Raya marched up to the closed Spine gate and sighed. She just hoped her plan worked and was going to be able to escape afterward. She didn't know what she was going to do if she had to fight Krogan and Namarri at the same time.
Raya sighed as she carried her sword and hat, wiping the sweat from her head. Once she got herself prepared, she put her hat back on and was ready.
"Okay, let's do this..." Raya sighed.
On the other side of the Spine gates, Krogan was growing impatient as he felt he was only allowing Hiccup time to escape. Over the years, he learned not to give him a minute to react otherwise he would find a way to escape.
"This is taking too long." Krogan snarled as he walked up to Namarri. "They are going to escape."
Namarri seemed to agree and saw that they gave them enough time. "Burn them out."
The soldiers aim their flaming cross-bows. However... The giant gates of Spine open. All the Fang Soldiers lower their arrows as Raya, alone, armed with only her sword, stood at the entrance. Her hat was facing downward to hide her face.
Raya raised her head so her hat didn't hide her face anymore. "Hey there, princess undercut, fancy meeting you here."
"You and those Dragon Gem pieces are coming with me," Namarri said as she took a few steps forward. "As well as your new friend."
Rays hummed as she drew her sword from her cloak. "My sword here says we're not."
All the Fang soldiers raise their weapons as Raya got her first look at Krogan. They met before, but only during the chase, and she still didn't get quite a good look at him.
"You must be Krogan. Hiccup talked a lot about you." Raya commented and looked at Namarri. "Never thought you would need to bring in a friend of your own to take me down. When do you plan to stab him in the back? From my experience, it seems longer than when you did to me."
"He's only here for your friend," Namarri replied.
"Where is Hiccup Haddock and the Night Fury?" Krogan asks, seeing nobody else around the gates.
"No idea." Raya lied to protect her friend. "The tel of them flew off a while after we left Talon."
"Now, you see..." Krogan started to walk around, staying behind Namarri the whole time. "I know that's false. I have men everywhere watching the skies for that Night Fury. They haven't spotted it for some time, so I am under the impression that he has been grounded. Something happened to the prosthetic tail of his?"
Raya then started to question how he knew of Toothless' prosthetic fin. It's possible that he discovered it, but how? Hiccup said he and Toothless have avoided getting captured over the years, so it couldn't have been like that. That was something he needed to discuss with Hiccup later, and she needed to focus on the battle right here.
"Now...I will repeat the question: where is he?" Krogan demanded from her.
"Sorry, unlike some people around here, I won't betray my friends," Raya stated, looking over to Namarri with a snarl.
Namaari was getting sick of this and raised her hand. Fang soldiers then readied their weapons again, ready to shoot their flaming arrows.
"Yeah, I knew you couldn't handle rolling solo," Raya mocked her enemy, trying to push her buttons. "You're nothing without your backup band."
Namarri seemed to recognize that as a challenge and accepted it. "Stand down."
"What?" Krogan spat in anger, not willing to put up with some petty rivalry.
"We will do this my way," Namaari turned to him with a threatening glower. Krogan then backed down and allowed her to fight the girl. She then turned and faced Raya again with a smile and spun her weapon. "Not to worry, this shouldn't take long."
Raya laughed and pulled off her cloak and conical hat as she started to circle her arch-nemesis. She cast a sideways glance and noticed her friends making a run through the village.
Seeing that they were getting to safety, she raced in to get the first strike in. They slashed and attacked and blocked with their weapons, using martial art skills to either dodge or flip over.
Namarri went in for a swing, but Raya managed to jump and avoid the attack and spun around to take her strike. Namarri blocked it quickly and went to kick Raya back. But she was able to back off just to avoid the kick but also slipped as Namarri tried to swing her weapon to hit Raya.
Raya balanced herself using her hand on the ground and rose her left hand to block the attack. Leaping to the side, Raya was able to roll back up to her feet as Namarri spun to smack her. Raya then blocked the attack just as Namarri took the opportunity to kick her.
Raya groaned and held her stomach and kept her sword up and looked inside Spine's gate, seeing as the others were still escaping. Her plan was working.
Namarri then raced in, calling out a cry, and broke Raya back to concentrate on the battle. As Namarri came in close, Raya ran and kneeled so she could dodge the attack, spun around to get some distance between them, and got back to her feet.
Namarri held her weapon close as Raya released her sword and swung it over to Namarri's weapon. Once she had it in her sword's grasp, she yanked and pulled it out of her hands. Throwing the weapon to the side so she couldn't reach it, Raya smiled and felt she had the battle in her grasp now.
"Dis you need that, dep la?" Raya mocked as she tried to go in and stab her.
Namarri however wasn't going down that easily as she grabbed Raya's sword and kicked her in the stomach. This action causes Raya to lose the grip she had on her sword as she fell backward.
