It was cold. That was the first thing he noticed, as the darkness resolved itself behind his eyelids. He was wet. It was...raining? Was he back? In the present? Whatever the hell that meant anymore—what was all that? Could it possibly have been true? All those lives, those deaths—was that really him? What was that last part? Had one of the Gods stopped him from seeing something? He felt like his head was about to explode.
He'd been right, that fog, they'd all died—they'd all died—
"No, you can't!"
That was Ignis' voice. What was he doing here? Who was that he heard approaching him? Suddenly he felt something grab him by the head, and pull him upwards. He knew instinctively who was responsible—Ardyn's presence seemed to burn him like a brand. The air was stirring above him. Ardyn was doing something.
"Noct!" cried Ignis, and the sheer desperation is his voice was painful to hear.
It pained him to keep pretending he was asleep, but his instincts were telling him he wasn't really in danger from Ardyn at that moment—after all, if he'd actually wanted to kill him he'd had plenty of opportunity. He knew Ardyn now. Really knew him. This was all just a twisted game, and Noctis would not let him get the upper-hand today.
Something went whistling past his face with a clang, and it sounded like one or more blades had just been knocked to the ground.
"My," crowed Ardyn, his voice considerably too close for Noctis's comfort, "you two certainly have become fast friends."
Noctis hit the ground with a thud as Ardyn tossed him aside, sending pain shooting through his chest and arm—he'd have to check on that later, but the important part was that Ardyn's attention was clearly distracted. This might be Noctis's only opportunity to take him by surprise.
He snapped his eyes open. Cold grey stone in front of him. He was still on the altar. Ardyn had to be nearby. He sprang to his feet, whirling around—there he was, standing just ahead of him—Ardyn. Ignis was lying on the floor, completely at his mercy. No one else was going to get hurt today.
Magic exploded out of his hand, amplified by the Ring, slamming into Ardyn and sending him flying through the air. With Ardyn collapsed Noctis could see further—Ravus had been standing just behind him. It must have been him who threw the sword, and for a second Ravus just stood there, mouth agape, before rushing over to him—no, past him—to Luna who was lying on the floor.
Noctis's heart skipped a beat. He had been unconscious for a long time—had that given Ardyn the opportunity to try to kill her again?
He stepped forward as if in a dream, the world slowing to a halt around him as he stared at her, searching for anything, any sign she might still be alive. She was so still… But no, he was wrong. There, it was barely visible, but as he came back to himself he saw that her chest was slowly rising and falling.
He let out a great, shuddering breath. He couldn't lose her, not now, not after how far they'd come. His head was still spinning though. Where exactly was he now? Leviathan…the altar… It was all mixed up in his head, merging and condensing with what had come before—so much that had come before…
There was a movement on his left.
Ignis was by his side now, standing in front of him, in a defensive stance. Of course—Ardyn was still here.
He had risen to his feet by now, and was looking at Noctis with an expression that could only be adequately described as pure hatred. Ardyn didn't usually get this angry with him. Concerning.
"So the sleeping prince finally wakes," hissed Ardyn, not breaking eye-contact for a second. "You do have bad timing, Your Highness."
"I think you'll find it's 'Your Majesty,' now," said Noctis. The pain of several centuries of additional torment now sat heavy on his shoulders, and he was tired of this game. "And I think my timing could hardly be better."
He could hear Luna beginning to wake behind him. He needed to keep Ardyn's attention away from her.
"You weren't really going to kill me, were you?" he asked, in a bid to make Ardyn focus on him and him alone. "That would have been a bit anticlimactic, don't you think?"
"Ah," said Ardyn, a rather tired smile now appearing on his face, "I see the Astrals have enlightened you on a topic or two."
"Awfully presumptuous of you to assume I didn't know already," said Noctis with a distant smile. It was odd to have the cards in his hand for a change.
Ardyn's expression quickly changed to one of displeasure.
"Noct, what are you doing?" hissed Ignis, so quiet only Noctis could hear him.
"Ah, I see both our sleeping beauties have awakened," said Ardyn, once more hiding behind his facade of false affability, though the anger was just barely hidden underneath.
Noctis decided to risk turning to make sure Luna was awake—she was, and Ravus was standing pointedly in front of her, just as Ignis was standing before Noctis. They both seemed to think they could shield them from Ardyn. Or were willing to try to, anyway.
"I'll tell you what," said Ardyn, making a grand sweeping gesture, "since we're all here together like this, how about we have a nice chat without these nannyish bores intruding, hmm?"
