Hell's Gate
General Stoik gave one last instruction over the radio before shutting it all the way off. "We have to maintain radio silence until we reach the island, so stay within shouting distance." Then he glared into the fog. The dragons would pay for all they stole, all they killed…
"Listen, sir," Gobber said, coming up behind him, "I overheard some talk and some of the other soldiers are wondering just what it is we're up to here. Not me, of course – I know you're always the man with the plan…but some, not me, are wondering if in fact there is a plan at all, and what it might be." Gobber was pitifully transparent: he wanted to know if there was even a plan. Face him with dragons on solid ground, even at night, and he was the bravest captain ever to take up arms – but put him on a ship in heavy fog and he started having dreadful nervous attacks.
"Find the nest and take it; we'll fill in the details once we're there."
"Ah; send them running. Yeah, that's nice and simple…"
Stoik held out a silencing hand to Gobber, his attention suddenly riveted on the Night Fury. Up until that moment it had been standing there despondently, head hanging until its nose was brushing the board it was strapped to. Then its ears had started to vibrate and it was twitching this way and that as if being attacked by flies.
So it begins… General Stoik took the wheel and kept his eyes carefully on that dragon.
All at once its head popped up, its eyes wide, and it stared intently to the left. Stoik turned to port – and they sailed past a large sea stack. The dragon swung the other way, and Stoik followed suit as soldiers bellowed from the back to the other ships which direction they were turning next.
They were sailing into the unknown…
Arena
Hiccup had managed to open one cuff but not the other, so now he had his hands free but the restraint still dangled from his left wrist. Never mind…he had other things to worry about; like what Toothless must be going through. It was absolutely impossible, given the size of that thing, that their weapons could mark it fast enough to bring it down before it wiped them all out. And sooner or later, it would find and kill Toothless; even if he could fly on his own, restrained like that he'd never be able to get away on his own.
And what if, against all odds, they did succeed? They would kill Toothless themselves, and the only question would be if they did it there or waited until they got home to drive one last stake through Hiccup's heart.
"If what you're wanting is to get eaten, I'd definitely go with the Gronkle."
Hiccup turned around, startled out of his dark musings by Fishlegs's voice, and saw all of his classmates standing there. By the look of things, Astrid had assembled them for him – and in fact, she'd even found his headset.
Tuffnut elbowed his way past Ruffnut and got practically right in Hiccup's face. "You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon."
"Um…"
"It's me," was the last thing Tuffnut managed to say before Snotlout shoved him out of the way.
"I love this plan!" Snotlout said enthusiastically, pumping his fists.
Ruffnut shoved him aside so violently that he punched himself in the face before Hiccup could squeak out more than, "I…didn't…"
"You're crazy." At first that seemed like a bad thing, until she smiled slyly and practically purred, "I like that…"
Hiccup had to let out a sigh of relief as Astrid dragged Ruffnut away. This was a whole new type of popularity, one that had little resemblance to what he had before.
"So…" Astrid slung the headset around Hiccup's neck, "What is the plan?"
Hiccup looked them over again, suddenly noticing something he hadn't actually seen before: they were all armed to the teeth. Handguns of every type were tucked into every available pocket each of them had, and he had no doubt all of them were fully loaded; each also had a baby rocket launcher slung on their backs, and they had to have raided the armory against regulations to get those. They evidently had figured out somewhere between here and wherever Astrid found them that they were going into war and wanted to be ready.
"Well…" Hiccup began with a slow smile, "It's nice that you're all fully armed, and we probably will need all the firepower we can carry…" not like he was expecting it to mark that monster, "But for step one, you'll need to put all those weapons down."
Hell's Gate
The ships sailed past the wreck of another ship – one that had been there a while, by the look of it. Its shiny finish was long gone, and barnacles and similar creatures were growing all over it. The nameplate was unreadable, either through the passage of time or the direct intervention of a dragon. It was not the most encouraging of sights.
"Oh…I was wondering where that went." Gobber, of course, chose to take refuge in humor to hide his own anxiety.
Their ship just scraped the side of the wreck as they turned.
Suddenly the Night Fury started thrashing – or trying to. It was too well restrained to do much more than rattle its bindings.
"Stay low," Stoik called, "And get ready."
Suddenly they beached.
Stoik walked to the prow and looked up. They were on the shore of what looked like a volcanic island. It was a desolate place, and it looked completely vacant – except that he caught a glimpse of a dragon's tail as it hurried out of sight.
"We're here."
