(F)AN: First of all, thank you so much, Elillierose, for beta reading this! I'll owe you.

I'm back with another FFXV piece, guys! I can't help it. Lol, since the game launched, I've been like, "Put my life on hold, I wanna play FFXV!" It's gonna be a multi-chapter thingy, taking place in the Cartanica mines where the boys have a little bit of bad blood going on. It's again heavy on the feels side. I hope you like it. Feel free to give me a holler about whatever. ^^

WARNING! SPOILERS starting Chapter 9 of the game. This is pretty much in canon, so if you haven't reached that part of the game yet and don't wanna be spoiled, I'd definitely recommend reading this after you've passed that mark. You'll understand why once you're there.

Now, let's mosey.

EDIT: It only occurred to me after posting, but you should totally listen to Dynazty's amazing track Human Paradox as you're reading this! That's it! I'm officially naming it the theme of this fic.

Welcome to my attraction

One step in the wrong direction

One choice, is all you have to make

One ride and the world is ours to take

You're treading a thin red line

When you're trying to read my mind

In here, the world ain't black or white

No rules apply, no wrongs or rights

. .

Can you really tell me what is right or wrong

When they're two sides of the same coin

Viewed in different ways

The Human Paradox

Step right into pandemonium

Welcome to my delirium

My Human Paradox

The Human Paradox

~ Dynazty - Human Paradox

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'No wonder they deserted this place,' Noctis thought as he eyed the landscape. What had looked like a wasteland from above surely did disappoint him further as they descended down below. What greatness the Cartanica mines once had, it was but a long-faded memory. Where the base rock hadn't been licked bare by the desert gales, disgusting stale waters formed huge swamps. The rot and the algae concocted a musty reek over the area. It was making his head hurt.

Swallowing thick, he glanced at the sky. The sun was already low. Even if they found the damn tomb right this instant – which he thought, with a small grimace, was less than likely – they'd still have to spend the night camping outdoors. That idea really didn't appeal to him. And not just because of the grim-looking land. Noctis hadn't wanted to take any unnecessary risks, because…

"Hey, is it really that difficult for your high and mighty ass to get that not all of us can keep up with you?!"

Noctis' temper flared at Gladiolus' bark. The man's mere voice frustrated him. As if he didn't know that! He turned to snap something back at the brute, but it caught into his throat as he saw Ignis on the ground, scampering back onto his feet, Prompto supporting him the best he could. Guilt banged at his heart, and suddenly he had nothing to say.

Not daring to look at Gladio, Noctis simply swallowed it and trotted backwards to wait for Ignis to scale the rock at his own pace. And that was already more than he could have asked of him right now. 'Dammit, Ignis!' he thought with regret. 'I told you to stay behind for this!'

His stick caught into rubble stone, and with a pained grunt Noctis didn't want to hear Ignis lost his footing again.

"Iggy! Here, let me..." Prompto consoled him gently as he helped him up. Noctis could only watch them, stupefied and disbelieving.

"Don't be silly. There is no need," Ignis stated sternly as he gently pushed away Prompto's arm, standing precariously.

"Don't be an idiot," Gladio grunted as he, too, joined to help the strategist up the steep." Don't try and overdo it."

"I'm not a cripple."

"You're blind!"

The sole indication of Ignis' anger was the slight reddening of his cheeks and the steepening frown. "That I would consider to be my concern." Ignis' tone was icy.

"Um, guys–" Prompto started, but Gladiolus cut in,

"You think it's all your problem? What the hell are you trying to prove?"

"Enough!" Noctis snapped. That seemed to break the two men apart, but Gladio turned his fury to Noctis now instead.

"And you! Your so-called 'Highness'," Noctis twitched at the poison in Gladiolus' voice. "If you were half the king you're supposed to be, you'd had let Iggy sit this one out."

"You think I had him coming?!"

"That is enough, Gladio!" Ignis snapped, his rage seeping into his carefully guarded tone. "Noct did indeed offer me a chance to wait at the inn, but I insisted on coming as is in order. I am not expecting you to adjust to my pace. I am expecting you to leave me behind should I become a hindrance."

Noctis stared at him, wide-eyed. He had never see Ignis' facade crack like this. "Ignis…?"

Ignis turned to where he assumed Noctis to be and a small smile graced his scarred features. "It is my sworn duty to stand by your side, Noct. Even in the most perilous of times. As is Gladio's."

The silence that followed was electrified, but in the midst of it Ignis stood in calm, the image of resolution. Noctis wanted – needed – to say something but he couldn't. He had no words.

