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 make you listen to Ozzie singing 'To Far Away Times'.
Chapter 5: Vengeance of the dead
"Enjoying it now, Magus?"
"You..."
Janus was lying on the ground, in front of Guardia castle. Slash stood with one foot on his chest, and the tip of his sword was very close to Janus' neck.
"I really enjoyed this little fight. Seems you didn't. Hehe." smirked Slash.
"He's finished. That's for sure." said Spekkio, not addressing someone in particular.
The grin on Frog's face widened.
"I always hoped I would be the one to defeat Janus, but this is fine for me too. Can't wait 'till he does it!" he anxiously said.
From the distance they saw Slash make his final move. Janus' sight slowly faded away.
Somewhere in the distance, she saw smoke coming from between two mountains. The backpack she was carrying didn't help in making the trip easier. For the past few hours, all she had seen was mountains on the right, wasteland on the left. Not even the occasional monster trying to rob you, just nothing at all. Well, maybe the wind, but it wasn't what it had been before. Not that it would keep you sane, but nevertheless, it would've been much more familiar if it still was around. She was almost there. Just a few hundred meters more.
The small town was hustling with activity. Many people were going about their own business, some were carrying water, others tried to sell their supplies to other by passers, or just taking a walk. One of the merchants came walking to her.
"Would you like to buy some fresh fish? It was caught just this morning!"
"Uh, no thanks. I don't have any money."
The merchant quickly turned around to find someone else to sell his wares to. The woman walked around, trying to find the nearest inn. She entered it, the smell of smoke and ale coming towards her when she opened the door. The inn was just as busy as the rest of the village, mostly with men getting drunk about their problems of life.
"Excuse me sir," she asked the bartender. "Could I please get a room?"
"Of course. That'll be 10 gold pieces." he replied.
"I, uhm... I'm sorry, but I don't have any money."
"No can-do then."
"But I came all the way from Porous! I'm exhausted!"
"Let this woman have some sleep. I'll pay."
A tall man, about 5 foot tall had dropped in on the conversation. He had long, black hair, and wore dark blue pants, with a simple black shirt on top of it. The brown boots he wore had a black line across them, from top to bottom.
"I.. why thank you sir. I appreciate it."
"Don't mention it. By the way, my name is Ryen."
"Nice to meet you, Ryen."
She yawned, taking a full ten seconds.
"I suggest you go to sleep."
"Same thing here. I'll.. see you around. Bye."
"Of course. Bye."
The woman walked up the stairs. She entered the room and put her backpack on the floor, next to the bed. She lied down, falling asleep almost immediately.
"Have you seen that woman before?"
"No. I've never been to Porous before." answered Ryen. "She does seem familiar
though."
The two men were sitting at a table in the corner of the inn. Each of them had their own glass of ale in front of them.
"What could she be doing here? No money, probably no home either."
"Looking for a job maybe?"
"In this town? For a woman? I don't think so."
A man entered the inn. He looked around the room. When he saw Ryen he walked over to his table.
"What is it?"
"We need your help... again."
"What for? I'm in no mood for cleaning up that mess of your boss again."
"It's no mess this time. He wants you to go to Porous."
"I'm not going."
"He said he'd pay you a .. uhm.. considerable amount of money."
Ryen thought for a moment. He did need something to get by at the moment, his job at the docks didn't pay that much.
"How much exactly?" he asked.
"He didn't say."
"Where is he now?"
"At the docks. His latest shipment came in."
"Okay, I'll come with you."
He said goodbye to his friend, paid his tab and left the inn.
She was awakened by the noise coming from outside. She got up and opened one of the windows. It was a dark night, there were no stars to be seen in the sky at all. From the distance a bright light seemed to shine, with smoke flowing into the air from it. It was a fire. She took her backpack from the floor and put it on her back. Then she went down the stairs to see that the tavern was almost completely empty, except for a few drunkards still hanging at the bar.
"Where did they all go?" she asked to the bartender.
"The fire. Didn't you hear?"
"Yes, I saw it outside. Could you tell me where it is exactly?"
"The docks. Just walk straight to it. Can't miss."
She quickly left the inn, walking to the docks, following the simple directions the bartender gave her. Other people were also heading towards the inferno in the distance.
Arriving there, she saw that most of the ships and houses near the docks were burning, with people around it trying to put out the fires by using just buckets, which wasn't helping much.
"What happened here?" she asked to a by passer.
"No time!" he replied as he ran past her.
She looked around, finding a way to help, but no one paid her any attention. Until she heard a voice coming from above.
"You fools!"
She looked up, and saw someone with.. and eye patch floating in the sky. That could only be Dalton.
"You can't put out the fires now! It's too late! Bwahaha!"
Dalton laughed in his own, wicked way. He looked over the chaos he had created. In the distance he saw the woman staring at him. He immediately recognized her, by the blue color of her hair.
"Aha! So miss Schala decided to help too!" he said when he descended to the ground and walked over to her.
"What do you want? And why have you done this? I thought they killed you!"
"And I thought you were dead too... Seems you survived."
"Does it matter? Why did you do this? Answer me!"
"Tisk tisk... you have to take it easy. There's nothing you can do right now."
"Yes I can! Don't think I wont."
"What? Your magic? Without Lavos, it's useless. You know that."
"Then how come you can still use magic?"
