The morning after their…adventure with the mother dragon, Percy and Hiccup were walking to the mess hall, their hair mused, their eyes sleepy. Hiccup was telling Percy about all the mishaps he got himself into training Toothless. As Percy laughed, Hiccup stopped short and his jaw set as he saw every else was already there.

Unlike the previous day, they were whispering anxiously. Astrid had her hand on Annabeth's shoulder, who looked like she was trying to work out a very difficult problem.

When Astrid saw the two boys, she ran over and grabbed Hiccup's arm.

"Oh thank the gods you've come. Something awful's happened."

"What is it?" Hiccup asked, clutching her arm back.

"Frank's gone." Fishlegs informed them miserably.

"He never came back last night." Astrid elaborated. "Not to any of our houses either."

"You don't think that mother dragon…" Percy began to suggest uneasily.

But Hiccup said "She recognized him as one of her own. She wouldn't have hurt him."

Jason flew down from above and landed next to Percy. He shook his head dejectedly.

"Nowhere. I searched the whole forest, the cliffs, the fields, the beech, nothing."

"Um..." Leo grinned self-consciously. "You sure he wasn't, like, a grazing yak you saw or something?"

Jason glared at him.

"Shut up, Leo."

"Sorry, bro. Just trying to be the optimist in the room."

Percy cursed.

"Where's Hazel? Does she know yet?"

"Yes." Astrid said. She looked sympathetic. "She went to look in the forest. Poor kid. First her brother goes missing, now her boyfriend."

Snotlout snorted.

"No point in looking. Jason already said he's not there. Why's she bothering?"

"Because…" Annabeth breathed, like something was dawning on her. "Because she's not an idiot! She figured out what must have happened!"

They found her at the edge of the forest, where they had left Frank.

She was running her hands over the bark of trees, one by one. She had her eyes closed as if she were trying to sense something underground as well.

"Hi guys." She said absently, continuing her work.

"Um...what are you doing?" Hiccup asked flatly.

"You know how Frank said he was going to check on the dragon?" Hazel reminded him. 'Well, that was a lie. Someone was on our tail."

"Outcasts." Tuffnut snarled, punching his open palm, his expression hard. Ruffnut nodded.

"Argh, I told Dad this would happen! Why doesn't he ever listen?" Hiccup exploded, clenching his fists and pacing.

"Hiccup, calm down." Astrid said soothingly. "We'll find him. Don't worry."

"But Hazel," Hiccup said "if the Outcasts have him, what are you looking for here?"

"Well, see, if he knew someone was following us, that means they didn't take him by surprise. Meaning he went willingly. Meaning he must have…left…a…message…aha!"

She ran to a nearby tree. Sticking out of it was one of Frank's Imperial Gold trick arrows.

"Hazel, couldn't he have just shot that at an Outcast?" Hiccup rationalized.

"No, the angle and depth isn't right." Hazel answered.

"Even so, why would he go with them?" Piper wondered.

Jason grimaced.

"Alone against who knows how many Outcasts? He wouldn't have stood a chance. Safer to get captured."

"And it was exactly what they wanted." Annabeth murmured.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Think about it. Hiccup, you said the Outcasts want to control dragons. And you said yourself those spies were after Frank. What's better than a hostage that can turn into a dragon? They were after him all along. And what do invaders do if they don't get what they want out of a place?"

"They burn it to the ground." Hiccup exhaled. "He just saved all our lives."

"But then, what do we do now?" Percy asked. "We can't just leave him there."

Hiccup turned to him with his brows knit and his expression stony.

"We plan our own invasion."

Frank lost track of time. He had been in the dank hold of the Outcasts' ship for what felt like hours. He had tried to escape a dozen times, but the strong chains constraining his arms and legs prevented him. Whenever he tried to morph, his grown form cut into the bonds that wouldn't break and his transformations were canceled out.

As he gave up turning into a dragon or elephant or other large animal to escape and was pulling on his handcuffs as a human, the door of the hold opened, bathing him in light that made him blink.

He growled and struggled with his bonds as his hair fell over his eyes, obscuring the Outcast leader before him.

"Con'for'ble, lad?"

"Oh yeah, real five star hotel you got here." Frank grit out. "Come over here and I'll show you my appreciation."

