Rising
I do not own Crono Trigger, and strangely enough, make no profits from this fiction. Dang. Thought I'd be rich by now, too...
The journey up Death Peak was actually, very exhausting. Magus was astonished by how much his strength had truly waned, after his run-in with Lavos. And not just tiring for him, the girls weren't chatting anymore, just plodding one determined step after another.
One good thing about it though, besides being training for him body and soul, it took his mind off of things. It took too much energy just to think. So in the end, he stopped trying, and it was easier just walking up the mountain.
It didn't hurt, being as tall and powerful as he was, although he had to break the path up, while the smaller girls followed, crowding behind him, using him as their wind block. Had he had more energy, he would have objected, or made them work harder for it. As it were, he was using his energy just to keep going.
Magus couldn't help muttering to himself when more monsters appeared. In fact, it seemed they were becoming more plentiful the further up the mountain they got.
Lucca's opinion was that she wished the storm wasn't so terrible, or she would have flown the fragile Epoch up to the peak. Magus secretly agreed with her, but also knew the potency of the Chrono Trigger was dependent on how much they put into trying to bring back the person gone. If it was too easy, it might not work. Then again, he didn't particularly care if the boy came back or not, but after the effort that he had been coerced into getting him back, he sincerely hoped that it wasn't for nothing. One thing he despised was working for nothing. So he would get that boy back, even if it meant forging into the time streams himself, just to throttle him for being difficult.
But now, it was night, according to Lucca and her time-keeping devices. He had to take her word for it, because it always looked like night on the mountain. In fact, it was always dark in the future,as far as he could tell. Magus wouldn't show or admit that he was grateful for the fact that they could stop and sleep, but he was definitely relieved. He was more tired than he could ever really remember being in a very long time.
The camp made was a shallow cave under a hanging ledge. Any proper caves had too many creatures taking shelter as well to ever use as a camp site, if one expected any good rest. So they set up a shelter, which was lovely, due to the fact that they were surprisingly sturdy, and they had a heater, that combined with the fact that the wind couldn't penetrate the fabric, made it seem as if it were one of the most comfortable places he had ever been.
Once everything was set up, and the girl Lucca, was showing Marle how to cook the camp food, his impression being that the blond girl wasn't taking to learning very fast, he stepped out, bracing for the cold, and decided to put up a perimeter. Not that he was paranoid or anything.
So he took several rocks from the wall, took some chalk, and marked each one with a symbol, and surrounded the opening of the cave, and a few around the shelter itself, and muttered some words, that seemed to bend and warp, even as they were spoken, as he drew a few symbols in the air, and then they glowed, and the stones glowed where the chalk was, and in a flash, the chalk-marks had disappeared, and the rocks themselves looked rather innocuous. Looking, he pursed his lips, and saw the mild shimmer as bits of snow passed through his barrier, and turned to go back into the shelter, satisfied with the potency of his handiwork.
Entering the tent, the food was done, and sniffing suspiciously, he accepted a bowl of brown colored stew. It was actually just fine, and tasted better for the fact that he hadn't really eaten in several days. Only drunk water every so often. So he finished his bowl neatly, and as that his bowl was made of bread, ate that as well.
"So, where did you go?" Marle asked, curiously, as she tried to sneak her spoon into the pot over the gas-powered burner. She got her hand slapped lightly by Lucca, and she pouted as she waited for Lucca to stop looking.
"I created a barrier around the cave and shelter, so no one has to stand watch," he said, perfunctorily, voice curt and tired. He ignored the amazed looks as he curled up in the farthes corner of the tent he could find, so he could sleep. In fact, he ignored that they also wanted him to help clean the pot, and smirked to himself, as Marle was discovered snitching the leftovers that would get them through tomorrow. Other than that, he slept fairly well, despite the fact he was with people he didn't feel particularly comfortable with. A tribute to how tired he was.
The morning was too early for him, and he had to drag himself up. The trip up the mountain was turning out to be much of the same, until the spawn came out.
The farther up they went, the more spawn appeared, and they were difficult, and every time an attack hit the shell, the reaction was painful.
They were the spawn of Lavos, of course. It turned out that this was the spot Lavos had burst forth, the force of his coming splitting the earth, and shooting up ruined rock with him. But their determination made short work of the innate malice contained within the spined monstrosities.
The second day, they made it to the peak, where the blizzard had stopped, although just a little ways down, it was raging full force.
Magus shivered, feeling the potency of the area. The magic was verily soaked into the ground, not to mention the air. In fact, breathing it in made him feel almost light-headed.
