Warnings: Implied Character Death, Mind Control, Memory Alteration, Manipulation.

Noctis hadn't even meant to look. He had an assignment on the Middle Lucis time period and while looking over the resources online had realized there was nothing stopping him from just...using better primary sources.

It wasn't like he was going to put in anything too controversial (he wasn't expecting to find much, but he knew there were occasional bits and pieces of history it was just better to keep hidden, because they were silly or would cause a lot of problems in the modern day when nothing would change it, anyway). Just maybe an anecdote that had never made it in or some names that had been otherwise lost.

When he was going through the old books in the archive, he didn't even notice at first. Maybe he would have never noticed, if the journal from the princess he was skimming hadn't had such awful handwriting he had to actually concentrate. If she hadn't been so interested in documenting every minor family drama.

At first it was just the feeling something was missing which caught his attention and made him go over the small book until he realized: Uncle Ardyn was never mentioned.

Noctis knew he didn't always stick around, sometimes he went off and did his own thing for a decade or two, but he was never mentioned, by a member of House Caelum who apparently knew who her fifth cousins twice removed living in Tenebrae were and felt the need to mention them.

So, he decided maybe that princess didn't like him or something-that wasn't new, either, Uncle Ardyn could be a little controversial.

Yet, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Or noticing it was true for everything else from that time period. And back further, when he started to dig. The only mentioned of Uncle Ardyn from before that was in a few documents from the Founding that survived.

Unsure what it meant, he traced his way forward, instead, tripping over the first mention of Uncle Ardyn about two hundred years ago, and it was weird. There was no mention of him coming to them, of discovering a long lost relative or whatever it would have been like. Instead he was just inserted into the documents and treated like he'd always been there.

By the time Noctis discovered that, two weeks had passed and he had to hand in his assignment. His excuse to keep digging was gone, but he didn't think he had to: Even though he had no idea what it all meant, he had his suspicions.

He decided he couldn't talk to anyone around the Citadel about it-he wouldn't have believed it himself if he hadn't stumbled upon it and had so much proof before him and he didn't know how someone else would react to just being told. Even Ignis wouldn't humor him about something like this.

So he instead went with his only other option: he told Prompto.

Noctis had always known, somehow, not to bring Prompto around the Citadel. His friend wasn't even confused by it, admitting at one point he was relieved, because apparently the Citadel terrified the average person. There were stories about hauntings, disappearances, all sorts of things that Noctis had found amusing as a kid and never thought were taken so seriously.

"That's...that's really creepy, dude," Prompto agreed, looking over the pictures Noctis had taken on his phone of the various documents.

He couldn't read Solheimen or Old Lucian (Noctis had found out only after starting public school that apparently barely anyone could and it was some weird affectation of his family that they still spoke both sometimes), but the stuff from what Noctis was thinking of as the First Appearance was in modern enough language.

"If he did only appear then...why does everyone think he's been around forever? And how?"

Noctis had been dwelling on that himself. "It would have to be some sort of magic, right? But, here, look," he pulled out the crumpled paper he'd jotted down a messy timeline on, "when he's first mentioned, it's all private stuff, right? And then it starts to get more and more public. From meeting with the Queen, to Council meetings, to appearing on the dais during speeches. It takes decades, his first appearance and his first really public appearance don't even happen under the same ruler."

"Like...like he needed time to get everyone under some curse."

Prompto exchanged looks with Noctis and for the first time since noticing how weird it was, Noctis realized, looking at the fear on his friend's face, that it was scary. That "curse" really might be an appropriate term.

"But Uncle Ardyn is really nice? I don't understand why he did this, if he was the one who did," and some instinct was telling Noctis it had been his doing, "but he didn't do it to hurt us. If he hadn't stopped Niflheim, we might have been conquered, or maybe even living through some sort of centuries-long war."

Prompto leaned his head back, his eyes squeezing shut as he thought. All Noctis could do was wait, his own thoughts a jumble of confusion.

