(A/N: This chapter will be the parallel to the episode "Twinsanity". At first, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to write a chapter on this episode because I knew there would be a number of complications. But then I decided, the heck with it, I can make this work. I can also find a way to sneak in Stoick's original dragon, Thornado. He's not used a lot in "Riders/Defenders of Berk" and I just feel like he should be used a little more in this story.)
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The day was young and so many things have already happened. First, they went on a training mission where they flew in the clouds and let their dragons see for them. Then, the twins and Fishlegs got stuck in a tree when the twins decided to try things their way and knocked into Fishlegs and Meatlug by mistake.
It was at that moment that Fishlegs used hand gestures to signal to Meatlug, which caught Hiccup's attention. He was very intrigued by how he was able to use his hands to signal to his dragon and give her commands.
That simple exercise led to their current task, training their dragons to understand hand signals. These gestures would be very helpful in case of an emergency or in case they get separated from their dragons and in need of a rescue.
Everyone was in the Academy training their dragons. After what Fishlegs did to save himself and the twins, Hiccup wanted to get started on practicing the signals right away.
Helene had her hand balled into a fist, Smog was sitting on the ground, awaiting her commands. She then released her fist and stretched her hand.
"Smog, smoke screen," she commanded.
He obeyed her command by flying up to just above her head and flew in a small circle while expelling smoke from his mouth, creating a small cloud. She smiled proudly at his actions, she was so proud of him for understanding and completing the task given to him.
"Good boy!" she praised.
He sat down on the ground again, looking up at her like an excitable puppy. She took out a tiny soft-shell crab and gave to him, which he ate eagerly.
"Eat it up, you deserve it." She got down on one knee, "Now, what do you say we try another one?" He whipped his tail from side to side and squawked. "Okay then."
She stood up and held out her hand, facing it downwards. Her fingers came tightly together and she brought them together with her thumb, closing her hand.
She commanded, "Snatch."
He flew over to Snotlout and lifted his helmet off his head. "Hey!"
He went back to her and dropped the item into her hand. She petted him on the head, "Good boy." He purred happily.
"Hey, if you want, you can put on the helmet of a real Viking," Snotlout winked at her.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. She threw the helmet back at him, hitting him in the gut, causing him to groan in pain.
"My offer still stands," he told her, his voice was weak and wrenched and he had a hand on his stomach.
"Get a life, Snotlout," she muttered under her breath.
She held up two fingers and flicked her wrist, Smog saw this and flew towards him again. He smacked him in the head with his tail just as he put his helmet back on, causing it to fall to the ground. He went back to his trainer afterwards, his work was done.
"Hey!" he yelled. He picked up his helmet and dusted it off before putting it back on, "Damn little dragon."
Hookfang huffed and looked away from his rider. Will he ever learn that no woman wants him?
Meanwhile, everyone else was having a lot of success in training their dragons. Everyone but Ruffnut and Tuffnut that is, they have been arguing the whole day, mostly over their dragon.
If one did the gesture for "sky", the other did the one for "ground", putting Barf and Belch into a daze, causing them to butt heads. To get back at each other, Ruffnut made Barf attack Tuffnut, he retaliated by having Belch bite his sister.
Both eventually stormed off in opposite directions. The heads of their dragon tried to go after them, but that was impossible as they belonged to one body. When they couldn't go after their respective riders, the two heads began to bite at each other.
'Some dragons really do take after their riders,' Helene thought.
Fishlegs then realized or remembered something, "Hey, Hiccup, isn't today the annual signing with the Berserker Tribe?"
His eyes widened when he realized that, "Oh, yeah, it is. I better get going."
Helene scoffed, "I hope Oswald the Agreeable isn't bringing his son, Dagur. He's such a pain."
He rolled his eyes, "Tell me about it."
"Dagur?" Snotlout repeated. "He's so cool!"
'Yeah, he is,' Hiccup thought sarcastically. 'He tried to drown me when we were kids!'
He mounted Toothless and they took off, leaving the others to continue their training. He had a feeling that this was going to be a stressful day.
