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The Prince immediately started on introductions. He introduced himself as Noctis even as the Advisor was sending him looks . The Advisor was looking warily at unit N-iP01357 when he was introduced as Ignis, and the Shield made for an intimidating figure by crossing his arms and glaring after being introduced as Gladio.
"Do you have a name?" The Prince looked so hopeful that it couldn't deny him.
The unit brought up its right arm and rotated it to show the barcode and numbers printed on the plating of its wrist. It was its identification that was used to track its whereabouts outside of deployment. The three stood there, uncomprehending, so it raised its wrist a little closer to the Prince so he could read it, despite the retainers tensing and lifting their weapons at its motion.
"Is… Is that a barcode?" It could not identify the face the Prince made. His brows were pinched and the corners of his mouth turned down. It determined that the Prince was dissatisfied with it, so it stopped, awaiting punishment.
The Prince reached for its arm, and it realized it was afraid. Afraid of what he would do to it as punishment, especially if it was like its handler, and it involuntarily recoiled, swiftly pulling its arm to its chest defensively and shifting back a step. The Prince's eyes went wide and possibly sad, but it couldn't tell. He slowly twisted his arm, showing his wrist and…
There was no barcode and numbers.
It glanced once between its right wrist and the Prince's and tilted its head. Why didn't the prince have any marking on his wrist? The handlers at the facility all had some form of identification on their wrists, though they weren't all barcodes. Why didn't the Prince?
The Advisor straightened almost imperceptibly and the unit's attention snapped to him. He pushed up his glasses and asked, "Can you not speak?"
It tapped the base of its neck plating where a small keyhole was. Its vocal box had been locked per field deployment standards. Only handlers had keys because Magitek units had no need to talk unless their handlers wanted them to. Something odd made its way across the Prince's and Shield's face, but the Advisor remained carefully blank.
"So you are unable to presently speak but have the capability of doing so?" It nodded to the Advisor. He looked to the Shield and a silent conversation passed between them. The unit recognized it only because it had seen them happen between its handler and their boss. This one seemed more subdued than the ones it's seen though.
The Prince looked around, before jogging over to a thick stick and returning with it in his hands. Going around his occupied retainers, he held the stick out to the unit and it automatically took it.
"Think you could write in the dirt with this?" It nodded. Reading and writing along with communication had been programmed into it after all. "Then let's try this again. What's your name?" The two retainers focused back on it when it crouched down to write easier.
Unit N-iP01357
The Prince frowned. "That can't be your name," he said firmly, confounding it. That was its designation. It also had a number, but it had a feeling that the Prince wasn't talking about that either. What else was it supposed to have?
"Noctis," the Advisor sighed lightly. "It's a Magitek unit. It's doubtful that any of them have anything besides their barcode for identification."
The Prince appeared to be even more upset over that. "Then we need to give it a name until it comes up with one."
The Advisor looked alarmed and the Shield practically spluttered. "There's no way we're naming it! We shouldn't even be thinking about trying to take it with us! It's a Magitek unit, or did you forget just who's hunting us?" The Prince shrunk in on himself. The Shield turned on the unit, anger flaring, and said, "And you're not coming with us!" It nodded. It wasn't expecting to go with them.
The Shield must have been expecting resistance from the unit, because he stopped short when it answered. It looked between the three Lucians. They were all staring at it with varying expressions, and it wasn't sure how to react, if at all. It ended up staying stock still as to not alarm them.
The Advisor's eyes narrowed. "Just what are you?" The unit didn't understand, so it showed its wrist again. "No." He shook his head. "What type of unit are you? You're not a normal Imperial Sniper unit." Unit N-iP01357 had been implemented with enough tactical programming to understand the implication that it could be a spy unit. It didn't move. It had no way to prove it wasn't something other than an Imperial Sniper unit, though with this code, they wouldn't be far off. It wasn't quite a Magitek unit any longer.
The Prince actually seemed concerned at the notion that it was a unit other than an Imperial Sniper, and the Shield tensed, ready to strike. The Advisor was assessing it again. The unit imagined that he was having a difficult time getting a read on an immoving faceplate. A pressure built its way up the unit's throat but it suppressed it. It wasn't a negative feeling, but it'd never felt it before and it wasn't willing to risk the Lucians' ire to release it.
