Day 5:
The next morning didn't give much of a chance to talk to anyone, least of all Rei. Waking up in Ignis' room meant he didn't even have five minutes to sleep in before Ignis pulled him off to work on something. Rei was still upstairs. When Dad passed though, he said she was sleeping. Yeah, right. Had he met Rei?
Ignis let him have about two minutes to eat breakfast. After that they were working. Only five million things to deal with in the Citadel. No big deal. Dad went into the City to help out there.
It was early afternoon before Reina came and found him. Cor was trailing after her. He hadn't thought of Cor as the sort of person to trail anywhere. He'd thought wrong.
"Hey," Noct said.
She stared at him for a moment, like she wasn't sure if he had really spoken at all. Or was trying to remember what she was supposed to say.
"Hey," she said finally.
"Look at you: you even got dressed—is that my shirt?"
She glanced down at herself. The black T-shirt was way too big on her, but she had tied it off at her waist so it hung just above the waistband of her jeans. Those weren't his, but he didn't remember them being hers, either. How many closets had she raided before noon today?
"None of mine fit," she said.
"That doesn't make any sense, Rei." Yeah, maybe it had been ten years mentally but her body hadn't moved from that tent. He knew. He'd been there watching it.
For a long while she just looked at him. He couldn't tell what the hell she was thinking anymore. Before, he could just look at her and guess. Now she was like a statue and sometimes he couldn't even tell if she was still his sister underneath. She'd lived half her life without him. He'd lived his whole life with her. So they weren't twins, anymore. He still loved her. Some days he just wanted her back the way she had been, but that wasn't fair to her. Had she sat around wishing he'd go back to how he'd been after that thing with the daemon? Probably not. She always took him how he was. He was going to do the same thing for her.
"Prince Noctis—" Ignis popped up out of nowhere. At least nowhere Noctis could see. "Ah—Your Highness." He bowed to Reina.
Her face had been blank before. Then it was… something else. No idea what, just something uncomfortable. Then it was blank again.
"Ignis." She acknowledged him with a nod like Dad used when he was being polite.
Ignis tore his eyes away and turned back to Noctis. "I have just received word that Niflheim is waiting to speak with Lucian royalty."
"Waiting?" Noct asked.
"On the line, so to speak."
"Dad's still out in the city," Noctis said. "Probably won't be back for a few hours."
He glanced at Reina and shrugged. "Guess that's just us, then. You wanna take point, now that you're up? Always were better at this sort of thing."
"No," she said. Immediate. Sharp. Not like all her other responses that seemed to come across a great void between them. "Lucis should never be mine. Not least of all because I never wanted it. But primarily because I am not a fit ruler."
"Whatdya mean? Everyone always says you should have been Dad's heir instead."
"Maybe I should have been. But that was before."
Right. Before a week ago.
"A key characteristic of a good ruler is empathy," she said blandly. "Father cares for his people and wishes to protect them. Perhaps you'll feel the same."
"But not you?"
"I care about seven people in this world. I could not care less what happens to the rest. They are nothing to me and if one stood in my way I would cut him down."
"Right." Noctis was staring at her. So was Ignis. So was Cor.
What the hell had she Dreamed?
Ignis cleared his throat. "Your Highness, Niflheim—"
"Yeah, yeah. Niflheim. Did you want to come along?" Noctis asked.
"I'll observe," she said.
"Right." He stared at her for a second longer. Something about the matter-of-fact way she said she'd kill anyone who disagreed with her if she was in charge chilled him. He believed she would. Maybe Dad had made the right choice fifteen years ago. Maybe Noctis would be a better monarch than her.
Whatever she'd seen in that Dream, whatever she'd lived through, it had turned her into a mess. But it had happened to her. He couldn't love her any less for that. He refused to love her any less for that.
"Right," he repeated. He slung an arm around Reina's shoulders and dragged her along after Ignis. Cor followed like a giant, looming shadow.
Ignis led them through the halls of the Citadel. It was still weird to have people bowing to him everywhere he went. After twenty years he should have been used to it, but it was worse in the Citadel and for some reason it was worse since Daemonfire Night. Like he was in charge or something. The worst part was he sort of was.
Specs took them to a small lounge on the floor with all the government offices. Two Crownsguards stood outside. One had his arm in a sling, the other wore a bandage around her head, but both bowed to Noct and Reina as they entered.
The lounge had an empty desk, a pair of leather armchairs, a short leather sofa, a coffee table, and a big TV on a wall mount. Some imperial's face was plastered on it. Noct only knew it was an imperial because he was wearing a uniform and had a great big Niflheim flag hung on the wall behind him.
