Iron-Mantis: Wow, didn't think that I'd accidentally hide an Easter Egg in here. I completely forgot that the Outcasts were cannibals. And thank you.

skyblu123: I guess so. Thank you.


I'd been working on this connecting rod for some time now, I wanted to make sure that it was done as soon as possible so Hiccup could leave and hopefully not come back. The last thing he needed was to be around me any longer and get himself even more hurt than he already has been.

"Al!" I heard Hiccup call out.

For the love of Thor. Keep away from me.

I put my hands up in surrender, whatever he has to say to me now, let him say it. My desicion is made. He saw me through the bars of the blacksmith and squeezed in with less trouble than I had since he was smaller than I.

"I'm making the connecting rod for Toothless." I responded flatly and dipped the rod in water to cool it down. I lifted it to inspect the shape and ran my fingers over it.

"Thanks, Al." He said. I couldn't look at him, I'd shoved him aside earlier and the guilt didn't allow me to look in his direction. He walked around and used a hand to push my face to the side a bit so I could look at him.

My eyes widened when they locked with his. He just stared me in the eye for a second and gave me a tight hug. "Please, don't ever leave me again. Don't storm off like that, just stay with me, please?"

I wrapped my arms around him like it would be our last hug ever and kept a tight but not too tight of a hold on him. "I can't promise you."

"I'm not asking for you to promise me. I'm asking that you just don't leave me like you have been."

"There is no guarentee." I sighed.

"For now, at least. I just... need you. You have no idea how much."

"I do know." I said in a heartbroken tone. "More than once, I thought that I'd lose you. When you fell off Toothless's back into the flames exploding off the Red Death, each and every time you were attacked by a dragon, I don't know why I was so unable to help. I could have lost you any one of those times and though I promised to stay by your side, I had failed each time. I need you by my side but I'm afraid of hurting you."

"You won't hurt me." He insisted.

"Then what did I just do back there?" I asked.

"What you did back there didn't happen. It wasn't you."

"You're right, it wasn't. It's some sort of monster that I've been becoming. Promise that you'll leave as soon as the connecting rods done."

"You said yourself that we're all in this together." Hiccup gripped my shoulder. "There is no way I'm leaving without you. I don't know if you've forgotten but I already said that I'm braver than I once was. I'll stay with you if it costs me my life."

The hardened look on my face melted into a softer one that had shock in it. Hiccup looked around briefly then scratched the back of his head.

"What are you looking for?" I asked gently.

"Shadow's with you, right?"

"No." I answered skeptically. "Do you mean he's not with you?"

"Did I say that?" He asked and looked away from my harsh gaze.

"Pretty much." I snapped slightly. "Why'd you let him go off on his own?"

"I thought that he might have went after you. I didn't even know he left." Hiccup defended.

"Well, that's great." I handed him the rod. "Merry Snoggletog. I have to go find my dragon."

He took the rod from me and put it on the table next to us. "Alyssa, stop being like this."

"Concerned for my dragon?" I asked flatly.

"No, not that. Why do you always think you're such a monster? Why do you think that I don't want to be around you because you did something stupid? We all do stupid things, we all make mistakes. Why are yours so bad?"

"Because my mistakes have hurt you. And why am I a monster? I'll tell you why; because I'm half-Outcast and half-Berserker. It's just a matter of time until I reach my breaking point and seriously hurt someone. I love you with all my heart, that's why I won't allow myself to think you're ever safe. You'll never be safe as long as I'm around."

"Al." He sighed and held my hand that I used to punch the tree. I winced slightly at the sting, he noticed this and switched hands. "Listen, when you truly love someone, you'll take the good with the bad, right? I was a village outcast and you admired me, you stuck by my side and didn't care what anyone else said, because of that got you outcast just like me.

"You took the bad that came with the good. I've been doing the same. All of the fits of anger, each arguement, every little thing about you, is why I love you."

"I love you, too, Hic." I smiled and we gave a brief hug. "Hiccup, just so you know, this doesn't mean that I'm going home. I might but I doubt it. It just depends on how I'm feeling later."

"I sure hope so." He said and scanned over the connecting rod. "All right, good. Yeah, this'll work."

He walked for the bars again to exit but I grabbed him and pulled him back from them. I glared in the direction of the bars and squinted to see if I could see anything, "Don't move."

"What is it? Al, what's gotten into you?"

