The Fire When it Comes: Part 1 - Of Futures Past, wherein Magus discovers a long lost secret.
A Chrono-Trigger/Cross fanfic
By
Deborah J. Brown
Chrono-Trigger and Chrono-Cross (and all associated characters) belong to Squaresoft.
12000 B.C.
He stared out at the sea, rage building. Around him icy wind howled, a demonic sound well-fitted to his mood. It was impossible. Simply and utterly and completely impossible. She was lost to him. Hope is useless. Everything
A sudden surge in the Black Winds hit him, swirled through his soul and he rose to his feet, lips drawing back from fanged teeth in a sneer. Time was changing again, he could see it in the swiftly moving streams of time that surrounded him. Only to be expected after all the fiddling they'd done. I wonder where it'll end up? That second moon Wasn't there yesterday. Or at least I don't remember it. Though it seemed that everyone else on the planet did. He'd asked among the humans during his travels.
The one thing that didn't seem to have changed was the utter destruction of his homeland; Once majestic floating islands, suspended high above the frozen wastes of the Earthbound, blessed by all the elements to be a paradise on – or at least above – earth. Islands destroyed only months before in this time by Zeal's Queen his mother. His hated and thrice damned mother. If only he could put his hands on her. He shoved the thought aside. They'd done the moral equivalent of just that when they'd battled Zeal aboard the Dark Omen. It wasn't enough. He wanted his fingers around her throat, her face turning blue before him Oh stop it, Magus, you're wallowing.
"Hmph. The Dark Omen." Magus spoke the words aloud to distract himself, voice harsh even to his ears. "What happened to the damn thing?" He paced restlessly, white hair whipped around his face by the gale, remembering his months of searching across the globe for his lost sister. They'd destroyed it – and Lavos – in the future of this world. Why would it not be here in this time? And what was up with that second moon anyway? So many incomprehensible changes
If only I could read the timestream better. All his life he'd been able to see, to know, things that others apparently didn't. All his life he'd been able to sense the flow of time and – occasionally – read its pattern. It was a weak talent, hopelessly flawed, as if his vision was as blocked as his magic once had been – before his brief contact with Lavos as a child had ripped the seals from his mind and given him power that no other Zealite had ever had – all elements combined.
"Damnit, I need a better understanding of time if I'm ever going to find her," Magus muttered to himself. "Hah. Of course. Gaspar. He may have been thrown out of time, but his notes may still exist here." Magus took flight, hurrying towards the area of sea where the islands had fallen.
***
2300 A.D.
Somewhere in the far future, a man leaned over his computer terminal and considered the data. "It still fails, my brothers," he murmured, although no one was there to hear him. "No matter what we do, disaster looms." He looked at the image forming on his computer screen, a tree, its branches twisted back in on itself. "My fault. My responsibility. But how can we repair the damage I have done?"
Belthazar shook his head and sighed. He was feeling his many years. So, all right, age was a matter of self-image to one in his circumstances. He had been at this for what seemed forever and with little to no result to his efforts. He stroked his beard, white as it had always been in this world, and glared at the screen. Two major divergences of time, three if one went far enough back along the branches, and none of them resulting in anything but the destruction of humanity. Under ordinary circumstances, Belthazar might have accepted these results as inevitable, but since – no matter how he looked at it – they were the direct consequence of his interference he knew he had to do something.
"All right. I shifted the branch one way by my arrival and by bringing time travel into play with the Mother Computer. That attracted Lavos and twisted the branch the other way. We find a way to fix that problem and create a new one with yet another super-computer." Belthazar rubbed his temples, a headache beginning. "I'll have to finish playing this one out again, though. I don't think there's a way to fix things at this point. Even if Gaspar does say we've failed. Or will, rather." It was too bad he couldn't just leave the timeline but then he wouldn't be able to make any changes. Only those inside time could affect its growth.
***
12,000 B.C.
