Day 0:

Be the Crown Prince.

Be the Crown Prince.

Right.

He could do that.

What the hell did a Crown Prince even do, again?

Ignis would know. Yeah. Good idea. Find Ignis.

Noct stepped out into the hall and nearly ran into him and Ravus. Hovering right outside.

"How is she?" Ignis asked.

At the same time, Ravus said, "Is she alright?"

"Asleep, I guess. Dad's worried, but he doesn't think she's going to die or anything. I guess it's just something she has to sleep off or whatever," Noct said.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Ignis asked.

"Not for her," Noct said. "But Dad wants me to be in charge of the city for some reason, so yeah, there's probably a lot you're going to need to do right now."

He had forgotten Luna was even up here until she said something.

"Noctis… I know that you love your sister very much, but this victory she has bought for Lucis is a hollow one. I feel deeply that this was never meant to happen. If she continues along this path, I fear all Eos will fall to darkness."

For a second he could only stare at her. So many things were wrong with what she had just said that he couldn't even begin to unpack it.

"What?" Noctis said. "No. You know what? Never mind. Don't say anything else. Maybe ever, if you can help it. Let's go, Ignis."

"Prince Noctis." Ravus stepped forward, stopping Noct in his tracks. Since when did he give Noctis a title? Since right now, apparently. "I swore my blade to your sister. You say there is nothing to be done for her and so, in the interim…"

Was he asking Noctis to give him orders?

And he'd thought daemon weapons falling out of the sky was as crazy as tonight could get.

"I don't know what she wants," Noct said. A couple days ago, maybe he could have guessed. Now? No way. "But you can start by keeping your sister the hell away from her."

"Consider it done."

Weird.

Noct started at him and tried to believe he meant it. The worst part was, he did.

He turned back around and walked straight past Luna without looking at her. No point standing around listening to whatever bullshit she had cooked up. He had a kingdom to run.

The crowd outside the upper levels looked half relieved and half uncertain when he showed up. Some of them were servants or attendants. Some of them were probably part of Dad's government, but Noct couldn't have said who they were or where they fit. It didn't really matter, anyway. He gave them something to do.

The first thing was the panic—even before getting everyone healed or patched up. The daemons had stopped attacking people. By first light, a few of the braver reporters were coming out of whatever holes they had been hiding in. He didn't know shit about talking to reporters. But Rei always said it didn't so much matter what you said as how you said it. Probably, right now, what they needed to see was that someone was doing something. Even if it was mostly a lie.

He told them as little as he could while assuring them that he was doing everything he could to put Insomnia back together. It helped that Ignis stood behind him to make everything look more official.

They worked on getting people healing and aid after that. The whole Crownsguard headquarters got turned into an infirmary some time around full dawn. Prompto had ended up tangled up in passing out bandages, but he ducked out and joined Noctis as soon as he could.

Cor was still limping around with blood soaking through the torn-up, half-assed bandage tied around his knee. Trying to make sure his guards were seen to first. Noct told him to shut up and sit down. It worked for a little while.

Gladio joined them to say he hadn't heard from his dad since before the signing, so after that they went to look for Clarus. They found him in the treaty room, crumpled against the wall. Why was it that time always seemed to stretch out and slow down when trouble hit? He wasn't dead—but with the way Gladio raced across the room, Noct knew he had thought so, too. They got Clarus up to the doctors. When he woke up later, he said he couldn't feel his legs. Couldn't move them either.

For some reason Gladio still stuck with them afterward instead of staying with his dad. By the time the sun was setting again, Noct could have kissed all three of them. Definitely figured out what the point of having a royal retinue was.

It was hard to say how long he had been awake. When he stumbled back through the doors to his dad's rooms, Dad was still up—probably hadn't slept either—and Rei was still out, but she looked a little cleaner and was changed out of her burnt clothes. They traded off keeping an eye on her so the other could shower. Noct passed out in a chair during his watch.

The sun came up again.

Rei was still out cold.


AN: Hey everyone! Happy holidays! Just a heads up that I'm going to be moving across the country this time next week, so I have no idea what chapter updates will look like. I have everything edited and ready to post, so it will go up when I have both time and internet. Not sure when that will be. I believe it's possible to schedule posts on p-a-t-r-e-o-n (fun fact, ffn censors that name, much like it censors links), though, so chapters should post on time there. Even if you're not a Patron, the new chapters are public on Mondays. So if it doesn't show up here, check there (or wait until whenever it does show up here). Link on my profile.

In other news, Episode 4 of the Remnants audio drama is on YouTube today! You can find it on our channel if you're following us. If not: why? But also, there will be a link on my profile.