Tales From The Kronos

Three years passed since the creation of Sepide. Polyetta thought she would never need her, but was shocked to read in the book what happened. It was written that Kairo lost his arm and that Neige and Silva were forced to leave him behind. She tried changing their fate, but the ink disappeared from the page. Not only that, but the book, which was usually precise, wasn't displaying the reason everything happened. It was the first time she saw that, something that even the book couldn't change, an anomaly in the universe.

She walked in circles in her room, desperately trying to find a solution. She knew Silva and Neige would come soon, and she would need to give them an order. As long as she didn't know the reason behind Kairo's loss, sending them back into this world wasn't an option. She decided to take the book another time, just to make sure that she saw it correctly, but the book was no longer on the desk. Her heart stopped for a moment, as she desperately searched everywhere in the room. The only thing that was left was a page from the book. It was about the world 03031337, a world in a desert, with cowboys everywhere. She was sure that her diary was in this world along with the thief, but she still couldn't explain why. Not only that, but the world seemed to change like someone was interfering with it. Polyetta only had one choice, send Neige and Silva there despite the danger.

That's when she suddenly remembered about the girl she kept for emergencies. She hoped she would never need it, but she opened her wardrobe and woke up the girl. She still seemed drowsy from her long sleep, and before she could say anything, Polyetta gave her a map of the ship.

"Here, that's the med-bay. You need to go there, you'll meet with a doctor, she'll make sure you're healthy. From now on, you're Sepide Faith, a member of the Kronos, and will join your two partners, Neige and Sepide."

"...What? Where am I?"

"I should have thought about that, I forgot to write her past..." Polyetta mumbled to herself "There are other worlds, a lot of them. You're from a world that's destroyed now and I saved you, alright?"

"Oh, alright."

"Good, we don't have time, so go now."

Sepide still felt confused but obeyed the orders and left her leader's room. All that was left for Polyetta now was to send a message to Gwyn to warn her about Sepide, and hope that no one would ask too many questions. After a few minutes of lonely silence, the woman removed her mask for a moment to look at herself in the mirror of her room. Her eyes shone from the tears she was holding in, and the exhaustion was evident just by looking at her face.

"Goddess, why are you putting all this pressure on me... I'm not made to be a leader..."

Silva and Sepide were at a loss for words, they never imagined that this was the past they were trying to uncover. Sepide stood there, staring at the void in front of her. She was still processing everything she just learned but had trouble accepting it. Seeing the two girls sitting in silence, the leader took a deep inspiration and continued.

"So that was basically the reason behind Sepide's existence. Any questions?"

"You can't say that like you just gave us a math lesson!" Silva yelled silently, still thinking about everything she heard.

"I don't think it's a big deal." Said the leader "She's here now, and I don't think it caused any problems so far."

Silva looked at Sepide, who was still in shock. She wasn't sure what to think of it, the only thing she was sure of was that Sepide was her friend and that she didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

"I have a request leader." The leader tilted her head slightly, curious to hear Silva's demand "When we go back on the ship, I want you to remove the rules about Sepide. She should be free of her choices."

Sepide looked at Silva with surprise, visibly not expecting this answer from her. The leader, on the other hand, didn't seem to agree with her.

"I just said that she was made after you, Neige, and Kairo. If she gets out of control, no one can stop her."

"I don't think so, I managed to. Maybe because you made her three years ago, and that I became better with time."

"You're right." Said the leader with a thoughtful expression on her face "I guess I'll need to update her."

"No, no more updates, no more rules! Sepide is a member of the team now, and I'm sure Neige would agree with me. Maybe she was made to follow your orders, but now, she's as much of a member as me."

"Silva, I think that you forget who's the leader. I act for the good of the universe, and-"

"I'll go on strike!" Silva yelled to the leader with confidence in her voice, surprising the two others "If you don't give Sepide her freedom, then I won't work. I'm sure I could convince Neige too, and even if I can't, I'll find a way to cause as many problems as I can!"

"You'd be ready to oppose the fleet of the Kronos... Just for an artificial girl?"

"It's not a femboy, a nerd, and a failed engineer that will stop me! She's my friend!"

Silva looked at her leader straight in the eyes, making her uncomfortable. The woman looked away and took a deep inspiration. Her eyes met Sepide's for a moment and then turned back on Silva's. She could see the determination she had, even beyond her sunglasses. Her own reflection was visible from the black lenses of the glasses, making her wonder about herself and her choices. What would she do if she was in Silva's place, if Neige wasn't real in the first place? Just imagining it made her realize how Silva could feel, and about how she felt unfit to be the leader.

"Sepide... She's important to you, right Silva?"

"Of course!" Said Silva without an ounce of hesitation.

"I never really saw Sepide as real in the first place, but maybe she is for you all after all. Very well then, I suppose I owe you that."

