I wandered for a while, thinking frustrated thoughts. I found myself walking to the place I had last seen Hiccup ever. To everyone else, it seemed only a short while ago, but to me, an eternity. I could still see myself being flung from the catapult up onto Toothless's back, the short scuffle between me and Hiccup, his hypnotized gaze, stabbing Toothless. Had Toothless even survived that cut Stoick had made? Was the FAI even alive? Questions I couldn't answer. I stared at the spot Hiccup had last been at the base of the tree, and the last time I had caught a glimpse of him, laying by it and looking partly knocked out.

The last time I had seen him had been terrible. We had been fighting, he hadn't even been himself. Not counting that, the last time I had seen him would have been as we arrived at Berk with Drago's forces attacking, us realizing we were deeply in trouble. Before that, it had been a race to Berk in dire times. Before that, he was helping Astrid with her arrow wound. Before that, he had been lying wounded and in a near coma after he had been stabbed by Drago.

My thoughts raced.

Drago had been behind Hiccup's disappearance, I could feel it. We still don't know why his monstrosity had been incapacitated all of a sudden. But it had been a glorious moment.

When had been the last time I had actually had a nice face-to-face moment with my best friend?

I remembered. Him, Toothless and me had been discussing Hiccup's tendency to get himself into trouble and near death situations.

How utterly ironic.

How utterly, stupidly ironic.

Isn't fate artistic?

I was just sitting under the tree when Astrid, Fish, and the twins came up to me, much like they had come up to me and Hiccup in the old kill ring years ago. Astrid walked right up to me, and crossed her arms.

"Well?" She asked.

"Well what?" I mumbled back. "What do you want me to do? Chief told me to drop it. Let it go."

Astrid snorted. "And since when do we give up on each other? We're a team. Hiccup and Toothless weren't just part of that team, they created it. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be where we are today."

Irritation setting in, I stood. "I know! I'm his best friend besides Toothless! But I have orders to follow! What do you want me to do?"

Fish cut in. "You are the future chief. So you're obviously a good decision maker and a very smart person, or else Chief wouldn't have picked you. So it follows that you did, indeed see Hiccup, or at least have a very good reason to believe he's alive." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his thin nose. "I believe we have a very good reason to go look for Hiccup."

Astrid nudged Fish. "He's right. And Richard, the question is, what do you want to do? What do you want us to do?"

I looked at them, staring into four identical determined expressions. Even Ruff and Tuff seemed focused on this.

"So... you'd all risk mutiny for me? You'd risk what could be your lives because I believe I was beaten up by a cyborg Hiccup in the woods alone? Are you serious about this?" I exclaimed.

"Yes." Fish said firmly.

"Hiccup would do the same for us." Astrid stated. We all knew it was true.

Ruff and Tuff nodded enthusiasticly yet solemnly.

"So," Astrid started. "What's the plan, future chief?"

I grinned warmly. "We find cyborg Hiccup, we figure out a way to get him back, Fish, I'll be counting on your nerdiness for this. Any ideas how to shut down a cyborg without hurting him?"

Fish nodded. "If we can figure out how he controls his electronics, whether it's a physical or signal control, there are different ways to do it. If it's signals, it's easier, just use the same signals to mess him up. If it's physical, you'll have to find the connection to his brain and cut it. Best case scenario, he doesn't have a self destruct or something that automatically wipes him if we cut the connection. There are ways around that, however-"

"Right." I cut Fish off before he could go off on tangents. "Astrid? How do you think we hold him still long enough?"

Astrid smirked. "I got some ideas. Bait is one of 'em."

I smiled. "Perfect. Now, we have to find him."

Minutes later, we're standing in the radar control center of Berk (RCCB, built and designed by Hiccup) looking for any unusual signals.

Fish was listening, and I was watching, nervous.

"I'm getting something weird here." Fish said. "I'll take it apart from everything else."

I nodded, biting my lip. "Please be Hiccup..."

There was a long silence as Fish listened to the signal. The tension was growing. There was a knock on the door, which Astrid was holding shut.

"Hello? Who's there? Open up!" The irritated voice yelled through the door.

"It's Astrid!" Astrid yelled. "We're doing a DAP exercise, and we're not to be disturbed!"

Fish held up a hand. "Shh!"

"What? I wasn't informed of this! Let me in this instant!" The usual RCCB watcher was yelling very crossly.

"I said shh!" Fish insisted.

"Sorry." Astrid said quietly."

"I'm telling the Chief of this!" The man yelled, then there were stomping footsteps.

Crud. Now we really were in trouble.

Fish suddenly gave a very happy noise, leaping up and dancing excitedly. "Yes!"

"Yes what?" I questioned. "Yes what?"

"It's definitely a cyborg signal! There's a rythmic wirr and-"

I cut him off. "Perfect. Now. Where is he?"

"According to this..." Fish muttered, looking at the screen again, "He's a mile from here, to the east by southeast, and coming toward us."

"Perfect!" I yelled. The twins, who had been eating the RCCB watcher's sandwhich and potato lunch, gave equal excited yells.

"Yethh!" They sprayed a little bit of food like anyone would were they to yell with moths full of chicken sandwich.

The joyous moment was ruined by a much more violent knock on the door, and the Chief's cross voice coming through the door. "Astrid? Open this door immediately."

"Now what?" Astrid whispered, putting her entire weight against the door to keep the Chief out. "Where do we go?"

"Out the window?" I motioned to the very small window.