DISCLAIMER: I do not own Chrono Trigger or
the characters, just the plot in this
story.
The
Death of Kings
Part I
Chapter III
BY
D A R T H V A D E
R
Tata fell down parallel to the ladder, startling Frog quite a bit. He
reflexively drew his knight's sword and edged in closer, until he saw that it
was only a boy.
"Child? Whatst thou doth in my abode?" he asked, retracting his
sword into his sheathe again.
Tata looked up, deftly afraid, until he saw that it was Frog. "Hey,
it's you! You're that frog who dropped that medal in the bar the other day!!
Here, you can have it back, I don't want it anymore!!" he yelped. He took
the Hero Medal off his neck and tossed it to Frog's feet. Frog kneeled down to
pick it up.
"Aye, 'tis my Medal. Now, Child, you still have not answered my
question. Whatst thou doth in my abode? And as well, what is thy name?"
"My name's Tata. I'm here 'cause I was hiding out in these woods and
I guess I wasn't looking and I fell down in this hole."
"And why were't thou taking refuge within my forest?"
"I was getting to that. Magus's army captured Guardia Castle!!
They're seizing all the towns and bringing everyone to prison. I just barely
escaped before they got to Porre!"
Frog's face darkened with anger and disbelief. "Y...you mean...mine
enemy's troops hath won the war?!"
Tata shook his head quickly and with wide, frightened eyes.
"You may stay here,...."
"Tata."
"You may stay here, Tata, while I take these matters into mine own
hands. Magus shalt not win this war so easily that he shalln't have to deal
with me."
"I wanna come with you."
"Nonsense, Boy. You are but a child. You shan't be able to uphold
thineself in battle. 'Twill be safer if I go alone."
"But I really can defend myself!! I mean--"
In one lightning fast wrist movement, Frog drew his sword and thrust it
in a backward arc, straight for Tata's head. Before the blade got within one
foot above the boy's head, it had been blocked by his own dagger. Frog nodded
once in approval and turned around to face Tata.
"Very well. Thou hath proven thineself. However, thou cannot hope to
face Magus's monsters with an ordinary dagger. I shall supply thee with a more
suitable weapon."
He opened a closet he had made the year before and took his second-best
sword. He handed it to Tata in its sheathe. Tata put his dagger and the sheathe
on his belt.
Then, Frog went back in the closet and took out his two best suits of
armor. He gave the smaller one to Tata and put on the other one himself.
After all the necessary preparations were made, Frog and Tata ventured
above ground and cautiously crept out of the woods.
"We shall mount an assault on the main base of operations. Magus's
castle," Frog instructed.
"Shouldn't we try and take Guardia Castle back first?" Tata
suggested.
"Negligible," said Frog. "I hath studied Magus forever
since he transformed me into this hideous frog form. I know that if he were
ever to fall, his troops would immediately flee to the nearest dark corner and
remain there for the better part of eternity."
Tata didn't really understand the logic of all this, but decided to go
along with it and ask the next best question. "How're we gonna get to
Magus's castle though?"
"There is only one way," said Frog. "I shall have to swim
across the canal and carry thee unto my back. Hence, we will have no choice but
to venture across the dangerous terrain and make our way to Magus's
Castle."
"You're gonna swim across the entire canal with me on your
back?!" Tata asked. Frog nodded calmly. Tata opened his mouth again, but
decided to leave that alone too.
They
made it to the shore, only running into two or three monsters along the way.
Frog had vanquished all of them rather effortlessly. Tata propped himself up on
Frog's shoulders, and Frog hopped into the cold, salt water and paddled his
legs with all his might, only moving his arms slightly so Tata wouldn't his
lose his balance.
After
about a half an hour, the duo made it to the opposite beach. "You're
amazing!! I never knew a knight who could swim that good," Tata commented.
"Aye, 'tis true that there be some definite advantages in being
half-frog. Perhaps I shall thank Magus before he is destroyed."
Remarkably, they made it over all the mountains with no problems. By the
time the daylight first began to subside, they'd reached the front gate of the
palace.
"Let us enter," said Frog.
"Shouldn't we camp somewhere first and wait till day comes?"
"No. I shall not wait any longer. We will enter the castle and
destroy the fiendish wizard once and for all."
"....Now the chosen time has come...." Magus uttered, after a
long and complex series of chants that didn't make any sense to him. At least,
he had no idea what they translated out to be. The black wind had first
whispered those words to him over twelve-thousand years previous. His sister
was present at the time, and she had heard it too.
"Schala....what is that..?" he'd asked.
