Kit Thespian: Review Response!
Lone Gunmen: Yep, I have WAY too much fun with these Disclaimers. I just started playing Final Fantasy VII and I am newly discovering what a cool character Sephiroth is, so I had to do something silly with that.
zipis1: Your suspicions will be confirmed in this chapter. (grins evilly) Oh, the sadistic-ness of me!
Dark Creation: I never thought that it was kosher, the way they fight a lot in some of the fics. Lucca seems to me to be one of those people that would let things slide. She strikes me as a "submissive" sort in the video game, although she does have a temper.
MikariStar: Thank you! That is the way I prefer to think of the Entity, rather than some strange being that really doesn't care about the humans.
Kit Thespian: Now, Ozzie, Slash, Flea! It's your turn to do the Disclaimer.
(Flea pops his head in)
Flea: What if we don't want to? (Slash and Ozzie come in)
Slash: Yeah, you, like, brutally killed us in this fic, you know.
Ozzie: All right, Kit Thespian, we'll do the Disclaimer, but you've got to let us do it our way!
Flea (puzzled): What's our way?
(The three get in a huddle and whisper amongst themselves)
Flea: Oh! I get it! (runs offstage and gets a boombox)
Kit Thespian: Uh...what're you going to do?
Ozzie: You'll see! (pushes PLAY button and music for the bridge from "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts)
Kit Thespian: Oh, no... (covers ears)
Ozzie (singing): I see a little sillouette of a man...
Slash and Flea (singing): Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?
All: Lots of bolts of lightning! Very, very frightening ME!
Flea (high-pitched): Galileo!
Slash: Galileo!
Flea: Galileo!
Slash: Galileo!
Flea: Galileo figaro!
All: Magnificoooo...
Ozzie: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me...
Slash and Flea: He's just a poor boy, from a poor family! Spare him this life from this monstrosity!
Ozzie: Easy come, easy go. Will you let me go!
Slash and Flea: We will not! No! We will not let you go!
Ozzie: Let me go!
Slash and Flea: We will not! We will not let you go!
Ozzie: Let me go!
Slash and Flea: We will not! We will not let you go!
Ozzie: Let me go!
Slash and Flea: Will not let you go!
Ozzie: Let me go!
Slash and Flea: Will not let you go!
Ozzie: No, let me gooooo!
Slash and Flea: No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Ozzie: Oh, mama mia, mama mia...
All: Mama mia, let me go! Beelzebub has the devil by this side for meeee, for meeee, for MEEEEE!!!
(After seeing Kit Thespian writhing on the ground in auditorial agony, the three grin maliciously at the audience)
Ozzie: Kit Thespian does not own the video game Chrono Trigger...
Flea: ...Or the characters therein.
Slash: ...And she's not making money off of this.
Kit Thespian: Medic...Medic...
Chapter 11- Bigger Surpise
About a month and a half after arriving in the Dark Ages (three weeks for Glenn), Janus and Glenn were walking home from the fields in the late afternoon when Schala approached them. She had a mischievous look on her face, as if hiding a very delicious secret. She said to her brother,
"Janus, you need to go home quickly. Lucca has something to tell you."
"What is it?" Janus asked.
"It's something that Lucca wants to tell you personally."
Making no further comments, Janus continued on to his and Lucca's house while Schala stayed behind with Glenn.
"What is it that Lucca must have audience with her husband about?" asked Glenn.
Schala leaned over and whispered the secret in Glenn's ear. Glenn's eyes grew wider than a bug's and he spoke,
"Gracious, this shall be quite interesting."
"Interesting? I think it's wonderful!" Schala beamed.
In the hut...
"Hello, Janus," Lucca had her most pleasing smile on her face as she went and greeted her husband with a kiss, "how was your day?"
"Nothing disastrous..." Janus said, "Schala said you have something to tell me."
"Yes, there is that," there was a trace of nervousness in Lucca's voice, "you'd better sit down. I'll make you something to drink. Are you hungry?"
Outside...
"Doth it usually take a good deal of time to announce these things?" Glenn asked.
"Patience, Glenn," Schala answered, "She's got to butter him up first. You know, get him in a good mood."
"Janus in a good mood?"
"Well, the best she can do, at any rate."
In the hut...
Lucca gave Janus some broth and bread and while he was eating she let him tell her of the particular incidents in the valley. But after a couple of exchanges, he insisted on her telling him what he apparently needed to know.
"Is it a surprise or something?" he asked.
That was a rather silly thing to ask, all things considered. But Janus truly had no idea of what he was about to hear. Lucca, who was sitting in the wooden chair across from his, twiddled her thumbs for a second and then, after taking a deep breath, said,
"It's going to come as a great surprise to you. It amazed me too, but I..."
The End of Time...
Gaspar exclaimed, jumping up and down, "Oh, happy day! Oh, happy day!"
"What? What is it?" Spekkio asked.
