The journey back through the tunnels and caverns of Fociaugh was more of a trek than it had seemed going forwards through them. Unusual, considering the way back was normally quicker than the way forward. But something inside him seemed a little...off somehow. He hadn't noticed it until after the vision, but Noctis suspected the lightning had had a greater effect on him than he'd realised. Perhaps it was the fact he may have been...you know...electrocuted, but it didn't feel quite the same as that. He wasn't...in pain exactly. He just felt...odd. Like his body was too heavy and too light at the same time—as though he was wearing it rather than a part of it.

That had been a mild bonus of whatever Ramuh's powers had done to him—the Starscourge felt a little less terrifying, and his hand was no longer aching in quite the awful, pervasive way it had before. Obviously he didn't dare check it while the others were around, but he would as soon as he could get a moment to himself. That could take a while though. A long while. He tried to put the thought out of his mind. The important thing was to get to Luna. That was all that mattered now. He was half inclined to suggest to the others they go to Styliff straight away, to try and get past the Imperials as quickly as possible, but he knew that would probably only cause more trouble. So instead he remained quiet, and enjoyed the silence as best he could until they left the cave.

It wasn't too long until Noctis could see the literal and metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. Though he wasn't as happy to see it as he anticipated. It wasn't raining anymore, and the sun had emerged, shining brightly over Duscae. He remembered how he felt last time. Such a sense of relief, of achievement, when he finally left the cave and saw light had returned to the world once more. Perhaps that was a metaphor for what was to come. But this time...this time he had no such feelings of happiness. The sun burned his eyes in a way he'd never quite felt before and he quickly grasped at his sunglasses, pulling them back down over his eyes in a flash. That pain...that burning...it couldn't be anything good.

He frowned as he emerged from the cave fully, even as the others seemed to be having quite the opposite reaction.

"Thank the Gods!" said Prompto, throwing his hands up in the air once they were outside. "Sun, I have missed you."

"It is nice to have good weather again," said Ignis smiling.

"You'll be hating it soon, just you see," said Gladio with a knowing smirk. Prompto's whining in Leide had clearly grated on his nerves.

"Where did we leave the car again?" asked Noctis, who had an uneasy feeling somewhere deep in his chest.

He knew it was improbable that the Imperials had stolen it while they were inside Fociaugh—they'd certainly never tried it before, but something inside him was telling him this is wrong with the force of a large boulder. Perhaps this was the downside to changing the future—you started to lose where you were. Hopefully he'd get used to it soon enough. There'd be trouble if he didn't.

"Just down the path, Noct," said Ignis, immediately cottoning on to the worry in Noctis's voice. "You do remember don't you?"

"Yeah, I just...I'm worried about the Imperials, you know?" he said, hoping to be able to pass it off.

"I understand, Noct," said Ignis, pushing his glasses up his nose in a way that screamed 'we'll talk about this later.'

Great, just what he didn't need right now. At least he didn't have to worry about mentioning Altissia and Leviathan anymore. That was one small blessing from the Astrals. Not that they were going to be much help in the future. The future...it was a strange thought. Especially since he didn't really have one. He didn't know what he planned to do after Leviathan. There was no way in hell he was going back to Gralea—at this point that would be an exercise in 'how to doom the world'. No, he needed a better plan. Much better.

And what about Gralea anyway? He hadn't really considered what must be happening in Niflheim during all this. How long until every last citizen was made into a monster? Had the outbreak already happened, or was Gralea still going on as a normal city, with normal people living there? How long until so many more deaths were added to the toll?

The days were starting to get shorter now. He'd noticed it last night—it was a tiny difference, so small no one else who'd been living it would have noticed, but he did. And it frightened him. It was...what, a few weeks since they'd left Insomnia? It was happening faster this time...something had changed, and he didn't know what and he didn't know why, but the sands of time were slipping away from him again. They needed to get a move on.

The car gradually came back into view.

"Would you like to drive, Noct? Or shall I?" asked Ignis, turning back towards him. That was something different too—despite all that had happened, Ignis trusted him to drive the car, and not get them lost in the process.

