Chapter 10 - Flight Of The Phoenix

"What now?" asked Crono.

Trying to gather her wits about her, Destiny took a while to reply. "You need to talk to Spekkio and do what he says. It's very important, just go through the door there."

Nodding, Crono went through, followed by Lucca and Marle; the little girl was left with Destiny.

Destiny sat down and started thinking, despondent thoughts rising up...

Dear god... can I put all of this right? If Gaspar is dead, we can't get the Time Egg, thus Crono is doomed... Lavos can still be defeated without him but what kind of a reward is that? He puts his life on the line and he dies? No, I can't let that happen and it needn't. All I need to do is fix the time-line and Gaspar won't die, thus Crono will be resurrected... but what caused it? It must have been in the past, before Crono was supposed to meet Marle... so that narrows it down to a couple million years...great, just great... it may be just one tiny little thing and I've got to find it... a real needle in a hayst--

Destiny's thoughts were cut off by a scream. Looking down, the little girl had finally woken up and a look of sheer terror was in her eyes as she looked up at Destiny. Crono burst through the door, quickly followed by Lucca, Marle and Spekkio.

"What the hell did you do to her!" screamed Marle.

"N... nothing! She just woke up, took one look at me and started screaming her head off!"

Marle walked to the corner the little girl was hiding in and crouched down. "What's wrong? What did the nasty lady do to you?" But the little girl shook her head. "What's wrong then? What made you scream?"

"He... her clothes... she's dressed just like the people who killed Doan!"

"Was she one of them?" asked Lucca. Resuming the silence, the little girl only shook her head.

Turning to Destiny, Crono had to ask, "Do you know anything about this? Anything at all?"

"No," was all the response Crono got.

"So what do we do now?"

"You three need to go back to your own time-zone, I need to get back to the Hand of Kronos and do some research on the people that would do something like that to her family."

"Why is it so important?"

"It was already known you would be going there and the fact she was deliberately left alive seems very suspicious to me. As if she had been left there so you could find her..."

"What! You think she's some kind of bad guy?" asked Marle furiously.

"Not at the moment, but who knows what she'll grow up into... all I know is that this didn't happen in the original time-line. It may just be coincidence but I'd rather not take that chance..."

Oh dear god... it doesn't even have to be in the past that it the time-line was changed! In the new future that came from Crono defeating Lavos... all of that is new and in trying to save the world, could they have doomed it instead? But for that to work, they'd have to have access to the time-travel technology... could it be someone inside of the Hand of Kronos? No that's impossible... they have a screening process. No-one would be able to bypass that and even if they did, when would they be able to do this? All usage of the equipment is monitored... they wouldn't be able to go anywhere without it being logged...

Snapping out of her thoughts, Destiny noticed everyone had gone except Spekkio.

"What are you going to do now that Gaspar is gone?"

"I... don't know... It's odd, I've been here for eternity with only him for company and I never even got to know him, and now he's gone... I don't know what to do. I can't stay here on my own... I'd go crazy. Strangely enough, just knowing he was just outside my room was enough to keep me going all these years but now? I suppose I could go back to my old life but it's been so long... my memories are virtually non-existent, it's like I didn't exist before I stumbled into that time-warp... it's not like I'm even wanted back there."

Destiny nodded, already aware of Spekkio's haunted past. As a child he was taunted by other children because of his colour. Nu's were blue, everyone knew that, but Spekkio was red and was ostracised by his fellow kids because of it. When his ability to shape-shift beyond his control emerged, he was noticed by the elders of the village. Not open to reason, they excommunicated Spekkio because they were scared of him... even his family shunned him and he was forced to live away from all that he had known. He had spent a short period of time in the Kingdom of Zeal but never felt he belonged. He moved about frequently, never able to find a home until he stumbled upon a time-warp and was sucked into the End of Time. By then, he had learnt to survive by controlling his shape-shifting skills to scare off anything that tried to harm him, but he'd also found another skill. He could awaken the magic that lies dormant inside of everyone. Gaspar had seen the flow of time and knew that this skill would be necessary to save the planet from the awakening of Lavos...

Nu's were nomadic creatures when the wonder-lust came upon them, but otherwise, they lived in the same village they had always lived in since the birth of time. All life begins with Nu, all life ends with Nu... Belthasar had once written that in the Kingdom of Zeal, reflecting back on how they had always been there. No-one knew how they had got there, but that as long as the planet existed, so had the Nu. Many Nu had settled there, finding an affinity with the magic using humans, one they had never had before or would again...

"Live your life, that's all I can say to help. Just keep on living and do what you want to do."

"I think I'm going to go back home, see if I can patch it up with my folks and the rest of the village..."

"All I know is it won't be the same here without you or Gaspar... it seems like it just got a whole lot bleaker here..."

The two parted ways, Spekkio staying to dispose of Gaspar's body. Destiny shuddered as she thought of the way Nu's deal with their dead; swallowing them whole... shaking her head, she slid open the fake wall and walked into the Atrium of Time and took the white pillar of light back to the Hand of Kronos...

"Has she gone yet?" came the voice in Spekkio's head.

"Yes, she just left," was the reply.

"Well get over here and wake me up you clumsy idiot!"

With a wry grin on his face, Spekkio loped over to Gaspar's body and removed the spell forcing Gaspar into what looked like death but in fact only separated his spirit from his body, thus giving the appearance of death.

Taking in a breath for the first time in half an hour, it was the sweetest lungful of air Gaspar had tasted. "Are you sure they're gone?"

"What do you take me for; an idiot? No, don't answer that!" replied Spekkio with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Well, it's time to put our plan into action then isn't it?"

"Time indeed my friend," said Spekkio before sticking his hand down his throat.

"You know I hate it when you do that... it's just rather disturbing!"

"Mmfgh hmngggh!" Finally, Spekkio pulled his hand out, clutching what looked to be a remote control. Pressing a button on it, he sat down to wait. A few minutes later, the Epoch mk.2 arrived.

"Well, what are we waiting around here for? It's time to get going!" And with that, the odd couple boarded the Epoch and set off through time...