Two

It wasn't her first time waking up in a holding cell. Hell, it wasn't even her first time that month.

She'd known more jails and holding facilities than she had homes in her life, especially in her early years. Growing up in the thick of one of the galaxy's largest cities with no parents nor human contacts did that to their kind. There were more human orphans on alien planets than there were in true human colonies.

Getting out of these binds was just another skill she had to learn early on.

Oftentimes prisons didn't want to waste the space keeping a prisoner that wasn't an immediate threat, nor did they want to waste the supplies feeding and cleaning up after them. Only true malice kept any being locked up in a place where people had to actively spend money to keep them alive, and since she was only guilty of robbery, this time at least, no one would want to waste resources on little ol' her. Whatever business they had with her would be concluded in the coming hours.

She just had to wait for them to come to get her if there was anyone in the facility at all. Since awakening, not a soul had passed through the holding area, and none of the other cells were filled. It was just her, a long hall, and nineteen empty cells.

It had to have been half a standard day, but still not a sound could be heard from any direction. The only thing other than her heartbeat was the sound of animals chirping in the distance and the faintest sound of rushing water.

A delusion, or was she near a water source? Hardly mattered. Pondering her outside surroundings wasn't going to make her plan come together any faster.

Gena had to be stored somewhere else in the facility, where she did not know. It seemed odd she wasn't in the same line as her, but processing in these places was often messed up. She could be on an entirely different planet for all she knew, after all she was technically a minor. Not in the way the universe would care about, but enough to keep her from being detained with the rest of the masses.

Since she couldn't spot the other two of their crew among the line, she'd have to go about assuming she was on her own.

She had just come to that conclusion when the sound of squeaking hinges caught her attention, pulling her up from where she lay on her steel cot. Knowing better than to move near the bars and be within swinging distance of anyone who entered, Ruby forced herself to stay planted as the sound of footsteps slowly made their way in her direction.

Only two beings appeared at her cell door. One of the beings was a droid, entirely robot and formed to look similar to a large four-legged mammal, and the other was a beefed-up female humanoid with four arms and four bored-looking eyes. She was pretty in the way that a mountain was, large and hard to look away from.

The woman picked a set of keys from her belt and slid them into the lock mechanism, opening the heavy metal gate and entering the cell with her. The hound stayed behind her at the open mouth of the cell, its presence a clear indication that she would not be escaping past the female even if she wanted to.

"If you ask any questions you will be struck," the female told her as she knelt to deal with the cuff tightly locked onto Ruby's ankle.

She hadn't realized until then just how annoying the thing had been. If it wasn't for the fact that the woman would take it as a threat, she might have leaned over and rubbed the slightly raw flesh of her ankle.

Ruby didn't need to be told twice to keep quiet, complying easily as she was led from her cell behind the woman, the hound flanking her. Trying to escape this early on was a rookie's mistake, only to be taken during special occasions when things lined up just right.

It was easier to wait things out until you had an escape route, which if their walk was going to do anything would at least give her ley of the land. They led her quickly from the hall out the squeaky hinged door, bringing her to the too-bright outside. Leaves crunched underfoot, as more cascaded from the large trees above them.

She was almost blinded by the sight, forcing herself to blink several times before her eyes focused once more. The building she had been led from was no bigger than a small-time holding facility, one you might see in a thirty person town. It was entirely stone, and from the outside looked far less pitiful than her cage within.

They gave her little time to assess it, the hound growling behind her to urge her forward. She moved begrudgingly, forcing her feet to shuffle forward on the scenic path as they were led out into a large yellow grass field. In the distance, the sight of a massive house buried within a grove of season-turning trees sparkled in the setting light of the sun like a jewel.

These were entirely private grounds, belonging to someone with a hell of a lot of money. The kind you'd see on the tv, trying to convince people that this kind of wealth was just one hard days worth of work away.

Despite being modernized, the metal, glass, and wood house somehow blended with the fairytail-esque beauty of its too bright surroundings. The closer they came, the more she could see just how much love and detail went into not only the home but the lush gardens surrounding it on every visible side.

Even inside the house was ornate with nearly every inch of wall and wood carved or covered in the art collected from around the galaxies. She recognized some popular forms, but the majority was entirely new to her.

The entire situation was new to her. Their kind didn't fuck with people like this, so rich they could live in a comfortable fairy tale. Disgust and yearning for the home around her battled within her mind, coming to settle on uneasy weariness as she was lead into a moderate-sized media room.

It held a large table, several chairs, and several screens lining the wall. No matter how much money you had, these boring meeting rooms all looked the very same.

The other two gestured for her to take the seat furthest from the head of the table, one headed to the sole window on the opposite side of the room. With both exits guarded, she had no choice but to sit quietly and stare forward as she awaited what would come next.

Normally this was the point where a warden or representative of the company they stole from would come in and lecture her for several hours before delivering her punishment on a silver platter. She'd shrug it off in a week, escaping to do some more damage and continue the cycle over and over again.

This was not going to be one of those easy situations. It was far too big of a score and far too odd of a situation. Whatever she had anded herself in had put her in the sights of something she had no clue how to deal with.

A wealthy being with unknown morals.

A clock ticking on the opposite wall of her was her only way to tell how much time passed as the sun set out in the distance. The room had been plunged into the darkness of a moonless tight by the time the door clicked open, making her flinch as several lights flicked on overhead.

For the second time that day she was blinded, forced to close her eyes and refocus though she wanted nothing more than to see the thing that entered the room with them. Being blinded while a potential enemy approached made her want to hiss and claw at anything that came within arm's reach of her.

It came back to her slowly. Just enough to make out the form of a large being slinking over to the cushioned chair at the head of the table.

He was giant. More massive even than larger humans, and bulky to match. His suit barely managed to contain his mass amounts of muscle and did nothing to detract from the beastly claws and facial features he wore. Though his face and form were human, bits of more animal traits clung to his genetics in the form of pointed furred ears and a mouth that worked around massive fangs.

Everything from his cold yellow eyes to the inky claws curled around either bicep screamed top-of-the-food-chain predator. The man was as close to a beast as one could come without looking hard on the eyes. Just human enough to be described as handsome, if a large part terrifying.

That mix had come from humans and their kinds of interactions and breeding centuries before to result in a more humanoid being. Before then their kind might have resembled the old earth legend of lycans. Now they were their being. Beastmen, or Beasts for short, a name they had not chosen but clung to their kind so hard in the coming ages they eventually chose to embrace it.

And how exactly was it she knew the ins and outs of their kind off the top of her head? Not only had she researched it for a score, but he himself had told her half a decade before.

"You?"