After rounding the corner of the hallway outside the room, Prompto spots an imperial trooper at the other end of another hallway. Thanks to Ardyn, the boy was armed with his pistol and a small blade. Hiding behind cover, he inhaled and exhaled before poking his head out and firing round after round at the soldier. It took more bullets than he thought it would to kill the enemy.

With the soldier now dead, Prompto proceeded down the hallway and walked through another pair of sliding metal doors. Upon proceeding through the doors, he finds windows to his left overlooking a large, open room filled with many dormant magitek troopers. He shuddered at the sight. "Shit... Was he telling the truth about this place?"

Backing away from the windows, he shook his head and focused on finding (Y/n). Walking through more metal doors, he came across another adversary. "I can't let them find me," he whispered to himself after taking cover. When he was ready, he stalked up behind the enemy and performed a stealth attack. He killed the soldier from behind and stole their submachine gun. With his newly acquired weapon, he headed down the hallway.

As he came across a stairwell leading up, Prompto quickly dove behind the wall when two soldiers were making their way down. He grabbed his new gun and checked the clip. Seeing it was fully loaded, he emerged from his hiding spot and shot at the two soldiers.

After dealing with them, the blonde sprinted up the stairwell. Turning left at the top, he ran into more soldiers. Like with previous encounters, he easily disposed of them before proceeding forth. He tried to pep himself up to prepare for whatever lies ahead. "I can do this."

"I know you can," a kind voice giggled.

Prompto's eyes widen when recognizing the voice. Running down to the end of the hallway, he looked down the right path to see (Y/n) standing there. Tears of relief welled up in his eyes, but they never fell. "(Y-Y/n)...! Oh, Six, I'm so glad..." The moment he took a step towards her, she spun around and ran away. He gasped and quickly took chase. "W-Wait, (Y/n)! Stop!"

He followed her around corners until he was forced to dive behind cover when he ran into a large group of soldiers. He tried to fire the submachine gun, but the clip was empty. Tossing the weapon aside, he grabbed his pistol and fired at the energy tank located behind the adversaries. He ducked back down at the explosion erupted in the hallway, killing all the soldiers in one go.

Once all became quiet, Prompto searched for (Y/n). He found her standing at the end of the hallway in front of another set of metal doors. He ran down the hall as she turned to enter the next room. Her body phased through the doors, but he hadn't witnessed it due to grabbing another submachine gun off one of the weapon racks. He continued to follow her and entered a large room with storage containers. Four dormant magitek axemen stood in the center of the room while imperial soldiers prowled around.

Prompto snuck over to another rack of weapons and located a sniper rifle. Switching out the submachine for the new weapon, he ducked behind a stack of storage containers. He watched the soldiers' movements until he had their paths memorized. Leaning out from his hiding spot, he took aim with the sniper and eliminated the imperial troopers one by one. Lowering the gun, he sighed in relief. However, it was short-lived.

A floating metal orb, known as a defense node, detects him. Prompto stumbles back in shock as the automated voice he heard earlier spoke out. "Target detected. Eliminate immediately. Commence elimination of compromised unit."

The four dormant magitek axemen at the center of the room begin to move as other additional magiteks and imperial troopers marched into the room. Seeing he was going to need more firepower, Prompto searched the room for more weapons. He came across a bazooka, which he didn't hesitate to claim as his own. He waited for the enemies to swarm him in a mass horde before firing a single missile. He watched with a satisfied smirk as the explosion took out half of their numbers. It even caused the defense node to explode. He repeated the process a second and third time, but only one magitek axeman survived all three missiles.

Grabbing the small blade, Prompto rushed at the enemy and swung at it. He chopped off one of its arms before decapitating it. When it was dead, he huffed out a sigh and glanced down at the blade. "Man, (Y/n) and Noct make using a sword look easy..." Sheathing the weapon, he heard nothing but silence. There were no other enemies within the vicinity. He looked around the room and couldn't find the spectral image of his beloved. He saw another hallway connected to the large room. It was the only other way for him to go. "Can't keep leaving everything to (Y/n). I've gotta find my way out."

