Bygone

3

Chloe

Her hands kept to her front, her bag strapped over her shoulders loosely. She was in a mess. She wondered if it'd been the right choice; the morally appropriate decision.. to abandon her own kin and companions. To leave a whole world and its every promise, to risk ending your own life for a foreign land. Why would it have mattered to her anyways?.. she'd been the one to have wanted an escape.

Back then, it'd be metaphorical. Now, it was literal.

The silent whirring followed with a cool breeze of air grazed the edges of her neck and collar, comforting her unstable mind. Her legs were weak and her stance was disproportionate. Ruffling her fingers over and atop one another, she wandered her eyes over the three arks. A trinity of miniaturized vaults of a black reflective steel and a hardened glass aperture that looked into the cabinets.

Three enigmatic caskets, dubbed with three corresponding regalia. A trichotomy of distinguishable insignias that were familiar, yet indescribable to that of her likeness. Three. That's what it had always been.

Chloe then crossed her arms, eyeing down the emblem of the whitest light. The first, furthest to the left. Despite its helm glaring onto her as she'd made sight with it, its almost feminine yet vehement aura called out to her, as if the helmet itself had manifested into a form that suited her. Light called out to her. And she was steadfast in her response.

Be all what light promises it is,

She took a step forward, closing her distance with the ark. And another. And another. And her reflection on the helm's visor dawned back onto her. Her guise matched with it.. like it had all the other elementals before her. Chloe gulped down, her heart tensing as it had finally begun to make its impact on her. She was given a chance to be the good in the world that she believed others would be.

It was all right here.

Despite your irrelevance to the trivium's legacy,

Raising her palm, her throat shaking as her exhales had, she gently pressed onto the glass. The insignia's light glistened unto her, enshrouding her in a veil of innocence and purity. It promised.. promised that this honor would prevail. Her breaths eased. Chloe shut her eyes and felt the light of the ancient armor seep into her. She was given a chance to show the world that light will always reign over any army of darkness. She was going to show them all.

Thou shall shine higher, sharper and brighter than any kin can be.

The sudden, yet expected chirping of the bunker's vault doors partitioning echoed throughout the underground labyrinth and to the pair that had remained within. Chloe pulled her hand away from the door, turning round to see Marcus throwing his sight from her away as he remained arms crossed at the wall and both watched as they witnessed Moira convince Jaclyn to stay; possibly just a little longer.

Once again, they returned to the command table, Marcus now occupying the middling with Jaclyn to his left, Chloe to his right closest to the arks and Moira fixed in front of him. The room's lighting glimmered back to brilliance, still leaving the holographic panel switched on strangely. The three of them still had questions brewing in their mind; especially the fact that they couldn't have been the last ones of their own kind.

"It can't be possible that we.. we're the only elementals that are left, right?" Chloe began, the pair looking to her as she'd spoken her mind.
"Like you said, their energies dissipate and find another person worthy enough to be chosen, right?" She quoted indirectly, "Guaranteed that you indeed had the time to make a smart decision with who you bring into the Between–"

"She does." Marucs interrupted, doubting the continuity of his own narrative.
"She's obviously not anxious or impatient. She has no radars up and running from what we've seen, nor any weapons or defenses at the ready." He pointed out observantly, almost as if he were a soldier here.