Prompto let out a shaky breath. Ardyn was gone leaving Prompto alone in a strange room. With strange files. Was this really a magitek trooper facility? He looked around after he'd listened to Chief Besithia's ramblings about "magitek cores" and using daemons for fuel. No wonder MT's exploded when they took them out. There were three little tanks by the exit he'd activated earlier and the AI that—.

In another world they might have been empty. In this one, there were three children floating within. Two boys and a girl and they were all naked. Prompto kept his eyes on their faces and gasped. The one on the end. That could have been Prompto at twelve! Well, had he been skinny at the time. The girl's face looked kind of familiar but the other boy on the other end—. It looked like Noct! They all appeared to be the same age.

"Your home, sweet, home." Could that creep have been right about this place? Why had he been cloned? Prompto shook his head. He had to free the…. clones, some how. He checked around the tanks and there were a few buttons on the sides. He needed a code. Prompto raided the desks spread around the room and was rewarded with a few scattered notes on Projects Mercury, Diana, and Starlight. There were codes, he hoped the codes labeled "Activation" were what he needed to punch in. He started with his….mini-me. The tank's numbers corresponded to the file for Mercury. He punched them in and the tank began to drain. Whew! He repeated the process for Diana, the girl, and Starlight, the Noctis clone. The tanks drained, dryers kicked on removing the moisture, and a pair of robotic arms dressed the three in matching silver body suits before the glass retracted. His mini-me woke up first gasping and startling away from Prompto.

"It's ok!" Prompto made sure his gun was holstered.

"Who-who are you?" his mini asked.

"I'm Prompto. Do you have a name?" a shake of the head let him know that was a "No." "Fine, you're, uh, Mercury then." The girl woke up next, just as scared but she calmed a little.

"I'm Prompto. You're Diana," Prompto said. The girl tilted her head as if mentally trying the name out.

"Very well," she said. She had a Tenebrae accent?

"Wait, have any of you been out of these tanks before?" Prompto asked.

"Basic training is easier to ingrain through drills. Defects who don't take to the age accelerant are taken as-aside for study," Mercury said gripping his right arm, revealing a barcode a lot like Prompto's. The sinking feeling returned to Prompto's gut. The last to awaken was the Noctis clone, which made Prompto almost want to cry at how…right that was with Noct's character. Noct…..No! Had to focus. Had to find that Chief Besithia guy and had to find a way out of this…place. Can't name this guy "starlight." That would be lame. Um, Stella, no. That's a girl's name. Astro? Nah. You'd name a robot that. Got it.

"Ok, I'm Prompto. You're Sidus," Prompto said. The newly dubbed Sidus sleepily blinked at him. Ok. They had shoes to their suits but he'd better find them something else to wear, or they'd freeze once he found the way out.

"Alright, you three need to stick with me if you want to get out of here, alright?" Prompto said.

"Why?" Mercury asked.

"Because if you stay here, they turn you into a monster," Diana said. Mercury gasped and Sidus let out a disapproving "hmm."

"How do you know that?" Prompto asked.

"I've…seen it," Diana said. Prompto shuddered. Sidus was silent and stuck close to Diana and Mercury. Of the three clones he hadn't said a word yet. Maybe a mini-Prince Noctis was too dangerous to have out and about as much? Who knew. He led them through the open door and checked down the hallways, pistol drawn. He found a vending machine, of Ebony no less—he was not going to be the one to tell Iggy his drink of choice was a preferred drink for Nifs— where he took a quick break. The place was a mess with newspaper clippings, old and new, scattered everywhere along with forgotten drinks. What had happened here?

Down the hall he led them only to crouch and kids copied him, thank the Six. There was an Imperial soldier on patrol.

"Stay here until I take care of this guy," Prompto said. He still had his pistol out, so he took aim and a headshot later the coast was clear. He waved the three forwards and they followed his footsteps like ducklings. The next hallway seemed to be above a large cavernous section of this place and the windows looked down on literally hundreds of inactive MTs.

