A/N

i finally finished re writing the start. I'm serious when i say that you will not understand this chapter if you don't go back and read that stuff.

I've added things, I've removed things. Read it.

and if there's something weird. like the timeline doesn't match up between two chaoters or I've got something written twice do tell and I'll fix it.

enjoy!

The hall of Somnus was dark in a good way.

It was a small alcove in the underworld, tucked away behind Thanatos' region, existing in the shadow of death. There was a magic warmth that pulsed along the corridors of stone tunnels and carpets stretched through the entire area. The entrance hall was filled with couches and pillows, the throne at the very far end of the hall draped in blankets stuffed with feathers that ran down to the floor, flowing like the shimmering flags from the ceiling depicting budding poppies over cottonwood.

It was exactly what one expect from the god of sleep.

Jupiter strutted down the carpeted runway towards the throne, basking in the turned heads and whispers of Somnus' guests. He climbed the dais and stood before Somnus, arms crossed, looking down his nose at the minor god who skulked in the underworld.

"my lord," Somnus greeted, standing from his throne and flicking his dark plait over his shoulder, his wings folded neatly as he bowed, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I wish to speak to you," Jupiter said, "in private."

There was a flash in Somnus' dark eyes as he split his face in a pleasant smirk, "my lord I would be delighted to host you in my halls." He beckoned someone over, a thin man with a shock of white hair and white eyes, "keep the party going," He ordered him, then guided Jupiter to the side of the dais where the cave spiralled to a tunnel deeper into the dark.

"my son, Morpheus," he explained, "he's been taking up more of my duties of late, growing into his adult centuries."

"I see," Jupiter stated, pretending to care, "is there much arguing among your hundreds of offspring for that role?"

"oh no, no, they have plenty of fun appearing in mortal's dreams, giving them..." he drifted, hand floating to the murals along the walls of the tunnel, "assorted fantasies."

The murals left very little to be imagined, it was a twisting monstrosity that managed to be beautiful of monsters and demons whispering in mortals ears and unrealities of any kind that could stir a mere human to anger, sadness, fear, lust and insanity.

"intriguing," He said drily.

Somnus guided him into a room in the side of the tunnel, it opened into a wing of its own. A sitting room with a bar on one side and a dining set-up the other.

"what can I do you for, great king of Olympus?" Somnus asked, lounging on one of the well decorated couches.

"are you aware of Pluto's new human minion?" Jupiter asked, taking the couch across from Somnus.

"oh, the champion? Yes I heard a few whispers. I was rather upset he wasn't allowed to stay and do some training in the underworld, a mortal visitor to my halls would be entertaining." Somnus drawled.

"he's fighting in a battle, you know?"

"oh?" Somnus slid his eyes to Jupiter, "proving his worth, then? Well I'll be sure to visit the human realm to watch the unavoidable tragedy unfold."

"oh, I'm sure it will be one for the ages considering the involvement of dragons." He fought the scowl from his face at the mention of the beasts, "although, that's not particularly what I'm here for."

"looking for some time away from the wife?" Somnus chuckled.

"not quite," he sighed, "tell me everything you know about Pluto's recent activity."

Somnus pursed his lips, "you know I cannot, my lord."

"you address me as a superior and yet think you can avoid my orders?" Jupiter asked, slow.

"no, of course not my lord," Somnus' eyebrows raised, "but my halls are in the underworld and thus Pluto's order comes before yours for me. I cannot speak ill or even of my king in such a way that you ask without his approval."

"has he said explicitly that you cannot?"

"no, but-"

"then what is the problem?" Jupiter asked.

"my lord it is a breach of etiquette."

"don't make me ask again, Somnus."

Somnus stood, his wings fidgeted and stretched with anxiety as he paced behind his couch. "you know what you are asking me, my lord. To speak behind Pluto's back is no small thing."

"his retribution, I would imagine, may be less painful than mine."

Somnus took a long shaky breath, ran his hand along his hair, "may I enquire as to why?"

"my I enquire as to your thoughts on being electrocuted?"

"let me tell you about Pluto."

