The Fire When it Comes: Part 2 – All the Stars within: In which Magus meets an old 'friend'.

A Crono-Trigger/Cross fanfic
By
Deborah J. Brown

Chrono-Trigger & Chrono-Cross and all associated characters belong to Squaresoft.

600 A.D.

"Frog. Thank you for coming so promptly." Melchior smiled at the knight and gestured for him to sit down. "I hope you're well?"

Frog, called that for the simple reason that he was a frog, smiled broadly and shook a head the seat offered to him. "Chairs art no longer comfortable, but I thank thee for thy kindness," he told the Guru, sitting on the floor instead, long legs folding up beside him so that his knees were up beside his face. Despite the apparent awkwardness of the position, there was a simple dignity to him that couldn't be erased. Not even the frog shaped head, with its bulbous eyes, could take the serenity of purpose that shown from those yellow-green orbs.

"I fear I have had word of your old friend, Magus," Melchior murmured. "It is not good news."

"Magus?" A concerned look crossed the knight's face. "He went to a differing time How dost thou know he is in trouble?"

Melchior winced. "Not in trouble. Causing it." At the knight's startled expression, the Guru continued. "Janus, I mean Magus, was always powerful. Too powerful. As I'm sure you know, that has given him a contempt for his fellow man."

"Well, he didst not give me this shape out of sweet love or friendship," Frog admitted, gesturing at his face and body. "But thou hast not answered my question."

With a sigh, Melchior admitted, "My brothers and I have a way of speaking to each other. It is a mental talent. Gaspar, standing at the End of Time as he does, can see what happens within. He has warned us that Magus has learned the spell of Time Travel and is making use of it. As near as we can tell, he seems to be planning on altering the shape of time again."

"The thrice damned fool!" Frog leaped to his feet. "What could he be thinking of, to attempt such a thing? Doth he not know the risk?"

"You know Magus. You know how obsessive he is. The boy's only purpose has been vengeance. With that accomplished he must be seeking another goal. Possibly this has something to do with his sister Schala. Never the less, something must be done to stop him."

Frog put his hand on the hilt of his sword, feeling the twins call out to him with wordless encouragement from within the blade. "The Masamune has the power to stop him. Yet How do I reach him?"

Melchior smiled. "The Time Spell he's using is the same one we created. We can send you to where, or rather when, he is. When the task is accomplished, we'll bring you back." He put a hand on Frog's shoulder. "Will you do it?"

***

11990 B.C.

Magus landed in a forest clearing and examined the skies. This wasn't the time he'd meant to visit, but something had drawn him to here. He'd meant to go back to the time when Lavos had arrived, to observe what had happened when Azala had drawn an asteroid down to this world in order to destroy the humans that threatened his people's existence. Once that asteroid had carried Lavos and – likely – it still would. It wasn't possible now to remove Lavos from the timestream entirely, although Crono's and the other's actions in that far future time would prevent it from doing the harm it would have done otherwise.

He visualized the timestream. He wasn't sure why Gaspar's notes kept referring to it as a branching tree – some difference in their way of thinking no doubt. To him, though, the timestream was a brilliant flow of energy leaving its source in the Event and flowing outwards, spreading itself and rejoining itself in places. Within, eddies and currents shifted around, blown by the Black Winds. Most such timestreams flowed outward only, but this world's twisted back on itself, the flow of its later waters disrupting the flow of those that followed and creating the chaotic mess that had attracted Lavos in the first place. He might not be able to read that flow, but he could see enough of its wild streaming to know what he saw.

How – exactly – this had happened was something Gaspar's notes hadn't explained. If anything they'd seemed to deliberately ignore the cause of this twisted mess. The how wasn't really important, however. He needed to understand time, understand how it flowed and ebbed. How to control it. How to create the right pattern that would save his sister. He'd hoped to find the answer at the beginning, but it seemed something important was going to happen in this time as well. He'd gone there to find out what.

