[The answering silence that stretched out as Lockon as he watched Tieria's back made him feel all the more guilty. He'd fucked up again while trying to do the right thing, and he'd just made it worse for Tieria. His intention hadn't been to leave him out of the loop, just to protect him, but it clearly had just had the opposite effect.

And he'd far rather let Tieria bitch him out, or hit him, or whatever he needed to do - rather that than this empty quiet.]

Come on, Tieria, say something.