Caius’ face had barely even dried of tears when Serah had found him. Sure, he had managed to settle down enough to have a proper conversation with Noctis about everything. No screaming at each other, or any arguments. Just a conversation, and Caius was grateful that Noctis had been understanding enough to see the state he was in. But it didn’t make any better what had happened. He retained his loyalty to Noctis, sure, but his faith in the Lucian Kings, the gods…

How did he recover from that? It still felt like a knife had been shoved into his ribs, and even after leaving Cindy’s home in Provo, he found himself wobbling and swaying in his steps. Noctis had done his best, but Caius was hurting. Mentally, he hurt more than he had in a very, very long time. Maybe even worse, considering he’d had to relive that long-ago time as well. His wounds from a decade past had been reopened fresh, and now with the sting of betrayal on top of it? Might as well have rubbed salt on them.

He didn’t know where he was going. Back to the clinic? No, Yuna would know something was wrong and interrogate him. He wasn’t willing to let himself fall apart in front of Yuna. He should find a room, go to sleep. Sleep… All of this off, and hope to feel better in the morning. He barely knew where he was, but he tried to focus enough to try and find an inn. Instead, however, he would be held up by Serah. He had tried to insist he was fine, but it was pretty clear that he wasn’t. He wasn’t able to speak well, and everything he tried to say came out rambley. She did her best to comfort him as she led him outside the city to the cabin, but he couldn’t hear a lot of it. He was too stuck in his own thoughts.

But when he saw Lumina, he especially didn’t know what to do. His posture was hunched, his eyes looked ragged and he likely looked as rough as he felt. Physically, he was fine. But something had snapped deep inside, and he didn’t know how to manage it. He just… Stood there, not able to look at her properly, until she suddenly hugged him tightly. She had known, somehow, that something was wrong. After a few moments, he seemed to remember however – the ring on his finger. Just what exactly had his beloved seen? He hadn’t meant to cause her to panic, and yet…

While Caius was nervous in regards to touch, as she held on tight he found he didn’t care anymore.

And it all just…

Let out.

Caius wrapped an arm around her shoulders, buried his face and her neck and let the tears fall, sobbing openly. This was never something he had ever wanted to do around her, not when his Lumey was in a far worse situation than him. But in her embrace, where he knew he was safe, he couldn’t hold it anymore. All that grief, all that hurt and pain, all flowed as he weeped against her in the most vulnerable state he had ever been in his life. After she let go, he did his best to wipe his face and pretend it didn’t happen, but he couldn’t take it back now.

He was led inside and asked to state what happened. He… Didn’t quite know where to start.

“I… Went to see His Highness, to talk about our ongoing issue. We used the Ring of the Lucii to see Lucis’ Kings of Yore, to ask for their aid.”

A hateful glint shone in his eyes, and he stood up a bit straighter as he looked away with a short glare at the thought. “Told us to take a hike, the bastards, said they wouldn't help the both of us, just the King. Some good they are, when the whole reason the Ring exists is to deal with the starscourge. But…”

He took a deep breath, not sure, again, where to begin on all of this.

“I’m… A Lucis Caelum, they told me. Caius Lucis Caelum. Not that it mattered to the Kings as they still proclaimed me unworthy and all that, but... My mom was part of the Lucian royal bloodline, yet… I grew up on a farm far away from the Crown City and its protection. It made no sense, and that’s… Well.”

He pointed to his head. “Sometimes when we come to this world, we lose memories. Sometimes they come back. And… That triggered some lost memories of my own. The reason I lived on that farm is because of the True King prophecy, the one I’ve championed for years. Where the Chosen King, Noctis, will save the world from the scourge. But the prophecy… It said he would be the last King, the last of the Lucian line. Which my uncle, the King, interpreted to mean that for us to live…”

He held a hand over his face, gritting his teeth as he tried to keep from crying again.

“... We had to disappear. Live as exiles, out of sight, away from the main players of the prophecy. Far as the gods and kings were concerned, we were just excess, not supposed to be there. My entire life was written out for me before I was even born. And then the treaty happened, and the King called his crownsguard to the Crown City. Any who survived the events of the battle that followed, wouldn’t have known we were even still alive. And then the darkness came, and… So did the hired bandits.”

Caius didn’t know how to feel. Hate, or hurt? Was he depressed and agonized beyond belief, or at threat to be consumed by his anger and rage? He was somewhere in-between, and he felt like he could fall off the scale and hit either one full tilt at any point.

“Then came a memory I repressed. Painfully. The most pain I’ve ever felt, it was like my head was being carved open. And then I saw it – my family dying, slowly and painfully. No matter how much we called for help, nobody came.”

Caius felt his eyes welling up again and he took another breath, holding his arms up to try to wipe his face before he could turn into a fountain again. But it was hard to talk about. Hard to manage, hard to take… “Our home was razed, my mother, father and little sister burned to death. After months and months of making our pain slow, agonizing, humiliating, they made their actual deaths just the same. I only escaped because my brother sacrificed themselves for me, and I could hear their screams no matter how far I got until there was just… Nothing.”

