Chapter Summary: The light grows dim.
The Coernix gas station was a quiet place, as weathered and lacking in excitement as its in-the-middle-of-nowhere locale would suggest. But then, when you'd been on the road this long, you learned to appreciate what opportunities you got to stretch your legs.
The bell over the door gave out an almost mournful toll as Noctis made his way inside. Lazily he moved toward the back, eyes roaming over the same old merchandise, practically identical to what you'd find at dozens of other stations. Not really taking anything in. Not noticing when the shelves began to pull away and the dusty floorboards peeled back. Not bothered as dark marble snapped into their place or at the walls of heavy laden bookcases sliding in at his back, locking out the untamed outlands beyond.
It was grand, this place. And definitely regal, but not like back home. No, where Insomnia had always been a steady pulse of activity wrapped in concrete and taunt tension, here there was a more tranquil pace to existence that clashed with his city upbringing, while simultaneously lulling his thoughts toward distant promises and the heavy melancholy that steeped in the walls and soured the air. Luna had been here the day they first met – and so many after.
The bitter sting of longing prickled beneath his skin at the thought. A quick glance around the room revealed it wasn't quite as he remembered it, outdated as those memories were. It felt smaller. The distance between the walls no longer seemed to stretch over the near boundless expanse he'd come to know from a wheelchair.
There were other new touches, of course. Paintings commissioned since his one and only visit. Furniture rearranged. A faceless manikin adorned in the designer wedding gown from the article at Galdin, an echo of changes still to come.
At least the matching twin beds were still there, pushed against the far wall under their canopies. They would sit on those beds and talk for hours. He could still hear her voice, so gentle yet sure – the day she told him of his destiny.
"To crown the King of Light is the calling of the Crystal. Only the True King anointed by the Crystal can purge our star of its Scourge."
He found himself drawn toward the childhood relics. Like a marionette on stings, his feet carried him across the polished floor. Lightning flashed, blinding and quick, twisting the long shadows that prowled the room. His eyes looked to the gold trimmed windows and beyond to the ominous storm clouds looming on the horizon.
What would it have been like if he could have saved her…
Thunder rumbled overhead, a blooming soundtrack carried in on the winds and intermittent with the metallic whine of magitek airships ravaging the skies.
The Regalia swerved, hugging the tight curve of the roadway as Noctis strained the engine for more speed. He felt sweat roll down his back and the heat swelling a hair's breath away. Missals peppered the asphalt, tearing up the seaside pass in his wake.
Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was a sign from fate or even an aftereffect of his latest brush with death. But he swore he saw her then, standing on the roadside – there one moment and gone the next.
He blinked in the glare of the sun, his eyes catching on pale fur stark and bright against the green wilds. Pryna sat patiently before an old, gnarled tree not ten feet from the road. Waiting.
His hands jerked the wheel too harshly – lost control. The Regalia flipped. And he was thrown, suspended in free fall with bits of broken glass, seared metal and tire rubber.
He slammed down on his back, head smacking against the pavement hard enough that he saw stars and fire. The air was brittle and dry, tasting of acrid smoke.
Luna was there too, backed against rough stone in clothes torn and bloodied. Her face was ashen, breaths coming in frantic gasps as she locked eyes with the dark figure standing over her. She rolled away, narrowly avoiding the ornate blade embedded in the solid rock.
"Noctis!" She sprang to her feet, trident in hand but hesitant to fight back.
The dark figure ignored her plea and struck her across the jaw.
Noctis startled up from the ground and the wreckage of the Regalia, ash smeared over his skin. His eyes found Pryna's and she lead him away, to a vast ocean of sand with crumbling angels in the distance. They came upon a boat there, long and thin, embedded in the dunes as if cresting a great, white capped wave. The floor of the vessel was hollowed out and bright light strobed from the other side.
They stepped through, touching down onto a subway train, like they had back home. But unlike in the city, this train was packed with imperial soldiers. They lined the walls and filled the isle, cold armor brushing against him in the sway of the car as he wove his way through.
