My Light

t w e n t y - o n e

By the time Aileen and I got back from shopping, we saw Noctis and the others talking with some woman. "Who's that?" I ask as we stood in front of the group. "She's fine, Aura. Aranea's not gonna do anything bad to us." Noctis assures me about the woman named Aranea. "She's gonna take us to someone we can thank for this mess." Akiko says and I nod. "You must be pretty boy's girlfriend. Princess Aura Nua Ami of Alesia." she says with a smirk. "Actually, it's wife now." I correct her and she chuckles. "Congrats. I've met one of your friends, Your Majesty. Who's that one?" the woman who I now know as Aranea asks motioning to Aileen. "This is Aileen. She's my adviser." I respond and she nods. "Nice to meet you. Now, let's get moving." Aranea says. "Alright, but you think I can go to the bathroom for a sec?" I ask. "Make it quick, Majesty. I don't have all night." Aranea says and I roll my eyes as I take the bag from Aileen and head into the bathroom. After I finished, I wait a moment and after a few minutes, I check to see that the test was...... positive. I widen my eyes then hear a knock on my stall. "I told you I didn't have all night, Majesty. Let's go." Aranea says on the other side of the door. "Yeah, I'm coming." I say and I wrap the test, then throw it away. I quickly wash my hands and head out, seeing everybody, apart from Ignis and Aranea, look at me in concern. "I'll tell you guys later." I tell them and we follow Aranea to wherever she was taking us. "What did you do to your eyes?" Aranea asks Ignis as she looks at his injury. "Oh, uh... just a flesh wound." Ignis responds to her. "Can you see?" she asks him again. "I'm... afraid not." Ignis says with a slight sad tone in his voice. "Wow. That sucks. It's a cruel world." she says.

"You can say that again." Akiko says and I look at her with a frown.

She suddenly stops and looks at the six of us, "Uh, wasn't there a blonde boy with you guys?" Aranea asks a touchy subject and I look at Akiko. "Yeah... there was." Noctis says as he grips my hand and squeezes it slightly. "We... lost track of him." Gladio says and I see a tear fall from Akiko's eyes. "Is he dead?" Aranea asks and I look over to Noctis as he looks down. "I... I don't know." Noctis says and I look back at Aranea. "But it's a really touchy subject to talk about. So, can we get moving?" I ask Aranea and she looks at me with a raised brow, then looks at Akiko. "Yeah, sure. Let's get going." she says and we start to walk once again. "So if it's not you we thank..." Aileen fades off as she walks with Ignis. "Thank the demons, pawns of the imperial army." she responds as we walk across a bridge. "The army that you fight for." Gladio says. "Fought for." she corrects and I look at her with wide eyes. "My men and I are in the search and rescue business now." she tells us and we all look at her in shock. As we walk, I notice ships on either side and soldiers standing there. "You mentioned being part of the relief effort. We have a favor to ask." Ignis says to Aranea. "Ask away." she says to us as I looked at all the soldiers around us, but don't attack. "In light of what you told us, we can't allow the other passengers to continue on." Ignis says to her. "Sure, leave 'em to me... but, who's gonna drive the train?" Aranea asks. "Now that you mention it, yeah. You know anyone?" Gladio asks her. "I do, in fact, I know two." she says.

Aranea walks us over to two men that were standing in the distance. "Your new engineers. Biggs and Wedge. No need to worry... they can take a lickin'." Aranea assures us. "Only if we have to. What's this all about?" one of the men dressed in white asks. I don't know which one is Biggs and which one is Wedge, so I just decided to call them by whatever they wore. "Driving a train. To Gralea." Aranea responds to them. "That all?" the man in white asks her. "Well, who would you have me ask?" Aranea asks them. "You got us there." he says to her. "We'll do it." the man dressed in dark gray says. "We really appreciate you going out of your way." Aileen tells Aranea. "Yeah. No sweat. Just speak to Biggs when you're ready to go." she tells us. "Not to be rude, or anything, but which one is Biggs?" I ask her. "I am, miss. And there's no offense taken." Biggs replies and I nod with a sweet smile. "Do you guys think we can rest up a bit. I'm feeling kind of tired." I say and Noctis nods along with the others. Noctis pulls me with him to the edge of the cliff, and we sit down. "Are you gonna tell me what happened?" he asks as we look at the view in front of us. I admired the view, and the glow from the moon, then turned my attention to Noctis. "When Aileen and I left, we went to a store and got some supplies, and a pregnancy test." I say and Noctis looks at me with wide eyes. "Did you take it?" he asks me, and I nod. "It was positive." I say and he smiles, but his smile then turns into a frown. "I know you're happy, Noct, and worried at the same time. But if anything, I'll be fine." I say to him.