c h r o n o c r a s h

By FL#2

(Hikaru-chan64@msn.com)

AIM screen name: Sergiekins

Chapter 16: Forwards

Disclaimer: I do not own Chrono Cross, or anything related to it. Square owns it not me, so don't even think of getting me in trouble.

* = Author's note

*Ugh... X_x the heavens burn. Yes, the thing I had most dreaded has happened. Home World Leena is in my fanfic. I know... it's a terrible thing to think about, but... you'll all soon see what I have in store. *

Serge passed through the stilted houses, their straw strewn structures of lumber and bits of the gushing sea that plastered them together, creaking under the soft breeze, the ocean sitting so dangerously silent as the village's savior and reaper as usual. As his feet carried him through the slumbering neighbors in the place of his cemented memories, he had always thought of the sea that they lived off of and lost loved ones too in strange ways.

"The sea is a cruel mistress..." was only half of the picture, Serge thought to himself as he smiled slightly, reaching the pier, the poles propping up the nailed boards creaking under the sea's exhalations.

Serge strode along the pier, keeping his eyes strained to stare at the line of tiny lands that stretched down from Arni... down to that beach that invoked both sentimental feelings and fear for him. Opassa Beach was the name humans knew it as. Serge was brought back to a memory, long suppressed of that day that he lost his father... the day that his phobia first wrapped it's arms 'round his neck. He forced himself to stop thinking about what he feared, and to go do his duties.

When Serge reached the end of the pier, he found the fisherman that regularly slumbered in his fishing boat, to be missing... along with the boat. He scanned the area again, thinking he might spot the fisherman accidentally floating off as he slept. He could see nothing but the sapphire tides rush in and out at his feet, the cerulean sky resting a top it's waves with billowing white clouds plastered across it's canvas. A chill rose through his spine to his neck, the tiny hairs rising up with a tingling sensation as a soft gust of salty air swirled around him. He felt suddenly tense as he stared at the clouds above, because somehow... they frightened him. Something about them reminded him of something, but he couldn't place it.

Turning swiftly towards the village, he ran down the pier, his boots thumped against the wood loudly until he reached the main part of the village again. He could hear the villagers stirring in their beds, and the sounds of frying pans and sizzling meals echoed from within the small restaurant that Belcha owned. He knew he would have to leave now if he wanted to be alone, because everyone would want to get a piece of his story that even he himself didn't know. He sprinted for the edge of the village, the cool dew on the trampled grass spluttering around his legs. He broke into the dry edges of the village, he slowed his pace to a slow jog and finally to a relaxed walk. Supporting the back his head with his palms as he strolled casually down the path, it's spiraling trail making a sharp turn towards the string of islands that the Komodo Dragons inhabited. Serge strolled farther through the strand of islands, wading through dips between the specs of flat, moldy rock that jutted ever so slightly from the mouth of sea. He worked his way through some thick brush at the edge of one of these, and with a shrill shriek erupted from in front of him. When suddenly scale and flesh clashed like old enemies, sending both Serge and the scaled creature careening back into the greenery, it's piercing squeal evaporating as the rustle of brush diminished as well. Serge just sat there for a few moments, his bum aching and senses muddled. As Serge began to regain his normal heart rate, he remembered his "order" to hunt and rip those brilliant scales that even shunned the colors of a rainbow, for Leena's damned necklace.

That's the last thing I can remember... but it feels like... it was much longer ago than that...

Serge grit his teeth, partly in pain, and partly in the effort of trying to remember anything after he had stood at Opassa Beach with her. The crimson sunset burning his eyes open as it mirrored itself with the same intensity as the original into the mirror, and the soft breaths of the sea and sky running through his skin and soul, his talk of days past with Leena, and then... nothing but black. There was nothing after that at all.

What the hell...? That didn't happen just yesterday... did it? ... It couldn't have... what happened to me? How did I end up washed on the shore like a dead fish then...?

Serge shook his head in defiance, trying to push back the thoughts of memory loss. But, he felt it inside his soul, poking at his sense of reality with a white knife and laughing at his own naivety. He rushed down the final length of the islands, and jerked his rage to a halt as he reached the edge of Opassa Beach. He fell to his knees into the cool grains of the sand, skidding forward a bit as the momentum from his running faded into the impact. His head slowly sunk down towards the sand, his breath catching up with him. Then, he heard a voice.

"Serge?"

He drew a breath, and he recognized the voice immediately.

Leena.

The sound of her sandals pressing into the sand grew louder as she strode closer to the boy that did not move to gaze up at her, and she reached at hand to touch his shoulder. He watched her skirt ruffle as she rested her bottom onto her heels in a crouch.

"What are you doing here? Don't you need to be in bed...?" She bent her neck down to try and study his facial features, but his hair blocked her attempts.

Serge still didn't look at her, the orchid eyes wide with confusion and seething anger beneath them deep within their bowels. The gruffness in his voice seemed to startle Leena slightly:

"Leena... what happened to me...? Tell me!!"

He clenched the sand beneath him between his fingers; his teeth grit and arms shuddering through the tightened muscles.

