Prisoners of War

By Dixxy

Chapter Six

Norris awoke some time later lying on his bed with a damp cloth on his forehead. "You know, I'm the gay one here and yet I've never seen a man faint before this," he heard Elliot say from somewhere nearby. The shuffling of boots on the floor gave Norris an idea as to where his friend was, which was close enough to know he was awake.

"I'm sorry – I was a little. . . shocked?" asked Norris. "Glenn doesn't seem the type."

"Your gaydar must be broken," Elliot said casually. "I knew about the moment I saw him, and I knew I loved him right then and there." He sighed dreamily. "But we broke up before I ended up here and, well, he probably thinks I'm dead by now. Might've moved on to someone else for all I know. But. . . time is cruel and eventually I will move on as well."

"He was doing well the last time I saw him," Norris said. He sat up, crossing his arms and placing his elbows on his knees as he began to reminisce. "He was a private when I initially met him, but I got the idea that the General was evaluating him for a promotion. Dario and the other Devas seemed very proud."

"That's good," said Elliot. As Norris sat up, Elliot took a seat on the edge of the bed. "Glad to see he didn't get too bent out of shape over me. But I guess that's life, isn't it? One minute you want to ask him to spend the rest of your life with him, the next you've got each others swords to the others neck."

Norris looked at Elliot in surprise. "What happened?"

"I don't like talking about it."

"So. . . you were engaged to Glenn?"

"Not quite an engagement. . . men can't marry other men, so we have commitment ceremonies instead. There's rings and stuff, but it's usually pretty quiet and private. But, if you would like to put it into context. . . yes, we were engaged for about thirty minutes before we got into the fight, and then Glenn took the ring off and stormed away," said Elliot. "That. . . kind of hurt. Really."

"You really loved him," he said.

"Yes, I did," said Elliot. "But I feel like I treated him badly, though he always insisted otherwise." He blushed. "I don't know why I'm telling you this, but the first night were together. . . was in the dragon stables." Norris turned to him with wide eyes as Elliot nodded. "It just kind of happened. I felt awful for about a week about it – Glenn seemed fine but. . . you were in the stable at some point, right? It's not exactly the most romantic place in the world and. . . I wished it would have been someplace better."

Norris felt mildly uncomfortable at the mention (he HAD been in the stables before, and now knowing it was a gay love nest made him edgy), but realized that he was bringing up some painful memories for Elliot. His friend needed to get some things off his chest, and Norris decided to listen. "I don't want to know WHY and I don't want any details – as it is, if I ever return to El Nido I'm never going in that stable ever again – but did Glenn feel upset over it?"

"No – not at all," he said. "He told me the most important thing to him is that it wasn't just a cheap bang – there was real emotion there. Love. He told me it didn't matter to him where it happened, as long as we loved each other he wouldn't have had it any other way. Still. . . I promised myself I would never do that to anyone again. Had it been someone a little older. . . you gotta understand that Glenn was sixteen at the time. Still just a kid. And I did that to him. And. . . he was a Dragoon, someone who'll end up in a war zone at some point. From the minute he was enlisted his innocence started slipping away from him and I took the last shred of it – I made him grow up too fast."

Though he was still a little dizzy, Norris crawled to where Elliot sat and gave him a hug. The strawberry blonde looked at him in surprise, but Glenn shook his head. "I'm not making a move on you – you know I'm straight – but you're upset and friends hug each other when one of them is sad."

Elliot gave Norris a weak smile and returned the gesture. "Thank you, Norris."

All told, the Timeless Rebellion movement was rather small – it consisted of around sixty people from all walks of life with skills ranging from Norris' marksmanship to Madame Chocolate's knack for inventions. Still, their numbers made it difficult to make very much progress in their resistance – only a few raids on ships and some espionage were possible under the given circumstance. The only good thing about their small size was that it made it easier for everyone to live in the old boarding house and the added bonus of making it harder for Porre to find them.

Elliot and Norris were amongst the few rebels who had their own rooms, though many chose to crowd themselves in one room by choice – the leader of the rebellion, Red, his wife, Blondie, and their children were one such example. Madame Chocolate shared her room with her parents – both aging – and a few young orphans the rebels had come across. Others who had escaped tragedies they never spoke of stuck together for emotional support while others still formed friendships with those they would have otherwise never met.

