Day 48:

He'd never really thought about what would happen if the meteor came down. Wasn't really a part of his daily life back in Insomnia and by the time they'd made it out here… well, it was just a landmark, right? A permanent thing. Like a mountain. People don't worry about mountains falling over, do they?

Turns out it wasn't quite so permanent.

It slipped off Titan's shoulder and down his back. When Noct craned upward, he could see the upper tip of it tilting down. Toward them.

"Out of the way!" Ignis shouted.

"Out of what way? It's going to fall everywhere!" Noctis shouted.

Ignis wasn't listening. He grabbed Noct by the arm and dragged him along the flat space near the bottom of the crater, off to Titan's left. Prompto fell into a stumbling run after them, once Gladio had given him a shove, and Gladio picked up the rear. They were going to run out of flat space real quick. The only other option then was… what? Climb up out of the crater? Not likely. Half those rocks were so hot they were actually on fire, and the other half were just loose gravel. Nothing to climb and nowhere else to run.

"Over here, quickly!" Ignis jerked his arm and they changed directions. Before Noct knew where he was putting his feet, he was being pushed toward a crack in the cliff face, which made a little alcove. Not big enough for four people to stand in.

"No way, you first," Noct said.

"Noctis, if any of us are to take the brunt of this blast, it will not be you. You are the crown prince. And I mean for you to remain that way," Ignis said.

"Iggy's right. Get in, Noct. Then Prompto and Iggy. I'll cover," Gladio said.

"No." No way in hell he was letting Gladio be a literal shield for him. No way.

"Get in, Noct," Gladio said. "I'm your Shield. So let me do my damn job."

"Yeah? And I'm your prince, so you do what I say," Noct said. "Get the hell in, that's an order. No one is going to be a shield when I can cast one."

Nevermind the fact that he hadn't actually managed to cast one before. He shoved Ignis in first, then Prompto. Gladio was more of a hassle. It was amazing neither of them punched each other while the grinding of rock echoed around the crater and the tip of the meteor hit the ground up at the top. Everything shook.

"Get in." Noctis shouldered Gladio toward the others. About half of him fit with Ignis and Prompto already in the alcove, and Noct was just standing as close to the cliff as he could.

Just build a barrier. No problem. No pressure. Not like they were all going to die if he couldn't do it or anything.

The ground shook. The horrible grinding sound was split by a crash as the meteor hit and kept falling. Titan growled. He lifted his remaining hand like he was going to hit them again. No time to think about that. Noctis shut his eyes and tried to focus. He couldn't think about how if he did this wrong they were all going to be paste in a second. He couldn't think about what would happen to Rei if they actually died after she had spent all that time obsessing over protecting everyone. He couldn't think about Dad finding him dead just when he'd been convinced Noct didn't need to die anymore. He couldn't think about Luna and all the stuff they had said or hadn't said. He couldn't think about Gladio shoving him closer to the cliff or Ignis and Prompto frozen still, not even breathing.

He just needed to do it.

More magic makes your barrier stronger, Dad had said, but you must have a barrier to reinforce first. Throwing magic at the air does not a shield make.

Right. Shield first, pour the magic in after. Noct shut his eyes, building a little eggshell of a shield around them. First the net: a structure to hold his magic. Then a little to start stretching over the holes. Bit by bit.

The world shook. Rocks rained down and he could feel them strike.

But they didn't hit him.

He opened his eyes, hands still outstretched overhead like he meant to hold up the whole thing himself. A thin blue shell of magic glittered around them.

"I did it…" Noctis breathed. "Guys, I did it—!"

Titan's hand crashed into the outside of Noctis' barrier. He winced under the pressure, feeling his barrier strain to hold against the stone and consciously moving to patch it up. Rocks came from all over. They fell down the cliff and bounced off the top of his shield. They sprayed from where the meteor fell all the way down, sending up a cloud of dust so thick Noct couldn't even see the meteor anymore. They cracked. They crumbled. And the whole world seemed to shift around them. Dirt and rocks piled up against the outside of Noctis' shield. If that went on too much longer, they'd be buried alive.

