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Today had been so long. Cor had to get up at 3 am and go into work today. Not only so he could perform his duty as the Marshal of the Crownsguard but also he was acting as the King’s Shield because Clarus had caught a sickness bug from Gladiolus and Iris. And because Somnus was still refusing to have any social interaction with anyone after the death of Amelia, Cor was the next best thing to a Shield that Regis had. Ardyn could have done it but Cor was more than happy to do it for the sake for Regis’s protection. Plus it meant he was helping out his two best friends in the world so Cor didn’t mind. Ardyn did though, Ardyn didn’t like it when Cor worked overtime. The immortal royal woke up the same time that Cor left and just sat there in his cold bed until Prom woke up to go to school. And through those four lonely hours, Ardyn missed his husband like crazy. Their time together was already limited by both their jobs and it wasn’t fair to limit their sleeping time together as well. Especially since it made Cor so tired and he didn’t want to do anything but sleep when he got back from work. And that was what happened. Prompto was already in bed by the time Cor got back so there was nothing keeping either of them up. It just seemed easier to go to bed.
“Good night my dear.” Ardyn said softly kissing Cor on the lips before snuggling down under the covers with his husband in his arms.
Cor smiled back and rested his very sleepy head on to his husband’s ice cold chest. “Night Ass Hat. Will you actually fall asleep tonight?”
“What, I was asleep last night.” Ardyn laughed, stroking Cor’s hair lightly.
“No, you weren’t.”
“Ummm. Yes, I was.”
Ardyn knew he was because he woke up when Cor left. He remembered specifically sitting up and stealing a quick kiss from his Marshal before Cor hurried out of their bedroom door and out of the house. So what on Eos was Cor on about?
With his eyes fully close, Cor muttered in a raspy voice. “You went out of the room and had a full-on conversation with yourself.”
“Did I?” Ardyn asked with confusion. He did not remember that at all.
“Yeah.” Cor replied, yawning loudly, wrapping an arm around Ardyn’s middle, very ready to drift off once Ardyn had stopped talking.
“Well, I promise I won’t do that tonight, My Marshal.” Ardyn said in a whisper knowing Cor would be out like a light in a few seconds.
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
“Umm. Same.”
With that Cor finally fell asleep. Ardyn let go of a small chuckle and kissed the top of Cor’s head.
“Have a good sleep, My Marshal.”
Only the snoring from Cor could be heard in the house than. Prom was asleep. Cor was asleep. Leaving Ardyn laying there awake, stroking his sleeping husband’s hair, mind bursting with thought.
Cor’s words stuck in Ardyn’s head. What the hell was he doing last night? Ardyn must have been dreaming, but he didn’t remember the dream he was having. Everything was just dark as he slept last night. No dreams. No nightmares. There was nothing until the lack of Cor’s body heat woke him up from his slumber or so he thought.... That was very odd and a little bit concerning. To Ardyn’s knowledge, he had never done something like this before… not that he could remember anyway. Oh well, he would ask Somnus tomorrow afternoon, he was meant to be checking up on him anyway. With a heavy sigh, Ardyn held Cor a little tighter, protecting him in a cold embrace, and he too fell asleep.
Ardyn’s eyes opened. He was somewhere dark and Cor was no longer in his arms. In fact, he wasn’t even in his house anymore. He was in the Citadel. He was in a very dark version of the Citadel. It was dark and there was not a light in sight. That mattered little to Ardyn as he could see in the dark and because of that he knew where he was. In the throne room. One side of the walls near the throne was completely caved in and the moon was shining through the gaping hole. What had happened to this place? Ardyn looked around him wondering not knowing what to do or what this dream meant. Was this his future? Was this the age of darkness that was promised? If so… what had become of Regis? Or Noctis? Or Somnus? Or Cor? Or Prompto? His slow heart began to beat faster as Ardyn began to search for a clue as to what had become of his family that was when a cold dark and an extremely familiar voice echo throughout the dark hall.
“Hello there, me!”
Ardyn looked up at the throne and saw himself lounging on the ancient chair like he owned it. No… this wasn’t him. It was but… not quite. This version of him wore a devilish crooked smile and his eyes were glowing yellow and it didn’t look like they were about to stop. His hair was on edge like he was about to attack something and the scourge was slowly starting to drip through his mouth. All Ardyn could do was roll his eyes and shake his head. This was perfect, wasn’t it?
“Oh has my head become that fucked up that I am dreaming of myself now? I do love to torture myself so...”
