Firstly, surprise! Hey, guys! So, since I'm slowing the updates for Another Butterfly Effect until Episode Ignis is out, I had time to work on this other little story idea I wanted to do. Bit darker than I normally go, but I'm okay with that. I hope you enjoy!

Secondly and more IMPORTANTLY: yes, this is tagged as Highspecs, but romance is by no means the focus of the fic. The relationship with Ignis and Aranea for the greater part of this fic will be more along the lines of mutual respect and Aranea wanting to do what she considers to be the right thing, and that's why this story is labeled as Gen rather than F/M.

No. Oh, hell no. This had better not be what she thought it was.

"I don't much like the looks of this, Lady A," Biggs echoed the same words he'd used a few hours ago when they'd first received their orders.

Then, he'd followed that sentence up with something along the lines of the details are pretty vague on this one.

She'd noticed the lack of details too, but she'd brushed it off. What they needed transported was probably just something classified they wanted to keep under wraps.

And then she'd noticed the location of the pickup.

Insomnia. The Crown City itself. Well, just outside the city, the orders said. Aranea and her men weren't supposed to go in. They were supposed to wait and pick up the weaselly little Tummelt and his men with whatever he was supposed to deliver and get them back to Niflheim, and that would be that. Wham, bam, done, and home for a drink before it got too late.

Then Tummelt had signaled for backup. Still inside the city. Which of course meant Aranea was going to have to rescue his ass since they were the only ship in range.

She expected to find him running throughout the city with his tail between his legs and clinging to some documents while the MTs covered his flank from a horde of Glaives or something. She was not expecting to find him calmly standing around scowling in an alleyway at 1 a.m. as he stood over the form of some tied up, fancy-dressed young Lucian who was glaring from beneath the messy bangs across his forehead.

Aranea's heels clicked against the concrete in sync with Biggs and Wedge's heavier steps as she strolled down the alleyway. "Loqi, I'm about to ask what this is, and your answer is not going to be a kidnapping." She purposefully used his first name and no rank because she knew it irritated him.

Tummelt's mouth twisted like he'd bit into something distasteful. "It's a package acquisition and delivery."

"Package?" Biggs repeated incredulously. "This idn't one of ya robots, y'know?"

Biggs was sure right about that. The Lucian's very human eyes were locked on her now, observing and calculative behind the crack in the lens of one side of his glasses. Huh. Well, he seemed level-headed in this situation for someone in desk-worker clothes.

"I don't recall us paying you to think, grunt."

Biggs bristled. "'Scuse me? Okay, let's get some things straight here, mate – I don't work for you. I work for Lady A."

"Fine. Highwind, rein in your yipping dog, will you?"

"Oi," Wedge growled lowly.

Astrals, she hated this guy. Aranea swiveled to face Loqi, hands settling on her hips. "Here's an idea, Loqi – how about not biting the hand that's here to save your ass? Or are you forgetting that you called us for help?"

Tummelt snapped his mouth shut, glowering.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Lucian tugging at the ropes around his wrists. Not trying to get out of them, it looked like, just rolling his wrists to keep the blood flowing. Good grief, why were those ropes so tight? Was Tummelt trying to make the guy lose his hands? "So, this is a kidnapping, then? That was your mission?" You better say no, you bastard.

"Yes," Tummelt said simply, as though it were no big deal. "Me and my men were to obtain him and the documents he was carrying, and see him to a secure location for questioning."

Questioning. Right. Because they didn't know what he really meant by that at all.

"'Oo is he, anyway?" Wedge asked.

Tummelt shot the Lucian a glare. "A nuisance. The prince's advisor in training."

Aranea made a show of looking around. "I don't see any documents. Or your men. And you smell like a fireplace."

If possible, Tummelt's glare hardened. "There was a complication." Aranea could have sworn she saw the corner of the Lucian's mouth turn upwards for a moment before Tummelt continued. "It appears that the prince is honing his magical abilities – his tutor here happened to have a contained flask of a fire spell on him. Most of my men were dead before they realized the danger, and the little whelp tossed the documents into the flames as well."

