A/N: Enjoy :D
Hiccup couldn't remember a time that he had been truly happy, except maybe in his dreams. He couldn't remember a time when he wasn't weighed down by chains, or hadn't known the white haired boy in the cell with him. They had been together since childhood, bound to each other by the need for companionship and survival.
He remembered one brief moment of fun, years and years ago, when they had both used their powers on the walls – but that had been a very long time ago and they both had been whipped with what felt like a hundred lashes for doing it.
Hiccup remembered seeing the angry red welts all over his friend's back, feeling them split open on his own. Although Jack had risked another, even more brutal whipping, if he were caught, he had created a small patch of ice on the walls that Hiccup could rest against, numbing the pain in his back.
He remembered that night well: him sitting, half-naked in the cell across from Jack, the ice soothing his burning back. It was the only time he had ever been able to feel a burning sensation, and it was odd and painful and scary.
"They didn't hurt me too badly." he'd insisted to Jack, his hands in shackles, his back hurting so badly he almost cried. But he had not lost his courage.
Jack nodded listlessly, his eyes carrying only worry for his friend. Never mind that Hiccup could do nothing to help him; the only thing the white haired boy cared about was if Hiccup was alright.
They had retired to their respective sides of the cell that night, and both pretended to sleep, and both heard the other sobbing until late into the night.
Hiccup remembered the time when they thought they could "purify" Jack and he by switching their elements; he spent the night in a snowdrift, and they turned the heat up in Jack's cell until it was almost unbearable.
He still remembered Jack nearly crying with relief when they finally put the fire out, letting the temperature gradually drop. He had been doing much the same when they'd allowed him out of the snowdrift again. White with cold and shivering horribly, he had collapsed to his knees in the mercifully warm cell. He remembered Jack had rushed over to him and swept him up into a hug and cried into his shoulder. And the sight of his friend's tears proved to be too much for him, and soon he was sobbing, too.
He remembered they once thought if they just beat them enough, their powers would gradually go away. The time they thought that starving them would make them learn to "behave" and "control them".
The only way the two had gotten through a lot of that was whens. They played a lot of 'when' games.
"When we get out of here," Hiccup would begin, and Jack would finish it. Sometimes Hiccup would finish his own thought, but they always pledged to do just that when – not if, but when – they were free. You couldn't hope to survive as a pessimist. The sheer weight of getting through the day was quite enough for Hiccup.
And he remembered the day he had gotten the worst beating of his life. It had been through what Hiccup called the Hollow Period, one of those long, dreary, silent days where Jack did nothing but stare off into the distance, his blue eyes vacant. He had seemed so lifeless that Hiccup had come to know that Jack as Hollow Jack, not the one he knew and loved.
Hiccup still didn't know the man's name. All he knew was that Jack hadn't been answering fast enough for him, that the man had grabbed Jack by the throat. That Hiccup saw red. He had bounded forward in a blinding rage, and kicked the man in the shin, forcing him to drop his friend. The man had yowled in pain, scowling at the copper haired boy. The whipping lasted much longer than the regular forty lashes that time, and the man had beaten him until he'd been sobbing and pleading.
But when he got back to the cell, Hollow Jack was gone. In his place was the concerned boy Hiccup saw after every beating, quietly, secretively trying to numb the worst of it with his ice, despite how much Hiccup had worried that they were going to get caught.
That was the day he'd first felt the flames. Jack was as cool and detached as the ice he could make; Hiccup's fire was a reflection of him, roaring and raging and furious at the world. It was natural for Hiccup to feel anger towards their captors, but the rage he felt then was indescribable. He'd turned to Jack, surprising the younger boy with the blazing determination and anger in his green eyes. "When we get out of this, we are going to burn this island down to the ground."
Jack had nodded fervently in agreement, and they had pledged that it would be so. If they weren't driven out by a mysterious case of frostbite first, he'd joked, and Hiccup had offered him a weak smile. And Jack had gently put him to bed that night, like he was a small child. The boy's icy fingers played with his hair, but Hiccup let him, because he hadn't been touched for so long in this way, a way that was warm and comforting. So he lay there quietly, letting Jack soothe and stroke him, and, although Hiccup's body was tired from all the injuries, the horrible images swirling in front of his eyes prevented sleep.
He lay awake that night, listening to Jack's deep breathing as the white haired boy continued to gently stroke his hair. He'd never even bothered to lie down, Jack hadn't; he knew he'd be getting no sleep, either. He'd stayed fully awake that night, and Hiccup had lain awake with him.
These memories were not the ones the boy visited most, but they all stuck out to him greatly, and for good reason. Funny that they should all be cropping up tonight of all nights…
He could hear the telltale sound of Jack's ice creaking on his shackles, the metal clinking and groaning in an almost alarming way. Hiccup knew his friend's hands were shaking.
His own fingers were twitching just slightly inside his own cuffs, but he dared not show his fear. His friend was afraid enough, and he didn't want to add to the negative mix.
He could hear the hinges squeaking as they broke completely away from the floor and he saw Jack's eyes go wide, both impressed and slightly scared of his own ability.
