Chapter Four

...

Ardyn couldn't sleep.

He tossed and turned under the covers like a madman, his legs decidedly too long for his body to entirely fit upon the small size of his bed. He already has shed most of his royal garments before sleep and he still felt stifling hot all over. In addition to all that, he couldn't get Noctis out of his mind. The events of the hours before were constantly looping before his closed eyes and the whole rigmarole didn't seem to stop anytime soon. It didn't matter how hard he tried to fall asleep, the insane amount of joy and excitement Ardyn felt inside wouldn't let his body embrace some much needed rest. And so he simply decided to surrender to his mind's whims, turning around one more time, this once not hesitating on watching the object of his affection sleeping peacefully next to his own bed.

What was it about Noctis that made Ardyn act, think and feel so uncharacteristically different?

The younger man suddenly appeared into his life with a big bang, taking his breath away with the enigma of those unmistakable powers of Lucis while single-handedly saving all of their lives with grace and skill. Noctis then continued to surprise Ardyn, not only with that strange connection they have briefly shared in the beginning, but also with the man's agreement of staying and helping his cause. Why? Ardyn felt mystified. Why would a stranger, whom he met mere hours ago, agree to join his sacred mission so easily? What benefits would the already powerful man possibly be gaining by doing that?

Ardyn shuddered with an undefined emotion. He couldn't shake the feeling away that somehow Noctis might know him at a deeper level. When their eyes had connected earlier that night, Ardyn's world began shifting. The depth and intensity he found inside those gorgeous blue eyes, as they were meeting his own, have been far too intimate and knowledgeable. Ardyn had to find out more about Noctis' true origin and ultimately, what the younger man's real motive was. Before going to sleep, Noctis has promised to Quicksilver and himself they would talk once they all have properly rested.

For now, all Ardyn could do was wait. He counted himself lucky, seeing as patience has always been one of his greatest strengths.

...

"...ness! Your Highness, please, wake up!"

Ardyn awoke with a start, bolting his body instantly upright. He stared alarmed at the frantic looking blonde man before him. "What's wrong, young lad? Did something happen?"

"It's Noctis! He's gone!"

Sleepy eyes shifted toward Noctis' bed; the younger man was indeed gone. "Have you looked outside? Maybe he's gone to relieve himself," Ardyn said calmly. He refused succumbing to fear.

"I did! He's nowhere to be found," replied Quicksilver, breathless and obviously blaming himself. "I'm sure Solheim has come to get him. After everything he's done for me, I've failed him..."

"Now, now. Don't be so quick to judge the situation," Ardyn said - more to reassure himself than Quicksilver. He reached for his clothes and hastily dressed himself. "Let's gather our belongings and then search outside for clues."

...

This was bad. Ardyn has applied all of his excellent tracker knowledge around the cottage area, going back and forth several times; tirelessly searching for clues of footprints, some possible trails of blood or any kind of movement on Noctis' or Solheim's side; only for him to come back to Quicksilver, half an hour later, completely empty-handed. He tried to hide from the younger man how worried he truly became over Noctis' absence.

"There's something off about all of this. It's almost as if Noctis vanished into thin air," Ardyn said, sending Quicksilver an apologizing glance while he sat down on one of the beds. "Even I couldn't find a trace of him outside..."

The blonde man sat up from his chair, clenching his hands tightly into fists, his lean frame trembling. "But there must be something we can do! Noctis needs us. He saved our lives, we can't let him down," Quicksilver said, tears appearing in his light-blue eyes. "Eos only knows what kind of gruesome things Solheim is doing to him right now. We need to act quickly. Please, Your Highness."

Ardyn was amazed by the fierce devotion and loyalty Quicksilver showed toward the other man. The blonde barely knew the other and yet this caring man right here seemed ready to do anything in order to save Noctis.

Why did that surprise Ardyn so much? Didn't Ardyn himself feel the same way?

"Tell me everything you know about your escape yesterday. We might have to go back to the facility, after all."

