Okay, here ya go. Chapter 20! It's a good one, in my opinion. It's not my best though. I had a small case of writer's block, so… Sorry if you don't like it as much as the others. :-) Read on!

Stupid Disclaimer: Blah blah blah… I don't think I'm gonna get sued. Plus even if I did, I bet I'd win.

Chapter 20: The End of Time

Serge stood at the bow of his little ship. He had no reason to be at the sail. Not with the engine running anyway.

Kidd walked over and stood beside him. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. They just looked out to the open sea. Finally, "How long is this trip going to take?" Kidd asked. Serge was silent. "Serge?" Serge snapped out of his trance and he looked at Kidd in bewilderment. "Huh?" Kidd laughed. "You were daydreamin' again weren't ya, mate?" Serge just smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Come on! You were telling me before! Why won't you now?" Harle whined. Janus rolled his eyes, "Because." Harle gave an exasperated sigh. "Because why?" She asked in a childish voice. Janus sighed, "Because, there's too many people around. And if you don't stop bugging me about it, I will never tell you." Harle groaned quietly and sat down on the wooden deck of the boat.

Karsh sat alone by the engine. He had volunteered to keep an eye on the engine mainly so he'd be alone. He had to do some heavy-duty thinking to do and he couldn't do that if the others were constantly disturbing him.

What do I feel for Leena? Karsh asked himself. He already had the answer though. Love, maybe?

"Can you believe Karsh and Leena?" Kidd asked Serge trying to keep him from going off into his own little world again. Serge was silent. Too late. Kidd thought with a frown. She decided to bring him out of it in the way that only she could.

"Oof!" Serge groaned after being elbowed in the gut by Kidd. "What was that for?" He asked while catching his breath. Kidd grinned, "It teaches you not to go into your own little world while I'm talkin' to you… mate." Serge groaned again.

Melchior watched Serge and Kidd closely. Just a few minutes ago, Kidd had elbowed Serge. Now they were talking to each other excitedly. About what, Melchior had no idea.

"So when do you want to do it?" Serge asked. Kidd thought about it for a moment. "I… I hadn't thought about it. I supposed after all of this is over with." Serge nodded. "Okay. Do you have anybody in mind who can do it?" Kidd was silent for a moment and then her eyes lit up. "Melchior! Schala tells me that Melchior's done it before."

Melchior watched warily as Kidd and Serge walked over to him. They both sat in front of him. "Melchior. We need to talk to you." Kidd said with a grin.

Leena sat down on the dock. She had been spending a lot of time there ever since the group had left. Karsh had only been gone for three days, but, already, she missed him. A shadow passed overhead. Leena looked up and gasped.

"That's right. We want you to… marry us." Serge said tentatively. Melchior was silent for many moments. Finally, "I… I'm honored. In fact, I'm ecstatic! Of course, I will! How could I turn that down?" Kidd grinned and enveloped Melchior in a big hug. "Thank you, Melchior." Melchior hugged her back with one arm while shaking Serge's hand with the other.

"Marry?" Lynx asked no one. They, Lynx and his three prisoners had all heard the conversation. There was blessed silence for few moments. It was the first time there had been silence in a while. Lynx frowned. Great! Just great! This can destroy my entire plan! If the Chrono Trigger isn't being consumed by his anger when I try to control him, I'll fail! All of a sudden, there was a muffled cry from behind him. Lynx spun around and smiled evilly. "Perfect…" He said as he saw Leena thrashing about in the grasp of the Dragonian.

Janus felt the distress from the girl he had only met once. Leena's in trouble. He thought. He was about to announce it to Serge, but then he stopped himself as he saw Serge and Kidd talking and laughing together.

Janus knew that if he told them that, not only would Serge fall back into a depression, it would also bring fighting and virtually a civil war to the group. Karsh would insist that they go and get her back now. Harle would insist on going to get magic training beforehand. The rest of them, especially Serge, would be torn, not knowing who to side with. He knew that the group couldn't handle that news right now.

Janus stood up and walked to a secluded spot on the boat and looked out to the ocean. He sighed. This adventure just like the waves. We're always getting by them. We try to hang on, and, when we finally think it's better, Lynx throws something else at us. We can't take much more of this. We need to finish this soon.

"Where are they going?!" Lynx snarled. He hadn't been sure at first, but now he was. They weren't heading toward the Dead Sea. No, they seemed to be more on a course to Black Dragon Isle…

There it is. Thought Serge as he looked at the group of islands just barely in his line of vision. In the middle of the islands was a 'disturbance' in time. The only place that Serge knew of that could take him to the End of Time.

"What is that place?" Lynx wondered as the group neared the islands. He watched them as they passed the group of islands' boundary lines and continued toward the middle of the islands.

It was dark now. Serge and the rest of the group were getting tired now from the days that they had spent on the open sea.

