Huge chapter involving lots of hurt/comfort. You knew this was coming.
Home Sweet Home (Episode Prompto)
Ardyn walked through the complex at his usual leisurely pace, but he was not his usual talkative self. Prompto suspected he had a lot on his mind and, knowing him, he was not going to share his thoughts with anyone. It was a mood Prompto could relate to, for any stretch of silence between the three of them brought back those disturbing thoughts about the origin of his tattoo from earlier. In a hopeless attempt to distract himself, Prompto tried to start a conversation. More than once, actually, but with Ardyn brooding quietly no topic seemed to stick for long.
Valyria and Prompto followed the much taller man into a small office, furnished not only with a desk and cabinets crammed with more records, but also with a simple bed and wardrobe. The former chancellor's famous fedora lay on the bed.
"Verstael, you neat freak …," Ardyn said scornfully as he picked up his hat.
Maenwhile, Val turned her attention to the files. She chose a thick folder from the nearest cabinet at random, pulled it out and began to leaf through it.
A moment later, Ardyn joined her to study the collection. Disregarding the mess he was making, he took out one folder after another, glanced at the labels and dropped them on the floor beside him. Prompto quickly got the impression that he was looking for something in particular.
"So, uhm … Why are we here again?" he asked and began to pace around the room searching for anything of use. Stacks of documents lay on top of cabinets that could not fit any more files.
"If there is one thing the minister and I have in common, it is that we like to hear ourselves talk." Ardyn said without turning to face him, "He kept mentioning a new project of his that I need to catch up on."
Some of the folders he had dropped were labelled "Taelpar Crag", "Omega", "Barbarus" and "Diamond Weapon". He took out another bearing the title "Immortalis". It was the first he actually opened to read.
Prompto turned his eyes to one of the stacks of loose papers.
"If I were you, I wouldn't look too closely at those."
Ardyn's warning meant little to him, since he had no idea what he was warning him about except that this place held supposedly dangerous secrets. If anything, he was most likely referring to how the Niffs used daemons in their research. Something that was of no particularly concern to Prompto.
"Wow, I never thought the Niffs were this deep into Lucian history and legends." Valyria's eyes did not stray from the record while she spoke. "I mean, I know a lot of them are true, but this … They have medical information on the Adagium. Heart rate, body temperature, cell composition." She turned the page sideways to look at some sort of diagram. "Like, what kind of creature is this?"
Her pondering out loud caught Ardyn's attention. He looked up and leaned over to her with an expertly feigned mix of surprise and curiosity in his expression. "Oh? Where did you read that?"
Val held out the open page to him, but instead of reading it, he gently touched the paper. Darkness spread from the tip of his finger, a blackness that rapidly devoured the entirety of the folder.
In alarm, Valyria dropped the remains to the floor, where they disintegrated into sparse, black particles. "How? Why!?" She stared at Ardyn in bewilderment.
"I believe destruction of evidence is the answer you are looking for," he merely said and returned to his previous findings. "It would do you well to do some thinking of your own before you go sputtering questions."
She huffed at him in annoyance and Prompto could not help but chuckle. They all had to go through that.
"Don't sweat it," he told Val. "You'll get used to his antics."
"I'm not so sure I want to get used to his antics."
Should he tell her that Ardyn was the Adagium and that it was technically within his rights to destroy any medical information on him? The tale they told in Insomnia was not at all flattering, and quite far from the truth, apart from the whole being-of-darkness aspect, so Prompto would probably have destroyed any evidence, too, if he were in his place.
He turned his attention back to the stack of papers and looked through the first couple of pages on top. There were letters with requests for clearance, approvals for funding for the Deathless project, and tucked away in between was a note about the change in MT production codes.
Prompto's breath caught in his throat. All the other papers, except the one he was reading, fell from his hands.
What shocked him was not so much the text as the image that accompanied it. A simple sketch showing the location of the MT's production code on a man's right wrist. Not just the location, but the design of the barcode, too, were identical to Prompto's tattoo. A shiver ran through his entire body. He could feel his thoughts grinding to a halt, the world around him fading into the background as fear overwhelmed him.
