To Revenge, or Not to Revenge

Astrid shielded her eyes as she ran, swooping by Snotlout and Fishlegs and nearly stopping in relief when she saw that they were still fighting and the Night Fury hadn't been done away with. The only downside was that thick, hot drops of blood were dropping from both dragons, and Astrid couldn't see who was bleeding more. She hoped it wasn't the Night Fury.

"Set them up in clear range!" Astrid barked when they got closer to the continuing fight. "I hope your aim is good, because if you hit Hiccup I will see you fired!"

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Fishlegs asked.

"Help them with the angles and whatnot. You're good with that kind of stuff." Astrid turned to Snotlout. "Keep people away from here. Break dance or something. I don't care what you do as long as we don't get arrested."

"I love this plan! I'll take care of this!"

Astrid stood, mildly fascinated by the fact that Snotlout could, in fact, break dance, and he was pretty good at it.

"Have you got it set up yet?" she asked the firework crew, tearing her eyes away from Snotlout.

"Almost," Tuffnut grunted.

"A little to the left," Fishlegs advised. "The Coriolis Effect dictates-"

"I don't care," Ruffnut said, moving the object in question to the left. "You don't use that junk when you graduate from high school. In fact, you use the education you get for free in elementary and middle school more than the education you pay big bucks for in college! It's all a scam to force young adults to -"

"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?" Astrid roared. "You've already paid for a degree, and you aren't getting a refund! Are you almost done?" She took another peek at the sky. The White Death and the Night Fury had been climbing higher and higher, but now they were spiraling back down to the ground.

"You need to time it perfectly so it hits her, not Hiccup."

"Re-lax, Astrid," Tuffnut huffed. "What do you think we do at work all day, mess around?"

"Yes!" Astrid hated how the fight was going. Now that the dragons were closer, she could see that the white dragon was beating the Night Fury. "COME ON, YOU IDIOT!" Astrid screamed at the sky, hoping he could hear her. "You beat Alvin! She should be a piece of cake!"

As if he could hear her (and who wouldn't, with that volume?), the Night Fury shot a blast of purple fire at the White Death's chest, doing a fair bit of damage and separating him from it. It was just the chance the twins needed; they took aim, fired, and ran for the hills.

The result was glorious. Streaks of purple and red shot into the sky and barreled into the White Death's wings.

"Yes!" The twins slapped high fives as the white dragon tried to flap its wings and failed miserably. The Night Fury circled above it, blasting it almost angrily. The White Death's wings finally gave out and it began to plummet to the ground.

"Why isn't he finishing her off?" Snotlout asked, finishing his show.

"I don't know!" The Night Fury was being awfully slow. Instead of rushing Excellinor and pinning her to the ground, he was forcing her lower and lower until they were below the tops of New Berk City's skyscrapers.

"Why is he doing? Come on!" Astrid took off running, and the gang followed her, abandoning the fireworks. Why wasn't Hiccup forcing the White Death their way? She didn't know the pinpoint location of the two dragons were, but she took off in the general direction. How hard could it be to miss a couple of fire-breathing lizards?

Stopping for a second, she sucked in a deep breath to pacify her screaming side and yelled, "HICCUP!" She listened carefully, waiting to hear a reply, but nothing came.

Instantaneously, a column of flame erupted from an alley all the way down the street from where Astrid was and a sharp voice rang through the air. Hiccup.

A thousand possibilities running through her mind, Astrid began running again. Why was Hiccup yelling? Was he in trouble? Stupid question, Astrid. Hiccup was always in trouble. Why did he always try to take things on by himself, without the help of his friends? It only led to more trouble than was necessary. Thirty yards, twenty yards, Astrid narrowed the gap.

"Face me, you coward."

Astrid stopped about ten feet away from the mouth of the side street and rested with her hands on her knees. Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins came up behind her.

"Why'd you stop?" Snotlout exclaimed. "You made me smash my nose!"

Astrid hushed him.

