When Luna is twelve years old, Noct is taken out of Insomnia for an outing by the ocean, and she spends the day by the shore, and in the evening, she watches in fascination as the fireflies come alive.
It isn't until they're heading back home that the daemon attacks. It's the most terrifying thing Luna has ever seen or felt. She lays under the dead body of a servant, the pain of a sword wound stinging, and she looks at the daemon helplessly as it raises its blade to deal the final blow.
It never comes.
Instead, her father is here, along with more Crownsguard reinforcements, and it's the first time she sees her father fight with the Armiger. In an awesome and terrifying feat of strength, he forces the Marilith to tumble down a cliff.
When it is all done and over and Luna-as-Noct's vision is fading, her hand is clasped by her father's, and she can only see him in the backdrop of flames, calling "Noctis, Noctis!" over and over again, until she sees no more.
"Lunafreya! Lunafreya!" Her mother calls her urgently and gently shakes her. "Lunafreya, are you alright? You're shaking!"
"... Mother?" Luna asks, feeling dazed. "I'm… I'm very scared…"
"Oh, Lunafreya," Her mother murmurs, and draws her in close. "Whatever is the matter? Everything is alright now, darling. Everything is alright."
But it's not alright, Luna wants to say. I think I might have died. But she can't say it, because her mother can't know, because how can she know if even her father doesn't. So instead, her forehead scrunches up, and she starts bawling, louder than she's ever cried in her life.
Her mother hugs her, and it makes her feel a little better, but it's not fine, she thinks. It's not fine because Noct might be dead, and she might not ever see Ignis or her father or the Citadel again.
She only knows she is not dead when Noct's eyes open again, and she is in a world of dreams and cannot get out. She meets Carbuncle and slowly, with its help, she journeys her way through the dream. Luna herself is silent and withdrawn to the point of anxiousness in Tenebrae, rarely eating and practically monosyllabic, absolutely terrified that she will never make her way through the dreamworld and wake as Noct again.
(But she does, with the strength her father lends her, and when Noct awakes, it is in a warm bed and the relieved but proud face of her father over her.)
Then one day, her mother announces that they will be expecting visitors within the next month. "The Crown Prince and King of Lucis will be gracing us with their presence," She says. "Be prepared to greet them and act as gracious hosts."
"What are they coming here for?" Ravus asks, curious, while Luna sits still with her eyes wide.
"The Crown Prince has suffered a grievous wound from a daemon attack," Her mother answers serenely. "He has come here to recuperate."
Noct is no longer in critical condition, but he is temporarily paralyzed from neck down. "Mother… will I… will Prince Noctis be able to walk again?" Luna asks hesitantly, stumbling over her words. "Will you be able to help m— him?"
Her mother watches her intently, and her gaze is so piercing that Luna looks away, towards the wooden floorboards below. Too late, she realizes that she couldn't have known that Noct could not walk. But her mother ignores her mishap and simply tells her, "I make no promises, Lunafreya, but I will do everything in my ability to ensure his full recovery."
Despite her mother's apparent uncertainty, it eases Luna's worries. Her mother never fails at anything.
Then there is a day where she wakes and she sees her bedroom, like she often does, but she also sees the familiar architecture and landscape of Tenebrae through another, and she realizes that they are here, here at her home, and Luna-as-Noct sits up as best she can.
Her mother welcomes her father and as they exchange meaningless pleasantries, while Luna looks at her mother with wide eyes — the wrong set of eyes, she thinks, and it is almost surprising that her mother looks the same as she always does, fair-haired and elegant.
Her mother catches her watching though, and she says to her, "Young Prince Noctis, it is good to finally meet you in person."
Luna can only stare in bemusement, because her mother is talking to her, but she isn't in the right body, what does she say, until her father nudges her and gently reprimands her, "Noctis, manners."
"I-it's nice to meet you too, Queen Sylva," She manages to stammer out, and her mother gives her a patient smile.
"King Regis, why not take your son to meet my daughter, Lunafreya?" She says to her father. "I'm sure they will get along nicely."
And so he does, and Luna receives word from a servant that the King and Crown Prince of Lucis are here to see her.
They greet each other almost in a daze, and her father leaves Luna alone with… herself.
