NGPlus
Major spoilers. Don't read if you haven't finished the main story. Ardyn has been defeated. Noctis sacrificed himself for the greater good. What happens though if it were to happen all over again?
AN: As the title suggests the gist of this is that Noctis and friends still have all their shit. My twist though is that only Noctis remembers what happened. Think of it as a time travel fic but not quite.
"Not exactly a fairytale beginning huh Prince Noctis?"
He opened his eyes at the question.
Looking side to side he questioned everything.
'The ring… the crystal… what happened? I-I thought I'
"Thought you died, did you?" A voice asked.
"Well you did. Only, I felt the need to intervene. See, you were victim of a harsh fate. It was sealed at birth after all. The chosen king. Not much you could do. I pity your outcome so I've brought you back. Everything you have is still intact. Only you have the memories of the past. Not even the six retain any memory of what happened."
'Just what are you?' Noctis asked the voice in his head.
"A being far superior than anything that you know of. Who I am doesn't matter. All that does, is what you choose to do with your knowledge of the future. Will you choose to save your betrothed or will the same fate as last happen once more. I've given you the option to do either."
'I can save Luna? What about the rest of Insomnia?'
"I'm afraid I won't allow that. Besides, would you really want that? Think of everything that happened because of it. Would you really want to not relive those cherished moments? Be free, young prince. I wish the best for you."
'How do I save Luna?'
"After you arrive in Hammerhead, have your vehicle fixed then head immediately back to Insomnia. You will find Lunafreya walking along the road. I would advise you get there as quickly as possible to minimize any possible problems."
'Thank you.'
"No need to. Consider it the happy ending you deserved."
"We let ourselves get carried away."
"Look, these things happen…"
"Let's just hope this isn't some omen."
Noctis closed his eyes and simply smiled.
"Gladio, do me a favor…"
"What?"
"Push this thing by yourself."
"All by myself?"
"You won't even notice if we just let go."
"Prompto, don't even think about it!"
"Save some breath for pushing."
'Yeah… Everything's gonna be okay…' Noctis thought to himself.
Later: Hammerhead
"Hey, I'll be back. I've gotta go check on something. You guys stay here and wait for Cindy, alright?" Noctis told the guys as he got ready to set out towards Insomnia.
"Uh, okay but what've you gotta do?"
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, promise."
He set out on the road back towards Insomnia. It was surprising, really. The Regalia had broken down fairly quickly and they hadn't gotten that far from Insomnia. It was maybe a two hour walk. Noctis however, had the advantage of blink.
Pulling out one of many daggers that he had, he flung the dagger as far as he could and blinked to it. He would stop occasionally to recover, but he would be quick to go back to teleporting away.
The blinking cut his journey from 2 hours to an hour and by then his arm was noticeably tired.
Soon enough, a figure appeared up ahead.
Behind it was another.
Noctis' heart sprang as he could make out who it was. He was nervous, really.
With one last deep breath, he threw another dagger only this time, not as hard.
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret was not ready for the random weapon and panicked when she saw it flying at her. Her panic turned to shock as the blue materialization turned out to be him.
"Noctis…"
"Luna, it's been a while, hasn't it?" He said with a smile.
"Gentiana, I hope you've been treating her well."
"Of course. I'll leave you two be," she said before disappearing without a trace.
"Noctis is it…"
"Yeah, it's really me. Don't worry… I'm not going anywhere. Not now, not ever," he said as they embraced each other.
They stayed their for a bit before Noctis remembered that they had somewhere to be.
"C'mon, we gotta go to Hammerhead. The other guys are waiting for me."
"Noctis-"
"I know about Insomnia already. I just… there isn't anything we can do about it now. Don't worry about it Luna. We'll take back the throne... Trust in me."
(It was at this point I realized that the time frame is completely fucked up because there's no way that Niflheim invaded in a couple hours but just go with it)
And so the two walked hand in hand all the way back to Hammerhead, their canine companions following close behind.
