Tattoo Part 4:
The men were becoming frantic now in their search for Jack, it had taken them much longer than expected causing everyone to be on edge.
"I don't suppose anyone has given thought on how we get out of here once we actually find Jack." Allan said.
The men just glared at him and continued forward in their search for Jack.
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"Face it, you are loyal to a weak king. This is not England's fight, but Rome's." Gisborne commented to Robin, barley avoiding the punch that was thrown at him.
"Then why have you made it worse? Your attack broke the cease fire that could have been peace." Robin asked throwing another punch at Gisborne, hitting him directly in the chin causing Gisborne's lip to split open.
Gisborne brought his sleeve up to this lip to wipe the blood away before continuing this 'conversation' with Robin. "There will always be war, there is no such thing as peace." He finished by ramming his fist into Robin's stomach.
Robin, trying to catch his breath, spoke in short sentences "I went to war…to recover our holy land; however, when I got there I met the Muslims and the Jews. I saw it was their holy land too…" Robin finished sharing his point of view with a sweeping gesture.
"What are you Locksley, Lord of the Dance?" Gisborne mocked Robin with a little jig to prove his point.*
Aria listened and watched from her hiding spot. She had to admit, both parties had valid points, well except Gisborne's Lord of the Dance reference. There would always be war, especially the Middle East, how long had these wars been going on? She knew that the crusades had started around 1095 A.D. and lasted till 1291 A.D., but even in her time of 2016 there was war in "the holy land".
Robin and Gisborne both stood up from the ground and stared at each other, neither of them breaking eye contact. Robin broke the silence "You are right Gisborne, there will always be war as long as people like you revel in their own ignorant bigotry!" and with that final statement both men lost their minds and started throwing punches at each other. They were soon rolling on the ground, each trying to best the other, just when one would start to gain the upper hand the other would out maneuver his opponent.
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Jack hoped her plan to escape would work. She had been given access to many ingredients, some of which had given her an idea. The sheriff wanted alchemy, well who was she to deny him? Jack finished in about an hour, an hour before the sheriff's deadline. She had told one of the guards to fetch the sheriff as she had finished doing what he had asked of her.
"Finished already?" The sheriff asked as he walked through the door. Jack didn't say a word to the sheriff; she just stood looking at him. "A man of few words, eh? I like that, makes my life much easier. Now show me what you got." The sheriff demanded of Jack. Jack smirked at him and poured a liquid onto the powder in the bowl, all at once it started smoking and filled the room so that you couldn't see anything.
Jack took this moment to run out the door past the sheriff and guards. Once out in the hallway she looked at the remaining guards who were staring at her. "Help! We must put out the fire." She yelled at them causing them to rush to where all the smoke was coming from. 'Suckers' she thought as she continued down the corridor looking for a way out. She heard shouting coming from just up ahead, and just as she was going to turn around and find a different route she heard Allan familiar voice shouting. Jack had known Robin would come for her! She quickly made her way towards her friends and arrived just in time to see them knock out the last of the guards in the room.
"Jack" Will shouted, the first to notice her, "are you ok?"
"Am I ok? I should be asking you the same thing. You look like you had your hands full" Jack replied. "Besides, I can take care of myself. Don't forget that I've had to lookout for my self for quite sometime."
"I hate to cut the reunion short, but we've still got to get out of here." Allan reminded all of them.
"Right." John said as he gestured for all to exit the room. The four of them continued down the hall wishing they were already out of the castle.
"Does anyone have any idea where we are going? Or have a plan?" Jack asked.
"Well I've never been in this part of the castle before" Allan admitted.
'Great, we are lost with the sheriff after me and they don't even have a plan! Robin always has a plan. Where is Robin, I haven't seen him now that I think about it' Jack thought to herself.
"Where is Robin?" Jack asked the group in general. They all just looked at each other in uncomfortable silence; finally it was Allan who spoke up "Well, he's not here to make a long story short."
"He's…distracted at the moment" Will finished lamely.
"Distracted—" before Jack could finish her sentence John growled in frustration and pushed them towards the door he opened.
They looked around the tiny room, only to realize they were in the privy with no way out. However, Allan was getting creative, he knew the privy lead outside and they really had no other options left. He lifted up the lid causing the awful stench to waft up into the room.
"Well it does lead outdoors." He said as the other three looked at him like he was mad. "Does anyone have any better ideas?" Allan continued, and before anyone could object John pushed Allan towards the hole shouting, "go, go, go!" After Allan, the others soon followed with Jack being the last one out again. Just as she was about to jump down the hole the sheriff opened the door, and she was captured again.