"Ignis… I, uh..."

Gladiolus, having had enough, went to stomp on. "Let's go."

Ignis spoke to Noct as he said, tone calm and collected again, "He is right, Noct. We should keep on the move." A bit shaken, the prince simply nodded.

"Right," muttered Prompto as he went to follow Gladiolus. He didn't even glance at Noctis, but the sorrow emanating from his friend hadn't escaped the prince. With a grimace of guilt he stayed behind with Ignis. He was lost for words as he watched the strategist stumbling with his stick, politely but sternly refusing help. Noctis wasn't sure if it was gallantry or just degrading. It was both. It was wrong.

Not much later did Gladio stop them, however, looking stressed and troubled. "Quiet. Listen." They fell silent, and after a while they all heard a clearly recognizable howl. "Bad news," the dark man muttered lowly. "Let's hope they've already eaten. Let's go! We need to make a camp."

"You don't suppose those'd be, you know, at some other rotten valley except this one?" Prompto chirped nervously, scratching his neck.

"Wouldn't bet on it," Gladio grunted.

The young gunslinger paled a little at the seriousness and went to reload his rounds. "I guess no can do then."

"Everyone, look lively!" Gladiolus barked as he scanned the horizon. Branches and reed moved in the breeze, nothing else, but he wasn't convinced. "Those are pack hunters. They're trying to surround us so stay together!" He threw a meaningful glare at Noctis, who visibly tensed.

"Will do," the blue-haired growled from behind clenched teeth. He felt Ignis' fumbling hand searching for his shoulder, found arm instead and gave a firm squeeze. Noctis understood the meaning.

"Now is not the time, Noct," Ignis stated calmly. "We should be prepared to face the enemy." As Noctis glanced down, at his palm, he noticed that Ignis had readied a Firaga spell.

"Don't tell me you're fighting!"

"I am not expecting to..."

"Fuck your expectations! You are not fighting!" Noctis spat a bit more harshly than he had intended and regretted it immediately. "That's an order. You let us take care of this."

Pink tint rose to Ignis' face; Noctis could see the inner struggle the genius fought inside. Finally he lowered his head in a small bow, "Very well, Noct. I will stay out of the way."

For most people the tone would have sounded neutral, but Noct picked up the mortification behind those words. Ignis must have thought he pitied him. Or worse yet, considered him useless. He was about to say something, to explain himself, but was interrupted by Prompto's fear-ridden, "Uh, guys… we have a little problem over here!"

Glancing up, Noctis noticed the pack gathered at the top of a cliff not a hundred yards away. Tails swishing and pacing back and forth, the animals were eyeing them intensely. They howled little yelps, growled and snarled, but so far didn't move in to attack them. Frowning, Noctis pondered his chances. There were four or five animals. He would make it.

'Offense is the best defense,' he thought and gently pushed Ignis off of him – "Noct?" – and summoned his blade.

"Prompto!"

"Yea?"

"Cover me! I'm going up!"

The cacophony of 'Nocts', 'are you demented's' and 'gotchas' faded in his ears as the hum of warping swished by him. Faster than a human eye could see, he landed on his sword impaling the now whining wolf. The rest of the pack had jumped back and were now recomposing and assessing the new threat. Not allowing the animals the time, Noctis pulled his blade out with a wet squelching sound and thrust forward to slash at the nearest one. "It's only four of you, anyway," he muttered murderously as the animal dodged his attack barely, baring its teeth at him and preparing to jump.

From down below he heard Prompto firing, but couldn't tell if he had hit. None of the beasts even flinched except for one that had turned to inspect the new sound.

"Goddamn idiot!" Gladiolus barked and Noctis could hear him swinging his huge sword, the resounding crack as it landed onto something solid. He wondered briefly what was going on down there, but could pay no more heed. The wolves had started circling him, and the closest leaped to reach at his gut. Relying on magic he dodged to reappear beside the wolf, using the inertia of the movement to slash his blade across the animal's throat. He heard more shots, and this time another wolf was thrown down, howling in agony.

"Nice one, Prompto!"

"It's nothing!"

Smelling the adrenaline and gore, the now lone wolf had pressed its ears down and was swishing its tail frantically. It looked cornered and panicked, but Noctis didn't want to take chances. Summoning his spear, the young warrior leaped into air and knocked the wolf down with a high jump. Before the animal had time to scamper onto its feet again, Noctis brought the spear down with all his strength.

And that's when a piercing cry of pain erupted.

"Ignis!"

