Archive of Our Own

Work Text

Selena was in the process of checking her hidden snares for caught animals, when her ears caught the sound of whining Imperial ships in the area. She tipped her head to the side and listened intently, before concluding the ship was just passing by. A tug on the rabbits in her hand made her scowl. “Koyla, no!” She bopped the coeurl on the nose, forcing him to release the rabbit with a huff. “We eat when the pups have eaten, you know that.” She snorted when his brother yowled softly and rubbed his head against hers. “Stop sucking up, Nero, it’s unbecoming of you.”

She’d rescued the kits a year after her escape from Niflheim hands, where she’d found the poor things half starved and shivering next to their dead mother’s body in a hollowed out tree trunk. Her caring nature had her coaxing the little guys out with a promise of food. Eventually, over the course of several days, she’d gained their trust enough to join her in the home she’d made in an old behemoth’s cave. She welcomed their companionship with relief. It cut through the severe depression and loneliness she’d been grappling with since the fall of Galahd.

Two years passed before their little family grew. The three of them had been sunbathing near the creek, when Koyla perked up. Nero followed and both rumbled warningly, staring at the bank on the other side. “Stay,” Selena said, sitting up. The three of them watched as four gangly children emerged from the bush, running to the water to eagerly drink. All four were clearly siblings; two boys and two girls. Their features were foreign to the area; blond and dirty. Their clothing was filthy and torn in places. They were quietly talking amongst themselves and it took Selena a moment to realise they were speaking the language of the Nifs. The gentle wind changed directions and Selena frowned. Their scent was muddy. Like they’d been rolling around with lycan and sabertusk pups. Her confusion was cleared when the sound of an Imperial Dropship approaching could be heard and one of the children shifted out of fright. A sickle shaped claw appeared on each barefoot and her face elongated, tusks coming out from either side of her jaw.

The decision Selena made that night was the best decision she’d ever made. Standing, she called to them, motioning for them to join her on the other side of the creek. “Quickly, come!” She yelled, cursing the wind for changing directions so they couldn’t scent her. Perhaps it was the fact that Nero had slunk off and appeared behind them to make them move that the children ran to Selena. She ushered them to the cover of the trees as the red dropship came into view. She led them to her cave, which she’d covered the entrance with vine plants.

The siblings clustered together against the wall with Selena standing over them, putting off a calming scent as Nero took to standing guard outside while Koyla stood just inside, whiskers poised to strike if anything tried to attack. The group held their breath as the dropship got closer before it seemed to lose their trail and moved off. The children slumped against each other in relief.

Selena turned to them, giving them a reassuring smile. “You’re safe here.” Unlike her recluse of a brother, Selena spent her years learning about the outside world and easily spoke three languages and two dialects of Lucian.

“Miss, can I ask a question?” One of them piped up. Selena’s heart broke with how young he sounded.

“Of course, little one,” she said. Nero chose that moment to join them inside, making the siblings huddle in fear, as he approached to head-butt Selena, loudly purring with affection.

“W-Where are your clothes?”

Selena was hard pressed not to laugh. Galahd rarely received visitors and the nudity always threw them off.

The other boy smacked his brother’s arm. “She has monsters at her beck and call and you’re worried about her clothes?!”

The little girl who had partially shifted stood up. Her form rippled as she changed back to her human shape. “They aren’t monsters,” she said quietly, holding a hand out to Nero. “We are.”

Selena frowned as Nero stared at the child before approaching her and bowing down to let her pet him. “Where did you come from?”

“Zegnautus Keep.”

Selena’s insides froze at the mention of that hellhole. That was supposed to be her final destination when something had struck the ship she and a few of her packmates were in, knocking it out of the air. She was the only one to escape and couldn’t do anything for her packmates because the MTs on board were still operational.

She watched the little girl pet Nero. “Well, Nero and Koyla don’t seem to think you’re monsters and they eat monsters for lunch. What are your names?”

“Joel, Noel, Cole, and Mole!” The four said in unison. Almost as if they had been practising.

Deciding she’d grilled them enough, she nodded to herself. “It’s past noon and I am about ready for lunch, would you four like to join me?”

“Yes, please!”

Selena found their ability to speak as one at their age angering and decided that was not the time for vengeful thinking. For now she’d focus on getting them fed and washed.

That had been eight years ago.

“Mom! Noel’s cheating!”

“Am not, you just suck!”

Voices of her pups filtered through the trees and she smiled at Koyla who chuffed, electricity running along his whiskers as if to show his exasperation. “At least Joel isn’t sucking on your whiskers in his sleep anymore?” She offered.

Koyla rolled his eyes and the three of them returned home where Noel and Cole were sparring.

“Mom, Noel keeps shifting mid fight to beat me!” Cole complained, deflecting the deadly blow Noel swung at his head.

“I’m just using my best assets at hand, it’s not cheating!” Noel insisted, adjusting her stance with the blade Selena had gifted her on her sixteenth birthday.

“What agreements were made prior to engagement?” Selena asked, setting the rabbits down on the wooden bench to skin them.

“No powers, no shifting,” Cole said triumphantly. Noel scowled at him.

“Noel, stop cheating,” Selena reprimanded her. “No buts!” She added. “Or I’ll have you splitting peas with your brother.”

“Ew,” she wrinkled her nose and went back to sparring (properly).

Selena quirked an eyebrow at her pups before pulling a small blade from a sheath at her side to begin skinning the rabbits for dinner.

Later that night, after their post dinner chores had been completed and everyone had bathed, Selena was settling in to sleep when she heard another dropship in the area. She shared the same feeling as Mole who grumbled about the noise in her sleep until the echo of an explosion was heard.

Selena sat up, getting to her feet quickly. Dirt rained down on them as the ship crashed nearby. “Noel, watch your siblings,” she said, hurrying to the bookshelf with assorted knick knacks on it. She grabbed a slingshot and the bag of mini bombs they’d made that exploded on contact and put them in the pouch attached to her hip. Turning to her pups, she kneeled and allowed them to crowd her for hugs and forehead bumps. “I love you all, I will return shortly.” She refused to give them the idea she might not a thought, and left with Nero and Koyla at her feet, electricity crackling along their whiskers.

The cave was near a cliff side that Selena often used to scout for ships. With the moon half full, she was easily able to make out the smoke of the downed ship and watched as another ship approached only to be shot down by the first one. Scanning the horizon for other ships, she shifted, running down the cliff side with her coeurls at her side.

They soon arrived at the crash site. For the comfort of her adopted pups, Selena had made clothing that could handle her shifting forms with ease (though not without many weeks of trial and error) so when she shifted back to her human form, her leather skirt fell back into place on her hips and her loose wrap top settled over one shoulder. She grabbed her slingshot and loaded it, holding it up to shoot anything that resembled a functioning MT. Nero and Koyla trotted forward, immediately tearing off the heads of the motionless MTs they came across (experience had them learning the hard way not to assume a downed MT was a dead MT).

The scent of human blood caught Selena’s nose and while the coeurls picked through the mess, Selena followed the scent to where a blond woman was strapped to her seat upside down. She was dressed in a long grey coat and black leggings. The human pilots were also still in their seats but appeared to have died on impact. Putting her weapon away, Selena approached the woman and pressed a hand to her throat to find a pulse, her ears unable to separate the sounds of the various fires sprouting up around them. Finding the woman was alive, Selena carefully checked her for broken bones beyond the obviously dislocated shoulder, before she sliced the straps. Shifting the woman’s weight so it was over her shoulder, she clicked her tongue at Nero and Koyla, who quickly followed her back into the thicket.

They hurried back to the cave and Selena shook her head when her pups approached her as she entered. “Who’s that?” Mole chirped, her eyes glimmering in the darkness.

“A survivor from the crash,” Selena said, laying the woman down on the table. “Joel, get a bucket of freshwater. Cole, ready strips of cloth in case she’s more wounded than I’m aware of. Noel, healing salve from our stores. Mole, I need you to keep her steady while I reset her shoulder.” Her pups scurried off in various directions.

Mole stood by and waited for her siblings to return with the requested items. Selena cleaned the woman’s face, her breath catching in her throat when she realised who was lying on her dining table.

“You know who she is,” Cole stated quietly, kneeling next to the water bucket.

“Princess Lunafreya of Tenebrae,” Selena said grimly. She’d seen photos of her and her brother in the books she’d traded furs for from the nearest settlement. She wished them well in the political turmoil their mother sadly left them with. But currently, she was more confused and concerned as to why the princess was so far away from the manor. People would be looking for her, which was going to put her and her family at risk.

When Luna awoke, she laid where she was for a moment in an attempt to get her bearings before opening her eyes. She stared at the rock wall in confusion for a moment as her memory caught up to her. The last thing she remembered was the pilot screaming mayday before they crashed. She sat up quickly, wincing at the dull pain emanating from her shoulder. She looked around to see she was on a pile of furs in what appeared to be a cave. Lights were flickering along the wall where the cave curved away. Who had rescued her?

Before she could get up, she heard someone approach. Her heart seized when a coeurl came into view and she stayed still as the beast walked up to her. It sniffed at her ear before giving her face a raspy lick. She whimpered quietly, when it flopped onto her legs, exposing its belly like a puppy looking for belly rubs.

“Um, h-help?” She whispered out as loudly as she dared, terrified of startling the coeurl.

A female voice spoke from somewhere in the cave, her language familiar but Luna was too frightened to translate.

The coeurl gave a yowl in response and butted its large head against Luna’s sternum.

A woman appeared, torch in hand, and clicked her tongue, the coeurl getting up with a huff and bumped the woman’s chin before slinking off.

“Thank you,” Luna said, a bit breathless, taking in the woman’s features. Her skin was dark like her hair, which easily reached to her waist. She wore a brown leather skirt and matching top. Light glimmered from the braids in her hair and Luna realised she was sitting before a woman of Galahd. No wonder the language sounded familiar.

The woman cocked her head in confusion, kneeling down before her comfortably so they were eye to eye with each other. “I’m sorry I don’t understand that language,” she said in Galahdian. Now that the coeurl was gone, Luna could focus on what she was saying.

“My apologies, thank you for saving me,” Luna said in Galahdian. It had been a while since she’d last practised the language, but she felt confident she could speak it.

The woman’s face broke into a genuine grin. “For a woman of Tenebrae you have the most interesting Lucian accent to your Galahdian, Your Highness.”

Luna blushed. “Well, in fairness, this war has not allowed me to do my duties as Oracle, so I’ve only had Lucians and Tenebraeans to practise on.” She tried to brush her hair behind her ear only to find a bandage there.

The woman’s smile disappeared. “Yes, that is unfortunate. My name is Selena Ulric, Your Highness. I heard your ship crash last night and brought you here.”

“Where is here, exactly?” Luna asked, while wracking her brain trying to think of where she’d heard the name Ulric from.

Selena thought for a moment. “Twenty clicks from Barrhead,” she said, referring to a tiny border town a day’s journey by air from the manor.

“Forgive me for my ignorance, but you’re awfully far away from home.” Luna said.

A dark look passed over Selena’s face. “You can thank the Empire for that. Speaking of, are they the reason you’re outside the manor walls, Your Highness?”

“Please, call me Luna.” She grimaced. “Yes, they’re attempting to take Tenebrae by force. My brother sent me away for safety because they began bombing the manor before we could shield ourselves.”

Selena nodded. “I’m sorry for being perfectly blunt but I hope you understand the risk I’ve taken keeping you here,” she said seriously. “I have children who mean the world to me, if it comes to it, I won’t hesitate to choose them over you, the gods’ will be damned.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “I—Of course! I deeply appreciate that you help me, truly. If there’s anything I could do to repay you, please tell me.”

Before Selena could speak, a soft voice called into the cave. “Mom, is the princess awake?”

“Yes, baby, come say hi.” Four teens appeared, none of them looking anything like Selena. Clearly quadruplets, lightly tanned skin, blond hair, and bulky compared to Selena’s slender frame. Each wore leathers in a similar style to Selena’s. The largest of the four had her hair braided like her mother’s while the smallest had her hair cut short. The boys each had their hair in small braids that stopped at their shoulders. Luna’s heart ached to see the scars littering their bodies.

Selena shifted so she didn’t have her back to her children. “Princess Lunafreya, this is Mole, Cole, Joel, and Noel.” Each raised their hand to wave when their name was said.

Luna tipped her head. “An honour to meet you all,” she said sincerely, completely fascinated by their names.

“Mom and me fixed your shoulder, Your Highness,” Mole said, running a hand over her shorn hair.

Luna looked to Selena, who elaborated, “The crash dislocated your shoulder. And it’s Mom and I, sweetie.”

Mole rolled her eyes. “Yes, Momma.” The snarling of coeurls fighting dragged the teen’s attention away. “Koyla, stop being a jerk!” She yelled, running off.

“Soup’s ready,” Joel spoke up.

“Lovely, thank you, Joel,” Selena said. “Cole, help him set up for dinner, Noel please feed the coeurls.”

“Yes, Momma.” They said in unison before disappearing.

“You keep coeurls as pets?” Luna asked incredulously.

Selena grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “Galadian legend says the warrior who commands the coeurl’s wrath can will where the Fulgurian points his staff.” With a swish of her skirt, Selena stood, holding a hand out to Luna. “Come, Joel has made a wonderful arba soup.”

As they left the cave, Luna saw where she had been was a nook, and the cave was quite deep into the mountain they called home. Tunnels veered off to a couple nooks that were covered with leather curtains. The tunnel opened up to a sort of common area with a carved wooden dining table in the center, which was being set for their meal. Thick vines covered the entrance. Joel came in with a steaming pot that smelled delicious.

The quadruplets spent dinner peppering Luna with questions ranging from her home (“Can you see the ceiling?!” Mole asked, referencing the artbook depicting rooms of the royal manor.) to her duties (“Do you gotta sacrifice a chocobo for the gods’ approval or just pray to an altar?” Cole asked, wincing when Joel smacked his arm and both his sisters glared at him.). It was clear Selena didn’t bring them up to have unwavering respect and admiration for her like her people were brought up and really, Luna enjoyed it. It was nice to be amongst people unafraid to speak their mind.

After dinner, Selena had Noel and Cole tidy up and get a bed ready for Luna, while Joel and Mole checked the fur skins drying on racks outside, before following the coeurls into the forest for an evening run. Luna took that time to heal the wounds near her temple, the salve Selena used keeping infection away. She joined Selena on a large boulder outside the cave to enjoy their nightcap.

“Is their father from Niflheim?” Luna asked politely, holding her tea in both hands to keep her hands warm. It didn’t escape her notice that all four had a leather band around their right wrist, a common mark of survivors and refugees who escaped from Niflheim.

Selena’s face went blank as she watched the sun set. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “When they attacked Galahd ten years ago, those who hadn’t died or fled were rounded up and shipped back to Niflheim. There was a scientist on board who was taking hair and blood samples from us and mumbling something about DNA compatibility? I don’t know, but the next moment something attacked the ship and brought it down. I don’t know who or what but I was able to escape. I spent a year here in isolation and maybe the loneliness got to me but when I found them as kittens,” she nodded to the coeurls chasing Mole in and out of the trees, while Joel rode on the back of one of them, “I just reached out. I was desperate for companionship; lycans are pack creatures, we don’t do the lone behemoth mentality. A couple years passed when I found those four. I believe whatever that scientist was talking about had something to do with their creation. They’re part lycan and part sabertusk. I don’t know how, though, that kind of mix is impossible. Should be impossible. They don’t talk about their time in Zegnautus Keep and I won’t push them to talk about it, even when the nightmares wake them up,” she added, giving Luna a look that clearly stated ‘and don’t you either’. “They’re good pups.”

