Behind Bars

Part Two: Factions


"Shift your asses, ladies! Everybody line up for count!"

Yang jolted awake. Bright white lights seared into her eyes. Squinting, she pushed herself upright with her good arm.

Something struck her bed from below.

"Hey new girl! Get up!" said Cadeja.

Yang heard the padding of Cadeja's feet across the cell. A loud buzz sounded and the doors to the cells clanked open.

Throwing her legs over the side of her bunk, Yang jumped down to the floor. Stumbling, she made her way to the doorway. Taking her place by her cellmate, she stood, waiting.

"Gooooooood morning cell block D!" came the deep, sing-song voice of one of the COs.

"Aw fuck," Cadeja cursed under her breath. "We got Kowalski today."

Still bleary-eyed, Yang ran her fingers through her bed-hair. A moment later, a tall guard in a pin-straight navy uniform started to make his way down the line. Rubbing her eyes, Yang observed him. She hadn't seen this CO before.

He had massively broad shoulders and was a little thick at the waist. Yang figured it was mostly muscle, but not exclusively. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows, exposing forearms covered in a mass dark hair.

His eyes were almost black, sunken deep into his face. His hair was just as dark, cropped neatly on the sides and longer on the top.

But his most distinctive features were two thick mutton-chop style sideburns that ran down to his chin and flared away from his jawline, culminating in two neatly groomed peaks.

Striding down the hallway, Kowalski stopped at each of the cells and checked off the girls one by one. Sometimes he would pause, raking his eyes over one of the inmates.

When he got to Cadeja, he smirked.

"And how are we this morning?" he said, leaning down towards her.

Yang saw the visible effort on Cadeja's face not to snarl.

"Just dandy, CO."

"That's what I like to hear." Turning his attention to Yang. "Lookie here. 'Bout time my little wolf bitch got herself a cellie."

Looking down at a list of names on his clipboard, he said, "Xiao Long…" Scrutinizing her, he grunted, eyes lingering just a little too long over her ruined arm. "You're a pretty little thing," he muttered, his smile revealing teeth. "And pretty little things don't always last too long in here."

He winked and moved on.

The moment he left, Yang's breath rushed out of her. To Cadeja, she whispered, "What a creepy dude."

"You have no idea," she growled. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from him. Ain't no ave rota gonna be able to deal with that one."

Yang grimaced.

"I can take care of myself."

Cadeja just looked at her, doubt plain on her face.

"Ladies of cellblock D!" boomed Kowalski's voice from the other end of the room. "You've got two minutes to get these bunks made up spick and span! I see one corner untucked and you're all losing shower privileges for the day! I don't give two shits how bad you smell."

Scurrying, they'd made up their beds while Kowalski patrolled up and down the rows of cells, running his hands along the bars. Satisfied, he nodded to two other COs. Leaving them to escort the inmates to D showers, he whistled and walked down the hall to the officers' booth.

As he passed Yang, he laughed to himself quietly. Yang glared at his back, hand balling up into a fist. She couldn't put a name to it, but something in him had awoken an anger deep inside her.

Grabbing her by the shoulder, Cadeja steered her towards the showers. Queuing up behind the others with their towels and their shower caddies, they stood silently side by side.

For a moment, Yang watched her cellmate scrutinize the long nails on her left hand. Bored, Yang let her eyes wander. Darting from face to face, she looked warily at each girl in the line.

Cellblock D was different from the three other main housing areas in the Birdcage. This was where they held the huntresses and other fighters who could wield aura and therefore pose a unique threat that the rest of gen pop couldn't.

They were different, they were dangerous, and so they were separate.

It also housed an unusually large population of Faunus. Blocks A through C had about a three to ten ratio of Faunus to humans, but here in block D, there were two Faunus for every three humans. For that reason, it was often referred to as the Wilds.

Just from where Yang was standing, she could see a cluster of women with antlers, dog ears, tails, and an assortment of other animal attributes. One particularly large woman even had short white tusks curving up from under her top lip.

Absorbed, Yang rolled the handle of her shower caddy in her hand, nearly dropping it when Cadeja suddenly cuffed her over the head from behind.

