A solitary sail boat was slowly making its way towards the docks of New Berk. Hiccup, Valka and Eret stood side by side on the T-section of the docks, conversation crackling with anxious uncertainty as they watched the vessel's gradual approach.

"Are you sure about this, Hiccup?"

"Honestly? No."

"Hence the swords?"

Hiccup nodded. "Hence the swords."

Eret crossed his arms, frowning. "I don't like this. It feels…wrong."

"Which part?"

"All of it." Eret jabbed a finger at the fleet of ships in the distance. "I guarantee every single one of those trappers would rather die than surrender."

"People can change. You yourself are proof of that."

"Okay, yes, but I already wanted out and it still took Stormfly literally saving my life before I came around. What makes you think these guys are any different to Drago, or Grimmel? You tried reasoning with both of them and-"

"And I lost my dad and my best friend in the process," Hiccup snapped. "Yeah, I know."

Valka cleared her throat.

Both men glanced in her direction, momentarily forgetting their argument.

"I just think there's a really strong chance that their intentions aren't noble, that's all." Eret huffed.

"So do I." Hiccup said, his forehead furrowing.

"Then why-?"

"Because if we don't keep giving them the opportunity to change, they never will. And if nothing changes, what was the point of any of it?"

His words were met with silence.

The wind was gentler down here, but had an icy bite to it. Hiccup folded his arms, and stuck his hands under his armpits in an effort to stop his fingers freezing off. The sunlight glinting off the grey waves was harsh and cold. Hiccup squinted at the horizon, glaring at the slow-climbing sun like it was personally responsible for keeping him from his warm bed. He glanced back at Eret, who was scowling down at the decking.

Hiccup's shoulders slackened. "Nothing we say or do will ever make a difference with the Drago's and the Grimmel's of the world. But they're the exception," he murmured, "Not the rule."

He didn't think Eret would reply, but then he heard him mumble, "I really hope you're right." A short while later, Eret began to pace up and down the horizontal section of the pier.

Hiccup shielded his eyes with his hand and squinted at the water. The boat was close enough now to see three silhouettes obscured by the buffeting sails, but little else. He patted at his hip, feeling for his telescope, and cursed once when he realised it wasn't there. He must have left it at the tent. Of all the troll-brained-

"Son?"

He flinched at the sudden interruption. "Mm?"

"Where did Astrid go earlier?" Valka asked quietly.

"Ah, that." Hiccup shrugged. "I dunno. She just got a look in her eyes, grabbed Ruffnut and disappeared."

Valka surprised him by laughing.

"What?" he demanded.

"Oh nothing, nothing," she said, patting him reassuringly on the shoulder. "Just reminds me of someone else I know."

"Who?"

Valka raised an eyebrow; it made her look eerily like Hiccup for a second.

And then he realized. "Oh." Hiccup snorted. "Yeah, okay."

Valka chuckled once more. "But just like you, Hiccup, she'll have a plan."

"I know." Hiccup dragged a hand over his face, then gestured at the approaching ship. "It's them I can't figure out."

Valka stared out to sea and said in a low, contemplative voice, "My problem was that I stopped trying to." She turned back to Hiccup. "You see things for what they could be, instead of just accepting them as they are. It's one of the things I admire most about you."

Hiccup sighed. "But at what point does that become reckless? Don't tell Eret I said this, but I don't know how many more chances they should get. I stand by what I said before, but if it comes to the choice between keeping us all safe orcontinuing to give these idiots a shot at redemption, the people I love come first. Berk comes first."

Valka held his gaze. "A chief protects his own."

The corner of Hiccup's mouth quirked up; he changed the subject. "You're still planning on leaving straight after the wedding?"

Valka seemed surprised at the question, but nodded.

"Okay." He said stoically. He hadn't expected any other answer, not really.

"Oh Hiccup, you won't even notice I'm gone for at least a month or two." Valka said with a knowing smile. "I remember what it's like to be a newlywed."

His eyes bulged in their sockets. "Oh wow, we are definitely not having this conversation right now."

