It took me a while, but the last two months were honestly very weird for me. I spent most of my time working on my thesis/dissertation and was finally able to hand it out for evaluation. I'm simply exhausted, but I had been working on bits and pieces of this chapter and finally manage to get it all together. I hope you'll enjoy, we keep following the dark turn of the story, but we're ending it on a positive note that will give place for a bunch of hurt/comfort.
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Unexpected
Chapter 98 – Fire light
The code worked despite how hastily Noctis had scribbled it onto his arm. Gladio had tried, but he'd messed up the very first line, blaming it on his nerves acting up with the fact he was a father now.
"Better not be your excuse for everything, big guy," Prompto had teased.
Somehow his comment had comforted them all. They had a lot ahead of them after this expedition.
Now they felt very little comfort as they stepped into the side lab. It had been a shot in the dark to try and copy Prompto's wrist barcode, but they had no idea how long it would take for their friend to be free enough to let them in the complex. Gladiolus was anxious to reunite with his sister and make sure she was safe and sound, and Noctis was about twice as frantic when he thought of Luna within the empire's grasp.
The side lab's main entrance led to a series of staircases delving deeper and deeper into the ground, which was far from reassuring. The metallic hiss climbing its way up the staircase had their blood run cold, but they trudged on, carefully peeking down the stairs with phasing. The spectacle waiting for them was quite surreal.
A giant robot with white fur-covered arms was picking up cargo boxes from a shuttle to a corner of the hangar room, under the watchful gaze of a few MTs. The robot moved gingerly, his gesture almost human despite its size. One MT sat on the ground, missing its head, which the gorilla-like robot swung across its shoulder.
Gladiolus and Noctis both cursed as low as possible, but the hangar carried sounds farther than they'd thought, the giant robot looking in their direction, lens winking.
"Who's there?" a warbled, child-like voice spoke. "Is this a new test? We just finished the last one a few hours ago."
It sounded… tired. And the mention of a test worried Noctis. Prompto had not mentioned anything like that.
"1-0-7, check it out now," the robot ordered.
The magiteck soldier standing closer to the staircase turned around. Noctis figured at this point it was better to strike first and warped out of the wall, his swords wrecking the mechanic doll before it could fire the trigger. Gladiolus followed him with a grunt, holding up a large shield as well as his broadsword. The bullets shot at him ricocheted on the shield, Noctis warpstriking across the room, letting his armirger run free.
"Shoot, shoot, shoot! How do you do that?" the giant robot asked, its head moving in saccade to follow the blurs of weapons.
"We're not a test," Noctis said warningly, calling back his armiger to have it acting as a curtain of metal whirling around him.
"Then you're trespassing. Our original hates trespassers."
Gladiolus blinked at the robot, standing just a few steps behind Noctis to avoid being touched by his armiger. The word "original" could only hold one meaning in these labs.
The robot's lens turned red, head leaning forward as it dropped on all fours. It stood nearly two meters tall instead of three, Gladio squaring his shoulders.
"Why do you have that voice?" Noctis asked, keeping his armiger floating between them.
"This is my voice. All of our voices sound like it," the robot answered. "This body was named Barbaros, but it's very precise and strong, far from barbaric. The last trespassers that came around these parts… Well, you two will know soon enough."
The so-called Barbaros hit one metal fist against the floor, before jumping, climbing up metal rods that crisscrossed the hangar's ceiling, forming a maze above their head. In a few more jumps, the robot was on the other side of the room and dropped himself behind Gladio, throwing a swing at him. The Shield phased through the attack, shaking his head to chase away the strange impression left behind by the metal appendage. Noctis zapped forward, but Barbaros leaped away effortlessly. Its metal didn't even make any clicks unlike the MTs would.
"Is your body inside… that thing?" Noctis asked, keeping a strong hold over his power. He didn't want to let it lash out like it had done after the train wreck.
"Why? Are you concerned about us? All our bodies are safe. Unlike yours."
