Twisted Destiny:
Chapter 2:
just like mother

disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me, yadda yadda ^_^V
Oh, and Slash, Ozzie and Flea...I figured theys might have motivation too, and I don't think it would just be "wahahahahaha rule all wahahahahahaha" so I gave a small insight too :) Just to point out, of course its speculation but so what ^_^ Any portrayal of Crono, Flea, Slash, Ozzie, Tata and those is speculation. Not to mention that all is fiction anyway ^-^

Have fuuuuuuuuuuun I hope :) hehe hopefully you do ^_^ I certainly had while writing.

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????????AD

Janus felt the arms around him. They comforted him,yet..something....
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Oh...you figured" Schala said and smiled grimly "Too bad for you, its too late."
Janus yelled out as Schala, the soft, caring Schala, threw him away from her. Hehit the strange ground, and immediately pain shot through his limbs
"Who I am? I am? I am?" Schala said while walking towards Janus, who is trying to get back to his feet.
"I am Lavos." she said. "Schala of Lavos"
Behind her the mist parted, and revealed the gigantic structure known as Lavos.
Finally Janus got up, and drew his skythe "Youuuu!!!! Where is Schala? You FIEND! I killed you!"
"Schala is me, and I am Schala. And soon, I will be you, too. You did kill -me- ..the me of a future time, not the me of now. I have many mes, but all are one. And thus, I planned after the defeat. And you felt for my back-up plan"
Schala giggled "time to make you mine...don't you like to rule the world as brother and sister, eternally united within Lavos?"
She laughed, and charged at Janus. Janus tried to slash but..before he could hit her, the skythe slipped out of his hand. He couldn't..possibly..hurt...Schala...
With a triumphant yell Schala closes to him. This picture, of a Schala, grinning sadistically, that charges at him, would be the last thing Janus saw for a long, long time...

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around 603AD, a week after the attack on Dorino
"Sir Frog...Sir Frog...!!" Tata yelled while hurriing through the castle.
Tata had become a fine knight over the last three years. He had been ashamed of his behaviour and imposting and, to repent for it, had become a real knight. His skill did not match Frogs, but it easily matched the skill of most other knights.
Tata opened the door to the war room, and there was the hero, Frog. He, and several other members of the knights were looking at a map of the continent. Several figures were placed on the map, representing units of troops. However, so far, there was no single figure of the ennemy. Obviously they were planning to make a somewhat good defense.
Everyone looked up as the young knight entered "Sir Frog!" Tata said while closing to the table "several mystics are in the castle!!!"
Several chairs were pushed away as the knights stood up as one "Queen Leene!" one shouted. "Protect the king" said another.
Frog jumped on the table "Thou all will split! Hunt the mystic scum down! Me and tata will protect the royalty!"
Frog saw Tata as a younger incarnation of himself, he was to Frog like Frog had been to Cyrus, in a way, although the past differed.

Tata and Frog hurried through the castle, their weapons drawn. They passed several places of fighting. Henches, Nagaettes and other mystics were locked in a melee with the knights and ordinairy soldiers. There were so many of them! Finally the two made it to the throne room. A high-pitched scream alerted the two. Queen Leene was yelling in terror.

Frog and tata bursted through the heavy door, and saw what was going on. Several skeletons were keeping the knights at bay, while two mystic mages controlled the undead. And, there was a special mystic too, one of the huge, elite beasts the mystics had. It looked like a long centipede with a human torse replacing the head of the centipede. Each arm held a curved sword. The head was bold, with glowing red eyes and long, pointed teeth. The facial expression of the creature was showing delight as one sword hit a knight and killed him on the spot.
Queen Leene was kneeling in an edge of the room, kneeling over the king, who was unconscious or dead, while two knights protected her. But soon they would fall, since the centipede mystic moved towards them.
"Thou won't harm the queen!" Frog yelled, leaped, and slashed with the huge Masamune....but the beast obviously had seen him coming, and parried the Masamune with both blades. It produced a painful grunt as the power of the Masamune drove it back, and it needed a lot of effort not to be driven back even more.
To help Frog, Tata had sneaked up behind the beast and attacked, but his sword did not even scratch the thick scales of the beast. And just as he wanted to try again, several mystics, a bunch of gargoyles, charged him and kept him busy from helping Frog.

