"You know, guys," Orion began the next day as they trudged through some back woods in Guardia, "I didn't think about this before, but how is Gaspar gonna let us know when he finds out something? I mean, we have Ark here and there's no one he can send after us..."
"He could send Spekkio..." Elora began doubtfully.
"I think perhaps Spekkio cannot come into Time," Prime replied. "It isn't a logical analysis...it's just a feeling..." his robotic voice tapered slowly at what he just said.
"Prime! Your first 'gut feeling'! How does it feel?" Elora crowed.
"Strange! How do you deal with such a strong conviction that has no basis at all in logic? One that has no supporting data?" Prime asked in distress.
"You don't try to explain it, you just decide how to proceed with it," Elora reassured. "You'll see!"
"Thou know'eth," Alpha began. "The fact that thou art wondering in itself could be the Guru trying to summon us..."
"That...feels right," Magus agreed softly.
Orion looked at them for a long moment.
"Amazing!" he teased. "the frog and the mage actually agree on something! Perhaps you are right. Let's jaunt to the End of Time and see."
"All FIVE of us?!" Elora exploded. "Do you know what that will do?!"
"Nope. Haven't a clue. Shall we find out?" Orion asked with an impish smile.
********
Gaspar started as a sonic boom thundered across the length and breadth of the End of Time. He heard a curious whimper from behind Spekkio's door as the echoes died down. A great gust of wind slammed the Ark into the docking area, throwing three people from the Timeship violently to the ground.
Prime unclamped his rambolts and jumped down to help a distinctly green-faced Elora to her feet. He moved gently and slowly to keep from disturbing Elora's tenuous hold on her balance and her stomach.
Orion, whistling, bounded from the pilot's seat and sauntered toward Gaspar's lamppost, "Coming?" he tossed over his shoulder to the other two ex-passengers.
Magus and Alpha helped each other shakily to their feet and followed.
Magus straightened a fold of his cloak, smoothed down his hair and walked slowly and deliberately to stand in front of Gaspar. His eyes held a muted gleam of concern as he noticed Elora trying hard not to be sick. He suspected that Alpha was a little greener than usual. Prime appeared to be okay. Magus himself felt queasy.
He thought of the horror-ride he had just endured, stood nose to nose with the Guru of Time and declared, "He NEVER drives again!"
Gaspar laughed in his face. "Shook you up a little, huh?"
Magus surprised himself by smiling. "Well, he did get us here. More or less in one piece. Orion has no nerves."
Orion smiled cockily.
"He has no stomach," Magus noted.
Orion puffed out his chest.
"He has no brains!" Magus roared.
"Hey!" Orion complained.
"On a much more serious note, I have not been able to find out where Schala disappeared to. However, I think I've found a way for Orion to find out for us," Gaspar told them abruptly.
"Please, guru, go on!" Alpha implored him.
"You remember that Orion was killed by Lavos and that you had to rescue him with my Chrono Trigger?"
Everyone but Magus nodded.
"I looked more closely at the moment when that happened. It strikes me as odd that two timeline shattering events, Orion's death and Schala's disappearance should occur so close to each other. Orion's life thread is cut when he dies and the pattern begins to fray which is why we had to save him, but some strands of that thread persist for a short time. They are very close to Schala's thread before it too disappears," Gaspar continued.
"So you are saying that some part of Orion, even after he was killed, stayed near Schala? Why?" Magus asked.
"Those who have strong wills, as Orion does and those who are killed in an untimely manner, as Orion was, often linger for a time after they die. Maybe they are trying to make sense of what happened to them, I don't know. All I know is that Orion, or what was left of him, is the closest...being I can identify near Schala after the disaster. There are others there...but there is a persistent tangle I can't read. I fear someone is obscuring the truth from me," Gaspar admitted.
"From you!?" Elora's amazement stood out in her voice.
"That worries me more than anything...but I think Orion can find out the truth for me," Gaspar replied as he paced from his customary spot at the lamppost.
"How?" Prime asked, shaken that Gaspar was acting so unlike himself.
"That Timeline's Orion's death is more than a might-have-been...but less than reality. The Timeline he was slain in is so very much like this one, up to a point, of course, that he is virtually the same. I think I can...merge the part of the two Timelines that is Orion together...and he can tell us what happened to Schala after he was slain."
"?!"
"What mean'eth thou?!" Alpha demanded.
"I'm sorry, the analogy doesn't quite work. I can take our Orion, this brave lad here," Gaspar shook Orion's shoulder, "and weave part of his...essence, his soul into the Orion of the other Timeline. Our Orion will then be able to experience and know all the other one did, does...and then tell us." Gaspar spread his hands in a gesture that conveyed his futility to explain any better.
