❝ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓?! 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐖? ❞ he snapped, his voice thundered harshly through the staggering chaotic cacophony like a clarion call. ❝ meet me in reality, sarah, and talk sense, not nonsense! ❞ his eyes were as red as the blood of hundreds of cornelians soaking their city's cobblestones. they bore into her as sharp as a nifelheim cutthroat, making it nearly difficult to discern if he was still on her side. the backdrop of a once-majestic place was teetering on the brink of ruin, and their princess wanted to asphyxiate herself to death in the thickening air filled with fallen cries. as a lone bastion standing amid a rising tide of carnage, he expected more from her.
maybe, it is because all of that is happening around him is a bitter reminder of the siege that left him without a home and carrying a husk of a crown that bared no meaning until he gave it meaning. he looks from the princess to the grisly happenings and remembers how it wasn't too long ago when it was insomnian air that was laden with smoke. it is a visceral memory that for a second, he felt the phantom sting on his eyes when they had once turned from a deep set of oceanic blues to a seared red, from the profusion of smoke that billowed from tarnished lucian infrastructures as he raced through his homeland's streets.
on that day, he tasted the greatest desperation any human could ever know: saving a loved one. while he watched cornelian buildings being toppled by airships of war, paralyzing pictures flashed in his memory, bringing up how he ran with ifrit's flames at his heels during his run toward his father, while witnessing falling rubble crushing citizens in the distance. his heart ached terribly, but he was spared no time to mourn as incalculable scores of gunfire had ripped through the streets like angry wasps and attempted to chip away at his defenses.
if anything, he was enraged. enraged that his father tried to keep him from staying around in the first place to protect him and their people. like sarah, he remembers making similar noble declarations, a mantra fit for martyrs: stay, fight, and die with one's people.
it took him a while to process how that would've been foolish, and selfish. dying for nothing when one can live to die another day, and giving up a far superior fight. the cornelian princess stood as a form of his external mirror, a reflective surface made of flesh. when he looks back at her, he sees this. there was a quiet respect he took for her stubbornness, and what she wrongly thought was her duty. noctis is almost uncomfortably certain that she has a reservoir of it inside her, and in rare times, such as this one, she'll pull from that and fight him on it. knowing he stood in her shoes once, he couldn't criticize her too harshly in this area.
but he can't get rid of another aspect of the image when he looks at her and the horror befalling her precious home, that being terribly brilliant lights. thousands of them! all these being the orbs of kami. if there's a gift to be found in a situation like this, is the special element of seeing and having the ability to save her people and ferry them onward. she wouldn't know that, but he does, and that's good enough to push on with their situation.
❝ i get it. the idea of running like some coward makes you sick. i've been there. ❞ he empathized, in a softer but firm voice. swiftly, he grabbed ahold of her bicep and started steering them toward the safety of his waiting limousine. his guards, alert and ready, used their magick to deflect debris or bullets, forming a protective barrier around them during their brief escort.
❝ but, you can't bring in a better tomorrow for cornelia, if you end up wasting yourself as some dead symbol. die another day, sarah, and when you do, let it at least have meaning. ❞ he paused, taking the time to quickly open the limo's door and help her inside by practically tossing her in as if she were a ragdoll. he followed her inside and slammed the door shut behind them. his driver wasted no time and sped off, along with the entourage of midnight black vehicles in tow.
noctis helps bring sarah from off the carpeted floor of the vehicle, struggling to keep balance as the limo executes abrupt, sharp turns, dodging dangerous obstacles, as he rears her back to the seat. it
❝ i'm sorry about this, princess. ❞ he gathered his breath before continuing and released a lugubrious sigh. ❝ but i promise you and i both can do what's right for your people when it's all said and done. if you're going to kill me for this, then i can at least try to show you how to do that and then save cornelia in a better way. ❞
