This is the chapter I've looked forward to writing for a very long time. It provides answers to questions you probably didn't know you had!

Chapter Fourteen: Zebah

Zebah.

Hiccup knew that name. He'd heard it before... a few times, actually. As he stared at his daughter, still clinging to her dragon, his mind began to race. Why was this name so familiar? Why did he connect it to Maero? Had he met someone named Zebah there?

And suddenly it hit him.

Didn't Javan the Deceiver, the man who had sold his son into slavery, call him Zebah? Yes, now that Hiccup thought about it, Javan's first words to him were an exclamation of surprise that he was still alive. A few people on Maero had made the same mistake. He'd shrugged it off then but now...

"You knew Zebah?" he asked his daughter with wide eyes.

There was a long pause before the girl nodded. Everything seemed to hit Hiccup at once. The mystery of this man, this name that had followed him for years, was about to be solved by his own daughter. A part of him didn't want to know what had happened. And yet he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he must know. It was a piece of Adrianna's darkest hours that he had never known existed. A man whose name followed her too. The escapologist in the stories she had told three years ago... had they been true?

The girl's face was hidden in her dragon's neck. Her whole body trembled and she let out little squeaks as she breathed far too fast. Her father strode forward and put one of his hands over hers.

"What happened in there?" he whispered. "What did she do to him? To you?"

The girl shook her head and tightened her hold on the Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup sighed deeply and reached up to gently stroke her hair. A tiny twinge of pain radiated through his stump but he hardly noticed in his concern for his daughter.

"Don't make me go back." she whimpered after a few silent seconds.

"Hey," Hiccup carefully tugged on her hair to get her attention without hurting her. "Let's get out of here for a minute. You can tell me what happened."

The memories flashed in Adrianna's brain as if they had happened in the last five minutes instead of a full decade previously. She couldn't look at her father and she certainly couldn't talk about it.

"Addie?" Hiccup whispered.

"I can't tell you. It's in the hut somewhere but I don't remember where." Adrianna mumbled into her dragon.

Suddenly, a sharp pain radiated in Hiccup's stump. A few twinges had irritated him during the flight but the elevation wasn't a good sign. Toothless made a cooing sound and nudged him as he hissed in pain.

"There's a storm coming." Hiccup said, gently rubbing his stump as the pain decreased. "Soon."

"So go." Adrianna muttered. "Go find it."

"Addie-"

"I can't go in there." she whimpered. "Don't make me go in there."

Hiccup would have stayed to argue but the now constant discomfort in his leg was an indication of a heavy storm. He was going to have to go in on his own and hope he found it. Meanwhile, Adrianna trembled as she clung to her dragon. She was never going to tell him, or anyone else, what had happened in there. What she had seen. It was a story she was going to take to her grave.

She had expected her daddy to come by now.

The strongest man in the world always came when she needed him. He always burst in and threw his arms around her. He always made her feel like everything was going to be okay.

So where was he?

He hadn't come when she had awakened with her hands and feet tied to the walls. He hadn't come when the old woman who claimed she was Poppy's sister had slapped her across the face. He hadn't come when the growls of her stomach were ignored by the woman, who laughed when she saw the girl suffering. And the most surprising thing of all was that this time, when she needed him more than she had ever needed anyone, he didn't answer her cries for help.

Hours passed and darkness fell but still he did not come.

The old woman, who had introduced herself as Aunt Trista, was gone. She had spent a lot of the day either completely absent or writing on a large piece of wood and cutting it into pieces. Although while she was there, she had told the most horrible lies about Poppy. Adrianna knew that her Poppy would never kill a child. She was small and he had always been gentle with her. He couldn't have done the horrible thing this Trista person said he had done. Although she was beginning to wonder if her Poppy remembered that he had a granddaughter at all. He had always liked Finn better...

The most scary thing of all, however, was the fact that her daddy seemed to forgotten her. Didn't he love her anymore? And now it was nighttime and the little girl should have been tucked into bed and kissed on the forehead by both mommy and daddy before drifting to sleep, safe and sound. And though she was beginning to feel like her hero had forgotten all about her, she tried to call one last time.

"Daddy..." she sobbed through the silence of the hut. "Daddy, please..."

