FicWad

-Jason was alone in the darkness again. He tried to find the light but there were so many voices from the void that he couldn't find his way. Voices yelling all around him, and then there was pain. Jason tried to scream as his chest filled with excruciating agony buy he couldn't even hear his own cries in the blackness.

-Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the pain subsided. A few moments later the voices ceased as well and Jason became aware again. He could feel his body laying on a hard surface. He felt the dampness with his fingers and smelled the stench in the air. Slowly Jason opened his eyes and saw the black ceiling above him.

-He sat up and looked around. His armor was gone, and all he had on were rags that barely kept out the cold. The stone floor beneath him was as black and wet as the ceiling. The walls were rough, jagged and as damp as the rest of the room. The only source of light came from beyond the metal bars that told Jason he was in some kind of cell. Beyond the bars stood a woman.

-She was very pretty but with a dark quality to her. Her short black hair covered the left side of her face and her dark clothes almost made her invisible in the shadows she stood in. The feature that caught the bulk of Jason's attention though was her eyes. They were cold and unsympathetic as they seemed to pierce right through him.

-She stared at Jason with those cold eyes for a long while, as if she were trying to decide what to do with him. All Jason could do was stare back, too dumbfounded to think of anything to say. Then, as if she had come to a decision, she simply turned and walked away without saying a word.

-The realization that he was being left in some dank dungeon made Jason snap out of his stupor. He jumped to his feet and ran to the bars hoping to call the girl back but before his hands had even grasped the rusted metal, he heard a door slam shut. She was gone.

-Jason slumped down to his knees in despair. His head hung in defeat as he tried to understand how things could have gone so horribly wrong. The decision to attack the dark castle hadn't been planned and yet the demons had set an ambush for him. How could they have known?

-He thought back to the battle. He had managed to hold his own against the demons but his soldiers had been slaughtered. They had assisted him in fighting the demons in their territory before and had always done well. So why had they been beaten so easy by a woman and a wolf?

-Jason was wondering if any of his people had managed to escape alive when he heard a moan in the cell across from his own. Lying on the floor, Jason saw a familiar figure curled up and wearing the same kind of rags that he now had on. It was Sarah.

-Raven walked up the spiraling stone steps to the throne room. Her arms were folded across her chest as she mulled over what to do. The boy in the dungeon had proven such a disappointment. She and Jeffery had been expecting a prolonged conflict with a much more climactic end. Instead, the humans' hero was rotting in a cell awaiting execution.

-She pinched the bridge of here nose in an attempt to quiet her headache. She had heard the voices just as Jason had, only she and Jeffery had long since created an immunity to it. Even so, it had been much worse than normal and even she had nearly succumbed to the frantic chatters.

-She approached the throne room where her king awaited. Before Raven had even entered the room she could hear Jeffery. She heard every sickening wet impact, every resounding thud that followed and every grunt of anger that Jeffery put into it. She entered the large chamber and waited for him as he vented his frustrations.

-Jeffery beat his fists against his human punching bag, a human male hanging from a chain. Every blow from Jeffery broke the human's bones but the injuries healed almost instantly thanks to the immortality serum he had been injected with. Though his blood covered face was unrecognizable, Raven guessed that he had been among the champion's warriors.

-Jeffery paused for a moment and paced back and forth. It was obvious that something was eating at him. Whatever it was eventually won out and Jeffery clutched his fist and punched the human so hard his head came apart. Jeffery shook the brain matter off of his hand as dozens of mutant scavengers scurried from the shadows to clean up the mess on the floor.

-Jeffery stood seething with rage. The human uprising had died in its infancy, but Raven knew that wasn't the reason her lover was so angry. She was about to ask if he was alright when the double doors to the throne room opened.

-A woman walked in with white, feathery wings and robs of the same color. Her short blond hair was well combed and held with a golden circlet around her forehead. She carried a spear in her right hand which was covered with elegant engravings. She looked at Jeffery and Raven with a blank expression.

-"Angel...are they alright?" Jeffery asked, looking over his shoulder. The women gave a single nod and Jeffery let out a relieved sigh. "I'll be with them in a moment." The women excused herself and left Jeffery and Raven alone together.

-"So what are we going to do with our guest?" Raven asked.

-"Does it matter?" Jeffery asked his expression turning from relief to irritation. "He's a stupid, spineless weakling that wasn't even a challenge."

-"Perhaps he needed more time to develop his power." Raven offered. "He hears the voices just as we do, his abilities should be comparable to our own."

-"Shame we'll never know," Jeffery said dismissively as he left the room. Raven stayed behind as she tried to think of what to do. She went over every possibility in her mind until she decided on a course of action that would suit her needs. She left the room and headed for the dungeon.

-Jeffery entered the newly made medical ward. Before Hellen and Marrow's battle there had never been a need for one. Jeffery's generals had always managed to heal on their own and the rest of his creations were expendable. Now two of Jeffery's beloved creations were slowly recovering under Angel's care.

-Jeffery watched as Angel changed the bandages on Hellen's shoulder and then moved on to Marrow. Angel wasn't actually Jeffery's creation; she was Raven's. Several years ago, Raven had ripped the souls out of several humans and transformed their bodies to encourage Jeffery to wage war on god. Jeffery had even used them to gain access to hell, despite the fact they hadn't been true angels, having no souls opened the gate all the same.

-Angel had been spared and eventually Raven had given her back her soul, though being separated from it for so long had had some adverse side effects. Angel could no longer speak and much of her personality was gone. She served Raven unquestioningly and had been granted healing powers, but she wasn't much more than a drone.

-Hellen got to her feet the second she saw her master, even though it obviously caused her discomfort. The gash in her shoulder had healed a great deal and was no longer life threatening, but despite her rapid recovery, she was still a long way from fighting fit.

-"Forgive me master," Hellen said with her head hung low, "I failed you."

-"Don't worry about it," Jeffery answered as he raised her head to meet his gaze, "I'm just glad you two are alright."

-Raven made her way back down to the dungeon. Her mind was bristling with ideas, plans to make her lover happy. Although Jeffery had never once shown disinterest in Raven since she had become his queen, the promise of a new challenge had brought back the spark in his eyes. Raven had no doubt that his mind had been filled the visions of epic battles and perhaps even another all out war with the humans.

-No doubt those dreams were dead now that the human champion was in rags and his small band had been annihilated. All Raven wanted in her life was to be by Jeffery's side and make him happy. In order to put a smile on his face, she would have to commit treason once again.