Chapter 7, Answers

Ever since his childhood Janus had been very apprehensive about facing any kind of information while his Mystic teachers were around, but as they kept respectful distance it didn't bother him much.

    And when it came down to it, there were a few questions he often had pondered without finding a decent answer. Might as well take the chance now, even if he'd have a lot of time for it later too.

    The last thought was surprisingly free of anguish. Death wasn't so bad when you had seen the other side, after all.

 "Since you didn't know anything about it back then, I suppose you don't have any idea about the dreams I had about the other life?" the warlock said after a moments pondering of where to start.

    He kept looking at his mother and Lizard, nobody else.

    They shook their heads.

 "Same theory as earlier," Magician said and shrugged, "your mind might have hooked onto a parallel time stream when you went Gate leaping in the search for Schala, it's the only sensible idea so far. Azran doesn't know either, funny that."

    Janus glanced at the ancient monster and raised an eyebrow.

 "Do I want to know who that 'somebody who isn't here' is, who presented that theory in the first place?" he said, slowly.

 "That would be me."

    Dalton looking sheepish was a disturbing sight.

 "What interest hast thee for my uncle?" Janatzer coldly questioned in suspicious defending.

    The older one glared back, his hesitant look being washed in the tides of irritation.

 "Well youngster, you know that he is my…"

 "Allow not the words to foul the holy air," the boy cut off.

    Dalton scowled, then frowned even deeper as he noticed the twitching lips of the spectators.

 "By the powers, he's worse than you ever were," the general snorted.

 "How would you know, you kept your distance as far as I recall," Janus said with a much colder sparkle in his eyes, "thankfully."

 "Watch it, we might agree on something."

 "If you have something important to say then speak up or leave."

    The two men glared their challenge.

    Of all people, Flea stepped in between. Without considering the risk of turning to charcoal.

 "Okay you two, time out, cease fire, love, peace, understanding and all that crap that makes me feel sick."

 "Well isn't that just darn…" Magician commented, resting his cheeks in his hands. And his elbows on Lizard's head until slapped off.

 "Get out of my face before I remodel yours, you pink moron," Dalton stated.

 "Oh I love you too, cutie," the younger magician smirked and swatted at the thick curls as he pranced aside again.

    Janus glanced at Lizard.

 "Are you sure this isn't hell?" he dryly asked, making the Mystic chuckle slightly.

 "Aww, come on!"

    Flea pirouetted around and tilted his head sweetly.

 "We're not that bad anymore!" he stated.

 "I guess we all do have to pay for our sins, one way or another," Slash grunted and leaned against a tree with his arms sourly folded. 

 "I actually find you worse now," Janus emotionlessly told the female-looking one, getting the responding pout everybody had been expecting.

 "Why I never…"

 "Never?" Ozzie cut off, smirking slightly.

 "Ohhh!" Flea fumed and turned his back at as many as possible, "I'll get back on you somehow!"

 "Don't worry about that, you already are," Dalton growled, "with every damn word leaving your mouth."

    The Mystic spun around with a hiss and bent his fingers like claws, but Slash grabbed his crag and pulled him backwards.

 "No catfights now, ladies," the swordsman stated.

    His normally grim face cracked up in a smirk a second later as Dalton finally caught the insult and snarled profanities under his breath. Flea was too gleeful at that reaction to claw his companion's eyes out.

 "Now, I actually have another theory, if you'd give me a chance to talk," Slash stated and easily flung Flea over his shoulder.

    Silence ruled for a second – save the magicians grumbles – until Janus reluctantly nodded.

 "Fine," he said.

 "Will make it brief," Slash said and crossed his arms as usual, "we have perfect contact with the guarding powers in this dimension, but it's not as simple to reach into parallel time streams. Now, I expect of you to at least once have wondered what happened to the boy Janus that you saw when you pretended to be the Prophet in Zeal."

    Janus pursed his mouth. It was answer enough. The swordsman nodded and spoke up again.

 "Indeed, for since he could not have the same memories as you did, he can't have been you. The time loop is incorrect, your memory did not change with the events you led in Zeal."

 "True," the warlock slowly said.

 "But, that boy was not the slave you dreamt about either," Slash said, "I didn't look at what you experienced but your mother tells me that the slave didn't remember any Prophet."