"This is it. The summit of Death Peak," Lucca said, breathless. And after sitting a moment, Lucca took the Chrono Trigger from her satchel. She looked at Marle, and then walked up to the peak, stopping a few feet from the lone birch tree. "You who fear the night and fight the coming darkness," she breathed out, "Give us strength!" she ended, crying the last, brandishing the egg carefully above her head. "Crono!" she cried, and Marle echoed her. Then, upon Marle's neck, the pendant she wore, that so closely resembled Schala's, started to glow.
"The pendant is reacting," murmured Marle, surprised.
Then the egg floated up, and rising, it shattered.
"But...we've come so far," whispered Marle, tears forming in her eyes. "Please answer me! Don't leave me! Crono!" she cried, despair tinging her voice.
Lucca's sadness was quieter. "It can't be," was her horrified response. "What use was it to come so far?"
Magus said nothing, as he felt the energy building. He didn't stop the girls cries. He only felt the potential of the time egg hatching. And then, the sun, which was watery and pale, even up here, was becoming encompassed by the moon.
Soon, the energy was almost stifling, and even the two girls could feel it.
The build-up suddenly disappeared, and they were in a moment frozen in time. They saw Crono, floating in the air, before Lavos. Magus felt a pang, as he saw his sister, collapsed on the ground as well, and regretted that they had no replacement for her as well. So he summoned the doll of Crono, and Lucca placed it where Crono was, and it took the place, as if made to do so. Then they exited the frozen place in time, and it disappeared.
Watching, Magus watched as the eclipse end, and as the light returned, Crono, sleeping, floated down, and was left leaning against the birch tree, as it's branch tips had little lights on them.
Before anything else could happen, Marle was as a flying missile towards Crono, eyes bleary with barely contained tears. Magus tuned them out, and stayed in the back, pretending not to see the silly girl kissing Crono wildly, as he was looking around confused.
The girl, Lucca, also was standing back, watching, awkward. He thought he noted sadness in her features, mixed with happiness.
After this had gone on for a while, he finally sighed, and pinching the bridge of his nose, he drawled in a voice verily dripping with contempt, "Are you done yet? I would rather not spend an extra day on this mountain while you copulate."
While Marle looked confused, Lucca looked horrified, while Crono was still just dazing off, hardly registering Marle anymore than him or Lucca. Marle asked Lucca what was so bad, although she was already offended just by his tone of voice, she looked embarrassed as Lucca explained, while trying not to say it outright. After that, though, during the blistering silence, which Magus didn't mind in the slightest, they got Crono up and going.
Strangely enough, it was much easier getting down the mountain. It seemed that they had killed most everything on the way up. Plus, they jerry-rigged a couple of sleds, which made the trip down even faster yet, as they only had to actually walk down a few of the parts. Most of what they couldn't climb up was easy to slide down.
Magus even found it slightly enjoyable, except for the part where goggle-girl was clinging to him for dear life on a few of the jumps. Marle had refused to detach herself from Crono, and the boy had gained his bearings fairly quickly, once started. So they both had two adventurous spirits steering the sleds, which performed admirably to Lucca's design.
The trip down took a quarter of the time to get up the damned mountain.
Magus was glad to be off of it. In fact, he was glad to return to the End of Time, for it meant being able to separate himself from the company of the others.
Until it turned out that they would go out in groups, to continue fixing time, as they saw fit.
"Hey, have you met Spekkio, yet?" asked Lucca, as Crono indicated that he would like her to ask him. And Marle refused to speak to him, while the frog refused to even look at him. The robot, Robo, it seemed Marle had taken to naming the poor thing, didn't really care either way, but for some reason, people forgot to ask it things, and Ayla, well, she was too busy staring at him to ask him anything.
"..." was his only response to the question. That, and a raised eyebrow, indicating he thought she should know better.
When Lucca answered the question she already knew the answer to, her look shooting daggers at him, which bounced off of his surly shell, he continued to ignore them.
Until the boy, coming over to him, gestured him towards the door.
Settling himself in seemed out of the question after all, and so he followed the boy, who hadn't actually said anything yet, to Spekkio's room. Magus was umimpressed as he saw the gargantuan beast with tiny legs bounce in place excitedly.
And continued to ignore it, as it interpreted Crono's introduction. He especially ignored the praise he received. That is, until a ball of lightning came towards his head, in which he dodged it, snarling, drawing his scythe out of sheer habit.
The continuing battle was rather exhausting, and even more to his chagrin, he realized he had to work with the girl and the boy, who he especially didn't like working with. He didn't like working with anybody. But in the end, it paid off, and Spekkio made a face, as it gave up in surrender, and in turn, gave them a large amount of spirit-charging potions. Potent ones.
