Disclaimer: As if I would have the riches and moola to own Chrono Trigger, what with just owning my PS2, my DVD collection, and a car that puts slow motion to shame. Hah!

Another Twist of Fate

By Yuffie-Girl

Category: Shhh! Don't tell anyone *looks shiftily from right to left*, but my main category for this one is romance, and my secondary category will be humor. Don't let the first chapter fool you, it will funny up by Chapter 2 (either that, or try to and fail pathetically).

Rating: PG-13 all the way through, I think, but it's not written in stone. Swear words will pop up sometimes and I will most likely have some sexual references (though not enough to warrant an R).

Author's Note: This is also slightly AU, since Crono and Marle technically shouldn't be walking around in this one, but they are.

Read on:

Magus smiled craftily to himself as he hovered above the frozen-over bay.

At last. He had done it. He had succeeded in what, at first, had seemed the impossible. But now---but now those five long years of hard work and determination were going to pay off.

He was going to learn the truth about his sister once and for all.

Massaging his muscled arms vigorously to rid himself of the biting cold (damn it all, he had always hated winter with a passion, but in a time period such as 12,000 B.C., that could not be helped), he stared down at the area directly below him, trying to calculate his next move.

Damn...this was going to be tough.

The Ocean Palace (or what remains of it there were) lay two thousand feet under the ocean, right under this very bay. He had confirmed THAT, at least. Half a decade ago, when the Black Omen and Lavos had been destroyed, a large paradox had occurred in response, causing for the Ocean Palace to return to its original state deep below the ocean. And there was just a chance; maybe, just maybe, his sister was down there.

Alive or dead, he did not care. As cold as it sounded for a young man who had spent a good chunk of his life thus far yearning for her, all he really hoped for now was to know what had happened. If by some miracle she was still alive, then that would be considered an unexpected bonus. It wasn't entirely impossible, since even a simple spell could save one's life when in danger, but it had, after all, been five whole years since the Ocean Palace disaster. Either way, he would accept what he might find underneath; it wouldn't matter if it was good or bad.

Finally getting down to business, he raised his arms and began chanting an incantation that would allow the entire bay's ice to crack. He had pored over all sorts of spells similar to this one lately, having scrounged up what he could of all the remaining tomes of Zealian spellbooks, knowing that once he had finally found where the Ocean Palace lay, he would somehow have to raise it from the sea.

Almost five minutes passed, and, his voice hoarse from chanting, he suddenly started to become chagrined as the slowness of the spell's effects. Was there the possibility that he had come across a fake one? Or perhaps was he doing something wro---nah. Even though five years was enough time to change a person drastically, all the time in the world was not enough to affect Magus. He had been forced to reform a bit during his journeys with those simpletons back before Lavos was defeated (his biting, cutting remarks and constant threats never seemed to hit home with them, anyway), but he had reverted back to his old sarcastic, arrogant self once he had returned to his original time. Half of him now even sort of wished that he was back in the comforts of his dark, ancient castle, terrorizing those morons over in Guardia. At least then he had been respected and feared by his minions and enemies alike, the way it should have been from the beginning.

A loud snap suddenly brought him back from his brooding reverie. Noticing that the ice was starting to give way and large chunks were beginning to fall with ear-splitting splashes, he quit with the chanting and stared expectantly down at the bay.

He was forced to wait another five minutes for the center iceberg to finally slip soundlessly into the murky depths below, but when it did, he smirked inwardly, proud and satisfied with his work. Without a doubt he was probably the most powerful wizard the world had ever known, surpassing both of his parents and possibly even Schala. And those fools had compared him with an Earthbounder as a child...

After taking another momentary break to warm himself, he then adjusted his cloak and began with the tough work. To actually raise the Palace...

He flew further down, to right above the dull blue waters, now angry and torrential, and kicked off his attempt by hitting the area underwater with a massive anti-gravity spell, one that could cause hills to upturn and even small cities to float (the kingdom of Zeal had been based on that very spell, except that it had needed the Sun Stone to keep it afloat). Next came the actual incantation, which during he carefully watched for a major ripple or wave on the surface of the bay.

Finally he felt it, almost as if a chain linking him and the underwater palace was attempting to pull him down with it. He resisted, chanting harder, knowing that it would only be a matter of time until the Palace would be above sea level and he would be able to learn more about Schala. He knew that he had gotten ahold of something, at any rate, and he was not going to give up raising it without a fight.

Slowly but surely he made headway, pulling his prize up inch by excruciating inch. Finally, a small ripple could be seen on the ocean's surface. Next came a large wave! Magus smiled. It seemed that the Ocean Palace was coming up fast...

However, it slowly dawned on him that something was wrong when instead of seeing the obsidian, ultra-modern architecture of the Ocean Palace, he saw a shiny green swirl, moving and writhing as if it was alive...

