Holy hell I forgot to actually POST this chapter! Well in case anyone enjoyed chapter 1 and still follows me, here's chapter 2!
Ignis flashed a smile at Aranea's enthusiasm, and nodded at her. Her hand came to his other cheek tilting his head up. Her lips were dry but warm when she pressed them against his. He tilted his head, sighing and leaning into her. They lingered, prolonging the kiss for several seconds before withdrawing slowly. Aranea slid her hands past his cheeks and over his shoulders and pulled him into an embrace. He pressed his face against the crook in her shoulder, and a deep selfish part of him wished that they had never intercepted that message and he was back home in their small room in their warm bed together. Where they would wake up in the morning to coffee and toast.
"Together." He echoed her, pulling himself from his thoughts. If he had to be trapped in this cold damp tower at least he had her by his side. "So. Which door shall we attempt to open?" he asked her.
"Hell if I know. Let's pick this one." She shrugged and walked to one of the doors and pressed her palm against it. The wall began to lift and with it the intense shaking again. She lifted her leg, bracing herself against Ignis to keep herself balanced and prevent another round of intense pain.
They walked through the new opening to another cube with the diamonds on every side. They walked in and the door slammed shut behind them, causing Aranea to yelp.
"Shit that's gonna kill someone. Maybe that's the point. I owe Dave two slaps for them making a murder-maze inside their murder-tower." She grumbled.
"How is your leg faring?" Ignis asked, unable to restrain his concern. Her quick quip that she was fine did not come as a surprise, but he could hear the stagger in her gait and the way she would gasp or moan at certain times. He wished there was something he could do. Then it struck. "I can put my shirt in a corner and throw a blizzard grenade at it, for the least controlled ice pack in Eos. But it may help ease your pain." He offered.
"You're not taking your shirt off in this place. It's cold enough. I mean, as much as I'd love to see your sexy nips stand at attention while I just look at the glory of shirtless you, the shivering would start to make me feel guilty because believe it or not I do occasionally show signs of having a soul." she answered.
"A light chill is a small sacrifice to pay if it will ease your pain."
"You're just too selfless." Aranea chuckled, placing both hands against his chest and patting her right hand against him. "But I'm not having you shivering like mad while I wrap an icy shirt around my leg until I'm shivering too. The sooner we get through this bullshit, go stabby-stabby against the Nifs, and get the hell out, the sooner I can sleep and put this leg on a pillow, the sooner I can flip off Cor when he comes to send me on my next mission. Now push a light and get ourselves even more screwed."
They pushed through one wall at random and found themselves in another cube-shaped room. But this one only had the glowing diamond on the floor, and the ceiling above their heads. Aranea spun around, and frowned.
"Well. When I said get ourselves screwed I didn't imagine it happening this fast."
"What problem has occurred? Aside from the voices of those we pursue growing louder." Ignis replied.
"Oh well that's peachy. I mean because our only door options are above our heads and below our feet." She explained and saw the way Ignis's face dropped and the color drained from his cheeks.
"I shall venture I guess and say that above our heads is not the direction in which we should travel, considering the length of time we've spent going down. "
"Good guess. Hundred points." She replied. She sighed, running her hands through her hair. Her fingers snagged on some tangles and she busied her hands for a few minutes trying to detangle her hair. "Question is, how do we do this without either of us getting hurt?" She asked. Ignis sighed, crossing his arms. He had jumped from short distances before but it was always painful if (inevitably when ) he miscalculated the distance.
"Should I break my legs, can I rely on my darling dragon to carry her bride back home?" he asked.
"I mean you are my treasure and dragons always liked to collect shiny things. So I think I can do that." She grinned at him and placed a hand on his chest so she could press a kiss to his lips. He sighed against her, knowing they lacked time to waste but oh did he want to waste it with her. He leaned against her, his arms coming around her so he could press his palms between her shoulders and the small of her back to bring her closer to him. He had to lean slightly to deepen their kiss, his tongue running along her bottom lip until she parted and her tongue clashed against his. She moaned, pulling away only when she felt him standing back up. "Well what was that about?"
"If I am about to get myself killed jumping from this room I may as well have a pleasant last memory." he answered. Aranea slapped his shoulder, her face souring.
"Don't talk like that. Look. We'll press the button I'll jump down first and call to you and help catch you. Sound good?"
"I lack a better plan." He shrugged. Aranea drew back, Ignis's arms sliding off her slowly and she knelt down and pressed her hand into the diamond on the floor. The vibrations hit as the floor started to move. The sharp pain it caused in her leg caused a sudden wave of lightheadedness and her stomach roiled with the realization that she was about to jump down three meters with her leg like this. Just don't black out.
"Over here." Aranea called. She peered over the edge and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep nausea from advancing to vomiting. She sat on the edge of the moving wall with her legs dangling down, and knowing that Ignis was relying on her jumped down into the room below. She curled her bad leg under her and hit the ground with her good leg and threw herself to the side. She scrambled to her feet, cursing with the new pain and called up, looking to where Ignis had felt his way to the edge and was sitting like she had. "Jump! You only have like a meter left of wall!" she shouted. She could see the way his lip curled, and his brows came together with a thick line. And jumped.
He collided with her with a heavy grunt from them both. Aranea tried to catch herself but her lacerated leg gave out from under her and they both crashed to the ground with another oomph. She hissed through her teeth, bending and flexing her leg with the shock that ran up to her hip and down to her toes. She tried to ask Ignis if he was okay but the wind had been knocked out of her when she fall backwards.
