A/N: I'm so excited because we'll be going over Aster's experience in the games, and the next chapter will be about seeing new allies like Astrid and Jim. Also, the one I officially chose to play Finnick! (For those expecting Eugene [Therefore thinking Rapunzel is Annie...] sorry! Not them)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. Even if no one reads this anymore I would still finish it at least for myself but I really want to know what you guys think.

Mary Darling (Peter Pan) - Cecelia

Eret (How to train your Dragon 2) - Chaff [I chose Eret cause the description of Chaff is that he was a friend of Haymitch. The moment I heard his accent at the movie, I thought 'Aster and Eret. They could be friends']

Gaston (Beauty and the Beast) - Brutus

Jean Kirschtein (Attack on Titan/Shinjeki no Kyojin) - Finnick

Armin Arlert (Attack on Titan/Shinjeki no Kyojin *mentioned*) - Annie

Aster's Victory

Then Hiccup gets it, what it means. At least, for him. For Jack and Aster. District 12 only has three existing victors to choose from. District 12, with their three male Victors... Required two Lights...

He was going back into the arena.

Hiccup's body reacts before his mind does and he's running out the door, across the lawns of the Victor's Village, into the dark beyond.

:::::

Moisture from the sodden ground soaks Hiccup's socks and he's aware of the sharp bite of the wind, but he doesn't stop.

Where? Where to go?

The woods. Hiccup's at the fence before the hum makes him remember how very trapped he was. He backs away, panting, turn on his heel, and take off again. The next thing he knows he's on his hands and knees in the cellar of one of the empty houses in the Victor's Village. Faint shafts of moonlight come in through the window wells above Hiccup's head.

He's cold and wet and winded, but his escape attempt has done nothing to subdue the hysteria rising up inside the brunette. Hiccup balls up the front of his shirt, stuff it into his mouth, and begins to scream. How long this continues, he doesn't know. But when he stops, his voice is almost gone. He curls up on his side and stare at the patches of moonlight on the cement floor.

Back in the arena. Back in the place of nightmares. That's where I am going.

Hiccup has to admit he didn't see it coming. He sees a multitude of other things. Being publicly humiliated, tortured, and executed. Fleeing through the wilderness, pursued by Guardians and a hovercraft. But never that he himself would have to be a player in the Games again.

Because there's no precedent for it. Victors are out of the reaping for life. That's the deal if one wins.

Until now.

There's some kind of sheeting, the kind they put down when they paint. Hiccup pulls it over himself like a blanket. In the distance, someone is calling his name. But at the moment, Hiccup excuses himself from thinking about even those he loves most. For once, he is selfish. For once, he thinks only of himself. And what lies ahead. The sheeting's stiff but holds warmth. Hiccup's muscles relax, his heart rate slows. He sees the wooden box in the little boy's hands, President Pitchner drawing out the yellowed envelope.

Is it possible that this was really the Thawfest Quell written down seventy-five years ago? It seems unlikely. It's just too perfect an answer for the troubles that face Berk today.

Getting rid of him and Jack, subduing the districts all in one neat little package. The brunette hears President Pitchner's voice in his head.

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of Berk, the male and female Lights will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."

The victors are the strongest. They're the ones who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangles the rest of the people. They are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope. And now twenty-three of them will be killed to show how even that hope was an illusion.

In a way, Hiccup's glad he won only last year. Otherwise he'd know all the other victors, not just because he sees them on television but because they're guests at every Games. Even if they're not mentoring like Aster always has to, most return to Berk each year for the event. Hiccup thinks a lot of them are friends. Whereas the only friend he'll have to worry about killing will be either Jack or Aster.

Jack or Aster! JACK!

Hiccup sits straight up, throwing off the sheeting. What just went through my mind? There's no situation in which I would ever kill Jack or Aster!

But one of them will be in the arena with or without Hiccup, and that's a fact. Not that it really matters. They may have even decided between them who it will be. Whoever is picked first, the other will have the option of volunteering to take his place. Hiccup already know what will happen. Either Jack or Hiccup will take Aster's place to go into the arena. If Aster and Jack were chosen to go, Hiccup will take Aster's place. And Jack would take Aster's place if it were Hiccup and Aster chosen.

Like before, they'll protect each other. Unlike before, they won't be going home together. Not alive.

Hiccup stumbles around the cellar, looking for an exit. How did I even get into this place? Hiccup feels his way up the steps to the kitchen and see the glass window in the door has been shattered. Must be why his hand seems to be bleeding. He hurries back into the night and head straight to Aster's house. Not Jack's. He wasn't ready to face (Read: grieve) him.

Aster's sitting alone at the kitchen table, a a bunch of plain eggs ready to be painted with one being held already in one hand, his paintbrush in the other. Out of it as usual.

"Ah, there ya are, anklebiter. All tuckered out. Finally did the math, did you, Freckles? Worked out you won't be going in alone? And now you're here to ask me ... what?" he says.

Hiccup doesn't answer. The window's wide open and the wind cuts through him just as if he were outside.

