LOVELESS - A Final Fantasy OneShot Collection

ArdyNoct - last words/soulmates

WARNINGS (or imformation, I guess..?)
time travel
major character death
sacrificial suicide
blood?
boyxboy

„I lived in darkness for a long time.“

They said, the last words of your soulmate would be bittersweet. The moment your soulmate said them  to you were after all the last moment of you together. The fluttering feeling in your chest at knowing it was your soulmate mixed with despair at being torn apart by the hand of fate.

The moment Ardyn had said his last words, speared by Noctis’s sword, was the moment the young king of light felt this bittersweet elation and despair.

“I lived in darkness for a long time.”
His other half whispered, smiling in relief to finally find rest after 2000 years of living as the Accursed. The same words he knew all his life, tattooed in flowing, old fashioned handwriting along his wrist. Hidden behind his glove were his soulmate’s words. And he'd just heard them from his supposed enemy. The emptiness he felt as he walked to the throne was like a hand clawing at his very core, chipping away every other emotion but this numbness.

He welcomed the pain as he died the same way as his soulmate, a sacrifice for the new dawn. He'd even chosen the same sword.

The astrals were there to greet him at the gate. Shiva was the one to apologize first. He watched the other gods follow her example, feeling numb. His heart and soul felt the absence of its other half. The part that had been Ardyn wasn't in the afterlife.

“Why isn’t he here?” he asked them.
The afterlife was grey, despite it being everything he could think of. His soul couldn’t find peace when it was still missing the other half. Shiva aproached him with an offer then. She seemed quite angry at her siblings, glaring daggers at them for whatever reason. She also embraced him, cold arms wrapping around his soul's human shape.

“I can help you save his soul.”

He didn’t hesitate and agreed to do whatever it would take. She smiled sadly at him.

The kingdom of Lucis of the past was different. 2000 years had formed the lands into different shapes. Sometimes it seemed eerily familiar, other times he wouldn’t have found his way if not for Shiva whispering – read giggling – into his ear that he’d turned wrong on the last crossing. It was nearly too late when he found him.

The healer of the people, he was called. Ardyn Lucis Caelum, the fallen prince of darkness. In the still small capital city, a mob of angry people had crowded around the prince andd his brother, king Somnus Lucis Caelum, who held a sharp blade only a mere few feet away from the fuchsia haired man. Noctis jumped from his chocobo and used the only way he could think of saving his soulmate. He warped directly in front of the healer. Both royals froze for a moment. Somnus was the first to recover from the shock of somebody warping with crystal magic. Ardyn behind him seemed too busy fighting the daemons inside himself to pay attention to the stranger. (Even then, his scelletal frame and apparent exhaustion from fighting his way through without hurting anyone seemed to have cost him already. He looked ready to faint.) Noctis hefted his blue gaze upon the king.

“I can free your brother of the sickness which hath befallen him, your majesty.” He spoke, the old dialect feeling strange coming from his mouth, but he needed the king to lower his stance and listen so he could save Ardyn. Somnus looked like he didn’t quite believe his words, but there was a desperate edge when he nodded. His sword wasn't lowered though.
“I shall trust a stranger with the life if my brother?” he asked, still not lowering his weapon.

The king of light smiled sadly. “Not a stranger, your majesty, but half of his heart.” The crowd fell into hushed and angry whispers again. Before, they had been cursing the fallen prince. Now they were outraged at someone daring to speak of being soulmated to him.

After all, there was never a sure way to know whose soulmate you were until that last moment.

“You speak with surety, stranger. Do you know of this blasphemy you so easily speak of? Should your words be naught but lies, I shall see you beheaded come the morrow!”

Noctis nodded his head. He then turned around to face his soul. Ardyn looked at him with the expression of somebody having lost already. Nobody believed his words to be truth. Not even his soulmate. Noctis smiled sadly, expression  soft as he kneeled before the prince.

"You are a foolish man, to believe me curable of this." his soulmate muttered in a flat tone.

The king of light intertwined his hands with the other’s.

"I may seem a fool, but I would not stand to see you suffer."

Amber gaze locked with his as the power of the king of light flowed through Noctis and into Ardyn, connecting them. The sounds from the people around them were muted as he focused solely on the starscourge. He took the darkness and daemons into himself, cleansing the prince with his golden light. Ardyn gasped, his eyes holding wonder and happiness at knowing he was free of the darkness.
The moment was over then. Noctis slumped to the ground, tears of black ichor flowing from his eyes, a smile upon his face, for he’d saved the man the astrals had turned away in their own fear of the scourge. He could feel the starscourge killing him. It quickly spread, nearly overtaking the light but the light in him fought back, thus destroying the mortal body it inhabited as it won the fight against the curse. The voice of his other half sounded panicked and Noct looked into equally wet eyes. The smile never left his face but it grew sad.

“Why did you heal me if it costs you your life?” Ardyn asked him, holding him, never faltering in his grip on Noctis, even as the infected blood soaked into his clothes.

“We’ll see each other again.” He assured his soulmate, thinking about the afterlife.

“I couldn’t let you live in darkness, for there is so much light in you, Ardyn Izunia.” he whispered, but his soulmate still heard him.

The words made Ardyn cry harder. Even Somnus looked shaken. He’d approached the pair and heard the words spoken by Noctis.

“No...”

An anguished cry echoed in the silence of the shocked crowd. Somnus hugged his brother as he held onto the motionless form of half his heart, something he hadn’t dared to ever do in public. Brotherly affection wasn't seen often between them, the elder one thought with regret after nearly having lost his little brother to the scourge. This wasn’t a moment for etiquette though. The onlookers knew this too.

No one spoke. They remembered their love for their prince and thanked the stranger for his sacrifice. He wouldn’t ever be forgotten.

AN: Forgive my bad english for the obvious old english stuff. It should sound old...so, I probably failed. I don't know about real last words in the game from Ardyn, but this line seemed to fit.