—
"Help to us shortly…" Loqi muttered under his breath, fingers tapping away on the controls before him.
Shortly. They'd been dragged for days to get here. Even if Fleuret pinpointed an exact location for them, how in the world did he expect to be here shortly?
Well, however long it took, Loqi still needed to stay ahead of Cortez and his people.
"Yes," he hissed with a grin as the commands he'd entered actually worked.
The security cameras were still working. He had eyes on the whole base. Excellent.
He flicked through the feeds, keeping up all the ones where he spotted Cortez's people. Two were still trapped back by the room where he'd been when he initially started the lockdown. Good. No way out of there that he could see.
That just left four, including Cortez. And Cortez himself was the only one Loqi was truly worried about. The rest were just following him. Loqi doubted they'd do anything without his say.
Loqi tabbed through cameras leading back to where they'd all been tied up. There were another two, stuck in some of the other rooms he'd locked. Also pretty secure by the look of things. Good.
And there was Cortez himself, along with his last man. Well, woman. Marion, if Loqi wasn't mistaken.
The two of them were still in the room with Cor, Petra, and… Fita.
Loqi sat back in his chair, hand coming to cover his mouth.
They'd never been particularly close, and he'd already suspected, but…
Six, Cortez hadn't even had the decency to get her out of the damn chair she was tied to. She was just… slumped there. Slumped with a pool of blood around her chair.
She'd been so happy earlier today. She'd just found her husband again. Her husband… who Loqi was now going to have to tell about this.
The hate that stirred within Loqi was one he had not felt in a very long time. It was deep and hot, burning within him like embers found beneath ashes. It was the hatred that he used to feel towards Lucians – a pure loathing for a human being's mere existence.
This lot. Was dead.
He didn't care if there was a way to end this without further bloodshed. He wouldn't be taking that option even if it was the easiest one.
"Here!" Ravus all but shouted, jabbing his metal finger into the map at a specific point. "There's only two Imperial bases within the range we've predicted."
"Obviously." Ardyn said absently. "We all have eyes – we can see that much."
"Ardyn…" Lunafreya said, staring hard at the map.
"I'm merely stating the truth." Ardyn's tone was casual. Unconcerned. Because of course it was. He didn't care about any of these people. He just cared about cozying up to Lunafreya – an idea that made Ravus' very skin crawl. Ravus found it odd, though, that Ardyn hadn't tried to bond with him. After all, Ravus was also his… great grandchild.
Ravus needed to get off this line of thought. It was making him ill. Probably best Ardyn hadn't tried to form any type familial connection with him. Maybe he just hadn't bothered because he knew it to be a lost cause. Lunafreya was entirely more forgiving than him. She had a healer's heart and mind. Ardyn was merely another of the sick to her, not the embodiment of darkness.
Lunafreya didn't even seem to acknowledge his words. She hadn't so much as blinked as she continued to stare at the map. "Ardyn, I am requesting that you take me to the location where our people are being held."
"What?" Ravus demanded.
Ardyn looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Would you not prefer I simply raze the facility to the ground and leave only your people unharmed?"
"…Hate to say it, but I'm with Emperor Evil here." Aranea crossed her arms, face scrunched as she spoke.
Ravus understood her disdain entirely. "As am I." That said, he was relieved that Lunafreya hadn't ordered their enemies immediately terminated after how she'd seemed earlier. But of course she wouldn't. He'd been a fool for thinking along those lines.
"We should at least try to negotiate. Give them a chance to surrender." Lunafreya reasoned, although Ravus didn't detect her usual passion. Almost as though she were saying it because she thought she should, not because she actually wanted to. "They may listen to me."
"What about the Wall?" Gladio asked. "That gonna hold if you get whisked off?"
Lunafreya hesitated. "I am… uncertain. There is still much I do not know about my own powers."
Ardyn asked. "Now, would you really risk this little sanctuary to possibly save the lives of those who've harmed your friends?"
Lunafreya's gaze flicked over to Ravus.
Ravus tried very hard not to roll his eyes. "I will go and speak to them."
"Ah!" Ardyn grinned. "Quality family time!"
Ravus' lip curled in disgust. He'd jinxed himself with his earlier thoughts.
"I'm going as well," Evan piped up, shooting to his feet to literally made a stand on his position.
"Evan–" Aranea started.
"I'll not sit by another time while someone I care for is taken from me yet again!" he snapped.
Aranea flinched as though slapped, and it was plain for Ravus to see the flash of hurt that crossed her face.
