Altissia was truly beautiful. No where near the technical wonderment that Gralea was or, what he had heard, Insomnia had been, but still beautiful. Its waterways were magnificent, and the way the sun’s rays bounced off the still lakes and flowing waterfalls and canals was simply breathtaking. Prompto’s photos were improving daily, if he did say so himself, and he was getting plenty of practice in this stunning city. The city itself was very easy to get lost in, but in the best way, the way that lent itself to exploration.

  They visited the place where Lady Luna’s dress was on display, unbeknownst to those others gathered around that her groom was watching with them, looking forward to meeting her once more. And Prompto was looking forward to that as well. Meeting the Oracle was never something he ever imagined he would be able to do and now, thanks to Noct, he would.

  They visited the monster arena where they proceeded to lose a couple thousand gil before Ignis managed to drag the three of them out, Noct and Gladio obnoxiously blowing their vuvuselas in each other’s faces even as Ignis physically dragged them from the arena.

  They took evening gondola rides to marvel at the city, and sat for hours while Noct fished. The other two seemed to find it incredibly dull, but Prom was fascinated and took photos every few minutes, even if it was just the same subject matter again and again with only slightly different light.

  They would speak for hours with Weskam, enjoying his fine food and watching the gondolas slide past. Ignis was in a frenzy to examine all the different foods and fruits and spices and lamented that they didn’t have enough money to try something called caviar (“If you hadn’t wasted it all on those blasted monster games we could be dining on something truly divine right now!”). Prompto doubted that; it looked pretty gross to him and smelled worse, but there was no counting for tastes.

  Of an evening, they would either take monster hunts around the city or retire to the fancy hotel, play cards or darts or King’s Knight—Ignis was willing to let Prompto borrow his phone to join in—and sometimes they would make wedding plans. Inspired by viewing Lady Luna’s wedding dress, all of them were eager for the wedding to still take place, often spurred on by Gladio, who showed himself to be a hidden romantic. And, if Prompto had to guess, Noct truly seemed to love Luna, despite not having spoken in person for years. Not that he was an expert on such things, far from it, but he noticed how the prince got a faraway look in his eyes whenever he spoke of her, and his voice would take on a softer tone. He loved her, Prompto was sure of it.

  Eventually, though, they had to get down to business. The first secretary, a stern-looking woman named Camelia, had already said that the Oracle was in her care, but before she could allow Noctis and Luna to meet, they had to ‘come to terms’, whatever that meant. All Prompto understood was that Noct ruled in that diplomacy meeting, and Camelia seemed impressed as well, saying that Noct reminded her of his father, a compliment that made the prince grin with pride.

  Of course, their good fortune could never last. After the meeting, Noct pulled Prom aside to speak quietly. “Hey, Prom. Your Inurement. How’s it going?”

  “Alright, I guess,” Prompto answered. “Was there something specific?”

  “I need you and Iggy and Gladio to take three different sections of the city and organise the evacuation of its citizens; they don’t deserve to be caught up in our war with the Empire or with the Hydraean. If I remember correctly, that particular goddess never really liked humans, so I think gaining her power will be difficult. Especially if the Titan was anything to go by.”

  Prompto grimaced at the memory. “I can handle that,” he said.

  “You sure?”

  Prompto smiled. “Yeah, don’t worry. The most it might cause is a kinda constant ache, nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Ardyn is here somewhere too, remember,” Noct said.

  That caused Prompto’s smile to falter, but he forced it back, for Noct’s sake. “It’ll be fine. You should watch your back, though; he’ll be more interested in what you’re doing than a lone Magitek soldier focussed on evacuating citizens.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Just… be careful, okay?”

  “Hey, I got the easy job. You’re the one who’s gotta deal with a cranky goddess,” Prompto teased.

  “Don’t remind me,” Noct said with a groan, causing Prompto to laugh.

  “Just remember the end goal: Luna.”

  “Right. Luna.” Noct smiled. Mission accomplished. “Before you go, there’s one more thing.” Reaching into his pocket, Noct pulled out a box, holding it out to Prompto.

  “Aw, Noct, you shouldn’t have. But you’re supposed to be proposing to Luna, not to me.”

