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Noctis looks from Gladio’s map to the cave and back again, squinting at the lopsided red circle Taka had scrawled over part of the Hammerhead countryside. The sun catches on the glossy paper and he hunkers closer to it and turns, his shadow preventing him from blinding himself.
“This is the place?” He asks, glancing between the two again. The really? goes unsaid, as his tone makes his doubt obvious enough.
The thin split in the rock wall is the only gap anywhere near where the “cave” they’re looking for is supposed to be. It also looks way too small for any daemons to hold up in it. "Lizards are probably the only thing living in there."
Prompto hums dubiously from where he stands beside it, bumping his foot against the stone. “Yeah, I dunno about this,” he says. A few clumps of orange-ish dirt come loose and fall to the ground.
“I mean...it seems sturdy, I guess. But could the big guy even fit in through here?” He asks, stepping back from the wall. He holds his arms out in front of him, hands straight up and a short distance apart, trying to measure the gap. The gesture reminds Noctis of an old commercial campaign for some Insomnian sandwich shop. “Fuck, can Iggy even fit through here?”
Noctis just grunts, trying to wrestle the map back into the tiny rectangle Gladio had handed him ten minutes ago, since it's not doing them any good anyway.
Still, Prompto has a point.
The so called “cave mouth” is barely more than a crack in the red rock shelf of a canyon not too far from Hammerhead. It’s odd looking, two large vaguely rectangular slabs of stone leaned toward each other. They didn't look like they'd been there originally but now, after who knows how many years of erosion, they were weathered tightly to the rest of the rock.
Maybe if he knew something about geology he’d be impressed at the formation of their straight lines. As it is, there's nothing particularly special about the rocks other than them looking kind of weird.
Well, that and the daemons that were supposed to be inside it.
“Well, if we can’t fit then you two skinny little shits will just have to go in alone.” Gladio snorts from where he's looming over Noctis' shoulder, checking the map he'd downloaded over Hammerhead's shaky wi-fi during their lunch break earlier. (Granola bars and bottled water. It wasn't Iggy's best dish but at least they weren't starving. Yet.)
Ignis isn’t there, had headed off down the side of the canyon to search for another way in, but Noctis’ brain supplies the appropriate sigh he would make, the exasperated sound long memorized.
Prompto stumbles at Gladio’s words, the loose dirt, sand and the mild incline up to the rock wall almost sending him face first into the ground. Once he gets his legs back underneath himself, he pouts.
He is, Noctis notices with more amusement than sympathy, already getting a sunburn.
“What!? C’mon big guy! Two DPS does not a party make.” Prompto shakes his head emphatically, hands slashing through the air in passionate rejection of Gladio’s idea.
Gladio chuckles and slides his phone back into his pocket, before snatching the map out of Noctis’ hands and deftly folding it, easy as pie.
Asshole.
“You think you’re a DPS? Please, I do that and tank. I don’t really know what you’re doing when we’re in a fight but it’s—" Ignis' actual sigh cuts off Gladio's teasing, and Noctis looks up toward the sound, seeing his adviser descending the short, shrub covered hill he'd left over.
As he comes closer, Noctis can see that he doesn’t look happy, so he either didn't find anything or he's just annoyed Gladio and Prompto are arguing again. Maybe both.
Based on how their day has been going so far, probably both.
“Gladio, stop disrespecting our bard.” Iggy calls as he walks back to them. He stops once he's at Noctis’ side, pulling one of his carefully rolled sleeves back up his forearm from where it had slid down. He’s sweaty but in the artful, intentional looking way that Ignis always gets dirty, more like costume make-up than actual filth. “Noct, I cannot find any other possible entrances. I fear this is our best choice.”
Ignis sounds as unhappy about that as he looks which, yeah, he gets.
Noctis looks from the indignant Gladio, to the thoughtful Prompto, to the attentive Ignis, all waiting on his decision.
He sighs. He wants to go into the cave about as much as he wants to chew off his own leg.