Val's voice was the first to break through. "Prom, buddy, you alright?", she asked, looking at him with concern.
Groaning in exasperation, Ardyn set the "Immortalis" files aside.
"Good heavens, does no one ever heed my warnings!?" He marched over to Prompto, tore the sheet of paper out of his fingers and dropped it behind himself. Just like the folder from before, the note, too, blackened and crumbled. "You have no idea how difficult you're making it to keep doing the right thing."
Prompto stared at his empty hands. They were trembling as he slowly balled them into fists. "This is about me, isn't it?", he brought out despite the lump forming in his throat. "The secrets of this place … You were warning me specifically. I've been here before, haven't I? You knew this."
"I know of a thousand terrible truths," Ardyn said, his unnatural amber glare boring into him. "But that does not mean it would be wise to impart that knowledge to you."
"I am aware, Ardyn! But …" Prompto replied, desperately trying to appease him. He understood. Ardyn had been warning him of digging too deep into his own past, but now that he knew what the warning had been about, it was already too late. All the possible scenarios flooding his mind were unsettling him to such a degree that he could no longer push them aside. If he left this facility without finding out what his connection to the MTs was, he would never be able to sleep again. His only option was to face his fear and hope that the truth turned out to be less horrifying than anything his mind had come up with.
"You can't expect me to ignore this! I need to know! Please, if you'd just …"
Ardyn cut him off. "Don't even try. I will not be held responsible for your mental breakdown."
"If this is about him, he has a right to know," Val spoke up from behind the ex-chancellor, grabbing their attention.
"You will stay out of this if you know what's good for you," Ardyn warned her.
Anger and determination shone in Valyria's eyes. "No, I won't," she replied firmly. "Prompto's my friend. If you think I will stand by and watch you patronize him, you're sorely mistaken!"
Ardyn grew quiet at first, but after a moment of silence, a sinister smile spread across his face. "So be it," he said and strode over to the still open door, chuckling darkly. "If you are so hell-bent to run headlong to your demise, I won't stand in your way. In fact, if you'd like to follow me, you will see the truth you seek with your very own eyes."
As if the disturbing thoughts were not enough, Ardyn's sudden change of heart caused a tight knot to form in the pit of Prompto's stomach. He exchanged worried glances with Val.
"Why not just tell him?" she asked.
"It may be a little hard to believe, and I wouldn't want you to accuse me of lying, seeing how I'm already on trial for patronising dear Prompto," he said, sly as ever, and gestured for them to follow. "Come now, we haven't got all day, have we?"
After a moment's hesitation, Valyria and Prompto followed Ardyn out of the room. They walked at a distance from him.
"What did that paper say about you?" Val asked after a while.
"Nothing about me directly, but …" Prompto nearly choked on the words. He had always been afraid to talk about his origin, even before he had begun reading those records. But Val was here with him and they both were going to learn the full truth, anyway. Trying to hide it would be pointless, even if he did not want her to know. "I … I never told you this, or anyone, but I was not born in Lucis. I was born in Niflheim. Most likely, anyway. Orphaned in the war, or so they said. The Crownsguard brought me into the Argentum family."
This much he had learned from his adoptive parents and Prompto was fairly certain that they had not kept any more secrets from him. After all, they would have had to care about him to do so.
"Why did you never tell us?" Val asked, but he could not bring himself to look into her face.
"It never came up, and …" Prompto took a breath, trying to force out the words, but to no avail. Back in high school, they had always joked about the Niffs, blaming them for everything. Someone's dad died? Must be the war. Got a bad grade? Must be Niff sabotage. Bad hair day? Somehow the Niff's fault.
He had not wanted to be the enemy. He had wanted to be a part of the team, to laugh with them, not be laughed at. Even today, that was all he wanted, perhaps more desperately than ever before.
