victory_road | BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST!

Perhaps I can't. But I can point out you would be foolish to assume my indiscriminate destruction extends nearly so far. Do I really look as though I've the capacity to care that much anymore?

[Noctis shoots him a dry look.]

Have you given me a reason to trust anything you say or show to me?

[Ardyn's always lying. He could call the sky blue and it would be worth checking. He'd be an idiot to blindly believe that Ardyn intends to cause no harm just because he says so or looks disinterested by the idea.]

What do you want me to say, exactly? 'Why yes, I'm going to end this world and any other I come across just because I feel like it'? I don't care, Noctis. I played my part as I had to, and now it's over.

[The Zorua at his feet bristled, apparently reacting to the perception that Noctis was irritating his partner rather than Ardyn's frustration itself.]

If I have to be consigned to this obnoxiously cheerful hell as some sick punishment for doing what I was meant to, then fine. I'll live and die a blasted mortal, gods forbid I just let it be done and over with already.

[Noctis feels a flair of his own irritation, annoyed by the anger he's getting in return. It's not as if this is his fault, unless he'd somehow done his duty incorrectly, though he'd received no indication that was the case. But what is he supposed to think? Should he be buying this claim of no more ill intentions? That Ardyn's just going to settle in and behave himself now that he's alive again, just because he...

...did what?]

What do you mean, 'as I had to'?

[He's used to having a role to play in a grander story, but he had never imagined Ardyn being the type to follow along with anything.]

['Behave' was a strong word--Ardyn himself wasn't even really sure what to do other than go along with things for now. He certainly wasn't above a little trouble should the opportunity present itself...if nothing else, he was more than used to waiting.]

...Oh, he really did never tell you, did he? Of course not--heavens forbid the truth should lead that bleeding heart of yours to waver.

[Ardyn shrugged with the shoulder not currently hosting a tiny Eevee, raising a hand to pet the cheerful little creature.]

I knew everything. The instant I met you and long before that, before you were even born, I knew the truth of what was to come. I knew your role in bringing back the dawn, and I knew mine in opposing you. And what else was I to do? The best I could hope for was to leave the world a smoldering husk of what it once was and know you and I would take the last of the line of kings down with us.

After all, surely you of all people--surely Bahamut's favored champion must understand that defying the Draconian is beyond even me.

[The slow-building distress of that revelation is likely predictable, but there's no fighting it as it twists his expression. Noctis wants to protest - he's no one's champion, he doesn't have a bleeding heart, he wouldn't waver! - but he can't find the words to object against something so trivial considering all else that was said. It's... strange, that anything Ardyn says might make him hesitate. He always lies. It's a rule, at this point, not an exception. He lies and he deceives and he hides and he mocks. This could be all of that at once like usual. He has no reason to take responsibility for his decisions, and Bahamut is a convenient target for more blame-shifting.

Strange, though. That Noctis can't find it in him to wholeheartedly defend the god who'd given him all the power in the world to save it, who'd chosen him in two thousand years, who'd written a whole history on bringing back the light with him in the center. He can't deny this claim.

He takes another step back.]

He... couldn't have wanted that. Everything you did- why would he...?

[Why does it feel so much like this is something Bahamut would do?]

Oh, certainly, I could be lying. But I prefer to twist half-truths to get what I need from people, not just make things up. I'm not nearly so creative.

Besides, we're dead. Why would I care enough to lie to you now? It's true--the accursed Bladekeeper came to me some years ago and told me my entire fate was to spread darkness through the world that the advent of the soon to be born King of Light would cleanse the world of the impurity of my mere presence upon it. Never mind all that 'healer of the people' thing, apparently that calling wasn't good enough for him.

I...

[...can't argue with that. Gods, he wants to. But he has no argument against it because he doesn't know anything. He's only ever known what he's been told, and there are no voices in his head now to guide him on the right path, no ring on his finger or crown on his head to carry him to the future.]

If you couldn't defy him, why didn't he just deal with you himself? Why did he need any of us?

[If the Draconian is so powerful - all the magic did originate from him and the Crystal, yet he'd said that the power of the light surpassed the power of the Six? - why wait 2000 years and sacrifice so many people... it just sounds so senseless. He can't fathom the gods who claim to care so much doing this.]

What makes you think I know that? I can relay only his words, not the intent. But were I to venture a guess, I would do little more than point you in the direction of a chessboard.

That’s surely all we ever were to him. Just one long and elaborate game where the venerated gods are far above intervening directly. Our only choice was to move within our limitations to the desired ending.

[Why can't anything ever be simple? Just once, just once, it would be lovely. Go marry your childhood friend, end a war. Take back the Crystal, defeat the daemons. Good versus evil, and the world is saved when good triumphs. Nice, simple, bittersweet. This is what he died for? How is he supposed to believe any of this?]

What... did you want, then? Was destroying my family your real goal, or was that just a way out of all this?

[Ardyn opened his mouth as if about to snap a reply, and then closed it. His Zorua circled around as if sensing distress, jumping up into her partner's arms. Scowling as much as one could with a tiny fox on his shoulder and a slightly larger one curled up in his arms, Ardyn didn't say much in explanation.]

Why should I bother answering? It changes nothing, and I don't care to hear you further patronize me by pretending to care.

[That makes him frown, hands loosely clenched at his sides.]

I've never pretended.

[He's well-known for his impassivity, concealing what he feels for the sake of looking 'cool'. In the end, there'd been little sense in hiding the sympathy - perhaps a little pity - he'd experienced, witnessing Ardyn at the end. A part of him will always hate the man who tore his life apart and destroyed most of the world in his quest for revenge, and there's no hiding that. But his thoughts and feelings are far more complicated after the Crystal than they'd been after Altissia. After the truth of their shared history and the horrors Ardyn had experienced came to light.]

...I'm sorry. I mean that. It was supposed to be over, for the both of us. We were supposed to be free.

[Maybe this is his own failing. Maybe it's a cruel twist of fate. Maybe the gods have been mocking them the whole time. Whatever the reason, he can still be sorry for the hand they've been dealt yet again.]

BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST!

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