"I'll admit, it was easier for the showpony. He was here before I could get the paint out and ready. Begging me for another chance to go in. But what can you say?" He mimics Hiccup's voice. "'Take his place, Aster, because all things being equal, I'd rather Jack had a crack at the rest of his life than you?'"

Hiccup pouted, offended. "Actually, no. I was thinking of Volunteering. So you'd have a crack at life while Jack and I head back to a nightmare."

"Can't leave each other's side, huh? Well, can't say I'm surprised."

Hiccup huffed. He sat down on an vacant chair, took Aster's brush and a plain egg and got to work. Aster bursts out laughing. "Joining the dark side, eh mate? Well, knock yerself out." he left to grab himself a spare paintbrush.

They paint in silence for a moment. And in a way, Hiccup can see why Aster does this to lose himself. The concentration, making intrinsic patterns, it keeps one's mind busy.

"Though y'know... Maybe it should be me," Aster says matter-of-factly as he put aside one egg and took another one. "I hate life, anyway."

"Very true," drawled Hiccup. "We wouldn't have to worry about supplying you eggs and paint either."

"That's another good point. Jack's argument is that since I chose him last time, I keep you alive this time on his expense."

Hiccup gawked, staring at Aster. "What?"

"That's what he said." says Aster.

"... I knew it." Hiccup sighed.

In this way, Jack's not hard to predict. While Hiccup was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of his own fear, Jack was here, thinking only of his boyfriend.

Shame isn't a strong enough word for what Hiccup feels. "I could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know." The brunette laughs at himself humorlessly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll pretend I believe that." Aster says brusquely. "But no question, he's the superior one in this trio. So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Hiccup sighs. "Go back in maybe. If your name's drawn at the reaping, it won't matter. Either one of us will just volunteer to take your place."

The two sit for a while in silence.

"It'd be bad for you in the arena, wouldn't it? Knowing all the others?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh, I think we can count on it being unbearable wherever I am." He nods at the egg. "Don't forget... you two mean something to me now. Even if I try avoiding it, it's true."

Hiccup could only stare at the man. He felt sad for him. Aster avoided feeling strongly for anyone all these years. Now here comes Jack and Hiccup, his shot on having people know what's it like to live through the Games like he had. Only by the way they did it, earned themselves enemies to still get themselves killed. And Aster would be left on his own once more.

They subjected him to this.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup says.

"For what?"

"For... for being all me, I guess."

Aster snorted, but said nothing.

Hiccup should be going to see Jack now, but he doesn't want to. Who knows what he could get me to agree to? No, now I have to go home to face my family.

~o~

Jack sighed. He couldn't find Hiccup anywhere. He just hoped the boy is making his way back home at this moment. Jack is weary as he staggers up the steps to his house, the front door opens and Jamie is there, heading out himself.

He greets Jack, asked how he was doing. Then, he tells him about how they found Hiccup a little earlier. Seems like he had been in Aster's just a moment ago, how both of them had been painting their worries away. Jack is relieved that Hiccup wasn't out there all alone. Although, he was a bit hurt that Hiccup didn't come to him first. Jamie mistakes the hurt on his face as his reaction towards the news, and he pulls Jack into his arms.

"I was wrong. We should have gone with the plan to leave, like you said," Jamie whispers, ashamed of himself that he put his own desire if rebellion before his best friend's well-being.

"No," Jack shook his head.

"It's not too late," Jamie says.

Over his shoulder, Jack sees his mother and Emma clutching each other in the doorway. "We all run. They all die. Our families won't make it. They're not us. They don't know the woods, besides, there's that fence..."

"Yeah, they can." Jamie insists. But he doesn't quite believe it.

Jack shook his head once more. "I'm sorry, Jamie. This... This is my own battle now."

Jack heads up to his room and falls asleep as soon as he hits his bed. His exertion from searching for Hiccup has drained him. Not to mention, the news was a lot to take in. One way or the other, he was going back to the arena.

~o~

When Hiccup wakes up, Toothless is snuggled up against him and he realizes he's still in his underclothes. His mother must have stripped off his filthy outer ones and tucked him in bed. Hiccup throws the wet undergarments into the sink and pour shampoo on his head. His hands sting, and that's when he notice the stitches, small and even, across one palm and up the side of the other hand. Vaguely he remember breaking that glass window last night. He scrubs himself from head to toe.

Finally clean, he pulls on his robe and head back to bed, ignoring his dripping hair but careful about waking up the cat. He climbs under the blankets, sure this is what it must feel like to be poisoned. The footsteps on the stairs renew his panic from last night. He's not ready to see his family. Last night, they were all in tears. Even Stoick. Snotlout swore he didn't shed a tear, but the red, runny nose fooled no one. Valka held his hands, Stoick kept his arms around his wife and sons. Snotlout kept ranting, his arms crossed tightly like it was all he could do to keep himself together.

And if that was Jack...

Hiccup has to pull himself together to be calm and reassuring, to make things easier on them. He has to be strong. He struggles into an upright position, pushes his wet hair off his throbbing temples, and brace himself for this meeting.

