Chapter Text
-******-
Oh, Chosen King.
Of myth and whispers, your destiny was forged.
Fate has written many paths for you, using the blood of thine own Astrals.
Eos bore witness to your birthing, as she shall bear witness to your fall.
But it is not amongst her bountiful lands that you shall discover your salvation.
So go forth, Chosen King of Light-
And walk tall.
-******-
When Noctis let his sleep-heavy lids fall close, snuggling into the leather of the Regalia’s backseat, he admittedly had certain expectations. After all, this was a routine by now. Weeks of traveling throughout Eos’ beautiful lands by car had made it so. Most likely, Gladio would scoff. Nudge his liege’s thigh with his knee in that jolting way he did, whilst playfully ribbing about the tired Prince’s ‘laziness’.
Sometimes, Prompto would jump in with a, ‘Say cheese, Noct!’ Followed by a bright flash and sharp click that jarred him back to wakefulness.
Sometimes, Iggy would sigh. Lamenting that they were only a short distance away from their destination. Accompanied by the radio’s volume being turned up. Coincidentally at the same time Noctis wanted a nap, of course.
And all of those reactions from his retainers? Were perfectly natural. Noctis knew it wasn’t the appropriate time for a nap. The ‘Prince of Naps’ didn’t have that luxury anymore. Not after all that’d happened, and all that remained for them to do. Now would be no different. Regardless of if they’d just finished a rather exhausting hunt, involving a pack of sabertusks that just didn’t want to go down without a fight-
And they definitely fought. Noctis was fairly certain he’d be nursing several bruises along his thigh by morning, thanks to a certain boulder that’d gotten in the way of his warpstrike. (He didn’t know where it came from, honestly!) Not to mention, Prompto surely got some good shots in the midst of all that strategized chaos. He was excited to see what the pictures looked like after dinner that night.
Iggy was probably planning out the delicious meal at that very moment, since they’d be buying the ingredients on the way to the Lavellan-
...It still startled Noctis, whenever he consciously realized how used to life on the road they’d all gotten.
But some things yet came as a surprise.
Case and point? Crown Prince Noctis could’ve never predicted that when he began to drift off for a nap, his entire world would fall away around him. Leaving him falling through surprise. And literally. Several feet to the ground, with his heartbeat climbing into his throat as he registered the sensation-
And by the time his combat boots were scuffing up dustiness and dirt? Noctis was already, completely and utterly, lost.
Stumbling to find his balance, and scuffing up more dust as he went, the misplaced Prince knew with certainty that he wasn’t in the Regalia anymore. Wasn’t even standing on a road or roadside anymore. The musky scent of leather was gone, the low beat of music was nonexistent, and the view around him no longer matched to the towering pine trees near Lestallum.
And after spending weeks bounty-hunting around Hammerhead, Noctis almost instinctively realized that the barren wasteland of orange-ish boulders and endless dustiness wasn’t ‘The Three Valleys’ region...and there was a suspiciously missing mountain if this was near Longwythe.
Meaning Noctis had just poofed into a random dessert, and nearly wound up on his bum in the dust while half-asleep.
Oh, Astrals, hadn’t there been enough surprises lately?
“Uh, where the hell am I?” Came the reflexive question, as he blinked away the blurriness caused by his personal dust cloud. Stumbling through a circling motion, which revealed nothing behind him but the endless expanse of dessert that he’d seen from the front, “Ignis?”
No sign of the Regalia’s sleek beauty-
No sign of his overprotective caretaker either.
“...Must be Gladio’s doing,” he muttered without humor, even as he scanned the nearby terrain of pure dustiness and emptiness for any sign of the retainers he’d just been sharing a car with. Another reflex; patting down his pockets as he glanced around-
Only to suddenly recognize the missing weight from his pants, and discover a very absent rectangular shape being somewhere other than where it was supposed to be. Like him.
“Wh-what? Where did I-?” Ignis had spent years-years-teaching Noctis that a missing phone was a dangerous situation. And finding it missing now? After a falling sensation had left him in a random dessert, without anyone or anything recognizable? Was enough to chill his fading feelings of nonchalance about this.
Even Carbuncle had always, always allowed him to keep a semblance of his phone in his dreamscape.
Which completely erased the chance of this just being another strange dream, crafted by a sleeping charm.
