"Dude, not even kidding, I swear I reached the astral plane the moment I saw that question."
The duo walked side by side through the near empty streets of the neighbourhood, the stillness yet to be disturbed by the evening commute of those working 9 to 5 jobs. Gentle sunlight slid over the roofs of the buildings, causing those that saw tender care in the past decade to shimmer in the pre-sunset haze, giving a feeling of warmth in spite of the progression of autumn.
"You're telling me." Noctis responded, pausing to sip from his sweet coffee they bought a few blocks back, "I could hear the scribbling all the way from where I was sat."
"My hands were so sweaty I legit threw my pen at the exam moderator when I finished that question - it just slipped out!" Prompto exclaimed, causing Noctis to laugh and nearly choke on his drink, shoving his friend in relatiation.
"She's gonna fail you for that, you know."
"Nooooct, don't jinx me bro!"
They laughed as they continued to make their way through the streets, comparing their answers on the midterm test to decide if they should be split into different sets or not, Noctis maybe once or twice exaggerating his answers to see the dismay on his best friend's face only to dash it away a second later.
"Keep this up and this hot chocolate's going on your head." Prompto threatened, waving the disposable cup around Noct's face as the prince batted it away with his own drink, taking care not to spill the contents or crush the cup in their mock-sword battle.
"Yeah, and I'll have Gladio kick your ass when he comes to pick chocolatey-me up." Noctis replied, making a move to grab Prompto's drink as he pulled it away. Prompto, ever adaptable, mirrored Noct and reached to grab his coffee, creating a very tenuous tango as they tried to reach past each other yet avoid getting too close, laughing all the while.
"Well Gladio likes me better anyway!" Prompto exclaimed, sticking his tongue out in retaliation.
"Only 'cause he has a thing for blondes like you, you spider monkey." Noctis retorted.
"Whu-?" The comment has Prompto momentarily stunned, blush spreading across his face, as Noctis wrapped his left leg around Prompto's right and yanked him closer, grinning as he grabbed his trophy (read: Prompto's overly sweet and most likely cold hot chocolate) that Prompto had to relinquish, lest he fall with his hand on the drink rather than concrete.
Prompto knelt there, momentarily dazed, looking up at Noctis's smug grin, "King of drinks, 1, King of losers, 0."
The comment seemed to spring Prompto back into action as Noctis started to walk, running up to him to grab his drink which Noctis held out, "Hey! You can't just leave with no further comment! Gladio likes blondes? Also - I am not a spider monkey!"
Prompto continued on as they walked along the streets to the bus stop where he'd catch the ride home, Noctis occasionally adding the little extra jab to fuel the fire that was Prompto's rambling. Eventually they reached they bus stop, Noctis pulling out his phone to let Gladio know they'd arrived there, making sure he received a returning text before closing his phone, pushing down a smile as he heard Prom continue to mutter in annoyance about what thing for blondes? Never tells me that, dumb hot muscle face man.
Sensing that he was getting fewer non-committal grunts than usual, Prompto turned to his friend to see him putting away his phone, and asked,
"What time will Gladio be here?"
"In about five minutes," Noctis replied, scratching the back of his head and they both moved to lean again the rail inside the shelter, "Said he had to pick up a couple things from the hardware store first. Apparently Iris totally wrecked the shed when she tried to practice swinging a dummy sword in there."
Prompto snorted in response, "Isn't she like, 12? How the heck did she manage to damage the shed that badly with just a practice sword?"
Noctis shrugged, and answered plainly "Amicitas."
"Hah! That's true enough." Prompto replied, tucking his hands behind his head.
A calm silence passed between them as gentle gusts of breeze ripped nearly-dead leaves off of their branches, twirling through the autumnal air.
A gentle sigh, and then, "Thanks, dude. For walking me home, I mean. Defo would not be as fun going back over how I answered the questions alone."
Noctis nudged Prompto, barely-there smile on his face, "Don't even worry about it, specs said he couldn't drive me today anyway, and we've been so busy revising we haven't had a chance to catch up as of late."
