Chapter 17, Family quarrels
Crono and Marle rushed over to Janus while Dalton's men crawled up behind their boss.
"Be careful, lord Dalton…" one of the warriors growled, but it was hard to tell which one.
"Would you like to explain yourself freely or do we have to get harsher?" Dalton said, still eying the wizard with unpleasant interest.
"What do we do?" Marle hissed from the corner of her mouth.
'As I told you he did find out the truth when I was the boy, but it's too early!' Janus muttered through telepathy, 'this could really complicate things…'
'It won't be "complicated" before I pop out of your head and offer to help,' Flea dryly commented.
'If you do you're deader than you'd ever believe was possible,' the three Januses snarled.
'Is that gratefulness?'
'When did I first talk with you about gratefulness?' the Prince asked.
'That was when you first mastered Dark Matter, I believe.'
'Precisely. And what do you remember from that?'
'Very little, you put me in coma for a week. And when I woke up the first thing I heard was Slash announcing that you were our new king.'
'Exactly. So shut up.'
'Intriguing how your life was based on that spell…'
'Oh shut it…' the Pawn grunted, a little sour even.
'Focus, people!' Janus grunted.
'Right.'
'He did capture us when you were a child, didn't he?' Crono grimly said.
'His golems are very powerful, and you didn't know how to fight them,' Janus replied, 'we can maybe make it… they can copy our magic, so we must be careful. There's no way we'll make it in a long fight.'
'Can we combine our powers and take it out in one blow?' Crono thoughtfully suggested.
'Hmm… it's made of stone so it has to be really strong.'
"I'm still waiting for a reply," Dalton impatiently said.
We're not answering to you, Crono snapped.
Marle grimly nodded and Janus just glared.
"To bad for you," the one-eyed man smirked and raised his hand, "come, golem!"
What opened in thin air between the two groups looked almost like a Gate, but the darkness was too drained of life. A silhouette clumsily lumbered into sight, quickly gaining looks as the portal began to close.
It seemed to consist only of jaws and gigantic fists.
"That is so… ugly…" Marle groaned.
'I have an idea,' she whispered in her thoughts, quickly beginning to explain.
"I'll teach you manners, you insect!" Dalton growled somewhere behind the stone giant.
"But it's true!" the princess called, smirking.
"Make sure you don't kill them, golem!" the general snarled.
With a roar the stone-creature slammed its massive fists together.
"Look out!" Janus shouted and leaped backwards, turning his staff horizontally and pressing it against his stomach so that Marle and Crono got pushed back together with him, almost carried on the weapon.
Three gray orbs plunged down from nowhere and narrowly missed the good warriors. They dissolved almost immediately, but they obviously hadn't been nice to whatever they landed on.
"How about it?" Marle growled as she got up.
"I suppose it could work," Janus agreed, slamming his weapon into the ground to release the blades.
"Alright, quickly! Crono?"
Ready!
"I'm ready," Janus said with a small, almost evil sneer on his lips.
"Powers of the world, I bid of thee to lend me the power of Water!"
… Of Lightning!
Flanked by his friends' chanting Janus leaped forward, spinning the staff in his right hand.
Before the golem had time to react it had a wizard on top of it. It obviously did not find that funny, rocking back and forth as it tried to reach him with its gigantic fingers. Janus stood firm however and kept spinning the staff at impossible speed.
Without a word, without a taunting shout he stood there, silently holding a tornado and just bending away from the golem's tries to grab him. Then all of a sudden the staff stopped moving and the golem grunted in rage as it found it couldn't move its hands. The fingers that had tried to grab the wizard were locked in thick, clean ice. And in the middle of the ice was Janus, still in the complete cold. The staff lightly touched the stone head with one blade deep within the frozen water.
Crono's feet left the ground as he raised his hands towards the sky, carried by the sheer power of his assembled will.
Ha!
From the blue sky a massive lightning bolt flared, cleaving the ice by the middle. Janus flew out from the cold depths and landed on his feet while the golem rocked back and forth in pain as the lightning kept flowing electricity through it; its fists were forced down on the ground by the heavy ice. Just before the lightning finally ended the staff flew out of the its center and landed in Janus' hand. The blades were red hot after the intense electrifying and with a growl the wizard leaped forward, slashing at the small, mad eyes of the beast.
It roared in pain and fell forwards, nearly crushing the wizard.
Janus stumbled out of the way and planted his weapon in the ground, the buried blade hissing as it met the cooler earth.
'That was crazy,' the Prince mildly commented, smiling however.
'I'm not sure if it was smart either,' Janus panted even in his thoughts.
It had been a tad bit too close with the lightning bolt, but Marle's plan had worked well. Their opponent's main power was its massive fists, which needed to be taken cared of for safety purposes. The problem was to get both of its hands trapped with ice, with just one weighed down it might have been able to smash itself free. Janus' first part of it had been nothing but distraction to give Marle and Crono time to prepare their spells properly. To have him trapped in the ice and escape like that had been risky, but the red-hair knew his powers well.
