Disclaimer: All familiar ideas are not mine (and athingofvikings helped me refine a couple of world-building details); you know what to expect.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

AN: For the HtTYD fans, I've just started assisting Sandy97 in translating her HtTYD/Frozen fic Crossed Souls from Spanish into English, so I can recommend checking that out. It's a fascinating storyline that brings the two worlds together in a remarkable manner, as Drago Bludvist attacks Arendelle searching for the secret to the land's ancient magics, while the new alliance between Berk and Arendelle forces Hiccup and Elsa into a political marriage that leaves them to deal with growing feelings for each on top of Hiccup's enduring love for Astrid and Elsa developing her own complicated dynamic with the blonde Viking.

The Doctor's Dragon

Studying the solid-looking doors that kept the dragons contained, Astrid's mind raced as she tried to consider her next move. Getting to the ship and up to the cages had been relatively straightforward all things considered, considering the minimal amount of guards hanging around the island after her friends had been captured, but once she'd actually reached the ship it had become obvious pretty quickly that she had no idea what this thing was. It was too far inland to be a sea-faring ship, she didn't see any clear sign of how it could fly, and she had no idea how she might make sure it couldn't leave even if she knew what it was.

At least I know that releasing the dragons is my best bet; I just need to work out how to pull that off…

Despite the grim nature of the current situation, Astrid felt a certain pride as she realised what she had to do. Stormfly might be her regular partner, but she'd spent enough time riding Toothless with Hiccup that she could manage him easily enough, she had experience of training Hookfang from that incident when they were clearing out Mildew's old field, and she'd at least spent time watching the others work with their dragons. Hiccup would probably be the best person qualified to deal with this, but Astrid liked to think that she picked up enough from spending time with him to do the job herself…

What made Astrid really wonder about this situation was the fact that she was taking it so casually. She could barely even understand where these flying ships came from and what they were capable of, and that Drationan… Gods, was it some kind of goblin thing or some other horror-child of Loki's?

She didn't know where any of these things came from, but somehow it was surprisingly easy to accept the impossible situation facing them. A part of her wanted to assume that it was because she and the other Riders had spent so long facing seemingly impossible odds that it was easy for them to accept things they could never have believed in before, but another, smaller part of her had to acknowledge that there was more behind her acceptance than just past experience.

She couldn't explain why it made sense, but there was something about the Doctor's presence on the Edge over the last few days that made her feel like… like they'd all become part of something bigger…

Putting those thoughts aside, Astrid turned her attention to examining the 'cage' area, and was surprised to realise that her initial assessment of it hadn't been entirely accurate. She'd assumed from a distance that this was part of the main ship, but when she moved along it, the sound of her feet suggested that it was made of a more fragile metal than the thicker structure of the main ship. She initially wondered if it was a botched repair job, but soon re-evaluated her thoughts; considering the scale of the cages, it was more likely that these people had just erected this structure to hold the dragons until they could set up something more permanent.

She obviously didn't know much about this kind of ship-building, but from everything she was seeing, she was inclined to think that this cage structure was basically an add-on intended to make the ship look bigger than it was. The idea was probably to make an intimidating impression for whoever tried to attack them, but as far as Astrid was concerned, right now it just gave her a bigger target to take down without worrying about being caught.

Making her way cautiously along the 'building', Astrid listened carefully to the sound each dragon made as she walked across each 'door'. The metal muffled the sound slightly, but Astrid had listened to her friends' dragons often enough that it wasn't that hard to pick out each one, and Alcatraz and Sullivan were each fairly distinctive as well so long as she remembered that Alcatraz had a deeper tone than Meatlug. The order of the cages seemed to have been random, but it also meant that Astrid already had a potential plan that only needed her to get the relevant dragons to coordinate.

"Stormfly?" she said as she stood over the cage that she had tentatively identified as the one holding her own dragon, smiling in relief as her girl roared in response. "Glad you're OK, girl; just give me a moment."

With that confirmed, she moved over to the next door and carefully tapped her foot against it, smiling as she registered the unfamiliar, questioning roar.

