Prompto and Noctis eventually had grown tired and decided to get some sleep. They slept as close as they could to the front of their cells, so they would wake up to see one another right away. Though now they were suddenly awoken by loud angry shouting coming from down the hall. "What... What's going on?" Prompto yawned.

Noctis tried to listen in on the shouting with little success. "I don't know. Maybe they're fighting about something?" he mused.

Suddenly Drusus marched down the hall, snatching Noctis up by his shirt and yanking him up against the bar. "You little shit," he spat. "You had some other tracker on you didn't you?"

The question made Noctis scowl as he got the courage to fight back a bit, pushing against his hand. "I had nothing of the sort. They found us because you're idiots. And they're smarter than you." He spat

Drusus yanked Noctis forward again, smashing him against the bars. He then dropped him and gritted his teeth. "I tried to be reasonable to get what I wanted, but clearly you royals will forever be too high up on your seats to ever listen." Slowly he turned around and faced Prompto's cell. "I would say our little fun game is off. I can at least end on a high note, shattering the prince's heart right before his eyes."

The threat made Noctis feel enraged, and finally, he felt the magic he thought had abandoned him from the moment they had been taken from him flooded his system. The air shimmered around him as he looked at Drusus.

"You will not be touching Prompto today. I will not allow that." He hissed. His eyes glowed red-purple with the power he channeled.

Drusus scoffed as he unlocked Prompto's cell, barely looking back at Noctis. "Like I care." He moved towards Prompto, who was already scurrying back into a corner. Drusus took out a blade from his pocket. "Let's see how you feel when your precious chocobo is bleeding out before your eyes."

"Leave- Prompto- alone." Noctis boomed as he stepped to the bars. When his threat was ignored, he reached forward to attempt a power he had never done before, warping through a solid object. He kept his focus on the landing before he found himself between Drusus and Prompto with glowing purple eyes.

The Engine Blade was easy to recall to his hand as he went to face off the man who had tormented him for what felt like eternity. "You will not touch him. I'll spare you if you back up now." He hissed, as the air vibrated from the magic radiating from him.

Drusus hardly looked phased. Slowly he lowered his arms to drop the knife, just as he dropped it he suddenly pulled out a small gun from his other pocket and pointed it at Prompto. "Think again, princy. I'm not stupid. I always come prepared. Try and attack me and I'll shoot. Or maybe..." his fingers curled around the trigger. "I could just shoot right now."

Noctis shifted enough to cover Prompto's form with his slightly taller body before he swung the Engine Blade to take a strike at Drusus's core to make a mortal wound.

Drusus coughed up blood, staggering back. There wasn't even a moment of hesitation as a gunshot rang out in the cell.

The cacophony of the people trying to break into the compound, the fighting around them, and Drusus trying to hurt both of them. Noctis hardly had the sense to follow the gun before it was pointed at his chest, though the wrong side, and a loud ringing sound filled his ears.

The world seemed to turn weirdly as his body moved against his accord and he started to fall to the ground in a dumb stupor. In a weird distance he could hear the door being breached and his father's voice guiding them into the darkness, but he felt cold and unable to stay awake.

"Noct!" Prompto's voice screamed. It seemed faint. So far away.

There was another scream, much angrier this time followed by sounds of pain. It was all too blurred for Noctis to make any sense of though.

Suddenly there was a figure above him, blond hair with red smeared across his face. "N-Noct! Hold on! Oh gods, please hold on!"

Noctis blinked a few times, feeling time slip away from him. "Prom? You okay?" he asked slowly. He reached up to try and assure him it would be okay, though he had no strength to manage it.

"Come on! Don't fall asleep on me!" Prompto shouted before turning to the side. "We're in here! Noct's hurt! Hurry!"

Soon the magnificent vision of Regis came through the hallway, power collecting around him like a curling Courel ready to pounce. His sword was covered in blood and ready to cut down more enemies.

The moment he saw his son laying on the ground though, the menacing air around him faded, and he soon warped into the cell so he could pull him into his arms to try and see what was wrong and shove a Potion onto his chest.

