A/N: This is the ninth in a series of stories designed to fill in the holes of the XV plot. As such, and as far as I could make it, this series is canon-compliant. Footnotes are available on the AO3 version explaining certain plot decisions and references. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: A Different Kind of Hunt

There was no denying it: the empire was utter shit.

Gladio huffed derisively at the passing landscape, glaring out over Niflheim's territory with as much animosity as he could muster. It probably wasn't the smartest idea, not when he was on a train full of people who at least lived under the empire's thumb even if they didn't like it, but he'd ceased to care at this point. If they couldn't take an opposing view, then they could just leave him the hell alone.

Honestly, who'd want to be out in this wasteland anyway? There were parts of Lucis that weren't so great either, don't get him wrong, but seriously—this place was a dump. Where the unsettled ground wasn't covered in parched grass, enormous rocks dug their way out of the earth like some kind of tumor; the only signs of civilization were basically mines and factories in the distance. You could make the argument that the snowcapped mountains bordering the horizon were nice enough, but Gladio wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that that was due to any effort on Niflheim's part. The nature that wasn't completely obliterated out here to make way for industry was just lucky it hadn't been mowed down yet. It was only a matter of time, though, and always had been.

Unless we can stop 'em before they get the chance, Gladio thought darkly, folding his arms tighter over his chest.

He and Noct may have set aside their differences after Ignis verbally flayed them up one side and down the other, but Gladio still had a few reservations about his charge. The latter was capable of being king and had been since he was a kid, even if Gladio was pretty skeptical of the idea in those days. Looking back, he had to admit that he'd gone harder on Noct than he probably should have. What was he supposed to expect out of a little kid, anyway? It was shocking enough when he stood up for Iris and took the blame for their little escapade even if it meant invoking the wrath of his father. The person Gladio had been back then never would have seen it coming; he still remembered scoffing when Iris tried to tell him the truth, only her anguished tears finally convincing him that the seemingly spoiled prince had thought of anyone other than himself for a change. Maybe he'd been unreasonable back then, appreciated a few of Noct's achievements too little and highlighted a few too many of his failures instead.

Now, though, he wasn't sure what the hell to think. Capable as he was, it just didn't seem like Noctis was holding his own in the heir to the throne department. Gladio knew it was tough, but he'd overcome it—maybe that was what really riled him up about his charge.

King Regis wasn't the only one who'd died. If he was gone, that meant Gladio's father had already stopped breathing. He'd wanted to grieve just like Noct, but they couldn't. There was too much to be done, too many people counting on them to sit around and wallow in self-pity as if that would bring their loved ones back. They had to focus on what they still had instead of what they'd lost. For Gladio, that meant a few more texts to Iris than usual. Noct had the three of them; it should have been enough for him to pull his head out of his ass sooner and get with the program, but he hadn't.

While Gladio had been off seeking more power from the Blademaster so that he could do his job better, what had Noct been up to? Finding a rock. Yeah, they'd needed that rock to get King Regis's boat going, but Gladio had expected to come back and find that his charge was ready to get to Altissia.

What he'd gotten instead was a whiny little brat, as always.

It only got worse after the whole Leviathan debacle. Weeks had passed, and Noct was still a mess. Lady Lunafreya had died, yeah. It was sad, and it made sense that Noct would feel bad since they'd been friends for so long. But kings didn't have time to mourn, especially not kings who had to take down an evil empire almost singlehandedly. There just wasn't time for that shit, so Gladio thought he was doing Noct a favor by trying to get him out of the rut where he'd been spinning his wheels for way too long. Everything he did backfired, though: whenever he tried to say something to get Noct motivated, either the prince wouldn't seem to hear him or his own anger at the situation would mess it all up and make his words come out harsher than he'd meant. By the time that happened, his charge was just as fired up, and it did neither of them any good to continue the conversation. It would just turn into an argument nobody involved was going to win.