"Gaspar...what you propose sounds rather fantastic..." Elora began doubtfully.
"If I did not have this illogic chip I would be in severe pain right now. As it is I am uncomfortable," Prime stated.
"It sound'eth extremely dangerous...to Orion..." Alpha began.
"It is. I will need Melchior's help if we are to attempt it at all...and even that does not guarantee that we do not kill Orion or drive him mad...but I can find no other avenue of information. There are so many alternate planes...not just time but space, reality, magic...you could spend your lives several times over and not rescue Schala...and we simply do not have the time...and the Chronal Eraser is speeding toward a critical point of no return..." Gaspar's frustration and despair was almost palpable.
"...What happens when Orion, the other Orion, dies? How does our Orion survive?" Elora asked quietly.
"Well, it is rather complicated, but our Orion," Gaspar smiled at Orion who had been in stunned silence the whole time, "...our Orion has knowledge and experiences the other Orion doesn't. Killing Lavos is one. We have to put our Orion so deep in the other Orion that those experiences don't surface and create yet another rift in Time. At the critical moment we have to summon our Orion back. For a brief time we are going to try to make one being out of both of them and then separate them again. If the peril weren't so great...I'd never consider something like this. Since we are dealing with Life, Orion's Life, I want Melchior to help...that is if you are willing to risk it?" Gaspar turned to face Orion.
He squared his shoulders, stood straight, and took a deep breath. "Yes."
"Just like that?" Magus asked, "No discussion or questions?"
"Gaspar's done all he can to find Schala...I hope that whomever is holding her has Ariel too...if this is the only way to find them...I have no choice," Orion stated simply.
"But...aren't you frightened?" Magus persisted.
"Terrified! Gaspar wants to blend me with another version of me, if I understand correctly," Gaspar nodded. "That's enough to make me want to hide under my bed...but further...that other me is doomed to die. I've heard about being dead, that I was killed by Lavos and everyone rescued me...there is a gap in my memory compared to theirs, a period of time when I did not exist...now I have to experience that myself. I hafta be with myself when I get killed...don't make me think about it, Magus. I can do this if I don't think about it," Orion pleaded.
"I'm sorry...it's just you seem so positive. You have a level of courage I can't understand," Magus admitted.
"Time is of the essence," Gaspar reminded them. "Melchior is..."
"Here," Melchior said as he entered from the corridor leading to the Time Shafts.
"You are sure this is the only way?" Melchior asked Gaspar. At Gaspar's nod he continued. "Orion fully understands the risks?"
Orion swallowed and nodded.
"Then, I will help," Melchior replied as he walked over to Gaspar's side.
"What...what do I have to do?" Orion asked apprehensively.
"You just have to go to sleep," Gaspar replied as he inscribed a graceful hand gesture in the air. Orion slumped suddenly. Prime sprang forward and caught him.
Prime place Orion on the ground. "I have never seen someone fall asleep so fast!"
"Thank you. He reacted much quicker that I expected! His trust in me is...unprecedented. Well, let me work," Gaspar replied. He fell asleep. A few minutes later a hazy form of Orion rose and hovered over the End of Time.
"What?!" Elora asked.
"That is Orion's...essence. Gaspar has eased him free so we can try this mad thing," Melchior explained. "How do you feel, Orion?"
"Very strange! And you look so strange too!" Orion replied.
"Really?" Melchior asked, surprised.
"Yeah, you are very solid...dense and there are...thousands of threads stretching into the distance from you...everyone has these...cords but you have the most...no I take that back...Gaspar has the most! Hello, guru." A note of deep respect resonated in Orion's voice. Everyone could see what he meant.
"I did not think that you might see...I need you to relax and...trust me," a ghostly form of Gaspar appeared beside Orion. By the lamppost Gaspar snored on.
"I...do, but I am frightened!" Orion admitted candidly.
"I won't say there is nothing to fear, you know there is, and this...procedure muddles your life thread so that I can't read it...but we will do all we can to minimize the risk to you...if you don't want to try this I can..."
"No. You tried everything else...this is the only way to find out about Schala and Ariel," Orion stated firmly.
"Okay then, relax, and tell me everything you think and feel. Hold nothing back! I'm starting now," Gaspar warned as he reached his ghostly hands forward and unwound a loop of thread from Orion's heart.
Everyone watching jumped at the guru's strange action except for Melchior who watched Orion intently. Orion himself seemed startled but unhurt as he looked at Gaspar holding a part of his soul.
