Chapter 1
"So it's Earth huh?"
"Yes. It's the only planet close enough to be able to manipulate the time-space energies easily. All the other ones would require an dangerous amount of our life force."
"Fine. Any candidates? Hmm...how about that guy, over here. Red spiky-haired kid."
"Checking...well, uh, he's actually dead at the moment. They've got their hands full with the parasite-type Lavos anyway. That entire universe has already fractured into so many different timelines already, I can't make heads or tails of it."
"Damn. How about that parallel dimension, the one who resurrected the world?"
"Well, he's still alive, but..."
"But what?"
"Take a look for yourself.."
"...Damn. He can't fight in that form, can he?"
"Not unless he pecks his opponents to death. Besides, in that particular timeline, there's only one or two people that are strong enough. We need a group that can function as a team. I'm going to keep searching through the timelines. I've got my eye on one particular era..."
*
Lounging on a bench in the middle of a bustling town square, one could see a young man, tall, muscular, with long orange hair that fell to his waist. He was dressed in clothing that covered him from head to toe, and was outfitted with a plate of chest armour. Strapped to his side was an large, extravagant broadsword. However, even in his outlandish gear, no one gave him a second glance. People were used to seeing him there, wearing his familiar clothing, now compete with the signet that identified him as a Knight of Gold. Even without this mark of reputation, people still honoured and revered him, for his well-known hand in helping to bring the forces of evil to bay. This warrior's name was Duran.
However, at the moment, Duran was none too pleased. His life sucked. There just wasn't anything to do anymore! Sure, he was a Knight of Gold, and all that, but in times of peace, there wasn't much call for a warrior of Duran's prowess. In the past, there had at least been some minor skirmishes between countries, something that would require soldiers out to protect the land. But after the world had come this close to being engulfed in evil, it seemed there wasn't even any need for that anymore. Old rivalries were being forgotten, and bridges, physical and metaphorical, were being rebuilt between countries. The land had begun its healing process.
Duran didn't mind the peace. In fact, after seeing so much blood shed in his travels, he was glad that no one need die anymore, for no good reason whatsoever. But that still didn't stop him from feeling bored, and useless. It wasn't as if he was jobless; he was still being paid an handsome salary by King Richard for being in charge of the military branch of Forcena. The fact of the matter remained though: he wasn't doing anything that would justify his earning his bread, so to speak. The most he could do was help train recruits, which wasn't even really necessary in these times anymore, and patrol the area, which was remarkably boring. There weren't even any real monsters out there, not one that could put up a decent fight anyway.
Duran smirked to himself. Maybe, Duran surmised, he should find a REAL job. Like a shop owner, or something. Duran tried to imagine himself a few years down the road, trying to sell vegetables, and sniggered. No, that wasn't him, in any case. That would mean dealing with people nicely, and he always found himself quick to anger in the face of overwhelming stupidity. Duran ran through possible career paths, and rejected them for one reason or another. He just wasn't a person meant to live in a society, he realized. His rightful place was out on the battlefield. But that didn't exist anymore...
Duran leaned back on the bench he was sitting on, and sighed. Things were so much exciting in the old days. No time to think, or worry; it was all you could do just to stay alive. Yeah, things were fun back then. Not like now. He had fellow warriors fighting alongside him, and great friends as well. Hawk was one of the funniest guys he had ever met, yet skilled in the deadly art of the ninja. Kevin was fairly shy, which was funny considering his prowess as a martial artist, but was always helpful as well. Carlie was peppy and enthusiastic, which was grating at times, but it was hard to stay in a bad mood when she was around. Lise was very reserved, but was always willing to put others ahead of her own needs. Then there was Angela...she could be annoying, selfish, stuck up, and completely spoiled at times, but she was also warm, and cheerful. Duran missed her, and the rest, all the same.
"You're brooding again, aren't you?" a small voice asked.
Duran glanced over to the side. There, sitting beside him, was a familiar looking young girl.
"Hi, Wendy," Duran greeted his little sister.
"Hi to you too, Big Brother," Wendy said. "What'cha thinking about?"
"Just...stuff," Duran said, evading the topic.
"Looks like you were thinking really hard about stuff," Wendy remarked, nodding her head. Her brown eyes looked at Duran, questioningly.
