Previously:
Spider-man invited Hiccup to dinner, where he met Sam and Kate. Yelena, Tony, Spider-man and Pepper were also there. Hiccup had a conversation with Sam about flying which was kinda bittersweet, and then reflected on the gang and their antics. He's only partly sure that there won't be a murder when he's gone.

Refer to the last chapter for Peter's recollection of the recent events.

⚠️T.W: Anxiety/panic attack, dark themes ⚠️

Now:

All I see is darkness and fog. Everywhere I turn. I try to look around, find my way out, but I can't see anything. I try to walk, but the darkness stretches on. After what feels like ages of walking, I see a dim blue light in the distance. It must be the way out, it has to be! I run towards it.

But when I get there, I'm met with a sight I never wanted to see again. Toothless, under mind control. Chills run through my bones when he turns and makes eye contact with me.

Thé darkness creeps in from all angles, the
Only small patch of light coming from my best friend's mouth. I can't see anything but him.

He growls, a deep, bone shattering sound. I try to reason with him. "Toothless! It's me! C'mon, what are you doing?! Snap out of it!" But he keeps stalking closer, keeps growling, keeps charging a blast. His eyes deadly thin and empty. I throw my hands up to protect myself.

And then my dad is there. "SON!"

"DAD, NO!"

I'm shoved. Boom. Dust is thrown up in my eyes. I'm on my knees, coughing, shaking. I know what's coming next but I don't want to look. I know what I'll see.

But still I do.

And there, lying motionless, is my father.

"No! Dad! Wake up!" I shout, scrambling to his side in a fit of panic. I shake him, I plead with him, I listen to his heart. Nothing.

"You couldn't save him, Hiccup."

I snap my head up, "Who—who said that?!"

"You couldn't save him, this was your doing."

I look around, but the voice echoes and bounces around me. I look over at Toothless, who is still controlled but is now staring at the ground, his mouth smoking. Just like I remember.

"Who are you?!" I scream, tears running down my face, my chest heaving with every breath I take.

"I think you know."

I turn to look behind me. It's him. He's here.
"How—"

"I think you should know, Hiccup."Grimmel smirks. He gestures to Toothless, who snaps his gaze onto me again. "I always win."

A plasma blast flies at me before I can react.

There's a boom, but no pain. I open my eyes, breathing ragged and terrified. Now I'm somewhere else. A cliff. New Berk. The wind is blowing harshly, cutting into my skin and right into my bones.

"Look at what you have done, Hiccup!" Grimmel's voice tuts. I stand up from my knees. Grimmel steps out of the grass and points a long, taunting finger near me. I realise it's not at me. I spin around.

My world falls apart.

"Nooo!" I scream, sprinting towards her. She's standing up, smiling at me. She doesn't know.

She doesn't know.

I shout at her to move, to run, to do anything. But still she looks at me so innocently, so happily. I reach her. But I'm too late. Viggo plunges a sword into her stomach from behind.

"Nooo!" I catch her as she falls. She looks so scared, so confused, so in pain. I try to put my hands on the wound, stop the blood, as her eyes glaze over. But it flows through my hand and out around us. It keeps going until all I'm doing is standing in blood.

"See what happens, Hiccup?!" I stand up, face Viggo with bawled fists. "See what happens when you throw your future away?!"

The blood turns to hot, boiling lava. I jump away, out of it, scramble to hold onto a rock. "Viggo!" I shout, panic gripping my heart. The rock starts breaking away. "H-Help!"

He appears above me. "Do you remember what you said to me? Before I got this?" He has a sick smile on his face as he points to his eye. "I asked if you would throw your future away."

"Viggo!" I plead. "Help me. Please. Please."

He leans in close. "You said 'No I'm not.'" And then he pries my hands off and let's me fall into the lava.

I land on cold ground.
"You did this." I hear my fathers voice, but far angrier than I've ever heard him. I spin around, calling for him, but I never see him. "You did this, Hiccup. This was your fault."