A bundle of wire on the side of its neck that connected to its brain buzzed with incoming energy, and it hadn't known its posture had dipped until it was straightening up again. The retainers were instantly on the defense against the unit, the Prince behind them once more, but it didn't pay attention to them. Doing so went against all of its programming, wrinkling its insides almost painfully, but it focused on closing its eyes and listening.
It took a moment, but it finally heard it. The whirring fans of an Imperial dropship it knew wasn't in sight yet. The feeling of something heavy in its chest quickly gave way to a shot of adrenaline. Panic maybe, if it had the time to place the feeling to a name, but it did not.
It took a step back, reaching into the side of its neck and rippling out the single grouping of wires. It was the one that reported its life signals and location to its handler, and it had stayed alive much longer than the rest of its fellow Magitek units had, giving its handler time to prepare another squad and send them after the royals. All three Lucians were stunned with wide eyes and open mouths, though the Advisor hid it better, but it couldn't afford to focus on them. Its gaze shot to the sky in the direction that had been forwarded to it.
The dropship's target dropzone? Their current location.
Determined, unit N-iP01357 turned to the Advisor, pointing at him, tapping itself, then pointing at the sky in the direction of the dropship not yet here. He looked cautiously confused. It didn't dare get any closer, but it repeated the gestures again with a little more urgency. The unit had recognized the Advisor's voice in its audio files as the one to have shouted the warning about the dropship it had arrived on, so it hoped he got the message.
"What are you trying to say?" The Prince asked, and it developed the urge to glare at him even though its eyes could not be seen clearly. The Shield elbowed the Prince, pushing him behind himself, but also seeming to share the unit's notion.
The Advisor must have been running phrases in his head that matched the unit's motions, because his eyes widened and he looked in the direction the unit had been pointing. "Imperials above us," he said on an exhale. It nodded in confirmation.
The Shield's face twisted in anger and he balled his fist, taking a threatening step closer. "You led them here, didn't you? You played nice with us to buy time until reinforcements were on the way!"
"Gladio!" The Prince intercepted him and then proceeded to purposefully place his back towards it . It was a wonder the Prince had even stayed alive this long. "Think about it, he wouldn't have told us anything if he was trying to lure us into a trap, would he?" The Shield's anger simmered, still white knuckling his broadsword but all the unit could focus on was—
— he
It did not have a gender (did it?) because Magitek units were genderless. They had no reason to perform any function outside of fighting, so a gender was not needed. But the Prince deemed that it should have one anyways. It was… touched.
It snapped out of its thoughts with the Advisor saying, "We need to leave. Sooner rather than later, preferably." He could probably hear the dropship engines now too. They weren't exactly silent machines.
The Prince turned, looking troubled. "But we haven't mapped this part of the forest yet, not to mention that it's getting dark. Where would we go?"
Map? It could do that. In fact, it wanted to.
It turned in the opposite direction of the incoming dropship and started towards a known Haven location on the mental map that had been forwarded to it. After a few yards, it stopped to turn back to the royals. They were still standing there, just watching it. It made a 'follow me' gesture and continued on. They would either follow or they wouldn't. It heard footsteps behind it. Hesitant ones, but they were still there. It didn't matter to the unit if they followed or not. It refused to be caught when the other units arrived and killed it. Or worse. Regardless, it still glanced back every dozen steps or so to see if they were following.
"Where are you taking us?" The Prince asked, trotting up to the unit's left side. The injured one , its code unhelpful supplied. It glanced to the retainers who looked a hair's breadth away from pulling the Prince away and running it through, then looked to the Prince. The unit was slightly taken aback by his eyes. The evening light that filtered through the treetops glinted off the Prince's dark blue irises, giving him an almost ethereal quality. It found itself wanting to permanently catalog this moment just like the sun set from earlier.
Unit N-iP01357 refocused on the question it'd been asked, not wanting to be punished for a delay in answering. It made the symbol for a Haven in its right hand as an answer.
