I've never seen such beauty, 
I've never seen such clear skies,
I've never seen such high hopes,
I've never seen such tired eyes...

Clear Skies – Keane

.

Tap, tap, tap...

The sound of footsteps running could be heard across the empty hallway with cracked walls and ceiling whenever the earth wasn't quaking, the distant sounds of explosions echoed there.

Broooooooom!

The earth shook, the footsteps stopped until it was safe to move again and started to run; if it wasn't such a critical condition, of course the elevator was an option to take to get to destination but of course, the red alarm was on, the constant earthquakes were too dangerous and the building would collapse any time soon already. Where was the crew? They weren't responding to the signals sent, the last place to meet was their ship – they had orders to evacuate the planet no matter what: a big threat, bigger than anything they knew attacked.

Truly, it was a complete nightmare incarnated.

The quaking earth stopped after a full minute, the person, who was ducked stood up and kept on going in the way towards the hangar. It seemed that everyone already left towards either their shelters or their ships – the ones who were still alive or had injured friends, it wouldn't either take long before the escape spacecrafts, hundreds and hundreds across the globe capable of carry thousands of people inside started to leave the planet until it was safe to be back...

Of course, if it survived the invasion... everything known about that was... it was a terrible being who came from far beyond to destroy them.

The sound of somebody somewhere in the building calling out made the person stop, hearing it again a few seconds later... it was the crew! "Hey!" Called, "I'm here!" Called again now running, it didn't take long before the encounter: Blue gave a tight hug to his friend with the others, looking very happy to see their friend: Orange smiled happy before they all ran again to their specific hangar, ducking occasionally and avoiding the floor falling under their feet.

It didn't take too long until they arrived there, with everybody preparing everything they could get for what would be a long trip. They were probably some of the remaining inhabitants left, the other spacecrafts already took off towards an unknown location across the infinite cosmos – somewhere with similar conditions to their current, now condemned planet... even the military already left as part of superior orders, even if their invaders weren't that strong, their leader was a whole other story...

Orange got ready the launching countdown with certain... something inside, something he couldn't explain nor understand, he felt... impotence mostly, the world was ending and they were fleeing from their own planet. His gloved hands closed with anger, then pressed a button that opened the gate of the ceiling: they still had five minutes to go. The ground trembled and shook even more than the other times making them go pale, a loud explosion happened pretty close to their hangar and a purple beam raised into the aquamarine-turning-orange sky, passing right next to their moon: more than a half of it vanished into nothing but dust leaving it into a permanent waxing crescent phase.

Then there was static, clouds of fuzzy images passing by until the scene went back to normal when Blue started to scream on the window. He couldn't actually hear his voice on the other side, that was a fact, but his mind still heard him yell his name banging against the hard glass panel while the others tried to open the door, the countdown ended. The ship arose suddenly, making the crew splat against the floor, then it turned towards the sky...

And finally they flew away.

And out of sudden there were images fast forwarded incoherently until his view was upside down facing the sun...

And finally Phil woke up gasping for air, sitting on his bed covered in cold sweat product of the dream he had, he also felt... tears down his cheeks; his stomach this time didn't feel awkward compared to the day before, now his lungs felt breathless and his body wouldn't stop shaking like a leaf. It was just a dream again, one that ended with him in space. His eyes darted to every corner of the dark room and touched his body to know if he was fine or not, sighing relieved once he confirmed it was all right.

"Fuck..." He stood up and went to the bathroom to clean his face, his body felt stressed yet as long he didn't throw up it was all right, "I look like a ghost..." He said looking to the mirror, his skin was pale like the last day – shit he looked horrible, sighing deeply he had the intention of get back to sleep-- "Oh fuck!" He fell off and got hit on the side of his chest and nearly his head when there was someone standing behind his back, but of course when he looked there was nothing to see. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, you're losing your mind... Thought with his heart racing, at least he didn't hit his head and end in the hospital again.

Slowly he started to move quite sore and carefully to not trip again like a fool back to his bed, turning off the lights of the bathroom, sitting and then lying on his bed, checking on the digital clock before his eyes closed and shut back: it was 5:25 AM...

Wait... wait!

