Ch.5

With Prompto finally calming down, the two were able to continue their way through the facility. There were still plenty more MTs that kept showing up, but there wasn't any hesitation between them as they shot down the machines. Prompto had said the MTs were once clones… the thought of that did linger in the back of Noctis's mind though … clones that would have probably looked just like Prompto.

He tried to shake the thoughts from his head. He couldn't dwell on it now-it was far from the time. There would have to be a later time for it, once they were free from this place and could have a proper, well-deserved rest.

Overhead the automated voice would sometimes click on, saying to 'commence elimination of compromised unit.' Sometimes Noctis just wanted to rip the speakers from the walls when he heard that. Prompto was not a unit. Prompto wasn't anything that this facility tried to imply, and there was no way Noctis was going to let anything more happen to him.

When they came to a large open room, they could see that there were several MTs roaming about within it. They waited by the door, catching their breath before making any further decisions.

"Ready? Looks like they have some other guns on the racks here. Would be good to get some or find ammo to reload," Prompto said.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Together they overwhelmed the MTs and cleared the room in no time. Now it was just them and the large room. Across the way there was a large circular door, and as they approached, Noctis saw that it had a control panel similar to the one that had been back at the start of the facility where they initially woke up. Noctis watched as Prompto stepped towards it slowly, gripping his wrist. He hummed as he stepped towards his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay."

Prompto exhaled sharply. "Guess we should say we're lucky. I'm a walking keycard."

"Prom, come on, don't be like that."

"Sorry… I'm still trying to wrap my head around it," Prompto said as he extended his arm out for the control panel to scan his code.

With a few beeps the signal on the panel glowed green and the door unlocked. Noctis tried again to comfort Prompto, this time rubbing his back lightly. He could feel the tension in Prompto's shoulders loosen slightly, and it did make him feel a bit better that his help was reaching him.

"Just talk to me if you want."

Prompto nodded. "I know. Thanks."

Moving forward, they started their walk down the ramp to wherever the new passageway led. Everything was quiet between them until they entered the next room. What Noctis saw made him feel sick to his stomach, and he could only imagine how Prompto must have been feeling. The sight wasn't easy to look at, yet Noctis found himself unable to take his eyes away from it.

Lining the room were several large glass cylinders, and each had a still life adult body, with some of the tubes containing ones that looked slighter older than the others. The younger ones, though, were the ones that shook Noctis's core, seeing as their faces bore a stark resemblance to Prompto's.

Finally, he managed to turn his head to the side to see Prompto. He could hear his breathing rapidly increasing again. Noctis tried to reach out his hand like before, but this time Prompto flinched and stepped back, his eyes still fixated on the tubes.

"How could he do that? Who… What am I?"

"You're Prompto, remember? You'll always be Prompto," he said, trying to be reassuring. He wanted to give that to Prompto, but even he wasn't sure how to handle this. How was he to handle an identity crisis that didn't even belong to him?

"Then what the hell is that!" Prompto shouted as he pointed to the closest tube. "If I'm Prompto then what is that there?!"

"I don't… I don't know," Noctis said as he lowered his head.

"I could have been that… they could have been me. I'm really no different," Prompto muttered as he dropped to his knees.

"No! That isn't true!" Noctis argued, this time going closer to Prompto and holding him close again. "Remember what I just said before? About you being Prompto? That still is true, no matter what we're seeing here."

"But look at them," Prompto whispered. "They're all just… dead. He killed them. Ended their lives without even giving them a chance to live. So many are MTs… but how many died, Noct? How many of them died before they could live?"

Noctis held Prompto a little closer, running his hand down his back. "I don't have the answers, Prom. I can't… I don't know how to answer this. But you were still saved. You got a chance at life, and it… it may suck that the others didn't… but you lived, Prompto. Doesn't that matter?"

"It… I guess so. Just seeing that, it's unnerving," Prompto said, ducking his head down.

Noctis hummed in agreement. "Yeah… wanna get moving then? The sooner out of this room the better?"

Prompto nodded slightly. "Hm… yes please."

Noctis stood up first before reaching out to Prompto, helping him up. He could still see that Prompto looked shaken, his eyes now averted to the floor so he didn't have to look at the tubes. Noctis kept one hand on his back as he led him across the room to a small set of stairs. As they stepped up it, they came face to face with a large glass window that peered into another room.

Noctis saw that Prompto was fixated on the large machine in the center of the room. It too had tubes that were filled with clones, but this felt different than the ones just behind them. But what bothered Noctis the most was that he saw two figures standing in that other room, and one of them looked very familiar.

