First let me apologize for the large rifts of time between updates. I had meant to get this out much sooner, but life is a cruel mistress sometimes. On the plus side the renovation of our condo is done, we are moved into it, and I have had time between school to write some more. It is also hard to write Magus, or I should say it is hard to get into the mindset to write him. He is a very dark and brooding person, a person with deep emotional wounds that he tries to hide, however I am not of fan of being in dark and brooding moods. But I "get" him, I understand why he acts the way he does, and I can empathize with him.

Anyway, enjoy the story!

Chapter 7: Beginnings

Search Parameter: "Janus" + "Journal Entries"

Date: Any

Data results(911): First entry displayed below:

Journal excerpt of Subject Janus Zeal, retrieved from the Ice Age, year unknown:

Hello...

::unreadable scribbles and scratches::

Greetings....

::unreadable scribbles and scratches::

I can't believe I am writing in this blasted journal to begin with.

:: several pages appear to be torn from the tomes bindings::

Reluctantly I will admit that this journal, of sorts, it is a necessary precaution.

I suppose I should give a brief summary of the events since arriving in the Ice Age. It's been almost a year now, or so I speculate. There is not much here beyond the howling winds and freezing temperatures. What little life exists struggles against the natural onslaught. This will continue on for many years until at last the sunlight pierces the veil of dust and debris caused by Lavos' impact.

Myself, I have done little since arriving. There is little to do except wander the planet. I have constructed a shelter from the elements and mapped out the surrounding areas, one day perhaps mapping the entire world. In my wanderings I work to eliminate any residual reptite species that still linger and covet any Zealian artifacts that I come across. One day I may even explore the ruins of the Ocean Palace. I am not yet ready to face my sister's corpse yet, to face the ultimate results of my weakness.

This solitude is both a blessing and a curse. I desire no company in this cold wasteland, in my prison. I can contemplate the previous years in quite, disturbed only by ghosts of the past and reminders of my failings. In solitude there is also madness. With no clear goal or purpose I have found myself breaking under the strain of loneliness. It is funny how thoughts of Ozzie, Slash and Flea spring to mind now, how I reflect it was rather like a dysfunctional family. Or how my time with Chrono's companions rings with a positive tone compared to this icy nothingness.

I've seen what solitude can do to an individual. How many did I sentence to a life with nothing but a small hole in their cell wall for company? I remember their maniacal jabberings would often echo down the halls of the dungeon in the nights. I wonder what my purpose was in coming here now, why I chose this time period. Perhaps time will tell. Until then I hope this journal will give my mind the outlet it requires, maybe daily conversations with a piece of paper will be satisfactory.

----

Everything was pain. To see was pain. To breathe was pain. To hear was pain. To live was pain. Pain flowed through my veins, each beating of my heart only seemed to make it flare higher. My veins, my very soul, screamed for the succor that could free me from my pain. I needed elemental energy, magic, and I needed it now!

I struggled against the bonds holding me to the hospital bed. I kicked, punched, twisted, rolled, expanded, collapsed, and screamed. I was a raging animal trying to break free from his cage. The world was tinged red, everything was out to get me but I would get it first! I just had to break these bindings! Sometimes Eva and Gaspar would enter the room. I would rage at them as well, ranting and raving to make them see I needed magical sustenance. How could they not see this? Were they too against me? Had I been a fool for so easily trusting that the Guru had meant to help me?

As the pain continued unabated, and even seemed to increase, I sough a salvation from anything or anyone. I pleaded with Gaspar to drop the muting field, or put an arrow through my head to end the pain. I begged, with all the earnestness of my being, to just have someone end it one way or the other. I could see the faces of Marle and Chrono staring at me, satisfied at their revenge. I begged for their forgiveness, that I was sorry, and to please just kill me. The pain was so great, so all engulfing, that I could not bear it.

For how long I raged and wept in pain I cannot say. One cannot recall such details when you become akin to an animal. All I know is that it seemed to last for an eternity and then ended as quickly as a whispered word. When I awoke I was no longer in the haze that had enveloped me. My body did seem exhausted, drawn out and spent like I had cast all of my magics at once and was now simply an empty container without energy. Then I remembered that was the point of all this.

