"Wha- huh- how?!"

"I said no questions!"

"Well, this feels warranted."

"Fine, guess I'll go."

"No wait!"

…

"Kidding. I wouldn't do that."

"Oh, haha."

Jack just smirked at him, "okay, so no questions got it, anything else?" Hiccup asked, and had to hold back a sigh. He was really hoping there was nothing else.

"Nope, but I do hope you have one of those dragons shoved up your 'æs' because otherwise I don't know how we'd get anywhere before the sun comes up," he said, his indecisively colored eyes flickering around as he talked.

"Really? That's it, just don't ask?" He… asked, and Hiccup wanted to face palm… at himself, "yeah, trust me if I had a thousand conditions just so your friend could live…" Jack said, seemingly gaining a 17 going on 40 look to him.

Hiccup paused for a moment, maybe he could trust Jack. He definitely didn't seem like the type to screw him over.

And if you take him back to the Edge you could possibly gain some information.

Yeah, that was it. That was the absolute only reason Hiccup wanted to take him back with him. No other reason. None. That was it.

"Well, I…" he trailed off, trying to decode the sentence where Jack had said something about a dragon being shoved… somewhere.

He sighed, giving up, "I'll call for him," he said, turning to do a dragon call.

…

Nothing.

Now Hiccup was starting to get worried. Toothless hadn't even come when Hiccup was pretty much shouting his name. That's… concerning…

"You sure he's coming?" Jack asked from behind him, pocketing the vial of cure. "He should be, usually he'd arrive just by my shouting. He's never needed a dragon call like this," he explained, thinking over almost every possibility and situation as to why Toothless would be unresponsive like this.

"That dragon call of yours is really cool by the way, and clever," Jack said, walking over to stand by his side. Hiccup gazed at him, he still couldn't be sure if his hair was white or brown. Let alone his eyes.

Oddly enough, Jack didn't really seem to mind his staring.

"You think the hunters got him?" Jack asked, and Hiccup hoped that wasn't it. "You wanna check," Jack assumed at his worried expression, peering through furrowed brows. In this light his eyes looked Sapphire blue.

"Yeah, it'd be best considering that he's never done this before," Hiccup said quickly, looking back at the place they just came from. "Then let's go, before they ship him off somewhere!" Jack said, practically skipping towards the Northern Markets.

Why do I always attract the weird ones? He thought to himself, still trying to figure out whether Jack's hair was white or brown.

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They slowly trudged their way back to the tents and the torches that lit the markets. Jack made sure to go slower this time for Hiccup's sake. He honestly didn't know how to feel about the whole situation.

On one hand, there is a possibility that he could be lying, that somehow he knows who Jack is and is just using the whole 'my friend is dying' to get to him.

On the other hand, he could wholeheartedly be telling the truth, and if Jack refused, then another person would die. No matter what happened these people were around his age, so kids, and honestly? Ever since Jack had first laid eyes on the 'Dragon Riders' he's never really gotten a malicious vibe from them.

And of course he remembered the time when the person who was literally walking not too far behind him shot an arrow at a Snow Wraith and trapped a Skrill and a dark hole with pretty much no way to survive in terms of food or water for years.

But if he didn't do this, he'd never find out which hand to place them in, right?

He shoved a stubborn branch out of his way, annoyed. They'd made it back and immediately Jack knew something was wrong.

"Wait," he said, holding a hand to Hiccup, "what? What is it?" He asked, obviously confused about Jack's sudden stop. "Tell me, what do you hear?" He asked, straining straining to listen closer.

"Nothing," then Hiccup froze, seeming to realize something, "exactly," Jack said, turning back to the overpass.

All was silent at the Northern Markets.

All was dark too. No lights were lit. The only light available was the moon. He heard Hiccup come up to stand next to him, "okay, that's not weird at all," he said, and Jack had to agree on that sense of sarcasm.

They continued on, albeit warily.

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"Where are the Hunters? The people even?" Hiccup said semi-quietly.

"You're asking me?" Jack said, looking around like he was expecting someone to pop out, scare them, and then laugh it off like a sick joke.

He wasn't actually expecting that, nor was he hoping for it. But at least it wasn't the eerie silence that blanketed the place like fog.