"Y'know, from what I've gathered, the Niffs aren't so bad anymore," Valyria said. "Here we are, trotting after the Niff chancellor like choco chicks after their mother, and you only found me because that ex-commodore helped you, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah right." Things had changed since they set out from Insomnia. Being a Niff no longer meant being a bad person per-se.
Ardyn obviously knew this facility like the back of his hand. He never hesitated as he led them through this maze of winding corridors and empty halls. Eventually, they arrived in front of a large, circular door. "Here we are," Ardyn declared and turned around to Prompto. "Are you ready to face what lies beyond? This might very well be a point of no return."
Prompto clenched his hands into fists and nodded.
"Are you sure?" Val asked quietly.
"I am," he reaffirmed, biting his lip.
Ardyn stepped aside to reveal another control panel with in-built scanner. "Be so kind, would you? I seem to have misplaced my keycard."
Or rather, no access to his armiger, was what he probably meant to imply. Following his instruction, Prompto stepped forward, pulled up his sleeve and scanned his tattoo. As expected, the door segments slid back and the passage opened.
Beyond lay a large, dimly lit room with high ceilings. The machinery within was illuminated only by the soft glow coming from a row of glass tubes, each of which was tall enough to contain a fully grown man. Two staircases at the other end of the room led to an elevated level and a panoramic window facing the adjacent room.
Ardyn stayed behind as Prompto and Valyria entered.
There were people inside the tubes. Unmoving, sleeping, perhaps. The sight by itself was frightening enough, but as Prompto stepped closer, his chest grew so tight he became unable to breathe. They were not just people. All of them looked exactly like him.
"What are they? What – what am I!?" he uttered, gasping for air.
This was too much. The knot in his stomach tightened painfully, making him feel sick. Prompto clung onto a nearby pipe as he doubled over.
"Just to be fully clear: You brought this onto yourself." The light falling in from the brightly lit experimentation chamber next door highlighted Ardyn's silhouette in front of the upstairs window.
Prompto felt Val's hands on his back as she tried to support and comfort him. She looked around the room.
"Okay, this is bad. I don't know who they are, or why they look like you, but … They are live people, right? We shouldn't leave them like this."
"Ah, yes, release them! What a splendid idea." Ardyn applauded her lazily. "There is only one catch to your plan. You see, unlike Prompto's mind, you will find that the minds of his brethren are rather … undeveloped. Oh dear, could they even breathe on their own? I cannot tell."
The mocking tone of his voice cut into Prompto's heart like a knife. "Ardyn," he wheezed, still struggling to breathe despite of the fear clutching his chest. "Why …?" Why was he being this mean on top of everything? He had saved him from the Behemoth. They were supposed to be allies. Friends.
Valyria glared at Ardyn, whose face was obscured by shadows. "You owe us an explanation!"
"Do I, now? I suppose I promised something of the sort. Well, then. Our common friend here was born, no, created, in this very facility. Much like his brethren, he was destined to be daemonified and made into a magitek core, becoming the energy and, say, mind of a magitek solider."
Prompto felt the warm touch of Val's hand disappear.
She drew in a sharp breath. "So those things we were fighting all this time were…"
"Not so MT after all, hm?" Ardyn took a step back from the railing on the upper level of the room and raised his arms. "Now, while you are busy mourning the loss of your humanity, I will go and talk to your daddy dearest. Grown-up matters only, but if you wish to listen in, you are free to do so. It might just be your last and only chance to see your maker." He turned to walk away, but stopped again, directing his attention at Valyria. "Oh, by the way. People in Niflheim called me by the title of chancellor, but long before that I was known to Lucis as the Adagium."
He strode off to the right and out of their view.
"What?" Val uttered in shock and looked at Prompto. "Please don't tell me we released the Adagium on purpose."
With some effort, he straightened up and pushed Val away. His chest was still tight with fear, but no longer to such an extend that he felt like choking. His mind, however, was a mess. Wrecked by an assault of horrible feelings, from fear to despair to wanting to disassociate himself from his origin and reality altogether. Ardyn's words echoed in his head. "Loss of humanity." So Prompto was not even a Niff, but something less than human. A thing, about as worthless as any one of those machine soldiers he should have been turned into. Tears pricked at his eyes.
