The silence on the square lay heavily in the air, and nobody dared to say anything. Two persons were in the circle of Vikings, facing eachother with determined faces, one with a heavy scowl and the other with a wild smile and a maniacal glint in his eyes. Stoick the Vast looked at his son with desperate and angry eyes.
"Son..." Mechanically he took a step forward and let his sword fall. Hiccup chuckled and looked down, but when he raised his head he was shaking it.
"That wasn't what you said a few years ago, dad." His voice was filled with poison, and the maniacal grin was replaced with an angry sneer wich marred his features. He couldn't believe that after all those years that stupid man still had the audacity to call him 'son'. Anger started seeping in his bones, making him see red. His father had hated him, he probably still did. He felt Toothless looking worriedly at him, but he still took that one step forward.
"Son, Hiccup, I remember and I feel remorse for it. Why... Why don't you just throw the sword away, son?" The chief was pleading desperately with him, still seeing a glimpse of the old Hiccup in those burning eyes full with hate. He did it. He drove him into the clutches of that cruel dragon.
"You don't feel remorse. You haven't got the right to even call me a son, you forfeited that when you disowned me in front of the entire village." Hiccup was chuckling like a lunatic throughout the sentence, and the village stood watching it with horror. They couldn't even see how the tall man in front of them was the same person as the lanky boy from a few years back.
"So-... Hiccup, please, come back. Please, I- I can't afford to...-" His voice broke. The mighty and strong chief stood crying, looking at the last of his family, desperate for it, not willing to lose any more.
"Can't afford to what? Humor me, maybe you will give me a good laugh." Hiccup felt like laughing and crying, and was breathing erratically. He didn't feel like himself, he just felt the sting of being disowned and betrayal from years ago. He was trying to be rational, trying not to let Toothless shoot everyone down, trying not to go berserk and slay everyone with Inferno. He shouldn't have come, he thought, he was losing control. But now he was spewing angry words at his old home, he couldn't stop his feelings being finally verbalized after all those years of shame and hopelessness.
"You disowned me, you hated me for all my life. You made me feel like I was unworthy of love, of friendship of fucking respect!" He hissed, and Stoick tried to answer, looking at him with dull and pained eyes but Hiccup continued.
"All those years... You say you regret the decision to disown me, but do you regret the years of setting impossible high expectations?"
"I was just trying to make you strong, son!" Stoick screamed with tears streaming down his face. Astrid looked at them from the ground, still grasping at her throat, seeing the feelings and tension running high between the two Haddocks.
"I didn't want to feel strong! I wanted to feel like I was worthy of my father! That's all I ever wanted! And you just made me feel like I wouldn't ever be enough!" Now Hiccup was crying too, and the people around the men watched with clenched hearts and clenched fists. Snotlout was standing close, slowly seeing the conversation detoriate into a conversation where Hiccup's threats didn't mean a thing, but a conversation with things what really needed to be said. Maybe, he hestitantly thought, is this exactly what we need.
"I was wrong! I was so, so wrong! I see that now son, but just please come back to your home and leave that ridiculous dragon! We are your family!" Stoick was still crying and his sentence ended hysterically. Hiccup looked down again. Silence fell, and slowly, very slowly Hiccup's shoulders started to shake. His hand with his sword twitched and he retracted his sword. He looked up, and everybody was shocked at his face. Tears were streaming down over pale cheeks in thick rivulets, but there was a haunting grin playing around his mouth.
"I never had a family. I had a chief, I had bullies, I had a boss and I had an empty and cold house to live in. This isn't my home. You aren't my family." The wary man before him felt daggers pierce his heart at the words that flowed from his sons mouth, and it sunk into his shoes when he heart the conviction in it. He made his son believe for his entire life that he didn't want him, and now it was too late. The flames around the square flared up and surrounded the back of the semi-circle. Hiccup looked him straight in the eye, surrounded by fire. Everybody stood breathlessly watching at the scene unfolding before their eyes. Nobody noticed Astrid standing up, nor how Hiccup clicked at a button on his sword and how the flaming blade emerged.
Do it, a voice in his head said, they hate you, shunned you, hurt you. Hurt them back. Hiccup didn't see reason anymore, a red haze covered his eyes. Nobody loved him, they only saw him as a monster. He was so caught up in his feelings, all the hurt of fifteen years streaming back in his body, begging to be released. He let out a hoarse scream and had already lifted his arm when he felt a strange resistance. He tried to move his lifted arm, ready to strike, but the force held him back. He felt a harsh pinch at the flesh between his thumb and finger and he let the sword drop. Somebody moved his arm down, and two hands held his face. The red dissapeared from his vision and then he realised what he was doing. Confused he looked down, and saw Astrid looking at him with big blue eyes. She gave a small smile.
