Chapter Text

Last Of The Real Ones

Going With The Flow (And Letting The Dog Call The Shots)

For as much as Noctis teased Prompto for the blonde’s painfully obvious crush on Cindy, it was pretty obvious that the prince wasn’t much better.  The guys just decided not to say anything, especially considering the original reason for the road trip.  No, the prince didn’t have a crush on Cindy, but the young woman that would help out at the garage when she wasn’t on a Hunt – you.  There was an air of…freedom around you that Noctis admired – or maybe even envied – at his first glance.  Then he got to know you and that first-sight crush turned into budding feelings for who you are.  If you only saw each other when the guys stopped at Hammerhead or Cape Caem, that would be one thing, but you’d bump into the guys when you were out on a hunt or doing a supply run for some of the rarer parts Cindy needed.  You’d even travelled with the guys for a while, first when they were giving you and Iris a ride to Cape Caem – after the attack on Lestallum Gladio felt safer knowing you were with Iris when he couldn’t be – and sticking around to help out when Gladio took a leave of absence for personal reasons.

You weren’t entirely sure how you were found, or where for that matter.  Beyond your name and your age of fifteen, all you clearly remembered of your past when you were found three short years earlier, all you clearly remembered of the event was waking up in a bed in Hammerhead, and your only hint was a small red gem, roughly chiseled and attached to a thin black rope.  Honestly, you didn’t even remember the Glaives who had found you and left you in Cid’s care in Hammerhead.  You’d long since given up on figuring it out, or learning the details of whatever feats of engineering Cid and Cindy were capable of, and looked at Hammerhead as home.  You knew who you were, and that wasn’t about to change just because you didn’t know where you came from.  Though, either you were entirely obtuse or just pretended not to notice the prince’s growing infatuation with you, and looking back all these years later it was pretty obviously the second.

You’d seen Umbra around before, but you thought he’d stick around someone from Noctis’ retinue instead of settling for following you around.  You weren’t complaining, your continued hunts and savaging through Solheim ruins for useful items was lonely without the pup, but you were honestly a bit surprised.  That second part was mostly at Umbra’s own insistence, he’d taken off from the Haven near Costlemark Tower south of the crater left behind by the meteor and you barely had time to grab your double-bladed staff and satchel of curatives before taking off after the barking dog.  He would pause to assist you in fighting the daemons blocking your way before dashing off towards what looked to be a wall in the depths.  You tried getting him to follow you out, but heaved a heavy sigh and resigned yourself to a life-threatening event due to the pup’s curiosity as you stepped closer to the wall he was just sitting by.

You froze as you felt the tower begin to shake, the blue lights lining the walls turned red as the wall in front of you just shattered like glass and vanished into light, opening an entirely different path you doubted the boys found when they traversed through Costlemark Tower.  You pulled your flashlight out of your bag, lighting it as you walked through the ruins that looked like they’d been untouched – even by daemons – since the fall of Solheim.

It wasn’t until the third time you traversed into the depths of Solheim ruins that the batteries in your flashlight died and you noticed the red glow of the stone hanging from your neck, the light expanding to engulf you and Umbra as you continued to traverse through the untouched sections of the ruins.  If it weren’t for the Starscourge, you would have spent more time wandering the ruins across Lucis.  There had to be answers in one of them.  You were just so…baffled at the fact you had some strange stone that opened sections of Solheim ruins nobody else could get to, and every time you tried to ask Cid for answers he didn’t seem to have any.

Once again, it was Umbra who kept pawing at your map – specifically Gauldin Quay – until you finally decided to appease him and drive your old pickup back to the abandoned beach.  He was patient enough to rest at the nearby Haven for a few hours before leading you off through a set of ruins you didn’t even know existed.  It looked like nobody had even found the entrance, and the front door only opened as a response to your gem.  The pup stuck by your side, seemingly just as lost as you while you tried to find your way through the ruins, until you reached a cliffside opening that gave you the clearest and closest view of Angelguard Island you’ve ever had.  You stepped closer, planning on taking a seat in – what seemed to be – relative safety as the ruins defenses against daemons seemed to still be functioning.

The blue lights around you glowed red, like all the others, as red shards of light pieced themselves together to form a bridge leading to the island.  That struck you as odd, considering Angelguard had a particularly special role for the hexatheon and played no part in the stories about Solheim…at least, as far as anyone knew.  All the stories about Solheim were wildly different and even actively conflicted each other much of the time.  There was no telling what was true and what wasn’t.  So you just, continued along the bridge and made your way through the island, dashing after Umbra as he barked happily and took off at high speeds through the island.  You barely even registered the Glaives on the island as they stood aside and let you follow the dog through the depths of the island until you nearly tripped at the pup’s sudden halt in front of the massive crystal before the two of you.

“Alright Umbra…” you muttered just loud enough for your furry companion to hear, having become close to the dog over the last decade, “What have you gotten me into now?”

You were left wondering that very same thing for a few days, the Glaives never seeming to enter the exact room – if you could call it that – you were in as if they weren’t allowed or they were showing proper respect.  You weren’t quite sure what to make of it, all they’d really told you was it was that exact crystal that gave the Caelum line their power.  You’d stepped out to speak with the few remaining Glaives when you heard Umbra barking excitedly once again, causing you to dash back into the chamber as wisps of blue magic started dancing around the crystal erratically.  You cautiously stepped closer, dashing forward when you saw a hand reaching out from the crystal itself.  You barely dove to your knees in time to catch the man who fell out of it before he made a hard impact with the stone ground.

You recognized those clothes…

“Noctis?”  Just…what in the ever-loving hell was going on?  If Umbra knew this was going to happen, why didn’t he try to get one of Noctis’ friends to join the two of you?  It was all just…

You wished you had time to bother with looking for answers, that wasn’t going to be an option as you helped the exhausted royal back to his feet and back to the Haven where you’d set up camp.  The Glaives had stuck by the two of you long enough to ensure you were safe before just…taking off.

“Thanks for the help, appreciate all those answers you gave me.  Don’t worry, we’ll take it from here, not like there’s an army of Iron Giants and Firebombs between us and Hammerhead, and I definitely know where Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis are,” you called after the departing Glaives, sarcasm thick as you wore an equally sarcastic smile until you were sure the Glaives were long out of earshot and your shoulders slumped as you tried to rub the exhaustion from your eyes before you looked down at Umbra as he pawed at your leg.

“You better figure out how to talk fast because everyone’s gonna have a lot of questions and my only answer is ‘I don’t know, the dog’s the one in charge.’”