Tattoo: Part 3

D'Jaq watched as the sheriff inspected the acid she had used to melt the iron hinges away off the cell door. The sheriff asked her if she had made it herself, she didn't answer him, but just reached for her bottle. The sheriff grabbed her hand and looked at the bottle and looked at her hand again. He muttered something under his breath and pored a few drops onto her arm and watched in fascination as it ate away at her flesh.

The jailor who was not amused by any of this turned toward the sheriff "Shall we hang him now?"

"Don't be stupid, if he can make more of this I might even kiss him." The sheriff answered smiling and walking away humming a melody of some sort, he had a plan forming and he was certain it would put him in Prince John's good graces.

~/~

Aria and Much stayed behind to keep an eye on Robin and Gisborne. Not that either party could do anything to each other at this point, seeing as both were tied up.

Much turned towards Aria, wanting to know more about the conversation between her and Robin, "What did you mean earlier when you told Robin 'We've had this conversation and we agreed you wouldn't ask me for information.' What are you not telling us?"

Aria sighed Robin had made a fine mess of things now. She'd let him figure out how to clean up this mess when he awoke and came to his senses. "You don't need to worry about it Much, it's something between Robin and I at this point. It's his decision if he wants to explain it or not." She tried explaining it the best she could with out revealing anything else. Thankfully she was saved from further explanation by a groan coming from behind them, Robin was coming around. Both she and Much turned around to face Robin.

No one spoke for several long moments; they just kept looking at each other. Robin kept looking at his binds and then back at Aria and Much, almost as if he couldn't believe that he was tied up.

Much, uncomfortable with the silence, finally spoke up "sorry" he said rather sheepishly looking at his master. Robin looked at him in disbelief causing Much to ramble on.

"This is awkward…John said…Little John said to wait until they get back. Yes! That's what we will do, we will wait for them to come back." Much finished.

'Gollum much' Aria thought to herself and let out a soft snicker that she turned into a cough when both men looked at her.

Robin was getting extremely annoyed at this point in time, how hard was it for people to understand he just wanted to kill Gisborne? Robin knew though he cold probably trick Much into letting him go, but he wasn't sure that Aria would fall for it.

"Water?" Much offered breaking the silence once again, not caring for the look his master was gave him.

"Much, untie me. That man is a traitor and the war in the holy land continues because of him. The others wouldn't understand, how could they? They weren't there like we were, they don't understand that sometimes you have to kill one person in order to save thousands." Robin said to Much, in a tone that was suddenly calm.

Aria had to give Robin credit; he knew how to play on people's emotions to get them to do what he wanted.

"Then you must make them understand" Much responded as he looked torn between what he had been told by John, and what he was now being told by his master.

"Exactly! But I can't do that tied up. I just want to talk to him, please Much?" Robin pleaded.

'Son of a bitch! Much actually fell for it, he's going to untie him.' Aria thought as she watched Much look around as if John would jump out at him from behind a tree at any second. He then looked at Aria almost begging her to say this was the right decision. "Do what you want, I want no part in this. I'm Switzerland."

Much paused and looked at Robin directly "You promise? Because earlier you were not your self, earlier you were…Alright I'm doing it" he said the last part more to himself than to Robin. Not even waiting for Much to finish untying him, Robin rushed down to where Gisborne was tied and removed the gag with one hand and the other wrapped around Gisborne's throat.

"Who else Gisborne?" Robin demanded, tightening his grip on Gisborne's throat.

"If I don't talk what will you do?" Gisborne asked, slightly amused by this side of Robin.

Robin, seething in anger replied "I will kill you whether you talk or not, in the end I will kill you."

Gisborne, growing tired of Hood's empty threats, decided to point out the flaw in Hood's plan. "If your going to kill me either way, then why should I talk? Besides, we all know you can't and won't follow through with your threats. So why don't we just end this game now?"

That pushed Robin over the edge, he removed his hand from Gisborne's throat, turned around and retrived his dagger, marching back to Gisborne. Much and Aria raced over to Robin, Much pushing Robin backwards while Aria stood in front of Gisborne with her sword drawn.

"Robin, you promised me! This, this isn't talking" Much tried to reason with master.

"I know, I lied. They are simple men. They have spent years hiding in the forest, they can not understand politics!" Robin shot back.

"What the hell has happened to you? This isn't you! I haven't spent years in the forest and I cannot understand this" Much shot right back at Robin, trying to figure out what was going through that thick head of his.

"That, Much, is because you are also simple!"* Robin immediately regretted saying that. He saw the pain in his best friends eyes and watched, with a sickening feeling in his stomach, as Much walked away from him, giving him full access to Gisborne.

