A few days later...

The days had passed slowly, with 'Monsquad' helping me adjust to prison life. Xerxes, Susan, and Demona - when she's not literal stone - all spend most of their free time in what could be called the gym, lifting weights made of more stone, while Eric pretends to lift some weight as he watches the women work out. Essraya, Markonath, and Belinda enjoy time in the yard, tending to a garden that many inmates seem to maintain...at least when the monsters aren't present. Overall, nothing much happens, and I haven't even revealed my true form to anyone other than Demona, who doesn't seem to either care enough or know enough to say anything more than, "He's a devil."

A few days into my 'sentence', with no word from the outside other than my now-daily possessions of Kara and Camilla, Monsquad gets summoned to the warden's office. As the group travels from Mona's cell, since that's where the lone guard summoned us from, the mood of the group changes. Essraya's green hue, in addition the the darkening of the night, turns even darker; Xerxes' fists clench and unclench periodically. The only ones that seem unaffected by this mood change are Bel - and not Linda, whose usual upbeat way of walking is visibly muted - and the humans, Susan and Eric, although even then, the atmosphere is tense.

Shortly, we all sit in sort of conference room a few doors down from the office. Linda disappears for something, leaving Bel to sit on the head of the table. After a brief silence, I speak up. "Sooo...what's..." I gesture with my fingers to the room, "all this? You all seem like you know..."

Silence continues to fill the room, as the humans glance to the monsters nervously, and the monsters seem to have no desire to speak. Eventually, Bel sighs. "Weekly, we are required to meet with someone for questioning. It's often the warden, but there are times when someone else interviews us."

Essraya grunts. "More like interrogates us."

Making no move to correct her, Bel continues. "They take us in one at a time and ask us questions regarding our experience during and prior to our time here."

I nod, thinking. "And this is...every week? I can't imagine there's much change in a single week."

Demona looks smugly at me. "You'd be surprised."

I give her a knowing look. "Har har."

Her smirk grows wider. "Yeah, not much happens, and it's usually the same questions, too."

I nod again, silence coming over the room. Eventually, Linda comes back in the room, taking Bel and leaving again before reentering by herself. Then...I remember something. "Linda?" She seems a bit startled - she must be anxious about something - and turns her whole body toward me. "How do you..."

As if the question was asked before, she begins making gestures with her hands, which is...sign language? Markonath speaks up from across the room. "Belinda learned sign language not long after she turned. There have been several times they're not in the same room, but Linda needs to communicate with us."

Blobby, from my lap, jiggles a bit at the mention of sign language, before hopping up on the table and rolling over to the headless woman, pausing in front of her, as if she's watching the undead's hands work. After a moment, Blobby suddenly hops up and wraps herself around one of Linda's hands, causing the entire group to get up from their seats, as Linda's free hand makes some other gesture, which seems to pacify them enough to sit back down and simply watch anxiously.

The slime shakes as Linda's hand makes more, simpler forms. I'm pretty sure I recognize some semblance of letters in sign language, but I'd not learned more than what was in elementary. Even if I remembered, there's no guarantee this world's sign language was the same as Earth's. After a short while of Linda's hand flexing into different shapes, the door opened, and...

"Citrinas?!" I blink in surprise as the archmage carries Bel's head in between her sleeves.

"Hello, 'Monsquad'." She sets down the undead head, taking a moment to gaze at Belinda's hands inside Blobby. "Markonath, if you could please join me, now."

The dragon reluctantly stands, and I realize that the attitude in the room has shifted again, with most of the monsters glaring at the silver-haired woman as Markonath follows her outside the room. When the door closes, a handful of things happen. I notice Xerxes set his hand on Essraya's shoulder. Linda slumps her shoulders a bit as she picks up Bel and reattaches her head. Susan and Eric let out a heavy breath.

After shaking her head, Bel speaks up. "Sorry. I would have warned you, but..." she cocks her head at Blobby, "something distracted me. I apologize, Dusk. I was swift in my judgement of you and your friend." Once she says that, she sets her hands back in the slime, and continues speaking with sign language, visibly amused by the situation, despite the glares she's receiving from the others.

. . .

Time passes, and after everyone else goes for questioning, it's my turn. Susan tells me when she reenters the room: "She wants to see both you and the slime. Everyone else can retire for the night." As such, I take Blobby and Belinda - head attached - guides me to the 'interrogation' room.

"You have an interesting companion, Dusk," the undead muses. "She's very attached to you."

"Uh, thanks. So, she knows sign language?"

