I know. Another WIP. I'm so sorry.
I actually wrote this ages ago but I'm actually not sure if I should post this because I planned for this to be a one-shot. It ended up being a monster though and it's been sitting on my laptop for so long because I still haven't gotten to write the last part and ending yet (despite this story have 15k words already). In the end, I decided to just split this into multiple chapters and post it bit by bit. Like I always do.
This is another of Harry Potter reborn to another world thing lol. Why do I keep writing for this trope I honestly don't know. You can view this happen in the same series as my "But I Don't Want to be a Hero!" or not, it's up to you.
Tags (copied from AO3): Crossover, FFXV Spoilers, Minor OC, Author knows nothing about politics and it shows, Fix-It, Maybe, Attempt at comedy that turned into not-comedy, Pitioss Ruins Theory, But modified to suit the story, Grammatical errors, Author knows nothing about polite slash upper-class English speech patterns and it shows, Elements of Final Fantasy XIII
Like a Fire in the Dark
One
So it happened like this.
Harry, 84 years old and still very much healthy despite his old age, was visiting his little Lily's children in France for a vacation. Lily's children, a pair of twins by the name of Freyr and Freyja, had opened a winery that produced high-quality wine in the countryside and how can he resist that? He could see his beautiful grandchildren and enjoy some good wine, perfect for a vacation right?
And it was a perfect vacation until he got drunk and thought it would be funny to take a bubble bath with his designer robes and socks on in the middle of the night, slipped, and hit his head on the bathtub.
What an embarrassing way to die, Harry thought before his vision darkened.
He pitied the one who would find his (thankfully not naked) body in the morning. He thought he'd see his parents or godfather or Dumbledore again being mysterious in the afterlife, but no. When he opened his eyes again, what he saw was the lavishly decorated ceiling of an entirely too grand room.
Now Harry and his family were fortunate enough to be able to call themselves well-off, but they were not wealthy enough to be able to afford anything near this level of grandeur. This was even above Malfoy-level richness and Malfoy was the richest person he knew.
What the fuck, he tried to say, but all that came out was a wail.
A baby's wail.
He squirmed around, trying to get up, but found that he couldn't. He panicked and let out a wail again, causing a door somewhere to open.
A woman in what seemed to be a maid uniform entered his vision. He panicked again and jerked his body when he saw the woman picked him up and rocked his small body against her bosom.
"Shh," she shushed gently. "There, there. What's wrong, little prince? Did you have a nightmare? Or are you hungry?"
I turned into a freaking baby, he tried to tell her, but her soft voice and the rocking motion of her arms made him feel so sleepy. So sleepy that he decided to sleep right then and there in her arms.
The last thing he heard was her sweet chuckle before once again, darkness claimed his vision.
And then suddenly it's been 5 years since that time.
Harry had accepted this strange turn of events long ago. So apparently reincarnation existed, no biggie. What was a biggie was the fact his reincarnation happened in an entirely different universe than his first life and that he was born as the sole heir of a growing empire.
Imagine that. In probably about 20 years when his father kicked the bucket (he's like, really old though so maybe it would happen in about 10 years instead), he would be the emperor of almost the entirety of the world.
(That was if he didn't die from being assassinated first though. There were a lot of those here. It would be a miracle if he even survived his 10th birthday with so many assassins coming after him in a year.)
Yeah, he definitely didn't sign up for this and he cursed whatever higher power out there that decided to put him there every day. Like seriously. It's been 5 years since his rebirth and he's still cursing them when he opened his eyes every morning. He wouldn't stop anytime soon either.
Anyway, so here's the situation right now.
Harry—or Iudicias Aldercapt now, he suppose—was born in M.E. 739 after the emperor, Iedolas Aldercapt, accidentally impregnated one of his concubines in his old age of 69.
His mother, Lady Cyanocitta (who was 45 years younger than the Emperor he might add), died right after his birth and he was raised by his nanny, Nucifera, who acted as his mother and playmate ever since because his father was a cold-hearted bastard that didn't have an ounce of care for him and wouldn't be caught dead trying to bond with him.
