The following few hours were spent with me, Fish, and Stoick mulling and tossing around all the strange things Clone had said. Everything from the blue heart, to his apparent view on time, to him being a clone, to the fact that he was only willing to help us if we asked the right questions. We formulated more questions and went to him, to find he was already awake as if expecting us. We asked him where the real Hiccup was, and he simply said,

"You need to figure that out on your own." It was aggravating. Stoick began to question if he really was willing to help, and Clone replied with,

"Who knows? At least I'm not hindering."

We left him and began to go through everything again. We were tired. Things weren't getting any easier. Stoick said we should sleep on it. In the middle of the night, however, I snuck to Fish's house and slipped inside the back door. I moved to his lab to find the door was locked from the inside. I knocked softly, and Fish opened it.

"What are you doing here?" He whispered, looking at me in disbelief.

"Couldn't sleep. I have to do something. Can you let me in?" I answered simply.

"Sure." Fish answered. "C'mon in."

I nodded and went in the door, moving to Clone, who seemed asleep. There were some connectors attached from one of Fish's machines to the heart on Clone's chest.

"What are you up to, Fish?"

"I have a theory. I think that this blue heart is some sort of technology from the future. And that's what allows Hiccup's clone to see into said future. Somehow, Viggo got a hold of it, and is using it to clone and control Hiccup. And that means that this thing can clone itself. I mean, It's just a theory, but it makes an odd sort of sense." Fish was fiddling with the connections. "So, my theory is this. If I can isolate the signal this thing gives off, I can figure out where all these things are coming from, and that'll lead us straight to Hiccup."

I patted him on the shoulder. "Great. Your nerdiness pulls through again!"

"Shh! Don't wake up my mom!" Fish nudged me. "Now, to begin the experiment."

Fish flicked a switch, and the machine came to life, numbers and lines going across its screen. Fish began to type at it, and I watched, hoping.

"I'm getting something..." Fish muttered. "A pattern..."

I happened to turn from the screen to Clone, and when I did, I froze.

"Uh... F-fiish?" I stuttered. "You miiiight wanna look."

"Wait a minute... this is intriguing. Look at this pattern, it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen. It's just plain... alien!"

I was ignoring him, watching Clone. The blue heart was glowing much brighter. I wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"I'm so close... got it!" The moment Fish said this, a shock-wave went up the wires and shorted out his computer completely. "No..." He said frustratedly. "Dang it!"

I winced, looking at Clone. He had opened his eyes and was staring straight at us. "Nice try, but there's a fail-safe. This thing doesn't like you."

I groaned, and Fish turned on him like an angry wolf. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you trying to help us or not?"

Clone sat up, and calmly unhooked Fish's wires from his heart. "I am helping. But this... is not." He patted the heart gently. "It's beyond your understanding anyway. After all, it was created by a genius."

"Viggo?" I asked.

"Me." Clone replied. "Or rather, it will be created by a genius."

"Aha! I knew it! It's from the future!" Fish exclaimed, anger faded.

"Goody." Clone drawled. But he did seemed pleased.

Fish moved up to Clone. "So... my guess was that it's keeping you alive. And that it's controlling you, correct?"

Clone chuckled. "I told you I wouldn't tell you anything. You know that."

Fish crossed his arms. "But you have already."

Clone nodded. "True."

"So, why stop? After all, you are our friend. You want us to find Hiccup, don't you?" I asked.

Clone said nothing. He stared at me, that soul-searching stare that made my skin crawl. Something about it was just so off-putting.

"Well?" I pressed. "Don't you?"

He blinked slowly. "Richard... I've missed you." The cyborg faded for a moment, and I could see Hiccup in there. Real Hiccup. Not fake Hiccup. "I... remember when you came to the cave, looking for answers... and you met Toothless. I remember thinking if I can just teach you what it means... what Toothless meant to me... you'd hesitate. You'd think about it. And maybe, just maybe... you'd understand..." He was crying. "Except it wasn't me. It wasn't me who taught you... it wasn't me who took you on that flight... it was someone else. I'm not Hiccup. As much as I want to be... I'm only a copy. And there's only one way I can help you without ruining everything he worked so hard to create."

I moved forward to comfort him, but he held out a hand to stop me. I grabbed it, feeling no warmth from it, no pulse within. He had no working organs, just that alien device on his chest, worming its way through his body. I gently held the hand, giving it a squeeze.

"The only way the fail-safe won't work is if it doesn't have power." Clone stated, still crying. "I'm sorry." With that, he took his other hand and ripped the heart very forcefully from him. It immediately gave an ominous, unworldly screech and went dark.

