Tattoo Part 2:
Gisborne raced after Robin, leaving behind a confused and worried Marian and a smirking sheriff.
"Your parties are always so much more exciting than mine!" the sheriff said to Marian.
Gisborne soon caught up to Robin not long after the chase had begun. He found Robin standing in front of a tree, appearing deep in thought. His bow was leaning against the tree leaving Robin armed with only his sword, something that was a rarity. Gisborne quickly scouted the surrounding area, looking for signs of a trap, seeing none he dismounted his horse and made his way towards Robin, un-sheathing his sword in the process still convinced this wasn't a trap.
"If this is what your after, you can have it." Robin said in a voice full of sorrow, looking at the ring in his hand, before throwing it at Gisborne.
Gisborne looked down at the ground where Marian's ring now lay. 'This is too easy Robin, what's the catch here?' Gisborne thought to himself.
"Who else Gisborne?" Robin asked after several moments of silence.
"Who else what?" Gisborne replied.
"You do not travel all the way to the holy land to try and kill the king of England on your own, at least you don't. You're not that clever" Robin further elaborated.
"Your surprised the king has enemies. That just goes to show how foolish and naïve you really are Robin. He wants to make peace with the heathens, and there will never be peace with them." Gisborne paused as if trying to decide what to say next. "I did what had to be done, you of all people should understand that." Gisborne spat at Robin.
"Necessary for who Gisborne, the sheriff? Was he behind this? Who else?" Robin demanded of Gisborne. Gisborne just smirked at Robin, furthering Robin's anger.
"I will find out, and when I do, I will see each and every last one of you drawn, quartered, and hung for treason." Robin threatened Gisborne, trying to draw out any and all information from this failed assassin.
Gisborne just laughed at Robin "Oh, and when will this be?"
Robin, not finding any of this funny continued on with his threat. "When the king returns."
"If the King returns, I still win. I win Marian." Gisborne shot at Robin, knowing it would strike a chord in him and cause him to lash out, letting his anger control his actions instead of using his head. This would give Gisborne his chance of killing off Robin for good.
Neither man moved for several moments, but just stood staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, sheathing his sword, Gisborne bent down to pick up Marians ring. That's when Robin started the fight. He ran up and kicked Gisborne in the stomach, sending him over backwards. Robin quickly unsheathed his sword and held it at Gisbornes throat, ready to slice it open, should he make a wrong move.
"What are you going to do, cut my other arm?" Gisborne asked in mock fright.
"No, I'm going to kill you, don't you remember my promise? It's only been a short amount of time since then Gisborne, if I wasn't going to kill you I'd suggest you start writing these things down." Robin said.
"NO!" Shouted John from behind Robin. Robin had gotten so caught up in Gisborne he had failed to hear Allen, Much, John, Will and Aria coming up from behind him.
"Killing we do not do" John reminded Robin.
"He's right, at least that's what you taught us." Will continued.
"We do not take part in bloodshed, unless absolutely necessary" Much chimed in.
Robin sighed heavily, his men were right. He removed his sword from Gisbornes neck and stuck it in the ground, getting up and walking away from Gisborne.
"Now Robin wasn't—" and before Aria could finish her sentence Robin turned back to Gisborne, who had this look of "I won and you lost" that a 5yr old would give someone during an argument, punched him so hard in the face that it knocked Gisborne out cold.
"That was necessary" Robin said looking directly at Much and Aria, challenging them to say something.
"Well he does have a point," Aria said to the others who looked like they wanted to argue with Robin.
D'Jaq sat staring directly into space, ignoring the constant jabs the jailor kept throwing at her trying to illicit some sort of emotion from her. She knew someone would come rescue her, either Robin and his men, or even Marian, she just didn't know when. D'jaq was a person of many hidden talents, she had learned growing up in a time of war that you had to learn to adapt to your ever changing environment or perish. Some of the things that she had picked up were magnifying glasses, which one could use to start a fire, or use to play pranks on your friends; such as the trick she had played on Much a few weeks ago. She had also studied alchemy and knew the basics; she would have learned more but had been captured by slaver traders.
Suddenly the sheriff was in front of her cell listening to the jailors ramble of how "he" pointing to Jack, hadn't budged since "he" was thrown into the cell and how it wasn't right. The jailor even asked if he could have Jack hung sooner rather than later. The sheriff wasn't paying the jailor much attention his focus was on the vial that Jack kept clutching in front of him.
"What is he holding that's around his neck?" The sheriff asked the jailor.
"I don't know, probably some heathen magic." The jailor replied.
