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Why did it always have to be weird shit happening in dungeons. The worst always managed to go down when the four of them were tired, vulnerable, and trapped underground.
It had originally been Gladio’s idea to go inside. They had been far from any kind of haven or rest stop, trudging through a barely kept path, when the sun finally sank below the line of the horizon. A hidden door to a dungeon nearby had broken open just as they passed by, like a perfect invitation to escape from the dangers of the night.
Prompto groaned, making some loud but weak argument against going underground, but no one really paid him any mind. Ignis couldn’t help himself with an ‘out of the frying pan, into the fryer’ comment, and with that they stepped inside.
It was so far an easy place to be, easier than the difficult monsters that were basically guaranteed to find them outdoors. The four of them made short work cleaning the place out, but were all left strangely bereft when they finally reached the bottom level. It was a huge open room, carefully carved with tall pillars, mosaic floor, and a raised platform in the center.
Noctis fearlessly hauled himself up to it first, staring down at the stone below his feet.
“That’s… a lot of writing,” Noctis sighed, shrugging and turning in a circle to get a look at the rest of the room. “Is there seriously nothing else down here?”
“What a waste of time,” Gladio grumbled, waiting by the door with his arms folded.
“The good news is it must be day by now, so if we just, you know-“ Prompto gestured meaningfully with his thumbs. “-head out. We can call this another hole in the ground we never have to crawl back into.”
Ignis sighed. “I believe Prompto’s right, if we leave now we should still be able to make it to the next rest stop before sundown.”
“Fine, I just hate doing all that for nothing,” Noctis sighed. He scuffed his way to the edge of the platform and hopped down. The second his feet left the stone a huge stone door fell, sealing their only exit from the room with a deafening crash.
The four of them summoned their weapons without hesitation, and waited. Nothing came.
Ignis was the first to let his weapon go. “It would appear there’s nothing coming for us.”
Gladio dropped his weapon into the ether, immediately turning to begin testing the corners of the heavy stone door.
“That was the only way out, wasn’t it?” Prompto said, his voice a bit weak. The room was thankfully pretty big, the ceiling tall enough they could hardly see it in the low light. Still, the idea of being trapped underground with no way out made his heart flop a little in his chest.
Ignis smoothly pulled himself onto the platform.
“Did I do that?” Noctis asked, joining Ignis on the platform.
“It seems likely given the timing,” Ignis said, already studying the lengthy text below his feet. “Perhaps we should have given a bit more thought before we went traipsing around what is clearly a ritual chamber, hm?”
Noctis rolled his eyes and began pacing around the platform, not really paying attention to the writings below him.
Prompto took a deep breath and sat on the ground, leaning his back against the stone platform.
“You gonna help me or what?” Gladio grumbled when he finally noticed Prompto sitting doing nothing. “This door isn’t gonna open itself.”
“What am I supposed do to it that you can’t big guy?” Prompto said, but stood anyway and headed over. “You think it wants its picture taken? Because that’s about all I can do with a big heavy door.”
“Just help me look for anything, unless you think you can help Ignis decipher whatever ritual that slab wants.”
Prompto looked back to Ignis and Noctis. Ignis was frowning down at the platform, clearly already lost in thought. Noctis didn’t look like he was helping much, but Prompto didn’t think both of them could manage to get away with ‘productive loitering’.
“Poke the door it is then,” Prompto said.
The door wouldn’t budge. By thirty minutes in they were sure there wasn’t any kind of secret button or lever hidden anywhere near the door to open it. Ignis hadn’t had anything to say. An hour in they had managed to dig approximately three inches under the door, upon which they hit rock. Two hours in Prompto had completely fried his saw, only managing to slice a two foot long gouge into the rock that wasn’t deep enough to see to the other side.
Their final resort was to wedge one of Gladio’s massive swords underneath the small dugout beneath the door. Gladio squatted down low to the ground to put the hilt on his shoulder while Prompto stood to the side, grabbing the hilt above Gladio’s shoulder to pull it up. The idea was to lever the door open. After several long moments of huffing and puffing the sword finally gave, snapping in half. Prompto nearly fell onto the broken half still wedged into the stone, but Gladio shoved him to fall in the other direction before he got hurt.
“We’re gonna die in here,” Prompto finally said, out of breath. He stumbled back a few steps in defeat to sit in the middle of the floor.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ignis said, surprising everyone when he finally spoke after so long in silence.
