Chapter Eleven: Moving In The Right Direction

Hiccup felt so much anger at the moment that had Toothless been able to open his mouth, he would have ordered the dragon to toast Snotlout on sight. He never had many expectations for Snotlout. In fact, he was happy to have the guy doing very little, since when he did pursue an action it was usually in the form of tormenting Fishlegs or causing a diplomatic incident with a visiting emissary. But when push came to shove, Hiccup had believed that Snotlout had his limits, that he would back the right side when the going got tough. And yet here he was, pulling one utterly and devastatingly final surprise.

Random looked at Snotlout for a few moments, inspecting his expression for falseness or deception. It didn't take long to convince her that his sentiment was real, and a smile creased her lips. "Now this is the Snotlout that I know, the guy who's going to make a real name for himself."

Alvin cackled at Snotlout's acquiescence, but his laughter was aimed at Hiccup. "Ah, a friend betraying a friend. That sure takes me back."

"He wasn't that much of a friend," said Snotlout. "So can I get out of this cage now?"

"Not yet," said Random. "The recently turned are dangerous to trust until they demonstrate an act of true commitment. When I get back from the raid, I'll think of something."

"Can't you move me away from Hiccup?" pleaded Snotlout. "What if he gets me sick somehow? I don't think he's happy with me."

"It's poison, not a disease," said Random, "and I have antidotes for that kind of thing. After all, accidents do happen. But if you're so worried about your chief getting revenge on you, just keep away from his side of the cage for a few hours. The problem will take care of itself."

Hiccup heard the one word he needed to hear, the one ray of hope piercing the dark cloud that currently enveloped him – antidote. It was probably meant to be a tease, a little salt to rub in Hiccup's wounds since there was no way Hiccup was getting out of this cage by himself, but it was still hope, and he clung to it with all the vigor he had left.

"If that's all settled," said Alvin, standing up and looking expectantly at Random, "I suggest we get going. I need to get my dragon ready for…"

"You're staying here," declared Random.

Alvin's good mood faded quicker than a shadow at midday, and his next look was downright lethal. "I didn't hear you right."

"No, you did," she stated, not at all intimidated. "Your performance lately has been lacking. I'm taking care of this raid personally. You're staying here and making sure our prisoners stay where they are."

"You're kidding," said Alvin. "I'm the raider, not you."

"I'm in charge, not you… unless you want to complain to the boss about it."

Alvin seemed to take that as a legitimate reason to back down, and he did. While Hiccup found the whole exchange confusing, it was Snotlout that asked Hiccup's question for him.

"Isn't Marcus your boss?" he asked.

Random gave Snotlout a knowing smirk. "Only in his mind. I answer to someone with more clout, someone who likes how I do things… and someone you don't need to know about."

"Lies, lies, lies," commented Marcus. "Is there anything real about you, Random?"

"Marcus, there's no need for insults," Random replied. "This was never personal."

"You better believe it is," he shot back, his voice heating up. "And for all your planning, you seem to be forgetting that you don't know how to manufacture the weapons without me, and I will not help you make any more of them." He glanced Hiccup's way, pity gracing his face. "That is, unless you spare Chief Hiccup's life."

Random groaned in irritation. "Oh, how I hate noble sentiments and futile posturing. Let's get something out of the way, Marcus. You will continue to produce more dragon-sticks, even after Hiccup here shuffles off his mortal coil. I am great at motivational speeches, and you happen to be a guy with a conscience. Believe me when I say that I will have no problem finding ways to prod you along. And down the road, you might even realize how much fun and money there is in arms dealing. It'll certainly make your life easier."

Marcus had no reply to that, and he slumped back into his depression. Hiccup mentally thanked him for the attempt, despite its ineffectiveness. At least Marcus hadn't thrown him to the wolves like Snotlout, who couldn't even bring himself to look Hiccup's way any longer.

As if this parade of terrible moments wasn't long enough, a new person entered the room and strode up to Random, wearing a full-body suit that Hiccup had been very intimate with not so long ago. The new person was Random's double from before, a dead ringer to the purple-haired sociopath, and she filled out Hiccup's wing suit quite nicely.

"How do I look?" the twin asked, spinning around to show off everything. "Good thing Hiccup's about my size. Too bad we couldn't get his helmet."

"His suit is distinctive enough without it," commented Original Random. "Just don't try to fly it."

"Awww," Second Random replied. "Way to spoil the fun."

Hiccup now understood why he'd been stripped of his suit, and why Alvin was getting grounded for this particular raid. Random had mentioned that this outing was in the daytime, which meant she was done with surprise night attacks. She wanted her victims to know unequivocally that it was Berk behind the raids. How better to lay that foundation than to have Hiccup himself lead the attack? Such a plan also meant no infamous Outcasts on the team.

Snotlout appeared more intrigued than frightened by all this. "So are you two sisters or something?" he asked.

"Or something," said the twin with a smile.

"What does that mean?" said Snotlout.

