#Running Onwards (A Timelooping Nyx AU) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

carminite-wyrm · 3 years

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A Kingsglaive Time Loop AU, Part 1

Nyx Ulric wakes up, the memories of a burning city, of betrayal and loss, fresh in his mind. It is not the first time that he wakes this way, and it won't be the last.

Or: Nyx has a very, very bad time.

Now with a Part 2!

Nyx gasped awake, the scent of ash and burning flesh, and the sound of war and ruin still fresh in his mind, a burning ember of phantom pain deep in his chest. He lay there, eyes quickly taking stock of the room he was in, a room that was so familiar to his senses, a room that he could have sworn should have been reduced to so much broken rubble, like the rest of Insomnia. He could see the fading curtains, the walls that were slightly cracked, the photos of his family and friends. By all appearances, this was the same damn apartment he’d lived in for nearly the past decade, down to even that one corner where it would always leak when it rained. Off to the side, he could see his phone, the date and day clearly marked upon it. The day that the ceasefire, and the peace treaty, had been declared.

He slowly ran his fingers over the worn fabric beneath him, the soft texture slowly easing the rapid pace of his heartbeat. He finally managed to drag himself into a sitting position, and lifted his left arm into the thin strip of sunlight that managed to peek through the curtains. There was no sign of the magical scarring that had crawled up his arm like wildfire, when he had put on that damn ring. His arm moved freely, none of the pain he still remembered slowing him down.

With a groan, he stumbled to his feet, shaking his head as he tried to dispel the…dream, it had to have been a dream, one born from that crippling loss that had nearly seen him lose Libertus, alongside the other fellow brothers and sisters in the Kingsglaive. There was no way everything had been real, even if there were elements of reality to it, such as that damnable giant daemon that had nearly been the cause of Libertus’ death. Now that he thought about it, really thought about it, away from the panic and adrenaline of oh shit everything is going to hell and the King is dead and so was-

Yeah, there was no fucking way any of that was real. It had felt real, sure, but Nyx was pretty damn sure that rationally, there was no way the King would have deigned to give him of all people the all-powerful ancestral ring that held together the shield over the city, and much more to boot. After all, didn’t the King still have people like Marshal Leonis, who definitely had the proper skills and strengths to guard something as important as that? Not some random Glaive who was in the process of serving out yet another punishment for insubordination.

Feeling almost like he was a ghost in his own body, Nyx decided the logical thing to do was to find Libertus and Crowe, his two best friends. Not just because he wanted to make sure they were fine, of course, but also-

Oh, who was he kidding, the dream – and yes, it was absolutely a dream, Nyx affirmed to himself – had in fact rattled him enough that he wanted to hug those two for at least an hour.

As he stumbled out of his apartment, blinking at the sunlight above him, he tried to remember where he was meant to be going, where he would be able to find Libertus and Crowe at…around midday, now that he checked his phone. His phone buzzed then, from where he had haphazardly crammed it into his uniform pocket. Taking it out, he smiled slightly at the message, which turned out to be from Libertus, and handily reminded him that they were meeting up in one of the training grounds.

Nyx tucked the phone away, and decidedly pushed aside the little part of himself that quietly reminded him that this was exactly how things had played out, in the dream. He still had to hold himself back from desperately clinging to Crowe and Libertus like his life depended on it, when he finally met up with them, though he did still give them both a slightly calmer hug, to their surprise.

That dream was just a combination of recent trauma, his own over-active imagination, and also probably more trauma.

Right?

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Thirty minutes later, he was watching the news report about the coming Peace Treaty with Niflheim, the other Kingsglaive around him murmuring in discontent. As Commander Drautos -and how could he be a traitor, how could any of them be traitors- debriefed them, Nyx found himself having to hide his hands in the pockets of his uniform, the phantom urge to reach out and just end the man keeping him on edge the whole time, to the point that he almost missed Crowe being called away for a separate assignment.

Two days after he had woken up from that terrible dream, he watched as Libertus stormed away, the death-glazed eyes of Crowe staring up at him from inside the bodybag.

And on the 16th of May, four days after that dream, everything fell apart.

Nyx screamed wordlessly as he watched King Regis die at Glauca’s hands, the scene identical to the one he had dreamt, as Lunafreya spoke words that almost fell on horror-deaf ears, that only registered because he could almost speak them word for word himself.

He stumbled as the King’s magic disappeared, only kept upright by the fact that he already knew, somehow, what it felt like to lose that connection, the steel-spark buzz of power fleeing from where it had lain within him.

He received Drautos’ call almost in a fugue, his words echoing those from his dream. And it was only the memory of that dream that meant that the bullet from that traitorous bastard Lazarus only went through his arm, instead of through his shoulder, though the shock of it still had him on the ground. He mouthed the words Lazarus spoke, as he gloated, as he was goaded by Lunafreya into putting on that ring.

Libertus ramming into Drautos- no, Glauca, with the car, nearly made Nyx laugh out loud, it was so ridiculously accurate it felt like it was scripted. And when he faced the old Kings of Lucis, in that otherworldly time, it was only the faintest sense that he needed to save Libertus and Lunafreya, no matter what, that stopped him from cackling hysterically in the face of those reticent ghosts.

Nyx died with burning scars tracing up his left arm, with the rising sun in his eyes and the ruins of a dead city behind him.

And then he gasped awake, the scent of ash and burning flesh, and the sound of war and ruin still fresh in his mind, a burning ember of phantom pain deep in his chest.

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All in all, Nyx thought it was perfectly justified that he missed the treaty announcement, and the subsequent debriefing, curled up in bed for the past hour as he realised, truly, that this wasn’t all just a horrible dream. That he was indeed reliving the same five days, the five days that would culminate in the fall of Insomnia, the deaths of almost everyone he’d cared for, and his own death at the very end of it all.

The ringing of his phone had eventually stopped, if only because he’d thrown it haphazardly off to another end of the room, and probably broken it in the process. With that in mind, he absently gave himself another twenty or so minutes before Libertus or Crowe, or both of them, broke into his room demanding if he was alright.

Oh shit, Crowe.

He dragged himself off his bed, and stumbled over to his sink, as the image of Crowe’s corpse rose unbidden at the thought. He stood there, hunched over the sink, as he desperately tried to bring some semblance of rational thought back.

He just. Needed to make sure Crowe wouldn’t go on that damned set-up of a mission, the one that would have Luche -that fucking traitorous bastard- killing her for- For what, exactly? Luche had only talked about what Niflheim had promised him and the other traitors, after he had revealed what he had done.

Alright, then. Nyx nodded to himself, taking a moment to wash away the acrid taste of bile. Crowe first, everything else can wait.

He had four days, or three, if he discounted this one, before Niflheim would attack during that farce of a treaty ceremony. Four days to figure out how to avert disaster.

Nyx briefly entertained the thought of just, grabbing Crowe and Libertus, and heading for literally anywhere other than Insomnia, before roughly brushing it aside. No, he had a second, well, third chance, somehow. A chance to make things better, to make it so that no one (except those who really, really deserved it) had to die, so that the Empire wouldn’t be able to run rampant with their magitek armies and tamed daemons. And what sort of hero would he be, if he just ran away from that chance?

A sharp knock on his door, and the sound of it being flung open, had him spinning around in surprise, stumbling back into the counter in barely-concealed panic, before he registered that 1) it wasn’t a magitek trooper or some other sort of attacker 2) it was Libertus and 3) Crowe wasn’t with him.

Somehow, he had forgotten that Libertus had his apartment’s spare key.

“Oh shit, Nyx!” Libertus crossed the room with surprising speed for someone on crutches, eyeing how Nyx was practically trying to meld with the countertop. “When you didn’t pick up the phone-“

Libertus broke off with a yelp as Nyx grabbed him, half in a hug, half so that he could drag him in closer.

“Lib. Where is Crowe?”

“She’s off at some confidential briefing with the Commander, Nyx, are you alright?” Libertus managed to extract himself from Nyx’s grasp, giving him a once-over with a critical gaze. “You look- you look like shit, Nyx. And you weren’t at training. Do I need to get you to a doctor?”

“N-no. I’m…fine.” Nyx slowly inhaled, then exhaled, before trying to make himself look a little less like he’d just had a breakdown for the past hour and then some. “I am definitely fine. But I need to see Crowe.”

“Nyx, I’m sure it can wait.” Libertus sighed, filling a glass with water and passing it to Nyx, gesturing for him to drink it. “Me and Crowe covered for you during the briefing you missed saying you came down with something, though Commander does want a confirm on that. Though, man, you actually look terrible.”

“Just…had a bad dream, that’s all.” Nyx admitted.

Libertus raised an eyebrow, before shaking his head.

“You know that you can tell us anything, right? Anything that’s troubling you.”

“I…”

Nyx considered telling Libertus everything. Telling him about Crowe’s death, about the Glaives turning traitor, of Commander Drautos being that hated General Glauca, of the city burning under an Imperial onslaught, of the Old Wall and the old Kings. Of how Nyx had died.

But would Libertus even believe him? Nyx barely could believe it himself, and he’d lived it. Twice.

Libertus was one of his best friends, his brother in all but blood. But even so, he was fairly certain that Lib was probably going to check him into a hospital, at least initially, and he couldn’t afford to spend time trying to assure him of his sanity when he only had four and a half days.

“I’m fine, Lib. Really. Just had a bad dream, about Galahd.” Nyx paused, before he added. “And that giant daemon.”

