Author's Note: Yes, I do still plan to write more Momentis. I do plan to finish it well after the darkness. As before, these chapters are short, and most are individual, but some will be serial at times. If I wrote this story like I did every other story, it would take 70 times as long as it's already taking. In positive news, I'm not longer in my hated job. I'm in a job I like, but with a commute (and start time) I don't. I drive roughly 40 minutes each way-on a good day. Today, there was a fairly massive snow. The drive home (about halfway through the snow and very early in the plowing) was over an hour. But hey, I've been writing! At least a little.

Momentis
Part IV: Life in the Dark

Seven Year Itch
by Philippe de la Matraque


This year, they met at Old Lestallum. Gladio had rented the trailer there and told all the residents he could to leave Ignis alone while they were there. Few people want to push him at that. Prompto bought the food from the Crow's Nest so Ignis wouldn't even have to cook their dinners. Ignis was a bit chagrined at that. He liked to cook. But this weekend wasn't about cooking or doing anything. It was about being together. It was now seven years since Noctis had been sucked in by the Crystal.

The first night was pleasant with an undertone of sadness. They caught each other up on their lives since they'd last been together. Prompto had still not give up on Cindy. Gladio was still seeing someone, and no, he wasn't willing to tell them who that someone was. Just as Ignis didn't feel the need to give them details on his relationship with Aranea. He simply acknowledged there was on and left it at that.

Prompto had noted the mood shift in Lestallum. He had been away a few months after Ignis's recovery. There were musicians in the streets again. Children ran and played after school.

"It's amazing what a little elbow room will do for people," Gladio commented.

"I can hear a clarinetist from my office every afternoon," Ignis added. "It's nice. I still get a steady stream of visitors, but it's all the usual stuff. Much more relaxed."

"Hopefully, it will stay that way until Noct comes back," Prompto said. He sighed. "Seven years! I wish that vision of yours had given a timeline. How long does it take to absorb all the Crystal's light anyway?"

Ignis nodded. There was no way to know. No one had ever done it before. Instead, he said, "Thriving populations tend to grow."

"They do," Gladio agreed. "But only one way now. No more immigrants."

Ignis nodded again. "That would be extremely unlikely. And children do grow slowly, so I think we have a while before we're all living on each other's laps again. I hope to enjoy it while it lasts."

"After Noctis," Prompto began, and then left that opening right there, "we'll be able to move back to Insomnia. That should help."

"I will help everywhere," Ignis pointed out. "Wiz could go back to his farm. New houses and towns could be built. The world will be safe again."

"Yeah," Prompto said. "Maybe Altissia can be rebuilt. It was really beautiful there. Very picturesque."

Ignis drew up some of his memories. The gondolas and canals, the bridges connecting streets and buildings. "I remember," he stated. "It really was."

"'Til we wrecked it," Gladio remarked.

"We," Ignis corrected, "didn't wreck it. The Empire and Leviathan wrecked it. We helped the people evacuate before we joined in the destruction."

Gladio changed the subject. "Hey, Prompto, you got something on your chin."

"Oh, har har har," Prompto shot back.

Ignis held his breath a moment. But he smiled. "What is it?"

"Prompto's managed to grow some facial hair," Gladio supplied.

"I am almost thirty, you know," Prompto said in his defense.

Ignis let them continue the banter. He pulled up the memory of the vision, the image of Prompto's face. He imagined that image on the face of the young man across the table. Gladio's face in the vision on his other friend to the left.

Gladio noticed. "What is it, Iggy?"

Ignis took a breath. "There was a vague timeline," he said, "in the vision. I didn't tell you so as not to influence you in any way."

"You still didn't tell us something?" Gladio exclaimed.

"What do you mean, Iggy?" Prompto asked, calming the situation.

Ignis let Gladio's exclamation go and answered Prompto's question. "I saw us, briefly, and we were older." He sighed again. "We had each had a distinct change to our appearances. I had changed my hair and glasses. I'm fairly certain, I now resemble the 'me' in my vision. Gladio, you changed your hair. Prompto, your chin."

Ignis heard Prompto slump back in his chair. "I get it."