The Prince looked confused, glancing back to his retainers. "Specs, what's this mean?" Specs? The Prince copied the unit's hand symbol and the Advisor's eyebrows rose.
"A Haven? You know the way to a Haven?" He asked a little disbelievingly. It nodded in confirmation, a little more used to the motion now.
"How do we know it's telling the truth and not just walking us into a trap?" The Shield folded his arms threateningly, his weapon having vanished sometime between when the Prince asked his question and the unit had looked back at them again. Looking to the other retainer, it noticed the Advisor's weapons were gone too.
The Advisor's lips flattened into a grim line. "We don't."
A strained atmosphere settled uncomfortably over the group, and the unit was woefully unequipped to deal with anything relating to nonverbal communication, so it ignored it, leading the group on.
The unit probably would have been more concerned if they had flat out believed it, but something about the lack of trust stung. It was unused to the feeling, so the unit buried and ignored it as well.
The sun's light had completely vanished by the time they reached the clearing and rockface that contained the Haven. The three Lucians had turned on their lights a few minutes prior when it became darker, and the unit hadn't understood why until it realized that they probably couldn't see in the dark like it could. It knew it was different from them, but that had been a heavy-handed reminder.
The royals had been tense the entire way, but visibly relaxed when the Haven came into view. The Prince, who was still at its side, smiled in relief, and it felt itself relaxing a little in response.
Unit N-iP01357 stopped on the Haven's edge and the royals rushed past it, seemingly forgetting its presence. They went up the rock's carved path and towards the center to set up camp, but the Prince paused halfway up and looked back at the unit. "What's wrong? Come on."
His question made the two retainers look at the unit as well, but it did nothing. The Havens were a pure place, and those with the Starscourge—at least that's what it heard one of the scientists call it—could not intrude. That included the unit because its main enhancements were derived from intake of the Starscourge.
The Prince made his way back to the unit, and it could hear the dramatized sigh from the Shield as he went to set up camp. The Advisor followed the Prince down.
"It's possible it can't enter the Haven." The Advisor noted casually, though he sounded mildly relieved. "We thought that Magitek units were just machinery, but it probably isn't all they are."
The Prince frowned. "What do we do then? He helped us and now we definitely can't just leave him here. He just betrayed Niflheim for us. Who knows what will happen to him if they catch him?" The Advisor looked conflicted, mind warring between logic and sentimentality. The unit made the decision for him.
It sat down and faced the forest. It had the ability to stay alert for another around 13 hours before its system would try to shut down for rest. Sustinece was also an issue that had to be dealt with within the next few days, but it was going to keep watch tonight to make sure it would be able solve the problem tomorrow.
"Well, I suppose that answers that," the Advisor said behind him, but it didn't turn. "Come on Noctis. Gladio is setting up and I need to start cooking." His footfalls retreated, and a few heartbeats later, a second pair followed.
It sat there for the rest of the night, left arm pulsing numbly and a lonely chill settling into its core.
Ignis wasn't sure what to think when they woke up in the Haven, and the MT unit was waiting there exactly where they'd left it. It was odd. It was clearly still working on some type of programming left in it, but all the hostility had vanished the moment it had dropped its gun the day before. It had been in a perfect position to kill Noctis, but hadn't taken the shot, instead it released its only advantage and put itself at their mercy.
Don't mistake his curiosity for trust. He didn't trust it at all, but what he'd said to Noctis the previous night kept rattling around in his brain.
"We thought that Magitek units were just machinery, but it probably isn't all they are."
What else could an MT be besides a machine? Some part of it had to contain the scourge since it couldn't enter the Haven, but was it possible that it could be something even more? Based on the MT's actions and reactions, could there be a human underneath all that armor?
He felt a little ill at the thought that they could have been killing people.
Noctis' large yawn exiting the tent drew Ignis' attention and he continued to pack up from where his hands had stilled. Noctis glanced over the edge of the raised rock and his mouth twitched into a smile. "He's still down there."
Ignis wanted to smile in response, but his macabre thoughts would have tipped the smile into a frown, so he settled on a neutral, "It would seem so, yes."
