"Meow!" came the indignant cry, half acknowledged at best by the young boy rounding the room. Alfador, who didn't particularly like being ignored, waited for any sort of response.

But ignored he was, for the boy seemed to be in a separate world. Janus paced the room impatiently, weaving a silver thread between his fingers with alarming speed and hardly giving his attention to anything else- save an occasional and swift glance to the doorway. Mumbling under his breath angrily, the string only laced faster and faster between each pale finger, like some form of intricate clockwork. When he passed through the generous sunlight streaming though the window, the silver thread came alive with a brilliant shine, giving the illusion of a magical glow to his hands till he turned out of the sunlight, and it was simple string again.

And so it had been for hours, he felt. Not once did he falter in his skilled web-weaving of sorts; either he had paced the familiar room for the thousandth time, or his peripheral vision was astoundingly flawless, for he never once walked into a wall or knocked over a vase, or anything else that would get him into trouble.

Janus had never been good at waiting, but he was definitely a talented multi-tasker.

"Meow!" repeated the small cat, now playing his own game of weaving- only his a had a touch of risk to it, for his was a game of weaving in and out of the boy's legs as he walked, jumping back and forth as though he were dodging the strokes of a pendulum's swing. It earned him the desired result.

"I know," the boy finally replied with a huff, never once tripping over the cat jumping between his legs. "She's late. Again."

Alfador, who was notorious for his high energy (but even more so for tiring easily), finally stopped his dangerous game and seemed to think something over. He looked towards the door way. Then, he yawned and jumped onto the bed where he curled up into a neat, patient ball and closed his eyes.

Janus, however, was not so patient. And it didn't help that Schala never came when she said she would. Despite being a princess, his sister was not the promptest person in the kingdom- unless mother was calling, of course. No, there was no room for displeasing mother. No doubt that was where she was now, training under that monster's unreasonably high demands...

Finally, Janus tired of pacing the room and weaving his webs. He untangled his fingers from the string and frowned. He was beginning to feel as though it had been years since he had seen his sister for more than a few minutes. Why was she was always so busy? Why couldn't she say no to mother's antics once in a while? All this stupid training…

Finding himself extremely bored, he walked over to the grand bookcase by the window and stared at the lack luster collection, straining to read the titles higher up on the shelf. Most of them were engraved with such ludicrous titles like, 'truth' or, 'beauty', or other lofty headers such as, 'The Power and Prominence of Zeal.' Indeed, Schala loved her books and she had a bookcase full to show for it. He, however, was not so fond of reading. Since he couldn't perform magic, mother had decided that he would know all the theory of magic and any other theory there was to know to 'make up' for it.

He backed down from the bookcase and balanced on his toes. He didn't want to read about any of those stuffy things anyway. In fact, he didn't want to read at all! If mother was going to force him to read, he would fight back, he decided. He would never read! Ever!

Instead, he jumped onto the bed, thoroughly startling Alfador from his short-lived nap. "Heh," he laughed a little at the startled look on his feline's face and took a great deep breath. His eyes closed and his head filled with the scent of the fresh morning breeze, and right then he remembered why he loved Schala's room so much. It wasn't just that it was his beloved sister's dwelling. No, everything about her room was calming to him, especially the treasured division it kept from the rest of the kingdom. No one ever demanded bothering things of him here, and the sound of their idle gossip couldn't be heard past the frame of Schala's door. It was a safe place. And while these things were more than enough reason on their own, there was still something else that drew him back to the place time and time again.

Something... in the air itself.

Truly, there was a different element about the very air of her room, an element separate from the rest of Kajar or anywhere else in Zeal for that matter. It was a difficult thing to explain, he knew. It was the scent! Like a fresh spark of magic held in the palm, but yet sweet and crisp as the earth. It was both natural and unnatural, and although he himself could not wield magic, it was a lovely and serene smell that made his mind wander away from the troubles he felt.

