Fog was swirling through the forest. Will stumbled along, his wounds screaming at him whenever he tripped in the darkness. Tired, hungry, legs aching, chest and stomach screaming, it was the longest walk he had ever taken. He had never thought it was this far back to the camp.

But in a way, he was glad it was taking so long; he had no idea what he'd say when he first saw Robin. Heck, he didn't even know what to think. Everything had been happening too quickly, everything moving too rapidly, that his emotions were all swept along and jumbled together in the wake, leaving him in disarray.

"Aww!" Scarlett tripped and barely managed to keep himself on his feet; the pain from his cuts making him wince. He turned around to see what had caused the stumble, and started when he saw a dead Celt looking straight back into his eyes. Will shivered at the sickening sight, but he now knew that he was close. A couple of other soldiers appeared as he walked, and there were places where it looked like bodies had been, but evidently had been moved. He walked further and through the slowly dissipating fog he saw where the bodies had been moved; the ground was littered with freshly-dug graves and wooden markers. He gazed along the row of graves and then he froze.

There. There he stood. Robin of Locksley. I'm not ready for this, Will thought to himself desperately. But still he squared his shoulders and stepped forward into view.

Robin was taking a sip of water. Will's movements must have caught his eye; he glanced over and as he grasped who was standing there, he jumped up.

"Will!" he called out. Will just stood there, not knowing how to respond. He was so confused, his emotions were still all jumbled together. All he really felt was that he didn't want to tell Robin about tomorrow. In the back of his mind, a voice whispered to him that once he told him, Robin would turn tail and run for it. The voice in his mind gloated that his prediction all those months ago would finally come true and he should be happy. But a small voice in his heart wished sadly that it would not be so, that his…that Locksley would prove true.

"I thought you were taken." Robin's voice filtered through Will's busy mind. Not trusting himself to anything more yet, the young outlaw answered the question with a blunt, straightforward reply.

"I was."

A puzzled frown crossed Robin's features, he had expected a longer response. He decided to expand his comment to a question. "How did you escape?"

Will just absently nodded his head, knowing that this was the time he had to tell him, but still trying to avoid it. Angry with his own reluctance, he quickly gathered his courage and was about to open his mouth and spill the news when a loud voice pierced the air.

"TRAITOR!"

Will had just turned his head when John was upon him, grabbing and punching the boy even as Will tried to move away. All the while the man was screaming. "I'll ring your scrawny neck for you Will Scarlett!"

That was all Will could understand as the heavy blows rained down upon him. He gasped as the man's full force equally shoved and punched him all over his aching body. The others were all rushing up, yelling questions and only adding to the chaos. For one second, John released his hold on him as the Friar tried to stop the man with his own considerable size. But John was in such a rage that he knocked Tuck down. John jumped back on Will, and this time Scarlett fell to the ground.

"Get a rope!" John cried. Bull had one in his hands: without pausing for a moment, he swung the rope over an overhead branch, ready to string Will up at any second.

"Where's my son? Where's my son!" John demanded as he struggled to get Will to the rope. Will fought as wildly as he could manage, knowing John would surely kill him. Agony seared through him when John, trying to pull Will up by the shirt, instead ripped the garment away, exposing the angry red welts across his stomach and chest. Scarlett groaned at the pain and went still for a long moment. John could easily have overpowered the boy right then, but he could only stare in shock at the wounds. Will watched him carefully, his eyes those of a wild creature, cornered and wary. He struggled to endure the pain, gasping for every breath.

"Let him speak," the leader of Sherwood ordered.

Robin looked at the lashes impassively; Will covered them with the tattered remains of his shirt, instinct still driving him to not show any weakness in front of Locksley.

"I bring a message from Nottingham." Anger over all of this was making the words now pour easily from his mouth. He turned away from Robin to confront the others: John, Fanny, and Bull. "Our men are to be hung in the square at high noon tomorrow."

"What about my boy?" She asked frantically.

Will couldn't be mad at Fanny. He lowered his gaze to stare at the ground, wishing he didn't have to give the news to his friend. "The boy too." She whimpered; John held her and she sobbed into his arms.

"Ten men in all." He watched Robin's stony gaze transform into sorrow as he took in Will's words. Will's gaze shifted from person to person as he spoke the next words, occasionally needing to pause for breath. "The, uh, hangings are to be part of the celebration for the Sheriff's marriage."

Bull looked up in surprise at that bit of information. "Marriage? To who?"

Will answered Bull's question, but his eyes and his words were directed to only one person. He needed to see his reaction.

"Lady Marian."

The others all began to murmur. "He takes a bride of Royal blood," the friar began; John finished the thought for him.

"Aye, and with King Richard gone, he'll be after the bloody throne."

But Will didn't pay any attention to them. His gaze was focused entirely on Locksley. Robin was staring back at him, his face expressionless, only a slight narrowing of the eyes acknowledging he had heard at all. Will couldn't even begin to guess what was going through his mind. Locksley took a step forward and spoke, his voice betraying none of what he felt.

"You were to use this news to get close to me and then kill me, right Will?" His expression remained stoic, deadly.

Will didn't reply per se. With a wan grin, he quietly laughed at himself. He should have known Robin was smart enough to figure things out that fast. At least smarter than the Sheriff gave him credit for.

Robin was not amused. "What are your intentions?" he inquired, his face a stony, impassive mask.

