Chapter Nineteen – The Black Omen
Author's Note : Yes, my interpretation of Magus is to have him out of character compared to the Magus in the game (ie the real one). However, my Magus is trying to turn over a new leaf, and anyway he's recently been reunited with his scythe and with Lucca. So there you go.
Crono landed on the Black Omen's metal floor in a crouch, rose to his feet. He looked around nervously, made sure Lucca and Magus were behind him before continuing. Lucca looked as though she didn't much like the place either and Magus, glancing around with an expression that was almost approving, seemed impressed. Coming from Zeal, he could probably appreciate the thing more than anyone else, although, Crono thought a little darkly, Lucca probably wanted to take the thing apart and get a better look at it.
There were little electronic sentinel thingies posted outside the door. Magus said instantly, "Here, let me," and, positively bouncing into the lead, used Lightning2 so much more stylishly that Crono could only raise one eyebrow and look disapproving. All of the guards were instantly destroyed.
"You weren't that strong when we fought you!" Lucca exclaimed as Magus returned to the other two, looking extremely smug. "You'd have killed us in an instant!"
"Ah, I was going easy on you," Magus shrugged carelessly, although he was clearly pleased that they were impressed. During his dark magic-restricted days, they had forgotten how powerful he really was.
"Don't be too eager," Crono warned, moving to the door. "We want to have a go too, you know. Are we all ready?"
"Ready as ever." Magus, of course.
"Lucca?"
"Well, I would have gone anyway," Lucca said, "but if Magus is going to pull out things like that, then I'm more than ready!"
"Don't say things like that to him, he won't be able to get into the Black Omen, his head will be that big," Crono warned, but he was smiling. "What happened to the cold, aloof Magus we used to know?"
"Well, you made him try to be good, and then some nasty Mage blocked his magic, and now he wants to show off," Magus replied. "Kelke made me feel useless! I hate being useless! So are we going or not?" he wanted to know.
"All right, we'll go," Crono sighed and they entered the Black Omen.
The first thing they encountered was Queen Zeal, who basically told them that she was going to be immortal with Lavos and that the three of them were going to sacrifice themselves to the big red fiery echidna. With that, she set a nasty-looking machine monster thing on them and disappeared.
"Let me, let me!" said Magus again and instantly cast Fire2.
"No, sorry, we want to play," Crono protested and joined in with Luminaire. Lucca tried out the spell that Jhyskar had given her, Combustion, finding it to be impressive and about as powerful as Flare, if not slightly lesser. The creature was defeated with not too much trouble and they moved further into the Black Omen.
"Ooh, ooh! A Martello! I know how to defeat these things, I used to do it all the time," said Magus enthusiastically.
"Down," Lucca said firmly. "We all took a bit of damage from that thing and we don't know what else is in here. …Did you really fight these things all the time?"
"No, but they can't be too hard," Magus shrugged. "Ow! It shot me! Right," he snarled at the Martello and cast Ice2. It shot him again and he hit it with his scythe until it broke. "Ha ha! Magus wins, one to nothing!" he said triumphantly and turned to the other, which Crono and Lucca had already defeated. "Fine…"
"We're not going to let you do all the work," Lucca pointed out practically, reloading her gun.
"And you might want to take it easy," Crono added, checking over the Rainbow carefully. "We don't want you running out of magic in the middle of a battle."
"I won't," Magus promised carelessly. He pointed at the door before them. "Are we going in here?"
"I suppose," Crono shrugged. "I don't know anything about this place… you sure you're all right? It did shoot you a couple of times."
"I'm fine, mother," Magus tossed back. "Let's go!"
They discovered another Martello, which shot Magus and Crono before they destroyed it. Magus, who had probably taken more damage than anyone else, refused all offers of tonics or ethers and insisted that they continue, which they did. They had advanced perhaps thirty cautious steps when Crono stopped.
"Can you hear that?" he asked curiously, then turned. "Duck!" he added, taking his own advice as two Goons flew over them.
Without waiting to assess the situation, Magus used Dark Matter, his first Shadow spell of this little outing. This had no effect whatsoever on the Goons. One of the flew closer and, before Magus could so much as ready his scythe, picked up the good evil wizard (as he was generally known to them now), flew up with him a short distance and dumped him on the ground.
Magus did not move.
Lucca would have instantly gone to them but for a certain pair of irritated Goons that she and Crono had to fight off first. When they had been disposed of, the two of them went to see what was wrong with Magus now.
"He's very problematic, isn't he?" Lucca sighed, rolling the wizard over.
"He's unconscious," Crono noted.
"Brilliant deduction. Fix him."
Crono used a handy little spell known as Life and Magus' breathing became more regular, which was always a good sign. "Ow," Magus complained and, opening his eyes, took in the expressions of the other two. "Uh-oh," he added.
"Didn't you stop to think?" Crono demanded.
Magus considered. "Um. No."
"They were shadow creatures!"
"Were they? That would explain why DarkMatter didn't work," Magus said thoughtfully, sitting up.
Lucca hugged him. "Stop doing this to me! You're going to think next time, aren't you? You know you have nothing to prove! We can already appreciate how powerful you are! So next time choose sense over arrogance!"
"Yes, Lucca. Sorry, Lucca," said Magus meekly as Lucca let him go.
