Rayne Drops (FFXV)

LXIII) 'Til Death Do We Part

We pile into the elevator in silence. I spend my time looking over each of my friends, memorizing every scar, every line, every misplaced hair. Not that it'll do me any good in the long run, but it's all I'll have left of them if this is going where we think it is. We've never been wholly wrong as a group.

"The throne room... waits outside," Gladio mutters.

"Yeah," Prompto sighs, "and so does Ardyn."

"Acting like he owns the place," Gladio adds with a scoff. Ignis nods sharply.

"It's time to take it all back."

"It ends here," I say under my breath, fist clenched at my side. "Tonight."

Upon seeing the broad, ornate doors to the throne room, Gladio chuckles.

"Remember how nervous we were in front of King Regis the day we left?"

"That was the last time we were in here," Ignis replies lightly, pushing his shades up with his middle finger.

"Yeah. They even let me in that day," Prompto chirps.

"Well, duh, you were coming with us," I laugh, elbowing him. He feigns a pout, nudging me back. There are storm clouds in those ocean blue eyes but he's running for refuge. He's learned so much. 

Noctis says nothing, reaching toward the door hesitantly. We come to a stop behind him, Ignis's words leading him to turn back and face us.

"Well, shall we, Noct?"

"Yeah, but... Ah, hold on a sec." Gladio raises an eyebrow, watching as Noctis reaches a hand out toward his best friend. "Prompto. Can I see your photos?"

"Um... Yeah?"

"I... I just need one. To take with me."

"Oh..." Prompto offers a smile. "Yeah, I get it." He reaches into his pocket, taking out a thick stack of photographs. "Um... You can take whichever you like." 

We gather closer, watching Noctis flip through picture after picture. Smiling faces, people I haven't seen in years, beautiful scenery. Plenty of me glaring at Gladio or laughing at Ignis. Dozens of Prompto's selfies with our chocobos, who we haven't seen since we rescued the Regalia. Our "seaside supermodels" shoot. Noctis picks up the last photo, smiling softly. It's the very first one Prompto took of all five of us around, on, or in the Regalia just after Cindy tuned her up for the first time. It feels like it was decades ago.

"Then it's settled," Prompto nods. "That's the one? No backsies?" Noct's smile grows confident.

"Yeah." With no hesitation, Noctis pushes the doors to the throne room open. Immediately, I feel overwhelmingly nauseous from the smell of rotting flesh and sight of it before me.

"What is that?" Prompto whimpers.

Five long chains dangle from the cracked ceiling, twisted and tangled around marred flesh. Black smudges and drips run across eerily pale skin, red and purple bruises marking where the rusted iron chains dig in. My breath is burning it my throat by the vomit I wish I could hurl across the scraped floor. The emperor and Regis dangle to the left, mouths agape and eyes pitch black. To the right Lunafreya and a man in a Kingsglaive outfit hang with the same expression as the others. Right in the middle, Wyn sways from his legs, his face snapped upward toward us by the chains wrapped ruthlessly around his neck. A drop of black drips from his eye to the floor with a sharp splatter.

Ardyn sits beneath them on the throne smugly, relaxing beneath the Crystal. Insomnia's Crystal. A grin crosses his face, his brows drawn in tight as he takes in our horror. Even Ignis seems tenser than before. Noctis grits his teeth, stepping toward the staircase leading up to the throne. The chains overhead creak as the bodies sway back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I force myself to stop thinking about Wyn and stare straight ahead at Ardyn's smirk.