"Deep breaths…" Prompto muttered to himself.

"I should probably do that too… can't be level minded if I let my anger get to me again like back on the train," Noctis thought to himself as they crept closer to the glass.

As they did, ducking down as to not be seen, they could hear Ardyn talking to the other man, who from the back Noctis figured had to be Verstael Besithia.

"Now, my friend, do you recall the child who was stolen from this facility?" Ardyn asked.

"The one those Lucians absconded with?"

"Precisely. I thought you might like to see the fine young man he's become these twenty-odd years later. So, as thanks for bringing your pets to Insomnia, I've brought the boy to you, as well as the prince, who seems to have taken a special liking to him."

Noctis tried his hardest not to smash through that glass and tackle Ardyn to the floor. He needed to remain calm… at least until he could sneak behind Ardyn and stab him in the back. But for now… he told his mind and heart to be calm.

Ardyn then turned around and faced the glass, grinning as if he could actually see the two boys. "The time has come to meet your maker. Any questions for daddy dearest? Father and son! Oh, how I love bringing families together."

"No… It's not true. You're wrong, dammit!" Prompto hissed quietly.

"Oh, and let's not forget the most important thing. Not only will this be a touching reunion of father and son, but also father meeting the boyfriend."

Noctis felt his heart freeze, ice stabbing right through the center. He could barely make himself look at Prompto, desperately not wanting to see his reaction, yet at the same time, deeply craving to know. He wanted to know if Prompto felt the same… or was disgusted by such a thing. In all honesty, he knew they couldn't trust Ardyn, so if anything, Prompto would only think of it all as a lie.

Suddenly, Prompto grabbed his wrist and started to pull him. "Come on. Let's get down to the end of the hall. There's a room there, I think."

They made it down, revealing that the room was a small lounge-like room like they had been in before. Prompto slammed the door behind them before he sighed, staggered over to the couch, and let go of Noctis's hand in the process.

"Don't worry, Noct. I don't care what he says. I'm thinking better now and I know this place will never be my home. My 'home' is in Lucis… not here."

Noctis managed a smile as he moved to sit down next to Prompto. "Good. Ardyn says a lot of shit and we don't have to trust a word he says anymore."

"Yeah… he's just trying to mess with us."

"Totally. He's just messing with us," Noctis breathed out slowly, knowing he could be digging his own grave with this.

If Prompto decided that anything Ardyn said was false, then that small jab about a boyfriend could very well fall into that category. Then Noctis knew that would mean a chance with Prompto would be completely out of the picture for sure. There wouldn't be any coming back from that.

"Even that last part?" Prompto asked softly.

"Huh? What?"

"That last part he said… it made you tense up and it looked like you were glaring so hard at the glass that you could have melted it with heat vision or something."

"Was I really staring that hard?"

Noctis cleared this throat. "I don't… uh, I'm not sure what I was doing."

"Noct, he wasn't… serious was he? He's messing with us by playing without emotions, right? But that last part wouldn't make any sense to say out of the blue, unless…"

"Do we have to talk about this right now?" Noctis replied quickly. "We can't just hide out here when Ardyn and Verstael are right outside that other door."

After giving a long, quiet stare, Prompto stood up and headed to the other door. "Stay here. I'll go ahead."

"What? No way! I can't just let you go alone."

Prompto cracked the door open slightly and pressed his face against it. "It's just Verstael out there. Ardyn isn't there anymore. I'll go… go and confront him."

"And I'll come with," Noctis insisted.

Prompto shook his head. "No. Let me do this on my own, Noct. This guy… he's my… I just need to deal with him alone."

"And what if something happens?"

"Then you can come and do your 'prince rescue,' but right now, let me do this. Please."

Noctis gave in, sighing and nodded his head. "Okay, just be careful talking to him."

Prompto offered a small smile. "I'll do my best."

As Prompto stepped out into the room, Noctis took a step close to the door so he could watch. Prompto was hesitant at first, nearing the man, but that didn't even seem to phase Verstael.

"What's the matter? Have you never seen a man turn before?" Verstael asked, turning around completely, revealing that half of his face was daemonified. "If those Lucians hadn't intervened, you could have turned, too."

"Why me?" Prompto asked.

"Because you were cloned from this genius's genes, born of my own flesh and blood. You are but one of millions created to serve our great empire in the magitek infantry."