"You'll gain no information from me." The Lucian held his chin up high as he spoke for the first time in precise, accented words. "Subject me to what torture you will."

Tummelt replied by delivering a swift kick to the Lucian's ribs. "Keep speaking and I'll do just that!"

The Lucian grunted at the impact, pulling his knees closer to shield his torso.

Oh, boy. This guy had courage, she'd give him that. Courage and training, and he was clearly good at keeping calm in a stressful situation and a quick thinker, but she wondered how that would hold up under actual torture. Now that she was studying him further, she realized how green he was at this game. The classy white shirt and pressed vest and slacks didn't exactly scream of someone used to getting their hands dirty. Not to mention he was young. It was hard to guess an exact age in the dark in addition to the swelling bruises around his left eye, but she'd guess early twenties for his age. Oh. And his leg was definitely broken. Wow. Tummelt broke the leg of the captive he needed to get out of the city. Brilliant idea.

"To be honest, it looks like you already got started on the torture." Aranea raised an eyebrow. "You got something against zip ties?" The Lucian's wrists were already dark with bruises and on the verge of bleeding.

Tummelt scoffed. "I tried. He's escaped from them. Twice. After that, I turned to other measures."

"If you're fishing for an apology, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed," the Lucian hissed. "Just as I'm certain your commanding officers will be in your incompetence."

Tummelt drew his hand back to strike the Lucian across the face, but Aranea cut in, grabbing his arm. "Easy, hotshot. He's winding you up."

Biggs laughed, shaking his head. "He's playin' you like a fiddle, mate."

"What?" Tummelt demanded, yanking his hand free.

"He can't talk if he's dead," Wedge said flatly.

"Get it yet, genius?" Aranea leaned closer to Tummelt, narrowing her eyes through the slits of her helmet. "He's provoking you. You lose your cool and kill him, he can't give you information. Or, even better, you misstep and the Lucian authorities get an advantage. You need to keep a cool head."

Going by the subtle shift of the Lucian's jaw and the sudden glower in his eyes, she'd pegged his plan pretty well.

There was no way he had personal experience with this kind of situation before, but he was making very calculated and precise moves. He was trying to take control of the situation in whatever ways he could, and it was almost textbook in the way he was doing it. Was a preparation class for this sort of thing required for the Crownsguard, or was he just a very prepared person?

"Or perhaps he just needs to learn to control his tongue." Tummelt reached forwards, yanking on the tie around the Lucian's neck and working it loose until he slid it off the guy's neck and stuffed part of it into his mouth and tied it again, effectively gagging him.

Again, wow. Tummelt needed to resort to that to keep the Lucian from getting to him? She gave him an hour – tops – until the Glaives managed to catch him. "Well, good luck with this, Tummelt." She jerked her chin the direction they'd come from. "Boys, we're leaving."

"Excuse me?" Tummelt demanded.

"You heard me," she growled, letting her anger show for the first time. "Look, you guys might have hired me, but I have conditions, and I sure as hell didn't sign up for kidnapping someone barely old enough to buy alcohol."

"I'm nineteen, actually. Though I'll take your assumption that I was older as a compliment."

What the… how? Aranea almost snickered at the Lucian sitting there with his "gag" flopped around his neck like it had never been tightened at all.

And secondly… nineteen? Hell, she hadn't been giving him enough credit. She couldn't think of him as a kid like she normally would of someone that age. He was handling things way too well for that.

"Quiet!" Tummelt snapped at the Lucian before returning his fury-filled gaze to her. "I couldn't care less about personal issues, Highwind. You will do your job. If not, I will make certain you and your men don't leave this city alive."

"Oh, yeh?" Biggs stepped behind Aranea, backing her up. "You called us for help, mate. Remember dat? Wut you gonna do to stop us?"