The gorilla robot hunched himself before throwing itself across the room, shoulders breaking open to reveal turret guns that sparked up the room with a wave of bullets.
Noctis threw his armiger forward, Gladio gasping as the whirlwind of weapons stretched to shield him, each blade moving too fast to be followed. The bullets ricocheted wildly, Barbaros whooping at the sight.
The King and his Shield exchanged a dark look. They were fighting one of Prompto's brothers, the very one they had agreed to try saving, and beneath the robot, it seemed to be a child.
…
Ravus leaped right over Iris and Luna, throwing Verstael to the floor after two more jumps. Iris wondered how he'd been subdued enough to stay behind the glass if he could break it like this, but they had no way of knowing what the scientist had done to him along with his mad experimenting. She barely had time to follow his movements and felt Luna's arms pulling her back to her feet, her hands shaking as Ravus howled at Verstael, hitting his own head against the head of his armor. The glass cracked open in two hits. His claws dug into the metal of the scientist's armor as though it was paper, smoke rising from the holes as blood poured, mixed with the distinct smell of oil.
Iris watched the carnage unfold, Ravus raining down pure death on Verstael, generously spreading it from limb to limb. All she could think about was how he'd throw up if he turned back to human, her throat tight and her heart hammering in her chest. Luna was frozen next to her, unable to avert her eyes, words buried in her throat.
Prompto stood there, his mind numb as more blood and dark pieces of flesh fell on the floor. Verstael had stopped protesting, stopped gurgling and wheezing but Ravus wasn't done, the daemon needed to be certain his jailer wouldn't get back up again. Only after ripping his chest open and trampling on his ribcage with his metal paw did he finally stop. The beast was panting, teeth clicking roughly together. Two maws of them, Iris remembered, trying to picture Ravus's face instead.
Ravus flipped around as he recalled the presence of other human beings in the room, his eyes blinking wildly. His white muzzles was caked in blood, Iris unable to keep looking while Luna felt tears rolling down her face at the sight. If asked, the queen wouldn't be able to tell whether they were tears of sadness or relief. She had been a puppet dancing at the beck and call of Verstael for so many heartless experiments, forced to heal people that couldn't be saved, she held no sympathy for the way the man had just passed. But her brother. To think he had been warped so far. Could she even reach him now?
"Ravus…" she sighed.
His nostrils flared, ears raising and then he was leaping forward. It all happened in a matter of seconds Prompto raised his gun. Luna called forth her light without thinking. Her shield encompassed her brother, keeping him safe while trapping him once more. His panicked growl pulled at her heartstrings as he banged his head against the shiny surface.
"Brother please…"
He whined, rolling on himself as though he could push the almost invisible barrier away but it held on.
"What… what do we do now?" Prompto managed.
Luna blinked at him, at a loss for words.
Luna blinked at him, at a loss for words. And then she felt the pull at the back of her mind, her magic rupturing as invisible smoke clouded her eyes.
Anchor me, oracle, a fiery voiced thundered.
...
Ravatogh's summit smelled rancid. And the chancellor wasn't going to assume that smell had only appeared with his arrival. His climb had been a torturous path of black tar and purple magic spreading veins of silver against the bare ground. His body didn't quite hold itself together yet. When he moved too fast, his insides would slip out and he'd tried all kinds of things to sew himself shut. They'd seep from his fingers, from his toenails or if he forgot that he didn't need to breathe. He coughed and smirked as he realized he'd spat out nothing for once.
He was going to get better and then he'd find Scientia and make sure he'd regret ever paying the Kings of old's price. And after he would find Noctis and confirm his work on him had progressed properly. But for now, he needed to collect a long awaited favor.
"Oh blood of my blood," he started the ritual, having drawn with the lava and his own magic a circle of crisscrossing stars. He'd poured blood and tar equally in the lines, alternating, a silver star, a black one, a purple, another black one, his magic keeping the liquid from mixing. "Won't you answer me unlike your brothers and sisters? The blight that can overtake your being is a part of me. We're one and that mean I could keep it from every reaching an Astral. If you keep ignoring me, I can't make any promise though. The dark star always had a mind of its own."