Chris in that moment was fast asleep (as an unusual event whenever they weren't on tour, which now was the case) after being up nearly the entire night – actually he fell asleep like an hour ago after composing another song that maybe would never see the light and inspiration could never wait because the idea would get lost in any moment; having his guitar next to his bed, some crumbled paper sheets on the floor with a half-sized pencil between his fingers,– showing he fell asleep mid-work as a usual Martin-style mess.

It should be noted he maybe was drooling a bit having dreams about chocolate while mumbling, "I don't know Blitz..." Fair to add he was also snoring softly, "I don't know what's going on..." It seemed he had a friend in dreams or something, "What do you mean...?" He turned on his bed, letting some of the crumbled pieces of paper fall, a couple fell on his guitar before reaching the floor, "Is that... actually possible...?" Then his pencil fell, "That... makes sense... I guess... this is... new for us..." And his body finally relaxed, "Hopefully we'll sort it out with time... thanks mate..." Even if it was in a slightly uncomfortable position, starting to snore again for a while.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Chris wake up!" Phil called outside, "We need to leave to the airport soon!"

The banging barely woke him up, grumbling softly as he wanted to sleep for like once in his life yet Phil insisted everyone around three times to wake up before they completely decided to ignore him and fall asleep again; quite like a zombie Chris rolled once, then twice until he sat on the bed looking still half asleep, "Oh fuck... do we have to go now...?" His eyes nearly shut again, nearly fall to the front sort of brought him back to reality, "I'm awake!" He exclaimed disorientated, "Shut the fuck up Blitz..." He turned to a side to stand up and look up for his clothes, "I'm gonna talk to ya' later, alright?" He smiled, rubbing his eyes surrounded by bloodshot for the lack of sleep, "I'll see or hear you later, whatever happens first."

He took a quick shower to wake up at least in part, get his clothes ready and his baggage before their ex-manager (who still acted as if he was) kicked the door to get them out: he had his passport, ID and all that stuff in hand to go, some money in hand to buy something to eat as breakfast – Gosh my head is spinning... –; then he walked out of his room, went to the ground floor being the first there, doing his check out and wait for the others half asleep.

The next one to come was Will who looked rested and better than him, joining to him on the sofa once he ended the check out, checking his phone in silence while the frontman was about to close his eyes again dozing on the couch... – "Yeah, you don't look fine Martin!" – He opened his eyes a bit in response when he heard this youthful-like voice in his head, turning towards Will for a moment, "You know no one else can hear me if I don't want to."

"I thought you left Blitz..." He whispered low enough.

"And I'm already back, you know that... time-relativity-thingy, whatever!" The voice now known as Blitz replied with some giggles. Chris gave a little look on Will, "Can I talk to Will? I always wanted to talk to him..."

"Nobody knows nothing about you and they'll believe I'm far more mental than what they already believe I am..." Whispered again, trying to get undetected, covering his mouth with a hand as his arm was against the arm of the sofa, again he looked towards the drummer for a moment, he didn't seem to realize anything, "There is no way in hell I can explain about you without ending up in a mental asylum."

"What's a mental asylum?"

"What are you babbling about now, Chris?" Will asked without turning to his big surprise, yelping a bit, "Or is it because you didn't sleep again?"

He went silent for a minute, only he could hear that voice giggling and then laughing as he did the gesture with his hand upon his shoulder as a way to tell it to shut up; it never passed over their attention, they knew he used to do that a lot but he would always put out a different excuse every time.

"I'm..." He dragged the word a couple of seconds as if trying to make up a quick excuse, "trying to put myself together... you know with so many ideas and stuff..." Again that gesture on his shoulder.

Will looked at him this time from head to feet, squinted a few times, "Right..." It was clear he decided to drop the subject not looking convinced enough by the tone given in the response, getting back to his phone and letting him let out a relieved sigh. Jonny, Guy and Phil arrived all together shortly after to do their check out, Chris rubbed his eyes in the need of coffee, having his friends getting closer to them to finally leave. The frontman went along the short-sized bassist and his best green-eyed friend in a cab (falling asleep in seconds against the latter, who also fell asleep) while Phil and Will went together in the other.

"How are you feeling right now Phil?" The voice of William popped his bubble of thoughts at the verge of doze off, turning around to face him, "Did you get some sleep?"

"Gladly I did, I feel better now..." Replied with a smile, "Didn't feel nausea nor want to throw up which... I guess it's a good sign."

"That's nice to hear mate." Smiled softly, "When are you getting your results?"

