Hi everyone! It's been a really long time since I've written on here and this is my first FFXV story. I know if nothing else I definitely am having a fun time writing this. I hope you guys will like it too! So Read and Review please and tell me what you think!

Nudge. Another nudge. The body stirred but refused to wake up. Gladiolus sighed and said, "Come, lazy. Get up."

"Gladio." Ignis' voiced came stern and as the Shield glanced at the sleeping prince's royal advisor, who held a very stern face.

Oh, right. Damn.

It's been a few weeks since the four have left Altissia as the four are on a train to Tenebrae; but not before stopping in Cartanica, which is said to hold a royal tomb. After the fight with Leviathan, the would-be king was unconscious for multiple days. He woke to a destroyed city, and everyone unharmed – well, everyone except his fiancée Lunafreya, who died in the battle, and himself; of course he didn't recognize it at first. He noticed it when he couldn't hear his companions, but more importantly when he couldn't hear himself.

Gladio shook his head slightly to refocus and once again shook the sleeping prince; harder and stopped when he made sure he was awake.

"Stop. I'm awake." His voice croaked, hoarse from lack of use. Since the prince sees it as no point, Noctis has barely talked since Altissia since he wouldn't be able to hear the others anyways. He glared at Gladio in conformation who nodded and stood upon and walked to another booth as Ignis lightly tapped the prince's leg to get his attention.

Noctis cocked his head to the side as Ignis spoke slowly. "We are almost in Cartanica. The train will be stopping soon." He paused waiting for the prince to register and nod to continue. "Are you sure you are up for this? It might be best for you to stay back a little in case of trouble."

Noct frowned. "I'm deaf, not blind." He mouthed. "I can still fight."

"I've no doubt you can but we can't risk it yet. Especially since we don't know what we're up against."

Noct scowled at Ignis, but the advisor remained un-phased. "Please, Your Highness. At least think about it."

Noct rolled his eyes and turned to face the window, clearly done with the conversation. Ignis sighed as he reached into his nearby bag and pulled out a book. Whether the prince liked the idea or not, relying on them slowly speaking so he could read their lips will not work forever. The royal advisor had been reading on Sign Language, hoping at some point the prince would be willing to learn.

"Uh, have you met Noct?" a bright voice chirped and Ignis glanced to see the final person of their group to walk up and sit down on the seat next to Noct, who didn't seem to mind. "Him and learning have never gone together. Hey!" he said jokingly, exclaiming in surprise as he received a punch to his left arm. He turned to its owner and said, "What? You know it's true!"

Noct chuckled a bit as he rolled his eyes again, his chuckle earning a cheer from the other. "Oh, look Ignis! Noct's actually smiling!"

Again another shove, slightly rougher. "Shut up, Prompto." he mouthed.

The sound of wheel's squealing filled the two ears, both turning to look at the surroundings. Prompto turned around when he received a tap on his left shoulder and was met with Noct's confused face.

"Oh." Prompto said, "Right, sorry. The train's stopping. Guess we've arrived." He chuckled slightly, nervousness in his voice.

Noct furrowed his eyebrows. "Prompto, just because I'm deaf now doesn't mean I still don't know you. What's wrong?" he mouthed, body language showing annoyance then turning into slight worry. Prompto gazed down to the floor.

"It's nothing Noct." He said as his eyes remained on the floor.

"It certainly seems like it isn't something." Ignis stated, reminding the blonde that the advisor was still there. He glanced up to see Ignis, closing the book as e pushed his glasses up and looked straight at Prompto. "What is it?"

Prompto glanced between the two quickly and sighed. "It's not you guys. It's just, I'm worried with how Gladio has been acting and this will be your first time we might actually how to fight." He trailed off, not wanting to continue. The advisor responded to his worry with "We'll worry about that if we come across it." He paused, standing up and motioning with his hand. "Come on, we have a royal weapon to go acquire."

The group of four traveled in silence. Something Noct has become very familiar with. Unknown to the others, he had been practicing his senses to know his surroundings even without his hearing. It was nowhere near as clear as in Altissia or the train, but once the four arrived into the mine, Noct immediately recognized his companions' footsteps. Ignis' constant calm pace as he walked, Prompto's movement from his smaller mass and inconsistent pace – just like his emotions, and Gladio's heavy, harsh feet basically stomping the ground.

The prince sighed as once again the four had to walk through another area of shallow water. Why did the stupid miners have to park that stupid equipment in front of a pathway? He thought angrily, for as time went on the faster he wanted to return up to the station.