When Val approached him again, he signalled her to keep her distance.
"Just … just go. I can understand if you … or the guys … or anyone, really, no longer want me around. I'm not even human, am I? I was not born, I was made."
"Prompto," Val whispered, staring at him in disbelief.
He looked up to the ceiling, trying to keep the tears from running down his face and failing.
"I know! I know what this looks like! I'm a Niff creation, and I freed the Adagium to wreak havoc upon Lucis. That's what you're thinking, right?"
She shook her head vehemently. "No, not at all! Prom … You're not some thing, you're you. Prompto!" Valyria grabbed him by the shoulders. "Who cares where or how you were born? You never cared about Noct being of noble birth either, right? I don't know what the deal with this Ardyn guy is, but I know you must have had a really damn good reason to get him out. You'd never do anything that would harm Lucis."
He felt powerless to resist as she shook him. Although her words made sense, he found them difficult to believe.
"You're not going to fall apart just because he told some crap about you, are you? I remember you standing up to the bullies at high school. Hell, you even stood up for me! We're a bit older now, but I know you can still do it."
Prompto remembered that time Thyrrus and his gang picked on her. He also remembered being bullied by the same guys for his weight when he was a kid. Losing said weight had done surprisingly little to change that, but he did find the courage to stand up for himself eventually.
"Do you really think so?" he asked quietly, not daring to meet her eyes. "That it makes no difference?"
She lowered her voice and let go of his shoulders. "Of course I do," Val reassured him. "And so will everyone else. I'm certain of it."
"I would need to tell them, of course," he realised.
"Or I could do it for you, if that's easier?"
"No, I … I think that's something I have to do myself." Prompto found new confidence in knowing what to do with the terrible truth of his origins, as well as some hope that he could still be accepted within their party.
Silence fell between them for a moment, leaving room for muffled voices drifting down from the experimentation chamber beyond the large window upstairs.
Those voices belonged to Ardyn and … his maker? According to the records, that could only be the chief researcher, Verstael Besithia. Prompto knew the man had appeared in the newspaper on occasion, but he did not remember his face. His curiosity kicked back in, and so did a sense of self-destruction, apparently.
"I want to see this through," he said to Val with his sights set on the window to the chamber next door.
She did not stop or question him this time, just followed him up the stairs in silence.
When Prompto reached the upper floor, he lowered himself into a crouch to remain unseen to the stranger Ardyn was speaking to. The chamber beyond the panoramic window was brightly lit. Dormant magitek axemen stood along the back wall. In the centre, there was some kind of machine surrounded by more tubes with … people … things. The word "brethren" came to his mind and Prompto felt himself cramp up again immediately.
"Deep breaths," he whispered to himself. He and Val hid in the shadow of a control unit to watch and listen.
"Still, a giant metal worm was the best you could come up with?" Ardyn asked as he strode around the chamber.
"I'll admit the design is crude, but what it lacks in elegance, it makes up for in sheer power." The other voice, deep and very collected, belonged to an old man with a half-bald head and white beard wearing red and black clothes of military design. He also appeared to be infected with the Starscourge. Prompto was not too familiar with its symptoms, but the right half of the man's face was covered in dark bruises, as though there was liquid darkness running through his veins.
"And here I was, thinking you had more brains than brawns," Ardyn said. "In any case, if this is what you've been using my flesh and blood for, I'd very much like to have it back."
"Flesh and blood, you say, when you know very well that it is anything but. This reminds me: I never properly thanked you for your cooperation. If it hadn't been for you, I might have never seen my hard labour come to fruition, nor could the Empire have risen to so much power in so little time."
Ardyn did not respond to that.