“I’ve heard rumours of the atrocities committed in that place,” Luna said quietly. “I’m not sure if they were part of the group, but a merc who works for my brother tried to destroy the place. Unfortunately the Keep is heavily fortified, what with it usually being docked in the middle of the city, so she was only able to successfully damage the walls and destroy his equipment. I… ”

“How far— wait no, please don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.”

Luna watched with morbid fascination as her skin rippled before the woman was able to calm herself down. She gave her a one arm hug. “I am grateful they found you.”

Selena leaned into her hug. “Where was your brother sending you?”

“Insomnia, their walls are impenetrable,” Luna said, reminded she needed to pray and give thanks to the pilots who lost their lives trying to keep her safe.

“Hm, I’ll see what I can do to help.”

They stayed like that for a while until they heard Mole calling from the cave. “Bed time,” Selena said, downing her lukewarm tea in one go. “We have readied a nes—a bed for you. Tomorrow we’ll get a plan together to get you to Insomnia.”

The following morning after breakfast, Selena sent the teens off on errands. She pulled a map out from between two books and laid it out on the table. “I was doing some thinking last night. Other than hunter’s posts and easily missable settlements, there isn’t a safe, fortified city in the area to hide you in until help arrives. So, we’ll go with you, escort you as far as the Rock of Ravatogh and wait for Insomnian forces to escort you the rest of the way. It will take us about two weeks to get there.” She tied her hair into a thick braid, using a strip of leather to tie it off.

Luna took Selena’s hands into hers and bowed her head. “Thank you, that could not have been an easy decision to make.”

“You had asked earlier if there was anything you could do to pay me back for this,” Selena trailed off.

Luna let her hands go. “Yes, anything!”

“During the Week of Remembrance, could you let my brother know I love him?” She was referring to the week the oracle spent speaking to the dead to pass messages on from the living.

“Of course.”

They spent an hour going over the route they would take before they began preparations to leave.

Selena had the teens pack some of their belongings while she packed furs to sleep on, weapons, medical supplies, and water flasks (wooden bowls for the coeurls) before immediately setting out. She was used to the pace kept by her children and the coeurls when they were out playing or hunting and quickly determined it to be too fast for the princess. By the time high noon came, Selena realised it would take them months to make the journey at the human’s pace.

While the children cooled off in the river, Selena took the time to convince Luna into riding on Koyla’s back, even taking the time to fashion a harness made of stripes of leather so she stayed in place.

“Momma, can we shift now?” Joel asked, setting a basket of fish down to share with everyone, throwing several to the coeurls.

Selena was amused by the politely masked look of disgust on Luna’s face as the children devoured the fish raw. Thankfully, she remembered to grab vegetables from their garden for the princess to eat, as fires would be too risky out in the open. She gave her the basket, still wet from being dipped in the river to rinse the dirt off.

“As soon as we finish lunch,” Selena said, stealing a carrot from Luna’s basket, before eating her own fish. “We’ll head to the hunter outpost and see if we can relay a coded message out to Insomnian forces.”

Joel wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like the hunter outpost.”

“Same, they’re gross,” Noel added.

“You’re gross,” Cole said, making his sister roll her eyes.

“Perhaps I could be of assistance,” Luna said, taking a long drink from the flask given to her. Despite her earlier disgust, she was eager to devour the veggies given to her.

“Is that a dog?” Mole interrupted.

“Yes, my dog, Umbra,” Luna said as the black dog came out of the thicket.

“Was your dog in the crash?!” Joel asked, wiping his mouth and got to his feet to approach them, hand outstretched. Umbra sniffed his hand and licked it, allowing him to pet him.

“Goodness no, he’s a messenger of the gods,” she said, offering him a treat before taking a red book that had been tied to his side. Serena was a little baffled as to why she would have treats on her person of all things, but refrained from asking.

“Why didn’t you summon him when we were at home?” Noel asked.

Luna glanced at Selena. “I didn’t want to draw unwanted attention to your home. It would be foolish to assume that even this form of communication could be done so in secret.” She tore two pages out and wrote on them. She then folded them in half, labeling one, 'Commodore Highwind’ and the other ‘King Regis’. “Be safe, my friend,” she said, putting the notes into the book before putting the book back in Umbra’s sling.

Selena and her children watched the dog trot into the thicket, the air moving with the magic used as he disappeared. “What did you write?” Selena asked.

“Inside jokes of sorts that only they would understand so they know where and when to meet us,” Luna said, finishing off the last bite of carrot before giving the basket back to Selena to preserve the remaining veggies for dinner. “Shall we fill these and press on?” She asked, referring to their water flasks.

Selena nodded. After refilling their flasks, Selena instructed the teens to shift, watching Luna for her reaction. She didn’t expect the princess to look so sad, but at least her scent wasn’t sour with revulsion.

They looked much like sabertusks, except their leather hides were fur instead, the bony spikes that followed along their spines peeking out of the fur. Their faces were shorter, more lupine shaped. Noel was easily the same size as the coeurls, her black coat striped with white. Cole was close to her size, his white coat spotted along his spine. Mole was smaller with a brown coat and white front paws. Joel was the only one without colour, his coat sleek and black. Though he was the smallest of his siblings, he still stood with his shoulders at Selena’s height.

The smallest of the four came up to lick Luna’s face, receiving a tut from Selena. “Joel, what have I said about licking people?”

Joel made a weird gravely yipping noise, as if to apologise and stepped back.

Selena shook her head and clicked her tongue, the coeurls immediately coming to heel. “Don’t lose her, okay?” She helped Luna climb onto Koyla’s back. “Hang on tight, if you need anything just let me know, okay?”

Luna nodded, knuckles white from where she was hanging on to the harness. “Right, like riding a chocobo.”

Selena smiled and seamlessly shifted. It always felt like she was shedding a layer of herself when she shifted between her forms. She took off with a howl and led her pack east towards the massive cliff edge.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Aranea was discussing where she wanted the scrapped hauls of the imperial dropships sent, when she heard excited shouting.

“That’s the princess’ dog!”

She left her ship to see Umbra crossing the temporary camp towards her. “Hey boy, whatcha got?”

She could practically feel the mood of her troops improving upon seeing the dog. It meant Princess Lunafreya was still alive. She gave Umbra vigorous belly rubs before taking his notebook. Opening it, she saw the two folded pieces of paper. Ignoring the one for King Regis, she took the one addressed to her.

Remember when you had to explain to 
Biggs that cliffs do not mean there is 
automatically water, even if there’s a 
settlement nearby?
I remember the full moon of that day.
His new friends had to show him the way.

~L

“What’s it say, Commodore?” Wedge asked, bringing a bowl of water and scraps of meat for Umbra.

Aranea grinned. “The location of our wayward princess. Suit up boys! We have a princess to rescue.”

She pulled a marker from an inner pocket and drew a star around the L before returning the paper to the book. “Thanks Umbra.” She returned to her ship where Ravus was seated. He paused in the middle of making adjustments to his prosthetic arm. He’d lost his arm trying to defend his mother when Niflheim first attacked Tenebrae twelve years ago. “You heard?” She asked.

Ravus nodded. “Is it true?”

Aranea’s eyes went hard. “It is, we’ll bring her to Lucis, and take the imperial nation down for good. Biggs!”

“Yes ma’am?” Biggs popped his head up from the cargo hold.

“When is the full moon?”

There was a pause as Biggs pulled his notepad out. Aranea liked to tease him about taking notes of the most trivial things but now she was pretty grateful for it, given the cell towers had been destroyed, making communications near impossible. “Two weeks from now, Ma’am!”

“Good, that’ll give us time to prepare.”

King Regis stared at the reports on his desk. Reports from the scouts they had within Tenebrae and Niflheim detailing the activities. Including the annexation attempts by the Imperial army. “Any news about the royal family?” He asked Cor.

The Marshal stood before him in a parade rest next to Captain Drautos. “Nothing yet, Your Majesty.”

Regis sighed. “Keep me informed.  Captain, make sure the Glaives are prepared to deploy at a moment’s notice, should Tenebrae require aid. Marshal, I want the Crownsguard ready to provide back up.”

“Yes sir!” Both men said.

“Dismissed.” Once the men left and the door shut with a soft click, Regis allowed himself to sit back in his chair and feel. Clasping his hands, he prayed the Royal siblings of Tenebrae were safe.

As if answering his prayers, he felt a magical disturbance within his office. Peering over the side of his desk Regis saw Umbra sitting there. “Thank the Six,” Regis whispered, reaching into his desk drawer for treats. “It’s good to see you, my friend.” He squatted down as much as his knee allowed and held his hand out.

Umbra licked his hand before eating the treats, allowing the king to take the notebook attached to his collar.

He sat back in his chair and flipped the book pen to where two notes sat. One addressed to Commodore Highwind and the other to him. Shameless, he opened the Commodore’s letter. He didn’t understand what the Princess’ note meant, but the commodore seemed to as she’d drawn a thick star around where the Princess had signed off. Closing the note, he opened his.

Your Majesty, I hope Prince Noctis fares 
well. I will be picking the flowers of his 
shield with the worshippers of the 
Flugarian high on the full moon 
overlooking the resting place of the 
Pyreburner for the arrival of the 
high winds.

~L

Regis stared at the message for several minutes, before his brain finally decoded it. Keeping the note, he took a piece of paper from his official stationery and wrote a simple reply.

Be safe Princess

He folded it and placed it in the same space as the Commodore’s note before giving the note back to Umbra. “Thank you, Umbra,” Regis said, scratching under Umbra’s shin and along his ears. He called his secretary to have his council and the heads of his military forces convene for an emergency meeting within the hour.

He wasn’t going to fail her again.

“Any idea what this meeting is about?” Libertus whispered to Nyx. Their team along with Moira Banks’ team watched as three teams of Crownsguard filtered into the throne room.

“No idea.” Their curiosity was only piqued further when Lord Amicita with Captain Drautos and the Marshal brought up the rear.

“Presenting King Regis Lucis Caelum!” One of the pages called out at the top of the stairs.

Everyone stood to attention as King Regis entered the room, from a door to the right of the throne. “At ease,” he said once he was seated. “Word has reached me that the Niflheim Empire has attacked Tenebrae. Prince Ravus stayed to fight, however Princess Lunafreya’s convoy to Insomnia was attacked. She was able to send out a coded message that she is well and on her way to Rock of Ravatogh, where she will be rendezvousing with Commodore Highwind. Our scouts in Tenebrae have informed me they were able to push the Imperial forces out of Tenebrae, however Princess Lunafreya will need an armed escort. Based on the units mobilizing in Niflheim, expect to bring the Princess back to Insomnia under moderate to heavy fire. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot stress this enough, we cannot allow the Princess to fall into Imperial hands. It is imperative she gets to Insomnia. Questions?” Regis looked them all over, nodding when he was met with silence. “Captain Drautos and Marshal Leonis will provide team leads with further intel. Dismissed.”

The room saluted him before leaving to their separate training yards for further debrief.

“Lieutenant Ulric, your team will be in charge of finding and protecting the Princess. Lieutenant Banks, your team will be providing cover for them. The Crownsguard will be setting up along the Old Wall to provide additional support. Gear up, it’ll take two weeks to reach Rock of Ravatogh. Meet at the West Gate at 1800 hours. Dismissed.”

“Great, shit will go sideways, always does on these long-ass deployments,” Axis grumbled, as they loaded up into a Citadel issued van.

“Calm down Mr. Pessimist,” Pelna joked, though no one missed him grabbing Crowe’s hand and squeezing it. While he had managed to mostly recover from the amnesia he developed after getting severely injured on their way back from a mission six years prior, he still had zero recollection of the day in question.

“Focus, guys,” Nyx said from the front. “I fully expect the only casualties to be Niflheim forces, understood? I won’t hesitate to sweet talk the Princess into reaching out to you assholes to wring your necks if any of you die.” No one laughed but the sudden tension in the van eased some.

“Wow, I think that mountain is bigger than your manor, Miss Luna,” Mole said in awe. They had finally reached the base of Rock of Ravatogh two weeks later.

“You’re correct, Mole,” Luna said, carefully sliding off Koyla’s back.

“It’s hot as the Infernian’s armpit out here,” Joel complained, fur falling off him in clumps as he returned to his human form. His leather skirt settled around his hips.

“Well, we are at the base of an active volcano,” Selena said, picking out a rock that was lodged between Nero’s toes. The coeurl chuffed and gave her a head boop in thanks.

“Break, then we’ll head for the top?” Luna asked, fidgeting on her feet.

Selena nodded, amused as the princess hurried off to a bush to do her business.

When she returned, Noel and Cole were dragging a pair of spiracorn carcasses over.  “Hold it!” Selena said, her teens and the coeurls pausing from tearing into the fallen beasts. “Let’s get a fire started so the Princess can also take part. Joel, Mole, get us firewood please.” Both teens hurried off, too hungry to complain.

“Thank you,” Luna said, “But is that safe to do?” Their journey over the last two weeks had been completed under the cover of nightfall and Selena had strictly forbidden them from starting fires, even in the daytime.

Selena pointed to a steaming vent. “The volcano will give us coverage from the drop ships looking for smoke.”

“Right, of course.”

Joel and Mole soon returned with enough wood to last the day, much more than they needed. Selena soon had a fire going and while it was heating up she went to the spiracorn and used her claws to slice a chunk of meat out for her to cook.

“Okay, you guys can eat.” Luna, who had her back to the pack, winced, listening to them devour the spiracorns. She carefully sat down near the fire and watched as Selena used a thin rock slab to cook the steak piece for her.

“That was delicious, thank you, Selena,” Luna said after topping off the remains of her meal with water from her flask.

“You’re welcome Princess,” Selena said.

“Here, Mom, I saved this for you,” Joel said, holding a bloody leg out to her.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Luna looked a little green seeing his offering and Selena politely turned away to quickly eat it. Once she was done she licked her fingers, studying the volcano. “Princess, do you have a lot of hiking experience?”

“Some, unfortunately I’m not exactly dressed for it,” she said, gesturing to her heeled feet.

Selena nodded and grabbed leather rope from her bag. She clicked her tongue at Koyla, who was in the process of grooming himself. He looked at her, tongue stuck out.

The sight distracted Luna from feeling nauseous and she cooed. “Oh my, that’s adorable.”

“Koyla’s a big jerk baby,” Mole said, jumping on his back as he ambled over to Selena.

“He’s a very good boy,” Selena said, motioning for Mole to get off. “Up you go, Princess.” Once Luna was on him, Selena used the rope to tie her to him, making sure the rope wasn’t too tight. “I suspect the incline will be steep in some places and I don’t want you slipping off,” Selena explained. She turned to her teens. “Stay close and no wandering off,” she said sternly, “I don’t know what’s up there and I don’t want any of us getting separated, understood?”

“Yes, Momma,” the four said in unison.

The trip up was long and hot and even after the sun went down. Thankfully they only ran into a nest of saphyrtails before making the steep climb to the summit. “Woah, what’s this?” Mole asked, shifting back to her human form. She ran up to the stone doors, running her fingers over the decorative carving on the sides of the door. The area was illuminated by light from the full moon.

“Royal Tomb of a former Lucian King,” Luna said, when Koyla rounded the corner. After Selena untied her from the coeurl, Luna approached the doors, resting her hands on them for a moment before shaking her head. “We need a key to enter, I guess we won’t be able to take refuge in here to wait for the Commodore’s arrival.”

