Author's Notes: I wrote this oneshot last year, but I hesitated on posting it for so long that new canon info has made it AU, but I'm still quite happy with how it turned out, so I decided to post it now before Episode Ardyn is released and discourages me from doing so in the future.
If you want to know more about the events that led to this fic, I have a fanfic AMV that partially ties in with this story, which you can find by searching for "Ardyn: Somnus - Final Fantasy XV & Versus XIII AMV" by PhantomWolf64 on YT and reading the video description.
Rated M for violence and blood.
Before Dawn
Black clouds foretold a coming storm as they drifted over from the mainland as powerful winds swirled around Angelgard, their harsh howling joining together with the sounds of waves crashing violently against the rocky shoreline. Light from the full moon shined down upon the prison island, lighting up the path leading to the large crystalline runestone well enough for two men and a woman to walk along it without worry of stumbling in the dark.
Reaching the cell built into the base of it, the tallest of the two men pulled out a key from his pocket, his silver hair and red cape rustling in the wind as he inserted it into the keyhole and unlocked it; metal scrapped against the rocky ground as he pulled the heavy door open and moonlight slipped into the dark cell, revealing the bloody form of an older man hanging limply from the stone wall by shackles bonded tightly around his wrists; were it not for the sight of his bare chest rising and falling with labored breaths, it would have appeared that his life had already reached a tragic denouement, but alas, they knew that this prisoner could succumb neither to the injuries he received while resisting arrest nor the Starscourge ravaging his body.
The silver-haired man stepped aside and stood silently outside the door with the woman while the other man with black hair entered the small cell. A rancid mixture of blood and dirt stuck to the soles of his boots, the scent causing his nose to wrinkle up in disgust as he approached the prisoner, who remained motionless even as the cell was lit up by a flash of blue light when the younger man came to a stop in front of him and summoned a phantom sword to his gloved hand. "I know that you're awake, so open your eyes and look at me when I speak to you, Ardyn." He ordered as he placed the tip of the blade under the other man's chin and used it to lift his head up in order to see his face.
As Ardyn's weary eyes opened, tears as black as ink slipped down his cheeks, darkening the tear stains already there as he looked into the gray eyes of the man whose betrayal had been the most painful. "Brother…" He greeted him hoarsely as black fluid leaked out from between his chapped lips and ran down his chin.
"Do not call me that!" Ardyn's younger brother snarled at him as he pushed his blade into Ardyn's neck, the sharp tip drawing black blood. "You are no longer my brother." His voice lowered as he examined the familiar face of the man he once called his brother, but now his pale skin and the stench of decaying flesh coming from it only reminded him that the man he grew up with was gone and all that remained of him was a diseased corpse that needed to be disposed of.
"Is that so?" Ardyn replied, chuckling humorlessly as he tilted his head, an long dirty lock of hair falling over his face as he did so. "First you abandoned your name and now you're disowning your own family, what will you do next, your Majesty?" He hissed the title that was stolen from him as he glared at his younger brother, who clicked his tongue in return.
"That is none of your concern as you will not remain in this world for much longer." His brother declared as thunder roared in the distance. "Come dawn, the Fulgurian shall arrive and cast his judgment upon you, so if you have any last words then I suggest you speak them now, daemon." Ardyn glared at him silently for a moment before deciding to reply not with his voice, but by spitting a mouthful of black blood onto his brother's face.
"You have taken everything that was mine, so surely you wish to have the Starscourge as well?" Ardyn said, smirking as he watched his brother flinch and quickly wiped away the infected blood with his free hand before turning his seething eyes back onto Ardyn. "I wonder what you will become? I do believe that a Tonberry would be most fitting for a backstabbing bastard such as yourse-" Before Ardyn could finish his sentence, his brother lost his temper and drove his sword deep into Ardyn's neck.
Ardyn hardly seemed bothered by the pain as he glared at his brother while his lips rose to reveal a set of blackened teeth and a growl bubbled up from his throat along with a large amount of blood, which ran down his chin and dripped to the floor. Enraged by his reaction, his brother's eyes flashed red as he thrust the sword completely through Ardyn's neck and into the stone wall behind him, severing his spinal column and putting a stop to Ardyn's growling as his lungs failed him.
However, not even such a grievous injury could end Ardyn's life; as his head rested limply upon the blade, his eyes remained opened as they began glowing, but unlike his brother's ruby hue, Ardyn's eyes became a piercing gold, which sent a chill down his brother's back, whose anger faded into melancholy. "You truly have become a monster…" His brother mumbled somberly as he looked into the eyes of a bloodthirsty daemon; for several seconds, the only sound came from the squall outside as the two brothers stared at each other, one sneering while the other frowned.
"Your Majesty," A feminine voice reached their ears as his brother's fiancee entered the cell, but remained by the door alongside the other man. When Ardyn turned his golden gaze onto her, her violet eyes widened as she gasped and took a step back. "dawn is drawing nigh." She continued worryingly a moment later as she looked away from Ardyn, her voice rising as a powerful gust of wind rushed past her, causing her blonde hair to blow wildly in the wind.
"Indeed, it is." The silver-haired man concurred from his place outside the cell, his red eyes narrowing in distaste as he looked at them and watched as Ardyn sneered at him and the woman from over his brother's head. "Unless you wish to remain by his side and share his fate, we must depart now lest we get caught in the Fulgurian's judgment bolt."
Ardyn's brother glanced back over his shoulder at his companions before returning his gaze to Ardyn as he allowed his phantom sword to shatter and disappear from within his hand; without the blade's support, Ardyn's head fall down in a sickening angle and blood gushed from the open wound, coating his chest and spattering onto floor beneath him as well as onto his brother's black clothing. His brother turned around and walked towards the exit, stopping outside the door for a moment as he looked back at Ardyn, whose daemonic eyes were glowing in the pale moonlight.
"Farewell, Ardyn." His brother said quietly before the silver-haired man closed the door and locked Ardyn inside the dark cell once again. Lightning lit up the cloudy sky and rain began to fall as his brother and his two companions made their way down the path to their vessel and sailed away from the island that they believed would become Ardyn's grave.
When dawn arrived, they watched from the mainland as the Fulgurian cast his judgment, unaware that not even a god would prove powerful enough to extinguish Ardyn's life and that by failing to stand by him when he needed his retinue the most, they had bestowed an accursed punishment upon their families that would haunt them for many years to come.
The End.
Author's Notes: This story came about after I was imaging what the teaser for Episode Ardyn would be like, which I had assumed was going to be a short voiceless cutscene like Episodes Prompto and Ignis had; the mental image I got of Ardyn hanging from shackles and his brother closing his cell door as Ardyn's eyes glowed in the darkness was so compelling that I had to write a fic based on it. Constructive criticism is welcomed.