Chapter Nine: To Battle

Take off from Berk had been surprisingly easy. All of the teens, Hiccup especially, had expected a ruckus to kick up the minute they began to take off. Dragons flying overhead didn't exactly inspire peace and serenity. Definitely not in Berk. In the past, there would always be a group of warriors left behind during a raid to protect the village in the case of dragons moving in on the village while the main force was gone. However, this time all of them were gone. Even Gobber who more often than not would be one of those left behind, was gone. His father's designated Hiccup sitter. Though Hiccup liked Gobber well enough as his sarcastic, offensive friend and mentor, he resented being treated like an idiot child.

A voice that sounded deceptively like his insecurity and Snotlout lumped into one, taunted him, told him he was a childplaying with the adults' game. That a weak little loser like him couldn't do anything but cause more damage and destruction.

He wondered vaguely, as the wind rushed wildly past him, if Ruffnut would be disturbed or pleased that it was her voice that cheered him on. And what metaphorically kicked Insecurity Snotlout's butt.

Once he saved her, he'd tell her that. He'd tell her a lot of things.

He'd tell her how sorry he was for dragging her into this mess. It had been his entire fault from the moment the idea of shooting a night fury had popped into his head. Not that he hadn't thanked the gods for having Toothless and Ruffnut in his life every day since that moment. Shooting a night fury out of the sky had done little fix everything wrong in his life, but it had done a lot of right in the form of his two best friends.

One of which was going to die if he didn't get his head in the game right this instant.

As if sensing his mood, Toothless looked up over his shoulder, his big glowing green eye boring into Hiccup's own stormy ones. He'd understood. Maybe even before Hiccup had gone to get him. Toothless had the strangest way of sensing the situation. Like when things were about to go down with that herd of dragons the night before. And even little things from before like when he was in a slump or Ruffnut had worked herself up into a royal snit over something. Toothless always knew and knew what he needed to do to make it better. The minute Hiccup had shown up, looking for help to rescue their snarky blonde, the dragon was ready to be saddled and his demeanor no less fierce or determined. There really wasn't any other person or dragon he'd trust more to help him do this.

Time had been taken up getting the others flight ready, and by that point, they only managed to fly for a couple of hours before night fall. They'd made camp without much ceremony and had gotten up early to continue their flight. Hiccup desperately hoped they were making progress on catching up to the boats.

He felt Toothless bob in the air a bit, and it shook him out of his thoughts.

"Hiccup!" he heard someone call from behind him. It was Astrid.

"What?"

"You sure this is the right way back to the island?"

"Not really," he admitted, "But I think Toothless and the other dragons should know."

"What?" he heard what he was sure was Snotlout exclaim.

"You mean you're not sure where we're going?" Fishlegs whimpered, "I thought you had like a map, or a course heading, or something, you know..."

"Maps have never helped the adults before," Astrid pointed out, "The other night, the dragon was the one who got us there."

"Are they really going to take us to Ruffnut?" Hiccup could hear the doubt and the fear in Tuffnut's voice, though Tuffnut tried to hide the latter.

"Yeah!" Fishlegs said, "What if they're just leading us to our deaths? Like, they're plotting with each other to drop us into the sea so we'll drown? Or-or-that they're going to feed us to that queen dragon you told us about! Or-"

"Fishlegs!" Astrid snapped, cutting across his babble.

Over the course of their conversation, the dragons had begun to slow, so that they all were flying in a line side by side as opposed to the V formation they'd been in before at full speed. Fishlegs was on the other side of Astrid, looking nervous as Astrid glared at him and Hiccup regarded him quietly. He glanced to his left at Tuffnut who was waiting impatiently for him to answer. Snotlout was as quiet as Hiccup was on the other side of Tuffnut, for once not having anything cutting to say to Hiccup like he usually did.

