Warning for some dark imagery, some minor blood and stuff mentioned, and a fake character death.
The air in the room was cold. Noctis woke up with a sudden jolt to find that it was the middle of the night. Dark clouds covered the sky outside, only drowning him in a deeper darkness.
He blinked as he looked around the room, seeing that the other bed was empty. It didn't even look like it had been slept in.
"Gladio? Iggy?" Noctis called out as he reached to turn on a light.
He flipped the switch but nothing happened. He tried a few times more but still the lights would not turn on.
"What the hell... is it a power outage?" he asked himself aloud.
Stumbling about, Noctis made his way to the door. He opened it and saw there was a little bit of light, but it was dim and he couldn't seem to focus clearly.
"Iggy? Gladio?" He called for them again, but still there was no answer.
He moved down the hallway trying to find someone... anyone, but the area was unnaturally quiet. The hallway windows were open and usually the nightlife of Lestallum could be heard. Tonight there was nothing. Not even a peep.
Slowly Noctis was beginning to feel more and more concerned. He started knocking on all of the nearby doors, hoping someone would open up and tell him what was going on.
At the end of the hallway, one of the doors was open slightly. With a deep breath he pushed it open and headed inside.
Looking around, he walked along a cold, dull and grey hallway. Part of him wondered why there was another hallway in the Leville, but he shrugged it off and kept on moving.
His footsteps echoed across the floor, growing louder as he reached the end of the hall. The room he was now in was larger than expected and was filled with machinery.
"Hello?" Noctis asked as his heart raced. "Anyone there?"
"Noct?"
Noctis's eyes widened as he began running. He wasn't even sure where he was headed, but as soon as he heard Prompto's voice he knew he had to move. He wasn't going to let Prompto be separated from him for another minute.
"Prom! Prompto, where are you?!"
He found himself staggering to a stop as he came to a divide in the hallway. There were many different ways, so many paths to take. He knew he couldn't waste time checking them all.
"Prompto, answer me!"
There was a bark that startled him. Turning around he sighed when he saw the familiar white large dog.
"Pryna," he sighed. He reached over and scratched her on the head. "You here to help me, girl?"
Pryna barked again before moving down one of the hallways. Noctis was quick to follow the dog, knowing that he could trust her to lead him right to Prompto.
"Come on girl, lead me to him."
They ran further and further down the tunnel. It seemed to stretch on forever, but Noctis could see that the end of it was coming soon.
Now free from the darkness of the tunnel, they were out in the open. Noctis wasn't too sure off hand, but he knew this land was familiar.
But there was still no sign of Prompto. "Come on... he's gotta be around here somewhere right?"
He looked down at Pryna who barked as if it meant she was agreeing. She then started walking ahead, leading the way down a path towards an imperial base.
"Okay yeah... imperial base. Checks out," Noctis said, internally preparing himself for the fights that would inevitably happen.
They snuck alongside the base, with Pryna leading him along. Soon she stopped and sat in front of a door. Upon trying it out, Noctis saw that it was unlocked.
"Good. Now to see where they're keeping Prom."
Stepping inside he looked at all the computer screens and humming machines that filled the room. This was most likely the control room for the base and it was bound to have some answers to where his husband was.
"Let's see what we can find. Okay?" Noctis asked as he started searching the tables.
The tables were filled with papers. All the writing was written in some indistinguishable language.
"Probably some Niflheim code language," Noctis thought to himself.
Eventually after flipping through a few more files, his eyes locked on to one. Prompto's scared face was plastered all over them. He looked so scared and afraid.
"Prompto!" Noctos screamed at the paper, knowing it was pointless to do so. He just needed to let his anger out somehow. He wanted Prompto back. He would do anything to get his Prompto back safely in his arms.
In his frustration, he flipped the table over, letting the papers spill all over the floor. As he took deep, ragged breaths he looked up to see that the images of Prompto were plastered all over the wall. He had been so focused on them that he clearly didn't see that this entire room was filled with images and information on Prompto.
"Come on Pryna, we're leaving this room."
When the two of them stepped out of it, Noctis chucked a fire flask into the room. Everything burst into flames, burning every scared image of his beloved.
Sirens sounded, and lights all around the base started to shine on him. Noctis gritted his teeth as he tried to shield his eyes from the bright lights. Noctis cursed under his breath as he summoned his sword. It looked like there would be a fight on his hands, and it was going to be a big one.
