Second to last one boiiiis!

FFXV Whumptober isn't complete without exploring the direct aftermath of Episode Ignis, is it? The prompt fit nicely enough so I couldn't really resist.

Prompts:

No. 30: "It's okay, just to say, 'I'm not okay'."
Borrowed Clothing | Bridal Carry | "Not much longer..."

Warnings: None

The sight of Ravus crouching next to Ignis makes Gladio's heart skip a beat. His hand itches to reach for his sword, but Ravus rises and stalks past him without a word.

"Hey-" Gladio starts. He can't just let the guy leave, not until he knows what the hell he did to Ignis and Noct.

Ravus interrupts him, regarding him coolly. He doesn't seem to feel at all threatened by Gladio. "You shouldn't waste your time with me, Shield. Will you really let your pride keep you from aiding your comrades?"

"What happened?" Gladio demands roughly. "Is Noct-"

"The Prince will be alright. Scientia is the one you should concern yourself with. I meant it when I said to not waste your time with me - his condition is severe and his time is running out."

This time, Gladio doesn't stop Ravus when he turns to leave. The man has no reason to lie to him, and Ignis was frighteningly pale. Helping him is the most important thing.

Prompto is already with them, frantically alternating between Noct and Ignis. Noct's visibly breathing, he's unconscious but he doesn't seem to be injured. With any luck, he's just exhausted from the covenant.

"Check on Noct, give him a potion in case he's hurt," he instructs - Prompto's never learnt how to take initiative in emergency situations, but as soon as Gladio tells him what to do, he visibly calms and does as commanded, kneeling down next to Noct and pulling a potion from the Armiger.

Gladio kneels down next to Ignis, and, shit, Ravus really wasn't lying, if they didn't stabilize him soon, they might lose him to shock or succumb to his injuries. Gladio can't see how extensive his injuries were, but the wound on his face is bad enough.

He extends a shaky hand and feels for Ignis' pulse. Ignis is not dead, not yet, he's breathing, albeit shallowly, and he's softly moaning in pain, but he's not responding to Gladio's questions and his pulse is weak and unsteady.

They need to get him out of here, and fast.

"Prompto," Gladio barks, more harshly than intended, but to his credit Prompto doesn't even flinch. "I need you to carry Noct. Drag him if you have to, but we need to get out of here and I can't carry them both."

Everything inside him is protesting against letting someone else take care of Noct when he's supposed to be his Shield, but there's no other way. Prompto isn't strong enough to carry Ignis in his arms, and Ignis is too badly injured to be moved in a fireman's carry or upright the way Prompto is preparing to drag Noct.

"N-Noct," Ignis mutters, speech slurred and nearly incomprehensible, but there's really no other word that could be coming out of his mouth.

"He's okay," Gladio quickly reassures him, even though he doesn't know how okay Noct really is. If he doesn't tell him Noct's fine, Ignis is going to lose his shit, and that's the last thing any of them needs. "It's alright, you're both gonna be fine."

Looking at Ignis now, that last one might be a complete lie. His face is badly burnt, but the burns almost look supernatural in origin. Leviathan? he wonders for a moment, but no, she commands water, how would she burn half of Iggy's face off?

Another pained moan startles him out of his thoughts, and he gathers Ignis in his arms. Even though he's as gentle as possible, Ignis still cries out when he's moved even slightly, but he doesn't have the strength to struggle.

"Sorry, sorry, it's alright, shh," Gladio soothes, but Ignis seems out of his mind with pain and he's not sure any of his words are actually getting through to him. He's seen Ravus talk to Iggy when he and Prompto arrived at the altar, though, so for Ignis to be unresponsive now, he must be worsening quickly.

All the more reason to get the hell out of here.

With a whispered apology, he lifts Ignis into his arms, holding him so that his more injured side faces away from Gladio. He forces himself to ignore the choked sound Ignis makes even though his heart aches from it, but they don't have time to move more slowly.

The shift in position seems to be too much for Ignis - his head lolls to the side until his forehead is resting against Gladio's shoulder, and he goes slack in Gladio's hold.

