Thomas was not surprised when he saw Nick, Elliot and Finn take off after Zoe from the back side of the island. Since two of the three idiots wouldn't be able to defend themselves, he grabbed a pack from his house and saddled Phoenix before heading over to Zeb and Alice's to let them know what was going on. Just like him, they weren't pleased that the other three had followed Zoe, mostly because it would anger her, especially with what Zeb and Alice knew Zoe was going to do. He still didn't know where she was going, but Zeb and Alice told him that it was not something she'd want her old friends witnessing which only made him more sure that it would get violent wherever she was going.

He caught up to the three idiots reasonably quickly but they were now over open ocean with no land in sight, Phoenix cutting them off and making the three dragons hover. "I thought I told you lot not to follow her," the irritation in his voice seeping through.

"We thought-"

"I don't care what you thought, I'm taking you back," he stated firmly. "Come on."

"What if she needs our help? She's taking the other fury with her so it'll be something dangerous that she's doing," Elliot was game enough to say.

"Which is exactly why you lot should not be following her. Only Finn can defend himself but even that's not enough as I learnt when I left the Academy and I was trained further. Zoe can take perfect care of herself."

"It doesn't matter, we're still going," Finn spoke up now.

"And why do you think that is such a good idea when I've told you otherwise?"

"You're not in charge of us and we can defend ourselves well enough, especially with our dragons," Nick said now.

"Fine," Thomas huffed. "Do what you will, but I'm coming with you. And when Zoe gets pissed off at us, you three can explain to her why we're there, understood."

"She won't even notice us unless we end up saving her," Elliot shrugged.

"Are you serious? Do you have any idea of what that woman is capable of?" Thomas asked, incredulous. "I don't know what she was like when you guys knew each other in primary school, but I can assure you that she is a completely different person now and as far as I know, she has never needed to be saved."

As the four of them headed in the direction that Zoe and the two furies had disappeared from, Thomas sighed to himself. The three morons would see soon enough what Zoe was capable of, and when they did, he was going to give them the smuggest look he could muster.

-o0O0o-

The sun and moon were taking each other's places when Thomas told the others to stop as a maze of sea stacks emerged from the low hanging cloud. They were in the far north, a few icebergs gently bobbing along the ocean's surface. "What now?" Finn asked.

"There," Thomas said with a roll of his eyes, pointing to the top of one of the sea stacks where they could see the glow of Uri, Axel and Zoe in the moonlight crouching down and looking over something, probably a map, with another armoured figure, a third dragon that he couldn't identify behind the figure. It must be the person that Zoe had been communicating with the past several months. "Stay low and we'll land at the base of that sea stack," he said quietly as Phoenix lead the other three dragons to a sea stack that was the right shape for them to land on close to the water.

"What now?" Nick asked.

"If you three are set on following her, we wait until she starts moving again," he remarked, effectively shutting his companions up. After several minutes, Thomas noticed Zoe's accomplice taking off, gaining height and disappearing into the clouds before Zoe mounted Uri and the two furies took off towards the west, both of them changing their scales and disappearing.

"Are my eyes playing tricks on me or did Uri, Axel and Zoe just vanish?" Elliot asked.

"You saw right, its a very handy trick when they need to be stealthy," Thomas shrugged, glad that Zoe had already surprised them and she hadn't even arrived at her final destination. "C'mon, lets follow her," Thomas said, very curious as to what Zoe was doing.

"Uh...how? She literally just disappeared."

"We head in the same general direction."

She had sent Viggo into the clouds with Bolt so that the skrill could summon a storm that Zoe could use for her lightning instead of her own energy. She knew that she had four incredibly irritating shadows who thought that she didn't know they were following her. She would deal with them later, she couldn't afford to put this off any longer. Deciding to try and lead them astray or at least delay them getting to Drago's base, the two white furies flew west until she was confident they would have seen her. Uri and Axel then changed their scales and they headed back towards the north after Viggo.

