July has been a depressing month for me. With the country a flame and my own problems with college and financial aid, it's getting to me deeply to get writing done. Apologies for making you wait so long.

Thank you Insanity's Haven, edwardilovebella, kitten18297, kingash55555, for the follow and favorite!

LadyAmazon- Better keep tissues nearby then, we're not done for a long shot! Right?! I thought the same thing, with the long range fighter bit. How I usually play FF15 is I stick to close combat and since Ignis is technically a close combat/range fighter with his daggers, I feel they need two more strict range fighters. I use the spear, most powerful sword, and only use the Crossbow for special bosses. OMG the friendly fire! I always end up setting Prompto a blaze because he jumps right into my line of fire!

Savage Kill- Seems like it, huh? Things will get better…. Eventually!


The croaking of frogs and chirps of crickets seemed earlier nostalgic for Lexus, but equally creepy. The light of dawn would arrive in an hour, but the darkness gave her a chance to sneak out of the ranch to find the home of this Deadeye. With her crossbow, knowledge of the beast, and Ferris with her, she found herself to be terrified against this beast. But, why wait for them to just abandon her when she can just do the job herself and they can leave sooner. She didn't want a tearful goodbye or such, being dumped on this ranch. She still had to see her father, and she'd take care of this beast and drive to Lestallum herself if she had to- Once her bike arrived from Cindy.

Ferris chirped softly as he slowly made his way through the woods with his rider's daughter on him. Lexus was surprised the old bird could run, or even carry her. When she was leaving, he seemed to want to follow her. Even after she tried to keep him at bay, he nearly caused a racket until she let him go.

Now, they were trudging through the wet woodlands, identifying the location of Deadeye. It seemed like Ferris knew where he was going, whenever Lexus tried to turn to one direction, he ignored and went another. She stopped fighting him when she spotted a few broken down trees.

Her hand skimmed through his feathers, to comfort herself as she felt her nerves start to hit her. The size of these tall large trees broken down and some even ripped from the ground gave her a visual of how large this Behemoth was. Ferris suddenly got jumpy, making Lexus hold the reins tighter to keep from falling off.

"Woah, boy. Shh, what's-"

A loud moan, almost like guttural growls vibrated through the air, shaking the ground. Ferris ruffled his feathers, scratching his sharp talons into the dirt. The sound soon died off, leaving dead silence in the air.

"...Deadeye?" Lexus nudged Ferris, but he refused to move any further. With a sigh, she climbed off and smoothed down his ruffled feathers to calm him down. "It's alright boy, I won't force you to go out any further. Can you find your way back?"

He cooed softly to answer, his head turning to groom under his wing before facing her again. He then turned toward a rock formation, shaking his head to dry his feathers as raindrops fell from the trees above. She followed his line of sight, seeing a pathway through some rocks.

"Is that where he usually stays?" She asked, Ferris nuzzled her cheek. Assuming a yes, she thanks the bird with a kiss on his beak. "Alright, get back to the ranch."

Ferris let out a squawk and turned bolting back to the ranch. Making sure he was heading in the right direction, Lexus turned toward the path. She took a few deep breaths and let her boots mold into the mud below toward Deadeye's lair.


The sun grew higher, lighting the sky with yellow pink hues, though the clouds soon folded over. The smell of moisture singled it would be raining soon. It was growing chilly as Lexus made her way to where she was sure was Deadeye's territory. She shuddered, zipping up her leather jacket, spotting a small crevasse- Almost like an entrance with metal plates all over. She knelt down, peeking in to see this was an entrance. Maybe one Deadeye didn't know of, with how huge he was. The thought of it crushing with her in it by the beast made her hesitate and looked back behind her. She was almost tempted to wait for the boys, since they would be hunting the beast down.

The thought of them made her anger surge, fueling her to slide in and crawl through the open metal tunnel. What did they care? All they want is to leave, may as well take care of this Behemoth so they can get out of here faster. The faster the better; no goodbyes and cut ties completely. Lexus didn't want the pain she carried around to get heavier.

Moved a few steps she realized the only way further was one path, leading her to duck under from branches. She kept against the rocky wall finding an old fence. Lexus frowned, had this place been for something else, one time? Ignoring the thought, seeing it unrelated, she leapt over the fence and found herself in a huge open area.

She stood there, seeing broken down trees, branches looked to have been tossed aside or smashed under his weight. The sun was out, but with clouds closing in, it still felt like dawn hadn't passed yet. She looked around, noticing the dead silence of her surroundings. No croaking of frogs, no chirps of any birds, it was as if nothing living was existent here. She felt her legs quake a tad, but she took a few breaths and forced herself to move through the dense fog.


