The darkness filled his vision after he hit, and he was floating, weightless, the scent of the blue flowers growing wild on the hill in Tenebra filling his nostrils, cloying and thick. He gagged on it, coughing in the stillness, hearing it echo around him on and on. It could've echoed into eternity, for all he knew, but it did fade, eventually, as did the smell. The flowers were gone again, and he was grateful for it. He had once liked the smell of the midnight blue blossoms, but now...
They choked him like a fist, squeezing his neck until his breath caught from the scent. They used to smell like butter and cream, fresh laundry, cut flowers. Now, the scent was cloying, like spoiled sweet meats, offensive. He didn't know what had changed and perverted the scent in his mind like this.
Her voice echoed to him, as if far under water somewhere, deep in the recesses of the ocean, far from his grasp. He shivered violently, feeling that water cover him, caress him like a lost lover returned, his breathing getting dense, his lungs burning...
And then it passed, his breathing coming back to him in short burst, the cool breeze of open space washing over him, rustling his hair. His bangs were longer now, brushing his eyebrows, a style he hadn't worn since-
His legs felt chilly, and he felt they were partially bare, shorts, not his trousers, covering them. He hadn't worn shorts since he was small, considering them childish. His hand drifted, touching his upper thigh, feeling the smooth skin, warm to the touch. He wasn't a particularly hairy man, but his legs were only dusted with peach fuzz. Unless someone had taken a razor to him for some bizarre reason, it was obvious the suspicion lurking in the back of his mind was true: he wasn't the man he'd been before now, but a child, lost and alone in the fields of Tenebrae, the flowers suffocating scent filling the air like opened crypts. The air was growing colder, the sun ducking behind a cloud, the clearing darkening.
He glanced around, barely seeing anything through the low mist covering the ground, turning everything into the same shades of faded, washed out greys and deep blacks. The only colour was the sea of blossoms, stretching into the distance like an gently waving ocean.
That... and the colour of her hair, as it blew in the breeze, brushing over her shoulder. She was watching him with amused eyes, a sadness lurking there that hurt his heart, making him wince. Still, it was her... the woman all this had been for, in the beginning.
Lunafreya. Luna...
He reached out to her, but she shook her head, stepping back. She frowned, looking afraid, then worried. Something was bothering her.
"...Luna?" He asked, voice groggy. He wasn't used to sounding like a child again, and the high pitch startled him briefly.
She took a few steps forwards, as he got to his feet. He brushed dust from the flowers off his pants, trying to look presentable. Luna smiled, sadly. "So... you found your way here."
It wasn't a question.
"And you found me," he added, brightly. He smiled, hoping she would return it. She did, but the sadness stilted it, her smile one of pain and sorrow. He didn't understand why she wasn't happy to see him.
"A chance to see you again," she mused, touching her chin thoughtfully. "Who would have thought?"
Noctis frowned, picking at a loose thread in his jacket. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you see me?"
She turned to him slowly, hands clasped in front of her, her expression one of extreme calm, showing nothing, as she'd been taught since birth. "Because my prayers have been answered...my calling full filled."
Calling? Noctis frowned. Like she used to talk about during their meetings? The star stuff?
"But... that doesn't have to come between us...right?" He said, slowly, trying to piece it all together in his mind, but it was that of a child again, the awarness of being a man gone. He felt stupid, like he was missing something, a bigger piece of the puzzle. Why couldn't he think properly?
Luna took his hand, and gently held it, bending slightly to meet his eyes. "You're the one, Noctis... the Stars shine for you now."
He liked feeling her hands on his, but he shoved that thought away, guiltily. Luna nodded, smiling, this time with a true warmth, missing before. "That which is yours by right shall be restored to you."
His by right? What did that mean. Noctis looked down, thinking hard, trying to remember...
It lingered at the back of his mind, nagging him, yelling to be heard, but he couldn't grasp it just then.
Luna started to walk away, and he turned, still a bit dazed.
"...do you remember... the flowers of Tenebrae?" She asked, softly. She sighed, shoulders hunching. "...it seems so long ago."
She smiled then, turning almost gaily, hands clasped behind her. "You'll find they await you still, blooming from hill to vale."
There was a peppiness to her voice he didn't like, watching her smile so sweetly at him. He swallowed, thickly. "...will you be there?"
His voice was barely above a whisper, his fear coming out then. His voice trembled on the last word, his cheeks heating up.
Luna took a breath, as is startled, and looked down, eyes closed briefly. Noctis felt terrible, thinking he'd offended her, and took a step forwards, hand out stretched uselessly. He let it drop by his side again, fist clenched.
The wind was picking up some, the flowers waving along the hill like water, their scent making him hold his breath. Clouds rolled across the sky, thunder rumbling distantly. Luna looked up with a sad, soft smile, and shook her head. "No...Noctis."
The wind was almost a gale now, whipping his hair in his eyes: he brushed it back, seeing Luna's dress wave like a sail, a white flag in a sea of blue. It draped across her thin legs, then billowed like a bell. It sailed outwards, growing longer, sheer and silken, and he closed his eyes in fear, a dull ache forming between his eyes.
The gale made it hard to stand, and he covered his eyes, peering out between clutching fingers at Luna, but she was no longer the little girl he knew: a woman, hair loose about her shoulders, pale as moonlight, watched him calmly, hands clasped, as if in prayer. Another gust forced his eyes shut, watering, and he stepped back, coughing: the pollen from the flowers was taking to flight on the wind, covering the hills like a low lying fog. They no longer smelled of rotting meat, but of water and salt.
They smelled of tears, the same ones rolling down his cheeks.
"...would that I could join you," Luna whispered, her voice echoing in the fog, its tone sad... but final. She sounded so determined...