For a moment, he wished he could swap places with Ruffnut. She'd know what to do in this situation. What to say. Ruffnut knew all of these guys better than he did. Had earned their respect and awe in dragon training as the favored champion. She was Tuffnut's sister, Astrid's rival, and both Snotlout and Fishlegs pretty much hero-worshipped her. Being called a traitor and a witch had done nothing to dampen her popularity amongst their peers. He had a sneaking suspicion that rescuing her had been the only reason he'd managed to talk them into this crazy scheme. And it was crazy, really, hopping onto dragons and flying off to go save her and their parents.

The sooner Ruffnut was saved the better. Hiccup had plans. Plans that involved never having to deal with dragon hating villages and fathers who didn't listen ever again. Loki willing, he'd even invite Tuffnut along if Ruffnut insisted on it. They just needed to get away so that Ruffnut and Toothless would be safe and no one would ever try to hurt them ever again.

Fog was beginning to gather in the horizon. He knew that they were fast approaching the island. If the gut feeling telling him so wasn't enough, then the thrum of anticipation running from Toothless into the saddle and Hiccup himself more than confirmed it.

We're coming.

A scream like a roar rent the air.

Or was it a roar like a scream?

It was actually a scream and a roar. It was just hard to tell. As one, a boy and a dragon cried out in their own way as a girl was engulfed in flames. What a couple more minutes could have meant. No screaming. No roaring. No girl on fire.

Surprisingly, Hiccup's hold on the saddle stayed firm, and the foot he had on the pedal that controlled Toothless's fin remained steady as he pressed the dragon forward. Despite the outward calm he was projecting, it felt like his heart had sunk into his stomach even as he felt it pound in his chest. Felt it pound through his skull like a hammer on an anvil. If he and Toothless were to fall out of the sky right at that moment into a terrifying tailspin, it would be anyone's guess if he could be bothered to pull them out of it.

How had this happened? They were here. They made it to the nest of dragons.

One minute the boats had been there. Ruffnut had been there, bound, but alive and there.

And then the fire was there too.

The gods damned fire.

It had swallowed the boats like a golden red monster of heat, devouring everything in its path. Including the boat Ruffnut was on. Toothless and the other dragons had just fired at the Red Death to distract it from attacking the warriors fleeing from it on the ground.

"Hiccup!" he heard Astrid yell distantly. "Hiccup, what now?"

He continued to stare blankly at the flames.

"Freya help me, Hiccup! Hiccup! You need to snap out of it!"

He really wanted to listen to her. She'd flown her nadder into his line of sight and was desperately trying to make him see her, hear her. And then suddenly flames shot in their direction. Toothless threw himself and Hiccup away in one direction while Astrid and her nadder just barely evaded on their own. From the startled yelps and swearing he heard, he assumed that the others had dodged the flames as well. Suddenly, he heard his name being called again.

And it definitely wasn't Astrid this time.

Turning Toothless in the air, he scanned the boats that were steadily burning, trying to keep his stomach's contents from being ejected at the mental visualization of Ruffnut burning up. He heard his name called again, faraway, with more urgency. His eyes finally touched upon them.

On her.

Ruffnut, looking perplexingly soggy but alive, alive,and well, stood on the shore. For what felt like forever, they stared back at one another.

"So this is the rescue party?" she finally called up to him, a grin splitting her unbound face, "Gotta say, I'm kind of impressed!"

"You're alright..." he breathed out,"Ruff!"

"I had a little help from some new friends of mine!"

She gestured behind herself and his eyes bugged out at the sight. Most surprising was his father, looking nervously up at him. He could feel the anger he'd felt towards he father waning a little, unable to hold up against how grateful he was that Ruffnut was alive and that his dad had helped make sure she was. There was also another woman who he recognized to be none other than Phlegma Hofferson. He could hear Astrid gasping at the sight of her mother helping hold Ruffnut up. Finally, behind them all was the nightmare that had been chained up and taken on the boats with the rest of the warriors. It looked as sorry a sight as Ruffnut did. Still, the irrepressible fierceness all nightmares possessed was present in it as it loomed protectively over the three humans. Although if he thought about it, it was more likely that the only one it was really protective of was Ruffnut herself.

"Toothless, Haddock, incoming on your right!" Ruffnut was suddenly yelling.

