How To Train Your Dragon: A Loss That Shouldn't Be
Chapter 8: Epilogue - Remnants

Darkness. Nothing but the deepest black. It was the only thing that the Night Fury could really make sense of. He had only seen red before, a pulsing need to kill that only gave him hazy glimpses of where he used to be and people that he should've recognized, accompanied by a furious anger worming its way into his head. But now that anger had gone and Toothless was left alone in this void. He was so very alone. He could feel his wings beating, he could feel someone riding on his back, he could even hear the sounds of other dragons following him. Or was he following them? He didn't know. No matter how much he tried to make his body respond to what he wanted, it wouldn't obey. It was like something had hijacked him completely. A fitting description to the circumstances. Even his own memory was starting to fail him as it was enveloped by the sheer size of this presence threatening to crush his individuality into dust. He remembered being shouted at, he remembered Hiccup screaming with rage at him, he remembered breaking his rider's heart. He didn't even have a chance to make up for what he did before Drago pressed him under his boot.

'Stop... please, let me go...'

It was a feeble attempt. He knew logically that simply pleading with his captor wouldn't make it obey. The answer he got back from it was enough to get rid of that idea once and for all.

'You belong to me now. Flightless, helpless and in need of controlling. That's all you are.'

The Night Fury pushed back against the voice in his brain, mentally straining himself to do so. Maybe brute force would be required to break himself free, fighting fire with fire so to speak. But all it did was add to the headache he'd managed to acquire, causing his wings to falter a little as they flew. He felt a sharp stab to the back of his neck from the madman on his back, a painful order to remain steady that was reinforced by a sudden vibration of ear splitting frequency. He mentally flinched, trying to fight back.

'No...! I am not helpless! I am Toothless and I am...'

'You are weak, fitting what the humans call you. You have no bite, no anger, needing a puny boy to keep you in the sky. It is a mystery as to why Master chooses to fly you.'

'He is not Master, he is evil! He is evil and wrong and you are wrong!'

'Master knows my potential. It is thanks to him that I am the Alpha and you are nothing but dirt in my presence. He will take all of you and you will all be my thrall.'

'You're filth! You are not kin, you are a monster! A traitor! A..."

The voice didn't even give him a worded answer that time. Instead, Toothless felt the most horrid pain course through his body, interrupting his internal shouting as the Alpha did not take kindly to what he said. Pure agony set his nerve ends alight with horrible sensations. He wanted to scream, but he knew he couldn't no matter how hard he tried. It was torture, his body feeling like it was being burned from the inside out. He didn't know what effect it was having on his actual form. Drago Bludvist's hook seemed to be keeping him in the air and he could only feel the Bewilderbeast grip him in its control tighter than ever before, like a claw being pressed down upon his neck. Toothless mentally howled from behind the hazy screen of his vision, the Alpha suddenly relinquishing its use of pain and allowing him to slip back into the void of submissive servitude.

The Night Fury's eyes welled up with tears, even as they remained forced wide open with narrow pupils, staring towards an island that he should have recognized as home. A home that he knew he would be forced to destroy. His ear plates twitched as he tried in a final desperate ploy to break from this disgusting creature's embrace. It did not work. The only change his body made was to go in low across the sea, following the Bewilderbeast's cue to rise up from the ocean and catch their targets by surprise. Toothless, wracked with guilt and regret, begged whatever of the Viking gods there were to help him. He begged Hiccup to help him. But would he even want to? Would Hiccup truly want him gone after what he did? What if his actions were beyond redemption?
What if Hiccup didn't love him anymore...?

'I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Hiccup, I'm sorry...'

