AN: And finally...the last chapter.

Thank you to everyone who has read, favourited, followed, and reviewed. I have read every review and they have all made me smile. I do hope you enjoy this final chapter, and do so knowing it has been a pleasure to write for you all!

I do, of course, have a few one-shot ideas to write, set in the same verse as this fic. So Infernian!Ignis isn't ending here. I also have my Ardyn fic ongoing, and I am open to requests.

The sun had long since risen over the land, and yet not everyone who dwelled upon it rejoiced for the return of the light.

In the first week, they had consoled her. Arms around her, holding her as if the embrace could block out the numbing cold realisation that her brother, her friends, her king, they had all perished in returning the sun to them.

In the second week, they had held funerals. Grand affairs, thousands of unknown faces clad in mourning attire, lined numerous aisles to weep as the empty-coffins were displayed for closure. Iris knew the coffins were empty. No one had been able to keep that truth from her; no one's remains were recovered from the citadel. The presumption was too horrific to speak of, she had been told, but the hunter knew precisely what was implied in this.

The daemons had devoured them.

And yet, Iris thought as she walked along the sand to the shore, grains shifting under bare feet, that explanation sat well neither with her head nor her heart.

In ten years of darkness, she had learnt never to be so foolish as to hope for survival merely because the missing person meant something to you. Daemons did not care to distinguish. Anyone could die to their teeth and claws. King or no. Brother or no. And yet, that self-same experience had wrought her a sixth sense, in a way. Iris could feel the cold pangs of loss before a scout returned with harrowing news, and a blossom of light telling her of someone's survival.

That blossom sat nestled in her heart yet, small and weak, but there.

Iris busied herself with fixing a line to the fishing rod she held in her hand, threading the thin line through a lure and casting her own eyes out across the horizon. The sun was already low in the sky, as was natural, but she knew the sight still caused panic for some. Some feared one day it would set and never rise again. Some didn't understand that the sun's return did not mean every second of the day – legends and tales had warped to the point where those who had been born into the decade of darkness had expected daylight without end. Some expected the sun to be a creature, a living entity; some even thought the sun and the True King to be one in the same.

Alas, the sun had returned...and the throne was now empty, no royal blood left to bear the burden of the kingship. Still, Iris mused bitterly, it hadn't been long before some noble, rich families had started to contest for the right to call themselves the new royal family. No decision had been made, yet, for they were busying themselves trying to figure out if the dormant Crystal would select the new king...

The Crystal was dormant, that much was certain. True, it sparkled to life, it kept the land safe...but nothing more. It was almost sad, Iris thought, to see the once-prophesied item reduced to nothing but a battery.

Sighing, she cast the line out to sea, the lure splashing as it shattered through the sparkling calm waters.

"...Fishing? Seriously? You took up Noct's hobby to remember us by, but nothin' of mine?"

The gasp that escaped Iris' lips was accented by a loud splash as she dropped her fishing rod into the waters. Her whole body froze – it couldn't be. Why? How? Truly?

Slowly, she turned, and trailed her eyes up to see the translucent form of the Titan. Only, it was a face she recognised, brown-amber eyes and a half-smirked lip. Dark hair spiked in a messy mane that grew down his back, a scar littering across his forehead and down his left eye. Gemstones of golden hues seemed to decorate his skin, embedded across his cheekbones and jawline like diamonds in stone.

Both hands came to cover her mouth, though slowly, they descended as she dared to ask:

"...G-Gladdy?"

"Probably not gonna summon me with that, but yeah..." Despite his light-hearted, gruff tone, there was a sadness that glittered in his eyes, "Sorry it took so long, Iris, I...it took a little while to find us all. And I haven't really mastered this...appearing in your world thing..."

"Your attempt is abhorrent to say the least." A clipped, curt tone signalled the appearance of another – Larger in stature than any mortal man, but small than Gladio's form, Ignis was sitting off to Iris' right, cross-legged in the sand, comfortably in his Infernian form. Bronze skin semi-glistened in the setting sun, dark hair beaten in length by a mass of twisted horns. "Did you pay attention to anything I told you?"

Iris nearly stepped back and almost off the pier into the water; how had he appeared without her noticing? Before she could ask, another voice interjected:

"I did! Look! Totally here! Oh, hang on—"

A loud and sudden crash of thunder brought a yelp from Iris' throat and she did jump then as Prompto landed in the sand next to an unflinching Ignis, a bright bolt of blue cutting his arrival through the air. The Infernian's hair fluttered a little from the force of it, and he frowned.

"You aren't required to summon a storm every time you come down to the mortal realm, you know..."

"Yeah but...where's the fun in that?" Prompto straightened up and grinned over at Ignis – his hair seemed, somehow, even spikier than Iris remembered. Blue etchings crackled across his skin, and like Ramuh before him, the sclera of his eyes were as dark as the night, his irises bolting a bright yellow in contrast.

