Hello everyone! I'm retrying this story again, re-editing it significantly and hopefully actually updating it somewhat regularly. Once I get over my obsession over proper grammar, at least.

So, anyway, please read and review and all that. Oh, and Fair Use protects this, I don't own anything save for my own characters, and even that's kinda iffy. Enjoy!

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"Kyri! Wake up!"

Im...? thought Arik, opening his eyes at the sound of his life-long friend's worried voice, seeing the red haired girl bending over the slumped figure across the way.

"Im, that you?"

"Arik, you're here too?" she said, shifting her eyes away from the slumped elven form, lying in a cage akin to his own, save for the open door. Kyri was clearly in bad shape, looking thin and pale, with more than one bloody wound on her face.

"Yeah. Ky's been out for a while," he said, referring to the friend, elf, sorceress, and Bhaalspawn currently unconscious. "Got a key to my door?"

"No, I only saw the one to Kyri's, sorry. Anyone else here?"

"Joy. Yeah, I think Jahiera and Minsc are nearby," giving a half-hearted grin, "they aren't exactly the quiet types. Got any of those hair things on you?"

"You mean my hairpins? No, but here," she tosses Arik a long, thin nail. "It worked on my door."

"Thanks. Don't help me, either, I need practice." He nods toward Kyri. "I'm not that surprised she's still out. That damn mage was just here; cast a whole volley of spells at her. She... she screamed for a while. I think he was torturing her." He stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and saying, "Thank the gods she blacked out. Some of those last spells..."

"He's... evil. Pure evil. Nothing other than evil would do this..." Imoen said, returning to Kyri's side.

"Don't need telling, Im," Arik whispered to himself. "She'll recover. He's... done this before. Only to her though. Don't know why, other than maybe the obvious," Arik said, referring to Kyri's heritage, and not the elven one.

The lock snaps open and Arik steps out, shivering and infinitely thankful to be out of that cell. Finally free, he takes a good look at Imoen. She looks haunted, tortured, and sporting a handful of ugly scars. "Im, what did..." he said, hesistating, and finally saying, "How are you?"

"I really don't want to talk about it bro."

"Im..."

"Imoen! Arik! Are you two out?" yells their friend and mentor, and something of a mother hen, the druid Jahiera.

"Yes! Keep shouting! I don't think everyone in Nashkel heard you!" yelled Arik.

"LET THEM HEAR US! MINSC AND BOO SHALL TAKE REVENGE ON ALL WHO WOULD IMPRISON US! WE SHALL DESTROY THOSE WHO KILLED DYNAHEIR! BUTTS WILL BE KICKED IN GOOD MEASURE!" yelled the ranger Minsc, another friend and ally, possessing a nearly supernatural strength. Somehow, you could hear it all in capitals.

"Dynaheir's..." Imoen said, choking up on the words, clutching at her unconscious friend and sister even tighter.

"Yes. They killed her in front of me, made me watch. They... they..." said Minsc, stumbling over his words, fighting to remain angry, to not cry.

"We'll get him, big guy. We all have reas- " Arik began.

Kyri's moan broke him off. The Bhaalspawn was in very bad shape, but it seemed like she was finally coming out of it. She was quite attractive, the standard elven figure with the flowing brown hair, but the villain's spells had done a number on her lovely face and physique, marring it with burns, cuts and bruises.

"Kyri! Are you awake?" cried Imoen, shaking her friend, willing her to wake up.

Kyri woke slowly. A powerful sorceress, Kyri had been an orphan as long as she had known, and the discovery of the identity of her father had not helped matters. A daughter of the God of Murder, Bhaal, her powers had come to light shortly after leaving Candlekeep. She had been growing in power ever since, capable of casting powerful spells of destruction without even needing the spellbooks Arik and Imoen depended on. In other words, Arik mused, she's the most useful person in the group right now.

"Imoen? Where are we?"

"I... I don't know. A dungeon somewhere." Imoen replied.

"Too hot to be Baldur's Gate. Hell, this is hotter than the Nashkel Mines. Probably further south than that. Amn, maybe?" Arik's eyes keep moving about, looking for any sign of their location.

"Or there might not be any ventilation. Or our generous host made it hot in here. Too little information to guess." Kyri shakes her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. "Where are the others?"

"Jahiera and Minsc are over there somewhere," Arik said, pointing to where their voices came from. "Haven't seen Khalid, and Dynaheir..."

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Jahiera had long run out of patience. It's true that Kyri's condition is important, as their captor had cast a long series of vicious spells on her. Jahiera had recognized only a few, and figured that the rest were just as much an abomination on nature.

But at the moment Jahiera was still held in a cage, wearing just enough to preserve modesty. She had no way to break the lock open and what spells she did cast seemed to be nullified by the cage itself. And she had a half-naked ranger next door, who seemed on the verge of going insane.

Well, even more insane, at least.

"No. No! NO! I SHALL WAIT NO LONGER! MINSC WILL CRUSH THEM ALL! THEIR BUTTS WILL BE KICKED SO HARD THEIR BONES WILL SHATTER! NO CAGE SHALL HOLD ME!" yelled Minsc, now thoroughly out of control. He threw himself at the doors of the cage once, twice, three times, and then finally, with a giant clang, the door flew off and slammed into a nearby cage.

"HAHA! MINSC IS FREE! COME, EVIL, AND FEEL MY ANGER AND MY BOOT!"

"Stop you fool! Quit yelling or the villain will return when we are not ready! And get me out of here!" Jahiera yelled.

Minsc paused at his companion's voice and raised his hands to his ear. He stood there for a few moments, concentrating on something unseen to Jahiera. And then Jahiera realized what he was listening to...

"You still have that hamster? How did you... no, never mind. There are questions that should never be asked," she said to herself, fighting a losing battle against the mental images. "Just... just open this door," she said, hand moving to her temple.

"Boo concurs," Minsc replied curtly and, after moving Boo to his shoulders, stepped over and, with almost no effort and a hideous wailing of twisting metal, wrenched the door from its moorings and threw it aside as though it were a twig.

"Well done. Now, follow me. We should corral the others and get out of here quickly."