I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has read the story so far. The fact it's getting any attention is nice considering some might consider this an odd mix of fandoms. But hey if it worked for Square and Ubisoft and I got enjoyment from their little crossover events then it's good enough for me.

Now I know I put Noct in the Animus last chapter but I'm actually going to keep dives to the past perhaps surprisingly light for an AC story. I want to focus more on the friendship the guys will develop over the course of the story but that doesn't mean I'm fully tossing out the Animus as a concept. No spoilers but this particular arc of the story isn't the last we'll see of it, just saying.

Disclaimer: The plot bunny is mine and doing very well. Noct keeps sneaking it his veggies.

Warning: some mention of suicide and self harm but no blood.

000

Convocation

Chapter 4

000

Prompto found a chair to sit at, watching his father and Ardyn keep track of the data coming in. He must have had a worried look or at least a frown because Ardyn suddenly drew his attention.

"Something the matter?" the older man asked, cocking his head slightly in curiosity.

"Oh uh no just…" Prompto looked back at the restraints. "I just didn't think you needed to actually tie someone down. I didn't need to be."

"That's because you didn't react badly to it," Ardyn explained. "You remained calm through all your sessions in spite of your claustrophobia."

"You know about that?" Prompto asked in surprise.

"I believe there was a section on the application about it?" Ardyn teased gently and Prompto blushed a little from embarrassment. Yeah there had been and Prompto had answered truthfully that he could get claustrophobic in certain situations.

"But I wasn't bothered by it," he admitted. "Having the screen that close. It was kinda like being in a super immersive video game. It was kinda fun."

"And because you didn't feel trapped and get anxious," Ardyn explained. "There was no need for your trainer to have you restrained. I must say in your case the restraints would have frightened you and triggered your phobia. But there are others who might be willing but something goes wrong and they panic, requiring intervention before they hurt themselves, others or break the equipment. That's all they're there for, don't let them bother you." Prompto gave a hum in thought and nodded. That did make sense but… A small blip on one of the monitors caught his attention. It was one that was keeping track of Noctis's vitals and every so often but at almost regular intervals there would be a blip. Nothing major but the fact it was happening was curious.

"Is… He okay in there?" Prompto asked. Now that he knew people could have bad reactions to the Animus he felt a little worried they were using it on someone who very clearly did not want to be in there.

"He keeps desynching," Verstael replied, not looking up from his screen. "Stubborn child," he muttered.

"Desynching?" Prompto asked.

"Memories can be such fickle things," Ardyn explained. "Especially when using the Animus. They like to follow a set progression, like telling a story. Start in the wrong place or do the wrong thing and the memories become unstable. If the memory is unstable enough the Animus forces a reset so the person can try again. Every once in a while is no issue, accidents happen of course, but do too many in too short a time and let's just say the brain doesn't like being tampered with so roughly."

"Wh-what happens?" Prompto asked, even as he said it he realized he wasn't going to like the answer.

"The subject suffers from Memory Rejection," Verstael replied. "He's trying to keep the new memories from entering, rejecting the reality they show. The body confuses the struggle as an infection and tries to fight back, causing an intense fever. Raise the core temperature enough and the heat reaches dangerous levels, the brain overheats and starts to shut down.

"He'll die?!" Prompto asked, horrified.

"It's a slow, painful way to go," Ardyn replied. "And one he's chosen for himself."

000

Noctis groaned as he was dropped off in his cell. Eight straight hours of purposefully running head first into out of bounds areas had not been kind to his head and once the session was over he had to literally be dragged out. He carefully looked over, seeing his cot was still in the cell along with the blanket and pillow.

"Okay," he said. "Either I got punished enough or no food tonight." That was fine, he doubted he could stomach any kind of food at the moment. He slowly got to his feet, fighting nausea and dizziness to stumble to the cot and rolled onto it. He wanted to just fall asleep and wake up back at the Complex, back home with the guys and their Brothers and Sisters. He closed his eyes, ready to drift when his senses pricked at him, alerting him to another presence. Confused, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the cot. He doubted he could stand but maybe if he showed he was still awake and alert the guard would be more cautious approaching him.

Prompto approached the cell and turned to the bars, stopping when he saw that the Assassin was still awake.

"You were in the lab," he said.

"Y-yeah," Prompto replied nervously, unnerved by the intense look he was getting. "U-um…"

"Come to gloat?" Noctis asked.

"N-no, I was just… Curious," Prompto replied, trying to look at anything other than Noctis.