He gritted his teeth as he forcibly wiped his face again. “All those years I spent alone, unable to trust people, barely scraping by with my life just to afford enough food to survive another day. All of that could have been avoided if they had cared enough to even send someone, anyone, to look out for my family. But nobody came, all because of this… Stupid prophecy, made by stupid gods who could have taken care of the problem they made the prophecy for themselves. They decided there could only be one, and by doing so, doomed my family to that horrible, painful death. And they…” he hissed in a whisper as hands clenched into fists. “The very royal family I served, helped fulfill that prophecy, and DIED for… Is one I’m not only a part of, but is the one that wasn’t there to help my parents, or my siblings, when we needed them most. All I was, was…”

Caius seethed as he looked away, not wanting them to see him cry again, or the hurt and anger in his face. Why had he been forced to relive all of that all over again, like it had happened yesterday? Why couldn’t it have stayed forgotten? Why did, after all these years, the kings and gods have to put that knife in his heart all over again?

“... Just something that had to disappear. In this prophecy, in the Lucis that the gods and kings envisioned… I had no place in it. Not chosen by the crystal, not chosen by the gods or kings, not even worthy to be aided against the blight. And the gods and their prophecy got what they bloody well wanted in the end, since I died and wound up here anyway.”

Caius knew it was coming. How many people just like this slime had he met by now? The threat against the well-being of Aljana’s people barely even seemed to register. It concerned him, sure. Especially when he knew that Adagium was fully capable of wiping this city out. But he was just so used to it by now. Scumbags with no regard for life, more than happy to threaten the well being of innocents to get what they wanted. It was actually kind of boring… Yet it boiled his blood all the same.

The Kingsglaive knew he was at a disadvantage. No Dragonblades here, no Vordun, no backup, no Noctis. But if he didn’t act now, he would wreak unfathomable harm on others, just as he had in Eos. Yet, he knew he had to be cautious too. He didn’t want to let these people be caught in the crossfire. So how-

His gaze darted towards the very confused vendor standing nearby. And he immediately pointed at Ardyn.

“He turns people into daemons.”

Well, that was enough to send the vendor running. It wouldn’t take long for that to spread and people to thin out. But to ensure that Adagium didn’t pursue…

The focus had to be on him.

And with that realization, a small smile crossed the corner of his complexion.

“Is that any way to speak to your own flesh and blood?”

Caius materialized his sword in a flash of glowing blue light, openly showing off the Power of Kings as he let Ardyn register what he had just said. That information, that heritage, that he loathed so much… As much as he hated to speak of it, to own it. It was the only way. “Believe it or not, I know why you did what you did. My time here has brought me to meetings with people from across time… Including one who witnessed the crowning of the Founder King. But it doesn’t change the fact you laid waste to Eos without care for who you harmed.”

He couldn’t pay back the kings, or the gods, for what they had done to his family. But he could sure as hell take his pound of flesh from one of the people responsible.

“And you won’t harm another again.”

Caius was terrified of this place.

This place, he had been a few times, when it had been a place of healing. He had recovered from his injuries against the dragon here, after dragging Vordun’s egg here while barely alive. And then the next time he saw it? It was crawling with undead. It had turned into a horrific swamp full of the things seemingly overnight. He had come here once, to defeat the Lich in what was one of the most harrowing things in his life to experience. He had hoped that by defeating the Lich, the flow of undead would stop.

But they didn’t. He didn’t know why, but they didn’t. He had been loath to come here since. But he also knew that he owed it to the natives to one day find the source of the undead and bring it to an end… And until then, keep them safe from the beasts here, to protect them, to save them… As he had failed to do before. So it was that after his visit to see how Noctis and his retinue were doing, Caius had taken an airship back to Torensten to continue working with Celes in restoring some semblance of order. Caius’ heart was heavy. What he had learned in Provo…

He couldn’t understand it. It hurt him, pained him down to his very soul. But for now, he knew he needed to push it down. All of that hurt, all of that pain? Was nothing compared to what would happen to Zephon’s people if he wasn’t on his game.

So here he was. Back to work. A bounty had been posted, he had taken it, even if he didn’t exactly like being here. He had been told another mercenary had taken it as well, so Caius figured he would find them eventually. The target was a marlboro… A horrific and dangerous creature. One that Caius had only encountered once. That, in of itself, was another painful memory. This one needed to be dealt with, and fast. Still, as Caius and his companion trudged through the swamps, following a very strong scent that Caius was quite familiar with…

… Perhaps Oren would be surprised at the sight of a man with a dragon at his side, coming his way.

She liked chocobos, so that was a point for her in his book that she was kind to animals. Her resemblance to Celes made it funny, though, as he couldn’t imagine the General doing any of that openly. Though she did secretly have a fascination with flowers… Did she actually hug chocobos when nobody was looking? Gods, now he was curious. She would probably never tell anybody that though, so it would likely forever remain a history. Unless he caught her in the act. Which he would never go out of his way to do, but…

Then came a talk about “aether”, and some of it sounded familiar to him from somewhere. But not familiar enough to point out, though it was likely based around some crap Alex had spewed considering they were from the same world. There was also a guy named Cid. Didn’t their world have a renowned Cid too? And so did Celes’ world? Weird.

Then Renitra almost made Caius point his own sword at her in alarm when she screamed at him. But realizing the context, he allowed his sword to disappear before the airport security could see him with it. Since, obviously, the screaming would get everyone’s attention. Everyone’s. Caius gritted his teeth sheepishly as he brought an arm to Renitra’s shoulder and began to guide her to the train-like airship. He handed over the tickets and herded Renitra inside, then to their seats.

“So Noctis gave you a power? I didn’t even know this world’s version even knew how to do it yet” Caius admitted inquisitively. She couldn’t have met him in her world, because that would be ridiculous. So it had to be the one here. Still what was this about a Garuda? “Wait. A Messenger came here? And attacked?”