In fact it was a little foggy too, and hard to see.

"Uhm, on a scale of one to ten, how likely is it that you would sleep out here?" Hiccup whispered, clearly just trying to fill the silence.

Jack gave a small nervous laugh, "Zero. I'm prone to nightmares you know," he answered, and before Hiccup could respond, something ran across both of their peripherals conveniently accompanied by a loud–

CLANG

They both jumped and one of them yelped. He was pretty sure at least.

A metal pot had fallen over.

For a second they just stared at it, wide eyed and not daring to move.

"That was a rat, right?" Hiccup asked in Jack's ear. "You'd like that wouldn't you," he whispered, tilting his head to face Hiccup, Jack noticed Hiccup was about maybe one to two inches taller than him, which wasn't fair. Jack also noticed that Hiccup had been staring at Jack a lot lately, in fact he was doing it right now, like, I get it, I'm not from here thanks.

Oddly enough he didn't really mind all that much, maybe because Hiccup's stare felt less judgy and more intrigued, like Jack was a mystery he wanted to know the twist to. He didn't know whether to feel scared he might actually figure him out or not.

Either way, Jack looked back to the stall that held the pots, and slowly both him and Hiccup made their way towards it.

Then Jack saw it, in the reflection of the pot stood Artemis, hidden in the shadows and barely visible, sure, but Jack would be able to tell her out anywhere. Even if she was invisible, of course she'd have to be stationary and he'd have to squint, but he could.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was busy scanning the tree line for the cause of that ominous snapping twig he'd heard, probably also Artemis.

She tilted her head in the direction of the docks, worry apparent in her eyes. This confused Jack, that is, until, in the distance, faint, but there, Jack heard shouting.

Well, there's the people, he thought to himself.

He grabbed Hiccup and pulled him over to a small ledge that overlooked the shore.

Shit, or the Dragon Hunters!

"Look," he said, pointing to one of the ships below, "Dragon Hunters," Hiccup said, looking grim.

Then Hiccup's breath hitched, "Toothless," he breathed, and sure enough, captured in one of the disgustingly green cages, was a black Night Fury.

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"That's the dragon," Jack said, and Hiccup barely heard him, he shook his head, he let them get Toothless. How could he–

There was a hand on his shoulder, surprisingly cold but that detail only helped to snap him back to reality and ground him there. It seemed to shock his brain back into working so to speak.

"Hey," Hiccup turned his head to the firm voice, "they haven't left yet, let's go down there and get him back," Jack told him, and though there were only two of them, Jack's confidence never seemed to waver.

It reassured Hiccup to no end. Still, "but how? There's almost a hundred of them and two of us."

Hiccup was fighting the urge to scream. They'd been there for about 10 minutes already and they hadn't done anything.

They had made it onto the ship without much trouble, it was getting Toothless and getting out that was the hard part.

At the moment, they were staring at the eight guards that were standing post outside Toothless's cage. Because of course there had to be eight.

"What are we waiting for, let's go," Hiccup hissed, but Jack just concentrated on the cage and the guards.

Eventually he got restless and started to stand up when Jack pushed him back down again. "What–

"Shhh!" Jack hissed, and held Hiccup by the shoulders again, a good way to say "you aren't aren't going anywhere on my watch".

"If they have a dragon as valuable as this on deck it means one of two things. A, it's a trap and they want us go out there 'ɡʌnz' blazing–

"I don't think I really care–

"Well you should, or B, the lower deck is stocked full of dragons. If we go down there and set them free…" Hiccup's eyes widened, "We could get Toothless easily amidst the chaos," he finished.

He considered it. It would be a thousand times easier to get Toothless when everyone else was distracted, "Jack your a genius," he said, "I wouldn't call myself one but thanks?" Jack said, and grabbed Hiccup's hand.

He guided Hiccup and him both toward the lower deck making sure no one saw them. They must've been using the guards for whatever trap was happening with Toothless because they only spared two guards for the lower deck. In fact he and Jack didn't even have to do anything because one of them was asleep and the other kept walking around.

It was surprisingly easy to sneak past them in the end.

