18 May, 756:
(One day after)

It was hard to say for certain when or if they slept that night. Perhaps, sometime in the pre-dawn hours, the exhaustion from too much time awake and too many emotions felt finally caught up with them. Reina couldn't remember the last time she had lain with her brother like that. Years, at least. That night it was the only place she could lay that didn't feel cold and empty.

In any case, regardless of whether they slept or not, Reina watched the sun rise just as she had watched the moon rise and the stars shift overhead. She was tired, but it was soul-deep. No amount of sleep would touch it. They got up all the same; the night had been filled with stories and memories, keeping each other company and filling the emptiness with thoughts of brighter days. But there were no words to keep that light burning in the morning, so everything was hollow. A hole where she should have been whole.

The twins rose from the dirt and brushed each other off. For a moment they just stood, staring at each other. There weren't any words needed; Reina could see the resignation in her brother's expression and she suspected she looked as empty as she felt. They were aching inside and out but there was no where to go but forward. So forward was where they went.

Ignis made breakfast. The smell made Reina's stomach roll so she declined the meal once more. Eventually they were ready to climb into the Regalia and follow the trail that Cor had left for them. There was a drive with another clue at the end, a hike riddled with monsters. Reina remembered little of it. There was some news from the Crownsguard, a familiar face, but it didn't matter. There was only one familiar face Reina wanted to see.

At the end of the trail there was the tomb of a long-dead king and Cor. Reina felt a flicker of warmth when she saw him; a familiarity that she associated with her father. He and Cor had been close. For some reason that made it feel as if he had a little piece of the king wrapped up inside. Maybe he even felt the loss as keenly as she and Noctis did. But the more she looked at him the more the feeling faded into a new cold nothingness. Cor was all steel and sharp edges. Maybe he did hurt inside. But it didn't hurt enough that he was reduced to nothing. It hadn't even touched his outer shell. Maybe he would have said the way she felt meant she was weak—that they were weak—but she knew better. A person could keep walking after their soul was torn out, but that didn't mean they were still alive. If they were then it hadn't been their soul.

"You wanna tell me what I'm here for?"

Reina let her eyes fall from Cor and refocus on her twin when he spoke. To the disconnected observer, his tone might have sounded haughty. To her it sounded tired. Hollow.

"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 your duty as king."

"My duty as king of what?"

"Now is not the time to question your calling. A king is sworn to protect his people."

"And yet he chose to protect only one prince. Was that his calling, forsake the masses to spare his own son?"

Something sparked deep in the pit of Reina's stomach. It was the first thing she had really felt through the emptiness. The first thing that wasn't pain. She had been bad at hearing criticism of her father in the first place, but now that he was gone, now that they would never see him again, never speak to him, never hear his answers to the myriad of questions… it lit that fire in her again, stronger than ever before. She closed her shaking hands into fists; the little muscle along her jaw tensed as she ground her teeth together.

"How long will you remain the protected? The king entrusted the role of protector to you," Cor said.

"Entrusted it to me? Then why didn't he tell me that? Why did he stand there smiling as I left?!"

Reina knew, logically, that anger was how Noctis showed his grief. She knew he was just as lost and confused as she was, that he felt the pain as sharply. But logic didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was that fiercely protective impulse that filled up all the empty space inside her.

"How can you be angry with him?! He did everything for you."

"How can you not be? He did nothing for you." Noctis didn't miss a second with his response. He rounded on her; where only an hour ago they had been connected in their grief now they were split apart by it. "He just took everything until your whole life was him!"

Reina had never intentionally hit her brother before. Not beyond the teasing jabs. But it was the only response for his stupid, thoughtless words. Noctis jerked back, his hand going to his jaw. Ignis stepped forward, putting one hand on her shoulder as if concerned she would try for another. She didn't.

"You have no idea. Gods. You lived with him nearly as long as I did and you don't know the first thing about him, do you?" She didn't try to pull away from Ignis, but she could feel his grip tightening the more her volume increased. "I made my peace with having the leftover bits of time. Because I understood. I knew what he tried to give you, even if you were too damn oblivious to appreciate it yourself. I never held that against him."

Noctis rubbed his jaw and glared at her. "Well, then, princess, why don't you enlighten me. Seeing as you've spent the past four years following him around like a damn dog and filling every need he never had."

That did make her lunge forward again. Ignis stopped her from doing much more than that; he caught her other shoulder and, with his forearm across the top of her chest, deftly held her back.

"Reina—" Ignis might have told her this whole thing was unnecessary or something equally logical. Cor interrupted.

"Enough. Stop this. You two bicker like children while your kingdom burns. You father passed this to you, hoping you would find your way together. Do not disappoint him."

