Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Noctis and his friends sat in the Takka’s Diner, stomach filled after their celebratory lunch. The group had just taken down a Behemoth who was terrorising the local residents, and had collected the large amount of gil that was offered. With it, they ordered most of the menu and now regretted doing so.

Groaning, Noctis spoke first, “ugh, that was so good but I won’t be able to move for a good while.” head resting against the back of the booth as he patted his stomach lovingly. “Of course, it was no cooking of yours Iggy.” he chuckled.

“That it may be not, but it is nice not to have to cook every once in a while Noct.” the bespectacled man spoke from the opposite side of the table. He was also now bloated from eating far too much, he had underestimated how much energy the hunt had taken from him.

The last member of their group stayed silent, both men looked over at him and laughed when they saw he was out cold, head rolled to the side to lean against the window. The giant of a man was clearly exhausted if he couldn’t even stay awake after eating. Ignis got up to relieve himself and Noct stayed where he was; trying to come up with a way to wake Gladio up, his eyes lit up as an idea popped into his head and he found himself grateful that the more sensible member of their group had stepped away from the table, he might stop Noct from having his fun. Noct smirked as he leant across the table and held his hands in front of Gladio’s face, bringing them together with a loud clap and pulling them back straight away, an innocent expression spreading over his face at the same moment.

“AGH! What….?” the behemoth of a man exclaimed, as he jumped from his seat.

“You alright big guy? The younger man asked his friend innocently.

“Did you do that?” Gladio demanded to know.

“Do what? I’ve just sat back down” Noct lied smoothly, struggling to keep his smirk off of his face.

“You know what you idiot, you woke me up!”

Unable to maintain his guise for a moment longer, Noct smirked and chuckled at his larger friend, he was still giggling when Ignis returned. The stern man looked at him, assessing the situation as he always did.

“Noct woke you up I take it Gladio?”

Gladio just grunted in response and climbed out of the booth, heading outside without reacting to Noctis’ idea of a laugh. The three friends walked across the parking lot to the caravan that was always parked at Hammerhead, a convenient rest stop for travelling hunters like themselves, where they were going to sleep for the night. All three hunters passed out the moment their heads hit the pillows.

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Ignis was the first to wake up (as per usual) and walked over to the diner to get some food and coffee for the group, but he realised something was going on the moment he stepped inside the door. He walked over to the counter where Takka, Cindy and some others were huddled together whispering.

Tapping the attractive, blonde mechanic on the shoulder, he asked, “Is everything alright Cindy?”

Turning around, the young woman’s eyes stared back at him, “Heya Ignis, sorry I wasn’t expectin’ yer there….there’s been another person found wanderin’ round these parts in a daze. He seemed to not understand why he couldn’t attack these guys,” she waved at the two men sat down, eyes wide in shock, before continuing, “like he had no sense of right or wrong no more.” she stepped forward, as if she needed to be held for comfort. Ignis obliged, comforting the mechanic before looking across at the newspaper report.

DAEMON PHOTOGRAPHER ATTACKS AGAIN!

Ignis looked at the headline, perplexed, what photographer were they talking about? “Cindy, what’s this article talking about?”

Cindy just looked up at him, swallowing twice before speaking. “With all these daemon sightins’ ‘bout, people are talkin’ ‘bout some 'daemon photographer who’s stealin’ souls', it sounds like a whole tonne of garula shit to me but some folk are real freaked out right now.” she explained.

“Thank you Cindy, I’d better get back, but knock on the caravan if you need us.” he smiled at her, squeezing her shoulder before collecting his order and returning to his friends.
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“Demon photographer? Dude, what the hell? Are you fucking high?” Gladio howled in response to what Ignis had told them from what he learnt in the diner. Noctis didn’t look much more convinced than Gladio, but at least he wasn’t laughing at him.

“Cindy and the others are pretty scared at the moment, they’re convinced it is some kind of daemonic entity responsible for whatever is going on. People are heading out for the day, and coming back different and the only new thing out there is a roaming photographer who is in the area. I say we should go and investigate, if its complete rubbish and country folk mass-hysteria then no harm done and we leave. Now stop laughing and get yourselves in the car.” the strategist of the their group ordered, having had enough of the skeptical looks and laughter.

Ignis enquired with Cindy as to where the photographer was last seen and headed to the car himself, sitting in the driver’s seat. All of them could drive but Noct drove like an idiot and Gladio spent too much time looking at women walking by to keep his focus on the road ahead of them, so Ignis usually took charge and did all of the driving. It took only an hour and a half to find the area where the last reports had come from spotting the photographer, they parked up on the side of the road and climbed out, eyes scouring the land to see if they could spot anything.

“Guys, do you see that?” Gladio piped up, pointing over to a group of trees with a tiny tent in between them. “Check it out?”

The others nodded, creeping over towards the tent on silent feet with Gladio at the front; the bigger man usually taking the defensive position on a hunt. They all froze at the sound of rustling coming from the tent, the sound confirming there was someone or something inside.

Gladio held his hand up in a stop gesture, and walked the final few steps to open the tent. “Is anyone in there?” he asked, yanking down the zipper.

