Once the trader finished its explanation over everything within the ship, it left the group to roam around and claim what they wanted themselves. With Kennie heading down to the engine room and Skylar and Aria checking out the first floor, Darius, Adrian, Ren and Marcus were all left alone in the bride to discuss something they had planned on for a while.
"Where's Chronos?" Ren asked as Marcus locked the doors to the bridge.
"I think I saw him with Luciel on the first floor," Adrian replied as the four each took a random seat.
They all didn't want to talk about the topic in front of everyone and especially didn't want Chronos to accidentally wander in whilst they were debating over him in secret. Between the four of them, they had quite a bit to talk about from the secrecy that Chronos kept to the weird things that have happened since the beginning.
"Where should we start?" Darius asked, "there's quite a bit to cover."
"How about the latest strange thing that's happened," Marcus suggested, indicating around him, "our two ships being destroyed."
They all nodded simultaneously as Darius started the conversation topic, "I still don't fully believe that it was because of the Rewn pirates; it just doesn't seem to connect enough."
"Plus, Chronos didn't appear too bothered about Sofia's death... well, bothered enough to full-on battle the pirates for Luciel." Adrian added, "he could've simply faked it all and caused his own wounds."
"But he is close to Luciel," Ren commented, turning to Marcus to get some agreement on his statement, "the two have hung out together before and seem to have the closest relationship out of anyone."
"That's true," Marcus said, "they are together now. Chronos might be comforting Luciel over Sofia's death."
Despite what the two Janus crewmembers were saying, Adrian and Darius didn't seem convinced that that could have led Chronos to supposedly fight the Rewn pirates. Whilst they talked about the topic, going on from the inaccuracies in Chronos' story to the fact that Chronos himself wouldn't do something like that really made the group doubt him as a person.
"Aside from that," Adrian said, deciding to lead the conversation to another topic, "for me, I just don't trust him at all. Like, I hardly know anything about the guy or why he even decided to climb board either ship, he hasn't even specified why he hopped onto the Athena ship during our sudden meetup."
"That's true," Darius agreed as he leant back in the cushioned black chairs, "whenever he talks about himself, it's in a really sarcastic and unwilling way - it really makes you wonder whether he's telling the truth."
"It's not just whether he's telling the truth, though," Ren mentioned, leaning over to one side as he rested his head in the palm of his hand, "it's also why he's not telling us anything. Because, honestly, I don't understand why he won't even tell us his name."
"It seems like Sofia knew his name," Darius commented which caused Marcus to remember something.
"I confronted Chronos about this, actually." He said, "he really didn't say much about it and kept maintaining the idea that Sofia thought he was someone else. But, we all know Sofia wouldn't make a mistake like that."
"Perhaps he was some famous rich kid on Earth?" Ren suggested, "but that wouldn't explain why he snuck aboard the ship to enter space."
"There must be a bigger reasoning behind it all," Adrian stated, thinking about all the possibilities that could've happened to the young lad on Earth to make him want to leave and venture out into space, "it's not like Earth's destroyed or anything, they wouldn't have sent us up here if it was going to be destroyed."
The group chuckled along to the half-hearted joke Adrian made as they all thought over why Chronos would've wanted to come out into space. The possibilities were endless but the chances to even get close to the ship before it took off were scarce. As they contemplated over his reasoning to be out there, a sudden knock broke their thoughts as Marcus unlocked the doors to the bridge.
Aria and Skylar entered, confused over why the doors were locked but didn't delve into it too much. The two women each took a seat as they asked about when they were planning to take off back to Earth.
"Oh, right, yes." Adrian replied, realising that they were stationed on the planet for a little too long, "let's notify everyone first."
Aria nodded as she went to find Luciel, Chronos and Kennie. Skylar remained in the bridge, curious over what the four guys were secretly talking about, however, she had a feeling that none of them would tell her if she explicitly asked them.
"What've you been doing, then?" She asked.
"Discussing some things," Adrian vaguely replied, turning his head away from her as he thought about checking exactly how far they were from Earth.
"Like what?" She continued, "something you couldn't say with Aria and me in the room?"
"Just... Nothing much really." Ren replied as he glanced over the controls, seeing a couple he didn't recognise.
Before she could ask another question, Aria returned with Luciel and Kennie right behind her. Chronos, however, wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Where's Chronos?" Marcus asked as he stood up from his seat to check whether he was just lagging behind.
"He wasn't with Luciel." Aria replied, "nor was he with Kennie."
"Did he tell you where he was going, Luciel?" Ren asked.
Shaking his head, Luciel took a seat beside a large control panel that stretched up across the wall, "after we talked for a bit, he just left me alone without saying a word."
"You guys talked?" Marcus asked, "about what?"
"Nothing really..." Luciel replied, spinning in his seat, "he kinda just spoke about himself... I guess?"
Once the words left Luciel's mouth, every single person - aside from Kennie - questioned him about what he said. Questions from whether Chronos said his real name to what his life was like on Earth to why he snuck aboard the ships flew towards Luciel in a mass of jumbled words. Not getting much out of what anyone was saying, he simply spun around, turning his back to the group, as he whispered something. Ren, noticing that Luciel had said something but not being able to hear it, made everyone else shut up before asking him to repeat himself.
"He didn't mention anything like that..." Luciel said again, "but at the same time, he did."
From the tone of his words, Kennie could tell that Luciel had caught onto something when he spoke with Chronos, "could you say what he said?"
Slowly spinning back around, confusion filtered in his eyes as he repeated Chronos' words, "just before he left me alone, he had said I'm sorry."