And with that he snapped his fingers, and Noctis felt the change of magic in the air like it had slapped him. For a moment he found it very difficult to breathe (or was that just the pain in his chest?) until Luna came rushing up to his side, and started glaring at Ardyn with more rage and hatred than he'd ever seen on her face before. Ardyn was looking at her with a similar level of contempt. But it was only when Ravus very conspicuously didn't follow her that Noctis realised what had happened. Ardyn had stopped time.
Being as he had just been reliving a very stressful memory under almost the exact same circumstances, he suddenly found himself getting a bit woozy, and wondering why it was he was no longer exploding in all directions, and was surrounded by mortals rather than gods.
"Hello?" called Ardyn, immediately snapping Noctis back to reality. "It really is rude of you to always be drifting off like that."
"Almost as rude as knocking someone unconscious entirely unprovoked," retorted Luna, and Noctis noticed she was standing in front of him, in much the same way Ignis had been, protecting him from Ardyn. "What is the meaning of this? Why bring us all here?"
"Temper, temper," cooed Ardyn in the most irritating possible manner. "You wouldn't want to hurt yourself in your anger, would you Lady Lunafreya?"
"Shut up, Ardyn," sighed Noctis. "You're only gonna make this worse for yourself."
"Ah, I appear to have angered your dear fiancé as well, what hostile company I find myself in! I can't imagine why."
A very familiar anger bubbled back to the surface. "It wouldn't be you deliberately giving me the Starscourge or something, would it?" snarled Noctis. "It couldn't be how you set a daemon on me that one time—Oh! Or how about when you literally destroyed my home, my family, and then had a good go at destroying me too? It couldn't have been any of those things, could it?"
"Let us not forget the attempt on my life he made mere hours ago," said Luna, who appeared to be similarly fighting to keep herself civil in the face of Ardyn.
"All right," said Ardyn with a very insincere smile, raising his arms in a gesture of placation. "Perhaps I am guilty of some trespasses against the two of you, but surely both of you—particularly you, Lady Lunafreya, understand why such actions are necessary? I am but playing my part in this cosmic game of ours, unlike one of our party, I might mention."
He shot Noctis a very nasty look at that juncture, which only made Noctis confused. It was his job to kill Ardyn, and that was what he'd been trying to do from the start. It made no sense.
"The only thing you are required to do is die," said Luna, and Noctis was a little startled by the venom in her voice. "Almost turning Noctis into a daemon had no part in the course of our fate, or the prophecy. It was pure sadism, and you know it."
"Ah, so it's my interference with the boy that makes you angry. That's useful to know."
Noctis could see that Luna was getting even more worked up, and decided this was probably the time to step in before things got even worse.
"I can just kill you, you know," he said, and Ardyn froze, then turned to him with curiosity. "I mean, I won't, there are some things I need to do first, but you don't have to, like, convince me."
Ardyn gave him a long look. Part of this was a gamble on Noctis's part that, upon learning this information, Ardyn wouldn't immediately try and challenge him to death match to get it all over with, but Noctis was reasonably confident it would work. He did know Ardyn pretty well by now, after all.
Or did he? Those memories surging at the back of his mind…was that really him? He felt so different now, like everything he knew had been turned upside down. A great expanse of information blazed in the back of his mind, but he held it down, ignoring it, for fear he'd go insane.
"Is that so?" said Ardyn, narrowing his eyes, but his voice didn't have quite the same mocking note it usually did when they spoke. "I must say, it intrigues me to think what they showed you during your little nap to have produced such a change in your demeanour. Why, just hours ago I'm sure you would have tried to kill me at any cost! Don't you see it too, my Lady? He's different now. What have those beastly Gods done to your brain, I wonder?"
"They haven't done anything," said Luna, though Noctis could tell from the way she was standing that she didn't quite believe herself. "He's precisely the same, only less panicked now he no longer has the Starscourge running in his blood."
"And can the King speak for himself?" asked Ardyn, eyeing Noctis intensely.
"I don't think it matters," he said, and of course, it didn't—not to them, anyway. "The only thing that should matter to you is that I will find the Crystal, and when I find it, you're going to die."
Ardyn threw his head back and gave a mocking laugh.
"Oh goodness, what a statement—you should really consider becoming a public speaker, you know, you have such a convincing aura. And I do believe you! I look forward to meeting you in its light, or rather, lack thereof, nowadays. But first, do tell me, dear Noct, do you really believe reaching it will do you any good? The Gods have abandoned us, after all. Why wait?"
