Well, its only about a month late, but here it is!

Please forgive me for how long this took. I've recently gone back to school, and my whole life now revolves around homework, so its really hard to get in the time to post. That being said, I'm going to be making chapters a little shorter so they're easier to manage and hopefully I can have some consistency in it.

Also, please, PLEASE let me know if there's anything funky in here. I've been reading so much lately that I feel like I missed everything.

Once the constant, grey howling of the storm had finally blown away and the face of the mountain was left draped in an eternal state of light fog, the faintest glimmers of sunlight began to break through the icy mist. This was important, because there was really no other way to tell that morning had come upon the dreary mountain- save the return of movement within one particular and dreary cave, that is. In response to that slight additional lighting, there came a slow stirring of consciousness within the forlorn little nook in the rock- namely Crono's tossing and turning. He had laid there staring at the heavy grayness of the cave's roof for hours now, but upon hearing the storm break and seeing the sunlight sparkle on the snow outside, he was unable to contend himself with lying on the cold stone floor any longer (unlike his heavily snoring friend). Pushing himself up by the elbows, he crept towards the mouth of the cave and stuck his head out. He was almost immediately blinded by the dull white glare of the snow compared to the darkness he had fallen asleep in.

This was a nice change from the darkness. But Chrono quickly found himself growing bored.

He hard energy- enough energy to run down the mountain and then back up again. But instead, he had prodded, poked, pestered and peered around every nook over the cave already, busying himself with whatever he could to keep himself entertained; he had even ventured out into the mist once or twice, once out of necessity and then again out of boredom. He had raided the emergency supplies once, then once more in case Lucca had hidden anything good on him. He had put together the shambles of twigs and sticks he had found outside and left them for Lucca to start once she woke. He had taken a thoughtful look at Robo and decided against touching him lest he further ruin him (a rare moment of restraint, Lucca would have noted). But in fact, she was not awake. She was very much asleep.

This dawned on Crono only suddenly, it seemed. While Crono was the one notorious for sleeping in, it was quite understandably Lucca who had been last to wake today. His gaze shifted from the Robo's disassembled form towards where Lucca lay sleeping, vulnerably ignorant to the sparkle of devoisity in the red-head's eye.

She would largely come to regret this.

This was because Crono was going to be the one to wake her up, of course. At first, he had attempted hissing in her ear, thinking that would be all required to snap her to attention but she merely cringed and rolled away from him. Crono creased his brow thoughtfully at this; he was rather unused to waking her up and was (for once) at a loss for what to do. Lucca was usually the one to wake him up. She was an early bird, almost always up at the crack of dawn to have breakfast with her father or working on some new project, though often it was both.

Trying again with more force, he gave a sharp poke at her ribs. This, however, only earned him a swat on the nose, but he was determined now. He poked at her again, and some unintelligible threat he hadn't wanted to decipher. emerged from her half conscious lips. Hoping he could coax her with food, he opened the strange, shining packages with his knife and, after testing the contents himself with some level of tolerance (he was disappointed to find that they were not cookies, but dry and crusty biscuits), he whisked the pouch by her nose.

There was no response.

Impatiently, he slumped back onto his rear and crunched at another biscuit, finding that he did not mind the second one so much. He watched her slowly roll over onto her stomach and was about to take another bite of the biscuit when an idea seemed to hit him. Dropping the package of biscuits as he darted over to his sleeping friend, he took up up her by the feet and with one quick flick of his wrists, shook her legs as though he was shaking out a floor mat. Of course, Lucca did not quite care for this, and she managed to thrust a semi-conscious kick at her assailant.

The kick had come a little too close for comfort to Crono, who jumped back in fear of his future children. But seeing that Lucca had planted her hands on the ground (intending to go back to sleep, was she?), another grand idea hit him. With a little less tenderness than before, he proceeded to dodge the pathetic swats she mustered and grabbed her ankles once again.

And then he began to run.

"Crono!" yelped the surprised scientist, now jarred awake.

Being in the desperate position she was, Lucca had no choice but to paw her hands ahead of herself to keep from being dragged (or pushed, rather) along the ground as Crono carted her along. The result ended up looking something like a sloppy wheel barrel race. To Crono, it was a game of 'watch out for that bump-or not', and for Lucca, a game of survival.

