Chapter Summary: Noctis goes after his oldest friend.
15 years ago
Noctis stretched out his arm oh so slowly, taking care not to disturb the burden resting atop his lap. But the coeurl plush with its soft patterned fur and felt whiskers stubbornly remained just inches out of reach, taunting him.
He couldn't help the sour look he cast down at the toy, wishing he hadn't thrown it so far earlier when he'd been playing. It was a favorite of his, and not only because it had been a gift from his dad, who was always having less and less time to spend with him. The coeurl was made special just for him, with red paw pads and purple fur dotted in tan spots. He liked the reversal on the coloring from Iggy's feathers and that both shared the same dark shade of red feet. His nanny even agreed it was "striking". It made for an especially good companion when he and Ignis couldn't be together. Though now he wanted it simply for something to do.
Resigned, his eyes wandered back over to the book propped open in front of his knees. He'd tried to pay attention to the story but before long the words on the page always seemed to blur together. With a quiet huff he turned to the next illustration so he'd at least have something new to look at. He swore this story was a lot less boring when Ignis read it aloud with him.
But Ignis couldn't read with him now, not after he'd suddenly trailed off on his turn and an unexpected weight had slumped over onto Noctis' legs. For the first time ever, Ignis had fallen asleep in the middle of reading.
And now the dragon lay still, face tucked into the soft plumage of his wing and tail looped securely around Noctis' waist as the young prince found himself acting as a human pillow. At first he'd been mesmerized, barely daring to breath. But after some time the beginnings of boredom had crept in and he was struggling at staying put in one place without moving much. But even so, under no circumstance could Noctis wake Ignis up. The dragon was always letting Noctis sleep on him and never once complained, so Noctis kind of owed it to him to return the favor.
He was determined to get this right. Even if that meant he had to sit right where he was and ignore his favorite stuffed coeurl only just out of reach, or that his old storybook was so boring to look through alone – or that his brain was maybe melting into a useless mush.
It felt like an answer to his prayers when the door to the playroom creaked open. His dad hesitated at the doorway when he spotted them on the floor and Noctis quickly shushed him.
Bemused, the king quietly came over to sit at Noctis' side, opposite of Ignis with that careful distance he always kept between them. He took his time on the way down, stretching out his legs and trying to get comfortable on the floor. "I'm surprised to not find you napping as well, my son."
Noctis frowned. He didn't really mind taking naps usually, but he didn't want one now. Strangely enough, he'd felt that way a lot lately. Some nights it was even hard to go to bed. "I'm not tired," he said, truthfully – even as an unspoken anxiety settled heavy on his stomach, "but Iggy is never tired."
His dad smiled toward the snoozing dragon curled around his son. "Well, I wouldn't say never." And some of Noctis' worry rolled over into annoyance at his dad's teasing. He knew Ignis had to rest sometime, but he could also go for days and days without it. One of the instructors even admitted he didn't need as much sleep as Noctis.
"But in this instance," his dad smoothed over, "it's possible he might be lending some of his energy to you."
And Noctis' worry came rushing back. "But I don't want Iggy to be tired because of me."
"He is adjusting still – as are you," his dad explained solemnly. "Given time, I believe this you both shall overcome. It's a very rare and special connection you share. But it is also a great responsibility, you know? You must take care not to act recklessly and abuse such a blessing."
"I won't." It was a promise that came easily. Since Ignis had come into his life Noctis hadn't known the same loneliness as before. Even when they were apart he wasn't really alone. It was as if an echo of his friend was always there, an invisible presence ever at his side, and he didn't want anything to make that go away.
"The way might not always be so clear, I'm afraid. And you would hardly be the first of us to tread among the darkness." His dad reached down to pluck the coeurl plush up from the floor and began to gently brush his fingers through the velveteen fur. The next words he spoke had an odd quality to them that made them feel as though they were not truly for Noctis, but someone off in the distance who had need to hear them. "One day you'll find the road before you fraught with adversity, and yourself struggling to uphold all you would hold dear. When such a day arrives, my son, it is my hope that you do not walk alone – that you would come to rely on those who would bear with you and find strength in brotherhood, for there is no power greater."
