Garanhai was nothing like Gladiolus remembered. The city was once sprawling and lively, full of people who had an appreciation for nature due to their seclusion from the rest of the continent. Now, the population was reduced by more than half and confined to the innermost parts of the city, which was walled off by metal barricades and lined with glowing haven stones.

"What's that?", Gladiolus asked, noticing another barricade encircling something like a camp on the outskirts of town. It was crudely built, and only had four or five stones set up— leaving part of it vulnerable to daemons on the eastern side. In the last few days the four men had really noticed the scarcity of daylight in Galahd. The sun appeared in the sky as late as ten and set as early as two, something they were all having trouble wrapping their heads around.

"An unsolved problem", Paroli said grimly from the driver's seat. Noctis was in the passenger seat, leaned against the window and peering out towards the barricade entrance. Gladiolus could see the king's intense expression despite his still posture and knew it was because Lady Lunafreya was there. The risk of her having left was small, the Shield was pretty sure that without a way to sail for Altissia she had remained in Garanhai. They hadn't heard from Ramuh and Noctis hadn't summoned him, but the storms along the coast hadn't let up either. There was also Gentiana's word to go on... Apparently she was waiting for them with the Oracle. The Shield wasn't sure whether he liked that or not. Whatever her job, the Messenger was definitely messing with them. Gladiolus was almost sure that vision was false; a vision from a God was one things, but a Messenger? And for that matter, there was no way to prove that the vision would come true… He and Ignis would never let something corrupt Noctis. Hell, they'd been redirecting Noctis, without much need, ever since the royal had gotten out on his own. With as much money and power as he'd had they had never needed to worry about him doing anything foolish… Aside from driving too carelessly and too quickly.

"Of what variety?", Ignis asked about the small encampment, seated on a bench running along the side wall of the truck's back. Gladiolus was seated against the opposite wall, a searcher next to him and two other people sitting on the same bench as it extended down. On Ignis's side were another two searchers and an older man, approaching his sixties. He was quiet and morose.

The other travelers had lost people going through the woods.

"Well… The people in there are all infected by the disease." Her tone was quiet. Gladiolus leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and studied the side of her face.

"Disease?", he grunted, uneasy by the word. What exactly did she mean by that?

"The plague. It's how daemons are made", she said it as if they should know, but everyone straightened with surprise.

Except Prompto, seated in the middle of the Chocobos on the floor. Gladiolus didn't see him hunch down a little and reach out to pet Magna. Solar was settled behind him.

"What? Daemons come from people?", Noctis asked, his entire body turned towards her, "They- what? Turn into them?"

The implications were horrific. All this time— they had been fighting regular people? Victims of a— disease? It made Gladiolus's chest ache. He had sworn never to harm a Lucian citizen, had gotten his scar on his face from not striking out at one, but all this time…

Ignis sighed softly and looked down when Paroli nodded, murmuring a quiet affirmation to the king, who shifted in slight discomfort at her tone. Gladiolus could see that, despite wearing the title a little more comfortably, Noctis still shied away from any external reminder of who he was.

"I didn't know", Noctis said, his voice strained, "Is there anything to help them?"

Paroli moved like she was going to shrug, but then chose a more formal response. Gladiolus knew Noctis would have preferred the shrug.

"No, your majesty. Lady Lunafreya can help them, but when I was here last it tired her greatly. I don't know if she can do anything for them now."

It was a sobering statement, to know that their people were suffering and turning into such twisted creatures. If there was nothing they could do… It just didn't sit well with Gladiolus.

"Why are they kept apart like that?", Prompto's voice was quiet, and he had shifted a little to stare uneasily out of the window. Gladiolus thought he looked pale, but it might have been a trick of the light. Ignis's gaze lingered on the gunner longer than his, until Paroli replied.

"It's just safer", she sighed.

She sounded uncomfortable.

Gladiolus saw a rough metal gate sliding open as they approached, their entrance going mostly disregarded… Except for the woman standing just inside, her blond hair twisted and pinned up and her blue eyes intense. Gladiolus knew her image well enough to recognize the Oracle, if the two dogs and Gentiana at her side weren't a dead give-away.

Here we go, he thought.

Noctis felt his breath catch when he saw Luna and let out a sigh of relief. She looked fine, and less tired than he would have thought after the covenants she had performed. Maybe the time forced to stay in Garanhai had done some good for her, given her a chance to relax. She'd been moving damn fast since Insomnia fell.