With a great yawn, his suddenly sleepy eyes took deep drinks of the light, trying to stay awake before everything grew dim. But grow dim it did, so much so that he missed the small figure who had perched itself on the end of the bed, watching him with a smile...

-v-

Magus jerked from his sleep and found his whole body tense. Both hands grasped handfuls of frozen dirt, which he released when he came to the realization that a beautiful dream had been stolen from him.

He could hear the wind howl outside the pitch blackness of the tent. The tent smelt like soot, earth and dirty snow. In fact, that seemed to be all he had been able to smell for the last few days; miserable, pitiful... earth. Any trace of hope… any familiarity to that fragrance he had cherished all those years ago and chased for the last month… had disappeared. Had he only imagined it on the cliff top those weeks ago?

Or had the miserable black wind carried it away, too?

A sharp, sudden snore caught his attention. Looking to the only source of light- the last few coals of the fire- he quickly realized where it had come from. Across from him sat the barely visible form of Frog, who had fallen asleep while tending the fire- at least, that was what it looked like. The prodding stick had fallen from his loose, outstretched limbs, and his head had nodded so low that he looked like a puppet whose strings were far too slack. Magus assumed the knight had sat up watching him suspiciously, as he often did.

Letting out a hot breath, he lifted himself from the hard, cold ground and began looking for the tent flap. The wizard rummaged around in the dark, feeling for the walls and mumbling angrily under his breath at the darkness. Be it miserably windy and unbearably cold outside, he didn't care; all he wanted was to get out. But before he could remember that he wasn't the only one in that darkness, he tripped over something and fell, rather uncharacteristically, on his face.

"Hmpg?" came Marle's groggy voice, confused and disoriented as to what had woken and kicked her. Despite the rolling of his own head, Magus could practically hear the sleep in her voice as he picked himself up off the ground. "Oww," she finally decided a little louder. "What was... Magus? What're you-"

He couldn't see her anymore than she could see him, but they could sense the each other. Uncomfortable with the closeness, Magus made to stand up and awkwardly continue searching for a way out, when something awful happened.

A hand met his. A human hand. Cold, soft fingers settled on his as her only form of sight, and then paused as if to read what they had found.

In the confused silence which followed, the chill of Marle's hand melted with the contact, till finally she managed another (but more awkward), "Uhhhm… Magus, is that you?"

He caught the gleam of an eye with a stray spark from the fire, and suddenly realized they had been looking right at each other. Apparently she shared the realization, for her shoulders jerked back in surprise. Grabbing his hand back, Magus wordlessly continued his search for a way out of the warmth of the giant tent. Not a moment later, a cold wind blew in through the animal-skinned tent, dancing across the embers and dimming whatever glow had been there.

If a hide door could have slammed, it would have wracked the whole frame of the teepee.

-v-

"Haaahhhww!" Ayla yawned as she jumped from the hull of the Epoch. She got down on all fours and gave a great, exaggerated cat-like stretch. Feeling the blood flow back into her limbs, she joyfully rolled down the small flight of stairs. "Better!"

With much less excitement, Lucca fumbled out of the smoking time machine, wiping the burn residue from her glasses before giving the idea up and simply letting them hang around her neck. Perhaps the Epoch had been overworked a little… but regardless of that, it had never felt so good to be at the End of Time as it did at that moment, especially when she saw the rest of the group waiting for them.

"Marle! Frog!" the cavewoman hollered. She bound over to the princess and whopped her on the back with an affectionate slam that almost sent her flying. "Miss you!" She turned and did the same to Frog, who simply crumbled to the ground. He looked too exhausted to be standing anyway.

"Ow," Marle cringed, partly from her own abuse and partly in response to Frog's. "We missed you too Ayla! Just not the bruises…"

"How did your journey fair?" asked Robo, pleasantly oblivious from everyone else's pain.

