Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Chapter 13 is a drag,
I'm as tired of it as you...
*yawn* Can someone wake me up when we get to Chapter 55? Kay, thanks…
Ignis' back slammed into the far wall of the elevator as Noct stood to the side, repeatedly tapping the Close Doors button as quickly as his hand would let him.
"Why doesn't this button ever do anything?" Noct yelled.
Ignis swung his trident around, pointing it at the creature – it was some sort of daemon, that was for certain – that was drawing near again.
A hand tipped with long, sharp nails reached for him, and he batted it back, giving the elevator long enough to close.
"Six!" Noct rubbed a hand through his beard, moving over to lean against the wall next to Ignis. "I swear, that button never worked at the Citadel either!"
"Indeed," Ignis agreed, trying to catch his breath again. Had there been another alternative, he wouldn't have used the trident again, but conserving his energy didn't do much good if he was gutted because he didn't defend himself.
"The hell was that thing?" Noct wondered. "It seemed… different from the others."
"It did. But I'm afraid I couldn't tell you why." Ignis pushed off the wall, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"You need another one of these things?" Noct reached into his pocket.
"No. There's only two left. I'll wait."
"Kay…"
The elevator stopped moving.
Noct groaned, pushing off the wall himself to take the lead. "Here we go…"
Thankfully, the doors didn't open to reveal more daemons or MTs. Just another bloody hallway.
Noct sighed. "I think I'm starting to get why they invaded us – this place sucks. I wouldn't want to live here either."
Ignis chortled softly. Of course that didn't pardon the Empire. Bloody thieves and cowards, irresponsible enough to ruin their own home and then try to do the same to theirs. Those in this facility deserved the death they got at the hands of the daemons–
"Oh, come on!" Noct looked as though he were about to rip his hair out as the lights around them dimmed significantly. "First keys, now power. What next?" He flicked the light he had pinned to his shirt on.
Finding that to be well enough light, Ignis let his be. Knowing the Chancellor, they might need it later.
Fortunately, restoring the power wasn't difficult. Unfortunately, it went out again only a few minutes later.
"You serious?" Noct demanded, but he still kept moving.
Ignis sighed.
More. Hallways.
Ignis growled. "Whoever created this labyrinth, if they aren't already dead, I am going to track them down and stab their bloody eyes out!"
Noct glanced at him over his shoulder. "Okay, scary. That's a little violent for you."
"You're saying you don't agree?"
"No, I do, just seemed odd for you…"
Ardyn chuckled over the speaker.
Noct scowled. "Now I really would like to stab his eyes out."
"Best keep an eye on that temper of his… he might decide to turn it towards something else…"
"Yeah, whatever…" Noct grumbled as they entered a room with many control panels. "Dammit, I can't see a thing!"
Ignis raised an eyebrow. "It's right there, Noct." He was literally standing in front of it.
Noct fumbled with the light on his shirt, aiming it down at the controls. "Oh! Got it! How did you even see that?"
"It wasn't even that dark in here."
"Are you kidding?" Noct flicked the light on his shirt off, then turned to head back out of the room. "It was, like, pitch black– what the hell?"
Noct flinched back, horror written on his face.
"What's wrong?" Why was Noct looking at him like that?
"Ignis, your eyes…"
"…What about them?"
Noct fumbled with his pocket, pulling out his phone and swiping over to the camera function before holding it up so Ignis could see himself.
By the Six…
His eyes were a sickening, glowing yellow, like some sort of nocturnal beast.
"So, Your Highness… I'll ask again: have you figured out where daemons come from yet?"
Noct shook his head. "No… that can't be right…"
"Well, why don't you find out for yourself? Do keep going…"
Ignis numbly handed Noct his phone back.
"Ignis?" Noct was looking at him for answers, no doubt hoping he'd be able to deny the information they'd just been given. "No. Okay? No. If he's lying or not, that isn't going to happen. Luna can help you!"
"…Let's go," Ignis said hollowly.
And then that same bloody daemon showed up again.
Ignis was trying to think. Trying being the key word.
"Noct… one of those vitality enhancers, if you would," he hissed through his gritted teeth.