When Taka had first mentioned the hunt, Noctis had brought up the idea of just waiting till nighttime to kill the monsters so they’d be outside. It was only a few minutes run from the cave to the hunter checkpoint after all. The monsters weren’t even supposed to be strong! They’d be out for a half hour, maybe an hour tops if the fight was more difficult than they’d planned.
If they kept moving the danger of daemons even spawning was, worst case scenario, minimum.
The disappointed (Ignis and Gladio) and fearful (Prompto) expressions he’d received at the mere mention of it had him swallowing the idea back down before he could even explain why he thought they should gallivant across the countryside at night.
So, stuffing themselves into a gap only a little wider than Gladio’s thigh it was then.
“Fine, let’s go.”
Noctis steps up to the crack, eyeing it and turning to line himself up with it. It would be a tight squeeze, but he could probably—
A firm grip around his wrist pulls him back and he rolls his eyes, ready to remind Gladio that he was the one who’d wanted to go into the cave today so he could just suck it up and deal with Noctis going in.
He almost jumps when he meets Prompto’s eyes instead.
Prompto smiles forcefully, and expression visibly strained.
“How about I just go first buddy?” he asks, even as he drags Noctis back farther from the mouth. He forces himself in before Noctis has a chance to respond, looking extremely unhappy even as he wiggles his leg in sideways.
It’s a little bit heart-warming, his best friend wanting to take care of him, and it makes him a little proud to see Prompto stepping up to his position in the Crownsguard, no matter how much he hates caves. Noctis has always known that Prompto was brave, no matter what how he talked about himself.
It’s also a little heart-breaking, seeing his best friend acting as his ‘just in case’ human shield, so ready to throw his life away.
Prompto mutters as he sidles into the crack, his voice gradually muffling with distance.
“I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate—ah!”
There’s a scrambling noise and then a pause in Prompto’s monologue. Noctis' heart lurches in his chest and he steps toward the crack, but Gladio grabs him, shaking his head when Noctis glares.
“Freedom! Dark, musty freedom!” Prompto calls back through the gap, cutting off their argument. It’s a little sing-song, which is good. That means he isn’t sinking into a panic attack after willingly shoving himself into an enclosed space. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Noctis snorts and snatches his wrist back from Gladio before he pushes himself in after his friend.
Somehow, despite Prompto and Noctis both having trouble making their way through the crack masquerading as a cave mouth, Ignis and Gladio squeeze in after them.
The good thing about that is that at least Noctis will able to warp them all outside the cave if he’s not too tired when they need to leave.
The bad thing is that now they have to actually explore the cave.
“Did Taka say what kind of monsters are in here?”
Noctis glances up from the little patch of dimly glowing moss he’d found at the end of an offshoot at the sound of Prompto’s voice. The cave was, apparently, much bigger on the inside than it had first seemed.
The passage the mouth had opened to snaked its way deeper, gradually leading them down as they followed it, all the halls wide enough for them to walk side by side, tall enough that even Gladio couldn’t reach the ceiling. It's a bit eerie, to think that all this was hiding behind that little crack.
“Goblins I believe, correct Noct? You do have the bounty, after all.”
Ignis’ voice answers before Noctis has the chance to, gradually increasing in volume as he makes his way back up from one of the longer branching paths. The light from the moss is just bright enough for Noctis to see a new streak of dirt across his nose.
He’s definitely not gonna be the one to tell Iggy about that.
And the bounty is crammed somewhere in his pocket, but he doesn’t need it, he remembers.
“Yeah, group of Goblins and a Hobgoblin.”
Ignis nods, looking vaguely troubled.
Noctis feels the same. Taka had made it sound like the cave was a shallow little thing, just a hide-y hole for the goblins to hunker down in for the day before they came out to harass cars at night and scream around the perimeter of Hammerhead.
That’s definitely not what this is.
The heavy crunch of hiking boots heralds Gladio’s return from the other side of the chamber.