The scuffing of dirt behind him had him spinning, a new seriousness overcoming him as he began to understand the awfulness of his situation. Despite what his retainers always complained about, Noctis knew his duties as Crown Prince-
But another thing he didn’t know about, nor recognize, was the strange figure approaching his back. Feet away. A woman’s figure, seemingly made up of...pink glass? She shone and shimmered like glass beneath the desert sun, as the raven-haired teenager stepped back. And beyond her?
Noctis noted the sole structure he’d seen so far, even as his mouth continued to run by reflex.
“You the welcoming committee?”
Seconds after his question, the glass-like figure was taking stance. Much like Gladio always did in their training sessions. Adjusting her footing, and drawing back the glinting sword grasped in one hand. Prompting him to retreat a couple feet, crystals shattering around his wrist as his Engine Blade’s familiar weight was summoned to hand-
But before a single move for action could be taken by either of them, the figure lurched forward. Shattering into a billion different embers like fireflies, and another shape took its place. Another shape...that looked precisely the same, except made of flesh and armor. As opposed to pink glass.
A woman with pearl-pink hair stood before him, strong and powerful in presence alone. Much like Sir Clarus or Cor always seemed-
And as she sheathed her blade with a metallic hiss, Noctis wondered a bit deliriously if the Regalia had crashed and he’d wound up in a warrior’s afterlife. The Kingsglaive would sometimes talk about such a place, as was many of their beliefs.
But he couldn’t really be dead, right?
“You okay?” The mysterious yet powerful woman asked, her irises seeming so blue against the tinged oranges of this barren place. Almost like ice...or electricity. Still, when she took a steady step towards him, Noctis couldn’t help stancing up himself in preparation for a strike. (Gladio would be proud-not.)
“Wait-!” She told him calmly, an armored gauntlet extending towards him as though any of this were normal, and he’d just come across another bounty hunter near Hammerhead who wanted a piece of the bounty.
But none of this felt normal, and Noctis couldn’t quite place why he believed that so defiantly.
“You real?” He demanded in turn, cringing afterwards to himself. Glancing towards where that pink-crafted creature had disappeared in a flurry of emberish glows...before glancing around at everything that surrounded him. Including the ivory tower that rose above the horizon, right past the woman’s shoulder.
None of this felt real. The whole situation still felt like one of his regular fever dreams, nothing more. Any second now, Carbuncle would bound up with their wiggling nose and flicking ears, promising to lead him to safer scapes of rest-
Until Lucis’ Crown Prince remembered the missing weight in his pocket, and was reminded all over again that Carbuncle wouldn’t ever do that.
“Huh, what’s it look like?” She huffed, as though his question was only partially ridiculous. Completely relaxed as he looked between where her double had disappeared, and her, “I’m sure you can figure it out.”
...
“I gotta be dreaming,” Noctis muttered, despite just deciding that he wasn’t. Releasing his Engine Blade back into the armiger more for show than anything, as he felt a new headache riding along his temples.
“Sorry, but you’re wide awake,” she told him callously, crossing her arms without much care as she examined him like some display. Particularly his still-glowing palm, where his blade had disappeared from, “First-timer, huh?”
“So then...you’re from around here?” A guess, that was immediately answered by her shaking her head. And yet? She didn’t seem nearly as confused by the unfamiliar desert as him.
“However, others like us should be here.” All important-like. Spoken like the seasoned members of the Crownsguard, who knew when to expect trouble long before any of the rookies did. This woman spoke like she knew things. Like knowledge was what drove her. And Noctis would be damned if he admitted it was slightly reassuring to hear, stranger or not.
“There’s...others?”
And his next clueless question was punctuated by a huff, the power of the armiger at his fingertips for a second time in less than a minute. Summoned by instinct, after a heavy clank sent a whole new dust cloud into motion a little ways behind the self-assured lady. And within that dusty eruptions, a billion little embers sparked before fizzling out, leaving nothing but an indent in the earth as Noctis lifted his gaze to beyond that.
To another figure, clad in the most fantasy-like armor he’d ever seen in his entire life.
“Like him,” she pointed out needlessly, as though this was a common occurrence.
The man-knight?-steadied himself with ease, a powerful sword and shield in each hand. Armored in lazure-blue. Horned helmet, cape and all. Seeming just as assured in whatever fever-dream Noctis had knocked himself into.
Maybe this really was a warrior’s afterlife.