My memories began to come back to me as my brain recovered. Eva had said that since I was in a spell muting field I could not cast spells, thus I could not empty my energy reserves. Since I was now more or less eating enough daily nutrients my body would no longer need to live off of the elemental energy. However the only two ways to burn off my remaining supply was to wait for my body to use it, which would have taken quite a while Eva explained, or have them do a quick energy drain. Considering I wanted out of here as fast a possible I chose the later option. I'd been empty of elemental energy before, in the few instances when I truly had exhausted myself against my opponent, but the experience had not been so bad. Gaspar had added that I might experience a little pain, but I had scoffed at his warning.

A little pain was a far understatement to describe what I went through. The emptiness extended to my physical self as well. Moving my arm in minor motions seemed to take all the will power available to me, and still then it moved feebly and without any power. Seeing no point in spending so much power to move, and having no reason to do it, I simply stared at the tiled ceiling until either Eva or Gaspar came back to explain what had happened.

Eva came back first, hesitantly opening the curtain barrier to perhaps see if I was still frothing at the mouth. After she saw I was awake, and not thrashing uncontrollably, she quickly brushed in with a smile on her face and a smoothie in the large metal thermis-like container. "How are you feeling today Magus?"

"Horrible," I admitted honestly. I didn't even have the energy for sarcasm, "What happened?"

"Well, we preformed an elemental energy drain to remove the energy you still had stored in your body. This would force your body to gain sustenance the natural way. I believe I explained this before you agreed to the procedure," explained Eva with just a hint of annoyance as she place the smoothie on the table next to me. I reached for it but my hand fell far short of the table, it barely made it a few inches off of the bed before falling back down.

"I don't remember it ever being so painful," I commented. I tried reaching for it again but again my arms just did not have the energy for it. Seeing this Eva place it in my hands and produced a straw that would enable me to drink from it without the need to lift it.

"Well even if you exhausted yourself to the point of being unable to cast a spell your body still has small reserves of elemental energy. Even those reserves were drained, which might explain the heightened pain," explained Eva in a lecturing voice before she suddenly turned a stern look my way, "That and the fact that you were addicted to magic definitely didn't help you any." Eva produced a tablet computer device and inspected whatever appeared on the screen. "Going cold turkey from any addiction is a risky and painful process. Your addiction was just as much physical as it was physcological. The extent of your addiction was far greater than I'd originally thought, but you seem over it now in any case."

Eva pushed a few of the buttons on her tablet device before speaking again. "Aside from that your body was substituting nutrients and rest with elemental energy. It was so used to consuming magic instead of food that when we drained you your body didn't know right away where to get its' new energy from. Since you'd been eating regularly for a few days you had enough built up that your body eventually realized it could get energy from another source. "

"Should of just let me walk out the first day," I grumbled between sips of the smoothie. It lacked any real venom or hatred, just the complaint of someone who was too weak to really muster anything.

"Yes yes, I know," sighed Eva in a motherly fashion, "Next time a dour warlock complains of a stomach ache I'll simply give him some sleeping pills to sleep it off."

"How long was I out?" I asked, ignoring her attempt at humor.

"3 days total," responded Eva before adding more information, "First Day you were completely uncontrollable, in some kind of magic deprived rage. The last 2 you've been asleep, or something like it. We've been giving you water and nutrients though the IV's. The body had to decide when it was ready. Even so, you were very close to death Magus."

Death did not scare me. I was alive now and that was all that mattered. Soon I would be rid of this bed, of these meddlers, and on my quest again.

"How long until I am 'fit for duty'?" I asked, seriously.

"That depends largely on how well you cooperate" she replied before leaving.

-----

"IT'S YOUR FAULT MAGUS!" The hateful accusation once again forced me from my sleep back into wakefulness. A place where the haunting apparitions could not follow, where their vacant eyes could not chase me, and where their hateful voices could not reach. Most of the time sleep held only nightmares from my past, exacting their vengeance by keeping me from a good night's rest. I knew though I deserved much, much, worse.

