Chapter 3
"Come on already!" Flea shouted, glancing upwards for a second before his attention was forced back to the struggling parasite.
If it hadn't been for the fact that the magician kept the whip so forcefully strained, Lavos could easily just have turned and cut it off either with magic or his scythe. Or rather, attacked the monster. But as it was now one movement too much would cause him to loose his balance and he was too proud for that. Rather he would pull in his own direction; Flea was by none expected strong enough to hold on for long. He already had apparent problems, desperately changing his grip and stance all the time.
Schaliya hesitatingly changed her grip of the broken Masamune. Despite her shock at seeing Flea - whom she'd only known from her family's memories earlier – she was still nearly insane with grief over the death of her husband and the fate of her uncle's soul.
"Lady, I'd appreciate if you'd hold back just for a few moments!" Flea cringed, wrapping a part of the whip around his hand for better grip.
"This is rather pathetic, don't you find it so?" Lavos sneered, but there was a deadly edge in his voice.
"Oh, it's sorta… Lizard, for heaven's sake! I can't hold him!"
Two more stars finally shot down, penetrating Lavos' head with some notable trouble. He simply grunted a bit.
Janus' moved his head a little as two figures hurried over to him; also displayed in the illusion.
Once again his weakened state was proven as his soul seemed like a shard of blemished ice before the two spirits that bent at him.
One human and one more monster.
"Please Janus, there must be something left in you!" queen Zeal harshly pleaded, reaching out for him.
Her hands went straight though his cheeks, he didn't even seem to feel the presence anymore as he showed no reaction. Lizard tried to grab the tentacles holding the warlock's arms, but even his fingers went through.
"He's too far gone," the first king of Mystics grimly said, "we can do nothing here. Come, before he launches an attack against us."
He took the queen's hand and almost dragged her off, all the while she kept reaching for her son with her free hand.
The two stars popped out of Lavos head. One of them swept up behind Flea and became the monster, while Zeal hurried to Schala's side.
"We're doing all we can," the queen promised in an almost steady voice, "whatever is in our power."
"But if Lavos has him too well sealed…" Schala whispered, shaking her head in despair.
"We couldn't do anything earlier, he was moving too fast. I'm sorry. But Janus might yet be able…"
"Keep him still just a moment longer," Lizard growled, cutting the talking between the humans.
"Do you think this is easy?!" Flea snarled, twisting his grip again.
"Just one more moment…"
"I don't have a moment!"
The whip was torn out of his grip and fell to the ground.
"Oh crap."
Lizard leaped aside, grabbing his own scythe from thin air. But Lavos didn't care about him. Spinning backwards, landing on his hands and leaping on like that repeatedly Flea managed to avoid the long, curved blade again and again, but it was a close call every time.
"Guys! Little help here!" he shouted somewhere in the middle of another flap.
A broken blade caught the scythe from aside, giving Flea time to land properly on his feet and flee in a better way. Schaliya dashed away too before Lavos had time to decide which one to attack first. The fact that he didn't want to kill her yet was about their single upper hand.
"Fight someone your own size!" Lizard shouted and added with a mocking tone, "in any case, you'll loose. Like before."
The parasite slowly turned at the Mystic king, now with pure hatred shown in his face.
That thought-through move showed to be a bad idea.
Three new stars arrived, entering the stolen head as Lavos wasn't moving fast enough.
A voice snarled from the direction of the illusion, causing several bystanders to cringe and spin to stare.
"Magus! You worthless, stupid worm!"
A thin sword slashed at the tentacles holding Janus, but went through them and the soul just like when Zeal and Lizard had tried.
"Dammit!" Slash grunted under his breath.
A fat green hand tried to slap the hanging head, but no luck there either.
"Wake up you idiot!" Ozzie snarled, without gain trying to hit again, "look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!"
Janus' head moved a little again, but that was all.
"What the hell are they trying to do?" Lucca asked in a hoarse voice while Lavos attacked Lizard, sneering at the failed attempts in his head.
"Just one single spark from Janus should be enough for us to touch him," Zeal muttered in a tense voice, "just one last grain of any emotion. Love can't reach him in his state…"
"Hatred?" Marle asked, almost whispering.
"It's our only hope."
"Argh!" Ozzie shouted in frustration, "I don't believe this! Thirteen years I wasted trying to teach this lowlife something and he won't even give me sign of life! You're worthless, you know that Magus?!"
"It's not working…" Slash said with an ironical roll of his eyes, "then again, he was never the brightest."
"'Never the brightest' is too kind and you know it," Ozzie scoffed with one more look in disgust at the soul, "fool."
His white robs swirled as he turned around, shaking his head in detest.
"I wash my hands of the whole thing, he's lost forever."
"Like I ever wanted to help anyway," Slash snorted, apathetically poking at the tentacles with the Slasher.
He looked back at something not displayed in the illusion.
"You must be ashamed," he said, pointing at Janus with his thumb, "he doesn't even deserve loathing."
