hey there, so I just finished the game, but while I was playing, this sort of popped up. it'll be my first ff story ever, hope you enjoy this. I only own my own characters and ideas, nothing else.

.*.*. is a memory and the simple ... can occur whilst in a memory. italics tend to hurt the eyes and well, this is called Dead Memories.

...

"Never sit and wonder what could have been, simply take the actions to make you what you are." - Noxima

The dark sky of Lestallum wasn't even illuminated by the moon tonight. It made it much harder to tell the time, though he knew that it wasn't what used to be considered "daylight hours". People were sullen without the sun in their lives, a lot of them dead. Without the power plant, it was certain that the entire world would be too. Slowly there were more and more daemon hunters out there, trying to make it at least a little safer. He visited Lestallum often, living in the house provided for him and the others after his last encounter with the team. They hardly saw each other but he knew that they had come and gone from time to time. Who knew he would be plunged from one darkness unto another? He supposed there was only one person who knew.

He sighed as he looked at his phone, not surprised that there wasn't any word from either of the people he was looking for. His own eyes reflected back at him as his screen went black. They alone should have reminded him of why one of them would be so silent. He sighed again slightly, as he put his phone away.

.*.*.

Ignis sighed slightly as he put his phone away, frowning while going back to his cooking. Despite his exterior output, he found it was hard to even focus on his task while his mind continuously ran scenarios in his head about the reason his phone was so silent and calls being ignored. It would do him no good to dwell on the unknown, his frown deepening the more he thought. Ignis didn't want anyone to see that he was a little flustered and sincerely hoped that it had gone unnoticed.

"Still no luck, huh?"

It hadn't. Gladiolus was working out nearby, always keeping busy when they made camp. He enjoyed the outdoors more so that anything but even while being busy doing his own thing he was always watching, a shield to them all and it was how he had caught Ignis's subtle movements. That was part of his job and he did it extremely well.

"None as of yet, no," he responded as neutral as he could, not wanting any of his frustration to show.

"I wouldn't think too much on it, she's probably back in position. She'll find us."

"It is unnatural to go on in silence this long."

"This isn't a usual everyday situation," Gladio pointed out, coming to stand near the cooking area.

Ignis sighed, keeping focused on his work. It was the only real way not to lose his head while wondering what exactly was going on with her. However, if the large man next to him wasn't worried then perhaps he shouldn't either. Ignis just had to trust that she would keep to her mission and make contact as soon as she could. Things were completely haywire thanks to recent events and all the training she had should suffice. He needed to trust it.

"Indeed," he had no choice but to agree.

"Whats this about?" asked Noctis, coming over towards them.

"Nothing of consequence," Ignis answered quickly, "Everything here is ready," he didn't need any more questions on the matter.

.*.*.

There was hardly a day that went by that he didn't think of her. Ignis could never forget her, especially now that she had left him a what seemed to be a final gift. He would have chased after her if he could but he promised that he would help rid the world of this plague. Then, only then, could he bring her back. How long would that be? There was no real way to imagine it. Enough time had passed since he last saw her and yet, he could remember every little detail about her as if he had only spoken to her a mere minute ago.

Lestallum was flooding with people and it seemed to only become more crowded as time went on. Ignis could barely walk down the streets without rubbing shoulders with someone with every step. At first, it wasn't like this, the remains of the Kingsglaive commanded by Cor able to find enough resources to keep the lights on in the country. Slowly, even that started to fade and they were left with nowhere else to go besides Lestallum and Hammerhead. The fall of the hunter headquarters was one of the worse losses sustained and the garage was barely suitable for survivors. The post apocalyptic world was beginning to take a hard toll on all of them and there was no sign as to when it would ever end.

Ignis walked through the door of the house, noting that the light was already on. There were four sets of shoes at the door and none of them belonged to him. Curious, seeing as it was hardly ever that he saw one of his former companions, let alone all of them. Walking down the hall, a smile came to his lips as he saw his friends sitting, chatting, even laughing at their own stories. He imagined that the alcohol was helping but he wasn't one to judge.

"Ignis!" Prompto noticed him as he walked in.

He had grown, filling out his lanky form and starting to sprout hairs on his jawline. The gunman often spent his time in Hammerhead so that he could be near Cindy. Occasionally though, he came to check on things in Lestallum and Ignis wasn't around as much to see him. Every encounter did reveal that slowly but surely, the young man was growing in his own way.

"Let me get those for you," said Iris, walking up to him.

