{For hearth and home.}
The impatient tapping of her foot on the dark marble flooring echoed through the corridor as Averissa struggled with holding her sanity in one piece. She didn't like this. She didn't like this one bit. Unlike the rest of the Kingsglaive that deployed on account of Nyx's discovery of Lady Lunafreya's whereabouts, she stayed put as an ominous feeling weighed heavy on her leather shoulders and she tightened her scarf just a tad. With everything that was going on, Lucis actually agreeing to sign a peace treaty with Niflheim, Noctis on his way to Altissia completely unaware of what was happening in Insomnia and Lunafreya apparently kidnapped by the magitek empire, Averissa decided to try and at least ease her thoughts as she walked to the window overlooking the Citadel.
"Damn. I could really use you right now," she mumbled to herself, bringing a hand up to run away a numb headache from her temple and let out a long exhale. Fixing her parted bangs, her gaze was kept on the cheering sea below as she focused her hearing on the roar of engines in her left ear: Niflheim airships. So Nyx was right then. She brought her hand up for a moment, "Hey, Hero. Try and stay alive, will ya? Can't heal you from out there even if I wanted to."
"...huh. Same to you, Rissa," his gruff voice encouraged her, even if it was slightly. "Try and keep the Niffs anywhere but the registry, and I'll buy you a drink."
"Come back safe and I might even pick up a tab," she chuckled, moving her hand to disconnect the line and she smiled at the sudden warmth that spread throughout her chest; it wasn't easy being so lighthearted in such an intense situation but Nyx really did know how to break the ice. But even with his comforting words, the air felt heavy with tension and Averissa tapped the hilt of her katana resting peacefully in the sheathe on her lower back, the dark blade humming ever so quietly. She promised the king she wouldn't use her abilities to connect to the Void, but the more she tried to ignore the humming the louder it grew. They were beckoning her destruction. "Please," she whispered whilst peering at the sculpted horizon. "Just a little longer. The future will be changed, as long as I can help it...just hope that―"
A thunderous boom blasted throughout the royal building, the tremors violent enough to throw Averissa into the window and onto one knee, and the Crownsguard by the door of the registry stumbled in their place before almost instantly running towards the direction of the explosion. What...what was happening? The Glaive found her balance but realised something and stared out the window, watching the people of Lucis flee for their lives as magitek rained from the sky. But it wasn't the tin can troopers that froze her blood, no. When she looked up at the sky she held in her gasp. The Old Wall. The Old Wall was gone, falling, shattered to glittery blue pieces that looked as if azure stars were falling from its place in the sky. This wasn't happening. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Then she felt it. In the Void, the Crystal...the Crystal was screaming, thrumming against her fingertips with a force she couldn't comprehend.
This was bad.
Averissa spun on her heels and sprinted to the black registry doors but staggered back as the doors burst open, meeting eyes with the High Commander of Niflheim for a second. He stopped in his tracks, uncaring if Iedolas looked back at him and continued on his way out of the Citadel with the rest of the Niflheim ministers waddling behind him, and tilted his head as if trying to find something in her eyes. When he did, he spoke, "Averissa?"
"Not anymore." Averissa drew her blade and flung it into the interior of the registry, quickly saluting the man in white before meeting her blade in a warp-strike against an MT firing at glassy shields, spun in the air before recovering off the floor and firing an ice-infused lightning spell at the rest of the magitek troopers. Shaking the burning sensation out her left hand, she heard the barriers shatter and peered at King Regis and Clarus subtly surprised faces but didn't have the time to take in all the glory as she rushed to attend to the wounded.
"I thought you left, Leonis."
She smirked as she reached down to a dying minister and waved a hand in the air, a golden sigil shuddering underneath their body, "And I thought you knew me better than to leave, Your Highness. Can't send your swords out and expect to fight without one." Then she looked around and saw other Lucian figures barely holding the tethers of their lives together and stood from her place, summoning their own golden heals underneath their frames. "Can't believe, after all of this, that Niflheim would still...that Ravus would…"
"We must escape while we can." Clarus's worried voice attempted to coo the King away from the disarray but the latter man tilted his head towards the cracked, stained glass where the MTs had fallen through and interrupted the unforeseen signing and Averissa did the same. Her brows furrowed; he's coming.
"No Clarus," Regis replied. "I fear escape is no longer an option." Just as he finished speaking, a whooshing sound filled the room upon the knight's arrival, General Glauca sinking into the room with enough weight to lower his stance but not enough to splinter the floor underneath his metal feet. As he made his entrance facing away from the King, he turned in his place and silently watched as Regis, Clarus and two other ministers huddled together, swords in hand. The recovered who fell to the hands of Niflheim scurried out of the registry, the pain still wracking their bodies but the healing of Averissa enough to get them moving as far as possible. "General Glauca."
"It's been a long time since I've fought by your side, old friend," Claus piped up, catching a glance at his king before fixing them upon the knight before them.
"Yes, but this time it's not your fight," Regis countered, "If you wish to leave, go now."
"And abandon my king? I think not. Besides, our magic is bound to you. If you fall, Lucis falls."
"Then let us once more into the fray, old friend." A fuzz of blue and orange materialised in front of the small regiment, Averissa into a kneeling position with her free hand flat against the light marble flooring and the other curled tight around the hilt of her blade. Now, the Void was eerily quiet, as if waiting for her next move but they already knew. They were familiar to the tune of her heart, beating fast but beating quiet. "Leonis? You're not to fight this battle."
She raised her head so that she could blankly gaze onto the helmet of General Glauca, and flicked her thumb against the guard of the blade. "As long as I'm a Glaive, as long as there are those who oppose my king...it will always be my battle."