It was several hours later when Hiccup finally came to. What time exactly, he couldn't be sure- it's hard to tell time in a cave. Groaning, he attempted to stand, only to fall flat on his face. The Outcasts were, in fact, capable of learning from their own mistakes, apparently. They had taken his prosthetic leg away so he had nothing to use as a weapon. "Well this is just... perfect. I get captured and locked up by the Outcasts and I can't even stand on my own. Even if I managed to escape, they'd catch me again before I got to Toothless." He mumbled to himself, forcing himself into an upright position. "So much for that plan."

Meanwhile, an island in terror!

"Where's Hiccup?! He should be here by now!" Astrid complained, not really thinking that anyone would hear her as she paced back and forth in front of the dragon stables where Hiccup was last seen and supposed to meet up with them.

"Certainly not here. I can't seem to find Stoick, either," Gobber responded, "I called off class at the Academy for today. This seemed just a wee bit more important."

Fuming, Astrid whirled around to find Stormfly standing right behind her, looking rather concerned. "Stormfly... Hiccup's not back yet... I'm really worried." The dragon raised her head and crowed into the sky before nuzzling Astrid gently. "What was that?"

Before Astrid had the chance to think, they were surrounded by the other teens and their dragons. "Hookfang, we've been over this- I don't do early morning flights like that moron Hiccup." Snotlout mumbled, his head dropping onto the Nightmare's.

On closer inspection, Astrid found that nearly all of the others were half asleep, but the dragons were rearing and ready to go. "Well it's a good thing you're here." She said, climbing onto Stormfly's back, "We've got to go save Hiccup."

"Save Hiccup? That's never good." Ruffnut grumbled.

"Yeah, he doesn't get into things that are easy to fix." Tuffnut agreed with a yawn.

Climbing aboard Thornado, who had been following him like a lost puppy all morning, Gobber shouted, "Oh, wake up ya limpets! Hiccup's been kidnapped by the Outcasts!"

"I'm sorry, AGAIN?!" Snotlout demanded, suddenly very much awake and annoyed, "I woke up to save Hiccup from the Outcasts AGAIN?! Hookfang, put me down! I'm going back to sleep!" Before Snotlout- or any of the others, for that matter- could move to get off of their dragons, the beasts suddenly took to the air and began flying in the general direction of Outcast Island, which started a whole new round of whining from Snotlout and the twins.

"I still wish I knew where Stoick's gone off to. It's not like him to disappear without warning like that, I mean, he is Stoick the Vast. Vast things aren't supposed to disappear." Gobber mumbled, trying to figure out where the man could possibly have gone.

Astrid heaved an annoyed sigh, "I'm more worried about where Sky has gone. He's supposed to be with them, you'd think he would have warned us if something went wrong, unless he decided to betray us again." Stormfly snorted in agreement with this, not particularly fond of the sapphire Night Fury.

"What about betrayal?" Fishlegs wondered aloud.

With another sigh, Astrid opened her mouth to explain when suddenly there was movement coming in from the East. No, not just movement. A swarm of flying... things. "Are those birds?" She wondered aloud, being too far away to really be able to tell.

"I'd say those are Night Furies." Gobber provided, squinting to get a better look, "And look! There's Stoick!"

Toothless Time

"-And it's just so like Sky to abandon us like that! I swear, if they'd take this muzzle off..." Toothless mumbled, struggling to talk to himself through the muzzle. This time, his playing dying trick hadn't worked. Apparently the guards had learned their lesson... And he really couldn't think of any other way to get to Hiccup, barring a miracle. And then it came. His ears perked, listening intently to a sonic whine followed by an explosion, and several more followed. "What in Thor's name...?" He heard guards being tossed aside, some screaming and running away, then in came Sky, nearly passing Toothless up until the younger Night Fury asked incredulously, "SKY?!"

Sky whirled around and blasted a hole through Toothless' cage without a second thought before bounding over to undo the other's restraints, "Miss me?"

"You abandoned us!"