32 hours after the rite
When Noctis again surfaced into the waking world his first conscious moments were spent tucked snugly atop a narrow bunk, staring with a prickling sense of longing as the last vestiges of his dream-memory resolved into the frayed mattress situated in the bunk above his. Both were secured to the wall on his right and outfitted in scratchy sheets made up with brisk, military precision. Slight vibrations shook the bedframes in time with the unmistakable droning hum of a magitek engine. There could be no doubt about it, these beds were meant for imperial soldiers.
Thankfully, Prompto noticed he was more or less awake before any sort of panic could set in. Perched on a neighboring bunk, the blond practically lunged to his bedside, already babbling a mile a minute—and in that instant Noctis was certain he'd never felt so relieved. It was criminally short-lived.
"…we were so worried! Gladio thought the Empire had you for sure, and when we ran into Ravus –"
"Ravus?" Noctis muttered dumbly, and it was as though the last thing he remembered before going under crashed over him with all the force of one of Leviathan's tidal waves. "Wait! Luna, is she…"
There was something in his hand, small and yet deceptively weighted. His fingers peeled back to reveal the Ring of the Lucii resting in his palm.
Mounting dread had him scrambling up from the bunk. A dam had burst and the rite was all coming back to him now. Ardyn, he'd been there. Luna, too – bleeding out and left for dead on the altar. A vision that maybe hadn't been a dream…
"Whoa, whoa! Slow down!" Prompto's nervous energy ratcheted up to match his own, too riled to make proper calming motions with his hands.
"I need to know," Noctis stressed, pinning his friend with all the bedraggled authority he could muster.
Prompto pressed his lips together in a thin line and shook his head. "I'm sorry. Couldn't find any trace of her. But, uh, we ran into Umbra, and he had this for you."
The journal was impossible not to recognize at first glance and Noctis all but snatched it up, his hands shaking uncooperatively. The pages parted easily, regardless, falling open to the last entry. And on that page a pristinely pressed sylleblossom stared him in the face – her final gift to him.
He gasped, the sudden enormity of loss threatening to crumple him underfoot. Pressure from hot tears built at the corners of his eyes, and it was all he could do to draw in air through the vice clenched tight over his chest.
It had worry radiating off Prompto. "Noct?"
Wretchedly, he knew he couldn't give in to this now. Luna's absence wasn't the only void left behind. And with her gone there was only so many explanations why the other wouldn't be filled here at his side.
"And Ignis?" He choked out.
"Ah, yeah. About that…"
"Where is he!?"
Noctis stormed into the airship's cockpit with a flash of blue ether, Prompto left thundering after him in the cramped hallway.
He couldn't wait, not for this. There was a howl of static in his ears, a numbing surge of desperation drowning out every useless thought – all his grief, and the fear too. Like phantoms they hovered outside of him, watching from over his shoulder, and they would catch up to him soon enough.
"Where's Ignis?" he repeated, ignoring Gladio in the copilot seat and zeroing in on their gracious host instead.
"I have no doubt Scientia has been taken to Zegnautus Keep," Ravus said without so much as a backward glance, busying himself flying them all straight to the Empire's front doorstep just as Prompto had warned. "Surely your man told you that much."
Even lacking their typical vitriol the words sparked something sharp and ugly in Noctis. His hands clenched at his sides with the urge to grab Ravus up by his collar and force the man to look him in the eye. "And I'm supposed to believe you had nothing to do with it?" he snarled.
And something must've shown in his body language because it had Gladio half rising out of his seat. "Easy, Noct."
"Yeah," Prompto breathlessly cajoled, having caught up from behind, "without him we'd, ah, still be stuck in Altissia."
"And for all we know he's taking us in the opposite direction of where they took Ignis. Have you forgotten who we're dealing with?" Noctis certainly hadn't. Ravus had done nothing if not make his disdain for them – for Noctis in particular – crystal clear. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if this was all part of some underhanded scheme to turn them in himself.
"Believe as you wish," was Ravus' despondent defense, unbothered by the pointed suspicion at his back. "It was never my intention to deliver the last dragon into the hands of the Empire."
