(Enter Magus and Lucca)
Lucca: ...No, I don't get it either. I mean, there has to be a reason, but I can't think of it right now.
Magus: I wonder who it was who thought of making us a couple in the first place. Imagine! You and me?
Lucca: All these weird fics about you and me, you and me, you and me; they never end! It's like wildfire!
Magus (looking offstage, in horror): It's Kit Thespian! Hide me!
Lucca: Too late.
(Enter Kit Thespian)
Kit Thespian: Hey, guys! (sees Magus cringing) Magus, loosen up. I'm not threatening anybody today.
Lucca: Kit Thespian, we have a question. Why do most of the Chrono Trigger fan fiction authors seem to like the Magus/Lucca pairing?
Kit Thespian: Whoa...that's a tough one...Let me see if I can figure this out... (gets out a notepad and writes several things for several minutes while Magus and Lucca wait, albeit impatiently, aside) All right, I've deduced down to three reasons:
#1- Everyone hates to see either Magus or Lucca to be alone.
#2- Magus and Lucca seem to be the only two of the main characters who have two whole brains between them, and the common sense to match.
#3- They just seem to be each other's type. Antisocial and Compassionate. What can I say?
(Magus and Lucca ponder this wisdom for a moment, look at each other, shrug, and walk offstage arm in arm)
Kit Thespian (sighs): Aw...ain't they sweet? Anyway, here's the review response...
xsrx: Thank you!
zipis1: To tell the truth, that part in Chapter seven when Spekkio and Gaspar are arguing has to be one of my favorite parts too. And oh, yes, Schala and Lucca ought to become fast friends.
Lone Gunmen: Yes, this fic will end...but not today. He he he...
MikariStar: Glad to make you laugh!
Disclaimer: Kit Thespian does not own the video game Chrono Trigger or the characters therein.
Author's note: Taban seems to be a little meaner...
Chapter Nine- An Almost Disaster
Everyone in the party went to Truce Village for the end of the Millennial Fair. The plan was for everyone to stay until the fair ended at midnight, and then they would be taken in the Epoch to their different destinations. Magus and Lucca decided it would probably be for the best if they both went to 12000 BC with Schala, and built a life there in the Last Village. The people would know and follow Schala, and they would love Janus and his wife too. Magus and Lucca knew in their hearts that they both couldn't belong together in either 1000 AD or 600 AD.
It would be hard, but Lucca had to say goodbye to her parents. She had planned to do so without the awkwardness of Magus standing there. But when Taban and Lara came to the Millennial Fair, Lucca would not have the sweet parting that she had hoped for. Magus, Glenn, and Crono had gone aside to discuss the plans for the dropping-off schedule in the Epoch. Lucca was looking at the fountain when she heard her mother Lara's voice a few yards off, in a pleading tone,
"Taban, please! Don't do this...!"
Before Lucca could do anything, she felt a hand clasp onto her hair and jerk her around. She gasped in pain and her face was immediately thrust in front of her father's angry eyes.
"How dare you show your face in this town?" he growled, "You're no daughter of mine!"
Lucca honestly did not know what he was talking about, for she and the others hadn't been in Truce for more than ten minutes and had very little chance to talk to anyone. Her eyes wildly looked around and she saw several adults behind her father. Her mother had run away. Taban threw her down on the ground and said,
"Master Brandosh had paid a visit to Medina Village to sell some of his goods there and what does he see? He sees Lucca Ashtear going into a room in the inn with a young man, to share a bed with him!"
Several people who had not been a part of this but had been watching the scene gasped in horror. Lucca could hear the words "Whore" and "Harlot" muttering under many people's breaths. She knew the penalty well enough for a young woman to sacrifice her virtue to a man to whom she was not married: to be dragged out of town and pelted with rocks until death. It was useless to protest, for the penalty for a woman marrying against her father's wishes was the same as well. She had known this, and told Magus about it, and they both agreed to keep it a secret. Lucca was wearing her wedding ring on her right hand instead of her left. Janus...Where was Janus?
"Janus!" she screamed "Ja..." One of the men with her father gagged her and they all began to drag her out of the Square.
On the other side of the Square...
"We should probably go from the future and then backwards," Crono suggested to his friends, "That way...What's all that racket?"
"Crono!" Lara was frantically running towards the three and tugged on Crono's sleeve, "It's Lucca! Taban has denounced her as a whore and they're taking her out of the town! Come quickly!"
