Jesus Christ.

Jack just stood there for a moment. Half of him was saying, "why not?" And the other half was… breaking. "How- how is that possible?" He asked, more to himself than to Sandy. Sandy who dropped his shoulders with an exasperated look. "Yeah, yeah I get it. After everything how could itnotbe possible?" He amended. Artemis happened to notice her rider's restlessness and paused for a moment in her glaring. Who was she glaring at? Oh yeah, Clap, Sandy's dragon.

"So… you can just… understand everything they're saying?" He asked, and Sandy, for the tenth time, nodded in confirmation. "How?" He asked, but ended up going on before Sandy could answer. "What is he saying?" He wondered, pointing to Clap, "what isshesaying?" He asked before backtracking, "wait- never mind, I don't want to know." That statement earned him a glare from Artemis. Meanwhile Sandy informed him that he didn't know exactly how his new found powers really worked either, only that he could understand dragons and control dreams.

"But the way I do it isn't the same, I can control them, but I too have to be sleeping and there's no sand."He signed.

So that's why it took him so long to find me,Jack realized, but there was still a question hanging there. He had a lot of questions now that he thought about it. They spent pretty much an entire day flying in silence after Jack convinced Sandy to come with him to the Sanctuary. He needed time to gather his thoughts and make sure he could even consider all of the questions he wanted to ask. "If you were on Grimora island that entire time… why didn't you…" He trailed off waving a hand to indicate what he was trying to say. There were a lot of things Sandy could have done and a lot of places he could've shown himself.

As for the man in question,"I tried, but your friends showed up,"he told him, which reminded him of the twig snapping back right before Hiccup had appeared. Sandy must've been there. "Thank you for saving me," he said awkwardly and Sandy nodded. It was good to have someone who actuallyknewwhat was going on. Sure, Valka knew and Skathi knew– probably more than Jack realized –but they hadn'tbeenthere. Reflecting back, Sandy was probably the best Guardian he could've found. Tooth was a close second but she would've hit him over the head for being reckless by now and the others were mostly self explanatory. Jack didn't want to imagine how this conversation would've gone had he found Bunny instead.

Suddenly, a whistle followed by a littlethunklanded right next to his ear. An arrow, not a Dragon Hunter arrow, he could tell that immediately. This one was sleek and black with silver twisting around it. Wood was definitely not used to make this.

Of course, these were only the observations he could make in a few seconds because before he could stare any longer, more started zipping out of the trees. As a result, he and Sandy were forced to rush to their dragons in a desperate attempt to get out of range. They practically jumped onto their backs, holding on for dear life as they dodged arrows. It happened so fast he could barely comprehend what was happening before they were up in the air. Conveniently, getting out of range worked… For about ten seconds of course.

Ten seconds was enough time for Jack to wonder who was attacking them and why. (He should've known, with his luck?). They waited, staring at the trees. Now, normally Jack would've flown away by now without too much of a second thought but something was different this time. This time his muscles wouldn't move and nothing in his body would listen to him. For some reason there was fear.

So they waited for ten seconds in a tight silence.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The tightness released in the form of pure terror. Jack felt his soul lurch as a black mass ten times the size of their own two dragons combined rose past him in a blur. Somehow Jack found himself able to move again. He stole a quick glance at Sandy to find him frozen and staring, his mask of calm broken to reveal an expression that looked more as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.

"Sandy!" He shouted as he led Artemis to knock him out of the way of the thing's dive attack. It took them a second to recover from the impact and the sheer wind resistance exploding from the thing but even then it seemed to be coming back for round two. This time however Jack caught a glimpse of what exactly this thingwas.

They were forced to dive out of the way a third time before Jack could say what he wanted, "is that a dragon?" He shouted, knowing Sandy wouldn't respond, but he thought he'd get it out there anyway.

The "dragon" couldn't seem to choose a form to take. It seemed to constantly shift between shapes vaguely resembling a different dragon each time. But the feature that made him pause… were its eyes. They were yellow. They were a veryspecificyellow. A very familiar yellow too.

Jack made a split second decision, he would distract the dragon while Sandy got away, not because of some self-sacrificial bullshit, but because he had the faster dragon, and he could turn invisible, he thought it made sense. "Sandy! Fly farther north until you reach an island of ice, that's the Sanctuary. Go inside and find Valka!" He yelled, he wasn't sure if Sandy heard all of it considering they were dodging strikes left and right, it was so fast Jack wondered if he was just straight up caught in a tornado.