That was one reason why Norris and Elliot were such good friends (despite Elliot's pranks). They were each unique in the group, as Elliot was the only El Nido native and Norris the Porre solider. Everyone else was primarily from Guardia or Choras, though there was a small group from a small, frozen country to the far North. Though no one isolated Elliot for his heritage, as El Nido was held in high regard, he was mildly shunned by those who were more or less homophobic. As for the soldier, Norris occasionally felt the cold shoulder from some of the other rebels who still weren't sure to trust him. That frustrated Norris – no matter how many times he had ripped up any patch that bore his country's coat of arms or called his former superiors degrading names he would never say infront of the women or children, it wasn't rare that he found himself left out.

The morning after their discussion, Norris decided that Elliot should be left to his own devices for the day. He was noticeably depressed and didn't feel much like talking with anyone. Norris guessed that he might have dreamt of his ex-lover and reasoned that he needed some time to mope around about it.

So that left Norris to either find a group who would let them join in on their current mission or. . . do something else. "Something else" was easier said than done, and since we still wasn't Mr. Popular with his peers, it looked like "something else" was going to be his activity of choice.

As he tried to decide where he'd be most useful, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw he was face to face with Madame Chocolate. She smiled at him, reminding Norris that not everyone suspected him. "Norris, last night a few of our men were able to bring something back from the Porre army – we think you'd like to take a look at him."

"Him?" asked Norris.

"Yes – I'm good with inventions and such, but. . . I've never seen anything quite like this robot before," she said. "We were wondering if you knew anything about him." The two began to walk, and Madame Chocolate described the strange man further. "It's clearly a man. . . yet a machine. He has circuitry, yet he bled when someone scraped his arm against a sharp corner after he was turned off."

Norris' eyes widend in curiosity. "Does he have blue skin and blonde hair by any chance?" Madame Chocolate looked at Norris in surprise, but nodded. "Then that's probably Grobyc – he's what you would call a cyborg – half-man, half-machine. I'm surprised they weren't killed getting him back here, never mind turning him off."

"How come?"

"Though I don't know where his human components came from – that's something only a few Porre doctors and maybe a few of the generals know – but he was built and programmed for assassination. When I was in El Nido he nearly took out General Viper's daughter and actually took out several Dragoons," said Norris. "Luckily he was programmed only to obey those stronger than himself – so when someone taught him a lesson, he began to follow them like an obedient dog. I was with the group that took him down, so he might listen to me if he wasn't reprogrammed."

"Can you see if any of this was done?" she asked.

"I could give it a try, but I've never tried to re-wire Grobyc before," said Norris.

Eventually, Madame Chocolate and Norris found themselves in the basement, where Red and Blondie stood alone with the familiar blue cyborg, stripped down to a pair of boxer shorts. Evidently he'd been searched for weapons and left the way he was so Norris could check his programming without trouble. The two leaders turned their heads at the entrance, the lady smiling sweetly as the two entered. "Does he know what this is?"

"Yes – it's a cyborg," said Madame Chocolate. "Norris doesn't know if he can check his programming, but he's going to give it a try." The two leaders nodded and Norris stepped forward, cracking his knuckles as he tried to figure out where to begin. "Well? Any thoughts?"

"Do you know where the 'on' switch is, first of all?" Norris asked.

"Behind his left ear," said Blondie. "He was already off when our boys found him, but during inspection he was briefly turned back on – we shut him off before he had a chance to do anything." Norris nodded, circling around the cyborg as he tried to find anything he could use to access him internal program.

"It's entirely possible his hard-drive in located somewhere inside of his body – that would require surgery to access," said Norris. He knelt down near Grobyc's back, squinting as he traced a faded scar. "This right here could be an old scar from a procedure to put in a hard-drive – other than that I don't see anything, which leads me to believe that unless they've got a way to program him with visuals or remote controls, he might've not been tampered with."

"Uh huh."

"Please," said Norris, turning back to Red, "I'm serious. He has no panels anywhere but on his arm, and that I have worked it – but all that pertains to are his Tech Skills and nothing more. We're looking at an internal computer that I have no way of accessing without hurting him – we'd need a surgeon who dabbles in more robotics studies than Madame Chocolate."

"Which means. . ." said Madame Chocolate.

"I have no choice but to turn him on and hope for the best," said Norris, gritting his teeth. Moving back around to the front of the cyborg, Norris closed his eyes, gulped, and reached around behind Grobyc's ear. After a brief search, he found the switch and flipped it.

With a low buzz, Grobyc was fully functional. Norris stepped back to wait while the cyborg opened his eyes and looked around. After less than a minute, the cyborg's eyes stopped on Norris, gleaming with recognition. Norris breathed a slight sigh of relief – maybe Grobyc really did recognize him from their adventure with Serge. "Where-is-Grobyc?"