No one said anything. No one moved. Hell, he couldn't even tell if they were breathing, but a glance told him their eyes were still open—open wide and only a little bit terrified as they realized the same thing he did. But if he dropped that shield they would be worse than buried alive. Or maybe not. Maybe it was better to die from flying rocks than get cooked and suffocated.

The level of rocks kept moving up. It was at waist level outside the shield now. Chest level. Shoulder level. It rose up over their heads and still the world was shaking as sunlight was blocked out by dust and rocks.

And damn was it hot in there.

Never mind that there were four of them cramped in a tiny bubble. They were surrounded by red-hot rocks and meteorshards.

It seemed to take an hour before things settled down. By then they couldn't see a thing. Maybe a little sliver of light overhead, but that could have been his imagination. Or it was something on fire. Probably that.

The rumbling stopped. The constant rain of rocks on top of them stopped. And everything got real quiet.

"Are we… dead?" Prompto broke the silence.

Noct looked back at Ignis and Gladio. All thinking the same thing: No, but…

"Not yet." Ignis straightened his glasses. "And as long as we are breathing, we have the capacity to think."

"How long will this shield last?" Gladio asked.

Noct shrugged. "As long as I want, unless Titan starts pounding on this pile of rock."

Which, now that he thought about it, was not an altogether unlikely possibility.

"Can you… I dunno… make a hole in it or something?" Gladio asked.

Not sure what good that would do.

"Eh…" Noct said. "Probably not without wrecking the whole thing."

"If we could get a sword through the top and try shoving this stuff off, maybe we could get clear," Gladio said.

Back on Daemonfire Night, when they were protecting the crystal against the Nifs, Rei had let the Crownsguards shoot through her barrier without ever seeming to drop it. Or if she did, it was so quick he couldn't tell, but either way, no imperial bullets made it in. Could he do that?

His first impulse was to say no. No way. Rei had the Ring and even without that she'd spent ten years using this stuff in real life and Noct had like ten years of sometimes using it in training. And mostly not even then. No way he could do what Rei did with magic. He wouldn't even know where to begin. Drop the shield, let Gladio stab his sword through some rocks, and then rebuild it around the sword? Was that even possible? Probably not. It definitely wasn't possible to drop and recast a barrier before they all got crushed under a ton of rocks.

Noct shook his head. Gladio crossed his arms and looked up at the rocks held above them.

Something inside Noctis snapped. His hold on the shield wavered and the barrier flickered. The rocks outside lost his balance and dropped to his knees, struggling to keep his hold on the shield as cold dred settled over him.

"Noctis!" Ignis was beside him in an instant.

"Rei…" Noctis said. He put his hand to his chest, just to make sure there wasn't actually a hole there. Sure felt like it. "I can't feel her anymore."

Tension ran through Ignis. He gripped Noct's shoulder and his fingers dug in hard. "What?"

"I can't feel her," Noct repeated. "Our bond is cut."

"She's not…?" Gladio didn't finish the sentence.

"Dunno," Noctis managed.

But he had more than a dumb magic bond with her. Think, Noct! He would know. He would know if she was gone. He'd have felt it.

"No," Noctis said. Then, more firmly. "She's not dead. Get up, Specs. Bahamut must have cut her magic. Let's mop Titan up and go after her."

Nevermind the fact that they were in no position to be mopping and didn't have a way to reach Angelgard anyway.

The world shook again. A pounding blow struck the rocks, which in turn slammed into Noctis' barrier. He winced and dumped more power into it, hoping to strengthen it enough to withstand whatever Titan was going to throw at them.

"Not to alarm anyone or anything," Prompto said, "But how long does the shield last if Titan is pounding on this pile of rock?"

Titan was slow enough that Noct had any cracks and chips patched up before the rocks shook again. Outside they crushed into each other, some of them cracking and crumbling, others jamming into the ground. So. Noct could fix the damage without worrying about Titan hitting again too soon. But how many times could he do that before he ran out of juice?