"You all right?" He asked her in a strained tone. Knocked the wind out of you too huh sexy glasses? She thought when her voice failed to say it out loud. She nodded at him and he backed away dusting off his shirt and tugging it to straighten imaginary wrinkles before getting to his feet and extending his hand. She reached up for it, gripping his hand tight but let go when she saw him wince.
"I'm fine." She finally managed in a wheezing voice. She coughed, and finally gasped in a long gulp of air. "Breathing." Ignis held out his hand again but she got herself to her feet, pushing up with her good leg and managing not to lose her balance. "Your hands?" she asked.
"Tender." he admitted, dropping his arm to his side. She dusted off the seat of her pants and took a look at her injured leg. The blood stain was spreading, a detail she was going to keep to herself for now.
"This place is…"
"Quite the curious construction." Ignis offered during her pause.
"I was gonna say fucked up." She replied. "Why can we hear voices but not make out a word they say? One wall separated us from Prompto and we can't understand each other and four rooms later and we can hear the Nifs but not their words. Can you still hear Prompto?" she asked, looking around as if she could see his voice.
"I doubt he is still shouting to us." Ignis answered. "We better carry on." Aranea looked above their heads and wondered how the hell they were going to get out of this place and tried to file the thought away to be addressed later but the concern wasn't so easily dismissed.
"Well at least we're back to the diamonds being on the walls not the damn floor and ceiling." Aranea answered. One appeared to be slightly brighter than the other, though she couldn't determine if it was just her own imagination, and decided to press on that one. The door slid open, and with Ignis beside her she limped the new room partway before grabbing Ignis by his collar and dragging him to the side. The new room was significantly larger than any of the cubes they had traveled through, and appeared to be held up by various pillars. But she had ducked back inside the more claustrophobic room, grabbing Ignis and jerking him into the corner with her. He staggered but caught his balance quickly. He pulled his daggers out from their sheaths and wondered if his hands could handle summoning magic grenades. How did Noctis do it as much as he did? Ignis wondered and quickly banished the thought before the pain of memory could cloud his judgement.
The Niflheimer voices had become quite distinct now and they were getting louder. Shit! She pulled her polearm and extended it, pressing her head to the wall so she could attempt to gaze around the corner. The door slid back closed a moment later and she cursed again as she lifted her leg. How can I fight? I'm a dragoon with a useless leg. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to think. Their plan of sneaking up on the Niflheimers seemed to be a bust now.
"Stand to the side. They're likely to open this door to come investigate the wall." Ignis suggested.
"Through the other wall!" Aranea said suddenly, and pressed her palm against a diamond. Ignis hurried after her, and through the newly opened wall. It shut behind them a few moments later leaving them in another of the identical cube-shaped rooms. The voices were louder but again indistinct as they waited. Aranea could feel goosebumps roll down her arms and she gripped her polearm tighter. She looked over at Ignis, then at the wall they came through again waiting for it to open with an army on the other side. But it never opened and the room vibrated as a different wall opened in the other chamber, and closed again.
"Shall we go back through again?" Ignis asked.
"We have to be ready to fight them pretty much immediately. They'll hear that door open." Aranea answered.
"What did the new room look like? It wasn't echoing like the small cubes." Aranea described what little she gathered. It seemed to be the end of the cube-puzzle, or at least a small part of it. It was a large room and she was able to glance what she thought was three or four pillars in the center of the room but her brief look wasn't enough to ascertain adequate information.
"Was there cover once in the room?" he asked. She shook her head,
"Didn't look like it, we'll have to charge in there guns blazing."
"Suppose then, that it is fortunate our gunman was left behind."
"Right on." Aranea nodded. "Okay let's do this and hopefully only get shot once each. So we can have sexy matching scars. I'm jealous of that star-shaped sexiness 'bout time i even things out." She reached out and pressed her hand against the glowing diamond. The door lifted, and the small pack of Niflheimers was not as far as they were hoping. "Well shit." Aranea cursed.
"What is this?!" Verstael questioned. Aranea leapt into the air, pulling out her polearm. Ignis could distinguish the distance to Versteal from his voice and winced, summoning a thunder grenade and threw it in the direction of the voices. Midair, Aranea hadn't expected the wild twitching and jerking of Ignis's spell to knock Verstael back and as she landed with the man just out of reach. She threw her polearm, managing to impale his calf.
"Fucker!" She shouted. She maintained her distance while the last of the muscle contractions petered out before she dared approach. "By the way, you owe me my final paycheck." She glanced down at the wound her polarm caused, and realized that the arm was not imbedded very deep in his thigh.
"Highwind." He rasped. She grit her teeth together and reached forward to withdraw her weapon but Verstael was faster. He pulled the polearm from his leg with a grunt, and the dragoon leapt backwards to keep out of its reach.
"Too much time around these Lucians… you forgot the superiority of Nifleheim armor." He started getting to his feet, pushing the tip of her weapon into the stone floor to brace himself as he stood up. Two magitek soldiers remained crumbled on the ground, their hardware fried by Ignis's spell. Caligo was groaning, slower to recover from the shock than his companion.
"And who is this freak with the grenades. I thought the last of the Caelums was pulled into that crystal?" He grumbled, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.
"Your age is catching up to you." Verstael snapped, a lip curled. "Get up."
