The world was full of light when he opened his eyes.

It was captivating, the glitter of ice in the still air, floating gently, swayed by the slightest of breaths misting in front of his face. The particles were too sharp to be snowflakes, too small to be sleet. They glowed as if possessed with life themselves. Noctis raised his head slowly from where his cheek had rested on cold stone. All the ice around him seemed to shine with that light. But, like a dimming bulb before it flickers out, the light that shimmered over the bodies of his friends was dull.

"Guys-"

His voice rasped, half gone and struggling to get through his frozen throat. Still, he breathed out hard a warm puff of air that appeared in the air and shifted, breaking ice that had built up on his clothes. His hair was similarly iced over, but he didn't care so much. He just wanted, needed, to wake his friends up. He reached Ignis first, and stretched his blue-tipped, numb, fingers to the man's shoulder.

"Ignis", he slipped on the ice, his knees sliding back, but kept his grip on the man. His head was bowed, inches from his advisor's chest, and he looked up with mouth slightly open, the proof that he was alive fogging the air even as he looked for the same thing coming from his friend. His fingers tightened, and his wide eyes peered through the shadows of his bangs until he saw it, faint and there, just like the light that Noctis knew and didn't know. The prince's heart beat in his chest as if it was lined with barbed wire, slicing his chest open with an anxiety that was only growing larger.

"Ignis!", he reached out with his other hand, now holding both of the man's shoulders. Ignis's lashes behind his glasses were frosted. "Wake up!"

Noctis shook him hard, and the man mumbled a questioning noise that was nearly as silent as Noctis's voice had been. Another hard shake and call of his name, and the brunette reluctantly opened his eyes. The hazel brown was a welcoming sight, and Noctis let go.

"Stay awake, the cold's getting to us", the prince said, his voice a little thick from it. More awareness came into Ignis's eyes, and he shifted slowly.

"Noc- Noctis", he coughed, breathed in deeply a few times, and shifted. His eyes roamed, but now that he was awake Noctis moved over to Prompto. Ignis remained where he was, catching his bearings and messing with his flashlight as Noctis crawled over his legs.

Noctis didn't know why, the cave was glowing.

"Prompto. Prompto, open your eyes!", he shook the blond, roughly. The sharpshooter had slumped down to lay on the ice, unlike Ignis who had been propped up with his back against an ice wall, and more like Noctis, who had tipped over to the side. It took a few minutes to rouse his friend, and a bit longer to convince him to stay awake, but by then Ignis was taking over.

"See to Gladio, I have Prompto", he had gotten his flashlight working, apparently, and it nearly blinded Noctis when he glanced at it. But he wasn't worried about that, instead he moved over to Gladiolus and grasped his shoulders.

"Gladio! Hey- Gladio!"

His Shield stirred quickest, as if called back to life by the prince's voice.

"Sh… Shit", he muttered, his chest heaving as he took in sudden breaths and raised his hands, flexing fingers that were probably as numb as Noctis's.

"Prompto? How ya doin'?", Gladiolus rumbled, seeing the small blond in Ignis's light only just starting to move around. Noctis moved back quick when they man straightened, their heads nearly colliding. Strange that Gladiolus didn't apologize, but there were more important things drawing their attention.

"…Fine", Prompto said, easily sounding exhausted. He was messing with his flashlight with slow and unsteady motions.

"Don't worry about it", Noctis said, "It's light enough without them."

There was a pause from Ignis, though Prompto only looked up at him in confusion and Gladiolus grunted in question. Noctis was taken off guard by their reactions.

"What?", he asked, and slowly eased to his feet. Gladiolus's light flashed on, and Noctis winced at the brightness.

"Noctis, it's utterly black in here", Ignis said as he too rose, helping Prompto to his feet. Gladiolus followed just a moment later.

"I can see you guys fine."

"You're the only one who can see then", Gladiolus grunted, "can you see a way out of here?"

Noctis took a moment to look around, but nothing caught his eye. He took a few testing steps and after determining that he was fine walking, if a bit clumsier than normal, stilled again not too far away.

"I'm going to go look around. Give me five minutes", he said.

"Wait-", Prompto's voice, small and quiet and heart wrenching, "What if you get lost?" He sounded upset, and likely was. All of them realized just how close they had come to never waking up again. If Noctis hadn't woken up… What a way to die that would have been, frozen in a legendary cave that no one would enter because of daemons and a cold unnatural to Eos. Nobody wanted to split up now.

"I'll be fine. You guys can work on getting my light going for Prompto", he handed it to Gladiolus, who was distinctly unhappy with how things were turning out. All of their minds were slowed by the cold, and physically they weren't much better.

"Be careful", the Shield said sternly, and Noctis waved him off as he disappeared out of their lights.

How can I see like this? Had this happened before? He thought back to nights that had seemed awfully bright to him, nights that held no shadows which could scare him. Maybe it had happened before, like the night Gladiolus found him alone. Nothing had been as bright as the cavern was though, no dancing particles of light that blew away with every breath and drifted right back. Maybe it was Gentiana's doing again, like when he had been hurt. He wondered how she had done that but it was likely the Gods had been involved.

