Pardon the delay in updates guys. Life got busy. I work full time and have an 11 month old. But I do hope you enjoy this chapter!
"Who the hell are you" Gladiolus snapped back. He took a step forward but felt a hand grasp his forearm,
"She's hurt." Lunafreya stated. "Put the sword down, she is of no threat to us."
"How merciful." The woman quipped back. She rested her hands back on her chest, lying back against the small bunk. "So, again. Who the hell are you, breaking into my airship?"
"Wait… I recognize you." Lunafreya interrupted. "You're the Commodore. Aranea Highwind."
"How do you know that?" Noctis asked. She had recognized the helmet on the floor, recalling stories of a silver-haired woman with an odd metal helmet that the soldiers wanted to avoid crossing. Even Ravus had once admitted to her that he would not want to be on the woman's bad side.
"In the flesh." She replied, before Lunafreya could answer, trying to flourish but flinched and forced herself to once again relax. "So, gonna shoot me or what? Would be doing me a favor at this point." She stated. "But like hell if I'm going out without a fight. Even if it's a pathetic fight."
"I'm not about to cut down a wounded woman." Gladiolus grumbled, voice low and shifting his weight on his feet, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Well I sure as shit don't have a problem shooting a Nif in the face." Crowe snarled, stepping forward. Lunafreya reached out, grabbing the back of her collar to halt her forward progress. The woman whirled around, staring at her charge's wide blue eyes.
"I prefer to help the wounded." Lunafreya stated, the conviction in her tone enough to keep Crowe from walking back towards the Commodore. She dropped her grip on her Shield and stepped past her, feeling the glares she was sure were being bored into her back. "I wish to help you." Lunafreya stated, her focus back on the woman lying in the bed.
"Ah, the Oracle. Never expected to see you set foot outside the manor without a leash" Aranea quipped, though her tone lacked the sharpness from earlier. "Finally got out, huh?"
"It would seem." She answered carefully, wondering if this woman would report her location back to Caligo Uldor and fear began to grip her heart, but continued to step forward. She knelt next to the bunk when Aranea put up no protest to her approach, and reached out with her hands. She hesitated, waiting for her to nod at the unasked question before placing her hands upon her cheeks and resting her forehead against hers. Blessed stars of life and light. The familiar prayer came out, her light glowing in her fingertips.
The Commodore was reminded of the nights she would return to her airship after a mission high in the mountains, the heat of the engines welcoming her home after the bitter time combating the notorious Tenebraen winters. Of drinking hot mead with other mercenaries, before taking in league with the empire when there was no other means of coin left. The pain in her body faded, quickly turning into a memory as the warmth and serenity coursed through her. She had always wondered why the people revered Lunafreya akin to a goddess, and feeling her light for herself she had a feeling she might have a better understanding.
"That's a lot better. Thanks." Aranea quirked the corner of her mouth into a half-smile, and hitched herself in the bunk, resting her back against the metal wall sighing as the pressure in her body shifted leaving patches of her skin burning as sensation returned.
"What happened?" Lunafreya inquired.
"Better yet what the hell are you doing in Lucis?"
"Gladiolus please calm down and think with your head for once." Ignis interrupted.
"I dunno, I'm with the big guy. We got the Commodore here, I think it's time we get a little payback." Crowe argued.
"It's just a fancy title, unbunch your panties." Aranea snapped. "I'm a mercenary. The Empire just happened to be the highest bidder. Looks pretty bad to hire a mercenary so they decided to call me Commodore." She rolled her eyes a bit before rolling each of her shoulders and rubbing at the collar bone that had felt fractured just minutes before. "Uh, lookin' a lil' pale there." She commented, looking to Lunafreya whose hands were resting on her knees, still next to her bunk.
"I'm all right." She answered back and stood despite a spinning sensation and tried to turn, hesitating slightly when her vision began to tunnel in on her. Noctis stepped forward, offering her a hand but she brushed past him, focusing on each of her steps until she found a flat metal bench bolted to the wall to calm her racing heart, fighting against the pleading in her lungs to start gasping for air as if she had run clean across Duscae.
"So what happened?" Noctis asked again, frowning as he watched Lunafreya crossing the small room.
"Even a Prince like you should have noticed that freak storm yesterday." She remarked. "Fried the computer in this flying deathtrap, makes it a little tricky to fly." She looked from Noctis to Lunafreya, biting back the question on her tongue.
"Who said anything about a prince?" Gladiolus asked, fingers flexing by his side shoulders rigid as he took a step forward.
"Ya think that handsome face isn't memorable? He's the walking definition of a teenage heartthrob!" Aranea answered back. "I'd recognize that hair anywhere."
"Guess that means we have a tag-a-long." Gladuolus remarked. "Not smart to leave her here knowing where Noct is."
"I'm not moving big guy." Aranea interrupted when he opened his mouth again to continue. Her eyes tracked Ignis as he began to wander throughout the compartment, hands rifling through shelves and she opened her mouth to snap at him to stop, but stopped when she realized the helpless situation she was in. "Didja forget the part where I fell out of the sky?" she settled on instead. "Your little white-mage over there fixed me up but I still feel like I was hit by a truck." She shifted uncomfortably in the bunk to prove her point, shifting her gaze back to Gladiolus when he began to tap a foot.
