(The next morning)

When morning came, the village was all abuzz for the graduation ceremony that would take place. The entire population soon rallied to the arena and surrounded it as they chanted Adrien's name in anticipation. Seeing how eager the crowd was, Gabriel decided that it was a good time to address the excited audience.

"Well, I can show my face in public again!" Gabriel quipped as he walked to the edge of the stage behind the arena, arms held out wide as he spoke. At his words, the crowd laughed at his little joke, causing him to chuckle at it himself before continuing.

"If someone had told me that in just a few short weeks: 'Adrien would go from, well, being Adrien... to placing first in Dragon Training!!!' Well, I would've tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad!!!" the chieftain admitted with glee, making the crowd loudly agree with his statement. "Yes, and you know it!!" Gabriel added, laughing at his words before him and the crowd calmed down enough for him to continue.

"But here we are. And no one's more surprised...or more proud than I am." the chieftain announced, his voice taking on a sentimental tone to it. But as Gabriel spoke to the crowd, Adrien, wearing the jacket Marinette had made for him, was waiting down in the arena entrance and heard his father's words. Immediately, he felt guilty for keeping such big secrets from his dad and clutched his mother's helmet tighter in his grasp.

"Today, my boy will become a Viking. TODAY, HE BECOMES ONE OF US!" Gabriel proclaimed, causing the entire crowd to cheer louder than before.

"Be careful with that dragon." A voice behind Adrien warned. The boy didn't need to turn around to know that it was Marinette who was offering him such encouragement.

"It's not the dragon I'm worried about." Adrien admitted as he watched Gabriel take a seat in the throne that had been moved to the edge of the top of the arena.

"What are you gonna do?" Marinette asked, hoping that Adrien finally had a plan in mind.

"Put an end to this. I have to try." Adrien explained, feeling Marinette eyeing him dubious before he turned to face her.

"Marinette, if something goes wrong... just make sure they don't find Plagg." the boy asked, hoping that she would do him that kindness. But to his surprise, Marinette pulled him into a tight hug.

"I will." Marinette promised, pulling away before Adrien could hug her back.

"Just... promise me it won't go wrong." the pigtailed girl warned, fixing his jacket collar out of nervousness. But before Adrien could say anything, both Nathalie and Gorilla came from around the corner.

"It's time, Adrien. Knock him dead." Gorilla announced, prompting Adrien to enter the Arena as he put on his helmet in hopes of giving himself some courage. When the door closed behind him, it left Marinette standing there to watch while Gorilla and Nathalie made their way to Gabriel's side. Now that he was alone in the ring, Adrien walked to the weapons stand and picked out a shield and dagger to defend himself.

"Hrmph. I would've gone for the hammer." Gabriel commented as he and his close friends watched from the top of the arena. Once he was armed, Adrien took a deep breath and turned to face the doors of the King Monkey Nightmare's cage.

"I'm ready." Adrien announced. As soon as he confirmed he was good to go, the wooden log holding the door closed was pulled away, allowing the King Monkey Nightmare to burst through it in a fiery rage. With the inside to the doors coated in the dragon's flammable gel, adding to the ferocity of the beast, the King Monkey Nightmare jumped away from its cage and scurried its way to the top of the arena. As it did, the dragon attempted to blast at the surrounding vikings, only for them to avoid its fire as its skin lost the flames covering it when it finally reached the top of the arena.

Adrien could only look up at the dragon in fearful awe, just before it finally spotted him and climbed down to stand in front of the boy. The gathered vikings all watched in anticipation as the dragon slowly advanced on Adrien, who was backing away just as slowly. But they were all stunned when Adrien discarded both his dagger and shield, slowly raising his hands towards the dragon's snout.

"What is he doing?" Gabriel questioned Gorilla and Nathalie as he kept watching, hoping that they had an answer since they had seen Adrien's methods more than him. But neither of them could answer, as they too were unsure. Unrest began to grow in the crowd as they watched Adrien not attack the dragon, but the boy could care less.

"It's okay. It's okay." Adrien assured the dragon, seeing its unease at his presence. But when seeing the dragon still coming towards him, Adrien stood his ground and grabbed his helmet from his head.

"I'm not one of them." the boy told the dragon, throwing helmet onto the floor. At the gesture, the King Monkey Nightmare stopped growling at him and became more at ease. Another result was the crowd being left in shock, and Gabriel rising out of his chair in worry.

"Stop the fight." Gabriel ordered, fearful for his son's life.

"No! I need you all to see this." Adrien exclaimed, approaching the Nightmare slowly and raising his hand to it, like how he did to Plagg before.

"They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them." the boy proclaimed, the dragon gently moving its snout to Adrien's hand. At the boy's words, the crowd looked over to their chief in an attempt to find answers, causing Gabriel to fully rise from his throne.