“Oh.”

“Now, please, I need to meet up with Crowe.”

“She should be out of that meeting by now, I told her to meet up with us here, after I checked on you.”

Almost as if on cue, Crowe burst into the unlocked room.

“Oh good, you’re alive.” Crowe said, looking at Nyx and Libertus. “Wow, you really do look out of it.”

“Crowe!” Nyx swept her up in a hug, trying not to tear up.

“Hey, hey, Nyx. You good?” Crowe asked.

“You’re alive.” Nyx breathed, clutching her harder. “You’re alive.”

“I…am?” Crowe looked over at Libertus in confusion. Libertus shrugged, mouthing ‘Bad dream’ at her. Nyx instinctively lifted his middle finger at him, having caught the action even as he swallowed back his tears. “Look, Nyx, I’m fine, alright? Now, sit down, and let us catch you up to speed. Some shit’s gone down.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you are.” Nyx nodded, slowly moving to sit down. Libertus and Crowe both perched themselves nearby, Libertus taking the other seat, whilst Crowe leaned against the counter, wrinkling her nose at the mess in his sink.

“So…what’s happened?” Nyx asked, though he knew what it was they were going to tell him. But…well, he couldn’t just tell them how he knew that anyways, might as well give himself plausible deniability for some of his foreknowledge.

“Niflheim wants a peace treaty, at the cost of all other regions of Lucis besides Insomnia. And the King accepted it.” Libertus spat.

“There’s…not many in the Kingsglaive are happy about things at all. The general sentiment is that the King’s throwing away our homes.” Crowe continued. “On that note, the Commander’s given me a mission to recover the Princess Lunafreya from Tenebrae, I’m leaving first thing tomorrow.”

“No.”

Libertus and Crowe both turned to stare at Nyx, who was clutching the glass of water in his hands like a lifeline as he spoke.

“What-“

“You can’t. Crowe, please,” Nyx looked up at her, trying to convey the importance of his words, the desperation behind them. “Don’t go on that mission.”

“Nyx, I have to-“

“I don’t want to lose you, Crowe.” I don’t want to lose you again.

“Look, Nyx, you know I can handle myself.” Crowe patted his shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t let some bad dream get you all worked up, what did you dream of, me dying?”

Nyx dropped the glass, sending shards scattering across his floor. Distantly, he heard Libertus cursing, and Crowe…saying something, something that he probably imagined was supposed to be soothing, but couldn’t hear over the rising static as he remembered Crowe’s death, Libertus’ fury, Luche’s smug shitty face, Drautos half covered in that cursed armour-

Eventually, things slowly came back into focus, and he blinked as he looked up at Crowe and Libertus’ slightly relieved expressions. His neck ached, and it was only then that he realised that somehow, he’d gone from sitting in one of the terrible bargain chairs he had in his flat, to being on the floor, back pressed to one of the walls.

“You back with us, hero?” Libertus asked softly.

“Y-yeah.” Nyx croaked out, tilting his neck back and forth for a bit in an attempt to ease the soreness. “Sorry.”

“No, no, don’t be. Guess I must’ve accidentally hit the nail right on its head, then.” Crowe said, crouching down and slowly extending her hand. “Now, let me help you up.”

Nyx nodded, getting his breathing under some semblance of control, and he briefly closed his eyes, waiting until he felt calm enough to actually move.

He let Crowe hoist him to his feet, and went in for another hug, this time getting both her and Libertus in it. They gradually relocated to sit on his bed, Nyx practically wrapped around his two siblings-in-all-but-blood.

“You died, Crowe. You died and there was nothing I could do to stop it.” Nyx sobbed; the words slightly garbled considering his face was mashed into Libertus’ shoulder. “A-and Libertus left, and then everything just, went to hell and then some, the city was attacked-“

He broke off, unable to put the rest of what he’d seen and lived into words.

“Look, hero, you know what I’m capable of, right?” Crowe said reassuringly, after a silent minute, slowly carding her fingers through his hair. “Whatever it was that your subconsciousness cooked up, it won’t happen, alright?”

“It-“ Nyx choked up, the words he desperately wanted to say lodged in his throat.

“I’ve called you in as sick, so the Commander won’t be all up our collective asses when you don’t show up for duty for the rest of the day.” Libertus said, patting Nyx on the shoulder. Nyx felt like he should be flinching from that, even though he knew that there wasn’t any kingly power burning its way through his body. Yet. “Come on, you should get some rest. Proper rest, after I get you something to eat. I’ll be here, though Crowe needs to go prepare for that mission of hers. We can see her off in the morning.”

The meal that Libertus cooked up an hour later tasted like ash in his mouth, and as Nyx was herded to bed, he couldn’t help but think that he had failed, once again. But he couldn’t go after Crowe, not now, not when Libertus was already keeping a cautious eye on him, not when all they knew was that he just had a panic attack, and a dream terrible enough to spark it.

And on top of all that, he had no idea what to do now, not when he knew that Libertus and Crowe probably wouldn’t believe him at this point, not when he’d made everything out to be just a bad dream. He’d had some sort of grand plan, to convince Crowe to not go on that mission, in the hope that it’d derail at least part of the Empire’s plan, derail it enough to give him time to figure out how the hell else he’d be putting a spanner into the rest of their planned invasion.

That plan, at least for now, was in utter shambles.

Now that he thought about it, actually thought about it, there were so many things that would eventually lead to the fall of Insomnia.

Crowe’s death, which would fracture the Kingsglaive even further than what the initial ceasefire announcement had done.

Lunafreya’s arrival, and subsequent kidnapping, which would be the bait that would draw the loyal Kingsglaive to their doom at the hands of the traitors, and signal the initial attack on Insomnia.

The theft of the Crystal and the fall of the Wall, which, he still didn’t know exactly how that had even happened.

The whole mess with the – rebels? Faction? – that Libertus had joined the other two times, the ones who had bombed the signing ceremony.

The death of King Regis, which would inevitably ruin much of their chances to stop the invasion, because it would mean that no one would have their borrowed magic anymore to help them against the forces of Niflheim.

How to deal with those giant daemon weapons withoutbringing forth the Old Wall, an act that would cause a decent amount of destruction in itself.

And General Glauca, that traitorous Commander of the Kingsglaive who was, Nyx admitted, quite possibly the greatest threat to everything he held dear at this point.

He could deal with rescuing the Princess, having done it twice already. Could probably even deal with the traitorous Glaives, hell, he knew at least Luche and Tredd were in on it, and if he took those two out then the others would lose a good part of their leadership.

But how in hell was he going deal with everything else? Nyx wondered, not a little desperate, as exhaustion finally set in, and he fell unwillingly into a fitful sleep.

He woke again, sometime in the evening, eyes tracing the cracks along his ceiling as he tried to parse his racing thoughts. There was just so much to do, so much he had to stop or fix before the Empire burned the city to the ground.

Well, he eventually thought, a little sardonically, I could always just knock Luche out now, and maybe he won’t kill Crowe tomorrow.

He sat bolt upright at that thought, and tried not to fall out of the damn bed in his haste. He fumbled blindly for his boots, and looked around for something heavy enough to give someone a bad concussion. The frying pan hanging on the rack above the shitty little stove, still a bit damp after Libertus had washed it, looked like it would do nicely.

He couldn’t kill Luche yet, even if every bit of him really wanted to do so. It’d probably de-rail things to the point that his foreknowledge would be rendered completely useless, and he hadn’t yet come up with ideas on how to deal with the next few days to make that murder as feasible as he wanted.

But he could just. Make sure that Luche wouldn’t be able to kill Crowe, or at least he’d be able to give Crowe a better chance at surviving the ambush, if he couldn’t convince her not to go in the morning.

Nodding to himself, he opened his door, preparing to march down the hallway and bait Luche into sticking his head out so he could bash it in with roughly three kilograms of steel. Fortunately, no one appeared to be outside of their own flats, though considering it was late in the evening by now, that was unsurprising.

He knew Luche had a habit of sleeping early if he had the opportunity to do so, so Nyx was fairly certain that if he knocked on the man’s door now, Luche shouldn’t be aware enough to register it was Nyx holding the frying pan before it hit him.

Sure enough, Luche opened his door with bleary eyes, and Nyx had a moment of vicious satisfaction watching the man crumple to the ground with a single hit of the pan. Now that Luche was unconscious, and not dead (there was a pulse, Nyx had checked), all that was left to do was shove him somewhere in his own apartment and hopefully have him out of commission for the next day at least.

“Uh, Nyx?”

Nyx looked up from where he was dragging the surprisingly heavy Luche the rest of the way into the apartment. Libertus was standing there, one crutch held limply in his hand.

“This…isn’t what it looks like, Lib.” Nyx winced, as Libertus looked incredulously at where Nyx was holding onto Luche’s limp arm.

“Is it?!” Libertus’ voice somehow reached another octave, as he cautiously approached Nyx.

“Look, this is going to sound incredibly crazy, but would you believe me if I told you that Luche is a traitor and he’s going to try to kill us all, except for the fact that I just knocked him unconscious.”

Libertus’ expression told him that no, Libertus didn’t believe him, and also that Nyx was…probably in some deep shit now.

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Nyx awoke, for the fourth time, in his bed, in his flat, a burning ember of phantom pain deep in his chest, clutching at where the piece of the collapsing hospital ceiling had stabbed right through him.

Well, he thought, somewhat hysterically, that could’ve gone better. Much better.