Before he knew it he was sucked into a large vortex, more powerful and even more gravity-resistant now that it was above the water. How could he have been such an IDIOT?! He didn't know what could have been down there besides the Palace! And there most likely WAS time distortions still lingering from the catastrophe along with everything else! And now it looked to be a fatal mistake. He was being forced into somewhere unknown, a time and age different from wherever he had been, perhaps...Or maybe even...to nowhere. With his final energy he cursed at his stupidity.

All he saw was the distortion now; he was actually INSIDE it at this point. He could no longer see the snow-covered terrain of 11,995 B.C.; just the distortion silhouetted against blackness. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, and he could barely even think. He was starting to lose all hope, thinking that he'd be here for all eternity, when---

He hit the ground with a loud thump.

***

"Sis!"

...

"Sis!"

"...ugh..."

"SIS!! WAKE UP!!!"

"Wha?" A very groggy Lucca Ashtear slowly opened one eye, only to see that one of the children under her care, a very robust eleven year old girl, was hovering over her, looking frightened almost to the point of tears. Sitting up slowly, she switched on her small bedside lamp and stared squinty-eyed at her charge.

The girl started without any prompting on Lucca's part. "Sis!" she moaned, her hands shaking uncontrollably. "I- I had that dream again! It was so terrible, I-"

Lucca reached out and smoothed the child's straw-colored hair, managing to wipe a lone tear running down her pale features. "You know it was just a nightmare, Kid," she reprimanded softly, still blinking a little from the sudden burst of light. "Why do you always let it upset you so much?"

The girl known as "Kid" hiccupped slightly, another tear slowly making its way down her face. "Oh, I don't know, Sis, but tonight it was so- so...REAL."

Lucca sighed. This seemed to be quite a recurring dream for Kid, and there was not much that even she could do to allay the initial fear. "So did you figure out what it was?" she finally asked.

"No...I couldn't see anything. There was just that dark wind again. It kept howling so bad...I was scared..." She fidgeted slightly.

"So you still don't know what was after you?"

Kid shook her head miserably.

Lucca had no idea what to say. Shaking her pounding head, she finally calmly ordered, "Well, all I can say is that it was just a dream and that you shouldn't even worry about something that's all in your head. Just go back to your bed and try to calm down-"

"But I'm afraid to sleep!"

"You don't HAVE to sleep! Just lay down and try to forget about it and wait for the morning to come. You might even laugh about it in the morning!" She took Kid's warm hand in her own and squeezed it.

Kid broke away, but reluctantly. "Well...OK," she said, quietly shuffling off to the doorway. "I'll try, Sis...But it felt so- so....COLD. Like something terrible just happened." She turned and disappeared without another word.

Lucca turned off the light and attempted to go back to sleep, but found it hard in coming. Kid's words continued to echo and echo in her head, as if something important was hovering just below the depths of her consciousness and was trying to break free.

"There was just that dark wind again. It kept howling so bad..."

Her eyes suddenly snapped open in the darkness. There was no point in it, really, as no source of light could be seen with the exception of that orange light coming from that house across the bay, but...

Even thought there seemed to be no rationale to this, Kid's dream had unnerved her to the point of not being able to sleep, although she had no idea why. It was just a dream, after all; it had no form, no substance; hell, she hadn't even been the one to dream it! Yes, she DID feel rather sympathetic for the poor child, who had looked so miserable and sad when he had stood there shaking like that. But it HAD been a dream and nothing beyond that. Even if it DID seem to occur about once every two weeks, on average. But something still seemed to unsettle Lucca...

But there was no use worrying about it, she inwardly lectured herself as he rolled on her side to look at her bedside clock. 3:18 a.m. ... this was no time to be doing something in which using one's brain was required. The best thing to do was to just roll back over and go to sleep, and then wake up feeling refreshed in the morning, when all of this would seem ridiculous. It would be another tough, exhausting day, at any rate. As much as she loved running an orphanage full of healthy kids, looking after twelve of them DID tend to take away your energy...

But the Dark Wind... It still bothered her. The...Dark...Wind... It almost as if she had heard about it from somewhere, long, long ago, like she ought to know about it, that she SHOULD know about it, but for the moment it had just slipped her. She really didn't know WHERE or even if she had heard it spoken of before, but she seemed to make the immediate assumption that it was connected with something dark and unpleasant, even without Kid's description. But...HOW?! And more importantly...where?!

Maybe this just all stemmed from her insecurity. She had been on her absolute guard for the past eleven years, but maybe that just hadn't been enough. Was, perhaps, her worst fear, however biased and completely far-fetched, beginning to come true?

Author's Note: Did you like? I did this chapter a long time ago (try last December), and I can't decide whether it works or if it's just far-fetched. Guess it doesn't matter, since this chapter was written to kick things off and not get into the main plot all that much. Chapter 2 will show what's really going on...and actually fit the summary, too!

Please review! :)