"I'm telling you, Hookfang," said Hiccup, conversing with the Monstrous Nightmare. "Snotlout will be himself again if this works. He will not be the monster that you had to deal with."

"You can't be serious about this," crooned Hookfang. "Do you know how long Snotlout has tortured me? He's kept me chained up for months in his 'graagh!' of a great hall, and fed me little. He-"

"Wait, his what of a great hall?" asked Hiccup, turning to Arn.

"He said ghetto of a great hall," Arn answered, translating for the young chief. "Regardless, Hiccup is still right, Hookfang. If there is by any means a chance of redemption for Snotlout, you should at least try to welcome it. Even now, Gothi still works to erase his memories to make him back into the Snotlout you knew before."

"Can't you at least trust us?"

"Hmm…"

For nearly the whole night the three of them had been conversing. It was by this point that the early hours of the next morning came, all while the majority of Berk was still asleep. Hiccup sat by the fire pit downstairs along with Arn and Hookfang who sat nearby, and the two lads were attempting to convince the dragon to place his trust back into Snotlout.

Yet the Monstrous Nightmare still had his doubts.

"But what if it doesn't work?" Hookfang asked, huffing out air. "Who will be my rider? Who will help look after me?"

"If all goes wrong, I'm sure Gustav would be willing to help you out," replied Hiccup, to which Hookfang gave an uncomfortable look. There was no way in Odin he would accept him.

"Please, anyone else BUT him."

"Alright… well, then how about the other riders?" the young chief asked. "I'm sure they would be willing to look after you as much as Arn and I would, but only if Snotlout doesn't come around. Still, it'll be just like the good old days with you and all the other dragons together."

"And I guess if Snotlout does go back to his original self," continued Hookfang. "I'll have to try and get along with him..."

"If you can," nodded Arn. "And besides, Snotlout will feel lonely, because as of right now the entire town doesn't like him. Not even in the slightest."

"It's going to be a wake up call for him," replied Hiccup. "For one, I'll need to tell him that his father was murdered, and then of course I'm going to also have to tell him that we're going to war. But I don't even know how else he's going to react to-"

The silence of their conversation was suddenly disturbed. Hiccup and the others in the room heard two knocks at the door of the hut which to them was somewhat strange. Why would someone be up at this hour? In any case, who could be up at this hour?

Hiccup slowly stood from his seat, walking over to the door with his mind in wonder on who it could be. It was unlikely for it to be Astrid or any of the other riders since they were still asleep, yet he had a feeling in his stomach that perhaps this was important.

Upon opening up, Hiccup saw it was Gothi who stood outside. Her eyes gave an odd expression as if she had a breakthrough of some sort.

"Gothi?" he asked. "W- What are you doing here? You had me tensed."

The elderly seer responded by quickly stepping to the side as she pointed out with her staff to another figure that stood behind her. Judging by their physical characteristics, Hiccup could tell who it was. Black hair, buffed muscles, shorter height… it was quite obvious.

Hiccup turned back to Arn and Hookfang. "Leave us. Now," he said, and swiftly but quietly, the two began to make their way upstairs to Hiccup's room, barely making a noise.

Looking back to Gothi, she then gave him a nod as she proceeded to walk off, leaving him alone with Snotlout Jorgenson who came forward with an almost worried and intimidated look on his face.

"Hiccup… what's going on? Why is there a fleet docked outside our harbor? ...W- Where's Hookfang?"

Immediately it dawned upon Hiccup that Gothi's ritual had worked. Snotlout could not remember a single thing that he did, and because of that, he did not know what was going on.

"Y- You've finally awoken from your coma, Snotlout," he said, to which the Jorgenson gave a surprised and bewildered look.

"W- What? I was in a coma…?" he asked. "How long has it been? How did I-"

"You were unconscious for nearly a year, Snotlout," responded Hiccup. "You got into a… flying accident with Hookfang, and it sent you into a deep coma. But many things happened while you were gone."

Snotlout felt his heart sink, and his worry went up. This could not be happening. This could not be real. How did he get into an accident? What happened while he was out?

"...What happened Hiccup?" he repeated. "Where is my dragon? I need to-!"

"Your dragon is safe," nodded Hiccup, until his expression suddenly changed as he then said, "But there's something I need to tell you, about both your father and as well as what has happened to Berk."

"All I can say is, I'm sorry…"

…

After inviting Snotlout inside, the two sat by the fire pit as Hiccup had a long conversation with him, getting him up to date.

He told Snotlout about all that had happened. How a new race, the orcs, came to Berk and constantly raided it. How they learned about the Dark Legions, as well as where they came from, and how their goal was to conquer and destroy all of Midgard. And of course, he also mentioned how they met their new friend Arn, and how they learned from him about the Wings of Midgard, the most powerful warriors to ever walk their world - and this was all without mentioning a single thing that the young Jorgenson had done.

But of course, Hiccup had to mention Spitelout's death. How he was murdered by the orcs, and that's when it really hit Snotlout.