However, the cold had not been easy on Janus' body.
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Water. Na matala sela…" he muttered.
The healing eased the stiffness a little, but he still felt rather dizzy.
Are you alright? Crono called as he and Marle hurried over to their ally.
"Fabulous…" Dalton growled, rage and fascination battling within the single word.
He raised his hand…
'Damn!'
"Run!" Janus croaked, but it was too late.
With squeals of surprise Crono and Marle were pushed down on the ground together with Janus by three reddish walls that locked them inside a magical, pyramid formed prison. The wizard lost grip of his staff and it was pushed away, he pressed his hands against the walls snarling in rage.
"Damn…!"
What the…
"Hey! Let us out, you slug!"
Janus glared towards the distant Kajar past the approaching Zealans and tried to mutter the teleporting spell, but the walls glowed upon the final word and nothing happened. His will stayed locked in his head.
Dalton sneered down at the three warriors that furiously slammed their fists against the inside of their cage.
(Author's note:
If you level up like crazy or use game+ you'll probably be able to beat the golem in Zeal's throne-room. If so, Dalton uses this trick instead, in case anyone didn't know.)
'Dammit!' Janus roared in his mind.
'Didn't count on that, bloody hell…' the Pawn and Prince snarled simultaneously.
"You're not getting out of there, children," Dalton smirked, causing several blue-hairs to grit their teeth, "will you still not talk by yourselves?"
Go to hell! Crono snarled.
"Oh really now. I'm sure the queen will be interested in such peculiar guests, and since you've proved you're dangerous we'll just have to make you explain yourselves. I'll gladly make you talk the hard way," he sneered, almost hungrily.
"You one-eyed creep!" Marle just spat.
'Schala has fixed this situation twice before,' the Prince growled, 'but Dalton never caught someone who had the hair color of the royal family earlier. I doubt he'll let her get close, we have to get you out right now somehow!'
'I'd love to get out, but how?' Janus growled, hardly able to control his despair now, 'I'm not going through this again!'
'Calm down!' his teacher commanded, 'this isn't a good time to loose your cool. Focus! Dalton can't beat you now; he never got me nor the lord here and you're the strongest of us!'
The Prince said nothing then, though he knew their corresponding Dalton most probably would imprison both his younger versions at one point. But it was better that they didn't know.
'Easy for you to say…'
But Janus clenched his teeth against the drowning waves of helplessness. There had to be some way out…
'Flea! Where did you go?' the Prince suddenly called, suspiciously.
'Can it, cutie. I've almost got it…'
'Got what now?'
For a tormenting split second nobody said anything in Janus' mind, though Marle and Crono kept swearing at Dalton.
'There's a weak point, the top of the pyramid isn't perfectly shut!' the Mystic finally called in triumph, 'it might be breakable!'
'But Dalton will notice I'm up to something…' Janus grimly said.
'Who said you'd do it?'
'FLEA!' three blue-hairs shouted.
'Really now, can you never hear me out, boys?'
Crono's features locked in a growl for a swift moment a second later, as he listened to something in his thoughts. Marle was able to keep shouting at their warden as if nothing had happened within her mind.
"Alright you two, shut up," Janus growled aloud and grabbed a shoulder in each hand, "this isn't helping at all."
He dragged them as far away from Dalton as it was possible in the small cell, glaring up at their captor alone.
"Fine," the wizard snarled, "I'll talk if you spare them. They're hardly more than kids, let them be."
"And I had a feeling you knew me a little," the general cruelly said, "but I might consider being a little kind for once. Maybe."
Janus just glared up at him without a word. Marle and Crono sat behind him on their knees, silent.
"So let's hear it," Dalton smirked, "who are you? And I mean you, not the others."
"I'm a skilled mage, born in Zeal."
That reply would possibly serve to protect the prince.
"Oh really?" Dalton skeptically said, "what's your name then?"
"Cyrus," Janus lied.
It was the first thing coming to mind, apart from Magus which came out of a memory but was strangled and quartered before it had time to slip out between his lips.
"I've never heard of a mage nor warrior named Cyrus of your caliber," the general said, soft as silk, "especially none with the hair color typical for the royals."
"I told you it was an embarrassing problem," Janus spat, "I made a mistake and the explosion changed my hair!"
"Did you see the princess about it?"
'He'll question Schala about this whether we get out or not, what would she say?' Janus hissed.
'Tell him whatever, I'll warn her,' the Pawn offered.
'But what about Lavos?'
'I'll be careful.'
'Alright.'
"She hadn't time to talk, she was going to the throne-room as I saw her so I went to the Mammon machine in hopes that the power streams would be able to revert the magic," Janus said aloud, "as you see it didn't work."
Dalton was silent for a moment. Then he raised his hand and waved it from side to side.
"Turn your head," he commanded, "let me see your profile."
"For what goddamn reason?" Janus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You remind me of someone," Dalton said, leaning forwards a little with a thoughtful smirk, "even more as you glare with such bleary eyes."
