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The idea of blazing through the frozen tundra to find Noctis and the others was a good one. Prompto had been quite confident that he could do it easily, especially compared to everything that he’d just gone through, the pain of the self-inflicted burn was still fresh in his memory even if the wound was long-since healed. Yet reality never quite turned out like his plans. This was why it was always Ignis who came up with the good ideas, his ideas actually worked. Prompto’s usually didn’t.
It wasn’t until the young man started to pry open his eyes that he realized something wasn’t quite right. He expected to wake up surrounded by cold, snow, maybe to the sound of mechanical footfalls coming towards him or even his friends' voices. Instead, he woke up to nothing but an eerie silence hanging overhead, punctuated by the creak of a metal structure left in disrepair. As he blinked his blue-violet eyes open, he tried to move but nothing happened.
Slowly, his senses started to fill in the gaps. There was no cold because he was no longer outside. The familiar white-pained landscape of ruin had been replaced with a claustrophobic, dark room with red-brown stains he didn’t want to dwell on. He tried to convince his mind it was nothing more than rust even if it looked like a large pool speckled to the side with tiny droplets and long-since dried. He couldn’t move because he was trapped in some sort of device. The gunman tried to convince himself that it was just some sort of restraint and not think of the fact that he was strung up with his arms spread above his head and his chest trapped so tightly that getting a lungful of air was impossible without breaking his ribs. From what he could tell there was one bar behind his head, holding up both of his wrists, and another bar down his back, which held the two bars clinging to him like a lethal bear hug. There were definitely better places to wake up.
Prompto didn’t have a chance to weigh waking up shackled to some sort of torture device to waking up in a Magitek Facility because just as he was coming too there was a loud hiss from down the hall. He looked up and squinted but the lights were too dim to see more than a few feet away. Was it Noctis? He wanted to hope so but it would be a lie. He knew that comfortable, languid pace as he heard the clack of shoes against the aging metal. There was the sound of a flourish of fabric and his heart sank into his stomach.
“I think I like you like this. The sparkle of the lights really brings out your freckles, don’t you think?” The lilt of Ardyn’s voice bounced throughout the empty hall as he confidently strolled up to the closet-like cage Prompto found himself in. He looked so pleased with himself that the crownsguard wanted to punch him in the face. He tried to escape, to pull one wrist free, but the shackles held tight, digging into his skin with every pull and twist. With a scowl Prompto tried the other side, twisting his entire body as much as his position allowed. All he earned for his struggles was a sharp pain around where the restraint dug into his skin.
“Oh come now, you don’t really think it would be that easy to get away, do you? The bait doesn’t get to wiggle itself off the hook until the fish comes by to swallow it up. Didn’t your little prince teach you anything?” Ardyn reached up as he spoke, capturing the blond’s chin in his hand. The touch seemed to spark a renewed interest in escape as the boy started to twist and pull, squirming around with more energy than he’d had only moments ago. Motivation was such a wonderful thing.
“Get away! I won’t let you do anythi-!” Prompto’s bravado was squashed underfoot as the immoral man’s hand slid down to his neck and squeezed. The captive thought he would let go if he quieted so he did, but Ardyn’s grip held fast. And he just kept squeezing. When it was clear that he had no intention of letting go Prompto started to fight again, tossing his head back and forth as he tried to get some sort of purchase or leverage. His feet were just high enough off the ground that the best he could do was push against the contraction holding him but that was doing little to assist his escape.
Black dots were starting to appear in the corner of the gunman’s vision. As if knowing that he was starting to waver, Ardyn squeezed even tighter. The blond tried to cough or swallow, anything to force the hands off his throat as his lungs started to burn. The man seemed to be enjoying his struggle and while he didn’t want to give Ardyn another second of performance, he also was afraid that if he stopped fighting he might, in fact, die. It was rather clear that the psychopath in front of him only had eyes for Noctis and someone like him was just an appetizer.
“Coeurl got your tongue? Weren’t you in the middle of threatening me?” The chancellor's eyes were bright with mirth as he chuckled, watching Prompto’s face swap between anger, panic, and pain.
“I wonder how long you can hold your breath...should be running out of time just about now.” The blond’s attempt at escape started to slow as his vision became unfocused. But still, he refused to give up. His blue eyes narrowed into angry slits even as his face was turning pale. Just as the captive was starting to fade there was another hiss behind him, the door on the other end of the hallway opening with a tired slide. Ardyn sighed and slowly let go of Prompto’s neck, watching his body heave as he sucked in as much breath as the restraints would allow.
The blond coughed and sputtered as he tried to breathe, now twisting in place to try and find an angle where his chest could fully inflate. He was so busy heaving that he hadn’t noticed the two soldiers that had joined Ardyn in front of him, only registering their arrival when Ardyn tapped his cheek with just a little more force than was necessary.
“Now, do be a good boy and play with my friends, won’t you? Broken down toys get so boring, so quickly. Then again, we can always find a replacement, can’t we?” Ardyn spoke with a snake’s smile before turning his back.
“Have fun, boys. Try not to ruin the merchandise too~ badly.”
“Fuck you! Leave Noct alone!” Prompto wasn’t sure how he could yell considering he felt like his lungs were in his throat. But he managed to belt it out as loud as he could, hearing his voice echo through an empty hall. His threats didn’t deem to bother Ardyn’s retreating back or the armored soldiers standing in front of him, but he still felt a tiny sliver of pride for getting in the last word.
The blond smirked but it was quickly wiped off his face by the butt of a rifle connecting with his head so hard he heard a crack. It snapped his neck in the opposite direction which, in turn, pulled at his arm. He let out a small grunt as his body fell back into the position that he was stuck in, unable to do more than turn his head. The masks on the soldier's faces covered up their expressions but something about them radiated anger. He wasn’t sure what he of all people could have done to piss them off but he also wasn’t about to ask. Part of him was pretty sure that if he opened his mouth they’d hit him hard enough for him to bite off his own tongue.
The second soldier kicked him in the side, the metal armor colliding with his hip in a way that unnaturally twisted his body. Prompto let out a quiet scream, his throat rough and sore from his struggle for breath.
“Noctis is coming...he has to. He’s going to come save me.” He murmured under his breath as the soldier with the rifle hit his head again, causing it to snap back into the pole that kept the contraption in place. He was pretty sure that he felt blood trailing down the side of his face by now and his brain was sloshing around in his head like ice in a glass that had just been stirred. What they were getting out of beating up a kid wrapped to a torture device, he didn’t know but he wasn’t curious enough to ask.
Soldier number two, who seemed to have something to prove if the strength of his kicks was anything to go by, brought his leg up again and slammed it down between the two bars holding Prompto’s torso in place. The armor screamed against the metal restraints as the foot slammed into his chest, hard and fast. The sudden lurch of his chest was enough to make Prompto gag, air and spit suddenly forced out of his mouth with a panicked groan. Before he could recover, another kick followed the first, and then another until all three heard a distinct crack and the next kick caused the gunman to spit up blood.
“Noct, hurry, please.” The more the two soldiers beat him, the more he started to feel numb. Maybe it was some sort of automatic reaction to protect him from the pain. Or maybe he was just running out of juice. He couldn’t help but wonder how long it had been since the train- were his friends even looking for him? Did they miss him? Were they worried? A rifle to the neck caused Prompto to slump against his restraints, like a toy finally out of battery. This seemed to be the soldiers’ signal to leave and so they did, closing the cage behind them with a hollow rattle. They left him again with nothing but silence and the rust-colored stain. Now there were speckles of bubbled blood, the red sickening against the metal and brown. He knew it wasn’t rust anymore.
“Noctis is coming...he has to be.”