When the scene flickered back on again, it showed the teens – older again – sitting on the ground in a circle, back to back, with their hands tied behind their backs. There was a black-haired girl with them, right next to Not-Astrid. Toothless crooned at Hiccup again, trying to understand who that was. Unfortunately, the Vikings seemed just as confused about her presence there as he was. So Toothless turned back to observe. Their little group of seven was surrounded by black-wearing men and women who all looked very un-Viking-like. And they all bowed down to a blond woman who walked towards the group, proud and serious.

"All hail, Mala, Queen Defender of the Wing!" A man close to the group announced and the teens watched as they all showed their respect to the woman. Honestly, their little group looked mostly confused at this point. Turning and twisting, the group fought to be able to sit in a straight line in front of this… Mala woman. Astrid grumbled under her breath, something about escaping quickly. Hiccup just stared.

Tilting her head a little as she examined them all, seemingly very unimpressed, Mala spoke up. "So, these are the dragon hunters your men captured, Throk?" She asked and the man next to her replied positively quickly.

Not-Astrid's eyes blew wide open and she gaped at Mala. "Hunters? Us?" She asked and next to her, the unknown black-haired girl glared a little, nodding in support. "You've gotta be kidding!"

"We do NOT hunt dragons," Not-Hiccup said immediately after her.

Mala had a small, unamused smirk on her lips. "Do you take me for a fool?" She asked and Stoick grunted something that sounded suspiciously like a 'yes' to Toothless. The Night Fury had to agree – them? Dragon hunters? After everything they've watched so far? It was almost funny. But this Mala woman and her people didn't seem to share the sentiment. "You were sent by Viggo Grimborn to attack us and steal the Great Protector." She said confidently and sent a glance towards the statue of a dragon standing not too far away.

"You couldn't be more wrong." Not-Hiccup objected.

Tuffnut looked at the statue with confusion and his sister nodded next to him, clearly thinking the same thing as he did. "Yeah. Why would we steal a statue?" He leaned his head to the side, getting closer to Ruffnut. "To pose like it for long periods of time?"

"Oh, for the love of…" Hiccup muttered, facepalming at the stupid words. Toothless definitely felt the same about the stupidity of the words. Then again, no one in the group on the wall seemed like the words were too stupid. So maybe they all agreed with it. Or they were just used to silly, ridiculous things being said. Toothless wouldn't even be surprised at this point. Those twins didn't look like they were the brightest out of all of them this far.

Mala snapped at Tuffnut. "Silence, girl!"

"What? She's the girl!"

"A lot of people make that mistake when they first meet us," Ruffnut said with a smile like she was actually proud of that fact. This time, Astrid was the one to groan and roll her eyes.

Luckily, Not-Hiccup cut in quickly. "Look, we don't know who you are or what the Great Protector is, but if you're enemies of Viggo Grimborn, then we have something in common."

"Umm… can we replay that for a second? Enemies? Of this… Viggo guy? Who is he?" Hiccup looked at Astrid and received a shrug. His father looked just as baffled by the name. "Okay. So… a guy named Viggo is going to be our enemy." He frowned at Toothless. "They did say he was a dragon hunter, so that might have something to do with it, right? We have a lot to deal with in the future, huh?" He sounded like the thought didn't make him leap with joy. It didn't really shock Toothless, to be honest.

"Exactly what the last spy sent by Grimborn said," Mala said with a smirk.

Not-Hiccup sounded exasperated when he replied this time. "We don't hurt dragons. We honour and respect them."

"So you say, but you shackle them and make them do your bidding."

"Those are just saddles. We ride dragons."

"Not anymore, you don't. Your dragons are now free." She turned to the group of dragons munching on some kind of strange fruit next to them and watched as the man next to them waved at them, trying to make them fly off. The dragons grunted a little but didn't move. "Go, be burdened no more!"

Not-Astrid smiled at the dragons and then at Mala. "See? Our dragons are loyal to us." She said proudly.

Snotlout watched Hookfang with bright eyes. "Especially you, Hookfang. Way to go, buddy!"

