Heather pulled her hood deeper into her face, trying her best to hide from the rain pouring down. It had been raining all night long and barely let up throughout the morning. She'd been prepared for a trudge through mud, but Berk had surprised her.

Most well travelled paths were covered in pebbles that crunched under her feet but didn't make the trip a slippery slide through dirt.

Hundreds of years of dreadful weather and a dragon infestation and these Vikings had been stubborn enough to adapt instead of just go searching for a better suited place to call home. If the ground was too muddy to walk on, throw a rock at it. If dragons go for your livestock, also throw a rock at it. Why change a working formula?

Heather huddled deeper into her cloak. Unfortunately, pebbles did absolutely nothing against the water falling from the sky like one of the gods was having fun pouring buckets out right above. Probably Loki.

Her destination appeared in her field of view and she quickened her pace, ready to get out of the dreadful weather. Still, she hesitated with her hand on the door of the jailhouse.

What was worse? Standing in the biting rain, or facing Viggo? She didn't know for how much longer she could keep pretending to be someone she wasn't.

But they needed Viggo on their side. And to get this plan rolling, they needed his help, too. His reliable help. And for now Heather was the one with the best chances of nudging him in the right direction.

So, with a deep breath, Heather entered the jailhouse of Berk. It was probably the smallest of its kind she'd ever seen with just four holding cells and two of them being used for storage of various items with no apparent order to them. One of them had been transformed into a room for the now constant guards to sit in. It had also been used to interrogate Viggo when he'd first arrived on Berk.

Heather didn't know the man currently snoring his shift away in the corner of the modified cell, but Hiccup had assured her it wasn't one of Mouldhair's friends or anyone else they didn't know wouldn't turn out to be a traitor. And apparently, her time to visit Viggo had been chosen specifically for this guard. Everyone knew he always slept through his shifts and snored loud enough to drown out any words spoken to the outside. Heather just hoped that would hold true for the time she needed.

It was a little too much gambling involved here for her liking, but it had to work.

Viggo looked surprised to see her when she stepped in front of his cell, even if just for the blink of an eye. His signature smile graced his lips.

For years, Heather hadn't been able to tell if it was genuine or not. Now, she knew to look at his eyes. They crinkled less when it was genuine, like he was subconsciously overcompensating when faking it.

"Heather, my dear," Viggo greeted her, coming up to the bars separating them. His eyes barely crinkled now. "It's good to see you, cousin."

Heather pushed off her hood to hide her grimace and gain a second to put on her mask again - invisible as it may be. She'd spent years wearing it; she'd survive another hour of it. But she didn't need to fake the brittleness of her own smile.

"I… was hoping we could talk."

"Of course." Viggo gestured to a stool at the wall opposite his cell and perched on his cot himself.

Heather wanted to push the stool even farther away. But she needed his attention, not his suspicion. So, she pulled it close to the bars and wrung her hands.

"What is on your mind, dear?"

Heather pretended to struggle with a couple false starts, swallowing his words before settling on something. "I think I need to apologise to you. For… a lot of things." She waited a second, but Viggo just sat and listened. "I know I… hurt you by disappearing like I did. I probably should've left a note and I'm sorry I didn't."

Viggo continued to silently look at her while she talked, not even nodding for her to continue or anything. It was like he had suddenly and quietly turned into a statue. His hands were folded in his lap and his stare was piercing. Something in his posture had changed, though she couldn't tell what. It was unsettling.

Heather swallowed. "It was just- you'd helped throw my friend into the dungeons and I was so angry about it and-"

"Why now?" Viggo interrupted her, still sitting perfectly still.

"W-what?"

"Heather, dear, we both know you aren't even remotely sorry for leaving the town like you did. So why try to apologise for it now?" There was not a hint of emotion in his words.

"I… really don't know what you mean. I just want to mend things before- We are family, Viggo, and I don't want to leave things as they are now."

