By Exile
Disclaimer: All of the characters used in this fanfic, except for Ryen who makes a short appearance in chapter 5, are property of Square. Any references to other stories, except mine, are purely coincidental. If you insist it's otherwise, I'll let Alfador loose on your furniture.
Chapter 4: The home wrecking crew
The three mystics were lying on the ground, right before Janus' desk. He looked down at them with a slight trace of amusement on his face.
"Well, answer my question! What are you doing here?" Janus snapped at them.
"We, uhm, came to... bring you... some cake! Yes, that's it. Some cake." Ozzie
said.
Slash and Flea gave him an angry look.
"A cake eh? Show me then, Ozzie."
"He ate it on the way over here!" Slash said, trying to save themselves.
"I didn't eat anything!"
"You ate that box of R&R's, remember?"
"Well, besides that."
"Quiet you. I know why you are here. You came to 'get rid of me', right?"
"No! We would never want to get rid of such a wonderful, beautiful..." Slash
tried to finish.
"Shut up you. You want me dead? Be my guest."
"Really?" Slash said when he and the other two stood up.
"Sure, go ahead." the mage smirked.
"Alright then! Ozzie, Flea, Triple Raid!"
"Is she home? You check her room, I'll check the basement."
"Right."
Taban and Lara had just gotten back from Porre, after hearing what her daughter did.
"She's not over here!"
"Not down here either!" she shouted back.
They met in the living room again.
"Where could she have gone?"
"She probably took off with that flying-thing again. I'll take it apart
immediately after she gets back here."
"If she'll get back here that is."
Taban picked up a small metal receiver from the table. When he turned it on, it started beeping.
"This'll find the machine for us. She'll probably be with it."
Lucca was playing with a little machine she had invented a while ago. It emitted small blips and beeps, annoying Crono.
"Turn that thing off! You're annoying me!"
"Shut up. This whole reunion was your idea. Now look what happened. We're all
wasting our time because we don't have anything to say to each other."
"How could I have known that our lives were so boring? I really thought at least
one of us had anything to say."
Crono paused for a moment, realizing the irony of what he just said.
"I know, why don't we go kill Janus? I'm bored!" Frog added to the conversation.
"It be good fight!" said Ayla.
"You all want him dead do you? He's just a bit lonely, that's all." said Marle,
compassionately.
"And a bit arrogant, cocky, annoying... and the list goes on! Why don't you just
declare your love at him while you're at it?" Lucca remarked.
"Alright! That does it! You've been behaving like him the last few hours too, so
you go take a cold shower or something, I don't care. But don't return until
you've cooled down!" Marle shouted at the purple-haired one.
"But.. but.."
"No buts!"
"You funny woman!" Ayla giggled.
"Yeah sure. Now get out of here! The shower's the third door to the right!"
"She be a though woman, not, Crono?" Frog whispered.
"I know. She's still cute though." he smiled back.
"We got him this time!" Slash said.
"He's toast!" Ozzie added.
Most of Janus' room was filled with smoke. The three mystics were just about to celebrate their victory, when Janus' voice stopped them.
"That was my favorite cape!" the wizard shouted while he put a finger through
the small hole that was burned in his cape by the last attack.
"And what are you going to do about it huh? Slash, you try and get him." Flea
commanded.
"Why me? Oh alright. It's been a while anyway."
Slash drew his sword and attacked, surprising Janus. He barely managed to escape Slash' attack by jumping backwards.
"Come to me!" Janus said while extending his right arm. His scythe raised from the ground in the corner and flew into his hand.
They engaged in a fierce battle, which was clearly led by Janus. Slash was forced to take a few steps backwards until he jumped up and landed behind his opponent. Janus simply turned around and continued his attacks. Slash needed to take a few more steps backwards. The two spectators were following the battle.
"This isn't going good. You try and help him Ozzie!"
"Why me? And why are you commanding us?"
"I'm the strongest of us three so you just do as I say."
"But I'm hungry!"
Flea stepped behind Ozzie and planted a firm kick on his back. Ozzie flew forward, landing between the two fighters.
"Uh... Summon Cheesebu.. no not now. Err.. Lightning!"
Instead of hitting Janus with the pathetic attack, he hit Slash, sending him face forward onto Janus' desk.
"You stupid, fat, green... Just keep out of this! I can take him! This place is
just... a little cramped, that's all!" Slash said while rubbing his sore face.
