Landing on the warm prosperous planet with Marcus and Darius leading the group, their eyes entranced with the wonders the fantasy-like world presented. It was nothing like any other planet they had visited before. The air around them presented a sort of mystical sense as it fluttered around the group. With trees as high as the sky and mushroom-shaped stools that scattered across the ivory green ground, it was almost like fairies for pixies could be living nearby. The group ventured across the grounds, scouring around as they kept an eye out for the crystals that they had been searching for. Sometimes their eyes wandered above as planets nearby filled the rosy sky.
As the group strolled through the grounds, their minds half-fixed on finding the crystal and partially still somewhat lingering around Chronos and what he's said before and done. Marcus and Luciel, despite being far apart within the group, both thought about the same thing. Chronos. And his primary objective with sneaking onto the ship and why he refused to explain what happened on Earth. Even though they had their ideas, nothing was certain and all they could do was patiently wait until they arrived on Earth and came up with their own conclusion.
"Should be around here, right?" Kennie asked as he stared deep into a forest-like area to the right of the group.
Darius scanned the grounds, his perceptive eyes focusing on where he theorised crystals would grow as the rest of the group spread out in search of them. Luciel, Marcus and Kennie ventured off near the edge of the forest to the right in silence. Tensions still lingered between them as Chronos' death had only just happened. The three of them all had very different opinions on Chronos, despite Marcus having tried to convince Luciel that he was a bad person and didn't care for the group, Luciel still somewhat believed that Chronos wasn't all bad, and he had just portrayed as the enemy to protect the group. Kennie, however, was still processing the death itself. Having only known Chronos for a short amount of time, yet feeling like the two became brothers with their shared interests in engineering, he didn't know where to stand exactly. Despite not seeing many of Chronos' bad qualities, he still felt a little hesitant to exclaim that the younger lad was an entirely good person.
Glancing over to Marcus, Kennie cautiously asked, "so... how're you holding up?"
Marcus turned to face Kennie, an expression of confusion lingered across his face, "what do you mean?"
"With Chronos," he replied, "I mean like... you weren't necessarily close to him but like... I don't know, you might feel down?"
Staring at Kennie for a second before returning his field of vision in front of him, he replied with, "I'm fine like you said, I wasn't close with Chronos."
Kennie could sense that Marcus hadn't told him the whole truth but refined from asking any more questions. He turned to glance at Luciel, knowing that the smaller man was close to Chronos and had been grieving over the death for a while now.
"How about you?" He asked, seeing Luciel turn to face him as he pointed to himself, "yeah, are you okay now?"
Hesitating, Luciel quietly replied, "I suppose so."
He could tell that something was bothering the smaller man but was unsure what it was or how to go about it without causing a bigger problem. He assumed it was to do with Chronos and potentially Marcus but struggling with seeing where he could begin to ask.
The three continued scouring the grounds in a tense silence as they searched and searched for the crystals. They remained close to the edge of the forest, dodging the unusually large mushroom stool-type plants as they also kept an eye out for any possible inhabitants. It didn't take long before they heard the voice of Darius yelling at them from across the land. Quickly, they snapped around and hastily walked over to where Darius and the others were. Within the minute, they were confronted along with the rest of the group in front of two large crystals, both almost identical.
"So, should we help you lift them?" Kennie asked, positioning himself to lift one.
Adrian shook his head as he replied, "not yet. We don't know which one to get."
Kennie expressed a puzzled expression as he stood between the two crystals, "what do you mean?"
"He means that there are two different crystals here," Darius explained, "but we're unsure as to which one we should get and whether getting the wrong one would cause a problem."
A low ohh escaped from Kennie's lips as he glanced over the crystals, seeing whether he could differentiate between the two. He and Adrian scanned over the two crystals, seeing what exactly made them different whilst Marcus and Darius tried to figure out whether there would be an issue with picking the wrong one. As they remained fairly silent, with the exception of the mumbles from the four working as they spoke to themselves and theorised within their minds, Luciel stumbled back a bit as his mind was still heavy with thoughts of what Marcus had said. Ren noticed Luciel step away from the group slightly and ushered him to follow him a little bit further from everyone else, just out of ear-shot.
"Yeah?" Luciel asked, his voice low and weak.
Ren recognised this atmosphere from when Sofia died, except for the fact that the common mood swings that occurred than had disappeared. He motioned for Luciel to take a seat on one of the mushroom stool plants, which he did, and quietly and calmly asked, "what's wrong? You seem a bit... absentminded."
Luciel glanced up at Ren for a split second before turning to face the ground again, "nothing's wrong."
He placed a comforting hand on Luciel's shoulder, as he said, "I've known you since the academy, Lu, you can tell me whatever's on your mind."
He didn't turn to face Ren, instead dropped his head in his hands as he mumbled, "how can I say something I don't even understand?"
Ren realised that something heavyweight on the mind of his smaller friend and it probably linked with Chronos' death. He cautious said, "why not you just... say whatever you can think of. I'll piece it together."
It took a second before Luciel glanced up and stared into the rosy sky, his eyes flooded with emotions as his face presented a million expressions. Ren could easily see that he was trying to find the words to say, to tell them in a sort of order before talking.
"It doesn't have to be in any order," Luciel turned to face Ren, "I mean, just say whatever. I just want to hear what you're thinking, regardless of when you began feeling it."
Taking a deep breath in, Luciel began, "Chronos. Was he my... friend?"
Ren furrowed his brows, confused as to where Luciel came up with the question in the first place, "I-yeah. I would say so."
"Really?" Luciel asked, his voice weak as if he was about to cry, "does that mean he cared for me?"
Once again, Ren's puzzled expression lingered evidently across his face as he replied, "I would say so. Where'd you get the idea that he doesn't care?"
"But you're saying that from what you've seen of him, right?" Luciel continued, partially ignoring Ren's questions, "you didn't see what Marcus or I saw."
"Marcus?" He asked, "what'd he say?"
Hesitating, Luciel slowly and quietly said, "Chronos doesn't care. He only cared for his plan."
Quickly, Ren realised that Marcus had said something to Luciel that caused the medic more problems than what he initially had. Making a mental note to question Marcus once the crystals issue was resolved, he proceeds to try to find a way to get Luciel to forget everything Marcus had suggested about Chronos as a person.
"I don't think so." Ren said, leaning back against the mushroom-like plant, "from what I saw between you and Chronos, I'd say your friendship went both ways. I think Chronos thought of you as a friend as much as you thought of him as a friend."
"If that's the case, then why did he seem to care about his plan over me or anyone else?" He asked, "like, wouldn't a normal person not want to die alone? Don't they want to die with someone with them because of how scary it is?"
Sighing, Ren calmly replied, "Chronos wouldn't have wanted you to die and he probably knew that if you stayed with him, you would've died. He isn't a very... expressive person so he probably phrased it in a way that makes it seem like he only cares about this plan that he had over his friends."
"So you think he actually cares?"
"Yup." Ren replied, a simple small smile filtered across his face as he pushed himself off the plant, "I think that his priority was his plan, but he also deeply cared for all of us on the ship, even if it doesn't seem as obvious." He helped Luciel off the plant, and the two wandered back to the group but before they arrived, Ren quietly spoke, "at least, that's was I saw from what he portrayed."