Okay, here's the second chappie I promised. I hope you enjoy it. (grins)

As a quick side-note:

'…'- are Rosette's telekinetic speech when she is talking to Chrono through his horns.
-…- are Chrono's telekinetic speech when he is conversing with Rosette. And,
Blah -are just regular thoughts.

WARNING: See chapter 1.

WARNING 2: This chapter contains some mild Aion-bashing. Don't like, don't read, though I found it quite humorous, myself.

Disclaimer: See chapter 1 or chapter 5.

Return to Times of Yore
By GundamWingFanatic90
Submitted: 2 November 2005

Past, Eden, Chrono

I strode into the dining room about 20 minutes after meeting Shader, beaming so brightly that I could swear that my face was probably luminescent due to the huge grin I was sporting. Aion, Viede, Rizelle, Mary, and Genai looked up from the game of Chinese checkers that they were all playing, and the four demons gaped openly at me.

"C-C-Chrono…? Is that you?" Aion stammered. I flashed him a grin.

"Yep!" I crowed. "Did you guys know that today's been a really good day?" Their jaws dropped, and they turned to each other.

"Guys, is this really Chrono, here?"

"He's too out of character to not be an imposter…"

"Are you sure we shouldn't knock him out and put him under surveillance?" I felt my eyebrow begin to twitch, and my grin rapidly faded until I was gritting my teeth, a vein popping out on my forehead from the strain of trying to refrain from blowing up at them. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, and shouted,

"WOULD YOU FOUR STOP IT ALREADY?" They stopped instantly as my outburst echoed clear across Eden, and then they all grinned.

"Yep, that's Chrono, alright."

"Sulky again, like he usually is." I growled loudly, grinding my teeth and seriously considering hitting the four of them with an Astral blast or two. Aion waved a hand up and down while snickering.

"Sorry, Chrono. We were just joking, have a sense of humor!" he said, laughing. I rolled my eyes with a huff, taking a seat at the table.

"Hey, now that you're here, Chrono, we can have a proper game!" Mary exclaimed, clapping her hands once. I grunted, but when they shoved it towards me, I rolled my eyes again and moved one of my purple pieces forward, jumping three green pieces that belonged to Viede, and putting my piece quite close to the other side.

"So, how's Rosette doing?" Aion asked after a few moments of each of us moving in turn. As I moved another piece up to where it now rested next to my first piece, I glanced up at them all, seeing genuine concern in the gazes of my four demon friends, before re-affixing my gaze on the board.

"She says she's sore all over and feels like she's been hit by something called a 'truck', but otherwise, she seemed okay at the moment." I replied. My near-twin blinked.

"'At the moment'?" he asked. I glanced up at him as Viede moved a piece into my territory.

"She tells me that she had a fainting spell the other day, and that earlier today she had chest pains." I explained, tone becoming solemn. "I asked her about it, and… well, she told me the truth. She's running out of time. Her life's almost over." Silence met this announcement, and then, all at once, there was an explosion of questions that met my ears.

"What? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" –Aion.
"How long does she have left?" –Genai.
"Why didn't she tell us about it?" –Rizelle.
"Is there anything we can do to help her?" –Viede.
"What's going on?" –Mary.
"How the hell can you act so calm about it? Don't you care about her at all?" –Aion, again.

Luckily, I was prepared for this barrage, and I waited until it had died down before continuing, poker face still in place, though I was still slightly hurt by Aion's final comment.

"I thought of a way that we may be able to regenerate her soul." I announced. "If what she said about the Life Clock draining her soul to give me energy in the future is correct, then we should be able to reconfigure the clock's Astral flow mechanism to cause whoever she has a Contract with to feed some Astral back to her, as long as they have their horns." The four demons blinked at me, uncomprehending, but Mary nodded in understanding.

"So basically, you'd reverse the flow of this 'Astral' stuff, and it would help her live longer?" she asked. I clapped and nodded with a smile.

"Correct." I said, and then scowled at Aion. "And yes, I do care about her, very much. That theory is how I can act so calm about it." I cleared my throat as he pouted, and made another move with my Chinese Checkers piece. "Shader is going to work on it as soon as I can get the Watch from Rosette to give to her. 'Course, I haven't talked to Rosette about it yet, so…" I grinned again, pointing to the board. "Looks like I win." Indeed, all of my pieces had been moved to occupy all of Viede's territory. However, as he and the rest gawked at the board, wondering when I had done that, I rose to my feet, sensing that Rosette was awake. Aion clapped his hands together once, standing up, as well.

"Well, let's go talk to her about it, then!" he exclaimed. Mary clapped her hands, too, and the rest of them got to their feet, as well. They began to head to the door, but I cried out,

"Wait!" They stopped, looking back at me, confused. I stood behind my chair, my hand on the back of it, my head down, and my bangs hiding my eyes as I slowly turned a bright shade of red.