“You had mentioned this Commodore uses old dropships, is it distinguishable from the enemy?” Selena asked, setting her bag aside and taking a seat against the stone wall. She passed water flasks to everyone and set wooden bowls out for Koyla and Nero.

Lunafreya took a seat next to her. “Yes, hers is painted red.” Luna smiled wistfully.

Something nagged her in the back of her mind about that, but Selena dismissed it when the thought wouldn’t come forward. “This woman means a lot to you, huh,” she commented, raising an eyebrow when Luna blushed.

Luna cleared her throat. “Ahem, yes, she is a cherished friend.”

“Hm, yes friend,” Serena teased. Luna opened her mouth to protest, freezing in place.

“Are you okay, Princess?” Noel asked, from where she and her siblings were sitting near their mother.

“I feel magic,” Luna murmured, standing up.

“Tenebraen magic? Lucian magic?” Selena asked, unsure if there was even a difference. Her pack’s attention whipped to the edge when they heard voices approaching. “Stay with the Princess,” Selena said, jumping to her feet. Nero and Koyla flanked her, poised to strike at her order.

Men dressed in black leathers rounded the corner and Selena froze when the gentle breeze that had been teasing them brought their scents to her. “Nyx?!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“You know, for all the technical wonders that Lucis has, why don’t they have aircrafts like the Niffs?” Libertus complained as they reached Rock of Ravatogh at sunset.

“Cause we’d steam roll the Niffs, win the war, and then the Lucians would have to find something else to whine about,” Tredd muttered, jumping out. Moira’s team got out of their vehicle and joined them.

Nyx got out, stretching. “Alright, keep your eyes and noses peeled. There’s reports from the local hunters that a Zu is nesting up there. Avoid it, and I’d prefer it if we didn’t need to fight that thing off on top of whatever the Imperial army throws at us.”

As soon as everyone geared up and stretched for the climb, Nyx took off. While they didn’t bump into the Zu, they did bump into a pair of spiracorns fighting saphyrtails and then later on a bunch of killer wasps.

“Ugh, gross,” Moira muttered, rubbing her boot on some rocks to get the wasp guts off. “My team will stay down here.” She said, after they carefully avoided the Zu nest and slid into what had to be the old opening to the volcano.

Nyx nodded. “Sounds good.” He led the way along the narrow cliff’s edge. “Careful,” he said when Luche slipped.

“I’m good. I’m good,” he said, gesturing for Nyx to continue. They rounded the corner to see an old Royal Tomb, which appeared guarded by coeurls and…

“Nyx?!”

Nyx froze. He hadn’t heard that voice in over a decade. The woman was dressed in a brown leather skirt and top. She clicked her tongue and Nyx barely registered that the coeurls went from being ready to attack to sitting. She ran towards them, jumping at Nyx, who dazedly caught her. “Selena?!”

“Holy shit she’s alive,” Crowe whispered.

Nyx got a lungful of her familiar scent and he was hit with memories of their final days together.

“How-How are you alive?” Axis asked, eyes wide with shock.

“Wait, why are you here?” Libertus asked.

Selena looked over Nyx’s shoulder. “The Princess landed on my front doorstep so to speak.” She seemed very reluctant to let her brother go. “Are you the Insomnian forces?”

Nyx nodded, finally finding his tongue. “Yeah, Kingsglaive.”

Their reunion was rudely interrupted when his comm went off.

“
Lieutenant, we’ve got Imperial dropships headed our way!
” Moira’s voice crackled over their comms.

Nyx cursed under his breath. They were sitting ducks up here. “Alright, we’re getting off this volcano, we can’t afford to wait for Commodore Highwind. Moira, cover our six when we reach you.”

“
Yes, sir!
”

Selena wiped tears from her cheeks. “Six, I can’t believe you’ve all made it.” She took a deep breath. “Right, we gotta go. Catch up later.” She ran back to where the Princess was and Nyx was surprised to see a gaggle of teens crowd around her.

“Selena, what’re you doing? We gotta go!” Nyx called when she seemed to be grabbing something from her bag.

“Brother dearest, there’s only one human on this volcano and she is not making the trip down in 10 minutes on her own!” Selena yelled back.

“Am I the only one seeing the coeurls?!” Tredd piped up.

“Nope, and the Princess has balls bigger than our fearless leader,” Luche commented as Luna climbed onto the back of the one with a harness. Once Selena was assured Luna was secured, she gave off a howl and shifted, the teens following her lead and shifting as well.

“What the fuck are those?!” Crowe yelped as they ran by.

“Ask questions later, run now!” Nyx said, following behind the coeurls. Inwardly, he was angry to find out Niflheim’s mad scientist succeeded in his efforts to create an army with a high reproduction rate, capable of infecting humans. And four of them were near his sister. Who was alive all this time. He scolded himself, as he nearly lost his footing in cooling lava. Questions later, focus.

They had just made it to the vans when they heard the dropships getting closer.

Now Nyx had a new problem. They had too many people and not enough room in the vans, having expected to take back just the Princess and maybe one other person.

Selena, who partially shifted back to her human form, seemed to have reached the same conclusion and said, “We’ll follow between your vehicles, Nyx!”

“Right,” Nyx said. That plan would only work temporarily as her little pack of misfits would surely become exhausted by dawn.

“We fighting alongside coeurls now, Lieutenant?” Moira’s second-in-command, Javis, asked as he and his team arrived at their van.

“Looks like,” Nyx replied, heading to his van.

Sonitus was already at their vehicle and had a panel opened. He clicked away at it and the van shifted on its wheels like magitek armour, the roof sliding back and a heavy duty machine gun rose up. It looked like the one from their botched mission six years prior.

“When the hell did we get this upgrade?” Tredd whistled, climbing into the back of the van.

“I was tinkering on my days off, the van will handle the kickback easily,” Sonitus shrugged, getting in the gunner’s seat so to speak.

Nyx motioned for Luche to take the driver seat. “Since we’re tight for space, both teams will provide coverage for the Princess’... entourage.” He grabbed the hand rails on the sides of the van and once both vans were loaded they took off, Luche speeding up so he could lead them away from Rock of Ravatogh.

The biggest problem they faced now was they couldn’t use the cover of night to try to find cover, the full moon was just too bright.

“Be fucking careful, Pelna,” Nyx heard Crowe snarl. He winced, feeling her anxiety of how their current predicament mirrored the incident that put her mate in the hospital.

“I will, Alpha,” Pelna replied, his hands glowing. One of the positives from that incident was his ability to use magic now rivaled Crowe’s.

“Ramuh’s staff, did they send the entire army after us this time?!” Libertus squawked as the dropships came around Rock of Ravatogh like a swarm.

“
If we take them all out would that mean we’d be taking out the Empire too?
” Moira asked over the comms. Fucking optimist, Nyx loved working alongside her team.

Axis laughed. “If we get out of this alive I’ll have a litter of pups.”

“Luche, focus! Axis, not now!” Nyx reprimanded them, nearly losing his footing when Luche hit a very large and missable rock on the road.

“
Sorry
.”

“Libertus, Javis, Pelna, Alexis shield the vans. Sonitus, as soon as they're in range start taking them out,” Nyx ordered.

“
Yes, sir!
” Because as soon as the ships were within his range they’d be within theirs.

It didn’t take long for the ships to catch up to them and to begin firing. The vans drove close to each other so the glaives creating the shield could extend it enough to cover Selena’s pack running between them.

“Damn, Bellum, you gotta retrofit all the vans with that thing,” Javis whistled when Sonitus took his first shot, hitting a dropship as its hatch was opening, blowing the thing up in the air and inflicting damage to ships near it.

It only took Sonitus firing three more successful times before the ships focused their firing power on him, intent on breaking through the shield.

“We… can’t hold this much longer!” Pelna grunted, both hands up while Crowe kept a hand around his waist to keep him on his feet.

“Glaives, move to intercept! If they flank us we’re done for!” Nyx yelled. He pulled his kukri out and warped to the dropship Sonitus wasn’t aiming at. He heard the others follow suit.

They worked with Sonitus, who called out his targets so they could avoid getting caught in the crossfire. It didn’t seem to help though, because for every ship they destroyed, another popped up. It really did feel like Niflheim sent their entire army out.

A drop ship exploded well outside of their range and Nyx watched four red dropships flying in formation slip in and out of the clouds forming above, taking out ships from behind.

“
Nyx, the Princess is yelling about the Commodore, what’s going on?
” Luche said over the comms.

Nyx allowed himself to feel a little relief at that. “The Commodore finally showed up.” He yanked his blade out of the control panel on the drop ship he was hanging on to and fired lightning magic into the mechanics, causing it to seize and lose altitude. He warped to a ship Tredd was on.

An unfamiliar voice spoke over their comms. “
Sorry I’m late, boys, we had a little engine trouble.
”

“Better late than never, Commodore,” Nyx said as they took the ship down.

“Speak for yourself,” he heard Tredd mutter over the noises around them.

“Glaives back to the vans!” Nyx ordered, now that they finally had the upper hand and the Niffs numbers were finally thinning out. Nyx had just tossed his blade to the inside of the van when the shield finally collapsed. Nyx snarled when he ended up taking several shots to the torso, knocking Pelna clean off his feet. The agony spreading over his body made it difficult for him to concentrate on what was happening. Especially when the van suddenly turned so hard he hit the wall of the van, Pelna rolling into him. He heard someone screaming as he blacked out.

“Luche, curve around the cliff wall with me!” Moira yelled, taking a sharp turn. The side of her van dented sharply with the bullets raining down on them. They turned around an outcropping of rock that had enough coverage for Selena and her pack to hide under.

“Shit, Nyx is down!” Luche spun the van to a stop to give them additional coverage. He was just getting out of the van when he saw the dark clouds that had been forming suddenly explode with lightning. That’s when he noticed the air felt different. It felt like home. This wasn’t a storm forming.

“Ramuh?” He whispered.

“Holy shit,” Sonitus said, lowering his gun.

A staff easily the size of one of the skyscrapers in Insomnia came down in the middle of the fleet of ships remaining. Bolts of lightning exploded from the tip, hitting hard enough the ground trembled with aftershocks. The sky lit up as the ships exploded and Luche had to throw a shield up as shrapnel rained down.

“
What the hell was that?!
” The Commodore yelled.

“Protection from the Fulgarian,” Crowe said, dazed.

Shaking himself of his stupor, Luche hurried to open the sliding door of the van to check on Nyx. He found Pelna tearing Nyx’s coat open, both Glaives sighing in relief that despite the heavy blood loss, the lycan’s wounds were healing.

The area was quiet as they took stock of their sudden fortune, then a soft voice spoke up. “Momma, why are you glowing?”

Luche took a step back from the van to see Selena was indeed glowing a faint blue hue. The creatures that had run with her (and the coeurls) had shifted back to their young human forms and appeared deceptively innocent.

“The legends are true.” Luche looked at Moira, who, with her team, watched Selena in awe. “She holds the will of Ramuh’s staff.”

Selena opened her eyes from where she had been kneeling, hands clasped in prayer. She looked at her arms, where the glow faded. “Ramuh answered my pleas, baby.”

She stood and untied the Princess from the coeurl, who immediately shook himself, seemingly happy not to have a human on his back anymore. Selena’s nostrils flared. “You four stay put,” she said, storming over to Luche. “Where is he?”

Luche stepped back and gestured to the van as a pair of red dropships landed nearby, the other two hovering above them. Selena climbed inside, her breath catching when she saw the sight of her brother covered in blood.

“He’ll be okay,” Pelna reassured her. “The bullets popped out a moment ago and his breathing doesn’t sound watery anymore. He just needs food and rest, and a thank you. He saved my life.”

“Idiot,” she hissed under her breath. She took a deep breath to compose herself. “Thank you.”

“Selena, I can’t believe you’re alive!” Selena let Libertus and Crowe hug her. Luche watched her eyes trail after the Princess, who ran up to greet the armed humans disembarking from the ships.

“Good to see you in one piece, Princess,” a woman in armour that reminded Luche of dragon scales said, grunting when the Princess jumped into her arms, hugging her tightly.

“Thank the Astrals you’re okay, Aranea,” Luna said.

“Do you doubt my survival skills?” Aranea gently teased her, though Luche noted she seemed to be holding on just as tightly.

“Lady A, we ‘ave bogies on the radar!” A man called out from the ship she’d walked off of.

“Damn, no time for a reunion with these guys,” Aranea sighed. She let the Princess go and approached Luche. “You the guy in charge?”

Luche shook his head. “Lieutenant Ulric is recovering from gunshot wounds,” he pointed to the van. “Lieutenant Banks would be next in command.”

Moira got out of her van. “Would you be the Commodore?”

Aranea smiled. “The one and only, Lieutenant. Let’s get your vans loaded in the ships.” Her smile dropped and her hand went to the wicked looking spear strapped to her back when she caught sight of the coeurls behind Luche’s van.

“They’re friendly!” Luna said quickly, hand on her arm.

Selena stepped in front of her, her smile strained. “Please don’t harm them, they’re part of my pack.”

Aranea looked at Luna, before sighing and letting go of her spear. “I don’t have time to argue this. I’m trusting you on this, Princess.”

“And you know I have never led you astray,” Luna said, following her to the ship.

Luche and Moira got back into the vans to drive them into separate drop ships, Selena’s pack following her to the Commodore’s dropship that Luche had driven into. Luche watched the teens huddle close to Selena as the ramp lifted and closed. If he hadn’t seen them shift into… furry sabretusks, he would have fully believed them to be her pups.

Luche caught sight of Axis and Tredd and busied himself with making sure his mates were unharmed.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Captain Moffet, make sure everyone’s fed and the injured taken care of, we need the Glaives in tip top shape in case we need them to deploy,” Aranea said over the radio.

“
Yes, Ma’am!
”

Aranea walked into the cargo hold and surveyed the people there. The Glaives were on one side of the cargo hold, separated by the van. They were quietly talking amongst themselves, while periodically looking to the otherside of the van. She looked to the otherside, eyes landing on the woman who had escorted the Princess to safety. She was in the process of cleaning up an unconscious Glaive covered in blood. Aranea raised an eyebrow as the coeurl sitting at her feet tried to grab the bloody cloth only to receive a smack on the nose and a scolding, like he was an unruly puppy not a death cat. “Nero, you know better, I won’t have you soiling the Commodore’s ship just because you think rags are a good snack. You’ll just puke it up later.”

The coeurl yowled petulantly and rested his head on his paws, huffing.

One of the teens giggled. “Nero never learns, Mom.”

Right, those four needed to be addressed before they blew her ship up.

“Is he going to be okay?” Aranea gestured to the bloody Glaive.

The woman smiled. “He’ll be fine, sore and tired but he’s had far worse.”

Aranea nodded. “Can I talk to you in private?”

The woman glanced at a Glaive with a thick braid, who shrugged. She wasn’t sure how to interpret that but filed it away for later as the woman stood up and gestured for Aranea to take the lead.

Aranea led her into the cockpit and up a ladder that went to her office and private quarters. “I suppose to start off with, what’s your name?” Aranea asked, removing her spear and setting it next to her chair. She took a seat behind her desk and gestured to the set of empty chairs for the woman.

“Selena Ulric,” she said, sitting in an offered chair. She leaned back in the chair as if to get comfortable, but Aranea immediately noticed the way her knees were pointed. She was poised to defend herself if needed. Aranea respected that.

“I didn’t know Lieutenant Ulric had a sister.” Not that she knew much about the Glaive leader to begin with, but Selena didn’t need to know that.

