Silence had engulfed the group for the past fifteen minutes as no one wanted to say anything to Luciel as he just sat there, crying oceans as he held Sofia close to him. Every single person between the two crews felt at least a hint of grief over the death of the final member of the Polaris crew, but none could say that their's was worst than Luciel.
In his scrawny arms laid his older sister, her messy golden hair quickly lost its light as her lifeless body slumped against her brother's arms. Impure blood still dripped out of her body, forming a lake of dark red, crimson blood filling up around her and Luciel's feet. The petite man didn't know what to do now, how was he supposed to deal with his sister's death, her last words, and everything in between.
Noticing that his eyes dulled down into a lifeless state, Ren crouched down beside Luciel and began thinking of ways to comfort his academy friend. In perfect honesty, Ren had no idea what to say or do to help his lost friend, he had never had to deal with losing someone so close to him before and for Luciel, this would've been his second time.
"Hey, Lu-"
Abruptly, the two-tone haired man leapt to his feet after setting his sister down carefully. His fists tightly wrapped into small balls as he snapped his head around to face the others.
"I can't stay like this!" He said, determinedly, "we can't stay put! The Rewn pirates could still be about."
"Yes, but-"
Once again interrupting Ren, Luciel turned to everyone and exclaimed, "they killed my sister! I won't let them get away with this! We need to kill them!"
"Luci-"
Emotions fueled the young man as he dashed away from the group and in the direction of where their ship was. He didn't wait for anybody; he wanted to kill the Rewn pirates and that was all that laid within his mind. Swiftly, the rest of the group collectively picked Sofia's dead body off the ground as they raced after him, most of them wanting to stop him from doing something stupid.
As Ren ran with Sofia's lifeless body on his back, he took the chance to double-check that everyone was together. Since the body he carried slowed him down significantly, he was at the back of the group and could easily identify each person. As he head counted everyone, he realised one person was missing.
"Chronos?" He called out as he tried to run a little bit faster as he was lagging behind, "wait! Where's Chronos?"
Darius turned around as he slowed his pace to match with Ren, "I've not seen him."
"He was definitely with us when Sofia was still alive," Kennie called back, "she seemed to be fixated on him for some reason."
"Like she knew who Chronos really was..." Ren mumbled as he thought about what possible scenario could have happened on Earth for a respected and renowned field medic to have met with a young boy who probably hasn't even finished school.
As his mind wandered for miles, his legs moving on their own, he was suddenly forced to stop his pace as Luciel yelled out, dramatically. Snapping his head up, Ren noticed a large cloud of smoke floating above where they should've landed their ships when they first arrived. Through the cracks between the buildings, Ren could easily infer that one of the ships was definitely in pieces.
"Damnit!" Out of nowhere, Chronos yelled from the right of the group as he appeared from between a couple of building, cuts and bruises had formed across his face.
Stopping by the destruction of the, now clearly, two ships, Ren carefully laid Sofia's body on the ground as they waited for Chronos to reach them. He had a lot of explaining to do with his abrupt disappearance and the sudden formation of wounds across his face.
"Where've you been?" Kennie asked as he forced the young lad to sit down, "how'd you get these injuries?"
"I went to find the Rewn pirates." He stated as Aria crouched down to take a closer look at his wounds, "when I found them, they had blown up the Janus ship but not the Athena ship."
"And you went and fought them?" Aria asked, checking to see whether the injuries are severe or not, "these cuts look like they were done by swords, or maybe some of them."
"There were two Rewn pirates that I encountered," Chronos explained, "as I was fighting one, the other one blew up the Athena ship."
"Where are they? Did you kill them?" Luciel asked, his eyes filled with anger and rage as he searched the vicinity for the pirates who killed his sister.
"Luciel," Ren calmly said, grabbing ahold of his wrist and preventing him from allowing his emotions to run wild, "just... One at a time, okay? Killing the Rewn pirates won't do anyone any good."
"It'll make me feel better knowing they're dead." He hissed through his teeth.
Chronos began to get worried for Luciel, even though his sister died and both crews are currently stranded on the trading planet Cararam, his mind only allowed him to think of revenge and killing the Rewn pirates. It was so out of character for Luciel that even Chronos felt a bit scared of him.
"Make sure Luciel doesn't run wild, Ren," Adrian stated as he took the initiative and led the conversation, "and Chronos, are they nearby?"
He shrugged as he nodded over to one of the narrow back allies, "but that trader from earlier was nearby, so they could possibly tell you where they are."