"Sullivan, right?" she said, glad when the dragon gave a soft roar of confirmation; the Tide Glider sounded uncertain, but Astrid hoped that he would at least recognise her as a friend. "I have an idea that could get you out, but I need you to do what I tell you, OK?"

Astrid was never entirely sure how much dragons could understand when she and the other Riders talked to them, but when Sullivan let out an affirmative rumble, it really made her regret how long it had taken Berk to realise that dragons could be trained. Back when they'd been fighting, how many dragons would have just backed off if any of the Vikings had tried to talk to them, instead of everyone just lashing out in anger?

She could understand that nobody would have realised that was an option at the time, but it still made her regret how long much time they'd wasted. Maybe they would have still lost some food and livestock, but at least they could have avoided quite so many deaths…

"OK," she said, moving to stand at a point that she estimated was between the two dragons' cells, stamping a foot on each side. "Did you both hear that?"

The dragons both roared in understanding.

"Right," she continued, moving down to stamp on the edge of the cell towards the front of the cage. "You heard where I stamped there, right?" Once the dragons had let out another affirmative roar, she continued. "I'm moving back up the cells here; when I next stamp on the roofs of your cells, you need to aim your… breath attacks… at the point where I just stamped, and stop when I stamp again. OK?"

The dragons roared in what Astrid felt was tentative understanding from Stormfly's part at least; she just had to hope that Sullivan understood enough to get the point at her end.

"OK; let's test this." Stamping hard on Stormfly's side of the cell, she watched the corner for a few moments, and then stamped again when she saw it turn red-hot. Stamping on Sullivan's side, she watched as the red area rapidly cooled by his water-blast before another stamp ended the Tide Glider's attack. She repeated the process a couple more times before she ran up to the cooling metal and struck it with her axe. As she'd anticipated from past experience watching Hiccup in the forge, the metal had become brittle from the alternating heating and cooling attacks and easily broke from the blow inflicted by her own weapon, creating a hole in both cells that Stormfly and Sullivan charged at practically simultaneously.

The weakened metal could have probably kept the dragons contained when it was intact, but with such a gaping hole there already the wall broke even further as Stormfly rammed into it. A few blasts from Sullivan actually caused the metal on his side to start melting even as Astrid watched, but she didn't have much time to take it before she stepped back as the blue dragon erupted from his cell, letting out a roar of frustration and anger that was soon joined by Stormfly as the Nadder forced her way out of her cell. Astrid only just managed to leap onto Stormfly's back as the dragon returned to the sky, the blonde warrior sparing a moment to give Stormfly an affectionate rub behind her horn-frills before they turned around mid-air to turn their attention back to the other cells.

Unsure when the Drationan forces would leave the main ship to try and capture her again, Astrid turned her attention to making a few quick dives towards the cells, firing blasts of flame and acid at each cell and then pulling up as the dragons inside began to fire back themselves. It had taken both Stormfly and Sullivan working together to get out of their cells, but Astrid hoped that a two-sided attack would be enough to get through the metal now-

She wasn't sure what happened, but when Stormfly's latest attack struck a large lump of metal located close to the main body of the ship, Astrid was certain that the following large explosion wasn't just because Stormfly's flame was particularly hot even by dragon standards, and she was equally sure that things had just become worse even before she heard a few particularly loud and familiar roars.

I'm going to need help…

"You don't have to do this," the Doctor protested urgently even as he was moved from his original seat into a larger chair that had been moved to the centre of the room. "If you just give us-"

"You would draw out any opportunity you had even if you were willing to give us anything useful," Nicarlet said dismissively. "The telepathic interface has some teething troubles, of course, but that's one reason for starting with the one who clearly knows the most about the wider universe rather the rest of you; there is so much more in your mind that you can probably stand to lose a few neurons if we haven't got this working properly…"

"You can't-!" Turlough protested.

"There is very little that we cannot do," Nicarlet grinned over at Turlough. "We will have the dragons; all we require is a little time…"

The sound of an explosion shook the entire ship, knocking Nicarlet off-balance even as the Riders remained trapped in their chairs.

"What in the-?" Nicarlet began, before two loud roars were heard from outside.

"Was that-?" Turlough looked at the Doctor.