"Wendy, can I ask you a question?" Duran asked.
"Of course! Whaddaya wanna know?" Wendy said, enthusiastically.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"A restaurant owner!" Wendy replied with out hesitation. "It'll be the best restaurant in all of Forcena! It'll have my cooking, and Aunt Stella's cooking, and all sorts of other great stuff! Me and Aunt Stella..."
"Aunt Stella and I," Duran corrected absently.
Wendy took no notice of this. "...will be the chefs, and we'll have waiters and stuff, and you can be a waiter!" Wendy finished triumphantly.
"Sure," Duran said, laughing. "Why me though?"
"Well, if anyone doesn't pay their bill, you can beat them up," Wendy said, nodding her head seriously.
"Sounds like a plan," said Duran, grinning. "Tell me when you've opened it ok?"
"Sure," said Wendy, smiling happily. She looked at Duran, searchingly. "Are you ok now, Big Brother? Oh, by the way, you forgot your lunch." Wendy held out a brown paper bag.
"Oh yeah...thanks." Duran took the brown bag. "Did you make this yourself?"
"Yup! So you better like it, or I'll beat you up, I will I will!"
"Oh no," Duran said in mock fear. "I'd better get to it then!"
"Bye Big Brother!" Wendy waved, and streaked off.
'A bundle of energy,' Duran thought. Obviously, she knew exactly how her future looked. Duran's, however, remained cloudy. He glanced at the sun, which was just beginning to creep into the afternoon sky.
"Huh, break's over I guess," Duran thought to himself. He picked himself up, and began working his way over back to the castle.
"Guess I'll go beat up on some youngsters, and call it 'teaching' them..."
*
Focus.
A young man, dressed in loose fitting robes, and with light blue hair tied back, stood still. Facing him was large boulder, about twice as wide, and twice as thick as the man. They were outside, with the sun rapidly setting in the hot desert. Besides one certain young lady, and a few vultures, there was no one in sight.
Focus.
The man was holding two fine daggers, razor sharp, one in each palm. He gripped them tighter, trying to concentrate.
Focus.
'Just a bit more,' he thought. 'Come on...' He tried to focus, to bring his mind and body together to function as one smooth unit.
Now!
He sprung into action. Bringing his arms up in to his fighting stance, one arm up, guarding, the other arm trailing behind, he quickly leaped into the air, and sprung toward the boulder. In a blur of motion, quicker than the eye can see, he slashed at the boulder numerous times, in mid air. Coming to a stop just in front of the boulder, he slashed, several times more, then backflipped out of the way, twisting midway through his jump, and came to a rest in his original position, facing away from the boulder. He stood up, then twirled his daggers around in a flourish, and returned them back to his sheath. The boulder appeared to remain in it's original state.
"Pretty neat, huh?" The man said, grinning.
"Yes, yes, of course Hawk," a young woman, with long blue hair, said. "But what was supposed to happen exactly?"
"Huh?" Hawk turned back around, and looked at the boulder. "Damn, still standing?"
He walked over to it, and lightly nudged it with a hand. The boulder crumbled into about twenty different pieces.
Hawk sighed. "There goes the dramatic effect. It just doesn't have the same shock value this way. I was hoping it would crumble by itself."
Jessica nodded. "Agreed. You'll never reach your dream it seems: being the star attraction of a circus."
"Eh, I could always become a clown or something," Hawk said, putting on a hurt expression.
"Or part of the freak show, in any case," Jessica agreed. "At least you're still keeping up your old skills."
"Yeah, for all the good it'll do," Hawk said. "There's no one to use these skills against, in any case. Sometimes I wish Jagan would pop again, just to have something to do."
Jessica shivered. "Don't even joke around like that."
Hawk grinned. "Sorry. Hey, let's go in, alright? It's getting cold. And I'm starved!"
Jessica shook her head. "As always..."
*
To young Carlie, this was the worst enemy of all. Worse than all the monsters in the world put together. Worse than even that freaky Jester guy. Yes, in Carlie's mind, this was the most evil, despicable thing of all...this thing called... "school."
Carlie stood in front of Wendel's local school. "I hate this! If Carlie had her way, Carlie would blow this school up with Holy Ball, and that would be that! But Grandpa would be angry...maybe make Carlie pay out of her allowance! And Carlie can't do magic anymore..."