As the open cavern of stone and ice over the ocean where Drago had settled himself and his armada came into view, Axel silently peeled off and headed right whilst Uri took Zoe and Sharpshot, who was beneath her hood, left. Waiting for Viggo and Bolt's signal, Uri landed out of Bolt's strike range, rider and dragon scanning their surroundings to make sure everything was how they had banked on it being.

A flash of lightning was the only warning Drago and his hunters got before all hell broke loose, Uri leaping into the air and springing into action.

After flying west for only a few minutes, Thomas had a thought that made him feel like a complete idiot. "Stop, we're going the wrong way," he told the others. Why would the furies not change their scales before they left the sea stack? Zoe was always overly careful when she didn't want to be followed, so why would she let someone see what direction she was heading in? Zoe was no idiot and she wouldn't forget to tell Uri and Axel to change their scales, and even if she did, the two dragons would remember. No, Zoe knew that they were following her and she was leading them astray.

"What do you mean we're going the wrong way? We saw her fly this way," Nick asked, confused.

"I know Zoe, and if she didn't want to be followed, the dragons would have changed their scales before they took off so we wouldn't know what direction they were going in. She let us see her go west. She knows we're following her so she tried and successfully shook us off. I say we go back to the sea stacks and keep heading north, that was the way the other rider went," he reasoned.

"Is this another one of your attempts to take us home?" Elliot asked sceptically.

"No, I want to know what she's doing too, but I genuinely think she tricked us."

"Ok, we'll head back and then go north," Finn agreed.

-o0O0o-

Turning back and heading north was either a very good decision or Thomas' biggest mistake; it didn't take them long to find where Zoe had gone. He had only seen sketches of the place in books at the Academy, but it was unmistakable: Drago's newest base where he relocated to after Zoe escaped from him several years ago. Emerging from a fog bank, they saw a skrill hovering over the centre of the base with a rider on its back, the rider holding a sword and pointing it where the skrill directed its lightning. How the rider didn't get electrocuted, Thomas had no idea. Smoke was beginning to billow out of the depths of the camp as hunters began spilling out onto the ice and away from the burning armada.

The four of them landed in a small sheltered nook on the mountain, allowing them to look down at the carnage. They were out of the way here but had a perfect view of the lead ship. They watched as Drago emerged onto the deck of the lead ship, yelling at his hunters to stop running and to fight, but no one can fight lightning. They watched as Drago leapt off the ship and onto the ice covered ground that the ships were moored to, the hunters giving him a wide berth. Thomas could finally confirm that Zoe was here when he heard a fury screech and saw a purple blast hit the ground near the edge of the crowd of hunters, pushing them further away from Drago.

"What's this?" Drago chuckled as Axel landed in front of the hunters, pacing back and forth to keep them from getting to Drago, not that any looked like they wanted to. "Another white fury? And no rider," he said, spotting Axel's back that had no saddle. Uri screeched as she landed between Axel and Drago, Zoe dismounting and removing her hood and helmet while Uri joined Axel in his circling of Drago at the edge of the crowd to keep the hunters back. Thomas had never seen the expression on Zoe's face that was there now, it was terrifying. A second later, the skrill landed next to Zoe, its rider also dismounting and removing their helmet. Seeing the face of Zoe's companion made Thomas gasp in shock. Why was Zoe, the fury rider, working alongside Viggo Grimborn, a dragon hunter who everyone believed was dead?

"You..." Drago grunted when Zoe removed her helmet, pleased when he subconsciously brought his right hand to rub his left shoulder that had a metal arm attached to it.

"How's the arm healing?" she smirked.

"I will end you," he said in a dangerously low voice. "Just like I ended the other one." At this, Zoe's eyes narrowed, her hand twitching towards one of her many concealed knives. The next second, Bolt landed next to her, Viggo leaping down from the saddle and removing his helmet with a grin.

"I thought I had you killed?" Drago growled once Viggo revealed himself.