"Cramped eh? Ok, follow me." Janus said.
"Follow you? I'll bet it's just a trap!"
"You wanna fight or not?" He said while he created a gate.
"We'll follow you. Right Slash?" Flea said.
Janus entered the time-gate he had created. The rest followed him into it.
"Wee! Wee! I'm a plate of sashimi! Wee!"
"Stop that you idiot!"
"Wee! Wee! Now I'm a bowling ball! Wee!"
"I said stop it!"
"Wee! Wee! And never assume that what you see and feel is real! Wee!"
"That does it. Out you go! Out, out!"
"Why can't I quote Doreen? I like her! She's cute!"
"She's an alien. And it wasn't Doreen who said that. Now get lost!"
Gaspar kicked the unsuspecting Nu into one of the pillars of light, sending him off to some unknown period of time.
He landed in the upper section of Leene Square, leaving a small crater behind.
"That stupid old timer." he muttered under his breath.
"Well, let's see. What time is this?"
"Aah! It's a monster!"
Everyone started running away like crazy, thinking Spekkio was a regular monster just like all the others.
"Oh, how typical for humans." he complained.
He walked into Truce, carefully examining each of the houses numbers.
"That's 12, that's 14... There it is. 16. Hope he's home."
He changed into a human form before knocking on the door. A woman, probably in her mid-forty's, opened it.
"Hello my dear! How can I help you?" she said.
"I'm looking for Crono. Is he home?"
"Afraid not. Last time I saw him he went to the castle. His girlfriend lives
there. Yes that's right, she's royal. Isn't Crono a fine young man? He might
even marry her one day! Oh, I can't wai..."
"That's fine ma'am, but I have to go now. Bye!"
Spekkio quickly turned around and walked off, leaving Crono's mom standing in the door opening.
"Also typical. Not human, but typical."
Lucca walked up the stairs, muttering some words to herself.
"Why doesn't anyone ever agree with me? There must be someone like me. With the 200.000 people living on this cramped planet there must be one... I could use a shower though. All that time-traveling is exhausting for the body. Not to mention the mind."
She opened a door, stepping into the royal bathroom.
Spekkio changed shape into a little bird and flew into the sky, entering a window on the top. When he landed on the floor he changed his form back into that of a human.
"And who might you be?"
Spekkio didn't see that someone entered the room after he changed shape again.
"I'm, uh.. err.. Mick. I'm just.. a servant. And you are...?"
"Lucca. And what are you doing in here? Doesn't look like cleaning or anything
like that."
"I'm just here to.. change.. the towels. That's right. The towels."
"Oh. Then do that and get out of here. I need to use the shower."
"Sure."
Spekkio left the room. He heard the door being locked behind him.
"If that's Lucca, the rest must be here too." he said to himself while walking down the stairs.
"Let's continue this up in the air shall we?" Janus said while flying up into
the sky.
"He's leading this fight you know." Flea remarked to the swordsman.
"I know. But I have a few tricks for him in store. Just wait."
Slash followed Janus and they continued their fight.
"Where are we anyway? This forest doesn't seem familiar." Ozzie asked the
magician next to him.
"Don't know. That fog that's always around seems to be gone. That's an
improvement to say the least. It makes your make-up go off in no-time."
"Whatever. I'm hungry. Summon Unhealthy Food!"
A box of snacks appeared with a puff of smoke in front of Ozzie.
"Want some?"
"And put on weight like you? No way."
"Slash Blaze!"
The attack was much stronger than it's name suggested. It slammed into Janus' stomach, colliding with his armor. He flew off into the distance fast, still screaming.
"Now I've got him!" the attacker said. He followed the smoke trail Janus had left behind, with Flea and Ozzie following him from below.
"This is plain-out boring. Let's play a game or something." Crono said.
"What game? We only have chess." answered Marle.
Everything suddenly started to shake. The chandeliers hanging on the ceiling started to wobble and some paintings fell from the wall.
"What the hell is that?" a surprised Marle said. She soon got her answer as they heard a loud bang coming from above. A few meters before them the ceiling bursted open and another chandelier fell through, shattering in numerous pieces. Luckily, no one was standing below it.
"Aah! We're being attacked!" Frog shouted in panic.
"Kino not like what happening.." added Kino.
"Kino dummy!" the prehistoric woman replied.
Ayla immediately jumped a the chandelier and from there onto the floor above them.
"It be blue-haired one!" they heard coming from above.
