A/N First of all, I can not express how sorry I am for having kept my readers waiting for this. There is no excuse and if people have given up on this story and have moved on and no longer wish to read, I completely understand.

I struggled with this story from the first in writing a 'dark' version of Caspian. And then, when I had more or less achieved what I set out to do and made a version of Caspian that had done such things as to make him what I had envisioned, I stopped. I had no idea how to redeem him.

And so I left the story where it was - unfinished. But it bugged me - I have never left a story unfinished before. And then one day something made me sit down and reread the very kind reviews for that I received for this tale and I felt like an absolute heel for leaving you hanging and became determined to finish.

And now, with a clear path as to where I (and Caspian) are going, the tale continues ...

The Dawn Treader tossed on stormy seas, seas which reflected the mood of most of its crew and passengers, but particularly the young Narnian King.

Caspian had sat in his cabins since they left the Lone Islands, refusing all visitors, even Susan, as he battled the cloud of despair that had descended on him. He could not look the Gentle Queen in the eyes, not while he felt so unworthy to even be in her presence.

He had promised the freed slaves and the Islanders that he would find their people who had been taken by the green mist. It was the least that he could do for them. The least that he could attempt to make up for what he had done, for the lives that he had destroyed. He vowed that he would bring back their families, lives returned for the lives that he had taken. Although he felt that nothing that he could do could ever begin to make up for what he had done to them. How he had left them to suffer by his actions.

Caspian glanced out the rain dashed window of his cabin. The sky outside was black.

'Black' Caspian thought, 'as my soul!'

He had killed Lord Bern.

But that had been a mistake, he had thought that the Lord had betrayed him … that he had told the Calormene Prince of their plans. And so he had, but he had told him under the influence of a truth serum.

Caspian had killed his friend, the only one who did not look at him with disappointment in his eyes, and now he was alone … alone among those he loved … among those that he regarded as family … alone because he did not deserve them.

He wished that he could go back to the beginning. Go back and refrain from killing his Uncle Miraz in cold blood. That was what had started all of this. Started him on the path to this final destination. The destination that he had thought in his misguided head that he wished but which he now loathed.

He had sold his people into slavery.

He had become exactly what he had sought to deliver Narnia from … a Tyrant!

How did it come to this?

Or more precisely … how did he come back from this?

In truth, that was partially why things had become so bad. He had wanted at times to stop, to take it all back, to halt on the path that he had taken. Halt and turn around, turn back to Aslan.

'Aslan' he had not dared to speak or even think that name in years.

Dare he now?

Dare he hope, that despite all that he had done, that Aslan still loved him?

That Aslan might forgive him?

Why had he not let himself be guided by Aslan? Why had he continued down this path? Why had he not stopped?

For he had not stopped, he had not known how. Or … he reflected, perhaps if he had let himself, he might have discovered how, but it had all seemed so difficult and in the end, it had been easier to keep going on in the same direction, to not change.

Caspian crumpled in on himself and sank to the cabin floor in despair.

"Aslan" he moaned "help me!"

Outside the wind continued to moan, the rain continued to beat fiercely on the window, the waves crashed against the side of the ship.

But despite all the racket of the storm, the silence inside the cabin, was deafening.

Caspian heard no reply from Aslan.

But Aslan heard Caspian, he always heard … and even though in his despair, Caspian felt that his desperate plea was not and never would be answered.

Aslan laid his plans, the plans by which he, with the help of his beloved Kings and Queens of old, would begin the process of saving the saviour of Narnia.

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"Stop it"

Susan looked at her sister with shock in her eyes. She had been crying, crying because she did not know what to do, did not know how to save Caspian. Caspian would not even speak to her, would not even answer when she knocked on the door of his cabin. She had expected sympathy from her sister, but instead Lucy had almost shouted at her. Susan could not recall ever having heard her younger sister raise her voice in anger before.

But it worked. Susan was so shocked that she stopped crying as she suspected had been Lucy's intent all along.

Susan sniffed in a most un-lady like manner.

"S … stop what? Stop crying?" she asked.

Lucy smiled at her sister.

"Of course not, you goose, cry if you must, in Narnia no one ever thinks badly of you for that."

Lucy put her arm around her sister.

"What I want you to stop doing … what you need to stop doing, is despairing. Stop and believe in Aslan, believe that he sent us back, because he has a plan, and you are part of that plan. So … you need to be ready. Be prepared for when Aslan needs you, for when Caspian is ready to hear you and accept your help."

Susan gazed at her younger sister in wonder.

"When did you get so wise?" she asked.

Lucy grinned cheekily at her sister.

"Oh, I've always been wise, you and the boys just aren't always wise enough to listen to me."

Susan was about to retort to this when she paused and thought.

When Lucy first discovered Narnia …

When Lucy had insisted that she saw Aslan on the cliff when they returned to Narnia …

When Lucy had told them that they should be looking for Aslan rather than attacking the Telmarine Castle …

Yes … there had been many occasions when they would have all done better to listen to Lucy. And looking at her sister, she saw the slight hurt beneath her pert words.

Susan gave Lucy a tight hug.

"I promise I will always listen to my wise little sister in future, and if I don't, you have my permission to shout at me again."

Lucy smiled but then she pouted slightly.

"I didn't shout" she objected. "I just spoke forcefully!"

Laughing, Susan realised in the silence which followed that something was missing. The sound of the storm. While they had been talking the storm had abated.

Susan sighed.

"I should go and see if Caspian will talk to me. Every time I knock on his door, he tells me to go away, that he doesn't want to see me. But I think it is time that I tried again, he needs to know that I haven't given up on him."

Susan looked wryly at her sister.

"There is another problem though." She admitted sheepishly.

Lucy looked at her curiously.

"It's just … Caspian … he's so … well when I'm with him … he's so … Oh Aslan … he's so handsome, that I just can't concentrate on what I want to say!"

Lucy looked at her sister incredulously.

"Do you mean to say that you, Queen Susan the Gentle of Narnia. Queen Susan who had more suitors than she could count, who broke countless hearts … is tongue tied?"

Susan blushed furiously looking down at her feet in embarrassment as she nodded. Both girls broke into fits of giggles.

"LAND HO!"

The shout, coming from the crow's nest was so loud that Susan and Lucy heard it from the cabin.

Rushing onto the deck, they looked aloft to see the sailor on watch pointing excitedly to the horizon. Peering forward, the Queens could just make out the shape of hills surrounding a curved bay.

"An Island" proclaimed Susan. "I wonder what we shall find there" she mused.

"What indeed?" a voice came from behind the Gentle Queen, a voice that she instantly recognised.

Caspian had emerged from his cabin.

Susan felt her heartrate heighten as it always did when Caspian was nearby. Something about his voice, the nearness of his body, even the sound of his voice set every nerve in her body astrum.

Every time Susan had tried to talk to Caspian on her own, she reflected, they had ended up in an embrace. If only there were some way to talk to Caspian without the distraction of his presence she reflected.

After giving orders to the crew to near the island and ready the longboats to land the next morning, Caspian had retreated back into his cabin, without a backward glance.

A/N: That's all for now - I promise I'll update soon! Thanks for reading, I'd love to know what you think and / or if you're still reading.