It has been a while, and honestly a lot of this chapter has been written a while back, but Cyberpunk 2077 happened over other things. I'm actually in the last miles of my thesis and also trying to balance things out with my work, but I haven't given up on this story and I never will lol. So we pick things back up with hurt/comfort pretty much everywhere, but we will also jump back into the action by the end of this chapter. I hope you enjoy.
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Unexpected
Chapter 97 – Deamons abound
"I'm so, so sorry, babe," Gladio started as soon as he saw her face popping on his screen.
Ignis's voice had been wavering and Aranea had yelled at him, but nothing could quite describe the level of panic he'd felt as the words registered.
Crowe had the baby.
Which is why Ignis had called twice while Noctis was still a walking, talking daemon, which was why Iris had half a dozen missed texts and why right now the others were trying to give him space while he sat down in a train compartment, holding his phone up at a weird angle because it did make the signal better.
"Am just glad you're okay," Crowe told him, her voice hushed and low.
"I want to hear about you, Crowe."
She smiled, all sunk in her pillows, her hair wild around her face and he could tell she was exhausted. The delivery had taken 20 hours. Twenty full hours and when Ignis had first called, she was at a mere 7 of the process.
"My brain only half works, but the nurses insisted I'm quite alive. I may have lost it and asked Aranea weird questions a dozen times and terrified everyone."
Gladio wanted to shake his head at her, but that would mean losing sight of her and that screen was far too small already when his heart longed to be in the same room as her. The bench he sat on felt cold and his throat was tight over the words that came out.
"Sexy little lion."
"That for me? You should see our cub."
She shifted gingerly, and Gladio noticed a tuft of hair that was much darker than hers, his heart missing a bit. Their newborn boy was lying on her chest, cuddled close to her, tiny fists all curled, tiny the only word that seemed to fit to describe him, cheeks puffed up, eyes shut tightly, Crowe securing him with one hand, cursing as she couldn't see the phone's angle.
"Our own little tiger," he chuckled, his voice cracking. He should have stayed with her, he wanted to hold her in his arms and to touch that fuzzy dark hair on Marius's head and be able to hear him breathe. "You're holding the phone upside down Crowe…"
"Sorry, I don't want to drop it on him!" she shot back, shifting the angle to be able to look at him again. "Oh, Gladdy, are you crying?"
"I… Yeah. Yeah, I just… wish I was there with you."
"You missed me screaming and kicking and bleeding, nothing you've not seen before."
"Crowe…"
"I did wish you were here, but you'll make it up to me, right? I mean, if I can ever heal up, he tore me up good."
He hissed through his teeth, Crowe rolling her eyes at him.
"He looks tiny, but he's a full 8 pounds. All healthy and well despite being a little early," she assured him.
Gladio nodded, drying one of his eyes and shaking his head.
"Are you hurting bad?"
"I feel stoned. They drugged me up good, insisted we'd be fine."
"You'd better take real good care of yourself while I'm not there to spoil you and stand guard."
"Yes sir," she giggled, wincing as the motion did pull on a few stitches. "Dang, I'm not eager to get up again."
"I'd carry you everywhere if I could."
"And I'd get tired of it fast. Gladio, I… What has been happening to you guys? You're not going to keep me out of the loop just because I'm stuck back here, right?"
"I can tell you all about it tomorrow. You should catch some rest now."
"I'm fine, just loopy and bleeding about as much as I should be."
"Gods, I'm going to feel bad for the rest of my life, huh?"
She shook her head, her picture shaking along, Crowe dropping the phone on her stomach to rest her arm, shifting it until Gladio could see their baby again.
"He's perfect. Blue eyes and all that soft hair. Don't ever feel bad. Just get back to us fast."
He wanted to pick up on the eye color, to help comfort her and make sure her voice wouldn't waver again over it, but there was so much fear left despite the new assurance. She's survived the delivery.
"I'll do my best," he told her, swallowing back any question and panic.
"Text me, okay?"
"You too. I don't care the time it is."
He didn't want to end the call, but he could see her eyes closing by themselves and how she struggled against it.
"I need to give him back to the nurse before I fall asleep."
"Yeah. Can you…?" his voice broke, his heart twisting as he thought of how this start looked.
How he was being exactly like his own father.
"Hey."