#ffxv #ff15 #ffxv fanfiction #final fantasy xv #ffxv kingsglaive #nyx ulric #carminite writes #in which i decide that i'm gonna make nyx suffer for more than 3k words #we'll eventually get to the Good Ending (TM)#just...not yet #Running Onwards (A Timelooping Nyx AU)

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carminite-wyrm · 3 years

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Running Onwards, To the Hope of a New Day (Part 3)

Part 1 | Part 2

(Thank you to everyone who's been reading this fic of mine so far! I've really appreciated all your comments! Also, this will eventually be up on AO3, just not yet because I haven't been able to get an account just yet.)

In which Nyx tries his best, realises a few things, learns a new skill, and commits a minor case of arson.

All in all, Nyx was feeling pretty good about his chances, on his ninth run. He’d learnt from his eighth run that, no, setting the black-market dealer’s place on fire, stealing both the explosives and the phoenix down, and quietly dumping the explosives into one of the rivers that ran through Insomnia wasn’t enough to stop the rebels from bombing the signing ceremony. Considering there was more than one cell, he was sadly unsurprised by this. He’d also figured out that whatever was attracting the daemons was attached to the tracker in the hairpin in a way that he couldn’t just remove, which was a shame.

He learned that he needed to give Crowe a phone in some sort of blast-proof container or casing, because while he’d managed to give Crowe the means to contact him and Libertus sooner, the phone would be severely damaged without one. And, because the phone would be broken, Crowe wouldn’t be able to get in contact with them soon enough to stop Libertus from joining the rebels and giving them the vital information that they needed to launch their attack on the Citadel.

He had also found out that if he told King Regis about the traitorous Glaives he knew would survive the Princess’ extraction, that the King would be able to sever their connection to his magic before they encountered them on either the bridge or the overpass.

Unfortunately, its effectiveness was limited by the fact that there were still Glaives that he hadn’t known were traitors, and so they still had ended up rocketing off the overpass when another Glaive, who Nyx belated recognised as Isra Solis (and Crowe had cursed her out even more viciously than Nyx had, because Isra was as talented with frost magic as Crowe was with fire, and the two had been close, before everything went down).

At this point, Nyx was pretty sure that as soon as they got to that first attempt to escape the city, it was almost guaranteed that they’d be crashing the car sooner or later.

At the very least, Nyx thought to himself, as he finally found an old camera case which he hoped would be enough to hide the phone, this should help with stopping Libertus from leaving. Hopefully.

A day later, he awkwardly held the box of Crowe’s things, waiting for Drautos to move out of earshot. As Libertus raged at Crowe’s apparent death, Nyx took a deep breath, and quickly grabbed Libertus, warping them into one of the nearby alcoves (why there were so many alcoves by the morgue, Nyx had no idea, but he’d take it).

“Nyx, what the hell?!” Libertus gasped, nearly losing his balance at the sudden movement if not for Nyx’s steady grip on his arm.

“Lib…I don’t think Crowe is dead,” Nyx said, mustering the most serious voice he could, which was actually pretty serious considering how much potentially hinged on him getting Libertus to listen. “Look, you know how I gave her some of my curatives, right? Well, I also gave her a phoenix down and an extra phone.”

“…Why? What has that got to do with any of this?”

Nyx rummaged through the box in his hands, searching through for any of the items in question. Thankfully (for the point he was making, at any rate), he could not find any of the things that he had given Crowe.

“They said they recovered everything, right?”

Libertus nodded slowly.

“The phone isn’t here. Not even parts of it.”

Nyx was gratified to see the dawning realisation on Libertus’ face, and silently congratulated himself for finally convincing him of Crowe’s continued survival. And hopefully now, Libertus wouldn’t have too many reasons to leave, or at the very least, no reason to give information to that rebel cell.

“So, what you’re saying,” Libertus said, slowly, almost as if he couldn’t believe it. “Is that Crowe could still be alive.”

“Yes, exactly!” Nyx internally was jumping up and down with joy, this was exactly the reaction he wanted.

“We need to go find her.”

Wait, shit. Celebrated too early.

Nyx wasn’t even certain that Libertus would be able to find Crowe, if he went haring off now. And if he lost track of Libertus, then he wouldn’t to be able to assure himself of Libertus or Crowe’s safety. And if Libertus went running off, then that would alert the traitors that their plan hadn’t gone exactly to plan, and Nyx…couldn’t risk them changing the script that drastically.

“With what resources, Lib?” Nyx hissed, holding back Libertus with a hand on his shoulder. “We don’t even know where she is! She still has the phone, presumedly. We should wait for her call.”

“But what if she can’t call? What if she’s been captured by the Niffs, or- or.”

“…Give it a day, Lib. 24 hours, and if we don’t hear anything, we’ll go find her. But don’t you dare leave without me.” Nyx scowled, hoping that his mild concession wouldn’t be necessary. He didn’t exactly want to show off the fact that he knew the approximate area that Crowe would end up in, two days from this point, but 24 hours would give him time to come up with a reasonable excuse. He hoped, at any rate.

“Fine,” Libertus nodded. “24 hours’ll give us time to prepare, either way.”

“And don’t you dare try and resign, we’re going to need the King’s magic for this. Probably.”

“Alright, alright, hero.” Libertus shook his head, patting Nyx on the shoulder. “Worry about Crowe, not me.”

“I am not going to risk losing you as well, Lib.” Nyx scowled.

Libertus’ expression softened, then, and he drew Nyx into a hug.

“You won’t, Nyx.”

But I have. So many times, Nyx didn’t say, basking in the warmth of his best friend’s embrace. So many times, Libertus. I wish I could tell you.

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When Nyx’s phone rang early the next day, showing the contact for the phone that he had given Crowe, Nyx was unashamed to admit that he broke down sobbing. Frantically hitting the answer button, he listened to Crowe tell him that Luche had nearly killed her, that she’d been rescued in the nick of time by the combined efforts of the phoenix down and a pair of hunters, and that (this time), for some reason, she was actually all the way at Hammerhead.

Why she was all the way there, Nyx wasn’t quite certain, but Crowe had explained that the phone had actually been slightly damaged after the fight with Luche, but when Crowe had been trying to get it to actually make a call, one of the hunters had said that there was a mechanic over at Hammerhead, who could repair it.

Nyx wondered why Crowe hadn’t gone to the outpost last time, surely an outpost as well-established as Hammerhead would have been the ideal place to take an injured Glaive to contact her allies. Then he realised that in the last run, the phone had been completely toasted, and perhaps the hunters had not realised that Crowe was a member of the Kingsglaive, until they had spotted the Imperial dropships and Crowe had gone racing off after them.

Still, he did have some other questions to ask her.

“Wait, hold up, why couldn’t the hunters call us for you? Don’t they have phones of their own?”

“Batteries died.”

Are you fucking kidding me?! Nyx thought. What were the bloody chances of that happening?!

“What.” He said instead.

“Yeah, apparently they were going to head to one of the smaller, nearer outposts because there’s some spares there, but when I told them I needed to get in touch with a member of the Kingsglaive fast, I think they broke like four or five road rules to get me here as fast as they could.”

Nyx couldn’t help but laugh at the image, before slowly managing to calm himself down.

“Can you hold for a moment? I need to get Libertus here before he does something stupid and tries to rush after you.”

“Sure, Nyx. Get him in here, I bet the big guy’s worrying his ass off about me. I sure won’t be going anywhere, the hunters said it was risky enough bringing me all the way over here in the first place.”

Nyx sped down the hallway, and raced for the stairs, almost knocking Luche down the stairs (if only) in his haste to reach Libertus. He slammed open the door, having only wasted a few seconds fumbling with his own set of keys beforehand.

“LIB!” He yelled, as he shut the door behind him.

“What?!” Libertus yelled back, from inside the bathroom, where Nyx could hear the sounds of the shower running. “It better be important, I only just got the hot water running!”

Oh, whoops.

Three minutes later, Nyx was awkwardly sitting on Libertus’ couch whilst Libertus talked with Crowe, the other man significantly less irritated at Nyx’s interruption when Nyx had told him he had Crowe on the other end of his phone. He didn’t mention to Libertus later, when the man had finally re-entered the main area of his flat and put the phone on speaker, that he had definitely heard the sound of Libertus sobbing even with the continued sound of running water. Nyx was honestly just happy that Libertus was still here, still with him, and that Crowe was still alive.

“Shit, Nyx.” Libertus finally said, after Crowe had fully retold her story. “Luche’s a fucking traitor. We should…we should tell the Captain.”

Nyx froze, from where he was preparing to head off to be part of the Princess’ escort into Insomnia.

“I…I’m not sure we should.” Nyx admitted, trying not to make it apparent that he absolutely distrusted anything and everything Drautos said or did. “The details of Crowe’s mission should have been confidential, as soon as she left the city. But despite the precautions that were taken, Luche was still able to find her, and nearly kill her. If Luche’s a traitor, what’s to say there aren’t any other traitors in the Kingsglaive? What’s to say that the Captain’s office hasn’t already been compromised?”

“Shit, is there anywhere else we can take this?”

“What about the Crownsguard Marshal? The Crownsguard deal with internal affairs, right?” Crowe chipped in.

“We could…but I’m due in for Citadel duty in ten minutes, and we can’t afford any possible traitors knowing something’s up just yet.” Nyx scowled, frustrated at how things had lined up. “Lib, can you see if you can talk to the Marshal?”