Viggo smiled, but it immediately turned into a sad grimace. "Just tell me what they need me to do."

"I don't-"

"Heather."

"Really, I just want us to be okay," she blurted. "There's a war coming and this might be the last time we'll see each other before Berk lea-"

Viggo stood up abruptly. "My dear cousin, you've always been a rather terrible liar. At least when trying to fool someone like me."

Heather's heart pounded in her throat. This really wasn't going how they had planned it. With anyone else, trying to play the meek, remorseful girl would have sufficed. Ryker would've taken the bait immediately and tried to coax information out of her in hopes she'd let something slip.

But of course this wasn't possible with Viggo.

They really should've known that.

Heather gripped the edge of her stool hard enough that she felt splinters dig into her fingers.

Viggo came up to the bars again, looking down at her. He was unreadable to her. Maybe she'd been fooled by him to believe she knew anything about him at all.

"I've been able to tell your lies from the moment you knocked on my door years ago and asked about your mother. A woman you have close to no memories of but that raised me while she was barely a woman yet herself. The only reason your little ploy worked was because there's no denying your heritage, not because you're such a good actress, my dear cousin."

Heather should say something, she should try and refute his claims. But she found herself unable to speak or move. She was frozen in place by the fear Viggo instilled in her.

If he'd known all along…

Then his words truly sank in.

"W-What?"

Viggo sighed, eyes closing. "You are the spitting image of my aunt, Heather. You look like her, sound like her, even have a lot of her mannerisms. Only that Gerda had blue eyes and you don't. I suspect you got that from your father. But the older you get, the more she comes out in you. There's no doubt who your mother was."

Heather shook her head. Unable, unwilling to believe. "My mother's name was Lauga."

Once more, Viggo sank down onto his cot, not at all bothered by her contradiction to his claims. "Be that as it may, but I think we both know that sometimes people change their name to hide their identity. After all, your friend Horren did also turn out to be HIccup Horrendous Haddock III, the long believed dead Heir to Berk. A name says nothing at all."

He was right, of course. Names could be changed. But Heather still had a rather hard time believing a word he said.

One of the only memories she had of her mother was right before her death. When another tribe had stormed their island and waged war on them for reasons Heather had been too young to understand. Maybe Berserk had even started the conflict. Her mother had grabbed Heather - barely old enough to understand what was going on - and taken her somewhere that was supposed to be safe. Lauga had sung to her and told her stories until the noises of the fight slowly faded away.

Heather couldn't remember how her mother had died. Just that her brother had suddenly appeared and taken her away while her father cried out for his wife. That was how she knew her mother's name

Her father had screamed and shouted again and again, "Lauga, my Lauga! No!"

The time before she was brought to her foster parents was a blur to her young mind.

"You don't have to believe me, Heather. I surely can not prove it to you. But I need you to know that you are the last of my family who truly matters and I don't hold your past actions against you. You were just a child when you came to us. You didn't know any better than to trust what your brother had told you. He must've had his reasons to send a child as his spy."

"H-how do you know?" Heather asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "I never-"

"Heather, dear. I told you Drago has his spies on every island. Figuring out which island the girl on my doorstep actually hailed from wasn't so difficult. Annson sings like a bird without being prompted."

Annson.

Heather had heard that name before but couldn't put a face to it. And it didn't matter anyway. She just needed to finally get back to her brother and hope Drago hadn't come for their island yet. That Berk was his main priority now.

But first, they still needed Viggo's help. Their whole plan depended on him right now and she wasn't sure if there was time to come up with a new one.

Heather pulled herself together and forced her body to stop shaking like a leaf in the wind, even if her whole world just got turned upside down.

Taking a deep breath, she looked Viggo over. "If you've known all that all along, then why didn't you call me out on it sooner?"