Crono and Glenn rushed with Lara towards the Square's exit, but Magus flew over the trees, muttering curses and wondering how Taban could have possibly found out. He cared not for the little children in the Square pointing out the strange flying man as he spotted the crowd of men and women leaving the town. Like a lightning bolt he landed in front of the crowd, took out his scythe and pointed the tip in Taban's direction. He knew that it was Lucca's father from the way he was handling Lucca; it was the father's duty to actually take the girl out and throw the first rock at her.
"Leave her be!" Magus boomed.
"That's him!" Brandosh shouted from the crowd, "That's the man!"
"Stone him too!" A woman yelled.
"Let her go..." Magus continued, undaunted, "Or all of you will die, I swear it!"
He was met with a row of laughter from the crowd, and not surprisingly since he was outnumbered about thirty to one. A man threw a large rock at him and struck him on the shoulder. It broke the skin and Magus growled in response. He furiously glared at the man who cast the stone and thrust a stream of fire magic at him. The man shrieked and fell to the ground, covered in flames.
Lucca screamed, "Janus, please! No!"
Magus remembered in that moment that these were not warriors but ignorant villagers who had no idea of whom they were dealing with. He immediately cast an ice spell which counteracted the fire and put it out. But the people were so struck with terror that Taban's grip on Lucca loosened and she wrung out of his arms and ran to Magus. Magus grabbed her and flew up in the air towards the woods.
No one in Truce in 1000 AD ever saw Magus and Lucca again, for while Magus was flying in the air with Lucca in tow, they were met by Crono and the others in the Epoch. When Crono and Glenn saw Magus going towards the crowd, they figured that he could handle it by himself and they ran to get the Epoch and the women and Robo.
Lucca, for the first time since the North Cape, had grown hysterical. Magus felt somewhat helpless in dealing with her state, so he let Schala and Marle pet and coddle her for a while. She calmed down in a few minutes, as the Epoch streamed through time towards the future. Glenn went to Magus and placed some healing magic on his shoulder.
"Thank you..." Magus said.
"Thou'rt welcome," Glenn took a seat beside Magus, "Thou didst defend thy lady well."
Magus observed Marle healing the scratches and bruises that Lucca had acquired and he murmured, "Not well enough."
"Well enough to save her life," Glenn spoke, "And that is well enough."
After leaving Robo in the future, the next stop was taking Crono and Marle back to the present. They dropped them off near the castle. Then they took Glenn to the middle ages, and then Ayla to the prehistoric times. The last destination was the Dark Ages, and the Last Village.
The blizzards had subsided though the land was still covered in snow. The Elder of the Last Village welcomed Schala wholeheartedly and everyone was joyous in seeing her. There were about three hundred people in the village, and the Elder and Schala had a time explaining to all of them who Magus really was and why he was a grown adult now. But those who had known Janus (nearly all of them) were convinced when they saw how the cat Alfador had run to him purring the moment that Magus had entered the village.
The dialogue had been very interesting.
"Look how little Alfador takes to him!"
"He does...He does look like Master Janus."
Alfador had accidentally clawed Magus' leg trying to get him to pick him up, and the wizard grimaced and furrowed his eyebrow. He looked down at Alfador and said, "Alfador, get off!"
All the people took a closer look at him then and one man said,
"Yep, that's Janus."
It took about a week to get the huts put up for Schala and Janus and Lucca. Magus had never worked with his hands like this before and his gloves wore out fast, but the callouses from training with his scythe minimized the blistering somewhat. Lucca dismantled the Epoch so that no one would travel through time and cause some sort of disaster. Though the remaining people of Zeal had been stripped of their powers, they were still intelligent and educated enough to be able to operate the Epoch.
There was a valley nearby the village were the snow had thawed away and there was some greenery there. This was where the villagers were growing their food. Magus and the rest of the men would go down there every day to clear the land and attend to the crops. The reasons why the village did not move down there was so there would be more room to grow food, and that the possibility of flooding was too great.
One day, about three weeks after their arrival, Schala and Lucca went to the forest near the village to gather some roots and leaves for medicine. Then there was a flash of light nearby and a moment later they heard a voice say,
"What strange place is this?" There was a pause and the snow and leaves crunched underneath the man's feet, "Where didst the Entity send me to?"
Lucca and Schala looked at each other in shock. Lucca spoke,
"Oh, no. It can't be..."