"Never your –" Noctis practically seethed. What made Ravus think they would accept that after he let the Empire get away with Ignis – the same Empire that could be doing Six knows what to his oldest friend and Noctis wouldn't know?
He hadn't been able to glean a single thing from Ignis since Altissia, as if an intangible divider had been slotted between the sinew of their minds, neatly silencing the connection. And the not knowing was only making his temper burn all the hotter. "Just what are your intentions then? Planning to act all buddy buddy, ferrying us to Zegnautus, and to what, stab us in the back at the earliest convenience?"
And that Ravus did to react to, with a small but noticeable flinch. Noctis didn't let up. "You've had it out for us from the start, worked for the Empire all this time – serving as their faithful lapdog. Forgive me if I don't trust that you've had a sudden change of heart."
Finally, Ravus deigned to face him and Noctis was taken aback by bloodshot eyes and the lines of misery etched into the visage of the once proud high commander. "Don't dare to presume my allegiance, whether you're to fulfill the destiny my sister so firmly insisted upon is still yet to be seen. But regardless, my calling remains to safeguard the light of the Oracle. And I'll see its remnants shackled no longer."
Ravus turned his back to them once more, his eyes staring resolutely into the dark abyss of the night. "So, as you say, I will ferry you to Zegnautus, wherein you'll find Scientia and the Crystal. But there we part ways."
"… you're not coming with us?" Prompto sounded surprised.
"I have my own matters to attend," Ravus stated matter-of-factly.
Noctis tried to hold onto his anger – because without it there were only worse things to feel – but the once roaring embers all but sputtered and died without the expected pushback from Ravus. He'd been so desperate for a fight, to relieve even a fraction of the horribleness bottled up inside, that he's lashed out at the easiest target within reach. And Ravus – the man who'd carried a Titan-sized chip on his shoulder for twelve long years – hadn't risen to the bait.
Had Ignis been here Noctis knew there would have come a gentle admonishment, the reminder that Luna being gone did not affect him alone.
"You really won't try to stop us?" He couldn't help but ask around the sudden tightness in his throat. "When this is over you'll let us walk away with both Ignis and the Crystal?"
"Your dragon has proven to harbor the most infuriatingly stubborn vein of loyalty I've ever had the misfortune of crossing. Trust I have little desire to repeat the experience," Ravus sniffed.
Did Noctis' ears deceive him, or was that begrudging respect he just heard? He cut his eyes over to Gladio, expecting to see his own bewilderment reflected right back. But his shield simply shrugged, not surprised in the least. Even Prompto seemed nonplussed.
So it was true then. Ignis really had impressed Ravus somehow.
The idea wasn't quite so shocking in itself. Ignis exuded more competence from his little toe than Noctis could ever hope to wring out of his whole body. And now Ravus knew the truth of what he was, something ignis would not have let slip easily.
Noctis sorely wished he had the details of the story there. Maybe it'd make scrounging up some good faith in Ravus a little less difficult. Ultimately though, he did have to admit that they could hardly dream of reaching Ignis faster than by airship, even if this did prove to be a setup. It might still not be enough but, right now, it was all they had.
"We can work with that," he finally agreed, easing off Ravus for the time being. They'd be keeping an eye on the guy, of course. Not even Prompto could be that naive. But it would only be foolish to turn away his help now.
As they all settled in for the tense ride to Gralea Noctis did his best not to acknowledge the tight knot of anxiety flaring up in the hollow of his anger. He wasn't very successful.
Ever since he was a small child Ignis had been a fixture of permanence in his life, an unwavering flame forever bordering his awareness with a comforting warmth. There were times it ran hotter than others, Ignis could be blistering with his natural fierceness and absolute dedication to almost any task. But now it was as if the fire had been smothered, tamped down so low Noctis could barely feel the heat of it at all.
Maybe that was why the pain caught him so off guard on the threshold of Zegnautus. There'd been no warning to it, one moment they were stealthily splitting off from the hangar, the next searing agony lit his synapses ablaze in a discordant synchrony of wrong, wrong, wrong.
