Tales From The Kronos

Noon passed. Silva just woke up from the best sleep she had in a while. Today was a forced free day from the leader, which made everyone happy. Sadly for her, Silva had something to do. Since she lost her watch she needed a new one, and knowing Emely's speed, she wouldn't get one before a while even if she asked now.

She arrived in Emely's lab. Sepide and Emely both were here, apparently already talking about something. The young engineer stopped her conversation when she saw Silva enter and shifted her focus toward her.

"Silva? That's unusual to see you here, something happened?"

"Nothing important, I didn't mean to interrupt you while you were busy."

"It's already great that you're here!" Said cheerfully Emely "I mean not because I like you being here or anything... Stupid bat."

"What did I do!? I just arrived!"

Emely suddenly looked away and blushed profusely. Seeing her distress, Sepide decided to explain what they were talking about to her blind friend.

"Do you remember Uriel? I managed to get her hard drive. I thought it would only be a souvenir, but Emely can actually fix her back!"

"I didn't say that." Interrupted Emely "Her memories are probably fried, her personality module seems to be in a bad state too. You have to accept that your Uriel is dead, all I can do is... Create someone based on her code."

"So a zombie."

Emely hesitated a bit, slightly balancing her head side to side while thinking at Silva's words.

"Not exactly, it would be like using your DNA to create someone else. You could imagine it like a clone, or a child. What I mean is that I'm going to create a new person, Uriel will never be back."

"It's enough for me." Insisted Sepide "Even if it's only spiritually, I would be glad to have her in our team."

"Yeah, Emely would have a sidekick to change lightbulbs for her." Silva sarcastically said, "So I guess it will take some time to make Uriel 2.0."

"I think I could in a few days if I focus on it."

"A few days?! It's taking you ages to repair my heater and you can create life in a few days?"

"Repairing a heater is slightly less interesting than building a robot..."

Sepide looked at her watch while the two argued. When she realized the time it was, she immediately apologized to Emely.

"I'm sorry for adding work for you. I need to go now, I'm supposed to help Ina with the cooking."

"Help Ina?" Silva tilted her head, slightly confused "She's doing fine usually."

"Oh, we didn't tell you. The leader has been working intensely and lately, she even gets out of her room. I figured we could throw a surprise party for her, what do you think?"

Silva thought about Emely's idea for a moment. Their last party was spoiled by Silv and then Neige was kidnapped. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to do it again.

"It could be fun, I guess it's worth doing it."

"I'm glad you like the idea too!" Sepide said with a smile "I really need to go, I don't want her to scold me."

Sepide bowed to them before leaving the room. The lab stayed silent for a moment while Silva snooped around the room. None of the two girls dared say a word, leaving an uncomfortable silence. In her boredom, Silva ended up grabbing a piece of paper and folding it to make a paper swan.

"Did you just transform my notes into a swan?"

"You can always unfold it."

"No, I mean... Since when do you know origami?"

Silva stopped for a moment, searching in her thoughts.

"I guess since I'm ten or something. It's fun painting them after."

"I had no idea, you're really artistic."

"Not really, I think anyone stuck in a house for years would have ended up like me." Silva took the swan she made and waved it in front of her to simulate it flying "There's only so much you can do in a room. My parents didn't always buy me paint, but paper was common."

"Was it that bad? You almost never talk about your past..."

Silva crushed the swan she made into a paper ball and threw it on the table without a thought about her creation.

"It's in the past, it doesn't matter much. I'm glad I have all the paint I need now." Silva wore a soft smile, before remembering the reason for her visit "My other self took my watch, again. I can manage without it, you can work on it when you're free."

"Oh, about that!" Emely searched for something in one of her drawer. Once she found it, she took it and handed it to Silva.

"A box? What am I supposed to do with that?"

"Open the box, dense bat..."

Silva opened the box carefully. A watch was lying inside of it, way lighter than the one she previously had.

"When I noticed you lost your watch, I made you a new one. You got it back, so I kept it just in case. I made it lighter since you said the weight was annoying you. Also, it now uses vibration in Morse code, so you can read the time more easily. I made sure you can directly say the world you want to go in since I know that it's not practical to write when you can't see. Furthermore, you can't see it but it's red, just like your hair."

