Before I begin I would like to dedicate this chapter to Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki. But I give no spoilers.

CH5: Guilty All The Same

I don't own HTTYD or the characters. I only influence their OOCness.

Waking up to Astrid's beautiful face is like a dream come true. Except it seems she's been taking lessons from Dagur and looks like his insanity replaced her beautiful face. That part of waking up was unforgettable and probably most terrifying experience I've had in a while.

Gotta love it when dreams come true, right?

"Ok I'm sure we can talk about this. Whatever it is." Looking at my surroundings I know we're in the cove. Astrid, Gobber, Ruffnutt, and I are in my secret cove and somewhere theirs Toothless. Gods I hope he's hiding waiting for us to leave.

Please just stay wherever you are buddy.

How did they even find me? I know from experience you need to be lead to the entrance otherwise you can't find it let, alone the entrance. So unless they jumped down here 'which I don't see as very safe' then they must have followed me here.

… Why?!

Ruffnut brings me out of my thoughts. "Quick Hiccup tell her you remember." She says in a panic.

"Yeah sure I remember." Nothing

"Then tell me!" she yells loud enough that everyone in Berk probably heard her. I've gotten some better yelling at by my dad but this one's at least in my top 5. Of course the other times I knew what my dad was yelling at me for. I just woke up. I don't know what's going on here

Whispering to Gobber I figure maybe he'll be the one to tell me what this is about.

'She's wantin ta know bout da weapons ya made and da names yall gave em.'

"Oh Good. I thought for a second she wanted to know about the work I was doing with Toothless here."

"You are working for someone! Toothless. This person must be an unbelievable warrior to be able to make a man out of you." Astrid screeches in victory.

Good job Hiccup. You just told them about you best friend. Why don't I just tell them what he is too, that should go over real well. Not only that but Thor knows that remark at my manhood really stings coming from her.

"Huh so you really were here with someone. Who is this guy Hiccup?"

"Ai intraduse us."

"Well uh? You know. Hey it seems he's not coming today. Sooo let go come on let get back to the village and drink and drink and drink and maybe forget this. Like all of it." Please.

They all give me the same 'you got to be kidding' look. They then begin to look around to see if the find him. Like they don't believe me!

"I'm definitely not leaving Hiccup. First off I'm going to figure out what you've been up to here with this Toothless." She spits out his name like bile in her mouth. "Secondly I need to fish my ax out of that lake. And you're all helping."

"Why's your ax in the lake?"

"Me and Astrid fell from the top of the cliff. That's when we fell on you and knocked you out. When we came down the ax must have fallen in the water, we can't find it anywhere else."

Yeah they didn't do that, Toothless jumped me and… Oh don't tell me? Tooth bud I hope you didn't do what I think you did with that ax.

"Astrid you know it's going to be dark soon, right. We'll defiantly never find it then. Not unless you can see in the dark and never told us. Which wouldn't surprise me, but…. Sooo what do you say we come back tomorrow and find it then huh?" Oh please just say yes. I can't have them looking around for Toothless. If I can just get them out of here I can still leave tonight when everyone's at home sleeping and not threatening me.

When she's silent ad fuming like this, I keep thinking the worst. Easy to think that when everything I do not only goes wrong, it goes worse than possibly wrong.

Without saying anything Astrid sits down and we all do the same. So now here we are 3 and a half Vikings sitting in a circle waiting for someone to do something. Oh yeah did I mention we have my best friend, who just happens to be a dragon, skulking around somewhere around us possibly with an ax. Though I don't know why he took it?

"I give. What are we doing?" I ask the others.

Ruffnutt answers. "Duh. We're waiting for you to tell us what you've been up to." With everyone nodding in agreement.

"You sure, cause it feels more like an intervention."

"Ehh. We cauld do both if it maks ya feel better." Gobber jokes.

"Hiccup we're worried, what you've been doing lately is not you, not one bit." Wow I guess Astrid's really is going for the intervention. "If you have been training here with someone then why haven't you told anyone? Who is this Toothless that's changed you so much? It's not someone from the village so it has to be someone else. Is he an Outcast or an intruder on the Island? If he is then you should have"

"Have what? Betrayed him!? Turned him into my Dad? For what? So you all could imprison him, kill him or exiled him? You gotta be kidding me!"

"Hiccup this isn't a joke! This person could be dangerous."

"I know that! Better than you do actually. So what? I trust him. With my life."

"How can you trust someone you barely know? How long have you known him?"

"I met him here after the last raid. And I do trust him, completely! More than I can trust you at least!"

"What! How could you say that Hiccup! You could always"

"Always what?! Depend on you to stand back and let everyone push me around and shove my face in the dirt? Yeah, I know I can trust you to do that at least!"