Gladio huffed, irritation clear. "I don't trust it," he said, shoving his things away a little too roughly. "It's a Magitek unit for Astral's sake. Who knows what's programmed into it."
Noctis looked over at him disapprovingly, but didn't say anything. It was Gladio's duty to protect the Prince, even from himself if need be, and Noctis knew that. Instead, he focused back on the MT unit below.
"I think we should figure out how to get him to speak," Noctis said after a beat.
Ignis hummed in agreement. "I don't know if you recognized what he was pointing at when we were talking about his ability to speak." (Since when had the MT become a 'he' instead of an 'it' in his mind?) Noctis raised an eyebrow at him, so he continued with, "It was a keyhole." Silence.
" What? " Noctis said, and instantly Ignis could hear the danger in that one word. Noctis was halfway angry, if not already there. Even Gladio went rigid. Flames from an unconscious spell licked up from Noctis' fingers at his sides and Ignis did damage control before things could get out of hand.
"We don't know exactly how the keyhole is connected to his voice. It could just be a way to unlock his armor and get to its controls." But it's unlikely , went unsaid, but by the stiff line in Noctis' shoulders, he got it. Ignis withheld a sigh and went to finish packing with Gladio, Noctis staring at the MT unit all the while.
Once they were done, they headed down towards the unit, but if he heard their approach he didn't indicate it. They were a mere yard away from him when the unit stood up in a few jerky movements. They all tensed automatically, but nothing happened so they continued until they were all in front of him.
Ignis took the moment to examine the unit. He'd already assessed him when he was a threat, but that wasn't quite the case anymore, so Ignis reevaluated. The unit was scuffed and a little dirty, but other than that he looked fresh off an assembly line—wait…
"Are you injured?" He nodded and Ignis felt the need to help him rise sharply. He shoved it down promptly. "Your left arm, can you move it at all?" He shook his head, and Ignis wanted to berate himself. How had he not noticed it before? The unit's left arm was hanging limply at his side, completely at odds with his right arm which was in a completely controlled position. Not to mention there was a hole in the unit's shoulder where a bullet pierced through the exterior. There was even… Oh…
Ignis really might be sick now, because something that looked and smelled similar to blood was dried on the plating.
The substance was black and more viscous than normal blood was, but there was no mistaking the stale, coppery smell of blood, even if it had something akin to acid clinging to the edges of its scent.
That combined with the scourge, meant that there was something organic beneath that plating ( please not a human, please not a human, please —).
Ignis trapped the bile and unease behind his clenched teeth until it subsided enough for him to speak.
"Let's deal with that after we unlock your voice, shall we?" He said to no one in particular. Something must have shown through in his voice because he could feel the twin looks of concern from Gladio and Noctis, but he brushed them off. They could get their answers once he could stomach them properly. He wasn't sure they'd fare much better once they knew.
Ignis took out a few tools that might work for lock picking and held them in his hand. He'd never tried to lock pick before, but he understood the basic premises and was mostly confident he could do it right without triggering a failsafe if there was one. He only had to decide which one—
Noctis swiped the tools out of his hand and moved up to where he was directly in front of the MT, making Ignis' lungs clench with worry before he took a moment, and breathed it out slowly.
"What are you doing, Noctis?"
Noctis glanced back at him with his all-too-innocent stare. "I'm going to pick the lock." Because of course he was.
"Since when did you pick up that skill?" Ignis asked skeptically.
"Since you started putting locks on the snack cabinet in my apartment," Noctis answered nonchalantly, which was such a Noctis thing to do Ignis wasn't sure why he expected anything else. Gladio snorted in amusement but kept a steady eye on the two of them. Noctis stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he got to work, taping the base of the MT's jaw once. The unit obligingly stood taller and lifted its chin to give Noctis better access to the keyhole at the base of its neck, and Ignis was startled at the unit's vulnerability, or rather, his trust in Noctis.
Noctis made a triumphant noise and the keyhole clicked. He turned it and stepped back, looking pleased with himself.
The unit straightened a little before saying, "Unit N-iP01357's voice has been activated."
Their eyes all widened in shock. They had been anticipating a robotic sounding voice considering he was a machine, but he sounded… unnervingly human. A cold chill swept through Ignis. The hope that there wasn't a person beneath that armor was shriveling up.
