"Longer nights?" Amara wondered, looking from Gladiolus to Ignis. She let out a long yawn, having just woken up from a nap and rested her head on her hand.

Ignis chuckled, "Royal tomb diving seemed to be a breeze for you."

"I'm just glad it's over," Amara said. "That place was gross and so was that big green thing… with the mossy tentacles."

"Mossy tentacles?" Noctis laughed. "I guess that's what you'd call them."

Gladiolus leaned back on his foot, "But, to answer your question... the nights have been getting longer."

"I never noticed," she replied. "So, since you have that must not be a good thing."

Ignis shook his head, "It's not. Back in Lucis, rumors swirled about that it was a possibility. Recently however, there have been changes. If this trend continues..."

"Daylight no more?" Amara guessed.

Gladiolus nodded, "Looks like it. The Empire took down half of the Astrals… and the world's gone further to hell since."

"Guess that's about right," Noctis said.

Ignis adjusted his gloves, "As it were, I overheard a passenger discussing the same strange phenomenon. So, I had Gladio find him."

"Didn't know you doubled as a gumshoe," Noctis remarked.

"I have my trades." Gladiolus responded.

Ignis laughed, "Well, we're off to go speak to him. You're welcome to join us, Amara."

"Oh, thank you." She stood up, "It does seem very strange… this longer night issue you were talking about. It couldn't hurt to know more about it."

"My thoughts exactly," Ignis started off. "Let's not dally."

Noctis rested his head on his fist, "See you later."

x

"Thanks for taking over last night… and this morning, man." The guard said, his voice filled with energy. "I had some things come up and I couldn't get out of 'em."

The other guard looking in the refrigerator spoke up, "Me too."

The taunter shrugged and made a gesture, "Nah, it's okay. I actually enjoyed a shift for once, too bad it's my last."

"Enjoyed?" The guard's eyes widened. "You were here a whole day… I mean, what was on the TV? A marathon of Kewang?"

The taunter smiled, "You don't need TV to have fun where I'm from. Anyway, you be good, alright? That guy back there'll give you no problems. Right, Mandy?"

Ravus didn't respond, but this time not because he didn't want to. He couldn't.

"Mandy?" The guard asked. "Who's the prisoner?"

The taunter put his hands in his pockets and took off, whistling as he went, "You'll get to know Mandy well. See you two around."

"Mandy." the upbeat guard muttered to himself, walking towards the cell. "I wonder what that stands f..." When his eyes fell on the body of the prisoner, the words died on his lips. He could only see Mandy's back and the bottom of his feet; both areas laced with fresh red scars. There was hardly any skin left that was devoid of injury. Yellow and purple bruising was spread from the base of his neck to the bottom of his back, the sight being enough to make the guard take a step back and heave several deep breaths.

"What the fuck?" The guard breathed. "What the hell…? That guy did something." He shook his head, trying to reconcile and think of reasons and situations that could warrant the treatment. He couldn't think of any. Gripping the bars tightly, he exclaimed, "Hey! What happened to you?"

Ravus kept quiet and shut his eyes tightly, tears forming as he went through the events of the time before. He grit his teeth, doing everything he could to ignore the situation, going so far as to even think they didn't happen. But that didn't work, the pain he felt was proof that yesterday happened.

'At this rate, killing me won't even be a bother,' he thought, 'I didn't think it would ever come to that. No... that didn't happen. It was a very real nightmare and you woke up today… still in the same fucking spot!'

"Hey! Uh… Mandy?" The guard called. His good intentions lost on the prisoner, as Ravus' teeth chattered at the mention of the name. "You even awake? Mandy! Mandy!"

The guard leaning up against the counter yelled back, "Hey! Leave him alone, he's probably sleeping… and you're getting on my nerves."

The guard resigned and left the prisoner to himself, noticing the TV was on he asked, "What're you watching?"

"The Phoenix Fighters," he replied. "It just started, come on."

"Yeah..." the guard said, taking up a seat. He looked back over at the prisoner's lying form, covered in wounds from the previous shift's idea of fun. Turning away, he tried to pour his focus into the TV show, which wasn't hard as the prisoner made no noise at all.

'I almost feel flattered… making someone that angry that they'd give into torture,' Ravus thought, 'and for no reason. Still, I wish this was over. Why is the emperor so slow to take the shot?'

x

"It's just further up here…" Ignis said, walking hastily along the walkway.

Amara held her arm in his, "You just happen to have knowledge on trains?"

"Iggy knows everything." Gladiolus opened the door, revealing the engine room. "And he was right again! What do I need to do?"

"Right, s—"

An explosion rocked the train, knocking Ignis and the commander to the ground. Gladiolus helped both up and ran to look out of a window.

"Bloody hell," Ignis muttered, leaning up against the wall. "Two steps back, eh?"

Amara sighed, "Yeah, quite the event we have here."

"It's the Niffs," Gladiolus came striding back into the room. "Tell me what I gotta do to get this train back up and running."

Ignis readjusted his gloves, "Count the number of throttle control positions."