A blonde man tumbled out of the now open tent, camera tossed in the back corner and sleeping bag still half wrapped around his legs. “What the fuck?! Who are you people?” he screams at them; a feral look in his eyes, eyes that had an unnatural glow to them.

“Are you a photographer?” Ignis questioned him.

“Why, you looking for some road trip photos?” the blonde answered sarcastically.

“Look, we just have some questions for you, ok? You don’t need to freak out.” Noctis spoke up, looking at the young guy sympathetically, 'he looks freaked' Noct thought to himself.

The group backed away slightly, giving the young man some space before asking him what he was doing for a second time.

“Yeah, I’m a photographer, why?” he answers with a huff, not offering anymore information.

“We’ve heard reports of people coming to you and returning different, almost like their sense of right and wrong has gone out the window. Do you know anything about that?” Noctis watched him as he explained why they were there; and watched as the colour drained from the blonde’s face as he finished speaking.

“No! No, no, no, no! Not again! I thought I’d broken the curse!” he cried, face contorted in anguish.

Ignis crouched down in front of the young man, concern in his eyes, “what do you mean, curse?”

The distressed man looked up, swallowed and ducked his head back down nervously, explaining how he was working as an independent photographer around Leide and Cleigne when he was attacked by demons, “necromancers were there, all sorts of demons with supernatural powers. I tried to run but I tripped over my own feet as usual and I got hit with some kind of blue light right before I ran around a boulder. I should never have tried to go out at night, I knew it was dangerous. Anyways, I thought nothing of it but then a couple of my customers, err, changed... after I shot their portraits. I don’t know what happened.” he paused to take a shuddering breath, shoulders hunching over in defeat.

Still crouched down, the groups strategist asked for more information, “ok, let’s say we believe you, we do know that necromancers have powers that we have no idea about, so they could theoretically cause you to have some unknown power. Let’s start with your name..?”

“Prompto, my name’s Prompto” the small, shaking man answered.

“Prompto, I’m Ignis, this is Noct and Gladio.” he gestured over his shoulders at the other two, who watched the conversation silently but remained ready to attack if they needed to. “We don’t want to harm you, it sounds as if you are also a victim here. The locals think you’re taking the souls of those to snap on your camera, do you know anything about that?”

Prompto’s head snapped up, pure shock plastered on his face. “Souls?! How am I taking souls?!”

Deciding that Prompto needed comfort, Ignis sat down opposite him, patting his arm to calm him down. “We don’t know, do you have any photos in your tent? Maybe they souls are merely captured somewhere rather than disappearing? We know as much as you do, but we would like to help you and those who’ve been harmed.” Ignis went quiet, waiting for an answer.

“Okay, yeah I have a few but they look like normal photos to me. One sec.” he crawled through the tent opening behind him and grabbed a small folder, “these are the ones I’ve taken recently.” he said as he passed the folder to Ignis.

He opened the folder, flicking through photos before pulling one out, “this man was in the Hammerhead diner. He was acting different according to Cindy.”

“Oh hey, yeah, he wanted a posed shot in front of some Anaks! He seemed fine when he left, what did he do?” Prompto questioned, biting down on his bottom lip nervously.

This time Gladio spoke, “He attacked someone outside Hammerhead, no one’s majorly hurt but a few folk are spooked. Why do you think it’s a curse? I’m guessing your customers never changed before the necromancer attack?”

Prompto just shook his head in response, “a couple of people I shot were a bit different a few months ago, but then I stayed in Lestallum for a while and all the customers I got there didn’t change. So I thought I was free but now it’s happening again and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to hurt people, I swear.” he slumped into a ball again, and sobbed. The three hunters watched him, deliberating as to what they should do.

“Iggy, the guy needs our help, he’s a wreck.” Noct offered, looking sympathetically at Prompto.

Gladio stood over them, a shadow cast over the two sat on the ground, “We’ll help you... but, you have to hand over your camera. I'm not having either of these two idiots lose what little of their minds they still have.”

Prompto nodded, he just wanted to be free of this curse, free from worrying that people were getting hurt by his work. He went into the tent once more and picked up the camera and all of the accessories that he owned, handing them all over to Gladio.

“Okay, let’s get going. We need to know everything; where the attack happened, what you were doing, if you were with anyone, everything, got it?” Noct advised, helping Prompto get up.

The group walked back to the car, Prompto in the centre of them so he couldn’t try anything, trust had to be earnt and he wasn’t there yet. Prompto filled the three in on everything they wanted to know, a sense of relief flooding through his bones that maybe, just maybe, he could be fixed. He was a wreck most of the time anyway but he didn’t want to be hurting or scaring people. So he told them everything, he’d have told them his shoe size if he was asked for it.

Noct watched him, seemingly amused by his bumbling explanations and animated hand movements but remained silent. Gladio sat in the front seat eyeing Prompto up in the rearview mirror as if he would launch himself over the front seats and attack them, it was a shame that Prompto had next to no fighting skills; he was handy with a gun (as he’d found out while completing his Niflheim military training; before he found his passion for photography) but in close quarters? Not a hope in hell of hurting any one of them, especially not the giant, muscular man sat in front. So Prompto sat there, explaining what felt like his life story and feeling grateful that they didn’t just slit his throat as he slept.