Noctis and Gladio were silent, so Ignis took the initiative with lead in his stomach. "What are your injuries?"
"The unit's left shoulder was damaged by an Imperial Sniper's bullet and removed the arm from operation. The unit's wires connecting it to its handler have been damaged. Maintenance is required," he—and the unit was definitely a he—said monotonely. He continued, and with every word their faces fell. "Status: For the unit to maintain optimum functioning capacity, sustenance will be required within the next fifteen hours or performance will decline. In three hours and forty-seven minutes, the unit will power down to regain the energy required to function at optimal capacity. Higher processing is functional. Memory data bank is functional. Speech module is functional. Weapons handling is functional, but compromised due to unit damage." He stopped and Ignis nearly choked out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Then the unit did something peculiar.
He tilted his head then said, almost hesitantly, "The unit's coding is compromised."
"Your— Your coding is compromised?" Noctis latched onto that piece of information instead of focusing on the rest like Ignis already was.
"Confirmed."
"How is it compromised?" Noctis pushed.
"The unit detected an unauthorized line of code in its system ten days ago and failed to report it to its handler. The code grew, adding new code and—” There it was again. He hesitated for just a moment. "—deleting standard code."
Gladio stepped up this time with eyes narrowed, but willing to listen. "What code was deleted?"
The unit said nothing, deliberating maybe. If what Ignis thought had happened to it actually did occur…
"Its primary objective: kill the Prince of Insomnia," the unit said at last, and the pressure in the air skyrocketed.
In the next second, Noctis was being yanked away by Gladio who had retrieved his broadsword from the Armiger. He had all but charged the MT, when Ignis caught his eyes in a silent instruction to stop, at least temporarily.
Ignis focused back on the unit who stood completely rigid, not having moved an inch. "You said that piece of code had been deleted?"
"Confirmed."
"Do you even plan on reinitiating your primary objective?" Ignis said, a little harsher than he'd meant to, but he could feel his composure fraying.
"Confirmed."
They all tensed, ready to attack, but Ignis had a feeling that he wasn't asking the right questions, so he tried, "Do you plan on reinitiating your previous primary objective?"
"Negative," is said simply, and all at once Noctis relaxed. Gladio still had his weapon out, but Ignis allowed the tension to slide out of his posture, giving the unit the benefit of the doubt. The MT's shoulders dipped down slightly, and Ignis thought he looked relieved. "The unit requires a primary objective to function."
Ignis couldn't help the upward twitch of his lips. He was pretty positive he knew what happened to the MT now. It would be more amazing if it wasn't sickening. "You've been working well without one so far."
The unit practically froze , as if just realizing that he'd been operating for around twelve hours without a primary objective. Noctis' face furrowed in concern at the abrupt stop of the unit. "Hey, are you okay?"
The MT snapped to attention. "The unit is operational." Noctis looked even more dismayed.
"I'm not asking if you can move and think properly. I'm asking how you feel ."
The unit shifted his weight from foot to foot in what Ignis realized was a nervous gesture. "Magitek units are incapable of feeling."
"But you do," Ignis said, and they all looked to him in surprise. "Don't you?"
The MT shifted its weight again, then slowly said, "Yes. The unit's malfunction in code allows it—makes it—… the unit can feel." The surprise was practically palpable. Not only could he feel, obviously, but he stuttered .
Noctis leaned forward like a curious child. "So, what are you feeling, then?"
The MT folded into itself, much the Noctis did when he was admonished, and Ignis was vividly reminded of the moves the unit had used to dodge Noctis' strikes. They were the same as the ones the three of them used. The unit must be copying actions and mannerisms from them considering he had none of his own. That basically confirmed Ignis' theory. If the fact that he could feel wasn't enough on its own, the mimicry cemented it. Not to count all the nuances Ignis noted.
Ignis was positive that the MT had gained free will, at the very least.
The MT twitched, like it was going to say something but then aborted. Or maybe building up the courage to say something.
Nothing could have prepared them for his response.
"The unit—… I am scared."
The silence was deafening.