Matrimony

A/N: nisu-chan25, Silver-MemoryKeeper, lovetaryn, Oblivion Star Seeker, Henrietta Skylink, MassMurderer, Yuki Minamoto, 4000kills, jasmine6653, MidnightReader1, madzuk, Skye8055, snowlily, Forks, vix vik, TigerRaiken, Lightis, ashe, 2 Sided CoiN, quasiunafantasia, MonsterKiwi, Dark angel, ZoMg1010, Lynn, SparklesANuni96, Fishcake-kun, Cam277, Gkwnsgh5, FarronCaelum, NoctLightXIII, FightingDreamer001, Kingu, Simply Serey, leon-zack, yonomi.
Thanks to my awesome reviewers as always. Matrimony has 15k hits!

Chapter 8: A Display of Power

"Well isn't this quite a turn of events?"

"No! Let them go!" Lightning shrieked as her babies were whisked away from her. "Give them back!" Watching her twins in the arms of the human bastard Franz was enough to have her screaming for his blood.

The poor angel mother could do nothing but watch helplessly as he juggled a knife, erstwhile holding her baby boy nearby.

"Now now, let's not curse, shall we?" Franz taunted condescendingly. "We don't want these children to grow up with bad manners, do we? I'd have to say, however, that this is quite a treat."

"I swear, I'll kill you," Lightning spat. Her eyes were filled with hatred. If her body wasn't in its current battered state, she would have torn him to shreds.

Franz feigned dropping the knife. It came inches away from embedding itself from the baby boy's unblemished skin before he snatched it back.

"Oops," he smiled, loving the unspeakable horror displayed across the angel princess's face. A mother's love was truly touching indeed.

"P-please," Lightning spoke in broken sobs. It was a surprise she could speak after that devastating experience. The image of the knife closing in on her son was burned into her mind. "I'll do anything you want. Please... Let my children go."

"Now we're talking!" Franz tossed the knife aside, and held the twins in each arm. "You might not know this, but I'm quite a benevolent man. I have honor; therefore, I'm going to make a deal with you."

"To hell with you."

"Oh shit!" Franz motioned that he was going to drop the baby girl.

"Wait!" Lightning cried out, her heart nearly bursting from her chest. "I'm listening."

"Good. My God, hold them," Franz ordered shoving her children at her. "They're heavy."

Lightning gladly accepted her children, and held them to her, shielding them from Franz.

"Oh please, I could take them away whenever I want," Franz chuckled. "I'm allowing you to spend some time with them, you might not see them again after all. Well... that depends on how you act these next few weeks. If you please me, I'll give them back to you, if you don't they're dead. Simple, right?"

Lightning merely nodded. She was in no position to comprise, especially with her body as physically drained as it was now. She would need a good month to recover her strength, until then she'd have to bide her time.

"Stand up," Franz grabbed her by the arm.

Lightning stood up slowly. The act was painful. Her legs refused to budge, even more so with her twins weighing her down, but she managed.

"While I figure out a way to kill that atrocious husband of yours, in case he comes looking for you, I want you to stay put in this room," Franz took her to a dark cell. "I can't have you running off with the twins now can I? You're a crucial piece in my ploy."

The cell was dirtier than dirt. Things stirred in the dark corners. Light was non-existent, but she didn't care, she had her twins and that was all that mattered.

Franz shoved her. She made sure to fall on her back so that her babies were unharmed.

"Stay here," Franz warned. "If you run off, I will find you." He smirked, "Don't glare at me like that, it doesn't suit you."

Lightning watched Franz walk away. The door slammed shut, encasing her in total darkness.

One of her twins started to cry.

"Shh," Lightning cooed and kissed his stomach. "Shh... Lucien there's a good boy. Mama's here." Lightning touched her baby girl. "Don't cry Lucia... Everything's going to be fine, papa will rescue us, and we'll all go home together."

Lightning closed her eyes. She prayed she was right. Everything would be fine... Right?

Don't worry Lucien... Lucia. Papa will come.

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There are three races that inhabit the large continent of Aria. The Angels, the first group to settle on Aria, are known for their diplomatic, peaceful ways. Their lands are called Heaven. The second race was established not too long after the arrival of the Angels. An archangel named Lucifer detested peace and tolerance. He wanted to conquer and expand. Driven by his ambition, Lucifer denied his heritage and broke away from the angels, taking with him his circle of friends. The race he created was then called the Demons, whose lands are called Hell.

For years the two races battled for control of Aria. Though the angels were reluctant at first, the slaughter of their first leader by Lucifer gave them more than enough reason to retaliate.