"I have your back, just like the rest of Berk!"

"The hell you do! Any time I ever needed help"

"Whenever you needed help after one of your stupid contraption destroys something and your left waiting to get eaten by the closest dragon someone has always been there to save you!"

"No they always save the pitiful son! They only save him so they can keep looking down on me or look good for their chief. Oh and let's not forget to picking on him while he's down too! You guys defiantly can't forget to do that either."

"Hiccup anything anyone says is to make sure you don't do something else just as stupid later! You never learn from your mistakes and you just keep making them! If we really didn't care, no one would have saved you all those times and you wouldn't even be here now!"

"Yeah cause my life has been so great. 'Hey lets go see if Hiccup wants to hang out today?' Ha in my dreams! No not even then."

To our side Gobber tries to inject himself into the conversation. "uh"

"SHUT UP!" Astrid and I both yell out.

"Hiccup, don't you remember these last two weeks? The whole village has been supporting you! I don't know what you've been taught but it got you all the attention you ever wanted! But guess what? You took it from me! I have dedicated my life to being where you are now and"

"And what? Yeah I got attention sure, but you know what?!"

"What!"

"I got the attention I wanted all my life and you know what else? I even got my dad to actually say something to me! Something nice!"

"Oh and now you're so pleased with yourself."

"NO!"

"What?!"

"I got everything I ever wanted. A proud dad, a village that acknowledges me, hell I actually something almost like friends in the village. And you know how that makes me feel? I FUCKING HATE IT!"

"Oh and now you're just a spoiled brat that wants more!"

"That's not it! I got almost everything I wanted and I hate it because it's not the real me! I'm lying to myself and everyone else every time I step out of this cove! All you people want me to be is just another Viking, The Chiefs Son, the one that I can never ever really be! But here with Toothless I can be me! Every screw up, mistaken, wrong, weak, pathetic, fishbone bit of me! I'm not mocked, not told to be better; I can talk and speak and be heard here for who I really am!"

"And you couldn't trust the people you grew up with to be you? You couldn't believe in me?!"

"I could believe Astrid but I can't believe you! You the Perfect Viking!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Once upon a time you actually seemed human, like someone you could confide in, but now? The only thing in the world to you is killing dragons and being the best of the best. You're like a machine that can only swing an ax!"

"So what! We're Vikings, that's what we do!"

"That what you people DO, but I was never a Viking so I couldn't! All I've ever been is a hiccup! That's why when I entered Dragon Training I chose to change myself that's why I've been working together with Toothless!"

"If you wanted help to change all you ever had to do was ask! You could have trusted us. Not some stranger who is only using you!"

"Don't you dare say that! He is not using me!"

"Open your eyes Hiccup! He's playing with you! Don't you see? Everything he taught you could have killed you in training! It's more than reckless, it's pure suicide! How could you trust someone who's basically been training you to kill yourself!?"

"You think I'm being used! I'm not! And he is not playing with my life! He's shown me more to living than just being the failure Viking I've been all my life. I don't even know what I am anymore! But at least I know that I have him by my side!"

"By Odin! What did he say to brainwash you like this?! Hiccup we're your village!"

"Were my village!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means exactly what I mean. I have no place in Berk so I'll find my own!"

"And abandon all your friends and your Father!? Seriously?"

"Seriously! I don't have friends to abandon. And my father all but abandoned me when my mom died! It's just been me all these years. Of course Gobbers been there for me, buts that's been more like an obligation to my dad rather than being there for me. But now it different, it's him and me. Toothless and Hiccup together as friend! Real friends!"

"I'm your friend! Why didn't you ask me for help if you were so alone!"

"Ask? You? You stopped being my friend when you and everyone else ignored and picked on me! That is if we were ever really friends!"

"How can you say that!"

"I mean it! What sort of friendship do we have, HUH? Tell me!"

"We are Vikings! It's us vs them! That's what it's always been about!"

"You once said to choose a side. Well I have; I chose us! Toothless and me! Against the world if we need to! Partners, friends, accomplices, brothers! That's what we are! He's proved it! So I will NEVER betray him and I KNOW he will NEVER betray me!"

"You wouldn't dare betray us! ... would you?"

"I already have."

"W-wh-what, what do you mean?"

"We're leaving."

'We're leaving'

That's what he said to me. And it won't stop ringing in my head. He would abandon all his people to go off with some complete nobody? Just because he was the village hiccup?

'Stop him.' 'Save him.' 'Rescue him.' 'Salvage him.' 'Keep him.'

I don't know why but these words slowly whisper into my mind. They compel me to act, to do something about Hiccup and his reckless plan to run.

