In the middle of the night, Hiccup's eyes snapped open. He was blind in the dark, and his eyes stung from crusty tears, but something warm and familiar thrummed around him. Memories flooded back, and Hiccup shot out a hand to grab at whatever part of Toothless he could reach. As it so happened, he hit the dragon square in the nose, and the fury jumped.

"Gicpa," he said, "I did not realize you were awake."

"Gods, it wasn't a dream," Hiccup breathed in relief, fingers splaying over the rough scales on the dragon's head. Toothless nudged the boy softly.

"I'm fine. I really am. I promise." Toothless assured him, then took on an almost motherly tone as he sniffed at Hiccup's hair and his still-bloodied hands and clothes. "You're filthy." And he began to lick the boy like he had earlier. Hiccup suffered it for a while, because he was disgustingly covered in blood. However, when he deemed himself clean enough and the fishy smell was too much to bear, Hiccup waved his arms. "oh, alright, I'm clean, I'm clean, you can stop now."

"You're not."

"I'll take a bath later!"

"I'm giving you a bath now,"

"No you're not, you're just making me smell of fish."

"What's wrong with fish?"

"Oh, come on! You were literally human yesterday! Did you learn nothing?"

"You two bicker like a mother and her hatchling," Rædwit complained from a corner. Toothless turned to his uncle.

"He's the hatchling, then,"

"Oh, yeah, that's mature." Hiccup deadpanned, but made no effort to move away from Toothless, instead snuggling closer to the fury. Toothless dipped his head and ruffled Hiccup's hair with his chin, giving one last lick. So only Toothless could hear, Hiccup whispered in Norse, "I've never been this happy to see you, bud," and if his voice quivered just a bit at the end, Toothless wouldn't mention it. Instead, the dragon pulled the boy just a bit closer to him with the crook of his wing.

"Nor I you."

Hiccup basked in the fury's warm chest for a while, soaking up the comfort in the cold, dark cell. But after a while, listening to the creaking ship and listening to dragon snores around him, a thought struck. "Why did I wake up?" He asked no one in particular.

"There is some ruckus stirring above," Rædwit said, sounding ominous. Hiccup didn't hear anything.

"I can smell it, but I do not know what it is," Toothless said.

"What, like trouble?" Hiccup looked up at him.

"Like fire," Rædwit said, eyes looking above toward that small grate in the ceiling. To Hiccup, he sky beyond seemed only just brighter than the darkness around him, but dragon eyes were sharper than his own vision. "Dragon fire and rage," Rædwit mused.

Toothless and his uncle watched the grate pensively while Hiccup frowned, wondering. There couldn't be an escaped dragon above deck. The only dragon outside was… No sooner did Hiccup gasp and whisper in realization, "Ru", than did the entire ship rock with a huge, bone-jarring BANG!

The ship lurched to the side, and the dragons who were still asleep awoke with a start. They hardly had time to balance themselves before another BANG jilted the ship from the other side and sent dragons sprawling.

"He's attacking," Hiccup said in surprise, righting himself, "Ru's attacking – but why now?" He grabbed hold of one of Toothless' forelegs for balance.

"Ru?" Rædwit asked.

"A great eastern dragon of the Kindelline – he brought us here." Toothless looked up as the snakelike dragon swooped down again, roaring vengeance. "He does not sound pleased."

From above, Hiccup could hear the guards yelling at each other.

"The guns! The guns! Shoot it down!" Rope nets whistled against the air, but none seemed to hit their target. Another jarring blast of Ru's fire slammed the boat to one side, and Hiccup would've fallen flat on the floor if Toothless' tail hadn't been in his way.

"Take it down!" Lech's voice appeared, enraged but also somehow… thrilled. Of course, he was a dragon hunter. Then, Ru's voice appeared in the fray, deep and crackling and murderous.

"COWARDS!" he yelled at the humans, voice dropping in and out of earshot as he dove to and fro, "FILTHY, WRECH, MURDERERS," he bathed the deck in fire so thick, flame flickered through the grate above their heads. "MURDERERS!"

"Sun, moon and stars," Rædwit breathed, "But he is furious."

"He thinks I'm dead," Toothless said very quietly. Hiccup glanced up at his friend, and back up at the grate where they could hear, but not see much of the battle. Suddenly, three massive THWIP noises sounded one after the other, and Hiccup thought of the massive chain bola launchers he'd seen mounted on the deck.

