The city once sang of heroes.
Now, it whispers their names in fear.
Future Pride stands divided — not by war, but by doubt.
Between golden flame and black fire, the line of faith begins to blur.
The Breaking Point
The Young Sparks — once united under the symbol of Ignis — now walk separate paths.
Beneath the cracked dome of the Old Hero Academy, their argument rages.
Sparks of energy flicker between them, echoing their turmoil.
Blitz, fists crackling with kinetic lightning, slams the wall.
"He keeps holding back! We could've ended Helios Core by now!"
Nira's telekinetic aura shivers like glass in her palms.
"And what then, Blitz? Another city in ruins? Another name on the memorial?"
Echo stays silent, eyes distant. His voice — when it finally comes — sounds eerily like Ignis's own.
"What if the only way to save the world... is to burn it clean?"
The room falls quiet.
Only Kai, crouched near a dismantled drone, mutters through clenched teeth.
"All my tech, all my plans — and still, we're hiding. Maybe Noctis is right. Maybe balance is just another word for fear."
The tension cracks like thunder.
When Ronak enters, the firelight around him flickers — calm, yet fragile.
He looks at them not as students, but as souls caught in the same storm he's still learning to weather.
"I didn't train you to follow me," he says softly.
"I trained you to understand yourselves."
But his words sound like echoes in a city that no longer believes.
The Whisper of Noctis
Far above, in the skeletal remains of Helios Tower, Noctis Ignis watches the team's quarrel through flickering holo-screens.
His voice threads through the shadows like silk and ash.
"They don't doubt me," he murmurs to the Eclipse Syndicate.
"They doubt him. All I have to do... is show them who truly leads."
He sends illusions — not dreams, but visions.
Whispers slip into their minds at night, woven from their fears.
To Blitz: "You could be faster, stronger — if you stop waiting for his permission."
To Nira: "Mercy makes corpses."
To Echo: "You can mimic anyone. Even a god."
To Kai: "They'll never see you as more than a tool."
Each heart begins to waver.
The flame of unity flickers.
Helios Strikes Back
Seizing the chaos, Helios Core launches a new campaign:
"The Ignis Threat: When Fire Turns Against You."
On every screen, twisted footage plays —
Ignis surrounded by burning wreckage, civilians screaming, the color drained from the truth.
The Brandie Unit marches in step, declaring martial law across the lower districts.
Citizens hide behind glass walls and pray to holographic idols of Noctis — the "True Protector."
Fear becomes the city's new currency.
The Resistance Broadcast
In a hidden studio beneath Sector 3, Lira Vale's voice cuts through the static once more — raw, defiant, trembling with power.
Her Spectra Voice fills every frequency, piercing the lies.
"There are two fires in Future Pride," she declares.
"One burns to destroy. The other burns to save.
The question isn't which flame you follow — it's which warmth you choose to stand in."
Her words echo across rooftops, through subways, into hearts that still remember what heroism meant.
Ronak's Doubt
That night, Ronak stands before the ancient statue of Urja, the mentor who once called him brother.
The golden fire in his hand dims, its warmth uncertain.
"How do I lead when even I can't see the line?"
"If Noctis is my darkness... am I still the light?"
His reflection in the statue's metal surface shifts — for a heartbeat, the face that stares back isn't his own.
It's Noctis's — calm, cold, certain.
The wind howls through the ruins like a whisper from another life.
And somewhere deep within the city's shadows, two flames — one golden, one black — flicker in perfect unison.