Hiccup and Midnight.

A/N:

This hasn't been received very well, according to views, reviews, favourites and follows. But, unlike "dragon riders are go" I'm very interested in keeping this going.

Things are quiet in my inbox… if you've got anything to say by PM or Review, then I'm happy to hear it. Don't be afraid to say bad things about my stories if you have good reasoning.

End A/N

Midnight attempted to get Stoick's attention first, "Stoick? Are you okay?"

Stoick shook his head briskly, concentrating on responding to the question, "hello there stranger. If Hiccup welcome's you, I welcome you. By the way, why do you look so similar to Hiccup? You could be twins if not for your, ah, dragon features."

"Well, thanks to a strange coincidence, we're both originally named Hiccup. I gained the nickname of Midnight later on, though. Pleased to meet you, chief."

Stoick accepted the statement of his position with a thankful nod, before continuing to introduce their new guest, "well, that's certainly unexpected. But, welcome to Berk! There are a lot of places here, but it would take forever to explain each one, just ask when you need to know. Anyway, I should warn you that some in the village aren't very friendly to shifters or dragons. Thankfully the main culprit, Mildew, has gone, but be mindful."

Midnight was confused, he knew who Mildew was, from his own village, but, "what do you mean by gone?"

Stoick had to clarify quickly, "he's not dead, but he got abducted by the ring's dragons, a suitable fate for him, I think."

The large man had seemed pretty happy to be rid of the dragon-hater, so Midnight suspected that he might be friendly to half-dragons, but he had to be sure, "are you okay with the fact that I can shift?"

Stoick wasn't even fazed, instead he laughed hard; finding Midnight's timid question to be extremely humorous, "Of course I am; we took a while to trust Hiccup here, but he's shown his worth. I doubt that someone so similar to him would give us trouble"

Midnight was slightly in shock; he'd expected his introduction to be far less smooth; but the Chief regarded him casually. Eventually he recollected himself and shook the Chief's hand, "Thank you."

Stoick kept his happy demeanor, "You're welcome, consider yourself an honoured guest, [then, gesturing to his accompanying dragons] and them as well. I hope you enjoy Berk."

He left them alone and Hiccup took up the commentary, walking steadily away from Stoick's "what do you want to do now?

Midnight considered that for a while, "I guess you could show me more of your abilities,"

"there isn't a limit,"

He spoke these strange words before giving Midnight a taster of what he meant; summoning smoke, summoning fire, bending the earth up to form a small mound and then he reset it all.

Midnight was impressed; Hiccup powers that he couldn't even dream of "that's amazing! I only have dragon and god powers. Is there any downside?"

Hiccup nodded with sincerity, "I guess you would call them combat trials; Freyja keeps sending opponents up against me in greater and greater numbers."

This was not the explanation Midnight was expecting, "but if you have so many powers, then why is that a downside?"

Hiccup was trying not to let his agitation show too much; kicking some stones to vent his emotions. Then he addressed Midnight again, "I wanted peace, you, of all people, should understand that. Instead, I get constant attacks; fiery attacks from dragons turns into attacks large ship-bourn operations. I've stopped the war on dragons only to begin a war with Freyja." Hiccup said, voice dropping to an angry tone at the mention of his accursed godly nemesis.

Midnight was struggling to come up with any situations of his own which might rival Hiccup's, in terms of unpleasantness; he wanted to show empathy through shared suffering, but he couldn't get near the hell which was unending war. He could only give him his one current annoyance, "I don't know anything like that in my life. I could only talk about Shadewrath's sudden size change; he has grown 3 times larger."

Hiccup still didn't get how this was supposed to come close to his suffering. He turned more towards Midnight, annoyance present in his eyes, "that is no such pain. I would love to be nicer about it, but I've gone through this for a long time and I'm tired. Also, Shadewrath seems fine; I don't see how that temporary change would affect you."

"it was permanent" Midnight replied firmly, "he's still that size, only Night helped create an illusion that made him appear smaller."

This intrigued Hiccup; a reaction he had tenderly missed when it was swept away by ceaseless battles, "That is… Interesting… I can try to help, but first; can you show me? I've never seen such a thing."

