Hey! :D :D :D SO GUYS THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER. OFFICIALLY THE LAST CHAPTER. And so, my ending authors note is, as usual, at the end of the chapter *points* so let me know what you guys think of the closing chapter, and SEQUEL. WE'LL TALK ABOUT A SEQUEL AND WHETHER OR NOT WE'LL HAVE ONE AT ALL AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! :D Shout-outs:

ShadowSpirit020: Alrighteeeee then! I will take that into account, dear reader! :D

Galaxy-Mitsuko-Pegasus: I love it how Hiccup saves the day all the time and he does it without hardly even caring that he does. And same with Astrid. I really love all the dragon riders. :)

Midnight510: I thought about that during the editing of the chapter! It was just, "Stoick's ships!" and I was like...aw, man, I gave myself feels. FEEEELLLLSSS. :)

Mylittlefangirlw: Hahahahahahahahahahaha! :D Yeah, a lot of people 'round here want a sequel. I think I just might make one. :D

Charr2003: YEEESSSSS it was based off the scene in "Night of the Hunters Part 1". I realized that we always see Hiccup saving Astrid, but really nothing on Astrid saving Hiccup, so I just wanted to throw that in there. :D THE HICCSTIRD IS REAL! :D

midnightsky0612: Thanks! :D

StarFlight13: Haha! I wish I was a Time Lord. That would be amazing. :D And yeah, don't worry about reviewing every chapter. No problemo at all. XD And tips on updating faster...hmm...well, one thing I used to do, is before posting one chapter, just go ahead and write half of the next chapter, so you're always one step ahead of yourself. :)

Dimentional Phaser: I think I just might! :D

Eeveecat1248: SCAULDRONS! YES! :D

HappyPup1: YESSS, Hiccup lives, and so do I! :D

Animals Rule: Aw, thanks! :D

Martyn: It's not the end yet! :D And no, they didn't get the Dragon Eye back. Not yet, anyways. :)

LunarCatNinja: I think Viggo was caught off guard in a lot of ways in that last chapter. First of all, he didn't expect Stoick's ships, and then, he didn't expect the Outcasts to attack as well, he didn't expect Hiccup to escape, he didn't expect Dagur to let Hiccup escape, and he didn't expect Hiccup to train the Scauldrons. The Scauldrons kind of were his back-up plan, just in case ships did show up, but obviously, his back-up plan backfired on him. :D I love it when the plans backfire on the villains. :D YES SCREAMING DEATH OMGOSH! :D :D :D :D :D

OechsnerC: Thanks! :D

Shizuku Tsukishima749: GO HICCUP! Yes, Hiccup and the dragon riders rule, Viggo and his army drools (I normally don't like using that term, but this time, we can make an exception. XD), and TOOTHLESS REUNION. YES. :D

Jo: Viggo will come up with some plan for revenge, which is why we're talking about a sequel. :) And YES. I think it was really important that Hiccup beat Viggo, not only at Maces and Talons, but as the war as a whole, because he lost so much of his confidence when he lost to Viggo before. :)

hiccupandtoothless294: GO HICCUP! :D

SnivyDragon: Yep. You don't want to get on Toothless' bad side, EVER. :) And I don't know about Dagur, honestly! Do you know what I'm kind of hoping happens? It probably won't happen, but it'd be cool if it did...Dagur turns good at the last minute. He looks back at all he did, saw no real motive behind it, and helped the dragon riders...and then, he SACRIFICES himself for the dragon riders (because there's no mention of him at all in HTTYD2). It's far fetched, probably, I know, but could you imagine...? Maybe it's just me. XD

Guest (#1): Here's more! :D

Carly Marley: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *waves hand* Dagur, you will not act like a barbarian. Dagur: I will not act like a barbarian. Me: You will apologize to everyone. Dagur: I will apologize to everyone. Me: Including the readers of the story, because lots of them hate you. Dagur: Including the readers of the story, because a lot of them hate me. Me: You may go about your business. Dagur: I will go about my business. Me: Go home. Dagur: Going home. XDXDXD WAY TOO MUCH FUN, OH MY GOSH. XDXDXD And Hiccup is so sweet. ;)

Hiccup woke up in a place he didn't recognize at first: the bottom deck of a Berkian ship. He sat up and shivered. He was still soaking wet from the dip he took in the ocean. He pulled a quilt around his shoulders and looked around.

