121A/N: I know, I suck. Big time. You deserve much better. Life got in the way over the last few weeks, and I swear I would have had this up much sooner if it didn't. Thank you, to those of you who are sticking with this story!
"Wait for it…wait for it…" Lucy mumbled, her face uncharacteristically consternated as she watched the entryway to the castle with a shrewd eye. Beside her, Aidan twitched a little, cracking his knuckles and shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"You're making me nervous," she said quietly. Aidan sighed, but tried half heartedly to relax his tense position in the bushes. They were well hidden, and could probably spend the entire night in this spot without being found, but Aidan couldn't help hearing his father's voice in his head, instructing him to avoid lingering near the castle, to always check the perimeter, to be on guard and never ever relax in the slightest in Nottingham. To be fair, they had been crouching there for quite some time. Aidan had been so full of energy and determination that waiting was almost akin to torture as he studied the walls again.
"Lucy," he finally whispered. "Lucy, I really think it's about-"
"Now!" she hissed back, and Aidan launched to his feet alongside her. They ran to the edge of the castle easily, and when they arrived Aidan felt a rush of adrenaline. They were finally going in- finally accomplishing something. Lucy spent less time reveling in their slight victory against the guards as she deftly picked the lock of the gate and opened it.
"Come on! Before the guards come back!" Aidan didn't need to be told twice. He followed her into a dark corridor, lit only by strategically placed torches set at intervals along the stone walls.
"So where exactly are we?" he couldn't help asking, pausing beside a huge stone door and trying the knob. Lucy reached over and slapped his hand down. She breathed out in a huff, glaring at her partner.
"Don't. Touch. Anything. You have no idea which doors are open, which are booby trapped, and which will trigger an alarm of some sort. I know what I am doing, so just follow me. And for the last time, we are directly behind the kitchens at this point. Got it?"
Aidan waited until she had turned back around before he muttered, "Yes, mother." Lucy turned her head and glared daggers at him before shaking her hair out of her eyes and continuing quickly. They paused at a corner, checked to make sure no stray guards were wandering around, and then ran down the next corridor as well. Finally, Lucy stopped short, and Aidan practically ran into her.
"You wanna warn me when you do that?" he huffed quietly, before turning to see why they had stopped. They were facing another stone door, which looked identical to all the other doors.
"Is this it? Is this where the supplemental storage is kept?" Aidan was unable to keep a hint of exhilaration out of his tone. Lucy didn't respond, as she was already hard at work picking the lock. While she fiddled with the knob, Aidan paced back and forth in the hallway, clenching and unclenching his fists as he walked, more out of nerves than anything else. Did Robin feel like this when he was in the castle? Every noise struck a chord deep inside him, and he could feel tremors of anxiety run down his spine as he heard the lock click. He whirled to face Lucy.
"Okay, slowly now," she whispered. She gingerly took hold of the knob and turned it, pushing the door forward into the dim strong room. At first, Aidan was positive that it was going to be that easy. But as his toe crossed the line into the room, he heard a faint whistling noise, and had enough sense to drag Lucy to the ground with him a split second before three arrows pierced the air in front of them. The arrows clattered to the ground in the hallway, echoing slightly, and Aidan let out a breath of air. "Well, that was exciting!" he said, grinning at his accomplice. Lucy's eyes were wide, but she cautiously accepted Aidan's hand and got up next to him.
"Even more slowly," she warned, hesitantly pushing her foot over the line to the room. Aidan stepped all the way into the room, paused to make sure they were safe, and then offered his hand to Lucy again. As their eyes adjusted to the light, Aidan's heard skipped a beat. Gold. Bags upon bags upon boxes of gold. He could have laughed out loud, but he remained conscious enough to settle for giving Lucy's hand a squeeze. She was silent.
"Let's get to work!" he breathed. Lucy said nothing, although Aidan could have sworn there was something she wanted to tell him. She was probably just anxious about the job...