"'Nea." Ignis interrupted the banter and she was quick to step back towards him while he threw another thunder grenade just as it appeared within his palm. Caligo drew up his pistol but the shot went wide chipping into the stone behind the Lucians' heads. Ignis reached for his daggers and threw them but Versteal had managed to avoid the worst of the grenade, and was able to dodge the thrown dagger. But the writhing Caligo was less lucky.
"Shit." Aranea cursed again. With her polearm still gripped by Versteal she felt useless as she again was forced to wait for Caligo to be done writhing lest risk electrocuting herself. "Ignis, Verstael." She instructed.
"Its hopeless Highwind." Verstael said. He pulled a small metal ball off his belt and Aranea felt her stomach lurch and the color drain from her face. His expression wrinkled for a moment at the distant look on her face, and turned to look over his own shoulder.
"Nix that, Ignis, run. " She turned and grabbed his arm to jerk him back. Ignis tried to keep his hearing focused on Verstael's shifting armor to aim a grenade, fatigue snaking through his limbs and causing a growing throb behind his eyes. Before he could throw his attack Aranean gripped his arm and pulled him off balance. He managed not to fall as he caught himself with a stagger to follow her momentum. He heard the grinding of stone and pulled harshly to his left.
The smell in the air changed and Aranea's voice echoed off the now tighter walls, while the Niflheimer's grew tinny. He felt a vibration in the ground and grimaced, trying to gather his surroundings but a deep throbbing sound shook the stone beneath his feet. There was a half-cry that sounded as though from under water and the new vibrations grew louder as did the rapid cursing of his frantic wife.
"Open faster godsdamnit!"
"What's happening?"
"We're fucked thats what!"
"Expand on this degree of fucked?"
"Big fuckin' daemon! Makes a Red Giant look like a damn cactuar!" Her palm slapped against the wall rapidly as she tried to urge the next door open but Verstael was rolling under the closing door and joined the Lucians in the small chamber. Aranea turned around and pat at her hip for her polearm but a large clawed hand slammed down onto the back of Verstael's legs with a crunch. The claws wrapped around the ruined remains of his legs and dragged the screaming man back out of the room as the door finished rolling shut on the spreading pool of blood.
Ignis's imagination gave him several possibilities for what this combination of sounds had meant, each competing to be the one to cause the most nightmares to plague him for the rest of his life. Assuming he didn't meet the same fate as Verstatel.
"What?" He tried to ask in a high voice, swallowing hard to clear his dry throat and repeat his half-question.
"Claw bigger than your body just turned Verstael's legs into pudding then dragged him away. Can only assume he is very dead. Safe to assume he found that weapon he was looking for."
"I do suggest our best course of action may be to run."
"Mission accomplished time to fuck off." Aranea agreed with a nod. She slapped her hand again against the symbol on the wall, bouncing rapidly on her feet and tapping her polearm against the floor as the symbol finally lit up as the previous wall clicked into place. They could hear grinding on the stone of the newly closed door, and a metallic groaning that echoed throughout the small chamber. The wall before Aranea finally opened high enough for her to urge Ignis to roll through first, and she was right behind him as the grinding stone turned into a loud cracking.
She helped Ignis regain his balance as he stood and took her place next to him, her hand seeking his and squeezing tight a moment after she slapped the wall symbol, her other gripped her polearm and she watched the door before her shut. An intense shudder shook the room they were in as the metallic groaning and stone cracking were drowned by a thunderous boom. She backed away from the door and stared at it wide-eyed as her back met cold stone.
"Do you see another symbol?" Ignis asked. Aranea was breathing rapidly beside him, her palm clammy and her fingernails digging into his skin. "'Nea!" he barked. He could feel her flinch and draw a half-step away from him.
"Yes." She answered. "Never guess where." She suggested.
"Up?"
"Up."
"Can you reach."
"You forget how short I am?" the same grinding as before started, echoed by the whining of strained and broken metal.
"Get on my shoulders." He commanded. Aranea didn't waste her time to argue with him as he shifted his stance. She got behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, and on a three-count hoisted herself up onto his shoulders. He grunted with how her heels dug into his shoulders , gritting his teeth to try and focus on something other than the pain. He could make out this different grinding of the stone and the pain on his shoulders eased after a couple seconds leaving behind an echoing ache.
"Grab my polearm." He swung his hands about above him until his palms connected with her polearm and grabbed it. He was glad for the ornate design of the weapon and was able to climb onto it. Above him Aranea was grunting with the effort of keeping her grip, the pommel digging against her and her shoulders pulled hard and she wondered if she would dislocate them before she could pull Ignis up. She tried to pull to help him up but her limbs simply couldn't find the strength to unlock her joints to bend and pull. "Can you climb?" she asked in a high strained voice. Ignis had gotten himself onto it and reached up but couldn't find any stone for his fingers to grab.
"How much further up?" he asked. Aranea's panting and grunting, the groaning and whining structure, the rumbling shaking of the chamber, were all masking his ability to orient himself from echoes and pitches.
"Few inches" She tried again to unlock her elbows to pull on her weapon enough to give him that extra height to grip the lip of the upper chamber but failed. Her heart began to thud faster in her chest and wondered if it would have been better if she had forced Ignis up first.
"It appears I lack options and must somehow jump." Ignis suggested. The burning pain in her shoulders made Aranea wonder if she could maintain her grip any longer if she had to resist the force of him jumping.
