"Watch your step," Gladio said once they all descended into the quarry. It was dark. It was raining, and it was flooded.
"This is going to be fun," Noctis said. In his child form the water was nearly half way up his thighs. Luna fared only a little better, but her skirt was made of a fabric that wicked the water up and turned partly transparent.
"Maybe you two should try taking on your adult forms?" Ignis said.
"We need to save those for emergencies. They really don't sell those energy drinks as readily over here as they did back home," Noctis said.
"That's just great," Gladio grumbled.
"Monsters!" Noctis summoned the kukri's and warp struck the nearest sahgin that had tried to take a bite out of Luna. Ignis threw a dagger that nearly hit Noctis.
"Hey!"
"Apologies!" Noctis summoned the training spear and warped back to Luna, handing it to her before he resumed fighting with his short sword. Luna managed to handily defend herself with the spear, though, the blunted tip made things harder at times.
"Iggy, are you sure you're ok to fight?" Gladio asked.
"If you're implying my recent injury is in anyway debilitating, then I will do what I can as well as I can! I would be here even if I had been fully blinded, so if I can't keep up, then I'll just stay behind!" Ignis yelled.
"The way is blocked," Gladio said once they reached what looked like a large piece of machinery in the water. Noctis looked around it and took a breath before he dove in.
"Noct!" Noctis resurfaced.
"Goes all the way down," he said shaking out his soaked hair.
"Don't do that! Not while you're…like that, please," Prompto said. Noctis rolled his eyes.
"There must be a panel to control it nearby," Ignis said.
"I think I see one over that way," Luna said pointing off to the side. They all trudged over.
"Y'know, you don't have to walk at a snail's pace for us, we can keep up just fine!" Noctis yelled once they reached the panel, which Prompto fiddled with until it activated and the large metal arm retracted allowing them passage down further into the quarry. Noctis slipped a little in the down hill section but stood up a few moments later before the others could even try to help him to stand.
"I'm fine!" He brushed the mud off and stomped ahead of the others. Luna shrugged and followed after him carefully.
"Noctis, they're only trying to help," Luna said.
"I know! I just…I thought this was done," Noctis crossed his arms.
"It's not your fault we're like this," Luna explained. Noctis looked at her, eyes wide. He looked away.
"How do you know that? If I'd been…I don't know, stronger that day with Leviathan, maybe he'd have never been able to do this to us," Noctis said.
"Noctis, many things could have happened that day. We could have both died. I could have died and Ravus lived, and you lived. We cannot dwell on what might have happened or what we cannot change. We have to keep going with what we have and as best we can," Luna said. Noctis let out a huge sigh.
"I…I'll try," he said.
"You should also be nicer to them. They're acting like this because they care about you," Luna said.
"I know…it's just I don't like being helpless," Noctis said, "I'm supposed to be the Chosen King and I can't even protect myself right now."
"That's why we're here. That's why we've always been here," Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto had caught up.
"Thanks," Noctis said.
"Though, we should make haste before anything else comes to this area attracted by all this noise and light," Ignis said.
Noctis smashed back a daemon and warped over to Luna's side warp striking a larger goblin. The heat and the different angle let him know he'd shifted back to adult size and he was still in his wedding clothes. Well, that was just crappy. He finished off more monsters.
"Looking good, Noct," Prompto said.
"Shut-up," Noctis snapped. Luna giggled before she blinked.
"That means if I were to shift now, I'd be in my wedding dress!" she squeaked.
"Perhaps we should find somewhere to change," Ignis said. Noctis glowed and became his child self again.
"Maybe," he said.
"There should be a haven around here somewhere," Luna said, "I saw the smoke as we descended into the quarry."
"Break time!" Prompto cheered.
Noctis smashed the Power VX and resumed being his proper size and peeled off the jacket carefully subspacing it along with the shirt. The dress shoes followed and the pants. He quickly dressed in his fatigues and handed Luna the Power VX and the guys kept their backs to her.
"My dress is a bit…tattered," Luna said. Noctis, without pausing pulled out his spare clothing and handed it to her without looking back.
