Author's Note: This is a one-shot, nothing long, just nice and short. Something to give me a bit of thought on a character and may cause me to remake other fanfics depending on how well the fic is written. The title is also a work in progress, as I really have no clue how to put it in the context of the story.

Forgotten in the mists of Time By: Novalon

The swirling darkness greeted him, a myriad of blue and purple waves flowing for what seemed to be endless, going out every which way as the tendrils sought after unforeseen connections.

He took a breath, realizing that except for the low hum of the passing waves, he could barely hear a sound.

As he sped face first to a glowing light, he vocalized his disconcern to the void.

"Schala… help me!"

He whimpered, remembering the ordeal he just went through in front of the mighty Lavos, a being of power greater than any he felt in his whole lifetime.

If I had magic, like the great magician 'Magus' in the stories Schala read me… if only I had that power… then I could stop Lavos… and… save Schala?

He tumbled out to brightness abruptly. As the sun overhead sent rays of heat to the ground, the surrounding leaves began to rustle.

Not caring whether he was where he came from or not, the child still said the only thing he could think at the time.

"Schala… I need you… where… where are you?"

His mind caught up with him.

The great Magus would look for no one in his time of need… yet… I am not, nor ever will be him. If only…

The leaves continued rustling as a few short blue creatures appeared out of nowhere, followed by a rather obese creature with green-scaled skin.

"A human!" exclaimed the rotund one, "a blue haired one, in fact!"

The blue creatures slowly inched up to the boy, baring their crude claws.

No creature scares Magus, be he an ant or a giant… I should put them to flame… if only I…

The boy rubbed his hands together as his eyes started to glow a faint red, hardly detectable to imps or the fat one.

"What're yer waiting for, imps? Show the kid what happens to humans who dare to look upon the Lord Ozzie!"

As the imps neared the child, the surrounding temperature of the area began to heat up quickly. One of the imps looked around in alarm.

"Eh? Wut's this?" asked the imp, as he saw the child's eyes light up.

"Ee's castin' a spell there!" bellowed the second.

The great Magus, herald of the mage guilds, only he would cast a spell… only he could make these imps…pay… but I must try, I must try as I've tried so hard before, though for some reason I could never find the power to do so…

The boy sharply pointed a finger at the imps, while moving the second hand to his forehead in a move of concentration.

As Magus would do, so I would follow… I call upon the power of the mystic flame!

"Flames, gather to me! Roast the worthless in their tracks! Fire 2!"

The imps started to back away, but all was for naught as a pillar of flame shot out from the child's position and started to burn away at the imps' skin, suddenly growing in strength and reducing the whole of them to ash.

The rotund one whipped to his right and left, a confused look pasting his features like frosting on a pastry.

"What the… Ozzie's in a pickle! Flash! Slea!"

A purple humanoid appeared in front of Ozzie, a katana gleaming in the sunlight.

"It's Slash… unless you're being more of an idiot than usual."

Next to him, a female adorned with long pink hair, carrying a long red whip and wearing white clothes materialized into view.

"And it's Flea, like the bug, if you could be so kind to remember…"

Ozzie pointed at the boy in front of him.

"That kid just toasted the imps! I'm frickin' scared for my life here!"

Flea turned to the young boy, eyeing him before lowering her whip.

"Boy, the dormant magic I sense within you is off the charts, and you bested our peons without so much as a scratch. What do they call you, blue haired warrior?"

"Janus…" the kid meekly said, unsure of how he could have conjured up such a flame.

Slash, the purple one, scowled, looking down his sword.

"No, that won't do at all. Try again."

Flea nodded, her eyes twinkling. As Janus looked closer, he realized that Flea might not truly be female, as his original thought had been. Something about the way Flea acted… well… it was different.

Under the scrutiny of the three looming figures, his pride burst out from him as powerful as the fire spell itself, and a light jumped to Janus' eyes as he realized what he could be.

"I am Magus, herald of the mage guilds of the Kingdom of Zeal!"

