Anue had told everyone that it would be quite a while until they arrived at Mercury, about as long as it took to get from Jupiter to Mars… relatively. Even though it was brief, Ralivil still found himself having trouble following Anue's explanation of how internal clocks tricked the mind into thinking time was still flowing, or… something. They advised Ralivil and Boson to get as much rest as possible, while they and Buzzy Bol would take turns steering the ship. It was hard for Ralivil to sleep, though. Worries about the future and questions about Anue he couldn’t just ask swarmed in his mind. He managed to nap for bits at a time, but at the rate he was going at, it wasn’t going to be enough to warrant a good night’s sleep.

After one such nap, Ralivil woke up to find the whole ship coated in a golden light. Both Boson and Buzzy Bol were asleep, and Anue was at the control panel, seemingly unbothered by the glow. Ralivil glanced around the ship to try and figure out where it was coming from, but it faded before he could find out. Just a moment later, the lid of the hyberpod creaked open, revealing a very tired and very panicked Elmadan. His eyes, wide open for the first time in a while, darted around the ship before landing on Ralivil.

“You’re awake…?” he quietly asked, his voice shaking.

“Yeah… I’m awake,” Ralivil replied.

“Oh, thank the stars! Thank the stars!” Elmadan exclaimed as he crawled out of the hyberpod and over to Ralivil.

The golden glaze over Elmadan’s eyes had gotten significantly worse. His irises were practically golden now, and it was impossible to distinguish his pupils from them. The golden glaze was much more present in his sclera now as well, making them yellow.

Elmadan’s voice lowered to a whisper as he told Ralivil, “Listen, this is gonna sound stupid, but it’s true, it’s all true. Ever since Anue did this… thing to me back at my base on Saturn, I just keep getting more and more fatigued and I didn’t know why for the longest time. I think… I think it’s those ‘powers of insight’ Anue mentioned back when we landed on Mars. And recently, I’ve been having these… moments, where I just start to hurt and nothing I say sounds right and—”

Elmadan’s breath hitched. He wrapped his tentacles around himself and squeezed himself. He furiously blinked, then continued, “Nothing I say sounds right and I think… I think that’s what they meant. I don’t think I was supposed to know, but now that I do… it’s painful… and I… I…”

“D-Deep breaths. Take your time.” Ralivil was as concerned for Elmadan as Elmadan was scared. And truth be told, Ralivil wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold back his tears while watching Elmadan do the same.

After Elmadan had levelled his breaths, he continued, “…Anue told me about one of your powers while you guys were down on a planet – I think it was Jupiter? – it doesn’t matter. Anue told me that you had a power fuelled by emotion, and one type of it had some sort of use outside of a battle. I dunno if it’ll work, but… I want you to use it on me.”

“What?!”

Elmadan shushed him. “Keep it down, you’re gonna catch Anue’s attention!”

“Sorry, sorry. But are you sure? I usually only use it for finishing off enemies…”

“I don’t care. I just want this golden nightmare to end.”

Ralivil inhaled. “Alright. I’ll try.”

He sat in thought for a couple of moments, trying to figure out how to go about things. He then put his hands on Elmadan’s shoulders, closed his eyes and focused his energy on his tentacles. A soft pain came from the Prophet’s Mark. The ship went dark, and Elmadan began to glow white. Ralivil gripped Elmadan’s shoulders, as if he feared they could slip away from him. There was a brief flash of white from Elmadan, before the ship was filled with a pink light. The pink light slowly faded as a golden orb began to float out of Elmadan’s chest. Ralivil warily opened his eyes to see the golden orb hovering between him and Elmadan, before it hovered over to the right wall.

After a moment, Elmadan closed his eyes and sighed, smiling for the first time. Ralivil relaxed his hands, then pulled them back to his side. Elmadan flopped onto his back, murmuring, “It’s over.”

He rubbed his lower eye, then looked up at Ralivil. Gone was the golden glaze. “Thank you.” He wearily raised a tentacle as he asked, “Up top?”

Ralivil gave Elmadan a gentle hi-tentacle. He then looked up to see Anue facing them. Despite their eyes not being visible underneath their hood, Ralivil could still feel the anger bristling on their fur.

“What did you do,” Anue demanded.

