My Hope

Author: Nightstar Fury of Nightstar Productions.

Rating: M for Mature.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Dreamworks HTTYD or Dreamworks Dragons. I also don't own any of the songs I may use.

18; Crash.

The group was actually a little jealous seeing Hunter and Damien getting along so well but they kept it to themselves, they only had one thing on their mind. Getting Hunter back as their friend and with it now being Saturday, it was time for what Heather called Hunter's last race ever. The group couldn't let him give up racing because of them, they'd beg and plead if they had too but they would convince Hunter to stay a racer and then get him to be their friend again. Hunter did lie to them but he had his reasons, whatever they were. Sure it hurt Hunter didn't tell them but they were no better because they kept secrets from him too that he still didn't know about so why should they punish Hunter when they were just as guilty. The rest of that week after Heather gave them the tickets was slow, dragging on leading up until today. The day of the qualifying race for who would be representing Berk in the worldwide race.

Those who had their licenses and cars were in charge of picking up and driving the ones who did not. Astrid, Fredrick, and Eric were those lucky winners. Shaun, Rylee, Travis had their licenses but didn't have cars and their parents wouldn't let them take the cars to the race. Fredrick had work so he was driving himself and would meet them there before the race actually started at 2pm. Right now it was only 1. Astrid drove Rylee and Travis while Eric picked up Shaun since those two lived closer to one another. They both reached the race track and parked a few cars away from one another. By surprise, Fredrick met them at the ticket entrance panting. "I...managed to find cover and got off an hour early..." He breathed heavily.

"Good to see you man, glad you could make it." Eric said patting his back.

"Why are we here an hour early?" Rylee asked.

"In hopes of talking to Hunter before the race starts..." Astrid reminded. Nodding in agreement they filed into the arena track single file handing in their tickets then making their way to their seats which of course were right near Heather, Violet, Samuel, and Hope who was in Heather's arms.

"So you came." Heather remarked.

"We wanted...to talk to Hunter before the race started..." Fredrick said softly.

"It won't make a difference. He's made up his mind, even if he wins today he is passing it off to Damien." Heather sighed.

"You don't want him to stop racing either, do you?" Astrid asked now. Heather shook her head as Hope was clapping happily staring at the track when Toothless and Shadow came out in full gear. Any of the crowd who was already there began an uproar of clapping and cheering for him. The group looked now and saw him, he looked their way then sighed lowering his head a bit before he got on Toothless's back then took to the air to practice a few laps.

"Of course I don't but I can't stop him. He loves to race." Heather said gently.

"Why is he giving it up then?" Shaun questioned.

"Because he knows every time he races from now on, its only going to remind him how much he hurt you. You never forgave him for doing something he had to do, so now racing just reminds him that he lost a group of people who meant as much to him as his family does. It just reminds him that he betrayed you all by lying and keeping secrets. And he doesn't want to do something that reminds him of that pain." Heather stated looking back to the track to see Hunter doing basic moves with Toothless. The others frowned and looked forward as well, they had to convince him not to give it up. He loved to race, and they loved him racing. He couldn't stop because of them.

{Hunter's POV}

When Heather got home that night, she told me she gave the group the tickets but they'd never given an answer if they were coming of not. Seeing them in the stands near my family, it was clear they decided to come after all. I knew why too, probably to try and stop me from racing but this was something I had to do. I made this decision almost the same night I lost them as friends. Damien already knew that if I won this race, I was giving him the honor of representing Berk in the worldwide race since I was leaving the league. He tried to protest at first but I managed to get him to agree after an hour or two. I did love racing but not enough to keep doing it after I lied to my friends about it and lost them. I wasn't hurt anymore, I understand they couldn't forgive me for lying to them for so long.

Right now I was just doing practice laps with Toothless, the track never changed but the obstacles did often. I didn't practice those, they weren't hard for a Night Fury to do. I slowed Toothless down a bit not wanting to exhaust him before the race, Damien caught up with us on Shocker. The dragons made it seem like they hated one another, and Damien now wore a mask but we had microphones in them to talk to one another without anyone seeing us talk. My mask covered everything but my face and Damien's, created by my was dark purple to match Shocker and was built similar to mine. A way to see and breathe without anyone seeing his face although everyone knew who he was. It was there to conceal our friendship, anything seen on the track now was acting.

