A good day to you, pals. I suppose I am not the only one who was outraged to see the lack of development on one of the very few female characters of this FF series, even though she looked positively amazing? Good. Because this fic is about fixing this. The main goal is to put a very much alive Crowe in the Final Fantasy XV story, in the most accurately possible way. Even while trying to fill the actual plot holes. It's going to be tough but I think it can be interesting, so bear with me if you can! We're on for a "fun" ride! Also, If some of my sentences look weird to you that's normal, English is not my mother tongue. Don't hesitate to point out mistakes if you see some, that'd be a huge help, since I don't have a Beta reader for this.

This fic will go through both Kingsglaive and the FFXV game, so it's preferable if you've seen both. Then again it's going to retell a lot of those plots so perhaps you won't feel too lost, I hope. Enjoy the read! :)

Prologue

"Maaan, this city is out of this world," Prompto Argentum marveled while looking frantically at every building around the corner. "Look at all this water and the decorations! Everything is pretty here!"

"It's even more appreciable when you know that they have been dealing with the rise of the sea level brilliantly over the last century," Ignis Scientia commented. "Other cities would be underwater by now, but they managed to redirect the tides and even use it as a source of energy."

"I wonder if they'll still be able to do that after the Covenant, though," Gladiolus Amicitia pointed out. "If it's going to be like the Titan, I don't think they'll handle it."

"Let's just hope that it doesn't come to that," Noctis Lucis Caelum sighed. "For now I just want to rest."

"I hear ya there."

"Agreed."

"Good idea."

Altissia was definitely an amazing place. Both allying canals and old buildings, the main mean of transport being the boats that sailed through the city, with water falls and fountains at every corner of the streets, the capital of Accordo was still flourishing in trade and tourism even though war was tearing the neighboring country of Lucis apart.

The city was gorgeous and glorious looking, nothing seemed to be able to trouble it, but that perfectness and tranquility bothered Noctis in a strange way. He felt uncomfortable, being in such a peaceful place (even if under Imperial surveillance) when the ashes of his home town Insomnia, and the rest of his kingdom were not done burning. And somewhere in his mind, he doubted that this tranquility defined the real state of mind of the Altissians citizens. They were very good at keeping up the appearances, though.

They were visiting the city while trying to get some information about the Oracle, Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, who would make her speech next morning.

He wanted to see her so bad... Luna was constantly in his mind, he just couldn't get her out of it. He was so used to it it wasn't even distracting anymore. His eagerness pushed him forward while walking in the streets, asking anyone willing to answer.

Such as Cid's old bud, Wakham, who told him as much as he could, and introduced him to the first secretary of Accordo, Camelia Claustra, who asked him to come by her office to discuss some things about the Oracle.

They were walking towards the nearest hotel, completely exhausted and the sun setting on the ocean, when he heard a female voice calling his name :

"King Noctis."

He turned around to see a woman, with brown messy hair, dark eyes, a leather jacket and jeans. Hands in her back, in a to-attention attitude contrasting with her casual clothes, she had a serious look on her face, but there was a light in her eyes that looked like some kind of relief.

"Pleased to finally meet you, Your Majesty." A slight emphasis on the "finally". "My name is Crowe Altius, Kingsglaive, and appointed to Lady Lunafreya's protection by King Regis. We've been expecting you."

Speechless, Noctis looked at her and did so for several long seconds, so did his friends. He knew that many members of the Kingsglaive betrayed his father, so at some point he convinced himself that there wasn't anymore faithful men at his side, except for the Crownsguard. He remembered the selfie Luna printed and put between the pages of their diary. He had no idea who the woman next to her driving the car on the photo was, but Luna was smiling at the camera and he assumed she was safe, so even though he wondered who she was, he didn't fret about it. Now that he knew, he was totally caught of guard. When he met Libertus Ostium in Galahd with other Crownsguards, the man assured him that Luna was safe, before going back into battle.

Under the stare of her new King, the woman called Crowe looked positively fidgety and uncomfortable. She cleared her throat loudly to get some reaction out of him.

"You're the person that accompanied Luna," he realized out-loud slowly. "She sent me a photo of you in the notebook..."