He couldn't read her expression exactly, but when he jumped out of the truck before it had even pulled to a stop, eliciting a bark of disapproval from Ignis, her face lit up in a smile. A grin took over his own, and he slowed from his jog some feet away from her, taking the sight of her in. She was so much taller than she had been when they were kids, but he was taller than her now! And she wore her hair up rather than loose. Her clothing was white, as it usually was, a dress pulled from somewhere in Garanhai to replace the one she had travelled in.

They spent a moment just looking at each other, and then she crossed the last of the distance between them. Her hands were raised, laid over each other, and resting at her chest.

"Noctis… It is… So good to see you, finally", a hint of a laugh carried on her voice, and her bright eyes made him blink and drop his head, peering up at her in glances. As strong as he was and as much as he was struggling against his fate, he hadn't been prepared for the utter shyness he felt at seeing her again. The last time… They were children, and they had spent a few weeks together thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Friendships formed fast when a person was young, and the journal had let them talk over the years, further cementing that friendship. That had been a simple friendship, until the terms of the peace treaty had been announced. The marriage arrangement had muddled things up a bit, made everything a little awkward between them, and made the roles they were meant to play a little too real. Not only that, but where he had been resisting his fate, she had been pushing onward for hers… Whatever that might be.

She took another few steps forward, until she was just in front of him and able to duck down, getting into his line of sight. She looked amused, happy… But almost pained, her radiant smile having died down into a trembling one. He noticed her hands clutching at her dress a little.

"It is!", he agreed, the words leaving him like a punch forced them out. He hadn't meant for his silence to be taken badly! He heard the truck doors opening behind him. "I just- it's been so long Luna."

Her distress eased, and he could see that she understood, which was a relief. Luna had always been good at reading between the lines.

"Would it help if you were sitting?", he was startled by the statement, the almost teasing nature of it catching him off guard. The reminder of his wheelchair was a sweet one not because of the healing he had undergone from his injury, but because of the days he spent being pushed around by Luna along Tenebrae's halls and fields. There was a sweetness to it that he hadn't expected to feel, especially with how things turned out. But her eyes now… They were quietly beseeching. She needed something from him, something familiar. It must have been strange for her too.

"Sure", he offered, and glanced back at his friends. Ignis was watching carefully, looking at not only Luna but Gentiana, while Gladiolus held the reigns to the Chocobos. Prompto… Looked dumbstruck by Luna.

Well, I know how he gets, Noctis thought. If it was pretty the gunner loved it, regardless of what it was. Luna was beautiful, something Noctis would only admit internally, since he was sure he would be unable to get it passed his lips.

"I believe we will survey the area and settle the Chocobos down", Ignis stated, earning a noise of question and disappointment from Prompto.

"Yeah", Gladiolus added, "Go catch up."

Noctis jerked his chin down in a nod and stepped after Luna as she turned to guide him. As he moved, his gaze slid over Gentiana's and he felt a chill crawl up his spine. Her dark eyes met his, unblinking, stoic, but the slight downturn of her lips signaled a frown.

He tightened his jaw and passed her, following Luna into a nearby building. There didn't seem to be electricity, and instead there were lanterns suspended at the ceiling in every room. The open curtains helped bring in light though, brightening the dancing shadows on the walls. She showed him to a room that looked similar to an office, which seemed to be in use if the maps all over the walls were any indication. She walked to one of the maps, fingers raising to ghost over the browned and wrinkled paper, and looked it over before giving him a sidelong glance. She turned to face him more directly, and examined him long enough that he was feeling the urge to duck his head again, but he kept his neck stiff. There was a tension in the air that hadn't been there when they were outside.

"You made a promise to me, back in Tenebrae", she said, "that you would rid our star of the scourge."

The words rang uneasily in his heart. Was she doubting him? It provoked an unpleasant sensation in his chest, like uncertainty pressing out from inside his heart. It was something he had been repressing since he chose this path, trying to be the confident king he was expected to be, but unable to forget that when he looked at his own reflection all he saw was an unsure prince gazing back at him.

"I'm going to", he said, his voice coming out stronger than he expected, "Nothing about that has changed."

Her eyes grew conflicted, and she raised her hands to cross them over her chest and lay them on her forearms, up near her shoulders, in a posture that bothered him immensely. It was as if she felt unsafe around him. Shouldn't she know that he would always try to keep her safe?

"Then why do you stray from the assured path? Noctis, this has been in the making for a very long time. Thousands of years…", she took a few steps towards him, her arms falling, thin fingers spreading and pointing down at her sides as she spoke again, "Please, it's not too late to do what's right. Nothing has been permanently altered, we can set sail for Altissia and awaken Leviathan for the next covenant."