He also wondered why this thing never just blasted him to smithereens and went on with its life, but then again, did this thing even need fire? Speed, ruthlessness, and unpredictability were the three deadly things Jack would choose to describe it as. He could barely see it coming and the amount of times it almost took his head off were more than he cared to count.

If it is trying to resemble a tornado it's working,he thought as wind pushed them around leaving him to pray nothing hit them. He steered Artemis straight upward to escape only to be cut off,again. It swept him off of Artemis and the fact that he never hit a sea stack on the way down was a miracle considering how crowded the scenery had did it chase us so far away?He wondered, as he fell,Jesus, how many times was this?He should have just built a warning into his armor, "WARNING: Prone to falling."

He was caught,again. He really wished to stop seeing his excuse for a life flash before his eyes, could he be done with the over dramatic PTSD trips? Thank you. The "dragon" barely avoided crashing into the water by dissipating just as Artemis grabbed him and pulled out, yet the kicked up water still soaked him and Artemis because of course it goes option one."

"Take us through there," he told his dragon, pointing to a very crowded area of sea stacks and other random rock formations, some random things sticking out of the that a tree?

"Look out!" He shouted as Artemis spun away fromanother wanted to groan so badly but a crucial observation kept his mouth shut… or left it open and silent, depending on how you look at it.

The second dragon immediately collided with the first andmerged with out, the second dragon was just the first larger dragon split in half. Now Jack just wanted to cry, of course the second he finds one of the Guardians, Pitch findshim. He can tell, because who else makes their black nightmare dragons out of sand? The Easter Bunny?

They dropped out of the way so close to the water it splashed up beside them. He steered Artemis up to blast it, hoping the fast rapid fire will dissipate it. Nope, it just split in two and ended up behind them. They dove out of the way again before Jack could even see it coming. It chased them as if they were the last edible things on Earth.

"Okay, I've got an idea," he whispered, knowing Artemis probably didn't actually need to hear it to know what was happening. They flew in between two sea stacks for cover as Jack looked around for the Nightmare. "Up!" He shouted as it nearly bit Arti's tail off. They shot upwards and Jack could only hope as they suddenly changed direction and dove back the other way, downwards. Artemis charged a blast as they went. Jack could have sworn he briefly caught the Nightmare's eyes widen as it dissipated to reform and follow them down from behind. Artemis kept charging her blast.

Only when Jack gave the okay did she let it loose into the water. It splashed up around them cold and sharp as Jack closed his eyes and held on for dear life. When they emerged he quickly twisted to see what became of the Nightmare. As predicted, the entire thing was caught underwater, the sand becoming too heavy to properly control. Sadly it wouldn't be that way for long.

They dove behind a rock formation and hid there and tried to be silent. Jack's breathing was anything but calm or silent however and it caused him to bury his face in Artemis's back when the Nightmare emerged from the water. Close, way too close.

Somehow it looked even more terrifying than when it was just sand, now it was more like mud. It was smaller though, much smaller and parts of it were falling and dropping off into the water below. It roared, a sound that came out more like a scream and proceeded to race off when it realized it's prey had gotten away from it.

Jack sat there for a moment, shaking.

• •

He arrived two hours later at the Sanctuary to find two of the scariest people he knewveryangrily glaring at each other, Val holding her staff up and in the middle of some sort of threat. In other words, he flew in on an interrogation.

"Woah! Val, calm down–

She immediately turned on him, causing him to step back in fear of her terrifying gaze,"calm down'?"She asked in a tone that communicated everything that she had decided to leave out of that sentence. "Uhm, this is Sandy, he's one of the Guardians."

"And why didn't he tell me that himself?"

"Uhm."

He shared a look with Sandy.

"Don't look at him."

He whipped his head back immediately, "he doesn't talk Val," he tried and watched her slowly relax, her shoulders dropping to lower her weapon. "Then we need to get him to Skathi," she concluded and then took off towards the bigger, brighter main cavern. Jack, in turn, was forced to yank Sandy after her by his collar. The tunnels were familiar to him and Val, especially Val who could race through said tunnels like a drone, though Sandy on his own would have a bit of trouble and given how short he was, he would have been down there for a while. They raced after her, dragging Sandy the whole time as he choked on his collar.