    Thinking back – though not too fond of bringing back the memories – Janus had to agree once more.

 "Hold up," Janatzer protested, "sayeth thee that there was no Prophet in my uncle's memories from his childhood? But…"

 "There was a Prophet, yes," Janus slowly said and shook his head, "but I hardly noticed him and he disappeared quickly. Schala must have seen him well though, otherwise she wouldn't have recognized me as him in Dalton's fortress."

    All of a sudden the once one-eyed man found a tree very fascinating.

 "I am becoming confused," the youngster of the group said, almost as an apology.

 "Yes, it's a bit confusing, I'll try to make it simpler," Slash said with a shrug.

    He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and started to draw a straight, imaginary line in the air. The thing was, as he finished it the line really appeared as a purple thread.

 "We'll try like this. This is a time line, alright?"

    The swordsman awaited a nod from the boy before he continued.

 "Now, the time travel caused a bit of trouble for the guardians, since nothing can exist in the past, present and future at the same time. But somehow it worked out since Janus and the others kept moving around, never staying in one place long enough to cause a crack. However, there was one thing that was too big for the time stream to handle. That was Janus meeting himself as a child. The only way that the time stream could survive that…"

    Slash drew another line, growing out from the last so that the ending result looked like a forked road.

 "… was to split, renew itself. Which means that when you go back in time to Zeal, you will never come to your own version of it, but the parallel one. That is because you met yourself."

    He was looking at Janus for the last part of the rant.

 "I think I follow," the warlock said, "Schala's and my memories are the same, but the Schala I saw back in Zeal experienced different things, just like the boy did."

 "Exactly," Slash nodded.

 "But where do my dreams tie in?"

    Almost seeming idly, Slash drew a fork in the youngest line. Then another fork in the fresh one. And so on, until he had made about ten of them. By then he had floated almost a foot upwards to be able to reach.

 "Was our time stream the original one?" he finally said, "I doubt it, since you saw a Prophet too. Here's the deal, that man did not try to save you from the Mystics, and neither did you when you took his place."

    Janus frowned and nodded.

 "We know that the boy you saw wasn't the slave, so he must have been further ahead or earlier down the line."

    Slash motioned at his drawing.

 "My guess is that he showed up some time after you, however, because he made a difference. Those before him seems to have done the same mistake, but he dived for the boy instead of trying to kill Lavos."

    He shrugged as he kept talking.

 "Perhaps there is a guardian who has seen many time streams and was trying to make a break for it. Why did the slave try to save the boy when nobody else did? Why didn't you, Janus?"

    The warlock pursed his mouth and shook his head again.

 "I thought that he needed the strength, whether I liked it or not," he admitted, hands clenching above Alfador's resting form.

 "Exactly," Slash said with the hint of a dry smile, "but the slave knew nothing but pain and didn't think it was worth it, so he tried to crash the cycle. However, when you look at him, does he truly appear as strong enough to break free?"

 "Once he managed to get rid of the brainwash, he appeared a bit stronger than I was," Janus protested.

 "Yes, but that's it. Seeing Schala's pendant broke him out of the mist, but it's not that simple to clear out a brainwashed mind. Without a stronger mind inside his own which was fighting to make him remember, he probably would have died in the battle that saved him."

    Slash held up a hand to silence the warlock as he was about to speak again.

 "I know you felt that you were him all the time, but for you to see something through someone else's eyes, your presence is required, correct? You couldn't change anything knowingly, but your soul being there strengthened his. I believe a guardian might have brought you in since you have a very strong mind, enough to rub off on someone else. And apart from that…"

    He smiled faintly and motioned at Janatzer.

 "There would be another time when you needed to know about the slave and his student."

    Janus looked down at his nephew and gave a dry chuckle.

 "By the powers, I'm listening and agreeing on what you say, Slash. This will take a while to get over."

 "And you could have brought it up with me, you knew I was trying to figure it out," Dalton growled.

 "I thought you were intelligent enough to think of it yourself," Slash snorted and resumed leaning against a tree.

 "Why you…"

 "Anything else?" lord Amon asked with a sigh, rolling his eyes at the combatants.