When they came back to the Academy an hour later he informed everyone of what has to be done before the arrival of the Berserkers. "We have to gather together as many dragons as we can and hide them somewhere."
"From Oswald the Agreeable?" Fishlegs questioned. "I mean, he is a pretty understanding guy."
"Yeah, but our dragons could be seen as an act of aggression, we don't need a war with the Berserkers," he responded.
"Okay, but where are we going to hide all of them?" Snotlout asked. "There's kind of a lot of them."
"Well, Dragon Island isn't too far away," Astrid mentioned.
"Perfect. Dragon Island it is," he smiled.
They began to climb onto their dragons and Helene was about to get onto Stormfly when she realized something, "Wait, what about Thornado? There's no way Stoick could have enough time to take Thornado to Dragon Island and get back here before the Berserkers arrive."
His eyes widened when he realized that himself, she was right. Thornado would have to leave Berk to go to Dragon Island along with all of the other dragons as well. The Thunderdrum, however, was a stubborn dragon, and very protective too. He would never willingly go to Dragon Island if he knew his rider could potentially be in danger.
"Uh, right, I hadn't thought of that," he scratched the back of his head.
She knew that Hiccup had problems when it came to last minute decisions, so she came up with a suggestion, "Hey, why don't I fly Thornado?"
He looked very taken back and nervous, "Uh, I don't know, Helene, Thornado can be very stubborn and I don't know if you'd be able to handle him."
"Hiccup, I was able to train a Smothering Smokebreath," she gestured to her dragon, who squawked, "and a Monstrous Nightmare that not even the Outcasts could control. I think I can handle Thornado and it's only until we get back from Dragon Island. What's a couple of hours going to do?"
He sighed, there was no use arguing with her, "Fine, I'll talk to my Dad."
After some begging and hesitation, Hiccup was able to get Stoick to allow Helene to fly Thornado. The said dragon was a little reluctant to have someone who was not his rider on his back, eventually complied and allowed her to get on him.
Now, they were en route to Dragon Island with all of the dragons on Berk. Thornado, Helene, and Smog directed them from the front while everyone else directed them from behind, gathering any dragon who tried to break the flock.
She then heard some kind of scuffle in the back and looked over her shoulder to see what was going on. While doing so, she almost flew into a sea stack and turned around it to avoid it.
"Oh, man, that was a close call," she exhaled deeply. Smog squawked and Thornado growled, as if they were disciplining her. "Oh, come on, we all make mistakes."
While all was forgiven quickly, she couldn't help but to think about what was happening when she got distracted. It sounded like an explosion, an explosion a Hideous Zippleback would have created.
They immediately land on the island upon arrival, making sure that no dragon got left behind on the short flight. The wild dragons immediately began to play and frolic as soon as they set foot and looked around the island.
She waited for her friends to show up, but they never did. That was very unusual, she might have expected this from Snotlout or the twins, who were not with them, but not from everyone.
"That's strange, where could they be?" she asked herself.
She waited until the last of the dragons arrived on the island before she and the two dragons took off once again for Berk. She had a feeling about their sudden disappearance, a bad one, and that this disappearance would reveal an unfortunate arrival back on Berk.
They were in the air for an hour, perhaps two, when they arrived back at Berk. She was about to land Thornado, but then noticed a large number of ships that were not of the Hooligan Tribe, she saw the crest on the sails, it was the tribal crest of the Berserker Tribe.
She directed Thornado to a secluded part of the island and got down. The three of them began to trek through the forest while keeping a watchful eye out for any Berserker soldiers, although she had a feeling that most, if not all, were still on the ships. Their purpose was to retain the peace between the two tribes, not to cause a war.
After a little while of walking, they spotted the other riders in the air. She looked to see if there were any Berserkers around before she turned to Thornado.
"Signal up to them, but not too loud," she told him.
He opened his mouth and let out a sonic blast, but it was a very small one and didn't produce a large value of sound. Although it was light it was still enough to gain the attention of her friends.
They landed in an open area and she came up to them. They looked a little panicked and in a hurry to find someone or something.
"What's up guys?" she asked. "Why did you leave me to lead all of the dragons?"