"May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battlefield..."
Even as he was handed the arrow the finalize the ceremony after Gobber started his words of farewell, Hiccup felt... wrong. Not in the way that anyone would expect him to. Even as his insides were wracked with nausea and fear at what awaited him, coupled with a great sadness that his father was actually gone... a horrible feeling of familiarity was creeping through his brain.
"May they sing your name with love and fury so that we might hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla and know that you've taken your rightful place at the Table Of Kings."
It wasn't like he had done this before. He couldn't have done. He'd never taken part in this ritual of parting, he'd never even attended one as far back as he could remember. He had apparently always been too young to remember the similar event they had done for his mother all those years ago and any other ceremony of note he had remained away from thanks to his childhood exclusion. But right now, in this very moment as he set the arrowhead alight on the dying embers of the small debris constructed fire, Hiccup swore he had been stood on these shores before. Witnessing these exact same actions for the exact same purposes.
"For a great man has fallen. A warrior. A chieftain. A father... a friend."
As he raised his bow to the sky, Hiccup's brow scowled. No, Gobber didn't mention a father last time. He mentioned a son, he was sure of it. Wait a minute... last time? When was there a last time? His aim faltered, hands trembling against the handle of the bow.
'No, this is crazy... what am I thinking?' he asked himself, the bow lowering as he heaved out a sigh of equal sadness and frustration. He felt something touch his shoulder, the voice of his mother attempting to soothe him.
"It's alright, babe. We're here," she assured him, keeping one of her palms against him for support. Hiccup knew Valka was trying to ease him through this, thinking that the grief was putting him off. Why was he so convinced this had happened already?
'What's wrong with my memory?' Hiccup pushed it to the back of his head and tried again, the bow pointing towards the sky. He exhaled, trying to focus his shaky aim, even as a welling of sadness threatened to spill over into the open again. This was it. When he let go of this string, Stoick would be truly dead. And he would be forced to take up the mantle of responsibility, a role he never thought he'd ever have to take. It felt too sudden. It wasn't fair. Hiccup let go, fingers relaxing as the weapon finally released the flaming projectile into the sky. In a matter of moments, the arrow found its target and Stoick's vessel was enveloped by a sudden wall of orange heat. Hiccup faltered, another sob slipping out into the open just as the other Vikings released their bows as well. They didn't want not draw this out longer than it had to be. It would be too painful if they did. A hail of points of light trailed like meteorites through the dark, foggy skies before they too added to the building inferno that would take Stoick to Valhalla.

"I-I'm... sorry, Dad."
The horizon glowed a faint orange as the ocean mist began to obscure the burning ship drifting off into the distance. Hiccup had been on the verge of tears constantly ever since he had managed to stop the first time. Speaking like this again, as a formal act of saying goodbye to his father, almost broke his resolve.
"I'm not the chief that you... wanted me to be. And I'm not the peacekeeper I thought I was. I... don't know..."
Hiccup sighed, another tear slipping over his face as he did so. He was telling the truth. He really didn't know. He didn't know what to do next, what to do to lead what were now his people, what to say... what to do to get Toothless back. If he could get Toothless back. It had been his fault. He'd driven the Night Fury away, he'd sent him right into Drago's clutches. He was probably scared out of his mind, trapped under that monster's might. It made Hiccup feel sick. His shoulders heaved as he broke, his head falling limply forward as more tears fell to the ground. Valka, not once having removed her arm from her son, moved closer and wrapped her other arm around Hiccup's opposite shoulder. She squeezed him, making him appreciate the fact she was there to help.
"You know... you came early into this world. You were such a wee thing... so frail, so fragile," Valka started, her own vision seemingly hypnotized by the fire.
'Story of my life...' Hiccup thought dryly to himself, wondering where she was going with it. He found out soon as she walked ahead of him, turning around to face him and avert his gaze from the awful sight on the ocean.
"I feared you wouldn't make it. But your father... he never doubted. He always said you'd become the strongest of them all. And he was right."
"Then why don't I feel like it...?" Hiccup asked her, almost refusing to look her in the eye.
"You may not now. But you will," Valka assured him, brushing one of her hands against his damp skin. "You have the heart of a chief and the soul of the dragon. Only you can bring our worlds together. That is who you are, son."
Hiccup pushed his head into her touch, mirroring what he had done on that snowy expanse when they had first met again. It seemed a world away, a lifetime away. Yet the comfort it brought him still felt fresh and warm. He needed it more than anything. Hiccup looked past his mother's shoulder, taking a hesitant step forward closer to the shoreline to stare at Stoick's final resting place.
"I was... so afraid of becoming my Dad. Mostly because I thought I never could. How do you become someone that great? That brave? That... selfless? I guess you can only..."
Valka smiled softly at his words. Her son really had grown up. Even in the short time she had known him again, a sense of pride clung to her heart at him taking over this responsibility. She knew he didn't want to. She knew it would be hard. But the fact that he wanted to try to better himself and everyone else said it all. However, Hiccup's admission of his fear and his determination to do as Stoick had wanted him to was not the reason he had trailed off. Something else had made him.

