A Study in Scarlett
Chapter Twenty-Five
Word Count: 2,877
Rating/Disclaimer/Summary: Same as chapter 1, really
Author's Note: I remember reading that one of the criticisms of this movie is that Fanny goes off to battle the day after getting a c-section. That's not actually true, though the movie could be clearer about its timeline, and it's probably worse without the extended edition, which is what I always watch. I did bear that in mind in doing this section, as well as keeping up with Will being injured.

I didn't do all the perspectives of the scene, but I find action very difficult to write, so this was my best effort at it.

So Much for the Rescue

No one paid a bit of mind to Fanny as she moved through town, which was both what they needed and extremely insulting. She knew she wasn't supposed to be seen, but being dismissed just because she was a woman was still irritating. She was mother to eight children, and that was something few could say. She was no weak woman, even if she rather wished she'd had more time in bed after the birth of the last one and was a bit sore now.

If Will Scarlett could be here in his state, she could do no less, and she was determined to see this through and save her son.

She went up to the wall and threw down the rope, having to yell at her ox of a husband who wasn't paying any attention. He turned back, quickly tying the bundle he carried to the rope, helping it up after he was done.

She was sore from pulling it, but she got it up over the wall. She untied the rope and dropped it back down to John. She pulled two swords out of the bundle and took them to the edge, dropping them to the ground.

Bull grabbed one, and Will got the other, walking in opposite directions. She sighed, glad that had worked, but still worried about how long Will would be able to stay upright. No sane man would be doing this in his state, but Will wasn't sane. Both of the Locksley men were daft, but one had to admire them anyway.

"What are you doing here?" a soldier demanded, and she looked over at him.

"I'm doing no harm, dearie. I likes a good hanging, I does."

"What's in this bundle?"

"Oh, that's just firewood," she said, shrugging.

The soldier didn't say anything else, but she heard him cry out as he went over the wall. John came up to her, and she had to smile.

"Hello, my lover."

Will tried not to get pressed in by the crowd. He could see Friar Tuck ahead of him, making his way toward the front of the crowd, right under the scaffold, calling out a strange message that was supposed to be hopeful and yet not. He thought it was strange, and he'd have been insulted if he was one of the ones up there.

He should be, but he wasn't.

He should be up where Tuck was, but he couldn't go any closer. He was going to mess this whole damned thing up, since he was too tired and sore to be of much use. They were going to need Robin to shoot the whole lot of them.

He felt someone touch him, and he looked down to find a young boy trying to look at his sword. He grabbed hold of the kid, pulling him close.

"Nothing there but trouble, boy," Will warned him, letting him go and shoving him out into the crowd. The boy had better not say anything.

Damn, that had worn him out again. Everything hurt, and he almost wanted to have given the kid the sword. He should have stuck with daggers. He was better with them, and he wasn't sure he could actually lift the sword.

He just needed to stay on his feet for a bit longer. As long as he didn't get exposed to the crowd, didn't fall over and make a fool of himself, he'd be fine. He might even be able to do his part and cut one of them down—Wulf, maybe, since that brat was John and Fanny's and meant something to them.

Will realized he was the last one to be led out, and in his confusion, he looked for the boy. The crowd pushed against him, almost knocking him into the guards as the crowd spat at Wulf.

And then it happened.

The damned brat recognized him. Will tried to warn him off, knowing he couldn't explain it, but Wulf wouldn't listen.

"Traitor!" he cried out, rushing at Will and knocking him to the ground. Will's back started to burn with renewed pain, and he couldn't block the boy's attacks on his front.

He might have deserved a part of it, but he knew this was going to cost them everything, and he still hated the boy, but in a few minutes, none of this would matter. They were all going to die.

Marian stood on the landing, surrounded by men she despised. The sheriff was the worst, of course, but the bishop, too, and she knew that none of the barons were good men, not if they were with Nottingham. She couldn't escape them, couldn't run. She had to go through with this to save the children, even as it destroyed her.

Nottingham noticed the cross around her neck and picked it up. She'd chosen to wear it in honor of what she'd lost and to remind her why she did this, why she would voluntarily join herself to a monster.

"That's a little inappropriate, don't you think?"

"No more then your wedding present," she snapped, yanking the cross back and glaring back at him. She hated him so much right now, and she would go on hating him for the rest of her life.

"Bring them out!" Nottingham ordered, and the soldiers started to bring the men out. She watched them, not recognizing any of the ones that she saw until the end. The last one was the boy, that young one that Robin had teased when he was shooting at the target.

