Raven was unceremoniously dumped into the cell before the new iron bars closed her in. Giving a deep sigh she looked around and found it exactly like she imagined. Dark and made of cinderblocks, a small sink and toilet with a curtain shutting it off from the guard's view but would allow them to see a shadow, a cot in the corner. There was one thing odd with the cell though, the right top corner was made of bars, half the length of both walls and a foot down from the ceiling were bars.
Raven usually hated her father, he had caused her only grief. But in this instant she was proud of him. He had refused to start a war with the neighboring countries. For once King Trigon had taken the high road. And she had been kidnapped and tossed into this cell.
The three kingdoms of the peninsula of Imani had been in an uneasy peace for the latter part of the century, the demons, the Tameranians and the humans had stayed out of each other's private business and thus kept out of full scale war. One of the main land countries wanted the peninsula and offered the one who started the war a king's ransom and a high position within it's court. The two kings and queen had declined.
At the moment, however, Raven blinked her four red eyes and let her lengthy forked tongue taste the air, all her senses were dulled by the iron and the organ darted back into her mouth before her sharp teeth snapped shut. She crouched into a fighting stance as the soft sniffing that echoed through her cell before a voice rang out in a language she didn't understand.
"Oh, a newcomer you say?" came another voice. More of the unknown language followed before the man she understood spoke up "Hello there! We mean no harm and only want to help, my name is Victor, just call me Vic though!" there was a moment of silence before the newly christened Vic called again "Princess! Rich! Ain't you gonna say hi?"
Another man, presumably this 'Rich' called out "Yeah, like Vic said, I'm Richard, prince of the humans…Vic's a human too if you're wondering"
A woman squealed happily "Oh, hello friend! I am princess Kory of Tameran! If it were not for these confines we should be the best of friends!"
Raven took stock of her situation, well, getting to know her fellow prisoners couldn't hurt "I am Princess of the Demons, you may call me Raven"
More of the unknown language assaulted her ears "My friend here can't speak English…he understands every language I've ever heard of but he only speaks this one…he says that his name is Gar and he's sorry for your circumstances."
She snorted and smarmed "Well, I guess it's for all of us" she quickly hovered to the ceiling and over to the bars, she could see into the three other cells, two were identical, the other was different, the only light that entered the room was the miserable filtered light from the other cells that didn't illuminate anything other than solid floor. She let out a whistle and the royalty saw her, the prince was to her right just waved with a smile while the princess who's cell was cattycorner floated up and grinned cheerfully.
Raven saw it before the other girl could ask, she was going in for a hug. Luckily she was saved by more garbled words, she noticed the oddest thing-when Gar spoke all the others went quiet. Cyborg spoke up from the dark cell that he shared with Gar "Gar asks that you take a few steps on the floor…" more words "So that he can get a lock on your sounds"
All four of Raven's eyes blinked "What."
Rich chuckled and she hissed at him and the denizens of the lighted cells retreated a bit, Vic started explaining "Gar isn't…well, normal. By any stretch. He's our info guy, he can hear and smell everything that goes on in this place, he just wants to know what your footsteps sound like so he won't get confused" Gar cut in with a few words "Um…I ain't sure if I should tell her tha-" he was cut off by Gar again "Fine, I'll tell her" he let out a big sigh "Gar says 'please' and that you, um…you smell beautiful"
She blinked "I reek of ash and blood and you enjoy the smell?" she shook her head but lowered herself and took a few steps "Is my sound clear enough?" she hissed.
Vic's voice came out very rushed and quite "Guards, keep quiet and do what they say. They're under orders to keep as far away from us as they can."
Before she could reply the door opened and eight guards came in. Each one of them wore a long flowing cloth across their faces and plate mail, two of them held two trays each, the rest had spears and were standing as far away from the cells as they could. All of the spears were pointed at them. As they entered they split into two groups, one for each side of the block. The cells themselves were standing freely in a concrete room. The trays were delivered and the guards retreated within a minute.
It took several minutes but the silence was broken when Gar very deliberately spoke for several seconds. Victor again translated, all humor gone from his voice "Princess Raven. How badly do you want to escape?"
She hissed "The way of the demons is to destroy those who wrong us." baring her teeth in a grin she said "And I would love to rip them apart."
The man spoke again "Then I'm going to need to know what type of demon you are. If you have the right powers we can get out of here in a month. If not we're going to have to spend at least another six."
Snarling she growled "Why a month? Why six? Why are my powers so important?"
"Hey, there no need to get snappy!" Richard shot back.
"Please do not fight!" the other princess begged but Raven retorted Richard and that caused them to argue and it escalated until their yelling dragged the two potential peacekeepers in. Vic and Kory were yelling for quiet when it happened.