Magus frowned. It had been almost frighteningly easy to swim through the stream to reach this era. It was as if some instinct told him exactly what to do, and how. It wasn't the time spell, either. This came from inside him. My future self – if indeed it was me who'd sent that message – was right. I don't think I like this.

A strange feeling swept over the mage. Power was approaching but not power he'd known anywhere before. Not Lavos, though time had much to do with it. Something in him yearned towards that power. He wanted it. Wanted to consume it and take it into himself. Instinct caused him to reach out mentally in a process that was almost the opposite of spell casting. Yes. Fill me. Fill this need I didn't know I had. Become a part of me as I become a part of thee

There was a sound that filled the entire world, shattered stone and set the waters of the oceans raging. A moment later a brilliant flash of light and darkness flooded the skies. Magus, overloaded by the energy he'd just absorbed, fell to his knees, mouth agape, stunned beyond his ability to comprehend.

It was at that moment that a familiar voice spoke. "WHAT HAST THOU DONE?"

***

Frog glared at the mage collapsed before him. He'd arrived just in time to see Magus raise his arms and begin to flare with a dark energy not unlike that with which he'd once used to summon Lavos. Then that massive explosion had occurred and the culprit was obvious. "Magus I am most wroth with thee."

Red eyes raised to stare at the knight. "Frog? What the devil are you doing here?"

"I have come to stop thee. Mayhap I am too late, but – if nothing else – I wilt not permit thee to profit from thy foolishness." Frog moved at the mage, sword flashing.

Magus moved, flying backwards just in time to avoid being skewered, not fast enough to entirely avoid the slash across his stomach. "Frog Stop this nonsense."

"I have seen what thou hast done. There is naught ye can say now to hold me back." Frog moved again, only to be blown backwards by a mighty wind cast from Magus' outstretched hands.

"Naught? If that be the case, then perhaps this will convince you!" Magus leaped backwards, further out of range, and raised his hands, drawing power together into a single cohesive ball of energy. Frog barely had a moment to act, but he spun in a circle and snapped his arm outwards at the end of the swing, releasing the Masamune to fly towards the mage. At the same time Magus' spell exploded through him, contorting reality and shredding him with a familiar soul-searing agony.

***

Magus barely noted the solid thunk as the Masamune buried itself in his belly. The spell he'd cast had taken most of his power and had – momentarily – numbed him to all other sensation. As his mind cleared, however, a searing pain in his midriff drew his attention downwards. "Oh" he muttered weakly. "Damn" It seemed a ridiculously prosaic curse, but he hadn't the strength for anything more elaborate.

Falling to his knees, Magus reached for the hilt and tried to tug the weapon out of his body. It wasn't cooperating – which came as no surprise since the Masamune had been created with the sole purpose of destroying him. Then he noticed his blood. Ordinarily the sight of his own blood wouldn't have bothered him, but then ordinarily his blood didn't sparkle with inner fire. Heat and cold swirled through him, non-energy that sought to over take all else, to remake him it its image. He fought back, struggled to retain consciousness, but the effort was proving too much. Slowly he curled in on himself, falling to the thick grass, a thin whimper escaping him.

Darkness and light. Love and hate. Joy and anger I love you so much Sometimes I want to shatter you to pieces. The voice that echoed in his mind wasn't his own. If anything it resembled Schala's, but that wasn't the way she was. Was it? Magus shuddered as his vision contracted, then expanded to take in everything. The scream that followed echoed through the surrounding jungle.

***

Frog woke slowly, painfully, ears ringing to a sound that shredded the soul. "Still," he murmured to himself in the silence that followed. "T'is pain that tells us we're alive." He paused, suddenly realizing something was wrong No, something was right. Something that had been wrong for years now had been fixed. He raised his hand to confirm. Pale fingers. Pale human fingers, raised up into his field of vision. "I am human again?"