"Don't sweat the thinking, Snot-boy," said original Random. "It only leads to headaches." She motioned for her twin to join the dragon raiders, then faced Alvin one last time while her twin walked off. "The only dead guy I want to see when I get back is Hiccup, Alvin. Any other corpses and I won't be pleased."

Alvin bowed low in a rather exaggerated gesture of servitude. "Yes, majesty. I'll even keep the troublesome Night Fury alive despite the amount of pain it's caused me over the years."

"Think business, Alvin," she replied, "and you might figure out why."

"Guess you've got it all figured out, Random," said Hiccup, trying to sound defiant despite the increasingly heavy malaise that engulfed him. "Alvin used to think he had all the answers, too. So did Cervantes and the Alchemist. Look where they all ended up."

Random paused before responding, almost as if Hiccup's words had found a soft spot in her shell. She had no smile on her face. "The difference between them and me, Hiccup, is that I don't have great expectations. This isn't conquering the world or destroying civilization. This is just business, and business is always best when it's booming."

The dragon raiders left a minute later, swarming out of the hole in the roof like a pack of lethargic birds. Hiccup couldn't help but notice the slower pace of the mesmerized dragons, how they were slower to react than normal dragons and how they had to be led about like old men with poor eyesight. Once they got airborne they had more life to them, but not by a wide margin. It was a cold comfort considering how much firepower the raiders were packing, including the two gas containers converted into explosives.

Both Randoms donned helmets to hide their identities, and Hiccup had to admit that Second Random might just pass for him if you had but a vague familiarity with Hiccup's particular style. To an unsuspecting village, it would be enough.

Alvin was the unhappiest of them all, wanting nothing more than to take his anger out on his prisoners but wise enough not to do it. He stared at Hiccup for an uncomfortably long time, then abruptly laughed and said, "I just can't stay mad at her. If I were twenty years younger, I'd woo her. But that doesn't mean I have to stick around and baby-sit. I'll come back in a few hours to watch Hiccup's final moments. In the meantime…"

He pulled his dragon-stick from his belt and added, "I'm going to improve my aim. I just need to find a volunteer."

Alvin walked off to find his "volunteer," leaving a solitary guard in the room to keep an eye on things. Hiccup was happy to see the brute leave, but his situation didn't improve with Alvin's absence. Marcus was too sullen to be any help, Snotlout had changed teams, and Toothless was as tied up as before, though his eyes were clear and cognizant again with the ASD out of range, the dragon looking at Hiccup with a deep sense of sorrow and frustration. Toothless must have picked up on Hiccup's deteriorating health – maybe he smelled it on him, or the dragon had understood enough of Random's words to catch on.

Hiccup attempted to get to his feet so he could fiddle with the cage's lock, but his legs felt rubbery, sapped of their strength. He had precious little energy in his limbs – anger and determination spurred what few efforts he could manage. It was times like these he wished he had his dad's granite-like constitution. Poison? his dad would say. Bah, I drink poison for breakfast.

He might try talking to Snotlout, but Hiccup was pretty darn sure that he only had insults left for the traitor. After all the chances he'd given Snotlout, all the times Hiccup had turned the other cheek or ignored Snotlout's moronic, self-absorbed…

"Hey, there, fellow Outcast," said Snotlout, aiming his words at the lone guard in the room. "Can we talk for a sec?"

The guard, already bored, glanced Snotlout's way. "Yeah?"

"You want to do me a favor and move me to a cage away from the sick guy?" Snotlout thumbed back Hiccup's way, as if it wasn't obvious who he was talking about.

"Can't do that," replied the guard. "Random and Alvin want you caged."

"I'll still be caged," cajoled Snotlout. "And… I'll tell you a secret that will get you on Random's good side."

Hiccup stopped moving for now, not wanting to draw attention while Snotlout was talking. Personally, Hiccup hoped the guard relented and moved him. He could do without Snotlout's company.

Snotlout pointed at Toothless, which immediately raised Hiccup's blood pressure. "I figured out why Random wants the Night Fury alive. It's because of his combustion gas. You ever see a Night Fury's plasma bolts in action? They can melt steel in no time flat. Think of what you could do with that kind of power."

"Snotlout!" Hiccup cried out, a lot more feebly than he intended.

"See what I mean?" continued Snotlout. "His soon-to-be-ex-rider knows what kind of gold mine we have in that dragon. Doesn't like me talking about it."

The guard did look intrigued by the idea, though he maintained a healthy glow of skepticism. "What's that got to do with me?"

"Night Furies are dangerous and uncooperative. You need somebody who knows how to handle them. Random will be grateful to the one guy who can, and I just happen to know a few tricks. You move me to another cage, I'll tell you some of them."

Hiccup wasn't sure what Snotlout was trying to do. Snotlout didn't know squat about Toothless. He had knowledge of Nightmares because he rode one, but he had no interest in other species. What was Snotlout trying to pull here?