"Ashamed you call it? Pha!"
A red-brown cloak swept about as a tall man with long, dark-blond hair pranced up in front of the bound soul and sat down on one knee to smirk at the nearly transparent head.
"You're an insignificant freak, boy," Dalton growled, still sneering, "do you hear me? I'm glad this is your end, you shouldn't even have been born. Not even your precious sister will care after seeing you like this. You're pathetic. Pathetic!"
"Ngh…"
Janus head moved a little. The small moan was so weak that anyone hearing it hardly could believe it even had existed.
"Pathetic miscarriage!" Dalton spat.
"You…"
Slowly, wobbly, Janus' lifted his head and tiredly glared straight at his father.
"Gotcha!"
The Slasher penetrated the tentacles on the soul's left arm just as Ozzie tore the right one free. Janus fell forwards limblessly, but Dalton caught him.
Lavos roared in pain, stumbling backwards away from a triumphantly smirking Lizard.
"We've got him!" Dalton shouted, leaping out of sight from the illusion.
"Bless you!" Zeal called as the three stars zoomed out of Lavos' head and rushed over to her.
Dalton carrying Janus' limp body was a strange sight indeed. The warlock seemed to have turned even more transparent as he was brought out, his eyes closed and his cloak being dragged over the ground as Dalton carefully handed him over to his mother. Zeal lowered him to the ground, supporting him by the shoulders. He didn't show any signs of life however.
"Curse you insects!" Lavos roared, rushing at the group in rage.
Crono tried to get a spell ready, Schaliya leaped up in front of her relatives with the broken Masamune ready to parry.
But they were both bested by Slash and Ozzie. The thin sword the purple monster wielded flashed with light from the green one's hands, parrying the scythe quite nicely. But it was apparent that Lavos would win in the long run; Slash was almost brought to his knees by the blow.
"Flea! Get over here right now and help, you wimp!" Ozzie snarled, the bolts of lights from his palms to the weapon desperately intensifying.
"Can we defeat him?" Marle croaked, fumbling with Crono's arms as he staggered again.
"We couldn't even defeat you," Dalton mildly pointed out before spinning around and sending a stream of light towards the stolen body.
The blow was deflected by a dark ray from Lavos' eyes, and the very same soon threw Ozzie and Slash backwards past the assembled heroes. Queen Zeal defensively hugged her son's shoulders while Schaliya, her mother and Dalton stubbornly blocked the parasite's way.
"So we're going down, that's what you're saying?" Lucca harshly said, fiddling with her gun.
In the next moment she had to duck since Dalton passed over her head in a not very graceful bow.
"The things I'll go through!" Ozzie snarled, stumbling halfway back to help Schala and Schaliya with their weapons, "and all because of him!"
"Hey! Keep it up!" Lizard shouted, joining the fun of trying to push Lavos' backwards.
"Yes Lizard."
"What are you complaining about?" Dalton snarled, cursing under his breath as yet another one of his blasts proved worthless, "you're taking orders from your bloody idolized ancestor, I'm taking orders from a monster!"
"Watch your tongue, human!" Slash growled, taking Schala and Lizard's place as they were sent flying as well.
Lavos was still going softer on Schaliya, but that wouldn't help for long at this rate. He was much stronger than the dead and alive warriors together.
"Levana, get Janus out of here already!" Dalton shouted.
"Right away," queen Zeal grimly nodded.
She bent over the seemingly unconscious Janus, gently moving in one arm under his knees while the other hugged his shoulders. As she straightened up, carrying him as if he didn't weigh anything at all, a soft light enveloped his slumping body. He seemed to shrink.
Within a few seconds the queen wasn't carrying a full grown man, but the child once lost to the Mystics. He even wore his purple robes, curled up in his mother's arms seemingly asleep. As if his last strength had been focused when he lost size, he now seemed less transparent than before.
Schala nearly choked as she got to her feet, seeing her mother tenderly hold Janus as both of the siblings long ago had wished she would.
"Will he be alright?" she nearly sobbed.
"It'll take a while but we have the eternity," Levana Zeal said in a hushed, thick voice, "he'll be fine…"
She turned around and grimly looked at Schala.
"But this doesn't have to be," the queen said, "you might still stop all this from happening if you make it back before Lavos defeats Molor. You must help him."
Lizard hit the ground by Levana's feet.
"We're going to need the best we've got…" he said, lightly slurring, "this isn't working."
"I'll send her down," the queen said, suddenly with a small smirk.
"Her?" Ozzie, Slash, Dalton and Flea croaked.
The latter even dropped the new whip he had been about to use from behind Lavos' back.
"Yes, I see no other solution," Lizard merrily said, getting to his feet and picking up the scythe.
Slash was pushed several feet backwards as he tried to keep Lavos at bay and talking at the same time.
