A/N-Quick response to a guest review:

THE FIRE KING: You'll get the answer in this chapter, but if you were around for Book 4, and read the prologue to this book, it might be clear who the mystery character is with a second glance.

We've got a lot that's about to happen in this chapter, some big revelations and the setup for the final showdown next chapter, so be ready! Onward...

Chapter 20

Reverberation

It's hard to stand

When the earth shifts under your feet

It's hard to change

When all never moved before

"Snotlout, get your head down before they shoot it off!"

Said Viking rolled his eyes and gave Astrid a withering glare as she somersaulted behind a boulder; conveniently, he also ignored the one she shot back. He and Thuggory were both hunkered near a felled tree by the edge of the village, but Snotlout was sticking his head up over the top of the log to get a look around as the enemy soldiers loosed arrow after arrow in their direction. Needless to say he made a tempting target.

"Oh please Astrid," he retorted, "I'm perfectly fine. These guys are such bad shots they couldn't even manage to hit the broad side of a –WHOA!"

Snotlout finally ducked behind the tree as a lucky arrow zinged past the side of his head, shaving off the tips of his hair. Watching the strands slowly float to the ground, he scowled in response and glanced in the direction of the soldier responsible for the impromptu haircut before slamming both hands against the tree in frustration.

What he and Thuggory were not expecting was the result of said action being the tree leaving its spot and flying down the hill, knocking down infantry like bowling pins. Snotlout's eyes widened in shock as he looked down at his hands, before he gave a glance toward Thuggory, who whispered, "I…I guess we know what those marks mean now."

Snotlout nodded, before the meaning clicked and he grinned, standing up and running off in Astrid's direction. The latter was swinging her axe all-out as she cleared a path through the village, having taken advantage of the sudden paucity of archers and left her own hiding spot, and Snotlout joined in, letting his hammer introduce itself violently to Jezebel's forces. Thuggory shook his head at the sight before following after, their own dragons coming in now that arrows were less of a danger and providing cover fire from above.

"The generals and others of higher rank have force field vests," Astrid told the other two as they skirted through the village again, "so our weapons won't work on them. But most still seem to be vulnerable to high heat from dragon fire, so if you run into any of them use the dragons to take them down. Thorn already took care of one, and I think I spotted Dogsbreath's Hotburple take care of a second."

Astrid paused in her explanation for a moment as she turned and released her axe, taking out the legs of a group of soldiers ganging up nearby on Mulch and letting the man finish the job. She then retrieved the weapon and spun, deflecting a Mysteel arrow that nearly took off her braid. Realizing how close she'd come from having the same kind of haircut experience as Snotlout, Astrid's eyes narrowed and she snarled, picking up the arrow and throwing it back at the archer, impaling him against the wall of the house behind her.

"You two seem to have some extra strength at your disposal now," she continued. "Use it to our advantage. Small rocks at high speeds will take the airborne soldiers out, helmet-sized ones will incapacitate or kill the wyverns, anyone on the ground you should hopefully be able to figure"-

"Uh, Astrid," Thuggory interrupted, lagging behind the other two and looking upward, "what about those?"

As if on cue, a massive shape blocked out the already low light penetrating the fog, and Astrid followed Thuggory's gaze, looking up to behold a very, very large shadow gliding through the air above them. A powerful wind swept down and buffeted the trio along with the rest of the village as it moved overhead, blowing the breeze-resistant fog slowly out of the way. As it cleared, the Vikings go a much better look at the vessel above them.

"Oh, Lord above, the ships are flying," Astrid gasped. A moment of stunned silence enveloped them, before she shook out of her trance and turned to the other two. "Okay, new plan because with those up there we're sitting ducks on the ground. Get on the dragons!"

She whistled sharply, Thorn diving down in response. As the Nadder flew by Astrid grabbed the edge of her saddle and swung herself up, clipping in the safety lines Hiccup had insisted she install before glancing back to see the two Nightmares and their riders following. Then Astrid took in her surroundings to assess the situation, and found the results less than pleasing.

