Disclaimer: Not mine

So…everyone knows who the Crownsguard at the end of last chapter was, drats. Guess I made it too obvious?
Posted a one-shot that is a prequel to Saving them if you're interested, please let me know what you think.

Chapter edited to fix an oops

Chapter 4

A man with unkempt hair and clad in multiple layers of dark clothing, attire that could oddly be described as both fancy and dishevelled, approaches the four friends as they walked along the wharf of Galdin Quay. Seeing him, Noctis felt a strange shiver, danger…

"I'm afraid you're out of luck," the man called out to them.

"Are we?"

"The boats bring you here."

"What about 'em?" Prompto asked, he'd seen Noct's reaction and there was something about him that tugged at old, buried, memories and that made him even more worried.

"Well, they'll not take you forth."

"And what's your story?" Gladio demanded, seeing the way the two youngest members of the group were reacting

"I'm an impatient traveller, ready to turn ship. The ceasefire's getting us nowhere," he smiled but none of them were buying it. He turned and tossed a coin at Noctis, but Gladiolus snatched it out of the air before it could get to the prince.

"What's this? Some sort of souvenir?"

"They make those?" Prompto leant in to see it.

"What? No," Noctis shifted, blocking the view of Prompto when the stranger focused on the blonde.

"Consider it your allowance."

"Yeah, and who's allowing us?" Gladio crossed his arms, glaring mildly.

"A man of no consequence," he bowed and left.

"Yeah, right," Noctis shook his head. "Come on, we better check to see if he was telling the truth.

"You believe what that guy said about the port being closed?" Prompto asked, sticking close to Noctis who shifted slightly, letting him.

"I'm sceptical, though I won't discount the possibility," ignis spoke up for the first time, like Gladio he didn't like how the Prince or Prompto had reacted to the man…or his sudden interest in the youngest.

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Harry appeared with barely a stumble, looking around. He walked across the room and knelt; he was too late. He gently turned King Regis over, closing his eyes, he didn't have time to bury him as he knew was the tradition, but he would not leave his body to possible looters. He checked his hand, but the Ring was gone so he stepped back and watched as the body began to burn. He closed his eyes and reached for anything nearby that felt similar to Noct's magic, apparating once he found something, appearing nearby but not too close. He saw an armoured figure approaching a wounded man in Glaive uniform and a young woman in white…who held the Ring.

"It's over. The daemons are unleashed. Lucis is fallen. Surrender the ring," the armoured man demanded coldly as he approached the other two.

The young woman looked down at the Ring and he could feel magic in her, but a bit different….ah, the Oracle, Lady Lunafreya. She raised the Ring only for the Glaive to grab her hand.

"Plan on giving those kings a piece of your mind, Princess? You got a destiny to take care of here, remember? Besides, didn't anyone tell you? I'm the hero around here." He grabbed the Ring and brought it towards his own hand only for Harry to intercept his attempt. The Glaive looked up, obviously shocked to see Harry.

"How about we all survive?" he grinned before turning to the armoured man and blasting him through a wall. "Get her out of her Glaive," he let his magic surge through him, readying for combat.

"Nyx…..how did you do that? The King is dead."

"I know, I found him," Harry answered tightly. "My oath is to Noctis," he just needed to use magic that looked local.

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Nyx nodded, that made sense. He'd taught Prompto to warp himself and he'd heard the Prince's Advisor was really talented with elemancy as well. He had thought Noctis only had the three retainers/guard, but it made sense for one or two others to be linked to his magic for just this sort of circumstance. "I've got no magic," he warned, that severely limited his chances of getting her away. "Plus I've been shot," he hated admitting that, Luche had been Galahdan, he had never imagined he would turn on him. There were so few of them left now, how could they turn on each other? And Drautos…he wasn't from Galahd, but they had trusted him, Nyx had trusted him. How could he be Glauca? In the end, it made scary sense, explaining the missions that had gone really wrong…because the enemy had known they were coming. "It's Drautos."

"What?"

