Harley slipped on a loose blue t-shirt and cracked his neck several times. Last night he'd been on night watch duty: a routine that involved two or more people sitting around the cottage and screaming if something went wrong. It was supposed to be Thea's turn, but after a couple of fake wake-up calls as a "friendly prank," the group voted to post Harley with Joel instead. He wasn't happy, but accepted it nonetheless. Now, he was suffering for it.

"Are you done in there?" He heard Kira demand from the other side of the bathroom door. "I need to spend some quality time with my eyebrows."

Sighing, Harley ran a hand through his hair a couple of times and left, leaving Kira to do her thing. Thea, Ella and Tristan were in the kitchen when he got there, apparently deciding what to eat. As if they had much choice. There was a perfectly good loaf of bread on the counter, though.

Someone must've stolen it, Harley thought. Don't mind if I do.

He took a few slices and watched the other three immediately do the same. Nothing was said, perhaps because everyone had their mouths full of decent food, but it was clear that there was some sort of unease in the air. Harley had obviously interrupted some sort of meeting.

"How are we?" He asked when he was done.

Tristan grunted, unsurprisingly, and slipped past him without a word. Thea, however, swallowed her last slice and grinned. "Alright."

Ella smiled, but there was a faint sadness in her eyes. "It's a little different... I can hardly remember living in a house, but I'll get used to it. Thanks for letting me stay!"

"No problem." Harley said. "Actually... toady's the day that Wills is coming, right? You said he wanted to finalise some things."

Ella exchanged a troubled glance with Thea, surprisingly, and nodded. "He wants to talk to you and Joel, if I remember right."

Harley crossed his arms. "Must be important, then. Usually he'd only call a meeting with the two of us if it was something that only we could do."

Ella shrugged and said nothing else, then Harley remembered his initial feeling of awkwardness when he'd first entered the kitchen. "Was that what you were talking about before?"

Both girls nodded. Thea then hoisted herself up onto the bench in a sitting position. "Some of us are still a little skeptical about him. I mean, he did try to kill you, remember?"

All too well. Harley and Estella's confrontation with Wills while interrogating Mr. Stone was not something that could be forgotten easily. Especially the events that followed.

"I remember." Harley said quietly. "He's partly why we're in this mess to begin with." Then, he shrugged and gave the two girls a playful smile. "But I also remember kicking his ass, so."

Thea chuckled, but Ella remained silent. Something told Harley that she still wasn't over everything that'd happened recently. Poor girl.

"Harley?" Joel called from somewhere out on the back lawn. "Can you come help me get my arrows down from the trees?"

Harley sighed. "That's my cue."

--------

Why Joel chose to shoot arrows into the treetops instead of using the targets painted on the outside of Kira's shed, Harley would never know. Unfortunately, it left a suspicious scene for any forest strollers, so Harley had to climb up each tree and dislodge them individually. Although as punishment, he kept dropping them point down towards Joel far below, who narrowly avoided impalement several times.

Afterwards, the two boys sparred for about an hour until lunch time rolled around. Harley noticed that Joel's hand-to-hand fighting skills were growing stronger, possibly due to the noticeable amount of weight he'd gained. His shoulders had filled out, now that he was sixteen, and his arms showed signs of working out. That, and his slight height advantage over Harley, made him a surprisingly difficult opponent. Harley found himself overpowered quite a few times, but not even Joel could match his unorthodox combat maneuvers, so he won most of the time.

Nothing else exciting happened during the day, until about an hour after everyone had finished their deluxe meals of bread, when they heard a knock at the door. Joel was closest, so he slowly marched towards it, bow in hand. Another loud knock rattled the rickety household, making Harley nervous that the crossbeams would collapse. Joel, however, got annoyed and yanked the door open. Sure enough, Wills stood there.

He wore a black leather vest, as usual, over an olive green long-sleeve shirt and a pair of denim jeans. Other than the shirt, he looked quite the same as when Harley'd last seen him. He even had that same determined look in his blue eyes that never seemed to go away. He regarded Joel with a look of... dissatisfaction? Then he swept those narrow eyes past him and across the room until they found Harley, who returned the demanding glare with a feisty expression.

"The Rebel League." Wills spoke, finally. It was getting a little awkward. "The group that managed to thwart the Crime Lords plans and take down the Samurai all at once. Impressive." Here we go, Harley thought, rolling his eyes when Wills looked away. He'll say he was expecting a bigger group, you watch. "I guess I was expecting a little more... numbers." Case and point. "Fortunately, I believe I can add to those numbers." He focused his attention on Joel once more. "You up for a chat?"