The lower deck wasn't full of dragons but there were a good number of them down there. It honestly just confirmed that yes, Jack was right, Toothless's cage being on deck like that was a trap.

"The cells need a key," Hiccup reminded him, "I can pick the lock, can you keep an eye out?" Jack asked him, and proceeded to take something out of his pocket and crouch down to one of the cells holding a Gronkle.

Hiccup did what he asked even though it made him even more restless, it was like he couldn't think without Toothless there with him. His mind was too stressed, and he was honestly exhausted. What with Viggo and now Vǫrðr running around? Not to mention Astrid.

"What– huh?"

Oh no

"Hey!" Was all the Hunter got out before Hiccup mercilessly hit him over the head with his shield and he landed with a dull thud.

He waited, then breathed in relief to the silence that still hung in the–

"Over there!"

"Oh come on," he slumped, as four Dragon Hunters ran straight at him, all wielding swords or axes.

He hadn't built Inferno for this specific reason, not to fight, let alone kill but it could be used in a fight effectively. So he used it. Kind of.

He rolled under the first Hunter's swing then used the sword to block the one that came after. Of course he ducked when another came from behind him, effectively getting rid of one Dragon Hunter without having to actually hit someone yet. But obviously, while his dad's tolerance for fighting was pretty much twelve guys at a time, his was not.

So he ran around corners and whipped into tight spaces, hoping and praying no one was able to reach him in there.

At some point he lost one of the Hunters meaning there were only two tailing him at the moment. An ax came swinging in over his head and Hiccup had only enough time to fall to the ground and roll to block it. It left Hiccup with no leverage and not enough strength to keep his arms up.

Please Odin do not let this be how I die! His prayers must have been answered because one moment the Dragon Hunter was going to chop his head off, and the next he was falling.

There was a dull thud, a loud clang, and the sound of a blunt object next to him as the Hunter fell unconscious. It took a minute for Hiccup's adrenaline drunken brain to process what exactly just happened.

"You okay?" Jack asked, standing above him with a piece of the deck railing, it happened to have a very telling coat of blood on it.

Jack put his hand out and Hiccup easily took it standing to catch his breath. "Uhm, is he... okay?" Hiccup managed, because from the looks of it, Jack hit him so hard, Hiccup doubted the Hunter would even remember this in the morning.

Though there was absolutely no doubt he was going to feel this in the morning. If there would be a morning for him at all.

"Uhh," there was a pause as Jack took a good look at the Hunter, finally realizing how hard he'd hit, "uhm, y-yeah?" He said, smiling– well, more like wincing, –to hide his doubt.

"Never mind that, I got the dragons free, let's get yours," he said quickly before running off. Hiccup went to follow, but not before getting one last look at the Dragon Hunter. He winced as he left.

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"Well, 'ʃɪt'," Jack said, looking at the four Dragon Hunters that were for some reason still there, just standing.

"Well, it's better than the eight we saw earlier," Hiccup said optimistically, Jack gave him a look that said, sure and you didn't almost just die to three. "Yeah no, you're right, not much better," he amended. They turned back, Hiccup could still hear the chaos Jack had unleashed earlier with the dragons.

"Okay," he started turning back to Hiccup, "you take the ones on the left I'll take the ones on the right and we try not to die," he instructed.

"That's your plan?" Hiccup asked.

"Okay, let's hear yours," Jack countered, and Hiccup was silent. Great, now he knew how everyone else felt. It certainly didn't help that Jack was right, Hiccup didn't have a plan so Instead he just shrugged in defeat. "Alright then let's go," Jack said, and just like that they lept into action.

Hiccup was doing something and Jack hoped it was his half-assed plan, then again, if Hiccup had something better in mind, who was Jack to complain?

He says half-assed because Hiccup was right, it wasn't really a plan. He knew he could take these guys easily with a mid-ranged weapon like a boa staff or something or other but with only four blades?

Two knives and two throwing knives.

God he should've trained more on his close and long range combat dammit.

He kept the two throwing knives hidden, they were better used and more effective as a surprise. He stuck solely to close range combat.

He ducked below a swing and opted to get in close, slashing across the Hunter's stomach and kicking him away.

