows created by the island to climb upward above the Ryuu Dragon. Even though I'm careful as I climb, the one shaky step turns up the adrenaline running through me and forces me to leap off towards the Nightmare that's right below me now. Changing Ares to the spiked spear, I use the altitude of my fall and gravity's pull to impale the Nightmare downward just in time to let Hiccup and Toothless rush through unimpeded.

But when the Ryuu Dragon disappears and I'm left to free fall while facing down, fear encroaches my mind. It's deafening and it freezes the blood in my veins, but a blur of gold comes through and catches me, the air escaping me when I hit Aury's back.

I really need to find a better way to land.

Turning on my back as I chuckle the fear out of my mind, I pat Aury weakly. "Thanks, boy. You're a lifesaver." A grumble spreads from his stomach; I imagine that's his way of chuckling and it makes me scoff.

"Aya!" Hiccup's call makes me look up to catch him as he rushes past us. My eyes follow him as he rounds the grand dragon. Toothless shoots a couple of plasma blasts before they skirt past me again, this time completing his thought when he speaks out. "Get it up in the sky!"

There's millions of questions running through my head but I know I don't have time to ask any of them. Instead I trust him and mount Aury correctly before we go around doing as Hiccup and Toothless are and shooting at the dragon. It's seemingly annoyed by our constant attacks and our dodging his own, growing more and more desperate as time goes by.

As we fly side by side right after hitting him once more, Hiccup turns to me and Toothless before we both glance back to it. "You think that did it?"

Out of the smoke, the dragon spreads wings so massive that it clouds the whole island in shadow. The grip that I have on Aury tightens but I swallow my dread and grin back at Hiccup. "I'd say yeah."

Hiccup turns to me but something else catches his eyes over my shoulder. "The others!" Eyes widening, I follow his line of sight to see the island being overrun by Nightmares that hadn't been there before.

"I got them!"

We don't wait for him to acknowledge my words. Instead we rush through, avoiding the dragon and heading straight to the island all the while bursting through a couple of Nightmares. Flying through that explosion, Aury stops in time to hover next to Akio. The sight of him stuns me; I've never seen him out of breath nor seen the energy clawing so viciously at his arms. It's not just encroaching his hands anymore but running up along his arms almost to his shoulders, and the energy isn't a transparent black anymore. It's taken a murkier color, more saturated, and whatever it is, it seems to be taking a toll on him.

"Akio…" His name leaves me with concern and dread. Up till now, I've known and seen that whatever power he'd been using was quite powerful, but it never crossed my mind that it would take such a levy from him.

"Focus," he grunted through gritted teeth and his hands still up at the ready. "We can't let them attack the villagers."

"We won't let them." Astrid's sudden call makes me glance over my shoulder to see the other dragons and their riders behind us and ready to fight along with us. No one has to say anything. As soon as the Nightmares charge, the dragons rush forward shooting off fire, spikes, igniting gas, and molten rocks at them. It's easier to fight off the horde but as we dwindle their numbers, a certain Nightmare comes into view.

It's standing off to the side atop a Ryu Dragon and watching us, like it knows not to come close and knows to leave the Nightmares it's controlling to deal with us instead.

I won't let you get off that easy.

"Akio, the blue Nightmare."

Mercurial eyes take one short glance at me before turning towards the one he knows I'm talking about. He stares at it for a second before his own eyes narrow. "He's keeping back."

"All we've ever seen it do is protect itself," I tell him, "It's never actually harmed us."

"That's what the Nightmares he controls with that ice are for: to be offensive."

"And to keep us away from it."

It's then that Akio shows off a rare smirk without sparing me a glance. It's not boastful or smug, it's taunting—playful, almost—and it fires something in his eyes that I can't describe. "Let's burst it's bubble, shall we?"

His enthusiasm exalts my own and I'm more than ready for whatever he has in mind. Without a word, he grabs onto Aury and leaps onto him, taking his seat behind me. A stern 'go' is all Aurelius needs to speed through the horde of Nightmares that block our path. We don't attack; our goal isn't them. Just as we're to rush through it, the cyan Nightmare stands from the Ryu Dragon in an attempt to flee again.