"Let's go Pryna! We need to get out of here!"
Noctis began to run, summoning one of his shields to block an onslaught of bullets that started raining down on him. He tried his best to switch between blocking and attacking the MTs that were running at him. He sliced through them quick enough and kept on running. It was clear that his Prompto wasn't here.
If Prompto wasn't here that meant he had to go elsewhere.
He wasn't giving up yet, but all of these MTs were really starting to piss him off.
He sliced again at the next wave that came his way, trying his best to clear all of them out. More and more kept coming though. It seemed to be endless, but then he noticed Pryna. Luna's loyal dog was off to the side where a door was open, leading to a catwalk that lead to an elevator.
Kicking one of the MTs back he made a run for it, throwing his weapons to warp half way through the catwalk. He crashed painfully to the floor of it, groaning slightly as he gripped the railing to pull himself back up. He could hear the MTs were still closing in, all of their metal armor pieces shifting and clanking as they ran.
"Oh for fuck's sake..." Noctis grumbled as he threw his weapon again at the open doors of the elevator.
As soon as he was in there, nearly slamming into the wall he turned around and clicked the button to close the door. He wasn't sure where to go after that but for the moment he had a chance to catch his breath. He leaned over slightly and pet Pryna, who was right at his side, glad that she was there to help him through this. If it wasn't for her he would have still been so lost looking for his beloved.
He still needed to find him.
He was still lost and Noctis hadn't found him yet.
He was growing more and more frustrated by each minute that Prompto wasn't by his side.
Suddenly the elevator shook and the floor beneath them started to crack. Noctis tried to get the doors to open, but none of the buttons were responding. In the blink of an eye the floor shattered and Noctis found himself falling into a darkened void below. Quickly he summoned one of his swords and stabbed it into the wall to stop his fall.
With a deep breath he held himself there, though a worried feeling flowed through him when he realized he didn't see what happened to Pryna. Had she made it somewhere safe? Or had she fallen? Cursing at himself, he really hoped that Pryna was okay. He knew he couldn't fail someone else.
His sword vanished from his hand, and he fell down a brief bit before he hit the ground. When he stood up he found himself staring out at the sea. The rain was pelting him, trying to blur his vision, but he did his best to see what was around. The platform he was on was covered with daemons from every end, all of them clawing their way closer and closer to him.
Bringing out his sword again he started to fight off the monsters that tried to attack him. Each of them bared their claws and teeth, trying to get the jump on him, but Noctis was going to have none of that. He was sick and tired of running around on an endless goose chase. This wasn't where Prompto was. This was all a lie.
The Empire was leading him on a trip of lies and deception, and now he was going to end it all.
One of the daemons came running at him, practically screeching in an unnatural voice. Noctis blocked the attack and kicked the daemon back, but it kept trying to come closer to him. He went to strike down on it when it blocked the attack. Not with its hand or some other daemonic part, but one of his weapons.
The deamon had stolen one of his Royal Arms!
"You piece of daemon shit!" Noctis screamed as he clanged his Engine Blade against the Sword of the Wise. He beat every single attack he had into this daemon, his blood boiling over the edge.
He was sick and tired of all this fighting. He wanted this to be done so he could move on and keep his hunt for Prompto going. But if this daemon would not leave him alone he was going to have to make sure it ended here and now. With a deep breath he jumped back and prepared to warp strike right into the daemon. With a weird sensation flowing over him, his sword vanished from thin air, as well as the Sword of the Wise. They were both defenseless now and Noctis slowly started to back up towards the edge of the platform.
His foot bumped against something and looking down he found a familiar gun. He would know that gun with that detail anywhere. Picking up Prompto's gun he pointed at the daemon, hoping there were still bullets left to fire.
The daemon screamed something at him again, but Noctis wasn't going to wait another minute. He fired the bullets right into the chest of the daemon and watched it collapse to the ground. It screamed and squirmed, but its movements were slowing down. While it was dying, Noctis looked around, trying to see if there were any other daemons left to handle. It was all clear now except for the one daemon before him.
It didn't matter though. It was going to die anyway.
Turning around he was going to walk away from all of this. He would find Pryna and they would continue on their way.
But then he heard a soft voice.
"N-Noct..."