"Pff - you, revising?! We have to get Iggy to mark this on the calendar." Prompto replied, laughing at his own joke.
THUNK.
The sound cut through the lull of the late afternoon, making both of the highschoolers look up in surprise to its direction.
"Oh man," Prompto giggled as he side-eyed the source of the sound, "Bet she's had an even shittier test day than me!"
On the other side of the road, by a little corner of sequestered houses already shaded by the soon to be setting sun stood a girl, likely no older than they, in slightly dishevelled school clothes, her face obscured by her dark brown hair, head resting against the front door of the house which she must have head butted in her frustration.
"No kidding," Noctis replied, eyeing her warily as he continued to stand still in front of the house, not moving to get a key out or anything, before tearing his eyes away from her to avoid any accusations of scaring. "So about that new King's Knight update..."
Prompto gladly took over the conversation for him, going a thousand miles a minute as he continued to explain all of the consequential and awesome bugs that came from the new updates.
"And then, if, and only IF you hit it about a third of the second before you're supposed to, your character literally shoves their head through the allies' chest! I almost dropped my phone when I saw it, you have no-"
THUNK.
"Idea." Prompto finished, volume drastically lowered from his previous tirade as he and Noctis subtly glanced over to where the girl was still standing in front of, presumably, her house.
"The heck is up with her?" Prompto whispered, and Noctis suddenly felt the strangeness of the situation hit him.
"No clue." Noctis whispered back, tearing his eyes away from the girl and a red stain barely visible on the white door. "What time does the bus arrive?"
"Seven minutes." Prompto replied, keeping his tone low as he whipped out his phone.
A pregnant pause passed between them. Then, "We should help her." Noctis said, trying to swallow down the growing dread settling low in his belly.
"Dude?!" Prompto exclaimed, albeit in a much quieter tone, and continued with his reasoning "How? She doesn't look right, that's for sure, but what if she's high and attacks us or something? We'll can wait a bit longer, see how she goes, and I'll call an ambulance, yeah? I'll keep my phone open on the call page."
Noctis grit his teeth in frustration, unable to argue in the sound logic of the argument but hating the growing feeling of uselessness and callousness all the more. They continued to stay there in tense silence, tension thickening as the silence continued to grow.
Another calm breeze ran through the air, disturbing the deciduous trees and blowing leaves around, some falling in the girl's hair, though she didn't seem to notice. One heartbeat, then another, Noctis could see her lax body sway with the breeze for but a moment, then,
THUNK.
"Alright, that's it, I'm going to check on her." Noctis ground out, mind made up to figure out what the hell was going on before his guilt of ignoring someone hurting smothered him.
"Noct, stop! If you get hurt-" Prompto started, making to grab Noctis when he started to walk away from the bus shelter and towards the girl.
"I won't," Noctis replied, not looking back towards his friend as he studied the highschooler ahead of him, "Just keep your eye on the phone and the road, okay? I don't want the bus to suddenly come around the bend and run me over." He chuckled at the end, and heard Prompto laugh a little in return, tone lightening at the admission.
He continued to walk over to the shaded area where she stood, discomfort growing with each step he took towards her. Noctis could hear her laboured breathing rattling in her chest the closer he got, catching and spluttering on fluid. A foul stench permeated the area around her, sickly sweet and yet oppressive, bitter and thick, cloying the air with its aroma. The uniform was intact but slightly torn in some places, showing worryingly pale skin beneath it, and patches of dirt and crinkles where it was whole.
A step closer, and Noctis had stepped from the road to the sidewalk closest to her, easily in visible distance yet she made no move showing recognition that someone was even there. Fear clogged his throat and a chill ran up his spine. He looked behind him to see Prompto looking between his phone and around the corner where the bus was to come. He caught his friend's eyes, bright blues looking at him with uncertainty before pointing to Noctis, then to himself, and then patting himself on the back I've got your back. Noctis nodded, huffing a gentle laugh and steeling his confidence. Really, he was just being ridiculous, she was probably just stressed and they were making way too big a deal out of nothing.