  “What? No! Just- just take it already,” Noct stammered, much to Prompto’s amusement, as he shoved the box at him.

  Opening it, Prompto’s mouth fell open rather comically. Inside was a brand new phone, complete with a wireless earpiece and chocobo protective case. “Noct…” he started, but didn’t really know what to say.

  “I’ve already loaded King’s Knight on it, and Iggy transferred your account over. And the earpiece means we can all keep in contact and still have your hands free to fight, so no excuses not to keep me informed of what’s going on, okay? I just hope it’s a model you like, I didn’t know-”

  Noctis broke off suddenly when Prompto threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug. “Thank you,” he said, his voice husky. “For this, and for trusting me with it.”

  Noct awkwardly patted Prompto’s back, saying, “Yeah, well, how about letting me win a few games in King’s Knight to make up for it.”

  Prompto gave a bark of laughter as he stepped back. “You got it.”

  Noct showed him how to set up the earpiece, connected him to their group call and, after making sure that everything was working properly, each went their separate ways.

  The evacuation, as Prompto had said, was easy. He left his armour in their room at the hotel so he wouldn’t be mistaken for the enemy and the citizens were more than willing to follow someone who seemed to know what they were doing. It was when the Empire began to move against the Hydraean that things became hectic. Ignis had the best view of this.

  “The empire has the Hydraean surrounded. Hurry, Noct!” he said through their earpieces.

  “I’m on it,” Noct replied.

  “Then the rite’s already begun?” Gladio asked.

  “Most likely,” Noctis replied.

  Well then, there was only one thing for it. “Time to lend the Hydraean a hand!” Prompto said; they could not allow the empire to interfere with the rite as they had with the Titan.

  After making sure that all the citizens he could find in his section had evacuated, Prompto started running through the city towards where he could see Leviathan towering above the buildings. It took him through the area Ignis was working on and, as luck would have it, a few shots managed to protect the advisor from being swarmed by MTs.

  “Prompto, are you alright?” he asked hurriedly, watching as the citizens continued to run ahead.

  “Fine, I-” Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, Prompto reacted without thinking, throwing himself into the advisor and knocking them both to the ground, just in time to avoid being hit by a missile.

  “My thanks,” Ignis said as he got to his feet again.

  Prompto wasn’t listening though, he was staring at the missile that had crashed nearby and short-circuited from a blast of Hydraean water, an idea forming in his head.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Prompto,” Ignis said slowly, recognising the look on Prompto’s face as one he usually wore when he was about to do something reckless and drag Noct into it. “What are you planning?”

  Prompto was jogging over to the missile and turned to run backwards as he answered, “Gonna hitch a ride; it’ll be faster to get to Noct that way.”

  “Will that work?” Ignis asked, intrigued despite himself and going to look over Prompto’s shoulder at what he was doing.

  Prompto, meanwhile, had ripped the cover off the missile’s control panel and was pulling various wires out. He yelped and pulled his hand back when the damn thing sparked at him, but then just plunged right back in again. “Dunno,” he admitted. “Water and electrics don’t exactly mix.” He looked over his shoulder with a grin and added, “But it’ll be fun to find out.”

  “I don’t think I want to know,” Ignis said dryly.

  Nonetheless, Ignis watched Prompto’s back while he tinkered, taking out any enemies who came too close until, with a whoop of delight, the missile’s engine started up. Straddling it, he took the controls and shouted over the engine’s roar, “I’m off to find Noct. We’ll have the rite done in no time!”

  “Keep in contact!” Ignis replied.

  Prompto smacked a fist to his chest by way of acknowledgement and gunned the engine, shouting with delight as it took off, flying through the air with him on it. Through his earpiece, he heard Ignis say, “Noct! Prompto is on his way to you.”

  Well, he was trying anyway, zig-zagging between the buildings and up and down the streets, searching for a sign of his friend.

  “But, what about you guys?” Noct asked.

  “We’ll wait below—there’s only room for two.”

  And… there! He could see him! “Noct! Jump!” Prompto shouted over the engine noise.

  “What?” Noct asked.

  “No time for questions, just trust me!”

