Chapter Text
For a moment, everything was hazy, as if someone had thrown a smoke grenade at his feet. Prompto coughed a little into the crease of his elbow before standing and trying to figure out where exactly he was. He had found himself alone somewhere within the city after landing whatever Niff flying contraption that was that he and Noctis were riding on moments before. He thought that perhaps he recognized the location, but the layout of the city had become a jumbled mess in his mind, and didn’t help that buildings had become destroyed. Landmarks that he was just becoming accustomed to were nearly unrecognizable. He scanned the area, looking for anyone who might’ve been left behind. It was his job, after all, to make sure the citizens escaped to safety.
Another loud roar echoed through the sky like a behemoth’s echo on a vast plain, causing rattling on the large shop window pane behind him. Prompto looked up and from his vantage point, he could clearly see the Hydrean and faint flashes of blue shooting around it.
Noct...
He bit at his lower lip, feeling a pit of worry twisting within in his stomach. For a moment, he considered going back to help him when the sound of clanking metal directly behind him drew the blonde man’s attention.
There had to be about fifteen Magitek soldiers descending upon his location. He could see the drop ship taking off, but thankfully he could not locate any others in the sky over the city. That meant they had either all landed or had retreated by this point. Perhaps they had even honed in on his location. He didn’t know for certain. They did seem to have a knack for finding him, and if it meant leading them away from the others, he would do it.
Gladio and Ignis were tied up elsewhere in the city, he knew. Yet, he was unsure how he could handle this situation alone. His curatives were nearly spent by now, and there would be no easy way out.
A bullet zipped by his shoulder and he flinched before taking off in the other direction. He’d need to get to a high vantage point, and fast, if he wanted to take them out. The MTs were quickly approaching and he found himself zipping around a corner and up a flight of stairs, half skipping every other step as he bounded forward using all of his energy. He turned and corner and found himself on a walkway high above the area he’d just left. He aimed carefully and began firing, taking out the the ranged MTs in the rear one by one. That would leave the ones with the closer melee weapons that he could hit from a distance. Prompto took a deep and shaky breath and thanked all the years he had spent playing video games. Strategy was everything, and the friendly neighborhood strategist was nowhere to be found.
Another thunderous roar shook the ground, but Prompto didn’t take his eyes off his advancing target, until suddenly he felt a sharp and painful sting in his right shoulder. He fell to his knees and let out a yelp. Looking down, there was a deep wound along the top of his shoulder, now bleeding heavily. Quickly, he rose to unsteady feet and ducked behind a pillar for cover, aiming his gun toward an approaching MT. The ground was shaking and a wall of water was swiftly growing higher and approaching. If he could just get back to that flying machine he’d found earlier, he could make an escape.
Crawling along the ground, he spotted where he had left it. Deciding he needed some sort of diversion, he began firing frantically, taking out a few MTs that were now approaching the stairs. He ducked down and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Another painful sting spread out along his back, causing Prompto to fall over onto his hands and knees. He let out a pained cry but forced himself to his feet, trying his best to ignore the pain. He’d be able to stop soon and use a potion. Now was not that time, he realized as they were gaining on his location. He hopped down off the side of the walkway, landing about ten feet below and rolled on the ground, body aching from the impact. He quickly rose to his feet and began running toward the flying vehicle he had taken earlier.
Prompto straddled it and fiddled with the controls, recalling the sequence he had used previously. Bullets whizzed by him as the contraption began rising off the ground. At that moment, the wall of water was threatening to overtake the area he had been hiding earlier. The buildings behind him overtaken in the waves. The ground shook furiously and the walkway that was now swarming with Magitek soldiers began collapsing. Prompto didn’t look back, but he could hear metal meeting with rock and the roar of water as he soared away.
“Yeah!” He shouted, raising his right arm in the air and immediately he retracted it, wincing as pain shot up his arm. He became more aware of his throbbing back and a sticky slick substance covering his skin under his shirt. He bit his lip and pressed forward. As he rose higher off the ground, he became more aware of the damage that the city had been enduring. Whipping around, he caught glimpse of Leviathan, fins now tattered and body writhing in the air. At that moment, he could see a small speck of black hurtling downward.
“Noct!” Prompto shouted. Against his immediate instinct to flee, he flew forward. Bracing himself, he saw that a wall of water was approaching and he flew through it. Now drenched from head to toe and as well as the machine he was riding on. What he didn’t see before passing through the looming water was the two Magitek airships that followed him through. It wasn’t until Prompto was on the other side of the water-fortress that he saw a gunshot pass right by his very eyes, missing him by only a couple of inches. The lithe man turned his head so fast that he almost gave himself whiplash. Behind the gunman was two ships that he did not see before, both firing at him now.
“Damn… I thought I lost these guys back there!” Prompto huffed as he quickly turned left on the air machine and then did a sudden nose dive. “I can’t lead them towards Noct! I’ll just have to fight them some other way. They can't be pass me up and reach him!” Prompto’s mind raced as he turned the vehicle, if that’s what one could call this thing, around and zipped between both airships at lightning speed while shooting like a trigger-happy maniac.
While skyrocketing in between the airships, he felt the impact of several small punctures flying into him, stinging him on impact. He was sure nothing important had been hit, but it hurt nonetheless. Now more than ever, he felt the pain from his earlier injuries. His shoulder throbbed in pain and his stomach was churning inside out, he was starting to feel sick. He swallowed hard against the rising wave of nausea and focused his attention on the ships ahead of him. Raising his gun, he took aim. “All I have to do is hit the glowing red ones, those are the explosive ones.” Prompto thought, as he noticed three MT’s fall from their ships into the watery abyss below. Taking own his trusty pistol he closed his eyes just for a brief second and opened them, blinking hard. He locked onto one of the exploding MT’s on the far right airship. He pulled the trigger then and watched in suspended motion as the airship exploded in a detonation of red and smoke. The fiery blast blinded the gunman’s eyes momentarily, painting his vision in red.
The explosion hit just right and before he knew it, the burning ship was colliding into the one on the left. The resulting blast was massive and momentarily gained the attention of Leviathan herself. The water Goddess didn’t like intruders and therefore brought her massive tail out of the water and slammed it into the exploding airships with as much impact as a meteor crashing to Eos. Prompto snapped out of his trance almost in enough time to escape, but he was too late. The main force of the tail collided with the airship knocking them toward the flying crownsguard at increased speed. In a split second, Prompto swore he saw his entire life flash before his eyes as the airships that the Hydrean hit were milliseconds away from colliding with him dead on.
By the time his brain had registered the threat, it was far too late. He was about to die, he was sure of it. In his mind, he wondered if he would even be able to survive this. In his last couple seconds of consciousness, he saw the front of the vehicle crash into him. It felt like he was just hit by a semi-tuck, the impact knocking him off the seat of his own machine, as he watched the machine sputtered and began falling towards the ground. He could see marble, brick, concrete and water below him. Soon, he’d be there too. The impact came and the world went black.