Chapter Text
Leading My Brothers To the Promised Land
(rough draft 2)
A Final Fantasy XV fanfic by Raberba girl
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Summary: After months of rehabilitation in Insomnia, the teenage MT unit now known as Prompto Argentum has been recaptured and imprisoned in his old training facility. The rules, routines, pain, and loneliness are all familiar, but they are no longer the only things he knows. (Inspired by lithos_saeculum's Poor Wayfaring Stranger.)
A/N: Although the main plot of this (and the Tenebrae backstory) has nothing to do with lithos_saeculum's Poor Wayfaring Stranger, I did get the idea for this when my daydreaming about PWS got out of hand, and a lot of the Insomnia backstory and minor details are the same as in PWS.
Chapter 1 - In the Facility
He remembers Luna's voice: "No! He's-- he's my slave. If you take him, then you are stealing my property."
He remembers the one with the purple hair's voice, too: "Oh my, and you were so insistent just a few weeks ago that you would not tolerate such a 'barbaric practice' in your house! You can't have it both ways, my dear. Is he your slave, or isn't he?"
It didn't matter what Luna said. He understands now. The one with the purple hair always planned to take him, no matter what Luna said to try to save him. She wasn't able to help, but she was a good...friend. She was his friend, and so was Noctis, and they were also friends with each other. He wishes they'd all been able to 'hang out' together at the same time.
He stops thinking about Luna and Noctis because the treatment is complete. They take the needles out of his arms and undo the restraints. He tries not to stumble as he stands up. They walk him back to his pod, and he gets in and lies down. They lock it, and then they go away.
It's too dark to see anything and there's barely any room to move. He's supposed to be sleeping, but he can't sleep. He feels sick because of the treatment, and bad because he's here at the facility again instead of with Cor. Cor wouldn't have let him come back here, he's sure of that. And he knows now that it wasn't Cor who found him at the festival and led him away to the ship, it was the one with the purple hair. He doesn't know why the one with the purple hair looked like Cor. He wishes he'd known back then - if he'd known, he would have left the one with the purple hair and found the real Cor. Cor would have kept him...safe. Cor always kept him safe.
He thinks about Cor and wishes he was safe now.
o.o.o
He wakes up when the pod opens. He steps into line with the other level twos and they walk to the room with the chairs. He sits down. A human plugs a feeding tube into his sustenance port, clicking it securely into place.
Before, he would have only thought of her as a human who probably wouldn't hurt him, but he's seen many more humans now, and he watches her as she works. She has orange hair pulled back and tied behind her head, and she wears glasses. There's a thin silver chain around her neck, but most of it is tucked under her clothes and he can't see if there's anything shiny or colorful hanging from it. She's wearing gloves, but he can see the bulge of a ring on one of her fingers underneath the glove. He wonders if she lives in a house or an apartment.
The human turns the machine on and moves to the next MT unit. The machine whirs, and after a minute, sustenance comes through the tube and begins to fill his stomach.
Carefully, trying not to let the movement show, he runs his tongue along the back of his teeth and thinks of Ignis. He thinks of Ignis cooking, and teaching him to cook, and putting vessels of soup in front of him. He closes his eyes and remembers how the soup tasted - there were many different kinds, but all of them tasted very good. He remembers how warm they were, how soothing they felt sliding down his throat and filling his stomach.
The sustenance here at the facility just feels cold inside him. He doesn't know how it tastes. He doesn't even really know how it looks.
He doesn't want to taste it, and he's glad he doesn't have to.
o.o.o
They dress in their uniforms and arrange themselves in the training room. The human instructor inspects them, then explains their first task.
He doesn't like the daemon blood treatments, but without them, his performance would be much worse. His vision has been fixed, and he no longer needs glasses or fake eyes. His reflexes are even better than they were before, and he's learned new things from training with Gladio and Noctis and Cor. He's still not excellent at hand-to-hand combat, but he does well enough to avoid a lot of correction now.
