DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or
the characters, just the plot in this
story.
The
Black Wind
Part IV
Chapter III
BY
D A R T H V A D E
R
"We'll take a large bag of popcorn and a cone of
cotton candy," Schala said to the vendor. "Oh, and two medium
chocolate milks." She held out five tablets.
"That'll be three tablets and fifty-six tabs," said the man at
the hotdog stand as he took the five tablets. He opened up the popcorn machine
and filled up a big striped bag with popcorn, then took a cone of cotton candy
off the pole they were hanging from and handed both items to Schala. She gave
the candy to Janus and popped a handful of popcorn in her mouth. The man
grabbed two small cartons of chocolate milk out of the cooler and handed one to
each customer.
"Thank you," said Schala as they walked away.
"Thank you," said the vendor. "And enjoy the parade!"
On the sidewalk, Janus and Schala got back to their places and resumed
their floating stance. This was where they sat on the ground with their legs
crossed and then floated up a good four feet off the ground. Much more
comfortable than sitting on the sidewalk or even on a lawn chair.
The floats of the three heroes who died trying to stop Queen Zeal (the
spiky-haired kid, the frog, and the sexy blond wearing next to nothing) were
coming up. No one really knew who they were, except for Schala, but since they
died trying to save a world which they didn't even belong to, Queen Zeal
thought it best to honor them out of respect.
As the float of the sexy blond wearing next to nothing came around, the
twelve-year old Janus stared at it without blinking. Schala noticed this and
smiled, but said nothing.
"Schala! Cool, I didn't think I'd be able to find you!" called
a male voice, from behind. Schala turned her head and saw her boyfriend,
Sonaro, hovering toward her.
"Sony!!" she said, obviously surprised. Sony was her petname
for Sonaro. She planted her feet back on the ground and hugged him as he
arrived. "I thought you had to work today?" she said.
"I did, but my boss let me off early! I guess he knows how it is to
be eighteen and in love," he said, smiling. Schala blushed, and they
kissed.
Janus was watching them, and when they kissed a disgusted feeling
traveled through his body. He rolled his eyes and turned around to watch the
parade some more.
"Hey
Magus," said Ozzie as he strolled on into the throneroom, "I
scheduled you to make a speech at the Ozzie Fairgrounds tomorrow at Noon. Can
ya make it?"
"Hm? What?" Magus replied, genuinely confused. He was looking
all around the room. "Where's the parade? Where am I? Schala, is this one
of your--"
"Parade? No, there's no parade, but that's a good idea! We'll have
one in a few weeks," said Ozzie.
Magus looked directly at Ozzie, and the expression on his face made Ozzie
feel a little nervous. "Ozzie? Is that you...?" said the wizard.
"Um....yeah," said Ozzie. "Are you...feeling okay, Magus?
Cause if not, I can always cancel the speech...."
"Ozzie, I just had the most bizarre experience..." Magus said
worriedly.
"What happened?"
"Well, I was a boy and I was with my sister, the one I've been searching
for ever since I got here. We were standing beside a...a road, and a parade was
marching down it. And there was one float that really stood out...
"What was it of? Me?" asked Ozzie.
"No....remember those three people you killed and that pretty much
let you win the war?"
"Yeah, the spiky-haired kid, the tin can, and that nerdball. What
about 'em?"
"The spiky-haired kid...One of the floats in the parade was of him.
And I was eating cotton candy....this is all too weird for me. I don't think I
can make that speech, sorry," said Magus.
"Okay. I'll just reschedule it. You might wanna get some rest,"
said Ozzie, and he left the throneroom.
Magus took Ozzie's advice and went directly to bed.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
The sound of the broken alarm made Magus jump from his cozy sleep on the
floor. He tracked down the machine making the noise and hurled his scythe
straight at it. It made direct contact and the faulty contraption stopped
beeping. Magus took a look around. He was still in the infernal Proto Dome, and
the Nu was still curled up lifelessly on the floor in front of the burnt-out
computer terminal. Fading memories of the inside of his castle and Ozzie
annoying him about one thing or another sailed right out of his mind.
For the first time since he'd arrived in the dome, Magus decided to step
out for a while. He had, after all, been looking at the same exact scenery for
five months, and he was getting a bit too bored.
As Magus stepped outside, he got a little dizzy upon seeing the
throneroom of Guardia Castle from the perspective of the throne and he fell to
the floor.
"Your Highness! Are you alright?" asked the Chancellor as he
ran to his rescue.
"What's wrong with the king...?" said a man with a cow and a
chicken on either side of him.
"Your infernal bantering and lies have made the King dizzy with
confusion!" claimed another man standing a few feet to the left of the
cow.
Magus opened his eyes. He was expecting to see the harsh, battered,
sickly-brown landscape of the future, but instead his eyes once again picked up
all the familiar images of Guardia Castle's throneroom. "I'm going mad,
that must be what it is..." and he trailed off as he looked up and saw the
Chancellor's face. "Chancellor?! What happened? How did I get....oh...oh
my," said King Magus, as all of his memories began to gather themselves.