For some reason, that made the Monstrous Nightmare spread his wings and soar into the sky. He was quickly landing back on the ground when Meatlug and Not-Toothless growled at him together, ordering him to get back down. He looked sheepishly at them when he did and Not-Toothless glared at him, annoyed. It didn't look like he was even surprised by the dragon's reaction – he was just irritated. Oh, if that was going to happen a lot, Toothless prayed he would have the patience to deal with all of these idiots. At least Hiccup was smart. And Astrid looked like a sensible person, too.

A part of Toothless wondered whether this was a part of the same plot in the future where Hiccup met his mother, but then he looked at Astrid and noticed she had different clothes on, so it couldn't have been the same future. Maybe it was before? Maybe after? He couldn't tell, but it was definitely not related to the other scenes of the far future.

"Okay, if we're dragon hunters, then why won't our dragons leave now that you've 'freed' them?" Not-Hiccup demanded, Not-Astrid nodding next to him with a frown. "How do you explain that?"

Mala didn't look like she had a change of heart, though. "Is it not obvious? They no longer think for themselves. But we will change that. And you will pay for your crimes against dragons." Honestly, Toothless didn't know whether to admire her for her strong will to protect dragons or to be upset with her for accusing Hiccup and his friends of abusing and hurting dragons. "Take them away, Throk. Prepare for a royal trial!" She walked away and the people around closed in on the group before the scene flickered, showing the group standing, some people scattered around, in front of Mala. She was sitting on a throne, staring down at them all. Not-Hiccup was walking towards her, his hands-free. "You stand accused of being dragon hunters, subjugators of dragons. Do you deny this?"

"Yes," Not-Hiccup said, stopping in front of her. Next to her throne was Throk, standing straight and looking much like a bodyguard.

A small smile graced Mala's face when she looked over to Not-Hiccup. "But you admit that you force the dragons to carry you on their backs?"

"We don't force them."

"And that you used them to land secretly on our island?"

"Yes. But you make it sound worse than it was."

"So, you weren't caught by my men sneaking towards our village?"

"Sneaking is a strong word…"

"And you didn't come here heavily armed?"

"Those are for self-defence."

"Oh, so you came here expecting a fight?"

"No, you're-you're-you're twisting my words." Not-Hiccup objected quickly, glaring at Mala who only kept on smiling at him from her place.

She looked like she was having fun judging him without really hearing what he had to say for himself. Toothless shook his head and snorted while Astrid glared daggers at the wall like she wanted to go over there and beat the woman up herself, even though she didn't have any weapons with her at the moment. Honestly, even Stoick looked like he was on the verge of snapping at this strange woman. Only Hiccup looked on with almost appreciation like he found this strange, very unfair trial, fascinating.

Behind Not-Hiccup, Tuffnut squared his shoulders and began to march forward. "Okay, that's it. Time for an expert to step in."

"Oh, no…" Astrid and Stoick said in unison and Hiccup scrunched up his nose like he couldn't believe this was happening as well. Alright, so the twins were definitely not the brightest if Toothless was correct with deciphering the hints he's been collecting since the beginning of all of this. Great.

When Not-Astrid stretched out her arm to try and get him back in line, Ruffnut shook her head. "Let him go. He knows what he's doing. He's been on trial more than anyone in Berk." She explained and Not-Astrid looked at her, unsure. Stoick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course, he's also been convicted more than anyone in Berk. But who caaaaaaares?"

Looking annoyed at this point, Not-Hiccup looked at Tuffnut when the twin presented himself before Mala and Throk, spreading his arms. He nearly completely disregarded the almost alarmed way Not-Hiccup said his name, apart from raising a hand to motion for Not-Hiccup to keep quiet, and then he began to try and defend their small group. "Tuffnut Thorston, attorney at… things. For the defence, your Queen-ness. Did we sneak onto your island? Perhaps. Did I eat a coconut?"

"Maybe." Ruffnut supplied helpfully from her place and the Vikings in the room groaned at once. Toothless rolled his eyes and huffed, expecting the worst already.

"But since when is sneaking around someone else's property without permission a trespass?"

Not-Hiccup cut him off. "For the record, this person does not represent me."

Ruffnut, still behind them, nodded her head. "Not at all."