Flea scoffed, turning to Ozzie as the fat one's eyebrows raised.

"Zeal? Kid, either you're getting into the Porre Longbottom weed, or you're a first class liar."

The self proclaimed Magus shook his head.

"I am telling the truth, because I was just there!"

Flea nodded his head, looking over to Slash who merely scowled.

"I admit, there was an odd magic here earlier. A small trace of it still exists, but I have no way of figuring out how to decipher it…"

Magus turned around, looking at where he came from, putting a hand to his head.

"Lavos…"

Flea shook his head.

"Kid… Janus, Magus, whoever you are… the fact remains that Zeal wasted away into legend thousands of years ago, and the stories of Lavos, or whatever was mentioned in the old records we have, with it."

The boy, the aspiring Magus, shook his head, a cold gaze appearing over his once childish features.

"Well then… if Lavos would return… then would the Kingdom of Zeal return?"

Ozzie bounced slightly as he brought a hand to his chin in thought, and this time, not because of more jelly donuts.

"Kid, that's an idea, but why the hell am I even listening to you? Maybe I should gut you like all the other humans who stand before me!"

Magus smirked, a harsher version of the kid being shown.

"You can't do it, because you're afraid. And they won't do it because they don't care if you live or not."

Slash nodded; for once his features formed something other than a scowl.

"Personally, I would like to see a cat beat the hell out of Ozzie."

Flea smiled, looking back towards the boy.

"I like you, Magus… if you can pull off this revival of the Kingdom of Zeal or whatever… I'm all for it. Not much else to do with the humans trying to push us around anyway… damn them for thinking that magic is some kind of sin that needs to be purified…"

Magus' eyes opened wide with shock.

"But in Zeal, magic was the only thing everybody had… well…"

What if I couldn't use my magic because something was keeping me from doing it… what if… it was… Lavos? Lavos doesn't seem to be around, but if I can manipulate these creatures, I can figure out what happened to it if they let me look at their old texts or whatever.

Flea smiled again, "Kid, I'll help you with your magic… and one day, you'll earn the name Magus. I'll make sure of it."

Janus, who wished to be Magus, nodded.

"The earthbound ones… the cause of so many problems… they are meant to be ruled by a power with magic… those who have no magic should be subservient to the power that is magic, and all shall look upon magic as a gift, and not a sin!"

Slash grinned, something rather unprecedented for a mystic of his mindset.

"Kid, you're getting a bit ahead of yourself, but I'm with you. I wouldn't mind giving my Slasher a bit of feed with humans…"

Ozzie shook his head slowly, but realized he had no choice as the Kid already won the favor of Flea and Slash. That, and he had gone half an hour without eating and it was becoming harder for him to concentrate.

"Erm… uh… okay."

Janus, the one who would be known as Magus, smiled.

The Kingdom of Zeal shall come again… with I as it's King. Watch out Lavos… I'll get you for what you did to Schala… Schala…

His face fell, but he turned, so as to hide it from the others.

"A time is coming… the black wind howls…" he started, quoting from the story of the great Magus, herald of the mage guilds.

"The seas shall be in turmoil as the light of magic purifies the hearts of the unworthy…"

I'm coming for you, Lavos, with the earthbound as the slaves of my new Kingdom…

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Author's ending note:

Janus reading a story about Magus "the herald of the mage guilds"?

Yeah, I really don't know where I came up with that one, but it really seems to work. The fact that Janus also wishes to bring a new kingdom of Zeal from what he realizes is now nothing also makes a bit of sense, anyway, as I can see.

Perhaps Janus acts a bit old… then again, he was always cold to the adventurers in the game as a child, so the emotion showed within this short story does not seem to be too out of place. Watch out for what I think may become a standard on … writing a story, no matter the length, then coming up with an Alternate Dimension of it… I've come up with one, but the ideas I have for the next seem to coincide slightly with a certain other Author's (who I will ask permission of, mind you). Wait and see…

- Novalon