Frog landed some steps away from the beast "Fiend, I shall slay thee! donth expect mercy"
"sssssahahaha ssssooo yooouuu aaaaaree ttthheeeee taaadpooole heeroooo ooof theeee weeeaaak huuumaaans..Iiiii aaaam Shiiiikaaa, Iiiii Wiiiiill deeefeeaat yoouuu"
The mystic unleashed all he could, and so did Frog. It was an unfair battle. The mystic had strong magic, two swords and thick scales, while Frog had the true Masamune.
Frog's third slash cut one of Shikas swords in two, the fourth dealt a heavily bleeding wound, and the fifth slaid the mystic.
"aaaaaaahhh" Shika said in its dying breath "toooo diiiieee ffooooorr theee greeaat maaguuus iiis the greeaatteeesst hoo...oo.....oo...."
It died quickly. Frog turned, to look if he could help the others, but they, with the big help from Tata, had managed to fight the mystics down.
"Everyone who might be ready to fight another battle, seek through tis castle and find every mystic!" Frog commanded "those shall not be allowed to corrupt this place and danger the queen!"
frog did not allow the shock to catch him. The mystic had said 'Magus'.
Magus. Why?Was that what he had done during the last years?
he shook his head. Now was not he time to worry about this.
He hurried towards the queen, and the king.

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Crono, Marle and Lucca were sitting around the table of the inn. The keeper of the inn had served them some food, snd some humans had dared to go over to the three warriours. Most did not, though. Most staid, knowing the three would not do any good for them, the mystics would just send more troops, and punish the village.
But the few who dared to talk to the three teenagers were shocking. They were noone else but Taben, and Lara. Luccas parents. Or were they? They did not recognize Lucca, obviously. However, especially Taben differed from the other humans. He, after the defeat of the mystics, had obtained a spark of hope, which was visible if one looked into his eyes.
The two had talked a bit about their situation, when Lucca interrupted.
Lucca couldn't hold herself. She had to ask. She just had to.
"Do..do you have a daughter called Lucca?" she asked
Laras eyes widened "How..."
Taben suddendly looked depressed "Yes, we have. Or we had. Now she is raised like we, and you, were."
"Huh?" Marle asked "I don't understand...why isn't she with you?"
"She is with the mystics of course" the innkeeper, who brought some drinks said "What else? We aren't even allowed to raise our own kids"
Now all three were shocked. "WHAT?" Crono shouted. Lucca almoust dropped her glass, and Marle just stared at Taben
Finally, Crono shook his head "We don't understand...would anyone please tell us what happened? Assume we were coming from a place where this place is completely unknown."
"Well, where to start..." Taben started, and began to explain.

They did not have much knowdledge about what had happened exactly. Several hundred years ago, the mystics, commanded by the two dread [Magus silblings] , had destroyed Guardia castle, and taken over the world. The humans were considered low beings, and were used as cheap labour. At a young age, a child would be taken by the mystics, and raised there, until the child was an adult. Then it would be moved to any of the towns, to work for the mystics.
Noone dares to resist. They broke the humans from the beginning, and they had troops, the Pandora, the two Magi. This was more power than anyone else had, more power than anyone else probably had EVER had

"What a sad story" Crono said, and hugged Marle, who was silently crying for the people, her people "But...you mentioned two Magi...who were they?"
"I don't know" Taben said "The two leaders of the mystics, they are still alive, you know? We don't know much about them."

"Thank you" Lucca suddendly said and stood up "Marle, Crono, lets go."
"But.."Crono interrupted
"No but." Lucca said "lets go. We don't have time."

