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Noctis thought the parade for the city should be easy enough. He had attended all of the security sessions and even paid attention. He had asked if Prompto could come in order to keep him company, but the idea had been swiftly struck down by Ignis when he mentioned it on a drive home.
Instead, he had slipped Prompto a copy of the route after school one day and given an “official royal order” that he had to take plenty of pictures. The blonde had simply laughed at him and agreed easily.
The evening before the parade had meant one last security meeting. Noctis just managed to slump down into his seat as he listened to both Cor and Titus drone on and on about where on the route each Crownsguard or Kingsglaive would be stationed during the event. During their discussions he practiced the ability to fall asleep with his eyes open.
Until Ignis nudged him hard with an elbow.
Ignis took the fun out of those practice sessions.
Then, after the meeting had gone an hour over the allotted time, Noctis followed his father to have a private dinner. He wondered if the last meal with his father would be in this room.
The clunk of his father’s cane echoed through the hall as no one seemed to want to talk, even with the large group escorting the royal pair.
Once quietly sequestered in the room, dinner served, and servants excused, Noctis looked down at the meal and bit back a sigh. This was certainly a meal his father favored. He wondered if he had done something to upset him, or if this was just his turn for meal preferences.
Regis’s voice distracted him from slowly dissecting the vegetable heavy meal.
“Are you looking forward to the parade tomorrow, Noct?”
Noctis looked up at Regis and blinked a little bit. “I- yeah, I guess. It’ll be nice to see the city,” he replied and gave an easy shrug.
Regis raised a graying eyebrow. “I imagine you see more of the city with your friend from high school than you would during the parade.”
“How’d-?” Noctis stopped himself before he said something he shouldn’t. He watched his father carefully, weary about what his reaction might be.
Unfortunately for him, the pleasant smile and raised eyebrow did not change while the younger Lucis Caelum watched. If anything, the smile only grew a little bit wider under the scrutiny.
“Noct, I have no problem with you exploring the city. And, I see that you are taking your Shield with you on, at least, some of these adventures. That is the least I could ask for.” Regis held up a hand to prevent Noctis from saying anything. “I know Cor and Clarus, and even Titus would have other words, but I do understand your viewpoint. Continue to try and be discrete, and take Gladiolus with you for protection.”
Noctis blinked a few times and nodded. “Okay, sure, that’s easy. He’s like a burr on my back. Doesn’t go anywhere.”
Regis laughed quietly into his napkin. “Well, Shields do take their job rather seriously. I imagine his father trained him rather specifically. Clarus has always been much the same way. But Noct-”
Noctis let out a low groan at the change in tone. His father had gone from friendly to warning and stern in just two words.
“But Noct,” Regis repeated, “you do have to understand that even if things are quiet currently in the city, there is always the chance of something untoward happening against us. They are simply doing their job. The job we asked them to do.”
“I didn’t ask them to do this job!” Noctis protested.
Regis tilted his head in just a way to allow Noctis to imagine a pair of glasses perched on his nose. He immediately felt like he was seven years old and getting a lesson on appropriate princely attitude. “Perhaps not, but you do not get to dictate if they will do it or not. The country has need of you still. To rule and to take over the Wall when it is time.”
Feeling chastised, Noctis just managed to resist the urge to sink down into his chair. He did give a small nod to his father. “Yes, Dad, I understand. I’ll be sure to take Gladio with me when we go around the city.”
“That is all I ask for, Noctis. I know that the life of a Prince is not easy. I am trying to find the best ways to give you some freedom, a little bit at a time. All I ask is that you work with me, please?”
Noctis nodded again, stifling a sigh. He knew his father was right, but it didn’t make him feel any better. “Yeah, I got you. I’ll be careful.”
“And please, eat some of your vegetables. You aren’t being nearly as subtle as you think you are. You’ve been pulling the same trick since you were six.”
This time, he didn’t even bother to hide the groan as he put together a large bite of the vegetables just to show off to his father.
---
The morning of the parade started off at dawn, with Ignis coming into his room at the Citadel with a knock. He had been kept overnight at the Citadel in order to keep preparations as smooth as possible. Noctis tried to hide from Ignis in his large pile of blankets, but the Advisor would not be stopped with this mission.
The royal raiment had been freshly laundered and pressed just for the occasion. Noctis made sure to put on each piece of his outfit carefully, watching the black outfit slowly cover more and more of his skin, till very little peaked out from the layers. He wondered if that was the point, or if his ancestors just liked to layer themselves with clothing like a weird sort of weighted blanket.
As soon as he was dressed, Ignis pressed a quick breakfast into his hands and escorted him down the hall. Gladiolus soon joined behind him, making a small entourage remanescente of his father’s own courtly gatherings. Only he seemed to have something in his hand to eat, making him wonder how long the other two had been awake in order to have already dressed and eaten in their heavy garments.
