WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS HTTYD3 SPOILERS.

After a capture mission goes wrong, Hiccup finds himself at the mercy of none other than Grimmel the Grisly himself. Deciding to use Hiccup as a test subject, Grimmel infuses Berk's chief with the same venom he uses to drug his Deathgrippers into obedience. With both their chief and alpha gone, a leaderless Berk finds itself forced to fight its worst enemy yet.

Inspired by the awesome drawings by lunarcrown (check them out on Tumblr, as I can't link on ffnet) featuring the phenomenon that's come to be called 'venomcup', I've come up with the following story! The M rating is for whump and graphic violence.

Captured

"Where's your dragon when you need him?"

Hiccup instantly spun around on the wooden stairs, spotting the figure who'd come up behind them. He was standing on the other side of the chains that'd just surrounded him and his friends, preventing their escape.

"Hm, chief?" Grimmel the Grisly taunted. "Must have forgotten all about you."

Agitated, Inferno still ablaze in his right hand, he moved up his visor, balling his fists and giving the villain an angry stare. They'd come here to capture him. But instead, Hiccup had led all of them right into a trap.

"First rule of the hunt," Grimmel cockily added. "Separate the prey from its pack. You –" He pointed at Hiccup specifically. "– just removed yourselves from the equation."

"Why are you doing this?" Hiccup asked, looking down at the hunter from his vantage point on the wooden staircase. In the darkness around him, nothing but Inferno and the lantern Grimmel had with him lighting the fort, he had no idea where exactly the others were. He had to buy them as much time as he could.

"Really?" Grimmel exclaimed, raising his eyebrows. "I didn't think you cared!" He frowned again, his face turning serious. "Well, unlike you, when I was a boy and I came up on a Night Fury, I killed it where it slept."

Hiccup could feel a shiver run down his spine. Unlike him. He could've never killed Toothless.

"That simple act of courage made me a hero in my village," Grimmel continued, but Hiccup couldn't keep his attention on his story. Around him, he heard movement, along with low growls. There were dragons in here, and they certainly weren't theirs. "So I decided to kill every last one. Bringing real peace to the people of this world."

Grimmel's sneer didn't escape him as he watched the man's stare intensify. "Until you came along, preaching that dragons are something other than thieves and murderers." He pointed his finger at him again, as if he was trying to give Hiccup a stern talking-to. "That nonsense dies now. Starting with you."

"But you have dragons of your own," he argued. Which currently had them completely surrounded, judging by the sounds that intensified every second.

"These?" Grimmel laughed, looking at him with disdain while beckoning one of his dragons over. Deathgrippers, they were called. "They're dragon killers. Drugged into obedience with their own venom. Not even your precious alpha could control them." Good to know that wasn't an option. If Toothless ever returned from wherever he'd gone off to, that was.

Grimmel fiddled around with something, a tube, filled with a purple liquid, which he pushed back into the bridle secured around the dragon's head. It triggered a faint hissing sound, as if something was released from it. "They serve me, and only me." A smile played around his lips as he straightened himself. "Allow me to demonstrate."

A whistle rang through the fort, and Hiccup knew they had to get out of there right now. "Take cover!"

The words had hardly left his mouth when he heard the Deathgripper right behind him, spitting out acid and completely evaporating the structure he'd been standing on before he jumped out of its way. His suit was fireproof, but if this stuff was anything like Changewing acid, it'd burn right through it.

The floor of the fort instantly caught on fire as he made his way up the stairs, Astrid yelling at the rest of them to split up. Chaos erupted around him, dragons jumping around, spraying their acid wherever they spotted movement. Up seemed to be their only way out, and he ran as fast as he could, but as he looked below him, he found the fire had almost caught up to him already.

He almost tripped as he spotted the Deathgripper that was waiting for him at the top of the stairs. He managed to jump and grab onto one of the chains the stairs hung from just before its acid completely destroyed the structure. He used his momentum to swing to the other side, yelping as he did before all air was pushed out of his lungs due to the force with which he hit the stone wall. He only barely grasped onto one of the wooden beams attached to it.

He frantically looked below him before he pulled himself up, rolling over the edge and getting back up to his feet. He didn't know where everyone was, and in the mixture of shadows and fire it was impossible for him to find out. He spotted his mother, using her staff to make her way further up until she reached the top of the caging.

He checked around him, doing a quick count and hoping, praying to the gods that he counted right and that everyone was there. Most of them were already ahead of him, climbing up the stone wall, the Deathgrippers giving chase.

"Up here!" he heard his mother shout, but he could no longer spot her through the smoke. "Hurry!"

He started to run as every one of his friends disappeared out of sight, making his way up one of the supporting beams, hoping it'd allow him to reach the top. He only narrowly dodged another spout of Deathgripper acid, slipping to a halt just before it obliterated the remaining wood in front of him.

