Good evening! This is arguably the chapter I'm the most proud of so far, I really like it and I hope you will too!

I get that this touches kind of similar things as day 1 did but I think this expands on it and ultimately focuses on something else.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who reads this fic, subscribed to it, and a special shoutout goes out to those who took the time to comment on one or even several chapters of this fic 3 all of you are great, and I sincerely hope you enjoy this one!

Prompts:

No. 6: "Do or die, you'll never make me; Because the world will never take my heart."
Recording | Made to Watch |"It should have been me."

Warnings: Serious, non-specified injuries, brief eye trauma but it doesn't happen to a human or anyone we like and it's not described in detail, it's literally just one sentence.

"One day, you might give your life for Noctis, and it will be your greatest honour," Gladio's father used to tell him, over and over for as long as he can remember. It's a simple truth, one Gladio has grown up with, deeply embedded into his mind and etched into his skin in the form of a great eagle.

They put so much effort into preparing Gladio for his inevitable death that will save his King that no one stops to consider what will happen to him if he lives.

It starts with a road trip to see Noct off to his wedding, just the two of them and their two closest friends, and it's easily the most freedom all of them have tasted in their lives.

And then, Insomnia falls and it all turns into a horrible nightmare Gladio can't seem to wake up from. Instead, he's thrust into situation after situation that leaves him completely and utterly useless, unable to protect his Prince - no, his King, now - and his friends, and with the way things are going, he half expects to lose Iris in a freak accident or something, but at least she stays safe.

Noct gets plagued by headaches sent to him by an actual god, and Gladio can't even punch anything about it. He does get the chance to punch Titan later on but he's not stupid, he knows the god perceived him as nothing more than Gladio would perceive a fly - annoying and difficult to get rid of but ultimately harmless. When Noct's headaches finally stop, Gladio doesn't fool himself into thinking he's played any significant part in it.

Soon after, he thoroughly gets his ass handed to him by Ravus Nox Fleuret. The man bats him aside like it's nothing - their difference in strength is startling. It scares him, so much so that he ditches his friends, his charge, before he can properly think about it, to stand trial against Gilgamesh and prove his worth once and for all.

He gets a shiny new scar for his trouble and his friends welcome him back with open arms, but the victory tastes bitter and it doesn't bring him the relief he hoped for.

Finally, they make it to Altissia. It's pretty and under different circumstances, Gladio would have loved it - the city has a famous library, the biggest in all of Accordo, and he itches to explore it - but the thought of what should have been hangs over them like a dark cloud.

Noct forges the covenant with Leviathan and Gladio and Prompto find him unconscious, next to an Ignis who lies so startlingly still that Gladio has to take his pulse to make sure he's still alive. The first time Ignis wakes, he's in so much pain it leaves him nearly incoherent, face littered with silver burns their potions won't touch, and all Gladio can think is it should have been me.

Noct doesn't wake up for a long time, but when he finally does, they continue on and Ignis comes with them. Gladio isn't sure why he's even surprised - for all his intelligence, his stubbornness makes Ignis stupid and Gladio feels like he's the only one still sane. He's angry, so angry it makes his blood boil and he itches to punch something. He's angry at Noct for shirking his duty. He's angry at Ignis, who got the chance to sacrifice himself for Noct, something Gladio has been denied thus far, and he doesn't even have the grace to bow out, choosing instead to haunt Gladio as a constant reminder of his own failure. He's angry at Prompto, who has done nothing to deserve his ire, whose only crime it is to try and mediate between him and Noct. And he's angry, so, so very angry at the universe, the gods who laugh at their misery from above and who pretend to aid Noct but take so much more than they give.

Gladio doesn't think things could go any more to shit than this, but he's quickly proven wrong when they lose Prompto without knowing if they'll ever be able to find him again, or if he's even still alive. Noct swears he is, swears he can still feel him through the Crystal's magic and gods, Gladio wants to believe him but the kid fell off a moving train in the middle of a snowstorm and Gladio has always considered himself a realist rather than an optimist.

