Chapter 16, Sibling reunion v. 3
The episode of loosing the Gate key during the first visit to the stone age had learnt Lucca one thing; make multiple sets of important items. Using Glenn's memories of the cave with the Gate Janus teleported the knight away after Marle had equipped him with the extra key.
The three warriors then set out to cross the winter landscape separating them from the main island of Zeal, with the wizard by their side and his fire spells to warm them spared of the cold winds. It was no problem reaching the capital island.
"Things really get simpler with you around," Marle cheerfully commented as they exited the skyway house and entered the warm sunlight again.
Yeah, glad to have you around, Janus, Crono smiled.
'Bad vibes…' Flea muttered, and just for once there was silent agreement.
"That's sort of amusing considering I could have been your sworn enemy at this point, as one of my versions was," Janus said, perhaps somewhat superstitious trying to smoother the all too good-looking future.
He looked ahead and pointed towards yet another assembly of white buildings.
"That's Kajar," he informed, "but I doubt there's anything we need to see there."
"What's that?" Marle asked, pointing to the northwest of their position.
Dark metal shimmered in the sun, two gigantic winds stretched out ready to embrace - or take - the sky at will. It was bigger than the city, resting dangerously on the island's edge.
"The Black Bird," Janus said with a roll of his eyes, "Dalton's gigantic toy. It's almost as big as his ego."
They began walking.
"Well, at least you've got nothing from his side of the family…" Marle pointed out, trying to cheer her friend up.
Janus gave a wry smile for that, though his face almost was completely shadowed by the hood.
"Thanks," he noted.
"You're welcome."
Lucca would squeal with delight if she saw that thing… Crono muttered while shaking his head, pointing at the Black Bird with his thumb.
"Never saw it from the inside," Janus said with a shrug, "heard it's pretty impressive but never cared to check really."
'They'll get a nice look while you're gone saving the prince,' the Prince and Pawn grunted at the same time.
'They get captured?' Janus grimly thought, his eyes narrowing.
'Nothing they can't handle, don't worry.'
'If you say so.'
Hey, we're getting company, Crono warned.
"Hmm?" Janus said, looking up.
His teeth clenched.
"Isn't that…?" Marle said in a tense voice.
"Just don't look at them," Janus growled, "look ahead."
Alright.
Three men came prancing down the road from the palace caves, probably on their way to the Black Bird. The wizard and his friends had already passed the crossroad on their way in the opposite direction, it was too late to turn without giving warning signs.
Closing in…
"Hey, what are you people?" a voice from behind a mask said, distrustfully.
With no other choice the travelers stopped, hoping not to cause a fight.
The soldiers of the kingdom had always worn masks, why had Janus never really understood. Perhaps since their general knew anonymity made more cruel methods possible.
"Suspicious looking…" the second mask agreed.
The leader said nothing at first, but his lonely eye went over the three.
"A bit paranoid, aren't you?" Janus smirked at the soldiers, his accent acquired from Guardia perfectly replaced with the fine Enhasan inflection.
"Don't give us that, lowlife," the first soldier spat, "don't you know who you're facing?"
The hood turned lightly towards Dalton and then fully at the ground as Janus performed a very graceful bow. Trusting him to know best Crono and Marle followed up.
"Indeed I do know who lord Dalton is," Janus calmly said, not allowing a spark of his disgust escape to his voice, "but I wasn't talking to him, sir."
"Why you…"
"What's with the hood?" Dalton asked, silencing his men.
Janus straightened up again, still not completely in order to keep his face shadowed.
"Ah that…" he said, "a mere magical accident. It's the reason I need to go to the palace, I hope that princess Schala will be able to help me with my rather embarrassing problem. If you'd be so kind not to ask I'd be grateful, lord Dalton."
"I don't care," the general said in a bored voice, "not my problem."
"Thank you. Come on, hurry up."
The last Janus aimed at his companions in a demanding manner, and they hurried past Dalton and his men.
"Wish I was still in Guardia so I could kill something!" he snarled as they got out of hearing range.
