I'm so sorry for the long wait! Life got a little crazy and I was really uninspired. But here we are!

Trigger warning: If you are not okay with torture scenes or darker themed scenes please don't read the first POV section.

Other than that please enjoy! :)

Hiccup's POV

Ironclad bit back a scream, though I heard it muffled as it stuck in his throat. The top part of his armor was gone, and his torso was covered in scars, old and new.

"Just tell me what I want to know," Dagur sneered.

"Go rot in Hel, Dagur."

Dagur took the small knife in his hand and sliced across Ironclad's stomach. Red blood began to pour forth and drip onto the stone floor. Then taking a red hot poker and touched it to the cut, burning the flesh.

Ironclad screamed and his whole body tensed, the chains holding his arms up rattling.

"You can stop all of this, just answer my questions and everything will stop."

"Never," Ironclad bit back.

Dagur sliced the more and Ironclad's eyes scrunched up in pain.

"You're a tough nut to crack, but you'll break eventually."

Ironclad was panting as he hung from the ceiling.

"You are sick," I spat.

Dagur only sneered at me. "I'll take that as a compliment,"

Turing back to Ironclad, he stepped back and shook his head. "That's enough for today. Can't have him dying on us yet."

Snapping his fingers, the henchmen released him from the handcuffs and Ironclad dropped to the floor and chaining him back up to the ground. I tugged against my chains, crawling towards him.

"I'll be back for you tomorrow, Hiccup. I hope you look forward to it as much as I do."

And with that the large door slammed shut and continued to move to where Ironclad was. He laid on the floor, on his forearms and knees and coughing. And I patted him on the back.

"He think's he'll break us, but I guess he doesn't know how stubborn the two of us are."

"You need to sit up, you can't lay down yet or else your lungs may accidentally fill with fluid."

Ironclad leaned on me and I didn't stop him. He took care of me after I was whipped, I knew I would do the same for him.

"When do you think the others will get here?"

"I have no semblance of time right now..so I have no idea how long we've actually been gone or down here for that matter...but hopefully they will get here soon."

"You know Helga won't let us out of bed for a week with some of the wounds we've got..."

I chuckled slightly at this. "And she isn't above tying us down either."

"That was a lesson I'm sure we've both learned the hard way."

I chuckled slightly at this. "I was surprised she didn't do that when you came back. Since you left so abruptly last time."

Ironclad sighed. "I hadn't seen any of you since the...the...funeral."

"I know she doesn't blame you for leaving like that. None of us do. Helga just wanted to know that you were safe and alright."

"I know...but I was in a dark place for a long time Hiccup. You all should have known that."

"We did! But we're your friends Ironclad, we only wanted to help you."

He sighed. "I know."

"You know you're like a brother to me Ironclad. I never had any siblings or really family for that matter. My mom died when I was a baby and my dad never won the award for 'Father of the Year'. So when I found you guys...I don't know. I know Helga tells us all the time we are one big family and you don't see that, but we are. And we're here for you no matter what."

There was a moment of silence after that until Ironclad broke it.

"I do see you as my family Hiccup, and I know so did Calypso. And that wasn't because some of her family actually was in the Riders."

"Then why did you stay away for so long?" I asked.

"Because you were part of our family. Seeing everyone only reminded me of what I had lost. And I simply decided I couldn't face that...so I stayed away."

I shifted our positions a bit, sliding over a bit and putting my hand on Ironclad's shoulder.

"I understand, and I know the others do too. But please...don't stay away for so long. We want to help you...and besides, I don't think all of us can hold Helga back from tracking you down and dragging your sorry arse back."

Ironclad shook his head a bit letting out a little chuckle. "Don't worry Hiccup, even though I can't see what the future holds for all of us, I promise not to run away next time...Only because I'll fear for my life too much if I do."

And I smiled at this as Ironclad continued to lean against me

Astrid's POV

The wind blew past me, my braid flowing in the wind.

"We are going to be approaching the island soon," I told the group.

"Are you sure we aren't going to fall off?" Gobber said.

Ari replied, "Even if you do, Gobber, someone will fly down immediately and catch you."