    Janus acted like it was raining and looked at Alfador's furry head. A frown touched the pale forehead.

 "Uncle?" Janatzer immediately said, worried.

    He earned the shadow of a smile.

 "Quite protective of me today, aren't you?" Janus commented.

    The boy gravely nodded.

 "Of course uncle," he grimly said, "'twas my fault that Lavos caused thee such harm."

    The warlock bent forwards, wary of the cat in his lap, and put his hand on Janatzer's shoulder.

 "It was not your fault," Janus almost growled, "hadn't it happened then he would have found another way."

 "But…"

 "He's right," Levana nodded with sadness sparkling in her eyes, "Lavos is not a creature who gives up easily. You were just following orders, how could you have rebelled against that?"

    She quickly placed her hand on Janus' shoulder in turn as he straightened up.

 "And that goes for you too," she sharply said, "you could never have served that bastard of an emperor."

    Janus clenched his teeth.

 "Ah yes, him," he muttered with a slight hiss, "I'm working on what to do with that man when I get back."

 "Oh boy, and we've got a first row ticket!" Flea grinned, showing off all of his sharp teeth, "who'll get the snacks?"

 "Not you in any case," Levana sternly said, "those blue things left a bad taste in my mouth for days."

    She looked up as she noticed her son's gaze.

 "What?" she asked.

    Janus' red eyes shot over to Slash and Ozzie. The first one was hiding his lips behind his hand with a horrified glistening in his eyes, the other coughed uneasily.

    Flea tried to look innocent under the judge's glare.

    Closing his eyes Janus made an imitation of Slash's position.

 "What?" Amon asked, slightly worried.

    The human hand fell and Janus opened his mouth, but closed it again. Finally he shook his head.

 "You don't want to know."

 "It's an acquired taste!" Flea smirked.

    The ruby glare almost petrified him. Literally.

 "You used to give them to me as punishment!" Janus growled.

 "Less screaming involved in that reprimand, allowed the rest of us to sleek!"

    A gracefully executed throw sent the pink-skinned sadist flying into the pond. Dalton, Slash, Ozzie and Magician backed off from the blur that had made Flea shut up, all four of them coughing apologizingly as she rubbed imaginary dust off her hands.

 "Sorry about that, lord Janus," the female Mystic said, with her stare keeping the magician in the water for a while longer, "he's a damn slow learner."

 "Beat me to it as usual, dear," Lizard said, diplomatically smiling.

    Janus raised an eyebrow.

 "I think I see what you meant about her, Ozzie," he commented.

    Snake looked around, smiling slightly.

 "Oh, Ozzie was talking about me while I'm off somewhere else again, was he?" she sweetly said.

    Before the fat Mystic had time to duck, the lady had moved.

 "You did that on purpooose!" he screeched before the water enveloped him.

    Ozzie's crash gave most of the group a shower, but the liquid quickly disappeared again.

 "To intentionally do something like that is below my dignity," Janus calmly stated, but the left corner of his lips was twitching.

 "Whatever," Snake said with a chuckle and leaned against an unoccupied tree, "now I can assure you things will go a little more smoothly, so carry on what you were doing before they went astray."

 "Ah yes."

    Janus nodded, turning grim again.

 "I was wondering about Molor, what will happen to his soul when he dies?"

    Before anyone had time to say anything, he told the thin air:

 "And the first one pointing and saying something along the lines of 'Does the fact that Charash is behind you answer your question' will bleed, I swear."

    When the hand is wet, snapping fingers isn't easy even if you oh so dearly want to mock disappointment.

 "Well darn!" Flea sighed and chuckled teasingly.

 "Charash isn't here," Levana softly said, "but that's only because he isn't dead yet. There's nothing to worry about, Janus."

 "I'm relieved to hear that," the warlock spoke with a little more than a faint smile.

    Meanwhile Flea had reached the brim of the pond.

 "Can I get out of here now, lady Snake?" he whined.

    She looked at him for a moment.

 "No."

 "Figures."

    Sighing, the magician swam backwards again.

 "I have a query," Janatzer spoke up.

 "Do tell," his grandfather kindly said.

 "I have been told that mother invoke the power of Light, but none had an explanation to how she could do so," the boy said, glancing at his uncle as if hoping for approval.