“Nyx, you know how I feel about the Crownsguard,” Libertus shook his head. “With my luck, I’d end up just pissing them off, and that’s the opposite of getting them to listen. Chances are, I’m not even going to make it anywhere close to the Marshal’s office.”

“Damn it.” Nyx sighed. “I’ll see if I can find him, when it gets to my lunch break.”

“I’ll see if I can think of any way to get Crowe back here soon, I’m certain Crowe showing up alive will lend support to our whole ‘Luche is a filthy traitor’ argument.” Libertus nodded. “Best of luck, hero.”

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

If one were to inquire as to why Nyx Ulric of the Kingsglaive was currently sitting with his head in his hands, barely an hour after his shift had ended, on the steps just outside the Kingsglaive barracks, he would tell them to politely ‘fuck off’.

It was, perhaps, not the most diplomatic of responses, but Nyx felt it easily summed up how he was presently feeling, after the utter shitshow that was his attempt to find the Marshal of the Crownsguard.

The actual searching and inquiry itself was quite fast. He’d only had to step into the Crownsguard building asking to see the Marshal, only to find out one little thing. One key thing he honestly wished he’d known far sooner, because it explained so many things.

The Marshal was not in the damn city.

Apparently, the man was off on some sort of confidential mission, due to return the bloody day before the signing ceremony for some Astrals-damned reason.

That was too late for any of Nyx’s current (and possibly future) plans.

And there was no way he, a single Kingsglaive, could even get the Marshal to return sooner, it simply wasn’t within the bounds of his current abilities.

So that avenue was closed to him, for the time being. Perhaps there were other people in the Marshal’s office he could approach, but Nyx simply did not know who would be a trustworthy, reliable person he could talk to in that branch of the military.

He briefly considered Fortis, before shaking his head. That man could be relied upon in a crisis, he had to admit, but…to most people, the only crisis happening at the moment was the political nightmare of the ceasefire. To most, it was a matter for diplomats and Kings, not foot soldiers and guardsmen.

Scowling off into the distance, he wondered whether it might have just been best to get Crowe back into the city, so that he could at least go to the King with direct evidence of Luche’s treachery. With any luck, Luche would have spilled everything, and then they could have killed Glauca when he inevitably fought back.

It seemed a bit late to try that this time around, though. Tomorrow, Insomnia would be invaded, after all.

Nyx sighed, before readying himself for his night shift guard duty, and the Princess’ inevitable kidnapping. Time to see if he could, at the very least, keep all his friends alive for longer this time around.

The next morning, he let himself back into Libertus’ room, to kick his plan of ‘Keep The King and My Friends Alive At Least’ into motion.

“Lib, I’m…I’m going to go talk to the King,” He said, and had a moment of amusement at Libertus nearly dropping his bowl of oatmeal in shock. “Crowe’s still at Hammerhead, yeah? Presumably heavily injured, but not injured enough to be unable to hold a call, right?”

“I would assume so,” Libertus nodded, after regaining his composure. “You sure you can get the King himself to listen? He’s a Lucian, and a noble to boot. You know how the combination of the two tend to treat folks like us.”

“…I think he’d listen. We have proof, now, and the next highest-ranked person isn’t even going to be here yet.”

“I still think we should tell the Captain-“

“No!”

Nyx winced as Libertus levelled a critical eye at him, the force of his disagreement clearly a bit…too much.

“Nyx.”

“Yes, Libertus?” Please don’t ask what I think you’re about to.

“Why are you so adamant about not telling the Captain?” Libertus put down his bowl, and crossed his arms, a pose familiar enough to Nyx that he knew Libertus wouldn’t take a vague answer. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I- I think the Captain is also a traitor.” There. He said it.

Nyx waited, as the seconds ticked by, as Libertus seemed to turn the thought over in his head. He waited, for the inevitable doubt, the claims of paranoia gone too far in the wake of Luche’s betrayal.

“I’m guessing you don’t have any evidence, do you.”

Nyx raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t a complete expression of doubt, even if Libertus did still seem highly sceptical of his not-theory.

“No. It’s just,” Nyx fished around for the right word that wouldn’t cause more suspicion, considering he still wasn’t sure he could just outright say ‘yeah I’ve watched Drautos murder King Regis like three times by now’. “A gut feeling. An instinct.”

“Well, your gut instinct hasn’t led us astray much at all, has it,” Libertus sighed, his stance loosening dramatically as he sat down heavily. “Astrals damn it. And considering Drautos is actually respected by the Lucians, they won’t be likely to take your word without actual evidence to back it up.”

“And obviously, I couldn’t exactly break into his house or office to look for evidence.”

“Well, you could, it’d just be difficult.”

“What.”

Libertus shrugged, before gesturing at himself and Nyx.

“We’ve both got magic, idiot.”

“Yes, and? It’s not exactly conducive to breaking and entering, you know. Security cameras exist, and I can’t exactly fireball my way into his office.”

Libertus blinked up at Nyx, before vanishing in the slightest glow of crystal-blue.

“Oh.”

Nyx sat down, on the floor of Libertus’ shoebox of a flat, and laughed into the palm of his hand. He laughed, until he registered Libertus (now visible again), shaking his shoulder.

“You good?”

“I. Yeah,” Nyx wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. “I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me. Six, it was so obvious all along!”

He looked up at Libertus, and grinned. “Can you teach me?”

“What, now?!” Libertus looked around, before sighing once again. “You want to go searching whilst the Signing Ceremony happens, don’t you? Fuck, of course you are, you reckless piece of shit.”

“Well-“ Actually, I was more thinking it’d be good for a future loop.

“Fine. You’ve got forty minutes before your next citadel guard shift, you better be listening closely, hero. The others in my squad took at minimum three days to hold this for longer than a few seconds. You might be a warp-spammer, but this shit takes more focus than a shield, for all that it drains your magic slower.”

“I’m listening, Lib.”

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

By the time Nyx had to leave for the citadel, he could hold the invisibility for all of two seconds, a feat that Libertus had briefly praised, before going right back to fondly complaining about Nyx’s aptitude with all things magical. It wasn’t enough to be truly practical, but Nyx figured he’d have time to practice it more, next loop.

“You’ll call me, yeah, if anything goes south?” Libertus had asked, grabbing hold of Nyx before he could leave.

“Yeah,” Nyx nodded. “I will.”

An hour later, he was hastily calling Crowe with the coordinates he had by now memorised, as he made his way to the rest of the Kingsglaive with their orders to mobilise. As for Libertus, he’d updated him as to the situation, tasking Libertus with keeping an eye on the situation within the city, and calling him if anything happened.

Obviously, Nyx knew that things were definitely going to happen, but the point was that he wanted Libertus to not run off and potentially get himself killed. Nyx had a plan, this time around, or at least the makings of one, and he was fairly certain he’d be able to keep his friends, the Princess, and the King alive this time around.

First off though, he had to survive the Princess’ extraction.

With a deep breath, he launched himself up onto the Niflheim ship, experience allowing him to stick the landing instead of the awkward crash his first time around. With expert motions, he directed the Glaives through the ship, right up to the point where Pelna found the Princess.

“Pelna, get out of there, now. Don’t go down that corridor, I spotted a really nasty daemon that way.” Nyx said, hurriedly, as he sprinted down the hallway to meet them. He easily ducked under a traitor’s attack, ripping off their mask just before he slit their throat.

He’d forgotten to check their identities the first few times around, too busy with trying to survive and keeping his friends alive, and while he knew he wouldn’t be able to get all of them in one run, he sure could at least find out who a few of them were.

Distantly, as he expertly tripped another traitor and killed them before they could even try and attack Pelna from behind, he wondered how much he had changed, already, with how many times he’d already replayed the past five days. Before this hell week, before the ceasefire, before the time loops, these Glaives had been his fellow comrades-in-arms. He’d saved them, and been saved in turn, on countless missions, in countless fights. And yet here he was, barely batting an eye as sisters and brothers turned on them all, as he cut them down within seconds of them raising their blades and spells against their former friends and allies. Their movements were so familiar, so scripted, he knew exactly how to move to counter their attacks, how to slip under their guard and slice them apart. The only true dangers, it seemed, would be the daemons, Luche and his posse, and General Glauca.

He shoved Pelna back with one hand as they rounded the corner, tanking a fireball from Tredd with his own shield, before retaliating with his own rapid blasts of lightning. He could hear Tredd curse, ducking around his own corner just as a tentacle from the octopus daemon began to tear the ship they were on in two.

He quickly directed Pelna and Lunafreya onto the ship they would escape in, nodding to himself as Crowe suddenly warped onto the open deck with a gasp, mirroring the events of Loop 7. He quickly shoved a couple of hi-elixirs into her hand, before turning around and seeing if he could spot Luche’s escape ship. Sadly, he couldn’t, and resigned himself to seeing those assholes again later, during the overpass chase.

“Shit, Crowe!” Pelna called out. “You’re alive?!”

“Yeah, no thanks to fucking Luche.” Crowe spat, and Nyx mentally noted down that two hi-elixirs were so much better than just one single elixir. “Nyx, you need to call Libertus, let him know what a shitshow this has all turned out to be.”

“And it’s gotten worse.” Pelna agreed, pointing out the falling Wall.

“We need to return to the Citadel-“

“Yeah, I know. The King and the Ring, right?” Nyx sighed, already calling Libertus.

“Yes, exactly- Wait, how did you know that?” Lunafreya suddenly appeared in Nyx’s field of view, eyes bright with concern, just as Nyx had finished talking to Libertus.

