Noctis gripped the sides of the hotel sink, panting softly as his spiked heart rate finally began to slow. He felt deaf in xsboth ears with the weird and muffled way his pulse was thrumming along, and his skin felt like it was boiling with how much he was sweating.

Great. Just great. Because with everything going on, he definitely had time to be dealing with his nightmares again. And without Iggy here to help him this time.

Maybe he could call–

Nope. Nope, nope, nope, Ignis definitely had enough on his plate without this. He was dealing with daymares that he couldn't wake up from like Noctis could. Noctis wasn't a kid anymore. He could handle it on his own.

And if not, he could pull an Ignis and chug an Ebony and hope Gladio didn't notice anything was off.

…That was a terrible idea. Maybe he should not do that.

Whatever. He would still manage somehow.

There were people far worse off than him right now, after all.

Nyx didn't know how Clarus had done it. He was trying to stay strong. He was staying strong. But Clarus had been here for weeks. Nyx's head was groggy, but he could still tell that Clarus' wounds were fresh. He'd been undergoing the same things as Nyx, but for so much longer.

The Amicitia household was full of some strong sons of bitches, that was for sure. Mentally and physically. Not only was Clarus still alive after all the beatings his older body had taken, but he was still completely sane. After his third round with Loqi, Nyx was next to positive that he'd never be able to last that long and say the same. Maybe he wouldn't give anything up, but losing his mid was definitely a possibility. Loqi had been none too kind about letting him rest long enough to fully regain his bearings.

Loqi might have been an incompetent field operative, but damn if he didn't know how to torture someone.

The one bright side to all this was that Biggs had been left alone thus far. Nyx wouldn't have put it past Loqi to torture someone for no reason, but Biggs honestly didn't have anything Loqi needed to know. Nyx suspected the only reason he was here was to bait Aranea–

The scream that ripped through Nyx's throat tore at the already tender walls there, and they screamed back at him.

And then the pressure disappeared, granting him just a few moments of agony that were still somehow blissful in comparison to what he'd just been feeling.

"You know what I want, Captain. Just answer the question and this can all stop. If not… well, I do suppose we'll have to move on to something else. I might not have gotten much out of young Scientia after nearly drowning him, but perhaps that tactic will work better on you."

Six. Loqi didn't even have any idea what he'd done to Ignis' whole life.

Nyx tried to suppress a cough. They hurt too much. Distantly, he could feel the tacky warmth of his own blood sliding down his arms from where his restraints had broken through the skin of his wrists. Biggs had tried to tend to those last time he was in their cell. Not much he could do, really, but he'd tried. Nyx appreciated that. It might be the last act of kindness he ever knew.

Ignis had known from the moment he met Aranea that she was dangerous, and since then he'd seen her in action and fought alongside her. That said, he'd never witnessed how absolutely, truly terrifying she could be until now. He wasn't certain whether he should assist in their fights against wildlife or just stay the hell out of her way because she didn't appear to be needing any help as she rage killed everything within her vicinity. He winced as she took the head off of a sabertusk in one harsh strike before stalking back to her chocobo.

"Aranea…" he said quietly.

"What?" she snapped, though he knew she wasn't actually angry with him.

He hesitated, licking his lips. This needed to be said. "You cautioned me against rashly acting on my feelings for revenge. I feel I must offer you the same advice in return."

"There's a difference between acting rashly and being pissed off while we're in safer surroundings."

Ignis wasn't certain he classified the wilds where everything was trying to eat them as safe, but he supposed it was safer than challenging Loqi and the Empire. "…Very well."

He too was pissed off, as she'd so eloquently put things. He hadn't spoken with Wedge much, but his presence had been pleasant, and now there was a very high chance Biggs and Nyx would be dead soon as well. Loqi had no true reason to keep them alive. Except as bait. And maybe as a source of information in Nyx's case. But how long could that truly last? Insomnia had fallen. How much more could Nyx have that Loqi would actually need?

Ignis sighed solemnly. He only hoped meeting up would improve their chances rather than just putting Noct in further danger. At least this way they might face him together.

Noctis waited until night when they were all gathered around a table in Lestallum for dinner to break the news. The day had been chaotic – taking on hunts to earn some extra cash and whatnot – and the calm break of their evening meal seemed like an ideal time.

He set his meat skewer down, propping his elbows on the table. He doubted he'd be pausing to eat more in the next few minutes. "Ignis is headed here."

Prompto's slumped shoulders straightened abruptly, his eyes widening as well. "For reals? You got him to agree?"

Noctis nodded, carefully observing Gladio to see if he had any protests. "At this point, we're both pretty sure Loqi's gunning for us. So… better to face him together rather than split up where he can pick us off easier."

Sure enough, Gladio was frowning faintly, his dinner hanging from one hand as though he'd forgotten about it enough that he didn't even think to put it down. "Is he doing any better?"

Noct hesitated. "Not… really. He had some trouble earlier this week."

Gladio raised an eyebrow at that, gaze briefly flickering to something behind Noctis before returning to him. "Define trouble."

Noct chewed the inside of his lip. "Biggs kind of set him off by accident when he was trying to make a joke." He glanced over his shoulder, but he couldn't find what kept bothering Gladio.

Gladio winced, leaning to see past Noctis again. "How bad was it?"

"…Pretty bad."

"As bad as, like… before?" Prompto asked tightly.

Well, there wasn't really getting around this. "…Worse, from what I heard."

"Worse?" Prompto squawked. "How could it have been worse?"