"Nah," Namarri said as she tosses her sword to the side.
While that was going down, Hiccup was leading everyone back to the boat when he looked back at Raya. He saw she was losing to Namarri and was just kicked in the stomach. She wasn't going to last long against her, let alone going against Krogan.
Boun gestured to the shore where they saw the ship. "The boat's just down there."
Toothless was about to keep going when he saw his friend stop. "Hiccup?"
Hiccup sighed and knew what he needed to do. Taking the bag from around his shoulder, he handed it over to Toothless. "Get them to the boat and come back to help me."
"You sure about this?" Toothless asks his friend.
"Not really, but I'll be able to buy some time." Hiccup shrugged as it wasn't the perfect plan, but he wasn't going to leave Raya. "Go."
Toothless sighed and knew better than to question Hiccup. He ran to catch up with the others so that he could come back faster. Hiccup then ran off towards the gates so that he can help Raya.
Raya groaned as she held her stomach in pain. "Looks like somebody's been taking classes."
Raya then got back up to her feet and ran to punch Namarri, who ended up dodging her punch and went in for her attack. Raya dodged that attack and managed to get a hit in and smacked Namarri in the face.
Namarri felt that and ran in, leading to her then elbow Raya as she tried to block the attack. Trying to use the same move she used on her when they were kids, that move backfired as Namarri learned from her mistake and grabbed Raya and used her move against her, dragging Raya down and slamming her into the ground and skidding near Krogan.
"I've had enough of this," Krogan said as he walked over and grabbed Raya before she could get back up. Pulling her up by her shirt, he snarled at her face. "Where is the boy and the Night Fury?"
Raya groaned as she spat on his face, becoming annoyed by this guy. "I won't tell."
Krogan didn't seem to react to the spit and just wiped it off his face. "You're going to." He then raised his fist, ready to hit her. "One way or another."
And with that, Raya closed her eyes and waited for the impact to come. When it did, he caused her to hit the hard ground and knocked her out.
"Hey!" Namarri cried as she grabbed Krogan by his fist. "She's my prisoner. You have no right to harm her."
"And she has information about my enemy," Krogan said as he yanked his hand back from her. "When I get my information, you get your prisoner."
But that's when they suddenly heard what sounded like hissing. Namarri and Krogan looked around, trying to see where it was coming from. Raya was starting to wake up when she heard and recognized the noise from the two times she saw Hiccup use it and shielded her eyes.
As Namarri and her people got more confused about the gas, Krogan was trying to see where it was coming from. But before he could pinpoint where it was coming from, Hiccup sparked the gas and caused the flames to go off. The flames and smoke were more than enough to freak everyone out as they shrieked and cried in fear. Nammari ducked down to try and avoid most of the damage whilst Krogan knew that the flames were just a mask.
When the flames cleared, all of Namarri's soldiers were taken down whilst Krogan looked and noticed that Raya was missing. Nammari stood and noticed this too as Krogan noticed where Hiccup was.
Hiccup used the smoke as cover as he sneaked his way inside and was able to pick up Raya and throw him over her shoulders. Carrying her was one thing, but escaping whilst carrying her was a completely different story.
"Hiccup Haddock!" Krogan cried, already caught up to them, and drew his sword. "Did you really think I'd let you get away that easily?"
Hiccup sighed as he lowered Raya down and placed her against a tree. Giving her a quick look over, he saw that she was going to be okay, just needed to sleep it off. He needed to face Krogan or neither of them was gonna make it out.
"No. I didn't." Hiccup assured him as he stood up, leaving Raya to rest. He then took out Inferno and activated it, preparing himself for the fight. "I knew you wouldn't let me go without a fight."
"You and the Night Fury are coming with me," Krogan promised him.
"After all this time." Hiccup couldn't believe that he still thought he'd hand over Toothless. "You didn't get it? I will never give him up!"
Lighting up his sword, he was preparing for a battle whilst Namarri did her best to keep up whilst catching her breath and coughing. That smoke and fire didn't do much to help keep her in the fight. She might want to just wait and see what's going on between this Hiccup and Krogan's people.
"He's my dragon, and I will never give him up to you or any of your Dragon Hunters!" Hiccup proclaimed, giving Namarri a moment of question.
Dragon Hunters? Krogan said they were Dragon Rescuers...
"We will have your head and we will capture your Night Fury," Krogan promises him and he swung his sword, preparing for the fight. "One day or the next."
Namarri was starting to see that there was more to Krogan than she first thought. She thought he was chasing Hiccup because he was a criminal, but was it possibly the other way around?
That's when Hiccup charged in for a strike at Krogan, but he easily blocked it before Hiccup could even get close to striking him. Krogan then pushed Hiccup off the sword, causing him to stumble a bit and try and get his footing. With his prosthetic leg, it was difficult to fight on the snow, which the current area is surrounded in.