"Crono stop it! Put me down!"

It was quickly evident who the winner was.

The numerous bumps and bruises Lucca had acquired in those thirty seconds had effectively severed her patience, and she actually risked subtracting one of her hands from the frantically running equation they were unwillingly part of to reach for her stun gun. Seeing this as fair enough warning, Crono took the hint, dropped her flat and jumped behind Robo's deactivated, upside-down shell.

She merely laid on the ground, glaring and keeping her gun pointed in Crono's direction as she rubbed at the sore spot on her rib cage. Crono waited knowingly behind Robo's shell, digging around and finding a few more of those silver packages while he waited for Lucca to fall back asleep. When her sleepy arm, which had held the gun up at him, had slowly drifted back down to sleep with her, Crono ventured out boldly again. He snuck back up to her, taking the weapon from her hands and poking her with it flippantly. She swatted halfheartedly at his pokes and prods, but remained in her defeated, mostly asleep state.

Grinning down at her stubbornly sleepy form for a long, thoughtful moment, Crono stroked his chin. Perhaps a different method was needed to wake her.

He cleared his throat slowly. "Lucca?"

"Uhwha-?" As though she had been shocked, Lucca jolted up from her groggy nap and looked frantically about the cave. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Watching her confusion drain away to an annoyed, bleary-eyed scowl, Crono smiled to himself and strolled over to help her up.

"Why'd you... uhh," she began, shaking her head remorsefully until her arm was practically yanked from her socket by Crono's 'helping hand'. "Ow," she mouthed, rolling her shoulder blade tenderly.

Crono rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. Sorry.

"Ohhh," she growled, snatching her hands back from him as she sat up and looked about the cave. "I have this wicked pain… well, pretty much everywhere, actually. What the heck happened yesterday?"

Crono's brow slowly- ever so slowly- arched. He crossed his arms and lounged expectantly along the ground, popping the contents of the silver package lying strewn beside him into his mouth. His eyes bore into her, awaiting some sort of an answer.

"What?" Lucca asked finally, confused with what he wanted.

He rolled a hand through the air. Go on.

"With what?" the scientist repeated blankly.

Crono reached into his pocket and to her surprise, pulled out Marle's pendant.

"Oh… that?" answered her anxious laugh. Crono's suspicion flattened into a firm look, and he held the necklace between them stubbornly, expectantly. It seemed to dangle there, demanding answers to questions Lucca was not prepared to answer. Heck, she didn't have answers to most of them herself, and she feared some of those answers as much as she feared Crono's reaction to them. Her gradual response- the only intelligible thing she could muster at the moment- was a slow, drawn out, "Uhhh…."

Crono's brow dropped at this. He watched her eyes strain along the roof of the cave as though she were reading it for some kind of heavenly answer. With ever abundant patience, he grabbed for another biscuit. Lucca's attention snapped to the sound desperately, and when she caught sight of the food in his hands, she jumped up and hungrily snatched the bag from him.

She was hungry, after all.

"Where in the world did these come from?" she started with forced laughter, deciding evasion was her best bet at this rate. She had always been a little too good at denial. "Oh who cares! Thank goodness for Robo's emergency supplies. Yep, this would have been a rough night otherwise. I could eat a horse after climbing this stupid mountain. A horse!"

Seeing the biscuits disappearing as quickly as the intended topic of conversation, Crono frowned.

"Robo is sure going to need a fix up, huh? Yep, that'll take some time alright… probably some extra titanium too." The red-head watched her shove her face, shaking his with something akin to impatient patience. "Oh!" she cried sarcastically, intentionally interpreting this as displasure at the loss of his food. "I'm sorry, were you done with these?"

He crossed his arms.

Defiant, she shoved another biscuit into her mouth. "Oh, tell it to the judge. Not that they really listen anyway… speaking of which," her eyes flashed deviously. "You mom has a real earful ready for you when you get home about going on 'vacation' without telling her. You might want to work on a good sunburn over the next couple days." She chuckled between hungry mouthfuls. "Man that woman can vent! The threats she uttered made Frog look like-" her voice went dry suddenly, and she tried to look as though she had not she had not shot herself in the foot.

Frog? said the twitch of Crono's lip.