"Trouble sleeping?" asked Gaspar from his occasional spot in the chair. With a large tome in hand it seemed I had interrupted whatever peaceful reading he'd been attempting.

"Don't even you think it's even a bit creepy to continuously monitor my sleep?" I asked in irritation, "Maybe it is your presence which disturbs my sleep in the first place. Knowing that I have an old man stalking me could shake my oh-so-fragile peace of mind." I knew my acidic sarcasm was unlikely to move the stubborn guru, but it was tiring going from a nightmare to twenty questions. That was a game I did not want to play.

"Ha, your jests stab at me," laughed Gaspar as he marked the last page in his book and carefully set it down. "You really need to tell me what it is you see in those nightmares. You can barely sleep most nights, and the nights you do sleep it is a troubled one I do not doubt."

"Just give me some sleeping pills and let us be done with it," I argued from my bed. It had been two weeks since they'd drained my magical reserves and I was once again strong enough to express my dislike and irritation loud and verbally. My body seemed to be healing quite well on its' own, with a little help from the constant high nutrient smoothies that Eva would bring. Last week I graduate into eating solid foods, in addition to the smoothies, and now I was almost completely on the mend. Not to the good doctor of Chronopolis though. My sleep patterns apparently troubled her.

The first few days after the draining had been fine, my body was too exhausted to stay awake and my mind too drained to produce nightmares. Then slowly each night's rest became shorter and more troubled. Now it was hard to sleep without seeing those that I might have once called friends. Their dead bodies littered my nightmares and their empty eyes drove me from my slumber.

"The point of all this isn't to get you addicted to simply a new substance," chided Gaspar, "It is to give you a clean bill of health so that you can start working cases and give yourself a shot at a good life."

"Well then tell me o' Guru, what have you learned in observing my sleep?" I sarcastically asked, letting my body drop back in my bed.

"Unfortunately Magus I'm not a physic, but I have learned 4 different ways to prepare a side of beef," he explained as he held up the large book he'd brought. "How to cook with flair and magic", the title proclaimed. I was unsure in which sense the author meant magic, but knowing Gaspar he was probably learning how hot he needed to make a fireball in order to not burn the meat.

"A cooking book?" I scoffed with disbelief and the beginnings of anger, "I'm here suffering taunts from dead spirits and you're reading a damnable cooking book!?"

"Ah ha, so he does dream of something," proclaimed the Guru as I realized my own mistake. Again my anger had betrayed my purpose.

"What of it?" I groaned as my early anger deflated, "Surely you see your past mistakes come back to haunt you once in a while. I'm sure the Ocean Palace floats above your head like a guillotine hanging by a thread."

"It does," admitted Gaspar suddenly serious, "There are nights when my sleep is like yours. Not every night, mind you, and I can function missing a night ever now and then. We need to get you at least to getting a few good nights rest a week. A lack of sleep can wear down an individual just a surely as starvation."

"And you think simply telling you about my nightmares will help?" I asked, "Or do you have some grand dream machine that blocks them out once you know what they are."

"No machine Magus, simply a mind at peace for letting past mistakes vent," explained Gaspar, "I myself can start with one if you'd rather see an example."

"I'd rather not do any of this old man," I groaned again, "They are just nightmares."

"Many years before I became a Guru for the crown, I taught lower levels magics to the students at the Academy," began Gaspar as I smacked my head in irritation, "My classes consisted mostly of young ones, at the age when magic is known to them but they still do not grasp the full concept. I had a particularly bright student, Lijand Beristoka, who was leagues above the rest of the class. He was always slacking and playing around during the lessons, at first I thought him simply a troublemaker. One day after class I asked him why he wasn't interested in the course material, he then went to expound on the entire 4 elemental proof and reached into theoretical elements. I knew that if such a bright mind was nurtured correctly that he would be a boon to all of Zeal. So I requested to have him transfered up into advanced classes. It was denied, of course. Lijand's performance had been dismal and the dean would have no one that could not take school seriously promoted up a class."