"There's someone outside." I said.

"Oh, it's Toothless. I'm having them keep the perimeter secure." He responded. I was skeptical but ingored it and let him go. He gave a smile in my direction that said many different things but mainly said 'My guardian angel...'

"I have to protect you. That's why I was so desperate to leave."

"Alyssa, would you ever really leave me?" He asked suddenly and stopped me on the spot.

I actually put some thought into this one. Leave to protect, stay to protect. Would he still get hurt either way? Would I leave to make sure he was kept safe? Would I stay to make sure he was kept safe? What would I do? And why?

"No." I finally answered. "I wouldn't be able to. I couldn't keep myself from you, Hiccup. That's another reason why I wanted you to leave Outcast Island, you could have taken Shadow with you and then you all could leave... so I could end it."

"End wh..." Hiccup looked at me in disbelief. "You mean that- why would you? Why would you do that?"

"How many times do I have to explain? It would keep you safe, both from me and the dangers that follow me. I would have written a note to the Outcasts and have it say that I killed you and then myself so they didn't invade Berk anymore. It would have kept the Outcasts off your case."

"You were going to what?!" He snapped. I had actually fallen back onto my butt and scooted back at the sharpness in his voice. I scooted as far back as I could go until my back hit the shelves of the blacksmith then I used my arms to cover my head and curled up, my eyes clenched shut and hands holding on tightly to my hair.

"What makes you think that that would have made things any better? Do you know how many souls you'd hurt by doing that?"

"Four?" I asked hesitantly and peeped up at him though a barely open eyelid.

"A lot!" I curled up tightly at his voice again. "Shadow, Toothless and I would get the worst of it, guaranteed but I know for a fact that many others would be hurt too! The dragons, for one. Fishlegs, you and him sharing dragon knowledge. Astrid, you and her engaging in violent conversation. Dad even thanked you for keeping me safe for all these years!"

I felt myself begin to shake and fear inside of me. I don't know why I was afraid but that's what I felt over everything else. Fear.

"Remember how devastated I said Shadow was after you got struck by lightning? How devastated do you think he'd be if he found out that this time you had actually died? Died? Really, Al, what do you think?"

I gulped heavily and opened my mouth to speak but found no words to speak so I only slowly shut my mouth again.

"Exactly. It doesn't matter to us when you've done something bad, we only care about what you'd done that's good. All of the positive, life-changing things you've done is what matters to us, nothing else. We love you. We love you with our entire being. So, Al, what are you going to do?"

I was silent for a bit. It didn't require much thought, just some time for me to swallow my fear enough to speak.

"I'm staying." I said quietly. "I'm staying with you."

Hiccup faded back down into his normal self. He held out a hand to me, "I'm sorry."

I gave a smile to him and took his hand just for the comfort and helped myself up. I put an arm over his shoulder and gave an affectionate shake then gently placed my forehead on the top of his head for a brief moment then pulled back.

"Don't be sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you for everything." I patted his shoulder gently.

"Well, that's what friends are for." He patted me on my back.

"And how are we this night, kids?" A voice asked.

"Hi, Savage." I waved awkwardly.

"Oh, hey." Hiccup drew himself into his shoulders. "We were just making a gift for Alvin to thank him for his hospitality." He held out the connecting rod in his hands.

"You can thank him in person." Savage said. The Outcasts with him came around and got a hold on both Hiccup and I. Hiccup struggled to no avail, while I trashed around wildly to some avail.

"Hey, it's Hudson's daugther." One of them said.

"I can see that. He'll be so glad to see his little girl again."

"Cut the crap." I said flatly.

"You don't want to talk to a full-blooded Outcast like that, trust me. We can easily have you killed here." He laughed. "Slade wouldn't mind, I'm sure."

"Oh, okay. I'll watch my tongue." I smiled sweetly then it become too sweet very quickly. "Wiry haired, fish-and-ale-reeking, half-witted, son of a half troll, rat-faced, munge buckets!"

"Al, let's not start." Hiccup said softly.

"You have quite the vocabulary, mi'lady." Savage put a hand up and cupped my chin. "But I don't suggest that you speak to Alvin like that. He'll have terrible things done to you."

I glanced down at his hand and without a second thought, I bit down as hard as I could. He pulled back and got his skin torn open slightly. I spit at him afterwards. "Don't touch me."

