The full moon shone brightly against the ink-black sky dotted with shimmering stars. The white disc's cold light was like a lantern in a dark cave, casting long, menacing shadows all around as Hiccup followed the trail into the woods of New Berk. It had been ten years now that the Hooligan Tribe had settled on their new home island. They'd explored every bit, seen every creature. There was no other animal on this piece of rock standing on a higher pedestal than humans. There was no threat – no danger. Walking into the forest in the darkness should not be frightening… But Hiccup would be lying if he said he wasn't. If what he thought was true then… he had every reason to be. His mind was humming with questions, theories, and arguments. He kept his eyes opened and his ears peeled the further away he walked from home. Paranoia was slowly starting to creep up in his gut as Hiccup kept walking. He could hear his own breathing, feel his heart pounding. He wasn't sure how to feel about it all, but Hiccup couldn't just rely on good old trust either.
The air was chilly; mist exited his mouth.
He still couldn't wrap his head around it, no matter how many explanations formed in his head. His hand tightened around the game piece, and frustration sparked in his chest again. Memories kept coming and going, messing with his judgment. He had a family to protect now. He was chief. He was responsible for his people; he couldn't put them all at risk based on decade-old promises.
The island wasn't like Old Berk or like regular islands in the Archipelago. It was a monolithic island. Its structure wasn't just a patch of rock and dirt surfacing from the ocean; it was vast, and cliffy, and hard to travel on due to its complex formations. It was like living in a bowl of water with large island-sized sea stacks, which was why they'd built so many bridges to connect to larger sections of the islands. It somewhat reminded him of Dragon's Edge and how they'd built the outpost with the platforms connecting every hut.
He reached the tree line a distance away from the edge of a cliff. He stepped out of the shadows and into the cold glare of the moonlight.
He could hear the distant hum of the ocean along with the breeze whistling by gently, brushing the leaves behind him. It was serene. It was almost hard to believe there might be a possible threat on his island. Hiccup stood, overlooking the lower sections of New Berk. He gazed out at the vast forests tainted black and grey as if the world had forgotten to let colours flow freely at nighttime.
It didn't take long.
A figure appeared behind him.
"I think you're missing a piece…" said Hiccup, holding up the Maces and Talons game piece without turning around. He could feel the dark stare burn in his back. It felt like hours of tension before Hiccup turned around to face the intruder. The bright light of the glaring moon shone down on his old enemy, and although mixed feelings stirred in his chest, Hiccup remained blank. He narrowed his eyes when he smiled, letting him know he no longer was the person he thought he knew. A few more moments of stillness where both men studied each other like the other was a ghost. Hiccup analyzed him like a book. The dark features… the scar… the pose.
Viggo Grimborn.
"I figured it was you…" said Hiccup, his tone cold and holding a warning.
"Hmm," said Viggo, chuckling quietly. "Still as clever as the day we parted, I see…"
"You mean the day you died," corrected Hiccup, a dark shade washing over the emerald green of his eyes. He remembered the events all too clearly. And unless his memory was failing him, he remembered Viggo clearly dying.
"Yes… my death was greatly exaggerated," said Viggo, holding out his hand to study before retreating it again behind his back as he raised his chin at the ex-Rider. "Then again, I did promise we would never have to see each other again."
"Yet, here you are…" said Hiccup slowly, holding up his chin boldly. He wanted answers to his questions, and as desperate as he was, he didn't let it show. Instead, he glared, silently asking what it was he wanted.
Hiccup would've expected Viggo to glare back at his snappy remark… But all Viggo did was stand calm. He didn't act like a villain with a trick up his sleeves; he didn't act like a backstabber ready to propose an offer – whatever that could be. Hiccup had played the same old game with Viggo, over, and over, and over again. He couldn't see the spite; the jealousy; the malice.
"Hiccup, I am not your enemy anymore…" said Viggo, his tone soft.
Hiccup held his cold stare a little longer before blinking rapidly. He fled his gaze and tightened his lips before raising his chin at him again.
"I'm just taking precautions is all," he said, shrugging.
"Of course," agreed Viggo, straightening up. "I would do the same if our roles were inverted. Great minds do think alike after all."
"You and I have nothing in common," nearly snapped Hiccup. He hated the way he was feeling; hated the conflict, the mixture of the present and his long, dead past. It was confusing and nostalgic, and for multiple moments, he wondered if he wasn't just dreaming or losing his mind. He thought that perhaps it was Zephyr's questions, and all the stories he'd told her that stirred the boat at the bottom of the lake and made it resurface. He nearly blamed his subconscious for making him feel guilty for not telling his daughter about all the villains in the world.
How could this possibly be real?
He buried his emotions and troubling thoughts, but he knew Viggo could see past the makeshift mask.
"Oh, Hiccup," said Viggo, chuckling amusingly. "Haven't I told you already? Ruthlessness is not a quality you possess. So drop the act. I know you, better than anyone else, like it or not." There was a warning in those last four words, and Hiccup didn't believe he liked the tone.
"I don't trust you…" replied Hiccup.
Viggo acted hurt, softening his face while he placed a hand over his chest.
"After everything we've been through, Hiccup?" he said. He shook his head. "That's a shame…"
"Look, what do you want, Viggo?" asked Hiccup, finally speaking the famous phrase. He wanted to be through with this; he wanted answers. "You didn't come out of hiding a decade later just to catch up."
Viggo chuckled. But his light mood rapidly gravitated.
"Although I wish it were that simple," said Viggo, taking a few steps closer to the ex-Rider. "Things are looking much more sinister than you would suspect."
"Let me guess," said Hiccup, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Another maniac out there, looking to rule the world?"
"Funny how history repeats itself, hmm?" noted Viggo with a smirk, although Hiccup couldn't understand the ex-Hunter perspective on it.
"Feels more like a rewind if you ask me," said Hiccup, only starting to recover from the shock of seeing Viggo Grimborn after all these years.
Alive.
"I would happily share the knowledge I possess," said Viggo, and Hiccup shifted his stand, knowing the old song all too well. "One that might just make the difference between victory and death." His tone aggravated. "However, since it is my only leverage at the moment, I'd rather preserve it until I am ensured safety among your own."
"You just want my word that I won't just throw you in a cell, don't you?" said Hiccup, poker-faced.
"Sounds so much colder when you say it like that," said Viggo, his charming attitude and carefully selected vocabulary unchanged. "But yes."
Hiccup took a moment to think about it. He stared down at the ground, reflecting the risks he was taking. True that he could ignore the news and warnings, and simply send the man back the way he came from… but something told Hiccup otherwise. Whether it was the years he'd spent facing off Viggo that told him he could take the ex-Hunter's word for it, or that they'd faced imminent death side my side… or maybe the simple fact that Viggo had been alive all this time and had kept his end of the bargain for a whole decade and had finally dared break a deal by coming to find him when the rest of the world was oblivious to the Berkian Tribe's whereabouts…
They weren't at war anymore. Viggo had aligned himself with Hiccup in their final moments. And even though Hiccup had believed the ex-Hunter dead all this time, Viggo had also promised to disappear after that mission…
Viggo wasn't an enemy.
But could he trust him?
If there was one thing Hiccup knew about the ex-Hunter, was that he always planned everything, from start to finish. Viggo would have his way, one way or another.
Hiccup lifted his head back up, met Viggo's expecting gaze, and nodded.