The light of a brilliant torch suddenly flooded a generally dark and depressing dungeon. The man holding the torch noted how ancient the place looked; it had to outdate the stadium above by a couple hundred years, at least. Maybe more. So many cracks decorated the stone, and so much filth was accumulated in the corners, that it was nearly impossible for the dungeon to have been built recently.

But that was irrelevant presently. He had a job to do, and he was required to do it. As a genie, after all, his master's word was his command.

It's not like he minded very much. This job did have some perks. One being, of course, his freedom, which his master had promised to give him as for her third and final wish. She had already used his first one, so it couldn't be very long after this job was completed that Jafar would have his freedom. And the other perk…

The light from Jafar's torch fell upon twelve female figures, all attached to the walls with chains of varying severity. One girl, who couldn't have been more than fourteen years of age, was bound by only a single chain locked around one ankle. He could see why; the weak little thing was crying piteously, and had been every time he checked up on the twelve girls. Jafar laughed to himself; she wouldn't make it past the first round, no matter who she was pitted against.

The two most heavily restrained girls – one Scottish and the other Chinese, both plastered onto the back wall – not only wore shackles on their wrists and ankles, but were muffled and restricted at the waist by a leather strap as well. Most of the rest of them had separately chained arms and legs, all anchored to the dungeon walls.

This was the case for one girl in particular; the one Jafar was delighted to see in chains. Jasmine.

Jafar found her towards the back, between the crying girl and some redhead he didn't care to recognize. She was very pale, the redhead; perhaps from up north? It didn't matter very much to him, anyways. He knew whom he had come to torture.

"Hello, Jasmine dear," he said upon reaching her, tilting her head up with a single, bony finger on the chin. "Did you miss me?"

"Hardly," Jasmine spat immediately.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked sarcastically.

"I'm chained to a wall. What do you think?" It was a little too much spunk for his taste, to be honest.

"Just making sure." Jafar finished with a vile, toothy grin, and then turned to face all twelve girls. He had prepared a little speech. Jafar cleared his throat. "May I have your attention?"

Nine heads turned to face him. Jasmine, because she knew Jafar, could get away with not looking. The other two who didn't look were the girls strapped to the wall, since their muffles were anchored in place. They were physically incapable of looking.

"Tomorrow is a big day for you girls. The opening fight of the competition. How exciting! Two of you will be selected at random tomorrow, and the day after, and so forth for six consecutive days. The six winners shall continue to the next round, and be one step closer to gaining their freedom. The losers…" Jafar paused for dramatic effect. "Did I mention that these fights are to the death?"

He was rather disappointed when no one reacted.

"Has it ever occurred to you, Jafar," Jasmine spoke suddenly and caustically, "that these girls can't understand Arabic?"

Jafar cursed under his breath. She was right. Luckily, though, Jafar was a magical genie. He could send his message telepathically, directly into the heads of the girls, if he needed to. He did. He repeated what he had already said, and finally a sea of eyes widened. Jafar smiled. "Good, you're listening." he transmitted into twelve minds (though Jasmine could understand him verbally, he didn't want to speak aloud just for her and waste his breath).

"If you lose," Jafar continued telepathically, "you will have been killed by one of the people you see in the room with you. You will never again see your family or friends, and nor will they ever see you. And if you fail to cooperate…" Jafar interlocked his fingers. "My friend Hades will pay your loved ones a surprise visit. Am I understood?"

He was understood.

Jafar smiled maliciously. "Good." With that, he made haste to the exit, tossing back a notice about when the girls would be fed on his way out. All twelve of them heard it.

• • •

This was one of those times that Belle was glad both for her love of books and her experience being captured by a beast. Though she couldn't see any way out of this one, it was impossible to overstate how much calmer Belle was than some of the girls around her. The one to her right, especially, was crying every time Belle looked at her. That girl, unlike Belle, had obviously never been in a cell before.

When that man (Jafar was his name, right?) had come in with his torch, Belle had taken advantage of the light to examine her surroundings. To her left and right were a redheaded girl and the crying one, respectively. Directly in front of her was a brunette German girl, and there was a blonde on either side of her. Belle sat near the mouth of the dungeon; there were more people towards the back of the cave, some of exotic skin tones, but Belle couldn't really remember what they looked like.