Magus gazed around, ruby eyes scanning for any sign of wreckage. "Under water perhaps," he wondered to himself. Below, the sea rose and fell, waves whipped to a frenzy by the wind. Nothing human could have survived those waters, but Magus had long since stopped considering himself human. Drawing magic – and thus air – together around his too skinny body, he dropped straight down, into the depths.
Under water, the roar of wind and waves gentled to a muted hum that softened to nothing as Magus dropped deeper and deeper, his only light a small spell cast on the blade of his scythe. He would have been an awe inspiring sight, if any were able to see him; thin, wraith-like, black cloak streaming behind his slow glide, his weapon glimmering in the darkness, limning his bone-white skin, purple tinted white hair and reflecting off ruby eyes. Death himself couldn't have looked much more impressive. Heh. Not that it really matters. There's no one here but fish to impress.
At long last Magus reached the sea floor. Scattered pieces of rock covered the sand, along with shattered remnants of the city that had once been built atop them. In the light from his scythe there was little sense of color, but Magus knew from memory that those stones would have been painted in bright, cheerful, colors. Gaspar's home island had boasted one of the most beautiful cities the Enlightened of Zeal Kingdom could create. It was a pity – even to dour Magus – that it had been destroyed.
"Enough reminiscing," Magus muttered to himself. "Time to search." He floated over the remains of the city and scanned, using his magic to sift through the wreckage.
Hours passed. Then days. Magus couldn't continue searching for long periods of time, exhaustion forced him to leave the depths and rest. One thing surprised him during his search, however. The total lack of bodies. He'd returned to this time period at a point in time only months after the Fall. It made no sense that everyone on the island had escaped, yet there was nothing, not even fish eaten skeletons. Still, the failure of the city's people to die was scarcely a concern. Gaspar's notes – on the other hand – were.
It was late afternoon two weeks later, that Magus found the box at the center of the wreckage. Large, made of thick metal, it bore an engraved image of a twisted serpent swallowing its tail. Magus lost no time dragging the thing to the surface and to the sea-side cave he'd claimed for himself. Sitting beside the fire, munching on bread bought from the nearest colony of survivors, he examined the box.
It was a 3 foot cube, black aside from the single gold symbol on what he presumed was its lid. Unfortunately, aside from the symbol, there was no other mark, no sign of a joining point. "Damn. Now what do I do?" Magus muttered. He didn't want to blast the thing apart – doing so would probably destroy the contents – but he wasn't seeing much in the way of a choice.
Taking off his gloves, Magus ran his fingers along the sides, feeling for edges. The box was curiously warm, considering its long concealment at the bottom of the sea. Some sort of magic then, which gave Magus hope that at least some answers might be found within.
As his fingers brushed against the symbol on the lid he felt a surge of energy. The thing began to glow, dimly but brightening. Startled, he pulled his hand away. Instantly the glow faded. For a moment Magus frowned at the thing. Then, for lack of any better solution, he reached out again and touched the symbol, tracing its interwoven line.
As Magus' fingers moved along the tangled knot at the center of the serpent's body, the glow brightened again. Then it flashed brilliantly and there was a faint clicking sound. When his eyes cleared, the box lid had snapped free, revealing its edge some three inches down the side of the box. He smiled grimly and started to lift it when a voice said, "Before you do that, you should consider the consequences."
Magus started backwards and stared at the source of the voice. A light – swirling red and blue fire – was shining from the top of the lid and as he watched it unfolded into the shape of the twisted serpent. "Of course, there will be consequences no matter what you do." Its tone was harsh and tinny, with a strange familiarity to it.
The sorcerer took a deep breath. I am not going to let this get to me, he thought, annoyed. I've had enough weirdness in my life that a talking serpent sigil shouldn't bother me.
"But it does, doesn't it?" The serpent seemed to grin as it spoke. "And I can't stop reading your mind because that's not how I know what you're thinking." For something without shoulders, it managed a shrug. "Never mind that now, Magus. You need to make a decision. What you do will affect a lot more than yourself or Schala. The two of you stand at a crux of time and if you make the wrong decision it will have serious consequences for the rest of the world."
"You seem to think I care," Magus pointed out dryly.
