Author's Note: My schedule is annoying, so a 48-hour early update this week, cool. That does, however, leave you with an 11-day wait for chapter 10. Oh well. And this isn't the greatest place for an extra-long wait between chapters.

Also, thank you to all of the positive reviews from guests, and of course logged-in members. If you commented with an account, I probably replied, but I am reduced to thanking guests here. Glad to see so much support. Rest assured, this story will continue pretty much no matter what, as is my policy.

And of course, a shout-out to Fizzlemcschnizzle, toothlessgolfer, and Stig92, all of whom have their own great stories going as of now, and have taken the time to leave reviews.

That being said, enjoy the slightly darker chapter.

Hiccup flopped on the bank, utterly exhausted and quite annoyed with himself.

Toothless crawled out a few yards away and shook himself. He didn't bother to completely dry off, because this had to be the tenth time in the last hour they had crashed into this very pond.

Hiccup was progressing nicely, though slowly, with his stealth training. He still had trouble pulling off the new maneuvers while running, but his speed and endurance were still increasing. The main issue he had had, though, was with flying. Specifically, operating the tailfin. The design had mostly been finalized, with a pedal for his foot, made effective by a set of gears, and various other refinements to the saddle. It had been one of the few things Hiccup could do right in relation to flying these last five days. He had spent hours each day with Toothless in the air trying to learn the ways of maneuvering the tailfin.

Hiccup was beginning to see a pattern with his failures. There was too much else involved. He couldn't learn what each position did when Toothless was constantly needing to change his fin's position to stay above the cove pond. What he really needed was a way to keep Toothless still in midair so he could learn the fin positions without interruptions or distractions. But for now, they were done. Ten crashes a day was stretching the Fury's patience already, and Hiccup needed to think of a different way to learn this because it would take weeks at this rate.

"I think we're done for the day buddy."

At that admission, the Fury began his flame-drying run.

Hiccup headed to the already burning bonfire they had learned to set up before they started flying. It saved time, and neither of them had to wait to get dry. Hiccup sat down by the fire, in a spot that was unshaded by leaves, giving him the aid of the sun as well as the fire in warming up. He toyed idly with the small smithing hammer he had brought out to the cove after he had been forced to make the run to the village and back just to straighten a slightly bent rod. He figured it wouldn't be missed. As he fiddled with it, Toothless ambled towards him, intending to sit with him by the fire.

But something caught the dragon's attention. Instantly, his weariness was gone as he assumed a hunting crouch, ears up and eyes wide.

Hiccup started at the unexpected change in demeanor as Toothless pounced at something on the ground that had moved when Hiccup had. Hiccup was quick to realize that it was a spot of light reflecting off of the hammer. Toothless, on the other hand, was not. Hiccup had an entertaining few minutes, watching the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself... act like an overgrown kitten.

Eventually, Hiccup put the hammer away, and Toothless, after a few minutes of searching the ground where the light had disappeared, finally continued on his path to the fireside. 'Never can catch those things.'

Hiccup debated inwardly on whether or not to reveal the source of 'those things' to Toothless. He remembered that training was tomorrow. It was apparently going to be the Terrible Terror this time. He decided to let Toothless figure it out himself when he used it on the Terror in the arena.

The last five days had been good. That was mostly due to the fact that Hiccup had been free to avoid the village entirely. Spending entire days playing and training with Toothless in the cove had done wonders for his mood. The only sour point had been his flight troubles. Hiccup continued to brainstorm ways to practice flight effectively as he ran to the village that evening. Toothless had told him that he wanted Hiccup to start running at night until Hiccup had reminded him that no amount of training would give him night vision and that he needed his sleep. That suggestion reinforced the conviction Hiccup had that Toothless was training him the way he would a Night Fury. Not that he minded. Despite still having trouble reliably doing the harder things, which all seemed to be easier if he used all four limbs like a Night Fury would, Hiccup was still improving his skills overall and Toothless was starting to have trouble challenging him with naturally found obstacles in the forest without intentionally going some distance into the deepest parts, like where he had lost Astrid. Now that was an ironic statement. He had at some point in the last few days forgotten that Astrid likely wanted to end him in some slow and painful way. Not seeing her or really any other villager in almost five days had that effect. Hiccup would probably have slept in the cove if he hadn't been worried about someone noticing him missing for five days straight. Although, he would still have had to come back. Until he and Toothless could fly reliably, he was reliant on the village supplies to feed the voracious dragon.

