Hey, remember that video Astrid and Hiccup recorded to say goodbye to their families when they thought they were going to drown in that hole back in chapter 8? Well... GUESS WHO'S BACK?

Chapter 19: What happened down there...

Tommy sat in his room on his computer, waiting for the files from Hiccup's camera to finish converting. He'd just finished dinner downstairs with his mom and dad, upset that Hiccup didn't join them. Even though he wasn't one to show or share many emotions (just like his father), he cared for his older brother.

The video files from the day of the storm finished converting onto the computer with minimal issues, thankfully, so Tommy got to work on organizing them. He had to separate the clips from Astrid's project and the time capsule interviews, which didn't seem to be too difficult because it seemed like Astrid and Hiccup only got around to filming one clip for her project before they were trapped. Once he separated the clips, he clicked on the video they had started filming and opened it.

The camera started recording, facing the floor before being raised up and focused on Astrid, who was standing inside the factory, just in front of the hole. She sighed and slung her hair over her shoulder.

"Do I look okay?" she asked, fiddling with her red sweater.

"Yeah," Hiccup replied from behind the camera. "Beautiful." There was a pause. "I wasn't saying... I-I was, like, for the... I don't know. I-I'm rolling here..."

Tommy shook his head, chuckling at his brother's nervousness around his crush. He smirked as well when he saw Astrid's cheeks turn light pink.

"If we weren't in a hurry, I'd punch you." she said, raising her fist. "But, thanks."

"Ready?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid nodded. Before they could start, Hiccup's phone rang.

"Can you hold this?" Hiccup asked, the camera shifted towards thr floor again before being turned and lifted onto Astrid's shoulder so it focused on Hiccup. Hiccup pulled his phone out of his back pocket and looked at the ID. "It's my dad."

"Are you going to answer it?" Astrid asked from behind the camera.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, are you kidding? I missed the whole ceremony."

Seconds later, Hiccup's phone rang once more and he picked it up. "Tommy?" he answered.

Tommy leaned back in his chair, biting the nail of his thumb. He'd heard half of this conversation back at the high school, now he was going to find out what had happened on the other end.

"Dad? Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"Dad, Tommy can handle all the filming and stuff. It's not, like, a problem."

Tommy smirked. Sure, it wasn't easy by himself but he was glad his brother had some confidence in him after all.

"Safe? Yeah, I'm at the old paper mill."

"Yeah."

"Dad?"

"Dad?"

"What happened?" Astrid asked. The camera looked to the floor once more before being lifted back up to focus on Astrid.

"I don't know. It just cut out." Hiccup responded.

There was a rumble of thunder, followed by the pitter-patter of rain on the roof.

"Maybe we should go." Astrid suggested.

"Yeah," Hiccup agreed.

There was a large gust of wind, creaking the building that caused them both to stop. The whistling grew stronger, so did the creaking. The building started shaking slightly as the camera focused on a loose metal sheet on the wall of the factory.

"What is that?" Astrid asked.

Suddenly, the roof and walls were sucked away. The twister came into view and it ripped apart the building around them. Then the building started to cave.

"Get down!" Hiccup screamed, throwing himself forward, camera still in hand.

In the corner of the screen Astrid was seen being thrown into the hole in one direction, before the camera showed Hiccup falling in the other. The camera quickly showed the factory collapsing over them, much of the debris raining it before a beam crashed in and landed on Hiccup's left leg and he screamed. The recording ended mid-scream as the camera hit the floor and stopped recording.

Tommy stared at the last frame on the screen. It was mostly black, a few specs of white where the light from outside seeped through the 'roof'. He was slightly pleased that the camera had done it's job and stopped recording, not wanting to witness the pain and horror that was soon to come.

Hiccup and Tommy had received high quality cameras as a present a few years back. They were waterproof, had very good casing to protect the lenses from shattering and recorded in excelent quality. One thing that Tommy hadn't liked at first was a sensor that detected harsh hits to the camera and would automatically stop recording. It had always irritated him because a few times he would drop the camera, then catch it, but the force of his hand catching the camera would stop whatever recording he was working on. Now, he was actually thankful for it.

Tommy stared at the screen again, registering what he had just witnessed. At the school, they'd had a warning. There were sirens next to the school so they could get to shelter in advanced. There were either no sirens near the factory anymore (since it's abandoned now and there are no buildings nearby) or they weren't maintained and stopped functioning all together. Cell service was cutting in and out as well, so even though their Dad tried to warn them nothing could get through. Hiccup and Astrid had no warning whatsoever.

With a deep breath, Tommy clicked on the next clip, the one from earlier that Astrid didn't want him to play. Sure he didn't play it before because she asked him not to, but she wasn't there at the moment and his curiosity was getting the better of him. So he clicked on the file and told it to open.

