Chapter Text
He was almost eight when it first happened.
It was as if the sky had fractured, and split into a million pieces, scattering everywhere and as far as he could see, and even farther.
The horn sounds, its tone low and loud, and turns the cogs in his brain, and he can only stop and stare as the blue mass is engulfed with tawny, brown, red, and the clamor of voices.
“Everyone, evacuate underground!” Someone yells, an officer to the right. “Soldiers, to your positions! This is Code A, Code A!”
“Ignis!” His wrist grabbed onto, and green eyes like his own flash with relief. “Son, are you alright? Come, we have to go!”
“Mother,” he starts, spooked by his mother’s action, but still points upward. “What are those?”
“There’s no time to explain, sweetheart, we have to go, now-”
But Ignis is able to see when the moment happened, when the sky sea of brown dispersed into two groups, and he could see the direction of it changed, can see the shine of metal, as its bearers hurtle towards the earth.
“They’re diving,” his mother whispers, and then she’s tugging on him, hard. “Hurry!”
He’s finally stumbling after her, grabs onto her grip as tightly as she’s holding him, and together they sprint through the fray, through the throng of desperate people.
Ignis runs as fast as he can, feels his legs burning and his lungs itching with how much air he’s taking in, and he’s aware of others crying out and gunfire ringing, but he and his mother continue to move, escaping as rapidly as they can-
There’s a sudden burst of movement just to the right of his face, an aura so powerful he almost thinks it was an abnormal current, sand flies onto his glasses and he’s losing his mother’s hand, her cry out for him drowned out by the flapping-
The flapping of wings.
Feathers soar out in front of him, banded and tan brown, there’s a man rising up across his form, the light from the sun shining down on Ignis at just the angle so the boy could not see his attacker’s face, but he can see the hulking limbs that ripple and extend from the man’s back, beating back and forth.
“ Ignis! ”
He’s standing there for a fraction of a heartbeat as fear courses through him, but the suspense is shattered by the blazing arc of daggers, and his mother comes slashing at the man with a snarl.
“Hide!” She shouts back at Ignis, and engages the man head on, even when he brandishes a sword and reflects her power, growling.
Then the wings come in, slicing every which way, and his mother dodges them cleanly, and she’s glancing at Ignis even more frantically than before, and that’s what gets him to bolt.
There’s fighting everywhere. Men and women with their weapons out shouting battle cries, and people with wings diving down to meet them, there’s bursts of tawny and gold, blue and red streaks.
Ignis weaves around them, shielding himself from the dirt as it rises up from the clamor, and continues to run, run until his eyes are stinging from the debris that evaded his glasses and was getting onto his face.
“Son!”
He whips his head around as he is scrambling up a hill, and sees rippling hair as light brown as his own, glasses on a pinched face.
“Over here!”
“Father!”
The second Ignis is in reach, his father has a hold on him, and he’s being swung onto the other’s back, and the boy has a view of a group of men shouting as they launch themselves onto another warrior with midnight wings.
For a second, Ignis can’t hear anything over the rush in his ears, but as his father surges onwards, the boy could see his mouth moving, the same words pronounced. They’re failing, I must help, I must help!
Ignis doesn’t dare to look up, afraid to see how many things were in the sky before, things he’s never seen.
A few more lunges and his head’s under a cool slab of stone. His father lowers him down a little too roughly, then taking a fallen polearm from the floor, and whirling to look outside.
He turns to Ignis then, kneeling to put them at eye-level.
“Listen, son- you must stay here. Do not come out, and do not let them see you. And no matter what, you must not allow them to get inside. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Ignis answers shakily. “Will you return?”
“Of course.” His hair’s ruffled. “You need not worry.”
Then his father is racing away and back into the fight, and for a few dizzying seconds, Ignis doesn’t know what to do.
He’s only startled back into thought when the battle outside roars, clanging into a crescendo as arms clash, and then he’s tripping over himself down the narrow hallway.
Where could he hide?
There’s corners, crannies, but every place is almost too shallow, too conspicuous, so he keeps moving.
A desk with flurries of papers piled onto it is seen, and Ignis shoves his slipping glasses back onto his nose and scrambles for it, but then-
What…
He hears something.
Something high in pitch, loud. But muffled.
Crying?
A baby, crying.
He looks towards the sound, and it travels to him from far away. It was almost a miracle he noticed it. The path to it leads down another hallway, and a doorway at the end of that is awash with a bright glare.
Ignis stops for a while, trying to think. Then, he can hear the crying, louder and louder.
That really was a baby.
He checks that he won’t be seen, and then he’s chasing for that room, doesn’t stop until he’s being blinded by whatever lights were casting down on him, skidding to a stop in the middle.
He’s not sure what he sees at first, the sight almost too bizarre to name.