But Hiccup needed to focus. How was he going to fly with Toothless without the constant distractions, and the consistent need to adjust to stay above the water? Hiccup was still thinking when he ran into the village. It had been a windy autumn (which for Berk just meant winter without snow or frozen water) day, and that wind had been messing with Hiccup and Toothless all day. Hiccup ran past a few of the village children. One of them had a very rudimentary kite, really just a piece of bent parchment and a string. Hiccup slowed to a stop and stared as the child kept the kite from going anywhere by holding the string, against the oncoming wind.

That was it! "Toothless, you seeing this?"

'Yeah, what about it?'

"That's how we'll stay in the air long enough for me to actually learn how the fin works. I can tether the saddle to the ground, out at one of the cliffs with constant wind."

'Will that really work?'

Hiccup began walking towards the Great Hall, to grab some food before he went home. "We'll just have to find out, won't we?"

Hiccup hadn't missed the arena.

Snotlout, on the other hand... "Ah, back in my place of past, present, and future glory! It's good to be back."

Tuffnut smiled, nudging his sister slyly. "What past glory would that be, Snotman?"

Ruffnut continued for him. "When you missed the Nadder from five feet away?"

"When the Gronckle knocked you halfway across the arena?"

"Whe-"

"Shut it!" Snotlout was getting embarrassed.

The twins snickered.

"Okay, maybe not past glory. But present and future glory will be mine!" At this Snotlout regained much of his bravado, though not all.

Hiccup was standing apart from the group of teens, content to let them argue without him. He was also a little interested to see if Astrid still hated him, after having five days to cool off. He didn't really think it mattered though. He was probably going to make her mad all over again in a few minutes. He made eye contact with her. She glared daggers at him. Yup, still hated. At least he checked.

'Are you really surprised?'

Hiccup didn't have to ask Toothless what he meant. "Nope."

'Are you going to tell me how you plan on dealing with the Terror at some point?' This was said with more than a hint of irritation. Hiccup had dropped a couple of hints that he had something planned, and Toothless had been spectating when Hiccup carefully chose and polished a shield from the armory before continuing to the arena that morning. He hated being left in suspense. "Why? You'll see in a few minutes anyway."

"Uh, Hiccup?" That had been Fishlegs.

Hiccup focused on what was happening around him. Nothing had changed, except Fishlegs was a little closer than he had been before, just a few feet away. "Yeah?"

"Who are you talking to? No one can hear you from here..."

Hiccup held in a curse as he realized that he had forgotten again about talking to Toothless when people could see. This was his first major slip up. Fishlegs definitely looked concerned. Hiccup tried to give a relaxed smile. "Oh, I was just... giving myself a pep talk. You know, before we face the dragon."

'That was pathetic. Sadly, I can't train you in lying convincingly.' Toothless was mocking him now, as they were both quite aware Hiccup couldn't respond. His way of paying Hiccup back for the secret-keeping, apparently.

Hiccup grimaced, holding in his retort until everyone was called together by Gobber, and he could speak unobserved. "Useless reptile."

'Pointless primate.'

Hiccup had to hold back a laugh. Even directed at him, that was a good retort.

"Alrighty, trainin' is back in session. We're gonna ease back in, with the Terrible Terror this week." Gobber wasn't even leaving the arena for this one. he waved his hook threateningly. "Don't underestimate 'im." He stepped back, and someone at the levers released the Terror.

Instead of the doors slamming open, like with every other dragon, a small hatch at the bottom of the doors, about two square feet in size, hung loosely. Something bolted out and sat on the floor in front of the group of teens.

Gobber laughed. "Meet the Terrible Terror!"

The dragon was the size of a small dog and was quite lizard-like in appearance. It stared at them and proceeded to lick its own eyeball.

Tuffnut laughed. "Hah! That thing's like the size of my-", which was as far as he got before the Terror silenced him by deciding his nose would make a nice chew toy.