"General Glauca an Captain Drautos are one and the same."

Green eyes looked him over and the guard grimaced before kneeling and putting a hand over his abdomen, focusing healing magic into the wounds. "It's a patch job," he warned. "Oh….Now get out of here before they can block off the exits. Get the Ring to Noct."

Nyx looked at him, torn but then he nodded and grabbed Lunafreya's hand, pulling her along. "Libertus!" he yelled to his oldest friend who hobbled to join them, grabbing the Captain's car.

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Harry sent a few protective spells at the car before turning to where his enemy was climbing from the rubble. This was Drautos? Noct had mentioned the leader of the Glaive a few times, he'd looked up to him. General Glauca though, Noct had shared some horror stories about him. He drew his sword, blocking a blow, feeling it reverberate through his arms. He was strong, too strong. He'd been trained with a sword all his life; Harry had a few years…if you didn't count his time in the Nexus. He had been there forever in a way; time just didn't really exist there. Harry just didn't have the body type to pile on the muscle necessary to match an opponent like Glauca, but he was faster than him. The crazy jumping ability of his armour was a pain, so the first thing Harry did was work to disable it…while dodging crazy movie monsters bigger than the buildings and the chaos they caused. He couldn't save the city, he didn't think anything could, but he could stop a traitor and buy people time to get away. Since he didn't plan to let the man survive he had no problem using magic that was unrecognisable in this world, blasting away at him with everything from a tickling charm to full blown borderline grey spells. A quick AK would handle the issue, but he didn't feel comfortable with it, even with Death explaining the spell was his right to wield as his Master, the only one who could without suffering the effects it usually caused on the soul.

In the end Harry stood above the body of Drautos/Glauca, the man's armour mostly gone, eyes staring vacantly ahead, blood pooling around him. Harry was panting, his own wounds already healing as he sheathed his sword and looked away, seeing the sun beginning to rise. He needed to get out of the city, make sure any survivors made it clear, find Noct… the monsters were gone with the sunrise which meant they had been daemons, had Niflheim weaponised daemons? That couldn't be good. Harry pulled a water bottle from subspace and drank greedily before downing a nutrient potion since he didn't want to take the time to actually eat.

He began jogging, following the half collapsed highway, spotting a sign for one of the Gates. He hoped the three had made it out with the roads in such condition and no magic to help. Could Noctis support a force like the Glaive, or those who had survived and were loyal? What had happened in the last three years to turn the war this badly against Insomnia? He slipped out of the city to find himself in the space just beyond the wall and he knew from Noctis that there were checkpoints before and after the bridge and by now they were likely in enemy hands. He found a few terrified people hesitating before the now Imperial controlled bridge and he moved through them, letting them see his uniform and then he spoke. "I'll give you an opening, run once they're distracted." He waited until a few nodded before launching a surprise attack. Thankfully it was manned by weird armours…Magitek? They were easy enough to take out with a few careful blasts of magic and then the refugees were running across the bridge, dodging between burnt out vehicles. He got them across, but the next checkpoint was a wall across the road, blocking the entire way onto the mainland. Fun. And then he spotted another man, closer to the barrier…fighting. "MOVE!" he yelled at the refugees, throwing himself into the fight.

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Noctis stretched and blinked up at the ceiling, confused for a second over where he was before he woke up enough to remember. Today was the day, they would finally be leaving for Altissia, if Dino came through as promised. He sat up and ran his hand through his hair before getting up and heading into the bathroom to shower and dress. He emerged to find Prompto lounging in the sun like a cat while Gladio read.

"Heya, morning," Prompto called lazily.

"Where's Specs?" Noctis asked as he returned the wave.

"Should be back any minute now," Gladio put his book away as sure enough, the door opened.

The three were instantly on alert as they saw his face, the slow way he was moving. Ignis looked at the paper in his hands then stared at Noct in dejection.

"What's that look for?"

Ignis handed the newspaper to Gladiolus. "It's in all the papers," he admitted quietly.

"What is?" Noctis was getting sick of not getting an answer.