"He's going to get himself captured!" he cried, alarmed.

"If he doesn't get himself killed first," Rædwit said, lunging to stay upright as the floor dipped underneath him. "The Eastern King himself couldn't siege this fortress alone."

"No, Lech would never let his men kill Ru," Toothless said darkly, "He'd be too valuable, to rare and exotic."

A silence fell over the cell. Ru's fire exploded on deck and sent an echoing boom radiating down the ship's hull. "Then he will fall," Rædwit said solemnly.

"Yeah," Hiccup said so quietly only Toothless heard, "and goodbye rescue."

When Ru began attacking the ship, Astrid woke up mid-air on her way to the other side of the cell. She landed with an oomph and turned. She'd fallen asleep after crying over Toothless, but now jolted into something that felt oddly like a battle zone, her grief was in the back of her mind. Stoick was righting himself and straightening his helmet.

"What in Odin's name…?" he looked around. A distant, muffled roar rang out from overhead. Even through the multiple decks and metal armor, Ru's voice was distinct. Stoick allowed himself a rush of success. "Told you he'd come," Stoick told Astrid, but Astrid wasn't so sure. Using her still-young skills in Dragonese, Astrid was able to make out the tirade that Ru shot down at his opponents, and her heart fell.

"This isn't a rescue," she said, listening. "It's revenge." Stoick turned to look at her, confused. "He's cursing them, because they…" she swallowed, eyes murderous, "Because of Toothless. Ru's not here for us." She shook his head. "He just wants them all dead."

Stoick sat there in stunned silence for a moment, listening to the great beast rain down fire from above. "But… alone?" He asked, his strategists' mind telling him it was a suicide mission. "He's gone mad!"

Astrid said nothing. She continued to listen to the muffled Dragonese filtering in from above, until finally, the sounds of the human soldiers on deck grew louder, Ru gave a great roar, and the humans cheered as one. Then, Astrid spat: "Oh, hel."

Ru should have known better. Under normal circumstances, he would have. But in the tension and anger of what had happened, his great wisdom was finally outmatched by his rage.

He was taken down within minutes of his first attack.

He'd burned all hints of wood, rope, and tar on the top deck. He'd killed a few of the henchmen and injured half a dozen others, but in the end, they took him down, put him in chains, and clamped his jaws shut. Lech looked like he would breathe fire, he was so angry. But even as he glared daggers into the face of the great eastern giant, he didn't raise a hand to even try to hurt him. However much he'd cost Lech in manpower, Ru was massive, exotic, and as far as Lech was concerned, made of solid gold.

"Put him below," He growled to his men.

"Sir… it's… it's too big, we haven't the room-"

"Put him below!" Lech screamed, "Or would you like to become fodder for the waves to make room?"

The man blinked, shut his mouth, and ran off below deck.

It was rather unusual for captors to knock on the cell doors of their captives. But it definitely was a knock on the dragon's solid cell door, and a heavily-accented voice behind it. "Dragon Whisperer!" it yelled so Hiccup could hear through the metal, "Are you awake?"

Hiccup glanced at the other dragons. Toothless had scrambled away from Hiccup and was hiding behind Rædwit like he had before, in case the men decided to come into the cell. "What do you want?" Hiccup yelled back at the guard.

"Your giant dragon friend has been taken. He is a captive, now. We will sell him with the rest once we get to port."

Hiccup clenched his jaw, and the dragons who could understand Norse bristled. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked angrily.

"The holding cell you are currently in is the only one large enough to house this giant. We are going to relocate you and the other dragons to another cell."

Hiccup frowned. He'd seen the other cells – if they were going to try and shove that many dragons in so few rooms… it would be crowded, to say the least. But Lech was hardly one for humane treatment. "What do you want me to do?" Hiccup said asked.

"Keep the dragons calm. We will come in and take them one at a time to their new cells – you will make sure we are safe while we do so."

"Safe," spat an angry nadder, "I'll show you safe, redblood,"

"Shh," Hiccup shushed it. "Alright," He told the guard.

"We are ready when you are, Dragon Whisperer. Tell us when it is safe."

Hiccup stood shakily to his one leg, leaning on Rædwit for support. He around at the dragons, unsure of what to tell them to do. The guards were only trusting him because they knew he had nowhere to run. The dragons were all chained to the walls. Even if they tried to attack, it wasn't as if they could actually make it out of the cell.