One corner of his mouth turned up. "Because it didn't matter. Like I just said, you were just a child and telling you probably would've only scared you. And I didn't want to risk Ryker's anger on you. Him, you fooled quite easily actually. He recognised aunt Gerda in you just like I did, but he never once questioned your intentions of coming to us. He clearly isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. And he doesn't value family nearly as much as I do." The sadness washing over him was raw. And even if everything else was an act with Viggo, Heather believed the hurt Ryker's betrayal had caused him.

Viggo rubbed a hand over his face, looking tired to the bone and like this conversation had sucked the life right out of him.

"I want to help you, Heather. I'll admit, I don't care for Berk as much as you and your friends do, but I also don't want to see it fall. The other islands will probably receive the same treatment from Drago as every other place he has been to. But Berk won't. He has so much hatred for this place and even more so since Hiccup escaped the dungeons. Drago will tear this place apart until there is no one left.

"And since when do you care about something like that?" Heather asked, brows furrowed. "He did the same to so many tribes already and you never did anything to stop it. You helped plan those-those… massacres!"

He sighed. "I was blinded by his power and too comfortable with where I was. And I was never there to witness it up close. To see the people that would fall under his conquest."

"So you actually only want to save your own hide," she bit and got up, letting her stool clatter to the ground. She swivelled around to the guard, fearing she'd woken him. But the man only grunted, lolled his head to the other shoulder and snored on. Heather glowered at Viggo. "I should've known better."

She couldn't do this. They couldn't trust him and believing even for a second they could use him as a pawn was foolish.

Heather tugged the hood of her coat up, preparing to face the dreadful rain again.

"Heather, wait! That's not what I meant at all." Viggo rushed to the bars and reached through them.

She stumbled backward, trying to dislodge his iron-grip on her arm. "Let me go."

"Listen to me. Please."

"No. I'm done listening. All that comes out of your mouth is lies. And I don't believe a word you said." She struggled against his hold, but he wouldn't let go.

"I can hear the children playing outside when it's a good day. I can hear the women gossiping and the men complaining about all the nights they slept on the floor because of something they said. There is so much life here despite the raids and despite the war about to come. These people don't deserve the slaughter Drago will bring upon them.

"I know I'm not a good man and that I've done a lot of awful things in my life to get where I was. And while I can't undo my actions, I can at least try to do better. Even I don't wish to see innocent children die at the hands of Drago and his army.

Heather stilled in her struggles.

Drago would kill the most innocent, too. Heather knew he'd stop at nothing. Eret's village had refused to bow down to him and had burned for it. And they hadn't been on Drago's hitlist initially.

But Berk?

Heather closed her eyes and the faces of people she didn't know but passed every day on the streets here appeared in front of her. The dozens of children and elderly and young families expecting their first ones. they would all pay for Drago's wreath. And among them would be her friends.

Heather couldn't let that happen.

"Alright," she said. "Alright. But if you betray us, then Thor help me, I will deliver you to the gates of Helheim myself and make sure you're never granted entrance to Valhalla."

Viggo let go of her arm. "I expect nothing less, my dear. Am I right to assume you counted on me betraying you the first chance I get? You tried to make it sound like you didn't mean for me to hear something and wanted me to coax the rest out of you."

Heather shrugged off her hood. "I've seen you interrogate people without them knowing it's an interrogation."

"So you need me to appear to still be loyal toward Drago, do you not?"

Viggo was a cunning man with a sharp mind. The only thing Heather could do now to try to save the plan was to trust him. So many lifes depended on it.

"There will be a change in the guards starting tonight," Heather started, heart pounding, but this was the only option she could see. She hoped he'd hold true to his words and did care for her as he claimed and that it would be enough to hold his loyalty.

"Mouldhair and his friends will be doing most shifts. You need to gain their trust."

Viggo nodded. "They know who I am, but aren't high enough to have heard about my… fall from grace, yet. And they certainly aren't smart enough to question my being here too much. What else?"

"Do you know about Helheim's Gate?"

"Of course. The fog there is impenetrable. We've sent ships in there before but none ever returned."