"Isn't it obvious? She's..."
In the hut...
Janus stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at his wife for a moment before speaking,
"I...I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly."
Lucca smirked and crossed her arms, "I think you heard me perfectly."
"But it sounded like you said you are going to have a baby."
"Probably because that's what I said."
"...Oh."
Silence ensued before Lucca asked,
"...Is that all you're going to say? 'Oh'?"
"Oh...boy?"
"Or girl."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
"Uh..." Janus scratched his chin, "when?"
"About seven or seven and half months, somewhere in there."
"Lucca," Janus said, trying to ignore the funny feeling in his stomach, "I must tell you that I know nothing about children. Absolutely nothing."
"Schala and I will help you out. You and Glenn can be partners in sympathy. I don't think he knows anything about it either."
Janus knew that this was supposed to be happy news, but since he knew nil about the joys of parenthood, he didn't quite understand why it was supposed to be happy. He remained numb throughout the rest of the evening, lost in his thoughts. He remembered what Belthasar had said to him when he lay dying. I love you, son... Always, I loved you...
Janus remembered the times when he was a young boy and Belthasar was teaching him. Now that Janus knew the truth, Belthasar's behavior towards him made a lot more sense. Melchior had been a stern teacher who was fond of his student, and Gaspar liked to tease Janus like an uncle or a much older brother would, but Belthasar was the only one of the three who showed devotion to the little Prince.
One of the conversations they had stuck out in Janus' mind now. He was only six at the time, and Queen Zeal had not begun to show her changing nature yet. He was with Belthasar in his learning room and little Janus had asked the question:
"Why are they mean to me?"
Belthasar turned his head and raised an eyebrow,
"Who is?"
"Just some of the people. They don't like me. They laugh at me. Why?"
Belthasar sighed and drew little Janus close to him and sat him on his lap. He said,
"Because some people are not as kind as others. But it is really no matter, little one. Your sister and mother are here, and they love you very much."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do they love me when nobody else does?"
"Goodness, my boy!" Belthasar was shocked, "They love you because you're part of their family, and they aren't the only ones..." Then Belthasar shut his mouth. He was saying too much. He continued, staying on the subject of the Queen and Schala, "Schala couldn't be happier to have a little brother like you. You are very special, my boy."
"But what about mother?"
"She loves you because you are her son."
"Why does it matter if I'm her son?"
"...Janus, a parent loves his or her child regardless. The reason is a mystery to all. A father or mother will love his or her children, simply because he or she is the parent. No one knows why this happens; it just does. The moment a parent looks on his child for the first time, a change comes on him...or her. Sometimes the change happens even before the child is born."
"Like magic?"
Belthasar chuckled, "Something greater than magic, Janus. Love is the greatest change of all... Now, back to your mechanics lesson..."
The mystery of why a parent loves his or her child still remained unsolved to Janus. He couldn't understand it, or why, to look at the other end of the spectrum, a father could turn on his child so easily like Lucca's had done. Janus scowled when he thought of that horrible treachery and he swore he would never do such a thing his child, no matter what the offense was.
His child... The very thought of it made Janus go numb again. It wasn't until the next day that he began to grasp what exactly the concept entailed. Glenn noticed how he shuffled his feet against the snow as they walked with the others towards the valley. Glenn was intelligent enough to know what the problem was.
"Janus," he said, "art thou still so abashed?"
"Just you wait, Glenn," Janus said, half-irritated, half-flustered, "Just you wait. You will meet a woman, get married, and then place yourself in this same situation that I am in and you will feel the exactly same emotions that I feel."
"What? Nervousness and absolute terror?"
"No, just nervousness."
"Had I known that thou wouldst behave in this manner I would have recommended thee as a court jester."
Janus scowled and said, clenching his fist, "If I weren't a changed man I would show you 'jester'."
Glenn cheekily grinned, "Thou'rt definitely showing some small signs of absolute terror. Alas, they doth say that is what happeneth to most expectant fathers."
"...You are getting a lot a fun out of seeing me suffer, aren't you?"
"I am happy for thee. I am only hoaxing."
"With a friend like you, who needs enemies?"
"Who indeed?"
Somewhere in the cosmos...
"When will we make our move, Master?" A slithery voice queried to the black figure standing next to him.
"Patience, Dalton, patience. We will need to wait a while before we do anything."
"How long?"
"Oh, several years."
"Years?!"
The Being grinned, "When eternity is your lifespan, a few years matter not. And I should think that they matter not to you, considering that you are in my domain."
"But we will strike the Prophet and his loved ones first?"
"We will only strike them, and that will be all that it takes to effect the rest of them. The stability of the new timeline without Lavos depends on those four."
"Why can't we just go ahead and do away with them?"
"Dalton, Dalton..." the Being chuckled, "You want to see them suffer horribly, don't you?"
"Well, yes..."
"Suffering doesn't always mean death. We will make them suffer."