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“Gladio, you have to do this.”
Those words echo in the empty corridor of Gralea. The shield shakes his head, his stomach twisting in a horrible knot. “Noct, I…”
“Gladio, please,” the prince wheezes. He lumbers towards his friend, crystals bursting from his back, obsidian and glimmering in the artificial light. Milky black and terrible in their menace. Dark slime pours from his mouth, from his eyes, his clothes in tatters as more crystals tear through his ashen flesh.
Gladio takes a step back, his hands tightening around his sword. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
Noctis stumbles, coughing up more of the black ooze as he falls against the wall. “You have to kill me. Before I’m not me anymore,” he pleads, reaching for Gladio with shaking hands. The shield’s eyes water, his bottom lip trembling as he watches his friend succumb to a darkness far greater than any mortal could bear. The crystals grow heavier, Noctis’ knees buckling as he whimpers, his voice becoming hoarse, metallic, not his own.
Gladio resists the urge to run forward, to pick him up and cradle him to his chest, to steal him away from this nightmare. His dark hair falls around his face, sweat-matted and tangled. Tears spill down his cheeks, his amber eyes glistening as he tightens his hold on his sword. “I-I’m supposed to protect you,” he finally utters, voice cracking.
“Gladio,” Noctis breathes, the weight of the crystals slowly forcing him down onto his hands and knees. His ocean eyes are polluted with filth and evil, the light swallowed up by fear and agony. “I n-need you.”
Noctis looks up at him, his chest heaving, the boy Gladio grew up with just under the surface. His grime-stained lips curl up in a grimace, an attempt at a smile, permission to do what he must. “This is it for me.”
“I’m not supposed to outlive you!” Gladio sobs, baring his teeth, his stance broken and unsure. “It’s supposed to be me! It was always supposed to be me!” His shoulders droop, sword scraping across the concrete as he steps back once more. The prince coughs again, the large crystals clinking against the walls on either side of him as he begins to fade, his eyelids fluttering.
“Brother…”
The shield swallows thickly at that, the sight of his best friend in agony finally breaking through the selfish nature of denial and loss. Gladio’s gaze snaps up, his jaw clenching. “Until the end,” Noctis murmurs, his chest rattling as he sits up on his knees weakly, hair sticking to his soiled face.
“Until the end,” Gladio whispers, raising his sword with steady hands.