@silverook | u wanted this.
THE WALLS ALL LOOKED THE SAME, every grey metal panel the same as the last DRIVING HIM MAD as he all but crawled on hands and knees through the maze the Keep had become for him, taunted madly by his CAPTOR like an animal in a cage / they looked the same around him, too, the figure illuminated at the end of the hall staring blankly back at those who had come for him — too late, too late.
Noctis limped closer; from the fall taken his arm was broken, his leg was weak / barely able to hold his weight, HIS RIBS ACHED; shards of bone threatening to break off / each heavy breath an act of defiant agony from the body that tried to keep him from breathing. All this fighting, chasing shadows concocted in his mind in fear of death ( seeing blond hair matted red, seeing twisted bodies, seeing MT’s clawing at his ankles ) was going to be worth it in the end, he thought — to see Prompto again, all smiles && blue, all sunshine, all ICARUS still full of hope.
( Something was missing inside him; something had snapped, SOMETHING HAD DIED A VIOLENT DEATH IN THE FLUTTERING HOLLOWS OF HIS CHEST, drowning in his blood; to see HEART’S DESIRE standing there, no light, no joy, all melted wax. )
“Hey, Prompto…” HE SMILES / OH, it’s beauty; it’s bitten red lips && bruising, it’s teeth marks && teeth. It’s the laugh that breaks through choked into a sob as his bones pull. It’s staring at Prompto, vacant gaze ( full of miasma ) fixed on his own && Noctis, tilting his head to the side, eyes drifting to close. His mind’s refusing to take it in, trying to save what little remains of his fragile psyche, wrapping it’s hands around it with child-like wishes, soft like bird-bones. “Stop it, okay? This isn’t funny anymore.”
Miamsa licks at the air, tendrils of poison had replaced the wax bleeding from his very pores. He’s burning; BURNING ! in his fury, feathers ignited by the fires that had little pity for the boy that flew too close to the sun. You knew better, didn’t you boy? Before his fall he was made up of sunshine & laughter & love —— but that was before he fell, crashing ; crashing ; crashing as Apollo laughed from his throne.
Icarus smiles. It is twisted and gnarled and not a kind thing to offer his broken thing. Blood seeps from the cuts at his lips that sting like a gag of thorns and his own laughter rumbles through the pain, it comes in waves that are guttural and familiar and stitched together by nightmares. He has already died to please his sovereign king night after night and this boy ( this lesson ) has run out of tears to drown in.
The darkness behind him stirs and Prompto does not flinch as heavy clothed arm drapes across his shoulders like a cape inherited by regal blood. Instead he stares ahead, gaze locked on the pitiful king of kings with eyes that illuminated a latticework of violet.
❝ I do so love a family reunion, ❞ Ardyn all but purred in that horrible sing-song voice. ❝ And a round of applause for our Prince, ❞ the chancellor all but cooed as he removed his arm from Prompto and started forward, clapping in a slow, mocking tone. ❝ you’ve made it this far and you’re only on the verge of losing your wit ! All to save your friend. ❞ He turns on his heel to face the blonde once more, smile more predator than god as he exclaims, ❝ Well here he is, your highness ! And isn’t he marvelous ? Doesn’t a good success story just warm your heart ? Deemed a failure —— only to return home and put all those other pesky little clones to shame. ❞
Deep within hazel eyes danced a challenge, amused laughter falling off rotting tongue as if making a joke from one God to another over the fate of but just one mortal boy. ❝ A new breed of soldier —— and you, Noct, are to thank for making this possible. ❞
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