His footsteps stop just behind Noctis, so he pushes himself up off the ground and turns to look at his Shield. The moss wasn’t important anyway.
Gladio’s arms are crossed, but the glare of the flashlight clipped to his shirt collar makes Noctis squint over his shoulder and casts his face into dark shadow. If he knows his Shield at all though, the man is scowling. Gladio grumbles, shifting his weight, dirt grinding underneath his boots. “I don’t like this.”
Prompto laughs from his place behind Noctis, his position out of Gladio's reach emboldening him to tease the man. "Yeah, no one is surprised about that big guy."
Gladio ignore him and uncrosses his arms, jerking one up to point his thumb back at the offshoot he’d come from. “That one leads down to another chamber, I didn’t go past the door though. We should head further in.”
Noctis resists the urge to roll his eyes because yeah, he could have figured that out. “Yessir.”
Gladio snorts at him, reaching out with one big hand to grab at his head. Noctis ducks out of the way, darting behind Prompto, who yelps as he’s shoved. “Hey, watch it buddy!”
Ignis sighs again. “You’re all children.” His voice is as exasperated as it is fond.
Noctis might not be able to see his expression in the dark but Ignis’ ‘I’m shaking my head because everyone around me is a disaster’ tone is more familiar than his own face.
Gladio takes point—grabbing Noctis by the shoulder and shaking him playfully as he walks past—and leads them across the cave to the tunnel he’d scouted. It looks just the same as the other three offshoot tunnels to Noctis, except that it continues down further into the rock.
Which is…a little concerning.
“How deep do we go before we give up?” He wonders, staring down the gaping black mouth of it.
They need the bounty money—supplies for four people aren’t cheap. Plus, whatever repairs the Regalia needed to get running again. Cindy had promised them that running some “errands” for her would pay for most of it but, as Ignis had pointed out afterward, most isn’t all.
“I could give up right now, if that helps?” Prompto jokes. His voice is a little off though, a bit too high-pitched and breathy. Noctis normally wouldn’t notice something like that, him being “emotionally stunted” according to Gladio, but well...
He’s listened to Prompto talk a lot.
The cave is definitely getting to him, which isn’t great. Prompto has never passed out from his claustrophobia—or, if he had he hasn’t mentioned it to Noctis before—but freezing and panic attacks are dangerous things to happen in a daemon fight.
That is, if they ever actually find the damn daemons.
Ignis speaks up, voicing doubts similar to Noctis'. “The thought is appreciated but unnecessary, Prompto. However, I agree with Noctis. It’s foolish to go too deep, considering how little we know about this cave.”
The tunnel finally narrows into the opening for the next chamber, but Gladio stops before they can go further, turning back to face them. The doorway is thin enough that his shoulders fill most of it, halting the rest of the party in their tracks.
“I don’t want to go back on our word but…” Gladio's voice trails off and he shifts to look toward Noctis.
“It’s stupid to get ourselves killed in a hole in the ground barely outside the city?” He supplies.
Gladio huffs out a laugh, three parts exhale and one part chuckle, but nods. “Yeah, pretty much.”
Ignis hums in agreement. “There are certainly safer ways to make money. Besides, Taka should have given us better information about this venture.” He sounds vaguely disappointed in the man, rather than worried, like he'd expected better of him. Typical Ignis.
“You think he’s up to something?”
Noctis doesn’t roll his eyes at Gladio's paranoia, but it’s a near thing. He's absolutely sure Taka hadn't recognized him. The man had barely looked at any of them, and even then he'd just commented on their clothing. That's a lot of black for this heat, boys.
Thankfully Ignis shakes his head, which is good because Noctis really doesn’t feel like watching his Shield shakedown some innocent diner owner just for not knowing everything about the cave he'd told them about. “I don’t think so. Based on the entrance and the state of the cave it’s more likely that he simply didn’t know, not that he sought to deceive us.”