"Shit…was he telling the truth about this place?" Prompto heard the giggles. Shit! The three kids following him.

"I told you so," Diana said.

"Alright, we're going to have to make sure those things don't wake up, ok?" Prompto said to the kids.

"What if they do?" Sidus had said his first words.

"Then we fight our way out of it," Prompto said with a shrug, "I'll protect you three, no matter what. Ok?"

The next area had what Prompto could only describe as speed bumps for walking. He also heard footsteps.

"Can't let them find us. Stay here, I've got this. Ok?" Prompto creeped along before he sprung into action stealthily taking the Imperial Soldier down for the count. Thanks, Gladio, and your insane training plans! He also grabbed the machine gun off the dead guard. Nice! After a quick check, he waved the kids forwards. Also, lying about in the open was another recorder. Not suspicious at all. What was Ardyn up to? Who else would be leaving these out to be found.

"Year 722, Day 339. Another day, another mental break down. All my tests so far have lead to the former soldiers suffering ego deaths. Today, however, I have developed a new hypothesis: I will continue to sublimate the daemonified humans to harvest the miasma, but if a sense of self is the cause of these snags, why not inject infants with the plasmodia instead?"—sigh—"We've little time. If we are to combat the Lucian threat, we must explore new options. I, too, will set aside my personal misgivings, and do what I must for empire."

"What kind of maniac experiments on kids," Prompto snarled.

"Did he inject us?" Mercury asked.

"No," Diana said, "I don't think he did."

"Oh crap, they spotted me. Stay here until I come to get you guys," Prompto said. Sidus, Diana, and Mercury nodded huddling behind the edge at the bottom of the stairs while Prompto drew the machine gun he'd "borrowed" and charged up the steps barely avoiding being shot himself taking out the two riflemen and tossing the guns as he ran, before he rounded a corner and took out even more. He was out of bullets. He noticed a convenient rack of guns. He was not one to look a gift chocobo in the beak. A new gun and away he went. He was out again whenever a stream of bullets came from behind him nailing another Imperial. It was Mercury and the kid's eyes were narrowed in focus as he conintued to take out men alongside Prompto.

"I thought I told you to stay behind?" Prompto said.

"I can shoot!" Mercury said.

"Get to my back and keep your back to mine," Prompto said. There was no time to argue with a kid holding a machine gun. Prompto heard the machine gun go off a few times and thuds from behind let him know the kid was dropping enemies. He took out the last ahead and looked back to see Sidus and Diana had caught up. Prompto pulled a fresh gun off the wall and ripped a blade off one of the corpses before it disintegrated. He repeated this with two others and handed the blades to the kids.

"Stick behind me, but use them if you have to, ok?" Prompto said. Diana and Sidus nodded at him. While Mercury nodded and picked up his own fresh gun, slinging it over his shoulder.

"Wait up!" Prompto kept the kids back. They could see the troopers patrolling.

"That guy's got a sniper-rifle," Mercury pointed to the trooper patrolling nearest.

"I'm gonna take him out. Stay put," Prompto set the machine gun down and crept over stealthily before managing to pull of a steals-kill. He got the sniper rifle off the body and promptly took aim killing the four other guards in the room. He motioned for the kids to follow him. He found more machine guns and almost picked one up whenever he saw a bazooka case up ahead. He's always wanted to shoot one of those!

Prompto took the bazooka off it's mount whenever he heard an alarm go off.

"It's a Defense node!" Mercury yelled.

"Warning. Contaminated Units detected. Commence retrieval.

"Not again!" Prompto aimed the bazooka at the floating sphere and blew it up, taking out the MT Axmen who went up the stairs. Two more rounds finished off the remaining MT Axmen in front of him, whenever Mercury's gun sounded.

"Get down!" He pulled Sidus and Diana out of the way of a bazooka blast, Mercury had already rolled and was already in the process of killing the solider using the bazooka he'd grabbed from the case.

"Everyone ok?" Prompto asked. He checked the kids over. A few scrapes and grazes but they were all alright. He passed them a potion each, which they crushed.