"Nah, just something stupid. What really matters is I love you. Both of you. Kiss our boy for me?"
"Oh babe."
It took them a good five minutes more of sweet nothings and promises to hang up. Gladio's phone battery dangerously low by then. He hurried to his friends, not even drying the tears still rolling, hollering at them like he'd won something, Prompto asking for pictures and Iris rushing to give him a hug, his heart hoping Aranea was doing all she could to give that much support to his Crowe.
"He's so small!" Noctis couldn't help repeating.
"I know! Now we just need you and the queen to work on the next princeling so he can have a job lined up," he teased them, Luna blushing, Noctis looking ready to get angry.
"Gladio!" Iris barked.
"What, it's a joke!"
"Is it though?" Prompto pointed out.
Gladio exchanged a look with Noctis, heaving a sigh.
"Okay, first, do we have a princeling on the way?" he insisted, shifting his gaze to Luna.
"We do not and I'm not sorry to say, you wouldn't be the first to hear about it," she told him, crossing her arms across her chest, her smile letting him know she was teasing back.
"My goal is to make sure no king or queen after me will need a Shield, but your son is welcome to work as one if that's what he wants," Noctis said. "Might sound weird, but if we can shift those traditions into something healthy, I'd like that."
"Yeah. I'm kinda stupid right now. I'm a dad, Noct!"
They laughed, wishing Noctis had packed a few beers among the many, many things he carried. They'd set up tents for the night, the King charging the phones that still worked, chatting away with Prompto, taking turns with Iris and Luna to make sure the gunman was never on his own. Their friend noticed their little game but didn't mind the attention. He had broken into tears twice already, even though they tried to break all the news they had to share gently. Iris and Luna had spent a good portion of the night trying to get hold of Cindy, since they wanted him to have some good news, although Luna was growing a little more worried about his reaction to the news the mechanic had in store.
They had already agreed that if they could, they wouldn't take this talk away from them. It was bad enough that it would have to happen over a phone.
"Oh, oh, I got her!" Iris exclaimed.
"What? What, who?" Gladio asked, out of the loop as Prompto had insisted the picture of his newborn needed to go through an app with filters and Noctis was busy keeping the phone charged with the tiniest spark of lightning.
"Cindy, jackass. Come here, Prompto."
"Wait, wait, he needs to sit down first," Noctis objected.
"Guys, you're starting to scare me, and I've been hunting MTs and seeing my psycho dad lately," Prompto cut them off.
Luna held her head, putting the phone in his hands as gently as possible.
"I know it's all very overwhelming, but she's been wishing to talk to you for months now. And no matter how scary it gets, you're not alone to face it anymore."
He nodded, gulping as he brought the phone up to his ear.
"Hi?" he tried, staying on his feet, wondering if he was supposed to hide in the train like Gladio had done.
Cindy's voice was almost foreign, her squeal of disbelief making his heart quiver.
"Oh city boy, I thought…"
"Yeah. Cin, I'm not at my best and the guys said I should sit down, so… Should I hide in a corner or are they making a bad joke?"
She heaved a deep sigh.
"I'm fine, Prom, there was not a scratch on me on the day of the wedding. If you wanna sit down, do it because you're ready to talk with me for at least an hour."
Still sitting next to Gladio, Noctis was twisting his neck to look at Prompto, hoping the talk would go fine for him. Luna sat by his side, reaching for his arm, their hands soon palm to palm, fingers squeezing. Iris agreed to be distracted by pictures of her nephew, her heart melting but also skipping a few beats. They knew Prompto could handle a lot. But it was still starting to feel like a lot piling up on one single person.
His clones, his mother, Otto-2 who he had been spending all of the past three months with… Luna shivered as she remembered how suddenly it had happened. No question, no hesitation, just taking a gun out of nowhere and…
The last time she'd seen anything that expeditive was here, in her own country, when Caligo had ordered someone executed for a reason she couldn't even remember. Prompto's panic after the deed had reassured her, but she could tell Iris was wary. There was a darkness still hanging around. The same one Ravus usually carried. The same one hanging under Noctis's eyes.