Akio's large hand falls heavily on my shoulder but it's not as heavy as his foot on my other. Grunting from his weight so suddenly on me, I sit as straight as I can to give him a tall enough ledge to propel himself off from. A wicked lopsided grin stretches across his face as he dives down with his right arm ramped back and the dark energy crackling from it. "I'm not letting you get away this time!"

Even in spite of it being quick enough to conjure up a shield of black ice, the magnitude of Akio's hit is enough to shatter through it and connect with the Nightmare. Black waves disperse on impact, the energy leaving his fist with a force that pushes the air back. Aury somehow holds in place as we watch Akio hit the Nightmare downward with such strength that upon hitting the ground, it bounces skyward with just as much force.

"Aya—up!" His words are disconnected but above the pressure created that pops my ears, I understand his meaning well enough.

"Aurelius!" The Spirit rushes upward, following the trajectory that the Nightmare took. As he flies, I press Ares parallel to his body so that one end protrudes a few feet in front of his head and begin to charge up the most powerful spell I know. The Firaga on Ares' end shines brightly once ready but by then the Nightmare recovered enough to conjure another shield as it begins to fall downward in our direction.

That's not stopping me.

I don't know why or how but Aury opens his mouth and instant after my spell fires and to my utter shock swallows my spell whole. Before I can even yell at him, he uses it to fire out even bigger magic of his own. The magma shot that comes from our combined magic shines a bright red, gold, and white and shoots straight through the shield and engulfs the Nightmare whole.

Aury then lets himself fall back in midair with his wings spread to avoid our running head first onto the explosion that comes after. It's hard not to hold on tightly to him as we continue to fall but he swiftly turns his whole body and hovers gently over the ground before landing. Knowing I'm safe now, my eyes immediately turn upwards to the blaze with its grandiose array of colors. As it dissipates, the Nightmare lingers in place, the color of it flickering like a light about to go out. But before it does a dark portal opens beneath it. The Nightmare glances at me, it's coloring fading faster and faster, before a single blue tear escapes it and falls, glimmering out of my sight. Before I can even understand what it just did, it sinks into the portal.

And in the blink of an eye, it's gone.

Thankfully, though, with it so are the Nightmares. With its absence, they're no longer infected and are more easily dealt with. Once that's over with the sound of fire and lightning take my attention as all heads turn skyward to where Hiccup and Toothless were still fighting. But just as another flurry of flames fills the sky, Hiccup and Toothless break through the dark clouds as they head downward and turn to shoot plasma into the dragon's open mouth. As it struggles with that pain, it spreads its wings to try and stop its fall but its wings are so tattered that they can't withstand its weight. They tear and it strikes the ground with such magnitude that it explodes on impact.

Aurelius tries to lift his wings to cover me from the wind that speeds past us but he's too slow. It takes him away and tumbles me off from his back. Strong hands capture my back and push me down hard enough to pin me against the floor and keep me grounded before I get blown away. But even as Akio and I are trying to hold out ground against the pressure exerted from the explosion, my eyes wander up to watch the explosion surging into the sky with a tiny speck of black hastily flapping its wings to outrun it. My heart stops when that black speck is hit by the dragon's tail and they begin to fall into the flames. I can't see what happens after that. The fumes follow the heat and block everybody's vision.

Silence falls after its dissipated and as Akio helps me up and over to the group, I see Stroick instantly make his way into the rubble to find Hiccup—if anything's left of them. It pains me every time I hear him call for his son over the soot that surrounds the island now. My heart lodges in my throat when I see him find Toothless and fall to his knees, but it's his words that make it sink to my stomach.

"My son...I'm so sorry."

"...no…"

The hand on my shoulder, the one that keeps me grounded still, tightens out of the blue. I don't turn his way but I do hear him gasp before gently whispering, "Aya...look."

My eyes come up to the Night Fury and widen as his wings unfurl to reveal Hiccup within his embrace. Stoick takes him swiftly in his arms, placing his ear close to his chest, and the sigh of relief that he takes sweeps through the entire crowd watching, myself included.

"He's alive! You brought him back alive!"

It's then that I finally feel my heart go back to its rightful place, it's beating calmer now. Thank goodness, he's alright.

Akio voices my relief but adds something I had yet to notice. "He might've not made it back whole...but at least he's alive."