When they finally popped out the other side of the tunnel Jack was pretty sure the only reason Sandy didn't hit him over the head was because of the sheer amount of awe this place held. He looked back and sure enough Sandy was standing there, not necessarily in awe, but he was looking around at everything like he couldn't decide what to look at first.

The Riders would–

He grimaced at himself and brought his attention back to leading Sandy towards Skathi. "Come on," he beckoned and led him over to the dragon, uncharacteristically silent. Jack had no idea why he was in such a rush lately, or why he seemed to be missing the "fun" aspect of his personality, but it was getting to him. It was probably getting to Sandy as well. For now, he just brushed it off as his urgency to report to Valka and Skathi about Pitch. After all, it was the first true sighting of him in what felt like forever, and that was saying a lot considering Jack was mentally 300 years old.

Another thing always happened whenever he entered the Sanctuary, his white hair and blue eyes would come back, he assumed it was because of close proximity to Skathi.

Jack smiled at Sandy's happy wave of greeting towards a dragon many others would be terrified to look at in the eye. Jack knewhewas definitely intimidated by Skathi when he first met him, still intimidated actually.

"You've found one…"he observed, and looked at Sandy with curiosity and another emotion Jack couldn't read. But the fact that Sandy was now finally at the Sanctuary was no longer his biggest concern, now it was Pitch. "Yeah, and then Pitch found us," he responded and Sandy nodded in agreement with Jack's report. Valka however, Jack couldn't really tell. Her face flashed through something like concern but it was gone before he could be completely sure. "What happened?" She asked, as Skathi turned his full attention onto him.

"We were talking when suddenly he came out of nowhere. But it wasn't Pitch himself, it was some sort of dragon created by his powers," he explained and saw the very legitimate fear pale the colors on Valka's face."That is impossible, man nor any other creature can create dragons,"Skathi hissed.

"I'm not sure itwasa dragon exactly. It was a 'Nightmare'. He makes them out of corrupted dream sand. He probably just used his powers and happened to choose a dragon as his Nightmare's final form," he argued.

"Either way, it's a problem, and a major one at that. It means this Pitch can create what is essentially a dragon army and our alpha nor we will be able to do anything about it," Valka stressed.

"Perhaps these false 'dragons' have a weakness?"

"I was able to weaken it with water, but it's still out there and the water did virtually nothing in the grand scheme of things. Did I mention it's almost impossible to kill them? They're way too fast and can dodge even Artemis's blasts." He continued, remembering the way it knocked him off his dragon and almost took his head off multiple times."Do you remember how it could have found you?"Skathi pressed but Jack shook his head, "it didn't attack until I found Sandy, it could've been stalking us but I don't know if it was intelligent enough for that," he recalled, and saw that Valka was about to say something when a loud clap interrupted her.

All heads turned to Sandy who was standing there looking very annoyed. Jack winced as he realized they'd probably been ignoring him. "Sorry, you were saying?" He prompted.

"Pitch could've sensed we were there together,"Sandy explained, "What?" Jack asked, turning to him in confusion,"spirits and Guardians naturally emit magic. It's why you can create frost without even really thinking about it. Same goes for believers although their magic is weaker and as a result has much less of an effect on physical things. Pitch probably located us by sensing both our magical signatures when we were together. I know every spirit used to be able to do this once upon a time to find each other,"he finished and Jack could imagine the whole explanation that just came out of his hands was pretty tiring, yet he just couldn't help but ask, "if that's the case how come he's never found me before while I was alone? How is he even able to do that, because I definitely can't."

Sandy thought for a moment,"it's probably hard to pinpoint a lone spirit,"he guessed.

"And why can'twepinpoint things?"

Sandy paused and proceeded to just shrug at that,"The practice died out I guess."The fact that Pitch had enough power to not only create massive sand dragons but also pinpoint just two spirits based on their magic was wildly concerning, it meant that Pitch probably found a source of power similar to how Jack found Skathi. Furthermore, it was likely this source of power was evenmorepowerful than the King of Dragons, and wasn'tthatconcerning? Or was it because he was something akin to a magical being even before he became the Nightmare King?

When he caught Val's confused eye, he quickly explained what Sandy had told him. Both Val and Skathi seemed to be just as concerned as him, if not a little more. "If that's the case, what happens now that you two are here at the Sanctuary?" Valka asked, and there was a frozen silence that held the air.