Prompto scratched his head, sitting back on the train's floor, right where the door had been ripped off by a daemon, his feet dangling as he answered Cindy, too far to be heard. His smile was fragile, his frame still tensed, his fingers pulling on his hair. Noctis was able to tell the very moment he learned the news. His grip on the phone made his glove crack, his eyes freezing on the snow at his feet. His legs didn't move, his shoulders hunching back.
His freckles stood out so much on his face, his skin might as well have turned translucent and Noctis clenched his teeth. Prompto's mouth moved too fast, Luna tugging on Noctis's shoulders, telling him he shouldn't pry.
But he knew this was a big deal. Prompto had always wanted a real family. They'd bonded over how broken they'd felt, a prince with a father never around and an orphan with parents to pay the bills and pay him no mind. After watching copies of himself that he called his brothers die one by one… Noctis remembered Otto-3. Otto-4.
Luna rubbed his back, barely holding back on her light. She knew it would only temporarily abate his anxiety, but it felt like he was on the verge of blowing up in a whirl of royal arms at the smallest trigger.
A few meters behind them, Prompto dropped himself back on the floor, grunting as he realized there were glass shards on the floor.
"Prompto, I… I know we hadn't talked it over, but I couldn't…"
"Wait, wait, Cin, I'm not mad, I'm just overwhelmed. It's… it's great," he managed.
Surely it had to be great? Gods, he sounded bad.
He was so so broken, but now there would be another version of him out there to protect, one that might stay innocent long enough to earn a real childhood. One he would wake up every night with nightmares of his own. One he'd have to look in the eye knowing he would have killed them if things had been just a tiny bit different. His breathing was getting hard and he held the phone further from him in fear Cindy could hear it.
"Prom?" she called.
He coughed. Cursed. Struggled to put her on speaker. His fingers were numb and cold.
"Let's go over it another time, but slower," he suggested. "You've been working your cute ass off to build Noctis an army of airships."
"I have and we'll be able to send a few your way to make sure you can get back asap," she explained.
"When did you find out?"
"A few weeks ago only, but as soon as I knew, I had to keep it, it was… I thought it might be my last link to you."
That was a good reason. A better reason than any of Verstael's reasons. Gods he needed to stop bringing everything back to him.
"Was it that time on the boat or…?"
He couldn't help but try to do the math and her genuine laugh made his heart jump with fresh joy, and suddenly the news felt right.
"You'd better show up before I get too big and you claim you don't recognize me."
"I'd never do that. But I want pictures."
"You're the photographer!"
"I don't care about their quality, you think I haven't missed you too? It's like no one told anyone about that goddamn letter, hey Noct, did you even get my letter? Sorry, Cin, I've been spending every day with a freak and… I need to stay distracted I guess?"
She did distract him as best she could, their talk going for as long as the battery held in Iris's phone. They just had the time to tell each other goodbye, even though they had much much more to say, but it was getting late and he wasn't going to tell his pregnant girlfriend to skip on sleep after hearing how intensely she worked. He walked back to the group, feeling almost sheepish, shrugging off shards of glass and having to ask Luna to fix a few fresh cuts he'd gotten.
"You okay, man?" Noctis asked him.
He shrugged, taking a seat across from the fire, crossing his legs to keep them from jumping.
"I get why you were all in such a hurry I talked to her, but sheesh. Gladio might be a dad, but me?!"
Gladio laughed.
"You got working pipes, if you don't use protection, that's what you get."
"Good dogs, brother, I don't want to hear stuff like that!" Iris punched him in the arm. "Especially considering you were not careful at all with Crowe!"
"Hey, might have been a surprise, but it's a good one. The next one will just have better timing, you know, no war."
"Next one?" Luna asked. "You haven't even changed one diaper, and you already…"
"Why not? I know too many cases of single child and they're all weird in the head," Gladiolus declared, clapping Noctis on the back.
"Hey!"
"I mean, you've seen Ignis."
They all laughed at that, although Iris punched him in the arm again, Prompto's shoulders finally relaxing.
"Gods, I hope our kids will get along. I have no idea how a mini Gladio would act!"
They went on with hypotheses and bets about what the future held, Noctis and Luna holding hands as they refrained from sharing their own hopes for future children. It had always been clear for both of them, but with the most recent events, Noctis had more urgent worries.