He wasn't able to do much looking before Toothless' tongue slid across his face, and Hiccup scowled and laughed both at once. "Toothless!" he shouted, and he hugged Toothless tightly around the dragon's neck, just relieved that through it all, Toothless was alright. "You okay?"

Toothless growled in what could only be a yes and nuzzled Hiccup's chest so hard Hiccup was almost knocked over. Hiccup finally pulled back to let himself breathe and looked around.

He listened closely. No shouting. No fighting.

"Did we win?"

Toothless growled, smiled with his teeth sheathed, and nodded.

"Oh, good." Hiccup stood, wobbling only slightly. He was still lightheaded. He headed up the steps leading to the upper deck of the ship.

Almost instantly, he was taken in a bone-crushing hug by the only person he knew who could hug him that tight.

"Hey, Dad," said Hiccup.

Stoick released his grip and pulled back, finally giving Hiccup room to breathe. "Are you alright?" Stoick asked instantly. "They didn't hurt you?"

"No," said Hiccup, shaking his head. "Fine. I'm just a little...well, tired is the first thing that comes to mind…"

"Bucket said you were unconscious."

"I was," said Hiccup, "but that was...sort of my own fault…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Swallowed a little too much water trying to train the Scauldrons..."

Stoick sighed heavily. "I was wondering why those Scauldrons stopped attacking us...be more careful next time, Hiccup. You were lucky today, but you might not be so lucky another day."

"I will," Hiccup said, shaking his head. "I know-"

"But I'm proud of you," said Stoick, lifting Hiccup's chin with two fingers. "You did good." He clapped Hiccup on the shoulder and nearly knocked him over. "Shoulders back, chin up, son," he said before turning and leaving for his other ship, the one leading the rest of the armada. Hiccup's shoulders slumped. Toothless stepped up beside him and cooed.

"Honestly, Toothless," said Hiccup, smiling faintly, "I was expecting a little more of a lecture."

...

Astrid landed Stormfly on the ship she had left Hiccup on and slid off her dragon's back. Hiccup was standing, very much awake and with more color to his face than the last time she'd seen him, beside Toothless, a quilt draped over his shoulders. At the sound of Stormfly hitting the deck, he turned and smiled at Astrid, almost in relief.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," said Astrid. "How's it going?"

"Better than expected," said Hiccup. "I didn't manage to get the Dragon Eye while we were there...I should've tried, I guess, but there wasn't much time...we didn't even make it to port."

"Yeah, we didn't have time to grab that, either," said Astrid, "but the Dragon Eye wasn't what we were after."

Hiccup gazed at her, almost questioningly, and then, he looked back down.

"Hiccup, you don't understand," said Astrid. "It doesn't matter that Viggo has the Dragon Eye right now. We beat him."

"I know," said Hiccup, "but I hate to think of the danger you guys had to put yourselves in for me…"

"Hey, we're dragon riders," said Astrid. "Danger is what we do. And anyways, you're worth more to us than a thousand Dragon Eyes. Worth more to me."

"Well, thanks, but-"

She kissed him and cut him off instantly. It didn't last more than a few seconds, but when she pulled back, they were both smiling, although Hiccup did look a bit confused.

"That was probably really unexpected," Astrid said, moving her bangs out of her face.

"Nah," said Hiccup coolly, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "I've gotten used to it." At the smile on his face, Astrid couldn't help but beam back at him.

Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins landed their dragons on the ship beside Stormfly, and once they had dismounted, all the dragons except Toothless shot back into the air; they had been weighing down the ship.

"Hiccup!" they called, racing over.

"Oh man, that was so amazing!" said Fishlegs, who seemed simply beside himself. "You trained a Scauldron, just like Ruffnut did...but how did you do it so quickly? It took us hours to gain the last Scauldron's trust!"

"The Scauldron was already furious with the dragon hunters," said Hiccup. "When I unlocked its chains, it left to free the rest of the Scauldrons. I guess it just realized we weren't the enemy."

"Still, though!" said Fishlegs.

"And Hiccup," said Tuffnut, "you know how you've been feeling down? Well, Ruffnut and I prepared a speech. Ready, Ruffnut?"

"Ready, dear brother!" said Ruffnut, saluting.

"Oh, this has got to be good," said Snotlout, leaning back against a barrel.