Ignoring both of them, Tuffnut went on talking. "And maybe we do make the dragons do whatever we say and go wherever we go and want to go, whenever we want, and they carry us on their backs and we obviously keep them in cages and…" He trailed off for a moment, probably losing track of what he was trying to say, and Toothless growled in frustration when Mala and Throk frowned at them all, clearly seeing this as admission. "But does that mean that we subjugate them?"

"Subjugate them we do not," Ruffnut said.

Looking just as annoyed as Not-Hiccup, Not-Astrid sent an unimpressed look towards Ruffnut and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's kind of what it means."

Tuffnut looked over his shoulder at her, his face taken aback. "It does? That's terrible. Why do we do that?"

"Tuff, I'm begging you. Enough." Not-Hiccup hissed through clenched teeth, trying to motion with his hands for the boy to quiet down and step away from all of this.

It clearly didn't work, because suddenly Tuffnut's eyes gleamed and he gestured at a stunned Not-Hiccup proudly. "And take our leader, Hiccup Haddock the Third."

"There's three of them," Ruffnut mentioned.

"A man who shot down Toothless and crippled him so that he could only fly with Hiccup, subjugating him." While Not-Hiccup shuffled awkwardly in his place, looking sheepish and like he wanted the earth to swallow him whole, the teens behind them all flinched at the words and the people under Mala's command began to murmur angrily under their breaths. Even Mala's hand clenched in fury. Toothless just rumbled softly and put his head in Hiccup's lap, recognizing the way the boy began to feel bad about the entire thing. Honestly, they've been through this already, haven't they? "Did I use 'subjugating' right?" Tuffnut murmured unsurely and Not-Hiccup facepalmed. "I rest my case, Your Honor!"

"Oh, there it is." Not-Hiccup groaned and then watched with dismay as Tuffnut backed away with a bow. The moment he was far enough away, Not-Hiccup turned back to Mala, looking apologetic. "Look, until a few years ago we fought dragons. But since then we've learned to live in harmony with them. And yes, we ride them, because they allow us to. But the most important thing for you to know about us is that we hate dragon hunters and everything they stand for."

There were voices all around them and Not-Hiccup looked around, almost looking desperate. Mala, on her part, stood up, face blank. "We are moved by your sincerity and passion, Hiccup Haddock. Just one question. If you despise Viggo as you say, why do you hold a map written in his hand and carrying his signature?" She pulled out a scroll and unfolded it, revealing, in fact, a map. And Not-Hiccup seemed to recognize it because his eyes widened in alarm at the sight of it. His friends all gasped and stared, clearly worried once more. "I find you all guilty. And I sentence you to the same fate that befalls all dragon hunters – the Nest!"

Hiccup gulped when the scene flickered and looked around. "Umm… that was a good question. Where did this map come from? Why did we have it?" He looked from Toothless to Astrid and back. "We weren't lying to her, right? We won't end up being dragon hunters, after all." He frowned down at the Night Fury, seemingly lost in his thoughts. No one gave him any sort of answer.

The next scene was one where they were all inside some kind of a tunnel. Mala looked down at the group that was being walked forward by her men. "We protect the dragons as they protect us." She stated loudly. Toothless crooned worriedly at the sight of all the dragons around. "We accept the judgment of the dragons as they have accepted us. Step forward and receive that judgment." She motioned forward with her hand.

"I'm the leader. I'll go first." Not-Hiccup said and stepped towards Mala. Hiccup himself shook a little in his place, clearly afraid of what may occur in the future. Toothless wasn't too worried, but he could tell all of the Vikings in the room found this scene unnerving if Astrid's startled expression and Stoick's stiff limbs were anything to go by.

Looking like he was trying not to show how scared he was by playing nonchalantly, Snotlout followed him with his eyes. "Be my guest. Please. Even though you're not the leader, you should go first."

Hiccup rubbed his eyes and groaned in exasperation but didn't say anything.

Astrid smiled a little. "He's never going to change, I suppose." She shrugged and smirked in Hiccup's direction. "Snotlout will always be a brat and a jerk. But at least he seems to listen to you a little more in the future, right?"

The look Hiccup gave her was very sceptical. "Oh, yeah. Because right now I'm just having mild insubordination problems with him. Other than that, he does what I ask without hesitation." He said dryly and Toothless wondered how bad Snotlout must be to Hiccup now if he was this pessimistic about the whole idea of the guy hearing him out and actually doing things accordingly in this future. Probably not the best relationship there, huh?