"You're in the basement of the headquarters of the Timeless Rebellion against the Porre army," Norris said calmly. "A small group of men from the group found you and brought you back here – they wanted me to inspect you to find out what you were. Grobyc, do you remember me?"

"Norris. Norris-is-Norris."

"That's right," he said.

"Norris-and-Grobyc-follow-Serge."

"Who's Serge?" asked Madame Chocolate.

"The-Assassin-of-Time. The-Chrono-Trigger."

Norris felt as if a lead weight had been dropped in his stomach. Grobyc seemed a little out-of-it, and certainly calling Serge by his titles would raise some questions with his new superiors. Though the term "Chrono Trigger" would probably make very little sense to them, "Assassin of Time", a title that implied killing (even if it was only a few hundred or so monsters, the Dragon Gods, and the Time Devourer), he could easily end up in trouble.

"No," Madame Chocolate said suddenly. "No, no, no!"

Norris was taken aback by her sudden outburst – this wasn't like her at all. "Madame Chocolate?" he asked, wide eyed. By instinct alone, he reached for his back pocket to retrieve a cigarette – he could feel a long, drawn-out conversation coming and he was going to need a fix. "What. . . you don't actually know what I'm talking about, do you?"

"So then the robot isn't spouting nonsense?"

All eyes turned to the staircase, where Norris was surprised to see Elliot sitting and watching. Red glared at the Dragoon. "Elliot! Were you spying on us? If we wanted your presence we would have asked for it! Now what brings you here?" Norris was a bit puzzled as to why Elliot was there, but reasoned that he probably had some sort of explanation.

Elliot stood and jumped the last several steps. "Norris and I had a little heart-to-heart last night about El Nido – my place of birth and his home away from home. Once we really got to talking we learned that he's friend's with my ex," he said. "I needed some time to myself, but. . . I just wanted to talk to Norris about it, and someone said he was down here. But what's this Assassin of Time, Chrono Trigger stuff?"

"The result of a horrible mess that started millions apon millions of years ago," said Blondie. She leaned her back against a wall and looked at Norris, then Elliot, and then at her husband. "Darling, perhaps we should sit these two down and explain what happened twenty years ago."

"Why Elliot?" asked Red.

"It would be unfair to kick him out now and leave him wondering about what Grobyc said," Madame Chocolate replied. "Furthermore, I'd prefer to keep is as far under wraps as possible – if he were to begin asking around, we would be in trouble. Do you understand, Red?"

Red smiled at Madame Chocolate. "Got me there." He gestured to a bench, silently ordering Norris and Elliot to have a seat. Both obeyed, though Norris chose to shut Grobyc off before he did so. "I'm sorry, Grobyc – it might be better if you're not up and running for a few days," he said quietly after the switch was flipped.

Once the young men were seated, Red began to speak. "As you both know, the Kingdom of Guardia was defeated by the Porre army fifteen years ago – I believe Norris would have been eleven and Elliot would have been, well, about seven or eight. The battle was brutal and ended poorly for Guardia – the Masamune was stolen, the monarchy fell, and hundreds lost their lives, leaving dozens of new orphans in a war-torn countryside." He clenched his fist in anger. "But Porre was not always destined for such ruthless power. Once, they were destined to be a quiet, peaceful fishing country to the south, only concerned with making ends meet and helping those neighbors who did not have enough."

"What do you mean?" asked Norris. "Porre has been industrialized for a long time now. It's got to be close to a few hundred years now – why do you so easily assume that Porre would have been such a peaceful nation?" He lit his cigarette and closed his eyes in thought. "I don't get it."

"Time travel, Norris," said Madame Chocolate. "Three stupid kids and some friends of theirs found a way to travel through time and change history." Elliot and Norris dropped their jaws at Madame Chocolate's comment, Norris loosing his cigarette in the process. "Even changing the slightly event in history can change the course of an entire nation. This was a lesson the three of us learned the hard way."

"What? Are you saying you traveled through time?" asked Elliot. "But that's impossible! Even Madame Chocolate couldn't come up with something that fantastic! I mean, imagine the things you could DO with time travel! We could have stopped Porre from ever taking over Guardia in the first place!"

"Although that's true, it's not something that should be used lightly," said Blondie. "When you travel through time, you can witness events that changed history, or even see a future that has yet to come to fruition. That, Norris, is why your friend has become the Assassin of Time."