"I wasn't born with it. I learned it myself. But, no time for chit-chat. Say
goodbye!"
He muttered a few unidentifiable words, and before Schala could react, she disappeared with in flash of light.
"What did you do to her?"
Ryen came running towards Dalton, who had his usual grin on his face.
"Nothing. I just teleported her away. She might be useful."
"She was Zeal's daughter wasn't she?"
"Well noticed. And why aren't you helping the rest?"
"Because you said that it would help anyway right? And I'll rather take my
chances with you! You said it was innocent!" he said, and he unsheathed his
sword.
"Ah, don't think I'm that easy."
Dalton made a few gestures before Ryen could do anything, and he got him by a black orb falling out of the sky, coming from nowhere. The orb disappeared just as fast as it came.
"Better take your chances with me, he wasn't worthy anyway."
Dalton turned around to see Janus floating several meters above him.
"The false prophet. Seems nobody is dead after all." he smirked.
"Oh, you will be soon."
"You two, get him!" Dalton commanded. Two of his henchmen who helped put on the
fire engaged Janus.
"That annoying prophet." he muttered to himself.
"Is he .. dead?" Marle asked, still recovering from Flea's punch. For someone with a female appearance, she sure could pack quite a punch. The dead body of Janus was lying before her, with Slash standing with one foot still on top of it.
"We did it! We finally did it! Way to go Slash!"
Flea runned up to Slash, suddenly stopping in front of him.
"On second thought, kissing you wouldn't be a pleasant thing..." she said under
her breath.
"Come again?"
"Never mind that... let's celebrate! Coming, Ozzie?"
Ozzie was looking around the place, as if looking for something.
"I lost my snacks! They're gone!" he sneered.
Flea sighed.
"We've got lot's more of those at our fort!" she said while she grabbed Ozzie at his tail and ran off with him. Slash followed.
Marle and Crono walked over to Janus' corpse.
"We've got to do something. We can't just let him lie there like that." said
Marle.
"Tried reviving him?" suggested Crono.
"I can't do that. He's been killed by his own enemy, not his."
"Slash is our enemy too. Forgot that?"
"I know, but it's just that... I... this is hard to explain Crono. I just can't do
it."
Lucca and Spekkio came running to them.
"He's dead isn't he?" the inventor asked while she raced to the dead body of
Janus. Spekkio just stood from a distance and watched.
"What does it look like! Poor Janus."
"'Poor Janus'? You know what he..." Crono tried saying, but got interrupted.
"I know what he did. Now he's dead! Now help me bury him somewhere okay?"
snapped Marle. Crono shrugged his shoulders and followed her orders.
"Wake up! Wake up you brat!"
"But... I can't go to the fair yet..."
Dalton kicked the girl in her stomach. She opened her eyes and coughed, grasping to the spot Dalton had kicked her. When she stopped coughing, Dalton spoke again.
"Schala, have you any idea why you are here?"
"Why... are you... doing this..."
She hadn't quite recovered yet. She could examine her surroundings though, and noticed she was in a room with metal walls, covered in rust. There were no sources of light, except for the small candle Dalton was holding in front of Schala.
"I'll explain later, you've got to patch me up. And make it quick!"
"What? What do you mean by that?"
Dalton brought the candle closer to his face, revealing the bloody cover
"And there's plenty more where that came from! Now, heal me!"
"Not in my life!"
Dalton kicked her again. This time, Schala saw it coming and managed to absorb the blow a bit.
"Your turn..." he said.
"Never! Why should I heal you? Can't you use a tonic?"
"I'm afraid I can't my dear. Now, I'm not going to ask this again..."
She knew he'd kill her, even if it meant that he wouldn't get healed, so she casted Aura on him.
"Do you expect that's enough? Cast Heal 2, now!"
He kicked her again. Not that hard, but she could still feel the pain. Not knowing what to do anyway, she did what her captor had asked, and fully healed him.
"Yes... that feels much better..."
"Where... am I?"
"Where this is? The Blackbird of course. Now, don't worry, I wont kill you.
Yet..." he grinned.
"Wait! You can't leave me here like this!"
"Yes I can. Goodbye."
Dalton turned around, opened a door and closed it behind him again. She was trapped in the remains of the Blackbird. But how could that be? The Blackbird had crashed into the ocean after Crono and his companions had destroyed it. She had heard villagers talk about it when she was staying in Porous.
She casted a small light-spell, which lit up half of the room. There was nothing there, except for an air-duct. But it was welded shut. She couldn't reach it anyway. There was no way out of.
"Well then. That's it." said Marle while looking at the grave in front of her.
"Now what do we do?" asked Crono.
"I don't know. I think we should tell the others about it."
"I think Frog will be quite happy with this. If I'm correct, he should now be
turned into his original human form again, now that Janus is dead." Lucca said.
At the same time, they heard a loud "Yahooo!" coming from the direction of the castle. They also heard Ayla shout that he didn't wear any clothes anymore. And something about being both more and less tasty at the same time.
"I think that's the confirmation. Let's bring them the news." Lucca said.
They walked back to the castle. Marle waited at the grave for a while, until she also turned around and left.
Raindrops started falling onto the cross which was placed on the grave by Marle. It read:
Here rests Janus, prince of Zeal
Spekkio came out of his hiding place in the bushes and walked over to the grave.
"Gaspar isn't going to like this..."