Racing through the desert, the fiery suns burning down onto the group as a hoard of inhabitants chase after them. With stone spears in their hands, they chase after them, sometimes throwing their spear and barely missing someone and sometimes just racing towards them. It was a tiring and sweaty chase as the group raced around the sandy land, trying their best to avoid the incoming spears and losing the hoard behind them.
The light-skinned horned inhabitants were very persistent, relentlessly hunting down the group without breaking a sweat as their dark eyes locked onto each person. With their sharpened spears shining against the several suns high in the sky, they lift them, ready to launch them into the group. However, just as they began raining their spears down onto them, Adrian yelled for the group to split into two and run in opposite directions.
Once the command was heard, Ren, Adrian, Kennie and Darius all dashed over to the right, still heading in the general direction of the ship whilst the rest of them, barely dodging the rain of spears, fled to the left. With Aria and Skylar far in front, the two women led the other three away from the hoard and by a hidden sand mountain. Chronos was towards the back, his eyes often flicking back to check whether or not they were still being hunted.
Seeing the fiery red sand stretch out behind him, he noticed that the mass of inhabitants that were following them suddenly disappeared. Whether they decided to chase after the other half or that they just lost sight of them, Chronos couldn't tell, but he decided to speak up about their abrupt freedom. Watching everyone's faces relax as they fall to the ground, absolutely exhausted, Aria and Skylar double-checked behind them in case Chronos had just miss the inhabitants. Seeing no one nearby, the five of them decided to take a short break to catch their breath.
"Keep an eye out in case they suddenly appear nearby, okay?" Aria stated as she and Skylar spread out a bit to check the rest of the surrounding area, "stay here."
Luciel, Marcus and Chronos remained stationary as they sat on the burning sand in a slightly awkward silence. The three guys sat uncomfortably in a sort of circle shape as Aria and Skylar ventured around to ensure that they were in the clear for now. Chronos kept his eyes away from the other two, realising the very awkward and hesitant atmosphere lingering between the three of them. However, despite all the chaos that just erupted, Marcus hadn't forgotten what he wanted to talk to Chronos about earlier and was still very determined to receive some answers.
"Chronos," he said, causing the younger lad to snap his head in his direction, "I still want answers. Explain it all to me."
Chronos peered over to Luciel for a split second before presenting his usual carefree expression, "I have no idea what you're talking about. If it's to do with the chase, I had nothing to do with it."
"Not that," Marcus stated, "earlier. With the heroes and stuff. I need you to expand on it all."
Once again, Chronos glanced at Luciel, debating whether or not to actually say anything with him nearby. Marcus noticed the movement and instantly replied, "I already told him."
"Huh?" Chronos exclaimed, stunned as his eyes widened, "you did what now?"
"I told him about the heroes and flowers thing." He explained, "so you can't use that as an excuse."
Chronos turned to Luciel, mentally asking whether it was true or not, to which Luciel nodded. Sighing, he leant back, pushing his weight on his hands as he said, "why'd you tell him?"
"I didn't understand what you said so I asked Luciel about it," he replied, "to see whether or not he could infer anything."
"And?" Chronos asked, as he shifting forwards and hugged his knees to hid chest, "did you infer anything?"
The two men glanced at each other, knowing perfectly well that they did have some ideas but both were cautious to say anything. Neither knew why they felt the hesitance they did in answering the simple question Chronos asked but deep down, both Marcus and Luciel questioned whether they should say anything at all.
Minutes passed and neither spoke, resulting in Chronos to say something, "so? Neither got any ideas?"
"No, but-"
"Then tell me." Chronos interrupted, "I'd like to know what you think now."
Hesitance rushed through Marcus' veins as he thought about how to phrase it. After a minute, he realised that it was pointless to beat around the bush, especially with Chronos, so he bluntly stated, "you're trying to save humanity. That's what we ultimately decided."
"Oh?" Chronos questioned, a sly expression crossed his face as he motioned for Marcus to explain himself.
"You knew something that no one else knew and because of that, you tried to save humanity," Marcus explained, vaguely as he made several assumptions to reach his conclusions.
"Why humanity?" Chronos asked, "why not Earth? Why specifically humanity?"
Marcus paused for a second before saying, "because we assumed that the flower metaphor meant like people."
"And if it did, wouldn't that mean humanity's dead?" Chronos bluntly stated, "how could I save someone who's dead?"
Marcus paused, unsure as to how to respond to his rhetorical statement. Chronos' reasoning was valid, he couldn't exactly save a species that pretty much had gone extinct.
"But isn't that what you're doing now?" Luciel butted in, his face expressing the fact that he was deep in thought, "like, something must've happened on Earth that you couldn't prevent and that's why you snuck onto our ship and forced us to go into lightspeed - to get away from Earth."
Chronos stayed silent for a second, his face expressionless and unreadable as Marcus and Luciel waited to see whether their assumption was factual or not. It didn't take a second longer before Chronos spoke up, "I still don't see where you're coming from. Even if that was the case, how could I have saved an entire species?"
It was clear to Marcus and Luciel that Chronos was purposely avoiding the main question and just kept on returning to his safe response. Irritation flowed through Marcus' veins as he constantly - desperately - tried to learn the truth and get Chronos to tell him exactly what happened.
"Look Chronos." He stated, his tone clearly showing how fed up he was with Chronos' avoidance, "we don't know how you plan to save humanity or anything like that. We barely know the minimum of you and your plans, okay? We just want answers."
Chronos stared directly at Marcus, his feeling opens and visible for him to examine and understand. He then turned to Luciel, seeing the same curious expression plastered across the older man's face. Sighing, he leant back and shifted his weight to his hands as he glanced up at the clear sky, only having the suns float across the golden canvas. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aria and Skylar slowly appearing over the hilltop, talking amongst themselves.
"So?" Marcus pressured, determined to get his answers one way or another, "say something."
Letting out a defeated breath, Chronos sat up properly as he said, "the truth about Earth..." he trailed off as he glanced around, seeing Aria and Skylar approach closer.
His jade eyes scanning the fiery sand as he plans what he was going to say. As his eyes flickered across the land, they locked onto a small group racing over the hill just behind Aria and Skylar and suddenly, a sharpened spear glides down from the sky.
"Watch out!"