"Your hunter certainly gave it a good shot, but no, he never managed to finish me off," Viggo smirked back.

"RAGNAR!" Drago bellowed as the sixth commander was pushed from the crowd towards Drago and looking utterly terrified. "You failed," he snarled. "No one fails me twice," he said, reaching for a blade.

"You're right," Zoe cut in. "Because you won't be giving anymore orders," she said in a low voice as she reached for her dual swords.

"What makes you say that? You think you can defeat me?" he scoffed.

"I know I can," she said in a menacing tone, Viggo getting back onto Bolt's back and shoving Ragnar back into the crowd before helping Uri and Axel keep the hunters back. There was a circle with a radius of nearly ten metres cleared around them.

"Is that a challenge?"

"You, me, to the death," she said as she twirled her swords.

"I thought air benders didn't kill?"

"They don't. But the fury rider does." With that she charged.

Before she reached Drago, she leapt over him with a gust of air, turning and slashing the leather straps of his metal arm so it fell to the ground with a clang. Depending on how long he'd had the replacement, he would feel unbalanced without it, throwing off his attempts to strike. She wasn't here to play though, so she went all out. The blows went back and forth, Zoe dodging Drago's bull hook since she knew she wasn't strong enough to block them properly. Eventually, Drago took a swing at her with his bull hook which she was able to twist her left blade around before yanking it from his grip, kicking it out of his reach.

With no hesitation, Drago set his hands aflame, creating a whirlwind of fire around them which had no effect on Zoe as she was also a fire bender and therefore fire proof. Seeing her indifference to the flames licking at her skin that wasn't covered in dragon scales, Drago paled. Summoning a wave, the freezing water erupted from the ocean, dousing Drago and his flames. Using the small window of time she had created for herself, she put her swords back in their sheaths and reached for Hayden's sword. She used her wind to push Drago against a pillar of ice that she had created behind him as she allowed some of her energy to leave her body as electricity that danced along her armour. Gripping Hayden's sword, she activated the blade that sprung from the hilt, immediately covering itself in flames as she slowly approached Drago. She pointed the flaming sword at Drago's neck so the tip was resting against his neck, the flames having no effect on him.

"Now, how should we do this? You know, it was Hayden's last request that Inferno got to give you one last goodbye," she said as she trailed the blade down the middle of Drago's chest.

"You really think you have the guts to kill me?" Drago growled.

"I'm thinking Inferno straight through your middle, the same way you killed Hayden," she said, ignoring Drago's comment.

"Please," he scoffed, "if you intended on killing me, you would have done it already."

"You're right," she smiled darkly. She shot two barbs of ice through Drago's shoulders, pinning him to the pillar as he screamed out in pain before she thrust the flaming sword straight through Drago's middle making him yell louder. "This is from Hayden," she whispered to him. She gained no pleasure in killing someone, but she knew that it needed to be done and she wanted to honour Hayden's last request.

She could hear his blood sizzling against the flames and smell his burning flesh, making her feel sick. Pulling the blade out of his middle, she turned her back on the still alive, but dying hunter and walked away, letting the flames burn off any blood and innards that were left on the blade before retracting it and attaching it to her leg. She walked over to Uri and Axel who crooned in comfort, occasionally growling at any hunters who moved.

He couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed. Zoe had just fought Drago and then made the conscious decision to kill him, with Hayden's sword too. He was in shock, and judging by the reactions of the three males next to him, so were they. The three of them had just watched their primary school friend kill someone.

They watched as ice formed around Drago's body before the skrill picked up the body and dropped it into the ocean where it immediately sank to the ocean floor. His mind was still numb as the four of them watched Zoe create a block of ice which she stood on so she could see the hunters. He heard her speak to them, her voice echoing off the stone and ice, but he couldn't make sense of anything she said, his brain refusing to function properly. The hunters shifted nervously before the same hunter was shoved out of the crowd again and towards Zoe. She looked down on him, saying a few words which the hunter nodded to before retreating back into the crowd, a relieved look on his face. Three more hunters were brought before Zoe, all of them retreating back into the crowd after a conversation with Zoe.

