A Hundred Years of Night

Night came
with its enormous rotation of stars, so something seemed possible, even if it wasn't hope,
even if the thing we spend our lives moving toward
is unknowable, until it's too late to turn back.
—Bruce Weigl


0. Episode Noctis

You were suspended, in a space filled with darkness and many-colored light, blazing like an aurora, coiling and twining around you, as if they were gravitated towards you. You could see the stars in the distance, specks that were meant to draw out patterns; Ignis would be disappointed, you were meant to have learned all the astronomy. He had spent many an evening going over the lessons with you. At the time, you felt it acutely unfair that you had to learn all these other things aside from your school lessons. Being royalty didn't mean you had a larger brain or whatever. Politics and maybe even geography you understood grudgingly, but astronomy?

But now you understood.

You felt that way about a lot of things now, and you felt guilty about being such a sullen, single-minded brat most of the time.

It was strange, breathing—it felt like you were inhaling something liquid and air at the same time. You weren't sure what you were feeling, actually. At times it felt like absolutely nothing—no sight, no hearing, no smell, no touch.

You weren't sure how long you spend here, but it felt like ages. You were convinced you were dying at one point (perhaps a month? A night? Hard to tell)—didn't they say that your life was supposed to pass by when you died? Your life was a long one though, not by the years but by how much had happened, so it must have taken a while.

You remembered being young in a large palace, where everything seemed so large and tall, especially your father, in his dark cloak. Black was the color of Lucis, the color of gravitas and steadfastness, your father always said. You remembered when you were broken and almost dead: his hand on your head, the warmness of his skin against your clammy skin, his tears matching the pitter-patter against the window. You remembered his limp as he walked towards you, seeing you off on the journey you now know he knew to be your last. You remembered being afraid of his stern face whenever he summoned you, although you would never have admitted that to Gladiolus. You remembered when his hair used to be black like your own. You remembered that photo of him in his youth, looking almost exactly like you, but with less hair in his eyes. You remembered when he started looking at you all sad—the day after Lunafreya collapsed after an overwhelming vision. You remembered the scratchy tickle of his beard, back when he used to hug you. You remembered crashing the Regalia when you drove around the bend too quickly and his sigh as you and Prompto stood before him, mortified at being caught stealing your old man's car. You remembered, you supposed, what fatherly love felt like.

You remembered Luna, your only friend for a very long time. You couldn't even imagine the loneliness you would have felt if she wasn't there by your side. You weren't always a nice kid, and when you lashed out, she always just smiled kindly, and sometimes took your hand gently. She assured you that you were nice, and kind, and smart, and brave, and every attribute that you secretly yearned for but was afraid were just fundamentally not in you. You wanted to make her proud, to live up to her version of you. You remembered this one kid in school joking about how she always dressed in white and you in black and therefore you were bound to be enemies, and you remembered beating this kid up with Prompto. (Or at least, that was what you told Ignis, and he politely pushed up his glasses and did not comment on your swollen eye.) You remembered her telling you how the world worked with infinite conviction and wisdom, even though she was ten and just a head taller than you. You remembered dreaming about her after she went away. Those were the comforting dreams, not the ones of fire and gore, and you cherished them, just like you cherished any memories of her—because after all, truth be told, after years and years, you were starting to forget what her smile looked like. But you always remembered her voice.

But most of all, you remembered the trip. When it first started, it was just a massive road trip for you and your closest (only) friends, getting out of the city and going to fetch Luna—even amid the mounting political pressure and the sense that everything was going wrong, it still was fun and the best of times. The landscape that rolled by, breathtaking and surreal—you never thought you would actually see something like the sea, although you've seen plenty of pictures. The camping: although uncomfortable, you honestly enjoyed gathering around the fire and it always seemed like a minor miracle the way Ignis was able to produce gourmet food out of nothing. You saw caves, ruins, forests, mountains, cities—everything, together. You couldn't imagine even taking a single step out of Insomnia without those three. You remembered Ignis, who had been with you longer than anybody, whose patience was as endless as his resolve. You remembered Gladiolus, who was a big hulking teddy bear, really, when you poked at his core, whose fierceness was matched by his gentle love for the land and his sister. And you remembered Prompto, who was as much a haven for you as you were for him all throughout school, who could never be convinced that other people could like him.

You missed them. So much.

But the white light was filling the world, and your ring started flashing hotly.

You knew it was time.


Author's Note: It was kind of obvious that the second half of the game wasn't really finished. I thought there was especially so much potential after he woke up ten years later, but it was frustratingly linear, without really a chance to explore this drastically different world. You learn that your team have lives of their own now, but somehow they're also just waiting for you at Hammerhead? And when they see Noctis, who has been missing for a decade, who was basically dead because he was consumed by the crystal, they just go, 'oh hey dude'?

So here's a thought: what if you have to now travel the world to gather them? It's not going to be a plot-heavy game expansion type of story, but it will explore what these people have done for the last ten years, and how they have coped with Noctis's disappearance and the state of the world.