It didn't seem like long after Toothless left that Astrid came into the stall carrying Koda, but Hiccup supposed it must have been, as the sun was already beginning to set, and the tail was nearly done, he was just finishing greasing the gears. Astrid looked around suspiciously, "Hey, Hiccup... Where are Sky and Toothless?" She asked curiously.

"Oh, hey, Astrid," Hiccup greeted nonchalantly as he gave the tailfin a few pumps to test it. Seeing that it was working fine, he set it down and turned to face the girl, "I told them to go get some rest. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow and neither of them got much sleep last night." He reached out to take Koda from her, and the youngling promptly bit him, "Ow! Koda!"

Though she had retracted her teeth, she'd still bitten him with quite a bit of force, so it pinched a bit. "You left me with the eel girl?!" She whimpered.

"I'm sorry, Koda, I couldn't get to you!" Hiccup mumbled, shaking out his hand.

Astrid, who could only understand Hiccup's end of the conversation, asked, "What's wrong? Is she mad about being left with Sissel?"

"Apparently," Hiccup took Koda from Astrid, this time without incident, "But I said I'm sorry, if I went into the middle of the crowd and made a scene with Sissel, the class would've been to distracted to hear another word out of Fishlegs' mouth. Trust me, I'm familiar with easily distracted children."

"Tell me about it," Astrid grumbled, rolling her eyes, "Overgrown children at that. At least the little ones are cute!"

"I'm still mad at you," Koda pouted, but she snuggled against Hiccup's chest nonetheless, happy to be back in the safety of his arms.

Hiccup smiled slightly, hearing her actions more than her words, before looking up to Astrid, "Anyway, I've got Sky's tailfin ready, but I'm going to hold off on giving it to him until we're ready to go, just in case."

The girl seemed confused, "Hiccup, if you're hoping to leave tomorrow... when are you planning about telling the others about this?"

He winced, "That's on a... need-to-know basis. If I tell them, Snotlout will get jealous and do something stupid, and the twins will be right behind him, you know that. I'll tell them after the initial attack on the Outcasts, when we're waiting for that Nightmare to come back with inside information. Until then, let's not talk about it, alright?"

Astrid didn't seem too impressed by this response. Hands on her hips, she demanded, "So we're going in there alone? No backup at all?"

"Actually... I'm going in there, with Toothless and Sky. We can't risk them seeing any of the other dragons, and they all need to be close-range to attack... And I don't think Sky would be comfortable with a rider." Hiccup explained.

"Hiccup, you can't go in there alone." Astrid told him harshly, "What happens if you and Toothless get separated like last time?"

"We won't! We won't be close enough for them to catch us, and since they only had the one bola launcher, the original one I made, they probably don't know how to make another one to get up high enough to attack us... But that said, if I'm not back by dawn, well, you know where I'll be." The boy said grimly, not meeting her gaze.

"Hiccup-"

"No, Astrid. I got us into this mess, it's my responsibility to get us out..." He hesitated a moment before muttering, "Let's just hope Sky cooperates this time." With this, he snatched up the new prosthetic tail fin and brushed past her, headed home. He knew it was potentially dangerous, but that was all the more reason to involve less people rather than more, right? When he made it to his room, he glanced over at Toothless, who appeared to be asleep, and sat down on the edge of the bed with Koda.

The young dragon gazed up at him pleadingly, "I want to come, too!"

"If he's not letting Astrid come, why would he let you?" Toothless prompted, apparently not as asleep as he'd seemed.

"He's right, Koda, it's too dangerous." Hiccup agreed, ignoring the fact that Toothless had been eavesdropping.

"Who cares!" The youngling whined, "I'm just a Pixie anyway! At least let me try to prove myself!"

Toothless got to his feet and padded over to Hiccup's bedside, "You'll get your chance, Koda, just not with this. Hiccup has enough to look out for without having to keep an eye on you as well... Besides, you aren't even old enough to use plasma blast, are you?" Koda lowered her head shamefully, "Didn't think so. Did your mother even teach you how to use flame?"

"Not yet..." She mumbled, pawing at the ground, "But I'm a fast learner!"

Hiccup, who was listening intently to the conversation, murmured, "Interesting... So you aren't born with the knowledge of how to use your fire and plasma, and you learn fire first..."

"Well, yes. If you don't get used to retracting your teeth when you use fire before moving on to plasma, you'll knock your teeth out." Toothless said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "But never mind that now, Koda, this isn't about you being a Pixie, this is about you being a hatchli-"

"That's what I'm saying!" Koda cut in, "It doesn't matter that I'm a hatchling because I don't matter! I'm just a Pixie! Nobody will care if anything happens to me!"

"Now that's not true," Hiccup reminded gently, "I'd feel horrible if something were to happen to you, and that attitude is exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to get rid of. Size isn't everything, and you'll get your chance to prove that, but not right now. Not with this."

"But-!"

"Koda, I'm not going to argue with you about this. You're not coming, end of discussion." With this, Hiccup flopped back on his bed and closed his eyes. "Toothless, take Koda to get some dinner before it's all gone, please."

