Hikaru: Because I was playing Dark Cloud II and I heart the Moon People.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Level-5 or making any material profit from this fanwork. Pure fiction, purely fan made fun.
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After everything was said and done, with the defeat of Emperor Griffon and the Dark Element, Osmond had nothing more to do than return to Luna Lab with his precious Ixion in tow. The time-traveling train had taken great sums of gilda, time, and effort to create, and yet the time spent to use it was short-lived. It would have to either stay cooped up in the lab or in some museum somewhere that recounted the time-traveling adventure that saved Blue Terra.
Time travel ... that brought back a fresh flood of memories from the last adventure he'd taken part in. Granted, it wasn't entirely time travel, but the final part required time traveling four hundred years past. Well, make that six hundred now. Back then, it had been the Dark Genie that wrought havoc and destruction across time and space. It was gone now.
Most of the greatest evil forces were now gone.
Osmond could hardly believe it. That'd he would live to face two serious world crises and help save the world both times.
In Luna Lab, he'd lost all motivation for research and invention. He'd merely sit at his chair, tinkering with tools, never actually working. If he were not one of the most brilliant minds of the Luna Lab, Dr. Nobb surely would have had him thrown out by now. That, and he's a Moon Person, native to Yellow Drops, no less.
Yellow Drops ... he missed his home world, the moon. He missed all his friends and family there, most of all the people that had helped him construct the Sun Giant ... including those from Blue Terra.
The fresh waves of memories buried long ago sprouted up once more, all but completely ruining the two hundred year gap between the occurrences.
There was an Atlamillia, two hundred years ago. One whose power was completely different than the three Atlamillia of this time. That Atlamillia had chosen a young man from an obscure, rural village to help piece together the world blown apart by the savage Dark Genie and its master. That Atlamillia had been destroyed as well, but in the process it allowed the world to be saved.
Osmond had joined the journey late, right before the storming of Dark Heaven Castle. He'd felt very ... out of place with the others. Toan was their uniting force, collecting more allies as his quest progressed from the mountainous Norune Village in the north. But although Osmond and Toan would get along well, with the others he was, well, awkward, for lack of a better term. Xiao had always intimidated him, being a cat person and all, Goro had a short temper and expressed dislike for Moon People of any sort, Ruby Osmond got along with fairly well, but she liked to tease him, and Ungaga was the silent warrior.
Osmond sighed, leaning on the round table of his laboratory. Toan, Xiao, Goro, Ungaga ... they were all surely dead by now. Dead, and perhaps left descendants to their legacy, but Osmond had no idea who they were or what they would look like. He'd been out of touch with his old comrades for too long.
Ruby was still alive, there was no denying that. Genies don't suddenly pop out of existence. But with Toan's wish granted--the world saved from the Dark Genie--Ruby most likely returned to her lamp in Queens. And King, given his ... dislike for Ruby, most likely sold the thing the moment Ruby returned. Who knows where it could be now.
The lab doors opened, and Osmond looked up, curious to receive a visitor. Most everyone in Luna Lab learned to leave him alone when he was brooding--if he were disturbed or startled, there were disastrous results. Osmond was then required to leave his guns at the door.
The footsteps resounding on the metal flooring were soft, not hard, and subtle, not loud. Osmond had a feeling he knew what sort of visitor would come.
A Moon Person garbed with a dark blue robe with gold crescent moons embroidered on the hems and beads around the neck and wrists ambled down the pathway, the hood hiding his face. Only his piercing red eyes were visible. Osmond turned in his swivel chair to face his visitor.
"Hello." he greeted the robed Moon Person with a little wave. "What brings you to Luna Lab, friend?"
The robed Moon Person shook his head.
"I must speak with you, Osmond."
Under his mask, Osmond arched a brow. Of course other Moon People would know him ... but most Moon People native to Blue Terra never heard of him. And most Moon People on Blue Terra now were native to this land, not the ancestral Yellow Drops.
"May I ask who you are?"
The Moon Person's eyes narrowed in an annoyed fashion, but nonetheless he pulled down his hood, the gold bell attached to the end jingling.
To humans, most Moon People looked alike save different eye or fur colorations. But among Moon People, each and every one were as unique as snowflakes.
Osmond's heart skipped a few beats.