Accepting defeat, Carlie trudged into the school. The school was divided into three classrooms: one for very little kids, one for kids around Mick's age, and one for kids Carlie's age. Carlie took her seat, and watched as the teacher walked in.
"Good morning class..if you would open your math books, and take out your quills, we can follow up on yesterday's lesson..."
Carlie opened up her books, but instead of starting on the questions, she let her mind wander. She was really bored. All Carlie had wanted to do was go with Heath, who was going around helping sick people. But Grandpa, the Priest of Light, said she was still too young. Instead, Carlie had to go to a stupid school. Carlie hated school. It was SOOO long, and SOOO boring. Though Carlie wasn't stupid by any means, she just didn't like having to sit still, and had problems learning, mostly because it was 'hard.' She could learn it if she wanted to, but she always felt her attention devoted to more exciting things, like playing jump rope, or beating the boys in their games. The only thing Carlie really liked about school was the friends she made, and recess.
Carlie looked out the window. Carlie wished she was with her old friends again. Those times were fun! Kind Lise, funny Hawk, silly Duran, even Angela, who sometimes acted like she needed a spanking. Even Kevin, even though he could be so shy at times. Carlie fiddled around with her quill. She wanted to be out there, fighting evil, instead of learning unimportant stuff, like this math thing. Who needs it anyway?
"Carlie! How many times have I told you, stop daydreaming!"
Gwahhh! Carlie jumped, startled. "Carlie is sorry!" Carlie bent to her work, trying to get her mind around the math problems.
"I wish something exciting would happen..."
*
"Princess Angela? Princess Angela! Please, your Highness, the queen requires your presence!" The aide continued to knock at the door, and received no answer. Sighing in exasperation, he continued to knock. "Please, Princess Angela, answer! I know you're in there!"
The wizened old wizard, Jose, strode into the corridor. "What's taking so long? The queen wants Princess Angela to go with her with the Parliament meeting. She has to leave very soon!"
"Princess Angela isn't answering the door," explained the aide. "It's locked too."
Jose smiled. "Allow me." He pulled out of his pocket an fine hairpin, and bent down to the keyhole.
"Uh...are you sure it's ok if we do this?" asked the aide.
"The Queen thought Angela would pull something like this," explained Jose, smiling. "Ah-hah!"
Jose heard the satisfying click of the lock opening, then grasped the handle, and pushed the door open. There was nobody inside. Jose and the aide looked around, nonplussed.
"She didn't leave her room all day...where could she have gotten off to? And how did she vanish into thin air!" wondered the aide.
Jose looked around, and his eyes strayed to the balcony. Walking over, he noticed that something was tied to the railing. He pulled it up, curious. It was a long, makeshift rope, made from bed sheets, which was long enough to reach the ground from the second-story window.
"We have a problem," said Jose.
*
"Shouldn't you be with the queen right now?" asked Victor.
"Shouldn't you be at your job?" replied Angela.
"I would be. But you told me to pretend I was sick, just so you could drag me into drinking with you!" And indeed they were. Both Victor and the Princess were sitting in Elrand's pub, nursing back a pint of ale.
"Heh, and you did it too! You know I hate drinking alone...it's no fun that way!" Angela replied gleefully.
"Isn't it a little too early in the day to start? I mean, it's still morning!"
"It's never too early for alcohol! Cheers!" Angela downed the rest of her mug in one go.
"You can really hold your liquor Angela," said Vincent. "And you still haven't answered my question. I thought you were supposed to sit in at the Parliamentary meeting today?"
"Yeah...Mom is always trying to drag me into this and that, "Angela said, frowning. "Saying I should start taking responsibility and stuff...but it's not like I'm going to be ruler any time soon. So I figure, just enjoy life while you can!"
"Aren't you going to get in trouble though? Or if you don't, I might..." Vincent said, worried.
"Nah...Mom knows you. She knows you wouldn't drag me away from my duties like this. She knows you, and me, way too well! So hurry up! After this, we can go get something to eat, then we can go see that new play, and then..."
"Princess Angela, there you are!" a voice rang out.
"Eep! It's Jose!" shriked Angela.
"Busted," murmured Vincent.