"That is my love for Ariel!" Orion told him.
"Good! That is one element that remained unchanged. I think this would be easiest on you if I started with this," Gaspar suddenly grew to gigantic proportions. He reached one hand into the Time stream and drew forth another Orion. He sought for the same heart thread and twined them together. The second Orion stood still and did not react at all.
"What's wrong with him?" Elora asked.
"He's in stasis, stopped in Time. That way...he won't remember and become confused," Melchior replied. "That could change what must happen, poor doomed lad. I'm so glad his Time stream is now a low probability crux point. I've become rather fond of Orion, of you all. In his Time stream, he died, stayed dead and his world fell apart in 1999," Melchior looked rather pensive and resumed his monitoring of the active Orion.
"Guru, I don't want to disturb you, but am I supposed to be feeling emotions more strongly this way?" Orion asked quietly.
"How do you mean?" Gaspar asked.
"When you wove my thread into...his, my love for Ariel increased...doubled."
"Hmm. Good thing you are basically a positive young man!" Gaspar replied as he sought another thread.
Orion laughed and his tension eased.
Gaspar carefully unwound part of a thick green thread. "And this?" he asked.
"My friendship with Alpha," Orion told him.
"I didn't think these would be color-coded!" Gaspar laughed.
"I thought it might help," Orion mumbled.
"You...did this on purpose? My boy, you have unprecedented talents. Now, what's this?"
The green thread that signified Alpha in Orion's life had a curious tangle with many threads and then sprouted new shoots.
"Alpha became Glenn and then we had to save Magus so..." Orion explained.
"Oh, so this is well after the Ocean Palace disaster?" Gaspar noted aloud. "What a tangle! I don't want to disturb anything as strong or convoluted as this but what am I to do with it?"
"Here!" Gaspar handed it to Alpha. "Hold this and keep it from harm!" Startled Alpha took it and wasn't even sure what he was holding. It felt unlike anything he had ever touched before as the substance seemed rock solid and ghostly at the same time.
Gaspar wove the part of the green thread that he had selected into the one of the time-frozen Orion. At once, Orion stilled.
Gaspar stopped immediately, "What is it?"
"Alpha. Alpha! It's so unfair! He's the noblest, most uncomplaining person I've ever met..." Alpha felt a surge of warmth from the thread he held, not with his hands but his heart. He almost dropped the precious thread.
Not knowing how to offer comfort, Alpha tried to send his feeling of friendship along the thread to his distressed friend. Melchior felt it, turned toward him and nodded.
Encouraged, Alpha tried to impart some of the good things about his curse along the thread. Underlying it all he sent an indulgent, "Calm'eth down, tadpole!"
Orion laughed almost causing Alpha to drop the thread again.
"Tadpole?! You do like that nickname for me, don't you? Thanks, Gl...Alpha. I think that centered me."
Alpha sent reassurance and nonsense, sensations and memories during the rest of Gaspar's unusual procedure. Gaspar gently unwound parts of heart threads from their Orion and wove them into the time-stopped Orion. Each time he would entrust the part from after the Ocean Palace disaster to whomever it applied to. As each one took charge of the thread he or she added their reassurances to Alpha's. Finally Gaspar encountered a strong black thread that had unexpectedly changed color.
"This?" Gaspar asked as he lightly touched it.
Orion paused and then answered. "Oh...Magus. You know, he's not really a bad person. I realized that just recently."
"How did you think of him before?" Gaspar questioned.
"Evil and power mad."
"I see. Let's not double those feelings. Here, Janus, hold this."
Magus took the cord that was Orion's thoughts of him and looked at it intently.
It had been darkest, unrelieved black, then faded and come back again. Magus realized this was his "death". Further on he noted that it tangled rather dramatically with Alpha's thread. As it emerged from that tangle the black had shots of color; green, white, red, blue, yellow. The overall color was still black but the texture was deeper and somehow...comforting. Magus felt nothing at all from the heart thread.
Gaspar stood back and examined his work one more time. Orion stood still with portions of his soul wound into his own past self and others held carefully by his friends.
"How do you feel?" Gaspar asked worriedly.
"Very strange. I feel...kinda like I'm dissolving...spread too thin somehow...but some feelings are more intense than they've ever been before..." Orion replied.
"That is as I expect, given what I have done. Melchior?" Gaspar turned and asked the waiting guru.
"Oh, you did everything right. I watched the whole time. If you had tried to do something wrong I would have let you know. The danger is in what happens later. You and I will have to be quick and careful," Melchior replied.