"Thank you. You can all look now." Luna looked good in Noct's spare shirt and jeans, though she had to stick with the flats she'd been wearing the day of the Rite. No way any of the guy's shoes would fit her. Noctis and her both glowed and resumed behind their child selves. Noctis noticed the wedding gown was still out so he reached out and it was subspaced again. He reached again and offered Luna some of his child self's clothes.
"I know you're taller than me like this, but these are better to run around a flooded quarry in," Noctis said offering her the blue shirt and dark blue shorts. Luna nodded and the guys turned around to let her change again.
"Thank you again, Noctis," Luna said. Noctis blushed and nodded.
"Alright, since we're here, why don't we eat to recharge before we go deeper into the quarry," Gladio said.
"I suppose I could whip something up," Ignis said.
"Probably something quick too," Gladio said.
"Sandwiches then," Ignis said.
Ignis nearly sliced himself a few times as he sliced with his new depth-perception but he altered how he did things and soon they all had perfectly balanced sandwiches. Ignis handed them off to each and let out a sigh of exasperation as soon as Noctis started picking out the veggies.
"You've never eaten you vegetables?" Luna asked.
"Nope!" Noctis said.
"He didn't even eat them when you asked him?" Prompto said.
"Never. One time, we were both protesting the vegetables, so we'd slip them onto Ravus's plate when he wasn't looking. Just a little at a time. Mother barely kept from giving it away. Ravus was just so confused as to why his helping of cartinican bell peppers didn't seem to be getting any smaller as he ate," Luna said.
"But you're not ditching the veggies right now?" Gladio said.
"I like most vegetables, I just cannot stand cartanican bell peppers. They were Mother's favorite, though," Luna said.
"My Dad never really liked veggies either, but no one made any comments to the King of Lucis," Noctis said.
"Vegetable hating runs in the family. Is that what you're really going with?" Gladio said.
"Yep. Apparently my Grandfather never had anything green on his plate if he could help it," Noctis said.
"Now I know you're making that up!" Prompto said.
"Perhaps not; I do seem to recall the royal chefs in the kitchens swapping stories the few times I was there," Ignis said, "Most of them were about how to sneak vegetables into foods being a long standing Citadel tradition."
"A Royal Line of picky eaters," Gladio said.
"Just because you eat anything doesn't mean everyone does," Noctis said.
"I need to eat to power this bod. If you ate your veggies you'd have better muscles," Gladio said. He flexed an arm. Luna giggled while Noctis sputtered. In the end, Noctis just took a large bite of his altered sandwich.
The second foray was a little better than the first. Luna was able to walk more easily through the waterlogged areas, Ignis's aim wasn't as far off now with his daggers, and Noctis was getting better at accepting help.
"We're at the lowest section—Oh Six, what is that stench!" Ignis had his hand over his nose.
"Malboro. A Giant Freaking Malboro!" Prompto yelled. It was huge. It was stinking, and it was not alone. There were babies. Noctis charged and slashed at the nearest Malboro and it nearly took him out with its stink, but he was lucky enough to shift and was able to bisect it with his great sword.
"Noctis!" Luna! Noctis turned to see she was also an adult at the moment.
"The tridents in the inventory!" Ignis yelled. Noctis nodded and focused before summoning the weapon and handing it to Luna. She nodded at him gratefully before she too joined the fray, fully. Noctics nearly got thrown into the giant tree that was pretty much dominating the quarry, but man was Luna amazingly skilled with that thing! Noctis snapped out of it and slashed away.
"I've got an idea. Everyone back!" Ignis summoned a fire spell and threw it at the main Malboro, catching it on fire. Noctis then followed suit with a fira spell and Prompto caused his Magitek weapon to overload with fire spurting out and adding to the damage. Gladio leapt up into the air and slashed it in half.
"How did you do that?" Noctis asked.
"A new technique. Libra Elementalis," Ignis said. Noctis slashed the eggs away from the tomb and there it was: The Katana of the Warrior. Noctis held a hand out for it and it barely joined his armiger before he reverted to a child, and collapsed into the muddy waters.
"Noctis!"
MP: So, I called it a mine last chapter instead of a quarry. Oops!
I've already fixed it btw