"Iggy?!"

His heart plunging, Noct's eyes flew to the fire-starter. He was down, screaming, and a wolf on top of him, tearing into his flesh. Two other animals were closing in, snarling at the men, daring them to just try and take their prey.

"No!" His instincts took over. He summoned back his spear, aiming at the beast maiming Ignis, and warped. Through the hum, he could hear more shots fired. As the spear landed, Noctis rolled under it to twist the animal off of the man. "Iggy?!" Sparing a glance at the downed man, Noctis had to force down a gag. The adviser's left shoulder had been mutilated. There were gaping tear wounds that bled profusely, and claw marks riddled his arms and chest. His entire face read panic.

"Noct! Behind you!"

The prince spun just in time to parry the leaping animal, using its own momentum to slam it down and called a pistol to finish it. At the same time he could hear the swish of a great-sword slicing the air, and the resulting crush and a howl as Gladio dove to end the last standing wolf. There was more whining as the wolf Noctis had pushed aside scrambled onto its feet and scurried to flee, tail between its legs.

For a second it was quiet. For a second nobody moved, waiting, expecting, ready to fight.

Then they collapsed.

"Iggy!" Gladiolus leaped to gather the broken man from the ground. The fire-starter was clutching his shoulder, face a pained grimace. His breaths were shallow and fast, and he was shaking. A pitiful whine of pain and panic rolled from his throat. "It's alright, it's me."

Ignis tried to resist as the big guy peeled his hand off his wound, then inspected it carefully. "Prompto! Give me a Hi-Potion!"

"Ugh, right!" the blond fumbled through his pockets desperately, hands shaking.

"Now, Prompto!"

"Hold on… here!" The brunet snatched the bottle in less than a blink.

"Iggy… I need to stop the bleeding. It's gonna be bad even after that. Nod if you can hear me."

Ignis seemed to think about it a few moments, then took a deep breath – and nodded.

The potion must have burned since a new agony distorted his face as Gladiolus poured the liquid over the wound. With a disturbing sizzling sound the wounds begun to close, leaving behind angry red fresh skin, but at least it stopped the bleeding. Ignis was left gasping for air, sweat droplets on his nose and cheeks, and frowning in pain.

"Is he… gonna make it?" Prompto asked tentatively, begging eyes jumping between them.

Gladiolus was quiet for a while, not looking at anything but Ignis. "He'd better."

Noctis stood behind them in awe. He could simply stare at them in stupor. He watched how Gladio bent Ignis' head to give him water, watched Prompto on his knees next to them, shaking and trying to figure out what to do. Noctis couldn't do even that. In too much of a shock, he felt empty, clueless. He had never seen Ignis like this. Beaten. Weak. Fighting for his life.

He flinched when it registered that Gladio's enraged voice was directed to him.

"Didn't I tell you to stay together?! Why is it so goddamn difficult for you to heed what I'm telling you for once?!" Gladiolus had laid Ignis on the ground and stepped closer to the younger man at every accusation.

"Huh?"

"He was defenseless, Noct! Because you just had to have your stunt show on the road again!"

"Are you saying this was my fault?!"

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't!" He grabbed Noctis by the collar and pulled him to look at him in the eye. Unable to face that rage right now, the other turned his eyes to the ground. "I told you these things hunt in surrounding fashion. You left him an easy target. Now look at me and tell me how this isn't your fault."

"Get off me!" Noctis pushed himself off of the grip.

"You ordered him to back down, Noct. Nice going, kiddo, but a leader is bound to take responsibility of his actions when he calls the shots. Sometimes it backfires! Sometimes you end up with casualties. Iggy counted on you! Can you take responsibility of this now?!" Gladio roared, his face red.

Noctis felt an iron band tightening around his chest. All that Gladio accused him of, he understood he really had no choice but to plead guilty. He glanced at Ignis' grimacing face, and felt like drowning. He could never have imagined how badly he had misjudged. Him trying to protect them all had abandoned Ignis into a far greater danger. There was no justifying this.

"I didn't think he… I, uh..."

Seeing he would get nothing out of the prince, the older warrior grunted in frustration and tore an angry hand through his hair. "Get out of here. Make yourself useful and gather us some firewood or something. I can't stand the sight of you." Without another word Gladiolus turned to prepare to make a camp. The sun was setting, they had maybe an hour of daylight left. They would have to camp where they were stranded. Iggy could not have been moved.

"Are you still here?"

