#ALERT THE GUARDS! HE'S FOUND ANOTHER CHARACTER HE RELATES TO A MORE THAN NORMAL AMOUNT!

[melon-official]

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] -  It feels safe to know that the lieutenant’s got your back, now and always.

[moonraccoon-exe]

[FFXV chapter 9 major spoilers]

Ignis’ Injury fanfiction - Guilty Gladio theory.

I have this theory that reads maybe Gladio indirectly and, ofc, by accident, is partly responsible for Ignis’ injury. And if he’s not, maybe he just feels like he is.��Hence his anger and over-protective reaction in chapter 10. 

I discussed it a bit with @springlock-gray and they asked me for a fic on the matter: how I believe it could have happened.

I don’t hold only one scenario: the theory’s up, but, even though I have the What, I have not one sole How. So while I wrote only one, there may be endless scenarios (indirect hit, butterfly effect of sorts, etc).

Still, I present this one.

I’m not saying I fully headcanon it happened this way; I repeat, it’s a fanfic on how I believe one scenario could have gone.

So here you go: a small fiction that covers the moment of Ignis’ injury, and how Gladio could have been related on it.

I hope it fills your expectatives, or at least doesn’t disappoint you, dear @springlock-gray​. You’re my first direct request in the fandom, and hell was it something heavy (due to working with an unknown canon rather than an alternative universe), but despite having struggled at first, I enjoyed it!

Apologies if something is off: I don’t play the game in english, and it’s not my first language, so maybe the dialogues don’t feel in character. I apologize: I don’t have full knowledge of the english version, nor full control over the language.

Still, I hope it’s at least decent.

Enjoy under the cut. :)

Leviathan’s Rage: Broken Shield.

“Noct…the empire’s here.”

“I can see ‘em.”

“Drop ships are closing in on the port. Look for a vantage point to approach them.”

“Okay. Look after the citizens.”

“We got ‘em covered.”

“So…it begins.”

 --

 The evacuation of the citizens of Altissia had been previously planned as best as it could be.

The problem with the strategy was that Noctis and his companions had no idea on how the empire would act, where they would land, how they would attack, and nobody could give them a hint or a clue about it. They knew that they had to put the people in safety, for it was sure Niflheim was to send troops to attack the city while Lady Lunafreya performed the ritual for the Covenant with the Hydrean; what to do was clear, but how was different to plan. It was a matter of common sense to understand that the troops from the empire would outnumber that of four, and they could not be fought back as easily before they could touch Altissia ground.

 So the answer was on evacuating the people: if they could not stop the empire from invading the city, the only thing they could do for the people’s safety was to take them all out of there. That was the only task for the three companions of the prince: with him busy having to reach for the Hydrean and get its power and blessing in order to achieve the power as King of Kings, it was up for Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis to put the people in safety with success.

Lady Lunafreya’s speech had gathered a great amount of people in one single place; almost as soon as it was finishing, the imperial ships could already be seen overflying the city.

 The mess had started not long afterwards. Lady Luna had gone away and had to be in the middle of forging the covenant. Noctis had to be heading there, most surely having to deal with a couple troopers in the way.

They could not know for sure, but one did not need to be there to be sure the prince would find enemies in the way: Niflheim’s ships had landed, and troopers were starting to scatter around the city.

That was not when the prince’s friends entered in action; they had long ago done, as soon as Lady Lunafreya’s speech was over.

 The evacuation was mostly an agitated but ordered mess; the people did not need to be told twice to hurry out of the range of battlefield, off to safer places. Leviathan could be seen in the distance in an attitude that need no second glance to know the best was to escape; Niflheim ships overflown the nearby area; MT troopers had landed and were approaching, weapons in hands. It was clear the place was not safe.

Seen as the people did not require to be given instructions on how to leave, the real main task for the three friends of prince Noctis was not on evacuating the people: it was on making sure nobody died in the meanwhile.

 At first, the three had decided to split: Gladiolus took the path ahead, Ignis parted to his left, and Prompto to the right. The latter had been the most nervous, but he was also fully aware they could not let Noctis down.

And the battle started.

Each of them found a great number of enemies in the way, but managed to fight their way through. Having landed by the port and sending great numbers of MT troopers to invade the city, the three found themselves outnumbered. But skills surpassed number; lance against guns, greatsword against machinery, and guns against devices.

