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Chapter Text

"Aaaaaand there goes my bus..."

I was supposed to be meeting Tanitha today, we were headed for an old military warehouse just outside of town. It had that cool creepy aesthetic which would be just the perfect backdrop for our photography portfolios. At least it would be if I could get there at some point before the building collapses. 

I guess I could just walk there. It's not like it's that far, it's more that I'd have to drag all of this equipment with me. I should message Tanitha, to let her know I'll be later than expected.

*ping*

'hey, sorry I'm gonna be late, first bus didn't show so I'm having to wait until the next one.

sorry hope u dont mind waiting'

Lucky coincidence, looks like we'll both be late.

'yea no problem, my bus has failed me yet again, so im just gonna walk, see ya there'

This was almost a week ago. Now, however, it seemed I was facing my impending doom, surrounded by a horde of goblins, of all things. 

Man, I hate goblins.

Funny thing is, they look just like the goblins from Final Fantasy XV. I should know, I’ve been playing it almost non stop for the last two months. Same little hat, same crouchy-arm-flaily thing, and the same general feeling of ugh. 

Quick rundown of what's happened so far, first I missed my bus, then I left my backpack somewhere between the warehouse and this forest, and now I'm standing in the middle of said forest, beating up Final Fantasy XV goblins with a large stick...branch...thing.

This might as well happen.

I watched as the goblin in front of me flailed its little clawed arms, before diving towards me, meeting my makeshift bat with a solid thunk. I flung the creature back into the darkness between the trees, readying my branch to swing down at a second goblin on my left. Wood collided with flesh and the creature stumbled and fell, fading from sight as it hit the dirt. No sooner had the daemon vanished, two more dragged themselves from the ground nearby. I took a step back, taking a breath and swinging the branch in the direction of a sharp-toothed grin that had gotten too close for comfort.

I’d already taken a few hits, and I wasn’t eager to take more.

As I focused on the goblins to my right, out of the corner of my eye I saw one jump at my left, claws scratching at my undefended side. I kicked at it as another dashed to get behind me, staggering as I spun. I watched as another two goblins climbed from the dirt nearby.

This cannot be happening

My arms were heavy with the weight of my weapon and lack of sleep. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. Gathering my remaining strength, I swung my weapon in a wide arc aiming at three goblins who almost entirely dodged it. The one who took the brunt of the attack fell backwards, pausing a moment, before getting back up.

“I have not survived this long,” I started, “To be killed now, by FUCKING GOBLINS!”

Seeming to sense my growing desperation two of the goblins lunged at me at the same time. I managed to stumble just out of the path of the first, before aiming a kick at the second, attempting to maintain some kind of balance. I’d been at it for what seemed like hours and the longer the fight went on, the less it seemed I was doing any significant damage to the growing horde. Each of my branch-strikes were leaning more and more to the defensive side. At this rate, I was going to need a miracle to turn the tide.

Barely a moment passed before another one tried to take a chunk out of me, but before it could, a flash of silver flew out of the trees, striking it right in its dumb little face. 

Well then, that was... unexpected.

Welcome, but unexpected.

I blinked, and saw a figure standing in front of me, facing the horde.

"You alright?" said the dude, who had somehow managed to get in between me and half the goblins, and take out a few in the time it took me to process what was going on.

"I'm trying to fight a horde of goblins with a tree branch, everything is just peachy… please help me."

Before this mysterious, almost familiar, teleporting stranger had a chance to respond, I watched as a second mysterious stranger soared overhead, landing polearm first on top of a goblin, in the most incredible backflip anyone has ever seen. Barely a second passed before two more goblins were taken out in one wide swing of a greatsword, yet another falling to a barrage of bullets.

I was standing there with a look of awe on my face as they just mowed down the rest of the goblins around me, for a moment, I thought I heard a familiar voice shout ‘Oh hi there, OPENING’

"Are you quite alright?" The stranger that did the flip asked, quickly scanning me for major injuries. Behind expensive-looking glasses, his eyes locked onto the claw marks down my left side. I looked up at him as he approached, retrieving a green bottle from seemingly thin air and holding it out for me to take. 

"Here, to take the edge off your wounds"

I instinctively began to raise a hand out towards him, pausing as I realised I had no idea what I was doing. I never did take that first-aid course. His gloved hand met mine, as he pressed the vial into my palm. Sensing my hesitation, he placed his other hand on the back of my own, easily crushing the vial between our palms. 

It was the strangest sensation. It was like something was replacing my wounds with sparkling water, before they disappeared completely.

Looking around at my saviours as I caught my breath, I thought to myself. They looked around my age, if not slightly older, all dressed in varying shades of black. They seemed friendly, and I couldn’t shake the feeling I knew them from somewhere. None of them seemed as tired or as phased by the ordeal as I did, that combined with the ease that they had dispatched their foes with, suggested they did this kind of thing often. The shimmer of blue light as the group vanished their weapons told me these weren't your average hunters of things-that-shouldn't-exist. But the one thing I couldn't possibly ignore?

These guys looked Good

I just fought a horde of goblins, with a stick, and I just got saved by a boy band of supermodels

A booming laugh snaps me out of my thoughts. As I looked around, I found it was the big beefy one that was laughing. 

"Shit, did… did I say that out loud?"

"If you are talking about us looking like a boy band then yes... yes you did." The shorter black haired one stated in a tone that sounded like he was amused by it and not insulted which I was glad of.

"Supermodels eh?" The blonde one with the gun said as he strolled over, as casually as he possibly could, resting one of his elbows on my shoulder. Up close, I could tell he was ever so slightly shorter than me, and had the most striking blue eyes. They were so... memorable, so familiar.. and yet my sleep deprived mind couldn't place the image. 

Another laugh sounded after his comment coming from the same guy as before "hahaha, maybe there's some hope for you after all" he said while putting his hand on the smaller blonde's head. 

"Hey, I'm amazing, you just don't appreciate me enough!" 

He removed his elbow from my shoulder to nudge his friend. 

The sound of the four of them laughing together reminded me of home. Less of an actual location, and more of that feeling of familiarity and comfort, of feeling welcome around friends you've known for years. I have to know these guys from somewhere. But where? I'd remember meeting people like this in person, and surely they'd recognise me too if that were the case. TV maybe? If I really did know them from somewhere, why couldn't I place it? Their names were on the tip of my tongue. 

"Do you have a safe place to stay for the night? If not, we have set up camp at a haven nearby." the one with the glasses asked

"Ah yes, well you see, my plan was to set up my sleeping bag right here, underneath these goblin corpses…” they gave me a look as if to say ‘are you serious’ “uh ..sorry, it’s... it’s just been a long few days, and you guys are the first friendly faces I've seen, actually you are the only faces I’ve seen in the whole time I’ve been here. To answer your question no… no I don’t, I'd love to come with you... but... are you sure? I’ll only come along if it’s alright with everyone, I really wouldn't want to impose on you guys."   

"I'm certain we can find space for you, especially considering the alternative is to leave you to the daemons, what do you think?” he asks the dark haired one. 

"Sure, I don't mind, we wouldn’t want to leave you here for the demons. Hey, if we start walking now, we might make it back before the food gets cold” the guy with black hair said over his shoulder as he began walking back through the forest, presumably in the direction of their campsite.

The walk back was uneventful, and to be honest, really awkward. Barely anyone spoke and despite their assurances that I was welcome in their camp, I still felt like I was intruding. After a couple of minutes of trying not to trip over branches and my own feet, I could see the soft glow of a campfire through the trees.

They had a lovely little campsite, complete with a tent pitched off to one side and four camping chairs set around a firepit, all perched on an outcrop of rock, with glowing runes set into the face. It looked like something straight out of a video game. After climbing the short slope up, I stood in front of the fire for a moment, warming my hands, as the others set about whatever they were doing before my impending doom interrupted them.
The buff guy knelt beside the tent, ensuring the pegs were set firmly into the ground, while the teleporting sword guy immediately went inside, not seeming to care about the structural integrity. The tall, lean one went to check on the food, some kind of stew, still simmering on a camping stove, while the sharpshooter made himself comfortable in one of the camping chairs around the fire. After a moment, he sat up slightly and waved over at me.

“Oh hey… uh I just realised, I never caught your name.”

“Oh right, I’m Avery, thanks for your help back there, for a minute I thought I was going to be goblin lunch haha”

He shot a pair of finger guns in my direction,“Well Avery, I’m glad you’re not! ...uh goblin..food..hehe” He paused for a moment, before gesturing to an empty seat beside him. “Uh, you should sit down, after all that, you must be hungry right? Well you’re in luck! Ignis is the best chef around, and he’s making his Vegetable Medley Stew!”

“Wait a moment...Ignis?” this seemed to go unheard as the blonde who was looking more and more like Prompto by the second kept on talking

“It’s the perfect thing to eat on a night like this, and Gladio’s nearly done pitching the tent too, so you can probably get some rest after you’ve finished eating. Ah but Nocts already asleep so I should wake him up before food’s ready, trust me dude, you’re gonna wanna eat this while it’s hot, there’s nothing like it. Oh maybe for breakfast I could ask Ignis to make-”

“Prompto, you might wanna take a breath every now and then”, Gladio called over from where he was fixing up the tent. 

 Did they just say Ignis, Gladio, Noct... and Prompto!? 

For a moment the world seemed to stop as the realisation hit…

I... am a fucking dumbass.

Chapter Text

I... am a fucking dumbass. 

That's where I know them from! How the heck did I not realise it earlier?! I managed to recognise the fucking goblins that were jumping at me, but not the protagonists of the entire game?!?! Unbelievable! The answer was so simple! I touched some kind of weird rock in that warehouse, fell from the sky into a rocky desert place, got attacked by the goblins from Final Fantasy XV, and then got rescued and brought to a haven by the same main characters that I had spent the last few months getting to know and care about! Simple!
… Or maybe a crate fell on my head and I am violently hallucinating because that would all mean I had been transported into a video game.  

There’s no way. Surely. Sure, it had been a weird couple of days but magically teleporting into a video game? That was ridiculous. That was the stuff of fanfiction, for crying out loud! That just doesn’t happen in real life. Ok? Cool, sorted, now I completely understand what's going on. I'd say it's all just a weird dream but those goblins did more than just pinch me. I'm certain this is all just a wild case of.. uh mishearing their names and a crazy coincidence that they look just like video game characters, or maybe somebody's pranking me and I'm in VR and this is a video game? Or maybe-

“Uh Avery? You good?”, Prompto looked at me. I tore my eyes from a rock on the ground and turned to face him. His eyes were so very blue, so very real. And they were so very filled with genuine concern, for me... for my well being. This is a real person sitting in front of me, not a 3D model, a real, living, breathing person. And I know him, I know his past, his future, I know how his story-

I know how this story plays out.

HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO SURVIVE THIS!!

“What? Uh… yeah I’m fine, just going through my midlife crisis real quick.”

“But you look about 20?”, the look of concern didn’t disappear, but now there was a hint of confusion.

“Well... I’m planning to be eaten by a Cockatrice at 40 so it all checks out... Sorry... again… it’s just that something... just clicked that honestly, I should have figured out a while ago. I am so stupid not to have seen it sooner and I’m still coming to terms with what that means.”

“Oh, well what is it that you’ve just realised?”

“Um… you see… the thing is” I hurriedly glanced around the campsite, as if the answer to my question would be written on the stone somewhere. No doubt, it was! In the form of Ignis walking in our direction carrying two hot bowls of stew.

“Oh, hi Ignis!” My saviour yet again.

“Hello,” he paused, a flicker of confusion and suspicion registering on his face for a moment before deciding that Prompto had likely introduced everyone.

"Avery" Prompto and I helpfully supplied, at the same time.

"Ah yes, of course, pleasure to meet you, Avery," he handed each of the bowls out "Careful it's hot, bon appetit."

Taking the spoon and stirring the broth a little, I breathed in the smell of freshly-made stew, before scooping up some of the vegetables onto my spoon. I tried to get a little of everything, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, and of course the broth, before lifting the spoon to my mouth…as soon as the food hit my tongue, i swear you could probably see stars in my eyes with how good it was The stew was unlike anything I'd ever tasted before. Even the vegetables I would avoid back home were filled with flavour. I couldn’t seem to stop eating it, it was as if a culinary god had made this masterpiece of a dish. Knowing Ignis, maybe one did. 

By the time I looked up from my bowl, everybody else had sat down, and were idly chatting about their day.

While the attention was away from their guest, I had a moment to think about the reality of my situation. Without panicking... Mostly without panicking.

I was now in the world of Final Fantasy XV. I have found Noctis and the guys. I don’t know how far along the story is yet, so I still need to figure that out. But I do know how the story ends, and there is no way I’m going to be able to survive that on my own.

Thinking about it, I don’t exactly want the story to get to that ending. It’s not exactly the happiest ending they could’ve gone with, and nobody really seems to win. I mean Noctis sacrificing himself, Ignis going blind, Prompto learning the truth of his backstory, and Gladio having to watch his King die before his Shield. I care about these people. I don’t want them to have to go through that. Even if I managed to convince them to do things differently, how could I prevent all of that? There’s nothing I can do that would impact the ending of the story that much.