"We're dead because of you." Astrid now.
"ASTRID!" I call her name, spinning around aggressively as I try to find her. She steps into view. But she looks... wrong. A gaping hole is through her stomach. Her arm is barley attached to her body.

She limps towards me, tears cascading down her cheeks. "You should have stopped it."

I reach a hand out and cup her cheek, trying to tell her I'm here because I can't even say anything. She smiles, a heartbroken, damaged smile. She puts her hand over mine. "Why didn't you stop it?" She whispers, voice clogged with tears.

"A... Astrid..." I choke out. Then her eyes turn dark and she shoves me. Someone catches me. But then hands are all over me, shoving me this way and that. Voices overlap. Voices of my father, of Astrid, of Grimmel, Drago, of Viggo, of my friends. They just keep going, keep getting louder, until all I hear is screaming and all I feel is pain. The hands grabbing at me multiply, pulling me this way and that, until they cover all of me and I can't even see.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP IT?!"
"YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!"
"OUR CHIEF IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Stop.
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE WITH YOU AT THE THROWN?!"
"YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN USELESS. NEVER KNEW YOU'D FAIL THIS MUCH."
"I LOVED YOU!"

Stop it.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP ME?!"
"SON. THIS IS YOUR FAULT."
"YOU FAILED."
"I LOST MY WIFE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Stop it no I didn't mean it.

"YOU TOLD ME WE'D GROW OLD TOGETHER!"
"YOU'RE NOT A VIKING!"
"WHY DID YOU LET ME DIE?!"
"YOU'RE NOT MY SON."

I scream, bursting upright.

****⚠️T.W: Panic/anxiety attack! Scroll until you see bold ⚠️****

Panic pushes through me, all I see is their bodies and all I hear is them. What's happening, what's happening, what's going on, make it stop MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP!

Suddenly there's another voice amongst the others. But I can't hear it over all the screaming. Oh gods I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

"...Listen...focus... nightmare..."

I can't stop shaking. They're still holding me they're still screaming I can't breathe what's happening.

Something touches me and I let out a hoarse scream, thrashing around. It retreats.

"...sorry, Hiccup... try to... talking... until......"

Her hair is tattered and soaked in blood.

"...focus... you're... listen... me......"

He lays amongst the ice. I scream for him, to wake up, to get up, to be alive. To not leave me.

"...things...see...focus on...hear...you're okay..."

Please make it stop Please make it stop Please make it stop please make it stop stop stop I can't breathe

"I need you to focus on what you can hear, focus on my voice..." I can hear the voice more clearly. It doesn't sound like them. It's not shouting at me. I try to listen more. Maybe it'll make them go away... maybe I can breathe.

"Just do your best to listen, Hiccup."

Their faces linger in my mind, full of fury and horror and pain and malice.

The voice breaks through again. "You're safe. Focus on my voice."

"I..." I squeeze out. I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

"It's going to be ok. Focus on two things you can hear. You're safe with me. Focus on two things you can hear."

"You..." I can still hear them, echoing in my mind. But then I hear another noise. Familiar. A whine. A whine?

"T-Tooth..." I spit out, still breathless. My mind races. He's scared why is he scared I need to help him I need to—

"Hey, hey. Good job, that's two things you can hear. Keep your focus on me. What can you see?"

All I see is darkness all I see is fog and blood and fire and bodies and hands and them

"You're safe. Focus, two things you can see."

Shaking and sobbing, I'm not sure what happened. But then there's a room coming into focus. There's a door. There's windows. I can't see the darkness anymore. I'm not there anymore.

"D-Door. I-... Window..." I splutter, eyes darting around the room wildly. The tightness in my chest starts to lift.

"You're doing really good, Hiccup. What can you feel?"

Their hands punching and pulling and yanking and grabbing.

My chest aches more and more, but I latch onto the room in front. "Soft...bed... the bed—bedsheets."

"Okay, good job. We're going to try and clam your breathing down, now so..."

A few minutes, probably, pass as a blur as the voice and I manage to keep me 'grounded' and eventually I'm able to control my breathing again. I'm exhausted, physically and mentally.