Noctis gritted his teeth. "Don't believe him, Prompto. He's full of shit."

"Created…to serve you?"

"Yes… and now you've finally come home to Niflheim, my son."

Noctis watched as Prompto pointed his gun up in the air and fired off a shot. "Shut up!"

He breathed in and out for a moment before hanging his hand and lowering the gun to his side. "You're wrong… I'm a Lucian! I am not one of your experiments!"

Noctis smiled proudly, seeing the inner strength that he knew Prompto had, but then Verstael started walking towards Prompto.

"Not anymore. Now, you're nothing but a failure. I ought to return you whence you came. Perhaps then you might serve some useful purpose."

Prompto remained frozen where he was as Verstael came right up to him, reaching a hand out. "Never! I'll never serve you!"

Verstael only laughed. "With your help, my ascension to divinity is now all but complete."

The old man reached out to Prompto, grabbing a shoulder, smiling all the more sinisterly. Noctis was now gripping the door tightly as he watched. He was ready to barge in there and rip Verstael clean off Prompto, but he reminded himself to trust Prompto. He had to let Prompto handle this… but it was getting too close to call at this point.

"Soon, neither the kings of Lucis nor the gods themselves will be able to challenge my reign!" Verstael shouted as he started to reach for Prompto's face with his other hand.

Just as Noctis was ready to go and help, Prompto screamed and raised his gun, pointing it directly into Verstael's face.

He fired less than a second later.

Verstael let out a weak groan before staggering and falling onto his back. There was a moment of silence before Prompto dropped his gun and fell to his knees. Now was the time that Noctis finally swung the door open and ran over to his best friend. He kneeled down beside him, seeing that tears were streaming down his freckled face.

"Prom? You okay?"

"I… I killed… I've n-never had to…" he said with heavy breathes.

Before Noctis could say anything else, the speakers overhead clicked on and an extremely over dramatic gasp was heard from Ardyn. "Look what you've done. You've gone homicidal! No, patricidal!"

"N-No," Prompto said weakly.

"Don't listen, Prom! He's just trying to mess with you again!" Noctis urged.

"You lose half of your friends and murder your family. Who's to stop you from going further until you're all alone? What or who will be next? Your own dear prince? Who's to stop you from committing regicide?"

"Shut up" Prompto shouted.

Ardyn only laughed, the sinister cackling echoing in the room as if it were multiplying.

Prompto began to beat the floor, his face distraught with emotions. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Prom, hey!" Noctis shouted as he grabbed onto Prompto's hand, preventing him from doing it any further.

Prompto shook and sobbed again as he gripped onto Noctis's jacket. "S-Sorry…"

"Don't be. Ardyn is an ass."

Now that Ardyn was done speaking, this time the automated voice clicked on. "Vital functions decreasing. Plasmodium index activity increasing."

Verstael's body before them was vanishing into wisps of dark smoke, leaving nothing but his clothing behind. Noctis had a sinking feeling about all of this ever since he saw Verstael's face, but now this seemed to be growing worse by the second.

"Daemonification complete. Initiating transfer to Unit XDA-1002: Immortalis."

The two of them watched as the lights into the room turned to red and the large machine before them started to move. It shook the entire room, cracking the walls and the floor around them. Without even having a moment to react, the ceiling came down right near them, followed by an impaled iron Giant, and standing on top of it was someone neither boy expected to see.

"You two like playing hard to get or something?" Aranea asked as she hopped down from the daemon corpse.

"Aranea…" Prompto muttered.

"Save it, Blondie. On your feet! Both of you."

"Come on, let's stand up," Noctis advised as he put an arm around Prompto's waist.

Prompto shakily stood up, falling into Noctis slightly before grounding his feet. Aranea on the other hand was looking at a nearby countertop, muttering something about a new model. She then faced the boys and put her hands on her hips.

"I dunno what's got Blondie so shook, but you two can deal with it later. Let's move."

"You good?" Noctis asked and he got a weak nod from Prompto.

"Listen," Aranea said as she marched over. "Mope later. Right now focus on living. Otherwise lose your will to live, and you lose all hope of me helping your sorry ass. Got it?"

Prompto nodded again, this time standing up straight on his own. With the automated voice once again going on about capturing a target and retrieving a compromised unit, the three of them prepared their weapons as daemons and MTs started to flood into the room. There was only one way out of this place, and that would be by following Aranea. Noctis still had no idea how or why she was here, but he wasn't going to stop to ask questions now. All that mattered in this moment was escaping.