"We aren't leaving you here so you call the Nifs in to rain death on us."
"You think my radio works? Seriously, I thought I was the one getting over a concussion? My computer is fried." She pondered the wisdom of admitting her situation, but figured at the very least the bleeding-heart blonde who was still bent over poorly hiding the fact she was still catching her breath would protest letting this gorilla of a man lay a hand on her. "Should be more worried about her over there, make sure she doesn't have a heart attack." Everyone turned to Lunafreya, Noctis having knelt down beside her exchanging a quiet conversation, Crowe standing rigid a step away, eyes trained on Aranea.
"I'll be fine." She protested.
"Noctis, I have a drink with me. I thought it best to be prepared." Ignis pulled it out of his pocket, getting a quirked brow and a laugh from Aranea,
"Where the hell were you keeping that?"
"My pockets go deeper than one would think on this garment." She laughed again, rolling her eyes "Obligatory is-that-a-can-in-your-pocket or you-happy-to-see-me joke?" she asked. Ignis scoffed, holding the can out to Noctis who channeled his magic before giving it to Lunafreya as an ether, pushing it into her lap after her first protest. She gave in, drinking it and reassuring Noctis she was beginning to feel better.
"Hmm… what's this?" Ignis asked, interrupting the debate about whether to weld the airship door shut after removing all trace of her radio versus hog-tying her to drag her along with them to drop her off at Regis's feet. "My word… it's a map!" the group's attention shifted back to him,
"So? We have on of those in the Regalia." Noctis asked. "You wouldn't let us leave Insomnia without one even though all our phones have map-apps too."
"This one has small red markers for Imperial bases. There's one north of here." Ignis answered him, tapping at the paper. "Why would they make a base there? There's nothing of note there."
"Don't ask me," Aranea bit.
"You said you were a mercenary, thus you follow coin." Ignis supplied. "Lead us to this base. Besides, another pair of arms to help us with the daemons at night would not be a bad idea." Aranea hesitated, weighing her options. Like hell if Nifleheim was going to give her a single paycheck until she worked off the value of the airship that crashed, regardless if she had jack shit to do with it or not. But this scruffy band looked awful pathetic for a royal retinue, and she doubted they had a lot of gil either. But being handed over to any other Lucians did not sound like it weighed in her favor, knowing how little anyone outside of Niflehem cared for the Empire or those in their employ. This rag-tag team seemed a bit pathetic, and she wondered if they had a single gil to actually pay her. She just wish they would leave her in her damned downed airship. She had plenty of military rations and it was shelter, so she could survive on her own well enough but she doubted they would leave her on her own. Godsdamnit. Figure it out later. She thought to herself.
"If you got the coin, you got yourselves a dragoon."
"Consider this an audition." Noctis finally spoke up, nearly making Crowe jump after adjusting to the quiet murmurs between the royal pair. "Prove you aren't loyal to the Nifs by leading us to that base and help us burn it to the ground and we'll think about paying you. I still don't trust someone the Empire made Commodore, mercenary or not."
"I'm loyal to money, so pay up and I'm forever at your service." Aranea argued, mocking a flourishing bow, not liking this idea of being some pet under constant threat. She had enough of that with Nifleheim.
"We have the gil." Ignis interrupted. They didn't have much, but that fact would become clear to her later, though he hoped by that point they would have had the chance to accumulate more. "And as you stated the Empire will no longer be a provider of paychecks with a crashed airship on your resume.
"You really trust someone who shifts loyalties so quickly? And a Nif at that?!" Crowe asked, admonished.
"Because you guys are giving me such a choice." Aranea snarled back. "Either shoot me or don't. The suspense is killing me!" she gasped, slapping a hand to her chest and winced. "Gah… still tender. Okay note to self, don't do that again…" she murmured, rubbing at the offended spot.
"Okay so you lead us to that base, and we all get shot by MTs, you collect a bounty that I'm pretty sure is on all our heads to pay off that airship debt, and laugh over our corpses." Crowe asked. Aranea groaned, rolling her eyes.
"Not if we sneak up. And like I said they won't pay me any damn bounties until they decide I've worked off the inflated price of this damn sardine can." The dragoon argued back. She couldn't help a frown at the thought of leaving it behind. Despite her barrage of insults for it, this metallic box was her home, had been for several years. Maybe with enough coin I can fix it back up.
"I do believe we should sleep on this decision." Ignis suggested, hoping to cool tempers and get Gladiolus to stop looking like he was about to punch his way out of the ship.
"What has the empire been up to lately?"
"Because you'll listen to a word I say? Also, what the shit do I know what Verstael and Aldercapt are up to? They give me money, say go, I go."
"How about I knock that smile off your face a few times, have the Oracle heal you back up and then-"
"You will do no such thing!" Lunafreya snapped, flushing at the anger in her own voice. "Are you honestly suggesting torture? Are we no better than those we claim to hate?"
"I…" Gladiolus stammered, closing his mouth and shaking his head. "Fine. Let's sleep on this. But I'm keeping watch over this Nif, you guys get some sleep."