Jack is the one who appears in the doorway, and he's got breakfast, holding tea and toast, his face filled with concern. Hiccup opens his mouth, planning to start off with some kind of snarky comment or bad puns, the kind that Jack loved, and burst into tears. And this wakes the cat up.

So much for being strong.

Jack sets the tray down to the nearest furniture, a desk. As soon as he did, Hiccup got off the bed and flew into his arms. Jack lets his boyfriend cries himself silly.

The older boy wasn't surprise to see Hiccup this way. All things considered. He, for one, woke up with his mom on one side of his bed and Emma crawls right up next to him and they hold him, making quiet soothing sounds, until Jack is mostly cried out. Then they dress him because of course they know that he'd be going over to see Hiccup.

They sat back down the bed, Jack grabbed a towel and went to dry off Hiccup's damp hair. Toothless licked his hand, trying to be comforting.

"Emma took care of me this morning. Made me breakfast while mom laid out some clothes for me to wear..." Jack spoke softly after he set the towel away. "Looking at her face, it's hard to imagine she's the same frail little girl I left behind on reaping day months ago." He sighed, not liking how his sister was growing up too fast.

But the combination of that ordeal and all that has followed the cruelty in the district, the parade of sick and wounded that she often treats by herself now if Mrs. Overland's hands are too full these things have aged her years.

"Figures," Hiccup sighed, pulling himself together. "A little girl is braver than me,"

Jack tilts Hiccup's face up by the chin, his other hand wiping remnants of tears. "You have every right to be afraid. We both do."

The two spent most the morning together. When the boys come down later for lunch, Stoick ladles out a mug of broth for them, and later they ask for a third mug to take to Aster.

Then they walk across the lawn to Aster's house, Toothless with them. Entering, they hear someone walking around upstairs and assume it's Mrs. Bennette, but a few minutes later Aster comes down and tosses a cardboard box of empty paint bottles on the table with finality. Toothless goes over to sniff it curiously, getting some paint on his nose. He snarled, annoyed, trying to get it off.

"There, it's done," Aster says.

"What's done?"

"I've poured all the paint down the drain," says Aster.

They boys exchanged staring from Aster to the box in disbelief. "You what?"

"I tossed the lot," says Aster.

"What, so you can buy more just for kicks," Jack says teasingly.

Aster shook his head. "No, I won't, I tracked down Bucket this morning and told him I'd turn him in the second he sold to me, you know in case I get a relapse, or either of you try buying from him. I paid him off, too, just for good measure, but I don't think he's eager to be back in the Guardians' custody."

Jack and Hiccup stared at each other, unable to guess the man's intentions.

"Why would you do that? I mean, yeah, we used to tease you about it." Hiccup conceded. "But we understand it's what keeps you together so..."

"What business is it of yours what I do!?"

Hiccup jumps, startled. Toothless hisses at the hostility. He and Aster never really got along swimmingly. More like they tolerated each other.

Jack snorted, narrowing his eyes. "Don't give us that crap, kangaroo. You're family now..."

"EXACTLY!" Aster spat, losing his temper easily. The boys needed to get him something to paint soon. "You guys are all I got left, but I ain't all you got left. You got families, bloody, you got each other! So here's what I'm thinkin'... NONE of you volunteer for me, I get whoever I end up with between either of you and myself until the final stand, kill myself off and then that one gets back here to the other and you two just name a kid after me and be happy together! So I gotta quit painting and get myself back to shape!"

Aster spoke so fast it was all the boys could do to keep up with him. But they got the gist of it. It was a good plan. A plan that still gave the two boys a future together. But they didn't want a future together. Not one on Aster's expense. Hiccup frowned, Jack looked vexed. He approached the man.

"Are you stupid or something?"

Aster scowled at him. "Watcha call me?"

"Aster, first of, we can't have kids. Men don't work like that. Second, we're not letting you take the fall for us." Jack sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Berk is after us, Pitchner WANTS us dead. Not you. So why don't you do what you do best and shape us up?" He managed a small smirk.

Aster stared at Jack, his scowl not falling. Then, he grunted irritably. "What's the point of it, showpony?"

"The point is that two of us are coming home from Berk. One mentor and one victor," says Jack, briefly casting Hiccup one glance.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes at Jack. "Yeah, and that one victor would be you Jack. No question."

Jack just gave a humorless smile.

Aster sighed, surrendering. "Tooth's sending me recordings of all the living victors. You're going to watch their Games and learn everything you can about how they fight. So, you two are going to put on weight and get strong. You're going to start acting like those High Lights. And one of you is going to be victor again whether we like it or not. Now give me a moment's rest before we get started." He returns to his room, slamming the door. Jack and Hiccup wince at the bang.

"I don't like him being all self-righteous on us," Jack mutters.

"What's to like?" says Hiccup.