"But Gaspar the great intervened," I suddenly interrupted and added a sarcastic grandeur to his name, "Let me guess where your guilt trip is going shall I? You ignored authorities and taught him higher magics anyway, probably something you shouldn't have, and then he died in some grisly fashion because of it?" My tone was unabashedly scornful, each question I threw at him like a deadly fireball.

"Yes," roughly replied the Guru who seemed truly, if only slightly, hurt.

"What was it then?" I asked offhandedly as if asking the weather, "A spell to turn invisible? A spell for flight go awry and he plummet down to visit the earthbounds? A backfire from trying to create too big of a fireball?" Gaspar to my surprise didn't respond with a fierce defending of his actions, nor did he try to play it off as banter; he didn't say anything at all in fact. I wondered about that, what would be to aghast to point out to me? It wasn't as if I hadn't done thousand of things worse, it wasn't as if he could top my descent into destruction. I stared at him, waiting for his response, but I could suddenly see the answer written on his face.

"You taught him time travel?!" I asked with unmasked disbelief.

"Note quite," finally responded the Guru, "It was a theory for time travel, something I was going to submit when finished to get a shot at the Guru title. I was so excited to have such a bright student, so eager to help him unravel the mysterious of the universe, that I forgot he was still simply a boy. Lijand was an orphan, his parents killed in a spell duel between their competing houses. I had forgotten this fact, or maybe in my mind I had assumed that he was beyond such thoughts."

"Did it work?" I asked with hope. Hope from me, what a concept!

"No," said Gaspar with a bit of scorn in his voice, as if I was missing the real point of his story. "It was still theoretical when I showed him, and I later found out the whole premise behind it was flawed to such a point that time travel down that route is impossible. Instead it aged him an unknown number of years until he was nothing but dried bones."

"So to answer your unasked question, no you can't use it to search for Schala," added Gaspar with a good amount of acid in his voice.

"Every now and then I see his face, as it appeared when he was young, in my nightmares. It simply stares at me and then ages right before my eyes until only dust is left blowing in the wind.," Gaspar leaned back far in his chair and rubbed the spot between his eyes. Though I still could not discern them from the shadow of his hat I think he might have been wiping away some tears.

"Did that sad display make you feel any better about your failure?" I asked, unconcerned with any sadness the Guru might be experiencing.

"No," admitted Gaspar with a sudden renewed tone that seem to push his previous sadness away, "But after several months of feeling like his ghost was haunting me, I confided in Belthasar. Even though it wasn't a secret of how he'd got a hold of such advanced magic, I'd never actually told anyone the full story. The night after I told Belthasar the full story was my first night of real rest since the incident."

Gaspar gave a soft sigh and continued as if talking to himself, "Nothing makes your failures go away. You just have to find a way to live with them."

"Lovely advice," I said louder than was probably needed, "now if you don't mind I am trying to do just that," I motioned for him to leave without looking up to see if he actually did. The tall-tale sound of his metal cane hitting the ground told me he at least obeyed that request.

If given the same choice today as I was given a month ago, I would not have left them to their fates. Even I had to admit that my mind was not in a right state. The weeks of eating real food, of having real conversation, had shown even me that I needed the painful process they were taking me through. I didn't want to admit it, but it probably would have helped if I told Gaspar what had happened. I wasn't sure how much Belthasar talked to his fellow Guru, but I assumed Gaspar would have brought up the subject he if knew about it. Did he know that Chrono, Marle, and Lucca were most likely dead? Did I want to tell him?

I tried to ignore the question, but I was alone with my thoughts. They were not good company.

-----

"Here you are Magus," stated Eva as she rested a tray of steaming food on the table. It smelled like steak, something I'd grown to like the past two weeks. Though my body seemed fully healed, full of solid strength again, I was still weary. The nights were getting worse, my sleep even less, and I could feel it eating away at the ends of my mind. Now, more than ever, I was susceptible to normal human cycles such as sleeping and eating. In the past one, the other, or both could be replaced with magic. I'd rejuvenated myself after many nights of studying dark tomes and testing magic. Now though I was thoroughly reliant on only what I could do without magic. Every day that list seemed to grow shorter and shorter.

