First there was Specs and Iris disappearing off in the wrong direction. Then they had managed to get Dustin somewhere safe—relatively—and drop Monica with the rest of the Crownsguards, but now every Crownsguard and Kingsglaive in the city was getting called off to chase after the emperor. Apparently that included Ignis, and Cor didn't give a shit whether or not Iris was with him, too. Obviously, Gladio was pissed. Noct would have been pissed, too, except his sister could take care of her own damn self. Maybe Iris could, too, but whatever.
The trouble wasn't that Gladio was pissed. It was that Gladio wanted to go with the Crownsguards now, and they had other work to do.
"Noct! What's the hold up?!" Gladio was standing with one foot in the Regalia, holding the door open.
Yeah. He wasn't going to like this.
"We're not going after them," Noct said.
"What?" He heard. He just wanted Noctis to say it again while staring down that glare.
"We're in the dead center of Insomnia," Noct said. "Specs and everyone else are going to hit the warehouses way before we could. If the emperor is there, they'll get him—or not—before we can even get out there. But while they're after the emperor, someone's got to get this damn MT army out of Insomnia."
"Oh yeah? How do you intend to do that?" Gladio scoffed.
"Ravus." Noct wrenched the driver's door open and dropped in behind the wheel. "Get in!"
Weird. Usually Gladio just smacked Noct with the flat side of his blade when Noct gave instructions. Granted, those instructions were usually 'go get me ice cream,' or 'stop hitting so hard,' but the point was that Gladio never backed down. Ever.
Except right now, apparently.
Noct threw the car into gear and they sped into the city. He wasn't really sure how to find Ravus or if Ravus was even alive—hadn't he been in the signing ceremony?—but the Crownsguard radio chatter said there were an awful lot of MTs patrolling downtown so that seemed as good a place as any to start. Soldiers had to have a commander somewhere, right? If all else failed they could just kill all the MTs they found and leave Niflheim's army a little smaller. Three against an army was basically even odds.
They made it out by dodging around a few of those big Magitek armor things—except, was it really armor if there was no one inside?—and began the search. Noct made a grid, taking as many streets between as he dared skip and hoping that wherever Ravus was, he wasn't moving fast. He tried to keep the map of the city in his head while he drove, but there were so many damn names. He ended up just counting streets and keeping the where fixed with visuals. The statue of the Conqueror up ahead was about halfway to Somnus Park—weird, because they should have put the Mystic over here next to his park, but he was over by the west gate where all those red streaks of light were flashing across the sky.
He also knew the statue of the Conqueror was not supposed to move.
Noctis slammed on the brakes. "Hey, uh… Prompto. Tell me that statue isn't moving."
"Uh…" Prompto stared dead ahead.
At the end of the block, the Conqueror King climbed off his pedestal with a great crack and shook a few persistent pigeons off his axe.
"Did you… uh… want me to lie?" Prompto asked.
"Ho-ly shit," Gladio said.
Yeah. That about summed things up.
"He's probably not going to crush us," Noct said. "I'm the Chosen King, right?"
"Right," said Prompto in an altogether unconvincing tone.
"Yeah, well, I think we're gonna have to find out." Gladio was standing up in his seat, leaning over with his hands on Prompto's seat.
He pointed ahead and, on the other side of the living statue near the far intersection, a massive force of MTs turned in the opposite direction. They were led by a familiar face all dressed in white and—
"Is that my dad?" Noctis stood up in his seat.
Shit. No one else walked like that. No one else could look so damn dignified while limping that bad.
He dropped back into his seat. "Hold on tight."
Noct had always known that the Regalia was one hell of a car, but always in the same distant fashion that he regarded most other things in his life. Sure, he was a prince, but mostly that just meant he couldn't go where he wanted to go when he wanted to. Same general concept. Yeah, she was a great car, but why did it matter if she could do zero to sixty in two point five if Cor always drove at ten miles an hour?
Now he knew why.
Maybe charging down the street, dodging MTs, abandoned cars, and the living statue of his great-great-great—times something big—grandfather who may or may not have been trying to kill them wasn't exactly what the mechanics had in mind when they put that engine in the Regalia, but it sure as hell did the trick.
He half expected a giant stone axe to come crashing down and cut the car in half as they sped by. Maybe the statue hadn't even tried, but Noct sure wasn't going to look back and find out. They hit the intersection. He jerked the wheel and the tires squealed before they caught the curve and launched the Regalia forward again. Ravus and Dad were dead ahead—they both turned at the sound. Noct pushed his foot to the floor; he could take out a good chunk of the MTs before they even got a shot off. Hopefully.
Except they had their guns up and leveled already. And Noct was going too fast to stop all the way, even when his dad motioned that he should stop.
He slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel sharp right. The Regalia spun in a quarter circle as they reached the tail end of the MTs, knocking out a sizable chunk of them anyway. Too bad he hadn't stopped a second later; he could have hit way more.
As soon as the car stopped, Noctis launched himself over the closed door and pulled his sword on the closest MT. It drew an axe, lifting to counter, but—
"Hold," Ravus called.
—froze mid swing.
Noctis reacted a second too late. His blade cut the MT from the shoulder halfway through its chest. He pulled his sword free and the MT dropped. The hundred others stood and watched it happen.
What the hell?
"Noctis." His dad was standing in the middle of them, one hand raised. He still looked like he hadn't slept in a week—he probably hadn't, come to think of it—but he didn't look… hurt? Distressed? Then again, Dad had the best poker face in Lucis.
"Dad? What's going on?"
His dad glanced at Ravus, who huffed and folded his arms over his chest.
"Any hope of pretense dissolved the moment I ordered them not to kill the Crown Prince," Ravus said. "I hope you are pleased with yourself, Noctis."
"The commander is—" Noctis' dad paused, looking toward Ravus before continuing. "Allied with Reina."
Ravus didn't dispute the statement. He did look like he'd swallowed something sour, but he'd pretty much looked like that every time Noct had seen him in the past twelve years. Which was like two times.
"He has been… reclaiming command of some of Niflheim's forces," his dad finished.
Right. Well. Shit. Good job, Noct.
"By walkin' around picking them up?" Gladio asked.
Ravus glared at him. "If I can reach the captain of this company, then I can override every MT under its control. Or I could have, had you not forced me to show my hand. Now, likely as not, Ulldor knows precisely what has occurred; it will be only too easy to lock me out from aboard his vessel."
"Wouldn't you have lost these guys, then?" Prompto had come to inspect the one still frozen in place with its axe raised. He poked it in the head; it wobbled.
"It is only a matter of time."
"These things got a self-destruct command?" Gladio asked.
Ravus only stared at him.
Gladio apparently heard 'yes,' when Ravus said '...'.
"Well then blow these things to shit and let's go find this captain before your guy figures it out," Gladio said.
Ravus looked between the four of them, still standing with his arms crossed.
Noctis shrugged and nodded toward the Regalia. "Faster than walking around—" Actually, Rei wasn't here, so "—and you're not supposed to be walking this much, anyway, Dad! Did you seriously walk here from the castle?!"
The mildly disapproving look that he was met with said 'yes.'
"Holy shit! Get in the car." Noctis yanked the back door open. "Reina is going to skin me alive."
They got in. But both of them looked real grumpy about the whole thing.