Chapter Seventeen: The Final Battle Starts Now

Astrid woke up to the sounds of orders being barked outside. Sunlight streamed through the ajar doors so she reluctantly left Hiccup's side ("Hang in there and don't stop breathing!") to head out where she immediately bumped into the Defenders of Berk.

"So early?" she asked.

"Not taking any chances," Snotlout replied. "If you're tired you can always ride with me, you know," he added but Astrid replied to his offer by stamping on his foot and punching his face.

"Weedsnakes have been spotted all around the island – we're surrounded on all sides," Fishlegs cut in worriedly. "No sign of the Darkwing."

"Wonder what happened to it," Astrid muttered. The twins were already mounted on Barf-Belch with fully loaded crossbows.

"Who cares? This is still gonna be awesome," Tuffnut snickered.

"I agree with Tuffnut," Ruffnut added.

"That's a first," Astrid noted sarcastically. She called Stormfly and spotted Kyra doing an aerial check with Windwalker so she flew up to join her. "What have we got today?"

"Fishlegs isn't wrong," Kyra replied. "We're not going to be able to get out onto the water with the ships."

"And that means we can't get back-up," Astrid grumbled. Kyra smirked knowingly.

"Not from ships," she winked. "I've got something that might just work."

"You remember you're still without magic, right?" Astrid pointed out. Kyra glanced at her right hand – it was true, the mark was still there and she still couldn't use any Shifter Magic.

"True, but there's still one dragon I know I can get to," she reminded Astrid whose eyes lit up.

"Newtsbreath!" she realised. "Is it gonna be enough?"

"If I can get her to bring reinforcements, we stand a better chance," Kyra confirmed. "Besides, I can hardly leave the Meatheads without dragons when that's what we need most."

"I thought Artair was the only one who knows how to fly," Astrid frowned.

"They can learn on the job," Kyra huffed. "We need more flyers." Astrid couldn't see any point in arguing – if Kyra was slipping into Gobber's teaching methods it was more than an indication that she wasn't backing down.

"What happened with the Darkwing, by the way?" she asked instead. "Fishlegs said there's no sign of it."

"Probably because it's not fighting anymore," Kyra explained. She quickly told Astrid about what had happened the previous night. "He said he'd come back but I haven't seen him."

"So the Darkwing was really Ivor who is kinda like an older brother to you now?" Astrid confirmed. Kyra nodded. "Right," Astrid frowned. That...made little to no sense.

"We'll talk about it later – right now we need to move," Kyra noted, glancing down at the village – the Weedsnakes had just launched their attack. The time for talks was over. Astrid took over as head of the Dragon Team, that included the juniors.

"Nadders, move in from the East!" she bellowed, taking a shot at the nearest Weedsnake and turning away before she could see what happened. She wasn't even sure if she'd gotten the bolt into the mouth but even so she had to do what she could. "Gronkles – take aim...FIRE!"

A barrage of molten rock hit plenty of Weedsnakes head on – quite literally. The Deadly Nadder squad had unleashed a torrent of spikes into the Weedsnakes who had been unfortunate enough to be within the firing range. Astrid scanned the battle field for Wavewing – the largest Weedsnake – but she could see no sign of him. She did, however, see Toothless fighting it out with one on the ground – knowing how dragons preferred to be left to their own fights, she left him to it.

"Kyra!" she called. "How much longer until they get here?"

"Soon, with any luck," Kyra replied, barrel-rolling to avoid an oncoming stream of violet fire from a Weedsnake. She retaliated by getting Windwalker to send a fireball into its face. "Keep an eye on Toothless, will you?" she asked. "I'm not having Hiccup's best friend go down today."

"Or Windwalker's mate, more like," Astrid replied teasingly despite herself, getting Stormfly to send a wave of spikes into a Weedsnake threatening Fishlegs. It gave the boy enough time to fire an oak crossbow bolt into the thing's mouth as it shrieked in pain. "You can't blame him for fighting so hard – you should've seen him with Hiccup last night." Kyra frowned.

"Last night?" she repeated. "Astrid, Toothless was with me and Windwalker at home last night." Astrid's brow furrowed.