He was about to say yes—driving was good stress relief, and an excuse not to talk much, but caught himself. While it was easy to forget with the pain having dimmed for a time, he did still have a nasty gaping wound on the inside of his hand, and driving would not help it to seal up. It might be best to sit it out for a time.

"You can drive this time, Specs," he said, moving towards his seat in the back.

"Well I'm honoured," said Ignis, raising his eyebrows, but moving towards the driver's seat nonetheless.

The moment the car started moving, Noctis felt his mind drifting again, and not in a pleasant way. Something about the movement of the car, the way he couldn't focus on anything around him seemed to set his mind spinning away from him, and he was unable to hold on to one thought for more than a few seconds. Was this what being car-sick felt like? If so then it was both new to him and absolutely horrible.

He was drawn out of his haze, however, when a voice spoke up from in front of him.

"So...you looking forward to seeing Iris again, Gladio?" asked Prompto, from the front seat. Good. Something he could focus on.

"She's my sister," said Gladio, shrugging. "'Course I am."

"Hey, c'mon, you've got to give us more than that!" said Prompto. "What's it like over at Cape Caem? Is there a house there or something?"

"A safe house, meant for the royal family," said Ignis, from the front seat.

"Yeah, apparently they've got a farm there too. Saves going out and buying vegetables, I suppose," said Gladio.

Noctis couldn't quite conceal his look of disgust. Even if he managed to somehow live to a hundred, he'd never understand people who like vegetables.

"Not that that'd be any use to the actual royal family, huh Noct?" said Gladio, apparently catching him wrinkling his nose.

"I'm just saying, they're gross, and I don't understand how people can eat them and not want to vomit," said Noctis, raising his arms in a gesture of 'I surrender'.

"I guess Noct here would be stuck trying to sneak into the local convenience store then," said Prompto, laughing.

Noctis tried to smack Prompto upside the head, but Prompto swiftly dodged out of the way. His reflexes were getting faster. Good. That meant he was getting better at fighting. Or Noctis was just getting slower. One or the other.

"Hey Ignis," said Prompto, after checking Noctis wasn't going to swipe at him again, "how long's it going to take to get there?"

"A day's drive at least," said Ignis, sighing. "I suggest you settle in."

"What? But that's ages away!"

Noctis just rolled his eyes, leant back in his seat, and closed his eyes tightly. Nothing else to do but wait, and this might be an opportunity to catch up on some sleep, since most of what he'd been counting as 'sleep' recently was due to passing out. It didn't take long for his body to feel exceptionally heavy, and his thoughts to begin floating away.

A city was standing before him. He found himself looking on, impassive, as flames licked at the sides of the buildings and smoke rose in huge plumes up into the night sky. The street lamps above him were shattered, but the light of the many, many fires illuminated the city well enough. Noctis felt himself horrified and uncaring all at once. The more awake, more conscious part of his brain was looking at the carnage of the city, which he now realised was Lestallum, and feeling a deep, intense panic. Somewhere in the back of his mind though; just a dim feeling in his subconscious, he felt...nothing. He didn't care about this, about what was happening to the city.

His conscious mind fought against this feeling, but no matter how much he thought about it; how the heat of the flames seemed to burn at his skin; how the smoke seemed to almost suffocate him; he just couldn't dislodge the idea. It was like he was missing something somehow. Some part of this scenario was...off and he couldn't tell what it was. All he could do was stand stock-still, watching as the inferno consumed the city from the inside out.

What had caused this?

The smoke seemed to be settling on his lungs. He gave a horrible, hacking cough. He needed to get out of here—both parts of his mind seemed to agree on that. He staggered away from the blaze, even as the flames began to spread to the side of the road he was standing on, burning the tarmac on the road. He collapsed into a coughing fit as he leant on the wall that looked out over the rest of Duscae.

He almost choked as he saw what lay below.