'Horrible way, but he fell for it I believe,' the Pawn acknowledged.
You'd do a fine spy, Crono chuckled.
Janus reached up and pushed the hood a little to the side to fully reveal his grimace, which caused his friends to chuckle.
"Schala!"
The princess put her book back in the shelf and turned around with a smile.
"Oh Janus, you're back?"
Her smile faltered as she saw his bitter expression and she sunk down on one knee to get closer to his level.
"What the matter?" she kindly asked.
"The black wind…" he murmured, looking away.
Schala tilted her head. True, the ghostly voices were whispering to her, but she had tried to dismiss it. But…
"You can feel it too?" she asked.
Her little brother nodded, silently.
"Don't worry, it'll be alright."
'I wanted to give him this, better do it now. The Ocean Palace will be done soon and…'
She cut off the thought, didn't want to think about it. Reaching into her robes she brought out something, safely hidden in her fist.
"Now, hold on to this…"
Janus reached out and then looked at what he held. It was a small blue crystal, encircled by golden threads.
"What's this?" he asked, for a precious moment even curious.
"It's an amulet of a sort," Schala softly said, "it'll protect you."
At that he furiously looked up.
"Schala, I don't want you to go!" he pleaded, in hopeless anger.
The words cut like knives in the princess' heart, and she had to turn away.
"I wish I could be with you always," she said in a low voice, "but mother wishes otherwise."
"She's not our mother!" Janus furiously whispered.
Schala looked around, frowning.
"She looks the same but inside she has changed!" her brother bitterly growled, looking away.
The princess turned around to hide her pained expression once again.
"Still I can't… I'm sorry, Janus," she said in a low voice.
'Mother has changed, that's true…' she sadly thought, 'but she's my mother, I don't want to let her dreams down, it's just for the best of the kingdom! Still, who's going to care for Janus?'
Light footsteps she couldn't recognize brought her out of her thoughts and she turned around.
Janus was glaring up at an intruding stranger, a tall man with a light cape and hood hiding his face in shadows.
"Hello, who might you be?" Schala carefully asked.
A deep sigh was heard from beneath the hood, but instead of instantly replying the stranger revealed his arms from the depth of the cape and reached downwards without bending his back.
The movement was eerily familiar…
With a purr Alfador leaped into the strangers arms, he who never showed anyone except Janus affection. Schala blinked.
"What?!" Janus croaked, shocked as his cat, his second closest friend, betrayed him.
"Don't worry…" a soft man's voice gently said from beneath the hood.
Schala opened her mouth to ask who he was again, but was cut off by yet another new voice.
"Princess, the queen summons you to the throne room."
Looking down towards the door to her room Schala spotted a maid. And behind her where two more strangers, silently standing by the wall. Both of them young, one young man and a woman in his age, looking a little bit confused.
Before the princess had time to reply to the maid's message the first stranger walked down to her and muttered something in a low voice. She stared at him in surprised fear, and he said something again. The maid turned around and hurried away.
"We've only got a few minutes in any case," the stranger grimly said as he came back to the siblings, "and it's a bit complicated."
"Who are you?" Schala asked, a bit nervous now.
Janus was standing beside her, almost taking cover but clearly angry about how Alfador had acted.
The hood turned lightly towards the two other strangers, as if wanting to reassure that the door was guarded. After checking this he bent down and put Alfador on the floor, but the cat kept watching him as he remained heavily on one knee.
"Are you alright?" the princess asked, feeling the bitterness flowing out from the man's being.
"It's a long story, Schala," he slowly said, standing up and pushing the hood backwards.
A thin, fine face apart from a scar on his left cheek and forehead was revealed, and a long flow of blue hair. A very distinct hue. The eyes meeting Schala's stare with a hint of sadness were ruby red, but their shape…
"Who are you?" she said again, her voice turning into a shocked whisper.
"I'm here from the future, Schala," he said in the same gentle voice that had tried to calm her brother, "I'm Janus."