 They made their way across their designated section of the city, not letting a single MT past them, getting rid of all which tried, defending and attacking to not let the enemy past them and after the citizens in evacuation further behind them. Eventually, they took control of the situation and had made the enemy back away. It only took them some minutes before the main area had been cleared out; people could still be seen in the distance, leaving the place, but Niflheim troops had ended up cornered by the port, where they had landed and dropped the MTs: having split in three to stop the enemy from advancing, they had managed to make the range of the battlefield much more closed and concentrated.

 At the distance, Leviathan still moved in stress and her metal-like screeching voice continued to echo at times. From their spot, they could not see the altar, but they all knew Lady Luna had to be there. And, somewhere else in the city, Noctis had to be heading there.

Once reunited, the three found themselves in the Niflheim nest of ships, with distance enough to take their time on stopping and regroup. Even though they kept their guard up, prepared for more battle, they found an unusual sight: Niflheim was starting to retreat. The troopers had given them their backs and mechanically walked away, back into the ships.

The three friends remained in their place and lowered their weapons, watching as one of the ships turned the engine on and took off. However, instead of flying towards the Astral, they turned back in the direction they had come from.

 Retreat.

 “Served!” Gladiolus exclaimed joyfully, swinging his two-handed sword so he rested it on his shoulder in a relaxed motion of triumph, grinning. “I don’t know about you, but I had expected worse.”

“Yeah, me too” Prompto agreed with a hint of nerves in his voice. “How’d you do on your side, Iggy?”

“Everything in order” the adviser of the prince replied, softly pushing his glasses closer to his eyes. “But the Hydrean is starting to rage. Does anybody see Noct somewhere?”

“Over there!” Prompto called as he pointed up in a direction further past the port.

 There on a superior floor (seen as the city was built on different levels), quite far away of their current spot, they could spot Noctis not only out of the black hair and clothes, but due to the blue shadow he left behind whenever he warped. There was no missing him: the prince was on a superior levels in an open hallway fighting back a couple of troopers who had been up to him to get rid off in his way towards the altar. A serpent of water made its way nearby him but did not harm the heir of Lucis.

“He’s gonna need a hand” Gladiolus stated. “There isn’t a bridge to the Hydrean’s hand, you know”

“That is our new concern, I assume” Ignis recalled, less worried now that the empire was giving up (for now) and there were no enemies nearby, as all had started to go back to their ships. “Any suggestions?”

“What about we ask the Nifs for one of those?” they heard Prompto say with some nerves in the voice, and they turned to face the way he was pointing now.

 Not all the ships were on retreat. Some of them had started to deliver smaller flying devices, Imperial Speeders, with two riders each one. They were not great in number, but it was still a new threat they had to take care of as soon as possible. The speeders were coming from the inside of a few ships, like bees out of their hive; just as the companions of the prince had adjusted to their combat position and alert state, they realized that the speeders were not trying to fly towards the way people had evacuated through, and were rather turning to go after Leviathan (whether it was to attack her or just overfly her, they did not know, but it took some guts to get close to the Astral; she was starting to rage pretty badly).

 Soon enough, they saw a few MTs climbing onto the speeders and taking off, facing the direction where the prince was striking some more enemies.

“Not on my watch” Gladiolus muttered and had swung his greatsword back, and hurried to them. Prompto and Ignis, each separating once more but this time as the three remained closer this time now that the range of battle was smaller, reached for other MTs starting to get on the devices to stop them from taking off.

 Gladiolus struck two riders with only one swing of his sword; Ignis had gotten closer, but not to lose time on attacking first-range, he had thrown his daggers and had thrown another pair to the floor before they could turn the engine off. Prompto, currently the best of the three as this scenario was to his total advantage, seen as he was a distance-range specialist, was feeling much more useful than normal, shooting left to right and managing to bring down the most enemies before or as they had started to take off.

At some point, Prompto hurried his way towards one of the machines and quickly hopped on it, at the same time that Gladio turned to look at him.

“Do you think you can handle it?” the shield asked, and the blond pointed at himself with a thumb, smiling and winking an eye.