Unless… Episode Ignis has an alternate ending. Episode Ignis Chapter 3 Verse 2. By all accounts, it is a much happier ending. But then there's all of the debates about its canonity and potential alternate universes, dream-states and make-believe. The choice that Ignis would have to make, and the consequences if it didn’t work. And then there’s Luna. How was I going to explain that to them... Well... if nothing else, Verse 2 would give me something to aim for. 

I have to find a happy ending for all of them.

If I left now, I would be all but guaranteeing the main story ending plays out, but if I stay… If I stay there’s a chance. A single chance at a happier ending, for everyone.

I have to try.

If I’m going to change the ending of the game, I’m going to need to survive long enough to do it. My best chance of survival would be to stick with the Prince and his royal retinue. By a fun coincidence that would also be my best chance to be immediately eaten by a daemon, so I would need to work on my combat skills if I was going to be any help at all. I have a little experience with shooting, mostly from my many hours spent at the arcade and the occasional air rifle, so maybe I could get Prompto to help me ‘level up’ my combat shooting proficiency. Though this was all hinging on my ability to convince them to keep me around. Hopefully I could do that, because if I couldn’t, then we’re all screwed.

"..ry… Avery" I didn’t catch who said it, but it snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Hm?"

"You spaced out for a sec… everything ok?" 

"Oh yeah uh don't worry about it, it's been a long day, I was just trying to make some sense of it"

"Ah right, so how exactly did you get in the middle of the forest, fighting goblins with a tree branch?"

"It's kind of a long story, and you're all gonna have to get really cool with a couple things really quickly…” After saying that they all gave me this look, like a head tilting ‘concerned, confused and intrigued’ look. So thinking that that means that I can just continue, and before they can stop me, I start the story.

“It all kinda started a couple days ago, I met up with a friend to take some photos, we found an old crate with some weird looking crystally rocks in it, I came back the next day to investigate it properly and then.. I sort of… uh… fell out of the sky?…which is weird. Especially since I didn’t really take all that much damage from it. After that I ended up wandering around the desert for a bit until it got dark, and then some goblins showed up, which really threw me for a bit because… where I'm from, goblins aren't… real, so that's weird. But then again, where I'm from all of this " I gestured wildly at everything, "isn't usually real so that's weird. But even after all that, where you're from, I'm not meant to be real. Which is even weirder."

I paused. Trying to figure out if I worded that right, and got my point across enough that they wouldn’t immediately write it off as nonsense. For a few long moments, all you could hear was the crackling of the campfire and the sound of wildlife off in the distance.

“Iggy, you sure you checked Avery for head injuries?” Gladio was the one to break the silence. Kinda saw this one coming.

“Almost certain. Avery, perhaps you could use some rest?”

“Wait a minute guys. Avery, if our world isn’t usually real’ how exactly do you know about it?” Noctis asked, leaning forward in his camping chair. 

“Yeah, is it like a movie?.. Or... or a video game or something?” Prompto looks like he’s going to jump right out of his seat as he asks me this.

“It’s uh funny you should mention it, because… where I’m from… this… is a video game?”

“You’re kidding.” The now breathless and starry-eyed Prompto says as he imagines being in a video game.

“Nope,” Go big or go home Avery , “And what's more, I’ve played the game all the way through a couple times and know how it goes. I might not be able to prove much, but I know I can prove I know what's going to happen. Um for a while at least.”

I paused for a moment to decipher their reactions. Not only did Gladio look like he didn't believe me, he looked like he didn't believe that I wanted him to believe me. Prompto looked as though he couldn't completely decide if it was true, but really wanted it to be. Whereas Noctis was somewhere in between the two. Out of the four of them, Ignis’s expression was the hardest to decipher. After a long pause...

“I say we hear them out.” Ignis’s comment earned him surprised looks from everybody else at the camp, not least myself.

“What.”

“Well think of it this way Gladio, if Avery here is telling the truth, would it not be in our best interest to verify their claim? And if it turns out to be mere fabrication, we will have lost nothing to cut ties and continue as we were.”

Ignis continued, “So Avery, how precisely were you planning on proving this to us all? By giving us knowledge of the future, then standing back and allowing us to watch it happen exactly as you say?

After a long awkward pause.  

“Yes… but first I need to figure out what’s happened so far,” I looked around at the group, it had to be pretty early on, Gladio didn’t have his new scar yet, so he clearly hadn’t left for his DLC, which would happen right at the end of Chapter 6, if my memory serves me right.

“So let’s start from the beginning, you leave Insomnia, his Majesty King Regis sees you off, you’re heading to Altissia for Noctis and Lunafreya’s wedding, but the Regalia broke down somewhere along the way to Hammerhead, and you had to push it the rest of the way.” I looked directly at Gladio and Noct as I quoted, “ Not exactly a fairy-tale beginning, huh Prince Noctis?” 

“You arrived at Hammerhead, Cindy and her grandpa Cid began working on the car, but the repairs cost more than you anticipated. Since this forest doesn’t look like the rocky desert around Hammerhead, I take it you’ve finished fighting sabertusks for Cindy and gotten it back by now right?”

"...Yes" Noctis said with disbelief and a hint of suspicion.  

"So that means you've also met a Hunter named Dave, and fought the Bloodhorn. I think that's when you head to Galdin Quay."

"We were just heading that way tomorrow morning" Prompto jumped in.

"Wait, so you haven't been to Galdin Quay yet?"

"No, tomorrow would be our first visit." Ignis helpfully supplied.

"Oh." I figured we would be early on in the game, but I didn't think it would be right at the very start. This meant they hadn't even met Ardyn yet. This meant Insomnia hadn't fallen yet. Shit . I was going to have to tell them about that, wasn't I? I couldn’t do that right now, not yet… that and I need to think of how I’m going to word it, so as to not hurt them too much. Then again, how are you supposed to tell somebody their home is about to be destroyed, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it? Fuck, this was going to be hard . I had promised them a glimpse into their future, and I had to keep my word.

"So you've figured out what we're up to, what do we have to look forward to in Galdin? Besides the fishing." Noctis says as he leans back in his chair before Gladio puts a stop to it. 

I tried not to make eye contact with any of them as I thought about what I was going to say. Honestly, the fishing is good, but I was going to have to tell them more than that. After a couple seconds of them staring expectantly at me, I decided to hell with it and began to speak. 

"You will cross paths with a suspicious stranger, wearing more layers than one would expect at a beach resort, he will not tell you his name. He will however tell you that the boat you've come for will not take you forth, and will give you a souvenir, of sorts. While he is no direct threat at this meeting, he is more than a man of no consequence." I paused for a moment, letting them decipher my melodramatic speech.

“So we go to Galdin and meet some guy, that’s not really much of a prophecy is it?” Noctis shrugged.

“It’s the future! What do you want me to say? ‘The Big Bad dies at the end!’? What do you want from me, dude?” I threw my hands in the air for a moment before continuing, "Oh then you'll also meet this guy Dino, he's great, he's a journalist and aspiring jeweler, and you get to help him achieve his calling! He'll give you some great freebies if you help him out too, honestly, he's great I know I've already said that but it’s true, you'll meet at least three journalists before your trip is through, and this guy's the best one. Oh, uh he might try a teeny tiny little bit of blackmail, but he's cool after that I swear. He just wants a little favour is all.  Oh, and there might be a bird. A large bird. A half bird... Half storm, half airship." They stared at me for a moment, committing my story to memory, and deciding if they thought it would be true.

By this point, everyone had either finished their stew, or long since put their cutlery down to listen with their full attention. 

Gladio shifted slightly from where he was sitting on a cooler next to Ignis. "You expect us to believe this?"

I was kind of offended by the way he said that, however, I could also understand where he was coming from. So instead of giving some snide remark back, I decided it would be best to not antagonize them.

"I don't expect you to, no, at least not without the proof. But I hope you do. I ... really do want to help here" I looked around at them all, trying to convince them that I’m not insane and that they should at least hear me out. I just hope that they’ll take me along with them, if nothing else, to see if what I said was true, even though I know it is, they… or at least Gladio and Ignis needed the proof before they would believe me.

"In any case, we have a busy day tomorrow, we should all rest up for the journey ahead." Ignis stood first, beginning to collect the abandoned bowls. 

Noctis was next, yawning as he headed to the tent, "Guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"Guess so." with that Gladio headed to help Ignis with the dishes, leaving me and Prompto sat around the fire again. 

After a moment Prompto showed me to the tent, and offered me his blanket. He explained that he would borrow Noctis’s, Noct would borrow Ignis and Gladio would just give Ignis his blanket because he is a human space heater. After checking that I was alright with everything, Prompto brushed his teeth and lay down to get some sleep.

As I lay at the side of the tent, trying my best to take up as little space as possible, I watched the firelight flickering through the green fabric. I listened to the wind in the trees, the occasional unidentifiable creature sounds from far off in the forest, Noctis and Prompto snoring softly somewhere behind me, the sound of Gladio and Ignis speaking in hushed voices outside. I couldn't make out any of their words, but I was almost certain it was about me, and the prophecy I had brought with me. I thought for a while about the events that were to come. The fall of Insomnia. Altissia. Cartanica. Gralea. After some time I heard the opening of the tent unzip as Gladio and Ignis made their way to bed.

I was going to help save this world if it killed me.

And maybe it would.

Chapter Text

I woke up in the morning to the sound of cooking and the smell of hair gel.

I slowly looked around the tent, confirming that yesterday's events were not a dream. I guess I really was here. Prompto was sat cross-legged in the middle, attempting to tame a wild case of bedhead, and Noctis, as expected, was fast asleep beside him. The tent flap was half open and I could see Gladio sitting in the chair I had borrowed the night before, reading one of his books before breakfast.

"Morning Prompto." I yawned as I sat up

"Hey Avery, Ignis is making breakfast and then we're heading out, if I can manage to fix my hair properly…" he frowned as the section he was fixing down sprung back up. 

Before I could realise what I was doing, I had reached out a hand towards Prompto, to help smooth out the rogue lock.

“Here, let me."

“Eh, no… no, it’s ok. I- I got it… uh you should see if breakfast is ready yet. Don’t worry about me, I’ve got this.” Prompto spluttered leaning back. For a moment I thought I saw a hint of pink stain his cheeks.

“Ahh... ok- sorry… I-uh” I pulled my hand back, instinctively running it through my own hair “I didn’t mean to get in your way or anything, I thought maybe you’d like some help, is all. Uh- sorry again." And now I’m spluttering.

“No no, I’m sorry, I didn't mean that you were like in the way or anything, I'm just not used to people helping me with my hair, if anything the guys normally make it worse! ‘Cause, they’re rushing to do their own hair, and the hotels never have enough bathroom mirrors. Haha.” he said, turning his head away a little and rubbing the back of his neck.

“No no, it’s all me. I shouldn’t have just reached out like that, I gotta remember that even though I know and care about you guys already, you guys have only just met me, so just like touching your hair outta the blue like that is totally weird!” Oh no, I can just feel my face heating up.

“No! Don’t worry about it, Ave-”

“ Oh my Gods. Guys, if you're going to flirt, do it outside of the tent and let me sleep .” Noctis said as he chucked a  pillow across the tent towards us, then went straight back to sleep.

I felt my cheeks heat up even more somehow and was certain my face was the brightest shade of red. In an attempt to hide this fact, I turned away from the two of them and rubbed the back of my neck. As I stole a glance to gauge Prompto’s reaction, I realised we were mirroring each other. I swear, this could be straight out of an anime!   

“Ah, you know what? I just remembered! I promised Iggy I’d help him… chop vegetables!” Prompto all but dove for the tent flap, “oh right uh… you can borrow the mirror and comb and stuff if you like, just leave it out for Noct.” And with that, he was gone.

I decided I would take him up on his offer. I reached out to turn the mirror towards me, given that I’d spent the last day beating goblins to death with a stick I wasn’t expecting much. There was enough dirt on my face that it almost completely covered my freckles. My hair was a mess, but after some trying, I managed to get it to sit properly, it fell to just past my chin, so I generally didn’t tie it back much. Maybe I should? ‘Cause… goblins. In any case, there wasn’t enough mud in my hair to change it from my almost plum colour, there was, however, enough to stop it from being as soft and fluffy as usual. Not exactly how I would have wanted to be introduced to the guys, but what can you do. By this point, my face had calmed down, and I rubbed at the dirt with my sleeve, it's better than nothing. I looked pretty much the same as I had done when I looked in my bedroom mirror before I left for the warehouse.

I still had green eyes, I hadn’t lost either of my double helix earrings somehow, and there were no dramatic anime-scars to be seen. Besides a good few scratches and scrapes of varying severity, and more bruises than I cared to count, it seemed I’d survived my first night on Eos with minimal injuries. Though I suppose a lot of that could be down to the potion Ignis gave me. 

When I eventually left the tent, Noctis was still fast asleep, and Ignis was making breakfast outside. 

“Ah good morning Avery, did you sleep alright?” Ignis cast a glance over his shoulder as he stirred a pot over the camping stove.

“Good morning Ignis, Gladiolus. I did, thank you.” as I strolled over to get a better look at the contents of the pot, I saw Prompto laying face down on the ground behind the camping stove, deciding to politely ignore him, I asked Ignis, “What are you making?”

“We had some broth leftover from dinner last night, so I’ve put it to good use in a savoury oatmeal. Add in some freshly chopped vegetables, set a golden fried egg on top and voila! A breakfast fit for a Prince.”