"What do you mean?"

He gives a nod towards Hiccup as Stoick picks him and bellows his orders to the villagers to scour for any surviving ships to take them back home. Shock comes over me at seeing his missing left foot, and although I only see it for a second, the bafflement remains even as we watch Stoick walk past us.

"H-His foot…"

A strong hand smacks me in the back, throwing my train of thought completely off the rails, and we both turn up to see Gobber smiling before it turns into a grin as he lifts his own missing hand. "Nothing that can't be fixed."

Oddly, that does ease a bit of the shock off of me. When Gobber tells us to get in on one of the few ships left with everybody else, I raise my hand dismissively and decline. "We'll reach Berk ourselves." My head turns up to where the other riders already took to their dragons in order to guide the ships out of the fog.

"A'right, lass." Gobber eyes Aury for a full minute before chuckling nervously, "Gold dragon 'ith no eyes. How strange."

That he thinks so makes me chuckle as well. I never noticed Aury's lack of eyes. His Spirit Emblem is too flashy to put too much important to that. Leaving that aside for now, I let go of Akio and take the few steps to Aury but when I try to climb over to mount him, my legs won't answer me. A frustrated sigh escapes me when I try forcing myself up with only my arms only to fall face first onto his back.

"Here." Hands slip underneath my arms and lock around my hips before effortlessly lifting my up onto Aury's back with my legs to one side. My eyes turn back to watch as Akio then lifts himself onto Aury as well but when he takes his seat, I notice the twitching of his arm.

"Are you okay?" The words are out before I can think anything of it.

"Yeah," he assures me, easily mounting Aury but grimacing as his legs move.

Despite that also worrying me, I don't pry further. We're all hurt from the battle after all. But after Aury takes off and we're soaring past the fog, a faint gleam on my wrist catches my eye. It's the bracelet and as it shines in the murkiness, I sense a very distinct pain crawling its way up from my hands all the way to my shoulders. It stings, almost as if knives were pricking at my skin threatening to break through it but never actually doing it.

It takes me a moment but when I finally do and glance back Akio isn't looking straight. His eyes are lost elsewhere, everywhere except at me. He's so lost in not looking at me that he doesn't notice that he's actually touching me to hold onto me as we fly—something he tends to avoid overall rather excessively. But his touch is not what bothers me, it's what I feel where he isn't that does.

I'm feeling only a fraction of what he is. And that being so, I can't begin to imagine just what kind of pain he's suffering right now or what exactly was the toll for using so much of that power of his.

One of my hands reaches down from Aury's neck and rests on top of his. I feel his fingers twitch slightly but he doesn't move it away. I'm sure he wouldn't want to risk falling, after all.

"Let's take a little break once we're back."

I'm ready to retort to any excuse he gives me but to my surprise, he simply says, "A break sounds nice." That alone makes me smile and forget about the pain for a while.

It's strange to have my eyes closed. Especially when Akio asked me to close them. But in spite of me, I closed them when he said to and cupped my hands before me as well. When I feel something small fall into them, my eyes open wide and stare down at what now lays in my palms.

"This is..."

"It's what that blue Nightmare dropped before disappearing and I'm guessing what you've been looking for here," he responds. "And this time I'm not arguing with you." His hand, now much better—at least from what I can tell thanks to the bracelet—reaches up to his own ear and taps it. "This one's definitely yours."

I pick up the tiny teardrop in my hands with two fingers and bring it closer to me to inspect it. It's an earring made of dark sapphire and tear-shaped. It takes me a second to recognize it but when I do, my own hand reaches up to my ear to touch its pair.

It's the pair to Thea's earring.

A smile comes to me as I reach up to put it through my other earlobe. Once through, I glance over to Berk as we watch it from our perch on one of the rooftops of the many houses. It's curious to see this place filled to the brim with so many dragons now, but in a way it's also very fitting too.

Things have calmed down since we returned from the dragon's nest. It's only been a couple of days but it seems that things will be just fine here. Knowing that we have to leave, my mind wanders to Rinto.

You feel anything from the earring.

"Yes. It is the same sensation that the bracelet and ring from before gave off."

Then it's time to leave, I suppose.