"Dunno," Noct said. He was hoping not to find out.

The rocks cracked again. There were bits of rock, crushed into gravel, packing up around the shield now. Everything shifted. Noctis gritted his teeth and fixed the cracks.

"He's packing the stone…" Ignis said. "Look! Overhead!"

Titan's fist came down again. This time the rock shifted and daylight broke through. Broken rock took up less space and Titan's pounding was sending shards flying away as well. If they could hold out long enough, Titan would do all the hard work for them. They would be out from under the rocks. Mostly.

If Noctis' barrier held.

"Can you withstand a direct blow from his fist?" Ignis asked.

Pounding on rocks that pounded the shield wasn't the same thing as pounding straight on Noct's barrier.

"I guess we're gonna find out," Noctis said.

They waited. Titan's fist came down again. Again. Again. Each time Noct fixed the little cracks he made in the barrier. Each time more sky opened up overhead until finally the great stone fist came crashing down right on top of the dome. Noctis winced, dumping magic into the cracks to shore them up before the whole thing shattered. Then the pressure released as Titan began winding up for a second blow. One hit Noctis could take. Two in a row, maybe not.

"No time like the present," Noct said. "You ready to get out of here?"

"We must move quickly," Ignis said. "We'll have but a moment."

A couple seconds to climb out of a collapsing pit of rock and avoid an Astrals' fist. No problem. But maybe he could buy a little extra time.

Noct dropped his shield, but he didn't just collapse it. He grabbed up everything he had left and pushed it out. The barrier exploded in a burst of light and stones went flying outside. Whatever didn't get shot out came caving in.

"Quickly!" Ignis shouted.

Climbing a landslide. A burning landslide, actually. Not really something on Noctis' to-do list. Ever.

Rocks shifted and sank under his boots. He hauled his way up, half crawling and never leaving a foot or a hand in one place for more than half a second. If he did, it was getting buried. They probably looked like idiots, all scrambling up falling rock and making shit progress because they were only climbing a little faster than the rocks were falling. But all they needed was a little faster.

Noct tumbled over the upper edge. He lay on his back watching Titan's hand come down again.

"Noct!" Ignis shouted.

"No way you're killing me before I get to brag to Rei about this." Noctis clenched his jaw and threw up both hands. This time he built the skeleton as he filled it, one cell a time but forming a shell overhead in less than a second. Titan's hand hit the top. It felt like being physically shoved against the pile of rock underneath him, but the barrier held.

So he could do two after all.

Titan lifted his hand again, growling as he did.

"Let's go." Gladio grabbed Noct's arm and hauled him to his feet.

They split and fled the danger zone where Titan was primed to hit. The whole crater was half caved in. They were up to Titan's chest now and climbing across loose rock and boulders and bits of the meteor that had broken off when it fell. Not really the best ground to fight on, but he would take it. Better than being suffocated and cooked.

"We regroup," Ignis called. "The strategy remains the same."

"You still want to hit his… what did you say? Cubic fossil?"

"Cubital fossa."

"Sure, that."

"You got a better plan?" Gladio asked.

"Just feel like taking his head off is going to be a bit more permanent," Noctis said.

Titan ponded the loose rock, sending shrapnel flying past them. The angle was right. If Noctis was quick, he could run all the way up to Titan's shoulder and get a few good hits in. Maybe more. Maybe less if Titan shrugged. Okay, not a great plan, but it was a work in progress.

"It will be less risky to remove this arm first," Ignis said.

"Yeah, except how are you going to get up there after? Unless he's going to try to bite us to death," Noct said.

"Or headbang us to death," Prompto said.

"Also, we've only got so many ice flasks."

"Three should be sufficient," Ignis said.

"It's your call, Noct," Gladio said.

He watched Titan raise his hand and aim to crush them again. And another string snapped.