“Who said this was a dream?” The other Ardyn spoke raising from the throne staring down at him.
“Whatever this is, it’s all in my head.” Ardyn said, not allowing this concoction the daemons had formed together to get the better of him. He was better than this he knew he was.
As the other version of him slowly walked down the damaged crumbling steps he looked Ardyn up and down and laughed. “What did you let us become?”
“I beg your pardon.” Ardyn asked himself. Yep, he really was insane he was talking to himself now. It was a dream none of this mattered, despite what this thing was telling him. None of this was real.
Hands flying in the air and with such an articulated patronising voice, Ardyn continued to mock himself. “You let yourself become a housewife when we could have become the Chancellor of Niflheim. We would have ruled Niflheim. All of Eos in fact. But no you chose to help our stupid traitorous little family and became weak as a result.”
Ardyn was a little stunned by that speech. Chancellor of Niflheim? No. This had to be a trick. Ardyn was sure of it now. It was definitely an illusion or a nightmare. Because Ardyn would never do that to Somnus. No matter what had happened between them he would never work for the enemy to get back at his brother or the family. He loved their family. He loved Regis and Noctis more than any of his nephews. This was all a lie. Ardyn just had to keep reminding himself of this. Because this version of himself… was something he was very close to being once before. Ardyn thought he had locked it up. But the daemons must have gotten through somehow and let this dark twisted side of him out. Right he had to be better than this. He had to prove to himself he was better than this.
Ardyn smirked, to tell his head he was not beaten yet. “You see you can’t be me. I would never betray my family like that.”
The other Ardyn threw his head back in hysterical laughter making Ardyn jump. Oh shit… this side of him was psychotic. As soon as the laugher came it ended and this evil form of himself became darker again. “But our dear baby brother did. He killed her. Remember? And took everything that was rightfully ours. Now, this crippled Prince is going to get it all when we have to sit by and let him kill us. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound very...loving to me. Families are meant to be all about love, no?”
Aera…
No, Ardyn shook his head. He had somewhat forgiven Somnus for that. But the words it spoke put doubt in Ardyn’s mind. Right, this thing needed to be silenced and it needed to be silenced now.
“Shut up.” Ardyn demanded, gritting his teeth. This was his head and he was getting control back over it.
But it didn’t work and the other version kept creeping towards him, spinning words of horror and doubt into his head. “I am only telling you the truth. Ardyn Leonis. What a pitiful name.”
“Oh, I was under the impression you wanted nothing to do with a family. Keeping the name Lucis Caelum is pitiful in itself.”
“Oh no, that’s not my name.” The dark version of Ardyn stopped, taking off his fedora, bowing with such grace and mockery. “Ardyn Izunia, Chancellor of Niflheim at your humble service.”
“Liar. There is nothing humble about you.” Ardyn spat back, loathing this thing in front of him. Izunia… it meant weasel. It suited this character perfectly.
Izunia smirked as he placed his hat back on his head and proceeded to walk closer to Ardyn. “Nor you. You just pretend there is so your husband and son won’t leave you. What about her? What about Aera? Doesn’t she mean anything to you anymore?”
“She is dead. And you are trying to fuck with my mind, it won’t work.” Ardyn said defending himself. But he could feel it. He could feel the daemons crawling around in there and they were loving this new found doubt forming in his gut.
“But I am you. You are fucking with your own mind.”
Izunia cackled with glee as he did a little skip moving in closer to Ardyn. For some reason, Ardyn couldn’t move. He was just stuck in this spot unable to do anything as Chancellor Izunia stalked closer towards. The entire time, Ardyn was thinking how insane this side of him was. It was a good thing he locked it up because who knew how dangerous he could be if he let this side of him go. That was another thing. Ardyn could feel the control he had over himself slowly slip away with every step this unhinged being took towards him. And it terrified Ardyn. It shook him to his core and he didn’t know how to wake himself up or even if he could pull himself from this mess the daemons had forced him in to. Finally, Izunia stood a few steps in front of him and stopped. The pair stared at each other. Ardyn gulped. He didn’t like the way he was looking at himself.
In a dark flat tone, Izunia spoke again. “But you do realise he is pulling us back. He is pulling us back when we could reach our full potential of power. We could be the Adagium if you weren’t bedding him every night.”
“You leave my husband alone!” Ardyn roared, suddenly getting furiously protective over Cor. No! He was not letting anything bad happen to him. He was not letting him get hurt or killed by this character. No!