But he had nowhere left to go except forward, as another dragon would soon close in from behind. His mother's voice called for him as he peered down into the depths below him, finding nothing but fire. That he could handle. The drop itself, or the dragons that would devour him if he fell, he couldn't.

His breath hitching, he took a few steps back, seeing no other option than to take a leap of faith. He jumped, only barely avoiding the Deathgripper that jumped up through the flames to grab him. His mom was there, appearing on Cloudjumper, her hand held stretched out towards him.

His hand hit hers, fingertips brushing against each other. But neither of them managed to hold on. And he fell.

His mother's scream echoed through his ears as he flailed, trying to grab onto something but finding nothing but empty air. The Deathgrippers ignored him, jumping up past him and clawing at the top of the structure as his back was lucky enough to hit what little of the wooden upper floor still remained, the impact making him groan loudly. The Deathgrippers' efforts sent a shower of debris coming his way however, and he had no time to overthink his situation as he scrambled to his feet, trying to see where he could flee to. But he found nothing but flames around him. If only Toothless had been here.

Seeing no other way to avoid the killer dragons above him however, his mom having had to retreat, he made his way through the flames as well as his suit let him. Above him, through the growls of the struggling Deathgrippers, he heard another sound. The loud, ear-deafening roar of a Crimson Goregutter.

Before he properly realised what was happening, the stone walls above him collapsed, sending the dragons downward along with a torrent of debris. He managed to avoid the first bricks, but it soon obliterated the flooring he was standing on, making him slip as he desperately tried to grab onto the wall, but failed. His wings would immediately be torn to shreds if he opened them and he had no other options than to led himself fall, praying to the gods that the drop wouldn't kill him and that his suit could withhold the fire that was waiting for him afterwards.

But he didn't get a chance to. Two claws closed around his waist from in front of him, sending him straight through what little there was left of the fort's wall. He landed in a flurry of stone and wood, the Deathgripper and him rolling to a stop as the dragon pinned him down. It extended its tusks, moving its stinger dangerously close to his face as it growled. This was it.

He thought he heard the faint sound of his name in the distance – Astrid, perhaps? – as the stinger lowered itself to his face. The Deathgripper drooled on him, its yellow eyes staring deep into his own. No amount of training could help them. Grimmel had completely driven them mad.

"Stop," he heard the demon say. He looked to his right, finding the man pointing at him, but looking at the sky. He couldn't look behind him, but he had quite a good sense of who Grimmel was talking to.

"If you get any closer, he dies," Grimmel smiled.

Hiccup closed his eyes, knowing there was no other option than for him to be left behind. He'd led them straight into a trap. And now, he was paying the price.

Peering through the slits of his helmet, he watched Grimmel smile, nodding contently as he started to make his way over to him. The flames of his burning fortress spookily lit his face as he knelt down above him, grinning. "So much for saving their chief."

"You –" he started, before he saw Grimmel lift his hand, something blunt held in it. Instinctively, he tried to raise his hands to his face, but the Deathgripper was still holding him down. Watching in fear as Grimmel moved back his arm, he yelled once more before something hard hit the side of his face, turning everything completely black.

Everything hurt. Hiccup's insides, his outsides, but most importantly his head. It was pounding so loudly it awoke him from his slumber, making him struggle to open his eyes while he wondered where he was and why he wasn't in his bed.

He found himself in a dark room. The only source of light was a flickering lantern in the far corner, allowing him to see the stone wall and the steel bars of his cell. The memories of what had happened instantly came back to him. He'd led his friends straight into an ambush. And had been captured because of it, leaving Berk without its leader, without its chief. In their most trying times.

Cursing at himself for his stupidity, he got up to his feet, his prosthetic sounding too loud for his ears as it hit the rock floor. Only now did he notice how his hands were chained to the wall behind him, preventing him for getting further than a meter away from it. His body felt beaten and bruised, but he had to try to get away nevertheless.

Desperately, he tugged and he pulled, hoping either the chains or the wall would give. But every time he leapt, he was pulled back again by his own force, making him recoil against the wall. He tried until his wrists could no longer take it, the extent to which his head was spinning making him heave.

But he couldn't give up. Sure, knowing the gang, they'd try to come and rescue him. But he couldn't sit back and wait for that to happen. He had to get out of here himself.

His hair sticking to his forehead due to the amount of physical exertion he was putting himself through, his breath heavy, he tried to loosen himself again. But there was no way he could break the chains like this. He needed his sword, or an axe, or anything sharp enough to cut it. But he soon found that Inferno had been taken for him, the hilt that was usually strapped to his right pant leg, gone. And so was his helmet.

Angry at himself and frustrated, he tried once more, yelling loudly as he did before falling to his knees, panting as he tried to calm himself down, gathering his strength for another attempt.

"This isn't getting you anywhere," a voice told him what he was about to think to himself.

He looked up, finding Grimmel looking at him from behind the bars. He had a lantern in his hand which threw shadows over his face, making his grin seem even more devious.