"In a couple of days probably, they'll send me an e-mail but I guess it was just the stress or something of the last two weeks." There was a little pause, "So I'm really looking forward for this break..." He sank a bit on the seat with a smile, "It sounds lovely to have a massive family trip together before going back to normal..." Will sort of wanted to mention the (presumed) alien affair in their destination but he remained silent. "I just want to hang out and have a nice week!"

Well, he didn't want to think about the weird news from the south and think that whatever landed there was either a satellite that disintegrated in its way back to the atmosphere or some space pod from somebody coming back from one of the many stations outside the planet rather than go ahead to believe in real aliens (of course he believed in Jonny's words, but it still was too much) wandering somewhere close. Shaking his head a bit he wore off the thoughts as the way to the airport kept going for a few minutes until they arrived.

Chris looked like a complete zombie when he got out of the cab, wobbling back and forth due the lack of sleep, managing somehow to carry his baggage inside without help, followed by Jonny who was in a similar condition yet less and then by all the others; three hours left to go, everyone left their luggage ready to be delivered to the plane, got coffee for breakfast, the frontman still nearly fell asleep and often did that gesture upon the shoulder, red eyes yet he was in a good mood.

And after the breakfast he slept against Jonny once again (just a couple of hours of sleep and he would be back with enough energies) on a seat while he checked his phone like the others while they waited to leave. Phil wandered in some random corner of the Coldplay Twitter with a fake account to interact with fans and that kind of stuff without being spotted (there was so much going on there all the time, it was hard not engaging with the fans, even more with the stuff they could bring up), retweeting anything he wanted. It was his account after all, and then...

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or a hallucination or something but there popped a tweet of Chris with a fan in what looked like a town – Hmm? – He rubbed his eyes to check again if he wasn't seeing wrong or if it was somebody who looked like his friend, doing some comparisons between the sleeping blond man and his uh... doppelgänger? Clone? What the fuck? And checking the time of the upload, it was uploaded at 6:30 PM of the last day... but they were at the hotel at that time... again he tried to find differences between the copy and his sleeping friend...

"Chaps?" Everyone minus Chris looked at him, "Am I hallucinating or the man in the photo is Chris?"

They all got closer to check, zooming in and out trying to find differences or if it was photoshop.

"Well, isn't it a montage?" Guy asked both curious and confused, "Chris was with us all day yesterday and I guess that wasn't taken here before our last show...?" There was a prolonged silence for a couple of minutes, switching views between their sleeping friend and the photograph of... whoever he was, "This is fucking weird... it seems... legit but... he can't be here but also there at the same time..."

"Does it says the location?" Jonny asked, Phil shook his head and sighed, "Hmm, this is odd... maybe it's one of the aliens pretending to be him?" Oh true, the only who didn't know about the weird as heck news was their ex-manager. "You wouldn't believe us if we explain you." He raised an eyebrow, "It's a long story."

"We still have time for that."

They sort of had doubts about talking about something unsure but talked about it anyway, about something that crashed in the south not too far from their next stop without leaving enough traces to know if it was some space pod from one of the spacial stations, a satellite or even a freaking alien spaceship due some stuff found in the scene. At first he was sceptical for obvious reasons until, somehow, he started to doubt...

"But do you actually believe that's possible– I mean, if we were talking about actual aliens, how high would the odds for us to encounter them?" It was an interesting talk, at least to kill time, "We wouldn't even know it's them if, of course, they decide to merge with us."

"Or maybe they'll wait the right moment to impersonate us!" Jonny said in a quite dramatical tone.

"They already did with Chris without abducting him." Will said in a humorous tone as they all turned to their friend who was still fast asleep against Jonny, babbling to himself in dreams as he cuddled against his arm. Funny thing was believe he would wake up, only to yawn and hug the arm of his best friend and keep sleeping; odd event, worthy to see. "Of course, if that picture is real." He said taking a pic of that moment for the record, "This is worth millions..." Mumbled and smiled. Guy saw that and tried to repress a laugh.

"And we still have a fucking hour to go..." The ex-manager said quite annoyed, the others groaned with him.

The frontman remained asleep against Jonny, occasionally moving without waking up – it didn't stop at all being so weird to see him like that knowing the way he was, and it sometimes took like at least just a couple of hours of sleep to keep going at his best... now, probably because of his age, he kept on somewhere in dreamland totally undisturbed; from time to time the guitarist heard him talk in a low voice to some person in his head.