Iudicias could actually count the number of times he saw his father with his fingers for he only saw the man exactly ten times in his short life and that lasts only a couple hours per meeting. They met twice a year: once during his birthday party where he would be forced to socialize with his father's underlings and be paraded around as the heir to the empire, and the next during his father's birthday party where he would be forced to socialize with his father's underlings and be paraded around as the heir to the empire again.
It was horrible.
If he hated being the savior of the wizarding world before, he absolutely abhorred being an imperial crown prince. It was suffocating.
The governess who tutored him praised the man again and again and glorified the history of the Niflheim Empire to him to instill the seed of loyalty to the empire and pride in his father's legacy, but Iudicias wasn't an easily influenced child (because he wasn't a child, despite him being a 5 years old in body). All he learned from those lessons was that Iedolas Aldercapt was a corrupt man that fucked the rest of the world with his wars all because he had a ridiculous ambition to rule over them.
Unbelievable.
By now Iudicias realized that he was the son of a villain—which explained the various assassination attempts, really. He wanted to change things and right the wrongs, but he was a child still in everyone else's eyes and there was not much that he could do at his age even if he had magic at his beck and call.
So he bide his time while he played the role of a perfect, cold-hearted prince for the eyes of outsiders as he kept an eye for those who secretly disagree with the emperor's vision so he could sway them to his side later while learning as much as he could about this new world that he was born to.
Apparently, gods were very much real in here. Shocking. They have physical forms and all too. It was weird.
He found out the reason the Imperial Capital, Gralea, suddenly turned cold enough to freeze him even with his hundred-layers of robes was because Iedolas ordered his army to kill the suddenly-awakened Shiva just a few months after he turned 6. Apparently, it was her corpse that caused the disturbance in the climate.
He then learned of the starscourge and history of the Lucian King's Crystal. Along with that knowledge he came to know of the existence of the Oracle, the currently the 14 years old Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret whose Kingdom of Tenebrae just got annexed by Niflheim just the year before.
(He also learned that her brother Lord Ravus had joined the Niflheim military earlier that year, which puzzled Iudicias a lot. Why would you join the military force of the nation that annexed yours? Crazy.)
He kept up his perfect prince persona with great difficulty. Not because people suspected him of something, but he just couldn't sit still and do nothing when he knew hundreds of people out there were dying every day in the ongoing war that his nation started.
Iudicias tried so hard to separate his past and current life, and yet when the news kept covering the war and praising Iedolas for his contribution for the empire, suddenly he felt like he was a 17 years old Harry Potter again—racing with time in a quest to save the world.
.
M.E. 748, Iudicias noticed that Nucifera was hiding something from him when he was 9 years old. When he found that it was the starscourge she was hiding from him, he was furious at her.
The scourge was no joke—leave it for too long and she will disappear into nothingness.
"Why are you hiding it from me?" he asked her when he had calmed down, and his nanny—his mother—only smiled at him sadly.
He heard from her then about the rumor—the rumor that the military was collecting people with the sickness, and they were never heard from again. She didn't want to end up like them, so she chose to hide it.
He wanted to be mad at her for that because it meant that she didn't trust him and believed that he would sell her out to the military, but he found that he couldn't. Because how could anyone trust the son of Iedolas Aldercapt?
Iudicias fired her after that because the empire wouldn't let her go without a reason and ordered her to go to Tenebrae to seek help from the Oracle who had just ascended the previous month. He never heard from her again after that, but he hoped she made it out alright.
After that, his father the emperor sent someone else to him. He was old enough to not need a nanny, he said, so he got an assistant, adviser, bodyguard, and self-defense instructor that was rolled into one person instead. Apparently, the young man, Aurys Besithia, was one of the sons of the 'genius' behind their prided Magitek Soldiers.
Immediately, he felt something wrong from this blond man who was to become basically his shadow. The man was more of a doll than a human.
Following his intuition, he used a dispelling spell on the young man and just as he suspected, he felt his magic broke something and suddenly, the young man came to life in front of him.
Aurys was scared—terrified—of him at first, but he managed to calm to young man down and soon after being assured that he wouldn't let Verstael got to him again, the blond confided everything in him.