All at once, as though something were reaching to him across time and space, through the dimensions where the Gods lived, something touched Noctis's soul, and tugged. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that a small patch of the ocean, where all the rest of it was lying still due to Ardyn's power, was boiling feverishly. He knew that what he was seeing was one of the loops in reality his powers had started creating once they had begun to overwhelm him. It was beginning.
He turned his eyes carefully back to Ardyn hoping he hadn't noticed the oddity, or if he had, he hadn't chalked it up to Noctis's power. He could sense something else pressing in on him though, something other than merely the weight of his newly unchained power. In the air, almost imperceptible, like the faint electric crackling in the air on the edge of a thunderstorm, the Gods were watching them.
He couldn't have said which, or even whether there was more than one, but they were there all the same. Their presence pressed on him with the weight of all the years he truly carried, and suddenly, he found he couldn't be glib, and deny them only in joking words anymore. He was being judged, and he could be judged badly. He needed to be careful.
"How can you say such things when we just fought Leviathan for her aid?" asked Luna, only looking a little more calm than she was before. "The Gods have not abandoned us, if anything they're returning to help us."
Noctis felt...torn. The Gods had abandoned him, of that there was no question. They'd given him the second chance he'd asked for, but either deliberately or by accident, made it so he couldn't escape, consigned him to an eternity of torment had they not stepped in again. But they had stepped in again. Should he be thankful for that? It was them who had condemned him in the first place, after all, but...they had also saved him. Given him one last chance.
But they'd only done it at the behest of some higher power—he remembered that now. Something greater than the Astrals...it seemed unthinkable. And yet, he seemed to know it was true. Were they all being played then? Used as puppets by something greater than all of them? Were the Astrals puppets too?
No—they seemed to have will enough of their own, after all. Will enough to condemn him for fighting. The old bitterness rose like bile in his throat. He still hated them, even if it wasn't their fault. He had still suffered. He was still hurt. And there was no one else to blame—so he'd blame the ones who deserved it. He'd blame them.
Luna had a pained look in her eyes as she kept watching him, and he didn't respond. He wanted to say something to defend himself, or even lie and say he still trusted the Astrals, just to make her happy again, but he couldn't.
"We can't understand them," he said quietly. Goodness knows he'd tried. "Why they do what they do, and why they've condemned us. There was no reason for us to be Chosen. But...we were."
The presence of the Gods was crackling in the air, crystals flashing around them. Noctis feel the shape of one God in the air, contorting the atmosphere, revealing her presence. Shiva. He stared up at where he knew her to be, hovering, watching them.
"All I want is to end this. The darkness, and fate, and destiny. I want it all to stop. I want it to be so no one ever has to do this again—stumbling blindly into some prophecy that decrees they have to die for no reason other than they were born at a convenient time. I want it to be so no Gods can fall upon us randomly and kill us, and no plague requires all life to die before the earth can be cleansed.
"And if my death can stop all that...then I will die. But only once I know for certain. There are still some answers I need. I know you've concealed something from me."
The crystals warped in and out of reality with more force now. More anger.
"But I'm going to find out what it is, and if I have to go to Bahamut himself to do that then I will."
Shiva's presence grew ever closer, her cold fingers reaching out to him, then seizing him by the shoulder, frozen bolts lancing through his flesh towards his heart.
Her voice echoed around his head, as though through pure mental force alone.
Be careful to whom the gauntlet is laid down, King of Light. The knowledge from him concealed is not to be sought out blithely.
"I am anything but blithe, Glacian," he whispered, barely able to speak from the cold. "I intend to do things right this time. I know where Bahamut sleeps. If you won't reveal the truth to me then I must search for him. You leave me no choice."
He could feel her anger coursing through him as the ice grew even colder. Then, all at once, it vanished, though the cold still chilled him to the bones.
So it shall be. Her voice snaked around his head, a psychic whisper. The Astrals will be watching.
As though they ever stopped.
Her presence was gone completely now, leaving him feeling as though he'd just been soaked in ice-water and left outside for three hours to let the cold properly set in. He couldn't even shiver he was so chilled.
The two other people standing on the altar suddenly came back into focus. Right, he hadn't actually been alone or anything. Ardyn was frowning at him curiously. Luna looked horrified. He would have told them everything was fine, if he could bring himself to speak.