“I… uh… I used that special PSI move I have to get, uh…” Ralivil pointed to the golden orb, “that thing… out of Elmadan…”

“You should not have done that.”

Elmadan squinted at Anue as Ralivil stammered, “Wh-Why not?”

“That was the one reliable way I– we could have gotten insight on our situation. That orb won’t last long by itself!”

“Woah woah woah, hold it. Dial it back. Why is that?” Elmadan questioned.

Anue sighed. “…Long ago, much before civilisation emerged on the major planets of this solar system, there was a society of insectoids on the dwarf planet Eris. These insectoids had something they called the Apple of Enlightenment. The Apple of Enlightenment gave prophecies and wisdom to the insectoids of Eris for many generations. Some said the Apple of Enlightenment had a life of its own. But everything changed when an otherworldly monster known as Gargiathan arrived in this galaxy and attacked Eris. While the insectoids escaped and made their homes elsewhere, the Apple was destroyed. One Erisian insectoid named Monochrome believed that the Apple would reincarnate itself throughout the generations, as would he. I don’t believe Monochrome reincarnated, but I know for certain the Apple of Enlightenment did.”

“How?” Elmadan asked.

“Because you are the most recent reincarnation, Elmadan.”

Elmadan sat up in a flash as he screamed, “WHAT?!”

Buzzy Bol and Boson stirred awake, mumbling to themselves.

“What the heck is goin’ on?” Boson mumbled.

Elmadan pointed at Anue as he said, “They just said I’m the reincarnation of an apple!”

“…Wack.”

“Like it, or believe it, or not, it is true,” Anue told Elmadan. “What I did to you back on Saturn was to awaken the Apple of Enlightenment. It – or rather, its powers – were lying dormant in you up until then. The Apple of Enlightenment was part of your very being, Elmadan. The act of Ralivil removing it was an act of removing part of yourself.”

“Well if it was a part of myself, then maybe it would have known better than to subject me to the nightmare that is speaking nonsense and putting me in pain!” Elmadan replied. “And maybe you,” he pointed accusingly at Anue, “would have known better than to awaken that dumb Apple and make me need to sleep all the time from how much that dumb Apple put me through without me knowing! How much help was I, anyway?!”

Anue looked away. “…Much.”

Elmadan glared at the floor and mumbled, “I doubt it.”

Anue looked back at Elmadan. “I did not know you had realised what was happening to you… why did you not tell me?”

Elmadan growled as he flopped back onto the floor. “You wouldn’t get it.”

Anue stared at Elmadan for a moment, then to the golden orb that was the remains of the Apple of Enlightenment. “The rest of the Apple should last about two more prophecies. Perhaps just one. It is hard to say.”

Buzzy Bol drifted up to Anue and quietly asked, “You want me to drive now?”

Anue nodded.

---

Mercury was much smaller than any of the other planets the Timechasers had visited. It looked so lonely compared to the other planets, even with the Sigismundo parked just above its surface – at least, Ralivil thought so.

Elmadan waved goodbye as the Timechasers and Anue headed out of the ship. Mercury’s surface was warm, but not to the point of uncomfort. As suspected, Malik was nearby. He darted from one crater to another, looking for something. He didn’t appear to be having any luck.

He looked up to see the Timechasers and Anue just a short distance away. He ran up to them and growled, “Figured I’d find you lot here.”

“As did we,” Anue replied.

Malik squinted as he scanned the group. “…Where’s the stabilizer?”

Anue cocked their head slightly as they let out a hum of inquiry. Their head perked back up as they asked, “Oh, do you mean Arix?”

Malik was silent.

“Anue said you captured him,” Ralivil said, frowning at Malik. “If that’s true, give him back!”

Malik raised an eyebrow. “What? What are you blathering about, Pestilence?”

Ralivil squinted slightly. “…My name’s Ralivil.”

“Pah, I don’t care!” Malik replied with a dismissive wave of his tentacle.

“As Ralivil said, you captured Arix. Please give him back,” Anue told Malik.

“I still don’t know what you’re goin’ on about!” Malik yelled. “If the strongest of the lot aboard my ship are useless, then why would I replace them with just ONE STARMAN?!”

“Please go and check the Sigismundo. You may have forgotten,” Anue told Malik.

Malik stood still for a couple of moments, completely silent, before murmuring to himself, “…Did I capture the stabilizer…?”