Serge decided to stop for the night. He knew that he would never find what they were looking for in this darkness of the night. He was about to tell Karsh to stop the engine, but he stopped himself. Karsh was sleeping soundly. In fact, so was everybody else, other than Janus. Serge smiled and walked silently across the wooden boat and turned off the rattling engine.

Serge smiled as he looked at the sleeping form of Kidd. She was curled up in a ball. Serge thought that she was so cute when she slept. She moaned slightly and Serge could see that she was shivering. Now that he thought about it, it was kind of chilly. Serge looked around the boat for a blanket of some kind. He couldn't find any.

Serge sighed and looked at what he was wearing. He weighed his options and sighed again.

Serge took off his shirt and placed it over Kidd gently. Immediately, Kidd stopped shivering and she sighed contently. Serge, on the other hand, noticed how cold it really was.

Lynx smiled evilly as he made the weather even colder via a weather machine that he had. It was down into the forties and was still falling.

Serge shivered violently now. They all were by now. And to top it all off, it was now raining and the wind was picking up…

"Serge!" Kidd called. Serge opened his eyes and looked at Kidd. So cold… He thought. He closed his eyes again and started drifting off to sleep again. "Serge!" Serge moaned lightly, but didn't awaken. THUMP! Serge was jarred from his sleep as Kidd's foot found his gut. "Oof!"

Kidd didn't revel in her victory over Serge. She was way to scared for that. "Serge! Get up!" Serge looked like he was about to fall back to sleep, but he was suddenly grabbed by Glenn and lifted onto his feet. From there, Glenn slapped Serge over and over again until Serge was wide-awake.

When Serge regained full conscious, he realized the situation that they were in. The rain was pouring down and the temperature was probably below twenty. The wind, which was blowing at high speeds, didn't help the situation at all. Plus, it was still dark.

The first word out of Serge's mouth was something you'd expect from someone like Kidd or Karsh. "CRAP!"

"Don't you ever quit?! Can't they have a break ever now and then?! All you ever do is torture them with some new disaster!" The blonde-haired woman was at it now. Lynx rolled his eyes; She had to speak up now? "Listen up, Your Highness." The woman's eyes widen in fury. "Why you—." Lynx didn't let her continue, "I have to make the Chrono Trigger mad enough to be able to come completely under my control. He's a very strong-willed person, not unlike yourself, and to be able to control him, I have to do something drastic." He paused and then smiled evilly, "Like this…"

The group of eight was working as frantically as possible to get to land. By now, the wind had grown stronger, the rain was coming down harder, and, finally, the temperature was getting lower. It was about to get worse.

Serge's eyes widened and his face paled when lightning struck somewhat close to them. It wasn't the lightning that terrified him though. No, he was looking at the thing that the lightning illuminated. Because, not too far away was a Waterspout, or, in other words, a water cyclone.

"Serge!" Glenn yelled. Serge spun to look at him, and his eyes widened further. Glenn was pointing, not to the cyclone, but to the large tidal wave heading toward them on the other side of the boat.

"You're going to kill them!" Leena  yelled at Lynx. He had put her in with the other three specific prisoners.

Lynx laughed, "Either way, I win. If he lives, I will control him. If he dies, there would be any opposition to my setting up the old way of life. Complete with FATE. In fact, I'd rather them all dead now. And better yet, if I get rid of them now, I could get rid of you three too. I could wipe out all my prisoners!"

Leena's eyes widened. Karsh…

"We're trapped!" Karsh snarled in fury. Glenn stumbled over to Serge with Ana hanging on to him for dear life. Kidd was doing the same to Serge. "What do you make of it? Can we get out of here?" Serge was silent. He knew the answer, but he refused to voice it. He had always been the optimistic one in the group. When everything looked hopeless, he had encouraged his friends. And then he proceeded to get them out too! But this time… it truly was… hopeless.

Something inside of Serge snapped. He had just figured out the origin of this storm…

"What's going on?" Lynx asked in a dark voice as he watched Serge stand up straight on the boat and stare at the cyclone.

He's gone too far! He will pay! Something amazing happened inside of Serge at this moment. His eyes began glowing a bright green color and suddenly the wind simply stopped. Or so he thought.

"What's this?!" Lynx screamed at the computer screen.

Serge opened his eyes—that were formerly closed—to the sight of a new cyclone surrounding the boat. They were standing in the eye of the cyclone. There was no wind though. Not even a single breeze. There was, on the other hand, a loud roaring sound.

Somehow, Serge knew what to do. He closed his eyes again and he began floating off the boat. Not too far up, just a few feet. When he opened his eyes again the cyclone expanded outward with impossible speed and power. It was strong enough to diffuse the other cyclone… It was fast enough to completely reverse the direction of the tidal wave… It was powerful enough to blow all of the rain clouds mile away…

Lynx was silent for many minutes. Everybody in the room was. What they had seen was… impossible.

