Author: A favor please. I know that there are some errors in this text, both grammar and spelling. I apologize, and will continue to update the text until it is fixed. Comments and Criticisms are appreciated, as are reviews.
Whatever this may seem at first, it has more bearing on Chrono Cross than Trigger. Arigato, and Ja Ne.
Elsgod - Resurrection, Rebirth, and Death
Prologue.
A mind floated in a plain of nothingness. The mind was dark and broken, silently bleeding away sentience and memories. It had arrived under a state of extreme mental stress, and finding itself in the place that was both black and white had shattered it. What had it been once? It was impossible to tell. The core of the mind, perhaps it was the soul, was still intact, but buried so deeply that it couldn't possibly be aware of itself. In other words, a corpse without flesh floated through a plane where time did not move, but movement was possible. A place where a physical mass could laugh and cry without moving an inch in the space time continuum. In short, an impossible place.
Ark studied the mind from afar, trying ascertain it's identity. It was very difficult, as the mind was in a state of advanced decay, and making contact was almost impossible. It swam through the unreal place with the grace of a diver, seemingly oblivious to everything save the shattered mind It was slowly circling.
The soul of the thing was buried too deeply... hiding, Ark supposed. So it wasn't like the others, it wasn't a thing borne out of nothingness. Ark gently reached out and touched the consciousness, nothing. A little deeper, into the subconscious, empty. Deeper still, to the ID, there was... something. Ark withdrew into itself and pondered.
The last time it had taken something outside the Timestream into it, the results had been terrible... but still... Ark reached out and probed into the ID a little deeper, looking for memories or concepts of self that would only be present in the mind of one native to the timestream. It saw images flash before it's eyes, a place removed from... the Earth. A place hovering high above the Earth, a place of elementals and demi-human magickas... a feeling that might have been compassion... and then fear.
The Ark gently withdrew from the ID and again pondered. This place, It thought for certain it knew that place... a place borne of hopes and dreams, and fell because of an intense arrogant zeal. The thing reached out and touched deeper into the mind, fairly certain it was causing harm but not able to help it. It had to have a name, it had to. It had to be certain that this creature couldn't cause damage to the timestream.
Then suddenly the Ark found itself being pulled into the decrepit mind. A force that could act on it outside Time? The Ark realized it had made a mistake, that this mind was exactly like the ones before, and that there was a very good chance It was going to die. It tried to resist, but had nothing to push off of, It had even forgone an anchor to the timestream. For a moment the Ark cursed It's stupidity, and then it vanished.
Story.
Her entire body trembled before the power before her. She was not a weak woman, not normally given to such absolute unrest, but still the... the sheer alieness of the power that seemed to swirl around her like a black wind made her wish herself dead. The power touched her all over her body like the bony claws of skeletons, tearing at her flesh and clothes, as if trying to get to her heart... so that they might consume that too. In the distance she saw her brother, standing in his nightgown, taking in the scene calmly. She tried to reach out to him, but the wind wouldn't let her. The boy simply stood there, and watched the wind totally consume his sister...
...And Schala woke up, screaming, into the arms of her brother. She clung onto him roughly and whispered into his ear, "Don't ever let that Wind catch you Janus, never let it..." and then she realized that 'Janus' was in fact her attendant Nade. The younger woman was very white and sweating. "Miss... Miss Schala, you were screaming, and..." The attendant broke into tears and rushed from the bedroom, letting out a string of garbled apologies. Schala watched her go and then looked down at herself. Her body was covered in a fine sweat, and she felt hopelessly dirty.
She pushed the covers off the bed and climbed out. Already the dark dream was fading from her memory. She wished she could speed it along.
***
Later that day, after apologizing to Nade, Schala started looking for her brother who, for whatever reason, had disappeared. It wasn't unusual, Janus was well known for walking into the forests surrounding the Palace and not come back for days at a time... but he always left a note or a message that told her, never their mother, where he was and when he expected to be back. The guards outside the entrance said they hadn't seen him leave, and his cat Alfador was still walking around being underfoot... yet he wasn't in the castle. She had wandered into the library, absently thinking of asking the Nu that worked there if It had seen her err brother, when she someone new.
***
He walked up and down the wall high rows, squinting at the odd title, thumbing through a few pages, and then discarding them. Nothing had what he was looking for. Some books didn't even have magicka attached to them, just rows and rows of meaningless symbols. He opened a book and was blasted with sharp icy needles, another, a fiery maelstrom. He was ready to give up when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He whirled so quickly he almost lost his balance. 'What!?!' he wanted to scream. 'Go away you damned gnat, AWAY!' but he couldn't. He was expecting that bumbling blue thing... the Nu, and by all rights that was who the transgressor should have been, but instead he found himself face to face with the Princess Zeal.
He simply stared for a moment, a million things occurred to him, but the overwhelming emotion was fear. He turned and started away when she caught his shoulder, making him turn again. "Have you, seen my brother? A boy about this tall?" the girl motioned the boy's height. "No", he said gruffly. The girl nodded, not very surprised, and turned. He relaxed with his entire body, and was ready to turn when several guards appeared at the entrance.
He dived into another aisle and crouched down. 'Damnation!' he screamed to himself. First the Princess and now them! He crawled down the aisles and listened to the guards questioning the Princess in a meek apologetic manner. "A man with white hair? Yes I saw him..." his hand went to his head and gave it a yank. Stupid. From what he had seen of everyone else, white hair was extremely rare. The guards were checking the aisles now, he was going to be thrown out... out of the one place that might be able to help him remember... "To me! To me!" a nearby voice screamed. He cursed and got to his feet, a guard had seen him through the shelves. Guards appeared on either side of the aisle, brandishing long staves.
The white haired man showed his hands to the guards, demonstrating surrender. A guard, a special one from the gold trim on his armor, simply sneered and shot a magicka from his stave. For a moment his target simply stood, marveling at the guard's stupidity, and stepped to one side, allowing the fireball to sail past, down the aisle, and strike another guard squarely in the stomach. That however, was a mistake. All the guards charged, wielding their weapons as batons. Their bloodshot eyes filled with xenophobia and revenge.
He didn't have a moment to blink when the first stick hit him, causing his nose to make a painful crunching sound. Even as his body recoiled he was struck from behind, and then from the front again. The hits all blurred together in one grand symphony of pain. He tried to breath, but couldn't get air into his lungs. His eyes started to flash as he fought against unconsciousness. Around him the guards were laughing, spitting on him and calling him names. He felt his left arm arch at an awkward angle before snapping, making him scream inside his chest. The pain was so intense, so all encompassing, that it took him a moment to notice that the beating had stopped.
He heard voices apologizing, sensed the guards bowing, and then standing again, and leaving. One stepped on his broken arm and he screamed, the pain blossoming again... but then it was over. He tried to open his eyes but found he couldn't. He sensed someone walking up to him and immediately recognized the smell. The Princess.