"My power might be strong enough to naturally mask the two of you, so there's no need to worry, for now," Skathi told them, and Jack felt like a child being comforted in the collapsing ?Boy was that reassuring. On top of that, if Pitch found them it would be Jack's fault, yet another thing he messed up for everyone.

"As for you,"he said, now addressing Sandy,"like Jackson, you will train your magic under me and fighting skills under Valka,"he explained and pretty much kicked them out without a goodbye and Jack had to catch himself on Artemis. "Why's he always in a rush?" Jack muttered under his breath feeling nauseated like usual. Sandy actually threw up.

• •

About a week passed by before Jack thought of the Riders again. Everyone's been busy, Valka now trained both spirits who often ended up sparring together anyway. Skathi was the same as usual though he seemed to sigh more often than not. Clap seemed to be getting along fine with the other dragons and he and Artemis could stand right next to each other now.

What had everyone really tired though, was the "other shoe". They were all waiting for it to drop and crush them under its weight; even the dragons. Of course, he's talking about Pitch. What if Skathi actually can't mask their presence? Hell, even Artemis seemed more snappy than usual. He had to actually hold her back from full on attacking a Monstrous Nightmare at one point.

That wasn't even glancing over Jack's nightmares lately. They were very repetitive, so at least there was that. Sometimes he'd be trapped in a glacier like he was when Pitch broke his staff and almost killed Babytooth, except this time he'd truly lay there forever, never learning about his past or his center. The worst part were the ones where things turned outbetteras a result, all because he wasn't there. Other times it was of the ice breaking beneath his feet, sometimes it'd be rock, either way he'd fall as a silhouette of someone would reach out to catch him and almost make it before it was too late.

On the worst nights he'd dream of what his sister might have said after he died. Which brings him to now. The Riders probably thought he was dead or something, what were they saying? Did they even care? The curiosity was killing him and he hadn't even been allowed to leave the Sanctuary due to safety measures. It gets old talking to the same people for a week with no breaks in between.

If he was being honest, he missed the Riders, sure he'd only spent about a day with them,a day full of lies,but they were the literal only people "his age". They were fun, and chaotic, and everything Jack just could not have. Not with Pitch around, not with his powers and certainly not with his past. Yet he felt guilty for leaving them thinking he was dead when he wasn' wouldn't it be best to leave them out of it?

I'm never going to sleep aren't I?He thought, rolling out of bed to take a walk. He didn't need a light, the moon bouncing off of the ice created a natural lighting that made it so he could at least see where he was going. He thought he heard Artemis following him, protective as ever.

He made his way up to a small hole broken into the side of the Sanctuary, it was more like the size of a gateway for him but it was too small for dragons to just come and go so it felt more like some sort of private window for him to sit at.

He felt himself calm down as the midnight wind came and ruffled his hair. He wondered if the wind at night had a separate spirit, it just felt so much more calming and completely different than wind in the daytime, if the wind here had a spirit at all.

He let out a heavy sigh, the sad truth was that he found himself out there more than he ever found himself actually in his room. Most of the time he'd come out here and end up falling asleep, even after a year, sleeping in normal beds was too comfortable and unfamiliar.

From here it was almost like he was back in Burgess. Almost. The moon shone down in the same way, Hell, he was even sitting on ice. But unlike Burgess, a place that wouldn't see a drop of water that wasn't rain or snow, he was sat by the ocean. The waves crashed against the island in a sort of hypnotic way that made it easy to distract himself. It was a sound he often fell asleep to nowadays.

A sound heneverfell asleep to, was the sound of light footsteps that approached him from behind. Jack didn't worry too much however, considering he was sure Artemis would've mauled them had it been anyone he couldn't trust. He had a feeling he already knew who it was anyway. They let a few more waves crash into the side of the ice.

"What's on your mind?"Sandy asked, and it took a moment for Jack to get rid of his confusion. He remembered how Sandy would technically always be there in the form of dream sand and therefore had caught Jack pretty much trauma dumping the moon at least once. He wasn't worried per say he trusted Sandy enough to know he wasn't the type of person to listen in on that sort of thing let alone tell people.

"Should I reach out to the Riders?" He asked, and somehow he didn't sound nearly as shaken as he felt. Sandy tilted his head in confusion, "my…" he paused for at least five seconds, "...friends, I guess," he clarified, "they think I'm dead," he said, playing it off as if it were some slightly funny joke. No one laughed.