The camera began recording, showing Astrid, water up to her chin and tears in her eyes. "O-okay. Go." Hiccup said shakily from behind the camera.

Astrid took a shaky breath and began. "U-Uncle Finn... I just wanna thank you for everything."

Tommy stopped the video there. It was exactly what he thought it was. They'd attempted escape and failed. The water just kept rising. They'd recorded their goodbyes. They'd actually thought they were going to die down there.

He pushed himself out of his seat and walked out of his room down to the kitchen where his parents were washing the dishes. Their attention turned to him when he reached the bottom step, holding the railing and waiting patiently.

"Yes, Tommy?" Valka asked, drying one of the pots that couldn't be cleaned in the dishwasher.

"I, uh..." he cleared his throat and continued. "I found something on Hiccup's camera." he blurted out.

Both Stoick and Valka stopped and looked at him, their eyes filled with confusion. It was a topic that held great interest to them, considering it likely held footage of what had happened to their eldest son after the first tornado struck Berk.

"What did you find, son?" Stoick asked, drying his hands with a towel.

Tommy took a breath, recalling the video he'd just watched. "I found a clip they were about to start for Astrid's project, that was when you called Hiccup and when... it happened..."

"By 'it' you mean..." Valka began.

Tommy nodded. "The camera filmed most of it up until they got trapped in the hole." he stated. "But after that, I... I found something else you guys might wanna see. But, I think we should wait until Astrid's uncle Finn get's here."

As if on cue, there was a knock at the front door, Stoick called for them to enter, placing the towel on the counter and walking towards the door just as Finn Hofferson walked in.

"Good evening." he greeted kindly, shutting the door behind him. "I was heading into town to grab a few groceries so I stopped in to see if Astrid was ready to head home." he said, smiling to Stoick who had come to greet him. "If she would like to stay here a little longer I can pick her up on my way back. I know how much she cares for Hiccup."

Stoick smiled and nodded in agreement. "She sure does. Been looking out for him since it happened." He reached his arm towards the man, which he took and shook. "How've you been, Finn?" he asked.

Finn nodded. "Good." he replied. "Everything is going great with the repairs around town. Everything should be repaired in mid September at the latest. The school should be finished by then."

Finn was in charge of directing construction around Berk. He would set up when roads would be blocked off, where alternate roots should be placed and what should be done when. He'd been working hard on organizing the order of the rebuilding of Berk since the tornadoes left an enormous amount of destruction in their wake. It had taken time but everything was on track and underway. Pretty soon, Berk would be back on it's feet.

"Excellent." Stoick responded with a small smile. He clasped his hands together. "Now, Astrid is upstairs with Hiccup at the moment. He's had a rough day." he stated, sighing at the earlier events of that day. "I don't think she'll mind waiting a little longer. Besides, Tommy found something he thinks we should see."

Finn looked over at the young Haddock who was standing by the stairs with his mother. "And what might that be?" he asked, kindly and curiously.

"Well," Tommy began, trying to word it correctly. "We went back to the paper mill today to get Hiccup's camera and I was going over the footage from that day and I found something... well, i-it's hard to explain." he attempted to explain. He didn't want to just come out and say 'I found a video of Hiccup and Astrid saying goodbye to all of us because they thought they were going to drown' straight to their faces. "It would be better of I just showed you."

Finn nodded. "Alright." he said, removing his shoes and placing them neatly on the mat by the door. "Let's take a look then."

Tommy lead the four adults up into his room, quietly apologising for the mess. He walked over to the computer where the monitor had shut off due to inactivity and turned it back on. The video had remained where he had paused it, causing the adults to gasp almost simultaneously. Astrid had told Finn she had been trapped under the factory that day, but unlike the Haddocks, he never witnessed it. And there she was, on the screen, water up to her chin and tears welling in her eyes. It was... shocking, to say the least. Mainly for Finn.

Astrid had always been one to avoid showing many emotions. She would show them just very limitedly. She was strong like that. She showed even less after her parents died unless you were someone she was close with. Sometimes she wouldn't even share them with Finn, that was until the events of the week before. Hiccup sharing his past troubles with her made her realize that there are some things she shouldn't avoid sharing with the people she cares about. This, in a way, was some proof.

"What is this?" Stoick whispered quietly, trying to figure out what was happening in the video and why Tommy wanted them to see it. Tommy didn't reply. He simply took the video back to the beginning and pressed play.

The camera began recording, showing Astrid, water up to her chin and tears in her eyes. "O-okay. Go." Hiccup said shakily from behind the camera.

Astrid took a shaky breath and began. "U-Uncle Finn... I just wanna thank you for everything."

"Oh my gods..." Valka whispered, bringing a hand to her mouth. Realization struck them hard. They now knew exactly what this video was.

"I was gonna come down the stairs this morning to say goodbye ...but when I came you were already gone. You should know I'm not alone. H-Hiccup's here. He's been really sweet. So it's kind of o-okay. I love you so much."