"Your father and I—"

"Nope!" Hiccup exclaimed, covering his ears in a somewhat childish attempt at blocking her out. Only when Valka started laughing again did he remove his hands, shaking his head with a mortified smile. "I swear to Thor, Mom—"

"Hiccup." Eret warned loudly, and the brief moment of levity fizzled. Hiccup glanced back at Eret out of instinct, then at the water where his second was pointing.

The boat was now only a mile or two from the pier, and approaching rapidly.

He heard Eret walk up to stand beside him, but Hiccup's attention did not waver. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword, and remained there as the sail boat shuddered and creaked to a stop in the nearest vacant port, a couple hundred yards away from where they stood.

"Should we-?"

"No. They're coming to us."

The huge sail of the trapper's boat obscured the faces of those disembarking. When they finally emerged from behind the billowing fabric, a mixture of grim satisfaction and worn-out dejection flooded through Hiccup's body.

The Warlords. Of course.

True to their word, they bore no weaponry. He recognized two of them – thanks to Eret, he could now put names to the faces of Griselda the Grievous and Changhatai Khan – but the third was unfamiliar. The new warlord was only a teenager, perhaps fifteen or so. He had long auburn hair tied in a knot and, despite his young age, already towered over his associates. Too young, Hiccup thought with a pang of sympathy.

They hesitated for a moment or two before begrudgingly making their way up the pier, the dull thuds of their footsteps almost completely in unison. They stopped a good five yards from Hiccup, Valka and Eret, and said no words of greeting. A slight nod of the head was the closest they came to any kind of respectful acknowledgement. In fairness, Hiccup offered no pleasantries either. It seemed redundant.

Hiccup locked eyes with the adolescent newcomer – who, to his credit, didn't cower – before addressing the two older warlords. "What happened to the other guy?"

Griselda looked Hiccup up and down with a look of pure disdain. "He drowned."

"His name was Ragnar," said a quiet but firm voice, "And he was my father."

All eyes went to the youth, who was still squinting intensely at Hiccup like he was trying to solve a riddle. In a weird way, it reminded Hiccup of the way Stoick used to look at him sometimes, pre-Toothless. And then the words sunk in. Oh.

Hiccup took a deep breath to try and shift the sudden weight in his chest. "I…I wish things could have been different," he said sincerely. "I'm sorry for your loss…err…?"

"Esbjörn," the boy said. Then, after a pause, he added "And thank you."

Griselda rolled her eyes; Changhatai made an "Ugh," noise and shook his head.

Hiccup regarded them both with a cool stare. "I know this isn't a social visit, so what do you want?"

Griselda screwed her nose up like she'd smelt rotten fish. "We wish to… negotiate.".

"Well that would be a first." His eyes narrowed. "Why now?"

"It seems no coincidence that after you obliterated our armadas and disposed of Grimmel that dragons rapidly began disappearing from every part of the known lands." Changhatai said through gritted teeth.

Hiccup was careful to not betray too much interest in this kernel of information. It wasn't that he was surprised, but…they really were safe. All of them. He nearly sagged with relief.

Nearly.

"So what are you proposing?"

"Berk trading a shipment of dragons every month in exchange for an agreed amount of goods and services from our respective peoples." Griselda said, watching Hiccup closely. "We won't attack or attempt to interfere with your business, and you will not cause any further disruption to ours."

It took a few moments for the words to process, but when they did… "Let me get this straight," he said slowly. "You want us to just willingly hand over kind, intelligent creatures for you to keep in cages? To beat into submission o-or callously slaughter? Just so you can keep whatever power and wealth you've managed to claw together over the years? Seriously?"

Of the three of them it was only the newcomer, Esbjörn, who had the decency to look ashamed. Griselda and Changhatai just looked annoyed, like they thought they'd have to explain their proposition to him again because he was too thick to understand it.

Their expressions hit a nerve; he'd worked through the grief and the fear and the guilt, but there was one emotion that Hiccup had kept largely suppressed – white-hot fury.

