"Noct, what the hell?" Ignis demanded, glaring at Noctis for less than a second before he turned back to the TV, watching with utter anguish on his face as Sam was hauled up by her neck and then impaled before being dropped like a ragdoll onto the floor.

Noctis burst into laughter, gleefully enjoying the further dismay and shock on Ignis' face as Mike gave a reluctant look back at Sam's corpse before hitting the switch himself as he went out the door. The entire lodge went up in flames, killing the Hannigo.

Most of the remaining survivors were either standing or sitting outside in the snow as help finally arrived via a helicopter.

The credits started to roll, and Ignis turned his gaze unblinkingly towards Noctis. "I'm going to bloody murder you," he said in a creepily calm voice.

"Yeaaah, I'm pretty sure you were the one just bloody murdered there, Iggy. But you should be proud! You gallantly sacrificed yourself to save all of us– mmph!"

Noctis jumped as one of his pillows smacked him in the face.

Ignis glared murderously.

Noctis grabbed the cushion. "Oh, it's on."

Ignis dodged the first two swipes of Noctis' pillow with an embarrassing amount of ease and grabbed another one for himself, relentlessly thwacking any part of Noctis he could reach. Noctis tried not to bite his tongue or lips as he started giggling.

A couple moments later, and his entire body was shaking and kept shaking until he could barely even hold the cushion up to defend himself anymore. Because of that, one of Ignis' blows nailed him in the face again, making him fall back onto couch as he laughed even harder.

"What is so bloody funny, Noct?" Ignis demanded, and his serious expression as he stood there with his glasses askew and hair ruffled made Noct's sides start to hurt as he tried to get his breath back.

"We are… pillow fight… 4:30 in the morning… with my couch cushions… because… I sabotaged… your game…" he managed to wheeze out. "After we were just kidnapped!"

Ignis stopped, his expression blanking. Then he looked at the cushion in his hands. Then at Noctis. Then to the TV. Then back to Noctis.

His laughter began as a slow chuckle, quickly building to match Noctis' in volume as he seemed to realize the ridiculousness of the situation. He dropped his cushion, falling back onto the couch with a hand pressed into his eyes under his glasses as his chest heaved.

"This… is absurd!" he managed to get out before losing his ability to speak completely.

"R-r-r-right?" Noctis' laughter stretched his word.

They watched the credits roll and the characters' post-game police station interviews play as they slowly caught their breath.

"I cannot believe you just sabotaged me after all that!"

"You had it coming for all those Jessica jokes!"

"I most certainly did not – I saved your life!"

Annnd then Josh popped up after the credits, munching the stranger's remains as a half-turned wendigo.

"Oh, you must be joking! I saved him to deliver him to a fate worse than death? That is entirely unfair!"

Noctis' chest hurt too much to really laugh more, so he just kind of hiccupped awkwardly. "Ignis… Man… you need to chill."

"I will not! I gave my time and energy into protecting those men and women!"

"Ignis, it's just a game!"

…Wow. Okay, this was weird. When had they reversed roles?

Ignis opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it without saying anything and sighed.

"Besides, I'm sure Gladio appreciates you saving his life like that. He's definitely gonna remember you fondly. Probably give a great speech at your funeral– oof!"

Another cushion hit Noctis straight in the gut.

Ignis sharply looked at the TV as the menu popped back up. "There's a chapter select?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, after you finish the game, you can go back and pick up at the start of any of the chapters– wait, no! What are you doing?"

There was a dangerous gleam in Ignis' eyes as he selected the last chapter to load. "I am getting the ending that I have been working towards all night."

Noctis groaned. "Igniiiiiiis, I want sleeeeeeep."

"Well now, you should have thought of that before."

Noctis groaned, dropping his head back to thump against the armrest as he felt around for his phone. Where had it gone during the pillow fight?

Josh freaking out, Sam and Mike, blah blah blah, and ohhhh, crap…

"You missed the journal by the waterwheel… Now Josh is gonna die…" Was he going to restart again because of that?

"Good. That's a far kinder fate than the other option for him."

"…Well, okay then."

And yep. There went Josh, getting his head crushed because he didn't recognize Hannah and call her name in time. Ouch.

On to Matt and Jessica.

Oh. Oh, no. This wasn't just about saving Sam…

Noctis finally found his phone in the cushions of the couch.

Noctis: This was a wonderful and terrible idea.

Noctis: …I have a feeling karma is about to bite me in the ass and its name is Ignis.

Gladio: Given your texts before, I'm 98% sure you deserve it.