The view is strange, a glass box on a metal table, covered in tiny holes.
The baby, inside, laying down, crying and trying to roll.
Ignis thinks it’s a girl, small brown curls all over her head, and her face is red, and he has no idea how long she’s been upset. Maybe since the attack.
He inches closer, and he doesn’t understand. He can see the lock on the door, one that needs a key, and he understands that it’s a cage-
But why?
It’s only when he’s almost right on top of the contraption that he can see the fuzz, the grayness of down.
Small wings, matted and soft-looking, flailing every which way, are attached to the girl’s back. Ignis knew enough that he could tell they weren’t fully developed, fragile and awkward.
The girl flaps them as she continues to cry, her voice deafening but hindered by the cage, and Ignis feels his heart pitter-pattering, what should he do?
Should he try to calm her down? Should he ignore her?
There’s a crash from overhead, dirt trails from the ceiling and Ignis tenses and puts his back against the wall, and the girl screams even louder.
Oh, Gods. He could see the crack in the ceiling, can see it massively growing, a whole piece could fall, and she could-
Where’s the key?
He looks around, takes off his glasses as he realizes they’re slightly fogging up, and he sees the glint of metal, on the floor.
Ignis dives for it without a second thought, scoops the key up into his hand and he focuses hard on finding the lock, shoves it in and turns, pulling the door open and as gently as he could, takes the girl with the wings into his arms, hears the rumble and lunges for the wall again.
The ceiling comes down, and he could feel a chunk hit his shoulder, grazing his skin. It burns, but he doesn’t lose his grip on the child in his arms, and his voice shakes but he still whispers, puts a hand over her head to protect her from the debris.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got you, you’re alright. ”
Over and over, he repeats it, doesn’t startle when his glasses drop from his fingers, holds her tighter and tighter.
As the rumbling stops, and he has enough courage to lift his head, he can see the ceiling, or what’s left of it. There’s a massive hole in the middle, jagged around the edges, sunlight and rippling shadows streaming through.
Ignis stares up at the wreck, panting, swamping with relief, he’s okay, and the girl he holds in his arms isn’t hurt.
“Told you,” he tells the child, who stares up at him, tears still coursing down her cheeks but she’s calm, her brown eyes wide. “You’re alright.”
Another rumble, and his head snaps up, he adjusts his embrace on her. “We should get out of here-”
And a blur is swooping through the hole, clattering onto the stones just where the cage was, hands darting out as if searching for something, grazing over the rocks frantically.
Ignis freezes, having noticed the wings, huge and spanning all over the rubble.
“Where are you, where are you?”
The voice is high, smooth, Ignis realizes it’s a woman.
He moves, accidentally, and suddenly the warrior’s eyes are on him, abrasive, sharp, and it’s as if they’re gazing into his soul.
Then they’re taking him in, and Ignis thinks he can detect surprise in that stare.
The woman reaches up, and takes off her helmet.
Her face is ethereal, framed by long brown hair, and Ignis could see that her eyes are amber, and they were burning, but they have turned soft as they gaze upon him.
Then they dart downwards, towards the bundle in his arms, and Ignis stiffens instinctively, but the woman’s expression melts into something warm, caring.
“That’s her . That’s my- that’s my little one you’re holding.”
Little one - her daughter?
Ignis stares at her for a moment, then down to the baby in his arms, and he realizes that the hue of their hair is the same, their faces both shaped familiarly.
“I won’t- I won’t hurt you,” the mother continues, her hands out in palms, eyes going from her child to Ignis. “I just need her back.”
The boy watches her for a long time, watches her stance, and he can sense no hostility. He looks down at the daughter in his arms, sees her fragile downy wings, and realizes that she doesn’t belong here.
He doesn’t understand why she was kept in a cage, or why these people with wings are attacking him and his parents and everyone, but he knows she doesn’t belong here.
This wasn’t where she should be.
With a shaky inhale, he steps forward.
The female warrior replies with a step of her own, eyes guarded but hopeful.
Ignis takes another step. She answers it.
And then, he holds out the girl, and he could hear her voice, the first time he hears it, and it calls out quietly, “Mama, Mama. ”
The mother sniffles when she takes her safely, cradles her to her chest, and looks up at Ignis, and her smile is bright. “Thank you. Thank you, so very much. ”
Then she’s backing away, and looking up. With a flap of wings and a rush of powerful air, she disappears through the ceiling, and climbs into the sky.
Ignis watches her go, wiping dust from his eye and seeing how the sky had filled up again, feathers blocking the great expanse of white and blue, as the warriors who fly retreat from the battle.
And when his father and his mother find him there, the former cursing at the shattered glass box and the latter hugging him, he continues to watch upwards, and knows that today marks a change, a major change in his life.