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They'd tried a lot of things on their trips back, but considering they didn't have much time in Insomnia before departing, they'd never played politics in this way. After, they'd tried, Noctis had even let himself be caught early on by Loqi at one point, which meant he was taken directly to Iedolas instead of going through Ardyn's hands, and had been able to act the part of scared, broken prince willing to be Iedolas' puppet king if only he and his friends would be spared. They'd actually gotten pretty far in disrupting Imperial politics, had even caused a coup, but staying one step ahead of Ardyn in his own stomping grounds could only last so long.
This time, though, they'd decided to try something a little different. Not appealing to callous or helpless nobility, but to the people at large.
Technically, Noctis didn't give unplanned speeches, everything he said during one went through rigorous review and had his father's approval. But Iggy was good at what he did, even moreso after all these lives, and the internet was a very hard place to patrol, especially with so little official, legal censorship allowed.
Noctis wore casual clothing, his normal attire that he felt most comfortable in, his hair was styled, his makeup for the camera was perfect between his and Iris' efforts.
"Aranea's crew and contacts should get through most of Niflheim before anyone can stop it," Gladio said, fingers moving furiously as he typed into the burner phone he was using to contact the only Nifs they knew that had been caught in the cycle with them.
"Awesome. Ready?"
Noctis looked at his friends, all of them exhausted from two days of nonstop work, on top of the ancient looks in their eyes they could never quite hide. It had been a lot of tries, enough that they were doing wild things in their attempts to solve the upcoming end of civilization as they knew it. Sometimes, like now, it was fun, but it didn't change that they all knew what would happen if they failed.
"You ready?" Nyx asked back, squeezing his shoulder before moving out of the frame.
"Yeah, don't worry about me, hero, I've gotten a lot better at the public speeches." He shot him a smile, then turned to Prompto and the video cameras facing him. "Let's go."
The thing was, Noctis wasn't in the back of a dropship with a ragtag group of humanity's last hope. He wasn't at the gates of a demon infested city with the ragged remains of half a dozen armies. Being the grizzled veteran, being the mature king, wasn't what he was going for this time.
This time, Noctis had to be composed, but vulnerable. Noble, but emotional. He had to be the 20 year old prince he had been, but better at this than he'd ever been back then.
It was nerve-wracking. Which, he guessed, was good, because it would look more sincere.
"This is Noctis Lucis Caelum, Crown Prince of Lucis. I know I don't speak to you much, a fact that has always weighed heavily on me, but I felt it was important to do so now. I can't simply be your 'Prince Charmless'," he gave a wry smile, one of the many expressions he'd been practicing in the mirror, "anymore. As much as our King has tried to give me a safe life (though having me work in the food industry was pushing it)," he grinned at his own joke before seemingly regaining his composure, "the treaty with Niflheim has sped up my inevitable place in international politics."
He sat back on his stool, looking to the side, knowing the lights would catch his eyes well and make them shine like they shouldn't from a dozen practice shoots. "This ceasefire is not what many want. I assure you, we are all aware of that. But the time for justice, for retribution, is not now." He looked directly at the camera, at the audience, again. "Right now, we must preserve life. We must continue living on so that our memories, our cultures, those that came before us live through us.
"A ceasefire does not give us back our lands, it does not reunite our country, but it does mean that trade is not so restricted. That travel is safer. That our military forces can focus on the real dangers like daemons instead of fighting over borders."
He took a deep breath and then, seemed to go off script to muse, "What makes someone a Lucian? Is it living within the Wall? Did most of Lucis suddenly lose that identity when we had to draw it back or risk losing it altogether? Is it living here in the Crown City? For how long? A generation? Ten? Twenty? Can you be a Lucian if you can't clearly point to which of your ancestors followed the first king from the wreckage of Solheim and were there as the founder king created our nation?"
He had added that bit, hoping Ardyn would catch the distinction. This was a chance to speak to everyone, even him.
"Or does it matter? If you hold the promise of Insomnia in your heart, if you would give Lucis your loyalty, are you not our people? Just as the Kingsglaive come from outside this city and our King entrusts a piece of his soul to them, so that they might protect others when he cannot, how can anyone who would care for Lucis not deserve to be Lucian?"
He shook his head, letting his shoulders sag in a way that Ignis would normally scold him for, even after so long, but he knew got across the tired vulnerability he wanted it to.
"Is the treaty all that we could ever hope for? No. But it is a start. One that I hope we end with a better future for all of you and your descendants."
Here Noctis paused, glancing as though he was exchanging looks with someone behind the camera. He hesitated, looked back at the lense, and started speaking with even less poise.
"And, though I suppose it's selfish to do so, I would like to end this with a personal request. Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret is my friend. I know the media wishes to paint us as starcrossed lovers, as childhood sweethearts, but that's not the case. I wouldn't mind it, even, I know everyone could use a fairy tale sometimes, but...it's unfair to the person I do love. We knew we couldn't last, but we thought we'd have more time together than this." He shifted in his seat, putting a touch of sadness to his mask. "If I was anyone else, anyone else at all, the future would have his braids in my hair instead of her ring on my finger. But since that can't be, I simply ask that you respect that this marriage is arranged. I would have never chosen to marry a woman if I didn't have to and while this is by far a better outcome than I'd ever hoped for...it's politics."