Oh, God.

"Make way," the soldier ordered, shoving the boy through the crowd. He stopped, looking at a man in a cloak, and then he lunged for him, shouting about a traitor.

Marian watched in confusion, not sure she understood what was happening. How could any of Robin's men have turned against him?

"What's going on?" the sheriff demanded as the soldiers separated Wulf from the man he'd attacked. Marian frowned, not quite able to see his face. "Bring him here!"

"Kill him!" Wulf shouted as a the soldiers dragged him away toward the scaffold, and Maria found herself staring in disbelief as the others brought Will Scarlett forward.

"Oh, the turncoat," Nottingham said, amused. "Did you succeed?"

Marian didn't believe this. That was the man she thought was Robin's brother. She wasn't sure that Duncan was right, but if he was, this one was Robin's half-brother, and yet he was a traitor. How could that have happened?

"I found his lair," Will answered, struggling in the soldier's hold, "but he was already dead."

"Are you sure?" Nottingham asked, and Marian wanted him to be wrong, very wrong. He had to be lying. He would lie, wouldn't he? He would tell the sheriff anything but the truth. He had to, he was with Robin, even if he didn't like him. "You saw Hood's body?"

"No, I saw..." Scarlett struggled with his words, "a grave."

The soldier held up a sword. "We found this on him."

Will shrugged, giving the sheriff a smile and trying to pretend he was innocent. Marian knew he wasn't, but she still hoped that he was lying about seeing Robin's grave. It could have been anyone's, right? It had to be.

"String him up with the others," Nottingham ordered.

The soldiers yanked him away, handing him over to the crowd, and in their frenzy they passe him over toward the gallows even as he cried in protest. "Let me go!"

The executioner took hold of him, and Marian frowned, not sure why he wasn't fighting more. Wasn't he the man that had both Bull and Much afraid? He was supposed to be some fearsome killer, but he wasn't even fighting.

This didn't make any sense.

When they reached the end of the row, they looked up to find it lacked a noose.

"My lord, it appears there's no more room," Will called out to the sheriff with more bravery than sense. "I'm afraid that I respectfully decline."

The executioner would have none of that, shoving him down onto a barrel and tying him down to it, again with far less fight from him than she would have thought. "There's always room for one more."

Marian choked. She didn't know what she thought, if she believed that Scarlett was actually a traitor or not, but if he was Robin's brother, he couldn't die like this.

The executioner kicked the stand out from under the boy first, and he started twisting in the wind. She wanted to look away, but the sheriff held her arm, and she knew she didn't dare. She heard someone crying out, and then she saw it.

An arrow sliced through the rope, and the boy fell to the ground.

She looked into the crowd and saw him, and the word came from her mouth, unbidden. "Robin!"

Will felt like a fool. He hadn't meant to get seen by Wulf, and he would have been more careful if he'd realized the little idiot was going to attack him like that. If he hadn't been already sore, it might not have been so bad, but with his wounds, he couldn't fight back, and he'd been captured so easily, so stupidly.

He was useless, and John was right. He should have stayed back at the camp. He hadn't even been convincing when he tried to tell Nottingham that Robin was dead. He should have been, but he was hurting so badly he could barely think.

He wanted to pass out, and he felt like he would as the crowd turned him over to the executioner. He couldn't even fight off one man as he was dragged over and tied to a damned barrel. He even knew which barrel it was—the one full of black powder from Azeem, the one that was supposed to free everyone on the gallows.

He couldn't have ruined this more perfectly if he'd tried.

He could hear John screaming for Wulf, and then someone shouted Robin's name. His brother had revealed himself to save Wulf.

Heroic, but stupid, and very much a Locksley trait, Will thought.

"What are you waiting for?" Nottingham demanded. "Get on with it."

Will heard the scuff of the stools as they were kicked out from under the others, the gasps and gags as they struggled to breathe. He tried to pull himself up, but all he managed to do was scrape the wounds on his chest again, making him see black for a moment.

"Get the troops in here!" Nottingham ordered, and Will could only hope that Bull would do his part. He wouldn't have trusted it to him, but Robin had, and when there was no sound of armored boots marching into the square, he knew Bull had got it done.

He saw the wood above him start to bend, and he heard John barking orders to the others, telling them to free themselves. That was something. At least they wouldn't die, which was more than he could say for himself as he'd just felt the executioner's blade on his neck.

