Summary: Something in Zegnautus Keep threatens to take away the Prompto that Noctis loves
(Angst, Established Relationship)

Beep. Click. Power down. That was all it took. Three seconds, and everything changed. Noctis supposed Ardyn had planned this all along.

It had seemed they were in the clear. After fighting through the Keep with next to no weapons, finally regrouping with Gladio and Ignis, freeing Prompto from confinement, and getting their arsenal back, Noctis had believed the rest would be easy. How wrong he was.

As they wandered the hallways in search of their main objective—the Crystal—things took a turn for the worst. They passed by one of the mechanisms by the doors, not unlike the other red and green switches throughout the keep, but it seemed this one had another function besides simply opening gateways.

Beep. Click. Power down. The next thing they knew, Prompto stopped walking. The smile slipped from his face, and the emotion drained from his eyes.

"Prompto?" Noctis asked, sensing that the young man had stopped following, but one look at his longtime friend, and he knew something was wrong.

It didn't take long to put two and two together. The Keep was full of MT technology, and the codeprint on Prompto's wrist—the one they had believed was harmless—had no doubt responded to the mechanism they had encountered. Who knew what Ardyn had done to his programming. All Noctis knew was that Prompto was no longer in control of his own body.

"No. No, hey. Hey! Prompto!" Noctis panicked, each word coming out more frantic and desperate than the last. He stood in front of his companion, snapping his fingers, trying to get a response, but he continued to only get a blank stare; Prompto didn't so much as blink.

"Disabling Level Six security clearance in thirty seconds," came an electronic, female voice from one of the overhead speakers, and although this caused Gladio and Ignis concern, it didn't even seem to register with Noctis.

"We must move. Finding the Crystal is our number one priority," Ignis reminded the prince, but Noctis shook his head frantically, emotions quickly getting the better of him.

"We can't worry about Prompto just yet. There are more important things at stake," Gladio agreed, but Noctis' grief turned to anger.

"Shut up!" he hollered, pulling Prompto tightly—protectively—into his arms. "I don't want to hear it."

"I understand your concern, Noct, but we have no idea what the Chancellor may have done here. It is possible that this is not even Prompto we're dealing with anymore," Ignis said, but Noctis shook his head more violently, arms trembling around Prompto's languid body.

"I said, I don't want to hear it!" he shouted, voice dark and desperate. His eyes closed tightly, and the side of his face brushed against soft, blond hair. Ignis and Gladio fell silent, and Gladio placed a gentle hand on Ignis' shoulder, letting him know he wasn't alone in his confusion about the situation; they were all at a loss.

Noctis pulled back from the embrace to place his hands on Prompto's shoulders. His eyes searched those pale blue ones in front of him, silently delving into them, hunting for traces of the love and laughter he'd so often seen them reflecting. Now, those eyes were half-lidded, sleepy, and the stare completely blank, yet, there was a sadness about them. If Ardyn had shut off Prompto's emotions, then why did he look so sad? Was he conscious somewhere in there? Was he trying to speak, and yet couldn't make his body do so? Noctis bit his lip to choke back a sob.

"Let's turn back," he managed to get out. Ignis let out a poorly disguised sigh; Gladio couldn't blame him for not wanting to blindly navigate these hallways again—quite literally, in Ignis' case.

"Back where, might I ask? The Regalia is gone, and we've nowhere to hide," Ignis said, tapping his cane against the ground, irritably.

"Then let's head back to the rest point in here. There were bunk beds somewhere nearby," Noctis suggested. He had absently pulled Prompto in against him again at some point while Ignis was talking. Prompto's chin rested stiffly against Noct's shoulders, his arms limp at his sides, not even close to returning the embrace that the prince was giving him.

"Level Six security clearance disabled," the robotic voice rang out again, and somewhere in the distance, the men heard the sound of metal doors grinding against concrete, their locks echoing as they clicked shut.

"Damn," Ignis muttered, under his breath.

The embrace between the younger two men was disturbed by a heavy fist against Noct's back. The prince let go of Prompto and spun around to give Gladio a fierce glare.

"What is your problem?!" Noct spat.

"Don't you ever think about anyone else? You're not the only one suffering here!" Gladio shouted, pointing first to Ignis, then giving Noctis a shove backwards.

Noct gasped and fell into Prompto, who stumbled back as well, but recovered quickly, his legs looking mechanical as they moved to stand a perfect shoulder-width's apart. Noctis glanced back at his MT friend to make sure he hadn't done any damage to him before launching himself at Gladio. His fist made a hard impact with Gladio's chest, but the giant man hardly flinched from the assault.