"Here you go Iggy! It rolled off the table, almost lost it haha!" Prompto jumped up, slapping a wooden spoon onto the counter, "I'll take Gladio's food over to him while I'm up, don't mention it, oh hey Avery, happy to help!" With that he took a bowl and moved to the other side of the haven. 

"I daresay you've made quite the impression on Prompto" Ignis gestures towards him with a spoon.

I chuckle softly whilst rubbing the back of my neck at what he said.

“And judging by your reaction, he’s made an impression on you as well.” Ignis casually states whilst handing me a bowl of food.

After everyone had eaten and gotten ready to go, the chairs were folded up, the tent was packed away, and everything was stored neatly in the armiger. I helped carry some of the groceries to the Regalia.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask.” I said over a bag of vegetables, “where exactly are we?”

“What do you mean, where are we? If you’ve played this ‘game’ of yours before shouldn’t you know already?” Gladio questioned.

“Well you see, normally after getting the Regalia back, you would head towards Longwythe Rest Area and then head straight for Galdin, providing you were sticking to the main story. But all these trees don't exactly look like the desertland of Leide."

"No, it isn't. We made a short diversion to Costlemark Tower, a Hunter in Longwythe mentioned some particularly unfriendly creatures roaming just outside the ruins." 

That's… odd. You normally aren't meant to access Duscae before Chapter 3. I probably shouldn't mention this out loud. At least not yet.

"Huh...I see." Ok time to change the subject before they question it. Maybe to Altissia? Or I could ask them about video games-

"Avery.”

Heck.

“Are you trying to say that what has occurred is not in the story that you know?” Ignis glances over his shoulder to look directly at me. 

Not breaking the awkward eye contact with Ignis, I answer his totally normal question  "...yes. But it seems that most of the differences are minimal, and don't change much overall. In fact the biggest difference is that I'm here altogether. I'm still working on figuring out why the differences are even happening, you'll be the first to know if I come up with anything."

Shortly after, we arrived at The Fallgrove, where the Regalia was parked. I handed the bag of vegetables to Ignis, who added it to the jigsaw that was the car’s boot, and briefly wondered if he had ever played Tetris. I was almost considering asking him, when he began to explain the seating arrangements for the drive to Galdin. Much as I had expected, he would be driving, Prompto had the front seat, and I would be in the back middle, wedged between the Crown Prince and his Shield. As Ignis turned the key in the ignition I thought for a moment. If I’m sitting where Iris would in Chapter 6, then where will Iris sit in Chapter 6? I’m sure they’ll come up with something when the time comes. Here’s hoping they keep me around long enough to find out.

If I looked past Noctis, who was already beginning to slide down in his seat for a nap, I could watch the trees pass by outside, soon enough we passed the blockade and they turned to rocks and boulders. I sat for a moment just taking in the desert scenery around me and the soft fluffy clouds in the blue sky above me. When I zoned back into the car, Prompto was turned around in his seat talking to Noctis and Gladio about the resort, after a moment the conversation turned to me. 

"So Avery, about this prophecy. We get to Galdin, we meet some overdressed dude who'll tell us the boats are out, and he's more important than he's letting on. And then we get blackmailed by some journalist who's gonna give us a present after?" Noctis asked, looking over at me, trying to break the tension surrounding me in the car. 

"Yup. Suspicious stranger, boats won't take you forth, man of no consequence, pretty much sums that encounter up." I say whilst trying very hard to not look like I was trying to disappear into the void between the car seats. Now that the attention was on me, I'd become very aware of the wall of muscle directly to my right. If Gladio could swing around a greatsword as large as his, he could almost definitely launch me out of a moving car without breaking a sweat, if he considered for even a moment that I was a threat to the group. 

"Fair enough. Got any more vaguely ominous prophetic anecdotes for us about the near future?" Noctis asks, the sarcasm practically dripping from his voice. 

I thought for a moment. Mention Insomnia. I frowned a little. If Insomnia falls and they know I knew about it, and didn't tell them…

I lowered my voice slightly, "If vaguely ominous is what you're after… Then please know, the events of the future are already set in motion. Something is coming. Something big. Something soon. Even with all of the knowledge I have, there is nothing I can do to stop this one. There is nothing anyone can do to stop this one from happening. Please, I hope you can remember that when the time comes." I say whilst looking directly at Noctis, hoping that my words would get through to him.

"Well ok then… to be honest, I wasn't really expecting you to say anything new." Noct exclaimed, looking at me like I was from another planet… well I mean I kind of am, so he's not completely wrong.

"Well dude, you did ask for ominous" Prompto sighed, sitting back down in his seat. 

After some time, Ignis parked the Regalia at Galdin Quay. 

"We should stock up on potions and stuff"

"Nice, you're being helpful for a change."

"Hey! What do you mean for a change?!"

I smiled, it was comforting to hear the familiar dialogue, even more so in person. It was then that I noticed how nervous I was, properly. There were so many ‘what ifs’ to contend with. What if Ardyn didn’t show. What if Ardyn did show? What if he shows but says something completely unexpected? What if he shows, says something completely unexpected, and speaks directly to me? What would I even do?

What would I do if nothing I said happened, and the four people in this new strange world that I care about and can trust, left me here in Galdin Quay? 

What would I do if everything I said happened, and they had to trust my memory of a video game I played through a couple times, with their world and their lives?

I couldn’t decide which of those fates terrified me to my core the most. I decided to put it out of my mind for the time being, the story was about to begin, and I had a front row seat for our destiny. Or at the very least, for the boardwalk at Galdin.

So everyone could be certain I wasn't going to signal anyone, Ignis decided that I would wait on the boardwalk until they had gone inside, and meet back up with them before they spoke with Dino. 

I positioned myself on the boardwalk, close enough to the resort that I would just about be able to hear what’s going on as Ardyn makes his appearance, but far away enough that maybe he wouldn’t notice me. I leaned on the boardwalk fence, pausing for a moment to look at the fish swimming around the roots of the nearby trees, before watching the guys head towards the resort. For a moment I thought, what if none of it happens. What if just by my being here, I've messed up the story that much that Ardyn straight up doesn't show. Would certainly save me a lot of trouble that's for sure.

They headed up the steps and I could just about hear the "Welcome to Galdin Quay" line from where I stood. Then I saw him.

I saw an uncomfortably familiar face approaching from the shadow of the resort. Heading this way. 

Ok Avery, time to do your impression of a speck of dust! And become almost completely invisible to everything and everyone, unless in direct sunlight! I glanced up at the sun-lit sky, completely unobstructed from where I stood on the boardwalk. Fuck.

"I'm afraid you're out of luck.” the suspicious stranger emerged from the shadows. 

"Are we?" Noctis challenged. 

"The boats bring you here." 

"What about 'em?" Prompto tilted his head slightly as he asked. 

"Well, they'll not take you forth."

"And what's your story?" Gladio had stepped to move into a more easily defended position, ever ready to protect Noctis.

Ardyn walked through the group, now standing between them and me, "I'm an impatient traveller, ready to turn ship. The ceasefire's getting us nowhere." He turned and flicked a coin at Noctis, only for it to be caught expertly by Gladio, mere inches from his face, "What's this? Some sort of souvenir?"

"They make those?" Prompto moved to get a better look at the coin, before Noctis nudged him, "What? No."

"Consider it your allowance." Ardyn casually gestures towards them.

"Yeah, and who's allowing us?" Gladio stepped forward with a glare.

"A man of no consequence." Ardyn waved his goodbye with a dramatic flourish, and began his journey along the boardwalk, away from the resort.

Ok, that seemed to play out exactly as I described it, they’ve got to believe me at least a little by now, next up is Dino. Before I could join back up with the guys, I would have to walk past Ardyn. 

Shit. 

As casually as I possibly could, I stood up straight, and leisurely strolled towards the resort. I tried so hard not to look at him as he passed. It was one thing seeing the man on-screen, knowing what he was going to do in the coming chapters, but seeing him in person like this was completely different. I almost felt a cool chill, despite the sun. When he was a few safe feet behind me, I dared to glance back at him over my shoulder. I almost froze in place when I turned to see that he had done the exact. same. thing.
For a moment everything seemed to slow. It almost took a hundred years for my next step to hit the wood of the boardwalk, as Ardyn Lucis Caelum made direct eye contact.

By the time I had casually speed walked away from the whole situation, the guys were just passing Coctura’s counter.

As I got nearer I heard them speaking to each other in hushed tones. 

“-just like Avery said."

"ok but that's just one thing, who says 'Avery', if that's even their real name, didn't plan this out with that 'man of no consequence'?" Gladio whispered whilst glancing behind him to look at me. It's like he thought I couldn't hear him.

"Well they seemed to know a lot about what we've done since leaving the Crown City" Ignis states logically as they continue to walk towards where the boats were supposed to be.

"Then the kid could've been tailing us this whole time." Trying to find something that, I guess, made more sense to him.

"Come on big guy, do you really think anyone could get close enough to listen in to our conversations, without you noticing?" Prompto asks, trying to reason with Gladio about the borderline unreasonable scenario that we had found ourselves in.

"Could be a better spy than we gave 'em credit for" Gladio shoots back, still not ready to believe that what I said was true.

"Yeah, and a trained spy would jump that much after we rescued them from those goblins" It was reassuring to hear that Noctis believed me, at least. With some luck, if the other three truly believed I was telling the truth, then there was a chance that Gladio could come around. 

When we reached the stairs at the end of the resort, Ignis made his way to the departure board and Noctis ran out onto the dock itself. I looked out at the ocean. It was an incredible shade of blue, no boats in sight. I didn't even realise I was still walking towards it until my hands hit the cool wood of the railing. I leaned into the corner, settling in for the exchange ahead.

It seemed I was the first to notice Dino sat on his bench in the shade, his eyes widened for a moment as he recognised Noctis, before he sat up a little, adjusted his blazer, and smoothed a nonexistent stray hair into place. 

"Aw, man. Not a ship in sight. What gives?" Prompto sighed. 

“According to my sources, the Empire, giving strict orders not to let any vessels leave the docks of Altissia. Real shame if you were late to your own wedding- Right Prince Noctis? Name’s Dino, by the way. Pleasure.”

“This is the guy Avery was on about?”

“The crown prince of Lucis, bounty hunting in his fancy car… Surely you didn’t think it’d go unnoticed, at least not by this reporter?”

“Yeah, this is the guy”

“Lucky for you, this reporter has integrity. If you wanna remain incognito, I’ll respect your wish… in exchange for a favour.”

“What do you want?”

“Hey, I knew you’d come around! Lemme see your map.” Taking the map from Noctis’s hand, Dino searched for a moment then marked a small circle on the map nearby, before handing it back.

“Marked where you need to go on your map. All you gotta do is find me some rough gemstones - like this one,” he held up a small red gemstone the size of a pebble, turning it so it catches the light. “Do this, and your ship’ll come in. Don’t, and the papers’ll run you outta town. Capisce?”

As the five of us turned to head back to the Regalia, a sound caught my ears. It was quiet, and very far away. Yet it was steadily getting louder and closer. I turned back to face the ocean.

"Uh that doesn't look like a bird?" said Prompto

I looked around searching for the source of the sound, and then I looked up to see something falling from the sky!

“Avery, you didn’t seem to mention this” Ignis gestured towards the rapidly descending blur.

“No.. no, this one's new." I said casually pointing towards it.

As the object got closer I could almost make out limbs, in an almost humanoid form, accompanied by… screaming?

“Is that… a … a person?”

I listened closely, and could just about make out the words ‘WHAAAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKK!!!’ just before it was drowned out by the water, as the person hit the surface.

I was more than certain that this did not happen in Final Fantasy XV, and yet… I could have sworn I recognised them.

Their hair and clothes were familiar, and so were the backpacks they were carrying. As the figure swam back to the surface, I had yet another moment of realisation, in the short time I'd been here.

Is that...Is that Tanitha?!?

Chapter Text

"And my bus still hasn't arrived yet… I should message Avery." 

11:11am

‘Hey, sorry I'm gonna be late, first bus didn't show so I'm having to wait until the next one.’

‘sorry hope u dont mind waiting’

I waited for a bit before I heard a *ping* to say that I have a message.

11.15am

'yea no problem, my bus has failed me yet again, so i'm just gonna walk, see ya there'

Lucky coincidence, looks like we'll both be late.

After like half an hour of waiting the next bus arrived.

Finally, it shows up… man I hate living in the middle of nowhere.

Uuugggggh I hate getting the bus, but my car is in for its MOT right now, so I can’t drive which only leaves me to take the dreaded bus. 

This was a couple days ago, right now I’m falling through the sky with two heavy bags on my arms. You know, as you do. Luckily, I can see that I’m going to hit water, but still, it’s not fun hurtling through the sky at a hundred miles an hour. 

“WHAAAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKK!!!” 

The view from up here was really good, but that's not the point. The point is, I have no fucking idea where I am or how I got here… well I know most of how I got here, it’s just a long story... 

It all started the day I met up with Avery, my dearest friend, at an abandoned warehouse.

---

Once off the bus, I started walking towards the abandoned building that we agreed to meet at. It was some sort of old military warehouse, if the internet was to be believed. As I got closer, I started to look out for Avery, spotting them near the front of the building, I made my way over shouting “Hi Avery.” as I went, while waving my free arm.

Waving back, Avery calls over “Hey Tanitha, good to see you!” and once I’m close enough, I put my bags down to hug them.