"Uh..uh..." Angela frantically searched for an escape route. "The back door!" she thought. She sprang up, and dashed toward the back of the tavern. Unfortunately, there, blocking the doorway, was the Queen of Reason herself. The Queen looked at her, and smiled.
"I thought you would try getting out this way," she explained. "That's why I sent Jose around the front. It's time to get going Angela. And it looks like we'll have to have another talk about duties and responsibilities."
"Sigh..."
*
In a secluded clearing in the Moonlight forest, two beastmen were squaring off. One was impressively large, and muscled. Battle scars could be seen here and there across the beastman's muscular chest, and the massive strength he had was only offset by his startling speed. The other beastman, in comparison, looked scrawny, and weak. However, he managed to fight with the skill of a veteran warrior twice his age.
The younger one fended off a flurry of blows from the larger beastman. Ducking under a heavy swing which would have sent him flying, he hit the beastman with an hard one-two combination straight in the gut, and knocked him away with a roundhouse kick. The elder beastman hit the ground hard, groaning.
"Ha! You getting old Beast King!" taunted the beastman.
The Beast King picked himself up off the ground, smiling. "You're getting better Kevin...but NEVER let up!" With startling speed, the Beast King hurled himself at Kevin. Kevin, surprised at this, was left completely open, as the Beast King grabbed him about the waist, and jumped, lifting Kevin up into the sky. At the peak of his jump, he flipped around, so that his head was pointed to the ground. Falling, the Beast King used his momentum to painfully drive Kevin head-first into the ground.
"Heh. Looks like this old man still has a few tricks," smirked the Beast King.
"Owww...Kevin head hurt!" whined Kevin.
The Beast King shook his head. "That's enough for today, I guess. How about breakfast?"
Kevin looked up with a hopeful gleam in his eye. "Breakfast? Kevin likes that idea."
"Fine," said the Beast King. "But only if you can knock me down one more time!" The Beast King went into his fighting stance.
"Kevin has right motivation at least," said Kevin. The two fighters went at it again...
*
Queen Lise wondered how she was ever going to get through the mountain of work she had to do today, and come through on her promise to help Elliott fly his kite. She took a glance at the heap of paperwork in front of her, and sighed. Running a kingdom was tough work! It seemed like every day, she was being called out by some person or another to deal with some crisis that popped up, or some minor detail that required her attention. Not only was she supervising the rebuilding of Rolante, she also had to deal with the daily government meetings that seemed to produce nothing but headaches. Watching political factions squabble over petty details was somewhat tiring.
Lise struggled to decide what course of action was best involving the somewhat demolished East wing...would it be best to just tear it down, and start from scratch, or repair the existing material? The first might be more cost effective in the long run, but the other way would be quicker. Lise found that she really couldn't put her mind around deciding. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a few seconds...
Just a few seconds...
*
"Sis! Are you there! Come and play with me! You promised!" the young prince, Elliott, was currently knocking softly on the door to his sister's room, trying to get her attention. He gave up, and simply turned the doorknob, and walked in. There in front of him, using a mound of papers as a pillow, was his sister, fast asleep.
"Not again," Elliott sighed. "Big Sister needs to learn how to take it easy..."
*
"So, what do you think?"
"They're strong, certainly. And they've got the heart. They're certainly the best we're going to find with such little time. Do you want to go, or should I?"
"You go. I'm better at time-dimension spells, you know that. I'll prepare the chamber.
"As for me, I'll get some sleep."
"YOU will sit right where I'm standing, and pull every bit of information you can about that particular dimension."
"Which is a whole lot like sleep, but a lot less interesting."
*
Author's notes:
OK, this is a Seiken Densetsu 3 fic, and is kinda AU. First off, besides the characters, this might only have vague references to the storyline...in the game, you would have 3 chars. You chosen, and I assume the other three's storyline wouldn't happen at the end of the game. Well, for this fic, all three did happen. Thus, I really can't mention who actually received the Sword of Mana, since it would complicate things...so if you find any glaring inconsistencies, just remember: it's AU, therefore, I can do whatever I want. =)
I know it's kinda slow, and boring right now, but it'll get better...or will it? All flames (and there will be flames =D) can be sent to strider_yoshi@yahoo.com. Review, and you'll get cookies!