  Prompto followed along as Noct ran along the balcony and then leapt off the edge. His heart leapt at the same time, both with pride that Noctis trusted him this much, and also with fear that he may stuff it up. Gunning the missile forward, he hung on with one hand, the other outstretched to grab Noct as he collided with the back of the missile, helping him to get his feet under him and hang on.

  “What is this?” Noct asked.

  Prompto laughed, adrenaline making him giddy. “New ride we borrowed from the Nifs. This’ll get us in close,” he said.

  “Serious?” Noct asked, disbelief evident in his tone.

  Prompto just laughed again, but broke off with a, “Woah! Here she comes!” as a waterspout surged towards them.

  “I got this,” Noct replied as he summoned his sword. Prompto focused on flying around the city, leaving the defence up to Noct; he was better at it, anyway.

  “I’ll get as close as I can. Then it’s up to you,” he said.

  “Alright. I won’t be long,” Noct said.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Prompto promised.

  Clearing the main maze of the city, Prompto pulled upwards, confident now that he wouldn’t hit an overhead bridge. Upwards and upwards, they flew.

  “Hey, nice job finding this baby,” Noct said.

  “More, she found us. Moment I saw her, I knew we’d go places,” he said, fondly petting the side of the machine. Hearing a roar of water behind them, Prompto looked over his shoulder. “Not again!”

  “Not making this easy,” Noct said, summing his blade once more.

  “Noct, hold on tight!” Prompto said, and he yanked the missile, pulling it into a tight barrel roll as Noct blocked one of the waterspouts. Perhaps that was a little too ambitious, as Noct started to slip. Prompto reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back up, saying, “Dude! Don’t let go!”

  Noct had only just regained his hold when he shouted, “Hey! Head’s up!” drawing Prompto’s attention back in front of them.

  “Oh, shit!” he shouted as he yanked on the steering, only just managing to turn away from the Hydraean’s head to avoid colliding with it. Well, this definitely counted as close. “Noct, can you reach?” he asked. He turned the missile back towards the Hydraean’s head again, watching… then, “Now!”

  Noct threw his sword, warping cleanly to the god. “Don’t crash!” he shouted as Prompto whizzed past.

  “No promises!” Prompto replied, before turning the missile away from that battle. He had gotten the thing up in the air, but hadn’t really thought about how he was supposed to land it. These missiles were meant to be remotely controlled, not ridden.

  As it turned out, the option was removed from him entirely. Whatever it was Noct was doing with the Hydraean was causing water spouts to come up all over the place. The entire city was surrounded by a wall of water and the very buildings were starting to crumble and lift up into the sky.

  “Gladio, Ignis, where are- oh shit!”

  Prompto tried to dodge the waterspout, but he wasn’t fast enough, the engine unresponsive and shorting after too much water drowning it. The missile nosedived. They slammed into a chunk of masonry and spun out of control. Prompto was thrown, the ground racing up to meet him. The last thing he remembered was fervently wishing he had Noct’s warping ability before he slammed into the cement, rolled down a slope, only to fall again and lay still.

  -l-l-l-

  “I swear, Prom, if you don’t answer me in the next two seconds, I’ll-”

  Prompto groaned. “Gladio?” he asked, pushing himself upright. “Oh, my head,” he said, raising a hand to touch it, his fingers coming away sticky.

  “About time. You alive?” Gladio’s voice came through his earpiece. Prompto was honestly surprised the thing was still working, but he wasn’t about to turn his nose up at that little bit of luck.

  “Yeah, think so,” he replied. Sitting back, he looked around and realised he was sitting in a few inches of water, water that was steadily rising. “Crap,” he muttered.

  “What’s happening?” Gladio demanded.

  Pulling himself to his feet, fighting off the wave of vertigo, Prompto said, “Water’s rising. I’m down in one of the canals, or what’s left of it. Where’s everyone else?”

  “We have to find Iggy. Something… something happened, I don’t know what. He was talking, after we lost contact with you then… well, he’s hurt bad. Somewhere. I don’t know where, but we have to find him.”

  Prompto felt as though ice had lodged itself in the pit of his stomach. Gladio was rattled. Gladio was never rattled, in the face of danger he was cool and collected. Sure, he had a temper, but when it came to situations like this, he was in control of his emotions. What Prompto could hear in his voice was anything but. Whatever it was he had heard had gotten to him.