Not-Astrid ignored that and instead watched as Throk made Not-Hiccup stumble a little towards an edge that led to a pit in the middle of the tunnel/cave. "Hiccup," She said and waited until he sent her a look over his shoulder. "Good luck."

He smiled at her. "I'll be fine."

Before long, Hiccup cried in pain when Astrid punched him in the arm once again, making the boy glared at her. Stoick just shook his head at the two, as if he could tell he would have trouble dealing with them already. Toothless chortled quietly, trying not to get caught, though the nasty, betrayed look from Hiccup probably meant it didn't go unnoticed by the boy. Luckily, he was too focused on Astrid.

"W-what did I do this time?" He demanded, rubbing his arm with annoyance and a pained grimace. Astrid just shrugged sweetly and scooted closer until she was nearly touching Toothless who was still curled around Hiccup, separating him from the other two Vikings. Hiccup blinked at her in surprise and then smiled a little. "Wait, are you worried about me?"

Astrid just stared forward. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She claimed easily and Hiccup's face split into a smile before he, too, turned to the wall, his eyes gleaming. He even ignored it when Toothless kept on laughing at him and actually ran his hand along Toothless' scales, making the dragon purr in delight. Okay, Toothless definitely liked Astrid.

On the magical wall, the black-haired girl stepped closer to Not-Astrid. "So he can train any dragon?"

The blond nodded, still frowning in concern. "Except for a few. Whispering Deaths, Changewings…"

"And… Speed Stingers." Not-Hiccup cut in, looking down at the dragons running around in the pit below him, ready to deal with him. Toothless growled menacingly at the dragons as if daring them to harm his rider, but they couldn't really hear him and he just found himself whimpering when Hiccup murmured softly for him, telling him it would be okay. He was thrown down to the pit and looked up, gasping a little at the dragons that stopped before him, trilling. Not-Astrid ran after him but Mala extended a sword that blocked her path. "I'm okay!" He called out for Not-Astrid and then frowned. "So far." He braced himself and began to walk towards the nearest Speed Stinger, reaching carefully with his hand. "Hey, come on, little guy. We can be friends." He murmured softly and Toothless whined. This wasn't going to work with this type of dragon. "Let's show them how we can – whoa!"

He yelped and jumped back when the Speed Stinger attacked him with his tail, narrowly missing him. Soon after, the other dragons came towards him, attacking as well. They all missed him, luckily, but Toothless still felt too tense. Where the heck was he during all of this? He was with them earlier and he didn't think those people would trap him or the other dragons anywhere. So why was he letting this happen to Hiccup?

Desperately trying to protect himself, Not-Hiccup pulled up white bones from the ground and held them up between him and the quick dragons. He blinked, stunned for a moment when they snapped the bones in half. He tossed the broken bones away and avoided another blow. Unfortunately, that also made him lose his balance and Not-Hiccup fell back before he began to crawl away from the dragons, backing himself against the wall of the pit.

And then, out of nowhere, Not-Toothless jumped down and into the pit, growling at the Speed Stingers and flicking his tail at them. While Not-Hiccup stood back up, relieved, the dragons ran off and away from the angered Night Fury. For a second the boy looked alarmed at Not-Toothless who roared at the dragons but Toothless thought it was justified to scream at them to leave his human alone.

"Thanks, bud," Not-Hiccup said and quickly mounted the dragon before flying out of the pit together. Seeing as their leader was finally fighting back, the other teens all disarmed the people around them with ease, clearly not dealing with enemies for the first time. Stoick hummed, impressed. Astrid smirked at her future self and nodded to herself, probably recognizing her skills were good in the future.

When Mala and Throk turned to the group and ordered them to surrender, Stormfly flew forward and roared at the two, blocking their view of the teens. Not-Astrid almost looked smug. "Yeah… I'm thinking 'no'."

"Mala, you need to ask yourself – would these dragons risk their lives to protect us if we were hunters?" Not-Hiccup said and Throk turned to him with his weapon, ready to strike. Though he waited for Mala's orders. "You said you accept the judgment of the dragons. Well, accept the judgment of our dragons. We are not the enemy." He lifted his arms in surrender.