As Jupiter began to leave Somnus' halls he spied Morpheus stepping down from his father's dais who was fidgeting with his hair. Jupiter noticed three others who greeted him at the couches closest the dais, a few others nearby. Some of Somnus' children.

He had an idea.

He stalked over to their couches, Morpheus looked up and greeted him first the others bowing afterwards.

"I have a job for you all."

This was impossible.

In the morning when the camp awoke entirely, those who'd taken the night shift the only ones sleeping, the legionnaires and Praetors assembled to plan the day's attacks and defences, as per usual.

Half way through the meeting, however, a soldier burst into the room and announced, "the soldiers! They're unconscious! They will not wake!"

And it was true. They ran through the camps and trenches taking numbers and moving them to safety. Medics investigated them and found no illness, no injuries, no lingering poisons that could explain it. half the camp just collapsed.

It was not long after that those on watch announced that Drago's ships were coming closer to shore, ready to attack again. they had not been able to make camp in the six months they'd been fighting, Hiccup had watched as they had been pushed back to the sea every time. But they were never able to keep them going further out to sea. They always travelled towards the land they held on Britannica, no matter how hard they tried to push them west through the strait with their dragons.

And now Hiccup was fighting again, locked into a shield formation, sword in hand. He should have a spear, it would make things easier. But when he picked up the fallen soldier's shield and closed ranks he hadn't had time to grab their weapon as well.

Drago's soldiers charged again and slammed into their shields, Hiccups arm ached, he rolled his right shoulder with a pop trying to stop it from going numb with exhaustion. But the wall pushed back, and Drago's men were forced a few steps back with it.

"volley!"

Hiccup could hear Verlin shouting above with Dena, a fellow archer. Arrows arched over his head to the crowd behind the front of Drago's force. At the same time they came again and there was a break to Hiccup's right. Screams, the pound of foot against ground and the shriek of metal.

But the wall was fixed and the soldiers behind him took the small entering force. This had happened before, it would happen again. he couldn't afford distraction.

Someone slammed against the shield next to him and he stabbed through the crack blindly. The man shrieked and threw himself against his shield, but Hiccup held. The soldier next to him stabbed the man again and he went down with a thud.

"loose!" it was not Verlin this time, it was Drago's men screaming orders, a volley of arrows of their own zipped above him...

And further into the sky, not to the soldiers to the dragons, who scattered. Twisting turning and rising. One caught a dragon in the eye, Nightmare, and it crashed into the ground, right behind the shield-bearers, the wall broke for a second but it was enough.

Chaos.

Hiccup discarded the shield, it was too big for his liking anyway, and ran head first into battle. There was no time for fancy manoeuvres, he stabbed, he swung, parried, blocked, feinted, dove and stabbed some more. Toothless finally joined him again, having glided down from the watchtower he was at. Hiccup had not missed the plasma bolts that had taken down some soldiers who got too close.

There was a moment when Toothless appeared where Hiccup had a few metres of space to himself to catch his breath, then he started again, not letting his mind start noticing all the bruises and cuts and scrapes that he should be feeling right now. He breathed deep and sunk his mind into Pluto's power and drove forward.

Atticus really needed a holiday.

Once again he turned just a little too late to parry a blow and watched as an arrow embedded itself in the soldier's wrist, he finished it off himself. He glanced skyward only long enough to recognise the green under-hide of Ex and Plode as Verlin and Dena flew off again. having saved him for probably the third time now.

he was embarrassed of that, only slightly, but he'd focus on that later.

The fight was doomed from the beginning, they were at half their usual fighting numbers and Drago's men seemed better than ever. They'd been preparing for this for a while.

Atticus turned from one fight to the next, sword getting slowly heavier in his hand. Although the lighter and streamlined riding armour was a godsend even it was starting to hold him down.

An arrow embedded itself in his calf and his knees buckled, a scream gurgling up from his throat. A sword arched for his head- no his neck- and he fought every muscle in his body trying to make them lift his sword to save him.