“Please tell me you’ve got something,” Noctis groaned.
“If I understand this writing correctly, all we need to open the door is to have all occupants of the room stand on this pedestal. However-“ Ignis tried to continue but wasn’t allowed to finish.
“Are you serious?” Gladio growled, striding towards the stone with purpose. He stopped to grab Prompto by the collar, hauling him to his feet and dragging him closer.
“If you’ll just wait-“ Ignis tried to say, but no one was listening.
Gladio heaved Prompto up with one hand, none too gently getting his friend up to the platform.
“If you’ll just stop!” Ignis was shouting, but Gladio didn’t stop.
It all happened during a single excruciatingly long second. Gladio pulled himself up onto the platform, and the second his feet connected with the stone it fell out from underneath them with explosive power. It fell so fast they lost contact with stone, only to fall the few feet until they connected with solid ground again. A cloud of dust immediately obscured all around them, and everything went strange all at once.
“Noct!” Gladio shouted the moment they caught their bearings. His voice was strange though, not nearly as gruff as it usually was.
“I’m fine,” Noct said, sounding confused but otherwise unchanged.
“Prompto?” Ignis said, but coughed when the dust got to him.
There was no answer.
“Prompto? Are you hurt?” Noctis said, worry clouding his voice. “Can you guys see him? Damn, I can’t see anything.”
“This is exactly what I- Oh,” Ignis started but immediately stopped. “Oh dear.”
“What?” Gladio asked, sounding very much like he didn’t want the answer but might already know what it was.
“I can’t be sure until this dust clears a bit,” Ignis said carefully. “Does anyone else feel a bit… strange?”
“Define strange,” Noctis deadpanned.
“Smaller,” Gladio said. “Shit.”
“Huh?” Noctis said “What are you guys talking about.”
They all shut up when they heard a very small “uh oh” that didn’t seem at all right.
“Prompto?” Noctis asked quietly.
“Why me?” said the tiny voice, and something rang in the back of Noctis’s memory. A kid’s voice, and he remembered hearing it before. It had been a long time.
“Is that you Prom?” Noctis said.
“Yeah,” the small voice cracked, high and feeble. “You guys all sound normal, why am I….?”
It finally clicked for all three of them at once: the smallest voice was Prompto.
“I believe we may have all lost a few years,” Ignis finally said and cleared his throat. “Some more than others.”
It took an excruciatingly long time for the dust to begin settling in the room. They turned off all their flashlights but one, the bright light only made it harder to see through all the airborne particulate. Noctis unclipped his and set it facing up in the middle of the slab. It was now flush with the ground, and the four of them sat in a circle around the light and waited.
Noctis could hardly tell anything had changed with himself, his shoes were a bit big and shoulders didn’t quite fill his jacket as well but otherwise he looked like himself. He had only lost a year or two.
Ignis and Gladio had more clearly undergone a transformation. Ignis’s hair was shorter and his suit didn’t fit nearly as well as it usually did, crumpling around his shoulders. He looked firmly teenage. Gladio was somehow much smaller but still huge; apparently he had always been a bit meaty. It was harder to tell his age with a young face but clearly mature physique.
Prompto was a kid. He couldn’t be older than twelve, and was absolutely swimming in his clothes. He’d had to take his boots off to keep from tripping every time he moved, and his gloves were halfway up to his elbows. He looked like he was trying really hard to pretend the clothes weren’t falling off him.
“What happened Ignis?” Noctis finally asked, trying not to stare at his now-half-his-usual-size friend.
Ignis said nothing.
“Is anybody hurt?” Gladio asked, scanning everyone in the clearing cloud but lingering on Prompto.
They all shook their heads.
“Then what the hell Ignis?” Gladio said, loud in the quiet room.
“I believe I tried to warn you that-“ Ignis started but sighed and stopped, starting again. “We all have been reverted to a previous age in life until we exit the cave.”
Prompto made an uncomfortable noise, but didn’t speak.
“Was it random?” Gladio asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Ignis said, his gaze unyielding on Prompto. At first Noctis thought he was angry, but realized it was thinly veiled concern.
Prompto finally looked up, meeting Ignis’s gaze.
“Did I mess this up?” Prompto asked.
“No Prompto, I believe this was by design. We’ve all been returned to the age at which we were, how do you say-“ Ignis hesitated, taking a deep breath as though he had to force the word out. “-virginal.”