Noctis: You're a terrible Shield.

Wait, Ignis was still making Jessica and Matt hide? And hitting the prompts? Was he not planning some sort of revenge here, or– oh. Yeah. There it was.

"Oh, wow. Rude," Noctis spluttered as Ignis selected the option that straight-up said Abandon Jessica. So that's what he'd been waiting on. He must have noticed it last time through the chapter. "Now you just made Pelna a terrible person too."

"He'll live, which is more than can be said for you," Ignis said with entirely too much delight.

Noctis winced. Well. He'd never seen that particular death before.

And so Matt ran off and survived.

Noctis turned his attention to his phone.

Noctis: …so he just abandoned me and I got my face ripped off.

Gladio: Oh, damn. What'd you do to make him do that?

Noctis: …I might have kicked his arm on the last prompt and gotten Sam killed.

Gladio: :Face Palm Emoji: I would have killed you too.

Gladio: Wait

Gladio: How did he manage to kill Jessica after you killed Sam?

Noctis: …he might have restarted the chapter.

Gladio: …what have you done

Noctis: ?

Gladio: He's playing more by choice?

Gladio: Noct, you've corrupted him

Noctis: Yeah, yeah, I know. I've ended the world.

Noctis: Really, I think he's just trying to apply his normal perfectionist policy to this like everything else

Noctis glanced up to see where Ignis was. Already back to the lodge. Huh. Well, this wasn't too long of a chapter, at least.

Ignis sent him another glare. "Sabotage me again and I will put it on for a third time."

As fun as seeing Ignis go ballistic about that would be, Noctis had no desire to sit through this again, so he fiddled around with his phone until all the characters were safely out of the lodge, including Sam.

And then the credits rolled again, this time having some pretty key differences. Mainly that Sam was alive and definitely the most composed while Mike was clearly feeling some guilt and sorrow over Jessica's end, noting if he'd just been a little faster, then he could have saved her.

"There, you see what you've done?" Noctis said in his best condescending tone. "Now Gladio's forever scarred over failing his duty."

Ignis didn't look the least bit sorry. "I'm certain he'll recover eventually."

"Gee, you sure are empathetic."

Ignis snorted. "I still feel more empathy towards Josh."

Noctis sighed. "…He's your favorite character, isn't he?"

Ignis tilted his head. "He's certainly the most intriguing, but the others all had their charms by the end." His lips turned up in a smirk. "Apart from Jessica, that is. I can't say I'm entirely certain why she was there in the first place. Seemed to be rather dead weight in the end."

Noctis rolled his eyes. "Now you're just being petty."

"Ah, apologies – I didn't intend to trod upon your preferred mentality."

Ouch. How did he always forget how savage Ignis could get?

Noctis' phone gave another buzz.

Gladio: So… Ignis left you to be eaten, huh?

Gladio: Guess he's so good a cook that he NOCT that wendigo out with the food he gave it.

Noctis: GET OUT

Gladio: Told you he was going to feed you to someone, but I was expecting a few more knives involved.

Gladio: I guess you're more the finger food category, like broccoli and carrots.

Noctis: I hate you

Gladio: :Cucumber Emoji:

Noctis: :Nauseated Emoji:

Gladio: :Celery Emoji:

Noctis: :Vomiting Emoji:

Gladio: :Bean Emoji:

Noctis: THAT'S NOT EVEN FINGER FOOD

Gladio: :Crying While Laughing Emoji: Go to sleep Noct. You need it.

…Okay, he wasn't going to argue with that one. He and Ignis had definitely been up long enough.

"Hey, Ig–"

Noctis snapped his mouth shut as he looked up to find his friend already passed out with his head lolled on the armrest. If only Prompto had been here with his camera.

Noctis yawned, tossing his phone onto the empty space between them on the couch before curling up on his end. Ignis had the right idea. Way too much effort to move.

With his left ear pressed into the armrest, he couldn't even hear the game's subtle menu noise.

Life was going to be… different from now on. Probably harder for all of them, but at least some good had already come out of it.

They were going to be all right – all of them.

Noctis took a last glance at the way Ignis' controller was hanging limply from one hand, and he smiled.

Maybe… maybe they could be even better than they were before.

Wellllll, friends, that's it for this one! Next up is the Nyx one-shot by my lovely beta. (ScribeOfRED). :) That should be up… soon. *glances at beta questioningly* Ahem. After that is the aftermath mini-shots (posted as one story), and then on to the real, full sequel! WOOHOO!