#emetraha

Rest of the comic under the cut. (CW for horror visuals and choking)

i'm challenging you to write the old men :ye:

I'm only a hundred years late but I hope I did the old men justice. <3 @azems-familiar

For those not familiar, takes place in the OT4 verse, when G'raha and Hades finally start to figure things out, even if at the moment it's for Akira's sake.

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

The ruins of Garlemald never got any easier to see.

Despite the efforts by the survivors of the final days combined with Zenos' madness, most of the city still lay in rubble; aggressive, out of control magitech crept around every corner, waiting to catch some poor soul off guard. It was no wonder that the reconstruction efforts had been so slow, considering the danger and the ominous tower that still loomed in place of the royal palace. G'raha knew he was more than a match for any machine, but rather than fight, he had cast a Vanish spell over himself, passing easily through the ruined streets. He was too concerned that, should he take too long cutting a path with a blade or magic, that Hades would move on to somewhere else, and at this point, where would he go? No, best to make good time and catch him here.

It wasn't long before G'raha was skirting around the edges of the former palace. Surely Hades would find nothing nostalgic or comforting inside the now-twisted structure, so. Somewhere outside, perhaps. He knew from Akira that Hades hated the cold (an irony that was not lost on him) so the idea of him being outside, at night, in the Garlean chill was somewhat ludicris, but G'raha had no other leads to go on. It wasn't long before he found a grand, wrought iron gate, metal twisted by something large, though whether it was machine or one of the beasts from the Final Days was impossible to guess. G'raha carefully stepped around the metal and, beyond, found piles of rubble tossed about haphazardly, making the purpose of the land almost unrecognizeable if not for the small remnants here and there of what were clearly grave markers.

And, amid the settled chaos of what was once likely a lovely little courtyard, G'raha saw a familiar, white haired figure standing before a conspicuously untouched gravestone, grander than any of the remnants he had passed. Wandering closer, he could just make out the name through the dark and snowfall — LUCIUS YAE GALVUS. G'raha dispelled his Vanish, making sure to step heavily into some snow, the ice crunching under his boots to announce his presence. Hades didn't move, shoulders hunched against the cold, a scarf he hadn't left home with draped around his collar.

"Your…son?" He ventured, and Hades gave a single, curt nod without turning to face him.

"I suppose he was, in a way," he mumbled. The silence stretched for a moment before G'raha prodded again.

"Your first-born, if I remember right." G'raha was familiar enough with the Garlean royal family, particularly the line that led to the horrific eighth umbral calamity. He remembered the eldest of the first sons of the family had been well liked, but had not lived long enough to do much leading.

"As Solus, aye." Hades tried to cover what may have been a sniffle behind clearing his throat. G'raha resisted the urge to glance at him, doing his best to keep him from feeling interrogated. The taller man seemed reluctant to continue, though the thick emotion in his voice implied it wasn't due to indifference. G'raha suddenly wondered if the suspiciously untouched gravestone had been so earlier that day.

"Why come here, then?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Hades snapped, a glance revealing his lip curled in a snarl. "What, now you suddenly care?"

"Believe it or not," G'raha carefully kept his voice steady, wrapping his tail tightly around his own leg under his oversized coat to keep it from lashing. "As a father I can understand how terrible it would be to lose a child."

"Oh, can you now?" Hades snapped. "You've lost a child? Children? More children than most people will ever have?" G'raha took a breath, folding his arms against the chill wind.

"No, but I can imagine," he started carefully. "More than once I feared that Lyna would not return from her guard duties on the First. I still worry that the next time Akira visits the First, she'll be bringing news that the times no longer align as nicely as before, and that Lyna will be gone." The silence was heavy, but G'raha waited; pressing now would likely send Hades into his shell and ruin any attempt at the peace he hoped to foster.

"…When he was born…" Hades began, speaking slowly, deliberately. "There were precious few times over the years where I had any semblance of happiness, but…that was one." Hades ran a hand through his hair. "I almost let myself believe things could be different, even. But… Then he died."