He doesn't have time to dwell on it, though, because he's soon occupied trying to keep Ignis alive on his own in daemon-infested enemy territory because Ardyn managed to separate them from Noct and Gladio has failed again to stop him.

Prompto, as it turns out, is more resilient than Gladio dared to hope. He survived the fall off the train, even camped out in the snowy wilderness on his own for a while, and a few curatives fix his body right up but the mental scars run deep - they can only guess what happened to him once Ardyn got him, he won't talk about and Gladio doesn't pry. Instead, he tries to be supportive, a rock for the others to lean on, resisting the urge to go find Ardyn and rip the bastard's throat out with his teeth.

When they lose Noct to a gods-damned rock, Gladio damn near loses it. His hands are bloody and bruised by the time Ignis manages to drag him away from the Crystal, and all his efforts have not even left a scratch on its smooth surface.

If Gladio were to have his way, he'd tuck them all - Iris, Prompto, Ignis - into a safe corner away from harm, but he knows that no one ever listens to him and humanity cannot spare three skilled fighters now that the light is gone, so they train and they hunt and Gladio can't watch them try to get themselves killed so he leaves.

During the years of darkness, he only ever sees them for a day or two every couple months - it's not what he wants, but looking at them hurts too much so he hides himself away like a coward. He hunts and he helps Cor's Glaives and his specialty is escort missions because the instinct to protect is burned deep into his core, and at least his inability to keep people safe only seems to extend to those he loves.

Still, he barely makes a difference in the world and he'd hardly call what he's doing living, so when Ignis shows up on his doorstep one day, telling him all about a prophecy and a possible way to stop it, he doesn't even let the man finish before he says yes.

"It's dangerous," Ignis says, "We'll have to kill a god."

"I don't care," Gladio says, and that settles that.

It's easier to pull himself together, now that he has a goal in mind, and so by the time Noct finally comes back to them, he's more than ready.

The Draconian doesn't hold back. There's no doubt that he's a god, and even fighting Titan, Leviathan and Ifrit combined couldn't compare to the sheer strength of Bahamut.

The god is enraged and hell-bent on collecting his blood prize after all, so he targets Noct and Noct alone - Gladio, Ignis and Prompto don't even seem to be on his radar. A mistake, Gladio is about to show him that as he races over to Noct and stands in front of him, blocking the enormous sword the Draconian hurls at him.

The impact shatters his wrist and dislocates his shoulder but he stands unmoving, and for the first time the god looks at him, really looks at him. He raises his sword and Gladio goes to block again, but this time, the impact sends him flying.

He crashes into the rubble and the world explodes into blinding pain, his vision is swimming and he feels his consciousness slip, but he holds on long enough to watch Noct take advantage of Bahamut's distraction.

Noct warps up until he's face to face with the Draconian, and then he drives his father's sword straight through the god's eye and into his skull.

Bahamut screeches in agony, the sound rattling Gladio's already broken body, and that's the last push for his fragile consciousness.

When he comes to, he can't move without his body screaming in agony, and it takes him three tries to croak out a single word.

"Noct?"

Gladio has a long road of recovery ahead of him, Ignis tells him, and his fighting days might very well be over, but that sounds ironic coming out of the mouth of a blind man who fights better than most who still have their sight, so Gladio doesn't worry about it too much.

It doesn't matter, anyway - Bahamut is dead and Noct lives, and that is the only thing that counts.

Do you ever think about Gladio and what it must do to him that he's the only one to make it out of this whole mess unscathed? Even though his job description says he's to sacrifice himself for Noct? And he doesn't even get the chance to do so? Because I do, a lot, and I have so many feelings about this man it's insane.

I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did, because I really, really like it!

Thank you for reading, and tomorrow we'll have some emotional hurt for Prompto. Hope I'll see you then!