There was no response. The girl became increasingly desperate. Her daddy always came when she cried for him. Where was he? Couldn't he hear her? Didn't he want to take her away from this horrible place?

"Daddy!" she wailed louder this time. "Where are you?"

Crunch!

Something had landed on the snow outside. She heard the snuffle of a dragon.

"Hello!" came a voice. "Is anyone in there?"

"Daddy!" the girl wailed.

"Mari!" the voice cried. "My sweet Mari!"

The door was flung open and a man stomped through, a lamp in his hand illuminating his face. Shaggy brown hair surrounded his face, bright green eyes shined through the dark, a sparkly white scarf seemed to glisten in the lamplight... was this her daddy?

"Mari!" the man repeated. He held up the lamp so he could see the tiny girl against the wall. His face fell. "I am so sorry, my dear. I thought..." he sighed sadly and walked over.

He looked so much like her daddy. Adrianna could see more wrinkles on his face, flecks of gray in his hair, a slender but slightly heavier frame than her father's... and two feet. The resemblance was striking and Adrianna was half convinced that this man had to be her daddy's long lost brother or a cousin. He stared at her, a soft compassion in his gaze so much like that of her daddy's.

"Did Trista take you too?" the man asked in a gentle voice. He even sounded like her father, only with a slightly lower, clearer tone.

Adrianna nodded shakily. "I want my daddy." she whimpered.

"Then I'll not waste any more time, dear." the stranger got out a dagger from his belt and began to cut away at the ropes. As he worked, he muttered to himself so quietly, the girl almost didn't her. "This demon... this villain... this monster! Bullying children is her game, is it? Then let us see what this creature thinks she can do when the wrath of a grown man stands before her."

"Oh I think not." came a horrible voice from the entrance of the hut.

Adrianna couldn't see her very well in the dim lamplight but she saw the silver glint in Trista's hand. The girl opened her mouth to cry out to her rescuer but the older woman was too quick for her. She brought down the metal object with a sickening look of glee in her eyes. There was a horrible cry, a splatter of red, and the man fell at the girl's feet.

A scream of horror erupted in Adrianna's throat as she backed away from the body. The man's blood continued to seep out and slowly grow nearer to where she was standing. Trista looked down at the body with a satisfied smile before looking up at the little girl. Adrianna squeaked in terror and tried to back away some more.

"Oh my dear," Trista simpered. "I have no plans to do the same to you. No, you serve a much bigger purpose. Without you, I'd have no leverage. Zebah, however," she nudged the body with her foot, "wasn't necessary. I lured him here to finish his story and now, after such a long time, it's finally over." she reached down and picked up something from beneath the body, raising an eyebrow as she held it close to her face for inspection. "Oh... you came prepared. Potens Sanationis is the most powerful healing herb in existence. This will do very nicely." Quite suddenly, Trista leaned forward, her gray eyes flashing and causing Adrianna's heart to pound in terror. "But if anyone tries to save you again, I'll do exactly the same thing. Wouldn't do to let your daddy die so painfully, would it?"

"D-don't hurt Daddy." Adrianna whimpered through a tiny hiccup.

"Well that's up to you. If he or anyone else as much as touches you, I will kill them. Do you understand me?" Trista took a deep breath as if this conversation had exhausted her. And then her eyes flitted to the skirt on Adrianna's waist. "Those stains certainly won't wash out." she chortled as she took in the bloodstains on the purple cloth. And then her smile widened. Without any warning, she stomped forward and yanked the skirt off the girl's waist.

"No!" Adrianna wailed, unable to stop her due to her bindings.

"Scare tactics are always such good motivators." Trista held up the little skirt so she could see it better. "Let's see what your parents think of this." she dropped the skirt into the still growing puddle of blood and soaked it until its original color was completely obscured. "Although I suppose I'll have to find a way to assure them that you're still alive. I'll figure something out on the way down." the elderly woman got out a bit of parchment and quickly wrote out a note before taking the skirt and her Changewing and heading to the door. She paused for a moment. "When I get back, I have a lovely bedtime story for you. It's about an escapologist who met his untimely end and the circumstances that brought him there. But for now, Blaze, be a dear and make sure young Addie doesn't attract the attention of anyone else who may be flying over. By any means necessary."

