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Chapter Text

Lunafreya's hand slips, and she knows her life has ended. Behind her a tide of metal soldiers march on. Niflhiem would sweep her up, carry her away, and turn her from a princess into an object. The years yawn ahead of her. She knew her fate and didn't fear it. Gods weren't kind, but they didn't have the same cruelty as humans did.

She watched the king of Lucis sprint, how he ran faster once he resigned himself to saving just his son. Lunafreya wanted to be bitter, but all she felt sad. Noctis' eyes watched her, so wide the whites are obvious despite the growing distance. She wanted to be with him longer. His lonely smile and kind eyes spoke to the hole in Lunafreya's heart. She could have helped guide him. She could have held his hand and explained that everything would be alright, in the end. Lunafreya could have told him that goodbye wasn't forever.
It wasn't to be.

The sky cracked with a violence that rattled Lunafreya's bones. Her breath caught, body going rigid as the world itself tried to twist. Iron and ozone filled the air and the cacophony of metal stopped clunk-clunking as much as it started screaming. Metal could scream? Something-- someone caught Lunafreya's body. Her thoughts left behind, all she could do was grab onto the laples of a man's shirt as he carried her like a doll. She should have been cautious, but all Lunafreya could feel was a desperate hope that someone came to save her. Even if he smelled of blood and violence, even if the magic just under the surface burned, even if he was a stranger with a beard and calloused hands...
Lunafreya longed for someone, anyone, to help her.

The world tipped side-ways. The day blurred, sky and ground meaningless. Lunafreya felt weightless for a moment as wind played with her hair and her stomach dropped. Dizzy, she shut her eyes and pressed her face into the man's chest. Under the stench of battle laid a human heart and a sugary scent.

"Luna?" The man's voice was very rough and very quiet, like he wasn't used to speaking. "Are you hurt? Luna? Luna please--" When his voice had started to turn to desperation, Lunafreya looked up. The man had kind, lonely eyes and wind-tousled hair. He might have been handsome, without the black beard.
"I am well. Just..." Lunafreya tried and failed to blink away the fog in her mind. "I am a bit exhausted, is all. 'M not used to so much running..."
"Rest. I've got you. I'm not going to let them get you. You're safe."
Lunafreya's eyes filled with tears without her permission. She hid her face in the man's chest, gripping onto him like he might vanish at any moment. Like he was a dream, and soon she'd wake up under Imperial control. Lunafreya scolded herself for being so weak, but she'd been scared. So scared. Maybe it was foolish to trust so readily but... but maybe the Astrals had sent someone to help her. Maybe they heard the desperate crying in her heart under the acceptance.

Lunafreya wasn't a little girl any more. She knew better than to cling to fairy tales and hope for prince charming. Still, for just a moment she would close her eyes, and pretend the world was a softer place.

Chapter Text

Noctis had a lot of regrets. They always lingered at the fringes; the last smile his father gave him, Ravus' fate, his own naivete getting in the way of doing the right thing. The loudest regret, tucked away in some Tenebraen cave with a princess that looked at him like a stranger, happened to be the pain running up and down his back, to his knee all the way down to his ankle. His toes were pain free, though. If he were grateful for that, would it count as appreciating the little things?

Tenebrae was a cold kind of humid, a land of ancient forests and a endless waterfalls. The impossibly high cliffs made for a great hiding place, because the empire believed they were the only ones that laid claim to the sky. And, okay, maybe that wasn't totally false. Noctis, all the power thrumming in his veins and fresh from leaping through time, still couldn't fly. Warping? Oh warping had never been easier. Throwing an anchor helped, but he found he didn't need it any more. He could just... throw himself. Space meant very little as long as he could see where he wanted to land. Trips that would have taken hours, passed in minutes.

Another regret formed as Glauca's blood grew stiff and tacky. Noctis thought about changing out of his bloodstained clothes, but didn't want to risk Lunafreya waking up alone with an undressed stranger. Luna fell into a restless sleep, Noctis' jacket around her shoulders and her legs tucked close. She'd been pretty heavy, shockingly solid after dealing with her ghost for so long. Carrying her across Tenebrae, even using warps... well, there was a reason Iggy did the thinking for the group. Noctis had rushed, a mad dash that worked only because he had too much magic and too much will not to bend fate.

His desire to have one, real chance to help her. Even if end result was the same, even if he couldn't save the woman she'd become... he could save the child she was. Sweet, strong, lonely Lunafreya deserved someone in her corner. Someone more than Ravus-- poor Ravus. If fate was kind, he and the queen escaped. Noctis ripped open a chance for them to get away, but he hadn't stopped to make it a sure thing. Ravus had an adult at his side, a pillar, Lunafreya would be alone.