Mind made up with false assurances, Noctis took a step forward, hand reaching out to the girl, asking, "Hey, are you-"
Noctis stopped, the next word no longer caught in his throat, long gone from his head as he stared in terror at what was before him.
"Dude?" He heard Prompto shout from behind him. "Are you good? You went a little..." He heard Prompto trail off, most likely having looked up from his phone or from around the corner to where he was standing. Noctis didn't see him go pale, but he could very easily imagine the blood draining from his face, little though what he may see from there.
She had no eye.
At least the one closest to Noctis seemed to be mostly gone, pulpy off-white flesh marred with dark red trailing down from her socket to her cheek. There was a stain of red where she'd cut her head from hitting it on a protruding design on the front door, the red a stark contrast to the paster pale white of her skin, dark veins highlighted with the absence of colour. Her mouth hung half open displaying ground teeth with bloody and bruised gums, black viscous liquid leaking beneath the folds of her mouth and, Astrals above, that must have been what she was choking on.
For a moment she seemed to have awareness, shock slackening her expression before her neck cricked as she turned her head towards him, as if the very moment were so painful as to tear her muscles. A breath out, and the stench of rot hit him full force in the face, making him gag. Matted hair slid away from the rest of her face, heavy with blood and other bodily fluids and her eye.
Her other remaining eye on the right side of her face was whole and intact, sclera tainted black and the iris rimmed with a sickly yellow, black gunk running down the right side of her face from her eye.
"Quiet." Prompto finished, mouth running without his brain's permission as he observed the girl, no, thing in front of him, likely with the same horror.
She moved.
Her limbs jerked to attendance and she flung out an arm to grab Noctis with a starling amount of speed and nimbleness given her condition, missing his face by a hair's breadth. Still, the sudden movement made him lose his balance as the stepped back, tripping over the edge of the sidewalk and fell onto his back.
"Noct!" He heard Prompto shout, footsteps smacking across tarmac as he rushed to his aid.
She didn't waste any time.
The girl dropped to the floor towards him, knees hitting the ground with a sickening CRACK as she reached out for his foot, laboured breathing accompanied by grunts and strange gurgling sounds from deep within her throat. Panicking, Noctis pulled his leg back and kicked her in the head, hit connecting as he heard a dull and watched her pull back a little, dark hair whipping from the force of it.
Noctis continued to scrabble backwards, pushing himself with his feet and knees. Before he knew it Prompto was at his back, grabbing his arm and pulling him up with a quick, "Lets get the fuck out of here, buddy." Noctis felt himself nod as he scrambled up and started running, Prompto beside him.
An enraged screech sounded out behind them, like bones grinding against metal and they both lifted their hands to their ears at the onslaught, stumbling slightly as their legs shook from the force of it. Prompto, ever a thinker on his feet, seemed to realise the effects and pried one of his hands away from his ears, grabbing Noct's arm and attempting to drag him forward, to get just a little farther away.
It was enough time for her.
Noctis screamed as he felt a sharp pain stab into his leg from the back, going right for the knee, white knives of agony shooting up his frame and forcing him to drop to the ground. His vision blurred momentarily, the world swaying and distorting as he felt bile rise in his throat. In his confusion he could hear the rustling and crawling behind him. Prompto's shout of, "Get off him, you bitch!" as he attempted to pull her off of him helped to spur him into action, getting his forearms underneath himself as he attempted to push himself up enough to stand.
A cry, a human cry, sounded out behind him and Noctis turned his head just in time to see her hands, clawed and sharp and tainted slash right across Prompto's face, catching him across his eyes. Prompto's scream of agony gave him a shock of adrenaline, heedless to the feeling of warm blood pooling from his knee and pouring down his leg, soaking up his school trousers as he avoided putting weight on the knee to stop it from buckling.
"Hey!" He shouted, pretending to feel braver than he felt as he watched Prompto press his hands to his face, trying to blink through the blood, "I'm right here! Come and get me!" He startled to hobble farther down the street, farther away from Prompto and felt a grim and twisted sense of satisfaction when she stood to chase and follow him, only for her knee to bend inwards slightly with a harsh crunch. Ignorant to it she chased after him, and Noctis soon realised that for all his bravado he hadn't yet mastered the armiger and was weaponless, and she was just that bit quicker than him.