"Okay, so, that's... probably true. If the history about Niflheim's aggression onto this continent is true," Prompto finally said, staring up at his water stained ceiling. "But what if the reason that the Regent wanted everyone to think he was always around was because they wouldn't want him around?"

"Prom...have you ever said my uncle's name?"

"I know his name."

Noctis frowned, distracted by trying to remember the last time he'd heard anyone outside of his family use Ardyn's name. It was almost always his title, which came from the idea that he would always be regent if something happened to the ruler even when he technically wasn't, or maybe sometimes a "your uncle" or "the royal uncle."

"Okay, but have you...have you ever said it? Outloud?"

Silence followed the question, then Noctis watched Prompto open his mouth, close it, then his face get all twisted in frustration. "No," he finally said. "It's...it's this weird superstitious thing, right? And it should be silly now that I'm grown up but...everyone still follows it."

"To never say his name?" A nod. "Is it...do you feel a specific way when I say 'Uncle Ardyn'?"

There, an almost imperceptible flinch. "Yeah, dude, but I've gotten used to it. You talk about him more than you talk about the king."

That was true. And for his dad, too, he spoke about Ardyn so much more than he ever spoke about Mors. Every major event in Noctis' life involved Ardyn in some way, even his baby pictures normally had Ardyn instead of his mom or dad, even if it was only his lap Noctis was sitting in or his arms holding Noctis.

He told Prompto that part, because it felt suddenly very important.

"Shit, dude, he's like...what if he's doing that, too? Inserting himself in there so he's the most important family member?"

"But that still doesn't answer the why. Or what he was doing for the two thousand years in between the Founding and him showing up again."

Prompto grimaced. "We've gotta find out more about that early stuff. Like, why he stopped being mentioned back then to begin with."

"He doesn't really like to talk about his early life...but he does talk about Somnus sometimes, maybe I can get something more that way?"

"We can't make him suspicious!"

There wasn't just worry, there was terror in Prompto's voice, and Noctis was once more taken aback. His friend was scared of Ardyn, all of Insomnia, maybe even Eos, were scared of Ardyn, and Noctis somehow had completely missed that, even though he could now think of countless times when he should have noticed.

"Uncle?" Noctis peeked his head around the door to his uncle's study, acting as much like he normally might as he could manage.

"Noctis! I was beginning to think you were avoiding me!" It was a joke, but knowing what he knew now Noctis found it, and the look on Ardyn's face as he said it, unsettling.

"Sorry, I've just been...dealing with some stuff." Not a lie, he'd learned early that lying to Ardyn didn't work.

Thankfully, he didn't seem suspicious, instead he gave a knowing look. "Sixteen is a very tumultuous age."

Noctis ducked his head, walking into the study and going to his normal chair, glad for the opening. "Do you...remember what it was like?"

"Vaguely. It's very different, I think, when living through it."

"So, you remember more about how it was for Somnus?"

Ardyn chuckled. "At that age, he was a menace. Shorter even than you, I think, but a born fighter."

"Do I still look like him?" It had been something Ardyn had often said as Noctis grew up, but he didn't know if as he aged, he changed more.

Ardyn smiled at him, looking almost sad. "You do. Though you still act very differently, little nightmare." He said the pet name teasingly, as he always did, the reference to Noctis' name and sleeping habits feeling too on the nose.

"Is that...is that bad?"

"No, and I hope you never act as he did." The way Ardyn said it was almost desperate, like a prayer.

Was it something the Founder did? Noctis wondered. Had that set off whatever this was?

Ardyn rose from his chair, going to collect his phone from where it sat on the desk at the side of the room. "I'll request a snack for you and you can brood in peace here," he teased, leaning against the side of Noctis' chair and patting his head.

"Thanks, Uncle Ardyn," Noctis replied, his thoughts hazy as he tried to remember why he felt like there was a specific reason he'd come to see him.

"Did you find out anything?" Prompto asked as soon as they were settled on the couch at his apartment.

"Anything what?"