Crono, disturbingly friendly and helpful, showed him to the refreshment pot, still with no words. He partook of the strange berries, and felt everything that hurt, or felt fatigued, melt away.
And was lost for words, unused to such kindness from anyone, except Schala. Which made him want to shy away from it even more. So he stalked off back to his perch near the Epoch. He stayed there, until he was alerted to the fact that he had to go on adventures with others.
Lucky him he was sent off with the robot, and the only other one even mildly intelligent seeming. Lucca was lucky enough as well to get the Epoch. Since Crono and Marle, who still refused to detach from Crono, took Frog to their present time, leaving Lucca, being the only other one who could pilot the Epoch effectively besides Crono. Then Ayla came with, and he felt his spirits fall once more. It seemed they could indeed fit four people inside the craft, and the wild woman sat on the robot's lap, cattishly looking around.
It seemed as if they were to inspect the time-space distortions, which there were many of now.
Magus would have objected more to randomly traveling about and helping strangers out, and more, if he hadn't realized that he needed to build up all the strength that he had lost to Lavos. So he bore all of it, suffering in silence for the most part.
Although he almost felt ashamed, once. When he had asked why Crono was silent.
"His vocal cords were...damaged," was what Lucca had responded, sounding sad, "It happened when he was a child." Then she would say no more, and he didn't blame her. He wouldn't tell her about himself, either.
Lucky him, he was mostly paired with her, although he didn't mind the silent trips with Crono, either, although usually Marle insisted on coming with, which bothered him. He usually felt the need to throttle the empty-headed girl.
Magus rarely ended up on a mission with the insufferable frog, which, he was actually surprised about, Lucca had ended up calling him Frog early on. It had caught, much to Frog's despair. Which made it all the more delicious for Magus. He didn't really care about the frog, except for the fact that the frog hated him, and refused to stop dropping how he had killed his best friend. Magus was beginning to wish that he had killed the frog as well.
Magus had become used to the trips in the Epoch, and had even begun learning to pilot the contraption, which came rather easily. He had been introduced to Belthasar's creations early on.
His first piloting mission, where he was not having to listen to instructions, was heading towards Ozzie's Fort. Magus was somewhat disturbed that he had gotten used to Lucca sitting next to him, as she had been his instructor.
But he did enjoy the idea of killing Ozzie. Plus his two other former generals.
"Where are we going?" Lucca asked, as Robo was in stasis for the journey, and she had no one else to speak with.
"We are heading to my first home here in this time," he responded, curtly, as always. He was minorly irritated that it didn't bother Lucca nearly as much as it used to.
"Where is that?" she asked, not giving up, being bored.
"Somewhere west of my castle," he answered, enjoying keeping information to himself.
She sighed, knowing what he was up to, which only put his mood out slightly. He still had his generals to look forward to, after all.
Finally, after a while, it came into sight, almost blending in with the forest, being a dull, dark grey, and surrounded by great sentinel pines and ironwood.
The fort itself was rather tatty, and looked unused to having inhabitants. Which it wasn't. Magus had built a far superior castle, and this poor fort had been abandoned in great haste. He smirked, knowing how much it must have pained them to come back here. Especially after they had flourished under his rule.
In fact, Ozzie was there to greet them in the first hall, most likely this being the first interesting thing that had happened since the castle had collapsed.
"Whoa! Who goes there!" yelled a voice, sounding irritated, like when an unwanted salesperson comes to a door and refuses to leave unless you buy something.
Magus lead the party up the stairs, and into the room, where Ozzie was surprised. And fled.
They had to chase him to another room, where they dealt with pesky fiends who had decided to follow Ozzie back to the dilapidated fort.
"You're doing well, Ozzie," Magus drawled, voice lazy. His smile was cold, though.
"The nerve of you coming back here!" Ozzie screeched back. "Deserting your fellow mystics to serve humans!" And this time, Ozzie spat to the side, as if the word left a sour taste in his mouth. "You're a traitor! You are not our king!"
Magus merely sneered at this. And that is when Flea came in, summoned by the yelling. The man smiled when he saw Magus, after looking like curdled milk. "Well, if it isn't Sir Magus," he simpered, voice tinged with wanton hues. "Who did you bribe to be let in?" And giggling slightly, the mostly returned to normal magician finally snarled, voice promising pain, "Traitors like you deserve a beating..."
"I'm counting on you, Flea," Ozzie said, sounding worried. After all, Flea didn't seem in full control of his faculties at all times.
"Get ready for a slapping good time," Flea cackled, blowing Magus a kiss, "Get it?" and burst out in more laughter, before leaping forward with no warning. But Magus was prepared for it, and met the attack with a barrier, and dark mists, flowing forward, bringing pain to all it touched.