Suddenly, Hiccup's head shot up, eyes alight with an idea. "Rædwit, switch places with Toðléas." He hissed urgently. The older fury looked down at the human, confused.

"What?"

"Switch places," Hiccup insisted, waves his arms and shifting his weight to give the dragon room to move, "hide behind him. They expect only one night fury, not two. They won't notice the difference."

"But… why trade?" Rædwit frowned, even as Toothless shuffled around, trying to smell out Hiccup's plan (for Hiccup always had a plan, he knew).

"Toðléas is not wearing any chains," Hiccup said meaningfully.

Rædwit's eyes widened, and he hurriedly ducked behind his nephew, who puffed out his chest and positioned his wings just so, so that anyone at the door wouldn't see his uncle. Hiccup watched until he was satisfied. He huffed out a steadying breath and looked up at his old friend.

"You ready, bud?" He asked. Toothless snorted and bared his teeth. Hiccup nodded and turned. "Alright, you can come on in!" he yelled at the guards behind the door. The lock clicked, and the door swung open. Every dragon held its breath.

Hiccup waited until all six guards were inside the cell.

"Whenever you're ready, Toðléas," he said calmly.

"What's that?" Asked one the guards.

Before they could even expect an answer, Toothless sprung forward, teeth bared, and knocked the leader to the floor. He knocked down three more guards with a swipe of his tail, and one hit his head so hard on the floor he fell unconscious. The final two tried to run, but Toothless leaped over them all and landed in front of the door, guarding it with his body. He growled at them, fire building behind his teeth. One of the men drew his sword, but Toothless shot it out of his hand and it clattered across the cell floor where Hiccup picked it up.

"Dragon Whisperer!" The other shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Dragon Friend, I think you'll find." With both men turned toward Hiccup, Toothless took advantage his position and butted his head forward, knocking the backs of their skulls with his own. The two men slumped to the ground, unconscious. Toothless shook the stars from his eyes.

"Hold those two down while I get the keys," Hiccup pointed at the last two guards, who were dazed but not unconscious. They struggled and screamed when Toothless pounced on them, so the fury put a paw on either of their mouths. Hiccup rifled through the leaders' belt for the ring of keys. After he had it, he sighed.

"I'm sorry," He said, and smacked both of them upside the head with the hilt of his newly acquired sword. "That's going to bruise."

Toothless backed away from the guards and shoved them aside. Placing a hand around Toothless' neck for support, Hiccup shuffled his one-legged self over to the first dragon to unlock its chains.

Hiccup froze when he heard the cell door creak further ajar. Every head in the cell (save the unconscious guards') spun around to stare. One very terrified, wide-eyed guard stared back at them, jaw agape, lip quivering. Toothless growled at him, and he turned and ran away screaming.

"Oh, for the love of-" Hiccup groaned, and shoved Toothless. "Hurry! Go get him, before he tells the others!"

"Gicpa, I can't leave you, you don't have your-"

"I'll be fine, just GO!" he shoved at the fury's shoulder, and Toothless charged out the door. Hiccup fiddled through the keys with shaking hands, trying to balance himself against the wall. He half walked, half dragged himself over to Rædwit and unlocked his chains first. "Find my father and Astrid," he told the fury as he worked the lock, "A huge red-bearded man and a yellow-haired girl. They're probably locked in a cell somewhere. Get them out, and tell them what has happened with Toðléas. Astrid speaks Dragonese."

Rædwit nodded and bolted as soon as he was free. Hiccup turned his attention to all of the other locks. Luckily, there seemed to be a master key to most of the locks and he was able to make quick work of the line of prisoners. As he hobbled around the cell with the key, he briefed them in a tone that would've been on par with his father's pre-battle speeches. "This ship is coated in metal, but there are still parts that are wood. DO NOT burn any of this ship unless you want to drown. DO NOT attack my father or Astrid. Our aim is to capture this boat, not sink it. Windspeed!" And with cries of anger and freedom, the dragons flew out the door and out into the corridors. Minutes later, all hell broke loose - a cacophony of noise, fire, screaming, and rage. Alarm bells began to clang, and Hiccup could hear the guards above on deck realize they were under attack.

