Visha

Nine years later...

"Raven!" My earpiece suddenly screamed.

"What?!" I shout back equally as harsh grabbing the attention of some curious on lookers. Not that they could actually see me anyway, I was hiding up in a tree, like a freaking bird.

I was supposed to be on my A game right now, but after being up here for awhile I was starting to slack off. We were in the process of staking out one of the prisons. A friend of mine had been captured and I had volunteered to go scope out the area so we could break him out. Not because I was nice or anything thing like that but because I felt like rubbing it his face that I was right when we finally got him out.

It wasn't often that humans got put away in prison, our masters preferred to eat us or turn us into slaves instead. But Arrow had managed to piss off one of the Emperors royal whores so now he was here. Awaiting his death.

What an idiot!

We were in town getting some information on an event going down at the castle in a few weeks when Arrow had decided he'd rather do something else- or someone else I should say. I told him it wasn't going to end well for him, she was wearing a specific collar around her neck signifying who she belonged to. But like usual he didn't listen to my wise words and fucked around and found out.

Guards were called and he was escorted off to the nearest prison. I managed to dodge them and get away off to tell the Chief what had happened, and how I intended to fix it.

"Raven... Raven!"

"Jeez, I can hear you, you know?" I ask while rubbing at my ear.

"Then why weren't you responding?" Sky asks sounding more than annoyed at me.

"Cause you're annoying." I mumble back.

"Whatever... what do you see?"

"Not much, only that there's two guards standing near every entrance. So one of us could make a scene and have the rest of the guards come and take a look making another entrance available without the need for any possible fighting just to get in." I explain. I've had the plan worked out for a bit now, but was just too busy staring off into the sky to actually tell her.

It was also pretty late at night, the masters must have been getting tired and they'd never expect to see a human wandering around so late at night, so we have the element of surprise on our side.

"Sounds like a good plan, but here's the problem- which one of us is gonna be bait?" She asks.

"It was my plan,"

"Yeah well I'm older!" She begins to argue and I can already see where this is going.

"I'm younger!" I fire back at her,

"I'm smarter," Sky brags, and I have to hold back my laughter.

"According to who?!"

"My father!" She proclaims as if he were the smartest man alive.

"News flash he's probably lying to you," I snicker.

I hear a large dramatic gasp on the other end before she finally responds with a low, "How dare you?"

I roll my eyes at her antics, she did always have flare for the dramatics. "Oh shut up and go create a distraction." I tell her before starting my climb down the tree.
I could faintly hear her singing, her voice was usually quite beautiful but she- I hope, purposely making it sound such much worse.

It didn't take very long for the rest of the guards to go over and inspect the noise, I saw my first opening and went for it. Slinking inside the door I was met with a long hallway filled with doors, taking a deep breath in I open the first door to the right of me. More doors line this hallway only this time they were cell doors, and I was no longer alone.

In an instant hands shot out through the bars and loud voices and screams assaulted my ears, I slowly walked down the hallway glancing on either side of me to see if I could find Arrow in this sea of bodies. 

"Hey!"

"Sweetheart! Come here!"

"Get us out of here!"

I tried my best to drown out the voices, but they were starting to get to me. I couldn't help but feel bad for all these people, most of them probably didn't deserve this, some probably did. I wasn't some naïve little girl who believed everyone was innocent. I didn't trust anyone outside of my town, and even then I'm still skeptical of new people.

I turn another corner and I find even more cells, "Of course this wouldn't be easy," I muttered to myself.

That wasn't my only problem though, a new set of voices could be heard. Only these defiantly weren't from any humans, these were the voices of masters. Most likely from the guards that were outside, or they had an entirely different set patrolling the inside of the prison. I duck through the nearest door, eager to put some distance from me and the masters.

I could now see Arrow in his cell just barely out of the corner of my eye now though, I take a deep breath in before sprinting down closer to him.

"Raven! O happy days!" Arrow practically leapt for joy.

"Shh, keep your voice down or else somebody's gonna hear us." I harshly whisper back at him.