"Alright. It's probably going to get really dangerous from here. I…don't know if I can protect you," Prompto said.

"We'll be fine," Diana said. Sidus nodded.

"They can probably shoot. Were you given basic training?" Mercury asked.

"I was taught to read, but I wasn't taught to fight," Diana admitted.

"I was taught to read and they mostly had me throwing blades," Sidus said. Prompto wanted to slap his face. He had a Noctis clone. The kid might be able to warp!

"Take that sword, throw it but want to go with it: really, really want it," Prompto said pointing to the blade Sidus had. He gave Prompto a weird look but did as he was told. A flash of blue light later, he landed with his sword a couple feet away with a stagger.

"What-how?" Sidus asked.

"It's called "warping" and a friend of mine is really, really good at it. We're going to try to meet up with him when we get out of here," Prompto said. If he even wants me back.

Prompto found what looked like a cluttered break room with multiple vending machines. The three kids looked pooped.

"We're taking a breather here," Prompto said. The trio flopped onto the bench. Prompto rummaged through boxes and bingo! He found three winter coats. Sure, they would be a bit big on the kids, but they were going to need something for warmth.

"Catch!" Prompto tossed the overly large coats at them before finding some gloves and a few wool caps. He checked them and they seemed clean.

"It's frigid out there, you're going to need these, trust me," Prompto said.

"Look!" Mercury pointed to another tape recorder. It was labeled "Verstael." Prompto dreaded what else the mad man running this place had to say.

"Research log Year 736, day 123. It seems my laboratory is not nearly as secure as I once believed. Some thief—likely a Lucian—made off with one of my experiments. Absconding with a single infant will do nothing to enlighten them of the grandeur of my research. That said, I will see to it such and incident never arises again. I've posted magitek troopers around the facility and instructed them to keep a vigilant watch. It is their home, after all."Prompto gasped.

"The kingdom…kidnapped one of those infants? Does that mean I…? No. It couldn't be. There's no way."

"Why not?" Mercury said. Prompto blinked through his near hysteric tears. Mercury looked up at him with his own face and eyes and it was like the truth had punched him in the gut. The recording was from 736. He was born 736. He'd been adopted by Lucian parents as an infant. An infant was missing from the facility. He had a barcode. A BARCODE. Prompto didn't know how long he'd broken down, but when he came to his senses, Mercury, Diana, and Sidus were hugging him. Pull it together, Argentum! These three need you!

"Look, it's about….us," Mercury said holding up a sheet of paper. It was on how to read the barcodes. Which he and Mercury had, but surprisingly Diana and Sidus didn't.

"We've all got the same barcodes," Prompto said after he sniffed a little.

"It's another," Sidus said holding up a second recorder. He pressed play and Verstael's voice filled the break room.

"Research log Year 723, Day 70. I pondered how I might find the necessary number of infants, and then it dawned on me: Why not make them myself? If I clone them from my own genes, I can eliminate the pesky process of breeding them. Mass production remains a pipe dream for now, but I'm confident I can create a massive infantry once the process picks up. If everything goes according to plan, the empire will boast a million-man army in no time at all." Prompto let out a shuddering breath.

"All this time, those things I've been fighting have been…" He seemed like he was going to be sick. Diana placed her hand on his arm.

"There will be time to mourn later, you'll see." Prompto gave her a watery smile and stood up wiping his eyes dry.

"We need to get out before anything else can happen," he said.

The something else that happened was the whole room of danger before them. Sidus performed his first warp strike on an enemy saving Diana, who barely dove out of the way of gun fire while Prompto and Mercury gunned down the rest of the enemy troopers. The defense node brought wave after wave of MT's into the room, but thanks to a few lucky shots from Prompto into the MT Energy Tanks and they were safe from the hail of bullets. Prompto found the only exit was a round door, with a barcode scanner. He sucked in a breath and did it. The door opened.

"…Lucky me."

"I can get the next one?" Mercury said. Prompto looked down at Mercury and shakily placed a hand on his head.