"Gods, you're unbelievable!" Hiccup exploded. "I wanted to believe there was some good in you. I would have forgiven every horrible thing you've done if you were willing to even try and live a different life, but you're still the same cruel, selfish, hateful people we all expected you to be. But you know what? Even if I was willing to agree to your proposal – which would never have happened, I might add - you're too late. They're gone."

"What?" Griselda hissed.

"You heard me." Hiccup said with venom. "The dragons are gone. All of them." He threw his hands up. "You got what you wanted!" He saw Eret and Valka share a concerned look in his periphery, but it wasn't enough to dull his anger. "Except that's not what you wanted, is it? Because without dragons, you have no way of controlling people, and eventually they're going to realise none of you are worth following by choice."

"You're lying," Changhatai growled, at the same time that Griselda snapped "Gone where?"

"What difference does it make?" Hiccup replied, his voice going lethally quiet. "Either way you're not getting what you came for."

"Argh, you idiots!" Griselda snarled, and spat on the ground in front of him. "We will find them, and when we do you, we will take every. Single. One."

"No," Hiccup said, staring her down. "You won't."

"You insolent little-"

"Gerofme!"

The yell came from behind him, back towards Berk. Griselda's perpetually angry face went slack, and she sucked in a startled breath.

Hiccup whirled around, his hand going immediately to his sword.

He needn't have worried.

Astrid.

And Ruffnut, of course. Both of them pushing along two shabby looking, plainly dressed strangers, with scratches all over their bodies and their hands bound.

"Hello warlords!" Astrid called out cheerily, and in a flash her earlier vanishing act finally made sense. "Thought you might want these back!"

They reached the docks then; Hiccup caught his fiancé's eye as they approached, and she winked at him surreptitiously before shoving the trapper she had custody of to his knees, Ruffnut following suit with her own captive.

Astrid put her hands on her hips and glared at the gathered warlords, all previous glee at outsmarting them gone from her face. "Anyone want to tell me why these two were caught sneaking around Berk?"

Hiccup followed her gaze back to Griselda, Changhatai, and Esbjörn, who were glancing between each other but remaining tight-lipped.

"No? How disappointing. Well, not to worry," Astrid said with a sardonic smile, "Your lackeys here already did." Astrid nudged the trapper in front of her with her foot. "Didn't you buddy?"

The trapper glared up at Astrid before spitting on the ground as close to her feet as he could manage.

Hiccup crossed his arms, and looked directly at Griselda with a stony expression. "Well he's clearly one of yours."

"Wh-I-we-"

But Hiccup's focus was already back on Astrid. "Let me guess – looking for dragons?"

Astrid nodded. "They were ordered to steal as many eggs as they could find, as well as any scales or claws they came across." She jabbed a thumb behind her. "They have a small row boat tied to the rocks on the eastern side of New Berk. Anything you want to add?" Astrid said to her captive, pushing his head down with a shove. "It's not like things can get much worse for you at this point."

The lips of the trapper at her feet were mashed into a thin, defiant line and stayed shut.

The trapper at Ruffnut's feet, however, cast her eyes up to the warlords, her face crumpling in defeat. "There was nothing, my lord. Lords." She amended quickly, glancing away from Changhatai to the others. "It's like they never existed."

The warlords' reactions to the now confirmed information were varied. Griselda looked even more livid than before, while Changhatai just stood gaping in shock. But Esbjörn…. Esbjörn seemed, above all else, sad.

"So not only have you not changed," Hiccup said, crossing his arms again, "but you broke an ancient law to try and get what you wanted by force, in case asking for it outright didn't work."

"What's the law-?" Ruffnut wondered aloud; Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, but Eret answered her before he could, unsheathing his blade as he did so. "Declaring surrender under false pretenses is a crime punishable by death." He stepped forward, glowering at Griselda in particular. "We'd have the right to kill them and their entire fleet without fear of reprisal." With a jolt it occurred to Hiccup that, with such similar birthplaces and backgrounds, Griselda and Eret may have had more of a history than Eret had previously let on.