Luna looks at Noct, and Noct looks at Luna. Experimentally, Luna raises her hand, and even though she knows that Noct is right in front of her, that she is right in front of herself, it seems almost an illusion that all of her is here, in one place, almost together but not quite.
As Noct, she sees herself raise a hand. She makes Noct try to raise a hand as well, and she remembers too late that Noct is paralyzed from neck down. He can't move his arms.
But I'm really here, Luna thinks, and steps closer to Noct. All of me is here.
"Hello," She says. "I'm Luna."
"... Hi," He says. "I'm Noct."
Because Luna has been thinking, thinking, she's never stopped thinking really, the machinery of her brain whirring, about Noct, about herself, and she thinks, maybe, maybe Luna isn't Noct.
And it's strange to think of, Luna realizes, because she and Noct are the same person, aren't they? Yet they are so different, with different responsibilities, different expectations set upon them, different lives. And for the first time she looks at Noct, Noct who cannot move his body beyond speaking and turning his head, and she really looks, looks at him through a body of a young girl who is on the cusp of growing up, looks at her from the body of a young boy who still just a child, and Noct realizes that even though he is Luna, he also isn't.
Luna is person, and she's standing right there, with shoulder length hair and a simple white dress, right there in front of him. She's not Noct, she can't be Noct, because Noct is sitting in a wheelchair with the wrong hair and wrong attire.
He's Noct, and he's not allowed to wear a dress like Luna. He was attacked by a daemon and he's injured, while Luna has to be proper and her manners have to be impeccable because she's going to be the next Oracle, and she can't roughhouse around with Ravus anymore because it's improper for girls to do so.
He's Noct, and she's Luna, and they are the same but not the same.
"Oh," Luna says quietly, and the revelation makes her exhale and her shoulders slump.
"Oh," Noct repeats, and he somehow manages to make himself look even smaller in his wheelchair.
And it's not necessarily a bad thing, just… different, and different always means change, and change is always scary.
Luna takes Noct's hand, and they are silent for a long while.
And for a long time, it remains so — Luna and Noct with mother and father and Ravus in Tenebrae, together, and Noct slowly gets better and better and before long he is learning to walk again, one stumbling step at a time. Luna laughs and plays with Ravus and Noct, and her mother and his father watch them all with amused, yet fond gazes.
Of course, it all ends the day the Empire attacks.
And all of a sudden, Luna's mother is dead, and Ravus crying, shouting "Mother! Mother! King Regis, please, help my mother!" and Noct is being carried away in his father's arms, and Luna is running close behind, hand clasping father's, away from the magitek troops, away from Tenebrae, away from Ravus and the collapsed form of her mother.
And Noct is terrified, and buried himself into his father's chest because he does not want to see it, and Luna is shaking and it takes all her strength to turn back and look at her home being burnt down, her mother (surely she's not actually dead, a voice offers) and her brother surrounded on all sides, and she thinks,
And she thinks, I can't leave.
Because she will be leaving, won't she? Noct will go with father, and she is Noct, and she will be safe and she will be alright if Noct is alright, he will be the one that will always be protected by father, he promised already, so many years ago, that he would always protect him and he hasn't failed yet, so Noct will be alright.
Because Luna is going to be the next Oracle, and she is the Princess of Tenebrae and she will not and cannot leave her land and her people behind to go flee to another kingdom that is not her own (even though it is, even though she's lived in Lucis all her life), she has a duty and a task to fulfill and it would be incredibly selfish of her not to do so.
And so she thinks, I can't leave, and with a strength of will she doesn't know she has, she lets go of her father's — of King Regis' hand, and when he turns back to look at her in surprise and sorrow, he has no choice but to leave her behind because he also has a duty to fulfill — to return to his people, to protect his son.
I love you, Luna thinks, but once again, her father cannot hear the words. So much is happening, and the magitek troops have caught up to her, and she wants to cry, but she mustn't show weakness to the enemy, so Noct is the one who grasps his father and bawls, for his dead mother and fallen country and Luna, and his father holds him, but not her.
And Tenebrae falls.
(When it is all over and done, Gentiana appears. "She leaves them in your care," She says, in her soft, accented voice, and is gone before Luna has time to look up. Where she stood lays Pryna and Umbra, the faithful messenger dogs her mother owned.
They're Luna's now.)