Mars was telling the truth when he said he liked the boy. He had spunk, he had courage, maybe a tad bit of arrogance but founded entirely on experience.

If anything he reminded him of himself, in the early years when he and all the other gods were still developing. Newly worshipped and dreamt into creation with so much power at their fingertips and no opinions or characteristics other than the domains they embodied. But still strong and running about helping people and giving them everything they asked for no matter how small the offering.

Things had changed since then; he and his fellow gods had changed. But still, this boy gave him nostalgia.

He watched him stare at the black medallion-like coin in surprise. He levelled a calculating stare on him and slowly took the seat from by the door, letting the helmet resting on it clatter, and sat in front of him.

"what do you have to say?"

Mars smiled, "I'm making a house call, figured I'd meet Pluto's mortal representative."

Hiccup narrowed his eyes, Mars could practically hear wheel's turning in his head as he thought of every implication and possibility, "I don't believe you."

"aww," he gave him an overdramatic pout, "no benefit of the doubt? Come on, give me a chance. I've been blessing your troops-"

"and to do so you took a girl's soul as offering."

Mars sighed, "yes, Annabella. Poor child."

Hiccup raised a brow, clearly not believing him empathetic.

"look," Mars shifted in the chair and straightened, "I will not call it honourable. Only necessary. You'll understand."

"no, I don't think I will."

Mars laughed, "boy, do you think you're the first human to struggle with freedom? With humanity? With the decision to take lives? No. every man goes through this, you are not special in the dramatic sense." Mars levelled a tired look on him, "I have seen hundreds of wars. Do you think you are the first to think yours justified? To call the militarising of children wrong?"

Hiccup clenched his jaw. "I never said I was significant, just that this was immoral."

Mars shook his head, "some evils cannot be avoided. And you will thank me for this in future. But that doesn't make it better. I do not agree with it either." He fiddled with the coin, "but that's not what I'm here for."

"why take the offering if you don't agree with it?"

"I am a war god, boy. I know how to make hard choices. I know more about strategy than you could ever hope for." He tossed the coin to Hiccup, who caught it and stared at it with confusion, "and this strategy is the same as Pluto's."

"excuse me?"

"you and that girl are not much different, situation wise."

"I still have a choice."

"do you?" Mars gave him a pointed look, "if Pluto asked you to bear arms would you turn him down?"

Hiccup glared, "I still have the choice."

Mars sighed, "aye, yes. Yes you do. But," Mars held up a finger, "Pluto gives you favour for the same reason I took Annabella's offering."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow, a clear sign to go on.

"I'm sure he's rambled about visions and danger to come?"

"plenty."

Mars nodded, "it grows closer. The gods don't know what's coming, it's being obscured. We need information and the only way we will get it is with-"

"spies," hiccup's eyes lit up in understanding, Mars was starting to think he wasn't reminded of himself but Minerva or Bellona, maybe Providentia, "you need mortals to feed you information on who's causing such a threat." His face darkened, "and soldiers to fight when you aren't allowed to get involved yet."

Mars tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, "clever. Yes. There's a difference between myself and Pluto, though," Mars sat straight and looked Hiccup in the eye, waiting for the reaction, "it's that I make moves to keep my soldiers alive. He gives in to the eventuality of death, and it usually leads to half his men dead regardless of if the battle is won."

He watched Hiccup swallow and glance aside to his dragon, "a death god being aware of death? Surprising."

Mars snorted. He had to hand it to this boy, he knew how to take something at face value and consider it before lashing out too much.

Which made him wonder what it took to rile him up.

"you know what I am suggesting."

He nodded, slow.

"you seem comfortable with that suggestion."

"believe me, there's a storm in my head." he ran his hand over his face.

"look," Mars leaned forward, "we think- well, we know- that someone is assisting Drago. A god. They're trying to help him wipe dragons off the map."

"I gathered that," Hiccup said, remembering the battle when their soldiers had collapsed and Drago had somehow been miraculously ready.

"the problem is, Dragons are sentinels for gods. All of us get information from them and they have... magic that helps keep the world in balance. I can't explain it well, I'm a war god not nature."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow and looked to his dragon, "you're a sentinel, huh?" toothless warbled as if to say, 'I'm as surprised as you are'.