"A derivative of Angelic Sign Language, but yes. While she focuses only on the hands, there's enough overlap with the original that we can communicate well enough. You took down the Hornet Empress, recently?"

"Yeah, barely. Probably couldn't have done it alone, though." I pat the slime, once more on my chest.

"What is a soldier without their allies?" I think on the odd wording of that before she interrupts me. "We're here." She opens the door next to her and holds it for me. "Arch-imago, Dusk and the slime have arrived."

As I enter the room, I see Citrinas standing on the opposite side of the small office, watching out the window. "Lieutenant, wait outside until you are called."

"Understood." Belinda nods and closes the door.

I clear my throat. "So, this is...different..."

Cutting the chatter, the archmage gets to the point. "I'd like you to recount the details of your fight with the Hornet Empress."

"Uh...okay..." I sit down in one of two chairs across the desk from her, Blobby climbing down into my lap, and begin telling her everything that happened during my latest encounter with the Empress. I don't leave out any details, even my channeling of Kara, since I'm pretty sure the human saw the whole thing. I may not have had a view of myself, but I vaguely remember fox tails being present once I used Final Form. "And then, once I cut off her arm and antennae, I...took some time to recover. I made sure she was ****, then flew down into Roger's ambush."

"What of the spell you cast on the Empress after she had been defeated?"

I internally sigh. I was hoping she didn't catch that, but oh well. "I received a number of boons from an angel, including the ability to look human. The spell I cast on her was the Mark of Submission. Now, the Empress has to do what I tell her to do, which right now, is mostly making sure she doesn't do anything without the 'go ahead' of my friend, Eve."

"This spell works on anyone?"

"Uh...theoretically? It's weird. If it truly could have been cast on anyone, I had a pretty good opportunity the day before the Empress fight to use it on her, but... I don't know. There was just this...feeling I got, I guess(?), where I knew it wouldn't work." I pause for a moment. "I think...I have to already be 'dominant' over them before it'll work. I used it on Eve, and it worked instantly, but I couldn't use it on the Empress until I had beaten her in a fight."

She hums, still not turning to face me. "Lieutenant." Within moments, the door opens and closes behind Belinda as she walks in, standing at attention and holding her hands behind her back. "I'm instating Dusk as your superior. Refer to him as your captain."

The undead woman looks dumbfounded for a moment before righting herself. "O-of course, arch-imago."

"Please lay on the desk, lieutenant." With a flick of her sleeve, the papers, quills, and ink bottles on the desk float off to the sides of the room.

Belinda, unsure of what's going on, walks past me, and lays herself on the desk, face up. "Arch-imago, what's the meaning of this?"

Instead of answering, Citrinas seems to address you as she turns, her gaze falls to Belinda's stomach. "Please cast the spell, Dusk. Lieutenant, remain calm."

The undead gulps - somehow? - and I look between her and the archmage. This is moving along fast...and since when am I a captain? "Alright, I guess..." I pull up Belinda's shirt a bit, revealing a lightly scarred, but toned stomach, and begin casting the spell. Like I had just told Citrinas, there was just...a feeling that I would be able to do it, despite not having any actual sign of that being the case. Citrinas stares at my hands as they work, and ten minutes later, the ritual is complete, Belinda's new womb tattoo glowing a faint pink before settling into its more mundane brightness. "All done."

Citrinas hums. "Lieutenant, continue observing the monsters, and inform Dusk of the experiment. You both are dismissed." She walks around and leaves us in the room alone.

Belinda sits up on the desk, eyeing her new tattoo. "May I ask what this is about?" She even takes off her head to get a better look at it.

"Well, that means you have to do what I say, now. Don't ask me why Citrinas wanted me to put it on you...I honestly have no idea." I shrug. "But I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth." She furrows her brow in confusion. "Uh, it's an expression where I'm from."

"Hm. Well...'Captain', I suppose you should know why the Monsquad is in prison instead of executed." Linda sets Bel on the desk facing you while she moves behind it, ruffling through one of the drawers. Funny enough, I realize that now is the point when the various papers, quills, and ink bottles slowly return to the desktop. "The Arch-imago is studying how monsters and humans interact when **** into the same environment. Throughout the past year, she's put various monsters in here, despite the differences in cultures among them. Of the six monsters placed here prior to you, five of them have been passive enough to make the duke believe that this is worth the effort. The sixth...he had to be put down a few months into the project for being too violent with the human inmates." As Bel speaks, Linda lays out some written papers next to the disembodied head. At the top of the first one, you recognize Essraya's name.

"Hold on, you say 'five of them'. Does that not include yourself?"