Luckily, Mala turned to Not-Hiccup and seemed to take his words to heart. "Stand down. The dragon judged him innocent, Throk. Release them." She stopped right in front of Not-Hiccup and Not-Toothless. "Release them all." She smiled when Not-Hiccup thanked her. "You are a mystery, Hiccup Haddock," She said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Astrid agreed.

"Another one figured it out, then," Stoick said, nodding his head gravely.

Hiccup stared at them with wide eyes, looking like he didn't know what to think about all of this. Eventually, he turned his questioning gaze to Toothless and the Night Fury warbled a little before cooing softly to try and make him relax again and go back to watching the future.

"But know this," Mala crouched down and scratched Not-Toothless under the chin. For some reason, the dragon let her. Toothless felt like he just betrayed Hiccup's trust somehow, even if she was clearly alright with all of them now. "If you are not what you claim to be or if you betray us in any way, I will end you myself. Dragon or not." Well, mostly with them. The scene flickered so fast, that Stoick barely even had the time to mumble unpleasantly at the woman's threat against his son. It showed the outside of their strange island again. They were all there, walking with Mala and Throk. The woman held up the fruit from before, showing it to the group. "We call it Sagefruit. It calms even the most aggressive dragons. Makes them easier to handle."

Not-Hiccup smiled and patted Not-Toothless' head. "Which explains why our dragons have been so docile."

"And yet, when you were in danger, he ignored its effects," Mala noted, smiling with appreciation at the dragon and his rider. "That was very impressive."

Smirking, Not-Hiccup turned to look at her, Not-Toothless looking almost smug. "Oh, Toothless is no ordinary dragon." He said and Toothless purred contently at the words on the wall before Hiccup laughed and whispered his agreement with the words. Yup, the best future rider. Toothless didn't care how many times the boy would mess up – they were going to be there together and he would probably enjoy it.

Mala looked a bit confused when Not-Toothless warbled deeply and made Not-Hiccup rub his head more efficiently. "You do have a connection with him, Hiccup Haddock. I do not understand it, but I cannot deny it."

The magical wall turned black and Toothless lifted his head only to see the smiles of Astrid and Stoick aimed at Hiccup and him. They were definitely on their side now, one hundred percent. Alright, maybe ninety. And sure, it didn't mean Toothless just forgot about the way Stoick disowned Hiccup for a very short amount of time in the future, but it did mean he could work with what those two shared. He was willing to make amends if Hiccup wanted him to. Of course, that said – they still had plenty of things to do in their future seeing as before they were taken here, Toothless was trapped in the forest after getting shot by Hiccup's bola-launcher.

Now, wasn't this a pleasant thought to spring into his mind?

Toothless whined a little and his eyes drifted towards his crippled tail. He knew Tuffnut was making a whole mess while describing Hiccup to Mala and the others in the future, but he was right. Hiccup shot him down and then built him a tail that had to be controlled by a human. It would have upset Toothless had it not been for the fact that he also knew that Hiccup then tried to make another tail for Toothless, one that actually allowed him to fly on his own. Toothless just didn't want it.

The fact that it was Toothless' choice to get rid of that tailfin and not Hiccup's – the fact that he was actually allowed to leave and do whatever he wanted to and was practically set free by Hiccup despite the boy clearly not wanting him to fly away – was the thing that made it all the more touching. Because Hiccup didn't force him to do anything. He shot him down and ruined Toothless' tail forever, preventing him from flying, true. But then he worked hard to fix what he's done and he then let Toothless decide what to do. Toothless bet that if he refused to let Hiccup ride on his back, the boy would have done anything to let the dragon fly despite that and without him burdening him. He would have let him fly again even if Hiccup didn't get to join him in the sky.

Purring, Toothless made himself comfortable in Hiccup's lap again, ignoring the confused hum the boy let out at this. Sure, Toothless didn't mind cuddling up to him until this point, but something felt different about it now like Toothless truly gave up all resistance and agreed one hundred percent and wholeheartedly with the future and what it had in store for them. He was content with knowing he and Hiccup had years of adventures ahead of them, and he knew that if it came down to it, Hiccup would not let him down and would actually stand up to protect Toothless.