Noctis and Ardyn bond over ice cream.
Heart racing and head pounding, Noctis awoke in the middle of the night. Images flashed before his eyes, of legions of magitek soldiers blocking his way. Of Pryna running through the battlefield and dodging bullets. Of the Engine Blade crumbling to dust in his hands and his abilities failing him.
To Noctis, the nightmare seemed as though it had actually happened. He remembered barely making it out of these fights unscathed. By the time he had finally caught up to Pryna, the illusion of Luna's messenger had faded and a hairless black dog with eyes glowing like that of a daemon had appeared before him.
Noctis rubbed his forehead, trying to rid his mind of that dream, but it only etched itself further into his memory. Especially so the moment he finally found Luna. The Oracle had been writhing in pain, overcome by the Starscourge. One half of her face had turned daemonic, distorted, with glossy, blackened skin and twitching eyes.
Nothing had ever hurt and frightened Noctis like this sight.
"Noctis …," her voice still echoed through his memory. "Pleace, Noctis. End this."
With the trident of the Orcale in hand she had lunged at him. In the nick of time, Noctis managed to dodge the blow, grabbed the weapon, but even when he had successfully wrestled it from her black dripping hands, she did not stop. Instead, Luna continued to claw furiously at him, like some mindless creature. It had forced Noctis to do the only thing he could do, and put her out of her misery. Just thinking about it caused Noctis' hands to tremble.
Noctis sat up in his bed and tried to calm his breath. The nightmarish images were all just a little too much.
In the beds on the other side of the darkened room, Ignis and Prompto were still sound asleep. To his surprise, Gladio was missing from the fourth bed, but Noctis was not concerned. Not much, anyway. He would have woken him if something truly important had come up.
Noctis inwardly cursed that stupid nightmare for frightening him awake. With a sigh he dropped back onto the mattress, hoping to just forget about it and return to sleep. Yet the dream would not let him. In the quiet of the night, he still heard his heart beating loudly, while his mind was tirelessly trying to work out the meaning of what he had seen. The same scenes replayed over and over. An endless loop of discomfort.
When Noctis was younger, he used to run to Regis in the middle of the night to tell him about his nightmares and receive some comforting words in return. Now that he was grown up, the thought of waking his friends just because of some crazy dream seemed downright stupid.
But going back to sleep was no option, either.
Reluctantly, Noctis heaved himself out of bed and got dressed, all the while taking care not to disturb Prompto or Ignis. Perhaps some fresh air would help to clear his mind.
He quietly closed the hotel room's door behind him. On his way down the corridor, the sounds of stifled sobs coming out of Iris' room caused him to pause. He also recognized Gladio's voice, quiet and soothing, and although it was too muffled to make out any spoken words, Noctis knew he was comforting his poor sister.
Jared must have been killed in front of her eyes. No wonder she could not sleep, either.
With that in mind, Noctis felt even more as though he could not burden his friends with his bizarre nightmare. Jared's death was very real, while Luna's was not. She was out there and safe – presumably, anyway. After all, Gentiana would look after her. Noctis hated his mind for drawing up even more disturbing pictures. With a frustrated sigh, he headed for the ground floor.
When Noctis descended the stairs, Ardyn was sitting on one of the benches in the foyer and quietly enjoying the night time by reading a magazine. His coat hung over the backrest next to him.
Driven by curiosity, Noctis approached him. "You're still awake?"
"I could ask you the same."
"You go first."
Ardyn sighed and put the magazine aside.
"Sleep doesn't always come easily to me. The Starscourge tends to turn one into a nocturnal creature. What about you?"
"Bad dream woke me," Noctis admitted and raised a hand just as Ardyn was about to reply. "Keep the commentary to yourself."
"A ceasefire it is, then." Ardyn stood up, collected his coat and scarf and slung them over his shoulder. "I was just about to head out for ice cream. Would you like some as well?"
"Ice cream, in the middle of the night?" Noctis eyed him sceptically, trying to figure out if he was serious.
"If you want the best, you have to go out at night," he explained. "In fact, Lestallum becomes most lively after sundown. So, how about it?"
Letting his age-old, crazy uncle, who just so happened to be the harbinger of death and chaos, treat him to an ice cream, was probably the kind of thing common sense should warn him about. Well, it should, but it did not.
Noctis shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Ardyn led him out and into the heart of Lestallum, where one restaurant sat next to another. Even at night, it was still unpleasantly warm. A greater number of people was moving about the town and sitting in front of the buildings. Music was drifting out of the open doors, and a constant chattering was all around. They entered a small ice cream parlor whose interior was reminiscent of the Crow's Nest diners, except for its green pastel colours. Noctis moved into the same booth opposite of Ardyn, and it did not take long for a waitress to arrive.