…
Noctis and Luna couldn't easily vanish to have time to talk, but after Noctis was sure Prompto was as fine as he could be despite the circumstances, he gestured for the train to her and she gave a sharp nod. Their friends all noticed them getting up, but they pretended not to see it or waved them goodbye, Gladio going as far as holding back any smart comment he might have.
The train cars felt too confined, so they crossed to the other side, Noctis lighting a few fire balls he hung in the air.
"That's a very neat trick," she observed.
"What? It's not the first time you've seen me doing that," he chuckled.
"No but it's been a while. And my nerves are quite raw to be honest."
"Oh Luna, I should have dragged you away sooner…"
"Don't make this about me. Something happened to you earlier today. I could feel your magic despite being separated by hours. It was… different."
His shoulders slumped, his eyes finding hers.
"So you did notice the beard?"
"Don't be silly now. You used the ring, it clearly took a few weeks off you, if not more."
"A guy's gotta catch up?" he tried to make fun of it, seeing the worry in her stare.
"Noct, please, I saw… I don't know what I saw and you will never frighten me, but…"
She gripped onto his shoulders, Noctis gently pushing her back against the train's side, his hands heavy on her waist.
"I'm not sure where to start, Luna. The crystal's voice was going insane, I had barely any magic left in me and the ring… It hurt but I was stronger with each daemon destroyed."
She listened to him, fingers reaching for his face. Her light came on pure instinct and she sensed the darkness dwelling inside, gasping as the sense of wrongness overwhelmed her. Her hands stiffened on his cheeks, her eyes widening.
"Hey, you're pinching me!"
"You can't be blighted! You can't be, my mother…"
"Don't heal me yet, let me talk first. Luna, what you feel, is it… Is it the usual blight or something different? Like… Those daemons, I… I absorbed them with the ring."
"That's something your ancestors could also do, although it's taxing on your body, which is most certainly why you're thinner after only using the Lucii's power for a few hours."
"That's not what I'm getting at. I... changed after defeating all of them. When I thought you were gone, I panicked and the crystal was still raving… I turned…" He shook his head, his hands growing tense on her shoulders, before smoothing down her jacket. His voice was uneasy as he started again, "Gladiolus saw it, but I turned into a daemon with horns and wings, Luna." He paused, staring into her eyes, finding her looking back with shock, which was expected, but he wasn't sure what he wanted her to say or do. So he just kept going, his words coming out almost too quickly. "When he touched my claws by accident, his own hand started shifting and returned to normal only because he pulled away."
She looked at him, her voice gone as she tried picturing it, her head shaking from left to right and his only consolation was the fact she stayed between his arms as his shoulders trembled.
"I could still speak, like… like Aldercapt could, but I made more sense, you know? I just… I think it's the crystal Ardyn stabbed into my back, maybe if we can get it out… Luna, I'm sorry, please talk to me."
"Noct," she managed.
He held her even tighter, his panic so strong she couldn't breathe right.
"Not my name, Luna. I need your help. And it's why I can't let you just play along with Verstael's plans, if I ever fall in a panic like that again, I have no idea if I can come back, I had… I had horns and fangs," his voice shifted despite how hard he was trying to keep himself together, her gasp making him flinch, "there's a reason why I have a new shirt on..."
Her head shook again, her heart breaking as she saw the tears in his eyes.
"No, Noct, Noct, I'm not scared of you, I'm hearing you, I'm here with you. It's just… I've never heard of anyone… I don't know if I can help. And you heard Prompto, there are kids down there, kids that could be his own child, if I don't go, they might be lost forever, and Ravus…"
"I know, but we can decide what we'll do to save everyone tomorrow, I… I'm way past what I can handle in one single day, Luna."
She hugged him close, ruffling his hair, whimpering as he shuddered.
"I think Ardyn is trying to make me like him," he confessed. "I mean, the daemons vanished into me. I could almost…"
Control them.
"You're nothing like him," Luna told him, her voice stern, hands almost rough as she held back on her urge to shake him for even suggesting...
"I was one of them!" he reminded her. "It was not an outer shell I was trapped in, it was my body. Gladiolus made me promise to tell you and I'm… terrified I might shift again…"
"Noct, look at me. Whatever form you take, you're still you. You're the man that I love."
His heart faltered, he could have sworn he felt it stopping.
"Luna…"
"Can you breathe for me? I know you're scared, I know this is more than you should ever have to face, but you are not alone."