Though he was still too out of it to get her warning, Toothless wasn't and swerved again just in time to keep them from getting chomped by the huge head of the Queen.

"Thanks buddy," he said, patting the dragon's neck.

He glanced back to see the others had dodged successfully as well. With the knowledge that Ruffnut was alive and mostly safe where she was, he grasped the harness on Toothless firmly and pulled in the direction of the Queen.

"Guys! This way." He called to the others. They followed his lead, unsure, but ready. "And watch your backs!"

They circled the Red Death, bobbing and weaving, making sure to suitably distract it from the Vikings at ground level to give them more time to find cover. Hiccup looked at the colossal dragon in front of them trying to think of how to approach attacking it. He wasn't really that much of an expert on dragons outside of Toothless.

"Hey Fishlegs!"

"Yeah?" the heavy set boy called back nervously.

"Can you break down this thing's stats?"

"O-Ok!" There was a moment's pause before Fishlegs continued. "Heavily armored skull and tail made for bashing and crushing! Steer clear of both!"

So noted, Hiccup thought to himself as he eyed both, more specifically the tail that looked like a very large, very dangerous mace that could be used to swat them out of the sky.

"Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell!"

All right. Now that he could definitely work with.

"Astrid, Legs! Hang in its blind spot and make noise, keep it confused!"

He watched as both of them nodded and peeled off from the group, Fishlegs guiding Astrid to where the best blind spot would be on the Queen. Frowning, he took in who he had left. Snotlout and Tuffnut on the zippleback. It would be good to find out if the Queen had a limit on her fire shots like the gronkle did.

"Tuff, Snotlout, find out if it has a shot limit!" He ordered. "Make it mad!"

Tuffnut smirked wickedly back at him.

"That's my specialty!" he whooped, punching a fist in the air.

Angling the zippleback at the Queen's head, he sent himself and Snotlout towards its head.

"Dude! Try not to get us killed!" Snotlout hollered at his dragon mate.

For a moment, he worried those two really were going to get themselves killed. He wondered if he should've sent Astrid instead, considering the fact that the nadder was more agile and better at aerial dodging than the zippleback was. Maybe he should go help them out? But as he sat there and watched a little longer, he saw that they were doing all right. Tuffnut was spouting the most obnoxious and foul insults he could think of. It was reminding Hiccup of Ruffnut and making him see the familial resemblance between the Thorston twins more clearly than ever before. Snotlout was doing his part of the taunting, but mostly, he'd taken over the driving and keeping them alive portion of their assignment. Thank the gods one of them was.

Just as he was about to move in so he and Toothless could pepper the Queen with some attacks, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He heard what, or rather, who, it was before he could see them.

"Hey, got a job for me oh fearless leader?"

It was Ruffnut, mounted on the nightmare, cocky grin still in place on her face.

More than anything, he wanted to tell her that her job was to sit this one out. He'd already been scared half to death once today. He didn't want to put her in danger again. But he knew Ruffnut. Knew that she would never allow herself to be benched for this. This was the moment they'd been talking about all of those times they talked about creating peace between vikings and dragons. They hadn't known then that it would be here and now, and obviously trying during the champion's match had been too soon. But this was it. If they got rid of the Queen now, the war would finally be over. Ruffnut deserved to be a part of this

"Yeah," he finally answered her with a nod.

"Thought I'd have to fight you on this," she said, some surprise leaking into her eyes.

"Nah. The only way that fight would end would be with you hitting me. And I'd rather you not."

And what a lie that was. He'd let her punch him every day if that meant he had physical proof she was actually there. He smiled, trying not to let all of his soppiness show. This was a battle. They really needed to be focused on the battle and not on each other.

Ruffnut cackled.

"Good! Now tell me what to do or else I'm going to try flying up its nostril and see if there's anything there to pull!"

He shook his head in fond amusement before speaking.

"See if the others need any help! And if you can try getting some shots off at its underside do it! I want to see if its belly is vulnerable!

"Can do!" she said, mock saluting him. "I'll still think going nose mining would've been more interesting but you're the boss!"