Aching all over, Frog rose to his feet. "He restored me. Why?" Looking around he spotted a figure lying in the grass and he hurried towards it. Magus was curled up in a ball, his cloak covering most of his body, his white hair hiding his face. "Magus?"

A soft moan escaped Magus' lips. Then he spoke, his voice strange, the sound of crystal about to shatter. "Frog. Glenn. You must act quickly. What you have done could spell disaster, if what is human in me dies at this place and time."

Reaching out to touch Magus' shoulder, Frog, now Glenn again, felt the tension in the man's body. He moved the cloak aside to find the Masamune buried deep within its victim's belly, blood seeming to blaze with an inner fire seeping from the wound. A strange fire, it glowed with the red-hot heat of the setting sun swirled with flickers of deepest blue. Glenn stared for a long moment, then grasped the hilt and pulled his sword free of Magus' body.

A moaning sound filled the air, echoing through the jungle. It came from all around, but somehow Glenn knew its source was his victim. The knight took a deep breath and cast a healing spell. Something had changed within the Magus, that much was clear. He'd never bled fire before. Glenn could only hope that change would not prevent the spell from working.

For a moment there was silence, then the tension that had risen around the area relaxed. Magus' ruby eyes opened and he blinked at Glenn. "I don't suppose you could tell me what that was all about?" he demanded. His voice had returned to its normal harsh, sardonic, tone.

Glenn gave the man a considering look. "Tell me what it is thou art doing here, in this time so far out of thine own?"

"What do you think? I'm trying to find Schala," Magus snorted, a faint sneer tugging at his lips. "If I was tossed through time by our experience with Lavos, then it stands to reason she was too."

Glenn raised an eyebrow. "Then Three questions; What was thy performance just now in service of? What hast happened to change thy blood so and " His eyes narrowed, "what did ye mean when ye said thy death now would spell disaster?"

Magus' eyes went wide and startled. "What? What are you talking about? I said?" He sat up and swayed. It wasn't possible for him to get much paler, but he was drawn and exhausted.

"Aye. When I came up to thee, ye said in a voice most strange that thy dying in this place and time wouldst be disastrous." Glenn started to reach out to support the mage by his elbow, but Magus pulled back. "Thou art in no condition to refuse aid, Magus. Come."

***

As Glenn helped the mage to his feet, Magus took several deep breaths. "The last thing I knew after you skewered me was someone – it sounded a bit like Schala – talking to me." He shook his head, confused and feeling the knife-sharp edge of fear. Something was happening to him but he was cursed if he understood it. I may be cursed, either way, he admitted to himself.

Allowing the knight to move him to a rock where he could prop himself up, Magus glanced up at the sky. The brilliant flash that had seemed to shatter it earlier was gone, leaving an almost unbearable blue behind – the eternal winter that had covered the world was apparently over. "As for what I was doing" He frowned to himself. "I'm not entirely sure what was happening. I felt a surge of energy – I still feel it, though not as intense – and something inside of me wanted it." Still did, though the hunger was not as great, he noted to himself.

"Hast it occurred to thee that thy actions might cause great harm to our future?" Glenn asked sternly. "Who knows what the power ye called forth wilt do."

"I called forth?" Magus grimaced. "No. It was coming here no matter what. I was just in the right place and the right time." He blinked at Glenn. "You think I caused that flash?"

"Didst thou not?"

Magus gave Glenn a dubious look, reflecting that it was much easier – now that Glenn was human again – to have an idea what the young man was thinking. A frog's face simply wasn't all that expressive. Right now the human Glenn's expression spoke volumes; a mixture of disgust, worry and annoyance. "We've traveled together, fought together for months. Have you ever known me to have the kind of power to create that kind of light show?"

"Thou didst not," Glenn admitted. "But, have not seen thee for some time. I know not how long hast been for thee, but hast been almost a year for me. I know not what powers ye may have gained in the intervening time."