***
Schala couldn't believe the sheer savagery she had been witness to. She had wandered after the guards in curiosity and maybe a little guilt at having given that man away, but what she found... it was like her dream, except from her brother's perspective. The guards, many of which she had known since she was a little girl, were beating the man to death. She had froze at the sight, terrified by what she saw and felt in the guard's eyes and souls. She screamed for them to stop, and they turned to her with those same eyes and she felt that they were going to beat her to death too... but then their eyes softened, as if awakening from a dream. She ordered them down to their knees, which they did quickly. The sergeant, an officer in gold trimmed armor, spoke up. "Our sincerest apologies mistress, but this man... he is an Earthbound!" Schala, upon hearing the contempt that the sergeant linked to the term 'Earthbound' forgot her fear and exploded in fury, "He is still human!" The guards shriveled before her gaze. "But mistress... his kind are forb-" The guard looked up from his kneel, looked Schala straight in the eye, and froze. "My... apologies your highness... it will... never happen again." The guard was gasping for breath, sweat running down his face. He bowed his head and stood, the others following. "I think you should all question your humanity." Schala drove the words home like fists. Each man seemed to melt. The sergeant turned and led them away. One of the guards accidentally stepped on the Earthbound's arm, which was twisted in a fashion that hurt to look at, and hopped away quickly, before being struck across the neck by one of his fellows.
Schala waited until they had left the library, and then walked to the Earthbound. As she approached he tried to kick away, making tiny mewing sounds as he went. She stopped, unsure of what to do. "I won't hurt you," she said. "I'm not going to hurt you." She murmured to herself and began to go through the patterns of healing in her mind. Her hands began to emit a soft, golden glow. The Earthbound stopped retreating, and went limp. She tried to reach out with her mind to sooth his, but it was sealed completely, he was unconscious. She knelt by him and touched his broken arm, which immediately began to heal. Then she touched his face and chest.
***
He ran away, into the bliss of unconsciousness, but even there, as he dreamed of trees with as many leaves as he had questions, he felt warmth grow around his entire body. It was something that he had never felt before, and it frightened him. But his dreams began to swallow him up, and soon it was forgotten. Those dreams turned to nightmares.
***
He was running down a long hallway, flanked by a fellow researcher, Relista, and the robot Prometheus. A guard ahead of them turned and opened his mouth. 'NO! He wanted to scream. You can't, must not, stop us!' But he didn't have the time or the breath. He produced a dagger from his baldric and threw it at the guard's leg. Guard down, they ran past.
They should have known better than to trust FATE. They shouldn't have put it in charge of all temporal experiments, should have realized the moment it attained self-awareness. But they hadn't, and now if this last experiment took place Chronopolis would be reduced to a cinder.
Relista fell again, her leg was still hurt where the robotic security systems had burned it. Prometheus kept on running, but He stopped to help her up. They made eye contact for a brief instant, and He felt warmth all over. Maybe, if or when this nightmare was all over, there would be time for more then just that awkward glance... it was up to Prometheus now, whether or not It was able to stop the experiment that was being misguided by FATE into killing them. The two of them were powerless to do anything but consol each other, and await their end, or rebirth. He joined her on the floor where they huddled together like children.
A minute passed, and nothing happened. He began to think Prometheus had succeeded when there was an explosive popping sound, and a wall of black nightmare rushed towards them. They had failed. Eye contact. Acknowledgment. And then she disappeared.
***
The Zeal kingdom existed above all clouds, but still fell under a shadow. People where changing, Schala could tell. There was a look about them, and an errie quietness at the Palace. There was no small talk, no gossiping... it was as if they were all holding their breath, waiting for something to happen. It frightened Schala, she wished she knew where Janus was, that would be a small reassurance that not everything had changed.
The Earthbound was resting in Nade's quarters. The poor servant had almost snapped when Schala arrived with a bloodied man in her arms, asking for shelter. She would have to reward Nade somehow, when this was over. But what were they supposed to do? The Earthbound were forbidden from the Upper Realm, and the man was obviously trying to gain arcane knowledge. She would be lucky to get him back to the Surface before some guard got around to mentioning the incident to her mother.
***
Nade answered the door. She ushered Dalton inside.
***
Relista did not melt away, she did not wither and scream, she simply ceased to be. One moment He was touching her, the next his hands touched nothing. They had failed. The screams of the damned roared in His ears, and the dark wind howled. Yet he remained. How long he huddled in that hallway he didn't know, but he was more then a little insane when the roaring stopped. The dead whispered to him, accused him. He fled Chronopolis, off the island and into the sea. Where... something had happened. What was it?
He was suddenly aware. He was not in the dream, but viewing it as a memory. The fevered shock went through him, from his stomach to his limbs. And thus he awoke, hot and sweaty. At least he had learned one thing, Relista had whispered it just before FATE had taken her away. His name.
***
Dalton was waiting.
***
"Well, what do we have here?" The voice was the first thing... He could define it's owner already; brash, arrogant... "Looks like some vermin stowed away!" He opened his eyes. A man with long, frizzy brown hair and an orange cape sat next to him, chin in his hands. He was smiling. It was unpleasant. "Ah yes? A fine, big one! Why, I bet we could make an entire pot of stew, what do you think Nadee?"
A young girl stood next to the only exit of the room. Her eyes were cast downward. "If you say so Sir Dalton." The man, Dalton, laughed and slapped his thigh. "Oh, but we are going to have such a good time! Earthbound, I must thank you, it has been an age since we had any decent entertainment in the courts of Zeal." The man rolled his eyes. Yes, that was a maniac gleam. "Oh, must have been a fortnight now! But a battle to the death, Ah! that should wet the Queens palate! Don't you agree Nadee?" The girl said nothing. "Now, most illustrious guest, if you might come with me?" Dalton stood and beckoned. The man on the bed didn't move. "Oh, come now, must it all end this way?" Dalton snapped his finger and guards walked into the room, absently pushing aside Nade, who almost fell over. "Guards." Dalton commanded, still smiling. "See that our guest receives all that accompanies his prestigious position!" The guards yanked him out of bed.
Dalton turned to leave, but stopped, "If the good sire would please give us his name, so that we might whisper it in our queens ear?" Still smiling. The man looked at him for a moment. Was what he dreamt truth? If nothing else, it provided him an answer. "Ark. My name is Ark." Dalton nodded, hesitated, nodded again. "Well, my good Ark, I hope you will be satisfied with our meager accommodations." Then he left.
***
The guards threw Ark into a cell. The bed was wet and covered with bugs.
***
Schala hadn't meant to strike out at Nade. She really hadn't. The girl wilted away from her, the color beginning to come into the hand shaped mark on her face. She stepped back, again, tripped over a chair and landed on the floor, too frightened to even cry. Schala, in the moment she had struck her, had looked at her in a way she had never seen before. Nade finally reached a wall, and buried her head in her hands, crawling into a fetal position. Schala let it go on for several moments, hating herself for it. "Why?" It was only one word. A question that could have a thousand different meanings. It made Nade flinch. "Sir Dalton... he... *hic* he... promised..."