"Face me." She tried to instruct, her breathing growing quicker as she looked below her. He was so close so close to her that if only she could unlock her damn arms and pull . She saw his knees bend, the rushing in her ears the only thing louder than the risking sounds around her. She cried out as Ignis jumped, her weapon wrenched from her grip and she wildly slapped her hands closed, managing to grip his wrist as he grabbed onto the lip of the opening. The change allowed Aranea to unlock her elbows, the movement a painful releif as she pulled.
She nearly lost her grip with another deafening boom and the room below filled with dust and flying stone. Ignis felt heavier and his legs kicked when he cried out with stones hitting his legs. Dust obscured her vision and she coughed when it started to irritate her lungs. She pulled hard, unsure if she was making a difference or if Ignis was pulling himself up but he collapsed on top of her as he emerged through the hole.
She scrambled to her feet, reminded of the injury in her leg with a dull ache like a distant memory. She pressed her hand against the first symbol she could find as a large clawed hand reached up into the closing hole.
"Ignis!" her voice was shrill, sounding like that of a stranger. She reached down and pulled him towards her to keep his legs out of the reach of the probing fingers. The door in the floor was sliding shut but with another intense crash leaving a hole where the door once was and spidering cracks across the remaining stone. The wall behind her wasn't opening now that the one in the floor had been completely destroyed.
"Press a door!" Ignis insisted and Aranea shook her head,
"It ripped the damn door off! It can't close so the next one won't open!"
"Damn." Ignis hissed, jutting his jaw and biting down on his bottom lip. Think damn you. Think. You're the tactician. The planner. The one who always knows how to get us out of a scrap. He was trying to map out this maze but was struggling to remember what turns they made and even the size of the room they were in. He made the assumption that it was the same size as the others. And thought about what this giant daemon could mean. It couldn't have just manifested out of thin air down here like they did in the night above. More crashing sounds followed by more cracking. The floor will collapse any moment. Think man! He tried to will his his heart to slow, to breath slower and ease the burning in his throat. He flexed his hands and knew his stamina was low. He wasn't sure how many more elemental grenades he could summon. He blinked and pulled on the scar tissue, both his eyes ached and the pain was overtaking his head. Think. The stone beneath him rumbled again and he shifted himself into a squat, hoping the inevitable fall wouldn't break his legs. "How thick was this floor?" Ignis asked.
"Thick, but not thick enough to stop this thing."
"Numbers 'Nea."
"Probably thirty centimeters." She replied.
"Get ready to fall. I'll throw a fire grenade. Should have enough umph to finish off this floor. With any luck all this heavy stone will at least stun this beast." He explained.
"Hopefully not us too." Aranea replied. The arm reached up again and Ignis threw his grenade. It bounced in the chamber below and the daemon made a sound that made him immediately nauseous, like when Gladiolus would dial the bass up in the Regalia when he was driving. Heat flashed in the room with painful intensity. Shortly after the blast the weight beneath his feet gave way and he fell with the chaos of sound around him. His legs crumbled the moment he hit the ground, the painful shock rolling up his limbs and through his back. The pain hit him with an intensity that took his breath away, and he gasped for air and choked on the thick dust. His chest heaved to cough, but without a satisfactory inhale he only managed to spasm on the floor. His eyes ached, this throat burned. His senses were lost in the chaos of pain and sound. Through the roar in his ears he could hear Aranea's voice and his chest constricted further. Her leg he thought, and pictured her lying on the floor lost to pain as he was.
But he felt a thin cool limb wrap beneath him and he contained the impulse to reach and strike out at the holder. Another sound set his stomach vibrating and he wondered if he was imagining that he was hearing it.
"Plan worked you sexy beast. If we make it out of here alive I'm fucking your brains out." She chirped to him between hacking coughs. "Can you walk?" she asked. Ignis finally managed an inhale and fell into more coughing, triggering another spasm in his chest. "On my back." She insisted, shifting him and he could feel her back against his chest. His face was pressed against her shoulder and helpless to adjust himself, writhing against her as his clouded panicked mind trind to think of words, any words, to reply to her.
"Your leg." he tried to argue
"I'll live come on." She staggered, mostly hopping on one leg, a few steps and shadows turned into details.
Aranea could now see why the daemon filled her with such instinctual abject terror. It stood on four legs, but its forelimbs ended in humanoid hands with tooth-like claws at the end of each finger. Hindlegs with backwards joints like those of a wolf clicked snapped when it reared up to stand tall enough for its head to brush the ceiling. It stared at her with many faces. The first face was the long thin muzzle of a sabertusk, to its right bore the screaming face of a man. Below that of a weeping woman. Of a boy no older than twelve. Of two old men with sleepy expressions and the scarred face of a young man. On the other side was the face of Verstael locked in a soundless scream pressed against the half-face of an expressionless Caligo. Two magitek faces were as impassive as ever above those of the Nifleheimers. More faces wrapped around the thick neck, vanishing into the thick fur that coated the abomination's torso.
It stepped towards her, each face on its neck opening in silent screams. Something about the way the fur on its torso shifted made her feel unsettled, and she could feel bile burning the back of her throat. Wrinkles on its forehead opened to reveal a jumbled assembly of eyes, and its mouth had jagged teeth that didn't seem to align with its own jaw. Its forked tongue seemed too big for its mouth and it lolled out like a purple steak, streaked with diseased veins of black.
