FFXV AU: The Lion, the Coeurl and the Cub (Final)
The end of all things and farewell.
Changed the writing to suit the scene a little, since its no longer an info dump. Epilogue is not far behind. TBH I really didn’t know how my little ficlet idea would turn out, never did something like this before. Any case, thank you all for reading! :D
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART6 PART 7 PART 8
Regis has seen many things in his lifetime and as King but he really thinks he has overshot his quota of gods and their shenanigans. Cor and Nyx charges past and gets sent flying back with a blast of Call of the Crosswinds.
“What’s the meaning of this! Etro?!” Noctis, his son, ever the eloquent one but he does’t blame him for his outrage. Now is not the time for diplomacy.
”Prompto has seen to the end of his duty. His trial completed. All who bear the mark of Gods who fail, are doomed to perish. Those who succeed however, will be granted the gift of immortality as a blessed crystal. Yet he has done it! And has far exceeded what has been expected of him…He has fulfilled his calling.”
(“No.No.No.” Oh no, Luna looks unwell…)
”I will take him back to the Beyond, forever immortalised in crystal and become a new Etro.”
A blooming light, a scream of pain and crystal shards burst out from his back, a form emerges. A chrysalis for a goddess, an ephemeral phantom. Her form grows, a giant crystal figure much like the one Regis had broken as a young child he thinks. A faceless form with an armless hollowed torso and curling pieces from her spine, a mockery of wings. A disjointed bulbous lower form with Prompto entombed in the crystals of her womb. This was Etro looming before them. The All-mother of Eos, Guardian of the Beyond and what remains of her, but still nothing less then gorgeous splendour.
( Regis desperately tries not to think of the same Prompto nearly 20 years ago, a babbling, happy baby munching on his favourite chocobo plush dozing off in his lap. Now instead, lays asleep in the hands of the Goddess of Death. )
Cor is uncontrollable as he takes his katana and runs forward to attack, Nyx warping close behind, each with thundaga and firaga ready but another protect and a Tsunami pushes the fathers back in line as Regis and Clarus quickly supports them. Regis took his child back from fate but in exchange for his friend’s son… is there no avoiding of this spiral of death?
“Eos is saved from the Starscourge! The line of royals are forever free from the will of Gods. Humanity will continue to thrive even without my crystal. Balance is restored. Things are as it should be.” Etro’s melodious voice rings, while retaliating Noctis, Gladio and Ignis’ assault. A Judgement Bolt falls, making them pull back.
Regis doesn’t like this, Etro has clearly acquired similar powers of the Astrals.
“Bullshit! We didn’t do all this just so you can take him! Prompto…h-he hates being alone and I’m not leaving him behind!”
“Unfortunately, young prince. This was the price Prompto himself has agreed upon.”
“What?”
“Long before all this, was a man who had lost all that he have held dear to the light of the new dawn. When he found a chance, he took it! Thus, a contract was forged. Each and every one of your lives and happiness and in exchange, for my own wish. He has paid the price repeatedly and endlessly yet you would disrespect it?”
Regis can’t help but find her phrasing unusual.The King can’t put a finger where, yet Etro’s revelation got Ignis to halt his attacks.
”What-Unless…No.”
“What?!Specs!”
“This is not the first time Prompto has done this, I presume.”
”No.”
”How many times?!”
”Too many! To change the fates of all. All of your deaths, all of your destinies, rewritten! For the better.”
“Why! Prompto?!” Cor snarls at the goddess looming before them as she throws a Diamond Dust to push the Marshal back, the light of the dead endless dancing like a dream still.
”Before this all began, there was no one who weren’t in close view of the ‘Astrals’ I can use. Yet down in the depths of Shiva’s doomed land…there were plenty to choose who were able to contain and hold my power, yet I saw only Prompto survived in every one.” Gralea. The lab. The experiments. Regis sees Cor and thinks back of the report of the other children, the other clones in that lab and dares not breathe.
“And when he finally found my tomb, I made an offer. He made his choice.”
Nyx has enough and warp strikes again, only to narrowly miss a Hellfire in the face. Luna strikes with her pole arm but narrowly avoids the Judgement casted at her as Ignis sharply pulls her to safety.