The wind blew harshly, disturbingly warm, Ardyn sensing that more bits were falling off and gritting what was left of his teeth.
You insolent creature, Ifrit whispered, the peak of Ravatogh shining bright red. You think you can negotiate with me?
"I believe I've been patient, grandfather," Ardyn hissed back.
Any blood of mine that could have ran in your veins has long tarried. You're a wretch, barely holding yourself together. And you have the pretention of summoning me?
"Well, you answered, so should you really be blaming me?" the chancellor pointed out.
Silence was his only answer, Ardyn using it to step into the center of his circle, reaching to the sky with his palms open.
I will not follow a mere mortal.
"I am immortal."
Doubtful. Your crystal blood is waning. Did you spread it? What did you taint?
"I don't simply taint…!"
Large clouds gathered in the sky, dark as smoke.
You ruin. But unlike me, you don't clean. I'll find the answers myself, Adagium.
And with a rumble of thunder, the Infernian was gone.
...
Noctis felt heat shot through his spine and his legs buckled, his magic surging in reaction. Suddenly his mouth was too small and his teeth too sharp and while his knees bent, neither his foot nor his legs touched the floor, Gladio cursing while the robot simply froze.
So he picked you as a successor.
Noctis felt the magic burning in his veins and the crystal pulsing from within, like a mad drumming as his wings beat furiously to keep him in the air. Wings?!
"Shit, shit, Gladio!"
"What did it this time?" his Shield asked, keeping his sword raised in case the gorilla robot decided to use their shock to pounce. But instead it just stared, seeming fascinated.
"You're one of his tests, aren't you?" the child's voice asked.
"Shut up!" Gladio huffed.
"Who's talking?!" Noctis asked, his voice garbled by the growing fangs. He could taste blood and raised his hands, talons and scales showing.
You know me, chosen King.
"We're hungry," the crystal whispered.
Noctis could almost taste the worms in his mouth and shuddered, his skin rippling under his clothes as his body shifted further.
"It's not what I want! Whose successor?!"
Adagium, the Astral stated.
Then it was clear and Noctis wondered how he hadn't understood what the Astral meant sooner. It had to be Ifrit. Out of all of them, the only one they'd seen and the only one who was even bothered by Ardyn had been the Infernian.
His head felt ready to burst and he couldn't hold back a scream of pain as two horns broke free from his skull. He couldn't tell that his eyes had also shifted, turning to full red, their white waxen, the pupils white instead of black, but Gladio could. He should have been looking at the robot instead, but he couldn't look away from his King.
"I'm not his puppet," Noctis managed to say despite the fangs.
Not yet maybe, but he's in your blood. Another curse on this Star.
Through the panic of knowing his body was shifting out of his control, Noctis sensed another presence. A light in the darkness eating at his blood.
"Luna?"
She's my anchor.
"Then what is your purpose here?" Noctis asked.
"Food?" the crystal suggested.
The robot looked around as though he was looking for the person to whom the demon-man had to be talking. Gladiolus had already broken in a cold sweat and was asking himself the same question.
Adagium summoned me. He's wishing to see you replace him. So I've come to offer you a choice.
Noctis's skull was throbbing with every new word, but he waited for Ifrit's offer.
Either you cleanse yourself from Adagium's influence, or I do it for you.
In his mind, Noctis saw the flames reaching for him, eating him up one layer and limb at a time. He felt the crystal shiver in his blood, a spark of fear stronger than its unsatiable hunger.
"How?"
Yours to find out. I can give you a few moons. I'll just keep an eye on you.
Noctis almost heard Luna gasping and sensed the wrongness in the proposition. The Astrals weren't meant to walk the surface of their Star. How could Ifrit keep an eye on him without a covenant forged?
