"That's the point," Tank said, her voice grim. "Someone paid for this. Someone wanted her in the ring, tonight... This was a planned scheme."
"To kill her?" Blade asked, not so surprised, a lot of underhanded tricks worked around this prison... Nothing so surprising...
"Yeah. But not directly. Make it look like it was an honest accident. Something like a Prison fight gone wrong. Happens all the time."
Razor's voice was sharp with realization. "And if she dies here? In our cell?"
"They'll say it was us," Tank completed her imagination that was the truth. "We'll get blamed. More years added to our sentences. Maybe even the death penalty if they want to make an example."
There was a sudden long silence.
"We're being set up," Blade said flatly. "They're using us."
"Yeah." Tank let out a long breath. "Rich girl's got powerful enemies, and now we're caught in the middle."
More movement followed, and then gentle hands, surprisingly gentle, touched Shuyin's shoulders.
"Come on, princess," Tank said, her voice gruff but not cruel.
"Can't leave you on the floor or you'll die of shock."
Together, the three women carefully lifted Shuyin's broken body. Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through her, but she couldn't even scream anymore, only whimpering weakly.
They lifted her onto the bottom bunk, Tank's bunk, and laid her down as gently as they could manage.
"Get the blankets," Tank ordered.
Razor climbed up and pulled down her own thin blanket while Blade did the same. They covered Shuyin carefully, tucking the blankets around her broken body to keep her warm and stop the shock from killing her.
Shuyin lay there barely conscious, each breath a desperate struggle. She could taste blood filling her mouth and feel it drying in sticky patches on her face.
Her hand, the one that had been stomped on, throbbed with such intense pain that it seemed to pulse with its own terrible heartbeat.
The three women sat down on Blade's middle bunk, directly across from where Shuyin lay motionless. They spoke in low voices, but even through the thick fog of pain, Shuyin could still hear them.
"She won't survive until morning," Razor said quietly, her voice carrying a note of certainty. "Look at her, she's barely breathing."
"I know," Tank replied, her tone grim. "And if she dies here in our cell..."
"We're screwed," Blade finished the thought.
"Someone powerful wants her dead," Tank continued, thinking out loud as she stared at Shuyin's broken form.
"Someone with serious connections, enough to get her thrown into Blackwater, into our cell specifically, and into the fighting pit all in one day."
"Why not just kill her outright though?" Razor asked, confusion evident in her voice, and at the same time, frustrated with all these implications.
"Too obvious," Blade answered without hesitation. "This way it looks natural, just regular prison violence. Happens every day in places like this. No investigation, no questions asked."
"But they made a mistake," Tank said slowly, as if the realization was just dawning on her. "They involved us in their plan. If she dies, we take the fall, which means we've got a real reason to keep her alive."
A heavy pause filled the cell.
"You're saying we should protect her?" Razor sounded skeptical, almost disbelieving.
"I'm saying we keep her breathing until we figure out who's behind this whole setup," Tank explained carefully.
"Because whoever did this to her won't hesitate to do it to us too if it becomes convenient for them."
Another silence stretched between them, thick with the weight of their situation.
"She's completely helpless," Blade said, her eyes fixed on Shuyin's battered body. "Never even threw a real punch, just tried to curl up and protect herself. Just tried to survive."
"She's not meant for this place," Razor added quietly, almost sympathetically.
"No, she's not," Tank agreed with a heavy sigh. "Which means someone really wants her to suffer slowly before she dies."
They sat there in the dim light filtering through the cell, three hardened criminals staring at the broken rich girl who had been thrown into their world without a warning.
"Keep watch," Tank finally said, breaking the silence with a command. "Rotating shifts through the night. If guards come for her again before morning, we stall them however we can. Tell them she's already dead or too injured to move, whatever story works."
"You think they'll try again so soon?" Razor asked nervously.
"I think they'll do whatever it takes to finish the job," Tank said grimly, her jaw set. "And we need to stay alive and out of trouble, which means for now, so does she."
Shuyin heard all of this through the thick haze of pain clouding her mind. She heard them deciding to keep her alive, and not out of any kindness or compassion, but purely out of self-preservation and survival instinct.