The four man group awoke that morning, had a light breakfast and got moving to take care of Deadeye. As they spoke with Wiz about it's location, Prompto looked around the Ranch not spotting their pine haired friend anywhere.

"Once you see the sight of broken trees, you're heading in the right direction." Wiz explained, he covered his eyes and glanced up. "Be careful, fog usually shades the woods this time. And judging by the weather, it'll be heavy for a good while."

"We'll be sure to use our sense if sight fails us." Ignis assured.

Prompto stepped over. "Hey, is Lexus anywhere? She didn't come to the camper."

Wiz looked around, he eyed the stable building and shook his head. "Last I saw her she was tending to the birds in the stables last night." He chuckled, turning to them. "She might've fallen asleep. She used to sleep right beside that old Ferris when she lost track of time as a young'n."

Prompto smiled at the thought, he moved to the stables to see her but Gladio stopped him. "Best let her sleep. She's had a rough few days."

Noctis heard stomping and looked toward the woods a tad tense. But then jumped back when a flash of faded red nearly ran him over. The others stepped back, seeing Noctis alright and taking in the sight of the old red Chocobo now out of breath and fluttering about wildly.

"Ferris!? Woah, calm down boy!" Wiz took the reins to hold him in place as the bird cried loudly and tugged from Wiz.

Noctis stepped around, not knowing if these birds could kick and didn't want to find out. "What's his problem?" He asked, "Wasn't he in the stables?"

Wiz eventually got a good hold of the bird, soothing it gently. "Did he escape?" Gladio asked.

"Nonsense, these birds are too terrified to even leave the pens knowing Deadeye is still out there." Wiz explained. "The only way Ferris would be out is..."

Suddenly, all the men looked to one another, four of them having a dark hunch why that was. Noctis and Gladio ran over to the stable building and opened the doors. They looked into each pen, but only found the respective birds in their, but no sign of Lexus.

"Any sign of her?" Prompto asked as he, Ignis and Wiz led Ferris back over. Worry was struck on the blond's features.

"Nada." Gladio sighed, roughing rubbing his chin. "Damnit, what is she thinking?"

Ignis' brows furrowed, what was she thinking, indeed? Why would she just run off after this deadly creature? Was she just that crazy?

"We gotta go now, who knows how long ago she left." Prompto said, bouncing on his heels to run off after her.

Ferris struggled against the tight hold of Wiz, but soon got loose when he made a noise of pain as Wiz didn't want to hurt him. Once free, Farris ran to the edge of the Ranch and scraped at the dirt and ruffled his feathers.

It took a while, but Ignis snapped his fingers in realization. "Ferris wants to lead us to Lexus."

Prompto grinned, running over to the bird. "Lead the way boy! Take us to her!" He squealed and ran off, but at a level speed for the boys to keep up.


Lost.

Lexus was surely lost.

She felt to have been wandering around this fog for over an hour, and it showed no sign of fading or letting up. She kept running into fences -that was thankfully not electrified-, large boulders, but hadn't run into Deadeye. Which of course was a good thing, but she was starting to wonder if maybe Deadeye just wasn't here at all.

"...Weak on the right. No eye, no horn."

Lexus froze, looking around her when she heard the echo of a voice. Deep, male, but confident.

"We'll stay in range until we can exploit its blind spot." Another voice, male again, the accent-

"Oh Gods, why." Lexus had no idea where the voices were, but knew those were Gladio and Ignis. Meaning Prompto and Noctis weren't too far. They were near and had finally caught up to take down Deadeye.

She knelt down by the boulder when the ground suddenly shook. The echoes of an ear splitting roar came out, making her have to cover her ears and duck down. Okay. Deadeye was here. And he sounded extremely hungry or angry… Hangry.

The shaking thud of his steps were near, Lexus looked around wildly and then suddenly heard the low rumbling growl to her right. She spun around and back up to block his vision of her with the boulder. She saw his faint tall large figure pound about, his long muscle like tail swung left and right in rhythm of his stride. What did she hear Gladio say, his right side was blind? Her eyes glanced up finding her indeed on his right side. With a lick of her lips as the pinch of his fingers, she got into a crouch position and started moving to follow him on his right side. The tail was whooshing over her head, keeping a good mind to stay low.