The door began grinding open behind them the second the word left Ignis’s lips, leaving the exit clear. When it finally stopped moving you could have heard a pin drop. All eyes shifted to Prompto, who was staring at Ignis like he’d been slapped in the face. His cheeks went red first, then quickly to white, and uncharacteristically Prompto had nothing to say.
“Ignis that can’t be right,” Noctis said, trying to pull his eyes from Prompto but finding that he couldn’t. His friend was so small, uncomfortably small.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Gladio said through his teeth, the first one to stand. He leaned forward and offered a hand to Prompto, who reluctantly took it with his much smaller one and let himself be pulled to his feet.
“I’m afraid that’s what the readings were trying to indicate would happen. Prompto I-“ Ignis started to say.
“Shut up Ignis,” Prompto said while trying to tie his belt tight enough to keep his pants up and roll up the hems so he wouldn’t trip over them. “I knew I hated this stupid cave.”
“You can’t wear those shoes,” Ignis said anyway; it clearly wasn’t what he had been planning to say before.
“Ugh,” Prompto whined, turning to look down at the offending articles. His face scrunched up.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to carry him out of a cave,” Gladio said sidelong to Noctis.
Prompto pouted in a way that would have been way less cute on an adult. “Fine, let’s just go.”
Gladio went down on one knee so Prompto could jump on his back and wrap small arms around strong shoulders. They’d done the maneuver once before, but fully grown as a last resort for a quick and injured escape. When he lifted Prompto wrapped his legs around his chest, but they were short and harder to grab hold of than the last time Gladio remembered doing this. He had a sudden flashback to when Iris was a kid, and doing this for her.
Ignis picked up Prompto’s shoes, slinging them over a shoulder, before letting Noctis lead the way out of the chamber. They walked in silence. Gladio wracked his brain for anything to say, but so far they all seemed to be doing their best not to address the elephant in the room. What the hell happened to Prompto when he was so young.
“I guess our prince charming was a bit of a late bloomer,” Gladio finally spoke up, speaking quietly over his shoulder. “Did he even get any younger? It coulda been last week for all I can tell.”
Prompto snorted but couldn’t quite hold back a small giggle.
“He didn’t even tell me,” Prompto said, managing to keep quiet.
“Seriously? I thought he told you everything.”
“I thought so too,” Prompto whined. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
“Everything alright back there?” Ignis stopped, waiting for Gladio to catch up. The uphill slog out of a dungeon was always the hardest.
“We’re good, don’t worry about us,” Gladio assured him, hitching Prompto higher on his back with a little toss. Ignis nodded and gave them some room, walking closer to Noctis. Ignis looked to be the youngest besides Prompto, strange to see him younger than the prince for once.
“Here’s a thought,” Gladio mumbled quietly, only to Prompto. “Who would we make most fun of for not being able to keep their hands out of the prince’s cookie jar?”
“Uhh, usually me?” Prompto said, confused.
“Besides you.” Gladio waited, watching Ignis and Noct walk side by side ahead of them.
“Holy shit, you think it was Ignis!” Prompto hissed, scrambling on Gladio’s back and far enough over his shoulder so they could lock eyes. Gladio was somewhat startled at how blue Prompto’s eyes were up close.
Noct twisted to look back at them, questioning, but didn’t say anything and kept walking.
“I guess I know why he wouldn’t have told me,” Prompto sighed, sliding back down to let his chin rest on Gladio’s shoulder. “I will never let either of them live it down if that’s what happened.”
Gladio could feel the question he wanted to ask burning in the back of his throat, but swallowed it down. If Prompto had wanted to tell anyone he already would have. He called out instead. “Hey Noct!”
“Hm?” Noctis responded, not stopping his climb up a steep hill.
“Your first time was Ignis, wasn’t it?” Gladio said, seeing Ignis stop dead.
“What was Ignis?” Noct asked at the same time Ignis said “Why would you think that?”
Noctis slipped, skidding down to the bottom and Ignis cleared his throat when he finally shuffled to a stop. Prompto was laughing and Noctis stayed down for a few long seconds, taking a deep breath.
“I really don’t see how that’s anyone’s business but his highness,” Ignis said, offering a hand and helping Noctis to his feet. His face was noticeably red when he adjusted his glasses.
“Uh huh,” Gladio said with a smile. “I guess royal adviser has a few more duties than I thought.”