Shaking his head, he followed her lead as she drove her nightmare in the direction of the Red Death with much the same reckless abandon as Tuffnut had.

They'd been at their jobs for several minutes without much success. All their combined efforts were merely annoying the large dragon and not doing any serious damage. That was all well and good while buying some time for their parents and kinsmen to make a run for it, but now it was getting them nowhere. The zippleback was starting to get tired and sluggish. Its aerial maneuvers were barely keeping it and Tuffnut and Snotlout out of trouble even with cover from him and Ruffnut. Speaking of Rufnut, Ruff's nightmare had reached its shot limit. Even if it had those wicked claws, they wouldn't be much good against Queen, considering how thick her skin was.

He yelled when he saw Astrid thrown from her dragon, but was quickly relieved when she managed to last minute catch herself on the ridges of the Queen's crown. Ever resourceful, she was taking advantage of the situation, using her bare hands to punch and blind the dragon's many eyes. Dragging his attention away from her, he saw that Fishlegs had been downed as well, his gronkle in a dead faint on the ground as Fishlegs scurried to avoid getting stomped to death.

Snotlout and Tuffnut weren't fairing much better than they already had been, still under continuous fire from the dragon they were further enraging. Ruffnut and the nightmare were doing what they could to serve as a distraction for the others, taking swipes and clawing at the side of the dragon's face that wasn't already being pummeled by Astrid.

They needed to switch tactics. It was obvious they could no longer keep this up.

"Ruffnut!" he called out.

"Kind of busy here Hiccup, what is it?" she shouted back at him.

"We need to fall back! Can you get Astrid out of there?"

The look she managed to shoot him was the slightest disgruntled, but she moved in other girl's direction anyway.

If they all made it out of this, that was another thing he was probably going to put on the list of things he needed to make up to Ruffnut.

"Tuffnut, Snotlout!" The minute he saw he had their attention, he continued. "Start having the zippleback breathe gas into its face. Once Ruffnut's got Astrid out, have the other head light it and get out of there!"

"Awright!" Tuffnut cheered, and even Snotlout looked enthusiastic about the plan.

A huge sickly green cloud began to form around the Queen's head. The gas breathing head of the zippleback was spewing as if its life depended on it, and in a way, it kind of did. The minute Ruffnut and Astrid cleared the gas cloud, the other head set off the spark. Snotlout and Tuffnut had barely enough time to get away from the ensuing explosion that erupted all about the big dragon's head. Hiccup knew better than to hope that that would've done more than phase it, though he hoped for it. His gut feeling was proved right and the Queen roared again.

"Fall back guys!" he ordered at the top of his lungs, "Fall back!"

The Queen went to make a snap at Ruffnut and Astrid, but he and Toothless were there, peppering fire shots in its face to help their retreat. That done, he directed Toothless to spiral high above the beast. Looking down at it, something stuck out to him.

"That thing has wings," he muttered to Toothless, his brows furrowing in thought. Toothless glanced back at him, waiting see what their next move would be. Hiccup nodded to himself and tugged on the harness, a plan formulating as he spoke, "Ok, let's see if it can use them!"

Toothless, knowing exactly what he was thinking, let his wings extend out causing their upward momentum to halt. They began to free fall backwards before Toothless seamlessly moved them into more of a head first dive at the Red Death. He could see the wings they were targeting from above very clearly, even more clearly as they grew closer and closer with their dive. They appeared crusty and withered, but he was suspicious. Their velocity picked up and he could hear the high shrieking whistling sound that was created as Toothless moved lightning fast through the sky, gravity driving them faster. Another second and…

Direct hit.

"You think that did it?"

The force of the shot actually drove the Queen to slam into the rocky ground. Toothless moved to put more distance between them and the dragon, waiting for it to get back up. As the dust and smoke began to clear, the first thing he could see through them was the blurry imprint of massive wings. The tattered and membranous things stretched and unfurled, their span so large that they blacked out half the sky.

"Well it can fly!" Hiccup said, urging Toothless to move faster to evade the other dragon's attacks.