The enemy blade collided with a dark one just a hair's breadth away from his skin, if it weren't for the mud that had sprayed up his back and neck his hair would have stood on edge.

Hiccup kicked some of that mud into Atticus' would-be murderer, then quickly disarmed and ended them, before turning and lifting Atticus onto one shoulder, dragging him to Toothless.

"what do you think you're-"

"saving your ass." He flung him into Toothless' saddle, body racking with deep winded breaths before he continued, "just hold open his tail well enough till you're behind the first few trenches."

"you can't be serious?!"

Hiccup opened his mouth to retort- 'where did his helmet go?' Atticus wondered briefly- when an arrow flew past. He dodged at the last second but it still caught him across the right cheek.

"Hiccup!"

The archer at fault took their moment to run for him, but Hiccup didn't let himself stay dazed long, he dove out of their tackle and sliced his sword up, chest to neck to head. Atticus did his stomach the favour of not looking.

"GO!"

Toothless sprung into the air and Atticus, on instinct, found the spot he could put his foot to open the tail. Toothless twisted away from a flurry of arrows then dove into the trenches, depositing Atticus next to a centurion running by, before jumping out and bounding back to his rider.

Atticus sucked in a breath as he set his foot down, the arrow was still in his leg and it sent a spike of pain up his torso.

"I'll get you to the infirmary, Legionnaire." Murmured the centurion he'd been dumped with, and Atticus quietly prayed in his mind that Hiccup would keep the stupid heroics to a minimum for the rest of the fight.

Jael was two seconds away from pulling some magic out of her ass and ending this fight now.

She was fighting with a sword. She hated swords, she was better with a quarterstaff, but standard procedure lead to her not having a good enough one. She did have a shield, which she found useful till it left her arm numb in its socket.

She pivoted, parried, swung, stabbed. She kept her mind off of the fact that she had no idea how many people she'd killed not only today but in the past six months. She kept her mind off everything except the soldiers in front of her, the ground below her and the magic within her.

She spied Hiccup not far, Toothless nearby as well. They were overwhelmed. She was overwhelmed. They didn't have enough soldiers to fend them off this time, Drago would take their camp. They'd imprison every one of them. Kill those they didn't want, torture and interrogate those they did. And they'd keep gaining ground and killing till they had the whole province.

Hiccup went down on one knee as one of Drago's men hit him across the face.

He was about to go for his chest when Jael summoned that power inside her and shattered the soldier's weapon in his hands.

But she'd stopped.

And she ached.

And she couldn't breathe.

Because someone had stabbed her.

She looked down, a sword run through her stomach. And then it was gone and back through her heart.

Her eyes glanced and locked with hiccup's. his wide and uncovered by a helmet. Her's just as wide but filling with tears and shadowed by her helmet.

"JAEL!" she heard it distantly as she dropped to the ground. She saw from below as Drago's soldier wound up to stab her in the throat. A dark blade flung itself into his stomach. Hiccup kicked it down and Toothless cleared a circle around them.

"Jael, you're gonna be okay, I'll get you to the infirmary."

"don't you dare," she held a finger in the air, "don't you dare. I'm going-"

She coughed, her chin went warm as blood dribbled from her mouth.

Hiccup took her helmet off and pulled her to her feet.

"Hiccup," she spat out blood, focused on her power, gripped it tight. Tight enough to choke something. She was going down, she knew it and she was okay with that, everyone did. But like Hell was she going down without a fight, like hell was she gonna let this happen without using it.

Hiccup tugged her towards Toothless.

"stop," she held a hand against his chest, "stop. I'm going, you know that. now." She took a deep breath and more blood dribbled. She gripped that power tighter. She need it to keep things clear till she was done.

Hiccup looked at her with his best kicked puppy face, he was god at those, "what do you need to do?"

"send those bastards out to sea."

"okay."

Drago had made land.

He must have wanted to see the show. Gloat as his men took their camp.

Aeliana wasn't having it. she was the best damn swordsman north of Raetia and she was not just going to let Drago grow his scar of death any further.

She fought towards him and when she got their she gripped her sword and shield tighter than she would a lifeline and she attacked.

