Just so you guys know the only reason that I'm able to get these chapters out so fast right now is because all of the free time I have write now in school to write. Sadly, I don't know how much longer that will be. Anyways, please review and tell me what you think! It really gives me the motivation to continue.
Noct silently sighed as a MT passed through the hallway – and just like all in Zegnautus Keep – was acting haywire and more aggressive. Due to no weapons and it just being the two of them, Prompto and Noctis have had to resort to trying to stay hidden in the shadows. If they were noticed Noctis dealt with it by using either Death, Holy, or Alterna: the three spells of the Ring of the Lucii to dealt with the threat. Whether he wanted to truly admit it or not, Noctis was having to resort to relying on Prompto for the MTs locations. He could pick out the occasional one when they dragged their axe across the floor. Daemons though, for the most part, Noctis felt them before Prompto even saw them. So being deaf did have some advantages; just as Prompto being able to open every door in the base. 'You're no better than a burglar.' He typed on his phone to tell Prompto smirking with a glint in his eyes. After all, this made things a whole lot easier.
Prompto on the other hand was dealing with Ardyn constantly taunting him, unknown to the dark-haired king. He put on a smile for his friend as Ardyn commented mockingly. "Aren't you two just adorable?" His chuckling echoing the halls as it was all Prompto could do not to cringe. "Oh come now. Be a good boy and speak." He said sternly after a few moments and this time Prompto couldn't stop himself from cringing, fists balling up.
Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by Noctis. He stopped and turned to his friend, their current predicament ignored, worry evident in his eyes. He knew Ardyn was picking on the gunner; he wasn't that stupid. He looked at Prompto with determination and his sentence clear on his face. 'Ignore him.'
"Easy for you to say." The gunner said sarcastically, instantly regretting it as Noct's face showed that it hurt him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. It's just…" he trailed off as Noct shrugged it off. 'It's okay. I understand.'
He sighed. "You're the best Noct." The prince punched him lightly on the arm as the two decided to continue.
When the two reach the end of the current hallway, both boys' eyes widened.
"What the hell?" Prompto breathed out, Noct nodding in agreement.
"Welcome." Ardyn's voice rang out, "to the central elevator. Hop aboard. It'll take you to your goal; be that your friends… or your Crystal." His tone was taunting them. Prompto narrowed his eyes as he relayed what Ardyn said to Noct and the two approached the elevator closely. Noct stepped on first as Prompto watched for any kind of trap and the king quickly reappeared with a scowl of his face. "No power."
The gunner rolled his eyes; of course. Before the gunner could reply, his friend was pointing a nearby control panel… that was way, way, WAY high up out there by himself. Prompto took a gulp as he tried to stop his shaking; his acrophobia setting in as Noct motioned him over encouragingly. Slowly but surely, the blonde gunner made his way to his friend, who was beaming with pride, as the blonde tightly gripped the railing as he looked at the console and his eyes widened. 'Oh, come ON!'
He turned Noct, already rather quickly making his way back to the flat surface he came from. "It needs a manual keycard." When he was back on the flat floor, he calmed his nerves and pointed to the nearby open hanger. "It's got to be in there somewhere."
No response needed, the two ran quietly to the hanger, only to immediately to hide in the shadows; Noctis being the one pulling Prompto down, cupping his hand over the other's mouth as he yelped in surprise. Once he was sure, his friend stopped he removed his hand from his mouth, bringing out to his own putting his finger on his lips to be quiet.
He quietly glanced over the cargo box the two were hiding behind, only for Prompto to cover his own mouth quickly. In front of the two monitoring the area, was a large Giant. Noct was scowling as he tapped Prompto's shoulder pointing to an elevator passed the giant then pointed to a lab area – somewhere that would clearly have a generator key.
"Why is what we need always so dangerous to get?!" the blonde mouthed to the other, who just shrugged.
Noct looked at his surroundings coming up with a plan; a stupid and risky one for him but they had no other choice at this point. He pulled out his phone to tell his plan to Prompto, cursing that his battery was at 19%. 'Okay. I'm going to cast Alterna on the Giant and then get ready to run like hell for those stairs over there. We have to get there before another Giant spawns or we're screwed.'
