{Normal POV}
What should have been a joyous occasion that after seven full days Hiccup had woken up turned into something confusing and possibly a little horrifying. It started with hearing noise from within Stoick's house, and then Hiccup rushing out, afraid while being chased by a very excited Toothless to see him awake. However, it has now been revealed that Hiccup doesn't remember anything about the dragons, and he believes he's fifteen-years-old. This was confirmed by Gobber, who played along with him and asked a simple question. How old are ya again, and Hiccup responded that he was fifteen. Also, other clues were Hiccup saying that he was his father's disappointment, and didn't have any friends. Safe to say that things were indeed bad right now and nobody knew what to do. There was silence, people trying to recover from the shock; Toothless especially.
Why doesn't he remember me? Toothless asked while staring at his rider. Toothless tried to step towards Hiccup again, which made him panic and back up to his father.
Toothless, remember that he has been gone for a year, and endured quite a bit. I'm sure that it will just take some time to come back. Stormfly offered to the Night Fury.
I hope that's all it is, but we don't even know what he's been through. Toothless sighed as he decided for now, that it might be best to back off. Toothless stepped back and laid in the grass quietly. Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf, and Belch decided to leave the group as well to comfort their friend.
"Poor Toothless," Ruffnut frowned.
"He's been waiting a year for this, and Hiccup doesn't even remember him," Tuffnut added.
"Are you saying I know that dragon?!" Hiccup exclaimed.
"Yes! He's your best friend!" Snotlout yelled. Hiccup faltered slightly as he closed his eyes and held his head.
"No, he isn't! You're wrong! I-I don't have friends, and I don't have a dragon! I don't ride them; this is…all wrong!" Hiccup panted while shaking his head.
"Hiccup? Son, calm down," Stoick tried to reach for him but Hiccup pulled away quickly.
"What did I do?! Is this…punishment for something I did!?" Hiccup asked.
"No, Hiccup; you haven't done anything wrong. Please, relax. It's okay," Stoick attempted once more. Hiccup began to jerk away from every as Ryker got behind him while he wasn't paying attention, the grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed his fingers until Hiccup's eyes closed and his body went limp. Ryker fixed his arms and caught Hiccup, then picked him up carefully.
"What in the name of Odin did you do to my boy!" Stoick bellowed.
Oh, come on; we were all thinkin' it," Ryker admitted.
"What my dear older brother means is that allowing the freak out to continue does nothing except make it worse, so he elected to render Hiccup unconscious while we sort out whatever seems to have happened. I assure you that he hasn't been harmed and will awake soon. In such time; we should try to select a course of action on how to handle the situation at hand," Viggo enlightened calmly.
"I believe Viggo might be right, Stoick. I mean, the boy thinks he's fifteen again, when he's really almost twenty. Hiccup doesn't remember Heather, or defeating Red Death, Toothless, any of it," Gobber advised his friend.
"Bring Hiccup into the house, and then all of you come in as well. Gobber, fetch Gothi, and we'll see if she can shed some light on this," Stoick said. "And it might be best for now, to keep the dragons outside, and possibly hidden until we know what we're dealing with," he added with a sigh.
"I'll take them to the ring, Stoick," Spitelout offered.
"No, we don't want them to think anything is wrong. Let's just…keep them away from Hiccup," Stoick informed.
"Aye, Chief," Spitelout nodded.
"Everyone else, clear out! I'll let ya know what's going on as soon as we know," Stoick closed his eyes before opening the door to the house and letting Ryker follow him in with Hiccup.
…
Once everyone was inside the Chief's home, Ryker set Hiccup down on his bed. Initially, it had been upstairs in the bedroom but Stoick thought it would be easier to have downstairs where the fire was to keep him warm as Berk got quite cold all year round. Once that happened, Gobber arrived with Gothi.
"Elder Gothi," Stoick bowed his head to her. "Can you tell me what's happened?" Gothi walked over to Hiccup and moved the blanket to look at him. "Why does he believe he's fifteen?"
"Stoick. Shush, let her examine him first," Gobber rolled his eyes. Ten minutes passed before Gothi dumped a pouch of sand on the floor and spread it out with her boot before starting to draw symbols. "Says it might have to do with the torture, but she wouldn't be able to confirm anything without knowing for sure what he went through,"
"Which she said a week ago that only Hiccup knows, and now he can't remember it," Stoick sat in his chair with a heavy sigh. Gothi turned to the Grimborn brothers now, pointing at them, then motioning for them to sit.
"She's asking if you know about anything that Hiccup suffered," Gobber translated.
"Some, but not all," Ryker replied.
"We only caught glimpses, but we know what the guy was capable of doing. From what I understand; Hiccup had been there for a year, but we could give you a general idea," Viggo explained. Gothi motioned for them to go ahead.
