Summary: Insomnia is safe, Drautos and Emperor Aldercapt are dead, the sun has risen, and everyone is still alive, if a little worse for the wear. In spite of that, Reina Lucis Caelum can't smile. If the last ten years never happened, who is she really? Why does a Dream feel more real that reality? And how is she supposed to protect her friends and family from the Draconian and escape fate when she can't even remember where and when she is, sometimes?

Series: Shattered Dreams vol 4

Sountrack: Search "Reckoning || FFXV" on Spotify

Related Fics:

Fractured (vol 1)

Remnants (vol 2)

Restored (vol 3)

Author's Notes: This is the fourth and final story in the Shattered Dreams series. Honestly, it will probably not make very much sense without having read at least some of the other stories, but hey, you do you man.

Day 0

The ship came down.

Half of Lucis had gathered between Regis and the wreck. He pushed through. A path opened for him as soon as he arrived, but his eyes were on the fire beyond and the twisted black metal shape that had once been a Magitek ship.

Noctis stepped in front of him. "Dad—"

He laid his hand on Noctis' shoulder and brushed him aside without pause. He broke free of the crowd. No others dared stand between him and his destination.

The whole front-end of the imperial ship was pulverized—metal had crashed into earth and the earth had won. The flames had spread, as well.

"Reina?!" Regis shouted over the creak of metal and the crackle of fire. "Cor?!"

The rear hatch fell open with a resounding crash before he reached it. Smoke billowed out from within, only partially obscuring the figures within. Shapes were visible before faces, but that was all he required.

Cor was limping—favoring his right knee—and cradling and inert body in his arms.

Reina.

Regis strode forward, meeting them at the bottom of the ramp. Soot streaked her face and clothes, but not blood. A faint network of fading white burn marks twisted up her arms and neck.

Her skin was warm beneath his fingers as he searched for the pulse he wasn't certain he would find. If she breathed, he saw no indication. He pressed his fingers against her neck, beneath her chin.

One heartbeat.

And another.

"Regis." Cor was speaking. Though he had been for several seconds, Regis could not recall a single word he had said. Now he said, "She's alright. Just exhausted."

"The cost of the ring," said Regis.

He turned around, taking stock of their location and assets. They had arrived in a Magitek ship; it would serve to take them back to the Citadel. Ravus stood ahead of the crowd, eyes fixed upon Reina.

"Commander," Regis called. "Will you return us to the Citadel?"

His gaze snapped toward Regis. He was as starkly unreadable as ever, but he turned on his heel and shoved his way through the crowd toward the Magitek engine.

Regis glanced over his shoulder. In that short time, Ignis had taken Reina from Cor.

"Come." Regis turned to follow Ravus. Two steps along, a sharp pain in his right knee halted him. Damn leg. He may as well cut it off for all the good it did.

Noctis offered his cane to him. Regis had been holding it when he had walked through the crowd, surely. Either he had tossed it aside or passed it to Noctis between now and then. It mattered little. He took his cane and followed Ravus, with both Ignis and Noctis trailing after.

No one spoke as they boarded and took flight. Ignis lowered into a seat, holding Reina in his lap. If not for his gods damned knee, Regis would have been carrying her himself. But Ignis would have to suffice.

Her skin was so pale. Had it always been thus? He remembered her being hale and healthy but a few days before. Always it was his skin that stood paper-white against the color of hers. Always it was her who stood for him, taking every responsibility that ought have been his and making them her own. It had been four years since he had been anything like a father to her. Longer, still, since he had been a decent one.

No longer.

This weakness ended tonight.

They made good time in the Magitek engine. With the entire Crownsguard and Kingsglaive still at the warehouses, the Citadel was all but deserved when they landed. Any servants on duty had shut themselves away and so Regis passed through deserted halls, many of which were strewn with fallen MTs or Crownsguards, to reach the lifts. Once they were ascending, and only then, did Regis note Ravus had followed. He stood apart, but his eyes strayed to Reina more often than not.

His loyalty to her, perhaps, extended beyond a desire to protect his sister.

The lift doors opened. In the lounge beyond, Lunafreya rose from her seat on the sofa. "Your Majesty—"

Regis held up his hand and swept past her, leading the procession past Reina's door to his own suite of rooms. He held the door for Ignis.

"Lay her on my bed," Regis said.

Once Ignis had done so, Regis dismissed him with a motion and took to Reina's side. She looked paler still under the Citadel lights, but the faint burn marks that twisted up her arms and neck had become invisible, save to one who knew to look for them and then only in the right light.

"Do you want me to call a doctor or something?" Noctis asked.

Ignis and Ravus had left. He had lingered.

"No."

Outside, the city was in chaos. Reina's wounds were non-physical. Regis might aid her with his own magic, if he dared try, but there was little any modern medicine could do for her. And every doctor in the Crown City would find their hands full for weeks to come.

"What I would like you to do is go outside and be my heir," Regis said.

"What?"

"I have permitted you to be a child your whole life. Tonight I must ask you to be the Crown Prince. Niflheim has been repelled, but the people will need a face to guide them through the dark. That face will be you."

"Well what're you going to do?"

Regis turned back to Reina. "I am going to be a father."

For perhaps the first time in his life.

AN: Welcome to the beginning of the end! Right now I'm still editing this story, so I'm afraid we're back to once-weekly chapters (sorry!). Much like Restored, some of them are quite short. Meanwhile, some of them are quite long. Honestly there's just no consistency. As soon as editing as done, we'll go back to the Monday/Friday schedule. Until then... see you all next Monday.