She felt a pull in her robes and glanced down for a moment, seeing her little brother pale and stiff in shock. Looking back at the stranger she tried to be angry at him for scaring Janus with such a silly lie, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to it. His sad red eyes were nailing themselves into her deepest mind.
"And can you prove that?" she tried, disbelieving.
Without a word he nodded and reached into his robe. After a couple of seconds he produced the very same amulet that the princess knew she had just given her brother. For an eternity she could only stare at it.
"But… you… how?"
"It's a long story," he said again.
He looked down at the prince, who stared at him even more scared than before.
"I know how you feel," the grown man calmly said, "it was just a different man I met, somewhere else. But I meet myself I did."
Schala reached out before she could stop herself and put her hand on his scarred cheek, like she did when her brother was sad.
He even closed his eyes just like Janus did…
"It is you?" she whispered.
The smile seemed strangely not misplaced in his face, though the Janus she knew seldom smiled.
"I grew up better than you could ever hope for, Schala," he warmly said as he opened his eyes again.
His expression changed hand he shook his head, taking her hand.
"But I had to come here to try to save you, definitely save myself. For if I don't, the boy here will grew up among enemies and in complete darkness."
The boy backed up behind Schala, terrified by the intruder's words. Alfador followed him, sensing that something was wrong but not quite sure what it was.
"It won't happen, I won't allow it," the man quickly assured, not seeking eye-contact with the child however.
"But how?" Schala said in a low voice.
"The queen will summon you again soon, and bringing you two away from here right now will alter history too much, I'm afraid," the grown Janus muttered, "I'd show you my memories but there's no time for that either. In short, Lavos is not what you have been fooled to think he is, he is pure evil and he's possessing mother."
"What?"
The princess' voice could hardly produce the whisper.
"Listen," he gently urged, calmingly holding her hand between his bigger ones, "in two days the Ocean Palace will be completed. Don't hesitate to go to the Earthbound village, me and my friends will meet you on the way and we'll do everything we can to protect you. Don't worry."
Schala watched him for a moment longer, then grimly nodded.
"I understand, Janus…"
He smiled then, a little bit.
"You've grown so much, little brother," she kindly commented, touching his other cheek.
The small chuckle even made the boy peek out at the man, frowning but still.
"I'm twenty years old and royal wizard of Guardia, a kingdom in a distant future," the grown prince fondly told her.
Both Schala and her little brother blinked.
"Wizard?" they said almost simultaneously.
The grown Janus smiled again, wider this time, and looked down at himself as a child.
"It takes a bit of extreme circumstances but magic will be awakened even in the son of queen Zeal."
The child hid behind his sister again, but the reaction went slower than last. He was hesitating. Schala seemed to trust the stranger, but… and…
It was too confusing for him.
"I might be harming history by talking to you already," the grown man slowly said, looking at Schala again, "it was different with me. But I've got my own feelings and a headache telling me it can't get worse by warning you earlier."
"What?" the princess said, this time a little amused over the jocular tiredness in his voice.
So different from her Janus, but still…
"I'll explain when we've got more time," he promised, "but for now you better hurry to the throne room."
She hesitated for a moment but then nodded.
"Alright. Be careful, Janus."
"I will, Schala," he nodded with a smile.
He carefully let go of her and she walked towards the exit though she'd much rather stay and have him tell her more of the strange story. As he was still rather nervous the little Janus closely followed her, with Alfador toddling along.
The two strangers by the door carefully smiled at the siblings and Schala returned that, understanding they were friends of her brother.
As the two royalties had left the room Janus met Marle and Crono halfway to the door.
"That went better than I thought it would," the princess warmly said, "congratulations, I'm happy she believed you."
"Thanks, Marle," Janus gratefully said as he pulled up his hood again, making sure every strand of hair was hidden.
So do we wait here for two days or what? Crono asked.
"As it was for my teacher you had to flee through time and Dalton somehow managed to lock the Gate to Zeal," the wizard grimly said, "you had to seek the help of a Guru from here hiding in the destroyed future. If we don't make a ruckus here that won't be as urgently necessary… but I think we better look him up, for his help is vital in any case. But first there's something we need to do here."