After a few days, they agree to act like Highs, because this is the best way to get ready as well. Every night they watch the old recaps of the Games that the remaining victors won. Hiccup never imagined he'd be doing this just a year ago. Jack realizes they never met any of them on the Victory Tour, which seems odd in retrospect. When he brings it up, Aster says the last thing President Pitchner would've wanted was to show them bonding with other victors in potentially rebellious districts. Victors have a special status, and if they appeared to be supporting their defiance of Berk, it would've been dangerous politically.

Adjusting for age, Hiccup realizes some of their opponents may be elderly, which is both sad and reassuring. It's the younger ones they'd have to worry about. What age they must've been when they won their games?

Hiccup takes copious notes, Aster volunteers information about the victors' personalities, and slowly they begin to know their competition. Every morning they do exercises to strengthen their bodies. They run and lift things and stretch their muscles. Every afternoon they work on combat skills, throwing knives, fighting hand to hand, going on sprints and racing against Toothless (he's unsurprisingly fast); Jack even teaches Hiccup how to climb trees. Officially, Lights aren't supposed to train, but no one tries to stop them. Even in regular years, the Lights from Districts 1, 2, and 4 show up able to wield spears and swords. This is nothing by comparison. Aster trains them. The best he can. Jack and Hiccup excel under the new regimen, though. It gives them something to do. It gives them all something to do besides accept defeat. Mrs. Overland puts them on a special diet to gain weight. Emma treats their sore muscles. Heather sneaks them her father's Berkian newspapers. Predictions on who will be victor of the victors show them among the favorites. Even Jamie and Stoick steps into the picture on Sundays, and teaches them all they know about snares.

One night, as Jack is walking Jamie back into town, his friend even admits, "It'd be better if I hadn't rejected you then, huh?" the brunette said jokingly, but it's slightly pained. "You wouldn't have gotten yourself into this mess for that boyfriend of yours." He said humorlessly.

"You know I'd find a way to make a mess of things either way, Jay." Jack laughs just as humorlessly. "And my, Jamie, now you fall for me?"

"You dork." Jamie elbows him. "As if I'd want you nipping my nose, Jack Frost. Don't know how Hiccup stands for it... but," He looked down. "... it makes him worth it, doesn't it? He's worth everything to you, huh?"

"You have no idea,

Jamie looked at his friend. "What's it like, Jack, to be in love?" he asked. "Do you just... know it when it happens?"

"Maybe... I guess... probably... I heard it takes trial and error first though." Jack winks teasingly at his friend. "So I guess that makes you the error."

Jamie elbows him once more, scowling.

They try not to be emotional about this. Jack's afraid, that any kind of emotional scene with Jamie might cause him to do something drastic. Like start that uprising in the lake mine. And as Aster says, District 12 isn't ready for that. If anything, they're less ready than before the Thawfest Quell announcement, because the following morning another hundred Guardians arrived on the train. Since Jack doesn't plan on making it back alive a second time, the sooner everyone lets go of him, his mother, Emma, Jamie, Aster... Hiccup, the better. Although Hiccup will never let go, Jack was sure of that. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Jack does plan on saying one or two things to them after the reaping, when they're allowed an hour for good-byes. To let Jamie know how essential he's been to him all these years. How much better his life has been for knowing him. To apologize to his mother one last time. For not loving her the way she deserved to be loved. To sing to Emma in the most memorable way possible, for those future lonely nights he no longer will be around for.

But he never got the chance.

The day of the reaping's hot and sultry. The population of District 12 waits, sweating and silent, in the square with machine guns trained on them. Jack stands in a small roped-off area with Hiccup and Aster. The reaping takes only a minute. Tooth, as colorful as ever, lacks her usual verve. She has to claw around a single reaping ball twice. Three males. No females. But the requirement of two Lights still stands.

First name drawn is Jack's. Then she catches Aster's name. He barely has time to shoot Jack an unhappy look before Hiccup has volunteered to take his place.

"You're not the only one who can volunteer for a loved one." Hiccup teased half-heartedly, Toothless in his arms. They they stood, once more, face to face.

Jack smiled sadly. "Wish I was."

They are immediately marched into the Justice Building to find Head Guardian Alvin waiting for them. "New procedure," he says with a smile.

They're ushered out the back door, into a car, and taken to the train station. There are no cameras on the platform, no crowd to send them on their way. Aster and Tooth appear, escorted by guards. Guardians hurry them all onto the train and slam the door. The wheels begin to turn. And Jack's left staring out the window, watching District 12 disappear, with all his good-byes still hanging on his lips. They both remain at the window long after the woods have swallowed up the last glimpse of their home. This time Jack doesn't have even the slightest hope of return. Before his first Games, he promised Emma he would do everything he could to win, and now he sworn to himself only to do all he can to keep Hiccup alive. He will never reverse this journey again. He'd actually figured out what he wanted his last words to his loved ones to be. How best to close and lock the doors and leave them sad but safely behind.

And now Berk has stolen that as well.

Hiccup notices Jack's forlorn expression and reaches out to hold his hand, carrying Toothless with the other. "We'll write letters, Jack," he says. "It will be better, anyway. Give them a piece of us to hold on to. Aster will deliver them for us if ... they need to be delivered."