"You...I..." Iris managed to stammer, watching the trio act as normal as damn ever despite their newfound existence. It was almost as if they were utterly oblivious to—

Tear stung in her eyes and, thankful that Gladio had finally managed to bring himself into the world properly and give himself a physical form, she ran forward, slamming her hands feebly against his bent knee as he knelt before her. "I thought you were dead, I thought—I thought you had all died, I buried you!" She felt sobs pulling from her throat and she felt to her own knees, shoulders shaking and eyes squeezed tightly shut as if to try and stem the tears that fell. "I buried you..."

Gladio felt his heart twist at her words and, not for the first time, inwardly cursed his new form. He couldn't embrace her, he couldn't put a hand on her shoulder, he couldn't console her.

Before he could try and piece together an apology, another voice introduced itself solemnly.

"It wasn't Gladio's fault, Iris. I...I took a little while finding everyone in the Beyond. It's...a big place. I got lost..."

Opening her eyes once more, Iris turned to look over her shoulder to track the familiar voice.

"Noct...?"

Standing at the end of the pier, in all but a human form, stood the once-King. His face was as serious as ever, but as Iris got to her feet, he smiled over to her. He began walking over, and his form glittered and broke away, revealing fourth of the Six that gathered around her. Adorned head-to-foot in black armour carved into the visage of a dragon, blue eyes pierced from under the helm.

"Then...you're all...you're all alive?" She dared to ask, as if fearful there was some catch to them all having returned to her in such a grand fashion.

"In a different way...but yeah. It became apparent that the events of so long ago hadn't just darkened our world, but the realm of the Six too." Noct explained, kneeling too so that he didn't tower so over Iris, "This world is a new one, a new light, a new kingdom. It deserved a new Six, not one still tethered to revenge and heartbreak...Bahamut conceded this. Ramuh, Titan...they all conceded that their own wrath had been as much to blame as Ifrit himself. The new world needs a Six that doesn't want nor need worship. We'll just keep doing what we always did."

"Protecting the light, protecting the kingdom!" Prompto chimed in, "Though, y'know, if you wanna make offerings of food, I'm totally fine with that."

It was all so much to take in – her friends, her brother, alive...and...the Six...

A frown briefly crossed Iris' features as she considered what was being told to her.

"And...Leviathan? Shiva?"

"Shiva was recently reincarnated in Gentiana. She is happy to maintain the role." Ignis noted. "As for Leviathan..."

"That's a role that needs to be filled." Noct addressed Iris directly, and she could hear Gladio growl and turn away. Noct's own eyes flicked up to the upset Titan, before back down to Iris. "I know what I'm asking. I'm basically asking you to give up your life as you are. I'd understand if you said no. Gladio's..."

"As over-protective as ever? Noct...I...I'm a hunter. And there's nothing here for me to hunt anymore. I protected people...now I'm just..." She looked away, then up to Gladio. She understood his upset, his concern...but she knew he already knew her answer. That was why he wasn't interjecting, she realised, and respected.

Turning back to Noct, a smile broke across her face and tears in her eyes, though this time, they were ones of joy at reunion rather than sorrow of loss. "Hydraean, huh? And here I was just dreaming of being part of the Kingsguard..."

Finally, Iris thought, the night is over for me too...

Gladiolus, the Archaean, a shield of stone.

Prompto, the Fulgurian, piercing as lightning.

Gentiana, the Glacian, graceful as a blizzard.

Iris, the Hydraean, a symphony of the tides.

Noctis, the Draconian, the king of the sun and the night.

Ignis, the Infernian –

Noct's hand paused, mulling over what to write. Eyes cast to the side to watch the Infernian, finding the fire god at ease next to him. Sensing the Draconian's glance, Ignis' head turned to face Noct, confused.

"What is it?" He asked, noting the sounds, "...What are you writing?"

Noct smiled, reflexively placing a hand on Ignis' shoulder to relay this to him.

"...A blessing, I guess."

He took up his pen once more and continued to write. He heard Ignis huff a smirk, and wondered if he knew what had been written merely from the sound of it now.

"How sweet." He said, confirming he did indeed know what was written, "You're making me blush."

"...Shut up." Noct half-smirked, before sitting back and regarding the Cosmogony. "...No more Oracles. No more half-cures for the dark, promises of more if they wait. No more debts to be paid for tragedies long-grieved for. We're going to protect this world...properly and completely."

A hand came to cover Noct's own, and Ignis smiled over at him.

"As we always have."

Gladiolus, the Archaean, a shield of stone.

Prompto, the Fulgurian, piercing as lightning.

Gentiana, the Glacian, graceful as a blizzard.

Iris, the Hydraean, a symphony of the tides.

Noctis, the Draconian, the king of the sun and the night.

Ignis, the Infernian, the fire that guides the night.

-Fin