Get in time traveller

[warmgaze]

[Altissia. The ring, burning into his finger, burning into his skull, and he knows the price without asking, knows before it's paid. The thing you value most, isn't that always how this works in fairytales?

Ravus. Noctis. Ardyn, and that little revelation barely enters his mind at the time, the familiar glowing signature of a warp in an unfamiliar color. The prophecy, the visions that hang in his mind, a last wish from a woman who spent her life to ensure it, Lunafreya's final message to ensure that Noctis would survive.

The last clear words he can remember clearly, You've a calling to fulfill, and then Prompto and Gladio's voices, concerned, in a blur...

And then nothing. Just the feeling of a ring's power, setting him alight from fingertips to crown -

It's still in him, that power. The ring of the Lucii binds to its wearers for life, knotting strands of light into their souls, be they kings or anyone else.

(He had expected to die. Living is harder.)

And in the depths of his unconsciousness, in the place where he knows the things that he hasn't had time to consider, Noctis and Ardyn and prophecy and all of that terrible weight -

From there, from the connection of the fire in his soul that will never go out, that can only be smothered and locked away in the dark, a voice says, what would you give to change fate?

And, of course, he answers, Anything.

----

In another world, Ignis Scientia wakes in Altissia, his face scarred, his vision burned away, and continues on.

In this one, Prompto Argentum enters the room just in time to see a flare of purple flame lick along his friend's body and leave nothing behind, not even a char mark on the wrinkled sheets.

And Ignis?

Ignis wakes, with a groan and a hand pressed to his face, in the back of a cart that trundles to a stop to pick up another passenger, a young healer with cheeks not yet sunken by pain and eyes not yet yellowed by plague. He wakes bereft, on some fundamental level, of the touch of magic that bound him to Noctis, the hum of energy that bound retainer to prince...

He wakes with the imprint of a ring on his finger, the memory of agreeing, and not the damnedest idea where he is.]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

You're wrong. I've been lost for longer than I can even remember, regardless of whether I wish to be or not.

I'm sorry. But it didn't change anything.

[warmgaze]

Then let me find you.

[He doesn't even consciously realize that he's switched languages, as he pulls Ardyn closer and finally into another kiss.

He doesn't want to lose this. To lose either of them. He can't.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn returned the kiss without complaint, bringing his free hand to Ignis' face and gently resting his head against his lover's as they barely pulled apart.]

Please...help me. Stop me from becoming this.

[There was a gentle glow of light from Ardyn's hand, something imperceptible shifting and draining away from Ignis beneath his touch as the warmth of morning sunlight took back what he perhaps hadn't realized was even there just yet.]

If you can find any way back once more...then please save me from myself before things go so far.

[warmgaze]

I still don't know how it happened the first time.

[That healing again... Taking the infection from him before it can even take root. Well, he can admit that he hadn't been as careful as he perhaps should have, when he felt there was a statement that needed to be made.

It's warming. This light he could stay under forever. And then it's over, so much quicker than it was for his eye.]

The Ring is the only thing... But even if I could survive it a second time, Noct doesn't let it out of his sight.

[scourgingstars]

You can't. Don't try that again, there's no way you'll survive twice.

[Ardyn's hand lingered on Ignis' face, stroking gently along his jawline as if in reassurance.]

But I...don't know. It feels far too late and with so little difference made.

[warmgaze]

It's not too late until we're dead, you idiot. Permanently, in your case.

[scourgingstars]

You're wrong.

[The bitter chill was beginning to sneak back into his voice, fueled by ages of spite.]

I'm too far gone to be saved. I don't even want salvation, just to burn this world and die with it.

[warmgaze]

[Ignis leans forward and kisses Ardyn's neck, where a pulse point ought to be but isn't.]

You're nowhere near that far gone. If you were, then whether you remembered that time together or not wouldn't have mattered at all.

[And, Ignis is perfectly well aware, he would probably be dead.]

[scourgingstars]

Stop.

[He put his hands on Ignis' shoulders and disentangled the pair of them, reaching into the Armiger to pull his own clothes back out in a flash of crystal.]

I'm far enough. Enough to be a threat. Enough to be your enemy. I'm not that scared and useless child anymore, and if I have to kill you to convince you of that, I will.

[warmgaze]

You were never useless, and you know it.

[With quick reflexes, he reaches out and catches Ardyn's hand, squeezing it, before the man can start putting it through his shirtsleeves.

He switches languages again, consciously this time, to emphasize his point.]

And I think you're still scared - this time, of who you might be otherwise, without that hatred driving you.

[scourgingstars]

...I don't even know what fear feels like anymore. I know nothing but hatred; if ever he loved you, that's something I've long forgotten.

[warmgaze]

'The heart remembers what the head forgets' is a cliche for a reason. There are more things than hatred in you, even if you've forgotten their names.

[scourgingstars]

Nothing that can be found any longer.

[warmgaze]

Nothing I'm not willing to search for.

Please, don't - just appear to go away again.

[scourgingstars]

I'm not on this train for you. I have other things I need to see to, and the brief flicker of humanity you've inspired is already fading like no more than the last rays of a final sunset.

[warmgaze]

Then I'll just have to make my goal a different sort of dawn.

I won't give up on you now.

[scourgingstars]

Terribly sorry, but you've already failed. I would think a time traveler would know how to recognize when it's simply too late.

[warmgaze]

[The hair on the back of his neck is rising again, as he's forced to watch Ardyn sink once more.

And yet Ignis doesn't hesitate to press another single, chaste kiss to the man's lips, just briefly, before he begins to pull his clothes from the Armiger and back around him.]

It's never too late. Not until the very last moment.

[scourgingstars]

And in a painfully ironic twist of fate, you're rather running out of time on that front.

[Ardyn didn't comment on and barely even acknowledged the kiss; the brief moments of sentiment were gone, replaced by cold mockery and the usual empty smirk.]

[warmgaze]

[That's fine. Ignis will just bear the flame of his hope in his heart, where nothing can put it out.]

But not out yet. So until then, I'll just have to keep an eye out for you.

[scourgingstars]

I would think it wise to watch the movements of one's enemy, yes.

[warmgaze]

And always enjoyable to look upon such a view.

[Mostly dressed again, now, in a far shorter time than it took Ardyn, he pulls his jacket from the Armiger with nearly a snap to swing it around his shoulders, smirking just a bit as he heads for the door.]