"You need to make them believe that Berk is fleeing there. All of Berk. A dragon can easily navigate the fog and we've got plenty of those to make it possible."

Viggo's eyes lit up with a slow, almost predatory smile. "You're setting up a trap there? Drago wouldn't know what's coming for him until it's too late. Pick them apart one by one and they'd never be any the wiser."

"The plan is to get Drago to think he's the one setting a trap for us."

Viggo stroked his beard. It had gotten longer and rather uneven in the weeks he'd spent in the jailhouse. In all the years Heather had known him, he'd never looked any less than impeccable with a clean trimmed goatee. This rugged version of him was a little terrifying to watch as he schemed silently.

"It's a good plan," he finally said. "Did Hiccup come up with it? He's always been a bright one. Sometimes I think his stepfather didn't know just how bright. The boy might very well be his downfall."

Heather furrowed her brows. She hadn't even told him half of what Hiccup had come up with and what they'd eventually worked out together at the Chief's table.

"Oh, don't look like that," Viggo said. "I know there's plenty you won't tell me. But I can tell apart the seeds of a good plan from a bad one. But that's not to say it'll actually be successful."

Viggo paced the length - however short it was - of his cell, one arm folded behind his back, the other stroking his beard still. "I'll try my best with Mouldhair. I don't believe he and his friends will be staying here for much longer what with all that's changed. I suspect they'll be on another 'fishing trip' soon or sneak off the island. So we don't have much time. And I can't promise Drago will buy into it and change his course. Especially now that he's so close to taking the entire Archipelago in one fell swoop. He might just decide to surprise us and stick to his original plans and deal with Berk later."

"He hates Berk enough to fall for it," Heather countered.

Viggo tilted his head at her like she was a child that couldn't understand a complex concept yet. "Never underestimate your foe, Heather. You can't just count on his hatred alone. He wouldn't be the warlord he is if he always just acted on his wiles."

"Viggo, we're not stupid. But this is the only chance we've got and we have to take it. We can't face the army head on. They outnumber us with one fleet alone. One."

Viggo sighed. "I know. But taking down a man like Drago - even if he falls for your trap - is not an easy task. People will lose their lives over this."

"Even more will if we do nothing at all."

Viggo considered her for a long moment, stopping his pacing. "There is something I didn't tell you," he said.

"What a great surprise."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, dear."

Heather waited for him to continue what he'd started, no energy left for any emotional response to yet another surprise from the man who might just be her cousin after all.

"I didn't say anything earlier because I don't know enough details. But Drago has a weapon. I don't know what it is; he never trusted me enough to tell. Most of what I know is through rumors of men we found dead the next day. But Heather, you need to be careful. There was word that he's found a way to control dragons and bend them to his will. Something he might have already used when he burned the Chieftains. Do not let the dragons be used against you."

Heather huffed and finally gathered herself to leave this place and him. Now that she'd achieved what she'd come here for, she needed to get out. The walls felt like they were slowly but surely caving in on her.

"Drago isn't the only one with a secret weapon, cousin," she called over her shoulder before pushing the jail-doors shut behind her.

The rain still hadn't let up. In fact, it felt like it had gotten even worse.

Heather heard her heart pounding in her ears and she gasped in the cold air in hungry gulps.

Viggo couldn't actually be her cousin. There was no way she was actually related to the Grimborn brothers. Dagur would have told her if there was even just a chance of this. He'd known their mother, could remember her. He'd have said something about her heritage had it mattered like this.

He would have.

Right?

Heather pushed away the intrusion of the thought that her brother could have withheld such vital information from her before sending her away as his spy.

She had written him letters upon letters, always delivered back home through that one trader that circled through the Archipelago and only stopped on the Mainland twice a year. She'd always had to ride all the way to the other town to send off her latest batch and receive one back in return. Dagur's last letters were probably still waiting on the trader's ship because she wasn't there to pick them up this time. He didn't even know she wasn't on the mainland anymore.

