Chapter 23:

Returning to the bridge where most of the group were obediently working at their stations, Chronos scanned about before taking a seat on the floor against the back wall. He realised as he glanced around that Marcus nor Luciel were there, which he was slightly happy about but at the same time sad as he couldn't talk to Luciel.

"Where've you been?" Darius asked as he turned around in his seat.

"I was just talking to Marcus, yanno." He shrugged, brushing off anything that could indicate the significance of the conversation.

"Talking to Marcus?" Adrian caught ear of the conversation and brought himself into it, "what about?"

Struggling again, he simply replied with, "the usual, I guess."

The two Athena crewmates looked sceptically at Chronos for a second before glancing at each other, questioning whether or not they should delve further into the topic. However, the two had already learnt that Chronos wasn't an easy person to get information out of and it was more likely for them to run into a black hole than getting anything out of the blonde boy.

"Anyway, aside from that," Chronos said, bringing their attention back to him, "where are we heading next?"

"Ah, right," Adrian said as he turned back around in his seat, "the next planet along, Pilos."

"That planet there?" Chronos asked, pointing to a small fiery red planet in front of them.

"Yeah," Darius replied, "I think there should be crystals on that one."

Nodding, Chronos went quiet and waited for them to arrive on the planet. Just before he went into his own little world, he glanced around to see whether Marcus or Luciel had made an appearance. His jade eyes scanned the large irregularly shaped room, see all the other group members aside from the two he was curious about. Seeing as neither were about, he just decided to leave the professionals to their work and daydream for a bit until they reached the planet.

Some time had passed and the group successfully landed on the fiery red desert-like planet. As they looked around, the crimson sand stretched out for miles meeting the golden sky on the horizon, they turned back to Darius with several confused expressions.

"Crystals should grow on here?" Kennie asked, very doubtful of the information Darius had provided.

"From what Marcus and I could assume from the environmental status of the planet that the trader said crystals were known to grow on," he began, "we assumed that they would grow on one like this too."

"The description of the original planet they grew on wasn't in much detail," Marcus added, "however, it's said that they needed warmer climates to fully grow. Hence, we're here."

As he finished his sentence, he pointed to the sky, displaying the several suns floating across the pale-orange background. The group headed through the flat plains of sand as they spread out slightly, trying to cover more land. Eyes peered for miles on end as they squinted to spot any signs of the crystals they needed.

As the group ventured through the sandy land, Marcus lingered back a bit, slowing his pace as he waited for Chronos to reach him. He didn't want to make it obvious that he's waiting for him so he continued moving forwards, only glancing back every so often to check where Chronos was.

He noticed the blonde boy's expression differ from the one he usually kept up when around people. He often projected a nonchalant atmosphere, especially when he was with Luciel or Kennie, but while he's alone, no eyes, except for Marcus', on him, he seemed to express a more genuine appearance.

Most of the group was racing forwards at a fast walking pace as they scoured across the hot land. Seeing as most of them were ahead of him, Marcus stopped in his place and waited for Chronos to appear next to him, however, it seemed that the younger boy noticed this and instantly altered his personality as he rushed up to Marcus' side.

"Aww, you were waiting for me," he smiled, obviously being sarcastic as he knew him and Marcus weren't close at all, "how nice of you."

"Why were you walking so slowly?" Marcus asked as the two began walking in the same direction as the rest of the group.

Chronos shrugged, his happy façade his present on his face, "did you need something from me?"

Confused over his motion, Marcus thought over whether he should poke further into it or not, but ultimately decided against it as he had better things to ask about, "I want to talk to you-"

"You seem to want to do that a lot recently." Chronos interrupted, chuckling lightly at the half-joke he made.

"About what you said with heroes and flowers." Marcus continued, ignoring Chronos' remark, "I want you to explain it further."

Chronos' positive exterior swiftly faded at the words that left Marcus' mouth, "why should I?"

Noticing the change in his tone, Marcus realised that he wasn't going to be talking to the lie-deceiving version of Chronos but instead the version of Chronos who speaks bluntly and metaphorically. Realising this, he carefully chose his words, hoping that Chronos wasn't about to speak in analogies and metaphors again.

"I don't understand any of it," Marcus stated, his face presenting a serious expression as his words flow out, demanding honesty from Chronos, "are you trying to say that you're the hero or something?"

The two continued to walk at a steady pace far behind the rest of the group as their conversation lowered a heavy tension between them. Chronos wasn't making any eye contact with Marcus at all, his view remained straight and in front of him as he stayed quiet for a few minutes.

"Did something bad actually happen on Earth?" Marcus asked, "I want you to answer honestly, is that so much to ask for?"

Once again, Chronos remained silent, no indication as to whether he was going to form an absurd metaphorical response or just keep his mouth shut until Marcus got fed up. However, Marcus wasn't going to give in easily, he wanted answers and he was going to ask anything he could to gain a single clue as to what happened on Earth.

"Chronos." He firmly stated, grabbing ahold of his shoulder, stopping him from moving, "why aren't you saying anything? What are you hiding?"

Silence shrouded the two guys as the last words left Marcus' mouth. In the middle of the desert, the two stood still, not a single movement could be seen from either one as the suns above fled down towards the horizon. The windless atmosphere shielded the two into their own little world as Marcus refused to give up, not letting go until his questions were answered.

"Chronos, is Earth d-" his words were quickly halted by the sudden scream echoing from above the sandy mountain as the rest of the group dashed towards the two, yelling and screaming frantically.

Chronos quickly snapped out of his silent state as he heard Skylar cry out, "run or you're a dead man!"