Noctis sat in front of First Secretary Camelia Claustra feeling somehow worse than he had when he'd been dying of the Starscourge. He still couldn't walk without his wheelchair, and now she was telling him he had three days to prepare for the summoning of Leviathan. Apparently Luna had taken his advice seriously. Even worse, that dull, empty sensation he'd been feeling since early that morning had not faded even slightly, making his head feel like it was full of sand. It was a monumental effort to keep from scowling at the circumstances, but he just about managed it, knowing otherwise he'd be turned out on his ear.

"Is that all agreeable to you, King Noctis?" asked Camelia. Noctis couldn't help but feel like the use of his title was a jab, given his current physical state.

"Of course," he said, forcing a smile on his face and hoping it didn't look as unnatural as it felt. "But I couldn't help but notice that this plan puts the people of Altissia in considerable danger."

"You are correct," said Camelia, not exactly beaming, but clearly pleased by this turn in the conversation. Noctis had guessed she might be. "In fact, I had been wondering what you would be willing to offer to help relieve the people of Altissia, given this ritual will clearly endanger numerous lives."

Gods he hated politics.

"I'm afraid my unfortunate circumstances prevent me from offering more substantial assistance, but I shall have my retainers assist you with the evacuation of endangered citizens," said Noctis, with all the false blitheness he could muster.

"Excellent." Camelia smiled with narrowed eyes.

"I do have a request to make of you though."

Now was the time to strike.

"Oh?"

"Seeing as both myself and Lady Lunafreya are in ill health, I would prefer if we were able to complete the ritual side-by-side, so that should one of us fail, the other can take their place."

He was taking a risk and he knew it, but so was Camelia, and without the Empire breathing down her neck he hoped she would agree. She was silent for a long moment, not helping Noctis's nerves even a little.

"Very well," she sighed, after an unnecessarily long pause. "The Oracle asked much the same thing, and I suppose it would be foolish to deny it to both of you. I do ask, however, that the Oracle make her speech alone. You are not the public figure she is."

"Understood," said Noctis. She was right, after all.

"I am glad we have come to such an equitable agreement," said Camelia, that fake smile back on her face as she shook his hand.

Noctis smiled just as falsely back, then wheeled himself from the room as quickly as humanly possible.

The others were waiting for him outside.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Gladio, as they made their way out of the lush interior of Camelia's manor and into the cold, white streets of Altissia. It wasn't raining, but clouds had gathered overhead.

"Fine," said Noctis, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to ward off the headache which was already beginning to manifest. "She didn't toss me out halfway through, anyway. You guys are on evac duty again though, sorry, there was no other way to cut the deal."

That wasn't necessarily true. Noctis wasn't sure he'd had to offer his friends' services, but he was far too tired to try thinking his way around that negotiation point when he was already pushing his luck trying to get closer to Luna.

"At least we'll be together?" said Prompto, though it was clear he wasn't thrilled by the arrangement.

"Yeah, we can try and keep Ignis safe this time," said Gladio, which caused Ignis to shoot a glare in his direction. He liked being babied almost as much as Noctis did—that was to say, not at all. Noctis decided not to mention that was exactly what happened last time and Ignis had still been blinded. There wasn't much he could do about it now.

"The ritual will be held in three days," Noctis continued, deciding they should probably get all the details now. "I'll be allowed to stand with Luna during the summoning, so hopefully I can keep her safe that way."

"Three days?" asked Ignis, his voice going sharp, and Noctis knew without looking that he was staring at his wheelchair.

"Yeah," said Noctis, bluntly. "Guess I'll have to get started on physical therapy sooner rather than later."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Noct," said Ignis, placing one hand on one of the wheelchair handles, which Noctis didn't even slightly appreciate. "You'll only end up hurting yourself."

Noctis just snorted and brought himself to a stop next to one of Altissia's many canals. There was railing along the side so no wayward passerby would fall in. With less care than he probably ought to have taken, he reached up and took a firm hold on the stone railing, then pushed himself upwards with force, almost launching himself onto his feet.

"Noctis!" hissed Ignis. Noctis ignored him.

"Grab the chair," he said, addressing Prompto, who had been nervously fidgeting throughout most of the conversation. Prompto looked startled, and began doing what Noctis said without seeming to realise he was doing it. "Pack it up and take it back to the manor. I can't be unable to walk during the ritual."

"Prompto, stop that," hissed Ignis, not actually pulling Prompto off the wheelchair, but coming damn close to it. "Noct, what has gotten into you? What did I just say about not pushing yourself too hard?"

