Fire screamed across the night sky.
The auction hall had become a slaughterhouse of sound, stone cracking, bodies colliding, smoke clawing at lungs as dragons wheeled overhead. Flames tore through the upper tiers, collapsing sections of seating as people fled blindly, trampling one another in their desperation.
Guards tried to form lines but they failed.
Viggo stood frozen for a heartbeat and said sharply. "Ryker,"
His brother appeared at his side, breathing hard, one hand gripping something green and fibrous.
"Viggo." Ryker lifted it. The torchlight revealed twisted roots, thick, pulsing faintly. "Dragon root. It's everywhere."
Viggo's jaw tightened.
Dragon root causes uncontrolled rage to dragons that made control impossible and with them everywhere. It can only mean one thing.
This was orchestrated.
Viggo's gaze snapped to the stage.
To the man smiling amid the chaos.
Captain Hook.
The pirate stood untouched, chaos unfolding around him like a carefully rehearsed play. His crimson coat fluttered as heat washed past him, eyes alight with delight rather than fear.
Viggo moved.
He crossed the stage in long strides, seized Hook by the lapels, and slammed him back against the iron bars of the Night Fury's cage.
The dragon snarled, but Viggo didn't care.
"You," Viggo growled, voice low and shaking with fury. "What did you do?"
Hook merely chuckled.
"What did I do?" he echoed lightly. "I'm currently enjoying the evening."
Viggo shoved him harder, metal rattling behind Hook as the Night Fury's growl deepened.
"You poisoned my operation," Viggo hissed. "You turned this into a massacre."
Hook's smile widened. "Massacre is such an ugly word."
Viggo released him with a violent shove and turned sharply.
"Ryker!" he barked, slicing the air with his hand. "Evacuate the dragons. Secure the assets. Now!"
Ryker nodded once and turned, already shouting orders as Dragon Hunters rushed to obey.
Hook straightened his coat leisurely.
"Ah-ah," he said pleasantly. "The Night Fury is mine, yes?"
Viggo turned slowly.
"Then pay," he said flatly, opening his palm.
Hook looked at it, then laughed. "Who said I was going to pay?"
The words landed like a blade.
Hook clapped his hands once. "Boys."
All around the hall, movement shifted.
Men in red bandanas rose from the stone seats. Not panicked civilians but pirates.
They drew blades, flintlocks, hooked knives. Some leapt down from the stands. Others surged toward the stage, laughter cutting through the screams.
Ryker barely had time to swear before steel crashed against steel.
"You mutt!" Viggo snarled as he drew his sword, parrying a pirate's strike with a sharp clang.
The arena became a battlefield.
Hook stepped aside, untouched, boots carrying him calmly toward the Night Fury's cage.
The dragon tracked him immediately.
Hook lifted his hand and tapped the bars once.
Clink!
"You're mine," he said softly.
The Night Fury bared its teeth and growled—a low, vibrating sound that rippled through the iron.
Hook only smiled.
____
"Astrid, left!" Hiccup shouted.
Astrid was already moving.
Her axe whistled through the air, biting into a pirate's shoulder and sending him sprawling down the stone steps.
She pivoted immediately, planting herself in front of Fishlegs as another attacker rushed them.
Fishlegs barely had time to yelp before a knife spun toward him.
Clang!
He slammed a round, decorative shield ripped straight off the wall up just in time. The blade skidded across the painted surface and clattered away.
"I— I did it!" Fishlegs gasped, staring at the shield. "I blocked it!"
"Less celebrating!" Astrid barked, shoving him sideways as a pirate lunged.
Snotlout swung wildly, more noise than precision, while Tuffnut and Ruffnut fought back-to-back, laughing like lunatics as they tripped attackers into each other.
Eric stood a few rows back, guarded tightly by Merlune knights who had forced their way into the hall when the first fireball hit. Shields locked, blades out, they formed a moving wall around him.
"This hall will not hold!" one guard shouted.
"I know," Eric replied sharply, eyes scanning the chaos. "Hold until—"
"Hiccup duck!"
Hiccup barely raised his shield in time as something slammed into it, the impact rattling his arm to the bone. He staggered, breathing hard, smoke stinging his eyes.
He twisted around, searching.
"Lucian!!" he shouted over the roar of fire and steel. "Those plans of yours—any minute now!"
No answer. Hiccup's heart dropped.
Lucian wasn't there.
_______
Dragon Hunters and pirates clashed in a brutal knot of bodies.
Viggo moved like a commander even in the chaos: controlled, precise, sword flashing as he parried a pistol butt and drove his blade into a pirate's thigh. He spun and blocked another strike, booting his attacker back into the fray.
Hook met him head-on.
Steel rang as Viggo's sword crashed against Hook's rapier.
Sparks flew as Hook twisted, graceful even in battle, his movements refined, almost elegant.
"You ruin a perfectly good negotiations," Viggo snarled, pressing the attack.
