Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.
Feedback: Appreciated as always.
The Dragon of Wanheda
"Whoa!" Fishlegs said, studying the map Heather had provided as he and Meatlug flew alongside the other dragons. "Heather's tracking and mapping skills are quite extraordinary. Is there no end to that girl's talents?"
"Can we just talk about the elephant in the sky for one second?" Tuffnut put in.
"That… depends," Hiccup looked tentatively at the Zippleback. "What kind of elephant are you thinking of?"
"Why do we think Viggo wants the Flightmare so badly?"
"Maybe Viggo likes the way that algae stuff makes you glow when you rub it all over yourself," Ruffnut grinned.
"You know something?" Hiccup glanced over at the twins. "You may not actually be that far off. He's gotta be using its algae, or its paralyzing spray, for something…"
"We can ask him ourselves, if we're waiting for him when he gets there," Astrid said, prompting the group to put on an extra burst of speed towards their destination island. Touching down on a prominent-looking cliff, Hiccup walked up to the edge, Toothless on one side of him and Fishlegs on the other, and peered over the side.
"There!" he said in satisfaction; just as Heather's map had indicated, the Flightmare was almost directly below them, the glowing dragon drinking the glowing algae flowing through the stream. "Let's stay together. We need to make sure Viggo doesn't get anywhere near that dragon."
"How will we know when Viggo's here?" Fishlegs asked, before Toothless let out a harsh growl. Following his dragon's gaze, Hiccup soon saw the distant form of an approaching ship, and it didn't take his knowledge of Toothless to realise why the dragon was so upset by that.
"He already is," Hiccup observed, before turning to the twins and passing them a bag. "OK, Ruff, Tuff, make sure you get enough algae-"
"To lure the Flightmare away; we know," Ruffnut took the bag.
"God, this guy never stops," Tuffnut groaned. "'Lure the Flightmare away, don't eat the algae'…"
"Ridiculous," Ruffnut said. "I mean, why would we eat the algae?"
As the twins flew off, Hiccup thought he heard them musing on the possibilities of eating the algae, but he decided not to worry about that too much; the twins might be eccentric at best back on the Edge and Berk, but they'd never blatantly let him down while they were on missions.
When Clarke let out a yell of joy after Griffin's latest loop-the-loop, she couldn't stop herself laughing as she realised what she'd just done. She'd never been the type of person to just let herself go like this even before her father died, but even if she knew that the dragons were in trouble, it couldn't take away the thrill of this moment.
"Why would anyone think that trapping your kind was a good thing?" she shook her head, reaching over to stroke an area behind Griffin's horns that she'd found he seemed to like.
More to the point, Clarke silently wondered to herself, how could a society like that develop out here?
She understood that Hiccup and the others used to be at war with the dragons before Hiccup trained Toothless, but there was still a bit of a gap between fighting dragons off in the name of self-defence and going out there to try and harness them like cattle or something like that…
Looking out at the ocean beyond, her eyes widened apprehensively as she saw a large ship approaching the island. She couldn't see anyone on it at this distance, and she had a feeling that she was close enough to the Edge's mountains that she and Griffin would probably be hidden by the island's natural formations, but if that logo of a flaming red fist was what she thought it was, she and Griffin were in trouble…
Or are we?
She had faith that none of the Riders she'd met would have betrayed her existence to the hunters, and she was also fairly sure none of them would have mentioned her to their current 'double agent', which would mean that there was literally no way Heather could have told the hunters about Clarke to try and 'prove herself' to them.
"Come on," she said to Griffin, already lowering her voice as she kept her eye on the approaching ship. "Stick close to the trees, and stay quiet; let's see how this plays out…"
"Uh, Hiccup?" Astrid said, just as Hiccup was checking Toothless's armour. "You might wanna see this."
"Hiccup, you might wanna see this, too!" Fishlegs called out. Glancing to either side of the originally-identified ship, Hiccup cursed under his breath as he saw four more ships approaching from the left and three from the right; things had just become far more complicated…
"Uh, I don't understand," Snotlout put in, speaking for them all for a change. "I thought Heather and Viggo were coming alone."
"They were," Hiccup said. "Which probably means they're not coming at all. Everyone, look out!"
As the Riders leapt onto their dragons, just in time to avoid the fireballs striking the ground where they had been standing, Hiccup desperately scanned the surrounding ships for anything that might give him an idea as to his next move. For a moment there was nothing but silent tension in the air as the dragons stared down at the ships, until arrows started flying through the air towards them. There was enough warning for Toothless, Stormfly, Meatlug and Hookfang to evade the initial attacks, but Hiccup wasn't comfortable relying on what bits of armour they'd managed to put together so far for protection, and they couldn't risk getting closer-
His train of thought was interrupted when the twins suddenly flew past on Barf and Belch, Ruffnut screaming in terror, followed closely by the roaring Flightmare.
"Not the way I would have done it, but that's one way to go," Hiccup mused, as the twins sent Barf and Belch weaving desperately around the sky trying to evade the pursuing Flightmare, rocks and arrows still bombarding them from the ships. As the hunter fleet drew closer to the island, Hiccup and Astrid took Toothless and Stormfly in for a quick assault run, launching a few fire blasts at the attacking ships, but Hiccup knew they were too outnumbered to force anyone into a retreat like this. Looking around the ships as he pulled back up towards the other Riders, he could just see a figure fighting her way past a group of hunters, but he couldn't afford to worry about Heather right now; either she could handle herself and would join them later or she couldn't.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called over at him as they returned to their friends. "There's too many of them!"