Chapter Text

Prompto stirs in the back of the fancy car that the guys had parked just off of the main road. He’s not sure where they are on the road but decides to pretend he’s sleeping, he’s pretty sure that they still don’t trust him and he wants to know where the hell they’re taking him. 

“Where do you suggest we take him then Gladio? We can’t exactly pull into Hammerhead with our companion there in the back.” says a frustrated, accented voice. 

“Stop bickering you two, let’s just find a haven somewhere close by but not near Hammerhead. Also, we still need to ask where this attack happened, it would make sense if we found somewhere en route to the location to rest.” the voice next to Prompto in the backseat suggests. 

“Fine, but we need to stop soon, it’s getting near sunset and we can’t protect him as well as ourselves against a horde of daemons. We still need more information from blondie there.” 

Prompto decides that it’s the perfect time to stir and sit up from his position pressed against the car window, he can feel an ache starting in his neck where its bent awkwardly. “Hi” he whispers, still not comfortable around the three strangers, despite said strangers offering to help him ...if they could help him at all that is. 

Gladio and Noctis turn to face him and Ignis peers at him via the rearview mirror. Suspicion is still clear as day on Gladio’s face and Noctis seems worried. “We, I, think that we should stay away from Hammerhead. Don’t think we told you but that’s where we first heard stories of people changing and there were a couple in there who had first hand experience with someone who was different. That cool with you, to stay away from there?” Noctis asks calmly. 

Not trusting his voice, Prompto nods his agreement; he doesn’t want to be anywhere near someone that he’s hurt, not yet. If he can be fixed then hopefully they can be too, then he would face the music, until then he just wanted to stay far away. From everyone. 

Noctis relaxes back into his seat at Prompto’s acceptance of his suggestion, Gladio still watching him suspiciously from the passenger seat. “We need to know where this attack happened, as close to the exact location you can give us.” he says. 

“Uhh, I was near water, and it was dark and there were big old rocks lying around...some smaller ones even looked like little spikes? Sorry, I'm hopeless at directions or locations, you’d think I would remember some freaky ass daemon thing attacked me right? It was out past Lestallum, that’s where I had heard about some cool rock formations somewhere north of the town. So I paid a hunter to take me north, we went up a big winding road for about an hour and he dropped me off. I don’t remember seeing any signs but there was a lot of water.” he finishes his poor explanation with a shrug of his shoulders, feeling stupid for not knowing where he was. 

“That sounds like the Vesperpool. It’s a rather large body of water and I’ve seen photos of the ‘little spikes’ you mentioned.” Ignis explains. “It’s quite a way from here but we can certainly go and investigate. We should stop somewhere closer by though, Gladio is correct, the sun is starting to set, we need to get to a haven or we won’t be protected.”

“Entethina Haven isn’t far from here Iggy. ‘bout ten minutes west.” Noctis offers, clearly tired by the lull in his voice. 

They drive to the haven, it was only about a ten minutes drive and they start to unload the camping equipment from the trunk quickly after they park. The sun is nearly completely set so they start to move a little faster, none of them wanting to face down a daemon because they were slack in getting their asses on the haven and therefore under the protection of the luminescent glyphs. 

Prompto tries to help but finds that he isn’t sure how to help set up camp, their tent was much more complicated than his simple pop up one and he had no cooking knowledge so worries that he would get in Ignis’ way as the man starts to arrange what looks like cooking equipment. Prompto gives up trying to think of ways to help and parks himself on the hard rock; unobtrusively off to the side and out of the others’ way. He pulls out his phone and starts playing King's Knight, his favourite game, despite having to play it by himself usually - no one he used to hang out with played it back home.

“King’s Knight? Want a game?” Noctis asks as he sits down next to Prompto. 

Feeling shocked that the black haired man plays games at all, let alone King’s Knight, Prompto squeaks out “no way! Dude, you play video games?!” 

Hearing laughter behind him, Prompto turns round, looking at Gladio who’s holding his sides with laughter, the sound beating against the two men sitting like waves, something they’d said was clearly hilarious to the hulking man. 

“Here we go” Noct says with an eye roll.

“Prom, all the fool does is play video games on his phone when he isn't on a hunt with us or sparko in the back seat! Doesn’t he give off some kinda nerd gamer boy vibe or somethin?” Gladio chortles. 

“No one I knew back home was into games, so no, he doesn’t give off a nerdy gamer vibe. Not that liking video games makes you a nerd though.” Prompto decides to poke fun at Gladio a little, Noctis is silent but is shaking his shoulders in laughter next to him. 

Gladio snorts and ignores the two sat there staring at him innocently. Hours pass by, Ignis prepares the food for the group and Gladio reads an old novel that bores Prompto with the title alone. He wishes he could take some photos of the haven and the guys that he’s with but the condition of them helping him means that he can’t, not yet at least. Maybe they’d let him stay with them after he’s fixed? Prom could only hope. He didn’t know what it was like to have real friends, real family. He’d bounced around the foster care system his whole life and was then left on his own at sixteen to manage. A few months in military training had kept him off the streets and then a short photography course helped him find his passion. 

