Things Unseen, Chapter 4:

Unspoken Trust

By Darknightdestiny

The Epoch materialized with a soft hiss in the thick of the nothingness that surrounded the End of Time. Lucca watched the mists swirl around the outside of the window, kissing the glass as they went and leaving behind a cool trail of fog. She watched the beautiful scene with a wistful smile, thinking to herself on how strange it was that this very same sight used to cause a feeling of despair to wash over her.

Each ride was like a moment frozen in time. It took them long enough to reach their destination, but whenever they would get to where they were going, only seconds of time had passed them by. The journey felt like it had lasted an eternity, while in reality it had only been a fleeting moment.

There had been time enough to nap, and time enough to talk. There had been time for Frog to shoot Magus several glaring warnings, and there had been time for each pause in Lucca's observing the matter as she held her breath. And Magus had ignored every single one of them, having chosen instead to rest his eyes. The tension between those two had made Lucca extremely nervous.

Marle had spent the ride sending nervous glances between Lucca, Frog and Magus. She'd tried to hide her inner jumpiness because she'd known Lucca was being as assuring as she could be, but it showed through anyways. Ayla had slept, quite exhausted from her running around and her tumble with Frog, and Robo had shut himself off for the ride; there was no doubt that he would be quite surprised when he was rebooted, only to be found sitting next to the dark mage himself. Lucca would wait until Magus had left the cockpit before she restarted the machine. Still, she felt uneasy about letting him leave unattended by her.

She counted her blessings that she had been the one to go out and meet him. It would have been a complete and utter disaster if another of her teammates had spotted him first, knowing Ayla's curious nature- and the fact that she hadn't known his dark past- and Frog's tendency to want to split the Mystic king in two. Then again, she wondered if any of the others would have even gone out to him. To be completely honest with herself, she wasn't quite sure why she had done it.

Perhaps it was the pity she'd felt for him at the end of his battle with her friend, the cursed knight. Frog had a finishing deathblow ready and waiting for Magus ever since the day Cyrus had died. Now that he had been faced with the opportunity, he had found himself unable to finish the deed, and had let the wizard live. In a way, she felt sorry for the both of them, for closure was yet to be found. Still, she was a scientist, and she never underestimated the value of human life, no matter whose it was. She was glad that Frog had spared Magus' life.

She lifted the glass canopy from its place on the hood of the vehicle. The mist was cold to the touch, and it enveloped her body as soon as she stepped up from her seat. Strangely enough, that familiar feeling of despair did not wash over her. Instead, she felt a strange calm. 'I know everything will be alright,' she thought. 'Crono, if only you were here. You'd know what to do. I'm afraid they will lose trust in me; I don't want to let them down.' Even though she held doubts about what was going to happen to them, talking to Crono gave her a sense of comfort and hope, whether he could hear her or not.

She was pushed out of her quiet thoughts when a wash of cool material brushed past the left side of her body, sending a quick shiver up her spine. She looked to her left and saw the trail of a blue-violet cape flowing out before her, and Magus up ahead. He had continued on in a deathly silence without even acknowledging her presence; it seemed strange to her, to think that just a couple of hours ago, he was screaming on the ground in all his broken glory. He had sure recovered his pride quickly. She slumped back down in her chair, eyeing him warily as he checked out his new surroundings. Once she was sure he was going to stay calm and collected, she got up again and went to start up the humanoid.

Marle, Frog and Ayla walked out into the center of the square where the old man waited, while Lucca exited the vehicle with Robo following her. Magus was leaning against the railing by the stairs leading up from the ship. Lucca reached him and she let Robo continue on into the square, while she stayed behind to talk to him.

"Magus?"

He didn't answer her right away. He was staring past her, into the mists beyond the stone walkways, at something immaterial- something only he could see. Everything reminded him of the void; unlike Lucca, being in the End of Time reminded him of the nothingness that accompanied him wherever he went. No matter how far he looked into the empty expanse ahead of him, he couldn't pinpoint any one object, not even a floor or a sky; there was no horizon in this world. It seemed so surreal, he could hardly believe it existed, without trying to put the name of a spell to it. He was of the mind that everything need be explained by some means, or else it could not possibly be.