The demons with their mastery of assassination and combat overwhelmed the angels in battle, but the angels with their knowledge of resurrection and healing would always return to the fight with fresh numbers

As war between the races persisted, an inferior race developed. They were called humans, a race with no special talent. A mortal race whose people withered with time, whereas angels and demons retained their youth forever. They were a race whose only asset was its reproductive ability. Their lands were called Earth. In a few years, the human race managed to overtake the angels as the most populous race. From then on they multiplied, occupying 70% of Aria's lands and forcing demons and angels to live in the lands that were leftover.

The humans were intelligent creatures. They never went to war with either the demons or the angels, no matter how much they were baited. With their level of skill in combat, they would have been slaughtered so they waited for the demons to angels to weaken each other, and occupied their time preparing for war with both races.

What the humans never factored into their war plans was peace between the demon and angel race. After years of endless bloodshed, the two hostile races agreed to peace through the union of the demon prince and angel princess.

To the human mindset, their marriage was a disaster and something had to be done. And just when things couldn't have gone more worse for the humans, their leader King Sola was assassinated. The perpetrator escaped and the humans fell into civil war.

For the humans, the cards were not playing in their favor.

Of course, however, for the arch-demon Prompto, human grievances were the last things on his mind. Right now, he had priceless intel that Noctis would shit bricks for—AKA he had the location of Claire's whereabouts.

After warming up to the human princess Luna, he had managed to persuade her to reveal the location of the exorcists. To his surprise, she had given him every bit of intel that she had without a hint of reluctance. Of course her being mute meant that she had to write down everything for him. It had been too easy, he felt like she was deceiving him, but he was the best at detecting lies, and he had not sensed any ill intent from her.

With that set, he was on his way to Noctis's room so that he could finally relieve his friend of his worries. The sooner they rescued Claire, the sooner Noctis would stop acting like an idiot and start acting like—well Noctis, duh.

Entering the throne room, he found Noctis sitting on the throne lazily with his eyes closed, and his elbow propped up against the arm of the chair. It was obvious he was deep in thought, and it was even more obvious that his thoughts were about Claire.

"Yo Noct I got some shit that you're going to want to hear."

"Leave me alone," came the silent response.

"I know where Claire is," Prompto taunted. The minute those words left his mouth, Noctis sat upright. Boy. That was easy. "But if you want me to come back later, well I guess I gotta come back later then."

"Stay," Noctis ordered, his voice desperate. "What do you know about Light."

"She's been taken to deep into the heart of Earth. A city called Eden, surrounded by casinos and skyscrapers. Its kind of like Hell, but filled with faggots, err I mean humans. There's a place in Eden called Square's warehouse. Its the only place in the city that juts into the ocean. From what Luna told me, the humans are holding Claire there."

"Well then what the fuck are we waiting for," Noctis stood and dusted himself off.

"It's not that simple. We can't get passed the human borders without authorization from one of the human leaders. Unless you want to start a war with the humans, we have to find another way in."

"Does it look like I care? If it's war they want then its war I'll give them."

"Well... I guess if they're smart, they'll let you go through. I mean which human is stupid enough to slap on a war with the demons on top of their own civil war?"

"Actually," Ignis intruded. "I've already received authorization to enter human lands."

"Motherfuck..." Prompto muttered under his breath. The douchebag gay boy was always one step ahead of him. Unacceptable!

Last Friday night yeah we danced on tabletops and we took too many...

"Hold on I gotta take this," Prompto rummaged his pockets for his phone and answered. "Speak to me"

"Prompto..." came the voice on the other line.

"Hey Claire! How've you bee... WHAAAA—" Prompto's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The voice of his baby sister was as clear as day. He couldn't believe it. It was really her on the other line.

The mere mention of Light's name riled Noctis. The prince snatched the phone from his blond-haired friend and spoke into the phone. "Light! Is that you? Light talk to me baby."

"N-noctis..." her words came in heart-wrenching sobs. "I miss you, I c-can't talk too long or else they might find me. Please Noctis, I'm sorry for upsetting you, but I can't stand being without you... P-please forgive me."

"Light listen to me, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you. I love you, I won't deny it any longer. I... love you..."

Noctis listened silently as his words earned him a fresh round of sobs. He could hear Lightning crying, and it broke his heart.

"N-n-noctis. I'm going to be at a human bar called 7th Heaven a week from now, alone. It's the only chance I'll have. Please come..."