Now that Belle had oriented herself, she could focus on trying to communicate with the other girls. She reasoned that they'd have the best chance of getting out if they worked together.

Belle turned to the crying girl to her right and gently placed a chained hand on her shoulder. She probably needed support more than anyone at that moment. "Excuse me," she said softly. "Are you all right?"

The girl jumped a little, turning her head slightly, and replied weakly in German. "What did you say?"

This was the part where Belle was glad she read so much. At some point, she had run out of novels to read in French, and had dipped into German and English literature. Her English was sketchy at best, but, through all her books (and a few lessons from a kind German man passing through town), Belle was fairly fluent in the other language. Enough to hold a conversation, at least. "Are you all right?" she repeated, this time in German.

She shied away. "Not really," she admitted. Belle saw her in the dim light of a few tiny candles placed along the walls of the dungeon. She couldn't have been very old at all; fourteen, maybe, or even younger. It made Belle feel like a big sister.

"It's okay," Belle reassured the girl. "I don't think any of us are really 'all right' at the moment." Then, after allowing for a little pause to change the subject, "What's your name?"

"Snow White."

Belle smiled. "Snow. That's a pretty name. I'm Belle."

To Belle's surprise, the girl looked confused. "Most people don't call me just Snow. They usually say Snow White."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know..." Belle felt like an idiot for just going ahead and abbreviating her name like that, without even asking.

"No, it's fine. Really." The girl wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I kind of like Snow. It's shorter."

"That it is," said neither Belle nor Snow. Both of their heads spun to face the brunette on the opposite side of the dungeon. She had spoken German.

"And what is your name, if I may ask?" said Belle. Might as well make it a point to learn everyone's name, if they were going to bust out of here together.

"Rapunzel. And, if I heard correctly, you are Belle, and she is Snow. Right?"

"Right," Belle confirmed.

"Good, because that's what I gathered as well." Now three heads turned to face the girl on Rapunzel's left (which was right for Belle). "The name's Cinderella," she said with a attempted curtsy. It was comically awkward, with the chains on her wrists and all.

Belle smiled. "Well, nice to meet you, Cinderella. And you too, Rapunzel." This was going better than planned. She almost felt like she was best friends with these people already. As far as she could tell, Rapunzel seemed to be about as scared of the dungeon as Belle was herself, which is to say not very much at all. Cinderella was shaking a bit, but was far more composed than Snow had been. And at least she was awake; the blonde on Rapunzel's other side was busily snoring away. Yes, that one was snoring.

And that is when the redhead to Belle's left caught her attention.

"Hello?" the girl said in French.

• • •

Ariel was, to be quite honest, a little scared. The closest thing to a prison she had been in was Ursula's cave. She hadn't even been on dry land for very long, not to mention the entirely alien world of a dry dungeon. All her time above sea level had been spent in a royal setting, with grand halls and marvelous rooms, all gilded from ceiling to floor. The cold stone of a common jail cell came as a bit of a shock.

Sure, she was an adventurous girl. Under normal circumstances, she would have been ecstatic to explore a place like this. It was having to stay there against her own will combined with the lack of an escape route that made her spine tingle.

But when the girl next to her had spoken French… she had spoken French, right? It was very brief, and she quickly began speaking something else… but Ariel was certain she had started out in French.

Which is, of course, why Ariel had to grab her attention. At least she'd have someone to talk to while she was down there. And she knew she wouldn't take talking for granted ever again.

"Hello?"

The girl turned around and smiled. She was obviously a French girl, a brunette who was probably a little older than Ariel herself. "Hey! I'm Belle. I take it you're French?" She knew, apparently, that she looked very French.

"Not really…" Seeing the confused look on Belle's, she elaborated. "I… kind of used to be half fish. I'm from the sea, a bit south of France."

"Oh…" Belle didn't know how to respond to that. Ariel blushed. Surely it wasn't that weird?

"Yeah, I know. It sounds a bit far fetched." Hey, conversation was conversation.

"Oh, no. Not at all. My husband used to be an anthropomorphic lupine beast. It's not weird at all."