"No, I saw a Night Fury yesterday when I was with him," she protested. "He came over and..." Kyra's eyes had widened. "Kyra, what is it?"

"What colour were its eyes?" Kyra asked quickly. Astrid frowned.

"Green, why?" she replied.

"What type of green?" Kyra pressed. Astrid scrunched her face up in an attempt to remember.

"They were..." she froze. The Night Fury's eyes from the night before hadn't been the same bright green as Toothless' or Windwalker's. They'd been emerald-green. "You mean to say that Night Fury wasn't Toothless...LOOK OUT!" she yelled, charging Stormfly into Windwalker as a Weedsnake threatened to lash out at Kyra. Kyra spun Windwalker back under control but Astrid wasn't so lucky as she tumbled off her dragon. She grabbed the nearest weapon and held her crossbow in front of her, waiting for her chance...

Too bad that someone else took it.

"Hey, Heather!" Astrid grinned as a pink and yellow Monstrous Nightmare tackled the Weedsnake in front of her. Heather leapt onto the sea dragon's head and fired a bolt straight into its throat. The results weren't pretty.

"What? You're not the only one with a crossbow," the raven-haired girl winked. "Oh, and I brought the back-up," she added, indicating the skies. Astrid's grin widened – she could see multiple Meatheads riding dragons – some leaping off to join the battle on the ground – but they were there nonetheless. Coupled with the Meatheads that were already there, this brought the Vikings numbers up to match the Weedsnakes, although the sea dragons themselves were slowly cutting the amount of Vikings down as many were injured or even killed.

"KYRA!" a shout sounded as a Weedsnake made a beeline for Kyra, knocking her off Windwalker. Astrid recognised the shout as male – the next thing she knew the Weedsnake that had tackled Kyra got blasted by a shot of magnesium based fire – Artair was flying a green and gold Deadly Nadder.

"Artair!" Kyra greeted, unable to stop the smile spreading onto her face. Artair dismounted and helped the girl to her feet.

"You're right – it is harder than it looks," he panted. He turned to face Heather. "How'd you manage to teach those guys so quickly?"

"I didn't," Heather grimaced. "I think it was more Newtsbreath getting the dragons to comply – if you look closely you'll see that most of the Meatheads are missing a few things." A Meathead battling a Weedsnake nearby informed Astrid that at least one of those 'few things' was their pants.

"Charming," she noted sarcastically. A roar suddenly sounded – Wavewing had finally decided to show himself. "Okay – time to cut that oversized eel down to size!" she shouted, leaping back onto Stormfly. Kyra quickly mounted Windwalker, Heather grabbed hold of Newtsbreath and swung herself up and Artair practically jumped onto his Nadder. Astrid led the attack on the Weedsnake elder, followed by the rest of the team although Kyra was the one to catch his attention.

"Hey! Seaweed-breath!" she bellowed. Wavewing turned his head in their direction only to be met with a fireball to the face. "That's for Hiccup!" Kyra snapped. Wavewing launched himself from the water, taking a snap at the girl but was greeted by two shots of sticky flame to his long neck from Snotlout and Heather, closely followed by a molten rock to the back from Fishlegs and an explosion in his face courtesy of the Thorston Twins.

/\

Wavewing roared in anger, focusing his attention on Kyra.

"You foolish brat!" he howled. "You robbed us of our last chance of bringing her ba...!" Kyra didn't let him finish as she led Windwalker to take a shot at his unprotected mouth.

"You're the one who led him to stab himself!" she retaliated. "If it weren't for you he'd still be here fighting with the rest of us!" Wavewing sent a flame of violet-coloured flame in Kyra's direction.

"You humans and your excuses," he hissed. "If it weren't for you our god would never have abandoned us!"

"Shut up and die already!" Kyra cried. She had a point – no matter what the Defenders of Berk threw at Wavewing, he came back as strong as ever. The fireball to the mouth had caused some serious damage but not enough to slow him down. She suddenly glanced towards the land where a Weedsnake was creeping unnoticed towards the Infirmary...to Hiccup. "YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!" she shrieked. Hiccup was still breathing according to Gothi's report – there was still a chance, albeit a very slim one, of him making it.

