The sun was going down as the fight took a turn for the worse.

It had been four years since the defeat of Drago Bludvist and his Bewilderbeast. Four years since Hiccup had become chief. The first two of those years had been prosperous. Hiccup and the gang had permanently moved back to Berk from Dragon's Edge to help with the rebuilding. It had gone well, with the largest setbacks coming from Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Loki's dedicates and masters of munitions. Fishlegs and Valka had set about integrating Drago's freed dragons into Berk's society, and the village had happily expanded, the new construction being overseen by Astrid. For a while, things were peaceful, and Snotlout found his position as Marshal to be largely ceremonial, as Berk rarely needed to be defended against anything more dangerous than the occasional pirate ship or pack of speed stingers. It was in this peace that Hiccup and Astrid had married two years earlier.

Unfortunately, this peace did not extend beyond the Archipelago. When new dragons began to appear on Berk, Hiccup and Fishlegs journeyed back to the Edge to consult their old Dragon Eye notes. They found the island base ransacked, the wild dragons either missing or dead. Scouting revealed that another dragon hunter had filled the vacuum created by the loss of Drago Bludvist and Viggo Grimborn, and the third war against dragon hunters began.

This war was not like the others. These dragon hunters had been expecting Berk to get involved, and had spent years preparing. True to the saying 'no good deed goes unpunished,' the Riders' teenhood refusal to kill came back to bite them as the hunters easily found recruits with experience fighting warriors on dragon back. This new enemy was skilled and prepared, and every single dragon the Riders managed to free brought them into mortal danger.

But Vikings rush in where Valkyrs fear to tread, and death is just an occupational hazard. These six dragon riders had gone to Hel and back and would never back down from what they knew was right. This brought them to their current battle, which was not going well.

The blood blended in with the crimson rays of the sun as it dripped into the sea. The riders had followed three hunter ships close to an island surrounded by sea stacks, and straight into an ambush. Unlike Viggo and his men, these hunters had no desire to take them alive. More than two dozen ballistae had been hidden among the sea stacks, and their overlapping fields of fire and the fact that they were defended by longbowmen made them extremely difficult to hit. Meatlug had managed to destroy two of them, but it had cost her. A thick bolt was embedded in one of her hind legs, and Fishlegs brought her to hover out of range.

The twins were attempting to dump Barf's heavy gas on a group of ballistae from a higher altitude. As the slowest dragon after Meatlug, and the least maneuverable, the Zippleback was unable to get in close.

"Come on Bud, we can do this," Hiccup muttered as he and Toothless lined up for another shot. Their long-range plasma blasts were the most effective, as they weren't in range long enough to hit before their target exploded. Toothless dropped with his signature shrieking whistle, hitting the ballista dead on and gliding out of range as he pulled out of the dive. "Yes!" Hiccup shouted as they turned back to the battle. That's when everything went wrong.

Astrid and Stormfly zipped past another sea-stack. "Spine Shot!" Astrid yelled, looking on in satisfaction as the blue Nadder's quills tore through the ballista's crew. Hiccup saw a hunter draw back his bow on a neighboring sea-stack.

"Astrid!" Hiccup shouted desperately. She turned at the sound, and the arrow sunk into her shoulder instead of her heart. She let out a sharp cry of pain and barely managed to stay in the saddle. "Fall back!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless used his last plasma blast on the hunters that had shot Astrid. "Everybody fall back!"

Stormfly managed to head out of range towards Fishlegs and Meatlug under the cover of the plasma blast's explosion. Unfortunately, this left Snotlout and Hookfang alone in the middle of the battle. Hookfang flamed up and roared, his evasive movements becoming frantic as all of the hunters focused on him and his rider. "HOOKFANG!" Snotlout screamed as he leapt from the saddle. The two-inch-wide ballista bolt that had been about to hit a gap in Hookfang's neck armor buried itself in the Jorgenson's stomach instead.

"NO!" Hiccup cried as he urged Toothless into a sharp dive. Hookfang tried to catch his rider, but was forced upwards by archers. The twins swooped in on Barf and Belch to protect him, yelling angrily as the sound of a Zippleback explosion rang across the water. The Night Fury leveled out a scant dozen feet above the water as Hiccup caught his cousin. Snotlout screamed in pain as the impact jostled the bolt that to Hiccup's horror went straight through him, the bloodied spear point extending about a foot out of his back. Trusting Toothless to steer them to safety, Hiccup let go of the saddle to arrange the shorter Viking into a less painful position. He wrapped an arm around his cousin's waist to hold him in place, sitting sideways across the saddle. Hearing him whimper in pain, Hiccup grabbed the bolt to keep it from moving. The wooden shaft was sticky with blood, and it took everything he had to keep his hands from shaking.

"It hurts," Snotlout sobbed, "it… it hurts." None of his usual bravado was present in his voice, and that scared Hiccup more than anything else.

"I've got you," Hiccup muttered softly. "You're going to be alright, just hold on." Then he turned his attention to Toothless. "We've got to find a place to land bud," he said, fear tightening his voice. Toothless warbled in concern and began to circle around to the far side of the island.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder to see the rest of the dragons and riders following him away from the battle site. Hookfang was right on their tail, his normally hooded eyes filled with worry and fear. Barf and Belch had taken a couple of arrows to the wings, and the twins were uncharacteristically quiet in their concern. Fishlegs was rubbing Meatlug's head reassuringly as she buzzed along tiredly. Astrid had her bad arm clutched tightly to her chest, but nodded reassuringly when Hiccup met her eyes.