The plan had been to use a cart (they were near the kitchens, and Lucy knew well enough where they could find one) to transport a load of the gold back to their position in the bushes. Once they got that far, they could don cloaks, cover up the bags and pretend to be peddlers of some sort. The guards at this time of night were not exactly vigilant, as anyone who was passing out of the gates was not really a concern. It was a good thing they had already gotten in. Aidan had briefly considered the possibility of getting stopped and searched on the way out of the gates, but in his frenzied state he only managed to form a halfway decent plan should such an occasion arise. They would either pretend to be lepers (the guards would stay far away from them then), or one of them would provide a distraction while the other escaped. However, at the moment, Aidan was content to scoop up armfuls of the coins, stuff as many as possible into giant sacks, and carry them down the hall to place in a cart. The pair worked silently for a time, Lucy filling the bags and Aidan putting them in the hallway. Just as they were preparing to leave, they heard the sound of armor in the hallway.
They both froze. Lucy glanced at Aidan, biting her bottom lip. Guards were walking towards them. Considering the hallway echoed, they were still a few turns away, but still…Aidan hurriedly pulled the cart inside and behind the door, out of view. As the footsteps drew nearer, he hissed at Lucy to hide behind the money. He waited until she complied to make sure she could not be seen from the doorway. It was then that he remembered the arrows that had flown at them. It was dark in the hallway, but the arrows had landed under a torch. If the guards saw them…Aidan flung himself out the door and dove for the arrows, scooping them up quickly. Heart hammering in his chest, Aidan glanced up as the vague shadow of a guard appeared on the wall behind the flickering torch. They were about to turn the corner, and there wasn't time for him to escape. But the door to the strong room was still agape! They would know something was wrong; there was no way they would look past it! But there wasn't time for action, and it was all he could do to hide around a darkened corner as the guards appeared. There were two- one was holding a flame, and the other was squinting ahead in the darkness.
"Coulda sworn I heard somethin here!", one muttered.
"Aw, you're always sayin that, and it's never true!" The other complained, shoving the arm of the first man in irritation. Unfortunately, it was the arm that held the torch, and by moving his arm, light fell upon the parted door to the strong room. Aidan's breath held in his throat.
"Aye! What's this now?! This door is never opened!" The man without the torch pushed the door open, and waved a hand tentatively across the doorframe, maneuvering himself out of the path of he open door as he did so. Clearly, they knew the room was guarded.
"Arrows are out! There must be an intruder!"
"Nah, there can't be. We woulda noticed if they came in. We were outside the whole time!"
"Right, but why would the door be open?!"
The guard, who was set on figuring out the mystery, stepped farther into the room, grabbing the torch from his friend as he did so.
Aidan knew that at any moment, Lucy would be discovered. His heart sank- this was all his fault. He should have listened to his father. How could he have been this stupid?! He simply could not allow Lucy to be discovered. So, without thinking much further, Aidan leapt out from his hiding spot. Both guards were distracted, so he crept up behind the man in back. With all his strength, he threw himself at the guard. Luckily for Aidan, the man was slight of build and caught completely unaware, and so he was able to force him down to his knees, and then deliver a swift blow to the side of his head to knock him out. The other guard turned instantly, and Aidan jumped back to his feet.
"Run, Luce!", he yelled, as he rushed at the man inside the storage room. The guard took two steps back, and tripped over the cart filled with gold. As he fell, Lucy got up and ran out the door. She looked just as panicked as Aidan was, although there was something about her expression that he couldn't place. Lucy wasted no time; she grabbed Aidan's hand and dragged him down another corridor.
"Hurry, Aidan! That guard will be up in no time!" Aidan followed without complaint as they ran towards…
"Lucy! We can't go through the kitchens- someone would catch you!"
Lucy sighed, and she looked like she was about to cry. "I'm not going with you. You have to leave, now. Quickly…the Sheriff will be around at any moment!" She pushed futilely at Aidan's chest, trying to force him towards the door.
"LUCY! I won't leave without you!"
"Aidan, please! You don't understand. The Sheriff…he knows I am here. You need to get away!"
"How would he know you're here? I don't understand!"
"I...I made a mistake. I did something terrible. I swear, I never meant for you to...", she took a deep breath. "There's no TIME, Aidan. Please, just go! Get out, and don't worry about me!"
