Chapter Eight
The Archaean
Ignis stared at the ceiling of the caravan, a frown on his face. He did not like it. There was a woman sleeping outside in a car when she could have had one of the beds. He had offered to sleep in the car instead of her, but instead she had been forced into her current position. He glared as he thought about this 'Ardyn', character. He had forced her to stay the night in a place where she clearly was not comfortable staying. He rolled over and closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep.
A few minutes passed before he rolled back onto his back and let out a sigh. It was no use, he had been trying to sleep for hours. He knew that he had managed at least twenty minutes at some point but that was not going to be enough, especially since they were going to the Disk of Cauthiss tomorrow. Provided their escort did not make them make another stop.
He closed his eyes and attempted to sleep again. He was unable to. Thoughts of the girl sleeping in the car continued to plague him. He let out a sound of frustration and pulled himself up to sit- as well as he could sit with his head as close to the roof as it was, being on the top bunk and all. He quietly climbed down from the bed, his feet touching the tin floor loudly causing him to freeze. He took a quick glance around but it appeared that he had not woken anyone up. He crept past the sleeping men and headed to the door. Though he probably need not have worried, if Gladio's snoring had not woken anyone up, his steps wouldn't.
He quickly put his shoes and his jacket on before opening the door. As he steppe through the threshold he was glad for the thought of putting on a coat, it was quite cold outside. He looked around through the darkness that was illuminated by starlight and the artificial lights from the shop. He spotted the car and made his way towards it. He wondered whether or not he should offer her his bed if she was still awake. He nodded deciding that that was the best course of action, even if she turned him down, he would 'possibly' sleep better knowing that he had tried another time. He would also sleep better knowing that she was safe.
He froze as he reached the car. She was not there. There was no one in the car. His eyes locked onto the gun that was sitting on the seat. A chill shot through him. Had something happened to her? There didn't look like there had been a struggle, but a gun on the seat? With no Elise? What had happened? He looked around but saw no sign of her. He walked around and investigated the area, just in case he could find her before running back to the caravan to alert the others.
While walking through the stop he paused as he heard a sound. It sounded like a gasp or cry or something. He paused. Could it be? He stepped towards the edge of the rest stop towards the fields. He heard the sound again. Was it an animal or a daemon? Or was it Elise. He edged towards the barrier fence and tried to see if he could see anything. He was unable to see anything. He heard the sound again, it was in the direction of a rock formation.
"Iggy... what are you doing?" a groggy voice said from behind him.
He turned to see Prompto walking towards him.
"What are you doing awake?" Ignis asked turning back to the grasslands. He tried to listen for the sound again. He could still hear it faintly.
"I could ask you the same thing man." Prompto replied crossing his arms and moving to stand beside Ignis. "My bed was the sofa across from the door man, I woke to a cold burst of air hitting me and you walking out." he shot Ignis a sideways glare. "Thanks for the wake up."
"My apologies." he replied quietly as he tried to listen for the sound. His eyes narrowed as he heard it again. "Go back to sleep, I will return shortly." he started to walk in the direction of the sounds that he had heard.
"Hey Ignis, what are you doing?" he chased after the other. "Don't go out there by yourself, I'll come with you!" he fell into step beside Ignis. "What's so important out there?"
"I can hear something.. sounds, and Elise has gone missing. I want to make sure that nothing has happened to her." he hoped that it was her, in the sense that they would have found her and she would be safe- that was the best scenario, he was not going to think about the worst case scenarios yet.
"Iggy, perhaps we should go back and get the others?" Prompto suggested as they walked through the darkened grass. He shot a weary glance around them. His nervousness was rolling off of him in waves. He jogged to keep up with Ignis and clutched at his arm. "Come on Iggy let's-" he jumped at the sound of a loud feminine moan.
Ignis paused and retrieved his weapons. He turned to Prompto and held a finger up to silence him. Prompto nodded and readied himself for a fight, though, if one were to ask him, the sounds that he was hearing was not necessarily fighting sounds. It was hard to see due to the lack of light, but he was pretty sure that they were in for a surprise, one way or another. They reached a group of bushes, the crouched behind them.
The pair nodded to each other before slowly sticking their heads out from behind the bushes.
Their eyes widened.
Prompto's hand slid towards his camera.
He jumped as Ignis halted his action with a firm hand to his wrist and a dark look.
Their eyes moved back to the scene before them.
Golden eyes glittered back at them, then winked.
The two hurried back to the caravan.
Sleep eluded Ignis and Prompto that night.
X
Ellie groaned at the sound of her phone's alarm beeping. She reached out from underneath the blanket covering her and felt her hand against the floor of the car to find the source of the beeping. She groaned as her hand continued to hit the carpet floor and the sound of the beeping increased. She growled and cracked open her eyes. She blinked at the bright light beaming through the window. It was still early, but the angle that the car was parked made it so that the light could shoot in.