"Shit," Gladio mutters to himself. "Prompto, you good to go? Not sure how long Iggy's able to hold on."

"Coming," Prompto pants, struggling to pull Noct into an upright position. Under normal circumstances, he would never be able to carry Noct's weight like that, but adrenaline is a powerful thing and Gladio doesn't want to waste a second of it, so he tells him to hurry up and briskly walks off the altar.

Ignis is terrifyingly still in his arms. He's unconscious, but even now his expression is one of pain - gritted teeth and deep lines etched into his forehead, and his breathing is too rapid and shallow for Gladio's liking.

By the time they make it to the Leville, Ignis is cold to the touch and with how soaked he is, Gladio's worried about hypothermia, not to mention shock.

Prompto's legs are shaking visibly and he looks ready to drop, but his lips are firmly pressed together and he's not voicing a single complaint as he dutifully lugs Noct into the room and to the bed, and shit, Gladio's stupidly grateful for the kid right now.

He gently deposits Ignis on the other bed. Briefly, he tries to wake him, but Ignis isn't responding so he focuses on checking him over instead. He unbuttons his soaked shirt first, and his breath catches in his chest when the full extent of Iggy's injuries are revealed.

His face is arguably the worst, but his left arm is littered with burns too, as is his entire left hand. The burns snake up his shoulder and eat at the side of his chest, stopping just short of his pectoral muscle.

It looks horribly painful and suddenly, Gladio's relieved that Ignis isn't awake to feel any of it.

Wasting no time, he takes a hi-potion from the Armiger and crushes it against Ignis' chest, expecting the flesh to knit back together within seconds. The burns might leave a scar, at least the ones on his face, but as long as the wounds are healed, Iggy's gonna be out of the woods at least.

He waits, but the wounds do not heal.

"What the fuck," he says, bewildered, and tries another hi-potion, and then a normal potion for good measure, but while the bruises that litter his body disappear, the burns remain.

Gladio's mind returns to when they first found Iggy and Noct. Supernatural in origin, he described the burns in his mind, and even though they're now red and raw and no longer silver like they were on the altar, there seems to be some truth to that - these are no normal injuries, and Gladio wishes fervently he knew what caused them.

There's no time to dwell on that now, though. With Iggy's injuries not being touched by the curatives at all, he doesn't have any other choice but to dress the wounds the old-fashioned way. He's well-versed in first aid and field medicine, so he calls forth the first-aid kit and gets to work.

Half an hour later, Ignis' wounds are dressed, both he and Noct are out of their soaked clothes and tucked beneath blankets, and neither of them has woken up in the meantime which is both a cause for concern and a blessing in its own right - Gladio cannot imagine the pain Ignis will have to endure once he wakes, and if he can spare him that agony for at least a little while longer, he'll gladly do so.

Prompto, after having undressed Noct and made sure there were no magical injuries that the potion didn't fix on him, has peeled off his own wet clothing and is curled around Noct, his own exhaustion catching up with him.

Gladio's own body is desperate for rest, but he's rooted to the spot, unable to move from his spot at Ignis' bedside.

He studies the burns on his best friend's face - no, not his face, his eyes, gods, what does this mean for his eyes? - until his vision blurs and he finds himself blinking away tears. They're tears of anger and worry and helplessness, and he can't stop himself from reaching out and taking Iggy's uninjured hand in his own.

What the hell did you do to yourself, Iggy? he wonders, but he already knows he won't get an answer to that.

I've always found it a little odd that Gladio didn't say a single thing to Ravus when he passed him in that scene, especially since he stops to watch him walk away. To Gladio's knowledge, they fight on opposite sides and Ravus was just kneeling next to very fucked up Ignis and Noct, so, y'know, wouldn't that look at least a little suspicious to Gladio? Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to have them talk to each other. I don't know, but either way, I made them talk, even if it's just briefly.

I'm a little insane about Gladio taking Iggy's pulse when he finds him on the altar. Like foaming at the mouth levels insane, the whump lover in me is fucking obsessed with that scene.

One more to go! I already wrote it this weekend so I'm able to give you a spoiler: the last one to have a bad time is gonna be Noct, and I hope to see you there!

Take care!