Raw magical energy flowed into the room, seeping out into the magical kingdom of Zeal. It's origin was the looming, buzzing machine in the center of the room.
Not that I'm an artist, but that's one horrible piece of it, Crono grunted with a grimace, too low for the Enlightened ones to hear.
Several of the inhabitants of Zeal were in the room, the only thing they seemed to be doing being watching the Mammon Machine with dreaming smiles almost as if the power coming from it put them in the same state that could be maintained with the help of mystical herbs.
It was probably the sad truth, too.
'Almost soulless…' Janus sadly thought, watching the happy people.
'Sad,' his teacher agreed.
"The Mammon Machine sucks power from Lavos," the wizard said once again as he had explained it earlier, "the Ocean Palace is built to bring it closer to the god."
"And Schala operates it?" Marle whispered as they walked closer.
"She uses her pendant, which is made in dreamstone like the Masamune and this wretched contraption," Janus nodded, "there's a little of it in my amulet too. The thing is, Schala's pendant can also work like a key to magical seals. Treasures of this era is still out there in history as their chests cannot be broken, I've even found a couple of them in Guardia."
"But that's Schala's pendant, what's it to us?" Marle wondered.
"It just needs reenergizing, and we'll be able to use it."
Janus turned and pointed with a faint smile.
"This."
Eh? Crono said as something leaped out of a pocket into Marle's hand.
"My pendant?" the princess said, puzzled.
She looked up, bewildered.
"You mean they're the same?"
"We're going to use all help we can get, and those treasures are bound to be of some value in our struggle," Janus nodded, "just hold it up to the Mammon Machine."
Marle nodded and stepped forward, hiding the pendant in her hands not to alarm any of the Enlightened ones. That was, just in case some of them were still somewhat in the real world.
Red light seeped between her fingers as the pendant reacted to the power of the Mammon Machine.
'Careful…' the Prince muttered, and Janus backed away a little just in case Lavos would be able to feel even the faintest scent of him through the magic.
After a few moments the light faltered and Marle quickly surpassed her pendant to a pocket.
"Are we leaving?" she asked.
"I think that would be best," Janus agreed, "I'll teleport us to the cave with the Gate once we're on a little more distance from Lavos."
You're the expert here… Crono complied and they hurried towards the exit.
Nobody tried to stop them as they left the palace and made their way down through the caves, to the grassland area.
Dare I say that went surprisingly smooth? the red-haired one warily said as he and his companions slowed their pace down the road a little.
"Maybe," Janus said with a slanted smile.
"Schala seems really nice," Marle said, kindly.
The wizard softly smiled under the hood and nodded.
"I couldn't agree more."
You want to go back to Guardia for a bit while we go to the future? Crono asked with a smile.
"Now just how did you guess that?" Janus said with a wider smile.
Not too hard to guess, pal.
"Am I that predictable?"
Nah, Frog just said something about you might want to get the shredding and shouting over with, the young man smirked and winked with one eye.
At that Janus even chuckled, to his own surprise.
"Lai can be quite colorful, indeed," he said.
"I got the idea the queen and several others might have something to say about you getting captured," Marle mildly said.
"As long as they don't know how I got caught I might just be able to walk away in less than three pieces."
'Woe, vain, veil, why,' Flea's voice cut in through Janus' cheerfulness, 'I smell a dirty little spy…'
'Just what I needed…' the wizard grunted.
'Just about…' his teacher began.
'… There,' the Prince ended, mentally pointing.
Janus left hand shot out, and there was a strange, muffled shriek. For a moment his hand and fingers twisted about mindlessly, then a strange blue creature materialized in his grip. It had two small hands with three fingers, feet of much the same shape and wings on it's back. Its head was almost nothing but a giant eye.
"A scout," the wizard tiredly said, "we've been stalked."
For how long?! Crono grimly and worriedly demanded.