Aranea would never be intimidated by this rat, but she did not like the smirk forming on his face. "Oh, personally I can do nothing, but I'm certain my contact within the Glaives won't take kindly to this mission failing due to you choosing not to do what you're paid for. He's been very kindly leading the Glaives to search in the wrong places thus far, but I'm certain he could make sure the lockdown at the edge of the city was much harder to get past should you try to leave without me and the package."

Dammit. Of course he had a contact in Lucis. There was no way he could have gotten this far without one – he was incompetent on his own. That contact had probably given him the info on this guy to kidnap him in the first place. Probably been running the Glaives in circles to keep them off Loqi's trail for hours. No wonder the Lucians hadn't been able to track Tummelt down yet.

And double dammit, Biggs and Wedge were here. Normally, she'd take her chances at being able to sneak or fight her way past a blockade, but that wasn't their area of expertise, and she couldn't endanger their lives like that. She was in charge. She had an obligation not to get them killed on a mission as craptastic as this. Even if they walked away now and didn't go near the blockade, Tummelt could get his contact to make the Glaives chase after them while he slipped by.

There were only two real options: kill Tummelt, or help him. Oh, how she would have no problems with that first option, but having the whole Empire after her and her men was also not an ideal result. Tummelt's contact had to know she was in town. If Tummelt died without the Glaives' involvement, the guy was bound to put the pieces together.

That only left her with one option that got her and Biggs and Wedge out safely.

"You'll want to watch who you threaten, Loqi," Aranea hissed at him. "We may – as you've pointed out – need you to get out of here now, but that won't always be the case. You'll find I don't respond well to blackmail."

"No, you respond well to being paid, and I will see that you are once we've escaped this wretched city."

Dear Astrals, the gall of this guy. He threatened to have her and her men killed, and then he tried to placate her with promises of money? Yeah, like that was going to keep any hard feelings from being formed. She was a mercenary, sure, but it didn't work like that.

A ringtone cut off her retort before she could even start to get it out, and Tummelt pulled out what looked like a stolen Lucian phone.

"They'll be searching this sector soon – we must move." Tummelt grabbed the Lucian's arm and tried to drag him to his feet. "Get up."

Aranea rolled her eyes. "How do you expect him to move with us when you broke his leg, dumbass?" She pulled a potion from her pocket, pushing Tummelt away as she knelt down next to the Lucian. "Well, at least you set it properly… This should heal it right up."

"I set it, actually," the Lucian said, patiently waiting as she cracked the potion over his leg. The bruising on his face was washed clean, the swelling vanishing as well. Huh. So maybe he was only nineteen.

"Of course you did." Aranea sighed, looking over her shoulder. "Didn't really think that one through, did you?"

"Spare me your self-righteous, know-everything comments, Highwind, and get the rat to his feet so we can leave." Tummelt continued looking at his phone. "Looks as though we'll be taking the sewers to go beneath the patrol."

"Oh, goodie. Sewers." Biggs' tone dripped sarcasm.

Wedge moved over to stand by Aranea as she pulled the healing Lucian to his feet. "Are we really goin' along with this, Lady A? Handin' this kid over to be tortured and killed?"

"I'm not a child," the Lucian groused.

"Shh." Aranea tried to hush him before lowering her voice. "Look, Wedge, I'm not happy about this either, but the asshole has got us backed into a corner. We go along for now."

"Right." Wedge nodded. "Whateva' 'appens, y'know you've got our support."

Of course she did. That's why she wouldn't let them die on her watch.

"Right, let's go." Aranea directed the Lucian forwards, not missing the gleam in his eyes. Clever guy. He was already forming a plan, she could tell. He was going to use their hesitance on this mission to his advantage. Great. Now she was going to have to look out for that too. She didn't want to turn the guy over to be tortured, but if it came down to his life against Biggs and Wedge's, she would choose her men every time.

Still… she had to wonder about this clever guy. What led someone so young who lived behind the safety of Insomnia's Wall to be this sharp and collected in this kind of situation? What kind of life did he have?

Buckle up, fandom friends... We've got quite the ride ahead...