At first he hadn't understood what was happening, that something vicious had clawed its way through the obstruction, gouging down into the meat of his connection to Ignis. He nearly missed catching onto the thinning thread of Ignis pushing back, fighting to buck the foreign entity sinking its teeth into them. And before Noctis could more than think to help him it was already too late.
A bond sixteen years strong unmade in mere moments – its light snuffed out. In its place a gnawing emptiness siphoned away any residual warmth.
He came to on the floor. The walls of a tiny, abandoned office crowded in close, with Prompto and Gladio hovering closer still and tense with worry. They must've dragged him here after he collapsed.
Gladio leaned over him, brows furrowed, asking something along the lines of whether he was with them or not.
"They broke it," he rasped instead.
"Huh?" Prompto asked, not getting it at all.
"It's gone," Noctis said again, because they had to know, "the bond… they tore it apart."
Gladio cursed.
And Prompto went very pale. "Whoa, hold up! What does that mean? Is-is Iggy okay?"
"It means he needs our help." Noctis no longer had answers for the rest. And if they didn't move now he might never know.
Getting his feet beneath him was harder than it should have been. None of the damage was physical exactly, most of the pain hadn't even really been his. All the same, the Keep was cold in a way it hadn't been before. The reverberations echoed all the way down to the very marrow of his bones, leaving him raw like an exposed nerve. He had to rely on Gladio's lending hand more than he wanted to let on. If any of them were going to survive the monster lurking inside Zegnautus – one that had just overpowered a dragon with terrifying ease – then he had to be stronger than this.
As soon as he was up and thought he had a decent enough chance of staying that way he pulled away from Gladio and Prompto. Turning his back on their searching looks, he took out the one thing that might give him a much needed edge.
The Ring of the Lucii sat far too innocently in his open palm for the source of such unspeakable grief and heartache. It was the mark of his sacred calling, the legacy of his forebears. The same legacy that had bled his dad dry of his youth and enticed a ravenous Empire to come howling at their Wall. And it had been burning a hole in his pocket ever since he left Altissia behind.
Holding it now Noctis warred with the impulse to hunt down the nearest viewport and watch as his cursed birthright plummeted into the shadows of Gralea below.
All that suffering and he still couldn't fathom why – why countless people wiser and more noble than he could ever dream of being had died for this – why Luna had sacrificed everything just to grant him this one chance. And he could not stand for Ignis to do the same.
The Ring was his burden to bear, and it was time he stopped running from it.
He felt the eyes of a hundred kings past fall upon him as the metal band slipped onto his finger, their judgment piercing through him with a cauterizing jolt. He hardly registered it after the flaying separation of his bond with Ignis.
The sensation dimmed quickly, the collective consciousness settling into something this side of dormancy. He supposed that was as close to garnering their blessing as he could hope for.
"Careful," Gladio warned when he reached for the door, "there's daemons."
"Great." Where weren't there daemons anymore? "The Nifs?"
Prompto looked pensive. "We haven't seen a soul."
"It's like the whole place is abandoned." Glaido agreed, nodding toward the space beyond the door. "Dead quiet out there."
That should have been concerning. They were deep in the heart of the Empire, hovering above the capital aboard their most renowned flagship, doubling as a mobile super base that blocked out the sky. It should've been flooded with all the necessary personnel to keep such a colossal facility afloat. But whether this was part of a trap or Niflheim had finally flown too close to the sun Noctis didn't have it in him to care. Neither would stop him from reaching Ignis.
"Keep up," he said before pushing into a hallway so dark and eerily silent it was practically cliché – or "ripped straight out of the latest psychological horror flick," as Prompto was quick to describe it.
And it took no time at all to confirm what he and Gladio had already noticed. They were running into plenty of daemons and no people.
He felt something almost bordering on relief when they first stumbled across a stray MT thrown into the mix. It was as good a sign as any that the base hadn't been totally abandoned and that Ignis could still have been brought here. The unit was in rough shape, sure, but that was to be expected in the midst of a daemon infestation. Noctis didn't let himself be bothered by the way it dragged its weapon along the floor, more reminiscent of an axe murder rather than an emotionless robot soldier.