The lights outside blinked in and out with a hypnotic sort of cadence as the train ran beneath them. It's in between the beats of shadow that he thought caught glimpse of someone there watching. He twisted around to see, but only found his reflection staring back in the scratched glass.
They grinded to jarring halt at some kind of imperial airbase. Pryna was already off the train and wandering up the stairs of the terminal by the time he got past the doors. He pushed between the soldiers, trying to catch up as his guide raced down the line of airships. There was one in particular she seemed to be headed for that was already prepping for liftoff. The loading ramp started to rise as soon as Pryna set foot on the ship.
He knocked into more soldiers getting in his way, trying to hold him back. When they brought out their weapons he repaid them in kind, cutting a path through their number and trailing a blue afterimage of the Crystal's light.
The ship was already in the air when he stumbled aboard, sword first. He rolled across the deck just missing the closing doors. Bullets pelted the bottom and sides of the ship but none breached the hull. He looked up, meeting Pryna's eyes. They burned bright and hot like hungry flames.
In them he saw Luna again, still fighting. She parried another fierce swing of a sword before bringing up her hand, palm out. The next strike rippled across the glittering gold of her barrier. But she was losing strength fast and her assailant was persistent. Blow after blow wailed against her magic, until it shattered.
The backlash threw her back against the dirt. She lost her grip on her trident – had to drag herself on shaking arms just to reach out toward its hilt. It was a futile effort. Her assailant had beat her to it, snatching it up out of her weakened grasp.
Before Noctis could see any more the floor of the airship opened up – metal shifting apart like broken puzzle pieces – dropping him and Pryna both into a black abyss.
He summoned a dagger, stabbing it into the darkness. Sparks flew as the blade dug into a wall of shadow, slowing his decent until gravity shifted and the wall tilted beneath his feet. Under the harsh glare of the floodlights a concrete bridge came into focus, along with the imperial soldiers closing in from both ends, rifles drawn.
The call for bloodshed thrummed steady in his ears – underscored with a vengeful pang of his heart – so he obliged. Tossing his dagger, he warped into the thick of them, slicing out their throats and stabbing into the seams of their armor. Trading out the smaller blades for a lance, he twirled the length of the weapon in a deadly dance, cleaving himself a path through their ranks. He left them with a flask of fire elemancy for their troubles.
Pryna had more to show him.
The world spun, night became day, and a behemoth stalked him in the place of men on a bridge of stone and ornate columns. He sidestepped the snap of vicious fangs and when it's claws came down he brought his sword up. A bloody gash tore into the flesh of the beast's neck. As it recoiled he tried to warp some distance between them, sending the glaive ahead of him. His form flickered in the sparks of the Crystal's magic but they fizzled out and left him behind.
Before he could more than blink in surprise the behemoth caught him with a swipe of its massive paw, throwing him against the wall. The pain only dulled his confusion; he hadn't misstepped like that in years. Yet he could still feel the hum magic in his veins as he peeled himself up off the ground and back to his feet.
He couldn't dwell on it. Pryna's barks drew not only his attention but the behemoth's as well. Together they sprinted toward the mirror in the wall, the beast hot on their tails. It was Luna's eyes he met in their reflection before they dove through the smooth surface.
From the mirror they were spat out in the surf, left adrift in the salty current. Through the waves above he could see the shadows of hundreds of airships swarming over a city on the sea like a plague of ravenous locusts. There came a roar from the clouds and a dark shape swooped in to tear through one of the ships and then another. One by one the ships were felled from the sky.
Then there was ground beneath his feet again. Night had returned and the soldiers waited on all sides. He readied his lance, preparing to continue the fight, but it crumbled to dust in his hands and he felt the weight of his magic fade and fizzle out with it. When they opened fire he dove away from the barrage, weaving in and out of rows of stacked supplies and other obstacles left in his path.