"You barely slept the other night." Prompto countered, and their friends finally turned to him, nearly having forgotten that he was there. "Not everyone from the empire is simply evil for being from there. I mean, Luna's been in their hands since she was twelve and look at her." He offered. "Let's all get some sleep tonight, but I think we should give her a chance." Gladiolus took a slow deep breath, trying to find the wisdom in the words. He wanted to point out that Lunafreya was a victim of the Empire as much as she was their citizen, and that this dragoon still had done nothing but prove how fragile her one loyalty was just as likely to be a participant in the raids on Lucis as the other soldiers of the Empire. Moreso, given her title. False or not.
"Fine." Gladiolus looked around the cabin of the airship, deciding the two remaining bunks were too small for. He was damned tired from the minimal sleep the previous night and removed his jacket, rolling it into a ball to use as a makeshift pillow and settled himself against a wall for a poor bit of sleep. Ignis rolled his eyes at the sight, asking Crowe to join him in gathering their sleeping bags for the evening, and something to entertain themselves with until night settled. The Shield hesitated, but Noctis and Prompto promised to keep her charge safe, Gladiolus reminding them I'm a Shield too. I won't get them killed in the next half-hour.
Aranea stood and found her legs bearing her weight, joints aching but not refusing to support her as they had immediately after the crash. The accident has left her crawling with only one functional arm across the metal floor of her airship to get to the bunk, screaming loud enough she was surprised she hadn't been heard all the way to the nearest base. With her dehydrated ration packets tucked in a different compartment on the ship, she had subsided on the bars she had stored in the small storage locker bolted to the wall next to the bunk. They tasted foul, but it meant minimal movement. Going to the bathroom had proved to be such an excruciating endeavor more than once she had debated simply soiling herself. "Ugh… if I never see another cloud again." She complained as she stretched, joints popping and protesting her prolonged time in bed. Her legs burned with pins and needles as blood rushed to them, and she almost thought she was about to faint.
"You seem to be moving with less tension." Aranea nearly yelped when she heard the Oracle's voice, the woman flinching at the dragoon's jerky movements as she turned to her,
"Holy shit you startled me. Didn't know anyone else was awake!" she tried to whisper. Prompto had eventually drifted off to sleep, and Aranea had debated using the opportunity to run off but the airship's floor creaked and groaned notoriously due to a rushed manufacturing, and she didn't want to imagine what the big guy would want to do to her if he caught her trying to sneak away.
"Apologies." Lunafreya answered. She shifted herself up, moving Noctis's arm away from her waist with a deep flush and tried not to give any focus to her racing heart and the temptation to gasp for breath with the sudden tightness in her chest.
"It's fine. And uh, yeah. I feel less fell-outta-the-sky today." She answered her. She did indeed feel quite a bit better after a night of rest and the Oracle's light, but a deep ache and a layer of fatigue remained, but she still felt as if her grievous injuries happened weeks ago, not days. "Thanks again." She gave her a small grin and a thumbs-up gesture, Lunafreya nodding at her. "You can go back to sleep. I won't go anywhere. Big guy will probably sniff me out like a blood hound if I try." She suggested, but the young woman shook her head.
"I've always been an early riser." She responded. She was quite surprised that Gladiolus was still asleep with the early hour he had decided to attempt to sleep the previous evening, wondering how long he had spent staring at the wall before sleep took him. Noctis groaned a bit from beside her, reaching out with a palm and Lunafreya grabbed a pillow to give him a surrogate figure to cuddle, the Prince drawing it in and mumbling a bit before settle back into a deep sleep. She reached beside her for the book Ignis had fetched from Gladiolus's bag for her, insisting the man wouldn't mind. Her thumb ran along the broken spine of the book before finding the page she was on to resume reading in the quiet early morning hours.
"Well I've been stuck in this thing for away too long. I'm gonna go sit on the ramp, don't go raising the alarm pretty sure you can see me from there." She waved at Lunafreya as she walked past her, the metal groaning beneath her steps as she made little attempt to maintain the silence for the sake of the sleeping others. She sat down on the ramp, and was glad for it. She enjoyed the smell of the air versus the smell of metal, burnt electronics, and terrible military ration bars that filled her airship. The breeze, despite the threat of heat behind it, felt wonderful. She couldn't help but smirk when she heard the groans from the others as they woke up, and almost wished she had stomped her way off the airship for good measure.
"Ugh… what… where the hell is she?!" Gladiolus's voice boomed, echoing in the metal room. The sound was enough to rouse Noctis from his groggy sleep, the Prince moaning and shifting uncomfortably while Lunafreya explained she had merely decided to sit on the ramp.
"Was the yelling necessary Gladio?" Prompto complained.
"Sorry." He answered, walking across the small room to assess for himself that the dragoon was indeed simply sitting on the ramp. "Man, I'm starving." He shifted subjects, realizing they all had skipped dinner before settling in. "Ignis you find food when digging around." Aranea grumbled under her breath at the thought of them rifling through her things again, holding a middle finger into the air as her only form of protest.