Silva smiled cheerfully and turned toward Sepide to share her enthusiasm with her.

"Now there won't be any problems! Don't worry, you'll always be my friend no matter your past, and I'm sure Neige thinks the same!"

Despite the words of her friend, Sepide could barely hold a smile. She turned toward the leader with a desolated face, asking her the question she had on her mind.

"So... I was only made for my mission, I have no past? And if so, then what will happen to me once everything is over?"

"Don't worry about that Sepide." Silva said to cheer her friend "You may not have a past, but we'll make you a great present so that your future is bright!"

Sepide gave a shy smile to Silva and nodded her head for her sweet words.

"Thank you... Silva."

"It's normal! You're my friend!"

While they were talking, a waiter came and brought them food. Sepide still felt worried inside but decided to ignore her thoughts for a moment and rest like they were supposed to. There was a large variety of different meals, almost all of them were unknown to the group, but they were so hungry that they didn't mind what it was. While they were looking at all the delicious-looking meals, the waiter talked to them in an elegant-sounding voice.

"All the meals are labeled, we cooked the best meal with the best ingredients that the universe made. Once you're finished, we'll bring you to your rooms, where you'll spend the night."

The waiter left without another word. The leader was curious about the words he said, it was like everybody here knew about the existence of other worlds. Is it all the work of the anomaly? And she was ready to go that far to organize this tournament? She was persuaded that the anomaly wasn't doing it for fun and that she had a secret agenda.

The leader shook her head, trying her best to stop thinking about that. She looked over at the other members to avoid thinking more. Sepide was saying the names of the food out loud to Silva. The leader wondered why for a moment, but quickly remembered about her blindness.

"Slime cake? Choma's meat? Escargot? I don't recognize any of them."

"Escargot? That's something from my world." Silva said with a bit of disgust in her voice "It's really disgusting."

"It looks disgusting." Said the leader "You used to eat that Silva?"

"No, I didn't. But it's quite famous in my country. Escargot is actually French for Snails."

"You say that like I know what a snail is..." The leader continued looking at the strange food, wondering who would eat that.

"You know other languages, Silva?" Asked Sepide, visibly impressed.

"Kinda, I only know my native one and the one we use on the ship. I'm not like Neige, he knows like at least twenty or something... He's actually even better at French than me now."

Sepide wished she knew multiple languages. She imagined it would be quite practical, but a weird thought suddenly traversed her mind, something that she never thought about before.

"Why are every world using the same language?"

Silva looked at the leader with a disappointed look when Sepide asked the question, with a gaze full of judgment.

"You really didn't teach her anything..."

"It's not my fault, Neige is the one that does usually, I didn't know how to explain it."

Silva let out a sigh, before explaining to Sepide.

"All worlds use different languages. But a not-so-useless engineer managed to make suits that auto-translate what we hear and say. So even if you don't know how to speak a language, you can still talk with them."

"Oh, I see. But then, why is Neige learning languages? Isn't it useless?"

"Kinda, before Emely, he was our only way to communicate. He even needed to translate everything I said at the beginning, it was a bit annoying. But now he could stop, I guess he just loves learning stuff or something."

"That's impressive of him." Sepide looked at the snails on the table and took one of them under the disgusted eye of the leader.

"You're going to eat that?"

"Yes, I think we should all try it, just to know how Silva's food tastes."

"Just so you know, don't think that I ate that kind of stuff, I ate way better than that."

The leader seemed a bit reluctant but took one in her hand. When she saw it from closer, she appeared even more disgusted.

"I can't even tell what that is, it looks like snot."

The leader and Sepide stared at Silva, waiting for her to take one too. Feeling the stares on her, Silva shook her head violently.

"Nuh-uh, no way I eat that. Actually, I decided to be vegetarian, so I can't eat animals."

"Animals?" Said the leader in shock "This thing was alive?"

"Please Silva, it will make a good memory."

Silva rolled her eyes and conceded at her friend's demand, taking one of the snails. After mentally preparing themselves, they all ate it at the same time. Sepide clearly didn't like it, but not as much as the leader, who couldn't even bring herself to swallow it.

"That's horrible! I hope that those things are all dead and that no one even has to taste that ever again!"

"I kinda agree." Said Sepide "I'm sorry that I made you eat it."

"Actually, it was pretty good." Silva said while putting the shell of the snail on the table, under the confused look of her friends.

"You're... Not gonna eat it?" Asked the leader.

"Eat the shell? You're just supposed to eat the inside."

Sepide and the leader both looked away in shame, trying to forget the horrible experience they had. Silva, on the other hand, continued eating them one by one while the leader became even more disgusted.

"Silva... Stop eating them... It's going to make me puke."

Despite this experience, the group managed to eat a decent dinner. They knew that soon, they would have to participate in the second trial, and it might be even harder than this one was.