Schala's eyes widened. How could she have... she rushed over to her, and scooped Nade's head into her arms. "I'm sorry, I had... forgive me, I had forgotten." Nade continued to rant, mostly incoherent sobs. She reached out and, forgetting herself, hugged Schala, who whispered soothing things into her ear. Several hundred days previous, Dalton had taken something very precious from Nade... her innocence. Schala was the only other person to know, and had had to bear the first tens of days of Nade's pining. But gently the girl realized how little she had actually meant to Dalton, and her world had crashed. Schala had had to hold her, just like this, days ago. It was unimportant that she was the Princess and Nade the servant, they were both friends.
Later, Nade grew very quiet. Her form still shook, but less. She finally looked up and her Princess, wiped her face clean, and stood. "I... I... m sorry." She managed, and looked uncertain. Schala rose too, and made to whipe her wet dress off. They both smiled, Nade hesitantly. "It's okay. Don't linger on bad memories." An image flashed in Schala's head, of a middle aged man who had always had a smile for her, who hadn't gotten to see Janus take his first steps... but she shook it away.
She made sure Nade was all right, really all right, and then turned to leave. "Oh Miss Schala!" Nade called after her, already falling back into habit. She turned. "The Earthbound, he told Dalton his name. It's Ark." Schala nodded, smiled, turned... "Miss Schala, you know your mother wouldn't want you to do this." Falling back into the old habits indeed. Schala stopped, back to Nade. Monotone. "Did Queen Zeal at any point in time speak directly to you, telling you of her desires?" Schala asked. Nade shook her head. "Then I go." Nade waited until the door had closed, and then collapsed.
***
Resting on the cool stone of his cell, the memories continued to trickle down. His name, was it his name? It didn't matter, it had opened the door to a jumble of confusing images. Ark could only listen, taking as much in as he could. He would sort through them later.
Relista, Prometheus, Valen, Gasper, Elsgod, Lavos... names, most without faces and context, but names nonetheless. The return was so welcome that it took him a very long while to realize that it was meaningless. The knowledge was all redundant. Memories of what he had eaten one morning thousands of days ago, a certain thing some nameless person had said to him. They were all unrelevant. The names that he didn't already associate with people were just names, there was no information, no explanation as to why he knew them, where he had met them, or why their names would appear in his head out of a venerable sea of people he must have known.
There was nothing more of Relista after that moment in Chronopolis, nor Prometheus. There was nothing after he had leapt off the docks and into the sea, desperate to escape the accusing wraiths... it was all a cruel trick.
Ark had had enough. He close his eyes, reached deep within himself, feeling as carefully built up barriers, no doubt created by himself, shatter. He went into the undermind, and was about to shock himself into a deep sleep, when a soft voice floated through the magic field that held him in place.
"What are you doing?"
Ark floated lazily in the murky either, debating if he should ignore the voice. Nothing anyone could say would consul him right now, he needed the bliss of sleep. Ark paused a moment to collect himself and then, for all intents and purposes, shut himself off.
***
Three minutes later he woke up. Someone was poking him in the side. He groaned and rolled over. He should have been out for longer. "Dead? Unliving?" That voice again. Ark opened his eyes and made eye contact with a child. The child had white hair, with a bluish hue. Odd hair color seemed to be characteristic of Zealians, Ark touched his own hair absently, save all white.
The boy stood there, waited until Ark was fully back from dreamscape, and turned. "You want to escape or not?" Ark nodded. There were no answers here. He stood and followed the boy to the entrance of the cell, where the magic field still crackled with energy. The boy never stopped walking, the energy field seemed to blister around him. He turned and regarded Ark coolly. "You have to follow close. I can't do this for you." Ark moved closer to the kid. The field continued to expand, and then popped. Ark was outside the cell, the energy field was busy restructuring itself.
"Come on, you can't make it anywhere without me." The kid walked down the hall. Ark followed close behind.
***
Dozens of minutes later, after passing countless guards, citizens of Zeal and the man with the orange cape, the jester? without being seen, they arrived in "my sister's room," as the kid had explained. "She doesn't know we are here yet."
Minutes passed in silence. Ark sat down on the floor. More time. The girl, Nade? came in and changed the sheets of the bed. She didn't see them. More minutes, dozens. Finally the silence was broken, "How did you do that?" the kid. Ark looked at him a moment.
"What?"
The kid jumped off his chair and began to pace back and forth.
"What you did. You shut yourself off."
"I just did."
The boy stopped and jumped back into the chair.
"If that's all you have to say, don't say it."
Silence...
***
He had followed the boy, and stayed in this room, because it seemed that nothing could make his situation any worse. He was wrong. When he had bumped into the Princess in the library, the fear he had felt had been deep, complete, and totally irrational. That he had reflected on it didn't stop him from tensing every muscle in his body when she walked in the door. He clawed through his scattered memories, trying to pick up a picture or thought... anything that would explain his fear. Nothing.
***
Schala wasn't surprised to see her brother, though she was relieved. He looked at her when she entered and nodded. Then she saw him, Ark. He was naked from the waist up, and by the look of his body and the energy he was giving off, very distressed. Janus jumped from his chair and crossed over to his sister. "You needed to see him." He moved around her. "We'll talk later I think, when we're together again." The door closed.
***
The moment the door closed, Ark felt the kid leave. Not just leave the room, as he had obviously done, but totally disappear from the physical plane. Ark didn't know what that meant, didn't have time to think about it. His main concern was the Princess. But she had turned towards the door, had she sensed the kid leave? She was shaking slightly, and he thought he heard her whisper something to herself. His body stayed tense.
***
"When we're together again." Schala whispered. It was beginning to make sense. She turned to the Earthbound, though she knew he wasn't bound to Earth or the Upper Realm. "What are you waiting for?" She whispered quietly. The man was tense, shaking slightly. "You're going to leave too, aren't you?" Her voice cracked. "Just like Janus, you're going to leave, because you don't belong here." The man remained. "You're going to fade away, leave me here alone, like everyone else, aren't you?" Nothing. "Aren't you!?"
The images were floating into her mind now, yes... she remembered. She had held Nade in her arms like that once... hundreds of millions of days ago, and it had been the last time. The servant had killed herself the next day, cut her wrists. Janus was gone too, swallowed into a time vortex created by... Lavos. The images of everyone, Dalton, the guards, the people that populated the Palace, was an exact mirror of what she had pictured them as just before the disaster at the Sea Palace.
She was dreaming... or was she dead, and this some twisted afterlife? She remembered only cowering before Lavos, and pain. Where was she?
***
Ark could feel her changing. Read it in the energy her body was giving off. He slowly stood. The energy was almost the proper hue... there. "You have answers now?" his question was shaky. He feared the answer. The Princess looked at him for a moment, as if seeing him for the first time. "You, your not from me, are you?" She asked. He shook his head. "I am from myself... whoever that might be." They stood, contemplating each other. "I don't know why I am here..." He began. "I don't know who I am, or how I came to be here. Do you know?" She shook her head. "This is a place within myself. My dream."
***
There was a crash outside. Neither needed to look. The floating island that supported the now obsolete weapons of power had broken from the magic grid that suspended the floating continent. It was falling. "When someone realizes... that they are dreaming..." Schala said, shaking, "It is usually, right before that dream ends." Beams of yellow light split through the sky from Earth. Lavos. "But... I am not certain what I will wake up to." They felt the island, shattered, begin to drifted apart and fall.