Pain tore through Noctis' bones, and he gasped out loud before he could swallow the sound. The potion knit up the fresh wounds, but the old? The old wounds were as much a part of him as the blue of his eyes or the magic in his blood. Lunafreya's eyes opened, wariness giving way to concern.
"Are you wounded?" She was up and over, a light in the dim cave. "Let me see."
"Nothing you can do about it, your highness. Unless you have a pain relief spell."
"Just who do you think I am?" Luna hid a pout behind a much more refined expression. "Of course I can relieve pain. I am not a child." Said the child. Noctis wanted to wrap her in a blanket and take her somewhere safer. Somewhere warm and welcoming, where the empire would never look. Forgetting permission amid the flurry of hurt pride, Lunafreya set her hands above Noctis' knee brace and closed her eyes.

Lunafreya's eyes widened and she sucked in her bottom lip in a glare of concentration. The light of her healing remained steady, even as her hands shook.
"This is... worse than I thought." She said.
"I get that a lot."
"I'm sorry." Lunafreya lowered her eyes. She withdrew her hands and pulled the wool jacket closer around her shoulders.
"You helped a lot." Noctis could bend his knee freely, and the screaming in his back had dimmed to a normal amount of pain. He stretched carefully, calculating what he could do in his current state.

"Your highness, is there a safe place for you to go?" With any luck, it was compromised. There were traitors in Tenebrae, and who knew how high or where they were. The nation itself had been poisoned by Niflhiem propaganda for years.
"I-- is there any way you could take me to Lucis?" Lunafreya stared at the ground. "Mother told me if anything like this should happen... I should rely on the kindness of the Lucis-Caelums. She made me promise--" Tears built in her eyes. "She made me promise to leave her behind."

"When I last saw her, she was alive. Roughed up, but alive." Noctis would only give what he knew was true. "MT units aren't very clever, and without a commander they don't adapt well. The general is dead, so there is a possibility your family escaped." He breathed in. "Just a possibility, not a promise."
"A ruler's place is with her nation, an oracle's place is among the peoples." Lunafreya choked on her tears. She clenched her fists and shook her head, breath hiccuping quietly. "She'll die before she abandons Tenebrae. And Ravus... I don't know where Ravus is supposed to go in an emergency. I wasn't allowed to know."

Noctis' heart twists. Of course they would separate the siblings in a catastrophe. The line of Fluret must live on, and its harder to kill the line off when the siblings split. Even if one happened to get caught, if they didn't know where the other one was...
"Are you up to moving?" Noctis wasn't sure having a goal would help. Maybe nothing would help. But getting Lunafreya to safety would allow the others to move with less worry. Lunafreya nodded between tears, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Please. I can't-- I can't let them down."

"We'll find you some better shoes as soon as possible." Noctis could promise that. Lunafreya's normal outfit didn't suit being on the run, but that was something they could fix on the road. His brain whirled, caught with the uncomfortable realization that he would probably need to resort to theft. Maybe... maybe he could steal a car from someone insured for theft? Would a note saying 'IOU' followed by Cor's phone number work? Well... it would possibly be hilarious.
Lunafreya stood and breathed in like she was bracing herself. "You're a Caelum, right? Is it really safe for you to help me?"
"I want to help you. My safety is my problem, okay? Trust me."
"I... probably shouldn't trust you. For a lot of reasons." Lunafreya wrapped her fingers around Noctis' hand. Her hand was so small, thin. "But my intuition tells me you're safe..." And she had the grace to avoid saying 'plus, I don't have a choice' out loud.

"Shall we go?" Lunafreya's smile didn't reach her eyes, but she set her shoulders into a firm angle and clenched her hands.
"Thank you." For the faith, for the attempted smile, for being strong when it hurt so much. Noctis would do anything to help the child in front of him. If only to give her one more happy day than she had before. One more genuine smile, just a little less misery, and it would be worth it.
"Oh. What shall I call you? And I'll need an alias..."
Noctis' brain flipped. Oh crap. He needed an alias too. There couldn't be two Noctis Caelum's running around.
"Call me Jet." It was a given name and a black stone. It was common, plain, just like... "What about the name Gwen?"
"Can you pretend to be my father?" Lunafreya asked before her cheeks erupted into pink. "I-- I just think it would be an advantageous cover story. I just realized it might be a little awkward--"
"No, that's a good idea. Should I bleach my hair?"
"I think it may be better to dye mine black." Lunafreya gnawed on her lip again. "How good are you at styling hair? I should change my silhouette! And we need a family name, if we're going under cover..."