Hi, so here is the second chapter. I hope you enjoy and i will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later. Somewhat of a short and sweet author's note.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just Erin.

Please Read and Review.

Faith Based Initiative

Chapter 2-Supply And Demand.

As Marian and Djaq wake up in their new nightmare they meet a woman with a terrible past. Meanwhile a terrible discovery awaits Robin and the gang.

For a moment, for one shining perfect moment of bliss that she had not expected Marian of Knighton woke up thinking that the previous night had been nothing more than a bad dream.

She stretched a little and was in that wonderfully half sleepy state where she was debating a little weather or not she should go back to sleep and get half an hour in before church when she felt something congealing in her hair. She reached up to touch it but felt something sticky and congealed. She tried to move her other arm but then realised she couldn't as something was pulling it backwards.

She shifted still not ready to let go of the dream because every instinct was telling her that when she opened her eyes the illusion of what she had been clinging too would go away and she would have to face a new world, a harsher, wilder world than what yesterday had been when she had been unafraid of anything and even the repercussions of her actions at the Church had been untested.

Her knee cut against the harsh surface of a rock and she felt her hand slip a little and Marian woke up to the darkness and to the knowledge that she had so desperately tried to run from even in her dreams.

Her father was dead.

She had seen him, eyes open, blood pouring down from him staining the wood of her floor. She had seen the sword, his old sword from his fighting days under the train of Henry II and she had known that this was not the Sherriff. Even the men who had grabbed her and thrown her into the carriage, beaten her across the face and had toss her like she was a rag doll into this cave were not the Sherriff's men. She would have expect Guy to be there with his smug smile watching her in a state of undress. This was different, this was new.

Her father was dead and her heart was breaking and Robin was not here and she was alone in the darkness.

She stifled back a sob and bit her lip feeling the cut dig into her teeth. The pain grounded her, made her head clearer and Marian tore her thoughts away from her father (and if anyone had found him yet) and instead turned her attention to where she was being held.

It was dark, endlessly dark save for a squarish hole in the sky that was showing something that might have been week early sunlight. Marian stared at it. Even if she could get up there she wouldn't fit she knew. She'd had too many good meals to get through that hole. That space was fit for someone who was skinner than she was. And certainly Robin could not come down that hole…she doubted even Will (the skinniest outlaw due to the fact that he had gone many nights as a child without food) could get through this.

But it was a start.

It was a something, the cave she was in was so dark and she suspected so underground that she did not know weather or not she could see what time of day it was without that shaft of light. She shifted a little forwards and turned. Chained to the wall by one hand in her nightgown.

"Well Marian" she said finally into the silence. "You've gone and got yourself well and truly stuck now"

There was a groan and she whirled backwards on her back legs ignoring the ache that was forming and the mud and pressed herself backwards. Someone else was waking and muttering something in a language that Marian was unfamiliar with but yet was sure she had heard before. She shifted a little closer and peered through the darkness.

"Djaq?!"

The woman moved a little closer and Marian took in Djaq's appearance including the fact that she was dressed in trousers and a shirt but had no weapons. The other woman looked as if she too had seen the hilt of a sword clatter across her face and back and she too was chained to the wall.

"What happened?"

"I don't know" Marian answered truthfully. Her voice wobbled for a bit and she bit back her tears to answer the question. "They came in the night, Knights in Black and took me and…and they murdered my father"

And suddenly the loss that she was trying to so hard to combat hit her fresh and raw and new and she was crying uncontrollably in a way she had never done before even when she had come home and seen her hair in the mirror, even when she had watched her mother fall from this life. She had never expected to lose her father in any way certainly not this. Her mother's death had been so sudden and she had been so young she had never really grasped the concept of what had happened. Her father was old, every winter she worried he would fall ill to some sort of illness. He had wanted nothing but the best for her and what was right for her and he had given her more freedoms than many fathers would give their daughters but now…

Now she was without him, without the constant steady presence of her father, immobile perhaps, inflexible maybe but always dependably, constantly solidly present and now she was without him.

And she was gasping and sobbing on the floor as if she was mortally wounded and Djaq bless her having no idea what was going on was attempting with one hand to stroke her hair back from her face so that she could breathe.