"Why shoudln't we stay, Lucca?" Crono asked, still holding Marle "we could have recieved more information and..."
"No." Lucca said "we know enough, don't you think? Someone messed with time. it seems somehow Magus is against us again..or someone is imposting him. I think that is the case. We know Magus, he just cared for his Schala, not for world domination"
Crono nodded slowly "Well, then let us board the Epoch.."

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around 1003 AD as well

The three mystics entered the huge building.
Flea was glomping on Slash's left arm, "Slash, pleeeeeeease protect me, my dear knight" she said to mock Slash, but Ozzie immediately hit her for that and said, barely keeping calm "Stop that, idiot. Both of you!"
The building was furnitured in a strangely spare way, and somehow gave the impression as if noone would really take care of it. A lot of dust was there, several spiders as well. THIS did scare poor Flea. "Spiders, yuck!" she thought and clutched even more to Slash's arm. Slash didn't really mind, he still insisted that Flea was a girl, and thus, couldn't care less. He liked when cute girls, especially Naga-ettes, clutched on him. And Flea certainly was the cutest Mystic around. Sadly Slash had never been able to seduce her. Somehow his attempts never worked.

They passed several guards, henches and gargoyles, who did not bother to guard that well. Flea easily tamed those who spoke up, but most did not need to be tamed. Most saw that the three were mystic, and let them pass.
The guards were bored, and did not seem to expect to be needed.

Finally, they came into the room the whole house was build around, so-to-say, the throne room.
It was a big, shabby room. There was a throne, there were several statues, all looking like miniatures of the statue in the town's middle. Next to the throne, a skythe leaned against the wall.
And there was someone, a lone person, sitting on the throne. It was an old person, maybe 70 or 80 years old it seemed, with fragile limbs, white skin and long, long hair. The matted, light blue hair covered most of the throne and a lot of the ground around it. The ears were noticable, poking through the hair. They were pointed. The eyes were closed.
"Who...is that?" Flea wondered "he certainly has no clue how to take care of his hair. Bleech! How distasteful, yuck!"
"look at his clothing"Ozzie whispered back"its Magus...but...."
The whispering seemed to have awakened 'Magus' since he spoke "Aaaaah, I waited so long. Crono, Lucca, Robo" his hand gestured first to Slash, then to Flea and finally to Ozzie "finally..."
He opened his eyes.
"Crono?" Flea whispered to her two compagnions "Wasn't that one of the morons attacking us once? And Lucca, wasn't that the girl totally lacking any style?"
Magus blinked several times "No...you are not...but I recognize you....who...YOU?"
His eyes widen in surprise "Slash....Ozzie...Flea....why did it have to be you? The others should come, not you...aaah, my memories...yes, you weren't there then...maybe this is the way...? "
Ozzie did not listen much, he knew when he encountered mindless babbling. Instead he floated towards Magus and shouted angrily "WE ask the questions, what did you do to our people???"
it was not that Ozzie didn't mind oppression of the mystics. of course, he wanted to rule them. But he wanted to rule them a way that they had pride. He also had a sense for his people, an underdeveloped sense maybe, but still a sense. It had a reason why he had been a leader of the mystics. He, together with Flea and Slash, was one of those who had voted for the war against the humans, to restore the glory of the mystics and finally get revenge on humanity. That had not totally been for his own good. It also was for his people. Somehow. A little.
Anyway, he had not wanted this. He had seen how the mystics were now. And that was not what he had wanted. Yes, he had had a dream, to be a ruler of the mystics, to be the first among a proud race, ruling this world. But THIS, the mystics of this town, this was merely pathetic.

And he knew Slash and Flea thought the same way. Flea probably just because she needed people who would tell her she was still beautiful. He didn't care about that, though.