Prompto got up and looked over Gladio's shoulder. "'Insomnia…falls'?" he read in disbelief.

Noctis's jaw dropped and he turned on Ignis with a snarl. "This your idea of a joke?"

"I need you to calm down so I can explain."

"I'm as calm as I'm gonna get!" he snapped, fighting to keep his breathing steady. This had to be a bad dream or something.

"There was an attack. The imperial army has taken the Crown City," Ignis offered as gently as he could, still in shock himself

"As treaty room tempers flared, blasts lit the night sky. When the smoke about the Citadel had cleared, the king was found…dead," Gladio read from the article, heart in his though, because if the King was dead….then so was his Shield, his Dad.

"No, wait, hold on…" Noctis shook his head as Ignis sighed.

"We had no way of knowing."

"What? Knowing what?" it had to be a lie, his Dad couldn't be dead, they'd known it was a trap, they'd take precautions!

"That the signing was last night, that Insomnia—"

"But the wedding! Altissia!" his hands were shaking and then he felt Prompto wrap an arm around his waist, tugging him to a chair and Noctis slumped in it. It wasn't like he wanted to marry Lady Lunafreya, not without getting to know her first and even then….but he would do his duty for his country.

"I know, that was the plan. Yet the reports of the invasion are all the same. How could every headline in the kingdom be wrong?"

"…Lies," Noctis whispered and Prompto hugged him.

"…If only," he offered. Of all of them, he was the only one whose parents may still be alive since they were so rarely in the city.

"You should call them," Noctis suggested and Prompto stared at him before nodding and pulling out his phone.

Gladio looked to Ignis. "What else do we know?" the Advisor just shook his head. "Then we can't be sure until we see it with our own eyes."

Prompto hung up after leaving a message. "And that means we go back to Insomnia."

"Might not be safe for us there," Ignis pointed out.

"Might not be safe for us here," Prompto argued, there was only one port to Altissia after all. This would be the obvious place to look for Noct if the Empire were looking to take out the whole Royal family.

Gladio looked to Noctis, it was his choice. "Turn back?"

Noctis stared at the floor before nodding. "Yeah."

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Cor looked up to see another Crownsguard cut down a good number of MT"s, even as civilians bolted past, using the opening they were creating. He couldn't tell who it was in the mess of fighting, but it had to be one of the few men who had remained in the city. Once the refugees were safely through he turned to the city, wanting to go, to see for himself but he glanced at the other man. "The King?"

"Dead, Lady Lunafreya has the Ring to take to Prince Noctis. I…did what I could to ensure no one could defile his body," the younger man answered, moving closer and Cor realised he did not know him, he was Marshall, he knew every man in the guard, even if just from their file.

And then he saw the symbol he wore…the Lucian family crest with a lightning bolt through it…something he had seen once before. A file Regis had him create for a Guard bound to the Prince, no photo, just a description and the altered crest. A man he had been told he would likely never meet, who was thought dead. "King Regis thought you were dead."

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Harry blinked before shaking his head. "I'm hard to kill." He offered his hand. "Harry Potter."

"Cor Leonis, technically your boss." He looked back at the city.

"You won't like what you'll find," Harry warned, and the older man sighed, turning to leave and Harry followed him out.

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"I hope everyone's okay…" Prompto whispered as the Regalia flew done the road. The thought of the Empire taking Insomnia made him feel sick and he found himself double checking his wrist was covered.

"Lotta good hoping's gonna do," Noctis answered, staring at the passing countryside. He wanted to deny it but….he could feel something…a hole….his Dad…it wasn't meant to be like this.

"You mustn't lose faith," Ignis offered as he drove somewhat above the recommended speed limit.

"Really? Can faith stop a fleet of imperial dreadnoughts?"

"Give it a rest," Gladio growled and Noctis slumped in his seat.

"The empire lied. They betrayed us," Prompto whispered and Noctis turned to look at his best friend, for the first time stopping to think what this could mean for the blonde and he reached over to gently hold his right wrist.

