A/N: Okay, I just want to say a quick thank you here, for everyone who read and commented. This chapter was a little harder to finish out, so sorry for the lateness. There will be some sappy feelings in the end note, so feel free to skip those if you want. Anyways, back to Hiccup.

There's an overwhelming heat all around.

Smoke and fire.

A scream.

Nothing.

Everything.

Colors Hiccup's never seen before.

Freedom and desperation like she's never felt.

Hiccup comes into consciousness before her body, but she figures it's just the result of her nap. Her limbs feel heavy, some sort of blanket heavy on her rib cage. She struggles to open her eyes. Warmth comes and goes in great, wet puffs, but it smells like dragon fire and fish. It reminds her of Toothless.

Come back now.

What? Come back from where?

No more sleep. Awake now. Please.

Hiccup struggles to answer, the voice deeply familiar. She can't place it. Everything is so confusing and she…

Nothing.

The next time Hiccup comes back into herself, she's freezing. She wants to get up, grab another blanket or something, but her body won't cooperate.

She's back in the nothingness before she can ever try to get up.

The third time she's aware of herself is the strangest and most self-aware she's ever felt. Hiccup can feel everything but can't place any of it. She fights to blink.

Suddenly, light floods her eyes and her living room swims into view. Hiccup blinks uncertainly, trying to turn her head, but she can't quite make it.

Hiccup!

Toothless, she thinks. He needs her, he's captured, and he needs her! How is she supposed to save him if she can't even get up?

There's an overwhelming pressure on her stomach, and it makes her squirm. There's something in front of her, big and inky, smelling like heat and ocean.

Toothless.

She registers his eyes before anything else, big and green, like little planets.

"Toothless!" she rasps out. Her voice is basically nonexistent, a raspy whisper. Still, the dragon coos and nudges her face. Shaking, Hiccup brings her hands up to touch him, grounding herself with the feel of his smooth scales, the heat burgeoning under his skin. "Hey bud."

Hiccup struggles into a sitting position, fighting against a tugging on her arm. There's an IV there, buried in the crease of her elbow. She stares at it, contemplating ripping it out. She decides against that one fast; she doesn't like needles.

"Hiccup?" She jerks up to find her father and Aaron standing in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

"Dad?" Immediately the panic begins to rise. Toothless is here, she needs to protect him—

What is that incessant beeping?

"Down Toothless, let her breathe," her father instructs, swatting at her dragon affectionately. Toothless does and Hiccup's jaw drops. She's dead, she thinks offhandedly. She's dead and this is the afterlife, her dad, her dragon… and Aaron.

Steven rushes her, wrapping her up in his massive arms. Hiccup goes limp until he releases her.

"Talk to me, lass," he begs.

"Um," she starts. "What's happening?" This incites another hug. She's so confused; doesn't her father kind of hate her at the moment?

"I could never hate you," he whispers, leaning back. To her horror, Hiccup realizes two things. One, she said that last part out loud. Two, her father is crying.

"Wait, what happened? I don't remember anything, everything is so jumbled up…" she trails off, trying to string together at least the sequence of events.

"You don't remember?" Aaron asks. Hiccup startles, she'd almost forgotten about him.

"Uh, no," she mumbles, batting at her hair, trying to smooth it into place. She can feel the beginning of a blush overtaking her cheeks.

"Anything?" he asks, voice strangled. "Do you remember anything? About teaching us to fly and taking the dragons to fight the red death?"

"The red what?" Hiccup asks. It feels like someone took a movie of what happened, cut it into chunks, and blended it all together. She gets small burst of coherent memories, but mostly, it is phrases out of context, pictures with no explanation.

"They're calling it the red death. The Alpha dragon we fought," Aaron explains, coming closer.

"He, uh, might know a little more than I do, love," Steven says, running a huge hand over her hair. Belatedly, Hiccup recognizes it as an affectionate gesture. They come too few and too far in between.

"What happened? Was I out?" Hiccup looks around the room, hoping for some sort of clue as to what time it is.

"Yeah," Aaron says, chuckling humorlessly. "You were out."

"How long," she asks distractedly. She had her phone in her pocket, she remembers suddenly. It must've fallen out. "I think I lost my phone."

"It's been almost a month," Steven answers. Hiccup turns to gape at her father.

"A month?" She hisses. "I feel totally fine!" With that Hiccup swings her legs down, ignore her father and Aaron's protests, determined to show them she's fine. Her feet hit the ground solidly.

Wait.

Something's wrong.

Hiccup looks down and immediately looks back up. Nope. This isn't happening. This is some strange dream. She's dreaming. Or, says a particularly wicked voice in the back of her mind, she's dead and this is hell, perpetually embarrassing herself in front of her dragon, her father, and her… Aaron.

