Once again, I'd like to first thank my beta for editing it and make this so much better to read! You're awesome, girl! :D

So here's the last chap and there will be an epilogue that is going to be posted soon! I hope you all enjoyed it while it lasted!

Thanks to all the that favorites and followed, but more importantly, that reviewed (BTW, this is officially my most reviewed fic, thank you so much!). Reviews are very important, so please tell me what you think of the story! :D

Hiccup and his group finally go to Outcast Island to rescue Cami and all the tortured dragons, only to get caught by Alvin causing Hiccup to quickly devise a plan to get them out of there safely. At first, though, only a few people understood his strategy. As soon as the rescue party found Cami, they started to free all the tortured dragons while Hiccup and Stoick were forced to fight for their lives against three stubborn, mad dragons in the arena.

Chapter 23

Fiendishly Clever Plan

"I was afraid you'd say that…"

As Stoic uttered that, the dragons hurried in their direction, leaving father and son no choice but to hide behind a large rock while the dragons shot fire at them. The boulder was very big and provided good shelter, but they knew it wouldn't last too long, since at least one of them would skirt it and attack them from the front, and Hiccup noticed it.

"Dad, this won't last long, we'll have to separate, okay? You go to the right and I'll go to the left, their shots will have to end sometime soon."

"Alright, but be careful, Son."

"You be careful too. And whatever you do, don't attack them, in fact; try to drop your axe so they can see it. This will confuse them and we want them to realize we're not going to hurt them."

Stoick nodded and waited for the dragons to stop long enough so he could jump behind another rock while Hiccup did the same on the other side. But since Hiccup moved a little later, he attracted more attention and the dragons went after him.

Hiccup didn't have a problem in dealing with wild dragons, on the contrary, he was used to that. But these reptiles weren't only wild, they were fumingly mad, almost to the point of being murderous, and they soon started to break the rock that sheltered his scrawny body. The moment Stoick saw this, he didn't think twice before shouting out to get their attention. The dragons turned and crawled to his side, still hissing angrily and so Stoick let his axe fall, gulping and wishing Hiccup's theory was right. The dragons screeched, confused, looking at the weapon on the floor and then to the huge red bearded man in front of them.

Hiccup knew they were getting confused, their reactions uneasy, and though he wasn't exactly sure about the routine the dragons had in Outcast hands, he was pretty sure the dragons had never seen humans either willingly drop their weapons or them refrain from attacking instead of torturing the reptiles mercilessly.

The Monstrous Nightmare was the one most afraid, backing away very slowly a few centimeters and sniffing the axe lying on the ground. The Timberjack was a huge species of dragon and he lowered his head, curious, to inspect the human. The Whispering Death, however, was snappy and apprehensive, and Hiccup knew that wasn't a good sign. The brunette saw the behavior and mouthed, more to himself than his father, since the Hooligan wasn't looking at him, 'no sudden moves!' But he was proved right when the Whispering Death suddenly flipped his sharp tail spikes to send Stoick far away.

The barbs cut Stoick's right arm, which he used to protect himself at the last minute, and he was propelled backward by the tremendous force of the Whispering Death's tail flip, hurting his left leg. It took a second or two to realize that the dragon was going after him again and the sudden move of its tail startled the other two, causing them to start growling and howling, equally irritated and afraid.

Unfortunately, Stoick couldn't really stand up since his leg was wounded and bloody. He certainly was a strong, massive Viking, but he was also getting old so his body wasn't as athletic as it used to be, and that coupled with the sharp and hot pain he was feeling, made it was hard to move. The enraged Whispering Death was rapidly nearing him, his razor sharp teeth rotating, when suddenly his son's scrawny, frail frame stepped into the middle of the dragon's path. Hiccup's hands were high in front of him, palms facing out, causing the dragon tho stop at the unusual attitude of the courageous young man.

The dragon screeched, uneasy, and was about to strike again when Hiccup quickly grabbed the handle on his right thigh and pressed the button to activate his flame sword. Immediately, the fire caught all three dragons' attention. Hiccup moved it from side to side and they looked at the pretty flames dancing, causing them to almost forget their anger. Hiccup moved Inferno around him a few times before he ignited the Zippleback's gas mechanism, surrounding himself with the green vapor before sparking it, showing the dragons he was like them.

