Me again! I know it's only been a couple of days since my last posting, but I can't wait to reveal what happens next. Hope everyone is keeping up ok. Enjoy!

Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto all stood at the side door between Delenda and her brother, to keep her from seeing what he had become. She didn't want to see, but she had to. She tried peering around to catch a glimpse when Ignis moved to block once more.

"No. You don't need to see this," he said sharply.

"But I have to—" she was cut off as the front door crashed open next.

"Oh, sorry," Ardyn sniped sarcastically. "I told you to watch out for monsters. They could come from anywhere."

The monster they were shielding her from was not her brother. The one at the front door was. She stared at him, it, in abject horror. It had her brother's face, but it was distorted with daemon's features. His eyes, that had once been a warm brown, were now glowing with a feral viciousness that brought her back to the first Daemon she had encountered in Insomnia. There was no recognition in his glare, no way he could be brought back to the light. Her brother was gone, to a fate worse than death.

She had the gun trained on him, but couldn't pull the trigger. Rationally she knew she had to. "He's not your brother anymore, put him out of his misery," all circled like a mantra in her head, but still, she hesitated. "Goddammit, he's the only family I have left. I can't destroy him. Maybe there's a way back for him," her emotions were shouting at the rational part of her brain that was still working despite the horror.

Her finger tightened on the trigger, only for him to be taken down from behind by an unseen source. He went down, and faded away to nothing like all of the other daemons they had fought. The rest had dispatched the other, and made their way to the newcomer.

"You guys ok," Noctis asked.

Gladio still had his sword drawn. "How do we know it's really you," he asked suspiciously.

Noctis looked back blankly. "What do you mean?" Ardyn's chuckle came through the intercom.

They had to assume that the Noctis before them was real. If it were Ardyn in disguise, he would not have disposed of Delenda's brother, and would have forced them to do it themselves. Or preferably make Delenda do it—the sicko.

Delenda knelt down where the body had faded, touching the floor desperately, looking for any trace of her brother. There was nothing. She struggled a bit when she felt the strong arm around her waist, turning her so she was pressed against a strong male form. Ignis just held her, nudging her head against his shoulder. She needed his warmth. She was so cold. She clung to him like a lifeline.

Noctis looked from one to the other. "What's going on?"

"Prompto, tell him," was all Ignis said.

By the time Prompto was done getting Noctis up to speed, Delenda was feeling more herself. She realized that she was pressed up against Ignis and had gotten snot on his jacket when she wept on it. "Sorry," she said, awkwardly brushing away at it.

"Leave it," he said firmly, grabbing her hand and not letting go.

"I'm so sorry, Delenda." Noctis said awkwardly. "But your brother wouldn't want to be like this. He wouldn't have wanted to hurt you."

"You, had to stop him. I know. I was getting ready to do it before you—did."

"I'm glad I was able to handle that for you," Noctis said, gently by his standards. "I'll be taking care of Ardyn too. That son of a bitch can't masquerade as me and get away with it."

Ardyn chuckled again. "I already did."

Ignoring him was their only option. Otherwise they would be yelling into the intercom all night.

"So, how was your journey through this hell," Gladio asked Noctis.

"Well what you found out jives with what I was able to pick up on my end," Noctis said. "Well that, and apparently Ardyn thinks I'm a 'tease'," he said in disgust.

"Don't worry. He called us that too," Gladio said.

Noctis turned serious again. "From what I gathered, the empire went way too far. They created human/Daemon hybrids, as you guys found out, but it got worse than that. Apparently these guys, things, attacked everyone else and turned them into Daemons as well."

"Gralea destroyed itself," Ignis asked.

"I guess so. There's no empire anymore. Just Ardyn and the crystal," he said darkly. "And we're coming for both."

"Ohohoo, I'm so scared," Ardyn chimed in again.

Noctis had had enough. "This ends now! Do you hear me?"

"My thoughts exactly. Come on up to the 50th floor and get me."

They were stone silent going up the elevator. Delenda's grief about her brother was shut away in a dark place that she couldn't access right now. She had her hard anger against Ardyn to sustain her. If she lost it further in front of him, beaten down by grief, he would win. And she was damned if she was going to let that happen. She could feel the sharp edges of the pain though. As soon as she got out, if she got out, she knew she would break down. And she didn't know how she would deal with it.