"Now what?" Orion asked.
"You have to fall asleep again," Gaspar replied.
"But I am already asleep!" Orion pointed out looking at his own body. He shivered.
"No. Your body is asleep; now your mind and soul must sleep as well. You won't like this; it will feel like death to you, but it is necessary. Your other self can't know that you are within him. Melchior?" Gaspar told him.
Melchior nodded toward Gaspar who took hold of Orion from behind, holding him still. The Guru of Life, placed Orion into a strange form of sleep with an obscure gesture and Gaspar supported Orion's soul bodily.
"Intellect, intellect..." Gaspar mused as he held Orion.
"Bright yellow, weaving through everything," Melchior told him.
"Ah, yes, thank you," Gaspar said as he sought it out and pulled most of it free. He left one end firmly attached and handed the rest to Melchior.
"Now, is that everything?" Gaspar asked, looking at his handiwork.
"I believe so, yes," Melchior replied.
Then, to bury him into our other friend here," Gaspar stated as he turned toward the Time-suspended Orion. He simply opened a path through all the heart-threads that made up this Orion and somehow minimized and enclosed the sleeping Orion there.
"There should be enough connections between these two Orions for our Orion to tell us what happens as it happens through his intellect. And we should be able to pull him free when..." Gaspar began.
"When the other Orion dies and begins to fade from Time," Melchior finished.
"Let's not leave him like this too long. It isn't very comfortable even though he's asleep and unaware of it...mostly," Melchior urged. "The longer we leave him...connected like this the more danger he's in."
Gaspar reached forward and sent the remaining Orion back into the Time stream. He then faded and woke up next to the lamppost.
"Now, what?" Elora asked.
Melchior wove the bright yellow cord into the sleeping Orion. "We listen," he replied.
Orion began to speak, telling them without prompting what was happening to him. Everyone stood enthralled as Orion's words carried them with him on the fateful trip to the Ocean Palace, the Mammon Machine, Lavos and his own death. Prime and Alpha, who had been with him when Lavos had killed him, recalled that terrible moment in their own memories while Orion told them of the events leading up to it. Elora wept. Melchior awkwardly patted her shoulder to comfort her. Magus remembered his attack on Lavos and how ineffective his magic had been. He too remembered that moment when Lavos, at his mother's urging, had literally dissolved Orion. He was a little surprised to find that he felt the sorrow everyone else was feeling.
A heart-rending scream signified Orion's death but his narrative didn't stop there. He related how Schala had sent Alpha, Prime and Magus away from the Ocean Palace using the last of her power. He related Schala's terror at the magic that was unleashed by Lavos in the Palace, transforming it into the Black Omen. He seemed to be drawn toward her, staying with her as she fled through the halls that changed shape even as she ran.
Orion told them when a Black Portal opened before her. Gaspar who had been following everything as Orion told it to them peered intently into the Mists of Time at this.
"I should be able to find Orion..." he mused, "and from there find Schala!"
"There! I see it...a Dark Dimension? No...it's Shadow. Schala's been taken into a dimension of pure Shadow!"
Just then, Orion related how Schala, who had been aware of him the whole time, spoke with him and tried to send him to his friends.
"Now! This is the Crux Point!" Melchior alerted Gaspar, "In this Timeline Schala missed. Orion's soul was not sent to Ariel's Pendant, it got lost and finally dissipated. We have to retrieve him NOW!"
Gaspar leaped into the Mists of Time physically, not bothering to send forth his soul as he did normally. He grew huge, reached his hand forward and intercepted the fleeing soul. He brought Orion back to the End of Time, but seemed to be struggling with him.
"Melchior! The pull on him is too strong! I can barely hold him!" Gaspar told him.
"He's integrated so deeply with his other self...I don't know if we can separate him in time!" Melchior replied. "We may have to sever some of the threads!" Melchior joined Gaspar in the Mists of Time.
"No! If we do that...he'll lose those feelings forever..." Gaspar countered.
"If we don't we may lose him forever! Do you feel the pull toward Oblivion? We can't stop it. One of him belongs there!" Melchior replied as he helped hold Orion.
Suddenly Magus thrust the black heart thread he had been holding into Alpha's hands.
"Pull on that, hold it taut," he directed. "I have to try something!"
"You need him separated from his other self now? Hold him still!" Magus commanded the two gurus.
Magus levitated, drew all the light at the End of Time to himself and cast Luminaire directly into the black heart thread that Alpha was holding. The lightning energy flashed along the thread throwing Alpha to the ground on the one end and literally splitting Orion into two at the other. Each Guru found himself holding an Orion.