"That's reassuring."

I could practically hear the eye rolling from where I was sitting.

Toothless was flying close towards us. His overprotective behavior towards me recently reminded me of how he treated Hiccup, especially when I stumbled upon them in that cove so long ago.

The two new dragons were flying below us, while the others were scattered around. Ora seemed to be holding onto Black Ice for dear life, and trying to hide it under a crumbling mask of confidence. Stoick didn't seem to be fairing well either.

"How much longer? Can't these beasts fly faster!" he shouted.

That seemed to do it for Black Ice, he flapped his wings hard, shooting upwards. Ora and Stoick both yelled as Black Ice tucked his wings in tight and dove down. The force threw Stoick off the saddle and falling to the ocean below.

"Stormfly!" I yelled. But before she could react, the more fierce looking dragon flew up and caught Stoick in his claws.

"Stoick! Are ye alright?" Gobber called.

"What do you think!?" Stoick roared.

"Klint! Get Stoick before the Rumplehorn drops him!"

Klint nodded and he and Blaze swooped down to carefully grab Stoick.

"It will be a miracle if we all get to the island in one piece," I muttered to myself as I rubbed my temple.

"They'll be fine, Astrid. Don't worry about that, focus on the mission ahead!" Ari called towards me. Helga then stared to glide over towards me and away from Hieth and a few of the other riders.

She smiled softly at me, once her and Cutter were flying right beside me and Stormfly. "Are you alright Astrid?"

I only looked away, and I heard Helga sigh.

"You know, if it wasn't for Hiccup I don't know if I would still be alive today."

I whipped my head around to look at her.

"Thought that might catch your attention." Her warm smile matched her eyes, showing nothing but kindness

"Hiccup saved your life?"

She nodded. "He did."

"How?"

"He had come to our village. We had very few dragon raids and rarely saw them. It only took a little bit to convince most of the tribe we could live in peace with them," Helga looked off into the distance. "I was already dating Heith at the time. I had talked to Hiccup a few times, along with Ari. They seemed nice, but I was more concerned about helping out my mother and father at home."

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "While some of the other women in my village wanted to fight and go into battle when they were still young, I always looked forward to the events later in life. Getting married, having children, raising a family. I saw that I could maybe have that future with Heith and I couldn't be more excited. But then my whole outlook on life changed."

"What happened?"

"There was an attack. A band of pirates were leading a raid against my village. I held my ax and stayed at home when my father and some of the others went to go and fight. But one of them got through and burst into our house. I fought him off, but I didn't see that he had someone else with him as well. He was able to overpower me and started to loot our house. My mother stood tall, and protected my younger sister...she...she was just a babe at the time. We didn't have much, and they were angry. I yelled at them to get out if they weren't satisfied with what little we had."

She then placed a hand over her side. "They didn't like that much. So the larger of the two sliced me, right across the side. I fell to the floor and clutched my wound, trying to stop the bleeding."

I didn't even know what to say. They calmness of her tone was so in contrast to the dark tones of her story.

"I thought for a moment I was going to die. There was still so much I wanted to do. I still had the dreams of my future family, but then I realized that maybe I should have tried to aspire to become more. Maybe if I trained harder, I would have been able to fight them off, and then I wouldn't be laying on the floor surrounded by a pool of my own blood."

"You can't blame yourself for that. How could you have known? And even still, you wanted to be a mother and a caretaker. There is nothing wrong with wanting that."

Helga shook her head. "No, I couldn't have known, but I still felt like I hadn't done anything with my life. I still wanted a family, but when I was older. I wanted to do and see so much, much more than I ever had previously thought."

She then looked up with a small smile. "Right as I thought it was all over, he came in. Hiccup had been training with Ari already, and was pretty average swordsman at this time and having Toothless to back him up as well didn't hurt. He was able to knock them unconscious and save my family. He then knelled down and treated my wounds, but I had already lost too much blood and became unconscious. But that didn't stop him. He saved my life that day. I remember waking in my bed and Heith had stayed up all night, worried sick over me. Hiccup luckily had some herbs in his saddle bag that stopped the bleeding just in time. Heith was so thankful he vowed to repay him in whatever way he could."