Bel closes her eyes for a moment as Linda pushes her index fingers together. "Sometimes it's easier for me if I don't refer to myself as a monster. Now, starting with Essraya, she was acquired during the Saintess' invasion of the Demon King's castle, harvested from the garden there. She's temperamental if you bring up the battle, as is Demona, since she was acquired the same night." Linda slides the papers out, giving you a preview of the order Bel is going to speak about them in. "I was next. During the last Crusade, my squadron defended against an undead horde, and I was the only survivor...or so I thought..." She pauses for a moment, seemingly to get her bearings. "After that was Xerxes. He was acquired a few months ago during a conquest of the barbarian fields north of here, and eventually developed a relationship with Essraya, greatly improving both their moods in imprisonment. He also developed a healthy rivalry with Demona, and from what I understand, they are relatively even in physical strength, but continue to push each other beyond their normal capabilities. Markonath was the most recent, being discovered in a mountain to the northwest of Recuan around two months ago. He's young, but already has a strong affinity for storm magics, which if left unfettered, could develop into an infusion rather quickly."

"And...what of the humans?" I brush aside Markonath's page, finding one for Susan and another for Eric.

"Susan was arrested for protecting her brother, who had fallen in love with a therian that had hidden in the nearby woods. The brother and his lover are on the run now, but we captured Susan a week before Markonath was found. Eric..." She says the name with almost hatred in her usual (at least, while disembodied) monotone voice. "Pay him no mind. He's just a pervert that thinks he can seduce one of us. He'll probably abandon us once he realizes he can't."

I hum, taking in the information. "And what are your thoughts on this project? I seem to remember you saying something about a 'line' between humans and monsters?"

"That is correct...sir. I believe this is a waste of time and effort."

"Even though you were once human?"

"I...I know I'm not human anymore. I choose to remind myself of that every day I separate myself."

I hum again, considering my own situation, as well as Eve's. "So, despite your human mind, your human heart, you can't think of yourself as human? Just because you've turned physically into a monster, doesn't mean you have to mentally be one."

"I'm aware of that, but I truly am a monster."

"And yet it helps when you don't refer to yourself as a monster?"

She purses her lips, Linda flexing her palms like she's nervous. "I did say that, sir."

I wait a moment, remembering Eve's dilemma with this very idea. "Bel, you may be physically a monster, now, and for the rest of your life. But you're still you. You don't need to focus on the label. You are Belinda. Nothing is going to change that, understood?"

Linda moves around to the front of the desk, and turns to Bel, signing something. "Permission to act freely, sir?"

Wondering what Linda could be thinking, but knowing I'm probably fine thanks to Mark of Submission, I nod. "Granted." Without a second to think, Linda wraps her arms around me in a hug, and she's...sobbing? Her chest moves in a fashion similar to that. "Is...this normal?" I pat her back.

With a blush - again, somehow?! - Bel looks away as much as she can. "N-no, sir, but Linda does tend to have a difficult time holding back our emotions."

"Huh..." Silver lining: my only shirt isn't getting soaked with tears.

"If you reattach me, I should be able to control myself better."

"No need, Bel. Sometimes, it's just better to let it all out." I rub Linda's back in a circular motion, my own eyes getting a bit wet. "I, unfortunately, know the pain of what happens when you don't let it out..."

. . .

I hadn't been keeping track of time, but some time after I had sat down with Linda crying in my lap, she ended up falling asleep...which was weird, since Bel seemed to be at least mostly awake. Shifting around carefully, I lift up the headless woman in a backwards-piggy-back, slightly struggling to do so. "Hey, you mind helping out with Bel?" Blobby shakes up and down a bit in the darkness before sliding herself under the disembodied head and following me out the door.

"Sir, this isn't necess-"

"Nonsense," I whisper. "Now, you're gonna need to tell me where your cell is. We're already probably past curfew, so be quiet about it."

Despite the darkness, Bel and Blobby near-silently lead me to the lieutenant's cell, not too far from where I'm pretty sure Demona's cell is. With some effort, and a bit of stirring on Linda's part, I open the barred door as much as I need to squeeze through. Carefully as I can, Linda is set onto the 'bed' hanging from the wall. I then lift Bel up to rest beside her. As I turn to leave though, an undead arm reaches out and grabs my hand. I look back at Linda, vaguely spotting some kind of gesture with her free hand. "Thank you, sir."

I softly smile as Belinda releases me. "Not a problem. Sleep well." I leave and close her door behind me, only now realizing how much free roam over the place she and I seem to have, despite it being well past curfew.