A roar silenced everyone as the very walls shook and dust fell from the ceiling. In the silence there was only Gar's heavy panting. His voice came quietly as if he only had a certain volume for the day and used up all of it in his roar. Victor sighed deeply "Sorry Gar. It got the best of me. Raven, in a month a bunch of the guards will go to their capitol in order to switch out. This happens every five months, that is why the in one month or six. As for why your powers…" he sounded defeated when he finished "Each of these cells was designed to contain us, Kory's can absorb all of her natural attacks while Richards is built sturdy enough that he can't make any tools and can't break anything. Gar and myself are in an entirely different type of containment. I can't really explain it unless you could see us."
"…Fine. I'm mostly a telekinetic, I have some empathy but not nearly as much as someone who specializes." she held the rest of her powers under wraps in case she needed to use them against her fellow prisoners.
"The guards won't be coming back for another four hours or so. Here's the plan…"
Richard said hesitantly "That's very…desperate."
"Myself and Gar have been in here for years. We know their patterns and this is our only way out, if we wait until the fresh batch gets here they will be more alert and when the majority of them leave this will be one of the blocks that gets hit the hardest. We also don't have time if they manage to convince one of the kingdoms that the others took their heirs. As for strategy" he hesitated "That's the only way we can get out of here. Our bindings over here are the most secure."
Kory said "I do not know what to make of this plan, it has far too many variables that I am unaware of"
Gar's voice was barely a whisper "Gar says that he won't let us get captured again. I believe him, now who else is in?"
Richard muttered "No better way…guess I'm in."
"I shall join you my friends" Kory agreed.
The demon princess sighed with the sound of brimstone against iron "I have no choice."
Gar relaxed as far as he was able in his confines. Soon he would be able to leave this horrible place behind. The newest girl was the piece that had been missing. Sending a silent prayer to Gaia he waited for darkness to fall and another day to pass.
Gar awoke to the voice of the warden at the far end of the compound, the information too important for him not to focus on. When the meeting was over he let out a whistle that woke the others who could only sleep lightly and he warbled out what he learned. Victor groaned "Shit. Okay guys, they moved the time table up to tomorrow, they're pulling all their people back and exchanging so they can start a war with our countries. We need to get home so that we can explain things before shots are fired."
The tension invaded their bones before Raven grit her teeth "When do we start?"
"Nightfall."
The rest of the day was spent in silence as the group prepared themselves for their escape. Richard slowly went through warm ups to keep himself limber and ready to react to anything, Kory slowly amassed all the energy she could in preparation for the ordeal to come.
"Scans are clear. Everyone keep your eyes open and be ready for anything." Victor initiated. Gar took several breaths before the sound of ripping flesh echoed across the small room.
Raven, the second key to the escape plan waited for a long moment before the door to her cell swung open quietly and she rushed around the cell block to Gar and Victor's cell. The cruelty of their confinement was something not even demons would do. Victor was deeply embedded in the wall, his mechanical body was covered to his shoulder and mid-thigh as the rest of his body was slumped forward. Very carefully she fed her powers into the restraints before wrapping around his body and turning him intangible for a second as he was pulled through.
The amount of precision had her holding her breath and when he was out she took a breath and nearly hurled-the stench of neglected years, both of bodies dead and alive and the rotten food that was cruelly placed just out of reach.
The other side of tiny cell had Gar's confinement and her stomach churned with the ideology of the cage. Victor was struggling to stand and he was needed for Richard's cell so she had a moment to examine the contraption.
In the simplest terms it could be called only a cage. But it was small, horribly so, even with her short stature her neck would have to be pushed as far forward as possible to fit in while she sat on the three bars that served as a seat, but even that would force her knees to her chest. Each leg would have a pole through the calf and running right underneath the seat while a chain was wrapped in a loop possibly around his neck.
But that was only half of it. There were gaps in the cage where arms would been pulled through parallel to another bar that had a shorter piece sticking up one that would have pressed against the elbow and forced the arm at an angle that would have done damage to the ligaments when combined with the final piece. At the end of the bar was a plank of wood with a single screw in it. To secure through the hand.
Gar had literally ripped his body out of the cage, she could feel the bile rising when a soft whistle pulled her to the wall was the furthest from the door.
Cinderblocks made up the vast barrier but their years showed as between two of the bricks was a small hole, small enough even her little finger couldn't get through but the breeze and sounds of night were able to enter and that was enough to give her hope.
It was too dark to see who was who but she counted only three others, before she could say anything the wall quietly buckled before a force hit it and bricks were pushed towards them at different lengths. Another figure seemed to materialize before nodding and all five of them pushed. As the wall fell there were very little sound one moment before the symphony of the night overtook them and the moon's light lit her world lighter than a hundred fires.
"What now?" asked Richard.
Raven looked at the four inky black figures "We run."