Spoiler Alert! Chapter 13 Spoilers! If you haven't reached Chapter 13 of FF XV, click out now or accept the spoilers.
"Noctis!" He snapped his eyes open and began to cough and wheeze, his throat was still sore. The ground had been fried. Tony was long gone, and Iris looked panicked.
"What happened out here?" It was Monica.
"We were ambushed," Iris said, "It was the man who killed Jared. He was strangling Noctis but then Ramuh appeared."
"I," —cough—, "called him." Noctis's voice came out as a croak. Iris searched through her bag and handed Noctis a potion. He smiled gratefully and smashed it, his throat healing in an instant. "That's what receiving the marks means."
"You can summon Astrals? I thought they just gave you their magic," Iris said. Noctis shook his head.
"So that could have also been Titan, right?" Monica said. Noctis nodded,
"I've summoned Ramuh once before when the Regalia was missing."
"You remember?" It was Talcott, who had just appeared with Dustin. Noctis blinked. There were still gaps. Many gaps. It was odd.
"Pieces," Noctis admitted climbing to his feet shakily. Carbuncle trotted over to him. The little summons looked not too worse for wear. His phone buzzed.
Are you ok? He nearly killed you!
"I'll be ok," Noctis said.
"What brought them here in the first place?" Monica asked. Noctis looked down.
"It was my fault. I was practicing my spells just outside the property and…," Noctis trailed off.
"You attracted MT's," Monica said. Noctis nodded, "And that was a General. Get Talcott and Noctis into the Lighthouse and stay with them, Iris. If anymore attacks come, we'll signal you somehow and Cid will get you to safety." The phones buzzed again.
I can help! give me a moment and I can make the house unfindable, but everyone will have to stay inside until I can protect the whole area.
"How long will that take?" Monica asked.
About half the day —confused Choboco emoji— I've never had to protect such a large area before but I'll do my best!— Heart emoji.
"Perfect! Just what I had in mind! Where's your dark friend?" Vyv asked.
"He caught a bug, so he stayed at the hotel," Gladio said accepting the payment.
"Ain't that a shame, especially with all this great weather we've been having lately!" Vyv said. Thunder rumbled in the distance as if to prove Vyv wrong about the weather. There was darkness in the same direction. Prompto raised his camera and aimed it at the spot in the sky and zoomed in. His camera fell from his nerveless fingers. Fortunately it was on a strap around his neck.
"Prompto, what's going on."
"We have to get back to C-We have to get back, now!" Prompto said.
"It's a three hour drive," Ignis said.
"What did you see?" Gladio asked.
"Ramuh," Prompto said. The others exchanged looks and bolted for the car.
"What about your friend?" Vyv asked.
"The hotel is on the way!" Gladio said as Iggy floored it out of the the parking lot.
"Did you think he could summon as a kid?" Prompto was fidgeting in his seat, dearly wishing to move faster.
"He proved himself capable of a sort of summons with that Carbuncle," Ignis said.
"Yeah, but that's a cute fluffy little thing, not the Fulgurian!" Prompto said, "And adult him is always wiped after doing that, what will this do to kid him?"
"I'm sure he will be fine, otherwise Iris would have contacted us," Gladio said.
"Unless she was also in danger!" Prompto barely stopped himself from messing with his hair. Then a shadow passed over them. Great. Desperate times called for desperate measures. The air carrier stopped ahead of them, which lead to the gunner leaping out of the car when it was barely stopped and dodging past the troops unloading from the ship and he shot the pilots, a pair of higher MT's, preventing a take off. He ran back and helped the others finish up the remaining MT's.
"What are you doing?" Gladio asked.
"That's a good question!" Prompto said and he forced the cockpit door open after messing with a panel in the door. The MT's he'd shot already degraded down to smoke.
"I would advise against this, as I seriously doubt you've even seen controls like this before," Ignis said.
"Doesn't look too different than any flight simulators I've seen before," Prompto said. He found the switch he was looking for and flipped it lowering the craft onto the ground.
"Get the Regalia in, quick!" Prompto said, "Before they notice and send reinforcements."
"Very well, I'll signal with the horn once we're loaded. However, I'd like the real answer once we reach Cape Caem, thank you," Ignis said.
"That's what I was afraid of," Prompto said. He cleared his mind and once he heard the beep. He flipped a lever shutting the cargo bay and proceeded to initiate liftoff and the air carrier zoomed into the sky and after just thirty minutes of flying, they were to Cape Caem. The house was gone? Wait, no, just covered in magic. Carefully he landed it on the road and opened the hold. Another beep let him know the Regalia was out. He took off again and moved the craft a little to the left of the house and landed it right on top of a karlabos. Oops. Prompto hopped out and the damage to the air carrier was minimal. He jogged back up to where Iggy and Gladio were waiting.
"Our with it," Gladio said, "How could you even fly one of those things?"
"Flight simulators, like I said," Prompto said.
"You can barely drive a land vehicle, who would let you ever train for a flighted one?" Ignis asked.