"Conjecture gets us nowhere. We're searching for truth."

The car was silent after that, none of them feeling like talking as they got closer until they heard a noise above them, Magitek engines.

"Look at the size of those things," Gladio was surprised how big they were.

"Imperial dreadnoughts, they transport soldiers—namely, the magitek infantry," Ignis explained, not seeing Prompto's flinch.

"The robots?" Gladio frowned and Noctis shifted in his seat to press closer to Prompto who was looking pale. Gladio glanced back and saw, grimacing. "Don't. You're not like them, whatever's left in that armour isn't human anymore," the Shield told him

"Ah, apologies," Ignis glanced back as well. It was too easy to forget the secret Prompto had shared and he knew that many things said about the Magitek Army were hurtful to the younger man

"Doesn't look like they'll be signing that peace treaty," Prompto choked out, trying to sound normal. It helped, that none of them looked down on him for the circumstances of his birth, but it still hurt to think that if not for someone taking him, he'd be like them, nothing left of who he was. That was if someone had changed their mind and not had him Decommissioned like he was meant to have been.

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Harry followed Cor into the garage, looking around as his eyes adjusted. He'd ditched his jacket in the heat, though his clothing did have cooling charms built in it would look strange to keep it on. Hammerhead was an odd name and it consisted of the garage, a diner, a gas station and an old camper van, from what he'd seen as they drove in.

"Cid," Cor greeted the old man.

"Cor," Cid greeted in return, eyes flicking briefly to Harry before dismissing him. "Radio's going crazy. Is it true?"

"Regis is dead," Cor confirmed, and Cid swore.

"Did the boys come through here?"

"Couple of days ago, heading for Galdin Quay. Had to do some work on the old girl though."

Cor nodded and plugged his phone in to charge it. He accepted the drink Cid offered and then sat, waving Harry to the other empty chair. "Have you had any trouble here?"

"A few refugees have begun passing through, been sending them on to Lestallum since it's the safest town around and can take the numbers," Cid answered absently.

Harry listened, wishing he could have done more. Could he have stopped things if he had arrived a little earlier? Had Death sent him when he did because it was something that had to happen? He didn't like that idea at all, not with how many had died in the attack.

Once Cor's phone was charged he dialled.

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Noctis stared at his home, hearing the radio broadcast from Prompto's phone. He couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. Why announce his death? Was the Oracle truly dead or was she alive and they were announcing it anyway, like with him? He closed his eyes, forcing himself to think logically, tactically. Pronouncing all three of them dead meant they couldn't be used as rallying points for survivors, though it could make them martyrs which would be just as bad for the Empire. He nearly jumped when his phone rang, scrambling to pull it out, eyes widening as he say the name pop up on the screen. "H-Hello? Cor?" had the Marshall really made it out?

"So, you made it," the familiar voice said, and he sat down, relief making his legs weak and Ignis moved closer, letting him lean against his legs.

"The hell's going on?" he demanded, fighting tears as he looked at the smoke rising from the city.

"Where are you?"

"Outside the city, with no way back in."

"Makes sense."

"'Makes sense'? Are you serious? What about any of this makes sense!? The news just told me I'm dead—along with my father and Lunafreya," Noctis snapped.

"Listen. I'm heading out to Hammerhead. About the king…it's true. If you're looking for the whole truth, you know where to find me. Get moving."

Noct sat in silence for a moment. "Right." He hung up and sighed.

"What did the marshal…have to say?" ignis asked gently.

"Said he'd be in Hammerhead," Noctis answered as he stood.

"And the king?" Gladio demanded but Noctis didn't answer, staring back at the city before turning to head back to the Regalia.

They drove in silence until Gladio announced he had a message form his sister; it was good to know someone had made it out at least.

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Cor hung up, relieved to have definite proof the Prince was alright. Then again, he'd seen Potter use magic in that fight…which meant the Prince had to be alive since those tied to the King were powerless now. He knew what he had to do now, the path he had to set the Prince on, just like his Father and his Father before him, he had to gain the Power of the Lucii.