Her pleading gaze tore at his heart, but he couldn't back down from what he had chosen. It was his decision, one of the few that were truly his own. The choice to forge his own path was not a machination of the Gods or a heritage passed down through his line, a duty that he should perform. He wanted to survive, and if that was selfish, it was the only true act of selfishness he had ever done. His life had been lived accepting his role, his protests of the weight of his burden miniscule despite his friends' teasing.

"It isn't wrong to want to live", he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Luna faltered, looked unsure for a moment, and then pushed the pain that sentence caused her away. She didn't want to see him die either.

"There's no guarantee of your death", she said, curling her fingers over those of her other hand in front of her.

Noctis frowned, and shifted to one leg as he looked away. His gaze fell on the wooden desk, littered with papers.

"Titan showed me", he said, uncomfortable with it. The image was still one that plagued him. His father's sword… He didn't know where it was, or who had it, but he would one day be reunited with it if he followed his fated path.

He wanted it with him, but not like that.

Luna was quiet for seconds that seemed to stretch on forever. She seemed almost about to speak, some question on the tip of her tongue before she silenced herself again. Another few seconds were spent regaining her composure, something that also bothered Noctis. Why couldn't she speak what was on her mind?

"Gentiana told me that there was a vision, and you had been corrupted in it", she said, and stepped away from the map to seat herself on a leather chair, the material worn and softened by age, the black faded but not by much. It took Noctis a moment before he did the same, and perched his elbows on the arms.

"Gentiana isn't a Goddess", Noctis said, a hint of reproach in his voice, "I know that she's always been there for the Oracles but…"

"In that, young King, you are mistaken."

The hair on the nape of his neck rose as Gentiana appeared, walking from behind his chair. The doorway was in his sight. She had not entered through it.

"What?", his voice was quiet. Her eyes met his, that same chill in the air that he had been recently feeling when he saw her picking at his fingers and bare arms.

"The First King ascended under the blessings of Bahamut, and I, mankind's guide", she spoke just as softly, "Bahamut sacrificed an eternity of life and freedom so that he might power the crystals, his gifts to mankind, so that they might conquer the Star Scourge."

Noctis had heard this tale before, but never so personally. There was shock winding its way through his chest at the knowledge that Gentiana was a Goddess, and he wracked his mind to know what exactly that meant. It meant that a Goddess opposed him. It meant that Titan and Ramuh were opposed to the will of another Astral.

It meant the vision was a true one.

He felt numb at the realization, and didn't know that he had paled. He felt foolish, and horrified. Gentiana had seen him kill Luna just as clearly as he had. The young man couldn't bring himself to look at the young woman in front of him, or to break the connection between his and Gentiana's eyes.

"The era of Gods perished", she continued, "the time for man rose as the dawn. I remained their guide, keeping always on the rightful path… Yet my favor fell most foolishly on one, the strongest King of that era, and to him I gave a gift."

She closed her eyes, her usually unreadable expression drawing tight.

"Bahamut was sacrificed so that your family, Chosen King, would absorb his might as the ages passed, that they could one day be able to conquer to Star Scourge, and yet I… I thought that I may be able to end it all with the great King. I gifted him a power to heal the Scourge, to absorb the daemons… I knew little of man's capabilities then. My gift became his curse. My act of deviation tore the man from his rightful path, and he, undying, seeks to destroy this world as I have destroyed him. He will succeed if we stray from the path… And I cannot see another great King fall prey to the folly of Gods."

"You're talking about Ardyn", Noctis murmured, his gaze falling to the ground. Was he a reflection of the man?

"Wait-", he looked up, a sudden realization forcing him to his feet, "then he was my-"

"He was of the Lucis line", Gentiana spoke when he cut himself off, "but even the Accursed One sees that none of that blood runs through his veins anymore."

Noctis turned away, uncomfortably aware of his heart beating loudly and the rush of blood in his ears. That twisted man was his ancestor? It was a sickening feeling, made worse by the memory of Ardyn in the vision.

"Come now, Shiva", the voice had Noctis whipping around. His eyes went wide when he found an elderly man in the room with them— Ramuh! And at his side— Noctis lost his breath at the sight of Titan, a man of immense stature, far taller than even Gladiolus. Little about either of them had changed, except that Titan now wore clothing, armor as black as the night that somehow made him all the more imposing.