When a soldier got too close he rushed them, wrestling his gun away and turning the weapon on the others. Then he shot out the bulbs of the floodlights above.
In the darkness the soldiers didn't fire as recklessly. But their number was many, more than he could easily handle without his magic. His clothes were already shredded, his skin mottled with evidence left behind by close calls and near misses.
Missiles lit up the unmanned tank at his back and he and Pryna scrambled to find cover, a magitek armor's automated fire dogging their steps. He answered back with his stolen gun between the volleys but the magitek had them pinned.
With reckless resolve, Pryna darted out in the open, drawing magitek's fire and granting Noctis his chance.
He made for the large crane against the wall of the base. Taking up the thick chain, he spun the hooked end before launching it at the magitek's arm. Linked metal quickly became entangled in the mechanism of the machine gun and he activated the crane. There was straining of gears as the magitek was yanked backwards and the weight of the crane toppled on top of it.
Noctis ran to Pryna, lying still and bloody on the ground, but the abyss opened up beneath his feet. As he sank into its depths he heard his own voice from years long passed.
"Am I The Chosen?"
He remembered asking that question, not having been able to believe such a thing. Not until Luna had believed in him.
"Yes."
The night air tasted of ash and smoke. He opened his eyes at the base of a familiar gnarled tree. There were flames all around him, dripping from the fangs of daemons, gruesome and dark, with red eyes and many heads. Pushing himself up from the dirt he found the Trident of the Oracle lax in his grip.
He looked up as the thrall bowed their heads low before an even greater creature flying in overhead. Massive wings churned the scalding air and an all too familiar roar pierced the night. The dragon was black as death with wisps of shadow trailing in it's wake. Sharp crystalline growths jutted out from its hide like poisonous thorns, glowing a sickly purple. He watched as the beast touched down on the barren ground, opening it's maw and unleashing a torrent of bright embers that stung his eyes and illuminated the ruin the world has become beyond the circle of daemons.
But the eyes were when he knew. Two points of arctic green fire bore into his soul.
And he felt their minds touch – a surge of savage hatred ignited by bitter betrayal raged into an inferno so hot it charred him from the inside out. A scream rose and died on his lips before he could comprehend whether the sound was really his. He fumbled to bring his hands up to cradle his head – as if such an act could siphon away the thoughts and emotions that weren't his.
Take heed. This is the fate of the sovereign fallen from grace and to all who would follow him there in.
Then the dragon lowered his head. And the daemons, they-they weren't bowing to the dragon – to Ignis – they were bowing to him.
Pryna wandered onto the scene, skirting into his line of sight and moving toward the gnarled tree as if she'd never been hurt. He followed her with his eyes, her name poised on his tongue.
She turned and faced him – her eyes burned of fire again. And Noctis saw her grey skinned and stripped of her pristine fur.
She was dark like the daemons. Like Ignis.
He could hear himself answering Luna.
"I guess I can do it."
A hand reached down over Pryna's head and she pulled back her lips, snarling with yellowed fangs.
"I won't let you down."
He stumbled back, dropping the trident. But he could see it poised over Luna's neck all the same.
And Luna accepted his pledge with total confidence.
"I know you won't."
The trident was back in his hands as it came down, and now, his eyes were of fire too.
Noctis woke up gasping for breath like he'd just ran one of Gladio's hellish training races sixteen times over, a numb sort of horror snapping at his heels. The sensation of blankets tucked tightly over his legs and pulled up to his chin felt abruptly suffocating, like the weight was choking him. His back spasmed as he tried to scramble out from beneath the them, and for the next indeterminate span of minutes all he was capable of was lying curled on his side in an attempt to ride out the pain without getting sick.