“Prompto, can we have a word?” comes Ignis’ accented voice. 

“Sure” he bounces up off the floor and heads across to sit in the chair adjacent to Ignis and next to Gladio. “What’s up?”

“We have an idea. Not a bloody clue if it’ll work I’m afraid and it might sound like we’ve just copied some low budget movie ending, but we think if we kill the same necromancer who did this to you, that it might free you of the curse.” 

Huh, okay…..

“But how would we find the one who did it?” he asks, thinking they probably had some big idea on how to lure the thing out. 

The larger one of the two speaks then “we’re gonna go in and take down any necromancer we find, they’re pretty rare. Especially out near the Vesperpool. We’re hoping there’s only one or two there so it shouldn’t be too hard...but, we know how powerful they can be. Ignis did what he does best, research and his research showed some of the powers they have but also a list of weaknesses found by the handful of hunters who have killed one. We’re gonna need you to fight though, our chances will be higher if we have an extra fighter, plus we’re also hoping you might somehow recognise it.” he shrugs.

“Uh, ok, yeah, I can do that. I’m no good with swords and stuff though. Got any guns? Or machinery?” he sounds hopeful, it’ll be good to fight something. Be even better if they found the bastard daemon who did this to him so he could kill it. 

Chuckling, Noctis waves his hand and a sleek black handgun appears in a flash of blue light as he walks over and offers it to Prompto. “This any good?” 

“Woahhh dude, how’d you do that?” Prompto all but yells at him. 

“Oh, err” Noctis rubs the back of his neck nervously, “I’m...technically the Prince? So have the magic that comes from my bloodline. I try to hide who I am, being the “runaway prince” and all; but it sure comes in handy in a fight.” 

Eyes all but bugging out of his head, Prompto’s stands to attention, hopping from one foot to the other, “YOU’RE THE PRINCE?! NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM? THE SAME PRINCE WHO RAN AWAY FROM INSOMNIA?!” he screams, too shocked to have any control on his voice. 

Noctis kicks the haven, face looking at the ground. “That’s me alright” 

“Huh” Prompto says, feeling so very eloquent doing so. 

“Yeah, I don’t wanna get into it, but is that kind of weapon okay? I have a couple like that I can conjure up out of the magical storage thing I have access to” he takes the gun back and it disappears in another flash of blue light. 

“Yeah, it’s perfect dude.” 

Once he’s certain that Prompto isn’t going to have another outburst about Noct’s identity, Ignis takes over the conversation, his normal role as the strategist of their group coming to the fore, “Wonderful, so Prompto here will help fight, now we need to come up with a plan. I suggest we make our way to the Vesperpool tomorrow by day, with a short stop at Meldacio HQ to stock up on curatives and any protective items we can get. I read that Necromancers have a slight weakness to ice magic, so Noct, you need to absorb some more ice energy and craft some Blizzara spells for us to use, if you’d be so kind.” Noctis nods at the request, allowing Ignis to continue, “Gladio, it’ll be wise for you to take point on the attack for this one, your primary weapons will cause more damage and the three of us can help take it down with you. If we’re careful and have a large stockpile of potions and elixirs, we should have a fighting chance.”

“These things only come out at night. Anything could appear at the same location if we find it.” Prompto worries, gnawing on his bottom lip. 

“We know, but we can’t do anything about that as these daemons only come out at night, so we’re just gonna have to make do and hope nothing else dares show up.” Gladio answers, just a touch of arrogance in his voice. “If any other daemons do show, we’ll take them down too.”

“Right, now that that’s sorted, we should get some rest. We’ve a long day ahead of us tomorrow and will need to get an early start.” 

Ignis doesn’t just drive, strategise and cook for everyone, he also acts as the mother of the group it seems, Prompto thinks to himself, slightly amused. 

The group climbs into the tent and fall asleep quickly, before they know it, the sun has risen and an alarm clock is blaring from one corner of the tent. Rising groggily, Gladio shuts the alarm off and shakes the others’ shoulders to rouse them from their slumber. Ignis gets up quickly, sliding his glasses onto his face and climbing out in one graceful movement. Noct, as per usual is undisturbed by the alarm going off by his ear. 

Gladio slaps the back of his head to wake him, getting a snappy reaction from the Prince. 

"piss off Gladio, I'm up alright." Noctis grumbles. 

Huffing with laugher, Gladio shrugs his shoulders "I owed you that one buddy, or did you forget the wake up call in Takkas diner?" he climbs out, following Ignis to get ready for the day. 

Noct sits there, eyelids half closed and yawning every two seconds. He turns around and spots Prompto is still fast asleep, clearly having as little a reaction to the alarm as Noctis did. He smiles as he thinks that if they fix him, maybe he'll want to stick around with their group. Noctis wants a friend he can beat on video games and understands him first thing in the morning, he just wants someone who is equally as bad as he is in the morning. 

"wakey wakey sunshine" he says as he shakes Prompto's shoulder. "no doubt Specs is making breakfast and then we'll head out to the Vesperpool." 

"mmkay, cool." Prom groans as he rolls over and starts to snore again. Noctis chuckles before kicking the blonde in the ass. He jumps up so fast that Noctis can't help but dash out the door to avoid getting hit back, his laughter following him outside. "dick!" blondie shouts from the tent. 