With a sweeping gesture, Verstael turned to the machine. "Now, I stand at the doorstep to divinity and it is all mine for the taking!" He glanced over his shoulder. "Only you could stop me at this point, but if you wanted to, you would have done so already. Does it not tempt you, to call a lifetime's worth of scientific discoveries your own?"
"Not if they come paired with narcissism and megalomania. Rest assured, however, that I will end your mortal existence and that I will get some satisfaction out of it."
"It would be my honour." Verstael turned back around, if only to smirk at Ardyn in a most ominous way. "I am looking forward to testing my immortality against yours."
A shimmer of light in Ardyn's eyes revealed that he was glancing over to where Prompto and Valyria were hiding. He must have spotted them.
"Before I send you off, there is one last I thing I'd like to hear your opinion on," he said to the minister and walked along the glass window until his shadow fell on Noctis' friends.
Even though Prompto was nowhere near as observant as Ignis, he recognized cover when he saw it. Ardyn was helping them to stay hidden. But why did he do it, when he had been so hurtful to Prompto just minutes before? A voice in the back of Prompto's mind was screaming at him to find out why. There had to be a reason.
"Do you recall the infant the Lucians absconded with some twenty-odd years ago?" Ardyn asked. "He has grown into a rather fine young man, I must say, though his personality has turned out to be quite different from yours."
"He is of no importance," Verstael replied and gestured to one of the tubes. "He is but one of millions of my clones, and even if he did not turn as he was intended to, he could never dream of rivalling my genius."
"Ah, you disappoint me. I had hoped for something of a family reunion."
"You cannot expect me to harbour fatherly feelings for a failure such as him." Verstael's voice bore a hint of annoyance.
"Failure," Prompto whispered and actively reminded himself not to stop breathing again as the claws of fear dug deeper into his chest once more.
"My bad. I forgot you didn't have feelings at all," Ardyn said, not even bothering to mask the insult. "At least, none that concern others."
The minister doubled over for a moment, overwhelmed by the Starscourge running rampant in his body. By the time he managed to straighten up again, the darkness that had lain dormant beneath his skin had broken out and was covering one half of his face with a glossy black substance.
Prompto had not yet realised that Noct's armiger was accessible again, but seeing Ardyn drop his hat into his own armiger and summoning his signature red longsword made it clear that the so-called Wallbreaker Wave must have been disabled in the meantime – most likely thanks to Noct and Ignis.
Ardyn performed a warp-strike from up close, thrusting his blade up to its hilt through Verstael's chest.
The sudden and violent act took Prompto by surprise. Head over heels, he ran for the door leading to the experimentation chamber, not even sure if he wanted Ardyn to stop or just to explain what was going on.
"Prom!" he heard Valyria call after him.
He burst into the room just as the dead body of Verstael dissolved into miasma.
Barely a moment later, the machine in the centre of the chamber whirred to life and the young men in the glass tubes surrounding it were consumed by a black and purple mist. They disappeared in the same manner the minister had.
"Daemonification complete," the computer voice from earlier spoke up. "Initiating transfer to Unit XDA-1002: Immortalis."
At the sight of the scene before him, Prompto's breath caught in his throat again. He stumbled backwards. His gaze moved over the machine, the tubes, then the blackened blood staining the floor and, finally, the former Niff chancellor.
"There you are!" Ardyn grinned at him, opened his arms as though welcoming him and dismissed his blade at the same time. "Have you come to save your maker? I'm afraid it's a little too late for that."
Before Prompto could stop her, Val rushed past him. She positioned herself between the two of them and summoned her sword, the famous Solferrum, from Noct's armiger. A flicker of recognition passed over Ardyn's face as flames engulfed the blade of Valyria's sword.
"Stay back!" she warned him, hastening her grip on the sword's hilt.
"Do you seriously think your little family heirloom could impress me? I'm immortal, you know."
"Oh, I'll make sure to cut where it hurts! Wait …" The tension emanating from her subsided for a moment. "How do you know of Solferrum?"
Acting quickly, Prompto grabbed Val by the arm and pulled her back at his side.