When I tell him this, Akio agrees with a slight shrug to his shoulders and a lopsided smile as he watches Berk as well. "We were always meant to leave, anyway."

"True." A sigh escapes me even while my eyes stare blankly out in front of me and I think aloud. "Just wished we could stay to make sure Hiccup will be okay, you know?"

"I'm sure he will, no matter how he reacts to what's happened to him." My whole attention is taken when Akio stands from his seat on the roof and turns down to me. "I doubt he's one to sulk about a drawback like that for long."

"That's also true," I agree again, smiling as I rise up as well. "Let's get going then."

We're able to go about unnoticed for the most part. The villagers know us very well and even welcomed us as part of their own after we returned from the dragon's nest. But since they're all more preoccupied with the dragons that now live among them, we're able to get away into the forest where they first found us.

This should be far enough to avoid prying eyes. Okay, Rin—

But before I can even think her name, the rustling of leaves catches my attention. Just as I spin on my heels, all I see is a flash of gold that tackles me down onto the floor before a tongue starts licking away at my face.

"Wai—bleh, sto— Stop it, Aury!" Laughter escapes me when Aurelius stops briefly only to look at me before starting up again with the licking.

"Great, we caught up to you!"

Pushing Aury away with a playful grin, I look up to find Hiccup and Astrid as they land a few feet away from us on Toothless and Stormfly, Astrid's new Nadder. They dismount while I get up and come up to us, but before he can even speak, the squeaking of metal springs brings my attention to his left leg that is now a metal replacement.

Hiccup follows my line of sight and picks his leg up while jokingly motioning it to me. "Guess I owed it to Toothless after his tail."

That he's joking about it so carefree makes me less uneasy and actually smile. "You're taking this rather well."

"No use worrying when it's not something I can change." Standing straight again, he shrugs his shoulders but as he does Toothless takes the chance to sneak underneath his arm to get Hiccup to hug his neck. "Not like I would, anyway."

"You guys followed us here?" Akio asks turning to Astrid.

"Not exactly," she corrects with her hands on her hips. "You guys left just when Hiccup woke up. He said he wanted to thank you but you were already gone by then. Thankfully, Aury here sniffed you guys out."

Aurelius smacks his head against mine and licks my face, getting me to chuckle. "That so?"

"I was surprised to see him back at Berk when my dad said you left," Hiccup admits, pointing back to his home. "You're not taking him with you?"

"I-I never thought about doing that," I reply, a bit perplexed at the suggestion. Had he been any normal dragon, I never would've thought it possible, but with him being a Spirit...

"Can we?" Akio asks. Although that question is spoken aloud, I can tell that he's asking me that directly. He's not sure about taking a Dream Eater away from its original world.

"Why not?" Astrid says with a light shrug of her shoulders. "It'll make it easy to travel. Besides—" she laughs, surely at Aury as he shove his head against me to get me to pet him. It's hard but I manage to hold back my laughter, but start petting his head all the same which gets him to seat down between Akio and I. "—he clearly likes you. You should definitely take him."

Akio and I share a glance at that suggestion. His eyes tell me—plead me—to say no. The fact that he's so vehemently against it only makes me more sure of my choice. Who I am to deny him this torture?

"You're right. I think we can afford to bring him along. You'll be great help, after all. Won't you, Aury?" Akio lets out a heavy sigh, his face turning sour, while beside me, Aurelius can't contain his excitement as he begins to jump around, leaning forward on his front paws. He's such a dear.

"Well then, there's really just one last thing I want to say." Hiccup steps forward and stretches his hand out towards me, my eyes owlishly blinking back at his outstretched hand. "Thank you, Ayano, Akio. For everything."

A smile reaches my lips at hearing the earnesty in his voice. It's not different from his usual self but that it's directed at us warms me greatly. My smile turns into a grin as I shake his hand a bit too energetically it seems since it makes him hold onto his elbow. "No problem. Thank you as well, Hiccup." Taking my hand back, I jokingly salute him with two fingers as Akio and I start to turn away to leave, "Hope that when we meet again you'll be in your old man's place. Can't wait to see that!"

Hiccup chuckles nervously and Astrid only nudges his shoulder with her own. Thinking they're cute is the last thing that crosses my mind as we begin to lose them in the forest. Once we've walked a good ten minutes Akio let's out a heavy sigh as we both stop in a small clearing.