Etro sighs again,”If you won’t see reason. Then at the very least,I shall let you see how beautiful he can become as my successor!”
The crystal womb pulses dimly and they see Etro bowing forward, merging into her chosen. Crystal pieces adorns his hair, a broken crown piece.Her marks also manifests on his face and skin, the Eyes of Etro awakens, the eye mark tattoo has fully replaced that cursed barcode, pulsing eerily, crystal claws gleaming.
Then, he warps.
Prompto was faster now, summoning crystal shards to fly at his command, his aim as fatal as he is with a gun.His spells sing effortlessly, the bursts of Slow and Stop ambushes them, the barrage of Flare and Meteor aimed at them with intent, a flick of Mega Death blows them back relentlessly. The party can’t attack, won’t attack, because, how could they? Gladio can’t bring himself to do anything but defend them from his Ultima casts. Clarus is busy countering the relentless barrage of crystals while Regis pulls up protect to defend them.
Luna then cries out, hoping her voice reaches Prompto. And for a moment he seems to almost falter, before he turns to attack another target.
“Unbelievable.You would actually have us pull a bloody Somnus.” ( somewhere in the back of their heads the Kings faintly hears a grunt from one of the rulers of yore ) Ardyn summons his sword and trudges forward towards the new Etro.
”What the fuck do you think you are doing?!ARDYN!!”Noctis tries to intercept his psychotic ancestor and the ancient King scoffs.
“Putting an end to all this farce as was intended!” He slams Noctis away while Gladio tries to pull Ardyn back, only to have him warp away from Regis and Clarus’s blocking his way.
Nyx tries to stop the mad king in a warp while Prompto throws an Apocalypse, forcing Nyx to pull back and Ardyn dodges, getting close enough to attack. Cor appears and swings his blade to get Ardyn away but not before Rakshasa hacks Prompto on his shoulder down. Prompto screams and slams his crystal claws on the nearest foe in retaliation. The crystalline nails landing into the Immortal’s side. Cor winces but manages to grab onto his son’s arm in a death grip, nails digging into Prompto’s wrist. Nyx close behind, preventing Prompto from warping out of their grasp.
“Prompto?”
Blood flows from Prompto’s shoulder freely, as Prompto stops, looking back at Car with an empty gaze and heavy breaths. He trembles and struggles, before swiftly summoning a crystal shard into his palm and brings it down.
Cor stills.
The crystal digs in deep, Prompto had stabbed his wrist where his barcode once was, now a growing tattoo reaching across the skin of its bearer like vines, cutting right into the middle where an eye like mark resides. Etro’s voice screeching across the void of the Astral Plane. Before her Phantom bursts from his back shrieking in pain while Prompto growls, pushes the fragment in further, his lips bitten and bleeding as the 2 beings split in a violent burst of light that nearly blinds Nyx. “Now-!” He chokes out in cold sweat while leaning onto Cor and as realisation sinks in.
This is the Astral Plane.The space without time existing between the living and the dead. Etro does not exist in the living plane…but here, they can kill the Gods. They can hurt her already fragile spirit.This was their only chance.
Cor releases Prompto and quickly force himself to slice his katana into where Prompto’s back and Etro’s spectral form meet, severing the the connection. Cor quickly pulls back his blade as Nyx grabs hold of Prompto while Etro’s spirit bursts away, dissolving into light that streaks across the void.
”N-not done-” Prompto gasps, choking on his coughs as the group hurry over to his side. The goddess’ voice then resounds in the hollow void.
“They tore me apart, taking my heart, leaving me in pieces, I became a restless soul neither living or dying between realms, with only the dead by my side for so long. Unable to do anything but see the deaths of many. I was so tired.“ Etro’s voice surrounds them in darkness. Her feeble attempt to become whole again in order to intervene with the Astrals’ mess and desire to give humanity hope finally coming to fruition.
.
.
.
“You may become lost in Time. Your soul forever doomed.”
“I want to believe.”
“You’ll die.”
“I trust them.”
“You’ll hurt them.”
“…I know. And even if it seems impossible. I must try, for them.”
Etro’s sign etches and sears into his skin like a second brand sealing Prompto Argentum’s fate in the flow of time.
