"Alright, listen." Ram began. He, Sita, Urmila, Mandavi, and Shrutakirti were stuck in a cold, empty cell in the middle of the rebel stronghold. 

They had been shepherded into it after some soldiers expressed concerns about having to guard the sisters, especially Urmila and Mandavi, who had started to sharpen her nails with threatening looks towards the rebels.

All the whispered conversations in the prison came to halt as the girls looked up. Ram's eyes darted around, before he edged slightly closer, placing a hand over the side of his mouth to mask his words. "I know you must be very confused right now, as to why I let them capture us, but I promise you that there's a very good reason-"

"Please do tell." Urmila huffed, crossing her arms. "Because you told our husbands that you would protect us, and neither I nor my sisters doubted it for a second. That is, until you just allowed us to be kidnapped by a bunch of evidently dangerous rebels!" she glanced away, a frown on her eyebrows while Sita tried to console her, eying Ram worriedly.

"Ram bhaiyya," Shrutakirti began softly. "Ram bhaiyya, we don't doubt you. We're surprised, Urmila didi is going into shock, but we know there must have been a reason for this. After all, you always keep your promises, and it is your dharma to protect a woman, especially if she is your family. Please, speak freely. Don't be afraid of Mandavi's sharp nails."

Ram stopped eying said sharp nails and cleared his throat. "In my dream, I saw Lord Brahma. He told me that something like this was going to happen, where Sita, Mandavi, Urmila, Shrutakirti, and I all get captured somehow. He told me that I have to depend upon Bharat, Laksh, and Shatru to somehow get together and rescue us." 

He stopped and stared at the sisters. Sita and Shrutakirti both gave him trusting smiles, but Urmila and Mandavi both looked less than pacified.

"Urmi," Sita sighed. "Don't you trust your Ram bhaiyya to tell the truth? It makes sense, doesn't it, Lord Brahma coming to visit him."

"I'm not doubting that!" Urmila cried. "But what you mean to say is that Laksh, Bharat, and Shatrughan will be coming here on their own against a rebel army?" She got up and started to pull against the bars on the window. "We need to escape now, before my Lakshman gets stabbed, impaled, hit with an arrow, or dislocates his shoulder again!"

"Bharat must be on the verge of a heart attack!" Mandavi exclaimed, chewing on her already ragged nails. "He already gets so worried about me in normal times. Now that I've been kidnapped, he's probably already had two asthma attacks! And he's so forgetful, he probably didn't even bring along his inhaler! AISH THAT MAN! I love him but god does he get worried!"

-----O-----

"Oh look, it's a cave!" Bharat exclaimed excitedly, pointing to the deep cavern where the horse tracks had disappeared. "This must be the rebel hideout! Perfectly inconspicuous, and no one wants to enter, because you can practically smell the stench of toxic chemicals, rotten eggs, and damp limestone even from five feet away!"

"Okay, so we need a plan," Shatrughan murmured, pulling Lakshman back into the safety of the trees from where he had started to bolt into the cave. 

"A plan of action. Some way we can come up with to defeat them when there are only three of us and a whole army of them, and then also find Ram bhaiyya. We need something genius! Something so amazing, even Maa Sumitra would be awed. Something-"

"Take off your crowns and hide your swords and let's just plough our way in there." Lakshman interrupted, throwing off his own. "Let's use some violence and get back our wives and bhabhis and brother!" Bharat began to clap, before realising that this meant he had to fight and how logical this whole thing wasn't, and his face went pale.

Shatrughan seemed to feel differently, and shrugged, before chucking his own off as well. "Eh. Might as well wing it. I don't see anything better to do anyways." 

He took his extendable spear and hid it underneath his angavastram and quickly hid all of his golden bracelets and armlets underneath the tree. "Bharat bhaiyya, you need to take off the crown. No, take it off, bhaiyya. Nobody's going to hurt Mukuti, promise."

"BHAIYYA!" Lakshman shouted, grabbing Bharat's shoulders. "Not all great things happen after planning!"

"Most great things happen after planning!" Bharat countered. "Ninety nine percent, actually, and having carefully gone over the probabilities and risks of both angles, I say we stay here and make a knowledgeable plan to break them out before we accidentally blow up the place!"