"I was not in search of food," the advisor mumbled, pressing his fist to his mouth to yawn. He thought about suggesting they simply eat the food he had gathered the Regalia, but couldn't argue the logic of eating readily available food and saving their own supplies. Perhaps they could pack up any rations they could fit into their bags to further stretch their supplies and have such easy meals on hand. Dehydrated food was typically a food he would sneer at, especially Gladiolus's lifelong favorite cup-noodle. He sighed, getting himself to his feet and glancing around the room wondering where Aranea would have hidden her food before asking Prompto to help him look around. After a few minutes of searching they found the dehydrated military rations and gallon jugs of water.
"Man, you sure were stashed up." Prompto remarked, realizing how many meals were stashed away in one of the lockers. Aranea shrugged, keeping her comments to herself. She enjoyed longer missions, it meant more time spent away from Nifleheim and keeping her airship well-stocked allowed her to keep away for longer without having to return to resupply or spend her precious gil. She could get five ration-meals for the price of a single meal, even if she were to prepare it herself. They also found her bunkside supply of ration bars; her maps of Lucis, Tenebrae, and Accordio; her toolkits, first-aid supplies, and a small collection of think blankets. "Wow, we should look for more airships!"
"This was indeed a fruitful endeavor."
"As long as this Nif doesn't go running back to her master to yap about Noctis." Gladiolus answered.
"Ugh… how do you guys have so much energy in the morning?" Noctis whined.
"Well good morning sleepy." Lunafreya smiled, reaching out to pat Noctis hand. He flickered his eyes up to her, returning her smile and finding the energy to hitch himself up. "You sleep well?"
"Good as always… what's that?" he asked, noticing the piles of supplies in the center of the room. Ignis reviewed their inventory, Ignis explaining things quickly. He managed to get the airship's small stove working, glad the crash hadn't destroyed the small fuel tank beneath it and served a meal to each in their party, including the injured dragoon.
"Here." Gladiolus grunted, dropping the duffle bag stuffed with the dehydrated meals and bars into Aranea's arms. The woman grunted, wincing at the newly awakened pain in her collar bone, hitching the bag over the other shoulder to ease the burden.
"Thanks." She quipped with a grunt. Gladiolus turned, picking up his own bag announcing he was heading back to the Regalia. Noctis insisted on carrying Lunafeya's bag, but she insisted she could manage her own sleep roll and sleeping bag, Crowe carrying two of Aranea's water jugs the trio following Prompto who had jogged to catch up to Gladiolus, the two of them talking over how terrible the movie adaptation of Gladiolus's favorite childhood book was simply terrible, and how they were going to make Noctis issue a royal decree once the world was saved for the movie to be remade.
"I apologize for our brutish friend." Ignis stated. "Quite rude to treat a new member of our party as such." He spoke in a soft monotone, throwing his bag over his shoulder, and reaching out to take the bag back from her,
"I don't need a pity party." She answered back. She dropped the bag onto her bunk, opening the one locker the retinue hadn't broken into to sling her spear over her back, "Oh get that look off your face I'm not going to kill you." She stated when she saw Ignis take a step back, quirking a brow at her. She hitched the small sword against the wall onto her belt and picked the heavy bag back up. walking past him to following the others before Gladiolus had more threats for her for falling too far behind. Ignis sighed, shaking his head and tucking his own sleep equipment under an arm and pulling up rear for the walk to the car.
"Where next?" Ignis asked. Aranea looked down at her map, telling him to take his next left to continue travelling north.
"We almost there? My legs are numb." Gladiolus complained from the back seat.
"It's no picnic for us either." Noctis answered him. Aranea was put into the passenger seat to direct Ignis, forcing Gladiolus to sit in the back, Lunafreya pressed against Noctis with how much room the larger man took up, Noctis leaning his weight against the car's door to try and give her a bit more room. They both felt too uncomfortable to enjoy the close contact, punctuated with Gladiolus's constant complaints.
"You sound like a child, Gladio."
"Says the guy with all the leg room."
"The best place to park the car is about ten minutes away." Aranea answered, sick of hearing the damn question. Her nerves were on edge to begin with. It ended the debate about who was most uncomfortable before it could start, the car falling back into an awkward silence save for Lunafreya quietly humming along to a song on the radio. Crowe followed as usual on her motorcycle, Prompto riding behind her trying to find the right balance between holding onto her, and giving her adequate space. The loud vehicle was the reason the group would have to park even farther from the base than they originally intended.
"Finally here." Ignis declared, Gladiolus stepping out of the car before Ignis could finish putting it into park, ignoring his shout of wait until I take my foot off the break! Crowe pulled up beside them, giving Prompto a moment to clumsily dismount, stumbling and nearly losing his footing due to the bike's height.
"Man, my feet feel all numb from the vibrations." He stated, pacing around in a couple circles to get normal sensation back.
"Not the most awkward thing it can do." Crowe answered, ignoring the deep red coating Prompto's cheek and walked up to Lunafreya, "Hey, how'd you survive the drive? Anyone kill each other?" The tension when they had left had been so thick Crowe had joked you could cut it with a knife.