Ignis guided them down to the lower levels of the Citadel, where a large flurry of people were barking out orders. The parade wouldn’t start for a while longer, but already the parade order was slowly coming together. Noctis could make out the large looming forms of Astral floats, floats dedicated to the different regions of Lucis, and in the distance he could swear he heard bands warming up and practicing their tunes.
He didn’t have much time to explore the area, as his pair of escorts were quick to guide him through the throng of people toward a more secluded area. There the Regalia gleamed underneath the artificial lights of the garage. His father stood and chatted with Clarus in his most formal version of his raiment, the gold shining as brightly as the car.
The moment Regis spotted his son, he smiled and beckoned him closer. “Good morning, Noct. Are you ready to practice your royal wave some more?” he asked. Noctis could sense just the slight bit of a laugh under his words.
“Wave from the elbow, not the wrist. Yeah, not that hard.” Noctis shrugged and shoved his hands into his pants. “Where are we in the line up?”
None of the security meetings would discuss where the royal family would be located, keeping that as a last minute announcement for security sake. Noctis wondered why so much of his own life was kept out of his control.
Regis smiled a little bit. “I believe we will be told when the final line up is put together. Though, if we follow usual parade courtesy, we are either at the front or the back of the parade. I imagine this year we shall be in the back. A nice ending treat to keep everyone watching.”
“A treat?” Noctis asked and raised an eyebrow.
“I know you see the public all the time, but they usually don’t know it’s you. This time they get to see the two of us and know that we care about them. Do not be so sour Noctis. Smile, this is a day of celebrations. If this goes smoothly, I imagine you can convince Gladiolus to let you go join your friend and play some of the fair games this evening.”
Noctis looked over to where Gladiolus was speaking with his father in hushed tones, leaning toward each other. He could tell just how serious his Shield would be about his job to keep him safe, especially in a large festival environment.
“Yeah, I guess we’ll see. Maybe.” Noctis tried to sound hopeful, but he wasn’t sure he would get so lucky.
Quiet settled among the father and son as they watched the organizers go from group to group and start directing them toward the appropriate place in the line up. He watched as slowly one of them began to come toward them. The moment their organizer did, she gave a deep bow then approached Regis.
“Your Majesty, we’re ready to get you in line. Do you need anything while you wait? Water? Some food?” she asked with her eyes down to the ground. Noctis wondered how often she had to deal with the royal family if she was this nervous speaking directly with his father.
Regis just gave his usual gentle smile and shook his head. “No, we’re doing just fine, thank you. We’ll get ourselves settled into the car and in line right away. Thank you for your hard work.” His words helped ease her worry, and she nodded and hurried over to the next group.
“Show time?” Noctis asked while following Regis over to the car.
“So it would see. Or at least we get one step closer towards it,” Regis agreed. He allowed one of the people around the car to open the door for them before sliding inside.
The Regalia always brought a mixture of memories to Noctis, but he always thought of his father. He smiled as he settled into his seat behind the passenger and rubbed the smooth leather under him. The car started soon after, and their driver, some unknown Crownsguard, carefully navigated the narrow lanes of the garage to ensure he didn’t hit anyone.
Once they were in place for the parade, last as Regis had predicted, the top was slowly lowered to expose them to the outside. In front of them, Noctis could spy the Amicitia family sitting in the back of a car driven by Ignis. Gladiolus would occasionally turn around to look at Noctis, and he made sure to wave each time they caught each others’ eyes. He wondered what his Shield was so worried would happen inside a garage surrounded by security.
“Hey, Dad,” Noctis mused as he looked at the back of the Regalia.
Regis looked over at Noctis, putting down his phone to ensure his full attention. “Yes son, what are you thinking?”
“Do I have to sit in this seat? Or can I change it up?”
“What are you thinking?” The question wasn’t an accusation but held just the slightest bit of curiosity.
Noctis lifted himself up from the back seat and settled on the back of the Regalia to lean a little on his hand. “Can I sit like this?”
Regis took in the pose and shook his head. “I suppose it might not hurt. You will get more of the attention that way, you know. Are you alright with that? And do sit up, please. Don’t give Ignis a heart attack.”
Snorting a little bit, Noctis did as he was asked and sat up straight. “Is this acceptable? And, I can take some attention. I doubt I can take all of it. I’m not the King like you.”
“You will be, someday, Noct, and they will want to know who will rule them,” Regis warned. “Though I have no problem with you enjoying this parade as you wish. Try not to lose your balance though.”