Adrian glanced up at the back alley, squinting his eyes to form the familiar muscular shape of the trader from earlier. Faintly, he could see the teal-skinned being hiding back behind the walls of the alleyway, keeping out of sight as much as possible.
"Darius, could you fetch it?" Adrian asked as Darius obediently went to fetch the large being.
Swiftly, he brought the trader over to the group, which it was then sat down and questioned about the scene. It answered every questioned they asked and backed up everything Adrian and Ren and Luciel asked it about the Rewn pirates being nearby, blowing up the ships and even admitting to cowering away when it saw Chronos fighting the pirates.
"So everything checks out..." Darius said, glancing down to Chronos as he collapsed to the ground.
"Did you think I lied?" Chronos asked, slightly offended over the accusation, "I literally fought against them, in retaliation for Sofia."
"Yeah, but that just could've been a lie," Adrian said, as he sat down to think the situation through, "though, aside from that, the bigger issue would be what to do about the ship."
Kennie and Skylar, who both scoured the wreckage of the two ships returned with disappointing news. Between the two ships, they barely had enough supplies to last them a few weeks, and even with the scraps, they could fix either ship at all.
"How do we get a new ship?" Skylar asked as she tossed back a random piece from one of the ships.
"You could trade things for it." The teal-skinned being suggested, "with items from Earth being worth a lot, you should be able to trade some for a new ship."
"How much would we need to trade?" Adrian asked, "'cause some of it we'll need."
It turned to glance over the wreckage, seeing whether it saw anything of much value, "that."
It pointed over to a large pile of random items that didn't seem particularly valuable on Earth. The group questioned the being's statement but shrugged and collected the pieces anyway as they ventured back to the transaction centre, ready to trade for a ship. Half of them, however, remained put with Luciel and Sofia's body as they didn't want to leave the emotional young man alone, especially with the current situation happening. The group split into two crews, the Athena crew going to find and trade for a ship whereas the Janus crew stuck back at waited with Luciel.
"How long before we head back for Earth?" Luciel whispered as his head fell forwards.
His emotions had drastically changed from being furious and angry at the Rewn pirates to wallowing in sorrow and a depressive pit. It seemed that the words from the teal-skinned being had affected his emotions suddenly as now he won't be able to find the pirates responsible for his sister's death.
"Once we get a ship, we'll head straight back for Earth," Ren replied, a hint of understanding lingered in his voice as he kept his tone calm and sympathetic towards the Janus crew's medic.
He simply nodded, his mind mainly filled with his sister and her sudden death he had to witness.
"Is there a particular reason you want to return to Earth so badly?" Chronos asked as he collapsed down and sat beside Luciel.
He nodded as he quietly said, "I want to return her home... And tell all the people close with her what happened..."
His words lingered on in the air as the group fell into a heavy silence. Despite not being able to see Luciel's face, every single one of them could easily tell that he was crying. His whimpers were low and barely audible as it seemed he tried to stop himself from crying.
As they let Luciel let out his emotions, Marcus whispered to Chronos. He indicated for the younger lad to follow him away from the others as Ren and Kennie kept Luciel company and ensured that he wasn't going to do anything stupid. Confused over the sudden summon, Chronos pointed to himself before standing up and following the young space physicist.
"What's up?" Chronos asked, puzzled as Marcus stopped by a wall far from the others, "you'd never normally want to speak with me."
"Sofia..." He trailed off slightly as he tried to find the right words to say, "how is it that she recognised you?"
Chronos turned back to glance at the distant body of the woman who nearly exposed his identity. He knew from the instant that she started focusing her mind on him that it would've caught the attention of the others, and they would most likely begin to ask more questions, even though he had just gotten them to lay off him.
Shrugging, he replied with, "maybe she mistook me for someone she knew?"
"No way." He stated, "Sofia isn't the type of person to mistake someone's identity. She's always been good at recognising people."
"But she wasn't fully aware at the time." Chronos leant against the cool wall as he glanced down from the path that showed a steep drop to the watery grounds below, "perhaps her brain was also injured and her memory was damaged."
Forming a thin line with his lips, Marcus could see the where Chronos was coming from. No one knew what happened to her whilst she was kidnapped and how hurt she got, so the possibility of her brain being injured was entirely possible. However, Marcus didn't want to leave it at that, regardless of whether she had injured her brain or not, somewhat recognising Chronos must've meant he was someone she relatively knew.
"I could look like one of her friends or something," Chronos added as he pushed himself off the wall and began making his way back to the rest of the crew, "it's not like I know her."