***
Ark felt something tugging at his memory, something very important. He looked at her, blinked, and saw a monstrous thing behind her. Blinked again, it was gone. They slowly floated off the floor, as the island's fall accelerated. He reached out to her, and she took his hand. That memory... perhaps nothing major, nothing that would reveal his past, maybe not even something that would save his life now, was important. They grasp each others hands, and made eye contact. Then it happened.
*Flash* The old man... "it was difficult to anticipate the actions of something borne outside of the timestream. What you did was right."
*Flash* A thing breaking out of the Earth, laying ruin to it.
*Flash* "What you did was right."
*Flash* People's bodies silhouetting massive explosions as entire continents were bathed in fire.
*Flash* "What you did was right... abet foolish."
*Flash* He was on his knees before the old man. The crone figure regarded him for a moment, and then hit him with a cane. "I can't forgive you! I have no right, only you can forgive yourself."
*Flash* He was floating, a dot of light in an impossible place. He was slowly circling a hot thing. A thing with no concept of self or other. He had pitied it, and taken it back into the timestream. But it had been born of nothing. Submerging it into the physical plane made it insane. If the word sane could have ever been applied to it.
*Flash* An explosion at it crashed to Earth, and a whisper that was passed down in memory. A name given to the being by a half human. Lavos.
*Flash* Insanity, roaming planes and times, ranting to himself, hurting himself. Seeking penitence where there was none to be found, only death.
*Flash* Destruction, rebirth, and then... Relista smiling at him. Something half glimpsed from a dead timeline.
and then...
"I was born of Zeal, the land where Magic was first harnessed." The old man wheezed. "In the twilight of that Empire, they established direct contact with Lavos." Ark cringed. "The power perverted that people, and only the most strong among them were able to resist it... or completely embrace it." The old man hacked, spit. "One of them was the King Zeal. He recognized perversion, and urged his wife not to exploit the energy. Unfortunately, his wife had already embraced the power. He was sent to a sacred place, the floating mountain, and never heard from again. The only other people that resisted where the Prophet, a time traveler himself; Janus, the Queen's young son; and the Princess, Schala." Ark remained on his knees. "Out of all of them, Schala was the strongest. Lavos split us apart, sent us to different time periods. Schala is the only one I haven't felt or met. She could have been sent into a failed timeline that I can't see, or she might have been erased totally. I use the word 'erased' because I never felt her death... and I know I would."
*Flash*
***
They were rising towards the ceiling, the wind was screaming outside, tearing the Palace apart. Ark desperately yanked the Princess, Schala, towards him. In the gray haze that was his mind, he saw himself wrapping an arm around her waist, and another around her eyes. Then he bent down and whispered, "Don't. Think."
***
There was no other choice. She let her mind glaze over, and in the shadow of destruction, found sleep.
***
*Flash*
***
He went through a tunnel, images and people passed by him to quickly to take in. In his hands he held the Princess, or a good part of her. He tightened his hold...
They... he, was free. He floated in the endless void outside time once again, a sleeping Schala in his arms. He curled his being around her, for this place was not meant for her eyes. Then he debated what to do. Pulling something back into the timestream might always have the side effect of rendering it insane, and Ark did not want that. Yet the Princess could not possibly adapt to being in this place, and she had realized to much about herself to become deluded in a life-dream again...
He scanned the horizon. Nothing but nothing, save the infinitesimal band of ever-changing color that was the timestream, and the large blackness that always cowered next to it. Lavos.
Lavos... The answer came to him, but he didn't want to accept it. He wouldn't do it, there was no way... but what choice was there? The only way to put something without the timestream back into it, safely, would be to find a medium... a thing that could exist in the timestream and outside it at the same time. The light of his being deadened at the thought... and then he gently probed into Schala's mind.
***
It was something out of a fantasy. A green field with tall grass that was moved in waves by an invisible, gentle wind. Ark made his way calmly through the grass, to the center of the dream. A small tree on a hill in the distance, two people were resting on it. One was Schala, the other... Janus.
They both looked up at his approach, Schala with a small smile a Janus with something like dread. He couldn't meet their eyes. He didn't dare.
Epilouge.
The tavern was packed, as usual. Fishermen, workers, businessmen. The haughty gentleman to the vagrant. The bar was jammed, people having to almost crawl over others to make orders. The piano in the corner played an upbeat tune, and mangled, drunken choruses filled the air. Everyone in the room had a shine to them, the upcoming fair would be a welcome break from the norm for most of them.
All save one. He sat at the bar, drooping over his drink. His hair and cloths were brown with mud and grit. His eyes were haunted, even through the alcoholic stupor he had drunk himself into. A glass of 'Phoenix Juice' sat in front of him, next to it was a powder case filled with sulfur paste.
Every once and a while, when he felt himself coming too close to reality, he would drink from bottle, and eat a chunk of the sticky yellow paste. He would descend back into his dreams, where nothing mattered. When asked for payment, he would mechanically go to the purse at his belt and withdraw a lump of gold. He had been like this for days.
Tonight was different, but not by much. Since he had come, people had tried to start up conversations with him. Some were concerned, others irritated that someone was hoarding a spot at the bar. One, a young girl, had kissed him on the cheek as part of a dare. She had run away giggling hysterically. He hardly noticed.
***
It was with the same nihilism that he didn't notice the very large, very drunk, and very angry sailor enter the bar. The man was already bleeding from the nose, and muttering curses at anyone that got near him. The sea of people parted for him, like some otherworldly holy man. He made his way, staggering, to the bar, and demanded for "liquoor". The bartender, a young man, refused. The sailor smashed his fist into the bar, leaving a dent. The bartender reached under the counter for his bat...
***
It took him a little while to notice his glass had fallen over. He stared at it a moment, saw himself in the mirror-like surface of the pool, and frowned. His thoughts were swimming up towards the surface again, they had to be drowned. Like a child, he drew his fingers through the pool of liquid, brought it to his lips. Not enough. Wiped some past off the counter, into his mouth. Tasted wrong.
He looked around, where was the crossdamned 'tender? There, talking with that big man. He got up, fell over once, steadied, and walked over to the bartender, who was busy talking to the big man. He waited for a bit, for his turn, got tired, pushed the big man out of the way, and took his turn.
***
... and the sailor jerked backwards, so quickly it was hard to follow. He flew backwards, threw the parted sea, through the door, which shattered off it's hinges, and was swallowed up into darkness. Everyone stared at the broken door for a moment, and then slowly turned to the bar. Ark blinked once, hiccuped, and then took out another lump of gold, clumsily placing it on the counter. "Another pwease." The white haired man yawned, and returned to his seat, mumbling.
The silence was platable. It wasn't until the bartender had refilled the glass and given Ark some more paste did things begin again. Though this time it was a little quieter.
***
Ark, mind deep under a sea of Phoenix Juice, contemplated the reflection his glass gave off. Somewhere deep within him, a voice commented on how wretched that person in the glass must be. Ark gently pushed that voice aside, and took another sip.