Staring at that ship triggered something else in Hiccup's brain, a sharp stab in his temple like someone had pressed a knife point to it. He cursed mentally at his head, thinking it was trying to play tricks on him given his emotional state.
'No, I have enough to feel bad about. I don't need this making it worse...!'
But that was when he heard a sound, almost like a howl, close by as if it were only a few meters away from him. His eyes trailed off to the right almost automatically to try and focus on it, even as the sudden pain made him wince from what he was doing. He gasped.
He saw Toothless. Against all impossibility and what reality had told him, there he was. Toothless looked distraught. He saw his beloved dragon running desperately towards the shore's edge as if to plead that what he was seeing wasn't happening. He also confusingly saw Astrid try and hold Night Fury back before he collapsed to the ground with a howl. Toothless was... crying his eyes out. Utterly consumed by sorrow. A moment later, the pain subsided and Toothless was gone. Hiccup stretched out one of his arms, almost as if he could touch the phantom to comfort him before it faded from view.
"Tooth...less...?" he stammered out. The other Vikings looked between themselves in worried puzzlement at his sudden outburst. Astrid in particular felt the most concern out of all of them, coming to his side and grabbing that outstretched hand in her own with a gentle squeeze. Her love was clearly not in the right state of mind right now after what had happened.
"It's alright, Hiccup, we'll get him back."
"N-No, that's not what I... I just saw him," Hiccup insisted, turning his head rapidly between his girlfriend and where he thought he had spotted his dragon. Astrid frowned, taking his other hand and shaking them both in an effort to keep him focused.
"Hiccup, you'll get him back, OK? I know it's hard, but you can..."
"Astrid, no, that was...! No, this is all wrong..." he retorted, running his hands through his hair as he took a few steps away from the coast edge. No one else really knew what to make of it.
"Hiccup..." she started, trying to keep him calm and collected. The chieftain-to-be didn't have any of it.
"This isn't right, this isn't how it should've happened. I remember... I remember being here before. I swear I was."
"What do you mean? We've never been here before," Astrid reasoned, her feelings of worry only seeming to amplify the more Hiccup started to ramble.
"We were all here!" he exclaimed. "We were all stood here, we sent another ship off to Valhalla, just like this. Toothless was there and he tried to run after it and Dad was..."
Hiccup stopped when he mentioned his father. In his head, it was Stoick who had done the actual arrow firing. But it made no sense. It made him come to a quick realization about how frankly crazy it sounded. He grunted in frustration, throwing his hands down at his sides as if to show how he was giving up on the premise.
'Great... first thing I do as chief is have a mental breakdown...' he thought, shaking his head as he turned back around towards the sea. He sighed again.
"I-I'm sorry, I... I don't know what that was."
"It's alright, lad," came Gobber's voice, surprising Hiccup that he was the one to say something over anyone else. "It's not surprising with all this running in your head. But we all believe in you."
"He's right," Astrid agreed, holding onto Hiccup's hands again. "I believe in you too, Hiccup. Just tell us what to do and we'll get it done. We can save them." Hiccup nodded his head slowly, leaning in suddenly toward Astrid to gently press his lips against her cheek in a gesture of thanks. She almost flinched in surprise.
"Thank you..." he muttered under his breath, his usual warm smile showing a slight hint of returning as he rubbed his eyes free of tears. He raised his voice addressing everyone else properly. If you had to make a first official call as chief, it had to be done properly. "Dad once told me that a chief protects his own. He would have stopped at nothing to defend Berk. So we can't stop either. "
"So what then?" Astrid, her own smile slowly spreading across her lips at seeing Hiccup's confidence return.
"We're going back," Hiccup said simply, keeping the rest of his command to himself mentally.