He looked over at Robin. This was on him now, he had to see it through. Will could accept this. It was his fate, the price he paid for being weak and thinking he could do more than he could. He closed his eyes, waiting for it to be over.

The executioner grunted behind him, and he heard a thud. Will looked around in confusion, though he could see little even as Robin rushed toward him to cut him free.

He saw the man behind Robin just as he cut the rope. "Behind you."

Robin ducked, and Will went for the bastard, jumping on him and hitting his face over and over again, needing to be useful at least once during this fight.

"This way," Robin called. "To the wall."

Will rose, weary and ready to follow them out and back to the camp. He couldn't do much else, and they'd gotten everyone down. They'd won. It was enough, wasn't it?

"English," Azeem called out to the crowd. "I'm Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bachrim. I'm not one of you, but I fight. I fight with Robin Hood. I fight against the tyrant who holds you under his boot. If you want to be free men, then you must fight! Join us now. Join Robin Hood."

And then the crowd went scrambling into battle like idiots, and Will decided he would like to pass out right here and now. It was supposed to be over. They needed it to be over, or at least he did.

Of course, Bull joined in, screaming for freedom, and Lady Marian called out to Robin.

Damn it.

"I have to get to her," Robin said, looking around in distress. There had to be some way of reaching Marian even though the gate was down. "There. The catapult."

"I know you're an idiot," Will began, arm over his stomach and looking like he was ready to fall over. Damn it. Robin knew he wasn't well, and he knew that was likely how the soldiers had taken him so easily. He wanted to stay here, but how could he abandon Marian to Nottingham? He had to go after her. "Tell me you're not that much of an idiot. You have no idea what is on the other side of the wall. You're going to get yourself killed, and what good will that do?"

"I have to do something," Robin said. "This is the fastest way."

"You are an idiot. He intends to marry her. He won't kill her. The point is using her for the throne, right? So wait, let us get the gate up, and go after her then."

Robin put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Never have I appreciated your counsel more than now, brother, but I have to do something. I can't wait. He will hurt her even if he keeps her alive, and can you tell me that is something I should accept?"

Will grimaced. "No, but if you miss and die, what the hell good are you doing her?"

"I won't miss," Robin told him with a smile. "I didn't come this far to lose either of you."

Will snorted. "Again, you're an idiot. You never had me, and you still don't. You want to kill yourself for a girl, fine. Be my guest. I'm too tired to stop you."

"John," Robin said, looking behind his brother at the bigger man. "Make sure nothing happens to him while I'm gone. Please."

"Aye, I will."

"I hate you," Will told him, and Robin pulled him in for a quick embrace, just in case this was the last time he saw him. "Get off of me, you idiot."

Robin just grinned, going around to climb onto the catapult. Azeem climbed up next to him.

"Is she worth it?"

"Worth dying for," Robin answered, more sure of that than ever. He turned back to his brother, knowing that as much as he had protested, the younger man would do this for him.
He might even want to do it, seeing as it might get Robin killed.

He still had much to do to finish atoning for the wrongs he'd done to his brother, and he would get back to that as soon as he had saved Marian.

"Will."

The other man pushed the lever forward, and Robin and Azeem were launched into the air.

"Fuck me, he cleared it," Will whispered, looking up at the wall. He shook his head, not sure what to think of the idiot he shared blood with, though he had to hope he could spare the woman that kind of pain. As irritating as she'd been, Will wouldn't wish that on anyone.

"Will," Fanny said, and he looked back at her. "Time to come with me, love. You're done in, and I can see it."

He gave a look toward Wulf. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"We'll explain things to him."

"I'd rather not, Fanny."

She gave him a look. "Don't make me poke you in one of those wounds, Will Scarlett. I swear I will, and you've already taken a beating today."

"Yeah, from me," Wulf said, and Will glared at him.

"Don't think you are some great thing," Will told him. "You botched the entire rescue plan when you did that, but sure, be proud of yourself. I was supposed to cut you down when it was time, but thanks to you, I almost lost my head."

Wulf frowned. "But... you're a traitor... you went to kill Robin."

"He came to warn us," Fanny corrected, "and Robin has already forgiven him, in case you missed that. Your father will be busy for a while yet, but I want you to come with me and Will."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Excuse me?"

Will sighed. "The idiot said we were making this a stand side by side to the end. It's not to the end if I leave now."

Fanny frowned. "I would have thought you'd say you never agreed to that."

"I didn't."

"Then why are you staying, you bloody fool?"

"I made the mistake of telling everyone he's my brother."