"Don't threaten him," he implored. "You'll just make it worse."
She gave him a confused look, but Prompto gestured for her to stay back and let him handle the situation. Judging by her expression, it did nothing to ease her worry. Still, Prompto had to talk to Ardyn, and talking really was the only way to keep going. Even if Val had any chance at beating him, Prompto did not want to watch his friends fight.
Mustering up his courage, he stepped forward. "Why, Ardyn?" he asked, trying to bore into the ex-chancellor's smug facade with a pleading look. "Why are you like this? You were always helping us. You even saved me from Deadeye, don't you remember?"
"Aw, you thought I saved you out of the goodness of my heart, didn't you? Well, here's another terrible truth: I simply didn't want our beloved prince to cry over spilt milk."
Prompto had to close his eyes and try his best to pretend his reply had not cut as deep as it did. "Okay, I understand. You don't give a damn about me," he said and drew a shaky breath. "I'm a nobody, alright, and you always knew. But you care about Noct, and at some point, it felt like that included all of us. You can't tell me all of it was fake."
The smug smile on Ardyn's face faded to a sceptical frown, revealing a crack in his carefully constructed facade.
It was not that Prompto understood what was going on in Arydn's mind. Some would call him childish, but he firmly refused to believe that the man they had been travelling with for so long suddenly chose to be mean just to watch him suffer. No one was inherently evil, not even the so-called Adagium. "What about …" Prompto continued with growing confidence. "What about that time we all sat around the campfire in the middle of nowhere, laughing, when Iggy discovered you taught Noct how to slip his veggies into his armiger? Was that fake? And, speaking of the armiger, what about that all-nighter we pulled because we were playing armiger bingo with all the random things you collected? And what …? What about those?" Prompto reached into a pocket on the inside of his jacket, grabbed three or four of the photos he had developed back in Altissia and threw them at the former chancellor.
Ardyn raised an arm in reflex, as though he had expected him to throw a dagger instead. The photos scattered and fell to the floor.
"Are those fake!?", Prompto shouted at him, feeling tears prick at his eyes again, but he held his ground.
Ardyn bent down to pick up a picture which had landed in front of his boot with the wrong side up. A short glimpse of the right side revealed the bright blue hues of the sky and the sea on a day with perfect lighting, as well as five, dark-dressed figures huddling together for a group picture.
When Ardyn turned the photo, his facade all but crumbled. His brow creased further and his eyes widened in what appeared to be an expression of shock – no, deep-running hurt. It was true what they said. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this one was undeniable proof that Ardyn had been genuinely happy in their company. There was no facade, no smugness, just a smile of great contentment on the face of the middle-aged man standing between Noct and Gladio as he looked at his four companions doing silly poses for the camera.
The moment lasted barely two seconds before Ardyn regained his composure, closed his eyes and turned his head away. With a flick of his wrist, the picture disappeared into his armiger.
Prompto almost laughed out loud in relief, to know that he really did care about them.
"I will not apologize for my actions if that is what you are waiting for." Ardyn said in a quiet voice. "You wanted the truth and I delivered. I can defy fate, but I cannot deny my nature."
Yeah, well, perhaps Prompto did not know why he had acted this way, but he had a distinct feeling he knew someone who could help both him and Ardyn with what they were going through. "Come and help us find Noct, Ardyn," Prompto said. "He made the call to get you out, y'know? Like, he said something along the lines of not wanting the Crystal or the ring, if he can have you instead."
A more genuine smile tugged at the corners of Ardyn's mouth. "Ah, well, I cannot argue on that."
He picked up the other pictures and held them out to Prompto when the bright white lights of the chamber were replaced by the dim red of emergency lighting. A siren started blaring.
"Not good!" Valyria exclaimed.
Around them, shadows pooled into small puddles of miasma.
"Security breach detected," the computer voice echoed through the chamber. "Executing lockdown procedure P01-020. Releasing specimens."