He waited for Prompto to read it, who immediately mouthed, "What about you? Alterna will wear you out as it is!"
Noct shrugged. "We'll deal with it." He mouthed back, this being one of the few times he was glad he actually could not make any noise; until he had to get the Giants' attention as Prompto prepared to run.
Not very happy with the fact that his friend is using up even more of his life force because of the Ring of the Lucii, Prompto also knew that from his friend's face that arguing was pointless.
Noct initiated the plan in action; the Giant disappearing into the black void that was formed by Alterna and the two boys ran for the stairs. Prompto had to pull Noct slightly along as he was exhausted from the spell. The two made it to the panels rather quickly, luckily avoiding the MTs, and he gave Noct a chance to catch his breath while he searched for the key. Noct didn't even need his voice for Prompto to know just how much that did to him, it being clear on his face as his face was wearied. Mentally making a note that they need to find somewhere for proper rest, he found the keycard and held it up for Noct to see. A tired smile appeared on Noct's face as he began to stand, stumbling slightly. Prompto tried to grab his friend but he had already recovered.
"Are you sure you're up for another Alterna?" he asked worriedly, hearing another Giant patrolling in the previous one's place. Noctis was breathing hard but he mouthed. "I'll manage."
Prompto defeated because of the situation nodded; the two doing their previous plan once more and returned to the room with the elevator. Prompto, reflexes ready from his friend's weariness, caught Noctis quickly as the prince's knees gave out from under him.
"Ok. No more magic." Prompto told him sternly, as he put on of Noct's arms around his neck, helping back to the console.
He put the keycard in the console, flipping switches to restore the power – only partially sadly – as Ardyn's voice rang out "Well done boys! Well done! You've gotten good at being a puppet now. Haven't you, dear Prompto? Anyone can pull you along by the strings." Prompto's eyes narrowed but made no other remark that let Ardyn know it affected him. "Oh, and that's not all." He commented as the two began to walk back across the gapping bridge. "The higher you climb… the further you fall." Prompto's eyes widened, reflexively pulling Noctis back. The latter tumbled on top of him, both falling down Prompto being Knocked unconscious as the force that his head had taken. All the prince could do was look up to see the Giant there on the other side of the bridge, axe raised and hardly hit the bridge. Noct fear in his eyes, didn't even get a chance to respond as the bridge's foundation gave out underneath the two boys; resulting in the two falling into the endless gap below.
He felt like his body was on fire. The slightest movement and his body screamed in pain. His head hurt the worst off all. Slowly opening his eyes, trying to look at the blurry world around him for any recognition, his sees a familiar patch a black; the figure coming more clear as his vision did the same. Blinking a few times to adjust to his clearing vision, he found the leaning in front of him examining him, sorrow in his eyes. Prompto moved to sit up to ask him what was wrong only to scream in pain, black spots forming in his eyes as pain erupted in his right arm. Panting, he waited for them to clear to turn to look at his arm.
It took all his might to not black out right there.
His arm was trapped underneath a huge iron beam, one that held the bridge up. With or without a doctor the blonde knew it was broken. Being careful not to move his arm, Prompto glanced at the rest of his body which had some cuts and bruises but nothing close to the shape his arm was in. He looked over his best friend, noticing a gash in his left calf but otherwise some scratches. He looked up just then noticing that he was crying. Prompto tried to reach to him, but can't from the pain and he was too far away so he pounded the metallic floor hard, knowing that will eventually get his attention. When he looked up to face Prompto he mouthed, "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be." He said, his voice hoarse from the screaming. "It's not your fault." He paused, noticing a glare behind the prince and his eyes slightly widened. "Noct, turn around." Confused as to why his friend wants him to turn around when the predicament he was in, he complied and gaped.