"You cannot imagine to know the enemy, no matter how close you might have been to him", Noctis took several steps back to avoid Ramuh as the Astral crossed the room, circling the chair Noctis had been sitting in. The king's back was to a window, the light falling on his back warmly as the wintry air in the room grew colder.

Luna had stood up as well, just as startled to be in the presence of three Gods, and moved from the middle of the room purely through instinct. The two humans had eased out of the way of the Gods, though Noctis saw Titan's intense orange eyes follow them. He seemed to be checking Noctis's wellbeing, his eyes scanning the king thoroughly. The ebony haired man swallowed, nervous of all the power in the room.

"Is this where you have been all these years?", Ramuh's voice was roughened by age, but still strong. Much like Regis's, Noctis noticed with a pang. What made it worse was the undercurrent of disappointment in his voice, sounding all too much like Noctis's father.

Gentiana's eyes were narrowed, and her posture tense.

"I could do little to free you", she said, "only by his will would the seal break."

Ramuh did not step closer, but the distance seemed to close nonetheless between him and Gentiana. Shiva? Noctis could feel the tension in the air, far worse than anything he and Luna had experienced as they talked. The air practically vibrated with electricity.

In fact, Noctis's skin was tingling.

"Is that so?", Ramuh folded his hands in front of his robes, his long beard drifting with the slightest of breezes. Noctis glanced at Luna, who looked unsure and slightly frightened. He felt the same. It was easy to tell that they were in the middle of a painfully old argument. Humans had no place in the eye of this storm. If it came down to it, he'd give his all to protect Luna.

Her eyes met his, and she gave him a slight nod, determination set in her face.

In it together then, he thought, and looked back to the Gods as Gentiana's chill frosted the window panes, making him step forward as the warmth on his back suddenly disappeared. The storm on the mountain makes sense, he thought, if she was truly Shiva. But how? The last he knew of the Goddess Niflheim had blasted her dead. His attention, which had not deviated despite his thoughts, remained on the Astrals.

"Did you not have his Trident?", anger ran thick in the Fulgurian's voice, "Or perhaps you were eager to keep me imprisoned?"

Gentiana's lips thinned and paled. Were they… Turning blue?

"Do you believe it easy?", she asked, "Do you believe my task simple? Bahamut undying legacy is left to the human kings, the trident's power lay there, in their hands! Could you expect them to free you? And when I passed it to the first Oracle, theirs was not a strength that could free you! It was only with the presence of the ring that it would obey the Oracle enough to free you, and it took the ring until this King to charge enough power!"

She grew silent, fuming, and turned away from Ramuh. It was the most emotion Noctis had ever seen from her. Ramuh seemed unfazed though, and made a quiet, judgmental hum. He seemed to not believe her. In fact, he didn't seem fond of her at all. Titan was impassive, his face hard to read, but he seemed to not take either of their stances.

"Ever eager to follow the path laid out for you. I suppose you would be though, what with the mess you have created. This Accursed One not only has a fraction of Bahamut's power but Ifrit's support as well." Here, Ramuh looked to Noctis.

"The Chosen King wishes to walk his own path. I will aid him, as will Titan."

Noctis's eyes flickered to Titan again, and he saw that the tall being still had not moved. Gentiana also looked to him.

"I am glad to see you free", she said quietly, "but you must know that we cannot let the King do as he wishes. He must gain Leviathan's power and go straight to Bahamut, this world will not last to wait."

Titan's immovable eyes bore down on her.

"My brother would not wish to sacrifice the boy", he said, in a voice that rolled and shook the walls faintly, a voice that had once shook the earth and Noctis's brain, "that is not his way."

Gentiana's fine black eyebrows rose in distress at his words. The discord between the Gods was nerve-wracking. Noctis didn't appreciate being left out of it all, but even he sensed that the arguing was about more than him. It was about Bahamut, and his intentions.

"That is exactly his way", she snapped, "that was the plan before he sacrificed himself to Etro's accursed crystal!"

"Where has she lain to sleep,Etro?", Ramuh asked, earning a startled look from Gentiana. She was far more animated among the Gods than she was the humans, but the question seemed to make her withdraw and grow still.

"I know not. I have not seen her since she gave the crystals and the ring to Bahamut", her voice was low. There was something in her expression then, something of dislike and another emotion that Noctis couldn't place. Etro was Lucis's Goddess, thought to look after the land and the kings. His father had said that when Lucian kings died she took them to make them her knights, to wage war against the blight. He wondered where she was, if not even the Gods knew.

