605 A.D., Near Choras
How long had it been? He no longer knew. Searching for the only person who had ever cared for
him had taken a lot away from him. Well, the only person who had really cared for him. All the
others were just charlatans.
How many time periods had he traveled? He didn't care. Magus scoured almost every inch of almost every day since near the beginning of time. He still hadn't found her.
And here she was. He finally found her. Buried six feet down in the earth. The tombstone read:
They had both been thrown into Gates to the Middle Ages, but to different times in the time period.
She had married, grown old, and died all while he was growing as the leader of the Mystics. He
looked at the headstone next to hers.
Zachary Tyrr
Husband of Schala Tyrr, Father of Emilia and Fredrich
B. 567
D. 589 in a battle against the Mystics
Magus looked away. He remembered that bloody battle too well. It was caused by greed between
four kingdoms and their trade routes. The whole thing was his fault. He indirectly killed her husband.
Magus tried to imagine her grief that she must have felt, upon hearing that her husband was dead. He
imagined her comforting her children, just as she had once done to him when their mother was have
another one of her possessed fits.
Why did he do it? Flea's voice rang in his head as he leaned on his scythe. It was red, both from rust
and blood...
"You think you are so kind and heroic. Kind and heroic to your Mystics. And yet you send them into battle to their deaths, motivated by power and greed." he recalled Flea saying.
"You do the same thing, Flea. I have seen you kill your fellow Mystics outright when they slightly
screw up."
"Perhaps. But I don't pretend that I am sending them to their destruction for their own well being.
You are not the person that you pretend to be."
"You're a hypocrite, Flea."
"Am I? Oh, darn, I broke another nail..."
His mind returned from the flashback to the moment at hand. His sister was dead. He lost her when
he was a child, at the Ocean Palace Disaster. He lost her again, at the same time, but as a different
person. He found her again, but had already lost.
Magus could just use the Epoch to travel a few years back, to see her. But could he? Would she
recognize him as her long lost brother, or as the killer of her husband? If he traveled back before the
battle occurred, how could he stop Zachary from waltzing to his death? Say "If you go, I'll kill you.
Not me, but the other me."? And then, know exactly when Schala would come to pass also? He
could not live with her, knowing the exact time that she would die. Why couldn't he just find her when he was searching the same place a few years back? Was he destined to never have her?
No. He wouldn't be able to handle it. It would be even more painful to everyone if he went to stay
with her. He sighed. His nephew and niece were still alive, at least Magus assumed so, seeing as
there were no graves for them. But what would he say to them? "Hi, I'm your Uncle Magus, you
know, the indirect killer of your father. May I live with you?"
He sighed. Maybe he should return to sometime safer for him. Not many people in the Middle Ages
had kind feelings towards him. He turned to the Epoch, which his friends let him keep after they
found Crono's mother and cat. He pet his own cat, Alfador, who had been quietly dozing in the
cockpit. He had stayed with Magus during the entire search. He thrust the key into the Epoch, and
flew off, to approximately A.D. 2300. The world was now lush and safe there, since the demise of
Lavos. Perhaps he could turn over a new leaf. Few people knew him there as the evil that he had
been.
The Epoch landed next to the same graveyard as he had been in. It had greatly expanded, and it was harder to find Schala's grave among the forest of monuments, but he knew that it was the same one.
He finally found her site. Most of the engraving had been weathered away. He looked east to see a
woman of thirty or so sitting on a bench, writing.
"Sorry." she said as she looked up. "I hope I'm not disturbing you by writing in a cemetery. I can
leave if you want to be alone."
"No... that's all right." he said. "My name is... Janus. I just came to visit someone."
"Oh." she answered. "I'm Jara Iea. I'm a professional writer. My ancestor, Gigan Rufad, was also a
writer, and I come here for inspiration from him. He's over there, in between the dung scooper and
the homicidal maniac." she indicated with her pen.
"Mmm... Do you know of any places to live for rent that allow pets?" he asked.
"Sure. I live at Ivory Plaza. It's cheap and clean. The landlord's a peach. I can show it to you, if you
want, as soon as I reach a stopping place." Jara said. "You're not from around here, are you?"
"No."
"Didn't think so. I'll be just a minute, as soon as I finish the slow, painful death of the hero."
"Thanks."
As Jara finished up, Magus gently placed the keys to the Epoch on Schala's grave. He wouldn't need the Epoch any more. He had left it in the forest, hidden so as not to be an eyesore. Some creature
would make a den out of it or something. The Epoch had a habit of making sure it was always useful. Alfador jumped into Magus' carrying bag, which mainly contained some gold, tonics, and an ether or
two.
"I'm so sorry." he whispered to his sister.
When they arrived at the apartment building, Magus took the key to his room from the landlord and
went to his room. Room B8.
When he entered, he saw that it was devoid of furniture. "I can take you to a cheap furniture store, if
you want, Janus.." Jara offered.
"Thank you, Miss Iea." he said.
"Call me Jara. I'm also down the hall at B1, if you need anything later. I can give you all the help you
need, unless you ask me my age. You'll receive no help after that." she said, laughing.
Schala used to laugh like that, Magus realized. She never laughed often, after the Machine was built
when he was very young, but it was one of the few memories that he remembered from his infantry.
That and his mother laughing, also. A real, heartfelt giggle, not the "Mwahahahaha" from the later
days.
As they left, Magus also started thinking of the new life that he would carve here. He was surprised
at his new openness to others. Schala would be proud to see that her little brother was finally getting
along with others because he wanted to, not because he had to. He would stay here for a while, he
decided.
After all, he never knew what he would find.
.
Author's Comments
At the time that I wrote this, I must admit that I really was not much of a Magus fan. Why the hell I decided to write a Magus fanfic is beyond me. But after receiving a flame or two and playing the game over a couple times, I realized that he's not such a bad guy after all. I guess I didn't consider him as developed as I should have. Probably because I was an idiot. Not that I'm not one still, but that's beside the point.
Since there wasn't much as far as original characters are concerned, the only one was pretty easy to create. The name for her came from an old sci-fi trilogy that I planned to write way back when. It never really got off the ground, but Jara Iea was a rich girl who befriended some clones to start some sort of revolution. Since I had no patience and the story had no good plot, it died pretty early.
But anyway, back to relevant things. If you read this story, please give me feedback. I thirst for fan/hate mail and reviews. Don't deny me feedback.
In closing (because you're probably tired of hearing me ramble about stuff that no one cares about anyway), I would like to thank all the people who read this, and the few people who like it.
Until next time,
~Mercutio