"They did all manage not to pull their weapons out in the car." Lunafreya answered. "Though perhaps if they cannot settle tempers I may decide to ride with you." She joked, wondering how long she could manage on the back of the motorcycle before causing them to crash. "So, we all ready to kick some Nif ass?" she asked much louder, garnering the attention of the group.
"Indeed we are." Ignis replied. "Shall we discuss some logistics before we storm in?"
"Here," Aranea pulled out one of her maps. This one a rudimentary layout of a military base, explaining that Nifleheim and their love of standards left most of their bases nearly identical and that they could easily use this layout as a guideline to come up with a game plan. With a group of only seven of them they found that stealth would be their best option.
"So is there like, some master computer we blow up and all the MTs just shut off?" Prompto asked, getting a scoff from Aranea.
"You watch too many bad sci-fi movies. No, Nifleheim isn't that damn incompetent. We want to take out pretty much everything to cut off their communication with Gralea. We still need to stomp every MT in the face."
"As for the soldiers?" Lunafreya asked, earning her a quirked brow from the dragoon.
"You're the last person I would ever expect to want to show a Nifleheimer soldier mercy." She replied, letting out a short huh. She flushed at this answer, but provided no further explanation to her query. "I doubt the empire would waste human soldiers on a base like this, they would just fill it with their MTs and drop off a general if they wanted them to do anything." She provided. They settled into splitting into teams, one to sabotage the electronics and communications of the base, the others to try and take down the MTs once communications fell to keep them from calling in reinforcements. The sabotage team was comprised of Crowe, Lunafreya, and Ignis. Noctis was a final addition to the team when he suggested that they needed another arm to keep things even in the event they ran into trouble. Lunafreya mouthed a thank you to him once they agreed with him, the Prince giving her a small smile before they both returned to listening to the plan in detail.
"The rest of us on team bazooka!" Prompto cheered.
"Bazooka? Gladiolus asked.
"Cause we're about to go blow everything up, like a bazooka." Prompto answered defensively.
"I do think blowing everything up may be a bit ham-fisted for what we are attempting." Ignis answered back, Prompto sighing and shaking his head mumbling that it was a metaphor, and he didn't literally mean to go blow everything up.
"Okay, I got you guys this far. You have my damn maps, you know where the base is, you know how to get in, I think it's time I fuck off and get something real to eat." Aranea suggested.
"Oh hell no. You want to prove you're in our employ now you're tagging up with…" Crowe hesitated, rolling her eyes before finishing with team Bazooka.
"I'm not gonna go run my mouth about the Prince. Far too pretty to go get a face like that shot." Aranea answered, but her words reassured no one and she sighed, accepting the fact she would have to join them. Though, she had to admit to herself that she wouldn't mind running her spear through a few of those freaky MTs herself. The jerky movements of the older models never sat right with her, and the near humanity of the later models was almost worse. "So are we going in there like idiots in broad daylight, or applying a little bit of brain power?" she asked.
"Waiting until nightfall is most prudent, though we may need to contend with daemons." Ignis answered, Prompto standing a bit straighter, Crowe massaging some of the remaining scar tissue on the back of her arm sneering a bit,
"Revenge against MTs and some cathartic daemon-slaying? Sign me the hell up."
"If we have to wait until night to do this, why don't we go find deadeye? For the chocobos!" Prompto suggested.
"A bit exhausting to take down a behemoth and an Imperial base in one day don't'cha think?" He sighed, admitting that Gladiolus had a point, and couldn't argue with finding a sanctuary to set up camp and just spend the day relaxing until sunset to start making their approach on the base so they would have fewer daemons to fight their way though until dark finally settled.
"But after this?" He asked in a pleading tone.
"We do owe Wiz." Noctis answered.
"For the chocobos!"
They had followed Aranea's lead to a rocky outcrop approximately three hundred meters way from the rear of the base. They had left their haven at the first signs of sunset to avoid travelling the distance at full nightfall, and were awaiting the cover of darkness to infiltrate the base, hoping the lights from the base would keep a daemon-free perimeter. They split into their two groups, standing a meter apart Ignis reviewing the plan with his group, Gladiolus with his own.
"So what do we do about those two guarding the entrance?" Gladiolus asked, pointing towards the small doorway that allowed soldiers to enter and leave, Prompto complaining that he wished gun silencers lived up to their moniker.
"I can warp up and get both of them quickly, warp back, and take it from there." Noctis suggested, curling his lip at the thought of how easily that could go horribly wrong. His eyes flicked up to the guard tower at the corner of the fencing, wondering if they would be able to spot him in his warp. "As long as no one up there can see me," he added, pointing to the structure. His shoulders felt sore from how stiff he was holding himself, hand flexing at his side preparing to call forth his Engine Blade.
"Here's hoping." Prompto added, pulling his guns from his holsters.
"Anyone have a better idea?" Noctis asked. When he was met with silence he took a deep breath, turning back towards the gate. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and jolted, turning quickly and looked at Lunafreya,
"Be careful." She asked. "If something goes wrong I don't know if I can cast a shield from this far away." He nodded to her, smiling and trying to get himself to calm down from the startle. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before his sword appeared in a flash of blue light. He stood up, throwing his sword and vanished in a blue blur.