Tuffnut cleared his throat. "Hiccup Haddock," he said, "us Thorstons of the Thorston house welcome thee into the Thorston family!"

"We welcome thee indeed," said Ruffnut as if she had rehearsed, "and look to thee as our brother-in-insanity."

"Thee are more brilliant than Viggo," said Tuffnut, "even though thee were bested by him-"

Ruffnut broke out of character. "I thought we agreed on 'were slaughtered' by him," she said.

"No, we changed it at the last minute-"

"Oh, Thor, they're staring at us-"

"Now I'm embarrassed-"

Hiccup chuckled and shook his head fondly. "No, it's fine," he said. "I always thought of you guys - all of you guys - as my family anyways."

"Oh," said Ruffnut and Tuffnut in unison.

"So you mean we embarrassed ourselves for no reason?" said Ruffnut, looking at Tuffnut. "Why do we always do that?"

"Honestly though, Hiccup," said Tuffnut. "Don't feel bad just because Viggo beat you. You're still the smartest person we know."

"Thanks, guys," said Hiccup.

"So what happened while you were captured?" said Snotlout. "Was Viggo as creepy as ever? What about Ryker? Dagur?"

"Yeah, they were all the same," said Hiccup. "I got interrogated, questioned, threatened...the works. But Dagur was...weird. He made me fight him, and let me go when I told him Viggo's only using him."

"He let you go?" said Fishlegs.

"Why would he do that?" asked Astrid.

"Because," said Hiccup, "letting me go was the opposite of what Viggo wanted. I think part of Dagur is rebelling against Viggo and the dragon trappers."

"Well, let's hope so," said Snotlout. "Dagur and the dragon hunters, working together, is not a good thing."

"Why did they kidnap you in the first place?" said Astrid. "What were they trying to do?"

"They wanted to know which way was the best way to get into Berk," said Hiccup, "to take the dragons...and Viggo tried to get me to join them, but obviously, I didn't. We played Maces and Talons for a while, though...you know, the actual board game."

Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins exchanged glances. Then, they looked at Hiccup again.

"Who won?" said Ruffnut eventually, almost shyly.

Hiccup shrugged. "I did," he said, "but-"

"You beat Viggo!?" said Tuffnut. "Oh! So the speech was entirely unnecessary!"

"But there's more to it than just me beating him. When we played Maces and Talons," said Hiccup, "the actual board game...I realized what was doing wrong the whole time, why I couldn't beat him. I realized what made me lose last time. I was trying to do it alone, by myself. I thought it was just me against Viggo, and no one could help me...but I was wrong. I don't have to be smarter than Viggo, or better than he is, or the best at strategy. I just have to realize...I'm not alone. We fight together, as a team, and when we win or lose, we do it as a team.

"And that's what sets me apart from Viggo," said Hiccup. "Viggo thinks people are expendable, and that caring is a disadvantage...but he's wrong. He may be strong by himself, but together, as a team, we're stronger than Viggo ever was and will ever be.

"So, I guess...thanks for being there for me."

"Awwww!" said Fishlegs. "Come here!" And before Hiccup even had the chance to prepare himself, Fishlegs was crushing him in a tight embrace.

"Hey!" said Ruffnut. "We want to hug him, too!" She and Tuffnut quickly joined the embrace, and Astrid rolled her eyes and did the same.

"Hey!" protested Snotlout. "No one is having a group hug...without me!" And he joined in the hug as well.

It was the first group hug the riders had ever actually had, and although it became a tad bit awkward the longer it went on, Hiccup still found contentment in the embrace of his friends. When they finally broke the embrace, Hiccup smiled at each of them in turn.

"Alright, gang," he said. "Let's fly home."

The riders whistled to their dragons, and once they were mounted, they took to the sky.

Today, I learned one of the most valuable things I could ever know.

"Yeaha!" said Snotlout, Hookfang soaring quickly, wings alighted on fire. "We're on fire, baby! Literally! OW, OW, TOO LITERALLY! OW!"

You're a lot stronger with friends than you are without. When life gets dark, and enemies attack, it's good to know your friends will always be by your side, until the very end.

Toothless swooped, and the dragons flew into the light of the rising sun, the ships sailing through the water in their wake.

