Aranea didn't linger long by Wedge's grave, and her cold fury was more than enough to tell Ignis why – she was set out for revenge. Ignis longed to try and talk her back to reason, to give her the same speech about how revenge wouldn't help, but… Oh, goodness that would have been so hypocritical. And then there was a whole matter of, well, it might help, actually. As far as they knew, Biggs and Nyx were still alive. And a vengeful Aranea… well, Ignis hadn't really seen it before, but he certainly knew he didn't want to stand in the way of that.

"Have you any ideas for a plan?" Ignis asked her softly as she joined him over by their chocobos.

"Other than driving my lance through that bastard's heart, not really," she growled.

He wished he could stall further, but what was the point? "Noct… he believes it might be best if we were to meet up."

She shot him a confused look. "And you're okay with that?"

He hesitated, then shrugged. "What other choices have we at this point? Our efforts have turned up nothing. You're contact–"

"Is dead, probably," she said flatly.

Ignis tilted his head. If she had received word that her contact was dead, when had that been? And who had told her her contact was dead if her contact was the only one sending her information?

Aranea shrugged at his look. "She wouldn't have sold me out, but they found us somehow. They probably fed her the information and then took her out. We probably only got out okay because she'd found the other bit of information and they didn't realize she sent that too."

That was all logical, he supposed. Loqi had definitely set up the trap on the others, but if he'd known where Ignis and Aranea were going to be, he most definitely would have had a trap set for them as well. They were the ones he really wanted. Now the others were bait and entertainment for him.

Bastard. No matter how much Ignis thought he couldn't hate Loqi any more, the man always managed to find a way to make himself worse.

Aranea ran a hand through her hair, and Ignis found himself missing her usual teasing disposition. "Well, like you said… What other choices do we have? Wander around and hope to find him at some random Imperial base? At least with your guys we have backup, and Loqi's going to be after them too soon enough, or at least Pretty Boy."

And Prompto. He knew Prompto had been the one to shoot him back in Insomnia. Loqi wasn't going to let that slide. If he found Prompto he'd probably shoot him and leave him to bleed out, and that was likely a mercy compared to what he had to be planning for himself and Aranea.

"Very well," Ignis said, his tongue thick. "I'll let him know that we intend to meet with them." It was a risk, all right, just like it had been before. But divide and conquer was a powerful strategy that had already cost them a friend. Ignis didn't intend to lose another that way.

To Lestallum it was, he supposed.

It only took a few hours. Longer than Nyx expected, really. But sitting in the cell in silence was its own kind of torture, he supposed. He could tell that all three of them had questions they were yearning to ask, but with such a strong likelihood of the Empire watching and listening in on the cell, they had no chance to voice those questions, really.

Well, maybe there were some safe topics, but Nyx wasn't one for chatter at the moment anyway. Somehow, he doubted Clarus and Biggs were either. Well. Maybe Clarus. He had to be dying to ask about his kids, but he knew he couldn't safely get any answers in here.

…His thoughts honestly seemed like they were going in circles. Maybe that was the point of waiting as long as they did. Maybe they were letting their prisoners get nervous first. Whatever their reasoning was, they weren't waiting any more.

He wished he could have struggled more when the guards started dragging him back out of the cell, but he knew he needed to conserve his energy for what was to come, and struggling just a little against some guards wasn't going to actually do anything.

"Stay strong, Captain," Clarus hissed as Nyx was dragged away, a reserved fury burning in his gaze. He looked as though he might honestly be considering taking the guards on with his battered, broken, and – frankly – old body, but he stayed seated, merely glaring death instead of acting.

Nyx had only been able to give him a stiff nod in return. Whatever they tried, it wouldn't be enough. …Not that it really mattered if they did. All his information was outdated. He didn't know where the Prince was. He didn't know where the Oracle was anymore. Ignis was the one that talked to the Prince, and Pelna and the Princess had been headed to the damn Disk weeks back. Tortured or not, he had nothing to give them.

He let out a dry laugh as they chained his arms above him, leaving him shirtless and with his feet only just touching the ground. Really. The was just so typically Loqi – a hopeless and incompetent effort to accomplish what his masters set him up to do.

And then there he was. The asshole of the hour, standing before Nyx with the smuggest expression ever known to mankind.

Nyx really wanted to wipe that look off his face, even if it made things worse.

He made a show of looking up at the chains attached to his arms. "You know, usually I'd insist someone at least buy me dinner before we get to this."

Whether Nyx died today or lived to be a hundred years old, he would cherish the utter destruction of Loqi's confident disposition forever. The drop of Loqi's expression was almost comical it was so abrupt, and Nyx sneered at him, relishing his small victory.

Rage colored Loqi's face as he stepped forwards, hissing into Nyx's face. "We'll see just how sharp that tongue of yours is in a few hours."