"If he's nearly gone, surely it's of no matter to you if we save you the trouble of giving him a funeral," Wavewing taunted. Kyra rammed Windwalker into his side, injecting as many oak bolts as she could into the sea dragon. If there was any effect, it wasn't noticeable.

"Astrid! The Infirmary!" she yelled instead. Astrid spotted the Weedsnake and shot towards the Infirmary, distracting it with a blast of fire. She somersaulted off Stormfly and began the fight on the ground, desperately trying to keep the sea dragon away from the Infirmary – she still clung to the narrow hope that Hiccup would somehow pull through, aided slightly by the dragon in him that had closed his wound, so she wasn't going to let that Weedsnake anywhere near him.

"What more do you want with him?" she screeched, firing shot after shot at the Weedsnake but too enraged and high on adrenaline rushing through her blood to take proper aim and the bolts merely pinpricked the Weedsnake's indigo hide. As she was fighting, she failed to notice Toothless race past her and through the slightly open doors of the Infirmary – still distracted, the Weedsnake didn't see him either and continued to try getting Astrid out of his way. An unexpected tail lash sent Astrid flying, not giving her enough time to chase the Weedsnake as she lost ground and the indigo dragon reared up like a snake ready to strike, turning its focus on the Infirmary. Astrid was too busy trying to get it away that she didn't see Toothless fly out of a hole in the roof – if she had, maybe she might have stopped.

Yet she didn't. Instead, she panted back towards the wooden hut just as the Weedsnake let loose a stream of bright purple flames, engulfing the Infirmary and destroying everything inside.

"No..." Astrid stammered, stumbling to a halt. Those monsters had completely taken Hiccup away from her – why did they have to add to her pain taking away the only chance he had of recovering? She collapsed on the ground, her strength vanishing as she fell to her knees and dropped her weapons in despair. The Weedsnake turned its attention back to her, opening its mouth so that Astrid could see the build-up of flammable gas in the back of its throat. She closed her eyes and covered her head, waiting for the inevitable...

BANG!

Astrid flinched as something exploded above her head but the small amount of light that made it through her eyelids hadn't been violet – it had been bright blue. Uncovering her head and opening her eyes, she gasped when she saw who her saviour had been.

A young man no older than seventeen sat astride a Night Fury with a red prosthetic tail fin. He was about the same height as Astrid, maybe half an inch taller; he had a build that wasn't overly muscular but at the same time wasn't scrawny; his face had a slight hint of a stubble and covered with freckles; his eyes were circles of forest green that shouted courage to anyone who saw them; and his messy dark auburn-brown hair framed his oval face with a single bang tied into a small braid to keep it out of his face. When he dismounted the Night Fury, it was revealed that he sported a spring-loaded prosthetic left leg, mirroring the injury of his dragon. He was wearing what appeared to be simple leather armour and in addition to this, around his midriff was a mass of bandages with a large patch of red-brown staining the chest area.

It was Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" Astrid squealed as she scrambled to her feet and towards the young man. Hiccup jogged down towards her and the pair embraced as if the world would end.

"Astrid!" he cried, wincing slightly as Astrid collided with his chest wound. "Are you okay?" Astrid broke the hug and could only stare at the young man in amazement.

"Yeah..." she panted, more out of astonishment than anything else. She struggled to find any words. "You're alive!" she settled with.

"I know!" Hiccup grinned back, his voice raising in pitch out of equal surprise.

"And you're..." Astrid added, still taking in the sight of her fiancé whom she'd thought had gone in the fire.

"Me!" Hiccup finished, his voice still slightly higher than normal.

"Yeah!" Astrid nodded. "But...how? On both accounts?"

"I dunno," Hiccup admitted, glancing at himself. There was now nothing left to suggest he'd ever been part dragon – ever scale had vanished and he was now wings-and-tail free. The curse had finally been cheated and the wretched mark that had been burned onto his left hand for three years had finally gone. Astrid figured out one of her questions of how.

"Your actions..." she realised. "When you brought the knife down but not on Kyra...what was the third test thingy you were supposed to do again?"

"The Test of Heart," Hiccup remembered, reciting Odin's words. "A strong decision made by heart alone..."