"If you care about them, I think you should."

"That's not what I mean. I care about them, don't get me wrong, but you know… Pitch and… everything," he dropped his hands in pure communication skills you got there,God he wanted to tell his own brain to shut up.

"What if they figure it out?" He tried."Figure it out?"Sandy still looked at him in confusion, "I don't want to put them in danger but I… feel like they at least deserve to know I'maliveright?" He finally landed. Sandy looked at him with an expression that somehow called him stupid and had a gentle understanding attached to it as well."then just tell them you're alive,"was all he put before getting up to go walk back to bed.

Jack stared after him like he was scandalized.

• •

Another week went by before Jack's slow ass finally figured out what Sandy meant by,"just tell them you're alive". But it'd been about two weeks and he was sure they'd already moved on. Would it be annoying if he suddenly announced he'd been alive the whole time?Probably much less annoying than thinking someone died right in front of you, some part of his brain added, he couldn't be sure whether it was the stupid impulsive part or the sane and sensible part, (if that part existed).

It almost madetoomuch sense. He tossed a fish to Artemis as a treat for not growling at the other dragons. These were the dragons that couldn't fly and therefore could never come with them to eat. Maybe Hiccup would've known something about that considering his dragon has a prosthetic tail fin. Jack's stomach churned. He wanted to roll his eyes at his own indecisiveness.

Would it hurt to let them know that he was at least alive? It's not like he would be obligated to follow up. He could send a sign or something, maybe a letter? He's definitely not showing his face around the Edge ever again, it'd be too risky to let them have any opportunity to hold him up before he had a chance toescape, leave and Jack didn't like any chance that they'd somehow convince him to actually stay. With Pitch now able to track him? Yeah, that's a no.

One letter,he decided,just one and then nothing else,he didn't knowhowhe'd get the letter there but there was no rush and that was a problem for future Jack to solve.

• •

Future came fast apparently, and there definitely was a rush. A rush of terror at being caught. He had the thing ready by the next day and only because he couldn't figure out what to say other than "I'm alive, I was saved by a friend of mine." – Jackson.

Plain and simple and in Jack's opinion explained enough, made it pretty clear it was him, and kept everyone at a . Only not "yay" because now he was running– flying –for his life as Cloudjumper chased after him.

The plan went like this:

Escape the Sanctuary

Make it to the Edge

Turn invisible

Deliver the stupid letter

Don't get caught by Riders

He almost failed the first one. His only saving grace was Clodjumper's size and the fact that Valka wasn't currently on his back. Silver linings. Either way he flew so fast he was sure Artemis was just as terrified.

"Val is going to be so mad," he groaned, turning to look ahead. Another thing to note was that Jack was still on house arrest because of Pitch. In fact, this entire thing was so ridiculous and unreasonable he considered turning his ass around, bribing Cloudjumper into silence, and burning the evidence of what he'd been planning. But he just couldn't bring himself to do that, he'd feel too guilty and restless.

Every time he thought about how the Riders would feel he thought of how he felt when he realized he never knew if his sister lived a good life. In the end, the best thing for everybody would be to tell the Riders he was alive and then never speak to them again.

He could do that right…?

There were many times within the three days he spent flying that he had the urge to turn around and fly back but the fear of Valka's rage kept him from doing so. He honestly felt bad for Arti who was just forced to endure his distressed pacing, then again she did often respond with an act of "domestic violence" so…

Soon though, (too soon in Jack's opinion), he saw the Edge in the distance. He took a deep breath, "okay Arti, be quiet with this one," he whispered and Artemis looked at him like it should be obvious that stealth was her middle name or something.

She flew into a blast, the heat encasing them for a moment like a familiar hug. Jack had one rule while he was invisible, never look down, his Thalassaphobia would drive him up a figurative wall if he did.

They glided past the dragons on watch unnoticed and began looking for a hut that could've been Hiccup's. Not very hard to find when the huts were all correlated with the Rider's dragon. A red and purple one in particular stook out to him, obviously a Night Fury's.

They landed on the roof as silently as possible,now to figure out how to get in,he thought to himself. There was one very,verysmall window he could use, he'd have to be very fast if he was going to outlast his cloaking time limit. He'd have to be absolutely silent too in case Hiccup happened to be a light sleeper.

