Readers Note: This is the first collaborated fanfiction between me and exia111149 and we do appreciate constructive criticism. Do forgive us if we had made the characters slightly or way OOC in this chapter. Do expect PM's from either of us if we are not able to understand your reviews. And now, back to the story.

Disclaimer: We don't own the Final Fantasy series. If we did, there would have been a crossover between 7 and 13 already for the Playstation

Chapter 1

Darkness loomed over the crown city of Insomnia where silence was as sharp as a knife. One might think that it has been abandoned for centuries. It was not far off, for the derelict streets and empty houses completely devoid of life gave off such a vibe. A lone man stalked through the empty streets with a few street lamps illuminating the darkness. The man was clad in his black Kingsglaive robes, with hair as black as the night and a stubble adorning his rugged handsome features. It was then daemons descended from the night sky in droves, all directing their killer intent towards the black haired man.

All those who entered within the man's arms-length immediately disintegrated into miasma as the man unleashed a sword of pure light. The daemons, unfazed by their comrades' demise, continued their assault only to meet with the same fate. As the horde of daemons kept coming, replacing their fallen in an instant, they were gone in a flash. The man was too engrossed in taking out the daemons coming from the front that he hadn't noticed there were a few strays coming at him from the back. Just as they were about to lunge at him, they were slashed to bits by a large sword emitting a light aura around the blade. "Noct, watch your back." A tall dark-haired man with a large scar on his exposed chest remarked as he raised his blade over his shoulder, the bits of daemons that lay scattered on the ground evaporating into dust behind him. "These guys can come out of nowhere. We have to be careful." Noctis turned his head to the man's direction. "I know I can always count on you guys, Gladiolus. But if you want to turn back, now is the time."

A blond spectacled man appeared with a decorated spear in each hand, disintegrating daemons that came into close proximity of him. "Noct, we're in this together. Not just as royal guards to the king, but as your friends." The blond man spoke as he raised his right hand to reposition his glasses. "Ignis is right, Noct." Replied a shorter blond man who leapt from the top of a lamp post, his ornate pistols glistening in the dark from the holsters in his jacket. "You think we're just going to walk away after everything we've been through? Not a chance."

Noctis looked at his three childhood friends, silently thanking them with a nod. Just then, a tall reddish purple-haired man wearing a coat and a brim hat stalked out of the shadows. "Aw, now isn't that sweet?" The man casually remarked, his face contorted to sport a Cheshire grin. "Not to worry though. Soon all of you will be joining each other….in death!" As soon as he said that, an army of daemons burst from the shadows of the ground with angry growls directed towards the four men clad in their respective kingsglaive robes. The man quickly disappeared towards the direction of the palace.

"Go on, Noct. We'll handle things from here." Prompto said as he brandished his pistols and shot at a few daemons, with the others beckoning him to go. With a silent nod, Noctis sprinted at full speed towards the palace, fully materializing the Sword of the Wise to slash at any daemon daring to step in his way. He increased the pace using his mana and eventually reached the palace courtyard. He magnified his vision to scan the darkness for any trace of the red-haired man. "Ardyn! Come out and face me, usurper!" Noctis cried out.

The said man entered Noctis's field of vision and landed a good distance in front of Noctis, his back facing Noctis. "The once helpless and hapless prince. Is he now ready to claim his crown?" Ardyn remarked with a coy grin as he turned around to face Noctis. Noctis and Ardyn both materialized Sword of the Wiseand engaged each other in their respective battle stances. With a burst of mana energy engulfing around them, they dashed towards each other at light speed and crossed swords. Their clash created an immensely powerful shockwave of raw power, which sent both of them propelling backwards to opposite buildings. The windows shattered as they thrusted forward, throwing their swords to the ground and teleporting right in front of each other.

Glaring into each other's eyes, they assumed their respective fighting stances once again. "Let the games begin." Ardyn said with an evil smirk. "No." Noctis replied, materializing the Sword of the Wiseonce again. "Now, they end." Noctis then summoned a lightning storm, knocking Ardyn off his guard. Noctis then used this opportunity to teleport close to Ardyn for a warp strike, but Ardyn recovered his stance and deflected the sword strike with the palm of his hand reinforced with magic.

"So, you're the chosen king." Ardyn remarked as he smacked Noctis across the face, knocking him back a few blocks. "But you are second choice, at best." Noctis then recovered and appeared in front of Ardyn with his sword ready to slash at him. However, Ardyn materialized his sword quick enough to block the strike. "Do you like what I have done with this world? I twisted it all just for you." He taunted with a sadistic grin on his face. Right after his snarky comment, Ardyn was knocked back by a sudden rush of energy, a flood of mana that engulfed Noctis' body soon after. Ardyn stumbled backwards, which gave Noctis the advantage to hack and slash at him. Ardyn quickly regained his footing and proceeded to parry all of Noctis' strikes. Noctis increased the intensity of his strikes, but soon realised that his mana was depleting dangerously fast and he was feeling the side effects of using the royal arms for too long.