"ha," Mars rolled his eyes, "it's a... thing," Mars moved his hands about as he looked for the words, "most don't know about it, but in ancient days they were close guardians. Now they do their own thing, mainly, but if war comes there's an unspoken agreement they will come to help." Mars sighed at Hiccup's unbelieving look, "look, it's a big deal if Drago takes out dragons. A big deal to the gods, and the fact that a god is helping Drago? It's practically treason."

"so you came along to get yourself your very own mortal servant and now you want to explain yourself. Amazing."

Mars dropped his shoulders, "I'm warning you. And preparing you. And also extending... a hand, I suppose." He pointed at the coin, "Pluto has made you his champion and given you enough power to be a demi god. As far as I'm concerned you're my adopted cousin." He grinned, "I like to look out for my family."

"wow, I appreciate it."

Mars snorted, "shut up for a second, I'm trying to be sentimental, it's hard." He rolled his eyes, "you're a soldier which means you technically kinda come under my domain. I'll do my best to help you out because we gods need you and all the spies we can get. But also because I like to keep my soldiers alive."

"okay," Hiccup said, brushing hair out of the way, "fine. Whatever. So what do the gods need?" he gave him a dry look, "what am I supposed to be looking for?"

"just keep trying to find who's helping Drago. If the senate won't let you have the mission keep it on the low. No one can know the rest of us are on to them, we need to find out who is behind this before they can make this a real war."

Hiccup nodded, "okay. Thank you for your information and help. I would like at least two hours of sleep. Good bye."

Mars stood laughing quietly, "okay, okay. I get it, no hard feelings."

Hiccup stood, hand resting on the pommel of his sword, currently sheathed at his side.

Mars made his way to the door and Toothless eyed him the entire way.

At the last second he turned with a raised hand, "and another, tiny, additional thing." He pointed at Hiccup, finger at the centre of his chest, "look in to Somnus. and kick these Viking's asses back to the archipelago."

"that's two things."

Mars shrugged, "whatever." And he disappeared in a burning smoke that smelled like metal.

When the sun rose the army rose, and they continued to breach another three walls and ended the day by taking hold of the city's main house of parliament.

And then Drago's forces surprised them by suddenly growing a backbone.

Hiccup and Toothless glided over the army, he could see Drago's amalgamation of ships, on the northern coastline barely a hop skip and jump from the shipyard at the city's edge. A cloud of abused dragons, bent to Drago's will, flew toward them, clearly disgruntled Vikings atop some of their backs.

Hiccup corkscrewed and swung out of firing range as dragon root arrows soared for Toothless' underbelly. Hiccup knocked an arrow and fired as Toothless spun, a Viking slumped and tumbled out of their saddle.

He landed atop the city's outer wall, Aeliana was tucking a spyglass into her belt.

"ahoy there, Praetor," she said, grinning.

"you're looking better," he answered, not even trying to pretend he wasn't changing the subject.

"our healers do wonders, especially when some of them are worshippers of Apollo straight from the capitol."

Hiccup nodded, "let's hope we don't need them."

"Drago's surprise numbers?"

"larger than one would expect, big enough to be worrisome," he sighed, "where did he pull them from?"

"let's just get it over with."

"this won't be easy."

"no," Aeliana said evenly, "but it won't get easier by us sitting here."

Hiccup nodded, scratched Toothless behind the ear plates, "ready to kick some Viking but?"

Toothless leaned into it with a gummy smile. 

Atticus was not used to fighting atop his dragon. He was by no means a long-distance fighter and had always preferred fighting with his dragon by his side rather than below him. His sword was just short enough that he missed several swings and he had no bow or spear. Luckily, he was spending just as much time with his sword in hand as he was ducking and weaving through arrows and dragon fire.

He pressed himself to Spike's back and leaned, his dragon pulled his wings in and spun, dropping through the air. Atticus leaned and pulled, guiding them through the gaps between dragons, arrows and fire, and inches above the water Spike unfurled his wings and they barrelled up.

Atticus pulled up and Spike twirled over a Viking and the dragon he'd enslaved. Atticus dropped from the saddle onto the nightmare below. It was a quick fight and the Viking teetered out of the saddle. Atticus stole his bow and quiver before he leaped back into the air, knowing Spike would catch him.

