The third member of the group stood at the entrance of the church while her two friends were surrounded by this black goo that they identified as the anomaly.

~You... Have I seen you before...?~ The voice asked in a confused tone.

"I doubt it, I don't have weird friends like you!"

Silva answered while smiling in a provocative tone, her tone was carefree, unlike her two friends who stood there in worry. The situation was dire, but if they could at least leave the church, they would be able to run away from the anomaly. However, Kairo's arm was still trapped by the anomaly's tentacle. In a decision that took a split second, the man took his laser knife with his other hand and cut his own arm to escape. Silva flinched at the sight of her friend cutting his own arm, surprised by the decision taken by Kairo.

"Kairo! Are you okay?"

"It doesn't matter, we have to leave!"

~You're not leaving anywhere!~ Threatened the voice.

The two friends hurried toward the exit, but at the last moment, Kairo's leg was grabbed by the dark matter, making him fall. It was only after they left the church that Neige and Silva noticed that their friend was still inside. Before they could go back to save their friend, the door violently closed in front of them.

~Dang it, I wanted to grab Neige...~

Silva and Neige both tried to open the door, in vain. The dark matter slowly escaped thanks to the space below the door, forcing the two friends to step back.

"We have to leave Neige, the leader will find a solution!"

Neige froze, considering facing the anomaly again for a chance to save his friend. Silva felt the same, but even if Kairo and her were friends, she knew that Neige was closer to him. Knowing it was for the best of everyone, Silva grabbed her friend's arm and used her watch to return to the ship with him.

~Neige! You can run but you can't hide! I'll find you!~

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

Once back on the ship, the duo immediately ran to their leader's office and summarized what happened. After giving their report, the leader stayed silent for a few minutes. Neige couldn't endure the wait any longer and yelled with desperation in his voice.

"Please, maybe he can still be saved!"

The leader continued to stay in her silence, not knowing what to answer. Even despite her mask, it was evident that she was also affected by Kairo's fate.

"I'm sorry, but you can't... There is actually something more important going on."

"More important than saving a friend from a monster?" Yelled Neige at his leader while Silva tried to comfort her friend by holding him.

"Something of the utmost importance was stolen. I have reasons to think that the culprit is in the world 03031337. It's unlikely that the anomaly stayed in her world, I doubt she would stay in the same place, and it probably took Kairo with her."

Neige was still unconvinced, but he knew that he needed to listen to his leader, she knew better than him after all.

"So... should we go now?" Asked Silva, still worried about her friend Neige. Their leader must have noticed Neige's behavior because usually, she would want the job done fast and quickly. But this time, she actually shook her head at her member's question.

"I think you should take a small break first, and besides, you need a new third member to accompany you. A new member joined us recently, you should go meet her at the med-bay. And don't forget to be nice with the new recruit."

"Yes, Leader!" Silva saluted her leader, while Neige left as soon as possible.

Neige was walking quickly, too quickly for his partner who had trouble following him. They both headed to the med bay until Neige suddenly stopped to look at the space behind the window of the ship.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Neige? What is it?"

Silva's words stayed without a reply. Neige slowly put his hand on the cold glass pane. Lost in his thoughts, he asked a question, not intending for it to get an answer.

"You ever wondered where we are?"

"You sound like Kairo now." The two stayed silent, looking at the empty space beyond the ship. Noticing the emptiness in her friend's behavior, Silva gently took his hand and spoke gently to him "You know that missions are dangerous, it's not your fault if something happened to him."

"I know, it's just that... It was so fast, I couldn't do anything. And this voice... I know it's speaking about one of my other selves, but it's like it knew me personally... I can't help but think that it's my fault..."

The two friends stayed silent for a moment, taking a moment to think about their common friend. Silva still stayed hopeful they would see Kairo again, but Neige still couldn't help but blame himself.

"Let's just go, our new partner is waiting for us."