Back with the others, Toothless and Sisu were running behind everyone else as they were about to reach the boat when they suddenly stopped and heard Hiccup screaming in anger. Toothless stopped as he looked back, seeing everyone was safe.
"Come on, everyone on!" Boun said as everyone climbed aboard the boat. "Toothless, what are you doing?"
Toothless knew it was time and started to back off to the forest again. "I gotta go back for him!"
"What?" Boun was worried about that, and the baby and Ongi are too as they all babbled at the shocking statement. "And do what?"
"I can't leave him!" Toothless said as he ran and whilst running transformed back, finally close enough to the Gems so he could transform.
And just as he transformed, the rest of the boat was left in shock as they watched the reptilian creature run back into the woods with his missing tail fin. And as Sisu saw him run off, she decided the cat was out of the bag already so might as well. She ran off with Toothless and the two of them made their way through the forest. And all that did was cause a lot more shock to the others on the boat.
"Was that...?" Tong was shocked at what he just saw.
"Sisudatu?" Boun finished in shock.
Hiccup then ran back at Krogan, who used his momentum against Hiccup and grabbed him, rolling him over and smacking him into the ground. Hiccup wasn't done yet as he crawled to his feet (foot? Not the time) and he swung in for another attack. But Krogan moved out of the way of his attack and kicked Hiccup, sending him skidding and hitting his back against a tree.
Hiccup groaned as he rubbed his shoulder in pain and Krogan laughed. "All of this pain? All of this misery? For one little dragon?"
Hiccup tried to get up, using the tree as support. "Yes. Because he's my friend." He rubbed his injured shoulder and reached out for Inferno. "I don't sell out my friends."
Namarri was starting to see neither of them even knew she was observing the whole thing. There certainly was more to this Hiccup than Krogan was letting on for her and her mother to believe. She was foolish to blindly trust Krogan's word regarding Hiccup, he wasn't anything that Krogan said he was. He came back for Raya, someone she betrayed because her mother asked her to. Raya trusted her, the first person she ever met outside of Heart, and she repaid that kindness by stabbing her in the back.
Krogan then placed his foot on Hiccup's shoulder and laughed, keeping his hands out of reach from Inferno, placing his own blade against Hiccup's shoulder. "I am going to enjoy this."
But then he heard a familiar screech in the air, immediately getting his and Namarri's attention. Toothless came in from the trees, leaping in and gliding down using his good wings. He blasted Krogan off of Hiccup, sending him skidding backward and into the woods. Toothless then landed and quickly shielded Hiccup as Nammari's warriors all came running with their crossbows raised, trying to shoot to stop them from escaping.
But that's when Sisu came in, skidding on the ice as she came to a halt. Opening her mouth and blasting a munch bunch of mist to cover their escape, she was becoming just as furious as Toothless. Sisu and Toothless scare away the other Fang soldiers as all of them were surprised and scared by the sudden appearance of the creatures. As he shielded Hiccup, Sisu gets in Namaari's face and roared before snarling, showing her teeth to her!
"Thanks for the save, Bud." Hiccup said as he quickly ran to Raya. "Raya, come on." He lightly tapped her cheek to try and wake her. "We gotta go."
Raya started to wake up when she noticed standing close as Toothless shielded the both of them. "What? What are you doing here?"
"Getting you out of her here." Hiccup answered as he helped Raya to her feet and got onto Toothless' back. "Sisu! Let's go!"
All of the Fang soldiers are reeling...But Namaari doesn't flinch, staring in wonder at Sisu. Sisu locks eyes with Namaari, it rattles her. But then, just as fast as she arrived, Sisu turns and disappears into the safety of the forest to catch up with her friends.
Namaari was left heightened, emotional, and in disbelief of what she just saw. Sisudatu was back, Raya really did find her.
She was having a lot of thoughts about what she once thought was true.
Krogan groaned as he felt his chest where Toothless shot a small plasma blast and saw it didn't break the skin. It was just enough to push him off of Hiccup and allow him to live at least.
"We need to regroup." Krogan groaned, wondering how he was able to hide the Night Fury. "Your mother should know of your failure."
Namarri knew her mother was going to be angered by failing to retrieve the rest of the Gem. But maybe that could be fixed when she informs her that there might be a chance to fix everything. They never meant anything terrible to happen, and maybe her mother would want to fix their mistake. She has regretted what happened every day since and sees that this could fix everything. Fix her mistake.
But while she was thinking of ways to fix everything, Krogan was starting to get some ideas to profit from this. Sisu seemed to be an endangered species like Toothless, and his boss would be more than thrilled to have a remarkable dragon like that.
"We need to return to Fang," Namarri told her men, knowing Krogan was right and they needed to go back.
Just for two completely different reasons.