When the Stars Rule the Mind by ConfirmTheOriginOfFire
DISCLAIMER: As always, Chrono Trigger is not mine. It belongs to Squaresoft, and so do all the guys in it…*sigh*…anyway, this is NOT a Lavos-comes-back-to-life story OR a Magus-turns-evil-again story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Two: Scared at the Square
When Crono woke up the next morning, the Poyozo was on the floor again. He picked it up in a cool, casual way. Not in the way he had last night, with fear struck so deep into his heart. Crono set it on the windowsill and made his bed quickly. The breakfast scents wafting up to his room from the kitchen smelled delicious, and made his stomach growl intrusively.
"Was that me?" he asked himself. "I've got one big-mouth tummy!"
He hurriedly changed, throwing his Poyozo pajamas into the corner. The cat curled up and settled down on them, causing a bit of a problem when he tried to put them away.
"Meow!" the cat screamed at him, and hissed.
"But I — "
"Hiss!"
Crono sighed and left it alone, knowing his mother would probably want to talk his "messy habits" over with him after she'd been up here. Since he was nine or ten years old, his mother had drilled him over and over again about tidy habits, like making the bed and picking up his clothes(two things he did not like to do).
He bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Hi mom!" he said cheerfully.
"Good morning, Crono," his mother replied. "I see you got up on your own this morning. And on time, too! I'm impressed."
"Oh, well, yeah…"
"Anyway, breakfast is ready! And for once, I don't have to heat it up again for you!"
Breakfast was pancakes, toast, bacon, and poached eggs. Crono drew his sword and prepared to spear the entire short stack(which wasn't very short at all).
"No, Crono!" his mother objected. "No weapons at the table, please!"
Reluctantly, he sheathed his sword again. But then he just used a knife to spear the pancakes anyway, and ate them right off of the blade.
"Crono! You've been given the proper utensil, why not use it?"
"Too slow!" he exclaimed, mouth full of pancakes. After those were gone, he used the toast to scoop up the eggs and ate those, then ate his bacon with his finger, which he licked afterwards. His mother was about to scold him for that nasty habit, but her heart melted when he said "Mmmm! Finger-lickin'!"
"So! I'm just going to go see what's happening in the rest of Guardia, okay mom?"
"Okay, Crono."
With that, he dashed out of the house, leaving a big mess for his mom to clean up.
Crono met up with Lucca in the square. She waved a new invention around. It looked to him like a microphone with a flat handle and a large calculator screen on the flat part.
"What's that?" he asked her.
"It's called a dark detector. I actually got the idea from you. Like you said how you think evil has wavelengths? Well, I'm trying to figure out exactly what that wavelength is. But it's tough because everything gives off a wavelength of some sort, and it's hard to tell whether or not all these little white lies kids are telling left and right are actually considered evil. So what I've got here seems more like a lie detector than anything."
"You mean, you've got the wavelength of a lie down already?"
"Sort of. There isn't any evil, evil lying going on from what I can tell, just kid stuff, mostly. No fake chancellors or anything."
"So, if I told you a lie, you'd be able to tell?"
"Maybe. Tell me something."
"Uh…I have a cat!"
Lucca looked at the dark detector. "Okay, this thing must be really screwed up if it's telling me that's a lie…" She flipped it over and typed something in on a keypad. "Okay…let's try that again."
Crono repeated his statement, but it still registered as a lie. Lucca was baffled.
"So much for my brilliant idea," she said gloomily.
"You mean, so much for my brilliant idea," he corrected her, suddenly just as gloomy as she.
They sat on a bench for a while, watching the people go by. "You know," she said. "I think I may have actually forgotten what this place looked like during the fair."
"Me too," Crono said. "Where was Melchoir's tent again? The Tent of Horrors, where was that? The tel — "
He stopped abruptly. It felt like a firecracker had exploded inside his chest. Not with pain, but with that sudden pop. And it left him feeling uneasy and chilled all over. His stomach felt slightly queasy too.
"Crono? What's wrong?" Lucca asked.
"I…uh…nothing, I guess. It just…I…" He stood from the bench, legs feeling very much like jelly. "… …I think I'm going to see if I can find a bathroom."
"Poor guy," Lucca said quietly to herself. "I hope it wasn't those cookies I made him eat."
"YOU'VE GOT COOKIES?!" said a voice behind her excitedly. She turned around and saw Marle jumping up and down.
"No, I don't have cookies," she replied.
"Oh," Marle said, and stopped jumping. She looked around. "Where's Crono?"
"He went off to find a bathroom, which he is NOT gonna find. I guess we have to wait here until he gets back."
"I HATE waiting," Marle stated, pouting. "He'd better hurry up and get back!"
"Yeah! And hey, is it just me, or is the ground shaking?"
"I don't know," the blond girl said, kneeling and touching the ground. "It might be. I can't really tell."
Lucca, for some strange reason, picked that moment to glance at the dark detector. The "dark" wavelength reading was soaring through the roof.
"Huh?!" she exclaimed. "What's going on?"
"What is that, Lucca?" Marle asked.
"My dark detector. I'm not sure if it works, but if it does, something very evil is generating dark wavelengths at a great rate!"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning something very evil is doing something very bad at this very moment!"
Just then, the stone pavement cracked and the ground began to part…