Chapter 25: Found You

Heather licked the pad of her thumb, flipping to the next page of her book. Her small bedside lamp glowed in the darkness of her room, the light reflecting off the window next to her, outside tall trees that surrounded the house were shrouded in darkness. She leaned forward and peered out at the police escort parked out front, the dim light inside the car turned on. Heather could hear the faint sound of her father clattering away on his keyboard, she could tell that his keystrokes were fast and frenzied, like he couldn't get the words through his fingers fast enough.

She folded one of the page corners over to hold her place and put the book down on the bed before standing up. Walking over to her closet she looked through her clothes trying to find a warm sweater to put on, and silently cursed herself for under-packing. There was a sudden chill in the air, and here she was, without a proper sweater to put on. For a few moments she stood there, hands on her hips, thinking of what to do next, but her thoughts were pulled away from her when she realized the sound of her father's typing had stopped. Heather stared at her bedroom door, it sat slightly ajar, she waited to hear something, anything, but it was piercingly silent. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she began looking around the room with frantic eyes. She knew what was coming, and she knew what she had to do.

Tiny sparks of light flew through the air and fizzled out as they bounced to the ground. The light reflected in the dark mirrored glass of Hiccup's welding mask and the arc welder crackled out as moved away from the metal fin, flicking the machine off. Hiccup flipped up the welding mask and pulled off his heavy work gloves, leaning in to inspect his work. He had spent the last several days working on Toothless' new fin during his work breaks, occasionally coming in early or leaving late to get things done. It was the only thing he felt he could do, as there was no word on the whereabouts of The Grims. The lack of progress was growing increasingly frustrating to Hiccup, he needed to take them down before they built the machine, but he felt powerless to do anything. It seemed like the only thing he could do was wait helplessly as the brothers got closer and closer to their goal of finishing the machine.

A heavy hand rested on Hiccup's shoulder. "It's looking good, Hiccup," Gobber said, leaning in to inspect the fin in Hiccup's hands.

"Thanks,"

"Where did you say Fishlegs got that material from?"

Hiccup sighed, "One of the dragons, uh, barfs it out I believe,"

Gobber picked up the fin, lifting it up and down like he was assessing its weight. "Impressive, this could be worth making other prototypes in…how is its durability?"

He shrugged. "Not sure yet, Fishlegs seemed to think it was quite strong but we haven't done a lot of testing on it yet,"

"Would you mind if I took some to do some test on? Obviously, I won't share any of my findings, just between us."

Hiccup nodded and gestured towards a leather bag in the corner of the room. "Yeah, sure, the rest I have is in that bag. You can take it all if you want, Fishlegs can make more whenever he wants to,"

"Great!" Gobber said, rubbing his hands together as he approached the bag.

Hiccup's phone began buzzing in his jacket pocket, he reached over for it and checked the caller ID. "Speaking of Fishlegs," he said as he pressed the phone to his ear. "Hey, I was just telling Gobber about-"

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs' rasped voice cut through the air, something was very wrong. "They, they got her, they got them! I need you to come, we have to do something!"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down who got who? Where are you?"

"They got Heather and her dad! We don't know where they are!" His breaths were coming out ragged as he spoke. "Someone broke into their safe house and took both of them, we have to do something!"

Hiccup stood up and grabbed his bag and coat. "Okay, listen, tell me where you are, I'll meet you. We'll call the others and figure this out."

"I'm with Snotlout and Astrid already, they were the ones who told me about this," His voice began to calm slightly. "We're at my apartment,"

"Alright, I'll be right there,"

"Hiccup…" Fishlegs said quietly. "What are they going to do to her?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know, Fish…but we're going to get them back, we will,"

When Hiccup arrived, Astrid wasn't there, and Snotlout and Fishlegs were sitting on the living room soda awkwardly drinking tea in silence. The room was tense, and neither Fishlegs nor Hiccup really knew what to say to Snotlout. It had been a long time since they knew each other, and their relationship back then had not exactly been the best.

"Hey, man," Snotlout said, looking uncomfortable and stiff as he stood from his place on the sofa. "Astrid went out to grab something, she'll be right back,"

Hiccup nodded silently and he shuffled his shoes off and hung his coat on the coat rack by the door. "I guess you were the one who found out?"