"Still sharper than yours." Nyx grinned back at him. "Though I guess that's not giving myself much credit."

Loqi's hands shot out, one catching Nyx's braids and pulling back hard while the other clamped around Nyx's exposed throat. "I'm going to enjoy watching you break."

Nyx had a retort for that, but not the air to make it. Loqi was clearly enjoying himself as he stayed in that position, squeezing harder and harder until Nyx's wheezing attempts at breathing had all but died out and the black spots in his vision spiraled in enough to spare him the sight of Loqi's face entirely.

The slow, stretched moment of when he was about to lose consciousness hung over him for an eternity, and then the fog lifted, the pain in his throat no longer masked by his clouded mind as he tried to draw air through the abused pathway to his lungs.

Coughs wracked his form, making the chains above him clatter as they were jostled about. He struggled to stay on his feet, not wanting to add dislocated arms to the mix. The tears that burned across his face were a normal, unstoppable reaction to being strangled, but he still hated the sign of weakness they carried. He glared at Loqi as best he could as soon as he was able.

"Yes…" Loqi looked pleased. "Let's see how long you hold out…"

Nyx managed to get enough air in to hold his breath a moment, and he spat at Loqi. "Gonna… hafta… do better… 'an that…"

Loqi grinned, cold and cruel. "Oh, I intend to."

There was a shuffling behind him – a guard, no doubt – and then something struck his bare back. Pain like fire tore through him as a scream ripped through his already sore throat. No, not fire. Lightning. Electricity coursing through his every nerve.

His wrists strained against the cold metal cuffs, and they dug into his skin, biting at his flesh more every second. But that was nothing, nothing compared to the white-hot agony that was becoming his entire existence.

And then it stopped. He didn't even realize at first that the pressure from his back was gone, but then the pain was withdrawing slowly, leaving him stinging and twitching all over. Distantly, he realized he could taste blood in his mouth.

Well, shit. He'd bitten something. Maybe his cheek. Maybe through his tongue. Hard to say.

He spat again, trying to ignore the buzzing in his skull. "Whatever you want, you won't get it."

Loqi looked behind him, giving the guard a nod.

Bracing for the pain didn't help much. His eyes still felt as though they were going to be seared within their sockets by the time the second round was over.

"If you want information…" Nyx paused to suck in another shaky breath. "You might want to try actually asking some questions, dumbass."

"All in good time, my dear Captain." Loqi smirked once more, signaling the guard again.

Nyx didn't remember being released from his chains. He barley remembered being dragged back to his cell. Just a couple hazy blurs of that damned hallway again. And then he was jarred awake as he was dropped onto the floor.

His head struck the stone, snapping him back to some form of awareness, though everything was still blurred in a sort of warped yellow lighting. His head was buzzing to no end, a foreign and annoying noise in his ears.

His body was curled in of its own volition, his arms and legs twitching at random times.

"Bloody 'ell!"

There were hands on Nyx's shoulder, and he flinched under the touch, his skin still stinging.

"Let him rest," Clarus said, his voice sounding a tunnel away.

"'E's shivering…" Biggs was shrugging off his coat. Or… Nyx thought he was. That seemed like what the blob was doing.

"That's not shivering."

"…Oh, Six." Biggs seemed to forget the coat in favor of checking Nyx's pulse.

Nyx was no doctor, but he was pretty sure his heart was beating faster than it should have.

"Electrical shock torture. Give him time."

Even with his addled brain, Nyx realized something: Clarus hadn't even needed to check on him to know what was wrong. He'd been here for weeks. He had to have been going through this hell for weeks. Six, how had he even survived that? Nyx felt physically worse than when he'd been impaled and stabbed. Mentally, at least he was better. Everything was confusing as hell, but that was still better than the realization he was going to die. Or thought he was at the time. Right now he was alive. He wasn't going to die when Loqi wasn't done with him. There was no chance of worry or relief from death.

Nyx's arms and legs continued spasming as he drifted off under Biggs' hold, falling back into a light sleep.

When he stirred next he could taste blood again. His cheek hurt. His everything hurt. But he was somehow warm, despite them taking his shirt before. He snuggled further into the white jacket draped over his shoulders.

Nyx sent Biggs a mental thanks as he drifted back off again, only this time it was far more peaceful.

He would take all the peace he could get when he could get it right now. It wouldn't be much. Not much at all. Loqi would be back for him for more. Who knew if he really didn't already have the information he kept asking for? Maybe he just enjoyed torturing.

The question kept ringing in his ear.

Where is the Oracle?

Joke was on them, and Nyx took solace in that. No matter how far things went, he'd never be able to answer their questions.

Maybe Loqi would eventually figure that out, but certainly not today. If he did start to suspect, Nyx figured he would be dead pretty quickly.