While Noctis was lost in his thoughts, Ignis and Prompto were having a silent conversation on the matter, both concerned for Noctis. Prompto broke away when he noticed that the prince was trembling. He turned to ask Ignis if he was seeing this too, only to noticed that the royal advisor had caught up to the King's shield, clearly arguing with each other on Noctis.

"He ain't going to get used to it and deal with it if you two keep babying him, Iggy!" Gladio growled,

"You think I don't know that Gladio?" the advisor replied sternly, "I agree with you completely but this isn't just something that you can slap a bandage on and move on; this will take time."

Prompto put at hand on Noctis to stop him, breaking him out of his trance. He looked at Prompto confused, only to see his friend staring at something. He followed his gaze and watched just like the gunner.

The hell's going on? He thought,

"Time isn't something we have Ignis!" Gladio screamed at him angrily, anger rising as Ignis kept his composure. "Whether we like it or not, he has to accept it already because we have our damn world to save!"

"You think I don't know that?" Ignis replied, slight venom in his voice. "I know that as well as you."

Noct glanced back and forth between the two, struggling to read their lips since they both were both so far away, but he was pretty sure he got the point from their body language. He didn't even notice that his fists had balled up when he felt a rumbling deep beneath his feet, the rumbling stopping not too long after it starting. His hands unclenched in surprise as he looked down to the ground then looked at where Prompto had been only for the prince to realize he had moved towards the two arguing, standing in the middle of the shallow lake, undoubtedly trying to be the voice of reason between the two. His black eyes widened in realization.

Something's wrong.

With how long the four have stood there, and how much loudness the group was making, there's no doubt some nearby monsters should have appeared; as they already have encountered quite a few along their course, Gladio rudely making Noct sit out in each fight, his frown deepening each time. But now, here as they're all standing here out in the open with nothing in sight. Noct frowned as once again the rumbling continued, this time louder, slowly increasing in volume – right towards Prompto.

Acting on his instincts as the rumbling increased at an alarming rate, he ran towards the blond, grappling him and shoving him into the murky waters, the blonde yelping in surprise as the two fell face-first into the water. Noct held his body up with his arms, panting as the gunner shot his head out of the water, gasping for air.

"Dude, what the hell Noct?!" he screamed, forgetting the prince can't hear him. The blonde turned around to where he was standing and screamed, "G-Guys?!"

The two Crownsguard quickly turned their heads to the owner of the scream only to hear the sound of shots being fired. Instantly summoning their weapons, the two turn to face Prompto shooting at the four-legged hairy beast that were trying to bounce on him as Noctis was wrestling with one; trying to keep the beast off of him, but more importantly keep the jaw away from his face – which was inches away.

"Noct!" Gladio yelled sprinting to the fallen and trapped prince. He slashed his sword at the beast, it yelping in pain and jumping off the prince. Noct, gasping loudly, nodded in thanks to Gladio as he tried to get up as the Shield protected the prince.

Ignis groaned in recognition of the pack of enemies. "Havocfangs." He growled, running to the others, throwing his dagger at a Havocfang that was just about to jump on Prompto, his dagger landing in its side. Prompto scrambled away, from it as he yelled, "Thanks Iggy! I owe you one!"

"Get Noct out of here!" the advisor yelled at the blonde, not responding to his compliment. "Gladio and I will handle this."

The gunner ran to his friend, pulling him up and said, "Come on, Noct! We have to go!" He pulled the prince out of the waters to a nearby shore, dropping him down from exhaustion. As he was regaining his breathe, he looked over to see that the prince has not moved. "Noct?" he asked quietly, the mentally slapping himself in remembrance as he listened to the sound of Havocfangs dying. He reached over to the prince's limp form and turned him to him and the blonde gasped in surprise. Noct's head rolled over with his body, clearly unconscious, but what scared Prompto was how hard the prince was breathing - as well as the huge gash in his right shoulder. It was clearly a bite.

"Guys! Something's wrong with Noct!" he yelled for the two, as they killed off the final beast of the pack. Ignis was already running toward the two, Hi-Elixir in hand, Gladio not far behind. "Gladio, prop him up. He needs to drink this. "

The Shield did as he was told but questioned, "Don't you need to pour it on his shoulder?"

"In a normal situation, I would but with how deep it goes, a bone could very well be broken." The advisor said as he pulled off the cap, and put it to Noctis' lips, the other willingly drinking it.

A slight chuckle came from the form in Gladio's arms resulting in three pairs of eyes to look at him. "So," Noct's voice croaked, "How'd I do?"

Silence came from the three until they all slowly but surely started chuckling themselves; well, all but Gladio. He just stared at the prince as he helped him stand up and then tap on his shoulder to get the young one's attention. He looked the prince in the eyes as a smirk formed on his face. "You did all right."