Adrianna jumped when the door was slammed in her face. The dim lighting of the lamp Zebah had left still flickered and illuminated the bright red blood still pooling beneath him. Unwittingly, she let out a tiny sob and backed against the wall as far as she could. The Nadder, which didn't look very different from her mother's in this lighting, raised its tail and brought it down. Adrianna let out a scream as white hot pain exploded across her face and she would have skidded across the floor had she not been tied up. The little girl kept her mouth shut and desperately tried not to make a single sound. But as the putrid smell of blood and decay began to fill her nostrils, she realized that she would never see her family again. And this crushing reality took away the last remnants of innocence that she had left.

There had been so much blood. How her clothes hadn't been as bloodstained as her skirt remained a mystery in her mind. She had spent over a day in Zebah's presence, inhaling the pungent smells of his decaying body. As he rotted, Trista had delightedly told her the story of his days as an escapologist, his marriage to the acrobat, and the death defying stunt they had attempted. Of the little girl born to them and then stolen by Trista herself. Three and a half years ago, all the reading she had done had caused the stories to slowly fade into her memory and she felt slightly freer to release them. She had, of course, made a few additions to the narrative to make it her own and convince Matilda and her father that she was the one making them up. But they weren't hers, not really. They belonged to the man inside the hut who had lost his life in search of his precious little girl, Mari.

For years, Adrianna wondered what had happened to the child but she had no way of knowing. It would have been so long ago. She could only pray that the girl had found freedom. And perhaps a loving family who cared enough for her to protect her from that kind of pain again.

Unlike Hiccup.

Adrianna tried to push the thought far from her mind. She wanted to forget that she still doubted him. But it wasn't the sort of thing that could be forgotten. Over the last few years, her trust in her father had waned. She'd even stopped calling him "Daddy." Now he was Dad. She didn't even know when that had happened. One day she was his little girl, the next she was grown up. Why was she having these feelings now? Why didn't she trust a man she once believed to be the strongest man in the world? Why did thinking about him make her angry inside? What had he done to deserve her ire? Was it just that he hadn't come or... was there more?

The girl would have thought about it for a longer time if she hadn't heard a squawk from just in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw Pipsqueak, the family Terror, perched on Lily's head. Pipsqueak had a bit of parchment tied to her leg and she patiently allowed the Haddock girl to untie it and open it.

Hiccup and Adri,

Finn and I are sick. Mara says I'm going to be fine but we can't get Finn's fever down. A few of our older people have already died (but Benen is still healthy). Those who died were already in poor health but I'm afraid someone younger will follow. Please come back soon.

Astrid

People had died. A horrible feeling of guilt overwhelmed the girl as she reread this section of the note. Sure, they were older and probably didn't have much time left but they were still family members, friends, acquaintances... there would be people in mourning and funerals for her father to conduct. She couldn't waste any more time.

Snow was falling thick and fast on the ground before she could make herself move and the dark clouds overhead were beginning to look ominous. She could hear things being shifted inside the hut. It sounded like her father was throwing things around with no real concern for Trista's belongings.

"Dad?" she shakily called.

She was sliding off her dragon. Lily lowered her head to make it easier as she slowly placed her foot on the snow-covered ground. The tiny crunch of her boot on icy snow made her jump. She lowered her other foot and clung to her dragon to keep her balance. The piercing cold, the snow on the ground, the hut still standing on the mountain... she was stepping right into her nightmares. She was beginning to feel nauseous and dizzy. Trying to walk forward was like trying to walk on the slipperiest ice. Her head felt precariously perched on her body, which barely held itself up. She could feel her dragon's snout on her back to help her keep her balance.

"I can do this." she whispered into the freezing air. "I can do this."

The hut swam in front of her eyes. It was getting closer and closer... her arm extended and her gloved hands pressed against the door. It took a few seconds to find the strength to push it open.

It was exactly as she had remembered it. Papers all over the walls and even hanging off the ceiling. Objects that had once belonged to her family strewn everywhere. A corner of the room with ropes that had held her tiny body in place.

