Chapter 9

The Words Beneath the Veil

A/N- So by now most of you have figured out who the Boss is and if you haven't, you're about to find out. =) As this is a big part in this fic, I didn't want to rush the build up to it and I wanted to write the moment where Autumn really sees the truth well. It took me a while to figure out how to write it and I hope everyone enjoyed it.

Of course, all my chapters will be revised again at some point in the future. I already made some small changes to two of the other chapters (small but crucial). Any feedback or constructive critique is welcome.

Also, I'm going to put up a poll on my profile for the best OC in "Fly Away Home" and "Always." You can vote for two characters. I'll post the final results for the poll in the last chapter of "Always."

Good luck to all characters and may the best OC win! (Of course, the choice is up to you guys, so I'm interested in seeing what you think).

Well, I think that about covers any announcements and stuff I have to put in this note.

Huzzah!

-Don ^_^

For what seemed like an eternity neither Autumn nor the leader of the pirates said anything. They simply stared at one another, the Boss half standing and half pushing himself off the ground, frozen on the spot. Autumn stood firmly, not letting her eyes leave the Boss's.

After it became clear that neither was going to speak, Toothless nudged Autumn's hand. "Why did you call me Astrid?" She said finally. The Boss continued to stare at her silently before he slowly pushed himself off the floor, causing one of his legs to wobble in a way that struck Autumn as odd. She'd noticed the Boss's awkward and unstable gait before, but it was only now that she realized it was the same as Herzig's. She'd seen how Gobber walked, or hop-stepped his way around Berk. She knew a prosthetic walk when she saw one.

"Your leg, it's a prosthetic, isn't it?" Autumn questioned. The Boss's eyes met hers and for a moment it seemed as though he wasn't going to answer from his slightly rotated stance. Instead he heaved himself up and his left leg hit the ground with a distinct thunk. "How did you lose it?"

His expression, from what she could see of his face, was stony and almost forlorn in some ways, "I don't know."

"The bandits didn't do that to you?" Autumn asked. He shook his head.

"My leg was like this before I ran into the bandits," Autumn glanced down at the leg. He sure seemed to have more ease with the leg than some of the people she'd seen who had just lost limbs. Herzig certainly seemed new to his. She nodded. For some reason everything was falling into place. Why he'd been so secretive and elusive. Something had happened in his past that he couldn't remember and it had a lot, if not everything, to do with his missing leg.

"Your nightmare," Autumn began again, "It's about losing your leg, isn't it." It wasn't a question and his guarded eyes told her that she'd hit the nail on the head.

"I don't really understand it," He said quietly, averting his gaze. It's just the same image over and over again. She noticed the shiver and the nervous glance off to the side that he had after he finished talking. Whatever he'd seen might have caused him to lose his memories. But that was for a later time. Right now she still had a more pressing question to get the answer to.

"Just how do you know my mother's name?" Autumn said, fixating him with a hard stare.

"The only images I have of my past are of three things: a monster, a black dragon," His eyes rested on Toothless as he spoke and then he looked right at Autumn, "Of a woman who looks like you."

"And her name is Astrid?" Autumn questioned, feeling herself tense slightly at the implications that this pirate, whoever he was, knew her mother. It could mean a million and one things, but she, as someone who was often overly cautious when necessary, assumed the worst. He might have hurt Toothless and her in some way and maybe the monster was part of that plot. Autumn frowned.

"It's the only name I remember," The Boss said, rubbing his arm tentatively. "I've asked all those in my crew if they knew anyone by that name, but no one did, so I decided to let it be."

Autumn shifted slightly, but didn't let her gaze falter, "Yeah, well, now you've found her daughter, so tell me what you do know."

The Boss scrutinized Autumn for a second and then frowned a little, "Your eyes are a different color than Astrid's."

"I told you, I'm her daughter," Autumn replied. Was this guy an idiot? How many times did she have to say she wasn't Astrid to make him understand that she and her mother weren't the same. A smile crossed his face.

"From what I saw in my images, you and Astrid have the same stubborn stance," He smiled. Once again Autumn shifted, this time feeling oddly self conscious under his studious gaze. "But you're not the same." Autumn noticed the light that entered his eyes and for the first time saw that they were a rich green color.

"Of course we're not," Autumn replied defensively. "I'm Autumn Haddock and she's Astrid Haddock. We're two completely different people." She was getting tired of running in this circle of obvious statements and questions. She fixated him with a hard stare. She wasn't getting clear enough information to draw any conclusions as to who this man was, but she could tell from his tone when he spoke of Astrid that they had probably been good friends to say the least.

"What else do you remember?" Autumn asked, trying for a second round of probing. When she was this close to getting to the truth, she wasn't willing to back down or be gentle with her questions. If she couldn't get through to him, the only other options were drastic. She remembered when she and Lloyd were younger, he had fallen out of a tree and hit his head hard enough that for a few days he couldn't remember who he was.

After a while of trying to jog his memory, she had shoved him out of his chair in the dining hall in frustration. Surprisingly the shock of hitting his head had caused him to regain his memories. She'd asked the healer in Berk about that and she'd told Autumn that often a shock of some kind could help to cure amnesia. At the time, Autumn hadn't really understood fully what amnesia was, but over time she'd found that shock or a situation that jogged a memory of the previous trauma would often bring back the lost memories.

Since she didn't know what exactly had caused this man to lose his memory, she couldn't help him with the shock part, but she could certainly bug the living daylights out of him until he remembered something.

"I only remember those three images," The Boss replied, folding his arms across his chest. "You have no reason to care."

"You're an idiot," Autumn said, her expression turning to a dry 'I can't believe I'm stuck with trying to talk to you' look.

