So this is the sequel to Where There's A Will, There's A Way. I'm really sorry that it took me this long to get it up, but I've been extremely busy (bad excuse, I know). Thank you to avery92 Too lazy to sign in and rangerforever6. You were the only ones to take the time to review, so thank you. This takes place after The Emperor of Nihon-Ja. I do not own Ranger's Apprentice.

Not This Time

Horace looked around wildly. He, Halt, and Will had been looking into a series of fires that had been set in Redmont. But they had been locked in a room on the second floor of a house. There was just one problem. The house was on fire. Fortunately, it was only on the first floor. Unfortunately, it was making its way to the second.

Horace looked around. The room they were in appeared to be a bedroom, with a bed in one corner, a desk in another, and a dresser in the third. The door was in the middle of one of the wooden walls. There was one window and one door, but both were locked, and the walls too hard to break through.

"What are we going to do?" Horace screamed at the two rangers, who were fiddling with their knives.

The two turned to him, "As of right now, nothing." Will told him.

"What do you mean, nothing?"

"Just what Will said, nothing." Halt said as he peered out the window.

"We're going to get killed if we do nothing!" Horace cried. He couldn't believe it, I mean, he always knew it would happen, but for it to be at this moment? Yup, he speculated as he watched Halt lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. Halt had gone mad. He'd officially lost his mind. And, by the looks of it, he'd brought Will with him.

So this was it. He was going to die in a two-story house bedroom with two insane rangers. There was absolutely nothing that could make this situation even worse.

Oh no, he spoke too soon. One-eye*, an appropriately named she-cat, had just slunk out from under the bed. One-eye was an old she-cat with dirty, gray, matted fur who wandered around Redmont. Horace was sure she hated him. Unfortunately, Will had always had a soft spot for the cat, and One-eye returned it quite enthusiastically. This may have been because every time Will found her, he would give her a bath followed by a warm meal. Then One-eye would be allowed to stay a few days in Will's cabin and bulk up before leaving. The stupid cat got more from Will than Horace did!**

One-eye noticed him and hissed, but then turned around as she smelled Will. She purred and jumped into his lap, rubbing her head against the man's hand. Said man grinned and stroked her head before moving his hand under her chin and scratching***.

Horace groaned and was about to slump to the floor when Halt reminded him, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

He looked up, startled. "What?"

Halt rolled his now open eyes, "Don't tell me you've forgotten already. And, to be honest, I do believe we have a Will." Halt pointed at Will.

Horace looked between the two of them before he realized something. "You two set this up, didn't you?"

Will shook his head, grinning. "Nope. Well, kinda I guess. It was more of one of those plan-as-you're-going. But it worked, since our firebug is being restrained right now." Will pointed out the window at a commotion going on in the street. "See, we realized that the houses getting burned were in a pattern. The first house was on First Street, number three, correct?" Horace nodded and Will continued. "The second house was Fifth Avenue, number seven. The third house was on Third Boulevard, number five. And it went on. The last house was on Eleventh Road, number thirteen. So from the pattern, we could guess that the next house would be this one, Ninth Street, number eleven."

"Er, and what was the pattern?" Horace asked, feeling as if he was missing something obvious.

"Oh, that's easy." Will replied. Yup, he was missing something obvious. "Of course, the firebug really made it easy for us because he kept the roads and numbers in sync, so we only needed to figure out one."

"And it was?" Horace asked impatiently.

"Plus four, minus two."

"What?"

"Plus four, minus two. The firebug chose a random first two numbers and pattern and started. He did the same for his days. The number of days put together told us what day he would start the fire." Will explained.

"So that's how you knew it would be this house and twenty days after the last one." Horace guessed. Will nodded and then broke the window.

"Why didn't you do that before? In fact, why didn't we just wait outside for the firebug?" Horace asked.

Will shrugged, "The firebug always makes sure people are inside before setting the fire. As this house's residents are on vacation, those people had to be us. And I had to make him think we didn't know the fire had started. If he hadn't thought that, he would have knocked us unconscious and then left. Now that he's been apprehended, we can escape. The fire fighters should be here soon, too."

And then Will jumped. One-eye leapt out after him, followed by Halt. Then Horace was in the air, twisting so that he didn't land on his friends and enemy (he didn't want to kill One-eye, just get the cat somewhere where he'd never have to see her again). Horace landed with a thump next to Will, who was hopping up. Honestly, he'd never seen the young man so hyper before. He suspected it was the smoke that was pouring out of the downstairs windows and door.

Alyss ran up panting, "Will! You're safe! Jenny just told me what was going on, I got here as fast as I could!" Then the girl threw herself at Will and hugged him. Horace sighed. Cassie was in Castle Araluen with their new baby girl, Emilyn. The girl was small and loved to cuddle with her parents. She had golden hair and soft, green eyes. It was also evident that she loved One-eye almost as much as Will did, which Horace blamed on said man.

Then Alyss told Will, "Don't you ever do this to me again, do you hear me? I was certain this would be the death of you!"

Will simply grinned at his fiancé as he told her, "Not this time, Alyss. I'm safe for now. My death will be later, preferably a lot later. Yeah, I'm not dead. Not this time."

Okay, I'm ashamed. I thought this would end up being about something else, but this story kind of steered itself in the opposite direction. So this has almost nothing to do with Where There's A Will, There's A Way. So I'm sorry.

Warriors anyone?

** I do not really believe that cats are stupid. In fact, they are quite smart. I once read that a cat beat off a burglar, and she was blind! Other cats are known for doing similar things and saving people. Did you know that a building (I can't remember which one it was) would never have been built if a cat hadn't been wandering around the area? The builders couldn't figure out how to get something set up, because they were all too big! Another cat saved his/her owners from a gas leak, and yet another alerted their owners that the volcano was going to erupt! I also happen to love cats, and think they understand people more than some of us do ourselves! So, yes, cats are awesome. Horace just thinks One-eye is stupid because of who she is. Let's just say that Horace is not a cat person.

*** Cats really do like this. :)

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