Well, it appeared Loqi's stubborn and demanding ways were rubbing off on the boy… Or he'd just grown as fed up with things as everyone else.
Ardyn chuckled. "Why not bring the whole collection? It makes no difference to me."
"Ardyn," Aranea growled.
Ardyn just grinned in return. "Off we go, then!"
"Imperial."
Loqi ignored Cortez's voice as best he could, still tapping away at his computer to see if he could secure any other advantages. Evidently, the man had noticed the cameras coming to life.
Well, if he thought he was going to be able to reason with Loqi, that ship had long since sailed.
"Imperial, I know you can hear me."
Loqi rolled his eyes. Fine, so he could. But what was Cortez expecting – him to drop everything to see what he wanted?
"I hope you know that this act of rebellion will cost you dearly. Or rather, it will cost your friends dearly."
…Dammit. Loqi had been afraid of that. If only he'd been able to trap Cortez without him being in the same room as Petra and Cor.
"We really don't need more than one of you alive to assure the cities of our mercy."
Loqi snorted, still refusing to look at the screen where Cortez was as he kept working. Mercy. That's what he called his treatment of Fita? Mercy? They still hadn't bothered to untie her body from that damned chair. Like they had any room to talk about mercy.
"Now, I'd rather not keep taking lives, but if you don't rid us of this lockdown, I will be choosing another of your friends here to take punishment for your actions."
Double dammit.
Loqi stabbed his finger into one of the intercom's buttons. At the very least he could stall him. Not that it would do much good in the long run with help so far away, but he had to try something, and none of the more deadly security systems in the complex were working.
"You speak of mercy after all you've already done?" Loqi hissed, sending a glare at Cortez's screen. "All we have done has been for the betterment and survival of mankind, and yet you executed one of us? Where was your mercy for her?"
Cortez was silent for a moment as he narrowed his eyes at the camera. "Your nations and methods are what put humanity in the state of its end. Hardly fair for you to claim you're doing what's best for the world with that on your record."
Loqi rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes – I heard your reasoning the first six times you said in your broadcast earlier."
"You don't deny it, then?"
Loqi rolled his eyes again, even harder this time. He quickly pulled up the map of the base again. What was the fastest way back to the prisoner room that didn't require him to cross paths with the other trapped idiots?
"Of course I deny it, but whether I deny it or not is irrelevant. No matter my actions, you are a hypocrite of the highest regard."
"Our actions may not be ideal, but they are for the greater good."
"Tell that to Fita's husband. I'm certain he'll take it as acceptable consolation," Loqi snapped. "No matter if you're right or not on blame placing, your mindset is one of poison that does not belong in the current times. Old prejudices have no place in a world of survival, you fool. It is only by putting aside the past that any of us can have future at all."
"I wish to ensure the future – a future where everyone's lives are not in the hands of those who sow destruction so that they may gain power and control."
There was the path. If he was quick about inputting his codes along the way, it wouldn't take him long. Also, this man was a dense moron. "Is that really what you think all of us have been doing?"
"You lot are loyal soldiers to nations that have only cared for themselves!"
Loqi nearly rammed his head into the terminal. "I'm a former Imperial who formed a sanctuary for mostly Lucians. Open doors for all – as you might have noticed when your subordinates were ushered in with open arms before they kidnapped me and my people."
"Because that allowance suited you and kept you in power."
Oh, for the love of…
"By the Astrals, you are hopeless! You have your mindset and you twist evidence to support it! You support the Fleuret yet ignore that all they have done has been with our aid. They cannot possibly run the cities without further assistance!"
"They'll have assistance. Tenebraen assistance."
"Oh, now who's setting themselves up for power? What would you see to be fair in the end, then? Those with the blood of Tenebrae ruling over all in the end? Lucians and Imperials treated as inferior? What a grand start to a new age of mankind!"
…Oh, sweet Shiva. He was a hypocrite too.
Loqi swallowed. He'd thought like that once. Imperials were superior. They would lead. The other nations would serve.
The memory of his younger self turned his stomach now.
"My people have suffered under your lead for long enough!" Cortez moved suddenly, grabbed a gun from his man and leveled it at Petra's head. "Surrender yourself!"
Shit.
And then the world went hazy and Loqi's behind slammed into the floor, his chair suddenly gone and… Cortez was standing right before him, looking just surprised as Loqi.
What?
"Well, now hasn't all of this been exciting?" Ardyn said cheerfully
—