"My bet is that you're talking about prince Janus," the wizard calmly said, "you're not the only one. People always said that if my hair was blue instead of purple… well, you know."
He added the last with a roll of his eyes.
"I really think that explosion might have been set by some kid wanting to play a prank on me."
"I'm not questioning you for small talk," Dalton snapped.
"Then what?" Janus replied.
"One simple thing before we go on. Do you think I believe you?"
"Probably not, then you wouldn't ask that."
"Clever man."
Dalton straightened up, smirking.
"I'll have you tell the truth soon enough, you or your young companions."
"Just what makes you think I lie?" Janus furiously asked, "leave them out of this, they're…"
"Yes, just what are they?" Dalton cut him off, "they're not Enlightened ones and obviously not Earthbound ones."
"I simply find Nu's and their likes too common," Janus said, "this design is more interesting."
"And just now you called them kids and was worried about them?"
"You might not care about your created companions but it took me a long while to give mine proper minds and bodies, you leave them be!"
"I have no created companions," Dalton sneered, "it's too easy to command them."
"Then what about those scouts following us?" Janus shot out.
"What are those to care about?"
"Point."
'Are you done yet?' he hissed in his thoughts.
'Any second…' Crono reported.
"Well whatever they are," Dalton sneered, "you do seem to care more about them than about yourself so you've already proven your weak spot. And you obviously do know enough to be aware of what happens to people who endangers the kingdom."
"We, or rather you put them on mount Woe."
"True. But in some cases that's eventual."
Janus shifted his legs a bit, still pressing one hand against the wall as he had done for a while.
"You know, I don't think you'd believe me no matter what I'd told you, Dalton," he commented.
"Nobody talks that easily," the captor commented.
"You're smarter than most would say you are, after all," Janus said with a sneer.
Dalton's single eye thinned with rage.
"You're not in a situation to talk like that, my friend," he coldly said, "I can fry one of your friends from here if you don't behave according to your position."
Janus pursed his mouth.
"Alright, alright, I know you've got us right where you want us," he said, "I know the only sensible thing to do."
Marle and Crono grabbed his hands and in a storm of lightning tearing up the tiny hole in the top of their prison they shot upwards with magical, red shards exploding around them.
"Escape," Janus clarified, releasing the teleportation spell that had been canned before.
Followed by Dalton's furious holler they swept away from the field and landed on top of one of Kajar's buildings. With a little better ability to concentrate Janus focused on the field outside Enhasa and they leaped there through the magic.
"At this rate he won't lock up the Gate, he'll follow us or send something through," Janus snarled and made his friends run towards the town, "we can't let him do that, it's way too early."
"What?" Marle asked, confused, "will he know time travel?"
"He was in Guardia," Janus snarled, "a future version of him was helping the Mystics in their tries to kill me, but it's not time for that yet."
You have one hard necked father, have to hand him that, Crono growled as they rushed on.
"Sadly, yes."
Janus hissed the spell again and they landed in the shadow of the white buildings on Enhasa's south side.
"They'll find my teleport tracks within seconds and follow us," the wizard muttered through clenched teeth, seeing a distant flash of light in the field, "we'll have to get to the Gate by foot."
"Can't you at least teleport us down on the ground?" Marle whispered.
"I can try, but your memories of that might be too blurred… run!"
They rushed towards the east side of the city, after a few yards Janus teleported to the roof he had been standing on when he first saw his child version. They could hear Dalton and his men shout to each other as they sought the next track. There were many new warriors, the general must have been focused enough to get more people before they all teleported after the escapees.
There! Crono hissed, pointing at the northern skyway.
If they went to the southern one they would be seen and hunted down by teleporting soldiers, no doubt. Janus understood and sent the small group there. They dove inside for safety and jumped onto the pod, being sent down into the winter lands.
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Fire…"
Protected by the spell they ran into the cold snowstorm.
"Whatever would we do without you, Janus?" Marle gratefully sighed as they hurried on just to be safe.
'I'm starting to ask myself that too,' Flea commented, 'geez, however did our troop make it this far without you, Janus?'
He aimed the last part towards the Prince; his Janus, of course.
'"Our" troop?' the Prince repeated, rather amused to common surprise.
'You know what I mean, cutie.'
"I actually think you'd be in less danger right now," Janus grunted, "technically, that is…"
Yeah, we'd be captured already, Crono mildly said.
"Point there, I suppose."
Janus even chuckled a bit and stopped, making Marle and Crono do the same.
"The storm will give us even more cover," he said, "I need just a moment's search through your minds…"
It took him a couple of seconds, but in Marle's memory he found a dead tree she had seen on the way through the winter lands together with Crono and Frog. That was all he needed to focus on, it was not too close to the Gate cave.
Once again they teleported and landed in the snowstorm several miles away from their last position. Using a compass Crono wisely had brought with him during the travels they found the right direction and hurried off, the snow quickly covering their trail and protecting against the men that had to spend several hours searching in vain.