Lucca smiled a toothy, biscuity smile, and swallowed slowly. How in the world was she going to explain this to Crono? "Frog," she repeated hopelessly.

Lounging forwards slowly, Crono took the empty biscuit package from her hands, and then leaned back coolly, ruffling it between his fingers. Well?

"Where is he, you mean?" she laughed. "O-Oh! You want to know where he is? Hah, well that's a good question, actually…"

Marle? he asked, holding the pendant back up.

"Uhhhh…."

Half jokingly, he looked to the imaginary watch at his wrist. Running a little late?

"Well," she sighed. She had her head in her hands. "Yes, actually. Marle… she went with Magus, and Frog-"

Very quickly, Crono's demeanor went from cheeky to checked. Magus?

"Yeah." She sighed. "Magus."

His brow furrowed between confusion and apprehension. Seeing this, Lucca's stomach sunk. She had not thought through of what having this conversation with Crono would be like until now, and suddenly she found that she was very eager not to have it. It hadn't exactly been her first priority to let that storm cloud of a wizard team up with them, and now that they were in the dark about what had happened…

The scientist bit her lip.

What? said the look in Crono's eye.

But Lucca's gaze was fixed on the ground between her knees, which is where her head was slowly sinking.

No longer content to be passive, he shimmied towards her and took her by the shoulders, sober and stone-faced as a wall. What happened?

"Well, hypothetically nothing. I mean- I think-" The expression on the red-head's face warned her that he wasn't buying it. "He's on our side… ish. I hope." His brow turned suspicious, and she sighed. "Okay fine, I don't really know anymore. They were supposed to meet up with us at the End of Time last night…but they didn't show, and Frog got all freaked out and ran off to find them because he thought..."

The growing intensity of Crono's emerald gaze was effectively nailing a healthy dose of fear into her- fear which the poor scientist had not had time to fully feel yet. She fumbled with her words blankly for a minute. "I-I don't even know where to start."

The beginning? blinked Crono.

Lucca sighed, shaking her head. "The beginning, I suppose. Right. Well, after what happened in Zeal, we were wandering around all over the place. For days. It was the worst. But then somehow we ran into Magus and he gives us his sob-story, yada yada yada, gets violent, Frog was going to kill him, Marle stopped him, and we started walking away when suddenly Magus was all interested in helping us said he had information that could help us bring you back and..." she took a deep breath. "We couldn't say no to that. So we let him join."

Crono nearly fell over.

"Well what were we supposed to do?!" she shot back with more spine this time. "Pick him off and go on our jolly way?"

His brow dropped. Uh, yeah.

Lucca's face contorted into sudden frustration. "NO!"

Crono, who was genuinely surprised at the scientist's sudden aggression, found himself at a lack of response.

"LOOK, it may not have been the ideal way to do things, but we had no other choice; we were wandering around aimlessly, and our hope was dying… we were so lost…" her voice hitched and she jerked towards him. "H-How could you do that to us, Crono? To ME? You have no idea what kind of hell I've been through. I thought I would never see you again you... you stupid jerk!"

The sudden pounding of a fist into his chest did not completely catching him off guard. He let her swat him a second and third time.

"We had to watch you disappear right when we needed you most- POOF!" another fist pummeled into him. "Gone! Just like that, you were taken away."

Crono frowned and tried to take her into his arms, but she would not have it; she began swinging madly at him as she hoped onto her knees. "No, I'm mad at you! Don't touch me!"

As though he hadn't heard her, he only moved closer. First, he caught her swinging fists and battened them against his chest. His hands were bigger, so this was no real trouble. But she was still wreathing away from him, struggling against him with all of her might.

"Stop it!"

I'm sorry.

"You're not sorry!" She tried elbowing him unsuccessfully. "You would do it all over again if you had to, you stupid idiot!"

He gave an reluctant but honest nod.

"Then stop apologizing for things you don't mean!"

His lips pursed into a sad line. He opened his mouth slowly, thoughtfully, and it almost seemed as though he would speak. Lucca waited with unintentional readiness, but it was in vain, for he only sealed his lips back up. Instead, he let go of her fists and slipped his arms around her, pulling her closer. She put up a pathetic struggle which quickly dissolved into her sniffling into his shoulder as a slumping and defeated mess.