"Turn back," Hiccup commanded, his voice strong, "or I'll shoot."

Astrid heard grunting. The lack of a gunshot told her Excellinor had complied.

"So it's the Dragon Boy." Excellinor's voice was cracked, but smooth like an amphibian's. "Come to take his medicine just like Camicazi?"

Astrid's heart dropped into her stomach. She stepped into the mouth of the alley to be met with a shocking sight. Excellinor was crouched at the end of the alley on all fours, blood freely dripping from her nose. Hiccup was standing, arms locked straight in front of him, his hands holding a gun. It was the same gun that Excellinor had pulled at the abandoned factory. With a start, Astrid realized that Excellinor hadn't been the one to reclaim the weapon. It had been Hiccup, and this was a part of his plan, why he wouldn't tell her.

"Six years ago, you killed mother," Hiccup declared, cocking the gun. "Prepare to die."

Had it been any other, any other occasion, Astrid would have laughed and called him a dork. Instead, her stomach sunk to her feet. "You don't want to do this Hiccup," she said.

He didn't turn around to look at her. "Yes, I'm pretty sure I do. If you haven't noticed, she killed my mother!"

Astrid could hear Hiccup's teeth grounding from ten feet away. That couldn't be good for his dental work.

"You're going to pay for what you did all those years ago," he hissed through clenched teeth. His white-knuckled grip on the gun was shaking. "Any last words?"

"Hiccup, you can't fix the past by breaking someone else," Astrid said, almost pleading.

"It's justice!" he argued. "She's killed hundreds of people!"

"It's not justice!" Astrid argued. "Murder is murder, no matter how you sugarcoat it. Do you really want to live the rest of your life with the price of someone's blood on your hands?" If Camicazi had died because of her, Astrid didn't know if she would have been able to forgive herself. "Would Camicazi want you to do it?"

Hiccup's hands were visibly shaking, and his lips were pressed together in a tight line.

"Can't pull the trigger?" Excellinor sneered. "I always knew you were weak." She steadied herself up against the alley wall, but somehow even in her weak state managed to look evil.

"Please, Hiccup," Astrid begged, "for me. And Camicazi." Slowly, she stepped up beside Hiccup and pushed his hands down.

"Weak!" Excellinor taunted again, hacking into her hand.

Astrid was pleased to inform her, "You're under arrest." Excellinor was so weak, it was hard to see how she could have been almost beating Hiccup twenty minutes earlier. The handcuffs were snapped on the old crone with no effective resistance, and she was pushed into the waiting custody of Snotlout. Excellinor didn't say anything as she was dragged away, but only glared, her gaze promising vengeance that she would never be able to carry out.

Astrid knelt down next to Hiccup, who had sunk to the ground. "Are you all right?" Was is a cliché question? Very, but what else could she ask?

"I almost killed her," he whispered horrified, his face turning pale and then to a sickly shade of green as the revelation came upon him. The mad look in his eyes that he had possessed were gone. "I almost killed her."

"But you didn't." Astrid patted him lightly on the back, almost as if he would break. "You chose the right thing. I bet you could talk Camicazi into an ice cream for that."

Hiccup grunted. His hand clutched his knee, and now Astrid realized that he was more beat up from the fight than she realized. He had several cuts on his face that were bleeding profusely.

"Can you stand?" she asked.

He leaned heavily on her, but as soon as pressure was set on his left knee, he cried out in pain. Astrid helped him back to the ground. "Is it broken?"

Hiccup grimaced. "No."

Astrid rolled up his pant leg, exposing the prosthetic, and she saw the root of the problem. "Detach it."

Hiccup detached his peg leg as ordered and Astrid gave him the evil eye. "You have been pushing yourself too far."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"You didn't go to therapy like I told you to."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"It's infected."

"Yes, it might be." Hiccup sighed. "Whatever gave you that idea? They should give me a frequent visitor card at the emergency room."

If they didn't, the morgue would give him one after Astrid killed him.