Disclaimer: I don't own the Scorpion King, but the character Akka is mine, as are the invented tribe of Amazonian Akkadians. I know this chapter isn't the best of my writing skills, but I was so hammered last night, I started having trouble with the ending. My apologies.



Before the King Part III: The Great Escape



Akka leaned into the corner of her cell, her legs drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her stomach hurt, the large female tiger she was forced to fight had managed to give her a rather nasty little scratch. She gritted her teeth against the pain and let her mind move to other matters, like how would she get out of there alive, if she could indeed get out of the prison alive.

She rested her cheek against her arms, making a pillow for herself against her shoulder and arm with the wall. The cold bit into her from all angels but she couldn't let it bother her, or detract her mind.

One of the red turbaned guards walked past her cell door. She hadn't seen one in almost half an hour, or so she had guessed. It could have been longer. She inched towards the bars of the small, square room, they were rusted and corroded. They had taken away all the weapons they could find, but there was something they didn't find. A small set of pieces of bent wires, different gauges and lengths. She pulled them out from between her ribs and the shirt, opening the leather sheet that covered them so they wouldn't dig into her skin.

She picked out two of the longer pieces and pressed her left shoulder through the bars. Her arm fit perfectly between the spaces in the corroded metal. She felt around with her open hand, placing the picks between her teeth with her other hand. She felt the shape of the lock, keeping her eyes peeled for the guards, just incase she had over estimated the time she had to make her escape. She put one of the wires down and picked up a thicker one.

She moved the smaller one into her left hand, taking the thicker piece in the right. She reached around, hugging the bar with the lock on it and inserted the two wires. She grit her teeth, grinding her jaw together before she noticed the horrible habit and stopped. Her eyes rolled back in her head a little and her tongue snaked out from between her lips.

Akka twitched and flicked the wires, closing her eyes. She tried to feel with the slender wires trying to find the mechanism with which she could unlock the door. The young woman was starting to feel a little more than frustrated when she heard the soft "click" from the other side of the metal plate.

She pulled the picks out and slipped them back into her little case. She wrapped them up, stuffing them back into their place between her skin and the tight shirt. She sighed and pushed the door open, peeking from behind the bars. Checking both ways she saw nothing, no guards and no anything.

Akka crawled on her hands and knees, the dust clinging to her palms and pants as she got to her feet, keeping low. Her long legs were curled beneath her as she looked around. The guards had disappeared down to her right, so she would follow.

The lights got brighter the further down the hallway she got, and her anxiety got worse. She would surely be killed on the spot now, but of course she couldn't let that simple fact stop her. After all, she was from one of the most feared tribes of Akkadians ever known, that is, until they were slaughtered, raped and captured for slaves. And most kings feared her tribe merely because the women were in power, and that idea of female empowerment could be contagious.

She pressed her back into the wall, listening to the guards conversing around the corner. Akka heard two distinct voices, which meant there were at least two guards. She could deal with them. After all, they couldn't be any worse than two starved tigers, right?

The slender woman slipped around the corner and moved as fast as she could, her long legs sprinting towards the first man. The man had his back turned to her and as she leapt into the air, his comrade caught sighed of her and warned the man. It was too late, however, has Akka's knee found the temple of his head, rather than the back of his skull as she had been aiming for. None the less, it still did the trick and the man went crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, due to the laws of physics, so did Akka.

She landed well, though, and managed to pull a dagger from the downed guard's belt before tumbling forward and away from the swinging sword of the second guard. She got back to her feet and sprinted down the hallway. She had no time to play with the second guard, but then again, perhaps if she had stopped to do so, she wouldn't have had to deal with the ranks upon ranks of guards that he alerted with an alarm of some sort.

Akka cursed as she skidded to a halt, looking around her. Panic filled her once again, but the slender woman knew she couldn't let it control her. There was a window to her left, it was covered by a wicker shade. She would have to test her luck.

Taking a running start, the Akkadian woman dove towards the wicker screen. She leapt at just the right time, bringing her arms across her face and drawing her legs up. The thin wood shattered under the force of her weight travelling towards it. She travelled through the air, her body seemingly weightless until gravity started to pull her down.

She braced herself for the crash that would shatter her legs and leave her ready for death... But it didn't happen. She felt through a canvas canopy of a tent set up near the castle's wall. She landed in a heap in the sand and coughed as the dust she kicked up clouded her sight and invaded her lungs. She was too stunned to move for a moment, but a pair of hands grabbed her. She thought it was the guards for a moment before she was dragged away from the hole.

"Well, looks like it's raining women," a slightly familiar voice laughed, patting her on the shoulders. Akka looked up over her shoulders, a worried look on her eyes and was confronted by a gentle pat on her forehead. It was Mathayus. She had fallen into the tent where the three Akkadians had taken refuge.