The guard seemed to consider the idea, but instead of replying to Snotlout's offer he turned and left the room. Hiccup found a certain degree of satisfaction in seeing Snotlout rebuffed, and he darkly hoped the trend would continue. But then the guard reappeared with a set of keys in his hands, and Hiccup's satisfaction did an about-face. The guard really was falling for it after all.

"First, you tell me a secret," said the guard. "Then I'll move you."

Snotlout shrugged his agreement. "Better get close, then, so no one else can hear it."

The guard closed in and pressed his face up to the cage bars, bearing his ear. Snotlout leaned in close and whispered something to him, a sentence that created a perplexed look on the guard's face. The guard backed up slightly and said, "What does my mother's weight have to do with this?"

Snotlout's reply? Grabbing the guard by his shirt collar and pulling him hard into the steel bars, smashing the man's forehead and dazing him immediately. Snotlout repeated the move once more for good measure, holding the guard's unconscious body to the cage with one hand while retrieving the keys with the other. He then let the cataleptic man slump down to the ground, taking a moment to see if the noise attracted more guards. Thankfully Alvin had commenced practice with his weapon, the workshop reverberating with dragon-stick blasts, and no one came to investigate.

Confused, this time in an almost happy way, Hiccup watched Snotlout find the right key and let himself out of the cage. He immediately walked to Hiccup's cage and released him as well, standing at the doorway and offering his hand to his chief. At first, Hiccup was too overwhelmed with this newest abrupt reversal to do much more than stare at Snotlout, then he took Snotlout's hand and got to his feet, his legs wobbly but still serviceable.

"I take it this means you're not on Team Random," Hiccup commented.

Some measure of guilt came back into Snotlout's expression. "It was… tempting, I won't lie. Random knows how to speak my language. But she doesn't know me that well. Also, I'm pretty sure Astrid would've figured it out eventually, and then she'd actually kill me this time."

"Yeeaaah, she's good at that," replied Hiccup.

"So… does this mean I'm not exiled from the village?" Snotlout asked optimistically.

"It's a step in the right direction," Hiccup replied, which was as much credit as Hiccup was willing to grant Snotlout right now. He then motioned at Marcus's cage. "Let out Marcus. I'll get Toothless."

"I don't think you're in any shape to get anyone," said Snotlout. "You better sit down and rest."

"This isn't something that'll get better on its own, Snotlout," said Hiccup. "I need to find the antidote."

"Random's personal chamber," suggested Marcus, who had snapped out of his dark mood at some point and now gave the two men a determined stare from the confines of his cage. "I know where she keeps her possessions. If there's a cure, it's in her room."

"And I'm guessing it's on the other side of the workshop," said Hiccup. "Past Alvin and any other goons left on the island."

"Yes, how'd you know?" Marcus asked.

"Because that's how these things work," Hiccup lamented.

Toothless rewarded Hiccup with a tongue bath once he was freed of his restraints, though the dragon did ease up after one of his enthusiastic licks almost toppled Hiccup. The dragon kept his greatly-worried look on Hiccup, aware that Hiccup was quite ill and getting worse by the second. Hiccup chanced a look at his own skin and saw the unhealthy grayness in it, like an overcast sky that should have been clear. He wanted to reassure Toothless that this would all turn out okay, but Toothless wasn't a naïve child. Instead, Toothless allowed Hiccup to lean on him as they followed Marcus and Snotlout out the open doorway to the rest of the workshop, having made sure that the hapless guard was securely muzzled in his new home, the cage that Hiccup had occupied previously.

The four of them took cover behind an inactive forge as they entered the main workshop, the facility all but shut down save for the hostile hiss of the steam pipes that regulated the island's natural steam vents. There were sporadic bangs and shouts from the far side of the workshop, but otherwise there were no signs of life in the immediate vicinity.

Snotlout had swiped the guard's dragon-stick and held it, quite keen to try it out. "Is this thing loaded?" he asked, carelessly waving it around like it was a feather duster. "I can't tell by looking at it."

Marcus scowled and took it away from him before Snotlout fired it by accident. "Let's leave the dragon-stick to me, thank you."

"How many men do we have to deal with, Marcus?" Hiccup questioned.

Marcus pondered the answer. "Random… both Randoms took off with ten men, which leaves twelve more, not including Alvin. Four of them were workers I handpicked myself, but that doesn't mean Random didn't sway them to her cause."

"Doesn't sound too bad," said Hiccup, patting Toothless on the head. "One Night Fury evens the odds rather nicely."

Marcus scowled again, but this time at Hiccup. "There are supply containers stationed near the barracks, close to Random's room, Chief Hiccup. Many of those containers are full."

Hiccup caught his meaning and his eyes went wide. Snotlout didn't and shrugged in confusion. "And that's bad I take it?"

It was Hiccup's turn to do the scowling at Snotlout. "If you want half the workshop to go up in flames from a misplaced fireball, then no, it's not bad."

Now Snotlout understood the problem, though his bravado remained unquenched. "Okay, we'll just go in and beat up everybody."