"Noct, what was that all about?" Ignis inquires, an amused expression on his face. 

Grinning, Noct answers "oh nothin', I think we have another sleeping beauty with us for now" he chortles, "I used your normal tactic, it didn't work, like it doesn't work on me, so I copied Gladio and kicked him one" he explains, quite pleased with himself. 

"I see" comes a tart reply, Ignis' lips closing into a thin line, not finding the situation as amusing as his younger charge does. 

"alright, I'm up." Prompto says, climbing out of the tent and rubbing his backside. "I'll get you back for that, once I'm fixed" he threatens, looking in Noctis' direction. The other man holds his hands up, a shit eating smirk plastered across his face. 

Gladio walks between the group, looking amused but he puts a stop to the shenanigans going on between the two younger men. "we need to get moving as soon we've eaten. It's a long drive to where we're going and we need to make a pitstop along the way. So can you two stop winding each other up long enough to get us back on the road?" his eyes twinkling with amusement. 

Ignis turns back to his task, trusting Gladio to get them in line. Prompto would make a good edition to the three of us, Noct could do with a friend with…. Similar habits to him, the tactician thinks to himself. 

The rest of the morning passes by quickly and they're packed up and back on the road before they know it. They still didn't completely trust Prompto but he was definitely on the way to it, they just needed to remove the problem - this unwanted power he's been given. It takes them three and a half hours to reach Meldacio HQ, where they stop for a break and to stock up on what they would need, Prompto and Noctis stay in the car, while Ignis and Gladio go off to make their purchases.  

"So, when did you get into photography?"  

Shuffling, Prompto responds "err I was doing my basic training with the Niflheim military and they needed some shot of something or other, can't remember what it was now, but I took dozens of photos and my mind was going a mile a minute with different angles and all that. Afterwards, I couldn't get rid of this itch to take more photos, so requested to short course in it. That's where I found out how easily I can operate pretty much any machine or gun as well, but I dropped out of the training after just a few months; wanted to try and travel around and take photos for a living." he shrugs. 

“You’re from Niflheim?” Noctis asks, voice quiet.

“Yeah, I never completed the training though and to be honest, I’m glad.  I don’t like all the fighting that’s going on.” 

“Yeah….” Noctis mumbles. 

“Oh dude! Shit, sorry, of course you’d know about all that being the Prince and all. Gods, I’m dumb. Sorry!” he says in one breath.  

“It’s ‘kay, don’t worry”  

The two fall into a comfortable silence and wait for the others to get back. It doesn’t take long, Ignis returns with his arms full of curatives and Gladio is carrying what looked like vests and some sort of jewellery. 

Noctis and Prompto climb out of the car to help them unload. “You bought the entire shop specs?” 

“We are going after a rather tough target Noctis. Better to have too much than not enough. I’ve purchased enough potions, elixirs and phoenix downs to fill all of the armiger space we have left and Gladio here thought to grab as many defensive items as possible. We have protective bangles, vests and certain magical items which will help us to stay safe from this necromancer.” he chastises gently  

They load up the trunk, and Noctis takes as many curatives to place them in the armiger as he can fit. Finally happy that they are as prepared as possible for the coming fight, they all tumble back into the car and continue on their route to the Vesperpool. 

It’s still daylight by the time they arrive, so they find a nearby haven and set up camp. Since they have a few hours to wait for nightfall, the four decide to get some rest and organise their defensive items between them. They each got a protective bangle and a magical vest to wear to ensure they have some protection against the dark attacks that necromancers use. 

“Prompto, how long ago did the attack happen, none of us have asked you?.” Ignis queries. 

“Umm, like five months ago maybe? I’m not too sure, sorry.” Prompto slumped down in his seat, feeling like an idiot. Who doesn’t remember when they were attacked? Especially when it gave them some funky power/curse?

“With any luck we will only have one necromancer to deal with. They’re powerful, much more powerful than our usual hunt. Prompto, stay out at long range and make sure you don’t miss, I don’t believe there is any one spot that delivers more damage so any hit will do. Gladio and Noct, I would advise you both use any greatswords and shields that you have, the more powerful the better. I’ll utilise my spelldaggers and infuse them with ice damage; hopefully it won’t take too long to put this thing down.” Ignis explains the strategy that he thinks will work. 

“Sounds good Iggy, I’ve made as many blizzaras as I could with the ice energy that I had. There might be some more around here, I often find some by havens, so I’ll have a look around before we head out.” Noct says, getting up to explore in the remaining daylight for any more ice energy deposits. 

“Excellent, thank you”

Prompto jumps up to follow Noctis, the two feeling comfortable around each other already, he knows he can’t really help with Noct’s task but it keeps him busy before they head out on the hunt. 

“Your eyes glowed when we first saw you ya know, but they’re normal again now. Have you noticed that?” Noctis asks, a small smile on his face to reassure Prompto. Glowing eyes aren’t the most natural occurrence after all.

“Oh, that. Yeah, I’ve noticed it happens when I’m scared, sometimes it just starts for no reason. I was pretty terrified when the giant you call a friend pulled my tent open.” he lets out a small, nervous laugh. 