"Gothi wants to know anything and everything you can offer to help figure out why Hiccup has lost five years of his memory," Gobber remarked.
"We mentioned earlier before he awoke. Daily beatings, whippings, they probably cut meals smaller, or none at all until Hiccup would have reached a point of starving to death," Ryker said.
"Hiccup was put against riled up dragons in an attempt to see how he trained them to survive, but Hiccup took whatever the dragons did until pulled out for fear of it killing him," Viggo added. "Sleep deprivation, dehydration, holding him under the water, making him sit in a freezing cold bath," he continued.
"Chained him up by his arms to hang for a day or so, that would come along with beatings and whippings too. There were instances of him being stabbed, cut, burned with hot metal," Ryker mentioned. Gothi rubbed her chin a bit while writing again.
"Gothi says that explains all the injuries, but not why it would cause Hiccup to believe he's fifteen again. Also, she questions if he whacked his head at all?" Gobber inquired.
"Not that we saw. The torture would go on until Hiccup either gave in or passed out," Viggo affirmed.
"And he never trained the dragons, so we can assume that's passed out several times," Astrid sighed. "Did they do anything else to him?"
"Well, there was one other thing," Ryker began. "It happened right before we rescued him,"
"Out with it," Snotlout glared.
"I'm afraid that all of Hiccup's refusal to the man in charge made him do something drastic to break Hiccup. And it might have succeeded, but Hiccup still said no to training his dragons," Viggo started before looking at them with what appeared to be apologetic eyes, from both of the brothers. "He was raped," a loud gasp of horror filled the room, eyes widening in shock.
"More than once. The first had been the leader, and the second…" Ryker trailed off.
"The leader let anyone of his workers have at Hiccup. Some went one at a time, others shared. By the time we got to Hiccup, he was lying motionless on the floor, naked, and passed out. We dressed him up the best we could and broke out. Hiccup came to long enough to train Cinder, then tell me how to fly, and what to say for you to leave us unharmed and out of prison. After that, he was unconscious until just earlier," Viggo finished his brother's sentence.
As everyone was about to yell that this wasn't mentioned right away, Gothi lifted her staff to silence them, then she began writing again. "Gothi thinks that overall; Hiccup's mind has reverted back to his younger years when he was, for lack of a better word, safe and left alone," Gobber translated the ruins.
"So that means these people did break him, and he might have given in to train their dragons if Ryker and Viggo hadn't broken him out?" Fishlegs asked.
"That wouldn't have been possible because Hiccup was very aware of his actions when we went to get him. We asked Hiccup if he would protect us if we got him free, and he very clearly stated; Get me out of here and you are safe," Viggo informed.
"And that happened directly after the rapes," Ryker added.
"Can I ask something? I know Dagur used to pick on Hiccup a lot, and that comment he made earlier about Dagur makes sense, but why…did he say he didn't have friends, and was your disappointment, Chief Stoick?" Heather pondered curiously.
"We weren't exactly…good to Hiccup growing up," Snotlout mumbled.
"Hiccup was as different as they come; he didn't represent anything Viking-like, and he spent a lot of time working on his inventions that typically always failed and destroyed something. Stoick used to publically scold him, remind him that he wasn't one of them, and definitely not a dragon killer," Astrid sighed.
"The day we learned about Hiccup befriending Toothless; Stoick said he wasn't a Viking, and wasn't his son. The entire Tribe shunned him, but he still went out to risk his life for us," Gobber looked down. "The lad never had it easy," he added.
"Yes; he mentioned all that once, right before the leader raped him," Viggo nodded.
Gothi began to draw once more. "Was there any methods used that weren't physical? Such as trying to get in his head?" Gobber read off.
"Well, now that you mention it; there might have been one or two instances," Ryker stated. Gothi told them to continue. Viggo began to explain everything about when Krogan told Hiccup that nobody was coming for him, and then the second time when Johann tried to get Hiccup to give in and get revenge on the Tribe, but Hiccup refused because he wouldn't betray the Vikings even if they had forgotten about him.
"And right before the rape; Hiccup dared him to do whatever because he didn't care and would help him by saying that he wouldn't break because he had nothing left, so there was nothing to lose," Ryker mentioned also.
"What do you mean?! We never gave up searching for him," Stoick stood quickly.
"And he knew that, but I guess you could say he accepted you might not be able to find him before the leader killed him," Viggo said, then went on to tell them what Hiccup noted to the others before the rape happened. At this, Gothi began to write once more.
"Gothi says she thinks she figured it out," Gobber announced.
"Is it that Hiccup reverted back to fifteen because that's when he had nothing?" Viggo asked. Gothi nodded.
"Hiccup always had us," Astrid glared.