Leena's eyes didn't leave his sheltered profile; her mouth hung open slightly in confusion.

"... You don't remember?"

Serge slowly began to stand, pushing himself up with his arms, the soft sand clinging to his knees and palms. He took a few long strides to the edge of the water, his gaze still unmet to hers.

"No. It's all... blank." He struggled for words, but that was all that came forth from within. His arms hung limp at his sides and a breeze blew over the sea, his boots becoming wet from the wave that followed.

Leena also stood, wiping the sand from her skirt and knees, making sure not to drop the basket of mushrooms that hung at her elbow. She hesitantly sauntered over to Serge's side, another wave crashing in at their now aligned feet.

"Serge..." Her eyes lay fixed upon the ocean ahead. "It was a couple of weeks ago... you seemed so troubled. Everyday, you would either sit in your room or rush to up the rocks to Cape Howl... whenever I tried to find out what was wrong, you would start yelling at me about some kind of nonsense..."

Something clicked in the back of his mind, and he swiveled his gaze at Leena.

"... Nonsense? What kind of nonsense...?!"

Leena's eyes glanced up at him for a split second; her emotions turning strung and half-annoyed.

"If you yell, I won't tell you. You kept on talking about some girl, rambling on and on about her... the way she walked, talked, and smelled... I don't even remember her name, and you know why...?"

She glared over him; her green pools narrowed like that of cat's, about to strike with a jealous ferocity.

Serge shook his head simply, his brows furrowing down in slight anger. He didn't appreciate the look she threw at him in his time of confusion.

Leena continued with a breathy sigh.

"I knew you must've had some kind of relationship with her, and I lost my cool. I confronted you about her one night..."

~~~Flashback~~~

As the deafening crash of the midnight colored waves belted through her ears, Leena's sandals tapped lightly against the mossy rock of the high cliff, the calls of the gulls nearly rooted out entirely. Serge's silhouette against the two full double moons was her only assurance of safety, as she never really left the village at night. But, she knew she would have to keep her composure full and cold to take on this daunting task.

He can't have found someone else... just ask him, and he'll finally confess his feelings to you. No problem, two birds with one stone, that's all it is.

Serge did not so much as shift from his frozen position on the edge of the cape, his legs dangling silently over, the gravity feeling as if it would pull him down at any second and free him of his inner feelings and memories.

Leena took another step forward, and these three words blurted from her lips, her commandeering tone breaking through.

"Serge, get up."

Serge still did not move; the winds only whipped against his glazed eyes with his hair and crimson bandanna the only things that seemed to acknowledge that they were still a part of this world, obeying to the wind's movements. And, his voice echoed vacantly:

"No. Go home, Leena. I'm not in the mood."

Leena's hope and determination faltered, and her once hip-bound hands fell limply to the sides of her skirt, making the supple noise of a baby's breath; cloth against flesh. A soft breeze blew from the north, her strawberry hair flying forwards into her face, her green eyes gazing down at her feet. Serge's cold manner had begun to shock her, he had never acted this way before... was it something she said that day at the beach? How could it have been?

Leena swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

"I know you've been seeing someone. You should know... you always talk about her."

Serge's shoulders flinched, and he sat still for a moment, his unseen gaze still upon the sea 300 feet below. Rising up from the coral stone, his black silhouette was all that Leena's human eyes could make out, his emotion only evident from what he spoke to her.

"So what if I'm in love with another girl? What is it to you that I lust for her?! The smell of the sea, the burning passion of hell, and we were torn away from each other!"

He swiveled round, clenching his white knuckles onto his head in distress. He began to mutter, taking a few stumbling steps away from Leena. He was moving back towards the edge of the cliff, Leena found.

"It was like..." He uttered nearly beneath his breath. "Fate was getting back at us somehow!!"

Leena's heart skipped, propelling her towards Serge to hold him, breast to back in an unrequited embrace.
"Serge! I-... I love you... please, come back with me... forget about her! If she's gone, she's gone! You used to always say we would always be togeth--" Her confession was soon cut short, as Serge pulled away fiercely, inching ever closer to the edge of the cliff.

With grit teeth and anger burning through his veins like wildfire, he turned to her, screaming.

"We were just children, Leena! I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY!!"

He clenched his fists together, and swallowed down his last breath.

"I can't take this world anymore. It was nice being able to grow up with you Leena, I just hope that my piece of the stars will be waiting for me."

~~~End Flashback~~~

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Leena sobbed into her hands as she managed to utter the last bit of her memory.

"A- and you..." She stopped to take a shrill breath between a bawl. "... Jumped off... th-the cliff..."

Serge's mind raced, everything sinking and blurring down into a dead cavern in his head.

Kidd... Kidd... Kidd... Kidd...

Everything rushed back to him like a hammer against a nail, jamming the past into his now only present mind.

He had killed himself, because he had known... known all that had happened, and what Schala had decided to let him forget.

He felt himself moving backward, into an inky blackness once again, Leena's screams clouded by echoes and stories, his vision disintegrating and giving way to the will of the force that was pulling him back and forth.

And so, he fell once again.

***

End of Chapter 16

***