"Eva, I need some sleeping pills," I asked in the calmest way possible.

"Sorry Magus, Gaspar is convinced that they will do you more harm than good." responded Eva.

"You're the doctor, what do you think?" I asked, hoping to appeal to her professional pride.

"I think that while they probably wouldn't hurt every now and then, he's also right," she explained, "He feels the reason you cannot get any good sleep is entirely in your head, and since I can't find anything physically wrong with you anymore I am inclined to agree with him. Sleeping pills can't clear your conscience."

"I just need some sleep," I said this time appealing to her, I don't know, pity maybe.

"Sorry Magus, no means no," chided Eva. After placing down the tablet that displayed my status she turned to leave. She made it to the curtain and begin to glide through the shifting material when I finally spoke up.

"My friends are dead because of me," I suddenly said with a slight note of desperation in my voice, the plead surprised even me. I however realized that I needed a good nights rest, there were no two ways around it, and if something as trivial as admitting the truth did it then why not., "They are the reason I can't sleep."

"Oh Magus," suddenly said Eva in her grandmotherly fashion as she quickly came back to my bedside with real concern in her eyes. "I'm sorry,"

"I don't need your pity," I responded quickly, my tone automatically harsher than I'd intended.

"I mean to say, it won't do any good," I quickly corrected with a slightly gentler tone. I doubt I could truly sound gentle in anything I said, however I could sound not angry when needed. It wasn't an apology but it was as close as I was going to get. "It was my choice that killed them, and there is nothing that can be done to change that."

Eva came closer and reached out a hand to comfort me, but then thought the better of it and spoke instead, "You're right, it wouldn't do any good," she paused, "But I'd feel sorry for anyone whose had friends recently die. Do you miss them?"

"Yes", I responded softly and I was surprised to hear the answer was truly my own. It was not a facade put on to reassure her that I had some semblance of humanity. I really did miss them, despite the fact that we'd been apart for many years, I had even missed them then as well.

Eva softly patted my shoulder awkwardly before leaving. There was nothing more than either of us could have said. No other condolences would make any further difference, and any detail on my part would appear only as dressing on the tale.

-------

Sleep that night claimed me eventually, though my thoughts seemed scattered the rest of the day. However my nightmares did not abate with my confession to Eva. In fact they seemed more vivid than ever, again causing me to jump from sleep to wakefulness while still seeing the hollow eyes of those who I'd reluctantly acknowledged as friends. Gasping for breath I surveyed my room; Gaspar was strangely absent, however his book was left on the chair so he must have been nearby.

"Did you really think that would work?" scoffed a voice that was very familiar to me, in fact it was my own. However it did not originate from my own body. Instead it came from across the room, from someone that looked exactly like me, even down to my old worn battle armor and scythe. While my visage had gained some meat and color since entering the "care" of the hospital, my double still wore my haggard and deathly looking face from the Ice Age.

"Who are you?" I asked in bewilderment. Was this another one of Gaspar's tricks.

"I am you," responded my sneering visage.

"How?" I asked in confusion.

"Who knows, perhaps you've finally gone off the deep end and your hallucinating. With the way you've been living it would make sense. Or maybe I've traveled here from the future to warn you of something. Most likely it is the first one though, your mental stability is amazingly fragile," my hallucination shrugged nonchalantly before approaching closer.

"So did confessing your little act of betrayal make things any better?" mocked my image again as it leaned forward to be eye level with me, "Did it give you a good nights' rest?"

"If you're me then you already know the answer," I replied tersely back.

"I know, I just want to hear you say it," smirked my double, "And why do you suppose that is? Didn't Gaspar at least get a good nights sleep after pouring his old heart out to Belthasar?"

"I don't know," I spoke in hurried, clipped, words.

"Yes you do," my hallucination said, "Why not share that reason."