Hiccup knew he would do all he can to make sure Jack would live through this. To come home. But if he fails, and they both die, well... at least they would leave a piece of them for their families and friends.

For Aster.

Jack shook his head and flops himself on top of his lover. Hiccup had to drop Toothless just to hold the taller boy up. Hiccup stands there, running his fingers through Jack's white hair, and Jack knows he will never write those letters. They will be like the speech he tried to write to honor Vanellope and Ralph in District 11. Things seemed clear in his head and even when he talked before the crowd, but the words never came out of the pen right. Besides, they were meant to go with embraces and kisses and a stroke of Emma's hair, a caress of his mother's face, a squeeze of Jamie's hand. They cannot be delivered with a wooden box containing his cold, stiff body. Too heartsick to cry, all Jack wants is to curl up on a bed and sleep until they arrive in Berk tomorrow morning.

But he had a mission. It's more than a mission. It's his dying wish.

Keep Hiccup alive.

And as unlikely as it seems that he can achieve it in the face of Berk's anger, it's important that Jack be at the top of his game. This won't happen if he's mourning for everyone he loves back home.

Let them go, Jack tells himself. Say good-bye and forget them. He does his best, thinking of them one by one, releasing them like birds from the protective cages inside him, locking the doors against their return.

The boys decided to head to bed for the time being, just comforting each other in an embrace. Their only entertainment was Toothless pawing around with things.

"You sure it's a good idea?" Jack asked.

"What is?"

"Bringing Toothless." Jack mused. "You know, with that little... issue?"

Hiccup looked at his cat frolicking around the room. "Well... the team wouldn't be the same without him. Besides," he didn't meet Jack's eyes. "I rather he died with me, as himself, than to risk Berk finding him and turning him to something he's not for their own gain... and I'm not there to prevent that..."

Jack sighed, cuddling him closer. "You're not the one dying in there between us, Hic."

"Yeah, keep thinking that." Hiccup snorted.

Before Jack can respond, Tooth knocks on the door to call them to dinner. The meal's subdued. So subdued, in fact, that there are long periods of silence relieved only by Toothless' meow and the removal of old dishes and presentation of new ones. A cold soup of pureed vegetables. Fish cakes with creamy lime paste. Those little birds filled with orange sauce, with wild rice and watercress. Chocolate custard dotted with cherries. Jack and Tooth make occasional attempts at conversation that quickly die out.

"I love your new dress, Tooth," Jack says. "And... is that black pattern..."

He was talking about the necklace. A gemstone that was fashioned like a Nightfury silhouette hangs on it.

"Thank you. I had it especially done to match Hiccup's pin. I was thinking we might get an accessory for everyone and maybe find Aster a black bracelet or something so we could all look like a team," says Tooth.

Evidently, Tooth doesn't know that Hiccup's Nightfury pin is now a symbol used by the rebels. At least in District 8. In Berk, the Nightfury is still a fun reminder of an especially exciting Nightmare Games. What else could it be? Real rebels don't put a secret symbol on something as durable as jewelry. They put it on a wafer of bread that can be eaten in a second if necessary.

"I think that's a great idea," Jack manages. "How about it, Kangaroo?"

Aster granted. "Yeah, whatever." He's not painting but Hiccup can tell he'd like to be.

He's in a miserable state. If he were the Light, he would have owed the boys nothing and could paint as he liked. Now it's going to take all he's got to keep at least one of them alive in an arena full of his old friends, and he'll probably fail.

"Maybe we could get you a wig, too," Jack say in an attempt at lightness. He just shoots him a look that says to leave him alone, and they all eat their custard in silence.

"Shall we watch the recap of the reapings?" says Tooth, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a white linen napkin.

Hiccup goes off to retrieve his notebook on the remaining living victors, and they gather in the compartment with the television to see who their competition will be in the arena. They are all in place as the anthem begins to play and the annual recap of the reaping ceremonies in the twelve districts begins. In the history of the Games, there have been seventy-five victors. Fifty-nine are still alive. Jack recognize many of their faces, either from seeing them as Lights or mentors at previous Games or from the recent viewing of the victors' tapes. Some are so old or wasted by illness, drugs, or drink that he can't place them. As one would expect, the pools of High Lights from Districts 1, 2, and 4 are the largest. But every district has managed to scrape up at least one female and one male victor. The reapings go by quickly. Hiccup studiously puts stars by the names of the chosen Lights in his notebook. Aster watches, his face devoid of emotion, as friends of his step up to take the stage.

Tooth makes hushed, distressed comments like "Oh, not Mary." or "Well, Eret never could stay out of a fight," and sighs frequently.