Noctis had aimed his sword at the chest of the first guard, feeling the grinding of metal on metal as he landed on target, the air filled with the smell of oil. He looked up at the sound of clunking and warped again to free himself from the mess of machinery his sword was buried in, silencing the second MagiTek. He only took a moment to assure himself both machines were rendered useless before turning to warp back to his friends. He landed back behind the rocky formations, and fell to his hands and knees, his head spinning from the rapid sequence of warps.
"Noct!" Lunafreya gasped, but he was quick to hold up his palm,
"I'm fine." He swallowed hard to try and suppress the urge to vomit, squinting to will away the spinning in his head and the bitterness in the back of his throat. After a moment it began to fade away, and he repeated his reassurances before standing back up, rubbing roughly at his face. "Ugh I need more practice at that…" he admitted, hoping to cut off Gladiolus before he could insist on the same.
"Well you still did it." His Shield approved, clapping him hard on the back. Aranea hissed a shush reminding them just because those two guards were taken out, they still weren't in the clear. Gladiolus didn't approve of the idea of letting his friends go on ahead to try and shut down the computers before they followed to take out the base without risk of a signal being sent, he had yet to come up with a better plan. "Okay don't get yourselves killed."
"I'll text you for a mission complete, and chuck a fire grenade at the air for trouble." Noctis answered, though they had already reviewed every detail of the plan they had managed to stitch together multiple times since coming up with this mad quest. Ignis pulled out Aranea's basic blueprint, trying to check it for some common structure to start as a guide to gain his bearings, and with the rest of the team in tow made his way up to the gate.
Noctis followed closely behind Ignis, Lunafreya at his side with Crowe just behind them. Ignis had tucked the map away, holding up a palm to get everyone to stop while he surveyed the area just inside the base. Lights were scattered about haphazardly leaving large swaths of darkness that made him feel more optimistic about their chances of success. After a few moments of looking around Ignis turned to the other three, tilting his head to his left before walking in that direction, hugging the chain-link fence until they reached a grey brick building, side stepping and pressing up against it. The stone smelled like stale water, and felt uncomfortably damp against them, Noctis curling his lip as he wondered where the water came from. He turned his head, tilting away so he wouldn't have to touch his ear to the wet surface. He could vaguely hear voices and grinding, the sound muffled and distorted. All the crouching was beginning to aggravate the scar in his back, his left leg beginning to prickle with electric discomfort. He glanced at Lunafreya and saw a hand pressed against her side, bringing a frown to his lips but he bit down on his lip to keep from asking her obvious questions. Gods I feel old, we've only crouched about a hundred meters and I feel like I'm about to collapse!
Ignis held up a finger, trying his best to peer into the window of the building and quickly jerked back. Lunafreya caught his eye and mouthed What? Ignis pointed at the window and held up three fingers, holding his palm parallel to the ground and bouncing his hand. Noctis could have sworn he was hyperventilating, his own breathing echoing in his ear and his chest burned begging him to take deeper breaths as he tried to remain silent. Ignis moved from the corner of his vision, crouching below the sill of the window and eased his way along the building, waving at the others to come toward him. Lunafreya was standing close enough to Noctis for their arms to touch, and he could feel her tremor. He wanted to reach out for her and grip her hand, but Ignis was already moving away from them and he didn't want to be separated any further than necessary. Crowe was watching Lunafreya as well, glancing up to Noctis who nodded at her, tilting his head towards Ignis and moving to rejoin the advisor. He stepped close to his friend, leaning against him and whispered at his ear,
"Where are we going?" Ignis curled his lip at Noctis, holding his finger over his lips and then pointed at a building with a satellite dish atop it, the only thing distinguishing it from the scattering of grey stone. Wires ran from the dish to a nearby tower with scattered red lights along it. Noctis turned his head sharply when he heard the sound of footsteps, breath catching as he tried to focus on the footsteps over the throbbing in his ears. A row of soldiers were heading in their direction from a path east of them, walking in pairs led by a man with less stiff movements than the others. Noctis cursed under his breath, jerking Ignis towards him by his collar and pointing to the soldiers who would see them if they didn't move.
Ignis looked around them trying to find a place to move to and avoid detection. They were obscured in the shadow of the building cast by the lights on the nearby tower, but stepping too far in any direction would bring them into the external lights of the building they were pressed against. The advisor cursed under his breath, trying to formulate a plan. He saw the soldier leading the others hold up a fist, the ones behind him halting almost in unison.
"Soldier! Get your ass over here!" he bellowed.
"Jigs up." Noctis hissed to his friend.
"Whelp, no more use pretending." Crowe echoed louder, and called fire in her fist launching it in the direction of the man who had called out, his curse shifting into a shriek as he threw himself to the ground to extinguish the flames that had ignited on his clothing. Noctis called one of his newly harvested fire grenades,
"Crowe blow this thing up in the air!" he shouted, tossing the vial up and the woman detonated it with flames of her own. The loud cracks of gunshots was almost obscured by the grenade's blast, knocking Noctis and his friend's off their feet as a hot blast of air hit them, the pause in gunfire giving them the moment they needed to get behind cover.