"You moron! I raised you like my own, darling son, told you everything you know, and I did not teach you to rule this stupid!"Ozzie said angrily "and.."
"Besides" Flea yelled, jumping in the conversation "*I* never taught you to be soo unasthetically. First, the statues are totally tasteless. Second, YOU are tasteless too, WASH YOUR HAIR ONCE! THIRD....mmmmm mmmmmwmwmmamam"
Slash finally managed to calm Flea down by pressing his hand over her mouth. "Shut up" he whispered to the crossdressing magician.
Magus suddendly looked a little pleased "Aaaaaaah...this is well...you don't want...the mystics to be this way...." he sighed, his weak voice filled with relief "then...you must help me...you must help...to change this....you must undo this..."
"YES, we will undo this AT ONCE!" Ozzie said proud of himself "now, where do we start? You will make me the ruler now. then..."
"I am afraid this is not that simple" Magus said and coughed "you can't..."
Suddendly he stopped, and seemed to listen "Yes, as I thought. She knows. She comes..."
In this moment, the house began to vibrate.The skythe fell on the ground with a metallic thud.
A window in the ceiling above, that before had allowed light to enter the room, now darkened.
"What the..." Flea asked in surprise. She had finally escaped Slash's hand
"As ...I said" magus continued "she comes. Schala comes...you must go now. You must stop me, before I do this, before Pandora rises into the sky...before Guardia falls...help...your...people...change time!"
"Oh what the heck is THAT?" Flea yelled and pointed out of the window "there's something hanging in the air! It looks UGLY! A huge..stone..? metallic structure..? What should it be, it is so..so...."
"That is Pandora" magus said hectically "Don't ask me questions anymore, there is no time. I feel it already coming back, taking me...over again....Lavos must be stopped at all costs..stop..lavos...stop me...in the past..."
Magus raised on of his fragile arms, and pointed at the three. Behind them, suddendly a gate opened.
"Go through...go now...quick..." Magus said "STOP ME...!!!!"
Ozzie had floated back from Magus "Lavos? That is the thing you wanted to summon! The thing that Gaspar told us about...what..."
Suddendly, the body of the old, old warlock trembled. He closed his eyes, and opened them again. And they were black. Totally black.
All tiredness and fragility seemed to drop of the body as it stood up. With a strong voice Magus thundered "WHO ARE YOU? HEH.A FEW MYSTICS NOT UNDER OUR COMMAND." somehow, the voice sounded as if two people, Magus, and something else, were speaking at the same time "I WILL ENJOY...A TIMEGATE? SO...THAT MAGUS PLANNED SOMETHING. WHAT A FOOL. YOU THREE WILL DIE HERE. ALL GLORY TO THE GREAT LAVOS"
The thing laughed, and raised his hand. Dark energy gathered.
"Not so fast!" Ozzie yelled and flew into the timegate, followed by Flea and Slash, knowing the power Maus was wielding was far to big for him to survive against it "We are the three mystical knights, masters of escaaaaapiiiii..."
And then he was gone. The dark force just wasted a wall.

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again, around 1003AD
The Epoch started, and began to speed up
"Ready to go back in time" Lucca yelled, and both Marle and Crono gave her thumbs up. All three had a determined look on their face. They would make it. they would change this. None of the three knew why they were here from the beginning-in this timeline none of them actually existed-but whatever happened, they would stop this from happening. This sad world should never be.
"Lucca, look" Marle suddendly said, startled "In the sky. DODGE!"
"what is that?" Lucca said and barely dodged the hulk hanging over Medina village. A titanic thing, a mass of black steel.
"That can't be..." Crono said, eyes widened
"...the Black Omen.." Marle finished the sentence
"No, its not, I think" Lucca said and pointed to the structure "look, the Black Omen ...it IS the Black Omen! But.."
"Yes, I don't recall it to be so damaged..." Marle said and stared at the thing
"Indeed..." Crono added "maybe someone raised it again after we defeated it? Damn, first Ocean Palace, then Black Omen, and now this...this is frightening me out."
"Whatever" Lucca said "I have a bad feeling about that..look..it moves towards us...!!!!! we have to leave, now!"
Again they speeded up to leave this time. The Epoch began to vibrate heavily. "No, someone's trying to stop us!" Lucca yelled
"aaaaaaaaaaargh!" Marle shouted, and then they were gone.
Gone from 1003 AD that is.