Hi, so here is another chapter and this one brings about the end of this little three part arc that has been Djaq and Gisella and the next chapter will pick up where this story left off.

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Some TRIGGER WARNINGS and some historical inaccuracies/outdated language and events.

Internal Displacements

Chapter 9-Unity.

Djaq considers all that she has seen and heard as she attempts to bring her past together with her future.

How long she had cried for she was not sure. At some point there comes a point where you just have to stop crying and come to a standstill and Djaq was sure that now she had hit hers when she realised she had been spending an extraordinary amount of time starting at the now dark sky and had not been crying.

Quite frankly she did not have it in her anymore. All of her emotions had gone somewhere where the Woman in Red had gone.

No. Somewhere where her sister was gone.

She pulled herself up and shivered somewhat wiping her face on the back of her hand. She felt stiff and aching and awkward and cold. She was a child of the desert. The cold of England was not something that she had ever gotten used to. It was not something that she thought she would ever used to.

And now there was this.

Her sister was alive.

Even if she had gotten her brain around that the level of anger, of venom, of hatred that Gisella had thrown at her was so powerful it had left her robbed off all words and thoughts. Her sister had transformed into something that was virtually unrecognisable from the girl she had been in those days to the battle-hardened killer that was standing in front of her.

The battle-hardened killer who blamed Djaq for it all.

It had not been quite the drama that Gisella had described but now as she methodically got the embers of a fire going (she was not walking through a forest unarmed—she had learnt from that mistake) she thought back on them. Those memories that didn't seem like much but really were the best time of her life. The simple things she had forgotten. Like the way her mother had smelt like rose oil, the way the birds had cooed at her and the way the incense had burned in plumes of smoke. Silk on her long hair as they answered the call to prayer and the honey that dripped of their fingers as they sat down to dinner the three of them only to be told off by their Mother for stealing sneaky bites of desert.

The memories she had clung to had been the ones of her father. The man who had given her, her skills, the brother she had lost whose name she had adopted as a sign of respect. The thought of what had happened to her sister had until she had been in the cave never really crossed her mind and now she knew.

Oh now she knew…

She was not sure what had been worse, the words, the way she said them or the look on her face as she had described murdering the man who had hurt her. Now she could understand in ways he had never understood before this moment what it was what was to go through what Erin had been through. That Erin the girl of consummate sweetness and light had had done to her and she found that she understood why Erin had taken her revenge. Why she had gone after the man with the one eye and why she had done what she had done. Actually now she wanted to applaud her because she had seen wounds on the battlefield and had heard stories of what was done in the cities but she had never understood it as she had when she had been staring at her sister and her sister had stared back with hollowed out eyes filled with vengeance.

And then there was the presence of Robin and Much which now she stared down at the flames she was forced to admit created more questions.

In all honesty she could not believe for one tenth of a second that Robin or Much would ever behave in a way that went against the grain of their nature. The man who loved Marian, the man who cooked her breakfast the friendship between the two of them that had seen Much follow Robin into the forest without a second's hesitation was too strong for either of them to commit any great crime or sin.

But had they seen it?

She had always been careful of asking what they had seen in the Holy Lands or where they had been in case their paths had crossed. She had known that they were both soldiers and that they had seen blood and battle. She could see it in their eyes. They were both utterly haunted by what they had seen. All three of them bonded together by death and destruction but she had never thought to ask them about soldiers and what soldiers could do when their blood was up.

And then there was the way Gisella had looked at her.

And the words she had thrown at her and Djaq knew she could bury them no longer. Words had power and they had to be analysed and studied and she knew that to move on from this terrible night of words she had to accept the part she had played.

There had only been three of them and when they had lost their mother she had lost her femininity. She had cut off her hair and had decided she was going to go around dressed as a boy while Gisella had dressed in her mother's clothes and had regarded Saffia with kohl lined eyes that seemed to speak of a pain that was never talked about. Her brother had been anxious for war though their father had prayed the invasion of their lands would come to naught.

She swallowed biting down on her bottom lip and remembered. It had been her idea to take Gisella out of their home and send them to her mother's sister. Had it been easier—would it have been easier if she'd had sent her to their father's brother? Perhaps but Djaq knew her father, by the time that decision had been made he had lost his wife and his son was on a sickbed dying of a mortal wound. He had assumed that the soldiers would take mercy on two woman one old and one young living together. He, being the gentle man that he was had not considered what soldiers could do when their blood was up until he was finally on the battlefield and seeing it for himself.

He had lost his son the night he had made his decision and Djaq sitting here now could admit that she had encourage him. She had pursued the idea regardless of what she knew or what Gisella had wanted simply because it was easier for her to carry on the way she was when her sister was not there.

When her sister was not trying to bring them together for family meal and trying to keep what was left of them together through bread and soup alone.