"Thank you," The Boss said with a scowl, "For summing that up." He said dryly in response. "Why do you want to know who I am so badly?"

"I don't know," Autumn said with a sigh, "And frankly, if I did, this would be a heck of a lot easier on both of us." For a second she stared at him and then paused. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Why do you want to know who I am so badly," He repeated. She shook her head.

"No, before that," She now found her stomach doing some crazy twisting into knots as she tried hard not to let herself get worked up.

"Thank you for summing that up?" He offered. She nodded, now silent. This was an odd coincidence, if anything. His words were eerily similar to the ones she'd used on Astrid whenever they fought, which was frequently enough. They were so specific to Autumn's personality, yet every time Autumn had said those words, her mother had cringed or fallen silent. Sometimes Astrid would even hesitate to respond when Autumn said them. For the longest time Autumn wondered why that was and also used those words when she wanted to end a conversation early.

Now it struck her as strange that someone else had said those exact words in the same dry tone. "I say that too." He paused and then stared curiously at Autumn.

"Those exact words?"

"Word for word," Autumn affirmed. The Boss swallowed hard and then grimaced. "What?" Autumn questioned.

"It's something I remember," He licked his lips and bit his lip. "It's the only other thing I remember are those words." Autumn clenched and unclenched her fists, growing fidgety with each passing minute. There was something she had to know. It was the only thing that could confirm her suspicions.

"That monster…" Autumn said slowly, she had to force herself to look him in the face. "What did it look like?"

He was silent. She could see the fear and haunted vulnerability in his eyes. Finally he reached over to the back of his head and slowly the wrap around his head slid down onto the floor in a coiled pile.

"It was a massive green dragon."

"Pug!" The man turned his head at the sound of his voice. The deck was littered with the bodies of the bandits who were unable to jump ship and escape the wrath of their former prisoners. "One's still alive!" The blonde haired man with haunted grey eyes and a rough beard crossed over to the stairway and clomped down them, still holding on to his sword. He sheathed it as soon as his feet touched down on the floor of the brig.

"Here," Pug walked over to his companion and kneeled next to the prisoner. He was barely breathing straight and his eyes were wide with shock. He wouldn't stop shaking. Pug's insides boiled. His eyes went to the prisoner's leg. It stopped short, leaving a stump in its place.

"Did they do this?" Pug asked the prisoner. He steadied himself.

"N-no, I don't remember how…" After that the prisoner shivered once more and fell limp in Pug's arms. He felt the prisoner's heartbeat and was relieved that someone would at least live past the torment of the bandits.

There were scars up and down the prisoner's arms, his remaining leg and from the torn tunic, Pug noticed a few jagged scars that ran along the prisoner's back. The bandits were not known for being merciful or reasonable in their treatment of prisoners.

"Let's get him out of here," Pug said firmly. More pirates appeared at the stairs and came down to help carry the unconscious prisoner. Because he'd survived, he would know more about Dengar and his crew than anyone else, that is if he remembered anything when he woke up.

Pug wasn't optimistic about the remembering part. There were a few pirates on his ship already who didn't remember a thing and sometimes that was for the best. But from the looks of this prisoner Pug could tell that this man, whoever he was, had a past. He had a life somewhere outside of the Land of the Mist. No matter what it took, Pug wasn't going to let this man lose his entire past just because Dengar decided to be cruel to anyone he met.

"I promise you," Pug whispered, "You will return."

"Ready to go?" Gutlout stood behind Lloyd as he looked out at the forest from the shoreline. Somehow he'd felt better after talking to Astrid, but he still felt a heaviness on his heart that he was sure would never pass.

"Yeah," He heaved and then turned his back to the forest, to the sea and closed his eyes to the pain that filled him. "I'm ready." He strode across the sand and after a moment, Gutlout followed in his friend's wake to the ship where their parents waited.

Autumn's legs gave way and she sunk to the floor. She couldn't believe that she'd gone in endless circles in search of something she was sure wasn't there to begin with. Had Lloyd known all along that this was going to happen?

"What's wrong?" The Boss walked over, touching her shoulder gently. Without a warning she leaped at him and buried her face in his shirt. He stood there shocked for a moment and then gently put his arms around her. "Are you alright, Autumn?"

She sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Yeah," She said, straightening. "More than ever."

He looked at her questioningly and after a moment he looked horrified, "I'm sorry, did my face remind you of something?"

Autumn felt a smile tug across her face, "Actually, yes, it did." She then took in his appearance once again. He was exactly like her mother had described, right down to the warm green eyes and boyish face. After a moment, he smiled and that was what confirmed it for her.

That smile was what her mother talked about the most. The toothy grin that Toothless always tried to imitate and caused Autumn to laugh without even realizing how tied to her heritage it was.

"I'm sorry," He said, letting the smile slip from his face. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories of your father."

Autumn waved her hand, "Seeing as I don't have any, that's not possible." She folded her arms across her chest. "This is my first."

His eyes blinked, not comprehending. "Did I miss something?" Autumn opened her mouth and then shut it, deciding that she would tell him when the time was right. For now, she was happy that she'd finally found what she'd been looking for.

"No, you didn't," She said with a shake of her head, "I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed." He nodded silently and picked up his head wrapping and rewrapped it around his head before turning to face her once more.

"Good night, Autumn," He said. She smiled and gave him a quick hug before leaving the room.

"Night," She said with a smile and as she passed through the doorway, she cast a glance over her shoulder and whispered a word that seemed as quiet as the wind. "Dad."

A/N- Well, there ya go! Mystery solved. What's up next? Find out in the next chapter! =)