He walked along the iced stone carefully, the movement good for warming his blood, and checked every route carefully. Gentiana wouldn't have left them in there if there wasn't a way out. Thankfully they had already cleared the area of daemon's and none had moved back in while they were asleep. It took some long minutes to walk the area, dazzled by what he could see. And then— he saw it. A ledge, just wide enough for everyone to cross on, but thin enough to make Noctis nervous.

The prince arrived back to find that his flashlight hadn't worked either, and the group of four only had the guidance of two lights and Noctis's sight.

Sight…

"Any luck?", Gladiolus asked as soon as he heard the prince approaching. Prompto was doing slow squats to keep warm. Ignis had been waiting, quiet and tense.

"Yeah, I found a way. It'll be a little precarious but…"

"Precarious is better than no way at all", Ignis said, "lead on."

It wasn't too difficult for Gladiolus and Ignis to get across, but the problem of Prompto not having a light rose up pretty fast.

"Noct I… I don't really know about this", the gunner said uneasily. The ice was faintly illuminated by the others, but their lights were dim and sometimes flickering. The angle wasn't the best either.

"Uh… Okay, I'll go before you and tell you what's coming up. Stick close, alright?"

Prompto gave a shaky okay and took hold of Noctis's jacket at his waist, easing along with him.

"Alright, just a little bump and then the wall will curve… See Gladio's light?"

"Yeah", their friend seemed less afraid now, and once to safety he breathed deeply in relief and laughed. Noctis grinned and lead the group on, all of them tired but none of them willing to rest again. It wasn't until they had gone down several turns and another ledge that Noctis saw it— the tomb.

"Finally", Gladiolus growled, and moved closer… But Noctis grabbed his arm.

"Wait…", there was… Something strange about the wall…

"What is it?", Ignis questioned, his daggers appearing in his hands as he tried to see what Noctis could. The prince shifted uneasily. The light looked… Wrong. It was still bright, but the white and blue everything was coated in— that he had thought was light reflected off of ice— was dark, a sickly purple in color.

"What the hell…?"

Noctis inched forward, past Gladiolus, to get a closer look.

"Noct… Are you sure…?", Prompto tried to get him to stop, but that was no easy task. Gladiolus bristled.

"Highness, hold up", he said, reaching out as Noctis had done. Before Gladiolus got a grip on him, the prince stopped suddenly, raising a hand to his head. Like before in Lestallum it suddenly ached, his vision shaking with the pain of it.

"King, you see before you the darkness' blight. Twisted life, your task: to end it with all the power you may grasp… The greatest chance in sacrifice."

"What…?", the ache lessened and he jerked his head up, twisting to look for Gentiana— he had recognized her voice.

But she wasn't there.

"Noct? What happened?" Ignis placed a hand on him and the black haired man breathed in fast to restrain a flinch. With everything happening to his head lately, his dreams of the hands and the fire had only gotten worse. There was a pressing urgency in them that he didn't know how to unravel when he could hardly remember them.

"Gentiana again. Just her voice though", he said, and eased back from the darkness… The blight. Are those… Eyes, in it?

"What did she say?", that was Gladiolus, his tone tense at all the strangeness occurring.

"She said uh… That the wall over there has a 'blight' and that the best way to deal with it is sacrifice." He didn't like the sound of that, and by the looks on their faces neither did they. Gladiolus crossed his arms.

"Sacrifice? Nuh uh. That doesn't sound right."

"I must say that I agree. She didn't mean you, did she?", Ignis asked. Prompto put his hands on his hips, biting his lower lip.

"I think so", Noctis replied to his advisor, and eyed the wall again, "Maybe it isn't as bad as it sounds?"

"But if it is, that will suck a hell of a lot. What's a blight anyway?", Prompto asked, sliding his hands up to rub his upper arms. His blue gaze was concerned, brows tucked down in worry.

"I believe it may refer to daemons", Ignis said, and tried to shine his light at the wall. It was too dim to reach, but they were unlikely to see anything until they were too close. Except for Noctis anyway.

"Well, we can handle daemons", Gladiolus clenched his hands. Noctis was sure that he was unwilling to let the prince bear the burden alone. He's not always going to be able to handle trouble for me.

"Can we?", Noctis asked, because his three friends were running ragged. They were cold, exhausted, they had nothing left to give but their lives. He couldn't let them do that.

"Just let me try", even with Gladiolus's light shining into his sensitive eyes, his expression was pierced with determination. He could see his friends resisting the idea… But then Ignis nodded tightly. Prompto opened his mouth to protest, and the advisor raised a hand to silence him.

"Once", he strained, and narrowed his eyes at Noctis, who dipped his head in understanding.

Not knowing what the hell he was doing, but willing to do it to protect his friends, Noctis eased forward. The closer he got to the blight the more particles he noticed in the air, until even his friends could see the glow building around him. What is that? He couldn't quite tell, but… It almost seemed like… He glanced down at his arm and saw that every few seconds a bright spot on his arm, his hand, his fingers, would drift up and into the air. His eyes widened in realization. They're coming from me.