"Wait, I was joking when I complained about your watch, it also worked well."

"But now you have your own, tailored for you. You better take care of it."

"I... I don't know what to say."

Silva felt overwhelmed by Emely's change. It pained her to remember how harsh she was to Emely, especially after all she was doing for everyone on the ship.

"You can just say thanks." Emely's voice was sunny, glad to see Silva happy with her gift.

"Thanks. I'm truly grateful for what you did." Silva put on her new watch, moving her arm around with it "It's too light."

"Really? I can-"

"It was a joke. It's perfect don't worry." Silva said while laughing at herself "I'll leave you now, you probably need rest after what happened yesterday."

"Yes, I think I want to work on the robot for now."

"I'll probably paint, it's been a while since I did it."

Silva headed toward the exit of her lab but Emely grabbed her hand before she could. Silva looked at her wondering what she wanted while Emely panicked and blushed, embarrassed.

"You- You can paint here. I wouldn't mind if you stayed around."

"But don't you need calm?"

"Well yes... But... What if I end up in a virtual world by accident? I need someone to save me!"

"I guess so, but you're not a toddler. I'm sure you-"

"Please stay."

Silva was unsure, her friend's behavior seemed a bit suspicious to her. She was even starting to wonder if it wasn't all a plan to kill her somehow. It made more sense to her than Emely suddenly being nice suddenly. She brushed away these thoughts and decided to accept staying if it made her feel better.

"Fine, I'll just get my stuff and come back."

Emely worked on her things while Silva was deep into her painting. The strokes of her paintbrush painted a kind of lake made of crystal, or that's what Emely thought at least. It was hard to understand what it was and looked more like an abstract painting to her. She didn't understand why she was so captivated by Silva's movements, hypnotizing her slowly.

"Emely, you're burning something."

Emely focused back to see that she was welding the wrong things together. It was nothing she couldn't fix, but it was still a mistake she wouldn't usually make.

"Are you sure I don't bother you?"

"O- Of course not, it's just a complex build."

Silva seemed unconvinced but returned to her painting. She would sometimes stand up and walk around the room for seemingly no reason, intriguing Emely.

"Why do you wander around the room? You're going to hit something."

"It helps me focus, that's what normal people do."

"I think normal people don't walk around for no reason. I think it actually would make most people lose focus."

"I'll need to ask Neige next time, he probably knows if the average person does it."

"You put a lot of faith in him, you trust him a lot."

"He's incredible." Silva answered with a bright smile "I wish I was like him sometimes, he's always so confident."

"Aren't you confidant too?"

Silva stopped for a moment, letting out a tired smile.

"I wish I was..."

The young engineer stayed silent for a moment. She took one of the pairs of glasses she made when she was in her home world and handed them to Silva.

"Hey, do you remember them? I handed them to you soon after we met and you said you were blind!"

"I do, your world was so annoying, there were scraps everywhere. I hope we never get back there." Silva removed her sunglasses and put the glasses Emely gave her "What do they do again?"

"They have x-ray vision."

"Oh, so you can see under people's clothes." Silva said with a perverted grin.

"No, you can see their bones."

"It doesn't seem useless, why don't you build stuff like that sometimes?"

"It's boring. I want to make a lot of stuff that is as far away from reality as I can."

Silva turned toward the painting she made with a soft smile.

"I can understand. You should try to make glasses that see through clothes sometimes."

"I guess I can, but..."

"Oh, or you could create something that changes people's sexuality?"

Emely looked uncomfortably at the gun on her desk and made an awkward laugh.

"Haha... Why would I do that? That would be so dumb."

An alarm on her desk rang. Emely looked at her watch to see that it was late already.

"It's time for the party, I hope the leader will enjoy it. Come on Silva! Let's go!"

Emely took Silva's hand and ran with her toward the main hall. Silva was taken aback by the new Emely, or rather, the true Emely. It didn't feel bad though, and she was more than happy to see another side of her than the one she always saw all of this time.