Ramuh harrumphed at her unhelpfulness, and faced Noctis. His wizened eyes were kind, despite the frustration deep within them.

"Shiva will support you as we do. The hopes of this world lay with you, young King. Put all thought of the visions you have seen from your head, it is not wise to rely on them, and make your own path. As I know Bahamut would wish."

Now being directly addressed, Noctis felt like he could speak. Strange, how the presence of the three Gods had subdued him so easily. He almost felt ashamed— and yet, it had so clearly been the right thing to do. Their arguments were personal ones, and he knew nothing of Bahamut personally… Which was why he chose not to comment on the Astral.

"They aren't certain then?", he asked, glancing back to Luna, speaking of the visions.

Ramuh sighed, and stepped forward. Noctis almost shied away when his hand rose and gripped his shoulder, but remained upright and kept his posture straight. No slouching, or Cid would have his head when they got back to Hammerhead. Slouching in front of a God— irredeemable.

"Some", Ramuh said, his voice just as heavy as the gaze he had laid on Noctis, "are far more certain than others."

There was something numbing about that statement and those sad eyes. Noctis met them silently, reading what he could from them, until he nodded. He understood— Ramuh believed Titan's visions to be more truthful. He seemed… Unconcerned, for Luna. Noctis was glad, actually. He was beginning to think that the less attention you drew from the Gods, the better off you were.

The Fulgurian squeezed his shoulder briefly before letting go, and turning away towards the tall, armored Astral. Titan offered one small, fang-filled smile that made Noctis unsure of how he should respond, which seemed to amuse the Archaean, and settled on nodding to him too.

Gentiana only received a stare, and she met his eyes with her own stoic look before being carried off by a chilled wind that arose from nowhere. Ramuh and Titan disappeared suddenly, between one blink and the next, taking the energy from the room. With the Gods gone, Noctis let out a shaky breath and took a few unsteady steps towards the chair in front of him, and placed his hands on it to lean on the soft leather.

"We're out of the loop", he said quietly, and saw Luna sink boneless into the chair she had formerly been sitting in. Her posture was sunken, more downcast than he would have expected from her.

"We are", she agreed softly, and Noctis saw her hands shaking in her lap. "I never thought that the Gods would disagree on this. What are we to believe?" He could see that her faith was shaken. She looked more uncertain than he had ever seen or heard of her, even from their journal conversations.

"Ourselves", he supplied, testing the waters with her. Before the three appeared she had seemed intent on getting him to continue the chosen path, but after all that…

She rose a hand to her face, holding it there for several seconds, and then swept her bangs to the side. She took a deep breath, examining the coffee table between the chairs rather intensely. Then she looked up and met his eyes.

"We need to know what Bahamut wants. And Etro, if we can find her", she said strongly. The seventh Goddess was not one the world worshipped, but one that Lucis did. A Goddess of death. Luna flipped her hand over on her lap, palm up, and reached into her sleeve with two fingers, pulling from it a small and dark piece of metal.

"Here", she said, "it is rightfully yours."

The Ring of the Lucii. Noctis felt his heart stop, and took a few sharp steps back, the weakness in his legs worsening abruptly.

"I don't want it", his tone was shaking, almost fearful. Not his father's ring— even after these months trying to wear the position of the last Caelum, trying to prove himself worthy of his father's crown, he couldn't— he shouldn't—

"It is yours", she said, and stood, advancing on him with an expression that clearly said she didn't understand why he wouldn't take it. "Your father wished it be delivered to you. Please, Noctis, take it."

Her entreaty made him pause, but he still didn't want to wear the ring. It was his dad's, not his, just like the Regalia was his dad's. It wouldn't be right for him to just claim it, and to take it truly meant that he was gone, dead. That the throne was his, and that he would have to take it.

But that was what he was doing, wasn't it? Becoming king? He already was, if he was being honest, but… It was a harsh reality.

"Take it, Noctis", Luna said again, quietly, and offered it to him. He dragged his eyes from the ring to her face, and saw pain in her own blue gaze. Maybe she did understand, then.

He had to take it. It was his duty, his lineage… And one of the last items he had to remember his old man by. So he took it, the metal cold despite being kept on Luna's body the entire time. His fingers curled around the ring and he felt a dull ache spread into them, a numbness tingling right alongside it that felt entirely wrong. Shaken, he gaped at Luna, but saw only confusion in her eyes at his startled expression.

But before she could ask, and before he could put it on, he heard an enraged yell from outside.

Gladiolus.