Title: Chronology Odyssey

Author: FlippythePenguin

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: R/C. Others will be announced later.

Summary: Rosette Christopher has traveled alone through the Astral Lines for a long time. But it seems God has given her a break, because suddenly she is with Chrno again. But there's a catch- she's in the past, and Chrno is still a Sinner, and Magdalene knows more than she appears.

Warning: This contains character death, and views of religion that may not coincide with your own views. If you do not agree with them, please don't read.

Disclaimer: Chrno Crusade is property of its respective owners. I'm not stealing anything.

My beta XattilaX-theMONKEY. She is the beta of all my stories. If you catch something that I have not, or she has not, please inform me of those mistakes so I can correct them. Thank you!

an. this is a side story that has been on my mind the past couple of months. i will update when i get the time, but my main focus will be on winter lights.

Prolouge

She no longer knew how long she had been dead. It could have been days, months, years. Time was so still here, so cold and so very lonely. This place should have been welcoming, should have been everything she had read in her Bible when she was still breathing, living.

Here, she drifted.

Time passed. She was aware of this, but she could not find any proof in the blue light that surrounded her. The waves flowed endlessly, and she could not decipher any simple drop in the large flow.

She thought mostly of her life as Rosette Christopher. She thought mostly of her life she left behind, the way she had died peacefully, frightfully, with Chrno by her side. They had died together, she knew they had, but she was alone in this place.

Sometimes, if she listened hard enough, she thought she could hear Azmaria whispering prayers in her ear, singing songs into the distant clouds. But not matter how hard she tried to hold on, the moment would slip away and she was left alone and cold again.

She retained her physical form. She did not understand how, but she had. She still had her fingers, and her toes. She still could feel the weight of her long blonde hair as it fell down along her neck and lay on her back.

She was also aware that she had not a stitch on her body.

If she had not been dead, she would have felt embarrassed. She would strive to cover herself, and would look around suspiciously for any signs that the Elder was nearby, trying to take a peek at her.

She felt nothing. Not in this place.

Few emotions had remained. She did not know why. Sometimes, when she gathered enough strength to bring herself to question, she wondered if it was the absence of Chrno by her side. When Chrno was with her, she always felt whole. She felt safe, and loved.

But he was not here. She was alone, so lonely and cold.

Her heart was frozen. For the longest time, as she floated in the blue waters, she would reach a hand to the base of her throat and wonder why she felt that something was missing. She felt broken, like she had been torn apart from more then just her life.

At the moment, or what she thought could be considered a moment, she was dancing as she drifted. She could have been reenacting something out of a love story, those damn dime novels Joshua had loved so much.

Joshua. Her heart hurt so, so much. She pushed away those harmful memories, until she was alone again, with no blue eyes haunting her. Where no purple eyes cried with her.

The blue surrounded her. She loved the texture, the feel of the emptiness. In it, she could not bring herself to feel hatred. She did not want to hate her God. She loved her God, she did.

But she loved Chrno, too. And God kept him away.

She lifted her arms to cover her eyes, as if to forcefully push away that hatred, that pain and hurt. She wanted to feel nothing, to see nothing, to be nothing. Because if she was nothing, she would be able to survive an eternity in the Astral Lines.

Tears, cold tears, ran down her arms, and she lifted her head and paused mid step as the river flowed and swelled around her.

She opened her mouth, her throat constricting as she tried to say her first words since she had died and come to this place-

"I want to see you again, Chrno."

The words had barely left her lips before a feeling of disorientation had her sinking to her knees. The world around her was disassembling, as if the very fabrics were being torn apart by the force of the suddenly dark, dark blue of the Astral Lines.

The river swelled over her, pushing her lower and lower, even as she tried to open her mouth to scream something, anything.

Rosette Christopher was only aware that she was drowning.

TBC. . .