AN: I just had this idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to write it.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please reviwe, it will make my day.
It is my story, but I don't own anything...
Chapter One- Until The Morning Light
The big hall was completely dark. Almost every person who would have walked by could be wrong and think it was empty, a rational thought given the late hour of the night. It was not completely true.
Regina walked in circles, her shoes making a unified, relaxing tapping noise on the cold stone floor. On the contrary to her shoes tapping, she wasn't able to remember the last time she was relaxed, and could think clearly. She wasn't able to sleep. She was drowning in thoughts, worried about the plan that hasn't been made yet and the ticking clock. She could almost hear the Tick Tock, Tick Tock and Snow White's laughter. This child took away everything she had. She won't let her take the crown, her crown. She fixed the laurel wreath that lied on her head, and didn't stop walking around the big room, and the annoying ticking of the imaginary clock kept mocking her. Usually, the laurel wreath gave her feelings of strength and power, reminded her status and attribution, and helped her plan her next steps. But not this time. This time it was seen like the wreath was mocking her as well. It was a solid and existing prove to all of the things she wasn't able to do.
She threw the wreath on the floor and kicked it aside. Nothing and no one will take her power away, especially not this stupid girl and the cheesy true love she is seeking.
She sighed, sat down on the big chair and crossed her legs. Her eyes went over the room, and she could almost see some of the important people that sat around the table in one of the many meetings she was part of, Leopold by her side. And they were talking and talking and talking and she had so much to say, so many thoughts to express. But she knew better. So she pulled the corners of her mouth into a fake smile, and kept it shut for hours upon hours.
The first rule the life in the palace had taught her was be pretty and be silent. And as the time passed, she understood she was capable of doing that. Be pretty and be silent while she was forbidden to go out of the palace limits on her own. Be pretty and be silent while Leopold let other women into his bed. Be pretty and be silent while the rage and anger and frustration flooded her. But Leopold's life was over now, surprisingly or not, and the silence that kept her a prisoner like a cage imprisoning a mockingbird was broken at last.
But she was sure about one thing. She won't let this arrogant little girl, who think she deserve everything, take her throne. She won't give up her power, her glory, which she earned after all these years of oppression and humiliation, to the one person who has already took almost everything she had. Not for anything in this world.
Her perfectly shaped fingernails ticked anxiously on the chair's arm. Even if someone noticed her, he would not dare to say a word. They were afraid of her, afraid of what she is able to do to them, and their fear was justified. Fear is quiet an effective tool, the most effective one she was able to find. And she tried a lot of tools in her life.
"How can I get this bastard out of the game?" She asked herself, mumbling. If anybody had seen her he would have thought she was crazy, the Caesar was not okay. She moved back a lock of hair that fell on her face, and started to look after the laurel wreath in the darkness. The heavy shortage of sleep ate her inside, consumed her and her sanity, and made her unrestful. She picked up the wreath she started to turn it in her hands. She understood that this wandering, idly, won't give her an amazing idea right away. She would have to swim in the ocean of uncertainty for one more day. The understanding that the solution that was already suggested to her is probably the only one, that she didn't have another option that will make her and everyone happy started to seep into her. But she won't let this bother her. No, she refused to give up hope, because if she loses her hope that it is possible to maintain the exciting situation, she will be left with nothing. She will stay the same beautiful yet empty shell of Regina she was during the life of Leopold, and she won't let this happen to her ever again. The tiredness took over her, her eyelids became heavy, and even though she knew she won't have much sleep, if she has any at all, she preferred to turn and roll in her bed, in hope she would fall asleep before the dawn, which was close already.
She straightened the laurel wreath on the top of her head again. She looked one more time on the empty grand hall, locked the door behind her inthree knocks, and almost hovered in the corridor toward her bedchamber, one out of many.
Robin ran and ran and ran. He ran to the place where his legs have been taking him, and he never really thought where he was going. He lost track of time long ago, and he knew that without the high adrenalin level that flooded his blood at that moment, he would collapse long time ago, lying unconscious on the ground. It didn't matter what would happen to him, didn't matter how long did he had to run, he won't let them catch him. If they catch him, it won't be only his end, but the end of all Mary Men; it would be the end of Roland. Only the thought about his boy's smiling face made him continue running toward nowhere.