"I do not know," I responded harshly this time and enunciated each word clearly and slowly, maybe last time my reply had been too quick.

"You shouldn't lie to yourself Magus," chided my double, "Why do you still have nightmares about those you've betrayed?"

"It's because... I deserve the nightmares," I replied as my guilt decided at the moment to come back and remind me why I was having them in the first place.

"Close but no," chided my double as he leaned over to whisper his opinion in my ear, "It's because you deserve much, much, worse." If this was a hallicination it was a very realistic one. I could hear the ragged breath of my double and smell the decay in air as he spoke. His eyes appeared focused, yet at the same time wild like an animal. I could not hold his gaze for long and broke contact, it reminded me too much of me. Had I truly been in this condition not so long ago?

"Ahh awake I see", came the voice of Gaspar, his head poking through the curtains. His sudden entrance snapped me back to reality. Examining the room again I found no sign of my double, though the stench of decay still hung in the air. If Gaspar noticed it he did not say anything. Had it all been a dream?

"Well it seems you at least slept eight hours," stated the Guru as he walked farther in the room to retrieve his book. For the first time I examined the clock across the room and noticed that it was 7 A.M., whatever that really amounted to in a place without a sun or earth, but he was right. I had been asleep for an least eight hours. "Get some more nights like that and you'll be out of here before you know it."

"Lovely," I responded sarcastically. Any more morning like the one today and even I might think I was going crazy. Still, if it got me out of this bed then I guess I could deal with a hallucination of myself.

-----

My dreams remained fitful, however I was able to stay sleeping long enough each night for my body to gain the rest it needed. The nightmares still haunted me, however they always seemed to wake me up after letting me get the requisite amount of sleep to count as "healthy". That was all that really mattered. My hallucination, for that is what it must have been, had yet to return to taunt me. Hopefully he, or it, was gone for good. Eva and Gaspar had run out of reasons to keep me bed ridden; my body was mended and my sleep was as sound as it was likely to get. Then the day of my release came at last.

"Well Magus, I can think of no other reason why you need to be confined to a bed," declared Eva as she walked into my curtained off area with Gaspar in tow.

"However you still need some time before you are fit for duty," stated Gaspar as a counter to her good news. Eva tossed a quick glare his way but then returned a reassuring smile back towards me.

"You simply need to get used to using your muscles again, you've been couped up in bed for a little over a month now," explained Eva as she pushed a flashing light on the tablet she carried. Suddenly the bonds holding me to the bed were released. I immediately threw my legs over the side and almost fell on the floor in the process. My strength was greatly diminished from the lack of movement on my part.

"You'll also need to wear this for a week," she continued as I cautiously tested the strength in my legs by standing. Immediately I had to grasp the bed for support, however I didn't collapse in a pile of twitching muscles. It was a start.

"What is it?" I asked as I looked at the device she held in her hand dubiously. It appeared to be a bracelet, though with one flashing green light and a small readout.

"It is a small magic muting field. Over the week it will slowly weaken, gradually exposing your body back to elemental energies. At the end of the week the latch will spring open and the spell muting field will be at zero," explained Gaspar.

"Which means for the first day or two I won't be able to cast anything," I translated aloud.

"Maybe three," suggested Gaspar with a smile.

"Whatever," I mumbled as I roughly took the muting bracelet from Eva and slipped my hand through it. Immediately it tightened to fit my wrist and the latch that connected the two sides closed shut. The small readout displayed the number "100%" in bright green letter that dimmed after a few moments to make the numbers unnoticeable unless examined up close.

"I can help you back to your room if you'd like?" asked Gaspar.

Looking at his eager face, and then remembering the mess he got me into, I looked to Eva and said, "Can I have a crutch?" Apparently they stored them under the beds here because she fished two out and handed them to me. Crutches were crutches despite out how technologically advanced a society became, these were no different than the ones I'd used in the dark ages. They did look shinier though.