But I'm present enough to realise who's speaking to me, it's Sam, the man who spoke about wings. He's sitting in front of me on the bed, offering his hands as support as I try to calm myself down. It helps.

"Do you know what happened, Hiccup?" He asks softly. I shake my head, dazed.

"I... I h-had a nightmare. It, it freaked me out." I respond.

"Yes, and you woke up having a panic attack. Do you know what a panic attack is?" He asks.

"N-not really. I think I've had something l-like it before, but I... I've never had it this bad." Astrid or Toothless would have woken me before it got bad. Sometimes I get nightmares about grimmel or Drago, but they're usually fleeting. Vague. Brought on my stress or anniversaries I'd rather forget.

"Im not going to tell you not to worry, because I know it won't help." Sam says. "But, uh, a lot of people experience panic attacks. I see it all the time, this line of work is... well, not a piece of cake."

"And you... helped me snap out of it?"

"Exactly. I used to—well before all this Avenger stuff, i was a soldier. And then I lost my best friend. So I... well, i came home and started helping soldiers who suffer from panic attacks and the trauma that still affect them, so I guess you could say I'm experienced."

⚠️Panic attack over ⚠️

"Oh. Well, uh, thank you. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't calmed me down."

"It's ok, you have nothing to thank me for." he waves me off. "Anyone would do it."

There's a whine from outside the door. Sam turns to look. "Oh, your dragon is outside. Should I let him in?"

"Yes, yes please!" I respond eagerly.

"Friday?" Sam asks. There is no response, but the door swings open and Toothless bounds on in. His eyes big, round and friendly like usual. Like they should be.

"H-hey bud!" I greet. He bounds right for me, letting out worried noises. Sam barely dives out of the way in time. Toothless jumps right onto the bed with a sad croon and nudges me eagerly, clearly concerned.

I guess he knows something happened. "It's, uh, i-it's okay bud. I'm better..." I run my hands all over his scales, appreciating his presence. His response is to lick me all over, which eventually brings me to laughter and ends with us in a heap on the floor after a short play fight. He curls around me protectively and I smile, running my fingers up his face. "I'm glad you're here, bud. Thank you." I close my eyes. He purrs.

"I'll leave you to it, now." I look up to see Sam leaning against the wall with a smile. He nods at me. "If you need me, let Friday know and I'll be right there." He promises. I return his nod, grateful.

Toothless and I stay like that for a while. I'm not sure how long, perhaps an hour. But then I get sick of my sweat and decide to take a shower. The water helps ease any leftover tension in my body, actually. Like washing the sweat away helps wash away the memory. If only it was that easy.

When I return, dressed in clothing like yesterday, (but this time the top is thick, long sleeved and a dark green colour. And it has a hood. It's very warm) Toothless isn't in the room. I furrow my eyebrows, wondering where he went off to. I vaguely remember him being outside the door when I was having that panic attack, so I guess he found a way to open the door, or he was let out. I wonder how long he was out the first time. Or, actually, how long my attack was.

"Friday?" I call, hesitant.

"Yes, Hiccup?"

"Uh, how long was my, uh, attack?"

"From waking up, it lasted approximately 21 minutes. If combined when you started exhibiting symptoms of a nightmare, it was 36 minutes and 42 seconds."

"Wow. I didn't realise that much time passed." I mutter. "Do you know where Toothless is?"

"Your dragon friend?"

"Yep."

"He's in the kitchen."

"Okay, thank you." There's no response, which I've noticed tends to happen if I don't have a question or anything to add to the conversation. I decide to go and find Toothless.

I open the door and head down to the kitchen, faint voices meeting my ears. When I reach the kitchen, there's a lot of people around. Some I recognise, like Sam of course, Yelena, Spider-Man and Tony. But there's also a red haired woman in slim black clothing, a red haired woman in red clothing, a really weird red guy, and a normal looking man in a grey hoodie like the one I'm wearing. They're all talking or busying themselves some how, so they don't notice me walk in.