Quicksilver flinched and his expression resembled that of a hurt kitten.

"Suffice to say, I don't like the idea either, but that's the only lead we have," Ardyn explained gently.

"I... all right," Quicksilver reluctantly agreed.

And so the younger man sat back down on his chair and Ardyn listened the entire time carefully to his narration.

"... and that's how we escaped," the blonde ended his short tale. "There was this blinding light all around us and then all of a sudden Noctis and I reappeared outside of the building, lying on the ground in that same spot you later discovered us at. We defied all physical laws known to man yesterday. A body defying gravity and jumping through walls? Hell, I still can't believe Noctis performed a miracle like that in front of my eyes..."

Ardyn took a shaky breath, his astute mind reeling and his wide eyes once again shining with pure admiration for that wondrous man. The tremendous pain Noctis had to have been in yesterday must have been devastating on its own... and still the younger man had found some inner source of strength, even going as far as sharing his powers to save Quicksilver's life on top of everything. What kind of immense power must exist inside Noctis for the man to warp without the assistance of weapons, never mind teleporting another person at the same time! Would Noctis ever cease to amaze him? After everything he has witnessed so far, Ardyn didn't think his heavily pounding heart could take any more of this miraculous man's feats. His emotions for Noctis already ran far too deep for his taste and Ardyn couldn't help but feel scared by his own, preposterous reactions.

"Thank you for telling me. I think I understand now," Ardyn said, standing up from his seat. His pensive eyes fell upon Noctis' empty bed. "Noctis and yourself have been involved as test subjects in Solheim's ruthless daehuman project. As the only survivor, apparently, Noctis' DNA has been affected by the daemon's DNA overnight. Despite the purity of my healing diligently working on his physical body, I can't even fathom how this additional daemon information inside Noctis had been able of taking over his unconscious mind. With those heightened daemon abilities awakened, Solheim must have found a way of controlling them and thus - perhaps unaware of Noctis' skill of teleportation - abducting Noctis in his sleep."

Quicksilver gasped. "Shit, Noctis is part daemon now... Your Highness, do you think it's too late to save him?"

"We have no way of knowing what exactly we're dealing with..." Ardyn said. He cursed under his breath and ruffled his curly hair a few times. "Anyway, by now, the Empire must have become aware of Noctis' powers of teleportation. We need to hurry. If the enemy were to discover Noctis' whole range of Armiger abilities, then all chances of ending this war might be lost. Imagine the infantry suddenly being capable of exploiting Noctis' egregious warp skills; I shudder to think of how the future state of our world will look like if we allow those fools modifying our physical laws, of all things."

"You mean, we're truly going back there?" The younger man asked, nervously gnawing on his lower lip.

"I'm afraid, we must. However, I won't think less of you if you may wish to stay here in the end," Ardyn said softly.

Quicksilver looked upset. "I know, I won't be of much help out there. If only I had a gun... It's been a few years but it's the only weapon I can wield. Other than that, I'm pretty much useless. I can't really fight or use swords or anything like that."

"You can wield guns? Why didn't you tell us before?" Ardyn's eyes grew impossibly large.

The younger man shrugged, a sheepish smile on his lips. "It slipped my mind, I guess. Besides, as a citizen of Insomnia it was illegal to carry a gun with me around, so I genuinely forgot about that after awhile."

Ardyn sighed and materialized a royal firearm out of his personal Armiger dimension. He approached Quicksilver and held his favorite weapon out for the man to inspect. "How far has your expertise grown? Once we're inside the enemy's territory, I'll need you to cover my back. If you can do that, we might have a realistic chance of rescuing Noctis. Your bravery and help would be much appreciated," he said, barely able of keeping his excitement in check. Ardyn didn't think he could do this all on his own, so Quicksilver's unexpected ability would definitely be a godsend.

"That's a Cerberus! A unique sniper rifle crafted with Insomnian technology. Wow, the scope enables precision targeting of appendages," Quicksilver said, meeting Ardyn's eyes excitedly. "This one is amazing! I've studied lots about firearms in the past. I've never got to see one of those in real life, though."