That's when the next conversation came up: did their friend need a psychiatrist? It was normal to talk to oneself as a way to process information or take a decision and stuff like that, but there were times it seemed he was talking to somebody else when he was alone – yes, they saw him do that many times, often gesturing as if he talked to another person that was clearly not there.

It weren't times where he decided to practice for a speech for some award or something but have an actual chat with himself, or do that weird gesture upon his shoulder to wear something off, or dart his eyes also on his shoulder as if he told someone to shut up. It was weird, his excuses were another point... some days were this Oh I'm just trying to wear off my thoughts... with the gesture, or I thought I saw someone... with the weird stare.

Some days it felt normal, and some others were more frequent...

Those days were the latter point, they could hear him talk to this person he often called "Blitz". And Blitz was the mystery of the whole point: he never revealed who he was meant to be asides of an... obvious voice in his head.

"Alright if it's one of those days we'll better talk to him because it's often concerning to remember he does that." The drummer said crossing his arms, turning to his still asleep friend. They all agreed it would be a good thing...

With time it was about time to leave, they had to wake their friend up and give him another cup of coffee he drank to the bottom before passing across the customs, sit down again for another ten minutes until they had to queue to aboard, needing to help their blond friend to get his stuff as he still seemed quite dozed off again... and finally aboard the plane in their seats, where the latter fell back asleep once he sat on his seat between Jonny (who helped him to put his seatbelt) next to the plane hall and Phil on the window, also about to sleep again.

Some minutes later they took flight, in around one and a half hours they'd get to destination; Phil fell back asleep with his mind completely black this time, Jonny watched a movie, Guy was having a beer and Will was writing something in his phone (every time he tried to peek out of curiosity he had a hand on his face pulling him away so he didn't even try this time); the bassist had his earbuds playing some old tunes, turning outside every few minutes as if something would...

His eyes got wide opened when he swore something passed next to the plane at high speed, a red blur that passed so fast that it was almost imperceptible for anyone who wasn't paying attention. He blinked in surprise, trying to process if he was drunk or if that was real–

"What the fuck is the problem now Berryman?" He yelped a bit when the drummer took off one side of his earbuds to talk, caught totally off-guard, "Did you see a ghost?" He turned at him a bit pale, blinking twice again, Will raised an eyebrow confused.

Guy turned to take the beer can and placed it a bit further from him without saying a word and sunk in the seat without giving an answer, looking now paler than usual, crossing his arms without looking away from the seat in front as if he looked either confused or traumatized; Will couldn't help but roll his eyes and keep on writing his stuff – whatever it was.

He swore he saw a person flying past to them, an actual person flying right next to the window at high speed, the fact he was a bit sleepy for obvious reasons and also drinking a beer early in the morning (nearly... 9 AM) led to the big thought that he hallucinated a weird scene in his head and he had to stop drinking in that very same moment to get a little nap at least.

His mind didn't let him think on anything else.

Jon by his side kept watching his movie quietly and pretty calm, drinking a cup of water as he occasionally heard Chris talking in his sleep in a low voice... at some points he tried to ignore that and focus on the film with some rate of success when it got interesting until he heard him talk again in a low voice in... some sort of another language this time, a foreign one he never heard about before which felt like a practice because he seemed to repeat some stuff clumsily until he got it right. That was new.

Landing time came close, the sleeping passengers had to wake up for that to happen which led to a disorientated frontman who slowly seemed to slowly recover the sense of reality and a creative director who had some fair sleep for once after several days for that hour and a half the trip lasted; once back to land passed through the Customs, picked their luggage, had a mid-morning snack, checked the flight itineraries and started to talk what to do now as their families would take another good while to arrive according to the data of the screen.

"Maybe we can go ahead to the hotel and come back when it's about time." The bassist said taking a sip of his coffee, recovered from the experience (?) in the plane, "It's gonna take a few more hours for them to arrive, pretty much after noon, meanwhile we can check what to do and try to find Chris' doppelgänger."

"Wait, what?" The blond man asked obviously confused, everyone took a sip of coffee, "What did I miss?"

There was a collective "Uhh..." from the others to then proceed to talk all together unintelligibly, their friend darted his eyes to each of them trying to get a grip of them explaining until he signaled with his hands to just shut up unable to understand the gibberish, which was fun as his head sometimes was worse than that.

