Chapter 3: A Rather Strange Occurrence
Janus took the controls of the Epoch and waived off Crono when he reached for them. Nadia attempted to input coordinates into the autopilot system, but was glared at heavily. Sighing, she let Janus fly. Though he would never admit to it, he had always loved flying the Epoch.
"Let's investigate the floating castle a bit before obtaining the Celestial Reaver." Janus said, studying the controls. He gently banked the aircraft towards their destination and increased the speed.
A small black dot appeared on the horizon.
"Woah. A screen with crosshairs and a movable camera let you aim that laser Lucca was talking about." Crono said, intent on a small control board with various levers and buttons, his face colored by a soft glow from the screen in front of him. A beep sounded, and Nadia and Janus turned to look at him accusingly.
"What, I didn't touch anything this time." He protested. The beep sounded again. It seemed to come from Crono's pocket. He withdrew the communications device Lucca had given them, which proved to be the sound's source. "Incoming Call" was flashing inside the transparent glass screen, alternating with "Touch Screen To Answer". Crono did.
Lucca's face appeared, the myriad screens of her lab behind her, looking a touch concerned. "Crono, I forgot to tell you. I started work on an energy shield system for the Epoch, but never finished it. I was actually working on it when you guys showed up." The image moved as if it were actually Lucca. Crono was quite amazed. Looking around for somewhere to speak into, he decided to try just talking to Lucca's face.
"That's great, Lucca, but what does that have to do with..." He started, but was cut off.
"That means, don't touch anything labeled 'Energy Shield," okay?" Lucca answered. Crono nodded.
"Sure, Lucca, you're the genius." He said.
"All right, bye, everyone, and good luck!" With a wave, Lucca's face disappeared, and the screen went back to being transparent. Crono blinked, wondering how Lucca was able to come up with so many amazing things. She had said that this device could cal Robo, so Crono assumed she could to. Which means Robo had to have one. In that case, Robo must have given her the schematics for some of the technology from the 23rd century, and Lucca had built one. Crono turned it around in his hands. It seemed fairly new, as in just made a week or two ago, which meant Lucca could have been working on it for all of the three years that had passed since their grand adventure.
Crono looked up from his pondering. Janus had an ever so slight hint of a grin on his face as he steered the craft with ease. Nadia gazed out at the clouds, feeling as though she were out among them. Crono shifted his gaze outside the Epoch. The small dot had slowly grown into a castle that seemed very familiar.
"My castle." Janus said, surprise evident in his voice. The looming fortress ahead did indeed bear a great resemblance to Janus's former home. The castle was on top of an inverted pyramid of rock. The whole thing appeared to have been hewn roughly out of the ground and pasted into the sky. It hovered ominously with no obvious supports.
Crono reactivated the cannon and used the gun's camera to zoom in on the floating fort.
"Yeah, it is your castle. I can even see the gargoyle on top of that spire." Crono said, fiddling with the camera.
"I can see the gargoyle too, without the aid of that." Janus aid, the previous surprise erased from his voice. Now he just seemed annoyed.
"Well, I can't, but it does look awfully familiar." Nadia added. The castle was getting much larger as they finally approached it. It was indeed Janus's castle. Or it appeared to be. Janus circled slowly around the fortress, dark even in the early afternoon sunlight.
"It is, down to the last detail. Damn." Janus sounded frustrated as he set the Epoch to hover. "Well, we have two options." He said after leaning back from the controls. "We could go to the beginning of time, get the scythe, and storm the place in a bout of heroics similar to the last time you two were at this castle." He stated with a sarcastic chill in his voice.
"Or?" Nadia and Crono prompted, simultaneously.
"Or, we go back to 600 AD and figure whether or not this is my castle or a very good duplicate." He replied, already fiddling with the time controls. "Then when we finally enter, we'll be more educated as to where we are and what we're doing." He finished, matter-of-factly. Crono and Nadia both agreed to the latter.
"All right." Janus said, and he pushed the Chrono Trigger button. A bright flash left them exactly where they were. The castle was still floating in front of them, dark and ominous as ever. The time clock, however, read 2:13 p.m., July 22, 600 AD. A look of annoyance crossed his face, and Janus turned the Epoch towards the coordinates of his former home. In silence, he increased the speed, and in just a few minutes, they reached the mainland.
As they closed in on the crater that now resided to the south of Gaurdia, where the Magus's castle had once stood, proud, defiant, and twisted. Janus, now frowning, set the Epoch down about ten yards from the western lip of the fairly large crater. Wordlessly, he popped open the time machine's dome and hopped out. Crono and Nadia, puzzled looks on their faces, followed.
Janus stood on the edge of the gaping hole that had once been his home, about to step down into the crater, when he found his progress impeded. Crono and Nadia were also halted in midstep when they tried to get any closer than a foot away from the edge.
Janus, annoyed, picked up a handful of dirt, which he crumbled up and lobbed at the center of the whole. With a spray, the dirt stopped and spread as if it had just hit a wall. Perplexed. he turned to the married couple, who stood watching with interest.
"Nadia, cast Ice 2, and target it right there." Janus said pointing, a curious look had settled on his face. Janus began chanting as Nadia began her spellcasting. Crono stood back and watched as a bright light lit up over the center of the crater, about 50 feet above ground level. Immediately after, a sheet of water in the shape of a dome fell around the crater.
"Some kind of magic?" Crono asked, unsure of what to make of it.
"No, I would feel it. Something else has created a barrier here that cannot be crossed. I would assume it's all just an over-elaborate and entirely unnecessary illusion, but I don't feel the magic. We simply cannot get into the crater." Janus sounded a touch perplexed, trying to hide his confusion.
"Well, we can't do anymore here. Let's get that Celestial Reaver and storm your castle, in a bout of heroic stupidity." Crono said with a glare at Janus, who shrugged. Crono picked up a nearby rock and threw it at the invisible dome. Sure enough, it stopped at the edge of the hole and bounced off the unseen wall. He shrugged and returned to the Epoch, trailing just behind Nadia and Janus.