For a moment, Prompto seemed to think he was joking, rolling his eyes and sighing, but as Noctis continued to look at him in confusion, that melted away. It left Prompto staring at him wide eyes, his hands shaking as he pulled a binder out from under the couch.

"You don't remember?"

Noctis frowned. "Remember what?" Inside the binder, the very first page, was some timeline written in his own handwriting that Noctis definitely did not remember writing.

He went through the whole thing, then sat back, hugging himself. "I saw Uncle Ardyn the other day," he whispered.

"Yeah, you said you would try to get information from him."

"He must have known, somehow, how the hell did he know?"

Prompto pulled Noctis into a hug, rubbing circles over his back. "Maybe he...I don't know, could he have the archives monitored?"

"Or he just...does it," Noctis muttered, shuddering, "just...reinforces the curse whenever he gets the chance. Which is why no one has exposed him, they can't." Memories were slowly trickling back in, like the small crack made by Prompto revealing the binder had been enough to shatter the curse again. "You say the Citadel makes you uncomfortable, right? What if it's all over there? So none of the guards or anyone notices anything?"

"That would make sense. I mean, somehow it infected the entire world, but most of it just...makes us not want to talk about him or think about him, right? But people there have to, because he's like…the second king, basically."

"Okay, okay, I know this is happening, which means I'll be better at resisting it. I'll find an excuse to look around, see if I can find signs of what's happening."

"That sounds super dangerous, Noct, maybe we should..."

"You've got nothing, right? Because my only choices are getting to the bottom of this or ignoring it. And I can't ignore it."

Prompto had to admit the truth in that and they spent the rest of the night planning out what Noctis would do. When he stumbled out to the car waiting to take him back to his own apartment, the Guards on duty joked about how long he must have been playing video games and he went along with it.

Noctis didn't exactly need an excuse to hang out around the Citadel. He had to go there for training, meetings, events, or even just to drop by to visit his family. What he didn't normally do was spend time wandering around, not since he was a kid and the Citadel was his whole world.

His excuse this time was another school project. He'd been planning on doing something completely different, but it wasn't exactly hard to decide instead to make his report about Lucian art history. Not when the Citadel had more pieces than all the museums combined, just sitting around.

He was in a rarely used hallway, taking pictures of a vase on a pedestal, when he saw something weird out of the corner of his eyes. When he turned to look, it was just a Crownsguard on patrol. They offered him a salute and continued on without comment.

The next time it happened, something made him keep watch of the Guard out of the corner of his eyes. They looked...weird. Bigger than a person, the wrong shape.

When he looked at them directly, keeping his face blank to hide his confusion, he thought their eyes looked too bright.

He started taking pictures of the Guards whenever he could, still making it look like he was focused on the art. Then, because he might as well, he went towards the working sections of the Citadel and caught as many other people as he could on camera, too.

There were video cameras constantly monitoring everything, he didn't know what he was expecting, but he was learning to follow his instincts.

"Going a little overboard, don't you think, princess?" Gladio asked when he came to pick up Noctis and found him in the gallery above a Council meeting, supposedly documenting the carvings in the railing.

"I figured maybe something will be really good for the report that I didn't think of until I looked into it," he replied with a shrug, jokingly taking a photo of Gladio as he stood up. "Think that bird on you counts as Middle Lucian art?"

Gladio rolled his eyes. "Ouch, Middle Lucian? Really gonna insult House Amicitia like that?"

They left then, Noctis debating dragging Gladio up to his apartment and telling him the truth. He decided to wait, though, because all the proof was at Prompto's place and without it, he'd probably sound like he was imagining things. Gladio might even report it to someone, which would lead to Ardyn finding out.

When he went over to Prompto's place to return the camera and talk about how he hadn't found any signs of spell work on the walls or floors or anything, he wasn't expecting to get surprised again.

Prompto, though, maybe just because he was more observant when it came to photos or because the curse on him was different, saw something in the photos.

"What the fuck is that?" He pointed to a random photo and Noctis frowned.