"What now?" Potter asked and Cor considered.

"We head for the Royal Tombs to the north, past the Prairie Outpost. Cid, tell the boys to meet us there."

"Sure thing, watch yourselves out there," the mechanic warned, and Cid nodded, heading for his bike and Harry once again got on behind him.

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Harry hung on as they raced down the road, heart pounding in his chest. After three years he was finally going to see his Prince again. He hated the circumstances it would be under, but he felt like a teenager again, even as a small part of him wondered if he'd moved on. He'd heard the radio, the mention of the wedding….but it could have been all political.

They drove for hours until they reached a collection of shabby buildings and Harry followed Cor inside to find a woman waiting. He hung back as the two talked, listening to the people around to help get a better idea what was going on in this new world. There was a lot of muttering about the Empire and wondering if Noctis and Lunafreya were really dead. Cor eventually called for him and he followed the man up a dirt track to until they reached a cave where they settled in to wait.

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"So who is this Monica person?" Prompto asked as they walked up the track. Despite being Noct's friend for years, he hadn't met a lot of the people in the Citadel.

"A servant of the Crownsguard, like Gladio and myself," Ignis answered, that was what he liked about Iggy, he never got annoyed at him asking 'dumb' questions.

"She's one of my father's best. Along with Dustin—who's guarding my sister," Gladio added.

"Good to know we still have people we can count on outside the city," Noct added and Prompto hated the defeated tone in his voice but there wasn't much he could do about it.

"Can't keep up with this guy," Gladio complained as they walked and Prompto nodded.

"First the Crown City, then Hammerhead, then the royal tomb?"

"His nickname should have been 'Cor the Restless'," Ignis suggested and Prompto snickered, even Noctis smiled slightly.

"Somehow not as catchy as 'Cor the Immortal'."

"Making it out of Insomnia only adds to his legend," Prompto said.

"Well, fortune favours the bold."

"The wise make their own luck," Ignis countered and Noctis rolled his eyes.

"You think it's a coincidence he's made it out of all those battles alive?" Gladio asked. "Wonder what drew him to the royal tomb."

"A morbid curiosity for the late kings of Lucis?" Ignis suggested, pushing his glasses up and then they were dodging as they were attacked from above.

Prompto drew his gun and began firing, scattering the bird like creatures as Noctis warped up to another. Prompto grinned and warped, firing while in the air even as lightning from Ignis took out another. Gladio watched Ignis' back as the two who could fight airborne enemies handled the majority. "Well, that was fun," Prompto grinned and Noctis laughed.

They walked on until the Tomb of the Wise came into view. "We're here."

"A tomb fit for royalty," Prompto whistled, impressed.

"Let's go in and find the Marshal," Gladio told them and they headed inside.

Cor was waiting for them, standing beside a sarcophagus that bore a sword in its hands.

"Marshal," Ignis greeted.

"At last, Your Highness," he bowed to his new King.

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Noctis wanted to tell him not to bow but didn't other. There was something…he could feel magic in the air, calling to him. "Yeah, wanna tell me what I'm here for?"

"The power of kings, passed from the old to the new through the bonding of souls. One such soul lies before you. To claim your forebears' power is your birthright and duty as king."

"My duty as king of what?" Noctis snapped.

"I thought I was the moody one," a familiar voice asked and Noctis froze, eyes wide.

It couldn't be….he was dead…wasn't he? He searched the gloom and spotted another figure in the shadows. He swallowed and took a step forward even as the other man did, and he would swear his heart skipped a beat. Dressed in the uniform Noct had designed, armband in place… "Harry," Noctis choked out and then he was running. He slammed into the wizard who caught him, wrapping him up in a hug. Harry had grown so now they were the same height, making kissing him even easier. "How…I thought…Harry," Noctis couldn't think, all he could do was hold on, proving to himself that Harry was real. "You're here."

"I'm here and I will never leave you again," Harry swore.

TBC…