Shatrughan perked up at that. "Say, I think that's a good idea, bhaiyya. Blowing up the place, I mean."

"Arrey, that's going to blow up Ram bhaiyya as well!" Lakshman chided. "Before we accidentally come up with worse plans, I say we just go in there. What's the worst that could happen? We waste a little bit of time, but at least we find Ram bhaiyya!"

"Or we die!" Bharat sighed, but weighed his options again, decided that he really would prefer finding Mandavi before she committed mass murder and got on the KIA (Kosala Investigation Agency)'s most wanted list. Before they could move from their hiding spot, however, a soldier came out from the depths of the cave and stood right at its opening.

"Come on! He's not going to move!" Shatrughan hissed. "Let's just do this! Lakshman bhaiyya, don't beat him up, we need to stay as unsuspicious as possible. I'll do the talking." With a glare, Lakshman stood up, being the tallest, and all three of them made their way to the man, who was already beginning to eye them suspiciously.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "There's nothing to see here. Move along now."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Shatrughan chuckled, trying to sound as amiable as possible. "We've been here so many times, you couldn't even count it on your hands! That may be because you only have eight fingers, though."

"You're children." cackled the man. "How could you possibly have come here before? In fact, you look strangely familiar. Say, are you part of the-"

"The cult of Mogambo?" Shatrughan completed. "But absolutely! Isn't everybody? I can't even see anybody around here that isn't part of the cult of Mogambo? Can you, Bholu?" He looked towards Bharat, who, after sparing Shatrughan a withering glance, looked around before shaking his head.

"The cult of Mogambo?" asked the poor soldier, shifting on his feet suspiciously as his grip tightened around his spear. "I'm not a part of it. In fact, I don't even think that it's a real-"

"Now then." Shatrughan laughed nervously. "Just because you weren't fortunate enough to be part of the secret society doesn't mean that you should get jealous enough to deny its existence! Mogambo takes that as a big insult! Let me and my friends Dholu and Bholu through!"

"You know what I think?" leered the guard. "I think that you're all a bunch of brats that don't know what-"

"Mogambo isn't very happy about the delay." was all Lakshman said before he punched the guard so hard that he passed out, knocking his head against the wall before sliding down onto the muddy forest floor.

"So much for being inconspicuous." Bharat sighed. Lakshman simply shrugged, rubbing his knuckles. "Alright then. Let's save Ram bhaiyya!"

They walked into the cave without another thought, Lakshman leading the line and Shatrughan at the very back. Just seconds after they entered, they heard a large creaking sound, and upon turning back, realised that a large stone slab had blocked the exit. "Well this is great." Shatrughan grumbled. "Not ominous at all!"

"Don't worry." Lakshman replied, voice calm. "I'll just break through it somehow. But first: Ram bhaiyya." Agreeing with this wise notion by the great and powerful Maharishi Lakshman Baba, they all continued to tiptoe through the long, empty hallway, until they came to a fork in the pathway.

"Listen here," Bharat whispered. "I think that we should split up here. It would be wise to do so. I'm sure there's something important on both sides, isn't there? Maybe Laksh should go one way and then me and Shatru can go another."

"No." Lakshman said shortly. "Bhaiyya, what if you guys find Ram bhaiyya, and then I'm stuck killing rebels? Not that I mind, of course, but then I won't get to see Ram bhaiyya and Urmila will probably kill me once we get back, and it's going to be a much more painful death!"

"Let's just go on the red pathway." Shatrughan said, pointing straight. "We should stick together anyway, to keep uniformity."

"The red pathway?!" Bharat whisper shouted. "Everyone knows that you never take the red pathway! It's the basic rules of red pathways! And besides, from what I've read about the Rebels of Mogambo, they love the colour red!"

"Exactly!" Shatrughan exclaimed. "If they love the colour red, then we should follow that path, shouldn't we? And besides, what's a little danger when we've got our demon killing machine with us?" He clapped Lakshman on the shoulder confidently.