"And he joined Hiccup?"

"No, that came after I decided to."

"Why?"

"On that day, I almost died. I saw that I needed to do more with my life. And I saw that if I went with Hiccup...that it could be a reality. I could change so many lives. I wouldn't be a simple wife, cooking and cleaning. Though, when we all get older and want to settle down, I will gladly do so. No don't misunderstand me, a large part of me still wants to have a family and get married. But for now, I don't want to just sit around and wait for that life to happen, I want to do things, help people. I love going around to all the islands, and saving both human and dragon lives. I see myself as helping create a world I want to have a family live in. Not one where they might live in fear from raids. Be that dragon or human."

"So you told Hiccup you wanted to join him?"

"Yes. Hieth decided that it would be a good idea for him to join as well. He felt indebted to Hiccup and still wanted to protect me. Hiccup agreed and we found our own dragons while hunting on a small island with lots of trees and caves."

"And you two were able to find your dragons."

Helga nodded, patting her Timberjack. "Cutter is an amazing dragon, they are very protective of their families, not just their hatchlings...maybe that's what connected us... And Hieth found Stormer in one of the sea caves while scouting. He was deaf for over a week because of the encounter, but the two still formed a bond."

"Do you regret anything?" I asked.

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had been able to fight off those pirates, or if they had never attacked in the first place. I can't say I wouldn't be unhappy, no. I would be very happy with my little family but I think the near death experience taught me how much you need to make your life count. Having and caring for my family is still important to me, but I felt I needed to help others. I needed to leave my island and meet new people, new tribes, help bridge the gap between us all and the dragons. I wanted to save lives because mine could have very well have ended right then and there."

"That's amazing Helga..."

She smiled softly and touched her side once more. "It's my story, in comparison to some of the others, it isn't that amazing. But I thought you needed to hear it."

"I did...it helped distract me...if only for a little while."

"That's all I wanted to here."

"Thank you Helga," I said.

"It's no trouble Astrid. Just promise me that you'll be careful. You and Stormfly may not be official Riders yet, but you are in my book. So please, be careful."

"I promise," I replied and Helga smiled brightly.

3rd Person P.O.V.

Dagur was pacing. Most of his men knew better than to interrupt their deranged leaders train of thought, but Dahlia was not one of his men.

"Dagur! I demand to have what if rightfully mine!"

Dagur turned, to see the dragon rider glaring at him. "Oh Dahlia, I thought we already went through this. You can have your prize once I have the rest of mine!"

Crossing her arms, she continued to stare down Dagur.

"And if they escape? I know you're deranged Dagur, but not stupid."

"They won't escape," Dagur waved her off.

"And how do you know that!" she yelled. "You know as well as I how smart the pair of them are! And what happens when they work together!"

"They have no weapons, no sense of exactly where they are, and I'm keeping them weak through torture, starvation, and dehydration."

"Ironclad has been through worse and gotten through it alive, and so has Hiccup," she growled.

"Oh my sweet and blood thirsty Dahlia-" Dagur began before Dahlia cut him off.

"Don't call me sweet," she said coldly.

Dagur narrowed his gaze and cleared his throat. "They won't escape. I've made sure to double the guards around their cell and fortify any potential escape routes. You're overestimating their abilities. No one can escape this!"

Dahlia scoffed at Dagur, causing a low growl to be emitted from the later.

"No Dagur, I'm not the one who is mistaken here. You're underestimating them. So when the time comes they do free themselves, and they will, don't come crying to me for help."

Flicking her braid over her shoulder, Dahlia turned on her heels to walk away.

Dagur roared in anger and grabbed the nearest ax, chucking it at the assassin.

The ax hurdled towards Dahlia, who was quick to respond, leaping to the side and drawing her own sword.

Dagur was panting as Dahlia locked gazes with him.

"Dagur, Dagur, Dagur. You're letting your emotions get the better of you again," she chided.

"And you forget yourself, dearie."

Sheathing her sword Dahlia turned on her heels and walked out of the room.

"As soon as I get my precious Night Fury and Star Chaser, I blade will taste her blood."

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