…

On the shores of the dragon hunter's base island, Viggo stepped, soaked by saltwater and looking worse than anyone had seen him. The men were hauling up the remains of the ship, Dagur and Ryker among them, each of them looking worse for wear, some of them sprouting bruises from the fire that had been aimed by the dragons to the catapults.

The Scauldrons had wrecked their ships; all of them. They were in ruins, never to sail again unless great repair befell them. Viggo was relieved they hadn't brought all of the ships in their fleet, because they would have been in quite the predicament if they had, as all the ones they had taken out were in ruins.

Viggo looked to the skies, lit by the rising sun of the new day. It could have been his imagination, but he was sure he saw the flying forms of five dragons with dragon riders on each back, whooping in triumph.

"I told you," panted Ryker as he, gasping heavily, limped over to his brother, eyes gleaming in the pleasure of being right. "That boy is more trouble than he's worth. If you had listened to me-"

"The outcome would not have changed," said Viggo. "I tried to convert the boy to our side. That was the reason we kidnapped him in the first place."

"But you failed," said Ryker. "Admit it, Viggo. You failed."

"This time, perhaps," said Viggo, "but this time, I still had hopes that the boy would join us. Now, my decision has changed, and next time, I will not be dissuaded by anything."

"Dissuaded," spat Ryker. "You should've thrown him to the Scauldrons when you had the chance."

"Throwing him to the Scauldrons would not have made a difference," said Viggo crossly. "He trained the Scauldrons to attack us. I have yet to learn how he did it, but he did it nonetheless."

"Still," said Ryker. "You could have done something other than sit around and play board games with him! You could have killed him yourself! You could've let Dagur over there have his way. I'm sure he could think of many painful deaths for the boy-"

"The boy will die," said Viggo. "That is my decision. But when it happens, we mustn't make it slow, or agonizing, or painful. We must be quick. We must do it silently and quickly, but at the same time, gruesomely enough to leave a mark."

"Poison? It would be easy enough to do."

"But poison does not leave a big enough mark. We need something to scare the courage out of Hiccup's dragon riders. Something to make them stop and reconsider their decisions, should they try and return for the Dragon Eye."

"What kind of mark do you want to make?" Ryker was almost excited; this was what he was good at. Violence.

"A stab ought to do it," said Viggo, "but unfortunately, dear brother, I cannot have you perform this task for me. This battle is between me and Hiccup. What you can do, however, whilst I am getting the pestilence of a boy out of the way, is prepare the fleet."

"Why?"

"Because," said Viggo, "we are going to assassinate the heir of Berk. You have to guess the Berkians are going to fight to avenge him, haven't you?"

Ryker smiled cruelly, for once agreeing with his brother's plan. Viggo looked down as a wave swept against the sand and pulled itself back, leaving, right at Viggo's feet, as if fate had put it there, the Great Viking Chief piece to the Maces and Talons game. Viggo bent down and picked it up, running a thumb against the smooth surface.

Then, with his thumb and his index finger, he snapped the piece in two and threw it back for the ocean to devour.

Author's Notes:

And so ends "Skeletons in the Closet." I hope you all enjoyed it thoroughly! :D And in case it wasn't obvious, it was Ryker with the "skeleton in his closet", by trying to hide the fact that he lost his birthright to Viggo (which is my headcanon, by the way. I don't know why Viggo is superior to Ryker in canon. XD), and sort of-kind of Dagur, too, with Dagur's slightly wavering alliance with the dragon hunters.

So, anyways, this story will be getting a SEEEEQQUUUEEELLL! (I think). Maybe! If you guys want a sequel, I'll give you one! But of course, it'll play off everything that happened in this story, which means it'll include the scene where Viggo tries to kill Hiccup. You'll have to see how that turns out. :D

DO YOU WANT A SEQUEL? I REPEAT, DO YOU WANT A SEQUEL? I won't be asking again. XD If there is a sequel, it'll be called "Total War" and have two parts: Total War Part 1, and Total War Part 2. Let me know what you think about it! If there is a sequel, I can tell you straight forward, it will have:

Hiccup and Stoick feels.

Hiccup and Astrid feels.

Lots of war.

Lots of Viggo.

Furious Astrid.

DOOM, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(Maybe not in part 1, but in part 2 for sure. XD)

So let me know, guys! My decision lies in your typing fingers! :D Love you all!

Cheers! :D

-BeyondTheClouds777