A/N: Hello again, Sneko here. (Not McB, because she's a stupid, self-absorbed idiot who I'm ashamed to be sharing a body with...not really!) Aaahm...I'm having trouble with my email again and I'm not getting any reviews and/or pm(s). Sorry if that's caused confusion. I haven't gotten anything since the seventeenth, but they usually start to filter through after a few days when this happens, so don't worry. If I haven't responded, it's probably because I haven't received it, and I will when I get it, ok? (Please say it's ok, I can't exactly do anything about it either way.)

Disclaimer: If I owned Chrono Crusade, I wouldn't be writing this. Honestly. We all know it doesn't belong to any of us, and perhaps that's a good thing- otherwise, the story would've been a good bit different.

Chapter 52 (Urkles!)

Rosette stared. The fingers were long, slender, like those of a guitarist, with one main exception...

The inch long claws that casually tipped each thin finger.

"Ai!" The second she screamed however, the hand recoiled as if startled, surprising her enough to get her to turn around.
"You!" She blinked in surprise, recognising the 'demon'.

"I told you not to come here." He growled. "And it was for your own good." He shook his head. "You're as stubborn as ever. Come on. I think my present self could use some help."

"You- what? Who are- WAIT? Erg!"

WHAP. The demon turned around, rubbing his head, his eyes narrowing. Then he smiled.

"Some things never change, do they? Well, miss Rosette Christov," the demon bowed, his bony wings spreading behind him. "I'm Chrono the Sinner."

"You- you're Chrono's self from our last life!" Chrono shook his head.

"Not the last one- there's been one since." Rosette blinked, as they continued across the field as it spread into fire capped fall.

"So...why are you here then? Why are there two of you?" Chrono held out a hand to help her over a rock wall but she swatted it away, clambering over.

"I'm the one he has the best memories of. It's confusing."

"I'd say." Rosette raised her head, looking at the sunset. It looked so peaceful; it's vivid streaks of violet and gold spreading across the dusky sky, painting the flowing hills in its colours. It was like time here was different, ever pounding on, yet frozen in place, creating a strange twisting sensation. The demon beside her chuckled.

"That's a good description of it. Time."

"You rat! You're reading my thoughts, just like Chrono does!" she snarled, hitting him again. A painful 'It's just like before' slid through her. Her eyes flew to his face, but he didn't look back, simply continuing. Frowning, she ran to catch up. "Do I have a second me in me too?"

"All of you selves are in your soul's memories, whether you remember them or not. Chrono can just remember more of me, so to him, I seem real. Technically, I'm not."

"So I'm talking to a figment of his imagination?"

"Not exactly." he raked his claws back through his hair. "I spoke to him when he was a child, because we were afraid that if someone didn't then, he would die, sealing his last chance. I didn't realize his second sense would pick up my name. That essentially created a contract or sorts."

"He picked up your name? You didn't tell him?" Why was this hill so big? Despite all the walking up hill she'd done in St. John's, this seemed so much harder!

"He didn't pick up my entire name. Only bits and pieces. He wasn't really thinking strait at the time." she stopped, panting, watching the winged back ahead of her.

"Chrono the Sinner. Cru-sinner, Crusander. I follow...I think."

"Essentially." he turned, his eyes concerned. "Something wrong?" She shook her head, putting her foot forward to take another step, but it was too hard. Something was pushing her back. Something...Chrono. Her eyes widened, her vision swirling towards blackness. Something...it hurt...her Chrono, the present one...blood water...water...damn! while she'd been talking...Dizzily she stumbled up the hill and stared at the smooth surface of the lake, her innards shivering as she saw the lake spread and spread, never ending but crossing into a strange realm where one minute you were looking at water, the next you were seeing an inside of a room- with no house. She got the feeling that if she approached the room from the side, it would vanish, like a paper cut out. Heart pounding, she turned around, and as she'd feared, the field they'd just walked over was surrounded by a narrow frame of red, and outside that was water, water as far as she could see, and she could feel it's extension to the other ends of this world.

And he was somewhere underneath it.

The ground under her feet rippled, the grass shifting colour.

Turning blue.

Turning to water. Fear flooded into her as the water rose to her ankles, its deep blue tinged with just the slightest blush of red.

"Oh God! Chrono!" He was hurt! "Damn them!" she leapt, plunging into the water, cursing as it slowed her decent towards a small light below, another of the time window like the field.

The water pulled at her, tearing at her hands, clinging to her as the light throbbed ever closer, ever out of reach. "Let me go!" she kicked hard, twisting, her hair getting in her eyes. The light...the window was so close! She could see shapes moving, just beyond the burning glow. Her lungs scrabbling for air, she reached out a hand for the warm glow, gasping as her hand slid through, vanishing. Instantly, like a piece of dust caught in a vacuum, the rest of her was dragged through as well, and she stumbled out of the water into a honking, screaming street.

