Hello and welcome again to another chapter of The Observers -Aftermath-. It's been awhile for any type of update due to several factors(ship life, distance education, and other life things). I do hope there are some people out there still reading this. Anyhow, expect the next update whenever I happen to get the chance to write. Hopefully the story is deserving of your patience. Anyhow, enjoy Chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Deviations

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Find Definition: Deviation

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Definition: Deviation

A) A variation that deviates from the standard or norm

B) The difference between an observed value and the expected value of a variable or function

C) The error of a compass due to local magnetic disturbances

D) Deviate behavior

E) A turning aside (of your course or attention or concern)

Sea Also: Time Deviation, Deflection, Divergence, Diversion

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The clouds had moved in shortly after I'd left Lucca's, bringing with them a cold wind. As if it was my lot in life, as if I was forever struggling against the winds of fate, I marched forward relentless as ever. Soon rain pelted down from the heavens and I watched as the castle, visible on a clear or cloudy day, vanished behind the heavy downpour. I gritted my teeth in annoyance and moved on. I'd marched through blizzards, I could certianly withstand alittle rain.

Lightning flashed in the distance, crashing down somewhere in a distant cope of trees, and threw stark shadows across the landscape as day was slowly descending into night. While it was true the castle was no short walk from Lucca's house, it certainly shouldn't have taken this long. Somewhere along the way I'd lost myself amongst the rain and wind. Though I was still on the dirt road that had, at all times during my previous visit, lead to Gaurdia's castle.

The sound of heavy neighing, of hoofs beating against the ground, sounded behind me as a group of riders hurriedly raced down the road. They raced by without incident, a few throwing me odd looks, and I notice the flag of Guardia, sticking up from a pole attached to the lead rider. As quickly as I had noticed them, they vanished in another curtain of rain. For a moment I wondered where they were going and then shrugged the thought off. What did it matter after all?

Instead of worrying about things that probably didn't involve me, I instead took my will to reality and carved forth a shield against the rain and lifted myself slightly off the surface of the world. Then I speed quickly across the ground, covering the distance faster and easier than before.

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Lightning flashed yet again in the stormy sky, shedding a momentary flash of light onto the corpse I was examining. The dead body had been my first clue that I'd run into another annoyance. His eyes were open in a way that suggested he must have been shocked when the fatal blow had come, must have thought he was invincible until that point. Thin chain mail, the type I'd noticed calvalry had the tendency to wear, and slashed cape proudly displayed the defaced Gaurdia crest. The blood that ran down the sword still grasped in his hands said that he'd at least felled a few as well, or perhaps he'd tripped on his own sword and lifted himself free in the last moments of his shock.

In any case the battle seemed over, the only sound that blew across the grass field was that of rain and thunder. The smart thing to have done would have been to turn around and seek the castle in better weather. Instead I scoured the rest of the battle field, gleaming further information from what bodies I could find and the equipment that had become abandoned. My best guess was that both sides had started out with the purpose of countering the other, both knew of their enemies well before hand. The rain though had hid them until the final moments when they passed through the others formation. Chaos ensued after that as each side raced to come about and face the other. Both sides had been surprised, sneak attacking one another unknowingly.

The clang of blades sounded unexpectedly off to my right, the fighters still hidden from my vision, and I marched forward eager to slay whatever Porre fool I might find still alive; I hadn't taken Gaurdia and I wasn't about to simply let Porre have it while I was still in this time period. The sounds stopped again and silence encompassed the battle field and stretched into a long awkward pause, something more suited to interrupting a conversation than a fight. I took measured steps, walking lightly and listening intently.

I managed to duck moments before a plate wearing man emerged from the curtains of rain, a sudden appearance that could have mimicked the end to an invisibility spell. He overexerted the blow and it was a simple matter of walking into his reach and slamming my palm against his armored visor. Then I willed him into the void. Empty plate clattered to the ground and I waited for any further opponents. The battle field again seemed silent though and so I continued my walk looking for further fights.

"Sergeant!" a loud yell sounded, coming from a direction where I'd still not explored.

"SERGANT KLAUS!" yelled the same voice again. I walked eagerly towards it, hoping for more Porre soldiers. My only moments of true purpose were in combat, there were no questions there just simple survival.

"He's dead James, let him go…" came the soothing voice of, what I could tell, was a female. The voice was a loud whisper, the rain and wind forcing personnel requests into public demands.

"Damn Porre!" came a third voice, a voice gruffer than the first "Didn't even see them until they were on us! We showed them though, not even cowardly ambushes will defeat the Knights of the Square Table!"