'And we're going to find out why I remember something that never happened.'

Glistening with moisture from the waves, a gigantic collection of black spines rose into view over the edge of Berk's cliffs, followed by the roaring head of the largest dragon anyone on Berk had ever seen. Almost comparable to the Red Death, tusked jaws parted in a fierce roar to reveal rows of spike-like teeth and a face covered in the same sort of spines as the rest of its head. Its eyes were narrow lines of black against a furious red, the behemoth's gaze making everyone on the ground feel incredibly small. Their treasured dragons now circled around the Bewilderbeast's head, almost as if they were being drawn towards it. And that was when another sight even more curious came into view. A man, cloaked in black and riding a dragon that was just as dark, hovered near one of the giant's tusks, a hook-like weapon stabbed into his mount's neck to give him some support. A mount that looked awfully like a Night Fury. With thick dreadlocks swaying in the morning breeze and an arm that seemed like it was forged from the strongest iron, this mysterious stranger suddenly yelled to them from his rather lofty perch.
"Your chief is dead!"
The Vikings grew quiet. The chief? Stoick? They couldn't mean Stoick. Not Stoick the Vast, the chief who had survived the onslaught of the Dragon Wars and Drago Bludvist's attack at the Gathering. He had never been bested before, it was debatable whether he could be bested. How could he be dead? The villagers began to whisper signs of panic among themselves.
"Dead? Not Stoick..."
"He's bluffing, Stoick could never be taken down by him!"
"It's not possible!"
This man looked like the one who was in control of the biggest creature and all of their own dragons still swarmed above him in the air. If he had managed to learn how to have a literal army of dragons follow his commands to assemble, then that meant it was obvious who he was. Drago Bludvist was here. And if he was, then what he said about Stoick was true.
"No one can protect you now!" the man yelled, jabbing his bullhook down towards the rest of them like they were cowering subjects before a great leader. A fitting metaphor given the control he wielded. As if on cue, the titanic monster of a dragon reared its head back, another ear splitting roar destroying the relative silence of the morning. It lunged forward just as a giant wave of almost liquid ice gushed forth from its throat.

'No! Stop it! Leave them alone!'

Toothless screamed against the force lodged in his brain, struggling as hard as his remaining stamina would let him as he was forced to watch the blurry scenes of Berk being torn apart from that ice. He tried to roar, make his body do anything to intercept that chilling breath, even if it meant he would be taken down instead. It would be a fitting thing to do after it was his fault that Drago had managed to get this far. The voice from before, the Alpha's powerful overwhelming voice, shut him up.

'Be silent, whelp! There is nothing you can do and I will not let you try. You know what will happen if you disobey me. You dare try to fight back and I will make sure that every inch of this island is buried in my power. There will be nothing left and it will be your fault. Could a weakling like you bear that? I think not.'

Toothless didn't have an answer. What could he possibly have thought or said against it? If he resisted, he would doom everyone faster. But if he did nothing, then he would doom them just the same. He sank back into the void, the isolating darkness almost being a more comfortable place to be than the horrible images that he was presented with. Maybe it was better to just slip away, allow the darkness to keep whatever was left his memory and uniqueness intact. At the same time, he couldn't do it. He couldn't get rid of the idea that Hiccup would save him, that the others would triumph over this vile creature and Berk would safe. Hope was indeed a cruel thing, just like when he thought he could bring Hiccup back from the...