Midnight dropped the illusion for Hiccup and his Toothless; Hiccup looked on in wonder while Toothless jumped as he saw the massive leg close by, part of Shadewrath's larger frame. The giant dragon was comically retracted into himself as he tried to keep his bulk from destroying nearby houses.

Hiccup took in the sight for a while, before trying to reduce the large dragon to his usual size. He was quite surprised when he couldn't; obviously something was preventing him from using his powers on Shadewrath. He informed Midnight, "I can't seem to do anything; this magic is not from Freyja."

He kept thinking for a moment about any other explanations, before breaking out in laughter. Midnight didn't know why, "Hiccup? what's funny?"

Hiccup turned to him; exhibiting far more activity than before, "it's free from her. I've thought that she was all-controlling and could follow me everywhere, obviously I was wrong. I would say your friend is gifted; he has a power from ancient sources."

This was far more than Midnight had been expecting; Ancient powers? Thankfully, he had someone who could explain, "That's… amazing. Could you let me talk to Night for a while? I want to know why this happened."

"Night?"

"the god of Night"

"okay," Hiccup agreed, allowing him to walk out of the village to talk to the god. Secretly he was jealous; he wasn't given the opportunity to interact with Night very often; Midnight seemed to be able to communicate with him whenever he pleased.

He still may have more powers than the other shifter, but the problems associated with such abilities made them cause more harm than good.

He supposed he could use Midnight to help him communicate with the god, to ask for help. Night interrupted, "Don't believe that Midnight is the only one who can talk to me."

Night's presence, his casual first contact, was not calming for Hiccup; he could feel anger rising as he thought about the lack of guidance he received from Night, all the events that could have been avoided with a little bit of guidance.

Despair settled in; in the same way that sadness is felt after realising what could have been. Toothless, friendly to Hiccup forever, came closer and leant in to offer Hiccup some emotional support; successfully as Hiccup perked up in time for the next message from Night, "Forgive me, I've been trying to keep Freyja calm; I would love to help you, but if I do, then she is likely to try to curse everyone under my protection. I hope you understand; it's either you or every Night fury and Night-related animal."

'oh'

He hadn't stopped to think about how others might be affected, and now he felt horrible for his greed. The effects were lessened, thanks to Toothless' presence, but it still cut deep into his mentality; he didn't want to be responsible for harm to other beings; animals; including the subset of humans, "I'm sorry" Hiccup sent, genuinely feeling guilty for his actions.

Eventually Midnight came back; jogging gently in a slight rush to tell Hiccup the news, "Hiccup. He told me that the ancient power was gained from a stone present during the creation of the first Night Fury. I hope that answers your question."

Hiccup was fascinated by the mention of a Night Fury origin, "where is it?"

Midnight was unsure what Hiccup was talking about for a moment, before he realised the place he had mentioned in his explanation, "you… you're mad! We don't know were that is and Why would we go?"

Hiccup pondered that for a moment; why did he want to go? It was just a site of ancient magic, why leave Berk to go look for an ancient relic?

In answer to this question, he first faltered, it was out of his comfort zone, but eventually he recovered, filling himself with determination that this was what he wanted to do. With this in mind he found it far easier to answer. He brought out his hand to indicate a list,

"firstly, we have a chance to find where Night Furies come from, surely you'd be interested in that? Secondly, there is a source of ancient magic on that island; magic pure from the effects of Freyja. I understand if you don't want to come, but I'm going to find it."

Midnight was taken aback by Hiccup's sudden will to travel, but also revered it at the same; recognising the same need to explore as he had himself. He grinned as he answered Hiccup,

"I'm with you, let's find this place."

Their dragon friends had overheard the conversation and listened, with bated breath as they decided; Toothless was the first to celebrate after Hiccup confirmed he would be going to the Night Fury's place of origin. Then Toothless (Midnight side) and Shadewrath showed their joy as Midnight agreed to come.

They talked excitedly among themselves until the riders got their attention.

"Come on Toothless, let's get ready" they said in unison, briefly getting confused with the similarity, before laughing it off and mounting their dragons. Toothless and Toothless briefly shared a friendly gaze before taking off together, unsure of where to go but they thought that Hiccup and Midnight would know.

They got their answer when Midnight got a message, "I see that you're going to try to find it yourself? Then you will need directions; 5 hours flight north by compass."