"It's very risky provoking the Gods like that, you know," said Ardyn, breaking the silence. "I applaud you, of course, but it does seem a waste to throw your life away like that after our lovely Oracle so graciously saved it for you."
This seemed to snap Luna out of her stunned horror to level a glare at Ardyn.
"Quiet, he isn't dead yet," she snapped, then rushed over to his side, placing her hand over where Shiva's had been, making him flinch. "Sorry, Noctis. How do you feel? Did she hurt you?"
He shook his head, not quite trusting himself to speak yet.
"Well that's a relief," said Ardyn, rather sarcastically. "I was worried you might not be able to do your part after all that."
"Don't worry," hissed Noctis, his voice coming out sore and cracked as his throat untangled itself. "Killing you's going to be the highlight of my damned life when I get around to it."
"Ah, I'm so glad to see they haven't changed your personality too much."
"Shut the fuck up."
Luna nodded in agreement with his request, which made Ardyn look a touch offended.
"It is a shame, you know, two such bright young souls, to be sacrificed to the light at such a young age..."
Now this Noctis took exception to. "Luna isn't going anywhere," he snarled, glaring at Ardyn and daring him to contradict him. "I'll happily drag you into hell with me, but neither you nor the Gods will hurt her."
"Alright, alright," said Ardyn, raising his hands in surrender.
"Noctis is right," said Luna, "who will keep the light if not for me? Our deaths are not due just yet, Ardyn. Until then I suggest you disappear—Accordo will not be so welcoming as Niflheim has been."
Ardyn gave a low bow, sweeping his hat from his head. "As you say, Lady Lunafreya. I will take my leave, and pray you find success on your journeys."
He vanished so suddenly Noctis almost felt as though he was never there at all. It was only the fact that time was still frozen in place that betrayed he'd been there, and now he and Luna stood alone on the altar, Ignis and Ravus like statues behind them, and the waves caught mid-crash in the air.
Noctis turned to look at Luna. She was avoiding his eyes, staring off across the lake, to where Leviathan had once loomed above them. He could guess what she was thinking.
"I'm sorry," he said. It was the only thing he could think of. "I know how much the Astrals mean to you, I shouldn't have confronted her like that, I know it wasn't—"
He cut himself off as Luna turned back to him and wordlessly threw her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
For a moment he was frozen, unsure of what to do, before gently hugging her back.
"I'm just glad you're still alive," she said quietly, and he could feel her shaking slightly. "For a moment there—when you fell..."
"I'm fine," he said. "Not ready to die just yet."
She gave a short laugh, then released him. "It's good to hear you say that. I've heard you've been more reckless, of late."
Noctis gave an embarrassed shrug. "I guess I can't really deny that. I've just been all in a rush—first I had to get to you to get rid of the Starscourge, then I was just waiting for Leviathan to show up... I'm glad you're okay too. I thought Ardyn might... I was afraid it wouldn't be enough to save you. You are okay, right? I know the covenants can be hard."
Luna gave a distant smile. "They've caused me great pain in the past, but now I'm happy to say I feel nothing. Perhaps, now my calling has been fulfilled, the Gods have granted me clemency?"
"It's the least they could do."
Luna sighed and stared up at the sky again. "Shiva," she murmured. "I thought she might be the one to save me, you know. I could feel Gentiana's presence while I was on the altar, but now she's quite vanished. It...worries me."
"Well, Shiva was just here—I'm sure Gentiana will be back in time." Noctis wasn't sure he should reveal how much he knew of the nature of the bond between Shiva and Gentiana. He'd been pushing it enough standing up to Shiva herself.
"Yes, I'm sure you're right." Luna became quiet, for a moment. "When Shiva appeared to you—I must say it shocked me, Noctis. I didn't know she'd grown so strong—nor why she risked your life by speaking with you directly."
"I don't think she was trying to kill me," said Noctis, trying to make Luna feel a little better.
"No, you're quite right, but that doesn't change the fact that her powers and voice are great—she almost froze you, and had she spoken aloud she would have shattered your mind. I am not used to the Gods being so careless with mortals. Usually they are...more understanding than this."
Noctis suddenly became aware of that roaring power burning within him once again, the way it stretched and bent his mind and body. He had worse things to be afraid of than the Gods. "I did provoke her. And I think she knew I could take it."
"Can you though?" Luna's face was pale and set. "Forgive me for saying so, Noctis, but you look ill. I fear once the adrenaline fades we will both find ourselves weaker than we thought."