"What can I bring you?" she asked in a cheerful tone of voice.
"That'll be two times the Midnight Sundae for us," Ardyn replied.
"Wait a minute," Noctis chimed in. "What kind of ice cream are we talking about?"
"It's a special order prepared with the finest chocolate in all of Duscae," the waitress explained. "Servings are limited, which is why it's available only from 10 pm to 2 am. So, get it while it's cold!"
"All right. I'll try it."
Naturally, it took a while for the waitress to return, and whereas Noctis had expected Ardyn to jump at this opportunity for another conversation, he appeared to be perfectly content just to watch the people passing by the window. Though Noctis was loath to admit it, he had been following his advice to try and pay greater attention to the people around him. It really did help him to get a feel for the situation in certain places of the world. When Iris had taken him on her tour through Lestallum, he had already known most of the facts she had told him about. Ignis would be proud of his observations, he mused.
Eventually, the waitress brought them two tall glasses. Ardyn paid for both and gave her a tip.
She looked a little flustered. "But … Isn't that a bit much?"
"I trust you know better what do with it than I do. Everyone's got their aspirations, or is it not so?"
"Thank you very much." She made off quickly to talk to a coworker of hers.
Noctis watched her for another second before he turned his gaze back at Ardyn.
"Empire's paying you more than you can spend?"
"That about sums it up."
The Midnight Sundae consisted mostly of dark chocolate ice cream, topped with cream liqueur and decorated with white chocolate flakes and a moon-shaped biscuit, reminiscent of the night sky. The first spoonful revealed its extraordinary rich flavour, bitter and sweet in just the right measure. Noctis let it melt on his tongue to savour the taste.
"This's pretty good," he said eventually. "Too bad Iggy's not here. Perhaps he knows how to recreate something like this at camp. We could use Elemancy to prepare it."
"And keep the ingredients in the armiger, along with all the camping equipment?"
"Of course. Where else would I keep it?"
Ardyn chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Somnus used to claim the armiger was meant for weapons only. Everything else he considered an insult to the gods. I used to agree with him for a long time, but necessity eventually caused me to abandon that principle."
"So, what do you keep in your armiger nowadays?"
"An excellent question!" Ardyn said and laughed. "I probably forgot about half the things I ever put in there."
"You know there is a way to empty it, right?"
"Ah, but do you really want me to do that?"
Knowing his luck, he might just bring about the end of the world by unleashing forgotten horrors from his armiger. Or simply by drowning Eos in useless trinkets.
"Probably not," Noctis admitted.
It grew silent between them, and in the matter of a minute Noctis' thoughts returned to the nightmare. The images of the demon dog and Luna's distorted face were haunting him. Not to mention what he had done to her. It was unusual for him to remember a dream with such clarity, especially after some time had passed.
"Do you think Luna could end up like you, with the Starscourge and all that?" he asked, trying to make it sound like any other random topic.
Ardyn raised an eyebrow at him. "You just had to go and ruin the mood, didn't you?"
Noctis sighed, annoyed. "Just … tell me what you think."
"I find it most unlikely. As far as I know, no one else has ever had the ability to absorb the Starscourge. Not even I possess it any longer, and Lady Lunafreya's healing powers appear to be of a different nature, anyway."
Unsurprisingly, his opinion did not help to ease Noctis' worries.
Ardyn licked his spoon clean and set it aside.
"This is about that bad dream you mentioned, is it not?"
There was simply no fooling him. "The more I think about it," Noctis begrudgingly admitted, "the more I believe it was a vision of sorts, or a message from the gods. I was following Pryna to find Luna, but Pryna turned out to be some kind of demon dog, and when I finally made it to Luna, she was infected with the Starscourge and struggling to control it. It got so bad, I had to ..." The words got somehow stuck in his throat, as if speaking them out loud would bring the terrible vision closer to reality.
Ardyn's eyes bore no trace of sympathy. He looked mildly curiously at best. "You had to kill her?"
"With her own trident."
"That dream is, quite simply, a threat, and presumably an empty one at that."
"But who might be threatening me, and why?"
"The gods don't like it when their pawns move on their own, and though it may not look like it, I have been luring you from your destined path."
"By buying me ice cream?"
The question amused him, apparently. "Only if you're that easily bribed."
"I've received two of the gods' blessings," Noctis argued. "They should be favourable with me."
"Well, I say gods, but I am really just talking about Bahamut. Did I forget to mention he is the one hiding behind the crystal? The entire prophecy was his idea. Oh, and he was the one who accepted Somnus as king, as well."
"So, the Draconian's upset because we're not at each other's throat?"