Immediately, the Queen was on their tail, her huge body being lifted by her even huger wings. She roared, so loud that Hiccup was tempted to reach up and clap his hands over his ears. He'd be really glad once he could shut that thing up. He bit his lip. Hopefully this would work and they really would stop it. If ever there was one dragon Hiccup believed had no good in it, it was the Red Death. This dragon didn't just kill people, it killed its own kind. Every other dragon was either a slave or food to it. And was he couldn't understand was why it didn't go and hunt for its own food to survive. It was certainly proving itself capable of fending for itself and being able to transport itself with those huge wings. Why did it need to terrorize both the smaller dragons and indirectly the humans they raided? Was it really that cruel or just lazy? Either way, he wasn't going to allow this dragon to continue forcing Toothless, or any other dragon, or any more of his people, to live in fear and war and hatred of one another. The killing had to end somewhere. This was it.

Still.

It was kind of funny in a way. Ruffnut would certainly appreciate the irony of it once he got to explaining it to her. All his life, wanting to be a dragon slayer to make his dad proud and then swearing off killing dragons the minute Ruffnut brought him to Toothless. And now, circumstances had set him on the direct path to killing a dragon.

He muttered grumpily under his breath about how irony could go kiss a troll's cheeks. He didn't particularly care which set it kissed either.

The nightfury and its rider ducked and weaved through different rock formations, hoping it would slow the beast down. Unfortunately, with the thing's size and the toughness of its head, it merely bulldozed through the rocks like they were wet paper. Grasping at a half formed idea that he got from glancing up at the stormy, cloud filled sky, Hiccup pulled up on Toothless, signaling him to fly straight up. Though the clouds made it hard for them to see, he imagined it was a lot harder for the Red Death. If Fishlegs' stat breakdown of the thing was to be believed, then it wouldn't fare well up in the clouds. Its already poor eyesight would be further hindered while its senses of smell and hearing would be dampened as well. This was the ideal battleground to press any and all advantages they had on the behemoth.

The fight became hit and run at that point. Using the cloud cover, he and Toothless darted around the confused and disoriented Queen, firing one shot at a time and pulling back. Each shot was specifically targeted in one region of the dragon's body. They made a pretty good run of it. That was until the larger dragon became so enraged, she spewed a continuous stream of fire in every direction. They tried to dodge but got side swiped by the out of control plumes. Hiccup cursed mentally as he glanced back to take in the damaged. The tail fin had been hit. Slowly but surely it was burning up.

"Okay, time's up. Let's see if this works."

They swerved sharply and made for a quick pass by the Red Death's huge maw.

"Come on, is that all that you've got?" he taunted it.

As they narrowly avoided getting chomped to death, a weird thought occurred to him. Did dragons actually understand human speech? Toothless had always seemed like he was following what he and Ruffnut said, so he just assumed. Were his taunts, and Tuffnut and Snotlout's from earlier, in any way effective in getting this thing mad? Maybe. It was hard to tell, since pissed off seemed a natural state of being for the thing as it went in pursuit of them the minute it had them right in its sights. Sending them into a dive, Hiccup was glad to see that the other dragon was still following them. His plan was really working. Since his plans usually went bad, he was glad his success streak was holding steady. Hopefully it would last him just a little longer.

Things were getting a little dicey though. The fin was responding less and less to the pedal. He could feel the thrum of tension and anxiety in Toothless and did all he could to reassure the dragon they could make this. They had to.

"Hold Toothless."

He closed his eyes, and for a moment held his breath and began the count in his head.

Three.

Holding in.

Two.

Hold a little longer and...

One.

"Now!" he cried on his exhale, his eyes open wide.

Hitting the pedal hard, Toothless's body turned fast so that they were falling back first, with their front facing the Queen. The Queen had her jaw open wide, the beginnings of gas clouds forming at the back of her throat, indications of the intent to breathe fire. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

Toothless fired a shot off a fire bolt point blank into the Queen's gaping mouth. It was much like the time he'd done it to the terror back on the island he'd shown to Ruff. Only that had been a warning shot. This wasn't.

