Disclaimer: Chrono Trigger is not my possession.

Chapter Two- Past Terrors

Lucca, Crono, and Glenn had been the ones to go with Magus to Ozzie's castle (four people could fit into the Epoch). When they stepped through the doors (which Magus had to open with his magic), it sent chills up Magus' spine. It reminded him of his old 'home.' There was hardly any lighting, except for a few torches here and there with blue fire. Magus wasn't alone in his apprehension, because only a moment after they stepped in, Crono asked him,

"Could you tell me again why you wanted to come here?"

Glenn said nothing, but scanned the room warily, especially the large staircase in front of them. Lucca made it a point to stay near Magus and Crono. Magus answered,

"As I recall, you told me that my war against the humans would cause the alienation and eventual extinction of the mystics. If we settle accounts with Ozzie and his minions now, it could end the hostility."

"Why do you even care?" Crono said, with some bitterness.

Magus crossed his arms, "I'm not the sort of man who leaves unfinished the things he started. The mystics have become my responsibility and I will deal with their leaders…"

"Welcome to my beautiful house!" a merry, musical voice chimed, "Make yourselves at home!"

Magus knew the voice all too well. Ozzie's greatest gift was his ability to use his voice to penetrates a person's mind and entrap their will, and to provoke certain emotions in them. At this moment, Magus recognized the blank stares on Crono and Glenn's faces caused by Ozzie's voice, and groaned at their ineptitude. Lucca cringed and drew near to Magus. Her nightmare was still too fresh in her mind for her to fall for it. Magus was beginning to regret that he had let her come, but she had insisted on it.

But when the four of them saw the Chief Mystic standing at the top of the staircase, the spell was broken and Crono and Glenn remembered the trickery of Ozzie.

He had fooled them more than once in Magus' castle. He had used his voice to lure them into rooms where enemy warriors waited. They almost got cut in half when Ozzie encouraged them to go through the room with the dropping blades. And how many holes did they fall into in the room with trap doors?

Glenn remembered Ozzie's voice ensnaring him and Sir Cyrus into battle with Magus eleven years ago. He also recalled that Ozzie encouraged the eighteen-year-old Magus to fight as well. But he had never really thought about it that way before.

Ozzie looked at Magus and his jaw dropped, "S…Sir Magus!" he exclaimed.

"You've done well for yourself, Ozzie," Magus spoke, his voice flat.

"You're a traitor! You're not our leader! Why did you desert us?" Ozzie whined.

He was using the same voice as when he would try to manipulate Magus, the sort of voice he used when suggesting that Magus change Glenn into something more fitting those eleven years ago. The magic had a small effect on Crono, for he looked at Magus questioningly. But Magus, Lucca, and Glenn were not to be fooled.

"Coward!" Glenn growled, pulling out his sword, "Why dost thou not use thine own brute strength and do battle with us?"

Ozzie raised an eyebrow at the warrior, and said, laughing,

"'Thou?' Sir Froggy? Why, you look different! You're only but a little shorter than Magus now, and not to mention human! Sir Magus, why did you have to change him back? It was a lot more fun when he was a toad."

"Do not address me as a friend, Ozzie," Magus said.

Ozzie looked hurt, "But I am your friend, Magus. It was you who left us!"

"You are many things, Ozzie, things with names that I will not speak in front of a lady, but you were never my friend. I am here to demand that you make peace with the humans."

"Peace? With those creatures that have oppressed us?"

"You knew as well as Slash and Flea did that I am just as human as these that stand with me. I only "became" one of you to stop the torture. I never ceased to be a human being."

"Then…why did you say you wanted to create a world of evil? You lied to me! You used me!"

Magus did not waver, but his eyes flared and a sneer curled his lips,

"I used you? Yes, Ozzie, I did use you, but I was simply returning the favor."

"Whatever are you talking about, Sir Magus?"

"You want the truth, Ozzie? The reason why I wanted to summon Lavos was to destroy him. He is a pestilence to all that live, including you and me, and he took everything that I ever had away from me. And believe me, Ozzie, once I was finished with Lavos, you, that sword-slinger, and the transvestite were going to be next!"

Ozzie did not hesitate a moment but fled in terror, for he realized that his voice power had absolutely no effect on Magus now, and he knew that Magus was capable of snuffing out his life in a matter of a few seconds.

"Spineless fool…" Glenn muttered, sheathing his sword, "We must pursue him."

"Magus…" Crono felt foolish for almost falling for Ozzie's magic again. He looked up at the wizard, "what did Ozzie do to you that you hate him so much?"

Magus would not answer that question, "Let's go."