About halfway there though, they were met by Prompto who had been sent to check to see if Noctis was okay.
"Yo, Noc-" he froze as he saw who was beside him.
"Wait… if she's here, then…"
"It was a setup, Prompto… my father had us leave to be safe. To retake Insomnia. He wanted us to survive because he knew that Niflheim's ceasefire was just a way for us to let our guard down."
"Then that means…"
"Yeah… Insomnia has fallen. The King is dead and the people have fled. Enough of this though. I feel he would've wanted us to carry on. That's why he sent us."
"So what're we gonna do?"
"Carry on. That's all we can do. Cor the Immortal has his name for a reason. I feel he'll show up in Hammerhead in a couple days. He'll know what to do. He always did."
"A-alright… we better get back soon. It's getting dark, you know? The daemons will be out soon. Gladio and Ignis already started to set up camp when they sent me to go check on you."
"Yeah, sounds good. Let's get going."
The band of five (including the dogs) made their way back to Hammerhead to meet up with the two other guys waiting for them.
When they arrived, Ignis was still cooking as Gladio sat and read his book.
"Noctis whatever took you so lo-" he paused as he saw who he was with.
"Lady Lunafreya, how are you here?"
"Ignis, Insomnia has fallen. We shall wait for further instructions from Cor."
"What do you mean Insomnia has fallen?!"
"The King is dead. Niflheim invaded after we left. Luna was held hostage but some people from the Glaive saved her."
"Then what of the Glaive? Where are they now?"
"Nyx Ulric, the man who got her out of the Imperial Airship died while defeating the Niflheim general. He entrusted her to a man named Libertus, an ex-Glaive who had brought her to the city border."
Luna realized she had never told him about Nyx, but decided it might be best to talk about it privately.
"From there, he left me with a vehicle. He had his own things to deal with. I can't blame him however. It was no longer his duty."
"Then I believe it's best we wait for the marshal. You're just in time as well. The food is done."
"Veggie Medley Stew again? Really Ignis, you know I don't like that stuff…"
"If it's what I have to do to make you eat something other than meat for once, I shall do it. Now eat it before it gets cold. Wouldn't want to waste perfectly good food, would we?"
"Fine…"
"A moment, Noct?"
"Uh yeah sure…"
The two walked away from the group just out of earshot.
"It's about me knowing about Nyx, right?"
"Yes…"
"Luna, call me crazy if you want, but I know that in the future had I not come back, I would've lost everyone dear to me. I know my duty as king is to protect the people but this was the only way I could prevent the loss and still save them."
"So what exactly happened with you?"
"I fought the Imperial Chancellor, Ardyn. In the future, you would have died in Altissia because of him. Without you to hold back the Starscourge, the world ran rampant with daemons and eternal night. The only way to revert everything was to sacrifice myself. I just… I sort of 'woke up' with this knowledge as we pushed the car to Hammerhead."
"I had figured you knew of the future, but I didn't think you experienced what happened… However, because you've already altered the time, some things may be different this time. I doubt that Ardyn changed though so we need to prepare you for that."
"Yeah. Cor is gonna come by and tell us about the Royal Arms. I'm gonna have to go around collecting them again if we wish to defeat Ardyn. This time though, you'll be there to help me purge his soul of the daemons that have accumulated within him over the years. Only this way will we have our happy ending."
"If that is what you wish to do, I shall stand by your side for the whole journey."
"Thank you, Luna."
The two walked back to the campsite and the night went on uninterrupted.
Nothing could ruin their moment.
They had a new task at hand.
Nothing would stand in their way.
AN: Alright, I want to say now, the soundtrack for this game is absolutely beautiful. Florence did a beautiful job on her rendition of Stand By Me and I will never get over how amazing this game was for me.
Not sure how I'm gonna continue this. With Luna with them, there really isn't much for them to do other than gather the Royal Arms to defeat Ardyn. I might have some other spooks happen but anyway it was fun.
Don't expect a lot of updates though as I have school to worry about.