"How the hell do we fight a dozen machines with guns?!" Noctis complained.
"I have an idea." Lunafreya spoke up, her voice deeper than her usual. "I'll put up a shield, you and Crowe hide behind it and throw your fire at them."
"We need to-" Ignis's voice was cut off by burst of gunshots, and they scrambled away from the edge of the building, the sound of approaching footsteps forcing them to turn the corner. Noctis muttered more curses and looked around for signs of their friends. Lunafreya was pressed close to him, and he could hear her rapid breathing from just behind him, feeling the tremor in her limbs and cursing that he couldn't do anything to calm her. "Noctis, before they send out a message, warp up to that roof and sever those lines, and take out that tower for good measure!" Ignis's voice snapped his focus, the Prince looking up to the aforementioned building and wondering how to warp up there without getting killed.
"You kidding me?! While they're shooting at me?"
"What if you warp up to that tower, take out any guard inside and then warp to the roof from up there. They may be too focused on us." Crowe suggested. Another barking gun from behind them caused them all to dive into the dirt,
"Sorry guys!" Prompto called. Noctis looked up, almost laughing when he saw Prompto, Gladiolus, and Aranea running towards them.
"Dude are we happy to see you!" Noctis called over, getting back to his feet, reaching out to help Lunafreya stand back up, Crowe doing the same for Ignis. Lunafreya looked around for the soldiers, wondering which side of the building they would come around and cast a dome-shield up around them until they could locate the MTs. She watched with wide eyes as Noctis argued the safety of warping to the roof to take out the wires, wanting to put in her voice against the idea but knowing the necessity of cutting of this bases's communication with either other bases, or even Gralea. The debate didn't last long, Lunafreya eventually shouting that her shield couldn't last much longer, Noctis cursing and vanishing into the guard tower in a blur of light.
A loud klaxon silenced any attempt at conversation, the retinue covering their ears, Lunafreya gasping as her shield flickered with her momentary distraction, sand kicking up beside her feet as a stray bullet found its way through and she managed to put it back up with a startled shout, eyes wide and chest heaving. Her pulse throbbed in her ears, and she looked up for the blue blur of Noctis warping, attention forced back to her shield by Gladiolus's pained shout. A stray bullet had forced its way through her weakening shield, the magic managing to slow it enough to minimize the damage.
"I'll heal you!" She promised, voice trembling.
"I don't think it even broke the skin… Still hurts like a bitch!" He groaned, getting back to his feet. "Keep this shield up, you're savin' our asses!" Lunafreya nodded at him, her attention shifting to Prompto who was poking outside her shield to fire a shot and jerk back inside, dancing on his feet. Crowe had summoned more fire in her hands,
"Luna, what d'ya say we do a repeat of what we did with the daemon?" she called.
"I don't know if I can do that with a shield that large." She admitted, feeling her light fading.
"Pretty low on options!" A blue blur from the corner of her eye caught her attention for a bare moment, and she turned back to her Shield, nodding.
"Okay… let's try." She wished Noctis were still with them to add his fire grenades to the mix, taking in a deep breath and trying to let it out slowly, feeling it shutter against her lips. Her throat was tight, her mouth dry, fingertip pulsing as she focused on this magic.
"Prompto cover us!" Crowe insisted. Lunafreya tried not to worry, but the fear of what could happen to Prompto during the several seconds they would need to cast this attack wouldn't leave her mind. Crowe threw her fire, Lunafreya casting a large dome once it was over the soldiers, contracting it to trap the flames. Even above the klaxon they could hear the anguished screams of the man leading the machines, high-pitched grinding echoing him. Lunafreya's own shout joined the carcophany of sound, fingers curling in as pain threatened to shatter her focus. Tears burned her eyes, and she fell to her hands and knees, exhausted, when an explosion shattered the dish atop the building, wires sparking as they slid away from the roof, the red lights from the tower flickering out. She felt something heavy atop her, grunting as the air was forced to her lungs. She heard things impacting the ground, but only one gun barked in the sudden silence as the kaxons were rendered silent.
"You okay?" Crowe asked, the pressure on Lunafreya's back was relieved and she rolled over, looking up and realizing it was her Shield who had pinned her to the ground as debris from Noctis's sabotage rained around them.
"Did it work?" she countered. Crowe looked over, and nodded. The machines were jerking and twitching in chaotic motions, others lying in useless heaps on the ground. The man leading the troop of machines was curled on his side, gasping and groaning in pain.
"I… I should help him." Lunafreya whispered in an empty suggestion. She stared at the man, writing on the ground. She squinted, her ribs giving a phantom throb as she remembered a gauntlet impacting her side. Quite a lovely thing. A voice echoed in her own memories, stroking her arms. She squinted them away, balling her fists.
"Fuck that." Crowe answered back, curling her lip. "I should light him on fire again."
"No." She answered, and opened her hands, looking at her palms. The skin was deep red, and peeling in places.
"Luna!" A blur of blue and Noctis was beside her, kneeling down. He reached out for her wrists, keeping his hands open and palms up in a gesture asking her for permission to touch. She met his eyes, biting down on her lip and placed the backs of her hands against his palms, "There's still MTs left." She stated, hoping to turn his focus away from her burns.