"So come to gawk at the captive Assassin," Noctis said and carefully stood, realizing that Prompto was oddly timid for a Templar agent.

"Well not gawk," Prompto admitted. "Just I… I've never seen an Assassin before." As he talked he didn't notice that Noctis was walking up to the bars. At least until he felt a hand on his abdomen.

"That's the point," Noctis said softly, gripping a bar to keep himself steady. Prompto yelped and fell back, grabbing where he had been touched as if expecting to feel blood there. "Relax," Noctis continued, resting his arms on the bars casually. "I just touched you, you're fine."

"How was I supposed to know?" Prompto asked indignantly. "You could have had one of those… knife thingies pop out."

"Pop out?" Noctis asked, confused. "What, as in, out of my skin?"

"Yes!" Prompto nearly shouted. "I mean I just barely saw the one when you got caught." He pouted when Noctis laughed though he relaxed when he realized Noctis wasn't laughing at him.

"S-sorry," he said. "Is that really what it looks like to an outside observer?"

"Well… Yeah," Prompto said and slowly got to his feet. "You mean it isn't?"

"Of course not," Noctis said and held an arm out. "See for yourself."

"No, I'm fine over here," Prompto replied and folded his arms. Noctis rolled his eyes at that.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I literally can't."

"You could grab my head and slam it into the bars," Prompto replied.

"And how would that help my situation?" Noctis asked and pointed to the keypad. "There's a cover to hide exactly which buttons get pressed and you don't have a keycard. So hurting you would only make things worse without any true chance of some sort of benefit."

"How do you know I don't have a keycard?" Prompto asked.

"Well, I know you don't have one in your front pockets," Noctis said and held up Prompto's phone.

"Hey, give that back!" Prompto snapped and, forgetting his fear, snatched back his phone. After seeing everything was okay on it he realized he never actually felt it leave his pocket. "How… How did you do that?" he asked, feeling a small sense of awe.

"Pickpocketing is a very essential skill for us," Noctis said. "Despite what Ardyn or other Templar may have tried to scare you with, we try not to hurt or kill people who aren't part of this fight. It's part of our Creed."

"Creed?" Prompto asked.

"Our rules and way of life," Noctis explained, getting the feeling Prompto had joined either through family connections or because of whatever sweet words Ardyn had used. "First rule: stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent. We're not mindless killers or mass murderers. We only go after Templars or their puppets, provided we can't scare them away."

"And if you can't?" Prompto challenged.

"I said we weren't mindless killers," Noctis replied. "I never said we didn't kill at all. If I need to protect myself or another I will kill. It's not fun, it's a job and in my case a duty."

"Duty to what?" Prompto asked.

"Freedom," Noctis replied softly. "For humanity to have a chance to learn from its mistakes and grow."

"That's what Mr. Izunia wants too," Prompto said, only to earn another laugh from Noctis, this one much more chilling.

"He doesn't want humanity to grow," Noctis replied, the dark look returning to his eyes. "He and all other Templars want humanity to bow to them, to surrender that freedom for security. Yeah fine, on the surface there wouldn't be any war, no famine, no poverty. Everybody all happy and content, provided they fall in line and behave."

"Is that really so wrong?" Prompto asked.

"What do you think will happen to people like me?" Noctis asked. "People who fight back, who don't want to be Templar pets like you."

"I'm not a pet," Prompto glared.

"No?" Noctis asked. "What has Ardyn been saying to you? Has he been praising you for your hard work even if it was just a tiny little thing you would have done anyway? Showering you with compliments and pet names? Showing concern in that honeyed voice when you seem upset? Using that soft gentle voice when he's angry rather than shouting? Wake up, he doesn't care about you. He's using empty flattery and emotional manipulation to get you to both want his attention and praise and fear what will happen if that favor gets revoked."

"How can you say that?" Prompto asked. "He seemed genuinely upset you got roughed up."

"He doesn't care about me," Noctis said. "He's after my genetic memories and I can't access them if I'm dead."

"But… When he scolded Loqi," Prompto said, still trying to process this. "He said he didn't want something precious roughly handled."

"Yeah, something," Noctis said. "Not someone. If I die or get too badly messed up mentally he won't be able to get the Pieces of Eden my family has been protecting for centuries."

"What are 'Pieces of Eden'?" Prompto asked. Noctis's face went white and his eyes wide at what he had said.

"I'm done," he said and quickly pulled away from the bars before Prompto could stop him.

"Wait what's going on?" Prompto asked, Noctis quickly stalked back to his cot.