“You’re talking to the Glaive who’s pulled the most Citadel duty out of everyone, I picked up a few things,” Nyx said, suddenly aware of the fact that the importance of the Ring was…probably not the most common of information around. He hastily changed the subject. “I let Lib know we were coming back, he’s going to be waiting for us in the Citadel garage.”

“You sure he’ll be alright? What with that leg of his?” Pelna inquired.

“He might not look like it, but Lib is a very good driver.” Nyx thought back to the past loops. In every single one where he’d actually made it to that plaza, Libertus had, without fail, successfully crashed a car into Glauca. And on top of that, he’d also successfully navigated his way through a city in the midst of getting razed, whilst Nyx and the Old Wall had been tearing up the city in their respective fights. Libertus was the best damn driver Nyx knew, broken leg or not.

The four of them made it to the Citadel in what felt like record time, running into the signing room just in time to once again see Ravus’ arm on fire. Pelna and Lunafreya quickly hustled the King out of the room, whilst Crowe and Nyx did their best to harry Glauca with alternating blasts of fire and lightning. As they ran out of the secret tunnel and into the garage, Nyx grinned as he Libertus waved at them all. As Crowe rushed to give Libertus a one-armed hug, Nyx quietly relayed the identities of the rest of the traitorous Glaives he could be certain of, as well as his suspicions about Captain Drautos, to the King, who nodded even as he paled considerably at Nyx’s revelations.

“Astrals, but am I glad to see you, Crowe!” Libertus called out.

“You too, Libertus! Better not have done anything stupid whilst I was out.”

“Cool catch-up, but we’ve got General Glauca right on our heels,” Nyx said, slamming down another shield over the tunnel that they had just left. “We’ll take two cars. Pelna, you’re driving that car over there. Crowe, you and King Regis can get into Lib’s car. Me and the Princess will be with Pelna. We’ll exit together, and Pelna will take the lead. Lib, I want you to stay as close as possible to us, me and Crowe will be taking charge of killing anything that gets in our way, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to clear a path, so stay vigilant. Make sure your comms stay open.”

“Got it.” They all nodded, Crowe even giving him a thumbs up as she slid into Libertus’ car.

The drive out of the Citadel went exactly as Nyx had expected, and he quietly cackled to himself even as he leaned out of the window to throw a handful of lightning at one of the MT Armours chasing them. As he spotted the ship carrying Luche, Tredd, and the rest of their group slowly coming into view, he threw a fireball at them, before ducking back down into the car. Hastily, he grabbed the Princess’ hairpin from her, the woman too shocked by the suddenness of his action to protest.

“Pelna, hand me the wheel.”

“Nyx what-“

“You’re still good at warping, yeah? I need you to warp the Princess to Lib’s car,” Nyx sighed as Lib predictably began to also protest. “Lib, get someone to hold that door open.”

“Nyx, you fucking-“

“Pelna, now!”

To his credit, the man didn’t hesitate even with his protests, throwing his dagger in a shower of blue as he tugged the Princess along, leaving Nyx alone in his car.

Not for much longer, of course, because just as Luche and Tredd leaned out of their ship to try and shoot at them all, and just as Petra Fortis in his armoured van appeared in Nyx’s rearview mirror, Nyx turned his car to face Luche and Tredd.

The look on their faces as he drove the car straight at them would be one Nyx would savour for a long, long time. Luche’s string of curses as Nyx warped out of the car just before impact, would also be on the list of things that gave Nyx so much joy.

He landed on the side of Fortis’ van with a quiet oomph, clinging onto the kukri now lodged into the metal. A few moments later, he’d managed to swing himself into the front seat, after Fortis had rolled down the window for him.

“You’re insane, Ulric. Actually insane.” Fortis said, staring at him with wide eyes even as they caught up with Libertus and the others.

“Best warper in the Kingsglaive.” Nyx replied smugly, and winced as the yelling over his comm reached an even louder level.

After that, they somehow made it all the way to within view of the West Gate, even with the occasional daemon or magitek soldier that they ran into. It seemed Nyx’s gambit with the crashed car and the hairpin had paid off, for now, and he quietly let himself relax a little, though he kept an eye out for anything else that might stop their escape.

It was that caution that had him spotting the glimmer of silver and purple before it hit the ground in front of Libertus’ car, his yell of alarm all that they needed to grind to a halt just in time to avoid General Glauca slicing their car in two.

“Shit, Fortis, you and Lib are gonna have to guard the King and Princess, we’ll try and hold him off. If you see an opening, get out of here.” Nyx said, as he chucked a kukri out of the window, and began doing his level best to once again kill Glauca.

As Crowe covered the King and Princess’ retreat to Fortis’ van, followed by a very worried Libertus, Nyx threw himself headlong into the fight, Pelna darting in and out where he could, the two of them trying to keep Glauca’s attention long enough for Crowe to be able to join in.

“Why do you fight, for a King who would abandon us all to save his throne and his son?” Glauca roared, as Nyx warped out of the way of his sword, flinging a blast of flame to hide Pelna’s approach. “Walk away, Glaives, and you will see another day in peace, the Empire has promised it!”

“The way I see it, whatever Niflheim promised you isn’t enough to justify the utter destruction laid in its wake, Drautos.”

Glauca actually froze, momentarily, as Nyx called him by his actual name. And then cursed, because Crowe had apparently figured out how to properly stash the King and the Princess away, and had now joined the fight as well with a blast of flame that Nyx could see had melted part of his helmet.

“So, you know, then.”

“Yeah, I do, you traitorous bastard.”

The three Glaives did their best to fight Glauca, a blast of lightning from Nyx actually causing the armoured man to stumble backwards a little. This…wasn’t going terribly, Nyx thought, warping past Glauca’s shoulder and swinging back down, Pelna trying to go for Glauca’s knees at the same time. They were both flung backwards for their efforts, but Crowe had used that opportunity to slam another two fireballs at Glauca, only one of which the man was able to deflect.

In the corner of his eye, he saw a daemon making its way to them, ambling towards Fortis’ van. Nyx cursed, and launched himself at Glauca, trying to herd him out of the way so that Fortis could make a break for it, before the daemon got to them.

“Crowe, Pelna, we need to get Glauca out of the way!”

Pelna nodded, grunting as he parried a punch, before warping away from Crowe’s attack. Nyx dove forward immediately after, hissing as Glauca’s sword drew a sharp cut across his cheek, but it was worth it as he managed to get close enough to unleash a pulse of lightning strong enough to send Glauca back a few vital steps. He warped out of the way of his retaliation, letting Pelna take over briefly as he cracked an elixir onto himself.

They just needed to get Glauca a little further away, and then Fortis could, hopefully, get out of the city.

But Pelna was tiring, and so was Nyx, the fighting from earlier having already taken its toll even though they had come out of that mess mostly unharmed.

Glauca, on the other hand, seemed to be fuelled by whatever cursed shit made up that armour of his, and probably a few other things as well.

At this rate, Nyx had the feeling he’d be needing to put that damn Ring back on his finger. Again.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Pelna yelled as he dodged several swings of the sword, managing to avoid getting skewered only for Glauca to catch him around the waist and fling him across the road.

“Pelna!” Nyx yelled, unable to check on his friend as Glauca was now attacking him, and thank the Astrals that Nyx had already seen some of these moves and knew how to counter them, because it should be illegal how fast Glauca could move, in armour like that.

Nyx managed to blast Glauca in the way of one of Crowe’s fire blasts, just as he heard the screeching of tires. He grinned, even as Glauca doubled his attacks at him, Nyx holding up a shield just as he felt the van fly past him, the vehicle close enough to almost him.

“You do realise that you will die here, that nothing will stop me from killing that coward King.” Glauca growled, as he batted Nyx away.

“Your armour’s looking real bad, you know that?” Nyx quipped back, nodding to Pelna as the two of the charged at Glauca, Nyx aiming a blast of frost at Glauca’s feet whilst Pelna tried for a headshot.

They both missed, Glauca almost managing to get a kick out at Nyx, but they both managed to distract him enough to take yet another gout of fire to the head.

“You. I knew I should’ve had you killed when I had the chance!” Glauca roared, charging suddenly at Crowe, a sliver of skin visible along his collarbone.

“No!” Nyx yelled, warping after him, only to get a fist straight to his chest, winding him as he crumpled to the ground.

He could see Crowe warping out of the way, but she’d never fought Glauca in melee combat before, and melee wasn’t even her specialty-

The axe that lodged itself in Glauca’s collarbone surprised them all.

Glauca’s yell of surprise and pain was nearly drowned out by Libertus’ warcry, as the man suddenly appeared, his axe in both hands as he braced himself and completed his swing, turning that sliver of collarbone into a bloody gash, although Nyx could see the silver of the armour already trying to repair itself.

“That’s my sister you nearly killed, you bastard.” Libertus spat, and ducked as Crowe tossed fireball after fireball at Glauca, before she turned and set the approaching daemon alight as well.

“How-“

Nyx didn’t give him time to finish, letting Pelna use him as a springboard to launch right at Glauca, the man plunging a dagger right into that open wound before he landed in front of Libertus and Crowe, ready to help defend them.

“Damn, he’s still going?” Pelna shook his head, flinging up a shield to briefly deflect Glauca’s next attack. “That should’ve at least slowed him down significantly.”