 “Dude; it’s me” Prompto said proudly. “Come on, you two! Hop on!”

“I’m afraid it’s too small to carry the three of us, and help Noctis at once” the adviser interrupted after approaching them, not taking his eyes off the field in case another speeder tried to escape them. “You must go and aid Noctis in his way to the Hydrean; we’ll wait and rejoin you later.”

“Understood!” Prompto offered a salutation, trusting full that both of his friends could handle the situation just fine. Unlike him, they were trained for this. With no hesitation, Prompto took only one moment to check and understand the machine, and he was soon taking off on it; the device only stumbled the first seconds, but the blond managed to get a hold of it quickly and rushed off towards the distant figure of the prince, still there on a superior level, destroying a last enemy on the way.

 Ignis watched him leave and turned on the communicators (top-notch, in his opinion) that the first secretary had given them.

 “Noct! Prompto’s headed your way.”

“But- what about you, guys?” that was Noctis’ voice from the other side of the communicator, at the same time Ignis watched him stop in his spot across a non-covered hallway.

“We’ll wait below-there’s only room for two.”

 “Noct! Jump!” Prompto’s voice interrupted through the communication, and Ignis, not helping his worry for his prince and childhood friend and brother, watched; he trusted Prompto, but he was also aware that accidents could happen. He heard Noctis questioning his friend once, but then simply trusting and running towards the edge of the balcony he was at, and jump.

Prompto, aiming and timing just perfectly, caught Noctis during his fall without hurting him. Ignis could see poorly what happened afterwards as they were moving too fast for his eyes to catch the details, but so long both were on board he had no reason to worry.

He would have stared just to make sure everything went fine, but he heard the enemy troops nearby him starting to move.

 At his side, Gladiolus snorted.

“It seems like they need another reminder, Iggy” Gladio said and held up his sword again, up to rest it on his shoulder.

“It seems that way” the adviser agreed and held up his dual daggers. “Nobody must interrupt Noct or Lady Lunafreya.”

“Then let’s make sure nobody else takes off, huh?” the shield of the prince suggested with a smirk, the fire of battle already burning in his brown eyes. Ignis smiled and gave a glance at his companion: it had been a wise choice from Regis to send Gladiolus with Noctis, for there could not be a better shield, both as a friend and as a fighter. Ignis took a second to think that maybe, if it wasn’t for Gladio, the mess at Altissia would had had greater consequences.

 Having looked at Gladio a last time, Ignis turned and nodded, rushing off towards the enemies: MTs insisted on either coming out of the ships to board speeders, or going into other ships that hid said devices inside. Gladiolus let out a war-cry and joined him in battle, each on their side; both aimed for different targets not to let anyone escape.

Ignis found himself having to attack at distance; it was a smarter way to deal with the situation, since, if he attacked in close range, he could take valuable seconds on running from target to target and, in those miserable seconds, any of them could take off and fly either towards the evacuating civilians or towards Noctis or Luna. And Ignis could not allow that. Even less if they aimed for Noctis.

 The adviser threw his daggers, always aiming for the MT that attempted to take the lead of the speeder. Knocking it down, Ignis would focus on the MT on the rear of the machine, for it not to reach for the controls instead. He wondered if Gladio would struggle, as he was fully trained in close-range combat, unlike Ignis or Prompto. He heard the shield roaring and slashing, strucking and hitting, and he did not hear any speeder take off, so he guessed, as he kept on fighting, that Gladiolus had to be doing perfectly fine. In full trust of his friend, Ignis focused in his own fighting.

 He had managed to throw down multiple enemies, stopping them from taking off. It did not take them long to handle the situation again; two or three times, they almost let a speeder and the riders on it take off, as they were still outnumbered, but the great effort had led them to put a stop again. Acknowledging themselves in defeat, maybe, the MTs were soon starting to retreat again. At first none the shield nor the adviser put the guard down in case more troopers had gone into the ships only to hop onto the devices inside, but they soon enough found that the doors shut themselves closed behind them, and the ships had turned the engines on.

And then it happened: Leviathan really raged.