It did nothing for Reina's temper. How dare he play on her worst fear? All she had ever wanted was to make her father happy and whole, to make him proud. Now Cor tried to turn that against her in her darkest moment.

"You can shut the hell up, too, Cor," she said, pulling against Ignis' arm, now. How could he be so skinny and still hold her back with one arm? "Don't talk to me about what my father wanted. I know what he wanted."

As a rule, Reina didn't shout. If she did it was at her brother and never at an elder. It was no surprise, then, that Cor was stunned. But she wasn't going to press her luck, hoping that the shock would keep him quiet for long. She rounded back on Noctis, holding onto Ignis' arm but not pulling away anymore.

"And you—The Chosen King. The King of Light. The True King. He was so afraid that you wouldn't get to enjoy a normal life later on that he spent everything trying to give you a normal childhood. I guess it worked. Because you didn't even notice. Just like every other stupid teenage boy doesn't notice his parents. Just a mild inconvenience." She dropped her gaze. The fire faded into something colder as images of her father's face swam before her eyes. When she spoke again her voice was quiet, shaking. "He gave everything. How could I be angry with him for loving you, for wanting the best for my brother? I wanted it, too."

Ignis' hold on her weakened when her voice cracked. She pulled away from him; he made a motion that suggested he regretted his lapse, but she stepped away, not toward Noctis but toward the door. She paused only briefly in the doorway to look back at her brother. Her eyes burned with tears but she didn't let them fall.

"Take your royal heritage, Noct. It's not for me." She turned and left, not paying much attention to the calls behind her.

"Uh—Reina! There're monsters out there!" Prompto said it like she might have forgotten.

"I'll follow," Ignis said, ducking out the door behind her.

She didn't go far. She didn't make Ignis feel as if he needed to draw his weapon and come to her aid. She just climbed the boulder beside the tomb and sat on the overhang, hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees. Her hand went immediately to her pocket, drawing out her cell phone and unlocking it. The home screen image was set to a picture of her and her father; she had taken it just a few months before and it had always made her smile, then. Something about how happy he looked—the ring might have been making him sick, but it never seemed to tarnish his smile. Now it hurt to look at, but she couldn't stop herself.

It was only a moment before Ignis sat down beside her. He didn't say anything. He didn't even tell her she shouldn't have punched the crown prince… or was Noct the king, now?

For a long time she didn't say anything, either. The unshed tears didn't remain that way for long; they formed steady and silent streams down her cheeks as her gaze remained fixed, unwavering, on the screen of her phone.

They had been five when Noctis was chosen by the crystal. The king didn't tell them, of course—not then—but there were changes. Then again, looking back, Reina didn't remember very much before five; whatever changes happened were just the baseline for her life.

At the time she didn't understand. By the time she was old enough to understand, the damage had already been done.

Noctis. The Chosen One. Her father's precious son.

Reina remembered their father telling Sandre off, one day, for being too hard on him. He had never done the same for Reina and, for as long as they had a nanny, he never did.

"I understand that my son can be over-exuberant, at times, but he is merely a child," The king smoothed an affectionate hand over his son's hair as Noct peeked out from behind him. "I should like for him to have the chance to be a child."

So Noctis had a childhood like any other boy, saving the fact that everyone called him Prince and Your Highness. When he complained about too many lessons with their governess, he was taken out of them. His afternoons following school were spent with Ignis, instead. Reina studied music. She played "Zanarkland" on the piano and "Unknown Lands" on the violin.

She never complained.

Perhaps if she had, she would have received the same treatment, but deep down she was hoping that if she accomplished something then she would be taken note of.

When they were eight both of them learned, through Lunafreya, about the prophecy and Noctis' destiny. He had a grand future ahead of him. He would become the king who saved the world; he would bring light in the dark. It made sense to her. Indeed, everything else made sense, afterwards, as well. She hadn't even been jealous at the time, because by then it hadn't really occurred to her that she could ever have anything like that.

So she had smiled; she was happy because her brother was happy. And, when it came down to it, that was what was truly important.

"I know I shouldn't have said those things to him," she said at length, not looking at Ignis, though she did let her phone turn itself back off. "There are things I can't tell him about what Father did and why he did it. Some day he'll understand."

There was a pause. Reina guessed that Ignis was deciding whether or not to ask the question. Eventually he did.

"What things?"

She looked up at him, considering for a moment. It would have been so easy to tell him, and yet… he would bear it with him forever. Every time he looked at Noctis he would remember, like she did. It was better that he didn't know. She would bear it on her own, now.

Reina shook her head. "You'll understand some day, too."