"The lizard, it had to be the liz—" Before he could continue his complaining, Aury ran up to him and licked his whole face before sitting down next to him. There was no keeping my laughter in with that one. Drool's literally dripping from his face and it sticks to his hands when he tries wiping it off. Glaring down at Aury who only happily pants with his tongue out while staring back, Akio spat out more drool that had gotten into his mouth. The glare turns to me then, "One of these days, we'll be eating fried lizard. I swear it."

"Yes, yes," I drawl on and chuckle, mindlessly reaching up to my ear and taking off the earring he'd given me. "Well, let's get go—hey!"

There's no stopping Aurelius from jumping in and snatching the earring from my hand. We both yell and run after him as he runs about. The panic only sets in when we hear him gulp it down. By the time we catch him and pin him down so that I can search his mouth, the earring is already gone.

Akio becomes furious when he hears this, his fist held aloft and encased in dark energy. "I'm killing this damn lizard!"

"Don't!" I cry out, instinctively tackling him off of Aury to get him as far away from his as possible. As we're fighting, a gagging noise gets our attention making us turn to see Aury heaving once before regurgitating a pile of white. Amongst the gross stomach juices, I spot the earring and quickly snag it away before he can eat it again. It's as I'm cleaning the nastiness away on my jacket's seam that I hear Rin say something that doesn't sit well with me.

"It's gone."

I instantly freeze. What do you mean?

"The essence that I picked up earlier from it—the one that matched the bracelet and ring from before—it's gone."

My anxiety wins over me and I'm about to tell her to check it again aloud, but before I can do that, a bright golden light shines beside us. The light is coming from Aurelius' mouth, much like the spells from before did, but this one doesn't destroy anything when he shoots it out. Instead, a single thin beam of gold flies out from the amount built up in his mouth and stops briefly in the middle of the clearing. The stream stops as if hitting a wall and spreads out—it's almost as if it's coloring an invisible wall a glittering gold—and by the time it's done, all that's left is a doorway.

A doorway like the ones from the Ring of the Fallen.

Aurelius sits next to the door just as carefree and glad as before, waiting for us to come closer. When Akio doesn't, I take the initiative and walk over to the door only to put my hand through. The same pressure that I've felt anytime we've crossed one of these doorways falls on it and at feeling it, my breath hitches.

Another hand comes next to mine and passes through the golden door for just a few seconds before flinching away. "This door…"

"Aury might just make our traveling easier." Giving him a sidelong glance, I give him a lopsided grin which he only returns with a taut line of his lips. "Guess Astrid wasn't so far off."

"Whatever," he says dismissively as he stands at the edge of the doorway. "Let's go already." But just when he's about to pass through, he comes back out and points at Aury with his thumb. "Your lizard isn't going to fit through here, by the way."

Casually measuring Aury using my hands and then comparing that to how wide the doorway is proves him right. My mind rushes through with ideas of how to get him through while I play with his face trying to squish it. He doesn't seem to mine but it's not like he realizes what problem he's made for us with this.

"Aury," I mumble mindlessly while thinking on and still squishing his face in my hands, "why can't you, like, be smaller or something?"

His giddiness from before suddenly stops as he retracts his tongue in and tilts his head at hearing this. All of a sudden, his body begins to glimmer a bright gold making me step away from him. As the glimmer becomes brighter, Aury begins to lose his form and becomes some sort of bodiless mass of glittering gold. It doesn't remain shapeless long though as it starts to fold into itself and become smaller and smaller. Soon the golden mass that is just floating in midair is maybe the size of a softball. And when the sphere doesn't change anymore, the shine from before dims to completely fades away.

The softball-shaped thing that's left behind floats in mid air and gently lets a pair of wings unfurl from it to flap and keep it afloat. The wings are thin, almost like a bird's wings, but gold like the rest of his body and from behind it, something falls from a thin golden string. It takes me a second to make it out as a tail as the puffy end of it takes a shape that I can't quite figure out—almost like a snowflake or a weirdly shaped star. The one thing I do see clearly is the Spirit insignia plastered right on the middle of its roundness.