"They got that." Noctis answered, nodding over to where Prompto, Gladiolus, and Aranea had gone to finish off the MTs now that they seemed to have given up on their guns. She followed his gesture, watching the efficient takedowns and bit her lip when they all circled around the man curled on the ground. Prompto reached out, his arm trembling slightly as his gun pointed down at his head,
"No!" She shouted. Noctis flinched at her shout, turning his head quickly. His finger was pressed to the side of the gun, and lowered his arm to turn his attention back to something Aranea had said. "We are better than them!" she tried to offer. She knew if this man could stand he was no better than the others in Tenebrae. She reached a hand over her chest, palm ghosting her side the tenderness in the skin preventing her from hugging her ribs. She remembered sore nights from twisted wrists, pulled hair, bruises to her abdomen and back. Scars from times they would get even more aggressive. She squinted, trying to push away the memories.
"Okay so anyone else concerned about why the hell this was it?" Gladiolus asked, looking around. They had made a great deal of noise during the battle, yet there were no soldiers firing from the guard towers, no one exiting the nearby buildings, no airships taking to the skies. "What gives?"
"Yeah kinda odd…" Prompto agreed. Aranea was looking around, spear still in hand as she looked for the next wave.
"They always have more MTs than this." She commented. "Come on." She suggested, walking to the building that had been Ignis's original destination. "We should check out their computers make sure they didn't manage an S.O.S." she suggested.
"What about this dude?" Prompto asked, pointing to the soldier who was still lying on the ground groaning. With her adrenaline beginning to settle Lunafreya was able to take in more detail when she looked to the only human they had fought. His uniform was burned throughout, in places revealing deep red or blackened skin. He was lying on his side panting, the occasional groan punctuating his wet wheezing breaths. His limbs were trembling, fingers curled into fists and pulled close to his body. She squinted away the images of bodies from the daemon-sacked city.
"I should heal him." Lunafreya repeated her earlier suggestion. Aranea scoffed, waving her hand dismissively.
"Fuck him! He tried to kill us." Gladiolus grumbled. not liking the idea of her leading the crew, jogging to catch up to her to match pace, the others walking after her. Lunafreya hung back slightly, Noctis at her side.
"To view it from a tactical angle, a man capable of speech is of more use to us in providing information than one in this state." Ignis suggested, getting a small weary smile from Lunafreya. She approached the man, looking down at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but his first attempt at words faded into a whimper and a wet cough that caused him to gag. She placed her fingertips on either side of his face, her own expressionless as she gazed at his agonized features, whispering her prayer and pouring her light into him. Black skin faded to red, then pink. Pained groans silenced into desperate panting breaths. He uncurled his fingers, chest hitching as he gasped for air, wiping the foaming drool from the corner of his mouth.
"The Lady Lunafreya." she withdrew her hands and stood, darting her eyes away from him. "Th-thank you."
"We should assess this base for evidence of a signal, as you suggested." She directed to Aranea.
"Get up," Aranea ordered when she walked up to the soldier, reaching down and jerked him to his feet.
"Commodore Highwind?! You're… this is treason! I'll see you before the firing squad!" he snarled.
"The Oracle just healed your ass after her Shield turned you into bacon and you're outnumbered six-to-one. Care to threaten me again?" she asked, quirking a brow. He curled his lip, scowling.
"Why are you with these people?" he asked.
"They're a paycheck." She answered. "Big guy, put those muscles to use." She suggested to Gladiolus, who gave her a middle finger before grabbing the soldier by the back of his uniform. Lunafreya flinched when the soldier cursed, watching him closely as he started to walk when Gladiolus pushed him forward. "I left my keycard on my airship, care to help a girl?" Aranea asked after patting at the pockets in the uniform.
"Fuck you." He spat. Lunafreya swallowed hard when she could taste bile in the back of her throat at the though that she should have only partially healed him, and let him walk with the agony of his burns but with the functionality of his lungs. She felt Noctis reach out for her, and she curled her fingers to keep him from gripping her burned palms, but made no motion to shake him off when he wrapped an arm around her waist instead.
"Ugh, fine." Aranea rolled her eyes, Lunafreya struggling to control her breathing. Her eyes felt sore and she blinked several times to ease the burning, keeping a distance between herself and the Nifleheimers. "Hold his arms, please." Gladiolus was happy to grip the wrists of the soldier, twisting his arms so any sudden movements were as likely to dislocate his own shoulders as they would be to free him from the Shield's grip. With the man restrained the dragoon was able to reach into the front of his shirt and pull out an identification card with a magnetic strip, swiping it through the keypad to the right of the door giving a whoop of victory when the light turned green. She reached for the door handle and pushed the door open stepping inside. She looked around, and felt her pulse throb in her ears.
"What… what the fuck is this?" she whispered, turning sharply to the soldier, "What the fuck is this?!"
Admittedly writing Aranea is very difficult at this point in the story. She's in quite a difficult position so writing her behavior to reflect that is a challenge and I hope you find me successful.