Roland had already lost his mother. He lost his mother and it was Robin's fault. Robin would not leave his child, the most precious thing in his life, orphan. And even though he knew that other people would have taken care of him if he wasn't there to do so, they will help him grew and be an outstanding young men, he wasn't able to picture Roland growing up without him.
So he ran. He ran through mountains, hills, villages, fields and forests, and he didn't stop. In some place in his heart, he knew that there is going to be someday he would have to face the empress' guard. He knew he did to her far more troubles than she could take and let him go. They won't give up and let him continue with his life, and they won't let go until he was theirs, once and for all. And then only the gods can guess what his doom is going to be.
He didn't know how much longer he will be able to continue. The darkness surrounded him, and he wasn't able to see anything. He felt like his chest was about to blow up to pieces and his body became heavy like a block of lead.
He stood behind a large tree, leaned on it and tried to catch his breath. They were close. Really close. Too close. Close like they have never been before. But his haunting skills were on his favor. He kept quiet. He was so still you could get so very close to him, until you almost touched him, without even noticing, and then it was already too late.
He didn't know where he was, or how far was he from Roland, from the little army he gathered up through the years, from home.
"All the ways lead to Rome." He murmured to himself, afraid someone is still close enough to feel his presence. Of course he didn't know how long he ran or to where, and the full and complete darkness prevented him from seeing anything, but the scent of the forest, the cold chill that made his skin shiver, they all gave him the feeling that he came back to her, to his Marian, to the place where he has always belonged, finally fine.
He couldn't believe how close he was to the empress all of this years, and she was busy chasing him in the remote corners of the empire, places he have never heard of, never the less visited, while he was there all of this time, right below her nose.
He drifted in his thoughts; he let himself sail in the big ocean of imagination. This was his fatal mistake, the one that will change everything. When he felt the soldiers close to him, it was too late. They were on to him. He tried to escape, but they outnumbered him, and they were many, and they surrounded him, didn't let him escape.
"We finally caught you, you bustard. You did a lot of troubles to us." A voice behind him said. He saw the men that rise above him only generally. It was too vague to notice the little details that characterized him, but he was clearly taller than Robin, which made him a little bit threatening. Robin was dragged by two other big men violently, which made him think the other man was the commander of this company, maybe a part of the Caesar's top secret guard.
"What do you want from me?" He asked, even though he knew they only did what she told them to do, and they had as much knowledge about what was going to happen to him as he had, even though by this time he had some speculations about his future, now that he was caught, and it wasn't by any way a pretty one.
"It is not what we want from you." The threatening man snorted, disgusted. "It is what she wants from you." The two soldiers who grabbed him let him go, and he fell to the ground on his knees and palms, which got scratched and bruised.
"I thought she didn't run the empire. I thought she was only there because she was the wife of the dead Caesar. I didn't know that she was the one to get the calls." A cocky grin was up on his face. He knew he hit him in the right spot when the lips of the men he recognized as the chief tightened. The rule was unsteady at least since Leopold passed away, but they weren't supposed to let people know a woman was running the life of all the people in the empire, that a woman was making the calls. It was unacceptable, forbidden no less.
"She determines nothing. She just asked me to do her a favor, and I didn't see a reason to say no."
"A woman, asking for a favor, from someone in such a high rank as you, and you take the order immediately. If she wasn't the empress, I really don't know what she had to promise to you so you fulfil her will. Are you really that blind you can't see this empire has much bigger troubles than a common thief like me?" He asked. "Or you just don't want to see it?"
The person Robin recognized as the unit's commander, and was the only one who could speak to him, rolled his eyes and turned his back to him.
"I am sick of what this outlaw has to say. Take him away." Robin, who was still on the ground, felt someone hitting him with a hard object on his head, and the world beneath him tossed, turned and was gone into the darkness.
Regina walked into the room; last, of course, properly to the person whose status was the greater in the whole empire. And even though most of the people were not aware to this situation, the people in the conference room were her confidants, and they knew exactly who had the last saying. She was sure everyone were able to see the dark circles beneath her eyes, which was a sign of an ongoing lack of sleep, but her looks were the last thing that was on her mind at that very moment. She no longer had to be the fairest of them all to get what she wanted.