End...
?
Perhaps.
Whatever this may seem at first, it has more bearing on Chrono Cross than Trigger. Arigato, and Ja Ne.
Elsgod - Resurrection, Rebirth, and Death
Prologue.
A mind floated in a plain of nothingness. The mind was dark and broken, silently bleeding away sentience and memories. It had arrived under a state of extreme mental stress, and finding itself in the place that was both black and white had shattered it. What had it been once? It was impossible to tell. The core of the mind, perhaps it was the soul, was still intact, but buried so deeply that it couldn't possibly be aware of itself. In other words, a corpse without flesh floated through a plane where time did not move, but movement was possible. A place where a physical mass could laugh and cry without moving an inch in the space time continuum. In short, an impossible place.
Ark studied the mind from afar, trying ascertain it's identity. It was very difficult, as the mind was in a state of advanced decay, and making contact was almost impossible. It swam through the unreal place with the grace of a diver, seemingly oblivious to everything save the shattered mind It was slowly circling.
The soul of the thing was buried too deeply... hiding, Ark supposed. So it wasn't like the others, it wasn't a thing borne out of nothingness. Ark gently reached out and touched the consciousness, nothing. A little deeper, into the subconscious, empty. Deeper still, to the ID, there was... something. Ark withdrew into itself and pondered.
The last time it had taken something outside the Timestream into it, the results had been terrible... but still... Ark reached out and probed into the ID a little deeper, looking for memories or concepts of self that would only be present in the mind of one native to the timestream. It saw images flash before it's eyes, a place removed from... the Earth. A place hovering high above the Earth, a place of elementals and demi-human magickas... a feeling that might have been compassion... and then fear.
The Ark gently withdrew from the ID and again pondered. This place, It thought for certain it knew that place... a place borne of hopes and dreams, and fell because of an intense arrogant zeal. The thing reached out and touched deeper into the mind, fairly certain it was causing harm but not able to help it. It had to have a name, it had to. It had to be certain that this creature couldn't cause damage to the timestream.
Then suddenly the Ark found itself being pulled into the decrepit mind. A force that could act on it outside Time? The Ark realized it had made a mistake, that this mind was exactly like the ones before, and that there was a very good chance It was going to die. It tried to resist, but had nothing to push off of, It had even forgone an anchor to the timestream. For a moment the Ark cursed It's stupidity, and then it vanished.
Story.
Her entire body trembled before the power before her. She was not a weak woman, not normally given to such absolute unrest, but still the... the sheer alieness of the power that seemed to swirl around her like a black wind made her wish herself dead. The power touched her all over her body like the bony claws of skeletons, tearing at her flesh and clothes, as if trying to get to her heart... so that they might consume that too. In the distance she saw her brother, standing in his nightgown, taking in the scene calmly. She tried to reach out to him, but the wind wouldn't let her. The boy simply stood there, and watched the wind totally consume his sister...
...And Schala woke up, screaming, into the arms of her brother. She clung onto him roughly and whispered into his ear, "Don't ever let that Wind catch you Janus, never let it..." and then she realized that 'Janus' was in fact her attendant Nade. The younger woman was very white and sweating. "Miss... Miss Schala, you were screaming, and..." The attendant broke into tears and rushed from the bedroom, letting out a string of garbled apologies. Schala watched her go and then looked down at herself. Her body was covered in a fine sweat, and she felt hopelessly dirty.
She pushed the covers off the bed and climbed out. Already the dark dream was fading from her memory. She wished she could speed it along.
***
Later that day, after apologizing to Nade, Schala started looking for her brother who, for whatever reason, had disappeared. It wasn't unusual, Janus was well known for walking into the forests surrounding the Palace and not come back for days at a time... but he always left a note or a message that told her, never their mother, where he was and when he expected to be back. The guards outside the entrance said they hadn't seen him leave, and his cat Alfador was still walking around being underfoot... yet he wasn't in the castle. She had wandered into the library, absently thinking of asking the Nu that worked there if It had seen her err brother, when she someone new.
***
He walked up and down the wall high rows, squinting at the odd title, thumbing through a few pages, and then discarding them. Nothing had what he was looking for. Some books didn't even have magicka attached to them, just rows and rows of meaningless symbols. He opened a book and was blasted with sharp icy needles, another, a fiery maelstrom. He was ready to give up when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He whirled so quickly he almost lost his balance. 'What!?!' he wanted to scream. 'Go away you damned gnat, AWAY!' but he couldn't. He was expecting that bumbling blue thing... the Nu, and by all rights that was who the transgressor should have been, but instead he found himself face to face with the Princess Zeal.
He simply stared for a moment, a million things occurred to him, but the overwhelming emotion was fear. He turned and started away when she caught his shoulder, making him turn again. "Have you, seen my brother? A boy about this tall?" the girl motioned the boy's height. "No", he said gruffly. The girl nodded, not very surprised, and turned. He relaxed with his entire body, and was ready to turn when several guards appeared at the entrance.
He dived into another aisle and crouched down. 'Damnation!' he screamed to himself. First the Princess and now them! He crawled down the aisles and listened to the guards questioning the Princess in a meek apologetic manner. "A man with white hair? Yes I saw him..." his hand went to his head and gave it a yank. Stupid. From what he had seen of everyone else, white hair was extremely rare. The guards were checking the aisles now, he was going to be thrown out... out of the one place that might be able to help him remember... "To me! To me!" a nearby voice screamed. He cursed and got to his feet, a guard had seen him through the shelves. Guards appeared on either side of the aisle, brandishing long staves.
The white haired man showed his hands to the guards, demonstrating surrender. A guard, a special one from the gold trim on his armor, simply sneered and shot a magicka from his stave. For a moment his target simply stood, marveling at the guard's stupidity, and stepped to one side, allowing the fireball to sail past, down the aisle, and strike another guard squarely in the stomach. That however, was a mistake. All the guards charged, wielding their weapons as batons. Their bloodshot eyes filled with xenophobia and revenge.
He didn't have a moment to blink when the first stick hit him, causing his nose to make a painful crunching sound. Even as his body recoiled he was struck from behind, and then from the front again. The hits all blurred together in one grand symphony of pain. He tried to breath, but couldn't get air into his lungs. His eyes started to flash as he fought against unconsciousness. Around him the guards were laughing, spitting on him and calling him names. He felt his left arm arch at an awkward angle before snapping, making him scream inside his chest. The pain was so intense, so all encompassing, that it took him a moment to notice that the beating had stopped.
He heard voices apologizing, sensed the guards bowing, and then standing again, and leaving. One stepped on his broken arm and he screamed, the pain blossoming again... but then it was over. He tried to open his eyes but found he couldn't. He sensed someone walking up to him and immediately recognized the smell. The Princess.