"I'm not sure," Prompto said, "When I was little, I was in some sort of lab, it's why I have this barcode. A nice lady got me out when I was five."
"That would be where your technical and shooting prowess came from as well?" Ignis said.
"The basics, anyway. The rest I just sort of picked up when I was older and trying to impress you guys," Prompto said.
"Who'd have thought the Nifs would stoop to child soldiers," Gladio said.
"How did you know?" Prompto took a step back.
"You're the only one of us who can really use magitek weapons. Noct has picked up a bit from watching you, but the fact is, you can use them without any help," Gladio said, "Not to mention you just jacked us a Nif air ship."
"You two don't hate me for being a Nif?" Prompto said.
"As if. You're a Lucian through and through," Ignis said.
"Thanks, you guys." Prompto wiped away a few tears that had popped up.
"Now all that remains is to inform Noct about this," Ignis said.
"Do we have to? The Nifs have kind of done a lot to make Noct hate them," Prompto said.
"Don't wuss out now. Besides, if Noctis were standing here, he'd have already called you stupid for thinking that."
"Actually, I'd use the word, "idiot.""
"Noct!" The trio looked down to see Noctis had arrived with Carbuncle next to him.
"What's with the magical veil on the homestead?" Ignis asked. Noctis looked down.
"That was my fault. I attracted attention and endangered everyone," Noctis said.
"Hey! If I don't get to be mopey about being an ex-Nif, you don't get to play the self-blame game," Prompto said.
Sorry to break up the reunion but you need to get inside so I can continue cloaking the grounds.
"He's right," Noctis said.
"Wait a second, you remember?" Prompto said.
"It's not all back, but I remember parts," Noctis said.
"What was so dire that you ended up summoning the Fulgurian?" Ignis asked. Noctis stopped cold and turned away.
"Because I was practicing magic, I drew MT attention and then the man who killed Jared arrived. I…I should have run but I didn't and he nearly killed me until Ramuh intervened. I really am just a target like this!" Noctis's shoulders shook and it was obvious he was sobbing.
"Calm down! Hey, we all make mistakes now and then," Prompto quickly crouched in front of Noctis and pulled out a small packet of tissues from one of his pockets. When the group ended up in the rain as much as they did, colds were a constant. He offered a tissue and small hands snatched it away.
"Who told you that you were a target anyway?" Gladio said.
"I did."
"Cid." The mechanic had snuck up on them.
"I didn't mean for him to take it to heart, though," Cid said.
"Doesn't matter, you were right." Noctis had managed to stifle his sobs.
"Yeah, but I forgot you're not entirely a grown up or a kid in that head of yours right now," Cid rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Though, I guess this was a pretty good wake up call." Noctis nodded.
"Until the boat's ready, we're not going anywhere," Gladio said.
"I figured you say that. Cor called. He finally rounded up the last parts. He'll be here in two days. It'll take me and Cindy two more to get the boat fully ready to leave for Altissia," Cid said.
"Thank you," Noctis said looking up at Cid.
"You're welcome," Cid said.
Noctis was bored laying on his bed in the guest room, idly playing on his phone. It was a different game than King's Knight. It was about people running around wielding magical keys. It was sort of fun. It took his mind off how close everything came to crashing down. All because of him. Because he had to prove he could fight. Because he had to prove he wasn't weak.
"Hey! I didn't know you played Keywarriors X!" Talcott made Noctis jump a little. He nodded. His character looked uncannily like him. That had been random, and he left it that way.
"Wow, it looks just like you!" Talcott said.
"Yeah. I didn't have to do anything to it," Noctis said.
"Lucky. Mine still doesn't look like me," Talcott pulled out his phone and pulled up the game. Even despite the art style, Talcott was right. It was amusing how many characters looked like Noctis, though. The names of those characters were a bit unnerving such as: "NoctisFan1146" "Noctis-is-my-husbando888" and "Noctis222cool." His own username was "Light-of-the-NightSky." He'd been surprised when that wasn't taken. He doubted any Insomnian player would have ever guessed he played the game.
"That's your username? Cool!" Talcott said when he saw it.
"Thanks," Noctis said, he looked back at the screen.
"It's not really your fault, you know." Noctis looked up at Talcott sharply. "You were away from the house and being careful, I doubt it was just your spell work that brought the MT's here. They fly over all the time, and sometimes go after daemons and beasts nearby. I've seen it from the outlook."
"Thanks," Noctis said, "But my magic is what brought the other MT's here." He closed out the game. His phone buzzed.
You can't blame yourself for defending everyone with everything you had! Carbuncle leapt onto the bed next to Noctis.
Need to nap. It's safe to go outside. Dizzy chocobo emoji following by a sleeping chocobo emoji.
MP:Prompto's backstory differs in this fic from the "official" Ultimania bio.
For those who don't know, according to the Ultimania, Prompto was one-year-old when he was adopted by a Lucian couple.
I've changed it to five and gave him five years as a child of Project Deathless.
To me, it makes more sense.
About distances and time: In game time goes faster than IRL time, so I compensated accordingly based on what seemed to be the in game time it takes from Lestallum to Cape Caem.