"Sounds like a plan," The guitarist said quietly, "Go to the hotel, prepare our stuff, check what we can do while we wait and try to find out about the 'alien' landing as well."

"I don't think we'll be able to get any close to there if we want to check," their drummer spoke, "Knowing they're taking samples to try to find more hints they won't want anybody unrelated to contaminate the area."

"Fair enough..." They all said at the same time, taking another sip of their coffee.

"Imagine finding one of the aliens and befriend them, that sounds bonkers!" Cheeks exclaimed with some giggles, his childhood friend just gave a slightly nervous laugh as he drank his beverage to (try to) cover that, doing that gesture with the hand. "Anyway, time to go chaps."

The five of them emptied their cups and stood up ready to find some cabs, when they got outside they realised the exterior of the airport had a rustic facade on the outside at the same time it looked modern, reminding them to some of those cabins in the north; after finding available cabs, admire the beautiful view of the city and the nature surrounding them with the mountains, lakes and clear skies, nearly getting lost because they didn't really know where they had to go, almost get mobbed by some fans and local press, they found the hotel and did the whole check in for them and their incoming families.

Nearly all of them had three beds, one for their respective couples and two for the children (Will had to ask for an extra bed); the only one who would had his own room there was the frontman (his girlfriend had to fly back to the US for some business) as Apple and Moses were coming with their mum – their stepfather would stay also for business plus it'd be awkward to share the bed with her for obvious reasons; and Guy would only share with Keshia...

Anyway, the view from their windows was fantastic, with the building located by the shore of a large blue lake with the mountains in the distance. The climate was perfect to do anything, whatever they wanted... so it was not a surprise how certain blond man changed his clothes to have a walk right next to the water as much as it was possible...

"Hey, this place seems so... peaceful." He heard in his head the voice of Blitz talking, "I like it... it's similar and different from other places you've been... it feels unique, actually."

"I know, right?" He replied in a soft tone now he was by his own, "I'm liking this place already, it feels quiet and I feel it's helping me to breath..." He inhaled deeply, feeling the fresh air in his lungs, "This place even seems perfect to compose a whole album."

"That's all you can think about, isn't it?" Chris chuckled in response, "Of course that's all you do, why don't we keep going with our lessons instead?"

"Later maybe..." There was something in that place that made his inside feel calm, and he liked that, "I want to enjoy this peace while it lasts..."

"Aye! The soul also needs peace, and I can see you are feeling it." Another chuckle came in response completely light-heartedly, not only his heart felt light but also his entire body, "Hey I see Phil coming!" Chris turned around, indeed Phil was coming closer, "Ayo! Can I talk to him? Please?" Now there was no response, "Alright fine!"

"Oh, hey Phil!" The frontman said raising a hand to greet him.

"Hey Chris, may I join?"

He gestured him to join by his side for a walk, going in their way under the clear skies until they lost track of time, taking some photographs to the landscapes and other buildings that sort of reminded them home. An hour later they started to jog, with Cheeks' face totally red and breathless while his childhood friend was fresh in the way, getting ahead by far a few times. Their last stop was at the verge of the end of the piece of land where they were located, one sitting on the grass smiling and the other flopping still breathless, both under a tree.

The sun was high in the sky, with the sunlight filtering between the leaves of the tree they were under, green hills expanded to the horizon, the mountains in the distance, the fresh, pure air... everything there yelled "nature"; once Phil recovered his breath he sat against the trunk to admire the full landscape from their low point of view, bending his legs against his chest and wrapping his arms around them, placing his chin on his knees... there was certain glint in his eyes, one that was hard to tell what it was, it seemed like... amazement.

They were in so many places all around the world before, every single place they were in was special, unique... every single place had its own magic and charm, some of them were simply unexplainable... it sort of brought certain nostalgia from the past, from simple days when everything felt easier and less stressing; it brought up childhood memories of a distant past somehow. He remembered a similar place, his mum took a photo of him sitting on some rocks that day... lovely memories he wanted to recreate with his children soon.

"You okay mate?" Phil signed when he realized he got lost somewhere in thoughts, not even needing to turn to know Chris looked at him.

"I am... just thinking that I need to improve my health or else I'll get a heart attack." Even though it sounded as a joke by the tone given, it was obvious how important it was, "If there is a zombie apocalypse I'd be the first to be eaten!" Which again felt true.

