Work Text:
At Insomnia's End.
A Final Fantasy XV fanfiction
Maybe he was dreaming again. Apart from the usual daydream kind, it does happen sometimes.
Visions of the future, the past, of things occurring in the present.
'Nightmares' would be a more appropriate fit.
And this one was particularly cruel.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Is what he says finally. Maybe he couldn't resist.
Ignis, for his part, looks suitably dumbfounded. Of course he was.
"A ghost?" It's the only possibility for what Ignis could see in front of him.
A man with sunken eyes, unshaven cheeks. Knuckles white as he gripped his throne, his shoulders weighed down under the Lucian finery that he was dressed in, that he wore with a broken, hollow sort of pride.
"The ghost of someone you knew once." The king says in a...strangely familiar voice. "I know that feeling."
"...This is..." Words, sentences start to form in Ignis' mind, but fail once he tries to voice them, as he takes in what he sees.
A room in pieces, with the elegant staircase wrecked beyond recognition. Corpses hanging from the ceiling of people he knew well, and the ghost of a king upon his throne.
"It's in bad taste, isn't it?"
"What is?"
"This." The king gestures between them, "I say that with confidence, but I don't know what that means to you."
"What that means to me?"
"I also say it's in bad taste, but then I know a jester who'd employ such a travesty." His expression sours, but it's strangely faded.
It's like it took everything the man had to even speak, or show what he felt.
Ignis frowns, "Who would that be?"
"Considering who we're talking about, it would probably be a bad idea to tell you."
"And why would that be a bad idea?"
"Mostly because of why you're here."
In the back of his mind, there's something that clicks in to place. He can see it in Ignis' eyes.
Because that was the main difference.
He could see it.
"Do you know why you're here?" There seems to be something odd in the king's expression then. He holds Ignis' gaze with a strange sort of care, as if considering whatever the man would do next.
"I don't."
"I have an idea that neither of us would like the answer."
"Who are you?" Ignis manages to ask finally and he doesn't miss the way that the king's expression flickers. Nor the way that his fingers grip the arms of the throne.
Minute little details, while the man seems to clutch for his mask.
"I..."
In a way...he almost succeeds.
Almost.
"I am..."
The king closes his eyes,
All he could see was pain.
There's a dull echo of it in Ignis' chest.
"No...No-one. Just...no-one of importance."
"Forgive me for not believing that, with you dressed as you are."
Something seems to occur to Ignis just then. There were certain odd details that stuck out to him, of what the man wore.
"...You look...quite similar to the king we once had."
"I know. That was the intention." The man draws his jacket closer over himself. And Ignis finally sees it.
In this light, it was almost impossible to, but he noticed it.
A stain. Scarlet spreading over his shirt.
Before he could even question it, Ignis was already rushing up the staircase.
"Don't come any closer!"
And halts dead in his tracks with the man screams.
He's close now. Close enough that he can see the rip in the man's shirt and the jagged stab wound in his chest.
Over his heart.
"Don't...come..." The man gasps out and he's hunched over now.
"You're on the verge of death, you know."
"I...know." The man chuckles, and it sounds hollows, "I know that."
And Ignis faces him again.
"You...ensured that." Ignis says. It's a question, but doesn't sound like one.
It's...all of a sudden it's difficult to breathe.
"I did."
"Kind of contradictory to an ascension, don't you think?"
"..."
A bitter smile. "I know."
Ascension.
A lonely king, dressed in black finery.
It starts to click together in his mind.
Something seems to show in his face.
"You're-"
"Sorry."
And he hunches over, forward.
When Ignis catches him, he feels incredibly light. There's a faint rustle and the clinking of metal.
His fingers smeared with blood, the color drained from his face.
His eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Sounding so, so, so lost, a broken voice so familiar.
Like how he cried when he was a child.
"Noctis..." Ignis' voice breaks on his name, a whirl of emotions that makes him sick to his stomach, "What's...what happened? Why-"
Noctis shakes his head. His lips are thinned out and pale and he already feels so, so cold.
"I can't."
"Can't what?! What happened...we...we need to get you to a-"
"Ignis." Fingers grasping his shirt and Noctis draws himself closer, burying his face in Ignis' chest, "Please...I can't leave."