He still didn't have his leg. "Great," he muttered to himself, using his sword as a cane to stand unsteadily upright. A guard lying at his feet began to groan awake, so Hiccup kicked him back asleep. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten that this was hard to do with one leg, and he ended up on the floor beside the guard. "Double great," he groaned.

Above deck, Lech was pacing around Ru like an impatient child. They'd chained Ru up to a giant crane that would lower him down into the massive cell, but they were waiting for the troop of guards below to let them know the cell was clear and safe to open.

"What is taking those idiots so long?" Lech grumbled to himself, glaring at his men.

"There were quite a few dragons in there, sir," said one, "could take some time."

"No, it's been long enough." Lech snapped, and bent over to peer into the small grate that led to the cell. It was too dark below for him to see anything, but it was oddly quiet. He heard a dragon's shriek echo up to him, but it was distant. Too distant. Distant enough to set his nerves on edge.

Then, the hatch from the lower deck burst open, and a screaming guard appeared, running for his life.

"Night fury!" he yelled, "Escaped night fury!"

"What?" Lech breathed, absolutely enraged. He unsheathed his sword. An angry dragon's roar sounded from just below deck, and the guards around the hatch shuffled around uncertainly, brandishing their weapons too nervously to reassure each other. "They've escaped! Sound the alarm!" Lech shouted to his men, "hunt them down – hunt them all down!"

As the alarm bell rang out over the deck, Toothless shot up out of the hatch, wings spread and teeth bared.

"Toðléas!" Ru got out through his muzzle. The very dragon he'd been attempting to avenge looked over at him – truly alive, in the flesh. And a dragon, at that. Ru would feel embarrassed about it later, but in that moment, his only reaction was of pure relief.

Toothless was going to reply, but then Lech raised his sword and charged, screaming for blood.

Astrid and Stoick were still wringing their hands about Ru, trying to formulate how they could help, when the alarm bells started ringing. Distant screaming grew closer and closer, until the guard at the end of the hall let out an unmanly shriek of terror and fled. A huge black night fury charged down the corridor to their cell.

"Toothless?!" Astrid asked, shocked.

"No," said the fury, his voice deeper than Toothless was, "I'm Toðléas' uncle, actually, but I'll explain that later." Which was frankly just as shocking as it would've been if he were Toothless. "I'd stand away from the bars, if I were you."

Astrid grabbed Stoick's arm and pulled him over to hide behind the crates of food. Rædwit let out a massive blast of plasma, and the bars, far weaker than the metal that had caged him for weeks, blew apart. Astrid peeked out from over the boxes at their escape route.

"You are the one called Astrid?" Rædwit asked.

"Yes."

"Toðléas is not dead. He is alive, and is a dragon once more. Gicpa has released the dragons, he instructed me to find you and release you. You humans will know far better than I how to take a human floating vessel."

Astrid's face broke into a huge smile. "Toothless is alive!" She relayed to Stoick,, who's face lightened in surprise. "The dragons are out – now, we take the ship."

Stoick's eyes glinted in a way no one had seen since his dragon-hunting days, the days when he protected Hiccup at the point of a sword. "What are we waiting for?" He cried, heaving his way through the incinerated prison door, straightening his helmet for battle. He turned and nodded nobly at Rædwit, who returned the respectful gesture in a way that said more than any language barrier could prevent. "Thank you, friend," He said in Norse.

A guard appeared at the end of the hallway, and he turned white with fear when he saw the night fury and the escaped Vikings standing next to it. Stoick took one look at the man, gave a massive Viking battle roar, and charged.

As any intelligent person might upon seeing a seven foot tall, horned, angry Viking giant heading their way, the guard turned and fled. Figuring that Stoick had it sorted and knowing better than to get in the chief's way, Astrid turned to her new night fury friend.

"Where is Gicpa?" Astrid asked him.

"Down below, releasing the dragons."

"Does he have his leg?"

"No."

"We have to back to help him. Take me there?"

Rædwit nodded, and looked sheepish for an odd moment. "I am not like my nephew… I have never had a human on my back. But I believe humans and dragons have a similar saying about desperate times…?" Astrid smiled.

"Thank you, friend."

"Please, call me Rædwit." He lowered his neck down so she could climb up. As soon as she was up, he charged back down to the cells, the shrieks of dragons, humans, and bells echoing around them.