“Good to see you too. You ready to get this show on the road?” 

“Hell yeah I am! I’ve been wanting to check this place out for weeks!”

“Well then what are you waiting for? An invitation? Let's go!” I march up to the broken section of fence, Avery following in step behind me. 

“You go through first with the equipment and I'll be right behind you.” I usher Avery through the gap in the fence as I hold it open.

Strutting up to the building I follow Avery as they head towards a large door. I jog ahead of them and open it with some difficulty, and see if there is anything to prop it open with. Finding what looks like the remains of a wooden crate, I jam one piece under the door to keep it open, and a second one between both doors to catch the other. Heading further into the building we looked around for the perfect spot to take our photos, and after a while, we found it. We found ourselves in a large open room, crates strewn about almost haphazardly. Some were open, packing straw spilling onto the floor, others were piled high, towering over the rest. 

Most of the tall windows were covered in yellowing newspaper and grime, but one was pushed inwards just enough for a golden sunbeam to shine through, almost a spotlight in the middle of the room. It looked as good as an old abandoned warehouse could.

“Now this is what I call a good room for some photos. I’m thinking if we set the tripod up here then we can get some great photos over there. Oh and since this place is abandoned, we can’t not do some ghost photos with a long exposure.” Avery was flailing their arms in excitement. Almost took my eye out, I swear. 

Starting to take out the first of the tripods I respond “Well then let's get set up and take some, we don’t have all day. I get to play ghost first! I’ve called it, it’s now mine, you can’t take it”  

“Ahh, I wanted first ghost dude, you win.” 

“Glad you see it my way.”

We must have been taking photos for a few hours, because by the time I reached into my backpack for a sandwich, the sunbeam had moved away and Avery was sat cross-legged on one of the crates, cold cheese toastie in hand.

"Why not just have a sandwich? Wouldn't it be better than a cold toasty?"

"chowsteez gud woaw"

"Finish eating, then talk."

"Toastys are good though"

"But cold?"

" Toastys are good "

"Alright, alright… jeez did not realise you would get so pedantic about it." moving to sit on a crate next to Avery, realising at the last moment that it didn't have a lid. It was too late. I had already committed to sitting on this crate. I sank into the box of loose hay, and opened my sandwich. 

"You good there Tanitha?" Avery smiled.

"This was completely intentional."

After we had finished eating Avery decided it would be a fun idea if we looked through some of the crates that were here. 

"Tell me again why it is that you want to open the crates?"

"You never know what you could find if you have a look… there could be some ancient treasure hidden away in here!" Avery practically skipped across the room, already scanning the shipping labels that were still attached to their boxes. 

"Really? That's what you're looking for? This building has only been abandoned for like 50 years there's not going to be much here in the ways of treasure... I don't think so anyway."

"Hey, you never know ! There could be… I don't know... maybe a-"

"Box filled with straw?"

"Nooo!! Like a… an ancient relic of times gone by! Or a magical crystal that can transport us to another world!" Avery waved their hands to convey a mystical effect, before turning back to the crates. "Or… a neat hat!"

Straw floated down onto the floor as Avery pulled a military-officer style hat from the open box in front of them. 

While Avery was occupied with digging through straw for 'hidden treasure' and hats, I looked around the warehouse. A light breeze blew a little straw across the floor, until it was stopped by the side of a crate. The light from the window was almost a spotlight shining directly on it. I couldn't help myself. 

"Avery, I'm thinking this one," I called over. 

"Oh yeah? Hey it's got a spotlight and everything. If any crate in here has something interesting inside right now it's gotta be this one."

I didn't ask where they got the crowbar from, but within a few minutes, the lid was cracked open.

I... I don't know what I was expecting to be inside the crate. But it definitely wasn't what we found. 

It was as if somebody had already scooped out most of the straw, because we could see right down to the bottom of the crate, and there, filling up most of the base was some kind of crystal formation. It was a strange, shifting, almost familiar blue, and seemed to grow up and outwards, in pillar-like shards. It almost looked as though galaxies themselves were trapped inside. Avery pried off two of the front walls of the crate to get a better look.

“You are not touching it!”

“I was not going to touch the rock.”

“You were definitely going to touch the rock.

“Ok, yeah I was, but look at it though!! Cool rock!! I love cool rocks!!”

“NO! And it’s not cool, it's weird.” damn I’m having to pull out the ‘mum’ voice… haven’t had to do that in a while. 

“Ahhh, but-”

“No, and that's final.” Oof and the ‘mum’ look as well I’d say I’m on a roll here.

“Ahh, you never let me do anything fun…”

“Are you saying that shooting me five times in a row in paintball last week wasn’t fun? Because if it wasn’t then I guess we won't need to be doing it again. No need for me to embarrass myself more than necessary.”

“Ok, point made, that was pretty fun.”

Heading back into reality, we went to explore the warehouse for a few more good shots before heading home, but I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that this crystal was somehow more important than we knew.

---

"Hey Tanitha" Avery reached to steady the tripod bags as the bus shuddered to a stop somewhere around the halfway point home, "When we get back to my place, wanna play Final Fantasy XV while the photos upload? I think last time we were just getting up to the bit where we get to go rescue Prompto!"

"Yes, we gotta go save him, he needs a hug."

After a few more stops and a rant about Prompto needing a hug, we got off the bus and started to walk the rest of the way to Avery's house, luckily it wasn’t that long of a walk.

"You know, it seems like a much longer walk when you're carrying this many bags" I commented.

"Just pretend you're walking to the car."

"Avery! You call that an Ignis impression?! This! Is an Ignis impression!..” I ramped up the theatrics at least ten times over, and harnessed as much Adam Croasdell energy as physically possible, “That's it! I've come up with a new recipeh!"

I glanced over to look at Avery, only to find them folded over the bags in laughter.

"Ahh you've got the pose down too!!"

"It's from my time in Milan" I smirk in a perfectly timed response. 

"I should never have shown you that stream, you've become too powerful!"

The rest of the walk back was uneventful, we just talked about random things that came to our head at that time. Once we were back, however, that's when Avery made things unnecessarily more difficult for themself.

I pushed a button on the controller and heard the familiar whirring of the console coming to life. I switched the screen on and as I waited to sign in I glanced over to see Avery holding an SD card adaptor and typing in their pc passcode with one hand and simultaneously trying valiantly to retrieve the card itself from a camera with the other. They were struggling. 

Just over five minutes later, we were both sat in front of the TV, greeted by the grey corridors of Zegnautus Keep.

"There's the corridor, go get him!!"

"I can only run so fast, Tanitha"

"Run faster"

"I am!! I can only run so fast, Tanitha."

"He's right there!!!"

"I KNOW I CAN SEE HIM. STOP SHOUTING AT ME"

“THEN GET TO HIM FASTER”

“YEAH WELL FUCK YOU, I’M TRYING MY BEST!!”

---

' Tell me, were you worried about me?'

"WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT, OF COURSE, I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU" Avery was now shouting at the screen.

"Isn't this your third playthrough?"

"I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS, OKAY!"

---

'Your Majesty, your precious Crystal awaits you. To liven things up I thought I'd take you on a stroll down memory lane. Or course, memories decay with time."

"Raavusssss noooooo, Ardyn, fight me 1v1 Animal Crossing, bug catching race. Tanitha, mark my words I will destroy him"

I could only sigh in response.

“It’s the only fight against him I know I would win!”

---

'... Only once the Crystal and King are no more… can I know redemption. Come back soon. I shall keep your friends company until you are ready.'

"You stay away from my friends, you slimy little snake man ."

"No respect for your elders... oh right speaking of which, Master Oogway said the dojo matches are tomorrow, so he should be on his way to pick me up now. Should be half an hour, but you know him, probably closer to an hour, I've given up trying to tell him"

“Dude I can’t believe you guys actually call him that to his face”

“Well he has known me for most of my life and you've seen him, he looks just like Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda!”

"An hour… Care to join me for a Cup Noodle while you wait?"

“Do you even need to ask?”

---

I placed my chopsticks on top of my cup noodle as Avery bounced back into the room carrying two bottles of appleade, "Oh hey."

"Hey Tanitha, something dawned on me while I was on my own," Avery said with a grin that was growing wider with every passing second. 

"Not this again." sighing as I put my face into my hands

"Any food you make tastes better when you use good ingredients right?"

"You do this every time." my voice was muffled slightly where my hands were obstructing my mouth.

"Then, if you take something already delicious, like Cup Noodles, and add in the finest, freshest ingredients, what do you get?"

"The ultimate flavour experience!" we said at the same time. My line with way more sarcasm than Avery's.

"So I ask you, Tanitha: what's your favourite ingredient?"

"Plain boiling water, not even the flavour packet, just straight water."

"Hey, that's not one of the options and you know it."

"Yeah but it bugs you so I'm saying it haha"

"Ahh can you imagine if we were in Final Fantasy XV"

"Avery you'd get eaten by a cockatrice, like immediately."

"Hey come on, I'd survive a bit."

"A bit."

"I'd survive like at least another 20 years, before my tragic and untimely death at the feathered claws of an oversized chicken.” 

“Glad you still know that your death will be brought about by a large chicken, or maybe a chick, really it could be either.”

After approximately 48 minutes, Master Oogway picked me up outside. The rest of the night was rather uneventful, and I headed to bed early in preparation for the dojo matches the next morning. 

---

The sound of my phone pinging woke me up from my dream. I looked over to my bedside table and grabbed my phone to see who it was that decided to message me at… fuck my phones bright… 2AM!! What the actual fuck! 

Oh... it's Avery, I really shouldn't be that surprised, this isn't the first time, unfortunately.  

2:05am

'dude I can't stop thinking about that weird looking crystal from earlier'

2:07am

"Avery it's 2am"

'weird crystals keeping me up!!!'

'it was weird!! glowy but also moving but not??!?'

"If it's bothering you so much, you could always go back and get another look"

'dude'

'i might go back tomorrow'

'wanna come with??'

"Can't tomorrow morning”

“I've got a match at the dojo.”

“Which means i need my sleep"

'Ahhhh... I was gonna go first thing'

'I'll come to the dojo around lunch?? Keep ya posted and stuff lolol'

"Sounds like a plan"

'gonna poke a rock with a stick'

"Avery do nOT!"

'gotta poke a rock with a stick!!'

You know what I give up. I'm going back to sleep.

---

The next morning I woke up and checked my phone, at the still not quite reasonable time of 6.30am. No new messages from Avery, but they were almost definitely still asleep. I'll have to message them when they wake up, but right now, I need to get ready for my match. 

It was 10:27am when I took a break to hydrate and check my phone. I had a couple of messages from Avery.

7:36am

‘Hey! It’s weird rock time. I know you’re busy so I’ll keep you updated!’

‘also I’m taking one of the cameras, for scientific documentation!! 

8:14am

‘the bus is practically empty lolol’

‘!!!! tiny dog on the bus !!!!!!’

‘taNITHA IT HAS TINY LITTLE PUPPY SHOES’

8:32am

‘Ok so I’m at the warehouse’

‘looks the same as it did yesterday’

‘Weird rock is still weird, gonna go set up the tripod, if u don’t hear from me after like a reasonable amount of time, idk come check on me in case i've been crushed by a wooden pallet or kidnapped by shady government officials covering up sus crates or something lolol’

11:37am

"Hey, lunch breaks started, thought you should know"

"So you can come whenever"

"If you're not already on your way"

"Thought I'd remind you"

"bc you can be forgetful sometimes"

"Especially when it comes to weird rocks"

11:40am

"Avery!!"

"Did you know phones have emojis??"

"＼(^o^)／"

"(๑•̀ㅁ•́๑)✧"

"(⁎⚈᷀᷁ᴗ⚈᷀᷁⁎)"

"✺◟(∗❛ัᴗ❛ั∗)◞✺"

"Averyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

11:45am

"Hey if you don't reply soon I'll think u got kidnapped by shady government officials.."

Sure enough, the morning had come and went. And as lunchtime was upon us, the uneasy feeling in my stomach only grew. Something was wrong. Avery was meant to be here by now and they haven't messaged to say that they're going to be late or anything. 

Avery wouldn't ignore that many messages, not after the last one they sent. Maybe their phone is dead, and they haven't charged it yet. Maybe something came up and they've just been replaying Episode Ignis again, and lost track of time. There's plenty of logical reasons why Avery hasn't messaged back yet, but my gut tells me something is up.

If I don't get a response by the time the rest of the matches have ended, I'm heading over there. You know what screw it… I’m gonna go now because my gut is not normally wrong and I don’t have any more matches to participate in so I’d only be watching anyway.

With my mind made up, I put the rest of my lunch, a lovely batch of lentil soup, into a flask so that I could finish it on my way to the warehouse. I went in the same way we had the first time, everything was exactly how we had left it. 

I didn't need to push open the heavy warehouse doors, because the crate lid we propped them open with was still wedged between them on the floor. I recognised a fresh set of footprints on the lid as Avery's, the familiar red and black streak of acrylic paint and rubber, where they dragged their heels against the floor, but there were no returning prints. I abandoned my slow, cautious sneak, in favour of a light jog. 

"Avery? You out there?", waiting for a few seconds… no response. 

As I rounded the last wall of crates I saw the stack we sat on to eat lunch together. 

"If that's where we had lunch, then that means the weird rock is..." I turned to face my left as I walked towards our makeshift seating. 