"I went for help." Sky corrected, looking Toothless in the eye seriously, "I told you, I'm not like that anymore."

Toothless was quiet for a moment before he bumped his head against Sky's affectionately, "They took Hiccup away, but I think I know where he is."

"Flamewing's already on it." Sky said nonchalantly, "Let's get out of here for now before they trap us in here."

Wait, did he say FLAMEWING?!

A very mopey Hiccup was surprised to hear yells of anguish and the sounds of guards being thrown out of the way. He'd been hearing booming sounds in the distance, but had assumed it was cannon fire against Astrid and the others who had likely come to save him. What he wasn't expecting to see was Flamewing come charging over to his cell only to blow it down with a plasma blast. "Flamewing! I- How did you- Why-?"

"There'll be time for talk later. I can't leave my pack on the battlefield without me." The great dragon jerked his head, gesturing for Hiccup to get on his back, "Let's get out of here." With much difficulty, having only one leg, Hiccup managed to hobble over to Flamewing and heave himself onto the Night Fury's back, grabbing on tight just before the dragon bolted out into the chaos.

Truly, it was, chaos. Explosions from cannons, as Hiccup had expected, were drowned out by the roars of plasma blasts and Thornado. In the fray, Hiccup managed to spot Sky and Toothless and called out to them. "TOOTHLESS!" His dragon looked up at Hiccup and ran even faster at the sight of him, making a beeline straight for him. Hiccup initially planned on standing on Flamewing's back and jumping down to Toothless, but then he realized, "His tail... Toothless can't fly."

Flamewing glanced over his shoulder, "I thought you fixed that?!" He demanded.

"I did, but- my leg... That prosthetic leg is the key to controlling that tail fin." Hiccup admitted, "The Outcasts must have taken it from me because of what happened last time-"

"Save your war stories," Flamewing snapped at him, "Where are they keeping your leg?"

"I have no idea," Hiccup admitted, "I was unconscious by the time we hit the ground." Looking down at the ground below him, he added, "But I think I have a plan. If your Night Furies can keep the Outcasts distracted long enough, I can get Toothless on one of their ships and we can steal it..." He paused before mumbling, "Only problem is, I don't know how to steer a ship, especially with all those sails. It might be better if my father or Gobber took the wheel." As if on cue, Flamewing veered toward Thornado and Stoick, who were both yelling at the Outcasts and shouting orders to the other Vikings and dragons. "Dad!" Hiccup yelled, but of course, this was not enough to get his father's attention. Hiccup never was particularly good at yelling. Flamewing roared at the pair, andx that seemed to get their attention much more quickly. "Thank you, Flamewing," Hiccup murmured, before looking up to Stoick, "Dad, Toothless can't fly. The Outcasts took my leg when I was unconscious, but I have an idea-" Thornado lost altitude suddenly as a cannonball rushed just above Stoick's head.

"Go on," Stoick encouraged. He knew they didn't have much time- it wouldn't be long before their dragons ran out of shots and they would have to leave Toothless stranded.

"We can steal one of their ships. It'll be cramped since Toothless is so big, but it's better than nothing. I've asked Flamewing, and he's miraculously agreed to keep the Outcasts distracted while we get away." The boy explained, "But I can't sail a ship, so I'll need you or Gobber to come down with me."

Stoick seemed to consider this for a moment before shouting back to Gobber, "Gobber! We're going down, Hiccup, Toothless, and I are going to take a ship back to Berk! You're in charge- keep 'em distracted until we set sail, then lead everyone back to Berk when you're through, we'll catch up to you!"

Gobber grinned and saluted his chief, "You got it, Stoick! Leave it to us!"

After Fishlegs accidentally lured the Outcasts that had been shooting at Stoick away with a shot from Meatlug, Flamewing and Thornado came to land on the docks. Of course, the moment Stoick was off of Thornado, he picked Hiccup up in his arms and carried him like one might carry an infant, as his dragon took Gobber back into battle. "Daaad..." Hiccup complained, though he knew he was really in no position to.