"It's…It's alright…I..It's not easy finding out part of what you thought you knew about your life was a lie," Prompto said.

The next door at the end of the hall led to another room, and this one made both Prompto and Mercury gasp at all the copies of Prompto in the room and their tanks were filled with starscourge.

"How could he do this…." Prompto let his words trail off. He found a cold, clinical report on eliminated MT-Units and they-they looked like him but their year code was last year. How?

"They..took to the accelerated growth better than me," Mercury said rubbing his own barcode. Prompto saw that Mercury's number was 0744-09301130. He was chronologically twelve as well as being physically twelve unlike the failed clones who'd….

"Is…someone there," Prompto mused as they snuck up to the observation room. A sinister chuckle made the four gulp.

"Deep…breaths.." Prompto coached, partly to himself and to the kids, it was time to be stealthy.

Ardyn knew that Noctis's little pet had arrived, and with three ducklings in tow. He'd rather hoped he'd take the bait and take them with him. It would be downright fascinating for him to see how the three little ducklings turned out. No matter: it was time to set the stage for this reunion.

"My friend, do you recall the child who was stolen from this facility?" he prompted. He knew Verstael was still sore over that.

"The one those Lucians absconded with."

"Precisely. I thought you might like to see the fine young man he's become these twenty-odd years later. So, as thanks for bringing your pets to Insomnia, I've brought the boy to you. The time has come to meet your maker? Any questions for daddy dearest?" Oh, how he enjoyed the flinch Prompto gave whenever he looked at him directly. The ducklings were out of sight. So, he would pretend he didn't know they were loose. Verstael would know about that soon enough. "Father and son! Oh, how I love bringing families together." Only to rip them apart.

"No! You're wrong, damn it!" Prompto looked down at Mercury who was just as shaken.

"He's not our dad," Mercury said, "Never our dad."

"Never," Prompto agreed.

Prompto led them into another break room where he found another recorder. This time he nearly crushed it trying to turn it on. Mercury took it gently from Prompto and slipped it into a pocket.

"I..don't care what he says. This place will never be my home. My "home" is ins Lucis—not here. This place isn't home for you either. Home isn't somewhere you're not safe. I'm…going to make sure you guys make it home with me," Prompto said looking at Sidus, Diana, and Mercury.

"Let's…see what else he did," Prompto said after a moment holding out a less shaky hand for the recorder.

"Research log: Year 756, Day 98. Finally, my daemon-infused magitek armor is complete. It have christened my creation "Diamond Weapon." It has exhibited an extremely unstable psyche, immediately unleashing unmitigated horror upon activation. It's destructive capabilities, however are beyond compare. Not even the "impenetrable" Insomnia could withstand its onslaught. Why the Crown City would fall in a mere matter of minutes. The Stone of Legend will soon be mine. Project Starlight will be my key to unlocking it's powers. To think, in less than a month's time, the Crystal will be mine to play with as I please!"

"He…he was going to use me to use the Crystal?" Sidus said.

"It's because you're cloned from the only other guy who can use it," Prompto said, "My best friend, Noctis."

"Is that why you saved me? Because I look like him?" Sidus said.

"You're a kid. Kids don't belong in tanks for maniacs to play with," Prompto explained, "But, he's the one behind the attack on Insomnia, he planned the whole thing, he's why my home….everything we lost that day, is gone because of him."

"It sure is ugly," Mercury held up a picture of it.

"You're really well adjusted for a facility kid," Prompto said.

"I….wasn't always in the facility. I was… part of a test batch. They-They thought that by giving us to officers to rais- to teach us, it would make us better soldiers. Instead, I…not only didn't take to the age accelerants they injected us with, I…was too aware to be a proper soldier. I was placed into the tank for study and-and ev-eventual decommissioning." Diana placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What about you. Him, probably because they didn't want Sidus figuring out his magic powers and escaping once he saw how messed up this place really was," Prompto said. Sidus nodded.

