To put it simply without giving TOO much away- -Feel free to skip this part and read at least the first chapter before continuing if you want to go in without any forewarning-

It’s set at the beginning of the first movie- And Toothless’s injury from Hiccups bola trap was just… Far too debilitating to survive. Hiccup must live with the consequences of his actions, and we the reader are left to wonder just HOW FAR will this puny 14 year old go in order to fix the unfixable? To undo what has been done?

Enter, the as previously mentioned, crazy magical subplot… But it’s really NOT as simple of a solution as you may think…

After all, it takes more than a thought to make a wish come true.

And that’s the basic gist.

Listen, I’ve always been a sucker for the Hiccup and Toothless platonic soulbond fics, cuz found family is a very dear trope to me- Except in this case, I make it far more tragic and cheesy than it needs to be. FOR THOSE SENSITIVE TO GORE OR VIVID DESCRIPTIONS OF DYING AND OVERALL UNPLEASANT THINGS- This may not be the fanfic for you. But I promise it’s gonna get better… Eventually. Anyhoo. Feel free to read and trust the process! It’s gonna be fun!

Also i will beef Valka up and she wont be the maiden in distrees in the fight bc. I want her to be cool fighter. In canon she seems to not hold a fight well. And there will nto be the teenage gang slander their charcters will not be assassinated. But this is more general valka-dragon essay rn.

The only reason she won't beat/kill Drago is bc she cares about still and hopes he can changeeee (yes im putting the messy dragovalka in this. Theyre not in love or enemies they have a fucked up third option of queer platonic mess) and she's got him on the ground with her staff on his throat and trying to get him to change his mind. And he gets a dragon to attack her, which gets the snappy goodnight treatment she gave tooth.

But. Stoic thinks she's in danger and tackles her out of the way and Drago gets freed.

No stoic death this man is not getting out of the polycycle this easily. Instead Hiccup gets protected by windshear and scullcrusher, bc its their humans babyyyy and also for scullcrusher this is his flock's gueen figure (i read a fanfic with this premise and it stuck in my head. Hiccup the center of the dragon flock who is unaware of it.Delicious. I will find that fanfic at some point and link it here i hope)

And while the dragons fly away still, and they get the babies still, its not just tooth&hiccup who try the snapping out trick - all over berk people are holding their dragons in a fight(bc forcing them to just flap around your head why you do all the work is stupid. Get them to attack the population who's not going to hurt their friends.)

But they're used to it. Untill five years ago this was the reality, this was the norm, and they fought each other soooo much. With the muddled mind, dragons are put back into the time the red death controlled them, and back then? They didn't shoot to kill - hunting their own food with tthe humans gone is much more troublesome They don't this time, either.

And the humans know this, they're not fighting to kill either, just enough to get close and hold them and remind them of what they are now - free and loved and happy. Cannon shows dragon living on berk but not with berkians aside from the teens and some little moments shown. In my rewrite they're actually are part of berk, with people knwoing all the tricks and things hiccup showed them, and even if they can't snap the dragons out - not everyone has such close bonds, not everyone is eloquent and has bravery to bare their heart(spitelout) - they can get them iut the fight and immobile (dragon nap&scratches&other stuff)

So by the time the gang gets back half of berk is on their dragons, holding the army away from the other half getting people and immobile dragons away from the fight. And tooth will not be the special one with his plasma colors bc. Some dragons love their rider just as much or close to it. Every dragon has fire. It may not be as cool/powerful, but they are able to do the same, getting out of the ice, getting other people out of the ice.

And the dragons under alpha(stupid name btw theyre something else in my au. Alpha theory is a lieee but ill use this until i get a better name) see that. They are confused, under control still, but. Their opponents aren't afraid-controlled. They've always felt their enemies fold easily to the alpha, never getting out, just being afraid forever. These may be afraid, may be terrified, but they are fighting, they are putting their wills against the alpha, and they are not alone in this. Their humans are their anchors, and the dragons of Berk sing-scream defiance, love, protection, this-is-my-nest, this-is-my-partner, You-cant-have-this, you-cant-have-me. They scream never-again, the flock that survived red death, the flock that chosen to stay with humans.