This Toothless person has stolen Hiccup away from his village. Forced him to betray his people. Whatever he told him is taking him someplace Hiccup can't go. Changed him into someone not him.

But no matter what he says or was lead to believe: he is still one of us. I won't just let go, no matter what it takes.

So I slap him.

I hear Ruff gasp in shock. "Astrid Slapped Hiccup!"

I'm not sure what I expected him to do but I know it's not what it was that he did do. With tears in his eyes he slapped me back.

This time Gobber was the one flabbergasted. "Hiccup slapped Astrid!"

I don't know what kind of face I had, but Hiccup looked like all the tears of his life were about to flow. There was also something else in his expression, before he would have just back down but now

Now he looked ready to fight no matter what. Even with his face contorted with tears and sadness, he also held raw determination.

He was ready to protect his friends ,Toothless', honor.

I have seen other Vikings hold the same expression in the Great Hall after someone mocks another's weapon, work, spouse, or children. But I have never seen Hiccup use the same expression with even stronger conviction. And for a stranger no less.

"You're not going anywhere." I say to him with equal conviction in my tone.

"Why not?"

"Because I say so."

"And I still say 'I'm outta here.'"

"You'll be banished, maybe even sentenced to execution. "

"Better for us. Better than staying here."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Yes."

We stare at each other trying to find the crack in the others words that would keep the debate going.

Us. Somehow Hiccup thinks that it really will be just the two of them and that no one else matters.

It's not safe for him.

"So then what? Him and you go globetrotting facing every danger that the world and gods themselves will throw at you. Danger that is beyond anything you've ever seen here on Berk, things that you couldn't imagine. Hiccup it doesn't matter what he's taught you, it won't help you when you're out their alone. That's right alone. I don't know what he's promised you but I guarantee you that he will abandon you the moment things get a little tough. That's a promise. Don't go."

"He hasn't betrayed me yet. It'll at least be better than staying here and being the lowest low any of you have ever seen. I won't go back to that, I can't! No matter what I won't go back to being everyone's useless Hiccup! I'd rather die than go back to that!"

Silence. That was all that was left after his outburst. Nothing and no one dared make a sound.

He's been twisted. Toothless has corrupted the most harmless Viking on Berk, and just anywhere else you'd look, and turned him into a determined traitor.

I don't care how distant he or anyone else has become in the past few years. We're Vikings, we grew up together and worked together. He is one of us. He may not be the best of anything here on Berk but that doesn't change the bond we have together. The two on us were friends, good friend. That is not a bond that will ever be taken away, especially by some forked tongued deceiver. I am going to bring him back, back to where he belongs, with us. With me.

He's coming back, with force if I need to.

I launch the first blow. A right hook to his face. It was solid and from the way his head wiped around, painful.

But he didn't collapse. He quickly turned around to face me more tears were trickling down his face and he held the part of his face in obvious pain.

My mouth slowly opens to speak. The word I intend to say forming in my throat, the air collecting getting ready to be shaped into a simple but complete image. From my heart, emotions long suppressed rise.

Gobber was watching the spectacle unfold before him and he felt that the two teen on edge as they were, whatever Astrid was going to say this was it. It was going to make it or break it. The latter most likely.

'Oh lass Don't say it. Jus leve well be.'

Ruff realizes that they are in totally uncharted territory. Meek and humble Hiccup is pissed and confident, and calm and cool Astrid is emotional and sounds almost desperate. Right now they're like a Zippleback, the gas and spark just inching closer to ignition. And Astrid's about to light em up.

'Astrid whatever you do, don't say it. Whatever it is don't.'

Wow! That's all Toothless thought as he watched how his human was defending himself against the blond female without the iron head cover.

Their human conflict continued to get louder and more emotional as I and the other two humans just watch from where we were.

They just keep tearing into each other. Is she the reason he came here today upset? I don't even know what their yelling about. It's not that I can't hear them, I can and I know my name keeps being brought up every now and then, I just can't catch the rest of their words. Their conversation is so fast and loud.

One thing was clear. Neither of them was happy. This became obvious when the two had swiped their human paws across each other faces. Then more yelling and another harder swipe across their faces.

Then a moment of silence.

It wouldn't be long before one of them says something stupid and when that happens the other will not hold back anymore.

For some reason I expect it to be Hiccup to be the foolish one, but to my surprise it was the girl. The moment of truth, the female Viking slowly begins speck.

I can sense the concern and discomfort emanating from other two with the iron head covers over what was about to be said, I feel it too.

'Don't be the one to say something stupid, Viking girl. Come on just leave it at that and go home.'

The words Astrid was going to use to bring Hiccup back finally are released. 'This is what I have to say. What should have been said before.'