"I can… host him?" Luna suggested.
Noctis blinked and looked around him, as though she should have been in the room with them, but his daemon eyes couldn't see her, and when she screamed in pain, his senses hissed with anger.
I need to find her.
"Noct!" Gladio said, seeing his wings spreading and the way his eyes turned into tight slits. Swords materialized in the air and then Noctis phased through the floor, leaving his Shield behind.
The robot clapped in his hands, the child voice beyond excited.
"He never made anything that cool before!"
Gladio turned his attention back to the robot, but the thing ignored him entirely. For once he was glad the ability he'd been given by the crystal was phasing and he followed his King downstair, hoping daemon Noctis wouldn't rush on his own too quickly for him to catch up. The last thing he wanted was to get lost while all the action took place.
...
Iris and Prompto were both shocked to see the shield of light faltering, neither of them fast enough to catch Luna as she crumbled to the floor like a puppet with snapped strings. Ravus had been charging forward once more, so he reached her first, the princess falling across his back. She almost hit her head on the floor, but he somehow twisted himself around, Iris and Prompto simply watching as the furious daemon carefully leaned down and nudged Luna over his back with his muzzle. Some blood stained her hair as he did, but both of his mouths were tightly shut and he only growled when Prompto took a step forward.
"Ravus," Iris tried.
The sound of his name had him whipping his head around to stare at them, eyes wild. There was no magic Iris could call and Prompto had no idea how to calm the beast, especially considering he had helped capturing him. Then they saw two horns poking through the floor and saw a grey-skinned human with long raven hair phasing up from underground. Scales all across his face, talons and fangs poking from his mouth, eyes redder than dried blood, the creature batted wings large enough to cover daemon Ravus.
"What the actual fuck?" Prompto managed, raising his gun.
Noctis hissed, his eyes focusing on Luna, out cold and the beast which was carrying her on its back, as well as the rows of teeth that snapped at him.
"Drop her," he commanded, leaning forward, his armiger sparkling in the air as it took form.
"Oh gods," Iris understood what she was looking at.
When had this happened? Could it really be Noctis? They were in the middle of Verstael's kingdom, the old man had certainly constructed a dozen of make-shift daemons, surely she was going mad? Ravus had been infected, but her King was supposed to be safe, wasn't he?
Before either her or Prompto could make another move, Noctis spread his armiger into a neat circle, ensuring no one else could threaten Luna. Each of his weapons was shining in a sky blue light, the circle drawn by magic forming scorch marks on the floor and the ceiling.
"For fuck's sake, Noct," Gladio groaned, his head poking out just a meter away from the circle.
Iris felt her knees unlocking and somehow her legs rushed to her brother, Prompto rooted in place, blinking at the spectacle.
"We can't let them fight!" she begged.
Gladio needed help to completely pull himself up and out of the phasing. He couldn't warp around unlike Noctis. The concerned man was still glaring at Ravus, who's fur was pointing up, puffs of his warm breath visible raising from his furious eyes.
"I said, let her go, Fleuret," Noctis ordered. His voice was different. Cold. If it wasn't for Gladio's apparition, looking himself and clearly knowing something they didn't, neither Iris or Prompto would have agree to believe what they were seeing. "You can't protect her in that state," Noctis went on. "Ifrit is doing something to her. I don't want her to pay any more tolls for my sake, do you hear me?"
His voice had warmed on the last words, but it was still grating to the ears, like his teeth were grinding against each other with every syllable. Ravus simply growled, half of his pupils focusing on the turning armiger while the others stayed on Noctis.
"Noct, there's no need to threaten him. He was already hurt, the blood on him is his own and Verstael's. He wouldn't hurt Luna," Iris managed.
But I would. I already did, Noctis thought.