He seems to notice more than he did before Cor took him to Lucis. Before, if no one was being corrected, all he would have thought about during training was how to perform well enough to avoid correction himself. Now, he notices other things.
He sees how scared all the other level twos are even though they try to always keep their faces blank like they've been taught. He sees how, when an MT is corrected, the others all work harder so they won't be corrected, too. When 05953223 is punished for 05953222's mistake, he sees 3222's face twist a little in dismay, showing an unacceptable level of expression. He sees 3240 trying so hard but failing the exercise anyway, and he sees the terror in 3240's eyes when the instructor shouts and starts striking him with a club.
He sees 3222's hands curl into fists as they watch 3240 being corrected - then he realizes that his hands are in fists, too. It's difficult to make them relax. He doesn't want to be corrected. He doesn't want to watch 3240 being corrected. He doesn't want 3240 to be corrected at all. People don't treat people like this - MT units aren't human, but he was getting used to the idea that they might be people. No one in Lucis ever corrected him when he made mistakes, and he learned so much better and faster than he did here.
He thinks that maybe the system for training MT units might be flawed. Before Lucis, he would have never dared to think that, but now, as he watches 3240 curled up in his own blood on the floor, he remembers how kind and gentle everyone in Lucis was when they taught him things, and he feels-- Not angry, because MT units don't get angry. He feels - frustrated. Very frustrated. He wishes he was back in Lucis. He wishes 3240 was in Lucis, too, and 3222 and all the other level twos. Cor and Gladio would know how to teach 3240 how to do the exercise without hurting him.
"Get up," the instructor snarls. 3240 gets up. He's shaking and tears are running down his face, but he stands. "What is this?" the officer snaps, slapping him across the face. He holds up his hand with 3240's tears on it. "You know this isn't permitted. Go to the correction chamber."
3240 makes a noise, but he obediently turns and limps out of the room. 3222 takes a step toward the officer, but Prompto moves in front of him to block his way. He can feel 3221 and 3223 crowding a little closer so that 3222 can't get past. None of them want 3222 to be sent to the correction chamber, too. They all know how much it hurts. It's bad enough that 3240 has to go.
"Again!" the instructor calls, and the level twos move to perform the exercise again.
o.o.o
The days are all so similar and unpleasant and...and boring that it's hard to remember how many have passed. There have been a lot of days.
He wonders if Cor will come and take him away again. He wonders if Cor even knows where he is, or what happened to him. He wonders if Cor misses him. He thinks he does, because Cor said it: "It’s really important to me to have you with me." So he's 97% sure that Cor misses him.
He's 100% sure that he misses Cor. And Noctis and Ignis and Gladio, and Arcis, and everyone in Lucis. Even the one from the phone and the one with the club. He misses them all a lot.
o.o.o
There are cameras everywhere, so it's usually difficult to break the rules without being caught, but this exercise is different. The room is big and dark and full of obstacles, so even though there's a camera, it probably can't see much.
They're shooting moving targets, and he's already surpassed his quota. He stops shooting. He hopes there are enough targets left for everyone to make their quota.
While he waits, another MT comes rushing around an obstacle and throws himself against the same piece of cover Prompto is crouched behind. The MT fires frantically and whimpers when only two of his five shots connect.
He adjusts his vision until he can see the MT unit's barcode. It's 3240. 3240 appears to be performing poorly, and Prompto doesn't want to see him get corrected again.
He seizes 3240's gun out of his hands and starts firing. He shoots down targets until the indicator light changes from red to green, showing that the wielder has met quota. He stops shooting and hands the gun back.
3240 stares at him. After a while, Prompto smiles a little bit.
"Why did you do that?" 3240 whispers.
"I wanted you to make quota. There was a very low chance you would make it on your own."
They wait a while. Finally 3240 says, "Thank you."
He knows what the correct response is now. "You're welcome."
