The interrogation
When Nuka regained consciousness again, most of his pain was gone.
But his joy over that didn't last long tho, since as soon as he tried to move, he noticed that he was severely restricted in his movement. The clanking of chains only confirmed what he fread over moments before he had lost consciousness.
He was imprisoned again.
His no longer burning eyes immediately flew open as he realized this, before his head lifted quickly to look around to see where he was.
He was in a dark, long room, made entirely of stone, with a few torches on the walls and a long table with several chairs, one of which he seemed to be chained to. Nuka barely had time to look around, as his attention was rather focused on the people gathered around him at the end of the table. They were all looking at him with different faces, mostly full of hurt and confusion.
Nuka quickly lowered his gaze and shame welled up inside him, whereupon he allowed his vision to involuntarily fall on his feet. They were tied to the legs of the chair with enchanted obsidian chains, the same material that probably bound his hands behind the backrest too, making it impossible for him to use his powers.
Nuka swallowed hard as he looked at his shackles and felt the familiar fear creeping up inside him again.
It was terrible to be chained up again, but for the first time he felt as if he deserved it.
Just as he was thinking about it, one of them took a step forward and Nuka's heart stopped beating for a second as he recognized Jason.
Of everyone here, he seemed to be the angriest, but Nuka was afraid she couldn't blame him.
After all, he had been pretty hard on him during his abduction of Steve.
"Oh, surprised to see me on my feet again?" he asked darkly, to which Nuka quickly turned his face away and winced slightly, trying not to look at him to much.
In the dim light, he looked even more like his former tormentor...
,,You're really lucky Roxana was here! Everything wouldn't have happened so quickly without her!" At the last words, his voice turned sour, causing Nuka to slump even more.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered ashamedly, but Jason didn't seem to calm down.
"Yeah, yeah, save it!" he interrupted him coldly instead, "Better tell us why on earth YOU KIDNAPPED STEVE?"
He literally shouted the last words, which made Nuka shrink and tremble, knowing that only the presence of the others prevented him from beating him up for it.
"Well?!" he continued sharply after a few minutes of silence, whereupon Nuka only lowered his eyes in shame.
How was he supposed to explain all this?
No matter what he said, in the end they would surely see him as a traitor...
Especially if they found out about his direct relationship with Null...
Nuka grimaced as he thought about it.
"Speak!" Jason hissed at that moment, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him up, causing the chains to painfully straddle his wrists and ankles, "Or do we have to whip you again to get an answer!"
Nuka froze and looked in shock at Jason's furious face which was now inches from his own.
He wouldn't really do that, would he?
But before he could say anything, Aurora, who had suddenly appeared next to him, grabbed Jason by the arm, giving him a stern look.
,,Jason! Stop it! That's enough!" she told him in a surprisingly sharp voice, "You're forgetting what you're saying! I know you're angry but we can't possibly torture him like that again!"
"Oh yeah?" Jason replied grimly before letting go of Nuka and turning to her instead, "And how else do you think we're going to get truthful answers from him?"
"Well, maybe... maybe I could help with that."
Roxana's voice was quiet and uncertain, as if she didn't know if her suggestion was really a good idea, which was confirmed by her posture when Nuka looked at her.
"What do you mean by that?" Aurora asked in surprise, to which Roxana only glanced sideways uncomfortably before sighing.
"Well, I could put a truth spell on him that would make him give the right answers to every question we ask him, regardless of whether he wants to or not," she finally explained hesitantly, glancing briefly at Nuka before quickly turning away.
Nuka's heart ached when he saw the hurt in her eyes.
Of all the people here, disappointing her hurt the most.
"Great!" Jason exclaimed enthusiastically, "Why didn't you tell us that before?"
"Because this spell is meant to only be used in extreme emergencies and only by certain magicians," Roxana defended herself, "besides... it also ensures that the person suffers great pain as soon as they decide to lie or even remain silent in response to a question. A pain that gets stronger and stronger until you give the correct answer."
"So it's basically torture," Aurora stated, to which Roxana nodded dejectedly.
"I shouldn't have suggested it at all." she murmured ruefully, which Nuka would have preferred, because the very thought of being tortured again, even if it would be different this time, made him shudder with fear.
"Well, we don't seem to have any other option," replied a young woman with long reddish-blonde hair and green clothes, whose name and status he didn't know yet.
It made him wonder why, of all people here, Einshine seemed the one to be missing.
Why? Did something happened to him? He ask himself and concern rose in him, but before he could think about it further, the young woman without a name continued to speak:
"Because even if your friend here decides to talk, we have no proof that his answers are true, which we won't get either even if we use other means of torture."
At these words, she gave Nuka a not-so-friendly look, who stared at her in shock.
"Or what do you think, Steve?" she asked the ex-god, who had so far remained silent and was the only one of the group sitting on one of the chairs in the back, making him barely visible in the dark shadows.
He still looked sick and weak, but even so, he seemed much better than the last time Nuka had seen him.
His clothes also appeared to be repaired and washed, which Nuka confused since he hadn't gotten just new ones, like the others.
His piercing blue eyes watched Nuka closely, but his face was calm and neutral, hiding his true thoughts. It was something Herobrine often did as well and Nuka wished he could do too.
"Do it," he replied a moment later in a firm voice, "It's our best and fastest way to get true answers. Answers we need to start making a successful plan against Null in time."
As if waiting for its cue, the earth shook slightly at his words, sending dust and small stones trickling from the ceiling and causing everyone to look up in alarm. Thankfully nothing else happend.
"All right, then." Roxana replied with a sigh before turning to Nuka and raising her staff with a rueful look, "I'm sorry Nuka..."