Anger that had been throbbing inside him since he had been captured, no ever since Locksley had first set foot in the forest, suddenly flared up and Will, tired, aching, beaten, and just plain fed up with everything, couldn't contain himself any longer. He staggered to his feet.

"Well, that depends on you, Locksley."

Azeem heard the danger in those words and could see that Will was losing control. He didn't want to, he wished he wouldn't have to, but nonetheless he had to prepare himself: he uneasily fingered his sword. Allah be merciful, he pleaded. Don't make me do this.

"I never trusted you, that's no secret." Will wanted to vent his anger, pressure that had been building up inside him ever since the first day Locksley had strode into the forest and turned his life upside down. "But what I want to know is, are you going to finish what you've started? I want to know if he's gonna turn and run like the spoiled little rich boy I always took him for." There was more than anger seeping into his voice, and despite all Will did to try to control them, his pent-up, disregarded emotions from the past few days—the past few months—were now struggling to break free, and Will couldn't keep them at bay for much longer.

Robin couldn't believe what he was hearing. Once again, Will was accusing him, after all this time, the man still hated him with the same passion and intensity as the first time they'd met. He was tired of this, so tired. He shook his head, not understanding anything, and sick of all the accusations Will heaped upon him.

"Did I wrong you in another life, Will Scarlett?" He walked forward until he was only a few feet away from the man. Something sparked behind the other's eyes and he pressed on, his own anger feeding into his voice. "What does this intolerable hatred for me come from?"

He had expected to get a sarcastic comment thrown back in his face, or at the very least, an angry diatribe about the evils of all nobles. He never expected what came next.

Will swallowed hard, and a hundred emotions flashed through his eyes as he stared at Robin. But then he turned away and Robin could see the struggle taking place within him, but he didn't understand what was happening. But he almost took a step backwards himself when Will turned back to him, his eyesflooding withanger and…pain. Hurt. They drilled into his own with an intensity that startled him.

"From knowing that," the young outlaw swallowed, "that our father loved you more than me."

"Our father?" Robin looked at the others in confusion.

"We are brothers, Robin of Locksley."

He didn't want to go on, why did this man deserve the truth? But then he saw Robin exchange a glance of disdain and disbelief with John, and then he wanted this man to know the truth, needed the man to know, he had to wipe that smirk off his face.

"I am the son of the woman-" Robin grabbed the younger manand shook him with a ferocity that even he didn't know he had. Pain tore through Will as his wounds were jostled, but his anger overrode everything else. "-who replaced your dead mother for a time! It was your anger that drove them apart!"

"That's a lie!" Robin shouted in his face.

"It's not a lie!" Will yelled back. "YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" Silence followed this last part. Robin dropped his hold on Scarlett as the man's words sunk in. Everyone believed him now, the hatred and pain radiating from the young man could not be an act.

So that was the truth then, Azeem thought to himself, the reason why Will had despised Locksley since the first moment he had walked into camp. Robin had driven the boy's father and mother apart. But then Azeem thought of what Will had said of his mother, what she had become, and his heart broke for Will. And for Robin, who had started it all.

It seemed as though Robin had thought of the exact same things, and the guilt in his posture and expression was plain for all to see. He couldn't look Will in the eye, he kept staring at the ground, and every once in a while darting a quick glance at Will's face. Will had lowered his head, breathing heavily as he fought to get his emotions under more control. His head was screaming at him that this was useless—Locksley didn't deserve to hear the truth, he had had no right to demand answers. But then the voice in his heart whispered that he had already started to tell the truth, now he should finish it. Tell it all. Will listened. He looked up at Robin.

"I have more reason to hate you than anyone." Tell the truth. All of it. "But I found myself daring to believe in you," he whispered so softly. So softly. "What I want to know brother," Robin swallowed at the gentle use of the word, "is will you stay with us and finish what you've started?"

Robin gazed at him in wonder, studying his face as if it was that of a stranger's. "I have a brother?" he murmured incredulously. Will's eyes pleaded, begged him to believe he was telling the truth, he meant every word he had said and despite all that he tried to do to convince himself otherwise, he wanted Robin to believe him. Locksley stared off in the distance for a moment, then he turned back to Will.

"I have a brother!" Robin pulled Will to his chest and wrapped his arms gently around the boy's head and neck. Will was too stunned to return the embrace, but his eyes instantly clouded with unshed tears. This was the brother he had always wanted, had used to dream of as a child. The one he thought would never be.

Robin stepped back quickly, but when Will tried to look down so Locksley wouldn't see his weakness, Robin took Will's chin in his hands, forcing Scarlett to look him straight in the eye, and the young man saw that Robin's own eyes were filled with tears. Robin kept hold of him, he wanted Will to believe this; he spoke softly and firmly. "I'll make my stand with you, side by side. Until the end." Will nodded, swallowing hard. He believed his brother. He believed in his brother.

The others voiced their agreement to Robin's last statement. Azeem didn't say anything, he just watched his two friends in satisfaction. His two friends, the archenemies, the bitter rivals, brothers all along. Robin glanced at him when he hadn't spoken and Azeem gravely nodded his confirmation of his friend's next words.

"We finish this."

There's chapter eighteen. Please don't hate me! I've dreaded writing this, because this is the best part in the movie, and I knew I would never do it justice. I tried my best, though,and if you don't like it, feel free to say so, but please don't hate me. I tried, honest. Okay, next chapter will be up...soon. Please review, if you liked it or didn't like it, please review. (Review even if you hate me, I will still lovegetting areview!) Have a great day!