—
Ignis' breath caught for a moment under the… being's gaze, which seemed to be boring into his very soul. Between that gaze and the possible implications of those words, Ignis needed a moment to collect his thoughts.
"Blademaster," he returned finally, bowing his head and sheathing his lance once more. Perhaps it hadn't worked with the lackeys, but Gilgamesh himself was already seeming less inclined to stab him for fun.
"You undertake the trials, yet you claim to not care for my power."
Ignis nodded. "I come to you not to speak with the protector of the grounds, but to speak with the man who was present at the start of the matter that now plagues this world–"
"I know what it is you truly seek." Gilgamesh cut him off. "You seek to save the Chosen."
"…Yes." No point in denying it. He'd been leading up to that anyway.
Gilgamesh looked away from him. "You will fail."
Ignis cocked his jaw to one side. He was bloody sick of hearing that. "I seem to recall you telling Gladio the same when he undertook your trial."
"My trial was one that relied on the Shield's will and his acceptance of his own faults, not an act of power so great that it surpasses the strength of the Astrals themselves. They have chosen their vessel for the light's return. Naught can be done about that decision."
"The Astrals have been wrong before," Ignis blurted out in desperation, hoping Shiva wasn't about to shatter him into pieces for those words. "They chose Ardyn once, but the Founder King took his place. Could another not take Noct's burden?"
He would do it. In a heartbeat.
Again, Gilgamesh shifted to pierce Ignis' soul with those eyes. "Your desire to sacrifice your life in his place is commendable, but foolish. Your life has been chosen for another purpose. You have your own calling that must be fulfilled."
Ignis opened his mouth to protest, but Gilgamesh kept speaking.
"Only the True King can hope to attain the feat of purging our star of the Scourge, and only at the cost of his own life. It is his calling and it can be no other's. Not even one of the Oracle's blood, such as you."
…What?
Ignis' protests died in his throat as he dissected that last bit.
"…Oracle's blood?" he echoed. He wasn't… He couldn't be… "I have no relation to the Fleuret line."
"Not by birth. But you carry it all the same."
That made even less sense. How could he be of the Oracle's blood yet have no relation–
Altissia.
By the Six, he'd never given his recovery there a second thought. He'd been too focused on his Scourge at the time, but he did now recall something very, very important.
He'd lost far too much blood from Ardyn's stab wound, and Lunafreya was the only one capable of donating to him.
He received a transfusion of her blood. Of bloody course. That was the missing piece. How had they never realized?
The reason his Scourge was different. The reason it was now able to linger without its infection spreading to the rest of him.
Lunafreya's blood was still flowing in his veins. The incurability wasn't due to some mutation of the Scourge itself – it was that blood having… absorbed and neutralized it. Perhaps the reason it hadn't stopped the Scourge at first was due him not having enough of the blood to ward away Ardyn's initial infection, but once Lunafreya had taken most of it into herself instead…
How nice to have some answers, even if they weren't truly the ones he was seeking.
"You are a crossroad to many key players in these times," Gilgamesh said, unprompted. "Connected to all. A bond of brotherhood with the future Kings. Shared blood with the Oracle. A tether of darkness to the Accursed."
Kings?
Ignis shook his head. Enough about himself. Back on topic. "The fact still remains – Ardyn was the Astrals' Chosen, but another took his place. Why is everyone so sure history cannot be repeated?"
"Rebel against the Astrals' plans of solution, and you might very well see history repeat itself." Gilgamesh's voice didn't seem to change, yet Ignis could still feel some sort of shift in the atmosphere. A warning. "Unlike so many of the youth of your time, you are not foolish. Do not let your emotions make you such."
Well, that was pointed. Ignis opened his mouth to protest, but he was again cut off.
"Somnus was a fool. As was Aera. As was I. You would do well not to make the same mistakes as we."
…Well, that was unexpected. The Blademaster had acted so superior until now.
"You regret," Ignis realized. Odd. He was so poised and seemingly unaffected by everything – just as Gladio had described – but Ignis supposed he had once been a normal man.
A pause. "A Shield's calling is to guard his charge against all perceived threats. Even the discontentment of a Shield's own heart must been subsequent to that."
Ignis gave a light chuckle. "Reminds me of someone." How many times had Gladio and Noct butted heads?
Gilgamesh seemed only to grow even more serious. "Those similarities between myself and the scion of my line were the cause of much of my doubt in him. He, however, arrived at his realization of the truth about himself and his role as Shield much sooner. If left to one's own devices, power and time may corrupt the noblest of kings. A lack of companions of varying beliefs can prove to be a ruler's weakness. As well as guard I was meant to guide. I failed. So set was Somnus on the immediate future that he did not cast his gaze as far as he should have. His regret came too late to undo the damage wrought by his own envy."