"You sure you want to do this, Hunt?" Damien asked.

"I'm not sure of anything anymore. I wish I could keep racing but I can't without getting that feeling that I'm being hated on." I replied.

"Why did you invite them here?" Damien tilted his head a bit.

"Because they need to be here to see this..." I looked forward again before sighing.

"I got your back brother. If this is what you want to do then I support you. And if you change your mind, I'm cool with that too." Damien said with a light chuckle of hopefulness.

"Thank you, but I've made my choice my friend." I answered.

We did a few more laps before landing to let our dragons get something to drink, by this point it was only 1:20pm, still a while to go before race time. More and more people were beginning to arrive and take their seats, I sighed leading Toothless off the track and into the stables. Damien and Shocker followed into their stall, we didn't speak unless it was by the system in our masks and even there we didn't say much or the other riders would catch on to us being friends. I worked on polishing Toothless's saddle and making sure the stirrups were alright to pass the time until 1:50pm. That's when I'd make it known. "This is it bud...You ready?" I asked my friend, he crooned in reply and nuzzled against me. "You're the best Toothless." I rubbed his head now.

{Regular POV}

We all watched as the clock moved slow until 10 before 2pm. Only 10 minutes left until the race started. The stands were filled with screaming, smiling fans. The race master Coldan came out with his microphone and a horn blew to quiet the crowd. It was time. The Haddock's tried to smile but it didn't work when they saw Hunter come out with Toothless, then the other racers following and lining up at the starting line. "Welcome to dragon racing folks!" Coldan announced. "We got a great race planned for ya today. As you know today is the qualifying race to see which of these racers will be representing Berk in the worldwide race in June." Coldan now looked back towards Hunter, well Shadow to him since he didn't even know who Shadow really was. They all saw Shadow give a nod to Coldan who sighed and nodded. "Before we start, one of the racers has a few words he'd like to say so...I give him to you. Shadow!" Coldan said.

The crowed roared with excitement, no one ever heard Shadow talk before. Coldan handed Hunter the microphone and stepped back. "Toothless, quiet them down for me bud." Hunter said, Toothless roared out silencing the crowd now and Hunter rubbed his head making him give a gummy smile. "I know you all want to see the race so I'll keep this short. As you all know, I began racing about 18 months ago under the name Shadow. I realize that I'm the only racer here who has never shown himself, there are a few who know the truth and I find that its only fair everyone does." The crowed whispers began as they looked ahead. Hunter sighed as he closed his eyes and put his hands to his mask and pulled it off revealing himself to everyone.

The group couldn't believe it. He just revealed himself to everyone! This even was televised too, so anyone now here in the stadium was seeing it. "My name is Hunter Haddock, I'm turning 18 in February and I'm a senior at Berk Academy. I'm the one you all know as Shadow. I'm sure you're all wondering why now at the qualifying race would I choose to show who I really am. Well, I'll tell you. Over the last two years, a lot of things happened in my life. I kept the truth about it all from people and I realized how wrong I was to keep secrets from the people I consider my family. You all come out every couple of weeks for these races so I decided that I didn't want to lie to any of you anymore. You all thought Shadow was some big shot guy, an adult, older, and well I can only assume what else you thought I was. But here I am. I'm just a high schooler who has made more than enough mistakes in his life and is best friends with a Night Fury."

"But why now do you choose to show yourself..." Asked one of the other riders.

"That reason is the one I asked Coldan to let me speak before the race. I decided to reveal myself because I'm done lying to people about who I am. Also...No matter what happens today, this will be my final race." Hunter said. Everyone gasped. "I've chosen to stop racing. It used to be fun, and now its just a reminder that I lied to people I care about, and people who come out to support me. So after today, I am done. And all I can say to people I know are here and listening..." He paused looking towards the group. "Is that I am sorry." Hunter handed the microphone back to Coldan and mounted Toothless getting back in line for the race.

