Chapter Text
Once again, Hiccup arrived too late. It was obvious a skirmish had already taken place but it appeared that both sides were currently at a standstill, seeing how Heather and Astrid had Dagur bound and gagged while the rest of the Berserkers were holding themselves back in fear for their chief. However, the Heir to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe wasn’t too keen on the fact the raven-haired shieldmaiden had her battle axe to the deranged man’s throat and it wasn’t an attempt to hold the rest of the Berserkers at bay. It looked like she intended to kill the redheaded chief in cold blood.
Not too far away from her rider, Windshear stood at the ready with the barbs of her tail flared out as the Sharp-class dragon waited on Heather’s order to skewer Dagur with a salvo of spines. Hiccup didn’t even need to think about it and nudged Toothless. A plasma blast had the Razorwhip shying back or risk being hit by a second blast.
“Stop!” the shout rang out, halting all activity from the Dragon Riders.
Taking Toothless down low, near Dagur’s longboat, the Dragon Rider didn’t think twice about jumping. He didn’t even need to look back to know Jackson had already taken his place in the saddle and was switching the gears, flying up and out of range of the Berserkers’. The two of them were too entuned with each other—even when in the middle of a spat—and Hiccup trusted the Druid to have his back and keep Toothless out of Dagur’s grip regardless of him neglecting to fill Jackson in on his spur of the moment plan.
Instead, Hiccup focused on the deck rising to meet him, and reached out, grabbing ahold of one of the sail’s ropes and clamping down to slow his descent. The rope slid through his palms as he swung down, letting go only inches from the deck. Digging his prosthetic into the wood, the auburn-haired Viking skidded to a stop right in between the raven-haired shieldmaiden and her brother.
“Heather, you need to stop,” Hiccup huffed out, laying a hand on the shieldmaiden’s shoulder to keep her from coming any closer with her double-sided axe. Heather was too consumed by her need for vengeance to be mollified and violently shrugged off the comforting hand.
“Move, Hiccup.”
Letting his hand fall to the side, the Night Fury rider gave her a bit of space but wouldn’t give up. “You don't understand—”
“—No, you don’t understand,” Heather snapped, cutting off anything further the auburn-haired teenager had to say. “I’m going to avenge the lost members of my tribe and everyone else’s lives he destroyed. Now is the time, this is it! Dagur is going to pay for the lives he has taken!”
The Razorwhip rider attempted to go around him, axe raised ready to sever a head, but Hiccup was quicker. Sliding into her path, he grabbed hold of the handle and held the weapon firm even as Heather put all her strength into the downwards swing. With his other hand, Hiccup pulled the horn from his side, snapping the frail leather bindings holding it in his haste, and shoved it at her.
“Look. You told me your father gave you this.”
Light green eyes broke away from glaring intensely into vivid green orbs long enough to briefly look down at the horn before staring right back up into the same pair of unwavering determined green eyes. “He did, what of it?”
“This is my father's Chief Seal,” Hiccup stressed, causing the shieldmaiden to look back down at the engraving on the side. The weight Heather was putting behind her axe lessened to the point Hiccup felt safe enough to let go of the weapon that fell limply to the raven-haired teenager’s side.
Shaky hands reached out to take the horn from his hand and inspect the faded carving further. “Stoick's seal is carved in my horn? What are you saying?”
“I'm saying years ago, Stoick gave this horn to the Chief of the Berserker Tribe, Oswald the Agreeable, as a gift for his newborn daughter. You were that newborn, Heather. Oswald the Agreeable is your father,” Hiccup spoke softly despite giving her the news rather bluntly. Turning to the side to allow her to see the bound man on the deck, the Night Fury rider continued as he lifted a hand and pointed towards the Berserker, “and he is also Dagur's father.”
“No,” Heather denied, taking a step back and away from Dagur. Light green eyes locked with a matching set of light green eyes that held a mad glint. The bound redheaded Viking shrugged his shoulders the best he could with his current restraints and muffled out what could have been either an affirmative or a denial.
“Heather, Dagur is your brother. You can't kill him,” Hiccup spoke up in order to pacify the otherwise terrified girl.
Not knowing what else to do, the distraught raven-haired teenager turned towards her only other friend on the boat. “Astrid.”
“I—” the blonde shieldmaiden took notice of the uncertainty and wanted to do something to help, but Astrid Hofferson was just as blown away by the revelation as Heather was. She didn’t know what—or even if—there was anything she could say to make it all better. However, the Deadly Nadder rider wasn’t even given the chance to get over her own shock before the whole longboat shook as boulders began to rain down all around them, creating huge waves in the water. Astrid ran to the side of the boat and looked to the horizon where blue eyes found four other Berserker longboats firing upon them and subsequently their leader as well. “It's the rest of Dagur's ships.”