Frog shook his head, looking unusually weary as he picked himself up off the cobblestone. Sleep had not treated him well, it seemed. "Tis' nary a chance of finding any knowledge regarding neither Crono nor a Guru of Time from the Earthbound lands, I fear," he relayed, shaking the last of the cold from his cloak. "We've searched everywhere. I… knowest not what to do at such a point."

"Our results seem to be the lesser of yours, then," added Robo between nods of his head. "We went through every time period, yet encountered more problems than solutions. There are unresolved issues of rebellious Mystics, dying forests, and missing precious jewels- to name a few."

"Mystics?" Marle repeated slowly. Everyone gave a look over to the previous Mystic leader conveniently standing among them.

Magus only shrugged. "You assume I have anything to do with that?"

"Prithee, do share; what motive hast thou not in reclaiming thine treasonous reign?" Frog's jaw rocked back and forth slowly.

"What reasons have I?" The wizard scoffed bluntly.

Frog didn't seem convinced. "Thine cohort's only-"

"-only interest would be their pitiful attempt to kill me," finished Magus with a dry arc of his brow.

Everyone went quiet, unsure of what truth there was to such a statement.

Before anyone could contribute further to the suspicious accusations, Ayla burst out with her own concern. "And bird broken!" She pointed down the stairs to where the smoking Epoch sat. Everyone got a whiff of burning oil and cringed.

Everyone but Lucca, that is, who merely grit her teeth and the rolled up papers beneath her arm in angry defeat. The rough and non-artistic sketches of everything from jewels to maps to weapon blueprints rolled this way and that across the cobblestone, but she paid them no mind. None of them were helping her get any closer to Crono, anyway; not even the doodles of his wild hair and fierce eyes she had absent-mindedly sketched. She pushed off the last brick step and slid down against the fence, eyes drooping and head hung.

"So..." Marle began slowly, trying to decide the best direction to turn the conversation. There had to be some hope somewhere- something they had missed, perhaps?

"So in short," Magus summed decidedly as he watched the defeated and exhausted inventor, "you're all useless."

"Useless?" Despite his weariness, Frog turned at him and visibly snapped. "How many hours did'st we follow in thither fruitless search? How many days did'st we squander in following this pathetic 'hunch,' as thou call'th it? If we wer'rt following anything, t'was the merely wind!"

Unbeknownst to the weary knight, the only malleable spot the wizard wore had been hit. Magus shot a look so despicable and unexpected that it actually caught the amphibian by surprise a little. When he spoke, the wizard's voice was dangerously low. "And your trail was of any better service to me?"

"To you?" Marle interjected, raising a suspicious eyebrow from one of Lucca's maps. "What do you mean to 'you?'"

"Magus team now!" Ayla reminded sharply, no longer willing to skirt around the issue everyone was silently worrying over. "You know!"

Before Magus could fully scoff at her, a saving voice interrupted the thick tension. "It sounds like you could use some help here." Everyone turned to see the old man at the light post lounging on his cane. It was a surprise to find him awake for once, and perhaps a needed distraction from their heated… conversation.

Magus, however, eyed him for a long, hard moment.

"I'll say! We're at the end of our ropes here!" Marle began anxiously. "Do you have any advice?" She ran up to him eagerly, wringing her hands together expectantly.

"Well… uh, no." He chuckled at the sigh of defeat which sounded about the room. "But I do have something else. Something better." The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out an oval, which rather seemed too large to have been in such a small pocket without one noticing it. But no one questioned. "This is a Chrono Trigger. It's pure potential."

Hearing the familiar name, they gathered around him like moths to the light with hopeful, hungry ears; potential was all they needed. Even Lucca lifted her head curiously, watching as he held out the strange shaped object to them, each dark crack and gentle bump looking more and more like…

"An egg," Robo calculated.

Despite her trusting nature, Marle looked up into his wrinkled face with genuine concern. "How in the world is an egg going to help us get Crono back?"

He smiled at her thorough skepticism. "By unleashing a specific course of events, it can have a powerful effect on time, my friend."