"Quickly get her hidden," one of the other men ordered. Mathayus picked up the slender woman with a surprising ease. He deposited her in the bedding where she assume Mathayus was sleeping that night.

"Lay here and be quiet," she was ordered, the man's thick voice echoing in her ear as he covered her with the skins in a haphazard fashion. Mathayus laid down next to her, pulling the blankets up over him as well. "If they come in, stay still, hold your breath and wait for one of us to tell you it's okay," she nodded her agreement and closed her eyes.

Her teeth bit into her lip as she heard the voice of the angry guards insisting that they search the tent. Mathayus' brother and companion argued and demanded that the men leave them alone. They would never house one of those filthy Amazonian women, they wouldn't dare break their brotherly code like that. The guards were fooled enough, having little knowledge on the Akkadian codes of honour amid the warriors. They were unaware that a warrior was a warrior, even if that warrior was a woman.

Akka heard the guards draw their weapons, but the Akkadians ordered them to leave drawing their own. She assumed that the guards were not willing to take on two angry Akkadian assassins, and the fear of the third waking and creating another opponent to battle. Akka whimpered silently, her brow furrowing. The guards left and the two men re-sheathed their weapons and Akka felt Mathayus' hand push into her.

"They are gone," he pulled back the blankets from her and saw for the first time the true extent of what had happened to the woman. She had been defeated in the ring even though she was the victor. They had most likely raped and beaten her once she was taken away from the public. A little bit of that was taken back when she had made her escape.

Her face was paler than before, her eyes were sunken and her hair hung around her face in twisting braids, which presumably she had done herself to keep her hair from her eyes, but they were now unkept and tangled. Mathayus brushed her cheek and she turned away from his hand, still as spirited as she was before at not being seen for weak, he assumed.

She curled up in a small ball and clenched her eyes shut. She clenched her teeth and tried to block out the men in the tent. "I'll get out of your way as soon as the fervour of the guards has boiled down..." she whispered softly, hoping that they would at least let her stay for the night. Pity and sympathy were not standard traits for Akkadians, especially the men.

Mathayus patted her shoulder and smiled. For the second time this beautiful woman had found her way into his bed, he was starting to think it was fate. Akkadians were not known for their kindness with strangers, but how could Mathayus turn away this beautiful young girl? He was, after all, a man with the normal urges.

"Mathayus..." his brother called him warily, the man was not exactly pleased with the proposition of housing this felon, whether she was Akkadian or not. His manly urges were not so easily picked upon as his younger brother's.

Mathayus left Akka to her spot amid the furs and hides, answering to his brother's all. "Yes my Brother?" he asked, his smooth forehead creasing with a concerned frown as he examined his brother, seeing something was bothering him.

"I do not think that this is a good idea. She has broken out of the King's prison and has guards searching the entire city for her," the man's voice was strong in his conviction and left no room for arguing. "She could get us into a lot of trouble."

"Since when has trouble ever swayed any of us to not do something?" Mathayus countered. He did not like the idea of letting Akka against the guards any more than she did, but of course he would not challenge his older brother's word.

"Since this trouble isn't paying me," the other man said with a smirk. "She can obviously take care of herself, can she not? She broke out of a royal prison after fighting and winning against the King's prized tigers. I believe you have little to worry about this young woman not being able to take care of herself."

Mathayus wanted to protest, to remind his brother that she was but one person, and there were thousands upon thousands of guards now on the look out for her, and the King did have the advantage of that magic man to guide him, but he didn't. "Just one night?" he tried to compromise with his brother, offering the woman but one night of hiding.

"If we must..." the other man finally conceded and headed back to his own pallet to rest.

Mathayus smirked to himself in a satisfied manner and headed back to where Akka would be found resting amid the skins and furs that made up his bed. "Hey kiddo, you can stay the night but only one ..." Mathayus raised a curious eyebrow as he looked at the side of the tent. "And then again maybe you won't even spend one night," he muttered to himself before bending down to fix the tent so that nothing could crawl in during the night. They would have to repair the hole in the roof tomorrow when they struck camp.

Mathayus retired to his bedding and soon fell asleep. The sleep was fitful as it had been out in the desert, though more comfortable in means of temperature. He thrashed back and forth, his eyes clenched shut and teeth gritted, but the dreams which ran through his head.

There was this beautiful woman. Not Akka, another woman. She looked decidedly Asian and was extremely beautiful. She wore a metal dress, coins that were jointed together with small wires. There was fire all around and screaming, and an archer. Suddenly he felt pain, sharp, shooting pain in his shoulders.