Noctis nods. “Yeah, Dave didn’t have much to say about it either. If they hunters don’t know about all this, then Taka definitely wouldn’t.” He likes both of the men so far, and they seem too decent for the kind of thing Gladio is proposing.
Gladio drops the subject, holding his hands up in mock surrender. What little Noctis can see of his face looks amused at their defense of their new acquaintances.
Prompto claps sharply, drawing everyone’s attention. The sound echoes, rebounding off the cave walls and he winces, expression sheepish.
“Whoops.” He whispers, like he can compensate for the loud noise by speaking quieter now.
Ignis gives him a stern look but Noctis can see the corner of his mouth twitch a little, because he’s a liar and they all secretly amuse him.
“Anyway, so we look for like another half hour and then we can leave?” Prompto asks, almost begging. Noctis can see the eagerness written on his face and can’t resist teasing.
“You don’t have to sound so excited about it.”
Prompto gives him a look, one of the ones that says “why did I make life choices that require me to put up with you” and elbows him in the ribs.
Noctis covers the spot with his hand like he’s been grievously wounded and favors Gladio with his best deeply offended rich person face, based on the many times he's watched nobles interact with the Citadel staff. “Shield, this commoner assaulted me!”
Gladio rolls his eyes, mouth halfway open to retort before Ignis interrupts with his most no nonsense tone. “Children, we’re going.”
He heads into the next chamber, clearing expecting the three of them to follow his lead. Gladio shoots them both another pointed look, first to Noctis and then to Prompto, before turning to follow.
Prompto sticks his tongue out at Noctis as soon as both men's backs are turned, and Noctis might be an only child but he’s hung around Gladio and Iris enough to know that you can’t take that kind of thing lying down. He sticks his tongue out at Prompto.
”Children." Ignis' voice calls from further down the tunnel. "Now."
Prompto grins at Noctis, and what he can see of his face is suspiciously mischievous as he opens his mouth. “Yes mom!”
There's a long pause, Prompto's face growing gradually more fearful as the seconds pass. Gladio chokes in surprise up ahead of them, shoulders shaking as he coughs.
“Finally, some respect.” Ignis sounds legitimately pleased, which sets Prompto into a snickering fit, folding almost in half to clutch at his stomach as he laughs. Noctis pushes him the rest of the way down the tunnel, shaking his head all the while.
He’s friends with these people.
The next two levels are more of the same—oddly circular chambers, each empty and more terribly dark than the last. They’re getting colder now too, each floor putting distance between them and the memory of Hammerhead’s hot sunlight.
Ten minutes before their agreed time to give up, they approach another chamber.
Gladio stops just inside the room, blocking Ignis behind him in the archway. Noctis manages to avoid crashing into Ignis’ back but Prompto, fiddling with his phone, runs into his.
He backs away quickly, rubbing at the back of his neck. It’s too dark to make out his face but his sheepish “sorry!” is enough to convey the apologetic smile Noctis has seen at least once a week for four years.
Noctis waves his words away, leaning around Ignis side to see what the problem with Gladio is. He’s actually kind of bummed that Prompto stepped back so quickly. It’s really cold down here.
“This one looks different.” Gladio says, so quiet Noctis strains to hear his voice.
Ignis mutters his unhappy agreement. “Yes, we’d best be on our guard.”
The flashing light of Gladio and Ignis summoning their weapons looks brighter here in the darkness, the flickering blue-white wisps of magic lighting up the hall.
Prompto draws his guns at Noctis’ back, two quiet tinkling noises fading into nothing. It’s less of a crash—like something shattered or dropped, and more like the reverse of one, shards of a crystal goblet rewinding into the whole.
He glances over his shoulder to look at Prompto. He can see him grimace back through the shadows.
Noctis’ heartbeat picks up in sympathy. He doesn’t really want to fight daemons in a cave underneath a small mountain’s worth of stone either.
Gladio steps out further into the room and, drawing his sword in his own muted burst of light, Noctis follows him.