***
Schala couldn't believe the sheer savagery she had been witness to. She had wandered after the guards in curiosity and maybe a little guilt at having given that man away, but what she found... it was like her dream, except from her brother's perspective. The guards, many of which she had known since she was a little girl, were beating the man to death. She had froze at the sight, terrified by what she saw and felt in the guard's eyes and souls. She screamed for them to stop, and they turned to her with those same eyes and she felt that they were going to beat her to death too... but then their eyes softened, as if awakening from a dream. She ordered them down to their knees, which they did quickly. The sergeant, an officer in gold trimmed armor, spoke up. "Our sincerest apologies mistress, but this man... he is an Earthbound!" Schala, upon hearing the contempt that the sergeant linked to the term 'Earthbound' forgot her fear and exploded in fury, "He is still human!" The guards shriveled before her gaze. "But mistress... his kind are forb-" The guard looked up from his kneel, looked Schala straight in the eye, and froze. "My... apologies your highness... it will... never happen again." The guard was gasping for breath, sweat running down his face. He bowed his head and stood, the others following. "I think you should all question your humanity." Schala drove the words home like fists. Each man seemed to melt. The sergeant turned and led them away. One of the guards accidentally stepped on the Earthbound's arm, which was twisted in a fashion that hurt to look at, and hopped away quickly, before being struck across the neck by one of his fellows.
Schala waited until they had left the library, and then walked to the Earthbound. As she approached he tried to kick away, making tiny mewing sounds as he went. She stopped, unsure of what to do. "I won't hurt you," she said. "I'm not going to hurt you." She murmured to herself and began to go through the patterns of healing in her mind. Her hands began to emit a soft, golden glow. The Earthbound stopped retreating, and went limp. She tried to reach out with her mind to sooth his, but it was sealed completely, he was unconscious. She knelt by him and touched his broken arm, which immediately began to heal. Then she touched his face and chest.
***
He ran away, into the bliss of unconsciousness, but even there, as he dreamed of trees with as many leaves as he had questions, he felt warmth grow around his entire body. It was something that he had never felt before, and it frightened him. But his dreams began to swallow him up, and soon it was forgotten. Those dreams turned to nightmares.
***
He was running down a long hallway, flanked by a fellow researcher, Relista, and the robot Prometheus. A guard ahead of them turned and opened his mouth. 'NO! He wanted to scream. You can't, must not, stop us!' But he didn't have the time or the breath. He produced a dagger from his baldric and threw it at the guard's leg. Guard down, they ran past.
They should have known better than to trust FATE. They shouldn't have put it in charge of all temporal experiments, should have realized the moment it attained self-awareness. But they hadn't, and now if this last experiment took place Chronopolis would be reduced to a cinder.
Relista fell again, her leg was still hurt where the robotic security systems had burned it. Prometheus kept on running, but He stopped to help her up. They made eye contact for a brief instant, and He felt warmth all over. Maybe, if or when this nightmare was all over, there would be time for more then just that awkward glance... it was up to Prometheus now, whether or not It was able to stop the experiment that was being misguided by FATE into killing them. The two of them were powerless to do anything but consol each other, and await their end, or rebirth. He joined her on the floor where they huddled together like children.
A minute passed, and nothing happened. He began to think Prometheus had succeeded when there was an explosive popping sound, and a wall of black nightmare rushed towards them. They had failed. Eye contact. Acknowledgment. And then she disappeared.
***
The Zeal kingdom existed above all clouds, but still fell under a shadow. People where changing, Schala could tell. There was a look about them, and an errie quietness at the Palace. There was no small talk, no gossiping... it was as if they were all holding their breath, waiting for something to happen. It frightened Schala, she wished she knew where Janus was, that would be a small reassurance that not everything had changed.
The Earthbound was resting in Nade's quarters. The poor servant had almost snapped when Schala arrived with a bloodied man in her arms, asking for shelter. She would have to reward Nade somehow, when this was over. But what were they supposed to do? The Earthbound were forbidden from the Upper Realm, and the man was obviously trying to gain arcane knowledge. She would be lucky to get him back to the Surface before some guard got around to mentioning the incident to her mother.
***
Nade answered the door. She ushered Dalton inside.
***
Relista did not melt away, she did not wither and scream, she simply ceased to be. One moment He was touching her, the next his hands touched nothing. They had failed. The screams of the damned roared in His ears, and the dark wind howled. Yet he remained. How long he huddled in that hallway he didn't know, but he was more then a little insane when the roaring stopped. The dead whispered to him, accused him. He fled Chronopolis, off the island and into the sea. Where... something had happened. What was it?
He was suddenly aware. He was not in the dream, but viewing it as a memory. The fevered shock went through him, from his stomach to his limbs. And thus he awoke, hot and sweaty. At least he had learned one thing, Relista had whispered it just before FATE had taken her away. His name.
***
Dalton was waiting.
***
"Well, what do we have here?" The voice was the first thing... He could define it's owner already; brash, arrogant... "Looks like some vermin stowed away!" He opened his eyes. A man with long, frizzy brown hair and an orange cape sat next to him, chin in his hands. He was smiling. It was unpleasant. "Ah yes? A fine, big one! Why, I bet we could make an entire pot of stew, what do you think Nadee?"
A young girl stood next to the only exit of the room. Her eyes were cast downward. "If you say so Sir Dalton." The man, Dalton, laughed and slapped his thigh. "Oh, but we are going to have such a good time! Earthbound, I must thank you, it has been an age since we had any decent entertainment in the courts of Zeal." The man rolled his eyes. Yes, that was a maniac gleam. "Oh, must have been a fortnight now! But a battle to the death, Ah! that should wet the Queens palate! Don't you agree Nadee?" The girl said nothing. "Now, most illustrious guest, if you might come with me?" Dalton stood and beckoned. The man on the bed didn't move. "Oh, come now, must it all end this way?" Dalton snapped his finger and guards walked into the room, absently pushing aside Nade, who almost fell over. "Guards." Dalton commanded, still smiling. "See that our guest receives all that accompanies his prestigious position!" The guards yanked him out of bed.
Dalton turned to leave, but stopped, "If the good sire would please give us his name, so that we might whisper it in our queens ear?" Still smiling. The man looked at him for a moment. Was what he dreamt truth? If nothing else, it provided him an answer. "Ark. My name is Ark." Dalton nodded, hesitated, nodded again. "Well, my good Ark, I hope you will be satisfied with our meager accommodations." Then he left.
***
The guards threw Ark into a cell. The bed was wet and covered with bugs.
***
Schala hadn't meant to strike out at Nade. She really hadn't. The girl wilted away from her, the color beginning to come into the hand shaped mark on her face. She stepped back, again, tripped over a chair and landed on the floor, too frightened to even cry. Schala, in the moment she had struck her, had looked at her in a way she had never seen before. Nade finally reached a wall, and buried her head in her hands, crawling into a fetal position. Schala let it go on for several moments, hating herself for it. "Why?" It was only one word. A question that could have a thousand different meanings. It made Nade flinch. "Sir Dalton... he... *hic* he... promised..."