The sheriff rolled his eyes, could no one do what they were hired to do? It seemed that everyone needed their hand held in order to get the job done. He was convinced that idiots surrounded him and, that if you wanted something done right, you had to do it your self. The sheriff walked away pulling the jailor with him. "Stay right here until that boy does something, and when he does then come and find me." The sheriff said.
~/~
Gisborne slowly regained consciousness, only to find him self gagged and strung from a tree. 'It could be worse' he thought to himself as he looked around at his surroundings. He saw Robin and his men not too far away from him, but he couldn't hear what they were saying due to the fact his ears were still slightly ringing from Robin's punch, it looked as if they were arguing about something.
"D'Jaq is our priority, she's one of us." Will said while looking at everyone in camp.
"How long before Gisborne's men come looking for their master, huh?" Robin asked Will, walking up and gesturing in his face.
"I need to sort this out, and I need to sort this now. This man is a traitor. He tried to kill the king." Robin shouted in anger, why was no one taking his side?
Allen spoke up, regret filling his voice, "Look, I'm not being funny but I didn't see it."
"Nor did I." Will said.
Robin threw his hands up in the air and scoffed turning towards Much, looking for help. Much just looked torn at what to say, he wanted to help his master out, but he couldn't lie either. He decided that the truth would prevail in the long run, even if Robin didn't agree, Much knew it was the right thing to do.
"You sent me for help, don't you remember?" Much said.
Robin ran his hand over his face in obvious frustration and turned to Aria, thinking at least she would help him.
"Don't look at me. I wasn't there for that part of your life." She reminded him.
"But your not from here, you what I'm going through, throw me a bone here Arianna." Robin pleaded with her.
"That's not fair Robin and you know it. We've had this conversation and we agreed you wouldn't ask me for information. Even if I wanted to I couldn't reveal anything and you know why!" She threw back in his face, they had agreed, after she had told Robin and Marian she was from the future and knew about them, that neither he or Marian would ever ask her to share facts from the future. It was simply too risky.
The gang looked at each other in confusion, not having any idea what Robin and Aria were talking about. That had been another thing agreed upon, the rest of the gang would not know where Aria was truly from; it was too risky. The more people who knew her secret the more likely it would be that someone would slip, and if the wrong people were to find out her secret...
Robin walked away from the group towards Gisborne.
"What happened to your famous justice, trials, and evidence?" Aria asked him.
"I'm telling you, it was HIM!" Robin yelled, as if yelling would finally make them understand. "He stabbed me in Acre and left me for dead, and then he went for the king." Robin said while looking into Gisborne's eyes.
"I thought you said a Saracen stabbed you." Allan pointed out.
"That was before I realized it was Gisborne." Robin was drowning here and no one was going to save him. No one believed him. The two people who could verify his story weren't talking. All the facts that Robin kept pointing out kept being refuted because they came to light after he came back from the holy land.
"You never mentioned tattoo's before" Allan said after hearing Robin spout off another random 'fact' that Gisborne was a traitor.
Aria felt badly, none of Robin's men believed him, maybe, just maybe if she mentioned one small piece of supporting evidence Robin wouldn't hate her, and maybe it would bring this argument to an end. She wrestled with the idea for a few minuets before deciding on a small fact.
"Actually, now that I think about it, Robin did mention a man with a funny looking tattoo the last time he told this story. However, that's not the point here, the point is that they've got Jack." Aria said to the gang, thinking now was as good as time to change the subject.
"Does no one here understand what treason is?" Robin asked in disbelief, brushing off Aria's attempt at changing the subject.
"Robin, we go to get Jack." John said, starting to walk away from the conversation.
"This is for England!" Robin yelled as he turned around and punched Gisborne in the face again.
'Men! They solve things with violence, no wonder we get no where at times.' Aria thought as she walked towards Robin, getting a feeling he wasn't going to stop at just one punch.
Not even two seconds later Robin threw another punch at Gisborne, this time claiming it was "for the king".
"Robin! Stop! This, this isn't you." Much cried as he and Allan tried holding Robin back. John, seeing this was going nowhere fast, hit Robin over the head with his walking stick causing Robin to loose consciousness.
Well, Robin does have a temper doesn't he? I feel that writers of Robin Hood BBC had a fun time with this episode, so much drama!
So I went back and changed all the "Will's" to "Allan"...I still keep getting this two mixed up when I'm writing, I think it's because while watching the series with captions they don't tell you who's speaking. I finally came up with a way to remember who's who, Will is the "pretty boy", and Allan is the "scruffy one, who betray's Robin".
Well as always please review! For any and all information regarding this story please visit my wordpress account under FFAMasquerade2005. Most footnotes, videos, and other fun stuff will be there because we can't post links here on FF or even FP.