"C'mon," Hiccup urged in a voice barely above a whisper, easily melting the metal of his own cuffs and slipping after Jack, towards the window. The metal bars on it proved to melt just as easily, and the two slipped out, unseen, their boots hitting dry sand. Hiccup could again feel that familiar anger building, the rage searing his face, turning his cheeks hot, as he looked up at the building he had been confined to for fourteen years.
"So, this is the ocean," Jack whispered wonderingly, leaning down and sticking a hand in the water. When he pulled it back out, a small part of the water had frozen. "Let's get out of here, Hiccup."
Hiccup half-wanted to stick around. He wanted to wait until the sunrise, when the people would wake up and find them gone. And then panic would set in, and, as they searched all around for the two elements and found them nowhere, the panic would just grow bigger. And how amazing would it be if they happened to be there, just waiting to rain down their wrath upon the people for the hell they had put them through for so long?
"Hiccup?"
The boy was jerked out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. The blue eyes looking back at him were concerned. "Are you alright?"
"Yes." His voice was brittle, nearly breaking, but he turned to Jack and tried to give him a smile that wasn't completely false. "Yes, I'm alright."
Jack nodded uncertainly. "Right."
The two looked at each other for another long second, and then raced to the edge of the ocean, Jack taking a split second hesitation as he paused to see if his ice would carry him. When it flawlessly did, he began to run, to streak across the water. Hiccup twirled his hands quietly, letting a burst of flame come out, standing on it, letting it carry him across. He hit the opposite shore and turned to Jack, watching the flames flicker and die on the water now that there was no one there to feed them.
And together the frost boy and the fire boy streaked away, to start a new life.
The cold September air swirled around Hiccup, and he shivered slightly. Living with the controller of ice meant some pretty cold nights, the ones where Jack was more afraid than others, but that didn't make him used to the winter. Not at all.
There was a bit of a hush as both of them looked at each other for a moment, their heavy footsteps ceasing suddenly.
"Isn't this…isn't this amazing?" Jack whispered, his eyes sparkling with the thought of what was to come. "I mean…we don't have to hide it or get punished for doing it anymore! We can just…" as if to emphasize his point, he let a snowflake form in his palm, flickering bright blue. "…Let it go!"
Hiccup nodded at his friend's power, opening his hand, examining his own, bright red palms. He supposed that, if Jack was free, then he was free, too, but he didn't feel free. He still felt bound, tied to that island in every way. As if he couldn't let it go.
Even though Jack formed more flakes in his palms, let ice begin to cover the trees and ground, even though he streaked a couple feet away from Hiccup and began letting it go, Hiccup didn't feel as though it was going to be that easy for him.
He watched Jack racing around, laughing, letting the wind carry him up higher to paint the leaves of autumn with a covering of frost. Again, that indescribable anger began to stir. If those people, if that island, if they hadn't locked him up in the first place, it wouldn't feel like such a big deal to Jack, that he was finally able to let it go. Being free would be second nature, not something he had to stop and appreciate.
And the boiling anger only grew. It lasted for quite awhile, or at least it felt that way to him. In truth, he made it only a few hours before he felt he had to say something.
"We don't have to let it go."
"What?" Jack's innocent blue eyes were pure and confused when he glanced up at his friend.
"We don't have to just let it go," the boy repeated quietly, and Jack's look took on an even greater confusion.
"What do you mean? We just hide it again?" His breathing hitched slightly in fear of that hell.
"No!" Hiccup scowled, as if he thought the boy stupid. He ducked to pass under a low-hanging tree branch. "I mean, we don't need to just walk away from what happened to us. Those people hurt us, treated us like savages! Like we didn't even deserve to walk the earth with them! Don't you want to make them pay?"
Uncertainly, Jack shook his head, taking a step back, away from his friend. "I…I don't understand what you mean. We were lucky to escape with our lives, I…I…"
"Don't you get it?" Hiccup's voice began to rise. "We shouldn't have had to! Why should we have had to fear for our lives? Living in fear, day after day? That's NOT how they treat people, or how people should be treated! But now…" his voice grew ragged, and his breathing began to slow.
"Now we could give them a taste of what it's like. Make them live in fear for once."
Jack only stared at Hiccup in pure confusion. "I don't even know you anymore."
"Think about it!" Hiccup urged. "We could make everybody, everybody pay for what they've done!" In his anger, he formed a small, fiery Earth, clenching his hands around it, reducing it entirely to cinders. "We could show them what fear and pain really are. They would never hurt us again. We'd burn them all to the ground. Freeze them half to death. People would be starving and bleeding in the streets! Half of the island in eternal summer, the other for winter!" He threw his arms out to indicate what he meant, shooting fire out of his hands.
A small tree creaked, groaned, and finally collapsed from the fiery blast.
"We could crush them all! Burn everyone! Make them pay!"
"And how long would it take," Jack finally found his voice and used it, taking a step towards Hiccup. "How long would it take, then, for them to send out people to just lock us up all over again?"
"We're stronger this time," Hiccup insisted. "We're faster, and smarter and more powerful than they are. We're fire and ice, Jack. Together, you and I are unstoppable."