"I'm sorry," G'raha shrugged his shoulders up against a sudden gust of wind. "That must have been hard." A scoff.

"Yes, well, what hasn't been hard?" Hades murmured. For possibly the first time, G'raha allowed himself to really put himself in the former Ascian's shoes. G'raha remembered how long his hundred years on the First had felt while he awaited his chance. How long would it have felt if it was two hundred, three hundred, or even one thousand? And Hades had been alive for far longer than that, and almost entirely alone, playing role after role, putting on endless masks not unlike the red one that G'raha knew still lived at the bottom of a drawer.

"What of his mother?" G'raha couldn't help the question; he remembered reading that Garlemald's first Empress had been stoic but largely uninvolved with the war effort. Many pieces of Garlean propaganda told of how she came from nothing before rising to her station, clearly meant to sell the idea that through service to the Empire, anyone could thrive, never mind that the Empress was still indeed a pure-blooded Garlean. Hades gave a humorless chuckle.

"A familiar soul. It soothed but it wasn't enough."

"By familiar, you mean…?"

"Does that upset you, to know? That she was…" Hades trailed off, losing himself once more in the gravestone before them. G'raha took a small sidestep closer, not quite touching but the warmth of the other man easily felt over the few ilms between them.

"No. She has no control over what her past lives did," G'raha reasoned, voice carefully even. It was hard to reconcile the strong-willed woman determined to protect everyone she loved that he knew now with the somewhat cold and distant Empress history remembered.

"True. And if it's any consolation, if she'd been born to a more supportive family, in a better situation, she likely would have been just as much of a headache as she's ever been," the grousing was eased by the smallest of smirks, fondness touching Hades' features the way G'raha had only seen when he was talking about his partners. He finally tore his eyes away from the headstone, fixing G'raha with a not-quite glare. "Why are you here?"

"Akira didn't want you to leave," G'raha began, his turn to uncomfortably stare into the snowy darkness and rubble around them. "And I… I share just as much blame for her frustrations. I haven't given you a fair chance, at any point. Despite the fact that she would not be alive if not for you. I don't think I ever even thanked you for it."

"Well, it's about time," Hades huffed, but it lacked the usual bite. "I suppose I've also been less than charitable towards you as well. Hanging onto old rivalries and such." G'raha smirked; rivalries was certainly an understatement.

"Well, this all could only be expected," his voice was light, ironically easy. "You did try to kill me, after all."

"If I were trying to kill you, you would have been dead," Hades protested, no animosity to be heard. When G'raha turned to look at him, he found Hades was watching him in turn, perhaps both waiting for the other shoe to drop. G'raha turned away, determinedly watching the ever-more-heavily falling snow as he steeled his own courage before taking the Ancient's hand. He felt when Hades' hand tensed in his, but refused to back down.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, but G'raha noted he didn't pull away either.

"I think," the former-Exarch began slowly, "That Akira deserves for us to give our level best to this effort, don't you?" Hades was quiet for a long moment.

Some minor tomfoolery in the Crystarium

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Emet-Selch/G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch, Pre-Emet-Selch/G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch, Emet-Selch & G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch Characters: Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV), G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers (Final Fantasy XIV), First Meetings, Banter, Negotiations, Pre-Exarch G'raha, the Flood of Light, Word Games, Syrcus Tower, Crystal Tower (Final Fantasy XIV), Crystal Tower Shenanigans, Plotting, Meet-Cute, Trespassing, Gee G'raha where did you find your boyfriend? oh he broke into your house?....okay then, This is the prelude for all the emetraha in our fics Series: Part 5 of your boldness stands alone among the wreck Summary:

Ten years after G'raha Tia arrives in the First, six years after he returns to the Crystal Tower after wandering his new world, and two hours after he begins helping with the creation of a quarantine zone for those who have take refuge near Syrcus Tower that are now sick - the alarm system of the Tower's archives alerts him to an intruder. An intruder far too stubborn to leave.