(Actually, I always let Flea escape at Ozzie's Fort...)
Chapter 18
Ozzie's Fort - 600 A.D.
«Flea...»
He was lying on his back amid rubbles, deathly pale under the make-up, and seemed to have difficulties with breathing. Even now -his hair a mess, his clothes tattered and his androgynous face stained with blood and dirt- he looked so beautiful...and so defenceless...
«Flea, please!»
He opened his eyes.
«Oohhh...Auree, you're safe» he said in a whisper, smiling weakly.
«Yes, but you should get up before they find us...»
«Auree, my darling...perhaps I'm leaving you...»
«No, you aren't!»
«Please permit me to express my deepest gratitude for all you've done...and, you must already know, but I have to tell you...I love you so much. Should I die now, you...»
But Auree was tired of this. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him brusquely.
«Stop this! You're not dying! You're not even hurt! Just your cloak was on fire, and I threw it away! You fell because of the broken heel!»
He sighed heavily, rising to a sitting position. He shook his head in the vain hope to clean his braid from the dust, then gave up.
«You're right. Actually, I'm rather fine. Only my pride has suffered. But, see...I was trying to create a dramatic scenario to speak to you more effectively...Ozzie's disgraceful voice having ruined my first attempt to reveal my inner feelings»
Auree giggled nervously.
«Are you serious? Did you really mean...»
«I've said that I love you. What should I mean?»
«Never heard these words before...»
«Actually, I've already told you, our first night together. Can you remember when we were...well, when I spoke in my native language? What did you believe I was saying?» he let out a heavy sigh, «Auree, you're driving me crazy. Always so unsure about yourself and your own value...why?»
She helped him to stand up, while thinking about the injured bodies she had seen in the Great Hall.
«I hope Gorgl had escaped,» she murmured, «He wasn't that bad...»
«Uneducated and often gross, but not evil, that's for sure»
«I've reached the conclusion that Mystics aren't evil at all»
«Don't be so sure. Slash is a liar and quite a pervertand...»
«I mean not evil as a race. Just...like us. Good and bad people, not monsters!»
He nodded.
«Is Slash truly dead?» she wondered.
Flea shrugged.
«Don't know. I wouldn't bet on this. But, will we miss him? Let's talk about you, instead...You must be mad...jumping from the balcony, getting in the way while they were shooting me...You've risked your life for me»
«Isn't that what love is all about?»
She stared at him with a defying stance. She could be bashful and self-conscious, but not cowardly. She spoke in a low, menacing tone.
«When they robbed me of everything I loved, I was a child and I couldn't fight back...But now, I will defend those dearest to me with ALL MY STRENGTH!»
She had nearly shouted the last three words, shaking her clenched fists. Flea blinked slowly.
«I'm really impressed. And probably you have actually saved my life»
«You've saved mine when you pushed me away from the lighting. I'm not magical resistant like you»
«Just for knowledge...who hit me?»
«The tall man with blue hair»
«Magus! And I thought we were friends! Can you understand your fellow humans, Auree?»
«No»
«Ah, that's reassuring...No! My bodice is in shreds!»
«But what did they want? There weren't slaves anymore, we were at peace with Guardia Kingdom...»
«Some people don't need a reason to use violence»
«And that girl, the purple-haired one...she has let us escape...»
They looked at each other in mutual understanding. They knew they had shared the same inexplicable and disquieting sensation about her. Auree suddenly went and hugged him. Flea held her in his arms and was about to tell her something soothing, when an awful sound froze them. A horrible howling and a loud thump.
«I can't believe it» Flea whispered, shocked «Ozzie again!»
Auree began laughing softly.
«What...happened?» she asked with a lilting voice, muffled against his shoulder.
«Probably he just fell in one of those stupid trapdoors of his»
«I believed he could fly»
«Not when encased in his ice barrier...I'm really growing tired of his meddling in our romantic moments, you know»
Auree was now laughing uncontrollably, shaking in his embrace.
«Sorry...it seems...I can't stop...»
«Don't worry. Actually, there's something funny in all this...»
He too was feeling hilarious.
«But we should go!» she insisted, as soon as she had retrieved her breath.