Making his way out of the large room, Prompto travels a short way down a hall and passes through some sliding doors. He exited the facility and saw he was on a snowy cliffside overlooking a mountain range. Walking towards the snowy pathway wrapped around the cliffside, he saw the familiar ghostly apparition of (Y/n). Her back was turned to him, her gaze focused on the beautiful scenery.

Carefully, Prompto trudged through the snow towards her. He feared she would run away from him again. When he was close enough, he reached a hand out to touch her, but it passed through her body. "Dammit..." He gritted his teeth. "Another illusion..."

The girl turned to him, smiling sweetly. She didn't say anything as she tried to touch him. Prompto already knew neither one of them could touch each other, but he didn't move. Instead, he fruitlessly tried to grab her outstretched hand. Sorrowful tears pooled in his eyes. "I'm not leaving this place without you, (Y/n). Wait for me. I'll find you, I promise. If I have to kill every soldier and MT to find you, I will. I'll turn this whole place upside down just to get you back." He admired her smile one last time before her body vanished. Unconsciously, he reached out to grab her again, his fist clenching tightly when there was nothing to touch. "Even if you were an illusion created by my mind, you could've stayed a little longer..." He weakly chuckled.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Prompto pushed on. He headed down the path and entered another portion of the facility. He wanders through the halls until stopping in what appears to be a workplace lounge area. On the bench, a piece of paper caught his attention. Picking it up, he read it. It was information regarding the barcodes. He exhaled a shaky breath, his hand trembling. "We... We've all got the same barcodes."

Lowering the page, his attention was drawn to another document. There were tons of red markings and the word "failure" written everywhere. Because of the markings, he couldn't make out the barcode number or any information in regards to the specimen mentioned on the page. Putting the page down, he noticed another stack of papers with the same red markings and "failure" written across them. The sheer amount of paper he found with the same markings was astounding. "Guess something didn't go as planned..."

Deciding to not loiter any longer, Prompto attempts to exit the room. As he stepped towards the metal doors, they slid open and he was greeted by a magitek axeman crackling with leaking energy. The MT swings its weapon at Prompto, but he manages to catch it by its haft. It sent him to the floor with the MT on top of him. The sharpshooter promptly grabs his pistol and shoots it, causing its physical deterioration to reach critical. The magitek trooper breaks down and dies while Prompto gets back to his feet.

The all-too-familiar computerized voice that was haunting him spoke up. "Target detected. Eliminate immediately."

"I can't take this anymore," Prompto huffed out in annoyance. "I need to find (Y/n) quick..."

As he proceeds down the next hall, the automated voice speaks once again. "Commence elimination of compromised unit."

Prompto enters another large open room similar to the one he passed through before his exit onto the snowy cliffside. He makes his way through the room, killing any and all enemies that dared stand in his way. When all the adversaries were dead, he wandered over to a circular passageway. It was sealed by metallic petals that originate from along the perimeter of the circle and meet in the center. A small control panel similar to the one he activated after waking up earlier sits beside the entrance to the passageway.

Prompto looks down at his barcode, grits his teeth, and places his wrist over the control panel. The panel lights up green and the metal petals retract, allowing him through. He inhaled shakily and muttered, "Lucky me." Walking down the stairwell, he couldn't help but speak his horrid inner thoughts. "What the hell am I?"

After making his way down the newly opened passageway, Prompto enters a room containing several large glass cylinders, each holding a human figure resembling him. He gasped in horror at the sight. His heart was racing with fear. "How could he do that? Who... What am I?"

Walking past the glass cylinders, he heads up the stairs at the back of the room. There, he finds himself looking through glass into another room filled with more glass cylinders containing figures that resemble him. On the floor were the bodies of some MTs, seemingly dead while a few others stand dormant along the perimeter of the room. Prompto snuck behind the desks when he thought he spotted two figures on the other side of the glass. "Is somebody in there?"

Getting a closer look, Prompto recognizes Ardyn but not the other man. Calming his racing heart, he snuck up to the glass. "Deep breaths..." With his body lowered to the ground, he peered into the room and eavesdropped on the men's conversation.

Ardyn paced back and forth behind Verstael. "My friend, do you recall the children who were stolen from this facility?"

"The two those Lucians absconded with?" The armor-cladded man scoffed.

"Precisely."

"How could I possibly forget? Out of all the copies of my (Y/n), they stole the only successful one."

