To the casual observer, Gaspar would seem like your average, run-of-the-mill, old guy. He had the gray hair, the cane, and everything old guys have. Being perfectly bland, he fit in with his surroundings: the End of Time. Sure, if you go by the name you may think that it would be some unstable, shaky, apocalyptic place full of clamor and noise. But it wasn't. The End of Time was boring and quiet. In fact, the most exciting thing that Gaspar did his time here was wake up from his naps. Except, of course, when-

Suddenly a large explosion erupts from across the End of Time inside Spekio's room. The door flies open and out flies Chrono, one of the time travelers. Chrono skids across the floor on his back, stopping only when he topples into Gaspar.

"Having a nice fight, Chrono?" the Guru gasped out as he tries to straighten himself up from the two-person dog pile.

Chrono nodded as he helped Gasper up. He quickly did an about face and energetically ran towards the open door. What a quiet boy, Gasper thought.

Meanwhile, inside Spekio's room, all seven of the heroes were battling Spekio for practice. Immediately after rushing into the room, Chrono executed an attack he and Marle called "Ice Sword 2". Thrusting his sword into Spekio (who was still a red nu) Marle cast a quick Ice spell on the blade. After the spell was cast, they quickly fell back to let the others have a try at Spekio.

The nu, though, was thinking other about other plans. This is so exciting! Spekio thought as Marle and Lucca cast an Antipode 2 on him. A real mission from the Entity! Ignoring the pain, he let out a burst of electricity throughout the whole room. The lightning blinded everyone, including Spekio. When the light cleared, Spekio opened his eyes to only see a large dome of dark energy explode around him, knocking him flat across the fence.

Not gonna last much longer, Spekio thought. Better use the spell soon.

"Okay you kids!" he shouted. "I'd like to try something!"

Spekio only received confused glances (and a slightly raised eyebrow from Magus) in reply.

Ayla was the one who broke the silence. "What Spekio mean?"

Chrono shrugged.

"Let's just get this over with," Magus mumbled, leaning back on the door he was standing by. He felt that this practice was just a waste of time, since they had already completed all the extra side quests Gaspar had told them to do. They were all ready to take on Lavos, but that annoying little spike-head insisted on "leveling up" or something like that before they do so. Naturally, Magus' patience was beginning to wane.

While this was going on, Spekio had already begun silently chanting the spell the Entity gave him. It could only work once, so he had to get it right the first time.

"Untalla mensu candori…" he spoke.

"Say what?" Lucca asked.

"Memory banks have no information on this spell," answered Robo monotonously. "Do you know, Magus?" he asked.

Magus just shrugged in reply. "Seems just like a bunch of useless rabble to me."

"Well, then," said Glenn cautiously, his eyes on Spekio. "Be at thine guard."

Chrono nodded as the others took more defensive stances. Except Magus, of course, who still leaned against the door. Though the spell was not recognizable, he still felt he had heard it somewhere before.

"Esuwari, hainomo, canto…" Spekio droned on.

I know I've heard it, Magus thought. I swear I've heard something like it before…maybe even used it… His gaze trailed over his "comrades" as they waited out Spekio's chant. Lucca had a fire spell ready, Ayla and Marle were preparing for a Cube Toss spell, and both Chrono and Glenn-

Glenn. That's when Magus remembered.

"I know what it is!" Magus uncharacteristically burst out.

"And what, pray tell," Glenn said coldly, "is it?"

"That, you worthless amphibian, is the same spell that turned you into a frog."

Marle's eyes widened. "So it's a transformation-"

"ENTUASA!!!" Spekio hollered out, his long nu arms stretched outwards.

"…spell."

Whoops, out of time.

Quickly everyone scattered out of Spekio's way as he pointed his index finger-

-at Magus.