Ozzie's fort was by no means the threat that Magus' castle had been, probably because Magus' power was not ruling over it or protecting it. Once the others had breathed the castle's air for a while, they became accustomed to its magic, and when Ozzie tried to beckon them into traps, they would not obey his words. Besides, I think that if they had tried, Magus would have knocked them on the head to put some sense into them.

They finally reached a large room where Ozzie was awaiting them. The mystic had a triumphant grin on his face and he said,

"Well, you have made it this far, humans…"

"An achievement that took no enormous effort, I assure you," spoke Magus.

"…But your victory ends here. Slash! Flea!"

There was a brilliant flash of light and before the humans appeared two figures. One was a warrior with large yellow eyes and blue skin, and a cleaver in his hands. The other was one who had the appearance of a beautiful woman (but you know and I know that this was not the case).

"You called, Ozzie?" Flea spoke, with his squeaky, feminine voice. It made the group nauseous to say the least. When Flea and Slash saw Magus, they both recoiled in horror and Slash exclaimed,

"Magus? You're still… How dare you show your face here?!"

"Come on, guys," Ozzie spoke, drool beginning to creep from his lips, "let's finish him off. Let's finish them all off."

"Over my dead body!" Crono shouted, wielding his katana.

"My dear boy," Flea laughed, "that was the idea." Flea held up his hand and a bolt of lightning flew out of it and struck Crono in the chest. If Crono had had no magic power, he would have died in an instant, but the shock sent him flying against the wall and knocked him senseless for a moment.

Lucca retaliated by throwing her second-strongest fire spell against the magician. She was not quite sure about using her strongest magic yet, and did not realize the enormity of the danger that they were all in at that moment. Apart, the three mystics would have been puppies to the humans' power, but together they were quite formidable.

Flea blocked Lucca's magic attack and threw a bolt of lightning at her. Lucca fell to the ground and thus dodged the magician's blow. Magus gathered up his shadow magic and threw a black mist towards Flea's chest and arms. Flea did not see it coming and it sent him reeling on the ground in agony.

Glenn, meanwhile, was dealing with Slash. He managed to get through the warrior mystic's defenses at one point and gave him a large gash on the face with the tip of his sword. Unfortunately, this act sent Slash into a flying rage, and when Ozzie threw a fire spell onto Slash's sword, the force of this dual attack wounded Glenn to a point that if he had not had a healing gift, he would have died in moments.

But he still needed a moment to recover from the shock of the blow, and he did not have a moment. Slash leapt at Glenn, cleaver upheld, about to deal a finishing strike, when Magus jumped in front of him and struck Slash's head with the handle of his scythe. Slash fell back, but regained his footing a moment later, though he was stunned at Magus' action.

However much shock Glenn received from the attack, it was nothing to compare with the astonishment he felt at Magus' rising to his defense. Magus turned to him and said,

"Are you healed? Get up!"

Glenn arose, looking at Magus with a new light. He was about to shout thanks when he heard Ozzie's voice cry out,

"Drop your weapons and cease your spells, or she dies!"

Glenn, Magus, and Crono (who had just now recovered from Flea's magic) saw Lucca suspended in midair, stiff as stone but with fear in her eyes. Flea had recuperated enough to be able to grab the young inventor with a spell of containment. Lucca's magic was useless while she was in this state.

If there was one thing these evil mystics knew about human men, it was their inherent tendency to be protective over human women. This seemed to be their last alternative if Magus and his companions were fighting against them.

Ozzie grinned as the three men complied with his request and dropped their weapons. Magus spoke,

"I though you were a coward before, but this… You have all stooped to your lowest level."

"Oh, boo hoo," Flea giggled, "Look! Magus is a softy over a girl! They're all softy over her!"

"Perhaps it is only because we have some honor in us," Glenn spoke, anger evident in his speech.

"Well, well…" Slash circled around the place where Lucca was suspended, "she is actually not a bad-looking sort of lady. A little ill-dressed, perhaps, but it isn't like that matters."

Flea cackled, "You want her?" And he took Lucca out of midair and threw her into Slash's arms. Lucca screamed and struggled, but Flea still had the part of his spell on her that kept Lucca from using any magic.

"Let her go!" Crono shouted, stepping forward. Flea turned to him and said,

"Or what?" And he outstretched his hand and Crono froze where he stood, and Glenn followed suit. But when Flea tried to use the spell on Magus, it had no effect. But it really didn't matter at this point, because if Magus tried anything, it would be instant death for his companions.

Magus' face was stone hard, but at the sight of Slash groping Lucca and biting her, he felt an emotion that he had never before experienced, and he said,

"Let her go, Slash!"