He had died six months after that. They had been working on the battlefield and he had died when a blade from an English solider on his deathbed had found it's purpose. One last Saracen dead.

She had tried to get back home—back to somewhere—anywhere but the city had fallen her sister was presumed dead and Djaq had never really gone looking for confirmation. It was as she had told Marian but with more of a selfish tinge to it—she worked better alone. She operated better alone.

She had never needed anyone.

Except when she had been in that cage.

And now she found that she needed her sister.

But her sister did not need her.

Well…she needed her dead apparently.

And she was prepared to take on anyone and anything that got in her way.

But that didn't change the fact that Djaq loved her. She was totally unsure of who Gisella had become but she believed stubbornly perhaps that her baby sister was still in there.

But then again…

They had never really had a close relationship before had they?

What good would it do now?

She thought of Will and the easy comradery he had with Luke. The love that flowed between the two of them and the fact that they trusted each other with their lives as if it was second nature. She thought of Much and Robin and the love that was shared between them (though that seemed to be one-sided these days) and then she thought of the way Allan seemed to go quiet and haunted whenever his own brother was mentioned.

Why could she and Gisella had not had that when they were in the Holy Lands?

"Because you didn't want it" said the voice inside her head that now sounded like her brother and not her sister.

"You didn't want her to follow you around. You were an independent woman even then. And the girl who needed a mother could not get that from you when all you wanted to do was to be the man of the house. You had a better relationship with father anyway. He needed you more. And you needed him more"

It was shockingly true.

She thought more about what Gisella had said about King Richard. That he was sickening, that he was ill. If he died then the Sherriff would not need the Black Knights. The King's brother John would take the throne. She did not understand what the issue between the King and the King in Waiting was. Robin did not like him that much was clear but according to Will and Allan the people were not totally against him. And Djaq could understand why.

Better the devil you know.

But was there a chance for peace in the Holy Lands if the King was out of the equation. Already the forces behind the crusade were waning. King's had other things to worry about after all and this one had a wife he had not seen and no heir. And though Djaq had hated the forces of Saladin with a passion for their part in the destruction of her world now that she was alone she could admit that the man had united her people in a way that no other recent leader had done.

The way Gisella spoke about him…about his son…

She wanted her home to be at peace again. She wanted it as she had wanted water and food in that cage, as she had wanted freedom in the cave, as she wanted Will now. It was beyond desire it was necessity. She wanted her home to stop being drenched in blood. How was it the Prince had said—the blood of millions—and it was indeed the blood of millions and the minds of millions, that solider that Much had helped for example. And the bodies of millions, the souls of millions. War always demanded a sacrifice and the sacrifice was almost always paid by the ordinary people and not the Kings who plunged their countries into conflict only to make themselves look good for the pages of history.

Staring at the fire uncaring of the soot that was getting etched on her face she thought about what was to happen next. This little part was over—she had go back to the camp and she knew that the first question Robin would ask her was did she know who the Woman in Red was. And she would have to explain the whole bloody thing again and again. Because this was her baby sister and Robin would want to stop her and then it was her friend against her sister and a fight to the death where she was sure it would not be Robin that won. Her sister had an impeccable skill and no conscious left…

And even then there was no clear path to stopping the Sherriff…

Did she even want to?

As soon as she thought that she knew that her answer would always be yes. The Sherriff had to be stopped. For everything and anything that had happened, Allan's brother, Erin, Marian's father, for the villagers who worked the long hard road between death, poverty and prosperity, for the men and woman who lived and died by their fields desperately trying to pay their taxes. For all of those people the Sherriff of Nottingham had to be stopped.

If that meant saving the man who had ran roughshod over her people then that would be the case but…

"One more mission" she said to herself, to the flames that were blowing up smoke into the air and to the growing, lightening sky that promised a safe return to the camp, to a hot meal and a warm bed.

"One more thing to be done. And then I am done. I will save the King, I will try and save Gisella, I will remain with the Outlaws forever but after this I will not follow Robin into a plan to save him again. He has gotten himself into this mess, if he does so again I will not save him"

It might have been an empty promise but she was not in this for loyalty to the King. She was in this for loyalty to her friends.

Unity. That was what it was. Unity.

And that was worth more than anything.

Certainly more than the price a King could pay to the band of outlaws and misfits that were doing everything they could to save him and his throne when it appeared he could not be bothered to save them himself.

And with that Djaq put the fire out and began to walk out of the clifftop cave and down the hill towards the woods of Nottingham Forest steadfastly not looking for anything that resembled red cloth—or the woman who wore it that despite everything she still loved.

And there you go, in one scene this is one chapter.

Next Chapter-As the outlaws save Matilda each couple spends some time with the other. Will tries to find Djaq and Luke comes along for the ride.