No… the uneasy feeling in my stomach grew exponentially to the point that I almost felt sick.

I recognised the tripod immediately. If I didn't know it by the scuff marks around the ankles, or the colourful tape marking the handle and, like, every other surface that doesn't directly affect the camera, I recognised Avery's jumper, tied loosely to the stand, and their backpack sat beside it. It still had the camera set up on top, pointed at the crate, but the screen was off. I tapped a button on the side and a red 'low battery' symbol blinked back at me. 

Looking at the crate with the crystal, it was exactly where we had left it, but not quite how we had left it at the same time. A chunk of it had vanished. I stepped past the backpack to get a better look, passing over the dregs of an iced coffee that had melted and is now drying on the concrete. It didn't exactly look like somebody had tried to take it, and if they had, why would they leave half of it behind? Or Avery's camera?

If Avery had the camera set up, and it’s now out of charge, chances are they were recording whatever happened. I set to work gathering all of Avery’s things, packing the camera and tripod into their bags, and folding the jumper into the backpack. After one last look around the warehouse, I raced home.

I set the battery to charge as I waited for the computer to load. Whatever’s in this video will tell me what happened to Avery, I just hope they’re alright.

I plugged the camera wire into the USB port and navigated to the last video. I took a deep breath, and clicked play.

The camera was pointing, as expected, right at the weird rock, and after a moment's pause, Avery bounced into shot on the right.

‘ -and we are recording, okay nice. Ah right professional… I’ll edit this if it's important. If you are watching this video, unedited, then something terrible, horrifying, catastrophic event has occurred… But hey I don’t actually know yet because it hasn’t happened.

In this, most scientific of- oh no’

The camera began to pan down, and Avery’s legs were still in shot just long enough to see them dive towards the tripod.

‘Note to self, double check tripod legs before attaching the camera next time.. Ok! It’s cool-but-weird rock time. I swear I’ve seen this before, It’s blue, but the colours shift a little when you look at it, but not quite like it would when the light shifts? It just kinda… shifts… by itself. Anyhow, it’s weird, almost glowy, and I’m going to poke it with a stick.’

It was at this moment Avery produced a small branch… no, a large twig, from offscreen.

Lucky for you, dear viewer, I brought my own. From outside the warehouse. Now, given that this is a scientifically unprecedented occurrence, I have no idea what’s about to happen. So..uh I guess I just gotta poke the rock. Ok? Ready? ...Whoo okay let's go. Three… two… one…’

Avery reached out with the stick cautiously, as if they were trying to be as far away as possible from the rock they were trying to touch, until they were mere inches away, before leaning in that last bit more and making contact. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, nothing continued to happen. Then Avery straightened again and put the stick down.

‘Well that was… anticlimactic. Don’t quite know what I was expecting, but I kinda hoped something cool would happen.’

Avery left shot again, only to return a moment later with a half-empty frostino. They stood again in the right of the frame, just looking at the crate.

‘Huh *slurp* how about that… *extended slurp* Well I guess there’s not much left to do, *slurp* other than, well, touching the rock.’

Avery took another slurp of frostino as they approached the crystal.

‘See I’m not really expecting much this time, ‘cause nothing happened with the stick so… *slurp* here goes nothing.’

Avery placed a hand on the crystal. Barely a second passed, when the crystal began to glow slightly whiter, and brighter than it had only a moment before. It could’ve been a strange trick of the light, but I could swear the crystal seemed to begin to float a little higher.

‘Wait what?! My- My hand- I can’t? The crystal is moving?! And it's warm, and so bright! What?!? How can this even-’

Avery dropped their frostino, using their now-empty hand to try and free their other, to no avail.

‘I don’t understand? How?! What the actual fuc-’

The crystal grew even brighter until the frame was entirely white, and then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. When the image came back into focus, Avery was gone. The only changes from the beginning of the video were that the chunk of crystal Avery had touched had vanished, and there was a quickly melting frostino on the ground. I skipped forward in the video at intervals, in an attempt to find something, anything new, but all that changed was the morning light turning to noon, and the remaining ice melting onto the ground. 

“Ok, what the actual fuck just happened!?”

I started pacing up and down my bedroom floor.

“What the hell was that… one second they’re just fine and standing there, and the next they can’t remove their hand from the damn rock, what the actual fuck… and then there's that light, and then nothing until the battery dies and I come get it… WHAT THE FUCK!?” Ok, so ranting isn't getting me anywhere so I went back and rewatched the video.

Wait a minute… wait a damn minute, there’s still a piece of the rock left, not all of it vanished with Avery. I am so dumb, if there's still a piece of the rock left then maybe I can get to where Avery is and hopefully we can work this shit out together. With that plan in mind, I went to sleep so that I could be awake early enough to do what needed to be done.

It was midday when I reached the warehouse again. I decided on an early lunch and had packed my backpack with everything I thought I would need in an emergency. There was no way of knowing where Avery went after touching the rock, so I made sure to pack some food, water, a change of clothes each, a basic first-aid kit, and some other little things we might need, just in case. I also brought along the jumper Avery had left slung over the tripod and the headphones they had left in my room.

I decided to get the bus back to the warehouse this time, just so that I didn’t have to worry about my car or someone from the dojo wondering where I am.

With my own backpack slung over one shoulder, and Avery’s on my opposite arm, I walked into the warehouse for the third time that week, I went straight to the crate with the remainder of the rock in it. Leaning down to get a better look at it, I hold my breath.

“Well here goes nothing” I touch the rock and for a few seconds it doesn't do anything, just as I’m away to pull my hand away it starts to do the floaty, glowy thing like it did in Avery’s video.

“Alright well, I guess there’s no turning bac-”

“WHAAAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKK!!!”

And with that, we’re all caught up as to what happened this week, and how I’m currently falling through the air towards my impending doom. Though, it could be worse, at least there will be water to break my fall… still going to hurt like a bitch though.

*loud splashing noise* 

Well, what do you know, landing in the sea with two bags was not fun. The weight of the bags and the momentum of my fall dragged me under the water, and I started the steady kick towards the top of the water for fresh air.

Though to be honest I am very glad that my adoptive family insisted that I learned how to swim. 

Finally reaching the surface of the water and taking a deep breath, just glad that I could breathe sweet oxygen once again, I looked up onto the docks nearby. I could see a very familiar face running towards me… 

Is that… is that Avery??

Chapter Text

Is that...Is that Tanitha?!?

I rushed past the fence and down the dock, falling to my knees when I reached the end. By the time I got there, the figure had managed to swim back up to the surface, despite their luggage, and I could get an actual look at their face. 

What the fuck that's actually Tanitha!!?! How??!? Is she okay?? Did she touch the weird rock too??!? And she told me not to touch the weird rock! Why is she here at Galdin?? I turned up in the desert?? And she's in the ocean?? What?!?

"Tanitha??!? Dude! Are you okay??!? What the fuck!?" I grabbed the edge of the dock for support and reached a hand down towards my best friend. I might have misjudged how low the water was, because the next thing I knew, there was a strong hand wrapped around my forearm, pulling me back and stopping me from falling in.  As I fell back on my ass, Gladio let go of my arm and stepped towards Tanitha, "We don't need two of you soaking wet."

After no time at all, he passed onto the dock one dripping wet backpack, followed by a second, followed by a very disoriented Tanitha.

"Avery!! I went looking for you! Ah..the warehouse? Then the..the weird rock? And then falling through the sky?! And the ocean?! Where are we? ...Wait. Is this-?"

"Yes" 

"But that would mean we're in-"

"Also yes"

"But that would mean- they're-"

It was at this moment Ignis appeared carrying a towel embroidered with the resort's logo. 

"Before you catch cold." He placed the towel around Tanitha's shoulders, quickly looking her over for major injuries, before retreating further up the dock to discuss the situation with the others, and to give us a minute of privacy to get each other up to speed.

Tanitha managed to call a mostly coherent 'thank you' after him. She took a step to the side to get a better look at Ignis as he went, before returning to bewildered questioning. I cast a glance over too, the guys weren't too far away, likely still in earshot of our conversation if they wanted to listen in, but it seemed they were a tiny bit preoccupied with a change of plans dropping out of the sky. Literally. 

"Avery, was that-?!?"

"Yes-"

"But how-?!??"

"No idea!?! All I know is that it happened, somehow, we're in the world of Final Fantasy XV."

"Avery I just fell into the ocean, from a height, if this is some sort of crazy convoluted prank then I swear-"

"It's not!!"

"Are you sure?"

"Mostly!"

"Because it sounds like the plot of a fanfic."

"I fought a horde of goblins with a stick, and got rescued by the protagonists of my favourite video game. Believe me. I am aware.”

“Avery, Tanitha was it? Sorry to interrupt,” Ignis had approached again to tell us the new plan, “we’re heading back into the resort for an early lunch. If we’re taking a break anyway, it would be a shame not to sample the local seafood.”

“Sounds like a plan, want us to grab a table while you order?”

Ignis agreed, and after checking through the menu with us on the walk up the dock, went to go buy a few plates of Sea’s Bounty Risotto. We found a good table, avoiding the one directly above Dino, and while we waited for the guys to return with the food, I worked on getting Tanitha up to speed.

I didn't have much to tell Tanitha about what I did before arriving here, given that she'd already watched the video I had made, but I got her all caught up with what happened to me since and what I’d already told the guys, who had started walking towards us just as we were finishing up. 

“So… do you know what’s happening?” Ignis asked sitting down across from where we were sitting.

“Maybe” I nodded, and looked at Tanitha for her response.

“Nope, not a clue”

“In that case, perhaps you would like to explain how you got here, if there’s a chance we’ll need to contend with more unexpected guests throughout our journey, I’d like to know the likelihood,” Ignis stated as Gladio took the seat directly across from Tanitha.

“Let me explain… nevermind, too long, let me summarise… Ok so, we went to an abandoned building for some photos, found a weird rock in a crate, went home… Avery went back the next day and touched said weird rock and disappeared, we were meant to meet later that day so I went to look for them… couldn’t find them, but found their stuff. So I went home, looked at the video, packed a bag, and touched the last of the rock. Next thing I know I’m falling through the sky.” 

“That's the summarised version!?” looking over at Prompto he leaned up on the table, as if to punctuate his sentence for a moment.

“I have even more questions than before” turning my head to look at Noctis, he had his head in his hands with his elbows on the table looking like he wanted nothing more than to take a nap instead of listening to yet another crazy story from someone who fell from the sky. 

“I… really don’t know how I'm supposed to respond to that,” Gladio said as he stared at Tanitha with an almost bewildered expression.

“At least you remembered to breathe” looking over at Tanitha giving her a slight nod of approval.

Everyone turns to look at me questioningly.

“What?”

“Yeah, like you’re one to talk”

“Oof. Really Noctis? You gotta murder me like that?”

“Yup”

---

Between the hot Galdin sun, the kindly borrowed resort towel, and the fact that Tanitha is a human radiator, it didn’t take way too long for her to dry off, and after returning the towel we headed back down the long bridge towards the car park.

Partway there, I glance back towards where Noctis and Tanitha, who were having a conversation about our current plans.

“So we’re heading to get a gemstone for some journalist, who’s also casually blackmailing us?” Deciding not to interrupt, I turn back around and watch where I was going, because knowing my luck, I would trip and fall, taking someone with me.

“Pretty much, he just really needs this to get his jewelry business off the ground, the whole thing shouldn’t really take long. Plus side is, he can help us, he’s clearly got connections if he’s this confident he can get the boats to come in for you.” 

“So it’s just, go there, get Dino a rock, head back, and be done with it?” 

“Yeah! It’s not so far away either, so a quick drive there and back and you can be fishing up a trevally before sunset!” 

It wasn’t until we actually reached the Regalia that I learned how to count to six.

The Regalia only has five seats.

Shit.

I didn’t think I’d be faced with my Chapter Six Seating dilemma quite so soon… shit what do we do when actual Chapter Six comes around?? 

One task at a time Avery...

“Sooooooooo… how’s this going to work?” Tanitha was the first one to actually say anything.

"Someone could always share a seat~, " Noctis says, nudging Prompto, probably trying to get some sort of reaction from either Tanitha or me.

“Well if you and Prompto are going to share a seat, then I call shotgun!” Tanitha grins. I’m just standing there, trying not to laugh as their faces quickly heat up. As they talk over each other and stumble over their words, Tan makes her comeback. “Don’t dish out what you can't serve” oof Tan no need to filet and cook the guys over an open flame.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I think I’ve come up with an idea,” I say, trying to take the attention away from an embarrassed Prompto and a teasing Gladio.

“You sure? It's not going to be like last time is it?” Tanitha looked skeptical, nodding and then immediately shaking my head, I make my way to the car, opening the door for whoever is closest. 

With a slight bow and an 'after you' gesture, I smile, “You have no legal proof that it was me who did that.”

Five minutes later, Ignis pulled out of the parking spot at Galdin. The guys were in their usual seats, Tanitha was in the one I had occupied on the way here, and I had sat myself on the floor of the car in front of her. There wasn’t much space, but at least I could reach the Ebony easier...

“Soooooo, there really aren’t any seatbelts in here.” Tanitha mused from somewhere above and behind me. I hummed an affirmative, and looked through what little windscreen I could see from my ‘seat’. If you squinted just right , that cloud kinda looked like a chocobo. 

