Chapter 22:

"So you're actually going to tell me the truth?" Marcus asked, excited but cautious as Chronos is known to blatantly lie.

Marcus' eyes didn't connect with Chronos' jade ones, but he could tell that the younger lad was very hesitant to say anything. In fact, it seemed as though he was preplanning the conversation in his head. The look Chronos expressed presented a sort of uncomfortable and anxious sense, which started to make Marcus all the more curious.

"So?" Marcus asked, facing him directly as he impatiently waited for the explanation, "explain. What do you know?"

Gulping down his hesitance, Chronos began by simply saying, "have you ever wanted to be a hero?"

The abrupt statement confused Marcus and made him suspect that Chronos was about to come up with some sort of elaborate lie or plan to escape from saying anything. However, when Chronos turned to look directly at him, his eyes flooded with honesty, he realised that the truth he's waiting for might not be what he'll hear.

"Why are you asking?" He questioned, as he watched Chronos turn away from him.

"I never thought about being a hero once." He ignored Marcus' question as he continued with what he was saying, "I always thought they were quite... Stupid. Like... Why would you want to save random strangers and put yourself in more danger because of that?"

The words Chronos was saying seemed to stem from someplace in his past, but Marcus couldn't understand why. His ideology of heroes wasn't normal, especially for children.

"I don't understand where you're going with this." He stated, "like... What do heroes have to do with what I asked?"

Once again, Chronos ignored Marcus' question and proceeded with what he was saying, "but perhaps they aren't stupid. Maybe they protect people because they know something others don't so they put themselves in danger because of their conscience."

"I really don't know where you're going with this," Marcus said, the confusion he felt lingered on his face as Chronos turned to face him.

His messy curly blonde hair falling to one side of his head as he rested his head on his knees. The truthful expression he presented through his bright jade eyes gazed over Marcus, locking him in place. It was like Chronos was trying to telepathically say something to him. Something he didn't want anyone else to hear.

Seeing the confusion remain on Marcus' face, Chronos sighed as he stood up and wandered over to a particular corner of the room. Picking up the small flower they found on the Earth-like planet, he turned and showed it to Marcus. Presenting the colourful pastel petals with its bright green stem and leaves to Marcus, it was almost like he was handing the flower to him.

Marcus attempted to reach the flower from Chronos' hands only for the younger boy to twirl away with it before putting it back down and saying, "how'd that feel? Grasping something but in the end, not reaching it."

"It's only a flower, it doesn't matter," Marcus said, crossing his left leg over his right one, "I still don't get what you're going on about. Why don't you just tell me about Earth?"

"I guess one flower missed is okay," he said as he returned to his seat, "but what about a field of them? What if they all up and died?"

"So from a hero analogy to a flower metaphor?" Marcus questioned, "you're really not making much sense-"

"Or maybe you're not ready to hear it," Chronos stated, instantly turning to face Marcus with an expression of significant sincerity.

The expression Chronos presented to Marcus caught him off guard. The younger lad often joked and lied about things; never taking them seriously. But from the look in his eyes, Marcus could tell that whatever the truth was, it wasn't something Chronos was willing to blatantly say.

"I've told you everything you asked for," Chronos said, turning away as he stood up and wandered towards the doorway, "it's not my fault if you didn't understand it."

Having been left alone in the records room, Marcus felt a heavy weight of confusion land on his shoulders from what Chronos had said. The metaphorical way he spoke puzzled the young space physicist as he stood up and left the room, taking a single glance at the colourful flower to his right. As he left the room, he bumped into Luciel, who just finished cleaning the medical bay with Aria.

"Marcus? Hey." He said as the door slid shut behind him.

"Ermm... Hey. Hi," he replied, his mind still in shambles from his talk with Chronos.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, his words laced with care.

As Marcus stared at Luciel for a second longer, he remembered that the two-tone haired man was a good friend of the eccentric blonde boy, "actually, I want to ask you something."

"Me?" He replied, perplexed.

Nodding, he brought Luciel over to the records room and the two sat down on one of the benches. Luciel clearly looked quite confused about the situation, especially since Marcus rarely asked him for help or anything of the sorts. As the smaller man glanced over to him, he could tell that Marcus was clearly confused about something, which was probably what he was going to ask Luciel about.

"You've spoken to Chronos a lot, haven't you?" He asked.

"Yeah, we've talked often," Luciel replied, unsure as to where it was going.

"Does he ever speak in like," he paused for a moment before saying, "metaphors and analogies?"

"Huh?" Luciel reflexively replied, earning a sigh from Marcus.

"Guess not..." He said, to which he heard a small why from Luciel, "it's just, I asked him something and he said he answered my question but all he talked about was heroes and flowers."

"Heroes and flowers?" Luciel questioned, "that's a strange combination."

"I know," he said, sighing again, "I thought you might've had an idea about it since you speak to him the most out of all of us."

Thinking about it, Luciel asked, "what did he say about heroes and flowers?"

It took a second before Marcus fully recalled what Chronos said and somewhat summarised and quoted him for Luciel. He proceeded to talk about the ideologies Chronos had with heroes as well as the weird action he displayed with the flower, which he pointed towards. Once he explained everything to Luciel, the shorter man took a second, fully letting himself understand it before saying anything.

"They sound linked." He said, "the flowers and the hero thing."

"How so?"

"According to you, Chronos said something about heroes doing what they do because of their conscience," he began, "and then he talked about a field of flowers dying. Maybe the analogy was like a backstory for the metaphor."

"Are you implying that Chronos is the hero and people are the flowers?" Marcus asked, completely not believe anything he or Luciel just interpreted.

Shaking his head, Luciel replied, "maybe not like that, but it could be something similar."