"Oh no, no, no milord," he almost pleaded, "I'm sure, that's exaggerating…"
"Yes," Dalton hurriedly added, "we can surely handle this…"
"Can you hit him at all, human?" Lizard mildly asked.
"I, ah…"
"I'm getting her," the queen nodded, beginning to glow.
Just before she turned into a star she looked down at her son, smiling a bit bitterly but still fondly.
"Come on, Janus," she mumbled, "Alfador has missed you."
Her star shot up towards the blue sky.
"Lizard! You're getting us all killed again!" Ozzie groaned, "are you out of your mind?"
"You're already being killed you moron!" the ancestor grunted and waved at the spectators to back off.
"Sure, but it's not by a psychopathic banshee!"
By now Schala and the other alive ones had grown almost more perplexed than scared.
"Who are you calling a banshee, Ozzie?" a very sharp female voice snapped.
"Ah!"
On cue those who had spoken ill of the help threw themselves aside, nearly causing Lizard and Lavos to fall over each other.
A new star landed, turning into… another monster.
It was a female, with bluish skin and hair that she kept loosely falling past her shoulders. She was dressed in the same kind of simple tunic that Lizard wore, and in her deeply green eyes were murder.
"You?!" Lavos snarled.
"Her?" Schala mumbled, confused.
She seemed familiar to the princess, but somehow from more than one place. The memory escaped her grip as she tried to catch it…
"Welcome, love," Lizard said, still working on his balance.
"What the heck?" Lucca confusedly said.
"Lady Snake," Slash groaned from somewhere on the ground behind the scientist, "this will get messy…"
"What kind of heroes are you?" Snake grunted, cracking her knuckles, "men!"
Glancing at the carefully backing Flea she added:
"And you're not excused."
Lavos threw Lizard aside like a fly and fully concentrated on the ancient lady Mystic.
"I remember you," he growled.
Snake gave a lovely smiled, flashing two rows of fangs.
"That's so sweet of you. Now what did we do that first time we met?"
She mocked thoughtfulness for a moment, then smirked.
"Ah yes… I played nutcracker with your thick spiky shell in the Ocean Palace. That was so romantic!"
Darkness surrounding, dark energy drawing closer, it will eat me… Janus, what happened to you, mother, why? Why did that boy Crono die for us, sacrificing himself to Lavos… I must get out of here…
Schala's mind swirled as she remembered her last moments in the falling Ocean Palace, back then paralyzed by shock and drain of power. Nearly insane of fear and despair.
He's here, he's coming for me too… there's no escape I…coming closer, I can feel him…just behind me, I can't move…
"Hang on, woman!"
A fist smashed through the air and there was an unearthly screech of pain.
"Go, get out of here!"
It was too dark to see, but there was something blue…
A rough-skinned hand holding her arm, throwing her into a swirling darkness filled with eerie colors…
"You saved me…?" Schala whispered.
(Author's note:
That part concerned yet another part of this series; Schala's journeys to find Janus. Don't kill me! Ahhh!)
Though she hardly even heard herself, Snake glanced at the blue-haired human for a second and even winked with one eye before turning back to the main dish.
"So, care to dance again?" she smirked.
And then… she disappeared.
But Lavos was sent flying aside with a roar of rage. Before he even had landed Snake was at him, causing him to stumble backwards with a tornado of punches. Her hands and arms were almost invisible, only clearly seen when she spun around to kick instead. The scythe instantly fell to the ground.
He didn't have a chance too parry.
For a moment everyone else just watched in silence.
Then Marle kicked at Ozzie's stomach, as he was still on the ground.
"Excuse me for asking," the blond princess begun in a calm voice that quickly changed as she went on, "but why didn't you bring her here earlier?!"
"It's quite simple," Lizard said in a low voice, shielding his mouth with a hand in the combatants' direction, "we can only come down here to help in extreme circumstances, and even so we have only one chance. If we 'die' again we can never come back. And Snake, well… to be honest, she can only hold up for about a minute. Then she's completely drained."
"Thirty seconds and counting…" Slash grimly snarled, gripping his weapon tightly.
"We'll handle this!" Lizard grimly said, "you must go help Janus, quickly!"
"Yes, of course…" Schala said.
She hurriedly raised her hands and began mumbling.
"I will stay here, mother," Schaliya said with a bitter smile, "I have no wish to exist in a time stream where Glenn is dead."
"I understand," the mother whispered, tearing the Gate open and diving in.
Good luck you guys, Crono said before following the blue-haired one, man… did I say that to you?
"Get lost, human!" Ozzie snarled, preparing a new spell as Snake retreated, gasping for air.
Lavos was bleeding from a vast collection of tears and deep cuts apart from the bruises, but not nearly defeated. And by now he was getting close to berserk.
Lucca dove in last, the final thing she saw being Schaliya, Dalton and the monsters attacking Lavos simultaneously. Who'd win was hard to say.
But the inventor would never know as she rushed through time, following her friends to prevent the horrifying bloodshed to occur.