His father’s warning was the only thing Noctis got before the car started to move once more. He nearly lost his balance when the car started with a small jolt, but he found his way to move just slightly with the sway of the car and keep a straight back.
Gladiolus looked back as they started to move, and his eyes narrowed when he spotted Noctis sitting on the back of the car. He tried to point him down to the seat, but the prince shook his head and stayed firmly where he was. He wanted to make his own place in this, and he wouldn’t be stopped by his Shield.
Slowly the Regalia rolled out of the garage and into the sunlight. Noctis had to blink quickly to clear out the tears which sprang from the sudden change in light. For the moment, all he could hear was the quiet rumble of the engines around them, and in the distance, cheering of the crowd and the faint mutated strains of live music. Right then, he felt they were in their own world, just the three of them in this car.
Then, the parade took them around a corner which took them out of the quiet of the Citadel property and onto the proper parade route. Immediately, the crowd could see them. They were stacked nearly ten deep on each side of the street, some with their own chairs to sit in while they watched, many of them just standing to be able to see over the heads of others. Noctis looked and smiled when he spotted all sorts of attire for the warm summer morning.
The flags of Lucis and Insomnia decorated the street and the crowd, adding to the myriad of colors in the gathering of people. He tried to really make out any one face, maybe he could find Prompto, but the crush of people and the slow, constant speed the Regalia moved at made it impossible for him to truly make out anyone.
Regis seemed at peace while he smiled and waved his hand to the crowd. He looked from side to side in a slow even pace that Noctis took note of. He did his best to remember all of the lessons Ignis had pushed into his head, back straight, wrist straight, hand cupped, and slowly waved to everyone. He tried to give his most genuine smile to them as he looked from side to side. He was suddenly very aware of how exposed he was on the back of the Regalia and understood suddenly why Gladiolus wanted him down.
Still, he refused to move from his place. He could give Insomnia a look at their future ruler. He wasn’t much known in the press, and his father had helped keep him from so many of the stuffy formal functions that would have attracted him the unwanted attention of the press and elites he wasn’t ready for. So these parades were the best time for people to see him, unless they figured out who he was when wandering around Insomnia or at school.
Noctis was settling into parade mode as they turned around another corner of the parade route. He thought about the path in his mind from the security meetings and thought they were probably about halfway through the parade. The first two miles had gone by without too much trouble, and while his arm was getting tired, he was sure the rest of the parade would continue on the same.
The street stretched out before them in a smooth line, one of the longest stretches of straight paths for the entire route. Noctis could see just the tip of the float for the Draconian as it turned the next corner. He watched the float fade around the corner when something felt strange.
The car hit a large bump on the street.
Now, he knew the streets were not perfect. No amount of money they poured into the infrastructure would make them perfect, but that felt abnormal.
Before he could really think hard about it, he saw the flash before he heard the rumble of the explosion around them.
The car jerked and flipped, throwing Noctis from the back of it and toward the crowd. He could feel the heat of the fire begin to fill the area right as he hit the bodies of people on the side of the street. The impact was enough to knock the breath out of his lungs.
Immediately everyone he had landed on were helping him onto the ground and touching him. He could hear their voices, and the screams around them, but he couldn’t understand anything. Instead, he moved his hands to try and push them off of him. He pushed forward to try and find his way back to the street, all while gasping to try and fill his empty lungs as quickly as possible.
The Regalia was on its side, nearly upside down, and Noctis could barely make out the form of his father laying underneath the car.
He struggled to make it back to the parade route, feeling people try to hold him back. Soon enough he got sick of people holding him back, and he summoned a dagger from the Armiger so he could warp out of their clinging hands. He landed into the intense heat of the fire and in front of his father.
“Dad, Dad, please,” he whispered. His hands shook as he went to check Regis’s pulse point, sighing when he felt the weak heart beat still.
Finally, sure his father was still alive, some of the adrenaline in his system settled enough for him to focus on more around him. He could feel and hear the flames around them, he could hear the screams of the crowd trying to find the best way to help them, and as he was trying to get his father into recovery position, he could hear more sinister voices.
“Get the King. We need the Ring,” shouted a commanding voice along with the crunch of heavy boots. As the sounds came closer, gun fire caused more screams and the crowd to run.
“Noctis,” Regis groaned, “Noct, save yourself.” He reached up with a bloody hand to try and touch Noctis gently.
In the flickering of the firelight, Noctis could make out the Ring the attackers were demanding. He could hear some of the brave people in the crowd working to save them, to give the Crownsguard time to get to them to protect them. He knew Gladiolus would be there soon, if he just stayed safe.
But they wanted his father, and they wanted the Ring. Their family legacy, and he wouldn’t fail them when he was strong enough to keep moving and save everyone.