"Helena, I know you're confused but—"

"Where's my foot?" she asks, her voice ridiculously small.

"Sweetheart…" Her father's never called her that before. This is bad. This is so bad. Toothless rests his head on her lap and closes his eyes.

Her mind fills with a memory. It's her, hurtling through the smoke, her mouth open in a soundless scream, eyes filled with terror. Determination hits her like a truck and she—or Toothless, she guesses—hurtles toward her, jaw open, desperate to save her.

Her—or his—jaw clamps down on her foot, the tang of copper filling her senses. They fall wildly, careening faster and faster.

Hiccup jolts away, gasping, and instantly, her father and Aaron are by her side. Aaron takes her hand, which is wholly distracting.

"You all right? What happened?" her father demands, clutching at her shoulders.

"Ow, dad, let me go, I'm alright, I promise," she says hurriedly. Toothless coos sadly at her, uncertain. Right, this is fine. Everything is fine. Hiccup lets more weight fall on her foot and tries to stand.

"Hang on, easy, Helena, wait!"

"Hiccup, damnit, hang on!"

"Everything's fine!" Hiccup declares, right before she falls over. Toothless catches her, carefully depositing back on the bed.

"Now that you're up, we can talk about physical therapy," her father says gently. "Let's just take things slow, okay? Nice and easy."

Hiccup nods, because it makes sense. They get her back in bed, where Hiccup is supposed to rest for a while, which seems redundant, but she falls asleep fast.

The next few days are strange. People come through the house, her friends, admirers, and even the odd politician. Steven holds back as many as he can, but Hiccup feels better with company than she does all alone in a hospital bed set up in the living room. It's strange; this is the first time she's ever wanted to be around people rather than by herself, even if it is uncomfortable.

The silver lining, however, is pretty intense. The long and short of it is that dragons, once feared and shunned, are now respected and intriguing. Laws are changing, minds are opening, and society is evolving.

It's absolutely crazy to think about.

She's been meeting with physical therapists and engineers, and together, they've crafted a prosthetic that will fit with Toothless's saddle. Sure, it doesn't look like a foot, but Fiona gushes about it, saying it looks cool. Rory hits on her ruthlessly, and some of Hiccup's favorite come-on's have been "robot babe" and "cyborg hottie". Needless to say, Aaron had "words" with Rory about it.

Today's supposed to a big day, however. She's been working with her physical therapist, a quiet woman called Dr. Gothi, and today, Hiccup's been cleared for light physical activity, like walking around without her crutches, and maybe a light and easy flight. The walking part's becoming easy, Hiccup getting plenty of practice being independent at home.

"Hey," Aaron says, jolting Hiccup out of her thoughts. He's been by a lot in the last three weeks that she's been awake, helping with PT, taking care of Toothless, and helping her catch up in school. "You ready to go?"

"Ah! Oh, hey, I wasn't—you're a bit early," Hiccup stutters. Talking to Aaron has been getting easier and easier, but sometimes, she still feels like that same little nobody he used to pass in the hall.

"Yeah, figured you'd be ready," Aaron says, going red. Things can get weird between them, but after everything Hiccup's been through, she's okay with not leaping into anything immediately. Aaron drives her to the institute, where Toothless, her friends, and their dragons are all waiting for her.

Hiccup insists she walk by herself, and she manages to make it to the training ring with no problems. Dr. Gothi is pretty surprised, apparently this is one of the fastest recoveries she's seen.

"Welcome back!" Hiccup stumbles back into Aaron's arms at the onslaught of excitement. Fiona wraps her up in a tight hug, her blonde ponytail swinging wildly. Tori hugs her too, smelling like dragon fire. Rory wraps an arm around her shoulders and marches her towards the dragons. Barf and Belch twist around each other to say hello, Meatlug ambles up to nudge her hello, Stormfly nuzzles her cheek as gently as a Nadder can, and even Hookfang says hello, much to Scarlett's annoyance.

Toothless is the most excited, but he knows to be careful with Hiccup. She talks to everyone while they saddle up, catching up. Apparently, Rory and Fiona had a brief fling, but she dumped him after a couple weeks. Rory's fine though, much more interested in causing chaos with his sister and their dragon.

Hiccup pulls herself carefully, letting muscle memory guide her through. It's strange, just because every time she goes to move her left toes, she can almost feel it, but not quite. She wonders if that'll ever go away.

Ready to fly?

Hiccup grins, shifting to unfurl Toothless's new tail fin.

"Let's fly, Bud."

A/N: And that's a wrap! I want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented, y'all kept me going when I lost inspiration to write. This is the first story I've ever actually finished! Let me know what you thought and tune in next week for the epilogue and some exciting announcements!