For Jack's part, he tries to make some mental record of the other Lights, but like last year, only a few really stick in his head. There's the classically beautiful brother and sister from District 1 who were victors in consecutive years when Jack was little. Gaston, a volunteer from District 2, who must be at least forty and apparently can't wait to get back in the arena. Jean Kirschtein, the handsome yet horse-faced guy from District 4 who was crowned ten years ago at the age of fourteen. He volunteered for a frazzled young man with shaggy, blond hair and blue eyes. Jack recalled his name being Armin Arlert from when he won his games. It surprised him too that he won not to mention he was also younger than Jean was. For the female, it's an eighty-year-old woman who needs a cane to walk to the stage. Then there's Astrid Hofferson, the only living female victor from 7, who won a few years back by pretending she was a weakling. The woman from 8 who Tooth calls Mary, who looks about thirty, has to detach herself from the three kids who run up to cling to her. Eret, a man from 11 who Jack knows to be one of Aster's particular friends, is also in.

Jack's called. Then Aster. And Hiccup volunteers. One of the announcers actually gets teary because it seems the odds will never be in their favor, the star-crossed lovers of District 12.

The commenter pulls herself together to say she bets that "these will be the best Games ever!"

Aster leaves the compartment without a word, and Tooth, after making a few unconnected comments about this Lights or that, bids them good night.

Jack just sits there watching Hiccup rip out the pages of the victors who were not picked. "Why don't you get some sleep?" The older boy asked.

"Because I can't handle the nightmares. Not without you,"Hiccup replied simply. "They are sure to be dreadful tonight... What are you going to do?"

Jack comes over and embraces him from behind. "Guess I'm gonna have to wait on you. Then we'll go to bed together," he says.

~o~

Hiccup looks over his notes, studying as much information as he can till he's so weary they have to go to sleep. Even with his back against Jack's chest, his arms around him and Hiccup's own hands on Jack's arms, it's only within a few hours the brunette awake from a nightmare where that old woman from District 4 transforms into a large rodent and gnaws on his face. Hiccup barely knows he's was screaming, until Jack's voice reaches his ears, trying to calm him down. When it's decided Hiccup couldn't sleep any time soon, they pull on robes. Staying in the compartment is impossible, so they decided to go and find something to help Hiccup settle his nerves or just wait till he gets sleepy once more. Whichever comes first. They decided to leave Toothless though, since the cat is so comfortably asleep.

They went into the room they were previously in earlier to watch the recaps on the reaping. Beside the couch is the box Tooth sent of tapes of the old Nightmare Games. Hiccup recognizes the episode in which Gaston became victor on top of the pile.

"Want to talk about it?" Jack asks from the couch after he finished up ordering something for them. Hiccup is still standing by the box of tapes.

Sometimes that can help, talking about it, but Hiccup just shakes his head, feeling weak that people they haven't even fought yet already haunt him. When Jack holds out his arms, the brunette walks straight to him and settles on Jack's lap, straddling him.

Hiccup wraps his arms tightly around the older boy's neck Jack pulls him in close and buries his face in the brown tangled locks. Warmth radiates from the spot where Jack's lips just touch Hiccup's neck, slowly spreading through the rest of him. It feels so good, so impossibly good, that the brunette knows he will not be the first to let go. And why should he?

The arrival of the Berkian attendant with the warm milk is what breaks them apart. He sets a tray with a steaming ceramic jug and two mugs on a table.

"I hope you enjoy them," The man says.

"Thanks,"

"And I added a touch of honey to the milk. For sweetness. And just a pinch of spice," he adds. He looks at them like he wants to say more, then gives his head a slight shake and backs out of the room.

"What's with him?" Jack wonders.

Hiccup shrugs. "I think he feels bad for us,"

"Right," Jack snorts, pouring the milk.

"I mean it. I don't think the people in Berk are going to be all that happy about our going back in," insists Hiccup. "Or the other victors."

"Hm. Maybe... They get attached to their champions. But I'm guessing they'll get over it once the blood starts flowing," Jack says flatly. Really, if there's one thing he doesn't care for, it's worrying about how the Thawfest Quell will affect the mood in Berk. "So, we watching all the tapes again?"

"Not really. Let's just sort of skip around to see people's different fighting techniques," says Hiccup.

Jack nods "Who's first?" he asked.

"You pick," says Hiccup, holding out the box.

The tapes are marked with the year of the Games and the name of the victor. Jack digs around and suddenly find one in his hand that they have not watched. The year of the Games is fifty. That would make it the second Thawfest Quell. And the name of the victor is Aster E. Bunnymund.

"We never watched this one," Jack muttered.

Hiccup shakes his head. "No. I knew Aster didn't want to. The same way we didn't want to relive our own Games. And since we're all on the same team, I didn't think it mattered much."

"Is the person who won in twenty-five in here?"

"I don't think so. Whoever it was must be dead by now, and Tooth only sent us victors we might have to face."

Hiccup weighs Aster's tape in his hand.

"Why? You think we ought to watch it?"

"It's the only Quell we have. We might pick up something valuable about how they work," Jack says. But he feels weird. It seems like some major invasion of Aster's privacy. He doesn't know why it should, since the whole thing was public. But it does. Jack though has to admit he's also extremely curious.

"We don't have to tell Aster we saw it."

"Okay," Hiccup agrees.