"That lady is a Kingsglaive?!" Prompto exclaimed, incredulous.

She had a tired smile while rolling her eyes. She muttered something that sounded like : "She'll be the death of me..."

"I specifically told her not to send any picture, but hey, when did she ever listened to me..." she mumbled.

She spoke of Luna with a lot of familiarity, he hadn't heard anyone talk about her in such a way, except for himself. It was intriguing, to say the least.

"Looks like some of King Regis faithful men managed to get out of the city," Ignis said.

"Barely," she snorted bitterly. "My friend Libertus and I were the only ones that I know of. Sorry to disappoint you, Sir," she apologized.

"Libertus..." Gladio wondered. "Ostium, right ? We met the guy near Galahd with the Marshal..."

"I'm glad to hear that, Sir," she confessed with a bit of relief in her voice. "Her Highness and me were afraid he wouldn't make it there. So I guess he already told you everything about Insomnia, then?"

"We had to get out of Galahd quickly, we didn't have exactly the time to chit-chat," Prompto said.

"The Marshal still managed to fill us in, though not very thoroughly, I'm afraid," Ignis added.

"I suppose that's understandable. Well... If you're interested in that, I can tell you everything I know about it." She added grimly : "I was there to see it all... It wasn't pretty, that's for sure..."

"Where is Luna ?" Noctis asked, finally to change the subject.

Still at attention, Crowe Altius looked back at him :

"She's safe, Your Majesty. Between the Niffs and the Accordians, I doubt she can be in a safer place right now."

"So... How exactly are you protecting her, then?" Gladio asked sarcastically.

She gave him a confident smile.

"By not being noticed by them. I can be more discreet than you can probably think, Sir."

"...Right." Noctis said, unimpressed. "So, Crowe, right ? Why are you here and not by Luna's, then?"

"To be honest, I thought you might find interesting a detailed report on what went on in the City, since my companions and me were directly confronted to the situation there. And I needed to ask for a favor, after telling you about all of this," she added while slightly bowing her head.

Noctis stared at her again and he turned to Ignis :

"What do you think? Should we listen to her?"

"It's worth a try, I suppose. The Marshal informed us as best as he could but that was not exactly satisfying. The intel she can give us will probably be useful."

"Alright then," the young king concluded. "Crowe, let's discuss this elsewhere. I don't think this is the sort of stuff to discuss out on the streets."

"Couldn't agree more, Majesty," the Kingsglaive nodded, as they followed them in the hotel.

As they sat in the restaurant, Crowe Altius began her tale :

"I was recruited by the Kingsglaive around five years ago. Feels like another lifetime... Before that, I was born in a village, near the East border of Lucis, not too far from Galahd actually. My home and family were destroyed by an Imperial raid, and so I was homeless for a long time until I met my new family. Libertus and Nyx Ulric. Another member of the Kingsglaive. Its best, actually. But we'll get on to that later."

After a sip of her drink, she went on :

"The three of us were selected in Galahd to fill the new ranks of the Kingsglaive, Nyx had already lost his sister, at that time, and was ready to kick some Imperial asses. I should probably point out the fact that your father, Majesty, had saved Nyx from a daemon attack while he was touring the country. So Libertus, Nyx and I were recruited in the Kingsglaive much later. And then we were sent on the front lines, and it all started there. We defended the City and our homes outside of it. Many of us actually didn't give two shits about the city though. We had other stuff in mind such as our families and home countries and stuff like that. "For hearths and homes", we used to say. And most of the people that see our uniforms when walking in the streets in Insomnia were all solid ungrateful bastards. Then again we didn't do that for them. Nyx was the most patriotic out of us, probably due to the fact that King Regis saved him. Probably the only one that truly trusted him... And we should have... Had we trusted him, many of the things that happened in Insomnia would've been avoided, I think..."

Crowe at some point sounded really tired, even though she didn't look like it physically. She glanced several time at Noctis but he looked focused on her. If he flinched at the mention of his father, he didn't show it. He merely smiled when she said he saved Nyx.

"Anyways...", she went on. "I guess it all started on the West frontline. The last real battle against the Niffs when we actually had a kind of hold on. Emphasis on the "kind of"."