He rubbed at her back with long, soothing strokes, slow down her ribs and slower back up to her shoulder. She could feel the familiar callouses catch the fabric of her shirt from time to time, and the deep, thoughtful breaths push his chest into hers, then away again. Crono didn't speak a word as they sat there. And sit there they did. She wasn't sure how long they sat in silence, simply feeling each other inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale... and Lucca knew what he was saying all along. His actions almost always spoke for themselves.

"I know you just wanted to keep us all safe…" she finally sighed when she felt that she had composed herself enough. "But we couldn't have saved the world without you. Lavos is too powerful."

There was a long silence, and then he sighed softly. Sighing was not something Crono did a lot of.

"Crono," she started, pulling away from him and planting her hands on his shoulders. "If we don't stop him… all of this will be for nothing. Everything we know and love will just end up destroyed one way or another. After you died, the Ocean Palace rose up out of the sea as the Black Omen and its literally hanging around every time period, waiting for Lavos to wake up from his cat nap."

Crono's brow arched. Black Omen?

Her head shook. "I can explain that more later, but right now we need to get moving. Everyone else could be in danger."

His eyes flashed back to his previous intensity.

"Yeah," she ruffled her hair dourly. "Magus had this personal vendetta mission where he claimed he needed to take out the Mystic leaders, and Marle and Ayla went with him. I dunno if he was telling the truth or not…but we've gotta get down this mountain and find out what happened."

His brow had quirked at vendetta mission, though he said nothing.

Lucca looked out into the distance offered by the small doorway, saying nothing for a long minute. "We need to get the heck off this mountain. But it's not going to be easy. With all that snow we got last night, we won't have any sure footing left. Walking down isn't the best option, but I don't see any other choices..."

Giving a reluctant glance at the pendant of unanswered questions, Crono tucked it into his pocket and placed a thoughtful fist under his chin; that would have to be dealt with later. He looked about the cave absently and found his gaze settling on Robo, who was still lying on his side with the open cavity drying out.

Slowly, Crono smiled.

-v-

"And so then I told her, 'girl please, most plants in Zeal can't even grow naturally! We live in the stratosphere!'"

Masa let out a loud, whooping, teary eyed laugh at his younger brother, who had apparently said something quite hilarious. He whipped a tear away and playfully patted Mune on the back. "Oh! That one gets me every time!"

The observing party- namely Frog and Ayla, and the occasional glance from Magus- blinked confusedly across the fire at the two strange beings, watching as they broke into another round of laughter, which was the only noise disturbing the deep darkness of the forest. And a deep darkness it was indeed; almost unnaturally so. The black trees circling them were dark as coal and completely unmoved by any wind or breath, and the wall of darkness beyond them had effectively set them on edge. So it was no question that the group of weary, drained heroes was much less sure of what to feel at that moment. Between the nervous glances to their left or right at some unexpected noise, the group seemed generally unsure of how to handle themselves, or the light heartedness of the personified Masamune.

"Speaking of people," Mune continued heartily, as though they were not in dark and frightening Mystic woods in the middle of the night. "Remember that time Dalton tried to get us fired?"

Masa rolled his eyes. "From what? We weren't hired!"

"Well neither was he!"

Masa and Mune looked at each other blankly, and inevitably broke into another round of laughter.

Both Ayla and Frog swapped uneasy glances before shuffling closer to the fire.

"Some days those people just killed me," Mune snorted, a sly grin spreading around the corners of his thin lips. "They wouldn't listen to a word we said, would they? Thought they had it alllll figured out."

The older brother, who was finally seeming to calm himself, nodded in agreeance. "Typical humans. They still think they have it all figured out, even after all this time."

"Ptff. They don't even know the first thing about being human... You know what I'm talking about?" Mune nudged Frog, who, without realizing it, had taken to blankly starring off into the woods. He jumped at the sudden nudge and nodded ignorantly. Mune shook his head. "See what I mean?"

"What human not know?" asked Ayla slowly. She had kept some investment in the strange being's conversation despite her own anxieties.

Mune rolled his eyes dramatically, as though her question had pained him. "Oh gosh, should I make a list for you? Where do I even start?"