She blinked to adjust to the light while at the same time she still felt for the phone. "Oh be quiet..." she grumbled as she felt the plastic object. She raised it to her eyesight and turned the alarm off. It was five thirty. Lovely.
She sat up and her 'blanket' slid down to her waist. She looked down and her eyes widened as she reached down to finger the fabric of Ardyn's coat. That's right, she thought looking down at the fabric. He had given it to her the night before and after their, jaunt, outside, had let her keep it in the car. 'It might get cold.' he had said before bidding her goodnight. Pulled the fabric to her face and inhaled, it smelled just like him. She smiled and moved around on the chair to sit properly.
She would have to get changed. Her current clothes were still covered in dirt from being thrown to the ground the night before. If she remembered correctly, she had put her suitcase back in the car after being volunteered to sleep in said car. She raised her arms to stretch and let out a sigh as she hit the cars roof. It was time to get up. She slipped her shoes on as she slid out of the car and went about getting her change of clothes out of the car. Luckily, the shop had opened so she was able to go there and use their bathroom to change.
She winced as she pulled her clothes off. She was covered in remnants of dirt and her arms, legs and part of her back was littered with grazes and scratches. She sighed again- something that was quite frequent this morning- and hoped that their next stop had a shower. She let out a breath of laughter, if only her luck was that good. She rummaged through her bag until she found a packet of make up removed wipes and went about cleaning as much of the dirt as she could. She used the entire packet, but by the end she was at least happy with the result. Her back was still a mess, but at least her legs, arms and face were clean. Afterwards she went about applying her make up and getting changed into her skirt and white button up blouse, the Chancellor's coat draped over her shoulders- she made quite the sight.
"I wonder if anyone is awake." she murmured to herself as she left the bathroom and took her things back to the car. She looked over to the caravan, she could not see any movement, nor could she hear anything. "I'll start on breakfast, then everyone can wake up happily." she headed to the shop and purchased some food; bacon, bread and some eggs. She then went about making the breakfast in front of the caravan.
Her hunch turned out to be correct. As soon as she put the bacon on to cook the others started to wake up and came marching from the caravan. They seemed to be in a good mood as well. She greeted them each with a 'good morning' as they walked out. Noctis and Gladio each responded with a polite 'morning', Prompto seemed to be unable to meet her eyes and when he did he would giggle, he said 'good morning' but it seemed almost strained.
"Good morning Miss Elise." Ignis returned her greeting as he walked out.
She turned to him with a smile. "Good morning." she went back to giving the food attention. "Did you sleep well?" she asked as she moved that bacon to the serving plate- a disposable paper plate, how she longed to be back home with her nice dinner sets.
"As well as I could do." he replied evenly before moving to assist her with in taking the finished food to the table. As they placed the food on the table, Ardyn strode from the caravan, a bright smile on his face.
"Good morning everyone!" he beamed as he stretched his arms out and arched his back. "That smells wonderful~" he sang as he walked towards Elise who was placing the remaining food on a plate. He stuck his head over her shoulder and leaned towards the food. "You always make the best bacon." he praised and pulled back then moved to sit at the table.
Ellie smiled and turned to take the food to the table. Suddenly she stilled. Her mouth filled with bile and the world around her began to spin. The food, she thought and sucked a breath through her nostirls. Her stomach churned at the smell. She slowly put the plate on the table and turned.
"Elise?" she heard Ignis say, his voice concerned.
She waved a hand dismissivly and hastily headed to the bathroom. The bile in her mouth filled as she flung the door open and slammed it behind her. She threw the coat from her shoulders and onto a stool in the corner- she couldn't bare to damage his coat. She collapsed in front of the bowl and clutched at the sides.
The sounds she made could be heard to any who chose to stand by the door.
X
Some twenty minutes later she headed back to the caravan, feeling somewhat better than she had before. However as she walked closer to the smell of the food, she began to feel uncomfortable again. She swallowed her saliva and let out a breath. She would not be sick again. "How is the food?" she asked with a a smile as she came to stand beside the seated Chancellor. Her fingers ran idly down the fabric of his jacket, having not put it back on after her stint in the bathroom.
"It's tasty Ellie!" he grinned up at her and gestured to a plate beside his with some food in it. "Here, we saved you some."
She nearly lurched forward at the thought of eating the food. This caused her to pause, just what was wrong with her? She loves bacon, perhaps she has caught a bug or something? She thought perhaps it had been something related to sleeping in the car, but perhaps she was suffering some ailment? She shook her head slowly. "No, thank you, Sir... I, I am not hungry."
"You okay?" the Prince piped while munching on some toast.
"Yes, Sir-"
"Noctis!" the Prince interrupted with hands raised in protest. "Please, just call me Noctis."
She smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Si- Noctis, I am okay, just not feeling very hungry." she then turned her attention back to the Chancellor. "Sir if you are alright, I'll start preparing the car for our departure." with that said she turned, then paused. "Oh Sir, here." she passed him the jacket. "Thank you for lending it to me." she then left for the car.
X
While she prepared the car, she looked over to see the five males talking amongst themselves, though talking was a loose term. They were talking, certainly, but there was a tenseness around them, at least on the Prince's party's side, Ardyn was acting like his typical nonchalant self. She supposed that they were discussing their drive, she remembered that the boys did not seem to impressed or comfortable at all with Ardyn, so she understood why things were terse. She watched as the four began to head towards their car, it was time for them to go. She headed for the passenger side, on her way she was stopped by Prompto who called out to her while lightly jogging to her.
"Yes?" she asked.
His lips quirked up in a smile. "Here, these are for you." he passed her a little white envelope before jogging back to the other car.
She looked down at the envelope and climbed into the car. She heard the door across from her open as Ardyn slid into the car. She glanced at him as he started the car and pulled out onto the road. She glanced back down at the envelope in her hands.
"What is that?" Ardyn asked.
"Prompto gave it to me..." she replied as she broke open the seal. She pulled out a few photos. Her eyes glazed over the first photo, it was of her and Ignis cooking, the second was of herself sitting with the others and looking quite unhappy- this would have been when she had been offered up to sleep in the car. The third... her eyes widened at the third photo, it was of her and Ardyn... kissing. This had been taken after their session at the rocks. Prompto had been awake? He must have been, but then that meant...
Her heart hammered in her chest as she pulled out the last photo, then it stopped. Her eyes widened, there was a slight tremble in her hands as she clutched at the photo.
The photo was of them.
Of her and Ardyn.
By the rocks.
She shook lightly as she looked down at it. Aesthetically, it was a beautiful photo, the lighting was wonderful and the scene was beautiful, however the subject matter was more than a little shocking to Ellie. Prompto had seen her, seen them being intimate. Who else had seen them? Had the other boys been awake? Her cheeks reddened and her heart resumed it's hammering.
"Oooo what's that?" Ardyn reached over and plucked the photos from her hands.
"S-Sir!" she gasped reaching to take them from him, but it was too late, he was already glancing at them.
"Oh my." A grin took his face, it was feral. He somehow managed to drive the car and maintain its speed while looking at the photo. "Well it seems that Prompto has been a cheeky boy."
She flushed. Then reached for the photo's again.
"Oops!" then they were gone.
Ellie gasped and moved around in her seat in an attempt to catch the photo's, but they were gone. It had happened so quickly that she didn't even see them, they were just gone. She turned to Ardyn with wide eyes. "Sir!? We need to go find them!"
He waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, dear girl." he shrugged. "We have our memories... and we can reenact the experience if you like." he chuckled and sped the car up, causing the car behind them to struggle to keep up.
Despite her current feelings towards the situation, she felt herself smiling and rolling her eyes. She rested her elbow against the door and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. "Why are we taking them to the disk of Cauthiss?" she asked as she took in the scenery passing them by. "Are they to see the Archaean?"
"That remains to be seen." he replied as he slowed the car down as they reached the gate. He came to a stop and waved out to the M.T's in charge of the gate. He called out for them to open the gate, then waved goodbye to the other car as they continued forwards.
Once they were gone Ardyn turned the car around and started down the road that they came from. He drove them at least a hundred meters down the road before pulling over. She looked over at him as he turned to her. Her eyes widened at the frown on his face. What was wrong? Had she done something? "Sir, Ardyn, is everything alright?" she rarely said his name these days, calling him 'Sir' had just become habit, but something in his eyes urged her to use his name in this instance.
He scanned her face, his golden eyes soaking her in, he was assessing her. Why? He reached out and she held back a flinch as his hand touched her forehead. Her green eyes moved up to his, but they did not link, he seemed to be studying her. His thumb rubbed her forehead gently, then his hand slid down to cup her face, finally their eyes met.
"You are sick?" he asked as he continued to stoke her chin.
She bit her lip as worry etched her face. "I... I was a little unwell this morning, yes."
His eyes softened but there was still a frown on his face. "What happened?"
She leaned into the hand that had not moved from her face. "I just... couldn't eat, the food smelled and made me feel woozy." she reached up and touched his hand. "But I'm feeling better now." they were both quiet for a long time, as they continued to stare at each other, eventually Ardyn broke into a smile, he pushed some hair out of her face before turning back to the wheel.
"We'll be reaching the rendezvous point in an hour, when we get picked up do eat something nourishing, in the meantime have a granola bar." he pointed to the glove compartment. He started the car back up and started driving again.
