Chapter Thirteen: Not All of the Dragons

The group watched as the airlift hoisted the baby Bewilderbeast into the air. Ludlow and Dagur rode alongside of the airlift in a helicopter of their own, carefully monitoring the progress. The ascent was slow, as they had to be careful not to injure the cargo or to break the chains. Only a handful of their men had made it safely out of the tall grass and to the rendezvous point. They were in a second helicopter that was already starting off towards the mainland. Two of them remained on the ground, standing guard.

Hiccup let out a heavy sigh, "Well guys, I never thought I'd say this…and gods I'm not sure if it's the best idea…but…Ruff, Tuff, we need to take down the helicopter and the airlift."

The twins smirked at one another, high-fived and then playfully headbutted one another. They quickly came up with a plan, or at least that's what the adults assumed they were doing. Ruff and Tuff, in true twin nature, spoke in half sentences and gestures, once grabbing at Hiccup's prosthetic (which Hiccup begrudgingly yanked away from their grasp).

Without warning they hurried off towards the floating airlift. Tuff got there first and laced his fingers together. His sister quickened her pace and jumped into his hands so that he could hoist her onto the airlift. The adults watched with mouths agape. In theory this plan would have worked, in practice, however, not so much. Ruff landed face first on the ground.

Hiccup rubbed his temples while Astrid stifled a giggle behind her hand. Valka's eyes widened and she hurried over to the twins. Gobber and Snotlout followed quickly behind.

The guards nearby had not noticed the twins' antics, but when the adults had moved into the scene they had taken notice. The two guards began to move towards the group, but Dagur waved them off. "No, the cargo is the only this that matters. Don't you dare move from your posts." The two guards exchanged glances and shrugged, returning to their posts as instructed. Dagur whispered to himself, "Besides there is nothing they can do to stop us anyway, so let them try."

Tuff walked over to his sister and extending a hand to help her to her feet. "Want to try again? You launch me this time?"

"No, no," Valka's mother voice came out sternly. "What in all of Valhalla made you two think that would work?"

Snotlout leaned over, "They do this all the time. That's why they're nicknamed 'Ruff' and 'Tuff.'"

"Cause we're rough around the edges and tough as steel!" The twins grinned toothily and crossed their arms triumphantly over their chests.

"They do this oft'n?" Gobber wondered aloud.

Snotlout sighed and pulled out a small notebook. He flipped through almost the entire notebook before finding a blank page. "Often enough that Hammond makes me keep a list. She wants me to alphabetize it eventually." Valka and Gobber raised their eyebrows at the notion. "Y'know so that when they inevitably try to repeat a stunt we can say 'Oh but you tried that already, maybe find something else to do.'"

"Oookay lovely anecdote," Hiccup interrupted, "But, uh, they're getting closer to completely leaving the island with a Bewilderbeast."

"I know!" Tuff shouted. "Let's go get…"

"No," Astrid cut him off. "You two used your idea. No more."

"Can we use Toothless?" Valka suggested as she gestured to the Night Fury's hiding place in the dense brush behind them. Hiccup shook his head.

"Dagur tried to kill Toothless the first time we met, I need Toothless to stay hidden."

In the distance the group heard an ominous roar. Then a flutter of wings. Over the tree-line the group could see a huge flock of dragons flying away. Their movements were almost robotic, and Hiccup mentally noted the similarities between the patterned circled flying he and Toothless had witnessed earlier and the current robotic-like flight patterns. The BioSyn team paused briefly in hoisting the baby Bewilderbeast into the air before Dagur began barking orders at them to speed it up. Meanwhile Fishlegs turned to the other dragontologists and whispered, "I think our situation may have just gotten worse."

"Okay plan B, I'm going to fly back with Toothless and Astrid. We'll try to beat BioSyn back to the mainland. Mom, you get a hold of …"

"Hey Hiccup…" Tuff pulled at Hiccup's shirt-sleeve. Hiccup initially waved off Tuff, intent on forming a plan to save the unsuspecting civilians on the mainland and of course ultimately the dragons. Tuff huffed and pressed the matter, not allowing Hiccup to get any more words in edgewise. Hiccup sighed and through gritted teeth said, "What is it now, Tuff?"

"Well I dunno about you, but I'd have a hard time flying a dragon that was gone." Tuff pointed to the bushes where Toothless had been hiding. Hiccup's eyes widened. While distracted by the situation, the group didn't notice Toothless struggling against the angry Bewilderbeast's mind-control. Ultimately, he had succumbed to it and had flown off. Ruff pointed to the sky, "That looks like Toothless…"

Tuff crossed his arms and jeered, "Oh yeah? How do you know? Mom says you need glasses."

Ruff palmed her brother's face and pushed him to the ground. "Duh 'cause Toothless is the only black dragon." From his position on the ground, Tuff muttered a defeated 'I knew that.'

"So let me get this straight, they took the Bewilderbeasts AND all of our dragons?" Snotlout complained. "Could this possibly get any worse?"

"Technically, BioSyn only took the baby Bewilderbeast. The mother retaliated by dragging all of the other dragons with her to hunt for her baby by emitting a homing signal similar to that of the Red Death. Maternal instincts are very strong in this Bewilderbeast species; we should definitely note that in the Book of Dragons," Fishlegs explained. Snotlout glared at Fishlegs.

"So what now?" Astrid asked.

"We go after them," Hiccup said.

"How? Fishlegs said the Bewilderbeast took all of the dragons."

"Not all of them," Hiccup smirked. "Follow me."

The group hurried after Hiccup who lead them back to the meadow that he and Toothless had passed by on their way. Sure enough there was a group of baby dragons playing. Fishlegs asked, "I don't understand, why aren't they being controlled by the Bewilderbeast?"

Hiccup half shrugged. "The Bewilderbeast seems to only be able to control the adult dragons. If we ride in on these we should be okay."

"How can you be sure?" Fishlegs asked.

"Uh, 'sure' is kind of a strong word, this is more of a hunch. But I am a scientist so most things are best proven by some old-fashion trial and error. But I mean they're babies, maybe they just don't listen to the homing signal," Hiccup replied as he extended his palm to one of the baby dragons. The baby sniffed the open hand, licked it and then rolled over into the grass, exposing his tummy to Hiccup. Hiccup chuckled to himself. "And I mean they're babies, they probably don't listen to anyone."

"So what makes you think they'll listen to us? Or let us ride them?"

"Because he's the dragon master!" Tuff announced, decisively.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "What? Oh gods, no. I'm not a dragon master, but we really don't have another option unless the camper has some type of floatation device you didn't tell me about."

Several moments later the group each had their own baby dragon and was flying, more or less. Valka described to them where the BioSyn facility was on the mainland, and the group decided to start their search there. Hiccup of course, effortlessly rode on the baby dragon. Astrid had an almost dancer-like grace as she rode on hers. Valka, after a few moments of acquainting herself to the dragon, was also a natural. The twins were struggling with their dragons, not that they knew that.

"This is insane!" Snotlout complained.

"Insanely fun you mean," Tuff shouted from the back of his baby dragon.

"Some might suggest this is poorly con—whoa—conceived," Gobber said as he tried his best to steady his baby dragon.

Valka was faring much better with her baby dragon and she encouraged it to catch up to Hiccup. "So what's the plan?"

"Get Toothless and the other dragons back and kick Dagur's ass!" Hiccup replied.

[a/n] I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season! Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think! And thank you Quintain Apprentince of Alduin for beta-reading!