He smiled quietly.
"Magus, boy, do you remember our tender moments together?" Flea asked sweetly. "I do, and do you know what? I will enjoy them again once you are dead."
This time, Magus did snarl, and threw his anger into his magic, much to the confusion of Lucca, and Robo, who still had a hard time deciphering human intricacies. Magus beat Flea on his own, and sent the man running, cape and skirt whisking behind him in his haste.
Magus strode forward, once more, and ignored all of the ill-concealed and stupid traps. Instead, he went for his hidden armor, which magicks had gained potency.
Slash was there next, as they pursued Ozzie through the halls.
"You still haven't given up?" asked the swordsman, perplexed, as he had usually been a better hand to hand fighter than Magus. "Well, how about a good thrashing, for old time's sake?"
Magus was ready for it, and didn't really need much magic to help him out, as he had companions, and had also improved over the years. He knew he didn't really need the help, but it was less tiring this way. And finally, they found all three in a large room.
They were now wearing different items, of a newer make than before, where they had been less prepared. Magus had gained strength since joining the group. So it didn't make much difference. In fact, everyone was much stronger, so that the extra power the others had seemed paltry.
"Flea, don't you know how much I longed to kill you," he whispered to the magician, as they passed by each other, avoiding bursts of flame. "Ever since I tortured you and ruined you, I wanted to kill you, but first you had to suffer." And with that, he bound the magician in silence, and watched as the eyes widened in fear. His scythe was in hand, luckily, and walking up, he grabbed the man-woman's hair, yanked back, baring the throat, and slowly, ever so slowly, drew the scythe across it, making it as painful as possible, before dropping the magician to bleed out, twitching slowly. "Did you enjoy it as much as I did?" he asked, sweetness tinging his voice, as the magician twitched his last, eyes pained.
Now Ozzie looked fearful, and Slash was angry, if horrified.
"I'll destroy you!" yelled Slash, leaping forward at high velocity, speed being his specialty. Magus was faster.
"I've never really hated you," he told the swordsman, "But if you are eager to join Flea," and he grunted as he dodged and weaved, "I will assist you."
But this was taken from him by a flying fist made of metal.
He snarled, ready to ruin the robot, but it gave him a thumbs up, before looking to Ozzie. Then Magus felt a queer feeling overtake him.
Friends fighting for friends. It didn't make sense to him.
He couldn't help but return the favor, though. So he tripped the girl, Lucca, saving her head from Ozzie's retreating attack. Which, while initially offended, Lucca thanked him for.
"Ready to pursue?" Robo asked, whirring a little.
"Whenever you are," Lucca told the robot, smiling.
Magus just walked forward, ignoring them once more.
Where they found Ozzie in a room.
Cornered, Ozzie was desperate. "Magus! You lied to me when you said you wanted to create a world of evil," he wheedled, a whine to his voice. "You used me!"
"Oh, how dreadful," Magus responded, voice mock concerned. Then he cocked his head, as if listening to something. For Ozzie, if he could hear it, it would have been the black wind. "Say, can you hear that?" Waiting for dramatic pause, Magus finally said, "It's the sound of the reaper."
Ozzie's response was what his usual response was when cornered. An impenetrable barrier. It may have protected him from all attacks, physical or otherwise, but it also trapped him.
So all they could do was wait. Which was what they were settled to do, when Magus heard a small miaou. Surprised, he and the others watched as the cat walked nonchalantly down the room, and stopping under the switches behind Ozzie, it stopped to lick it's paws.
Then, it jumped up to the small ledge under the switches, and stretched, claws tearing against the walls, and flicked a switch while doing so.
There was a strange fascination involved with watching as Ozzie cried out, then fell through a trapdoor, where they heard him screaming as he fell, then heard a queer shatter mixed witih a splatter.
The cat then walked off, tail held high, and disappeared into the dark musty depths of the castle.
Magus was startled when he heard the first guffaw, from Lucca. "What was he trying to do?" she cried out, between bursts.
Magus walked to the edge of the hole, looking down, where he could see nothing in the inky depths. "The past is dead...it was all just a dream..." he murmured, voice quiet, feeling freed somewhat from the deaths of his childhood tormentors and mentors.
Then he left with the others, a weight lifted from his chest, and not quite knowing how to feel, as they went onward to more adventure before trying their hand on Lavos and the Black Omen.
a/n: I don't quite like how this one turned out, I think. Maybe? Seemed hurried. But there we go! I didn't want to spend too much time on in-game, since I figure everyone knows about it already. =) Then onward towards the actual storyline again! HaHA!