"Egg have power?" Ayla quipped, gathering enough of its importance to stop herself from asking if she could eat it. "How do?"

To their dismay, he did something which generally indicated a lot of work on their end; he shrugged. "Ask the maker of the Epoch how to hatch it."

"The maker of the Epoch?" Marle repeated curiously.

Lucca, who had seemed to come out of nowhere, had it in her hands before he could say another word and was analyzing it with what was either a great amount of interest or a small amount of skepticism. She took a long moment to study it, holding it up as if it were something to be read. It didn't look like any egg she had ever seen before. She turned it over in her hands, feeling and seeing every angle until it wasn't enough for her. The egg was gently brought up to her ear, which she pressed against the shell. Eyes closed, she took a shallow breath and listened.

Something faint was there.

Something warm… bodily; she couldn't explain it any other way than to say that there was some sort of life to the strange oval.

The old man let her take it all in before he spoke again. "Like any egg, it represents possibility. It may or may not…" he scratched his nose thoughtfully, as if the right word were not quite right. "… hatch."

The group looked to each other, then to Lucca.

"… Ayla hatch?"

Lucca tucked the egg into her pocket, making a mental note to keep it as far away as possible from the cavewoman at all times. Then, before anyone could say anything else, she was fumbling with the key for the Epoch and heading down the cobblestone path with heavy feet and eyes.

"Lucca," Frog quickly jumped after her, realizing what she was doing. Despite his own fatigue, he hopped between her and the gate. "Perhaps tis' not so wise to venture out in such a state. Thou doth seem rather…"

"Weak." Magus finished.

"Weary." Frog corrected.

The girl remained slouching at the top of the stairs, looking rather unimpressedly at each one of them.

"I believe'th the flying machine unworthy of safe travels, moreover," he continued. Whether she heard him or not, she tried to pass him. Poor Frog looked terribly uncomfortable attempting to hold back a lady, but Marle was quick to follow his lead with more confidence.

"C'mon Lucca! We've got this." In her struggle against Frog, Marle took the opportunity to snatch the key from the inventor's hands, who was immediately distracted into trying to grab them back. Unlike the usual game of cat and mouse, Marle's keep away tactics only earned a blank and slightly agitated stare in return.

"Oh, don't be that way," Marle frowned playfully. Despite the inventor's cold look, the corners of the princess' lips curled, and she passed off all the papers and maps from the inventor's hands to Frog's. In a dizzying spin, Lucca found herself being turned around and led back to the plaza by the stubborn hands at her back. "I can tell you haven't been sleeping, and we all know what happens when you don't get enough sleep." Lucca made to protest, but Marle was obstinate. "Don't worry Lucca, we can do this! We'll take this egg thing to Belthasar in the future and see what he has to say and be back here by the time you get a good night sleep; a simple day trip!"

Realizing what she said, the princess' expression slowly dropped. The future… bleh! She could see the same expression on the faces of the others, but as much as she dreaded returning to the bleak and hopeless future to see Belthasar, she would do anything to get Crono back.

And so would Lucca, it seemed. With something like renewed energy, she pushed back in spite of Marle's attempts to sway, for she was no less determined to press past the two keeping her from the gates. This caught Marle by surprise, but easily matched her struggle with a greater resistance. In her exhausted state, Lucca was really no physical match, but her stubbornness drove her along anyway.

"Lucca," Robo finally intervened with his gentle, iron hand- with which there was no arguing. "I will go in your stead. You must rest."

Despite herself, her shoulders slumped, and she stopped struggling against Marle. She practically melted against the princess, ready to close her eyes and let sleep take over. But how could she now? Not now...