"I was deemed "too sympathetic" by my handler and he…recommended I stay in stasis until I was…needed. That was a year ago," Sidus said.

"I too wasn't developing as they had wished," Diana said, "They also feared the High Commander seeing me, for some reason, and to preserve order, I was placed into stasis." That's when it clicked. Diana was Lunafreya's clone. Of course they wouldn't want Ravus seeing her. He'd flip his shit!

"Though, was your caretaker Tenebraen?" Prompto asked. She had the accent, after all. Diana nodded.

"Are you going to confront him?" she asked.

"I…have to. No matter what you hear. Stay in here until I come get you. I..I don't want him trying to hurt you anymore," Prompto said. He drew his pistol and activated the doors before walking in, slowly, with his gun in his grasp.

The elderly form of Verstael Besitihia turned to face him, wheezing. He looked bad.

"What's the matter. Have you never seen a man turn before?" it was hideous. The scourge was already taking hold and one of his eyes had been over taken and it was black with a yellow iris. The other eye…the same shade of blue-violet as Prompto.

"If those Lucians hadn't intervened. You could have turned too."

"Why me?" Prompto asked.

"Because you were cloned from this genius's genes, born of my own flesh and blood. You are but one of millions created to serve our great empire in the magitek infantry." Ugh, the purple-green was spreading across his face. It was like watching a bruise.

"Created...to serve you?" Prompto backed away him gun dropping. Mercury's words came to mind,

"too aware to be a proper soldier." Six, he…they—.

"Yes—and now you've finally come home to Niflheim, my son." That was the last straw. Prompto fired into the air.

"Shut-up! You're wrong. I'm a Lucian! I am not one of your experiments!"

"Not anymore. Now, you're nothing but a failure!" Prompto backed away.

"I ought to return you from whence you came. Perhaps then, you might serve some useful purpose."

"Never!"

"With your help, my ascension to divinity is now all but complete." He was oozing more. It was an oily slick as well as mist pouring off of him, just like the pods of the others—, "Soon, not even the kings of Lucis nor even the gods themselves will be able to challenge my reign!" His smoking hand drew too close to Prompto's face. With a scream he fired point blank, head-shoting his genetic donor. Effectively killing his own…..no. Prompto sunk down dropping the gun.

He really was no better than….him.

The doors opened as there were hands shaking him.

"—gasp—Look what you've done. You've gone homicidal—, no patricidal. You lose your friends and murder your family. Now you've no one left!"

"Shut up!" Sidus snapped, "Whoever you are!"

"Oh, look, it's one of the three ducklings loose in this facility. They should keep back from strange things, unless they want to end up hurt."

"No one asked you!" Mercury aimed for the PA system but sinister laughter was all that remained of Ardyn's taunts.

"We need to move, Prompto," Diana shook him. That's when a feminine robotic voice sounded,

Vital functions decreasing. Plasmodium activity index increasing. Daemonification complete. Initiating transfer to Unit XDA-1002: Immortalis.

The room was shaking and that's when Aranea burst through the roof spearing a monster as she went.

"Do you always play hard to get like this—Oh. I see there are more babies here than just you."

"Aranea?"

"Save it, Blondie, on your feet." She made her way over to a desk where blueprints were still out.

"So, this is that new model they're working on." She saw the kids trying to get Prompto upright.

"I don't know what's got you so shook, but you can deal with it later. Let's move. Kids, you keep up or you'll be left behind. Got it?" The kids nodded. She rolled her eyes and hauled Prompto to his feet, "I'm only going to say this once. Lose your will to live and you lose all hope of me helping your sorry ass. Got it?" Prompto nodded. That's when ice bombs and MT axmen attacked. Sidus blocked one with a clumsy sword swipe, but Diana seemed to glow a little. Prompto wanted to smack himself. Diana was a clone of the Oracle! She was repelling daemons a little as they fled. Prompto and Mercury took out troopers with well placed shots as they ran to keep up with the dragoon.

They finally reached the hanger bay and there were snowmobiles, but they were on the other side of a bunch of baddies and the alarms were blaring.