"That's the language of the Black Wind.....it is incredibly powerful
and extremely evil, and shouldn't be spoken by any mortal, not even one of us
Mystics. Please, Janus, remember that in case temptation should rear its ugly
head upon you," she'd answered, with a slight but unmistakable ere of
fear.
Schala had warned him of alot of other things right then, but that one
sentence there was the thing that stuck in Magus's mind after all these years.
His mind flashed back to that moment as he completed his ritual.
"Exchange this world for...Lavos!!"
Five seconds later and Magus didn't think this was as good an idea as
he'd hoped.
As the last hiss of the word Lavos had left Magus's mouth, the entire
room began to shake violently. The blue flames surrounding him had burst upward
in pillars of blinding fire, and the solid rock floor below the six-armed
statue afront him began to crumble away, little by little.
That was when Frog and Tata came in.
"Magus!!!" Frog managed to scream above the roar of the ensuing
chaos, "What art thou doing?!"
Magus twisted his body around in bewilderment. "I...it's that stupid
frog!!" he exclaimed. He tried to get up, but couldn't because everything
was shaking around so bad.
Magus's
castle disappeared. In its place, there was a large, turtle-like creature with
hypnotic eyes and extremely sharp spikes protruding symmetrically from the
turtle-like shell; there was a human; there was a Mystic; and there was a frog.
"Magus!! This be thine own creation?!" Frog shouted, more in
fear than in anger.
"What...?! You idiot, I didn't create this thing....I only summoned
it! I..."
The creature let out an ear-splitting roar, heard throughout the world.
The sheer sound vibrations knocked King Guardia's head clear off its pedestal.
"I.....I.....I'm...scared..." Tata said, obviously overwhelmed
by the seriousness of the situation.
"Well don't just stand there, you stupid frog, DO something!! Help
me kill this thing!" said Magus.
Frog looked at Magus with distrusting eyes.
"Look, if we don't stop this thing it'll destroy the world!! Would
you get over yourself and just help me???" the Mystic cried in
desperation. Frog looked at him for a few more seconds, then nodded once.
"Then may our partnership last 'till the end of this battle, and
from then we shall continue our battle for world conquest."
"What?? Oh, you mean Ozzie's idiots? No problem. If we can get rid
of this thing I'll call them all off. Hell, I'll even..."
It roared again, a little weaker than the first time. It shot out a
powerful laser or something from its eyes and killed Tata.
Magus and Frog nodded to eachother, both knowing that the time for
chit-chat was over. Frog took Tata's weapon and held both swords high and Magus
raised his scythe menacingly at the huge turtle. They attacked the thing
savagely.
Before long, the head protruding from the shell was completely destroyed.
It wasn't moving. It looked dead.
"It appears as though we hath saved the world," said Frog.
"No, it's not dead yet. I know what you're about to say, but trust
me, I know. I've studied this thing ever since I got a hold of the proper
research materials. There are separate entities controlling this thing from
within the stupid shell. We're gonna have to get this thing in the core before
it's gone for good. Follow me."
An hour and a half later, Lavos's shell simply disappeared into thin air,
and only a frog corpse and a badly beaten superhuman were left.
Magus was panting deeply, and decided to use his magic to cure himself.
He knelt down beside Frog's corpse with solemn eyes.
"You....you fought bravely, Fr...no, Glenn. I never expected you to
keep going after I cast this damned spell on you. You're a better man than I or
anyone else could ever be. For that, I hope you can accept it when I call you
'friend'."
He stopped talking at that point, because he sensed tears creeping up
toward his eyes. His lip was trembling as it was. He stood up and looked into
the glaring full moon of the peaceful night sky. His hair blew and his cape
ruffled gently in the night breeze. No more struggling. No more tedious
research. No more Lavos. No more Black Wind.
No
more evil.
He knelt back down and rested his palm on Frog's chest. Frog was restored
to his original human state. This was the least Magus could do.
The hero would be called Frog no longer. In all the history books, he'd
be called Glenn.
The
following morning, Magus awoke with a yawn from the soft grass surrounding the
home of his late castle. He looked at Glenn and a small smile, the first one
he'd worn since he last saw Schala, sneaked its way onto his face. Everything
would be alright now. He would make all his soldiers disappear and he'd
personally help repair all the damages made by his army. The humans could have
their world back, and so could he.
But none of that would ever bring back a lone knight. A knight who fought
with tremendous vigor and determination despite despicable odds. This knight
was named Glenn, and Magus pledged at that moment that the world would never
forget him.