"Don't stare," she muttered. "It's not a good way to make friends, me entiendes?" She smiled. "Take my advice, Xiao Long. You keep your head down in here if you wanna avoid trouble."

Cowed, Yang nodded.

Showers were mandated to five minutes max, and if you weren't one of the first twenty or so girls in line, hot water was just a distant dream. In the few days Yang had been here, she'd never once had a shower that wasn't so cold it sent her teeth jittering in her skull.

If you went over your time, a red light went off above the stall and a guard would come drag you out by your hair. Yang had seen it happen a few times – girls clutching towels in their hands, naked and completely exposed, thrown to the mold-encrusted floor… not pleasant.

Eventually she got to the front of the line. Stepping into the stall nearest the door, she hung her towel on a hook. She stripped down and laid her clothes over the side of the shower wall. There were no curtains.

Wearing nothing but shower shoes, she braced herself and stepped under the icy flow of water. She hissed when it touched her bare skin, involuntarily shying away from the stream. Moving quickly, she washed her hair and scrubbed at her skin, racing to get out.

Bending down, she shaved her legs with a plastic pink safety razor that had one supremely dulled blade. Moving from her left to her right leg, Yang paused, the razor hovering above her skin.

On her right ankle, a metal band about an inch thick and two inches wide was clamped down around her leg. A green light flickered, flashing on and off. The skin under the brace was red and irritated.

This was one of the reasons she'd been sent to Briarcliff. These ankle monitors had been specially designed for prisoners who had unlocked their aura and learned to wield their semblance. They were a unique feature of the Birdcage. No other prison in Vale could afford to buy the tech from Atlas.

Once attached, the monitor could only be removed by an electronic key card with a coded chip. The device was designed to monitor the inmate's aura levels. If the levels spiked, indicating the buildup of energy required for using a semblance, the light would turn orange and the speakers in the brace would start to beep. And if the energy got strong enough, the monitor's light would turn red.

You did not want it to turn red.

The ankle monitor had one particularly nasty function. If the levels of aura caused the light to turn red for more than a few seconds, it would run a short but high voltage current of electricity into the wearer's body to disturb the aura and cause pain to the inmate – effectively knocking her out and returning the levels to normal.

Yang shuddered, remembering the CO's dull voice explaining all this to her, handing her a release form to sign as he'd strapped it around her ankle.

Shaking her head, she placed the razor carefully against the dry, itching skin above the brace and started sloughing off the light blonde hair on her leg.

Examining her handiwork, Yang sighed.

That's as good as it's gonna get.

Hurriedly rinsing off, Yang stemmed the flow of water from the showerhead. Wrapping herself in her towel and bunching up her discarded clothes in her fist, she stepped out of the stall and made way for the next girl in line.

Finding some miraculously dry counter space by one of the sinks, Yang dropped her stuff and dried herself off. Even though she'd had a few months to get used to it, she still struggled to complete everyday tasks with just one hand.

Getting dressed could be a particularly frustrating endeavor. There were a few things she hadn't mastered yet. For example, buttons were hard – but in here, she didn't have to worry about that anymore. For Yang, the worst of it was putting on her bra.

The only way she could do it was by hooking the clasps before she put it on. Then she'd slip it over her head like a t-shirt, sliding her arms through the straps. She did this one side at a time. Occasionally, the strap would get caught on the stump of her right arm, and she'd spend several infuriating seconds wrestling with it.

Of course, shivering and fresh out of the shower – today was one of those occasions. Yang had managed to slip into her underwear and secure her pants around her hips. But when she'd pulled the bra on over her head it had gotten caught – not only around her arm but in her hair too.

A trio of girls standing off to her right giggled and pointed, making no effort to conceal the fact that they were talking about her. Yang's cheeks flushed, and she struggled harder but couldn't manage to untangle herself.

Her nipples were puckered up from the cold and her breasts bounced heavily as she tried to shift the clasp out of her hair. Embarrassment and anger mingled in her blood, and Yang could feel tears welling behind her eyes.

She felt like screaming, but she did her best to ignore the girls who were, by now, outright laughing at her. Even the CO standing guard at the door looked at her with pity.

"You see something you like?"