I hear a thud and look over to see Toothless running around the room. I guess he has a lot of pent up energy from not being able to fly. He leaps up high and ends up on a round object with blades sticking out that's hanging from the ceiling (a fan) . He looks down eagerly at someone below. I follow his gaze to see Tony walking underneath with a mug.

"Toothless, NO." I point at him sternly. He look at me, then back at Tony again (who has noticed), ready to pounce. "C'mon Mr 'Alpha'. Don't do it." I warn. He gives one last longing look to Tony, who's looking up at him with a rather unbothered face except for the raised eyebrows, before deflating and hopping down from the object. He lands next to me with a thud and I give him a scratch.

"So you're the guy who's... dragon has been running around all morning." The man in the grey observes. I nod.

"And apparently meanwhile the population is multiplying." I look around pointedly. "I'm Hiccup."

"I'm Bruce," The man responds.

"Wanda Maximoff. Nice to meet you." The woman in red explains friendlily. She gestures to the red guy who's, somehow, floating(!). "This is Vision."

"H-Hi?" I respond. I've never seen someone do that. For Thors sake, what else can people do at this place?!

"Natasha." The other woman, who's been eyeing me since I started talking, responds in a blunt voice. "Bye." She walks past me and out the door.

"Nat's not great with strangers," Sam explains awkwardly. "She's not so bad when you get to know her."

"Actually that was rather nice of her, she's usually ruder." Bruce adds.

I just shrug, not sure what else to say. Astrid is like that, a bit. I remember how cold she was with me before we became friends.

"Come have some food, Mr Hiccup!" Spider-man exclaims friendlily. "We've got pancakes, cereal, eggs, you name it!"

"I'm assuming the pile of fish over there is for the dragon, right?" Sam points at the barrel of fish I hadn't noticed sitting by the fridge.

"That is correct, a kitchen hand brought it up." Friday responds.

Toothless looks to me for approval and I wave an arm towards it. I've never ever stopped him from eating, and I never would. He leaps for the barrel.

"Is that too much fish for one go?" Wanda asks curiously. I shake my head as I sit down.

"No, it's the perfect amount. He needs it to keep up the condition of his body, it helps keep him strong." I explain cheerfully. I'm passed a plate of what I'm assuming are pancakes. "And I guess the energy he always has needs to come from somewhere." I add with a chuckle, before trying the food.

"Is everything you have here so good?!" I exclaim in disbelief after swallowing.

"Oh, you gotta try the maple syrup with them," Bruce grins, passing said syrup over.

"You're gonna love it!" Yelena thumps the table to emphasise her point. Everyone watches in anticipation (wow, no pressure at all) as I pour it on, then take a bite.

"...I'm in love."

Chuckles ring out. We eat in mostly silence for a few minutes, some chatter ringing out here and there, but I don't participate. As much as I'm trying to let it go, the nightmare is still at the corner of my mind.

I've only ever known one thing to get rid of my worries so quickly, and that's flying.

"Hey, do you think Toothless and I could go for a flight?" I ask hopefully. Toothless perks his head up eagerly at that. "Just a quick one."

"I... don't think that's a good idea." Spider-man responds hesitantly.
Tony shakes his head, "he's right. The military will panic, try and put a few hundred bullets in ya. Trust me, I would know."

I sigh and nod reluctantly, "I kind of thought you'd say that,"
Toothless huffs, disappointed and smacks Tony with his wing as he passes.
"Ow," Tony mutters. Sam laughs at him.

I know where Toothless is coming from, he wants to fly even more than I do. But there's not much we can do. I don't know what a bullet is, but I'm guessing it's not good. And making an enemy out of these guys isn't a good idea, we need to get home after all.

*** Time skip brought to you by Toothless plotting Tony's demise ***

"Right," Tony sighs and stands up from his seat. I watch him curiously. "Let's get this over with."
"Scared, Stark?" Sam smirks, stretching.
"Scared, Potter?" Spider-man whispers in the background.
"I warned you about your pop culture references," Tony scolds, pointing at him. Spider-man just chuckles, climbing onto the ceiling (which is still so weird to me).