He remembered Schala buying him cotton candy, Ozzie telling him to make a
speech, and being in the future in miserable conditions. That was about the
extent of his memories.
"What do you mean, Sir? You were hearing the case presented to you
by these litigants, and suddenly, as the Defendant was making a statement, you
stood up and collapsed for no apparent reason. Are you feeling alright?"
"N...no, I don't believe I am. Let me finish up this case and then I
think I'll retire to my chamber," said Magus. The Chancellor obliged, and
Magus crawled back to his throne where he could sit down. "Alright, I
think I've heard enough. Mister Lowry, you will return Mister Jaxon's cow and
his chicken to him or you'll be thrown in the dungeon. That will be all. Get
outta here."
The defendant grudgingly gave the farm animals back to the plaintiff, and
both left the castle, the defendant grumbling about the verdict on the way out.
The Chancellor helped Magus up the various flights of stairs to his room and he
went right to sleep.
"Thanks,
Lucca. You don't know how much I appreciate this. I'll tell you all about it
once we get to your time," said Schala.
"No prob, Bob," said Lucca as the cockpit hatch closed. She set
the Time Gauge to 1000 AD: The Present and pulled the lever, and off they went.
Half an hour later (or 13,000 years later, depending on how you wanna
look at it), Schala, Crono, Marle, and Lucca were sitting at Crono's kitchen
table, drinking some majorly sweetened tea and eating some home-made chocolate
chip cookies. Schala was just getting ready to explain why she was there.
"Ok," she began, "For the past five nights I've been
having this weird dream about a guy with a purple cape and purple hair and a
sickle, trying to get me to come with me to who-knows-where. It's been creeping
me out and I fear I've been having it because I'm lonely or something like
that, so I figured I'd visit you guys for a while. Is that ok?"
"Sure!" said Marle. "You can stay in Guardia Castle. My
dad won't mind."
"I'm glad to see my trans-temporal communicator is working
properly," Lucca boasted.
"But Lucca," said Crono, "You just talked to Cyrus the
other day with it."
"Shut up Crono," Lucca said quietly through clenched teeth.
When she turned away, Crono smirked. He just loved doing that.
"So," said Schala, "What do you guys do for fun around
here? There's not much to do for fun in my village, so anything would probably
be better than there."
"We can go to Leene Square and hang out by the fountain," Marle
suggested.
"'Hang out'? What does that mean?" asked Schala.
"Hanging out is like, when you just sit there and talk about cool
stuff," Lucca explained.
"Yeah! Me and Crono do it all the time, except when we do it there's
not quite as much talking going on," Marle winked.
Crono blushed. "Ahhh...so, um...let's go! I'll get some stuff outta
the fridge so we can have a picnic or something."
On the ferry
from Medina Village, Magus and Schala were getting off at the harbor in Truce
Village. "Ok, come on. Let's get to the castle. I have the pass to get in
right here," said Schala. Magus nodded, and they walked leisurely to and
through Guardia Forest. They showed the castle guards their pass and were let
on through.
"Hi," said Schala as the two of them arrived in the king's
room. Marle turned around to see who it was.
"Oh, hi. Glad you could make it," she said, though not very
enthusiastically. When Marle wasn't overly enthusiastic, you could tell
something was wrong.
"King Guardia got a little bit worse since we sent you the
letter," Crono explained. He was holding Marle, comforting her like a
husband should.
Magus, however, wasn't paying any attention to any of this. He was still
fixed on the memories he was slowly but surely regaining, and they were without
a doubt troubling him severely.
"Let me try and help," said Schala. "Marle, you said you
already tried using your healing magic and it had no effect?"
"Yeah," said Marle.
"Well, maybe if we try combining our magic, we can help him. After
all, I do have the strongest kind of pure magic, Lunar," said Schala.
"It's worth a shot," said Marle, a little more excitedly this
time. She walked around the bed and stood next to Schala. They both held up
their arms. Magus absentmindedly stepped out of their way.
"Cornum, martis, zengil, zive....The Time of Light, has
arrived....Give the Gift of.....Health!!" Schala chanted. Shadow Magic had
a chant of its own; so did Lunar Magic.
Some blue magical sparkles rose from Marle's hands and a beam of dark
yellow Lunar light shot at them from Schala's hands. The result was a large
ball of green magic in the middle of the room. It slowly brought itself down
upon King Guardia XXXIII and entered his chest. He slowly opened his eyes.
"Daddy!!!" Marle shouted joyously, and she bent down to hug
him. He winced a bit, but hugged back anyway.
"So it worked? He's healed?!" said Crono.
"Probably not completely; I can sense from his aura that he's not
completely well yet. But he's definitely alot better. Two or three more
sessions and he should be up and about again," said Schala.
"...Something's not right," Magus suddenly said, his voice
trembling. "Something's definitely wrong here...."
Everyone turned to look at him. "What's wrong, Magus?" asked
Marle.
"I...I'm not sure...but I can tell...something's wrong....."