“Is that you, Lightning?” Doubtlessly a warrior, if nothing else. But the way he spoke had the same smoothness that Ignis spoke with. A noble. Or somebody of noble and proper-taught roots, at least. It brought down the Prince’s hackles quicker than he’d like to admit, “And he is...?”
“Hey there,” Noctis mumbled, tilting his head curiously as the armored man nodded. As though some unspoken question had been answered by that simple greeting of awkward proportions.
“A new ally,” he immediately declared, and Noctis got a decent amount of dust in his eyes from how wide they went in response. Not to mention this stranger-man had hair similarly shaded to people from Tenebrae, and a confidence in his decision that irked Lucis’ Crown Prince, “Welcome to the fight.”
“Ally? Hold on-”
“I thought it was finished,” the woman interrupted his rebuttal, covering it up with assured questioning. Turning away as though Noctis wasn’t even there, to discuss with the knight-like man as if they were old friends. Bringing up the teenager’s hackles again instantly.
Being ignored in this impossible situation didn’t sit right with the Astrals’ Chosen.
“We have been called upon to serve a new purpose.”
“By Cosmos?”
“No. By the heiress of her will-”
None of those questions nor answers meant anything to the kingdom-less Prince, and he found himself shuffling awkwardly in the background as they tried to discuss the situation. But feeling even more lost hadn’t been Noctis’ goal. Especially not when his throat was knotting up in lieu of speaking, and his stomach was starting to do uncomfortable flips as he glanced around at nothing of familiarity-
It’d been weeks since he felt this lost, and even then? Something else had driven him. Excitement to see what lay beyond the Crown City. Hopefulness for his arrival to Alitissia. An eagerness to explore with his retinue, before...it all came crashing down, like the demons felled upon his home and the smoke encompassing his future as the Crystal was stolen from its rightful place-
Even then, Noctis had been driven by anger. By the all-encompassing desire for revenge. Against Niflheim. Against Emperor Iedolas. Against the entire world, and the blasted Astrals for allowing this to happen-
Now?
Lucis’ Crown Prince was simply lost, and beside strangers with their own goals that he cared nothing about...for now.
“Serve what new purpose?” He demanded, admittedly a bit petulant as he crossed his arms. Trying to refrain from making it look like he was hugging himself, and trying not to let it show how his fingertips rubbed ever so slightly at his bare arms. Scowling and shrinking away from the piercing determination in the odd man’s eyes-
But unable to escape, and only able to let a small amount of warmth flow from his fingertips into his forearms as the man continued with little consideration, “I’ll explain on the way.”
“You’re coming too,” she (Lightning, he’d called her?) declared, not leaving the option for choice in her words. Addressing him...
Oh, that’s it.
Neither of them were treating Noctis like a Prince. That’s why they seemed so...abnormal.
The boy with bluebell eyes wasn’t used to that, at all. From anybody.
“Seriously?” Though, he didn’t really mean it as he ran a hand through his spiked hair. Trying to disguise how startled the realization had made him. Not that it was needed. Neither of them seemed too concerned with him, as they turned away without awaiting a response. Expecting his cooperation.
“We shall go, and seek an audience with her,” the azure-armored knight explained, already departing. His armored boots thumping against dustiness, with a second pair at his heels. To join him, side by side, as both strangers made for that ivory tower in the distance. Tall and spiralling-
With strange, impossible architectural designs-
And a very, very noticeable embellishment of glowing blue wafting off of its crest. Swirling around and fading amongst the sky’s clouds of mauve-pinks. It was like something out of ‘The Neverending Story’-
But this certainly wasn’t an ancient movie from Dad’s time, that they’d watched together when Noctis was still young enough for it to be possible.
This-whatever this was-was an entirely new venture. Something away from home. Further away than the Prince without a throne had ever imagined going. There were no proper explanations. No preparation. No familiar faces, and no real purpose for him here. There was only a barren landscape, two fantasy...people-
Humans made of glass-
And a billion unanswered questions, that made the unending weights upon Noctis’ shoulders grow heavier by the second.
Wasn’t he already destined for enough tragedy?
As Noctis made the potentially stupid decision to follow those two strangers, he thought that that’s suredly how this adventure would end as well. What other option was there?
So long as Lucis’ fallen royalty was here, they could be destined for nothing else...
Time to go meet a goddess.