Chapter Text
“But first, Hiccup, I’m going kill you myself.”
Hiccup stared down the blade, following the sharp edge all the way up to Mala’s even sharper glare. If looks could kill, she would have slaughtered him and cut his body into a million pieces. He attempted to swallow the ever growing lump in his throat. He had never expected to die after being accused of helping the Dragon Hunters.
“Mala, you don’t have to do this,” he started, backing away from the sword. “We can help you find the Eruptadon. Our dragons can track for-”
“Silence!” Mala shouted, making him jump. “I never asked for your help!”
“I know. I was simply offering it.”
Mala pushed the sword closer to his neck. “I would be careful you say. They might end up as you last words.”
What could he say? Was there anything he could do to prove that they were not spies? Viggo had thought this through too well. He had framed them all too easily. He glanced behind him at Astrid, finding a sword to her throat as well. She never spoke a word, but the angry glare she gave Throck spoke more than a thousand words.
“Confess to what you are,” Mala demanded, “and perhaps I will spare your friends.”
“How can I make you understand?” Hiccup pleaded desperately. “We are not-”
“Confess!”
“We are not spies! That’s the truth!”
A wicked smile grew over Mala’s face. “Yes, it is true, isn’t it? Not all of you are spies. But one of you is. I told you to confess, and you spoke for everyone. You are the spy.”
Hiccup realized that Mala was right. He had answered for all of them; he had implied that they were not spies collectively, but never personally. It was all coming together now. Mala played with words to make them mean what she wanted them to. While Viggo twisted minds, Mala twisted words. The only way to get out of this mess was to fight fire with fire, or in this case, words with words.
“Alright,” he sighed, hanging his head. “I see I cannot hide it from you. I am the spy.”
“He’s lying!” Astrid shouted suddenly.
Hiccup inwardly groaned. Astrid was going to ruin his plan.
“I’m the spy,” she went on. “He’s lying because he’s a coward. He’s no spy. I was sent to spy on him.”
Hiccup fought the urge to smile. Instead of ruining his plan, Astrid had figured it out and started to go along with it. That was one of the many things he loved about her. She was quick, in more ways than one.
“Well, some spy you turned out to be,” he practically laughed. “If you were a real spy like you said, you would have figured out that I was a spy.”
“That’s exactly why I am a wonderful spy. You had no earthly idea I was on to you.”
Mala’s sword never moved, but her glare had softened and she glanced back and forth between the two. “One of you is lying,” she said smugly. “And I intend to find out who it is.”
“They’re both lying,” Heather jumped in. “If they are spies, they wouldn’t have told you, let alone one another. But then again, lying is what spies do best, so maybe they are both spies.”
Hiccup jumped on the lead Heather had given them. “She’s right. Lying is what spies do best. She’s lying right now.”
“I might be lying,” Heather answered. “I might not. You might be spies, you might not. I know which one of us is the spy, and I will tell you, if you care to know.”
“Go on,” Mala lowered her sword and narrowed her gaze at Heather.
“He’s the spy,” Heather announced, pointing at Tuffnut.
“No I’m not!” Tuffnut shouted back. “I hate spies. I would never stoop low enough to join their spy…ness. If anyone is a spy, it’s Hiccup. Why else would he not want me to be his attorney? He was afraid of getting caught. It pains me to admit that he has betrayed us all, but my experience in law and court show that he cannot be trusted.”
“Besides,” Ruffnut put in, “Hiccup is a terrible, t-e-r-i-b-u-l, terrible, liar. He’s telling the truth.”
Hiccup couldn’t believe that the twins had actually helped. Of course, they had no idea that they were being useful, but they most certainly had Mala confused. Now he had to figure out how to cover what Tuffnut had just spouted off.
Astrid came to his rescue. “That’s exactly why he isn’t a spy. All spies are good liars, and Hiccup can’t lie to save his life. He is not a spy, like I told you.”
“Enough of this!” Mala bellowed, her eyes flashing. “I demand to know who the spy, or spies, for that matter, is. Speak now, or you all die.”
No one said a word.
“Answer me!”
“We’re not telling you anything!” Snotlout shouted, only gaining a painful slap from one of the guards.
“Answer the Queen,” Thock instructed forcefully, pushing his sword into Astrid’s neck slightly harder.
“In about five minutes there won’t be anyone to answer to,” Hiccup said urgently, suddenly noticed how high the Lava had gotten. “You and your village is about to be destroyed. If I were you, I would stop interrogating us and try to free the Eruptadon. Viggo and his men couldn’t have gotten far. Let us go after him.”
“No!” Mala snarled back. “You only want to get away from here. You won’t help us.”
“We have no interest in running away. We want your help. We aren’t strong enough to defeat Viggo on our own. We need you, and you clearly need us.”
“I chose to trust you once; I will not make the same mistake again!”