“Long assumed dead sister,” Selena said, “No thanks to the Imperial Army that attacked our country. They tried to take me and several others back to Niflheim but the ship was attacked by an unknown force.” She picked dead grass off her leather skirt. “I was the only survivor.”

“And the Nif kids?”

Selena’s face went hard and Aranea swore she saw her skin ripple the way Ravus’ second in command did when she was frustrated. “They’re my kids.” The unspoken threat was clearly heard .

“They’re experiments from Gralea,” Aranea argued. “They were created with the sole purpose of being part of a massive army to take down any threat against the Empire. Whether that’s magical or machine. They’re weapons.”

Selena jumped to her feet, a slingshot in her hands, aimed at Aranea. “They’re just kids! They aren’t soldiers! If you or yours comes near them I’ll gut you!”

Aranea stood up, hand on her spear. “Miss Ulric, my orders are to escort the Princess to Insomnia. I’m only bringing you out of respect for getting her this far but I won’t hesitate to drop you lot to keep my men safe.”

“Fine. Then let us go,” Selena said, hands dropping to her side.

“Ladies, please don’t fight.” Both of them turned to see Luna standing in the doorway to Aranea’s private quarters, freshly washed and dressed in clean clothing borrowed from Aranea’s wardrobe. Aranea was a little distracted with how good the Princess looked in her casual attire. Black leather pants and coat with a grey shirt peeking out and a red scarf loosely tied around her neck.

“Then tell your girlfriend to stop threatening my children.”

Aranea watched the Princess blush and sputter. Oh, that’s new. “Aranea, plea—“

“
Lady A, we need you in the cockpit!
”

Aranea scowled. “We’ll finish this conversation later. Excuse me.” She stormed out and jumped down to the cockpit. “What, this better be good.”

Wedge pointed ahead. “That, ma’am!”

Aranea stared. There was a massive daemon illuminated by the moonlight on the horizon slowly making its way towards the Old Wall, the dropships flying behind it looking like houseflies in comparison. She took the binoculars Biggs offered her to see soldiers on the Wall gearing up for the fight of their lives. She heard Selena and Luna come down the ladder and ignored them as she tried to formulate a plan to tackle such a formidable beast.

Panicked voices and soft crying from the cargo hold broke her concentration. Annoyed at the new distraction, Aranea went to investigate. She found Lieutenant Ulric was awake and surrounded by Selena and her kids. The other Glaives had moved to sit closer clearly to give some form of comfort to the crying teens.

“

Can’t you hear them?

” The smallest of the four sobbed in his native tongue.

“

They won’t stop screaming,

” the girl with short hair sniffled, hands covering her ears. “

They’re in so much pain.

”

Aranea looked at Luna, completely baffled.

Luna had an equally confused look on her face. “The Lieutenant said they just started crying before Wedge called you down.”

“

The madman’s death project,

” the girl with long braided hair whispered, pointing towards the cockpit where they could see the beast on the horizon.

“

Wait, you know what that thing is?

” Aranea asked, switching to speaking Niflheimian.

The girl who whispered, nodded, holding her smallest brother close. “

Failures poured into one massive golem.

”

Aranea had no idea what that meant, because as far as she could see, that thing was no failure. “

Do any of you know how to stop it?

”

This got their attention. The boy who had remained quiet looked to each of his siblings and shrugged. “

The Commodore wasn’t wrong, this is what we were created for.

” He looked at her, wiping the tears off his cheeks. “

We can put it down, Ma’am, but we’ll need you to fly closer.

”

Aranea nodded, hiding the shock that they heard her conversation with Selena. She had a grim smile on her face. “Alright, that plan I can work with,” she said in Lucian. She looked to the rest of the Glaives. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

Nyx was frustrated as he watched his team warp off the ship. He was still recovering from the bullets he’d taken and knew he would have been a liability in the air. He reluctantly handed over leadership to Luche and stayed back with his sister, Pelna, Crowe, and Libertus. While the Glaives provided coverage and distraction against the ships trailing after the daemon, Aranea’s ship was to fly in close so Selena’s kids could do… whatever it was they were going to do.

“Do you think we could make the ship invisible?” Pelna asked from where he was standing with Libertus at the edge of the lowered ramp.

“As long as no one fires anything,” Libertus mused, his ponytail whipping in the wind.

“I could help!” Nyx offered, sitting up. He grunted when Selena yanked him back.

“Absolutely not,” she hissed. “You can barely stand, and now you want to use magic?! Koyla, sit.” She clicked her tongue and pointed at Nyx’s feet.

One of the coeurls got up and loafed against his legs, head resting on his lap. His long whiskers vibrated before curling along his body like his tail.

Crowe smirked from where she was standing on the other side of the ramp. “I’m so happy to see, even after all these years, you still fight dirty, Selena.”

“Mean,” Nyx grumbled, ignoring his self-preservation, and began petting the beast. He was surprised to learn that, like Lucian house cats, coeurls also purred. Loudly. “I’m sorry we thought you were dead,” he said quietly.

“No harm done, I thought you were all dead too,” Selena said, leaning against him. “It was tough, for a while, living alone. I think the depression got to me and that’s why I adopted those two when I found them as kits.” She gestured to the coeurls.

“How’d you keep them from using their death touch ability?” Crowe asked as magic from Libertus and Pelna spread over the ship.

Selena paused. “I don’t know,” she finally said. The other coeurl, Nero, mirrored his brother and leaned against her legs, his whiskers curling around her ankles. “They don’t develop the ability until they’ve reached adulthood and they’ve only used it when we hunted large game. I guess I was just so happy for their company, that I never thought about it.”

Nyx wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his side, the mood in the cargo hold suddenly somber. Nyx didn’t want to think about what his sister would have done if the coeurls hadn’t shown up in her life. Lone lycans never lasted long without a pack. Nyx looked to where the kids Selena had adopted were sitting in a tight circle, eyes shut, and faces tight with concentration. When this was over, he was going to have to get to know his new found sister-sons and sister-daughters.

“
The hell did you guys do to my ship?
” Aranea’s voice filtered over their comms. “
My captains are panicking that we’ve disappeared.
”

“Made it invisible, Ma’am,” Nyx said simply. “As long as you don’t use any weapons we should be able to get close enough to that daemon to take it down.”

“
And you think the kids won’t affect the shield?
” Aranea asked dubiously.

“I have no idea, ma’am,” Nyx replied honestly, “So be prepared to make evasive maneuvers.”

“
Roger that, Lieutenant.
”

Nyx rubbed his cheek against Selena’s head from where it was resting against his shoulder. “Have they ever used their abilities before?”

Selena shook her head. “Not since I took them in eight years ago. They’ve never talked about their time in Zegnautus Keep, all I’ve seen is how they shift, and their penchant for learning as much as they can.”

“Good thing they found you, you’re a walking library of information,” Nyx gently teased. His eyes snapped to the kids in question when he felt the air shift around them. It was like someone had opened an oven door. He could see the heat waves rippling around them as they began whispering under their breath, holding their hands out to the middle of their circle.

“I think that daemon knows what we’re trying to do,” Aranea said over the comms, “Damnit! It keeps trying to swipe at us.”

Nyx groaned, gripping Selena tight as the ship lurched from side to side. “Luche, Moira, status update!”

“
We’re making progress on the ships, Sir!
” Moira said breathlessly.

“
But that daemon has shoulder canons like that emerald weapon we took out six years ago,
” Luche grunted. “
We need those kids to hurry up before it gets within range of the Crownsguard!
”

“
Let the daemon hit them, maybe they’ll have a little more respect for the bullshit us refugees put up with,
” Axis grumbled.

Nyx was about to reprimand him, when the ship hovered before the daemon, letting him get a good look at the thing. It felt like hundreds of eyes were watching them instead of the two beady ones he was staring into. It tried to swipe at them again when it froze. White tendrils of smoke poured out of it and floated into their ship, forming into a ball in the middle of where the kids were sitting. Nyx watched in amazement as the beast let out an unholy shriek that rattled the ship and began to fall apart like a stone statue.

The ball of smoke shone brightly for a moment before disappearing.

“
Did you guys just suck the soul out of that thing?!
” Tredd asked incredulously.

Selena pushed Nero so she could get up and get to her kids as they collapsed from exhaustion.

“I—Maybe?!” Nyx said, completely flabbergasted.

“
Commodore, incoming!
”

There were yells and the sounds of screeching metal as something heavy landed on top of the ship.

“Libertus!” Nyx watched in horror as tentacles reached into the open cargo hold and grabbed a hold of Libertus, throwing him out. Crowe set fire to the other ones while Pelna jumped out after their packmate. The coeurls took a defensive formation with Selena to protect the kids. A tentacle snuck in and grabbed the van. Nyx screamed in pain as the thing slammed the van into his legs, before yanking it out of the cargo hold, almost taking Crowe out with it. Selena shifted and with the coeurls began tearing into the tentacles, blue blood splattering everywhere.

Aranea stormed out of the cockpit, spear in hand. “All of you, hang on to something, we’re going into a nose dive to knock this thing off before it tears my ship apart.”

“Surely abandoning ship would be better?!” Luna asked, following her. She knelt next to the kids where Selena had moved them into the corner of the cargo hold to defend them better and formed a shield to keep them in place.

“I nearly lost you, I’m not about to lose another beloved!” Aranea yelled. “Wedge, drop down now!” Nyx wrapped an arm into the netting along the ship wall, groaning in pain as his broken legs moved with their sudden, sharp downward descent.  He would have found it comical seeing the coeurls scramble against the metal floor for purchase if he wasn’t in so much pain.

Aranea jumped as the ship went down and soon they heard a pained shriek from the tentacle beast wrapped around the ship. Burning and shredded tentacles withdrew from the cargo hold and the ship soon returned to a normal level. A blade struck the ramp and Pelna appeared in a shower of blue sparks with Libertus clinging to him.

“
Land us on the other side of the Old Wall, Wedge, we need to check my baby for damage,
” Aranea ordered.

“
Yes, Ma’am!
”

Nyx groaned and put a finger to his comms. “Luche, Moira, are the remaining ships down?”

“
Yes, sir! We’re headed your way now!
” Moira said.

“
Are you guys okay? That dropship dropped that tentacle monster and then hightailed it out of here,
” Luche said.

“We’ll live,” Nyx said, voice pinched. “Rendezvous beyond the Old Wall.”

“
Yes, Sir!
”

“S’everybody okay?” Nyx called out, struggling to sit up before giving up and just laid down on the bench on his side. Selena growled an affirmative, too on edge to shift back to her human form.

“I am, you two okay?” Crowe said, stumbling to her knees where Pelna and Libertus were sprawled on the floor.

Libertus groaned, rolling onto his back. “Yeah, I’m in one piece.”

“I’m fi—Six Crowe, you’re impaled!” Pelna rolled onto his knees and reached for the metal shrapnel sticking out of her arm, hands hovering above the wound.

“Huh, that explains the pain.” Crowe blinked, letting Pelna pull her to her feet and lead her to the bench by Nyx. Both hissed in sympathy when they saw the state of the alpha’s legs.

“At least the van didn’t smash that pretty face of yours?” Crowe offered, wincing when Pelna removed the shrapnel from her arm.

“Such a relief, this team would fall apart without me,” Nyx mumbled sarcastically, curling his arm under his head.

“Astrals, you need to stop with the hero antics,” Libertus scolded him, getting to his feet.

“I didn’t do anything this time!” Nyx protested, hissing when the dropship hit a pocket of air and jostled his broken legs. “That beast is to blame!”

Libertus sat a ways down the bench to give both injured alphas space. He glanced at the sizable chunks of tentacle meat in the cargo hold. “I’ll make a meal out of ‘im, just for you.”

“Charmer.”

“Please, let me help?” Luna dropped her shield and stood up, carefully walking around Selena and her coeurls.

“Have at’er, Your Highness.” Nyx watched her kneel before him and rest her hands just above his shattered knee caps. Warmth spread from his knees to his toes, it felt a bit like his healing ability but much faster. He groaned in pain as his fibula tried to heal crooked. “Ya gotta move the bones back into place,” he gasped out.

“Here, let me assist you, Highness,” Pelna said, swiftly undoing and pulling Nyx’s boot off. He unceremoniously broke the bone from where it tried to heal incorrectly. Ignoring Nyx’s muffled cries of pain, he reset the bone, and wrapped his hands around Nyx’s calf, nodding to Luna to finish healing his leg. He repeated the same thing to his other leg and the tension bled out of Nyx’s body.

“Thank you, Princess,” Nyx panted. “Thanks, Pel, I owe you one.”

Pelna snorted, straightening up. “Hardly, you took those bullets for me. I owe you.” He offered a hand to Luna, who graciously accepted it.

“Call it even.” Nyx stood slowly. “I’m getting too old for this shit.” He reached for his boots to slip them back on.

Pelna paused when Luna continued to hold his hand, a puzzled look on her face. “Erm, Princess? Could I have my hand back?”

“You’re pregnant,” she said, her voice a mix of surprise and confusion.

Both Nyx and Crowe’s eyes snapped to the bearded omega. “What?!”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Nyx sat back down with Crowe, torn between sticking with them and going to the cockpit to check in with the Crownsguard. Deciding duty could wait a minute, he looked at Luna who helped Crowe heal from the shrapnel in her arm. “What do you mean pregnant? I can’t smell anything on him.”

“Same and he’s my mate!” Crowe glared. “If this is some royal hazing—”

“No, no, I assure you I would never joke about pregnancy,” Luna assured her, actually looking mildly offended that Crowe would insinuate such a thing. “How soon can you detect when a… mate is with child?”

Crowe looked at Nyx, who shrugged. “A few weeks after the date of conceiving?”

Luna nodded, wiping blood off Crowe’s arm. “With my gifts I am able to detect a person’s pregnancy within hours of conceiving.”

Pelna sat down, looking faint. “But I take my birth control like clockwork. I never miss a dose!”

“Foods and medications can affect its effectiveness,” Luna said gently. “Are you on any antibiotics, anti-seizure medication? Have you had any changes to your diet?”

“No, nothing like that, I mean Libs started adding seeds to his cooking and convinced us to do it too, but we haven’t really changed anything besides that,” Pelna said, frowning.

“I will have to check, but I believe that may be the culprit.” Luna nearly lost her footing when the ship suddenly landed. “My deepest apologies if this is bad news for you both.”

Pelna smiled weakly, taking Crowe’s bloody hand and kissing her knuckles. “Just poorly timed, Your Highness.”

“I can let you know what seeds I’ve been adding, Your Highness,” Libertus said, looking guilty.

Nyx’s comm was going off with chatter and he sighed. “I’m sorry, duty calls. Whatever you two decide, the pack stands with you.” He said, standing. He checked in with Selena, who had shifted back to her human form and was sitting on the floor with her pups curled up against her and on her, both coeurls sitting on their haunches as if on guard duty. Blue blood and chunks of tentacle surrounded them. “Are you all okay?”

Selena nodded. “I’m good, they’re just tired.”

“Okay, hang tight, I need to check in with the Crownsguards.” Nyx stiffly left the dropship, his body protesting the abuse it’d suffered over the course of the night. The tension in his back eased as he did a head count on his pack and Moira’s team and saw they weren’t missing anyone. He nodded to Aranea who was with Wedge and Biggs inspecting her ship for damage. He checked in with his Glaives and Moira to make sure they were okay before heading to the command tent that was set up.

Cor was there with team leads standing around a table with a map spread out. His eyes snapped to Nyx and they flashed blue. Cor frowned. “You’re covered in blood, Lieutenant.”