The Ring proved useful, at least, shriveling up daemons and MTs alike to nothing at all – their withered husks burst to oblivion. Yet Noctis knew he was only scratching the surface of what it could really do, even as the simplest of its spells demanded a hefty toll on his magic. And without Ignis his reserves were already so much more shallow than he was used to. He'd have to be careful. Falling into stasis now would be nothing short of disastrous.
Noctis chaffed under the restriction, but in this he refused to let Ignis down. So he paced himself, allowing Prompto and Gladio to take on their share of the fighting. Together they painstakingly worked their way through the daemon infested halls.
Zegnautus would have been a beast in itself to navigate had Ravus not lined out the way to the Crystal for them, claiming that should Emperor Adlercapt have his way he'd be keeping his greatest trophies close at hand. So far his information had held up. Still, Noctis hadn't quite been able to dismiss his doubts that they'd been led astray, not until that first roar reached his ears.
It started in faint, so much so he could almost convince himself he'd imagined it. But the closer they drew to the Crystal the louder the roars became. And they were unmistakably Ignis – full of reverb and so furious – seeming to shake the walls around them. He couldn't help but feel unnerved, hearing Ignis and at the same time not hearing him at all – knowing he was angry and in pain but not being able to take in the molten edges of it.
Noctis left restraint behind after that, tearing through the unlucky set of MTs blocking off the next corridor. His feet barely touched the ground before a crystalline afterimage took his place. Gladio called out to him when he started pulling ahead but he couldn't make himself slow down – not now that he was so close.
In the last stretch daemons turned scarce, either frightened off by the rumble of Ignis' fury or already burnt to a crisp if the scorch marks decorating the halls were any indication. There were no more MTs and still no imperials. A small voice that sounded suspiciously like Ignis grew steadily louder in his head, insistent this was too convenient.
That voice was promptly ignored the moment he stumbled upon the wreck of the Crystal room. Ravus had described it to them as a spherical holding cell with the emperor's favored spoil of war displayed at its core, but that all had come crashing down in a great heap of rubble. And trapped down in the middle of it was Ignis.
Heavy chains glinted red in the meager light as Ignis thrashed, leashed to the Crystal like some farce of a guard dog. Noctis' blood boiled at the sight.
"Ignis!" Without a second thought he closed the distance between them, so intent on setting things right he failed to realize his friend wasn't alone.
"Ah, at last, your shining knight arrives. A pity he's a bit late."
Noctis whirled at the voice of Luna's murderer. And there Ardyn waited, almost patiently amongst the shadows of the wreckage and far too unconcerned with the dragon doggedly attempting to claw out his entrails.
"You!" Noctis allowed the Ring to feed deeply on his magic. Whatever it spat out would be so much more merciful than Ardyn deserved, but it would be quick and Ignis needed help now.
But as he advanced forward to unleash such a death the wind was knocked out of him. His back hit the wall with a dizzying crack. Sliding down to his knees he blinked away stars just in time to catch Prompto and Gladio racing to his side. Only Prompto reached down to pull him to his feet. Gladio was too busy making himself into an imposing barrier between them and whatever had hit him. It wasn't until Noctis was staring up past the broad line of his shield's shoulders that he realized Ignis was no longer focused on Ardyn, his attention having shifted at their arrival, and he didn't look happy to see them.
Had Ignis…?
"Oh dear, best watch your step. I'm afraid he's gone feral."
Noctis rounded on Ardyn, "what did you do to him?"
"Why I've merely set the poor beast free," Ardyn taunted him with that insufferably smug grin, "returned him to his natural state, so to speak – no longer beholden to you or your Crystal's will."
The words were barely out of the man's mouth before Ignis twisted back around, straining against the magicked chains to breathe out an incinerating blaze. But strung up as he was his range of motion was limited and the flames fell disappointingly short of reaching Ardyn.
"Yeah? If you're so worried about his freedom why not let him out of those chains?" Noctis challenged.
"Were only it so simple," Ardyn heaved a theatric sigh. "But you see, I've found the Crystal to be rather possessive over the hapless souls burdened with its glorious purpose – even one raised from the very ashes of the Astrals' own terrible shame."
"The Astrals' shame… but Ignis came from the Crystal?" Prompto muttered confused.