Ardyn smiled. "Well, well. A demonstration of your skill would be quite appropriate. Will you do me the honor?"

...

They went outside and placed a few overripe apples atop long, chopped blocks of wood; the inedible fruits formed a line in front of the cottage, a few feet apart from each other.

Ardyn stepped back at a safe distance, crossed his arms and watched the younger man's trial with hawk-like eyes from afar.

Likewise, Quicksilver focused and brought himself into position. He released the safety catch of the gun, memorized all various locations of his targets and then took some deep breaths in preparation of the task ahead.

"Go on, let's see how many of the apples you can shoot down. I'll consider the demonstration a success if you can hit at least five out of ten apples. And then-"

Quicksilver didn't wait for whatever Ardyn had to say next, instead, he aimed the fearsome Cerberus at a target to his right and fired his first bullet. The moment the gunshot pierced its wrinkled skin, the apple blew up into multiple, juicy pieces; the expert shot went straight through the middle, just as intended. The blonde had the audacity to smirk at Ardyn and then the young man went on, this time firing bullets with his new weapon in quick succession, striking nine out of ten apples down the line with ease. Quicksilver missed his last target only because his finger slipped from the trigger for a second; probably his instinct had been kicking in to remind him of the need to reload. Fascinated by his own results, Quicksilver exhaled slowly and examined the gun more closely, weighing the almost weightless, intricate and sleek design a few times in his hand. Ardyn fully understood the younger man's enchantment with Cerberus. Made out of the most rare and expensive metals - mythril, orichalcum and adamantine ore - Cerberus was a stunning piece of art. Its design had one of the highest muzzle velocity power ever crafted; it was completely devoid of backward momentum and was eerily silent thanks to the integrated suppressor in the front. In addition to all that, the ammunition never emptied - thanks to Ardyn's powerful magic, it was constantly materializing and reloading bullets inside the firearm, which also allowed the shooter to never leave the trigger during the reloading process - something Quicksilver found out now by chance. This right here was Ardyn's dearest treasure. Judging by the stunned expression on Quicksilver's face, he must be in seventh heaven and understandably so.

The blonde man engaged the safety of the gun and then turned to look at the older man, his delicate eyebrows raised in question.

Ardyn had to shake himself out of his stupor. Watching Quicksilver making short work of the targets, has been... startling, to say the least. The usually shy, easily frightened and stammering young man suddenly was like a complete different person while holding Cerberus in his hands.

"Well?" Quicksilver challenged, waiting for the older man's verdict.

"What are we waiting for? We have a comrade to rescue," Ardyn said, a pleased smile appearing on his face. He whistled, calling his loyal Chocobo to his side and petted her velvet, black feathers a few times gently. "My sweet girl, are you ready for our next adventure?" The Chocobo cooed once as Ardyn hugged the bird affectionately and he carried on with his dialogue, "Or are you thirsty, hungry and still tired, my love?"

The blonde man pouted, mumbling, "Yeah, just ignore me, why won't you?"

Ardyn heard that and smirked in response. Sparing a glance back at Quicksilver, he said, "You may consider me impressed after we've made it out alive from the enemy's clutches, Noctis in tow included. Come, young lad. I'm sure the enemy won't be waiting around all day, dilly-dallying like us," he said.

Besides, Ardyn worried himself sick and thought of Noctis' well-being constantly. The urge to rip the Empire apart grew stronger with every moment that passed...

...

The journey itself back to Ghorovas Rift, the land next to the borders of Gralea, went smoothly. About an hour in, the two men, who have embarked on a difficult rescue mission all by themselves, arrived near the enemy's lair without any outside interference. But the real problem revealed itself once they dismounted the Chocobo and got closer to the Empire's facility on foot.

"What in Eos' name is this?" asked Ardyn puzzled, looking further down below the hillside where they currently stood upon.

They hid themselves behind the safety of the shadows of trees and bushes, careful not to touch the red glowing, artificial magitek grid protecting the entire area ahead.