The trekking felt like it would last forever, Lexus started thinking the damn Behemoth was lost himself. The sudden snorting and grunting as he hoped over a work formation made her crouch back down thinking she'd been seen. After a few moments of silence, she approached the rocks spotting a small thin crevasse she could slip through.

"Lexus!"

She hung her head, they had seen her. Lexus turned to see the shadows of the four men take shape out of the fog and jogged over to her. "What are you doing out here?" Prompto questioned, stepping up to her. "It's too dangerous."

Her brows knotted, "Everything is just dangerous for me, isn't it?" she questioned to only get looks from them. She rolled her eyes. "Never mind, I got this so you guys can be on your merry way now."

Moving to shift between the rocks, Prompto reached out for her arm. "Lexus, I don't know what's wrong. But please, talk to us."

She yanked her arm back. "What's the point? I already told you, go away." Lexus waved them off and squeezed through.

Once on the other side, she heard the shifting of dirt, knowing they were following. She ran off, finding herself in a big open area, metal plating, fencing and even some flammable barrels lying about. But, still no sign of the beast. She got her crossbow out and prepped it, eyes curling around the foggy sky.

"Where are-"

A deafening roar bellowed out, enough that the fade blew away and revealed the brilliant bright blue sky. Lexus looked up, her shoulder sagged at the sight of the Behemoth, and boy did he earn that name. Just as she heard the boys say, he was down one horn and one eye to the right of his face. The dark cold colors contrast to the gray surroundings, made sense how he was so hard to spot in the fog.

"Holy Shiva…" Lexus shook, stepping back as the creature stepped down from the higher rocks. It's large fat tongue licked its lips and white sharp teeth.

The size of his paws alone would be enough to smash an entire house, the ground shook as it bounded after her. Her brain kicked into 'fight' mode and she fired her crossbow at the beast. The arrow bounced right off its thick skin, Deadeye jumped and aimed to crush her into dust.

"LEXUS!"

A body came flying at her, arms tight around her body as they rolled out of the way. A few grunts from her savoir and her, as they shielded her with their hands and body. Her face pressed deeply into the man's chest, closing her eyes as dirt and rocks flew above them.

"Stay down!" She opened her eyes finding that it had been Ignis who tackled her to safety. His glasses in tack and clothing dusted up.

Deadeye had seen he missed, seeing no evidence of his prey under his large paws. With a fitting roar, he looked around only to earn a fireball to the face. Lexus tried to sit up, but she felt Ignis' hand push her head down back against his chest.

"Unless you want your hair singed off, stay down." He told her. "They need to lure him from us."

It was then Lexus heard Prompto, Noctis, and Gladio battling the large beast. Their yells and the sound of their weapons making contact to Deadeye. He cried out in a high pitch and bound about, trying to slam and crush the three. Once far enough, Ignis let Lexus go, only for a moment to get to his feet and help her to her own.

"This way!" He pulled her along, but she looked back to see her crossbow back there. She couldn't let that beast crush one of the only things from Insomnia.

Lexus yanked her arm from him and ran back, only to hear him yelling in protest. But she kept going, taking a sliding dive toward it and grabbed it as she tumbled to her feet. A small smile having it back came, but soon fell when Deadeye was stomping toward her.

"Lexus!" She turned and saw Noctis throw a sphere to her.

She caught the orb, finding it hot by the touch and color of orange red flames. It was a magic flask, one of the elemancies she's seen Noctis create. Her eyes looked up at the beast, fire was his weakness as it had stunned him earlier. Lexus attached the flask to a bolt and loaded her crossbow.

"Lexus!" Ignis bellowed, "Get out of there!"

She aimed the bolt, closing one eye and steadying her breath as she locked onto his face. But she couldn't get a clear aim with him moving. Her sights fell onto a couple of large metal barrels, she saw had a flammable warning. With a toothy grin, she knelt down and fired at the cans. It felt as if time slowed down; Deadeye bounded closer as he was right in front of the barrels. Just as he let out a ground shaking roar, the bolt nailed right into one of the barrels. The impact broke the flask and thus ignited a large explosion right into Deadeye's face. A wail of pain howled, his face a flame and body burning. Noctis took the advantage to warp and slice at his legs, knocking him to his side. Everyone stood still, as the Behemoth attempted to stand, despite the burning of his flesh and bleeding of his legs. He raised his head then it slammed back down, no longer moving.

A few seconds passed, only the embers sparking around Deadeye was heard before Prompto let out a righteous cheer. Ignis ran right to Lexus as she fell to her knees, worried she was critically injured. He slid to her, almost not caring of the condition of his jeans as she checked her.