He puts in the tape and they curl up next to each other on the couch with milk, which is really delicious with the honey and spices, and loses themselves in the Fiftieth Nightmare Games.

After the anthem, they show President Pitchner drawing the envelope for the second Thawfest Quell. He looks younger but just as repellent. He reads from the square of paper in the same onerous voice he used for theirs, informing Burgess that in honor of the Thawfest Quell, there will be twice the number of Lights. The editors smash cut right into the reapings, where name after name after name is called. By the time they get to District 12, Hiccup's completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of kids going to certain death. There's a woman, not Tooth, calling the names in 12, but she still begins with "Ladies first!" She calls out the name of a girl who's from the Seam, the boys can tell by the look of her, and then Hiccup hears the name Elinor Dunbroch.

"Oh!" Hiccup says. "She was my mother's friend."

The camera finds her in the crowd, clinging to two other girls. All brunettes. One definitely a merchants' kid and the other is...

"I think that's your mother hugging her," says Jack quietly. And he's right. As Elinor Dunbroch bravely disengages herself and heads for the stage, the boys catches a glimpse of Valka at about his age, and she was beautiful.

He remembers what Stoick always said whenever it's their wedding anniversary "You're as beautiful as the day I met you." Hiccup chokes up a bit, knowing he'll never hear his dad tell his mom that anymore... and he'll never hear Jack say that to him at their never-to-happen wedding anniversaries.

Holding her hand and weeping is another girl who looks just like Elinor. But a lot like someone else they know, too.

"Heather," Hiccup says. "That's her mother. She and Elinor were twins or something,"

Jack says. "Y-yeah... My dad mentioned that once."

Hiccup thinks of Heather's mother. The Mayor's wife. Who spends half her life in bed immobilized with terrible pain, shutting out the world. He thinks of how he never realized that she and his mother shared this connection. Of Heather showing up in that snowstorm to bring the painkiller for Jack and Stoick. Of how they were always silent friends all this time.

Aster's name is called last of all. It's more of a shock to see him than Valka. Young. Strong. Hard to admit, but he was something of a looker. His hair wasn't gray yet and but still tied in a ponytail, those gray Seam eyes bright and, even then, dangerous.

"Oh. Jack, you don't think he killed Elinor, do you?" Hiccup bursts out.

"With forty-eight players? I'd say the odds are against it," says Jack. Not to mention, in the course of the history of these games, he always heard how most Districts excluding the Highs' avoid killing their partner Light.

The chariot rides in which the District 12 kids are dressed in awful ice cubes' outfits and the interviews flash by. There's little time to focus on anyone. But since Aster is going to be the victor, they get to see one full exchange between him and Roxanne Richie, who looks exactly as she always does in her twinkling midnight blue dress.

"So, Aster, what do you think of the Games having one hundred percent more competitors than usual?" asks Roxanne.

Aster shrugs. "I don't see that it makes a bloody much difference. They'll still be one hundred percent as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be roughly the same."

The audience bursts out laughing and Aster gives them a half smile.

Snarky.

Arrogant.

Indifferent.

"He didn't have to reach far for that, did he?" Hiccup snorts.

Now it's the morning the Games begin. They watch from the point of view of one of the Lights as she rises up through the tube from the Launch Room and into the arena. Jack can't help but give a slight gasp. Disbelief is reflected on the faces of the players. Even Aster's eyebrows lift in pleasure, although they almost immediately knit themselves back into a scowl. It's the most breathtaking place imaginable. The golden Cornucopia sits in the middle of a green meadow with patches of gorgeous flowers. The sky is azure blue with puffy white clouds. Bright songbirds flutter overhead. By the way some of the Lights are sniffing, it must smell fantastic. An aerial shot shows that the meadow stretches for miles. Far in the distance, in one direction, there seems to be a woods, in the other, a snow capped mountain. The beauty disorients many of the players, because when the gong sounds, most of them seem like they're trying to wake from a dream. Not Aster, though. He's at the Cornucopia, armed with weapons and a backpack of choice supplies. He heads for the woods before most of the others have stepped off their plates. Eighteen Lights are killed in the bloodbath that first day. Others begin to die off and it becomes clear that almost everything in this pretty place—the luscious fruit dangling from the bushes, the water in the crystalline streams, even the scent of the flowers when inhaled too directly—is deadly poisonous. Only the rainwater and the food provided at the Cornucopia are safe to consume. There's also a large, well-stocked High Lights pack of ten Lights scouring the mountain area for victims.

Aster has his own troubles over in the woods, where the fluffy golden squirrels turn out to be carnivorous and attack in packs, and the butterfly stings bring agony if not death. But he persists in moving forward, always keeping the distant mountain at his back.

Elinor turns out to be pretty resourceful herself, for a girl who leaves the Cornucopia with only a small backpack. Inside she finds a bowl, some dried beef, and a blowgun with two dozen darts. Making use of the readily available poisons, she soon turns the blowgun into a deadly weapon by dipping the darts in lethal substances and directing them into her opponents' flesh. Four days in, the picturesque mountain erupts in a volcano that wipes out another dozen players, including all but five of the Highs pack. With the mountain spewing liquid fire, and the meadow offering no means of concealment, the remaining thirteen Lights—including Aster and Elinor—have no choice but to confine themselves to the woods.