Heather forced her legs into a jog, then a run.

There was a war coming and she hadn't seen her brother in years. And the homesickness threatened to consume her whole.

She didn't pay mind to her path as she ran; the paths of Berk now strangely familiar to her. There were no winding streets and alleys that could get you lost in the depths of the city if you weren't careful where you were going. Greuelorm had been like a looming beast trying to swallow her. Berk was like a grumpy old man shooing her in the right direction with hidden fondness.

Heather arrived at her friend's house more out of breath for trying to hold the tears back than from exertion. She rested her forehead on the doorframe, swallowing down her emotions and trying to figure out how to break it to her friends that she'd done the one thing she shouldn't have.

As expected, the house was empty. They'd agreed to meet at the makeshift dragon stables Berk had pulled up from the ground within two days, used to quick construction and very efficient in it by now. But dragons had different requirements than Vikings did; one being a lot more space, for starters. Still, they stood and a rough three dozen dragons had made their home in them already. Heather would go there in a minute.

She stepped inside the small house she'd almost started to call home these past few weeks. It felt like a home. More than the Grimborn Mansion ever had and ever would. Pieces of all of them were scattered across the living space downstairs that Heather and Eret also slept in while Hiccup and Astrid kept the tiny upstairs to themselves. Which was good because as much as she could do without hearing her close friends sleep with each other in the middle of the night, she really didn't need to also see them just because they thought that Eret and her were sound asleep and wouldn't notice. They were married, they loved each other, and Heather already knew they had an active sex-life without witnessing it.

The pile of fabric Astrid had pulled into her lap this morning was neatly folded in a basket with the rest of her sewing equipment. Heather had never had the patience for sewing, only doing mending when it had been really necessary and awfully glad that for the past few years she'd had maids that picked up those tasks and enough gold at her disposal that she hadn't needed to fret over tears or stains. But Astrid - for whatever reason - actually enjoyed the menial task of pushing a needle through fabric in tiny stitches over and over again, never leaving clothes unmended for long. Eret had been appalled the first time Astrid told him to give her his shirt so she could stitch the ripped sleeve back together. Hiccup had told him not to argue with her. But the fabric in the basket wasn't meant for either of them.

Heather kneeled next to it and pulled out one of the tiny shirts her friend had made, embroidered lovingly with equally tiny dragons and vines and weapons. There were blankets and a tiny hat in the basket, too. Anything a young mother needed for her unborn baby that needed to be sewn. There was no doubt Astrid and Hiccup's first born would be the most well dressed baby Berk had ever seen.

Carefully, Heather picked up more of the unfinished clothes until she reached the blanket Astrid had made Hiccup draw up designs for. In each corner she was embroidering a dragon the size of a fist. The stylised Toothless was mostly done and so was Stormfly, Hotshot and Windshear were outlined with tiny stitches and needed to be filled in. A symbol of their friendship. Heather reached for the drinking horn she always carried attached to her belt. It had been a gift to her parents for her birth and her father had given it to her to pass on when the time came. So, she wrapped it in the blanket for her friends to find when it was time. Just in case she wouldn't be there to welcome their child into this world.

After placing everything back where it belonged, Heather hurried through the room, picking up her few belongings and packing them back in the bag she had brought with her to Berk. Her eyes were stinging by the time she pulled her bag closed and took one last look at the house, the place she had shared with her friends.

Then she hurried out the door and back into the rain where her tears went unnoticed.

The class her friends had just wrapped up teaching in dragon flying had already been dismissed when Heather arrived at the stables, the dragons at the feeding stations or settling down to rest. The saddle racks were neat the way they always were when Astrid got to stare her students down until they learned to clean up after themselves. Her friends and their dragons were at the back of the stables, sitting together and discussing what had gone wrong and what was working wonderfully already. Eret was polishing his dagger and occasionally hummed a song of his people, slow and with a warm kind of melody. They hadn't yet noticed her, so Heather took a moment to take in her friends in this moment of peacefulness. She might not get to see them like this for a while, maybe never again.

