Nyx watched Selena jump into the ocean from the clift with a gleeful shout. His parents were already in the water with Libertus', Crowe's, and other glaives' parents. Crowe was gleefully teasing Libertus and Pelna while a water fight went on among the glaives.
"Nyx! Hurry up and jump in!" Selena called out. Nyx waved at her, backed up a few steps and ran to flung himself into the air. He flipped through the air several times, laughing, and landed…. on an Scourge tainted behemoth in the middle of a battlefield.
Disoriented, he tumbled off as the beast reared, landing roughly on the muddy ground. There were countless flickers of blue light through the air. A figure landed beside Nyx, a familiar looking shield appearing just in time to keep the behemoth from trampling him.
"Nyx! What the fuck are you doing?" Libertus screamed through the cacophony of sounds.
Nyx stared at Libertus. Libertus stared back. The world felt unreal as Nyx stared at a much younger, scar free face.
What.
The.
Fuck.
"Nyx!" Libertus grabbed his arm and shook him hard. "Are you hurt?" A hint of panic was starting to creep into his brother's voice. It was enough to draw him out of his shock.
Think later. Survive now.
Nyx poked at the spot were King Regis' magic once laid, waiting for his call. He expected to find it empty, as it had been since his death. It wasn't.
Nyx didn't ask questions. He grabbed at the magic, grabbed unto Libertus, and warped away from the horde of infected beasts and soldiers. His landing was awful, years of disuse making themselves known.
Nyx tried to control his breathing as he looked around the battlefield. He recognized the place. Recognize the fight. Recognized several glaives that died years after it had happened.
His mind was a mess of thoughts, feelings and confusion. Nyx squashed them away for later. First things first. Save as many glaives as he could. Kill as many beasts and soldiers as he could.
Don't let Niflheim win.
His magic answered his summon. Magic he had only wielded once just before his death. Blue shades, towering even above the behemoths, appeared around the battlefield. Weapons wielded by Kings and Queens cut through Niflheim's army like a hot knife through butter.
"Nyx?" Two almost identical voices called out from either side of him. Two Libertus, one young, the other scarred, stood watching him with worry and confusion.
One by one, glaives both young and old, gathered around Nyx as he wielded the Old Kings power to destroy everything Niflheim had sent. Airships, daemons, beasts and MT soldiers. None of them stood a chance before the Regents of Yore wielded by the Hero of Lucis, Nyx Ulric.
As the shades finally started fading, leaving only Lucians still standing on the battlefield, Nyx dropped to his knees. His vision was fading as exhaustion filled his very veins. Maybe he'd overdone it.
Familiar hands followed by familiar voices surrounded him, some echoed twice by concerned friends. Nyx closed his eyes and hoped he'd be back with his family soon.
Drautos tightened his grip on the hilt of the training dagger. The sudden arrival of older doubles of Noctis, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto had been a shock to everyone, regardless of how fortunate their timing had been. Learning, a day later, that the Nox Fleurets had also found themselves with twins of their children had opened the possibility of more sudden guests.
He'd just received the report on such new guests from his glaives and now…. Now Drautos was looking at an older version of himself that had just walked into the middle of a training exercise.
He would have been amused by the gasps and pointed fingers except for one single detail.
His older self was holding his brother hostage. An older, more worn out version of Cor but it was unmistakably Cor nonetheless. A Cor that was bleeding right in front of his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Drautos hissed between gritted teeth.
The older him raised a brow at that. "There seems no point in continuing this worthless charade now that this…. time shift has occurred. The Immortal will make an excellent offering to the Emperor, along with the information of the future we now hold."
Drautos saw red. What in Ifrit's name was this older version saying? Go to Niflheim? Betray Regis? HIs friends, his family, and all the glaives that counted on him? What had happened to make him betray them all?
"Come on. We will need to hurry before Ulric shows up and makes a mess of our plans." The older Drautos pressed Cor's katana deeper into the soft skin of his neck.
Drautos forced himself to relax. He ignored the whispers from the new trainees as he dropped the training dagger. He could work with this. Without glancing back, Drautos walked over to the betrayer. "Ulric huh? He certainly is reckless and foolish enough to cause trouble."
Almost there.
Drautos met this older Cor's gaze squarely, his heart breaking at the hatred he saw there. There would be much to talk about once things were only hoped he could fix the trust so obviously broken.
"I'll take care of Cor." Drautos reached over, grabbed Cor's arm with one hand and extended his other to receive the katana. The betrayer didn't hesitate, handing over the sword to Drautos without a word.
The tension drained out of Drautos the moment he held the sword. "Glaives! Take him down!" The order came moments after Drautos shoved Cor out of the betrayer's reach.
It was odd to see shock and anger on a face so similar to his but Drautos didn't allow it to stop him. Cor's katana sliced through the air towards an exposed leg.
It was stopped by black, glistening material that suddenly surrounded the betrayer's body.
Drautos stared in horror as Glauca retaliated. He barely managed to dart out of the way as Glauca's daemon infused greatsword tried to take his head off. His trainees finally reacted, warping to attack the Niflheim general.
Drautos glanced back to the older Cor, eyes narrowing as the marshall struggled to get back on his feet with his hands still tied behind his back. "Ashe! Nova! Get Cor to the docs! Now!"
"What? N…" Older Cor started saying only to start coughing violently. Drautos heart stopped at the blood dripping from his mouth. Not good. He needed to deal with Glauca now because it was the only way to ensure everyone's safety.
His trainees were doing a damn good job so far but Glauca was too strong to be taken down by them. Drautos would have to do it.
He gripped Cor's katana carefully and waited for the perfect moment to strike. It came as Glauca threw one of his trainees into the wall. Drautos threw the katana upwards. Warped to it.
The fine blade sheared through Glauca's armor like a hot knife in butter, its edge enhanced by Drautos' magic. Glauca stumbled as both of his forearms dropped to the ground, still holding the greatsword. Not taking any risks, Drautos reversed the direction of his swing, summoned lightning and pinned Glauca's leg to the floor.
Hearing his own voice screaming in agony would haunt his nightmares for a while. As would the knowledge that somehow, in a different timeline, Drautos had betrayed everything he held dear.
"Gentiana! Come…. Come join us!" Eos stumbled over to the messenger, a bottle of Altissian whisky in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. "We… We're drinking to… umm… Why are we drinking again Etro?"
Etro giggled as she waved a bottle of Fire Rum in the air. "Don't know! Can't remember…. Something about being naked?"
Eos shrugged and threw an arm around the messenger. "Right…. Oh! Was it because of that 'Top ten sexiest Lucis Caelum' list?"
Gentianna sighed as she listened to the two oldest goddesses discuss which monarch was sexiest. What was that saying humankind had?
If you can't beat them, join them?
A/N: So just to make sure everyone is clear on this. Older!Gen are from canon timeline. The timeline where the Older!Gen land in? A completely different timeline with significant differences in events. I put in a few of those differences in but others will pop up as the plot starts going. This is the last "intro" chapter so the next one should have plot in it.