"I will, I promise. Light what was that noise?" Noctis questioned, his voice tainted with worry.

"T-they found me, I have to go! N-no! Stop it!"

Noctis choked. The sound of his wife's bloodcurdling shriek set his teeth on edge.

The phone went silent before a rustling was heard. In the background, Noctis could hear his wife being whisked away.

"Prince Noctis I presume?" A new voice answered. "What an honor to finally make your acquaintance. Your whore of wife has told me so much about you. I am a human that you know as Fran—"

"You little bastard. You're a dead man. I swear if you've touched my wife, I will hunt you down!" Noctis roared.

"Touch?" Franz chuckled. "Oh my dear demon. I've done more than just 'touch' your lovely little whore. Actually, I'm surprised she can endure more than an hour without dropping to her knees and begging for my cock."

The imagery stung. Noctis replied vehemently, "You insolent human, do you really believe that I won't kill you, that you're untouchable? Mark my fucking words you son of a bitch, I will kill you."

"Well, you'd have to find me first, which that itself is impossible, and you foolishly assume that you can best me in combat. I've heard of your skills and feats on the battlefield and I have to say, I'm not impressed," Franz mocked. "The demon race must have lowered their standards for picking their leader."

"I'm coming for you, bitch." Noctis swore. With those words, he crushed the phone in his hand.

"HEY YO NOCT!" Prompto squealed, diving at the floor in an attempt to salvage the remaining pieces of his cell phone.

"Start the car," Noctis ordered Ignis.

"Where are we going?" Prompto questioned. "H-hey! I'm coming, too!"

The three arch-demons rushed toward the small luxury car parked outside of the palace gates. Ignis stomped on the gas pedal as soon as the others were in. Noctis sat in the passenger's seat, and stared out the window, lost once again in morbid thoughts. He replayed various scenes involving Franz, each a different, horrid way to kill him as painfully as possible.

His thoughts brought him some comfort, but he wasn't satisfied. He would never be satiated until he had Franz's head in his collection of many others.

"One question," Prompto cut in, breaking the silence.

Ignis responded, quite frustrated, "Can you not go for an hour without opening that mouth of yours?"

"Uh NO," Prompto answered. "Anyways... Before I was so RUDELY interrupted—faggot—I wanted to ask where the hell we're going. Don't give me that look Ignis, I'm pretty sure you don't know either."

He hated to admit it, but Prompto had a point. Ignis turned his head to the side and nudged the prince, "Where am I supposed to drive to?"

Noctis shrugged and returned to his thoughts.

"See! Even Noctis doesn't know, and he's the one who arranged this road trip," Prompto whined.

The car halted. Ignis couldn't take it anymore. His frustration was at the apex of tolerance. He turned and proceeded, with one hand, to beat the immature blond.

"HEY! OW! MOTH—OWW! THAT ONE REALLY HURT!" Prompto screamed, dancing around in the backseat in order to avoid the blows.

Noctis, who had been quietly holding back his anger, couldn't resist, so he turned and also joined Ignis in pummeling the blond.

"WHAT THE FU—I'm out of here, FUCK YOU guys!" Prompto pulled on the door handle. It didn't budge. "Of course... It would be locked..."

The blond sighed and succumbed to the beating that his 'friends' gave him. With every punch that landed, Noctis felt his frustration diminish until he didn't feel like punching Prompto anymore. Ignis stopped as well.

"Yeah your welcome assholes," Prompto mumbled grumpily. Although he wasn't a fan of pain, he had to admit the beating seemed to defuse the tense mood. By taking the hits, with extreme bravery and finesse only a true demon could muster, he had single-handedly calmed the storm.

"Oh hell," the blond groaned. "How long is it going to take to get there?"

"Five days? A week, perhaps?" Ignis answered.

And that was the end of their conversation for a long while.

The days passed by slowly. How long, no one seemed to know.

Long evenings spent crammed in the backseat were finally taking their toll.

Prompto sighed restlessly. He wasn't the silent type, and right now, he craved conversation. He tried many different things to occupy himself. For example, he would count the number of people they passed that had at least a minuscule amount of knowledge of who he was. That didn't last long as he assumed everyone knew of him.

Bored, he reverted to looking out the window. He saw a plane fly by.

Unconsciously he spoke, "Why didn't we take the jet?"

The car stopped, again.

Why didn't we take the jet... Why...

WHY DIDN'T THEY TAKE THE JET?

"The jet," Ignis muttered. Well now, wasn't this grand?

"The jet..." Noctis repeated. Who's stupid idea was it to take the damn car when he owned more than a dozen private jets? Oh wait...

