The Chocobros had searched high and low for Nyxia when she turned up missing. The morning when they came to check on her and she wasn't there, Prompto didn't know what to think. Once they realized she was truly gone from Shirra, he could only imagine that Ardyn had to be the one behind it. Who else could it possibly be? He expressed the determination to go find her right away, though Ignis expressed that they needed a solid plan, whereas Gladio seemed dismissive about the whole thing. The big guy's behavior had Prompto suspicious, wondering if maybe he knew more than he was letting on, but for a while, he left it alone.
Until they got to Cape Caem.
Gladiolus behaved evasively even around his sister, which was very abnormal. She seemed to receive blunt and short responses, if anything at all, much like Prompto and Ignis had been receiving for days now.
He asked Iris what she knew, and though she hadn't been around the group for a while, she seemed to know a lot more than he expected.
"I'm not a dummy," she said as he watched her tend to the garden. Prompto would give her a packet of kale seeds as she needed them, and he would cover them up as she moved further down the row. "Gladdy's nuts about her, but he just won't admit it."
"That's all?" Prompto asked, dumbfounded.
"I don't think it is, but...I don't know."
"Don't you want to find her, too, Iris?"
She sighed, brushing the dirt from her hands on her skirt. "Of course, I do. She's my friend just as much as she is to everyone else, but...if you're right, and Ardyn is behind it, it would be a suicide mission." She paused as they both straightened and stepped away from the tilled soil. "You did hear about Dave, didn't you?"
"Dave? No..." Prompto felt his stomach tighten, as if he already had an idea of what she was going to tell him. She ushered for him to follow her into the house, and throughout the entire time, his stomach was in knots. This couldn't be good news. "I haven't told the others yet...but..." From a pull-out drawer by the front door, she pulled out two, dog tags.
"He and another hunter went into Curia to see if she was there. Monica found these..."
For a moment, he was silent. Trying to take in this information as he read David Auburnbrie on one of the tags, and Eric Cancellis on the other. "What happened to them?" he asked, a mixture of anger and hurt filling him.
"She has her suspicions...Dave wasn't killed by daemons. She thinks...Nyxia did it."
His next words tasted like vomit in his mouth. "How does she know that?"
"Prompto, I...don't really want to say it."
"I don't care. We all need to know what happened." He very rarely got this upset, but this was his friend she was accusing. He needed to know why Monica was so confident that Nyxia could have been responsible.
"Eric, the other hunter... Monica said he was very clearly attacked by something with claws, but Dave... his face was smashed into the concrete. She said if he didn't die of traumatic brain injury, then it was blood loss."
Prompto had a hard time coming to terms with this. He had to know the truth, and the best way to do it was to ask Nyxia. He was no expert in forensics, but maybe he could find her and get her out of there. If she was under Ardyn's influence, maybe as her friend, he could talk some sense into her. He just couldn't accept the fact that Monica might be right. This whole thing was a misunderstanding; Nyxia was simply a prisoner, nothing more.
"It had to be Ardyn. There's no way..."
"Maybe." Iris's tone suggested she didn't have very high hopes for that possibility, though, and that bothered Prompto even more.
He wouldn't tell the others his plan, even as Iris gave the news to the others. He hadn't seen Gladio that angry since he yelled at Noctis on the train towards Cartanica. When they left Shirra, they had taken Nyxia's belongings with them in the case that she came back. However, Prompto watched him throw everything in the dumpster outside. Even her phone and leather jacket were disposed of. He imagined Gladio had spent a good chunk of gil on that jacket for her. Did he really hate her that much?
Prompto wanted to plead with him to calm down, but he knew how the man got when he was this furious. There was really no shaking him out of it, and so the best thing to do was just to stay out of his way. Even Iris couldn't get him to settle down.
Later that night, after the sun had set, Prompto packed himself a small bag of necessities - a few snacks and potions, mostly, and he was on his way towards Curia, taking his motorcycle into the night. He hadn't forgotten his camera, of course, though he doubted taking pictures would be much of a concern to him. He needed to see Curia for himself, to see if it truly was under continuous night like the others were claiming...and to see if Nyxia really had lost her fight with the daemons.