Gladio winced, again looking back to Noctis. What was he up to? Noctis knew he usually kept an eye out for trouble, but he wasn't usually this obvious about it.

"Trust me, it can," Noctis grumbled. He'd never told Ignis, but a couple of times after Ignis' bad attacks, Noct had gone and thrown up afterwards. Seeing Ignis like that was never easy, especially when there was still a voice in the back of Noctis' head screaming that it was all his fault because Ignis' suffering had all been for him.

"And he's coming back anyway?" Gladio didn't seem judgy, just curious. "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of why he left?"

Well, Noctis had thought that was dumb anyway, so he wasn't complaining. At least about Ignis coming back. There was plenty else to complain about. "I mean… yeah, but the chance of Loqi finding one of us and using us against each other is what he's really worried about now. I guess he sees himself as a threat to me either way–" Noctis rolled his eyes as he spoke those words. "–but he sees Loqi as the worse threat."

"Well, he ain't wrong…" Gladio muttered. "Savage little bastard will use anything he can against the two of you. And… probably you too, Prompto."

"Eh?" Prompto blinked.

Gladio rolled his eyes. "You shot him, remember? And you told him that. He may hate Noct and Iggy more, but you're definitely on his hit list now."

Prompto opened his mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. "…Oops."

"Well, at least you aren't on it, Gladio," Noctis said with an obviously false cheery tone.

Gladio snorted. "Lucky me. Only reason I'm not there too was because I was so damn useless during that whole thing."

"You were not," Noctis protested with a scowl. Since when did Gladio have confidence issues? "You…" Well. Damn. What exactly had Gladio done? He'd picked Noctis up from school and… stood by Noctis' dad and… wow, okay so he really hadn't had much to do back then. "Um. You helped from the Citadel and guarded me when you had to pull me from school?"

Gladio raised an eyebrow. "…Right. Yeah, I guarded you for one car ride, and then later you got kidnapped. My ancestors would be so proud."

Prompto choked on the snicker he tried to cover. "Sorry."

Noctis shook his head. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, big guy, I'm pretty sure he's gonna try to kill you too."

"Hey, wait, what about Aranea?" Prompto wondered, resuming his dinner. "Ig she onna ay there?"

Noctis took a moment to translate that. "No… She's coming with him."

Prompto did a really good imitation of the surprised emoji on their phones. "Oh! Man, that's got to be awkward for Iggy… I can't imagine, like, trying to act chill around someone who kidnapped me…"

Noctis almost laughed. Act chill. He had no idea. If Ignis really did like Aranea like he said, he was probably undergoing daily torture. Noctis had seen girls try to flirt with Ignis before. It was… it was really pathetically sad, actually. All Ignis' composure and level-headed reasoning gone in an instant, leaving him a blubbering, scarlet-skinned mess. Having Aranea around constantly… it was a wonder Ignis was still sane.

"They're actually on pretty good terms," Noctis settled with. Again, not his secret to tell. No way he was breaking what Ignis told him in confidence to someone else, even Prompto or Gladio.

"Well, she's obviously earned his trust if he went to her after leaving us. And she is one hell of a fighter from what we know. Might be good to have her around." He frowned at something over Noct's shoulder yet again. "What the hell is going on around here lately?"

Oh, so he was finally saying something about it. "What do you mean?"

Gladio rolled his eyes. "They've been setting up decorations all day."

Decorations? Really? Noctis gave Gladio a look. "That's what you've been looking at this whole time? I don't think the decorations are going to attack me, Gladio."

"Ohmygosh!" Prompto cried, dropping his skewered meat. "Noct! Dude! It's the Assassin's Festival!"

Wait, what?

Man, finally something to lift their spirits.

"Where is the Oracle?"

Nyx gasped, trying to suck in as much air as possible during the short moments when he was actually allowed to breathe. No wonder Scientia's head was so screwed up, having gone through this at nineteen. It was a wonder he was as functional as he was.

Nyx choked the leftover water from his lungs, the droplets clinging to the delicate tunnels within him that were never supposed to handle liquid. His throat felt like the water was actually acid, courtesy of all of his screaming before. The rough hand entwined in his hair locks pulled his head into an angle that made his neck ache.

Surprisingly, Nyx found himself with enough coherency to wonder if waterboarding was worse like this – his head forced into a bucket of questionable cleanliness – or the way Ignis had experienced it. He was pretty sure both were awful.

The funny thing was, he wasn't even sure if he could have answered Loqi if he wanted to at this stage. Speaking would be hard with his throat like this.

"Where is the Prince?"

"He'sa King now…" Nyx slurred. Huh. So he could still speak. Sort of.

The hand in his hair forced his head back into the bucket before Nyx could take another breath to replace the one he'd used to talk.

Nyx wondered how much more his body could take. Loqi probably had a lot of other methods he wanted to try out. Nyx almost hoped he'd be dead before they got to those, but his spark of stubbornness refused to give in just yet. Clarus had endured this. Nyx could too.

He could…

He had to…

He couldn't leave Clarus and Biggs alone in this place.

Again, he tried to drag in a breath as he was yanked from the water. Only, this time he was dropped off to the side, allowed to collapse onto the floor as the hand in his hair disappeared. He coughed weakly, his cheek scraping against the stone there.

"Sir, at this rate, he's going to be dead before he gives us anything."

Oh. Huh. A smart lackey. Great. Just what he didn't need.

"Oh, he won't be. I know what will break him. Take him back to his cell for now. I'll need him more aware for what's coming."

*gets megaphone* SCREEEEWWWWW YOUUUUUUUU LOQI.