“Your Highness,” Thock called, an edge in his tone, “The Volcano!”
Mala glanced behind her, her eyes widening at the sight of the bubbling lava, now at the top of the crater. The largest bubbles burst, spewing small drops of molten rock into the air. The heat was beginning to grow unbearable.
The other warriors backed away from the ever growing danger, leaving their prisoners unguarded. Only Throck and Mala remained where they were.
“You need to make a choice now, Mala,” Hiccup urged. “We can help you save your people; you just need to give us a chance.”
“I gave you a chance! And you betrayed us all!”
“Don’t you get it?!” Astrid shouted above the roar of the volcano. “We were framed! Viggo set us up! He’s afraid that if we work together, we could defeat him. We need an army, and you need Dragon Riders. We are not spies, Mala! We may look suspicious, but you have to ask yourself, would Viggo really risk losing all our dragons along with us, just to steal the Eruptadon?”
Mala seemed to realize that if she wanted to save her people, they were the only chance she had. They could see her weighing out her options, but time was short. The lava was beginning to gurgle over the edge of the crater, and the ground was vibrating under their feet.
“If you have a plan ‘B’,” Astrid whispered to him, “now might be a really good time to go with it.”
“I didn’t really have a plan ‘A’,” he hissed back, trying to read Mala’s stone expression.
“Release them!” The woman suddenly shouted. “They are our last chance!”
Hiccup honestly couldn’t believe they had gotten out of that predicament, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain. He jumped on Toothless, making sure the other Rider’s had made it to their mounts.
“Snotlout! Fishlegs! Get everyone out of here!” He shouted as Toothless took to the air. “Ruff! Tuff! Make a trench in front the lava! We have to delay it from reaching the village! All of you, catch up when you’re done! Astrid! Heather! You and I will go after the Hunters. We need the Eruptadon.”
He caught sight of Mala watching them as they flew off, and he could tell she did not trust them at all. This was their very last chance to create an alliance with the Defenders of the Wing. If he failed, and Viggo got his hands on their “Great Protector,”all would be lost. The three dragons dodged a few sea stacks.
“Better keep our eyes peeled,” He called to Astrid and Heather. “These sea stacks would be easy to hide behind!”
“But just as easy for us to hide behind, too,” Astrid called back. “They will be expecting us. They will most likely be in open water, where they can get a clean shot.”
Hiccup nodded. “Good thinking!” he shouted to her, smiling. This was why they made such a good team. What he missed, she saw. What she didn’t quite catch, he noticed completely. He couldn’t imagine doing any of this without her.
“Hiccup!” Astrid’s voice was hushed and urgent. She pointed up at a few ships, clearly marked with the Dragon Hunter crest.
Hiccup nodded again, letting her know he saw it as well. A plan formed in his mind. He told her to circle around and cover him when he gave a direct attack, using the hand signals they had put together years before.
She gave him a nod and circled back, staying low; allowing the Hunters to think Hiccup was the only one who followed them. Heather followed her, catching onto Hiccup’s plan.
Hiccup quickly approached the battleships, and as he expected, they were ready for him. What did not expect to see, was Ryker.
“Fire!” Ryker shouted when he came into range. A cloud of arrows met them in mid air, and one on them pierced the thick leather guard on his right shoulder. It only pricked the skin, but he could feel the cloth underneath becoming soggy with blood.
Toothless fired back, solidly hitting the main mast, and the wooden shaft split and fell sideways. The archers reloaded, but were not quick enough. Astrid and Heather flew in from behind, blasting the vessel to bits.
Hiccup turned his fire on Ryker’s ship, assuming that he would be guarding the Eruptadon himself. An explosion sounded from behind him. He glanced back to see Snotlout and the twins destroying the other ship. This last ship was all that stood between them and the Eruptadon.
“Combine your fire!” he shouted, aiming at the ship. It surprised him that Ryker wasn’t doing more to fight back, but again, he wasn’t complaining. With the fire power of six dragons, the deck gave way almost instantly, but the Eruptadon was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is it!?” Heather shouted, mostly to Ryker.
“Certainly not here!” Ryker laughed. “You didn’t really think it would be in the first place you looked, did you?”
“How could I have been so stupid!” Hiccup groaned to himself. “Let’s go! We can still catch them!”
Everyone but Astrid followed him in the opposite direction. They had gone a few hundred feet before they realized she wasn’t with them. They turned back around, finding her still attacking Ryker’s ship.
“What is she doing?!” Snotlout hollered to them.
“No idea!” Heather shouted back. “Astrid! Let’s go!”
“No!” Hiccup realized. “She’s right! Ryker is trying to divert us by making it look like he was a diversion! We need to back Astrid up!”
They flew back as fast as they could, immediately noticing a bloody wound in Stormfly’s wing.