"Man why did they have to build that tomb in that swamp?! I'm going to smell awful for weeks!" Prompto complained as he leaned back into his train seat. as Noct shook his head in disbelief.

"You?" Noct whispered, getting the other's attention.

"Well, yeah you're kinda at fault for some of it." His reply was the prince's arms crossing and glare. "But I guess I do also owe you my tail back there too."

"Yes, about that." Ignis cut in, making sure to get the prince's attention. "How did you know that there was danger? It couldn't have been from looking, because I saw you looking at the three of us."

Noct smirked slightly. "Vibrations in the ground." He mouthed, not missing Gladio's surprised look as the Shield was quiet in the conversation. "I started practicing back in Altissia, learning each of your movements and what they fell like and it was so irregular."

"Then you should be able to tell who's walking where now!" Prompto stated, as Noctis just stared.

"Prompto, we're on a moving train. It's always vibrating."

Ignis watched the two and thought. Might as well try, not like there will ever be a better time. He then signed 'GOOD JOB' to the prince when he had his attention.

Prompto looked at the advisor in confusion as Gladio watched curiously, wanting to see how the prince will respond.

Noct smiled and signed back 'THANKS.'

Noctis laughed and Gladio chuckled as Ignis' gaped at him. "How?"

"Learned on my free time when I was young, surprised you never found out." He said, surprise in his tone. Gladio responded with, "Guess we did a good job of hiding it then."

He watched as Ignis stood up, shaking his head and the prince tilted his head in confusion as Gladio joined him. "We'll be back in a moment. We won't be long. We just have to see if it's possible the rumors are true."

"Rumors?" Prompto questioned, speaking for him and Noct.

Ignis nodded. "Rumors of longer nights. If it is true and continues, eventually..."

"There won't be daylight." Noctis finished for him, quietly and solemnly. Ignis nodded in conformation and the two departed from their small train booth. "We won't be long. We'll be back in a moment." Noctis nodded and mumbled as he positioned himself to lean against the window with his arm. "I'm gonna take a nap."

"Guess that's my queue to leave you to it, huh." Prompto said jokingly, forgetting the prince's condition and noticed that his eyes were closed. His face wavering in remembrance, the gunner quietly leaving and walking towards the dining car, unknowing to them that a figure smirked underneath his hat when the prince was left alone.

"…. Time to lend the Hydraean a hand…"

"… The Empire has the Hydraean surrounded. Hurry Noct! …"

"… Oh Prince! Your bride awaits! …"

"… Farewell, dear Noctis…"

"LUNA!"

Noct's eyes shot open, him breathing hard. He glanced around, calming himself at the familiarity of the train. Just a dream.

…. Or was it?

He looked out the window, watching the scenery pass by; but one thing had the prince on alert. Why were there no vibrations of the train moving?

Noct jumped up from his sit to run into the hallway and into the next car only for his eyes to widen in shock as everything in the car was still. Everything except for him and one other. Noct clenched his fists in anger, running up to hit the smug grin off the other's face.

"This is your fault!" he yelled or spoke, he couldn't even tell anymore as the other dodged and looked at him with confusion.

"What's going on?" he read from the other's lips. "Noct, you're scaring me."

"You know damn well, you sick bastard!" the prince yelled angrily, punching where the other was. He realized after that it was an illusion and had no time to react as an arm roughly gripped around his neck pulling him back into another figure as he felt his hands being cuffed behind his back. He was forced to glare up at the smirking face of Ardyn.

"Now," he said, making sure that the captive prince could read his lips. "It's rude to call people names. You better apologize."

Noct just glared in response. Ardyn sighed. "And after all I've done for you and your friends." His grip tightened on the prince's neck.

"Go. To. Hell." Noct choked out.

"Now, now someone needs to be taught a lesson in manners. Also," he paused, gripping even more roughly and forced him onto the train's wall, his face on the window. "you shouldn't call people names. You want to sick a sick bastard." He yanked Noct's hair back hard causing the prince to yelp as he put his face right in front of the prince and growled. "I'll show you a sick bastard."

Noct barely had time to catch himself at the rough force of Ardyn forcing him back up, but being grabbed again. He gasped quietly at a prick on the right side of his neck and how everything became numb, almost as if he was floating. He barely recognized Ardyn's evil smirk as he was limp in his arms. Eyelids getting heavy, the prince was unaware as Ardyn laid the prince flat on the floor, stepping to up his face again. And mouthed "Sweet dreams, your Highness."

The last thing that Noct saw was Ardyn holding a knife; then all he saw was blackness.