Snotlout moved to assist Tuffnut, who was rolling around on the floor, Terror firmly attached to his nose, but Ruffnut stopped him. As long as her brother wasn't in mortal danger she was just going to enjoy the show.

Astrid however, had no problem barging past Ruff and kicking the Terror off of Tuff with one hard boot, and the sound they all heard when she did indicated that something had been broken.

They all assumed that it had been the Terror until they looked back at Tuff. It had been his nose. Before, the Terror hadn't even drawn blood. Now, his nose was swelling rapidly, and was quite clearly at an abnormal angle, pointed somewhat to the right. There was blood now, thanks to Astrid's foot.

Astrid didn't even stop long enough to say anything. She took a look at Tuffnut's nose and then moved to pursue the Terror, seemingly unconcerned.

Hiccup was horrified. The way Astrid was going, that Terror was going to be in big trouble in a few seconds.

'Are you going to do something?' Toothless sounded worried. He didn't know what Hiccup had up his sleeve, and he had a sinking feeling that he was about to watch a Terror die horribly. They might not have been as smart as the other dragon species, really the only species that could be truly considered animals, but they were still dragons. And he was about to watch one die, with no way to stop it. Again.

Toothless's question shocked Hiccup into action. He angled his shield to catch the sunlight and directed the light to a spot near the Terror.

It was no use. The dragon was still stunned from the blow to the head, and it was in no mood to chase a fun little light, hopefully away from Astrid and back into its cage before any harm could be done. The Terror completely ignored the light at its feet as it struggled to regain its footing. Its eyes were focused on Astrid, who was rapidly approaching with her ax.

Gobber had rushed to Tuffnut, dismissing the Terror as not a threat, and was apparently unaware that Astrid intended anything other than just knocking the dragon out. Hiccup wasn't sure if any of the other teens could tell either.

And so, he acted. He rushed to the Terror, hoping to get there and safely deal with it before Astrid could-

As Hiccup passed near Astrid, her hand shot out and grabbed him by the shoulder, her grip like iron. Without saying anything, she tightened her grip even further, and shoved him sideways forcefully, knocking him off of his feet. Then she spoke, as she crossed the remaining distance to the Terror. 'Not this time.'

Hiccup hadn't even managed to get to the Terror, but he was still holding onto one more tiny, minuscule hope. He had been totally prepared to kill a dragon he found helpless. He hadn't been able to do it. Maybe, just maybe, Astrid would have the same-.

Astrid had reached the Terror. She looked down at it for a moment, a heartbeat. Two. She swung.

Hiccup didn't have time to close his eyes. The sound wasn't something he would have ever wanted to hear, either. But he would remember both, in nightmares both in the following months and for the rest of his life.

Astrid turned from the growing pool of blood, her eyes proud and her ax coated in the stuff, literally dripping blood.

The few Vikings around the arena who had gathered to watch whispered to each other.

Hiccup had to focus solely on not throwing up.

Toothless was just as affected, as he had not had time to pull away from Hiccup's senses even if he had wanted to. He didn't even try to hold in his bile. In a cove in the middle of the forest, a dragon of a species feared by men above all others proceeded to stumble out of a cave and deposit the contents of his stomach all over the nearest bush.

The teens, who had been focused on Tuffnut's nose, flinched at the terrible sound of ax going through flesh and bone and impacting the wall and floor on the other side, mixed with that of the Terror yowling for half a second before being cut off. Gobber froze, and even Tuffnut didn't make a sound. That had been the moment Gobber was resetting Tuffnut's nose, but the sound so shocked Tuffnut that he didn't even whimper as his nose bone was shifted into place. The teens were all Vikings. They all grew up on tales of horrible monstrosities and the equally horrible wounds inflicted by either side of the dragon vs. human conflict. They had often talked about killing dragons and worked to one-up each other on how they would do it. All of them but Hiccup were in the fire brigade, but that was carefully kept from the real fighting. None of that could have prepared them for their first real introduction as to how wars were in reality. There was no glory, no righteous cause in that sound. There was no heat of battle to dull the senses, no bloodlust to cause loss of control in that deliberate action. This had been a straight-up execution. Right there. In a horrible fashion.