“Sorry about that, Gladio has always been the brash one of our trio.”

“Ah, it’s alright, no sweat dude, I’m just grateful you guys didn't just kill me there, most other hunters would have.” he explains, running his hand through his hair nervously. 

“We’re not like most hunters. We only started doing hunts to earn gil, I didn’t exactly have any money when we got out of the Crown City. Iggy and Gladio followed me with the car, I wasn;t very smart with my plan, or my escape. So we then had a mode of transport and needed to keep moving, so we got hunting, earned some money and have been moving around a lot to stay away from the men my father’s most definitely been sending out looking for me.” Noctis says, surprising Prompto with his explanation.  

“So...why did you leave? You don’t have to tell me obvs, if you don’t wanna…”             

“I found out what being the ‘True King’ means for me.” he answers bitterly, as if a bad taste is in his mouth. “I won’t be able to run away forever, but I’m damn gonna live a little before destiny catches up with me.” 

“Oh, ok, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in your shoes Noct, to have the expectations of a nation on you.” 

Noctis shrugs his shoulders in response, showing that the conversation was over as his eyes squinted slightly as he spots something off to his left. “Bingo! Found some” he exclaims, speeding up into a jog to the energy deposit. He absorbs as much as he can from it and the pair return to haven in silence. 

“Got some” He tells the others, already working on some more spells for them to cast. 

“Good, we’re as prepared as we can be now. Let’s eat and rest here until nightfall; then we can head out.” Ignis tells them. 

They relax until night starts to fall and as soon as the darkness has covered the sky, they each summon their weapons. Noctis summoning two guns for Prompto as he isn’t bound to him, so can’t conjure the weapons himself. He hopes that once they’re out of the Vesperpool, the blonde sharpshooter will want to stay with them and Noct can talk him into swearing an oath to him. (He doesn’t want to be all Princely and formal, but Ignis explained months ago how he believes being oathbound to any of the Caelums allowed a bond to form and gives them access to some of the Caelum magic - including conjuring weapons from the armiger) 

Now ready, they climb off of the haven and head over to the location where they hope the necromancer will be, knowing it could be a while before they find it. 

Chapter Text

Gladio leads the group towards the water of the Vesperpool, sword resting on his shoulder. They head north, diverting around the large body of water when they come to it, they had heard of an old Solheim ruin called Steyliff Grove and decided to check it out first.

While still at the haven, Ignis had explained how the people of Solheim used water as a physical representation of death and that the grove could be a good place to start looking for the daemonic personification of death, so they head towards the ruins in their hunt for the necromancer. Just as they spot what looks like ruins up ahead, Prompto’s eyes start to glow with the same unnatural light they saw when they first found him. 

“That may be a good sign, maybe the power is coming to the fore because we’re getting close to the daemon?” Ignis offers, readying his daggers in anticipation of the daemon being near. 

They stop at a skittering sound coming from directly ahead of them, they hasten their movements, not wanting to give away an opportunity for a surprise attack; they were going to need every advantage they could get when they find the necromancer. They walk closer, the sounds getting louder with every footstep. As they are about to enter to ruins, a flash of blue light appears to their left, made brighter by what looks like flames protruding from the grotesque body of the necromancer, bones criss-crossed over one another visible under a rotting grey cape, it’s face simply a skull. Taking care to dodge the floating sceptres the daemon holds around itself, the four attack, Noct pulling a great sword from the armiger as his chosen weapon, accented by the blue flash of his magic. 

Prompto aims with his gun, firing directly into the creatures face, his affinity with guns becoming apparent as he doesn’t miss for half a dozen shots. Gladio charges forward, shield raised and sword at the ready, he slices outwards, striking the necromancer across its waist, before he rolls away to dodge it’s attacks. A massive beam of blue, glowing light shoots out towards Ignis and Noct, the two men shoving each other out of its path with mere seconds to spare. Noctis warp strikes the creature from behind, earning a pained shriek to escape from it. 

“Move away!” Ignis yells, readying an ice spell to strike the daemon. The three move away from it, at the same moment the group’s advisor throws the flask, landing it directly underneath the creature as it explodes, momentarily stopping the creatures movements as it freezes in its place. 

“Move, we need to take advantage of it’s vulnerability, now Noct!” Gladio roars, already running at the necromancer again, rotating the blade in one of his glaive arts moves that he liked to show off. Noctis attacks quickly, backing up Gladio’s offensive, the two attack in quick succession, causing as much damage as they can before the creature stirs. They back away quickly when it does, but Gladio is struck with a blue tinged mist, causing him to collapse. 

“Gladio!” Noct yells, worrying about his older friend. If anyone got injured in a hunt, it was usually himself not Gladio or Iggy, they were far more sensible than Noct. Eyes still glowing, Prompto rolls to the left and fires at the necromancer again, striking its head and then its chest. 

Noct stands up from checking on Gladio just as another blue beam shoots out, this time he isn’t able to dodge it as it strikes him directly in the chest - knocking him out cold.

“Aww shit, that’s two down! What do we do?!” Prompto squeaks at Ignis, panic in his eyes.