Hook laughed, parrying easily. "Negotiations imply I intended to pay."
Viggo lunged. Hook ducked, blade slicing past his cheek, carving a shallow line across his coat instead of flesh.
Hook retaliated with a flick of his wrist, the rapier darting in like a serpent.
Viggo barely deflected it. Their blades locked.
"You've made an enemy tonight," Viggo growled.
Hook leaned in, amused. "How scary."
They broke apart as pirates surged between them again.
Amid the chaos at the center of the arena, something moved differently.
A hooded figure slipped between clashing bodies, his steps measured, deliberate. Blades passed inches from him without ever finding their mark. Firelight bent strangely around his form, his outline blurring as if the world itself struggled to remember where he was.
Then he vanished.
He blend into the surroundings, his form blurring, colors bending, until he was nothing more than a distortion in smoke and torchlight.
As it moved, a hand reached to a satchel. Small glass vials were drawn free. Three of them, each swirling with a faint greenish-blue mist that pressed eagerly against its container.
One cork popped, then another.
Then the third.
The gas spilled out silently, thick and heavy, clinging low to the ground as the unseen figure ran, carving a wide arc around the heart of the arena. The mist crept beneath boots and bodies, pooling where pirates and Dragon Hunters were most densely packed.
A few men coughed.
Others waved it off, too focused on the fight to notice the danger seeping around their feet.
The distortion slid to a stop before the Night Fury's cage.
For the first time, it solidified.
A blade emerged from nothingness.
CLANG!
The lock split cleanly down the center, metal groaning as the tension holding it shut failed. The cage door sagged, then swung open with a heavy clang.
The Night Fury lunged forward with a thunderous snarl and halted.
It stood at the threshold, muscles coiled, fire burning low in its throat. Before it was not an enemy, only a shape.
A presence.
The air shimmered again as the camouflage dissolved completely, peeling away like mist burned off by sunlight. A man stood revealed, wolf-fur hood framing his shoulders, a horned mask hiding his face.
Slowly, deliberately, he reached up and unfastened the horned mask.
The clasps clicked softly as he pulled it free. The Night Fury's eyes followed the motion.
Lucian.
He met its gaze openly now, no concealment. Just intent.
He did not raise his weapon. Instead, he lowered it.
Slowly, he lifted an open hand.
"Easy," he said quietly, his voice calm even as the world burned around them. "I'm not here to hurt you."
The Night Fury's growl rumbled deep in its chest, uncertain, conflicted. Lucian could feel it: anger, fear, restless fury pressed tight together after too long in chains.
"I want to help you," he continued, stepping closer. "That's all."
For a long moment, neither moved.
The dragon rumbled, tension rolling through its frame. Its head lowered slightly, nostrils flaring as it took in his scent, his breath, his presence.
Then dragon closed its eyes.
Lucian took one slow step closer.
Then another and his hand met warm, living scale.
"Huu... " Lucian exhaled, a small, breathless laugh escaping him. "Nice to meet you buddy."
Around them, chaos still raged but the moment passed unnoticed until it was already too late.
The Night Fury surged upward, wings snapping open with explosive force as Lucian vaulted onto its back in one smooth motion. They tore skyward together, smoke and fire whipping past as the greenish-blue gas continued to spread below.
CLANG!!
Viggo parried another strike, steel ringing sharply as he drove a pirate back with a calculated slash.
He turned and froze.
The Night Fury's cage stood open.
Not broken from the outside. Viggo's eyes narrowed instantly.
Then something else registered. A faint haze clung low to the stone floor.
At first, he'd dismissed it as smoke.
The auction hall was lit only by torches now, most of the braziers overturned or snuffed out beneath fleeing feet. Shadows writhed across the walls as bodies surged and fell, flames dying as quickly as they were lit.
But this wasn't just smoke.
Viggo inhaled sharply and his expression changed.
Sweet, oily, almost metallic. His nostrils burned.
His boots scraped stone as he shifted position, eyes tracking the haze as it curled around fallen bodies and broken benches, pooling where the air lay still.
Gas.
"Zippleback gas! Everyone—!" Viggo began, voice cutting sharp through the din. "—move!"
From above, Lucian extended his arm "Let's see what your got buddy "
The Night Fury understood.
FWOOOM!!
A single plasma blast streaked downward and struck the gas.
BANG!!
The explosion bloomed instantly. Fire rolling outward in a roaring wave that consumed pirates and Dragon Hunters alike.
"ARGGGGH!!"
Men screamed as flames engulfed them. Bodies were hurled across stone, weapons spinning uselessly through the air.
Viggo was thrown hard into a pillar, armor blistering as heat scorched his arm. Blood soaked through his sleeve as he hit the ground.
Hook rolled across the floor, coming to a stop on one knee. He stared down at his ruined coat, at the charred remnants of his hat.
Hook looked up and for the first time, he wasn't smiling.