Clone looked at me pleadingly, now looking every bit like Hiccup. "Don't let it be in vain." He fell over, his grip loosening on my hand.

I couldn't find the right words to say as he collapsed into my arms, going limp. The heart fell to the floor with a clatter. It was glowing softly now, a dark blue. It was humming softly. I held Clone, speechless with horror.

"No." I choked, "No!"

He was dead. In fact, as I watched, he faded away. He disappeared. He flickered out like a candle. The heart had been keeping him alive alright. It had been keeping him in existence. And now he was gone. Like a faded reflection as the mirror was smashed.

And now we had to find the original in the house of mirrors.

We were doing our best to make sure Clone's sacrifice was not in vain. Without something to attach to, the heart was almost completely inactive. Fish was working day and night on scanning the heart, but with his machines shorted out, it was hard for him. But he didn't give up. We told the Chief, and word spread quickly that it hadn't been the real Hiccup. People were confused and panicked, and who was going to be Chief was the conversation everywhere, from the farms, to dinner tables, to me and my friends. Heck, The Bog-Burglars to the southwest might be talking about it. I was speaking with Stoick when Fish came up to me.

"I got something."

I stared at the long bunch of notes Fish had made. It looked like a bunch of nonsense to me, but Fish had no problem reading and understanding it.

"Alright, I finally got the frequency of this thing." He said. "It was tricky, because this thing is smart, it kept throwing me curve-balls. I'm having a hard time believing Hiccup made this thing, there's so many fail-safes and rabbit holes-"

"Get to the point." I ordered.

"Okay, okay." Fish soothed. "We can track the exact location of these things now. All I need to do is tell the RCCB what to search for. Then we can look for cyborgs, and by extension, where Viggo is. And then, we take him down and find Hiccup."

I smiled. We were getting somewhere.

"There's something else." Fish turned to me. "I think Clone might have been in more control then he led us to believe."

I stopped. "What?"

"He pulled that thing off. Easily. Yet it kept throwing constant curve-balls and fail-safes at us, and you think he would have done it already. The armor didn't change anything, it was just that, armor! He had every capacity to pull it off, even though it was 'controlling' him! Yet he acted different in the lab then when he tackled you. He was much more violent."

I nodded. "Makes sense. Also, he talked the same way in the lab that he did when he tackled me the first time, all high and mighty, riddling. But... then why didn't he pull it off? Self preservation?"

"Probably." Fish replied. "After all, he seemed scared of it being damaged... or of me knowing anything about it. He probably didn't want to die. Because he had all the same memories and feelings as Hiccup, he probably felt as though he should have every right to stay here with us, to be reunited. But he realized that he just couldn't, that we had the right to our Hiccup, the original. So he pulled it off. When he was with us, his violence faded, he knew who he was, when before, he was being blocked by Viggo. With us... he acted like Hiccup one last time."

We took a moment for this to sink in. I thought of the real Hiccup, wherever he was, if he was scared or in pain. New determination swept through me to find him at any cost.

"Alright." I broke the silence. "Let's find Hiccup."

Only minutes later, we were all flying in a group in the direction of the blue heart signal. Me and Inferno, Astrid and Stormfly II, Fish and Meatlug, the twins and Barf and Belch. Hours and hours we flew, following Fish and his tracker as wave after wave of determination swept through me. Only when everyone was exhausted did we rest for the night. This went on for three days.

After what seemed like an eternity, we landed outside a small ramshackle little building in a clearing in the woods. There was nothing out of the ordinary here, if anything, this shack looked ready to collapse. Fish jumped off Meatlug and crept closer and closer to the hut. We all followed, creeping slowly. A Crow called out from somewhere causing us to all stop and look around. I felt as though this was a place we weren't meant to be in. Like any minute, something would pop out at us. My heart was beating wildly.

The door to the shack creaked loudly as Fish opened it, and peered inside. I peeked in moments later. It was empty. Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding, I stepped inside. Fish followed, pointing his machine around to see if he could find anything. He found himself next to a wall, and blinked.

"There's a panel here. Just a moment." He removed it, and there was machinery inside. He pressed a button, and the floor shifted with a jolt, then began to move down. We went down with it.

"Richard? Fish?" Astrid was asking from just outside. "Are you okay?"

"It's an elevator of some kind!" Fish responded. "Keep watch up there!"

"Okay!" Was the reply.

Down and down we went.

It stopped finally, and a door opened, revealing a large spooky looking lab. And right there, no less than a meter in front of us, was a pair of angry green eyes.