"I'm sick of the voices in my head. Or maybe I'm just sick and you're all too nice to see it." He grabbed both of her wrists, guiding her hands to rest on top of his chest, glancing at her eyes, a flicker of red crossing the blue of his irises. "There's darkness in me that shouldn't be there. Is it the blight? A daemon's heart growing over mine?"
"I forbid you from saying such a thing!"
"Look at it first and tell me what your light sees," he insisted, his trembling so rough she was afraid he might collapse into a spasming fit right there.
"Noct…"
"Please. I can't be a danger to…" his voice cracked again, her chest squeezing at the following shudder.
Luna worried her lower lip, her fingers clenching over the flaps of his coat. She realized he should have been wearing more clothes, he had to be cold out here.
"I'll look, but I need you closer to me first."
His smile was weak, his voice weaker as he called her a "liar", his eyes still closing as she cupped his face and had him leaning to rest his forehead against hers. The familiar way to hold each other helped him calm enough to stop the trembling, Luna pushing part the superficial bruises she could sense, letting her light warm him gently and slowly, starting with his heart. The darkness she'd felt already was a taint on his usual magic, a lurking presence that seemed to pull away from her as she poured more light into him. He flinched, his breathing shifting to a rasp.
"Did I hurt you?" she asked worriedly.
"No. No, but that was… different."
They spoke from so close, their lips brushed with every word and Luna was tempted to silence his fears with a dozen kisses, instead steeling herself to try and pry the darkness off. He tensed a little more, her light drawing circles and all kinds of shapes as it followed an invisible trail, his nerves tickled by the darkness and then vivified to the point of soreness by the warmth of her light.
"Can you tell me what this shit inside me is?" he asked, pushing her at arm's length after a good five minutes of the same process.
Luna looked at him with her head leaning too much on one side, her hands falling to his shoulders, a dizzy spell taking over.
"I don't know, I… It's not the blight, I've never sensed it reacting this way. I did hurt you, didn't I? You're so pale."
"As you are," he pointed out, heaving a rough breath as he attempted to gather himself. And failed, yet he pressed on, "I'm not hurt. Weirded out more than anything else. I can't feel the crystal outside of its voice, but your light…"
Like a wave moving inside him, letting him realize just how wide and troubling the problem was. It could sense her intervention. It could run away from her.
"Noctis, I never felt this before. It might be related to the ring. Maybe as long as you don't wear it again…"
"The daemons gathering all around me happened for a reason. They rushed the train like they'd rushed the skies back in Altissia…"
"Oh no, please don't think any of that was your fault. We've been over it before."
He nodded, his expression turning sheepish, and Luna shook her head even harder at him. His eyes were still red, more tears threatening to fall, his shoulders too low and her light hadn't been enough to fill up his cheeks.
"But what about today then? They were not coming after Gladio, or anyone else, they…"
"Well, they've stopped coming for now," she cut him off. "And you need to stop hounding yourself for everything bad that happens. You were protecting us."
He clearly had a dark comment to make regarding that also, but she cut him off with a rough kiss, unable to handle the look on his face anymore. His beard scratched at her face, but as he pulled her closer, she forgot even that scratching. They kissed for what felt like an eternity and yet it was too short, his trembling back as they parted for air.
"I don't want to do this anymore. I know I promise, I know I…"
"Noctis, it's okay."
"No," he protested, his voice breaking, "I don't want to be their fucking chosen. I don't want you risking your life for an…nyone's sake," he managed over a sob. "But all the people around me get… for being my friends is to suffer or d…die."
"Oh, my love, we're..."
"I'm sorry for…"
"Do not apologize for this. You're human. The only reason why a part of me could ever be glad you're the chosen king is because it made it possible for us to meet."
"I know. Cursed gods above, I know, I wouldn't want a life without you in it."
She held him close, words eluding her as his tears fell, kneeling down with him and never letting go. In all their time together, this was the first occasion on which Noctis admitted what a burden his destiny was. And while she knew deep down that he had to be just as reluctant as her, while she'd detected between the lines of his letters how heavy the promise he'd made to her weighted on his mind, it wasn't until now that she realized just how heavy a burden it was.
He cried long enough for frost to cover his cheeks, Luna chasing it away with her light, pleading for him to take refuge with her in one of the train's compartment, or maybe their tent, anywhere that could be warm without fire balls throwing giant shadows around them.