A chill ran up Noctis's spine. He knew that voice. He knew who that voice belonged to. But there was a sickly feeling in his stomach. Slowly he turned around against his better judgement. He didn't want to look, but something was telling him he had to. As soon as he did he felt like he wanted to throw up.
Prompto was curled up, blood spilling out from his chest. His expression was a hundred times worse than the pictures Noctis had seen of him earlier. This fear in Prompto's eyes was real. Noctis was about to ask what happened when everything started to seem clearer. There was a fog in his min that was finally lifting and he looked down at his hands to find the culprit.
The gun still was tightly in his grip, but blood was splattered over both hands and on his arms. He knew that the gun couldn't have done this all on its own and he started to realize what the truth was. He had attacked Prompto from the start. He hurt him. He was the one who shot Prompto.
In a panic Noctis tried to find Pryna, hoping that the Messenger would have some answers. When he saw the dog sitting a few feet away, the image around Pryna flickered, and the shape changed into a different dog. This one had glowing orange eyes and growled angrily when Noctis tried to step closer to Prompto. Noctis froze up, realizing that this dog had been leading him around the entire time. He had been following some dog that was not Pryna but he had been tricked into believing it was.
Now because of his foolishness in being too trusting, he had shot Prompto.
Dropping to his knees, Noctis tried to crawl closer to Prompto. His legs felt heavy, trying to make him stop in his place, but he kept pushing himself. He didn't care if it felt like his legs were filled with cement, or that the demonic dog was growling viciously. He just wanted to get to Prompto and nothing else.
"Prom! P-Prompto!" Noctis choked out.
"Noct... w-why?" Prompto asked, his eyes already glassy. "Why... did you..."
"I didn't! I didn't mean to! I wasn't... gods..." Noctis sucked in a deep breath.
Prompto opened his mouth again, his eyes slowly falling. "You... did this." His eyes then fell closed and his body was perfectly still.
"No! Prom!" The scream tore out of his throat as he bolted upright in the bed. Noctis tried to get out of his blankets, sweat beading on his forehead, but his legs were tangled up from the tossing and turning. Each breath burned in a traitorous reminder of what he had done to Prompto.
"Noct!" Ignis's voice rang from across the room. The light was switched on seconds after. "Noct! Are you alright?"
"I shot him! I killed Prompto." Noctis sobbed and buried his head into his hands.
"What? No, Noct, you didn't. It was all a nightmare." Ignis wrapped his arms around Noctis quickly and held him against his chest. "None of what you saw was real."
Noctis curled up against Ignis as he held him tight. "I can't- it felt so real. I thought, I thought it was Pryna. That she would take me to him. I want him back so much." He cried.
"We all want him back. But worrying yourself to this state isn't going to solve anything," Ignis whispered as he petted Noctis's head.
"I can't help it." Noctis whispered back as he leaned into Ignis. "I broke my promise to him."
"You haven't broken your promise. We will save Prompto and you'll be reunited. Now... let's try and calm down some, we don't want to send any necessary stress to him."
The warning about sending stress to Prompto made Noctis wrap his arms a bit tighter around Ignis. "Okay, okay, I can- I'll be good." He said weakly.
"But this doesn't mean to close yourself off from him either," Ignis said. "Understand?"
"But- but, what if that hurts him?" Noctis asked softly.
"It'll hurt him more if you close yourself off again. You know how he hates that."
Noctis bowed his head and looked at his lap. "He does hate that. Okay, I'll try to not close myself off. I just- everything is so much right now. I don't know how to deal with it all. I just want to hide from it all."
Gladio, who had been quietly watching up until that point, moved over to Noctis's bed. "Well princess, don't forget that we're here for you. We won't let you fall."
"Thank you." His voice cracked on the words. "I couldn't do this without you."
"Would you prefer to sleep alongside us?" Ignis offered. "Just like the nights in the tent? It may be better if we are close by."
For a moment Noctis considered the offer, and soon he nodded his head. "That sounds nice. I don't want to be left alone."
"Then let's get you to sleep, princess."
"Don't gotta baby me." Noctis mumbled as he let Ignis sooth him in the exhausted state he was in.
The three were soon under the covers. Gladio and Ignis each one side with Noctis between them. They fell asleep holding him carefully, doing what they could to help him feel safe and protected.
With the help from his two oldest friends, Noctis was able to fall into a deep and, fortunately, dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.