The reaction on Serge's boat was similar. They were all silent. In fact, Serge was the first one to shake himself from the shock of what he had just done. He turned to Glenn and gave him a weak smile, "Glenn. I think we're going to make it out of here just fine."

Glenn blinked some and then stared at Serge in disbelief. "H—How? What did you just…" He trailed off unable to speak anymore. Melchior was the one to answer. "That was an example of the formerly nonexistent Wind magic."

Lynx roared in fury. Although he still inhabited Serge's body, the sound that came from his mouth was undoubtedly feline. He slammed his fist down on the large keyboard in front of him and he completely destroyed in with that one hit. He froze and blinked at the destruction he had just caused. He had just ruined the machine that he used to control the weather…

The next morning, Serge set off again in search of the portal that would take them to the End of Time. It took nearly all day to find it.

"Okay, here we go." Serge said. He steered the boat toward the whirlpool that signified the entrance. The boat began going with the whirlpool and begun going around in a circle. With each pass, they came closer to the middle until there was a flash causing all of them to squint their eyes to avoid being blinded and a rushing sound. When they all opened their eyes again, they were in a large tunnel.

Serge was the first to step off the boat. The rest followed him. He walked to the end of the tunnel and walked onto a bridge that led to a strange platform. Once they were out of the tunnel, most of them stopped to marvel at the place. They had though the tunnel would lead them straight to a cavern or something. Instead, the tunnel led them to nothing. Literally. Their 'cavern' was just endless blackness. Some of them turned around to be amazed by the fact that the tunnel was just an opening in the darkness. Blackness was all around it.

Serge's steel-toed boots clicked on the platform as he walked. He looked around and saw the strange creature that was there the first time he was there. He also saw the strange portals that led to different parts of El Nido.

Serge walked up to the creature. "Is this the End of Time?" He asked just to confirm it. "Yes, this is the place you search for." The creature answered. Serge smiled, "Can you tell us where we can find Spekkio?" The creature made a strange sound that sounded kind of a laugh. "Nobody has been here looking for Spekkio in over a decade." Serge was getting impatient, "Is he still here or not?" The creature seemed to think about it for a moment. This made Serge extremely suspicious of it. It wasn't a hard question. Finally, the creature answered, "Yes. You can find Spekkio in the door behind me."

From the darkness formed a small staircase that led to a door that wasn't there a few seconds ago. Serge smiled and nodded to the creature. He turned to the people behind him, "Let's go."

Lynx was letting loose curse words a mile a minute.  I can't believe I just did that! Now what am I supposed to do?! He screamed at himself in his mind. Meanwhile, despite the situation, his prisoners were laughing at him. He looked at them and growled.

The door opened with a loud CREAK and Serge peered inside. It was empty. He frowned and walked into the room. His friends followed him. The room was a circular room with a metal rail surrounding it. There was nothing in it. "Hey, what the—" Serge spun around to find the door… gone. "What gives?!"

The sound of three laughing voices filled the air. Janus froze. No. Not them. Please, anybody but them.

Three figures materialized out of the air near the rail in front of Serge. There was a fat green man. There was a blue man with an average build. And then there was a red… person… They were all dressed in gaudy clothing.

"Oh no." Janus said quietly. "Magus?" Janus groaned, "What are you three doing here?" He asked angrily. "Flea, Slash! It is Magus!" The green man sneered. "Last thing I heard was that you went soft, Magus. Is that true?" Janus growled quietly. "Shut up, Ozzie. Now's not the time. Where's Spekkio?" 'Ozzie' smirked. "What? Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?"

Serge was getting impatient. "Look! Tell us where Spekkio is and we'll get out your way!" Ozzie grinned mischievously, "And if not?" Everyone drew his or her weapons at the same time. The three people began to chuckle. The chuckling turned into laughing soon after. "Look at this, guys! The kids want to fight."

It was Janus' turn to chuckle. "You aren't going to stand a chance. The blue-haired one could finish all of you off without a weapon." Ozzie sized Serge up for a moment and then started laughing. "This boy? You say this boy could beat us? Hey… Where'd he go?"

WHAM! Serge, who had frozen time, kicked Ozzie to the ground with ease. "What the—?" The Mastermune was at Ozzie's throat immediately. "Where. Is. Spekkio?" Serge asked through clenched teeth. Ozzie started laughing. "Violent one you have here, Magus!" Ozzie disappeared and reappeared behind Serge. Two can play at that game, boy." And with that, the fight began…

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! CLIFFHANGER!!!! Sorry, I could've made it longer, but I didn't want to keep the readers waiting. Don't worry though, I always really get into the fights and they go by fairly fast because of that.

So… Has anyone figured out who the mysterious prisoners are? It's not too hard… Well, if so, don't say it in a review or whatever. Don't want to ruin it for the people who don't know.

Anyway, R&R as always!!!

--Ben