"Or if there's an alien invasion..." Both of them laughed, with their view getting lost in the horizon again with no track of time, "Hey, now I realize, shouldn't we be doing something right now?"

"..."

Nearly ten minutes later some people saw a yellow lightning (not literally of course) running down the streets towards the airport, some meters behind a breathless cheeky man had to stop to catch back his breath to keep going, calling his friend to wait for him. Some other minutes they arrived, with Chris still looking fresh while Phil had to lean and sit down, putting some effort to stand up and join to his friends, having Will asking where in the actual fuck went quite angry and why someone looked about to die.

Around fifteen to thirty minutes later the passengers of a flight from Los Angeles that made a scale on Panama finally arrived, the five men stood up searching for their respective family behind the gates which took another ten minutes until Guy stood up when he saw Keshia come out, going to hug her tight and happy.

Next on the list were Marianne with Ava, Juno and Rex, all of them going towards Will and give him a family bear hug that was warmly returned in a very wholesome scene that ended up melting some people passing by; totally opposite to what he seemed (big, scary and able to break a head with his drumsticks), he showed a fond love for his loved ones in the sweetest way possible, fixing up Juno's hair, a bit of Rex's clothes and finally give a happy kiss to his wife before leaving back to the hotel.

Another five minutes passed, Chloe came out with Violet and Jonah, both of them running towards Jonny, who kneeled down to receive them with a happy tight hug, his eyes were shining as bright emeralds, "I missed you so much..." He told them with a soft smile, standing up to hug his wife as well. It was a very sweet scene, the happiness in the air was palpable, hard to ignore for anyone around. Once they left back to the hotel, Chris and Phil remained waiting another few minutes until Apple and Moses appeared with Gwyneth, happy to see their father...

Then Phil was alone, waiting for his family for another few minutes a bit... worried, what if something happened? What if they were detained for some dumb reason? Were they okay? She said they were on their way yesterday with everyone – Oh come on, they're fine, don't be paranoid... – probably the long run behind Chris plus the hunger were doing something to his head at that moment. And he stank. – God fucking dammit...

He covered his face with a hand quite frustrated – pretty much as if he was in some strange roller coaster going up, down and upside down with all the weird things of the last couple of weeks plus those dreams he still couldn't understand and the end of the tour and-- a couple of hands cupped his cheeks in a soft manner, he raised his head meeting a couple of green eyes...

Ah, there she was...

"What's wrong, love?" The woman caressed his face softly, her voice had a German accent; his eyes caught a glint of happiness. Slowly he kissed her with a smile and a blush on his cheeks.

"I missed you..." He kissed her again in a lovely manner, hearing a couple of kids sounding disgusted and turned to them to see a girl and a boy, "Hello kids!" He said happily, both proceeded to hug him tight happy to see their dad. "I missed you all. How was the trip?"

"Long..." The girl said quite annoyed. She was mostly the copy of her mother with a slightly darker hair and hazel eyes, a bit plump-ish with the rosy cheeks on her face.

"Boring!" The boy exclaimed. He was more like his father, with the dark brown hair and eyes but without the cheeks and slim-ish.

"Emilia, Christopher." Their mother said firm yet calm, "Let's go."

With that they all left together, with Phil helping them with everything he could looking really happy towards a cab; his kids were all over the place really happy and curious about the new ambient and switching between English and German from time to time, then got into the vehicle and headed back to the hotel, towards their room.

Of course, they were astonished with the view of the lake in front of their picture window, after that they all passed to take a shower (Phil decided to wait, his family needed it more with that long trip) until there was this point where he had a little moment with his wife, with her in his arms sitting on the bed facing to the outside.

"I really missed you Lara..." She cuddled closer to him in response, wrapping her arms around his waist; deep inside something felt calm, as if everything now was all right, not caring about the last days anymore, just the present.

"Me too liebster..." She replied softly, cuddling closer, "How are you feeling? I got concerned to know you haven't felt right lately..." She felt him kiss her head calmly.

"I feel better, I guess I somehow was stressed or something." He didn't throw up in 24 hours so that was a really good sign, the nausea didn't come back since early morning either, "Had to do some tests just to discard anything else, but I think I'm fine overall."

"That's nice to hear..."

Out of nowhere their children surprised them from behind to tell them to go outside with them for a(nother) walk by the shore...

That's what they did.

.