He turned, the fight from then on was just a flurry of spinning, stabbing, and kicking. Of course there was the odd moment where he stumbled and almost died but nothing to write home about right?

Either way, in the end Jack got all the men down and so had Hiccup, thankfully. Though he noticed that Hiccup had taken longer, not because he was having trouble, more because he didn't want to kill them if he could avoid it. Jack could respect that, you wouldn't think it but maiming was harder than killing.

Jack sheathed the daggers.

"Well then," said a voice from above them, "I see you've given me a run for my money," Jack looked up, it was fucking Viggo. The Hell was Viggo doing here?

"Viggo?" Hiccup sounded just as surprised as Jack felt.

"I'm impressed you were able to hold yourself back enough to see through my deceiving," Viggo said, and Hiccup stole a brief glance at Jack.

"Who's your new friend?" He asked, "wouldn't you like to know," Jack muttered in English, rolling his eyes.

"Watch your back Saxon, slavers would pay good money for you," Viggo warned, with a little smile. Hiccup just looked confused, and Toothless snarled.

"What are you doing here Viggo? What do you want?" Hiccup asked, stepping forward. "Same as you, looking for the cure, your Night Fury was just a nice bonus," Toothless snarled a little louder this time.

Then with a wave of his hand the Night Fury's cage started going up.

Jack, with all the lightning fast reflexes in the world, just barely managed to cut the rope with a throwing knife before it hit its destination. He always did have good hand-eye coordination.

Conveniently, the sudden and loud clang that had come from the cages landing startled the Hunters out of their coordinated 'surprise' attack.

Even so, Jack can't say he particularly liked the wildfire that burned through Ryker's eyes. He happened to be there as well, because of-fucking-course he was.

"No one is taking anyone anywhere!" He shouted and hoped to all that was unholy– because let's be honest there's more of that out there than the contrary –that it garnered some sort of authority in him.

"Let them go, I'll give you a vial of the cure and we can all leave without any more trouble," he said, and tried his best to maintain eye contact. Viggo for his part never seemed to waver in his "I'm not bothered" persona.

"We don't want just the one," Ryker spoke up, standing tall, "we want all of it," he finished.

"Sorry Viggo, but we need that cure," Hiccup was clearly growing impatient. "I do apologize dear Hiccup, but that cure will elicit a considerable bounty on the open market. You really should have left well enough alone. My fishing boat was no place for you or any of your Riders."

Fishing boat?

"Your fishing boat?" Hiccup asked, clearly there was a plot twist Jack wasn't a part of.

"It's simple really. Supply and demand. I knew where to get the supply if only I could generate the demand," Viggo explained, "that's just cruel… God, you're a monster!" Jack said out of growing anger and frustration.

See, jack knew what dying was, he'd felt not just the physical discomforts, but the mental ones that accompanied it. He wasn't talking about the afterlife. He'd felt the shock, the denial that it was happening to him, the realization that he'd never, ever, get to see his sister again, never see her smile again, never laugh again, and he'd never sing to her when their mother was silent and neglective with grief. The realization that… this was it, and all the pain that came with that.

He'd felt anger at the world for doing this not to him but to his sister, who was stuck with no father and a grieving mother who just couldn't get her shit together, the anger directed at himself for letting it happen in the first place, for being so stupid. Then he'd let the water in, and somehow it was peaceful, he'd had no choice but to accept his fate because no matter how hard he'd wished for a different outcome it never came.

What some people don't realize is that the dead grieve with the living, sitting there as ghosts to cry with no comfort for all they've lost to their own mistakes and stupidity. It was the whole reason he was distributing the cure despite all the risks in the first place. Jack wouldn't wish an emotional Rollercoaster like that on anybody.

"Now, now, let's not stoop down to name-calling. 'Monster'? No. 'Savvy Businessman'? Indeed," Viggo taunted, and the amount of curses and remarks that passed through Jack's head, in both Norse and English, would've scared him had he not been so angry.

"Too bad, even if you kill me, you'll never have all of it," Jack chose instead. He couldn't let Viggo get to him because Viggo was smart, smart enough to make connections. If Jack lost his cool now he'd never be able to guarantee the confidence of certain information. Which would be bad. Obviously.

