Tales From The Kronos

Neige at the empty scenery in front of his eyes, contemplating the absence of life. The man walked around for a few minutes, enjoying the peace and calm of the former city.

"What a weird place, just like Polyetta said, something happened to this world." After looking around a bit more, Neige noticed his friend observing the world around him with disbelief "So, Kairo, how does it feel to see another world for real?"

"It's... I still can't believe it. Other worlds, all this time."

"Don't worry, we'll go slowly. We chose this place because it was empty, it should be a good introduction for you."

"Right, according to the leader, we need to pay attention to everything that could be unusual."

Kairo looked serious and paid attention to every single detail. Seeing that, Neige couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"Relax. It's not like we'll see a little girl running around in the streets." After saying that, Neige immediately saw a girl running. She looked like a teenager and had long red hair, going somewhere with bags in her hands. Neige took his firearm in hand, surprised to see someone still alive in this world "Kairo, follow me." The man followed the order of his friend, without questioning him further.

The two followed the girl and ended up in front of a house. What caught their attention was that it was the only house with a lot of trash in front of it, as if someone had been living in it for a while.

"Neige, I think you should go in, I'll stay outside and guard the area."

Neige nodded to Kairo's words and made his way into the house. The door wasn't locked, making it easy for him to enter. Once inside, Neige saw a very messy place, with paint everywhere. He heard a girl sing in the kitchen, and sounds of a cutting board. He only could assume she was cooking. Neige was about to explore the place but froze when he saw the man and the woman sitting on the couch, looking at the TV. Just by looking at them, he could tell that they weren't alive anymore, and it had been the case for a while now.

"Ma, Pa, it's almost ready!"

Neige wondered if those two were the parents of the girl. Since how long was the girl living in that state? He decided that he would wait for the girl to come to get explanations, and after a while, she came out of the kitchen with some kind of soup. Neige thought she would be surprised after seeing him, but instead, she acted like he wasn't there.

"Ma, Pa, I cut myself only twice while cooking today, are you proud of me?" The girl's question stayed without an answer, instead, she took a spoonful of her soup and put it in both of her parents' mouths before sitting between them and eating the rest of her meal.

Neige couldn't process what just happened in front of him, he put himself in front of the TV, but the girl barely reacted. He decided to clap to get her attention, and finally, the girl reacted.

"Wha- What was that?"

"What do you mean what was that, it's me! Can't you see me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry miss, I can't see, I'm blind."

Neige felt bad suddenly, he thought she ignored him, but instead, she just couldn't see him.

"No, I'm the one that's sorry... By the way, I'm not a girl, I'm a guy."

"Really? You sound like a girl. It's been a while since I didn't see another person, I thought I was alone."

"For how long have you been alone?"

"Only two weeks, but see? I survived! I... Survived..." The girl suddenly started to feel sad, but quickly lifted her spirit. "But I like the world like it is now, it's calm, and my parents have been nicer since they died."

"What? You know they're dead, and you still act like everything is fine?"

"Well they don't hurt me ever since they died, so I don't mind."

Everything about that girl was weird, the world ended, but she was still alive. And apparently, her life before the end of the world was the opposite of peaceful.

"Hurt you? What did they do to you?"

The girl stayed silent for a moment, before answering with a sad voice.

"They corrected me because they said I was a bad girl, but I'm not... I just... Like to paint... It's not that bad, is it?"

"Your parents said it was bad?"

The girl nodded her head while frowning.

"Always, they said I should stay inside and study to be a doctor or a lawyer, and every time I painted, they punished me."

"That's horrible." Neige couldn't let her live that way, she wasn't supposed to survive, he knew that, but he couldn't bring himself to give up on her like that "I'm Neige, what's your name?"

"Silva!"

"Okay Silva, I'll remember that. I have a group of friends, and they'd love to meet you. Do you want to meet them?"

"But I'm not good at making friends, I would make them uncomfortable."

"You don't make me uncomfortable, and I'm sure they'll love you."

Silva thought for a while and decided to stand up and wave at her parents.

"Pa, ma, I'll go outside, I'll see you later!"

Neige couldn't help but feel bad seeing that. Was she happy like that? He couldn't believe it was the life she had for those last few days.

They met up with Kairo outside, he seemed a bit surprised to see the little girl, especially when she completely ignored him.

"Let's return to the Kronos, I'll explain there."

Kairo nodded his head, and with Silva, they went back on the ship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neige explained the situation to Kairo and Gwyn. The latter was doing various tests to ensure that the girl they just brought back was healthy. Silva was more than bored with the medical tests but still let the doctor do her work, mostly thanks to Neige calming her.

"Are we supposed to take care of a child now?" Kairo wasn't sure how to feel about bringing the girl here, she seemed happy before they came. Also, dealing with a child while going on missions seemed like a hard task.

"I'm not a child, I'm 16!"

"See, she's just 5 years younger than me." Answered Neige "Silva, don't you want to stay here? We'll make sure you're happy and comfortable."

The girl turned her head toward the ceiling, she seemed lost in her thoughts for a moment before answering.

"I don't know, I just managed to feel good with my parents, I don't want to worry them."

"Whoever your parents were, they weren't good for you." Said Gwyn while noting something in her notebook "You need to eat more and more healthily. Also, it seems like your muscles are underdeveloped, I think you don't exercise often and don't go out either."

"My parents said I couldn't go out until I finish my studies."

"I'm not sending you back there!" Neige seemed very passionate about the situation and started to think about how to convince her to stay, surprising his two friends "You should meet Polyetta, she's really kind. She could be like a mother to you! And I'll do everything I can to make you feel better. Don't you want to be in a more... Lively place?"

Silva tried looking toward Neige but ended up staring at nothing in front of her. After a few minutes of silence, the girl asked,

"Why do you want to help me? You don't know me."

"I can't stand seeing people suffer, that's it."

"Suffer?" Silva took her left wrist with her right hand and looked sad for some reason. "Was I... Suffering?" She seemed a bit frightened, she didn't know much about where she was, and yet, she felt like she could be at home here.

"I can stay for a week, and then I'll go back to my parents."

"It's enough, I'll make you really happy here!"

Neige took Silva in his arms, startling the girl for a moment. It didn't take long before she gave Neige his embrace back, a tear falling down her eye.

"It was Four years ago."

Sepide had so many questions, why did the world end? What did her parents do to her? But at the same time, she was grateful that Silva was with them and not alone there.

"So, why did Silva say that you could have stopped her? Does she have something to do with the end of her world?"

"I don't know, we'll have to see later. I just thought it was a good moment to tell you her story." Neige sneezed and looked at the rainy sky with an annoyed face "We should go sleep now, it's late... And cold"

Sepide agreed, and together, they went back in the home.

Silva was waiting for her friends, sitting on the floor. When they came back she asked a question to Sepide, not without looking away from her.

"Did it... Change the way you see me?"

Sepide ran toward Silva and held her tightly in her arms.

"I didn't know it was that hard for you."

A bit surprised, Silva gave her back her embrace with a tender smile.

"It's okay, now I have a true family. I think that at the time, I was just in shock."

"Of course, take your time, we'll listen to everything you have to say when you'll be ready."

Silva felt happy that Neige and Sepide trusted her, and yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had deep inside of her. She wanted to tell them everything right now while she had the occasion, but she got cut by Ebony and Ivory coming in.

"You're already awake? You wake up early, it's good. We'll leave in an hour, so prepare yourself."

Ivory: I thought I would be the only one awake before the sun, but you proved to me that there is always someone who awakened earlier!

The three friends looked at each other with frustration, it seemed like they wouldn't have any sleep that night.