Nyx warped back into the fight, giving the three time to reposition themselves as he tried his best to carve out more of Glauca. This fight was just as frustrating as it had been all the times before, as even though he had his friends with him, it was balanced out by the fact he didn’t have the extra power from the Ring. For all of his experience, Glauca was the worst enemy he had to fight, and it showed.

Drautos had been their commander, their beloved Captain. He knewall of their moves, or at least most of them, their fighting styles, their habits and their weaknesses. And that meant that he could counteract them with more ease than he should have.

Which meant that Nyx had to do something unpredictable, something so utterly insane not even Drautos could predict it.

His gaze skittered over the road, looking for something he could maybe use to his advantage. He couldn’t see anything, just broken concrete and asphalt, Libertus’ by-now trashed car, the corpse of a daemon smouldering behind them-

He looked back at the car, where there was a puddle of fuel slowly leaking from its side.

His first thought was that it was a wonder it hadn’t caught alight, what with Crowe’s flames. His second thought was that surely Glauca wasn’t completely explosion-proof, even with that armour of his.

“Guys!” He yelled, sprinting back into the fight. “I’m going to try something, I need you to herd him backwards, to the car!”

“What are you going to do, trip me?” Glauca actually sounded a bit amused, even though he was, in fact, getting slowly pushed backwards by their combined assault.

“No, even better,” Nyx watched as Glauca was finally backed up to the car, and probably as far as he’d get before he’d clue into the petrol leaking from Libertus’ car. “Everyone, get back!”

Pelna’s eyes widened in understanding, as he warped away and grabbed Libertus with him, and Nyx tossed as large a fireball as he could at Glauca and the car.

The resulting inferno wasn’t quite as impressive as the explosion Nyx had been hoping for, but the screaming from within was.

“Do you…think that’d kill him?” Pelna asked, as they all stared at the flaming wreck, from a safe distance away.

“I’m…not actually sure,” Nyx admitted. “Actually, are cars supposed to catch on fire like that?”

“If they’re a good quality car, no.” Libertus growled. “Cheap piece of shit.”

“Eh, better safe than sorry.”

The three men looked at Crowe as she began to hurl more fireballs at the car (and presumably Glauca), her barrage only pausing when she had to crack an elixir, before continuing on. Nyx shrugged, and joined in, except with lightning bolts. Her logic was sound, in his opinion, even if Pelna and Libertus were staring at them with increasing amounts of fear.

There was one slightly harrowing moment as they watched Glauca actually stumble forwards a few moments later, but Nyx and Crowe’s panicked blasts of lightning and fire respectively quickly had him crumpling to the ground. They stayed where they were, for a few moments longer, to see if he would get back up, before Nyx sprayed the flaming wreck with a light blizzard, and they moved closer to see whether Glauca truly was dead.

“Oh, yikes.” Crowe muttered, staring at the body on the road.

“That’s a lot of- I don’t think a burned body is supposed to smell like that.” Pelna commented, holding a hand up to his nose.

“Must be the armour, that shit was magitek. Must’ve had a bad reaction to all that fire we were hurling at him at the end.” Libertus reasoned.

Nyx simply marched up to the body, and stabbed what he assumed was the head. Twice.

“Alright, he’s definitely dead.” Nyx concluded. “If he wasn’t before, by some miracle, he is now.”

Crowe cackled, a little hysterically.

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

A little later, Nyx trudged behind his three friends as they headed for the nearest haven, presumably to rest and recover before they tried to meet up with any other survivors of the Invasion.

Dawn was breaking on the horizon, and he was simultaneously relieved by the sight, and dreading its arrival.

On one hand, as far as he was aware, he’d managed to keep all of his friends, and the King and the Princess, alive. Even Fortis was alive, and that was something Nyx hadn’t expected. But on the other hand, Insomnia was still a smouldering ruin, the Empire had gotten away with that Crystal, and Nyx was pretty certain the fatality count was up in the hundreds of thousands.

Up until now, he hadn’t managed to live past the dawn, had always died as soon as the sun had fully risen above the horizon. What if his survival now meant that the loops were finished? The thought scared him, somehow. He’d gotten used to slowly inching his way to figuring out the multitude of things that had led up to the city’s fall, and the destruction that came with it. What if he could’ve had more chances to try and stop everything from happening in the first place, if only he figured out a way to die before the dawn? What if there were parts to this puzzle he didn’t yet know about, vital pieces that could ensure everyone’s survival without the destruction of the city?

But, if he looped back now, then wouldn’t all the fighting he had just done be for naught? He looked at his friends, at their tired, but cheerful, expressions. To them, they’d just survived one of the greatest tragedies since the Fall of Galahd, and had even managed to kill the legendary General Glauca, the man responsible for the destruction of not only Galahd, but also Tenebrae, and now Insomnia.

He couldn’t- He couldn’t take that away from them.

And so, Nyx Ulric watched as the sun rose above the horizon, Pelna cheering as one of the imps that had been about to approach them almost instantly melted away into daemonic miasma.

And stopped.

He shuddered, clutching his head as a sudden spell of dizziness overtook him. He vaguely heard Libertus’ cry of alarm, as he stumbled backwards, something tugging on his chest even as the world around him seemed to flicker in and out like a bad television signal. Nyx had the abrupt sensation of the ground beneath him giving way, before his vision fragmented, like a broken mosaic almost, and he fell, dragged along by an unseen force. The swirl of colours that his vision had devolved into was nauseating, and Nyx shut his eyes, the sensation of freefalling continuing until-

He sat upright with a shout, as the world snapped back into place, and he was greeted by the familiar sight of his dimly lit apartment, sunlight streaming through the cheap curtains.

#ffxv #ff15 #final fantasy 15 #final fantasy xv #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv kingsglaive #nyx ulric #libertus ostium #crowe altius #pelna khara #carminite writes #Running Onwards (A Timelooping Nyx AU)#Loop 9 or as I like to call it #the one where Nyx finds out what it feels like to get yeeted back in time

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carminite-wyrm · 3 years

Text

Running Onwards, To The Hope of a New Day (Part 2 of the Time Looping Nyx AU!)

Part 1 can be found here

In which Nyx makes several attempts to keep everyone alive, adds several more things to his to-do list, finds a black market, and learns some new things.

Or, Phoenix Downs Save Lives, More At Ten.

Nyx sighed, flopping back down onto the floor of his room and resting his head on the side of the bed. He was on his sixth loop now, and so far, he’d only managed to learn that keeping Crowe, and everyone else, alive was ridiculously difficult. He’d tried knocking out Luche again in his fourth run, only for Tredd to be the one to kill her, and while Tredd’s aim was a little worse than Luche’s, getting shot in the leg still sucked. He’d attempted to convince her not to take the mission on the fourth and fifth loops, to no avail, as either way she’d think he was being overly worried, or somehow insulting her capabilities.

On that note, keeping everyone else he cared about alive was also proving to be a nearly impossible task. On the fourth run, he’d opted to switch out Luche and Pelna, when they went to recover the Princess, so that hopefully Luche would be the one getting attacked by the octopus daemon.

Pelna had ended up getting backstabbed by Sonitus, that run.

That run had also ended in disaster yet again, though he hadn’t made it past the Princess recovery operation. Because he’d swapped out Luche and Pelna, Nyx had the dubious pleasure of getting a knife through his hand, stunning him just long enough to miss his warp away from the octopus daemon.

At the very least, he’d managed to drag Luche down with him as they fell.

The fifth run had actually turned out a little better, because he’d found out that if he kept Pelna at his side, Nyx could actually warn him fast enough for the man not to die immediately to the octopus daemon. And having Pelna’s assistance turned out to be a very good thing.

The three of them had managed to escape the daemon, and Nyx had tried to convince Pelna and the Princess to escape. Unfortunately, Lunafreya was…incredibly persuasive, and off the three of them went, to try and recover the King, and the Ring.

They got there just in time to see the Princess’ brother put on the Ring once again, and Nyx had managed to get the King, and the others, out of that first room, with the damnable Ring. With Pelna’s assistance, they actually managed to run out to the car, Nyx and Pelna laying barriers in their wake to slow down Glauca. King Regis was still grievously injured though, the Princess doing her best to heal him whilst Pelna took the wheel, and Nyx prepared himself to fend off any attackers.

Unfortunately, they’d only managed to make it a short way before they were beset by Tredd and Luche’s group, and in the ensuing literal firefight, Pelna’d been hit by a bullet. The traitorous Glaives’ attempt to waylay them on their attempt to flee Insomnia was once again interrupted by Petra Fortis, that gate guard that Nyx continued to have very mixed feelings about, but not before Tredd (and of course it was Tredd bloody Furia, the other member of the Kingsglaive besides Crowe to have a great affinity for fire) had managed to hit their car with a fireball, sending them crashing off the bridge.

When Nyx managed to haul himself out of the wreckage, it was to find Pelna unconscious and bleeding out, and the King dying once again, bringing him back to the same damn situation as the first two times.

And so, Nyx had found himself waking up for the sixth time, having died once again from the price of wielding the power of the Lucii.

He still hadn’t figured out how to get Libertus to not leave and join that group of ill-fated rebels, and while he had figured out how to keep Pelna and King Regis alive for longer, events seemed to continue to conspire against them.

And he still didn’t know how to prevent Crowe’s death.

At the very least, he knew for certain that if Luche was the one sent to murder her, he would do it with that handgun of his. Nyx wasn’t sure if he could tamper with that though, considering Luche kept it either in his locker, or on his person, at all times, and Nyx knew he couldn’t get to that locker without raising suspicion.