Turned out Aurys wasn't one of Verstael's sons, but one of his clones. He was one of the special ones that were allowed to retain a bit of their humanity and was given other more important roles within the empire.
He babbled everything to Iudicias. About the truth behind the Magitek project that he had witnessed with his own eyes before he was sent to him, about the daemons Verstael had experimented with, about the starscourge they intentionally infected the people with, about the cloning factory and the experimentation on infants…
The blond broke down as he told Iudicias about how it felt like to be injected with the scourge. About how it was like to have control of his body taken away.
Aurys told him that even though he couldn't control his body, his consciousness was always there—lurking beneath, witnessing everything. He was in pain and yet there was nothing he could do because his body had been so mangled and experimented with that he wasn't completely human anymore, just a machine to serve Verstael and his sick ideas.
He thought that it must be the same with every other clone that got turned into Magitek soldiers. Trapped in their own body, not being able to fight back against the injustice and cruelty done to them.
If Iudicias wasn't already disgusted with Iedolas and his diseased empire, he definitely was now.
Why was he condoning these experiments? Was he too drunk on the promise of world domination that he threw away his morals and humanity?
Iudicias initially had just decided to stop the war when he ascended the throne to make nice with Lucis, liberate the kingdoms that Niflheim had annexed, and ensure that there will be peace for the people his empire had hurt, but now…
He had to do something.
He cannot stay idle while there were so many of his people suffering under his father's reign.
Fury roiling in his chest, Iudicias tipped young man's face towards him with his hand and crouched down a bit so they were face to face.
"Join me, Aurys Besithia. Help me destroy the Empire, and I will free your brethren," he vowed, staring down at the young man's wide eyes. Aurys was too stunned to say anything at first, but before long he gained a determined expression when his words finally sunk in.
"I will follow you to the ends of Eos, my Radiance. My sword and loyalty are yours, for as long as you need me," Aurys vowed back, kneeling before him as he kissed the tips of his fingers in fealty.
It wasn't an action that Iudicias expected from him. It was a bit over the top honestly, but okay, whatever floats his assistant's boats he guessed.
He ordered the young man to still act like a doll outside of his private rooms to avoid suspicion as they conspired together to make the plans for their cause.
Before anything though, Iudicias thought if he was to do this, he needed outside help and opinions and who better person to give it to him than the Oracle herself? Besides, Aurys needed her healing from the scourge that ran in his veins, so it was two birds and one stone kind of situation.
In the dead of the night, he left an illusion of him sleeping in bed before he cloaked both himself and Aurys invisible and apparated them away to Tenebrae to meet Lady Lunafreya, who… didn't look surprised by their visit, despite it being so late in the night.
"It is an honor to finally meet you, Prince Iudicias," the 17 years old Lunafreya welcomed him with a kind smile and a set of sylleblossom tea. When she noticed Aurys standing guard behind him, she rose and sent him a look.
"May I?" She asked.
She waited for his nod of confirmation before she went to him and pressed her forehead onto Aurys's. She started to shine with a light that felt warm and strangely divine and Iudicias saw something black—the scourge?—coming out in small particles out of Aurys's skin.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Iudicias knew then that they came to the right person. That the legends were real.
When Lady Lunafreya parted from him, he could feel that Aurys had been freed of the scourge that had plagued him for as long as he was alive. Aurys seemed too overwhelmed to find any words, so in the stead of the servant he had grown attached to Iudicias bowed at her and thanked her for her help.
The Oracle immediately went to him and told him to raise his head though, a faint pink color emerging across her cheeks as she reassured him that she was only doing her job.
He smiled at her reaction. Somehow she reminded him of his granddaughter in his previous life. His little Freyja was also sweet like her.
He told her of the reason for his visit when they have settled. He told her of everything Aurys told him about the scourge and the daemon experiments and of Iedolas and his obsession with ruling over Eos and gaining the Lucian Crystal.
Lady Lunafreya listened to him attentively, never once interrupting. Only when he finished that she opened her mouth and told him of a prophecy from thousands of years ago about the Crystal and the King of Kings that would appear to save the world.
A prophecy.
Apparently this prophecy spoke of an eternal night that would bring about ruins and the only one who can bring the dawn back was the King of Kings and apparently, Iedolas was determined to be this King of Kings this prophecy spoke of.