Izunia giggled and hummed in delight. “It’s not me who’s thinking what’s going on in your head. It’s you.”
“SHUT UP!!!” Ardyn screamed that time. No… it was the daemons that was making him think about ending Cor’s life. It wasn’t him… it wasn’t him...
“You are weak. You’re scared of us?! There is nothing to be frightened of. It is what we are, it’s what we were born for. Destroying everything. Everything Somnus and his family took from us.” Izunia explained, walking passed Ardyn without a care in the world.
“No!! I am not that person!!”
“But you are. Deep down that is what we truly are. Death.”
“I am nothing like you!” Ardyn screamed, turning around to face Izunia ready to kill him.
Ardyn didn’t want to kill Cor. He loved Cor. He didn’t want to hurt Prompto. He loved his sunbeam with all his heart. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to his brother or his nephews or Lucis because they were his home. They were his family. Ardyn would never hurt his family! His head and Izunia were telling him lies. Ardyn was good. He was a good man! He would never...
Izunia suddenly took hold of Ardyn’s coat and went right up in his face. The scourge was dripping down Izunia’s face and Ardyn felt his skin crawl. In a voice plastered with darkness, Izunia sneered. “You want to do it though. It’s in the back of our mind. You know what we have to do to be free. We have to kill Leonis. If we kill Leonis we can get rid of Noctis. Get rid of Regis. Get rid of Somnus. Then we can have our throne back. It will just be you and your son. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Just you and Prompto ruling Lucis.”
“NO!!! Shut Up! I would never hurt anyone!!!”
Ardyn cried, trying to fight back but he couldn’t move still. But he could feel the scourge falling down his face, giving him such power… giving him the ability to do whatever he wanted… it felt so good.
Izunia laughed again as he took hold of Ardyn’s hands and wrapped it around his neck. “But you are… you are hurting Cor right now.”
“What?!” Ardyn gasped in a raspy voice trying to pull his hands away, but his grip only got tighter.
“Wake up and you’ll see what I mean. Wake up!” Izunia ordered in a vile manipulating voice. When he spoke again it was no longer his voice speaking to him. It was Cor’s. It sounded like he was being choked. “Ardyn wake up! I said WAKE UP!!”
Ardyn gasped and blinked with horror. When he opened his eyes again, his hands were wrapped around Cor’s neck. Ardyn stared into Cor’s blue eyes that were filled with terror as Cor tried his hardest to get Ardyn off of him. But Ardyn couldn’t move his hands. Just like before, every time Ardyn tried to pull them away, his grip got tighter and tighter. Ardyn wanted to cry as he was strangling the life out of Cor but he was no longer in control of himself and he was enjoying this. He was enjoying seeing the light fade from Cor’s beautiful blues as his husband kicked him and punched him and struggled to get away. The sight before him was memorising.
“ARDYN!!! GET OFF ME!!!”
Cor shouted, trying to roll to get loose, but Ardyn just pushed down harder than before and forced what little air Cor had left out of his body. It felt so good. So much power in taking someone’s life away from them, oh gods he hadn’t done this in ages. Now, Ardyn didn’t want to stop. The back of his mind was screaming at him. Telling him he loved Cor that he would never hurt the one person who had never seen him as a monster, but Ardyn loved the thought of ending his life more. He craved to end the Marshal’s life and he was going to...
“AHHHH!” Ardyn screamed, finally letting go of Cor, as the Marshal had stabbed him in the chest and pushed him off of him.
Ardyn fell on the floor with a massive thud. When he got over what had happened, he looked down at his chest and saw a dagger there. That didn’t matter. With his eyes fully turned glowing yellow. Ardyn stood up and turned to face Cor who looked petrified. Ardyn gave him a crooked smirk, took hold of the dagger and pulled it out of his scourge ridden body. The daemons had been attacked now. That meant this killing, he so rightly craved, was justified.
Cor held his hand out in front of him and spoke calmly. “Ardyn stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“But I want to hurt you.”
Ardyn growled in a daemonic voice and without hesitation, he warped over to Cor and pinned him up against the wall with such strength it took the wind out of Cor. Without thinking, Ardyn plunged the dagger into Cor’s stomach again and again and not once did he stopped when Cor cried or as the hot blood coated his hand and clothes.
“Ardyn? Stop!” Cor begged breathlessly, choking on his own blood and gasping for air as Ardyn still had his hand wrapped around his neck.
“No!” Ardyn screamed, continuing to stab the Marshal with all his might until Cor stopped tensing up.