His self-anger was mixing with his disgust for the picture of what Ravus had turned into with his haste and refuse to stay around Luna. Hadn't he run off just because he was worried of hurting his sister? He remembered her tears for that foolish brother. Which had made him realized a little better what he'd done to her himself. And right now, he was a literal monster again, with no idea how to shift back, no idea how to calm the wrathful magic pulsing in his blood. He couldn't help the growing hunger. That white-fur daemon was basically half cooked and he hadn't had proper meat in weeks. In months if he was to listen to the crystal.
Don't listen.
"We are hungry!" The crystal protested.
Noctis shrugged, snapping at the ground with his tail and blinking as he processed the fact he had a tail now. He didn't remember that from the last shift. One of his horns was still growing, leaning back against the right side of his head, melding locks of hair into more nails.
"A crown to fit a real King," a voice whispered inside his mind.
The kings of old? The crystal? His reason lost and broken? He breathed magic and it burned but somehow the fangs didn't hurt. His wings weren't heavy anymore and he could angle them around, realizing there was a talon-like spire sprouting at the center of both wings, realizing he could attack from as many fronts as he wanted. Could Ardyn change like that? Could he kill him if he used this state? Ifrit had called him a curse and he felt cursed, but he could also taste the level of his power.
He was part blight, part crystal blessed, the so-called chosen and he hadn't asked for it, for any part of it, yet here he was. Pure power and dreadful. The dark crystal was a parasite in his blood, but he had control now that the shift was done. His nails could stretch. He swallowed the blood in his mouth and felt a shudder of pleasure spreading across his flesh at the metallic taste. He could destroy anything and anyone right now. But all his enemies were long-gone and Ardyn would show up. He needed more blood. He needed the full crystal to be whole, shift the darkness to light, to grey maybe.
He wanted to cradle his wife in his arms, until he could get his paws on Ifrit and tear him apart for even suggesting using her when she had already defied death too many times. He took a step towards Ravus, breathing out hard, the deamon-prince barking at him.
"Let's leave her out of this, Fleuret," he snarled. "You owe me a lot, so how about we settle things once and for all, daemon-man to daemon-man?"
"Noctis!" Gladio protested.
But Ravus was angling his head to the side as though he was considering it. It was a pity he couldn't talk, Noctis reflected. He wondered if he could alter him just enough to give him a voice. Would it be an illusion? Could he do illusions like Ardyn did? At first, he'd only been able to pull them apart, like when he'd helped Prompto. That felt so far ago. He closed his eyes and reached for the strings of magic he could see in the darkness.
He could see everyone too, Prompto a dark green, Gladio a warm orange glow, Iris almost too bright even from the corner of his closed eye. Luna was the brightest among them, a pearl, nay, a diamond lying in the darkness. Ravus was purple and shadowlight, the blight taint toying with his essence. But Noctis noticed something wrong with Luna, outside of the fact she wasn't standing up. There were a few stains on her astral form. Red splatches inside of her head, trickles of black going down her neck, scratching the inside of her arms and her palms. Was she sick? Was this Ifrit's doing? He didn't know where to pull to feel her within his mind again, he needed her voice, he needed to know she was alright, but the brands were alarming and he wouldn't be threatened, not now, not anymore.
He howled, rushing forward and Ravus instinctively shifted, still trapped with the armiger rushing behind him, still too must of a beast but very much a brother. He dropped Luna to the floor and stood above her, shielding her with his body.
Noctis froze, his anger making the armiger spin.
"You think I'd hurt my wife?!"
Luna shivered and the Infernian's presence resurfaced, the room heating up while Noctis was pushed back by an invisible wall.
I told you to cleanse yourself, not to embrace Adagium's profane magick!
"Then what, what happens when you burn me to a crisp? You'll do the same to Eos afterwards?"
He heard his friends gasping, cursing and asking questions, but it sounded faded, as though a veil of matter was standing between him and them. For an instant, everything stood at a stalemate, his armiger slower down, deamon-Ravus ready to pounce at the slightest threat, Ifrit refusing to answer. Luna shifted, letting out a shudder of pain that had both daemons seeing red.