"This doesn't look to me like a research facility, that's a damn military base..." Quicksilver whispered, staring dumbly at the masses of stationary infantry in front of the gates; dozens of MAs and MTs as far as his eyes could reach and even some Magitek Engine's, five in their numbers, which flew over the compact base in slow circles and probably contained some more magitek foes standing on standby. "Hell, that's overkill... Why would they waste so much military power on such a small base?"

Ardyn scowled. "Jackpot, I'd say. Would you look at that? With a heavy security like this, they must hide something vastly valuable inside. The outdoor base we see here must be a decoy, the true prize lies deeper underground..." he whispered back.

"Noctis must be in there, no doubt," agreed the younger man. "So, the facility, the one where Noctis and I had been held captive previously, exists somewhere underground this military base. Great, huh? A base inside another base, or some high level security shit like that, and this means, lots of closed doors to overcome without having the proper clearance. Any ideas how we get inside, Your Highness?"

"Not yet. We have no choice but wait until it's gotten dark. With that much time on our hands, we'll surely devise a clever plan. A successful infiltration of such magnitude needs us eschewing broad daylight at all costs," Ardyn said, a sober frown on his face.

And so they waited. Embraced by the safety of the wilderness and shadows of vegetation, they vitalized themselves. They took out some nourishment from Ardyn's bag, eating slices of delicious dry meat and cheese, a few pieces of bread, and then rounding their meal with some sweet, exotic fruits and water while they contemplated the best course to sneak into the deep underground of the building.

"How old are you?" asked Ardyn suddenly out of nowhere.

"Huh? Ah, I'm twenty two," Quicksilver replied.

"And what did you do for a living before you ended up in the enemy's clutches?"

Quicksilver blinked a few times, surprised that the older man would be interested to know about his past. "Uhm... I've had no home. I basically lived on the streets, or rather tried to survive..." the blonde man answered ashamed, looking anywhere but at Ardyn. Clearly this topic bothered Quicksilver.

"I apologize, young lad. It wasn't my intention snooping around on something you're uncomfortable with," said Ardyn softly.

"N-no, it's okay, you couldn't have known..." Quicksilver said, sighing out loud and looking up into the sky. "It's just... meeting Noctis and yourself has given me an option out of my previous ways of living. I can't believe how lucky I am, traveling with His Highness himself and with my savior Noctis. Barely a day has gone by, but man, that feels already like I finally found a place where I belong to, meeting people to whom I can somehow be useful, you know? I haven't thanked you properly for that, so..." the blonde stopped talking, facing Ardyn with a shy smile which made his whole handsome face seem much younger. He bowed respectfully. "I formally thank you, Your Highness."

Ardyn observed the other man in silence. He has always felt responsible for his brother's haphazard decisions back at home. The growing poverty all over in Insomnia is a definite proof of poor judgment on Somnus' part. Young people like Quicksilver were the ones inspiring Ardyn's mission to heal the world. The younger generations had to be carefully nurtured, protected and instructed on how to live their lives to the fullest. This was the vision Ardyn held most dear, a future where everyone could live wisely and lovingly together. Wishful thinking on his side, perhaps. None the less, he strived to ensure his people would get to that precious kind of freedom and prosperity. Too bad, that Somnus' close-minded vision didn't reach that far ahead...

"I could offer you a future position as a personal Glaive at my side. As you might know, my official crowning ceremony will start once the Crystal deems my humble service to mankind as worthy. Soon, the Crystal blesses my blood with my rightful, kingly gift. What do you say? Won't you join me in my quest, guiding and protecting the people of Lucis?" he asked.

Quicksilver barely dared breathing. The poor lad looked close to fainting.

To better explain himself, Ardyn added on top to his previous proposition: "I know what I've said before, that I'll compliment your skill only after we're done. But I'll indulge you a bit earlier and say, I was mightily pleased by the potential of your firearm skills. Expanding on that further, you seem highly loyal and passionate about people you care about; Noctis is a good example. You hardly know him as it is and last night you were out of your mind with fright at the notion of going back to the facility. Yet, here you are today. That fact alone is highly commendable in my eyes," said Ardyn gently.