It was sometime in the midst of this miserable haze he felt a soothing aura press down against the rising panic, accompanied by hand rubbing careful circles into his back. Eventually, the nausea receded to the point where his stomach no longer felt like it was trying to escape through his esophagus. By then his surge of adrenaline from earlier had all but deserted him, along with the memory of whatever had gotten him so worked up in the first place, and he was having a hard time convincing himself not to stay nice and horizontal. Which, granted, wasn't exactly an unheard of grievance of his. But what Noctis wasn't used to was the milky layer of fog hanging over his senses, like someone had stuffed his head full of cotton. It made everything just a bit fuzzy.
Still, it wasn't enough to make him miss the protective presence at his side. "Back with us?"
Noctis grunted but didn't otherwise reply or move yet, not really keen on a repeat experience with his aggravated back. It was probably his distress that woke Ignis in the first place. He wondered at what odd hour of the night it must be.
As if sensing his reluctance, Ignis crossed to the other side of the bed and kneeled down to get a better look at him, his green eyes reflecting back the ambient light of the room in a way no human eyes could. An anxious sort of discomfort settled over Noctis that he'd never felt around the familiar sight before.
"'M fine," He waved away the other's concern distractedly, along with the odd discomfort. But he couldn't help feeling like something was missing here. The thought lent a small spike of urgency to his earlier efforts and allowed him to finally sit back up and scope out his surroundings. It was immediately obvious they were in a hotel room somewhere, less nice than the Leville maybe, but a definite step up from the campers they sometimes rented. Squinting in the darkness he could spy a vaguely Prompto shaped lump passed out in the other bed. But his shield was nowhere to be found. "Gladio?"
"He wished to keep watch over Iris and Talcott for tonight," Ignis supplied. And, just like, that the memories from the previous day came flooding back – finding Talcott alone, rescuing Iris and bringing down the Nifs' red wall – everything up until a sniper had taken a cheap shot at Ignis while he'd been distracted. Noctis remembered shoving him out of the line of fire, but then nothing.
He turned questioning eyes on Ignis, knowing his confusion would read loud and clear. Ignis promptly complied with the unspoken request and filled him in, "You recall the dart you took in my place? It was filled with a tranquilizer, a rather potent one at that. It's likely to blame should you be experiencing any difficulties staying alert or remembering recent events. The effects should wear off within twenty-four hours or so but we'll be keeping an extra close eye on you just to be sure."
"Tranquilizer?" That didn't sound like the Empire's style.
Ignis glanced away, eyes resting on the sliver of pale moonlight sliding in between the window's heavy curtains. "We believe it was their intention to capture us alive."
Huh, and here Noctis had thought all the Empire wanted was to send him six feet under. "That's… new."
"It's not all that's new." It was hard to make out much of Ignis' expression in the low lighting, but Noctis imagined he was making that face he had when he was bothered by something and really didn't want to talk about it. He was doing that thing where he clamped down on his side of the bond so that his emotions didn't come through as clearly, which he didn't seem to realize always gave away that he was upset anyway. Noctis was halfheartedly considering prodding for answers when Ignis finally elaborated, "They've found a way to suppress my magic."
Noctis blinked dully at the news, thinking he must have misheard. "What?"
"The wall generators were somehow rigged – a disruption wave if I had to guess. It was after we destroyed the last one that they moved in to contain us."
Noctis frowned, voice coming out a bit thick. "You're okay though, right?"
Ignis' silhouette nodded in the darkness. "The effects were temporary."
"Not what I meant," Noctis grumbled, listing a bit to the side as the fuzzy sensation from earlier reasserted itself. His eyelids drooped with a sudden fatigue.
"We'll talk more when you're feeling more lucid," Ignis answered evasively, guiding him back down to the mattress. "For now, it's best if you get some rest. The sedative has yet to run its course."
"Fine." Noctis allowed himself to slip further into the bed in a hazy sulk as Ignis began fussing with the blankets. But they would be talking about this later.
So this chapter was a bit different than the others but I hope it was still enjoyable. I think it would have been neat if we could have gotten more from XV based off the Omen trailer but at least it made a pretty intriguing cinematic.
As always, I'd love to hear from you if you enjoyed the chapter and hope everyone is staying safe out there!