"They have dragon-sticks, Snotlout," said Hiccup impatiently. "You'll have more holes in you than a rotten dragon tooth before you take five steps." Snotlout's bluster evaporated at the thought of getting thoroughly perforated.

"We need to trap as many as we can," said Marcus. "Create a diversion or lure them into one of my supply rooms."

"What about the stables?" said Hiccup. "Toothless and I could lure them inside and fly out the roof exit. You guys could…"

A harsh, screaming ricochet interrupted the rest of Hiccup's plan as the wall next to Snotlout's head acquired an ugly puncture wound. Snotlout yelped and ducked down while Hiccup looked to find the culprit. The shooter was a wide-eyed Outcast halfway down the room, holding a smoking dragon-stick and cursing his poor aim. The man either had good eyes or good luck for he had spied them from across the workshop, his footsteps covered by Alvin's weapon practice.

Incensed by the harsh noise and immediate danger, Toothless did what any sensible beast would do. Before Hiccup could stop him, the dragon chucked a fireball right at the feet of the Outcast, one of his concussion-blasts designed to incapacitate but not kill. The Outcast went soaring off his feet, dragon-stick flying out of his hands, and landed ten feet further away in a groaning heap.

"Bud, don't do that!" cried out Hiccup at Toothless, looking the dragon straight in the eye. "We could all go up in smoke next time. No fireballs!" Toothless seemed baffled by the order, not comprehending the powder keg issue before them, but he trusted Hiccup enough to nod his head in compliance.

The boom of the dragon-stick had rebounded like thunder inside the facility, and Toothless's counterattack hadn't been all that quiet either. In no time at all several of Alvin's men began to emerge from the far side of the workshop, moving their way towards the disturbance, weapons drawn. Hiccup's group ducked behind the forge again while Hiccup tried to keep an eye on the approaching goons from between a crack in the machinery. One of the goons found the crumpled form of their compatriot, his clothes still smoldering from the plasma blast, and two men went to assist. The others kept on coming, their faces grim, holding their dragon-sticks ahead of them, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Marcus brought out his own dragon-stick and pumped it. "I don't suppose you have reinforcements coming anytime soon," he whispered.

Hiccup didn't reply. He glanced at Toothless but the dragon had no response to give, certainly no reply that would explain how he found the island when Astrid hadn't.

The forge soon proved to be an inadequate hiding spot once again when one of the Outcasts spotted Toothless's tail sticking out from behind cover. The Outcast got one yell off before Marcus poked his arm out of cover and fired his dragon-stick at the man. He missed by a mile, but the noise caused the advancing goons to take cover and open fire on their position. An ear-shattering refrain filled the workshop as projectiles collided with the forge, bouncing off the hard steel or peppering the ground and walls all around. Toothless got extremely agitated from the noise assault and growled out his outrage, though he stopped short of returning fire. Marcus managed to reload his weapon with a single round he found in one of his spare pockets, but it was the only shot they had left. Snotlout had swiped just the weapon, no extra gas or ball bearings. As for Snotlout himself, the big brave Viking was currently shutting his eyes while begging the gods to make him invisible.

The barrage felt like it would go on forever, but when it abruptly stopped Hiccup came to realize that less than a minute had gone by. His ears still ringing from the din, he nonetheless heard the ugly voice of Alvin threatening his men with extreme hurting if they didn't stop firing this instant.

"The next man who fires will be eating their dragon-stick," he warned. "And as for you, Chief Dragon Training Conqueror Whatever, I can only assume that the guy I left in charge of your imprisonment will be needing a good flogging for incompetence. You want to do me a favor and get back in your cage without any trouble?"

"I don't think that's happening, Alvin," Hiccup yelled back, chancing a look and seeing a total of nine men training their weapons his way, Alvin included. "Better tell your men to keep their distance if they don't want their butts extra toasty."

Alvin laughed, and Hiccup doubted Alvin had found any humor in Hiccup's words. "Let's lay all our cards out on the table, Hiccup. You're not letting your pet off his leash because all the combustion gas stored in this building might blow us all to Valhalla, and I can't have my men shoot you and your pals without Random using my guts for garters. How about we make a deal – your life for mine?"

"Right, Alvin," said Hiccup with a healthy dollop of snark. "You expect me to trust you enough to do a deal?"

"It's not like you have a choice," replied Alvin. "Death is knocking at your door, and you can't fight or fly your way out of its clutches this time. But I'm not much better off than you. Random is the type of gal who'll toss me out the door when the time is right, just like she did to Marcus. I figured that out when she decided to take control of my dragon raiders. So I'm thinking I might try living all civilized back in Berk, me and the men who'll want to come. You're chief now, so you could pardon me with a word. In exchange, I let you have the antidote. Doesn't that sound like a fair trade, with everyone getting to live and all?"

"Everyone except the people Random is about to kill," said Hiccup.

"Can't do much about that. But then, it's not like you know anyone at Tempest Point, right?"

Hiccup started at the name of Random's target. Tempest Point – it felt like Random was deliberately making things personal, and it might have enraged him if he had any energy left in him for rage. He was doing well just holding onto Toothless's neck and not flopping to the ground.