The white daemon threw itself at the dark one, both maws wide, toppling Noctis as though he weighted nothing. The King screeched in fury and Ravus retorted with a roar, clawing into his shoulders. The scales seemed to ripple and thicken to prevent damage to reach him, the ring of Lucii pulsing against his chest. Was it back on the necklace? He had taken it off, hadn't he? Ravus ripped off more of the King's clothes as he trashed and Noctis trashed back to get him off.
He could have run his armiger through the tenebrean prince, turn him into a bloody porcupine, but some of his brain still functioned enough to remember that this was not simply a daemon. He caught his front legs with his clawed hands, hearing the screech of his rough nails on the metal paw.
"Should I rip it off or will that make you even madder?"
"Rip only the bits we can eat."
He wasn't sure where all the anger was coming from. His wings helped him up, forcing Ravus to stand on too short hind legs, but they were as tall as one another like this. Noctis hadn't quite realized how taller he was as a daemon. One of the voices was trying to tell him this was the only height he'd ever had. The only one he needed now. His legs were straight. His back didn't hurt. Ravus headbutted him in the face, struggling to angle his horns efficiently, but the hit dazed him all the same, his armiger flickering on and off.
"Noct, STOP this bullshit!" Gladio called.
"That's Luna's brother!" Prompto added.
Iris didn't speak. As Noctis closed his eyes again he sensed her aura, the light flickering as she stared. He could taste emotions in this form. Fear, despair. Pain and confusion. For an instant, he was overwhelmed, uncertain. But why should he stop? Had Ravus stopped a single time? He owed him at least a good punch in the face. And it felt fair considering they were both changed beyond recognition.
He whirled on himself, mindful of where Luna lied, his tail wrapping around Ravus's back legs to whip him off and against his rushing armiger. But mid-motion, he noted one important change. Luna was not lying down where she'd been.
"What did you…!"
"Noct! Noct, please stop. You too brother."
Every single voice he'd been hearing shut down. He dropped Ravus mid-air and the beast landed with a sickening crack, howling but looking around, just as confused as him. Noctis dropped his armiger, finally feeling the toll of the magic he'd used. His right horn curled down to his neck and when he finally spotted Luna, crouched down, her face flushed, and her eyes filled with tears.
"Please," she said. "I can… I can handle Ifrit, I'm fine. And if you allow me to try, I hope to fix you, both of you."
Ravus whined, a lulling sound, low and exhausted, but he didn't move further and Noctis stood frozen, wishing he'd acted better.
Luna pushed herself to her feet and both deamons remained inmobile. With the room finally quiet, the three other people standing in it seemed to regain their capacity to move. Iris rushed to Luna's side, hands alight and her magic seemed to help the Oracle stabilizing herself.
"Thank you, Iris. I seem to have a fever, but I'm alright. Noctis," Luna started, turning her attention to him after looking at Ravus for a while, confirming he was finally calm. "Do you hear me Noct?"
He nodded slowly, his shoulders held inward, tail nervously moving behind him. He hadn't seen himself when he shifted, not fully, so he had no idea how terrifying he looked. Standing a couple feet behind the women, Prompto looked paler than ever and Gladio was clearly nervous, his eyes going from him to Ravus as though they were two time bombs. And maybe they were. Gladiolus had had enough dealing with Etro possessing Crowe to know what that felt like.
"Luna…" Noctis managed.
"Come here."
He walked up to her, catching his tiny reflection in her blue eyes. How she knew it was him was beyond him as he noted the scales on his face and the mix of feathers and leather on his wings. He'd never needed wings to fly. He could warp-strike high enough. Her hands reached for him, with barely any hesitation, catching his palm.
"Do you know what caused you to change?" she asked him.