Eventually the tears ran their course. Marian was like that mostly. She could cry and scream though it was rare but then she stopped and she was fine. She could tamper her emotions at least until she had time to process them and right now she did not have the time to deal with the gaping hole that was the loss of her father. Right now she had to find a way to survive. To go back to Nottingham if they were even in the Shire. To Robin.

"Apologies" she said finally wiping her hand across her face and eyes uncaring that she was nothing like the lady she had been raised to be at this moment. "They err…they killed my father"

Djaq's eyebrows rose but she said nothing. Perhaps she too understood that if Marian was to even contemplate something other than the task that was ahead of them—to escape—then she would completely fall apart. Instead she muttered what Marian hoped was a prayer in her own language and took her hand in her own until she had gotten her great shuddering breaths under control and she felt a bit less hysterical.

There was another moment that passed between them and then Marian spoke this time her voice controlled and calm and her persona the one she knew she adopted whenever she took on the role of the Night Watchman.

"Does Robin know you were taken?"

Djaq shook her head and Marian resisted the urge to swear with difficulty. Had Robin known…well…this could have been a very different situation. Certainly one that involved a rescue. She sighed tugging on the brown locks of hair a stress mechanism she had, had since childhood.

"How long have we been down here? Or do we not even know where here is?" she asked again. Djaq sighed moving backwards so she could take the pressure off the arm that was chained to the wall. Marian shifted backwards too finding a piece of rock she could lean against.

"I do not know" she said finally. "I honestly do not know either. I was bathing by the stream when they took me, John knows that I was going but I do not know if they will think to look for me. He tends to wait before sleep until I come back but…" she trailed off and Marian nodded again, not knowing why she was doing that and yet aware that they were in deep shit.

The Outlaws did not know they were gone, they were being held by some lunatics, probably in the Sherriff's employment, they were in a cave with only one shaft of light and no way out chained to wall, with no weapons and no plan.

Marian thought about it and decided to give up there and then.

"Fuck"

There was a giggle, small and almost silent but Marian had heard it and so by the way her eyes widened did Djaq. She whirled around and stared into the darkness but it was so dank she could barely see what was in front of her.

"Whose there" she said rather bravely she thought as well.

There was a silence that seemed to stretch forever but the more it did the more Marian was aware that there was someone in the room with them. She bit her bottom lip and was about to ask again when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to see Djaq shake her head almost silently and then the other woman moved forwards.

"We mean you no harm" she said softly into the darkness. "My name is Djaq and this is Marian. We would just like to see if you are alright, we can wait until you are ready"

Marian was about to ask just what the hell was going on but before she could there was a sound of clinking. It took her brain already befuddled by hunger and grief and the wounds she had sustained a moment or too to catch up on what she was hearing.

Chains.

There was someone else chained up here.

She bit her lip again feeling the cut sting as the movement came closer. What she saw made her gasp and it would have been audible too had it not been for her teeth digging into her cut lip.

It was a woman, or a girl, or perhaps somewhere between the cusp of both. Younger than Marian at twenty one but not much older, perhaps nineteen? She had blonde hair that was down to her ribs but it was dirty and matted somewhat. her face was still half hidden in shadow but Marian could see her cheekbones sticking out and her collarbone and her eyes a dark blue were watching, taking in and never letting up in their expression. Her hands were like pale spiders and her knees jagged and Marian from what she could see, she was wearing a man's shirt that might have once been white but was now grey and sliding off her not because it was too big but from what Marian knew was the loss off too much weight to fast.

For a moment the three of them stared at each other and Marian wondered with a flicker of despair she tried to force back (because she had learnt enough from her escapes in Nottingham and from what she had learnt from Robin and Much, that despair never got you anywhere.) and she tried to manage a smile even though her insides were in turmoil and she was bursting with questions. How long had this girl been here? And if she had been here a long time with no hope of rescue, what chance did they have of escaping? And perhaps the more practical of the questions, what had happened and what did Marian and Djaq have to look forwards too?

She got nothing in return but the girl dropped her eyes again and Marian could see on her wrists and ankles skin rubbed raw and what looked like blood along her legs that had dried and crusted. She had to choke back her bile. God she hated men who used woman like this. There was a special place in hell for people like this.