Snotlout looked at Hiccup hopefully. "Can we for once not do something heroically stupid and just take the deal?"

"You don't let vipers into your home, Snotlout," stated Marcus, his dragon-stick at the ready and a clear resolve in his eyes. "It's a lesson I failed to learn."

"He's right, Snotlout," Hiccup said, weighing all the bad options before him. Fighting was too risky with all those dragon-sticks in play and the threat of a massive explosion looming over them. Surrender? No thank you. They could still fly away from the island, but that would seal Hiccup's fate for sure, as well as ensuring Random would pull off her plan unhindered, with lives lost and Berk blamed.

But it wasn't like he had a better plan, and with no cover between them and the stables or the main exit, they'd need a distraction. It was looking like his time as chief was going to be a short one, but he could still buy the others the time they needed to escape and warn Berk.

Hiccup motioned for Marcus and Snotlout to get closer, so that Alvin wouldn't overhear them talking. "Okay," he started, "here's the plan…"

"Not doing it," said Snotlout.

"What? I didn't even say…"

"You're either surrendering or sacrificing your life," insisted Snotlout. "I'm not letting you hog all the glory again. Let me do it."

Hiccup didn't know if Snotlout was being selfish, honorable, or both. "Snotlout, I only have hours left."

"All the more reason for you to get going and let me do my thing," reasoned Snotlout.

"What say you, O mighty chief?" demanded Alvin impatiently, a demand Hiccup chose to ignore.

"I can't let you do this, Snotlout," whispered Hiccup.

Snotlout smirked. "Oh, will I get in trouble? I'm already in trouble. Just…" A shadow crossed over his face for a moment, then it faded as his eyes grew resolute. "Just do me a favor and don't tell my dad how I got us into this mess."

Before Hiccup could stop him, Snotlout ran out of cover and into the open, holding his hands up and trying to look as harmless as possible. Hiccup tensed, awaiting the barrage of flying steel that would cut Snotlout down, but it didn't come. The only response was an order from Alvin for his men to hold their fire.

"Hey, guys," said Snotlout in a surprisingly casual manner. "I've been talking to Hiccup and he was about to pardon everyone when I said we could get a better deal, so here I am to deal."

"You've got to be kidding," whispered Hiccup.

"You've got to be kidding," said Alvin. "I'm being charitable just letting you all live."

"You can't kill me, Alvin," replied Snotlout. "I'm Random's go-to guy on Berk."

"You're her go-to stooge on Berk," Alvin fired back, "and stooges are replaceable."

Hiccup had Toothless hunker down so he could quietly mount the saddle while remaining under cover. He had Marcus get on behind him, the weapon tinkerer obeying without question. He wasn't ready to abandon Snotlout to Alvin, but Snotlout was clearly ready to make his sacrifice a dead certainty, as he took one bold step after another toward Alvin, drawing his men's weapons away from Hiccup's hiding spot.

"Look, you don't want to make Random mad any more than I do," said Snotlout as he slowly advanced. "Think of all the money we'll lose out on if you betray her."

"Some things are worth more than all the wealth in the world," said Alvin. "Like breathing. I like breathing, and I bet you do too. And it's something you're about to stop doing if you don't drop to your knees right now."

Snotlout turned to glance back at Hiccup, a sad gleam in his eyes. But solid determination was in there as well, a warrior's determination. It was a side of him that Hiccup rarely ever saw, the part of Snotlout that willingly put aside all his vain imaginings and selfish pursuits for the sake of others. Hiccup wished he had seen it more often, and that he wasn't seeing it right at the end of Snotlout's life, because the loutish Viking knew well that his next action would be his last one. Snotlout planned on becoming a meat-filled target dummy as atonement for his role in this mess. The dragon-sticks took several seconds to reload, which would give Toothless the time he needed to escape. Snotlout simply had to get the sticks to fire.

Snotlout faced Alvin and adopted his traditional disrespectful smile, full of mockery and defiance. "I guess you're going to have to make me, Alvin-boy."

Alvin might have been wise enough to know he was being played, but he was not one to brook impudence in front of his men. Alvin's face became a mask of rage and he stepped back to allow his men a full view of the dead man walking.

"Count of three, men," he coldly ordered. "Let's show Chief Hiccup how well these weapons work on the insanely stupid."

Alvin's men raised their weapons on the count of one. Snotlout closed his eyes on the count of two. And then the world became a cacophonous storm of light, smoke, and screaming as the word three came out of Alvin's mouth…

At least, that's what Hiccup expected to happen. Three didn't happen. The actual words to come out of Alvin's mouth were What the devil is this stuff?

Much to everyone's confusion, and Snotlout's relief, there was an odd gas cloud sweeping into the workshop right about the time Alvin counted one. He hadn't noticed it at first, but as it gained opaqueness and density it became impossible to miss, collecting in every corner of the main workshop like a very localized fogbank. By the time it reached Hiccup's position behind the forge, a considerable cloud of it had formed inside the room. Hiccup took one whiff of it and instantly recognized the odor – Zippleback gas. Highly explosive, but only dangerous where flames were present. With the workshop shut down, the only possible combustion sources were Alvin's dragon-sticks and Toothless.