"We've got under three minutes to get out before this place goes on lock down," Aranea explained, "So move!" Prompto nodded shooting at the Snaga that appeared and taking out the enemies as best he could, but there were too many of them AND an MT armor. Overkill much. Then again, he had an Oracle Clone and the Clone of the King of Lucis as well as the legendary Dragoon…..ok maybe not totally overkill.

"Never mind taking them out, just run!" Aranea yelled. Prompto nodded and covered the kids as they darted past all the gun fire zig-zagging as much as possible. They reached the snowmobile. Aranea shoved the map into his chest.

"Get out and meet me there," Aranea said.

"What about you?" Prompto asked.

"I'll catch up. Don't forget, you have to get those kids to safety," she said. Prompto looked at them and nodded to her. They loaded up: Diana front of Prompto with Mercury and Sidus behind him.

"Mercury, you're gunner. Sidus, keep him and you on," Prompto said before he pressed the throttle and away they went. Over the icy wastes. The kids were glad of their jackets now, Prompto bet.

There were explosions everywhere it was all Prompto could to to hold on, and from the arms grabbing on to him, it was all the boys could do too. A fine explosion sent them all flying. Fortunately, the snow broke their fall.

"Catch you later, Aranea…" Prompto said n a daze. He sat up, saw the others, and scrambled to make sure they were ok.

"Mercury, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two," he said sitting up. Diana was already helping Sidus up.

"At least the snowmobile isn't wrecked," Mercury said as they all limped over to it.

Prompto found the marked spot: A haven. Decratom Haven. The runes lit up more brightly in Diana's presence and the fire ever flickering in the center burst into life enough for the wood Prompto gathered to ignite.

"You don't have to act like you're ok," Sidus said.

"What-oh I'm—."

"Look, food!" Mercury ran over with cans of rations. Prompto had to keep it together for these three. He dug around his pockets and found the keychains Gladio always insisted he keep with him. One of which was a can-opener. He carefully opened the cans and hunted around the cave finding a package of forks. Whoever used this haven must have been really prepared.

"Beans?" Sidus complained. Prompto was painfully reminded of Noct in that moment. He caught sight of his barcode and a flaming log. Before the idea could form, Mercury had placed food in his hands and sat next to him, purposefully showing off his own code.

"I…tried it, once. The day before I…I was supposed to go into the tank. I got a hold of acid. It didn't work. They only healed me so that my "damage" wouldn't corrupt their results," Mercury said after a few moments.

"Branded for life," Prompto choked out. They all ate in silence.

"I'm glad you didn't try that. It wouldn't have worked." Aranea was back.

"Prompto, right?" he nodded. "So, who are the kids?"

"I'm Mercury!" Mercury said.

"Sidus."

"I'm Diana."

"You in the habit of picking up strays?" Aranea said.

"They were in tanks. They're kids but he…," Prompto trailed off. The silence was thick in the air for a while.

"You know, I ran into your buddies in Tenebrae. You have them worried sick," Aranea said. It sounded…too good to be true to Prompto especially after….

"You gonna go see 'em or what?"

"I…I can't." Aranea looked at him slightly surprised. "I can't. I'm not like them. I was born here, in Niflheim. All this time and I've never told them. That's not even the worst part. I wasn't born into some happy family. I was made at some laboratory. My very existence was meant to make Noct and the others miserable."

"You drive around with those guys all this time and you still don't know what kind of people they are? You forget, your prince pal and I weren't on good terms and yet he asked me to make sure you were safe. Does that sound like something he'd do for someone that makes him miserable? What about these kids. They came from a lab but you're trying to get them away. Are they better than you, or are you all unworthy?"

"No! I…I….." Prompto looked into the thee pairs of eyes looking up at him.

"If you hadn't saved us, we'd be….worse than dead," Diana said, "So please know that, even if your friends are mad, we think you're really great. Right?"

"What she said," Mercury said. Sidus nodded.

"Did they say anything else about me?" Prompto asked.