The fog was dissipating rapidly now, and they no longer had cover for their surprise attacks, so Astrid focused on a fast, accurate approach. Soldiers on dragon-back had clear sights on them now, and those on the ground were drawing bows at a far greater distance. She signaled Thorn in practiced maneuvers to single out enemies on their own flying creatures, the pair barrel rolling around the target as Astrid took out the aerial men before they had time to react, and then either Thuggory or Snotlout came in behind to finish off the mutated wyverns. The mounts appeared to be less apt to attack now without a rider, but even without the Bewilderbeast whatever effect Jezebel's magic had on the poor creatures still had clout, and a riderless enemy dragon was still a terrible danger.

"Astrid!"

Said warrioress looked up to see Ember gliding toward her on Orha. "Hawken's keeping the sorceress busy on her own ship, but we have another issue."

"You mean besides the floating stone warships currently hovering over the village?" Astrid snarked. Ember gave her a deadpan glare but continued. "I mean the woman who turned on whatever it is that's powering these things," she quipped back. "She's got an incredibly wide knowledge of how to work the energized gems, and I think she's Jezebel's right-hand lieutenant or something. The twins and Fishlegs are currently busy distracting her right now"- to emphasize this, an explosion suddenly rattled from a nearby ship "-but I doubt this is all she has to throw at us, floating platforms to fight from being little advantage on their own when we have dragons."

"Well, we need to figure a way to take them down," Astrid said, "but we can't do so while they're over the village. Just one of those drops and we might have to completely rebuild a third of the houses, let alone worry about whoever gets caught in the avalanche. If we can disable them enough to knock one off course, might be an option." "Ruff and Tuff sank one earlier by filling it with gas and setting it off," Ember offered. "We could work with that somehow." Astrid nodded in agreement. "Perhaps, but first concern then is getting them over the bay again. We need to figure a way to draw the woman and her ships over water again and take them out there."

"Well," Ember groused, "they're positioning purposely over the village, so I'm thinking it's not going to be as simple as asking whoever she is to nicely move them –LOOK OUT!"

Astrid felt Thorn twist under her and she automatically reacted, leaning into the turn and flattening herself to the Nadder's back. She glanced in the opposite direction and found to her dismay a boulder of all things sailing toward them. Unlike last time however, when Ember had dodged the flying rocks, as this one came within proximity to the two riders and their dragons the surface shimmered orange, and a loud crack sounded as the stone exploded, mineral shards whistling through the air.

Astrid would later vehemently deny it despite several witnesses, but she involuntarily screamed as the cloud of shrapnel headed their way and ducked her head behind the Myscale braces protecting her arms. The rocks hit and most bounced off harmlessly against the metal alloy, but she heard both their dragons roar in pain at the same time as she was being pelted. Looking up as the mineral rain ended, she spotted nothing worse than shallow cuts on Orha's front legs and sides. Thorn, however…

Thorn had been impaled between her armor by multiple shards, not deep enough to be fatal but enough to hinder the dragon dangerously. Seeing the wounds on her beloved Nadder, Astrid felt something snap, and her eyes narrowed.

"Thorn, land, now! And stay out of sight!" Astrid ordered, unclipping herself as the dragon squawked in protest and waving to Orha. As the Shadowracer turned, Astrid jumped, spinning herself midair and landing behind Ember on his back. "Thorn, go! As soon as I can I'll get Hawken over to help you, alright?" Astrid urged. Thorn stalled, before reluctantly complying and turning away. Astrid watched as the Nadder glided clumsily toward the edges of the village and disappeared from sight, feeling another pang at having to send her ever-loyal friend out of battle, before turning to her present comrades.

"Get me to the ship she's on, and I'll take care of the rest," Astrid snapped vehemently. Ember turned to comply, but Orha slowed down instead, drawing concern from his riders. "Uh, there's a real problem with that plan," he noted with worry. "She's no longer on a ship."

All three of them looked ahead, to find the mineral-wielding woman floating in front of them a couple dozen yards away. The same power that propelled the warships worked on a smaller scale around her, a spinning field under her feet propelling the woman through the air. Ruff, Tuff and Fishlegs could be seen further off, still trying to gain her attention and distract her, but she was focused solely on the two women astride the Shadowracer.

"You fight with loyal dragons, but so do we," she called almost nonchalantly. "You have a powerful ally with ancient abilities, and we have an equally powerful leader. But, you lack in one defining factor: you do not have me."

Screaming electricity crackled through the air as the woman swept both her hands up toward the riders, and the gems along her arms lit up in succession. The trio dodged the lightning and came back around, Ember holding a biting remark on her tongue and responding in turn.