"Hello" Djaq said finally her own voice soft as if she was doing her best not to startle a frightened rabbit. The girl jumped a little exposing more of her shoulder and Marian who had never really considered herself maternal or anything like that felt flooded with compassion and a strong desire to use what little fabric she had covering herself and using it to cover up this girl.

"My name is Djaq, this is Marian…do you know your name?"

The girl looked around as if she was trying to recollect something. She looked as if all her thoughts had been scattered and she was having to pick them up one by one. Finally when she spoke it was in an accent that was a tad harsher than Marian's Nottingham one, perhaps somewhere a bit more central perhaps? And her voice when she did speak was quiet and soft as if she feared some kind of consequence if she talked a shade louder.

"They call me lots of things. Lots of names I mean…but I think…I think my name is Erin"

Marian stared with a growing sense of utter horror and she felt Djaq close her eyes next to her as the despair she had worked so hard to battle finally came to the surface and seemed to seep into her bones.

Allan A Dale was kicked awake out of a perfectly lovely dream about—well something that that he didn't remember but that he knew was perfectly lovely. He saw Little John's head in front of him and just knew deep down that today was not going to be a good day. John was frowning in a way that made Allan do a quick mental recap of the previous day to see if he had left anything that might give away the discovery of their camp that Will was still fixing and panicking over.

"What?" he asked blearily.

"Djaq's not back" Little John said simply. Allan blinked.

"Huh?

"Djaq" John said as if Allan was very stupid. "She went to bathe last night, I went to sleep I just sort of dozed off but I didn't realise that she wasn't back and now it's been the whole night"

"She might have gone to town" Allan argued although he was already pulling on his boots. John grunted aiming a kick at Robin who woke up with the beginnings of a shout. Will was still a mass of dark hair underneath the covers but his hands were moving. Will and Allan were not by nature morning people and therefore it took them a bit of extra…effort…so to speak to get up in the morning.

"Or be with Marian" Robin said running a hand through his hair. Allan snorted. "Yeah" he said very quietly so Robin couldn't hear him. "Because Marian and Djaq are the lets braid each other's hair and sing songs around the fire kind of lasses"

Little John ignored him. It was kinda the story of Allan's life when you came to think about it.

"Perhaps Djaq did go into town" Will said looking up from where he was finding his axe. "Or hunting? I mean…" he looked at the remnants of the fire and frowned. Allan followed his reasoning and responded before Will could.

"Where's Much?"

There was a delicate pause.

"You sent him to see if Djaq's with Marian haven't you?" Robin said amused. "You could have sent me"

John muttered something under his breath. Allan overheard and laughed.

"Unchristian? Really John. Our Robin here who fought for the King and the Lady Marian, in an unholy relationship? Perish the thought."

Everyone laughed even John though he blushed.

There was a crashing through the undergrowth that everyone knew meant only one person. Even Gisborne's lot didn't make that much noise.

"Much" Robin muttered. "I do hope he's got food"

There was a crashing and then before Will could bemoan about the damage done to the new camp (as the door was not quiet staying shut—for the hundredth time) Much himself crashed into the clearing. He didn't look at anyone of them, instead he looked at Robin, his friend and his former master and there was a look passed between the two of them that had Allan on his feet.

Suddenly Robin was on his feet and he had all but flown across the room. Allan grabbed his sword and followed. He had a sense that something was very wrong here and he couldn't understand how they had gone from laughing and joking to this.

"I went to Knighton Hall" Much said and up close Allan could see he was not pale or shaking but instead a calm had come over him that he most certainly did not seem to posses in real life. Allan had a moment where he wondered if this was really what Much had been like when he had been in the Holy Lands when the armies out there had really seen the shit hitting the wall.

"And" Robin said his eyes wide. Everyone seemed to wait and stop. Not even the birds were singing and Allan had this wonderful clear moment, like he had, had when Tom had been executed that whatever happened now, the world, this little world was never going to be the same again.

"And it's gone" Much said finally. "Knighton Hall has been raised to the ground. I spoke to a couple of people and they believe that Edward and Marian were inside…they…they think there both dead Robin"

And there you go, I hope you enjoyed and i will bring you the next chapter soon. Enjoy.

Next Chapter-The Outlaws attempt to regroup after events as it becomes clear that something is terribly wrong. Marian and Djaq attempt to gain the trust of Erin. Potential Trigger Warnings for this chapter.