    The youngster smiled with relief like a complimented student to his teacher, when the warlock nodded. The respect Janatzer felt for his namesake after was very apparent right then. 

 "Good, I almost forgot about that," Janus admitted.

 "Err…"

    Dalton stepped forward again, glancing nervously at Snake. She left it by a warning glare, thus he dared to speak up.

 "I can explain that…"

    He glared at Slash.

 "… Unless someone else has better ideas?"

 "Not in this case," the swordsman casually said.

 "Make it brief," Janus emotionlessly demanded.

    Dalton rolled his eyes but nodded.

 "Fine. Here goes, but don't attack me if you don't like some of the things I say."

 "I'll be the judge of that," the warlock stated.

 "As usual. Anyway…"

    He held up four fingers.

 "As we all know there are four elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire, that's an old party line. But only two of these nature forces are directly used in magic, and those are the last two. Wind might be included since that's the same as Air, which leads us to Thunder. I believe magic was born from familiarity, all these things are vital for living creatures to survive. But why is Earth excluded then? I believe your companion Ayla is in fact Earth based, but the powers she has are too primitive to be called magic."

    Before he continued to speak he raised his hands to the level of his chest with the palms turned outwards, ready to shield himself.

 "So we have these elements naturally. Shadow is not natural, since that is, plainly, evil power and not just lack of light. Lavos brought that power to our world."

    Janus clenched his teeth, and so did Janatazer as he came to the sad conclusion. The others didn't change much, obviously already aware of the story.

    But the warlock allowed Dalton to go on, without saying a word. In truth, he wasn't one to kill the messenger even if it was very tempting sometimes.

 "Then we have Light. That came from the dreamstone."

 "Dreamstone?" Janus said in disbelief, "how does that fit into your 'natural' theory?"

    Dalton nodded, without annoyance.

 "That's the thing," he said, "the reason Schala could invoke Light was because it was natural to her; her pendant was made of dreamstone. It's the only true magic material in this world, powered on its own. How that can be is another thing, it might be natural to it. I don't know."

 "What about the Masamune and my amulet?" the warlock questioned.

 "You and Frog already had specified magical elements, Shadow and Water. Melchior is also Water, even if he can use other types of magic as well. Therefore it couldn't touch any of you no matter how long you were in contact with the accessories. However, Schala never did have a specified element, even if she mastered a lot of spells. It might have been since she was given the pendant very early, and it opened up her ability to invoke Light."

    Slowly Janus nodded.

 "Fair enough," he admitted.

 "See, that's the reason the Masamune can break through your defenses," Dalton added, "Light and Shadow don't mix well."

    Janus thought he saw the man flinch slightly as he spoke, but didn't have time to consider what that was about due to the interruption. A voice that mostly resembled to softly ringing bells cut through everything and caused the strange collection of people to look upwards.

 "I'm sorry that you had to wait, everything is cleared up now."

    From the strange heavens a figure emerged. It appeared to be male, but with all the constantly swirling, golden robes and the indistinct voice it was hard to tell. The face didn't help much either, as it seemed like the facial looks of the creature were changing all the time. But there was nothing threatening about him, only a warm feeling of security. Those who had been sitting stood up whether they noticed doing so or not, and Ozzie and Flea finally were allowed to climb ashore.

 "Took you long enough," Snake commented, in a soft voice however.

 "You wouldn't believe the rips that Lavos created in the time line," Azran sighed and shook his head.

    As he landed he turned out being at least two heads taller than even Lizard.

    For being an "angel", he suffered a distinct lack of wings. But the power seeping from his being clouded any so called misconception.

    He turned to the visitor and his nephew, smiling warmly somewhere among all the changes of his face.

 "When you get back, give that dragon of yours a compliment from above," the guardian mildly said, "not everyone would come out victorious from such a battle."

    He left it be unsaid how close it had been to a failure.

 "So there is no problem with bringing Janatzer back to life?" Janus asked, careful as this being with his entire existence softly asked for respect.

    The angel shook his head.

 "Not anymore, and had there been more problems I would have cleared those up too," he assured, "the boy's death was not meant to be."

 "Thank you, lord," Janatzer gratefully said.