-o0O0o-

They had been watching Zoe, Viggo and the hunters for two days now and Thomas was very confused with what was going on. The hunters were gathering all of the supplies and putting them into small piles that would last two people up to three days, each hunter going over to Zoe to speak to her briefly as she made a note in one of her notebooks. The hunter would then return to their previous job. Zoe had been releasing all of the dragons and with the help of Viggo, training them to help the hunters and be comfortable around them, Zoe and Viggo giving the hunters the same lesson.

On the third morning, Thomas and his companions decided to head back to the village. Even though they all wanted to know what Zoe and Viggo were up to, they wanted to be back in the village before Zoe with the hope that she would think that they had returned home once they lost her.

Just as she suspected, the vast majority of Drago's hunters were people from villages he had destroyed and had taken captive, only four hunters being pushed forward and admitting that they had voluntarily joined Drago. After a brief conversation with her, they all agreed to stop hunting. These four hunters were the first ones that Zoe taught to ride a dragon. She had instructed the hunters to divide the supplies up into packs that would last two people for three days, five if they rationed. She was going to send the hunters back to their homes and families, either by boat, or for those who were willing, she would send them home on dragon back. She also told the hunters that they all needed to see her to tell her where they were from or where their families were so she could get groups together who were going the same way. For those who had no where to go, she would point them in the direction of different villages and islands based on what they wanted.

She was treating the wounds of a dark blue and pale yellow nadder when a man came up to her. "What can I do for you?" she asked him.

"Uh, I was wondering if you could help me with something," he asked rather nervously. He looked to be around her age, maybe a little older, and he had brown eyes and black hair.

"Sure, what is it?" she asked, standing up.

"You travel around the world Below a lot, right?"

"Yes."

"I was wondering if you could help me find my little brother or if you knew where he was? Our village was destroyed by Drago. Most of the adults were killed, including my parents, and us teenagers and young adults taken as slaves. My brother managed to hide, but I don't know what happened to him. He was only twelve when we lost our village," he explained.

"What village was this?" she asked him.

"Tandal, its a water bending village." At this, Zoe's eyes widened as her brain kicked into gear. If her suspicions were correct, she was speaking with Remi's older brother. He had very similar features to Remi including the same brown eyes, black hair and tanned skin.

"What's your name?"

"Hugo-"

"And your brother's?"

"His name's Remi. He'd be nineteen now." With this confirmation, a smile spread across Zoe's face. She had found Remi's older brother and would be able to reunite the two. "You're smiling..." he said slowly. "Does that mean you know him?"

"Yes," she nodded happily. "I found him on one of Drago's hunter ships years ago where we were both taken captive, but we made it out eventually. He lived with two friends of mine until he was older and now he lives with his girlfriend," she explained, a smile breaking out onto Hugo's face. "I'll take you to him once we're finished up here."

"Thank you so much," he breathed in relief. "Need any help with the nadder?"

"Ever wanted to ride a dragon?" she asked as she sat down with the nadder.

"I never really thought about it," he said as he settled next to her, the nadder allowing him to gently stroke its muzzle.

"Well I think that you and this nadder will get along really well," she smiled.

-o0O0o-

It took another five days to get everyone sorted with enough supplies and in groups that were going to the same villages. She had taught two-thirds of them to ride a dragon which would be going home with their new rider. Hugo had named his nadder 'Pluto' and would be going back with Zoe, Uri, Axel and Sharpshot. Viggo and Bolt would continue their roaming and scouting on Grimmel and his operations, assuring Zoe that he was happy being on his own with Bolt.

Zoe and Hugo were the last ones to leave, Zoe taking one last look at what remained of Drago's base before the three dragons shot across the ocean, heading south. She only had Grimmel to deal with now, and then the hunters would be no more. She hoped that she had made Hayden proud.