“I’m sorry Dad,” Noctis whispered as he took the shaking, bloody hand in front of him. He wasn’t sure who was shaking more as he took hold of the large, black ring on Regis’s hand and slid it off in one quick motion.
Once off his father’s hand, the Ring of the Lucii didn’t seem like much, but he knew this was the ticket to saving everyone. Clenching it into his fist, Noctis grabbed his dagger and warped through the fire once more, hissing as it caught the edges of his clothing.
He stood on the edge of the street, watching the attackers coming toward the car. “Hey there, want the Ring? Then, going toward the wrong royal!” he shouted and held up his fist into the air.
His words caught the attention of everyone in the area as their eyes turned. Immediately the attackers’ guns were pointed at him. Breath caught in his throat, Noctis threw his dagger to warp further away. He hissed as bullets flew grazed his skin when his warp proved slightly too slow.
He stumbled on the ground and took too long to look over his shoulder to confirm they were chasing. He checked he still had the Ring in his hand before warping again put as much distance between him and the attackers.
Each warp drained his magic further and further, and he could feel not only his breath, but his stomach catching in his throat. He didn’t know how long he could maintain this before being caught. He could hear the shouted orders as the people chasing worked to catch him no matter what.
Panic began to cloud his thoughts as he tried to come up with a hasty plan. Each time he reappeared the crowd would scream and give away his location. Noctis needed a quiet place to focus and properly plan. None of this would work otherwise. Everything he had just done would be for naught.
Then he found the small alleyway away from the rest of the fleeing crowd. Gathering the dregs of his energy, Noctis threw his dagger once more to get to the mouth of the alley to hopefully hide away from the sight of everyone else. He leaned forward to pant while hunched over his knees.
The Ring in his fist thrummed, and a series of new screams broke the small bit of peace Noctis had found. Listening to their cries, he finally looked up at the sky, and there he could see the Wall starting to pulse. Swallowing, he opened his fist to see the Ring without a Lucis Caelum to supply the Wall.
He was going to cause the Wall to fall.
Noctis had saved his father to only doom his people.
Shifted further into the alley, Noctis knew what he had to do.
He could save his father, and he could protect his city.
The Ring seemed overly large for his shaking hand while it slid onto his middle finger. He thought it might just fall right off his finger the moment he let go.
But that didn’t happen.
The moment he let go of the Ring, Noctis felt an intense magic wrap around him. He gasped and hunched over once more. His stomach rebelled and clogged his throat, and he could hear the pounding of his heart beat. The world felt infinitely large and absolutely small at the same time.
The bright sunlight dimmed in his eyes, and the shouting and chaos around him faded for a moment. He felt utterly lost as he blinked and found dozens of armored people staring down at him.
“This is your judgement,” one of them intoned, weapon pointed at his pitiful, hunched form.
“You are of the bloodline, but your time is too soon,” another voice boomed, causing pain to bloom along his temples. Noctis could feel a bit of wetness brush his lip as he looked between them.
He licked his lips, the taste of copper filling his mouth, “I don’t understand. I want to help my Father, and I need to keep the Wall going!” he argued, finding more strength the longer he spoke.
“Your aims are true, but the Chosen King should not be here now. You are not strong enough for this,” one of the many spoke.
“Chosen- I don’t care! Do what you must to keep everyone safe! Give me the strength to keep them safe!” Noctis begged, standing up at attention.
One of the armored individuals stepped forward, and now he could make out the familiar forms of the armors which decorated the tombs of his family. He watched as the Lucii stared at him. “You are young and foolish. You will burn yourself out, but we will give you that which you wish.”
Noctis opened his mouth to argue, but the bubble of relative peace popped, and the sense of chaos returned to him. He nearly clapped his hands to his ears at the sudden rush of noise, but only when the words made it did he stop the motion.
“The Wall’s back!”
“The flickering’s gone!”
“The King’s still alive!”
He looked up at the Wall, to see the steady blue glow blanketing Insomnia once more. His breath released in a slow, relieved sigh.
He had done it.
Then Noctis heard the rush of boots to drown out the cheered cries, which quickly turned to terror among their gun shots.
But he wasn’t done. They still weren’t finished with the threat to the city.
A sense of power replaced the adrenaline crash Noctis had been feeling, and he gathered his courage to warp out of the alley.
He appeared in the middle of the crowd, causing a new wave of terrified screams. He ignored them as the enemy’s guns all swiveled toward him. Now that he had their attention, he did his best to use the power granted to him from the Ring to pull up a barrier to protect himself and the fleeing people behind him.
The barrier blocked most of the shots, but he hissed as the first few came quicker than his reflexes. Most of those bullets missed, but one lucky shot found its way to his knee. He hissed and clenched his jaw tightly, grinding his teeth together to prevent giving them the satisfaction of seeing his pain.