But at that moment, the door to the kitchen opened, and the Sheriff, along with four guards, stepped towards them.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" The Sheriff's gold tooth glinted maliciously as he smiled at Aidan, sizing him up as though he were a particularly delicious meal. Aidan's breath caught in his throat. This was the closest he had ever been to the man, and all his instincts were telling him to turn and run. He looked back, but the guards had now surrounded him. Oddly enough, they had not surrounded Lucy, who had begun crying now. Despite his position, Aidan felt the need to reassure the girl he had come to think of as a sister in the last month.
"Luce…it'll be okay! Don't be scared!", he said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. The Sheriff turned, amused, to Lucy.
"Oh, heroism! Well isn't that just…adorable," he sneered. "So kind of him to defend you, eh?!" He laughed outright at that, and Lucy dissolved into sobs. "Take him to the dungeons," he said smoothly, waving to the guards, who promptly forced him into action. Aidan struggled, trying to look back to Lucy, who still stood by the Sheriff's side, but he was turned around a corner too quickly.
Aidan was not actually taken straight to the dungeons. Apparently, the guards had stops to make, and he wasn't dangerous enough to have to be put behind bars. He waited; hands clasped tightly behind his back in shackles, as two of the guards departed, and was then steered into another part of the building. If it wasn't for the sheer terror and guilt he was experiencing, it would have been a great experience, to see the whole castle without needing to rush. His father had always taught him to take advantage of the things that were handed to him- to be careful but never pass up an opportunity to learn. His heart sank even further as he thought of Robin. Did he already know his son was missing? It was too painful to think about.
When he was finally escorted to the dungeons, he was left with only one guard, who stayed behind and to the right of him, his hands firmly on Aidan's upper arms. When they were about at the giant door leading into the room, Aidan felt a surge of confidence. He could get out of this. His father always managed to do so. As soon as the guard's grip on him faltered, as he took one hand off of his arm to open the door, Aidan took action. He reached backward and elbowed the man squarely in the stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Aidan leaned over and grabbed the key to his shackles from the man's hand. He swiftly maneuvered the key in the lock, and his hands were freed. Then he knocked the man down with another jab to the head, and was halfway down the hallway when two large guards turned a corner to face him. Aidan skidded to a halt. His fists clenched, and he ran forward to take on the men head on. Later, he would regret this decision, but his father's training had not only built up his strength and endurance but his self-assurance (which, ironically, was the opposite of what Robin had intended). Unfortunately, he barely managed to reach the men when he was knocked to the ground by the larger of the two. He tried to get up, but was pinned down by a foot.
"Oi! That little outlaw just knocked me down, and stole the bloody key!" The guard from before lumbered towards them, a sneer fixed on his face. He leaned over Aidan with a grimace. "You think you can get away that easy, do ya?"
"Well, I clearly bested you," Aidan couldn't help but sneer back at him. That was the last straw for the guard, who lifted back his foot and began to kick Aidan repeatedly. Aidan tensed up, trying not to scream as blow upon blow landed on his side, his back, his stomach. At one point, he attempted to get up, but a hard fist to the side of his face brought him crashing down to the ground again. He didn't know for how long he was kicked mercilessly, but he knew when the pain stopped. The guards were standing at attention- Aidan could barely focus from the intense pain, but he saw the Sheriff and Lucy standing before them. Lucy's eyes were red, and she looked absolutely horrified.
"Kid tried to get away," the guard who had been kicking him grunted. The Sheriff shrugged indifferently. "Saves us the trouble of torturing him…for now," he said silkily. Then he turned to Lucy.
"I suppose I should thank you," he said to the girl, smiling from ear to ear. "It was a job well done, although I think you could have gathered information faster than you did. And I cannot BELIEVE you never found out where the real hideout is…absolutely pathetic. But in any case, you did manage to find out ONE useful fact that I wasn't counting on, and manipulate the boy into my possession… so I guess you weren't a totally incompetent spy! You're actually a decent liar!" He turned from Lucy's tear stained face to Aidan's shocked, albeit a little starry eyed, expression. "Wouldn't you agree, Aidan Hood?"
A/N: Whoa. WHOA. I didn't even see that one coming. Maybe she had a good reason for it. Or maybe she's just evil…hm. Finale will be up this weekend. Sorry again for the wait.