Tales From The Kronos

The three friends found a calm place to call their navigator. After some time, they got an answer from the leader herself.

*Do they hear me now?*

"Yes, we can Polyetta."

The startled voice of the leader let out a surprised sound but managed to quickly calm itself.

*Neige! I'm glad you're the one who picked up. To be honest, Silva scares me a bit...*

The three friends looked at each other, unsure whether they should tell her that everyone could hear her.

*You need to get the fourth rank, it's the card that most interns have. There should be an easy target, she's called Marie. She works as a director for the advertising campaign, it should be easy to find her since her name is written on her vest. Did I do well?*

"Err... I guess?" Neige answered, not sure of what the leader meant.

*Oh, it wasn't for you. It was for Emely, she allowed me to communicate with you. Anyway, good luck! You'll tell Silva and Sepide that I root for you all.*

"Thanks, it means a lot."

Sepide's answer seemed to surprise the leader. She stayed silent and the sound of an argument was happening in the background. After a short moment, Emely's voice took the call.

*Sorry, the leader is embarrassed because she didn't want Silva to hear the comment she made. She said that you'll do great though.*

The call cut, leaving the three friends with their new goal. All they had to do was find Marie and get her access card. They headed toward the room where they filmed the advertisements, expecting to find her there.

The group entered and quickly noticed their target in the room. Her access card was hanging around her neck with a chain. She was visibly giving a script to some actors but stopped when she saw the three friends enter without warning.

"Excuse me, but we were busy. Are you even allowed here?"

Sepide took a step forward, taking care of the situation.

"I am an influencer with one billion subscribers. I was ordered to come here by..."

"Sir Aspro." Added Neige after seeing her friend struggling. The woman seemed to not trust them but shrugged and pointed toward chairs behind the cameras.

"Don't cause any problems, I'll take care of you later."

The three of them headed toward the designated place. Silva was about to sit down but changed her mind suddenly and headed toward a woman with a drink in her hand. Neige and Sepide were confused but looked from far away so as to not cause any problems. The woman was about to leave but flinched at Silva's sudden and curious appearance.

"What did you put in that drink?"

The woman nervously looked around, trying to find an out. Despite her attempts to just move away, Silva always managed to get in front of her, forcing her to answer.

"It's none of your business. How did you even see it anyway?"

"I heard it. You poured powder into the drink."

"Sorry to have hypoglycemia, I need to put sugar in my water."

"That was clearly not enough, you barely put anything in it. It's the amount that you would put in a drink if you were using cyanide and tried to kill someone."

Silva took a serious tone at the end of her sentence, implying that she knew exactly what the woman was doing.

"You're not scared of anything, are you?"

"I'm not scared of you for sure. I need your help for something." Silva moved her head toward Marie before continuing "I won't tell what you're doing if you get her access card for me."

The woman thought for a moment, realizing that she had no choice, she nodded her head in agreement.

"Fine, let's work together. I'm Pourpre."

The woman extended her hand, which Silva shook with a satisfied smile.

"I'm Silv."

"That's not my real name by the way."

"And neither is mine."

The woman left while Silva returned to her group. Neige and Sepide leaned toward her, waiting to hear what happened.

"Now we just have to wait and this nice lady will get us the card."

"Did you blackmail her?"

"I convinced someone to commit a crime in two minutes, of course I blackmailed her."

"But can we trust her?" Asked Sepide "And also, shouldn't we take care of it ourselves?"

"I don't think it matters much. This world was supposed to be destroyed so I suppose it should revert to its original state soon enough, right Neige?"

"I wonder..."

Neige still was unsure about the state of this world, the reasons behind its existence were still unknown and he had no way to know whether it was even safe to stay here.

"Silv, your card."

The woman's voice interrupted Neige in his thoughts. Silva was about to take the card that was handed to her but was denied it at the last moment.

"I need something from you first."

"I can still reveal to everyone about your drink poisoning."

"It's easy to throw evidence when someone warns you before. But don't worry, it's not a hard task. You'll go see the CEO, right? Why else would you want a card if it wasn't the case?"

"What if we do?"

The woman handed Silva a letter along with the access card she wanted.

"Give him this letter, it's really important."

"Okay, I will."

The woman nodded her head and left without another word. Neige checked the legitimacy of the card and threw the letter in the trash to the surprise of Sepide.

"But what about our promise?"

"Like she'd trust someone that threatened her with an important mission. There's probably poison or something in the letter and expected us to open it out of curiosity."

"But why would she do that? We'll never meet again."

"She's an assassin." Answered Silva "She'd be ready to do anything to get fewer witnesses."

"That's... Scary... Everyone in this world seems so mean."

"That's what money and power do to people. I wonder if Kairo lived in that situation all his life..."

Seeing the sadness in her friend, Silva hit firmly Neige's back to get him out of his thoughts.

"Come on, even if he didn't he would still say weird philosophical stuff about the reason for our existence."

"I don't think it was really weird but... Yeah, I need to stop thinking about it. Let's go, we should leave now."

The group left the room before they would get caught, hoping they'd get closer to their friend.

On their way to the elevator, a familiar girl with ginger hair ran toward them in haste. Neige was about to say something but got immediately cut off by her words.

"Hey, are you against Silv?"

"Yes, you're the girl that's always with her lately."

"Emel, yeah. You need to help me! I escaped from her." The girl nervously looked around, trying to search for something "We should go somewhere safer, there's a small room nearby, let's talk there."

Neige and Sepide were about to follow her but reconsidered when they saw Silva staying behind, thinking for a moment.

"Emel... You're Emely's other self."

"I... Guess? I don't know who's Emely."

"It's funny, there are some things you share."

"That's great Silv two, can we leave now?"

"When you're about to lie you clench your fist and take a deep inspiration."

Silva's friend took a step back from the girl after hearing their friend's words, ready to draw their weapons.

"What? Maybe it's like that for your Emely but not for me."

Neige pulled his dagger and prepared to fight when he saw that Silva was right. The girl just clenched her fist by reflex and took a deep inspiration. Seeing that the group didn't believe her, Emel took a step back with terror in her eyes.

"Why are you ganging up on me? I'm the victim here!"

"Don't worry, we'll just bring you to our ship. You'll be safe and-"

"What? That wasn't the plan!"

"Which plan?"

Emel put her hands on her mouth, realizing that she said too much. Before she could get away Neige grabbed her and handcuffed her while she complained loudly.

"I'm innocent! I swear! I'm too young to die!"

"Then you should come with us, Silv is way more dangerous than us."

Neige called his leader while Silva and Sepide made sure that their new prisoner wouldn't escape. Silva poked her face for a while, annoying Emel.

"Can you stop?"

"My Emely is better."

"My Silv doesn't touch me against my consent! Well, she kinda did when she kidnapped me but... That doesn't count."

Sepide approached Emel with curious eyes for a moment, making her prisoner uncomfortable.

"I don't understand, are you with or against Silv?"

"Against! Against!" Emel insisted on her words. Silva continued to poke her face and spoke up at her loud words.

"She's lying."

"What do you mean!? She kidnapped me, of course I'm against her! I'm not lying!.. Am I?"

The girl calmed herself, lost in her mind. His call finished, Neige came back toward them to announce to them what the leader told him.

"I'll bring her on the ship, they'll take care of her. You can continue without me, I'll be here again soon."

The two members nodded their heads and followed Neige's order. They gave Emel to him despite her complaints and continued higher in the building.