That's when he heard footsteps. Or footstep? One of those was clearly metal– oh shit. Despite being invisible Jack ducked out of view fueled by instinct. Apparently Hiccup wasn't a sleeper at all because he'd decided that taking a casual stroll at the asscrack of dawn was better than actually getting least it'd be easier to sneak in without getting caught,he thought to himself, relaxing a bit.

That's when Jack noticed how exhausted he looked. Guilt and a twinge of concern panged him as he observed the way Hiccup's eyes drooped down with a new level of tiredness. Jack winced as he realized that witnessing anyone supposedly die right in front of you wasn't the best remedy for sleep. God, no wonder he was out here, Jack knew damn well he would be too.

With this new information in mind Jack wasted no time dropping down into the hut as silently as possible and freezing when Toothless immediately reacted with a growl he could hear through thewall. "shit…" he breathed, cursing that damn dragon for being such a good bodyguard. Then again, it was impossible to curse Toothless, he was too cute…

He thought about hiding the letter in one of the drawers but the rush to leave was overpowering. He felt like a kid leaving a love letter. Ew. So instead he just rushed over to a desk and put it in the middle of everything. Except he paused, only for a moment but it was enough for Jack to see the papers about a… flight suit? How Hiccup had any knowledge about aerodynamics in the year "Sundials!" was beyond Jack.

Jesus, Daedalus, leave some brains for the others,he thought, and couldn't help but smile when tiny feeling thatcould'vebeen pride washed over him. Like the story however, that pride turned to dread as he heard the footsteps now right outside. Jack pivoted on his heel only to barely avoid being hit in the face as the door opened.

He froze, stopped breathing really. Thought and feared that Hiccup would hear his damn heart beating because he wasright close that if Jack breathed at all it'd befelt.

Shit.

Hiccup looked through him, confused. Jack held his breath as he sidestepped to let Hiccup pass him. Had Toothless not been so distracted by the letter he'd have tackled Jack in a heartbeat. He really had to thank someone for letting him get away with this. It felt like murder and all that.

That and thank Hiccup for having good craftsmanship. The floorboards were sturdy and silent. Thank fuck.

Jack didn't continue breathing until he made it out the forgotten door and onto Artemis's back. Jack's mind never left Hiccup lookingthroughhim though. Just like people would back in Burgess and for some reason it 's not fair,he thought as he loathed the effects it still had on him. It wasn't even the actual thing and it hurt.

Now Jack was shaking, not with rage or adrenaline. Just because his body decided it could. That or maybe it was because he was practically starving. Who was he to choose?

• •

He was not ready for Sandy's rage, he definitely wasn't ready for what Valka had to say, and he certainly could never have predicted what Skathi would say let alone that he'd get involved. For the most part everything went as predicted in the first few minutes of his return. A lot of yelling, worried lectures and–

"Skathi and I had a talk while you were gone."

–and that's about where the normalcy ended.

"Wait what?" He asked because that probably meant death. He had no doubt the pandemonium erupting in his brain leaked out into his face and voice. He heard it himself, the words slid out with apprehension etched into the spaces in between vowels. He figured that in any other situation she would have laughed about it but right now… right now she looked as if whatever talk she had earlier she didn't like.

"We've come to the decision to let you go out on your own," was all she said, looking like she hated the decision each time she thought about it. Jack's first thought was, "you're kicking me out?"

"No!"

"No!"

"We're not kicking you out Jack," she assured, which only made him more confused. If they weren't kicking him out then what could, "let you go out on your own," mean?

"We want you to to be safe, but Skathi has decided to put your quest first, and therefore has deemed it inconvenient for you to look for the Guardians in numbers, or more specifically people constantly surrounded by magic," she explained, not at all happy with the decision, that much was as clear as a Light Fury's scales.

"In fact, Skathi went as far to say that being surrounded by people who aren't magical or haven't been around magic all that much would be better,"it seemed Sandy was in on this too."If they don't know about magic then both you and the humans are safe because their unbelief will mask your… aura,"he quickly continued and Jack couldn't help but feel like there was some sort of hint he was supposed to be getting.

"Of course, we'd never kick you out Jack," Valka said, now seemingly more calm and comforting than irritated. She placed her hands on his shoulders, effectively grasping his attention, "think about it like this, if you and I or you and Sandy went out together Pitch would find you. Add a possible third Guardian and…" she trailed off,they weren't trying to get rid of him,that realization seemed to rub the tension out of his shoulders, a tension he never knew he was holding onto in the first place.