He rubbed a hand through his hair, letting himself look flustered. "Uh, maybe I didn't expect to share that much. Let's just....Let's just end this chat here, with the hope that the only real sacrifices that must be made are the obvious ones. Goodnight, Insomnia."
"You little brat," Nyx muttered as soon as Prompto gave the all clear that the cameras were off and disconnected from the internet, just in case.
Noctis smirked at him. "Hey, if you didn't want to be my lover this time around, hero, you should have said something when you were crawling out of my bed this morning."
"We will need to come up with a timeline for your relationship, if it is Nyx you meant. You may have forgotten, but the current age gap could lead to...questions."
They grimaced, then Gladio stepped in, "Noctis came onto you as soon as he turned eighteen, but you, worried you had somehow led him on when he was younger, refused him. Noctis pined for you until we had to step in and deal with it, because he's an annoying brat used to getting what he wants."
"Hey!" Noctis protested, but was ignored.
"I dragged you off for a private spar, where I kicked your ass," Nyx protested there, but Gladio ignored him, "and told you we all knew you hadn't done anything to encourage him. Then you two got secretly together and we all ran interference for the last year and a half."
"I can put together a false trail of text messages," Ignis stated, adjusting his glasses, and looking, as he ever did, unsettled by having sight when in every life he lived long enough he lost it somehow, "and, if I recall correctly, you had multiple assignments to guard the prince over the last few years." He waited for them to agree. "Good. Now, Noctis, your father is calling. Gladio, I believe your father is also calling you."
They both scrambled for their phones.
"Hey, dad," Noctis muttered, watching as Nyx blanched at the sight of his own caller ID and wondering if it was one of the Glaive or Titus.
"Noctis, I would like you to come speak with me."
He raised his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't have any time free." For me, he didn't add, bitter from a dozen lifetimes of trying to meet his father in private before everything went to shit and never, ever getting to unless he snuck into his rooms.
"I think the Council will agree it's necessary this time, your Highness. I expect you within the hour."
"Yes, your Majesty. Goodbye, your Majesty."
He hung up, figuring his father had probably been surrounded by people yelling about what Noctis had just done. The Citadel had alerts in place, would have known as soon as his speech was announced, and though that was only five minutes before he went live, it would have been enough time to get monitors into the Council chambers.
"Back to the Citadel for us," Gladio grunted, motioning to Ignis who seemed to be handling his own business through texts.
"Yeah. Iris, Prompto, Nyx, you can handle the breakdown?"
Prompto perked up, "Don't want me coming with?"
Noctis shook his head. "Naw, no one has to know you were involved. It will give you more freedom of movement in case we need to make a break."
"The van we used to haul this stuff is good enough for a getaway," Nyx put in, "clean plates, nothing to trace it back to us. Might be good to keep the equipment, even, if things go to shit but communications are still up, we could do an underground podcast or something."
The excited noise Prompto made was enough to have Noctis agreeing and after giving them all farewell hugs (they never knew when they'd get to see each other again, the only constant was that they woke up back here when the last of them died), Noctis headed out to face the music.
On the way, Ignis had the radio on, where the music on nearly every channel had stopped in favor of talking about him. His "coming out" (and the assumption he was gay and that forcing him to marry Luna was gross), his Galahdan boyfriend (which had taken some people longer to figure out than others), and to a lesser extent, his call for peace and unity. He'd known the best way to get people talking was to add some drama, it had been Gladio's suggestion to go for the idea the treaty was breaking hearts and it was a good one. Still, he wished people cared a little more about the earlier stuff he said.
At the Citadel, most of the guards had already been changed over to Glaive in preparations for the treaty signing and some watched him in a curious way they never had. Noctis knew most of the traitors by now from Nyx, so he knew at least some of them might be second guessing themselves. Not about betraying his father, Titus had done too good of a job fermenting hatred of him, but in not wanting Noctis on the throne after him.
Any little doubt could lead to hesitation. Any hesitation could save a life.
They went straight to the Council chambers, where multiple monitors were showing different parts of his speech, muted but with the captions playing. Everyone seemed to be either on their phones or yelling at their aides. Or both. While his father sat heavily in his chair, looking just as old as he ever did leading up to the false treaty.
"Prince Noctis," his father both announced and greeted, drawing the room's attention to him. "I believe you are aware of the formal rules in place for public speeches."
"I am, your Majesty. However, given recent and upcoming events, I chose to ignore them." He stood straight, face calm, not at all how everyone must have expected him to be in the moment, either careless or remorseful. "There's a lot of negative sentiment around the treaty and it would have taken weeks for an approval. I don't know when I'll be back in Insomnia after I leave for the wedding."
If, he had nearly said.
"You could have brought your concerns to me, your Highness."