Astrid was the first to notice her arrival and Heather joined them, leaving her bag near the saddles. Windshear was playing tag with one of the other Nightmares. She'd get her girl in a second to saddle up.

"How did it go?"

Heather sighed and shook her head. She pushed wet strands of hair out of her face, searching for words. "I...I think I fucked up," she finally settled on, almost whispering it.

Eret ceased his humming, the loss of the beautiful melody leaving a heavy quiet in its wake. His eyes narrowed into a grim look. "Please give me a reason to punch Viggo's face in." He twirled his dagger around like he was already imagining it piercing Viggo's skin. "I knew we shouldn't have relied on him."

Heather shook her head. "N-no. It's not-I-"

Hiccup got up and pulled her to take a seat on a closed crate. "What happened?"

She buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry."

Back in the jailhouse, trusting Viggo more than she probably should had seemed… Not like a good thing or a smart one, but reasonable. He'd already figured so much out from just the few ques she'd given him and had sounded so convincing. But now she doubted her own sanity and intelligence.

He had probably just played her like everyone else in his life before and she'd fallen right into his trap like some naive little girl.

"Heather?" Astrid asked, pulling her own stool near and putting an arm comfortingly around her. "It's alright. Just tell us what happened. If it's really that bad, we can still put a stop to everything. We'll think of something else."

She couldn't look at her friends. "Viggo knows we wanted to use him as bait. He figured it out himself. I… I should've tried harder to make him believe otherwise. But he told me about my mom, that he's always known about my real intentions in Greuelorm. He knew I was spying on them for my brother and that I was just pretending to be related to them. And then-then he said my mom is really their aunt and that Dagur lied to me. I just- I don't- He said he'd help up and in the moment, I had to believe he actually will because he knew so much that I never told anyone before we left the city and never… He treated me like family when he knew I was just pretending. I don't know what to believe anymore. And I endangered the entire plan in the process."

After she was finished with her flood of guilt-ridden words, an awful silence settled over the four of them. She should never have volunteered to talk to Viggo in the first place. She was a liability to them all. Ever since Viggo had shown up on the horizon, Heather hadn't been able to be objective about him. She'd let her dispise for him cloud her judgement and make her vulnerable and receptive for manipulation.

Viggo had often enough boasted at the dinner table that the best victims for manipulation were those who felt too strongly about something. Hatred could easily be turned on its head into a false perception of kinship with the right words from a skilled interrogator.

Heather had been plenty receptive for his trickery, his sugar-coated words. She should've known better.

"Heather," Hiccup said calmly. "Take a breath."

She did, forcing the shudders to die down.

"Another one."

She did. She still couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Now take a moment to think. How much exactly does Viggo know? What did you tell him exactly? And what did he conclude on his own?"

Heather let the conversation replay in her head, pushing aside the part about her mother, their possible family connection. He'd sounded so genuine when saying he'd help them after his reveal. Her breath came faster again.

"Don't think about what went wrong, Heather. That's not important right now. But I need you to tell me what Viggo thinks he knows about our plan. I need to know where we can go from here and for that I need your help. "

Her friend sounded way too calm while Heather knew Astrid and Eret to be tense as can be. The arm around her shoulders had turned into stone. She closed her eyes to tune it all out and focus.

"He figured we counted on him betraying us, that we'd use him to pass on the information we need passed on. I tried to make it sound like a slip of tongue; just as we'd agreed on. He caught on to that immediately. I… told him we'd changed the guards and that he'd need to get them to trust him. I'm sorry, I-" she shook her head, forcing herself to stay on track.

"Viggo said they'd know him but wouldn't have yet heard about his desertion. They aren't important enough to Drago for that. I asked him about Helheim's Gate and he said that he knows about it. So does Drago."