Roughly hoisting my way past Gaspar I hobbled my way out of the medical ward without looking back. In the background I heard Gaspar grumble something, probably about my lack of a thank you, and then I was through the doors and back into the main hallways of the Chronopolis. Even though I was not fond of the time station, being anywhere but in that damnable bed lent me a type of energy, a spring in my step if you would. Finding the nearest terminal, which was directly to the side of the medical bay, I went searching for a map.

Despite the amount of down time I had during my "care", I hadn't simply stared at the wall blankly. Gaspar had brought me a book or two every day, starting with the Chronopolis welcome guide and various other publications about the station. I'd learned the basics on how to get around and how to operate the computer terminals throughout the hallways. Of course that was all theory to me and this was my first time of actually doing it. With little trouble I found a map showing me where I currently was, and where my room was (I guess the terminal had some way of identifying the individual currently using it).

A ball popped out of the wall from a slot near the top and came to a stop before falling to the ground. It floated near eye level before a computer voice announced, "If you wish to have me guide you to your destination say yes."

"Yes," I replied.

"I'm sorry I couldn't understand, was that a yes?" replied the machine.

"Yes," I replied again, irritated.

"I'm sorry, could you repeated your answer," came the reply.

"Forget this," I mumbled to myself as I hobbled away.

"Answer accepted, this way to your destination," replied the little humming robot, unaware that I really wanted to blast it into bits.

The floating ball took the quickest way, ignoring any possible "tourist" detours that might have existed on the station. It also kept up, or slowed down I should say, to the current slow pace I was making. Walking in crutches was just as unfavorable as I remember it. The last memorable time I could recall was when Slash had "sparred" with me one day after I had arrogantly told him he had nothing left to teach me. Apparently I had been wrong.

The halls seemed void of any other people for the most part. A few passed by me and my floating ball. I could feel the stares on my back, though I am unsure if they knew who I was or I was simply a sight to behold. Suddenly I realized I was walking around in a hospital cloak. It covered my entire body, front and back, but I wondered where my old armor and weapons had been taken to. A question for when Gaspar or Belthasar next came to bug me.

At last we reached my room and the machine asked if it could do anything else. Not bothering to reply I went to open the door only to realize I'd also forgot my room key. Recalling the Chronopolis welcome kit I remembered that a small panel to the right of the door also functioned as a finger print scanner. Either a key or a finger print could open the door. The only question was, when did they find time to take my prints? I placed my hand on the small grey pad anyway and the door slid open after a few moments. Hobbling in it quickly shut behind me, leaving the robot still waiting for my answer.

"At least that's over," I mumbled to myself as I hobbled into the room. Lights flared on immediately in reaction to my presence, reveling my double again lounging in the corner with a smiffin in his hand.

"Over?" it laughed, "This is just the beginning dear Magus." The way he said Magus was as if it were a curse, as if it was the very worst thing possible in the world. Before I could respond I felt a presence behind my back. Maybe it was my imagination but suddenly I swore I felt as if my sister was standing right behind me. There is no logical way to put why I felt this, I just knew. However when I turned around all I saw was the silver door to my room. Lingering on it for a moment, perhaps wishing that she was there, I turned back to view my double. When I resumed looking in the previous direction my double was gone, along with the smiffin much to my dismay.

However where my double had been standing was a stack of folded clothes. Not my old armor it seemed, as they all appeared new and clean. Hobbling to my bed I sat down and fell into it. The mattress was more comfortable than the hospital bed, but maybe that was because I had grown too used to the hospital. That really wasn't what was on my mind though, rather just surface thoughts that kept my mind looking anywhere but where it needed to be. No, what I was really pondering were the words my double spoke before disappearing. What exactly was it the beginning of?


Magus is hallucinating! I love it, and I think you will too, when you see next chapter and how this hallucination inserts itself into situations where Magus really doesn't need any further obstacles in. I tried to end the hospital stay with this chapter as I know reading about someone bed-ridden probably isn't the most exciting thing in the world. Then again this story isn't going to win any awards for action category of the year. Action happens, and will happen, when action needs to happen. Hopefully you enjoyed it, stayed tuned for updates that hopefully don't take this long!