zer0pm:

Imagine speaking up against the people to defend Ardyn’s name.

You: “Stop! He has done nothing wrong! Have you all forgotten the sacrifices he made to save us and bring peace to our homes?!”

Lucian: “He is a daemon! His very existence is a plague, his own brother – the king – says so himself!”

Somnus: “That is enough!”

The newly called Founder King of Lucis, clad in his armor, turns away from his people – all standing at attention but never still, their fists clenched, raised like their voices echoing into the heated day. He removes his helmet and looks down, before him stands the only family he has ever known since their parents’ passing. The once revered healer, born to be king Ardyn Lucis Caelum, shackled and shamed. Both brothers wear a lengthy grimace as they stare at each other for what could be the last time.

Somnus: “Ardyn-”

Ardyn: “Don’t. Do not make this harder than it needs to be. Weigh not your soul further down to a place you may never escape.”

A silence passes and the young king hesitantly raises his sword followed by cheers of triumph and gasps of bewilderment from the people. Few looked away, fewer walked away, and you… You ran towards them.

You: “Coward!”

Both men look at you, wide-eyed. Ardyn’s breath catches at your recklessness. He calls out to you.

Ardyn: “Stand down.”

You: “I will not!”

You direct your attention now to the king.

You: “What king would slay their own flesh and blood to appease strangers?!”

Somnus: “Speak not of words you do not understand.”

You: “I understand enough to know that since we have braved the perilous roads together, Ardyn has always placed you first before anyone else! Even before me and Gil!”

Somnus: “…Gil is gone. He fell beyond the trenches-”

You: “Defending us all, defending you and Ardyn both. If he were here, he would stand between you two and your blade…”

Walking tall and determined, you pressed forward until you stood in front of Ardyn.

You: “…as I will now.”

Chains rattle frantically.

Ardyn: “No! Leave now!”

You: “Abandon you I will not, Ardyn!”

Ardyn: “You are not my Shield!”

Glancing over your shoulder, you meet his eyes, tears pooling down your cheeks. Your heart was beating so fast as you beheld him, wathcing him struggle against his restraints to reach out to you. To hug you? To push you away for your safety? You feel the desperation in his usually glinting eyes, now they have dulled to a slight, dying twinkle of a man who has accepted his fate. But you would not. Not even as the people try so hard to push past the knights that held them back. They are shouting at you in frenzied disappointment and discriminate fury, calling you mad and claiming you to be a slave to the dark. But listen you did not, not when your resolve beated calmly and loudly in your chest, steeling you for what you are prepared to do. And it was all for him, the man you love.

You: “I told you, I will protect you until the very end. Even if it k-”

.

.

.

Shouting. There was so much shouting. With a slight groan, hands laid flat against the dirt, a slight push and a shaky rise, back straightens and head held high. Silence all too quickly replaces the deafening noise. Rubbing the groggy feeling away, Ardyn opens his eyes. He gazes around him, trapped under the frozen looks of the people that turned against him. He turns around to find his brother also standing still in place, rendered speechless. It was then did Ardyn notice that he was no longer bound and there were no bruises on his wrists. Did they cut him free, he wondered.

Somnus: “How is this possible? You…you were dead a moment ago!”

Suddenly the memories flooded back to Ardyn’s mind like a pale of ice. It all happened so quickly, nevermind how he managed to survive the strikes, but where were- He calls out your name! Golden eyes hurriedly looking out towards the large crowd, within them. The people seemed to back away as he did this, gasps of fear loosed as he stepped closer. How they seemed to huddle closer to each other as if a monster was about to devour them.

Somnus: “Ardyn…”

The once-Healer king gravely faced the Founder king once more, panic gripping his heart tightly. Somnus slowly rotates his body to the side… Behind him…

A great cry roars throughout the once bright sky and just as quickly, shadows spread suffocating the light. He feels the air within him thicken, his core ripped away by the tendrils of his greatest nightmare made real before his very eyes.

Somnus: “It is not what you think-”

Waves of black swirled harshly from Ardyn’s hand, thrusting towards his brother pushing the latter back with a force that nearly knocked him off his feet. He did little to hide the tears now falling down his face, but Ardyn paid it no mind. Fire unquenchable raged within his heart, hot bubbles pumping through his veins leaving behind dark scars that held nothing but dripping venom that seemed to seep profoundly when thoughts of a thousand ways to exact much desired retribution raced through his burning thoughts.

Ardyn: “Do not play innocent! There are no innocents! There was only one good thing left in this world…”

Ardyn: “…and they died along with the rest of my humanity!”