But…Ignis had been right about one thing, and Gladio should have realized it going into this journey. Like it or not, Noct was that special kind of stubborn—the more you pushed before he was ready, the more he dug his heels in. For all the added effort he put in after Gladio exploded on him yesterday, there was just as much anger and frustration there as ever. It had colored all their interactions while they were hunting down the last royal arm in Fodina Caestino, and he actually did feel a little bad that it had put them at such severe odds that Prompto and Ignis got caught in the middle.

But what was he supposed to do? Sit around and let the new king be an idiot? No. His father wouldn't have let King Regis drown in his grief, so neither would he. Come hell or high water, Noct would become the monarch he needed to be, and Gladio would be there to protect him every step of the way.

It was with that thought in mind that he had agreed to go on Ignis's wild chocobo chase. A king needed a realm to rule, and unfortunately it looked like things were going downhill pretty much everywhere in that regard.

Longer nights and shorter days. That was the rumor Ignis had remarked on earlier when Noct and Prompto were still sleeping. It had apparently popped up while both Shield and prince had been, as he'd put it, doing your best imitation of a pack of voretooths. Gladio had tried not to take offense to that, but he couldn't deny that it rankled enough for him to almost tell Ignis to go on this little fact-finding mission on his own. Of course, he'd stopped himself before his temper got the better of him—Ignis was blind and, as far as Gladio was concerned, damn near helpless in a crowd. The last thing they needed was for him to be wandering around the train alone, regardless of how well he'd stood up to that malboro down in the mines. Gladio may have been outvoted on taking Ignis with them, but his concerns still remained: they couldn't just let him go off by himself, especially as they drew closer to the middle of enemy territory.

So, that left Gladio to do the job for him. And he was getting pretty damn tired of waiting.

All Ignis knew was what the person sounded like. That much was to be expected, but Gladio hadn't realized just how hard it was going to be to find someone purely based on the sound of their voice. It wasn't exactly something that you could easily describe to another person, not like an appearance would be. Deep with a bit of a rasp, was all Ignis could tell him. Oh, and that apparently the guy had a pretty awkward stutter. So, that narrowed his search down to approximately…half the train. If whoever it was hadn't gotten off in Cartanica and not gotten back on, which was a good possibility given how things had been going for them recently.

By lunchtime, Gladio was about to call it quits. He must have scoured almost every carriage over the course of a few hours with absolutely nothing to show for his efforts. Just as he was heading back towards the dining car where Ignis had agreed to rendezvous, however, he heard it: someone was talking about the same thing as the guy he'd been hunting down. It definitely wasn't the same person—not unless he'd shrunk a foot, put on weight, and grown a pair of…well, y'know—but Gladio figured it was close enough.

His new informant had been pretty helpful. She said she'd heard the rumors from some other passenger, one who fit the meager description Gladio had to work with, and offered to set up a meeting for the two of them. If it meant he didn't have to wander around anymore, that was just fine with him.

Which was how he ended up staring out through the wall of windows in one of the sleeping carriages, glaring at the scenery like it had personally affronted him. This far from home and in the situation they were dealing with, it kinda had. But he had a job to do, friends to guide, and a king to protect. A little homesickness wasn't about to stop him.

"Uh…hey. Excuse me?"

Gladio turned at the sound of the familiar voice and threw on a rakish smile for the woman who had offered to be his messenger. "Hey. You find the guy?"

"Yeah," she nodded, returning his smirk. Her expression was more uneasy than when they'd spoken before, though; he hoped he hadn't put her off with his brooding. "He said he'd meet you in the freight car in ten minutes."

"That's off the beaten path," muttered Gladio slowly, eyes narrowed. She shrugged.

"That's just what he told me."

Figures Ignis would send me after some weirdo.

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks for your help."

As soon as his informant wandered off to rejoin her group, Gladio's smile slid off his face. He didn't like the idea of meeting some random stranger in the most remote part of the train, especially when that would mean leaving Noct by himself, but it looked like it couldn't be helped. So, as he started heading back towards the dining car, he shot off a quick text to Prompto telling him to wake the hell up and go babysit the prince. At least he could trust the two of them not to get into too much trouble on their own.

Yeah. Who'm I kidding?