Nyx let go of the fabric covering the doorway and looked down at himself and grimaced. “It got messy out there. Marshal, we have a serious situation.”

“You mean that mountain of a monster wasn’t serious enough?!” One of the team leads interrupted.

“All of you get your teams ready to leave. We have the Princess, we’re to depart in twenty minutes.” Cor looked at them and Nyx was pretty sure they would have combusted on the spot if they didn’t leave right away. Cor cocked his head to the side as if listening before beckoning Nyx closer. Cor pressed his face into his neck and inhaled slowly. “You should be resting,” he said quietly, “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Nyx rested his hands on his hips, mostly to steady himself. “I’ll rest when we arrive in Insomnia.”

Cor rumbled his disapproval but stepped back. “What’s the situation?”

“Well, I found out my sister isn’t dead, she was the one who escorted the princess to Rock of Ravatogh, but she wasn’t alone. She has a pair of pet coeurls with her and four children from Niflheim. They’re from Besithia’s god project, we’re too late.”

Cor tensed. “Show me.”

They left the tent, Cor ordering the Crownguard that were guarding it to tear it down. They entered the dropship to find Luna passing water bottles to a group of children, who were sitting with a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Nyx. The children reminded him of someone, but at that moment he couldn’t think of who. He filed the thought away to examine later. He saw Libertus sitting near Pelna and Crowe, who seemed preoccupied with something other than who they were sharing their space with.

He stopped in his tracks, hand on his katana when two coeurls moved to block him from coming closer, growling softly at him.

“Selena, Princess, this is Marshal Leonis, head of the Crownsguard,” Nyx introduced, holding his hands up placingly.

“Nero, Koyla sit!” Selena ordered, snapping her fingers.

“Nero, c’mere!” The child with long hair called, holding her hands out.

Cor raised an eyebrow as the coeurls listened and went to sit with the group, one of them flopping on the girl, exposing his belly for pets.

“Selena’s kids are the reason that monster went down,” Nyx explained.

“The king needs to be made aware of this,” Cor said, letting go of the handle of his blade.

“As I explained to the Commodore, the seven of us stick together, Marshal,” Selena said evenly.

Nyx could see the tension in his mate’s jaw and knew the coeurls would be an issue being brought into the city.

“Selena—”

“INCOMING!”

An explosion knocked both of them off their feet. Cor was quick to recover and bolted out of the ship, Nyx hobbling after him. A new fleet of drop ships had arrived, this time carrying massive shipping containers that were dropped on the wall, while firing rockets into their encampment.

“Shields!” Nyx yelled. The Glaives barely had time to erect shields large enough to protect them and the Crownsguards.

“Lycus, Fortis, Argent return fire!” Cor ordered into his comms. The Crownsguard had machine gun nests and multi-rocket launchers set up two hundred feet from the wall; the ones that had been on the wall were swiftly taken out.

“Commodore!” Nyx called out, finding her on top of her ship. “Is your ship intact?”

“Yes, but barely after that attack!” Aranea replied, jumping down.

“Take the Princess and get to Insomnia,” he said, handing her a key card. “My access code to grant you access through the Wall. We’ll provide you with coverage.”

“Right, Wedge, Biggs let’s go! Captains Moffet, Garret, and Daris, watch our six! We’ll rendezvous in Lestallum in a week!” Aranea tapped her comms, stomping up the ramp, passing Selena and her coeurls.

“Pelna, go with them, make sure they get to the Citadel,” Nyx ordered.

Pelna glared, clearly catching on that Nyx was intentionally keeping him out of the fight. “Now hold on a sec—!”

“Do as he says, love,” Crowe said, kissing him hard, before disembarking with Libertus.

“You too, brother,” Selena said, “You’re in no shape to fight.”

“What—!” Nyx yelped as he was shoved into the cargo hold.

“I’m trusting you with my kids, Nyx!” Selena called as the ramp doors closed.

“Glaives, protect the Commodore’s ship until she’s out of range!” Crowe ordered. “You sure about joining us, Selena?”

“I owe them a fight,” Selena growled, twisting her thick braid into a bun. She looked at her coeurls. “Follow my lead, no humans!”

The containers on the Wall opened to reveal angry-looking behemoths, nagas, and swarms of ahriman daemons. The dropships flashed bright lights at the daemons, making them drop, scuttle, and slither down the wall towards them.

“Crownsguard focus on the daemons, Glaives take out the ships!” Cor ordered over the comms.

Crowe relayed what Cor said to Selena who nodded and shifted, following after Libertus. Selena felt a strange sort of energy flowing through her as she and her coeurls worked with Libertus to take out MTs that jumped from the ships. It was like she was part of their hunting parties back in Galahd except she didn’t have to be careful about where she dug her claws and teeth in.

“

Just like old times, eh?

” Axis’ voice drifted through her head when her party met with his.

Selena gave him a toothy grin and an aggressive head bump before a rocket detonated near them, sending both omegas flying in opposite directions.

Axis landed behind a platoon of Crownsguard, rolling to a stop against the sandbags of a machine gun nest. His eyes widened in horror when he saw a stray rocket headed directly for Luche, who was too busy fending off a naga that had latched onto his leg while he was hanging off the wall by his blade to notice.

“LUCHE, NO!”

“Cover him!”

“Flares!”

Flares were shot into the sky, causing the rocket to detonate long before it reached Luche. The naga attacking him was distracted by the blast, giving Luche enough time to wrench its head back to blast a fire spell down its throat.

A redheaded ‘guard approached Axis and offered him a hand. “Axis Arra, right?” He smelled vaguely familiar. “You okay?”

Axis accepted his hand and allowed him to help him to his feet. “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for saving my partner.”

“You saved my son, Jack, six years ago, I’m grateful I could finally repay you for that,” the man said, wincing when a rocket went off nearby. “Anyway, let’s catch up later, when we aren’t at risk of dying!” The man jumped back into the machine gun nest and resumed firing at the daemons.

That explained why he smelled familiar. The omega remembered the Lucian infant. His friend, Gina, told him months later that if they had waited until the following day to take him to see a doctor he would have died in his sleep, that her friend owed him big time. Axis was just happy she listened and didn’t dismiss his concerns.

Axis joined the group losing ground to the swarm of ahriman and let loose with the lightning magic. A sneaky ahriman got the jump on him and Axis howled with rage when it stabbed him in the arm. Throwing caution to the wind, Axis shifted, tearing the daemon to pieces.

Several sets of magitek armour landed on the wall and a voice boomed over the battlefield. “Cor Leonis, please make your way to the top of the wall to repent for the damage you did to my armour!”

“Caligo Ulldor,” Cor spat, wiping blood off his lip.

Selena tore the head of an MT off, snarling. “

Mole still has nightmares about that man.

” Cor felt her angry thoughts run through his mind, along with flashes of a whimpering, sleeping child, with short hair. Cor liked the lycan’s telepathy ability, it was straight to the point.

“

Then let’s give her a reason to rest easy,

” Cor replied, stabbing his blade into the chest of another MT, slicing upwards to cut its head in half. While Selena and her coeurls used the daemons pouring over the wall as leverage to move upwards, Cor was a little less subtle. He blinked in and out of existence, making short work of the ten meter tall wall.

“How gracious of you to come,” Ulldor sneered. “Perhaps when I’m done killing you I will thank you. The upgrades I received after the destruction you caused are a thing of beauty.”

As if to prove his point, he suddenly grabbed Nero who was in mid leap, electricity ripping through the coeurl’s body before Ulldor shook the beast. He carelessly tossed Nero off the wall before firing at Selena and Cor at the same time.

Selena roared her anguish as she rolled off the container she’d landed on, hiding from the spray of bullets. He would pay for what did to Nero.

Nyx got to his feet, growling. He couldn’t believe his sister did that! “Oh shut up,” he glared at Pelna who looked amused at his predicament.

“Serves you right, Hero,” Pelna said sweetly.

“Lieutenant Ulric, you should sit down,” Luna said from her spot on the floor next to Selena’s kids.

Nyx’s snarky reply died on his tongue when he saw them watching him inquisitively. “Would you kids be okay with me joining you?” He asked instead.

The girl with hair similar to Selena’s nodded and moved Selena’s bag to create a spot beside her. She patted the empty floor next to her.

He stiffly sat down with a groan. “I’m Nyx, your mom’s brother,” he introduced himself, while Luna discreetly stood up and took a seat with Pelna, not used to sitting on metal floors for extended periods of time.

“Mom thought the Niffs got you,” the larger of the two boys said.

Nyx’s lips quirked into a half smile. “I thought the same of her. What are your names?”

“I’m Noel,” the long-haired girl said.

“I’m Cole,” the larger boy said.

“I’m Joel,” the smaller boy said.

“I’m Mole,” the short-haired girl said.

Nyx gave them a real smile. “Fun names, I like them.”

“Are you friends with Marshal Leonis of Lucis?” Mole asked, eyes wide.

“Yes, he’s also my mate,” Nyx said and glanced at Luna. “Though we keep that private because Lucians have weird customs about who you can and can’t have romantic relationships with.”

“He’s so cool,” Mole whispered.

“Mole has had the biggest crush on him,” Cole said, grinning when Mole glared at him. “She wants to be just like him when she grows up.”

“Shut up, jerk!” She hissed.

“Hey now let’s talk about what a great goal that is,” Nyx swiftly redirected the conversation. “Joel, what about you? What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

“He’s a natural uncle,” Luna commented to Pelna.

“Uncle—Oh that Lucian word, yeah Nyx is awesome with pups,” Pelna smiled. “He was pretty depressed after the fall of Galahd. He had a pack of over three hundred lycans, biggest in the area. Not to say we all weren’t feeling it, but he was really connected with his packmates and it just hit him the hardest. I was worried when the king created the Kingsglaive that he’d purposely get himself killed,” Pelna whispered that last bit. “But thankfully he just needed a new thing to focus on. Shacking up with the Marshal also seems to have done wonders for his mental health.”

Luna smiled, suddenly too concerned about the Lieutenant’s mental health to laugh. “I have overheard some of Aranea’s men boast the magical properties of their genitalia,” she joked weakly.

Pelna’s laughter was cut short when they heard Aranea cursing up a storm.

“Where the hell were these assholes hiding?!”

All three adults got up and stood in the doorway to see a group of dropships waiting for them beyond the canyon. Nyx growled. “Damnit, can you outrun them?”

“We can try but we’d be putting ourselves at risk of getting shot down, and our ammunition is low,” Wedge said grimly.

Nyx sighed. “Lower the hatch, I’ll take care of it.”

“Lieutenant, are you sure?” Luna frowned.

“Not by yourself!” Pelna protested.

“Yes by myself, I’m not getting flayed alive by your— by Crowe, besides I need someone to watch them,” he pointed to the kids.

“Asshole,” Pelna growled under his breath as Nyx walked down the hatch and disappeared into a shower of blue sparks.

A tug on his sleeve had Pelna look over to see Cole standing there. “Can we help?”

“Um.” Pelna looked at Luna. “I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

“We’ll stay right here!” Noel said, standing next to her brother.

Pelna yelped when something heavy landed on the ramp of the ship, knocking him and Luna into the kids. “What the—”

Luna stiffened next to him. “General Glauca.”

A massive man wrapped head to toe in armour stood there, blade drawn. “Princess Lunafreya, you’ve made a grave error defying the Emperor’s request to join him in Gralea.”

“I disagree, General,” Luna said, helping Cole and Noel to their feet. “The Emperor has gone mad and I will not be a puppet in his games.”

“Come with me and I will spare the lives on this ship.” General Glauca held out his hand not holding his sword.

“No!” Luna glared.

“Then their deaths will be on your hands.” Glauca launched himself at them, his sword tearing into the hull as he swung to slice at them. Pelna erected a shield, stopping the general in his tracks.

“
On my mark drop your shield,
” Aranea hissed over the comms.

Pelna grunted as Glauca viciously hacked at the shield, damaging the hull further. “Hurry up!”

The ship suddenly shot upwards, making Glauca stumble back. “Now!”

Pelna dropped it half way to keep the teens from sliding down with Glauca. The Niff general stabbed his sword into the floor to stop himself from sliding further only to be forced to let go when Aranea appeared, spear shoved into his chest plate, knocking both of them out of the ship.

“Not again,” Pelna groaned as the ship leveled out. He dropped the shield and unsheathed his blade. “You four stay put!” He yelled, running off the ramp after Aranea.

Cole looked out the cockpit windows behind Wedge’s seat. “Mom’s brother needs help,” he said, watching Nyx struggle to take the ships out without getting shot in the process.

“Let’s help him!” Noel said.

“The soldier said not to though,” Joel pointed out, getting to his feet.

“No, he said he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea,” Noel replied. “Besides, he also said stay put and it’s not like we gotta leave the ship to do this.”

“I guess,” Joel said reluctantly.

“What are you going to do?” Luna asked. Lights caught her attention and she frowned, watching Glauca’s sword disappear in a glimmer of blue sparks from where it had been lodged into the flooring of the ship.

“What we were born to do,” Cole said simply as the four of them stood shoulder to shoulder facing towards the cockpit.

“Disable the enemy!” Mole said with a grin.

The problem with their well meaning intentions was they hadn’t practised their unique ability to sabotage technology in over eight years. So when they put out an EMP burst, the enemy ships went down like rocks in a pond, but it also affected the ship they were in.

“Mom’s gonna kill us!” Joel yelled as the ship dropped.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“What’s the plan, Marshal?” Libertus grunted, hiding behind the downed dropship with him, Crowe joining them.

“Take him out before Selena gets herself killed trying,” Cor said bluntly.

“Great plan, does it come with details?” Crowe snarked.

Cor looked around them, eyes falling to an empty container fifty feet away. “How powerful are your magic abilities?” He asked Crowe.

“The best in the Glaive division,” she said proudly.

“Would you be able to lift that thing and drop it on Ulldor while I have him distracted?”

Crowe frowned. “I’d need completely uninterrupted concentration to do it.”

“I can help,” Libertus said, wincing when bullets pierced through a weak point in the dropship and missed the top of his head by inches.

“Get it done!” Cor swiped grenades from a dead MT near them, unpinned them and threw them in Ulldor’s direction, disappearing.

Ulldor laughed as Cor appeared above him, shooting the grenades before they came close to hitting him. “Do you really think we would never catch on to your little abilities, Cor the Immortal?”

“Don’t much care if you have, General Ulldor,” Cor replied, hissing when Ulldor launched a flamethrower attack, forcing Cor to disappear to put out the fire on his leg. “If you claim to know so much about me, shouldn’t you be trying to capture me for your chief research scientist?” Cor taunted, reappearing to slice at the legs of his armour, and disappearing when Ulldor tried to shoot at him.

“That has been a request, yes, but I can hardly control what happens on the battlefield, now can I?!”

Cor reappeared where Selena and her coeurl were hiding. “

Wait until Crowe has him pinned down before attacking,

” he thought to her, letting her see the recent memory.

Selena huffed but nodded and Cor disappeared and reappeared behind Ulldor, relief flooding through him when he saw Crowe was successful in using wind magic to lift the shipping container. He appeared within Ulldor’s sights with a smirk, sheathing his blade. “No you can’t, and that’s why I’ll always be the one that got away on you.”

He disappeared before Ulldor could respond, wincing at the harsh, but satisfying crunching noise his armour made from getting crushed beneath the shipping container. He watched from his perch on a downed dropship, as Selena and her coeurl jumped over their hiding spot and tore into the mangled metal, grim satisfaction filling the air as the commander screamed.