Ignis bowed his head, but declined to comment further; anything he said would have come across somehow even more incriminating. Noctis continued leading the way up, until they reached what he was sure had been the exit. It was closed, of course. Gladio could feel Prompto slump on his back and he crouched down, letting him down onto his feet.
Noctis gave the unyielding door a small shove before slumping against it in defeat. Ignis checked his watch.
“I suppose it won’t be open again until nightfall,” Ignis suggested. “It’s only an hour to wait.”
They had just settled in to wait when an ominous growl echoed through the chamber leading back down into the cave. It wasn’t an ideal fighting space, they were pinned against the closed door and only feet from a steep gravelly slope that would be only too easy to slip down during a fight.
They all pooled their lights together, hoping it would be bright enough to discourage any demons traversing the tunnels.
“This is definitely the worst cave ever,” Prompto spoke up quietly. He sat near the door, hugging his knees and drowning in his oversized clothes. “Like, I thought the one with the big slimy snake woman who grabbed me was bad? This is so much worse.”
Gladio reached out and patted Prompto on the shoulder.
“I thought you’d be younger, Gladio, for how much you brag,” Noctis said, eyeing Gladio. “I mean if it was a race Ignis won.”
Nobody mentioned Prompto.
“It’s not a race,” Gladio grunted. “I grew up fast, I bet I’m still younger than you Iggy. What are you now, like seventeen?”
“We all had a rebellious phase when we were younger,” Ignis said, carefully answering without being explicit. “Mine was just after my sixteenth birthday.”
“Shit, you got me beat after all,” Gladio laughed, leaning against the wall.
Prompto was glancing between the three of them, expectant and nervous. “So… None of you are going to ask me?”
Noctis grimaced while Ignis looked to be busying himself adjusting his sleeves.
“We weren’t gonna ask Prom,” Gladio said, quiet. “Not if you didn’t want to say anything.”
Prompto sighed with a small hum, resting his chin on his knees and hugging them closer. He took a breath like he was going to say something but they all froze when something hissed, too close by.
“Damn,” Ignis cursed, leaping to his feet. “Still another thirty minutes until sundown.”
Red eyes approached from the tunnel leading below, and Noctis was first to summon his weapon. Prompto called his gun but fumbled it, nearly dropping it when it didn’t fit quite right into his too small hands.
“Stay back Prompto,” Ignis warned, stepping forward. “You’re in no condition to fight.”
“It’s not like you can be too short to fire a gun,” Prompto moaned but stepped back anyway, crowded up against the still closed door with his gun clutched in two hands.
“We’ll take care of it,” Noct said, edging closer to the drop off into the rest of the cave and readying himself for an attack.
The demons came on them all at once, a wave of monsters crashing against the three lined up to keep them back. Ignis stumbled first, cursing his suddenly unfamiliar and slightly smaller body. It made fighting harder than it normally might be. Noctis was the least effected, having changed the least.
Gladio was struggling to shove a larger demon back down the incline when a familiar crack echoed and the beast in front of him fell, rolling back and tumbling limp into the darkness.
“Prompto I swear if you don’t put that gun away one of us is going to lose an eye!” Gladio roared, not having time to look back. He didn’t 100% trust Prompto to have his back at the best of times, so a child Prompto didn’t have any of his confidence.
“I was helping!” Prompto shouted back, but with his young voice it just came across as a tantrum.
“It’s not a toy,” Ignis said, but his footing slipped. He went down first and Noct went to grab him before he could slide down into the dark; they needed the high ground if they were going to win this one, they were already at a disadvantage one man down and fighting with unpracticed bodies.
A demon got hold of Ignis and the tug sent Noct down with him. They had already slipped out of sight before Gladio could get there.
“Noct!” Prompto called, edging forward. The demons, which were already scary enough before, were exponentially worse when he was so much lower to the ground than normal.
“Stay here!” Gladio yelled, swinging his sword in a huge arc and clearing the remaining demons from the still closed entryway with the blow. Without another thought he headed down the slope where Noctis and Ignis had fallen, doing his best to stay upright on the way down.
“Guys!” Prompto ran to the edge of the drop, staring down into the dark passage. He could hear scuffles and growls, the sounds of a battle. Firing a gun into a dark hallway wasn’t going to work. “What’s going on down there?”