"Which is which?" Elora asked.
"He's yours," one Orion offered. "I'm the one who just got killed by Lavos...from the Time stream where Schala missed the Pendant. It's time for me to go."
"Go...where?" Alpha asked.
"Where all of us go when we die. I'm not sure where and I'm not sure what'll happen to me there, but that's where I hafta go," the lopsided smile was so like 'his' Orion's that Alpha found his heart twisting for his friend.
"But..."
"Hey, one of us has to go and it should be the right one. Because of what you guys did to save Schala, I know a lot more than I could have otherwise. In him," Orion nodded toward the other Orion, "I saw what you look like as Glenn. I saw that Magus can be a nice guy. I know that Ariel's been kidnapped and Schala has gone missing. Because of me, you now know where to start looking. So let me go, I think I'll be all right, and go find 'em. Rescue them," Orion commanded.
"But..." the other Orion spoke up, "...what about you? I can't let you just fade away...or go someplace all alone..."
"I'm not alone. I've got all the friendships you have and more. I've got your friendship as well. You and I, the same and yet different. You don't hate Magus anymore and your feelings for Ariel are deeper than mine. Hey, you've known her longer! I know you want to follow me, help me, and you could, Orion, but that means you would die too. I don't want that any more than you want me to face this alone. If you follow me, who'll rescue Ariel and marry her? Live, Orion, for her and for me. Don't forget me!" Orion abruptly pushed away from both gurus and dove through the Time stream.
"He's gone. I can't track him anymore," Gaspar said quietly.
"I...know. When he...died I woke up in him. He felt it. We blended deeper than you intended. He could feel my feelings and he knew my memories. He knew what we had done and why. He didn't blame us. When Schala missed the Pendant I could feel the tug that he did. Something draws you when you are dead, something irresistible. I...liked him. I wish he didn't have to face that all alone...I know he is completely gone now..." Orion admitted.
"This did not go as I had planned, but everything seems to have come out right. We just have to get you back in one piece and then look for the Shadow Dimension," Gaspar told him.
"Wait!" Orion said suddenly.
"What is it?" Melchior asked.
"Do you feel it? Do you feel the joy?"
"I...feel it," Alpha admitted.
"I too," Prime replied.
"I think he's...happy...wherever he is and this is his way to tell you not to worry about him," Elora said.
"Sounds like the kind of thing you would do," Magus noted wryly. "Feels like it too. A moment of pure joy to let you know he's okay."
"I think you're right. Okay, guru, can I go back to being myself please?" Orion asked plaintively. "I've had it with feeling strung out!"
Gaspar laughed and quickly began to wind the loose threads back into Orion's heart. He was careful to place them back where he had found them. Orion stood quietly as Gaspar restored him. Gaspar encountered a white thread that was new.
"What is this?"
"Him...the other Orion," Orion told him softly.
"Hmm. If I don't weave this in you won't have some distressing memories of his...your death," he noted.
"No! Please, Gaspar, I know I'm going to have nightmares and some painful memories, but I want to remember...what happened and remember him...the other me..." Orion begged.
"Okay..." Gaspar wove the thread in near the one that he knew signified Orion to himself. He place it just touching Orion's own thread.
"Some of these threads are thicker than they were," Gaspar noted, "Any idea why, Melchior?"
"I suspect it was the rather dramatic way Janus separated the two Orions. I think the other Orion chose to accept the Luminaire charge across his heart threads to cause that separation. Some of his feelings for everyone clung to our Orion's threads. So in an obscure way, he is still with us, in Orion's feelings," Melchior replied softly.
"He'd like that," Elora noted.
"I like it too," Orion said.
"See?" Elora teased with a crack in her voice.
"Okay, my lad, it's time for you to enter your body again and wake up. You've been in pieces for long enough!" Gaspar told Orion severely.
"How do I..."
"Look at me. Sleep!" Gaspar commanded when Orion gazed at him. Orion's eyes closed and he faded from view. A moment later Gaspar followed him. Orion stirred next to the lamppost and woke up.
"Wow! What an adventure!" he noted as he stretched. "I'm hungry!"
-------------
Author's notes -
I hope this chapter wasn't too...weird. Or, if it was weird, it was weird in a cool way. ^_^
As for Magus...hmmm...he really isn't acting that evil any more, is he? But, he did kill Cyrus and curse Glenn! I guess Magus' fate will depend on whether Cyrus' Ghost is more about revenge or more about promoting the good of Guardia! ^_~
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com