A/N: Guess who's back, back again :P The outline didn't take forever to complete this time, yay! (Although it's way longer than I expected it to be, why am I like this *cries*)

If you haven't read Burning and/or Phoenix... you definitely need to read both to understand this.


Hiccup was walking towards the smithy, Toothless padding beside him, when he heard his name being called by Eret's voice. Surprised, he turned around. It was unusual for the elder man to come looking for him. If there was a mission for him, it was always either Heather or Einar who let him know. The latter also supplied him with Gronkle Iron or asked questions about how to care for his dragon.

Eret, on the other hand, was the kind of man you always found with a sword or some other weapon, challenging others to fight him. Being among the biggest, most muscled men in the camp seemed to be a particular worry of his. Between that and his tendency to boast about his skills, Hiccup found himself steering clear of the man sometimes. He reminded him too much of Snotlout's most annoying traits.

Eret avoided him as well, although that was more out of his wounded pride than anything. One night, obviously under the influence of alcohol, the older man had made the mistake of challenging Hiccup to a dragon race. Astrid had been watching from the distance, but he could see her smiling and shaking her head, knowing that her employee was making a fool of himself. Of course, he'd lost spectacularly, and though he didn't think Eret held a grudge, he did stay away.

"Haddock!" Eret never called him by his first name, he had no idea why. "We have a new location. We leave tonight."

"Very well." He waited a moment to see if he'd add anything else, and when he didn't, he kept walking. Toothless followed, though not without throwing the other rider a smug glance first. After all, he may not understand words, but he could sense Eret's arrogance, and had loved putting him in his place. The Night Fury now made sure to remind the man of what had happened at every turn.

"Haddock?" he called again, and Hiccup turned.

"Yes?"

"You. Me. Tomorrow night. The arena. Our swords and nothing more. No dragons."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Right after a mission?"

"Hofferson doesn't think it'll take long. So?"

Hiccup sighed. To be honest, having to work with Eret frequently since they were both dragon riders, he was tired of this stupid rivalry that the brunette had made up in his head. If a fight made him feel better, he'd take it.

"Sure."

Eret grinned. "Great! See you tonight." And with that, he turned around and left. Toothless warbled curiously, and Hiccup headed for the smithy, shaking his head.

"He's hopeless, bud."

At least Gerd was always glad for the extra help. As he worked on some weapons with the new Gronkle Iron, Hiccup thought about the latest mission. Although "raid" might be more appropriate a word. Ever since she'd got Viggo to lift the charges against him, Astrid had been sending constant attacks on his islands, freeing the dragons and destroying the bases. She'd also suspended all but her most private and necessary transactions, to reduce the chances of Viggo retaliating. According to her, the constant attacks were a way to debilitate him, after he'd just lost his main customer.

"But you didn't actually go to Erling's island", Hiccup had argued when she told him this. She'd explained how she'd freed him in detail, and he couldn't help but be impressed at the finesse of it all. "You just threatened to."

"Of course, but as long as I have the map, I'm a threat to him. I have an ace under my sleeve. He'd rather cripple his business a bit and try to recover than risk suffering a full blow."

"So if he's lost a customer, and then we raid his islands..."

"We don't give him time to think his next move. We force him to take quick measures to solve the immediate problem. Slowly, we close in. And once we've destroyed all his bases, we'll destroy him."

Hiccup still didn't like the idea of having agreed to murder, but he understood that it made sense. Astrid was right; he was too dangerous and cunning, and would get out of any prison. For the sake of dragons everywhere, they had to kill him.

There was something else bothering him. Since many of Astrid's transactions weren't taking place, the employees that were normally away were staying at the camp, which had forced them to move to a bigger island. During his stay in the past few months, he'd never seen so many people walking around, at mealtimes, everywhere. He felt like he hadn't understood just on how big a scale Astrid's operations were. Luckily, nobody questioned who he was, or what he was doing there. It was easier to go by unnoticed in such a large crowd, although Toothless certainly attracted attention.