Noctis fought to keep his temper under control. He knew a lot of it was purely due to his episode that morning, and he still hadn't really mentally recovered. He was better than this. He shouldn't be treating his friends badly just because he happened to be in a terrible mood. But they didn't understand! The fate of the world was resting on him, and he couldn't sit around being useless in a wheelchair when he needed to be ready to fight Leviathan in three days time. He needed to get himself in gear, and he couldn't do that if everyone around him insisted on babying him!

"From now on," he said, still struggling not to growl, "I'm walking. Using these," he patted the railings, "to help me."

"Certainly not!" began Ignis, but Gladio stepped in a grabbed him by the shoulder before he could go any further.

"No, we can't stop him, Iggy," said Gladio. "If Noct wants to get stronger so he can face Leviathan, we should let him. Even if it does end up backfiring." He gave Noctis a hard stare at that juncture. "I'll take the wheelchair, you three can go on ahead."

"Thanks," said Noctis, and tried to sound like he meant it.

Ignis was still glaring at the back of his head. Prompto had come up nervously to his side.

"I can help you out, if you need it," he said, quietly, as though he was afraid Noctis might shout at him. Six, that stung.

"Thanks, Prompto," he sighed, willing some of that damn anger to disappear. "I appreciate it."

The three of them managed to get all the way over to the marketplace without Noctis actually falling over or crying from the pain, though both were tempting options. He was sure this was the right way to go about it though. How else could he get stronger?

He managed to stagger over to a chair without his legs falling out from under him, but only just. The chair itself was a rather skeletal, wooden thing, which pressed into his back and only made the aches and pains that spread like lightning over his body even worse, but it was better than staying on his feet, and having that horrible ache in his legs. He barely registered Prompto and Ignis sitting down beside him as he looked out, over the marketplace.

It was on a raised plaza, much like the rest of Altissia, rising high above the water, a plateau of grey stone and colourful houses all around. All across the plaza were a myriad of stalls, each selling something different, mostly local goods. The colours seemed dulled by the clouds overhead. The seat he'd collapsed into was just next to a food stall.

"Prompto," he said quietly, and Prompto's head jerked up from where he'd been fiddling with his camera. "Why don't you go buy something from there?" He tilted his head towards the stall. "We don't want to seem ungrateful."

"Sure thing," said Prompto, with a sunny smile that Noctis had realised by now was almost entirely for their benefit and rarely because Prompto was actually happy. At some point they'd talk about that. Not right now though. Now he was alone with Ignis.

For some reason Noctis had expected that the moment they were alone Ignis would have launched into a rant about his behaviour. That had been his modus operandi when Noctis was a teenager, so it felt odd when Ignis instead just remained oddly quiet. It was like he was collapsing in on himself, and it was…unnerving.

But Noctis knew that if he said anything it would either just trigger the rant in question or make Ignis even more silent and cold, so he said nothing, and instead waited for Ignis to broach the conversation, if he wanted to.

They sat in silence for about ten minutes, during which time Noctis watched Prompto order food from the stall in question, glance back at the two of them sitting in complete silence, point slightly desperately at the other stalls as if to say 'can I go check them out?' and smile in deep relief as Noctis nodded his head in confirmation. Prompto probably knew better than to come back anytime soon, and Gladio had either gotten lost, gone sightseeing, or having witnessed the earlier confrontation, come to the same conclusion as Prompto and elected to leave well enough alone. Which left Noctis very much alone with Ignis, who was clearly still angry. But when he finally spoke, his question was not the one Noctis expected.

"You really don't care about your own life anymore, do you?"

Ignis kept looking at the table as he said this, which was unusual behaviour, even for him.

"Bold of you to assume I ever did," said Noctis, in an only semi-joking tone of voice. That caused Ignis's head to shoot up and direct his glare solely at Noctis again. "Okay, maybe that was a bad joke, but seriously, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. I know it sucks for all of you, and you'll all need time to come to terms with it, but I'm over it, honestly. I had ten whole years to get over it. I can't be...I dunno, upset about it now. I'm sorry."

Ignis sighed deeply, and by the way his chest shuddered a little as he did, Noctis could tell he was pretty upset.

"I know we ask a lot of you, Noctis," he said, still quieter than usual. "Me more than most. But surely you can understand why watching you throw your life away so casually is upsetting? Not just to me, but to all of us."

"I understand," said Noctis, though he wasn't sure he did, not really. Just like they could never understand the desolation of the world of ruin he'd woken up to, he'd never quite understand why watching himself die would be so upsetting. Sometimes, caught up in the darkness of his own mind, it was hard to see why others cared so much about him. "But you've also got to understand that I'm not the one in control here. I didn't make the prophecy. I didn't choose to die. The Astrals are the one running the show here, controlling all of us: me, Luna, even Ardyn, essentially. You can't just look at destiny and say no."