The Night Fury eyed him worriedly, "Aren't you going to get something to eat yourself?"

"Nah, I'm not hungry... All this stress has got my stomach in knots, and I'm afraid to put anything in it, to be honest." Hiccup mumbled. He felt Toothless nudge his leg, genuinely concerned about him, and added in response, "I'll be fine, bud, don't you worry about me. I'm just gonna sleep it off." Giving up, Toothless snatched Koda up in his gums and carried her off to the dragons' food bowl in silence. Unfortunately for Hiccup, he never was able to take that nap he wanted. At first he was just lying awake anxiously, but then, just as he was beginning to nod off, he heard the door slam downstairs and his father's heavy footsteps stomping up to his room. Groaning, the boy sat up just as Stoick stepped into his room, "Hey, dad."

"You missed dinner," Stoick commented, "You'll never grow up big and strong if you don't eat right."

"I think that ship's already sailed. I'm fine with small and wimpy, anyway." Hiccup tried to joke, but his father could tell there was more to it than that. After raising the boy single-handedly most of his life, he could tell when something was on Hiccup's mind.

Stoick pulled up a stool and sat down, making it creak under his weight, "Alright, now what's really on your mind?"

Hiccup heaved a sigh and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, mumbling to himself, "Well, I guess I had to tell you at some point anyway..." He took a moment to straighten out before announcing seriously, "I'm going to launch an attack on Outcast Island with Sky and Toothless tomorrow night, but don't tell anyone about it. In order for my plan to work, it has to be Night Furies attacking, and only Night Furies."

The chief wore a grim expression as he asked, "So you're going alone, then?"

"No, not alone," Hiccup corrected, "With Sky and Toothless."

"Alone with Toothless and that Devil with traitorous tendencies." Stoick amended.

Hiccup winced. He couldn't really argue with that. "Sky's been acting different lately, dad, I think... I think we can trust him, at least enough to help us with this. Toothless does, too, after what happened last night-"

"What happened last night?" Stoick prodded. Apparently he hadn't heard anything about the dragon fight the night prior.

"Well... Sky tried to run away last night, and the Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch, Thornado, and Meatlug caught him and started a five-on-one dragon fight. They would've killed him if Toothless hadn't woken up from the noise and gone to check it out. Since then, he's been really submissive and grateful towards Toothless." Hiccup explained softly, "Sky was in pretty bad shape, and I had to make a replacement for that automatic tail fin, but I'm not giving it to him until we're ready to go- actually, Sky suggested that himself. He wants us to be able to trust him... I think he's finally starting to understand that he's not on the Isle of Night anymore, and here on Berk, we don't put up with traitors too well."

For a time, Stoick was silent, letting everything sink in as he considered all of the possibilities before finally, he nodded, "Alright, son. I won't tell anyone, but if you aren't back by dawn, we're going to come after you."

Hiccup smiled gratefully, "Thanks, dad. That's what I told Astrid, too. I'm planning on leaving Berk around this time tomorrow night, so... I mean, if you're not busy... You could come by the stables to see us off." Of course the boy always felt awkward asking his father for things like this, but he knew that having that little bit of support from Stoick would give him a major boost of confidence. It's always easier to feel confident when someone you love believes in you.

"I'll see what I can do," Stoick replied before getting to his feet and leaving the room.

Moments later, Toothless came in through the window and let Koda down, "Do you think he'll come?" He asked.

"Do you eavesdrop on all of my conversations, or just the ones I least expect you to?" Hiccup wondered, only half-joking before adding quietly, "I don't think so. He's never been supportive of my passive-aggressive tendencies before, I don't see why he would now... We'll see." He lie on his side and allowed Koda to curl up against his chest, "I hope he does."

Toothless warmed up his rock slab before curling up on it, "Don't worry so much, Hiccup," He murmured, "With or without anyone's support, we'll get through this. We always do."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Hiccup groaned, "Our luck's got to run out sometime, right?"

"If you think like that it will." Toothless confirmed, which didn't really help, but he was trying. "Goodnight, Hiccup."

"Yeah... Goodnight Toothless, Koda."

The following evening, after a stressful day of teaching the kids at the Academy about the Deadly Nadder, Hiccup, Toothless, Koda, and Astrid made their way down to the stables where Sky was waiting. He'd decided he would rather spend the time alone rather than causing tension with the other dragons in the small quarters of the training facility, and it was probably just as well. Stormfly was rather cranky after having children pull her tail in all directions trying to figure out where the spines she threw came from. "Well, this is it." Astrid said nervously, trying to break the tension as Hiccup worked on securing Sky's new tail fin.

"Saying that like this is the last time you're going to see me isn't helping, Astrid." Hiccup muttered dryly.

"Oh, I've no doubt we'll see you again. I'm more concerned that it might take the loss of another limb ta bring ya back." Everyone wheeled around at the sound of Gobber's familiar voice to see both him and Stoick standing side by side. "Are ya sure ya want to go alone, Hiccup?"

