Chapter Fourteen

On and on the party trudged through the miserable snow for endless days. They had long left the trees behind them and now on either side, and both before and behind them, swept a featureless expanse of a landscape long smothered by an oppressive white blanket of snow. It seemed to become colder, more bitter, with every step they took that bore them closer to the Black Citadel. A cold wind had picked up, a wind that for Magus and Schala and to a lesser extent Lucca was threaded through with the black wind. None of the three made a comment, preferring instead to deal with it in their own personal ways.

Marle squinted into the wind. Thanks to Tarreiz's little trick, she was the only one who could see the Black Citadel. It sat like an impurity on the white landscape, a forbidding black fortress that looked impenetrable. The princess flicked a quick glance at Frog as if to check that he really was still there, then glanced back at the Citadel and stopped dead.

Crono glanced at her, frowning slightly. "What? Is there something wrong?"

"No... I..." She shook her head again, unwilling to confess to the visions that she had occasionally been having ever since Tarreiz allowed her to see the Citadel.

"Are you seeing things?"

She gave him a dirty look. "What are you implying?"

"I don't think you're mad! It's just that... Tarreiz was a... prophet or something. She saw things, I think, like the Citadel, and she's passed the ability to see that onto you. I was wondering if she's passed on... anything else. What did you see that morning a few days ago? When you looked at Frog."

Marle shook her head. "I can't remember."

He didn't believe her but nor did he press it. "And just now? You can remember that, can't you?"

She could see no harm in telling him. "Kelke. I saw Kelke. Agonised or triumphant, I don't know. Don't ask me who wins, or if anyone dies. I don't know."

Crono nodded. "How close are we?"

"Quite close. Either late tonight or early morning." She meant when they would reach the Citadel.

He nodded again, absently. As he tended to do when they were in the midst of something important, Crono had gradually become more and more withdrawn and introverted until they barely noticed him. He tended not to speak when he was in this kind of mood and it sometimes seemed as if he never spoke at all. He was too busy thinking to bother with speech, anyway. Trying to figure out tactics, what they could throw at Kelke before he wiped them all out. Crono didn't think that physical attacks could work, but what else could they throw at the Mage?

His weakest magic attack is my most powerful one.

They had stopped walking but as soon as Marle began the gloomy trudge again, the others picked it up. Crono studied the group briefly and suddenly it hit him. Of course! There was no way they could hope to defeat Kelke if they worked individually. However, they had the ability to work together, and by adding their power together they could surely match Kelke's, if not overwhelm it. Lucca's and Marle's Antipode, especially their refined third version, was fairly powerful, and there were some pretty strong three-person attacks, not to mention that seven-person one that they had worked out not long ago. Schala was almost a pacifist, but surely she would help them? Her brother was the one who was mostly involved in this thing, when it all came down to it. With the addition of her magic, they had a chance. Of course they had a chance!

'Don't think it, Crono,' he instructed himself desperately. 'Don't think it don't think it don't you dare just don't - '

His weakest magical attack is my strongest.

"You thought it," he muttered to himself angrily.

"Pardon?" Marle asked.

"Just talking to myself," he explained before falling back into his thoughts. He needed to stop dwelling on that. If this was how he acted before they fought something that, although incredibly powerful and apparently long-lived, was still human, what would he be like when they faced Lavos? Well, of course, Lavos didn't have a weak magical attack that just so happened to be Crono's strongest.

If you were looking at it that way, Lavos probably had something much, much worse.

Crono shook his head to clear it of these morbid thoughts and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Or on foot, rather. They had to reach the Citadel first, and then find Kelke. They would start with that seven-person tech - although Magus couldn't actively use his magic, it could be used by an outside source, strangely enough - and after that, what? Maybe some three-person techs - Robo and Ayla would be nigh useless when it came to attacks, but they could heal - and maybe when the time was right, Frog could drop a giant frog on him. Crono chuckled at the thought. That frog thing was a neat trick. Like Ayla's dinosaur. It would be good to maybe use Ayla to see how good Kelke's defence was when it came to physical attacks - but if Crono got her killed, he would never be able to forgive himself for it. He would have to talk to Schala and see what her magic was like. Probably something amazingly powerful. Magic Type: Amazingly Powerful, yes please. That would indeed be nice.

They stopped for a midday meal and Crono suggested that they get some magic practice in. They had been lax with their training for a long time, and he seriously doubted that going in rusty would be any good. Marle obviously couldn't concentrate and after a while decided to sit out and watch. She was principally the healer of the group - Crono, Lucca and particularly Magus had always been the most magically powerful, but that task now fell on the shoulders of Crono and Lucca. Frog came in very handy for dropping frogs on people but was principally a swordsman, and also possessed the ability to heal (always useful). Crono knew they would be relying on magic to heal people. If they had ever brought any elixirs with them, they had been lost long ago.

Crono stepped back to study the group. Marle and Lucca were practicing their Antipodes, an earlier version to save their magic. Ayla looked bored. Magus was standing to one side rubbing his hands together, but he looked up almost as soon as Crono looked at him.

"Flea," he said, leaning on his scythe.

"Excuse you?"

"Flea the slimy weaselly little magician who crossed over to Kelke's side some time ago," Magus explained. "Wouldn't it be here? And if so, why haven't we seen it yet?"

"I forgot about him. Her. It."

Before anyone except Magus and his cronies even knew that Kelke existed, Slash and Flea had kidnapped the wizard for revenge against his crossing over to the side of the 'humans'. Magus had killed Slash then but Flea had gotten away, only to later return to the group at the End of Time and plead to be allowed to join. Unwisely, they had allowed the crafty magician to do so. In the battle to defeat the Cleaning, Cat-Eating Monster, Flea had sent Magus to Ozzie's castle and directly into the hands of Kelke (who was responsible only for blocking the use of his magic; it was Ozzie who had cut Magus' hair off at ear-length and broken both his hands, which were healing fairly well). Flea had disappeared, and they didn't know where he/she was. Magus' comment made sense. What if the magician was somewhere in this universe? Or in the Citadel?

"We'll deal with that when it happens," Crono decided. "How are your hands?"

"Better."

"Can you bend your fingers?"

"Some of them."

'What about straighten them? I mean fully straight?"

"Some of them..." Magus repeated slightly guiltily. "They're fine, I'm sure they'll end up healing perfectly. I can hold things, and that's what matters, right? That's what matters," he said as if he were trying to convince himself.

"Magus..." Crono had been struck by a thought.

"That's my name, don't use it too loudly around here. I don't exactly have many friends in this universe, let alone in Kelke's territory."

"How do you do your magic? I mean... well... Lucca spins around and... I can't think of any other examples."

Magus understood and said conversationally, "Chants, mostly."

"And...?"

The good evil wizard smiled ruefully. "And gestures. Generally very intricate movements that take ages to get right that you can't do if you've broken just your little finger. Only sometimes, though, and I can do most of my magic without using my hands at all."

"Oh."

"Don't feel sorry for me, Crono," Magus said coldly. "I wouldn't want to be pitied."

"Of course not," said Crono with a smile that he hoped didn't look forced.

"Good," Magus responded, turning away. He paused. "Oh, Crono?"

"Yes?"

"You may want to practice that smile. Your 'forced-smile-that-doesn't-look-forced-at-all' smile. Let's just say that it... needs a lot of work."

Crono gave him another smile, a real one this time, and promised, "I'll work on it."

"See that you do," Magus replied and wandered off to bother Schala.