The problem with having so many people around was that he never got to see Astrid. She was always busy, talking with one person or another, and in fact she didn't even go with the other riders to the raids. Instead, she did other missions that also required Stormfly, apparently looking for Viggo's location, or so he'd heard.

Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal. Sure, he liked talking to her and all, but if for a while he couldn't, then he'd take it. The issue was, they hadn't talked about the night before they came here. They hadn't talked about the kiss.

And Hiccup felt that they had to. He'd expected her to bring it up the following morning, but she hadn't, and he hadn't had the courage to do it himself. The sensation was still too new. Not that he regretted having done it. It was the first time he kissed someone just for the sake of it, and he'd enjoyed every second of it. He had thought so had she, but apparently that wasn't the case.

They'd come back here, and Astrid had immediately locked herself in her tent to make plans. Since then, he'd hardly seen her; only a brief glance or smile when he happened to walk past her. Sometimes, it felt like she was avoiding him.

Except that the idea was ridiculous. Astrid wasn't the kind of woman to run away from her problems. If she took issue with what had happened that night, she'd come and tell him. She was straightforward like that. If she didn't like him kissing her, she would let him know. He almost wanted her to come and yell at him for what he'd done. He'd prefer it to this silence. Then he could tell her he wouldn't do it again, and they could forget about it and be friends. (There was a small part of him that reminded him of her dilated pupils right before he kissed her, but he was starting to wonder if he hadn't imagined it.)

He was pretty sure that everyone had noticed this sudden distance between them. (Everyone who had been there the past few months, that was.) However, they respected their boss' privacy and didn't ask. Well, most of them, anyway. After all the raids they'd done together in the past week, he'd got closer to Eret, Heather and Einar, the other riders of the camp with whom he did missions. And while Einar would never question Astrid's personal life, Eret and Heather had no such reservations. Eret was teasing, while Heather seemed more concerned than anything.

He wanted to talk to Astrid. Hopefully this would all be over soon, and then things would calm down around the camp.


"Hey, Hiccup", Heather greeted him when he showed up. "Hey, Toothless." The dragon warbled and came up to her, letting her pet him.

"Hey", he replied. "The usual?"

"Yep, as far as I know. Fly in, destroy everything, leave."

"Very well." He looked around, noticing that they were alone in the spot where they usually met with the other riders. Toothless had gone over to greet Windshear. "Where's everyone?"

"Firestrike was going through a mood or something, last I heard. Einar was helping Eret through it."

"Oh."

It was quiet for a few seconds.

"Hiccup..."

"Yes?"

"Now that there's no one else around... what happened? Between you and Astrid?"

"Nothing", Hiccup replied instantly. He didn't really know if he wanted to talk about it. And while it was true that Heather might be able to tell him what was going on with Astrid, he also knew that, whatever he said, she was likely going to tell her friend.

"Come on. Before, when you were here, you two were practically joined at the hip. Even in her busiest days, she'd make some time for you. Now she seems to be avoiding you. Clearly, something happened."

"So she is avoiding me", he said without thinking, and then winced. He didn't mean to let Heather hear that.

"Of course she is. But there has to be a good reason for that." She stepped closer. "After you got discharged at the trial, she disappeared for a while and then came back with you. I know she went to Berk. I don't know what she did, or why she brought you back, but I know that those things have to be related. So come on. Astrid is like a sister to me, and she won't talk to me about what's going on. I'm worried."

Hiccup watched her face carefully, and could see nothing more than concern for her friend. She wasn't asking for gossip, like Eret would; she wanted to help Astrid. He opened his mouth to answer when steps were heard.

"Hello, Haddock, Heather", Eret greeted as he came closer. Einar walked behind him. "Shall we do this?"


The raid went by as usual; they hit all the dragon traps, the Hunters ran away screaming, and they freed the dragons. By now, Hiccup was surprised that Viggo hadn't put more security measures in place; he had to know that he was being attacked. Not that the rider was complaining; it made their job much easier, after all.