Ardyn's gasp was all for show, and it grated on Noctis' nerves. "Oh my, will lies never cease?"
"Not from you," Noctis growled.
"But I speak the truth. Despite whatever fairytale the Lucians of old would see made history all these years you've been bound to a flame of Ifrit – the Betrayer and architect of our star's ruination."
Did Ardyn really think it'd be so easy to turn them against one another?
"Whatever you're playing at it won't work. Where Ignis came from or who made him what he is doesn't matter." How could it in the face of everything he'd done for Noctis? "Nothing is like it was. This whole journey has taken from us again and again. Six knows, it hasn't been easy – I didn't always make it easy – and yet he's stood by my side through all of it. And I won't abandon him now."
"How very admirable of you," Ardyn said, no more moved than the crumpled concrete at his feet. "But what of your stalwart pet and chamberlain, does he return your sentiment? Certainly, his thralldom under the Crystal afforded him some amusing parlor tricks – able to voice that sharp wit with the occasional pun or biting riposte. Not to mention a false face for mingling amongst a people not his own without stirring mass hysteria – all the better for carrying out his duties, of course. But outside its influence I wager you won't find him quite so subservient."
Gladio scoffed before Noctis could put his own outrage into words. "So what, we're supposed to believe the whole time we knew him Iggy was just a puppet? Sorry, but I don't buy it."
Prompto stepped up to Gladio's side, glaring down Ardyn for all he was worth. "Yeah, if that's you think you don't know him at all."
Noctis couldn't have agreed more. "So give up the charade already."
He may have wondered, the times Ignis would all too willingly bury another piece of himself to make room for what had been expected of him, without complaint or so much as a second thought to what he was giving up. But Ignis was always so much more than his duty. He cared fiercely, going well beyond obligation of propriety or fealty for king and country. They were brothers. And even should Ignis choose not to reforge their bond Noctis wouldn't let that change.
"Can't blame me for lending a word of caution, can you? But then I suppose you must know best. After all, I'm sure you were well acquainted before he was swept into your service," Ardyn prattled on, likely somehow knowing exactly how false a statement that was.
"If his loyalty is as binding as you say, then why not simply put it to the test? Should you wish to reclaim that which was once yours you must first get to the Crystal and convince it to loose its hold," Ardyn explained. And maybe it was a tick of the spectral light bleeding from the Crystal, but he swore he saw the man's eyes flash a daemonized yellow, leaking something dark at the edges of his face. "Shouldn't be a problem what with you being so close."
Then he was gone, all but melding into the inky shadows and taking his unhinged commentary with him.
Glaido didn't lower his guard. "Why don't I like the sound of that?"
"You think it's a trap?" Prompto looked nervously to Gladio then back to a growling Ignis.
"Doesn't matter." Noctis was finished letting Ardyn rile him up with these games. Ignis had waited long enough. "We have to help him."
"Hey, nobody said –" Prompto was cut off as Noctis pushed his way between him and Gladio.
It was the latter pulling Noctis back by the collar that spared his boots from getting scorched from a fiery warning. "I know it's Iggy," Gladio said, "but you gotta watch it. He doesn't look too keen on our help right now."
And taking the moment to really look at Ignis, Noctis was forced to admit Gladio had a point. Ignis had bowed up in a clear threat display, one he backed up with another forbidding roar. Regardless that Noctis no longer had any sense of what Iggy was feeling, the meaning was universal: stay away.
But Noctis couldn't look at him and not see how the chains held him in a bruising grip, one wing looking particularly mangled. Or that his armor was in shambles. Several pieces were dented and warped out of shape, some missing entirely. There was more than a handful of visible bullet holes, and white bandages peeked out at the crook of his right elbow. There was no telling what other injuries the armor may be hiding but it was clear the damage had piled up since the rite in Altissia. And Noctis hadn't been around for any of it – just like he hadn't been for Luna.
"I know your hurting," he soothed through the rush of guilt, looking Ignis in the eye and finding the same intelligence he knew to have always resided so starkly within that piercing gaze. Despite whatever their severed connection might truly mean, Noctis wouldn't start doubting his friend now. "I'm going to fix this."