He hadn't felt it when Ifrit kicked the bucket—or maybe he had and just didn't know what that feeling meant—but he sure felt it when Ramuh did the same thing. He tossed a lightning flask at Titan's face just to be certain. Sure enough, it shattered and left nothing but broken glass behind.

"No more lightning," Noctis called out.

"Then it's a good thing we weren't using those ones," Gladio said.

"Indeed," Ignis said. "Let us hope no one has picked a fight with the Glacian."

Come to think of it, Gentiana hadn't said anything about Shiva, had she? Wasn't she supposed to be dead, anyway? Except it sure wasn't dead like Ifrit and Ramuh were dead—wherever she was, she was still giving everyone ice elemancy.

But just in case, if his magic was disappearing one element at a time, quicker was better.

"We aim for the neck," Noct said.

"Then we had best move quickly," said Ignis.

This time when Titan slammed his hand down, they kept as close as they dared and leapt for his wrist as soon as it was down. It was slick business, running up an arm made out of stone. Would have been nice if there was a little more texture, but no. Titan just had to have smooth skin. Vain bastard.

He walked a straight line up Titan's forearm, trusting to balance and speed. He'd have to move faster if he wanted to make it up higher. Or else wait until Titan's hand went up and did the work for them. So which did he trust more, his balance or his traction?

His balance, probably. These boots were shit anyway.

"Hold on," Noct shouted. "We're going up."

"Hold on to what?" Gladio shouted back.

"Just hold on to something!"

Titan's arm shook. Noctis braced his feet and threw out his arms. Ignis dropped into a crouch. Gladio held onto Prompto, who wobbled dangerously and waved both arms. Just at the top of Titan's range of motion, his arm was about level. They weren't getting any better opportunities. Here was hoping the Arcaean thought as slow as he moved.

Noct straightened and ran across Titan's bicep. His boots held, even on the rounded surface. He reached Titan's shoulder and turned to see Ignis darting after him in a half crouch. After him came Prompto, shoved along by Gladio. They got past his elbow just in time. His arm turned up instead of swinging down. He moved as if to slap a fly from his neck while Prompto and Gladio crowded up onto his shoulders. Problem was, they were the fly.

"Better move quick!" Noctis phased around to his other shoulder, drew his sword, and chose a spot to hit. He pounded at hard as he could, strike after strike. A second later he was alternating with Ignis.

"Imperials above us!" Prompto shouted.

"Huh? No way." Noct stepped back and looked up. Maybe not imperials, but it sure was an imperial ship. What the hell was it doing in Lucis? What the hell was it doing out here in Cauthess?

"Look out!" Gladio shoved Prompto across to Titan's other shoulder and swung around himself. Titan's hand came down, slapping the side of his neck and narrowly missing Gladio's foot.

"Ignore the imperials," Ignis said. "Strike quickly."

And that was it for a bit. They made another round of strikes, hardly getting a chip out of Titan's neck before he swatted at that side. They were across to the other shoulder and repeating the same on the right side of his neck by the time stone hand hit stone neck. Once they got the rhythm of that, it wasn't so bad. So long as no one ran into anyone, got hit with a sword, or slipped on the way across.

"Hey Noct?" Prompto stood on the far right of Titan's shoulder. "The bad news is there's people coming out of the imperial dropship. The good news is, that kinda looks like your dad."

"What?" Noctis straightened suddenly, forcing Gladio to rethink where he was putting his sword.

"Watch where you're going!" Gladio growled.

"Also Gladio's dad…" Prompto said. "And Gladio's sister…"

"What?" Gladio finally caught up with the conversation.

Sure enough, it was Dad. The ship hadn't landed. Probably the collapsed remains of a crater and what was left of the fallen meteor meteor weren't exactly the best landing space. But it was a few feet off the ground and people were jumping down, testing their footing, and making their way into the center, where Titan was. Dad, Cor, Clarus, Iris, and—wasn't she supposed to be in Altissia?—Luna. Also that old guy from the garage in Hammerhead, and some dapper guy Noct had never seen before.