"Terrific, a gas leak," commented Alvin, wrinkling his nose. "Did one of you idiots break a supply container?"

"Who needs a supply container when you have the real thing?" spoke up a new voice, full of femininity and confidence. Upon hearing the wonderful voice, Hiccup chanced a more-exposed peek around the forge and saw Astrid standing at the main exit, her myssteel axe in hand and her dragon Beatrix right behind her, tail poised to sling some spikes Alvin's way.

Snotlout's relief was so great that he fell to his knees and spread his arms out wide in gratitude. "My hero!" he happily cried.

Alvin's men switched their aim to Astrid, but Alvin quickly hollered at them to lower their weapons. Astrid's smirk widened. "Good thinking, Alvin. It'd be embarrassing to meet your ancestors having gotten flash-fried by your own men's stupidity. Have them throw down their weapons."

Alvin had other ideas, grimacing menacingly as he picked up a large iron rod from a nearby workbench. "Way I see it, girl, this gas cloud means your dragon can't use its fire breath either. Which means a tussle is in order… and I like tussles." His men did drop their dragon-sticks, but only to free their hands up for the use of clubs and iron rods and other handy bludgeoning tools.

"Rush her," he ordered his men. "I've got the chief." As his men charged Astrid's position, Alvin turned and barreled right at Snotlout, knocking him aside with one heavy shoulder shove. Snotlout careened into a workbench, toppling it over and dazing him in the process. Alvin then circled the forge to find Hiccup, whom he found… atop one angry Night Fury, who immediately snapped at Alvin and forced the massive Viking back a step, Alvin swinging wildly to keep the dragon at bay.

Alvin's men found a similar surprise when the main doors became congested with dragons, Barf/Belch and Chomps barging their way inside and engaging the goon squad, with Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut right behind. Astrid had her axe spinning through the air and cleaving one man's iron rod in two while Beatrix unleashed a barrage of quills that pinned up two more men quite artistically. Chomps used another goon's makeshift weapon as an appetizer, while the Twins and Fishlegs pummeled their respective adversaries into submission. It wasn't even a real contest – having eschewed conventional weapons for their dragon-sticks, the goons were unprepared for a down-and-dirty fight with dragons and were quickly overwhelmed.

Alvin fared better, keeping free of Toothless's claws and teeth while the dragon darted about, each looking for an opening. Alvin was an experienced dragon fighter and he showed no fear as he jabbed and swung away, unable to land a hit on the dragon but showing no signs of quitting either.

"Alvin, can we dispense with the useless theatrics?" Hiccup asked, feeling way too poisoned to be riding an irate dragon right now. "You've already lost. I'll accept your surrender and even dump you on Outcast Island."

"My, how generous," said Alvin between swings. "Go back to that old wasteland with but a handful of men and the shirt on my back. Such a sweet prospect."

"It's better than you deserve," said Hiccup. "Most other chiefs would summarily execute you."

In a surprise move, Alvin stopped swinging and lowered his rod-club, the fight abruptly going out of him. The move shocked Hiccup, who figured that Alvin was one of those death-before-common-sense type of guys, and so he made the mistake of telling Toothless to ease up on Alvin. Toothless obeyed, and Alvin did throw down his rod… so that he could pull his dragon-stick from his belt, a fully loaded one at that. He didn't aim it at Hiccup or Toothless, but rather at the ground, his finger on the trigger, a grim and mirthless smile on his lips.

"What are you doing?" said Hiccup. "If you fire that…"

"Then we all go up together," finished Alvin. "You think I don't know that?"

"You'd rather die than go back to Outcast Island?"

"I'd rather die than lose to you again, Dragon Chief Whatever. I can't go anywhere else, I can't trust anyone else, and I've burned too many bridges to start over. So if you can't find it in your heart to forgive my crimes and let me come home again, then nobody is going home again."

Hiccup hated, absolutely hated, the idea of letting Alvin set foot in Berk. Even if he could forgive Alvin for the crimes that got him kicked off Berk in the first place, he'd done more than enough to earn permanent exile since then. But Alvin had him dancing on a dragon's mouth here. Astrid's amazing plan to render the dragon-sticks useless hinged on a non-suicidal reaction from Alvin and his men, and something in Alvin's eyes made Hiccup believe the man would carry out his threat. Hiccup might have told Alvin to stick his demands where the sun don't shine had it just been him in the danger zone. But with Toothless and Astrid and all his friends in the building, he couldn't bring himself to say no.

Hiccup sighed and said, "If I promise to give you a pardon, you'll hand over the weapon?"