Wait...bring Hiccup back? When did that happen? Toothless felt the slightest glimmer of confusion in this emotionless black hole enveloping his mind. He remembered it. He could remember Hiccup having disappeared, gone somewhere. He had been inconsolable, lost without his human until he had been seen in that shop. Yes, the shop, that was right. Or... was it? It sounded insane the more Toothless focused on the memory. How could he have done that? Was he being given false information? Another trick by the Alpha to make him obey?

'I remember... you helped me even when you weren't here, Hiccup. But how could you have done that? When did you do that...?'

Now only a few miles away from the shores of their home, the dragon riders, having commandeered the remaining Scuttleclaw hatchlings, were nearing Berk in a pack after taking some time to teach the babies some respect for instructions. Valka had done a pretty good job, despite the few accidents that Eret and Gobber had managed to get themselves into on the way here. Hyperactive baby dragons and giant walls of ice didn't seem to mix. But nonetheless, their miniature battalion of Scuttleclaws was in pretty good formation and at the front of them all was Hiccup. The new chief tried his best not to soar too far ahead, a grim determination on his features as he forced his mind to stay focused on the task he had to accomplish. If he rushed in, this wouldn't work. As much as his heart yearned to be with Toothless again, he knew they had to take it steady. Astrid sat on another Scuttleclaw to his left, keeping an eye on her love's face. His outburst back at the Sanctuary worried her, enough that she didn't want to take her eyes off him in case he did something stupid. Her concern was well deserved. Hiccup, even despite the determination to carry on his father's legacy, didn't feel right. The continuous sense of events repeating themselves hadn't stopped since they had taken off. He could remember the sight of the Bewilderbeast bearing down on their home, he could remember the other riders choosing what to do to distract it for this exact plan. And he could remember Toothless flying along with them in this formation.

'Did something really happen? Am I the only one who remembers?'

As the group passed the protruding rocks, they were greeted with a nearly horrifying sight. The Bewilderbeast was hunched over the cliff edge of the village, its sheer bulk having cracked the entire rock face apart. It roared over the remains of Berk, the Viking home now caught up in gigantic twisting spires of frozen destruction. Just as Hiccup had seen it before. Even the way he was thinking of how to describe what he saw in his head was the same. This wasn't a coincidence. Something had made him see this before and he couldn't place his finger on what no matter how hard he scoured his brain.
"He took all the dragons!" Fishlegs exclaimed, his tone seeming desperate like he was searching for his beloved Meatlug in the mass of wings and talons. All of their dragons were up there, including the ones that had remained on the island whilst they were away. That settled it. This had to end, today.
"Distract the Alpha!" Hiccup ordered, pushing his Scuttleclaw ahead to where Toothless would be leading the rest of the hypnotized flock of dragons. "Try to keep his focus off of Toothless!"
"Uh... how?" spoke up Tuffnut, just as Eret piped up to answer the question.
"Have you forgotten who you're riding with? There isn't a dragon that I can't wrangl-AHH!" His words were cut off when his Scuttleclaw decided the ocean looked interesting enough to get a closer look. "Except for this one!"
Hiccup rolled his eyes as they focused back on their plan.
"Here goes nothing... I'll be there soon, bud" he mumbled under his breath, breaking off from the rest of the group to reach his dragon mostly unnoticed. He hoped this would work. It had to.

Drago sneered at seeing the traitors run, the smell of the cold air rising from the ice making him sigh in satisfaction. This was turning out to be one of his most productive days. An island full of heathens who dared to ally themselves with these monsters destroyed by his own hand. An army of creatures that would mean nothing would stand in his way to seize control of the entire world if need be. And, probably best of all, proving once and for all that he was the only true Dragon Master riding on the back of a fabled Night Fury. No, not just Dragon Master. Dragon God. How else would anyone be able to describe his might?