The younger brother's lighthearted ramblings continued on, with Masa's occasional informative or serious addition, for what the party deemed too long- especially considering the events of the day. Everyone was drained, on edge and overall quite anxious to have Marle wake up- and that was without all the unresolved tension hanging over their heads. As usual, Magus was unaffectedly keeping his distance from the others, and even Frog and Ayla could not fully relax near each other. While much of the earlier tension had been cut greatly due not only to Ayla's own display but also to Frog's speedy apologies and close tending to the princess, even Ayla's good natured passibility was slow coming.

Perhaps that was simply the result of hanging around in an apprehensive, spooky forest.

Magus was the only one who seemed to be content with the scenery. The company, however, was a different story. However much he may have wished to be away from the idiotic frog and the brash, noisy Masa and Mune, he remained near the other side of the sleeping princess, drowning out the loud laughter of the brothers with each gentle stroke upon the purple cat curled around his feet. Ayla hadn't bothered much with him since they had settled for the night, but he could sense Frog glance up at him on more than one occasion. He gave no reaction. His only attention was on making sure Marle was well covered and breathing.

"So Janus," began Masa, appearing unexpectedly next to the wizard with a wry grin. "Where did you get the inspirational idea to freeze the princess in a block of ice?"

Without intending to, his head shot up and he found both of the brothers smiling deviously at him. Although his eye twitched slightly, he remained silent.

"Oh right, you don't go by that name anymore, do you?" Mune swapped looks with his brother before leaning closer to the wizard to examine him. "Would you feel better if we called you Magus? Or Fiendlord? That's a popular one, I hear."

The wizard sneered at them. "I would feel better never having to set eyes on you again."

"Well look who finally learned to speak!" Mune grinned, nudging his brother in the side. "Too bad his comebacks are still at the skill level of an eight year old, huh?"

Masa, however, was much less of a playful mood. He too stepped closer to the wizard, though not to scrutinize him. His outstretched hand- which was glowing with an ethereal white shimmer, settled fearlessly above the wizard's knee and elicited a response almost never seen upon Magus' face; pain. "Its a real shame you feel that way, Janus," he began, ignoring the growing reaction in favor of squaring the wizard's crimson eyes to his as he spoke. "Because we're just as bound to you as you are to us, remember? And at the rate you're going down, well..."

With modest speed, Magus snapped his knee away and hissed in displeasure, managing a toothy scowl in their direction before looking off into the blackness of the woods.

Having watched this transpire, Frog looked particularly confused between the two parties. "Pray tell, what doth thou speak of?"

Masa looked to Mune, who now shared the stern look of his brother, though they never got a chance to elaborate.

"Ahhhaw!" interrupted a scratchy voice that set everyone to immediate alert. "Uhhh..."

"Marle?" gasped Frog, immediately scampering to the princess' side. He took one of her icy hands into his, stroking it nervously as he studied her strained expression.

"Uhh?" she tried again, managing to open her eyes and take a deep breath. "Oh man…W-Why do I feel so stiff?"

"MARLE!" Shocked and overjoyed, Ayla practically ran over Frog and bounced at Marle, grabbing her up into a great and powerful bear hug. However, it didn't earn the effect she had hoped for. Instead of joyously laughing or hugging her back, the princess let out a terrible scream which terrified everyone- especially her captor. Ayla nearly jumped out of her skin as she fumbled away from Marle, and Frog's heart momentarily stopped as he jumped back towards her.

"Marle!" he managed fearfully.

"Ohhh," she gasped, wilting back onto the ground- but not before Magus had caught her back and let her down softly. She sucked in a sharp breath of air, and everyone took a sub-conscious breath of relief at hearing the princess' voice- or rather, her groan. "My body…" she moaned painfully, trying to move her fingers with little success. "What happened?"

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

Managing to lift her head, she looked about the campfire expectantly. "Guys…?"

"You were frozen."

The princess seemed to be recovering rather quickly from the pain, for she blinked over to Magus and gave him a strange look. "What do you mean I was frozen?" Recognizing Frog kneeling at her other side, she smiled sweetly. "Oh, hi Frog. When did you get here?"

The knight timidly touched the back of his neck. "Nearly not soon enough, I fear," came the solemn reply.

"What… do you mean?" she asked slowly.

Frog looked into her eyes as though he were searching for something. He seemed hesitant to speak again. "I beg thee, recollect to me what thou last remembereth." He looked to Magus, his expression giving nothing away.