"Sullivan, unless I'm very much mistaken," the Doctor grinned as the sound of more blasts reached them from outside the ship. "Nicarlet, I don't think you're in a good position right now."

"Because one dragon-"

"Two," Ruffnut cut in. "Didn't you hear that there were two roars just now?"

"And-" Tuffnut continued, pausing as another explosion shook the ship, "we have a few more dragons about to join our little escape attempt."

"You cannot-!" Nicarlet began before he was interrupted by a new series of roars.

"Hey, you can't control the dragons, you can't complain if they don't want to stick around," Snotlout grinned, just as a louder explosion shook the building, followed by sparks of electricity from the straps that had been holding the Riders to their chairs. The moment the chairs had stopped holding them down, Snotlout and the twins charged at Nicarlet, forcing the Drationan to the ground as Hiccup and Turlough moved to help the Doctor back to his feet.

"Right then," the Doctor nodded, smiling uncertainly at Nicarlet as the twins and Snotlout held the Drationan leader down, "shall we talk about-?"

Any possibility that the Doctor might be able to talk with the Drationan was cut short when the wall alongside them was torn away, followed by a violent roar as the Catastrophic Quaken stuck its head through the wall and roared at the group of shocked Riders before it flew back out of the hole. The Riders, the Doctor and Turlough looked at each other in shock for a moment before Astrid and Stormfly flew up to the hole themselves, followed by the other dragons, Alcatraz carrying Toothless by the saddle before dropping the Night Fury to the edge of the hole.

"Toothless!" Hiccup grinned, running up to his friend as the other dragons flew to join their Riders.

"Everyone OK in here?" Astrid asked as she got off the dragon, before her gaze settled coolly on Nicarlet. "I take it he's the one in charge of these guys?"

"Pretty much," Turlough nodded, even as he scrambled back onto Alcatraz's back.

"Let's just say that's it's… been an interesting few moments," Hiccup said as he settled into position on Toothless's back. "Right now, could you maybe clear up what happened out there?"

"I managed to get Stormfly and Sullivan to work together to break out of their cells, but when we turned back to release the rest of the dragons…" Astrid began, before a loud roar outside prompted the group to glance out of the hole, their eyes widening in shock at the sight of the Screaming Death and the Deathsong flying above the ship, firing attacks at each other as they roared in rage.

"They got out, huh?" Hiccup looked over at Astrid.

"Yeah," Astrid nodded, as the three large dragons roared in anger outside. "We should probably get them out of here before the Drationans catch them again, right?"

"You will not-!" Nicarlet began, before Snotlout hit him in the face with such force that it sent the Drationan falling to the ground once again, this time clearly unconscious.

"I don't normally approve of violence as a solution, but I'll consider that putting this particular debate on hold until we're in a better position to deal with it," the Doctor said, looking coolly at the young Viking as he climbed back onto Sullivan before he turned to look around at the other Riders. "I'll see if I can erase the Drationans' records to make sure they can't do this again; you see about getting those dragons out of here."

"Hey, why do you get to stay out of the hard bit?" Snotlout asked, shaking his hand as he glared between the Doctor and Nicarlet.

"Because he'd actually know what he's likely to find to do the job, and I doubt any of you would," Turlough put in, as he glanced through the hole at the three fighting dragons outside, alternating their attention between each other and a few small shots from what he assumed were Drationan forces on the ground. "Let's focus on getting things under control here, and let the Doctor deal with things in there."

"You're helping out?" Fishlegs asked. "Shouldn't you-?"

"The Doctor's the expert, and I'm… just an apprentice," Turlough said, indicating Alcatraz with a slight smile. "I only know so much, but with these odds, I think I'm more useful as the student with the largest dragon."

"I can work with that," Hiccup nodded at Turlough before he glanced over at the Doctor. "You're sure you know what you're looking for?"

"I think I have a few ideas, certainly," the Doctor nodded as he settled into position on Sullivan. "I'll take a look at what this ship has to offer and work out where I might find the main records; you all try and subdue those dragons."

"No pressure, huh?" Tuffnut grinned, even as the seven dragons flew back out of the crack.

From fighting alien monsters to riding dragons; this has definitely been the most interesting few weeks I've ever had in the TARDIS…