A/N: This is the first in a series of stories designed to fill in the holes of the XV plot. As such, and as far as I could make it, this series is canon-compliant. Footnotes are available on the AO3 version explaining certain plot decisions and references. Enjoy!

Chapter One: Where Paths Diverge

So, maybe staying behind to fight the daemon hordes hadn't been the brightest idea Gladio had ever come up with.

The thought occurred to him too late to be of much use. After everything—making it through Zegnautus Keep, finding Noct and Prompto, putting Ravus down for good—it had all come to naught. They reached the top of the fortress just in time to watch their king, their friend, their brother being swallowed by the light of the Crystal as Ardyn looked on.

"I shall keep your friends company until you are ready," the Chancellor was saying in that oily tone Gladio had long since come to despise. His final words were nearly drowned out by Noct's scream as the Crystal glowed blindingly for a moment—and then he was gone.

If a heart could skip a few beats, Gladio was pretty sure that was what was happening to him. From their stunned stillness, he assumed Ignis and Prompto weren't doing much better. The former didn't need to be able to see properly to know that something terrible had just happened—something they'd willingly sent Noct into without considering the consequences.

It was supposed to stop the daemons…

That thought was the only thing Gladio could register as he stared at the darkened Crystal in disbelief. It was supposed to save us. The king controls the Crystal, not the other way around!

It wasn't a gradual thing. It wasn't like coming out of a dream to realize that everything was going to shit around you. No, this was sudden; the flame of rage and despair that sparked in his chest was as unexpected as it was potent. The last time Gladio had felt even an ounce of this sentiment was in Altissia, watching Noct move around like a ghost when the world needed him to pull his head out of his ass and remember who he was.

But Noctis was gone. There would be no more anger at him for not pulling himself out of his grief sooner or exasperation for his inability to see the suffering Ignis was enduring—if that was even the case. Regardless, it was over. Noctis was gone, and the man responsible was standing before the King's Shield just waiting to be felled.

Gladio was moving before he was fully aware of it. As Ardyn sauntered closer to the Crystal, Gladio flew across the scaffolding with his remaining brothers close behind. It was only in a brief instant of clarity that he motioned for Ignis to stay back while Prompto skidded to a stop behind the Chancellor. It would be so easy, so simple to just chop the asshole's head off and be done with it.

Which meant there had to be something else.

Prompto was obviously thinking along the same lines, his eyes searching the chamber the way Gladio's were until Ardyn turned to them with a smug smirk that was practically begging to be punched.

"I'm afraid you're too late," he mused carelessly, as if he wasn't standing before three professional—angry—warriors.

It was more than Gladio could bear, nor did he try to. As Ardyn moved to walk past them, Gladio hauled his greatsword into motion and slashed it right across the Chancellor's face. Darkness oozed from the wound like smoke, poisoning the air around them the same way Ardyn's very presence had a habit of doing.

But it didn't stop him. Gladio may have hit him with a stick for all the Chancellor seemed to feel the blow.

A deafening bang echoed through the chamber as Prompto whipped out a pistol and shot Ardyn in the back, throwing him forward to the ground. As the sound of the attack reverberated off the walls in the residual silence, Gladio stared in vehement satisfaction as Ardyn, unmoving, lay before them and his hat rolled to a halt at Ignis's feet. It was nothing more than he deserved—it was justice for the lives he'd taken and the suffering he'd inflicted.

This wasn't the place for justice, however. Deep in the heart of Niflheim, surrounded by daemons and MTs and every other foul thing imaginable, was not the place to find comfort or satisfaction. So it should have come as no surprise to any of them when Ardyn reached out, grabbed his hat, and maneuvered himself to his feet in one fluid motion.

Gladio couldn't help the way his mouth fell open, how his heart ached at the realization that after all the Chancellor had done, they still couldn't kill the son of a bitch. They still couldn't avenge their home, his father, Jared, King Regis…or Noctis.

It was impossible to discern whether it was Ardyn reading his mind or simply cruel irony that made him sneer, "And you call yourselves bodyguards."

To his left, Prompto deflated slightly, and Gladio couldn't help feeling the same. After all, where was the lie in that?

"Don't worry," called Ardyn over his shoulder as he strolled leisurely back towards the elevator, a trail of darkness Gladio had only ever seen released from slain daemons in his wake. "You'll have plenty of time to practice before the king returns."

With that, he was gone, leaving the three of them alone in the dark.

"What… What do you think that means?"

Ignis doubted he would ever grow completely accustomed to his lack of vision, but Prompto's misery was tangible enough that he hardly needed his eyes. Indeed, without having to see what had happened, it had been impossible to miss the bright (or so it would have been to someone who wasn't him, he supposed) flash of light and the scream that was too familiar not to recognize. And Gladio's silence, of course, spoke volumes.

Carefully, Ignis moved his cane in a wide arc before taking a few steps forward. A hand descended on his left shoulder and stopped him when he'd hardly moved, and Gladio muttered, "Careful. Don't want that thing swallowing you, too."

"Y-yeah, what he said," sighed Prompto, the air shifting to Ignis's right side as he assumed the former came to stand beside him.

With a frown, Ignis paused as everything came together in his head. "The Crystal, you mean?"

One grunt of affirmation from Gladio shattered the darkness, if only in his own mind. How stupid they had been to assume that the Crystal itself was somehow responsible for keeping daemons at bay. How arrogant of them to think that the end of their struggles would come at so low a cost, or that it would be so simple to end a war that had been waging for hundreds of years when so many had died in the attempt before.

How unforgivable of them to forget all that King Regis had suffered in using the power of the Crystal to keep them all safe.

"The Crystal was never meant to banish the daemons," Ignis realized aloud, shaking his head. There was a scoff to his left.

"Yeah, we figured that much out," grumbled Gladio derisively. It was easy to forgive him his attitude, all things considered: he was the King's Shield, and much as Ignis hated to admit it, he'd failed. They all had.

Or…have we?

"The Chancellor said that the king would return," mused Ignis, folding his arms in pensive reflection. "When we got here, he was telling Noct that he would keep us company until he was ready."

"Your point?" Gladio sighed, sounding more tired than angry now.

"My point is that this is perhaps one final trial before Noctis can fulfill his calling as the King of Kings."

"So, like…an obstacle course? In there?" The ruffling of cloth told Ignis that Prompto must have pointed to the Crystal. Maybe he could get the swing of this after all.

"Finding the damn Crystal was enough of an obstacle course," observed Gladio.

Ignis nodded in agreement before continuing, "A bit of an elementary idea, but in a sense, yes. Consider what the Crystal is and where it came from."

"It's got…something to do with the Star, right?" asked Prompto hesitantly.

"Indeed it does. As do the Six."

There was a brief silence before Gladio slowly deduced, "So, you're thinking one of the Six is in the Crystal, and that's why it took Noct inside."

"Precisely," confirmed Ignis, hearing Prompto's sharp intake of breath. "Noct received blessings from the four Astrals maintaining a presence in Eos. The Draconian and the Infernian were nowhere to be found. He's proven himself worthy to wield the Ring of the Lucii, so it stands to reason that he must now do the same to gain control of the Crystal."

"But…" Prompto paused a second before asking, "How long could that take?"

And there it was: the unknowable part of the riddle. It was the darkness that would plague them in the days to come, Ignis had no doubt, as they wondered just how long they were to wait for their king to return to them. He refused to let his faith waver, though—Noctis would return, and that was the important thing.

They just had to be patient.