"I'd have been surprised if he didn't. It's common knowledge that the Nest is located in there."

Heather nodded. "Right. Right. They tried scouting it, just like Berk and just as unsuccessful with the ships."

"No dragons? We know Drago had some under control years ago and Krogan's been working with them relentlessly and tried getting his men into the air. Did Viggo mention any of that?"

"No. I told Viggo that he needs to convince Mouldhair that Berk would flee there. He figured it out himself that we're setting up a trap there for Drago. But I told him that we plan on making him believe the reverse. Viggo knows there's more to it but that's all he really knows and that's too much already. I… I should've left the moment he-"

"No," Hiccup said firmly. "Heather, we knew there was a risk of him figuring out more than we'd like on his own. He is manipulative and cunning. Two things we specifically counted on. Don't blame yourself."

She finally looked up at her friends; Astrid and Eret's features were carefully constructed, but Hiccup looked honest if not all that happy.

"But I told him. While I was in there, I thought I could trust him!"

Astrid squeezed her shoulder. "It's alright. Really. We'll figure something out."

Eret nodded. "Starting by pulling Mouldhair and his friends from the guard list again. We can't risk Viggo telling them about the trap. Maybe instead the twins-"

"No," Hiccup said, standing up and pacing around with his hands fiddling while he thought aloud. "No. We'll stick to the original plan for now. Pulling them from guard duty again already would only make them suspicious. We don't even know how much they know about what Drago has planned, but I suspect that not to be a lot. By now, they've surely been updated on what went on here these past few weeks they were gone. Mouldhair looked weird at me yesterday so he knows I'm Horren and that it's personal here for Drago. The moment we act suspicious toward them they'll panic and run straight back to him."

"But what about Viggo?" Astrid said. "We can't allow him to just… tell them we're setting up a trap. They need to think the Council plans on fleeing and will tell the village last minute to prevent any spies getting to Drago fast enough. That's the plan we agreed on."

"I know. And I think Viggo will stick to it. He isn't stupid enough to betray us. He got Heather to talk and we'll place additional surveillance on him which he should expect to happen with all the knowledge he has. The moment he lets one word too many slip, he'll find himself a head shorter and he knows that. He also knows that we aren't stupid enough to just blindly trust him with so much power over our fate. There's a reason he was Drago's second-in-command."

Heather swallowed thickly. Even after everything, the thought of Viggo losing his head didn't sit well with her. Not while she didn't know if he hadn't spoken the truth after all.

Her friends kept talking, shooting arguments back and forth whether to cut the operation short or soldier on. Astrid and Eret weren't much convinced letting things continue would be such a good idea; Heather had to hope Viggo would hold true to his promise; Hiccup was confident enough they'd catch any spies of Drago's stealing away before they ever reached the army. It was a big gamble, but they didn't have much of a choice. Actually, they had none at all.

In the end, Hiccup said he'd run it by his father later that day.

Heather got up from her seat and took a deep breath once her friends had fallen silent again. "There's something else I need to tell you," she said.

They looked at her in question, probably expecting another disaster to deal with.

Her voice trembled. "I'm leaving," she said.

She couldn't stay here one minute longer while Viggo was standing on the same ground she did. Not while she didn't know the truth about her mother. Not until she hadn't spoken to Dagur again. Until she didn't know what to believe, Heather couldn't continue to be in the proximity of Viggo. She was too much of a liability as it was as today had proven.

Her friends stared at her in shock.

"What do you mean 'you're leaving'?" Astrid asked.

She could make it to Berserk in time before nightfall. The weather was awful enough to keep most of Berk huddled inside, but she wouldn't let a little rain and thunder stop her.

"Heather, darling, don't leave because that bastard manipulated you a little," Eret said. "He isn't worth it."

"I'm not just leaving because of Viggo," Heather snapped and gathered her bag. "I want to see my brother." It wasn't a lot she had brought to Berk and the small bag was light and easy to throw over her shoulder and across her body. It relieved her and made her sad at the same time.