"Hey captain, mission complete," Gladio announced as he approached the booth where Ignis and Noct were seated.

It was something of a surprise to see the latter up and moving when it was still technically morning, but he'd noticed that the prince slept less since Altissia. Whether that had to do with his grief or some kind of trauma from the shit that went down with Leviathan was anyone's guess, but as much as Gladio worried deep down about his charge, he couldn't deny that it was a lot easier to get stuff done when they didn't have to go through the same runaround just to get Noctis out of bed at a reasonable hour.

"Splendid," answered Ignis, smirking in satisfaction.

They weren't going to get away with not cluing Noct in, it seemed, because he automatically asked, "So what caught your ear?"

"Rumors of longer nights."

Leaning against the back of Ignis's banquette, Gladio added, "They've been growing longer, day by day."

"There was talk of it back in Lucis, but recent days have shown an unseasonably sharp change," Ignis elucidated.

Noct hummed thoughtfully, his eyes dropping to the table for a second. It was one of the increasingly frequent moments when Gladio could see the king he would grow to be if it weren't for how often he still needed to get a grip on himself. When he didn't comment further, Ignis continued, "Should this trend continue, before long…"

"There won't be daylight," Noct finished for him. The idea made Gladio shift uncomfortably.

"Well, it's not out of the question. The empire's already slain half of the Six." Huffing out a humorless chuckle, he murmured, "No wonder the whole world's in disarray."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Noct's expression seized up with what Gladio assumed were memories of his battle with Leviathan. Even his voice was tight when he muttered, "I…guess."

If Ignis noticed the sudden change in his demeanor, which Gladio highly doubted he'd missed, he didn't comment on it. Instead he pressed on, "And longer nights mean more daemons."

"Seen that with our own eyes," agreed Gladio, following his lead. Maybe the best way to handle Noct's bouts of the doldrums were to just push past them before he had a chance to linger on whatever had gotten him out of whack. Gladio was willing to give it a shot, anyway.

"I happened to overhear a fellow passenger discussing this very same phenomenon."

"So he sent yours truly to seek 'em out."

Somehow, it worked. Noct smirked and complimented him, "Nice police work."

It still fell a little flat, but it was a start.

"Well," Gladio addressed Ignis this time, "don't wanna keep 'em waiting."

He nodded in agreement. "No, we don't. Back in a moment."

"Sure."

With that, Gladio led the way back towards the rear of the train, Ignis following close on his heels. He made sure to step a little heavier than usual; there wasn't enough space for Ignis to use his cane, so it dangled loosely from his hand while he relied on the sound of Gladio's footsteps for direction. He had to admit the guy was getting pretty good at this. He still tripped or stumbled every now and again, but those instances were fewer and further between. The longer he spent in his unfortunate new state of being, the better he got at moving around on his own. That, even more than Noct and Prompto's assurances that they would help Ignis out, was what gave him hope that this might just work without anyone having to be left behind.

And if it didn't… Well, they'd had that conversation already before they boarded the train again in Cartanica. It had meant getting all the awkwardness out of the way when the other two weren't around to avoid causing a scene, but there were things that needed to be out in the open. The fact that Gladio couldn't be responsible for seeing to Ignis's safety when Noct had to be his number one priority was at the top of the list. Ignis, true to form, had agreed wholeheartedly even though Gladio could tell he wasn't pleased with the situation. None of them were, although his disappointment came from a more admirable place than sentiments from anyone else in the same position would have.

For Ignis, it wasn't about the fact that his friends couldn't necessarily promise to have his back—it was that he wouldn't have Noct's if worse came to worst.

There was no changing the past, though, and sitting around wishing they could was exactly the sort of thing Gladio had berated Noct for time and time again. So, they'd discussed all the contingencies and made plans; admittedly, Ignis already had most of them put together, so it was easy for Gladio to nod his head before remembering that Ignis wouldn't be able to see it and agreeing aloud. If or when the time came, they would be ready…whatever that meant.