The sound it made, now clear in the large chamber, was thick and wet; the rumble was nearly out of the range of human hearing making Aranea feel like her stomach itself was shivering. Her chest rose and fell quickly and she could hear Ignis breathing too quickly next to her and she side-stepped until she could feel him against her arm. She tried to get herself to examine their surroundings and find an escape.
The malignancy stepped towards her with a heavy unbalanced gait, and she grabbed Ignis to jerk him to the side. She ran and tried to duck behind one of the stone pillars and heard the heavy slamming that sent a shock through the stone that numbed the bottoms of her feet.
"Where are we going?" Ignis asked in a voice that was too high, too quick.
"Anywhere! I need two fucking meters so I can think!" She snapped back. The muscles in her jaw worked and she felt the aching tension in her neck. In the back corner she saw a change in the steady pattern of the stone walls and ran for it. It looked like an open door, and she wondered if this was where the empire had been working.
Upon approach she saw that there were bits of metal and splatters of oil all around the entrance to this doorway. A half-door was left on the floor with small bits of stone and dust scattered about with shards of a glowing substance scattered amongst the rubble. She bit down hard on her bottom lip and jut her jaw, reaching out for Ignis again and released a long breath when her hand clamped around the sleeve of his jacket and made for this doorway too panicked to wonder where the hell it led.
The sudden darkness was violently jarring and caused Aranea to stumble and fall as soon as she stepped through the threshold beyond the shattered door. Her tight grip on Ignis caused pain to flare in her shoulder and she heard him crash down next to her. She heard his grunt and he landed partially atop her, pinning her down to the floor. There, she felt no rumble, nor the sickening vibration in her stomach from the hellspawn that pursued them. She grunted, waiting for Ignis to pick himself up off of her.
"Run 'Nea!" He demanded with a frantic shout, both his hands pulling on the front of her shirt and trying to pull her up to her feet. She tried to cast a glance over her shoulder, wondering when the death blow would come from behind her and instead was certain that death had instead managed to get in front of her. Ignis's warning came a moment too late and she ran headlong into a cold wall.
She fell back with a hard grunt, slapping both her hands over her face, her ears ringing. It took what felt like minutes for the daze to pass and Ignis's voice to gain clarity and the panic to return.
"We have to run." She mumbled, the hands over her face felt damp, and she could taste blood when she licked her lip. She rubbed under her nose and tried to get to her feet but Ignis pushed her back down.
"Its not chasing us. You need to settle." He insisted. She followed his push and laid onto her back, but quickly righted herself when she swallowed and nearly gagged.
"It's not?" She asked, her voice sounding too low and nasally.
"No. Are you all right?"
"Think I broke my damn nose." She replied, wiping fresh blood away from the lower half of her face.
"Here." He dug into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, which she clumsily reached out to grab. She looked around and squinted, trying to discern anything about their surroundings but it was unnaturally dark. In spite of seeing the light of the chamber beyond the doorway, it didn't penetrate beyond the threshold.
"I… I think we're in one of those sealing chambers. Where forever ago the people fucked by fate locked away daemons. Thought it was just propaganda. Is this what the empire was after? The hell did they think they were accomplishing?"
"Seems as though they did our job for us." Ignis replied. He scooted closer to Araena and slid an arm around her waist to tug her closer to him. "Now to beg the question where to go from here." He tried to listen for sounds outside the chamber and discern where the daemon was. But there was nothing but their own voices echoing off the walls of this room.
"Well we're stuck in here until hellspawn out there decides its bored and stops stalking." Aranea replied, looking outside. She could see little more than the comparatively bright grey stone occasionally shadowed out by the hulking form of the daemon as it paced back and forth.
Aranea's left side grew warm, Ignis drawing closer to her and slipped an arm around her waist. She took in a deep breath with a shuddered exhale, resting her body weight against him. He rolled the edge of her shirt between his thumb and forefinger, resting his head against her.
"What is it doing?" he asked her.
"Just… pacing." Aranea replied. He hummed and nodded. Ignis shifted his weight, and wiggled a finger in his ear. She could feel the movement against her, though she couldn't quite see what he was doing. After a few seconds she turned to him, "Something wrong?"
"Too quiet." Ignis replied.
"This room is weird" she agreed. They nuzzled closer together, idly stroking each other's exposed skin. Hours passed in the silent chamber, Aranea eventually lying on her back to rest her eyes from the stark brightness where the daemon continued to pace. She closed her eyes, the temperature of the room felt neutral and she started idly scratching at her arm and bouncing her leg. Ignis had his head nestled against her chest.
She wanted to talk to Ignis just for sound, or sit up and stare outside again in spite of the ache in her eyes merely for the sensory input. They were drifting in and out of talks, and at one point managed to drift in and out of a fitful sleep.
"Are you a mite hungry?" Ignis asked, and she flinched at the sudden sound. She had assumed he was still sleeping.
"A mite ." she replied. "Too bad our bags are somewhere out there in that shitstorm."
"It is entirely possible I may have idly placed a granola bar in my pocket." Ignis said. She sat up, groaning at the stiffness in her lower back and her buttocks. The adrenaline in her system had fully worn off, and the pain in her ankle had returned with a vengeance.
"Well shit, seems like we can enjoy a feast in this beautiful locale."