Drago wasn't much of a swordsman- he didn't even have a sword, just a bullhook that he waved around like a madman- but he knew how to fend off an opponent.

She was flung back on her ass and Drago almost made to stab her through her skull but he was caught off guard. His head whipped to the right where, in the sand, Jael stood supported by hiccup chanting. Her eyes glowed whiter than stars.

Drago left Aeliana and called to his men instead, screamed to get to the ships and retreat. But Jael screamed the chant like a madwoman. Blood spilled down her chin, chest and legs but she kept on. Any man that got to close was blasted away and from the look of Hiccup it was thanks to him.

"Drago, we need to go!"

"I know!" he roared back, "get to the ships!"

Aeliana clambered to her feet and wiped the blood from her lips.

"Praetor!" focused on who was calling her, a legionnaire, "we need to retreat!"

Aeliana glanced at Drago and his men, too distracted to attack, "no! keep pushing!"

Drago's eyes zeroed in on her.

"a leader, huh?" he looked to his soldiers running for the ships, "grab her."

And the fighting started again. she could hear Jael still chanting, the sky went dark.

"ADEU IILHAT ALSAMA!" she screamed and kept going, it was a language Aeliana didn't recognise and she couldn't focus on it too much. She was too busy fighting for her life.

She parried one man's blow and another came from behind, slicing down her calf. She turned with a swipe and an arrow thunked into her shoulder. Her scream turned into a war cry as she launched herself at the next soldier.

Her lungs burned, her legs ached, her hands cramped and spasmed around her sword and shield. But she kept going.

A slice ran down her forearm and she dropped her sword, someone rammed and her shield and she stumbled back. the shield was torn from her hand and her nails cracked.

A sword was at her throat.

"you gonna come quietly or am I gonna have to knock you out?"

Aeliana spat blood into his face.

He was about to hit her right in the head, knockout shot, when Jael screamed.

Really screamed. High and shrill. The sky rumbled and cracked like lightning. The ground roiled.

Jael followed a goddess's path- Nut of the sky. She was bringing it down upon them now.

Aeliana couldn't breath and she wasn't even the target. Drago's soldiers were flung through the air and into the sea.

She heard the boats crack, the wood crunched, the masts thrown into the air and landing on men wading in the water.

She stood, stumbling. Jael was on her knees, Hiccup was shaking her trying to get her to respond. He picked her up to her feet and she whacked his hand away. She turned to the water and held her hands out. the sky roiled. The boats exploded into the sky.

"get a dragon!" Aeliana's eyes snapped to the voice. Drago. Somehow he had dragons. Somehow he'd dragged them into subservience. He was ordering a soldier nearby, she almost figured out why when he grabbed her by the cape and dragged her into the sand.

And knocked her out.

Hiccup caught Jael when she fell. The boats were utterly destroyed. The remaining trappers were taken down with ease.

But that's not what had his attention.

Drago was on a dragon. A nightmare. Another one followed. He was too far. He could catch up if he got on Toothless now, but he had more important things to worry about.

Jael breathed deep, wheezing.

"it's okay," Hiccup whispered. He could sense it, her slowly dripping into the underworld. He couldn't stop it, had no chance.

"I know," she wheezed. Her eyes faded from the inferno back to normal, "I know."

Hiccup looked up to the sky, trying to find Verlin. He caught Ex and Plode, barrelling towards him faster than mercury. Verlin dropped from the saddle and skidded in the sand. He flung his helmet off and scooped Jael from Hiccup's hands.

"no," he brushed mud from her face, "no, no, no, no, no."

Jael smiled, let her hand drift up to his temple, "sorry little man, I gotta go."

"little?"

"two hours."

Verlin laughed and it slipped into a sob as she held his sister. Hiccup stood. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't help.

"please," Verlin's lips quivered, he glanced to Hiccup, "there's got to be something. Some kind of- of magic. Of- of something."

"I'm sorry," Hiccup's face was wet with tears and his eyes were swimming with muddied water.

Atticus arrived next. then Charlotte.

By then Jael was dead.