I reuploaded this chapter because… well, I realized thanks to Jade Dixon that I had been writing way too late at night and had managed a rather silly mistake. Anyway… I need to clear out a couple of things. The certain someone who shows up in the end of the chapter comes straight from the Prince's story (I'll finish that soon enough too). Making this chapter reek of teasers for that one. ;)
Chapter 13 Unwanted guests"So, this is how Lavos came to our world, he's from outer space!"
Marle glanced down the cliffs towards the depths of the gigantic crater, nervously scratching her head. The great castle of the reptites was completely erased from the face of the earth.
"Ayla never see so big falling star!" the cave woman grimly stated.
Come on, let's go down and see if we can fight it now, while it might be fairly weak, Crono suggested and began carefully walking down a wide crack in the smoking new canyon.
The two blond women followed him.
It took them the better part of an hour to reach the bottom, and there only finding irregular earth and a sea of lava flowing in from the ocean of molten stone surrounding the area. The over-hot flow had already found and corroded its way through the torn mountain.
However, the lava wasn't getting any chance to harm the humans as it was on its way down into the depths of the earth, following the reason of the crater deeper down to fill the emptiness of Lavos' traveling.
It's burying underground, Crono grimly concluded.
And with the lava flow it was impossible for them to follow. Not even Robo would survive that.
"No good!" Ayla sourly howled and punched her own palm, "eh?"
"Where are you going?" Marle called as the hides-clad female took off towards a distant end of the cliff the three had ended up on when reaching as close to the bottom as possible.
The princess and the swordsman exchanged glances and hurried after her.
They found the cave-woman investigating something on the ground.
"What is it, Ayla?" Marle asked and stretched her neck, trying to see past the thick blond locks.
"Strange thing…"
Finally the woman moved aside, revealing a dark, flashing orb.
"Gate!" Marle howled, almost jumping up and down in excitement, "come on, let's go!"
Roger! Crono grinned and produced the Gate key.
But Ayla watched the growing darkness with suspicion.
"It's not dangerous," Marle tried to calm her, "it's a way to some day way after tomorrow, we've tried to explain that."
'Oh well, or the day way before today…' she thought to herself.
"Ayla no understand, tomorrow comes tomorrow, no going quicker or come back…" the cave-woman said, "but if Crono and Marle go, Ayla go too."
"Great! Come on!"
And they entered the dark tunnel.
Leaving a large crater behind they stepped out into a small cave. And the first thought after that conclusion was…
"Brrr! Cold!"
Quickly they dove back to 65000000 BC and the warmth there.
"Too cold for Ayla! Sorry Crono!"
"We'll need better clothes if we're going there," Marle concluded.
Alright, let's go to our home time and get the equipment we need.
Crono grimaced.
Mom's gonna think I'm crazy when I go look for my winter jacket in the middle of the summer…
"Guru, open this door!"
A strong fist hammered against the wood, impatient. And the owner of the hand seemed rather disappointed as the door did open fairly quickly.
"I'm so sorry it took so long," Melchior said with an apologizing smile, "I was in the middle of a book. And what can I do for you, lord Dalton?"
"Nothing for me, but for the queen," the dark blond man said with his typical smirk, "she summons you, immediately."
"Oh really? Let me just get…"
"Immediately!" Dalton sharply repeated, a smug glistening in his eyes.
Melchior's eyebrows twitched.
"Oh dear, is something wrong?" he worriedly said, tilting his head.
"Her Majesty will tell you that."
"I see. Let's go then."
And without further argues the guru of Life was taken away. But in one of his enchanted pockets a dagger was hidden, a fine knife in a strangely reddish metal.
As Dalton and Melchior left the older man's chambers on the outskirts of Enhasa a robed silhouette followed them for a while, but not longer than to the end of the town. The figure stood in the shadows of the white walls and watched one of the few kindhearted Enlightened ones left and the general. Strong hands clenched into shaking fists.
'But the one that worked with Flea is from his future, right?' Janus grimly thought, glaring at his father's back.
'True,' the Prince growled, 'he surely tried to alter history by killing you before you could come to Zeal. Just like he did to me, by spreading the "legend" of the Masamune in my time stream. It must have been him… probably didn't want to risk his own skin. And should I have managed to kill Frog and the others coming to kill me his goal could have been reached in any case.'
'How on earth did you come to fight alongside with them, anyway?' the Pawn asked.
Janus silently leaned against the wall while feeling the Prince shake his head and start talking again.
'When Lavos awoke in the Ocean Palace I attacked him desperately, but I lost. Both Schala and I would have died if it hadn't been for Crono. It wasn't gratefulness, but my realization that I alone didn't have the strength. It all began there but the real change didn't come until later, when Frog helped me find Schala.'
'Frog help you, you say?' the Pawn said with a hint of amusement.
'Not too willingly, of course.'
Janus leaned his head back with a frown.
'What could Crono possibly do against Lavos when you failed?' he asked, puzzled.
The Prince crossed his arms and resolutely closed his eyes, while the Pawn leaned his cheek in a hand and glared at nothing.
'What's wrong?' Janus sharply asked.
After a moment the Prince shook his head again and straightened up.
'Crono could do nothing except die, that's what he could,' he emotionlessly said, but hurriedly continued, 'however, when seeking the aid of the two other gurus from this era you will find a way to save him.'