There in the ground, hilt up with a gloved hand around it was his father's sword. Not registering what he was doing, he stood up and limped over to the sword. The glove fell of the hilt as he approached and grabbed the sword, eyes sad as Ravus Nox Fluret, Lunafreya's older brother, laid there dead by the sword. 'Rest easy now. Your work is done.' He thought in sadness.
Pausing a second more for Ravus' sake, he quickly turned around and ran back to Prompto typing in his phone. 'I have a plan to get you out of there but not gonna lie. It's gonna hurt.' Prompto read it just in time before the phone crashed with the symbol coming up to charge the battery. Noct cursed as he put his phone away but stayed looking at Prompto; the latter preparing himself for the pain.
"Do it."
He summoned his father's sword stepping over Prompto to put the blade between the bar and the floor.
'One, two, three!' Using all his strength, Noctis pushed down on the blade, making it a lever which raised the bar. Noct didn't need to hear to hear his friends screams of pain. He grimaced at the amount of strength it took but it still wasn't enough. He pushed slightly harder and the realization hit him, blood rushing to his ears.
'I'm not strong enough.'
Heart pounding from the situation he hadn't noticed that the gunner had passed out from the pain or the two pairs of feet joining the group. He stared at the sword continuing to push, eyes finally noticing movement on the side of Prompto. He was unaware that he had been crying until he blinked the tears away to see Gladio on the other side of the bar not far from Prompto, lifting the bar with his hands raising the bar enough for Prompto to be moved out from underneath. Exhaustion taking over, the prince and the Shield dropped the bar. The pain on his calf finally setting in and he silently screamed falling to the ground. Gladio was there in an instant trying to check the prince's injuries. He pushed the other, not caring about himself at the moment and sighed with relief when he saw Ignis over the unconscious blonde. Tears formed in the prince's eyes again, from pain and relief, and this time he didn't fight as Gladio checked over him.
He saw Gladio look up out of the corner of his eye then stand and moved over to the gunner, picking him up in his arms. He was careful from the broken arm itself, Ignis scolding for emphasis. As Gladio picked up the gunner he finally noticed just how bad the gunner's arm was. Clearly where the bar landed the most, a deep cut was in his arm and so deep that he saw the broken bone. Noctis gagged, swallowing back the bile that threatened to rise.
With effort, he stood back up as pain flared in his calf again. He knew it was deep, but nowhere as bad as Prompto's. Before he knew it, Ignis was there taking his arm and wrapping around his neck to supporting; just like Prompto had before the two fell. He sighed as he was led by Ignis down the hallway to a dormitory. Gladio laid Prompto down one of the beds, the younger one whimpering in pain as Noctis hobbled over to another. This let Ignis hurry over to the medical section of the dormitory and grabbed some necessary materials to help both the prince and the gunner. Noct has laid down much like his friend in the bed beside him, fatigue taking over his body for the much-needed rest. He barely felt Gladio patching up his wounds as unconsciousness overcame him.
Ardyn stood over the now sleeping prince smirking with victory. It was so easy to fool the prince now that he couldn't speak or hear. Granted, while the advisor and Shield knew of the prince's whereabouts; it's not like they could do anything. He had the MTs grab them not too long after the group was separated and locked them up far away from the other two. Granted the four would be reunited in time… after at least one of these two were broken. He watched as the two MTs he had sent to grab the two patched up the prince and the gunner. He wasn't done with them yet; and he knew just how to break them. He chuckled to himself as he walked over to a silver case laying on a bed on the other side of the room. The chancellor opened the case, revealing its contents of two syringes a bottle of liquid. He filled the syringes as he listened to the occasional whines from Prompto. He walked over to the blonde first, feeling for a vein and then inserting the syringe into the left side of his neck. He pushed down on the syringe; its contents being emptied into the gunner's body.
He gave the empty syringe to the MT that was waiting nearby as he grabbed the other mirroring his actions on Noct's right side of his neck. Once emptied he clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth.
"By the time the sedative wears off, this serum is going to make you wish it hadn't." he said to no one. "Sleep well, Your Majesty." He said mockingly as he headed to the door. "While you still can."