"I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!" Gabriel yelled before he slammed his hammer against the arena railings, agitating the Nightmare. Now frightened by the loud noise, the King Monkey Nightmare attacked Adrien, nearly snapping his hand off of his arm. The boy managed to get away to avoid losing his hand, but he had all of two seconds to catch his breath before the dragon breathed a stream of fire at him. Screaming, Adrien ran away from the dragon as it began chasing him.

"Out of my way!" Gabriel commanded the crowd, pushing past them to get to the arena entrance to save his son's life.

"ADRIEN!!!" Marinette screamed from behind the arena door, grasping onto the bars as she tried to pass through it. But when the gate wouldn't give way, she grabbed an axe hanging on the wall and used it to pry the gate open wide enough for her to slip inside and enter the ring.

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Meanwhile at the cove, Plagg was pulled out from his nap in the son by the distant cries of Adrien screams. Immediately, the dragon knew something was wrong and got up to run to the cove walls. It took many attempts for Plagg to climb the smooth walls, but he finally managed to use his claws to grasp onto a ledge and pull himself up. By using his wings, he gained a bit more momentum to finally pull himself up and over the edge of the cove. Once he was out, he proceeded to race over to the arena, desperate to save his friend.

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Back at the arena, Adrien managed to get a shield from the weapons stand, just before the King Monkey Nightmare destroyed it. The crash ended up separating Adrien from his only source of protection, and allowed the dragon to continue chasing him. Just when Marinette finally got into the arena, Gabriel reached the arena entrance and pulled the first door open with his bare hands before running into the tunnel to the final gate.

"ADRIEN!!" Marinette screamed as she saw the Nightmare still chasing after him. Thinking fast, Marinette ran to the remains of the weapons stand, grabbed an intact hammer, and threw it at the King Monkey Nightmare before it could snap Adrien up in its mouth. But the result was that it drew the dragon's attention from her crush and onto her, making the Nightmare chase after her instead. Thankfully for them, Gabriel made it to the final gate and pulled it open.

"This way!" Gabriel called to the two teens, prompting them to run towards the open gate just as the dragon spewed more fire at them. Marinette manages to escape, but just when Adrien was about to make it, the dragon shot another fire blast at the corner of the gate. This caused Adrien to quickly redirect his path to try and double back, but when he did so, the Nightmare pinned him under its claws.

With the boy trapped, the crowd failed to notice Plagg; who had finally made it to the arena, before he fired at the arena's railing, and jumped into the smoke-filled ring. In response, the crowd then gathered closer to the arena as the smoke hid the fight between the two dragons. Just when the fight pulled the Nightmare away from Adrien; freeing him, the smoke finally cleared up enough to reveal the two dragons fighting each other.

"Chat Noir Fury!" Gorilla and Nathalie exclaimed when they saw Plagg. Meanwhile, as said dragon was standing on the back of the King Monkey Nightmare, the larger dragon managed to buck Plagg off of him and throw him to his back onto the ground. From there, the Nightmare tried to bite at Plagg's exposed underside before the Chat Noir Fury kicked the other dragon away. When the Nightmare hit the wall as a result of being kicked away, Plagg recovered and got back to his feet to stand in front of Adrien and protect him. As soon as the King Monkey Nightmare recovered, it continued to try and attack Adrien, only to be blocked by the roaring Plagg at every turn. The whole crowd watched in awe as the fight started to die down, with Plagg finally frightening off the bigger dragon. After the Nightmare left and the fight was over, Plagg calmed down enough for Adrien to get back onto his feet and run to his dragon.

"Alright, Plagg, go. Get out of here!" Adrien begged his friend, trying to get him to leave while the crowd finally got over their shock. But the Chat Noir Fury wouldn't budge, wanting to stay with his friend.

"Chat Noir Fury!" a random viking shouted as the crowd began climbing over the arena railing and poured into the ring, weapons aswinging.

"Go! GO!" Adrien exclaimed as he tried to get Plagg to move so he could escape. But as the mob of vikings closed in, Gabriel got over his own shock and grabbed an axe off of the tunnel wall.

"Gabriel, no!" Marinette shouted when she saw the chieftain run into the ring, alerting Adrien to the incoming threat to Plagg.

"No, Dad, he won't hurt you!" Adrien protested as he and Plagg turned to face the gate and see Gabriel coming right towards them. But unlike Adrien, as soon as Plagg saw the boy's father, he immediately tensed up before he began to run towards the chieftain. As he did, however, the crowd that had entered the arena started to attack the dragon, hoping to either slay him, or to capture him..

"No, don't! You're only making it worse!" The blonde tried to warn the other vikings as Plagg easily fought them off of him. But as Gabriel was about to reach the dragon, Plagg pounced on him, throwing them both to the ground with the Chat Noir Fury on top of the viking.