Snorting in anger, Noctis wanted to snap something at him. Did Gladio truly think that little of him? The labored pants coming from the strategist were like hammers, pounding into his conscience. This was Ignis, for heaven's sake! Did Gladio truly think he didn't care?! But fine! He wanted him gone, Noct was going alright! He merely spun around, stomping away from the trio. He heard running steps behind him, but didn't turn to look at Prompto. The blond was ending up as collateral damage in his misdirected rage.

"Noct…!" Prompto grabbed his arm. "C'mon, man! Are you serious?!"

"Get off, Prom," he grunted as he jerked his arm free.

Hurt flashed on Prompto's face as he lowered his hand. "C'mon, Noct. Don't be that way. Gladio didn't mean it."

"He meant exactly what he said! Every word! Do you think sugar-coating it is gonna make me feel better?!"

"Hey, no shooting the messenger." Aimed to be a chuckle, yet betraying the hurt behind it.

Noctis, realizing he was taking it out on Prompto, sighed in anger. "You should go back." He turned to walk away again.

"Noct! C'mon–!"

"Later." As the prince warped into the distance, Prompto threw his hands up with a frustrated cry and kicked some stones to let out his own fumes until he found no other excuse for not helping Gladio with encamping.

Prompto didn't know which was worse: the unjust fit Noct had thrown at him, or the silent fury still emanating from Gladio that luckily wasn't directed to him per se, but was still enough to darken the atmosphere of the entire campground. He didn't know how to approach it. He stole a glance at Ignis' prone form, spread next to the fire Gladio had put up and was currently tending. Luckily the man had fallen asleep, after many painful and fearsome moments when they had maneuvered him onto softer bedding. It had torn the wound open again, and they had sacrificed Iggy's sleeve to make a makeshift binding. The shoulder looked god-ugly and swollen, but at least it wasn't bleeding. Gladio had warned him that there was still a risk of infection, but Prompto had decided to worry about it later.

Darkness had descended a good hour ago. Noctis was still gone. Saying that Prompto was unhappy about that was the understatement of the century.

Gladiolus must have felt the glare of the sky blue as he eventually turned to look at the boy sitting almost across him. He held a deep frown and his mouth was a thin line. The significant indicator between worried and pissed were the unusually narrow eyes.

"If you have something to say, say it," the dark one shrugged, his tone challenging.

"You said some pretty shitty things to Noct, you know." The barely contained anger in Prompto's tone mirrored the other's. It seemed to catch him a bit off guard. He hadn't expected the blond to hold his ground.

"It's nothing he doesn't deserve to hear."

Prompto honestly snorted at that. "Do you mean that? Really, mean that?"

"Is there a point to this?" Gladio threw another branch at fire, sending light sparks into the night air.

"Because if you do, you're wrong."

The shield blinked and took a good look at the young man. His posture appeared casual, but Gladiolus could tell he was tense and on the edge. And it wasn't of fear. It was something else. He realized he had never seen Prompto like this, and doubted many ever had. It was more customary to someone else. He, too, stole a glance at Ignis.

It was resolution.

"It's not like what happened to Iggy was his fault, you know!" Prompto's stare never faltered as he spoke– no, declared those words, and Gladio stared back in surprised awe.

It took a moment for the man to compose himself. "He screwed up, and instead of facing the consequences of his screw up he ran. I don't call that kingly. I call it cowardly."

Prompto sighed and shook his head. "Give him time, man. Noct'll come around."

"Time is a luxury he doesn't have. We have an empire to overthrow."

"Don't you think he knows that?!" Prompto spat.

"I am... inclined to agree."

Both heads instantly snapped at the direction of the third voice.

"How long have you been awake?" muttered Gladiolus, in a considerably more gentle tone.

"Long enough to gather you have been an idiot." The words were sharp, but there was the inkling of sarcasm in his pained tone, and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

"How you feeling, four-eyes?" Prompto smirked as he got up to get to his side.

"Well enough to mangle you should you ever call me that again." Ignis smirked a little at where he assumed Prompto to be.

"How bad is the pain?" Gladio returned his voice only slightly betraying his concern.

"It certainly is no walk in the park, but it's tolerable. You have done an impeccable job tending to it. I am confident that with a proper rest and a few more curatives I should be out and about in no time."

"Well, seeing as we haven't found ourselves a royal resting place yet, out is where we're gonna be, alright," Prompto tried to joke but fell silent as the others made a face.

"But now," Ignis turned towards the fire, "where's Noct?"

Unbeknownst to Ignis, the others shared a look. They had no easy answer to give.

"Uh, yeah. About that..."