Sorry to say I won't be able to post a new chapter tomorrow. I've got a night flight to Greece, and I will be away all day tomorrow and will be back on Sunday at dawn. I suppose I will use most of the day to sleep and then come back home on the first available flight, so I guess I can try and update on Sunday evening. Sowwieeee
Iris couldn't explain why, but the MTs had suddenly started to retreat and their ships abandon the city. She stared wide-eyed as the enemies left Insomnia despite their numerical advantage.
Her men were cheering triumphantly to celebrate their victory, others went to assist those in need. There was indeed a lot of cleaning up to be done, as bodies lay everywhere.
The city had fallen silent: they couldn't hear any sound which could signal a battle was still being fought somewhere. Iris remembered she was supposed to meet up with the others and report, so she ordered her troop to gather the injured ones and head back to the Citadel.
She proceeded alone to the city center, to the meeting point Noctis and Cor had chosen before the battle.
Ignis, Gladio, the King, Luna and Cor were already there, speaking to each other.
"Iris!" Gladio ran towards her with a relieved smile "You did it, sis!"
"Yeah" she smiled back. She was finally starting to feel the pain burning more and more now that she wasn't focused on fighting, but she gritted her teeth and pretended she was fine.
Noctis smiled warmly at her, but she could tell he was very worried.
"Prompto hasn't reported yet" he said in a low tone "Have you seen him?"
Iris shook her head and Noctis lowered his.
"I'm sure he's fine, love" Luna told him sweetly, grabbing his hand and squeezing it.
"But he should have been here by now. The enemies left ages ago" Cor retorted with a frown "I say we go and check".
Iris didn't have a good feeling, somehow. Prompto never left his friends hanging, especially when it was something this important. She was starting to fear something bad had happened to him.
"None of his men reported back, either. If he had fallen in battle, we should have known by now. Unless all of them…" Cor stopped abruptly when he saw Noctis's expression.
"He's fine" the King said firmly "He's a tough one. He's been through worse".
Iris hoped with all her heart he was right. However, when they arrived at the district Prompto had been assigned, they were met with a horrible sight: all of his Crownsguards lay on the floor in a pool of blood and a look of pure terror on their faces. They had been slaughtered in such a barbaric and ferocious way that it was impossible to think any human being was capable of such a thing.
"Oh gods…" Noctis whispered desperately, taking some tentative steps towards the battlefield.
"Noct, wait!" Gladio grabbed his arm "It might be a trap".
Gladio and Cor advanced first through the sea of bodies, staring in disbelief and shock at their fellow soldiers.
"What the hell happened here?" Cor muttered to himself. Never in his life had he seen something like that before.
"And where's Prompto? I don't see him anywhere" Gladio said while trying to locate his friend.
Iris bit her lower lip and tried to imagine what had happened mere moments before. She could see fallen MTs too among the dead Crownsguards, many MTs actually. Which meant there had indeed been a battle between the two factions. Then something must have happened between the battle and the Empire's retreat which had led to the death of a whole troop of Crownsguards and Prompto's disappearance.
"Do you guys think he's been kidnapped or something?" Noctis asked his friends.
"That may be" Ignis nodded after placing a fist under his chin as he pondered the situation.
"Or not" Cor frowned while examining the scene in front of him "Our Crownsguards have been slaughtered one by one. Prompto would have preferred to die than falling in the hands of the enemies one more time".
"What are you implying, Cor?" Noctis asked staring angrily at the marshal "That Prompto went with them on his own accord?"
"We can't and shouldn't rule this possibility out" the marshal answered coolly "Don't get me wrong. I like that kid and think he's come a long way since he started as a Crownsguard, but we must remember that he is indeed born an MT".
"How can you say such a thing?!" Iris exclaimed indignant "Prompto's one of us!"
"Right!" Gladio, Noctis and Ignis nodded in agreement.
"I want to believe his innocence too. Trust me. But it doesn't seem to me there are any signs of a struggle from Prompto's side. All of his men are dead, he is gone. No messages, no threats. When Ardyn took him to Zegnautus Keep, he had indeed left some hints behind" Cor explained.