"Well then we'll just have to test that theory, won't we?" He said, unsheathing a ruby embroidered sword.

Jack honestly should've seen this coming. Viggo was probably more than a little miffed at Jack seeing through his original trap.

But at least now instead of a hundred Hunters coming at them, the number was closer to twenty. Still not saying they would win, but hey, at least it wasn't a hundred.

It probably won't end well per say, but at least he'll go down fighting tooth and nail. Jack preferred to get his anger out sooner rather than later anyway.

Then Hiccup's sword lit on fire and Jack swore he almost shit himself.

"I don't even wanna know where you got that," he joked, and Hiccup gave him a sort of confused yet also amused look.

Jack duly noted that the sun was starting to come up, so thankfully they could at least see. But that also meant that if Jack wanted to get through this with his freedom and dignity intact he'd have to act fast.

They traded off for a while, Jack and to adapt to Hiccup's fighting style because while he was good, Jack could tell Hiccup wasn't trained in the ways he was. So Jack tailored himself to Hiccup's movements instead.

He may have also been sneaking in some ice to trip the Hunters when no one was paying attention, but that was for him to know and for the Hunters to be eternally confused about.

Jack never stopped looking for an opening to free Toothless though. Yet no matter how hard he tried he couldn't really find one long enough and they were losing ground. Which he'll admit, it was probably because Jack was splitting his focus.

Then he saw something in the midst of the fighting that confused the Hell out of him.

The window in which that opportunity seemed to get longer and more common.

When he paid closer attention, and almost died, again, he noticed that people would go flying off the deck at random, seemingly slammed into by an invisible force.

Artemis.

Jack swore he loves that dragon.

Eventually the opening was just long enough. Jack sidestepped the swing of an ax, allowing it to get stuck in the wood. As he ran off to free the Night Fury. He swore he heard a distant, "aye come back!" But he ignored it.

He sheathed the daggers once more. Too early however as another Hunter blocked his path.

"Seriously where do you come from?" He asked because by now he was just low key impressed.

Without time to even say "-do you come from?" There was a mace charging in from his right peripheral. My God the cage was right there! He wanted to groan out loud and probably would have if he had the time.

Jack kind of blacked for a moment there. On auto pilot Jack grabbed the Hunter's wrist, holding him for leverage. He kneed the Hunter in the stomach and proceeded to use the mace to bash his head in.

Kind of hope I didn't just kill him.

Jack turned and got out the lock pick he had. It was the last one he had on him too. Thank God he thought to bring extra.

Once he had the pins in place he twisted the cage open. He was more than a little surprised when the Night Fury stopped to give him a lick, slobber covering his cheek.

Definitely not as… sanitary… as Arti, he thought to himself wiping at his face.

Within minutes the Hunters were retreating, and Jack made extra sure that Viggo could see him flip him off before Toothless jumped up and grabbed Jack from the deck, all out of spite.

He pulled himself up and onto the saddle, looking back to watch Viggo, Ryker, the Dragon Hunter ship, and The Northern Markets grow smaller and smaller into the distance.

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He just stole the guy's weapon, and used it against him. Gods that really doesn't sound as ruthless as it seems on paper…

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Hiccup said, still remembering that final Hunter.

Jack chuckled and Hiccup was surprised how clear it was despite the wind and– why did it sound like that? He swore Jack was an envy machine, enemy to pretty much all Vikings in existence. There's no way his laugh sounds like that, what with the wind and everything?

"You don't seem like someone who can be scary like that, guess it works better that way though," Hiccup continued. Oh yeah, and the time, like ten minutes ago when he cut the rope for Toothless. What was that?!

"Careful over there, I might have to induce amnesia now that you know my secret weapon," Jack teased, smiling. Hiccup shuddered at the realization that, based on the Dragon Hunter from earlier, Jack could totally manage that.

"Ahh, yeah, I yield," he said, and Jack laughed again, it really sounded like that huh?

Toothless made a warble that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. Glad he finds my very legitimate fear amusing.

Hiccup looked back at Jack who was glancing behind them, not paying much attention to Hiccup himself. The sun was up now and he could finally say with confidence that Jack's hair was brown and his eyes were an amber color.