Instead of answering, Joel punched him in the nose. Wills grunted in pain, but didn't seem all that affected. A trickle of blood ran down over his lips, though.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand and glared. "Point taken. You always were the stubborn one."

Joel, staying silent, stepped to the side and crossed his arms. Wills stepped into the lounge room and faced Harley instead. "We need to talk."

"Pfft." Harley accidentally scoffed at him.

He sighed and sharpened his gaze even further, something Harley thought was actually impossible. "I'm serious. Yes, we've had some misunderstandings, but where would you be if it weren't for me?" Before Harley could come up with a sarcastic reply, Wills continued. "More importantly, where will you be if I don't step in now? As much as you've created this little group of thieves, I'm the one who can create real armies. Just look at what I've prepared in advance."

Instead of giving him the satisfaction of asking, Harley rolled his eyes. "Fine, we'll talk."

Wills almost looked surprised. Almost. "Huh. You've changed. Normally it'd take days to convince you. Then again, you aren't Joel." An audible curse was heard from the door. "Shall we?"

-------

While the rest of the league congregated in the lounge room, openly discussing their alternating trust in Wills, the three boys headed out the back to talk in private. Harley wasn't armed, since Wills wasn't, but Joel still carried his bow. He even occasionally reflected the sunlight into Wills' eyes with its blade.

"Okay, spill." Harley said, leaning against the back door.

Wills nodded. "Alright, lets get straight to it. I want to invade Stone Industries. Hit it hard with a massive force."

"Gee." Joel shrugged. "Never would've guessed."

Wills gave him a dirty look and continued. "Like I said, I want a massive force, but I can only do that with numbers. This is what I've been trying to achieve since the beginning of our group. A team big enough and strong enough to overthrow the authority and start making changes around the district."

"By which you mean invading it." Joel countered. "God, you never change."

"So what!?" Wills snapped. "So what if I like an army! I'm a good leader and I plan to make a change!" He reigned himself in again and spoke in his earlier tone. "Anyway, I want our teams to join up and create a group big enough to take on the Shadow King. I think if we work hard enough and surprise them with numbers, we can do it."

Harley sighed. "I gotta say, you have a point about being a good leader. I'm even feeling a little inspired."

Wills was clearly surprised this time. "Oh. Thanks I gue- oh."

"Idiot." Harley muttered. "How long have you known me?"

"Sarcasm is getting old." Wills complained. "Besides, I'm serious."

"What about the others?" Joel asked. "Isn't Callum still around? And Jack? Not to mention our rescue plan for Estella."

Wills groaned quietly. "Forgot about that. That might slow us down." He tapped his chin for a moment, then pointed at Harley. "Can you take care of Estella?"

Harley raised an eyebrow. "Like... rescue her? By myself?"

"Yes." There was no humour in those eyes. "Can you do it? Can I trust you to bring her back, no matter what?"

Those last few words seemed to have a subtle meaning, but Harley nodded anyway. He'd got her into this mess, and now he was gonna get her out. "I'll do it."

"Good." Wills clapped his hands together. "Now, about this team-up thing."

Joel and Harley exchanged silent messages through facial expressions. It seemed to go something along the lines of: No. We have no choice. I could think of one. Think about the team. Fine.

So, with a pang of uncertainty, Harley nodded. "We'll join you, but I thought Quinn would've told you already? We talked about this a couple of days ago, I'm pretty sure."

Wills furrowed his eyebrows then nodded. "Quinn's been doing some recon work around the factory, so they probably forgot. Besides, I needed to hear it from you two."

Harley nodded. "Seems fair. How big is your team?"

"Oh." Wills looked pleased with himself. "It's pretty big."

"Not your ego." Harley rolled his eyes. "Your team."

"I will hurt you." Wills warned, then suddenly widened his eyes. "Oh, right, one more thing we have to discuss."

"What?" Joel and Harley said in unison.

Wills' mouth turned up at the corner. "I have a special plan that I have to undertake alone, and I'm only telling the two of you because it's crucial that no one else spreads the information and risks my target finding out."

"Who's your target?" Harley asked. "Or do I even want to know."

Wills looked out into the forest, in the direction of the Stone Industries factory. "I plan to assassinate Anthony Stone and shut down the Stone Industries foundation. They've been hiding something, something called 'Project X.' I have to know what it is so I can destroy it, along with his legacy."

Harley sighed. "I suppose there's no changing your mind, then. Stella's gonna be pissed."

Wills simply shrugged. "Wasn't she against him when she first joined us anyway? She'll get over it. For now, though, you two should probably spread the news about our alliance to your group."

"Alright, but are you staying here?" Harley asked, hoping it was a no due to low bed numbers.

Thankfully, Wills shook his head. "I'll be in touch."