Three Strikes [✓]

Non Nobis Solum

She glanced down at the Princess, who went quiet for several moments. Lowering her head, her voice was just above a whisper as she finally, reluctantly answered. "I don't have one..."

"Then why should I hear you out?" Naomi asked with a sigh, looking away from the Princess again. She kept her voice level, and she didn't feel angry like she had been. Now it was just slight annoyance she had to worry about, if even that. "The way things went, it seemed like you had a pretty damn good reason for me to shut up and listen to you. And now, here we are, and you don't even have a plan. So, why should I listen? Why should I consider risking the lives of my men and these refugees?"

"Because we do want the same thing. You want to save your people, and I want to save mine," the Princess answered, hesitating only briefly. She sniffled, like she was trying to keep from crying, though Naomi guessed that was a result of her own hurt and anger. "Those refugees are our common ground. They're just as much my people as they are yours. And they're innocents in all this that we both want to protect."

"It's not just the refugees I have to worry about, though. Every one of these pilots is under my command," Naomi said, nodding towards the flight line where Cyclops and Mage were coordinating with the Erusean defectors, while the rest of Strider Squadron and Avril went over aircraft, all the while Golem lended a hand with the ground troops in trying to clean up the base some more. Each and every one of them was her responsibility. "Whatever happens, I am not going to put their lives on the line unless I know we stand a chance."

"I have the burden of an entire country on my shoulders. A burden I never asked for, but one that's mine to carry nonetheless," the Princess said, her voice no longer soft as she straightened up, trying to speak at a normal volume. Naomi guessed to sound confident. "I'm not comparing my burdens to yours. Osea depends on you a great deal, not just your soldiers, just like Erusea depends on me. I never wanted to endanger my people with this war any more than you want to endanger yours."

"The difference between the two of us is that you asked for this war. Every time I've encouraged my men was when we were fighting the battles in a war you started," Naomi said. No one in this war was a saint, and she wasn't going to pretend that Osea hadn't picked their fair share of fights. But this particular war was not one they wanted. "Whether you wanted to or not, that's what's happened. Now the rest of us are paying for it."

"I just thought I was doing the right thing...that's what they told me..." the Princess replied, her voice beginning to crack. She sounded on the verge of tears once again, reaching up to wipe her eyes. She sniffled again. "They shoved a script in my hands and cameras in my face before I was even eighteen. My birthday was in June...a few days after Harling died, almost a month after the war started. And I spent my birthday talking about what a great victory that operation had been for Erusea, hundreds of miles from my home and friends. I just sucked it up and told myself everything was Osea's fault."

"Yeah, trust me, none of us wanted this," Naomi said, feeling bad but probably not as much as she should have. She'd been in a worse situation, though that wasn't exactly fair on the Princess. The truth was, they were both treated like nothing by those above them until they became convenient. Or at least that's what it seemed like to Naomi, something that conflicted with her previous image of the Princess.

"I've started to see that, over the past few months. If I'm being honest, I don't know what to believe anymore," the Princess said with a shake of her head. "I don't know if I've been manipulated by everyone all this time or if I truly have allies. But I do know that I don't want anyone else to suffer because of this war."

"But you don't have a plan any more than we do," Naomi said, almost scoffing. She crossed her arms. "You can't just snap your fingers and reverse this shit."