The barrier held under a few more rounds of bullets, allowing more time for people to flee, and maybe more time for the Crownsguard to get his father to safety. But each blow to the barrier took more energy he didn’t know he had.
Finally, the pain in his knee and the echoing pain of the barrier drove him down to one knee, and he heard the laughter boom around him.
“Not such a strong prince, are you?” one of them mocked. “Nothing like your dear old dad, huh?”
Their taunts only grew louder when he wasn’t strong enough to keep the barrier up from the latest round of bullets. Plus he could see some of them get smart enough to move around the edge before he could bend it to protect himself. He dropped to his other knee as the last protection fell in front of him.
Looking around like a caged animal, Noctis stared at the Ring on his finger and wondered what he could do to stop them. He felt a strange surge of power and magic flowing through him, voices guiding him to use it in ways he had never learned from his father or the other Kingsglaive.
One of the attackers was nearly on him, when Noctis threw up his hand and let the energy go.
Or so he thought.
Instead, the energy formed a link between him and the man in front of him, and he could feel what the link really was doing.
The attacker was being drained.
That power was going to him. Slowly healing him and giving him more energy. All while the man in front of him was shrinking, crying, and becoming flat.
Then, with an utterly inhuman scream, Noctis watched the man become nothing.
For a beat, all of them just stared at where the man had been standing, screaming and pleading and melting in front of their eyes.
“Witchcraft! The royal family is nothing but daemons in human form!” The leader of the attackers yelled.
Noctis swayed from where he stood, unbelieving what he saw. He wanted to be sick, but instead he felt stronger than he had in the last few moments. His mind went utterly silent, and slowly he spun around to look at the other attackers, hand raised to point toward them, black and purple energy swirling around him.
“Do you want to be next?” The words spilled from his mouth without even thinking. He held out his open hand and let the magic spill out toward the group, threatening them from where he knelt.
Noctis didn’t know what the answer would be as the sound of rushing footsteps came from behind the group of enemies in front of him. He let himself look up at the newcomers, fearing more enemies, only to see the Crownsguard uniforms in the distance.
Relief flooded him, and with the relief came the pain he had been ignoring. His knee and his skin, and he was sure his hair hurt at this point. He swayed from it all, and that little bit of weakness allowed the enemy to think they could make their final attack on him.
Instinct, or perhaps the dozens of voices in his ear, drove his hands up to gather a ball of bright energy around the group coming toward him. His power grew brighter and brighter, creating a barrier around them to keep them from getting to him.
“Noct, don’t!” a voice shouted at him, but Noctis didn’t know whose voice was shouting at him. Not among the myriad he was hearing at once. There were those voices guiding his hands, his magic, to complete the spell, he could hear the whispers of the magic weaving around him in a deadly promise, the terrified yells of the enemy being surrounded, and the shouting of the Crownsguard and their orders.
“Noctis! NO!”
The spell finally completed weaving around the group he had targeted, and the Lucii were satisfied with the amount of power behind it. They could hardly look into the bright light, but they made sure to watch as Alterna completed in front of them, sucking up those trapped in the spell away from the battlefield.
Noctis arched his spine as he screamed himself into Stasis, and soon fell to the ground, knowing only blackness and pain.
---
“We need more ethers!” a voice broke through the blackness, echoing around, and each echo ringing with pain.
He wanted to roll over and ignore the voice. But the pain made him realize he was being touched.
“We won’t get him out of Stasis without more ethers!” another barked.
Was he moving? He wasn’t sure. He felt small and ill fitted to his skin.
“What about an elixir? We need him stabilized before surgery!”
The yelling was too much, and he retreated back to the blackness.
---
“The Ring’s taking too much from him.” This voice was softer.
Still unwanted though. He just wanted to be left alone.
“His Majesty is still in recovery from his burns. I don’t know if he's in a state to take it back.”
“And the Wall needs to remain standing.”
Now that he remembered the Ring, he could feel the weight of it on his finger. And the slow drain coming from it. He wondered if he might join all of those armored Lucii before his father.
Those thoughts haunted him while he drifted back to the darkness.
---
Someone was touching him, and he wanted the hand to move. He tried to move away from it, but there was no energy to make his body do what his brain commanded.
“Perhaps we could have another ether? I believe Noctis is starting to wake up again.” This voice seemed familiar and wasn’t too loud.
This time he didn’t mind the people talking around him. Even if he just wanted to sleep some more. He hurt, and he had nothing left to give them. Every bit of him was going into the Ring, like he had promised when he saved his father. He could just sleep and keep everyone safe.