'Fuck. I shouldn't have said that, I don't even know where that came from' Robin thought to himself. "Much, look I'm sorry! I did not mean that." Robin tried apologizing as he ran after his friend.

"I have never seen you like this, and may I say that I am glad." Much said, contemplating if Robin's apology was real.

Aria relaxed a bit and sheathed her sword; it didn't look like Robin had any interest in Gisbrone at this point. Aria turned around to see what Gisborne was doing, and she shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that he wore a triumphant smirk on his face. "Gisborne, gloating doesn't suit you." She told him, annoyed that he was acting like a 5 year old, again.

"What are you going to do about it? You're just some whore that keeps Robin and his men warm at night." Gisborne said trying to bait her.

"Why do men always think that just because a women hangs out with men she must be a whore? I've honestly never understood that, can you explain it to me Gisborne? No, I didn't think so; you don't have the brains to explain anything complex. You know, I almost pity you though. You have no one to love you, no one to hold you close, or to even miss you when you leave." Aria replied with out missing a beat. This elicited a roar of anger from Gisborne as he struggled to free him self from his bonds, he couldn't stand a women disrespecting him like that. Ari flashed him a smirk and turned her attention back towards Robin and Much. She watched as Robin said something to Much and then walked away from him, Much's eyes never leaving his master.

~/~

Allen, John and Will had made a plan to rescue Jack, this was the first time they had planned a rescue with out Robin. The plan was simple, dress as merchants, gain entrance into the castle, grab Jack and be back home before dinner. What could possibly go wrong?

The men made it into the dungeon with no problem, but usually going in was the easy part; however, there was no Jack to be found. In fact the entire dungeon was empty, which had to be a first since the sheriff came into power. The men went on in search of their companion, not knowing that the sheriff had taken a special interest in Jack and had moved her into a room where she would make her acid and anything else he demanded.

~/~

Robin sat staring into the fire doing his best to ignore Much and Aria, both who kept telling him how wrong this was. He knew though, deep inside, that he was wrong for stooping to his adversaries level. But this was different, wasn't it? He wasn't torturing innocent people, Gisborne was a traitor and had to pay for his crimes against the crown. Robin wanted, no needed, answers. If this was the only way to obtain them, then 'so be it' he thought, pulling the sword out of the fire.

He slowly and deliberately made his way over to Gisborne, pushing his way through Aria and Much, who made no attempt to stop him for once.

"The plot against the king, I want names." Robin said as he held the glowing sword to Gisborne's face.

"What kind of king deserts his own people to fight someone else's war in a foreign land?" Gisborne answered Robin's demand.

"If you are his people, then he was right to desert them!" Robin said as he pushed the sword ever closer to Gisborne's face. Just as he was about to touch metal to skin Much yelled at him to stop. At this point Robin wished Much would just shut up and/or leave him alone.

"I will not partake in this—" Much started to say. Robin couldn't believe his ears; finally Much was going to leave him alone! Robin's joy however was short lived as Much continued speaking. "You will live to regret this. I know you will!"

Robin, who was fast loosing what little patience he had left, snapped back at Much "This does not concern you, Much"

"You are my friend and master, everything you do concerns me. I have followed you every where and will continue to do so, but not into torture!" Much tried one last time to reason with Robin.

"Then go already, and leave me alone!" Robin flung in Much's face.

Aria sensing Much was giving up chimed in "Robin, this has gone on long enough. Put down the sword and walk away while you can." She said trying to get him to see reason.

"Just go already, the both of you!" Robin shot at them.

Much looked as if he might cry and walked away from Robin, a broken man. Aria wasn't going to let Robin throw his life away that easily, but knew reasoning wasn't going to work with him at this point, so she decided that she would stick close by and only interfere if need be. If she was lucky they would beat the snot out of each other for a little while and be done with it. Aria turned away from the two men and when to sit behind some rocks not far away. As she peered out from behind the rocks she saw Robin free Gisborne and throw his sword away from them.

'Robin isn't going to let Gisborne go after all that, is he?' Arian thought. Her question was answered by Robin shouting at Gisborne, "This ends here and now traitor!" raising his fist and taking a fighting stance.

Poor Much, I feel Robin tends to take advantage of him a little too often; however, I'm trying to stay true to the characters nature and only changing things when I feel that it's believable. * Ok I laughed really hard at this one, I think it deserves a ROLF. This is not only a play on words, with Much's name, but a historical reference as well. What information we do have on Robin Hood and his men is that Much, wasn't much. His parents are said to have said that he was their son, but he wasn't much.

Ok it was much funnier when I first realized it...

As always check out my wordpress account for cool stuff related to the stories. Pen name: FFAMasquerade2005

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".

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