I'd heard of the Knights of the Square table, an organization that had somehow survived through the dark ages. I suppose Frog had managed to accomplish something after his return. Never mind that the name sounded ridiculous, though from my experience royalty never were good with words.

"CHARGE!" came a rallying cry from behind me, interrupting my musings, and I turned sharply around as three Porre Soldiers tried their best to charge through me. My years of battle, of killing and fighting, kicked in and I materialized my scythe in a smooth motion to rake across the chest of the lead-man. He collapsed backwards as I let my weapon vanish back into the nothingness that spawned it and palmed the two other warriors to my parallels. One collapsed writhing in flames while the other stood his ground, frozen in a block of ice that would thaw in a few days to leave a rotting, but well preserved, corpse. The heavy footfall of plated boots raced all around me and the voices I'd heard earlier shouted "TO ARMS KNIGHTS!"

Swords and shields meet in the distance, the two sides meeting in battle, and I hurried to join the fray. The first battle I stumbled upon had a tall axe wielding knight keeping his four attackers at bay with wide, and fast, arcs of his enormous axe. I quickly took count of who wore what crests and then rushed in behind with brutal efficiency. Two fell, their heads tumbling comically to the ground, and their comrades looked back with muted awe. That proved to be the distraction needed for the axe wielder and he finished off what I had not, crumpling one under the large weapon and bating the over away with practiced ease.

A brief look passed to me, as he evaluated whether I was a threat or not, and he nodded and ran towards where he probably guessed his compatriots were fighting. I followed simply in hopes of further combat. The other battles were un-note worthy, we found no more than two or three Porre soldiers at a time though we did add a few Gaurdia soldiers to the small squad that I was trailing. A shorter blonde haired man and a black-haired woman; both wore light chain mail and carried bows in addition to the common long sword they were currently blooding.

At last the battlefield was again, for the time being, clear of all Porre soldiers. It was then the three turned around to regard me, and unlike the varied looks I'd gotten before I was instead greeted with grateful nods. For the time being anyhow.

"That was some fine fighting!" yelled the axe wielding man, upon getting a closer look at him I noticed the large scar that ran across his forehead and one under his throat. Brown, short cropped, hair sat on top of his head, a small topping for such a massive warrior. His wide nose more than made up for the lack of hair and it seemed to be the defining feature of his face.

"Are we the only ones left?" asked the blonde haired one, his hair sticking out in a manner that resembled Chrono's on some of his better days, and his eyes shifted back and forth as they constantly scanned the scene for more enemies. His constant shifting, along with his angular face, brought to mind a cautious bird on the look out for predators.

"Us and a few horses that ran a distance away" responded the black-haired female, her facial features soft compared to the hard metal shell she wore into battle. After quickly sizing up her companions she turned her examining, hazel eyed, gaze my way and smiled as she did a once over of my condition.

"Thanks friend, I'm glad you happened upon us when you did. Most likely one or two of us would be dead if it wasn't for your help." She smiled a sad smile, but it was a genuine smile and told more than she'd probably meant.

"That it was, you're quite deadly with the stick of yours!" laughed the larger, scarred, axe-weidling brute. The fire of battle still burned in his dark brown eyes and griped his axe repeatedly in an effort to extinguish the engergy.

"It's a scythe, not a stick" I replied with indifference, rematerializing the weapon in my hands.

"You a mage or something?" asked the larger man again, dumbfounded at my weapon's sudden appearance. There was accusation in his words and a suspicious glint in his eyes; he had a bad history with magic it seemed.

"Something like that" I responded.

"We don't need any mage trouble around here" he responded, his eyes narrowed and hands inched farther down his axe.

"He just saved us Brak, who cares if he's a mage or not!" exclaimed the female, sighing in exasperation as she walked closer to offer me a hand. "Sorry about my friend's suspicion. He's had some, umm, bad experiences with mages and magic. I'm Janice, this is Brak, and the paranoid one over there is James."

"Charmed" I said acidly as I glared daggers at the offered hand. She dropped it nervously after a few seconds of letting it hang there and turned back to her companions.

"We're going back to Gaurdia Castle to report what's happened here, they've advanced farther in that we'd thought. We were suppose to be reinforcements for the bridge but it seems we are too late…."

"You're saying too much again" spoke up James from behind her "We don't know if we can trust him." Suspicious eyes, much like those from Brak, were centered upon me, though those same eyes seemed to size up everything and everyone around him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for your assistance, but these are difficult times. Who knows who could be a Porre spy? We don't need another repeat of the Chancellor incident."