But unlike her nightmares, now her father was sitting in the middle, going through everything in sight in the hopes that the plant would mysteriously appear.

Trista suddenly flashed in the girl's brain, smiling widely and putting the plant in a dark jar on one of the shelves. Adrianna's eyes flitted to the jar, which was still untouched.

"Addie... what is it?" Hiccup rose from where he was seated when his daughter pointed to a spot above his left shoulder. He turned and saw the small jar. "It's there?"

He hurried over to the jar and opened it. The plant was dry but its containment had preserved it fairly well. Just as he pocketed it, he turned and saw Adrianna wobbling on the spot. Suddenly knowing what was going to happen next, he rushed forward just as the girl's eyes fluttered closed and she lost consciousness. He caught her as she plummeted to the ground and held her close.

"Toothless!" he called, his heart racing as he checked to make sure Adrianna was still breathing.

The Night Fury burst in just as he sighed in relief at his daughter's steady breaths. Before he mounted his dragon, he put his ear to her chest just to make sure her heartbeat was steady. It was racing but strong. That had to be a good sign... didn't it?

His paternal instinct satisfied that his child wasn't in any immediate danger, he was suddenly gripped with fear as he looked outside the open door. There seemed to be a wall of snow descending upon the darkening landscape and he had very little time to act. It was going to be hard enough to fly back to the village but now he was also carrying a 95 pound girl and attempting to keep her warm (for the second time in the last week). And then he had to guide Lily back as well. There was no time to waste.

"All right, Addie," Hiccup muttered to her as he carefully mounted Toothless and held her close, "let's get you out of here."

As he and Toothless emerged from the house and took off, Lily following close behind, a gust of wind nearly knocked them off course. Hiccup couldn't see a thing through the blizzard. He was going to have to pray that he knew Berk well enough to direct the dragons to the village. He held Adrianna close to his chest while squinting through the snow to try to see where he was going.

As he flew, he couldn't help but feel frustration because they could have beaten the blizzard had his daughter found the courage to enter the house earlier. But another part was proud of her for even setting foot in the hut. His little girl was healing. Maybe one day, she would be free from Trista's clutches.

One day, but not today.

A heavy boom erupted through the Great Hall, making both healthy and ill inhabitants jump at the sudden noise. The onlookers watched as the wide doors opened with a mighty heave and a tall, thin man with a peg leg strode inside with a small blonde girl in his arms, swathed in a heavy cloak. The man's dark hair was nearly white from the raging blizzard outside so he was nearly unrecognizable except for the peg leg and the two dragons on his heels.

"Hiccup-"

"It's Hiccup!"

"The chief's back!"

Excited chatter ran through the crowds as Hiccup walked stiffly to the center of the Hall carrying Adrianna in his arms. Though he kept most of his focus on his daughter, his eyes continuously scanned the rows upon rows of the sick. He tried to make out Astrid and Finn in the masses, but couldn't seem to find them.

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup halted mid-step when Mara hurried toward him some beds nearby. Mara rested a hand on Adrianna's forehead and immediately asked, "What happened?"

"Long story," Hiccup rasped. "She only passed-"

"What's wrong with your voice?" Mara interrupted. Hiccup jerked away when she reached for his face to inspect his mouth, and the healer frowned. "Are you coughing?"

"I'm fine. The ingredients for the cure are in that satchel on Toothless' saddle. Except these, here." Hiccup took the Potens Sanationis and the list the Bog Burglars had given him out of his pocket and placed them in her hands. Where are Astrid and Finn?"

"Won't you at least let me look at-"

"I'm fine, Mara."

"Adrianna?" Mara finished pointedly.

Hiccup sighed, jutting out his jaw as he gazed at the ceiling. "She's fine; she only had a hard day. Trust me."

"I do trust you until you won't let me do my job-"

"Mara." Hiccup bit out her name, finally losing patience. "You need to make the cure immediately and I want to see my family. Now where are they?"

Mara sighed and jerked her chin toward the back of the Hall. "They're back there. But brace yourself for the other families in the area."

Hiccup instantly walked toward the back when Mara turned to pull the satchel off of Toothless' back. The chief nodded toward anyone he made eye contact with, but didn't slow his pace in his search for his wife and son. At last he caught sight of Benen and Astrid on the other side of the Larson family's pillar.