Listening to the distinct lack of fumbling around behind him, though, allowed Gladio to breathe a little easier. To say that they'd had shit luck this entire trip was really understating things, so he was desperately hoping that the Astrals would throw them a bone here. Losing Ignis would hit all of them hard, maybe even too hard to keep going, in one particular case. Noct couldn't afford to lose anyone else, emotionally or with regards to physical strength.

And he's not gonna, Gladio swore to himself. Ignis would pull through, they'd make it to Gralea, and they'd kick that chancellor's ass.

But first, they really needed to figure out what the hell was happening to the world.

"You really think this guy knows what he's talking about?" he asked as they slipped through the door to the next compartment.

Ignis made a thoughtful noise before he smoothly evaded, "Our sources of intelligence are regrettably limited the further we travel from Accordo and Lucis. Any information we can glean on the present state of things, how ever suspect, would be of interest."

Which was a lot of fancy words for Ignis saying that he had no damn clue. Gladio could appreciate that; in this case, it wasn't just Noct's advisor who was literally and figuratively in the dark. When they were in Lucis, they could count on hunters and informants for some insight. Stopping at Meldacio or Caem would yield plenty of intel. Now, though, their contact had to be limited—there wasn't any choice in the matter. Altissia was one thing—the empire technically ran the place, but it was the local government that had de facto control of Accordo. Now that they were heading into real enemy territory, they couldn't take the chance that their communications would be intercepted and their location pinpointed. That, unfortunately, meant they couldn't call back to Lucis to see what the hell was going on.

No Marshal, no Crownsguard…

No Dad.

They were truly on their own out here.

So, they'd take a chance on this person of interest. If they were lucky, he'd have a few answers they'd been waiting to hear.

Not that he was planning on holding his breath. How often had luck been on their side on this shitshow of a road trip, anyway?

As if hearing his thoughts, Ignis suddenly stopped behind him with a troubled expression. They were still in the middle of a passenger carriage, so Gladio guided him by the arm out into one of the interchanges before asking, "What's up?"

"I confess, I feel a bit…uneasy at the prospect of leaving Noct on his own," was the reply, and he had to admit he didn't necessarily disagree. It was a little late for that, though.

"Don't worry," Gladio reassured him. "I sent Prompto to keep 'im occupied."

Ignis's shoulders relaxed slightly as he nodded, but the crease between his eyebrows didn't smooth out.

"Somethin' the matter?"

"I'm…not sure."

That didn't exactly inspire confidence. When Ignis got a bad feeling, he was usually right; when he couldn't figure out what it meant... That'd never happened before.

"Maybe it's just nerves," Gladio suggested halfheartedly. "We're all a little on edge these days. It's kind of a given this far inside the empire."

It didn't look like Ignis bought it for a second, yet he simply nodded and murmured, "Perhaps."

Great, now Gladio was getting nervous just taking in how anxious Ignis looked. It didn't sit right with him either, but they didn't exactly have a lot of options; there was no way they were putting Noct in danger by taking him to meet whoever this guy was supposed to be. Noct was an adult and perfectly capable of protecting himself—Gladio was the one who taught him how, after all. Plus, they'd come a long way since the first few days outside the Wall. If Noct could take down a couple of gods, then he'd be fine for ten minutes.

He'd better be fine or he'll have me to deal with.

In spite of their respective job descriptions and the occasional joke, Ignis and Gladio weren't Noct's babysitters and never had been. There had to come a time when he stood on his own two feet, and what better practice than safely sitting with Prompto in the dining car while they were off getting some answers?

…He could tell himself that, but it didn't change the fact that he wasn't so comfortable with the idea of splitting up. Not even slightly.

"All right, how about this? We find this guy, get the details, and get out. No long conversations. Shouldn't take more than a minute to figure out whether he knows what the hell he's talking about."

Even his distaste for their situation couldn't keep Ignis from smirking a bit. Some days, it was like he didn't think the damn Shield of the king could come up with a reasonable plan.

"An acceptable course of action," he approved, motioning for Gladio to take the lead once again. "Perhaps one of them will have thought ahead to acquiring lunch by the time we return."

Gladio snorted. "Yeah, you keep dreamin'."