Ike smirked. Soren was, as usual, right. The people of this island were not peaceful. Now Ike, Rolf, Mist, Nephenee, Jill, Soren, Mia and Nasir were in a large cell, with various other prisoners staring at them. Lethe, Ranulf and Volug had escaped capture, and Volke was missing. Ike saw one of the men walking toward him, and Ike casually dropped himself into a fighting stance. The man held up his hands peaceably.

"No need for a fight. I just wanted to swing by and get to know you before we're forced to kill each other. " The man said. Ike nodded. He could tell just by looking that the area outside of their cell was an arena. They were now gladiators. Fighters for sport.

"Name's Zihark." Ike said, holding out his hand.

"No it's not." The other man said, smirking. "You're Ike. I'd recognize you anywhere. I'm Ogma." The man said, shaking Ike's hand.

"These are my friends, Caesar and Radd." Ogma said, motioning to the two.

"It's not safe to throw our names around, Ogma." Caesar said, eyes scanning Ike's group. Radd said nothing. The Ike Mercenaries present introduced themselves. Ike and Ogma froze. Two eyes were glaring daggers into them.

"This isn't a party." Said the voice belonging to those eyes. The red haired man was leaning against one of the walls. He pushed himself off the wall, and walked over to the group.

"Raven, this is Ike. Ike, Raven." Ogma said, smiling. Ike held out his hand, and Raven stared at him. Ike retracted the hand.

"We will be escaping in a few hours." Soren said, interrupting the tense moment. "If you wish to leave this place, it would be in your best interest to help us."

Ogma nodded.

"Of course. If I'm right, they'll be sending one of you out soon to fight one of us." The blond man said.

"Perfect." Jill said, smirking. "If Zihark does his job right, then it'll be…"

"Me." Ike said, nodding.

"And that means Saren will send Raven." Caesar said. Ike turned to look at Raven. The hard-eyed mercenary met Ike's gaze.

"We need to make it look good, Raven." Ike said, his stare unwavering. Raven nodded.

"I wonder." Raven said, his eyes distant. "Which of us is stronger?"

Ike caught the familiar glint in Raven's eye. The fight to come was going to be fun.

Zihark did his best to seem completely calm. Inside he was seething. He was in a cage. A cage of all things! Not a cell, not a pit, not even tied up, but in a cage! Zihark smiled peaceably to Saren, who was sitting in a rather large throne.

"Sae naow, laddie. Which win of yer lads is tough enough tae take mae bonny champeeon?" Saren asked, grinning widely, his accent thick. Once Zihark dissected the words, he smirked.

"Only one. Zihark, my strongest fighter and a Vanguard, like yourself." He stated. Saren stopped smiling.

"Nae won is loike mae, Ikee. Nae won." Saren then stood up, and motioned to Zihark, who he thought was Ike.

"Hows abaeut we maeke a bonny deal, ya ken?" Saren asked, looking down into his arena.

"What kind of deal?" Zihark asked sounding bored.

"When my fighter wins, yor bonny men becime mine." Saren said, glancing over at Zihark.

"And if my fighter wins?" Zihark asked, leaning against the bars of his cage. Saren turned back to look down at the arena.

"T'en yo'r free, Ikee."

Volke moved like a shadow. He had watched his teammates get captured, slipped Zihark a knife, killed ten guards, disposed of the bodies and was still undetected. Altogether, not a bad hour and a half. He was casually darting down the halls, avoiding glances from guards while sticking to the shadows. Volke was looking for Ike, Nephenee and the others, but this fort had apparently floors of cells. Volke found another cell full of corpses, and sighed. It would take hours at this rate.

"Janaff. I heard Volke sigh." A voice stated. Volke smirked. That was Uiki's voice. The Hawk remembered every sound he heard and could pick out who the person was by the slightest noise. Volke raced towards it, only to find three guards guarding the Hawk King's Eyes and Ears. Janaff and Uiki were bleeding heavily inside their cell.

"What'er you talking about, birdbrain?" One of the guards asked, turning to glare into the cage. Janaff's eye picked up Volke's movement, and decided to help the Assassin.

"Hey, down for brains! Your father was a pig and your mother was a cow!" He jeered, grinning. The other two guards spun around, indignant. They opened their mouths to say something, when the Peshkatz and the Baselard entered their necks. They both fell like stones. The other guard turned to see what had happened. Volke didn't give him a chance. The assassin stabbed Baselard into the man then stabbed twice with Peshkatz, ending his life. Volke wasted no time picking the lock and throwing the three guards into the cell. Janaff and Uiki supported each other and exited the cell. Janaff grabbed Volke's wrist in a camaraderie handshake, and Volke returned it. He then handed the two one of his elixers.

"They have Reyson, Leanne and the Raven King as well." Uiki stated. Volke nodded.

"We're going to find the Hawk King." Janaff said. Volke nodded again, and was gone down the hallway. The two hawks drained the elixer to a third of it's former capacity, saving the rest for Tibarn when they found him. They nodded to each other, then shifted form and winged away.

Naesala gripped Leanne's chains roughly in his talons. For three days he had been working on the bindings. Freeing himself from rope was easy. The guards had done nothing, because there was no way the Raven could escape on his own anyway. Getting Leanne loose was proving much more difficult. Leanne had tried to stop him, to tell him to wait, but Naesala had doggedly worked on. Blood caked his talons as he tore at the chains. He screeched in pain as one of his talons broke against the hard metal. Around ten guards had gathered to laugh and jeer at the unfortunate raven. Reyson was glaring at the men while trying to help his friend free his sister. Then suddenly, chaos erupted. Three guards fell before they even knew they'd been struck. In a flurry of stabs, the remaining seven collapsed. Volke then set to work on the door, not skipping a beat. As soon as it was open, he began stuffing guards inside the cell. The surprised Herons and Raven King stopped to stare at the man.

"Volke." Reyson breathed. The assassin nodded to them, and finished his grisly business, before picking their cell door. He then moved on wordlessly to picking the locks holding Leanne in place. Then he was gone, an elixer sitting upright in the doorway. Naesala helped Leanne down, and Reyson picked up the elixer. The three shared it, and then Leanne smiled. Naesala couldn't help but grin, and shut the cell door.

"What are you doing? We should escape now!" Reyson exclaimed. Naesala shook his head.

"If Volke is here, then I would guess Ike is here. Volke doesn't just work for anybody. I should know, I tried to hire him."

The Raven King said, dusting off his black coat.

"We wait for Ike to make a move, then we escape."

Soren had just finished explaining the plan when a rather tough looking guard unlocked the cell. Around eight guards stood behind him, making sure no one made a rush for the door.

"We need a Zihark to step forward! If you don't comply, it's three more days without that slop Sir Saren's been feeding you!" Exclaimed the guard. Kinwin himself was overseeing the transfer of "Zihark" to the arena.

"Lord Raven, you have been requested as well." Kinwin stated. Ike and Raven nodded. The fun was about to begin.

Author's Note: Hopefully this chapter makes up for the last. Ogma, Ceasar and Radd are from FE1, 3 and 11. Raven is from FE7.

-Raptor, out.