Iris lowered her head and thought: could Prompto really have betrayed them, as she had told him before the battle? She wouldn't believe that. She simply couldn't. She knew Prompto and, despite him being a total jerk at times, his heart was good and kind.
Or had he simply been a very good actor all along?
When Prompto had woken up, he had found himself in a comfortable bed and in a large, well-lit room with any amenities: a desk, a window, a large TV screen, a private bathroom…
Where the hell was he? He hadn't recognized the room, and then he had remembered the events that had happened before everything had gone black. The encounter with his biological father, the MTs slaughtering his men…
When Verstael himself had entered his room with a wide smile and bringing him a tray of delicious looking food, trying to converse with him, he had refused to touch the meal despite his hunger, as well as speaking to the man.
Verstael had simply patted his shoulder, given him a paternal smile and suggested he ate before he starved.
The food was still lying on his bedside table, untouched.
Prompto was now standing in front of the large window with crossed arms, staring outside at the dull, rocky landscape. He guessed he had been taken to Gralea, the Empire's capital. Again. He was pondering the possibility to escape from the window, but his room was too high up and he wouldn't survive the fall. And he didn't see any ledges where he could hold onto.
What did Verstael expect from him anyway? That he suddenly joined the Empire's cause and willingly went to fight his own friends and family? As he had made clear before, he'd rather die.
When the sun began setting behind the mountains, the door to his room opened again, and Verstael stepped inside.
"You haven't eaten anything" he said, glancing at the tray of food "It won't do you any good to refuse to eat".
"What do you want, anyway?" Prompto interrupted him.
"I am your father, Damian. And even if we never spent any time together, you're still my son. And I have great plans for you and your future".
"By forcing me to turn against my friends? And my family? 'Cause yeah, you may be my biological father, but you mean nothing to me. The only family I know and I have lives in Insomnia. I don't belong here" Prompto replied, trying to sound as cool as possible despite his fear.
Verstael sent him a glacial look before speaking "I am not giving you a choice here, Damian".
"It's Prompto" the blonde turned around to glance at the white-haired man with a determined expression.
Verstael stared back for a while and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then he closed it again and turned to leave.
Prompto frowned as he sat on the comfortable bed, waiting for the Empire's next move.
He hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep until something or someone burst into his room in the middle of the night and grabbed him by the arms and the legs, dragging him out. Prompto tried to fight back, wriggling and writhing but the MTs proceeded ruthlessly.
They brought him to a large, dimly-lit room which looked a lot like a surgery room. There was a large stretcher in the middle of the chamber, right under the neon spotlights on the ceiling, and all around him were medical tools, tubes and machines he had never seen before.
The MTs left locking the room behind themselves as he stood up and looked around for an escape route.
There was another door at the other side of the room, and he went to approach it. The door, however, opened before he could reach it, revealing Verstael himself dressed in a surgeon outfit.
"Good to see you made it, Damian" Verstael spoke from behind the mask which was covering his mouth, while he proceeded to put some latex gloves on.
"The hell is this all about?" Prompto asked, unable to subside the fear in his voice.
"Oh don't worry about that, it'll hurt just a bit. Well, I must say this is purely experimental now. All of our MTs go through this process when they are babies, and eighty percent of them survives. However, you are the first adult to receive the treatment, and we can only guess the result of this experiment" Verstael answered calmly "But you're strong, Damian, and I'll make sure nothing happens to you".
"What're you talkin' about? I'm not letting you touch me!" Prompto yelled as he made a run for the exit. The door was incredibly heavy, and even trying his best wasn't enough to budge it.
Verstael clicked his tongue as he calmly prepared the tools he needed.
"Relax, Damian. It will take a few minutes, and it'll be less painful if you cooperate".
"Cooperate? What do you have in mind?" Prompto was genuinely scared now. Not for his life, but because he thought he knew what Verstael wanted to do with him. He wanted to turn him into an obedient machine, the MT he was always meant to be.
"Be a good boy and come here, Damian" Verstael ignored his questions and pointed at the stretcher.