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The boy lay on the cold blue of the concrete sidewalk, blood slowly dripping from a wound on his chest, staining the ground as people walked by, shadows, their faces unclear in the haze that seemed to surround him. Everything blurred, the lines sharp, electric one minute and soft, flowing, one person smearing into another like a watercolour painting the next.

From another world, he could hear screaming, a woman's howls, sobs, feel her pain...

His fault, he had done it, again, the voice in his head reminded him. How could he have let it go so far? His breath rattling away like scattered beads, Chrono turned his head to the side, the rough ground scraping across the bruise on his cheek, the dirt mixing with the tears. He'd failed to protect her. Mary. Aion, his own master, had killed her, his sword gouging through his younger servant's back to cleave the life of a woman who knew too much. Now she was gone. Coughing, he tried to lift his arm to catch the blood, as if he could stop his life flowing away by doing so, but it was no use. The ground below him burned, the sky above was set aflame by the sun, and he was burning, going back to hell where he belonged.

"Hey." he blinked, the young woman's face slipping skewed into his fading vision, her golden hair ringed with his dieing black. Her eyes...he thought they were blue, the colour vibrant, clear...he wondered what she was like...his eyes were so heavy.

"Hey, come on." her hand was patting his cheek. Silly, he thought. She was going to get dirty! She was so pure. Her thumb ran under his eyes, catching his tears. "Come on, you don't have to die here. Get up. You'll freeze." Freeze? Impossible. He was burning. The wound on his chest protested as something pressed over it, stopping the bleeding. "I'm getting help, ok? You're going to be ok."

No. He could never be ok. He'd let someone get killed. He'd failed to protect them... he tried to tell the girl this, but it wouldn't work. Helpless, he shut his eyes, waiting to fade, watching the twilight...

Rosette blinked, staring down at the pale, dieing man, barely if at all out of his teens.

What the Hell was going on? One minute she was touching that beam of light then- the man coughed, blood mixed with black splattering across the sidewalk, red tears for something that couldn't be, the stains growing as he moaned. Rosette swallowed back tears, his name dropping, trembling from her lips as her fingers skidded across his damp skin, catching in his tangled, matted hair. "Chrono." Ringing began in her ears, a tolling bell. "Chrono." She'd messed up, taken a wrong street, done something wrong, as had he. His eyes flitted open, thin slits of red glinting dully from between thick black lashes, hot and cold meeting, souls reconnecting in icy realization.

"We... missed ... our...chance...again," he croaked, shuddering. She nodded helplessly as the streams of people strode by, oblivious to the small tragedy playing out at their feet.

"I'm so-" she drew his hand into hers, her heart constricting as she felt the shattered fingers. "Aion?"

"I...turned from him..." her tears hung, shimmering in the air for a moment before joining his, making white-brown streaks on his skin. "As...usual." She smiled faintly at the mention of their other times...how many came after this?

"She...died for nothing this time." he whispered, his breathing growing thinner. "She...I couldn't...save her...I never can..."

"I can't save you either." God, how many times- she reached for him, but suddenly the ground wasn't where it should have been, it had fallen away, the water rushing through in a torrent, sweeping them both, together away, thrusting her onto a shore of darkness, struggling to cling to him. She felt his hands as they wrenched away, heard his cry of protest.

"Chrono!" she thought he called back in response, but all was drowned out by the bell, tolling, tolling, forever chasing them. In truth, it hadn't been her running from time. It was him. He was the one running, pulling her along at his side.

See? He is a vile creature. She flinched as the voice entered her, echoing through, vibrating like the growing gong of the bell. See how he makes you suffer? Footsteps splashed through the shallow water beside her, fingers curling around her wrist. A pretty girl like you shouldn't have to put up with this. Master Superior would treat you much better once you walk with him. Her eyes snapped open as the arm snaked around her waist.

"Genai!" snarling, she bit the man's bony hand, drawing blood from the stinking flesh.

"Wench!" his hand bore across her cheek, knocking her back. She staggered, her back touching a large flat stone. Heart pounding, she raised her eyes to the surrounding field. "You fucking wench! What the hell does he want with you? How can that pathetic x-angel go through life after pitiful fucking life with you? Lives like that!" he stabbed a finger at the fading window of light they'd washed from, barely visible across the forest of gravestones. "I don't see why Superior needs Chrono, why he wants him back. Does it matter?"