"No offense, your Majesty, but you're busy enough as it is. There's Nifs at the gates and the Oracle's safety to think about."
There's a spy sitting in the very room, he didn't say, long used to ignoring Titus' role by now. He'd gotten to kill him a few times, to really make him suffer at least once, and it had to be enough.
"And this foreign lover?" A Council member asked when the silence stretched long enough it wouldn't be interrupting.
"Not foreign, a resident of Insomnia." Noctis glared him down. "And...not an issue, like I said, we knew we'd break up eventually."
His father sighed. "Noctis, if I had known...."
"You wouldn't have done anything differently, because the Nifs were setting all the terms and our choice was to accept or roll over and die, and one person's happiness isn't worth the world. I know, dad." There was a weight behind his words he couldn't fully show, an understanding he hoped his father could see. He'd been upset at his father for never telling him the truth, but he'd understood why his father was resigned to Noctis following through with the prophecy.
"Yes, well, there are stipulations in Lucian law to allow for royal lovers," Lady Traja, one of the advisers left over from his grandfather's reign, put in, "and the treaty designated that it would allow a Lucian marriage."
She set off a new round of debates, but before she could get too caught up Noctis gave her a bright smile for her efforts. She was, if he remembered correctly, in Gladio's book club, so maybe he should have known she'd be the exact sort of person his speech appealed to.
It would be a day before Aranea could get back to them, Nif monitoring of communications and their careful work to spread his speech, to humanize Noctis and the Lucians more important than immediate news.
"It's going over just how we'd expected, Noct," she said, voice tinny from a combination of speaker phone and whatever scrambling they were using. "I was in a meeting with the Emperor and all of them when it hit there, just like we planned. Ardyn joked they should have betrothed you to Ravus and Ravus actually started picking up a chair to throw at him before the Emperor intervened, it was amazing."
"Someday we're going to find a way to record these things," Ignis stated, probably bemused by the idea of Ravus (who was his own sometimes-lover in the times when they could convince him to work with them) losing his calm so quickly.
"Trust me, Biggs and Wedge are forever working on that one."
"And are their any changes with the invasion plans?"
"Some worry about rising pro-Lucian sentiment and what breaking the treaty now that it's already starting to be talked about in terms of your great sacrifice and life sentence will do to the areas of unrest, especially in Lucis and Galahd. I get the impression Tenebrae isn't too hot on the Oracle being forced into a loveless marriage, either. The Imperial propaganda machine did go really hard on the childhood sweethearts story."
"As we suspected, then." Ignis nodded, leaning back from the table they sat around and probably planning out their next fifty moves.
"What about Ardyn?" Noctis asked, reluctant because he always seemed to be the one forced to ask after him, like the universe wanted to give the appearance he was just as obsessed no matter how much he complained to the others to help him with the subject. "My betrothal is supposed to parallel his," he reminded them, "but he was in love with Aera. Now I've ruined that part of his poetic revenge."
Aranea was quiet, hopefully thinking over the meeting. "Yeah, I guess he seemed put out. I'd watch out extra for any plans to go after Nyx. It is Nyx, right?"
"Of course it's me, why would he choose anyone else?"
"Aranea," Prompto leaned forward, a grin on his face that did not bode well, "next time you're all talking about it, you should totally suggest they offer Ardyn instead of Luna." Noctis groaned, forehead hitting the table with a soft thump. "Imagine his face."
"Hopefully I'll be blind in time for that wedding," Ignis muttered and when Noctis shot him a betrayed look, he had a hard time containing his amusement.
"Although, that is an idea," Gladio put in, fingers tapping on the table in a way that annoyingly radiating through Noctis until he sat up. "Next round you should try seducing the guy. Maybe winning his heart will save him in ways defeating him can't."
Iris threw her empty water bottle at Gladio's head, but he didn't even acknowledge the hit, the bottle just bouncing onto the floor. "None of you could seduce your way out of a paper bag."
"That's not true," Noctis protested, "Prompto dated Cindy in at least two lives now."
"Okay," Iris seemed to concede, "if we're going for pity dates, then, yeah, Noctis could probably 'seduce' anyone."
"I liked you a lot better when you had a crush on me."
Aranea sighed from the other end of the line and Noctis could imagine her rubbing her head as though fending off a headache. "I've got to go, I'll keep you updated. Have fun. Stay safe. Et cetera."
She didn't wait for anyone to acknowledge her goodbye, hanging up and leaving them sitting around their table. Ignis was making notes that Noctis really hoped didn't involve swapping out Luna for Ardyn, Prompto had started talking about his first-first date with Cindy, and Gladio was--oh, no, Gladio had pulled one of his romance novels out and was paging through it like he was looking for ideas.
"Right!" Noctis stood up, hitting the table gently for everyone's attention. "I think this meeting is officially over! I've got a pretend-to-be-secret date with Nyx to prepare for and you all have your own duties."
Maybe next time he'd convince everyone to move to a deserted island instead of getting involved in politics and war. They could use the break.