Noctis tried to create some separation between them so that he could recover some of his strength but Ardyn sensed that Noctis was nearly at his limit and teleported in close range. Ardyn grabbed Noctis by the head and pinned him to the ground "Ah… My revenge is soon at hand. How long have I waited?" Ardyn muses. "Don't worry, it's far from over." Noctis bites back through ragged breaths. Ardyn then lifted Noctis up by his collar and stabbed him through his midsection with his materialized sword. Noctis gasped as he felt the blade enter his midsection. He grunted in pain as he felt Ardyn drag the blade in and out of his midsection before the sword was pulled out entirely.

With blood flowing out of his torso, Noctis drew haggard breaths as he was dropped onto the concrete ground. "What a pity, I had hoped to play with you more." Ardyn commented as he feigned disappointment followed by an exaggerated sigh. "But it seems you are just far too weak. Tell me, how would this world fare if you were its king?" "Far better than if you're its king." Noctis drew hard breaths and retorted, managing to force a cocky grin on his face.

Ardyn narrowed his eyes at Noctis' comment and proceeded to position his sword above Noctis' heart. "A strong retort for someone as weak as you. Say hello to your father when you see him." Just as Ardyn was about to plunge his sword down, he was sent flying into a building by a powerful haymaker delivered by Gladiolus. "Noct!" cried Ignis as he and Prompto ran over to Noctis. "I'm sorry, guys. He did a real number on me." Noctis struggled to say before he was sent into a coughing fit. "Say no more, save your strength." Replied Prompto as he and Ignis carefully lifted Noctis and took him back to the Regalia while Gladiolus went to fight with Ardyn.

As both Ignis and Prompto carefully escorted a severely injured Noctis to the car, a yell in the distance grew louder as Gladiolus crashed into the hood of the car looking completely battered. Ardyn came crashing down on his ribs stomping on them as Gladiolus coughed up blood. Ardyn tucked a lock of stray hair to the back of his ear and wiped off the excess blood on his face. "Now, anyone else care to interrupt?" Ardyn asked in a menacingly calm tone.

Ignis and Prompto carefully set Noctis back on the ground before whipping out their respective weapons. They rushed Ardyn, only to get knocked back into the ground and nearly crushed to death by Ardyn's casted Graviga. Ardyn then turns his attention back to the half-dead Noctis. "Now, where were we?" He remarks as he takes on a more daemonic appearance. He materialized his sword and proceeds to finish the job. As he was about to plunge his blade into Noctis' heart, a bright light enveloped Noctis and blinded Ardyn. The light continued to emanate for a while longer, bathing Noctis with its unnatural holy light before slowly fading away.

Ardyn looked at where Noctis once was only to find that he was gone, what remained was a scorched blackened surface made dimly visible with a lamp post that collapsed during the fight. He let out a blood-curdling roar out of anger as he punched his fists to the ground where Noctis once laid, denying his kill.

All Noctis saw was a bright light before plummeting into a world of darkness. After what appeared as an eternity, Noctis awoke. He opened his eyes to gaze upon an unfamiliar forest. He tried to sit up, only for his sword wound to act up causing him to fall back onto the ground and grunt in pain. "Ugh, Curaga." Noctis muttered using whatever last bits of his mana energy he had left to dull the pain. He could feel the wound starting to close up but it still looked like an open wound. Noctis laid on the ground for a while, his breathing stabilized, feeling bits of his strength slowly returning to him.

When he felt strong enough, Noctis picked himself off the ground and slowly made his way through the forest. He staggered in his steps, cursing himself for sustaining such an injury. "Damn, this hurts. I just hope you guys are alright." Noctis mumbled to himself. As he trudged through the dense vegetation, he slowly began to realise that he was getting lost, well more lost as he was in a foreign land. Just as he was making his way deeper into the heart of the woods, he felt a powerful shockwave and what appeared to be a giant wormhole appeared just to his right. He felt something heavy collided with him, knocking him to the ground. He groaned in pain and tried to sit up, but felt that something was laying on his chest. He opened his eyes, half expecting some sort of log to be resting upon him. What he didn't expect was a young woman panting hard, laying on his chest, completely exhausted from the travel.