She hugged him first, then took the bag from his hands and went to put them into the kitchen. The young Amicitia had grown as well, longer hair and more of a muscular build. In the last few years, she had managed to pester Cor enough to train her to fight and from the small whispers that came to Ignis's ear, she was a legend in the making. It was no surprise really, always so headstrong and fierce when she believed in something.

Ignis shook hands with Cor, "Good to see you."

The Marshal was sitting next to Gladiolus. Cor hadn't really aged much, probably part of being the Immortal soldier. Out of all of them, he was probably the one that Ignis saw the most thanks to the Kingsglaive wandering around on their own mission tasked to them. Even if they weren't able to keep the power going, they were an asset to the hunters trying to keep the daemon hoards at bay.

The Shield's hair had grown and if anything he was even more of a "mountain" than he used to be. Gladio often spent his time hunting daemons on his own and rarely stopped anywhere that wasn't a haven. Ignis knew that he checked in on his sister and once in a while would come here and leave a mess so that it was known he was around, but often the Adviser rarely saw him while on his own mission. Everyone was passing the time in this decade of darkness in their own way so it really was a treat that they were all in one place.

It was good to see his old friends.

"I had not expected all of you here," said Ignis, taking a seat in front of Prompto.

Iris returned shortly afterwards, bringing with her a drink for Ignis. He took it, smiling in thanks and taking a long drink. He never really had a taste for sweetened ale before. It was a special blend, one that he had to go to great length to get now that the world was in ruin. But since the light was restored to him - as much as possible in the present circumstances - he had found he enjoyed the drink. He assumed it was a side effect of the magic used to heal him. One of them, anyhow.

"Cor and I were on our way here to see how the survivors were handling, more of them come in every day," said Iris.

"I noticed on my way in. How fares your training?" he asked her politely.

She was slowly becoming Iris the daemon hunter, training relentlessly with Cor to try and help people. The fewer daemons running around the safer the world can be. Ignis himself contributed on his travels, finding that he was fishing more so in Galdin Quay than anything else. So far dipping his feet in the water while casting a line was the only thing that seemed to calm him in a bizarre restless nature he developed.

"I've trained worse," said Cor, shrugging.

Iris punched him playfully on the shoulder while her older brother laughed. Ignis himself smiled, taking a long drink.

"I was passing through Hammerhead and decided to drag Prompto away from poor Cindy. She can't get any work done with him oggling and drooling all over her floor," said Gladiolus.

"I wasn't drooling!" exclaimed Prompto.

"But you did persist with the oggling?" said Ignis smiling.

The others laughed, Prompto's smile was sheepish. But as the laughter died down it settled into something a little more sullen. Their smiles turned sad as some looking at the others, some took a drink, and stared at their feet. Despite being together now, they were still missing two core pieces of the puzzle. It had been three long years of darkness, no one knew when Noctis would return to the world to purge it of darkness. The only real assurance besides their unrelenting faith was Gentiana herself making it known to all of them. There was no actual time frame on when that would occur, but once Noctis emerged from the Crystal, Noxima could return.

"I miss them," said Iris.

The words cut through them all, striking to the core and making the air easy to choke on. It was one thing to know what was happening, but saying it all out loud only made the reality crumble on top of them, reminding them of how hard things had been lately.

"We all do," replied Gladiolus.

"We must have patience," said Ignis gravely.

"I know it's been three years, but I still can't get used to seeing you like that," said Prompto.

"It's definitely a side effect of the magic," remarked Cor.

Ignis's amethyst eyes were thoughtful, as he looked at each of their faces once more. It was always the same, another reason he generally avoided areas that they could run into each other. Ever since the change in his eyes, no one looked at him the same way. Despite how hard some of them tried to hide it, Ignis was always met with that same sort of sadness at knowing the implications that made it possible for him to see in the first place. Although Cor and Iris weren't there, the loss was still a hard one to deal with, especially with how it all came to fruition. Ignis tore his gaze away and put it back at his drink. Even now while holding this in his hands he wasn't making it any easier on himself. Three long years and who knew how many more to go?

He took another long drink, "Perhaps they will revert to my normal self once this long mission comes to a close."

"I kind of like it," said Iris, "In many ways it keeps her with here, like she's watching over all of us with him."

"And we'll be ready to take our homes back when Noct gets here," said Gladiolus

They could do nothing but agree with his words, as they drunk and attempted to lighten up the mood once more.

...

thanks for reading, hopefully it goes well. I'll update soon.