"Right, that's it, no more one person in a room, ever no matter what we're told the rules are"
"Agreed, now then I believe you have what Iris calls a date with her to explore the town and then..."
"Yeah and then"
And so that's exactly what happens because even though the group knew Lestallum, especially the three that lived through the ten years of darkness, it was nice to relax for a little bit and simply let Iris be a teenager for a little bit longer, even with the loss of her father, the four knew that they hadn't been able to be carefree for a long, long time, even when they were back in the past for four years they weren't as carefree as people thought they had been, instead they had been training, dealing with PTSD on a regular basis or making plans on what they were going to change once the timeline caught up to a degree and then they realized something
"Hey uh guys...we kinda forgot about something"
"What Prompto?"
"Dead-eye, we have yet to take care of him and that means no Chocobos"
"Oh...good point"
"Guess we're heading to the outpost then"
"Then let's get going, good thing we already know we can defeat Dead-eye, it's just going to take a little bit of work is all"
And so they head to the Chocobo outpost and join the hunt for Dead-eye
"So...same plan as last time?"
"Nah, let's just face him head on and ignore the barrels especially considering just how...explosive those things are"
"Right, let's do it then"
And so that's what they do, they simply fight Dead-eye and once they were allowed to rent Chocobos the entire group looked at Noct in expectation
"Right, the thing I wanted to do with Chocobos, because in all honesty it will be easier to do this without the Regalia even if we have it right now"
"What makes you say that?"
"Simple, because we're going to the Malmalam thicket to take care of some things in there even though I don't need the Royal Arm in the tomb and I don't want to walk all that ways and I think I know a way to coax the birds into taking us all the way in, though I won't force them if they don't want to go further in"
"Why the birds for that place?"
"You'll see"
And the group did indeed see why Noctis wanted the Chocobos for the thicket, not only because it made the journey slightly easier but also the fact that quite frankly there were areas that were only accessible with the birds
"So...still have to deal with Ardyn so that you can regain the covenants"
"Yeah, guess there's simply no more avoiding it is there?"
"None"
"Then let's head to the outlook once we get back, this is gonna get interesting and we're all going to have to control ourselves to the extreme"
"Oh right...we shared a caravan didn't we?"
"Yeah...PTSD will be a dead giveaway"
"Unless..."
"What is it Iggy?"
"There might be a way to avoid an episode for sure instead of risking it with Ardyn"
"What do you...Specs I thought we agreed never to use that solution again"
"We did, however..."
"King Regis...he made you promise something didn't he?"
"Yes Gladio, when the therapist, with our permission, told the King about our decision not to use that solution ever again he asked to meet me and me alone in private. When we talked he said he was concerned about the future and the fact that there was a high probability of us needing to work or at the very least be with Ardyn for periods of time and the fact that our PTSD was so unpredictable, thus me made me promise to keep some of the solution on hand for such situations and while I won't force you to use the solution he asked me to try and convince you of his arguments for using said solution despite our obvious hate for it"
"I see...we'll talk about it more on the way back to Lestallum, and...and if we agree to it we can't let Ardyn see us taking that solution, or if he does figure out a way to keep him from being suspicious"
"Agreed"
Ultimately the group does decide to use the solution that they had agreed never to use again for a reason when around Ardyn because they really had no other choice if they wanted to keep things a secret
"Remember when..."
"When we all agreed that this solution was banned? I remember, and I remember that dad and the therapist agreed with our decision, I guess I didn't realize that dad thought about this exact scenario when agreeing though"
Several years earlier
The four time travelers had been having a bad month and the three who knew about it could tell that it was a bad month because even the therapist, who they were now fully cooperating with, wasn't having much success in bringing them down from daily PTSD episodes, which wasn't a good thing considering that all four of them were having at least four episodes a day including during their sleep
"We...we need relief and soon"
"No kidding, dad said that if he doesn't see improvement within two weeks he's going to do something drastic"
"Like what Noct?"
"No idea Gladio, but I don't think we want to know"
"Guess we'll just have to hope that the therapist comes up with something first then"
The therapist did indeed come up with something before Regis did, it was a relatively new drug developed for those with PTSD thus not everything was known about it including all possible side effects though most common side effects were known since it had gone through a standard trial period
"Now then I'm sure you all know the rules regarding the medication"
"Yes, if we feel anything seriously off while on the medication, even if it's just more severe versions of all known side effects we're to let you or another doctor know immediately"
"Exactly"
"Then we'll go for it, it has to be better than what we're dealing with now right?"
"Indeed"
Ultimately it only took three days to realize that the new medication was not the best thing for the four of them because not only did all four of them have issues waking up (more like being woken up in a timely manner) but their health was majorly impacted as well after just three days with them being affected after only twenty-four hours too
"Okay you four, you may have dreamless sleep with this medication but it's not doing you guys any good in regards to health, so no more of this medication understood?"
"Completely"
Later in private Regis had his conversation with Ignis about keeping at least a little bit of the medication on hand despite how dangerous it actually was to them since he knew that they would probably have to be around Ardyn in the future dependent on various things
"I understand, I will keep it a secret unless it's absolutely necessary to reveal what you have ordered me to do"
"Please do, though I hope it's never needed"
Present