Like actual amber too, not just a dull yellow or orange but an amber that reminded Hiccup of coal or metal when it heats up. At least that's how they looked now with the sun shining through them. Though, if Hiccup had to guess he'd say they'd look more brown in other lightings.

He could also make out his face better when it was day, and...

Not to mention the fact that somehow this foreigner who was smaller than Hiccup, could hold off a bunch of Dragon Hunters with two daggers better than Hiccup could with a full blown fire sword.

"Speaking of secret weapons, where the Hel was that sword the whole fight?" He asked, and Hiccup smiled, "I thought you didn't want to know?" He reminded him.

"Oh haha," Jack said, rolling his eyes in a playful manner. "Come on, you can't just whip out a fire sword and expect people not to ask questions," Hiccup had to agree, Jack had a point. That, and no one on Dragon's Edge besides maybe Fishlegs was interested in the things he built like this.

"The blade is coated in Monstrous Nightmare gel, there's a button that triggers a spark and that lights the blade," he explained, and turned to find Jack smiling at him.

He scoffed, "'dɔːk'," he said, and Hiccup was one again confused. Gods, could he just not be confused for once? "And what does that mean?" He asked, because he really wanted to know what Jack just called him.

"Three guesses," he said, of course…

"Uhm, stupid?" He guessed because for all he knew Jack could be making fun of him. "No, that's the complete opposite, Jesus your bad at this,"

"Who's Je– never mind," he said, "so what, like nerd or something?" He asked, because whenever Hiccup explained the science behind his inventions people always called him a nerd, honestly at this point he just wished they'd get creative at some point.

"Oh God no! Nerds are annoying, the way I see it, a true nerd is the type of person who will correct you on the time of day when you wish them good morning, then you look up and it's like, five minutes into the afternoon," he explained, and Hiccup found that he liked that definition a thousand times more than the one he grew up with.

"So then what does it mean?" He asked, and Jack just looked at him, "you have one guess left," he shrugged. "Can I at least get clues?" He asked, but Jack shook his head, they could probably go on like this for hours.

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When they landed, Jack finally let it set in that he was in what could technically be considered enemy territory. But after learning so much about Hiccup and seeing proof that he did in fact care about dragons, Jack didn't know if he could call it that anymore.

Then another thing happened, he got off Toothless and followed Hiccup as he listened to him explain the whole situation with Astrid. Toothless and Artemis– though only Jack knew about Artemis –followed not far behind.

When they made it into just the general vicinity of the hut, it was like a bomb went off. Everyone besides Astrid ran out with worried looks and words. It sounded like two things, the voice you imagine your dog embodying when you get home from school or work, and a mother scolding her child for running out into traffic.

They didn't even notice Jack. Not that he wasn't used to people not noticing him of course, he was just wondering what Hiccup did to earn such angry and frantic looks. Apparently it had something to do about him disappearing without giving anyone time to think or come with.

"Guys!" Hiccup shouted, and that finally got the other Riders to quiet down. "You're right I should've brought one of you with me, but good news, I have the cure now," he explained and yet another bomb went off. This time it was filled with utter surprise and doubt.

"But the Buffalord are extinct," Fishlegs, if he remembered correctly, said, that's when Jack decided to save Hiccup the trouble and stepped forward.

"Not all the Buffalords are extinct, not where I'm from at least," he explained hesitantly, all he got were blatant stares. Well, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were gaping at him like he just grew wings but other than that…

"Who are you again?" Snotlout asked, and Jack felt severely judged.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking sister?"

"Yeah,"

Then the two shared a look and started to frantically shout, "Get away from here unholy fae!"

"You won't be stealing any names from me!"

Ooooh.

"U-unholy?!" Jack laughed at the way Hiccup sounded personally offended. Clearly that was not the reaction anyone expected him to have, much less Hiccup.

"If I was a fae, I would've already stolen his name," he said, pointing to Hiccup, "not that anyone would want it," he added and Hiccup made an offended noise.

Jack chuckled at that too, "Oh sure, let's all just bash on Hiccup now shall we?" He asked, sarcastically.