The vial was in his hand instantly, and this time when it broke, Ignis wasn't sure how much it would actually help. Yes, it was making him feel better, but now his concerns were elsewhere.
The beast that kept hunting him… If Ardyn's hints were correct, that had once been a man. Would Ignis become like that beast himself, or would he become something else entirely? Had all of the daemons they'd fought and killed in the past been normal men and women at some point, reduced to mindless killing drones?
He wouldn't let himself become that.
Ignis caught Noct's arm as they were about to enter another elevator.
"A moment."
"Yeah?"
A pang ran through Ignis when Noct wouldn't quite meet his gaze, and Ignis let go.
"Noct, we need to consider a course of action should I get out of hand."
Noct was about to protest, but Ignis held up a hand, cutting him off before he could.
"Don't argue, Noct. We need to entertain the possibly that I will lose control. If Ardyn is correct, then I will become the very things that we've been fighting all along."
Noct tried to keep going. "Not if we get moving and find Luna–"
Ignis caught his arm again, harder this time. "I need to know that you will do what needs to be done if it comes to that point."
"Forget it!" Noct snapped. "No matter what the circumstances are, I'm not gonna kill you to save my own skin–"
"Then do it for me," Ignis pressed. "Noct, I do not wish to die, but if it comes to it, I would rather die than hurt you. I would rather die than live on as one of those creatures. Do not let me go on like that. Am I clear?"
Noct hesitated, but then he nodded softly. "Yeah… yeah, we're clear."
"Swear to me, Noct," Ignis pushed.
"Fine! I promise, okay? If you get that far… I'll do it."
"Good," Ignis said softly.
Noctis tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Ignis was pretty good at hiding his emotions most of the time, but Noctis could tell he was fading. More and more of his weight was slowly falling to Noctis to bear, despite him having insisted that he'd been fine to keep walking on his own for a while. He'd said that maybe ten minutes ago, and now he was barely upright.
They only had the one vitality enhancer left.
Damn it all.
"Iggy? Hey, I'm gonna sit you in this chair while I figure this out, okay?"
Ignis grunted his consent and slumped tiredly into the chair that was by the set of control panels Noctis needed to look at. As soon as he was sure Ignis wasn't about to fall over, he turned his attention to the display above the controls.
Circuits, locks, doors… Astrals, he missed the key card maze right now.
He toyed with the controls, slowly understanding what he needed to do.
"Do you need any–"
"No." Noctis shot Ignis a look, making sure he was still okay. "You rest up. I got this."
Ignis apparently was bad off enough that he actually looked relieved that he didn't have to get up. He pressed the heel of his hand into his temple and closed his eyes, bowing his head.
Noct quickly turned back to the controls. Six, those eyes Ignis had right now were downright unsettling.
But never mind that. He had to finish this and get Ignis to Luna and find Prompto.
He frowned at the screen, realizing something. "Okay, Iggy, I'm gonna need to check some stuff in the rooms that this one leads to, but I'm not going far, and I'll be right back."
There was the slightest movement of Ignis' bowed head. Noct took it as a nod.
…He really didn't want to leave Ignis, even if it was only a room away, but what choice did he have? It would just take more time and hurt him more in the long run if he tried to come.
So Noctis briskly made his way through the rooms, stopping only to mess with the other control panels and to read some very key documents.
If those were actually dropped instead of put there by Ardyn…. yeah, no, there was nothing less likely than that.
Dammit, dammit, dammit!
Noctis crumpled the document, tossing it to the side.
"Do you suppose you should have said goodbye when you left the room? Who knows – it could be the last time you ever see him as himself. What sort of daemon do you think he'll become?"
Screw this. Screw Ardyn.
"I think he'd make a rather good tonberry myself…"
Noctis hit the buttons he needed to and sprinted back to the other room, nearly running into the doors, as they didn't open fast enough.
"Okay, Iggy, I think I've done what I needed to. Let's get go–"
His breath left him in one fell swoop as he spotted the empty chair Ignis was supposed to be in.
"…Shit."
Ignis was gone.