  “Ok, we should split up. You take one part of the city, I’ll take the other. What about Noct?”

  “I don’t know. Haven’t heard from him either.”

  Reaching the upper level, Prompto came up short, staring at the destruction around them. The city was destroyed. Completely and utterly destroyed. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  “He’s alive, he has to be,” Prompto said, as much to convince himself of the fact than anything else. “We’ll find both of them.”

  “I’m closest to where the Hydraean fight took place. I’ll look for Noct, you look for Ignis. And stay in contact, got it?”

  “Got it,” Prompto said.

  Right. He would look for Ignis. But how the hell was he supposed to find one man amongst all of this? Especially since that man was likely unconscious and severely injured. The Hydraean battle seemed to be over at least; there were no more waterspouts, and the empire appeared to be driven back, retreating once the fight was lost. Nonetheless, there were still people milling around. Not many, most had gotten to safety, but there were those who had refused to evacuate and those who hadn’t made it in time.

  Prompto scanned the faces of everyone he saw, but couldn’t find Ignis. It was unlikely, of course, but part of him hoped that Ignis was alright, injured, perhaps, but otherwise fine and that it was just his phone that was damaged. He hoped the same with Noct too, but he left that worry to Gladio.

  Prompto picked his way around the city, trying to head back to where he had last seen Ignis, figuring he couldn’t have gone too far from there. He began asking anyone he saw if someone had seen him, but he was just one of many doing the exact same thing. He was always met with the same response, either a muted shake of the head, or an apology and a reply question asking for whoever they were looking for.

  “Prom! I’ve found him!”

  Gladio’s voice made Prompto jump, but his heart leapt at the news. “Is he okay?” he asked desperately.

  “I… don’t know. I- hold on.” Prompto froze where he was, listening. He gave a sigh of relief when in the background he heard someone that sounded like Noct heaving. “He’s breathing now, threw up a lung full of water, but alive. Still out cold, though. Cuts and bruises… I don’t think he’s seriously hurt.”

  “Thank the gods,” Prompto murmured, closing his eyes briefly in relief. “Is there somewhere safe we can take him?”

  A pause. Then, “The secretary's office. It’s the most sturdy building, probably still standing, and will have the highest security. I’ll bring him there.”

  “Right. I’ll meet you there when I find Ignis.”

  Silence.

  “Just… let me know when you find him. Please.” Gladio’s voice was desperate.

  “I will,” Prompto promised, trying to sound reassuring.

  He went back to searching, but the minutes dragged by into hours. Gladio kept him updated on what was happening to Noct but was reluctant to leave his side to search. Prompto tried to reassure him, a shield always stays with his king, he said, but he could tell how torn the man was.

  It was starting to get dark, with people retreating to the safety of the lighted areas to avoid demons, when Prompto finally spotted him. He had almost given up hope, but it was the purple and black patterned shirt that caught his eye. Feeling his heart leap into his throat, he ran forwards, near shouting, “Gladio! I’ve found him!”

  “Is he okay? Is he… is he alive?” Gladio asked desperately.

  There was debris that had fallen on him and Prompto hastily shoved it off, then froze. “Oh shit,” he muttered.

  “What? What is it? Damnit Prompto, if you-”

  “His face is… burned, I think,” Prompto said, cutting into Gladio’s swearing. Leaning in, he rested his fingers against his throat and felt a pulse. It was fast, but strong. “He’s alive, Gladio. Other than his face and superficial stuff, I can’t see any other injuries.”

  “How the hell did he get burned? If anything, he should have been drowned.”

  Prompto just shook his head, forgetting that Gladio couldn’t see the movement. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. He spotted Ignis’s broken glasses lying nearby but ignored them; they were useless broken and, by the look of those injuries, would remain useless for some time. Gathering him up, he grunted a bit lifting him but managed; despite probably being the smallest of the four of them, Prompto’s training made him surprisingly strong. He would be able to carry their friend. He had to. “I’m on my way back. Just… just make sure there’s doctors ready. He’s gonna need it.”

  “Got it. They’ll be here on standby. Prom… Thanks.”

  Prompto gave a tight smile. “You got it, big guy,” he said.