"Uh, I am so sorry about that, but right now we need to find the twins," Hiccup's voice was very rushed.
"Why? What's going on?" she questioned.
"The Berserkers are here," he started.
"I know, I saw them when I arrived," she replied.
"...and they're hunting down Barf and Belch, we need to find Ruff and Tuff and get them to their dragon," he finished.
"What?!" she shouted. "Barf and Belch will never listen to anyone who's not Ruffnut or Tuffnut."
"That's why we have to find them," he claimed.
"Tuff said that he was going to his dark, soggy alone place," Astrid explained.
She hummed and thought about that for a moment, "Sounds like he might have been talking about a cave. Where's the closest cave to the village?"
Snotlout, as it turned out, knew exactly where that was. He even went so far to tell them that they used to hide and go kill there. While it was certainly frustrating to learn that he knew where they were the entire time, they were more concerned with getting there to find the twins.
Upon arrival at the cave, they split up into two teams to investigate both entrances. Helene was with Hiccup and Fishlegs, while Astrid was with Snotlout, she couldn't help but to feel very sorry for her close friend, Snotlout was next to impossible to deal with, especially while alone with beautiful women.
They kept walking down further into the darkness until they stumbled upon a bag. It was Tuffnut's satchel.
Hiccup shined his lantern and they heard a voice groan, "Would you quit following me?" It was Tuffnut.
At the same moment, another voice groaned, "Would you quit following me?" This time, it was Ruffnut.
"Toothless," Hiccup commanded. He fired a plasma blast at the rocky ceiling, lighting up the whole area, allowing everyone to clearly see each other.
When the twins saw each other, they shouted in unison, "What are you doing here?!" As it turned out they were sitting near the same set of stalagmites.
"What are you doing in my soggy alone place?!" he growled.
"This is my soggy alone place!" she growled as well.
"Guys! Guys! Barf and Belch are in trouble, we need to go now," Hiccup proclaimed.
"I'll go, but not with her!" Tuffnut sneered at his twin.
"I'm going anywhere with her either!" Ruffnut retorted.
"Yeah!" He then realized what he said and was confused by it, "Wait, what?"
"No, no, you don't understand, you both have to go," he insisted. They made eye contact with each other for a split second, but then looked away.
"Like or not, you two are connected to that dragon," Helene claimed.
Hiccup smiled, "Just like me and Toothless."
"And me and Stormfly," Astrid added.
"And me and Smog," Helene grinned. She laughed when the said dragon rubbed his face with hers while purring.
"Us, too," Fishlegs wrapped his arms around Meatlug.
"Look, we can get you another dish, another spoon, another well-groomed stuffed yak," Hiccup started.
"But what we can't get you is another Barf and Belch," Helene finished.
The twins made eye contact with each other and did not look away. Perhaps it was time to put this whole thing to rest.
"Think they got that?" Astrid asked.
The twins spat into their palms and shook hands with each other. They then slammed their heads together, but in more of a playful, sibling manner than for simple amusement.
"You know I did spit a little more into my hand?" he told her.
"Yeah, they got it," Helene replied to Astrid with a smile.
"Okay, great, we need to get you guys to your dragon right away," Hiccup stated.
"So, why is it so important?" Tuffnut asked.
"The Berserkers are hunting down your dragon to use its blood for ink," Snotlout explained casually, leaning against the wing of his dragon. The twins looked at him with shocked expressions while everyone else was practically glaring at him. "What? Is that not what's happening?"
They immediately left the cave and mounted their dragons to search for Barf and Belch. Tuffnut flew with Hiccup and Toothless and Ruffnut flew with Astrid and Stormfly.
Helene used her spyglass to gaze over the perimeter of the area they were flying over. That's when she found what they were looking for, Barf and Belch, and from what she could tell there were no Berserkers around.
"Down there!" she pointed in the direction where she spotted him.
They began to descend, but then ceased when they saw Berserkers tie down the two heads. They couldn't continue, if they did it could open the possibility to war.
"No!" Tuffnut shouted.