"Aury?" It's wings flap enthusiastically as it jumps around before flying over to me and nuzzling against my cheek. Curiously, I take him in my hands and it snuggles there, his tail wrapping around my forearm lovingly. "Huh, guess you're more accommodating than I first thought."

Beside me, Akio heaves a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. He must surely have a headache with how useful Aurelius turned out ot be in spite of his not liking him. Wanting to lift the mood, I playfully hit my shoulder against his before taking off without notice and jumping headfirst into Aury's doorway.

This time it's the gold from the doorway that takes my eyesight away from me. Against my expectations, the jump into the doorway doesn't lead me to a fall but instead to step onto a pane of see-through glass. What I see through it is nothing but darkness, but when it suddenly cracks and begins to break, my heart stops. All at once the pane of glass shatters beneath me and gives way. My breath hitches and my arms cover my face to safeguard it from the shards that fly by me. But they don't hurt me. Instead what happened before happens this time around with the shards of the pane of glass. As they fly by me, they begin to change color and form a scene. One that appears so vague and familiar at the same time.

Computers cover the extent of one wall, numbers and words that I can't decipher the meaning to littering the screens, but despite my own interest, something presses me to walk away from them and continue forward. My sight wanders over to another wall where rows upon rows of glass tubes hang connected to metal piping that converge at the ceiling overhead before running through the walls to goodness knows where. Some are empty and see-through while others contain blackness that has no apparent shape. That dark matter makes me uneasy.

"You alright, Aya?" The voice takes me by surprise, not just because it's the first thing I hear but because I recognize it. That it's calling my name with so much concern shocks and baffles me, and makes me turn to face him.

But it's not Axel. The boy that stands before me, though, looks a lot like him except younger and spunkier. The boy standing next to him is just as much of a shock to see. This one looks so much like Saix that it's freaky; he's just as serious but also younger.

"Yes." The nervousness in me shows through my voice and my hands grasp at the collar of my dress as I lift my hand to point forward. "It's this way." As we continue on walking, confusion and bewilderment cloud my own emotions at seeing Axel and Saix so young and different in these memories. Anger and uneasiness are at the forefront. Anger at someone although I'm not sure at who, and uneasiness at being in this place, surely one that I shouldn't be at in the first place.

But as soon as we enter the next room, I recall why it felt so familiar walking through the place. The room we're in now is Ansem's study; this is Radiant Garden. The study seemed different to what it is now, to what I remember seeing back when we first discovered it a year ago. It's messier still, filled with books scattered everywhere but on their shelves and blackboards overflowing with cluttered and unintelligible gibberish. The place though seems to excite the teen versions of Axel and Saix as they hurry on to search the place.

Something tells me that I led them here on purpose, to a place none of us should be in, out of spite...towards Ansem. Discomfort clings to my chest which I myself holding tightly, bunching the collar of my dress with my hands even more. A presence suddenly takes my attention and incurs a chill down my spine before making me spin about on my heels. At one corner of the study more test tubes hang connected to the same pipes that disappear into the ceiling and away from the room. In them is more of that dark matter, shapeless and motionless.

Despite my initial dread, however, something pulls me to it. An attraction I could only describe as magnetic takes me to it, my eyes fixated on the dark that swirls inside the glass tube, the black turning into dark purples the longer I stare. My hands on their own drop their grasp on my clothes and hang in front of me before I put aside the dread that sticks to me and reach forward to press my hands against the glass. At first nothing happens, I only feel movement inside as it presses against the glass, but my eyes widen and my whole body freezes the instant tiny little hands form from the dark matter and press against mine. It's in the fraction of a second then that the glass cracks before it shatters and the darkness swallows me whole.

My hands rush to my eyes, wiping excessively against them and wanting to rid them of whatever fell on my face. Voices reach my ears but panic drowns them as my hands continue to claw at my eyes. The panic becomes tenfold when I feel something sink into them and behind my eyelids.

It's disgusting. It's dark. It's painful.

I want it off.

"—y—"

I want it off.

"—ya—"

I want it off!

"—yan—"

"G-Get it off me!"

"Snap out of it, Ayano!"

Akio's shout right in my face takes me aback and hauls me back from whatever freaking nightmare I just went through. My eyes are open and see—I can see again—his swirling mercurial eyes as they stare dumbfounded and somewhat tinged with concern. His hands hold tight onto my wrists pulling them away from my face that only now do I notice burns around my eyes.

