Chapter 24 - Death From Above

The explosions rocked the tower and the skyway they stood on. Slowly, the Black Tyrano robot before them fell apart as flames engulfed it. Crawling through the wreckage came a green shape. Azala, Queen of the Reptites. Her robes were tattered and torn, one of the hems on fire.

Coughing up blood, Azala spoke in disbelief, "No... it can't be! Could the heavens truly have sided with the apes? Listen, primates, and let it be known. We Reptites fought bravely to the bitter end!"

"Ayla understand..." the cavewoman said, kneeling down beside her fallen enemy.

"Soon, stones of fire will rain down, flames shall scorch the land, the burned out plains will slowly freeze, ushering in a long, cruel ice age..." She paused, coughing up more blood and then gurgled what might have been a laugh in a human throat. "What a treat! You will wish you went along with us!"

The whisper was virtually negligible as it came from Ayla's lips. "Lavos..."

"Lavos! Here?" stuttered Frog.

"Ayla's word. La means fire. Vos means big." As one, they all turned to look up into the sky, a lone red star twinkling ominously. Ayla whirled around at the sound of flapping wings. From below the tower came three Dactyls, giant ferocious bird-like dinosaurs. Landing on the skyway, they all pulled their necks in, awaiting boarding. Kino sat atop the lead one. "Kino!" Turning to the others, she urged them to get on the Dactyls. "Hurry! Lavos come soon! All ride dactyl! Kino! Hurry!"

"Ayla! What you do!" asked Kino, somewhat in fear of his great leader in such panic.

Pivoting in the crude saddles, Ayla called out to the Reptite Queen. "Come! Azala! Come!"

Shaking her head, she pushed away the offer. "The powers that be have spoken!"

Leaping off the back of the Dactyl, she crouched at Azala's side again. Ignoring Kino's pleas, she spoke to Azala one last time in reverence due to a honourable enemy, "Azala... me not forget..." With one last look, she leapt back onto the Dactyl, just behind Kino.

"The future..." Azala croaked.

"Future? What about future?"

"We... have no future..."

Ayla nodded her farewell as the Dactyls took off from the skyway, plunging down towards the ground below them. Spreading their wings, they pulled out of their fall, just gliding along, and with a quick burst of flapping they started to rise again, soaring through the air, harsh cries issued from their mouths. Looking over his shoulder with his spiky red hair flapping about in the rushing wind, Crono saw the red star hurtle through the atmosphere, flames licking at its shell, curling around it in a desperate attempt to smother the life from it. Ever increasing in speed in its descent, the red star, or Lavos as Ayla called it fell to the earth, ploughing into the Tyrano Lair. Brickwork flew everywhere as a piercing white light came from its centre, enveloping what remained of the structure. As it rushed towards them, Crono dug his heels into the side of his Dactyl, spurring it onwards in front of the other two, in turn causing them to chase after the new leader.

"We've got to land them now or we're dead meat!" he cried over the sound of destruction behind them and the flapping of the Dactyls wings. "If that light hits us when we're in mid-air, we're gonna fall one hell of a long way!" Heeding his advice, the three riders urged their mounts downwards to the ground. They nearly made it, but the Dactyl's slowed up to land... About ten metres from the ground it finally caught up with them, the light enveloping, blinding them to everything. Crono didn't know where he was, only that he was falling...


It's a strange thing that Nu's do not actually eat food, drink water or even respire. They just live. No-one knows how they do, but they just do. Since they don't eat, they have no digestive juices in their body as Destiny was discovering. What they did have was a gate and it was this that swallowed Destiny whole. Instead of the normal vortex with the bands of time flowing around her, it was just pitch black. She was freefalling in the dark, no light at the end of this tunnel. Suddenly, daylight exploded around her and she landed flat on the ground. After a few seconds of just lying on the ground, catching her breath back, she slowly got to her feet.

"Where the hell am I?" She took in her surroundings, not that there was much. Just green fields as far as the eye could see. No, not as far, further than the eye could see. "Well that's just great. I'm in the middle of nowhere... what now?" she said, talking to herself. Then she heard that familiar sound. A vortex opening. Spinning around, her shoulder-length black hair following her, she saw it behind her and out came... S'grath. "Well the wonders never cease. If there's a bloody gate here, why didn't I go through that instead of you ramming me down your throat?"

"That's because there is no gate here. I took myself here." At the surprised look on Destiny's face, she expounded on that. "Something we like to keep to ourselves is the fact we can time-travel ourselves. We are beings that are innately tainted with magic, and time travel is our ability."

"It woulda been nice to know... but if people did know, they'd abuse it. It's human nature to use and abuse others abilities and then discard them..."

"Exactly. It's sad to say, but we just can't trust humankind with our secrets. Only a select few know of them but otherwise, we hide it from everyone."

"OK, but what the hell do we do now?"

"We wait," said the Nu. "Our transport should be arriving soon."

Looking out over the horizon, Destiny could see something moving on the horizon. As it drew closer, she saw it wasn't even touching the ground but hovering two feet above it. "A hovercar? Cool!" As it drew alongside, she saw who was behind the wheel. Spekkio.

"Good to see you again Destiny. S'grath here told us you were coming and high-tailed it over here herself to stop you wandering off."

"So where the hell am I?"

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," he said, a grin flashing over his face. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get in!"

With that, Destiny slipped into the passenger seat and Spekkio stepped on the gas, the hover car speeding off back in the direction it came.

"Look out little girl... he's not to be trusted," S'grath whispered to herself, before summoning forth the vortex to swallow her whole.