Prompto couldn't believe what he was hearing. (Y/n) was a copy, but a copy of who? He continued to listen.

"I thought you might like to see the fine young man and woman they've become these twenty odd years later. I did desire to hand over your precious (Y/n) first, but she absconded and her current location is unknown. However, I do have another surprise. As my second thanks for bringing your pets to Insomnia, I've brought the boy to you." Ardyn suddenly turns toward the glass where Prompto is watching from and addresses him. "The time has come to meet your maker. Any questions for daddy dearest? Father and son! Oh, how I love bringing families together. You will also learn the true nature of your darling guardian."

Prompto stood up, shaking his head in denial. "No... It's not true. You're wrong, dammit!" He darts through a doorway at the end of the room and enters another lounge area. "I don't care what he says. This place will never be my home or (Y/n)'s. Our "home" is in Lucis—not here."

Prompto storms into the room where he saw Ardyn and Verstael with his weapon raised. The chancellor was missing, leaving only Verstael. His back was turned towards the boy as he spoke. "What's the matter? Have you never seen a man turn before?" Verstael turns to face Prompto, revealing the right side of his face is becoming daemonified. "If those Lucians hadn't intervened, you could have turned, too, and my dear (Y/n) would be standing by my side like she once did."

"Why us?" Prompto asked.

"Because you were cloned from this genius' genes, born of my own flesh and blood. You are but one of millions created to serve our great empire in the magitek infantry."

"Created...to serve you?"

"Yes—and now you've finally come home to Niflheim, my son. And so has my precious (Y/n). She is by far my grandest creation. A perfect copy of a once mighty guardian, my guardian! A spirit bound to serve me and the empire. It took years to get her body and mind correct. Failure after failure..."

Prompto fires his gun into the air. "Shut up!" He was becoming enraged and couldn't hold his emotions back any longer. He hangs his head, his gun still pointed aloft for a moment before letting it hang by his side. "You're wrong... (Y/n) and I are Lucians!"

Tears begin to trail down Prompto's face. "I am not one of your experiments and neither is (Y/n)!"

Verstael begins slowly walking towards Prompto, revealing the gemstone bracelet around his wrist. "Not anymore. Now, you're nothing but a failure. I ought to return you whence you came, especially for stealing my (Y/n). You stole her from me. She's mine!"

"She doesn't belong to you! She doesn't belong to anyone!" Prompto growled. He raised his pistol to shoot Verstael, but gaped in shock when a sword impales him in the back. He lowered his gun when hearing the voice of the person he desperately wanted to see.

"Consider this payback for stabbing me in the back all those years ago, you bastard," (Y/n) seethed, yanking the sword out of Verstael's body.

The old man managed to turn around and face his guardian. He reached out and placed a hand on her cheek. "With your help, my ascension to divinity is now all but complete," he chuckled darkly. He stared into her gold-slitted eyes, placing his other hand on the crook of her neck and digging his nails into her flesh. "Soon, neither the Kings of Lucis nor the gods themselves will be able to challenge my reign and you will be mine!"

Prompto doesn't hesitate. He raises his gun and fires. A cloud of dark smoke emerges from where Prompto's shot pierces Verstael's back. The man groans, his hands releasing (Y/n). He falls onto the floor with a 'thud'. The girl was taken aback at his action. The marksman looks down at Verstael in shock for a moment before dropping his gun and falling to his knees.

After a moment of silence, Ardyn's voice can be heard gasping in faux horror over the loudspeaker. "Look what you've done. You've gone homicidal—no, patricidal!"

Prompto shook his head. "No..."

"You lose your friends and murder your family. Now you've no one left! Not even (Y/n), who will surely leave you in the very end." The chancellor begins laughing.

"Shut up!" Prompto wailed at the top of his lungs. He begins beating the floor with each time he repeats himself. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

(Y/n) closed the distance between her and Prompto. She sat on her knees in front of him, cupping his cheeks in her palms and lifting his head. "Look at me, Prompto." Once she saw his cerulean eyes were focused on her gold ones, she stroked her thumbs across his cheeks. "Don't listen to anything Ardyn says. Just focus on me, okay? I won't leave you alone. Not now, not ever."

With slightly shaky limbs, Prompto pushed himself up to his knees and threw his arms around her. He held her close, inhaling her scent. "You're real..."