They went into the trees and perched on branches. That way they could safely watch them from a distance and not risk being spotted.
"Why are we stopping here?" Tuffnut asked. "We have to save our dragon."
"We can't risk being spotted by the Berserkers," Hiccup responded.
Once Barf and Belch were secured, Dagur approached the two-headed dragon and drew his sword, holding it above his head. He brought it down, but before it could make contact, it was stopped by Stoick's own sword.
Some kind of confrontation takes place between them before they leave with Barf and Belch. Once they were no longer in sight, they flew over to the clearing where it took place and landed there to talk.
"The Chief's not going to let them kill our dragon," Tuffnut started nervously.
Then he and Ruffnut finished in unison in the same manner, "Is he?"
"He may not have a choice," Hiccup replied.
"What do we do now, Hiccup?" Fishlegs questioned, nervous as usual.
Hiccup didn't have anything to say, but Snotlout did, "I'll tell you what we should do. One word: Annihilate!" He made the same gesture he used during their training and Hookfang fired at the back of his helmet.
"Seriously?" Helene scoffed. He needs to learn to think for once.
Hiccup's face lit up, "Actually, that could work."
The riders watched from a hidden area as Stoick, Gobber, Dagur, and his soldiers went down into the arena. Everything was ready, they just had to make sure to time this just right.
"Everyone ready?" Hiccup asked his friends.
"We're ready, Hiccup," Astrid answered.
"Okay, now let's get the saddles removed." He removed Toothless' saddle as well as his tail fin.
Everyone else did the same thing and hid the saddles. They had to be removed so that they would appear to be wild dragons and not tame ones.
Once Helene removed Thornado's saddle, she made a gesture with her hand, similar to the one she made earlier. "Okay, when I make this gesture, both of you will fire at the same time. Understand?" Thornado let out a mellow growl and Smog chirped.
"Okay, it's go time," Hiccup told everyone. "Dragons, into position."
All of the dragons flew away to await the signal. The riders made their way to the arena and ran in while shouting about a 'dragon attack'.
The Berserkers began to attack the dragons with the intent on killing them. The riders kept them alive by using the hand signals to guide them.
Thornado got onto the roof with Smog on his back. Stoick briefly looked away from the 'attack' to smile up at his dragon.
Helene stretched her hand and the two dragons got the message. Smog breathed out smoke while Thornado let a sonic blast, which caused the smoke to spread out around the inside of the arena. The smoke confused and disoriented the Berserkers, providing the perfect opportunity for the dragons to knock them out.
Somehow, in spite of the diminished visibility, Dagur was still able to find Barf and Belch. He raised his sword, he was finally about to kill the dragon, and no one was going to stop him.
No one except for Smog. Helene made the 'snatch' gesture and he stole his sword while it was still over his head. He then used his flame to free Barf and Belch while Dagur was still comprehending what had just occurred.
Dagur picked up a spear one of his men dropped in the confusion and tried for the heads again, but the twins were on the case to save and guide their dragon. Ruffnut made the gesture for gas and Barf released it, Tuffnut gestured for Belch to spark and he did, which caused an explosion and sent Dagur flying.
Finally, fed up with this dragon, he hurled the spear at Barf and Belch. At the last second, Toothless jumps in and takes the weapon in his mouth.
He gasped, "A Night Fury, they do exist!"
With no weapon in hand, he has nothing to defend himself against the "unholy offspring of lightning and death itself". Hiccup steps in front of him with a shield to 'protect' him.
"No, back, fiend! Do not harm my friend Dagur," he figured he would need to wash his mouth out with rocks after saying that.
He pointed at the ground, the signal for 'plasma blast', and Toothless shot at him. He shielded himself from the blast and his dragon pounced him, knocking him to the ground.
"Go!" he shouted to Dagur. "Save yourself!"
"You owe it to your people!" Helene yelled. Smog was pulling on her hair, trying to make it look like he was attempting to pull her away.
He looked at the chaos around him and commanded to his soldiers, "Berserkers! Back to the ships!"
They started to retreat, running out of the arena and back to their ships. Before they could get too far, Gobber called out to Dagur, "What about the treaty?"