Alvin laughed dismissively. "I'll need more than that. To start off, you can tell your pretty wife to (SMASH) hablablablabla…"

Alvin lost his train of thought, along with basic motor control, as his large frame fell forward to the ground with a thud, surrounded by pieces of woods that once resembled a three-legged stool. Hiccup wanted to believe that the day had just been saved by an animated wooden stool with a beef against Alvin, but it was hard to ignore the fact that Snotlout was standing behind Alvin's unconscious body, holding two of the stool's three broken legs and looking astonished to have pulled off his crazy move.

Snotlout then looked at Hiccup with a hopeful grin and said, "So… does this square me yet?"

"Still moving in the right direction," said Hiccup tiredly, not quite ready to let Snotlout off the hook. "Ask me again after I'm not dying, and after we save Tempest Point."

Three of Marcus's men had been locked up in a vacant storage room since Random and Alvin took over, the only three workers who hadn't been swayed by promises of wealth or threats of death. Marcus set them free and gave them the duty of escorting Alvin's men to the same vacant storage room, their new home until Hiccup knew what to do with them. Right now, Hiccup had more pressing concerns.

After telling Fishlegs and the Twins to help lock up Alvin's men, Astrid ran to Hiccup and gave him a fierce hug that felt surprisingly brutal to poor poisoned Hiccup. Astrid felt the lack of strength in Hiccup's arms, cluing her in that something was wrong with him, that or the unnatural grayness in his skin.

"Gods, you're not looking well at all, Hiccup," she stated with a motherly tone. "I'm getting you back home to the healer."

"It's… not as bad as it looks, Astrid," he replied, holding off on the poison disclosure until Marcus and Snotlout could find the antidote… if there actually was one. Marcus had said that any cure would be in Random's room, hidden somewhere private, so once Alvin had been carted into the nearest animal cage Marcus had gone off with Snotlout to search Random's possessions. Snotlout wanted to get back in Hiccup's good graces, so he had offered to help. Hopefully Hiccup wouldn't regret saying yes.

Hiccup wasn't planning on concealing his condition much longer, nor could he, but once Astrid heard the word poison, there would be no end to her freak-out, and she would sideline Hiccup immediately over his objections. Too many lives were on the line for that to happen. As it was, Astrid certainly wasn't buying Hiccup's feeble reasoning, but she hadn't jumped to any conclusions yet.

"Hiccup, you don't need to tough this out," she suggested. "Let me take it from here."

"Trust me, Astrid, I don't want to tough this out, but Random has a head start on us and I can't sit this one out." He grimaced with frustration. "Thor's Hammer, I know where she's going, but I don't even know where we are, so how can I…?"

"I know where we are, Hiccup," stated Astrid. "How do you think we got here?"

"That's… actually a good question," said Hiccup.

Astrid gave Toothless a dirty look, the dragon sticking to Hiccup's side, his gaze utterly devoid of any guilt for leaving the Dragon Squad behind. "After Toothless took off on us, we were flying blind for a good hour before Fishlegs came up with his next brilliant idea – letting his dragon's tongue lead the way."

This one was new to Hiccup. "How did Chomps lead you here with her tongue?"

It was Fishlegs who fielded the question, walking back from imprisoning Alvin's men with his loyal Gronckle in tow. "I started thinking that there was still an algae trail to follow, just not one big enough for us to see. I figured that's what Toothless went after. It turns out that Gronckles have a very refined palate, and Chomp happened to like the taste of the algae, so I had her dip her tongue in the water so she could… you know, taste her way in the dark."

Hiccup was amazed by the idea. "And that worked?"

"For a while," said Astrid. "We had to fly really slow, but we made progress… until the trail stopped cold."

"And then I found the island," piped up Tuffnut, joining the group with his sister and two-headed dragon at his side. "My superior tracking skills kicked in and…"

"We found it by dumb luck," cut off Ruffnut. "Emphasis on dumb."

"Let me guess," said Hiccup. "Search pattern, argument, island, argument, went back to get Astrid and Fishlegs, argument, and then rescue."

Tuffnut was much impressed by Hiccup's deductive skills. "Wow, did you gain Seer powers while you were gone? Is that why you look so terrible – because of the head pain from the visions?"

"No, idiot, he's just intelligent," said Ruffnut, though she did notice Hiccup's less-than-healthy complexion. "You have looked better, though."

"You do seem kind of gray around the gills," observed Fishlegs. "I'd say you have Nightmare Fever, but only Nadders and Terrors get that."

"Don't Nightmares get Nightmare Fever?" asked Ruffnut.

"No, they get Timberjack Cough," informed Fishlegs.

"Who is naming all these diseases?" asked Tuffnut. "And where can I find him so I can punch him?"

"Guys!" blurted out Hiccup, his knees almost buckling from the effort. "I'm not feeling good enough to put up with this right now, and we really need to get moving."

Astrid adamantly shook her head. "No, Hiccup. I'm not letting you go like this. You're in no condition to do anything."

"He'll be better soon, though," chimed in Snotlout, walking up with Marcus and wearing a look of utter triumph. He held a glass vial with a cork top, an amber liquid swishing within. Marcus held a polished wood box in his hands that reminded Hiccup of a keepsakes box that you placed little mementos into. It must have been the hiding spot for Random's poison/antidote stash.

