Astrid could only stare in blank shock.

Sure, she'd seen Hiccup recently, but that was her imagination.

This was real, she knew it.

"Astrid? Are you okay?" Hiccup spoke softly, staring at her with concern.

"…"

"Astrid? Is… Is there something wrong?" He asked, fear creeping into his eyes.

Her own eyes began tearing up.

Several emotions suddenly flooded into her mind.

Anger. 'How can he be so… calm?'

Sadness. 'This is only a dream. Or I'm dead…'

Happiness. 'At least if I'm dead, I can be with my friends again.'

Horror. 'Oh my gods…' Fishlegs' glassy eyes and her friends panicked screams haunted her memories.

Fear. 'Where is that dragon, and… where is she?'

More and more tears welled in her eyes as her mind spiraled.

Hiccup noticed, "GOTHI! SOMETHING'S HAPPENING!" He shouted, sounding equally as panicked.

There was a bang as the door instantly swung open, and the wrinkled face of the Town Healer filled her vision.

'No… No… I want to see him!' her mind screamed, but her arms only weakly pushed at the older woman.

Soft hands suddenly gripped her arms. Soft, but stern.

Hiccup's hands.

At his mere touch, she relaxed.

'Hi-…" She tried to call to him, but her mouth was very dry.

"Shhhh…. Here, drink this." She felt a cup press to her lips, and she drank greedily, not realizing how thirsty she was. Hiccup's face had dominated her mind.

"Hiccup… You're… Alive…" She breathed heavily after guzzling the liquid.

"Of course I am… I should be saying that to you! You've been out for weeks! I was really… worried."

Gothi backed away, and Hiccup once again stole her vision.

His eyes were wet too.

Unable to stand it, she reached her head up, kissing him on the cheek.

A small part of her mind half expected this reality to blink away, just like her dream. But it didn't.

For the umpteenth time in her weeks in hell, she cried.

For the first time, however, she cried out of happiness.

"So… I died?" Hiccup asked.

They sat around a slightly familiar table settled in the Dragon Academy.

"It was… is… never something I want to see again. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, even Snotlout." She said, giving him a sideways glance.

"Hey!"

"After… that… it was a weird haze. Weeks, but felt like only a few moments… like I was reading what was happening on a page in a weird fiction… But when Ruffnut found me…"

"What? I was there too? How'd I look? Was I awesome?" Ruffnut cut in excitedly.

"For once, you really helped. I kinda… faded… from you guys, but Ruff helped me back on track. We met… here, actually… with almost the same table. We-." She remembered all her anger had poured out on them, ending with a vow to kill the Black Dragon. "We were going to do a terrible thing. Dagur and Heather showed up, and we went after the Dragon."

"Astrid, that's understandable, at the very least for a Viking. If something had…" he mumbled something, "... then… I'd be well on my way going after that thing, too."

She smiled, though somewhat darkly.

This was depressing.

"Well, we found it. And that's when things went weird. Nothing we did could even hurt it, until we all worked together. Then… I got knocked out. When I woke up, things got weirder. It was me. A bigger, faster… darker me. I'd like to say it was my complete opposite, but… if you hadn't have trained the Dragons, who knows?" She said, shivering a little. "I… killed… me, then blacked out and woke up in Gothi's hut, just like the first time."

Silence. Even Snotlout looked completely surprised.

"So… you… dreamt or hallucinated that I was gone, went to kill a dragon, and ended up fighting yourself?" Hiccup asked, his mind working on something of an explanation.

"That sums it up, kinda."

"Well, I didn't die, obviously. The dragon hit you with some weird, chunky, blue slime, and you were down. Fishlegs found some tiny Grimora-like dragons in the goop, and sure enough, you had some on your arm. To be honest, we didn't take it off till a few hours before you woke up."

"As for your dream… I might have an idea. Maybe… after you hallucinated… losing H… you felt angry at Dragons? But, with all residual caring and love for the creatures, you had a minor mental break? When you went to kill something, your mind took your rage and hurt, and personified it? Creating the dark version of yourself?" Tuffnut theorized.

More silence, accompanied by startled and total shocked stares.

"What? I have ideas." Tuff said with a huff.

"Ooookay…." Hiccup said, shaking his head, "That idea making complete and logical sense aside, you're back, and that's all that matters."

"You're all that matters to me." She said, somewhat shyly.

He kissed her lightly as her friends continued to stare at Tuffnut in shock.

As the reunited couple left the Academy, Astrid suddenly thought of something.

"Hey, Hiccup… this isn't really important, but… did you ever name that breed of Black Dragon?"

"I… don't think we did. Fishlegs had some ideas… Terrible Darkness and stuff like that, but none of them really… stuck."

"Well… I have an idea." She said, kissing him more deeply.

She really missed that.

"Huh? Well, what you have?"

"Nightmare."

A/N: Well, that's all I got for a main storyline… never was good at writing fluff, but… whatevs. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and know I already have another idea in the works. Possible summary: "Hiccup, always the laughingstock of Berk, finally meets a friend who could turn the tables. Now the Black Rider of Berk, Hiccup's life takes a turn for the sinister." Let me know if you'd want to read!

And as always, R, W, and R…