Also he looked like a creep.
Aside from the imperial on the screen, the only person in the room was one of the royal council. Noct couldn't remember what her name was, but she bowed to Reina and Noctis.
Right inside the door, Reina split away from him. She walked an awkward path around the perimeter of the room to the far side and stood right next to—almost behind—the screen. It took him that long to realize she was keeping off camera. Couldn't think why, but whatever. Noct was already standing in the middle of it.
"Your Highness," said the councillor, gesturing to the screen. "This is Imperial Minister Verstael Besithia."
The name sounded familiar but he couldn't remember why. Probably not important. Probably was, but too late to worry about it now. You didn't ask your Royal Adviser who people were while you were already on camera. It just Wasn't Done. Besides, wasn't Ignis supposed to tell him who he was talking to before they got to the room? It was time to break out the whip and chains.
Or… just learn who people were.
Nah.
"You must be Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum." The imperial—Besithia—had an ugly sneer.
"Crown Prince, actually." Noctis stood front and center. "What can we do for you, Imperial… Minister… Besithia?" He made a point of sounding like he was reading off a card. Firstly because the first thing anyone who knew Noctis did when he walked into a room was assume he had no idea what was going on. Usually they were right, but hey, play it up, right? Secondly because if he had been reading the name off a card it was because so-and-so wasn't real important. Otherwise Noct would have known who he was.
Never mind the fact that Noct had started paying attention to politics all of about three days ago. Okay five. Whatever.
"General Tummelt reports that you have numerous imperial officials in your custody, including—but not limited to—Chancellor Izunia, High Commander Nox Fleuret, General Glauca, and the emperor himself." Besithia drew himself up and puffed out his chest. "Is this not so?"
Huh. Guess the news that Drautos and the emperor had both become toasty Sunday roasts had not been part of the information that got back to Niflheim. Could be useful.
"First off, General Glauca is actually Titus Drautos, and that son of a bitch is—" was "—a Lucian citizen."
Noct glanced at Reina. She raised both eyebrows at him, nodding once.
"We have the others, though," he said.
Sure, one of them was a crispy critter in the morgue and the other two were voluntarily hanging around for some reason no one could really figure out, but they were all definitely in Insomnia still.
"In that case, we issue an ultimatum: deliver the hostages to us or we will crush Lucis."
Noctis couldn't stop the snort of laughter. It came way too fast. Sometimes he wished he had Rei's talent for keeping everything buried way deep down. Then again.
"Sorry, I think the connection must have skipped—I could have sworn you said you would crush Lucis," Noctis said.
Besithia looked none too pleased. Either because of the laugh or because Noctis talked like a normal person and not like he actually had a crown. Well he didn't. He'd thrown it away after Ignis dug it out and put it on his head a few days ago.
"That is the ultimatum, Prince Noctis."
"Ri-ight," Noct said. "And uh… what army were you going to do that with? Because I could have sworn you sent yours to Insomnia a few nights ago and how much of it came back?" He paused, looking off to his right where exactly no one was standing. "What was that? None?" He looked back at the camera. "None of it."
Noct sure hoped Besithia wasn't holding anything important. It was probably broken if he was.
"So let me tell you what we're going to do instead. You're going to demolish all of your Magitek facilities and stop producing daemon-clone hybrid soldiers and whatever the hell that monster you dropped on us was. After that, you are going to get all of your soldiers out of Lucis. Pack up. Go home. Party's over. Lucis won the war. Because if you don't we're going to kill your emperor."
Okay. Look. Sometimes you have to lie to get what you want. Basic fact of life.
But hey. At least Noct wasn't making idle threats like some people around here. They could kill the emperor. Could have. If they hadn't already.
"You—!" This time he did snarl. And sputter. "You don't have the authority to make such demands! I will speak with the King of Lucis or I will not speak at all."
"That's great, 'cause I am really done with this. Specs, turn this guy off. You got two weeks, Besithia. After that we'll return your emperor. Or his head. Maybe the body. Definitely not attached."
He had the pleasure of seeing a spark of fear on Besithia's face before Specs cut the call.
Ignis was looking at him like he couldn't decide whether to be exasperated or really impressed.
Reina just had a little smile on her face. She came and hugged him. Her whole body was tense like a stretched cord. But he hugged her back and a little bit of it drained away.
"Don't tell me you thought I was going to mess that up," Noctis said.
"I had confidence in you," she said.
