1,000 apologies for waiting so long to update! I was sick for a while and busy with school. Stupid research papers and projects and such. :( I promise I'll update more regularly from now on!

Chapter 13:

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third was dead. Or at least that's what Erika thought. In reality, Hiccup wasn't dead, but he was getting there. Nevertheless, she believed that she had killed him. She told her father that and plans to attack Berk followed pretty quickly. As Welch and her father argued about battle plans, Erika tuned them out and kept to herself. She thought about Hiccup, and how his spirit could possibly be looking down on them making plans to attack and take over his village. She suppressed her regret and convinced herself that she had done the right thing. Still, little bits of guilt crept up on her. In a perfect world where there was no conflict, she would probably still be with him. He was awfully handsome, and nice, and smart, and caring. It's a shame that the world lost such a brilliant mind. Should she have done it? Was it the right thing to do? Maybe she could have just married into the throne and gained power that way? No one would have had to die and she could still be with Hiccup. Well, the die has been cast and it's too late. Erika sighed heavily and was soon snapped back into reality by her father shouting her name.

"I was calling to ya, lass! Where has your mind wondered off to? Stay focused, Erika. This is important stuff." Her father said.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something." Erika replied.
"It better not be the boy." Welch chimed in.
"It... was."
"Look, Erika. We've been over this before. If you want power..."
"I know, I know. I had to do it."
"Forget about him. That's the best thing you can do. "
"I can't just forget him, Welch! Even if I had to be with him for power, he was still a part of my life. And, I'm being honest here, being with him was actually a really happy time in my life," Both Welch and Bjorn stifled laughs, which really offended Erika. "Hey! Sorry for being the only one with a heart around here!"
"Actually, I have two. Ones in me chest, and the others in a jar on me shelf of oddities." Bjorn pointed out.
"I was there when you cut it out of her too."
"I just wanted to prepare you for the life of a Viking! And now me own daughter has gone and killed herself someone! Good job."
"Can we get back to the matter at hand, please?" Welch interrupted.
"Yes, let's do that," Bjorn agreed. "Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Should we attack now or tonight? What do you think, Erika?"
"Well, let me think out loud for a second. By now, Astrid has definitely told everyone what I did and the shock is still setting in. Plans for a funeral are most likely being made which might be carried out tonight or tomorrow depending on how fresh they're able to keep the body. If the funeral is tonight, out of respect for the dead, I don't think we should attack tonight. Even if he is the son of our mortal enemy, we still have to have some respect. He is a human after all. If we attack now, the citizens of Berk wont be prepared can we can take them over easier. But..."
"Brilliant! I'll call my men..."
"Wait, dad! Um... actually, I was going to say... I have a better idea. I'll go back to Berk and pretend to be surprised at what happened. I'll say I was out flying when I tragically lost Tuna in a battle with a Monstrous Nightmare. That explains the loss of that traitor... Anyway, once I'm accused of murder, I'll turn the tables on Astrid and blame her. Out of jealously, she killed Hiccup and tried to blame me for it. I did kill him with a Berk knife by the way. I'll turn on the tears and keep playing the innocent girl card. It'll make sense to the village, Astrid gets executed, and I tell everyone that Hiccup's dying wish was for me the be the sole heir to the throne. Astrid dies, Stoick mysteriously kicks the bucket, and then, as the brand new chief of Berk, I annex Berk to Borg and boom! We have more land and power, and we don't have to risk losing any of our men." Bjorn and Welch looked at each other with skeptical expressions. Welch was the first to break the stare.
"Well, that sounds like a great plan, but what if it doesn't work? Are the citizens of Berk more inclined to believe a new girl from an island that no one has ever heard of, or someone who has lived in their village her whole life?"
"Then we go to Plan B. Attack."
"How will we know? What if they arrest you right away and kill you?"
"I'd be willing to die if that meant getting us more power."
"But what I'm asking is how will you let us know?"
"Ah! I see. Um... Terrible Terrors! They're built to navigate home no matter what! I read that in the Book Of Dragons! I'll take a satchel with me and hide a terror in it. If I get arrested, I'll send the terror back with a note saying that Plan B is a go. Sound good?"
"I don't see anything wrong with it." Bjorn stated. The three of them looked around the empty room and all thought something different. No one had anything to say to break the silence, so it lingered. That was until one of the guards burst in the door seemingly in a hurry. Was that... blood on his clothes?