Only, his promise didn't have the intended effect. If anything, it did more to further upset Ignis than set him at ease. Either there was some kernel of truth to Ardyn's taunts or something else was going on. Noctis was unhappily reminded of an old argument with his father on the breaking of bonds and its consequences. Was this what he'd been warned about all those years ago? Had Ignis lost something of himself? Noctis didn't feel as though anything so vital had been stripped away from him, but then, he was starting to feel increasingly numb in the absence of their bond. He couldn't drop the nagging suspicion that Ignis had somehow suffered the bulk of the backlash for the both of them, as he was always prone to do. And unless Noctis did something about it he was going to keep on suffering.
"Prompto, Gladio, get ready to create a distraction," Noctis said under his breath, summoning a blunted training dagger behind his back. Seeing this, Gladio traded his broadsword for a sturdy shield and loosened his stance. Prompto followed suit, subtly prepping his flare gun with surprisingly steady hands.
It wasn't going to be easy getting through Ignis to reach the Crystal. But if they could keep his attention divided…
"On me." Noctis let his dagger fly without further warning, disappearing after it in a fractaled mirroring of the Crystal's own brilliance. Naturally, Ignis saw it coming. He so often knew what Noctis was thinking before Noctis himself. Even restrained he was fast enough to divert the blade from its path midair and interrupt his warp. And he was on Noctis just as quick.
The first swipe of claws Noctis had to phase through to keep from getting pinned. Gladio stepped in on the second, bashing his shield into Ignis' shoulder. For that Ignis jerked his head to the side, pulling with it a chain that swept Gladio's legs out from under him.
Noctis tried to take the opportunity to slip around Ignis but the dragon's tail slammed down in his path and sent him stumbling back. He felt a warning heat at his back as Ignis' head whipped back toward him with a rattle of chains. Just as he started to question if Ignis was willing to set them aflame to keep them away a bullet ricocheted off the broad side of the dragon's cuirass, buying him the split second needed to warp out of reach.
Prompto, treading lightly with his shots, was aiming for the most intact remnants of Iggy's armor to throw off his concentration with the least risk of causing injury. Ignis barely spared him a calculated look before returning to holding Noctis in his sights.
For his part, Noctis stayed on the move, warping between various perches amongst the surrounding wreckage, trying for an easy path to the Crystal. But Ignis kept close track of his movements even as Gladio redoubled his attempts to capture his attention. Whatever else was going on in that big brain of his he'd no more been turned into a mindless savage than Noctis had become the Emperor of Niflhiem. That much was deeply reassuring, but he also wasn't going to be tricked into letting Noctis in close. They were going to have to force their way in.
"Prompto!"
"You got it!" At his signal Prompto fired off a starshell into the dark pitch above.
After so long in the depths of Zegnautus the flare was near blinding. Noctis was blinking tears from his eyes as he watched Ignis rear back with a rumble of agony at the harsh light. It may have been playing dirty to take advantage of Iggy's superior night vision like this, but it was brutally effective. And it got Noctis his opening.
With a silent apology he warped past Ignis and outstretched his hand toward the hollow of the Crystal. Within he could feel something begin to stir beyond the lucent blue hues. And the Ring sensed it too. There was this resonance burgeoning between them, but it was interrupted before he could delve any deeper as the Crystal itself was engulfed by an inferno. He scrambled away from the intense heat with singed fingers, forced to retreat by the swell of hungry flames.
Unlike the walls of fire he was used to seeing Ignis set ablaze, this somehow more resembled the barrier shields the Kingsglaive had been known to conjure, but pulsating with interlocking embers that drew him back to one desperate moment – when their connection was at its weakest. Despite that he'd been on the brink of death the warmth hadn't fazed him then. Now it seemed to scorch the breath from his lungs as he watched the flames furl around the Crystal in a perfect dome, blocking off all means of access.
In hindsight, Noctis really should have known blinding Ignis wouldn't slow him down for long.
"What now?" Prompto held up his flare gun helplessly.
Noctis wished he knew. "I'm working on it."
"Well, better work fast," Gladio grunted, ducking under a wild flail of Iggy's wing.