Janus was silent for a moment. Then he slowly took in a deep breath.
'You damn warriors…' he muttered, 'you keep dying on me all the time.'
'It's not as bad as people think…'
The Prince smiled a bit, slanting.
'Though the greeting committee I got lacked something in quality. It's just too bad one can't strangle a soul.'
At this point he even chuckled a bit.
'Ozzie's eyes really can bulge though… dead or not.'
'What in the name of all powers was he doing where you went?' the Pawn slowly asked.
'Seems like souls get cleaned when the body dies, no matter what. Besides… everyone there were too afraid of Snake to cause any trouble. With the full right.'
'Who's Snake?' Janus blankly thought.
The Prince rolled his eyes.
'Young man, get some decent sleep so I can pour the story into your mind already.'
'Easy for you to say.'
'Of course, I'm sleeping right now as far as everyone else knows.'
'Snake was Lizard's wife,' the Pawn explained, 'that's about what I know about her.'
'The stories say little about her personality,' the Prince said with a small smirk, 'I suppose the history writers at the time were in horror as well, didn't dare to describe her too closely.'
'Sounds like a colorful lady,' Janus said.
'What you do is you take Lai, add temper like nitroglycerin, impossible speed and claws.'
'Sounds painful.'
'Oh, you should have heard Dalton's voice and seen his face when mentioning her...'
'Dear Lord…'
Janus shook his head with a joyless smile. Being reminded of Lai was nothing that made his mood any better for the time being…
'Hmm?'
He straightened up and glanced towards the distant skyway. The buzz of energy and the light showed that somebody was coming up. Next he saw a hint of purple, a figure much smaller than the two that had left Enhasa via the second skyway a few moments earlier.
A heartbeat later a robed figure watched the floating island from a very fine view upon the roof belonging to one of the white towers of the city.
'I do remember how I felt when meeting myself,' the royal wizard grimly thought, 'I'll save him it until Schala is present and can support him.'
The two guardians silently agreed.
'That means Crono and the others will be here within three or four hours if I remember correctly…'
'About that, yes,' the Pawn agreed.
They watched the young prince Janus enter the city, followed as always by his cat Alfador. From the distance it wasn't possible to properly see the child's face, but the three men didn't really need that sight to know. A cold bitterness and clenched teeth, no interest to spare for anyone but one woman and a cat.
The unwritten page in the story of the warrior Janus left the grassland for the buildings.
The man who had experienced a brighter life straightened up, grimly looking towards the palace. Blue hair swirled in the chilly wind, twisting over bandana and past red eyes filled with flashing emotions.
'Hey, I had almost forgotten how cute you were as a kid,' an all too familiar voice suddenly said.
Janus nearly fell off the roof with a half-strangled shout of unpleasant surprise, but with more luck than skill he managed to land safely on his knees.
'Just what the hell are you doing here?!' the Prince and Pawn growled in unison.
'No use looking at me like that, boys. I just felt like seeing what was happening in this other time-stream. Besides, I'm a good guy now.'
Silence while Janus pressed one hand against his forehead.
'Yours?' the Pawn finally said.
'I'm afraid so,' the Prince grunted.
'This isn't happening…' Janus groaned.
'Now look here, cutie,' the intruding spirit mildly smirked, 'no need to pale like your old man here.'
'Oh really? You're getting out of my head right now!'
'Try me!'
'Dammit!'
'I'm not evil anymore, and your lord version here can second that.'
'Could be,' the Prince snarled, 'but that doesn't mean that I'll let you stay.'
'You're no fun!'
'I remember your fun,' the oldest one coldly said, 'like that time when you turned me into a rat.'
'And said I'd feed you to the gnashers?'
'Yes,' both the Prince and Pawn coldly said.
'Oh come on. Just what did you do to me then? You blew me up with Dark Matter at least three times and then you cleaved me in two pieces.'
'I didn't even have time to begin.'
The Prince grunted and glared at the newcomer.
'Look, our wizard here will have to be able to concentrate, and he definitely won't be able to do that with you around,' he said, 'leave. Now.'
'None of us saw him focus better any time but when he had an enemy around, now did we?'
The intruder tilted his head.
'Come on, please? Just for a little while?'
'Don't give me that damn look!' Janus snarled.
'Well, I'm not moving.'
'Damnation, Flea!'
There was another moment of silence.
'You need to get away from Frog,' the Prince muttered.
'Definitely,' Flea nodded with a slanted smile, 'he's unhealthy. Trust me, I know.'
With a groan Janus shifted position and heavily thumped onto the roof. He didn't even care if anyone inside heard him.
'Fine, what do you want then?' he growled.
'Just watch a bit. I'm a spirit, though a bit deader than your two paraphrases here,' Flea calmly said.
'So I've heard.'
Janus rolled his eyes.
'We can't throw you out, can we?' he tiredly asked.
'Nope.'
'Then just shut up.'
'Alright, alright.'
Sighing the wizard stood up and jumped into the grass about twenty feet below. Muttering to himself and to his mind he went inside, hosting one more spirit with him than anyone would have wished for.
'Why do I get into these kind of situations…'
'Do you get possessed often?'
'Shut up, Flea!' three men dangerously growled.
'Geez, touchy as always…'