The person next to him, surely this was someone he knew, shifted so his hand, not the one wearing the Ring, was gently cradled. “Please Noctis, please wake up. We are all so worried for you.”
He fled from the gentle voice before he could hear more of that sad, sad tone.
---
This time he came up from the darkness without someone’s voice or touch stirring him. He drifted up to his body and tried to take stock of it. He still had no energy, feeling the Ring still heavy on his finger, but the pain was greatly reduced at this point. His knee was wrapped up and lifted up on what he thought might be a pillow. He could feel several other bandages around his body, from bullets or burns, he wasn’t sure at this moment.
As he continued to take stock of himself, he recognized that someone else was in the room with him. But he couldn’t make out who this person was without hearing their voice or opening his eyes.
He was so tired.
The whole time he stayed awake during this, he felt the person sit next to him, quiet and solid. He breathed and drifted and tried to gather enough energy to open his eyes, but soon he was back into the blackness calling for him.
---
“How long do you think he’ll be asleep?”
“He’s not sleeping, he’s unconscious, Prompto.” He recognized that voice as the sad one he had fled from. Only this time he was less sad and more defeated.
“But how long, Ignis?” This was a new voice, and he wondered where he had come from.
He knew both of these people, but he couldn’t remember why. He now had names, but he couldn’t make those names become attached to any memories.
Did he have any memories?
While he tried to find those, or even his name, he fell back into darkness.
---
Someone was holding his hand.
The sensation was familiar enough to him at this point. He was used to it from the number of times he had woken up to voices or touches. This hand though was different, a new hand holding his.
“Noctis, please, you’re worrying everyone,” the soothing voice said. The hand was rubbing gently on his knuckles. “I would wake you before taking the Ring.”
The mention of the Ring made him pause and wonder who could take the Ring from him. He needed to keep the Ring.
But why?
“My son, please, I would not have you in this state forever. You have so much more to live for. Come back to us.”
This was. . . his father?
Darkness claimed him before he could make sense of the question.
---
Light woke Noctis from his sleep, and he groaned as his eyes refused to adjust to the light. He turned his head toward the pillow in a vain attempt to get rid of it. He ached and had so little energy that sleep was just right there to claim him again.
“Noct!” Prompto cheered. “Oh man, I can’t- don’t go back to sleep, I’ve got to get the nurse,” he said in a rushed whisper.
He hid his face into the pillow to try and keep his face from the light, and the noise surrounding him. He didn’t understand anything happening, but his best friend was there, so perhaps wherever he was, wasn’t too bad.
More people were walking into his room, making his groan again. They were all making far too much ruckus, and he wanted it to all stop. Someone was touching him, and weakly he kicked his leg only to bite back a yell at the pain going through his knee.
“Gentle, your knee is still healing from the gunshot wound,” an unknown voice explained as hands pressed the offending limb down to the bed. “Try to keep it still so we don’t have to restrain you.”
“‘urts,” Noctis ground out from his sore throat. He tried to swallow a few times to soothe the pain, but there was no liquid in his mouth to soothe the burn.
He could hear some more people talking above his head, but he did not have the energy to pay attention to them. He nearly started to drift off again when he felt a hand slip into his and give it a squeeze. He opened his eyes again and saw Prompto watching him carefully.
“It’s good to see you awake finally,” his friend said softly.
Noctis didn’t understand that. Hadn’t he been awake for a while? He had heard them? Or, was that all a weird dream?
“Hey, stay with me. Everyone wants to see you now that you’re awake,” Prompto kept talking, hand gently squeezing to keep his attention. “They said you could have some ice chips. If you’re thirsty.”
He wanted to shake his head. He just wanted to sleep. He felt something pulling him into the call of sleep, and they all wanted him to resist that call. Still, his mouth felt like a cotton ball and his throat was surely cracked after his attempt to talk, so he accepted the piece of ice that slipped between his lips.
He carefully let the melting ice drip down his throat as he tried to listen to the people around him. Nothing really made sense, but he had a friend holding his hand and slowly feeding him more ice, and he felt a bit more content than he had.
Noctis wasn’t sure just when he fell asleep.
---
The next time Noctis woke up the room was dark. He blinked a few times to make sure he hadn’t been imagining the darkness. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see that he truly was in the dark, with someone sleeping in the chair next to him. He swallowed a few times to try and get rid of the dry mouth feeling with little success. The ice from earlier had only done so much.
His groan as he tried to move even his arm caused the person sleeping next to him, his father, he finally recognized, to wake up and stare at him.
“Noctis,” Regis breathed, “oh my son, it’s so good to see you awake again.” He lifted a shaking hand to gently brush his hair from his forehead and look into his face.
