Disclaimer: Me no own! Me make no money from this! You no sue!
A/N: Writer's block is an evil, evil thing, take it from me. There was originally supposed to be more in this chapter, but I couldn't even get that far. Ah well. Hope you enjoy it anyway.
Upon waking up, Lucca immediately became confused. Even considering the number of times she had slept in inns or even around a fire, the way she had awakened today just seemed...unfamiliar. She groggily squinted up at the bright orange, pointed ceiling of the Shelter she was in, trying to piece together the events of the past day.
(Geez, where am I? This is NOT familiar, not at all...)
(Urgh...Sometimes morning amnesia is heaven on earth...but other times it's just plain evil. Now what was I doing yesterday?)
(If I'm on some half-assed quest that Crono's making us do, then, well, I'll just have to kill him. I am NOT going into some monster nest today just to get the Golden Ass of Doom or something equally lame...)
(Feels like it's cold out. Good thing I've got a sleeping bag and Magus-)
"Wha?! Magus?!" At that thought Lucca sat straight up, the memories of the previous day flooding back. Well, she would have sat straight up, at any rate, but a pair of strong, muscled arms that were wrapped securely around her waist effectively kept her in place.
"Hm?!" he replied rather sleepily, with a start. "What is it, four-eyes?"
Rolling over onto her stomach to get a good look at him, Lucca replied, "Oh, nothing. I was just marveling at your pure and utter gayness."
Predictably, that woke him up. "I am NOT gay, you little geek, as I effectively demonstrated to you last night, and-"
"Well, I'm not satisfied yet. Demonstrate again!" demanded Lucca with a lecherous grin, smoothing out his mussed-up bed hair so that it was beautiful, silky, and perfect once more.
"Oh...very well." Shifting slightly so that he was positioned directly under her, he pulled her closer and they began to resume the activities of the night previous. Lucca sighed happily as he started off by kissing the nape of her neck, nibbling at it tenderly with his fangs, and slowly working upwards to her slightly parted mouth.
After he had reached his destination and tenderly broke the deep kiss he had administered, he pulled back and gave her a small, arrogant smile. "I'll put this very nicely, poindexter: your breath really stinks."
"Aagh, I hate you!" screeched Lucca, whacking him playfully. "Oh, and allow me to put this nicely, too: your breath doesn't exactly smell like daisies either! More like dead rotting meat!"
"There, there, no need to get violent with me, geek," he said smugly. "After all, if you get violent that means I'll have to get violent as well. And I'm sure you know by now what that means-"
"Yeah, yeah, you'll have to kill me," Lucca answered, smirking. "But somehow I'm just not afraid."
"Oh, and why not?"
"Because the I'm-going-to-kill-you factor is just exactly what makes tall, blue-haired warlocks so sexy," she replied, twirling his hair around in her fingers. "Didn't you know that?"
In result of that comment, they both started to hungrily begin Round Two, but Lucca suddenly perked up her ears and pulled away from him right in the middle of an especially bruising kiss, having all at once noticed something. "Hey...it's quiet outside."
Magus rolled his eyes. "My my, you sure know how to ruin the mood. What of it? The only thing that means is that the blizzard has ended."
This time it was Lucca's turn to roll her eyes. "Great deductive reasoning, Princey. We'll make a super-sleuth out of you yet, that's for sure." She wriggled off of him and rolled over onto her back. "Well, DUH! Of course the blizzard's over! And you know what that means?"
"That we can bundle up and go make snow angels?"
"NO, smartass! That we can get the hell out of here!"
"And what if I'm not interested in leaving?"
"Then you can stay here! ALONE!"
"Now THAT won't work, four-eyes! My plans involve you, if you didn't know..."
"So do mine. And we're packing and leaving before another blizzard starts, you moron."
"Oh, very well," he relinquished, stretching out in a cat-like manner and unzipping their sleeping bag so they could get out and start the long search for a Gate. But it didn't help that his hand accidentally brushed her leg as he did so...
"We're gonna get nothing done today, you know that?" Lucca panted, several frantic kisses later. "C'mon, let's get up. NOW."
***
Eventually, though, they managed to get up, get packed, and get outside the cave. They found that the snow had indeed stopped, although the temperature must have been around zero and the wind sometimes caused little drifts to eddy and spiral upwards. The sun shown weakly through a thin veil of clouds; it was unable to melt the blanket of snow that covered the ground halfway up to their knees.
"Wonderful weather, isn't it," Lucca muttered, Magus's cloak tightly wrapped around her. "And where do we go? I don't exactly see any villages, or people, or really anything but snow, for that matter."
Magus pointed over to the left of the cave, some distance away. "See that hill? If we head there, then perhaps we'll have a better view of the land around. Come on; it seems to be our only choice at the moment."