"Yakshit," Astrid said and got up, reaching for the bag. "Heather!"

Heather twisted out of her reach. Just a couple weeks ago, that would've been impossible. But as it was, Astrid's pregnancy made her less nimble on her feet with her center of gravity shifting continuously the further she progressed.

Astrid cussed, a hand on the stable wall to regain her balance. Heather tightened the strap of her bag so it would safely sit against her back during the flight.

"I'm not leaving for good, Astrid. I just… Look, it's been years since I've seen Dagur and now might be the last chance I'll ever get."

"But you'll be back?" Eret asked. "Soon?"

"Yes." She pulled the collar of her coat higher around her neck. Summer might be only a couple more weeks away, but here on Berk it was still close to freezing. Especially during heavy rainfall like now.

"Give me a week," Heather said. "That's all I need. I'll stake out the waters on my way there and back. The patrols aren't going out very far on the sea, right?"

Hiccup nodded. "Most of them are still trying to get the hang of flying. And they don't know what they're dealing with. We can't risk that." He sighed deeply, looking torn. "Heath, I won't talk you out of this, but… be careful. Stay above the clouds if possible and if you encounter any ships, stay out of their reach. Circle them. Their ballistas can hit higher than you might think at first. And the higher up you go, the more difficult breathing will get. It took me years of stupidity and recklessness to fly as high with Toothless as I can. The moment you get dizzy, go lower and let Windshear do her thing. She will protect you, but if you pass out up there, she might not notice."

"So… don't chance it?"

Hiccup grabbed his spyglass from his satchel from the last lesson he'd taught and passed it to her. "Take care and don't engage anything you encounter. I don't know if Krogan was successful with his attempts to put soldiers on his dragons."

She put the spyglass in her bag. "I'll be careful. Thank you."

"You better be," Astrid said and pulled her into a tight hug. "You promised to be godmother and I'll hold you to that."

Heather laughed. It was a relief to know her friends supported her in her choices. "Don't worry, girl. I won't let anything prevent me from meeting your baby."

Astrid squeezed her a little tighter before letting go. Hiccup and Eret were next, hugging her farewell as though she'd be gone forever. Heather couldn't blame them though.

War was upon them and while they had their plan set into motion, they didn't know what the enemy was up to yet. And probably wouldn't until the very last moment. All of their planning and scheming would mean nothing if Drago was one step ahead of them.

Berserk could already have fallen under his control. The entire Archipelago could be surrounded by his army by now and Berk would be the last stand.

Whatever the case, there was a chance she would not see her friends again, the people who had become her family in every way but by blood. But now it was time to find out if her brother was still alive and if he would be willing to change his ways so they could fight side by side.

A/N:
Wow, it's been... almost a year? And I'm sorry for taking so long but I'm sure you can all guess just what delayed the next chapter so much, hm? So far, I've been lucky, though, and the only COVID cases I've seen so far were in the hospital I'm working and studying at now. It's been a crazy year for sure, but I hope this update will maybe make someone's day a little better. Writing hasn't been easy but I'm working to get back into it and get this baby all wrapped up. I've certainly spent enough time working on a (semi-) solid battle plan to tackle the last stretch and stocked up on enough paper and pens to carry me through it. I'm not making promises on when the next chapter will be out since that's never worked out for me in the past (let's be real, the track record of getting a chapter out in the promised time has been worse than bad since 2018) BUT I'm working on it. And I'm not about to abandon a story that I've been working on for over 5 (!) years now.

To everyone still around for this journey: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking around for so long. And everyone who followed and faved and reviewed lately, thank you for reminding me there are still people besides me who care for this silly bit of fanfiction and wish to see it finished. All of you, have a cookie, make yourself a nice cup of tea/coffee/beverage of your liking and just enjoy a peaceful moment of not worrying about all the shit the world has to offer. You deserve it.