"A Crownsguard?" And again and again. Crownsguard, Noctis would identify, or Council member, or noble.

The last photo was Gladio, of course, and Prompto's hands were shaking as he hooked the camera up to his TV and displayed it. "Look, okay? Just like stop...stop assuming what you're going to see and look."

Noctis frowned, tilting his head, glancing into the background of the shot in case he had missed something, then studying Gladio's uniform for signs of whatever it was Prompto was seeing. He stared so long his thoughts wandered, his eyes went unfocused.

And then he threw himself back against the couch cushions, eyes wide.

"That's a-that's-Gladio is a..."

Where Gladio should have been wasn't a person, but a monster (a daemon, his mind supplied, even though daemons were not ever seen in Lucis, hadn't been for a long time). Claws, sharp teeth, wings stretching out behind it.

"Maybe the Citadel isn't freaky because of a curse," Prompto gasped, clutching back at Noctis when he launched himself at him, "maybe it's freaky because it's...because it's filled with daemons."

Everyone Noctis had caught on camera except himself (in reflections, but he'd like to think he'd know if he were a daemon) and his father were monsters. Every member of the Guard, every cleaning person. Different types, Noctis could almost see why each one had the sort of position it did, but not human.

"If they look like this, and that's connected to the Regent..."

"What does he look like?" Noctis finished the words when Prompto trailed off.

There were no photos of Ardyn's face. In every photo that caught him, a hat or collar or the angle concealed it. His layers of clothing didn't even reveal any skin to a camera. The only way people could know his face, Noctis came to realize as they searched, was because there were a few portraits painted with him in them, and those were what was used in profiles or wiki pages.

It had to be deliberate. No one was around for the entire history of photography without a single photo of their face if it wasn't.

"I have to get a photo of him," he declared, even though he knew getting close to him was a horrible idea.

Prompto's expression showed he thought the same. "Like, hidden camera, maybe? Don't think you're going to get a selfie with him."

"It can't be hidden, it can't be anything suspicious." Noctis grimaced. "What about a body camera? Like one of those sports ones? I can say I'm trying to capture warping or something."

"That's perfect! He won't even be expecting you, you can just warp around him and be gone."

"He'll notice, Prom, it's not exactly subtle. But hopefully he won't realize what's going on. It took you noticing for me to, he'll think he's safe, right?"

Five days later, he had his chance. Ardyn was out in the open, in a private area on the way to a few others where Noctis wouldn't get scolded for warping, and so he started. He started farther out, first, then finally got around Ardyn, who laughingly asked him if he was late for something, but didn't seem to expect an answer, then through multiple more.

Noctis didn't stop until he was in stasis. He collapsed on a bench in one of the gardens, hands trembling with exhaustion as he pulled up the app on his phone to look at the footage that had been uploaded straight from the camera to the cloud. Prompto would be looking it over soon, if he hadn't already been going through it, but Noctis wanted to see for himself.

Just as he'd hoped, Ardyn had been looking directly at him, which meant he was caught head on by the lens.

Noctis realized he'd been hoping for nothing, though, that Ardyn would look perfectly normal. Or maybe different, because he was immortal, but not scary.

Not black streaks of ichor down his face, glowing yellow eyes, and dark miasma floating around him.

He sat up, eyes locked on the photo. Distantly, he saw the notification symbol pop up and knew Prompto must have seen the same, must be texting him about it.

"Oh, dear, that's not a very flattering angle, is it?"

Ardyn's hands clamped down on Noctis' shoulders, his body pressed against his back and trapping him in place. He'd have to fight to get away and he didn't know what would happen if he did-all the Guards were daemons, they wouldn't be helping Noctis.

"Not-not like I'm keeping it for anything, Uncle." He thought his voice sounded almost normal.

"How did you find out, little nightmare?"

"There's no records of you, no primary sources, from...from before you showed up."

