Chapter 24

So sorry it took long for the update. This chapter wasn't easy to write, not that good with action. I love reading all your reviews and I truly hope everyone is still interested.

Robin and Regina, along with Snow because the queen wasn't about to let the fugitive princess out of her sight, got slightly closer to the kidnappers. Robin felt it was still too far away, certainly too far to shoot his arrows. The good news was at least they could easily make out Roland with their naked eye though it was still impossible to tell how he was physically.

"Are you ready, Regina?" Robin asked. He didn't even bother with the royal formalities anymore.

Her eyes scanned around them, back in the direction of the rest of the merry men. The plan was that the merry men would split up. After Regina started her storm spell, Johnson and the dark elf would run for cover, prompting Robin fire an arrow at whomever took Roland first. If the other one got away, the merry men were scattered in different positions to try to catch him. Because of the rain, Robin's arrow wouldn't likely hit the target hard enough to go through very far, plus Robin didn't want to risk possibly hitting Roland as he was likely to be carried. So he would go for the legs, forcing him down and Regina could use an incapacitating spell so he couldn't do any damage to Roland.

Regina turned back to Robin. "You're sure the men know what to do? They need to be careful approaching the other person, even if it's Johnson. If he has any of that blood on his weapons and they get cut…"

"They know what to do." Robin felt like he told her enough but Regina didn't hold much confidence in his men. It was amazing she didn't seem to have any concerns on his own performance, he certainly did. "I'm more worried about how far away we are."

"I told you any closer-"

Getting out an arrow, Robin interrupted her again. "I know, I get it, they can smell me. Us. If they come this way, fine. But what I'm worried about is should they head off in the opposite direction, we'll never catch them."

Surprisingly, Regina smiled. More like a smug grin. "Let me take care of that."

He didn't answer, he just stared and their eyes locked. Snow glanced back and forth between the two. "Regina, please let me help."

"Like I would give you a weapon." Regina snapped, her face hardening towards the princess. "You would stab me the second you had a chance."

Snow too could keep her eyes locked with her stepmother. "No, I wouldn't."

Hearing a whistle that was masked as a bird sound, Robin shifted. "Okay, the men are in place. Regina? It's time."

Regina sprung forward and rolled up her sleeves. Holding her hands up in the air, she said several words that sounded like nonsense to Robin but she had such dignity and composure, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. The wind picking up forced him to twist towards the enemy's camp. Behind them clouds formed and darkened. A gush of wind must have hit the trio as the fire was snuffed out. Immediately Johnson and the elf begun moving around, probably picking up their items so they could get out of the storm. Being out in the open they were about to get very wet. Robin wondered if the rain could help dilute the poison, forcing it to lose its potency. He hoped so.

It began raining on them and Robin realized how Regina would guide their prey towards them. The storm actually started on the other side of the camp and if they wanted to keep what they had dry, they would need to run towards dryer area before seeking shelter, hence, leading them in their direction. Considering the distance the storm was from Regina, Robin was quite awestruck at how far she could send out her magic.

Unfortunately with the clouds blocking out the sun and the fire going out, it was impossible to tell who grabbed Roland as they both approached him at the same time then the two adults took off. "Did you see who had Roland?"

"What? You didn't see?" Regina asked. "I was busy making the storm."

Snow, trying to be helpful, shook her head. "I couldn't tell either."

"Well, that's a shock," Regina snarled.

Cursing under his breath, Robin began moving into position. "Dammit, I knew we should have gotten closer."

"I told you-"

"I know! He'll smell us!" Robin shouted back, angry at the situation. Both of the figures were running towards them, so maybe it wouldn't matter. He could shoot at both of them like this.

Robin had gotten on his knees behind a mound of dirt. Regina and Snow followed. The targets were getting closer, they were just close enough where Robin could easily take them out together. Robin aimed at the adult furthest away, guessing it was Johnson. If he took out the one closer, the second one probably would see and take cover. Without knowing which one actually had Roland, Robin wasn't willing to take that chance.

Robin was just about to let the arrow go when suddenly the first one, the dark elf, paused which distracted Robin from taking his shot. Then as if sensing them, the dark elf took off to the left away from their group. He did it so fast he must not have told Johnson what he was doing as Johnson just stopped and yelled at him.

"Dammit!" Regina cursed.

Snow asked, "What's he doing?"

"He must have sensed us!" Regina turned to Robin. "Robin, can you shoot the elf?"

Robin didn't have time. The elf headed to a denser part of the forest, the shrubbery obscuring him now. If Robin tried to shoot, he'd be doing so blind. Having no choice, Robin turned back to Johnson who by now realized he should follow the elf. He had started but Robin managed to fire his arrow and hit him in the legs. The outlaw just hoped Roland was with him.

The three jumped up and ran towards Robin, Regina already working on immobilizing him. It didn't take long to realize Johnson did not have Roland.

Regina said something but Robin didn't know what. He didn't care. His eyes went to where the elf ran. He immediately began whistling, alerting the merry men to try to catch him. Robin took one final look at Johnson to make sure he was secure, which he was, and then took off after the dark elf. Regina called after him to wait. He didn't listen. He ran like hell.

It felt like an eternity to Regina waiting to find out what had happened with the dark elf and Roland. With Robin taking off, there was no one to guard Johnson but her and she didn't dare leave Snow alone either. The storm had stopped, Regina had only set it to go for so long but it had rained on them hard for a few minutes. She hoped that it helped to hinder the dark elf's escape.

"Robin!" she shouted. She desperately wanted to use magic to try to locate them but under the circumstances she knew she needed to begin conserving. At least she took the time to go over Johnson's items. She had gagged him because she didn't trust anything coming out of his mouth. Not only did he not have Roland but he had none of the Nachzehrer blood either. Regina silently prayed that nobody got infected especially a certain outlaw and his son.

