Anyone who has ever lived has asked where the boundaries are
Some people ask because they want to break them
Others ask to understand the reason they existed in the first place
Still others seek security within ancient boundaries set by those who have gone before
Is time itself a boundary? Not anymore.
Energy. Flowing, ocean-like waves of pure energy. Everywhere.
The 'universe' between Gates was stranger than anything else Magus had ever seen. He could feel that his being was intact,… like as if somehow knowing in the back of his mind that he was still alive, yet not being able to move or do anything. In essence, it wasn't so much that he could 'see' the energy currents all around him, because seeing required eyes. He could 'detect' them; it was an experience far too different from common reality to be described in human terms. 'Detect' was the only word that came close; 'feeling' required some kind of direct physical contact or, more liberally, at least an internalized 'sensing' of something, like intuition. But Magus could not describe it like that either.
It was like being an electron traveling through a vast ocean of untold quantum energy, an electrical charge being conducted along a single thread of cosmic fabric.
It was a roller coaster ride unlike any other.
… As Magus slowly felt his body rematerialize, a process of indescribable feelings and effects, he began to register many different things at once. Firstly, the biggest sign that he was once again constructed of physical matter was that he could breathe again, which was a serious relief. Secondly, his eyes could see again, and a strangely faded curtain of light was stretched out mere inches in front of him, wavering from the effects of some unseen wind.
Thirdly, he suddenly felt himself crushed under the weight of several bodies that had landed on top of him. The Lunar Cry bounced about before coming to a stop several feet away as Melanchoir, Belthazar, and Gaspar quickly fell off of one another and Magus, hitting the ground with muffled various grunts. Magus, both relieved to be alive and irritated by the sudden aching in his back, got to his feet and straightened his spine with a series of dull 'crack' sounds.
"I'm getting too old for this." Melanchoir whined, picking himself up off the ground.
"Now that's what I call… a 'crash course in time travel'." Gaspar stated, laughing amusedly at his own bad joke.
"Well," Magus suddenly interjected. "I appreciate the group chiropractic treatment, but I'm more interested in finding out just where we are."
The surrounding area could best be described as a small piece of London floating in the middle of nothingness. Rugged stones put together with some kind of brown cement made for the ground beneath Magus and the gurus' feet, and a dark metal fence followed the perimeter of this odd 'twilight zone'. A short wooden gate was nearby, a very unnecessary device in a place so small, and a lamppost with an odd figure leaning against it stood in the middle of the larger square area up ahead. The lamppost cast odd unstable light on the whole area, and the strange fog which hung motionlessly about made seeing anything beyond the lamppost nearby impossible. Magus picked up the Lunar Cry, then nodded to the gurus and the four time travelers slowly pushed aside the wooden gate and approached the lamppost.
The figure himself also looked like something out of London. He was dressed in mostly dark brown clothes which hid him well in a place like this, and wore a somewhat large round brown hat, which hid his eyes beneath it's shadow. He appeared to be sleeping contentedly, and as Magus drew closer he could hear the man snoring.
'Where are we?' Magus wondered to himself. 'Who is this geyser? To when in time did that warp take us??'
"He appears to be asleep." Belthazar stated needlessly.
"Well, if we want any answers, we'll just have to wake him up." Magus stated, then gave the strange old man a good strong shove, knocking his hat off and causing him to jolt awake.
Gaspar, then the other two gurus, suddenly froze at the sight of him. Magus also looked on at the old man in silent, yet calm, surprise. The face of the elderly gentleman was none other than Gaspar himself.
"W-w-what in the world?!" The startled old man exclaimed, snapping out of his slumber and being instantly shocked by all the well-known faces looking back at him, including his own. Magus raised one eyebrow in query as he watched the awakened geyser and the other Gaspar stuttering and grasping for words.
"What's going on here??" Belthazar exclaimed, likewise confused and startled.
"Y-you, you're me,… from the past!" The awakened Gaspar look-alike exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Gaspar stuttered.
"Excuse me for interrupting your revelatory conversation," Magus stated, getting the Gaspar look-alike's attention. "But I've got a few questions of my own. For starters, where are we?"
The second Gaspar looked blankly at Magus for a minute, then picked up his hat and addressed Magus's question.
"Why, this is the End of Time." He paused for a minute. "Since I assume that you all were attempting to time-travel through the same Gate, that means that the law of conservation of time caused you to end up here."
"Explain. And how can this be the end of time if we're standing here and time is still passing?" Magus questioned.
"By traveling through a Gate with more than three people at a time, the collective time fields of the travelers place too much quantum stress on the Gate's warp fields,-" The resident Gaspar began, and the other Gaspar finished his thought. "We arrived here, at the point of least resistance, the very moment before time ceases to exist."
"So let me get this straight. We're at the exact moment before time ceases to exist. How is that possible?" Magus asked.