It still wasn’t enough. Cor was still breathing. Ardyn let go of Cor’s throat and sliced it open with the dagger as fast as he could. Blood poured out all over Ardyn and the last thing the Marshal of the Crownsguard did before taking his final breath was look into his husband’s eyes and touch his face. Ardyn merely laughed and took a step back and watched with glee as Cor fell to the floor dead. For good measure, Ardyn kicked him in the chest and Cor did nothing. Cor the Immortal was finally dead.
Good.
“Dad?”
Ardyn quickly turned around to see his 14-year-old son in his PJ’s looking at the scene with horror. Ardyn let go a wicked smile and sang at his sunbeam in a manipulating voice.
“Hello, my darling.”
“Dad? What have you done?” Prom shook seeing the blood covering his father’s front and hand.
“What needed to be done.” Ardyn said stepping to the side, revealing to Prompto what had become of Cor the Immortal.
Prom’s eyes lay on his father’s corpse and he let out a heartstopping scream. All Ardyn did was laugh at his son’s tears and distress. This confused Ardyn. This was a good thing. It meant that he and Prompto could do whatever they wanted and have Lucis. They were free from Cor holding them back. Ardyn watched confused as Prom fell to his knees and crawled over to the dead man lying on his bedroom floor. When Prom cradled Cor’s head, Ardyn didn’t know what to say.
“WHY?!” Prompto screamed, holding his daddy closed to him looking up at his dada. “Why would you do this?! Help him?! Dad! Help him!”
“No. Don’t you see what I have done? We are free now my sunbeam. There is nothing stopping us from getting what we want.”
“I WANT MY DADDY BACK!”
Ardyn’s eyes darkened at his son’s heartbreaking wail. Ardyn didn’t feel remorse for what he had done. Or sorrow. In fact, he felt angry that Prompto didn’t see it his way. That was when the daemons decided that Prom had to go too. Nothing was allowed to hold the Adagium back. Not even his own son.
“I suppose you can join him.” Ardyn said like it meant nothing at all to him.
“Dad? Dad no! Please?!” Prom cried, dropping Cor and backing away from Ardyn as quick as he could.
“You want him back so badly. You can be with him. Don’t worry my sunbeam. I’ll make it as painless and as quick as possible. After all, I do love you so very much.” Ardyn said coldly as he raised the blade in the air, stepping over Cor’s lifeless form.
Prom’s eyes widened as the blade came crashing down.
Prompto screamed. “DADA NO!!!”
“NOOOOOO!!!!”
Ardyn screamed sitting up as fast as he could, trembling and shaking in a cold sweat unable to do anything else but cry and hyperventilate. The poor man continued to take in short and heavy breaths as he pulled his knees up to his chest and grabbed his head with his arms, crying and wailing at the emotional trauma his brain had just put him through. Ardyn didn’t even realise he had knocked Cor off the bed with how fast he had sat up and all he wanted was for all of it to stop! All of it! He wanted his brain to stop showing him those images. He wanted it all to stop!
Cor hit the floor but he didn’t have time to be frustrated by his rude awakening. The Marshal heard his husband crying loudly and it made his heart skip a beat. Cor quickly turned on the lamp and saw what a complete and utter mess Ardyn was. Not wasting another second, Cor sat back on the bed and tried to get Ardyn to look at him, but Ardyn refused to pull his face up or remove his arms as he continued to scream into himself.
“Stop! Stop! STOP!!”
“Ardyn! Hey! Ardyn!” Cor said loudly but calmly, seeing if he could try and at least talk over Ardyn’s distressed and traumatised screams.
“I didn’t want to! I didn’t want it! I didn’t!” Ardyn shouted flinching away from Cor as he tried to touch him.
“Ardyn, it’s okay. Calm down!”
“I couldn’t stop! They wouldn’t let me stop! I wanted to stop! I never wanted to do that! Oh, Gods! I am a monster! I am a monster! A MONSTER!!!”
The bedroom door burst opened and Prom stood there with sheer panic on his face. He heard the cries and he knew for certain it was his dada, but the poor child had no idea what to do or what had caused it. Prom had never seen Ardyn so upset before in his entire life and all Prompto wanted to do was help.
“Dads! Dads! What’s going on?!”
“I don’t know Prom. Just stay there.” Cor ordered, putting his hand out to stop Prom from coming into the room. Whatever was going on in Ardyn’s head must not have been pretty. But it would appear that their son’s voice had calmed Ardyn down a little. He was no longer screaming, he was just silently sobbing and retching and he shook and tried to isolate himself in his own arms. Since Cor could now talk, he gently placed a hand on his husband’s shoulder and spoke softly at him. “Ardyn… Ardyn, can you hear me?”