Noctis looked over his father’s face, trying to see any evidence of the attack on him. “Dad,” he croaked, hating how dry his throat was at the moment.
Despite the cracked words, Regis gave a soft smile and shook his head. “I’m fine, my dear boy. You saved me. I’ve been fine for days. We’re all worried for you.”
Somehow he had enough energy to shake his head. He could still save his dad. He could keep the Ring and keep Regis from withering away in front of his eyes. “I can do it,” he whispered.
The words, though faint, were enough to break his father’s expression. Noctis had never seen his father look so heartbroken. “No, no Noct, this is not your duty. Not yet,” he said softly. “Please, do not keep pushing yourself.”
He kept shaking his head and tried to move his hand away from his father.
Regis sighed and moved his hand to rub Noctis’s shoulder gently. “We’ll talk about it later, but you don’t need to bear the Ring any longer. You’ve done well, but you need to heal. It’s stalling your progress. Rest, I’ll be here when you wake.”
The comforting touch and tone were enough encouragement for him to fall right back into the embrace of sleep.
---
Light once again woke him up, but this time Noctis didn’t feel pain right away. He let his eyes drift open and take in the scene. He spotted his father sitting next to him with a tablet in his lap, dressed in just a button down shirt and slacks, the most casual he had seen in years. The moment he heard any movement from the bed, he was moving to check on Noctis.
“Awake again I see? You should have some ice,” his father said gently, picking a cup from the shelf nearby. He picked a piece of ice and gently placed it into his mouth.
Noctis wasn’t sure what this meant, or how long his father had been watching over him. He had so many questions, but his mouth refused to form them. Was this just for the Ring? Or as a repayment for saving his life?
Regis gently stroked his hair again while watching over him. “Noct, you seem to be getting stronger, you aren’t sleeping as much anymore. The doctors are encouraged by that. Your knee is going to take some time to heal, and I fear you’ll be in PT once more, and I know how much you hated it last time.”
Physical therapy was a terrible idea. He had hated it after Tenebrae, and the reminder was just a gut punch of terrible memories. He must have made some sort of face because his father just smiled and kept stroking his hair a little harder.
“I know, I know,” he replied in that same soothing tone. “But it’ll be necessary for you. They were able to save all of the tendons and the kneecap, so you shouldn’t have to be in there long. You just have to get out of this ward first.”
The mention of the ward he was in only made Noctis aware of the sheer amount of equipment and the noise surrounding him at the moment. He was aware of how many tubes and pieces were coming in and out of him. Where did Noctis end and machine begin at this point?
“Noct, please, stay calm. It’s okay. Once you can reliably wake up and eat and drink on your own, most of these will go away. You’re just too weak to sustain most of your functions after such a deep Stasis. You needed some help to help recover your energy,” Regis explained.
The Ring had warned the price of using it would be great. He hadn’t expected it to be like this. He wouldn’t take it back, he had saved his father and all those people. This was a price he would pay ten fold if he could do it again. He would save all of them as many times as he could.
“I know we talked about this some last night, but I want you to really think about this. Noctis, please, let me take the Ring back. I’m fully healed. I’m used to the burden of the Ring. You need the energy to heal. They don’t know if you will if you continue to wear it.”
Noctis had never heard his father plead. He had never imagined he could beg with anyone. Let alone his own son. Why did he sound so desperate? He was waking up, and according to what he had just been told, he was getting his energy back. He could keep this up a bit longer and manage both.
A sigh broke him out of his musings. “No, Noctis, you don’t understand. The fact you woke up at all is amazing. You shouldn’t, not after performing Alterna with such a low energy level. You should have died from that expenditure,” Regis protested. “You cannot keep the Ring on. The only reason I haven’t just taken it from you is because the shock would be too much for your system. I need your permission to take it.”
“Save you,” Noctis whispered.
“Oh Noct, you already have saved me. You don’t need to keep protecting me,” Regis said sadly. “You’ll have your own time with the Ring soon enough. Don’t sacrifice yourself now.”
Noctis stared at his father, at the premature wrinkles that lined his face. He had seen this face age in what felt like the blink of an eye. He wanted to make sure he would never lose his father, but he also didn’t want to leave him too soon. Already he could feel the pull of sleep, of the Ring, dragging him back under.
His eyes looked down at the hand not in his father’s hand. The large ring took nearly all of the light from the area, making his hand look skeletal. He swallowed thickly before looking back at his father, into those warm green eyes which had always been there to help guide him.
Considering his options, however few he really had, and finally, Noctis nodded his agreement. He would let his father take back the Ring and bear the burden of the Wall. He had done enough to carry the weight of the kingdom for now, and he could rest and heal before it was time for him to take the mantle properly.