"You really want to know?" he asked. "Ask Mr. Izunia. I'm sure he'll love to just pull you in with that." He threw himself on the bed and curled up under the blanket, pulling it up and over his head like a hood.

000

The next day Prompto was still lost in thought about the conversation with Noctis.

"You seem lost," Ardyn said from his desk. "Did something happen last night?"

"Oh I uh… I talked with the Assassin last night," Prompto admitted, a little worried he was going to get in trouble.

"And let me guess," Ardyn said with an amused chuckle. "He claimed I was a horrible monster bent on world domination?"

"In so many words…" Prompto trailed.

"All I wish is for this pointless strife in the world to end," Ardyn said. "But why did you go see him and I'm guessing the two of you were alone. Just because he's not armed does not make him any less dangerous."

"Because… Actually it's stupid now that I think about it," Prompto said, shaking his head.

"I truly doubt that," Ardyn replied with an encouraging smile. "Please, what did you want to know from him?"

"Well I guess just more about the Assassins," Prompto replied. "Though… I accidentally dropped my guard around him and he managed to touch me."

"Did he hurt you?" Ardyn asked in a concerned voice and Prompto shook his head.

"No, I was fine," he said. "Just scared me a bit because-" He blushed remembering why he had been scared and mumbled a little.

"If you don't want anyone else to hear," Ardyn said and motioned for Prompto to come closer. Prompto hesitated before walking over to the desk.

"I… I thought the blades actually came out of his wrist," Prompto admitted in a whisper. Ardyn turned away, stifling a laugh.

"I promise, my dear boy I'm not laughing at you," he smiled. "I had simply forgotten you've never encountered an Assassin before that night. You wouldn't know how the hidden blade works."

"Hidden blade?" Prompto asked and from a drawer Ardyn took out a pair of what looked like long wrist sheaths.

"If you could give me your arm," the older man said and after a moment of hesitation Prompto held his left arm out, reaching across the desk. Ardyn gently took him by the wrist, trailing his fingers lightly up Prompto's forearm from just above the wrist to just under the elbow. "The sheath lays against the arm like so," he explained as he let go. "The straps then hold it in place and using the long sleeves an Assassin simply needs to avoid metal detectors and pat downs and no one will ever know they have a weapon." Prompto ran his own fingers across his arm in thought.

"So how does the blade pop out?" he asked and Ardyn stood up, taking one of the hidden blades with him as he walked over to Prompto.

"Let's see…" he mused, looking it over a little. "Need to make sure I'm not going to accidentally stab one of us… It should be about… Ah yes, here it is." He aimed one end of the sheath away from him and Prompto and pressed an area on the sheath, causing the blade to suddenly pop out.

"Woah," Prompto said, wide eyed as Ardyn pressed the spot again as the blade retracted just as fast. "That's so cool," Prompto grinned.

"Yes…" Ardyn trailed, setting the hidden blade down. "It is quite the sight. I know there are others here who scoff at the Assassins using such an old weapon but I can appreciate the design. The simplicity. After all, it's not in an Assassin's training to loudly call out that they are about to shoot someone. To give them time to surrender or run." As he talked he made his way to stand behind Prompto who was still distracted by the hidden blade. Prompto let out a muffled yelp as Ardyn suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth, the blonde freezing when he felt two fingers being lightly pushed into his neck where his carotid and jugular were. "It's about slipping behind the target and putting a blade through something vital then slipping away into the crowd," Ardyn said softly in Prompto's ear. "The target is dead before they and any possible witnesses know what happened and the Assassin is long vanished." He released Prompto who quickly pulled away, hugging himself slightly.

"Oh you poor child," Ardyn then said, seeing how badly freaked out Prompto had gotten. "You're shaking like a leaf. I didn't mean to frighten you so badly, I wish only to protect you." He gently turned Prompto's head so the blond could look at him. "To warn you about the dangers the Assassins truly pose. It's only for your own good." Prompto opened his mouth to thank Ardyn but stopped, Noctis's words coming back to him.

"He's using empty flattery and emotional manipulation to get you to both want his attention and praise and to fear what will happen if that favor gets revoked."

Prompto didn't want to admit it but… What he had seen and experienced since that night at the theater was starting to make him think joining Abstergo was a really bad idea. He was half tempted to just pull away but the way Ardyn was looking at him, still holding his chin, meant he was expecting Prompto to say something.

"Thank you for caring about my well being," Prompto then said carefully, giving a sigh of relief when Ardyn fully released him.

"Please," Ardyn said with a pleased smile. "Think nothing of it. Now I believe it's time for our guest of honor to join us."