Aster seems bent on continuing in the same direction, away from the now volcanic mountain, but a maze of tightly woven hedges forces him to circle back into the center of the woods, where he encounters three of the Highs and pulls a bladed boomerang. They may be much bigger and stronger, but Aster has remarkable speed and has killed two when the third disarms him. That High is about to slit his throat when a dart drops him to the ground. Elinor Dunbroch steps out of the woods.

Elinor speaks in this accent almost as affected as Berk's. "We'd live longer with two of us."

"Guess you just proved that," says Aster, rubbing his neck. "Allies?"

Elinor nods. And there they are, instantly drawn into one of those pacts one' would be hard-pressed to break if one ever expects to go home and face their district.

Just like Jack and Hiccup, they do better together. Get more rest, work out a system to salvage more rainwater, fight as a team, and share the food from the dead Lights' packs. But Aster is still determined to keep moving on.

"Why?" Elinor keeps asking, and he ignores her until she refuses to move any farther without an answer.

"Because it has to end somewhere, right?" says Aster. "The arena can't go on forever."

"What do you expect to find?" Elinor asks.

"I don't know. But maybe there's something we can use," he says.

When they finally do make it through that impossible hedge, using a blowtorch from one of the dead Highs' packs, they find themselves on flat, dry earth that leads to a cliff. Far below, they can see jagged rocks.

"That's all there is, Aster. Let's go back," says Elinor.

"No, I'm staying here," Aster says.

"All right. There's only five of us left. May as well say good-bye now, anyway," Elinor says. "I don't want it to come down to you and me."

"Okay," he agrees.

That's all. He doesn't offer to shake her hand or even look at her. And she walks away.

Aster skirts along the edge of the cliff as if trying to figure something out. His foot dislodges a pebble and it falls into the abyss, apparently gone forever. But a minute later, as he sits to rest, the pebble shoots back up beside him. Aster stares at it, puzzled, and then his face takes on a strange intensity. He lobs a rock the size of his fist over the cliff and waits. When it flies back out and right into his hand, he starts laughing.

That's when Elinor's scream is heard. The alliance is over and she broke it off, so no one could blame him for ignoring her. But Aster runs for her, anyway. He arrives only in time to watch the last of a flock of candy pink birds, equipped with long, thin beaks, skewer her through the neck. He holds her hand while she dies, and all Jack can think of is Vanellope and how he was too late to save her, too.

Later that day, another Light is killed in combat and a third gets eaten by a pack of those fluffy squirrels, leaving Aster and a girl from District 1 to vie for the crown. She's bigger than he is and just as fast, and when the inevitable fight comes, it's bloody and awful and both have received what could well be fatal wounds, when Aster is finally disarmed. He staggers through the beautiful woods, holding his intestines in, while she stumbles after him, carrying the ax that should deliver his deathblow.

Aster makes a beeline for his cliff and has just reached the edge when she throws the ax. He collapses on the ground and it flies into the abyss. Now weaponless as well, the girl just stands there, trying to staunch the flow of blood pouring from her empty eye socket. She's thinking perhaps that she can outlast Aster, who's starting to convulse on the ground.

But what she doesn't know, and what he does, is that the ax will return. And when it flies back over the ledge like a boomerang, it buries itself in her head. The cannon sounds, her body is removed, and the trumpets blow to announce Aster's victory.

Jack clicks off the tape and they sit there in silence for a while.

Finally Jack says, "That force field at the bottom of the cliff, it was like the one on the roof of the Training Center. The one that throws you back if you try to jump off and commit suicide. Aster found a way to turn it into a weapon."

"Not just against the other Lights, but Berk, too," Hiccup says.

"You know they didn't expect that to happen."

It wasn't meant to be part of the arena. They never planned on anyone using it as a weapon. It made them look stupid that he figured it out. Jack bets they had a good time trying to spin that one. Bet that's why they don't remember seeing it on television.

Jack snickers. "It's almost as bad as us and the berries!"

Jack can't help laughing, really laughing, for the first time in months. Hiccup just shakes his head like Jack's lost his mind—and maybe he has, a little.

"Almost, but not quite," says Aster from behind them. They whip around, afraid he's going to be angry over the boys watching his tape, but he just smirks and takes the remaining milk and leaves. He had a smudge of paint on his cheek that Hiccup managed to notice.

The brunette realizes something else, though, at that moment. He's spent all these weeks getting to know who his competitors are, taking down notes, without even thinking about who his teammates are. Now a new kind of confidence is lighting up inside of him, because Hiccup thinks he finally know who Aster is. And he's beginning to know who he was.

And surely, two people who have caused Berk so much trouble can think of a way to get Jack home alive.

A/N: Another chapter done! Please leave reviews guys and tell me what you think of the new castings. Especially Finnick's and Annie's