Um...

Yeaaaaaahhhhhh, so, I'm really sorry, guys. I know it's been way too long since last I updated, and though I can pull up about a hundred excuses, I'm not going to do that, because I'm sure all of you guys understand that sometimes life and school get in the way of writing. :) But this is the LAST CHAPTER, and THANK YOU ALL for sticking with me! :D It means so much!

So, unfortunately, my email isn't working right now (DRAT!) so I won't be able to do individual shout-outs, but I have one shout-out to everyone:

YOU ARE ALL AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

There we go! :D Enjoy chapter 7! :D :D :D


Needless to say, the dragon hunters panicked. The soldiers who had seen what Dagur did to their leader - who was supposed to be indestructible, the smartest man in the world - instantly began shouting to the rest of the crew.

"VIGGO IS DEAD! VIGGO IS DEAD! RETREAT! RETREAT!"

The instant the shouts began, Astrid ran as far away from Dagur as she could, knowing that now Viggo was gone, the Berkians would be Dagur's next target. "Stormfly!" she called, cupping her hand around her mouth, and Stormfly swooped in from above, roaring madly. Astrid leapt onto the dragon's back and shot into the air once more.

"Snotlout, get Hookfang and get in the air!" Astrid shouted down at Snotlout, who was just about to run against another dragon hunter.

"Aw, come on!" said Snotlout. "Let me have 'em!"

"Not now, Snotlout!" said Astrid. "Not now! There will be another time! You need to worry about the Berserkers! The dragon hunters are retreating!"

For once, Snotlout listened. "Hookfang!" he shouted, and the Monstrous Nightmare swooped in out of nowhere, grabbed Snotlout by his ankle, and pulled him back into the sky. Astrid, Snotlout, and the other riders soared, landed on Stoick's mothership, and dismounted their dragons.

The dragon hunter ships were nearly out of sight by now in their haste to retreat; Astrid wondered how Ryker would react, when he realized Viggo was dead...Ryker was unconscious through the end of the battle...

"Stoick!" Astrid called when she caught sight of their Chief, and she raced towards him. "Viggo is dead! He drowned, Dagur drowned him! The hunters are retreating!"

Stoick didn't have the opportunity to say anything else before another shout traveled through the air and reached their ears.

"STOICK, CHIEF OF BERK!" shouted Dagur, standing on his Berserker mothership with his soldiers standing sentinel beside him. "HERE WE ARE, JUST AS IT ALWAYS SHOULD BE! BERSERKER AGAINST BERKIAN! CHIEF AGAINST CHIEF! Except, it used to be Chief against Hiccup, which is what it should be!"

Astrid wondered how long it would take before Dagur realized Hiccup wasn't dead.

"FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE," said Dagur, raising his hands, "I AM CALLING...A TEMPORARY PEACE TREATY! My men and I are leaving for Berserk to celebrate the triumph over Viggo and his - his - hunters." He spat the word out, and then went back to smiling madly. "Do you agree to this temporary peace treaty!?"

Astrid looked at the Berkian men, who had regrouped back onto their ships when the hunters retreated, and they looked weary. Fighting now was not a good idea, and before Astrid could mention this to Stoick, Stoick was shouting back his answer.

"Very well!" said Stoick.

"YES!" shouted Dagur in triumph. "Men, turn the ships around! We're going home!"

It was probably the weirdest thing the riders had ever watched. They watched, for once, without firing catapults or forcing the retreat. The Berserkers sailed their ships out, singing and cheering happily over their victory over Viggo and his hunters. Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Stoick, and the twins watched them leave, and as soon as they were gone, Stoick turned to the rest of the men.

"Head back to Dragon's Edge!" Stoick commanded. "It's time we go home ourselves!"

And the ships were turned, and their new course was set. Astrid watched the water as they left, thinking that somehow, possibly, Viggo would resurface…

But he never did.

"He's dead?" said Fishlegs, coming up to stand behind Astrid. "Viggo's really dead?"

"I think he is," said Astrid.

"But this is a good thing, isn't it?" said Snotlout. "We wanted him dead, right? That's why we came. That's why we fought."

"You're right, Snotlout," said Astrid. "We did come to kill him, and yeah, I'm glad he's dead, too, but...I just...I have this feeling…"

"Oh no," moaned Tuffnut. "It never fails. Just when you think everything might turn out okay, there's always that one last feeling that ruins everything."