Now that she mentioned it he was aware of his legs getting distinctly shaky. Perhaps he really was worse off than he'd thought? He hadn't really had time to process what had happened yet—and all those memories now clamouring for space in his head, the magic surging through his body... Six, he was tired all of a sudden.
Luna gave a small smile. "You feel it now, don't you?"
"Yeah," sighed Noctis. "Ugh, I feel like an old man. All these aches and pains..."
"Well you are thirty, aren't you?" asked Luna, teasingly.
"Hey!" he said, though he was smiling. "I'll have you know I'm…" He forgotten. He'd genuinely forgotten how old he was. "I'm…"
"Twenty?" said Luna.
"Yes," he said, though that wasn't quite true. "I knew that. Twenty."
Six, was he really only twenty? He was practically a baby when he'd first done this. Who let twenty year olds save the world? Idiot gods, that was who. Luna laughed at his expression, and he quickly found himself laughing with her. Then, as he did, he quite suddenly heard the waves crashing against the side of the altar, the wind whistling in his ear, and across his chest went a lancing pain that forced him to cut himself off in favour of hoarse coughing.
Luna was at his side in a second, and soon after Ravus and Ignis joined them.
"What happened?" cried Ignis, looking more distressed and dishevelled than Noctis had ever seen him before. "Where did he take you? Are you alright, Noct?"
Ignis's hands were on his shoulders, pulling him upright before he could quite process what was happening, and as he did another pain shot through his chest. He was pretty sure that he'd sprained something. Fabulous.
"That was a lot of questions," he muttered, internally cursing Ardyn because it was almost certainly because of his interference that Noctis hadn't noticed it sooner. "And the answer to the last one is: I just got flung repeatedly into a hard stone altar, so I'm pretty sure I've sprained something, if not broken it."
"Noct," hissed Ignis, but his rant had to wait because Ravus was now similarly fussing over Luna.
"Did Ardyn hurt either of you?" he asked, taking Luna's arm in his hand and looking over the various cuts and scratches she'd obtained. "Are you going to be alright, Luna? Do you have any serious injuries?"
"I will be fine, Ravus," said Luna, a gentle smile crossing her face, "I've merely been buffeted by Leviathan. The cuts will heal."
"What about the covenant?" asked Ravus, looking a little less panicked but only a little. "Are you tired? Do you need to lie down?"
"Do not fuss so," she said, with a quiet chuckle. "If it was to affect me it would already be doing so. It seems in completing my duty, the pain has subsided."
To Noctis's surprise, Ravus actually broke into a huge smile, then pulled Luna close, hugging her tightly. He almost wanted to look away, he felt as though he was intruding on a private moment, but the two of them just looked so happy, in a way Noctis had never seen them before, that he found he couldn't.
"I'm so glad you're alright," said Ravus, letting her go with a sigh. "I was so sure that...well, it doesn't matter now."
"I think you have someone to thank for my survival," said Luna, tilting her head towards him, causing him to feel slightly embarrassed. Sure, he thought he and Ravus were on reasonably good terms now, but that didn't make the situation any less peculiar.
Ravus turned to face him and nodded severely.
"You have proven yourself worthy to hold the title of King," he said, returning to his usual sharp, formal tone. "And I thank you, for saving her."
"It's fine," he said, not really knowing what else there was to say. "I'm just glad everyone's okay. How did you two even get here, by the way? How long were we out?"
Ravus and Ignis exchanged a look.
"Not long after you defeated Leviathan, the Imperials launched an offensive on the city," said Ignis, his voice grave. "I imagine that's how the Chancellor got to you before us. We fought off the worst of the initial forces but I'm assured more are on the way."
"More are coming," said Ravus, with certainty. "But not your average Imperial invasion force. Gralea has already fallen to them, at least, that's what I've heard from all the intelligence still coming out of the city."
"Who are 'they' exactly, Ravus?" asked Luna, but Noctis could tell by her frown she already knew the answer. So did he.
"Daemons."
The gang's back together again! Ignis isn't blind! Luna isn't dead! And yet somehow things aren't nearly as hopeful as they might have been. Oh Noctis, you and your myriad of problems, huh? For reference, the main reason Noct isn't yet freaking out about all the Stuff he just remembered is because he's High Key repressing it until he can just sit down and get his head on straight for a bit. So, more fun times ahead. Thank you to everyone still reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