For some reason I felt the need to lick the blood off my lips and glared back up at them.

"Oh, feisty, aren't you? I guess that you aren't called Alyssa the Awful for nothing." He laughed then hissed in pain. "You've got some sharp teeth on you."

"And a sharp mouth." Hiccup commented. I looked over at him slowly. "Kidding." He defended.


Toothless just got finished fighting a wild Gronckle. He ran up to the blacksmith to see Hiccup and Alyssa gone. He looked around in alarm and looked to the side to see that the two were being carried away by Outcasts.

They came across a beach where Snotlout had a raft made. He sent it out into the water, "Take that, guys." He laughed and leapt onto the raft as it floated on the water. He saw that it was able to float and jumped up and down to cheer himself on. "Yeah, it floats! Snotlout, Snotlout! Oy, oy, oy." His voice became downtraught at the end since the raft sunk into the water.

He washed back up on the beach. "I'm glad neither of them were here to see that." He felt a presence near him and opened his eyes to see green ones staring back at him. He gave a cry of alarm. "Toothless! What do you want?"

Toothless ran down the pathway that he came from and pranced in front of it a bit. Snotlout was unable of understanding so far. Toothless ran up behind him and gently shoved him along.

"Oh, I get it. They need my help." He said and ran after Toothless. Shadow sighed and flew after them.

After they reached the blacksmith, Snotlout forced himself in by kicking the door open. The Night Fury stayed outside as he looked around, "Stupid dragon, there's no one here." He said and stepped on something. He looked down and saw the connecting rod. He bent over and picked it up to reveal an Outcast behind him.

Toothless growled a warning to him and he turned around sharply. Snotlout began to fight the Outcast by using the connecting rod as a weapon. He finally knocked him against a wall and smirked at Toothless. The man ran for Snotlout again but he shoved him in Toothless's direction, Toothless headbutted him and the man went flying across the room and this time, the Outcast was knocked out for good.

"Toothless, we make a pretty good team. I might not give you back." Toothless scowled at him, "Kidding." Snotlout squeaked. He looked up he saw more Outcasts but with Hiccup and Alyssa.

"Let's get 'em, Toothless." He got on Toothless and the two ran off.


"Where's the rest of your party?" Savage stopped the group and smirked at us.

"Oh, we're the only ones that came." Hiccup said. "We heard that Outcast Island's beautiful this time of year and- should we tell them?"

He had something really off the wall hidden up his sleeve and I knew it. I nodded to him. "Only if you want to."

"We're engaged and this is our honeymoon!" He said with a big smile and put an arm up over my shoulder. I used all of my strength to hold back my laughter and force my smile down into a frown. It was almost unbearable about how funny and random that was.

"Well, when we get you two to Alvin, he'll get it out of ya." Savage said and turned around.

"I don't know, Savage. The Hudson lass is blushing, it could be the truth." One of the more gullible Outcasts said. I wasn't blushing, my face was red from me holding back my laughter.

"Sure, sure." Savage rolled his eyes. "Even if they were, I'm sure that they wouldn't have come here."

We began walking again and Hiccup kept trying to convince them as to why we were here for our 'honeymoon'. I held down my laughter the best I could.

"Seriously, she said that she wanted to get in touch with her Outcast roots and I supported that so I said 'Sure, let's go.' That would be why the dragons aren't with us. Why don't you believe me?"

"Then where's your boat?"

"Scauldron." I said.

"Crashed." Hiccup said at the exact same time. We glanced at each other and I covered us up hopefully. "Crashed by a Scauldron."

"Sure. Whatever you say." Savage sighed with irritation. "Now, quiet down, would you?"

"Can we at least share the same cell?" Hiccup asked. "I need to be with my darling wife."

"You're the wife in this relationship." I said and he pouted up at me. A few of the Outcasts snickered.

"Darling, why would you embarrass me in front of friends?" He asked. Okay, he was just having fun with this thing now. "You know how that makes me feel."

"It's the truth." I responded.

"Who wears the pants in this relationship?"

"Both of us." I answered.

"Would you both shut up?!" Savage snapped. "You're both getting on my last nerve and I've just about had it. I'm sure that Alvin wouldn't mind if we brought you back with a few cuts and bruises."

"See, Al, this is why we have no friends." Hiccup said.