Gladio grunted. "So now we look like we looked in your vision."

Ignis nodded. "But that still doesn't let us know when. Just that it's nearer. That it wouldn't have happened before all these changes had taken place."

"So it was always going to be at least seven years," Prompto calculated. "Can't be that long again, can it?"

Ignis gave that some thought. How much older had they looked? There was really no way to tell, especially as he couldn't see exactly how they looked now to try and compare it with the vision in other ways, more subtle ways. But he didn't think they'd looked fourteen years older. Gladio and he would be twenty-nine this year. Prompto and Noctis would be thirty-seven. Another seven years would put them at thirty-six and thirty-four. "I can only really guess," Ignis said. "I don't think we were that much older. If I could see you now or myself in a mirror, I might be able to better guess."

"It's okay, Iggy," Gladio assured him. "We know it's near. That's more than we knew yesterday. It's enough."

"Yeah," Prompto agreed. "Right now, he's alive and resting, right? Could be worse. We've made it this far. We'll make it a few more years."

"Yes," Ignis replied. "We will."

Gladio changed the subject. "I heard you and Talcott went tomb-hunting. How's he doing?"

Ignis smiled lightly. "He's grown up quite a bit, hasn't he? He doesn't match my mental image of him anymore, yet I have no other to replace it. So it's a little odd, when I hear his man's voice coming from a few feet above this little boy image I have for him."

Prompto chuckled. "What is he now, sixteen?"

"Seventeen," Gladio corrected. "So he's holding his own?"

"He's well-trained," Ignis replied. "He's quite adept at calling out the different kinds of daemons or animals we come across, so I can strategize better how to fight them. He's good with a blade, though Cor says he's better with a rifle. Personally, I've never seen him hit a target that way."

"Oh, har har har," Prompt said again, but with more mirth.

Ignis got more serious. "We are only going to go to tombs I've already been to and have some memory of. It seems each has a hidden library. It's a shame these books have been hidden away for so long. We can only carry a few of them back. Talcott is very good at scanning for the important tomes. I just wish I could help him more. But none of them are in Braille."

"Learn anything new," Prompto asked.

Ignis nodded. "Only that Ardyn is far older than he appears. We found a reference four centuries back."

"I'm not complaining," Prompto said, "but we haven't seen as much of him as I expected these last seven years."

Ignis thought about that. "Maybe he doesn't know how long Noctis will be in the Crystal either. We know he's in the Citadel in Insomnia. Cor sends some of the Glaive on reconnaissance there from time to time."

"There are imperial outposts in the city," Prompto added. "Soldiers in the streets, and daemons. I've gone with them sometimes. They're still good fighters, even without the king's magic."

"That they are," Gladio agreed. "What else did you see there?"

Prompto took a drink before saying more. "I found my house. It's still standing. It was like stepping back in time, ya know. Nothing had changed except for dust and cobwebs. And imps."

"I'm pretty sure my home isn't standing," Gladio said. "Iris told me about how she, Jared, and Talcott escaped, just before a fireball hit."

"You had two places, didn't you, Iggy?" Prompto asked. "Like Noct did."

"Yes," Ignis answered. "I had an apartment in the Citadel next to my uncle's. And I had a separate apartment in town near Noct's."

"One of them might still be standing," Prompto suggested.

"Perhaps," Ignis said. "Though I'm thinking the Citadel took a lot of damage."

"The main structure's there," Prompto reported, "but yeah, it got hit pretty hard, since the Emperor wanted the Chrystal and all."

Gladio told them a story of his time in the Citadel training Noctis, and they spent the rest of the evening in somber but pleasant memories of their former home.

In the morning, Prompto surprised Ignis as he helped with breakfast. "Have you thought about how we're going to rebuild Insomnia? You know, after?"

"I haven't planned for after," Ignis told him in truth. "I can't be sure we'll be there."

"Yeah," Prompto agreed, "but you're good with planning. Maybe you should think about it. If it's written down, someone else could use it, even if we're not there."

Ignis thought of little else through breakfast. When had Prompto gotten so astute? He was right. A plan would help whoever survived. They had rebuilt Lestallum on a plan. Would a similar one work for Insomnia?