NOTTINGHAM CASTLE

It was past dawn, just after day watch had been taken, but still Robin managed to get in the castle without being detected. In face he was not sneaking.

He walked down the narrow and dark corridors, holding his bow and sword in his hands, his feet silent across the stone.

His heart was hammering in his ears.

Marian.

He would run to the end of the world if it meant getting her back and safe.

Guisborne.

Robin almost stopped breathing, his anger became that great and he started to stalk rather than walk.

What right did Guisborne have to his wife, other than a seeded, possessive and deep rooted desire?

Guisborne had her, and Robin would tear the leather clad man apart before he stopped fighting for his wife.

As much as Robin hated to admit it, Guisborne had the potential to be smart.

He knew that if he had Marian anywhere, he would not be so proud as to throw her in the dungeon. Robin knew that Guy knew that he would go there first on an attempt to rescue her, so Robin was playing at the man's own game, and was going straight to the top for answers.

Someone had once told Robin that to understand a man you had to imagine yourself in his body and walk around in it.

But Guisborne had slipped into Robin's body and was living his life like he had always owned it, as though Locksley had always been his, and was somehow deserved.

Whoever it was who had told Robin the saying, he doubted that that was what they had in mind.

Robin's eyes hardened as he approached a large oak door, and he almost smirked when no guards were stood outside.

Robin pushed open the door almost silently, and although he was known for walking through walls, he felt like an angry ghost, more of a poltergeist, than a spirit.

It gave Robin sick pleasure to think of himself haunting Guisborne.

Robin was perhaps the only person who had seen Marian's scars, inflicted by Guisborne, fully and exposed against her ivory naked flesh.

His heart burned at the thought of the initial embarrassment it had caused her when they had first married.

Worry, cold and hard, coursed through his veins, extinguishing the warm and caring blood his wife allowed to shape him.

Robin stood in the doorway, almost silhouetted as the light in the room streamed at him, through two large windows, the yellow horn pushed against it instead of shutters.

Guisborne lay on his back atop the covers, black and dark against the white sheets.

Robin felt nothing but burning anger as he stared at his enemy.

Guisborne's head twitched slightly and Robin's eyes narrowed.

He prayed that his thoughts were haunting him, like some dark shadow over him, for every hurt he had ever caused anyone... the people... Robins people... Marian.

Robin drew his bow.

The arrow sailed clean across the room and imbedded itself an inch above Guisborne's head in the wooden head board.

Guy's eyes snatched open.

The room felt to cold against the hot burning sensation over his flesh, for only a minute pervious, he had been under the bright sun, on the floor of Locksley Manor, Marians cries in his ear.

He stared at the white and black feather above his head, and the arrow shaft it was attached to for half a second, before he felt the cool of steel press under his chin.

Robin's scimitar sparkled in the light, leaking through the horn covered windows.

"Do not move." Robin growled.

Guy's hands slowly gripped the sheets as he glared up at his enemy.

Both of them wanted the others blood, although Robin had promised Marian long ago that he would not taint their marriage with the death of another.

Robin knew that really, he stood to gain nothing but satisfaction from Guy's death, but he knew that the people would gain far more to be rid of him.

On the other hand, Guy knew that at Hoods death he gained so much more. More power, infinite wealth from the Locksley and Huntingdon archives, and Marian...

Robin's eyes were almost mad, and danced with sincere hate, replacing the loving and kind ones his wife so loved.

Marian.

"Where is she?" Robin said lowly, his tone showing he was willing to take this to the death if needs be.

His promises to Marian were worth nothing if she wasn't safe.

Guy sneered, "Who?"

Robin pressed his sword harder to the man's throat and glared down at him, "My wife, where is she?"

Guy processed this for a moment and began to laugh, a low sound deep in his throat, as if formed around the sword that Robin was wielding at him.

"She's run away..."

"Where is she?" Robin repeated, growing angrier by the second.

"Left you, her aunt in Thorne perhaps... she bats her eyes at you then sneaks out, like she did to me..."

"She never loved you!" Their argument had shifted now, and Robin was incensed at the doubt in his mind as he spoke to words.

"No but she had passion for me, stirred by fear and lust..."

"What have you done with her?"

Guy knew that Hood was furious now, seemingly by the words Guy had spoken, and the maddening truth that he was no closer to finding Marian, who Guy now knew was unprotected.

Although he knew that when hood was mad he was dangerous, Guy could not help himself as the man once again creamed.

"Answer me!"

"I have done nothing..." Guy chuckled darkly but his eyes held the turning lust and possessiveness that made Robins insides cold.

"But I will do everythingto her once I find her..."

"You..." Robin grabbed his sword in both hands and swung it hard down towards Guisborne, furious at what this could mean.

Guy rolled out of the way just as the blade cut through the sheets, pillow and mattress he had been laying on.

He rolled off of the bed and grabbed his own sword; he and Robin stared to circle one another around the room.

Robin was full of fight now, and had no intention of being merciful. Not now that he had revealed to Guy that Marian was missing.

Alone and unprotected.

Robin hated himself for putting her in further danger.

"You must pay for what you did to her, for everything you put her through." Robin shouted and swung his sword at Guisborne.

As much as he was concerned for Marians safety and her whereabouts, Robin was incensed at his enemy, and the fight in his body was flowing to fast to ignore.

"Do you know how much satisfaction I get?" Guy spat, "From thinking that every time you hold her to you, that you can see little reminds of me across her flesh..."

"Argh!" Robins scimitar went dangerously close to Guys arm, and Robin wasn't breathing.

"Guards!" Guy bellowed when Robins back was to the door.

After a second it swung open and two guards ran in.

In one fluid movement Robin spun, sword outstretched, and sent the two guards to the floor with one slice.

He couldn't kill, or tried to avoid it, but for Marian he would do anything.

Robin through one look t Guisborne over his shoulder and spat his remark.

"This isn't over."

Guy roared in anger to late as Robin ran form sight, muttering curses and thoughts about his anger, how right Djac had been over Guisborne having Marian, and how he still did not know where she was.

His legs pumped harder as he fled the castle.