The girl on the screen had a satisfied smile on her face while the entire crew of the ship was here, looking at her in disbelief.

"I'll let you arrest me, but I want it to happen where I want. Come here, to my home world! There, I will let you arrest me." Everyone seemed confused, their enemy contacted them, just to surrender. It seemed like a trap, and Neige in particular seemed against it.

"And we're supposed to believe you?"

The girl ignored his question and continued to talk "17072023, I'll wait for you here. I also have a reason to think that the anomaly will be here, so hurry up!" The girl stayed silent for a moment, and looked in confusion at the girl next to her who looked like Emely "How do we cut the call?"

The girl let out a sigh, and after a moment, the call cut. The members of the ship were confused, and turned toward their leader, waiting for an order.

"Well, we do need to stop her, but it looks like a trap..."

"It's okay." Answered Neige "I'll manage, if we stop her now, the universe would be safer."

"And it's my duty to stop her, she's my other self!" Silva stood next to Neige. Silently, Sepide went next to them, showing that she was also ready to go. But the leader still seemed a bit hesitant.

"At least we can communicate with them now!" Emely took some tools out of her pocket with a smile on their face "I just have to modify the watch, it will only take an instant!"

The leader let out a sigh, still not relieved, but she nodded her head in agreement. The little engineer started to work on the watches but stopped after seeing the lack of watch on Silva's arm.

"Where's yours?"

Silva was a bit ashamed, she didn't want to admit what happened, but she knew she had to.

"My other self... Stole it from me."

"Why didn't you tell me? You know it's dangerous to go to another world without it! I'll just make a new one."

"You don't have to..." Silva was still embarrassed, but she quickly felt happier after realizing the kindness of Emely "So, you do care for me, huh?" She asked, with a mocking tone.

"Don't push your luck dumb bat, it's just that if something happens to you, then they'll send me on missions!... But yes, I don't want you to be hurt..." Before Silva could react, she quickly gave Neige's and Sepide's watch back "Okay, so now you're ready to go. You just have to press this button, and the leader will be able to hear you."

"Thanks, we should prepare ourselves, and go as soon as possible." Neige put back his watch on his wrist, the whole crew saluted them and wished them good luck. They went as soon as possible into Silv's home world, hoping to stop the menace that Silv was.

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

Neige looked around, it seemed like an average city, but with a lot of people around. But neither Sepide nor Silva was around, he searched for a while, and quickly took his watch to communicate with his leader.

"Polyetta, do you hear me?" The only answer was silence, the man was worried that it didn't work, but he finally got an answer after a while.

"Yes, is everything alright?"

"Not really, Silva and Sepide are nowhere to be seen."

"Really?" Some whispering could be heard, but it was not loud enough to be heard "I think that finding Silv is the priority, she probably is the reason behind their disappearance."

"So it was a trap..." Neige knew it was a possibility. He decided it was better to look around and find information for now, targeting a convenience store "I'll call you back when I have new information."

When he entered the convenience store, Neige didn't really see anything particular. A woman with long light pink was reading a newspaper, he tried reading the title, but before he could, the woman noticed him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry lady, I was trying to see what was today's newspaper."

The woman scanned him for a moment, she let out a small smile and took a very friendly behavior suddenly.

"Of course, take it, I was just interested in one thing."

"Thanks." The journal didn't have anything interesting, aside from one thing. 'The return of Silv Err!' Neige, knew it must be the same Silv he knows, and that indeed, it is her home world.

"You're interested in the mafia?"

"The mafia?" Asked Neige.

"You must be new here." Said the girl after seeing Neige's confusion "This Silv, she's the head of the mafia. She never caused many problems, they looked more like a bunch of clowns. But now... It's different. Be careful around them."

"Silv..." Everything seemed to lead toward her. It wasn't a safe bet, but it was the only one he had for now. The woman seemed to know the area pretty well, so he figured it was worth asking her more "This Silv, can I see her?"

The woman took a suddenly defensive posture, even grabbing the hilt of a sword that was attached to her belt. Neige knew he needed to say something, or else, a fight would start "I need to meet her, I have reasons to believe that she kidnapped my friends."