"Can't you?"

Noctis blinked. Of course you couldn't, that was the whole point. The world would die if he didn't kill himself, he knew that, it had to be right. Otherwise what was the point? Him, Luna, Ardyn, countless others—they couldn't have died for nothing. Could they?

"No," said Noctis, though he wasn't sure if he was talking to Ignis or himself. "Then it would all have been pointless—it had to be like that, can't you understand?"

"Did my other self understand?" asked Ignis, and if Noctis wasn't mistaken he seemed oddly defensive.

"Yes, of course he did!" said Noctis, trying to focus on the conversation at hand, though his thoughts were going a mile a minute. "He let me go, just like the others. You don't have any choice, can't you see that?"

"Of course I can't!" hissed Ignis, now angrier than Noctis had ever seen him before. "I don't know what was going on in that other world that made such fools out of us, but I can't accept that you have to die for some absurd prophecy about the world ending. You have nothing to atone for—surely the Gods can see that?"

"You think they care?"

The words were out before he could stop them, but the damage was done. Ignis's eyes went wide, and his face pale.

"The Astrals are not like us, Ignis," said Noctis, clutching the old wooden table as hard as he could, just to keep himself grounded. "They don't care about our pain. They don't see things the way we do. Leviathan considered it a mortal insult that Luna even tried to summon her. She'll probably try to kill me again in three days time just because she got woken up when she didn't want to be. We can't understand them—they're just...beyond us. They play with us, sacrifice us for the good of the planet when they don't even really understand what that is. They're...gods. Immortals. We can't think of them like we think of other people. They're incomprehensible."

"I'm sorry, Noctis," said Ignis, shaking his head sadly, "but I can't believe you. I just...can't."

Noctis sighed and leant back in his chair. Perhaps it was too much to ask that they understand they grievances he had against the Astrals, for his death, and that of many others. Perhaps that was an understanding that only came with time, or experience. But hopefully he'd laid the seeds for Ignis. For now, at least.

"It's fine," he said, looking at Ignis properly, this time. "It's always going to be difficult. I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"Likewise," said Ignis, though he didn't smile.

Silence fell over them for another long moment. Should Noctis say something? What else was there to say?

Ignis stared into the depths of the canals, as though some unknowable answer lay there. "There was...something else I wanted to ask of you."

"Go for it," said Noctis, hoping he sounded as though he was no longer angry.

"About my blindness, after fighting Leviathan—do you know how it occurred?"

Noctis's insides constricted uncomfortably. Because the truth was—he didn't. The only thing Ignis had said afterwards was that the attack had lost him his eyesight. And Noctis hadn't dared ask more. He was too...terrified of what he might uncover. Scared Ignis might blame him—and of course he'd have every right to. He had no idea what happened for sure. No idea how Ignis actually lost his vision. No clue how he might save him.

"I don't know," said Noctis, though that didn't nearly cover the depths of his ignorance. "You never spoke about it much afterwards, and I wasn't there when it happened, so..."

Ignis raised his hand to stop him. "I quite understand. I suspected as much when you didn't mention it on the boat. We shall simply have to be careful then, from here on out."

"Yeah," sighed Noctis, wishing he somehow knew more, that he hadn't been so wrapped up in himself at the time. "I guess you're right."

He felt...uncertain now. Out of place. As though something was wrong but he couldn't quite have said what it was. Which was true enough, he supposed, but still...it ached, that even though he'd told them all he knew, it still wasn't back to how it was.

The feeling lingered, even as Prompto returned, having spotted the atmosphere had cleared, and Gladio appeared soon after. He was able to decently fake a smile now, and at least pretend to be happy, all signs of his bad mood having disappeared. But Ignis remained a little distant, and he found he couldn't quite join in, like he was looking at all of them from the outside. Something had changed, he could sense it in the air. And this time, it wasn't something he knew how to fix.

We're slowly ramping up to Leviathan! And in the meantime, Ignis has definitely got a lot on his mind. Unfortunately, Noctis is not remotely helping shift that burden because he is distinctly not on-board with this whole 'saving his life' thing. Plus he doesn't know how to stop Ignis going blind either which doesn't help. At least he and Luna get to do the ritual together? Whether or not that will reduce the chances of her dying remains to be seen, but at least now we're finally getting into the real game-changing stuff wrt this whole time travel thing. Altissia's the place everything goes wrong, but now Noct has a chance to make it go right! Thank you so much to everyone still reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!