“Pull up, Astrid!” he shouted to her. “We’ll cover you!”
“No! I’m too close!” Stormfly fired at the hull again, the blast perfect. The Eruptadon broke loose, roaring angrily.
The other Rider’s cheered, but Hiccup warily watched Ryker pulled out a wooden contraption, and proceed to blow on it. He recognized the sound it produced immediately.
“It’s a Death Song call! Get out of here!”
Stormfly couldn’t fly fast enough. She was too close to the sound to avoid its affects. She turned around and flew toward the ship, Astrid struggling to keep her back. They watched in horror, helplessly hovering as time slipped into slow motion. A hunter released a barbed grappling hook and iron rope from the ship, and it hit Astrid squarely in the knee. The hook dug into her knee, and the rope suddenly tightened, yanking her from her dragon.
Her agonized scream woke Hiccup from the shock of what was happening, and forgetting about the Death Song call, he urged Toothless forward. Heather cut him off as Astrid landed in the water.
“There’s nothing we can do! It’s a trap! We can’t do anything with that Death Song call!”
“Get out of my way!” He shouted back, trying to pass her.
“No! They’ll just catch you too!”
The ship was turning to leave, dragging Astrid with it. “Move, Heather!”
“No!”
The ship wasn’t leaving. It was facing them…and crossing over the line which bound Astrid to the ship! They were going to drown her! “Move now, Heather, or so help me Thor, I will make you move!”
“Hiccup, we can get past that call! If the dragons hear it-”
“They can’t hear it from under water!” Hiccup dove underneath Heather and into the water, Toothless swimming as fast as he could toward her drifting body. Seconds passed like days. Hiccup’s lungs ached from the depth, but he refused to swim up. He could almost reach her arm…
A huge, stingray-like creature swam between them, cutting him off. By the time it was gone, so was Astrid.
Dragon and Rider broke the surface, gasping for much needed air. He didn’t bother to glance at the others before diving back in, swimming so far down his whole chest felt like it was going to explode. The two headed back to the surface for another gulp of air. He plunged back in, ignoring how painful it was. He had to find her. He had to.
She couldn’t have gone much further down, could she? His ears and jaw were stabbed with pain, and the continual aching made it hard to even think. He needed air, he knew he needed air, but the time it took to get air could not be wasted.
Toothless suddenly stopped swimming down. Without thinking twice Hiccup broke away from his dragon, and went on, but only a few feet. The Night Fury grabbed him and dragged him up, Hiccup kicking and fighting to get away. His lungs hurt even more as the surface grew closer. A dizzy, light-headed feeling washed over him. A hand pulled him the rest of the way out of the water. He dragged in another breath and tried to dive back in, but again, Heather got in his way.
“Hiccup, stop!” She caught hold of his arm, and made him look at her. “You can’t swim down there! Your lungs can’t take that pressure!”
“They’ll have to,” he told her determinedly, attempting to enter water again, but Snotlout pulled him back.
“Hiccup, you aren’t going to find her. I saw a Wave Racer. Those things are like sharks, they smell blood and come for…for food. She isn’t down there.”
The truth of what Heather was saying began to set in, and he stopped struggling against his cousin.
“If she was down there she would have surfaced, Hiccup. Bodies float. You know that. You won’t find her.”
“Dead bodies float, Heather. Not living ones. She’s down there.”
“Astrid’s d-” Heather stopped herself, realizing that Hiccup understood what she was about to say, he simply wouldn’t accept it. She didn’t want him to hear that truth from her. “Astrid knew what she was doing. You won’t find her down there. She…she was probably dragged with the ship.”
“Her boots surfaced,” Snotlout but in. “I bet she swam back to the surface, climbed on the ship, kicked Ryker’s butt, and is sailing back to meet us right now.”
Hiccup dropped his gaze, wrenched out of Snotlout’s grasp and climbed onto his dragon. He flew low to grab Astrid’s boots. Ryker must have stopped with the Death Song call, as Stormfly and the Eruptadon were still with them.
He hardly cared. He had lost Astrid. He had almost lost her plenty on times, but this time he really did. He knew what Heather had decided not to say. He knew what Wave Racers did. He knew that now he could only keep his promise and return the Eruptadon to Mala.
So he did. The Queen solemnly thanked him, and vowed that they would always be an Ally of Berk. Her village had suffered much from the volcano, and many were injured, but they were safe for now.
The Dragon Riders left, Stormfly reluctantly following them, as if wondering why they had left Astrid behind. No one could miss how Hiccup wordlessly retired to his hut when they made it home, never once giving orders as to what was to be done.
Heather couldn’t be sure, but on the way to her own hut, she thought she heard muffled crying coming from his dark room. She continued on her way, collapsing on her bed and trying to stifle her own sobs with a pillow. They had all lost a friend, a best friend, in some cases, and tears would be shed for her.