"Hiccup, you're my friend. Come on lets go home."

His reaction was immediate and violent. He punched my face as hard as he could, followed by a tackle that brings us to the ground.

In the background I heard Ruff and Gobber shout in concern.

Hiccup was on top of me when we landed but I quickly reverse our positions so I'm on top. He keeps yelling at me. "Astrid! There's no way I'm ever going back! I'd rather die!"

"Hiccup! You're coming back with me now! Even if I have to cut off your legs or Odin help me, kill you!"

As I was yelling that, my hand finds itself tightly clutching my boot knife. I'm now pressing the blade on his neck showing him that I'm not playing games anymore.

"YOU'RE COMING BACK!" I yell as loud as I could straight into his ear.

"No." Calm and resolute. No hesitation. Even with the waterworks in his eyes. This was his choice.

And' I've made mine. He's coming back with me. No matter what.

I being my fist up with the knife still clutched in it to knock him out. I'll carry him back if that's what it takes.

As I bring down my fist with the knife down to punch him, the knife suddenly shatters.

Whatever happened, it caused my knife to break like splintered wood. Looking to the wall of the cove I see the culprit; My ax. It was thrown with such accuracy that it only disarmed me while leaving me and everyone else completely untouched. Not only that but it was thrown with such strength that it actually lodged itself in the stone wall of the cove.

Accuracy and strength that even I don't have and I'm one of the best ax wielder in all the archipelago. Knowing that I know their can only be one possible person who could do something like that; Toothless. He trained Hiccup so there's no reason he wouldn't have such skill.

From underneath me I hear Hiccup panicking. "Oh no Oh no. please don't don't do this just let it go please just stop."

But I'm not listening to him. I slowly stand and face in the direction where my ax was thrown. All I can see is the lake and no people.

If he threw it from across the lake then that just shows even more just how skilled and dangerous this guy really is. And a coward. We all know he's here and he's still hiding.

Ruff starts to audibly worry. "How did he even get your ax?"

Gobber responds. "He mus ta takn it aftat da two of ya fell of da cliff. Makes sense really. Da two of ya fell inta their secret place. He saw da ax and musta thoght ya a threat so he grabed ya ax and took cover when I cam down. E musta ben waitn till we left."

"But we didn't. Then e saw Hiccup in trouble and protected him: from the other side of the lake!? Is that even possible?" Ruff asks truly astonished.

"Yeah and now we can get a good look at this cowardly bastard. Hiccup get my ax!" I order him If he just do this and we can still prove your one of us. You're the village's weapon smith, that's where you belong. So please just do your job right for once!

"No guys just leave please he won't hurt you he was just doing what he thought was protecting me so please just leave him alone!" Hiccups pleads fall on deaf ear. Ruff goes to try and help Hiccup up but he just runs in front of us his arms stretched out to block us from seeing Toothless.

"Hiccup out of the way!" I yell at him.

"No!"

"Stop saying that! He is our enemy. Our enemy! Now move."

"Iccup if he isn't dangerous den ders no problem with meeting em. He's your new mastar and as your former masta I'd like to meet em." Gobber tells Hiccup sounding rather curious over the identity of this mysterious man.

"Not if you're going to hurt him." Hiccup shows his concern for the unknown stranger.

"We won't Hiccup. So long as he doesn't fight us first. If he's that important to you then I'm sure we can reach some kind of middle ground. Right Astrid?" Ruff asks both excited but also concerned to meet this person. Of course telling me not to fight him is for Hiccups sake.

"Yeah, middle ground." Like this his lying head laying across the middle of the ground.

"No please just leave. This will all be over then. So please!" He sounded so desperate. He never sounded this desperate even when he tried to convince others that he did something right, like shooting down a Night Fury. This guy can't be that important to him.

"Hiccup, dangerous or not we are not going to leave you like this." Ruff tries to comfort him.

"Ay lad ya can trust us even ta jus say hi." Gobber backs up Ruffs statment.

He seems to think about this.

Slowly a dark shadow spreads across us covering us like a blanket. The three of us look at the shadow growing at our feet then at Hiccup who doesn't look concerned about the shadow on us but rather at something behind us.

"Uh Hiccup woud ya like te share wit ta class?"

"Yeah like maybe this guys magic or something." Ruff quips.

"No he's just kinda uh well he's a little well big." Hiccup stammers.

"Anthin else Lad?"

"Well he really likes fish."

"And?"

"He's doesn't talk much. But he loves to listen."

"Hiccup."

I've finally had enough. "Oh for Thor's!? What the hell is it?" turning around I come face to face with Toothless.

Toothless, the green eyes black dragon.