"That we can." He chuckled. He grunted too as he sat up and pat at his legs and slipped into a pocket, and with a crickle removed one of their meal bars. He pulled open either side of the package to pop it open, slipping the bar out. He ran his thumbs around it to get a good gauge of the size, and with a degree of confidence pulled it in half. "I cut, you pick." He offered.
"The trick that will keep our future kids from killing each other when sharing?" she asked. She reached blindly out, tapping his wrist before finding his hand and taking the bar from it. She brought it to her mouth and took a bite while she listened to him chuckle at her. "Solid gourmet meal." She declared. "Your finest yet."
"None but the best for you love." Ignis replied. He ate his own half meal bar, and tried to think his way out of this situation. Avoiding the doorway, he felt his way around the walls to sense any irregularity, unable to use sound to his benefit as it failed to bounce off the walls. The stone was smooth all around, Aranea coming to the same conclusion when she doubled over him. They sat against the back wall, trying to pass the time by talking. Aranea pulled out her phone, staring at the dead signal and sighed. She worried about Prompto, and wondered if he was sitting in that odd hall still wondering when they would return.
The thought made her want to stand up and start to pace, but the pain in her ankle returned. She kicked off her boot, her toes feeling numb and when she touched the offended joint she could tell how swollen her foot was, and grimaced. Ignis was sitting against the wall still, but wondering how the hell they were going to get out was plaguing her mind and making her feel restless. The great beast was still pacing outside the doorway without pause, the walls of the chamber were smooth and featureless. She couldn't fathom trying to outrun the beast to the destroyed puzzle halls. Ignis will figure it out. He always does. She pulled out her phone again, seeing the battery at seventy-one percent.
"How about a movie?" she asked.
"You have a signal?" He asked, moving to reach for his own device.
"No but I always have a movie or two downloaded." She shifted along the wall, taking a deep breath and letting out to try and center herself. He slipped an arm around her waist, and she tilted her head to rest against him. She had her foot elevated on her boot and her rolled up jacket, assuring Ignis that she was as okay as she was going to be. His fingers brushed under the hem of her shirt and she tried to take comfort in the touch. She tapped one of the two movies and started playing it.
The two movies had been watched twice, and just before the credits of the second movie's rewatch the battery died. She sighed, leaning against the wall and stared up into the blackness before turning her attention back to the doorway She watched the shadow cross by. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. She joined in Ignis's attempt to recollect a movie scene-for-scene to pass the time as she watched the pacing. Panic had left, and she simply fetl neutral, for the moment. She knew the panic and helplessness would come back.
Left. Right. They had gotten halfway through the movie they were trying to recollect when they stopped. They both just stopped speaking, rather than consciously deciding to stop. Her stomach rumbled, prompting Ignis to pull out their last meal bar that they once again divided. She felt tired, but couldn't sleep. She tried at one point. Her head on Ignis's lap, his own head resting back against the wall. His hand idly ran through her hair, and she could tell he wasn't falling asleep either.
Back at the doorway, left. Right. Left… she waited for the shadow, wondering if her sense of time was getting distorted or its unbroken pattern was finally changing. She started counting aloud, to make sure it wasn't simply her own mind halting time. Four… Five… Six… After getting near twenty she grew curious. Perhaps it was sleeping, and they could push her polearm through its… something vital. She shifted her weight, making Ignis grunt. He cleared his throat and she got to her feet, limping and hopping on her good foot towards the doorway.
"'Nea?"
"Its not pacing. I think this is our chance." When she got to the doorway she hesitated. She was still behind the threshold, bad leg lifted up and leaning against the inside of the doorway to try to see where it was, but it was outside her field of view. She took a deep breath, pulling out her polearm and looked once more for its shadow before stepping out, and finally saw why it had stopped pacing.
Across the large room, where her and Ignis had fled the puzzle rooms were several men fighting the grand beast. The sudden noise from emerging from the sealing chamber caused her to stagger back into the silent room, where Ignis was calling her name.
"People are fighting it!" she explained to him, running her pinky finger in her ear. She stepped out of the room again after hearing Ignis's steps start to rush towards her. He slowed once he ran several paces, his hands out before him to find the doorway and join her outside. Like her, the sudden noise startled him and he stepped back, hitting the corner of the doorway and hissing at the pain in his back. He collided with the edge of the doorway and jolted forward.
"Whoa, careful." She helped steady him, grimacing at how disoriented he must be. Her eyes hurt stepping back outside, and wondered who the blurry figures fighting the enormous daemon were. Her first few steps she stumbled, legs partially numb and her ass sore from sitting on the stone floor for so many hours. Her polearm was drawn and she joined the frey, adrenaline tunneling and focusing her vision.
"Aranea!" A familiar voice barked out before his guns echoed him.
"Prompto?!"
"I brought-" he paused, firing a shot and ducking away allowing another man to shove a long polearm into the new wound, a third hacking the blood soaked leg as the daemon tried to stagger away. Four more men were behind it hacking at its swinging arms. Two men were lying motionless on the ground. Two more men were to Prompto's right, one bearing an axe another with a gun of his own. The daemon was soaked with blood, the scent of it filling the air mingling with gunpowder. "I brought friends!" Prompto cheered, bouncing back and forth on his feet as the daemon staggered back. "Well, gonna help?"