Something tugged at his senses and he looked beyond the battle raging on below. His eyes widened when he saw the Commodore’s ship in the distance going down. He tapped his comms. “The Commodore’s ship is going down, do we have any ships available to intercept?!”

“
If we can get these bugs off us, we can be in the air in no time!
” Captain Moffet replied.

Cor surveyed the battlefield, taking note of the Glaives overwhelming the last remaining ships. “Crownsguard, focus on clearing out the daemons surrounding the red ships. Glaives, rendezvous with Captain Moffet’s ship, the Commodore’s ship was intercepted.”

He jumped off the dropship and landed by Crowe and Libertus, who were panting and covered in sweat. “Are you two okay?”

“Winded, but we’ll be good to go when the ‘guards get that ship cleared,” Libertus said, leaning against the ship.

Cor nodded and jumped off the wall, unsheathing his blade to land on an unsuspecting behemoth.

Selena shrunk back down to her human form, blood dripping from her hands. Koyla looked up from where he had been muzzle deep in Ulldor’s chest. “Let’s go find your brother.”

Koyla growled and followed after her. They scaled down the wall on their claws, landing on a behemoth that was bearing down on a group of injured Crownsguard. It was a simple flick of his whisker for Koyla to put the beast down. Ignoring the men, Selena hurried to where Nero had fallen into a thick bush. “Nero, Nero talk to me, sweetie.”

The coeurl was motionless until his brother tactlessly bit his paw. Nero awoke, yowling, and took a swipe at Koyla. Selena choked on a sob, relief flooding through her body. Uncaring of the bush scratching at her skin, she hugged her kit. “Can you stand?” She asked, stepping back. Nero rolled out of the bush onto shaky paws. Selena checked him over quickly for any serious injuries, finding only minor scrapes and electrical burns. “Let’s get back to it, boys,” she said, turning back to the fight to come face to face with a hissing naga. Shots rang out and the naga was soon a bloody heap. Eyes wide, she looked up to see a redheaded man carrying a large rifle.

“Thanks for saving my men, little lady,” he said with a grin, slinging his gun over his shoulder. “Now we’re even.”

Selena released a breath and nodded. “So we are. Could you point me in the direction of Marshal Leonis, please?”

“Follow the carnage, Miss,” he pointed in the direction of the red ships being swarmed by daemons and Glaives.

“Thank you!” By the time the trio made it to the ships, the Glaives and Cor had all but wiped out the daemons surrounding the ships. Two of the ships were damaged but the third was soon hovering with the ramp lowering to let the Glaives board.

“Selena, help Axis and Tredd clean up,” Cor ordered, jumping onto the ramp.

“I’m not one of your soldiers,” Selena grumbled, watching the ship leave.

The sky was lighting up as dawn approached. Nyx clung to the side of the dropship he was trying to sabotage, inwardly regretting not allowing Pelna to help. The adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping him upright at this point. He ripped the panel protecting important wires and began tearing them apart, flinching when shots rang out, missing his arm by inches. He yanked his kukri out of the ship and goaded the other ship into shooting at him again, dodging the bullets which fired into the unprotected casing, causing the ship to lose altitude. He warped the next ship, getting hit with a case of vertigo when the ship suddenly dropped and continued to drop. He saw the other ships also falling out of the sky and warped away to the cliff side nearby, stumbling when the shock wave from them exploding hit him.

“What the hell?!” His eyes widened when he saw the Commodore’s ship also in free fall. Below the ship was the Commodore herself fighting someone, alongside Pelna, seemingly unaware of what was hurtling towards them.

Nyx warped as fast as he could and threw a shield up to at least soften the blow of the ship crashing. Whoever was piloting it had launched parachutes with the same idea.

Pelna realised what was happening above them and unceremoniously grabbed Aranea, warping them out of danger. Nyx dropped to his knees, letting the shield shatter. The ship hit the ground with a loud thud, thankfully the parachutes kept it from hitting the ground nose down.

Panting, he heaved himself to his feet and as he got closer, realised who they were fighting.

General Glauca.

He never crossed blades with the man, but heard plenty of tales from Cor and others about his ruthless approach on the battlefield.

“You’re pregnant.”

The princess’ words echoed through his head, and though the omega wasn’t his, Nyx wasn’t going to stand by helpless as the Empire murdered any more of his pack. Renewed energy roared through his veins and Nyx took off running, throwing his blade to warp, deflecting Glauca’s killing strike aimed at Pelna.

“Give me the Princess and I will cease further bloodshed,” Glauca rumbled, jumping away to avoid Aranea who came down and cratered the ground where he stood.

“Yeah?” Pelna breathed heavily, striking him with electricity, barely slowing the Imperial general down as he collided with Nyx. “Tempting offer if you lot hadn’t destroyed our homeland!”

Nyx warped around the man, slipping in attacks where he could while Pelna used his magic to keep Glauca on the move. Suddenly Glauca launched himself upwards, colliding with Aranea who tried to dive bomb him again. Grabbing her spear, he threw her into Pelna and somehow propelled himself towards her downed ship, swinging his sword. He caught Nyx, mid warp, his sword embedded in his hip.

Screaming, Nyx stabbed both of his kukris into Glauca’s armpits where his armour plates didn’t meet. “It’s over, Glauca,” Nyx snarled, eyes purple as his lycan side clawed to come out and finish the job.

“It’s over when the king of Lucis dies!” Glauca growled, kicking Nyx into the ship. He yanked Nyx’s blades out of him and tossed them aside but then stopped mid stride. Nyx paused in his efforts to get back up and watched as the general retreated of all things. The alpha soon realised why when Cor dropped down from wherever, katana drawn. Cor chased after the general and Nyx slumped over on the floor of the ship, happy to trust his mate to deal with the threat Glauca posed.

“Nyx?!”

“Lieutenant!”

He hissed quietly when hands touched his hip. “I’ll live.”

“You need a doctor!” Luna said, removing her scarf to stem the blood seeping from his wound.

“I need less murderous Nifs in my life,” Nyx corrected as Aranea and Pelna boarded the ship. He saw a red ship land a hundred yards from the Commodore’s and Glaives poured out to follow Cor to wherever Glauca went.

“Is Nyx gonna die?” Joel whimpered.

“Tis but a scratch, I’ve had worse,” Nyx quoted in a terrible Tenebraean accent.

“Good, then you can clean up the mess you’ve made on my ship!” Aranea growled, carefully stepping around him to go to the cockpit. “Wedge, status report!”

“Enough heroics, Astrals, Nyx,” Pelna said, kneeling next to him. “Can you heal him like before?”

“I can but I’m serious, he needs a blood transfusion,” Luna said, removing her bloody scarf and holding her hands just above his hip. She wasn’t wrong, he could feel even with the help of her magic, how slowly he was healing.

“Nyx.”

Nyx looked towards the ramp of the ship to see Cor standing there, katana sheathed. “I am so glad to see you, beautiful,” he said carelessly. He patted Pelna’s knee. “He’s a good man, the best. D’ya know he can lift me like paper?”

“And I think it’s time you went down for a nap.” Pelna said, resting a hand on Nyx’s dirt-streaked forehead.

“You and Crowe with the naps,” Nyx protested, passing out.

Private Fredrick Lycus watched from his perch in the machine gun nest as the Glaives regrouped. He’s heard guys in the other platoons say nasty things about the Glaives being aliens but he just chalked it up to racist bullshit. Seeing Axis and the other Glaives shift into werewolf looking mother fuckers, well, it didn’t change his positive opinion of the other guy, but it did explain why his request to transfer divisions was rejected twice.

“Smalls!” He barked, jumping out of the nest. “Let’s get this thing loaded back into the truck!”

“Yes, Sir!”

He surveyed the battlefield, mood going grim. So many good soldiers dead. He hoped this princess was worth it. “Dozer, Ackter, let’s get the dead bagged and tagged.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Axis surprised him by joining him, helping him load the deceased into the back of one of the vans that had been brought closer. “Thanks, Axis,” Fredrick said, when they finished.

“You are welcome, you guys were a big help,” Axis said roughly, his accent soft. “This was not our usual deployment.”

“Glad to hear they didn’t die for nothing,” Fredrick said. “Do you want some fresh clothes?” It was hard not to notice his uniform was in tatters and that the Glaive’s ass was wagging in the wind.

Axis smirked. “I suppose I should not make you feel inferior with my shining assets.”

Fredrick laughed, going to the front seat of the van to grab his bag. He politely turned away to let Axis change and his attention drifted to the woman in the leather outfit, who was helping their medics bandage the injured for the ride home. She reminded him of Lieutenant Ulric. “Is she with your unit?” He asked, pointing to her. He glanced back and internally winced at the scarring on the man’s upper body. It looked like he once had a tattoo that had been clawed off. The bites on his neck were layered and the redhead didn’t want to think about how he ended up with them.

“Hm? Selena? No, we thought she was dead when the Nifs invaded Galahd ten years ago,” Axis said, pulling the navy shirt on. “She is Nyx’s sister and I for one would like to know how she lived.”

“Will of the Gods?” Fredrick half joked.

Axis looked like he wanted to roll his eyes but paused and looked thoughtful. “Maybe.”

“Hey bro, you good?” Axis tensed beside him as another Crownsguard approached them.

“That’s Private to you and as good as I’ll ever be. Axis, this is my brother Lars.”

“Oh shit, you’re Axis? Dude, it’s so good to finally meet you!” Lars grabbed his hand and enthusiastically shook it. “Man, I can’t believe you make time to go to the park with the kids on your days off if this is the shit y’all gotta deal with on the regular.”

“That’s why I go. Mostly. To forget it,” Axis said quietly. His face lit up when he saw a dirty blond and a redhead approach, the sun rising behind them.

“Everything okay, Axis?” The blond asked, eying Fredrick and Lars with a neutral expression.

“You switching teams on us, babe?” the redhead joked, looking over the borrowed navy coloured clothes that had CG stitched into the breast and hip.

“Just getting tired of my ass feeling cold. Private Fredrick Lycus and Lars Lycus, this is Luche and Tredd my, ah—”

“Husbands,” Luche said coolly.

“Wait, you aren’t single?!” Lars said to Luche, disappointed. He elbowed Axis. “Way to win the lottery twice.”

Axis’ cheeks reddened. “Yes, I suppose you could say that.” He flinched when one of the red dropships suddenly came to life. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “We should finish packing up.”

Luche nodded, his face going from surprised to serious. He looked Fredrick over. “What else needs to be done, Private Lycus?”

By the time they had the weapons packed, the last dropship was operational and it was decided the seriously injured were given priority for seating in the ships. Those who weren’t were to drive the vans and trucks back to Insomnia. Fredrick was more than a little relieved to see there was still room for the uninjured Crownsguard to sit with the Glaives in the last ship. Pulling rank over Fortis and Argent, he got his team situated with the remaining Glaives.

“Can I ask you a question, Miss?” Lars said ten minutes after the ship took off.

Selena looked up from where she was checking the massive paws of the two coeurls that also joined them on board. “Certainly.”

“Could I pet your coeurl?”

Dozer snorted from where he was seated near the cockpit. “If I wasn’t witnessing this crazy moment I’d say that was the crudest pick up line I’ve ever heard.”

Selena giggled, letting go of the coeurl’s paw. “Nero, go say hi. Fair warning though, he may—” She winced when Nero flopped against his legs, wiggling to expose his belly. “Do that.”

“Holy Bahamut, I’m gonna die happy now!” Lars grinned, sinking his hands into the rough fur. “Who’s a good boy?! Who’s a good boy?! Your fur is so thick!” Loud purring filled the space of the cargo hold, slightly easing the tension everyone had about being in close quarters with the death cats.

“

I like these guys, they’re fucking weird,

” Tredd muttered in Galahdian.

“You got any plans when we get home?” Fredrick asked Axis.

“Besides showering with water pressure and sleeping in a real bed? Nothing, why?”

“You and your hubbies are welcome to come over for dinner, I bet Candice would love to see you again.”

Axis glanced at Luche and Tredd. “I suppose we could do that.”

Tredd grinned. “We finally get to meet your dainty Lucian?”

Axis kicked his foot, rolling his eyes. “You’re thinking of Gina.”

Later on when the Glaives had all fallen asleep, Fredrick motioned for his men to huddle at the back of the ship. “As far as anyone’s concerned, the Glaives are human, got it?” He stared each of them down hard. His men nodded. “Make sure your reports reflect that.” They all heard whispers about the tattooed refugees from Niflheim during their patrols in the districts and the last thing Fredrick wanted was for their best chance at winning this damned war getting kicked out of the city. At least he didn’t have to try to convince Fortis or Argent to keep their mouths shut. Their teams were too far away to see how the Glaives really fought when push came to shove.

“Is magically putting him to sleep such a good idea?”

Aranea glanced back from where she was helping Biggs reset the engine to see Cor frowning at Pelna.

Pelna looked at him, offended. “Obviously not. The brain’s easy to trick when you’ve been up for over 24 hours. He passed out on his own, he’ll be okay.”

Cor nodded, looking a little more at ease. He locked eyes with Aranea. “Is your ship damaged?”

Aranea kicked at a panel and the ship rumbled to life. “She’s a fighter, nothing spot welding and a fresh paint job won’t fix,” she said proudly, stepping into the cargo hold. “All threats neutralized?”

“For the moment, but let’s not wait around to find out. What’s the status on your other ships? I’d like to have all Lucian forces back in Insomnia, ASAP.”

Aranea tapped at the controls. “Captain Garret, Captain Daris are you mobile?”

“
Yes, Ma’am, we’re just loading the injured now.
”

“Good, new plan, meet us at the West Gate of Insomnia,” She said. She sat down heavily in the co-pilot seat Biggs had vacated. “I need a drink. And a shower. Maybe a nap.” She side-eyed Nyx, who had been dragged into the corner the kids were still occupying.

“Do we still gotta go, Miss?” One of the girls piped up.

“What?” Aranea looked confused.

“You didn’t want us here and Mom said we were gonna go,” she said.

Right, these little mutants had exceptional hearing. “Pretty sure if I kick you four out now, he’ll wake up and kick my ass,” Aranea pointed at Nyx. “Never mind what your mother would do.”

“They’ll have to get in line,” Pelna said seriously, from where he was seated with them.

“The King needs to meet them anyway, to get a full grasp on the situation,” Cor said as Crowe, Sonitus, and Libertus boarded the ship.

Aranea held her hands up. “Your funeral, man. Just don’t kill my engine again; got it?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” All four said in unison.

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea,” the smallest of the four mumbled.

“Hey, you adopting now?” Crowe teased, settling down next to him.

Pelna rested his head under her chin. “Just babysitting.”

“Princess, care to join me for a drink?”

Luna gave Aranea a tired smile from where she was seated next to Nyx. “Certainly, Commodore.”

Aranea’s cheeks went pink when one of the Glaives rumbled, “Ten credits says Princess gets confused by the Commodore’s advances.”

Several Glaives snickered, while Pelna scowled. “You’re such a pig, Sonitus.”

Aranea wasn’t that vague about her advances, thank you very much. They headed up to her private quarters. Aranea pulled out a container with leftovers to go with the wine she put on the table. “It’s not much,” she started to say when Luna interrupted her.

“It’s practically a feast, thank you, Aranea,” Luna said, grabbing a pair of glasses. She poured them each a glass of wine. She clasped her hands together. “Thank you for guiding us to Insomnia, please take care of the fallen men and women who gave their lives to protect me.”