The ramifications of what they had discovered were swirling in her head, as well as more questions. How long had the empire been like this? Was everyone turned into monsters, or did some escape? If monsters killed them, would they be turned as well? Would the monsters spread further? She had to hope this would all end when they defeated Ardyn and got the crystal.

The 50th floor looked the same as all the others. Apparently rank didn't matter at the keep. Everyone was the same and worked in a metal vault. There were no monsters up here, which made everyone suspicious. The hallway opened into a huge atrium with catwalks radiating out in multiple directions. If one fell off of the catwalks, they would plummet to their death 3 stories below. Or get killed by daemons. Delenda noticed them crawling around down there. It looked like the area Ravus had been in in the video.

In the center of the catwalks, on a raised platform, was the crystal. It was the exact same one Delenda had seen being spirited away from the battle in Insomnia. She had gone full circle, she mused bitterly.

"I've, never been this close to it before," Prompto whispered, awestruck. "Is it true that this is the source of Insomnia's magic?"

"Yeah," Noctis said simply.

"What do we do now," Gladio asked.

"I guess I have to, interact with it somehow," Noctis said. "You guys watch out for 'him'."

Noctis walked up to the crystal, ring facing forward. "I am Noctis Lucis Caelum. Present King of Lucis. I am in possession of the Ring of the Lucii and have been bequeathed the powers of Ramuh, the Fulgurian; Shiva the Glacian; Titan, the Archean; and Leviathan, the Hydrean. Bahamut, the Draconian, please lend me your power so that I may return light to the world."

"Really, that's what you're going with," Gladio mentioned derisively.

"I figure it sounds like something the Oracle would say so maybe it will work. Hey, I'm spitballing here. I have no freakin clue."

Any further conversation was cut off as the crystal began glowing. They watched as a light beam emerged, hitting Noctis's ring.

"Hey," he exclaimed as the beam began drawing him in, like it was a magnet and he was metal.

"What's going on," Delenda asked fearfully as Noctis kept getting dragged helplessly towards it. When he got close enough, a giant hand crashed out of the crystal, grabbed him, and pulled him inside.

They all ran up to it, to try to retrieve him, to see what happened, but it had created a shield like what used to cover Insomnia. Their weapons did nothing against it. Noctis was stuck in the crystal.

The sound of applause behind them startled them. "Noctis was able to get the notoriously 'antisocial' Bahamut to interact with him. Well done!" Ardyn was standing at the end of the catwalk behind them, surveying the team with detached interest.

Ignis clutched Delenda's hand warningly, to keep her from lunging at Ardyn like she wanted to do.

"What have you done to Noctis," Ignis demanded.

"Me? Nothing! I have no control over the crystal. Only the one with the Ring of the Lucii has that."

"Where is Noctis, then," Gladio demanded, fingering his sword. He was obviously getting ready to lunge.

"Let me tell you a story," Ardyn began, as though telling a bedtime story to a child. "Once upon a time, well 1000 years ago, there was darkness, like there is right now in fact. During that darkness, the Daemons arose and had the power to turn humans into beings like themselves when they killed them. You know, just like right now."

"We get it, you started the Starscourge, for no goddamned reason" Gladio snapped, and lunged forward, only for Ignis to stop him.

"Wait," he said sharply.

Ardyn continued. "Anyway, the person you know as the first Oracle, had enough of the daemons and the endless darkness, so he wandered the world, approaching the Astrals to give him the power to return light to the world. They gave him the power all right: the power of the crystal. The power to absorb daemons into himself to get rid of them. And oh, how well it worked," he added dulcetly. "Then when it was all over, and light was restored, the Astrals decided that what they created was an abomination, too unclean to be granted eternal peace. They banished him, placing the remains of their power into the crystal and the ring that the royal family of Lucis became guardians of. The first Oracle was part of the Lucis royal family in those days, so it was only fair that others of that line reaped the benefits. Just not the one who made the sacrifice," he added bitterly.

"But the first Oracle learned to benefit from his curse. As he learned, he had daemon powers and could not die. Oh, how much fun he had with all of that."

He was speaking as though he were reminiscing, Delenda thought. Then she remembered Luna's last aborted words: "Ardyn was the first…". Oh my God, she thought.

"You were the first Oracle," it wasn't actually a question.

"Bravo, Delenda. You get a cookie," he said sarcastically.