“So I guess, legally, no one can stop me from doing this !” I began to crane my neck to see what road safety law Tanitha was about to break, but slowed when I felt her leg move from where it was next to me. She kindly avoided kicking me in the face as she maneuvered herself onto the back of her seat.

“If Noctis can do it-! Besides, this means you can sit without breaking your legs, we both know your knee acts up if you keep it folded like that for too long.”

Despite my concerns for Tanitha being sat on the back of a moving car, she had a point. Noct had yet to become victim to a sharp turn or low bridge, and my legs were beginning to quietly scream at me. Besides, Ignis was driving, what could possibly go wrong? 

I moved myself onto the seat Tanitha had vacated and looked around. Noctis seemed amused by the fact that he wasn’t the only one who had a blatant disregard for road safety, and Gladio seemed to be just enjoying the nice weather. Even Ignis didn’t seem to be that stressed about the repeated changes in plans and that’s saying something. After a moment, Prompto knelt up in his seat, camera in hand, and took a selfie, making sure to get everyone in the shot.

Before long, Ignis pulled the car over to the side of the road. Tanitha was the first to get out, as most of her was technically not even in the car. She swung her legs over the back of the seats and slid down the boot, in half the time it took for me to climb out from Gladio’s side.

“It is rock time my dudes” I shot a pair of finger guns at anyone who looked my way, before turning to listen to Noctis. 

“Should be just up this way.” Noct had retrieved the map from the armiger and was pointing somewhere off in the distance over a hill. Where Noct led the way, we followed, up the dusty hill and towards a natural rock bridge. I decided not to tempt my 1300 gil lunch into making an escape and did not look over the edge this time, keeping myself directly in the middle of the path. I noticed a familiar rock formation up ahead, and moved slightly to the right of the group after the bridge connected with solid ground again. Through the gap in the arch, I could see the start of large black feathers. 

“Hey Noct, cool rocks on your left.” Pointing over to a shadow, roughly where a mineral deposit was.

“Huh? Oh wow, the colours amazing!” he looked over to where I was pointing, deciding to go over and collect them.

“And you’d think Avery would avoid the rocks after last time…” Tanitha nudged me, giving me an eye roll and her ‘really?’ look.

“My heart will always have room for cool rocks.” putting my hand over my heart in counterfeit offense.

We began to walk around the corner towards Dino’s gemstone, and then we saw it, properly this time.

“Oh em gee. We’re supposed to get near that thing?” Prompto asked with a slightly higher pitched voice than normal, taking a small step back.

“Pipe down before you wake it up,” Gladio said as he put a hand over Prompto’s mouth and started crouching as if he was trying not to be seen by the sleeping bird. 

When you pass by the bird in-game, you’re aware of how big the thing is, it's huge and kinda terrifying with the pointy beak spikes and the eyes and the sheer size of the thing.

This did not compare.

The bird, sleeping peacefully, curled into a ball, towered over us. I could feel the bass of its breath, vibrating in my chest, louder than the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. I looked towards the enormous creature’s face, and was greeted by an almost skeletal beak that could bite me in half with ease, with spikes longer than my arm and twice as thick. 

“What the fuck,” I whispered in fear and awe, “What... the... fuck…”

As we crept closer to it, it looked almost peaceful, if I reached out an arm I would almost be able to reach the smaller white feathers on its chest. 

 “The gemstone is on the other side of the bird, half bird... half storm, half airship...” I say to the others in an almost nonexistent whisper. 

Deciding to quote a conversation neither of us were originally here for, for the hell of it, Tanitha replied with “You realise that’s three halves”

“That would explain its size.” both Ignis and Prompto finished at the same time remembering what was said the first time that they encountered the thing.

“You have got to be kidding me” Noctis seemed not to like all the talking that we were doing. Looking around I see Gladio is the same… yeah, he was not exactly impressed with the amount of noise that we were making. Though we were being quiet, any amount of noise could still wake up the bird.

I held my breath as we crept around the colossal bird, knowing that it would wake up but still hoping it wouldn’t. 

Ok, Noctis got the stone without waking it up… and I just as I was thinking that maybe we could get all the way back without waking it up… it… hm... it still hasn't woken up.

We were now about halfway back with the stone in hand, I was now beginning to wonder if the thing would wake up at all… SHIT!... HOLY FUCK!, THAT IS ONE SCARY ASS BIRD!!! We all watched in horror as it woke up, two sets of wings outstretched, wingspan wider than my eyes could take in at once. I rushed to cover my ears as it let out an ear-piercing shriek, before taking to the skies, flying off into the distance. 

“Off it goes.” 

What is with the totally normal (like we didn’t almost get eaten) response Ignis?

“Oh, we made it out alive.” Noctis breathed a sigh of relief.

“Barely. I seriously thought we were at journey’s end.” Prompto was stood with his hands on his knees trying to steady himself for a moment.

“But that feat was fit for a king” Gladio was now looking at Noctis, his head moving between where the bird flew off to and Noctis.

“Indeed” 

Seriously Ignis, what is up with you and Gladio… having no reaction to almost being eaten alive by a feathery mountain. 

“What the fuuuuck…” I whispered, leaning on a nearby rock in the shade, still processing the whole encounter. Turns out, even knowing exactly what was going to happen, still can’t prepare you for massive fucking birds . I took a deep breath and stood up before continuing. “It is no longer rock time my dudes.”

Looking over to Tanitha to see how she was handling it, she just looked at me and said “Man that bird could fuck shit up, like seriously… I kinda wanna fight it to see its strength” 

what the fuck Tan!? Why in the world would anyone want to fight that thing? I live in constant fear knowing that we’re probably going to have to fight that thing.

Compared to what we just witnessed, the drive back to Galdin Quay was thankfully uneventful.

Then again, generally, most things are rather uneventful when you almost got eaten by a bird three minutes ago.

---

“Nice work, kid! Sorry for giving you such a hard time. I just had to get my hands on this, even if it meant blackmail. You understand, don’t ya?” 

I took the opportunity while Noctis was delivering the goods, to deliver the sand from my boots back to the ocean.

“To make it up to you, I’ll share a little scoop. That special coin you got—it commemorates the Oracle’s ascension. That guy was tossing ’em out to everyone. Musta picked ’em up back in Niflheim.” 

I swear you could fit a whole beach in this shoe, how was there even any space for my foot??

“I doubt a souvenir like that could make its way into the hands of an ordinary citizen.” Ignis pushed his glasses up.

It’s just all sand.

“Well, it’s our pocket change now!” Prompto smiled.

Shit… I nearly dropped my shoe over the fence… 

“Let’s learn from history and book a place this time,” Gladio added.

Ahh, there's that pebble, I’ll put my shoes back on before we need to get going again.

“As promised, I’m in the process of securing your ferry tickets right now. Told ya, I’m a man of integrity. Should be smooth sailing from here, so lemme know when you’re ready to ship out.”

Man, that’s a lot of sand

“So when can we expect to get going?”

“Already!? The ship won’t arrive ’til tomorrow! How ’bout you find a place to spend the night?”

After delivering the stone to Dino, Tanitha suggested spending the rest of the day having a good time, playing on the beach. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any swimwear, thankfully Ignis offered to lend us some gil, mostly for food and accommodation, until we could acquire some funds of our own. Let me tell you, trying to find something that fit Tanitha was so funny because when the top fit, the bottoms didn't or the other way around, in the end, we bought the bottom of one and the top from another. I, on the other hand, was much easier to buy for. I got an oversized Galdin Quay souvenir shirt, and wore it with a pair of shorts Tanitha had stuffed in my backpack.

We rented the nearby caravan for the night, and after dumping our bags inside we got changed and headed out onto the sand. The guy's reactions to Tanitha were funny. Prompto was bright red not knowing where to look, Gladio seemed to be very interested in her tattoos and probably a little more, Noct was rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly finding the water was the most interesting thing to look at, and Ignis was trying not to stare as it would be ‘inappropriate to stare at a woman like that who you were not in a relationship with’. It was all very amusing to watch.

Tanitha was wearing a black bikini that showed off her figure and tattoos very nicely, she decided to only have her hair in a ponytail instead of the french braid that it was in before. 

“By the way, Tanitha, is that your natural hair colour? I’m just wondering because it’s an unusual colour… not that is not nice, it’s just that you don’t really see that colour of hair very often.” I wasn't really surprised that Noctis asked that question because she has silvery blue hair, and that in and of itself defies all sorts of logic.

“As far as I can remember this has always been my hair colour” 

“Hey, what’s the story behind your tattoos? And those are some cool piercings” Gladio asks as he walks up to Tanitha with the rest of the gang behind him.

“The one on my back stands for the good and bad that's in the world” Tanitha states, being her usual dramatic self, pointing to the angel wing and devil wing respectively as she's talking. At this point I see all the guys gathering around Tanitha wanting to know as well. 

“This one” pointing to the sleeve on her left arm “is for my love of nature ” It has a cluster of trees with birds and other wildlife all in greyscale. 

Pointing to the sleeve on her right arm “This one is for my favorite movie ‘Alice in wonderland’” This one was the complete opposite of her other sleeve, it was full of colour and looked like organised chaos on an arm. 

“The roses are for the hope I have for my future” gesturing to her right side, there was a really beautiful tattoo ‘ one of my personal favorites’ it was black vines adorned with roses with blue highlights. 

Lifting up her boobs a bit so that they could see the full tattoo, there were some flowers and an octopus whose tentacles wrapped around the outside of her boobs, with the head of it in between them, not that they really saw that part “I just liked the design of this one, so I decided to get it, the same with the dragon on my leg” now gesturing to her right leg that had an amazing dragon tattoo, that went from her hip to her calf, that one took a lot of time with the intricate detailing and colours.

“Alright I think that's enough Tan, and she has the piercings because they're badass and she likes them. I mean, do you need a reason for having stuff you like?”

“My tattoo is designed to honor Enkidu, a close companion to the first Shield of the King, Gilgamesh. I was just wondering if you had any backstory for yours too” Gladio took the opportunity and his shirt off to show off his own tattoo.

“It’s fine I get asked that a lot anyway… bet I can win against you in a swimming race!” Tanitha is so smirking right now, I can just feel it.

“Oh yeah? You're on! I’m not going to hold back just because you're a girl!”

“Please, if you did, I would be insulted… Last one to the water is a ninnyhammer”

“Aaaaaand there they go. I don’t think we’ll be seeing them for a while… So what do you want to do?” I ask looking between the guys left on the sand with me, and those sprinting away.

“20 gil says Gladio’ll win?” Prompto was looking at me, Ignis and Noctis hopefully, wondering if we’d bet against him, looking completely rejected when Ignis and Noctis answered.

“I’ll watch from the dock and judge who wins… just so that it’s fair.” 

“I’ll be fishing”

“You know what, I’ll join you, and I’m betting on Tanitha. She can move in the water” Prompto perked up at this and at that moment I knew… I would die for this loveable goofball a hundred times if I had to.

“You’re so on Avery, I’ve still got my money on Gladio”

And with that, we all enjoyed the best beach day I’d had in years. Tanitha and Gladio were racing each other down lengths of the shore in friendly competition, Noctis caught a good school’s worth of fish that Ignis was already deciding how to cook, Prompto was taking photos of everyone and everything, laughing the whole time. He was even still laughing when Gladio pulled him into the water by his leg while I looked through the day’s photos. In a quiet moment, I found myself sat on the end of one of the piers, feet in the water, looking around at the strange situation I had found myself in. As the sun headed towards the horizon, I never could have dreamed of any of this. It was nice. I hope we’ll always find moments like these, even in the future… even after all the bad that’s going to happen. I really do hope that as we grow to know each other more we still get moments like these.

---

Across the beach, I see Tanitha and Gladio wade out of the water and into earshot.

“I won”

“No, I’m pretty sure that was me.”

“Bitch, you wanna fight, I clearly won”

“Yeah I’ll fight you, when and where”

“Right here and now”

Getting in between the two bickering ‘adults’ Ignis quickly diffused the situation, “Come now, I think that's enough excitement for one day” 

“Ah man, it was just getting good” I started to pout, only half-jokingly. 

“Yeah I wanna see who would win” 

YEAH! You tell ‘em Prompto, glad you’ve got my back buddy

“I’m certain there’ll be plenty of time for that later. Right now we should head back to the hotel and get some sleep” I was still pouting and didn’t even consider food until Gladio spoke up, practically drooling, just thinking about what Ignis might cook..

“What about food?” 

“How does a plate of Grilled Wild Trevally sound? Freshly caught, courtesy of Noct.” Raising an eyebrow at Gladio trying to see if that would satisfy his monstrous appetite. We started making our way to the caravan where Tanitha and I would be staying so that Ignis could cook a wonderful meal.

“I can help if you want? I have years of cooking experience” Tanitha walked up to Ignis as she offered her help. Having done a lot of the cooking at the dojo herself, she knows the benefit of an extra set of hands when cooking for a group.

“Help is always appreciated, thank you.” Nodding his head, Ignis gladly accepts Tanithas help and ushers all of us outside so that they can concentrate on cooking.

After the wonderful meal, everyone was sat outside the caravan, between the plastic chairs and the steps, chatting and enjoying the night sky. There was a hint of smoke in the air, from a campfire somewhere down the beach, and I was hit by a wave of apprehension.