"Well…" Marle began lightly, still tenderly rubbing her fingers. "I remember grocery shopping with Lucca…" She smiled to herself.

"Yes," Frog urged. "Go on."

"And then I met her mom, and we had supper together… and…" she paused, suddenly looking concerned.

Frog waited patiently.

"Then there were the Mystics in the night, and we were going to save Crono, and… and…" as though an invisible train had run into her, Marle's body jolted and she sat up. "Crono! Where's Crono?" She shouldn't have, but she tried to stand and found that she could not. Frog quickly caught her and insisted she sit back down, but she would have none of it. "How long has it been? We were supposed to go meet Lucca! You guys were-" She stopped again and slowly looked at the knight kneeling beside her. "Frog, where are Crono and Lucca?"

Said knight grew a few shades of an uncomfortable pink at this. "I.. I knowth not of Lucca nor Crono's welfare. O-Only that Lucca resolved to ascend the mount immediately."

Marle looked absolutely shocked. "You mean Lucca went up Death Peak alone?"

Frog cringed. "Robo hath accompanied her-"

"What are you talking about, Frog? Did... did you leave?" Marle's eyes scanned his intently. "What happened?"

"Yes," Magus intervened in sudden jest. "Why did you leave, exactly? Figured this was the prime time to come hunt me down?"

Despite his situation, Frog shot him a fierce look. "Do not think that I repent of mine actions towards thee, vile fiend. Speaketh the truth- did'st thou freeze the princess to her death within the Mystic's castle?"

Marle turned towards the wizard slowly, a confused and uncertain expression mixed in her blue eyes. He did not meet her gaze but rather fixated on Frog's.

"No," he replied simply. "She was injured, and I thought my actions would save her from the onslaught. Had things gone accordingly, they would have. I miscalculated."

Frog, however, would hear little to nothing of what the wizard had to say. "Miscalculated? Pah, thou cannot permit such generosity! Thou casn't hardly…"

Staring off into the clear, cloudless sky, all of the words diffused to white noise to Marle. The princess looked not only absent from the conversation, but almost as though she had traveled to another world in her mind. She stared through everything; through the eerie woods around them, through Ayla's anxious form pacing around the fire, through Frog and Magus and their argument, though Masa and Mune, who were watching her from across the fire, through the fire itself…

"Take me to Crono," she interrupted suddenly.

Having been mid-sentence of his main, driving point, Frog's expression went from righteously indignant hero to 'frog a la flambé'. "P-Pardon?"

"We need to go help them. Lucca said that we were running out of time, and if that's the case then we only have so much left. What if she hasn't got to him yet?"

"T-Thou art in no condition to travel," the knight stammered. "I forbid it!"

"Frog!" she insisted, trying once again to get to her feet.

"We must simply trust that Lucca hath successfully ascended the mount of death, and is indeed on-way with Crono."

"What?!" the princess cried in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? We can't just leave them out there! We were supposed to do this together!" She crossed her arms. "Why did you leave them?"

There were no added accusations this time; everyone was tense, waiting for the answer which he struggled to gather into a reasonable sounding argument. "I… I feared that thine life was in danger. In sooth, I knowest not what set me here but fear itself. Whenst thou failed to fulfill our rendezvous plan, I journeyed to find thee-"

"You let Lucca go up that mountain alone?!" Marle was near livid, her previously pale face turning an angry red despite the obvious plaque of exhaustion her sluggish body gave. "What were you thinking?! Lucca's probably in WAY more danger than I am RIGHT NOW!"

Frog hung his head. "I-"

"You can't justify that, Frog! You can't!" Everyone grew alarmed as Marle slowly managed to get to her feet. Frog did not dare touch her this time. She limped towards him as though she were learning to walk for the first time. "We need to go after them, and we need to go now!"

"If you really believe that, then you're only fooling yourself," Magus diverged. He had been standing a safe distance behind her, tucked into the shadow she cast. "You can't even walk; how do you expect to rush off and save your friends?"

Marle shot an equally hot look at him, but failed to maintain it as she lost her balance and fumbled a little. "I can handle it."

"I doubt that," was the unsympathetic reply.