"What happened here, Noct? Who did this to you?!"
"Ignis!"
Everything about him seems so easily breakable. The way he held himself, the way he shrunk away from the world.
Yes...everything.
Save for those eyes.
They gaze into Ignis' own, now, and there's a firm resolve that Ignis had never seen.
"I won't be able to leave this place, Ignis." He says, every word tortuously slow, like every word pained him, "I can't."
"But why-?!"
"I'm not the Noctis you know."
"What?"
The words make him falter for some inexplicable reason.
And while he remained still, his mind kicks into overdrive.
Because Ignis Scientia was a man who prided himself on his logic, his reason.
It's what he was effectively raised into being, seeing as he was to be a part of the prince's entourage. The Lucian Prince's eyes and ears, his voice of reason and the sword to his shield.
And now? In his arms lay his friend, dressed in royal finery, slowly growing colder and colder as he bled to his inevitable death, and while every single part of Ignis screamed at him to save him, Noctis himself denied any help or attention, and every single part of him seemed. Different.
When the possibility presents itself in his mind, Noctis could see it in his eyes.
"You couldn't save me", Noctis says, as he let the pieces fall into place, "because you shouldn't."
"...Is this..." Ignis clears his throat, but his words still shake, "...what...this is what happens?"
Such a simple question. So conveniently simple.
Noctis feels like laughing again, and possibly would, save for the blood flooding his lungs.
As it was...he could barely speak.
"Is this what happens? In our future?" Ignis repeats again.
It honestly seemed like something out of a nightmare. Like a trick or illusion.
And while the more pragmatic side of him considers those options, something in him as he sees Noctis makes him consider only that.
Noctis couldn't speak. Tell him yes or no.
It was so hard to breathe now.
And as he feels the life drain from his body, he feels something inside him swell.
With the last of his strength, he pulls Ignis down into a shaky embrace.
He feels Ignis stiffen up almost immediately, and it's like a twist of the knife in his dying heart.
"I won't hurt...you."
"I wouldn't expect someone bleeding out of his heart to." His tone was flat and his fingers shake over Noctis' back.
Noctis does laugh then, "Hey...in all these years...I've grown strong enough to kick your ass, you know."
He couldn't keep that smile for long, but he tried to.
The end was near and he could sense it.
It's harder to hold on to Ignis now.
Noctis hands seem to phase through his body.
"Sorry you were...dragged into this."
Ignis notices the strange blue glow that surrounds his body then, but keeps holding onto Noctis for dear life.
"What happened to you? Whatever it is, we can stop it! Where's Prompto and Gladio and-"
"I said...that you can't."
"Noctis!"
"I don't...know why you came here. But I'm glad."
"Glad for what?"
"I can say goodbye this time."
As Noctis' life fades, so does the Ignis in front of him.
"Noctis!"
"This isn't your fault, Ignis."
With the last of his strength, he pulls himself up and kisses Ignis' forehead.
Presses their foreheads together to look into his eyes.
"I doubt that you will remember me...but please."
A hand on Noctis' cheek, and the tenderness wrenches at his very being.
"Savor the days we had together. The times we fought together...and laughed together. Treasure them for as long as you can."
He could barely feel his own body now, but he still clings on.
"Like I do. It's all...I have now."
And Ignis could see the life fading from Noctis' eyes, the tears that fell onto his cold cheeks.
"Goodbye, Ignis." He says quietly, as his eyes start to close. Through numbed lips, he feels Ignis' kiss.
"I loved you."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Ignis?"
Ignis starts, eyes snapping open to see Noctis hovering in front of him, regarding him with a curious expression.
"...Oh! What is-"
"Hey, easy, easy. I think you just dozed off."
"Dozed off?"
"Yeah, you crashed in that chair right after we entered the caravan." Noctis blinks, then frowns, "Are you alright?"
"What?"
"You look kind of off. Bad dream?"
Ignis ponders this for a bit.
"Not sure."
"Not sure?"
Subtly, Ignis brings his hand up to brush his cheek.
"I can't remember what it was about."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x