"I think… I think Ifrit pushed it, I felt something like a fire in my spine and…"
She nodded, calling her light to see how he would respond to it. He had questions he wanted to ask, but at the same time, everything he'd just done in front of his friends was sinking in. His hands shifted back, Luna erasing the blood caking his fingertips from the nails growing too large, letting her magic run up his arms. The wings slowly shrank in his back, scales falling into smoke as though he was being burned and his breathing quickened. The changes she was managing almost reverted as he panicked and Luna shook her head.
"Noct, please. I need you to hold me," she pleaded, swallowing back the words she wanted to add.
His heart crashed in his chest, but he bit his tongue to hold back some of the fear as her magic covered him. His back was filling with knots again, his legs twisting back to how they'd healed, his head feeling lighter, his feet bare against the floor. He'd destroyed his own boots with the talons. She was taking away the tough skin and the sharp teeth, fixing him back to the man she loved.
He wasn't even sure he was fully himself again, but her arms closed around him and whatever felt wrong was right again. He gasped into her hair, daring to hug her back, embrace her as close as he could.
"I'm so sorry, Luna."
"Why? You didn't shift on purpose. And now we know I can pull you back from it."
She shivered and he could hear her exhaustion. Her head had to be aching from Ifrit's intervention. She felt warm, far warmer than usual, when he was the one used to help her stay warm.
"Are you okay?"
"Not quite yet," she confessed. "But I need to tend to my brother now."
The others had remained quite still, but the pair parting seemed to give them permission to act again. Gladio went up to his sister, Prompto sitting himself on the floor, his shock starting to set in. What was left of Verstael still formed a pile along with the discarded pieces of his armor Ravus had ripped through. Noctis's hands clenched. He'd just added so much trauma on all of them. Instead of calming himself down and at least proving to Ifrit he could revert the shift on his own…
"I… I have potion and ethers in case anyone need..." Noctis started.
"Just drop open a mini-fridge, I'll take food at this point," Gladio grunted.
Prompto chuckled, but the sound that followed for him sounded strongly like a sob and Noctis walked up to him to crouch by his side. He gestured between them as though to ask if the closeness was fine with him, and his friend nodded.
"With all the people I got killed so far, I should be the one sprouting horns," Prompto whispered, pulling at his hair with both hands.
"Dude…"
"I'll take booze if you have any?" the gunman suggested.
A howl from Ravus had them both looking back at the daemon still in the room. Luna was kneeling next to him, Iris on his other side. The brunette had laid her hand on his prosthetic, her silent way of telling him she'd recognized him. The process was bound to take time and Noctis could tell just how nervous Luna was. Ravus had changed far more than any person she'd healed before.
"Bear with me, brother."
Another whine, softer this time, and her hands lit. This time she wasn't sure where to start. If she could revert the blight, she needed to make sure his body would hold together until the very last step. Iris had lined up ethers and elixirs to keep Luna's magic at its full potential. Gladio stood close by just in case. At first, the light didn't seem to have any effect, outside of closing wounds and mending the ribs Ravus had broken earlier.
It took one ether before the changes became noticeable, the white fur shifting to the same pale blond as Luna's hair, shedding down till it only covered Ravus's head. The second mouth thinned into a scar while his shoulders collapsed back into his original frame. Luna gasped and Iris gave her another ether, keeping one hand on her shoulder as the magic spread. After what felt like an eternity, the back legs were full human legs, the tail Ravus had used to balance himself gone, his back marred with burn scars. His hands took longer, and he hid his muzzle against the floor, trembling as the magic took away more and more of the blight.
Noctis wanted to ask Luna if this wasn't too much, if she shouldn't stop, but it was her brother and he was almost fully back, in a hiss of vapor, his eyes were only two once more. Iris stroked his hair, tentatively checking for any remnant of the horns, while Luna made sure any trace of this new strand of blight was gone. Her voice was squeaky as she whispered her brother's name once she was done.
"Ravus? Rave?"