That decided to find love in their bonds instead of fright.

And when the tooth gets out of the alpha control, when his voice is the voice of a queen-partner, alpha-controlled dragons decide that they want to have a choice, too.

They cannot defy alpha directly, they cannot flee, even valka's flock is too used to following alpha's will. Instead, they just stop fighting, start either firing off target, or crashing into the stuff to just get themself out of the fight - alpha cannot command you to fly if you can't fly.

And alpha is afraid. It is always afraid. It's fear is what makes it so strong, but now its subjects are slipping from its grasp, trying their hardest to stop themselfs from doing its bidding.

Its so, so afraid. It doesn't have a choice.

And when the human queen turns his flock against him, when even the immobile dragons snap out of the control, it wants, so much, to just give up.

Its forced-partner doesn't. But he knows he's lost, he knows there's something missing, something stronger than the fear he's been using.

He falters, and he is swept off the alpha by windshear, the only valcke-flock dragon freed, taken and, as drago is thrown to the ground under the countless wingbeats, alpha sees, for the first time, its partner being afraid.

When you're afraid, you are weak. You are controlled. This is all it knows. And its partner is afraid of Valka, is controlled by Valka, and its partner controls it.

So Valka controls it, too.

The alpha fears. And so it surrenders, gives up its control on its flocks, docile beast raised to follow the one who makes it afraid.

The ending isssss something i haven't figured out still. I think they would want to get rid of drago but unfortunately he is a leador of this dragonhunter part of the world soooo they start slowly dismantling it while forcing Drago to try and change his ways and atone. Mostly Valka though. Stoick tries to kill him six days of the week. But if canon can redeem Alvin then i can redeem Drago.

The flocks are free, all of them, and some dragons choose to stay, some to go, some come back to the valkas flock home and try to make a nest where nobody will control each other with fear. There's enough space. There's enough food.

I haven't decided if i want Valkas alpha to live bc. It was a great moment.

Dragos alpha has made a little nest near Berk, and Valka with Hiccup slowly are retraining it into being a less-traumatised dragon, showing it there's more than just fear. Its a slow, endless process, and while they are here, Astrid&Stoic are bonding over being in charge. And Astrid slowly learns how to be a chief. ( i think i want to make Astrid stay and watch over Berk while everyone else goes after Hiccup. She is the responsible one, she is the one who trained back-up, she is Hiccups second-in-command. Most of her scenes in the movie are taken by Snoutlout bc i want to show my rtte version of him where hes always teases hiccup&being unruly but always has his back and is so so proud of him as his leader bc. His leader is the best oc of course! Anyone else he wouldn't follow. So he hypes him up before drago, he is proud of his home and future chief, his trust in hiccup is unshakable.

Maybe I'd either make a third line in the movie with Astrid rallying up Berk to be ready to fight, making protection lines and reserves to last a possible siege. Everyone is a bit annoyed with it but also respects her and listens bc. The kids went and fought a war last year and we did nothing, just showed up in the last fight(i.i dont think in canon they even did that. Only the back up i yhink???? I remember spitelout in the finale but not much else)

We should do better, they say. She and other kids know the enemy type, they know how to fight this, something we're not used to fight, so we'll listen.

Maybe the twins stay too, and they show that loki worship is not only pranks - he is a god of tricks, of lying, but also of fights you cannot win, of loss, of resisting still(so many loki children dead or trapped by the gods. Loki is the last of his race from what i remember. I should read up on him though)

They make waters around berk impassible for people outside, they put up so much destructive traps and trebuchetes, they call up on torch&other allied dragons, not knowing that it would backfire a bit(though they do get to Torch through control. Mb their Death song is a bad idea to put here though. )

But they joke, still, they make messes with weaponry which turns out to be a different order method that made life easier - twins know people, they know how people fight(mostly bc they are running hiding and fighting them after pranks), they know which weapons are grabbed first, which person gets to the weaponry before others.