"Plagg, STOP!" Adrien begged his dragon, only for Plagg to be lost in his fury and rear his head back to fire at Gabriel. "No! NOOOOO!" the boy exclaimed, snapping Plagg out of his rage and stopping his attack. Once the dragon did, he looked back at Adrien, his eyes wide with fear and letting Adrien see that Plagg was just trying to protect him.

"Get him!" a viking yelled, punching Plagg in the face as they interrupted the silent conversation between the boy and dragon. With Plagg disoriented, the other vikings worked together to pull the Chat Noir Fury off of their chief and press him to the ground. This allowed Gabriel to rise back to his feet while Adrien was appalled at what the others were doing to his friend.

"No! Please, jus-- just don't hurt him! Please don't hurt him!" Adrien begged the vikings that were subduing Plagg, about to run to his dragon before Marinette held him back. When the vikings finally had Plagg under control, and the Nightmare was being escorted back to its cage, Gabriel glared down at the dragon while another viking offered him a weapon to kill it. But seeing how attached Adrien was to the dragon, Gabriel knew that there was more to this situation than meets the eye.

"Put it with the others!" Gabriel ordered as he pushed the weapon away, his fury lacing every word before he looked over at his son. At that moment, Adrien knew he was in deep trouble.

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With Plagg being held in the only other empty cage in the arena, the furious Gabriel dragged his son to the Great Hall for the rant Adrien knew would be coming. And he was right, if being thrown into the hall was anything to go by.

"I should have known. I should have seen the signs." Gabriel began venting as he swung the door closed as he walked into the Hall. But it didn't close and allowed sunlight to still make its way into the dark room.

"Dad–" Adrien tried to say as he got up from the floor, watching as Gabriel started to pace the room out of rage.

"We had a deal!" Gabriel exclaimed, his fury fully exposed in every word.

"I know we did... But that was before... Ugh, it's all so messed up!" Adrien stuttered, not having the right word to explain his actions to his now angry father.

"So everything in the ring... A trick?! A lie?" Gabriel interrogated, turning to face his son with an incredulous look on his face as he spoke. But once he finished speaking, he went back to pacing, much to Adrien's panic since it only meant that his father was getting even madder.

"I screwed up. I should have told you before now. Take this out on me, be mad at me. But please... just don't hurt Plagg!" Adrien begged, hoping to take the brunt of the punishment to spare the dragon from it. But this only served in angering Gabriel even further.

"The dragon? That's what you're worried about? Not the people you almost killed?!" Gabriel exclaimed, turning to face his son yet again as he found out more about Adrien's unnatural attachment to the beast.

"He was just protecting me! He's not dangerous." Adrien protested, trying to get his dad to see his side of things.

"They've killed HUNDREDS OF US!" Gabriel yelled at Adrien, bringing up an unavoidable truth.

"AND WE'VE KILLED THOUSANDS OF THEM!" Adrien argued, just as fiercely. "They defend themselves, that's all! They raid us because they have to!" the boy explained while his father went back to pacing, mulling over his son's word in his simmering anger.

"If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves. There's something else on their island, Dad... it's a dragon like–" Adrien tried to warn his father, trying to get him to see things from the dragon's point of view for once. But unfortunately for Adrien, while his words stop Gabriel's pacing, his father was focusing on something else entirely.

"--Their island?" Gabriel exclaimed, only to lean into Adrien's personal space. "So you've been to the nest?" the chieftain questioned in a horse whisper, much to Adrien's panic.

"Did I say nest?" Adrien worried, slightly backing away from the mad look in his father's eyes.

"How did you find it?!" Gabriel interrogated, walking up to his son to intimidate him into telling him more. Fortunately for Gabriel... It worked.

"No... I didn't. Plagg did. Only a dragon can find the island." Adrien explained, still backing away from his father out of fear. But once he finished speaking, he could see the look of realisation spreading across Gabriel's face at that very moment.

"Oh, no, no. Dad, no! Dad! It's not what you think! You don't know what you're up against! It's like nothing you've ever seen!" the boy fearfully warned his father, trying to get him to see reason. But it didn't work and Gabriel just pushed past him to make his way to the doors of the Great Hall. "Dad, please! I promise you that you can't win this one! No! Dad, no!" Adrien exclaimed, hoping that Gabriel would see reason and not attack the island. Unfortunately, he was met with silence.

"FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO ME!" the chieftain's son yelled as he ran to grab his father's arm in an attempt to hold him back. But he was quickly met with resistance when Gabriel threw him off of his arm and sent him sprawling to the floor.

"You've thrown your lot in with them." Gabriel accused Adrien as he picked himself up enough to see Gabriel had turned around once more to face him. "You're not a Viking." the chieftain declared while Adrien looked up at him with fear in his eyes.