A large flash of purple light slammed into the mage. Quickly afterwards, a bright aura grew around him, flashing different colors. Magus could feel every cell in his body being ripped apart and rearranged. He painfully felt his body shrink as the bright lights blinded him. He could hear the collective yells from the other people in the room, but the sounds seemed distant. Right before unconsciousness overtook him, he swore he heard Spekio yell, "Yes! Mission complete!"

It's cold, was the first though to enter Magus' mind. Really cold. And dark. And indeed it was. Wherever it was that Magus had been sent, it was definently cold and dark.

Magus tried to feel around himself, but it didn't even feel like he was moving himself. The void, for lack of better word, he was in seemed to be spinning around him. Or was he doing the spinning?

After a few more seconds, another thought dared to enter his mind. I'm going to kill Spekio when I'm out of here.

Then Magus started hearing voices. They were faint, but they were still voices. Or maybe he was just going crazy.

One of the voices sounded like Ayla's.

"Ooooh, pretty colors."

Yep, Magus was insane.

"Oh shush, Ayla," Magus heard Marle say. "This is serious…"

Or maybe not.

"I don't know, I think I like him in this form," said Glenn's voice.

That…is not a good sign, Magus thought. So the spell worked. But to the point Glenn liked it? But then again, anything bad for Magus was good for Glenn.

"Yeah," Marle agreed. "He's sorta cute."

CUTE?! That's it, Magus mentally fumed. I'm out of here.

Back in Spekio's room, Chrono and Lucca had cornered Spekio while Robo was sent to go fetch Gaspar. Spekio was standing tall, still giddy over the completion of the Entity's mission. While Lucca began to force answers out of Spekio, Chrono couldn't help but keep stealing glances at the transformed wizard. He hadn't expected Magus to be the target of the spell, and was even less prepared for the out come. Sure, it would've made sense if he was transfigured into a bat or Mystic or something like that, but this?

"Okay Spekio," Lucca questioned. "What exactly do you mean by 'mission'?"

Spekio – now in kiwala form – happily answered, "You should know. Mission, as in a quest, adventure, assignment-"

"I know that!" interrupted Lucca.

"Then why'd you ask? Huh? Huh?" Spekio asked, nearly dancing around with joy.

"I asked because-" Lucca started only to be interrupted by Spekio again.

"No more guard duty for me!" Spekio was just about literally bouncing off the walls while ignoring Lucca completely. "The Entity's going to be so proud!"

Both Chrono and Lucca blinked. "What?" Lucca demanded. "What about the Entity?"

Spekio was more than glad to answer. "Well, it started a few days ago when-"

"Hey! He's waking up!" Marle's shout interrupted. Immediately all heads turned towards the comatose wizard lying on the floor. The Guru of Time and Robo had just come in.

"Who's waking up?" Gaspar asked. Then he saw the stirring form at his feet. "Oh, him."

Slowly Magus tried to open his eyes (thank goodness he still had them). The light still hurt, but he forced himself to look around. Marle and Ayla were sitting besides him with wide eyes, while Glenn was smirking smugly behind them. Chrono was just standing there with his mouth agape and Lucca seemed to be holding back a laugh. Gaspar was towering over-

Wait a moment.

Towering over?

Gaspar wasn't supposed to towering over him. Magus was taller than Gaspar.

"What is…?" Magus began, but quickly stopped when he noticed the change in his voice. It was so…light. Boyish even.

For the first time in many a year, Magus felt afraid. Very afraid.

"M-maybe this'll help," he heard Marle say from beside him. She cast a small spell that created a thin sheet of reflective ice on her hand. Sitting fully up to see it, Magus ignored the cold and took the mirror from her. His blood froze when he saw the reflection.

Staring back at him was the child-prince of Zeal, Janus.

Magus laid back down with his eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to absorb the shock. Nobody else even dared to move. After a few minutes, Magus dared to ask, "Spekio?"

"Yes?" he answered, completely ignoring the biting coldness in the voice of the now young boy.

"I'm going to kill you."