CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Once back at the End of Time Crono whispered to Ayla that she had to go now. "Ayla homesick," she announced. "Miss village, miss Kino. Ayla go visit!"

"I'll come too," Robo decided. "To experience the Prehistoric Age."

Everyone, including Alfador, went to the grey beams of light to say goodbye to them. When they had gone Magus wandered off to commune with his cat again but Schala joined the main group.

"Dost thou have a cloak?" Frog demanded.

Schala nodded. "It's pretty and black and shimmering. And warm."

"Now all we have to do is wait," muttered Crono darkly and with a shudder. He hated waiting.

About a day later- they guessed the time- Schala, Frog and Marle went off on an 'adventure'. Crono, Magus and Lucca did practically nothing. They attacked Spekkio a couple of times (and lost each time) for practice, played with Alfador, bothered Gaspar and were generally bored.

"I know why we lost to Spekkio," Crono announced. Seeing the expressions of the others he grinned and said, "No, not tactics. We lost because Magus didn't use magic."

"That's because I can't!" protested Magus. "I can't use my hands, remember?"

"And, being absolutely useless, all you do is complain about it," Lucca teased.

"I can still beat you!"

Crono got out of the way as Lucca and Magus wrestled for a bit. He went to stand with Gaspar, who was chuckling. "Cute, aren't they?" remarked the old man. Crono wouldn't really have said so, but he kept quiet. He watched them carefully at first but there seemed to be nothing dirty about it so he relaxed a little.

As they watched, Magus succeeded in pinning Lucca. "Give in?"

"Never!" she vowed, fighting. A few moments later, seeing it was useless, she subsided. "Yep, I give in."

"Hah! See? I knew I could beat you with my hands tied behind my back," he taunted as he rose to his feet.

Lucca sat up. "Only because you're bigger and older and stronger! You have all the unfair advantages!"

"You started it," he shot back.

"Did not!"

"Did so!"

"Did not!"

Magus appealed to the spectators. "Crono, who started it?"

"Well, you attacked first, but she provoked you," mused Crono thoughtfully. "You both started it."

"Yeah, well I still think you cheated," Lucca muttered darkly.

"Oh yeah? We'll do it again and I promise not to cheat!"

"Bigger and older and stronger and faster," admitted Lucca a few minutes later. "Feel like letting me up?"

"No. Not yet. Not until you agree that I didn't cheat!"

"But you do cheat! And I'll get you for it!"

"Well you'll have to stay on the ground until you say it."

"Look!" cried Lucca. "Alfador's in trouble!"

"Where?" Magus scrambled to his feet and looked around wildly. "Where?"

Lucca threw him to the ground and sat on him. "I win! I win!"

"You cheated," said Magus sourly. "Hypocrite!"

At that moment Marle entered the area through the Gate. "Help!" she cried, "it's a tragedy... Lucca, get off him!"

"He started it," said Lucca quickly as she got up. "Honest. Crono would agree. What's wrong?"

"Crono, how could you let them do this?" Marle demanded crossly.

Crono shrugged. "There wasn't much I could do. Um... this tragedy?"

Marle looked at him blankly for a moment, then remembered. "Oh! Yes! This is a crisis! Schala and Frog are in trouble. I barely escaped with my life!"

"What happened?" queried Magus, sitting up.

"Schala's in trouble and you just sit there and ask questions?" exclaimed Marle. "There's no time! Bring Alfador."

"No way!" Magus replied instantly. "Not if there's trouble."

"Yep, that's reasonable," Lucca agreed. When Magus wasn't looking she grabbed Alfador and hid him in Crono's hair.

"Gee, thanks," muttered Crono. "Okay, let's go to the rescue!"

Because Schala, Frog and Marle had taken the Epoch they had to use the Gate. Crono went through by himself, the others following quickly behind. Marle led them to the meeting place.

"How, exactly, did you manage to get into trouble here?" Magus asked suspiciously.

"Always so many questions! Do you always ask so many in a crisis? Come on!"

They walked into the meeting place. Crono removed Alfador from his hair. Schala, Frog, Ayla, Robo and Kino jumped out of their hiding places to yell, "Surprise!" Magus' response to this was completely unexpected. He ran off.

"Damn," said Crono into the silence which followed. "This wasn't meant to happen."

"Meow!" agreed Alfador.

"Of course," Lucca realised. "Not knowing that we had him, Magus would return for Alfador before he left. But where then?"

No-one knew. "Maybe he'd come back," suggested Robo hopefully.

"No, I think he'd go somewhere else," Schala disagreed. "He always runs off with Alfador when he's upset."

"Did we upset him?" queried Marle. "We weren't meant to do that. We were meant to make him happy."

"I'll go back to the End of Time and stop him," Lucca decided. "Where did you put the Epoch?"

She took the Epoch back to the End of Time and the moment she appeared on the platform Gaspar, who had been desperately trying to keep Magus there until someone else arrived to collect him, breathed a sigh of relief. "Stay!" Lucca ordered.

"Where is Alfador?" Magus asked coldly.

"We have him. Why did you run away?"

"Why do you always make fun of me? I know you all hate me, you don't have to constantly remind me!"

"It was a surprise birthday party for you! How is that making fun of you?"

"I don't know when my birthday is. I haven't known for years, I don't even know how old I am. And I don't like parties, and I hate surprises. Now, excuse me, Lucca, I'm going to... to... I'm going to 12000 BC to live out the rest of my life as an ex-Enlightened, and none of you are going to so much as look at me again!"

"It will be cold there."

"I really don't care," he answered.

Seeing that he meant it, she ran over to close the wooden gate before he could go through. "That's not going to happen. I said no-one was going to take you away again, and I mean it. If you go, you take me too!"

"You have an obligation to defeat Lavos," he pointed out.

"So do you! Anyway, all the others can do it for me."

"You won't ever see the Epoch again."

"I won't ever see you again if I let you go."

She met his eyes evenly. He sighed. "Just get out of my way."

"No!"

He pushed her out of the way and reached out to open the wooden gate. She grabbed him. "No! You're taking me too!"

"Go home!" he shot back, trying to shake her off. She had a death grip on his arm. "Can't you all just leave me alone?"

"What about Alfador? You can't just leave him behind!"

"Watch me. Fine, you win. You can come with me to 12000 BC, way before your time, and spend the rest of your days in the cold and never see your friends or family again."

"Sounds good to me," she answered.

"Damn it! I'm an evil wizard, okay? I don't need a sidekick and I most certainly don't need you!"

"We got you a present," she tried.

He hesitated. "You did? Oh."

"Look, why don't you just come to your party and afterwards you can leave. Okay?"

"Well... okay, then."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the slightly strange way this chapter ends. It just... ends. Suddenly. I know. Sorry. Maybe the next two chapters, when I get around to posting them, will make up for it... hee hee...

And if you're looking for any good Lucca/Magus fics, check out:

Yuffie-Girl 'Never Ever in a Million Years'

Sailor Leo 'Just Hungry...'

Dark Creation 'The Struggle For Happiness'