Schala's eyes widened. How could she have... she rushed over to her, and scooped Nade's head into her arms. "I'm sorry, I had... forgive me, I had forgotten." Nade continued to rant, mostly incoherent sobs. She reached out and, forgetting herself, hugged Schala, who whispered soothing things into her ear. Several hundred days previous, Dalton had taken something very precious from Nade... her innocence. Schala was the only other person to know, and had had to bear the first tens of days of Nade's pining. But gently the girl realized how little she had actually meant to Dalton, and her world had crashed. Schala had had to hold her, just like this, days ago. It was unimportant that she was the Princess and Nade the servant, they were both friends.
Later, Nade grew very quiet. Her form still shook, but less. She finally looked up and her Princess, wiped her face clean, and stood. "I... I... m sorry." She managed, and looked uncertain. Schala rose too, and made to whipe her wet dress off. They both smiled, Nade hesitantly. "It's okay. Don't linger on bad memories." An image flashed in Schala's head, of a middle aged man who had always had a smile for her, who hadn't gotten to see Janus take his first steps... but she shook it away.
She made sure Nade was all right, really all right, and then turned to leave. "Oh Miss Schala!" Nade called after her, already falling back into habit. She turned. "The Earthbound, he told Dalton his name. It's Ark." Schala nodded, smiled, turned... "Miss Schala, you know your mother wouldn't want you to do this." Falling back into the old habits indeed. Schala stopped, back to Nade. Monotone. "Did Queen Zeal at any point in time speak directly to you, telling you of her desires?" Schala asked. Nade shook her head. "Then I go." Nade waited until the door had closed, and then collapsed.
***
Resting on the cool stone of his cell, the memories continued to trickle down. His name, was it his name? It didn't matter, it had opened the door to a jumble of confusing images. Ark could only listen, taking as much in as he could. He would sort through them later.
Relista, Prometheus, Valen, Gasper, Elsgod, Lavos... names, most without faces and context, but names nonetheless. The return was so welcome that it took him a very long while to realize that it was meaningless. The knowledge was all redundant. Memories of what he had eaten one morning thousands of days ago, a certain thing some nameless person had said to him. They were all unrelevant. The names that he didn't already associate with people were just names, there was no information, no explanation as to why he knew them, where he had met them, or why their names would appear in his head out of a venerable sea of people he must have known.
There was nothing more of Relista after that moment in Chronopolis, nor Prometheus. There was nothing after he had leapt off the docks and into the sea, desperate to escape the accusing wraiths... it was all a cruel trick.
Ark had had enough. He close his eyes, reached deep within himself, feeling as carefully built up barriers, no doubt created by himself, shatter. He went into the undermind, and was about to shock himself into a deep sleep, when a soft voice floated through the magic field that held him in place.
"What are you doing?"
Ark floated lazily in the murky either, debating if he should ignore the voice. Nothing anyone could say would consul him right now, he needed the bliss of sleep. Ark paused a moment to collect himself and then, for all intents and purposes, shut himself off.
***
Three minutes later he woke up. Someone was poking him in the side. He groaned and rolled over. He should have been out for longer. "Dead? Unliving?" That voice again. Ark opened his eyes and made eye contact with a child. The child had white hair, with a bluish hue. Odd hair color seemed to be characteristic of Zealians, Ark touched his own hair absently, save all white.
The boy stood there, waited until Ark was fully back from dreamscape, and turned. "You want to escape or not?" Ark nodded. There were no answers here. He stood and followed the boy to the entrance of the cell, where the magic field still crackled with energy. The boy never stopped walking, the energy field seemed to blister around him. He turned and regarded Ark coolly. "You have to follow close. I can't do this for you." Ark moved closer to the kid. The field continued to expand, and then popped. Ark was outside the cell, the energy field was busy restructuring itself.
"Come on, you can't make it anywhere without me." The kid walked down the hall. Ark followed close behind.
***
Dozens of minutes later, after passing countless guards, citizens of Zeal and the man with the orange cape, the jester? without being seen, they arrived in "my sister's room," as the kid had explained. "She doesn't know we are here yet."
Minutes passed in silence. Ark sat down on the floor. More time. The girl, Nade? came in and changed the sheets of the bed. She didn't see them. More minutes, dozens. Finally the silence was broken, "How did you do that?" the kid. Ark looked at him a moment.
"What?"
The kid jumped off his chair and began to pace back and forth.
"What you did. You shut yourself off."
"I just did."
The boy stopped and jumped back into the chair.
"If that's all you have to say, don't say it."
Silence...
***
He had followed the boy, and stayed in this room, because it seemed that nothing could make his situation any worse. He was wrong. When he had bumped into the Princess in the library, the fear he had felt had been deep, complete, and totally irrational. That he had reflected on it didn't stop him from tensing every muscle in his body when she walked in the door. He clawed through his scattered memories, trying to pick up a picture or thought... anything that would explain his fear. Nothing.
***
Schala wasn't surprised to see her brother, though she was relieved. He looked at her when she entered and nodded. Then she saw him, Ark. He was naked from the waist up, and by the look of his body and the energy he was giving off, very distressed. Janus jumped from his chair and crossed over to his sister. "You needed to see him." He moved around her. "We'll talk later I think, when we're together again." The door closed.
***
The moment the door closed, Ark felt the kid leave. Not just leave the room, as he had obviously done, but totally disappear from the physical plane. Ark didn't know what that meant, didn't have time to think about it. His main concern was the Princess. But she had turned towards the door, had she sensed the kid leave? She was shaking slightly, and he thought he heard her whisper something to herself. His body stayed tense.
***
"When we're together again." Schala whispered. It was beginning to make sense. She turned to the Earthbound, though she knew he wasn't bound to Earth or the Upper Realm. "What are you waiting for?" She whispered quietly. The man was tense, shaking slightly. "You're going to leave too, aren't you?" Her voice cracked. "Just like Janus, you're going to leave, because you don't belong here." The man remained. "You're going to fade away, leave me here alone, like everyone else, aren't you?" Nothing. "Aren't you!?"
The images were floating into her mind now, yes... she remembered. She had held Nade in her arms like that once... hundreds of millions of days ago, and it had been the last time. The servant had killed herself the next day, cut her wrists. Janus was gone too, swallowed into a time vortex created by... Lavos. The images of everyone, Dalton, the guards, the people that populated the Palace, was an exact mirror of what she had pictured them as just before the disaster at the Sea Palace.
She was dreaming... or was she dead, and this some twisted afterlife? She remembered only cowering before Lavos, and pain. Where was she?
***
Ark could feel her changing. Read it in the energy her body was giving off. He slowly stood. The energy was almost the proper hue... there. "You have answers now?" his question was shaky. He feared the answer. The Princess looked at him for a moment, as if seeing him for the first time. "You, your not from me, are you?" She asked. He shook his head. "I am from myself... whoever that might be." They stood, contemplating each other. "I don't know why I am here..." He began. "I don't know who I am, or how I came to be here. Do you know?" She shook her head. "This is a place within myself. My dream."
***
There was a crash outside. Neither needed to look. The floating island that supported the now obsolete weapons of power had broken from the magic grid that suspended the floating continent. It was falling. "When someone realizes... that they are dreaming..." Schala said, shaking, "It is usually, right before that dream ends." Beams of yellow light split through the sky from Earth. Lavos. "But... I am not certain what I will wake up to." They felt the island, shattered, begin to drifted apart and fall.