All of this mess, because of a prophecy again.
When he learned that she had received a vision of this future that the prophecy foretold, with her permission he dived into her mind to witness the truth for himself.
She showed him visions of the past, of the future, and everything in between that she deemed will affect the fate of Eos.
It was overwhelming to say the least.
Iudicias saw the spreading of the starscourge and a pile of dead bodies burned to ashes in an open field. A healer betrayed by the gods, sealed away at the corner of the world until his reappearance as the Immortal Accursed.
He saw a king, giving up his life to give others a chance to escape and a big city, destroyed in a single night. Then there were gods themselves, awakened from their slumber and of the Oracle herself, dying to save a young man. He saw the same young man that she protected getting bonded to a crystal unwillingly while the world fell into ruin.
Lastly he saw the same young man, now much older, killing the bringer of ruins before he sacrificed his life to open the path for the future of the world.
When he finally pulled away from her memories, he had to take a deep breath to calm himself.
He recognized the Accursed. He was a man that he saw nearly every day in the Imperial Palace, standing beside the Emperor.
The Chancellor, Ardyn Izunia.
The Immortal Accursed—the walking, talking starscourge was his empire's chancellor.
He must have been pulling the strings from behind the curtain, whispering manipulations to Iedolas's stupid ears. No wonder Niflheim was so fucked up.
But wait.
He… wasn't in any of the future Lunafreya saw.
When he asked the Lady Oracle this, she only smiled at him.
"You were never supposed to be here, Prince Iudicias," the young woman told him softly, her hands folded daintily on her laps.
"I do not know why you are here or where do you fit in in this game of the gods, but… that is why I am holding onto the hope that maybe you could be the ripple that changes the future I have seen and saved the King of Kings from his destiny."
Iudicias stared at her with thin, displeased lips.
"And what about you?" he asked her. "Are you just going to accept your fate? To be gutted and discarded—your corpse thrown into the sea, never to be found again?"
A small smile was on her face as she looked down to her interlocked hands.
"…I do not fear death. As long as the King of Kings is safe, I—"
Before she could finish her sentence, he slammed his hands onto the table and glared at her.
"No, I will not listen to you. If I were truly sent here to save your King from his fate, then I will save you as well, you hear me? The gods have no right to ask you to throw away your life like that," Iudicias told her firmly.
"For the future of your King, you better get rid of that self-sacrificing mindset of yours and focus instead on helping me find another way to build the ideal future for the entirety of Eos," he finished, leaving no room for an argument.
He thought, idly, that his years as a prince had corrupted his way of thinking and he had grown too used to demanding and ordering people. Instead of the arguments he expected from her though, Lady Lunafreya covered her lips as she laughed lightly.
"Gentiana was right about you," she said finally, a genuine smile on her lips. "I accept, Prince Iudicias Aldercapt. Anything you need of me, I will do my best to make it happen. My strength is yours for as long as you need it."
Iudicias nodded, satisfied with her answer.
They made a pact. When the time comes, he would call her aid to deal with the Accursed and in return, he would find a way to save the life of the King of Kings for her.
Dealing with a prophecy and saving someone from a certain death wasn't on his agenda when he started to plan this revolution, but the Astrals disgusted him. They made the mess and yet they sent a whole 2000 years line of family to clean it up for them instead of using their godly powers to do it themselves. What the actual fuck.
As a former victim of a prophecy, he wouldn't let anyone else suffered from a fate like that, especially if it was to clean the messes of the so-called gods.
No—he would change the future.
Even if it meant he had to defy the gods themselves.
End of Chapter One
I attempted to make this a fix-it, crack-slash-comedy at first but Idk. I always fail when I tried to make a comedy. Also, I totally didn't plan this, but somehow Bahamut became the bad guy in this story. Title is from Kiki's Song by Mree, from the line "Like a fire in the dark, I am turning the key."
Chapter 2 and 3 is already done and probably will be posted in 2 or 3 days after I read through it one last time, but chapter 4 may be out a lot later because I'm busy. If you're my old readers, hello and welcome back but sorry I probably won't be updating my other stories anytime soon. ):