"Even with Viggo gone," said Astrid, "the dragon hunters are still out there, and they're going to be out for revenge on us. And Dagur and his Berserkers...they're going to be after us, too, when they finish celebrating…"

"Astrid!" said Ruffnut. "Can we please just enjoy our victory without you dooming us? We won! We beat them! We made them run! They're not going to come back...and besides, won't they be going after the Berserkers first, anyways? I mean, Dagur was the one who drowned Viggo, right?"

"But Ryker doesn't know that," said Fishlegs, "and I don't think the other hunters are going to care who actually killed Viggo."

"Thank you, Fishlegs!" groaned Snotlout. "The voice of doom, as always! Looks like we can't even enjoy a victory without feeling like we're failing...you're kidding me…"

"Okay, fine," said Astrid. "We'll talk about it some other time. For now...we're in the lead. One step ahead of the dragon hunters, right alongside Dagur and his Berserkers."

All in all, the fight went better than any of them could have expected.

When they arrived back at Dragon's Edge, the Berkians moored their ships and decided to stay the night before traveling back to Berk. Fishlegs supplied them with meals while Snotlout and the twins, willingly, for once in their lives, caught fish from the ocean and brought them back to be roasted.

While they did this, Astrid made her way back to Hiccup's residence to tell him about the fight. She pulled the hatch open and stepped inside. Gothi was nowhere to be seen, and for once, Toothless didn't lunge at the door to see who had walked inside.

Hiccup was, for the first time since beind injured, sitting up, leaning against the headboard of his bed with Toothless curled protectively on the ground, apparently sleeping. Hiccup looked to Astrid and quickly dropped his gaze.

"You could've told me you were going to fight Viggo," he said quietly. "Gothi told me where you went a little while ago…"

"I wanted to," said Astrid, crossing the room and sitting beside him, "but the last time you were awake you were still really weak. I didn't want to worry you."

"I was worried, though," Hiccup said heavily. "When Gothi told me where you guys went, I was worried. You know what Viggo is capable of. And...well...someone could have died. They could have gotten hurt."

He looked at her again...but this time, he smiled faintly.

"But they didn't, did they?" he said.

"No, they didn't," said Astrid. "Everyone's fine, and the hunters and the Berserkers are gone...for now."

"Right…" Hiccup looked back towards the door. "I think I have about ten minutes before Gothi barges in here and whacks me for not resting. Go on. You have bragging rights. How'd you guys do it?"

Astrid thought about Dagur, their temporary teamwork with the Berserkers, and shook her head with a smile of her own. "You'd never believe it if I told you," she said.

"You're talking to the guy who trained a Night Fury," said Hiccup. "I can believe some crazy things."

"Well, alright," said Astrid. "It went something like this…"

On a ship sailing back towards a base, Ryker awoke. He stood up, his legs slightly unsteady, his head swimming. He shook his head to clear his vision and looked around.

No Berserker soldiers, and no Berkian soldiers, which was odd, considering that the last time Ryker had seen his ships they had been loaded with men fighting from different sides…

Ryker looked around and noticed something else was missing from the ship, and he stepped towards the first soldier he saw to interrogate.

"Where's Viggo?" Ryker growled.

The soldier spun around, looking horrified. "R-Ryker, sir!" he said, snapping his arm up in a salute.

Ryker was not amused. He grabbed the soldier by his shoulders and held him close to his face so he could snarl, "Where...is...Viggo!?" in the most threatening way he could.

"V-Viggo is dead!" stuttered the soldier helplessly. "He was killed! He's-"

Ryker threw the soldier to the ground, but it wasn't because he was angry. It was because he was shocked. His invincible, genius brother...dead? But how...how could that be?

Ryker threw back his head, and his scream of anguish and fury rang throughout the air.


Author's Notes:

So there you go! I hope you all liked it! :D Episode 4 is going to be called "Tooth and Claw", but I don't know when I'm going to be posting that. It could be a while. So, yeah, unfortunately, don't be expecting anything from me for a while (except a few updates on "Stay With Me", which really I think only has two more chapters to go before it's done).

So yeah! You're all amazing, and thank you so much! :D Let me know what you think about this fic, and I'm just going to say this before we close:

Nothing is as it seems.

Cheers! :D BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :D

-BeyondTheClouds777