When Vaisey was a little boy someone told him that there was something broken inside him. Vaisey knew. His sister was the same, he had her, and his parents had enough money to make the nasty rumours go away. So maybe Vaisey likes hearing people scream, there are worse hobbies to have. Like stealing from the rich.

Vaisey will never understand that.

His lip curls when he thinks about Hood. Hood who stole from him, mocked him, ruined his careful thought out plans (he'd spent years on them! Years!) and then Hood went and tried blow him up. Blow him up.

Oh, he is going to make Hood beg for death ten hundred times over.

But Hood can wait.

He has Gizzy to deal with first.

Traitor. Coward.

It's his fault, really. He shouldn't have put so much faith Gisborne. Guy of someplace that doesn't exist, the leper's son. Pathetic. But he was so pretty. Oh, Vaisey never touched him before. He made it clear he could though and he loved the way it made Gisborne's skin crawl.

Now Gisborne is stretched out in front of him, all pale skin and fever bright blue eyes and angry red stitches and oh, it's like Christmas and Easter and Hood's execution all at once. Honestly, he's a little surprised Gisborne is still alive (Isabella had been a little over zealous when she shoved that sword into his back) he knew Prince John's physician was good but not that good.

There's a muffled sound from somewhere behind him, in the other room, sounds sort of like a sob. It seems Isabella is finally having a crisis of conscience. Vaisey rolls his eyes. Women.

On the bed Gisborne pitches and murmurs in French, Vaisey shushes him (imagines Gisborne shuddering with revulsion) and grins.

This will be so much fun.

It's Much who captures the horseman, with a loud whoop and a triumphant grin. Robin laughs at Much's glee as John holds the man up against a tree with his staff. The man looks rich enough, his horse's coat is glossy, its mane is neat and untangled. He's dressed in clothes of rich fabric and his hands are smooth and un-calloused. The saddle bags hang low. Definitely wealthy.

Prince John's new sheriff is a lot more competent Vaisey though he's no less vile. He's started placing guards on most of the major roads through Sherwood, a lot of the nobles choose to travel the long way round when they hear about him and his merry band. It's harder to ambush them on the open road, a lot of people in the villages were having to go hungry.

Robin opens his mouth for his usual spiel when the horseman speaks.

"I have a message!" He cries. "A message from Archer!"

John glances back to Robin, Robin frowns. It's been two weeks since Archer left and none of them had been expecting to hear from him again. Robin glances to Kate who shrugs, to Tuck who nods, almost imperceptibly.

Robin nods to John, who releases the man and steps back warily.

"What's the message?" Robin asks suspiciously.

The man shudders, "I-I..." He reaches for the bag slung about his shoulder and draws out a tightly coiled piece of parchment. Robin moves forwards and snatches it from the man's hands (smirks a little when he feels the man shaking) he nods to John and Much, "Take ten percent and let him go."

The man gapes, "But-But!" He protests.

"Now, now good sir," Robin grins. "We're letting you off lightly to show our gratitude but there are too many good people going hungry to let you walk away with all that heavy money."

"We'll just relieve you of some of it," Much adds, still grinning.

Robin turns away, unravels the note. Kate comes up beside him, wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his shoulder, "What does it say?"

Robin's brow furrows, "It says he saw Isabella in a village near York." He turns to Tuck, "But that's impossible, right?" It should be impossible. Robin saw the town blow up. There was no way anyone could have survived that, not when the entire castle was blown to bits.

Tuck nods, "That explosion was fast, there's little to no chance that anyone could have escaped. Not unless they had an escape route that led them deep under ground, but even then I would think they'd be at risk of cave ins."

"Maybe Archer was wrong," Kate suggests.

But he wouldn't be, would he? Archer wouldn't lie about this and he wouldn't have told them about it unless he were sure. "It's impossible though..." He whispers. Impossible and unfair. How come she gets to survive but Allan and Gisborne didn't? How come he loses everything and evil still survives? He thinks of Marian's dying act and Allan's dead eyes and Gisborne's stuttered words, he growls.

"Maybe there was a way out we didn't know about?" Tuck says, patting Robin's arm.

"A way out of where?"Much asks, craning his neck to see what the letter says, not that he can read. Robin had promised to teach him when they got back from Palestine the first time but then there had been the whole outlaw thing and it had just got pushed to the back of his mind. Like a lot of things.

Robin snarls and tosses it away, stalking off in to the forest, ignoring Much and Kate's yells.

This isn't fair.

This isn't fair.

When he gets back to the camp everyone's sitting, grim faced. "So what do we do about this?" John asks.

"We find her," Robin says firmly. He already knows his gang will protest but there's a fire coiling in his body, the kind of fire that kept him going in Palestine through sand and blood and death. The kind of fire that drove him to try and kill Gisborne for Marian.

"Master..." Much begins but Tuck cuts him off, "Robin, revenge is not our style." He says warningly.

Kate too is protesting, "Oh, Robin can't we just leave it?"

"No," Robin snaps firmly. "No, alright? I'm sick of this, why does she get to survive? Allan didn't. Gisborne didn't! Why does she get to live freely?"

"What do you suggest then?" John mutters, eyeing Robin warily, "Hunting her down and killing her?"

"Killing is not our way, Robin." Much interjects. He's fidgeting, Robin hasn't seen him this agitated since the Holy Land.

"It's her fault Allan's dead," Robin snaps. "Don't we owe him this?"

"Allan wouldn't want-" Much starts but he falters. "Maybe he would..."

"Maybe so," John cuts him off. "But we should be here, Robin. People rely on us. We cannot just abandon them."

"No," Robin snarls. "Don't you get it? If Isabella survived, Vaisey did too."

"You don't know that, Robin." Tuck interjects.

"I do, Tuck!" And he does. He can feel it in his gut, scrabbling around like a rat. "Think about all he's taken from us, don't you want this to be over?"

"Robin," Tuck says quietly, dark eyes boring into his. "What you're taking about is revenge, plain and simple. It is a sin."

"It would be justice." Robin snaps. Much for once is silent, glance between him and Tuck, John drops his gaze.

"I agree," Kate says, they all turn towards her, "With Robin. We need to finish this. I mean, they could be up there planning an attack on us, Isabella knows where our camp is."

Robin smiles at her gratefully. "It'd only take a day or two get up there, if we give the villagers extra from our stores then..." He trails off, John is nodding, Kate is smiling, Tuck looks unconvinced and Much is grumbling about giving away their food.

"It would be nice," John says, "To do away with him once and for all. For Allan. And Marian, and Roy."

"Well, I'm not about to let you three go alone," Much mutters.

Tuck sighs. "If there's no convincing you otherwise..."

Robin grins, "Great. It's too dangerous to get the food to the villages now. We'll do it first thing in the morning. Then we move out."

Later when Kate's curled up against his back she presses her lips to his neck. He's still not sure how he feels about this. This being the fact that Kate is beautiful and strong and clever but he can't help feeling a little disappointed every time he wakes up to blonde rather than dark hair.

"Are you thinking about Gisborne?" She asks.

Robin blinks, rolls to face her. "Why would I be thinking about Gisborne?"

She shrugs sleepily, "Isabella survived, you think Vaisey did too. I just thought...You felt guilty about him."

Robin sighs. "He got run through with a sword, Kate. He was dead when I left him."

Kate hums, "I know but still. You shouldn't feel guilty anyway, one good deed doesn't make him a good man, you know."

I know, Robin thinks. He still feels guilty, though.