Pulling herself away from the princess' grasp, Lucca felt her hands ball and then drop to her sides. Silently, slowly, she moved towards the bridge leading to the Epoch and stood alone, situating herself between the two options; go? Or stay? The situation weighed like lead on her usually determined, stubborn spirit. It wasn't the fear of fighting fate that distressed her so, although the thought had crossed her mind and diluted her once. "Fate is what we make it," is what her father had always told her, and she believed it. No, it was the fear of failure which weighed so heavy on her. The thought of Crono's last expression tore her heart out; she couldn't be left with that. She couldn't. Yet she had never been scared like this before. What if they couldn't bring him back?

What if he was lost forever?

Sensing the inner turmoil, Frog rocked his head back and forth sympathetically. They were all suffering a great deal from the loss, and though some of them held it together better than others, it was clear that Lucca was struggling more than anyone else. He couldn't help but sympathize for her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and opened his mouth to speak, but a voice they had not heard for weeks beat him to it.

"I'll stay here."

Everyone startled at hearing Lucca's hoarse, weak voice, but she wasn't done. She looked to Frog for a moment, then turned to Robo, drained but determined. "With the Epoch out of commission, this is going to be a longer trip… and I know I won't make it." An awkward silence hung in the air, and she quickly drummed her fingers along her orange slacks.

Marle opened her mouth to say something, but unsure of what exactly would be worthy in such a moment, closed it again. There was something deeply embedded in that confession which they could not quite understand.

Nobody seemed to know what to say to that, so the old man cleared his throat. "Remember," came his soft tone, which prickled with sobriety, "while the Chrono Trigger gives you the potential to get your friend back, the egg will have an effect equal only to the amount of effort you put into your search. No more, no less."

Lucca swallowed hard and bit her lip. She seemed to hesitate for a minute, as if reconsidering her actions. "Right. Well then, Robo, you take Marle and…" she looked over at Magus, unsure of what exactly she should call him now that he was no longer their sworn enemy. Not hers, at least. "Him," she finally decided with something like a flick of her hand.

"Of course," the machine confirmed. Applying his cold, metal fingers on Lucca's elbow, Robo gave his own reassurance. "This is a wise choice, Lucca. The others will take care of you here."

Although not particularly favoring the thought of going to the dreary future, Frog looked skeptical at the thought of Marle and Magus travelling together any further, especially without him there; not what he would consider a wise decision. "Perhaps…" he began hesitantly, despite himself. "Perhaps I should accompany the group to the future?"

Between Lucca's confused expression and Magus' intrigued, Marle spoke up. "Frog, you've got to be kidding! Look at you! It looks like you haven't slept in weeks!"

As much as he hated the feeling, Frog knew he could not travel with Magus every time they had to split up; ironically, this troubled him. But he knew that to leave Magus behind with Lucca in such a fragile state would be the last thing she needed. Still, he felt rather torn about it. "But…"

"I've heard enough." Bless her heart, the princess marched up to him and turned both him and Lucca around, forcing them to sit along the picket fence. She placed her hands on her hips and looked down at them, a strange mix of pity and humor blended in her grin. "You two both need to get a decent sleep, so never mind this traveling business; there'll be plenty of that soon enough."

Frog and Lucca exchanged droopy glances.

"Yes!" Ayla decided aloud, smiling widely and taking Marle's place as the source of authority. "Lucca and Frog stay me! Rest good! Soon help Crono! Sleep!"

"She said it," Marle smiled at the weary inventor one last time before turning for the gates up the stairs with Robo. "See you all soon!"

Reassured somewhat that she was making the right decision, Lucca let out a great sigh as her body met the cobblestone. Before the others were out of ear shot, Gaspar's soft, wafting voice spoke up again.

"Only keep Crono in your hearts, and the day you are dreaming of shall arrive," he promised; whether it was meant for the departing company or her, Lucca was unsure.

Hey look- the story's not dead!

I suppose that the sad part of this lateness is that I really have no excuse for it; this story is already 80% written, which is quite a feat for me! I wrote it last year and let it sit for a while. But now I find myself fighting with it quite a bit.

Also, it's 2am, so please let me know if there is anything wacked out in this chapter.