The teens looked up. Tuffnut sat up. They all stared first at Hiccup, who was sprawled a few feet away, staring at the side of the arena. His face was blank, but his shield was trembling. They followed his gaze. There was Astrid, walking towards them. Her ax was bloody, and she left small red marks as she walked away from the spreading pool. The spreading pool of blood and various half-digested fish, and stomach acid. All flowing from the two separate halves of the Terror, who had literally been cut in half.

There was no pride that could be found in this. The teens all knew this. Even Snotlout. Hiccup could see no source of pride in any of the war, but every teen in the arena could see nothing to be proud of here. Except, apparently, for Astrid. Who, after a few seconds of a totally blank face, began smiling a grim smile. Proud of what she had done. Maybe happy to finally have stopped Hiccup from interfering. Definitely happy with the fact that she just executed a dragon without a second thought, for the crimes of gnawing on Tuffnut's nose, having had the misfortune to be used for training, and most importantly just for being a dragon.

The Vikings in the stands were nonplussed. On the one hand, Astrid had killed a dragon. On the other, it was only a Terror, and it was a dragon they were supposed to have for training, and therefore not to be killed by trainees.

She walked over to Tuffnut, and for a moment her expression flickered to one of concern. "Are you okay?"

Tuffnut scowled. "I think I liked the Terror better. At least it didn't break my nose. You should have just left it there."

With that, Astrid's expression quickly shifted back to being entirely blank, with maybe just a hint of anger. "Killing dragons is why we're here. At any cost. Get used to it."

Gobber chose this moment to intervene. He was furious, and a little shocked at Astrid's lack of control. "Wha' did ye do tha' for? Ye know yer not supposed teh kill the trainin' dragons. Ye coulda jes' knocked it out." Now his tone was definitely all anger. "Yer going ta be comin' with me the day after tomorrer, ta find another Terror to replace the one ye jes' killed for no reason. The trip'll be by boat, and it'll take us three days ta get ta the neares' uninhabited island, trap a Terror, and head back. And ye won' be doin' any o' the trappin'. Yer jus' gonna be there ta waste yer time. Understood?"

Astrid's neutral expression held, mostly firm, with possibly a flicker of cold anger showing. "Am I still in dragon training?"

Gobber sighed. "Yes."

"Do I still have a shot at the Nightmare?"

Gobber nodded. "Aye, technically et's supposed ta be yer first dragon kill, bu' no one cares if it isn't really. Else half the winners o' trainin' woulda been disqualified."

Astrid resumed her grim smile. "Understood."

Gobber looked at the likely traumatized group of teens. "I'll see ye all... well, we were gonna work with the Terror this week bu' ... I guess this time nex' week."

No one argued, though Astrid almost looked like she wanted to.

Gobber left the arena to get some cleaning supplies, and the spectators quickly departed. Astrid stayed for a few moments and then left too. The teens were alone in the arena, with the two separate halves of a Terror.

Toothless hadn't returned to Hiccup's senses, and Hiccup envied his ability to instantly flee to the cove. He listened to the teens converse in hushed tones.

Ruffnut spoke first. "Geez. She totally wasted it."

Tuffnut was the next to speak, with a nasal voice due to his injury. "Yeah..."

Snotlout spoke up to defend her, but he obviously didn't entirely believe what he was saying. "She was just, uh, avenging Tuff's nose. You know, thrill of battle, all that..."

Fishlegs scoffed. "Avenging Tuff's nose? She broke his nose. The Terror didn't even break the skin."

"Hey, she was just acting on instinct. That stuff happens in the heat of battle." Snotlout seemed to be trying to convince himself.

Hiccup decided to tell what he had seen. "There was nothing 'heat of battle' about that. I could see it in her eyes the entire time. There was no rage, no anger, no clouded judgment. She broke Tuff's nose, walked over calmly, killed it, and walked away just as calmly. She didn't even stop to check on Tuffnut until after, and she didn't really care even then."

The other teens all looked at Hiccup. Aside from what he was saying, which they were finding hard to believe, they could hear something else in his tone. It had been no secret that Hiccup had had a crush on Astrid since pretty much forever, as evidenced by the way he would always talk about her. Even when he was intentionally taunting her that last time in the arena (which they all found really weird for Hiccup to do), it could be heard. Not anymore. Now there was nothing but controlled anger, and a hint of something they couldn't identify.

