New fandom, who dis? In all seriousness, I've fallen pretty hard. XV hasn't and will not topple VII from ultimate supremacy in my heart, don't worry. I am really enjoying it, though.

Standalone short. Warning, this story contains a non-consensual sexual situation. Pairing will surprise no one who knows me at all.

Takes place during the timeline of Episode Ignis, except things go very differently. I do not own these characters.

FAILURE

"NOCT!" Ignis nearly screamed, his mind racing uselessly, his body pinned by the Niflheim soldier, unable to stop what he was terrified was about to happen.

Ardyn, cradling Noctis's neck in one hand and holding a glinting dagger in the other, let out a low, amused chuckle, and set the boy's head back down with surprising gentleness.

"Such devotion. You need not worry, Iggy old boy, I have no immediate plans to kill the baby king."

What? Then why…?

As though Ardyn had heard the thought, he answered, though he continued to look down at Noctis. "I don't expect you will understand. This child is my promised salvation, gifted to my loathsome self by the gods. But as it turns out, there are a few more sins I want to commit first."

Nausea swirled in Ignis's stomach. He had himself guarded Noctis for so long, he had seen men look at him like Ardyn was now, some without malice, many with. Ignis knew by now Ardyn was dangerous to his charge; he just hadn't expected it would be in this way, too. White-hot anger burned through the advisor's restrained, shaking-with-rage frame as Ardyn carefully traced Noctis's features with the knife's blade.

"Do not touch him," Ignis spat, as if he were in any position to make threats.

"Why ever not? Would you rather I wake him for the occasion? I rather like a little fight from my opponents, but oh, the boy would be so afraid, and in pain, and have to try to be strong for his dear servant. Isn't it better, this time at least, to let Sleeping Beauty remain under his spell?"

"This time"? Gods, Astrals, it's absurd to pray to you now, maybe ever, but please…

Ardyn edged around the unconscious boy until he was at Noctis's side, facing Ignis. He drew an invisible line around the young man's neck with the dagger tip, then used it to brush some of Noctis's hair back from his face. The yet-uncrowned king's fair face was relaxed, his expression not even hinting of his usual nightmares. It seemed awful to Ignis that he had never seen his lord look so peaceful in his slumber.

"Such a beautiful boy," Ardyn almost cooed, finally discarding the weapon and caressing the still face with fingertips instead. "How ever have you resisted, retainer?"

Because His Majesty put Noct's hand in mine, put his trust in me all those years ago. Take care of my son, he said, and gods, I've tried. I'm so sorry…

Ardyn brushed his thumb over the prince's faintly-pouting lips, noticing the rose-petal feel of them. The almost-sickly pale skin of the boy's face was like fine silk, the wisps of stray black hair like satin. His faint resemblance to Somnus was not enough to dampen Ardyn's admiration for his youthful, boyish beauty, or the growing desire he felt every time he happened across Noctis and his band of merry men. Surely there was something he was supposed to be doing now, some boring business for Niflheim?

At the moment, Ardyn didn't much care. It was far more fun to have his hands on the poor little prince, especially when doing so was so obviously enraging the faithful advisor who was glaring with promises of murder in his once-cool eyes.

Ardyn took and twirled the shiny blade in his fingers. "No, I won't mess up any of his lovely features. But hmm, what about this?" He made the knife hover menacingly over the boy's crotch. "After all, we can't have this wretched line continuing, can we?"

"NOCT! Damn it, leave him alone!"

"Kidding, kidding. I need do nothing, the baby king will be the last of his house. You know, retainer, don't you?"

Ardyn smiled at Ignis as if they shared a secret. Yes, they both knew. The Chosen King was chosen for death, a young death, a sacrifice to banish the oncoming darkness, like an offering of blood to the sun made by some forgotten, savage tribe.

It IS savage. It can't be the only way.

"Oh…" Ardyn looked at Ignis with a mocking sympathy. "You think you can change his path, don't you? You do, oh my. Don't waste your effort, retainer. The gods can be mocked but not defied, not truly, not at the end of all things."

"Damn…you…"

"Ah, well. Now that we've established the little king is not long for this world, I think he should enjoy what time he has left, don't you?"

Ignis renewed his futile struggles when Ardyn's hand crept between Noctis's legs and began to stroke him over his clothes. "NOCT!"

"Oh, do be quiet. Are you always such a spoilsport? Look, baby king has no objection. I think he quite likes it."

Noctis, who had previously shown no signs of life except for very faint, almost undetectable respiration, had begun to breathe slightly heavier. As Ardyn manipulated him with a hungry smile, the prince made soft moaning sounds, not consenting, but obviously not aware of who was fondling him.

