V for Viking

Author's Note: Alright, if you are looking for a feel-good, plain ole' Hicstrid story, just keep on going. If you're looking for your average 'M' rated Hicstrid story, again keep going you filthy animal :P. However, if you are looking for a gritty, violent, and potential heart-crushing story…well, stick around. If you were a fan of the 'evil-Hiccup' theme from my other HTTYD story "Exodus and Return-us" then you will like this.

Reviews are welcome, especially since this is going to be much different from your normal story and as such responses will vary. I want to hear anyone's thoughts. Keep in mind though that this story should elicit strong responses, and those may not be sunshine and rainbows.. :D

Here it is… V for Viking (which is totally a play on 'V for Vendetta')

Chapter 1—Astrid's POV

The whole village has been on alert. It's been six years since our last dragon raid, but that doesn't mean that we've forgotten the terror those beasts bring. Ever since the Chief's son disappeared—just before the raids stopped—the island knows to drop everything if someone goes missing. I don't know if the Chief is worried that someone else could die or just wants a chance to kill a kidnapping dragon, but either way everyone is on the lookout.

And the best of us, whether with a blade or at tracking, are on the hunt. And since I'm one of the best in both areas, I get to hunt alone so no one slows me down. Just one of the few perks on being the #1 Shield Maiden in the Archipelago.

Two men didn't come home last night. They aren't anyone important—just two loudmouths who enjoyed heckling my generation as we grew up—but they were friends of Spitelout. Because I am considered the best at this sort of thing, Spitelout told me and only me that he knew the men were planning on going into the forest after drinking last night. I guess Spitelout felt he could trust that I would find them and bring them back to him before they embarrassed themselves anymore.

I guess that's what my reputation has bought me. Astrid the Faithful, one step above Astrid the Loyal. When I won that competition among Shield Maidens from all tribes, they decided that I needed a new name to commemorate my accomplishment. I'm not certain whether 'Loyal' or 'Faithful' sounds any better than the other, but I've taken the title nonetheless.

Unfortunately for Spitelout, it doesn't seem like his friends are in any kind of simple trouble: I've been searching for hours without a trace. The deal was that after eight hours of no word that Spitelout would send others to search. That should have happened two hours ago.

I'm probably a good two hours away from Berk now, and I've been doing everything I can yet still haven't found anything. Aside from 'they're going to test their drunken aim' I don't know anything.

Eventually, I came across a tall stone cliff. It went straight up for a good hundred feet and basically represented the beginning of Berk's main mountain. I stopped to catch my breath and eat a small snack in the shade of a nearby tree, and while I ate my eyes wondered to the cliff-wall.

The wall was impossibly smooth because it faced the brunt of the ocean's wind, yet for some reason up one side there were small holes made. It almost seemed like someone had cut out small handholds in the wall so that they could climb up.

I put my food and water away and investigated the holes. They were about six inches deep and were wider than they were tall, as if someone had stabbed this wall with a really strong weapon.

I seriously doubted that either of the drunk men would have made this if they had made it this far drunk, but mission or no this warranted exploration. It seemed like an odd choice for a cliff climbing trip for anyone because there wasn't any rock at the top to tie off on; this is a no-failure task with very high risk.

Regardless, I started climbing. Even with my pack and my axe on my back, I was eventually able to make it to the top. Up top there was a cave in the side of the cliff, and above that there was even more cliff. It looked as if the cave had seen recent activity, so I unsheathed my axe and investigated.

For most of the time, the cave was dark and I stayed to the edges. Eventually, I saw an orange-ish light at the end of the cave. When I got there, I was extremely surprised to see a lava pit in the middle of the ground. I had no clue that Berk's small peak was a volcano, but when I looked up I didn't see any hole at the top.

It must be dormant. I was about to leave, before something at the corner of the room caught my eye. Despite the sweltering heat, I stayed to examine what was a peg-board of sorts. All the words were written in some strange, connected, squiggly language. There seemed to be a triangle scheme among the writing, and I could identify several dozen separate sections, until at the top there were two sections that headed the pyramid.

"Well, that's not how a pyramid works…" I mused aloud. Indeed, instead of a true pyramid, it looked like the board's owner couldn't decide which section belonged on top, and put them both there for the moment.