"Well, I hate to admit it but that was one heck of a decision if any – if that hadn't done the trick I don't know what would've done," Astrid couldn't help but smile. Hiccup was finally home – properly.

"DUCK!" he yelped suddenly as a river of violet flame spiralled over their heads. Astrid covered her head to shield herself and a cry of agony coming from the village ruined the moment but it was far from human. Hiccup and Astrid both looked up and noticed that they weren't even hurt – there were no burns from the flames even though they'd felt the searing heat. Glancing towards the village, they saw Bucket standing next a Weedsnake that was dotted with purple flames and lying motionless on the floor. Its face was not one that Hiccup wasn't to remember.

"Bucket!" Astrid called. "What just happened there?"

"I don't know," Bucket replied bewildered. "The fire just came out of nowhere – maybe a misfire." Hiccup glanced around the near vicinity. There were plenty of Weedsnakes in the near vicinity – Bucket may have had a point. However, the fire flowed through the houses once more but seemed to completely ignore the Vikings. Instead, the Weedsnakes began shrieking and contorting in ways Astrid and Hiccup thought impossible before lying still as rock on the floor with fear and pain plastered onto their faces.

"Why are they dropping dead but not us?" he muttered. Nearby, the flames seemed to strike the last remaining Weedsnake in the area and as it screeched in a noise that would rival a banshee, Hiccup was able to catch its last words:

"What are you doing?! Your own kind...TRAIT...!"

Hiccup's forest green eyes widened in terror – so another Weedsnake was doing this? The violet fire was clearly cursed – it was leaving a mark (a more jagged one than the Mark of the Darkwing) on the nose of every Weedsnake it touched – yet it was only affecting them and not the Vikings, seemingly removing the very life energy from them. What was going on?

Bucket hadn't seemed to notice Hiccup – the poor guy wasn't the most observant of people even by Viking standards so it wasn't that surprising. Mulch, however, ran over an instantly noticed.

"Hiccup?" he spluttered. "How are you...you're alive?"

"Before you ask, no, I don't know how," Hiccup interrupted, whistling for Toothless. "I'm going up," he noted. "Something's not right and I've got a score to settle with Wavewing anyway."

"Hey!" Astrid snapped, grabbing his arm. "Don't think I'm going to let you throw yourself headfirst into something like this."

"Astrid, I have to do this!" Hiccup retorted. "The Weedsnakes aren't something to simply drop dead in a fire like this, especially when Vikings aren't even singed – I need to see what's going on. Besides, the others are still up there – they need help."

"And so do you – which is why I'm sticking with you," Astrid insisted. "That means I'm riding Toothless with you."

"What about Stormfly?"

"You forget that she can actually fly and fight by herself."

"Meh...Touché," Hiccup grumbled. There was no stopping Astrid when she'd decided what she wanted to do.

"In any case, your near-death-rate has reached fifteen already," Astrid pointed out, placing her hands on her hips. "Do you really think I'm gonna let you get yourself into another so quickly?"

"Well, you know me," Hiccup shrugged as he mounted Toothless, grinning his trademark crooked smile as he did so. "The guy who almost dies at least once per adventure," he added, almost quoting his sister. Astrid walked over and smiled back.

"I know," she nodded warmly. "And that's the Hiccup I fell in love with." Hiccup froze for a moment – Astrid had said it before but it still had the same effect on him.

"Thanks, Astrid," he smiled, offering her his hand and helping her up onto Toothless' back. Toothless cooed slightly before they took off and Hiccup was happier than before to see he could still understand Dragonese.

"You'd better make sure we get through this – she's gonna make sure you can't sit down for a month if you don't," he teased. Hiccup smirked and led Toothless into the skies.

/\

Kyra was noticing Wavewing's gradually increasing strength – every minute or so he set off a stream of bright purple fire into the village before it returned straight back to him. As it did, he grew in size and his attacks became stronger and stronger. She, Heather, the twins and Snotlout had been doing the main attack whilst Fishlegs had been scouting the battlefield and had literally just gotten back with a report.

"They're just collapsing everywhere when the fire hits them!" he called, hovering over on Meatlug. "No oak bolts or anything and none of us have been affected – they're just dropping like flies! It's not pretty down there."