Confusion turned to the kind of bliss that only an under-appreciated child can get from a parent. He was, at first, a bit surprised that his father had mentioned this to Gobber after telling him not to tell anyone, but then, what didn't Stoick tell Gobber? "No, it's fine. I have to do this on my own- well, with Sky and Toothless. We got us into this, so we're going to get us out."

"He actually came!" Toothless trilled excitedly, "We should cause drama more often, Hiccup!"

"Please refrain." Hiccup grumbled. He could only imagine what life would be like if they had to do things like this on a regular basis. He'd probably go bald from all the stress. Finally, he cinched the last strap into place and said, "Alright, that should do it." He turned back to his father, Gobber, and Astrid, leading Sky out to see them.

The moment Stoick saw the wounds on Sky, he felt horrible for what he'd said before. A five on one dragon fight indeed! "Odin's beard, Sky! Are you sure you're alright to go with those wounds?"

Sky lowered his head and pawed at the ground, rather ashamed of it, "I got what I deserved- and I managed to keep my wings intact, so I'll be fine."

"He'll be fine. He thinks he got what he deserved in that dragon fight last night," Hiccup translated, "But his wings somehow managed to avoid major injuries, just shallow cuts, so he should be alright to fly."

"You weren't exaggerating, were ya Hiccup?" Gobber asked, referring to the fact that it had been a five on one dragon fight that probably would have killed Sky if not for Toothless.

"Yeah, well... They were angry, and they had every right to be, but it wasn't their fight, and it certainly wasn't a fair one... But I think it's given Sky a bit of an admittedly much-needed attitude adjustment. Hopefully this is the start of a brand-new Sky." Then Hiccup tried something he'd never dared on Sky before- he reached out and gently scratched behind the dragon's head. Sky purred and nuzzled into his hand, just like Toothless always would, but it was surprising to see it from this 'wild and murderous traitor.'

"I hope you're right. The last thing we need is another dragonfight like the last one." Stoick said, stepping closer to his son and placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, "I'm proud of you, son. You're taking responsibility and taking preemptive measures to keep our village safe. I certainly had my doubts, but you're starting to look like a promising future chief." It was like Stoick knew just the words to say- although, looking back, anything supportive would have had the same effect, probably. Hiccup threw his arms around his father, who promptly said, "And now you're ruining that image."

Chuckling, Hiccup said, "Thanks, dad." With this, he pulled back and looked to Toothless, "You ready, bud?"

"Ready to get out of here before Stoick changes his mind and says something to ruin your mood? Yes." Toothless moved to Hiccup and nosed him in the chest playfully before allowing the boy to get on his back.

Handing Koda off to Astrid, Hiccup said, "We'll be back in a few hours... hopefully. Take good care of Koda. If you could, you know, sleep with her, share your body heat, that'd be great, Astrid. She gets cold because she's so small and has no colo- OKAY, Toothless!" Toothless had, during Hiccup's rant, been bucking the boy in his saddle impatiently.

"Don't worry, we'll all be here waiting for you, Hiccup. Just try to come back to us safely." Astrid assured him, and with a few more farewells, Hiccup, Toothless, and Sky took to the air, headed straight for Outcast Island.

Glancing over his shoulder at Sky, who was flying beside them, Hiccup told him, "Hey, Sky, I know it might not have seemed like much, but... The fact that my father was concerned about your well-being- and showed it, for that matter- is kind of a big deal for him. I mean, I think he might be starting to warm up to you."

"Sounded more like pity to me, but either way. Stoick's not one for pity, either." Toothless added.

"It's rare for him to be so supportive, which is both awesome and troubling. I'm trying to focus on the awesome." He inhaled deeply, taking in the crisp night air, "Yeah. We can do this."

It was a long and quiet flight to Outcast Island, and when they finally saw the flickering lights from torches below, they paused in the air for a moment. "Alright, keep moving, and stay within shouting distance," Hiccup instructed Sky, "Hit as many buildings as you can, but try to avoid going after the Outcasts directly. We need most of them to be alive so they can attack the Isle of Night." He was quiet for a spell before he said finally, "I can't believe this is really happening. We're really doing this."

"Don't lose faith now," Toothless warned, "We're only just getting started. Go, Sky!" With this, the two dragons split up and began firing at the island.

It wasn't long before the entire island was crawling with Outcasts, and Hiccup was squinting to get a good look at them, trying to see what their strategy was, where Alvin was, and, "...Is that what we looked like? They're just running around in circles!"

"Well, there were usually other dragons that the Vikings were fighting on Berk, but for the most part... Yes. The circles thing always amused me." Toothless said over his shoulder between blasts. Hiccup and Toothless had both been so distracted by the conversation that they hadn't noticed they had lost their cloud cover. Though they were still nearly invisible against the night sky, nearly wasn't quite good enough when an island full of Outcasts were staring into the sky looking for heard a loud whirring sound and looked down at Toothless, "What's that noise?"

"It sounds almost like a bola, but it couldn't be, not this high- AGH!" That was the last thing Hiccup heard before the rock from a bola hit him in the head, rendering him unconscious.

Poor kid. Build him up just to tear him down... LITERALLY. This chapter is dedicated to my neighbor's dog who had to be put down today. Rest in peace, Jazz, we'll always love you.