They bring laughter whenever they go, lighting up the village with joy and anger and excitement, distracting people from their fear, keeping Berk together.

Twins know who they are. What they do. They cannot be their friends, to whom people are attracted naturally, whom people love and respect and listen to. They can't be Snoutlout firing up the crowd and shouting over anyone with the unearned confidence he faked until he grown into. They aren't Fishlegs, soft with words and action, who can convince anyone on Berk to follow his direction just by being himself. They can't be Astrid, who plows through disagreement like they're nothing, who has the reputation, who has the will. They can't be Hiccup, aloof and direct with his actions, who doesn't trust people to follow his direction until he sees it himself, the chief-to-be, one who cannot hold an argument about himself but gets smoky with anger every time people attack his friends and family.

They are just the Nut twins, and they play their role well.

Fishlegs is floundering in his role in the movie, unsteady, bc all his friends have their roles, and he's feeling out of place, still just the nerd with a dragon. He knows he's smart, he knows he's competent, and its still feels not enough, to know things and understand dragons. Over the movie he tries to be a strategist, trickster, protector, leader, trying it all out with Snoutlout, but its all wrong, all somethings that feels weird and stiff. He shines the most when he takes thee canon astrid role of explaining dragons to Ered, remembering himself as a kid, as a teen, as an aduld - being dragon hunters was his family legacy, his life, his reason for living once, too. So he knows how exactly to show someone like that what could be different.

He shows Ered that fear and fight is not the default. That surviving under someone's grasp is not forever. Freedom is something you fight for. Freedom is worth fighting for.

Freedom of having a choice not to fight, not to destroy each other, to just coexist. There's enough for all, if we share.

There could be enough for all, if we work together.

And Ered remembers, and when they get free from the capture, when Snoutlout and Fishlegs hide in the traps with their dragons, when the army gets destroyed by dragon riders and Dragos Alpha leaves with its flock, leaves broken ships and people behind, Ered tells other people that stopping the fight can be a choice, too.

He tells that maybe this is not something that should be won. Look, he tells, all of this destruction, for what? All of this death, for what? He speaks to them like friends that they are, like allies that they were.

This is not worth it. This is miserable for all of us. Lets stop. There's another way, one that doesn't include dying in search of dragons and the money that brings.

Most people don't listen, of course, but some do. His crew, his people, some others that were forced under Dragos rein, that were convinced or forced into the trade.

The hunters leave. Berkians leave to fight for their home. Ered stays.

He gets people out of the battlefield, and fixes up boats, and makes a little fleet to call his own. He doesn't know much about taming, but he is a good hunter and tracker. They'll figure it out, slow and steady, and Fishlegs would drop by sometimes to teach them.

And uh i have no end for Fishlegs ark at the moment bc hiccup is the ambassador technically and making a second ambassador isssss something i don't think will work out. Mb a teacher? A revolutionary in his own way? Fishlegs is nothingburger to me a little i don't get his ark after rob dob and rtte. He gets confident there and then hes the same character foreverrrrr bc the writers are cursed the gang to be the same.

In the Rewrite au, it's basically a tie in to a rewrite of Httyd 3, where pretty much everything changes, including the fact that Toothless is the last one, cause he isn't in the rewrite. The Httyd 3 rewrite has a change where after a good amount of the Night fury species gets killed by Grimmel, the rest go into the 'Hidden world' which in the rewrite, is a giant hollowed mountain where the only entrance is through the water, like a beaver den.

The Hidden world is only home to Night furies and Light furies, who at this point, have merged together and created a symbiotic relationship. Toothless follows the Light fury into the nest, and sees Night furies and Light furies living together, even encountering a baby Nightlight.