#ingus

I talked about Freyr and "Onion Knight" previously here and here. To summarize: In this AU, Xande meddles with forces beyond his control - at least, at first. Specifically, Xande studies the rings (from the Sonic series - this AU does a Namco x Capcom/SRW thing) and intends to reverse engineer them in such a way that they lead the Chaos Emeralds to the wielder rather than vice-versa. He also targets Ulticannon (Evolution): the legendary Cyframe said to have the capacity to turn humans into gods. All for the sake of his immortality.

At least, that's how it starts. Learning what became of his fellow pupils, Xande snaps and decides to surpass his master, Noah. And since Noah was practically a god, well...

In any case, Xande creates clones of Doga and Unei's "weapons" to aid him in his schemes. The clones have varying degrees of sentience with the "leaders" of each group having varying degrees of loyalty.

King Moon (Luneth) is mostly a treasure hunter with little stake in Xande's plans beyond finding a particular ore.

The Arc-Mage (Arc) studies the properties of this ore, its capacity to hold the energy of the chaos emeralds or other similar substances. He's more interested in his findings than advancing Xande's agenda though.

The Steel Maiden refines the material into weapons and jewelry. She's a bit of a perfectionist and more concerned with making "Father Takka" proud than fulfilling Xande's demands.

Freyr the Warmage (Ingus)... seemingly does what he is meant to be doing. He seems to focus on training other clones to act as foot soliders.

And lastly, the "Onion Knight" (er, Onion Knight)... well, he seems to work directly under Xande, but nobody knows what he's up to.

All of this is well and good until Xande succeeds in summoning Evolutia, at which point the "Onion Knight's" sudden yet inevitable betrayal occurs: He shoves Xande out of the way and commands Ulticannon to reset the cycle by destroying all life on the planet, intending to create a world of pure light. Thanks to the power of friendship and fists, the Adventurers manage to stop the machine.

Meanwhile, Freyr has learned of a mysterious point. A place where made out of the very same ore that is so compatible with the Chaos Emeralds. A place called Radiant Emerald...

Freyr and "Onion Knight" are intended as the "True Final Boss" of this AU. In these forms, they represent pure darkness and light respectively. Freyr attacks largely by warping - whether that be himself, his opponent or elements from the special stages in the Sonic series - as well as lasers, a time-honored Darkness tradition, among other moves. "Onion Knight" primarily uses hardlight swords and beams of light.

What if Ingus , given the nature of combat in the mainline games (meaning Luneth and co. would be in the same boat) was powerful in Ivalice, as befitting a "Zodiac Brave"?

What if, to support Ramza/make up for his own feelings of inadequacy and cope with the new world he's in, he offers to allow Ramza to effectively use him as a weapon?

What if Ramza, initially refusing, is forced to do so and could do little but see this man essentially run himself into the ground?

I remember seeing a post somewhere of someone imagining Ramza playing through the sound novels (basically CYOAs that have never been translated*)

So my crack-shipping ass can't help but think of Ramza and Ingus at an inn, Ingus lying on Ramza's lap as Ramza goes through one of the books (while having stray thoughts about the guy who speaks and acts like he came out of one of them)