"All matter resonates time fields, just like all matter resonates gravity fields." The lamppost Gaspar stated. "By traveling through time, however, you caused an instant change in the time fields of you and the three gurus. It's a confusing concept, but I'll try to explain as best I can. You see, normal people's time fields can be effected by changes in the past, because their time fields exist in both their past and present. But time travelers only have existing time fields in their relative present moment, and are personally unaffected by changes in the past. Only the present moment can effect you now that you've become time travelers. And since this is the very last moment of time remaining, you can stay here, in this singular moment, as long as you like."
"And this place," Belthazar inquired. "How did it get here?"
"Well, I am the guru of time, you know." The lamppost Gaspar stated. "Or at least I can still use my powers, even if the title and position of 'guru' is useless to me now."
"Are you saying," The other Gaspar inquired. "That you realigned the time stream here to create this place?"
"Yes. It's not much, but it's home." He laughed a little. "Alright, I think I understand what's going on now."
"Yes, do tell." Melanchoir asked.
"This should be good." Magus stated.
"Well, perhaps you've met that teenager named Crono and his friends?" The end-of-time Gaspar asked.
"Who?" Belthazar wondered, not sure what this had to do with anything.
But Magus knew.
"Yes, what about them?" Magus asked.
"Well, they destroyed Lavos before it could do it's damage to Zeal kingdom."
Magus gave Gaspar a blank stare for a minute. 'Is he serious?? They destroyed Lavos?? That's absurd!'
"That's impossible." Magus stated emotionlessly. "What you're telling me is that a punk teenager, a blonde, a nerd, a frog and a tin can destroyed Lavos?"
"You see that bucket over there?" Old Man Gaspar pointed out. Magus looked over to see a simple wooden bucket in one corner with a little sparkle of strange light hanging in mid-air right above it. "The warp particle in that bucket will instantly open a Gate to 1999 AD, the Day of Lavos. If you don't believe me, go investigate yourself. Besides which, there's no other explanation for all of you being here except that."
"Alright, then answer me this, old man." Magus stated. "If they destroyed Lavos, how was I able to almost summon it in the year 600 AD?"
"You summoned Lavos???" Melanchoir exclaimed.
Magus slowly turned his back to the gurus before answering.
"For revenge against it. I suppose it's time to lay the facts on the table, then."
Magus quickly explained to them the twisted time traveling nightmare that brought him from being prince Janus of Zeal kingdom, to Magus of the nation of the Mystics, to being a 'prophet' for queen Zeal, all in search of his revenge against Lavos. The gurus all listened intently, stunned by what they were hearing.
"And I guess that also explains how he got here," Magus said, gesturing over to Old Man Gaspar. "Each of the three of you were sent into various time warps by Lavos, just as I myself was. Gaspar must have ended up at here because of his inherent link to the space-time continuum." He looked aside. "But something still troubles me. How was I able to nearly summon Lavos if it's been destroyed. And why was there not one bit of energy in the Mammon Machine at all?"
"I believe," Gaspar stated. "That the answer lies within Lavos's own powers. Our research on Lavos has confirmed that it's power was so massive that it created it's own time warp fields around itself. If Lavos is destroyed, then only it and it's energy will cease to exist, but it's effects on the timeline of our world, mostly, should remain unaltered."
"But what about previous energies drawn from Lavos?" Magus asked.
"… It could have something to do with the deactivation and repositioning of the Mammon Machine." Belthazar stated. "Even with Lavos itself destroyed, if the Mammon Machine was linked into Lavos's energies, it may have kept the energy fields from totally disappearing along with the timeline changes. However, by shutting the machine off so it could be brought to the Ocean Palace, queen Zeal effectively cut Lavos's energy's last remaining foothold in our universe. At least, that seems like the most likely theory."
"You four really understand all this science stuff about time and Lavos, huh?" Magus stated with a bemused half-smile.
"It comes from years of studying under your step-father, my boy." Melanchoir stated, then looked off into the distance blankly. "He was a great man, your step-father. Solved many great mysteries, including tapping into space-time to create magic. But the one mystery he never could solve was that of your origins, Janus."
"My name is Magus now, guru. The innocence that was found in the heart of Janus no longer lives in me; I am no longer that person anymore." Magus stated coldly.
"So what do we do from here?" Belthazar inquired, arms folded. "We can't return to Zeal because we'll be hunted down like animals, and we can't stay here for the rest of our lives either."
There was a long moment of silence.
"There are one or two things I'd like to investigate." Magus stated, turning and looking at Old Man Gaspar. "Shortly before escaping from Zeal, I was encountered by a strange person wearing a long gray cloak. He warned me about something called the 'Lavos Overmind' before eluding my attempt to make him explain himself. Do you have any understanding of what he was talking about?"