On solid ground, the Vikings of Berk had managed to seek cover behind a few of the buildings that had miraculously survived the Bewilderbeast's onslaught. Without dragons or any decent weapons to defend themselves, hiding was the best thing they could manage to do without being trapped along with their houses in the ice. It would take a miracle for them to get out of this one without being under Drago's rule. Or alive. Thankfully for them, it seemed that their prayer for salvation had been answered when they suddenly spotted small shapes slowly bobbing towards them through the air. There was only a handful of them, but they clearly had wings and they clearly had people riding them. The recognizable outline of their chief-to-be quickly informed them who it was.
"Look! It's Hiccup!" one of them called out, the small group around him bursting into cheers quickly. The former confidence Berk had when protected by their dragons began to show itself once more as the jeers began to spread. Drago, having previously been too caught up in his gloating of victory, heard his foes from below.
"What...?" he growled, locking eyes with the ones that belonged to the chief of this destroyed village. So the Dragon Master had managed to make his way back, just in time to see the rest of his island buried beneath a mountain of ice. It seemed fitting for them all to have gathered here, the prospect of destroying them all at once with the Alpha after inflicting such heavy emotional damage almost making Drago smile. His Bewilderbeast growled at the tiny dragons flurried around his face, his controlling frequencies seeming to have no effect on them despite how hard he pushed it at them. Well, no matter. He'd just knock them out of the sky with...
"Baa!"

Hiccup couldn't resist a smirk at seeing Ruffnut and Tuffnut's plan come to fruition. Destructive or not, they always knew how to best be pests and distractions and it was working wonders right now. As long as their sheep cannon would keep the Alpha at bay, it would give time for Valka, Astrid and Gobber to evacuate everyone else to somewhere more secure. And for him to get Toothless back. His Scuttclaw weaved away from one of the other sheep flying up nearby, just as he started to approach Drago. The madman locked eyes with his adversary, strangely looking a little less annoyed that Hiccup would've guessed at this intrusion. Hiccup scowled with a fierce glare, exhaling to calm himself down, even as he noticed the Alpha destroy Fishlegs' horn in his peripheral vision. No more distractions. He only had one chance to get this right and if he didn't, he'd have lost one too many precious things in his life today. He could do this. He had to, for Toothless.
"You are certainly hard to get rid of, I'll say that," Drago remarked, having to give the young Viking a bit of credit for not completely collapsing under the weight of his burden. Such a scrawny man didn't seem capable, so it was surprising. Not that it would make a difference in the long run. Hiccup ignored him, coming closer to his still hypnotized dragon just hovering there. His chest hurt seeing it. This wasn't the Toothless he knew and he wouldn't put up with seeing it for a moment longer.
"Toothless...? Hey, bud, it's me!" he said, gently stretching out one of his hands in a warm tone that he knew his dragon adored. "It's me... it's me, I'm right here, bud. Come back to me... please." The last few words triggered that feeling of repetition in Hiccup's head again, making his expression fail somewhat. He had said this before. He was absolutely certain of it.

'...Hiccup?'

Toothless stirred from the void, his pupils flaring open for a moment before snapping back to those lines of black. He could've sworn he heard someone speak his name just then. He swore he had heard his Hiccup speak his name. But how had he? The Night Fury tried to focus his attention through the blurry mist of his vision. It was a person, that much he could make out, hovering in front of him on a small dragon. As much as he tried, he couldn't make the details out. His sight turned a faded shade of red as he heard the dulled voice of Drago on his back, along with another stabbing motion of his weapon into the base of his neck. He could feel trickles of blood running along the scale, causing his body to involuntarily let out a small whine of pain. Hearing that sound from such an emotionless face only made Hiccup angrier.
"He's not yours anymore," Drago growled. "He belongs to the Alpha! But please, oh great 'Dragon Master', try to take him. He will not miss a second time..."
On cue, the Alpha itself moved its head beneath the floating pair of riders, glaring at them both with a sudden burst of controlling frequency that seemed to get rid of any hint of pain that Toothless had shown. Hiccup's ears hurt just being near it, knowing that it was just trying to scare him.
"It wasn't your fault, bud. They... made you do it," he assured the Night Fury, keeping his hand stretched out to him. "You'd never hurt him. You've never hurt me." Toothless picked up on it immediately, his blank face twitching as he suddenly shook his head. Inside, the dragon was fighting furiously against the Alpha still trying to suppress him in servitude.