"Let me go," he bit, looking up at the man.

Grimmel laughed, disdain clearly audible in his voice. "I don't think that's going to happen, Hiccup."

His captor opened the door of the cell, walking in with lengthy, slow steps. It hadn't occurred to Hiccup so far how un-Viking-like Grimmel looked. He was tall and slender, the exact opposite of the bulky dragon hunters he'd become used to throughout the years. This villain had the same posture as he did. But he was nothing like him.

He showed his teeth as Grimmel crouched down in front of him, putting the lantern on the floor. The man made sure to not crouch all the way down to his eyelevel, forcing him to look up as he gave Grimmel the kind of stare he reserved for people who treated dragons the way he did.

"I thought you wanted to kill me," he bit.

"Oh, believe me, Hiccup, there's nothing I'd rather do," Grimmel reassured him, staring back at him with a pair of ice cold eyes. "But," he resumed, fiddling around with something Hiccup couldn't quite see. "I figured that capturing you could have its advantages."

"Such as?" he asked, defiantly returning Grimmel's gaze.

"Well, you know where the people of Berk are," Grimmel elaborated. "And perhaps, your precious Night Fury too. So I'll leave it up to you which of those you tell me about first."

"Neither."

"Now, Hiccup, that seems a bit drastic, doesn't it?" the villain smiled, shaking his head. "When we could also just solve this in a more civilized manner. After all, it's only a matter of time until my armada finds the Berkians. I am simply offering you the chance to put them out of their misery sooner."

At least he now knew Grimmel hadn't sailing west hadn't been a lucky guess. "I'm sure Berk's warriors will gladly put you out of your misery as soon as you even dare to come close to them," he threatened. If anything, Astrid would gladly put Grimmel's head on a spike.

"What about the Night Fury, then? Care to give him up?"

He looked away, refusing to let Grimmel onto the fact that he didn't know where Toothless was. Which, right now, was probably for the best. Then he couldn't be dragged into the mess he'd made either.

A rough hand landed on his chin, pinching his cheek and twisting his neck, forcing him to look up at his captor. "Tell me, Hiccup. I will get him, with or without your help."

"Over my dead body," he bit, adding power to his words by spitting after it, a nice clot of Haddock saliva landing straight in Grimmel's face.

The man groaned, straightening himself as he wiped his long face with the back of his hand, the disgust visible on his face. "Little brat."

Hiccup's lips curled up into a smile as Grimmel turned around, resuming his fumbling with whatever it was he was holding. "Do you remember what I told you earlier, Hiccup?" the villain asked. "About my dragons?"

"Of course I do." How could he forget something like that? "You drug them into obedience with their own venom."

"Indeed. But what I forgot to tell you, is that it also works on other dragon species."

Hiccup couldn't see Grimmel's face as he spoke, but the tone of his voice was enough to tell him that he was smiling deviously.

"But there's something I've been wondering about…" he resumed.

"And what would that be?"

Grimmel turned around, holding his lantern up and revealing what he was holding. It looked like a small belt. "Whether it also works on humans." Hiccup's eyes turned bigger as he watched the tall man walk up to him. "And you seem like the perfect test subject."

He tried to scramble to his feet, but the chains were holding him back. He trashed and kicked as Grimmel stepped over them, pressing him down onto his knees as he lowered himself behind him. He couldn't let this happen. But there was no way he could get away.

He felt Grimmel reach around his neck. He tried to headbutt him, to hide his neck, to which Grimmel reacted by burying his hand in his hair, tugging on it so hard it fixed his head in place. He screamed in pain as he felt leather envelop his neck, his captor silencing him by tightening it too fast, making him feel like he'd choke right then and there.

He fell forward as far as his chains allowed him to when Grimmel released him, gasping for air before throwing himself backwards, hoping the length of the chains would allow him to claw the collar from his neck. But as he did so, he hit Grimmel's chest, and the man instantly threw one of his long arms around him, keeping his arms and upper body in place.

"Well then, Hiccup," Grimmel whispered from behind him, his voice low. Something purple moved into his field of view, Grimmel waving the same kind of tube around he'd seen him reattach to the Deathgripper before. The liquid almost sparkled in the faint light of the cell. "I have to admit that I think it's very noble of you to have saved all those dragons over the past years." His voice was absolutely dripping with sarcasm. "But you're wrong. And I can't allow those good deeds to go unpunished."

He screamed and trashed, struggling as much as he could, but Grimmel was stronger. He heard a hissing sound, followed by the piercing sensation of a needle, burying itself into his neck. His veins felt as if they were being filled with solid ice, his muscles going limp as he just stared in front of him, the world slowly darkening. His head spun as the ice reached his toes, every sense of reality escaping him. The only thing he still registered was how his body hit the rock floor as Grimmel released him. Then everything was gone.

A/N: To be continued... For news on updates, you can find me on Tumblr at aleteia-ff!