Honestly xD

That sounds good to me. [s]so much drama and action I'm excited lol[/s]
Penelope's going to go into rage mode when she finds out about Jaxon manipulating Crow on top of everything else he's done xD 

I also love that we actually have like a main antagonist for this part cx 

EDIT: So I just randomly had an idea but I'm not sure how well it would work depending on what you're planning with Jaxon xD

So I was thinking that maybe Jaxon and his crew are camping either near the border or even slightly on the Younisian side, since that would keep them rather protected from being discovered easily by the Brerratics. 

My idea is to sorta bring Hartley back into the story for a little. Here's how:

Over the two year skip, I imagine that Hartley and Kip ended up getting married, though not without some resistance from her family after they learned he was a thief. They probably ended up moving to avoid them and tried to make a living for themselves elsewhere. It's difficult though and Hartley probably has a few close run ins that make him second guess his career choice. Then the war starts up and he sees it as a chance to make a different name for himself. 
I'm not sure what you had in mind but I was thinking maybe the reason the commoners of Younis are able to fight decently is because they're like a small militia on their own so when war occurs they help protect their homes and even fight alongside the knights if the battles stray close enough. I was also thinking that this gives peasant men a chance to elevate in social status if they make a name for themselves while defending their home, maybe even becoming unofficial members of the battalion if the higher ups of the battalion deem them as worthy enough.

So Hartley would run off to try and to make a name for himself, leaving Kip behind with her family despite the bad blood. He would have come into the war a little late and hesitantly since I imagine he'd probably have to take some time before hand to improve his fighting skills. As the war rages on, he continues to defend alongside the other peasant men and tries to show off a bit but fails to get much recognition. He's starting to get a bit desperate when he hears word that one of his kingdom's spies has hired a group of thieves to sabatoge the enemy. 

Hartley would realize that he might be able to use his thieving skills in order to gain the attention he needs in order to rise up so he'd decide to go track down the group of thieves to both learn from them and possibly try to take a bit of credit. 

I could see this either causing him to accidentally run into Crow and Penelope's group or perhaps he already found Jaxon and managed to get accepted as a new member but doesn't realize how cruel they are yet like Crow since he's too blinded by a possible shot to excel.

Again I'm not sure if it would fit for what we have going but I thought it could be fun to bring him back in xD I also had an idea that the thief Penelope let get away from her and Gavin could be among them too but I might just save running into him for a different time cx