"You two are out late..." I turn around, seeing the vague outline of a gargoyle leaning against the wall in the limited moonlight entering the hallway.

I glance inside Bel's cell, and she seems asleep, so I begin whispering. "Yeah, Citrinas had some...questions."

"Uhuh." She looks inside the undead's cell. "I know you're awake, Bel."

Linda raises a hand, and I'm pretty sure her middle finger is raised. "Nice to see you too, Mona."

I facepalm, remembering Demona's claim from my first night. "Yeah, should have seen that coming..."

The headless woman sits up, picking up her head before standing and walking to the door. "It was nice while it lasted."

As Belinda exits her cell, Mona confronts us. "Mind explaining what took so long? Citri left a good while before you three did."

"Let's discuss this elsewhere..."

. . .

The gargoyle munches on her rock candy as she processes the information. "So you're his ****, now." She looks to me, a smug look on her chewing face. "Have you boned her, yet?"

I blink at the sudden tactlessness, but if I'm being honest, I should probably have expected it from her at this point. "No...I haven't." I glance to Linda, shifting in her seat as she 'talks' to Blobby on the table.

"Wasted opportunity." She shakes her head. "She's a pretty good lay. Basically trained her, myself."

Bel clears her throat. "Back to the matter at hand. Captain, Demona has been aware of the project for several months, now."

"I noticed she spent more time with our 'interviewers' than anyone else, and she usually went last before I pointed it out, so everyone else could head to bed." The gargoyle dives back into her meal.

"She's claimed to have no interest in sharing her knowledge with the others, in exchange for being informed of any news regarding said project."

"I still think it's a waste of time, but sometimes it's fun to watch the chaos." She pauses. "Shame I'm stone for most of it."

I pause, taking a breath. "Okay, so you don't have a problem with being stuck here?"

Demona shakes her head. "Oh, I have a problem with it. I just know that as soon as I step outside these walls, I've got maybe a minute before the guard come for me, and I doubt they'd take me prisoner a second time. That means only sixty seconds to escape the city we're in the middle of. I don't know about you, feather-boy, but gargoyles don't normally fly that fast."

Remembering the basic layout of the city from when I was marched through, I reluctantly nod along. "Yeah. I could fly that fast, but as soon as I do, I know they'll go after some friends of mine."

Bel raises an eyebrow. "'Feather-boy'? I thought you were a devil."

"Oh, yeah, I guess it's okay to tell you." I revert my polymorph, letting my wings stretch and flex behind me. Didn't realize they could cramp like that. "I am a devil, but not completely. And unless Demona's willing to get her own tattoo, I'm keeping my mouth shut for now."

The gargoyle chuckles in her gravely voice. "I'll figure out eventually. Who knows, you might even convince me someday."

I furrow my brows. "You know, both of you are taking this **** thing pretty calmly."

Bel answers first. "I'm a soldier, Captain. I follow orders. Now, they're just orders I can't refuse. The Arch-imago trusts you enough to transfer me to your command, and that's good enough for me."

I wouldn't say 'trust', from what Mel and Carn said about her... "Sure, I guess."

Demona shrugs. "That mark is probably pretty redundant on Bel. For me, slavery is a pretty regular thing in the Demon Realm. I was the old Demon King's **** before I was captured, and being yours would probably be an upgrade, assuming you're not cooping me up in a castle all day." She chuckles. "Tell you what. You find me a way out of here, I'll guard that town of yours the rest of my nights. What's it called, Riverbend?"

I nod. "That's the one. I wouldn't call it 'mine', though."

She shrugs again before Bel interjects. "That's assuming the duke or Arch-imago let anyone go."

I lean back, lifting my hand to my chin as I hum. "Well, what's the point of this experiment?"

"To study how monsters and humans interact outside of combat."

"And how much interaction has Monsquad had with the human inmates?"

Bel and Demona share a look, and the latter responds. "Not much, other than Susan and Eric."

I smirk. "I...might have an idea..."

. . .

I lay back in my cell, satisfied with the day. I may not have gained much experience, but getting a new servant definitely should help with my archdevil status, not to mention having an ally I can count on. When my musing ends, I notice Blobby sitting on my stomach. She seems...tense, and I'm pretty sure she's looking at me, specifically. With God's Eye, I look at her current attitude toward me. Grateful, supportive, and infatuated? Hm. I don't remember ever beating her in anything, so it's not Aphroditism... I chuckle, ignoring the question as I pat the slime. Lots of infatuation recently, huh? I should probably get that sorted out. It's not like they'd all be okay with being in a proper harem, right? I chuckle again as I drift off to sleep.