 Gladio and Ignis stumbled in their place, taken off guard, at an unexpected earthquake caused by the Hydrean; when they turned to look at the place where the Astral was, they suddenly found Leviathan being surrounded by what could be called a whirlpool, except the water had not gone down but rather up, as if it was about a tornado. It hid the Astral behind and, Ignis and Gladiolus guessed, Noctis somewhere inside as well. Even when they were not so close to the spot, they still found themselves struggling to stay on their feet, for the air, as it would have been in a normal tornado, was too strong, and the gusts of wind threatened on bringing them down. Roofs flew off, windows, bricks, decoration; the buildings were being taken from their pieces and swallowed by the whirlpool or it was sent off to the distance.

 “They’re retreating, Iggy! Let’s get out of here!” Gladio called in a shout for his voice to be heard over the noise. The adviser, having just heard him, trusted that Noctis would handle the situation just fine without them.

“Understood!” Ignis nodded at the shield, and both managed their way back up on their feet. As they did, Imperial ships took off and, not only having been defeated by both of the prince’s companions but also seeing the great rage of the Astral, had finally decided to really retreat this time. Most of them started taking off and escaping the same way they had arrived from, and the Insomnian let them.

 However, as they did, two speeders came from one of the ships; having taken off in the air, close-range was impossible. Ignis and Gladio, without needing to share a word and having to rush in the midst of the Hydrean’s rage and the hurry of bringing the MTs down, spread in the battlefield, each looking for their position of vantage.

Ending up yards away of each other, they faced their own opponents in a single maneuver that did not last further one minute, and yet turned the world upside-down as they knew it.

 Gladio aimed. Ignis aimed. Ignis, faster in the situation, threw his dual daggers to the MT troopers. As the enemies fell from the speeder, Gladiolus made sure, as he only had one throw, and focused on aiming correctly. As he did, the first speeder started falling down, having no rider. Gladiolus let out a war-cry and threw his greatsword with all his strength.

Ignis backed off with a pair of flips; the speeder he had brought down would collide with the ground, and he needed to get away of the range of the explosion.

 Ignis, now out of the range of the explosion from the first speeder, covered himself with the arms to protect himself from the pieces of the machine that flew off now that it had been destroyed.

Gladio’s sword hit the speeder; the sole hit made half of the engine explode, brought the MTs down, and, useless and with no rider, the device fell down.

 When Ignis put the arms down, he was distracted by a single ship that was not making its way for retreatment and, against all odds, turned to face the direction of the whirlpool: the ship belonged to the chancellor.

 “Ignis!”

 The adviser of the prince could only watch as the chancellor’s ship took off, but before he could rush to stop it, he, by reflex, turned in the direction of the voice that yelled for his name.

Left.

Except he did not find Gladiolus standing there.

Passing right in front of his left eye as soon as he turned, the second speeder hit ground.

And exploded.

 A few of the pieces that flew off the machine in the half-second before the explosion struck him, hit him on the right eyebrow and his lower lip. Another piece cut him by the nose. All of this happening as his glasses, under the force of the explosion, flew off his face.

At the same time they did and only a nanosecond following the metal pieces that reached to cut his face, the fire followed.

 The fire of an explosion is concentrated for half-a-half-a-second, and eventually expands in detonation. And in the half-second it takes to expand, Ignis received it whole on the left side of his face and body. He had not even managed to fully turn around when all of it happened; had he done so, the explosion would have hit him on a full front view and not on a three-quarter one.

Ignis did not, because he could not, even make a sound. The explosion happened way too fast and struck him full on the side of the face and body, which, unable to do otherwise, was thrown away. Even when it happened to him, the world did not slow down for him. If anything, it sped up, and he did not even notice he had been struck when he was already out of his senses and falling backwards.

Time, however, did slow down on the other side of the explosion.

From Gladiolus’ eyes.

 The shield, in a reflex rather than a rational thought, had brought his shield up to cover himself from the explosion even though he was at a safe distance from it. At the same time he moved it away, he saw the adviser of the prince receiving the fire whole on the face, being thrown backwards, stumbling and, eventually, falling down. It had been but three seconds, and yet it had been to Gladio, for a moment, as if the world had started working in slow motion and it had taken a whole minute. All sounds had faded from his ears, the rage of the Hydrean included, the second, smaller detonation of the speeder included.

The second, smaller detonation of the speeder that he brought down and that he caused to explode included.