This was all information – information from a direct source that he could get nowhere else. He needed the Blademaster to keep going. "Then… what made Somnus change his mind if not your counsel?"
"Watching the reflection of his own childhood in the niece he himself had orphaned."
Now that was a slap of surprise Ignis hadn't seen coming. "Ardyn had a daughter?"
Gilgamesh nodded softly, his one arm raising in a slight gesture. "Truly her parents daughter – thoughts of power and ambition never crossed her mind. Only a willingness to serve without the need for recognition or great accolades. As such, Somnus saw within her a tool, not a threat. He sought at first to deceive her when he discovered her existence–"
Deceive.
Ignis hissed, pressing a hand to his head as his vision turned white.
Bloody hell, not again.
"Do forgive me for deceiving you all like this."
There was a familiar voice behind him, but his focus was on what lied before him. Gilgamesh – young and entirely more human looking – had an arm raised just like he did in the present. Raised and holding back the woman Ignis now knew was Aera Mirus Fleuret.
"However, it was necessary in order to lure the seditious traitor here today!"
That voice behind him again… Was that…?
"What a miserable man. Did you really covet my throne that badly?"
It was. The Founder King himself. Ignis' very skinned crawled. Perhaps he hadn't met the man himself but being possessed into chasing down Lunafreya as him was not something Ignis would soon forget.
Ignis' perspective shifted. Ardyn must have turned around at that point.
"You…" Ignis could feel the word leave his mouth in Ardyn's voice.
Somnus was there, summoning his sword in a sickeningly close manner to Noct and he continued taunting Ardyn.
Had Ignis been himself he would have frozen. He'd heard Somnus' voice as he'd been running around with his illusion cast over him, but he hadn't gotten a good look before.
He was so similar to Noct. Just with one very, very clear distinction.
Somnus' eyes were too cold, too snide, and too hard to ever have belonged to Noct.
And then he attacked.
Both he and Ardyn were swift – dodging and blocking in a spectacular dance that was only possible due to their royal powers.
It was an indescribable feeling. This wasn't like when Ardyn controlled him and his own body felt foreign. This was a solid memory and Ignis felt Ardyn's body as though it were his own. The raw power at his behest – the practiced control and the intimately comfortable feel of the blade in his hands.
Ardyn was holding back, Ignis realized.
"I will not take your life so long as you renounce your na–" Ardyn choked, hand flying to his chest as pain and sickness and just an overall sense of wrongness rose within him.
Somnus smirked, taking advantage of his brother's momentary weakness and attacking again.
The fight's progression was so quick. It was more than prowess. It was instinct brought on by practice. It was… it was the type of fighting that came from having fought an opponent many times before. A familiarity like what Ignis felt when he fought with Gladio.
What had their brotherhood been like before this moment? How deep had this betrayal cut Ardyn?
No matter his initial advantage, though, it was clear that Somnus was losing.
Ardyn struck hard, throwing Somnus back into a tumble that–
Ignis mentally flinched, willing Ardyn's body to move as he spied a very specific glow.
Somnus wildly yet skillfully hurled a lance in Ardyn's direction – one that Ardyn caught easily. But that wasn't the end of it.
Move, Ignis internally screamed.
Ardyn didn't. And Somnus flashed into place with a warp, driving the lance with enough force to break through Ardyn's grip–
Ignis' own cry startled him as he slammed back into his own body, scrambling to grip a wound that wasn't there.
Oh, Six.
He'd felt that wound. He'd felt that lance pierce straight through him.
"Be silent."
Ignis sucked in a breath at Gilgamesh's command. The Blademaster was standing over him.
They'd moved. Ignis was sitting upright against a pillar he'd passed before the pathway of swords.
Gilgamesh's focus was no longer on him, though. He was looking towards the entrance.
"Remain here," Gilgamesh ordered, a sword appearing in his hand as he walked the path of swords himself and returned to where Ignis had originally been.
…Damn it all.
The vision. Ardyn would be here any moment.
Astrals, this was not going to go well.
Well, I was going to keep some of that stuff about the past as just speculation since we don't canonly know anything for sure on a lot of it, but then I was like… *shrug* It's a fanfic. I have a half-daemon Ignis and Prompto clones running around, plus an entire city that didn't exist in game. Why the heck not go with this idea if it opens up fun things for the plot?