"I do wonder who he's imagining is doing this to him. One of you stalwart band of brothers, perhaps? Do you engage in group wankings on the lonely road?"

"Fuck you," Ignis said aloud for the first time in his life.

"I'm sure the boy is lonely. Being the answer to a prophecy will do that. He's so very alone."

"Noct, listen to me." In desperation, Ignis gave up on Ardyn and grasped the faint hope that some part of Noctis was aware enough to hear him. "You're not alone, you never will be while I and Gladio and Prompto draw breath. I'm sorry for this, I'm sorry for every one of my failures that led to this horror, but I swear, you haven't been alone, even though I'm sure you must have felt you were. You will survive this, you will survive a long time, even if I have to fight every god to keep you here. You're strong, you've always been so strong…"

"Strong, yes," Ardyn murmured. "But not against everything. Not against the first to touch the protected prince this way."

Noctis was fully writhing under the stroking hand which was now inside his pants, panting as he was slowly brought to an unfamiliar precipice. Ignis didn't blame the boy in the slightest, but at the moment hated himself for guarding Noctis too carefully. With Ignis and Gladio glaring at everyone who looked at the prince too long, Noctis had never dated, probably known nothing but his own hand until now, this unforgivable now.

"All right, baby king. Let go. Let me see you undone."

Ignis braced himself for Ardyn's inevitable victory. Instead, Noctis's pleasured exhalations suddenly turns to cries of refusal, and his movements, though still too small and weak to escape, clearly indicated he was trying to get away from this touching.

"Noct!"

"He's fine, retainer. My darkness hurts his light, that's all."

Now that he'd said that, Ignis could see it, or perhaps it was the result of some barely-noticed head trauma, but he could see blackness pulsing around the outline of the chancellor, and light emanating from Noctis like an aura. Ignis wasn't sure what he was hoping for – Noctis to wake up and be fully conscious for this molestation, or him to stay safely locked away behind his closed eyes.

"What – " Ignis's words caught in his throat.

Ardyn had moved suddenly – gods, he's as fast as Noct – and pulled Noctis up so the boy's back was against his chest, the pouting, pained face nodding forward until Ardyn guided the prince's head to rest on one of his shoulders. Once Noctis was positioned, Ardyn held him in place with one arm, while the other hand was still below the boy's waist, moving almost violently now.

"Please, just…" The whispered words turned to wind as soon as they left Ignis's mouth.

"Trust me, retainer, you want him to come, or you will when you figure out what's next. I'm really being quite merciful. I don't have any current intention of causing the boy injury, physically at least."

Ignis let his eyes fall shut. Only for a fraction of a second, if Noct had to live this then he could handle witnessing it, but the brief gesture was one of defeat, and it made Ardyn smile widely, as though it had been a favor done for him.

"Come on now, baby king. You know you need to."

"Nnnnn…" Noctis looked and sounded like nothing worse was happening than one of his regular bad dreams.

Stay asleep, Noct. If the gods or fate or whatever are so determined to cause suffering, let me suffer alone.

A louder, frantic series of the groans that accompanied his nightmares escaped Noctis's barely-parted lips, and he remained unconscious and limp as he spilled into Ardyn's eager hand. The boy went quiet and still, until Ardyn's now-slick hand went behind him, and Noctis's face screwed up with discomfort.

"No!"

Ignis had known it was coming, but that didn't make the sight any easier. As a prince, Noctis would never have been free to marry a person of his choice, but damn it, now his first time was being wrenched away from him too. A memory briefly, mercifully distracted Ignis, a several-years-younger Noctis hiding his flushed face behind a pillow as his advisor explained sex as casually and un-awkwardly as was possible. Still behind the safety of the pillow, at the end of it the prince had mumbled something about not liking girls, and Ignis went on to explain that that was fine, but might not be taken into consideration when his marriage partner was chosen.

As far as Ignis knew, Noct had not told anyone else about being gay. There was very little stigma against it in Lucis; the boy was just intensely private. Perhaps Ignis alone had understood the prince's lack of excitement about the planned wedding that would now never happen.

This is happening instead. Damn all the gods for letting it.

"Not getting lost in thought, are you?" Ardyn idly asked Ignis, as calm as if he were perusing a morning paper and not finger-fucking an unconscious and unconsenting young man. "Why would you want to miss a moment of this? I'm sure you've imagined him like this before, wondered about it."

He had, but that was something locked deep inside Ignis, a part of him that Noctis would never be allowed to know existed…and damned if he was going to let this monster mock him for it.