"I… I don't want the others to see me like this," he confessed, looking down at their hands.
"Can we build a tent over on this side?" she suggested.
He'd never put a tent together quite this fast, but he did feel better in the makeshift shelter than right under the stars, shrugging off his coat and rubbing his hands with hers, soon rubbing her whole body back into warmth, Luna giving him the same treatment. She dared to let her hands wonder under his clothes, finding bruises and shivers that were not all good, Noctis flinching away as her intentions became clear.
"Luna, I'm still quite raw from…"
"I need comforting too. And to help you realize you're fully back to yourself," she tried teasing him, tugging him down to hover above her.
He let her pull him down and into a kiss, wrapping his arms around her frame, shocked by how small the both of them felt. Her fingertips were cold no matter what he did, but he loved her touch too much, agreeing to make love with her with just little more cuddling. Ever since she'd been healed, it seemed they couldn't get enough of each other, and while he was terrified, her eyes held him safe, grounding him to reality. It felt messy and too short, his naked body heavy as he leaned into her, Luna marvelling at how soft the brand new fuzz on his chest felt.
"Why is this shitty crystal making me so hairy?" he complained, laughing along with her almost immediately.
"This way you can keep me warmer?"
He brushed his beard against her neck and shoulders, Luna protesting at the prickling sensation, but relaxing as soon as his lips kissed shivers and fresh goosebumps on her rosy skin. The night had to be far advanced, it might even be morning, but everything seemed dark outside, Noctis holding her as close as possible to his body, legs intertwined, her long hair sticking to his beard as he pressed a kiss to her temple and relished her contented sigh.
"You should try to sleep now," she suggested.
"It feels like wasting my precious time with you," he mumbled against her ear, Luna shivering.
"There's only so much energy my light can inspire into you, dear husband."
His gasp of surprise made her smile.
"What?"
"That was a surprise attack and my heart was not ready for it!"
They argued teasingly, kissed some more and kept each other distracted until sleep came, blissfully quiet and devoid of nightmares. There had been enough wide awake nightmares in their lives as it was.
...
In the early afternoon, since neither Noctis nor Luna felt capable of stirring any earlier, they regrouped with the others and feasted on the very generous brunch Iris had prepared for them all. Then it was time to plan. Regarding the royal arms, Noctis was supposed to be fully equipped now, though a few texts with Ignis had him learning they'd bypassed a tomb back in Lucis. When it came down to the Astrals, the only ones they lacked now were Ifrit, which seemed impossible to reach, and Bahamut.
"It is doubtful the draconian will be easy to find. We found one of his temples by chance alone, I don't expect it to repeat," Luna sighed.
"And then there's two things left. The crystal back in Gralea. And Prompto's brothers in that maniac's labs," Gladiolus summed up.
"And Ravus," Iris reminded him, her voice a little too high, his apology instantaneous and repeated for Lunafreya, who simply shook her head.
"We should focus on this right now. Gralea must be infested with daemons as it is, it would take much more than this train to get there," Luna observed.
Noctis wrung his hands together, the nervosity of the previous night coming back to him.
"Is there no way we could trick Verstael? Just rush his lab all at the same time? Or distract him?"
Prompto shook his head.
"I've tried to come up with similar ideas, but he's split or downloaded his consciousness into as many vessels as he could. He has the suit of armor, he has his actual body, even though it's very blighted and he needs a motorized wheelchair to move around now, and there's another robot-thing somewhere."
"Gods, this guy might be the creepiest thing around."
Prompto shifted on his seat, clearly uncomfortable, but after more arguing and all the hypotheses they could muster, they agreed on their next step of action. They would travel together towards the lab, parting only at the imperial outpost set a full 10 kilometers away from the lab itself. Iris and Luna would stay with Prompto, while Noctis and Gladio would take a roundabout way around to reach the back entrance of the lab. Prompto had drawn what he remembered of the place in the snow, down to every floor he'd have to visit. He hadn't found a chance to collect a new camera yet and wasn't sure he wanted to take a picture of anything, his mind having collected enough dark imagery as it was.