Alvin laughed boisterously.

"Alrigh', Dragon Boy." He managed through his fit of chuckling. "I admire yer spunk. You'n me'll be good friends, like."

"Right. I'm sure we'll have matching friendship bracelets by the end of the day."

He raised his eyebrows as the beefy man worked on his chains. "What are you doing?"

"Takin' ye ashore." Alvin told him. "Yer new home sweet home."

The Outcast Island Frank thought.

"So, what are you going to do to me?" Frank said dryly as Alvin led him by the chains, tugging him so that he stumbled forward.

He just grinned evilly.

"Sure, go ahead." Frank said dully. "Try keeping a dragon chained. Because that's worked so well for you in the past."

The procession through Outcast Island was like a nightmare version of Hiccup leading them through Berk.

All the houses were small huts that were falling apart. The people and livestock looked half starved. There were spikes and bones everywhere.

As they progresses, Alvin's Outcast flunkies began to flank him. One was Morgan who leaned close to Frank and whispered smugly:

"Le' see those huntin' skills save ya now, boy."

Frank just glared at him.

They eventually came to an arena like the one on Berk, only it was much more crudely made. They unshackled him and pushed him in, shutting the gates as they followed.

"Congratulations. You got me." Frank spat sarcastically, rubbing his wrists as Alvin approached him. "So now what are you chuckleheads gonna do with me?"

"Ain't you figured noffin'?" Morgan sneered. He and several over men leveled spears at him.

"Ye gonna be our prizefighter, laddie." Alvin said, putting his ugly face with smelly breath right in Frank's face. "We don' need Stoick's welp's dragon book if'n we got you. Ye gonna fight them miserable dragonriders for our side or else."

His men shoved their spears closer to Frank's chest.

Frank laughed, throwing his head back and clutching his stomach.

"Oh man." He wheezed. "That's your big plan? Control a dragon? When that's the one thing you can't do?"

As he spoke Frank's skin scaled, his eyes reddened, and his nose protruded into a snout.

Suddenly he was a very large dragon swatting two Outcasts into the arena fence.

But his upper hand didn't last long.

Soon a dozen, two dozen men stormed the arena and swarmed him. They speared him, slashed his hide with blades, shot arrows at him until he fell, overwhelmed in the dust.

He roared desperately as they tied him with ropes. He thrashed and Alvin stalked up to him, smashing his boot onto Frank's snout, making him wince.

"Oh, I thin' we c'n handle one dragon jus' fine, Frankie me boy." He enunciated in a menacing hush. He called to his men:

"Take 'em inside!"

Frank reverted to a human form, Alvin's boot on his face. Frank stared at him murderously.

Two Outcasts hauled him up roughly and tossed him into the back stables of the arena, closing the double doors on him.

He dusted himself off, grunting. He was covered in blood and wounds. He had a bit of ambrosia in his pocket so he took it out and munched it. Swallowing, he turned to look at his surroundings.

The hair on his neck stood up.

There, backed in the farthest recess of the pen were as many dragons in as many ugly variety as the Outcasts who just put him in there.

In contrast to the dragons on Berk, they were wild animals. Their nostrils flares, they hissed and grunted savagely. They obviously weren't being fed enough, nor were they groomed or regularly exercised.

Frank almost passed out until he remembered.

Oh yeah. I'm a dragon too. His nerves made it hard but he turned himself into the kind of dragon Hookfang was. It would be the easiest if he had to get in a fight.

But the oldest looking dragon, a, what was it, Deadly Nadder? Looked at him straight in the eyes.

Brother? It rumbled sort of inside Frank's mind the way Percy described how it was talking to sea creatures or horses.

Frank began to think Great I made myself some new playmates, how does that help me? But then he realized.

His new playmates were an army of dangerous magical creatures. Dangerous magical creatures that didn't want to be here any more than he did. Dangerous creatures that just may listen to him.

Oh. I could work with that.

A/N: Frank, being familiar with both his Roman history and his action movies, is choosing the Spartacus solution to being captured by smelly incompetent Vikings. So, I apologize this story has been inactive for so long! Break is now rectifying that and I hope this chapter makes up for it! Thank you guys for your reviews/favs!