He hacked a cough, his trembling turning to outright shudders. Iris tried to cover him with her coat, then asked for some of Gladio's spare pants, which Noctis was carrying. Ravus could barely move to help her in the endeavor of making him look half decently-clothed, but no one dared to intervene. Prompto was half expecting to see the prince pounce on any of the guys.
"Is there anywhere we can settle down?" Luna asked. "He needs a bed, and water, and we all need some peace…"
Prompto had had a room to bunk up with Otto-2 whenever they stayed at the base, in a small semi-apartment complex Verstael had had constructed. It used to be the rooms of visiting officers or delegates. Most were dusty, but leaving the display room behind with the mangled corpse of the mad scientist was a relief for all of them. Prompto was worried about the security system, worried there could be more Verstael's ghosts haunting the place, but they were all beyond exhausted. Noctis sat down with Gladio and Prompto as he waited for Luna to convince herself Ravus was properly cared for.
Gladiolus had checked his phone a few times, finding distraction in the pictures Crowe had send from their newborn. It was a downright miracle they had any data down there. Prompto had explained they were three floors underground with a shiver.
"Shouldn't we be seeing MTs in every corner?" Noctis asked.
"I think Verstael kept most of them in the deeper level. There's bound to be a dozen guarding the other…"
Little mes? Clones?
Thinking of them really did a number to him.
"We'll clear the place out, make sure nothing can come back after us," Noctis declared. "And we'll find a way to help your… brothers? Shouldn't we call them that?"
Prompto shrugged, his eyes staring at the silver-dyed bedsheets. The room was black and white, all the furniture made of metal which accentuated the sense of cold this place always evoked him. Four beds, as well as wardrobes filled with imperial manufactured clothes fit for generals. He'd forgotten the importance of appearances for his creator. Father. He was gone now and that didn't feel real, even though it was the one thing he'd been hoping for.
"Maybe we try to focus on other stuff tonight," Gladio suggested. "I feel like we're all too close to a meltdown as it is."
Noctis knew he was right, but hearing it spelled out didn't help. He wanted to apologize again. To take back the vision of him, all-powerful, with horns and a scaly tail. One look at Prompto told him nothing could ever erase it.
"I'm sorry guys."
"And so am I," Prompto shot back. "We should have found another way to get in and not risk Luna and Iris. I shouldn't have…"
Gladio hung his head, mouthing words under his breath. Both women were fine, yes, it had been a wild mistake, but they were too far gone to worry about what ifs. As much as it pained him to think of how long the road ahead still was, they had more work to plow through before they could catch a proper break.
His phone beeped and he looked down so fast, a wave of dizziness hit him.
Both of his friends felt reassured by the smile that showed on his face.
"Got a pic to share?" Prompto asked.
"Not this one. This one's just for me."
Crowe had been half asleep, but she'd finally manage to breastfeed Marius and wanted to share her small victory.
C – I don't know what I'm doing quite yet but I think I'll be a pro by the time you get back. Please don't say anything dirty.
His throat closed up as he thought of everything he was going to miss just in the next few weeks. Even though he knew rushing his friends would break them.
"If your ancestors offer to grant you any new power, you should ask for teleportation, Noct." He said quite seriously.
"What?"
"I wouldn't say no to that." Prompto said with a frail smile.
Noctis felt himself smiling back. What he'd given for that ability if it means helping them feel better.
"Who knows. Maybe there can be more to this blasted ring and crystal?"
A quiver ran up his spine, a cold warning. Wasn't there enough powers within his reach as it was?
"Nah, we can still be more. We can still be whole."
To be continued…
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The next chapter should come out faster this time. I took the time to really plan what was coming (for the nth time, I know) and hopefully I'll be able to write it all before I change my mind again. It's always going along the same lines, I'm just trying to pack all I can from the royal patch of this game since I did enjoy it. Haven't played FFXV in forever, but I do intend to finish every single fic I started on this fandom, and believe it or not, I have like one more planned that I'd like to see the light of day lol Please review, your reviews give me a lot of joy.