Johann was not impressed when Viggo was presented to him. The former Hunter chief was nothing more than a slip of a boy now. Small with pudgy cheeks that would have been cute if Johann didn't know the man the child had once been. He didn't act like a man now but rather a frightened child looking about anxiously for a way to escape. Grown up Viggo would have been more subtle. Although with his small wrists tied and rope held tightly in Krogan's fist, it was unlike the boy would get very far.

"Where's Hiccup?" Johann snapped at Krogan.

"He'll be here soon enough," Krogan purred, not at all worried about the Hooligan heir.

"He killed him and Toothless!" Viggo objected in a high pitch cry. "He buried them in rubble!"

Surprised, Johann looked at the boy and then back at Krogan. "Is this true?"

"It was incentive. I could not reach the Haddock boy. Now he will come for him," Krogan explained, as if his actions were perfectly reasonable. "Hiccup Haddock is very much alive."

"He better be, for your sake," Johann growled, turning away to study the maps on his desk. "Do away with the boy. Hiccup is the one I want."

Viggo gave a small "eep" and stepped back. He couldn't go far with the rope tying him to Krogan but at the moment that didn't matter.

"We have another issue," Krogan warned, filling Johann and dragging Viggo along behind him. "It would appear Ryker is still alive."

Johann hummed softly to himself. "Ryker is of no concern to me."

"Perhaps, but he is within his right to seize control of the Hunters now that Viggo is presumed dead by their people," Krogan explained. He yanked the child to his side before placing both hands on the work table. "And if he has sided with the riders then we can lose what forces we have."

Johann looked at him with annoyance. "The Hunters are mine. Ryker knows his place."

"But…"

A sigh escaped Johann as he met Krogan's eyes. "If you believe Ryker to be that much of a threat then kill him. Use the boy as bait. But I want Haddock. He holds the key to the King of Dragons. And your client would benefit from a Dragon Whisperer, especially if we can convert Hiccup into a child and raise him as one of us."

Krogan frowned but said nothing more. He pulled Viggo behind him as he left Johann's tent and headed toward the one that had once been Viggo's. Viggo tried pulling away but he was too small and too weak to do much more than be a nuisance to the tall man. He stumbled and tripped but Krogan refused to stop and simply dragged him along until they reached the tent. Not much had changed inside. There was still the low bed, tables and desk that had been there when Viggo left. Nothing was out of place, although there was one new addition. A large purple dragon egg sitting on the desk.

Viggo stared at it in awe, no longer fighting as curiosity got the best of him. "Is that…" he began in disbelief. He gave a yelp when Krogan pushed him down against the pillar in the center of the tent and tied the rope binding Viggo's wrists to a ring midway up it.

"A Skrill egg?" Krogan asked in amusement. "It is."

"My Skrill?" Viggo asked, a mix of sadness and happiness at seeing it filling him.

The man chuckled lowly. "Your Skrill died, but not before laying a single egg. I thought you should have it." He stood and picked up the egg then placed in directly in front of Viggo, just out of reach. "Do you remember how Skrills hatch?"

The boy nodded slowly. It was one of the first things he ever learned about dragon hatchlings.

"Tell me."

Viggo stared at the egg for a long time. It was pulsing, little sparks of electricity lighting up sections of the shell. He swallowed as fear set in. "It begins lighting up the closer it is to hatching as It's power begins to grow. Then the egg explodes when the baby expels the built up energy, causing an elec…electric shockwave. That's why the mother places it in water."

"And when out of water how powerful is the shockwave?" Krogan purred, playing with a strain of Viggo dark hair.

The child looked at him. "The blast can kill everything within the immediate area."

The man nodded approvingly. "This one is due to hatch within the next few hours. If the shockwave doesn't kill you then the injuries you sustain will be enough to entice it to feed on you." Krogan gave a toothy grin. "Ever watch a Skrill feed on It's prey? It always starts with the soft belly and eats while the pry is still alive."

Viggo swallowed back his fear and glared at Krogan. "Hiccup's going to blow this camp to bits." His eyes narrowed to slits. "But not before Ryker tears you limb to limb." He gave a cry when Krogan back handed him so hard his little head snapped to one side, his cheek sting and bottom lip cut by his own teeth.

"Perhaps," Krogan cooed, leaning in closer to Viggo's ear. "But I'm going to enjoy watching the Skrill dine on your inners long before that happens." He punched Viggo in the stomach, seeing only the man and not the child before him.

Viggo inhaled sharply from the pain before his vision faded to black. All he could think of was the egg 's pulsating glow was growing with intensity.

. . .

Fitting a new prosthetic onto his stump, Hiccup got up and began gathering his weapons. He still felt woozy from the Dragon Root but he had no time to worry about it. Most of his injuries were mild, just a few bumps and bruises. Toothless was a little worse off but was already up and ready to go and waiting for a new tailfin which Hiccup happily put on him. He wasn't sure how long they had been out but it was too long as far as he was concern. Krogan had Viggo which meant Johann had Viggo and gods only knew what they would do to him.

The fact that this was no doubt a trap and Johann would be using Viggo to get Hiccup to hand over the lenses he had didn't matter. Viggo was a child Now, an innocent in all this, even if he had been the one to start this. That felt like a life time ago and it no longer had any bearing on Hiccup. His enemies were Johann and Krogan, not Viggo.

Although he couldn't suppress the yelp he gave when he opened his door to Ryker's raised fist, as if the man was about to knock on the door and instead just about knocked on Hiccup's startled face. Toothless gave the man a warning snarl and Hiccup absently reached for his sword.