He was right. The starshell hadn't yet faded out but it soon would, along with its effect on Iggy's vision. Though before Noctis could come up with any ideas his eyes caught on a different source of light. The Ring had started glowing. And its intensity grew by the second. That brief contact with the Crystal must have awakened it, and with sudden clarity he realized it was his ticket to getting through the raging wall of flames. After all, Ignis may have known him inside and out, but he didn't know the Ring.
So Noctis turned its power on the blazing barrier, wholly surrendering his magic to its yawning maw and reality began to blur at the edges. With a chime of broken crystal an ominous black void tore open and swallowed up the flames.
A wave of concussive force from the drastic change in air pressure slammed into them all, but Noctis braced for it. And the next instant he moved. In the span of a blink he stood before the Crystal, and refusing to take any chances, he pressed his palm flush against the polished surface within. He wasn't quite prepared when something grabbed him back.
And it wasn't just in the strange metaphysical sense either. Whatever he'd sensed before no longer slumbered and now it had ahold of him. Noctis gasped as his feet left the ground, more of his arm disappearing down into the Crystal. His magic spent, he tried to pull away but he had no leverage or even understanding of how to resist.
The chains around him fell limp, shedding that vicious taint of red, and somewhere behind him Ignis let out a despairing cry that Noctis could only think of as mournful as all the fight bled out of the dragon. That was when it clicked: this was why Ignis had so desperately strove to keep them away. It hadn't been anything Ardyn had done to him. He'd known this would happen.
The realization didn't bring a means of escape any closer to his grasp. Prompto and Gladio called out to him. He could hear them rushing in to try and help and Noctis struggled harder. But the Crystal only greedily claimed more of him. Already both his arms and legs were trapped, soon his whole body would be encased.
But before he was taken completely, time impossibly dragged to a standstill, leaving his friends frozen in place as he was slowly consumed. Only then did Ardyn appear once more from out of the shadows.
"You know," he spoke up almost conversationally on his approach, "I quite like that look of desperation upon your face."
"What is this?" Noctis gritted out, trying and likely failing miserably at sounding more angry than afraid. But he couldn't move and Ardyn was more than close enough to spike anyone's heart rate.
"Isn't this what you wanted? The Chosen King in exchange for a fiery fiend," Ardyn singsonged, his words slick with venom. "I did warn you, the Crystal won't permit one of its destine oblations to rescind the role they are to play. I should know, I was its first."
"You?" It had to be another lie, the thought alone sat uncomfortably with the terror already settling to ice in Noctis' veins.
"Yes, though then I went by a different name: Ardyn Lucis Caelum. You'd never guess whose name Izunia was."
No, he couldn't be. Noctis wanted to deny that it could even be possible, but then he was up to his neck in crystal.
"Do come back soon. I'll ensure your friends are entertained in your absence, but I'd advise you not to keep me waiting for too long. Accidents can happen, you know." Ardyn chuckled darkly, giving Noctis another glimpse of those daemonic eyes.
With a snap of his fingers time resumed its normal pace, releasing Ignis, Prompto and Gladio as daemons began to materialize around them. These weren't the same smallfry goblins from earlier, but of a larger and more deadly variety. Reapers, gargoyles and even iron giants were all coming out in force to rip into his friends.
And Noctis couldn't do a single thing to help them. Powerless, he could only watch and pray until the light of the Crystal overwhelmed him in full and he was set adrift in the blue.
A big thanks to all those who answered my little survey over what Noct's favorite childhood toy should be. The coeurl won hands down just about everywhere I asked. But I did receive the lovely suggestion from Alto4ever of Noctis having a fancy custom dragon plush that looked like Ignis and decided to kind of merge the two by borrowing that custom element and adding another similarity to Dragon Iggy's appearance.
A note that for those who have left reviews, I stopped getting email notifications for any messages quite a while back from this site and hadn't realized. I will try to respond to the ones I haven't yet, but please know I appreciate you all for leaving me any thoughts on this story. It makes my day. However, this is just another frustration I've been having with and this will be my last story posted here. For those interested, you can also find me under the same name at over at ArchiveofOurOwn.
All that said, thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!