Magic flooded over Noctis's body, healing his chest and clearing out the bullet as if it were never there. Prompto moved a bit closer, watching as Noctis finally was breathing normally again. "Noct?"

Noctis settled into a more natural sleep and did not respond to the question. Regis looked up at Prompto with a worried expression. "Can you move on your own? We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Y-Yeah," Prompto replied, nervous to be talking to the king. "I'm fine. I just uh... I..." he looked down to Noctis's blade that was still in his hands and then over to the unconscious Drusus. "What about him?"

Regis looked over to the unconscious body he recognized from the terrible videos, a cross expression covering his face. "The Crownsguard can take care of him. I'm here for you two. Can you stand? I can only handle carrying one of you today."

"I'll be fine. This," Prompto touched the blood that was splattered across his clothes and face. "It's not mine." He held up the sword, seeing that there was some blood stained on the tip. "I don't even know what I did..."

"You protected both my son and yourself. You did good." Regis assured Prompto before bending down to pick Noctis up into his arms. The Crystal's magic assisted him to let him stand and carry his son and lead his hopeful love out of the torture chamber of nearly a month.

Prompto followed quickly behind, watching as Kingsglaive ran past him to presumably get Drusus.

They headed out the hallway that led them outside and Prompto had to squint at the sunlight pouring down on top of him. Looking around he saw so many cars and people in different uniforms. All of Drusus's men were tied up and being placed into armored vans as well.

"We need to get medical treatment for the boys now," Regis instructed a Crownsguard as he moved closer to a group of people.

As soon as the King spoke, several people started to surround the trio. One of them brought a gurney to load Noctis onto before he was taken away.

"Sir, we need to look over you as well." A medic told Prompto without trying to touch him. "Would you follow me to the ambulance?"

Prompto's eyes were locked with Noctis as he was being placed in an ambulance. "I don't want to leave Noct."

"I can't do a proper check on you if we are in the same ambulance with his highness." The medic tried to argue. "I'll be quick so you can join him soon."

Prompto used all his strength to look away. "Alright..." he let the medical team take him into his own ambulance where they began checking over him.

The medics were quick and efficient during their check. They did push a bottle of water and some food into his hands to eat. As promised, Prompto was guided back to the ambulance where Noctis was being looked over so he could sit down next to Regis as they got ready to head back to the Citadel.

The doors closed and the ride back began. Prompto sighed as he watched Noctis's sleeping form. "Please be okay Noct. I can't lose you now."

Regis reached over to pat his knee gently. "He's a fighter, you both are. He'll wake up soon enough. How are you doing, son?"

"I don't know," Prompto answered honestly. "Part of me thinks it's all a dream. That this is too good to be true."

"We'll help to make sure you know this is real. I imagine it will take time, but just give us some time." Regis assured him. "I'm so glad to see you two back."

Prompto nodded, never taking his eyes off of Noctis. "Yeah, thank you. I guess I just need more time."

"Time we are happy to give you. Though, I believe you are meant to be eating that. I would hate to have the medics fussing at me for distracting you from their orders."

"Oh yeah..." Prompto glanced down at his good. "Sorry, it's been so long since I had something to eat, other than the food they gave us."

"I imagine both of you will have rather thorough meal plans to get you back to normal. I can tell Noctis has lost a bit of weight." Regis mused. "Ignis has been planning."

Prompto wrapped his arms around his stomach. "I didn't realize he was losing weight, I'm sorry."

Regis looked at him curiously. "You've suffered too. You couldn't help it. You look like you've lost weight, but I don't have much to compare it to."

Prompto shifted in his chair, tapping his foot against the floor of the ambulance. "I guess, but I barely noticed."

"We'll get you both back to full health. I promise, I won't let this stop you from flourishing." Regis said comfortingly.

"Thank you," Prompto muttered as he went to wipe away tears at the corner of his eyes.

-

AN: GG: And here we are, the end of part 1 of our epic saga! Next up, we begin the load road of recovery.

Riku: Thank you all for reading the first part. We hope you all have enjoyed and will look forward to the next part. All of your kudos, comments, and everything else!