"Wait, no way," Prompto said, floundering. "That's bullshit!" And he whipped out his gun and shot point blank at Ardyn's chest. A black mist formed where the bullet struck and passed through harmlessly, as though he were made of air.

"Anyone else care to try," he snarked. "Come on, you have giant swords, lances, and daggers in your arsenal. Surely one of those will work. No, huh," he responded as everyone stood frozen. "Pity."

"Why have you imprisoned Noctis in the crystal? Revenge," Ignis asked.

Ardyn gave a put-upon sigh. "I had nothing to do with that, as I already told you. The crystal and the Astrals won't talk to me anymore. They will talk to the Chosen King though. Noctis is in there right now, getting the truth of life from Bahmut, swapping stories, exchanging jokes, who knows or cares?"

"You will, when he comes out," Gladio said. "He'll have Bahamut's power and will know where to find Ifrit next."

"Oh, I'm counting on that. However, an Astral's concept of time is so much different than a human's. When I spoke to Bahamut, I thought it was only for a few minutes, but when I emerged, I found that 10 years had passed. Noctis will get what he wants, all right, but it may be in 30 minutes, or it may be 30,000 years. I'm inclined to think it's the latter," he added nastily.

"Have fun waiting for him, though. Oh, but I don't want you waiting for him here. I don't want you to wear out your welcome." And with that, he waved his hands, and the room began swarming with daemons.

There were way too many for them to handle. They looked at each other frantically. They knew the truth: there was nothing they could do for Noctis for now. They had to fall back now or die.

"Run," was all Ignis said, then they were running, hacking and shooting at whatever they could just to get it out of the way.

"It's been fun," Delenda heard Ardyn say as they fled.

The ragged party fled from Gralea in a stolen car. Prompto had demonstrated a previously unknown knack for hotwiring. He had learned it from Cindy, he said. Even Gladio was impressed. It was a much longer trip than before. Without the souped up Regalia, they had to stop every mile or so to defeat a Daemon blocking their path. Delenda didn't want to think about whether they had once been humans.

They staggered into Tenebrae more dead than alive. Aranea met them at the gate.

"Welcome back, guys." She looked around. "Where is Pretty Boy?"

"Missing in action," Gladio said gruffly.

Her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry to hear that. Well, get in here, all of you. You look like something hell spit back out."

"You may be right," Gladio said, defeated.

Tenebrae became their refuge for awhile. It had lights that were keeping the daemons away, even though night was a full 24 hours now. They were able to rest and heal. Delenda had time to come to terms with her brother's death, but it was hard. Rationally, she knew he had dug his own grave, being so curious about monsters that he had been destroyed by his own hubris. However, given what had happened to everyone in Gralea, the same thing would have happened to him whether he had joined in the experiment or not. It was one of Ignis's "different situation, same outcome" types of deals, but this time it made her feel worse not better.

She remembered the boy Cicero had been before he went off to college, to become the mad scientist he ended up as. He had been bookish, shy, awkward, but he had always been there for her. He had loved sharing his books and discussing the "cool things" he had read with her. Could she have done something different after their father died, to keep him closer, to keep him away from the dark path he had chosen to cope with the grief? The path that consumed him in the end? She would never know.

Delenda found Ignis standing on the roof of the inn, staring in the direction of Gralea. They couldn't see it in the darkness, but it was out there, festering in the aftermath of its evil.

He turned to face her, his glasses reflecting in the artificial light. "What is it, Delenda?"

"What are we supposed to do now? Ardyn is immortal. How do we take him down?"

He turned away. "We wait for Noct. Once he has the powers of the astrals, he will be able to meet him, power for power."

"How do we know that? All we have to go on are fairy stories. And what if it takes him 30,000 years to return—"

He turned back to her, sharply. "What do you want from me, Delenda? I have no answers for you. We are stuck." He gestured around. "This is our new reality."

"Oh, so we're just supposed to make the best of things and let Ardyn have his way? I refuse to believe that Noctis is our only option. There has to be something else—"

He grabbed her shoulders. "Dammit, Delenda. We barely made it out of there alive. We only did because Ardyn allowed it. There is no extra training we can do, no extra powers we can accrue to do anything. You have expressed concern again and again for being weak and useless? That applies to me right now. I failed Noctis and am powerless to do anything."

Delenda could see his expression in the artificial light. She had never seen him this way. Her bastion of competence, the man who always had a plan and an answer for everything, had nothing. And it was breaking him.