I quickly look him over for any partial injuries or wounds, when I see that he's got a few bruises here and there and minor cuts I breathe out a sigh of relief. Then quickly get to work on the lock. Using my tools I heard the sweet 'click' letting me know it was open, I stepped back and opened the door. Arrow wasted no time in grabbing my arm and bounding towards the nearest exit.

We shot out the door only to bump into Sky apparently trying to get inside.

"Oh good you found him!" Sky happily exclaims.

"Yeah... were you trying to get inside?" I ask her.

"Uh, yes."

"Why?" I ask not liking where this was heading.

"You know that distraction I was in charge of?"

"Yeah..."

"So that went horribly wrong," she admitted nonchalantly.

"I hate you." I deadpan.

"Some rescue mission, " Arrow scoffed.

"Well we wouldn't need to rescue you, if you'd used you head for once in your life," I spat back at him.

"Oh would you shut up! Now come on we need to get out of here." Sky commands before turning and starting to storm away.

We begin to follow after her, only after a moment though I soon realize how quite its soon become, not even a bird or a bug could be heard. Almost in an instant 8 massive masters seem to jump down from the trees, effectively closing us in.  Their wings were spread wide, and eyes blazing red, showing signs they were fully ready for a fight- more like a massacre.

"Oh crap we're surrounded!" Sky shrieks.

"Excellent we can attack in any direction!" I shoot back, the joy in my voice couldn't be mistaken as a frightening smile spread across my face.

"We're gonna die." Arrow deadpans.

Now I would never say that I was a very violent person, I was however a very protective person, so from a very young age I've been trained in several different forms of combat. Some fairly new and some fairly old. Sky had been taught the same things I had, Arrow not quite as much but he had still been trained to fight and defend. But I rarely ever got to use my skills given the fact that we barely ever left our home.

So whenever we did get the chance to use our skills I never backed down from a challenge and currently there was eight challenges staring me dead in the face and I was going to use whatever I had to beat these challenges.

Before they could process any of our moves we sprung into action, cherry went high and I went low, she whipped out one of her blades started to slice through their wings- the most sensitive part of their bodies, I dipped low going for their legs making them incapacitated and unable to follow us. Arrow had other plans and began aiming for throats, he pulled out a miniature crossbow one that he always kept on his person at all times. That's actually one of the reasons why we had nicknamed him Arrow.

He shot out one arrow and aimed for one of the masters, it hit him right in the eye before doing it again to two others making them scream out in agony and pain. The other five masters were hurt and angry, taking the commotion as our smokescreen we began to make our escape. Ducking and diving and do whatever we could to get up high and get hidden we climbed back up the trees and began to race across branches heading towards home.

A few hours later we were sitting in the Chiefs house getting yelled and scolded at, well not me per say- actually it was just Arrow.

"Arrow what you did was stupid, idiotic and reckless! Dammit! You're old enough to realize these childish games are going to get you hurt, or worse dead. Now because of these careless actions I'm forced to remove you from the undercover mission coming up." The chief scolds, and I honestly can say I've never seen him so upset.

"What?- Wait. You- you can't do that do me! I've worked really hard to be apart of that mission!" Arrow shouts back in defense.

"If I could just step in here-" Sky tries to interrupt.

"No! I am the chief, and what I say goes. Arrow you are dismissed." The chief brushes him away.

With a huff Arrow storms out, I turn and try to follow him out only for him to slam the door in my face stopping me dead in my tracks.

"What a shit storm..." Sky mumbles.

"You're telling me." I groan back.

"Visha, Genesis are you two ready for tomorrow?" Chief asks.

"Of course Daddy," Sky answers happily.

I only managed to numbly nod my head, before dazedly getting up and walking back to my house. I laid down in bed contemplating what the nests few weeks was going to be like, me and Sky were set to become maids in the Palace. There was a huge event going down in the palace in a few weeks, and we were both worried and excited on how it could possibly affect us.

I'd never wanted to go anywhere near the palace ever again, I feared it would remind me too much of my mother. It's almost been ten years since her death, but I still think about her everyday. I want to make sure i'll never forget her face... 

I turn over onto my side, looking at the little bit of luggage I would be taking with me tomorrow. I had a gut feeling that something big was going to happen, and it both scared me and excited me all at once. Trying not to panic I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.