Nothing but silence surrounds us as my fast beating heart calms down and my breathing settles from the hyperventilating I had been doing. My panic finally settles when I lift my gaze to meet his again.

"W-What happened?"

He shakes his head slowly before letting go of my wrists. I'm tempted to reach up to make sure my eyes are alright but decide to wring one out with the other to resist that urge instead. "By the time I followed you down, whatever memory was in that thing had already rushed by. I found you standing here scratching at your eyes. What the hell did you see?"

"...nothing."

His brow furrowed unable to understand what I said. "What?"

This time I couldn't help my hand reaching up to gently touch just below my right eye. "I couldn't see anything. It all turned dark. Almost as if I was—" My breath hitches at the mere thought of what happened, of what that thing that jumped from the tube had done to my eyes—to the other Ayano's eyes.

A small nudge to my neck takes my attention as a gold tail comes into view. Aury curls up against me and his proximity makes the dread from before go away little by little until it's completely gone. After that terrible fright, I'm left numb. My eyes drift away from Akio and towards the next vacant doorway beside Berk's door. One of my hands reaches upward to Aury, petting him gently while keeping my eyes at the empty frame and blank insignia.

Open it.

It's not an order or request to anybody. Just two simple words that come to my mind. But when they do, Aury moves up and down—nodding, almost—before coming undone from me and flying over to the empty frame. A thin line appears horizontally on the middle of his body splitting the Spirit insignia—cutting the upside-down tear in half—and letting a toothy mouth open. From it, a small orb of light comes out, just like it had before from the relics we recovered, and enters the empty frame transforming it into another doorway.

A cold draft comes through, flakes of snow wafting towards Akio and I as we step closer to the frame and to Aury as he hovers before it. The wind faintly howls on the other side and more flakes come in falling on my fingertips as I raise my hand to catch them. Looking over the frame, a lone wooden staff laced in what looks like ice is displayed, the top end curved into a hook.

"Great, snow." Beside me Akio groans with his hands on his hips before giving me a sidelong glance and nodding towards the doorway. "Well, standing idly by won't make it any less favorable."

I mean to take a step forward with him when I hear him say this but I don't. I'm frozen in place by something I can't understand. My mind races wanting to have an answer. Perhaps it's just residual dread from before. Maybe it's just me internalizing what I saw too much. It felt real—too damn real—and maybe that just made it worse. But no matter how much I try to convince myself that there's nothing for me to be afraid of anymore, fear still clings onto me.

That darkness taking over me—blinding me—was something I have never felt before. It was disgusting, painful, and dark. So, so dark. And knowing that something so tangible as that could happen again...it petrifies me.

"Hey." Akio's voice catches me so much by surprise that I jump in my own skin, the grasp that I didn't know I had on the collar of my jacket tightening with the scare. His eyes for once look down at me with more concern than anything else. To my astonishment, he doesn't ask if I'm okay or if I want to take a minute. Instead he takes a deep breath before stepping further towards the door and placing a hand on the frame. With his body half turned towards me, he nods towards the blizzard awaiting us on the other side of the door.

"Don't worry," he says softly. A half smile that I almost see reaching his eyes, does reassure me to my surprise. "I won't let you jump head in like an idiot again."

I can't help the chuckle that escapes me at his joke. Aury sways side to side and moves closer to me. Their being here helps calm me down more and more, and although the fear is still there, I still take the step forward alongside them.

A/N:

That took way longer than I thought it would. But it's here! This time CoU will be sharing slots again but this time I'll keep my promise and alternate uploads between stories.

On other news, this marks the end of their journey to Berk. Not only did they get another memory but also a new companion. A small little Spirit. Aurelius wasn't something planned from the beginning but after playing KH UnionX so much I decided to create a bit of a sidestory for that bugger. I suppose there's no harm in telling you that Aury actually comes from that time and that he belonged to a certain Master of Masters. That's as much as I'm telling you guys :D

For now, I want to thank all who have read, reviewed, favorited, followed, and most important of all waited for this chapter. I will be sure to properly thank you next time but for now I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and that you stay tune for what's to come next.