"We have God on our side, and His power within each of us," she snapped. "There's no higher trump card you could possibly"-

"God?!" the woman barked harshly, cutting the fiery-haired girl off. "You claim you have God on your side? I once thought I had the Almighty behind me as well, that my power came from him. Then He forsook me, and my gift became a curse, trapping everyone I loved and ever cared about forever and leaving me alone, isolated with demons for centuries."

She closed her eyes as she continued, dredging up memories she had buried until then and each word spat with a bitter tone. "I believed as fiercely as anyone once, and everything fell. I lost that hope long ago, and nothing has ever told me I should regain it otherwise. In the end, if you fight you fall, and there won't be anything or anyone there to catch you."

A vortex of stones ripped up out of the ground far below, and at the same time beams of green-tinted power erupted from the woman's hovering field, striking the ships that soared through the air around them. A terrible whirring sound erupted all around, and suddenly unseen ports slid open along the sides of the vessels, great barrels within emerging and aiming downward.

The stone vortex spun outward with fury, forcing all the dragons in the area to dive away from the attack as cannon fire began to echo in all directions, powerful projectiles hurtling from the ships and strafing the village below, carving through hillsides and houses alike and leaving behind only chaos. Those without their own dragons on the ground screamed and fled for cover, the enemy forces they fought against likewise doing the same under the sudden, merciless assault.

Through all the turmoil that had erupted, though, one rider had been listening to the words spoken, and was attempting to piece together what the woman had said with what it meant. As Meatlug veered away from the onslaught, taking a few rocks to the tail, Fishlegs finally had a light go off in his head as everything fell into place before him. The events of their last encounter with Jezebel and the subsequent result bloomed in his memory: an ancient family of gifted guardians, who had thought they lost one of their own, then a young girl with a unique and dangerous ability.

"Oh, my word," he whispered. "Thank you Lord, that's the answer! She-she doesn't know! Her family's been freed and is safe, and-and they don't know she's alive either!" He pumped his fists in the air in triumph. "That's it, that's the answer! It's Aurianna!"

Fishlegs quickly put on a determined expression and pointed Meatlug toward a pair of blonde twins on a Zippleback, yelling, "Ruff, Tuff! Find Thuggory and Heather and get them up here! I have an idea!" Then he spun in the direction of the erratically flying Shadowracer nearby, the revelation and an entirely new plan reverberating through his head.

The near-complete silence of the damp cave did nothing to settle Mildew's thoughts. The occurrences of the past few months had begun to shake his bearings on life, and the last thing he wanted to be doing was sitting around and waiting out chaos with the other elders and the annoying children of the village.

He glanced toward the far end of the cavern, where a makeshift bed had been propped up for its sole occupant. Mildew and Stoick had never quite seen eye to eye, but the chief had kept the village running through some of the worst dragon raids Mildew had ever seen, successfully transitioned them all to the new life they faced after the general threat of dragons had been removed, and had through it all retained the strength, physically and mentally, to stare down even a Jotunn and win. For that, Mildew held a great deal of respect for the man, and to see him now, laid out just a few yards away completely at the mercy of the world, rocked even the old curmudgeon's foundations of thought.

For a while he blamed the dragons, as he always had. The beasts had never redeemed themselves in his eyes, and when word got out that it was Toothless who'd taken the shot that brought their chief so low, Mildew jumped at another chance to possibly rid the village of the creature he had still viewed as the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death.

The look in Hawken's eyes when he'd come upon Mildew confronting Hiccup about it was the first chip in the old mans' hardened visage. Black was a color no one wanted to see in the dragon boy's eyes, especially when the rage came attached with a deep pain that Hawken had tried to hide, but still leaked out. The second blow was how Toothless and the other dragons had acted over the weeks to follow around Stoick's house, absolutely no different than the other villagers waiting for a beloved man to recover. The most recent straw to break Mildew's thoughts was in knowing Toothless of all the dragons was the one willing to risk the greatest loss he could experience a second time just to prevent it from happening to all of them.

"One might think yer up te something," came a prodding voice. Mildew glanced up wearily to meet Gobber's questioning gaze. The blacksmith stood near Stoick's bed, helping Gothi tend to the medicines and supplies they had brought along with them to take care of the others and especially the chief, and was exercising his well-hidden but not unknown powers of observation as he looked toward the village curmudgeon.