"We had to paw through Random's personal wardrobe," said Marcus, "but luckily Snotlout found it in a hidden compartment in back. I felt it only appropriate that he present it to you." Marcus opened the box to reveal a padded interior, with four vial-shaped empty spaces cut out of the padding. There was also a parchment note tucked into the bottom of the lid, which Marcus extracted before closing the box again.

"It looks as if she had enough vials for two doses of poison and two dose of antidote," continued Marcus. "I dare not imagine who she used the first dose on, though I'm surprised that there was only the one dose of antidote that Snotlout found. Random must have had an accident at some point…"

"Wait, poison?" said Astrid, looking at Marcus suspiciously. "Why were you looking for poison?"

"No, no, no," said Snotlout rather cheerfully. "We were looking for the antidote. Hiccup needs…" He was a second too late in remembering that Hiccup had told him to keep the matter mum until Hiccup broke the news, but it came back to him right after seeing the unmistakably alarmed expression on Astrid's face as she put it together, the rest of his friends sporting similar looks as well. Thankfully for Snotlout, the target of her emotional outburst was not he.

"YOU"RE POISONED?" she yelled at Hiccup, who would have shrank back from her if he had the strength to do so, but instead held onto Toothless for dear life.

"Uh… kinda… yes," he meekly replied.

Astrid proceeded to pace about, muttering little curses under her breath as she vented. "You stupid… you were going to… how long did you know… No, doesn't matter, I'll yell at you when you're not poisoned. Snotlout, hand it over."

Snotlout hurriedly did so, Hiccup taking the vial and staring at the contents with a slight amount of reservation. "Not that I think you guys are trying to kill me, but how do we know this isn't more poison?"

Marcus held up the note from the box. "These are instructions. Clear liquid is poison, colored liquid is antidote. There was one warning attached." He unrolled the parchment and read from it. "Warning: side-effects may include hives, spontaneous desire to eat cheese, and severe drowsiness."

"Severe drowsiness?" said Hiccup. "Is the antidote going to put me to sleep?"

"Most likely," replied Marcus. "Beats being dead, don't you think?"

Instead of quaffing down the antidote like most people would have done in his situation, Hiccup continued to stare at the cure indecisively. Not understanding the holdup, Astrid gestured at Hiccup to hurry and drink up already. Hiccup's biological side was in complete agreement, as he could feel his body slowly weakening with each thump of his heartbeat. But as a man of conscience…

"Not yet," he declared, eliciting another round of shocked looks as he found a secure pouch on Toothless's saddle and tucked the antidote inside it.

"Hiccup, what are you doing?" Astrid said, her voice low and disbelieving.

"I'm saving the village of Tempest Point first," he stated, climbing back onto Toothless and ignoring the incredulous stares at his back. "I can't do that if I'm asleep.

"Hiccup, that's crazy!" exclaimed Astrid. "Drink the antidote!"

Hiccup shook his head as fiercely as he could, disregarding how much it hurt to do even that much. "I'm the only one who knows how to get to Tempest Point. Between Astrid and me we should be able to navigate our way there, and Random's dragons won't be moving as fast as ours. If we go now, we may still have a chance…"

"You are about to die!" Astrid looked ready to punch out Hiccup, or at the very least yank him from his saddle and force-feed him the antidote.

"I still have a few hours, Astrid. Besides, I'm taking the antidote with me. If it looks like a Valkyrie is about to swoop in and claim me, I'll drink it."

Astrid came up to him, and there was no anger in her eyes, only pure fear. It was harder to deal with than her angry eyes. "Hiccup, I know I said you need to stick to being you, but this is taking it too far."

Hiccup gave her a calm smile to try to reassure her. "Random is about to kill those villagers, and all so she can get rich selling weapons. I can't sit back and let that happen. You know I can't."

Astrid saw that his mind was made up, his stupid, stubborn, noble mind. She closed her eyes and considered following through on her desire to save Hiccup with a little rough action, but she had to admit that she couldn't sit back any more than Hiccup could, and they needed Hiccup to guide them to Tempest Point.

"This may finally be the stupidest-craziest thing you've ever done," said Astrid, opening her eyes again, her voice ten levels calmer than before. "But I'm going to be right at your side while you do it."

"I'm pretty sure I'll have worse ideas than this in the future, Astrid," said Hiccup, smiling thinly.

"Don't forget the rest of us," said Fishlegs, the others nodding in agreement. "We haven't done anything stupid in a long time."

"Speak for yourself," said Tuffnut. "I did something stupid just yesterday." His sister rolled her eyes and said nothing.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Alvin and his men," said Marcus. "You best keep in mind that while your dragons will respond much quicker than Random's, they are still vulnerable to the Alpha Signal."

"Yeah, I've thought of that," Hiccup replied. "But I'm pretty sure I know how to get around it." He didn't bother adding the one small caveat – that he'd stay alive long enough to pull it off.