"You guys will need a barcode to get in, unless I can sneak you in. Verstael has a satellite that scrambles any kind of signal around his lab, so phones are out of question…"
He held back the thought he could have kept Otto's wrist for just a case like this one, but Iris shivered from the dark look on his face.
"Can we just wreck an MT and use their barcodes?" Gladiolus suggested, his voice a little rough as he tried to cut through the heaviness he felt looming over their group.
Noctis nodded, Prompto agreeing, but the King cruelly felt the absence of Ignis right now. This was one of the most dangerous things they'd ever tried and he wanted a back-up. Something other than relying on how powerful the ring made him. He didn't want to risk wearing it again unless it was absolutely necessary and their ether stock was already quite low just from the encounter with daemons.
"Worst case scenario, we just phase through the walls. We can both do it," Noctis declared.
"Yeah, but for how long? Some of those entrances are tunnels and if you don't aim right, you could be in concrete for about 10 meters straight, if not more."
"Wait, are you telling me his labs are more secure than the empire?" Gladio asked.
All they knew of Gralea's defense was what Aranea and Ravus had told them, and that was far from a wide picture, but both of them had agreed on one thing. The empire suffered from its pride and could have been more careful when it came to defend its citizens. Ten meters of concrete around a lab sounded like way more than Aldercapt's ancestors had ever considered using.
"I don't know, I've only seen his labs so far. Do you guys think this is good enough?"
"It will have to do," Iris said.
They debated on telling their friends of what they intended to do, but Crowe was still recuperating from giving birth and Noctis didn't want to send Ignis in a panic, while Luna feared Aranea would be hurt since she couldn't help her in any way.
"It's not like they can come over and rescue us."
They charged Pryna with a message, the dogs following their masters from a small distance. The message would only be delivered in a few weeks, to ensure they should be out of Verstael's labs by then. Dealing with four kids was a conundrum, but they had established their priorities as follow:
First, find and heal Ravus or keep him out of harm.
Second, regroup fully as quickly as possible.
Third, get Verstael and every version of him out of the picture.
Finally, blow up the lab or at least make sure no one else would use it to hurt someone.
…
The first step inside was not the hardest. It was the second one. Lunafreya had escaped the empire such a long time ago. Her last time between their clutches had been after following Ardyn willingly, a lifetime ago. Once again, her brother was in pain and she was hoping to help him, but there was also Prompto and his clones in the balance. But with the doors closing in her back, the rope on her wrists to keep up pretenses of her being a captive and Prompto a good little soldier…
She was stepping back into her cage. Calligo was gone. She couldn't remember what his corpse looked like, but if she blinked too slowly, she could still picture the stern look on his face and the mocking glint in his eyes. Hopefully Ardyn wouldn't be here, but Verstael also terrified her in his own way.
Prompto halted at the first door and showed his wrist to the scanner. His shoulders were held tight and too straight, his neck at a rough angle. The beeping signalling he was recognized made him jump and stutter an apology, since the movement pulled both of the women following him forward. There was no MTs, only lights flashing along the walls, the tunnels buzzing with the motors and heaters fighting against the cold. A radio channel cracked open, Verstael's voice clearing his throat.
"Zero, zero, zero... What happened with Otto-2?"
Prompto stilled, Luna struggling not to look around for cameras. She had spotted one already, but Iris muttered the number four, making the princess wonder how the young girl kept her head about her so well. She was about ready to jump out of her skin, her palms damp with sweat and her legs barely keeping her standing.
"He was turning into a problem."
Prompto stepped to the next door, scanning his wrist and leading his prisoners along. Verstael clicked his tongue over the speakers.
"I see. Yet you got both ladies back here."
"You gave me a job, I took care of it," Prompto shot back.
His voice was hacked through on the last part, but the sight greeting them as the door slid open took all of Luna's attention. This new room was much larger, with a flight of chrome stairs leading to multiple reinforced glass cages. A few were tinted, but Luna's eyes instinctively went for the one in the western corner of the room. It's occupant was a foaming daemon, horned and covered with white fur. Its limbs were dark patches of scales, its eyes too numerous and she couldn't tell their colors, but its howl make the glass shake.
Verstael stepped out from between cages, the grotesque armor encasing his body almost louder than the enraged daemon.
"The Oracle and her apprentice, finally! Lead them in, Zero," he ordered.