"Oh my Thor..." He whispered, and he looked over her head at his father, seeing him looking back with wet eyes. Numbly he moved his eyes to the right of his father and saw Gobber standing there, with a quivering chin. He saw the twins, saw Fishlegs and saw Snotlout looking at him with a smile and two teary eyes. He felt his heart clench. This wasn't who he was, he didn't lose control or try to kill anybody. He saw Toothless standing aside from the crowd with big eyes. He slowly turned around and saw houses burning. What had he done? A sob wrecked his body. He looked down again at Astrid and slowly pushed her away. He looked at his hands and saw that they were shaking wildy.
"What did I do?!" He was half screaming. He almost killed everybody, he was so controlled by his feelings he didn't notice the gravity of his actions. He started crying loudly, like a kid who had lost his parents. Toothless barreled his way through the stunned people and caught Hiccup before he could fall down on the ground. Loud wails tore themselves from Hiccup's body and cut through the silence of the square.
"Oh, son... What did we do?" Stoick whispered, and then walked slowly to his son. He looked suspisciously at the dragon holding his son up, but still came closer. He gathered the lean body of the boy in his arms and hugged him. They were both crying, and the village was stunned by the sight of the two strong men completely breaking down in front of them.
Hiccup was sobbing, but he still tried to ask the question he desperately wanted to ask, the question wich would make a descision to stay or to go.
"Dad, would you still accept me as your son after all this?" He looked up with wet forest green eyes.
"Of course, son, I will always accept you." Slowly Hiccup exhaled, and pulled himself away. He breathed shakily in and out for a few times, and then directed his eyes at the crowd. They moved back when they saw his attention was back at them. He flinched at the fear he'd inspired.
"The dragons aren't our enemies." He started.
"Oh gods, not that again." Snotlout muttered softly.
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The Vikings were muttering in the Mead Hall, being called over yet again for an emergency meeting about dragons. They were casting suspiscious looks at the black dragon when he entered through the big wooden doors, followed by his rider. Slowly they watched the lithe boy walking towards the roaring fire, where his father was already waiting for him. Solemny Hiccup stopped next at him and looked at the inhabitants of Berk.
"Talk." Was the only word Stoick said.
"The dragons aren't evil," scoffs were heard at that. "I have travelled wide and far, from our northern lands to the southern edges of the continent, and never have I ever seen a dragon that attacked humans without feeling threatened. They are intelligent and kind creatures."
The chief sighed. "That's nice son, but how would you prove it? How do you explain the actions of the dragons here?"
"Actually, you've got to see it before you believe it. The nearby Nest is being controlled by a queen, from the other nests that I have seen, every one has a queen. The difference here is, that this queen isn't providing nor protecting the nest. She is hurting them, and forcing them to raid the islands in this archipelago. If they don't, they get eaten." Hiccup explained it all dryly, and Astrid stepped forward when the village started mumbling at his decleration, clearly not believing it.
"He's right." Astrid said, "He's right, because he took me on a flight three years ago, and we ended up at the nest. I saw how the queen ate a Gronckle because it hadn't brought enough food back." The crowd was muttering angrily at that, offended by the fact that Astrid had never told them that they had already found the Nest. People started slowly clamouring that she had betrayed Berk, and people were already grasping at their weapons. She swallowed heavily and raised her voice again.
"After that, I betrayed Hiccup by letting him believe that he had a chance to make you see reason. Please, right my wrongs, and give him that chance."
A/N
So yeah, I wrote a chapter again because I had the time. Thank you all for following me and giving me building criticism and compliments, I truly appreciate it. And also, silent readers, thank you for reading. This is just a small chapter, but it is actually quite critical for the flow of the story, and I had a hard time writing it because of the change from evil Hiccup to the good one. I really didn't want to make it unrealistic or sappy, but is still kind of happened, hahaha XD.
By the way, the almost schizophrenic things Hiccup is thinking are actually quite normal with bullied victims. Often they are strong, but if the hurt isn't properly vented they can snap, and then such things happen. Like Stalin, you know, that Russian dude who went complete paranoid and shit after he was bullied for the first years of his life. Bullied victims don't always snap because of family, of friends they gain when they get older or get away. But this is Hiccup, his only friend being Toothless, while he was completely alone on his travels, so he was bound to snap. By the way, that thumb pinch thing works, if you think somebody is doing something bad like bullying, just pinch there really hard. It hurts like a bitch.