Aranea drank with her, before removing her spear, setting it against the wall by her bed. “Eat, I’m going to have a shower then I’ll join you.”

“Alright.”

Aranea stripped down in the tiny bathroom while waiting for the water to warm up. She slipped in and groaned, leaning her head against the wall. She’d seen the way Glauca dominated the battlefield but had never been on the receiving end of his wrath. Her ribs ached from where he had kicked her. She gently pressed her fingers into them, relieved her armour was able to take the brunt of the blow and save her from broken ribs.

“That looks painful.”

Aranea slipped and nearly brained herself off the taps. “Astrals, Luna, don’t sneak up on me like—” Aranea completely forgot what she was going to say when she saw Luna standing there without a stitch of clothing on. “Uh,” Aranea said eloquently.

Luna smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear. “It’s come to my attention that my pining is not in fact unrequited.”

Aranea collected herself and held the clear plastic shower curtain open. “That’s good to hear, wanna help me scrub my back?”

Luna laughed, joining her.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Is Nyx gonna be okay?”

“Shh, he’s sleeping!”

Cor cracked an eye open to see Selena’s kids were wide awake.

“He feels really cold though.”

That caught Cor’s attention. He sat up from where was slumped in his seat, rubbing a hand over his face. He stood up and walked over, placing a hand on Nyx’s tattooed neck. He found his pulse, weak but it was there.

“Is he gonna be okay, Marshal?” Mole asked again.

“Yes, though I’m sure he’ll be scaling the walls when finds out he’ll be on medical leave for a month,” Cor said quietly. He straightened up and walked into the cockpit.

“We’ll be arriving shortly, Marshal,” Biggs answered the unasked question.

Cor nodded. He’d spent most of the trip after cleaning his blade, giving Regis a quick recap on what was going on, and warned him about the mixed group that would be joining them on their debrief. The king seemed to take it well and informed him that vans would be waiting outside the Wall to shield them from curious gazes.

When the ships began their descent, Cor tapped his commlink. “Privates Lycus, Argent, and Fortis head to the Citadel immediately for debrief, medical staff will meet you to take the injured.” He changed frequencies. “Lieutenant Banks and Second Lieutenant Lazarus, escort Miss Ulric and her brood to the guest quarters and await further instructions. Any Glaives requiring medical attention are to head to the medical wing.”

Cor waited until he heard everyone confirm his orders before turning his attention to Nyx. The damned fool, he was going to have choice words with the lycan when he finally woke up. “Officer Callux, where do you keep your stretchers?”

“Cupboard next to the ladder, Sir,” Biggs said.

Cor pulled the wrapped up stretcher out of storage and stepped aside when he heard Aranea come down the ladder. “Commodore,” he nodded.

“Marshal,” she greeted, adjusting her gloves. “So, will His Majesty be granting us access?”

Cor nodded. “A set of flat deck trucks are waiting to transport your ships to the garage for any repairs you’ll need. He requested we keep the presence of your ships under wraps to avoid panicking the people.”

“Great, although no offence meant, I don’t want any of his guys touching my ships,” Aranea said, taking a long sip from the coffee mug Wedge wordlessly gave her.

“I’ll make sure they give you space to work in peace,” Cor promised, going back into the cargo hold. He set the stretcher down near Nyx and unravelled it. Sonitus stood up and helped him lift Nyx on to it.

Cor thanked him and Sonitus nodded towards Nyx. “I hope you plan on talking with him later, he was getting pretty reckless from what Pelna told us.”

“I will.” Nyx was a seasoned fighter so Cor was curious to find out what the excuse was for why the hell he was acting like a pup still wet behind the ears.

When the ships landed, Luche stopped Selena from leaving. “We’re taking a separate van from the others,” he explained. He motioned for her to follow him. The Crownsguard stationed at the vans and trucks looked nervous as Nero and Koyla walked by. Selena’s face lit up seeing her pups in the van already and she ran to them, jumping in to hug them tightly. “I’m so relieved you’re all okay!”

“We helped bring the ships down!” Cole said proudly.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Pelna said, from where he had positioned himself on guard duty until Selena arrived. “I’ll see you guys later!”

“Wait, where's Nyx?”

Pelna paused. “He’s going to the medical wing, he overexerted himself and lost a lot of blood.” He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “He’ll be okay.”

“I’ll take you down to see him when the Marshal relieves us,” Luche offered.

Selena frowned but nodded. She settled amongst her pups, the van groaning when Koyla and Nero jumped in.

Luche closed the back doors and got into the driver seat. “We’re going to go a little slower than everyone else so we don’t wreck the suspension on the van,” he said, shifting it into drive once Moira got into the passenger seat. “But it’ll give you guys a chance to get a good view of the city.”

Once they got through the gates, the kids had their noses pressed to the glass and Selena was hard pressed not to do the same. The city was impressive.

They arrived at an underground parking garage an hour later. People in suits met with them at a set of doors. “Lieutenant Banks, Second Lieutenant Lazarus,” the woman in front greeted them.

“Officer Elshett,” Luche nodded to her. “This is Selena Ulric.”

“And my children, Mole, Cole, Joel, Noel, Nero, and Koyla,” Selena added, pointing to everyone she named.

Luche smiled at her in thanks. “The Marshal has given the Lieutenant and I orders to escort them to the guest suite and to stay put until he relieves us of duty.”

“He relayed that to us as well. Orders remain the same.” She motioned for them to follow her inside to a set of elevators. She looked at the group and used a key to set all three elevators to priority for the 35th floor.

“This is Georgina and Seymour, members of the Royal tailors,” she introduced the other people with her as they waited for the elevators to arrive.

“We are here to help you find more traditionally Lucian clothing that suits you, before you meet with his Royal Majesty,” Seymour said, his polite tone sounding decidedly fake.

Luche smirked. “

Someone recently went to sensitivity training.

” He thought to Moira and Selena. Moira coughed to hide her laugh and Selena cleared her throat.

“Clothes like yours?” Noel asked.

“Yes.”

She looked him up and down and wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather be naked like Mom’s old family, thanks.”

“Noel, that was rude!” Selena scolded her, though she struggled not to laugh.

“Sorry.”

Thankfully the elevators arrived. “I’ll go with Nero and Koyla,” Luche volunteered.

Moira cleared her throat. “I’ll go with Selena.”

“Be good, you two!” Selena said to the coeurls, motioning for them to follow Luche.

When the doors closed Moira said, “The Royal tailors have a wide variety of clothing styles for you all to choose from, so you won’t look like younger versions of Seymour.”

“Do they have shirts like the Marshal’s?” Mole asked softly.

“Maybe,” Moira said thoughtfully. “We could ask them.”

Mole bounced on her toes excitedly. Selena rubbed her shoulder, smiling tenderly at her.

“Big fan?” Moira asked Selena.

Selena nodded. “For her sixteenth birthday, I gifted her with a copy of his bibliography. It’s basically become her religious text.”

The elevator soon came to a stop and opened.

Luche’s elevator soon arrived and he exited it without incident, both coeurls following after him.

“These are the guest quarters,” Luche said, opening the door across from the elevators, as the last set of elevator doors opened, revealing the Lucians from the garage. “Everything here is yours to use.” He settled down in the chair by the door, Moira taking the other chair.

Selena took the massive room in, the kids inspecting the space with the coeurls in tow. The ceiling was easily fifteen feet high. Plenty of sitting space with a small cooking area off to the right of the entrance. To the left were doors that lead to what she assumed were bedrooms.

Seymour wrinkled his nose, when he walked by them. “Glaives, you’re both relieved of duty.”

Selena watched from where she was leaning against the chesterfield.

“Marshal’s orders, we stay put,” Luche said easily.

Seymour looked ready to argue and Officer Elshett spoke up. “Seymour, could you help Georgina set up please? Selena, while they’re getting ready, would you and your kids like to clean up? I imagine you’ve had a long trip and could use a long hot shower.”

“Mom, this bath tub is bigger than Koyla!”

Selena bowed her head. “A sound idea, thank you Officer Elshett.”

“Please, call me Monica.”

Selena went to the bathroom, eyebrows raising at the size. There were four sinks across from a massive shower stall with glass walls and a deep tub that Nero was comfortably lying in, his brother lying on the wide edge between the tub and the wall.

“Here you go, Miss Selena.”

Selena turned to see Georgina holding a stack of folded clothing.

“Fresh robes until we have your wardrobes made,” Georgina explained, bowing before closing the door.

Selena inspected the shower with Noel, playing with the various settings until the water was warm. “Wash up,” she instructed them, sniffing the bottles on the side. Each was labeled as sensitive and scent-free shampoo and body wash. Well that certainly beats making her own soaps. She set her bag under the sinks with the kids’ bags and motioned for them to use the shower first.

After the kids finished scrubbing down, Selena stripped down and did the same. This was certainly nicer than a bath, she mused watching the grime swirl down the drain.

“Mom, should I wash our clothes in the tub?” Joel asked when she turned the shower off.

“Not right now,” Selena decided. “Set them aside, we'll use the robes they’ve given us.” She pointed to the stack she’d set next to the sink. She briskly dried herself off before taking a robe of her own. Now to see what sort of clothing these tailors had in mind.

King Regis sat back in his chair with a frown. He had just finished listening to Cor and Commodore Highwind debrief him and the council.

“Marshal Leonis, I thought you said you destroyed the experiments and everything tied to the Genesis Project sixteen years ago?” Councilman Taelas asked.

“I did, however it seems Besithia anticipated retaliation and didn’t arrogantly assume Zegnautus Keep was impenetrable,” Cor said evenly, irritated that the old man was insinuating he was lying. “The files the Glaives were finding in Lucis weren’t part of recent experimentation as we had been led to believe.”

“That was you?” Aranea said in surprise. “Well I can corroborate his story. When my men went in to do exactly that on behalf of anonymous anti-imperialists, they found the place destroyed and on fire. Experiments did escape when we blew up the walls which we hunted down, but evidently we missed some.”

“Your Majesty, i-if I may?” Wedge spoke up from where he stood behind Aranea with Biggs. Aranea and Cor looked at him and stepped aside, curious to hear what he had to say.

Regis nodded, permitting him to speak.

“Officer Wedge Kincaid, Your Majesty,” He bowed. “Them teenagers, they’re good kids, Sir,” Wedge said, “They took down that beastie headed for Insomnia without being asked to. I mean, we didn’t know they could. And then when the Crownsguard and Glaives was keepin’ the Nifs distracted so we could escape with the Princess, another fleet of ships was waitin’ in hidin’ and Lieutenant Ulric tried to take them on himself. I don’t know much about your Glaives, Your Majesty, but that seemed a bit foolhardy.

“And then the teens wanted to help him, ‘cept, whatever Gralea was trainin’ them to do, they didn’t keep up with it or learn enough, ‘cause the EMP blast they created knocked our ship out too. Reckon if they practised they could harness that ability to take out specific targets. Or somethin’. Anyway my point, Your Majesty, is those teens have no allegiance to the Empire that created them, they got priceless knowledge on the Genesis Project, and befriendin’ ‘em would serve us better than killin’ ‘em.” Wedge held his head high, despite looking uncomfortable with the stares he was on the receiving end of.

“Thank you, Officer Kincaid,” Regis said. “And thank you, Commodore Highwind. If there’s anything you need while you’re here, please don’t hesitate to ask. Marshal, have one of your officers show The Commodore and her men where their quarters are, and then bring Miss Ulric and her children to my study. I’d like to meet with them.”

“Your Majesty, that’s not a good idea!” Clarus protested, several members of the council agreeing with him.

Regis held his hand up. “My word is final.”

The four soldiers bowed and took their leave, Cor tapping on his commlink and telling Officer Lycus to meet him outside the throne room. Once the officer arrived, Cor parted ways with them, taking the elevator up to the rooms Selena was in. The elevator doors were just opening to the thirty-fifth floor when the guest door burst open and a man stormed out.

“You can tell His Majesty I quit! I refuse to tailor clothing for those savages anymore!” He yelled.

Cor quickly stepped out of the elevator to let him take it, baffled. He went inside to see Monica and Selena looking pissed. The guest room looked like the inside of a tailor shop, racked clothing and mirrors everywhere. Three of the teens were sitting on the couch with their mother while one of the boys was standing on the stool, the other tailor, Georgina, standing next to him. They were no longer wearing leather skirts and tops, but rather Lucian styled clothes.

“What just happened?” He asked.

“That racist won’t let Cole wear skirts,” Selena said tightly.

“Seymour’s been warned before about his rude behaviour,” Georgina said softly. “Will he be terminated, Sir?”

Cor looked to Monica, who said, “I’ll have the incident report on your desk before the day’s end.”

“I’m not wearing pants,” Cole huffed, crossing his arms.

“And I’m not going to make you,” Cor said simply. “Is he the last one to be fitted?”

Georgina nodded. “Yes sir, we’re nearly done here.” She returned her attention to Cole. “Twirl for me, dear.” Cole kept his balance as he spun on the stool, his mood immediately improving. “Wonderful, down you go. I’ll have my assistants load the closets with several sets of clothing for you all, Miss Ulric.”

“Thank you, Georgina,” Selena said. The tailor bowed and with a swish of her hand, the mirrors and racks of clothing disappeared.

“The king wishes to meet you all,” Cor said, once Georgina left.

“Marshal, does that mean we’re good to go?” Luche said from his spot at the door.

Cor winced, clearly having forgotten he’d stationed both Glaives there. “Yes. Has Captain Drautos checked in with any of you? I’m having trouble reaching him.”

Moira nodded, standing up and stretching. “He did, Sir, reminding us to hand in our mission reports before the end of the day.”

Cor frowned but kept his thoughts on the Captain to himself. “Good.” He motioned for Selena to follow him out, watching with a raised eyebrow as both coeurls sat next to Luche as they waited for the elevators.

Luche shrugged with a tired smile. “Guess I’m just really good elevator company.”

Cor went with Selena and her brood, Monica and Moira taking the third elevator. Cor used the mirrored elevator walls to look over what each kid chose for clothing. Noel and Joel kept it simple with tan cargo pants and multi coloured t-shirts. Cole’s pale blue skirt went to his knees and he wore black leggings and a grey long sleeved shirt. Mole looked like a mini version of himself and he suddenly wasn’t sure how to handle being in such close proximity to a fan. He locked eyes with Selena who seemed amused. She was wearing a deep purple skirt with a white tank top. In that moment, he finally realised who the kids reminded him of. Young Prompto Argentum. Friend of the Prince.

Clearing his throat as the elevator reached their destination, Cor waited until the coeurls joined them, before leading them down a heavily guarded hall to a set of thick oak doors. Cor opened them to reveal walls covered in shelves, stacked with books. In front of the windows was a large desk and just to the right of that were couches and armchairs. One of the armchairs was occupied by the King, Clarus standing behind him. “Your Majesty, Selena Ulric and her children, Cole, Joel, Noel, Mole, Nero, and Koyla.” Cor introduced them with a short bow.

Regis stood as they awkwardly bowed at their mother’s insistence. “Hello and thank you for coming to see me so soon after your long journey. Please, have a seat, I have tea, soup, and sandwiches ready for you.” Cor took note that Clarus and Regis both seemed to notice the resemblance of the teens to the Prince’s best friend. Cor wandered to the corner by the windows and took his post. It was his favourite spot to guard the king and easily blend in to scare Clarus.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Selena said, leading them to the couch. She waited until the teens dished up before taking the remaining sandwiches and fed them to the coeurls. She looked surprised when servants took the empty tray and empty pot of soup and replaced them with fresh food.