Goblins and similarly small, impish looking daemons emerged from the miasma. Hissing and snarling, they jumped around the three intruders, but kept their distance. Valyria took out the nearest two goblins in one fell swoop of her burning blade and readied herself to take on more.
However, as Ardyn walked briskly towards the door in the back of the room, the lesser daemons simply moved out of his way. "Do not bother with them," he instructed her. "You heard what the lady of the house said. Better make haste, lest this facility will become your tomb."
She gave him a sceptical look. "Oh, so we're good again, then? Just like that?"
At the sound of her voice, Ardyn paused in front of the door and swivelled his head around. "No one forces you to trust me, my dear."
He left and Prompto quickly followed, beckoning Valyria to join them as they headed out of the chamber. Both her hesitation and irritation were understandable, given everything she had just learned about their guide.
Once out the door, Ardyn burst into a sprint through the hangar. There were more imps on the stairs leading down to ground level, all of which sought the distance as Ardyn rushed towards them. The same did not apply to the large number of magitek soldiers or to the fully automated MT armours guarding the area. They were greeted with a barrage of bullets and missiles, forcing them to run through the spaces between shipping containers.
While Valyria and Ardyn cut a path through the enemy lines to reach the slowly closing hangar gate – they were not cooperating willingly, but there were enough MTs to go around so they did not get into each other's way – Prompto felt hesitant to shoot at the soldiers.
He could not help but think back at the men in the tubes, knowing that each MT unit had started out like them, or rather, like him. Their robot bodies still resembled humans. What if there was some shred of humanity left in them? Could he shoot them with a clean conscience?
"Prompto!"
Valyia's voice called him back to reality. He must have spaced out long enough for her to dispose of the soldiers and riflemen. It was easier that she had done it in his stead, but he still felt conflicted about it.
"Coming!" he shouted back, hurrying to catch up with her. In all honesty, he was surprised to see that Ardyn was still leading the way when he could have just disappeared in a puff of miasma and leave them behind. Those photos must have been even more convincing than he had thought.
There were still plenty of daemons and MTs abound by the time they reached the snow mobiles parked in front of the heavy hangar gate. The opening was still wide enough for two of the vehicles to exit side-by-side.
Valyria jumped onto a snow mobile equipped with a machine gun and fired up its engine while Prompto manned the machine gun in the back and held off the MT armour that had come after them.
"Keep going straight until you hit the lakeside," Ardyn instructed them and took another vehicle. "We shall try to contact your missing party members from there."
"Noct and Iggy." Their names escaped Prompto with a breath. Hopefully, they managed to escape on their own. He was about to ask Ardyn whether they should not block the still-open gate and turn back to get them when Valyria hit the throttle and set the snow mobile into motion.
They rushed out of the hangar and into the snow fields, narrowly missing the legs of a MT armour out on patrol. Ardyn followed them at a great distance, but soon disappeared behind squads of MT units and the missiles they fired after Valyria and Prompto.
This was one complex chapter, and I admit, I went back and forth a few times on how Ardyn and Prompto would react to each other's pain, seeing how both of them are in emotional disorder (funnily enough for similar reasons), but acting very differently because of it. Having Blackorchid's OC around turned out to be a huge boon, because Prompto was in serious need of support, and she helped to lessen the blow significantly - enabling Prompto in turn to stop Ardyn from making an asshole of himself, thus saving the entire chapter.
I'll patch up the remaining hurt in the following chapter, when I have access to Noctis' POV again.
As usual, you can stay on the lookout for chapters being added in between. I retroactively added a chapter for Ravus in Gralea ("Ravus Aeterna") and another funny chapter ("Of Frog Princes And Chancellors"). So check them out if you haven't already. :)
I have also decided to write the Fodina Caestino chapter with Noctis and Luna, after all, and with some luck, I'll get that done before I continue with Episode Prompto.
Not to mention that now I kind of have to write out the campfire scenes Prompto mentioned here, too. Huge kudos to StonesFics over on AO3, who came up with the idea of "Armiger Bingo" in a one-shot.