"Anyway, I was just going to offer him a ride geeze, chill James" sighed Janice, her childish attitude in a bloody battle seemed out of place but neither of the other knights seemed to pay it any extra heed "Anyways, since we are going back to the castle I'd like to invite you. The king, and Crono, would be very grateful for your efforts."

"As it happens, that is exactly where I need to be."

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Janice had a way with animals it seemed, she called out the horses by name and they came trotting happily through the rain and mud. There were four in total; Fatty, Lucky, Spotty, and George. I, on the other hand, had a different way with animals. My offered horse, George, did his best to back off and otherwise stay out of my presence. He was braver than most, any horse I've ever attempted to ride usually galloped away at full tilt when I grab the saddle. Most animals, wild or not, react in the same manner or are violently riled and attempt attack. The one exception had been Alfrador, the only pet I'll ever lay claim too or ever claim friendship with. The true casualty in the falling of Zeal had been losing him.

Instead of attempting to ride the scared animal I hovered alongside their three horse formation that sped through the sparse rain and light fog that was now descending upon the land in the wake of the hellish storm. Every so often I caught Brak throwing glances at me, assuring I was still there and perhaps reassuring him that I wasn't attempting to cast a fiendish spell his way. James seemed intent on trying to scan through the fog with his eyes; I'd catch him staring in the murky stuff for minutes on end in one direction while somehow keeping his horse going along with the rest. Janice tried striking up banter and chat with the remaining Square Table knights and myself, failing most of the time much to her dismay.

"So, what business do you have at the castle anyway?" she asked, the fourth in a series of questions that came at an interval of every few minutes.

"Looking for an old fool" I responded simply, still mindlessly gliding along.

"Don't talk about the king like that!" barked Brak back at me from his position in front.

"Calm down Brak, he probably didn't mean the king. Right stranger?" interposed Janice in the conversation.

"No, I was talking about another old fool" I responded with cool disdain. Loyalties were always fun to test, how far would a King's knight go to protect his good name? Would Brak lash out at me and give me an excuse to show him how bad magic can actually be?

"Stupid mage" grumbled Brak at the comment and turned his attention back to the front. Janice slowed down her trot to the same speed as my hovering and gave me a cross look.

"Are you TRYING to get into a fight with him or something?" Janice scolded.

"Maybe" I responded coldly "Or maybe I'm trying to see if he's as foolish as most knights I've met. Blindly rushing into a battle because of words, and dying most useless deaths."

"You don't like Gaurdia much do you?" asked Janice with real interest "Or maybe you just don't like knights."

"Pick which option suits you" I responded with a shrug "I have a terrible history with either subject."

Janice rode alongside me quietly for a few moments, perhaps trying her best to not say anything at all or come up with a convincing counter-point. At last she settled on story.

"You remind me of Brak over there" she indicated with a slight tilt of her head in his direction, "You both keep old hatred's alive. Do you know how he got those scars all over his face?"

I remained silent, and then at last shook my head no. I could think of a variety of spells and weapons that could cause something like that but pinpointing one was impossible.

"It was at the start of the war and we ran into a contingent of Porre soldier's bearing rifles and a strange kind of magic they called 'Elements'. We lost the battle and Brak was captured by the enemy and held as a POW for three weeks until we finally rescued him. He never talks about what happened to him those weeks but I've seen other scars on his body that he tries to hide. I know whatever happened was caused by magic; he refuses any magic healing or enchanted weapons and armor. Whenever there's a mage around he gets jumpy and paranoid."

So a man gets hurt by magic and then shuns it the rest of his life. Was this story attempting to convince me of his cowardice? If so it was doing a fine job.

"I don't know what happened to you in the past but I do know that it is in the past, not the present. You can skulk and insult it all you like, you can be an asshole as much as you like, but were not going to fight you over simple insults. If you don't want to talk to us or be friendly you don't have to, but I pity someone who hangs onto the past like that. It's weakness, not strength." Janice gave her speech and then increased the speed of her gallop to resume her position between James and Brak.

"Whatever" I mumbled to myself. No one else attempted conversation the rest of the ride. For which I was eternally grateful for.

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"Halt there good riders of Gaurdia" came the voice, along with the silhouette, of a horse-bearing rider. The three knight formation stopped and pulled alongside one another instantly, swords out and eyes keenly scanning the rest of the fog for an ambush. In the stead of a deadly ambush was a simply dressed Gaurdia flag bearer, cloaked in a rain coat and with nothing more than plain leather armor and a stick. The second flag, hanging smaller and underneath Gaurdia's, proclaimed him to be a messenger I think. I'd seen similar messengers cloaked in similar garb and with a similar setup in the war I'd waged with them.