Noctis stumbled into the sunlight from the shade cast by the rows of houses from the impending sundown, feeling the catch of her hand on his ankle as he felt heavy weight press into him, causing him to fall onto the tarmac and his knee, shouting in pain and further movement jostled the joint.
She ambled towards him, crawling over his body as her joints clicked and her head shuddered, blackness pooling from her mouth dripping and staining the road below, scorching and burning through any fabric. Her empty gaze locked onto him, jaw jerking as she moved closer regardless of how much he kicked and punched her, she grabbed his left arm and yanked it hard, past the point of a joint straining until he felt a 'pop' and choked on a scream, his left arm flopping hard and useless on the ground beside him, his right being pinned beneath the disfigured remains of her left knee, bone grinding into muscle and bone.
"NOCT?! WHERE ARE YOU?" He could hear Prompto shouting in the background, the sound of him running getting nearer and farther as he failed to locate him properly without his sight, the reassurance of Prompto's efforts a sharp contrast to the monster pinning him down, a distorted grin marring her features as she gurgled and choked, black bile running down her front as her one twisted amber eye locked onto him. And then she leaned a bit closer, pressing down onto him as Noctis felt his throat close up in terror, the realisation that he could very well die here striking him hard when she suddenly...stopped.
And screamed.
The girl wailed, exposed in the sunlight, skin burning and blistering, popping with fluids and blackened pus running down her face, her neck, her hands. Any pale and black veined skin exposed started burning in the sunlight and she screeched, wailing in agony, causing Noct to grit his teeth from the volume and tenor as she rose her hands to her face, sharp nails digging into her flesh and clawing her one remaining eye out with a wet squelch.
Noctis struggled beneath her, attempting to move and make his escape with the commotion. As if sensing his movement she sniffed, an inhumane growl rising up in her throat as she raised her left hand-
"Noct, where are you, Astals damn it!"
Black ichor and blood shining putrid in the sunlight,
"NOCT! ANSWER ME!"
Hand stretching out as Noctis could only watch, claws bared to strike.
The sound of heavy footsteps hitting asphalt.
Movement, as the hand swung down straight for his jugular, his arms unable to move, disabled as they were Noxtis squeezed his eyes shut, Astrals, this is it, I'm gonna-
THUNK
The sound of something heavy colliding with another object, dense and wet, rang through his ears. A moment of silence, then,
"What the hell is going on here?" A gruff voice whispered, horror stricken.
Noctis opened his eyes to find Gladio above him, face pinched in a terrible mixture of horror, concern and fear, and Noctis was unsurprised to find his vision soon blurring with tears, the relief crashing over him a stark contrast to the terror he felt but a moment ago.
"G-Gladio." Noctis choked out, reaching out with his right hand as Gladio dropped a bloodied plank of wood by a bag of warehouse supplies that must have been what the sound was, his mind supplied, and it was grasped by a warm and strong one. Noctis swallowed, pushing down any fear still running rampant through him, "Gladio, Prompto's hurt."
"And you're not?!" He exclaimed but then soon deflated inward on himself, "Sorry, you're right. This is just - fuck, are you good for a second?" Noctis nodded, in lieu of speaking, biting his lip to stop it from twitching. "I'll go bring Prompto here." Gladio squeezed his hand and then rushed off, soon returning with two sets of footsteps sounding against the road, one steadier than the other. Noctis could hear Gladio sitting Prompto down beside him, instructing him to keep pressure on the wound as he attempts to return to Noctis. Only he paused looking at something farther away and then scurried away for a moment, the retching sounds soon evident as to the reason why. Gladio then returned to Noctis shortly after, face clouded with shame.
"Lets get you up." He said, voice hollow and distant, as if he weren't really there. Noctis was eased up by Gladio, by the shoulders, crying out when his hand got too close to his left shoulder. "Shit, okay, we'll just...take it slow, okay? Let me know if I hurt you." Gladio muttered, continuing to ease Noctis up as the younger placed his right hand beneath him, struggling as if under excess weight. A gurgle to his left caught his attention, and he realised that the girl was still half on him. Well, her legs were, at least.