Snotlout nodded. "Yeah, I was overseeing their relocation and protection…I called Astrid as soon as I was told what happened. The BPD has been failing, and we failed Heather and her father," He shook his head. "We fucked it up, and I'm sorry about that,"

Hiccup had never seen Snotlout so humbled before, maybe he had really changed since high school. He didn't know what to tell him, he just placed a hand on Snotlout's shoulder and gave a small smile. "Thanks for letting us know,"

"Of course,"

Fishlegs stood up and looked over at his friend. "If you want something to drink, I have tea, coffee, uh…" Before he could finish, Hiccup pulled him into a hug and squeezed. "...thanks for coming, man,"

Hiccup could tell this was really getting to Fishlegs, his friend was prone to melodrama and panic spirals but this was different somehow, this was getting serious, getting personal. Their little rag-tag team had been growing into something of a strange family of sorts. He knew Fishlegs had gotten close with Heather, and her kidnapping was clearly taking a toll on him.

"We discussed the details somewhat before you arrived," Snotlout said. "This was clearly a targeted attack made by The Grims, though the police have little direct evidence of that so the investigation will move slowly,"

"So we're on our own I guess," Hiccup said with a sigh.

Snotlout nodded. "Unfortunately, that looks like the case. Most of the department doesn't even know the reason why they were in protective custody in the first place. We didn't want Dagur's involvement to be leaked to anyone," he explained.

"Had Dagur even told you anything yet?"

"Some," he said with a nod. "But we're concerned when he learns about this he won't want to cooperate anymore…and I mean I can't blame the guy,"

"Dagur doesn't know yet?" Fishlegs asked, his head lifted up in surprise.

Snotlout shook his head. "Almost nobody knows, this happened barely 12 hours ago, only a few officers in the department even know that this happened," he said sighing. "I probably shouldn't be saying this but, I don't think my dad is going to put a lot of resources towards finding them,"

Hiccup and Fishlegs looked at each other and then back towards Snotlout. "What does that mean Snotlout?" Fishlegs asked cautiously.

"Listen…Oswald, you know he's the head of the prosecutor's office right?" Snotlout began, staring into his cup. "...The BPD has always been too focused on repairing its bad reputation, so more energy goes into damage control than actually solving the crime itself, or at least solving the crime well. Oswald, he used to go along with it, he was practically antagonistic with any poor sap the office could pin a crime on. I remember being afraid of him when I was a kid, he really hated the people he prosecuted, like really hated them."

"So what happened? He sounds like your dad's dream come true," Hiccup said with a scoff.

Snotlout chuckled. "Yeah, he was. Was." he shrugged. "I don't really know why, but he just changed one day. I was still in school when it happened so I don't know much about what else was going on around that time, but he just started refusing to prosecute people unless they had enough evidence. Ever since then, my dad and Oswald haven't exactly been on great terms…my dad thinks it's Oswald's fault that the BPD's reputation is at an all-time low,"

Fishlegs stood up abruptly. "So…what? Is he just going to let Heather and Oswald rot? He's not even going to try to get them back?"

"I'm not saying he won't do anything, but I doubt he's going to make this priority number 1"

Hiccup nodded solemnly "It makes sense, with Oswald out of the picture they'll need a new head prosecutor. That can only be good news for the chief…we really are on our own here,"

"This…this is bullshit, how are these the people in charge?! How can somebody like that claim to protect us?" Fishlegs fought to hold back the tears behind his eyes.

Hiccup stood up to look at his friend. "We don't need them, we're going to save them ourselves, that's what we've been doing from the start,"

"But…how can we…"

The front door clicked open, and Astrid walked inside with a bulky satchel slung over her shoulder. "Hiccup, you're here," she said.

"Yeah, I'm here," He said pushing a trembling Fishlegs back down onto the couch. "Please tell me we have a plan,"

Astrid took her boots off and dumped the satchel onto the coffee table. "I know Heather had several trackers still with her, if she was thinking straight, she would've taken one with her when they were taken," she explained. "I brought her laptop, if she's got a tracker on her we'll be able to find it with this,"

Fishlegs let out a shaky breath. "A tracker?"

She nodded. "Let's get started shall we?"