 "No need for that," Azran kindly smiled, "now we'll just have to make sure that you have a long and fine life. You'll have to say good bye now."

    The boy looked around and smiled, getting the same in return from the rest of the group.

 "It was just fun, kid," Magician assured with a chuckle.

    Levana bent forwards and lightly kissed her grandson's cheek.

 "Tell your mother hello from me, will you?" the dead queen said with a smile and with a controlled voice.

 "I will, grandmother."

    Azran held out his hand and Janatzer respectfully took it. They both vanished in a bright flash of light, strangely enough not strong enough to hurt the eyes though.

    Janus reached for the anchor within himself, putting Alfador on the ground as he did so.

 "Next time I come here," he firmly said with twitching lips, "pick another welcome committee, will you?"

 "We'll keep that in mind," Amon chuckled and waved slightly.

 "Take care, Janus," queen Zeal softly said.

    The warlock allowed her, her husband, Lizard and Alfador a smile before he disappeared in a flash very similar to the one that just had brought two others away.

    Sighing slightly Levana sat down on the rock again, the cat of the crew leaping into her lap at the first opportunity.

 "It's not the same just watching over him…" she murmured, mostly to herself.

    Amon gently hung an arm around her shoulder.

 "I know, but…"

 "It's hella more peaceful around here without him," Ozzie grumbled.

    Lizard just "happened" to elbow his descendant back into the pond. It was with such a forceful accident that the younger king was near the middle of the small lake when he resurfaced.

 "Nice one," Snake complimented, laughing softly while Ozzie swam back, muttering under his breath.

    Lizard performed an exaggerated bow, one which he was already notorious for since way back.

 "An honor to serve a worthy queen, milady," he snickered.

 "I swear, if I didn't have to respect those two…" Magician sighed with a teasing smirk.

    A second later he took a refreshing swim as well.

 "Are you going to throw everyone into the water?" Dalton dryly asked, unwisely.

    The married monsters smiled at him, their fangs showing all too well.

 "Yes," they kindly informed.

    Levana absentmindedly held up her hand to shield Alfador from the next shower. She could have sworn the small creature was laughing.

 "Who's next?" Snake sniggered, glancing at Slash who was examining the nearest tree.

 "Dad!" a female voice shouted.

 "We already threw him in, Dreamer," Lizard chuckled, turning to the pink-skinned Mystic who came dashing between the trees.

    She skidded to a halt, willing the thick book she carried under her arm to stay in place. It had silver edges and the pages glowed softly, the name inscribed on the front unreadable due to the Mystic's arm. The souls could however take a clever guess since they knew this lady.

 "What is it now?" Magician blurted as he worked his way onto the grass again.

 "Where's Azran?" Dreamer demanded.

    Meanwhile Flea had slid up beside her, smirking slightly.

 "Will you stop that?" Amon sighed, knowing he served the dead general exactly what he wanted, "it's creepy."

 "What?" Dreamer said, disoriented.

    As she looked aside Flea turned his head at her as well, creating a feeling that one of them was looking at a mirror. There were only two things that made any major difference; the fact that Dreamer wore her head in a pony-tail and carried glasses. Otherwise they were almost perfectly alike.

    Chuckling slightly as he had finished the joke Flea backed off. Until Snake grabbed his crag and sent him bathing.

 "Jokes aside!" Dreamer shouted and held up the book, "we have a problem."

     Levana stood and hurried up to the Mystic. Her fingertips worriedly ran over the golden letters of the book's cover, shimmering ribbons forming three words. The cover was mostly dark, but there were several lighter areas in the complicated pattern which adorned it. One could see pictures of scythes and dragon wings among many other things in the design.

    The letters read "Janus of Zeal".

 "What is wrong?" the mother demanded.

    Dreamer bit her lower lip and shook her head.

 "It's not working out," she stated.

    The book floated out of her hands and opened around the middle. The left page which showed was halfway filled with text, the rest was blank. Dreamer reached out and touched the empty area below the letters. As she did so, a simple hourglass flashed into her grip. It was about one foot in length and the sand within fell at one piece at the time in a slow, steady pace.

    As Dreamer held the artifact up for inspection Levana counted hardly fifteen grains of sand left.

 "What?!"