"It's chafing me to stand in here uselessly when everyone else is out there fighting for our necks," Mildew quipped back, pacing restlessly again. Gobber snorted as he looked at a bottle label. "And since when have you considered the well-being of everyone else? Last I've checked you were always stingy about even lending a hand with your own cabbages most times when ye came down te the village."

"And last I checked our entire way of life has been turned upside down several times over the past few years too," Mildew returned. "Things have…happened, and to be honest I don't like where I've been standing through it all as I look back." He sighed. "For once I think it's time I did things a little differently too."

The silence rose up thick enough to cut with a knife; in all his years Gobber had never expected this turn of events. "You-you're having a change of heart?" he queried cautiously.

"Call it what you want," Mildew muttered. "I've done wrong, and…" he stumbled on picking up the words he was looking for, before grasping his staff tightly and marching toward the exit of their hideaway. "It's time I gave a little of what I've taken in the past. Keep an eye on Fungus for me."

Gobber's eyes widened, before sense rushed to him again and he hobbled forward, trying to catch the man. "Mildew! There are other ways to go about this; running out to the village now is suicide!" "Then it's the best way I can leave!" Mildew called back, already well ahead of the smith and faster even on his old bones than Gobber was, popping out of the mouth of the cave only a minute later and striding down the mountain path, a determined look entirely foreign to him dominating his expression as he reached up and scraped his staff along the rocks, sharpening the bone edges as he went.

The fact that the ship beneath my feet was floating now left me feeling rather disconcerted, but sad to say I wasn't left feeling terribly surprised. Besides, I had far more important matters at hand, leaning back to a dangerous angle as a Mysteel blade swept over my head, my double tail and the swords held in its grip swinging up to try and take out the blade as it passed by.

Instead, the bite of Jezebel's sword caught one of my tail tips, and I jerked it back, removing the appendage before she could finish the job and healing as quickly as I could. I backflipped and righted myself, before trying out a different tactic. Nightmare flames raced across my form and then arced outward, swirling into a complex spiral around both of us and lighting up the makeshift arena that was the stone ship's deck. Though I doubted they would seriously affect Jezebel, as she was more than used to fighting dragons and fire came with the package, the maze of flames acted as a moderate distraction as I shrank down to a smaller form, a slightly oversized Fireworm, and twisted through the burning whips to take a hard shot at the sorceress.

A blast of power hit me in the chest instead, knocking the wind out of me and sending me sliding across the deck. Dazed, I stood up shakily and demorphed, trying to clear my vision. I looked up then, only to see a dagger flying straight toward my face. I was still too shaky to be able to move quite fast enough to dodge however; stupid me, the fire acted as a distraction on my side, but it also concealed Jezebel's actions and intent.

The dagger never reached me however. The scream of a Night Fury sounded nearby and two shots soared out, an acetylene plasma charge melting the dagger mid-throw and the other an electric arrow exploding against Jezebel's vest and knocking her off balance for a moment. As my head finally cleared I grinned; the flame maze had hidden the incoming attack of my friends, an unintentional score on our end.

I stood up straight and turned to watch Hiccup leap from Toothless' back to the deck as the Night Fury circled above us, waiting for another opportunity to fire on the woman causing us all so much grief.

"Figured you couldn't quite hold your own forever, as usual," Hiccup teased, sizing up another arrow and taking out a chunk of the deck nearby Jezebel, keeping her on her feet as dust filled the air.

"Well, can you blame me?" I quipped back. "I'm up against her!" I switched my gaze to Jezebel again. "But in all seriousness, good to know you're available again, so I'm guessing Drago and company are out of the way. We have to end this quickly; she has someone who knows how to work these ships to their full extent."

Proving my point, the deck under our feet shuddered slightly as the ships began firing on the village below. Hiccup pursed his lips, before putting Framherja away and pulling out his sword.

"I've got an idea that might even some of the odds," he said, "but it may make me sound a little like Cami." He signaled Toothless to fire, covering us as Hiccup relayed his plan to me. Jezebel released a fireball of her own, the weaponized flame soaring toward the ebony dragon above us who more than easily dodged and raked the deck again with fire, moving fast enough to demand nearly all of Jezebel's attention for the time being.