Midnight was unsure about where exactly north was; he typically navigated blindly. Night picked up on this confusion and informed Midnight where they would be going, "try asking Hiccup for a compass,"

Midnight agreed, albeit with some envy that he would have to rely on Hiccup, he gave his request to Hiccup before Night came into his mind again with a stern tone, "Midnight, my faithful servant, you should not be jealous of Hiccup; he is cursed by Freyja, as you know, and it's worse than you can imagine."

Midnight raised an eyebrow, as Hiccup focused on summoning the object, and asked for clarification; "how would you know?"

There was a long sigh that echoed around Midnight's head as Night recounted the memories, "I've been under her curse before; Once upon a time, I wasn't willing to let magic occur in my territory. Wizards and witches working under Freyja would find their powers waning at night."

This was remarkably childish for a god, Midnight thought. Hiccup hadn't figured out how to use the compass yet, so Midnight pushed on, hoping for more information about why he was acting so strangely and against Freyja, "It sounds… petty. Why were you intolerant of Freyja?"

Night was annoyed; his sudden influx of emotion causing a strange, although nice looking, darkness to fall around Midnight and Toothless, "You make it sound like it has no reasoning, that is not true; for a god, power means everything, but Freyja was getting too much, quite simply because she had no limits; Thor was limited to thunderstorms, I am limited by Night time, but Freyja can exercise her control over magic and *ahem* fertility anytime she likes. That's too much power for a single god and so I felt it was reasonable to stop her."

By this time, Hiccup had worked out how a compass worked; turning to fly over miles of ocean water instead of miles of ocean water; whatever compass Hiccup had, Midnight hoped it was actually leading them in the right direction.

Toothless (m) and Shadewrath asked permission to Midnight before changing course; Midnight didn't think much on this, but Night, again, found something to say about it, "that's another thing that you have; allies. Hiccup doesn't have any friends outside of his own island; you have a whole foreign fleet who respect you. That's something to be proud of."

Hearing Night compliment him was a new experience, "thanks, why are you being nice to me?"

Night huffed; why did he have to explain himself? A niggling grudge festered in his mind about how ungrateful these riders were with their gift of flight, but it went away quickly, "Is there any reason why I shouldn't? You have my blessing, remember that.

Putting this off as simply 'placebic information', Midnight returned his attention to the real world; the sight of the murky water under a cloudy sky; magnified by his improved vision, the feeling of the breeze as they cruised along at a sedate pace. He busied himself with scanning the surroundings for something interesting in preparation for the long flight.

In his intense look at the surroundings he still failed to see a bola approaching before it neatly entangled Hiccup off Toothless; both Dragon and rider buckling, but ultimately only Hiccup falling to earth.

It took him a while to make sense of the situation; especially with his balance disoriented by the falling and spinning. However, he eventually had the revelation of using his dragon form to break out; the enlarged form breaking his fall as the bola snapped at the points it had entangled Hiccup before.

Midnight was temporarily distracted by the sudden attack and then he tried to look for the source of the unwanted projectile; he was surprised to watch as a sea-blue vessel rapidly picked up speed from a halted, ambush position. Now that the ship was outlined by movement, Midnight could see 4 bola launchers and two large, blockish weapons squeezed onto the thin deck of the ship.

Hiccup did not want to be a stationary target, now that he knew they were under attack. He hid himself in some smoke and climbed for a better altitude.

The gunners on board the ship were patiently tracking the red dot on the sight of their weapons; they had been told that the sight was 'enchanted'; being able to see hot things somehow. The wisdom of having such a strange sight was confirmed when Hiccup tried to smoke himself out of sight; they still had his trace and fired upon it.

The members of the convoy that were not being targeted were trying to help the situation; Midnight suggested a combined precise strike from everyone present, but Toothless (H) disagreed, saying that the gunners were too close to their weapons for a safe attack.

Midnight quietly cursed the simple fact; he was used to using shots to help and now, apparently, he was helpless, "what do you think I should do?!" he said to Toothless with confused anger; he thought that Toothless would have come up with something; due to his quick rebuttal.

However, he had not, "I can't help you there, I can only warn you not to hit the machines with a bolt… Sorry"

Midnight cursed; the projectiles were still being fired from the ships and none of them knew what to do.

Night, who had been watching, was waiting for the joke to end; they were night furies, he knew that they were capable. Although, after a while, he began to suspect that they were just watching and sincerely didn't know what to do.