"And the Flightmare really isn't helping," Fishlegs added, indicating the circle of mist above them as the Flightmare continued to pursue the twins.
"We'll be fine as long as we stay away from its mist," Hiccup said, wishing he had a better response.
"Hiccup," Tuffnut protested, as Barf and Belch settled into position flying alongside Toothless, "can't you just let it know we're the good guys?"
"Yeah," Ruffnut added, looking anxiously over at the glowing blue dragon flying alongside them. "Tell it to come in for the big win."
The moment he heard that, Hiccup was amazed he hadn't thought of this approach sooner.
"You guys are brilliant!" he grinned.
"I don't know about brilliant, but we do have a certain glow about us," Tuffnut chuckled. "Get it? 'Cause of our faces."
"And the brilliance is short-lived," Hiccup shook his head and turned back to the plan at hand. "Follow me!"
As the ships continued to fire at them, Hiccup indicated to the other Riders to stay further up while he dived in for an attack, nipping close to Barf and Belch to grab a few satchels of algae from the twins before he pulled away and downwards. With a bit of careful timing, Hiccup evaded the next few arrows as he aimed for one of the more heavily-armoured ships in the fleet and launched his first bags of algae, smiling in satisfaction as they hit the deck.
"Oh no!" Hiccup heard Ryker's voice yell mockingly up at him before he and Toothless had passed out of range. After flying past the other ships to drop a few more satchels of algae, Hiccup looped Toothless back around and smiled in relief to see the Flightmare was already attacking the first algae-covered ship, just as he'd hoped.
"Ryker, Dagur," Hiccup addressed his two long-time foes. "I'd like you to meet my friend, the Flightmare."
With that introduction made he flew back up to join the others, looking back in satisfaction to watch the Flightmare move from ship to ship, paralysing all the hunters who came at it before flying on to its next target.
"I'm so sorry, Hiccup," Heather said, flying up to the group on Windshear; whether she'd escaped on her own or used his distraction, Hiccup wasn't sure and didn't care so long as she was safe. "Viggo; he made me-"
"I know, it's OK; he tricked us all," Hiccup reassured her. "Where is he now?"
"Still on his ship, I think," Heather said, turning her gaze back towards the fleet. All eyes immediately fell on the distinctive form of the glowing Flightmare, but any hope it brought them to see the hunters take such a beating from their intended prey was quashed when the Flightmare was trapped by a large net, following by a pair of hunters placing a muzzle on its mouth before it could hit them.
"Just wait-" Hiccup began, mind already racing to think of the best way to get that dragon to safety.
"Sorry," Heather looked over at Hiccup. "Not gonna happen."
"Heather, no!" Hiccup yelled, before the dark-haired girl dived down towards the ship. He was briefly proud that he didn't need to warn any of the other Riders to hang back, but that didn't change the frustration he felt when a launched net trapped Windshear before she and Heather could reach the ship, sending them both crashing to the deck. He made an initial test-dive after her, but quickly pulled up at the spree of arrows sent flying towards them; if he couldn't get past that on Toothless, none of the other Riders were going to pull it off.
"Astrid, keep trying for Heather," he called over to her. "It's time Viggo and I were properly introduced."
Any other dragon would never have been able to pull this off, but Toothless had basically made a living being hard to see in the dark long before he and Hiccup became friends. As Astrid led the other Riders in an attempted attack, Hiccup looped around to head for the first ship he'd originally seen in this fleet, only peripherally registering how the others were turning around to leave. A part of his mind was impressed at the rate of speed those things could demonstrate, but right now he had to focus on the chance in front of him.
Unfortunately, as soon as Toothless landed on the main deck of the ship, it was clear to Hiccup that this had been a waste of time. The ship was not only quiet, but it was completely empty, with no obvious sign that anyone had been on it in the first place. Hiccup could only guess that Viggo and whoever else had been on this ship (assuming there had been anyone here in the first place) had managed to get off and transfer to another ship at some point during the fight; on a dark night when their opponents were all high above, it wouldn't have been that hard to change ships while he and the Riders were distracted.
"Where is he?" Hiccup muttered, taking in the empty vessel.
"We couldn't get Heather," Astrid said, as Stormfly landed on the deck alongside Toothless. "There were too many of them."
"What about the Flightmare?"
"Gone," Astrid said bitterly.
"Viggo too," Hiccup observed, indicating the deserted ship. "Astrid, this guy isn't messing around."
"No kidding."
"Our dragons may not be enough," Hiccup said, unable to hide his apprehension at his own words. "We're gonna have to out-think this guy, outsmart him somehow, or Heather and Windshear have no chance of-"
"Don't say it," Astrid cut him off. "Please, just don't say it."
Hiccup appreciated how Astrid felt about the situation, but he couldn't ignore the facts; Viggo had clearly known about Heather's double-agent status for some time, which meant that he likely knew everything about them that Heather had shared with the hunters to maintain her cover.
He knew that she hadn't shared anything that dangerous with their enemies, but that still meant that they were going to have to come up with a strategy that Viggo couldn't predict based on what he'd known about them before now…