 As soon as Ignis hit the ground, time recovered its normal speed. But Gladio froze for a moment. He stood a couple of moments in his place, fully intact, and only stared at Ignis, thrown on the floor. He just…stared. Almost as if he expected the adviser to move. To move anything; a hand, the head, let out a groan of disgust. Maybe even stand up, get his glasses back on their place, and deliver a sarcastic, sassy comment to Gladio, clean off his clothes and chide him for ‘watching where he threw his sword’.

Gladiolus was expecting to see Ignis stand up.

And only rushed towards him when Ignis did not.

 Gladio did not throw away his shield, but rather made it disappear in his way across the yards that separated him from his friend. As soon as he had reached him he went down on his knees and, the first thing he did, was to start putting down the flames set on the clothes of his friend. Gladio muttered a couple of curses as he did, not minding to use his own hands to put the few but grown flames down. Once done, he hurried on turning Ignis around, and could not help his hands from flinching away in reflex…a reflex of fear, out of the sight he was received with.

Ignis had been terribly injured.

 It did not take a genius to know he had been harmed, but this was much worse than Gladio had expected at first…and he was already expecting bad. Ignis bled from an eyebrow, the bridge of his nose and his lower lip, but that was not even close to what caught Gladio’s gaze; hell, he would had given anything for those to be the worst injuries. But the problem was on the left side of Ignis’ face: the burnt was too serious and had taken up part of his cheek, the entire eye, and most of his eyebrow. Having set the fire of his clothes off, Gladio could spot other burns and injuries, mostly on his left side; the chest and arm, and a smaller one on the leg.

 Ignis was fully unconscious. He did not even gasp mid-sleep, none of his hands flinched, his good eye did not flutter open. Gladio, growling a curse and thinking the worst, moved a hand up and quickly placed two of his fingertips on a side of Ignis’ neck.

Thank the Astrals, he found his pulse.

“Goddammit, Iggy” Gladio muttered and his hands returned to the adviser, one slipping behind Ignis’ head and the other holding his right arm. “You better not die on me!” this time, it had been a scream. “Ignis!” yet another scream.

 The adviser did not react to his voice. Gladiolus muttered and growled, and before he could do anything he had to avoid a chair that passed nearby him; the whirlpool had only grown in force and it was swallowing more and more things, almost taking a whole building off the ground. Gladio bent down and used his own body as a shield for Ignis, currently unable to do anything to protect himself, and having his shield appear in his left arm to cover himself. He heard and felt something hard hitting it, and he stayed in his position bent over Ignis, his forehead to the adviser’s right shoulder.

 After a few moments, Gladio had his shield disappear again and muttered yet another curse, and had no option but do as the Empire: retreat.

Despite the emergency of the situation, Gladiolus had the impulse to reach for Ignis’ glasses, currently lying a few feet from his face. He did not check on their state and only quickly saved them in a pocket of his jacket, before focusing again on his friend.

 Hurrying but being careful not to hurt his friend even more, he passed an arm under Ignis’ shoulders and the other under the back of his knees, and went up on his feet. Ignis was a tall and well-built man, but even his dead weight was nothing for Gladio, not only out of the shield being so strong himself but also out of the adrenaline currently running through his veins. Ignis’ head fell back along an arm, and his whole body hung loose and limp on him. Gladio only looked at him for a moment before he started leaving the port.

This was…bad.

 Just as he was making his way for cover, the sound of a speeder made his heart skip a beat, but he soon looked up to find Prompto landing nearby and hopping off the device, entering a roofed hallway and motioning Gladio to hurry and take over with him. The shield did not need to be told twice. Carrying with Ignis in arms, he rushed, thankfully not needing to dodge or require of his shield, and only doing his best in not getting in the way of all the things that flew with no control around. Once into the roofed hallway, where Prompto awaited down on a knee to take cover from whatever could enter through the glassless windows, Gladio went down on a knee as well, still holding Ignis.

 “I-Iggy…” Prompto called quietly and with the voice in a thread, eyes widening and face going pale. “…Gladio, what happened?”

 I made a machine explode in his face.

 “How did this happen? Iggy, can you hear us?”

 I wasn’t careful.