Ardyn slowly removed his arms from his head and turned to face Cor. He was very pale and upon seeing his husband’s face with no blood on it, Ardyn felt his breath leave him.
“You’re… you’re alive… You’re okay!” Ardyn sobbed, immediately hugging Cor like his life depended on it.
“Yeah. I am fine.” Cor said calmly, returning the hug as quick as he could. He knew what the next words out of Ardyn’s mouth was going to be. It was okay. Ardyn had had many a dream like this in the past. Not once had it ever shocked the Marshal.
“I… I… I... killed you.”
“No, you didn’t. See I am okay. It was a dream. None of that happened I promise.”
Ardyn buried his face into Cor’s shoulder and the Marshal allowed his husband to weep for a little while longer. Not once did Cor let him go. Cor just rubbed Ardyn’s back and tried his hardest to speak words of comfort at him. He really hoped Ardyn listened. Because everything was okay and Cor knew whatever had happened in that dream, Ardyn would never do in real life. Cor just had to get his husband to see that.
“Prom? Prompto!” Ardyn’s eyes went wide as he pushed Cor away from him and looked frantically at the entrance to their room. Relief hit him like a sword to the chest and he reached out for his son, desperately wanting to make sure Prom was okay. “Oh, my Gods you’re okay. You’re okay!”
“Of course I am.” Prom said with a smile as he hurried over to his dada and gave him the biggest hug he had done in a very long time.
Ardyn started to cry again as he held on to his son tightly. He could remember the feeling of wanting to end both of their lives. Wanting them both dead and not having to worry about them. But Ardyn would never want that. He didn’t think he could function properly without these two amazing people in his life anymore. So why did his brain to do this him?! It was cruel and all he wanted was to keep Cor and Prom safe. He loved them so fucking much. He would never hurt them. Not ever.
“Ass Hat, it’s alright. Everything is going to be alright.” Cor repeated, hugging his husband’s back as Ardyn refused to let go of Prompto.
“I am so sorry!” Ardyn blurted out. Letting more real tears run down his face.
“It wasn’t real. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“We still love you, dad. We know you would never hurt us.” Prom said sweetly. He assumed that was what had happened in his dream. Prom didn’t know, and because of how upset his dad was, he felt he didn’t want to know either. His dad just needed to calm down.
“Ardyn anything that you saw, will never come true. I swear.”
“I was so scared.” Ardyn whispered, removing one hand from Prom, to grab Cor’s hand as a form of comfort.
“It’s over now. I’ve got you.” Cor smiled, kissing the back of Ardyn’s head.
“We both have. It’s alright dada. We promise.”
“I love you both so much. I am so sorry. So sorry.” Ardyn said quietly.
He wasn’t sure what he was sorry for. Killing them in his dream, thinking that he wanted to, or waking them up and panicking them. Ardyn just wanted to get the blood off of his hands. He wanted to remove the image from his mind of him butchering his husband and son…. Why couldn’t all of this just stop?
“We forgive you. Don’t we dad?”
“Yes of course we do and no matter what it was, we will always forgive you. You got that, Ass Hat?”
The response Cor got was a slight nod. But it was better than nothing and at least Ardyn was not crying anymore. They spent a few more moments hugging until Cor told Prompto to go downstairs make Ardyn a coffee, choose a film and get some pillows. Who cared if it was the middle of the night? All three of them were going to go downstairs, sit on the sofa wrapped up in their duvets and watch films to help soothe and relax Ardyn. Who cared if they had school and work tomorrow, neither Cor or Prom were leaving Ardyn in the state that he was currently in and sleep was a thing of the past. Before Cor and Ardyn went downstairs to join their sunbeam, Ardyn told Cor what had happened. The Marshal smiled, kissed his husband and reminded him of the person he was, not what the darkest corners of his mind wanted him to be. That gave Ardyn the strength to calm down a little more and spend the rest of the early hours of the morning sitting on the sofa with his husband and son either side of him.
Yes, Ardyn was terrified that that evil twisted insane version of him could make a reappearance, but Cor and Prompto loved and had faith in him. So Ardyn could try his best to forget about what happened and who he could have been.
And he would. And Ardyn would always do his best by the two most important people in his life. Because he loved them with all his heart and he would never stop loving them either.