Out on the plains and fields of Duscae, like a swarm of insects so far below, seemed to be the Niflheim military, lined up in rows upon rows of soldiers. Noctis quickly turned back to the blazing husk of Lestallum, that feeling in the back of his mind now exploding as he realised what had happened. Lestallum had been put to torch by Niflheim. Just like Tenebrae had the first time. And he'd...known about it?

The moment he thought this, his mind seized up in agony. Then he saw something—he saw a thick, black, inky...substance come pouring in from between the buildings of Lestallum. It was light, like some sort of gas, but not like the smoke pouring from the buildings. No, it was something else entirely. It was like fog, thick, black fog, just like—

But before he could remember what it reminded him of, it came pouring faster and faster—towards him, and all at once he was entrenched in it. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. His mind came to a horrible stuttering halt as every last part of his energy was expended on trying to keep breathing. But he couldn't. He was drowning. He was dying.

Then he was gone.

He sprung back to consciousness with a deep and unshakable panic, immediately sitting upright and looking around frantically at what was going on. What was going on, as it happened, was what seemed to be some sort of medical intervention. He was sitting on wet grass, and as he looked around he saw he wasn't far from the road, where he could see the Regalia parked a short distance away. He'd been carried away from it, probably by the three worried faces looking down at him. Ignis was sitting next to him, and he'd almost headbutted him as he sprang awake. Prompto was kneeling just to his right, with a combination of worry and sadness on his face. Gladio was just behind Ignis and had his phone out, apparently about to call someone.

Ignis quickly grabbed him by the shoulders, which made Noctis uncomfortably aware that his clothes were slick with sweat and sticking to him again, which meant he'd probably been showing signs of his nightmare while he was asleep.

"Noctis, look at me," he said, in a tone that dared him to disobey, so Noctis did as he was told. "You're safe. We're here with you, do you understand me?"

Noctis tried to say yes, but found his throat was impossibly sore, and instead decided to nod. He must look more out of it than he thought. Then a terrible thought occurred to him, and he attempted to look as subtly as he could at his right hand. The glove was still in place, so it couldn't have been that particular issue. What was this?

"What...happened?" he managed to mumble, though his throat burned as he did. Was he coming down with some sort of cold?

Prompto laughed at this question, though he sounded almost hysterical rather than genuinely amused. Gladio frowned at him, though he wasn't paying attention.

"Good question, Noct!" he said, still laughing, and to Noctis's alarm he noticed Prompto was actually crying slightly.

"You had...some sort of seizure," said Ignis, who had not let go of his arms and was looking at him with deep concern.

"You started choking on the air or something," said Gladio, who had a similar expression on his face. "We thought you were dying."

"That tracks," said Noctis, sighing deeply. "There was something like that in my nightmare."

He saw no point in keeping that particular detail from them. He would never tell them all the details, of course, but there was no harm in telling them that.

"That tracks?" asked Prompto, looking a touch horrified. Okay, maybe there was some harm. "You could have died and that's all you have to say about it?"

"It is worrying, Noctis," said Ignis, slowly removing his hands now he was sure Noctis wasn't going to collapse again. "Even if you are having particularly bad nightmares, they shouldn't be having this effect on you."

"I know, I know," said Noctis, deciding it might be best to end this line of questioning until he could think straight. "I'm sorry. I don't have any answers for you. I just had a shitty nightmare and woke up to...this."

Ignis sighed deeply.

"Alright, Noct," he said, helping Noctis to his feet. "You just gave us a scare. It would be nice to know what caused this though, if only so we can stop it happening again."

Noctis just nodded as he tried to stay on his feet. Ignis noticed his difficulty and put his arm under Noctis's shoulders and helped him back towards the car.

"Try to take it easy there, Noct," said Gladio, frowning as they went back towards the car. "Don't want you collapsing again."

Noctis just put his thumbs up as he sat back down in the car.

"Note to self—sleeping in car is bad," he muttered, pinching his forehead.

"I'll keep you awake, Noct," said Prompto, smiling wickedly as he jumped back into his seat.

"We're only ten minutes away, Noct," said Ignis, glancing back at him.

"It's okay, Ignis," said Noctis, sighing. "I don't think I'm going to get much sleep after that anyway."