I shot a look over at Tanitha, as if to ask ‘ should we remind them about tomorrow?’

In return, Tanitha tilted her head and squinted slightly, ‘ Ok, I get you’re trying to ask me something, but I have no idea what it is.’

Ok, how do I get this across, without the guys picking up on it…

I scanned the beach, the guys were still gathered around the table, Gladio was telling a story about something that happened while he and Tanitha were swimming earlier. I shot another look at Tanitha, giving a sharp nod to the resort, and mouthing the word ‘tomorrow’. After a brief look of concentration, a look of realisation flashed across Tanitha’s face, followed by a look of apprehension that matched mine.

I took that to mean I should probably say something. I decided that Ignis would be the best one to remind, and quietly approached him.

“Hey Ignis, can I borrow you for a sec?” After he excused himself from the group, we walked a little way from the caravan, before he turned to face me.

“I don’t suppose we’ve walked all this way for you to tell me you enjoyed the dish?”

“It was the best fish I’ve ever had the honor to eat, but I’m afraid not. I wanted to remind you of what I said earlier. About the events of the future already being set in motion. Something big is coming, and soon. Sooner than any of us would like… I can’t stress how important this is, but there is nothing anyone can do to stop this one from happening… Uh, none of you are going to be in any immediate danger or anything, unless you go looking for it that is… But, uh, it’s just a heads up” I rubbed the back of my neck.

“I… understand… Thank you, Avery.” Ignis paused for a moment, he seemed grateful for what I’d said, despite how vague it was.

“Well, we best head back to the resort, we’ve booked a room there for the night and we wouldn’t want to stop you and Tanitha from getting a good night sleep as well.” Ignis adjusted his glasses and we began the walk back to the group.

This news will never come easy, but I can only hope that I've softened the harsh blow a bit.

When we returned, Noctis and Prompto were helping Tanitha with the dishes, while Gladio provided some much needed moral support. After thanking the chefs for the meal, I assured everyone we would meet up in Hammerhead sometime tomorrow afternoon, and we all wished each other a good night. Casting a quick glance back to the retreating forms of our only hope of survival, as they began to cross the bridge to the resort, I hoped that Ignis would tell them about what I had said.

--- 

By early morning I was sure I had gotten all the sleep I was going to, and sat outside the caravan to watch the sunrise. Tanitha was still sleeping inside, exhausted from a day of dojo fights and beach races, I closed the door behind me gently as I moved to sit on the step. I gave myself a few last minutes of peace, to ignore the weight of the world hanging above me by a thread, and watched the sky change colours. 

As the hue shifted from orange to yellow to blue, I knew it was time to start the day. I cast a glance towards the storm clouds gathering on the horizon and dusted the sand off my trousers. 

As I walked towards the end of the boardwalk, I saw Ignis coming from the opposite direction clutching a half-crumpled newspaper. He wore his casual shirt and a determined expression, as he took long purposeful strides towards the kiosk. I stopped when I reached the top of the steps. For the briefest of moments, and only to somebody watching for it, Ignis faltered. He took a half step backwards as he scanned the headlines, and another as paper after paper confirmed his fears. 

Then he stood a little straighter, took a newspaper from the stand in front of him and scanned the pages he deemed most relevant. When he had finished, he folded the paper again and held the fate of his home in one hand. I was certain I was blocking half of the stairs, but I couldn’t find it in myself to move from the spot my boots were rooted in.

Ignis’s eyes met mine.

He looked at me from across the deck.

His brow furrowed slightly and he gave me a look, as if to say ‘You knew about this?’  or ‘Is it true, all of it?’ or maybe even ‘This is what you were trying to warn us about, isn’t it?’ .

I could only give him a solemn nod. He looked back down at the paper in his hands, before letting out a breath and adjusting his glasses. I only hope he takes the proper time to grieve later. He gave me the slightest of nods in return, before heading back towards the resort.

My chest ached. I couldn’t tell whether it was from the breath I seemed to have been holding, or from knowing the pain the next few days would bring. When I first arrived here, after disappearing from the warehouse, I didn’t quite believe any of it had really happened. From the teleporting, to the video game creatures, to the video game characters, a voice in the back of my head told me, ‘ It’s all a dream, you’ll wake up from this beautiful, dangerous, incredible adventure, and laugh about how strange and real it felt, over breakfast with Tanitha.’ , and yet… Each moment that passed, the taste of the ocean air on my tongue, every footstep colliding with the solid ground, and every single breath of fresh air that entered my lungs was telling me, screaming at me, this was real. This was another world and it was real, and it was filled with real people, and somewhere out there, a real city had fallen to a real threat. I was long past the point of being concerned for characters I cared about in a video game, I was concerned for the fate of a world filled with people, a world I now lived in, indefinitely. 

I forced myself to breathe steady gulps of air as I approached the newspaper kiosk for myself. When I reached the stand, I read the headlines I knew would be there, but dreaded nonetheless. Paper after paper, the same bad news.

Insomnia Falls

Chapter Text

Insomnia Falls

I spent the time before Tanitha woke up reading and rereading the copy of The Galdin Beacon I picked up from the kiosk, trying to determine what I already knew and what might have changed since my arrival. Apart from the obvious news, not much was of interest or importance. Digging a notebook out of my backpack, I jotted down a couple things that seemed vaguely useful and set to work on my plan for the day. I started by drawing out a makeshift map of Lucis from memory on one of the back pages, somewhere just before my page of software notes I needed for class, but significantly after the planning pages for the coffee shop AU fic I was working on, and some other AU fics that shall… uh remain nameless. I couldn't have anyone finding those by accident... It wasn't the most precise of maps, but it would have to do until I had access to a proper one. 

I put my pen down and looked across the caravan at Tanitha.

Still asleep.

I picked up my pen again, spinning it between my fingers, as I flicked through my notebook.

I began twirling my pen around my fingers again, lost in nonexistent thoughts, after a minute it slipped through my fingers and clattered to the floor, rolling a little before hitting a paper bag of a few groceries. I slouched against the table for a moment.

I can't just sit here and do nothing, I needed to do something, I couldn't just sit still… 

My stomach growled. I had been awake for a fair bit, with nothing to eat. It seemed my stomach had solved my indecision for me. 

I stepped past the backpacks we had left strewn across the floor and stood in the tiny kitchen, eyeing the toaster with caution. The wire was held together in places by electrical tape, and the aged metal had warped away from the body near the back, despite the numerous appliance safety stickers littering its side, I didn't feel quite up to testing it out. I was going to have to survive countless monsters, daemons, and creatures of all sizes, not to mention the wrath of the crown prince, I didn’t exactly want to risk a freak toaster accident my first week on Eos.

I fetched a frying pan from one of the cupboards, as well as the bread and now-slightly-softened butter from the bag, and set to work on some toast. While it cooked to a good level of crispiness, I took stock of what we had, on a what-we-need-to-survive basis. We had some gil left from Ignis, about 400 gil, enough for maybe a week or two with food in a caravan. As for weapons, Tanitha probably has a couple knives tucked away somewhere, that telescoping stick staff thing, and her weird long-bladed stick… staff… glaive thing as well, not to mention her dojo training for each of them and, well, I have-

Not much. I don’t even have that branch anymore. If I learned anything from my first night on Eos, it’s that I need a branch. Well…  maybe not a literal branch, but a metaphorical branch, I’ll definitely need some sort of weapon to defend myself with. 

If I could get my hands on a gun, I'd probably survive a lot longer, after all, you can't stab, slash, or snack on something that's out of melee range. Thinking about it, anything projectile-based would be a good idea, I always did have a knack for aiming. And to think, the grocery store lady at my last summer internship said all my hours spent on arcade shooters would never amount to much. 

Just as I had finished making my toast Tanitha woke up with a start, “AVERY I HAD THIS TERRIBLE DREAM, THAT YOU WERE COOKING!”  

I’d take offense if her reaction wasn’t so funny...

I raised a piece of delicious, and well-prepared toast to my mouth and took a bite, “Sounds awful.”

Tanitha scowled at my direct eye contact

“Come on, get something to eat," I laughed, "We have to be out of the caravan by 10. And we need to get to Hammerhead for this afternoon. Without a car ."

“Yeah, yeah. I’m up, I’m up. No need to be so pedantic.” Tanitha mumbled, crossing the caravan towards the kitchen and dropping two slices of bread into the toaster before turning to face me again.

Before she could grill me about my cooking skills, or perceived lack thereof, I jumped in with my plan.

"So, Tanitha, I was thinking about weapons right? I need a gun, and the weapons guy usually sells handguns for like 50gil, with 30 odd damage, or Cocytus for like 150gil with 40 odd damage,"

Tanitha nodded slowly,

"so, I ask you, how do I spend a mere 150 gil and walk away with almost 100 damage?"

Tanitha narrowed her eyes slightly, before whispering "Avery, no."

"I buy three handguns and tape them together, that is thrice the damage, my dear friend." I smile with a flourish, almost not scattering crumbs across the table.

Tanitha just sighed deeply, looking ‘slightly’ disappointed and shook her head, "you know we can't do that A, no matter how much you think it would work. We need to save as much money as possible… so you're only going to be getting one gun and I'll lend you one of my knives... only for emergencies you understand, we can’t have you dying on us." She turned back to the toaster and caught the toast just as it popped, that is some freakishly good timing right there.

Sighing, I reply "Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Out of curiosity, how many knives do you have?"

Tanitha just turned her head around, smirked and said "that's for me to know and for you to never find out"

I just glared back, knowing I was more likely to create my own knife out of thin air, than I was to get a solid answer out of her, I decided to drop the subject.

------------------

When we next left the caravan, the Regalia was no longer parked outside, and deep grey clouds were gathered in the distance, inching ever closer. It was an uneasy reminder of what had happened, and what the guys were dealing with right now. 

I adjusted the backpack on my shoulders, and headed towards the weapons dealer guy, with as much purpose and confidence as I could manage. He was sitting but I could tell he was at least a head taller than me, and my badge-littered backpack and woolen jumper didn't exactly scream intimidating, or responsible-adult-you-should-sell-a-weapon-to. But I continued nonetheless. 

Approaching him, I stood as straight as I could, without looking like I was trying to be taller. It was almost working. The display was covered in an array of blades. Swords and daggers of differing size and shape glinted in the sunlight, a breeze barely shifting the lightest of them. 

“Hi, I’m looking for something solid I can defend myself with.”

That's it Avery, remember your eye contact.

The man looked up from his phone at me, from where he sat on the step of the van, and raised an eyebrow, “You lookin’ for anything in particular?” 

Confidence Avery, he won’t sell you a gun if he thinks you’re a child.

“I was thinking a handgun, preferably something that would keep both the creatures of the wild and of the night at bay.”

He looked at me a moment longer, as if he was searching for something in my face. Seemingly satisfied, he turned and unclasped a decorative gold handgun, from the rack behind him.

"This one's Cocytus, has an elemental kick to it. 'S got ice in its barrel, use that to your advantage when you get the chance. 'Fraid it's the only handgun I've got in at the minute, but I'm looking into getting new stock in the next few weeks."

"It's perfect, I'll take it." I said, reaching for the pocket I had put gil for weapons in, "how much do I owe you?"

------------------

When I returned to Tanitha she had just finished her morning training, and was surveying the mostly empty beach as she waited. Ignis had given us 400gil, I had just spent 150gil on my gun… 250gil minus what we had already spent on the caravan, groceries, and my souvenir shirt.. meant we were quickly running low on funds. 

“Ok Tan, good news and bad news.”, I said as I approached.

Tanitha cocked an eyebrow.

“Bad news is, we’ve spent more than half the gil Iggy gave us. Good news is check this out!” With that, I pulled Cocytus from the holster I was generously given by the still-unnamed weapons dude. The golden metal glinted in the sunlight, it was only slightly heavier than I had expected, and cold in my hands, despite the warm Galdin sun that kept dipping behind the quickly greying clouds. 

“Ok then, that means we are going to have to get some money faster than I thought, and we're not equipped to do hunts yet.” Nodding to herself, I could see her calculating everything that she knew we needed to do.

“Ah, I had the beginnings of a plan for that. You remember how much time I’d spend in-game searching for loot? I was thinking we could walk around the beach and the resort looking for shiny things, you know, rocks, metal scraps, some casual sharp bones, and anything else we bump into?” I started using my fingers to list off the things that we could find on the beach right now, before waving my hand in an 'anything-else' kind of motion. 

“How about you go searching for the loot, and sell it at the kiosk, and I'll look for someone heading in the direction of Hammerhead.” She pointed to me, then herself. Raising an eyebrow in question as she asks, “We are still heading there right?” 

“Well, at this point it’s either we go meet up with the guys in Hammerhead and face what's coming, or we go live out the rest of our days in the back end of the Vesperpool, never to be seen by human eyes again.” I finish my point with a dramatic sweeping arm movement and a flourish. 

After half an hour, Tanitha had found a Hunter heading towards Longwythe that was willing to give us a lift. I, on the other hand, had filled my pockets with scraps of metal, sand, a few rocks, a single sharp bone, and what I hoped was an 800gil ancient dragon tooth. Luckily I had spent enough time on the Wiki page that I could remember where it was. After selling them to the kiosk on the pier I had made about 1300gil, which was more than I had expected, and we were ready to head out. We hop into the back of the Hunter’s truck and make ourselves comfortable amongst the bags and ropes that were stored there. With a rumble of the engine and the clouds above, we set off.