There wasn’t a definable answer he could identify. Prompto stood up straight, staring down the incline. He could probably make it a few steps before he fell the rest of the way down. Even if Gladio hadn’t carried him up, there was no way he could make it back up on his own. Little limbs weren’t good enough for a cave trek. He put one careful foot over the edge.
“Don’t even think about coming down here Prompto!” Noct’s voice came up from the dark, like he’d know what his friend was thinking.
So Prompto waited, standing at the top of a rocky hill in a cave, alone, waiting for his friends to finish. He could hear the fighting get further away, slowly, but no one sounded like they were in trouble. They were doing fine without him.
Finally after long minutes of waiting, Noctis abruptly phased up the hill, landing next to Prompto. Prompto stared up at him for a long few seconds.
“They’ll finish up,” Noct said, taking a deep breath. “I kinda hoped the door would be open by now.”
“Dude it’s been like five minutes,” Prompto said, still turning to check on the door. Solidly closed. “Ignis said thirty minutes, right?”
“Yeah,” Noctis sighed. “Just a little more and we can get you back to normal.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Ignis?” Prompto asked, glancing back down into the dark. Nothing down there.
“Uh,” Noct said, hesitating. “I guess… it just never came up?”
Prompto knew he was pouting, but somehow couldn’t manage to do anything about it. He sat heavily with his legs hanging down the incline.
“You didn’t tell me what happened to you either,” Noct added, knowing it was probably the wrong thing to say.
“Yeah, well that’s because I just pretend it never happened. You don’t like talking about the bad stuff before we met either,” Prompto grumbled.
“Yeah okay,” Noct said and sat next to him, watching the dark with him. “It was bad for you, huh?”
Prompto shrugged. “We don’t all get Ignis to hold our hand the first time.”
“Ouch,” Noct grimaced. “I deserved that I guess.”
Prompto smiled at least.
“Well two you look well rested,” Gladio panted, appearing from the dark tunnel with Ignis behind. They looked no worse for the wear if a bit tired. “Having a good time?”
“We were until you got here,” Noctis said, offering a hand and helping pull Gladio back up the hill. “What took you so long?”
“It would appear this cave is not nearly as empty as we had hoped, there’s-“ Ignis started but got cut off again when the cave shook.
They all looked to the door, finding that it was slowly grinding open. The four of them all flinched when a roar echoed behind them.
“Time to go,” Noctis said, already heading for the door.
Without asking Gladio scooped Prompto off his feet and they all squeezed under the half open door. It was just barely dark out, they could still see the sunset rapidly going dark. They all waited a few beats, staring at each other and waiting for the change; they were all still a bit too young.
“Nothing’s happening,” Gladio growled.
“Feet on the ground perhaps,” Ignis suggested, eyeing Gladio still holding Prompto. Gladio gently put Prompto down.
The second Prompto’s bare feet touched the ground whatever magic had been cast on them dissipated with a pop. Prompto overbalanced, not expecting the sudden extra height and fell back on Gladio’s feet. Ignis smiled down at him and dropped his boots for him. They were all back to normal, finally.
“Wow, let’s never go in there again,” Prompto said, shoving his shoes back on. “I mean there’s nightmare caves, and there’s mindfuck virgin sacrifice nightmare caves.”
“We didn’t even get any good loot,” Noctis groaned.
“I’m going to have to agree, that was a rather spectacular waste of time,” Ignis said, straightening his now fitted clothes.
“Now we get to look forward to a long walk to the closest haven,” Gladio added, reaching down and grabbing a fistful of Prompto’s jacket to haul him to his feet with. “And I’m not carrying you this time.”
“You mean that wasn’t all fun for you too big guy?” Prompto asked, all sarcasm while he adjusted his gloves.
“Let’s get going before the night gets too late,” Ignis said. “We may get to sleep tonight if we make good time.”
Noctis complained the loudest, but still set off when Ignis led the way. Prompto stayed near Gladio who brought up the rear, trying to keep to the path in the dark and stay quiet to keep from attracting attention.
“Listen, I wanna say sorry for in there,” Prompto started, unusually quiet. “I wasn’t-“
“You’re fine,” Gladio assured him, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze. “We all got thrown off in there.”
“I know, but-“
“Prom, you’re doing good,” Gladio said, laying a hand flat on Prompto’s back and leading him on. “We left the cave behind us and we’re moving on.”
Prompto stared up at him for a few long quiet seconds before the corners of his mouth quirked up. “Yeah, you’re right.”