"Really?" The woman dropped her guard for a moment, before showing a faint smile "I'm Rose, I'm opposing Silv, it's quite lucky that we met, how about we work together? I'll tell you everything I can about her, but you need to help me."

"Everything I can." Answered Neige confidently. The woman named Rose started to take different packs of chips and give them one by one. Once his and her arms were full, she whispered in his ear.

"We need to bring these to my house, but I don't have the money to pay, I hope you run fast."

Rose ran quickly out of the convenience store. A bit confused, Neige followed her as quickly as he could, but it seemed like a police officer caught them stealing, and was chasing them.

The two of them ran in the streets of the busy streets,

"Lucie! Stop them!" Yelled the officer. It seemed like he was talking to a detective in front of them, the detective was talking with... A nun? Neige wasn't so sure, all he knew was that he needed to keep up with the speed of the thief he was helping.

After losing the officer, they made their way to a small apartment. Once inside, the thief threw all the bags on the ground, and called someone "Eirika, I have your chips!"

A girl woke up from the couch, and looked at all the chips on the ground with nonchalance "I just asked for cheese flavored chips..."

"I forgot, so I just brought every pack. Also, I found a new member for our team!" Rose pointed at Neige. Despite the recent events, he kept his calm and introduced himself.

"I'm Neige, some of my friends are in danger because of Silv."

"He runs fast! I'm sure he'll be alright!"

"Whatever you say, leader..." The girl returned to lie on the couch, making Rose exasperated.

"I'll introduce myself properly this time. I'm Rose, and she's Eirika. I think I can trust you, so listen closely. We're a group of thieves! But we act for justice, not personal gain. Usually, we have other members, but they were captured by Silv too. Leo and Emel... I hope they're alright..."

Neige reacted to Emel's name. It was probably Emely's other self, and also, the one he saw with Silv on the video for a short moment.

"So, you're planning to steal back your friends or something?" Neige asked jokingly, but he wasn't expecting the seriousness of the girl.

"Yes, we have a plan, we know where they are! It's a big casino, and also the place where the mafia held residence. I think they are in the basement, but they may be kept hostage in the leader's room. Alone, I couldn't do both, but with you, we should be able to split the work. So, what do you say?"

Neige found a bit strange the trust that they gave him, but he didn't have a choice and nodded his head in agreement, bringing a smile to the girl's face.

"It's great then! We need to give you a code name, I'm Crow, and she's Ebony! We could call you... Snow black! We kinda have a black theming, what do you think?"

"I don't really think codenames are useful, you can just call me by my name."

"So serious. Anyway, I saw how agile you were, I'm sure you'll pull your own weight. But for now, we need to have a good night's sleep!"

Neige remembered that he was supposed to tell what happened to his leader. The night was already here, and he needed to find a place alone to communicate with them.

"I just need some fresh air, it's been a long day."

"Oh, of course. Just be ready for tomorrow night, that's when we'll go!"

The man nodded his head and left the apartment.

Before doing anything, Neige took time to breathe, so much happened today. He only wished that his friends were alright. The moon seemed so bright here, he couldn't believe that it was the world this Silv was from. Maybe he would be able to stop her once and for all.

He was about to make his report, but he noticed something weird on his belt. It was a sort of dagger. He had never seen anything like that before and was wondering where he got that. He took it in his hand, but suddenly, it exploded like a smoke bomb. Out of the smoke a familiar shape emerged, it was Ada, the anomaly.

"You! What are you doing here?"

Maybe because of the exhaustion, Neige couldn't dodge the anomaly jumping on him. What he didn't expect, however, was for her to just hold him in her arms.

"Neige, I can finally take you in my arms!"

The man was more than confused, she didn't seem aggressive like usual, quite the opposite. The nun released him from the embrace and took a more serious tone.

"I didn't expect to say that one day, but I need your help with something. And for once, it's more important than you."

Neige stared at the woman with a mix of curiosity and worry, getting ready for anything that may happen.