Well, this was just great.

My dad had gathered everyone together, told them of the surface, hyped them up for glory, took Toothless and forced him to take them there.

He was leading them against his will. The supercomputer was calling him up there. Like it did all AI.

They were headed to their deaths, one way or another, I knew it. Either they would pass out from the thin atmosphere, be killed by AI, or give up, run away, and get lost in the caves.

Just great.

Richard and me had watched the convoy head off, helpless and equally miserable. We were sitting side by side on the roof of a house long after they left. There was practically no one left in the village. Except the teens, younger children, and any elders who had enough skill with a weapon to have survived this long.

I glanced at Richard in a pause of my own misery.

How loyal he had been to me, of all people. He had risked everything, his status, his life, to defend me. Now he was sitting beside me, not crying, but looking as though he wanted to. Still wrapped in bandages from the ring. He looked badly hurt, but refused to say so.

Both of us knew what had happened when his father had found out about the details.

Both of us had no family now.

And all we had was each other. Which I was grateful for. I had him.

His eyebrows furrowed.

"We have to do something."

I nodded. "Yeah. But what? It's a total mess! We've lost everything! Our tribe, our family, Toothless..."

Richard snorted. "Thank you for summing that up. But I never give up. All I gotta do is come up with a plan."

We fell into silence.

I turned to him after a moment. "Why did you defend me back there?"

He looked at me. "Least I could do for a friend." He replied simply.

I shook my head. "You could have gone on the rest of your life without ever saying a thing. You lost your family, Richard! For ME! Hiccup the useless, Hiccup the runt!" I put a hand to his shoulder, and he winced in apparent pain. "There's more to this then you're saying."

He sighed deeply.

"You showed me what it's like to really have friends. I mean, I thought, if an AI can be nice and have friends, why couldn't I? I saw you were truly lonely, and my thoughtless actions hurt you. Really hurt you. I was trying to make myself look better by bullying you. But I hurt you. And I'm so sorry." He shook a little. "I never had friends before you."

I gaped. "But.. you're the most popular kid in town! The strongest, heck, even I wanted to be like you someday when we were younger."

Richard stared into my eyes. "I was strong physically. Yes. But... No one likes a bully. None of the other teens really thought anything of me. I'm not strong enough in what really matters." He turned away from me and lowered his head. "I'm not a very good person. Not like you, Hiccup. You're... better than me."

I sighed and looked out at the village. "You mean all of it, huh?"

"Yup."

"I think you're a wonderful person." I said. "You defended me. No one has ever done that before."

"I should have done it sooner." Richard's voice shook a little. "Now. Hiccup, our other friend is in trouble. What are we going to do about it?"

I turned to him. "I have an idea. It's crazy, but it just might work."