Twelve. [Contains scene-sexual abuse]

He awoke in his cell, his memory fuzzy from the choking. He swallowed and that really hurt. And so did other areas as that abruptly and horrifically reminded him why his throat hurt. He pressed his face into his arm and felt a deep pain in his ass and an even deeper surge of shame. Savage had broken him...he couldn't remember when...but he had forced Hiccup to say the words he wanted and repeat all sorts of filth, begging the big Outcast to abuse him in viler and viler ways. He shuddered. As far as the fragments of memory he could gather suggested, Savage had taken him up on his invitation.

He shifted his lower half cautiously. It was excruciating and he thought he could feel blood. He buried his face further into his bruised arm. Somehow, life just kept getting worse. His shoulders jerked with sobs but his eyes were dry: he had run out of tears. This was all he could look forward to for the remainder of his life.

I'm sorry bud. I would have like to see once more.

He lost consciousness and only woke when Mildew kicked him.

"And I thought yer were smart!" he taunted the boy. "What I tell yer? Bow yer 'ead and look like yer broken! Can't yer understand that?"

"What can I say? Wasn't listening," Hiccup rasped. Mildew gave a laugh at his struggles to speak and the horrible bruises on his throat.

"Now that's a new way to shut yer up!" he sniggered, then walked forward and whacked the boy with his staff. "I can think if at least one more! Oh-and Dagur wants to see yer, boy. Now!" Hiccup yelped and slowly levered himself to his feet. Head down, shoulders slumped, spirit seemingly broken, Hiccup painfully limped through the dungeons. His stomach was fluttering with fear and he feared what the Berserker would do to him. Though he doubted he had much left to take.

He stood slumped in front of Dagur, trembling. The Berserker inspected his slave for a long, cruel moment, then snapped his fingers.

"Get on your knees!" he snapped. Hiccup flinched and dropped to his knees, still inspecting the floor furiously. "It's taken some work but finally, you begin to act like a slave," the Berserker announced and stalked round the boy. Hiccup swallowed.

"Yes, master," he murmured because he knew Dagur savoured hearing the boy say the word. The Chief grabbed his hair and forced him to look up. There was enough fear in the green gaze to satisfy him. He stroked the bruised throat and Hiccup swallowed painfully.

"Not one of mine," he murmured, then grabbed the boy's tunic and hauled him to his feet. He slid his hand down his back and the boy shivered at the flash of discomfort at the pressure across his whipped flesh. Dagur smiled and then stroked his buttocks, gratified at the way the boy stiffened in anxiety. Hiccup was still stubbornly shy and unresponsive to Dagur's sexual advances and that excited the Berserker Chief enormously. A resisting Hiccup was far more fun than a compliant one: the feel of his desperate struggles, the sound of his desperate and agonised cries and the knowledge he was breaking the boy, piece by piece, was overwhelming. He felt his loins pound with rising excitement.

"Who told you that you could whore yourself around, slave?" Hiccup suddenly jerked his gaze up to meet Dagur's coldly menacing one.

"I-I didn't..." he whispered, sickened at the thought. He had been repeatedly raped, hating every moment of the abuse. How could Dagur even consider that he enjoyed being violated?

Because he would, he told himself silently. He shook his head.

"N-no, m-master," he rasped painfully. "I-I know I am yours." And he hated himself for the words. Dagur grasped his ass tightly.

"Savage said you came onto him like a slut, your sassy mouth and defiance all on display!" he snarled.

"He's lying, master!" The words were breathless, fearful. He could hear Savage move behind him and knew he would pay, and whatever the outcome.

"Why should he, slave? I can see you, trying to sell the only currency you have for a few luxuries, but what would he have to gain by angering me?" Dagur demanded. Hiccup flinched from the fury in his words. Whatever Savage had just done to him would be doubled by Dagur in this mood.

"Maybe he doesn't like being a second in command again," Hiccup gasped as Dagur continued massaging his butt. "Maybe he wanted to prove he was my master instead of you."

"You should gave refused him!" Dagur shouted. Hiccup flinched.

"How-how could I d-do that, master?" he stammered. "He's far stronger than me. I-I was pinned down. I struggled but I couldn't stop him. Please! I never wanted this!"

I never wanted any of this.

"I really should punish you for betraying me with him," he said, his fingers digging painfully into Hiccup's flesh. "But the thought of you under that man is kinda hot...provided you know your place." And he forced the boy to his knees, grabbing a big handful of hair to hold the boy steady. Angrily, the Berserker Chief unlaced his breeches, one-handed, and forced Hiccup forward.

"And this is your place," he growled. "Prove you are mine. Pleasure me!" Hiccup shook his head pitifully, facing the man's erect genitalia and feeling fear numb him.

"N-no...I d-don't know h-how..." he begged and tried to pull away. Dagur immediately closed his hand around the boy's throat and squeezed. Wild-eyed, Hiccup clawed at his hands, struggling for air. The moment, his mouth opened to gasp, Dagur lunged forward into him and he heard the boy choking.

"Close your mouth and I will break your neck!" he shouted, easing the crushing grasp on Hiccup's throat and rocking his hips forward. Shivering, fighting, gagging, Hiccup could do nothing but struggle to breathe and try to survive this latest indignity. Quickly, the Chief finished his pleasure and Hiccup gagged, then vomited, the moment he was released. Dagur calmly restored his clothes and stared down at his slave.