"My lady the Caesar, I have to say you have been putting of this issue for far too long. The people had enough. How long can we keep making excuses?" Adrian said. He was a bearded man, one of Leopold's most important counselors, and maybe the most important one among hers.
Regina sat down on her chair, her back straight; her head up high, prideful.
"Since you don't have an heir or heiress from the Caesar, may the gods let him rest in peace." Said another man, dark skinned." I think the solution we had already suggested to you is the most effective one. Marry another men, the higher classed the better, and let him claim the empire. I don't think someone will say no."
"It can't continue like this for much longer." Agreed Mauro, another one of her advisers. "You can't keep controlling from the shadows, and only the gods can know how much terror the fact that a woman, no less, have been ruling over the great empire will seed. Listen to me, you have to marry now, and put an end to this circus.
"Quiet!" Regina yelled, and slammed her hand on the table, her gaze full of anger. If she had magical powers, she probably would have been able to burn all of the room down in an instant.
"Listen to me carefully." She stood up, and started walking around the table to which her most superior and most loyal advisers have sat, even though she knew the latter was limited.
"I trust your advice, and I listen to them carefully, but not this time. In the name of all gods, I have been telling you I don't know how many times and I will say it again, hopefully for the last time. I am not going to marry anyone," She emphasized the last sentence. "just to keep my statues. I will find another way."
"But it didn't seem to bother you to marry Leopold to gain your statues from the first place." Someone murmured, and Regina didn't hear close enough in order to notice who exactly he was.
"That was in the past." She continued to hover around the table like an eagle that was waiting for its prey. "Today, if anyone does as much as say his name, I will make sure he will find himself sharing the same miserable fate as your former emperor."
"Regina." Adrian put his hand on her shoulder in order to calm her down, which made her even angrier.
"It is the empress for you." She moved and his arm was off her shoulder. She used to let him treat her more personally usually, but this time she felt like it was not the right thing to do.
"The empress" he looked down, defeated. "We have been through this a dozens of times in order to find a solution, but I don't think there is another one existing other than the one we have already suggested to you. In order to keep everything you built, everything you earned, you have to make some compromises. I am sorry, but I think you just don't have a choice."
Regina wanted to react to this. She knew deep down that he was right, of course. She tried and ruled out every possible solution thirty times, and the solution that came up at this conversation was the only one which was both doable and efficient. She also wanted to slam a vase or two angrily at the wall, but she stopped that urge when she heard someone knocking at the door.
"Come in." she said, sitting back at her chair, in failed attempt to look like she didn't had a nerve break down at that very moment.
"The empress" Graham walked into the room, wearing full armor, and bowed a little before closing the door of the conference room behind him.
"We are in the middle of an important meeting. Is it urgent or can it wait?" She asked, an arrogant smile, confidential, appeared on her face.
"I guess it can wait." The former hunter blushed. "But I just thought you would want to know we have reliable information about his place of being."
"Whose place of being?" Regina leaned forward curiously and entwined her fingers together. "Be clear!" she demeaned.
"Robin Hood, the thief" He explained.
Regina's heart started pounding fast in her chest. She has been waiting for this moment for so long, to the moment when the little pathetic outlaw, which he, and his party, have been doing too many troubles to her, will be caught.
"Have you already got him?" she asked anxieties.
"Not yet." Graham admitted, his eyes locked on the floor. "But our intelligence focused us on a very small area near a village, even though it is more than likely he ran into the woods by now."
"So why are you still here?" She asked, and her wrists turned white because she was holding her chair's arms too tight.
"Well, I am waiting for your orders."
"My orders are definitely not to waste the time and let him escape!" He still stood there, a sealed expression of lack of understating on his face.
"I want him, dead or alive." When she saw nobody moved an inch, she added "Now!"
Graham bowed and walked out the room.
"This meeting is clearly over." Regina got up from her chair and went toward the big doors as well, not forgetting to murmur "A group of fools." Before she slammed the big doors shut behind her.