"Alright, I've had enough of this heat." I decided to leave until something caught my eye. At the bottom of the pyramid, two sections had a big X through them, and a pendant hung from each section. And judging by Spitelout's description, these two pendants belong to my two missing men.

My eyes went wide, and my head whipped to the lava pit. A chill ran down my spine, and I decided that it was time to leave this cave before its resident returned. If this person killed two Vikings, then I don't want to risk taking him on alone. If I fail, no one will ever find this place, and we will have three missing persons.

Once I was back outside, I prepared to climb back down before I noticed someone climbing up. The person was clad in black armor, which only served to multiply my fears.

"Ah, don't worry, I won't fall. You always tell me to keep training, so here I am training!...What? You don't like that I'm stabbing my way up a cliff? Well, get over it!" I could faintly hear the man in black armor having a conversation with someone I could neither see nor hear. I assume that they are hiding under the tree.

"Damn. I'm not getting down without being spotted." I looked around for someplace to hide, and right above the place that the man below was set to come up was a large boulder that I could take cover behind. I got into place, set my bag down, and readied my axe.

"Watch, I can even do it one-handed!" The voice was closer.

"WHOOPS! Two hands it is…sorry." It was very close.

"See, I made it." The voice made it over the edge.

The man walked past my spot, and I jumped out axe first. Just before I made contact with his back, my axe was blasted out of my hands by a blast of fire, and I turned my head to find a Deadly Nadder giving me a death glare. The next thing I knew I was roundhouse kicked by the man, and when I tried to pick myself off the ground I was greeted with a blade to my neck.

The man angrily grumbled something at me in a language I can't begin to understand—probably the same language written on the board. When I didn't reply in his language, he gave me death glare that put the Nadder to shame. Despite the fact that there was a dragon right there, I refused to break eye contact.

He wore a mask that covered his forehead and mouth, and formed a point that covered his nose but left his eyes and the side of his temples exposed. The entire armor was a deep midnight blue—nearly black—and features some sort of shingle design like a roof. Or a dragon.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he pulled back on his weapons—double short spears with a half-foot arrow at the end—and he stumbled back a few feet.

"Astrid?!" he asked surprised.

I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass. I kicked up with my feet and managed to knock off his helmet—nearly missing his chin—before I rolled backwards into a standing position. The man barked an order at the dragon and held his hand out to stay it, before shaking his head and adopting a defensive position.

"Do I know you?"

"I hope not." He replied, and a charged him with my now-retrieved axe.

In about five moves, I was again disarmed and held at the end of a blade. He seemed extremely proficient with his weapons, as he not only defeated me but made a show of it simultaneously. One spear would distract me with spins and twirls while the other made short work of getting caught in the curve of my axe. With one simple yank, I was defenseless.

He held his spear again to my neck. This time, I got to see his whole face. I finally noticed his green eyes—not a bright green, but a faded green—and the curve of his face. It seemed familiar. It wasn't until I saw a small scar on his chin that I realized who this was.

"Hiccup?!" I asked incredulously.

"Oh, son of a BITCH."

"Hiccup! What the hell are you doing alive?!"

He again retracted his weapon, and turned his back as he paces around and ran his hands through his hair. I was about to approach him, but the growl of a certain Nadder held me at bay.

"Hiccup, what's going on? Have you seen two drunk idiots?"

Hiccup remained silent, but at least turned around to face me. His head suddenly turned to the Nadder, and he paused as if it was talking to him.

"Aww, come on. I guess we could tell her."

I swear, the Nadder shook its head at him, but he ignored it.

"I'm here... well, I'm here to avenge a friend."

That caught my attention.

"What do you mean 'avenge a friend'? Are you planning on killing people?" I asked, not sure if to mock him or question his sanity.

He frowned slightly, and took a deep breath before responding.

"Well, I've kinda already started. You're looking for Griff and Svimmon, correct?"

My eyes went wide, and the chills from earlier returned to my spine. I gave a small, terrified nod.

"Yea…good luck with that."

I froze, and Hiccup just kinda looked at me, waiting for a response. Eventually, I was able to sum up my shock in one word.

"WHAT?!"

"They're dead. Melted, actually. Not alive, mind you, but gone nonetheless."

My mind flew into a frenzy. How could Hiccup do this? There's no way that he would do this. No one would do this to their tribe! This is insane!