"Just what do you think you are going to do, Magus the Great?" Slash mocked as he paused in his assault.

"Nothing. Let her and the others go, and you may deal with me as you like. The three of you against myself, alone, with no weapon of warfare, and we will see what happens." Magus could hardly believe the words coming out of his own mouth, and neither could the rest of the humans. But the three mystics seemed to take these words for truth.

"Deal with you? As we like?" Ozzie spoke, smiling and pressing his fingertips together, "Like old times? In exchange for these three here?"

"Yes."

Ozzie nodded, and Flea used his magic to transport Lucca, Glenn, and Crono out of the castle. And without Magus' magic, they would not be able to get back in. In a moment, Magus was alone with the three mystics. He did not move, but simply crossed his arms as the three approached him.

But a change came over his eyes when he looked at them. Perhaps he was remembering the things they had done to him before he came into his powers. After all, he had dreamed of this moment for twenty years. But instead of his own pain, he thought of Lucca. Over and over again, in his mind, Magus relived the image of the fear in her eyes. And it filled him with mindless anger.

He stretched out his hands, and a black mist began to form in them. The three mystics paused in their "triumph" and stared at him, puzzled. The mist then began to swirl and surround Magus. He looked at Slash, who had been the one to actually touch Lucca and in the manner that he touched her. Slash would be the first to go.

Magus called this spell "Dark Matter" and he saved it for only special occasions. This was one. Without a word or sound, Magus hurled his magic at Slash. Slash had no time to dodge the blow as it hurled him against the wall. He fell to ground, a mass of bleeding and lifeless flesh, so mangled that he was beyond recognition. Magus then gripped the screaming Flea (who had been trying to escape) in a spell, and threw him against the ceiling, and then to the floor, and repeated the process until the magician's state was the same as Slash's.

Now for Ozzie. But the Chief Mystic had already retreated to the Throne Room. Magus took his scythe and followed him. Ozzie was standing in front of his throne and laughing. Magus was too angry to take this into account, and just as he approached Ozzie, Ozzie flipped a switch on the wall and the floor underneath Magus opened. Too surprised to cry out, Magus fell into the hole. But he managed to regain his senses enough so that he was able to stop himself in midair just before he landed on the floor, which was covered in razor-sharp spike.

Magus flew back up the hole, found a firm spot on the floor, and glared at the amazed Ozzie.

"Do you hear a sound, Ozzie?" Magus spoke, "It's the sound of the reaper…"

And then there was a sound. But it didn't quite sound like a reaper.

Meow…

Magus blinked with abashment as both he and Ozzie looked and saw a kitten walking by another switch on the wall. The kitten stopped to lick its paws, and in doing so, it sat on the switch. Ozzie cried out in absolute terror,

"No! Not that switch!"

The word "switch" became long and drawn out, for no sooner had Ozzie spoken than did a trapdoor beneath him open up and he fell through, screaming the whole way down. Apparently, Ozzie did not have the same capability of regaining his senses as Magus did, for a few seconds later, Magus winced at the sound of Ozzie's flesh being impaled against the spikes underneath.

The kitten, oblivious to the meaning of the sound, jumped down from the shelf by the wall and walked to Magus' legs and began to rub herself against them, purring. For some odd reason, Magus observed, cats liked him. And he had to admit that he liked cats. Though the cat was a female and the coloring was different (orange rather than pink and purple) this kitten reminded him of Alfador a little. Magus scooped her up with one hand, sheathed his scythe, and walked out of the keep, leaving the mystics' bodies to rot.

Meanwhile, outside…

"Oh! Is there no way to reenter this bastion?" Glenn was pounding his fists against the gates. Crono, who had been assisting him, paused in his struggling and spoke,

"Bastion?"

"It means 'castle,' Crono," Lucca said, hastily examining the hinges of the gates. She continued, her lips trembling, "I can't find a way to manipulate this gate's mechanisms."

"It's useless!" Glenn groaned, "There is not a one amongst us that can chant the spell Magus spoke over these gates."

"There must be a way," Crono said, "he…he saved our lives… Why? I thought he didn't care about anything." He kicked the gate in irritation and screamed, "Open already!"

To the amazement of the group, at that moment, the gate creaked and began to open. Magus walked out of the fort, holding a little orange kitten. Lucca gasped and smiled, until she caught herself and cleared her throat. Glenn was the first to recover from the shock,

"Magus! Thou art uninjured! What hast thou done to those villains?"

"Yeah, and what's with the cat?" Crono asked, trying not to look too relieved for Magus' sake.

"They underestimated me one too many times," Magus said, "I used magic spells to…dispose of Slash and Flea. And Ozzie, well… It's rather funny, actually…"