The older man admitted of having grown a fond spot for Quicksilver already, so why not giving the young man the option of growth under his personal wing? Offering the man the option of a better, purposeful future?

Quicksilver hid his face behind his longer hair while he looked down at the ground, his lean frame slightly shaking as his fingers fumbled nervously with dried blades of gras. The older man could hear the man's silent sniffles, so he simply sat back and gave Quicksilver some polite space to work out the answer to his offer in the privacy of the man's own mind.

Meanwhile, Ardyn's thoughts drifted back to Noctis. He could only hope that the dark-haired man's circumstances would be tolerable, at best. He had no illusions about the Empire's barbaric methods of coercion. Thinking back at all those fools working inside that base, dabbling with all kinds of dangerous things they clearly didn't understand, made Ardyn's blood boil hotly with vengeance. The severity of his fury over Solheim's evident misuse of power has exponentially grown since he met Noctis and since he has seen with his own eyes what these utter idiots were capable off. What would become of Noctis, now that the man had been infused with the daemon's genome? Would the wondrous man mutate into a mindless daemon one day? Would the object of his affection lose his soul to the devil, so to speak? Would Noctis ever again remember his true essence? Eos, Ardyn wished with all his might they won't be too late and that his own powers of healing would suffice in completing the purge of Noctis' life energy template and ridding the man's body of that dark abomination...

The younger man's silent, heartfelt sounds of crying stopped and Ardyn took that as a sign to resume their conversation. "Young lad, you don't have to give me an answer immediately. Take your time. Think about what you want and be honest with yourself, understood?" he asked, keeping his voice as soft as possible.

Quicksilver nodded his head, biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling and Ardyn smiled considerately at his protégé. "It's getting dark. We should focus back on our goal," he said.

"Right," agreed the blonde, wiping the tracks of his tears with his hand away.

They stood up and cleaned after themselves, packing away the left-over food into Ardyn's bag.

"Let's go over our plan one more time," whispered Ardyn, walking closer to the protective grid of Solheim's base. He made some room for Quicksilver to join him in the shadows. "I'll use my power to produce an invisible barrier of my own around us. This means you'll stay by my side at all times, lest the magitek grid detects us. In addition to that, we both avoid the glaring lights monitoring the grounds, staying always in the shadows. Last but not least, we avoid confrontations with the MAs and you'll leave the stealth kills of MTs to me. On my mark, you'll use Cerberus from afar and silently eliminate foes, who could pose a danger to my position. And finally, I'll leave it to you to cover my back."

"What if I miss a shot?" asked the blonde man next to him, who pursed his lips at the mere thought of failure.

The older man placed his hand on Quicksilver's shoulder, a reassuring look in his eyes to calm the younger man. "In case something goes wrong, keep close to me. I'll take care of everything else. Any questions?"

"No, I'm ready whenever you are," answered Quicksilver.

"Perfect," said Ardyn. "It's time to get serious."

...

The men sneaked past several lines of unmoving magitek troopers, swiftly moving along the dark spots of the enemy's base. They hid behind ammunition barrels and in the shadows of magitek powered towers every time an MA made its round into the men's close proximity. Always looking out for each others back, Quicksilver and Ardyn made haste. They had to reach the underground base, overcoming all clearance issues, then find, retrieve and heal Noctis if needed, and then, lastly, sneaking back out of the base - preferably undetected - before the sun would rise. It was a lot to cover.

Thanks to the compact structure of the base outside, the entrance was already close by. Several patrolling MTs blocked off their path, the door only several feet away. Time was short, so they communicated silently to each other and then Quicksilver made Cerberus ready for action.

On the older man's mark, Quicksilver fired at the patrolling MT's chest and simultaneously, Ardyn warped behind the other one and stabbed the pulsing magitek core with the silent precision of his Rune Saber.