"Hmm…"
Janus brought the creepy thing down to his face level and glared into the eye. The thing blinked and twitched for a moment, but then seemed to grow paralyzed before the wizard's gaze.
"It's seen nothing too dangerous," he said, "only from our entrance in the Mammon chamber. And it's not going to report anything to Dalton now."
He carefully changed his grip so that the scout limblessly thumped into his assembled palms. Then he raised his hands towards the sky.
"Go find yourself a safe spot, it's going to get dangerous here in a few days."
With another squeak the blue scout took flight, once again alive. It fluttered away over the floating island like a big clumsy insect.
"Why did you let it go?" Marle carefully asked.
"It was empty of information after I examined it," Janus said, "and it's just a tool, no use to put any blame on it."
As his right hand fell it painted a line of fire in the air, and the wizard calmly grabbed his staff.
"It's those men hiding in the bushes that we should worry about now," he said in a low voice so that only Crono and Marle possibly could hear.
In the next second a couple of masked warriors flew to their feet in alarm as their hiding place just beside the road got ripped away in one swipe.
"I thought we were cleansed of all suspicion, my good men?" Janus mildly said while Crono and Marle pulled out their weapons behind his back.
"That's for lord Dalton and Her Majesty to decide," the left warrior growled, "you're coming with us!"
We haven't got time for this, I'm afraid, Crono snarled back.
"Tough luck, lord Dalton's orders," the other one stated.
"Says you and what army?" Marle sweetly said, almost playfully aiming her bow at the last spokesman's chest.
"The whole Zealan army, should something befall us," he replied, a little nervous however.
'Zeal is still too close,' Janus muttered to his friends' minds, 'Lavos might be able to track us if I teleport. Dalton finding the Gate is one thing…'
'Gotcha…' Marle replied.
'I'd wipe their minds clean of this too if I could, but it's too risky.'
'Do we battle then?' Crono asked.
'I see no other choice.'
Janus glared at the warriors, but his hatred was placed elsewhere.
'I'm not being a prisoner again.'
'I know how you feel,' Crono grimly said.
'Janus, sorry to bother you but I really mean it nicely this time,' Flea rabbled somewhere in the back of the wizard's mind, 'you're setting my clothes on fire here!'
'Keep up the hate,' the Prince said with a small sneer, 'we might even get rid of him.'
'How about focusing on what you're doing right now instead?!' the Mystic shouted, leaping from side to side.
'Oh, fine.'
"We've got important matters to attend to elsewhere," the wizard calmly said and leaned on his staff, "and yes, they're more important than Dalton's call."
"You have some nerve!" the second warrior said, brandishing two daggers.
"Your idea about getting physical…" Janus shrugged and got into a defensive stance.
To make his point even clearer he let them attack first, easily parrying the daggers of the first attacker and sidestepping the other. Crono engaged battle with that one while Marle carefully aimed not to hit any of her friends.
The warrior pestering Crono yelped and grabbed for his upper left arm, then growled and flew at the princess. His companion left Janus and followed his friend.
'Wait for it…' the Prince muttered, holding the younger version back.
Marle raised her bow and whacked the first one over the head before he could strike her, the second fell to the ground caught in midair as Crono got a hand on his crag.
"Thanks Crono!" the princess called with a wide smile before she continued to pester her attacker.
'Cute,' Flea commented with a smirk.
'Don't push it,' the Prince warned.
'Who, me? Hey ow, that burns!'
Janus smirked at both the battle before him and the argument inside his head. Sadly so did his teacher, as that left them all off guard.
Half a second too late Janus felt a pull in his hood and whirled around, whipping out his arm and smacking a dully yellow scout to the ground. The hood feel backwards and for a moment his hair melted into the blue sky, spread like a fan by his violent movement and the winds.
The scout crashed on the road just before a pair of the finest boots the magical kingdom could produce.
'Well damn…' Janus grunted while his hair fell back around his shoulders.
"That's a strange 'embarrassing problem' you had," Dalton said with an intrigued smirk.