Once, the woman caught her breath, she began to sit up, essentially straddling Noctis. Noctis got a good look at the strange woman; she was slightly above average height with a buxom but athletic figure. She had pinkish hair and cerulean eyes and was clad in what appeared to be a military uniform that sported a green metallic pauldron over her left shoulder with yellow stripes. Noctis looked further to see that the woman was wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a lightning bolt. Moreover, he noticed that she was soaking wet. The woman looked down at him and tilted her head to the right. "I'm terribly sorry, civilian. It seems unforeseen circumstances have landed us in this predicament." Noctis then replied, "It's quite alright, miss. But would you be so kind as to get off me? I am losing quite a bit of blood."

Confused, the woman looked down only to realise that the chest she was sitting on was leaking blood, staining the surrounding patch of green grass in crimson. "You're wounded!" She remarked with a gasp. "Yeah, no shit woman." Replied Noctis, rolling his eyes. Ignoring his remark, the woman got off his chest to kneel at his side. She carefully lifted his head and quietly casted a Curaga at his midsection. Within seconds, his wound started to close up eventually forming a long thin scar in his torso. "Thank you." Noctis said as he looked up at her. "It is not a problem, civilian. It is my duty to protect the weak." As soon as she said that, Noctis felt his already wounded pride hurt even more like a kick to the balls.

"The name's Noctis, woman." Noctis spat as he started to get up. Without warning, he was forced back down onto the ground by two slender arms. "You can't move around just yet, lie back onto the grass. And the name's Lightning, dipshit." For a moment, Noctis was shocked by the sheer amount of strength a woman like her possessed. 'Then again she does look like she's from the military.' Noctis thought to himself.

They sat in silence for a moment, not uttering a word to each other. After a few minutes of uncomfortable and awkward silence, Noctis tried to sit back up. The operative word was tried, for Lightning still had her hands pinning his shoulders to the ground. "Uhh, miss Lightning, lady warrior, strange woman who fell from the sky. You can let go now." Lightning said nothing, giving him the death stare. Her features then softened as she let go of his shoulders, allowing Noctis to sit up. 'Hmm, tsundere perhaps.' Noctis thought.

Lightning looked away and muttered something incoherent. "Umm, could you repeat that?" Noctis said only to receive the same mumbling of incomprehensible words from Lightning. "I really didn't catch that. Could you repeat that?" Lightning then turned to face him with a comical red face. "I SAID I WAS SORRY!" She yelled at him and turned away from him again. "I'm sorry, I'm just not good with people." 'Yeap, totally tsundere.' Thought Noctis with a sigh.

"Well, we've chewed the fat enough. What say we get the hell out of here?" Noctis asked as he stood up gingerly. Lightning merely nodded her head and got off the ground. "So where to now?" Noctis asked again. Lightning contemplated their options and pointed to her left "That way."

(Some time later)

"...are you sure this is the way?" Noctis asked as they trekked through the forest. "Call me paranoid, but I think we've past this same bush three times already." Lightning scoffed. "This is a forest, we're bound to come across the same species of shrubs every now and then."

"Somehow, I am not convinced.' Noctis thought to himself. "And you know this how exactly?" Noctis questioned. Lightning stopped in her tracks and looked in his direction, exasperated. "Alright then, dipshit. If you know the way, then take the lead then."

Noctis simply crossed his arms and looked at her in disbelief. "Seriously? I don't even know where we are, so I was under the assumption you knew where we were and could lead us out of here." Lightning just meekly looked away, silently whistling. It was then realisation dawned on Noctis. "Hang on a sec. You mean to tell me we've been wandering around in circles and you have no clue where we are!?" Noctis asked in disbelief. "If that was the case, then why did you take the lead then?"

Lightning turned to look at him. "Well, I have a reputation to keep. I can't just leave civilians behind instead of escorting them to safety." Noctis felt like banging his head into a tree. "What reputation, woman?! We're in the middle of some god-forsaken forest with no one intelligent enough to communicate with and you can't exactly escort civies to safety if you get lost with them as well!" Lightning let out a loud sigh. "Ugh! you are not helping, dipshit! And what do you mean no one intelligent enough? You are stuck with me!"

"It is exactly why I said that, woman." Noctis meekly replied, not even giving a care anymore. "I don't know, alright!? I'm going with my gut feeling and my gut tells me we should continue heading in this direction! So quit your whining, dipshit!" Lightning retorted. Just then, they heard an animalistic roar coming from the front of their direction. "Oh god no…" Noctis stood his ground, materializing the Sword of the Father King. "Don't tell me…." Lightning unsheathed her gunblade, Blaze Edge. A monstrous figure clad in dark purple fur, appeared from the shadows, baring its white canine teeth dripping with hot saliva. "Behemoth." Both Noctis and Lightning said at the same time before entering a fighting stance.

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