«Yes! We have youth and health, we are in love...what in the world could frighten us?»
He took her hand and, together, they run out of the gloomy castle, toward the sunlight.
***
Fleeing wasn't easy, however. The humans were coming out too. Flea and Auree quickly hid behind a slab of stone, which had crashed down from the higher rampart into the courtyard.
Why did this thing fall down? Auree asked herself, but immediately forgot the question to instead pay attention to her enemies talking while entering their weird transportation.
«Is it a flying machine?» she asked Flea in the lowest voice she could manage.
«Uhm...probably. They are leaving as if nothing had happened...Look at them! A freak frogman, a woman for whom being called should be a neat compliment, an arrogant traitor, a humanoid machinery and three disturbed adolescent...Are they representing your people?»
«I'm afraid they are»
«They're leaving after having destroyed this fort and slaughtered most of its inhabitants, and they're laughing and singing. They wouldn't have killed animals so nonchalantly!»
Auree sighed, deeply ashamed.
«And they're leaving with my bra. What did they need it for? Oh, Auree...your books and things I bought for you! We can't leave all this here!»
«No matter...»
Flea shook his head.
«No! You won't lose everything again! Listen: we remain hidden here...when those cretins have gone, we'll return to my quarters and take your stuff...»
Then Marle pushed the red button and Auree discovered what had displaced the heavy slab.
***
«Have you heard something like a , just a second ago?» Marle asked her companions «Like someone screaming?»
«Not really» Lucca yawned.
«Nothing can beat the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!» Crono exclaimed, with a shrill, disturbing voice «Uwa, ha, ha...ha...»
He trailed off, noticing that everybody was looking at him.
Marle shook her head disapprovingly.
«And I used to complain because he was too quiet...»
***
«Flea!»
«Auree! Don't leave me!»
«Aaargh!»
They were flying in the air like dead leaves, not for a spell but because of the air turbulence caused by the Epoch tearing space-time fabric. They were flailing their arms desperately, trying to reach something to cling to, or, at least, the other one's hand.
Menacing blue and black holes gaped at them.
«What are they?» Auree yelled above the wind.
«Don't know! Auree! This one is sucking me in!»
«Hold on! Resist! I'm coming!»
«No! It will catch you too!»
Auree stretched her arm until her shoulder ached. And at last she managed to grab something. Flea's braid. Of course, she couldn't wrench him away from that shining vortex, but that hadn't been her first goal.
«Wherever you're going, I'll be with you!»
***
The End of Time - ???
«We should destroy it» Glenn said, solemnly.
The companions were sitting on the floor at the End of Time, observing silently an object made of black lace. Crono had gingerly touched it and then had retreated, embarrassed.
Magus was chanting a litany and moving a hand above the object, which suddenly acquired a red aura.
«It is enchanted» he declared «It has power»
«Yes, it magically makes your breast look two sizes bigger» Marle whispered to Lucca, and both laughed loudly.
Glenn and Magus looked sternly at the girls, then the second one explained:
«This is a powerful armour against magic attacks. It can be very useful»
«You are not suggesting that someone among us should wear it!» Crono exclaimed.
Magus seemed to think hard about it.
«We have to use every available protection against Lavos. It will be the hardest battle...»
«Look, I'm not going to wear a bra in any circumstance. The same with Glenn, and you, right?»
He looked around. Gaspar was snoring, leant against his lamp-post.
How can he sleep standing, Crono thought. Well, who cares...Ayla, no. She would try to wear the thing on her head. What about Robo with Flea's underwear...yes, we could win, Lavos will die laughing...
He gathered his courage and smiled cheerfully to Lucca and Marle.
«Well, one of you could...»
He never finished the sentence. The two girls exchanged a brief glance then, with perfect synchrony, hit him.
«How dare you!» Marle yelled, punching his head.
«Stupid man!» Lucca shouted, kicking his right leg.
«But what...why...what did I say?» he protested, confused.
They answered together.
«WE DON'T NEED A PADDED BRA, YOU FOOL!»
---------------
Yes, another cliffhanger...the last one, I promise.
Next time, the Epilogue, with a bit of surprise ending...no, not much of a surprise, I'm afraid. An ending, anyway.