A sharp gasp made Hiccup falter and he jerked at the sight of a blonde teenager leaping from a nearby bench. "ANNIE!"

Hiccup exhaled heavily, trying to slow his rapidly beating pulse from the short scare. "Erick," The chief paused, taking in the 15-year-old's haggard appearance, red eyes and tear-stained face. Hiccup shook his head to clear it and smiled at him gently. "She's okay. Just took a… tumble."

"Is she okay?" Erick asked quietly, his voice trembling. "Will she be?"

Hiccup nodded firmly. "Yes. She'll be fine, buddy. Don't worry." He noticed Benen perk from the next area over and he glanced back at Erick, "Sorry, I have to go-"

"It's fine, chief." Erick mumbled. "Stay with Finn while you can."

As Hiccup walked away, he registered Erick sitting back down on the bench and covering his face with his hands, vaguely wondering what a comment like that meant… until he passed the Larson's pillar, and he nearly dropped his daughter.

The Larson family huddled around a makeshift mat, pillow and blankets surrounding it in an apparent attempt to keep the occupant comfortable. Except a thin white sheet had been drawn over the body of the Larson patriarch: Olaf.

The air squeezed out of Hiccup's lungs when it registered: his friend, a counselor, a good, wise man, Olaf Larson, was gone. Every job Olaf had and every memory they shared raced through Hiccup's mind as he stared at the unmoving cloth.

Lara sat beside the mat with a stiff back, blank expression as she stared down at her husband's body. Gustav held his wife Mikaela at the head of the pillar while Magnus and Gregory quietly cried by the feet. Aud and her husband held each other tightly, and Nikolas sat by idly with an angry expression, ignoring all eye contact. Only Erick sat a yard or two away, alone. Hiccup stared in his direction for a bit, his heart aching for the teenager. He, too, had lost his father but losing him at such a young age... there was no way to understand that kind of pain. The pain of the days that were still to come, the memories that were still to be made now taken far too soon. Coming of age in just two years, marriage, children... everything that a young man had to look forward to to share with his family, his father looking on with pride... all of it blotted out of the prospective future in an instant. Hiccup couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose his father at such a young age and not share the wonderful things of young adulthood with him.

Gustav finally noticed him standing there and Hiccup drank in the grief written on his face. "When?" Hiccup asked in a raspy whisper.

Gustav swallowed thickly, running his hand through Mikaela's hair for a moment. "Half an hour ago."

Hiccup closed his eyes and pressed his lips together, a wave a grief washing over him. They'd gotten back just late. Too late.

Staring at his only boot, he whispered, "I'm sorry."

He didn't wait for any response from the Larsons; he turned and walked toward his family, already feeling his shoulders tighten with grief and tension.

His prosthetic echoed in the corner and Benen stood from his seat, welcoming him into their secluded area with a warm hand on his shoulder. Fear ignited in Hiccup's chest at the sight of his Astrid hunched over the prone form of their son, pale, sweaty and weak. Astrid ran her fingers through Finn's hair until the sound of Hiccup's prosthetic announced his arrival; she looked up, weary but alert, and gasped at the sight of Adrianna in Hiccup's arms.

"Adri!" Astrid jumped to her feet, stumbling a bit and rushing to them. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Hey hey," Hiccup eased her back. "I think she's okay. She just… had an accident, but I think she'll be okay. Here," Hiccup spread a few blankets out with the toe of his boot and carefully eased Adrianna down. Benen wordlessly placed a pillow beneath her head and tucked her in. Hiccup thanked him with a smile and stood again to speak to Astrid. His words were cut off by her arms tightening around his neck and holding on tight, her own labored breathing sounding in his ear.

"I was so scared you wouldn't get back in time," Astrid whispered.

Hiccup buried his face in her shoulder, his eyes not leaving his son's face. He wanted to say something encouraging but couldn't think of anything. He knew he couldn't wish to save everyone but… "I didn't." Astrid returned to her normal height and gazed up at him with confused eyes. "I… Olaf…" Hiccup sighed. "We were so close-"

"It's not your fault, Hiccup." Astrid whispered, running her fingers across the worn leather straps on his chest. "They tried everything they could and he just… couldn't hold on. His body was too weak."