"Hail Messenger!" shouted Janice as she spotted the flag as well and closed distance with the green cloaked figure. The other two hung back, either because that was just how it was done, or to keep an eye on me. A few words exchanged between the two and she came trotting back to us with two tubes in hand and a worried look on her face.

"Brak, James, it seems the town is under siege and our assistance is required immediately. We are to follow the messenger to meet up with the rest of our forces elsewhere and then break the siege and counter attack to secure the bridge. It's going to be a long night." Her orders were crisp and, probably, verbatim from what the messenger had just told her. Good leaders passed orders like these, to the point and clear. The two knights nodded and galloped to meet with the still waiting messenger.

"You" pointedly said Janice "have two scrolls, one from a man called Belthasar and another from an 'old friend'. I suppose this means something to you because I know of no Belthasar and I don't suspect you keep a large company of friends." Unlike when she spoke to her comrades, she did not intone the respect in her voice when addressing me, it was more of a disdain. Quickly the tubes left her hand as I levitated them my way, unconcerned with her feelings towards my attitude.

"I assume I am left to find the castle myself then?" My sneer accompanied my question and I thought for sure she would walk away without response.

"Keep going due north, you'll see it soon enough." She explained simply enough and then galloped away without a goodbye or a wave. However she turned around midway to the messenger and shouted farewell advice.

"Enjoy your stay in the castle, and remember my words." Then they vanished in the fog, the rapid beating of hooves the only indication that they were still in the vicinity and even that too faded. Her words were taken on deaf ears, Brak's story, or even her own untold past, palled in comparison to having your entire world destroyed in a single night. Let her think see knew true disparity.

I opened the scroll tube with the large B across it, assuming that the B meant Belthasar. The parchment that came out was not parchment at all, but rather a thin plastic like sroll that immediately unfurled in the palm of my hands. Text appeared on the plastic slide, lighting up like so many of the electronic devices I'd seen in Lucca's house or from the bleak future. Then I read the contents of slide.

"Tsk Tsk I can't leave you for five minutes without you causing a Deviation. This is your first warning, do not interfere with this time line. We've sent an Observer to clean up your mess, it was the messenger if you must ask, and I also instructed him to deliver this message when he ran into you. If you need more motivation besides my strict instructions, you can rest easy knowing that those three were supposed to die in that battle. Now, instead of dying in defense of their country, they will be killed alone, and surprised, by a total stranger.

Don't worry though I'm still willing to let you come aboard. Everyone makes mistakes and in the end the result will be the same. Now, hurry up and return this letter to me(the arrow at the top will point to the direction of the castle by the way). Remember, no more interference. Consider this your first, and only free, lesson."

The three knights I'd ended up, coincidentally, saving were going to die anyway. Senseless deaths without purpose except to keep the timeline the exact way that Belthasar had found it. It didn't matter, I told myself. I'd accomplished what I'd originally started out to do; find the Castle and thus Belthasar. Who cared if some people I'd just met died, they would have died anyway without my intervention. I'd simply prolonged their life, gave them that much more time to enjoy living. What did I have to feel guilty about?

"Nothing", I said aloud "Absolutely nothing."

After all, I wasn't the only one interfering with the time line. Belthasar himself was attempting to recruit members from people pivotal to the survival of Gaurdia. If they left then the kingdom was sure to fall and history would be radically changed. Or, I thought to myself as if a torch had suddenly lit my way through a dark corridor, he was saving them from death. Instead of letting useful tools die, Belthasar was going to simply extract them and use them to keep the timeline the way he had found it. My new found torchlight led me to end of the darkened path, to a conclusion I found unbelievable yet inevitable in the grand scheme of the cycle of civilizations; tonight Gaurdia was going to fall.

Nothing lasted forever, I knew this intimately, but I had questions to ask before Fate claimed yet more victims. Something I'd been meaning to ask Chrono ever since we saved him from the jaws of death. If that meant causing another Deviation, then so be it. I stuffed the remaining, un-opened, tube in the folds of my cape, there would be time for it later, and then sped on my way. Time, it seemed, was against me yet again.

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Next Chapter: What happens when Magus has a chance to change history yet again. Will he help those who claimed friendship with the reclusive warlock, or will he lay aside old friendships and do what it takes to get one step closer to his goal. Find out that and more in the next chapter of The Observer-Aftermath. Chapter 4: Stone Memories

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