"Oh! That sounds like a fun game, here I'll go first," Snotlout started, opening his mouth to list stuff off his fingers, "That was rhetorical Snotlout!" Hiccup shouted.

"How do we even know if what he has is the actual cure? He could be lying," Snotlout mentioned, "Snotlout, he's the best chance we've got, and even so, we don't have enough time to find anything else," Hiccup argued, "I can drink one of the vials to test it if you want," Jack suggested but Hiccup quickly shut that down.

"You don't have to do that," he said, before turning back to the others, "guys he saved my life, if it weren't for him I'd be decapitated on a Hunter ship right now," and that seemed to sober the rest of them up.

"Hiccup, I'm going to say what Astrid would say here because we all know you need it, but what if he works with the Dragon Hunters and he's using you to get to us."

"Snotlout, you weren't there, why would he do that? If he wanted to kill us all he would've just left me and let the Scourge do the rest," Hiccup argued.

"At least let me look at it," Fishlegs said, ending the argument then and there, "of course," Jack handed the vial to him.

For a while he just squinted at it, and although he knew Artemis would never let it happen, he was starting to get worried they'd just throw him off the side and be done with it.

"Huh," was all he said.

"Huh? What's 'huh' mean?" Snotlout asked, dramatically, "oh! We're playing this game again, I call first dibs!" Tuffnut raised his hand in the air like a school kid.

"I-its right, at least it looks right. Green solution, check, saliva type liquid, check, everything checks out," he said, and Jack had to swallow a sigh of relief.

"So, where's Astrid?" He asked, because they'd already spent a lot of time out here and it was the third day. The others seemed to realize this too.

With grim looks and tense shoulders the group made their way towards what Jack assumed– and hoped –was Astrid's hut.

The place didn't necessarily smell. But it wasn't comfortable either. It felt too warm, could be considered insomnia inducing, and it felt like death and disease.

Then there was Astrid herself. She looked absolutely nothing like Jack's first impression of her. She was skinny, too skinny really, Jack could tell her body was trying to use what it had left stored to keep her alive, and she was a pale green color.

Meanwhile, back when Jack first saw her, she had been strong, still skinny but not blow-on-me-too-hard-and-I'll-die skinny. She was definitely not stuck in bed by choice. Thank God Jack got there, she was almost out of time.

"Here," he said quietly, giving Hiccup a vial of the cure, "just let her drink it," he said, and Hiccup nodded.

Obviously, when someone finds out their friend in fact isn't going to die, it's usually a very private moment. Which is also a good moment for Jack to leave.

You can see where this is going can't you?

"It's working!" Jack heard Hiccup breath and for the third time that day a bomb went off. This time it sounded like almost every emotion Jack favored, relief, excitement, and family. Something Jack couldn't afford to have at the moment.

So he left when that bomb went off. Silently, and as it had been for 300 years, no one noticed…

°•○●○●○●○●○●○● ◇ ●○●○●○●○●○●○•°

"He's gone…" Fishlegs said, and Hiccup swore his brain had an aneurysm, "he's what?" He asked, because that couldn't be right.

"We've checked all over the island, he left," Astrid said, Hiccup couldn't help but notice she looked slightly disappointed, she had always made it a point to repay people whenever she thought necessary. In her own way… of course.

The sun was going down by then and Hiccup was glad she felt better, but right now he was more focused on just how in all the realms Jack got off the island that quickly, and without the Riders or the Night Terrors noticing.

"That makes no sense, how did he get off the island?" He wondered out loud.

"Duh! Because he's Hiccup's vǫrðr," Ruffnut rolled her eyes like everyone was dumb and it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Like, the vigilante?" Astrid asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," Fishlegs said, "a vǫrðr is actually a mythical being that watches over people, mostly children but sometimes adults, and protects them and those close to them," he explained, "though I've never heard of one being depicted as male before," he added, mostly to himself.

"Oh come on! There's no way."

"Actually, my incredulous friend, may I remind you that Hiccup specifically recalled Jack saving his life multiple times?" Tuffnut presented.

Hiccup didn't care what Jack was. All he knew was that Jack was another mystery. A mystery Hiccup was going to figure out.

No questions asked.