It was so strange to see him before her, to have him back. When she had been younger, more naïve, she had thought of him as a friend, a protector, someone who would stay with her and be her stanchion of hope and strength. That he would encourage her as she grew, as she tried to lead her people through this time of crisis where most of the Arcus Irae were either murdered or captured. He had even come with her along the gulley into this very spot, where they had all come together, all the remaining rainbows and their Tempests… But everything had gone wrong from there. Many of the rainbows were frightened by the Tempests, and many of the Tempests had been confused by the rainbows. Zawyne has tried to talk them down, to instill a sense of calm, to make everyone feel like they belonged, to give them hope... but she had failed. They all had scattered, and Zawyne had turned to Noctis for support, only to find out that he had not been there. She wanted advice, but there was none to be had other than to fumble in the dark till she managed to find a way to make it right. And yet now here he was, returned, acting as if everything was as it had been, or acting as if it could be as it had been. It was with spoken words apology that he greeted her and affirmed that it was truly him, that he had returned. But the princess shook her head and took a step back to counteract the approach made.

“You are right - I did still need you.” She did not dare meet his gaze, not yet. So instead she fixed her sights at the ground right in front of him - she did not want to see what was within, or what laid beyond. Even now, he crept toward her, his very body language expressing how horribly he felt. There was remorse, and she could appreciate that, but it still would not make up for his absence. “I thought I needed you, at least… Yet here I am now, the remnant of a dead lineage that sought to find a new world in which to rebuild, but has only had luck finding death and distraction.” She did not mean to put the deaths of her companions upon him, but her heart was hurt, and she could not help but feel the sense of betrayal that creeping up her throat, playing her tongue like a little marionette doll. “Yes, death. I said it. Or have do you not heard? Both Vera and Fallon have fallen. Oh how it may have been different if we had had just one more, one more guardian, one more set of eyes watching out for us. Perhaps then I would not have felt their deaths like stakes in my heart, perhaps their impromptu travel to the underworld may have been prevented. ” Finally, she looked up at his eyes, her heterochromic pools meeting his, her vision staring out unblinkingly. Her head tilted to the side and a few drops of saltine sorrow fell from them, staining her fur a darker shade. “And what reason can you give me for your departure? What is the excuse for you to leave without a word of goodbye or explanation? Without a thought to how others may react to your sudden absence? What words of comfort can you lend me to ease my memory of the nights I worried for your safety? Do not be silent now, butexplain how you could have left without thinking any of it through?” Her ears flattened upon her cranium, a soft whine pulling itself in between her lips. “Why do you creep before me and such? I am not your friend nor your leader it would seem, but rather hardly more than an acquaintance. So come then, reach me is to strangers would. If we have any hope of fixing that which we want to called friendship, it would seem that we have to start at the very beginning, everything must be done anew.”

⁂Here^I_{am a}Commoner⁂Teen⁂