"You're going down kid..." One of the racers scoffed.

"Doesn't matter if I win or lose." Hunter remarked. Coldan took his place before the racers with the flare gun pointed towards the sky.

"Racers ready!" Coldan called out, they all leaned forward on their dragons ready to take off. "This is a 20 lap race around the track and the final lap is when you tackle the obstacle course." Coldan announced. Hunter took the earpiece out of his mask and adjusted it on his ear.

"I'll stay right behind you." Damien told Hunter.

"Understood." Hunter replied nodding to him.

"On your marks...Get set...RACE!" Coldan yelled. He fired the gun and the dragons launched towards the sky and darted off.

"I can't...believe he just showed himself to everyone." Eric said.

"That...wasn't what he was going to do! He never told us that...He just said he was done racing after today..." Heather bit her bottom lip. She didn't like this, none of them did anymore. All they could do was watch the race, and hopefully talk to Hunter afterwards. By lap 19, Hunter still led with Damien either beside or behind him. The group figured this was because Damien would beat Hunter or Damien would finish second, Hunter first so he could give the honor to Damien. When the racers hit lap 19, they had to do the obstacle course. That's when things changed. The Nadder and Nightmare riders boxed Damien in and made him fall behind.

"Hunter, they are ganging up on you! Get out of there!" Damien called to him. Hunter looked back seeing what was going on now. They were trying to slow Damien down to get him alone, another Nadder rider shot ahead of Damien and behind Hunter.

"Fuck..." Hunter cursed. "Lets lose them Toothless!" His dragon roared and picked up speed in the obstacle course trying to manage everything. The crowd watched closely, the group was worried and so were the Haddocks. The Nadder rider had his dragon shoot its spines at Toothless, one struck his tail and he roared out in pain. "Toothless! Keep flying bud...I'll get the spike..." Hunter told him, his dragon nodded as Hunter took his feet out of the stirrups and turned around to crawl down Toothless's tail, he pulled the spike out and shot it like a dart back at the rider. Hunter quickly moved on to Toothless's back again. "They wanna play dirty...Toothless, plasma blast!" Hunter called.

Toothless whipped around mid flight and shot a purple blast at the Nadder, it was forced to land to avoid it. Toothless fixed himself as they shot towards the finish line. "The blast got them off my ass..." Damien stated.

"You're welcome..." Hunter said. Looking back he saw a the Changewing rider coming up on them fast. The dragon shoved Damien out of the way and right up behind Hunter and Toothless. "Great..." He looked ahead seeing the final obstacle, a straight shot up and over the wall. This wall was a good 30 stories high, the rider and dragon had to clear it then fly down and over the line to win. "Alright Toothless, just like we practiced. Straight up!" Hunter told his dragon who nodded and adjusted to fly straight up. Hunter looked back, now he noticed that the Changewing rider was masked. Whoever this rider was, they were new. He'd never seen them before. That was actually a little odd. Nevertheless, he just had to clear this and he was done.

Hunter looked forward again as they were still climbing up the wall, the Changewing rider got beside them and looked his way. The two were neck and neck as they got over the wall but as soon as they did, the Changewing rider jerked into Toothless making Hunter fall off and falling 30 stories down. "TOOTHLESS!" Hunter called. Toothless roared out diving straight down after his rider.

"Oh Gods!" Astrid covered her mouth in fear.

"HUNTER!" Heather screamed in fear. The Changewing rider was falling too but Damien caught up and caught that person looked towards Hunter and Toothless now. The crowd gasped in fear almost as Toothless beat his wings and caught Hunter's left foot in his mouth then pulled him up into his wings which wrapped around Hunter as Toothless left tail fin was ripped off on another obstacle, the two crashed to the ground in a roll. The area was silent all they could see was Toothless laying on his side, wings still obviously wrapped around Hunter and no one having any idea if either of the two survived a fall that far down and landing with such force.