Hiccup sighed and nodded, turning out of her arms and walking to Finn's cot. Benen had seated himself at the foot of Finn's bed to give them room by his head. Hiccup patted his shoulder gently as he sat down, then got a good look at Finn's condition.

The chief rested a palm on Finn's forehead and nearly recoiled at the heat radiating off his boy's face. Hiccup opened his mouth to speak but no words came out; he glanced at Astrid and Benen looking on sadly as he placed his other hand on the top of Finn's head. "He's burning up…"

Astrid nodded, swallowing thickly. "If he'd gotten sick like most people, he'd probably be able to fight it easier. But he worked himself so hard…" She stopped, biting her lip to keep her composure.

Benen took her place. "You should have seen him, Hiccup. He put up such a fight for these people, worked himself to the bone until he could work no more. Literally." The elderly man, patting the boy's knee sadly. "Of course we tried to prevent this from happening, but stubborn as he is..."

Hiccup nodded, noting the sweat accumulating at the base of Finn's neck, making his hair look darker than it actually was. Pale skin that made his freckles stand out even more, short, ragged breathing that made him sound older and frailer than he was. Desperation welled in Hiccup's chest and he forced himself to remain calm. If Astrid and Benen were holding on after being here all this time, he wouldn't lose it in the first ten minutes. But that didn't stop him from begging the gods for mercy.

They must have been listening for Mara walked to their group in the next few minutes with a steaming cup of the cure. It smelled terrible and everyone instinctively leaned away from it, but Mara quickly readied the siphon to pour it down Finn's throat. She quickly blew on the steaming mug so she wouldn't burn the poor boy's mouth and throat.

Hiccup cleared his throat. "Not that I don't want Finn to have it yet but… is there anyone else that needs it before him?" Astrid gaped at him like he was crazy.

Mara smiled understandingly. "Do you really think I'm the only one working right now? A few volunteers have started taking the cure to others who need it. But I'd already resolved in my mind that Finn would be one of the first. That being said…" Mara tilted Finn's head on her knees, placed the siphon in his mouth and carefully began to pour it.

Astrid and Benen sighed in relief when Finn swallowed all of it without problems. Hiccup glanced at them in surprise and Mara took the opportunity to explain: "He wasn't too keen on drinking his tea or water this morning."

Hiccup breathed a small snort. "Stubborn boy." He saw Benen smile from the corner of his eye.

Toothless waddled in behind Mara and crooned a greeting. He sniffed Finn's slack face, shaking his head at the remaining smell of the cure before realizing the sickness deep inside his boy's body. Moaning sadly, Toothless flopped on his belly and scooted closer until his black nose snuggled against Finn's shoulder. Astrid reached over and scratched one of his head plates lovingly.

"If anything changes, let me know," Mara stood with a small smile and hurried back to the cooking area where the cure was being kept.

Astrid sagged against Hiccup and sighed. "So. What happened with Adri?"

Hiccup frowned, turning his body to both include Benen and get more comfortable. "The last item on the list… it was a plant. The only place it is grown is several hundred miles from here, and we very well couldn't go that far to get it. Addie… she knew it was on the list the whole trip and didn't say anything to me about it. When she said the list was finished and we could go home, I looked at it and saw the last item. But…" Hiccup shook his head in frustration. Astrid and Benen waited patiently for him to continue. "She said we couldn't obviously go that far to get it, but the way she was acting, I knew she was hiding something. I just knew it. So eventually I got it out of her." Hiccup paused again, not wanting to speak the words on his mind next. At least his voice was still hoarse so he didn't have to worry about lowering his voice as much. "Trista…" Astrid immediately tensed beside him. "She had some… in her hut. And Addie remembered it, the whole time."

"How would she know the name?"

Hiccup closed his eyes and licked his lips. Then he looked straight into his wife's eyes. "Do you remember how… we always thought that we didn't know everything about what had happened? How little things would set her off? Things that didn't seem to make sense?"

Astrid nodded, memories resurfacing that she'd forbidden from her mind long ago.