Instead of blaming Hiccup like last time, the young Jorgenson sat there silently with tears running down his cheeks, wondering how any of this was possible. "I feel like I've thrown one year of my life away. If I had not gotten into that accident, I could have…"

"There was nothing any of us could have done," spoke Hiccup sympathetically. "When the orcs first struck out that night, we didn't see them coming. We quickly found out however, and then rushed to where they made their attack... We found your father, stabbed in the back with a lot of daggers, but it was too late."

"However, Gothi confirmed that he made it to Valhalla."

"I could have done something about it," Snotlout said with his voice shaking, narrowing his eyes down. "If I had been there by his side, if I had never gone into a coma, I could have saved him. Instead, the gods decided to… take him from me!"

Hiccup sighed, placing a hand on Snotlout's shoulder in comfort with a pat. "It's not your fault, Snotlout, nor the gods' fault. It's the orcs that are to blame. But even after your father's death, they kept making their raids on Berk - sending even more warriors with every attack, until it came to the point that my father decided to take the fight to them after we discovered that they took our ancestral home, the Island of Tomorrow."

"…They nearly destroyed us on that cursed island. Many of our men, as well as my father, didn't make it out alive. He's dead too, Snotlout."

Snotlout's eyes shot up to Hiccup. "So that means you're chief?"

"Yup," he nodded. "For nearly a month I had depression, but I was able to make it through. And that's what led me to a huge discovery that changed everything. As it turns out, the first Wings of Midgard were given powers by Odin himself, which would pass down their magics to their descendants, but only to those worthy of being a Wing of Midgard."

"Horren Haddock was my ancestor, and among the first Wings of Midgard. Hiccup Haddock I was among the second, but with his magic, he was able to glance into the future to see who the third generation of the Wings of Midgard would be…"

The lad went silent. It was then that Hiccup raised his right hand up in front of Snotlout and began putting tension into his arm, and with a flick of his hand, his palm conjured up flames which glowed brightly in a hue of orange. To this, Snotlout gave a look of shock.

"I am one of them."

Hiccup then crushed his hand into a fist, extinguishing the fiery magic that he conjured up into nothing but smoke. "With these magics at our side, we may yet have our revenge. Both you and I will be able to avenge our fathers, and give the orcs what's coming to them."

"Us?" chuckled Snotlout, almost stuttering. "I- I think you're mistaken, Hiccup. I'm not a Wing of Midgard like you. Ho- How could I ever be able to use magic like you? Let alone be able to-"

Hiccup shook his head. "Don't doubt yourself. Right now we can only assume, and yet I still have high hopes for you. Maybe when we reach Valnr, we'll be able to find answers - so long as Drago doesn't-"

"Drago?"

Hiccup immediately realized that he forgot to tell Snotlout about Drago, and by extent, who the leader of the Dark Legions was.

"I forgot to tell you, didn't I?" he replied, slightly uncomfortable. "When Drago's Bewilderbeast swam off into the ocean and took him with it, he didn't drown as we thought he did. Unfortunately, Drago managed to survive."

Snotlout shook his head. "That's impossible."

"That's what we thought as well," nodded Hiccup. "But when we met Drago in person, we were shocked. The only reason he survived was because he was saved and empowered by the beast who created the Dark Legions. The one responsible for setting all of these events into motion, and the evil that my ancestor and the Wings of Midgard imprisoned long ago."

"His name is Maldragor, as if it couldn't get edgy enough... Drago calls him a god, but according to a spellbook we have, which Hiccup the First wrote, the Wings of Midgard called him the Dark Master."

"That's… quite a bit to take in," Snotlout commented. "But if he is imprisoned, how the Hel was he able to empower Drago, or even save him?"

"I don't know. But I have reason to believe that whatever is binding him is weakening. I mean- Hiccup the First even wrote in the spellbook that he saw a vision of the Dark Master's return, but he never mentioned how, or even through who."

"So how do we stop them?" asked Snotlout. "If this Maldragor is really as powerful as Drago says, and he is some sort of dark god, I don't think we stand much of a chance if he does return. Not to mention the Dark Legions could be larger than we think."

Hiccup lightly smirked. "That's why we have allies. Those ships you saw in the harbor belongs to the dwarves and elves. Their kings and I made a decision to make Midgard's first alliance, made up of elves, dwarves, and humans."

"We call ourselves the Alliance of Midgard."

"The Alliance of Midgard? You mean we're actually going to go to war against-?"

Before Snotlout could finish, a loud resonating sound from outside boomed across the town. It was the sound of the morning horn, which meant that the whole village was about to wake up, as well as the elves and dwarves who slept on their ships. It seemed that the two vikings had been talking for so long that they did not notice the dim rays of sunlight coming in through the cracks of the walls around them.

"Looks like we'll have to talk about this later," sighed Hiccup. "But the others will need to know that you're finally awake. Whatever you do however, don't, wander, off..."

"What? Why?"

"Just trust me, Snotlout. You don't want to know why. Now come with me..."

I wish I could have made this chapter longer, but I unfortunately ran out of idea - so I do apologize. However, I will make it up for the next one and make it longer.

Either way, thank you for reading!