"Eret-" Valka said softly.

"Oh come on, give me one good reason as to why we shouldn't just end all their miserable lives right now and finish this." He raised his sword to Griselda's face, its tip mere inches from the bridge of her nose.

"Eret!" The authority and admonishment in Hiccup's voice was undeniable, and his friend flinched.

It wasn't the first time in his life that Hiccup had pulled rank, but he did not like the feeling.

Eret looked sideways at him, eyes still flaming until they met Hiccup's. The fire in them vanished, and he lowered both his sword and his head. "Sorry, Chief."

"How do you like your new leash, Son of Eret?" came a sneer, and Hiccup's head whipped back to the warlords.

"Griselda you are really not in a position to be trading insults right now." He growled with the same commanding timbre from before. "He has a point."

At long last, Griselda blanched.

"Chief Hiccup?"

To universal surprise, it was Esbjörn who had spoken. While the two older warlords now hung their heads, the youngest in their midst did not. He looked resigned, certainly, but also resolute.

"I'm not going to plead innocence, but…our people are blameless. Or at least not guilty of trying to deceive you." He gestured to Griselda, Changhatai, and himself. "Breaking the law was our call. Not theirs. And they don't deserve to suffer more than they already have." He took a steadying breath. "I humbly ask that any sentence you pass only apply to the three of us."

Changhatai immediately hissed "Don't grovel," only to be quickly admonished by Griselda.

Hiccup was quiet for a long time, considering. No-one dared break the quiet. And then, after a few minutes, he said calmly, "We're not killing any of you."

Another tense beat, and then a chorus of "What?" erupted from both sides.

Hiccup ignored them all. "You two," he said, addressing the kneeling trappers "would probably be killed as soon as you got back to the fleet. Am I wrong?"

The trappers shook their heads in unison without a moment's hesitation. Under any other circumstances, it might have been amusing.

Hiccup grimaced. "We'll give you some provisions and you can leave in your rowboat. We'll ensure you have safe passage out of our waters, but past that, you're on your own." He closed his eyes, thinking. "Mom, Ruff, can you take them to get what they need? Grab Fishlegs on the way - he'll help you if you need it."

When he opened them, Valka was already helping Astrid's trapper to his feet, who begrudgingly accepted her assistance; Ruffnut's trapper had tears coursing down her face. "Thank you," she whispered emphatically, and Hiccup nodded in acknowledgement.

"As for you three," he looked at each warlord individually, then loosed a weary sigh. "Honestly, what would be the point? You've already lost everything. And you'll either cling to the past and your lives will get infinitely worse, or you'll adapt." His eyes flicked to Esbjörn for an instant, and then away. "Who knows, you might even find it in you to try and be better eventually, though based on today I doubt it." His expression hardened again. "But if any of you show up without invitation again, you and your fleet will join Grimmel and Drago on the seafloor, and I will have no compunctions about sending you there. Got it?"

If Hiccup was expecting any kind of response, he certainly didn't get one. He couldn't tell if it was out of humiliation, fear or shock, but none of the warlords said a word, or even so much as blinked.

Astrid stepped forward to stand beside him, occupying the space left by Valka's leaving, and she glowered at them like she'd never glowered before. "He's just spared your lives when he absolutely didn't have to. Start acting like it."

Esbjörn did a hasty half-bow, and after some hesitation, so did Changhatai. But Griselda just shook her head. For the first time, something resembling sadness rippled across her face. "You may pretend this is mercy, boy, but whatever it is you have done with those dragons… know that the loss of thousands of human lives will be on your hands. Not ours."

"Only if you refuse to change things, Griselda."

She barked a bitter laugh. "No. Our entire way of life is gone. No matter what we do now, people will starve." When she looked Hiccup square in the face again, some of the raging fire had returned to her demeanor. "Do not pretend you are any better than we are, Chief Hiccup." And without another word she turned and began walking back to the sailboat, Changhatai quickly following suit.