For a long moment, the gurus were completely silent. Melanchoir's jaw even dropped somewhat.
Magus took this to mean that this was a bad thing.
"… If this mystery person is referring to what I think he is,…" Melanchoir said, awed and perhaps somewhat frightened. The elderly guru quickly shook his head and cleared his throat. "What I mean is,… well,… during our studies of Lavos under your step-father, we all agreed that Lavos had to have some kind of definitive origin, perhaps be a part of some species of a far-off world or such. Our theory that Lavos was not a unique creature was thoroughly proved when the first of it's brood of Lavos Spawn was discovered roaming about on the surface. Queen Zeal has since taken this creature as a pet,… but we've long feared what our research was indicating."
"Which is what?" Magus asked, knowing that the gurus were now solidifying his initial assumptions about this 'Lavos Overmind'.
"The Lavos Spawn showed a strange genetic pattern." Belthazar stated. "It's DNA seemed to operate like a data storage system, having within itself the ability to potentially accumulate all the abilities, strengths, powers, and I dare say the knowledge of our entire world through energy absorption from living things. In affect, it was absorbing the best resources of our world and using it to further it's own cellular evolution. Assuming Lavos operated much the same, it made sense to assume that Lavos was the work of some level of higher intelligence."
"Lavos and it's offspring would live on a world for as long as possible until all of that world's energy was gathered and processed." Old Man Gaspar stated. "Then, to free itself of the world in which it had imbedded itself and it's offspring, it would eventually cause the planet to be wiped of all remaining life and then drain the planet's core, causing the planet's gravity center to break down. The planet, our world, would then have been easy for Lavos to break apart with minimal force." Old Man Gaspar turned away. "I've watched it all happen from here, at the end of time, so I'm somewhat of an expert. In fact, you may be surprised to note that our asteroid belt was once a planet like ours,… but a Lavos destroyed it."
"Are you serious?!!" Magus exclaimed, a strange mixture of disgust, rage, and bitterness forming deep inside him. He clenched one fist. "They just harvest energy, and lives, and move on??!" He turned to Old Man Gaspar. "And where does Lavos go after it's done??"
"Couldn't tell ya." The old timer stated. "From here, all I can see is the past, present, and future of the earth. Once the earth was destroyed, my ability to track events ceased." He then grinned. "But the earth won't be destroyed, not for even farther into the future than I can see. Thanks to Crono and his friends, Lavos is no longer a threat."
"Your ability to see time streams is obviously far better than mine." The other Gaspar stated. "I only hope I'll learn to use that ability."
"You will."
"At any rate," Belthazar began afresh. "The very nature of Lavos seemed, even with our limited knowledge of it, to point towards them being like the worker ants of a being superior to themselves. I'd say that an 'Overmind' would well fit the description."
"… There was also someone else that the stranger mentioned." Magus stated. "A person named Macbeth. I was warned that he was a skillful fighter."
"… Macbeth… Macbeth…" Old Man Gaspar said, trying to remember. "The name sounds familiar… wait! Now I remember! Please, follow me."
Old Man Gaspar quickly led the way over to a large wooden door that had been previously hidden by the fog. He opened it and led the group inside. This room seemed somehow isolated from the fog, and Magus was suddenly struck by the vast nothingness stretching out in all directions, far darker than even the void of space. The room was simple, mostly empty, and constructed similar to the rest of this strange 'landing in the middle of nowhere'. Then Magus suddenly spotted a sleeping Nu, a weird red one, in the room's upper left corner. Old Man Gaspar shook his head and sighed.
"This is Spekkio, the only other person here besides myself and the random visitors I get every one in a while." Old Man Gaspar explained. "He's a member of a species of metamorphs known as Celestials, and has uncanny magic abilities due to his specie's inherent knowledge and understanding of the time-space continuum. He sleeps a lot, and claims to be the 'master of war' whenever he wakes up, which makes him quite annoying,-"
"I heard that." Spekkio muttered, suddenly awake. The metamorph got to it's skinny feet and gave Old Man Gaspar the most disturbing blank-eyed stare. Even Magus couldn't help but be slightly disturbed by the thoughtless expression on it's face, one even blanker than the Nu inhabitants of Zeal kingdom. Old Man Gaspar cringed within just seconds of the glance. "And for your information, I am the Master of War, and I'll prove it any day, old timer!"
"You just say that because, except for Lavos, you've always been the single most powerful magic user to ever come to earth." The elderly man replied.
"OK, so I'm just earth's Master of War, but I'll take what I can get." The Nu shrugged. It then looked at Magus and the gurus. "Who're these guys? Hey, one of em' looks kinda like you, Old Man."
"That's because this is me, Spekkio. What with the timeline rearranging, we both knew something like this would happen sooner or later. He is myself from Zeal kingdom."
"And the rest of em'?"