She smiled at him and felt warmth in her chest. She did as she was asked and ate one of the 'emergency' food bars. She tried to ignore the taste in her mouth and the churning in her stomach as she chewed.
X
Ellie nibbled on her sandwich as she walked around the airship. It had been three hours since they had been picked up and was not quite sure where they were going, Ardyn had said they would be 'picking something up' soon which was so cryptic it was unhelpful. There were lots of soldiers riding the airship, so she had a feeling that she would be seeing battle soon.
Another bite, she had been nursing this sandwich for the last thirty minutes and it still was not tasting any better. She hoped that, whatever this illness was, that she got over it as soon as possible.
She spotted several of the human soldiers suddenly running towards the viewing window. Then all of a sudden the airship shook. She gasped as she was thrown into one of the magitek armour suits close to her. Her face scrunched in pain and she let out a cry as her shoulder and hip took the brunt of her blow. Luckily her head was unharmed.
"W-What is happening?!" the airship shook again and she gripped hold of the armour to remain stable. She waited a few moments, when there seemed to not be any other shaking, she hastily ran to the window, a slight limp in her step.
Looking out of the window caused her to gasp. "Is that..." her eyes widened as they scanned over the sight of the Archaean fighting Noctis. She could see other Emperial soldiers flooding the scene. They seemed to be fighting both Noctis and the Titan. She watched in awe, he was huge, the raw power radiating from him. The airship rocked again from the force of the Titan's power. She cried out as she was flung back.
Hands caught her. "Careful Dear Ellie." she heard the Chancellor say.
She looked up at Ardyn who was looking out of the window. "Such is the Power of a god." he said with a small grin.
"Are we to fight him?" she asked as she pulled herself up to stand.
"No." he placed a hand on her head and played with her hair. "That is not an encounter for us. Not today Dear girl." he turned to her. "We will be picking some people up soon, see to their needs will you?" when she nodded he winked. "There's a good girl." his eyes moved to the sandwich which was now on the floor. "Do eat something, not that, but something."
"I'll cook something the next chance I have."
He nodded, satisfied with her answer. "Be ready, we'll be collecting our guests soon."
The guests turned out to be Noctis and his entourage, and apparently 'picking them up' meant saving them from a life and death situation. The group in question did not appear happy with their situation, and were especially displeased with being stuck in the ship. Which while she understood, she felt was a little unfair, Ardyn had saved them, a thank you wouldn't go astray.
She walked over to the group, a bag in her hands. As she drew closer to them they looked up at her, she offered them a small smile. "Here, have something to drink and eat- build up your strength." she opened the bag and passed each of them a bottle of water and a packaged sandwich.
"Thank you." Ignis said evenly. The others nodded at her but said nothing, they seemed to be fuming- even Prompto who she had felt would have bee the more amicable of the group.
"Is there anything else that I can do for you?" she offered. "We should be arriving at your drop off point shortly."
"Where's the Regalia!?" Gladio snapped stepping forward, his chest pushed out.
"Where are we? What are you guys planning?" Prompto added.
Noctis remained silent but he seemed to be agreeing with his friend's statements.
She straightened to her full height and felt her lips tighten. "While I understand your situation, and your frustrations," she clenched her fist around the bag. "I am not the one you should be taking it out on, and I shall not stand here and take this." she turned to leave, a hand touched her shoulder. She spun around, ready to argue, only to see Ignis looking at her apologetically.
"I apologise on my companions behalf. Please, do you know what happened to our car?"
She looked at him and contemplated whether or not to answer his question. She let out a sigh, she really did understand why they were as frustrated as they were and could not fault them. She nodded. "I don't know what happened to your car, and, Chancellor Izunia told me that we'll be dropping you off not to far from the chocobo ranch."
Through the corner of her eyes, she noticed Prompto light up at the sound of the word 'Chocobo'.
"Chancellor Izunia?" Ignis questioned, his eyes flashing as he pieced things together.
She nodded. "Can I help you with anything else?"
"No, but... thank you for trying." Noctis nodded at her before climbing up on a storage crate to sit.
She nodded and left the group to hunt down the Chancellor. It took her a few minutes, but she eventually found him filling out some paperwork by their car. "The Prince's group is getting restless." she said as she moved to stand in front of him.
He looked up from his work. "Well we won't have to deal with them soon enough." he went back to his paperwork. "Getting their nickers in a twist are they?" he added with a smile.
"I sympathise with them though," she said, moving to lean against the car beside him. "Were I in their shoes, I don't know what I would do, or how I'd behave."
"Who knows?" Ardyn shrugged. "No one knows how they react when things turn sour, it changes a person, body and soul."
She eyed the Chancellor, something in his tone struck her. She bit her lip and reached over to touch his shoulder. When she felt him press back against her, she knew that she had done something for him, was doing something for him.
And she always would.