Cadeja stepped in front of Yang, facing the three girls at the sinks next to her. Stark naked, she stood with one hand resting on her cocked hip. Flashing her fangs, she smiled seductively at the women. The one who was apparently the ringleader rolled her eyes and led the other two out of the bathroom, back in the direction of the cells.

"Chingadas," spat Cadeja. Turning around, she looked at Yang.

"Ay Dios, da fuck am I gonna do with you?" The words tumbled out of her mouth in her rapid fire accent.

She pulled Yang's hand away from the tangled clasp and released it from her hair. Straightening it out, she slid the strap caught on Yang's right arm up to its proper place on her shoulder.

She flashed Yang a smile and walked back to where she'd left her clothes and her towel.

"Thank you," said Yang, roughly pulling her shirt down over her head.

"De nada, menina. Just be more careful next time. I won't always be here to fix everythin', you feel me?"

Still a little angry, Yang said sharply, "I usually have it under control. Don't feel like you always have to save me."

"Oh trust me, Xiao Long, I won't." The yellow light from the overhead fluorescents glinted in her dark green eyes. Her upper lip lifted, revealing her elongated canines.

Still naked from the waist up, Cadeja gathered up her things and strode out of the bathroom, hips swaying.

When Yang had finished up, she carried her stuff back to her cell. Cadeja was nowhere to be seen. A steady flow of girls headed down the halls in the opposite direction of the showers on each of the five levels that made up D block. Yang jumped into the crowd and let their momentum carry her to the mess hall.

The cafeteria was a long, high-ceilinged room with row after row of steel tables and benches nailed to the floor. At any given time, it could hold the entire prison's population. Situated near the center of the compound, it was one of the emergency fall back shelters in case of a breach or a grimm attack.

Along the far wall between the tables and the kitchen was the serving area. There, Yang shuffled her way through the line, watching scowl-mouthed, hair-netted women slop lukewarm scrambled eggs and suspiciously yellow home fries onto her tray. Grabbing some dry toast and hastily snatching a red jello, Yang slid down to the end. Picking up a plastic cup of water, she turned and started weaving through the tables.

Along the east wall she saw Cadeja sitting alone, already eating. Striding over, Yang plopped down across from her without a word.

"Did I say you could sit with me today?" she asked around a mouthful of oatmeal.

"Nope," said Yang, letting the 'p' pop.

Cadeja smiled, returning her focus to the tray in front of her.

Not particularly hungry, Yang pushed her food around her plate for a moment before picking up the jello and peeling off the cover with her teeth. Sticking a spoon into the red gelatin, she sat with one foot on the bench, knee folded to her chest.

Every time Yang scooped some of the jello out of the little plastic container, it slid on the table.

"Watching you eat ain't pretty you know?" said Cadeja.

"So don't look," replied Yang, sticking out her tongue.

Eyes casting about the room, Yang watched the lunch queue eventually trickle down to nothing, only a few stragglers still streaming into the mess hall. As she had on other days, Yang noticed that the room was largely divided into two sections.

Closest to the door sat the majority of the Faunus, while most of the humans sat back towards the kitchens. In here, most people kept to their own kind – always wary of outsiders. There were exceptions – like her and her and her cellmate – who ignored the unspoken rule of "keep to your own." As far as Yang could tell, Cadeja tried to keep her hands clean of the prison's politics.

In the center of the Faunus, Yang could see a tall, sandy-haired woman who stood head and shoulders over most of the others around her. A long, muscular tail curled playfully around her side, the tip flicking every few seconds.

That was Leonie Verté, head of the Faunus faction here in the Birdcage. So far, Yang had only seen the woman from a distance. There was just something about her – almost… hypnotic. She had pale green eyes and broad shoulders that matched her tall stature. From head to toe, she was all lean, long muscles.

Yang had also noticed that Leonie always had another cat-tailed Faunus by her side. She was a shorter version of Leonie – alike in all aspects except for a slight reddish tinge to her hair. The only remarkable difference between the two was that the shorter Faunus's tail had been cut to a stump, only about six inches long. She was Judith Verté – Leonie's sister and her lieutenant, for all intents and purposes.

Yang still couldn't put many names to faces in here, but those were two she'd figured out quickly and for good reason. As far as the Faunus were concerned, they ran the Wilds.