The chamber is different from the others—less circular, more naturally shaped. The walls are oddly striped, lines spaced horizontally in almost wave-like patterns. Also, unlike any of the other chambers they had been in before, it had stalactites and stalagmites. They’re oddly clear with a slight greenish tint to them, more like ice than rock, but present.
Gladio, upon seeing them, had made it very clear that if anyone touched one with bare skin he would beat them over the head with it.
Other than that it was…pretty much exactly the same as the rest of the cave and, most importantly, devoid of goblins.
“This one looks different.” Prompto mocks, voice comically gruff.
Gladio might be on the other side of the room but Noctis knows, with the certainty of the rising of the sun, that he’s rolling his eyes.
Noctis joins in.
“We’d best be on-” Ignis’ elbow bumps into his side as the man moves to walk past him.
His eyes are wide with innocence when Noctis turns to glare at him.
“Ah, apologies my Prince.”
Prompto laughs. “Iggy is playing you, buddy.”
Noctis resists the urge to sigh. “Never would have guessed, thanks Prom.”
“No problem!” He says with exaggerated cheer.
He’s also playing Noctis.
“I’m being bullied,” Noctis announces, looking between them. “I’m twenty years old and I’m being bullied.”
Ignis smiles. “It’s partially your own fault, you know.”
Prompto nods at his side, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Yeah, you picked me. You did this to yourself.”
Noctis shakes his head, turning to face the wall. There are several shallow holes along its surface and one of them will certainly be more worth paying attention to than either of his friends.
“He doesn’t take criticism well.” Prompto comments sagely, like a gossiping aunt talking to her beleaguered sister in the kitchen during the child’s birthday party.
Ignis sighs, sounding tired. “It’s true. I’ve tried my best, but I can only do so much.”
Prompto pats him on the shoulder consolingly.
Noctis squints at the wall. One of the holes is noticeably bigger than the others. It’s roughly the circumference of a softball and deep enough that he can’t see the end. There definitely aren’t any goblins in it but…
“Ignis?” He asks, reaching out a hand. “Could I borrow one of your daggers for a sec?”
Ignis steps closer, looking from Noctis’ hand to the hole in the wall.
He doesn’t respond for a moment. “…what will you do if I say no?” He sounds wary and, well, Noctis can’t really blame him.
He holds out his other hand.
“Prom, could I borrow one of your guns?”
“Uh, …sure?” He says, moving to hand it over before he’s even finished talking.
Ignis reaches across Noctis’ chest and pulls his arm down before Prompto can make contact.
“No!” He’s visibly ruffled and more wide-eyed than normal.
Noctis smirks at him and he deflates, holding out one of his daggers.
“If the alternative is you somehow killing yourself with ricochet…fine.”
Noctis accepts the dagger with a smile, before angling the blade toward the hole and pushing it in, listening to Gladio’s heavy footsteps approach from behind them.
“Noctis is getting himself killed?” He asks, more curious than worried. No one answers for a moment, the only sound the dagger scraping along the stone, before Prompto, tentatively, questions his casualness.
“…Shouldn’t you be, you know, concerned about that?”
“Eh.” His shrug is damn near audible.
Noctis considers giving him shit about that lackluster response which is why, of course, something inside the hole clicks and a portion of the stone further down the wall begins to shift and grind.
“Woo! Secret door!”
Noctis grins along with Prompto’s cheer, unable to resist because, really, secret door.
He hands Ignis his dagger, stepping over to the door to see inside and-
Oh.
The room past the door way is tiny, barely a quarter of the size of the chamber he’s standing in. It looks even smaller because the entire back wall is, floor to ceiling, covered by a giant crystal.
Noctis edges closer, so mystified he doesn’t even notice when Gladio steps half in front of him, seizing his chance to act out his position literally.
The crystal is partially embedded in the rock wall, the bottom and back of it supported by the stone. It’s big, more massive than Noctis thought a gem could be, nearly twice as tall as Gladio and maybe half or a quarter its length wide. Six, it’s probably the size of the Regalia.