Ariel just smiled and played along, pretending like she knew what anthropomorphic meant. Or lupine, for that matter.

"Oh!" Belle said suddenly. "I just realized, I forgot to ask you for your name."

"Sorry. I'm Ariel." She smiled warmly and awkwardly. "I'm still a little new to this whole 'being a person' thing."

"Well, Ariel," Belle said with a reassuring smile, "I'd say you're doing rather well. Better than I could do. And I'm glad there's someone here I can talk to in French."

"You should be!" interjected a voice in French. Ariel and Belle both turned their heads to the German on the other side of the prison. Rapunzel, unless Ariel had picked out a German word and thought it to be her name. That would be awkward.

And Ariel wasn't a stranger to being socially awkward. Outgoing, sure. Adventurous, definitely. But awkward nonetheless.

• • •

Rapunzel relished Belle's puzzled look. "You can speak French?"

Rapunzel shrugged nonchalantly. She was already finding messing with Belle really funny. "Just a bit. I read a lot."

Belle's eyes glowed. "Same here!"

Rapunzel felt a tap on her left shoulder. "Hey… Rapunzel, right?" Cinderella said in German.

"Yeah?"

"What's going on?"

"The redhead over there introduced herself. She's Ariel," Rapunzel said as Ariel, hearing her name, waved hi to Cinderella without understanding the rest of the sentence.

Cinderella waved back without having understood any of the French they were speaking earlier. "So she's Ariel, next to her is Belle, and next to her is Snow."

"Right." Belle confirmed in German. "And then Cinderella, Rapunzel, and… the one taking a nap."

Everyone laughed at that, even Ariel, who had no idea what was just said. Belle translated, and Ariel laughed for real.

"She's kinda pretty," Snow commented timidly.

"Then it's settled!" Rapunzel cocked her head and put her hands underneath, as if she were sleeping. "We'll call her Napping Pretty."

Belle frowned. "That's a bit clunky."

Rapunzel straightened. "You have a better idea?"

"Sleeping Beauty."

Rapunzel considered it for a long while, rolling over the phonetics and what not. "Naaaah. That's not as good."

"But you can't use pretty as a noun!" Belle reasoned. "At least Sleeping Beauty makes a shred of sense."

"The name's Aurora." Cinderella said out of the blue.

Rapunzel was confused. "How come you know a thing like that?"

"We were brought here in the same cart. I got to talk to her for a while before they chained us up."

Suddenly the atmosphere became denser, as the newly befriended girls were reminded of the gravity of their situation. Belle translated the last few things for Ariel so she was up to speed.

"I guess we'll need an escape plan, then." Rapunzel said in German. Belle would have to translate for Ariel; Snow and Cinderella both only knew German, so it made more sense to communicate to two people and have one in need of translation.

"I guess so." Cinderella looked over at the back of the dungeon, where six sets of eyes were staring at them intently. "Should we get them in on it?"

Rapunzel followed Cinderella's eyes. If those people could understand German, they sure didn't say anything about it. Two of the three darker people, chained to the same wall as Rapunzel, were chatting softly in some language she didn't recognize, while the other four remained silent. The two in the very back kind of had to stay silent, though; they had muffles. "Would they want to?"

"I can ask," Belle said. All eyes turned to her, and she blushed. "Those two girls are speaking English. I think they're talking about guns or something… I can't hear them that well. They're too quiet."

Rapunzel smiled. "Is there a language you don't know, Belle?"

"My English is very limited, actually. Just enough to pick up a few words here and there, maybe a simple sentence."

"Well," Rapunzel began, "use your limited English and get some information from those two! Maybe they can help us get out of this place."

Rapunzel saw Belle open her mouth to speak, and she saw the two English speaking girls turn their attention towards her. Everyone fell silent, however, when the door rattled, unlocked, and swung open.

***Author's Note***

And there's the first chapter! They will fight, but there will be other stuff in there too (like this chapter) that will hopefully add some drama to the action. I also left in what is also cut out: the language barrier. Please review and tell me what you think!

P.S. The cover image is a map of how the princesses are laid out in the dungeon. I know it's probably confusing to just read it, so I included the visual.