"Well, this guy's been getting bigger!" Kyra yelped, somersaulting with Windwalker over a shot of violet flame. Wavewing let out a loud hiss and his amber eyes flashed blood-red as he sent another stream of fire towards the village – a Weedsnake on land (battling Stoick and Thornado) was caught in the flames and shrieked with a sound that had the potential to burst an eardrum and twisted itself in ways thought impossible. Kyra hadn't noticed it before – she'd assumed that the cries she'd been hearing had been because people had been getting a bunch of pot-shots with the oak bolts.

Now she was seeing something a lot worse.

"Oh, gods..." she muttered, her eyes widening to the size of saucers and the pupil in her dragon eye narrowing to the width of a needle. "That's not possible..."

"Is it?" Wavewing jeered. "You're the so-called Goddess herself in human form – you're the one who should know what we're capable of." He made a bite for the girl on the Star Backed Night Fury but Kyra just about got out of the way in time. She flew up to a higher altitude to prepare a kamikaze attack when Heather called for her attention.

"Kyra! The Infirmary!" the young woman shouted, indicating the Infirmary which was now smothered in a violet blaze that the Fire Squad were struggling to douse. Kyra's anger levels rocketed and, screaming like a banshee, she led Windwalker into a dive-bomb attack, smacking Wavewing directly into the temple but something else – another bright blue fireball – hit the Weedsnake Elder in the neck. For a moment Kyra and the others were disorientated and darted their eyes around the skies when Kyra saw him.

Toothless was flying with two Viking teens on his back. Astrid was the passenger, holding a fully loaded crossbow, and the driver was someone she wasn't expecting to see flying ever again.

"Hiccup?" she breathed, a smile like none other lighting her face up. She turned to face the others. "Hiccup's alive!" she crowed.

"How did he survive that?" Ruffnut spluttered, knowing that everyone knew what she was referring to this time.

"Who cares?" Heather cried gleefully. "We got our captain back!"

"Since when was Haddock captain of the squad?" Snotlout frowned.

"Since forever!" Heather argued. "Now shut up – you're not the only one with a Nightmare!"

"Now the Defenders of Berk are back in business!" Tuffnut snickered slyly as he and his sister raced to join Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless closely followed by the others. Artair also flew alongside Kyra as they went to greet Hiccup when he spotted something.

"Kyra – watch out!" he yelped, swerving out of the way. Kyra wasn't able to react in time as Wavewing's paw batted her and Windwalker out of the sky, causing Kyra to lose her grip and start falling towards the waves. Windwalker soon corrected herself and began diving after her rider but something stopped her and she froze mid-flight after casting a brief glance at Toothless. Artair was still diving after her and Hiccup had also made a beeline to catch his sister.

Now that he was closer, Kyra could see her brother more clearly – he was no longer part dragon. There was no doubt about it – he was fully human. Which could only mean one thing – glancing at her right hand, her suspicions were confirmed.

"Guys! Get out of the way! I've got this!" she yelled against the wind. Hiccup knew what his older sister meant and nodded at Artair, saying they had to trust her. Both dragons halted in their dives as Kyra continued plummeting towards the sea. "Come on, come on," she muttered angrily.

"Hurry up," Hiccup mumbled, Astrid squeezing him so tightly in worry that he was scared she might suffocate him. "Fly..."

Kyra could see the water getting closer but still nothing was happening. She had one shot at this – it had to work.

"Come on...COME ON!" she shrieked, her marks suddenly glowing bright red as power shot through her body like a surge of lightning. Just as she was about to hit the waves, Kyra felt something burst from her between her shoulder blades and spread outwards, slowing her fall so suddenly that the downdraft caused the water beneath her to spray outwards as, finally, the Dragon Shifter flew by her own strength again.

"Yeah!" Astrid crowed.

"Alright!" the twins chorused as Kyra flew upwards to join them, Night Fury wings extended to full length as she hovered on an updraft. Hiccup grinned – both curses had finally been lifted,

"Nice to see you back to your old self," he greeted. Kyra's smile widened.

"Same can be said for you," she replied. Hiccup glanced down at Wavewing who couldn't quite get the height required to get to the Defenders of Berk.