He lowered his arm, blinking back tears as the woman stepped forwards, hands out to him, offering, pleading? He didn't know. All he knew was sudden pain in his chest, making him wince. It felt like someone was tearing his heart free of its cradle behund his ribs with their bare hands.
"...but this moment," she whispered, a single, crystal tear falling across her cheek, catching the light as it traveled to her chin, winking like a fallen star, "will have to be enough."
"W...what?" He didn't understand, didn't want to understand. This woman, this adult Luna... all he cared about was seeing her, keeping her safe. He stepped back, not noticing his boot splashing into a puddle, the flowers behind him gone in a wall of water, slowly devouring the fields. "It's not right," he said, voice breaking. He made a fist, swallowing back more tears, as his father had once taught him. A man didn't show emotion: a king was stone.
A king was stone
The dam broke; he sobbed like a lost child, fists clenched at his sides. "It's not right...it's not!" He shouted, the wind all but tearing the words from his throat. Luna, dress not even rustling in the gale, watched peacefully, not breaking eye contact with him.
"...all I...all I wanted was to save you, I..." He stammered, falling to his knees, water splashing his shorts, soaking them. Luna kneeled besides him, touching his cheek with one slender hand, briefly wiping away his tears.
The water filled the clearing, light shafting from above in blue lines, but he could breath it as easily as air, swallowing back the choking sobs escaping his lungs.
Luna's hand fell to her side, gently picking the final blossom on the water bed. She smelled it for a moment, a sad smile crossing her lips, before holding it out to Noctis, offering it to him.
"When the world falls down around you, and hope is lost," she began, as petals swirled around her, lifting the edges of her gown like a goddess, a beam of light from above making her hair shine like a star. Stars, always stars, all he could think of to compare her to was stars.
Her hand touched his cheek, the petals brushing him gently. "...when you find yourself alone, amid a lightless place..."
She looked up, smiling angelically, the petals of the final flower blowing away from her, as the water darkened behind, tendrils plucking at her hair questioningly.
"...look into the distance... know that I am there," she went on, smiling, neither sad nor joyous: it was accepting, final.
Noctis looked up, his mind clearing bit by bit, the fog lifting. "Luna...?" He reached for her.
"...and know that I watch over you always," she finished.
"No..." Everything. Everything was back. The fight, the power...Luna-
She let go of the remains of the flower, letting it float free towards his outstretched hand. The tendrils were gently pulling her now, her feet off the sandy bottom of the water. Her arms went wide, as she floated into their embrace.
"Farewell...dear Noctis," she whispered, the deepest, darkest sadness anyone had ever suffered in her eyes, a tear frozen on her cheek. As the tendrils of darkness pulled her into their grasp, she met his eyes, and hope flared, bright and brillant like a setting sun. She closed her eyes, the darkness covering her.
"...no...NO!" He struggled forwards now, the current pulling him up, away from her, a pale hand still outstretched. He was dimly aware he was a man again, but did not care in that moment, so great was his grief.
"LUNA!" He screamed, his throat raw.
The remains of the flower floated before him, the petals curling, shaping themselves. The ring...
She'd had it all along.
He grasped it, holding it to his chest, as the waters parted to allow him exit, the sun blinding. Below, only a dark mass, fading like morning fog.
"Luna..."
She was gone. She was gone forever, like a star gone out.
The ring burned him, as the sun grew brighter, brighter, blinding him with its glare.
know that I watch over you always
His eyes closed, and he was falling into a deep darkness. Images flashed by, flickering like candles: Looking Glass, Prompto, that stupid book of Gladios', Ignis making a new soup at their camp grill. Everything, every place they'd been, everything they'd seen. It all passed him by as he fell, the ring, now red hot, clutched in his hand, searing a scar deep into the flesh.
It looked like a heart, with the faintest of cracks along it.
He knew no more.
When his eyes opened, the light was dimmer, the stale smell of sweat and bodies in his nose. He was in a plush comforter, but the rougher sort he knew only to well. A hotel.
He sat up, slowly, his head rolling; he felt like he'd come off a week at sea.
"Awake, are we?" A voice asked, someone getting to their feet from a armchair across the room: Ignis. He walked with a cane, a nasty, blackened scar crossing his eye.
"Y..you're hurt!" Noctis exclaimed, but Ignis shook it off. "A small sacrifice in the greater battle," he said, letting out a strained chuckle.
He looked down, wondering what had been real; he couldn't remember it now, bits and pieces floating away, like debris on water. Flowers... a field... he was a child... L-
"And... Luna?" He asked, softly.
Ignis turned away, inhaling sharply. It was obvious he'd been hoping Noctis wouldn't ask.
Several moments went by before Ignis spoke, and it was a blunt, no nonsense tone: "...she has passed."
He opened the door to the hall, glancing back only once. "...I am sorry...my king."
My king.
Noctis opened his palm: there, amid scarred tissue, was the ring. The ring Luna died giving to him. His breath shook, as he felt a pain in his chest.
Luna was gone. Gone forever. All for him.
"...Umbra left that for you," Ignis said, making Noctis start: he hadn't realized Ignis had lingered in the doorway.
Noctis murmured something akin to "Thanks," closing his eyes. With a nod, Ignis left him, closing the door gently.
With a shaking hand, Noctis pulled the tattered notebook to him, flicking the worn cover open; a pressed blue blossom, the one from the field, the one from Luna...
His breath shuddered, tears dotting the pages. A single petal fell from the flower, staining the yellow paper.
His fist clenched on the ring, the dull ache of pain in his hand feeding his sorrow, Noctis pulled his knees to his chest, and sobbed until he felt like he was going to break.
Outside, in the street, the faintest scent of salt water lingered, fading away on the breeze.