"Before we were able to control how we traveled, the three of us visited the year 2300 A.D. and learned that in the year 1999 A.D. the world would be destroyed by a creature known only as Lavos," said Red. Norris' eyes lit up in recognition – that was the other name of the Time Devourer! "We decided to try and stop Lavos, but instead all of this mess happened. And now we can't go through time anymore to fix it. Worst of all, we created a paradox."

"You were inspired by an event that is never going to happen, and therefore you couldn't have seen it?" said Elliot, scratching his head. Norris felt bad for his friend – of the group, he knew the least of any of these adventures and was clearly getting lost. "So exactly how did that work? What do you mean by a paradox?"

"Two separate realities were created – one in which Lavos wins, and one in which Lavos lost," Norris finished. "That explains what happened on Opassa Beach all those months ago – well, at least part of it." He looked up. "But the worlds have merged – Serge – the Assassin of Time – was able to merge the worlds into one reality again."

Red blinked. "Impossible."

"Most people don't remember what happened, save those who joined with Serge and a few select others. To everyone else, it was as if nothing ever happened," said Norris. He sighed. "But for the rest of us. . . we have memories from both worlds, or just one world, and the world we all live in is so foreign to us."

"Two sets of memories?" asked Blondie.

Norris lit another cigarette. "Let me explain what happened to Serge back in El Nido. You see, it all started back when he was a little kid growing up in a small fishing village called Arni – it's to the south of Termina, the main port town, kinda near a large swamp inhabited by Hydras. At any rate, he was attacked and poisoned by a panther demon. His dad got scared, so he and a friend of his took Serge to try and find a cure. . ."

". . . and then I ended up here."

All parties present remained quiet for several minutes, letting Norris' story sink in. It was a rather bizarre story, and Norris knew it must have been making very little sense, even to his superiors (whom, it appeared, had gone on their own journey across worlds).

"Wild," Elliot said after several minutes. "Absolutely wild."

"Isn't it?" said Norris. "It's quite strange. I can clearly remember seeing myself from both of my former bodies and how each event played out from both perspectives. It's quite wild. I could never get some of my friends to understand the sensation, what with them being dead in one of the realities, but. . . some things that they know no longer exists in this new. . . world."

"Dead?" asked Blondie.

"Serge wasn't the only person who had a dead counterpart," said Norris. He turned to Elliot solemnly. "Glenn and most of the other Dragoons were only alive in one world, if you must know. Dario had it especially hard – the world in which most of the Dragoons died, he lived on, yet in the world that they all lived, he had been killed. Sometimes he seems so lost because of it."

"Dead," said Elliot.

"Who's Glenn?" asked Red.

"One of the Dragoons who joined Serge – in fact, he was the first of the Dragoons to do so," said Norris. "At least that's what Serge told me. But to answer Red's question a little better. . . well. . . Glenn was a former fling of Elliot's." He blew a puff of smoke up into his bangs. "Truth be told, I didn't even know he was gay until Elliot told me."

"Norris' gaydar sucks, but that's beside the point," said Elliot. He turned to Madame Chocolate with a raised eyebrow. "You, my dear, have been very quiet. Usually you're much more talkative than you are right now and I'm a little concerned – did something Norris say bother you?"
"Not at all," she said softly. "I'm just happy to know Kid's okay."

And suddenly a thousand bells went off in Norris' head. "Wait a. . . by the Dragon Gods!" he said. He stared at Madame Chocolate in shock. "The inventions. . . the orphans. . . you're Dr. Lucca Ashtear! The famous inventor from the last days of Guardia! You're Kid's big sister!"

That said, any wild guesses as to who Red and Blondie are?

Calling all readers! Calling all readers!

Do you like message boards? Do you like my fanfics? Then go investigate my profile and check out Just Another World, an online Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross community! I have my own forum there where you can discuss ANY of my fanfics and suggest new skins and themes for the board! You can even make requests! We're desperate for members and any and all n00bs will be welcomed with open arms!

I realized that I never came up with a name for the rebellion movement in the last chapter, so since I outlined the basic group profile, I added it in for this chapter.

I'm trying to devise a list to figure out what's happened to who so far. Man, there's a lot of characters I haven't figured out (and I'm anticipating a large cast for this one).

Lastly, I've got the first two parts of a fanfic focusing on Glenn and Elliot's fling posted. I'm making note of it here because it's rated R – no it is not a lemon but it does a lot of insinuating and, well, blatantly pointing out that it occurred. The third part is forthcoming, and possibly the next "Summons" part as well.

Liolo:. Sorry about the long waits between chapters – real life is a pain in the ass and I can see it will only get worse as time goes on. However, this is one I DEFINITELY want to finish.