***
It was three hours and several miles to their destination. They saw not hide nor hair of bird, man, or beast during the entire trip; it seemed that no one and nothing could live in this desolate area. Lucca sighed wearily as she and Magus trudged on, side-by-side and in silence. What time period was this, anyway?! Whatever era this was, it sure was an oppressive one.
They said nothing to each other the whole time. Lucca at first was a little puzzled as to why they were so uncomfortable with each other at the moment, but having a lot of time to think about it, she finally concluded that they were probably both a little embarrassed about their little "session" back there in the cave. Magus was NOT the kind of person who easily opened up to others, and whenever he did show a rare emotion, well, he didn't enjoy fully admitting it. And the same thing could be said about her; for how many years had she stalled about Crono?! Geez, they had to have been the two most emotionally detached people in the entire universe.
***
"Hey, four-eyes, are my eyes deceiving me, or is that a fire over that way?"
Lucca squinted over to where Magus's line of vision currently was. They were now resting at the base of the hill, and he was staring at a glowing blue light that was situated midway up the snowy slope.
"Oh, come on, you idiot," she scolded him, "Not that I know what kind of weird things you've been smoking lately, but in most cases fires are most certainly NOT blue. Honestly, I think you need your vision che-" Suddenly, in mid-sentence, realization dawned on her. Of course it wasn't a fire. The light was blue, and that could only mean one thing. It was a-
"Omigod, Magus...I think it's a-I think it's a Gate!"
Without a second thought they both began to hastily climb the hill, not stopping for even a second until they reached their destination. Upon arriving there, they saw that the light they had seen indeed WAS a Gate. Lucca triumphantly dug the Gate Key out of her jacket pocket, but just as she was about to activate the portal with it-
"Wait a second!" A gloved brown hand suddenly stayed hers, preventing her from doing the one thing that would allow them to leave this godforsaken place.
Lucca whirled around and gave Magus her angriest glare. "What?! Don't you want to leave this place as much as I do?! You're the one who suggested this in the first place, and now you're chickening out once we DO get there?!"
He eyed the Gate doubtfully. "Of course I want to leave, but...who knows where it might take us? There's no telling WHAT'S on the other side of that Gate. At least we know what to expect by staying here."
"Listen, you dork," Lucca reprimanded him firmly, placing her free hand on his shoulder, "it was probably an act of God that got us here to end up finding this Gate in the first place, and as much as I'd like a repeat of last night, I am NOT walking back to that cave and waiting things out. We are taking a chance, and that's final!"
"Not while I'm around!" Magus hissed, crossing his arms and giving off his trademark scowl. "I REFUSE to go along with this, and as I am NOT letting you go
alone, Lucca-"
"Whoever said I was going alone?!" Lucca shot back. "You're coming along no matter if I have to PICK YOU UP AND CARRY YOU!"
"Oh, really? Now how will THAT work, four-eyes?"
"Argh! You're really something else, you know that?! We are going NOW. RIGHT NOW. And you have no say in the matter!" With that she grabbed his arm, dragged him closer, and activated the Gate with her free hand. Closing shut behind them with a snap, it swallowed them right up and transported them to some unknown era.
***
"You just had to have the nerve, didn't you, poindexter?"
Lucca glared at Magus, who was currently squashed under her. After about fifteen dizzying seconds, the Gate had opened up in midair, causing them to fall twenty feet and land in some underbrush that luckily broke their fall. Needless to say, Magus wasn't too happy about all this, and at the moment he was giving her a scathing "I-told-you-so" look.
"We could be dead right now, thanks to your stupidity! Another thirty feet or
a well-placed rock and we wouldn't be here! Think before you act, four-eyes!"
"Well, excuse me for shaking up your little world, Your Majesty," Lucca replied haughtily, rather hurt. "We couldn't have stayed there, you know; we wouldn't have lasted more than a week! Geez, you won't ever have to worry about being a good father; you complain enough for two!"
Oops. That had been a very -er- perverted comment to say. Magus really didn't seem to mind, however; his blood-colored eyes glinted in a strange way as his hand slowly reached up to stroke her hair. "And what makes you say that...weakling?"
They both ended up lunging at each other at the same time, lips meeting again hungrily; Magus managing to get Lucca's helmet off with a free hand while at the same time she worked on the clasp of his cloak. She had just finished unsnapping it and began the task of unbuttoning his shirt, when-
"As much as we'd like to rip each other's clothes off right now, four-eyes, I don't think this is the best place to do it. We don't even know where we are, for one thing..."
Lucca replied shakily, trying to ignore the firm, supple form under her, "You're right, you know." Using all of her willpower as she did so, she managed to stand up and look at her surroundings.