"Look alive!" Ignis shouted.

Noct turned in time to see Titan's hand swatting for them. No more time to gawk. He ducked around, following Ignis to the other shoulder. Prompto was right after him, but Gladio took a second too long—probably paying too much attention to his baby sister charging into a battle with a god. He was coming across too late, so he rushed. And when he rushed he slipped.

Noct grabbed for him, catching his arm and leaning back. Damn it! Why did he have to be so damn heavy? Titan's back and shoulders were pretty smooth. Once you lost footing it was hard to find it again and if Gladio started sliding there was no way to stop himself from doing the same.

"Little help here?" Even putting all his weight against Gladio's, Noct couldn't pull him up. He could barely keep him from falling. Actually, he wasn't keeping him from falling. He was just slowing down the process.

Prompto grabbed Noct and added his weight. Ignis reached out for Gladio's arm and added his strength. Between the three of them they managed to get Gladio up again.

"You really gotta lose some weight, man," Noctis said.

"Shut up."

"Noctis!"

Noct turned to see his dad and the others had caught up. They were standing in front of Titan, now.

"Hey, Dad. Finish up Ramuh, already?"

"The Crown City is safe—from that threat at least. Mind your surroundings, my son."

Damn. Titan just couldn't give them a break, could he. Yeah, sure, they were trying to cut his head off, but couldn't he at least let them talk for a second? Noct wanted to know what the hell was going on. The Archaean wasn't leaving them a lot of choices, though.

One by one they swung across to the other shoulder. Titan's whole body shook when his hand came down on his neck.

"I'm getting tired of this guy," Noctis said. "Let's wrap this up!"

They could talk when he was dead.

They dropped back into the rhythm. Or they tried, anyway. Titan wasn't feeling as accommodating, now that he was outnumbered twelve to one. He leaned forward and gave his shoulders a shake, forcing them to rethink their methods real quick. Noctis grabbed hold of the protruding rocks growing out of Titan's face with one hand and Ignis with the other. Prompto and Gladio weren't as lucky. That rocky ridge on Titan's shoulder wasn't great for staying put and they were thrown off and straight at the others.

Titan shook his head, trying to launch Noct and Ignis off as well. Noct's feet slipped. They dangled. Ignis was lighter than Gladio, but that didn't mean having another person's body weight stretched between his arms was comfortable. Noct winced, held on tight, and heaved with everything he had left. He didn't have any right lifting a whole person in one arm, but adrenaline did some crazy stuff. He got Ignis up high enough that he could grab hold of the rocks himself instead of holding onto Noctis.

Dad's voice was way too close for standing on the ground. "Lunafreya will need to cut his power before you can destroy him, Noctis."

Noct twisted to see his dad hovering in mid-air with six ghostly swords rotating around him. Damn. The last time he'd seen that, he'd been in a wheelchair and MTs were falling from the sky. And Dad had sure not been flying then.

Probably this wasn't the best time to think about it.

"Gotta do what?" Noctis shouted.

"Cut his ties to this world!" Luna was standing on the rocks in front of Titan. Her hair was a mess, her dress was torn in more than one place, and she had a cut across one cheek.

She'd never looked better.

"Give me just a moment," she said.

"Noct—" Ignis shifted his weight and swung past him. While they were hanging, Titan was preparing to hit them. He was a bit distracted by the dozen people cutting at his body, climbing his torso, or hanging onto his arm, though.

Noct took Ignis' hand and they climbed around to the back of Titan's neck.

"Here," Ignis said. "We've begun to make some progress at last."

Sure enough, there was a tiny little chip on one side of Titan's neck where they'd been wailing on him. No time like the present.

"Focus fire!" Noct shouted. "I need everyone hitting right here."

He summoned his Armiger and slammed his swords into the side of Titan's neck in a flurry of strikes. When he drew back, Ignis struck. Iris popped out of nowhere, climbing up over Titan's shoulder from the front—which was for sure not possible, but she managed anyway—and joined them. A whole barrage of strikes from Dad's Armiger hit next. They were making progress.

