Disclaimer: I don't own httyd.

AN: Sigh…

Arc: The Retrieval

Days Until Wedding: 24 days

Music I'm Listenting To At The Moment: After Ever After 2 and Life's Too Short

"What's The Plan"

Hiccup and the others were returned to their cells. When they were locked back in and after the guards left, Thuggory punched so hard that it vibrated the whole cell.

"That good for nothing…" he muttered darkly as his finger bled from the force of the blow.

Cami sighed "I knew this was going to happen… I was wondering why he was so calm while we were in here." She mused

"Why didn't we see this coming?!" Thuggory continued rampaging in his cell by banging on it.

"Hey! Be quite! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" one of the prisoners shouted

"Fuck you!" Thuggory snapped at him. He was in no mood to be rational at the moment.

"Thug… he's right… you need to relax" Cami said as calmly as she could. Truth be told, she was also very angry by what Eret did. She considered him an ally but there he was playing with them the whole time. She didn't know why he did it though. She knew that he was the kind of guy who won't do it for money. He also wasn't the type to work for someone without reason.

He even told her that the last guy he worked for even weirder than Eret. He was the guy that wanted the dagger and he ordered Eret to find it. The only reason why Eret followed him was because he was afraid that his employer would kill him. Especially since his employer owned a giant ice-breathing dragon.

Just then the door opened and entered Dagur and Eret. The former smiling lightly while the latter wore a blank face.

Dagur looked towards Hiccup and his smile turned into a grin

"How's my favorite warrior?" he asked

Hiccup didn't even acknowledge his presence. In fact, he was quiet the whole time after they were sent back to their cells. Nobody noticed though because they were anxious about what would happen to them and Eret's sudden betrayal. The only person who actually noticed was Astrid. Not because she was eager for the upcoming fights but because she wasn't all that shocked of what Eret did.

She didn't trust him that much in the first place. She knew there was something up with him. Even from the beginning when they were captured, she noticed that things happened conveniently, like it was rehearsed.

Hiccup glanced at her and she gave him a subtle nod, signaling him that she knew what he was thinking too. Both of them were ignoring Dagur's rant.

"-so like I said, best of luck and hope for the best!" Dagur said as he and Eret left.

It was then that Astrid looked up "What did he say?" Astrid looked towards Cami who shrugged

"He just basically said that the tournament thing will be held later. He said that it would be a 'last man standing' kind of tournament. We would be entered in the arena with a random group of strangers and fight each other to the death and the winner of that group would then join with the other winners to fight each other as well."

"I see…" Hiccup finally said

"What's up Hiccup?" Thuggory asked as he just realized that Hiccup was actually quiet the whole time.

Hiccup looked at each of them and smirked.

"Guys, I have a plan"

-Giant Hall-

Dagur was sitting on his chair while Eret was sitting across him with the latter lauging his ass off.

"Did you see their faces?!" he grinned from ear-to-ear "That was too beautiful! The face of being betrayed!" he continued to laugh while drinking some mead.

Eret rolled his eyes at that. Sometimes he wondered why he conversed to people like them. Oh, right… they work for the same person… wonderful.

"So Dagur, when are we going to send that dagger?" Eret asked as he motioned towards the dagger on Dagur's waist.

Dagur seized his laughing and looked at Eret incredulously.

"When I deemed it worthy." He said matter-of-factly "I'm going to use this thing first"

Eret narrowed his eyes. "Now listen here…" but he was cut off

"No, you listen! Who has the dagger? That's right, I do! You are powerless here or did you forget that after your head got a little big for your own good" Dagur grinned sadistically "Guards, I think someone needs to be taught a lesson here" his two guards stood between Eret and cracked their knuckles.

Eret looked at them fearfully and Dagur laughed out loud.

Eret visibly shivered in his place and looked at Dagur pleadingly. The latter just cackled at his scared look.

"This is what you get when you try and test your luck with me" Dagur said lightly even though his eyes were bloodshot.

Before Eret could say anything, one of the guards punched him on the gut while the other was readying his club. All in all, Eret was being brutally beaten and no one was going to save him since all the servants were dead scared of the laughing sadistic tyrant.