Then, I thought of a possible scenario where this makes sense. They ran into Hiccup while they were drunk, and Hiccup must have thought he was in danger. He probably killed them in self-defense and disposed of the bodies. It's still bad, but not horrible…in a way.

"Did they attack you?"

"No. I attacked them."

And like that, my rationality was shattered and my mind shifted into overdrive. Panic flooded my mind, and my breathing started to speed up.

"Why? Why would you hurt them?"

Hiccup again shared a glance with the Nadder.

"They were on my list. They were actually the first ones on my list."

I started to hyperventilate, and I was torn between my complete disbelief of the situation, my desire to get to the bottom of this, and my ever-urgent need to get the hell out of here.

"Calm down, Astrid. Breathe. There you go, just breathe. Once you're calm, I'll answer some questions. I'm sure that your mind must be struggling to understand this." Odd. I'm not really in a state to judge this, but that last sentence seemed…melancholy. Reserved, for someone who murdered two men and is eager to answer questions.

I saw down at the base of the cave, and Hiccup retrieved my pack, then handed me my water. I took a sip to try to calm my breathing, and my brain realized that I needed to not hyperventilate if I didn't want to choke.

"There. I'm sure you're dying to ask me something, so go ahead."

"Uh, what is…that…doing there?" I asked, not so subtlety referring to the dragon in the room.

"Oh, you mean Metalbreath? Yea, well the dragons just kinda seem to follow me around ever since I killed their Queen. And their Alpha."

Okay, so that really doesn't help me right now. There's a lot of information there that doesn't interest me right now, but is surprising nonetheless.

"So you killed a dragon?" I asked cuttingly. Hiccup flinched, almost as if I had hit a tender spot or an old wound, but he hid it well.

"Well, not alone…but yes, many." He replied in another melancholy tone. This definitely is not the same Hiccup that disappeared years ago.

Hiccup sat down against Metalbreath the Nadder, and removed his freaking foot.

"What the…?"

"Oh, yea. I never was one to let losing a foot slow me down. I found a kick-ass use for this leg now…"

He removed the foot and part of his shin, and brought it up to his chest. He slowly unclasped a lid that hid into the top of the foot. I expected him to pull out a weapon or some cool map or just something else mysterious, but instead he proceeded to drink the contents of his leg.

"Um…what is that?" I asked. It was a red liquid, but I was too far any to determine anything other than that.

"Only the best rum known to man. I've been saving this for…well, a stressful day in the near future, but this works too."

My eyebrows arched up, and I gave him an incredulous look.

"You use a secret compartment in your leg to store rum?"

After he finished the whole thing, he reattached his foot.

"Metalbreath, remind me to thank that pirate—sorry, privateer—sometime soon. This was the best idea ever."

With his foot now reattached, he looked back to me. I gave him a flat look.

"What's in your arm, a Madam?"

"Nope, I reserve those for my pants!" He responded with a grin, and I immediately shook my head of the thoughts that spawned there.

Well, now is as good a time as any to shift this conversation.

"So, tell me again why you are murdering your tribe?"

Hiccup went stiff, and despite having just downed a good bit of rum his gaze was stony as ever.

"That…that's the one thing I'd like to keep to myself."

"Well, sorry, that option went away when you killed two men and took me hostage!"

The Nadder behind Hiccup almost chuckled at that, and Hiccup nudged it with his elbow.

"…Fair enough."

"You said you're avenging someone. What did we ever do to you?!" I asked angrily. I was feeling a good bit defensive, seeing as our heir—or I suppose former heir if he's intent on killing us—is being quite offensive. Not 'ouch my feelings are hurt' offensive, but 'ouch I am killed' offensive.

"It's not that simple, Astrid."

"Oh, well, please! Enlighten the shit out of me!" I yelled with equal parts anger and sass.

Hiccup stood up and turned away, and I noticed his hands had curled into fists. Good; if he is struggling with this, then maybe he can be swayed. If not, at least I've caused him some trouble with it.

"My best friend—my only friend—of all time was killed recently. An old injury that Berk caused him kept him from being fast enough to live. Just another inch and we both would have made it.

"I did manage to kill them men responsible for his death, but it's not enough. The last thing he ever heard was me telling him that those responsible would pay, and I intend to keep that promise. To remind me of my goal, I don his scales as my armor—his idea, I swear—everyday."