The blonde missed his first shot and the younger man's hands were badly shaking because of it. Thankfully, the MT walking ahead of Quicksilver didn't notice anything amiss.

Ardyn nodded his head, letting Quicksilver know with a sign of his hand to leave the MT to him. With fast strides, he jumped behind the unsuspecting trooper and knocked off the head first. With its face out of the way, the MT wouldn't be able to rise alarm. Noctis had shown him all of the MT's weaknesses in yesterday's battle and Ardyn would make sure to remember and exploit each one of them. With a swift movement of his arm, he pierced his foe through its artificial heart, the remains of the MT's core dissipating into black smoke.

Careful of staying close to Quicksilver's side, the older man warped to the other man's left and stealth-killed another clueless trooper right as it was about to turn around the corner.

"It's all right, keep your head. You got this," said Ardyn, encouraging his protégé to gather his wits after getting back to the younger man's location.

The blonde kneeled down behind a tower and short bursts of tremor shook the man's body. "I-I'm so sorry... I really messed up," whispered Quicksilver, lump in throat and teary-eyed.

"No, you didn't," retorted Ardyn softly. "Look around you, we're still undetected. Everything is fine."

Quicksilver shook his head, pushing Ardyn away. "Shit, I can't do this. I'm weak and I'm useless...," the younger man said, foolishly insisting on his own sense of guilt.

Ardyn sighed and placed the palm of his hand on the top of the blonde's head in a fond manner. He was slightly cheating as he allowed light wisps of healing magic appease Quicksilver's inner distress. "Listen, young lad, don't forget the true reason you're here today. Noctis needs you. It doesn't matter if you hit or miss; what should matter the most to you, is to get Noctis out alive of this base. Isn't this why you agreed to come with me?"

"I... yeah, you're right, Noctis needs me. Give me a moment..." replied the trembling man, taking several calming breaths and slapping himself with both of his hands on each side of his face. "Seriously, what the fuck am I doing?" Quicksilver asked himself. The younger man seemed furious.

The older man, however, took a few steps back, leaving some private space between himself and Quicksilver. Ardyn had no business intruding into his protégé's monologue, nor on the unique way of dealing with his own problems. So instead, he used his astute mind to gather information about the remaining number of troopers they still had to overcome.

Fourteen patrolling MTs separated the men from the eagerly anticipated entrance. They have come that far, the entryway was within reach, now they would push all way through the end.

"Again, sorry. I'm good now, let's go," whispered Quicksilver, who stood up from his kneeling position and looked emotionally much steadier than before.

Ardyn gave him a thumbs up and a proud looking smile. "Let's do this," he said.

They geared up and prepared themselves one more time, and then they sneaked carefully to the innermost and thus, final part of the decoy base. The men used the same way of silent communication as before to keep each others back safe. Little by little, they veiled themselves within the shadows of the walls and slowly got closer to the last line of defense. Only for them to realize too late that there wasn't much space where they could backtrack into hiding anymore. On one hand, the patrolling MTs on their own wouldn't pose such a huge problem, the bright lights on the other hand would definitely make everything more difficult. This meant no more stealth kills for Ardyn.

"What do we do now?" Quicksilver quietly asked and crouched closer to his mentor. The shadows of the wall, in which they both were cloaking themselves, were the last areas of safety left and therefore, their next options became few.

"It's your time to shine, young lad," whispered Ardyn to the younger man.

"Okay..." Quicksilver whispered back. The man gulped dryly but got himself into position anyway.

"Don't forget, you can one-shot the MTs if you aim Cerberus at their magitek cores. I know you can do it," said Ardyn quietly with a soft smile on his lips.

His protégé sent a shy smile back before the young man got Cerberus action ready. And then, all of a sudden, that fearless persona was back again: the cheeky, confident and self-reliant side of Quicksilver. For the second time today, Ardyn felt mind-boggled by the unusual transformation happening before his eyes. Was this Quicksilver's true self?