"You should. Schala needs a place to stand on – if and or when – she's freed." The serpent cocked its head at Magus. "You're the one who doesn't."
"Eh?"
"I'm going to tell you a story. You know part of it, but not the part most important to yourself." Gliding to hover in front of Magus' nose, the serpent smiled into his eyes, its own ruby gaze meeting Magus' like a mirror. "Once upon a time there was an empress. Now this empress wasn't a very nice lady. Her people had power and she was the most powerful of them all."
"My mother."
"Exactly. Don't interrupt. I don't have a lot of energy to talk." The serpent sighed and continued. "The empress learned of a great and ancient power that sat dormant beneath the surface of her world. A power that was the source of the magical energy her people used. She decided to claim that power for her own. Calling on the assistance of her three most trusted advisors, she planned to steal its power for herself."
Magus frowned, realizing who those three had to be, but before he could name them, the serpent continued, "Before you say they should have prevented Schala from being involved, let me tell you that doing so would have had even more disastrous effects."
"More disastrous than Schala being lost?"
"Infinitely worse." The serpent shook its head. "Time isn't something to play with lightly and Schala's current situation, while dire, is preferable to this entire world being wiped out of existence throughout the timelines."
"Explain."
"It's not my job to tell you how time works. You're going to have to figure that – and what happened to Schala – out yourself. The point is that your mother had them find a way to reach Lavos. Now Lavos was dormant at the time, the energy from its body causing certain aspects of human nature to develop. So it couldn't prevent the advisors from taking a chunk of its Self and give it to Zeal."
"Which was used to power the Mammon machine. Yes, I know that."
The serpent shook its head. "Not quite. The Mammon machine used Lavos' energy gathered from its surroundings and focused it into the device Melchior made for your sister. No, that chunk of Lavos became something entirely different. No doubt Zeal intended to use it as a tool to control its source when the time came, but I'm afraid she underestimated a lot of factors."
"What happened to it?" Magus demanded, realizing that whatever, wherever, that chunk was, it might have the power to assist him in his search.
"Ahhh, that's another thing you'll have to discover for yourself. You're just coming into your real powers, Magus. It won't be long before you understand. That is – if you choose to continue on this path."
"I haven't heard anything to stop me."
"And I can't tell you without risking another tangle in time. Let me finish. My power source is waning and I have a bit more story." The serpent was fading, Magus noted, so he nodded grimly. "Right. The three advisors assisted Zeal in her plans and the result was what you know already. However, what you don't know is that your sister became entangled with Lavos. It's because of that that you and your friends were able to defeat it. Her will was at odds with Lavos and she prevented it from winning. It still exists, by the way, because it stands outside time, but it can't affect the flow unless and until something breaks the current stream and forces it back into Lavos' path."
"I don't understand."
"You will if you go on."
Magus growled under his breath. "You still haven't told me why I shouldn't."
The serpent's light faded yet again. "No, I haven't, Magus. But there's something you should think about. I know what you're thinking for a reason. I'm not reading your mind and I'm not even really here talking to you. I'm just a recording. Think about that, while you decide. It doesn't mean you have to choose this path, but you probably will."
"Should I?" Magus asked, understanding hitting him.
The serpent chuckled, a terribly familiar sound. "Consider it a fair warning. If you examine Gaspar's notes you're going to learn things about yourself that you aren't going to like. You're going to become something that you're not going to like. You are going to have to do something you won't like." It smiled, and Magus knew that smile only too well. "You'll be a god, Janus. But not the sort of god most people associate with deity. And you won't be happy until you've fixed everything the way its supposed to be – something I haven't managed yet, so I can't tell you if you'll succeed. Suffice to say that only one thing stands between FATE and Lavos and that one thing is you." The serpent disappeared with a final grin, leaving its audience sitting in silence.
***
2300 A.D.
Belthazar sighed. The last line of code had been written and the future, with all it entailed, would be created. He had to trust Gaspar's warnings that disaster was going to result – after all, the Sage of Time was the one outside time watching the results and keeping himself and Melchior informed. Still, the Prometheus code, created by the genius of Lucca Ashtear, would mitigate the disaster until he and the others could think of another plan.