"Berk! Attacking. Us. Now. Go!" He shouted as he ran back out. An attack from Berk? Borg sure as Hell didn't plan on that! Everyone assumed they'd be tied up with the grief of Hiccup's death and wouldn't attack! Bjorn drew his sword and ran out the door with Welch following him. Erika lingered a little before running out, but not into the fight. Instead, she ran toward the dragon adoption grounds. Erika knew that Berk used dragons in battle and she would have to as well. Borg trained dragons to be silly, frou-frou pets, not fearsome warriors. But Erika, having read the Book Of Dragons and received dragon-training lessons, knew how to fight with a reptile. She grabbed the first dragon she saw which was a Deadly Nadder with perfectly tamed claws and a bear skin saddle. Immediately, she ascended into the sky and saw the horrors of battle below her. Houses were on fire, women and children were running for cover, men were clashing swords or running them through the enemy. Dragons of all sorts were flying about bringing decay and destruction to the already desolate town. People were screaming, shouting, and dying left and right. It was a horrible sight to be seen and it could not be unseen. Erika watched as Snotlout, a man she was once acquainted with, ran a sword through the town blacksmith. She could have sworn that he yelled "that was for Hiccup!" afterwards. The town blacksmith buckled the way Hiccup did when he was stabbed. Erika felt utterly disgusted, but still, she began flying into the fray. She had learned a great deal at the academy that now came into play. She commanded her Nadder to shoot its spikes but it barely did any good considering the Nadder was very confused. Erika just being in the fight barely even made a difference. One girl riding on a dragon against an entire village riding on dragons was very unfavorable odds. Erika spent more time watching her friends and family die then she did fighting. As she was about to turn away, she was met with an all to familiar face. But instead of it being warm and fatherly, it was cold and bitter.

Stoick The Vast flew before her on his trusty Thunderdrum, Thornado. The normally large man looked abnormally small sitting on the back of that beast. However, an aura of hatred followed him that was larger then Berk and Borg combined. Erika stared him square in the face and he stared back. The two were fighting each other with glances and silent death threats. Erika was a woman that Stoick invited into his home and allowed to marry his son. He let her into his life with open arms and was almost ready to call her daughter. But now, in the heat of battle, Erika was a woman that Stoick wanted to kill. She was nothing but an enemy now. Personal relationships meant nothing anymore. Stoick didn't see Erika as anything but a Borgian who deserved to die. At any second, either one of them could kill one another. They stared each other with the purest form of hatred in their eyes. No one needed to say anything because their eyes spoke for them and no one dared make the first move either. This standoff here was the cold war between Berk and Borg in a nutshell. However, Stoick's hatred got the better of him and he was the first to move. He narrowed his eyes and mouthed "Goodbye" as he commanded his dragon to roar.

Erika knew what was going to happen the minute this beast opened its mouth yet she made no attempt to fly away. Part of her knew she was getting her comeuppance and this is what she deserved. Thornado roared a roar so mighty that the sound waves could be seen in the open air. They raced toward Erika at the speed of light and blasted her out of the sky. All sounds of battle stopped as everyone looked up to find where the source of this ear-shattering sound came from. They saw the mighty blue beast blast take the smaller blue beast down. Erika and her Nadder tumbled in the air and landed pretty severely on the rock-solid ground below. However, she recovered from this fall and got up fairly quickly. She looked up to the sky and saw Stoick turn away.

The crowd below him fell at the mercy of this ferocious beast save for one plump figure. It was that of Erika's father, looking as scared and frightened as ever. He shouted up to the heavens that Borg surrenders and will never attempt to control Berk again. After Bjorn saw what Berk was capable of, he was sure that he was going to stay true to his word. His daughter failed to mention that Berk is in possession of some of the worst dragons known to man. Stoick heard this compelling confession and yelled back that they'd need it in writing later. With that, he and the rest of Berk flew away into the setting sun. Stoick was forever grateful that his son had brought in the era of training dragons. And now, Stoick rushed home to see if that same son was still alive.

Erika stood next to her Nadder who had also quickly recovered. She was now chasing her tail and dizzying herself by running around in circles. Erika looked up to the now empty sky, and then to her now empty village. Charred remains of buildings were scattered all over the ground. Bodies, both dead and wounded, were buried underneath the remains. People ran about trying to salvage whatever and whomever they could. Erika just stood there and watched as even her own father wondered about aimlessly being bombarded with insults and curses. Erika knew that soon the citizens would be after her too. After all, she was the one that caused this. She sighed, took one last look at her destroyed village, then hopped aboard her Nadder again and flew off in the opposite direction of the sun. That was a direction she had never flown in before.

. . .

Stoick landed back on Berk to an array of cheers and congratulations yet he heard none of them. He simply pushed through the crowd to get to his house and to his son. People seemed to take notice so they stopped cheering and cleared a path. He got to his house in no time only to meet a distraught Gobber.
"Stoick! I heard the good news, but I'm afraid I can't say the same for the boy." He informed Stoick.
"What's wrong?"
"Well, he woke up. But he's telling me he feels like he's slipping away. I fear he might be on his last leg. Um... no pun intended. I sent Astrid to Gothi to see if she could conjure up some sort of medicine before he woke up and she hasn't been back since. He's telling that he sees this warm little light on his ceiling and he wants to reach out to it but he can't. And..."
"Dear Oden."

Again, sorry, sorry, sorry for not uploading in forever! :( Also, I had this storyline written before the TV show ended for the season, and I didn't know Stoick would give Thornado away, so let's just pretend for the sake of this story that he never gave him away or he came back or something. I promise I'll have the next chapter written soon too! Just a few more chapters left!