In all honesty, Ardyn hasn't been prepared for such an accurate man-weapon interaction from his charge; not after the brief emotional meltdown he had witnessed earlier. Quicksilver's focus seemed to have reached legendary levels as the MT's energy cores fizzled out into nothingness, one after another. The older man watched the artificial troopers fall flat on their faces or on their backs. Their programming began malfunctioning the instant the unrelenting force behind Cerberus' bullets pierced their broad chests, ending up with their limbs convulsing all over the place in circles until they came to a stop. The scene playing in front of Ardyn's eyes would have been quite comical, if only the stakes wouldn't have been so high that served to remind him of the gravity of the situation.

That's when the moment of truth came; complete silence predominated the entrance area and the men finally were free to enter the enemy's lair for real.

Quicksilver blew the imaginary steam off of Cerberus and rotated the gun on his finger several times before Ardyn dematerialized the weapon back into his Armiger dimension.

"Satisfied?" asked the blonde cheekily, scratching himself behind his ear.

Ardyn allowed himself to laugh out loud for a moment, then sobered quickly and said, "Yes, you've outdone yourself. But do not count your Chocobo chickens before they hatch. Goddess only knows what lies ahead and beyond that door."

His charge pouted, reverting back to his shy self.

"Let's go, Noctis must be near," urged the older man and went for the massive looking door.

The entrance surprisingly opened by itself, without any input or secret codes.

Quicksilver turned himself around, focused light blue eyes drifting over each and every corner of the entryway. "Don't you think that's strange?" he asked.

"I agree, this was too easy..." said Ardyn in a low voice while looking around.

Once their feet got through the entrance, the massive door slid close behind them and the inevitable occurred.

Warning! Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert!

The intruders looked at each other and winced in tandem.

"What did you do?" asked Ardyn.

Quicksilver sulked. "Nothing, I swear!" he said.

"Did you touch something?"

"Hell no, I didn't! What about Your Highness? Shield broken or something?" Quicksilver retorted.

"No, still intact! It's not me either," Ardyn said, lips set to a scowl and looking offended by his charge. How could the younger man suggest such a thing; his powers were stable at all times.

Warning! Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert!

The men bolted, running along the long and sterile hallways in search for a place to hide themselves in. Ardyn cursed their luck as they needed indeed some kind of next-level clearance to descend deeper into the underground base. So they opted at staring at the device screen in hopes that something might change and open the door again. But then something entirely else happened.

"Quicksilver, is that you?" asked a strangers male voice.

The intruders swiftly turned around to look at a tall, lean man approaching them. The man had very handsome features, dark-brown hair and light-green eyes. Ardyn guessed the man's age to be somewhere around his mid-twenties. He called forth his sword, ready to defend, but Quicksilver took his arm and shook his head.

"Please, don't... he's a friend," the blonde man said softly.

Ardyn dematerialized his weapon but remained alert, extremely suspicious of the stranger standing several feet away from them. This person right there was a high-level scientist and going by the academic distinctions and the Empire's honors embroidered on his pristine looking, white lab coat, the tall man must have been working here for years. This fool was tinkering with darkness, in further consequence of killing thousands of innocent people in service to the Empire and only for them to gain more insight into the daemon phenomenon. No, people like this stranger made Ardyn's fuzzy hair on his body immediately stand up. They made his flesh crawl with feelings of utter distaste and loathing. Were it not for his charge pledge of trust toward this man, Ardyn would have long since cut the enemy's throat.

"Vitus! You're alive!" said Quicksilver excitedly, his cheeks having turned beet-red at the sight of his friend.

The tall man, Vitus, surprisingly looked close to tears, his wide footsteps gaining in speed until he brushed past Ardyn to fiercely embrace the younger man.

An Empire's high-level scientist embracing a discarded test subject.

Warning! Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert!

Ardyn suddenly understood how a fifth wheel must feel. He lifted his hands up to his face and rubbed his tired eyes a few times.

Could somebody maybe explain to him, what in all seven hells was the meaning of this madness?!

...

to be continued.