"Well, what is it?" Genai asked impatiently. "I wanna see how she's doing!" I bit my lip with one of my fangs, trying to figure out how to word what I wanted to say.

"Um, there's something that you guys should know before we go see her…" I began, and when the words became stuck in my throat, I cleared it, my face cherry red.

"Spit it out, already!" Aion said. Mary swatted him on the arm.

"Have patience! Can't you tell he's trying to figure out how to word it?" she said. I smiled gratefully at her, and then it disappeared when I swallowed. Finally, I took a deep breath and relayed what I wanted to say to them.

"Guys, Rosette's a mother now." Everything was silent, and then…

"Well, that's great!" –Mary.
"I wanna see the baby!" –Aion.
"… I am happy for her." –Viede.
"A BABY? WHY THE HELL DIDN'T SHE TELL US?" –Genai.
"Shut up, Genai." –Rizelle.
"Who's the father?" –Aion, yet again.

I swallowed hard, waiting until they quieted down again to break the rest of the news to them, biting my lip so feverishly that it bled profusely.

"I… I'm the father." I admitted quietly. I could hear the crickets chirping outside over the stillness that permeated the room for the next several long minutes as they all- even Rizelle- soaked it in. Then, all at once, the boys all rushed me and clapped me on the back, causing my teeth to clack together and bite my tongue almost all the way off.

"Way to go Chrono!" –Genai.
"I knew all along you had it in you!" –Aion.
"Congratulations, Chrono. I'm happy for you." –Viede, with a smile.
"You finally got laid, huh?" -Aion- I punched him hard in the face for that one- again.
"Shut up, Aion!" –Rizelle, from the back of the group. And finally, Mary's,
"Congratulations, Chrono! Wow, a little boy or girl!"

I shrugged them off, my jaw and shoulders aching, and massaged my chin for a second as my Legion healed my tongue before turning back to them.

"Aion, once your nose heals, you're going to pay for that one remark…" I muttered, "But thanks, everyone. Genai, you guys aren't the only ones she didn't tell. I didn't know about it, either." I cast a glance sideways to Rizelle. "Though, I do imagine that Rizelle and Shader knew about it, considering that they're both females and were left behind along with Rosette…" At Rizelle's affirming nod, I shrugged. "Anyways, I wanted to warn you all that the babies are asleep, so be quiet when you go in there, alright?" With that, I brushed past the females and out into the hall, beginning the walk back to my room.

'Chrono?' came a small voice in my head. It was Rosette. 'I'm awake, if you want to bring the others in, now. Just tell them that they have to be quiet- the babies are still asleep, okay?' A small smile crept over my face.

-Don't worry, Rosette.- I told her. -I already let them know. I'm headed there now.- I felt a small bit of alarm from her.

'Now?' she exclaimed frantically. 'Well, at least let me get a sweater or something on!' I raised an eyebrow but didn't question her on it, shaking it off. It would take us a couple of moments to get to the room, anyway. Sure enough, when I asked her just outside the door a few minutes later, she replied that she was decent. Standing at the door, I whirled to face my friends one more time.

"Remember, be quiet!" I said. They all nodded, and then I knocked once and opened the door, walking in to find Rosette sitting on the side of the bed, buttoning the last button on a light sweater over the clean, white nightgown she had been wearing when I had visited her earlier. She had pulled her hair back into her usual twin pigtails, I saw, and as the rest of them filed in behind me, she looked up with a bright smile.

"Hey, guys! Good afternoon!" she whispered loudly. I returned her smile with a small one of my own, and glanced over at the basket when I heard the babies begin to shift. She and I sighed at the same time, and I walked over and picked up Adrian as she lifted Aidan. There was a chorus of small squeals from behind me when the twins came into sight, and I turned to our friends, a proud smile on my face to match Rosette's as they walked over and got a good look at my children.

"Aw, Chrono, Rosette! They're adorable!" Mary whispered as she looked from one twin to the other. Aion beamed at us.

"Cool! Genai, Viede, and I are uncles now! And our niece and nephew are the cutest little things in the world!" he cooed, bending over Adrian and tickling his belly with one finger. Adrian didn't react at first, but after a second, he scrunched up his face and sneezed. I chuckled.

"Hey, Aion, I think he's allergic to you." I said. Laughter echoed around the room.

LMAO! Hee, hee, hee, Adrian's allergic to Aion! (sniggers) Okay, I hope that you all found that satisfying. I know I did! (grins) Sorry to all you Aion-lovers out there- it had to be done for the sake of comedy. And yay, Mary Magdalene finally got some action! She doesn't play a big, crucial role, though. That much I'll let you know. Well, I have to go, now, so please just click the good, purple, clickery clicker down there in the clicker-tastic corner, and leave me a clickery-good review! Please?

-Fanatic