Above them, the rest of the Dragon Riders were busy keeping the boulders from sinking Dagur's flagship, if only to save their friends' lives who were still on board. Meatlug was at the forefront of the attack, eating the boulders hurled her way and those that got by her were blown apart by the twins or batted away by Hookfang with a large gust of wind from his wings. Jackson stayed behind the three with Stormfly at Toothless' side, close enough to the longboat just in case a stray projectile did get through so they could grab Hiccup and Astrid before the ship could sink.
“Heather, we have to go,” Hiccup urged the young woman, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her toward Windshear.
A moment later, a boulder came dangerously close to hitting the vessel, knocking them all off balance and dislodging the auburn-haired Viking’s hold on Heather. By the time they were back on their feet, Dagur had managed to free himself in the confusion of the scuffle and two Berserker boats were drawing up on either side of the longboat. Gangplanks lowered onto the deck as the redheaded chief’s men came to his aide.
“I have to admit, you never disappoint, brother,” Dagur grinned madly as he brushed the ropes off his side and replaced his dagger in its sheath. A thoughtful look crossed the deranged man’s face as he scrutinized a tense Night Fury rider. “Or maybe you’re actually my uncle? Who knows in this crazy world?” Dagur threw up his arms in frustration only to dissolve into maniacal laughter.
Seeing the only opening they had, Hiccup discretely signaled to Jackson to pick them up with a hand sign and inched towards Heather. He attempted to pull her back and away from Dagur, giving them the room Toothless would need to swoop down and pick them up but was met with resistance. Looking at the raven-haired shieldmaiden’s face, vivid green eyes found light green eyes locked onto Dagur as he slowly approached a frozen Heather.
“Heather, come on,” Hiccup hissed, but it was no use. Glancing over to the side, the Head of the Dragon Training Academy was relieved to see Astrid already on Stormfly’s back and making a tactical retreat. At least one of the shieldmaidens had made it off the longboat and out over the water and into safety.
“Heather, I'm the only family you've got left,” the redhead spoke, now only less than ten feet away from them. “Join me, sister!”
By divine intervention—or Jackson just being Jackson—Toothless landed heavily on the deck, rocking the boat and causing both parties to stumble backwards a few steps to keep from falling on their asses. The Night Fury bared his teeth and growled, stalking Dagur and for once the deranged Viking backed down, or at least backed up, further separating the two siblings and giving Heather some room.
“How about not?” Jackson quipped, showing as many pearly white teeth as the dragon below him.
“Druid,” Dagur growled, looking away from acid green eyes and up towards Jackson. “Butt out, this is between me and my sister. She can’t fight destiny. I know she feels the Berserker blood flowing through her veins, don’t you Heather?”
However, when he looked over to where the girl had been, she was gone. Crazed light green eyes darted around the deck and spotted her climbing up onto the metallic dragon’s back. His mouth hung open in disbelief.
“What are you doing? Come back, sis! ‘Heather the Unhinged’ has a nice ring to it, no?” Windshear didn’t hesitate to launch up into the air, flying away with Dagur’s sister on her back. Never once did Heather look back. “You'll be back and I will welcome you with open arms! We'll have to wait on that reunion. Pity!”
Dagur huffed and turned back around to face the Druid only to find Toothless also flinging himself at the Berserkers’ chief before pulling up last minute, the dragon’s red tailfin slapping him in the face and knocking him down on his ass.
The dazed Viking let out a groan, holding up one arm while pointing a finger straight up at the sky at nothing in particular. “I really should've seen that one coming, too.”
He also should have seen the rest of the Dragon Riders destroying his new fleet of ships with dragon-proof weaponry. However, since shortly after making his statement, his arm fell limply to the ground as Dagur passed out from the blow to the head.
“All right, gang, back to the Edge!” Hiccup shouted from his position behind Jackson as Toothless took the lead and led them all back to Outpost Island.
“Under the circumstances, I wholeheartedly agree with that plan,” Fishlegs’ reply came from behind, one that had the rest of the group chiming in their agreement.
“I heard you were leaving,” Jackson said, walking up to the raven-haired girl he’d barely gotten to know since her arrival less than a week ago.
Heather glanced backwards from where she was packing up a bag full of supplies for her journey and nodded. “I am.”
“Why?” the once Guardian asked, cocking his head to the side to take in the sight of the young woman who was still just a child in his eyes.
The teenager gave a listless shrug and returned to packing her sack. “I just have a lot I need to figure out.”
“And you can’t do that here? Where you’ve got friends to help and support you?” Jackson asked, sitting down at the edge of the stables and staring off at the rising moon.
Heather snorted, not even bothering to look back towards the brunet this time. “It’s not like you, or anyone, could understand what I’m going through right now. How much of a help can you be?”
“You’re right, I can’t understand. I would give my life for my sister, I even did,” Jackson softly spoke, fingers playing with the crystal on his staff, causing it to catch the light of the moon in such a way it refracted a tiny silhouette of a girl across the wooden boards. “So, I can’t compare to you with your deranged brother. My father on the other hand? He was a real monster. He’d often beat my mother for no real reason, claiming that he was trying to beat the freakishness out of her, and when I was old enough, I too came under his fist. I was scared when my sister was born, fearing for her when she cried and I made myself a target to keep her safe.