Finn had a few tears in his eyes as Astrid finished. His little girl thought she was going to die that day without saying goodbye to him. He'd left a little earlier for work that morning, now he wished he didn't. It could have been the last time they ever saw each other. He calmed down as he remembered ahe was in the room just down the hall.

The camera was then moved forward and turned around to face Hiccup.

"Guess what? I spent the last week filming time capsules about people's futures...a-and now it looks like I don't have one."

Tommy rolled his eyes at his brother. He was always cracking jokes at the wrong time. Sure, they are usually ignored in the moment but Tommy always found them amusing.

"So...if there's no future...w-we should talk about t-the past." Hiccup nodded his head, agreeing with himself. The water had gotten higher and almost reached his chin. Um... some bad shit happened along the way. Y-you know, like it does to everybody, I guess. And... a-and I-I couldn't keep going, Dad. I blamed you. I really gave you shit, and I-I wish I hadn't. So wish I hadn't. No point in wishing now?"

Stoick rubbed his eyes with his hands before gazing back at the screen. He wished he could have gotten there sooner. Not just to stop Hiccup from almost drowning and so the two young teens didn't have to go through the heartbreaking event of saying goodbye to their families because they believed they were going to die. Hearing his son's voice drowning in guilt for something that was in no way his fault was heartbreaking. He wished he could have comforted his son and apologised for everything that had happened, but all he could do was watch.

Valka placed a hand on his arm comfortingly, still not removing her eyes from the screen. She knew what her son was talking about, the events from a few years ago. Even though she wasn't there at the time, she knew what a hard hit their father/son relationship had taken.

"Um... what do I wanna say? Um... Go easy on Tommy. H-he's gonna tell you that this is all his fault. This was his idea. B-but it wasn't. I-it's just Tommy. His attention-seeking behavior. My idea... m-my fault. T-Tommy, you should be the person you always were, dude, because y-you're awesome. You're awesome and I'm proud of you...and just live every day like it's your last. B-because, shit, someday i-it will be. And for once, I know what I'm talking about."

Tommy smiled sadly at the screen. He still did blame himself for what had happened, but he was happy to know that his brother still thought of him the same way he always has, even during what he thought would be his final moments.

"M-mom, I-I really miss you, when you're away. A-and I wish I would have told you before you left, b-but I didn't. I-I love you. I-I'm sorry this will be the first time you s-see me in months. But j-just know that I love you."

Valka choked back a sob at the thought. She would rather go through the events of the previous week a million times then come home to see this video and find out her eldest son was dead. She remembered the morning she left, Stoick and Tommy had said goodbye to her before she left. Hiccup, however, had an argument with Stoick the night before and left early in the morning on his bike, from which he didn't make it back in time to say goodbye. If she came back to see this, it would have broken her.

"And, Dad... Dad, I love y-you. I really love you and I-I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry. Okay? Sorry..."

The camera pointed itself back down at the water before it shut off, ending the recording.

The room was silent except for the occasional shaky breath and sniffle. They'd just witnessed their children (or sibling, in Tommy's case) record a message for them when they thought they were going to die. That was something they wished no parent had to witness because even though their children were alive and safe, it was heartbreaking. No one spoke for a good two minutes before Stoick cleared his throat.

"I... uh," he started. "I think you should be going now, Finn. I think you and Astrid would like some time to talk."

Finn nodded and stood, visions of what he had just seen running through his mind. "Yes, that is a good idea." he agreed, letting out a breath and running a hand over his eyes. "Where is she again?" he asked.

"Hiccup's room. End of the hall." Valka said, gesturing in the direction of her elder son's room.

Finn nodded,making his way down the hall and took it all in. He took a deep breath before making his way to the door. He hadn't seen Astrid like that since her parents died, and it was both a good and a bad thing. She didn't keep her emotions hidden but the situation was heartbreaking. He reached the door, knocking quietly.

"Astrid?" he asked quietly. He opened the door and smiled at the scene before him.

Astrid was sitting up against the headboard, Hiccup on her left with his head on her shoulder and arm draped loosely around her middle. Astrid had both her arms wrapped comfortingly around him, holding him close. Finn smiled and called for Stoick and Valka to come see as well, they each had the same reaction as Finn.

"If they don't start going out soon, I'm setting up an arranged marriage." Stoick said, not taking his eyes off the couple and Valka slapped his arm with the back of her hand.

Finn nodded. "Alright." he agreed. Valka placed a hand over her eyes and sighed, shaking her head.

I like how this chapter was all feelsy and then there's this part at the end. I was like, This chapter need's some lightening up and out this came, lol. Next chapter they'll all talk about the video with Hiccup and Astrid, don't worry! I have surgery in 30 minutes *sobbing* but I'll live! Might not update till later this week though. See ya!

-TBBG