"Eig—"

The entire train swayed back and forth, an even louder boom coming from the back of the train. Ignis held onto the wall, while Gladiolus ended up catching the commander, steadying her when the aftershock subsided.

"That's annoying," Amara grumbled.

Gladiolus re-counted the positions, "There's eight."

"Standard… and quite archaic considering this is Niflheim," Ignis said to himself. "See if you can adjust the handle to notch eight."

"No dice," Gladiolus said, the handle stuck in place. "It won't move."

"Then look for the pressure val..."

Their words droned on and on to Amara, but she was firmly in her own head. The train situation provided an unseen variable and she wasn't sure how to proceed.

'Aranea has to be alright, it wouldn't make sense for someone like her to go down so easily,' she thought, 'I wonder who that was she was talking to… I wonder what they talked about. It can't be a coincidence that she's missing and that the train is under attack.'

"Where is the damn thing..." Gladiolus muttered, he reached down and pulled a lever. "There we go!" The train began to move, gradually accelerating, but Amara didn't notice.

'It has to be Ardyn,' she thought, 'ugh… he's such a nuisance. Aranea could handle him though, I'm sure...'

"Are you alright?" Ignis asked.

Amara glanced over at him, "Huh? Yes, I'm fine. Oh, the train's moving. Uh, good job."

"Just a moment," Ignis reached in his pocket and brought his phone to his ear. "Something happen?" He scratched his head and clenched his jaw, "Be still, Noct. I'm equally as concerned for Prompto, like you… but stopping the train would endanger everyone and we'd be completely vulnerable to daemons."

Amara eyed the bespectacled man curiously, but didn't voice her concern.

"We'll be in Tenebrae shortly and we can go from there," he continued. "Hm, then it's safe to say he's no longer in this area. He may be able to contact us, we must have hope…can you make it here? I'm with Gladio and Amara… alright then."

Amara looked around the room, "What happened?"

"Our favorite chancellor has gotten a hold of Prompto." Ignis stated.

"What?! How? Wh—" Gladio started.

Ignis held his hands up, "It's best to remain calm as there is nothing we can do at this current point in time. Let's go back down to the residential cabins… we're done here."

The three made their way down the corridors in silence, mainly because each of them had their own private panic.

'Home,' she thought, 'what if I stayed there? Just took a break… it's not like anything is going the right way, nothing's going to change and nothing has changed. What am I protecting anymore? He's going to die… I can't protect a ghost.'

"Amara!" Gladiolus called. "What's going on with you?"

She shook her head in confusion, "Huh?" When she came back to focus, she saw the two men were farther up ahead. "Oh… sorry… got distracted."

"Homesick?" Gladiolus asked.

"Something like that," she managed, looping her arm in Ignis'. "I knew the night's had gotten darker but… woah, what is that?"

Pointing out of the window, she led Gladiolus' eyes to a sight that was somewhat familiar. Spinning columns and orbs water, coursing over the train and covering the windows. When the wave subsided, she caught a glimpse of a… fin?

"What the hell is that..." she wondered, her mouth agape.

Gladiolus was taken aback too, "I believe that's the prince taking care of business."

"With a big fish?" Amara questioned.

"Leviathan." The brute responded.

She nodded, not sure how to feel. On the one hand, the Astral wasn't felled, but on the other Ignis lost his sight because of the fight that ensued to protect the Tidemother. Not to mention, Amara didn't get the chance to find Ravus. A tear slipped from her eye but she brushed it off, now wasn't the time to be pessimistic.

The train was beginning to slow and Amara was fully immersed in her thoughts, but she kept a firm grip on Ignis' arm.

'The masquerade's over…,' she thought, her chest full of energy, 'it served it's purpose, but it's time.'

"The train's stopped," Ignis said, as they walked down the stairs. "How does it feel to be home, Amara?"

She bit her lip, "Grand, just grand."

xxx

"Fenestala..." she muttered, staring up at the burning castle. Wiping her tears away, she said, "There's no home anymore. What would we have to return… ugh." Amara held her face in her hands and in her sadness, let out a laugh. "Who am I kidding?"

A firm hand lied on her shoulder and brought her into an embrace, "Hey, I'm sorry about your home…" Gladiolus began, before he could finish Amara broke away. "I do something wrong?"

"No," she wiped her face with her sleeve, "it's not you. I just… nothing."

"What?"

Amara walked in front of him, finding Noctis and Ignis sitting on the curb, "Nevermind."

"Uh, alright," he said, following after her. He was confused about her behavior, but he couldn't do anything else about it.

'Don't be nice to me,' she thought.

Sitting down, she took a place a next to the king and ignored his greeting, opting out of any and all communication. The king continued speaking, but she didn't hear it being too wrapped up in all of her thoughts and guilt-tinged feelings.

"Fancy seeing you here."

Amara turned and looked up into the face of the dragoon and immediately her heart swelled in emotion. Before she could react, the dragoon shot a warning look at her and Amara kept quiet.

"Aranea." Noctis started. "You're the one I should thank for all of this?"

Aranea scoffed, "It goes deeper than me. C'mon, since you're so eager to show your gratitude, let me tell you exactly who you should be thanking."