“I hated him. I hated my father for hurting us just because he wanted to make himself feel powerful. To feel above us and I wanted him dead.”
Heather, who’d turned back around to look at the brunet Druid that was still an enigma to her, found herself staring, transfixed as the young man spoke. The light silhouette of the girl morphed and changed into a taller, older man who raised his hand to a slight silhouette of a woman as Jackson spoke. The images continued to change and morph, reflecting the brunet’s words as he spoke until at the end, a silhouette of Jackson appeared in front of the man, standing in between him and the mother and sister he spoke so fondly of right before the light faded to nothing.
“So what, you told him off?” the shieldmaiden snapped, making a grand, violent gesture with her hand and sneering. “Talked him out of it? Or did you run away?”
“No,” Jackson tilted his head up and towards the moon and away from Heather. “I killed him.”
Raven hair flew to the side as light green orbs stared wide-eyed at the brunet in disbelief. “What?”
“I didn’t murder him,” the Druid went on, shaking his head slowly and dispersing the thought from her mind. “I cannot take a life with my own hands, though I tried. It had nothing to do with being a Druid either, I just couldn’t take a life. And by Odin, you don’t know how much I wanted to kill that man but I couldn’t.
“However, one night after he had a few too many to drink, my sister—Flee—did something, I can’t even remember what it was now, but it was enough to set him off. In the middle of the night, long after our mother ushered us off and the noise from their arguing ceased, he ripped Flee from our bed and dragged her from the house, taking her deep into the woods. Mother followed after, pleading with him not to do anything rash but she only infuriated him further. In his drunken rage, he took a hand to my mother, sending her crashing to the ground, and turned to do the same to Flee when she began to cry even harder.
“I’d been following them—since it wasn’t the first time something similar happened—and ran forward, putting myself between Flee and our father. In my haste, I rammed into a tree. The jolt must have knocked a bunch of snow from the treetop since he was—somehow—buried underneath a large blanket of snow while we were miraculously devoid of a single flake.
“That amount of snow falling on top of him should have killed him, but I heard him moaning and demanding I save him, but I didn’t move; I couldn’t. I just stood there with Flee clutching my side, thinking about everything he had done to my mother and sister and how much better it would be without him. Finally, Mother gathered us up and we left, leaving him buried beneath the snow.
“We left him for dead and my inactions resulted in his death. I killed him. But I didn’t do it out of anger or revenge or even spite. I did it to protect my sister, Flee, and my mother. I didn’t do it for me but for them. He was going to kill Flee—and probably my mother too—even told her so as he dragged her through the forest that night and I intervened. I may not have killed him with my own hands but it is because of me that he is dead and I don’t regret it for a second. I did it to save a life, not for revenge and not to make him pay, but to protect my family. If I’d done it for any other reason, I don’t believe I could live with myself. Just remember that when you go after Dagur.”
After Jackson's warning, a silence descended on them and stretched on for a long time. At one point, Heather came over and sat down next to Jackson. Just staring out into the dark ocean and listening to the waves crash across the shoreline. The silence was tranquil, giving way to self-reflection, and it was only when the moon was high in the night's sky that either one of them dared to break the peaceful atmosphere.
“Jackson?”
“Yeah?” the Druid didn’t bother to look away from the full moon, pondering what Manny’s current Guardians were up to right now as he was prone to do every so often.
“Do you ever regret it?”
Turning towards Heather, Jackson pulled a leg up close to his body, and propped his arm up to support his fist under his chin. “Protecting my family? My actions had consequences if that’s what you’re wondering. The rest of the village feared my family afterwards, despite not knowing the full story. They assumed, rightly so, that I had something to do with his death when they found my father’s body at the end of winter, but they couldn’t prove anything and none of us ever spoke of that night, not even to each other.
“Regardless, the villagers were already wary of my mom for her Druid heritage, and with my father’s death, things only escalated. A few moons later, we were forced to leave the village and I felt so guilty but every time I saw my mother and sister safe and happy, it helped me through it. So, do I regret it? Never. Do I wish I’d done things differently? That I had the courage to take my mother and sister and just get away from my father? Yes. But we can’t change our past. We can only change our future.”
Another silence descended over the two. This time, they watched as the lights from within each of the Dragon Riders’ huts went out one by one until the whole island was dark and the only light came from the moon and glistening stars above.
"Hey, Jackson?"
“Yeah?”
“You think anyone would mind if I stuck around for a while?” Heather asked, a hesitant smile on her face.
Jackson just grinned. “Nah, I’d think they’d be thrilled you stayed. Astrid just so happens to have an extra few furs and blankets which could be made up into a really comfortable bed if need be. Although, for tonight, you can bunk at my place since we wouldn’t want to wake that particular shieldmaiden. I’m too tired to be dodging weapons right now.”
“I’d think I’d like that. A lot.”
“Good, then welcome to the Dragon Riders of Dragon’s Edge.”