It finally goes quiet, and the overhead lights come on. The instructor shouts, and the MTs quickly line up. The instructor moves down the line, checking the indicator lights on the weapons. When he sees that 3240's is green, he pauses for a long time. Then he slaps 3240's face. "I'm watching you, Thirty-two Forty," he growls. "Give me an excuse to mark you for decommissioning."
It's an order, and 3240's face goes completely white, but the instructor doesn't wait for an answer. He continues on down the line, and Prompto wonders if what he said was like how humans sometimes express a wish or a preference in the language of an order. 3240 is shaking now, and he shifts a little closer so he can touch the side of his hand to 3240's without anyone seeing.
o.o.o
The next morning, while he's hooked up to the sustenance machine, he realizes that the MT unit sitting directly across from him is staring at him. He sharpens his vision so he can see the MT's barcode: it's 3240. He makes sure neither of the humans are looking in their direction, then he smiles a little bit. His vision is still sharpened, so he's able to see when 3240 smiles a little bit back.
o.o.o
3240 speaks to him that evening, while they're cleaning the latrines together. "Why are there spots on your face?" he whispers.
He remembers what Gladio said the day his freckles first appeared. "I got some sun," he murmurs back. He's still not sure what the correlation is, but contextual data seems to suggest that there was one.
"...What is sun?"
He pauses. It seems extraordinary now, but he remembers that there was a time when he didn't know what the sun was, either. "It's...a light. A very big one, but it's so far away that it looks much smaller than it really is. It's still looks big, though. It's outside - it shines in the sky, and it's very beautiful. Sometimes the clouds cover it up, or it's hidden behind Eos as Eos rotates, but it's always there even when we can't see it."
3240 stops working and stares at him. Prompto finally remembers that there was a time when he didn't know what 'clouds' or 'Eos' were, either.
"There's a lot to explain," he says. "But the sun is a big, beautiful light that you can see when you go outside."
"You've been outside?"
He smiles. He thinks of Cor and Noctis and everyone in Lucis. "Yes. It's very good. It's much better than it is here."
3240 keeps staring at him until the supervising officer's footsteps sound in the corridor, and then he hurriedly resumes working.
After the officer passes, 3240 whispers, "Why did you go outside when you're only a level two?"
"My commanding officer took me outside." He knows that 3240 will not understand what a 'dad' is, and he doesn't know how to explain. "Someone else brought me back."
"The commanding officer took you outside?"
"Not the one here. I was reassigned to a different commanding officer. But the one with the purple hair took me away from him and brought me back here."
"I don't understand."
"It's difficult to explain."
They finish that latrine and move on to the next one. "Will you tell me more about outside?" 3240 finally asks.
"Yes."
o.o.o
He wakes up in his pod. Something warm and heavy is lying on his chest, licking his face. The thing is glowing a little bit, so he can tell what it is.
"Pryna." He rubs his hand over her head. She's very soft, and he feels tears slip down his face. He wonders if he's awake or dreaming. He had nightmares his first few days back in the facility, but he hasn't had any dreams at all since then, so maybe this is real.
Pryna shifts and squirms. It's hard for her to move in the confined space. He opens the little pouch on her collar and sees a folded letter. He opens it and adjusts his vision so he can read it.
It says:
Dear Prompto,
I haven't been able to sleep since you were taken away. I pray that you are still alive, though I suppose it's too much to hope that you are well.
I told Noctis that you were here for a few weeks. He is very frustrated that he can't help directly, but he and the others, especially your father, were all deeply relieved to hear what became of you after the festival. Although the chancellor's involvement means there is not much they can do, I imagine they are doing what they can. I know they miss you greatly, as do I.
Please respond if you are able. Even a simple reassurance that you are alive would make me very grateful.
Yours,
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret
He doesn't have anything to write with. He doesn't have anything at all except the jumpsuit he's wearing, Luna's letter, and what Pryna's wearing.
He folds the letter into one of the 'origami' shapes that Luna taught him and tucks it into Pryna's pouch. She licks his face again, and he strokes her head. She lies back down on his chest.
When his storage pod opens and he wakes again, he sees that Pryna is gone.
TBC