Brother. Other Self. We may have a problem. There is something happening in the past. Gaspar's voice touched Belthazar's mind. Something unexpected.
How do you mean?
That boy. He's doing something to time. Something he shouldn't be able to do.
Belthazar frowned. Which boy? he asked, rising to his feet and pacing the confines of his tiny office.
Janus. Zeal's brat. The one we were so worried about. Somehow he's managed to change everything we did to keep him under control.
The old man's frown deepened. Janus was the last person in this world he wanted to entrust with the kind of power he knew the boy had possessed. He and the others had locked those powers within the child, but Magus' experiences with Lavos had eroded the seal. That was why Melchior had created the Masamune in the 600s and aimed it at Magus' destruction. If those young fools hadn't taken pity on Magus he'd have died upon the sword and no longer been a threat to Belthazar's efforts to repair the damage he'd caused. He wondered why Frog had allowed the sorcerer to live.
Watch him. We may have to do damage control. Belthazar shook his head. Drat that child. If only Zeal hadn't come into contact with Lavos so close to his conception. Next try he'd have to do something to prevent that contact, to return things to the way they'd been when he'd first entered this world.
***
12,000 B.C.
Magus spent the entire night in a sleepless trance, gazing at the opened box. What was he to do? A part of him was frightened, a part he'd thought long since killed off by time and loss. If he understood what was happening correctly, then he was standing at a crossroads and the wrong choice might be disastrous for himself. The serpent, speaking what had to be a future self's words, seemed to be saying he wasn't going to be happy if he took that path, but the problem was that he had no idea what would happen down the other line.
"For that matter, how do I know that opening the box is really what created that path?" he muttered. "For all I know the serpent is from a future where I don't open the box, sent back to keep me from doing so." He clenched his lank hair in his hands. "Oh for crying out loud! I'm getting a headache just thinking about it."
Magus forced himself to sit straight and think. "What would Crono do?" he wondered. He'd never felt like he fit in with the rest of the group of time travelers who'd faced and defeated Lavos, but – though he'd never admit it to the boy's face – he'd come to respect the red-head's courage. After all, Crono's self-sacrifice the day his mother had summoned Lavos had prevented Zeal's victory. "Or any of them, for that matter." He half-wished he had the ability to reach out to the others, to ask them for advice.
He imagined what they would say Ayla: White-hair be brave. Be strong. Do what must be done. Marle: You need to follow your heart, Magus. Schala needs you and you need her. Robo: You..are..intelligent..You..will..find..a..way. Lucca: Magic isn't everything, Magus. You have to use your head, too. Frog: T'is is a worthy deed to seek another's salvation. Thou must act as thou know to be right. Crono: Just do it, Magus. Don't angst over the damn decision for hours on end.
Magus knew perfectly well he was putting words into the others' mouths. For all he knew they'd have slapped him upside the head for even considering the path hinted at by the serpent. In the end, though, the decision was his and even if Crono wouldn't encourage it, he certainly wouldn't encourage long drawn out melodrama over it either. "Seize the day," the sorcerer murmured to himself. "Seize the moment." He reached out and suited action to word, pulling the lid away to reveal large book with a single sheet of paper atop it. He read it, noting without surprise that the handwriting was his own.
"One last chance to back off, Magus old boy. You really aren't going to like what you find out because of this thing. But I know you're hooked now, since you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't following the path I took. If it makes you feel any better though, if you don't take this path you'll never find Schala and you'll never find a way to free her. Don't bother asking how I know. You'll find out only too soon.
"So, go ahead and read. You won't understand much of what's in here yet. It'll take us a while to get to that point. We've got the time though and far too much of it."
The signature was a single elaborate J.
To be continued
Notes: I'm breaking my rule with this one of not posting incomplete stories, but it's going to sit on the shelf untouched if I don't have incentive to get it finished. Besides, I need some feedback.