I'm going to stop making hopeless goals for updating this thing. Just gonna keep on keepin' on and thinking WAY too much about the actual effects the dark decade would have on the general population. So if you like a whole bunch of pedantic details sprinkled through random chapters apparently updating once a year... congratulations!

(I am so sorry)

I'm also contemplating rewriting the Leviathan shitshow chapter of this fic, but... what would I change it to? Episode Ignis pretty well covered it... hm. Probably shouldn't think about that when I'm already godawful at updating, huh?

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"Hammerhead in sight!" Prompto's slightly-crackled declaration through the truck's radio actually made Aria sigh in relief. They'd been driving for the better part of the day (useless as that term was), and it had been a damned harrowing experience with only one vehicle, the one ahead of theirs, equipped with high-powered headlights to drive the daemons off the road. Four times, they'd been attacked from the sides before they could get away. Yosef, manning the gun mounted to the roof of the cab in Prompto's truck, had been injured and relieved by Holly, and they'd lost a few of the meteor shards they were transporting. But they were still alive, and with enough shards left to power Hammerhead's generators for a long while.

Beside her, Ignis let out a long sigh of his own, leaning back in his seat. "I was starting to think we'd never get there."

"It always feels like forever," she agreed, slowing down so the gates of Hammerhead's barrier fences could be opened. She followed Prompto's truck in, pulling to the side to be as close to the generators as she could get.

As soon as they got out, Aria saw Cindy jogging out of the garage. "Good to see ya! Y'all okay?"

"In one piece, at least." A glance to her other side as Prompto, Holly, and Yosef approached from the other truck, and Aria amended, "Yosef took a bad hit, though. He might need somewhere to sit down a while."

He waved her off barely a second after she'd finished talking. "I can sit down after we've unloaded the shards. Potion's mostly fixed me up anyway."

"Shouldn't be so light about nearly having your arm taken off, man. Take a load off in the garage, we got this." Prompto gave Yosef a gentle push to punctuate the instruction before stepping around to open the tailgate of the truck with a grin at Cindy. "Dropped a few on our way here, but these should keep you going for a long time."

"'ppreciate it, Prompto." Cindy grinned back at him even as she pulled one of the long, faintly-glowing stones from the bed of the truck, letting Prompto take the weight of one end before pulling it the rest of the way so the two of them could carry it towards the generators.

Holly was a few steps behind them. "Can't load any of 'em in til I check the system, though. This thing's overdue for a check-up."

Aria watched them go, and Yosef reluctantly wander into the garage, with a frown. "You know," she said as she hauled out the second shard, "if you'd told me two years ago that I'd be delivering meteor shards to Hammerhead under threat of daemon murder, I'd have laughed."

Ignis took the back end of the shard and they followed Prompto and Cindy to the storage shed for the energy sources. "It's hard to believe how long it's been since we saw daylight," he agreed, a heaviness in his voice that she'd come to expect any time they talked about the state of their world.

They lowered the shard to the ground next to the other one, and no one said more as they unloaded the rest of their cargo.

When the job was done, and Yosef had grumped his way into helping Holly with the repairs on the generator, Aria and the others went to the diner. As they sat down with their drinks in one of the booths, Cindy smiled at them. "Thanks for bringin' the shards out. I'll get the new headlights into the other truck before y'all head back to Lestallum, and..." She reached into the pocket of her overalls, handing a pair of chains over to Aria. "These're Mal and Tristan's tags... finally found 'em a ways out in the wilds."

Aria eyed the pressed metal a while after taking them into her hand. Then, sighing, she tucked them into her own pocket. "Thanks, Cin." Two more hunters dead. Just keeping everything running cost lives... even with the remnants of the Kingsglaive and the Crownsguard helping, and civilians stepping up to train in arms, it wasn't easy.

"How're things back in the city?" Cindy broke through her morbid turn in thought. "Heard y'all finally made contact with Altissia."

"We did." Ignis took over the conversation, and his hand dropped to rest on Aria's leg. He had a sixth sense for when her thoughts turned dark, she swore. She rested her hand over his, squeezing gently in thanks, and he smiled even as he continued. "For some time, we were afraid the damage from Leviathan had left them vulnerable to daemons, but it seems the dams providing their power have given them enough light to be a sanctuary like Lestallum."

"Won't be able to do much except talk to them for a while. It's too dangerous to cross the ocean, even for Aranea's airship these days." Prompto leaned on the table, stirring his coffee a few times before he smiled. "It's nice to know we're not the only ones out there, though."

That was true. So many cell towers had been destroyed, especially in Altissia, that communication had been impossible. When the team who'd been working on it had reported success... it was one of the precious few things they had to celebrate. Aria smiled at the thought. "It does lift people's spirits... they want to feel like we're having victories. It's why Iris has been pushing for active hunts against daemons."

Cindy's brow shot up. "Is that worth it? Ain't gonna get far without daylight to keep 'em gone."

"It's still better than doing nothing," Ignis said before Aria could answer, lowering his cup to the table. "It's important to give people hope... to remind them we aren't helpless."

Aria nodded. "It's a battle for morale, more than anything. We don't know how long we'll have to wait."

Already, almost two years had passed. And it would not be a matter of surviving, but of making sure the world remained in a state that saving it still meant something when Noctis returned.

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Bit of a nothing chapter, just finishing up a few establishing bits before we start making jumps through the dark decade, because heck knows I'm not writing out all ten years.