She hooked her arms around his torso. "I'm right here, Prom."

Just then, the automated voice heard throughout the facility up to now begins speaking once again. "Vital functions decreasing. Plasmodium index activity increasing." Prompto lifts his head from (Y/n)'s shoulder and looks over at Verstael's body to see that it has now completely discorporated into the dark smoke that was rising from it, leaving empty clothing behind. The gemstone bracelet that once was around his wrist now laid on top of the pile of clothes. "Daemonification complete. Initiating transfer to Unit XDA-1002: Immortalis."

The dark smoke from Verstael enters the machinery at the center of the room. The lighting in the room turns red as the machinery begins to move. The room itself begins to shake. Prompto and (Y/n) pull away from each other and look around in confusion.

Out of the blue, the roof caves in about twenty feet from them, the body of an iron giant having fallen through from somewhere above. Aranea stands atop the daemon's body, her lance in hand and impaling it. She noticed the two and glanced between them. "You two always play hard to get like this?" She hops down from the daemon's corpse and walks towards the couple.

(Y/n) stood up with a smirk on her face. "Never expected to find you here, Aranea."

The ex-mercenary grinned back at the younger girl. "I can be full of surprises just like you can, firefly." She then saw the boy hasn't budged. "C'mon, Blondie. On your feet!"

Prompto doesn't move, his heart still suffering from the turmoil caused by Verstael's words. While Aranea strolled over to a countertop and analyzed a blueprint spread out on top of it, (Y/n) helped Prompto to his feet.

"So this is that new model they're working on," the woman mumbled. Prompto and (Y/n) walked over to her and saw the blueprint she was examining. The ex-mercenary turned her gaze to the guardian. "You know anything about this, firefly?"

"Sorry, but I don't. It's been...years since I left the empire," she confessed, gripping her arm tightly and sinking her nails into her skin. She could feel Prompto's gaze on her and she couldn't bring herself to look at him. He now knew the truth about himself and her. "But if Verstael created it, we better be extremely careful. That man... His mind was twisted and distorted. I don't even know where to begin when his experiments took a sinister turn..."

"Doesn't matter, anyway."

Then, the facility's automated voice speaks again. "Targets detected. Capture and retrieve immediately."

Aranea conjures her lance in preparation for battle as the dormant magitek troopers along the wall awaken and several ice bomb daemons appear.

"Commence capture and retrieval of compromised units."

The silver-haired woman rushes ahead to clear the way. (Y/n) was behind her, but Prompto hung back. He ran over to the pile of clothes left behind by Verstael and grabbed the gemstone bracelet before joining the two women down the hall.

The trio soon finds themselves on a platform overlooking a cargo bay. A snowmobile sits below by an exit out of the facility. As they were swarmed by daemons and imperial forces, the gates were beginning to close.

"We don't have time to mess around with these guys," (Y/n) said, slicing through a soldier.

"There's only one way down and it's blocked," Aranea stated, impaling a snaga.

The (h/c)-haired girl smirked. "I see two." She backed up and transformed. She used her tails to keep the enemies at bay.

Prompto already knew what she was planning to do and hopped on to her back. "Aranea!" He shouted.

The ex-mercenary turned around to see the fox waiting for her. She climbed onto her back behind the blonde and held on tight as the beast leapt over the railing. (Y/n) jumped from rack to rack until they safely arrived at the snowmobile.

Aranea and Prompto slid off the fox's back as she reverted to her human form. The older woman shoves a map against the marksman's chest. Without sparing him a glance, she walked over to the approaching enemies. "Head there—I'll catch up later."

Prompto takes the map, but he was reluctant to leave Aranea behind. "But what about you?"

She conjures her lance as she's confronted by an ice bomb and a snaga. Even more daemons were spawning. "I said I'll catch up."

"But what if y—"

"Just go!"

"Let's go, Prompto," (Y/n) said.

With a troubled expression, the boy hops on the snowmobile. The guardian mounts the vehicle, sitting behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he started the snowmobile.

Feeling the warmth of her body against his back, Prompto felt his resolve harden. "Hold on tight, (Y/n)."

"Try not to drive too crazy," she laughed.

With a small smirk, he cackled. "No promises."