Silva and Neige arrived after a few minutes of walking. Despite being spacious, the med-bay was relatively empty, only two persons were there. The first one was obviously the doctor, Gwyn, the two friends knew her well despite her usual cold attitude. They came here a lot to heal after a hard mission, and Gwyn helped them without talking much. What was unusual was the second person. It was a girl, with long hair as black as the space beyond the ship and a skin slightly brown. Her violet eyes stared at the two friends with an empty gaze. It was very unusual to see new people join their group. Usually, it's people they save from a world that is no more. They would have remembered if they saved this girl before. The new member stood up from her chair to come closer to them.

"You must be Neige and Silva." She said, with a voice as empty as her eyes. The two friends stayed silent for a moment until Silva finally broke the heavy atmosphere with her voice.

"Who's that? I don't recognize her voice."

Neige almost forgot about Silva's blindness, she always managed to get around so easily that it was easy for him to forget. He wanted to answer her but the girl did before he could.

"My name is Sepide. They told me I will work with you from now on." Sepide proceeded to bow to her new partners. The mysterious girl then left before Neige or Silva could ask her anything. Silva quickly followed her, but Neige stayed inside to ask the doctor a few questions.

"Who is she?"

The doctor flinched like she had just woken up from a nap when she heard Neige's voice. Gwyn took a few moments to answer, not without showing her annoyance at having to hold a conversation.

"I dunno. The boss told me to check if she was ready to roll. I didn't see any problems with her, so it should be alright."

"Okay..." Said Neige, not fully satisfied. As he was leaving to join the other, Gwyn stopped him to tell one last thing. She looked serious, enough to frighten Neige with her gaze.

"Neige, be careful with her, she's not human."

His heart started to beat faster after the revelation from the doctor. Was she really not human? Was she hiding some sort of secret?

"Is... Something wrong with her?"

"I dunno. Just doesn't feel human." Neige was pretty lost, he didn't know whether it was an important warning, or just Gwyn being cautious. It was always hard to communicate with her, almost like she was in her own world. Neige nodded before leaving, taking the doctor's warning to heart.

After a few minutes of searching around the ship for the two others, Neige finally found them in their leader's office, waiting there.

"Hey, why didn't you wait for me?" Asked Neige, slightly offended.

"I thought you would find us. It's faster that way." Sepide said in a very calm tone. Neige was almost wondering if she wasn't a robot of some sort. If he had more time, maybe he would have asked. But the screen turned on by itself, with their leader on it, still wearing her mask.

"I see that you are all here, it's good. I hope that you will make a good team, even if you don't know each other yet. You can imagine that if it wasn't urgent, I wouldn't have cut short your previous mission, but it is of the utmost importance." The group was waiting for the goal of their mission with anxiety. They expected the mission to be really hard, it seemed important after all "So, you see... My diary... It got stolen. I located it, but you need to go there and retrieve it. And don't look inside it... Thanks."

"What? All that for your diary?" Asked Silva, offended their leader would even ask that. They would put their lives at risk just for a journal after all.

"I do not think that it is very optimal." Said Sepide, in a very neutral voice. Silva expected Neige to agree with them, but to her surprise, he seemed to have accepted it.

"Do you at least know who stole it?"

Happy that at least one person was on her side, the leader continued to explain their mission.

"Well I don't know exactly, it just disappeared and there was no way for a normal human to steal it. It's located in the dimension 03031337, but this petty thief also caused trouble there, you'll need to fix the timeline there as well."

"Oh, so we're actually going to work and not just get the journal you lost?" Asked Silva in a sassy tone, still disappointed by their mission.

"I didn't lose it, it's just that... Whatever, it's not important. Your goal is to retrieve the diary and make sure the sheriff Coop keeps his place as the sheriff of the town. It's a long desert, you should dress up and act as a cowboy to blend in. It's the best way I found to make you interact with their world without being noticed."

"Oh, I always wanted to dress as a call girl." Said Silva very enthusiastically, before being corrected by Sepide.

"I think you mean cowgirl."

"Really? Can you explain the difference to me?" Said Silva with a grin on her face in an attempt to annoy their new member. Even despite her mask, the leader seemed frustrated they didn't obey her but was too shy to actually force them.

"Can you go now? Please?"

After bickering a bit, the group finally listened to their leader, which was almost begging at this point. They readied themselves, before hopping into their new goal. They were determined to end this quickly to continue the search for their friend.