Regis gave a small smile and nodded back. “Thank you Noct. I know that wasn’t an easy decision,” he said softly, without any hint of pity Noctis had feared.
Slowly, barely fighting off the call of sleep, he watched as his Ring bearing hand was picked up and the offending item was removed from his finger. In the back of his head, he could nearly hear something in the back of his head fade away to true quiet. He wanted to stop Regis from putting the Ring onto his own hand in a swift motion, but soon enough the transfer of power had been completed. The only sign that his father was feeling the Wall was a small furrowed brow.
“Sleep Noct, you need your rest.” A warm hand brushed his hair, and soon Noctis was asleep once more.
---
Noctis woke up feeling more aware than he had since the attack. He blinked several times and looked around the room in a daze. Muted sunlight filled the room, and this time Gladiolus sat in the chair next to him and read a book. For the moment, he made no move to try and get his attention. Instead, he took stock of his body to see if anything had improved.
The first thing he noticed was he had more energy. The instant pull for sleep was no longer there as had been previously. He ached all over, but only certain places called the majority of his attention now, and he could ignore it to observe the rest of the room. The machines made their usual symphony of noises around him, and he had to wonder what all of them did. How soon could he start to get rid of them?
He was watching his heart rate when Gladiolus said, “Finally with us, Sleeping Beauty?”
He turned to look at his Shield, taking in the exhausted expression. He opened his mouth to speak, only to find his mouth too dry to manage, so he just nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to give you some of these ice chips. Slowly, okay? Don’t need you getting an upset stomach,” Gladiolus warned as he placed a couple of chips into his mouth. “You’ve been asleep for a while, we were a bit concerned there. Your dad was the only one who wasn’t concerned.”
“Da’ knows bes’,” Noctis slurred around the chips.
“I guess with stuff like this, probably. Still, weird to watch over a sleeping person for so long. Can’t wait for you to get out of here finally.
Noctis just nodded, still unsure how long he had really been in this room between all of the sleeping he had been doing. His sense of time made no sense, and he was too parched to try making too many words.
“I’m gonna get the doc, okay? Try to stay awake long enough for him to make it to you this time?”
Feeling a bit unsure, Noctis just shrugged and accepted a few more ice chips. Eventually Gladiolus got out of his chair and ducked into the hallway to speak with someone at the door. He imagined there must be some other guards around his room his Shield spoke to.
Fortunately for everyone, he did manage to stay awake long enough for the head nurse of the floor to make it to his room to start taking what he thought was a slew of notes and talking far too fast for him to really understand. He just accepted ice chips when they were offered and did his best to stay awake.
Right when he thought he might just fall asleep from boredom, the doctor arrived at his room. He tried to pay attention, but he zoned out once more at the medical jargon. As soon as he got permission to go to sleep, he did just that.
---
Soon after that first doctor’s visit, more of them followed. Each of them as boring and sleep inducing. He did his best to pay attention to any orders they gave, but fortunately whoever sat with him seemed to take notes for him to pay attention to the next time he woke up. The best visit from one of the doctors was the day they let him start eating normal food again.
After then, he was able to slowly become less machine and more Noctis. Prompto liked to tease him that he was finally letting go of his cyborg status and rejoining the human race. He liked to retaliate by trying to kick his best friend on the shoulder. Still, the sensation of being able to get out of bed for even just the bathroom was wonderful. Small freedoms he had forgotten to cherish after his last stint immobile.
Though, with the increased times awake, he did have to deal with physical therapy. He hated every single session and the pain that followed, but Gladiolus made sure to be there for every appointment. His Shield was a solid presence to guide him through the strenuous exercises and make sure he didn’t slack. He was also there afterwards when he wanted to just scream because he thought he was making no progress at all.
Time passed though, and each day meant a bit more strength returned to Noctis in that small room filled with machines and friends and family.
Finally, enough time passed, and he was given the best news. He was able to go back to the Citadel to complete the rest of his recovery with the staff there. While he wanted nothing more than to return to his apartment right away, he would take this small step toward freedom.
Stepping back into the Citadel on a pair of crutches sent a whole set of feelings through him. The Crownsguard and the Kingsglaive lined along the walls of the hallways to greet him, giving him a salute. Noctis stopped and stared at them, unsure of what was happening.
“You saved the King; they’re honoring your sacrifice,” Gladiolus whispered from his place behind him. “Just keep walking.”
With those assuring words, Noctis nodded toward the people saluting him, sometimes stopping so he could give a sloppy salute in return around the crutches. He felt an immense surge of pride and happiness upon returning home.
At the end of the line of men, he finally spotted the group of people waiting for him. Namely, he spotted his father, standing tall and proud and giving him a broad smile.
“Noctis, it’s good to welcome you home.”