"Whoa…whoa there, big guy," Dagur said as he ducked around Ryker to get to Hiccup. "Easy, Hiccup. We were just checking on you." He slipped between Hiccup and Ryker in hopes of keeping the peace between them.

"If you're planning to stop me from rescuing Viggo…" Hiccup began, knowing how strange it must have sound but not caring. He couldn't leave the boy in Krogan's hands.

"We're not," Ryker rumbled, his gave thoughtful as he inspected the youth before him.

"Stoick is planning a full scale rescue," Dagur explained.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and Toothless and I are supposed to stay here because we're injured," Hiccup added, having already had this argument with his father. He and Toothless were supposed to wait on the Edge with Gothi and recover. Well he wasn't. He had been hurt far worse than a whack to the head before and walked away from it. He wasn't about to sit by and wait for someone to free Viggo. He needed to get in there and find the boy before Johann decided to do away with him. "I'm going. Viggo is my responsibility. I'm not going to let…" He froze when large hands grasped his shoulders.

"He's my responsibility," Ryker corrected.

Hiccup met the larger man's gaze. He was hoping to see worry and devotion in Ryker's eyes, something to convince him that Ryker's intentions for Viggo were good. The confusion was there but so was the anger and hate he had seen when Ryker first discovered his brother's betrayal. Shaking his head, Hiccup stepped back. "No. I promised to protect him and I will…even from you."

He mounted Toothless and took off before either man could stop him, determined to get Viggo back even if he had to do it on his own.

Dagur folded his arms across his chest as his watched Hiccup and Toothless fly off. "What can I say? Little brothers are stubborn."

Ryker grunted in agreement. "No wonder Viggo felt such a kinship to him."

Dagur raised a brow. "Kinship? And here I thought it was something more…initiate."

The older man gave him a dark look but Dagur only shrugged. Turning back toward the clubhouse he waved to Astrid, gesturing in the direction Hiccup and Toothless had taken off in. No words were needed between to know Hiccup hadn't bothered waiting for any of them or why. He and Astrid had developed their own short hand where Hiccup was concerned. In a matter of minutes the rest of the riders were mounting up and chasing after their leader. Ryker stayed with Dagur.

"You know, Hiccup's pretty intuitive when comes to people…except Johann. He had us all fooled," Dagur began as he flew next to Snotlout and Hookfang.

Ryker let out his breath through his nose. "What are you getting at, Dagur?"

"I'm just saying I know what It's like to become obsessed with someone," the Berserker explained. "I obsessed over Hiccup for years. It's kind of like a love-hate situation. I wanted to be close to Hiccup because he proved he wasn't some cowardly runt who always screwed up. He was much more. So much more. But then he lied to me about Berk having dragons. He did it to protect his tribe and dragons but I took it as an insult. Never mind the fact I had already threatened war if they were. I wanted Hiccup to pay for it and kneel before me and beg my forgiveness. It was stupid but it controlled every aspect of me for a long time. And then I realized that my anger was stupid and all I was doing was hurting myself and him and Heather and I decided to change."

"So?"

"So Viggo must have been the same way. First he saw Hiccup as just another game piece to manipulate. No real threat just an annoyance. Then he got his ass handed to him and Hiccup proved he was far more than a game piece. In fact, Hiccup threw out all the rules to the game and Viggo no longer knew how to play. So he got mad and obsessive because Hiccup wasn't playing the game anymore. He got desperate and reckless and dangerous and forgot those around him. Hiccup has a strange way of doing that to people."

Ryker pondered Dagur's words. It was pretty much how things happened. When Viggo first encountered Hiccup he had been excited to finally be able to match wits with a worthy adversary, even if Hiccup was much younger than him. Things had been going so well. They were matched almost perfectly and Viggo had been able to manipulate Hiccup multiple times. And then Hiccup began getting the upper hand, his riders destroying all the Hunters' hard work and rescuing dragons constantly until the Hunters were nearly out of business. When it cut into their profit was when Viggo stopped being amused and became obsessive and wanting Hiccup killed and no longer cared who died in the process. That was when Viggo willingly sacrificed hundreds of his men, including his own brother.

"And at some point reality must have hit him hard," Dagur continued. "Maybe not right away. Probably not when you and your men went down with the Shellshocker. Probably after he fell in the volcano and lost half his face trying to recover the Dragon Eye. Nearly dying and then surviving with wounds that will forever scar you and can't be hidden. That's a serious wake up call. I wouldn't be surprise if he first returned to camp expecting you there and then realizing that he killed you. That's probably why he went into hiding. He finally felt shame. And That's probably why he helped Hiccup, to make up for his own stupidity."

"You talk too much," Ryker grumbled. He didn't care if Viggo felt guilt or shame. He had sent too many men to their deaths and had willingly sacrificed his own brother to rid the world of a handful of teenagers who were protecting dragons rather than moving their hunting grounds or trying to work things out with the kids…or going to their chief to file a grievance. Stoick would have made the riders leave the Edge if he knew why the Hunters were there and how they made their livelihood. Things could have been handled differently.

"I'm just saying it how it is. Viggo made a dumbass mistake and gave his life for Hiccup and Toothless in order to make up for it," Dagur pressed. "People change. I did, you did, and so did he. Maybe It's time you let go of your anger and see him for what he is now."

Ryker held his tongue. Viggo didn't change. He doesn't know how to. Whatever the body, Viggo Grimborn was still the same devious man he always was, he simply had a new tool to manipulate people with.