He came into Midnight's mind, impatient for them to fix the problem and get on with it, "come on, why are you waiting?!"

"we can't shoot the machines without hitting the men close to them."

There was a brief interlude as Hiccup interrupted, "Do they ever run out of ammo?", but Midnight ignored

The information was nice, but unnecessary and wasted time, from Night's perceptive, "By the darkness of my domain, Midnight! You're far more capable than just shots; get up close and personal!"

Midnight was split initially by his desire to help and Night's strange tone. He quickly decided on helping, especially after hearing Hiccup continued voicing his annoyance at the continued attacks.

He urged Toothless (m) to dive, letting Shadewrath follow as the other Toothless watched them go with indifference; he didn't really acknowledge Midnight's personal quest, instead he used this sudden shock to finally follow Hiccup.

He was annoyed at himself for letting go of Hiccup so easily this time, resolving to be far more cautious in the future. He quickly reached Hiccup, who was still doing various manoeuvres to help him evade the never-ending hail of arrows, and then flew right alongside him; close enough that their heat signatures matched.

He relayed this information to Hiccup soon after; a small amount of desperation showing due to his long delay and his worry that eventually one of the heavier projectiles would hit Hiccup. His statement came through and Hiccup nodded, before he came closer to Toothless and began flying erratically; confusing the gunners between the two heat sources.

However, since the two couldn't be sure if the gunners had been fooled, Toothless urged Hiccup to release Nótt; as a third confusing heat trace that would mean the best chance of evading the incoming shots.

Meanwhile, completely ignored by the ship's crew, Hiccup and Toothless (h), Midnight, Toothless (m) and Shadewrath dived towards the offensive ship; Midnight and Toothless landing on it while Shadewrath stayed overhead.

Barely a second after his foot had reached the floor, Midnight rushed at the gunners; knocking them off their respective machines without any chance for them to recover.

The battle was over; Hiccup, Toothless and Nótt descended from above as soon as they knew that the shots had stopped. Nótt's arrival caused intrigue among Midnight's side of the force, his sudden appearance unfathomable. Hiccup didn't seem to worry too much, taking a closer look at the machines that were trying to kill him, even praising the craftwork, before being confronted,

"who is he?" Midnight said, wary of a newcomer who had appeared from nowhere,

It took Hiccup a few seconds to snap out of his visual and haptic inspection, before he replied in a laid-back tone, with a slight chuckle towards the end "He was created out of my own mind, don't ask me for an explanation, I can't explain how."

Then he dropped the conversation to go back to surveying the ship. He took a closer look at each weapon on board before he turned to the crew, "She's a fine ship, I think I might remember her design for the future, you should be proud to have her."

He brought his hand away from the last weapon left unsurveyed and committed the blue prints to memory, sure it would come in useful. However, admiration for this ship aside, it was still a dragon-hunter and he wanted to remove it's capability for that purpose; wrenching each of the larger weapons from their ball-and-socket joints, throwing those into the sea and burning the smaller ones, to the discomfort of the crew as they felt the heat radiating off the burning pile.

Finally he looked back to Midnight, who was getting impatient watching while Hiccup just observed and messed around with the ship he had captured. He decided, quite reasonably, to voice this annoyance before Hiccup did something else, "Are you done looking at the ship? I didn't secure it for you to… wander around on it for a while."

Hiccup personally didn't see the problem with walking around the ship; it was a marvellous ship, for Thor's sake. But, he respected that Midnight didn't seem to be as interested and obliged him his obvious intention to leave, "Just looked interesting, shall we leave?"

"No" Midnight responded in a low, serious tone. Hiccup was surprised, and slightly worried, but Midnight simply took the time to break the brittle oars with tiny, precise shots; worrying the crew even more. Although, luckily for them, he chose to leave them alone after that,

"Okay, now we can leave" Midnight said, still serious, but placated with his assurance that the vessel wouldn't follow them.

Hiccup took one last look, resumed his previous neutral attitude, climbed on Toothless and took off again.

It didn't take long for Midnight to follow, ignoring the ship behind him.

Now they were back on track.

End of chapter

A/N

I hope you enjoyed. I myself am a bit critical of how much dialogue there was, but I can work on that.