The first thing she noticed this place was the exact opposite of their previous location. The climate was unbearably hot; a scorching breeze ran through the air, and the dampness in the air made her every move heavy. Lush tropical plants grew everywhere; vines winding around gnarled trees like snakes and multitudes of large, brightly-colored flowers were the most plentiful. And it had to be mentioned that they were standing directly under a tall, sheer cliff, which to Lucca seemed most familiar...
Magus stood nearby, dusting himself off and folding up his cloak, which for obvious reasons he did not need anymore. "Well, I'm at a loss for where we are. This doesn't seem familiar, not at all..."
Lucca turned his way, knowing quite well where they were now. "But don't you remember? This is Mystic Mountain. You know, in 65 million B.C.?"
"Nope, never been here before."
"Oh yeah, you weren't with us yet when we were here. The first time we went here to try and get some Dreamstone so we could fix the Masamune and go kick your ass, and the second time was right after we DID kick your ass."
Magus scowled. "Hmpfh! When you say 'kick your ass' you actually have the nerve to act like there was some skill involved. Well, YOU'D lose too if you had to fight three times your number AND were surprised to begin with."
Lucca rolled her eyes. "Well, all I can say is it was a good thing you did, otherwise you would have summoned Lavos and you probably would have ended up dead. Anyway...I know where to go now. There's a village about five miles away from this mountain. We can rest there."
Magus shook his head disgustedly as he picked up and shouldered his pack, which had been thrown a few feet away upon their arrival. "So we're in the Prehistoric Era... How wonderful. No longer do I have to worry about cutting off my frostbitten limbs; no, instead I can worry about being eaten a dinosaur."
Lucca waved him off. "Oh, geez, this place isn't THAT bad! Just keep your big farm implement out and we'll be fine. And yes, I meant your scythe. I'm not THAT sick."
"Hmpfh!"
They made their way down the mountain in about an hour, only stopping for the occasional bout with some prehistoric creatures. Magus was a big help in that department; one casting of his Lightning 2 spell and everything in close proximity immediately turned into smoldering piles of ash. Lucca shook her head in amazement as she watched him during one particularly nasty incident involving ten large fireballs and a couple of angry Kilwalas.
"Geez...you're quite the killing machine, aren't you?" she remarked coolly, handing him an Ether as they started to walk away from the carnage. "I've never even seen Crono blow up things like that!"
Magus snorted, putting his nose in the air. "That's because the spikey-haired simpleton always has qualms before he kills something. Hmpfh! I don't understand him...You shouldn't go killing needlessly, but if the other side is going to kill YOU-"
He trailed off, as if he was remembering something unpleasant.
"What? Are you thinking about Cyrus?" Lucca asked shrewdly.
"H-how did you-"
"Well, I don't know who else you killed!" Lucca waved her arms indignantly. "It's just a wild guess! Anyway, what about it?!"
"Oh, I don't know," he replied crossly, looking straight down at the ground as he walked, "I'm no saint in the whole matter, but I maintain that Cyrus had a hand in it, too. The fool pursued me relentlessly and would not stop until I was brought down by his sword. Eventually I had to do something; my life depended on it!"
They plodded on, both falling silent. To tell the truth, Lucca had been a little surprised at his words; getting anything personal out of Magus was like trying to break a boulder using only your head. And then there was WHAT he had said. Beforehand she had thought the whole Magus-killing-Cyrus thing had been your normal, clear-cut, good vs. evil stint; but now she wasn't so sure. What if it really HAD been for self-preservation on Magus's part? That changed almost everything...
She vowed to get more out of him later.
***
The sun was well into its westerly journey by the time they had topped a rise in the terrain and sighted the village nearby, about a half mile to the north. Magus eyed the cluster of huts, constructed haphazardly out of mud and sticks, doubtfully.
"Is THIS where we're heading, four-eyes?"
"Ye-es," replied Lucca testily, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "There aren't exactly any five-star accomodations for His Majesty here, but can he manage for another night? Geez, what did you expect, anyway?! Feather beds? Electric fireplaces? RUNNING WATER?! We're in 65 million B.C., for crying out loud!"
"Oh, I know, I know, but...just never mind. Is there another Gate around here that you know of?"
"Nope. Not unless you wanna go to 12000 B.C. with no way to get to the Last Village, buddy."
"Shit..."
"Oh, come on," Lucca scoffed, rolling her eyes. "The people here are really nice! They aren't cannibals or anything! Just have a little faith! Crono and the others will look for us here for sure!" With that she grabbed his arm and started to drag him down the hill towards Ioka Village.
A/N: Argh! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Thanks to my poor overloaded brain there will now be 17 chapters instead of the original 16 I had planned! Expect the next one out a little early; it should be about as long as this one but perhaps a little easier to write. It will get better, I promise! And if you thought it was good or bad, it doesn't matter; please review anyway! I need suggestions and/or complaints to help me get out of this slump.