"I know that! But Prompto might be suffering, too, so let's just take a damn break!" Noctis insisted, voice furious, but the dampness of tears still lingered around his eyes. Gladio was about to mutter a few foul words about his spoiled prince, but Iggy navigated his way to him, and his gentle hand gripped his arm.

"Gladio, let's do as he wishes," he uttered, and Gladio let out a disgusted groan. There was no sense arguing with a stubborn prince.

The bunk beds were disturbingly dingy. The mattresses were so worn that the boys could feel every metal spring against their tender backs, and the blankets were musty and full of holes, but by the time they had found their way back to the room, they were too tired to care. Now, loud snores came from one of the lower bunks—Gladio, undoubtedly. Ignis rested in the bunk above him much more quietly. Noctis had chosen to nestle himself in an upper bunk with Prompto after he figured Ignis had fallen asleep as well; unfortunately, he was wrong about that assumption.

"Noct?" Ignis startled him.

"Didn't realize you were awake." Noctis fought a sigh, and pulled Prompto in a little closer. Even without his vision, Ignis always seemed to know what he was up to, and he wouldn't put it past him to take Prompto away from him if he felt it was in his best interest. He would have to pry him from his cold, dead hands first.

"Earlier today, when Prompto told us about his origins... You didn't seem all that perturbed, nor surprised, for that matter. Did you already know?" Ignis inquired, lying motionless on his back as he pondered. Noctis' breath caught in his lungs, and it took him a few seconds before he was able to release that breath.

"Yeah, I knew," he mumbled, pressing his nose in against Prompto's hair, as Prompto's head rested on his chest.

Of course, Noctis knew. It was hard to be in a relationship with someone for that long and not notice a marking like that, even though Prompto did do a good job of concealing it over the years. After a while, Noctis had risked asking about the 'tattoo he never explained'. At the time, Prompto's response had come as a shock, but even if he had been born a Niff, it didn't mean he was one at heart. And he certainly never showed any similarities to those emotionless MTs that shared a brand with him... until now.

"And you didn't feel you should say anything?" came Ignis' next question, tilting his tired head in the direction of the prince's voice.

"It wasn't my secret to tell," Noctis said, simply. "He wasn't a danger then, and he isn't a danger now."

"But Noct—" Apparently, Noct had been expecting Ignis to head down that road anyway, and he cut him off before he could.

"He's not. Prompto would never hurt us," he announced, his tone returning to that dark one from before. There was no point in arguing unless Ignis wanted to invoke glowing pink eyes and a heart full of rage.

Whether he liked it or not, Noctis was going to continue risking his life by staying at Prompto's side, despite the dangers. It didn't matter what Ardyn had done to him; Noct was convinced that Prompto was still in that shell somewhere. Ignis let out a heavy sigh, dropping the conversation for now.

"Goodnight, Noct," he offered, gently, closing his blind eyes and willing himself to relax. There was nothing more he could do tonight.

Noctis briefly pulled his head back from Prompto's, long enough to confirm his stare was still empty. Lovingly, he trailed a hand through the swoop of his hair. When he leaned back in and rested his chin on his head again, his jaw tilted toward Prompto's ear. His hand rubbed his friend's back soothingly, and in a quiet voice he whispered.

"Please, don't prove me wrong. Don't give them a reason to hurt you."

Prompto's features seemed to twitch against Noct's cheek, but Noct figured it was just wishful thinking. He hoped Prompto could hear him, could respond in his own way, but according to the documents he'd found scattered around the Keep, it didn't seem likely. MTs were made to be controlled, so until new commands were entered, Prompto would remain an empty slate.

"I won't let you stay like this. There's gotta be something around here to reverse what was done to you," he went on. With a shaking breath, he closed his eyes and leaned further into Prompto's hair, whispering softly. "I can't lose you now. I just got you back."

A/N: Hey, readers! This was sort of an AU idea where I thought about what would have happened if Prompto's barcode actually did do something, and Ardyn could control him through it. (I'm not actually sure if MTs actually require commands, but for this fic, I'll just say they do). This sort of a what-if scenario, so all the canonical facts about MTs probably don't apply here, but oh well. I thought it was sort of a cool idea. I had always planned to write a continuation of this, but it hasn't happened in the past two years, so I take that as a sign that I don't have enough ideas to elaborate on this (at least not yet; I won't give up on myself!). Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!