Prompto squared his shoulders a notch higher and pushed forward, Luna and Iris close on his trail. Iris nearly tripped upon the stairs as her eyes couldn't help staring at the daemon in its cage. Her curiosity was drawn to it despite her best effort. And then she saw the flash of metal between the scales on his right side and she had to grab onto Luna's coat to keep herself upright, her gasp jumping across the large room.
"Oh, what is it, white mage? Noticed something special with this specimen?" Verstael asked, pointing back to the cage with a wide smile.
Prompto had tried to warn them, but he wasn't expecting Ravus to be kept in the very first room.
"Is this the sick game we're playing, Verstael?" Luna managed despite the tightness in her throat.
"It's reality, your highness," Verstael opposed. "I tested a new, even more virulent strand of the blight on your dear brother."
Luna couldn't hold her shoulders steady, but her eyes were drawn towards the glass-walled cage, where the daemon shifted around, throwing himself at a wall, too many blinking, fangs always out. His mouth was too small to contain them and she realized black blood dripped regularly from his lower jaw, as the sharp teeth dug into him. His muzzle was caked with a layer of dried blood. She also noticed purple strikes cutting through his white fur, some thicker than her hand. The flesh looked sunken in and was trembling and moving, as though his body was attempting to fix itself. Her light shivered in her veins. He had to be too far gone, but the very thought would send her to the ground.
"He reacted quite admirably, wouldn't you say?" Verstael went on. "He exhales through his eyes, breathes through all of his skin pores, his nose actually hides a second jaw! His evolution is marvelous, and to top it all, he can handle the removal of large samples of tissue, making it that much easier to study this new strand."
Verstael gestured to his instruments lining the back wall, and the samples that floated in formaldehyde or rested on a bedsheet of ice. The fur was still attached on a few.
Iris couldn't hold still at that, throwing herself forward, even unarmed, and swiping brutally at the armored man's feet. It did the tricks, sending him toppling with a surprised gasp. Although instead of falling on his back, Verstael started floating upward and shifted in the air before Iris could try something else. It had happened so fast, Prompto only had had the time to pull his gun out and he held it at an angle, hoping his father wouldn't see it as a threat. His very guts burned with pure hatred for the man, but he couldn't take the risk of losing his freedom of movement within the labs just yet. Too many lives depended on him.
"Now, Iris Amicitia, is it?"
Daemon Ravus threw himself at the glass pane so hard, a fissure cracked on the surface, an alarm ringing a second later.
"Splendid," Verstael grunted. "Zero, can you grab the flamethrower?"
"They're against protocol in this room, sir," Prompto noted, staying rooted to the spot where he stood.
Luna had run up to Iris's side, the brunette holding her leg and cursing under her breath. She hadn't expected the armor to be this solid, but at least her burst rage hadn't convinced her to punch him.
Ravus hissed and howled, claws screeching against the wall, making all of their teeth grinch painfully.
"Verstael," Luna started. "Can we cut to the chase and hear about your goal here? What is it you want me to do? Heal my brother?"
"Cute. I want the girl to try first. See whether or not he'll tear her to pieces like the other subjects I gave him."
"You're a monster," Iris managed, standing back up with Luna's help.
Both women knew the child-clones were hidden somewhere in the complex. If it hadn't been for them, Luna would be tempted to summon Titan right this instant to watch him reduce Verstael into dust. She hadn't tried connecting with any of the Astrals since Altissia and wondered if they would act like her magic had done at first. They wouldn't ignore her, would they?
The roar that followed had them all looking back at the cage, only to see that daemon Ravus's horns dug into the glass. He huffed hard enough through his angry eyes, condensation from his breath frosted the pane of glass, blurring him as he stepped back and rushed forward again, horns actually getting stuck within the glass.
Verstael hovered just an inch further away from the cage, Luna and Iris both frozen in place. There were a lot of things this daemon could do that the mad scientist hadn't seen yet. His front paws hit the wall, claws scratching shards of glass, and his horns seemed to shake against the pane.
"Computer, run diagnosis, now," Verstael called.
Prompto spotted the smoke just as a new alarm rang.
With another shove forward, Ravus broke out of his cage and leaped into the larger room, both jaws open on a feral cry.
To be continued…
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Next chapter will involve a lot of fighting. I need me some action. Let me know what you think!