"You're despicable," Ignis snarled, choking out the words like vomit. "You're so afraid of him that you wait till he's unconscious to pounce? You know Noctis is stronger than you, you damn coward, that's why – "

Ignis's words halted with a gasp; Ardyn's appearance had suddenly changed. Instead of the handsome, affable if over-dressed man he'd been before, in his place, still probing Noctis, was what looked like an animated corpse, with bottomless-well eyes and a sort of black ether escaping every orifice. The thing leered at him, laughed cruelly…and just as quickly, the horrific sight was gone, and Ardyn looked human again.

"What are you?" Ignis asked in a hoarse whisper.

"I am his negation," Ardyn answered in his annoyingly-pleasant voice, rubbing his nose against Noctis's neck. "I am the death to his life. Baby king is not the only sacrifice the gods demand. But he's had a short life of privilege, of being loved and sacred, while I was chained for two millennia. Some reward for the good life I lived as a man, the healings I performed. The gods are bound to their own drivel just as we are, retainer. Do you suppose there's some higher power binding them as they bind us?"

As though he were not having a theological monologue, and with hardly any change of expression, Ardyn unzipped his own pants, and without warning thrust himself, not harshly but fully, into Noctis. The boy let out a pained whimper but remained asleep, though Ignis was too newly enraged to thank the Astrals for this small favor.

"Noct! Damn it, leave him alone or – "

"Or what, retainer?"

Good question. The Niflheim trooper restraining Ignis had his arms pinned behind him, he could barely move a muscle. Ignis, who had dedicated his heart and life to serving the future king, could only watch helplessly as his charge was raped. Ignis, take care of my son, His Majesty had said, and he had always done so, been happy doing so, but now, when Noctis needed him most…

"He's so tight, retainer. Definitely hasn't done this before."

Ignis allowed himself another long blink as hot tears spilled down his cheeks.

"So tight, in fact," Ardyn continued, panting lightly between words, "I don't believe I can last much longer."

But it seemed to go on forever. Ignis could only watched in broken-hearted horror as Ardyn manipulated the young king's body, made it ride him, tongued the boy's ear and nuzzled his neck, made sympathetic cooing noises in answer to Noctis's whimpers of refusal. When the man finally spent himself inside the unconscious boy, he cradled the body in a parody of gentleness as he lowered Noctis back to the ground.

"Ignis! Noct!"

Gladio's voice, though full of fury, was a comforting sound. Ignis was finally released by the soldier and able to shift himself to see the king's Shield running toward them with his Greatsword in hand. The advisor swallowed back an unhelpful and unfair swell of anger that he'd not gotten there earlier, there were more important things to focus on, like Noct, and Ardyn, would he stand and fight?

No. Ignis registered Gladio's sudden halt and confused expression, and guessed what happened before he turned to check; Ardyn and even the soldiers accompanying him were gone, as if they'd evaporated. Fine, they'd deal with him another time, now they could focus on what mattered most.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But Noct…"

Gladio was already at the boy's one side, and Ignis scrambled to the other. Once they assured themselves that Noctis was still breathing, Gladio noticed the unfastened, hastily-pulled-up pants. Before Ignis could protest or caution carefulness, the Shield gently, briefly lifted his charge up, and looked at his underside. Somehow Ignis knew without having to ask – blood along with that demon-man's semen.

"I'm so sorry." He didn't know if he was speaking to Gladio or Noctis.

"No. No self-blame. I know you would've taken his place if you could've." Suddenly, Gladio drove his fist down against the stone ground, so hard that Ignis winced, though the other man didn't. "That gods-damned chancellor bastard, I'll kill him for this, then revive him, then kill him again, until…"

"Until what?"

Gladio couldn't answer that. After all, he had just declared there would be no self-blame, even though he was feeling like the biggest failure a Shield had ever been to any Lucian king.

"Can you walk, Iggy?"

"Yes."

Indeed, his legs somehow hoisted him up and held him with only a few seconds of faint trembling. Gladio carefully scooped Noctis into his broad arms, and they began to walk back towards the mostly-empty city. They didn't speak, even to sort out their next move, though both were thinking they needed to meet up with Prompto (who, gods damn it, would have to be told what happened). Everything after that could, and would have to, wait for a bit. It was several minutes before Gladio hesitantly broke the silence.

"Why did he do it, do you think? Why is he messing with Noct?"

"He's afraid of him," Ignis said simply. "But I think he also needs Noct for something. I think he wants Noctis to feel alone, because he's stronger with us behind him."

"Yeah. Stronger together." The Shield gently squeezed Noctis. "Behind you, buddy. That's where we'll always be."

THE END