"Why do you often take that tone with her?" Crono asked curiously. "Aren't you meant to be a big, scary evil wizard?"
"Hey, I recognise a dominant female when I see one," Magus retorted, getting to his feet. "Anyway, it's a learned habit. Sometimes the only thing to do was to look sad and say, 'Yes, Schala. Sorry, Schala'. Always worked for me, at least."
"So you're going to stop bounding ahead and getting us all in trouble?" Crono demanded.
Magus sighed. "I suppose…"
"You're going to have a look at the creatures we fight before attacking, aren't you?" Crono continued.
"Yes, all right, I've been a naughty child, now can we get on with it?" Magus demanded impatiently. "We have a Lavos to defeat, you know!"
"Okay, we'll get on with it," Crono decided and they proceeded to do so.
The End of Time
Marle studied the Epoch.
"What are you planning?" Schala asked her wearily.
"Well…" began Marle, "we could take the Epoch and… go and have a bit of a look at Lavos. I mean, that wouldn't be so bad… would it…?"
"Ayla go fight Lavos now!" agreed Ayla.
"We don't need experience…" Marle continued. "Besides, we could… soften him up a bit, or something. Serves Crono right for running off with Magus and Lucca and having all the fun."
"The End of Time is tedious," Frog admitted. "There is no change in scenery…"
"Well, you know I'm not allowed to come with you," Schala began. "I'll stay here with Alfador and wait for Magus to come back. For all of you to come back. So the four of you can fit in the Epoch, as long as someone takes Lucca's Seat."
"Shotgun not," said Marle quickly.
Ayla, Schala, Frog and Robo stared at her. "Shot… gun," Frog echoed slowly.
"Yeah. I picked it up from the year 2002," Marle said brightly.
"Have you been taking unauthorised trips in the Epoch?" Schala demanded.
"Well, Crono and I wanted to get away from you lot for a while, and… wait a minute! I shouldn't be admitting something that'll get me in trouble!" Marle realised. "Anyway, let's just get into the Epoch and go and pay Lavos a bit of a visit!"
"Can I stay here too?" Frog pleaded of Schala.
"No," Marle replied firmly and, taking Frog by the scruff of the neck, dragged him into the Epoch.
Some place near Lavos
Crono, Lucca and Magus got through the whole of the Black Omen fairly quickly after Magus stopped being irresponsible and agreed to start thinking instead. They defeated Queen Zeal and found themselves thrown not before Lavos but in front of some people who looked very familiar.
"What are you doing here?" Crono demanded of Marle.
"What are you doing here?" Marle challenged right back at him, hands on hips.
"My Epoch!" Lucca wailed and threw herself on the remains of the Epoch. "You crashed my Epoch! How dare you? Who was driving?" she demanded, reaching for her gun. Magus removed it from her hands and she glared at him.
"You can fix it after we've defeated Lavos," Marle shrugged dismissively. "Seeing as we're all here, why not go and fight Lavos together?"
"Isn't that kind of cheating?" Crono wanted to know.
"Anyone have problem fighting Lavos with many allies?" Ayla wanted to know. "Nobody have problem? All fight together! Good, good!"
"You have a point," Crono admitted.
"Is this really it?" Lucca asked in a whisper. "This is almost the end. It can't be real. I must be dreaming. It all comes to this..."
The ground shook under their feet. Magus dropped the gun and put his hands on the wreckage of the Epoch as though to steady himself. He was the first to react when the tremor passed, finding his feet and moving forward. The others watched him turn his face to something and then his cloak began to flutter as though in wind.
"The black wind," he noted. A smile lifted his lips briefly, a thoroughly predatory smile. "This is it, indeed. This is real. I've waited so long for this…"
"Magus…" Lucca cautioned, reaching for her gun. Going to Magus, she reached as though to touch his arm but he brushed her off.
"Finally, I shall destroy you!" he pronounced triumphantly and strode forward.
"Ayla not run! Ayla fight!" Ayla agreed and loped after the wizard.
"You're right!" Marle agreed. "For Doan and the others too!"
Frog drew his sword. "Cometh, Masamune!" With that, he was following the others.
"Let us go!" Robo suggested to Lucca and did his almost comical robot run in order to catch up.
Crono drew closer to his best friend, watching her with some concern. He knew she had her insecurities but it was not like Lucca to show her fear so obviously. "Are you all right?"
Lucca's response was immediate. "I'm not ready to die."
"You don't have to do this," he told her. "I'm sure we don't need all of us."
Lucca shook her head, readied her gun. "Ours… was a short youth!" she shouted, not exactly the world's most confident battle cry, and ran to catch up with the others.
"Hang about!" Crono protested. "What's that supposed to mean?"
There was no time for reflection; Magus had almost reached Lavos. As Crono watched, Marle dared to put out a hand to stop the wizard. She spoke briefly to him. Magus hesitated, glanced back at Robo and Lucca, who were both swiftly catching up. The wizard nodded, a little reluctantly Crono thought, and waited.
Realising that he was about to miss the dramatic, inspirational entry, Crono sprinted with all of his considerable speed. "Took your time," Magus greeted him sourly.
Crono was too busy catching his breath to think up a suitable comeback. Magus rolled his eyes, waited until Crono had recovered. Crono straightened, gave a nod, and together the seven of them walked forwards to meet their destiny.