The Queen roared in pain, its head wildly swinging from side to side. Hiccup turned his attention away at that point, focusing instead on getting him and Toothless facing the ground so they could pull up from their dive. Toothless let his wings out, using them like parachute to slow their descent. The Queen, sensing the imminent and dangerous collision it was about to had with the ground, tried to copy Toothless but it was to no avail. The entire time they'd been raining down shots about her, they'd targeted her wings. Even the sheer size of the wings couldn't stand a chance at holding up such a large body when it was riddled with holes. The dragon continued to fall to the ground, roaring in fear and pain as it plummeted to what looked like its end.

Hiccup and Toothless, however, were not fairing much better. Though they'd managed to keep themselves from hitting the ground with the force the Queen had, Hiccup had finally lost all flight control. Fire was rushing up at them from below where the impact of the Red Death had caused an explosion. In front of them were the dragon's large spikes, serving as inconvenient obstacles they were forced to dodge around so as not to crash. That was, until they no longer had the ability to dodge.

"No!" Hiccup shouted as he and his dragon friend went crashing into the large spiked end of the Queen's tail. He could feel their forward momentum carry him forward, feel his forehead's impact with the side of the spike with excruciating clarity.

They'd been really close. A little farther and they could've cleared the Queen's body and tried gliding to safety.

But it was too late for that now.

This feels like a concussion, he thought to himself, as his consciousness slowly slipped away from him. He'd gotten plenty of those as a child with how clumsy he was. His mom would always take care of him during those. Then his dad would yell at him. But now he supposed that was his dad's way of saying he cared and that he was scared for him. His dad, Stoick the Vast, chieftain of the Hairy Hooligans of Berk, scared. But it made sense. Seeing your loved ones hurt or in danger was scary, especially when there wasn't much you could do about it.

He hoped Toothless got out of this okay. He wanted Toothless to be safe. And Ruff too. Especially Ruff. She may be tough, but she was a lot more breakable than Toothless was. Maybe they'd take care of each other now that he wasn't there to take care of them.

He could almost imagine it.

Ruffnut and Toothless, exploring the world together, raising hell, watching each other's backs through thick and thin.

It was a nice thought.

He was almost sad he couldn't see himself there with them.

But he was done. He was tired and everything felt so warm and fuzzy. There was something important to do, but he felt with a certainty that he'd done it. So was the harm in resting now?

There was a voice calling his name. Sounded familiar, but he just couldn't be bothered to place it or respond.

"HICCUP!"

And then what fleeting consciousness he had left was gone.

Chapter Nine: To Battle - End

AN: I'm truly sorry I've been gone for so long guys. There's just so much. I get so caught up in RL and writing block never helps. I always try to keep up with writing but sometimes it just falls to the wayside. It's fun for me to write but life's not always fun and games you know? Sorry for getting so "guh"on you guys here. I've updated, yay! Let's pray I can ride out this writing surge a little longer. Not updating since August is really sucktastic. I read fanfic by authors as flaky as I am, so I know what I'm putting you guys through and I'm really sorry for you addicts out there who are suffering withdrawals.

Anyway, time to comment on the actual chapter and not my "Boo-hoo, I'm so busy and uncreative I can't write because WRITING IS HARD" pity party. I tried really to not make this chapter a blow by blow retelling of the movie battle, but I feel like I didn't succeed. You can let me know what you think there. I'm also afraid Hiccup was too emo during his oh gods Ruff is dead moment. Oh well. Ruffnut, as usual, is my favorite part of this chapter. And troll cheeks. The time of arrival as well as the interchanging use of "it" and "her" pronouns for the Queen was intentional.

Also, to give you some insight into the writing process of this chapter, I'll give you a soundtrack of the songs I listened to while writing: Vox Populi 30 Seconds on Mars, Falling DownOasis, and Libera me (ROW ROW Fight the POWER!) from the (pardon my French, BOSS F*CKING SS epic) anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Next Installment:

Chapter Ten: Head Towards Tomorrow