Toothless let out a grunt, catching Hiccup's attention. Cut into the side of a sheer cliff, far enough from both the top and bottom to be nearly impossible to reach without wings, was a deep opening. "Good job bud," Hiccup muttered, tightening his grip on Snotlout as they maneuvered into the cave, the rest of the dragons following. The cavern was large and round, about the same size as the training arena back on Berk. Toothless touched down in the center of the circle, and Hiccup pulled his cousin off of the saddle and onto the floor as the rest of the dragons landed around them.

Hookfang pushed close, his noises of concern getting increasingly frantic as he examined the ballista bolt in his rider. "Hooky," Snotlout whispered, weakly raising a hand to rest on the Monstrous Nightmare's snout.

"Stormfly, give us some light," Astrid's voice echoed in the large cavernous space as her Nadder shot a magnesium blast at one of the many fire-bowls around the chamber. Carved channels full of oil led the fire around the cavern in a chain reaction, filling the large space with flickering light. The sudden brightness revealed thousands upon thousands of runes carved into the walls and floor, seeming to glow in the fire-light. Under normal circumstances, Hiccup and Fishlegs would have spent hours geeking out over it, but as it was they barely noticed.

"Oh, Thor," Fishlegs breathed as he scrambled over to kneel by his friends, even ignoring his beloved Meatlug in his horror.

"Fishlegs…" Hiccup said desperately, a question in his voice. He hoped with all his being that Fishlegs, kind, clever Fishlegs, would know some way to fix this, would be able to pull out just the right herb to keep Snotlout alive or spit out the name of an obscure dragon with healing abilities. But Fishlegs just shook his head, tears in his eyes and grief on his face, and moved to help Hiccup hold the bolt's weight off Snotlout's internal organs.

"Oh no… Snotlout…" Astrid put her good hand on Hiccup's shoulder for support as she lowered herself to her knees. She moved her hand to Snoutlout's face, gently wiping away his tears with her thumb.

"It hurts. It hurts so bad." Hiccup had never heard his cousin's voice sound so small. Hookfang rumbled as comfortingly as he could through his own despair. Astrid sobbed.

"But the six of us are supposed to be together forever," Ruffnut whispered, desperate denial and disbelief etched on her face. Hiccup blinked the tears out of his eyes so he could see the twins. They were both holding the hand that wasn't resting on Hookfang's snout. Ruff was running her free hand over their friend's leg, while Tuff clasped his shoulder. They both had tears running down their faces.

"Is there anything you want us to do?" Fishlegs asked gently from his place behind Snotlout. His side was pressed against Snotlout's back, and he was unsuccessfully trying to hold his friend's lifeblood in. The hot red liquid leaked between his fingers and fell to the glowing runes on floor.

"Stay," Snotlout croaked, his eyes flitting desperately from person to person. "Don't… don't leave me."

"Never," Hiccup stated with the strength and absolute certainty of a chief. He held his cousin tighter against his chest as his friends all voiced the same sentiment. Hookfang crooned reassuringly. Fishlegs pressed closer against his back and Astrid leaned in to press a kiss to his forehead. Ruffnut squeezed his hand, and Tuffnut tightened his grip on his shoulder and leaned in.

Behind them a couple of the dragons let out snarls of discontent, but none of the humans noticed.

Tuffnut forced a smile as tears continued to run down his face. "We've already stayed together through so much crazy stuff. Of course we're with you until the.." he swallowed down a sob, "until the very end."

Snotlout managed to give Tuff a small smile before his breathing picked up. His grip on the twin's hands and Hookfang's nose spike tightened. His gaze ran over each member of their weird little family before locking on Hiccup. The light of Odin's Fire illuminated his pale face as he took in one last deep breath and let it out slowly. Hiccup watched as the life left his eyes, and their usually bright blue became flat and empty.

Tuffnut stopped trying to hold it together and let out a loud wail before throwing himself at his sister. Ruffnut clung to her twin just as tightly as they both cried loudly. Hookfang raised his head from his rider's lap and roared to the heavens in grief. Fishlegs scrambled backwards, whimpering "nonono" under his breath. Astrid collapsed against his side with a sob.

Hiccup wrapped one arm around his wife's waist, the other still clutching his cousin's body to his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly before turning his face to shout at the sky. "You take care of him Dad!" Then he turned and buried his face in Astrid's shoulder to cry.

He was quickly broken out of his grief by Fishlegs' worried voice. "Um, Hiccup? You might want to see this."

Hiccup looked over at Fishlegs. His eyes were wide as he stared around the cavern, which was now illuminated by the multicolored light of thousands of glowing runes. Hookfang was the only dragon not running around and roaring in a panic, as he was too lost in his grief to notice much of anything. Turning his eyes upward, Hiccup saw something that looked like Odin's Fire in a violent storm.

"What is going on here!?" He yelled in a panic, trying to push himself to his knees without loosening his grip on his cousin's body. The twins sprung apart and stared around in awed confusion, and Astrid let go of him to pull out an axe.

Before anyone could figure out what to do about the magical phenomenon suddenly surrounding them, a loud, indescribable sound echoed from the rocks. The glow of the runes increased in intensity, and the very fabric of reality seemed to warp. Then the storm of Odin's Fire descended. There was a flash of bright green light, and the Dragon Riders were then no more.