"They also like killing, you mindless person!" Bharat shouted exasperatedly, but unable to argue with Shatrughan and his demon killing machine, loving both too much, they continued going straight, shivering under the cold, damp temperatures and trying their best not to attract too much attention.

But it was here that they began to see people. Giants of men, walking around with heavy furs and ragged animal hides on their shoulders. Shatrughan gagged at the smell, doubling over, but Bharat quickly pulled him up. "Pretend to be serious," he whispered. "Or else they'll call our bluff and we'll be thrown into prison as well."

"That isn't a problem for Lakshman," Shatrughan grumbled, pointing to the side where Lakshman walked as he normally walked, and got not even a second glance from anybody. "This is a perfect environment for him."

"We have to stay quiet and stay low," Lakshman grumbled. "If we attract any attention, they could hurt Ram bhaiyya. Shatru, stop gagging, you look like a cave critic. Bharat bhaiyya, don't smile at everybody. You look too friendly for a bunch of rebels who had it in them to somehow capture Ram bhaiyya."

Shatrughan suddenly walked into a wall. Rubbing his eyes, Shatrughan staggered back a little bit to see that the thing he had bumped into wasn't a wall but a man. A humongous man. Maybe six feet, with the width of a bull and eyes the colour of fresh blood. 

His face was twisted into some evil sort of scowl and a long scar ran down his jaw, down to his throat. One of his eyes was scarred so badly, it was sewn shut.

He gulped, swallowing hard, stepping conveniently behind Lakshman. "Who are you?" growled the man, stepping one step closer for every pace the princes inched back. "Who are you puny punks, I ask? ANSWER MY QUESTION!" Other rebels, all equally as scary, began to turn around to stare at the situation, some dropping their work to observe interestedly.

Lakshman looked about ready to slice off the man's head for calling Shatrughan and Bharat puny punks, but Bharat, thinking that this wasn't a wise thing to do, quickly cleared his throat, and in the deepest voice he could muster, pulled a T-position, and said "Hail Mogambooooooo!"

After the one second of awkward silence that ensued, normal chatter began to start up again and people started to turn their eyes away from the situation. "Hail Mogambo," Shatrughan quickly stammered, before pointing to Lakshman, who still looked about ready to rip the giant's head off. "He doesn't speak. Childhood trauma, you know? Well of course you would know." Shatrughan began to nervously laugh as the man turned to look at him furiously.

Before breaking down into sobs. "No one has ever acknowledged my childhood trauma!" He blubbered. "Abandoned by my mother."

"Wow." Shatrughan said.

"My father had a disease that crippled him!"

"Oh my gosh."

"All my brothers were useless-"

"Jeez."

"And they got the disease too!"

"My goodness."

"Then they all died!"

"Dear god."

"I was bullied for my appearance-"

"Not very nice. You know the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated."

"Then I got hired by somebody for personal security."

"Oh that's good-"

"But that was the person my mother had run away to marry!"

"Oh no."

"So I killed them all!"

"R-Right."

"But then I was arrested!"

"Well that's expected, I mean-"

"And sentenced to work in the farms for life!"

"Good!"

"WHERE I GOT THE DISEASE TOO!"

"Okay, that's just sad."

"Anyways," the monster sniffled, wiping his nose. "It's been a long time since I've been able to properly rant to somebody. "Thank you for that. And your companion even got the Mogambo Salute correct! We really do appreciate that! You know, Mogambo gave me a job after helping me heal from the disease."

"Wow, that's really nice of him." Bharat piped up. "You know, many people think of him as really mean, but he may just be a misunderstood anti-hero like the ones in the books. Maybe we can help him go back to a path of dharma!"

"Mogambo loves killing." agreed the monster. "And I love killing too. We steal cattle from farmers and kidnap people to work forced labour for us. We've already got a few kings in our prisons. You know the next kingdom we're thinking of running? Kosala. I'm his right hand man, so I should know!"

"TAKE KOSALA? YOU-"

Shatrughan and Bharat both held Lakshman back from tearing the monster's arms off. "He wants to give you a very big hug." Bharat explained, even as his voice sounded angry. "But his hugs can get very lethal. We should know. We're his brothers." The monster shrugged.

"I have a job for you all anyways. Come with me."