"Not that I recall." Aranea looked thoughtful.

"….Right." Prompto looked down again.

"His Highness was so worried about you, he could barely speak, but don't worry—I whipped him into shape."

"So, he doesn't hate me after all. Is everybody ok?"

"All things considered I guess. But they're still dead set on getting to the capital."

"…Hope they make it."

"They'd have a better shot with you around. Though, I guess you need to take care of your strays, right?" Aranea said.

"We can take care of our selves!" Sidus said crossing his arms. Aranea laughed a little.

"We could find our way to a different safe spot. Perhaps to Tenebrae," Diana said.

"Not a place I'd go, Diana," Aranea said, "Though, if you want, I can get you three a lift somewhere else that's safe after tomorrow; if, you promise to wait here."

"See, you can go meet up with your friends now, we'll be fine!" Mercury said.

"You think they'd take me back after all of this? And even then, I'd probably cause them nothing but trouble," Prompto said, "I don't know if I could live with myself—ouch! Hey!" Sidus had thrown his empty can of beans at Prompto's head (with surprisingly good aim).

"Nice shot kid! You're not even doing a good job living with yourself and you have kids looking up to you. What do you want? You spend all this time thinking about what other people want from you, you don't even know what you want anymore! Your life isn't yours to life. Figure out what it is you're after here." Aranea turned away, "I'm going after that new model in the morning. You're on your own now kid. You three, I'll be back afterwards to get you somewhere safe, because unless he gets his head out of his ass, it won't be with him." Prompto just laid there.

"Think we should say something else?" Mercury said.

"If my can didn't knock sense into him, and her kick didn't, I don't know. Diana?" Sidus asked. Diana leaned over Prompto and offered him a hand to help him up.

"Why are you so set on helping me? I'm just like him," Prompto said.

"If you were, you'd have left us in those tanks," Diana said.

"Why do you think your friends don't want you?" Sidus said.

"Because…." Prompto trailed off.

"Because why?" Mercury asked. Prompto didn't respond.

"Why?" Diana asked. The three twelve year olds just repeated "Why" until Prompto snapped,

"Because I've never been real to them! I always behaved how I thought people wanted me to and I wasn't even good enough for my parents, why would they think I'm good enough!"

The kids hugged him again, tackling him down.

"Because you saved us, even though it would have been easier to get through everything without having to watch out for us. You wanted us to be safe because you saw us as kids and not things and that means something to me, to us!" Mercury sobbed.

"You guys…" Prompto hugged them back as best he could.

Prompt woke up. It had been a dream. It had seemed so….real. Finding that MT, being that MT, running from Noctis as that MT, finding Pryna. finding….himself. It was….weird.

Though, he finally knew what he wanted. Even after the kids and Aranea tried to beat it into his head.

The kids were asleep in a pile in the corner. As soon as he stood up, Mercury jolted awake, waking up Diana. Sidus was shoved awake by Mercury.

"I'm going after Aranea. Wait here. Ok?" Prompto said. Three sleepy nods and he squared his shoulders. Time to move forwards. He'd promised long ago to be ever at Noctis's side, after all.

"Hey, Aranea. I'm going with you. I can't choose where I came from, but I can choose where I'm going," he said.

"Alright, but slow me down and you're going to get left behind," she said." Prompto nodded.

Mercury opened his eyes again and jolted away.

"So, the brave duck has left the little ducklings all alone in the wilderness." The but of a gun when down and Mercury was knocked out cold.

Prompto drove off after his victory over the thing Verstael had become. Then a shadow descend on him.

Prompto opened his eyes with a headache pounding in his head. He was trapped. No! He tried to break free, but it was no good.

At least the kids were safe.

MP:

I've been trying to write something with Clones in it for almost six months. Then Episode Prompto comes out and gives me everything I need within the universe's rules for me to use on a silver platter.

BTW The Empire got Noct's blood from the Marilith attack on him at age 8. Hence, Sidus is eight years younger than Noctis.

The other two clones are the same age as Sidus because I felt like it.