.
.
.
Etro is as cruel as she is merciful. Ardyn was the first one to know of it first hand in his madness.
He finds a dead Aldecapt on the ground and the entire Zegnatus Keep massacred by someone else other than the daemons. That was when the darkness in him began to rebel. The little chocobo Niflheim had caught and he had locked in a cage now sits casually on the throne twirling his gun. Until her cold gaze falls onto him as the hunter becomes the hunted, as she lures her intended target towards the Crystal.
”Ardyn Lucis Caelum.” The goddess’ voice rings clear.
”How-“
”You may have salvation O’ fallen King. Though all you need to do in return is fairly simple.“Etro lays her hand on his face as the pain sets in, the Starscourge in him screaming and dying.
”When the time comes. Kill me.”
“And h-how do I even know if you aren’t unlike the damn Astrals-!?”A pause and he feels mortality creep deep into the bones.
”Thats just it.”Her smile upon Prompto Leonis’ face.
”You don’t.”
And he is released from his curse just as the calvary arrives.
.
.
.
In the darkness of her temple, the memories of his failures and the deaths, all return to Prompto Leonis in a flood. A reminder of what another him in another world has set out to do in the beginning. Like a horrible deja vu and a bad trip.
”Your time is running out.”
”Still gonna give it my best shot.”
The mark of Etro burns.
.
.
.
It also turns out that they had also narrowly escape destruction of timelines with how many times they have restarted. Etro becomes concerned. Griever’s appearance now was a paradox and meant Prompto was on his final run before he fails and turns into a daemon, forever damned in the crevices of time.
Her powers are waning, there are no more chances left. While his success means he becomes the next crystal of Etro, and she is free from her burden. But should they cut their ties at the very moment where Prompto can regain a hold of his senses…the child may stand a fighting chance.
The child may live while the God may die.
Essentially, Prompto and Etro each made a gamble for their own selfishness. And won.
.
.
.
”Whatever pieces of me that remain too lost to retrieve, gone like tiny grains of sand.They shall remain to keep Eos, my beloved star alive. Though the gift of magic granted to humanity shall leave with me, I shall never cease to exist! My ashes are in the soil, my breath with the winds, my blood in the sea. I shall remain in the beyond, awaiting to welcome you when the time comes, my children.”
“You have helped me regain my form, my vessel. From here on, you are free from me and the curse upon the Farseers. The weak shall obey the strong. Now. Sever my final link with the living! Lay the Gods to their intended rest.”
Her original form looms over them again, this time without Prompto encased in her womb. Now safely tucked by Nyx’s side, Noctis summons Quicksilver and hands his friend his weapon back. The gun gently laid back in his palm, a warm and comforting weight.
”Stupid.” Noctis’ words were without bite, endearing even. Gladios hand a comfortable presence on his shoulder and Ignis’ close behind. Prompto smiles sheepishly with Luna glowering at him in relief and angry disappointment as she caresses his face gently.
Prompto then turns his gaze at Etro sadly.The lonely goddess who sought to heal her star and bestow mankind her compassion. He remembers the same loneliness from another time, another world.
…Will you be alright? He wonders. After being together for so many different lifetimes, its hard to say goodbye. But he has made a promise to see to each of their chosen ends that they sought once upon a time.
They ready their weapons and gives the goddess the sending she sought now that she is whole again. When the last of her spirit fades into crystalline lights so does the Astral Plane that surrounds them in a melodious, comforting sigh.
The armiger and spells fizzles and fades out.The last of her light leaves Prompto like fireflies, and for a final time he reaches out for the fading fragments of the Goddess in farewell. The group then quickly departs from the disappearing realm through the fading portal, falling onto rubble and stone of Insomnia.
The orb then ebbs, the phantoms of the Astrals and their messengers bursts into sparks one by one into the orb, returning to the All-mother’s side. Their disappearance releases the light, the ball bursts into a harmless flare, a million stars. Or are they souls forever free? All racing across the sky and all of Eos before returning to Etro’s side with all the magic left on the planet.
And suddenly, warmth.
Dawn finally breaks. The sunlight burning delightfully on their skin. They are alive.
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Epilogue