So now he had a bow that he could haphazardly fire, a skill he never was particularly good at. Either way, it was better than nothing. 

Charlotte had decided very quickly that this battle would be best fought mainly atop dragons, in the air.

Drago's main force was the dragons he'd enslaved and the best way to take them down was to match them in aerial numbers.

And now she swooped above the eastern coast around the City where Drago's men were about to make land.

They could do it, they could fight on both fronts. They had the men, they had the weapons, they had the skill and they had the luck.

But, as she swooped down closer to the ground, she realised what they did not have.

And that was a god.

Caeris dropped to the ground and Charlotte had her feet on the grass in seconds. A small number of troops had begun to pool onto the land, ready for the attack. She pushed through to the front and found the legionnaire in charge.

"plan?"

"we're working on it," Gaius said, "am I hallucinating or is that a god?"

Charlotte looked down the hill, eyeing the Vikings marching their way up to meet them. in front a hulk of a man lead them, the air around him waved like a great amount of heat emanated from his skin. As he grew closer Charlotte noticed more details, her spyglass picking out what her naked eye couldn't. his appearance flickered like it couldn't be held by mortal lands, whoever this man was he had given up pretending to be human. The grass around his feet darkened.

"that's a god."

"since when does Drago have a god?" Gaius asked, on the verge of hysterics, "is it a Norse one? It must be."

"I don't know, but it explains some things." she turned to him, "I'll lead this front, go find Hiccup."

"what? No, I'm watching your back."

"Hiccup needs to be here, he'll give us the tiniest bit more of a chance, and I'll take anything I can get."

Hiccup weaved through the mess, pressed himself to toothless' back. the air whistled over him and the tiniest bit that made it through the eyeholes of his helmet chilled his cheekbones and irritated the still raw wound from his last large-scale battle.

Toothless began to build up for a strike. The shrill whistle peeled through the air and Hiccup drew the string of his bow back, breathing a bit of his magic into the arrow, hoping it would keep it strong as it flew alongside Toothless' bolt of plasma. As he heard the catch of Toothless' fire he let the string fly and ducked into the saddle, pulling Toothless into a dive as the shots stung through the air.

Above them an explosion followed, red and orange blooming in the air against the Viking's dragons, catching onto everything it touched. The smoke billowed and a dark shadowed magic ripped through the remaining Vikings that managed to grip their saddles. They all tumbled off their dragons.

Hiccup barely registered it, he dived, turned, spiralled, Toothless recognising every move. His prosthetic moved only the slightest, the tail changed just barely, but Toothless knew every unspoken thought. They moved together. They flipped, Toothless' wings outstretched as Hiccup was turned upside down in the saddle. He drew an arrow, fired down towards the Vikings below. Time seemed to slow as he gripped the saddle with his now free right hand and held on, Toothless righted himself and Hiccup rushed back, drew another arrow, fired.

He sent Toothless into a dive, spiralling towards the water and evading every hit fired towards them. Toothless opened his wings as they escaped the cloud of dragons. Hiccup fired again and again from below, hitting Vikings mid-turn, watching them fall to the sea. Their dragons fighting to escape the battle, some managing to fly out of the mess.

Thanks to his vantage point he finally noticed the Nadder skirting around the cloud. Tylac, Gaius would be atop her. Wasn't he supposed to be on the ground, protecting the city wall in case Vikings got close?

Hiccup pulled further away from the cloud and soared towards the Nadder. Gaius seemed to notice him halfway there because he sped in his direction. The orange afternoon light glinted off the spear strapped across Gaius' back.

"what are you doing out here?" Hiccup asked, pulling Toothless into Gaius' right wing as they flew. If they were attacked it would be beneficial to already be in a team formation- a protocol that had been forgotten in the dogfight Hiccup had just escaped.

"Vikings are making land, we need you there. Charlotte sent me."

"what?" why? He was supposed to be fighting in the air, he was a strong flier and knew how to fight atop a saddle. That was a skill not many practiced, they needed every soldier possible in the air.

"they have a god," Gaius explained, and dread curled into Hiccup's gut.

This what Mars had warned him about. It would seem the subterfuge and investigation wouldn't happen, it would be a showdown here. And Hiccup would almost definitely lose.

He nodded anyway.

"lead the way."