"Th-Theodore ... This is quite the ... surprise." Osmond stuttered. Theodore wore the garb of a Starlight Temple priest very well.
Theodore scowled at the engineer.
"Please, Osmond, call me Theo. There's something I must speak with you about."
Osmond turned away slightly, drumming his fingers rhythmically on the tabletop.
"And what would that be, pray tell?"
Theodore's reply upset Osmond so much he fell from his chair to the floor, ears flat against his head:
"We've located the ruins of the Moon Ship."
The Moon Ship ... the ancient ark that the Moon People of long ago used to journey to Blue Terra to captivate the Dark Genie inside a gigantic urn of substantial magickal power. After Toan and his allies roused it from the Sun and Moon Temple, it had crashed after the final battle. With it and its moon crystal, one could return to Yellow Drops.
Osmond got to his feet, brushing himself off, feeling quite cross at the thought of that ship.
"What would you like me to do about it, Theodore?"
Theodore frowned at the use of his name in lieu of the nickname he preferred. Osmond must be just a little miffed.
"We--the Brownboo villagers and many other Moon People--want you to restore the Moon Ship so we may return to Yellow Drops."
"Return to Yellow Drops!" Osmond repeated with evident sarcasm. "You know the law--once we touched upon the damning earth of this planet, we may never return to the land from whence we came! Even if we could restore the Moon Ship."
"You could restore it! You're a part of Luna Lab! The Moon Crystal of the Starlight Temple surely would help restore the Moon Ship! Perhaps it is even the same Moon Crystal used to operate the ship before in Toan's time!"
Osmond only shook his head sadly.
"Luna Lab may be able to break the fabric of time and space, but it cannot recreate the magicks of the Moon People. Remember, Moon People grounded on Blue Terra lose their innate abilities after a while. The Luna Stones, Moon Crystal and moonstones that we pick up may aid us a little bit, but there is no way we could reclaim what was once our birthright."
Theodore stood in a daze, staring at Osmond with wide eyes. His lips were trembling.
"You can't even hail them? Communicate with them?"
"No." Osmond's reply was curt. "We are dead to them, and they to us."
Tense moments of silence passed. Theodore's fists were clenched, gripping the fabric of his robes.
"For all my life I have looked up at the moon from afar, wishing to go even once ... wishing I could go with Toan to Yellow Drops, to see the ancestral motherland just once ... Mayor Nem wanted to see it, too. He's on his deathbed, Osmond."
Osmond laughed mirthlessly.
"How could we break the enchanted laws forced on us? The people of the moon live a hard life, whether it's on or off the moon. Sirus was proof of that."
Theodore turned away, putting his hood back up, concealing his face once more.
"I had thought the great sage Crest could help in this matter, but even with her power over the Moon Crystal ... she is only an elderly human compared to the great ancestral magicks. I thought you could help, too ... but you deny help to your kinfolk."
Osmond glared daggers into Theodore's back.
"The only way to break the laws ingrained in us is if an Atlamillia had chosen you. Atlamillia are the only things that surpass Lunar Magicks, what with they being crystallizations of the elements flowing through time and space. But no one knows how Atlamillia come about save the Faery King, I suppose, and he has made himself quite scarce after Toan killed the Dark Genie."
Theodore stopped on his way out.
"Atlamillia ... yes, that might work." He turned to face Osmond, and although Osmond couldn't see it, he could have sworn that Theodore was smiling under his hood. "I'll go to Kazarov Stonehenge. If I find what I seek, promise you'll help us get back to Yellow Drops!"
"Kazarov Stonehenge?" Osmond repeated, baffled. But then he remembered what he had just said about Atlamillia--crystallizations of the elements flowing through time and space. Kazarov Stonehenge was where the Chrono Union had taken place, a rip in the fabric of time and space. That, and given the number of time distortions that must have caused ...
"Yes, I will ... Theo." Osmond said before he could stop himself.
Theodore positively beamed as he dashed out the door, the other scientists looking baffled at the eccentric Moon Person flying out the door. They had been too absorbed in their own work to notice the conversation between the two Moon People.
A new Atlamillia, a new stone capable of breaking the magickal laws of the Moon People for time immemorial. A new possibility to return to the home from which he had sprung. Osmond ran out the door, looking up at the starry sky. The lone gold moon sat in its throne of starlight, regal in every aspect.
"Home ... I'm going home ..."