Seven Queens

Ruby

There was a drip...drip...drip as water fell from the drafty dungeon deep within the castle. A girl sat in a rickety wooden chair in the middle, tied and blindfolded. She tried to sit straight, look unafraid before the figure that stood before her. But she was afraid, very, very afraid.
"Do you know why you are here?" Said a calculated woman's voice. But it wasn't quite a woman's voice, more of a girl, and then she knew who was before her.
"Ah, hello Queen Ruby, so glad you make it." She said cynically. "I've been waiting for you all day. I guess the the party has begun." She tipped her head back letting her golden locks fall from her face to resting on her tense, weak back.
The Queen stepped forward and roughly yanked the blindfold off the woman's face, exposing to the captive a woman with savage beauty. Her sharp, symmetrical face was molded into a look of ferocity. Her dark red hair was strung up into a high ponytail allowing the curled locks to hang freely. Before the tied woman could fully take in the rest of her she was harshly grabbed around her chin, the Queen's long and pointed nails etching bloody lines into her victim's face. Queen Ruby's lips, stained dark red from currently popular cosmetics, were brought close and almost in a whisper said, "I pity you." Then suddenly pulled away, allowing the girl to release a breath she didn't realize she was holding.
The girl recognized the garb the Queen always wore during anything concerned with the military; a draping blood red cloak, clasped by two golden disks to what was a similar style to her captains in her ruthless, destructive military. The tight fitting long sleeved flexible black shirts and pants showed each of her beautifully tuned muscles working in sync. Shin length black boots laced with red ribbon was a style she sported often, and the row of golden medals lining the rough fabric of her cloak showed how many times she has defeated an uprising or survived an attempted assassination. Soon the girl would have her own specially styled medal hanging from her Queen's cloak, it was too bad she would not live to see that day.
"It is too bad there are not more people like you." Ruby said, surprising the little rebel girl. "You have so much spirit, so much drive. If half my soldiers had as much devotion to my cause like you, well, let's just say we probably would not be having this conversation." The Queen pulled a chair up from the side of the cell, turning it backwards and roughly putting her elbows on her knees and holding her face with one of her golden gloved hands, and twirled a finger in the air, watching it instead of the girl.
"I've heard you allow a possibility for your prisoners to earn their freedom. I don't know if you extend that sort of hospitality to Rebels, but I'd like to fight you." The Queen chuckled at the savageness the rebel girl said hospitality, but other than that grew increasingly stern as the girl spoke.
"I will allow you to fight me for your freedom, but you must know, this hospitality," said with the same savageness as the girl, "comes at a price. If you win, you become Queen." She finished simply.
"Perfect." The girl said with a smile that was all but innocent. The girl glanced behind her to her hands tied behind her back. "And must I defend myself in this condition?"
"Well that's an interesting thought." The Queen said tapping her bottom lip. "But not nearly as fun." She waved her hand and there was a heat on her wrists, just barely enough for her to not cry out. The rope fell away. The girl stood up and attempted to hide the shakiness in her hands and knees. The Queen took a couple steps back and look backed at the girl with a look that can only be described as superior.
"Idala, for your sake, I hope this is quick." Queen Ruby said.
Idala took a deep breath and threw the chair that once held her at the regal person standing before her. The Queen easily sidestepped the chair and anticipated the following punch, catching it and throwing the girl off balance. The next punch came from the Queen, a quick smash to the other girl's jaw. Idala, surprisingly, was still standing, and shuffled backward, shaking her head like she was attempting to get rid of a haze.
Call her a sadist, but Ruby loved this, the adrenaline rush and fast pace of a great fistfight. The feeling of her custom made clothing stretching across her body, the cape flowing around her, and the crashing of bodies set on tearing each other apart. Ruby allowed Idala to come back in a fury of well placed punches and sweeping kicks. Ruby either avoided or knocked away every offending fist or jumped over every sharp kick, and smiled. Ruby allowed a small giggle to escape from her lips, enjoying the look of surprise that crossed her enemy's face.
Idala did not hear a giggle, she heard a maniacal laugh that came from the devouring of all the goodness and mercy she came into contact with, and it just made her fight harder. The Queen was toying with her, Idala had no chance of winning, that much was clear, but she still fought. The Queen caught both her fists and trapped her feet into an awkward position, she was unable to do anything.
"My turn."
Ruby saw her chance, and took it with a viciousness that even surprised herself. With both of Idala's hands caught within her own Ruby yanked down, simultaneously as her red boot connected with the side of the girl's face. The snarl that Idala had cultivated on her face was quickly sheared down, and replaced with that of fear and helplessness. Idala attempted to use one of the shattered wooden legs from the thoroughness chair to defend herself, but with no avail.
"Oh shame on you!" Ruby reprimanded, using a maneuver to disarm her quickly. But then something happened, Idala launched herself at the Queen, actually surprising her.
Idala connected. Her fist jabbed into the soft tissue of the side of Ruby's face. Ruby came up laughing, touching the side of her face, it would leave a bruise. The look of amusement was suddenly striped, leaving nothing but cold ferocity.
The hurricane that ensued soon after Idala's little victory was like nothing the girl had ever seen before, and Idala had been in a quite impressive amount of fistfights. Idala attempted to shield herself, but there was no defense that could protect her. The Queen seem to hit every part of the rebel girl's body. Then, just like that, she was a broken heap in the corner of the damp, dark cell, defeated and hopeless.
Honestly Ruby held herself back, not going for the particularly destructive moves that she knew would break the small girl forever. Some wounds did not heal, and Ruby was an expert on unhealable wounds.
A knew chair was brought in, and the girl once again restrained.
"You'll prove worthy, eventually." And before Idala could question what she meant, the Queen was gone with a swish of her red coat and the eerily silent steps of her red boots.