"Consider it signed!" he shouted back in response before he ran off with his soldiers.
Once they were out of sight, the chaos died down completely. It was all over now, Dagur and his Berserkers were gone and good riddance.
"Well, I think that's the last we'll see of Dagur the Deranged," Stoick uttered.
"Maybe, but he'll be back," Hiccup muttered. "Someday."
Thornado came into the arena and went up to his rider. Stoick let out a hearty laugh, "You did well, Thornado." He purred gladly.
Smog eagerly flew over to Helene and practically knocked her to the ground, but she just laughed and scratched his head. "You did good, too." He started chirping cheerfully.
The twins ran up to their dragon and embraced the respective heads of Barf and Belch. He was happy to see them too, he missed his riders.
"Oh, Barf, I'm so sorry we did that to you," Ruffnut's voice was a little shaky, she might have been close to tears.
"I'll never leave you again, Belch," Tuffnut hugged his head.
Now that they were finally reunited with their dragon and Barf and Belch were out of harm's way, everyone was cleaning up the mess made by the 'dragon attack'. It was certainly a much bigger mess than anticipated, but they were eventually able to get the arena interior looking like new, although there were still some areas that looked a little scorched.
"What should we do now, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked, his arms around Meatlug.
"We should probably work on getting the wild dragons back to Berk," he replied.
"Why don't we wait until later?" Helene suggested. "Let's let our dragons rest for a bit before we decide on a flight to Dragon Island."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right, Helene, I could use a little rest too after all we've been through today," he admitted.
"Especially after dealing with Dagur the Headache all day, I bet," she commented jokingly.
"Yeah!" he exaggerated slightly. "You're lucky you weren't here when he arrived."
"Me too," she laughed. She began to walk away, "By the way, thanks for leaving me to guide the wild dragons to Dragon Island, it kept me busy."
She went back to her dragon, who was sitting on a barrel, one of many used in target practice. He perked up like an excitable baby dragon when he saw her taking something out of a sack. He chirped when she took more of the small crabs from earlier and gave them to him, they were gone in less a minute.
He nudged her hand for more, but she had none. "Sorry, boy, I'm all out. I'll ask Bucket and Mulch to haul in some extra crabs for you the next time they go out."
Once every inch of the arena was cleaned, everyone went home. After a whole day dealing with Dagur, home sounds like a getaway paradise.
Astrid and Helene were the last ones to leave. They stayed behind to collect any metal that might have gotten caught in the crossfire and was beyond repair. That metal would be taken back home with them so that Smog could use it on his nest since he likes to reinforce and renovate it from time to time.
They took the metal and got onto Stormfly, headed for home. It was getting late and both girls and their dragons were ready for the day to be over.
On the flight home, Helene just couldn't help but to reflect on the day's events. The Berserkers, especially Dagur, were crazy, they were completely the opposite of the people of Berk. The two tribes were two sides of the same coin.
The twins on the other hand, they were a different story. They were both crazy and oftentimes overwhelming for anyone to handle, but they also knew when the time was right to rush into action, they especially showed that today when their dragon got captured.
The twins, unlike the tribes, were not two sides of the same coin, or even the same side of two different coins, they were both sides of the same coin. They, just like Barf and Belch, were one in the same.
It was certainly a reassuring and slightly sobering feeling to know that the twins cared about their dragon and each other - even if they rarely show it. For some reason, her mind immediately went back to her father. Whenever they anchored at an island they traded with he would express his false caring and compassionate side towards her. It was all a marketing strategy, he didn't care about her at all. A father who cares for his daughter doesn't leave her to be torn apart by wild dragons.
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(A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this. Dagur is one of my favorite characters, but his wild personality makes it hard to write a chapter he's in, even though he only appears briefly.
The real challenge will be the next time he's included in a chapter, which will be sooner than you think. He'll most likely appear again sometime within the next five chapters, maybe more, maybe less, I'm still debating.
I know I want to write about the two-part finale "We Are Family", but I'm not sure if I should do it in the same format as the "Heather Report" chapters or just do my own version. We'll see.)