Stoik jumped down from the deck onto the beach. It wasn't covered by sand, but by pebbles – magnifying the sound of his movements rather than muffling them. Not like, if the dragons could communicate with each other, they didn't all know already that soldiers had come.
Arena
Hiccup slowly backed away from the Monstrous Nightmare's cage.
A reasonable course of action, except for the part where the dragon in question was following him with its nose right under his hand. That pushed things up into insanity.
Fishlegs was holding very, very still, as if convinced that if he didn't move the dragon wouldn't notice him. The twins looked impressed as only they could – that Hiccup was controlling the deadliest known dragon. Astrid simply tossed her hair, completely cool about the whole situation; she'd seen Hiccup in action before. Snotlout…
Snotlout was probably the most nervous private in the ring. He looked at that blood-red dragon with the long claws and remembered how a few hours before it had tried to kill Hiccup and Astrid. He was antsy…he really would feel better with a weapon in his hand…
Astrid smacked his shoulder as he reached down for a stray pistol. "Uh-uh."
Hiccup led the Nightmare straight toward Snotlout. Somehow, it seemed like they would be a good fit. He would have liked to give the deadliest dragon they had to Astrid, but the sense he got from this thing was that it had more respect for muscle size – and Astrid, though strong, wasn't bulky. Fishlegs wasn't a personality match for this thing, which enjoyed being in the ring with something to fight.
"Wait – what…" Snotlout babbled – loudly – as Hiccup tried to guide his hand to the dragon's snout. Hiccup had to look away to recapture his hand when Snotlout snatched it away.
"Shh, relax…it's okay; it's okay…"
Chest heaving, Snotlout allowed Hiccup to guide his large hand over to take the place of the little hand that had been keeping the dragon still during the "discussion." Only after a couple seconds of nothing happening did Snotlout really take a proper breath.
Hiccup could see it; he'd wondered if he'd be able to. As the fear subsided, Snotlout opened up for a connection to be forged between himself and the dragon. It wouldn't be as strong just-formed as what Hiccup had with Toothless (and perhaps it would never be: the Nightmare didn't need Snotlout to survive, so there wasn't that anchor), but it would be enough.
Snotlout could hardly believe it. He, Private Snotlout Jorgenson, was controlling a Monstrous Nightmare with just a hand on its face. If Hiccup hadn't showed him how to…wait, Hiccup was leaving. His confidence gave way to fear, although not as strong as it had been when the dragon was first led out.
"Where are you going?" he called, not daring to turn his eyes away from the fiery beast.
Hiccup dug several coils of rope out of a box. "You're going to need something to hold on." Toothless had a saddle, but there wasn't time to make more.
Tuffnut held up a hand. "Uh, how strong are these dragons exactly? Because I think all six of us would be kind of heavy."
That was…surprisingly perceptive of Tuffnut…
"Yeah…" Fishlegs added doubtfully, "Six humans, even adolescents, would be a bit much for one Broad-Wing to…" his eyes widened as he suddenly realized what was coming next. "Oh…"
Hiccup grinned, for a moment looking as crazy as the twins. Then he hit all the cage switches at once.
The Nightmare twitched but didn't freak out as the Nadder, the Gronkle, the Zippleback and the Terror all burst out of their cages, looking around in some confusion. They were never all released at once to fight.
Astrid stepped right up to the challenge, extending her hand out towards the Deadly Nadder. It clucked a moment, considering her and the fact that she was being nonthreatening; then it willingly put its large nose in her hand.
"I'll be riding with you, Astrid," Hiccup called. "With those wings the Nadder would have the easiest time flying double, and we have to get there fast."
He didn't know quite why he felt like time was closing in on them; just that it was.
Fishlegs ended up with the Gronkle; they were rather well-suited for each other in terms of bulk and personality. The twins argued over which of them got the Zippleback and which got the Terror – until Astrid got her Nadder to let out a good loud screech. And while Tuffnut rolled around on the floor dramatizing about being hurt, Ruffnut claimed the Zippleback. The Terror half-slithered over to Tuffnut and sniffed him curiously.
"Um…okay…you're not going to rip me up again, are you?"
It rumbled at him, as if answering in the negative. Maybe it was.
"All right then…"
In a few minutes all were re-armed, mounted and in the air. Even carrying double, the Nadder was able to take the lead.
Hiccup pumped his fist skywards and shouted, "To the nest!"
Author's note: Just clarifying for the readers: all the dragons held hostage in Berk's arena were Broad-Wing; this makes them all, including the Terrible Terror, about the size of horses.