Meanwhile...

Somewhere else we can see Green (wearing human clothes) with a backpack reaching a house hidden among the trees near to a cave; he stopped at the entrance, placing his hand upon a biometric detector to open the door, inside he found Blue on the living room having a beverage humans called "coffee" on a mug silently, quite distant even. It's been a few days since their arrival and his friend still seemed low in energies.

"Hello mate..." He said softly, placing down his backpack and sitting next to him.

"Hi..." He said in a low voice. "Still no signs of him..."

Every single time he could he would be checking if they received some signal from their missing friend, at least a coded 'I'm alright' from some primitive place – anything! According to Green's own calculations, their communication systems weren't entirely damaged, unable to send an SOS call but to receive a message from other planets, even theirs but not from further.

"I know you're worried for him, but you have to try to be strong..." He said placing a hand upon his shoulder, "I'm sure he would hate to see you like this..."

"I know, I know..."

The sound of steps coming close indicated they were no longer alone. Red came closer cleaning his hands with a handkerchief and sat down with them; there was a coffee jar halfway full (apparently, recently made) on the table with another mug, he served some to himself and started to drink it slowly.

"It's been seven terrestrial days since we've been here and the transmitter is refusing to work..." Mumbled, then took a sip of his coffee, "The copper fibres are working fine, but the fuses we got are not good enough... at this pace it will be hard to make contact with the others."

"I'll keep looking for alternatives in the meantime, you can go ahead and rest..." Green told to his friend, "Thank you for covering me, I'll try to keep going myself later."

Red nodded and stood up, taking his mug with him and left to another room, leaving him and Blue alone again.

"This is such a mess..." The latter mumbled, "We don't have enough spare pieces for everything and what's available here it's not being enough..." He sunk on the couch slowly, Green felt his heart sink, it was the first time he saw him so... negative, then took a sip of his coffee again, "We don't know what's up with our families, nor our friends, or our own planet..."

"Blue–"

"And finally the one who's our oldest brother decides to abandon us and go missing..." At that point Green couldn't help but hug his friend tight, some tears came out from his eyes, "I don't understand... I still don't understand why he left... we... I left my family to find him and... he... dropped us... we're stranded unable to get help... and only Shah knows what's next..."

Everything Green could do was try to comfort his broken friend, taking away the cup from his hands, hug him tight, caressing his blond hair slowly, who ended up sobbing with his face hidden against his shoulder for a long while, letting his heart cry out all the pain.

"Hey, there is nothing wrong in how you feel... I know you're still confused and hurt, I am, too..." The green-eyed man spoke softly, "I miss Geordya and Emilianne so much as you miss Aleiza and Helene... Shah is taking care of everyone, that's all I know... even him..." He hid his face even more, sobbing quietly while he heard him talk, "Everything I know is he left us to give us a chance to escape safe and sound, without the invaders following us, and knowing him I'm sure he's safe wherever he is now..." Blue raised his face a bit to look at his friend, looking like a sad puppy. "It will be alright, we'll be home soon... I promise."

His arms wrapped around his waist and his grip tightened on his back as a hand kept caressing his hair, letting himself get comforted in the hands of the love of one of his brothers; there was an overwhelming amount of sadness inside finding its way out... in every moment Green told him it was alright to cry.

The ambient turned blue and heavy, the sadness impregnated on the walls while the aura intensified with a broken muffled sob while it was being also contained by a loved one who didn't leave his side until he managed to pour out all of that pain at least for that moment.

So many things unsaid, untold and unknown, uncertainty for the things they've known to that point and even their future... through their minds a lot of thoughts passed by in a mere second, yet one was able to sort them out in its own way while the other had them stuck and accumulating.

The state of their families, the rest of their friends and acquittances...

Their race, their planet...

And hoping to find, eventually, Orange's whereabouts.

...

Author's note: My Universe music video got released and now I mid-key regret I didn't wait for it because it's Mylo Xylotwo. I pretty much knew had the feeling it'd be like a part 2 but I didn't really expect it would be a spin-off/sequel of the story (which, btw, I'M SO GLAD IT HAPPENED YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)...

I guess all I can do is go on with this one story. Right? In any way, the video brought my hype up to the roof so I'll try to roll as much as I can with the ideas, and hopefully university won't drain my creativity that much (I have a magazine to get done and also a coverage that I left in drafts so...).