"Yep, they all turn out to be whackos." I was finally able to laugh.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." Savage muttered to himself. Hiccup and I looked at each other with a soft laugh. It's so fun to irritate Outcasts that weren't me.

The walk continued quietly for a bit and when Hiccup opened his mouth to speak once again, a large pile of rocks and boulders fell in front of us and made us all go running back. A shot of plasma against the other side of the path made more boulders and rocks fall and keeping us trapped there.

Hold on... that was plasma. And where there's plasma there's-

I looked up and saw Toothless, and only Toothless, leap into the small area that we were all trapped in along with Snotlout.

I pulled out my sword and twisted it in my hand once. I ran towards an Outcast that had been thrown to the ground. He got up and pulled his own sword out.

The Outcast I fought went down quickly and easily, especially since while I kept him busy from the front, a connecting rod hit him from the back. It got him in the back of the neck and he went down. I heard Hiccup grunting and looked to see an Outcast holding Hiccup back.

A growl erupted from my throat, I ran to the Outcast and tossed the sword at him. It cut his arm a bit and he glared up at me, the connecting rod made a reappearance and flew at the Outcast's head, hitting him square in the face and loosening his grip on Hiccup. Hiccup got the connecting rod and hit the man in the side of the head and hard.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side." I said and retrieved my sword. They'd been defeated so far and all that was left was Savage. We all turned to him.

Since fighting a Night Fury and three Viking teens isn't the best idea in the world, he decided the smartest idea would be to run. Snotlout followed and shouted wordlessly at him. I rose my brows in amusement.

Hiccup slipped the connecting rod into the tail and made sure it worked, got on Toothless and they flew into the air. Toothless picked me up and threw me up on his back.

Hiccup turned around and zoomed through to pick up Snotlout and he was caught soon enough in Toothless's talons. Toothless chucked him onto his back behind and he landed just behind me. We did so and flew with them, Toothless spun around a few times to escape the weapons that were thrown at them.

We escaped the island and flew off with a whooping "Whoo-hoo!"

"Did you see what we just did?" Hiccup exclaimed.

"We totally kicked butt, duh!" Snotlout answered.

"Yeah and we kicked butt together!" Hiccup said back. He gave a nod to me, I nodded back. We looked towards Snotlout, "Listen, Snotlout, Al and I are-"

"Hungry, right?" Snotlout pointed and smirked.

Hiccup and I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh and shook our heads. "Yeah." Hiccup nodded.

"Hiccup, let's not go on another honeymoon to Outcast Island, okay?" I said.

"Yep, sure thing." He laughed softly. "Hey, what's that up there?"

I looked ahead and squinted my eyes to see dragon outlines, "I think that it's dragons. Not a single one looks like a Night Fury."

"We'll find him, I promise." Hiccup said. "He could have gone home to get help."

As we got closer to the dragons, they became more and more clear; a Nadder, a Zippleback, Thunderdrum, Monstrous Nightmare and a Gronckle. We came to recognize them as the dragons from Berk that belonged to the other Viking teens.

"Hey, guys!" I waved; happy to see them. Toothless came and flew next to the other dragons.

"We're back!" Hiccup said with his arms slightly in the air. Hookfang tapped Snotlout on the shoulder with his snout and made him turn to face him.

"Hookfang!" He exlaimed. Said dragon bit down on Snotlout's torso lifted him off Toothless and carried him in his mouth. "I'm still mad at you!"

"Hey, you guys didn't happen to see Shadow, did you?" Hiccup asked before I could.

"I don't think so." Astrid said.

"No, we didn't see him." Stoic said. "Why isn't he with you?"

Hiccup looked back at me and bit his lip before turning back to his father. "It's a long story. But long story, short; he flew off and we don't know where he went."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Astrid said. I didn't respond and looked to the sea below with a heavy gulp.

Hiccup smiled, deciding to change the subject and turned back to look at me. He looked me in the eye and said "Well, Al. Snotlout was pretty reliable, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was. He and Toothless saved both of us and thank goodness he brought the connecting rod."

"Who knew that we could rely on him so much?" He shrugged. I put my head down and turned away, there was still a deep and tired emptiness that was inside of me. Shadow was gone and I didn't know where he was, I felt so hollow. Hiccup noted this and and leaned back a little more, "Al, we'll find him. I promise."

"I sure hope so." I sighed and leaned over on him slightly. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my chin onto his shoulder. "I'm really just hoping he's okay."