The sides aren’t smooth, dipping and peaking, chipped in places. There’s a flat pane at the front, stretching from the point where the bottom disappears into the wall right up to the crooked tip of it near the ceiling. The whole thing glows a little but the front of it pulses with light that almost hurts to look at after being in the cave so long. It reminds him a little of the pillars by the havens, but their faded glow is gentle, comforting.
This burns.
Colors shift over its surface, delicate pinks and wispy greens, eggshell blues and deep purples like samples of the night sky. The hues are all soft, colors meant for fine dresses and kinder days, but each one of them blazes painfully bright.
It’s beautiful and he doesn’t want to look away, hardly dares to blink for fear that it won’t be there when he opens his eyes again.
As pretty as it is, it also hurts, the blinding shine of it feels like it could melt his eyes right from his skull if he stared too long.
And then, as if it had read Noctis’ thoughts, it starts to melt.
The shifting of the colors fades to a slow halt, leaving it a soft green that is nearly as pretty as the rainbow iridescence had been. Till it starts to flow.
It’s eerie and unnatural to watch, incomprehensible to his eyes and his mind. Liquids flowed—fountains, lakes, waterfalls; even blood flowed, dripping and splattering, moving to the will of gravity and whatever container it was in. It’s almost stomach-churning to see the motion in a solid, the rules of the world being so blatantly disregarded.
Noctis pushes closer to Gladio, squinting through the thin beams from their flashlights.
The crystal is melting from the inside. The outer layer holds its shape, looking more like stained glass than rock as its inside swirl and shift the way no rock ever should.
A shape begins to form in the green, shadowy due to the thick crystal but clearly a human. Or at least, something shaped like one.
Noctis tries to take another step closer but Gladio blocks him with his body and then summons his shield. Noct wonder at the absence of his sword—for all his position as the King’s Shield Gladio was an “offense is the best defense” person at heart—till he feels Ignis at his back, daggers at his sides.
Noctis glances to the walls at their sides, around Gladio and Ignis. The crystal took up most of the room in the tiny cave, and most of the space it wasn’t occupying they were taking up. Gladio’s great sword was far more effective against daemons than any of their other weapons.
It would also be far, far too easy for him to cut them all in half in such close quarters.
A scuff sounds through the room from behind and Noct shoots a glance at Prompto. The blond looks nervous as he edges his way toward them, pistols low at his sides as he moves into place next to Ignis.
Noct turns back to the crystal, the last of the white haze disappearing.
The green cracks, pieces of the rock tinkling like wind chimes as the hit the stone floor.
Green liquid sloshes forward, and as one they jerk away, taking several steps back until they’re almost in the larger chamber again. But the liquid doesn’t spray out, just starts pouring from the crystal, like a mini-waterfall in a fountain. Unlike a mini-waterfall, it sends up sheets of steam as it hits the floor, so thick it blocks the body of the crystal from view. The liquid eats away at the dirt and stone it touches, easily disintegrating them but gradually disappearing, the steam thinning as it does.
Noctis is struck by the sudden thought of evaporation and water vapor hanging in the air and really, really fucking hopes this stuff doesn’t do anything like that.
He doesn’t want to know what it could do to a human.
The shallow trench the—acid? It must be acid but how—dug in the floor lies between them and the place where the crystal once leaned.
The room is darker now without its light but Noctis can make out the floor through the thin light of their flashlights.
And, sprawled across the floor, arms spread wide at his side, feet near the base of the crystal…
A man.
Laid out like he’d fallen from the stone and landed in the newly carved floor, from skull to spine to shin pressed to cold stone.
They all stand in silence for a long moment, waiting. Perhaps for him to stand, or to dissolve, or a dramatic flash of light to herald the appearance of another crystal or the speaking of some regal voice.
There is nothing but the cold, the dark and the man on the ground.
Prompto finally breaks the silence.
“What the fuck?”
Ignis doesn’t scold him for his language, which is basically the equivalent of him saying it himself.