As Gladio continued to help Noctis up into a sitting position, pulling him away from the girl, Noctis could only stare at her in horror as she lay there and gurgled on the ground, twitching occasionally. The entire left side of her skull had caved inwards, forming an odd concave shape, like someone had just stepped on a ball and it had frozen in time. Some pink and gelatinous matter peeked its way through her bloody left eye socket, flecks of pink staining the ground. Blood and black substance marred her face, her lower jaw having been shoved into her upper from the force of the blow, dislodging teeth and leaving some scattered on the ground with smears of blood, a few remaining in her open and cavernous mouth. She no longer had any eyes.
And even as Gladio corraled Noctis into tearing off some of his blazer and wrapping it around his knee, even as he called the ambulance and sirens arrived in mere moments, cutting off the bus that would have arrived, even as Prompto cried and mourned over the potential loss of his sight and seeks comfort and Gladio talked in low murmurs to them, Noctis did not, could not look away from the crumbled heap of the girl in the sunlight, bubbling and whining and gurgling.
...
In the end, with the help of a Hi-potion and the King's own healing magic, Prompto's vision is fully restored, leaving only tiny scars. Noctis needs a few more potions and time off to heal, having to resort to therapy for a little while to get his knee back in working order. His father visits him often, and he doesn't walk home with Prompto for a long time. Gladio doesn't speak of the incident, but Ignis hints that he's seeing a therapist to help him cope with the event.
The girl who attacked them was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
It takes a week to identify her, given the state of damage and apparent decomposition to her body. Flavina Abore, according to the press, as Noctis watches the headlines make their way lazily across the screen, Ignis stiff by his side with an unwavering grip on his undamaged arm. She had been in the year above him and has been on a school geology trip outside the wall when she was reported missing for a few hours, only to return with no memory as to where she had been, clothes damaged and puncture wounds in her arm.
A few weeks later, after the body had been fully examined and the cause determined insanity and spontaneous combustion by baffled scientists, a funeral was held for Flavina, closed casket. While Noctis and everyone around him thought it best not to attend, flowers were sent by his father in condolence, from parent to grieving parents. A viral video leaked hours later of the arrangement being burnt by mourners garbed in black, tears streaming down their faces. Gladio skipped training that night.
Yet in spite of the horror they went through, Prompto continues to train and makes in into Crownsguard, Gladio starts to smile again more and Ignis subtly lets him know that he's been able to finish therapy, Noctis is able to walk again without residual pains crushing his right knee every time, only flaring up with the cold like it usually does.
They all willingly forget.
It is only when, years later, they are combing through a Niff base, after Prompto revealed that he was made to be an MT, after all of the metric weight of Insomnia's collapse and the world has fallen onto them, do they finally get some closure.
They stumble into a room to avoid a troop of MTs marching by, hiding in the darkness. When Noctis stands, he bumps into a table and some of the papers scatter from a binder onto the floor. The paper slips into the light, silent and innocent as anything, and his mind is transfixed and stuck on stark details, just like it was with the gurgling girl.
Name: UNKNOWN [UPDATE: FLAVIA ABORE]
Age:UNKNOWN
Action: GENUS STARSCOURGE INTRODUCTION IN ADOLESCENT LIFE
Results: FAILURE
What gets Noctis the most is the FILE COPY stamp in blood red across the page. The others notice his stony silence and read the page with shock and trepidation, Prompto stuttering along and reading the words aloud for Ignis.
By now, though, Noctis is no longer scared. He no longer fears the monster that Flavia was reduced to, the monster that Ardyn would gladly coax and goad him into becoming.
No, he thinks with certainty, as he feels the weight of the ring and power of the Astrals coursing through him, cracking with anger.
He is furious.
Guys this literally came from me nearly running head first into a door at work today, forgetting that it was locked. Guess near-concussions give me inspirations, huh? Also please forgive me for timeline errors OTL I've never actually played the game just watched sections of playthroughs lmao. Happy Halloween!