Ignis feels for the magical connection he shares with Noctis, grasping it in his mind when he senses it and pulling multiple curatives out of the armiger, “don’t worry, I can still feel my connection to the magic of his line, he’s not dead!” he explains as he throws mutiple potions and a phoenix down at Prompto, who only just manages to catch them, “put the feather in Gladio’s hand and break the potions over Noct, now!” he urges. 

“O...okay, I can do that.” the blond replies, running to Gladio first as he’s been out the longest. Ignis covers him by aiming another ice flask at the creature, breaking its focus on his fallen friends and allowing Prompto to safely heal the pair. The necromancer rushes towards Ignis, making him its sole target; the advisor conjures his polearm out of the armiger, using it vault himself into the air and flip around into a powerful aerial attack; landing the strike directly onto it, he forces the daemon to stop momentarily. He glances over his shoulder quickly, seeing Prompto at work on healing Noct and seeing that Gladio is finally moving again. Looking back at the daemon closing in on him, Ignis switches back to his daggers and attacks, carefully dodging the projectiles shot at him.

The creature launches another blue beam attack suddenly, this time striking the tactician and knocking him out. Gladio is finally back on his feet once more, he shakes his head quickly and charges at the necromancer, a determined glint in his eyes. He lands his strike, at the same moment that Noct warp strikes from the left and Prompto shoots the monsters head, their combined attack finally killing it in an explosion of blue light and flames; the creatures death cry piercing through their heads. 

Prompto collapses at the same moment, a pained scream escaping him. “Prompto!” Noct exclaims, running over to him to check if he was okay as Gladio begins to heal Ignis with potions and elixirs from the armiger. Prompto shakes on the floor, tossing and turning on the spot as Noct watches, panicked. Gladio uses two potions and an elixir on Ignis, the younger man waking up slowly and searching for Noct. Once conscious, Ignis stands up shakily and runs across to Noctis, who is still watching Prompto writhe on the ground. Before he can speak and suggest various solutions to help the photographer, a blinding flash of fluorescent blue light shoots out from Prompto’s body, forcing all three to shield their eyes. 

“Prompto! Is he okay?” Noct yells, lowering his hand from his eyes when the light fades. 

Ignis crouches down and inspects the young blond, not seeing any visual clues to his health deteriorating; his breathing is steady, his eyelids were closed and his tremors had stopped. “Prompto…” he whispers, moving to gently shake the mans shoulder.

With a yelp, the young man sits up, eyes wide and flicking between the three men around him. “My eyes! Are they glowing?” he asks, a panicked tone to his voice as he rummages in his pockets for something. 

Noct crouches down next Iggy, “dude, your eyes are normal again, i’m gonna say it worked!” he smiles as relief visibly pours through the other man. 

Prompto’s smile falters “how do we know though? I don’t wanna assume I’m fixed, I want to know!” he whispers as he looks down at the ground, dejected. 

Ignis stands up, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, thinking “the only way to know for sure is to test it. One of us will have to be photographed.” he says with finality, the others not arguing with his conclusion. Gladio steps forward and suggests himself but Noct denies his offer, explaining that as his sworn protector and the person who trained Noct in the majority of his fighting techniques, he would have the best chance at stopping Noct if he changes. “Our young Prince here is correct Gladio, it has to be him. We can incapacitate him if necessary, but I do have a feeling our young Prompto here is back to normal.” 

Gladio grunts his submission to Noct being the guinea pig for the experiment as the Prince pulls the camera from the armiger “we decided to put it in the one place you wouldn’t be able to find it - ya know, just in case..” he explains, handing the camera over to Prompto, who holds it like it’s a bomb about to explode. 

“You sure about this? What if I hurt you…” he mumbled. 

Noctis shrugs nonchalantly, seemingly not bothered either way if he changes; Prompto climbs up off the floor where he had collapsed and lifts the camera to his face, “3..2..1” he says, a bright flash bursting into the nighttime, surrounding Noct. The second the photo is taken, Prompto nearly drops the camera to the ground in a panic “How do you feel?” he asks nervously. 

“I don’t..feel any different. Someone say something that’ll piss me off, my reaction will probably be the best way to find if I'm different.” 

Ignis rolls his eyes, “come now, Noct, I’ll prepare a meal consisting only of vegetables and you will have to eat it all” he offers, knowing that Noct’s hatred of vegetables would annoy him to no end. 

“Aw hell no, specs. I’ll go fishing instead.” he counters, smirking.

“Young Noctis is his ordinary self, I think we can conclude that much.” Ignis smirks. The four return to the haven, their camp still set up and sleep for the rest of the night, all of them are exhausted from the fight. 

Dawn breaks over the tent causing the group to stir as light filters through the tent walls. “Breakfast?” Ignis suggests, mentally going through his list of the food they have stored in the armiger; they had figured it would make cooking a lot easier to use the magical storage vault as a pantry, as well as weapons storage. He climbs out of the tent and begins pulling ingredients from the armiger to prepare as the other three slowly drag themselves out of the tent. 

_______________________________________

Having eaten and packed up the camp, the group returns to the regalia and starts the drive back to Hammerhead. Now that’s he’s certain he’s back to normal, Prompto wants to check on the people at Takka’s diner who had changed, if they were still there that is. 