“Oh hello.” Cor and Clarus tensed as Nero walked over to Regis, sniffing the air around him curiously.

“Nero is a sweetheart and doesn’t hurt good people,” Joel said between bites.

“Your Majesty, please,” Clarus hissed as Regis held a hand out. Before Nero could come closer, a ball of white fluff dropped down from a bookshelf. Nero scrambled back as the small cat hissed at him.

“What is that?” Cole asked, mystified, a sandwich forgotten in his hand. Nero laid down, head on his paws, and making a strange squeaking noise, catching Koyla’s attention.

“The most spoiled house cat in Eos,” Regis said with a fond smile. “This is Butters. Butters, be nice to our guests.” Butters ignored him and took a swipe at Koyla when he came to investigate. Everyone stared at the small cat as she had the two coeurls cowering before her. She approached them and rubbed up against their massive heads before walking to Regis and jumping in his lap.

“The alpha of all cats,” Selena joked, tucking into her soup.

“It’s okay Nero, you two are still my favourite,” Mole said, reaching over the arm of the couch to scratch behind his ears.

“The Marshal said you wished to speak with us?” Selena asked, after everyone had their fill, getting right down to business.

Regis nodded. He looked at the teens. “Due to the rising aggression from Niflheim, I need to ask you about your time in Zegnautus Keep.”

The siblings looked at each other.

“

We haven’t even told Mom about that place,

” Joel said quietly in Niflheimian.

“

Mom doesn’t have a whole army at her beck and call to make us talk,

” Cole pointed out.

Clarus set his phone on the arm of Regis’ chair, a translation app deciphering what they were saying.

“

She could,

” Mole said.

“

They deserve to know what we know,

” Noel said, “

so they can prepare. We owe them that much for keeping us safe.

”

The four of them turned back in their seats on the couch and faced him.

“Training starts as soon as subjects can start walking,” Cole began, “Which is a few hours after we’re released from the incubation tubes. The pace is relentless and anyone who can’t keep up is marked For Fodder. After four years of physical training, they begin the ability training.”

“What sort of abilities are you taught?” Regis asked, hand idly petting Butters.

Noel shrugged. “They had a lot of programs and if you couldn’t show some kind of capability in any of them you’re marked For Fodder. Damaging electrical equipment is a basic ability, soul tearing is an advanced ability, magic breaking is another advanced ability, magic absorbing was the hardest ability to master.”

“Is that what you did to the daemon that was approaching the Old Wall? Soul Tear it?” Cor asked from his corner.

Cole nodded. “It’s not a daemon, it’s a golem. Subjects marked are as Failures and--” he gestured uselessly, “And they get put into the golems. I don’t know how. We were marked as Failures.”

Selena growled softly, making the humans jump. “You aren’t failures!”

Joel moved to sit in her lap and Mole held her hand. “It’s okay, Momma,” Joel reassured her.

“We’d rather be failures to the Empire,” Mole added firmly.

“According to my soldiers you’ve mastered at least two of those abilities, why did they still consider you failures?” Regis asked.

“Because by our seventh year we were still children,” Noel explained. “Successful Subjects become fully grown adults by that time. We were waiting to be put into a golem when the ships came and blew the walls apart. We didn’t think, we just ran. None of us wanted to be part of the golem, we wanted to live.”

“How many of you escaped?” Regis asked, looking a little pale.

Noel and Cole looked at each other. “Maybe twenty of us?” Noel guessed. “There were red ships firing at Zegnautus Keep and then one of them started firing at us. I don’t know how many made it to the forest but by the time we found each other it was just eight of us. We stuck to the forests and eventually got separated from the other from daemons springing up in the night. The ship searched for us for a long time before we finally found Mom. We’ve never seen another subject in the eight years we lived in the area.”

Selena choked on a sob and pulled them all in to hug them tightly. The teens made soft comforting noises. It took a moment before she calmed down, letting them go. “Apologies, Your Grace, please continue,” she said, wiping her eyes.

Regis nodded, understanding her anguish as a parent. “How did Besithia create this magic absorption ability?”

“There was a man in strange clothing who talked with Besithia a lot. He was in charge of making the golems and then he disappeared long before the ships came,” Mole said. “He wore a lot of scarves.” Cor perked up at that comment.

“Can… soldiers who have learned it be detected?” Regis chose his words carefully.

All three of them looked to Joel, who shrunk in on himself. “Joel’s the only one of us who mastered all four abilities,” Noel said quietly.

“There isn’t really a way to detect something like that, sir,” Joel answered.

“Can you show us?”

Even Cor joined Clarus in protest of such a question.

Joel shook his head, trembling. “I’d kill you if I did, sir. J-Just like the others.”

“Others? What others?”

“Soldiers that looked like Mom’s brother. The big man, I think he’s a general? He would bring them in to fight us. I didn’t want to fight, but I didn’t want to die either,” he sniffled. “Th-The others, the other Subjects they liked toying with the soldiers, draining them bit by bit until they died.”

“General Glauca,” Clarus muttered.

“I’m so sorry to have forced you all to relive such horrifying memories,” Regis said, picking up Butters so he could stand up. He set the cat on his seat. “This information is invaluable. Selena, with your permission, we’d like to have each of them undergo a medical check up to make sure Besithia doesn’t have any other hidden surprises.”

She frowned, letting Joel get off her before standing as well. “May I have a day to think about it?”

“Of course.” Regis looked to where Cor was standing. “Marshal, could you escort them back to their rooms, please?”

Cor bowed and motioned for the group to follow. It had been a trying twelve hours and he was more than ready to pass out.

After dropping them off, he was waiting for the elevator to return when he heard the guest door open.

“Marshal,” Selena whispered, quietly closing the door and walking up to him. “Can I ask you a favour?”

“You may.”

“For the sake of keeping the infighting on our side to a minimum, please make sure Commodore never comes near my babies ever again. I don’t care if she and her men were under orders seventeen years ago, I cannot forgive her for trying to kill them.”

Cor thought back to what Noel had said and nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

Selena took his hand in hers and bowed her head. “Thank you, good night.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Nyx woke slowly, blinking up at the white ceiling in confusion.

“The Hero finally awakes.”

Nyx looked over to see Kali sitting there with a tired-looking Luche. “Hey,” he rasped, mouth dry. Luche offered him a cup with a straw and he gratefully accepted it. “Not that I’m upset to see you, but what’re you doing here, Kali?”

The dark skinned alpha was his co-leader of their expanded pack. She had a design of a star circled with dots that had been inked into the skin on the left side of her face, a mark of her former clan. The two dots above it signified her status as the lead alpha. She had a new tattoo of a crow’s foot on her right cheek, like Nyx’s, and a line below it, symbolizing the merge of their packs.

“I was visiting Hans on his lunch break when his sister Lena messaged him in a panic that the human blood on hand wasn’t compatible for a blood transfusion for you. So I volunteered,” she explained, referring to the two lycan nurses that worked at the Citadel medical wing.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Try to not make a habit of it, eh? We have a pack to rebuild, after all.” She stood and gave his shoulder a squeeze. ”I need to get back to work. Pack dinner this Saturday, don’t be late!”

“I don’t even know what day today is,” Nyx groaned, sitting up slowly.

“Oh no you don’t!” Nyx winced as Nurse Lena stormed into the room. “Lay back down, mister!”

“But I feel fine!” He protested, though did as he was told.

“You nearly died, Nyx,” Luche spoke up. “Kali didn’t mention it, but if she hadn’t been visiting Hans, you would have died from the blood loss. Your body just couldn’t regenerate from it.”

Nyx fell silent and let Lena examine him and answer her questions. He knew he’d taken a beating but he didn’t realise how much it had all taken a toll on him.

The doctor came in and after his own examination said, “I want you to stay overnight, just to be sure nothing goes wrong.”

Nyx nodded. After they both left, he looked to Luche, who remained at his side during their examinations. “I’m sorry, with finding Selena and her kids, and Pelna, I just, I don’t know, went a little crazy with the idea of losing any of them.”

Luche tipped his head, accepting his apology. “I’ll bring them down tomorrow morning to see you, assuming they haven’t released you yet.”

“That’d--” Nyx yawned. “That’d be wonderful, thanks, Luche.”

Luche stood and clasped his forearm, bending down to rub his forehead against his. “Get some rest alpha, you have an ass tearing to deal with in the morning.”

Nyx snorted. “Eloquent, but not wrong.”

Nyx slept the rest of the day, waking in the middle of the night to feeling another’s presence in the room. “You gonna brood in the corner or c’mere?” He whispered to the dark corner, sitting up.

Cor stepped out of the shadows and sat on the bed. “I’m not happy with you.”

Nyx winced. “I’m sorry, I did make a poor judgement call trying to take those ships out on my own.”

“And then Glauca nearly got you killed,” Cor growled softly. “Why wasn’t Pelna helping you? Was this some sort of showing off to your newfound nephews and nieces?”

Nyx shook his head. “No, Astrals no, nothing like that. I—Pelna’s pregnant and I panicked at the thought of him miscarrying from overexerting himself.”

“That wasn’t your call to make,” Cor said evenly. “I’m recommending to Drautos you be put on medical leave pending a psych evaluation.”

“What?! What the hell, Cor?” Nyx stared at him, outraged.

“You have spent the last ten years trying to keep your wayward pack together and happy without spending a single thought on yourself. And now the sister you grieve for in your sleep is back and you’re going to sit there and try to convince me you’re going to be fine?” Cor yanked him into a hug. “I’m not doing this to be an asshole. You deserve to put your daemons to rest and the team needs a leader they can trust to keep his head on straight.”

Nyx was stiff in his embrace for a moment before he relented and hugged him back. “You’re still an asshole, though,” he murmured, pressing a small kiss to his neck.

“One of us has to be,” Cor deadpanned, gently rubbing his back.

“Lay with me for a bit?”

Cor stayed with him until sunrise, blinking out of existence when a nurse would periodically pop their head in to check on Nyx.

Nyx was finishing off his breakfast when Libertus, Crowe, and Pelna came in, dressed in civilian clothing. “Well. you no longer look like roadkill,” Crowe commented, grabbing a chair and dragging it closer.

“Here, figured you’d want something a little fresher to wear than a flow-y medical gown.” Libertus set a bag of clothes next to his boots.

“I thought they were going to have to tie you down to make you stay overnight,” Pelna joked.

“Luche made a compelling… case…” Nyx trailed off, his nostrils flaring. “She was right.”

Pelna flushed, letting Crowe pull him into her lap so Libertus could have the other chair. “Crowe and I had a very long conversation last night and I’m going to put in a request to transfer to the communications division so I’m not on the front lines.”

Nyx put his tray back on the cart and wheeled it aside, swinging his legs over the edge to face the mated pair. “I’ll make sure it happens.”

“Ah, Lieutenant Ulric, glad to see you’re up.” A doctor appeared in the doorway. “Dr. Hobbs. I’m here for your final check up before getting released.”

Nyx brightened up. “Awesome. I’ll see you guys outside?”

Pelna nodded, extracting himself from Crowe’s arms.

After the doctor gave him a clean bill of health and a reminder to take it easy, Nyx got dressed and left the room, finding Luche, Tredd, Axis, and Sonitus had joined Pelna, Crowe, and Libertus.

“When you mentioned Pelna was part of the reason for your heroics I thought I heard you wrong,” Luche commented.

Nyx grimaced, glancing at Pelna who gave him a pointed look. “Erm yeah.”

“You know I can hold my own in a fight as well as the rest of you knotheads, right?” Pelna said.

Nyx rubbed the back of his neck. “It was brash, I really am sorry, Pel.”

“I wouldn’t feel too guilty about it, I’ll make you pay me back with babysitting duty,” Pelna winked.

“I don’t think that’d be much of punishment, love,” Crowe said.

“It is when our pup is teething,” Pelna said, making the pack laugh.

“Hey you promised me a visit with my sister,” Nyx said to Luche, shamelessly changing the subject.

“I did,” Luche said, giving a kiss to both his mates. “I’ll meet you guys back home.”

“Will Selena be able to come back with you?” Libertus asked.

Luche looked at Nyx. “Probably not until the Lucians are convinced the company she’s keeping is friendly.”

“Those coeurls don’t help,” Tredd commented, as the group made their way to the elevators.

“But you gotta admit they’re really cute,” Pelna said.

“Yes, death is super cute,” Axis deadpanned, making Nyx snort.

“Could be worse,” Nyx said as the elevator doors opened. “They could be behemoths.”

Luche and Nyx said their goodbyes and took the elevator up while the rest of the pack waited for an elevator to go down.

“How do you feel about leading the team for a while?” Nyx asked, leaning against the elevator wall.

Luche looked at him in surprise. “I thought they had you in overnight just for observation?”

“They did, I’m fine physically.” Nyx smiled bitterly. “It’s come to light I have more than a few screws loose and the higher ups are questioning my leadership. I don’t know if they’ll ask me to step down for a bit, but I want to make sure things are in order in case that happens.”

Luche clasped a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve got your back. Do you want the number of the lady Axis talks to? She does private sessions as well as group therapy.”

“Please.”

The elevator doors opened to the guest level where they saw Mole in the hallway talking with the Crownsguard posted there.

“Hey, Mole,” Nyx greeted her.

“Nyx! You’re alive!” She yelled, running up to him and hugging him tightly.

Nyx wheezed at the strength of her hug. “Not if you pop my lungs, kiddo.”

“Sorry!” She let him go and pointed to the ‘guard. “Mr. Lars was telling me about the Marshal.”

Luche hid a laugh behind his hand while Nyx raised his eyebrows. “Was he? I bet they’re all tall tales,” he said overdramatically.

The Crownsguard smiled. “Only a little bit, Sir.”

“He cut a behemoth in half cause he was having a bad day in the field,” Mole whispered loudly.

“Okay, actually that one might be real,” Luche said, nodding to Lars as they went to the guest rooms.

“Mole, there you are! I thought I told you to leave that poor man alo-- Nyx!” Selena was wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and immediately tossed it in the direction of the sink (and missed) when she saw Mole wasn’t alone.

Nyx hugged her back as tightly as she did. “Hey, glad to see they’re treating you better than what we got.”

Luched rested a hand on Nyx’s shoulder. “

I’m going to head out, Axis was invited to a dinner party with the Lucians tonight and I think he’s going to panic about it.

”

“Thanks, Luche,” Nyx said, as the other alpha left. “Is that a fresh pot of tea I smell?”

He had his sister back in his life and while he didn’t know what his near future held, at least she was back at his side to keep it interesting.

“Commander!”

Ravus growled, brushing off concerned hands as he limped into the magitek dreadnought they acquired. “I’ll be fine, has everyone evacuated the Manor?” He sat down with a grimace.

“Yes sir, we were just waiting for you,” his captain said, kneeling to help him reset his ankle.

Ravus remained silent against the pain. “Thank you, Mia.” He turned in his seat to face the remaining members of his platoon. “Tenebrae will be fine without us, the Empire is more interested in my sister at this time than acquiring more land. Once we’ve rested, we are to round up any

willing

, able-bodied people and put an end to this war.”

“Commander! Word from the Commodore has reached us, the Princess successfully reached Insomnia.”

A rare smile spread over Ravus’ face as his men cheered. “Finally, a favour from the Gods. Captain Leeschild, set a course for Beaumont.”

“Yes sir!”

Ravus was grateful Aranea brought that Galahdian woman back from Zegnautus Keep. She was a force to be reckoned with. It was just a shame they couldn’t have more lycans on their side to bring the Empire to its knees.