With these words she closed her eyes and mumbled words in a language Nuka didn't understand. He had pressed himself against the chair and looked fearfully at the now brightly lit staff, expecting that he would feel terrible pain or something similar at any moment, but to his astonishment nothing happened.
Instead, the staff went out a moment later and Roxana opened her eyes, looking rather dejected.
"You can ask him now..." she murmured quietly as she pushed her way through the group and sat down on a chair behind Steve, burying her face in her hands, followed by Aurora, who put a worried hand on her shoulder and whispered something that Nuka didn't understand.
But before he could look at them both any further, Jason appeared in his field of vision, still looking quite angry and not seeming to care much about Roxana's guilt.
"Good. Then I'll get started," he replied grimly a moment later, "Why did you kidnap Steve?"
Nuka froze when he heard that.
Until now, he hadn't felt anything strange about himself and had even begun to believe that Roxana hadn't used the spell correctly, but as soon as Jason had finished his question, he knew that wasn't the case.
"Null... Null told me," he said quickly, as he suddenly felt a hot, stabbing pain in his throat, which then slowly spread through his body like lava and grew stronger and stronger at the same time, as soon as Jason finished the question but fortunately disappeared just as quickly as he had answered it.
So that's what Roxana meant... he concluded as he swallowed and he couldn't help but shudder as he thought of how bad the pain could get if you lied or even kept silent.
"So you're working with him!" Jason accused him, to which Nuka nodded, ashamed.
"Yes..." he replied meekly, whereupon he glared at him angrily.
"I knew it. Traitor!" he shouted loudly a moment later, pointing a finger at him accusingly, whereupon Nuka shook his head hastily!
"No. It's not like that!" he tried to defend himself, "I... I had no choice..."
His voice trailed off at the last words and his heart clenched at the memory of how Null had thrown him across the throne room just for his fun and nearly killing him by that before offering him the deal.
"Why didn't you have a choice?" Aurora asked him, who had stopped caring about Roxana and was looking at him with concern instead.
"Because he... he blackmailed me..." Nuka managed to get out, "After he brought me and Hero to the castle, he promised me that he... he would... that he would save Hero if... if I brought him Steve."
"And you believed that?!" Jason asked him, stunned, to which Nuka only lowered his eyes in shame.
"I had to..." he mumbled quietly, knowing how naive that must have seemed to the others.
"But how did you know that Steve and the others were here?" the young woman asked thoughtfully, to wich Nuka only sighed.
"Null told me..." he explained quietly, his face grimacing as he remembered Null's self-satisfied grin in that moment, "He... He knows you're hiding down here. The... the only reason why... why this isn't destroyed yet is because of... because of the all water around. He was also the one who told me that Steve would be here too. I don't know how he knew that though."
"Well, I think one of his shadows must have told him," Alex replied with a quick glance at Steve, "After all, you entering the city wasn't exactly inconspicuous. I'm more worried that he knows about us and our hiding place."
"How did you get in here in the first place?" she continued, addressing Nuka, who just shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh, it was actually quite simple," he replied simply, "I came down here and then followed a few people, and when I found out where they opened the wall, I teleported in a short time later..."
"But why did you decide to sneak in here and follow Null's plan instead of confiding in us?" asked Roxana, who had now raised her head again and was looking at him uncomprehendingly, "You must know that if Steve is here, we would be here too, right?"
Nuka's heart ached when he heard that.
"Because... because I was afraid that Null would find it out and... and then kill Hero..." he managed to say, but without looking at her, "especially since you would never let that happen if I told you and would only see me as a traitor instead..."
"But that alone wouldn't have made you a traitor, Nuka," Roxana replied softly, but before he could answer her, Jason intervened again.
"I wonder why he's still alive in the first place..." he muttered grimly as he leaned against the table and crossed his arms in front of his chest before turning to Nuka again, "Why didn't he kill you on the spot in the Nether when he captured you and Hero?"
Nuka slumped slightly in his chair when he heard this.
He didn't want to answer the question because he knew where it would lead, but the pain wouldn't let him stay silent for long.
"Because of my powers..." he finally mumbled as he turned his face away and avoided looking at Jason or anyone else, "He... He wanted to know why they were so similar to his..."
"And?" Jason asked, to which Nuka screwed up his face and dug his fingers into the back of the chair, trying to resist the pain so he wouldn't have to answer, "Why is that?"
Nuka clenched his lips and gasped as he tried to resist the pain to the point that tears came to his eyes, but he knew he was only delaying the inevitable.
Sooner or later he would have to tell them.
"Because... because... I am his son..." he finally gave in with a quiet sob as the pain reached a level that reminded him strongly of the one he had felt during his torture in the dungeon.
He had expected to hear shocked or outraged cries but instead it remained dead silent.
"I knew it," Jason explained a moment later, while Nuka still sat with his head down and his eyes closed, trying to suppress the shame and tears he had shed at being forced to reveal his worst secret, "I knew it all along. No wonder you took the same criminal path as your father."
"Hey, thats not fair! I didn't choose this!" Nuka hissed angrily at that moment before raising his eyes and glaring at Jason, not caring much about his tears, "Because, in fact, I was forced to take this path because otherwise I would have been killed!"
"Especially since Null doesn't care about me anyway," he added bitterly, "On the contrary, he was going to kill me! He... he only let me live because he saw how... how attached I am to Hero..."
His voice broke at the last words and he shook his head sadly.
"If there was anything I could do that would mean I don't have follow his plan and still save Hero and the world, I would do it!"
"Do you?"
Nuka turned her head and looked in surprise at Steve, who was still sitting in the chair but now seemed much more attentive than before.
,,We'll see about that," he continued without further ado before turning away from Nuka and nodding at Roxana, "You can lift the spell now. I think we're done here. Now it's time to finally make a plan against that bastard."