“We don’t have to go back there ya know, we’ll understand” Noct offers, knowing Prompto is nervous at seeing the people he inadvertently hurt. 

Eyes darting across to the other man in the backseat, Prompto swallows twice before speaking, “I know, and I appreciate that but I wanna know if they’re okay, ya know before I move on…”

“Oh, um..”Noct rubs the back of his neck nervously, “you’re welcome to come along with us. Start hunting and all that, I like having you in our group.” he says shyly. 

Prompto watches Noct fidget uncomfortably, and glances at Ignis and then Gladio, both men nodding their agreement at the offer; Prompto slumps back, stunned that three people who came after him to stop him from hurting people, the same people who had then helped him, were now offering him a place in their group; like real friends…

“I’ve not really had friends before” he says, his volume lowering to a whisper as he decides, “but I’d like to stick around.” he nods once, a small smile on his face. 

“Wonderful, welcome to the madhouse Prompto.” Ignis jokes. 

“What specs said.” Gladio chuckles. 

They arrive in Hammerhead at sunset, having stopped a few times to allow Prompto to start his landscape portfolio - the blond really was obsessed with photography. Ignis enters the diner ahead of the others and waves them in when he spots the people from his last visit. Prompto doesn’t want to bother them so they sit in the booth behind the two friends and listen in on their conversation. 

“So, you feel completely normal again now?” a man's voice questions.

“It was the weirdest thing mate, I was kinda cold and ragey and then in the middle of the night - Bam! I woke up panting, and feeling like myself again. I don’t really remember the last few days, since we saw that photographer guy actually.” came the response. 

Prompto becomes overjoyed at what he heard while eavesdropping, “they’re fine,” he says as he lets out a small sigh of relief, “can we go again, sorry to be a pain but I was hoping we could get on the road again now that I know the people I hurt are okay.” 

“Of course” Ignis answers, already rising from his seat. 

“Mr Gar!” Takka yells over to the group, speaking to Noctis and waving them over, “would y’all be able to help a guy out, there’s a pack of voretooths circling around Longwythe and people are too scared to leave the buildings down there.” 

“Sure, we’ll go there now Takka.” Noctis answers, leading the group back to the car. “Well Prom, you ready for your first hunt?” he asks his newest companion. 

Prompto nods as Noct remembers that he needed to try to make his magic accessible to Prompto as well now. 

“One sec dude, uhh this is gonna sound corny, but would you be willing to swear an oath to me?” Prompto looks dumbfounded, like he isn’t sure if Noctis was joking, “I’m hoping if you do that you’ll be able to use the armiger the same as Ignis and Gladio can, but I know I sound all ‘look at me and my royalness’.” he explains, looking more uncomfortable as the conversation goes on.

“Um, sure, dude, don't see the harm in that, if it works I get access to a sweet magical storage box! Sounds like something out of this RPG I used to play as a kid.” he explains bringing his hands up to make a very dorky finger guns motion. 

Noct laughs and shakes his head, “Do you Prompto…” he waves expectantly for Prom’s surname. 

“Argentum”

Continuing, Noctis goes “Prompto Argentum, swear to always be loyal to the line of Lucis Caelum, be my friend and fight by my side and always suck at video games to let me win?” he finishes with a cheeky grin. 

“Screw it, why not, yeah I’m in... your highness.” Prompto mock bows to Noctis in retaliation for Noct being a dork. 

Gladio barks out a loud laugh, even Ignis is chuckling at the joke.

“Oh yeah, you fit in here Prom” Gladio laughs, clapping him on the back. 

“Ok, now, try and pull something from the armiger” Ignis advises, it’ll be best to check if it’s worked now than mid hunt after all. 

Prompto looks confused but closes his eyes and waves his hand awkwardly, causing Noctis to laugh at him when nothing appears. “Dude, you could tell me how to make a gun come out of your magical storage area…” 

Noctis laughs in response, not being helpful in the slightest so Ignis takes over, “think about what you want, there’s the gun you used against the necromancer in there, think about that, visualise it in your mind and think about physically pulling it towards you.” he advises. 

Prompto nods, closing his eyes in concentration again. He imagines the gun from the previous night in his mind's eye, non-verbally commanding it to appear in his hand as he reaches out. He opens his eyes to cheers and smiles as he feels a cold, metal handle appear in his hand. He smiles to himself as he imagines sending it back into storage and he sees the blue flash before it disintegrates, “Dude! That is mega cool!” he exclaims. 

“Now that you can access that, shall we get going? These voretooths won’t stop themselves.” Gladio advises, prompting them all to climb into the car and head to Longwythe. 

Prompto stared out of the window as they pulled out of Hammerhead, smiling as he realised that he now had a group of real friends, friends who had stuck their neck out for him and helped him when they had literally no reason to. He smiled from the knowledge that he was back to normal and that the people he hurt were also back to their normal selves; and that the daemon who had caused this whole mess was finally dead and gone. Feeling happier that he had in years, Prompto allowed himself to enjoy his new friends company as he watched the Leiden landscapes go past in a blur, making a list in his head of all the sights he now wanted to photograph.