Hiccup finished outlining his intentions, and I frowned. "Okay, yeah, that does make you sound like Cami. But it also sounds more like one of your usual harebrained reckless plans," I muttered. He grinned as he stepped away, and we took up Jezebel's attention again. "Well, yeah, but they tend to work in some manner don't they?" "They work yes, but someone usually ends up almost dying half the time too!"

"Would you two quit with the sideline chatter and fight already?!" Jezebel snapped, her swords swinging upward again as she came toward us. "It's not like you have come up here to do anything else, and I am not one to sit back idly in my own war so you'll have to if you want to last any longer!"

Both blades whirled out, leaving her hands and aiming for us. Unfortunately neither sword stopped acting like she still held them, sweeping and cutting as if still held by a practiced swordsman. Expert moves kept both Hiccup and I busy as Jezebel herself stayed unhindered, turning to keep Toothless at bay with a whirling storm of energy above our heads as she also came in at me again, another weapon appearing in her grip and forcing me to use every move I had at my disposal.

"This is all really pointless, don't you think?" I scowled, avoiding both the sword she held along with parrying the one that floated along with a mind of its own. Jezebel smirked. "Yes, I do. So you should give it up sooner rather than later. I still have multiple upper hands over you in this battle of attrition, and if you surrender now your suffering ends faster and the same end result is reached."

"I'm not done myself, Jezebel," I snapped, "and I have more than hands and tails to fight with." Swerving between the two swords in a sudden sweep, I brought my head down against hers.

So, she definitely wasn't expecting such a blunt move, but let me make the note now that nobody wins in a head-butt. Even with reinforced scales covering my head we both stumbled away, dazed, but it gave Hiccup and Toothless the opening they were waiting for. Hiccup leapt past the now semi-inactive floating sword and swept his own sword up toward Jezebel, who was only just awake enough to back away from the death blow. The sword did, however, cleave through the remainder of the vest she wore over her armor, and it dropped uselessly to the deck. Toothless dove and fired point-blank, sending the tattered leather well out of Jezebel's immediate reach and further disabling it, and Hiccup drew Framherja to loose a bolt into the central connecting crystal. The electric charge worked perfectly, overloading the gems on it and causing the whole thing to detonate.

Jezebel recovered just as her vest exploded, as did I, and her already flashing eyes erupted in fury. She whirled and grabbed two of her swords again and swung them toward me. I swept up my own blades and blocked the cutting blow, but I wasn't ready for the added force that came radiating down the metal from the attack. The power akin to a sorcerer's invisible battering ram slammed into me, and I flew backward, colliding with the ship's rail. My breath left my lungs for a second time in the course of the fight, but I didn't stop moving.

Instead, as I caught a glimpse of Jezebel unleashing the same attack on Hiccup, who luckily had Toothless there to pull him to safety before he hit anything, I tumbled up and over the edge, falling fast toward the hillside below. Uncoordinated by the blow, I clumsily spread a pair of wings and tried to right myself.

As we had fought, Jezebel's ship had positioned itself up against the mountainside that the Great Hall was built into, so my attempt to regain my bearings did not have the intended result. Instead, I swept straight into the cliff above the Hall, and collided head-first. I slid down along the rocks and then over the arch of the Hall, falling to the ground. I groaned, trying and failing to concentrate enough to heal the blunt force trauma keeping me down, and everything around me began to darken.

Funnily enough, my brain was working just well enough to catch the irony of my collision, taking me out of the battle in exactly the same manner that had kept me down during the conflict at Dragon Island. I saw the vessel Jezebel commandeered descending in my direction, but this time I wasn't going to be getting up to confront her again.

The sounds of war around me began to deaden, and I barely managed to take note of the cannons on the ships ceasing their bombardment of Berk before I completely blacked out once more.

When I awoke some time later, focused enough to heal, the situation was far, far worse. Battle had just about altogether ceased, but only because Jezebel stood above me, holding her foot down on my chest and her sword at my neck, and keeping the rest of the village at bay with the threat of my head if they moved.

A/N-Yes, I love cliffhangers. So we all know who the mystery woman with the gems is, much to play out with that still to come. And Mildew's acting a bit strangely too...

Let me know your predictions, and don't forget to review!