Returning to the Janus crew, the Athena crew had successfully traded enough things to acquire themselves a ship. It was stationed further from where they had landed so the group ventured over. Following the trader, Ren and Marcus, who carried Sofia over, glanced towards Luciel. His body slumped down as he weakly trod over to the new ship.
The two felt incredibly bad for the young medic, losing his sister in such a sudden way. Hope had lingered within Luciel's eyes when he first saw his sister, somewhat alive and breathing. He had originally thought that she was dead; gone from the universe the moment he learnt about the Rewn pirates but after seeing her still breathing, he had thought she could be saved.
"I'm sure he'll come to terms with it," Adrian said passing the two as they approached the large platinum spaceship.
Ren and Marcus hadn't noticed the ship on their way, they had been too worried about their crewmate and friend. Despite Luciel being a more quiet companion on the ship, he still was vocal about things, but him being so quiet concerned the young pilot and physicist.
"Here we are." The octopus-like being stated, indicating towards the large, two-story ship.
It was much larger than any ships that were built back on Earth and looked to be equipped with more advanced features that the group wasn't sure whether they would understand it as of yet. The group swiftly separated into the ship, racing through the rooms and identifying their territory.
That was, all but Luciel. Chronos noticed that they petite man lagged behind the others after he told Ren and Marcus where they could lay his deceased sister. To Chronos, he didn't really care about the new ship as much as the others, he was vaguely interested in some of the features within the engine room but he wasn't too ecstatic over the whole thing, which was why he decided to remain behind and check up on Luciel.
The two-tone haired man stood by his sister's body in the medical room on the first floor, contemplating how to preserve the body for the journey back to Earth. The two were left alone, within the silent white curved room, the body laid upon one of the beds in the centre.
"What do you plan on doing?" Chronos asked, leaning back onto one of the other beds.
Luciel glanced up at the younger lad, noticing his half-treated wounds spread across his face, a hint of guilt fell into his heart. Despite being so serious about fighting the Rewn pirates, he never actually came into contact with them, the only person who had was Chronos, on behalf of him and his sister. He noticed how a hint of blood began trickling down the blonde boy and grabbed a couple of bandages and wipes that he kept on hand in a small bag he always took with him. After treating the bleeding and patching it all up, Chronos containing several plasters on his face, he returned to his spot beside his sister's corpse.
Pointing behind him, he said, "I thought about putting her either in a frozen capsule or in stasis."
Chronos could see in Luciel's eyes that he felt guilty over his wounds but also about not being able to save his sister. He leapt away from the table and helped his move his sister over to a frozen capsule. Once the was comfortably placed within the capsule, he watched as the lid closed and a small tear fell onto the cold box.
"It's not your fault," Chronos abruptly said, shocking Luciel as he snapped his head up to him, "you wouldn't have been able to save her."
"But I'm supposed to be able to save people," he quietly replied, his head falling back down to face the capsule, "it's my job... If I can't do that, what's the point of me being up here?"
Sitting against a free bed, he replied calmly, "regardless of your position, the fact remains that we're up in space. No one knows what we could encounter up here or what we could catch; you shouldn't be responsible for not being able to heal something you don't know about."
"But I didn't even try!" He yelled, slamming his hands against the frozen capsule, "I just sat there! Crying!"
The sudden outburst from Luciel caught Chronos off guard, he had thought that the abrupt mood swings ended a while ago but apparently not. Jumping off the bed, he took Luciel out of the medical room and over to one of the crews' quarters before putting the capsule away. Once returning, he noticed that Luciel had calmed down a bit but was still frustrated with himself. He held his head in his hands, facing the unfamiliar metallic floor as he wrestled with himself about his worth in space.
"Luciel," Chronos quietly said as he perched next to him on the bed, "you can't save everyone... Especially up in space, it's not possible."
He was silent for a few minutes. Chronos didn't know whether Luciel was either ignoring him, thinking about what he said or just didn't know how to respond.
After five minutes of no response, Chronos lifted his legs to his chest as he thought about what else to say to comfort his closest friend in space. While he was thinking, Luciel mumbled something he didnt catch.
"What was that?" Chronos asked, allowing his feet to meet the metal-plated floor.
"Why are you even here?" He repeated, bitterly, "you don't need to be here."
"I know," Chronos said, as he leant back, using his hands to keep himself up, "but as I said before, you're my friend and I can't leave you like this."
"But I want you to leave me alone, now." He sternly replied his words containing bits of hostility as he avoided Chronos' eyes.
Realising that Luciel was in a stubborn mood and didn't want to talk about anything, Chronos opted for another tactic that he hoped he wouldn't have to use. Talking about himself...
Glancing over to Luciel, he sighed as he began a random story, "so... A couple of years back, my family had a drastic change. And I mean drastic."
He tried to keep things vague and simple as he told his story, hoping that it would keep Luciel's mind off blaming himself for everything that had happened. Keeping his jade eyes on the petite man, he looked for signs of interest or even indications that Luciel's mind had left the hole of wallow and self-pity.
Seeing nothing of the sort, he continued, "like, it wasn't sudden, most of us expected it, really. But honestly, I couldn't believe it happened. Personally, I wished it didn't happen... Perhaps if it didn't we wouldn't be in this situation..."
His words got quieter the further he got into his story, which seemed to intrigue Luciel more as he turned his head to face Chronos. Chronos kept his descriptions of his life back on Earth vague and not-so-clear as he proceeded with the story, only for Luciel to interrupt him every so often.
"So, this change within your family," Luciel sat up as he asked, his eyes clearly showing he was completely distracted from the things from before, "what were they? It seemed pretty crazy and important."
Chronos collapsed back onto the bed, lying back as he stared up at the pure white ceiling as he quietly replied with, "maybe it was... I never found it important, but I guess to others, it was."