"Lexus, anything hurt or-" When his eyes fell onto her face, he saw her grinning. She wasn't hurt, bleeding, or even scared. Lexus was illuminated and proud by what she had been able to do just now.

"I can't believe I did that!" She jumped to her feet, making Ignis stand to make sure she didn't;t over exert herself. "Did you see the way that just exploded!? And how cool was that shot!? I wish I had a shot of that- amazing!"

Ignis couldn't believe how she was jumping about and excited of what had just occurred. It was like she completely forgot how close she was -twice- to getting killed by that monster.

"Lexus! Ignis!" The other three jogged over, seeing Lexus dirty and scraped up, but other than that, all in one piece.

"You had us worried, we thought we'd find you dead." Gladio told, arms folded tightly at his broad chest. "You shouldn't have gone off like that, you had Wiz worried too."

She nodded at him, gently swinging her crossbow at her side. "I didn't see the point in you guys going, since you planned on leaving me anyway." The look between them made her nod. "I heard you guys last night, you were gonna dump me here. Just like my parents did in Insomnia."

Guilt ate at their hearts, Noctis rubbed his neck frowning. "We weren't going to just abandon you, Lexus. We have to-"

"I understand your journey, and it's selfish of me to just expect you to stay by my side. But-" She took a breath and looked to Noctis. She stepped up, making him take a step back as she bowed to him- something he never expected her to do!

"I want to join you, help in your journey and do what I can to give my aid in getting you to Altissia." Her bow fell from her hands, clattering to the ground as she fisted her hands at her side. "Don't look at me as a scared civilian, your highness, but as a guard and friend in your mission."

Noctis was stunned, looking for help at Gladio who just stepped back and shook his head. Prompto got the same look and gulped. "Er, Lexus. There's no need to do that."

Ignis watched in silence, brows knotted and eyes cast down at the pine haired girl. He looked to Noctis, who still had no idea how to handle this. "This is upon your decision, Noctis. As her prince and future king."

That didn't help Noctis at all. He felt it would be safer for her to stay, but the guilt still stood in his heart of just doing what her parents had done to her. Leaving her alone again. Who was to say she would even stay, what if she rode off somewhere and got killed or captured by imperials. She was already seen with them, they might use her against them and that could endanger the people of the ranch as well. Noctis looked to her, only seeing her hair cover her face as she bowed low at him. She wasn't just any civilian, he had to remember. She knew nearly all the beasts of the land, knew how to defend herself and adapted quickly to danger. If one didn't know, she was surely cut out to being a royal guard.

"Lexus," He cleared his throat, "I-, er, think it'd be best if you came along with us. As a friend and ally."

Seeing she wasn't moving, he glanced at the others and bent down to try and see her face. Unable to, he gently lifted her shoulder for her to gently stand straight to see her crying. Tears streamed down her face, which she soon covered with her hands mumbling sorry to him. Prompto couldn't handle seeing her crying and approached her.

"It's okay, Lexus. You're my friend, and I'll never abandon or forget about you." He placed a had on her shoulder, making her tense. "I never had, after all these years."

She hiccuped, muffled under her hands. "I'm just-" She sniffled, lowering her head. "I'm more scared of being alone than having any beast come after me."

Gladio scoffed, "That makes you perfect for our group then." they turned to him as Lexus finally peaked through her fingers. "Anyone that can look into that large bastard's eye and do what you did, is okay in my book."

The boys looked to Ignis, her eyes followed. She was figuring it took not only Noctis' decision, but if everyone in the group was all in agreement. Noctis wanted to make sure they were okay just as much as he was.

Ignis looked down at Lexus as she was calming down, trying to get the tears to stop. Prompto wasn't the only one, he always remembered her. How could he forget her green hair, dorky childish smile, and snarky pride. He reached into the blazer of his jacket and felt the bristled feather as he took it out, showing the black sleek feather to her. Her eyes went wide at the sight, more tears producing seeing her father's good luck charm. He had held it all this time, all these years, ever since that fateful day.

"I never forgot you, Lexus. Even if I wanted to, I didn't. I wanted to return this to you for so long, but never found myself able to nor ever saw you." Gladio muttered a comment about her hair making it impossible not to see her.

Ignis continued.

"Just as the others have said, I agree." He held his hand out, the feather resting in his palm. "Join us."

Lexus' smile came back, in turn making Ignis softly smile down at her. She gently took the feather and felt the soft bristles. "Thank you."