"It's too late, we're already here. Look there's the Earth-Hell border checkpoint. Drive up to those guys in red, they'll let us through," Prompto pointed at the gigantic metal facility that had electric fences jutting out from both ends. There was a bridge behind the facility that led to human lands.

As their car approached the checkpoint, the demon guards immediately stood to attention, knowing very well who owned the black vehicle. The humans, however, did no such thing. Instead, they stood with their rifles at their hips, safeties off and ready to be used.

Noctis and Ignis got out of the car, and walked towards the humans.

"Stop, don't come any further," warned a cautious human guard. Noctis smiled. Humans and their tough guy acts. It seems that the humans had gathered a bunch of amateurs and posted them at the border. By the way they were shaking and fidgeting, Noctis doubted any of these soldiers had held let alone shot a gun before.

"Let us through, we have authorization," Noctis replied professionally. Ignis held the paper up so they could see.

"That paper is no longer legitimate. As you can see, it was signed by Prince Valefor Sola, however, though it saddens my heart to say this, just recently the young prince was slain in battle. Consequently, because he is deceased, so are the powers vested in those documents," the human answered.

"Bullshit," Noctis cursed. "Let us through. I'm not going to say it again."

"Guards!" The human shouted. From the roof of the edifice emerged well over a thousand armed guards, each with their rifles pointed at the demon prince. More and more guards poured out of the building, easily overwhelming the demon guards in numbers. The human guards formed a wall, preventing any movement across the Earth-Hell bridge.

"Noctis?" Ignis asked. He was uneasy, but then again who wouldn't be? Noctis's eyes were crimson red.

"Azazel," Noctis called out.

Ignis's eyes widened. Holy shit, he was going to—

The skies darkened, clouds blotted out the sun. In an instant, the warm temperature vanished and was replaced by rain, hard rain. Lightning crackled in the distant, and wind blew furiously. In the distance, a flying beast wailed, forcing the humans to cover their ears. It flew towards the roof with godspeed, and from its jaws came out a stream of fire that incinerated the soldiers on the roof.

"Leviathan," Noctis continued his chant.

This time the waters under the bridge rippled. The waves grew and beat against the bridge. The human guards, protecting the bridge, screamed as they were struck down by tidal waves. Those that weren't blown away were paralyzed with fear at the sight of the shadow of an enormous serpentine creature in the water.

"Samael."

The ground shook violently. Everyone that was standing was knocked onto the floor, save Noctis and Ignis. In the center of all the chaos emerged a Minotaur with rotten flesh. Its rib cage and spine were visible for all to see. The size of the beast alone caused quite a few of the humans to faint.

Noctis rushed up human that had denied him passage and grabbed him by the throat, holding him off the edge of the bridge.

"You should have listened," he snarled angrily.

"P-P-Please..." The human was choking on his own saliva. If only he had known.

"Save your pleas for someone who'll listen," Noctis smiled and released the man, who fell a thousand feet to his death.

Now that the bridge was cleared, Ignis pulled up in the car, "Why'd you summon them?" He asked clearly referring to the beasts of Hell.

Noctis shrugged, "I have the power to, so why not? And plus, I didn't want to bloody myself killing all the humans. I want to look my best when I see Light again. Do you think she'd like it if I embraced her with bloodied arms?"

"Get in the car," Ignis ordered.

Noctis entered the passengers seat.

"Took you long enough," Prompto yawned. "You're losing your touch my friend. I blame the wife."

"Shut up," Noctis retorted. However, he couldn't shove away the notion that his angel wife was making soft. For hell's sake, he had almost felt remorse for tossing the puny human off of the bridge.

They soon crossed the bridge and entered through the gates on human lands.

"We're here, what do you think?" Ignis asked to no one in particular.

Prompto crinkled his nose.

"Humans smell terrible."

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A/N: First off, let me start by apologizing for the mega late update. I'm currently enrolled in college as a freshman, and I'm just on a terribly tight schedule. I can't promise swift updates anymore, but I will update somehow. To all readers who have waited patiently for this chapter, I want to say you guys are the best :3.

Thanks for not giving up on me. I know it's hard to wait months for a chapter, and I'm sorry. It's hard for me, too. Every time I go on my laptop, my gut bugs me and tells me to write, but I can't. Thanks for supporting me! I've got a lot of things in store for this fic, so please bear with me.

Anyways, next chapter we'll finally get to see Lightning and Noctis reunited! And the twins? Oh Gods have mercy on you Noctis.