When they were flying back, Eret suddenly nudged Firestrike to get closer to Hiccup.

"So Haddock, you and Hofferson break up?"

That wasn't what Hiccup had been expecting; he thought the other man would be thinking about the upcoming 'fight' that they'd scheduled.

"Uh, no? I mean, can't break up when you've never been together in the first place."

Eret scoffed. "Yeah, right."

Hiccup noticed Einar seemed to tense. "Eret..."

"Just because you won't ask doesn't mean everyone else is that way. So? What was it? Weren't you, you know... satisfying her needs?"

The other rider felt himself go red. Luckily, he was saved the trouble of having to answer by Heather, who intervened.

"Eret!" she said sharply. "What Astrid does or doesn't do is none of your concern. Got that?"

Eret seemed to shrink. "Yes."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at the quick change in his demeanour. Once they were back at the camp, though, he went back to his characteristic cockiness.

"Well, Haddock, see you soon. Get ready to eat my dust."

Heather looked at him as he walked away, confused. Then she turned to Hiccup. "What was that about?" She smirked. "Please don't tell me he's challenged you to a dragon race again."

"No, he wants to spar this time."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I'm not sure how much of a chance I have."

"If you want to get him off your back, you should let him win. Then his pride will be mended."

"Sounds like a good idea." As they walked away, he thought back to how he'd reacted to her scolding. "By the way, what was that all about, back in the flight? He seems pretty scared of you."

"Oh, he isn't scared. It's just that... this isn't his first time making comments like that, you know. He oversteps his boundaries sometimes."

"And Astrid doesn't mind?" he asked, surprised. He wouldn't have expected her to accept that kind of comment being made about her. Especially with how much she cared about her reputation.

"She does, of course, but on the whole, Eret's a loyal employee, so she keeps him."

"Not to mention he probably knows too much by now."

Heather smirked. "Also that."

They went their separate ways. Hiccup was going to the kitchens to get some food, when Astrid's voice stopped him.

"Hiccup!"

He turned around, surprised that she would come talk to him after so long practically ignoring him. "Astrid?"

"Come with me."

He followed her to her tent. As they walked, he wondered what she wanted, why she'd suddenly decided to speak to him. Did she want to talk about what had happened, or was this completely unrelated? She remained silent.

The moment they were in the tent, though, she turned to him. "We have a mission."

"'We' being...?"

"Just you and me."

Hiccup tried not to let his surprise show in his face. After all the effort she'd put into avoiding him, he was surprised she wanted them to go alone. "Okay. Where?"

"To a ship that's about a day away from here. We're going undercover. I suspect that Viggo is leaving his bases of operation defenceless because he plans to run away and start over somewhere else. We can't let that happen."

"No, we can't", he agreed. "So what's in that ship?"

"According to the information I have, the captain there owns a number of ships of different sizes, and Viggo plans to use him in his escape. If we can get into his chambers, perhaps we'll find a letter or something to tell us where he is. And if we find nothing, well, we can always come back with more people and interrogate him, but I'd rather not risk Viggo finding out."

"Okay. When do we leave?"

Astrid smiled. "Now."


During the flight, Hiccup kept glancing at Astrid out of the corner of his eye. He expected her to talk to him, now that they were alone, but she never did. She just stared straight ahead, seemingly lost in thought.

"Astrid", he spoke at one point. She looked at him.

"Yes?" she answered, but there was something unreadable in her eyes. Something that prevented him from asking the question he wanted to ask.

"How are we getting in?" he said instead.

"We'll take the place of two sailors. I've already arranged it."

"Oh. Okay."

The rest of the flight was silent. Toothless crooned, concerned, but he patted his dragon's head absentmindedly and quietly reassured him that everything was fine.


"There they are", Astrid spoke, as they hid behind some crates. The docks were bustling with activity, and the ship that they were about to get in was huge; a crowd of people were going around, loading cargo and shouting orders.