Ardyn hummed, sliding his hands down to hug Noctis against him, his cheek resting on Noctis' hair. "And you managed to remember, that's very impressive. Only a few people have managed to break out of my spell, and I don't think any did without an Astral interfering."

Noctis frowned. "Astral? Like in the old myths?" As soon as he said it, he realized that Ardyn must have erased them from history just as he inserted himself into it. "...Why? Why are you doing this?"

"I wanted my family," Ardyn's voice was gentle, his touch comforting, just like when Noctis was a child. "But there were so many working against that. This was the only way."

"But by now...you don't have to keep it up, do you? We know you're our family now."

The hug tightened and Ardyn chuckled. "You're so sweet. But not everyone is."

He took the phone from Noctis' hand, typing in the code to unlock it that he shouldn't have known, pulling up the texts from Prompto of him freaking out over the footage. "I knew letting you out among the peasants would be a bad idea. We do so much for them and yet they're so ungrateful."

"He's not-he's just helping me, that's all. He's my friend."

A new text appeared, Prompto concerned about Crownsguard showing up outside his building. Another, Prompto freaking out as they bang on his door.

Noctis was breathing hard, squirming in Ardyn's hold, but for some reason all the ways he knew to break out of it seemed impossible. "Please, no, leave him alone."

"Shh, it's okay, calm down." Noctis did, immediately, the panic leaving him at the order. Why had he been worried? Something about another person?

"What will you do to me?" he whispered, knowing he should still be terrified even if he wasn't.

Ardyn put Noctis' phone into one of his pockets before moving around so they were facing each other, a hand always on Noctis. "I would never hurt you, Noctis. I'm still the same person I've always been."

He relaxed on his own as he realized the truth of that. Whatever else Ardyn was doing, he'd never physically harmed Noctis.

"I think this shows your father's experiment in forcing you into a public school hasn't worked out, I'll have Ignis withdraw you and find acceptable tutors." Noctis flinched, but bit his lip to keep his protests from tumbling out. "And you'll move back in, of course, you know I never liked having you so far."

"I won't remember this, will I?" He shuddered, hating how he couldn't rely on his own mind.

Ardyn pressed a kiss to his forehead and Noctis relaxed again. It was hardly a bad thing that Uncle Ardyn could affect his memories, it kept all the bad stuff out of Noctis' head.

"Perhaps you can remember. But you must promise you won't think badly of me. I couldn't bare that."

Noctis shook his head, looking up at him with wide eyes. So what if Uncle Ardyn was a daemon, or that everyone else around him was, too? They kept Noctis and Lucis safe.

"I'd never, Uncle. I swear I wouldn't."

Smiling brightly, Ardyn waited a few more moments to reply and Noctis thought he could feel him rearranging things in Noctis' mind. It was a nice feeling, to know that his Uncle cared so much about him that he'd take care of him even there.

"Now, is there anything else you want to disclose? I promise I won't be upset."

Noctis frowned, thinking over the last few months. "Oh, there's a binder under Prompto's couch. It has everything I collected in it." He wondered why he trusted some random classmate with it, but dismissed the thought as unimportant as soon as he had it.

"Thank you for telling me. It means so much that you trust me."

He'd hurt Ardyn's feelings, he realized, feeling awful. "Always, Uncle."

A few Guards joined them and Noctis could see them now for what they were, but it felt like it didn't even matter. He stayed relaxed as they reported to Ardyn, not paying much attention to what they were talking about.

Once that was over, they'd go see his dad and let him know Noctis was moving back in. He'd be happy about that and it made Noctis question why he thought independence was so great in the first place. He didn't need freedom when he had Uncle Ardyn to take care of him.

A/N:

Basically this is Ardyn getting out much earlier (around the time Niflheim first starts fucking around with daemons) and there's no one to contain/detain him or try to turn him against Lucis, so he gets to Lucis and decides, instead of destroying Somnus' line, he'll basically take control of it.

He starts with the royal family, then others around them, then uses the power of the Crystal/Ring to basically curse the rest of the world and keep the Astrals away.