"What's happening?" he asked urgently. His question was answered almost instantly as Wavewing let out another hiss and his eyes flashed red and let out one last torrent of violet flame – it caught the last of the Weedsnakes on land and they let out a shriek of pain and contorted until they lay still on the ground. Hiccup finally understood – the cursed fire was drawing the life from the Weedsnakes it touched and transferred that energy – that power – to the origin of the fire: Wavewing, strengthening him beyond measure. "Gods...what is he doing?"

"That's...barbaric..." Kyra muttered. Fishlegs frowned in confusion.

"What is it?" he asked. Kyra knew there was no denying the sad truth of it now. Wavewing was more of a monster than she'd previously thought.

"Weedsnakes will do anything for power," she explained, a bitter tone ringing in her voice as she remembered Ivor's words. "I guess turning against their own kind and taking their life-forces from them to fuel their own is one such thing." Everyone's face lit up with horror.

"That's not right!" Artair protested.

"That's insane!" Heather added.

"That's awesome!" the twins snickered. Everyone else turned to look at them making faces which clearly said 'What the heck?', "Well...not from their perspective," Tuffnut shrugged. Hiccup looked at the number of Weedsnakes lying on the ground, their lives stolen from one they'd all looked up to – hate stained his voice as he spoke.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one who thought I could trust him," he growled. He took a deep breath and turned to the others. "We've gotta get him away from Berk – he's too powerful to risk being here any longer."

"Can't we just annihilate him before he reaches max power?" Ruffnut pointed out before the entire team were forced to split as a column of violet flame rose between them.

"Something tells me no," Snotlout whimpered. Well, that was probably the smartest thing he'd said all day. Hiccup mentioned for Astrid to hold on as she called for Stormfly and Hiccup led the team into a synchronised kamikaze bomb attack. Wavewing was bombarded with fire from all angles but no damage seemed to be done.

"It's going to take more than a few fireworks to have any effect, Little One," Wavewing hissed. At that, Stormfly arrived so Astrid leapt onto her dragon and tossed Hiccup the crossbow – grabbing it he took aim and fired an steel-tipped oak bolt straight into the back of Wavewing's throat. The Weedsnake writhed in agony but the single oak twig didn't seem to do much else – the sea dragon was still...standing, if you could call it that.

"Yeah, and it's gonna take more than your party tricks to stop me from protecting my home," Hiccup growled back. Wavewing looked at him directly in the eye – the dragon's now blood-red-amber eyes narrowed with hate, as did Hiccup's.

"You would have made such a good dragon," Wavewing repeated angrily.

"You would have made a good mentor if you'd actually kept people's trust," Hiccup retorted in equal anger. "It's not just a dragon whose trust you want to betray – it's a humans as well." Nearby, Artair's memory rang with the words Kyra had said to him when she'd taken him for a flight on Windwalker: If a dragon gives you their trust, you can't betray it. It was clear that it went both ways.

"I gave you my word that I would get you home," Wavewing snarled.

"I reckon I think most of that was me, not you," Hiccup retaliated blankly. The Weedsnake bristled.

"Fine. If you want to finish this, find me where I found you all those years ago," he ordered. "No dragons or your sister – just one person for company. I doubt you'll want to meet your true end alone." Hiccup tensed visibly – his hate for this guy was growing every second. If he was the Dragon Shifter there would be no doubt that he would have entered or be on the verge of entering the Shifter State right now. In fact he was amazed Kyra was managing to keep her cool although both eyes had turned into their dragon appearances. "I'll be waiting."

With that Wavewing vanished beneath the waves, leaving an entire school of Weedsnakes littered on land, lifeless and still as their power – life and otherwise – had been stripped from them to fuel their Elder's own selfish desires.

AN: So close to the end with this one! I'm amazed how this turned out - I never expected a re-write like this to turn out quite as well as it has done in comparison to the original.

Oh, the second set of designs for Kyra has been posted on deviantART - if the link below doesn't work for you send me a PM and I'll send you a new link.

art/HTTYD-OC-character-designs-aged-18-390166199

Once again, tell me what you think in the reviews or leave a comment on deviantART and if there are any other designs you want to see, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do