"Hell yeah!" she cheered. She leapt, feeling sudden sharp pain but rose high into the air, heart racing with adrenaline and the pain faded nearly immediately. She held her polearm below her, shoving it deep into the gap between two of the wailing faces on the right of its neck. The sound it made was thick and wet, a hiss coming from the wound and she jerked her weapon back with a squelch and a splash of red and black fluid. She dove away from it, landing on her feet.
"Ignis!"
"Prompto!" Ignis cheered. He had his daggers out, but could hear the number of voices and hesitated to throw them, having trouble telling where everyone was. The fight was a blur of weapons and the deafening bark of guns. The daemon swung, roared, wailed, and tried to kick. But the multiple wounds were weakening it. It staggered, splashing in a pool of its own blood, letting out a low whine. Many of the faces coating it seemed to have blank stares. Some were still screaming, others were missing chunks and more still were obscured by blood and sinew.
Eventually, it fell forward with a final whine, and was stil.. Aranea's polearm had gotten stuck between the bones of its shoulder joint, the other lancer's own was wedged between two ribs. Prompto had run out of bullets, and the axeman's axe had been broken from its handle. One of the men with a sword had joined the two unmoving men, but everyone's focus was still on the daemon. Adrenaline faded, and pain suddenly flared in Aranea's leg and she fell to her knees, cursing and and shifting onto her buttocks.
"'Nea?"
"My ankle remembered its broken." she grunted. "But the more important question is that." She pointed at the daemon.
"Is it dead…" The rifleman asked.
"Fucker was never alive. Did it crawl back up Ifrit's asshole where it crawled out of after a night of week-old chili?" Aranea asked. It was a few seconds before the rifleman dared to approach and poked at its neck. Blood, bile, and black fluid oozed out of its mouth.
"Speaking of dead things. Where are the dudes we came here to punch?" Prompto asked. Aranea looked around, but couldn't find any remnant of their corpses.
"There," she pointed at the daemon's torso. Prompto clucked, and made a retching noise before turning to the three unconscious men. One was barely breathing; one was dead, half his head caved in leaving a mess of blood, bone, and brain matter coating the pillar he had been smashed into.. The rifleman agreed to carry his body back to the surface for a burial. The axeman left his destroyed weapon behind so he could carry the second man. The third was regaining consciousness as they prepared to leave, and was able to stand with the support of one of the sword-bearing hunters.
"So did you guys find what we came here for?" Prompto asked, his voice lacking his usual energy as he stared at the aftermath of their battle.
"Verstael and Caligo." Aranea replied.
"Holy shit! Top dogs!" Prompto cheered.
"How the hell did you get down here?" Aranea asked.
"Oh we just blew up every single door in that freaky puzzle hall. How did you guys not hear or feel any of this?!"
"Umm. Let's explain on the way back out. I want to get the hell out of here." Aranea answered.
"Couldn't agree more." Ignis added. Aranea winced with a gasp when she tried to bear weight on her own, Prompto frowning at her.
"Man that daemon wall really messed you up, huh? C'mon let me help you out. Good old piggy back!" He spun around to show her his back and twisted his arm to pat his lower back.
"I can walk." she tried to protest, but after a few limping steps grumbled a reluctant agreement to be carried. Prompto stooped and she climbed onto his back, hooking her arms around his neck. Prompto grabbed her legs and started to walk. As they followed the hunter out of the room Ignis talked about the sensory-deprived chamber that had been used to seal the daemon that they had just fought. As they walked, Aranea observed the fallen rocks that they had to climb over from the destruction wrought by the hunters as they blew their way through Costlemark. It felt a miracle that the tower still stood.
"How long were we in there?" Aranea asked.
"Dunno, wasn't with you. But once I left the tower by the time we got back there with the hunters the tower was closed so we had to chill 'till night so we could go back in.
"Oh hell. What time is it? Will we get out of this place before it locks us in again?" Arana asked, curling her nose.
"Uhh not sure. But pretty sure the door isn't closed."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Magic optimism?" Prompto offered. Ignis snickered and Aranea rolled her eyes. But his optimism proved right, and they were able to leave the tower with hours to spare. There was a truck parked close to the door with several dents over the entire thing, the hood not quite fitting right and one of the windows was plastic wrap duct-taped in place. A side-view mirror was missing, and so was the fender and two hub caps.
"You all came here in that thing?" Arana asked. But her question was cut off when a man leapt out of the car, and she recognized him. "And Pan too?"
"Oh man am I glad to see you guys!" he cheered, kicking open the passenger door with a heavy creak, the pickup rocking as he jumped out of it. "This whole place is freaky. Even the daemons won't come near it." He thumbed over his shoulder and gestured at the two iron giants pacing on the road accompanied by several bombs.
"Gods just strike me down." Aranea groaned seeing them, dropping her forehead against Prompto's shoulder.
"Go lie in the truck you guys deserve to friggin' rest. Its just some Iron Giants we got this." Prompto replied. He stood straight to let Aranea slide off his back, Ignis stepping up and finding his place beside her to hook an arm around her waist. She watched the hunters lay the dead man in the back of the truck, and the two injured men beside him. She frowned, agreeing instead to stand guard at the tailgate with Ignis.
"Backup. I like it." Prompto agreed, and rushed off to catch up with the three who were clearing the road while Pan struggled to get the truck to wake up. She held her polearm, leaning most of her weight against the truck.
"Gods I'm tired." She admitted.
"Me too." Ignis agreed.
"We should be helping." She half-heartedly suggested, yawning after a half breath.