"De verdad?" said Cadeja, swatting at Yang's head. "What did I tell you about staring?"

"I can't help it! Girl's gotta look at something. Besides, I'm still figuring out who's who in here."

"You won't need to know who's who if you stick to your own business, Xiao Long. Keep your head down, cabizbaja. You understand?" she said.

"Yeah I get it."

"Do you? Sometimes I think you're the type to go looking for trouble."

Yang couldn't help but smile a bit at that.

"Who this girl?" she said, indicating herself with her thumb. "Nah, I'm just your average, low-key no nonsense nobody."

Cadeja rolled her eyes.

Pausing, Yang considered whether or not to ask Cadeja a question that had been nagging at her for days now. It had popped into her head while looking at the other Faunus. Thinking it was probably a bad idea but deciding to do it anyways, she said, "Hey Cadeja?"

"Yeah?"

"I thought that Faunus usually only have one animal attribute. But," she said, indicating her ears and her teeth, "you have two. Why is that?"

Cadeja's mouth flattened into a straight line.

"You'd best be careful when you ask a Faunus a question like that, Xiao Long, especially in a place like this," she answered sternly.

Getting ready to apologize, Yang opened her mouth to speak but Cadeja waved her off. "Lucky for you, human, I happen to be so damn nice," she said, smiling. "Like all of us, I only have one trait." She wiggled her ears on top of her head.

Baring her elongated teeth and pointing, she continued. "These here are implants. Goes with the look, don't you think?" She laughed at her own joke. "Besides," she said, leaning in, "nobody fucks with fangs." She winked and chuckled at the stunned look on Yang's face.

Remembering the incident in the showers that morning Yang had to agree, nobody fucks with fangs.

"I'll have to remember that," she said.

Yang saw Cadeja's eyes snap to attention, looking at something over her shoulder. Before she could turn to see what it was, someone's breath – hot and moist – rolled over her face.

Standing behind her, a girl with a sharp jawline and pale, white skin leaned in, bringing her face to rest just above Yang's right shoulder. Long black hair tied back in a severe ponytail tickled Yang's ear.

"Why hello there," she said with a smooth, sultry voice. Her left hand clamped down on the side of Yang's neck.

Stroking her throat, the woman said, "I don't believe we've met. The name is Sasha Orlov."

Unable to turn and get a better look, Yang stared straight ahead. Cadeja's hair bristled, but she remained silent, watching.

"Um, hi. Nice to meet you but my friend and I were actually-"

"It's Yang right? Xiao Long?" continued Sasha, cutting Yang off.

"Yeahhhh but if you don't mind letting go of me, I think I'm done with breakfast," said Yang, starting to rise.

Sasha pushed down with the hand on Yang's neck and her other hand reached out, toying with the end of Yang's right arm. She winced. Except for a few numb spots, the end of her arm was still incredibly sensitive to touch.

"Hold on just a moment," purred Sasha. "I've got a message for you." Bringing her lips closer to Yang's ear, she whispered, "If ever you find yourself in need of a friend, sister, come find me. It's all been arranged."

With that Sasha straightened up, winked at Cadeja and left. Over her shoulder she said one final thing.

"We'll talk again soon."

And then she was gone.

"Who the hell was that?" asked Yang.

"That was trouble. Remember what I said about you looking for it? I stand corrected. You don't look for it," she said, "it finds you."

"Gee thanks, that's super helpful."

"It's not a joke, little ave rota. That woman is dangerous. She's right at the center of all the dirty politics that go on inside this place. She controls more women than even the Verté sisters. She's the head of the human faction in here."

"So what did she want with me?" Yang asked, remembering Sasha's voice slithering in her ear.

And what's with the 'sister' business? she thought.

"No idea, but whatever it is, it's not good. Ella es la Mala. She's bad news. I don't know what you did to get her attention, but if I was you – I'd do whatever I can to lose it. Fast."


Author's note: Hey guys chapter 3 is already in the works – I hope to have it posted soon. I promise the action/emotion will start to pick up soon, there's just a lot of material and characters that need to get introduced. Next chapter promises to be an exciting one :)

As always, I'd appreciate your feedback so please drop a review/comment to let me know what you guys think!