Nyx tapped his chin thoughtfully. He couldn’t risk telling anyone in the Kingsglaive about his foreknowledge, because the likelihood of one of the traitors or Drautos finding out was too high. And the Crownsguard were…well, to put it bluntly, a bit too xenophobic to pay attention to a refugee who had no actual evidence, beyond his own memories/experiences. He could try getting an audience with the King again, but without an incentive like the Princess’ kidnapping, the likelihood of that working was equally low.

But maybe, he could find a way to increase Crowe’s odds of surviving the ambush. He couldn’t give her any extra equipment from the Kingsglaive armoury, because that would be noticed, but maybe there was some sort of black market in the city? Most cities as large, and with as great a wealth gap, as Insomnia probably had one? Nyx wasn’t certain, but it was worth a try.

And maybe, just maybe, he could put a spanner in the Princess’ kidnapping as well. Her kidnapping was the bait that drew the Kingsglaive out of the city, leaving the Citadel more vulnerable to the attack that would bring the Wall down.

If the Wall remained intact, then the Empire wouldn’t be able to bring in the majority of their forces, including those giant daemons that had wreaked so much destruction. He didn’t really know what happened, exactly, during the signing ceremony itself, though. And there was so much else he also didn’t know, about this whole disaster, especially about that faction Libertus had taken up with, after Crowe’s death.

Nyx sighed, closing his eyes as he realised what he’d have to do, this loop. He knew now that he had the benefit of time, and so long as he made sure he died, everything would reset to just before midday on the 12th. This loop, he just needed to find out everything he could about the faction Libertus would take up with, their location, their numbers, their resources. He needed to know if he would be able to sabotage their efforts to bomb the Citadel, or if it’d be one of the things he’d have to find a way to reveal to the Crownsguard without implicating himself or Libertus.

And for that to happen…he’d have to let Crowe’s death play out as before.

This loop, Nyx decided, steeling his resolve as he headed over to the training area once again, he was going to whatever he needed to do, to get his hands on the information he’d need to make things right. A rebel faction like the one Libertus joined surely had access to a black market of sorts, after all, one wouldn’t be able to put together explosives or those communicators without access to at least some sort of restricted, possibly military-grade, material.

And perhaps he’d also read up on the whole deal with the Lucii, so maybe he would be able to get them onboard with the whole ‘saving lives and stopping the Empire’ thing, without having to sacrifice himself in the process. Their whole thing about setting alight those they deemed unworthy was useful, Nyx had to admit, recalling how it had dealt with Ravus and Luche rather handily, but also it was a pain when the ghosts in the Ring deemed themselves above the plight of the common man, to the point that it had taken Regis’ intervention to even get them to consider hearing him out.

And, now that he thought about it, what was so utterly important about the Prince that King Regis would be willing to sacrifice himself, and his entire city, just so that the kid would be out of harm’s way? There was that prophecy that either King Regis or Lunafreya had mentioned, but Nyx still wasn’t sure what that entailed beyond the Prince being destined to save the world, or something. Regardless, it had to mean something, for both Lunafreya and King Regis to be so adamant that sacrificing the city and themselves was worth it for his safety.

His course of action decided, he silently apologised to both Crowe and Libertus, and everyone else he wouldn’t be able to help this loop.

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Nyx still threw up, upon seeing Crowe’s corpse in the morgue. He knew he could have at least tried, to save her, but- he needed to know what went on, on Libertus’ end of things.

It still hurt, though. No matter the apparent necessity of this loop, and its likely future benefits, his need to protect those he could still rebelled at his decision to accompany Libertus, and abandon everyone else.

At the very least, he could count on the fact that Libertus was pretty much ride-or-die, when it came to vouching for him in front of the (justifiably) suspicious rebels, when Nyx had found himself failing to come up with an actual believable reason for his presence. The ensuing conversations with the rebels, however, had been rather informative. Nyx knew firsthand how refugees were treated in Insomnia by a large portion of its inhabitants, particularly by those who were born and raised in the city. Even though the Kingsglaive had been essential to the war effort against the Empire, the fact it was staffed mostly by refugees – and the majority of them Galahdian – made most of the citizenry a little…frosty, at best, due to the perceived favouritism from the King. And of course, there was the whole matter about how the nobility – and the Crownsguard, by extension, given that a good portion of that organisation was made up of the sons and daughters of Insomnia’s upper classes – believed that the refugees were beneath their notice.

Nyx knew this, but maybe the time he’d spent out at war with Niflheim had dulled his awareness somewhat, to the situation back home. Had there ever been this much vitriol, this much hatred, at Insomnia and its people? Had the King’s name ever been spoken with this much derision? Had his people – his fellow Galahdians – and even the other refugees from the other regions ravaged by the Empire, been this poorly treated by the Insomnians?

He thought back to the initial meeting that he and Libertus had ended up at, how, as an introduction, they’d all gone around sharing why they were here, in the backroom of a dingy abandoned arcade, planning to bring down the Lucian government.

“My brother died in a daemon attack when the Lucian military pulled out of Cleigne.”

“We lost our homes when the government had them demolished to make way for a new overpass.”

“I lost my job, because some rich upper-class fucker thought that the restaurant’s dishes shouldn’t be cooked by ‘some uneducated backwater savage’.”

“My mother’s cousin was stabbed last week, and the Crownsguard refused to investigate it further because ‘it was probably just a mugging gone wrong’. As if every trash-filled back alleyway was home to criminals, rather than the poor and downtrodden.”

Honestly, at this point, Nyx actually felt kind of bad about the fact that he was going to use the information he got in a later run to stop them.

But he knew that the explosives they would set off would allow the Empire to take the Crystal, which in turn would damn the entire city to being razed by both daemons and the Empire’s soldiers. Nyx really did understand know, why the rebels would consider such drastic actions, understood that the peace treaty was seen as the final betrayal of all the promises that the King had made, understood that at that point, the only way forward, in the eyes of the rebels, was to take matters into their own hands.

But knowing the consequences of their actions…he had to stop them.

He found himself, a short while later after the rebels had all begun to disperse so that they could work on their various tasks, hovering awkwardly in a room that had been converted into a makeshift workshop. From what he’d been told, these rebels didn’t seem to be associated with the traitorous Kingsglaive members, but considering how Libertus was still discussing matters with this group’s leader, and how small this group was, Nyx bet that they didn’t trust him fully just yet.

“So, forgive me for asking, but this stuff doesn’t seem…it doesn’t look like you’d be able to get this from a hardware store.” Nyx commented, staring at the charges one of the rebels was preparing.

“Well, obviously,” The man shrugged. “You’d be surprised, what you can get from the old merchant in the back alleyway. Couple of leftover demolition explosives, from the last time a condemned building actually got demolished. Honestly, the only part of this that we’ve gotten from uh…outside sources…would be the communicators, and the money to buy the explosives.”

“…Do you think this…old merchant of yours…sells potions?” Nyx inquired, as casually as he could.

The rebel squinted at him, and Nyx quietly hoped he hadn’t pushed too quickly. Libertus was having an easier time ingratiating with the group, probably because his anger was all too genuine, whereas Nyx knew his silence was probably leaving everyone suspicious of him, even with Lib vouching for him.

“What do you need them for?”

“I just…I want to be prepared, in case someone- someone gets injured, or hurt.” Nyx admitted, putting in just the slightest tinge of the depression he felt whenever he thought about all the times one or more of his friends had died, of all the times he had failed, over the past few loops.

The rebel’s eyes widened, and Nyx realised that the other man probably had just made the (logical) leap of understanding that Nyx was thinking about Crowe, about his sister in all but blood who had recently died (yet again). Libertus had not been quiet about the fact that her death was the cause of their change in allegiances. The rebel visibly softened, before patting Nyx on the shoulder and giving him directions.

As it turned out, the black-market dealer not only dealt potions and explosives, but also all other sorts of legal and illegal merchandise. Quite frankly, Nyx wasn’t sure how this guy hadn’t been caught yet, considering that not only was most of his catalogue was kept in the same graffiti-covered garage, but also, he travelled around in the shadiest van Nyx had ever seen.

Nyx stared at the array of very illegal weaponry that was on display along one of the garage’s wall panels, before turning his attention to the rack of various curatives. There were a few potions, and he even managed to find a high elixir amongst them, even if the bottle was a little cracked and leaking the magic-infused liquid into its haphazard plastic wrapping.

But what caught his attention next, was a tiny box in the back of the curative rack, one that had the slightest sparks of a phoenix down emanating from it. He picked it up, and opened it, half-expecting it only to be some sort of clever fake. But no, there was a small downy feather resting inside the box, barely a quarter of the size of a regular phoenix down, but somehow, he could tell that the magic within it was as potent as normal.

“…How much does this one cost?” He asked.

The dealer laughed, shrugging. “Five thousand gil.”

Nyx winced. That was…almost a third of his current savings. He could purchase at least ten potions with that money, or even two extra knives for Crowe. And technically, he could buy even more for a cheaper price if he went outside the Wall, to maybe an outpost in Leide or Duscae, but there was no way he’d be able to just skip out of the city in a future loop, not when the Kingsglaive would be ordered to remain within, until the Princess was kidnapped.

Damn the fact that anything stronger than a regular potion was only available in Insomnia via the military, and even then, they were highly regulated. Potions wouldn’t save Crowe, if only because Nyx knew she took at least four of them with her on that mission.