------------------

No sooner than Longwythe appeared on the horizon, the sky opened up and unleashed the torrential downpour we’d been expecting. I hastily retrieved a yellow rain poncho from an outside pocket of my backpack and pulled it over my head; I knew it wouldn't do much, but it would be better than nothing. The plastic hood had a duck beak on it, and I just knew I was the perfect image of a professional hunter…

The truck rolled to a stop, Tanitha jumped out first, already walking around to the driver window, and I stumbled out after her. We thanked the hunter, and left Longwythe, heading out on foot towards Hammerhead. 

We had been trudging along for a few minutes, my boots sticking in the wet sand, when I heard the sound of airships. I looked to the skies, and saw enormous hulking machines, all steel and strange enginery. I had seen the warped wings of Niflheim Airships before, but the sheer scale of them astounded me. If they were any bigger, they could have blocked out the sun itself

“Is that?”
“An Imperial Dreadnought,” I supplied, as I watched it crawl across the drenched skies. We stood there for a minute, just looking at the airships and the thought of what was inside, before continuing on.

We didn't get much farther before we were stopped again.

"Not even ten minutes out from Longwythe and we're already in a fucking fight!" Tanitha shouted, reaching for her weapon, and evaluating a group of sabertusks that were creeping in to circle us. 

I quickly scanned our surroundings, eyes landing on a large rock. I spotted a gap in the formation and dove towards it, dodge-rolling out of the circle, and into cover. 

"Not to mention that it's also fucking raining, I can barely see! I hate this shit!" The closest sabertusk to Tanitha lunges at her, but she dodges it with practiced ease, her staff chasing its mark. 

"I'm used to fighting taller enemies, with less teeth ." Another sabertusk snarled before attacking. "Same amount of bloodlust though." She added.

"It could have been worse," I return, pulling Cocytus from its holster and wiping rain from my eyes. 

The heavy, metal end of the staff Tanitha was swinging collided with another sabertusk, as she called back, “How? Exactly? How could it have been worse? First fight, it’s raining, and we’re- I'm almost completely surrounded, and you're behind a rock! Coward!”

"Ranged!?" I returned.

I didn’t yet trust my aim enough to shoot at the same enemies Tanitha was fighting, but I could definitely pick off some of the ones circling her.

"You don't see Prompto hiding behind rocks!" Tanitha called back.

I peeked around the rock, aimed, and pulled the trigger. A chunk of wet sand leapt out of the ground, a foot to the right of the sabertusk I was aiming for.

Shit, aim better. How does Prompto do this so easily… I’ll have to ask him for tips when I can.

“Well, Promptos had more practice!”
I wiped away more rainwater, adjusted my aim to the left a little, and tried again. This time the bullet hit home and the sabertusk recoiled, flinching away from the group. Another shot and it fell. 

“Besides, it could’ve been a behemoth,” I ducked back behind the rock for a moment, “Or a daemon? Adamantoise perhaps? Oh! I showed you the video of the Omega fight, right? Level 119 was it?!”

Tanitha swung her staff around again, using the momentum to smash into two sabertusks that were gearing up to attack.

“Yes, ok, Ave, I get it, it could’ve been worse. Could you please try and focus on the task right now? I'm not gonna finish them off myself. ” She lifted the staff, already picking her next target.

“Hey! I am focusing, I think I’m doing pretty well considering I’ve never shot a real gun before.”

A smaller beast behind her began taking a few steps back, preparing to leap at Tanitha while she was distracted. I stood up behind the rock, and held my gun arm out in front of me. This one was closer to Tanitha than the others I’d shot already, I’d have to aim well. I aimed further left than I had for my previous shot, hoping that even if it leaned right, it would still be far enough left to be safe. I pulled the trigger and it struck the back legs just as it began to propel itself forwards. Tanitha spun at the sound, raising her staff and slicing down, with perfect timing to take down the sabertusk as it struggled to get up.

Maybe we’d survive the trip to Hammerhead yet.

“Point taken,” Tanitha shouted back, getting ready to deliver another blow to the sabertusks that surrounded her. 

We carried on like this for some time, Tanitha taking down enemies closer to her, and me shooting the ones a little further out. I appreciated the opportunity to improve my aim before I had to fight alongside Tanitha and the guys.

I picked off another sabertusk circling Tanitha, and ducked back behind my rock to reload Cocytus. That’s when I heard a loud snarl from behind me. Far too close for comfort.

I turned to see a drooling, toothy maw. I had managed to completely miss a sabertusk making its way behind me. I threw myself to the wet sand, just in time to dodge the brunt of the attack. The sabertusk slammed into the rock, giving me just enough time to flip onto my back and get the dagger that Tanitha had given me this morning. 

It scraped itself back up to its feet and shook the impact off. 

“TANITHA! A-A LITTLE HELP HERE? I’M NOT TRAINED FOR THIS!” Not taking my eyes off of the hulking beast that was preparing to attack me with no hesitation or remorse.

I grip the dagger in my hand a little tighter as I scramble backwards, my boots kicking up piles of wet sand. The sabertusk lunged at me, teeth bared, and snarling. I kick at it as I struggle to dodge right, boot colliding with a clawed leg. It stumbles, but remains undeterred. I slash at the beast, urging Tanitha to appear and come to my rescue.

Hopefully, she gets here before this sabertusk takes a chunk out of me.

As if the sabertusk read my mind, it began its attack once again. I glanced at a glint of metal in the rain, my gun was just out of reach, having landed in the sand when I had dodged the sabertusk’s first attack. It wasn’t reloaded yet. I swiped my arm out again, the dagger slashing into the beast once more. These attacks were doing damage, but not enough.

I’d have to hit deeper.

I swung the dagger out one last time, aiming to sink it into the creature’s neck. Its claws dug into my leg as it rushed to avoid my arm, my blade wedging itself deep, a few short inches closer to its shoulder than jugular. I yanked my arm back to shift into a defensive position again, but the move was cut short.
The blade was stuck.

The blade was stuck.

I quickly discovered that it was incredibly difficult to remove a dagger from a writhing creature, whose jaw is as long as your arm and right next to your face. I pulled at the handle again, desperately trying to free the weapon. The sabertusk lifted its head to howl into the air, but began to lower it towards me again just as quickly, fangs poised to kill.

I have to let go of the knife.

If I let go of the knife and couldn’t reach it again, I’d be weaponless. My gun was still unloaded and out of reach. I wouldn’t stand a chance. Time seemed to slow as the beast opened its jaw.

I have to let go of the knife.

A half-second passed, I released my grip on the knife, and as I brought my arm back I smacked the creature’s head away from me. As I shifted into position to punch the sabertusk in the face, I saw a shadow silhouetted against the clouds.

“Maximum effort!”

Tanitha, who was a moment before stood on the rock, leapt into the air. She landed with an easy frontflip on the opposite side of the sabertusk, but not before sending her glaive through the beast’s torso, pinning it to the ground at an angle.

With one last shout, the sabertusk collapsed above me, only avoiding crushing me with thanks to the staff wedged through its stomach.

“Nice one there, Tan,” I sank my head back onto the sand and caught my breath for a moment. Other than a few scratches here and there, and the fact I was completely soaked and caked in sand, I was alright. I was still alive. I sat up a little and awkwardly shuffled out from under the sabertusk, they understandably don’t despawn like they do in-game. Tanitha freed the dagger from where it was still wedged in the creature’s neck and returned it to me. I thanked her and set to work locating, reloading, and returning Cocytus to its holster, looking up in time to see Tanitha retrieving her glaive, one foot on the sabertusk for leverage. She helped me up again, and it wasn’t long before we were back on our way.

------------------

Seeing the sign for Hammerhead peeking out over the horizon has never brought more dread or joy, than at this moment. The rest of the walk passed by in no time at all.

By the time we reached Hammerhead, I could feel rainwater soaking through the outer layers of my sleeves, having completely missed the rain poncho. Tanitha didn’t look like she was any more water-resistant than I was, but regardless she seemed unfazed by it all.

Our first course of action was to get out of the rain; the second, find somewhere to stay the night. We managed to tick both off in quick succession, by using some of the money I earned from combing the beach to rent the caravan for the night. We rushed inside, putting our bags down and attempting to dry ourselves off a little.

“Man, those are some dramatic storm clouds.” I traced the shape of the garage on the caravan window, as it continued to rain, harder than ever.

Tanitha came over to where I was sat in the caravan “I don’t think it’s going to be getting any better either… you ready for when Noctis and the others get back? Because it's not going to be easy, he’s going to be very hard to reason with when they get back.” 

“Ready? No way. Um… hungry? Yes. Let's get food. Takka’s sounds good.” Changing the subject comes easier than sitting still, and facing what's coming. I stand abruptly, heading for the door. I’m barely halfway across the concrete before I realise I left my poncho behind. All of a sudden my vision is blocked by bright yellow fabric. Looking to my side I see Tanitha, who had just dumped the poncho over my head.

“Don’t want you catching a cold on me, now do we?” She said running ahead into the diner.

Once inside I look around and see there are people there, hovering mostly inside the diner. Through the window I could see some people taking cover under the sheltered area just outside of the shop, all of them had clearly gotten word of Insomnia. The diner is nowhere near as loud as you would expect for the crowd inside. People are gathered at tables or in booths, speaking in hushed tones, some of them are crying, others comforting those around them. I hear the word ‘Insomnia ’ mentioned more than once.

Slightly startled, after spotting two more drenched, unfamiliar faces at his doorstep, Takka welcomes us to the diner and offers us bowls of hot Chili con Carne. Another look around shows that there are several bowls dotted around the tables, in front of rain-soaked locals and Insomnian refugees alike. 

We were almost finished with our food when we heard the familiar sound of a car engine approaching… and parking nearby. I felt my heartbeat quicken as I realised what was about to go down.

We head to the entrance just in time to see the guys getting out of the car, they speak to Cindy and then head into the garage for a talk with Cid. 

I step down and away from the door, rain soaking my jumper, having left the poncho inside the diner. I didn't have the courage to go back and get it, in fear of not coming out again to face the feeling of dread that was bubbling away in my stomach.

I should go over there… I should explain… 

In my hesitation, the minutes passed like seconds and before I could go over I saw that the guys were heading back to the car, about to go find Cor. I started to walk towards the Regalia, but before I could get very far Noctis looked up and spotted me standing halfway between him and the caravan.

“You!” His hand falls from the door handle, as he takes a few steps towards us… towards me. Prompto is on the other side of the car, but he steps a little closer to Noct, like he was debating whether he should try and stop him.

"You knew," he spat, eyes dark like daggers pointed to kill.

I swallowed, Chili and guilt rising in my throat, "of course I knew" I couldn't bring myself to meet his eyes.

Noctis makes to storm another few steps forwards, his boots crashing into a puddle, when Ignis puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him from being too hasty.

“Noct-”

He breaks free of Ignis’s hold, a shimmer, and a blade materialises in his hand, then hits the concrete in front of me with a clatter, Noctis following a heartbeat later. 

"Noctis, I am so sorry" I try to calm the situation a little bit… but with all the rage in his eyes, I’m not sure it will help.

"You could've told us, we could've done something." 

"I'm so sorry" If I can just explain myself, make him understand... "there was nothing anyone could have done, nobody could’ve stopped Insomnia from falling."

"How do you know? We could have tried. The King is dead-" He stepped closer with every word he said, forcing me to take steps back

"I know it isn't easy, but you’ve got to believe me-" listen to what I’m saying, please.

"-My Father is dead-" nothing could have been done.

"And you think I wanted that? Please Noctis, I’ve seen this happen, time and time again, I don’t think anyone could have-" Please listen  

"-Why should I trust what you think? Why should I believe that you’re here to help? Why should I listen to you, when you won't even tell us about things like this?”

I know he’s right

“Next you know there's going to be some, big, catastrophic event at Lestallum that you ‘can’t’ tell us about. So why, why should I believe anything that comes out of your mouth?'

It wasn’t quite rage, his eyes are filled with anger and hurt.

"Noctis please. Ever since I got here, all I have done and will always try to do, is help you guys in every way I am physically able to, I am trying my best-!"

"It’s not good enough-"

"You don’t think I know that?!" I hear my voice crack, as I take my own step towards him.

"If I told you yesterday what was going to happen, if I gave you even a hint about Insomnia, you would have tried to go back and stop it, YOU KNOW WHAT, you wouldn't have made any difference at all, none of us would, not with Niflheim attacking with their Diamond Weapons."

"We could’ve sent a warning, we could’ve had a head start on them at least."

"You think the Niffs wouldn’t have planned for that? Insomnia’s fate was sealed from the moment the peace treaty was proposed!"

"We could have still tried."

"If anything different happened… anything unexpected, then there would be no guarantee that Luna would have got out safely. It wouldn't work… that's not how the story goes."

"Oh, of course, that's not how this ‘story’ goes, you're not even supposed to be here… even exist in this so-called ‘story’ of yours, so how do you know you haven’t messed all of this up just by being here?"

"Believe me, I am fully aware of that possibility, I have no idea why I’m even here. But the one thing I do know is that no matter what, no one could have prevented that event from happening."

"I don’t care what you think is possible or not, you should have told me, you should have told us, so we could try and help."

"You know what I think? I think if you guys were in Insomnia last night, you'd be dead too."