"You think they are okay?" Snow asked.

Regina didn't answer at all, not even a sarcastic remark. She was that worried. Eventually she heard the sounds of the men coming towards them. First, was Friar Tuck who looked worn out. Once Regina looked into his eyes, she knew they had failed to catch the elf.

The rest of the men followed with Robin practically running in. Before Regina could ask him what happened he barreled past her and practically jumped on top of Johnson. Ripping the gag off the former commander's mouth, he asked. "Where's my son?!"

Regina anguished watching Robin. Johnson only answered his question with a smile so Robin hit him again, this time hard enough that blood came from his nose. At that, Johnson coughed a bit, then looked back at Regina. "Is it torture then, your Majesty?"

"Robin," Regina said, ignoring Johnson. "We need to get back to tracking the elf immediately. We can't let him get too far…"

"Apparently," John said, "they had a horse."

"What?" Regina asked. "Where? It wasn't with them in camp."

Alan shook his head, his eyes focused on Robin. All the merry men were watching their leader. Their looks were mixed with sadness and something else but Regina didn't know what. "No, but he stopped just long enough to shake something out of his bag. It must have been a magic object because it made a horse, I'd call it a demonized one. But he jumped on it and it took off faster than anything I've seen."

"And Roland?"

"WHERE DID HE TAKE HIM?" Robin screamed, he took Johnson's head and slammed it into the mud underneath him.

"Robin, we'll get Roland back!" John tried to console his leader, his friend.

Robin spit on Johnson then stood up. He turned to look at everyone, his lips snarled. "How? You saw how fast that thing went. They could be miles away now."

"And with the MacGuffin root, he can be turning your boy into a little soulsucker by the morning!" Johnson shouted gleefully.

Again, Robin jumped on top of him, and began hitting hard. "I will burn this whole forest down before I let you do that!"

"Like you could stop us. Tell me, how close did you let that kid get to becoming a Nach-"

"His name was Sade!" Now Alan was having enough and he looked like he wanted to join Robin. Tuck took his hand and stopped Alan but Regina wondered why nobody was doing anything to stop Robin. First, it would do no good to waste Robin's energy on hurting Johnson. Second, Johnson was lying, she knew that, though they probably didn't. "Robin, he won't be changed into one, I promise."

"You can't promise that." Robin answered, he hit Johnson again who was actually laughing.

He went to strike him again but Regina caught his arm. "Stop this! It isn't helping!"

Robin jerked his arm back from her. "Let me go!"

"Listen to me!" She grabbed it back, getting down in the mud right there with him, she did her best to ignore the puzzled looks of the merry men watching them. "Beating him senseless isn't going to help Roland right now!" She saw the pain in his eyes and Regina wanted nothing more than to just gather him in her arms, but that pain wouldn't accept such help. Regina knew that too well. That pain wanted to spread and hurt others. She had to keep him from doing that. "Robin-"

"We didn't get Roland back…" Robin said, he was still angry but despair was taking over now. It honestly felt like he would never see him again. "They can turn him into a Nachzehrer. If that happens…"

The merry men be damned, Regina reached out and cupped both his cheeks with her hands. Her face was merely a few inches from his. "It won't, Robin, Nachzehrer blood won't work on a child."

"Why?" Robin whispered.

Regina leaned in, she kept her voice low too. "The dark magic works with the victim's soul to alter them. It…it's difficult to explain, the thing you need to know is because Roland is so young and sweet and innocent, his soul would not react to it." At least she hoped that was the case. That was the belief. The real truth happened that it was considered wasteful to use the blood on children at all.

Tuck stepped forward. "Would…Roland's magic help him too? That light magic we spoke of."

Regina glanced at Tuck, she'd really not considered Roland's light magic helping or hindering in such circumstances, but Tuck's question was a valid one . "Light magic is not well known to me, but I know it's the strongest magic in the world. Soin this case it might work to his benefit."

"Roland…" Robin looked at Tuck. "He has magic?"

Regina confirmed it. "That's how he recognized me as Lucille."

"Yeah, a little magic!" Johnson yelled, clearly angry he had been forgotten, albeit temporarily. "It's the reason we've kept him alive. Kristolf thought we might be able to use it." When Robin didn't take that bait, Johnson kept going. "Otherwise, we would have just killed him and dumped his body outside Tylertown."

That did it. Robin jumped on him so fast he threw his hands around his throat and began strangling him. Everyone started shouting at Robin to stop. Regina fought back tears though part of her wished he would kill Johnson. But she knew what Johnson was doing, he was actually in control, and he was clearly enjoying the pain he created in Robin, even if it was about to kill him. "Robin, this isn't you! Stop it!" She reached out and placed her hands on his arms, her hand actually covered his tattoo. That tattoo she ran away from weeks ago but now she was focusing on it, praying that Tinkerbelle was right and there was a deeper connection than just mere lovers.

Feeling her hands on his arms, Robin slowed down, though he didn't completely stop. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He'd been so caught up in killing him he missed the fact that Johnson actually looked like he was enjoying this. Sure, he was in pain, but there was honest to goodness joy on his face. Robin turned to Regina who smiled when he did so. He didn't feel like returning it but he took solace in seeing it. Letting go of Johnson, Robin stood up.

While Johnson was struggling for air, Robin walked away. Some of his men made sure Johnson remained where he was, though Regina's spell was still in effect. Regina didn't leave the outlaw's side. She kept her hand on the tattooed arm. Eventually it worked its way down and held his hand. He squeezed it back.

Please review! Pretty please. Again, I apologize for taking longer with this one. I hope it was worth the wait.