Day 0:

The smoke hadn't even cleared before people were rushing in: Gladio made it first, scooping Iris up into a bone-crushing hug, but Regis was a close second and his eyes were fixed squarely on Cor. Or on Reina, whom Cor was carrying. He tossed his cane aside and walked as if he had never needed it at all. Noctis was at his heels.

"She is only unconscious," Cor said.

Noctis was the only one who seemed to hear.

He might as well have been speaking to a deaf man, for all that Regis paid him any attention. It didn't matter that he had done the same damn thing and already found the pulse that Regis was looking for—Regis would do it for himself before he believed it, anyway.

Everyone was a critic. Either that, or no one trusted anyone else to take care of Reina as well as they could, themselves. Cor was no exception.

Ignis stepped in front of him just as soon as Regis had turned away. "I can carry her, Marshal."

"As can I."

Never mind that shooting pain in his leg every time he took a step, the fact that his knee was threatening to give out on him any second now, and the persistent internal screaming that the nerves in his left arm were setting off inside his mind. He would carry her.

"Don't be daft." Ignis' brow furrowed—some of that perfect self-control slipping in the face of concern. "You are injured."

Like Ignis was any better off.

"I'm fine." Cor turned and stepped past him, suppressing the wince that came naturally with putting weight on his right leg.

Ignis dogged him. "Would you risk dropping her to preserve your own ego?"

"This has nothing to do with my ego."

"Holy hell, stop arguing!" Noctis shouted at them. "Cor. Give Rei to Ignis. You can barely walk. Now let's go!"

It wasn't that he didn't trust Ignis to keep her safe—he was a good man and he had proved his aptitude and devotion ten times over tonight—it was just that Cor trusted himself to do it better. But Cor passed her over. Grudgingly. One last glance at her sleeping face; one last brush of his fingers over the ashy burn marks that stretched up her arms. Would they ever heal?

He followed after them, ignoring the pain and refusing to limp just for the sake of placating his knee. But either Regis had adapted better to his own bum knee or else he just didn't feel the pain in the face of everything else; the others reached the Magitek engine first. The hatch closed before Cor could follow.

He watched them fly away, fists clenched as he resisted the urge to punch the building beside him. Not like that was going to do him any good, but Gods damn it he hated being given a task he couldn't follow through until the end.

Or he just hated seeing her hurt and doing nothing about it.

But he was never admitting that out loud.