"You're not my son." Gabriel spat out before he finally turned around and reached the doors. At those words, Adrien's whole world came crashing down as tears began welling up in his eyes, falling down his cheeks without much effort.

"READY THE SHIPS!" the chieftain yelled, slamming the door to the Great Hall behind him as he did. But it once again didn't close, and swung ajar to allow a sliver of sunlight to still light the room up and reveal Adrien's distraught-filled face as he took in his father's words. Unbeknownst to Adrien, while Gabriel was walking to the docks he staggered back as he realised the mistake he just made. But being the stubborn man that he was, the chieftain pushed those feelings down and made his way to the docks

It didn't take long for the entire village; sans children and elderly; to get the ships ready to sail to the Dragon's Nest. With the joint power of all the able vikings on the island, the boats were stocked up with weapons, fire power and everything they needed to fight the dragons there... including Plagg.

After Gabriel found out that only a dragon can find the island, he had Gorilla and Nathalie make special restraints to keep Plagg from attacking them, while still allowing him to show them the way. The end result was a wooden platform with two metal bars curved over to keep Plagg from flying away once he was under them, and a wooden collar chained to the platform to limit the dragon's movement even further. As soon as they strapped Plagg's mouth shut to prevent him from firing at them, the men assigned to keep Plagg captive forced the poor dragon onto the platform and restrained him. Once he was all ready to go, the platform was then lifted into the head boat and secured. But as the village prepared to leave, they were unaware of Adrien watching everything above them, who was helpless to stop what was happening to his best friend.

"Set sail! We head for Helheim's Gate." Gabriel proclaimed to the vikings present after he climbed into the head boat. Just after he finished speaking, he spied Adrien watching from the top of the cliff overlooking the harbour, and sighed as he remembered his last words to him. But he pushed that aside and began walking to the front of the boat, passing by Plagg as the dragon glared at him.

"Lead us home, Devil." the chieftain spat out to the chained up Plagg, walking up to the front of the ship to gaze out at the open sea as the fleet began their journey.

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(Time Skip)

Even after all the ships had long since left his sight, Adrien was still watching the horizon in his sulking. All he could do at that moment was stand there and stare. He was so caught up in his guilt that he almost didn't notice Marinette walking up to his side, joining him in staring at the water.

"It's a mess." Marinette simply stated, pulling Adrien's attention onto her.

"You must feel horrible. You've lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your best friend..." the pigtailed girl listed off, making Adrien feel even worse than he already did.

"Thank you for summing that up." Adrien sarcastically commented. "Why couldn't I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods? It would have been better for everyone." the blonde reflected, feeling regretful about the choice he had made.

"Yep. The rest of us would have done it." Marinette replied nonchalantly, only to turn to face away from the horizon and look back at Adrien.

"So why didn't you?" the midnight-haired girl questioned. But she only received silence from Adrien, prompting her to dig deeper. "Why didn't you?" Marinette asked again, slightly more forcefully.

"I don't know. I couldn't." Adrien replied, turning away from the horizon and looking away from Marinette as he spoke.

"That's not an answer." Marinette argued.

"Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?" Adrien questioned Marinette as he turned to give her a side glance, feeling annoyed that she was picking now of all times to find out more about him.

"Because I want to remember what you say, right now." Marinette replied, hoping that it would be the thing to get Adrien to be honest with not just her... but himself.

"Oh, for the love of-- I was a coward! I was weak! I wouldn't kill a dragon!" Adrien ranted, his annoyance rising higher as he spoke to Marinette.

"You said "wouldn't" that time." Marinette pointed out, causing Adrien's frustration to rise to the breaking point..

"Whatever! I wouldn't! Three hundred years, and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon!" Adrien exclaimed, turning away from Marinette after he spoke. But his outburst did little in discouraging Marinette from helping him.

"First to ride one, though." Marinette pointed out, reminding Adrien that he broke the status quo in more ways than one. "So...? the midnight-haired girl trailed off, hoping to receive a better answer from Adrien. Thankfully, it seemed to do the trick.

"... I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself." Adrien admitted as he turned around to face Marinette, finally being truthful about his actions.

"I bet he's really frightened now." Marinette remarked, now better understanding Adrien's actions. "So, what are you going to do about it?" the pigtailed questioned, hoping to get Adrien to think of a solution to save his dragon.

"Eh, probably something stupid." Adrien supplied sheepishly.

"Good. But you've already done that." Marinette reminded him, referring to the disaster in the arena.

"Then something crazy!" Adrien finished before he ran off towards the arena.

"That's more like it!" Marinette exclaimed before she ran off after Adrien, eager to help him in whatever insane plan he had cooking up.