"Brace yourselves!" Luna shouted.

The Archaean gave a roar—an echoing scream of rage and pain. His head and shoulders shook. The crack that had been just a little black line the last time Noct looked was a real crack now, with whole chips missing from the stone.

"Can we kill him now?" Noctis asked, wedging himself up against the side of Titan's neck.

"Strike the killing blow, Noctis!" She called. "He is immortal no longer."

"Ready to finish this?" Noct asked Ignis.

Ignis pulled out a bottle of water, borrowing Noctis' magic. "Ready."

"We're gonna need some ice up here!" Noctis yelled. Yeah, they had a grenade or two left, but Titan's neck was thicker than his elbow. Better not to leave it to chance.

"The Glacian will provide, Your Highness." Gentiana's smooth voice whispered on the air—suddenly freezing cold instead of flaming hot. But Gentiana wasn't there. Instead half a dozen pixie-like incarnations of an Astrals flew circles around Titan's head.

Shiva, the Glacian. And Gentiana.

No time to worry about that now.

Ignis dumped the whole bottle of water down Titan's neck. Titan had wised up to their strategy. He shook his shoulders violently, throwing Noct, Ignis, and everyone else who wasn't holding on flying and rolling through the crumbled rock of the caved-in crater. But Ignis had emptied his bottle first. That was all they needed.

Shiva—all six of her—rose up on one side of Titan's head and shot a stream of blizzard air at Titan's neck. It shattered across the stone, freezing Titan's head, neck, and any water that hadn't already boiled away.

The crack of splitting rock echoed through the crater. Titan roared and swung for Shiva, who scattered. Before his arm was halfway across, the last bit of pressure gave out. The crack split across his neck and exploded out. The sound of his boulder-like head falling off his shoulders was nothing to the enraged scream that seemed to stick around long after he was dead.

And then they were just standing there, at the bottom of the crater—or what was left of it—with the body of an Astral as it crumbled into stone and clay. In a minute, Noct couldn't even tell it had been Titan at all. It was just rocks.

Prompto summed up everyone's thoughts pretty well. "Whoa…"

"Yeah." Noct said. "Everyone alright?"

He glanced around. Ignis was brushing himself off. His clothes, usually so pristine, were looking a bit ragged. Gladio was trying to break Iris' ribs by hugging her. Dad lowered out of the sky and touched down before banishing the Armiger. He always looked like a king, but hell. He looked like a Gods damned King right then. Luna was standing nearby, looking at Noct and twisting her hands together.

"Hey." He rubbed the back of his neck and kicked at a loose stone.

"Hello, Noctis. I'm glad you are safe."

"Yeah. Glad you're safe too."

No. He wasn't just glad. He was Gods damned relieved. Nothing like thinking someone was going to die and you'd never have a chance to fix stuff to make you rethink what was important. She was sorry. She wasn't working against them. Maybe she didn't trust Rei but, if he was perfectly honest, Rei made it really easy to not trust her these days. So what the hell was he still annoyed about?

He walked over and pulled Luna into a hug. Her clothes were all wet—everyone who had come from Insomnia looked a bit damp—but he didn't care. He hugged her because she was alive and he was alive and yeah, maybe she wasn't the same person he'd thought she was for twelve years, but honestly? He had no chance with that person. It was a bit of a relief to realize Luna was just a human after all.

She hugged him back. It took a second, but she did.

"After this is all over, how about we go get sushi or something? Maybe sort some stuff out," he said.

She stared up at him, eyes glittering. It took a second for him to realize that was because she was trying not to cry.

"I'd like that," she said.

"Great," Noct said. "But first we've gotta help Rei."

AN: Just two chapters left... :O

Also, even though I haven't had time to respond to everyone's comments lately, rest assured that I read and appreciate every one. 3 Thanks, everyone, for sticking with me through this (nearly finished!) crazy adventure.