Chapter 35: Darkness Brings Light
Silv was held at gunpoint, with Silva and Sepide both looking, powerless. Neige wasn't going to let her go this time. Silv searched around for anything she could use as a weapon, she was clearly worried but still kept her confident smile.
"How did I not feel you coming?... Wait, is the anomaly here too?"
"Why does it matter?" Neige answered with a threatening tone, surprising even his friends. Silv proudly put her hand on her chest
"Well you see, I was blessed by the Goddess, and-"
"Actually, I don't give a fuck. You caused enough problems. You're under arrest, put Silva's watch on the ground."
The girl searched around, her hands in the air. She had no intention of giving up just yet and put a mischievous smile on her face.
"What if I told you there was a way to save Kairo, make everyone go back as it was before?"
For a split second, Neige lowered his guard but quickly regained focus. He knew it was just a plan to gain time, but he still couldn't pass on the opportunity, maybe she was right.
"How can I know you're not lying?"
"You can always ask your Polyetta, Leader, Yada, or whatever her name is. But like I said, I was blessed by the Goddess. She gave me-"
Without a warning, Neige shot Silv's right arm. She let out a scream and was clearly in pain, but Neige still kept a calm and cold voice.
"You talk too much, how can I bring Kairo back?"
"Are you crazy? I'm telling you the biggest revelation and-"
"Like I said, I don't give a fuck. You've caused enough problems to my friends like that, and the only reason I didn't shoot your head is because you can bring Kairo back."
Sepide looked at Neige, he seemed tired, his eyes were empty, and his behavior was unusual. As for Silv, for the first time, she seemed scared. Not scared for her plan failing, but scared for her life. It was never a possibility for her, and yet, she was faced with death in front of her.
"There is a way to travel through time! The anomaly can!"
"Good, now, give me the watch."
"Fine, take your trash." Silv detached the watch off her wrist and threw it on the ground. "So what now? Game over?"
"I wish, you caused so many problems to Silva, and now even Sepide. But I won't kill you, yet. We'll bring you on the ship, and decide your fate. Ada, can you free Silva and Sepide."
A cloud of smoke appeared from behind Neige, and the anomaly came out of it while posing.
"Right away, partner!"
She detached the two hostages, but they didn't really know how to feel. On one hand, it was the monster that caused all these troubles, and on the other, she helped them.
Neige made sure that his friends were safe and finally felt relieved when he saw them all right.
They finally managed to catch Silv, she was looking shamefully at the ground, tied up with the same rope she used to tie Silva.
"Neige! I found the dagger!"
"It wasn't supposed to go like that..." Silv said, defeated "I was supposed to steal Sepide's watch, and then I lured the anomaly, and you'd stop her... Why?"
"Everyone is ready to go back on the ship?" Asked Neige, to which the anomaly answered by raising her hand shyly.
"About that. You're probably going to hate me for that, but it's just too good of an opportunity to pass."
Before Neige could ask, the anomaly jumped on him. In an instant, reality broke around them and they disappeared suddenly. Sepide and Silva stared in shock, they tried to stop it, but it already was too late. They were now alone in the room, far from Neige and the anomaly.
"Did she... Take Neige away?..." Silva couldn't believe it, she felt so powerless. If only she reacted earlier, maybe she could have stopped it.
"I admit, getting caught was bad, but knowing that you feel bad makes me feel better!"
The two stayed silent for a moment until Silva decided to take the lead. She took her watch from the ground and turned toward Sepide.
"We need to go back to the Kronos and explain the situation. We'll need to deal with Silv also."
Sepide nodded her head, and silently, they returned to the ship with Silv.
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The group explained everything that happened to everyone in the hall. They couldn't believe that Neige got kidnapped like that, especially the leader. She seemed devastated and just looked into the void.
"So, what are we doing with her?" Asked Sepide, while pointing at Silv still tied up.
"I think we should just lock her in a cell, we can always decide what to do after finding Neige. What do you think, leader?"
"Huh?" The leader barely reacted to Silva's question. She looked extremely saddened, almost to the point of not functioning "Sure, do whatever you want... I need to go find Neige..." Ignoring everyone, she left the room. No one knew what to do, usually, Neige would take leadership if the leader was unavailable. But now, not only neither of them could be the leader, but they also had to deal with their new prisoner.
"I'll go lock her then. I guess we'll have to wait for the leader's order before doing anything." Silva took the prisoner, followed by Sepide. But as she was about to go, a shy voice was heard.
"Excuse me, can I come with you? There's something I wanted to talk about with you." It was Shiro's voice, Sepide tried to remember who he was. She just knew that he was the one making weapons and that he acted weird around Neige. Silva nodded to him, and together, they went to the cells.
There were a bunch of cells, but no prisoners inside them. This part of the ship wasn't well taken care of, dust was piling up, and half of the lights stopped working. It probably wasn't used in a while.
They locked Silv in one of the cells, who still seemed devastated to be caught.
"So what now? I stay here until the end of the story? Isn't it boring?" None stopped to listen, leaving her alone in her white prison "Can you at least untie me? The pain, it's excruciating!"
"Your complaints were acknowledged, and promptly ignored." Silva said in a cold voice without even turning toward the prisoner. The group headed to the hallway outside the cells, and once they were away from Silv, Silva asked "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"Oh... Right. I was thinking about Neige, about a way to find him. I think we could track his watch, Emely told us we could track a watch. At first, it was supposed to be used to find yours, but since you got it back, it's not really useful anymore."
"Is it really possible?" Asked Sepide. Both she and Silva started to regain hope that they could find their friend once more.
"Yes, but we need something for that. She would need a kind of crystal, but it's not something easy to find. We located a world that had it, but even getting there might be troubling."
"We have to try anyway, we should ask Emely the details!" Silva and Sepide both ran toward Emely before Shiro could even finish his sentence.
The group hurried and joined Emely in her lab. She was surprised to see them arrive so suddenly, she was about to ask the reason, but Silva immediately answered before she could.
"Is that true? You can locate Neige's watch?"
Emely let out a sigh, and stopped working on what she was doing, visibly annoyed.
"Shiro told you that? Well, you can get this idea out of your mind, it's too dangerous."
"What do you mean? Don't tell me you're giving up on him so quickly!"
"It's not that, but this world, it's not a stable place. Time doesn't make any sense, the past and the future cross paths, and if you get lost there, you'll just stop existing. It's not worth the risk."
"Maybe not for you, but I'm ready to risk my existence for that." Silva was determined, Emely saw the fire in her eyes and knew she wouldn't give up so easily.
"Come on, not only do you need to find two other dumbasses, and on top of that you need to make the leader approve."
"I'm a dumbass too." Shiro raised his hand, a bit embarrassed "I mean, Neige did so much for us, I'm not letting him down like that."
"I'll go too!" Said Sepide "He would have done the same for us."
"I didn't know everyone was suicidal here, the leader won't approve anyway."
"The leader isn't available right now." Answered Silva. The blind girl suddenly grabbed Emely's jacket with strength, holding onto it tightly "Come on, who knows what's happening to him? Maybe the anomaly is torturing him or something!"
The young engineer took a moment, and was forced to admit that they wouldn't give up, and finally decided to accept.
"The world 00000001, I don't know where is the crystal, but we should be able to communicate if you go there."
"Thanks, we'll go right away then." Silva, Shiro, and Sepide all went to prepare for the dangerous mission. Emely stayed in her lab, unsure about whether it was the right or wrong decision.
"Be careful... It's really not a safe place."