[ shit. this is bad. this is bad, and noct has to know it's bad too. if this had been any other moment, maybe he would have just given up and told noct he would be at his side no matter what. and he is, he always will be, but being here, being around all of these other people from places he could only ever dream of... there's no way this is how their lives are going to play out, that they just have to accept it. ]

I don't know what to think. None of this makes any sense! [ there's a sharp crack in his voice, and he shakes his head in an attempt to brush it off. yet, this time, it doesn't seem to work. ] Especially not the part where you're just okay with dying because some– some prophecy says you should. [ he tries to stand his ground for as long as he's able, but he ends up taking a step back, his face red and his vision blurring as the tears well. ] What if that's why we're here. What if something else brought us here to give us more time? To–to really figure it out. That has to mean something. It has to. [ and the tears start, hot as they roll down his cheeks. ] It just has to...

[ or else, it would all be meaningless, and everything they have wouldn't have mattered either. ]