"It doesn't matter how much you boys pretend, we all know I'm coming out on top." Wanda smirks, flexing her hands. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I think I saw a red powdery light flicker amongst her fingers.

"We'll see," Sam scoffs. Toothless cocks his head at me and I shrug, indicating that I have no idea what they're on about.

"This is gonna be good," Spider-man cheers, dropping down in the centre of the room. "You gotta come see this, Mr Hiccup!"

"See what, exactly?" I inquire with a raised eyebrow.

"Training! We basically fight each other," he explains. "Mr Steve says it's really good for finding out our weaknesses."

I shrug, somewhat hesitant to see people beating each other up.

"You should come watch, you'll love it!" He promises. "We never let anything get too far. And, uh, it'll help take your mind off things. Mr Sam told us what happened." He adds in a softer voice. I give a half smile.

"Yeah... I appreciated his help." I respond, then sigh. "Okay then, I'll come." Nothing to lose, after all.

And that's how I find myself leaning against a wall, watching a bunch of people on the other side of the room getting ready to fight. The windows in here become barred, and the door shuts firmly.

This bunch of people includes Natasha (who has returned), Wanda, Sam, Tony, Yelena, Spider-man and Vision. Bruce elected not to join the training session, something about losing his cool.

"Alright, count us in Friday!" Tony exclaims, tapping his chest. His suit forms around him.

"Yes boss. Three," they all back up so they're evenly spaced. They're in two teams: Tony, Spider-man and Yelena against Wanda, Sam, Natasha and Vision.

"Two,"

"You're gonna lose," Sam taunts.

"Sure." Yelena snorts.

"One!"

Tony's helmet comes down and they all spring to life. My eyes go back and forth as they move around in a blur of colour, light and clangs.

"Whoa," I mutter, watching Sam grow some weird metal wings from something on his back. Ok, those are cool.
He flies up and uses his speed to slam into Tony. Tony goes flying across the room, but recovers quickly and launches back towards him from the fire blasts on his feet.

However, just as he goes to touch Sam red light surrounds him. I follow the suits gaze to see Wanda standing there, holding her arms up as red light surrounds her hands. She smirks. I gape.

"You're mine, Stark."

Meanwhile, Spider-Man tries to punch Vision, but his fist goes straight through the body as if it's not there. "Aww, man!" He looks down at his hand and groans.

"You're not going to win," Vision states bluntly. A yellow light comes from his head, heading towards Spider-man. Spider-man ducks under the blast by leaning far back, almost in half, then roles to the side.

"We'll see!" I can hear the smirk in his voice.

Yelena gets thrown across the room, and I turn to see Natasha standing there smirking. "What? You wanted a fight!" She smirks at Yelena's face.

"It is so on!" Yelena gets up from the floor. They meet together and start attacking one another, moves as quick as a Speed Stinger. It's hard to follow, but very, very cool to watch as they fling each other around, sometimes even with their legs. I share an impressed look with Toothless.

Ultimately Natasha comes out on top when Yelena is plucked off the ground by Sam, who flies her high up as they wrestle. They fly past Wanda and Vison who are fighting against Tony. Wanda encases him in magic again, but then a small light comes from his suit and flies at her shoulder. It makes impact and she groans, losing concentration enough for him to break out of the magic and tackle her.

Meanwhile, Spider-man is fighting Natasha. It looks like she's got the upper hand, even though he's dodging a lot of her blows, until he fires one of his webs and sticks her foot to the ground.

"Ha!" He grins triumphantly, but she just uses that leg to balance as she leans back and swings her other leg around to kick him in the shoulder, which demonstrates her crazy flexibility.
"Whoaa," I mutter, impressed. He stumbles a bit, but recovers quickly. He moves forward to attack her, dodging a punch, a headbutt and another punch before landing a kick to the stomach.

She barely grunts but he panics, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to go so hard—"

She roundhouse kicks him, which knocks him down to the ground. "You're not supposed to apologise to the enemy, паук" she exclaims, putting her foot on his chest.