"Are you looking forward to returning to Berk?" he demanded. Hiccup wiped his mouth and took a heaving breath, then gulped in fear.

"They-they exiled me, master," he stammered. "I-I can never return...on pain of death." He blinked hard and Dagur read him fighting his misery. This was touching the core of his disgrace."I-I am a B-Berserker now..." he added, cringing inwardly.

I am exiled from Berk. I am a slave. I tried...tried to spare Berk but he broke his word.

I am so sorry, bud.

Dagur wrenched his head back even further and he stiffened. "I believe that your father is weak!" he hissed. "I think he still cares for you-and when I show up with his precious little runt of a son in chains, beaten and battered, he will give me anything I want for you. Even your dragon!" Hiccup breathed hard and blinked, his eyes burning. The words had devastatingly amplified the pain he had tried to ignore in his struggles to survive. And Dagur could see his pain in his eyes.

"You don't know Stoick the Vast," he said hoarsely, his tone hopeless "He was the one who sentenced me. He said I was not his son. He called me a traitor."

"That must have been hard," Dagur said disinterestedly, having murdered his own father. "But you should have kept your word, slave. If it had my glorious Skrill, now, this wouldn't be necessary!" Hiccup gave a slight, weary sigh.

"You stole my home, my family, my best friend. I took you to the Skrill-and you promised to spare Berk. You want to taunt Stoick about me. Go ahead! You'll be disappointed. He will not change his mind just because I am experiencing what you made them think I deserve." Dagur stared into the pale face and gave a cruel smile.

"Do you even hate me?" he hissed. The quick flick of Hiccup's green eyes gave the tiniest hint of his defiance and Dagur slammed his fist across the boy's face. Hiccup went down with a slight cry and lay still, stunned. His head was spinning from the impact as Savage watched him and then kicked the boy. Painfully, Hiccup stirred.

Savage nodded and hauled the sagging boy to his feet. Dagur laughed at him. There was enough panic in his eyes at the position, being held helpless by Savage before Dagur once more, to satisfy the Berserker.

Hiccup gave a tiny nod. Dagur grabbed his hair and shoved his face inches from Hiccup's. "If not me, then there is someone you should blame!" he announced. Rigid with fear, Hiccup heard steps and fearfully glanced over his shoulder to see a familiar shape: Lars, accompanied by Captain Vorg. He started and his eyes widened at the shape of the elder.

"Lars?" he murmured. "What-what are you doing here?"

"How did you think the proof ended in your room?" Lars asked him coldly. Hiccup stared at him, his head spinning. He stared in shock. Suddenly, the horrific cruelty of his sentence, of the way his own neighbours and friends had treated him hit him again and he began to shiver.

"You're working with Dagur?" he asked. "Oh Thor, why does this keep happening?" he added with a sigh. Lars gave him a sneer and walked to stand by Dagur.

"You think I want a one-legged weakling as my Chief?" he snarled. "I want Berk to be a Viking Island, not a Dragon sanctuary! And the Berserkers are proper Vikings-unlike you, you wretched little traitor!"

"I'm not a traitor!" Hiccup yelled, suddenly struggling against Savage.

"You betrayed every Viking by choosing a lizard over your own kind!" Lars snarled.

"And what did Dagur offer you to betray your Chief?" Hiccup asked him directly, his eyes glittering with righteous anger at the treason. Savage tightened his grips on his arms and he winced. Lars inspected him like an insect.

"When Dagur takes Berk, he will want a lieutenant to run it for him," he said easily. "And the first job will be to kill every reptile on Berk!" Hiccup felt nauseated, still wrestling against his restraints.

"After you kill my Dad," he said quietly. His stomach tensed in anger and concern. Despite what had happened and everything he had desperately told himself through the painful weeks of his exile, through every beating and whipping and torment, he still loved his Dad and didn't want any harm to come to him. Lars smiled at him cruelly.

"I'll make sure he knows he's condemned his son to death here before I kill him," he sneered. "His innocent son." Hiccup managed to break free from Savage-or maybe Savage left him go-and lunged for him. He knew it was madness but he couldn't stop himself. Lars threw him off and kicked the boy. Dagur's men jumped forward at the lazy snap of his fingers and wrenched the boy up, holding him firm. He struggled desperately but the Berserker was staring at him like an insect.

"No 'Master'. No meek bow of the head. None of that delicious shivering you do when you're so scared you can barely breathe," Dagur condemned him ruthlessly. "It seems you haven't learned the rules of Truth or Forfeit yet." Hiccup stared at him, still angry but as reality reasserted itself, he felt fear clutch his gut. Dagur was smiling cruelly and he guessed he was in desperate trouble,

"Dagur..." he breathed, "you can go to Hel!" The Berserker stared at the stiff little shape and stroked the face tenderly then nodded to Savage.

"Take him to my cabin. I'll deal with him in the journey. I could do with some entertainment!" he said grimly. "Lars-you know your part. Don't act surprised when I bring the boy: he's the distraction. When Stoick is taken off guard, make your move!"