The youngest warlord stayed where he was, looking pensive.

"Do you have something to add?" Astrid said with a touch of exasperation.

"Sorry, no, it's just…she kind of has a point." He glanced at his hands and then at Hiccup. "How are the people of Berk adjusting? You were as reliant on dragons as we were, just in a different way."

Hiccup's mouth almost fell open. The kid was right, and - more interestingly - seemed willing to listen.

So Hiccup gave him the truth. "Things changed for the better when we started coexisting with dragons. And now they're gone… it's been tough. But we're getting there." He lowered his voice, and spoke quickly, fervently. "Look, I don't want your people to suffer. I don't. But if you just…we can help you. We weren't even that different from you up until six years ago."

Esbjörn blinked once. Then twice. He opened his mouth, blushed, and closed it again. But then curiosity seemed to get the better of him. "Is it true you flew a Night Fury?" he asked quietly.

Hiccup nodded. "He was my best friend." And always will be, he thought to himself.

Esbjörn's eyes widened in awe. "That's a story I want to hear."

"I'd be happy to share it with you?" Hiccup smiled tentatively. "If you'd like?"

Esbjörn glanced behind him at the older warlords, who were preparing to set sail. When he turned back to Hiccup, he almost looked disappointed. "I don't-"

Hiccup shook his head. "It's okay." He paused, then said, "That bird from earlier. Is it-"

"Mine? Yeah. I raised her from a chick."

"She's gorgeous," Hiccup said earnestly. "Is she able to fly long distances?"

"A day or two without stopping. Longer if she's able to hunt along the way." Esbjörn looked wary. "Why?"

"I'm not saying I completely trust you yet, but let me know when you're ready to hear that story. We'll sort something out."

The corner of Esbjörn's mouth quirked for a second, before returning to a thoughtful line. He looked as if he was about to turn away, but then he hesitated. And then said in a hushed voice, "You're nothing like what they described you to be."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Is that a good thing?"

The boy nodded, and this time the smile that had been close to surfacing multiple times now finally appeared on his face.

"Get over here, Runt!" The warlords were ready to go.

"I'm coming!" Esbjörn barked, the hardness returning to his young face. And then a look of defiance swept across his features. He glanced again at the waiting warlords, who were looking murderous, and then back to Hiccup and said "I look forward to our future meetings," in a voice loud enough to carry back to his counterparts.

Hiccup and Astrid shared a fleeting look of shock, and then Astrid said "That was either really brave or really stupid, kid."

Esbjörn shrugged, a distinct glint of mischief in his eyes. "Probably both.

"Probably both," Hiccup agreed, extending a hand. "Good luck."

Esbjörn shook it once, firmly, and then with a final nod and a small smile, set off back down the pier. Hiccup half expected him to get a hiding when he reached the boat, but both Griselda and Changhatai just stared at the young warlord like he'd suddenly grown horns. Esbjörn simply acted like he didn't notice.

No-one said a word as the gang plank was removed, and the vessel slowly eased its way out of port. It was only when the boat was out of striking distance that conversation on the pier began again.

Astrid snaked an arm around Hiccup's waist, and nodded at the retreating vessel. "If you ever wanted a glimpse of what fifteen-year-old you was like, that kid is it."

"What? No way." Hiccup said, then smirked. "I was a lot shorter."

"Ack, you know what I mean," Astrid grumbled with amusement, and ruffled Hiccup's hair.

"How did you know-?"

"I didn't. I just had a hunch they'd try something underhanded. And they did."

Hiccup shook his head, dumbfounded. "You're amazing, you know that, right?"

Her lips curled into a smug grin. "It has been brought to my attention before, yes."

"They'll want our heads for this." Eret said in a flat voice, maintaining his distance. "They've been humiliated twice now. And if they get desperate enough..."

"I know. And I'm completely serious about the consequences if they come back." Hiccup replied. "But you know what?" he said, smiling at the retreating boat. "I think we just made an ally."