Chapter One - Darkness

At first she thought that she'd gone blind. She knew she was awake, but she was surrounded by darkness and couldn't see a thing. There wasn't even the slightest glimpse of light, no matter where she looked. The only thing she was certain of, was the fact that she was naked and that she was lying on an icecold, stone floor. She figured that there was a chance that her eyes just had to adjust to the lack of light. Maybe she would be able to view her surroundings if she waited for a while. In the meantime, she began to touch the smooth stone she was sitting on, trying to feel where she was exactly.

After slowly crawling around for some time, she softly hit her head against a wall and used it as support to rise to her feet. Her legs felt weak and her knees trembled, but she noticed that she could see her feet now. It was still very dark, but she could vaguely distinguish her bare feet from the floor. Her fingers found the grooves between the rough, uneven stones of the wall and she gripped them tightly so she could continue to stand. She didn't know where she was, but then again, was there anything she knew? The darkness somehow felt familiar and it made her uneasy now that she was starting to get a better view of her surroundings. A bit further from where she was standing, in what seemed like the middle of the room, she noticed the vague outline of something huge. Was it a statue? She could not yet see enough, but leaving the wall that supported her was something she'd rather not do.

She took two steps along the wall, her head turned to face the vague silhouette in the room. "H-Hello...?" Her own voice startled her, especially since it seemed to echoe softly through the room. There came no answer, which confirmed her thoughts of the silhouette being a statue of some kind. At least she knew she was alone in this room. After a while she found the courage to let go of the wall and she slowly made her way to the center of the room. Her legs still wavered, but she seemed to have the strength to reach her destination. Being closer to the thing, she noticed that it was indeed a statue and that there was something shiny on top of it. Now that she came closer to it, it started to glow red. First very soft, barely noticeable, but the closer she came, the stronger the light glowed.

She wasn't scared anymore. Instead, she was now attracted by the glowing thing on top of the statue. She could not take her eyes of it and wanted to touch it so badly. The statue had the form of a human, but she could not make out what it was exactly. And right now she did not even think that was important. She was so focused on the red light, that all the rest did not seem to matter to her. The glowing thing looked like a crystal, now that she was almost climbing on the statue to get closer to it. It was a faceted stone, ruby red, a little bigger than her fist, shaped like a triangle. She reached for it, stretched her hand. The ruby light was almost blinding now, but she could not stop. As soon as her fingers touched the crystal, she felt some sort of bliss rushing through her mind and body, suddenly followed by a heavy blow by some unseen force. She lost her grip on the statue and was thrown backwards. The red light filled the room and was the only thing she could see, before she was thrown against the wall, back into the darkness.

"Hey, Noct! You might want to check this out!" Prompto Argentum yelled, as he ran towards his best friend. "It's crazy down there. Some guard patrolling the dungeons said he heard noises while walking through one of the empty corridors. Did you know there was a door there? It's like crazy ancient and stuff. The metal is one that was used like thousands of years ago!" The excitement could easily be read from Prompto's face as he babbled on about the recent events. Noctis, who just came back from doing something for his father, King Regis, gave his cloak to a servant and looked wearily at his blonde friend. "Could you repeat that, please? But slower and less happy this time." He took of his riding gloves and ran his fingers through his dark, straggly hair. Ignis had been unavailable to drive him to his destination, so he had to use one of the royal chocobo to get there. Not the most elegant way to run around the city, but definitely just as fast.

Prompto sighed, trying hard to contain his excitement so the prince could recover from what looked like an exhausting task. "Look, just follow me, okay? There's ruckus down in the dungeon and I want to know why." He took off, expecting his friend to follow him, and just continued to explain what he knew. "No one seems to know anything about that door. It's like it just appeared, seconds before that guard heard all the noise. They've been trying for hours to open that door, but so far no one's succeeded in doing so. At least I'm glad that I'm around when the cool stuff happens, for once. Your father will be too busy to throw me out now!"

Noctis couldn't help but smile when he saw the broad grin on his friend's face. It was true that his father had always seen Prompto as the one to get everyone in trouble, especially when they were young. Noctis had always been a good, obedient little prince, but then he met Prompto and they soon became friends. And when Prompto started to rebel, so did Noctis. They didn't really do anything bad, but there were the occassional small accidents, like releasing all of the chocobo at once or lighting the cook's hat on fire. Nothing serious, really. It was all in good fun and it certainly made the bond he shared with Prompto a lot stronger.

The things his best friend now told him, seemed unbelieveable. Noctis hadn't been this far in the dungeons, but he knew for sure that it was impossible for someone or something to be down there, without him or his father or anyone knowing about it. Still, the situation was worth looking into.

The dungeon was crowded with palace people. Several guards walked in and out while some young heralds hurried up and down the stairs to inform the king and other important figures of everything that happened. Among all those people, Noctis recognized Gladiolus, another one of his friends. He seemed to notice them too and made his way to them through the crowd. Not so hard a task for someone his size. "Your Majesty, glad you're here. There's something really weird going on here..." Gladio pushed some people to the sides while telling them to make way for the prince. "Your father is on his way because he was busy with other things. Having a royal here to calm and reassure these chickens would be real nice. Ignis is already here though. I told him to get his sassy ass over here as soon as possible when they finally opened that door."

"They opened it?!" Prompto asked, looking surprised at this turn of events. "When I left, they were stil at a loss on how to open that old thing."

Gladiolus nodded as they hastily made their way through the dark and narrow corridors of the dungeon. Somewhere along the way, he took a torch from one of the holders attached to the walls. "They forced the door open with everything they could find. It took a lot of muscle to do that. Apparently, that door was really heavy and it being so ancient didn't really help."

At the end of one of the final corridors, a group of people crowded together in front of the door. Gladiolus announced Noctis' arrival in a loud voice and everyone immediately let them pass. Ignis was the only one left standing in between them and the door. "Your Highness, glad to see you. It's... The situation is more serious than expected. I urge you not to go too near until we know more."

Noctis frowned at those words and became even more curious as to what had been hiding behind that door for so long. With a soft pat on his shoulder, he thanked Ignis for his concern and entered the room. It was very dark, despite all the guards carrying torches. Among all the guards, there was one maid holding a candle, kneeling next to something that was covered with a blanket. One of the guards came closer and stopped them. "Please, your Highness, please wait here. She might be dangerous."

"She?" Confused, Noctis tried to catch a glimpse of what or who was under the blanket. What in Etro's name was going on here?

To be continued!

Okay, so this is my very first fanfiction ever, or at least one I plan to finish somehow. English isn't my first language, so please forgive me if I've made any mistakes. You can point them out so I can correct them though! :)

This will be a story following my own storyline and only loosely based on what's known about Final Fantasy XV up until now. It will feature Noctis and all main characters, but also an OC of mine, who will be the female lead.

I hope you guys like this. I did my best! :) I'm still new to all this and learning, so please bear with me.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

L.