That… made sense. All it meant was that from now on, if Jack ever went out he'd have to go alone no matter what. He basically just got the, "you're becoming independent" talk. Fitting too considering he'd turned 18 only a few months back. Suddenly Valka's grip on his shoulders hardened causing Jack to tense back up, "but don't think for a second that you're getting out of this Scott free," she declared before steering him toward God knows where. Artemis laughed at his misfortune, "oh, I'm coming for you next, accomplice," Val threw in behind them which got Artemis toactually cower.

• •

1 month later…

Jack lay awake in bed with something that he refused to acknowledge as excitement. Nope. Definitelynotexcitement… Just this weird feeling that made him all fidgety and nervous but also– nope, just nervous.

Jack got a letter from Hiccup– they totally hadn't been sending them back and forth –and had sat there struggling to hold in his laughter for about thirty minutes to an hour. It wasn't even the letter itself, the actual letter was pretty serious and had asked questions that Jack didn't know how to respond to. The literal only reason he was reeling was because of a sarcastic remark at the very end of all of it. Every time Jack would seem to calm down he'd think of it again and start giggling like a little girl, and he had a sister once upon a time, he knew what that sounded like.

The topic of the actual letter was what got him to finally sober up. Almost the entire thing was a spiel about how Hiccup felt didn't really get to know Jack all that much which was foreboding enough to begin with,and kind of the the actual questions he asked and it was basically setting him up for just leaving the poor guy on this world's version of 'read'.

Yet the thing was, Jackreallywanted to respond. It was true, Hiccup knew next to nothing about him and given Jack's… situation, that fact would be expected to act as a comfort to him, right? Right. Itshouldbe. But it wasn't and Jack had no idea why. In the end, he decided to save it for later. He didn't necessarily need to respond right that second and Hiccup's Terror needed a rest anyway.

With that, Jack decided it would be best to leave it at the Sanctuary and try to forget about it, at least until he had enough words to make something understandable. Artemis however, wouldn't let him. It wasn't her fault, he'd been neglecting going on flights for a while now and Arti, being as protective as she was, rarely left his side and if she ever did, she'd never leave for long. She seemed to always want him in her sight so technically, they only went for long flights when Jack decided he needed that's what happens when you lose all your children, he thought darkly.

He honestly couldn't figure out what was going on with him lately, things have been rushed and change came faster than he anticipated but he didn't think it would turn him into such a pessimist. Sighing, he folded up the letter and stuffed it into one of Arti's saddle bags, "Maybe a flight would help some huh?" He asked gently, knowing Artemis probably knew what he was thinking anyway and grabbing his armor.

Jack hated having to go through "being a teenager",again. He'd forgotten what it was like and having only been alive for about a year, sometimes he can forget how annoying it is. Of course he wasn't going to blame everything on fucking mood swings but was there really any other way to explain why Artemis and him were flying at top speed just to let off steam that Jack forgot even existed?

He was mostly mad at himself and for many reasons he'd rather not think about at the moment. That's what the speed was for, he took advantage of the need to dodge incoming obstacles and the adrenalin to distract from the fact that… Well, everything. It seemed like nothing had been going right as of late. The fact that now he could leave the Sanctuary and no one would be able to follow him might've been his only solace.

Now that the Riders were starting to get curious, it was just another thing he'd have to look out for and figure a solution what do I tell him?Jack couldn't just say nothing.

The feeling was strange and unfamiliar, maybe he'd just forgotten what anxiety felt like because for over 300 years he'd never had a reason to feel it? Spirits avoided him and quite literallyno onecould see him anyway so why worry? Suddenly there was sharp sting in his cheek, cutting his train of thought in half, "ow hey–

Artemis interrupted him with a snarl and tilted her head towards their left,what is that?He wondered, eyeing the island and its suspiciously large arena. "Well, that doesn't look like it's made for people," he observed. The arena was sunken into the ground, which while not usually unusual it was sunken in like 30 ft, the stands for the audience were so far back it was like they were worried the opponents would attack the people with ten foot poles, and there were chains weaved and smelted together to create a roof. Why would an outdoor arena need a roof? A chain roof at that. However the most notable detail and the detail that provided an explanation for everything was the sudden blast of fire that erupted out of the chain dome like a tornado.

"Dragon fights."