"But you just admitted that you gave him a hard time growing up because he was different," Ryker motioned. Astrid flinched a little. "You didn't treat him like a member of the Tribe, and you never realized him being different is what ended your war. You didn't accept him until he risked his life for the Tribe that had abandoned him,"
"Unfortunately, my brother is right, though, I'm sure for you; it's not a truth you want to hear. Often times the truth hurts. It seems that Hiccup's memory of everything the last five years is being locked away because he can't cope with everything that has happened since befriending Toothless, so his mind is blocking it, and he only remembers everything before. To put it just; everything he endured the last year was to protect the dragons, and all of you, and the raping did break him. This is sadly the end result. At some point; he will remember when certain things trigger, but overall," Viggo paused.
"Hiccup's mind is making him forget everything before dragons, to a time when he didn't matter to anyone because at least back then; it didn't hurt when he had accepted that he had nothing and nobody," Ryker finished.
"Precisely, brother," Viggo nodded.
"And when he does remember; he still won't be the same Hiccup we know because of everything he suffered. Hiccup might never be the one we know and love," Gobber said after reading Gothi's symbols. "It's best to let him remember on his own, but know that he may not remember everything because of the trauma endured," he added.
"The best course of action would be to keep a distanced watch, and let him go about his day however he typically would have back then. As for the dragons; it would not be fair to exile them until Hiccup remember, so perhaps you explain to Hiccup that these dragons haven't raided the village, and there is a certain peace between both species. At least then, he doesn't have to be totally confused as to why dragons are in your lives," Viggo suggested.
"Then for now, that's what we'll do. I don't suppose you know how long until he remembers?" Stoick asked.
"Depends on if anything makes him remember, a similar situation, words, all of that," Ryker shrugged. "In his mind; he knows, but it's being blocked. Certain things will make it come forward in flashes, or perhaps all at once. It's hard to say," he stared.
Before another word could be said, there was groaning from Hiccup's bed. The group turned quickly as Hiccup was sitting up and with a hand on his head. Green eyes opened as Hiccup saw everyone looking at him. "Okay, this is…getting weird to wake up with people looking at me," Hiccup said.
"How do you feel, son?" Stoick asked.
"Um…Sore, I guess," Hiccup replied. "Have I…missed something?"
"No, Hiccup," Astrid informed. Hiccup blinked at her.
"I knew; I'm dead," Hiccup remarked.
"And why do you think that?" Tuffnut wondered.
"Because only in Valhalla would Astrid Hofferson talk to me," Hiccup said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Lad, look at ole Gobber now. What is the last thing you remember happening?" Gobber inquired. Hiccup relaxed a little and got out of the bed.
"I was in the forge working on a new invention; the Mangler. I designed it to…be able to fire bolas and take dragons down," Hiccup informed.
"And nothing else around you seems…different?" Gobber pushed.
"Aside from…the dragons being here…and everyone thinking they are my friend, and my dad…actually caring about me…No," Hiccup managed.
"Alright. When you were messing with that contraption, did you whack your head?" Gobber wondered.
"I…might have? Is that why I'm in this much pain?" Hiccup looked at him curiously. The blacksmith smiled some.
"Probably. You've…been out for a few days, and everyone is just…making sure you're okay. Gave me a scare, laddie. I'm too old for that," Gobber patted his shoulder once.
"I'm sorry. I'll…be more careful next time," Hiccup nodded to him.
"Good. Now, why don't you…come with me to the forge; I could use some help," Gobber suggested.
"Can I eat first? I'm staving," Hiccup inquired.
"Sure! We'll grab something on the way," Gobber agreed with him as they began to walk away.
"Anyone else hear his choice of words?" Snotlout asked the group.
"The I knew it; I'm dead thing?" Fishlegs pointed out.
"Isn't that exactly what Hiccup said when waking up from the Red Death fight?" Ruffnut questioned.
"We told you; his memories are still there, just blocked, and he'll remember on his own. Flashbacks will come forward either full, fragmented, or in sections at different times," Viggo crossed his arms over his chest. "Hiccup is in a delicate state, and the day he recalls the torture will determine the next course of action. All you can do now is try to go about living normal and waiting it out,"
"If that's what we must do," Stoick sighed.
…
Toothless hadn't been far from the house when everything got explained. Hiccup was blocking everything that he endured while kidnapped the last year, and it was coming forward as him not remembering anything from the previous five years, including that they had bonded and done so many amazing things together. Viggo assured that Hiccup would remember at some point with specific triggers, but how long that could take, and what would be remembered wasn't something that could be determined. For now, Hiccup was walking with Gobber back to the forge after they had grabbed something to eat. It hurt Toothless a lot because he missed his rider, his friend. Toothless was going to do whatever he had to do to protect Hiccup from these people. Toothless knew Hiccup would remember soon; it was their bond, so all Toothless needed to was hope and pray that something triggered Hiccup to feel that again.