A heavy hand ripped off the bag that was over her head, and she squinted her eyes, trying to adjust to the light they had pointed toward her face. She sat on a cold metal chair, her hands tied behind her back with rough scratchy rope. Heather wasn't sure of how much time had passed, it was night when they were taken, but the last few days or hours had been a terrifying whirlwind. They haphazardly drove her around for what felt like an entire day, until finally searching her, and leaving her in a freezing cold room for hours on end, all with an itchy bag pulled over her head... Her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the blurry silhouettes that surrounded her, but she could make out, four, maybe five different figures in the room with her.

"I know you know why you're here, so let's skip the villain monologue shall we?" One of the figures said to her, he sounded more educated than your average outcast gang member, but there was still a twinge of arrogance in the way he spoke. "Your brother fucked up, we all know that, and I'm willing to let this one slide, I'll even let you and your father go, because I'm a forgiving man, Heather, how does that sound?"

Heather kept her mouth shut, eyes glaring out towards the figures shrouded by the light pointed at her.

"This is a waste of time," another man said, he sounded a lot gruffer, perhaps the bad cop to the first man's good cop. "She's not going to talk, bring her father in and I'll get her to talk,"

"Let's not be hasty, brother," the first voice said calmly. "Heather's a smart girl, she knows what the consequences are," The way he spoke to her made her uneasy, and she felt fear gurgling up in the pit of her stomach. "This is our offer, you tell your brother to shut his mouth, and we'll give him, and you another chance,"

What's the catch? Heather thought to herself, she knew it wouldn't be that simple.

"Oh, and just one more thing," He continued. "You tell me who the Night Fury is, and where we can find him. I think that sounds like a fair trade, don't you?"

Heather continued to remain silent, her lips pressed shut in a thin line.

"I told you," the second voice rang out again. "She won't talk, this nice guy act isn't enough, people like her, they don't want it the easy way," His heavy footsteps approached her and a heavy hand grabbed hold of her neck and squeezed hard. "You're going to tell us what you know, it's only a matter of time, but it's up to you how much pain you'll feel between now and then,"

Her eyes squeezed shut and she clenched her teeth through the pain, but she still kept silent.

"We have your father, my dear," the first voice hissed uncomfortably close to her ear. "His life depends on you, do you want to be responsible for his death, hm?" She winced and twitched her face away from his. "Nobody is coming to save you, we found the tracker sewn into your clothes and destroyed it, you. are. Alone."

Heather sucked in a sharp breath and let out a quiet whimper.

A hand struck her across her face and she went tumbling onto the hard concrete floor, sucking frantic breaths in through her nose, her eyes widened with shock. A hand grabbed her by the collar lifting her back up into the air, her feet dangled. "You won't even scream for us? You're embarrassing my brother in front of our men," cooed the first voice.

"You think you're tough don't you?" The second voice laughed. "I'll beat that out of you, believe me," he said slamming her against a hard wall. But Heather barely made a sound, and just trembled with her eyes and mouth tightly shut.

"Should we bring in her father?" a third voice asked.

"Not yet," the first voice said, and she could hear the smile in his tone. "Let him have his fun first, she's not going anywhere,"

A large fist barreled into Heather's stomach and she gasped loudly, her eyes and mouth bursting open. A small object flew out from her mouth and clinked to the ground, she looked up at their faces as they searched the dark floor for the object. At that moment, Heather got a look at the men in the room, it was still dark, but without the light blinding her vision she could make out some of their features.

"What the fuck was that?" The man holding her asked, the sound of rage bubbling up in his voice.

One figure walked over and felt the ground until he located the object on the floor. He stared at it for a few seconds before looking up at the others. "I think it's a tracking device,"

"What?" He roared. "I thought you searched her?!"

"Not her mouth, she had a bag over her head, like you asked us to," he explained frantically. "We didn't think she'd have two trackers on her!"

"You didn't think?" the first voice hissed, the rage in his soft voice was even more terrifying than if he had screamed his words.

"We don't know if it's active yet, let me take this up to-" but before he could finish his sentence something abruptly stopped him. Heather couldn't see what had happened, but his words turned to gasps and gurgles, and the sound of his body slumping to the ground gave her a pretty good idea of what his fate was. "Our location is compromised, we need to leave, now," the playfulness in his voice was gone.

"What do we do with her and her father?" the man holding her asked.

"Take them with us, we still need them to find the Night Fury,"

Or maybe the Night Fury will find you. Heather thought to herself.