'You are mine. He can't save you.'

'N-No...! I need...'

Toothless bore his teeth in a loud growl. He wanted to tell Hiccup he was sorry, but this overwhelming feeling made it hard to even think of what he wanted to say. He shook his head again, Drago's smug grin fading as he was made a little unsteady by the Night Fury's spasms.

And at that moment, something in Hiccup's brain clicked. For whatever reason, he had somehow known this would happen, that Toothless would be taken from him and that his dragon would inevitably blame himself for Stoick's death. And that was when he remembered what he had said to his best friend in the hopes that somehow they would remember it when things continued on. The details were vague, the images blurry in his mind, but Hiccup knew for certain what he had said before.
"Bud, you remember what I said, don't you...?" Hiccup asked, moving his Scuttleclaw in closer to look Toothless straight in the eye. "I promise I'd save you. Just as you tried to do for me. I'm so sorry I drove you away. I wasn't thinking, I was stupid. No matter what I say or do... I don't hate you. I could never hate you, Toothless. It's not your fault, bud. It was never your fault."
As Hiccup came closer, just enough to physically touch his dragon's nose. And at that moment, Toothless' pupils suddenly widened as if he felt a great weight melt off his being. His vision became clearer, his eyes darting around in a panic just as they focused on the hand pressing against his snout. He whimpered, trying to move forward in his hovering.

'H-Hiccup?! You came back...!'

'Silence!'

The Alpha stabbed into Toothless' head, pushing him under the wave of control and casting his true self deep inside. Hiccup grimaced. He was nearly there, he just had to try harder. He leaned his body forward, over the head of the Scuttleclaw he was astride to hold onto Toothless' lower jaw. Once more, the Night Fury shook his head at feeling another of his human's hands touch him, trying to break free. Drago was lost for words. Whether from respect for the boy's powers or because there was a chance this would turn ugly rather quickly, he wouldn't know.
"How are you doing that...?"
"Please, Toothless... please don't think I hate you," Hiccup begged with a breaking voice, almost as if he was asking for forgiveness just as much as his dragon was on the inside. Toothless was continuing to rage against his fate, switching between his demeanor as if he had two people wrestling for control of his body. One moment he would be wide eyed and loving, trying to reach his human. The next, the fury of the Alpha would make him bear his teeth in a savage growl. In between these bursts of emotion, Hiccup would feel heat beginning to emanate from the Night Fury's opened jaws whenever he turned feral. He held onto Toothless' head. The Alpha was trying to make him fire. But if staying here in its path was what it took to tell his closest companion that he did not blame him, he would remain.
"I won't leave you... I won't let you go," Hiccup murmured, squeezing his eyes shut as his trembling fingers clung to the black scale for dear life. "You're my best friend, bud...my best friend."

With that final admission from his rider, Toothless once again shook his head around violently before he suddenly became still. He hovered silently with his head hung down before he opened his eyes, blinking a few times as if he were waking up from a bad dream. Hiccup stared with baited breath, looking for a sign of anything he could recognize as his Toothless. Those wide pupils, the brilliant green shine of the dragon's eyes stared back at him, just as the Night Fury's signature imitation of a toothless smile suddenly made his human's heart soar.
"Attaboy, that's it!" Hiccup exclaimed, rubbing around Toothless' head as a sort of congratulations for winning over the Alpha. "I'm here, bud!"