"So whose place are we taking?" Hiccup asked. Astrid pointed at a group of people who were hanging around a door.

"Those are the new recruits. They go inside that office to get a tag with their names. We're going in instead of those two." She pointed at a man and a woman who were standing somewhat separated from the others. "Everyone is new, so nobody really recognises each other. And those two are loners, so if we switch, it won't be noticed."

"And how are we going to switch?"

She smiled. "Wait for it."

A minute later, a small explosion rang nearby, opposite their hiding place. The new recruits went to see what had happened, but the man and woman stayed in place. Astrid took the chance to take out a pipe from which she shot two darts in quick succession. They hit their targets, and Hiccup and Astrid came out and dragged them into the bushes.

"How long will the effect last?" Hiccup asked.

"Long enough for us to be out of here by the time they wake up."

They mingled with the other recruits, looking at the place where the explosion had happened, and when it was time, went into the office and got their tags. Hiccup was now Henrik, while Astrid was Ava. Soon enough, they were on board and the ship was sailing.

For about an hour, Hiccup went around, doing whatever task he was given, and thinking about Toothless. The Night Fury had been given dragon nip and was being kept safe in the island they'd parted from by some of Astrid's people. Stormfly, however, was hanging by the side of ship, ready to fly them away when the moment came.

At one point, Astrid came near. She washed the floor right next to him.

"In about ten minutes, the guard is going to change", she said softly. "I'll come back for you then. Follow me."

She went away then, and soon enough she was back. At the same time, he saw a few men come up from a staircase and stay off to the side, speaking with others.

"Come." He walked behind Astrid as she slipped into the staircase. They walked along a hallway until they got to a door at the end. Hiccup was surprised when Astrid reached out and simply opened it.

"The captain's chambers aren't even closed?"

"This isn't Drago's ship. Security is a bit more lax around here."

They went in, and inside it was exactly like Hiccup expected: a bed, a desk, a chair, and a ton of papers everywhere.

"So what are we looking for?"

"Anything with Viggo's name on it. It may give us a clue as to where he is going."

The sudden sound of footsteps on the other side of the door made Hiccup look up, terrified that they'd be caught, but Astrid got closer to him and smiled reassuringly.

"It's just the new guards", she whispered. "They go up and down the corridor every ten minutes. Stormfly is right next to us; we can slip away through the window, if we make a hole around it. They won't suspect a thing. The captain himself is rarely here."

For a while, they searched through maps and letters, until at last Hiccup found something. He called Astrid over and showed her the letter.

Captain Bravesword,

I would like to express my gratitude for your impeccable service. I am aware that arranging a ship to Firestone Island on such short notice is a difficult task. Accept this payment with an added bonus for your efficiency and I will see you in ten days forth.

Cordially,

Viggo Grimborn

Hiccup turned the paper around; it was dated from two days ago, so they still had eight days left.

"What's Firestone Island?" he asked.

"It's pretty far to the south", Astrid said, "but there are a ton of dragons there, and people around the area consider them curious creatures. I bet he sees potential for his business there."

"So we have to get th-"

He was interrupted by voices outside.

"General! What brings you here?"

"The captain has some plans he wishes to discuss."

"Of course, of course. But we need to see your permit."

"Sure, it's right- blast it, where is it?"

While whoever was on the other side of the door searched, Hiccup and Astrid shared a panicked look. There was absolutely no place to hide in the room, and widening the window to get out would take time.

Suddenly, he remembered the last time they'd been in a situation much like this, a long time ago. In Drago's ship.

And then he knew what he had to do.

He grabbed Astrid's shoulders. She made a noise of surprise, which was quickly muffled when he kissed her, hard.


A/N: So that happened, again. I was going to stop the chapter before this, but I thought, 'fuck it, I want to get to this point and this is the first chapter. It has to be good.' Plus, miscommunication makes me angry, so the faster I resolve it, the better for all of us, hehe.