"This is Belthazar, guru of reason, and Melanchoir, guru of life. And this," He indicated to Magus. "Is a person named Magus, who was once Prince Janus of Zeal kingdom, as well as leader of the Mystics in 600 AD."
"Oh yeah, I remember him. Hey, isn't he the kid who broke the world record for youngest time traveler?"
"Please don't remind me." Magus muttered, then addressed Spekkio directly. "Old Man Gaspar said you knew about a person named Macbeth. What can you tell me about him?"
The crimson Nu was silent for a long moment.
"Macbeth? What do you want with him?"
"Just tell me what I want to know."
"Sheesh. Alright, chill your shadow-element jets." Spekkio took a deep breath. "Alright, here's the deal. Macbeth is a Celestial who decided to take it upon himself to be the maintainer of the time-space continuum at large, devoting himself to keep time from changing on any massive scales. He has this theology about 'protecting the future of the universe', and went vigilante a long time ago. He doesn't mess around much with little, unimportant planets like earth, but if somebody were to try to do anything big like prevent an event that effected an entire galaxy, he'd cut them down faster than you can say 'nightmare'. Good or bad, he won't let anyone mess with the big events of the universe, and he's strong enough to back up his beliefs pretty well. Most Celestials can't come close to his level of power. And it's out of the question for humans,… unless…"
"Unless what?" Magus demanded, suddenly intrigued by this time-vigilante in the light of the stranger's warning.
"… Hope you came prepared for a history lesson, kiddo." Spekkio stated.
"As I'm sure a magic user at your level is aware, there are four basic elements involved in quantum manipulation, also known as magic. Those elements are Fire, Water, Lightning, and Shadow. However, it's easily possible for a user to have a modified element, like ice for instance. But that's all besides the point."
"These four elements are derived from a pair of advanced elements, known as Solar and Prism. The Solar elements are Fire and Lightning; the Prism elements are Water and Shadow. Solar and Prism are elemental powers that rarely occur naturally, but it's also even rarer for a person to actually advance to the next stage of elemental power. However, there are always exceptions…"
"Take your sister Schala for example. She was born Water-element, but something changed her into Prism early on in her life. That something is a little invention of your step-father's, a power source known as the Star Crystal. It can change Fire and Lightning types into Solar, and Water and Shadow types into Prism, just with a touch. However, the person making the change has to have an inherent quality about them that would allow for the transformation; ya know, some special quality in their powers that can be drawn out to help them advance to the next level. Well, Schala obviously had it, and somethin' tells me you might too, Magus."
"There's a stage beyond Solar and Prism, too. I've never seen it in humans, but almost all Celestials are born with it. It's called Cosmic, and it gives it's user powers way beyond the other elements by tapping into the energy that makes up the fabric of our universe. Needless to say, I've never seen a human capable of pulling it off,… but by all logical means, a strong enough person should be able to transform into a Cosmic, although I have no idea how anyone would go about doing it."
"At any rate," Spekkio concluded. "Macbeth, being Cosmic by nature, is a superb fighter. It would take serious firepower to beat him. You're better off not even trying."
"I'm not the kind of person to turn down a challenge." Magus stated. "Tell me, where would I find this Star Crystal?"
"Your step-father was an exceptional magic user himself, Magus." Old Man Gaspar stated. "In fact, his powers were so exceptional that he was able to literally create Time Gates at will. But eventually, to keep his research safe from queen Zeal, he faked his own death and went into the far future. However,… he did die a very real death. I'm afraid not even time travelers are immortal."
"What do you mean?? What happened to him?"
"… Your step-father fell victim to an advanced strain of virus in the future, something unique to time travelers that conventional medicine could never begin to decipher. I saw it all from here, at my lookout by the lamppost, and I was helpless to stop it. As the disease ate away at his body, his time field began to destabilize and eventually he simply vanished from that entire time period, leaving his research and Star Crystal as the only reminders that he'd ever existed in that time period."
"W-what? How, just how is that possible??" Magus stammered, not entirely sure whether to be shocked or enraged. This was just too much for even him to deal with all at once: that his step-father had faked his own death, traveled to the future, then been erased by a time virus??
"The Tetrarch virus causes a destabilizing in the victim's time fields. The long term effects are death and total erasure of the victim's presence anywhere in time after the last time-jump. In effect, your step-father no longer exists in that time period."
"… And I dare not try to undo any of what he did while in Zeal, in case the future alters so that Lavos was never destroyed, or worse." Magus said in a depressed, frustrated tone. He then turned and looked at Old Man Gaspar. "Where did he hide the Star Crystal? Tell me!"
Gaspar thought about it for a long moment.
"… As far as I know, your step-father had a secret lab in a cave hidden somewhere under Death Peak in 2300 AD. Beyond that, I can't tell you any specifics."