It was strange that he felt this way and Lucca did not, even though she was a scientist. She had seen enough in her travels with the others to make her believe that not everything could be explained with numbers. He wasn't so convinced. He hadn't felt anything with his heart for a long time, and now that he'd been thrown back into the grip of fate and time, he wasn't sure how he was going to deal with seeing his past tragedy come to life again before his eyes.

"…Magus."

His eyes shifted to her face and focused. Once that was finished, he'd acknowledged her presence and had nothing left to do but wait for her question; he let his eyes wander back to the floor, and with them he trailed the patterns of the cobblestone walkway.

"Magus…are you going to just stand here?"

"As opposed to…?"

"…Aren't you going to go up there with us and figure out what we're going to do next?"

"I thought you would handle that," he said, before adding sarcastically, "You are the brains of this operation, are you not?"

"You're coming with us."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," his mouth twitched. 

"You should be around when we make decisions. I'm not going to have you complaining about what we've decided, and then holding me to some ridiculous deal later."

Magus scoffed at her persistence, mainly because she'd mentioned the possibility of him complaining like a child; did she really think him to be on the same level as the rest of them? He glared at her a bit, before gliding over to the lighted area around the lamppost, where everyone else was gathered and waiting. Upon arriving, Magus received a death glare from Frog.

"Ah! You have returned!" said the man who stood watch at the dim post. "Come to hear my…say, what is this?" He looked around him and noticed the solemn faces of the group. Ayla was staring at the ground, tracing patterns with her hands as she sat and for once with nothing to say; Frog's gaze was cast away from the rest of the group, towards the portal that led to Lavos, seemingly in memory of some significant thing. Marle was sitting on the ground with her knees held to her chest, and she too stared at the ground, a sad and pale visage showing in the lamplight. Robo was standing quite perfectly still, his head the only moving part of his body as it turned back and forth, taking in the countenances of the others. There was a new face in the small band of travelers, and whatever his emotions on the thing, though they were hidden quite well and open to anyone's guess, he did not look in the slightest bit joyful. And lastly, Lucca stood contrapposto, her weight shifted to one side of her body, as she stared straight into the lamplight above him.

Marle looked up at Lucca, who was avoiding the old man's gaze. She pushed herself up off of the floor and strode straight up to the man with a quiet dignity and looked him in the eyes for a full ten seconds before answering, "Crono…didn't make it back." Her eyes were beginning to water again, and she had to turn her head away, but the man understood her words.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I really don't know what to say. I know…there is an old song that describes it perfectly. Oh…I'm sorry. I wish I could lend a hand…"

Lucca cut in. "We're looking for the guru of time. Do you know where we could find him?"

"The guru of time, eh? I've heard of him…but what do you want with him?"

Marle was the one to respond, softly and with a far-off look in her eyes. "He can help us bring Crono back…"

The old man shook his head sadly. "To bring back lost loved ones…it's what everybody wants. Crono must be proud, to have friends like you."

Lucca looked back at Marle, who gave her a defeated gaze. Lucca felt even worse after seeing this in Marle's face, and Marle immediately tried to smile, so that Lucca wouldn't think she had failed in some way. Marle mouthed to Lucca, "We tried…" and then walked over to the Epoch, to sit underneath one of the wings. Lucca watched the others follow, hanging their heads in defeat as well. Magus shot Lucca a look that seemed to say, "I don't know what's going through your head, but we made a deal."

Or it could have been an "Are you still going to help me?" but Lucca didn't quite believe those to be the words of Magus.

'Don't you worry,' she thought to herself. 'I don't go back on my word, even if it is to someone like you. Just one more thing I have to do before I die. Before I die…'

"Hey, wait!" Lucca turned her head towards the man who still stood in place underneath the lamp post. He gave her a sad smile, but in his eyes, there was something more. "I think I might be able to do…something for you after all."

(A/N): It had been waaaaay too long since I'd updated this fic. I owed this one to all of you. I hope you enjoyed it.