Sky and Toothless had just caught up, "Hiccup! What happened to your leg?" Toothless asked worriedly.

"The Outcasts took it, never mind that now, pick a boat and get on it, Toothless. We can't fly, so we're going to sail." Stoick commanded, then, with a nod to Flamewing, he added, "You go do what you have to."

Flamewing snorted proudly and called to Sky, "Let's go keep those Outcasts distracted!" Within seconds, the two were out of sight, shooting at the island from above. Once Hiccup, Toothless, ad Stoick were all safely aboard one of the Outcast ships, Stoick cut the lines loose and pushed off, and they were on their way home. By the time any of the Outcasts noticed it was missing, they would already be halfway back to Berk.

Hiccup, who was seated on Toothless' saddle for lack of anywhere else to sit, muttered, "Sorry, dad. I wasn't paying enough attention to cloud cover... I don't know what they did, but-"

"They had a spare bola launcher. It wasn't as powerful as the other one, though." Stoick grumbled, his eyes cast out to the sea.

"A spare...? The prototype!" Hiccup smacked a hand to his forehead, "Agh, I can't believe I forgot about that!"

"Well never mind, that Flamewing took care of it before we met up with Thornado and Gobber, and I sent him to find you." Stoick assured the boy, and Hiccup blinked, looking down at Toothless, who seemed just as confused as he was.

After several minutes of silence, trying to work out what possibly could have happened in his mind, Hiccup finally asked, "Am I hearing you correctly? You sent Flamewing, who we were certain was going to kill us all the second he set his eyes on Sky, to save me?"

Stoick shrugged, "You could say we've come to an agreement."

"He can talk to dragons now, too?" Toothless wondered aloud, testing his theory with the question. When Stoick didn't respond right away, he decided, "I guess not. What the Hel is going on here?"

"Yeah, dad, what's going on?" Hiccup translated, "None of this is making any sense! How can you make an agreement with someone you can't understand?"

Stoick turned to Hiccup and replied bluntly, "Well, there's one thing that wasn't lost in translation. We're both fathers who don't know what to do with... this." He gestured non-specifically to Hiccup and Toothless.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Oh, great, you've bonded over our uselessness."

"Better than the alternative," Toothless muttered, though he clearly wasn't happy about it either.

"I suppose," Hiccup agreed, then, remembering that his father wouldn't know what he was supposing, he added, "It is better than starting World War One with the Night Furies."

"I still don't really understand it, but then, neither of them are very easy to understand, are they?" Toothless murmured to Hiccup, who smiled a bit and nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes I can't tell who's worse." There was a pause in which both of them were silent before Hiccup finally said, "Aw, who am I kidding?"

"Right, it's pretty clear when you think about it," Toothless agreed.

Then, simultaneously, they said, "It's gotta be mine, for sure." Their eyes met for a moment before both boy and dragon burst into laughter. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep that had made them delirious, or perhaps it was that they were giddy from being rescued, or the sheer insanity of the situation... But perhaps the most likely reason is that they had finally come to terms with one another, and with each others' fathers, in that single, shared moment.

Yes, this chapter is short, and I'm sorry, but I've been working on something else, my own story (including dragons!) Right now I'm just trying to get the world all worked out, but it should be pretty interesting once it gets going. Anyway, I've been doing research for that, so that's what's taking so long. That and I was holding off in hopes of getting one more review to bring it up to 100, so I could say "YAY! 100 REVIEWS!" But that was pretty clearly not going to happen. -_-; Anyway, umm... There was another thing... OH! I did a new trick I'm trying out with this chapter, so tell me what you think. I call it the "What the FUCK just happened" technique, wherein I do something very what the fuck, drop a few hints but don't really explain anything until the next chapter.

ALSO! The chapter title is something that was said in How to Train Your Viking by Toothless (translated from Dragonese by Cressida Cowell, I don't own it either way). It's not a really MAJOR line in the story, but, you know, I liked it. And it works. I like making ties between the book series and this fic, even if they are few and far between.