Chapter 4: Lucca

*Author's Note: Hi everybody. Thanks for the great reviews, they've been keeping me wanting to give you more and more, so keep it up. I hope to have an update daily, be we'll see what happens. I suppose I ought to put a disclaimer somewhere in this story (I don't go to work enough to be able to pay for the rights to these characters): I don't own any Chrono Trigger characters or any characters of the design of someone else. I do have a few original ones, but they aren't as cool.

It was three weeks before that he came to me to ask for the Epoch. When I told him it would take a couple months, I wasn't kidding, but something was motivating us to do the job quickly. As we worked on the Epoch, I began to think about what I was doing with my life.

I was bored. There isn't much else to say, really. It had been ages since I had seen either Crono or Marle. Even my projects were getting boring to me. This single project had been the most productive and interesting 3 weeks since the defeat of Lavos. I began to think more of Magus, whom had been forced to go to Leene Square day in and day out since the first week ended because of the complex machinery we were dealing with. I began to think that he might be the only way I could ever have another adventure.

I'm not going to lie to you. I thought of Magus in other ways as well. For the longest time, I was convinced that I was in love with Crono. Why not, being each other's only friend for nearly 10 years will do that to a girl. When he fell in love with Marle, I didn't know what to think. I was certainly happy for them and I've never had any bad feelings towards either of them, but they left a hole in me for the longest time. The night when I kissed Magus, it felt like the hole had begun to fill, and it only felt better after that. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I knew I enjoyed his company a lot more than being alone.

We stood before our creation, the reborn Epoch. On one side of the spectrum, I was excited that we had finished, but on the other end I was sorry for the same reason.

"Well done." he said, bluntly. I looked at him with a smile, proud of my work.

"And ahead of schedule. I'm very surprised." I was at a loss for words at the moment. I was lucky I got those ones out.

"I'll finally be able to finish my quest. I'm almost afraid of it. I've never been so close. I've worked so hard." he began to mumble to himself. I just looked at him. He looked as he always did, but his voice had a hint of joy that I had never detected before. His eyes showed it to. They looked like those of a boy who is getting the reward for doing his chores. "I suppose I'll leave tomorrow morning. There's no sense in leaving tonight."

"Yeah..." I sounded disappointed. The hole felt as if it was growing again. I was going to lose whatever happiness I felt over the last few weeks. It was then that he turned to me.

"Would you like to go to Leene's Square." he asked me. I couldn't understand why he wanted to go. He hated it there, especially after dusk. He would go on about how it was so boring there and there were too many people. He hated people, to put it bluntly. There were only a select few he could truly tolerate. "You know, to celebrate. I'll win you something."

The offer was tempting. I would get to spend our last hours together having fun, well...I would be having fun. I wasn't exactly sure why he wanted to go.

"Alright. Let's go." I said. I was intent on having fun and I was interested in why he wanted to go so bad.

So we went to Leene's Square. I could tell from the moment we stepped through the gate that he didn't want to be there. He had this utterly disgusted look on his face. The music was very loud and cheerful, the lights seemed especially bright. There were many people there, and many attractions. The first one that caught my eye was a sketch artist, doing portraits of couples.

"Magus, let's get a drawing done of ourselves." I wanted something to remember the time we had by. He shrugged, as if saying "Why not" and I dragged him over to the corner where the artist worked.

"How much for a picture?" I asked him. He had a strange look on his face when he saw Magus, I guess he figured Magus wasn't the type of person who liked this sort of thing.

"10 gold pieces. I'll need you each to pose along the wall." he said in a thick accent that I couldn't recognize. Magus leaned on the bricks, holding his chin in his right hand. It was his "I'm too cool to be enjoying this" pose. I got under his right arm and put my left around him. I could tell he felt uncomfortable. I thought it was hilarious. After 7 or 8 minutes, he finished and I quickly ran over to see it.

"Wow. That's really good." There wasn't much about the artistry that I liked, it was the scene. I could have stayed there forever. He didn't enjoy the procedure that much, but endured it.

"Thanks. Go to Norstien Bekkler's tent to get a copy of that made." he said. Magus seemed to react to the comment.

"Alright." he said to me. "You head over to the theatre area while I get this copied." he said. I was surprised how eager he was, but I was having to much fun to be suspicious of it. I ran over to the theatre area and got us two seats. I waited for a few minutes. I didn't think it would take too long to get the copy, but the show almost started without him. It was a story set around the middle ages. I was somewhat nervous. Should the play contain some content about him which he disliked, I didn't know how he'd react. Thankfully, it didn't even mention him. After the play, we headed back. We were very tired, and he wanted to get an early start in the morning. Before we went inside, I stopped.

"Magus.." I said, almost inaudible, but he heard it.

"Yes." he said, a little surprised.

"I want to go with you tomorrow." It just fell out. I thought it would take me forever to say it. He looked at me strangely, like I had said something I shouldn't have.

"What?! Why?" he almost sounded dumbfounded by my request.

"I need to get out of here. I need another adventure. I've been bored out of my mind. I haven't seen any of my other friends for nearly 7 months. I need to do something with someone again. I know what you're going to do....." he stopped me as I said those last words.

"No, you have no idea what I have to do. I'm going to do things that I know you wouldn't want me to do. It may be fun and rewarding at first, but I swear to you that if you go, you won't be happy at the end. I've never had any intention of the ending happily ever after. This is not something that you should endure."

"What are you going to do?" I asked, wondering what could be so bad.

"I've lived a life of a cold blooded murderer. I've never met anyone strong enough to live a sane life that way. Before you defeated me in my castle, I was on the brink of madness. The death of Lavos was the first step of my seemingly endless repentance. My quest is that of repent. I'm paying back for my sins. Many things will be done along the road. I don't think you want to be a part of something so depressing." as he spoke, I could see the pain swell from within his heart. The pain of a thousand murders. The pain of a torture and curses. The pain of someone lost. He came close to crying when he thought of what he did. I'm not sure why he felt sorry now after years and years of it, but it was evident. He wanted Magus to die and Janus to be born again.

"I want to help you. Let me help you." I took his hands in mine as I spoke. It was as if I was pleading for him to let me endure his pain with him, as if I could lessen it. He looked at me and nodded. I stared at him for a moment. He smiled at me, then kissed me on the forehead. The hole felt as if it had never been there. I was happy, if only for that brief moment.

*Well, I hope that satisfies you romance fans (4 straight chapters ought to). Soon we'll begin the journey, and the action/adventure portion of this fic (another genre I'm new to) will rear it's ugly, yet hopefully entertaining head. An ally of old will join them (his POV will be the next chapter) and we'll see what Magus has in mind for his repentance. Please, keep reviewing. Don't worry, you fans of the mushy stuff, it'll still be present (to the best of my ability) and you action fans will finally get something out of this fic. PEACE!

Dark Creation