"Oh SHUT UP!" Rosette growled, reaching instinctively for her empty belt. Damn. "Don't you insult him, you- you-"

"...'you-' what?" the man grinned, his teeth lengthen, horns growing. "Demon? Oh yes, little witch." his clammy hand latched around her neck. "That I am." he cackled, putrid breath washing her face as his lips slithered over her mouth. Be a good girl, brat. That's the way. Rosette stumbled, her eyes watering as she struggled, the words clanging into her, gouging into her mind. No, no, no, she wasn't his! She pushed at his shoulders but it wasn't working! Again her fingers searched her belt for a gun or weapon but there was nothing- a smooth handle slipped into her groping fingers. Perfect.

"Geraug!" Genai howled as the dagger shot into his side, releasing her as he dropped to the ground, bony wings flapping for balance. She spun, her feet scrabbling against the moon frosted grass as she charged up the hill- something hooked around her ankle, jerking her to a rattling stop.

"What the hell!" She had to get out of here! She had to find Chrono! She yanked at the cuff connecting a chain to her leg. How had it gotten there? What sort of place was this? When she looked, the entrance was far across the field.

"You little fool." Genai's voice rattled out from a little ways behind her, his wings rustling in the still, smothering ice of the air.

"Take a close look. You'll not leave here." She could see his dark shadow, but he moved no closer, the chain glinting at his feet as it passed, stretching back deeper into the graveyard, running through little loops from gravestone to gravestone. Death after death, all connected. She gave the chain a yank, but it didn't move, and when she looked down, it clung to the grave she stood by before snaking, unhindered, across the rest of the field. Genai circled around so he was standing before her, gesturing at the connected grave markers.

"So tragic really. All over a puny angel. You've had to die, so many, many times." The ground by her feet sizzled. "Come with me."

"Forget it!" The sizzling grew louder, a hole growing, deeper and deeper before the last gravestone. Genai took a step closer.

"Superior can save you from that fate." he hissed as the gravestone shuddered under her fingers as a name bubbled to the surface.

"I'd rather-" the chain at her leg gave a tug, slowly pulling her towards the slobbering mouth.

"Don't bother saying 'I'd rather die', sweet heart, because that seems to be what's about to happen." Abruptly, the bell in the tower at the entrance began to ring.

"Oh lay off with the bell! Don't you guys have any imagination?"

"Would you rather bagpipes?" Clank.

"I'd rather you all shut up!" Clank.

"I can bring you with me. If I do that, Superior will help you. He has the power of the angel of Fate, after all."

"Aion's- the - angel- of- Fate?" Good grief. No wonder so many people were miserable! She yanked at the chain as her butt hit the ground, skidding across the ground. Genai laughed, his head thrown back in sick mirth.

"No. But the angel of Fate, I'm afraid...passed on, and sadly the weight of his powers slipped onto my poor master's shoulders."

"And how much aid was given by- Superior in his passing." she growled, clawing at the grass for purchase. He shrugged.

"Who cares? Now that Superior has Grey's powers, he can break those chains. Ha! He can even let me into heaven! It's a beautiful place, you know, but so bright. You see," the demon crouched down. "While hell is full of fire, it's a place of frikken shadows, flickering on the wall." he leaned closer. "They're always there, watching! Their eyes, glittering from the flames, looking down on us! Us, those cast into darkness, because God, the 'all forgiving' didn't forgive us! We, the forgotten! It's at us they stare, from up in their city of clouds, and they laugh, sending the shadows to chase us through the flames! Watching us scream in pain!" Clank. She slid a bit lower, her arms latched around the gravestone. Se didn't look down. If she did, she would see the glowing flicker of flames. God, Chrono, help! " But who deserves to go there? The murderer? The prostitute? The person who sold their soul to the devil?" Genai's eyes flashed. "God is the evil one! He is the one who chooses, but he asks not of the circumstances! The 'murderer' who killed to protect another, the prostitute who sold his body to keep his sisters safe, the soul seller who sold her life to a demon to save her brother! Where will they all go? To hell!" Clank. She scrambled, her fingers losing their grip on the stone.

"That- that's not true!"

"No, it's not," Genai agreed, sitting down and taking off his hat so his spiky blond hair stuck up even more. "No, because Superior has freed us. He can free you too, from your fate. You don't have to follow that pitiful-"

"He's not pitiful, you monster!" She swum at him, but the action cost her her grip on the gravestone. "Chrono!" Below her, the flames flickered, smiling, ready to swallow their next meal, her bindings rattling away into the grinning orange teeth as the hole above began to shrink, the moon and stars slowly disappearing, Genai's high laughter joining the bell in serenade.

Far across the graveyard, a second chain drew its struggling prey towards its den, its clanking softened by the shortness of the remaining chain.

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A/N: Yes, I know, another strange chapter. Forgive me. These dream sequences are necessary. Oh! Grey and Golden...they should be back next chapter... well, I guess Golden will be. Waah! Grey! Rosette! Is this the end of their acts?