It was Snotlout who next spoke. "Everyone always says she's gonna be the best dragon-killer of our generation. Guess she just proved it..." He left the arena.

Fishlegs went with Tuffnut to the healer's hut. Hiccup and Ruffnut were the only ones left.

Ruffnut looked anxious to be with her brother, but she spared Hiccup a glance. "Are you alright? You don't look so-."

He turned towards her. "I'm fine. Go catch up to Tuffnut." Ruffnut didn't leave. Hiccup figured she didn't want to leave him here alone. "Go."

She left. Hiccup was alone for the few brief moments before Gobber returned with the cleaning supplies, most likely a bucket of sawdust, a shovel, and a few Vikings who owed him a favor.

Hiccup wanted nothing more than to leave, but there was something he had to do. He forced himself to move to the Terror and knelt by the body, careful not to get any blood on his shoes as he didn't want anyone wondering about his footprints. He closed the Terror's bulging eyes, got up, and forced himself to walk through the village to the outskirts of the forest. Then he let himself run.

He ran as fast as he could go without Toothless's guidance. He used everything the dragon had ever had him try, even the things he was still learning. He didn't care if he failed and fell to the ground, he would just pick himself up and keep going. But he didn't fail, didn't fall. In an extremely ironic turn of events, the very helpless rage that made him want to get hurt, want to fail like he failed to help that Terror, that same rage kept him going, pushing more than enough energy into every reckless move to make them all. He had been subconsciously holding back out of fear of hurting himself before now. That was gone for the moment, and Hiccup ran perfectly, well enough to make Toothless proud beyond words, if he would have tuned in to see it. Hiccup didn't care about what he was doing. He just wanted to get to the cove. To the only person in the world who really knew the whole story, who could emphasize. The only person who understood, and who was probably just as upset as he was.

He made it to the cove in what would have been record time, if he had cared enough to notice. He didn't stop running when he entered the cove, instead heading directly to the cave Toothless resided in when he was spectating through Hiccup's senses, to avoid accidental detection. He avoided the pool of vomit and rushed inside. The dragon was huddled in a corner, and something he saw there made Hiccup stop.

He hadn't known if dragons could cry, but this was new. They didn't cry tears of water and salt. Instead, Toothless had thick plumes of smoke coming out of his nose. There was a substantial cloud in that section of the cave. Hiccup could see the Fury's nose glowing a faint blue as if he could see the fire from here.

"Toothless?" He had been expecting his friend to be unhappy, but this seemed like something of an overreaction.

'Just another Terror.' Toothless was speaking softly, not moving from his huddled position.

"What?"

'Just another Terror. At least this one died quickly, and not by my claws and fire. But I still remember the others. All of them.' He moaned. 'I can't stop remembering them.'

And that explained it. Hiccup knew the Queen had killed many Terrors using Toothless, and now his friend was reliving every single one of those deaths.

Hiccup had found the one thing that could make him forget his own grief, at least for a moment. The need to help a friend deal with his own, which was so much worse. Hiccup moved over to beside Toothless, next to his neck, and hugged him from behind. The dragon was curled up on his side, so the best Hiccup could do was to hug the back of his neck. The dragon stiffened, then relaxed slightly.

"You don't need to suffer alone. At least talk about it." He didn't want to hear about how the Queen killed countless dragons, but if it would help Toothless cope, he would listen.

And Toothless did, haltingly at first, but never stopping completely. Hiccup listened as Toothless recounted the deaths of every single Terror he could remember, a list numbering somewhere near a hundred dragons in total. Each one with a more brutal death than the last. When Toothless had finished his list, he said something that would stick in Hiccup's mind for a long time.

'Astrid and the Queen are the same. They execute Terrors for fun.'

There was nothing Hiccup could say to that. Because it felt true. Astrid certainly hadn't killed the Terror in self-defense, or out of necessity. And the parallel was interesting. Both Astrid and the Queen could have just knocked the Terrors out. In both cases, that would have worked just as well, if not better. But they chose death instead, for no apparent reason except they wanted to kill.

Eventually, he fell asleep by his friend's side, defeated by exhaustion and trauma. Toothless had the presence of mind to cover him with his wing, and fell asleep too. Neither of them woke up for a long time.