Complete silence had fallen over the crowd. Thorn had stopped struggling and was staring at the person who had spoken—none other than Skull himself. He was frozen, as if he couldn't believe the name that had come out of his mouth, either. Even Spitelout was agape at what had just transpired. Nobody dared move a muscle; the only sound was that of the dragons growling at Spitelout and attempting to get him to release Thorn.

Stoick was the first to speak.

"What did you just call her?"

"I-I—"

"Signy." Thorn had been the one to reply, Spitelout having loosened his grip enough that she was able to get free and sink to the ground. "He called me Signy."

"I-is… is that your name?"

"…yes."

Suddenly, events from the past few days replayed in his head and he could see things he couldn't believe he'd missed. Thorn's stubbornness and wild hair. Dusk's insistence on protecting his own. Thorn's laugh. Dusk's quiet determination. All of them were part of Valka. And… if her name was Signy…

"Then… you're Hiccup, aren't you?" he asked Dusk, turning to the young man. Dusk stiffened, then nodded.

"The heirs of Berk have come home," whispered somebody in the crowd. Thorn (Signy, Stoick reminded himself) stood up and dashed to the armored person who'd arrived, hiding behind the Stormcutter.

"How is this possible?!" Spitelout spat, throwing his blade to the ground. "You were carried off by that beast, along with your mother! You should be dead!"

"Well, that's the thing about us," Hiccup told his uncle. "We tend not to die when we're supposed to."

"You're alive…" Stoick's voice was full of emotion. "Then your mother must be—"

He was cut off by the roar of a dragon. The large red-and-green beast that had been caught the day his children came home came barreling through the crowd. Everyone parted as the Night Fury and the purple Nadder followed it. The Night Fury joined Hiccup and the Nadder began to nuzzle Signy. As if a signal to all the dragons, the armored person waved their staff and the dragons took to the air. Signy, Hiccup, and their companion (no clue what his actual name was) climbed onto each of their respective dragons and within a minute… they were gone.

Stoick had lost his family again.

All because he wanted to kill dragons.

"You moron!"

Eret yelped as Signy threw a Nadder spine at him, narrowly dodging it. Skullcrusher let out a little roar at the action.

"I'm sorry, Angel! It just slipped out!"

"Just slipped out?! It just slipped out?! You completely blew our cover!"

"You were about to have your throat slit! Again! How was I supposed to react?!"

"I don't know—maybe not reveal my identity to everyone in the village where I was born!"

They'd stopped on an island so that the dragons could feed, and Hiccup had gone off with Valka to find some food for their group. And also to avoid his sister's wrath towards Eret. He completely understood her anger, too; they'd just spent two months trying to hide their identities from the residents of Berk, only to have their cover blown in an instant. But he'd leave the hot-headed yelling to his sister.

"Look, if I hadn't said anything, you'd be dead right now. You're alive, and we're in a much better position to take on the Queen. And Valka's here, in the Archipelago, for the first time since the three of you were taken. For a few moments, you had a reunited family."

Signy blinked, and he could see tears in her eyes.

"Angel, are you—"

She didn't say anything, but she punched him in the arm.

"That's for blowing our cover." Following that, she kissed him on the cheek. "And that's for saving my life."

"Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"Yeah." She wiped some of the tears away. "Besides, now we have an ally on Berk."

"Astrid. That's right—Hiccup was teaching her!"

"And during the raid where I was arrested, she was refusing to hurt dragons. She was top of her class at the Dragon Academy, and if we can convince her, then I bet we can convince my father that dragons aren't as evil as he thinks."

"How long until you go back?"

"I'm leaving in two days. The dragons from the Alpha's Nest need to rest, so that gives me a time frame to figure this out."

"Then I'm going with you."

"No, I'm going alone. One of us will be fine; any more will cause trouble. I'll have Astrid send a Terror-mail if something happens, okay?"

"Got it. Just… promise me that nothing will happen."

"Look, I'm Signy Haddock. I cannot promise in any way, shape, or form that nothing will happen. But I'll do my damnedest to make sure nothing does."

"Good luck, then."

Astrid kept her gaze on Stoick, who hadn't said a word since the dragons had gone away. Everyone had gone to the Great Hall once their prisoners were gone and wanted to hear what the Chief had to say about the new development that had just transpired. But he'd remained silent—trying to process that his family was still alive, she guessed, after so many years of anger towards dragons for taking them away from him.

"Er, Stoick…?" questioned Gobber. "What do you want us to do?"

"…what can we do? I imprisoned my children, treated them like criminals, and drove them away. I don't have any hope of reuniting with them now."

"It was my fault," Spitelout sighed. "I tried to kill the lass. I had no idea who she was. If I had…"

"None of us had any idea," Astrid spoke up. "We had no way of knowing. But now we know that dragons didn't kill your family."

"His family instead sided with the dragons!" snarled Mildew.

"Mildew, shut up!" snapped Stoick. The old man obeyed, closing his mouth rather than retorting. "Now, obviously, they knew they were from Berk and purposely concealed their identities from us, probably so they could achieve their goal."

"And what goal would that be?" inquired one of the other men.

"To destroy the Dragon Queen and end the war for good."

Murmurs broke out among those gathered, all wondering how that had come up in conversation. Astrid could feel a need to tell Stoick everything she'd been told by the twins, like how loyal dragons could be if that loyalty was earned, or Signy's plans to take down the Queen, but any of that would bring her into question. Her loyalty to Berk and her reliability in this never-ending war.

She had to find the Haddock twins again, but how?

"So, what if I wanted to track something down?"

"Well, like I said, Nadders and Rumblehorns are both Tracker Class. They can follow scents for miles. It's how Thorn always found me when we played hide-and-seek as kids."

As soon as the meeting was over, Astrid booked it to the arena and grabbed some rope before letting Stormfly out of her cage. The blue-and-yellow Nadder squawked happily at the arrival of her rider, and gladly submitted to be ridden.

"What are you doing?"

She yelped at the appearance of Fishlegs in the doorway of the arena. He wasn't alone either—instead, he was accompanied by Snotlout and the twins.

"I'm, uh…" Stormfly let out a growl, extending her wings to protect Astrid from this threat. Snotlout grabbed a shield.

"Watch out, Astrid!" he yelled.

"No! Don't hurt her!"

"Hurt her?! It's a dragon, Astrid!"

"And she won't hurt me!" She touched Stormfly's nose with her hand and the dragon calmed almost immediately. "See? That's a good girl…"

"Ugh! You're just like Dusk and Thorn!"

"And they're right! They were raised in a Dragon's Nest, and they know dragons better than we do. They showed me that dragons are good and loyal creatures who will do anything for you once you earn that loyalty."

"That's… interesting," Fishlegs commented. "So, what were you doing with… your dragon?"

"I was going to go find the others and bring them back. They had a plan to stop the raids for good and I'm going to help."

"Then at least let us come with you."

Astrid nodded and grabbed some rope.

"You'll need a way to hang on."

WHOOOOOO DONE!

So long and thanks for all the fish!