Hiccup wanted everything to last a bit longer, to give his friends enough time to guarantee all the dragons were set free, but he had to act now or else the infuriated Whispering Death would just keep attacking. Stoick couldn't believe his eyes, the three mad and angry dragons abruptly changed, like they had never been wild at all. Now they were crooning sadly, almost as if they were whining, and didn't look like they were about to attack anymore.

Neither Stoick nor the Outcasts knew what Hiccup was doing, but when the young boldly man showed the dragons he was equal, their fright vanished. He wasn't a threat anymore, so the dragons were now feeling safe and secure around him. And it was even more amazing when Hiccup extended a hand again to the Whispering Death, close enough to bite half his arm off, and then the dragon just touched his palm with its snout, showing Hiccup he trusted him. A small, confident smile appeared in his face.

Soon the Monstrous Nightmare and the Timberjack approached slowly and unafraid, ready to reach Hiccup's hands as well. They weren't angry anymore either; they were feeling confident and that made all the difference to them. The two crooned sadly and Hiccup made soothing shushing sounds, trying to get them very calm. "Don't worry, I'll get you guys out of here." He reassured them in a low voice.

"How are you doing that?" Alvin demanded, huffing, in a very high and frustrated tone, he saw everything, but he had no clue as to what Hiccup had just done. It made no sense to him or to any other Outcasts watching the scene unfold. "How did you do that?"

"It doesn't matter; I dis. Now keep your part of the deal and free everyone." Hiccup shouted back, but he knew the answer he'd receive.

"No way, Boy. You're not going anywhere and neither are your friends. You're my prisoners and you'll train my dragons for me!"

Hiccup frowned, though he wasn't worried about Alvin, confident enough in his ability to escape. What troubled his mind was the fact that it was all happening faster than he wanted. He needed to stall the Outcasts a bit more to give his friends more time.

"You're crazy if you think I'll teach you how to train dragons so you can take over the Archipelago."

"You don't have a choice, Boy. You will do as I say!" Alvin yelled angrily, not used to being denied.

"No I won't." Hiccup shot back in an unconcerned, almost sarcastic tone, trying to buy a couple more minutes.

"Yes, you will."

"Here is what I'm going to do." Hiccup insisted very calmly, trying not to laugh at Alvin's rotten attitude. "I'm going to get out of here and take my friends too." His voice was overly confident, almost cocky, actually. And it was really getting on Alvin's nerves.

Then, Hiccup activated Inferno again and sliced the huge chain that was holding the mesh metal net over the arena and it fell, damaging the structure. Since it was bigger than the arena and in a semi-circle shape, it didn't hurt them, but it was enough to kick a thin layer of dust into the air. Hiccup used the moment of distraction to gesture for the dragons to attack the fragile points of the metal net he had observed since entering the arena.

He asked the Timberjack to pick up his father, who was still on the floor, before almost managing to stand up and fly away. Hiccup saw that both were hurt, but they were able to escape. Hiccup was about to mount the Monstrous Nightmare to flee as well, when he noticed that the dust was already setting and a very angry Alvin was charging at him. The Treacherous managed to capture Hiccup with a heavy net that sent him to the ground, and he only had time to yell for the dragon to go before more Outcasts neared him. Alvin didn't really care that three dragons had just escaped, he had a dungeon full of them, what he needed was that damn boy who had just proved to be very useful.

Hiccup wasn't overly worried, though he had to admit that being held by that net was definitely not in his plan, but he had to keep stalling them as long as he could, so he tried to keep his calm and cocky face as he stood on the ground once again looking up at Alvin.

"It looks like I got me'self a dragon trainer…"

Hiccup just sighed deeply, not daring to speak a word, thinking of how he could stall them even more, only making Alvin angrier with his silence. It's okay, Hiccup thought, he wants me, he needs me, so he can't harm me. He kept silent, glaring at the Outcast chief with challenging eyes.

Meanwhile, Astrid and the Strike Tribe, along with her fellow Hooligans, were almost finished freeing the dragons, and since there were a lot of them, they were managing to do it quite fast. Besides, since the dragons noticed that the group with fellow reptiles weren't going to hurt them, but free them, they stopped trying to attack them; that helped a lot.