'I'm here, too, Hiccup! I'm here!'

"Enough!"
'Enough!'

Both Drago and the Bewilderbeast roared at the pair of them at the same time. Toothless sensed the conqueror readying his bullhook to swing at him again and intercepted him with a well placed bite. Drago's look of horror was all the satisfaction the dragon needed as he suddenly wrenched him off his back and sent him falling downwards.
"Yeah!" Hiccup yelled, almost getting to his feet on the Scuttleclaw's back at how Toothless had managed to break free. The Alpha roared ferociously, piercing into Toothless' ears again to try and win him back.

'You are mine, whelp! MINE!'

'No! I am HIS!'

Without a rider to keep him airborne, the Night Fury inevitably began to fall out of the sky just as he roared his defiance at the Bewilderbeast. Hiccup, without missing a beat, jumped forward off of his Scuttleclaw and began to free fall after his dragon.
"Hang on!" he yelled, the wind making it hard to see from how hard it whipped at his face. He heard a smack of metal upon bone, seeing that Drago had saved himself from a watery end by landing on the Alpha's tusk. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was reaching Toothless who was trying to right himself in order to make this work.
"Almost there, buddy, almost there!" Hiccup shouted, reaching out one of his arms and finally brushing the handles of the saddle in his fingertips. In perfect sync with one another, the rider and his dragon met and veered upwards, speeding off into the sky just before they hit the water as Hiccup took control. Toothless roared in triumph, almost unable to hide his excited nature as he tried to keep looking back at his human. Hiccup smiled, brushing over the Night Fury's ear plates to help him focus on their task at hand.
"We need to get those two apart..." Hiccup mused, Toothless growling in menace as he looked over their opponents. "We can do this, bud. Just you and me. As one." As his human spoke those words, that weird sense of familiarity crossed over the Night Fury's thoughts too. He'd heard that before too. But he also knew it was true. At some point during a time he couldn't remember clearly, Toothless had crossed between the boundaries of things that should never be crossed in order to bring Hiccup home. And now Hiccup had done the same for him, saving him for a lonely void. He swore to himself that as long as he lived, they would never part again.

'Let's do this!'

"I think I'm ready."
"Are you sure? You don't want to stay a little longer?"
"I don't need to. He's ready," Stoick replied.
He had watched the entire spectacle of the final battle against Bludvist from one of the clifftops near Berk's edge, seeing his son and his dragon reunite and beat Drago back into the sea. He saw the Night Fury become the new Alpha of the dragons, he saw them both share their long awaited reunion. And he finally saw his boy become the new chieftain of Berk. He'd never felt prouder in his life. It just seemed a shame that it had taken his death to experience that. Stoick sighed, nodding his head in the gentle breeze.
"That's my boy," he mumbled, the smile unable to be held back even if he tired. Nothing stoic about him today. The valkyrie, the same one from the events before, smiled a little herself. Even if her presence here had caused Hiccup's and Toothless' old memories of possibility to seep through to the true timeline when they shouldn't have done, she had been relieved when they had simply used them to strengthen their connection. Indeed, if the alternate realities of their deaths weren't enough to keep them apart, she had to wonder what would. She hoped she wouldn't have to intervene and find out for many years yet. The valkyrie brushed a stray lock of golden hair out of her eyes, turning towards Stoick with a gesture of her hand.
"Well, then. Valhalla awaits, Stoick."
"Aye. That it does," the former chief said. It seemed funny how he was so calm. But given how the valkyrie had shown him that he had accepted his death long before he knew what was happening, he felt peaceful about it. And if he could continue to look down on Hiccup and see the brave young man he had always known was there, then death was a small price to pay. As the valkyrie held her hand out and conjured a circle of light that materialized into a dazzling entrance way, Stoick took one last look at his home and his pride.

"Be brave, Hiccup. I know you'll do right by me."