Prompto refused to move from his spot, staring defiantly at the white-haired man. Verstael simply rolled his eyes as he spoke again "Don't make me use brute force on you, son".
"The only way you can put me on that stretcher is by killing me" Prompto retorted coolly, lifting his chin.
"Or like this" Verstael lazily snapped his fingers and six more MTs burst into the room and grabbed Prompto once more before the blonde could even have the time to react.
They dragged him to the middle of the room and under the lights, lifting him easily and placing him on the stretcher. Verstael proceeded to restrain him as the MTs pinned the young man down.
Prompto was really trying his best to break free, fighting back the machines' force by kicking and squirming, but they were too many and too strong and he was eventually left lying on the stretcher, unable to move as the straps blocked his attempts to escape.
Verstael dismissed the MTs while he calmly used a tourniquet on Prompto's right arm to reveal the vein underneath. Prompto couldn't see what was going on because he couldn't move his head, but he soon felt something pinching the spot above his elbow as Verstael returned into his line of sight holding a strange-looking object that Prompto couldn't name. The white-haired man fumbled with the item and his arm and for a few moments Prompto didn't feel anything. Soon enough, however, the young man screamed from the top of his lungs as an intense pain filled all his senses. It was indescribable, a pain so great he couldn't even remember who he was anymore as his mind went completely blank, registering only the burning ache.
When he thought his body couldn't take it anymore, he slowly started closing his eyelids to welcome his death. He made sure to use his last energies to remember the faces of the people he loved: his parents, his best friends, Iris...
It ended as suddenly as it had started. Prompto's throat ached after all the screaming and his body felt weak and tired, but he was still alive. Verstael had already started to remove the straps from around his arms, legs and head, humming in the process as if he hadn't almost killed his own son.
"Stand up" the man commanded lazily. Prompto's body was aching so badly but, to his horror, his limbs were moving automatically as he stood up and faced Verstael, who was smirking slyly.
"Now kneel before me" he ordered again.
Prompto's eyes widened in shock as he felt his knees buckle until they touched the sheet vinyl floor. Every part of him was screaming with pain, but the blonde couldn't stop his body from following the other man's orders.
"And now, I want you say 'My name is Damian Xanthus, son of Verstael Besithia, Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army, born in Gralea to enslave Lucis'" Verstael was still smirking down at him as he waited. Prompto felt his lips part automatically but tried his best to fight the words that were so desperately trying to come out.
"M-my name… is D-D-Damian Xanthus, son of V-Verstael Besithia… L-Lieutenant General of the I-Imperial Army… b-b-born in Gralea to… enslave… L-Lucis" he stuttered through gritted teeth.
"We need to work a bit on the speed, young man, but you're getting there" Verstael smiled at him paternally as he gestured for him to stand up. Prompto hated himself for following his orders like a puppy, without having the chance to fight back. It was scary, so scary to think Verstael could now make him do whatever he liked…
"You did good, son. Now go to bed and get some rest" Verstael patted his shoulder, and Prompto felt his head bow in acceptance and leave the room. He was completely alone in the dim-lit corridor, no MTs in sight. Emergency exit doors were at the end of the hallway, and something crossed his mind as he thought he could easily run for the doors and escape back to Insomnia. However, the command from his brain never reached his limbs, as they kept carrying him to his room.
Prompto opened the door and closed it behind himself, lying in bed despite not being sleepy at all and staring in horror at the ceiling above him.
What the hell was he going to do now?
Aww, poor Prompto's in deep trouble :/ A lot happens in next chapter, so make sure to tune in :D
By the way, a little trivia about how I came up with Prompto's original name: Damian is Greek for "tamer" because Verstael wants to use him to enslave Lucis, while Xanthus is of Greek origins, but Latin for "yellow" because of the color of his hair. I like to imagine that Prompto's fair skin and hair/eye color are very peculiar among Imperials, who instead tend to be darker :) Just something I wanted to share ^^
Next Chapter: Verstael explains some things to Prompto, as well as revealing some facts about his biological mother. When the Empire finally attack, Prompto is forced to fight his own friends. Will he successfully break free from Verstael's spell, or will he be Insomnia's downfall?