Ardyn laughed. "Positively fuming, I assume. Now, isn't that fun to imagine?"
Noctis had to disagree. If he understood correctly, there was a choice before him, and the dream had shown him the consequences if he was to choose incorrectly. Follow the gods given path and antagonise Ardyn, or be lead astray and lose Luna. Although Noctis valued Luna more than him, raising his sword against Ardyn, just because a god willed it, would make him no better than Somnus. He was not going down either roads, if it could be avoided.
"Listen, Noct," Ardyn said with a calm and collected tone, similar to how Regis used to speak to him. "I have neither reason nor intention to hurt the dear Lady Lunafreya, that much I can assure you. She is a diplomatic and brave, young woman, and the most valuable ally I – no, we – have. Bahamut may have presented you with two options, but be not afraid to create a third yourself. As much as I hate to quote Minister Besithia, but the people of Niflheim forge their own destinies, and it is long overdue the Lucis Caelums do as well. We no longer live in an age where man exists solely by the grace of the gods."
To hear him speak with such sincerity was so unusual, it almost caused Noctis to laugh.
"Listen to you, actually being honest for once."
"For once?" Ardyn gasped as though he had been insulted. "I'm being honest with you more often than you think."
"Says the man whose occupation is professional liar."
"You got me there."
On second thought, perhaps Ardyn was not quite as crazy as he had once seemed. Just eccentric. And complicated, as anyone might be in his situation. In any case, his little speech had lifted more of that weight on Noctis' mind than he had expected. If only Noctis could claim to understand whatever it was, with the gods, Ardyn, and their plans for him as the True King. It still felt as though he had barely begun to grasp the meaning behind it.
"Tell me, just what is so bad about the prophecy, apart from the gods toying with us? I thought being the True King meant saving the world or something."
"Allow me to enlighten you, since you've been kept so blissfully in the dark regarding the role of the True King. In order to fulfil his destiny and banish the Starscourge, the True King needs to attain the power of providence first, which, to my knowledge, is comprised of the Ring of the Lucii, covenants with five out of six gods, and gathering ten years' worth of power within the Crystal."
"Ten years within the Crystal?" Whatever he meant by that, it did not sound pleasant.
"Ten long, dark, lonely years, in which the world is consumed by darkness," Ardyn explained and gestured at the night sky outside. "Like all kings before him, the True King, too, is made to suffer, except that this time, his people must suffer with him. Such is the trial of Bahamut."
"Talk about a test of faith, huh?" Noctis said and tried to stifle a yawn, but failed.
"Call it a test of faith, or call it torture at the hands of a god. Personally, I prefer the latter, and I speak from experience."
"So, what's the alternative? I mean, the Starscourge is real and out there. Are people supposed to just … live with the threat?"
"If you need to know, I happen to have acquired proof that the Starscourge can be treated with the right medicine." Ardyn paused thoughtfully and raised a finger so Noctis would not interrupt him. "Let me rephrase that. With man-made medicine. But scientific research is not quite there yet, and given the overwhelming opposition of Emperor Aldercapt in Niflheim and Bahamut in Lucis, it never will, unless they are removed."
"Now that's a tall order," Noctis noted. "Us versus the world?"
"I would not have it any other way."
"Of course."
Noctis stretched out his arms and slid out of the booth. "Thanks for treating me," he said and yawned again, "but I think I better head back to the Leville and get some rest before we're setting out to Cape Caem."
Ardyn made no move to accompany him. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then."
He comfortably leaned back on the bench, withdrew his hat from his armiger and placed it over his eyes.
"You're just gonna stay here?"
"It's not like they are going to throw me out after I gave her such a generous tip."
Noctis shrugged. "If you say so."
Some minutes later he arrived back at his hotel room. Just as Noctis opened the door, Ignis stirred from his sleep. He grabbed his glasses from the night stand and propped himself up on an elbow.
"Where have you been, Noct? Are you unwell?"
"I just got a drink downstairs," he hastily explained. "Woke up parched."
Even though the only light in the room came from the still open door to the corridor, Ignis eyed him intently.
"Is that ice cream in the corner of your mouth?"
Noctis wiped it away quickly. Damn, Ardyn's bad habit of lying must have rubbed off on him.
I am not quite sure how the "Omen" trailer fits into canon - if it is meant to be part of canon, at all, even.
There's that voice that's never explained, Noctis being led astray by a false Pryna, and what's with those daemonic eyes?
Oddly enough, in my AU at least that dream sequence makes more sense, because from Bahamut's view, Noctis is being led astray,
and Luna is in danger of turning into a daemon, which may or may not force Noctis to fight her.
Anyway, I love the thought of Noctis being "led astray" because Ardyn is buying him ice cream.