Yuka Squared: I never got what the big deal with Dark Serge was. Well, with Nikki, I think it's because of the way he dresses – he kind of looks like a slightly watered-down Marilyn Manson. Oh come on, Kid could SO be the ultimate yaoi fan girl. As I said in an earlier author's notes, Lena and I used to have some weird conversations about Kid being a pervert. Mmm, I'm not so sure about Leena being that close-minded. Well, I don't know. She'd probably go "eee!" and run away. And I am glad you like Elliot – I'm starting to like him, too.

Uftaki: That's how I respond to all of my reviews. Yes, Norris smokes. . . for now. And yes, it will be interesting as to how he quits. Let's say that Norris can be easily persuaded by certain parties. Yeah. . . smoking is Norris' current favorite form of stress relief. Hopefully he doesn't die from lung cancer because of it. Yeah. . . I'd say you're a bit biased towards Norris, but don't worry – if you'd like to can catch Norris using a variation of the Glenn trap and send him to you. Elliot? Pierre? HORROR! NO! BAD IMAGES! EIEEE! Not really. You're right – he should be more tolerable. And he just likes to annoy Norris, not hit on him. All right, that's it, at the end of these notes I'm hunting down Norris, tying him up, and sending him to you – and now I'm going to steal a line from an online friend by instructing you to unwrap him when he gets there. And yes, that is, indeed, Glenn's ex-boyfriend. Think Serge has a lot to live-up to? Oh man, we had WAY too much fun making up ways for Kid to mess with their love lives. Ah, so you're basing this off of his fortune. . . interesting. . . I love happy endings, too. I ramble incoherently when I'm tired, too.

Kittee: Thanks! I like it when people compliment my works – it means I'm doing a good job. Writers like that. Aw, don't be so hard on yourself – writing takes a lot of practice. Sometimes when I look at things I wrote a long time ago I can't believe I used to suck so badly. It's so bad it's hard to laugh at it. But there's a lot of it, and it means I practiced and practiced and practiced. I've been writing fiction as a hobby since I was in grade school. Not all of it was GOOD fiction but it was PRACTICE. Furthermore, read – reading helps out a lot. Whale? What whale? Stealing livers is bad – I don't wanna wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a note telling me to seek immediate medical attention. OMG! STRONGSAD! HOMESTARRUNNER! AH, I LOVE STRONGBAD AND THE CHEAT SO MUCH! XD!

Tami: Hi Tami! I wrote you a book today! I feel like I've addressed this before. . . unless I've just read this review so many times it feels like I have. Serge is cool, but the silence is actually a way video game developers get the player to feel more like they're in the game. Lots of video game protagonists say little or nothing at all to let the player make up their own mind. Your Glenn is scary sometimes, and a bit depressing. But I get the idea that was your intention. Oh good, you were surprised, yay I did my job again. Do you have any idea how long it took me to figure out how I was going to handle Elliot? I just knew I wanted Glenn to have an ex, but then I couldn't figure out how I wanted to handle the ex. Quite frankly I like the direction he's evolved in, but that's true of most of my original male characters. Serge will probably still face the anxiety, but who knows? Maybe he and Elliot will become friends. (Elliot: Serge? Get out a notebook. I'm going to tell you everything you will ever want to know about Glenn in the bedroom that you will ever need to know. Serge: scribble-scribble I'm listening – let's start with tickle spots! Elliot: Excellent choice!). I don't know, though. But that will be an interesting point to ponder. Unbalanced? Really? Hmm. I didn't think he came off that scatterbrained but I guess he did. Oh well. Like, lead to what? I love Norris. Not as much as Uftaki, but that's why I'm going to send him to her as soon as I catch him sharpens tranquilizer darts I feel the same way about other authors, too. I used to read almost anything, but now I'm getting picky with my fanfics, yet there are some authors who could write about just about anything and they'd have me front-row center. And thanks for the compliments – writing is a big part of my life (and no, not just fanfics). Yeah, some people really don't know what they're doing, and in some cases it seems like they're doing it for "fame" and "glory". Look. I know I'm not some fanfiction equivalent to a household name, but I'm happy with the success I've managed to get with a few people who regularly read my fics and enjoy it. That makes me happy. Sure it would be nice to get twenty-plus reviews a chapter but sometimes just one well-thought out review from one of you guys is enough to make my day.

Greki: Thank you.

Chronomaniac: Okay.

Yuki: This was a review for Love Song, so if I haven't already I'll deal with this review response in the correct fic.

Dixxy