"You're a паук too," he calls, confused, before grabbing her leg and throwing her off. He then springs up, firing a web at her wrist. She uses it against him, by yanking her wrist to the side which pulls him along with it. She wraps the web around her wrist and pulls him closer, punching him in the face before he can react. Or so you'd think, because he leans his head to the side and dodges it.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long fight.

About five minutes later all of their fights end, I wasn't able to watch all of them because too much was happening at once, but from what I can gather Yelena bet Sam, Tony bet Vision, Wanda bet Tony, and Natasha bet Spider-man due to him getting distracted (he "pleads the fifth", whatever that means).

I applaud politely as they walk over, grabbing drinks and such. "That was pretty good," I admit, Toothless warbling in agreement. Kate walks into the room, making a beeline for an adjacent room that holds a dozen or so brown bags.

"It was pretty sloppy, actually." Natasha points out. "I shouldn't have let him dodge my double roundhouse."

I smile, shaking my head. Why does she remind me of Astrid so much?

She sees my look and raises an eyebrow, "what?"

"Oh, I-it's nothing , I'm not laughing at you or anything," I rush to assure her, "it's just... you remind me of my girlfriend." I figured I owe her an actual explanation but don't want to sound weird.

"The suit, right?" She sighs, looking bored. Not even close.

I shake my head and before I know it my mouth is running, "No not at all! Astrid is too amazing just to be compared to something as simple as clothes or bodies. She's such a physically and mentally strong, brave and headstrong woman. She's so skilled in battle and isn't afraid to show any of us who's boss. She's amazing support, too! I'm pretty sure she's the only one that's kept me sane for so long and she's the reason I am who I am. I know she thinks it's the opposite but I don't think I would have had the courage to do all that I've done if she wasn't there to... back me... up." I trial off, realising I just went on a big rant to a bunch of strangers. They're all staring at me. I chuckle awkwardly. My face heats up.

"Awww," Spider-man coos, dramatically bringing his hands to his mask's cheeks to express himself.

"I, I'm sorry. I don't usually say that out loud, let alone to strangers..." I rub my neck, feeling the heat continue to rise. Ohh Thor save me.

"Ohh come on, there's nothing wrong about admitting feelings!" Kate exclaims, walking back over from the adjacent room with two bags in hang. "It's totally valid!"

"Yeah, but I don't think she would appreciate sharing so much about her." I mutter. She's probably call me a muttonhead.

"You can tell she wears the pants in the relationship," Tony whispers loudly.
"Like you can talk," Sam mutters back.

"She's good at keeping people in line," I respond, "she always says, 'it's not violence, it's communication!'

"She sounds cool," Yelena exclaims.
Natasha shrugs with a smirk. "She clearly understands what matters."

"Thank god you guys won't be meeting," Tony sighs in relief, "the last thing we need is more violent females running around the place."

"Don't jinx it," Spider-man retorts. "We don't know what came through those storms."

I just shake my head, my mind going to Astrid. She's literally the most important person in my entire life. I meant what I said when we were younger, that I can't imagine a word without her in it. I can't wait to marry her, to one day start a family, to run Berk together. If I'd been told when I was that shy boy, willing to do anything to impress my father and by extension her, that I would one day call her my girlfriend—hel my WIFE— I wouldn't have believed a word. I'm lucky to have her, I hope she knows that, and as soon as I get back I'm going to tell her just in case.

And there we go, this was a slightly longer chapter than usual

About the first half of the chapter. *awkward cough*

I... um... *reads off card* I am... s- sorrry. Yeah. That.
Don't kill me.

The nightmare and panic attack was not initially planned, I was gonna have him wake up to voices in the kitchen lol. But I decided angst was the way to go.

I'm sorry if you found the panic attack wasn't depicted right, but remember these are different for everyone.

Did I have the trigger warning in the right place? I hope no one got triggered! I'd feel so bad. I don't write this stuff very often and really debated about releasing this chapter.

I had to make some edits and switch out a particular character for another one in this chapter, so I'm sorry if something slipped by me. Hopefully not though!

Anyway, see you next chapter with Peter, as always!