As soon as they finished, they sent Stormcloud to Bork so the ships could approach. Some dragons were healthy enough to fly, but the majority had had their wings tied down to their bodies for too long and so they couldn't. The group got closer to the shore where they could see the ships drawing near, slowly and quietly so as not to catch the attention of any Outcasts, even though they were all in the arena by then.

Bork couldn't really see across the distance and so he had to rely on both Kari and Eira's vision, who were the people closest to him. Once they landed, however, he managed to coordinate the injured dragons inside the ships, soothing all the edgy ones like an extremely stubborn Speed Stinger that gave him some trouble before entering. The girls proved to be very handy with the stubborn dragons as well, leaving the calmer ones to be handled and directed into the boats by less skilled Strike Tribe members, Thuggory, Dogsbreath (who wasn't really willing to help) and the few Hooligans that decided to come. The ones who weren't waiting on the ships started helping as well, only mounting their dragons to pull the ships away when they were full, Heather was the first to take a boat away on her dragon, Moody.

It was when they were half-way through putting the wounded dragons on the boats that they saw three dragons coming from the island, one of them, a Timberjack, was carrying a human. He flew close enough that they could identify the man as Stoick the Vast. The Timberjack saw that the strange people weren't attacking those dragons and decided to leave Stoick with them before he flew away, the dragon was weak, but gathered up enough strength to go.

Garth and Gobber helped Stoick up while Astrid walked up to them. Stoick was hurt and bloody, but luckily they had brought a lot of medical supplies, even if they were intended mainly for the dragons, not the humans.

"Stoick, where's Hiccup?" Astrid asked watching the three dragons go but none of them had a human with them. Toothless crooned worriedly behind her.

The huge red bearded man sighed sadly, not minding his own wounds. "He was still there when I left. I don't know what happened…" A sharp hot wave of guilt struck him, even though he knew there was nothing he could have done, when he caught himself, he was already being lifted by the dragon. Astrid frowned, determined.

"Okay, Hiccup's not the only one to have good ideas. The dragons are here, some are already far enough and some are entering the boats. Toothless and I will look for him, you guys get away as soon as you can!"

"But it's dangerous, Princess." Thuggory replied giving a Gronckle, being guided by Sten, space to make his way inside the ship. The teen was having a hard time trying to help all those dragons and he knew it was about to get even worse since he was the official 'dragon healer', but it was worth it.

Astrid and Toothless ran back to the center of the Outcast Island, she knew it would be better to take with Stormfly too, not only did she need to be very sneaky and another dragon might get in the way of that, but also because they might need another dragon to pull the ships away, since they'd be very heavy when full.

She entered the dungeon again with Toothless, searching for a way out of that maze of cells. There had to be a way she could get to the place where the Outcasts bunked, they were crazy, rude and ostracized, but they were humans and they needed somewhere for them to call a home. A place they could eat, drink mead, or sleep and she needed to find it, hoping Alvin would take Hiccup there instead of a cell. The Outcast had done that before and it hadn't work, or so Hiccup told her. Alvin wasn't overly smart but neither was he stupid, he'd try something different, and that might just give the Strike Tribe enough time to get away with the dragons. Or so she hoped before hearing footsteps.

There was a very alarmed, random Outcast walking down the dungeon corridors, realizing that all the cells were empty. Not one single dragon or Strike Tribe member remained. And then, unluckily, he found both a blond girl and a Night Fury. He turned around and gathered a lungful of air to shout for help but before he could yell anything, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Well, Toothless, that was close. Good tail swing. Now let's go find Hiccup. Do you think you can smell him?"

The black dragons started to sniff the air and ran in the direction the Outcast had come from. They ran for a few minutes until they reached the entrance of the arena that was a bit torn up, the metal net had fallen and broken. It was simply a mess, with dust all over the place.

From where she was standing, Astrid could see Hiccup, his hands being tied behind his back and being pushed by Alvin in another direction. She could also see Alvin holding Inferno's handle. No one noticed her or Toothless, so she smartly took advantage of that, asking the Night Fury to blast the mesh metal net over them.

The large and heavy metal web-pipes fell very close to the group, but Toothless aimed strategically to not harm his human. The moment Hiccup saw the purplish blows that belonged to his best friend, he moved to take cover, noticing how the now frail structure was starting to creak and give in. There weren't very many Outcasts with Alvin, but they all fell into coughing fits because of the dust once again in the air. He didn't know how, but suddenly, Astrid was beside him, releasing his wrists.