-Prison Cell-

"You think that's going to work?" Thuggory asked as he furrowed his brows. Hiccup just explained his plans to them but it was still sketchy. There were still so many factors that could change what they were planning on doing.

"No" Hiccup said with a smirk "but it's worth the shot"

Astrid looked at him blankly and a little while later, sighed in defeat "I'm in…" she drawled

"You are?" Cami asked skeptically "Are you sure this would work?"

Astrid shook her head "Nope" Hiccup visibly deflated but Astrid wasn't finished "but whether we like it or not, he's still going to do it since he's stubborn like that" she smiled lightly at him which he returned wholeheartedly.

"Ugh…" Cami rolled her eyes "Could you two stop that lovey-dovey thing for now? We're in the middle of planning our escape, remember?"

Astrid glared at her and was going to retort when Hiccup intervened.

"She's right. Now's not the time to divulge in my relationship with Astrid and finish off the plan."

"About the plan…" Thuggory said and Hiccup turned to him "What about the last thing you said… how are we going to pull it off?"

Hiccup smiled smugly at him "Leave that to me" he said confidently

Cami looked at him strangely "Why do I have this feeling you are going to do something so crazy that it would get the whole island involved?"

Hiccup snorted "I'm not THAT crazy…" Astrid gave him a look and he sighed "yet" he supplied

"So, back to the plan…" Thuggory said once everyone was done talking "When should we commence this?"

This time, it was Astrid who answered with a smirk "When they least expect it" she simply said

Cami blinked at her "Wow… that sounds ominous… I like it!" she said as she raised her hand and Astrid high fived her

Hiccup sighed "Ok… now… we wait" he said as he sat on the ground and stared off towards the walls.

It was 5 minutes later when the door suddenly burst open and Dagur entered with his two guards dragging with them a bloody Eret which looked barely alive. Astrid covered her mouth to hide her surprise. She knew Dagur loved torture but this was too much. If it wasn't for his shallow breathing, Astrid would've thought Eret was dead.

Dagur threw Eret to a different cell, which he was alone, and spat at him.

"Next time… know your place…" he said darkly as he left the cell.

Hiccup immediately turned towards Eret and looked fearful.

"Eret?! Eret!" Hiccup called for him but he only received the cold shoulder as Eret sat on the ground of his cell and spat out some blood. "Are you ok?!" Hiccup continued even though he was blatantly ignored.

Eret looked at him irritably before standing up and stumbled his way towards his bed where he lied down and turned away from the others.

Hiccup turned towards Astrid. "What do you think happened to him?"

Cami snorted, who didn't give a shit about Eret "Who cares… he deserved it anyways…"

A few silent moments later, Cami sighed "but I am also curious in what he did to get him beat up like that"

"Because Dagur is being stupid once again" Eret suddenly said and effectively got everyone's attention. Without anyone noticing, he was able to sit down and glared daggers on the ground. "I already told him that what he's trying to do would only cost him his life but he won't listen."

"You said again… are you telling me that this isn't the first time you worked for him?" Astrid asked, her eyes narrowing.

Eret shook his head and looked at her tiredly "The truth is, we both work for one person and one person only" Eret suddenly looked fearful "The guy we worked for… he's ruthless… even Dagur fears him."

Astrid scoffed "Well what do you know, so the deranged maniac is afraid of something after all"

Eret glared at her "You should say that lightly… Dagur is known to be fearless… in fact, he himself admitted that he doesn't fear death…" Eret sighed "But with the one we worked for, he suddenly becomes sane… he becomes rational… almost as if he wants to please him"

"Who is this guy you keep talking about?" Hiccup asked curiosly

Before Eret could say anything, the door burst open once again but this time it was a dozen of guards.

"Ok, time for the fight" the leader said "We already picked out which is which is going to fight" he said as he started pointing at people and made them go out of their cell.

It was Hiccup first who was going to fight. Great…

-Arena-

Dagur was once again on the highest seat on the stands and was smiling lightly directly at Hiccup which he returned with a glare.

"Ahh… Hiccup, my boy, I see that you're the first of your friends to battle… I hope you're ready because things are just getting interesting"

AN: So sleepy… Enjoy and Review!