Magus spoke with forced patience, "The only new spell I know is the one that allows me to travel through time. There is absolutely no way I could have caused whatever it was to happen."

"Forgive me, Magus, but Melchior's fears suggested otherwise." At Magus' confused expression, Glenn continued, "T'was he who sent me to this time. His brother Gaspar could see thee here and knew thou wert up to something that might cause trouble for this world."

A sharp shake of his head was swiftly regretted. "Melchior and Gaspar can communicate? Gaspar can tell Melchior what's happening in the time stream?" His lips compressed. "No doubt they can communicate with Belthazar as well. I think perhaps those three old bastards may have a lot of explaining to do, but never mind that. Did he say what I was doing?"

"Nay, but when I arrived and saw thee – wast sure thy search had driven thee mad. Thou art adamant that ye had naught to do with that flash?"

"Damnit Frog I mean Glenn" Magus began, then paused, looking into those distrusting blue eyes. It was true he'd never done much in his life to earn trust or belief from the knight. "Oh for I swear on my sister's life I did nothing just now to cause it."

Glenn's expression softened. "Ahh." He sat back. "Then it is possible that ye have yet to do whatever it was the sages feared. They were not clear on thy purpose, to tell the truth. Any more than ye have been. Dost thou really expect to find Schala by leaping through era after era?"

A small shrug reminded Magus that movement, even after being healed, was inadvisable. "I don't know. The problem is I need to understand time better if I'm to find her. That was why I came here."

"Am not sure exactly how doing so wilt teach thee anything special about time, but I wilt grant that I do not understand the ways of magic – for all Spekio taught it me." Glenn rose to his feet and gazed off towards the eastern skies. "In any case, ye have not yet explained what hast happened to thee to change thy blood so."

***

Glenn didn't have to look at Magus to hear the startled and frightened tone in his answer. "I don't know" he admitted. "I don't know."

Taking a deep breath of the rich green-scented air, Glenn turned back to look at the mage. Magus was seated with his legs crossed, looking at the dried blood on his tunic. The sparkling light that had shown within it was gone now, but he obviously didn't need to ask what Glenn had meant.

Taking off a glove, Magus looked at his hand. From his expression, he was seeing something he didn't like within those pallid long fingers. "Glenn? Do you see something under the skin?"

Kneeling again, Glenn examined the mage's hand. Beneath the pallor was a faint glow. "Yes," he admitted. "Have a feeling that it would be more noticeable in darkness, but yes. There ist something flowing inside ye and I do not think tis just blood."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Magus admitted, and exhaustion showed in his features. "So this is what I was talking about. Or at least part of it." At Glenn's frown of confusion, he sighed. "In my own time I found Gaspar's notes. Before I could touch them I found a message waiting for me"

Glenn listened, frown deepening, as Magus told his story. At last, puzzled, concerned and not a little disturbed, he said, "Art sure that this message came from thy future self?"

For the first time since he'd known the mage, the white haired man's eyes held a faint touch of fear. "Much as I'd like to say 'no, I'm not,' some inner instinct says it was." Magus crossed his arms across his chest, gesture almost casual, but Glenn saw the way his fists had tightened. "Either way, it was right about one thing. I don't like this."

"Hast any idea what this fate is that thy future self spoke of?"

Magus was just starting to answer when the sound of an explosion in the far distance interrupted. Both men looked to the south, but the forest hid most of the horizon. A flash of light attracted their attention, however, and Magus rose to his feet. "Come," he said, grasping Glenn's arm and taking flight.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Re: Eddings – They're certainly an influence on my writing, as the title of this chapter should reveal. But then, so is Elizabeth Peters, Pterry Pratchett and a host of other writers. grin

I'm trying to keep within canon. If something seems out of whack, let me know. Just as a note, I may have to ignore the bit about the Masamune at the end of Trigger, as I can't quite work out how to get the thing where it needs to be with my current plot.

Magus: I have a few suggestions where you could put it.
Masamune: We have a few for you, too.