Malik ran off to the Sigismundo. Anue turned their head to the Timechasers and told them, “Let us look for an entrance to the Point of Power here.”

Buzzy Bol raised an eyebrow as he asked, “Didn’t you say it would be useless for us to go to it?”

“It is better than not going to it at all. You may still be able to learn a PSI ability or two from there. Now, let us hurry, before Malik gets back.”

The Timechasers went together, while Anue went by themself. Ralivil wasn’t in any big hurry to find the Point of Power. It wasn’t even what he was focused on.

“Do you guys think Arix is…” It almost hurt Ralivil to say, “…gone?”

Both Buzzy Bol and Boson looked up from the rocky surface of Mercury at Ralivil.

“…Probably. Though there’s a part of me that hopes Anue is telling the truth,” Buzzy Bol replied, looking back down at the ground.

“Bro, you know they ain’t,” Boson told Buzzy Bol.

“I know, I know.”

“…Do you think Arix was the thing that got put into Deepsea?” Ralivil asked.

Buzzy Bol and Boson fell silent as they thought.

Ralivil continued, “I was just– I just thought, because they’re both Starmen, it’d make sense, right? And Arix really nice… so it’d make sense to put him into Deepsea’s… uh… Magi… Magicant, right?”

Buzzy Bol gave a simple, “Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

The three Timechasers continued searching for something that would lead them to the Point of Power in silence for what seemed like forever. It may have been, with time dead and all.

“…Guys?”

“Yeah, Ralivil?”

“What’s up, dog?”

“I miss Arix.”

“Yeah…”

“…Me too…”

---

“Did any of you find anything?” Anue asked the Timechasers.

Ralivil shook his head as Buzzy Bol replied, “Na, sorry.”

“It is fine. It is no longer essential for us to go there anymore, anyway.” Anue looked up at the stars briefly before telling the Timechasers, “It is best we head back into the ship for now. We must get some more rest before we head to our next destination.”

Buzzy Bol and Boson agreed, the latter reluctantly, and they headed back to the ship with Anue. They had gone a few meters toward the ship when Boson looked behind him to see Ralivil hadn’t moved.

“You comin’, dog?” he called out.

Ralivil blinked as he looked at Boson. “Huh? Uh, no, I think I’ll stay out here a little longer!”

“Stargazin’? Aight!” With that, Boson turned back around and headed for the ship.

Once Buzzy Bol, Boson and Anue were out of sight, Ralivil looked up at the stars. They were frozen in place, and no longer twinkled as they did in the past. The sight sparked an off sense of nostalgia in him. In that moment, Ralivil yearned for the days before the Prophet’s Mark appeared more than he ever did. If it weren’t for it, he wouldn’t be there on Mercury, time frozen around him, with only a select few people able to move as well…

Out of the corner of his upper eyes, he spotted Malik slink out of the Sigismundo. He had seen him run out of it earlier, after he had checked the ship for Arix. He wasn’t there, of course. Ralivil had still hoped for some reason.

All of a sudden, he wanted to know why Malik was out and about now. Perhaps he was stargazing like he was?

Ralivil made his way over to Malik. It wasn’t too long of a walk, but he couldn’t help be nervous. How would Malik react? What would he say? Ralivil hadn’t actually talked with him before. Not properly.

Malik, who had sat down on the rocky ground, glared up at Ralivil as he sat down beside him.

“What are you doing here?” Malik growled.

“I just wanted to know what you were doing out here,” Ralivil replied. “Stargazing?”

Malik glanced up at the sky. “…I guess. Nothing better to look at.”

The two Mooks sat together in silence for a while. It was impossible to tell how long.

Malik sighed. “I've gotta come clean.”

Ralivil gave an inquisitive hum.

“I’m the one behind all of this mess. The RPG-maker, the leakage… I’m the one who let it all happen.”

“…You are…?”

Malik nodded. “Sitting and lookin’ at those damn frozen stars reminded me why I’m even here in the first place.”

“And… why are you here?” Ralivil asked.

Malik laughed as a smile was forced onto his face. “Sometimes I wonder that too!” He kept laughing. It soon died out, and he went back to looking at the stars.

He wrapped his arms around his lower tentacles, which were hunched up against his body. “It goes like this.”