He lifted his arm, and the particles in the air concentrated, focused into something like a ball but flowing too freely to be one. He spent a moment looking at it, glanced back at his worried friends, and made his decision.

He lobbed the ball at the wall.

"Agh-!", an abrupt tearing sensation somewhere deep inside him filled him with a sense of wrongness. He wasn't meant to part with those lights, those lights were something important—

The ball hit the blight and burst into a radiance that spread throughout the cavern, and the echoing shrieks of daemons both right in front of them and far away filled his ears. The world tipped over and all the light went dark, but he could still hear his friends and fuck everything hurt, he couldn't see, am I blind?!

But then Gladiolus was right there and the dim shine of his flashlight was shining into Noctis's face. Not blind, but the magical sight had left him.

"You okay?!", the Shield grabbed him by an arm and Noctis literally didn't care because something was not right inside him anymore.

"Noct!", he felt himself shaken, and raised a hand to grasp Gladiolus's.

"No- I mean, yes but-"

He felt confused, because his body was fine, just tired and cold and perhaps aching a little more than before. Gladiolus hefted him up off of the ground and Noctis stood, stumbling a little, and held his head which ached at the sudden change in position. The ache stayed faintly there, just behind his eyes.

"We'll take a look at you once we're out. Let's get the damn sword and get out of here."

Prompto stuck right by the prince, tailing him closely to make sure he was alright.

The tomb was like all the others but for the impressive weapon, which was, in style with the weapons they had found, unique. No two had been the same so far. Noctis raised his hand and felt the draw as he always did, the tug at his soul… Only this time it hurt, and when the blade passed through him and into his care it stung bad enough to make him step back, a small sound leaving him. The others were quick to usher him back out and through the thankfully empty cavern, taking a route that led up and then to a drop that they recognized as close to the entrance and before the slides.

Finally, they were out. Prompto collapsed onto a rock warmed by the sun, thanking the bright circle in the sky loudly. A rest was definitely in order, and given that it looked about noon, they had been in there a full day. Ignis was just about to order them back to the car when Noctis's head proceeded from a dull ache to a full blown agony that had him bending at the waist, a hand jumping to his brow to grab tight to his hair.

"Aah- What-"

He was assaulted again by the image of that eye, strangely familiar to him but still so foreign. Landscape followed, sights he knew, but it was so hard to grasp in the middle of blinding hurt.

"Noct!"

Big arms keeping him up. He hadn't realized his knees gave out.

The headache wasn't ending.

"-go to Lestallum-"

"-the car-"

He felt the arms holding him up tighten, and felt the stability of the ground disappear, but there was little he could do about it. He tried to open his eyes to tell them to put him down, and he saw Gladiolus long enough to open his mouth before the damn eye invaded his senses again. He could almost smell fire, heat like the scent of stone cooking in the sun, could almost feel the rage of something so much larger than him.

Then, a moment, just a moment of an image that struck him hard and called forth ancient memories of a time he had spent unconscious and guided by an Astral he didn't know. He'd seen the being before, and— Carbuncle, I called him Carbuncle— he remembered the unknown Astral calling the fierce looking being a 'gentle giant.'

Not so gentle now!

But apparently the memory was enough to appease the giant, because the headache dwindled and ceased, leaving him feeling too cold again and covered in sweat.

"Noct? Buddy?", he could smell leather, and opening his eyes he saw the inside of the Regalia. Prompto's wide blue eyes were watching him as the blond twisted in his seat.

"You awake?", the rumble of Gladiolus next to him. Ignis was watching in the mirror, his foot pressing the accelerator flat.

"Uh… Yeah", he said, and eased himself into a sitting position and out of Gladiolus's lap. Awkward.

The Shield grunted angrily.

"Good. I'm getting real sick of asking this, but what was that? These damn headaches aren't normal."

"I saw… I guess it was meteor… Everything was burning." That was strange to say. It was weird to be seeing things like that, even with all the weird stuff happening lately. Ignis made a sharp noise of question.

"Have you seen anything before this?", it was accusing, and it made Noctis wince. Right. He hadn't told them…

"Ah… Just an eye." Sounded even stranger.

Ignis sighed in aggravation.

"You've been having visions of what now appears to be Titan and haven't decided to enlighten us? Noctis…", the scolding made him cringe and feel defensive. But he was too worn out to argue that he didn't have to share every little thing with them. For once, Gladiolus came to his rescue.

"Let's just focus on getting back to Lestallum. We'll make a game plan once we've rested up."

The idea rang well with the entire group, who definitely needed some recovery. Even with the heater on full blast they felt a little chilled, and their numb bodies were tingling uncomfortably as blood flow returned to normal.

They needed a break before they tackled the next big thing coming their way.

Maybe I can convince them to go on a fishing trip for a day?

The thought soothed something that was hurting deep inside him.