She covered his hands with hers and spoke gently, "we are all in the same boat right now, Ignis. You don't have to take all of this on yourself. I'm here for you. Tell me what you need."

Ignis's gaze intensified and heated. Delenda realized too late how what she just said could be misinterpreted. Her breath snagged in her throat, the dangerous awareness of him she felt on the ship and when pinned beneath him in Titan's lair returning in full force. The others had been there to return sanity those times, but not now. It was just the two of them, alone in the dark.

There was no escape. Ignis pulled her against him and kissed her with an intensity and desperation that shocked her. Delenda had never been kissed before. In all her dreams about her first kiss, she had never thought it would be when grief and pain were so high. What was she supposed to do?

Ignis, perceptive as always, sensed her confusion, and maybe that it was her first kiss too. His touch changed, becoming gentle, soothing, tender. She was lost. Her own pain was fading away into something else that she couldn't name. She needed whatever he was offering her. Something softened, melted inside her and she was clinging to him, clutching his shoulders like a lifeline, and responding instinctively, helplessly.

The sound of a daemon in the distance broke the spell. Ignis let go of her gently, but continued to stare at her intently. This shouldn't have happened, she thought. Now was not the time or the place. She hurried back inside. She needed to think and figure out how to handle this.

It was dark when Noctis awoke. He was lying on the ground in a featureless void. Where the heck was he?

"So, you are awake," came the resonating voice of an Astral.

Wait, Astral? His memory began slipping back, the crystal, the being pulled in, then nothing.

"Where am I," he asked? Cliché, but necessary.

"You are in the World of the Crystal. I am Bahamut. You were seeking my power?"

"Yes. I need your help in returning light to the world. There is currently no Oracle to stop the darkness. I need your and Ifrit's help to bring things back to the way they were."

Bahamut stared at him, his face hidden behind a helmet. "We cannot grant you the powers you seek. The Astrals are fractured. Even were I to grant you my power, you would be unable to obtain Ifrit's to complete the set. He answers to another. A dark being devoted to the endless night."

"Who controls Ifrit?"

"He goes by the name of Ardyn Izunia now. He was once the Oracle of legend. The First Oracle…"

"Wait! That…turd…is the first Oracle? And he's immortal," Noctis responded after having heard from Bahamut what Ardyn had already told the others.

"Yes. The power we gave him became a curse."

"So how do I stop him?"

Bahamut looked at him gravely. "There is only one way. You must become the 'True King'."

"Ok...how do I do that?"

"The Ring of the Lucii is more than just a receptacle of our powers. It also houses the souls and powers of every one of the Kings of Lucis. When you are ready, you can absorb all of those powers into yourself, and become the True King. Then and only then, will you be able to defeat Ardyn Izunia. This power is not without a price. You must prepare your body and spirit for the absorption. And the power is used at the expense of your life. Do you understand what I am saying?"

"So, Ardyn and I will end up killing each other then," Noctis demanded. "I can bring back the light, but I won't be there to see it?"

Bahamut nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry. After Ardyn, we learned that we cannot bequeath immeasurable power like that without a failsafe. We cannot have somebody with that power wandering the world. We will only give it to those who are willing to die for it."

Noctis turned away from Bahamut, soul sick. He thought of his comrades, his kingdom, Iris, Cindy, even Aranea. How could he leave them with an endless night knowing that there was something he could do, even if it was something like this? His father and Luna had died for the cause of peace. It looked like his number was up.

"Ok. Fine. What do I do now?"

"Stay with us here for awhile, and we will prepare you," Bahamut said. The dark space illuminated, showing ghostly versions of the Lucian Kings of old, all gathered around him.

"For how long? I need to get going," he reminded them.

"It will take some time for your body and spirit to be prepared for the power. You must be patient."

Noctis sighed. Something told him he would be here for awhile…

I played with Ardyn's background a bit. I don't think cannon says he was the first Oracle, but I think it makes sense. From the recent online vote SqEnix had, it seems like they are thinking of giving us more about Ardyn's background, so I will be very curious to see who he actually is in expanded cannon. Hope the last scene with Delenda and Ignis wasn't too awkward. This was one of the more difficult scenes to write. Let me know what you think of everything. Post time-skip (and lots of cannon deviation) is up next. TTYL.