"We've done our part." Ignis countered immediately. He reached out for her, feeling her and wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her against him and rest his face against her shoulder, his breath tickling her neck.
"None of that. I'm too tired and its too public." Aranea rolled her shoulder to get him to move, but he only tightened his embrace and wrapping the other arm around her too.
"Your mind is firmly planted deep within those terrible romance novels Gladiolus reads. My intentions are purely innocent. I'm quite tired and you are quite comfortable."
"Well I guess I can put up with it then." she answered, placing her hands over his. She disliked simply watching as others fought, and almost wished that an errant bomb would get past them so she could make herself useful. But the four fighters finished everything off without assistance, and came back to the truck.
It was crowded in the bed of the truck, Pan and two of the hunters squeezed into the truck's cabin and the axeman sitting in the bed with Prompto, Ignis, Aranea, and the two injured men. There was no space to give the third body room, and no blanket with which to cover him. But the axeman removed his shirt to place over his face. The attempt at dignity only made the group feel worse, and they spent the entire drive in long silence.
Aranea could feel sleep begging her to answer its call. She was sitting on the floor of the truck near the tailgate, Ignis adjacent to her and insisting that she rest her leg on his to elevate it. His legs were also tangled with Prompto who sat across from him, the three other men's feet touching their legs. The axeman sat on the edge of the truck bed, no room on the floor for him but insisting that he was fine.
The road was bumpy, the long years without repairs or paving leaving potholes that Pan was forced to swerve around, jostling everyone in the truck and nearly throwing the axeman off. Aranea lolled her head back, staring up at the sky wishing she could see the stars. When the eternal night first befell them at first she could take solace in staring at the stars. But as the years passed those too began to blink out. She sighed, shifted uncomfortably, and blinked her eyes slow and heavy.
"'Nea." Aranea flinched, Ignis gripping her shoulder heard. "Whoa. Careful. I did not intent to give you a fright. We are finally back." He explained. She grumbled, rubbing her eyes. She leaned to her side, and slapped her hands out to catch herself. Her heart raced and she felt fully awake, expecting to lean against the tailgate and forgot that it was behind her. She mumbled and shifted her weight, sitting up just as Pan dropped the tailgate.
Everyone clambered out, the injured and the dead man taken away. Everyone kept asking her and Ignis if they were all right, which she answered with the same yes as she struggled with her usual sarcasm. She pressed her fist to her mouth and yawned, sliding out of the truck and balancing herself on her good leg when a sharp pain that shot up her entire leg reminded her about her broken ankle. .
"Umm want me to bring you to the medic?" Prompto asked.
"They'll be busy with worse than me. It's just an ankle I'll handle it myself." Aranea replied, daydreaming again of her bed.
"I'll walk you guys back then. But I still think you should see the medic." Prompto offered.
"Such a gentleman. I'll wrap it when I get back and depending how it looks in the morning I'll see the medic. Fair?" Aranea answered.
"I'll hold you to that!" Prompto replied, poking her in the center of her chest getting his hand slapped for it. "Touchy!"
"No-touchy." She mumbled back.
"What time is it?" Ignis interrupted, his voice muffled by a yawn.
"Umm. Five twenty-one."
"That all? I feel quite refreshed and ready to start my day." Ignis replied, "A brief breakfast and you're ready to meet up with Dave for today's tasks? Cup of coffee and we shall be right as rain."
"We are sleeping if I have to tie you to the damn bed." Aranea replied.
"Okay human backpack, up!" Prompto commanded, spinning around and slapping his lower back again. Aranea grumbled, but shifted herself upright and allowed Prompto to lift her onto his back. They walked to their room, their conversation a blur and her brain refusing to log it into memory. Her door was the most welcoming thing she had seen in months, and when she slid off of Prompto's back she almost forgot about the pain in her ankle. Ignis slid an arm around her waist to support her, bidding Prompto goodnight.
"Sure you don't want an invigorating jog?" He asked.
"Fuck off." Aranea replied with a wave. Prompto chuckled and started to walk off back to his own room. Ignis fumbled with the door assisting them both inside.
"I got it from here." Aranea insisted. Ignis nodded and let go of her waist, knowing better than to argue. He followed the same pattern over to their bed while she clicked the lock into place before bracing herself against the congested furniture to help herself over to the bed. She slid out of her clothes, grimacing at the thick clots sticking to her foot and the wet feeling as she slid her boot away. She was well aware of how gross she felt, but the idea of showering almost made her fall asleep on the floor. A simple request and Ignis had brought her a basin of hot water and a wash cloth, which she quickly used to wash her wounds and left the state of them something to worry about in the morning. She wrapped a crude bandage and slid into her bed, giving her shower the middle finger though knew it would be her best friend when she woke back up. Her head hit the pillow.
A knock drew her attention and she ground her teeth together hard enough to make her jaw ache. She turned onto her side and groaned, but the knock repeated. She gave the door a middle finger and slammed her pillow over her head, but the knocking started up again and just continued. She threw her pillow off her head, sitting up straight.
"Shall I murder whomever is at our door?" Ignis offered.
"Nah, got this." Aranea replied. She slid off the bed, hopping over to the door and threw it open, finally ending the damn knocking.
"There you are. Finally awake huh?" Dave asked, standing there with his arms crossed. "You're late for morning rounds." Aranea jut her jaw, held up a final middle finger, and slammed the door.