 “Gladio, what do we do?” Prompto hurried him, looking away of Ignis to seek an answer from the shield, who just stayed there, anxious like he had never felt before. “Gladio.”

“I heard you already!” Gladiolus snapped out at him and then swallowed the rest of the anger that threatened make him lose composure. Prompto quieted and only stared at him, trying not to seem scared. “I…heard you. First we need to get out of here, go somewhere safe.”

“U-understood” Prompto nodded once, shortly. “What about Iggy?”

“We can’t do anything ourselves” Gladio sighed, exasperated. “We need to bring him to someone else; we need a doctor. Now.”

“Let’s go, then” Prompto said and stood up. “If only the three of us fit in the speeder…”

 “We’re not getting on that goddamn thing” Gladio growled at him, frowning.

“I-I know, I just…” Prompto started, but soon sighed shortly. “Let’s just go; Iggy’s in danger, we need to hurry.”

 Gladiolus did not reply. He simply adjusted Ignis on himself and, even though he hesitated at first, he also found it to be the most practical if he wanted wider freedom to speed up; trying to be as careful as possible, he placed Ignis on one of his shoulders so half of his unconscious body hung behind Gladio, and his legs hung on the front, being held by the shield. Having him thrown there was not the most gentle way to do it, but it allowed Gladiolus to run faster, priority now that all civilization, all doctors or nurses included, was a very long way far from their current spot.

 Prompto found the shield to behave oddly; he knew he had to be in some sort of panic, in his own way, due to the obvious reaction to Ignis’ major injury, but something else felt off in Gladio. Decided to not question him, Prompto found himself in shock by having expected any outcome of the situation except this, except for Ignis, an incredibly, ridiculously skilled man, to have been injured almost to death. He, despite the shock, still hurried after Gladio, who had walked quickly past him without looking back to see if the blond followed or not.

While hurrying but not running (not to be uncareful with Ignis’ already delicate state), Gladio only cursed in his head, controlling himself not to hit a wall until bringing it down.

 “A-ah!” he heard Prompto quietly yelping, and looked over his shoulder to find that the younger man had reached for something in his jacket. “It almost drops, Gladio. It’s…”

The blond quieted. Gladio stopped when he realized Prompto had, and turned slightly to see what was wrong.

Prompto, still pale in the face, and having his shoulders dropping, stared at Ignis’ glasses like they were a dead puppy in his hands.

Only then did Gladio pay attention to the state they were on.

 The left side of the frame was burnt, and it had remolded; in one second, the plastic had melted and moved upwards, freezing in that new form. The left lense, of course, had been entirely destroyed; only a few, tiny, tiny pieces of glass still present in the hole remained. They were missing an arm, as well. The right lens was in its place, but it had come to be entirely shattered.

And it was splattered in blood.

Gladio’s eyes widened at the sight, and for a moment he had forgotten about the Hydrean raging in the background and their need to hurry. He looked at them with panic, but Prompto gave them a sad look. He seemed to have troubles containing either tears or a scream of anger, trembling lightly while holding them.

It was not that a pair of broken glasses were hurtful. It was the meaning behind them.

How awfully well they worked as a symbol of tragedy.

 “Goddamn, Iggy” Prompto muttered lowly, but Gladiolus still managed to hear. “…who did this to you?”

 Gladio swallowed. He frowned for a moment and stared away.

“No time for this, Prompto” he said firmly but quietly. “Let’s go.”

“…yeah” the blond agreed and kept the glasses in a hand, and started walking again. Even though he hurried, he kept the head slightly down and the gaze mostly lost, the expression in a frown. Gladio just let him be, and hurried in front of him. Almost as if wanting to avoid him.

Almost as if by not looking at Prompto, Gladio could hide his guilt.

 I did it, Prompto.

 Gladio tightened his grip on Ignis’ legs and frowned. He had slowed down for a moment, but the weight of the adviser on his shoulder reminded him that this was not the time to stop in reflexive thoughts and drama. No. He would hurry. He had to; he had almost taken Ignis’ life from him, the least he needed was to fully complete the work.

His obligation, after almost killing him, was to hurry and not let him go. If Ignis was going to die, it would not be that day. Not in pain. Not in these circumstances.

It would not be on Gladio.

Not on his hands.

And definitely not by his hands.

 …I did it.