"A-Astrid? What are you doing here? I told you to leave!"

"Change of plans. I make my own orders sometimes, do you understand?" He just heaved a sigh in response, as he was now free, grabbing his fire sword in the confusion.

Hiccup noticed in the nick of time that Alvin was charging at them with his sword drawn, and luckily, he stopped the attack with Inferno. Alvin continued swinging his sword and Hiccup had difficulty blocking, he was still wounded and his gash was starting to hurt from all the movement so he could only hope it wasn't opening again.

When he was almost at his limits, Toothless swung his tail into Alvin, sending him to the ground. Though the Outcast chief wasn't unconscious, he was too strong and hard to get rid of, he fell onto the ground and that gave Hiccup and Astrid enough time to hop onto Toothless to get out of there. Being a Night Fury, he managed to take both humans out of there and fly over the horizon, meeting up with the 26 ships filled with wounded dragons being pulled by theirs in record time.

"Hiccup!" Camicazi was the first to spot them. "Thank the Gods you're okay!"

"And you're in a big trouble young lady!" He joked as Toothless flew next to Shimmer, since they had given Cami stuff to eat and drink, she was feeling good enough to fly. He sighed and his tone stopped being so playful. "You shouldn't have done that! I was worried!"

"Me too!" Eret said, flying next them, Windwalker was pulling another boat.

"You shut up, I'm still mad at you." Cami retorted, crossing her arms.

"You can be mad as long as you want, I'm just glad to see you alive and well." He said sincerely and she huffed, stubbornly.

"How am I supposed to keep being mad at you when you say stuff like that?"

Hiccup smiled, happy for them and gestured for Toothless to fly near the boat Bork was on, who was patching up a wounded Speed Stinger. It was the same ship Stoick was on and it was being pulled by his Rumblehorn, named Scullcrusher by the Hooligan chief, along with Runa and her human, Garth.

"Son! What happened?"

"I got caught up in a net, sorry…" He said playfully. "But it's okay now. Everyone's fine and all the dragons were rescued. And I must thank Astrid and Toothless for helping me out." He said petting his best friend and looking back at the beautiful girl sitting behind him, holding his chest to prevent her from falling while being careful not to hurt his wound. "But, please don't disobey me again."

"Oh, Hiccup, when are you going to learn? You may be a chief and demanding and all, but you're not the boss of me." She leaned closer to him to whisper in his ear. "But you may have stolen my heart." He couldn't help but smile.

"Well, let's go back to Berk and treat these dragons before we head back to Drakheim. It's going to be a long trip there…" Hiccup announced, happy it was finally all over.

Flashback 23

After the very busy Market Day when Hall went by himself, Mogadon was in his house, tired and drinking mead when his son walked in.

"Good that you're back, Thuggory. Did you find anything?"

"Sorry, Dad. No sign of her. She's nowhere."

"I think she might have sailed out. I know it's difficult, but it could happen. Yesterday, I noticed that one small boat was missing. It might be light enough for her to maneuver by herself. So I want you to sail out to look for her."

"But, Dad, why? I mean, okay, she as a good girl and all, but why all this trouble for her?"

"She is still a member of our tribe, Son. Her parents were great warriors and they served well, if we don't try hard to find her, how could all the other parents feel safe if they die in battle and leave their sons or daughters behind? Someone has to look after them, you know. And you better get used to this, since you're taking over after me."

"Come on, Dad…"

"Whining is for the weak. I want you to be more responsible, so you're sailing out to find her. You may take that colleague of yours, Dogsbreath, to help you. He's been causing a lot of trouble around here so it will be good for him to go on a trip."

Thuggory was about to complain, but he knew it wouldn't work, so he just sighed. "Okay, but what if I really don't find her? Or if she died or something?"

"I want you to try hard, at least for a few months."

"Alright, alright… I'll go…"

If you liked it, please consider helping me on Patrion, the link is on my profile :D

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Yeah, I know, really tiny flashback, I just wanted a last one with the last chap, couldn't really break the pattern now...

All good things come to an end and next chap will be the epilogue, so please tell me what do you guys think of the story! It's really important to me and I'd love o know what you guys liked or didn't like in the story!

And after reviewing, you can check my profile for other stories or the link to my DA for drawings like the cover. :D

Thank you all!

Itban Fuyu