"There was a man… I think he heard her crying for help." Hiccup gazed at Benen sadly for a moment. "I don't know what happened but I think maybe he tried to rescue her. Trista murdered him in front of… right in front of Addie. His name was Zebah. And he was an escapologist."

Astrid gasped. "Wait… that's why-"

"Why she got upset with that book."

Astrid sighed, resting a hand to her forehead and she gazed at her resting daughter a few feet away. "Oh, Adri…"

"The things that happened in that wretched place…" Hiccup shook his head, rage building in his chest again. "Things that we never even dreamed of… they happened. It wasn't just the abuse, emotional and physical. It wasn't just the being tied up and having a dragon several times her size beat her down when her body was so tiny that she could have shattered. No. Trista destroyed every bit of innocence she had down to the very root. All Addie has ever known is fear and that is what has haunted her day in and day out… and I didn't know enough to help her."

Astrid held Hiccup's arm in her hands. "You couldn't have known… we never went in the hut."

Hiccup scoffed, looking at his sleeping son. "How things could be different now if we had."

"How? What could have changed?"

"We could have addressed it."

"I don't know how that could have changed anything, Hiccup." Astrid sighed. "I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth it. But… I don't know."

"That's the point." Hiccup said through gritted teeth. "Now we'll never know."

"So why is she unconscious?" Astrid asked, staring at the still form of her daughter lying on the blankets.

"When we landed, she wouldn't get off her dragon. I couldn't get her to budge, not even when I told her there was a storm coming." Hiccup leaned his head against Astrid's with a deep frown. "She eventually came into the doorway and pointed out what jar the plant was in. I grabbed it and in the short time it took me to do that, she blacked out. I think the stress just... got to her. I... don't blame her, she was shaking and terrified to go near the hut, let alone inside. But... she cost us some time. I knew the storm was coming and... there was too much time wasted in that hut."

"By then it was too late to beat it back." Astrid's eyes flitted to the Larsons. "So Olaf..."

"We couldn't have known." Hiccup's lip wobbled for a moment before he clenched his jaw to remain composed. He shut his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek, but he pressed through his thoughts. "But we might have gotten back before... before it happened."

Astrid gently wiped the tear away with the back of her hand. "You didn't get my note?"

"I didn't. If it was about what was happening here... I don't know, maybe Addie did and that's why she came in." Hiccup looked down at his daughter, his vision blurred by still more tears trying to force themselves out.

Finn jerked in his sleep with a sharp inhale, making the trio sit forward to check on him. Unfortunately, the teenager remained asleep and the adults were distracted long enough to miss the 15-year-old boy scramble from a nearby bench and stalk to the door with quick steps.

Benen sat back in his seat and clasped his fingers across his stomach. "Don't worry. That medicine will help him. He'll be all right."

Hiccup sighed, wiping his son's sweaty bangs off his forehead. "His fever's so high... if something happens to him, I'll-" Hiccup shook his head, willing himself to stay calm. "I'll never forgive myself for not coming home sooner."

Benen reached an arm over Astrid's back and gently squeezed Hiccup's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself. You did everything you could. All that's left to do is wait."

So I've now tied up a few plot points that people have wondered about and yes, this was in the plan since Stowaway. Special thanks to EmmerzK as usual for writing her bits while covered in hives.

Important announcement: Due to some superior ideas surfacing, EmmerzK and I decided to rewrite gigantic sections of Under Pressure. We'll let you know when they're done so you can read them. Hopefully they'll be more to our liking than what we had originally. Plus they tie into a few later events from this fic.

To those who were keen on me writing a Big Hero 6 fic, I started one the other day called Personal Matchmaking Companion. I'm completely obsessed now and I hope to update both that story and this series in a timely manner. Don't worry, I can definitely handle two obsessions at once. I have a lot of experience. But if you haven't seen Big Hero 6, I give it my highest recommendation. It's my favorite new movie this year. Yes, even a teeny bit over How to Train Your Dragon 2 (let me stress the "teeny bit" part of that last sentence). But not over the first How to Train Your Dragon, don't worry. It's even inspired me for this series so don't hate me too much for betraying the fandom by loving it.

Anyway, don't forget to review, especially after this many questions have been answered!

~KateMarie999