“I’ll think about it.” Nyx finally said, putting down the box. He wouldn’t be needing that in this loop, that was for certain.

He now knew where this rebel group was located, knew their leader, knew how they were getting their supplies, beyond collaborating with the Empire. He had also come to the realisation that there were at least another two or three cells, with at least one of them likely in collaboration with the traitor Glaives, after Libertus let slip later that night that he had participated in ‘a meeting with the other leaders of this rebellion’. Nyx had tried to get further details from him, but Libertus had just shrugged and said that it wasn’t important.

He still didn’t know if the rebels would have been half as successful without Libertus’ information (and hadn’t it stung, to learn just how much information on the Citadel, and all their truly loyal brothers and sisters in the Glaive, Libertus had been willing to share), but Nyx figured that was a problem for a future loop. He’d figure out how to convince Libertus to stay. One day.

And now, he had just half a day before the signing ceremony, half a day with which to do research on the other thing he wanted to learn about, this loop. Namely, that Prophecy that both Lunafreya and King Regis had mentioned. Somehow, Nyx had the feeling that it was important, but he had no idea how or why it was. And considering that this loop, there was no chance he’d be able to even start digging up proof of Drautos’ treachery, or that of the other Glaives like Luche and Tredd, he might as well see whether he could get at least some background information on that.

The City Library turned out to be practically useless. Oh sure, there was a book on the Cosmogony, which didn’t actually talk about any sort of prophecy, but all it did talk about a King chosen by the Astrals to ‘see through a coming disaster’. And he assumed that disaster had something to do with that last passage in the book, which he gathered (after a good hour trying to parse through the flowery phrasing) talked about some sort of apocalyptic plague of darkness? There was nothing actually specific though, just passages that he assumed was well-known information amongst the more religious folks of Insomnia.

Nyx was starting to regret not paying much attention to the main religion in the city before this.

He spent the rest of the loop, before following Libertus to see where these rebels would be setting their charges, nursing a headache, as he tried to figure out how exactly this was all related to the Empire invading Insomnia. In the end, he opted to just, focus on the more immediate problems he had. He had his hands full anyways, trying to stop the deaths of his friends, and the destruction of Insomnia, pretty much all on his own.

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

Nyx woke up, for the seventh time, and decided that no matter what happened in any of his future loops, he was never, ever dying again to a hail of bullets. Sure, he may or may not have intentionally stepped in front of that one guy, the rebel leader that had taken a shine to Libertus rather quickly, but…once was more than enough.

He swung himself out of bed, absently rubbing the centre of his chest, where he swore he could still feel the phantom impact of the bullets, along with the by-now-expected mild burning sensation that accompanied every awakening to a new loop. He had about ten minutes before Libertus would call him about meeting up at the training building, and he needed to figure out how exactly he was going to play things this time around.

It was…surprisingly easy to sneak through the alleyways to get to the black-market dealer, that night, and Nyx quickly handed over the required amount of gil for the phoenix down. Absently, he noted that there was a stack of demolition-grade explosives badly hidden in one corner. He quickly rushed back to his flat, trying to think of anything else he could give Crowe that wouldn’t arouse to much suspicion from any of the traitors or his technically-allies. An extra elixir? Nyx wasn’t certain how much help that would be, but well, more curatives certainly never hurt anyone.

Crowe still disappeared, on that mission.

He did notice Luche limping around though, one arm clearly injured, some new bandages peeking out from under his collar.

Good to know that Crowe had, at the very least, given Luche hell.

The trip to the morgue…was perplexing, to say the least. This time, there was an actual guard around the room, and when Libertus inevitably burst in, they only saw the faintest glimpse of a charred arm, before they were both tugged back outside by the combined efforts of Drautos and Pelna.

He tried to convince Libertus to stay, once again. This time, he emphasised the fact that they didn’t know for certain that Crowe was dead, that maybe she was still alive, why else would they try to stop them from seeing her? And Libertus knew Nyx had given Crowe a phoenix down, and an extra potion. Surely Crowe couldn’t be dead, she was far too strong to die.

Libertus still left, leaving Nyx clenching his Kingsglaive emblem in his hand.

Looked like the phoenix down wasn’t enough. Not on its own.

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Two days later, when the Glaive deployed to rescue Lunafreya, Nyx found himself revising his words. Slightly.

He’d tampered with the hairpin beforehand, having spent several of the prior loops figuring out exactly where the tracker was placed, and whether he could actually remove the component that allowed the Niflheim forces to track it, whilst still keeping the part that let him know where it was located. It had been…finicky work, to say the least, and it hadn’t worked out before, but Nyx was fairly confident that this time would be the one. He’d left the part he thought was the daemon-attracting one in Luche’s apartment, because Nyx was, at the end of the day, absolutely down to cause that man as much grief as he could before he could kill him with no consequences. And, just before they had prepared to leave, he’d packed some extra curatives, because he guessed that even if he failed to prevent the daemons from swarming them all later, he could at least help keep Pelna and the King alive for longer.

The rescue mission went just about as Nyx had expected, having continued with his plan to keep Pelna alive, because having extra allies never hurt anyone. What he hadn’t expected, however, was a blast of fire slamming into the octopus daemon, successfully knocking it off the ship that Nyx had managed to get Lunafreya and Pelna into.

He looked for the source of the fire, only for a knife to go sailing through the open door, and Crowe warping with it, a second later. She crumpled onto the deck of the ship, and Nyx vaguely heard Pelna make a strangled exclamation, before cursing as he briefly lost control of the ship.

“Crowe!” Nyx yelled, rushing to her side. “Holy shit, you’re alive!”

“No thanks to that bastard Luche.” Crowe grumbled, voice clearly laced with exhaustion.

There was a burn scar tracing from just under her chin, down to her shoulder, and Nyx belatedly noticed that one sleeve of her tattered jacket was hanging empty.

“…We thought you were dead, Crowe.” Nyx admitted, almost breathless with relief as he pressed an extra elixir into her hand. “Well, at least now we know why they wouldn’t let me and Libertus into the morgue.”

“I’m hard to kill, you know that,” Crowe muttered, looking decidedly better after the elixir. “Though…I probably wouldn’t have made it without that phoenix down you gave me. And even then, it was a bit touch-and-go. I was lucky that a couple of hunters found me, otherwise I would’ve died. If not from blood loss because of Luche’s damn bullet, then from the shock of losing my arm. At least, that’s what the hunters said.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright? We’re…heading back to Insomnia, because the Princess said we need to recover the King, or else we’re all fucked, basically,” Pelna called out. “I think I’ve got enough control of this thing to give you the opportunity to get off, but the moment we cross the city wall, we’re going to be right in the thick of it.”

“Pelna, I literally ran all this way after the hunters spotted the Imperial ships in the air. I would’ve called you all about Luche being a filthy traitor, except that my comms were all linked to Commander Drautos’, and considering I don’t know how else Luche would’ve known the exact details of my mission in order to ambush me that effectively, I…couldn’t risk it.” Crowe glared at him, straightening up and pulling her knife from out of the ship’s wall. “I’m helping, whether you all like it or not. Speaking of which, where the hell is Libertus?”

“He left the Kingsglaive, after you- I mean, after we thought you died.” Nyx admitted. “I tried to get him to stay but-“

“But it’s Libertus. Probably wanted to take things into his own hands, didn’t he,” Crowe rolled her eyes. “Idiot. But yeah, it does make sense.”

Nyx nodded, silently figuring out whether he had any other methods of communication he could give Crowe in future, now that he knew for certain that the phoenix down actually worked!

Several hours later, Nyx cursed viciously as their car once again went flying off an overpass, this time from an errant missile from an MT Armour that had somehow still managed to catch up to them, even with Fortis’ intervention. When he finally pulled himself from that wreckage, it was to see Pelna’s bloodied face staring up at the sky, his neck bent at an unnatural angle.

“Shit.” Crowe said, as they all hurried into the nearest building with the same damn horde of wasp daemons chasing them, Nyx preparing himself for the inevitable run with the hairpin. “I don’t suppose there was any way to stop Tredd from throwing that fireball that sent us right into that MT’s path?”

“Actually.” King Regis finally said, as they crouched behind a row of filing cabinets. “If you told me who the traitors were, I probably could have cut them off from my magic. I would’ve done so earlier…but I wasn’t certain whether I’d be able to cut just them off from the magic, rather than the entirety of the Kingsglaive.”

Nyx stared in shock at the King.

“Wait, you could’ve done that from the start?!”

“It is…finicky work, to sever only those specific bonds, without being immediately near to them,” King Regis admitted, oblivious to Nyx’s churning thoughts. “And I will admit, my hold on the magic of the Lucii is…weaker than it was, before the initial attack on the Citadel. But it is doable.”

Nyx was so distracted by that newest revelation, that he failed to notice the swinging arm of an MT Amour, and found himself waking up with a shout for the eighth time, the feeling of his ribs being crushed still fresh in his mind.

#ffxv #ff15 #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv kingsglaive #final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #nyx ulric #libertus ostium #crowe altius #carminite writes #Running Onwards (A Timelooping Nyx AU)#in which Nyx goes through loops 4-7 and makes some progress #but also gets plenty more questions as he tries to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of figuring out how to Not Get The Bad Ending #honestly i was a bit iffy on some of the bits here #but i think im happy with how it's turned out #(also yeah i think this thing is going to turn into a multi-story project considering the Ideas I have been having lately)#stay tuned for more!

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