Will turned his head, glancing at John and Will who were also covered in human filth. "We need Robin," He voiced, saying what they all knew to be true.
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The sun was starting to set now and in the forest Robin and Gisborne were still at it. Aria had long ago abandoned her hiding spot and was sitting on a rock watching the two idiots continue to beat the shit out of each other. Thankfully they were both evenly matched that neither one of them had done any serious damage; however, if this kept up much longer she was going to knock their heads together until they saw the light, or became unconscious either way worked for Aria at this point. As she finished musing she looked towards the men to see Gisborne kick Robin in the gut, causing him to fall down the embankment.
Gisborne ran after Robin and when he reached the bottom he picked Robin up getting ready to hit him again, but Robin beat him to it. Aria ran to the top of the hill just to see both men lying on the ground breathing heavily and not moving. Just as she was starting down the hill Gisborne got up on his hands and crawled his way over to Robin.
"Gisborne No!" Aria shouted, now afraid for Robin's life; however, Gisborne either didn't hear her or choose to ignore her.
Gisborne looked over at Robin in disgust "You thought you'd come home from the holy land covered in glory? Well guess what, no one here cares. They couldn't even point to it on a map. So what was it all for, eh? Robin of Locksley, Earl of Huntingdon, Hero of Acre. Look at you now; you're just a common outlaw. House and lands lost. Do you honestly think people aren't laughing at you, that the king wouldn't laugh at you if he saw you now? Then there is Marian, the women you gave up, lost to me. Do you think I won't laugh every time we—" Gisborne's sentence was cut off as Aria punched him in the jaw.
"That was a low blow Gisborne, even for you. Go back to the sheriff and leave us alone!" Aria shouted at him as she moved in front of Robin, willing to protect him with her life if need be. She had had enough; this was going to end right now if she had any say in it.
Robin looked up, 'what was she doing?' He thought she had left with Much, 'she shouldn't be here, it wasn't her fight, as this was between him and Gisborne.'
"What's this" Gisborne asked as he got to his feet after Aria's punch, "you need a women to fight your battles for you now Locksley? You're more pathetic than I thought!" Gisborne started to laugh, but it quickly turned into a cough that drew blood to his lips.
"Aria! Get out of here, this isn't your fight, leave us be." When she made no move to leave he continued, silently asking for her forgiveness for what he was about to say. "Haven't you learned already not to get involved? Do you not remember what happened last time?" Robin knew it was a low blow, but he didn't want her hurt, so he had to push her away.
Before Aria could argue with Robin, Gisborne opened his big mouth and stuck his nose where it didn't belong. "Yes run along now, whore, I'm sure your master will call for your services later. If I haven't killed him by then that is."
"Gisborne I—" Aria started only to be cut off by Robin.
"Go now, go now and leave me!" Robin shouted.*
Ari's face flushed with anger and embarrassment, he wasn't going to seriously let that comment from Gisborne slide was he? She knew this wasn't her fight, but she didn't want to sit there and watch them kill each other. Still she listened to Robin, and stormed off towards the clearing.
"Now, where were we? Oh yes, Marian chose me, she accepted me!" Gisborne said to Robin.
"I'll tell her you're a traitor," Robin answered.
"I'll deny it" Gisborne countered.
"She is astute" Robin pointed out.
"True, and she has had her doubts about me, but she's also stood BY ME" Gisborne shot back, "She will believe my denial."
Robin threw one last punch, using the last of his strength up and incapacitating Gisborne before collapsing on his back, trying to get enough air into his lungs.
Ok the only thing I really have here is the "Lord Of The Dance" jibe. On my wordpress account I have a link for the video and a link for the lyrics. The reason I wanted to point this part out is because of the biblical reference. The song talks about a "Lord of The Dance" aka Christ, who comes down from heaven and leads everyone in a joyful dance. What Gisborne could be referring to here is that Robin feels the need to play peace maker with everyone, and help everyone get along with each other, the Jews, Muslims, and the Christians. Which if we look at the season as a whole, it focuses on the crusades and how Robin keeps trying to bring peace to the holy land.
So with out me writing a full blown essay on this, i'm leaving it at that. Enjoy, and if you want more on the crusades or other historical facts please visit my wordpress account where I dump all my links, and sometimes all my hand written notes.
I'm not sure which sub chapter I picked up two new followers, but I'm thanking them here before I forget. So big shout out to Countess of Huntingdon and Lady Florance1983 for adding my story to their favorite stories list, favorite author list, and for adding me to their alert list. I hope you new kids enjoy the rest of the story!
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".
Please review, and if you liked my story please tell a friend or friends!
For more information on this chapter as well as links please check out my wordpress account pen name FFAMasquerade2005