The amount of pain that that story caused Hiccup must have been incredible based upon to look in his eyes. It looked like his eyes had died; the old, vibrant green had faded into a forest-green grave. Even his voice, which till now was cheerful and even playful, seemed to just die. I couldn't tell if his voice was about to crack or cry or scream in rage.

But the amount of pain this man's death caused Hiccup cannot be underestimated.

Wait a minute…

"This is all about a dragon!? It isn't even a real person!?"

Almost instantaneously, Hiccup slapped me with the flat part of the arrow on his spear. I saw stars, and the pain in my cheek was almost unbearable. I was unhurt except for a small slice from the tip of the spear and the pain from being slapped much harder than I thought was possible.

"IF. YOU. SAY. THAT. AGAIN. I. WILL. NOT. HOLD. BACK." Hiccup spoke slowly and made sure that the murderous intent behind his words was delivered in full.

I went completely silent. So much of this situation was new and different that I was terrified.

Yet, somehow, I still found some fight within me.

"I've never seen a dragon like that here, or anywhere to be exact." I didn't openly defy him, but I implied that Berk didn't hurt his dragon. I just hope he isn't too pissed.

"You haven't ever seen it, but I would imagine that you've heard the Night Fury one or two times…"

"Those are Night Fury scales?! How did you meet a Night Fury!?"

Hiccup started to pace around the room, with his weapons still in hand to serve as a reminder what not to say.

"The same way he was injured. For years, I was nothing around here. Just a screw-up, a curse, and failure that everyone had to deal with. My like sucked, okay? It truly did. Everything I ever did to help backfired and set me worse off than before. All I ever wanted to do was be like the rest of you; to catch everyone's eye and be accepted. I eventually figured that, to climb out of the hole I was in, I had to take down a Night Fury…so I did. And no one cared. My triumph brought me nothing, and it injured my soon-to-be friend permanently. It ripped his tailfin off, and because of that he is dead now!"

"And that's why you want to kill your tribe? Because you used to suck and now you're friend died?" I asked, almost not sure if he would admit to such a condensed statement or if he was the 'justification' type.

"More or less, yes. For the role you played in his death."

Something within me went off. How DARE he pin this on us?! Is he so delusional that he blames us for all that has happened!? Has Hiccup truly gone insane, or is he no longer that kind person who tried to help Gobber?!

I rose to my feet, and quickly walked forward until Hiccup and I were less than a foot away. My anger was threatening to spill over, and I was lucky that I didn't strike him then and there.

I looked up into his eyes, and nearly exploded.

"In case you didn't notice, we aren't to blame for all of us! If you really want someone to pin his death on, you should think REALLY hard about who is to blame…"

With my bit said, I felt smugly satisfied with myself. That is, until I saw his lifeless eyes explode ten times more violently than I just did.

"YES, I KNOW. I WILL BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT THAT TOOTHLESS IS DEAD BECAUSE OF ME! IF ANYONE SHOULD DIE TO AVENGE TOOTHLESS, I SHOULD BE FIRST. I SHOULD DIE; IF ONLY I COULD BE SO LUCKY. BUT THAT'S THE ONE THING I CAN'T DO, ASTRID!"

I don't know whether he grew or I shrunk, but now I was terrified AND he looked monstrous. I was shaking and my spine had long since turned to ice, and I just stood there and watched in horror as things fell silent.

After a long, pregnant pause, Hiccup finally seemed to have control over himself. But not before planting his spear two feet deep into the rock wall.

"I can't just kill myself—I can't take the cowards way out now. I can't bear to be any more of a failure that I already am. I can't just die; I need to kill until I am killed. And so far, I haven't found anyone who was able to kill me."

"S-so what are you going to do? Am I-I…are you…?"

He still seemed to be reeling his anger in, but almost took pity on me with what he said.

"I'm going to follow the list. Don't worry, now's not your time. There will be many dead before I get to you. If I'm lucky, someone will kill me before it comes to that.

"Unfortunately, I am never very lucky."

Author's Note: Yea, so Hiccup has a kill-list. How sweet. I don't expect this story to be very long, so I don't intend to fully explain everything. A few references or hints about what sort of timeline this story has, but that's it. Next chapter will actually be the end unless I think of another thing I want to accomplish before I end this.

As always, please review!