***
Ark felt something tugging at his memory, something very important. He looked at her, blinked, and saw a monstrous thing behind her. Blinked again, it was gone. They slowly floated off the floor, as the island's fall accelerated. He reached out to her, and she took his hand. That memory... perhaps nothing major, nothing that would reveal his past, maybe not even something that would save his life now, was important. They grasp each others hands, and made eye contact. Then it happened.
*Flash* The old man... "it was difficult to anticipate the actions of something borne outside of the timestream. What you did was right."
*Flash* A thing breaking out of the Earth, laying ruin to it.
*Flash* "What you did was right."
*Flash* People's bodies silhouetting massive explosions as entire continents were bathed in fire.
*Flash* "What you did was right... abet foolish."
*Flash* He was on his knees before the old man. The crone figure regarded him for a moment, and then hit him with a cane. "I can't forgive you! I have no right, only you can forgive yourself."
*Flash* He was floating, a dot of light in an impossible place. He was slowly circling a hot thing. A thing with no concept of self or other. He had pitied it, and taken it back into the timestream. But it had been born of nothing. Submerging it into the physical plane made it insane. If the word sane could have ever been applied to it.
*Flash* An explosion at it crashed to Earth, and a whisper that was passed down in memory. A name given to the being by a half human. Lavos.
*Flash* Insanity, roaming planes and times, ranting to himself, hurting himself. Seeking penitence where there was none to be found, only death.
*Flash* Destruction, rebirth, and then... Relista smiling at him. Something half glimpsed from a dead timeline.
and then...
"I was born of Zeal, the land where Magic was first harnessed." The old man wheezed. "In the twilight of that Empire, they established direct contact with Lavos." Ark cringed. "The power perverted that people, and only the most strong among them were able to resist it... or completely embrace it." The old man hacked, spit. "One of them was the King Zeal. He recognized perversion, and urged his wife not to exploit the energy. Unfortunately, his wife had already embraced the power. He was sent to a sacred place, the floating mountain, and never heard from again. The only other people that resisted where the Prophet, a time traveler himself; Janus, the Queen's young son; and the Princess, Schala." Ark remained on his knees. "Out of all of them, Schala was the strongest. Lavos split us apart, sent us to different time periods. Schala is the only one I haven't felt or met. She could have been sent into a failed timeline that I can't see, or she might have been erased totally. I use the word 'erased' because I never felt her death... and I know I would."
*Flash*
***
They were rising towards the ceiling, the wind was screaming outside, tearing the Palace apart. Ark desperately yanked the Princess, Schala, towards him. In the gray haze that was his mind, he saw himself wrapping an arm around her waist, and another around her eyes. Then he bent down and whispered, "Don't. Think."
***
There was no other choice. She let her mind glaze over, and in the shadow of destruction, found sleep.
***
*Flash*
***
He went through a tunnel, images and people passed by him to quickly to take in. In his hands he held the Princess, or a good part of her. He tightened his hold...
They... he, was free. He floated in the endless void outside time once again, a sleeping Schala in his arms. He curled his being around her, for this place was not meant for her eyes. Then he debated what to do. Pulling something back into the timestream might always have the side effect of rendering it insane, and Ark did not want that. Yet the Princess could not possibly adapt to being in this place, and she had realized to much about herself to become deluded in a life-dream again...
He scanned the horizon. Nothing but nothing, save the infinitesimal band of ever-changing color that was the timestream, and the large blackness that always cowered next to it. Lavos.
Lavos... The answer came to him, but he didn't want to accept it. He wouldn't do it, there was no way... but what choice was there? The only way to put something without the timestream back into it, safely, would be to find a medium... a thing that could exist in the timestream and outside it at the same time. The light of his being deadened at the thought... and then he gently probed into Schala's mind.
***
It was something out of a fantasy. A green field with tall grass that was moved in waves by an invisible, gentle wind. Ark made his way calmly through the grass, to the center of the dream. A small tree on a hill in the distance, two people were resting on it. One was Schala, the other... Janus.
They both looked up at his approach, Schala with a small smile a Janus with something like dread. He couldn't meet their eyes. He didn't dare.
Epilouge.
The tavern was packed, as usual. Fishermen, workers, businessmen. The haughty gentleman to the vagrant. The bar was jammed, people having to almost crawl over others to make orders. The piano in the corner played an upbeat tune, and mangled, drunken choruses filled the air. Everyone in the room had a shine to them, the upcoming fair would be a welcome break from the norm for most of them.
All save one. He sat at the bar, drooping over his drink. His hair and cloths were brown with mud and grit. His eyes were haunted, even through the alcoholic stupor he had drunk himself into. A glass of 'Phoenix Juice' sat in front of him, next to it was a powder case filled with sulfur paste.
Every once and a while, when he felt himself coming too close to reality, he would drink from bottle, and eat a chunk of the sticky yellow paste. He would descend back into his dreams, where nothing mattered. When asked for payment, he would mechanically go to the purse at his belt and withdraw a lump of gold. He had been like this for days.
Tonight was different, but not by much. Since he had come, people had tried to start up conversations with him. Some were concerned, others irritated that someone was hoarding a spot at the bar. One, a young girl, had kissed him on the cheek as part of a dare. She had run away giggling hysterically. He hardly noticed.
***
It was with the same nihilism that he didn't notice the very large, very drunk, and very angry sailor enter the bar. The man was already bleeding from the nose, and muttering curses at anyone that got near him. The sea of people parted for him, like some otherworldly holy man. He made his way, staggering, to the bar, and demanded for "liquoor". The bartender, a young man, refused. The sailor smashed his fist into the bar, leaving a dent. The bartender reached under the counter for his bat...
***
It took him a little while to notice his glass had fallen over. He stared at it a moment, saw himself in the mirror-like surface of the pool, and frowned. His thoughts were swimming up towards the surface again, they had to be drowned. Like a child, he drew his fingers through the pool of liquid, brought it to his lips. Not enough. Wiped some past off the counter, into his mouth. Tasted wrong.
He looked around, where was the crossdamned 'tender? There, talking with that big man. He got up, fell over once, steadied, and walked over to the bartender, who was busy talking to the big man. He waited for a bit, for his turn, got tired, pushed the big man out of the way, and took his turn.
***
... and the sailor jerked backwards, so quickly it was hard to follow. He flew backwards, threw the parted sea, through the door, which shattered off it's hinges, and was swallowed up into darkness. Everyone stared at the broken door for a moment, and then slowly turned to the bar. Ark blinked once, hiccuped, and then took out another lump of gold, clumsily placing it on the counter. "Another pwease." The white haired man yawned, and returned to his seat, mumbling.
The silence was platable. It wasn't until the bartender had refilled the glass and given Ark some more paste did things begin again. Though this time it was a little quieter.
***
Ark, mind deep under a sea of Phoenix Juice, contemplated the reflection his glass gave off. Somewhere deep within him, a voice commented on how wretched that person in the glass must be. Ark gently pushed that voice aside, and took another sip.
End...
?
Perhaps.