They quickly ran up the stairs too see what caused the castle to suffer like that. They saw Janus lying in a hole made in the stairs of the entrance hall. He seemed to be unconscious. The rest of the front wall was a complete mess, with wooden beams and other sorts of rubble lying all over the floor, guards running around like crazy and servants trying to clean things up. Slash came flying to the castle from the distance.
"What the hell happened here?" the king shouted, looking at the mess. The
chancellor stood beside him.
"Whoa! It's you guys!"
"Slash? And what are you doing here? This is getting way too confusing!" Marle
said.
"He led us here." he said while pointing at Janus, who was now slowly waking up.
"Ugh... Where am I now?" Janus said, still recovering from the blow.
"You're at Guardia castle. Or what's left of it." Crono smirked.
"What was that?" Lucca said, looking around her. She had exited the shower when she heard the loud noise coming from the front of the castle. "An earthquake?"
Some servants came running by.
"Hey you! What's going on here?" Spekkio asked to one of them.
"Something... or someone wrecked the front of the castle! They're evacuating the
entire building!". The servant ran off again.
"Evacuation? I'm out of here!"
Spekkio ran down the stairs. Lucca followed him to the entrance hall, where they saw the same sight as the others.
"Let's continue this." said Janus while he was getting up. He extended his right
arm again and his scythe floated into it.
"Hey! No fighting in here!" Marle shouted.
"Get away from him! Janus is mine to kill!" added Frog.
Janus ignored them and flew outside. Slash followed him and they continued their battle again.
"I don't believe it! He just ignored us!" Marle said.
"What I'm wondering is how they got here." Lucca said while she walked to the
others. Spekkio followed her.
"Don't care. Let's go see how they're doing." said Crono as he stepped outside,
carefully avoiding the rubble. The rest followed him.
After the blow Janus had received from Slash he wasn't fighting very good anymore. Slash managed to block every attack from him, with some of his own aimed at Janus.
"Look! Janus actually be losing! Go Slash!" Frog shouted to the two in the air.
"Shove it you." Spekkio said. "I'm studying them."
"What for? You probably don't even know them." Lucca said.
"I know more than you think."
Janus started to use some of his magic to gain the upper hand in the fight. He went a few meters backwards and started casting a spell.
"Neuga zieber zom..."
"Is he doing what I think he is?" Spekkio said.
"Now the chosen time has come..."
"What? Is he summoning Lavos?" asked Lucca.
"Yes he is! The idiot!"
"Exchange this world for..."
Janus couldn't finish the spell, because Slash had already closed in on him. Janus couldn't block the attack in time. His armor got cut in half, the two parts falling down to the ground below them.
"What? How'd you do that?" an amazed Janus asked his attacker.
"Simple. Some of Flea's magic can do wonders to my Slasher swords." he grinned
back.
Slash didn't take the time to wait until Janus was ready. He attacked again, with more effect this time. Janus got a deep cut in his chest.
"He's losing! Can't you see? We've got to help him!" said Marle.
"Help him? The one that destroyed my life? And not to mention those numerous
people he tortured, killed, god knows what?" Frog added.
"Well, I think he's changed over time. With that Lavos thing and all."
"I remember you saying that before..."
Slash used a small magic attack, but aimed it at Janus' now severely wounded chest again. Janus fell down, unconscious again because of the damage that Slash had done to him in such a short amount of time.
"Let's get over there and help him!" Marle said as she runned over to the spot where Janus had fallen down. Crono sighed and decided to followed her. "She doesn't know what she's doing!" Frog said. But he didn't follow the two. The rest stood there, waiting what was going to happen next.
Ozzie and Flea finally managed to catch up with Slash and Janus.
,p>"Get away from him!" Flea yelled at Marle, who was trying to heal Janus."Come over here and make me!"
Flea did exactly as Marle suggested and punched her in her stomach. Marle had to take some steps backwards, ending the curing spell she was trying to cast. Crono saw this happening while he came running towards them. His response was one of his stronger magic attacks.
"Lightning 2!"
Not only did he hit Flea, Ozzie also got caught in the lightning storm Crono had created. He got slammed into a tree, forcing to drop his precious box of snacks.
After Crono's attack had ended, Slash came down to Janus. He put one foot on his chest and held the tip of his sword to his neck, waiting for him to wake up. Janus slowly opened his eyes and saw the face of Slash in front of him, grinning widely.