"It doesn't matter; if we don't get to Crono in time…" her voice became hoarse. Her hands slid to her throat as though they were looking for her disappearing voice. Her body wilted again. "I'll never forgive myself… It's my fault…"

The wizard watched her for a moment, then shook his head. Without waiting for her to acknowledge him, Magus stepped forwards and slipped his gloved fingertips onto the temple's of the exhausted princess' forehead. Instantly, hot tears rolled down her cheek, and her hands made to hide them. But before they had even made it, her eyes began to slowly droop. Her body relaxed. Her voice died away, and her knees met the ground in a slow kneel. "It's all my fault… all my fault…"

Frog's hand was already on the hilt of the Masamune as he moved towards the wizard, but stopped short when he realized that Marle had fallen into a deep slumber. Confused, his eyes swept up to the wizard. "What manner of trickery is this?"

"It's called sleep," the wizard deadpanned, not bothering to meet the dagger's Frog's glare afforded him. "We could all use some if we're to go after this stupid friend of yours."

Torn between distrust and reason, Frog finally sighed and sheathed his weapon. "Very well. I shall keep first watch of the night."

"There's no reason; the Mystics have been dealt with."

Frog's stern, cold glare gave him all the reply he needed.

"Fine. Do what you want." With that, the wizard moved Marle back to her blanketed place by the fire and retired himself to an old, worn tree stump a ways off from the fire.

"Well, I guess that's our queue. See ya later!" Looking over his shoulders, Frog caught only the slightest glimpse of the brothers as they hopped into the blade sheathed at his back. His mouth opened with all of the unanswered questions he had intended to ask, but they disappeared in a red flash before he could get a single word out.

The night became truly silent.

-v-

While Lucca was without questions the designated brains of the group, Crono liked to pride himself on his own occasional and less carefully planned inventions, such as the one they were currently riding at excessive speeds down the slope of the mountain in.

"C-c-crooooonooooo!" Each bump they hit caused Lucca, who was clinging to Crono`s torso for dear life, to jeer her words. "This w-was a terrible id-dea!"

Of course, it wouldn't be fair to dub this as an invention; it was more of an spontaneous improvisation than anything. Perhaps Robo's 'body' wasn't the best thing to hop into and push over the edge of the cliff.

But it was doing the job.

His knuckles tightened around the titanium sides of the robot, as he maneuvered them around bumps (or some of them, anyway) and generally steered them clear of the cliffs. She didn't need to see his face to know that it was plastered with that blissful, thrill-seeking countenance. Stupid adrenalin junkies.

"C-Can't you s-slow this down?" hollered the scientist. Crono gave no answer, so she tried yelling again with about as much success. "Hey!"

Crono swatted at her and leaned down further.

"No, don't do that!" cried the scientist, grabbing her helmet with one hand and poking sharply at the driver with the other. "Crono slow down, I'm serious!"

The incessant jabs finally served to get his attention, and Crono looked back at her with mild aggravation. What?

"SLOW DOWN," she mouthed. He squinted at her, pretending that he couldn't understand and she smacked him again. "Why did you get front seat? I should have-" her face went white suddenly and she pointed ahead of them. "CRONO-!"

Crono looked back ahead just in time to watch the ground disappear from beneath them as they went flying off a ledge. He felt Lucca wrap her legs and arms around him and heard her sharp scream as the air born sensation lifted them from heavy metal of Robo's shell. He tried to grab it back to himself, but it was already to far away- they were free falling.

Seeing the hard snow beneath them coming closer and closer, he wreathed himself free of the scientist's grasp just in time for them to hit the ground, one on top another. The rolled on impact, and the wind knocked from Chrono's chest in a loud gasp. The weight of Lucca on his back left him gasping desperately for air, then he rolled and hit the ground and it was knocked from in again. Then he hit Lucca, and she toppled over him and nearly kicked him in the teeth with her flying limbs.

When they finally stopped rolling, she slid off him with a groan and let out a cry of pain as she tried to straightened herself on the snow. They lay there lolling about for a few minutes before Lucca managed to drag herself over to Crono and flip him around. "Y-you okay?"

He blinked at her dully, feeling around for the new cut on his forehead. This is your fault.

She scoffed and shook her head. "I think I'm driving this time, actually." She got to her feet and insisted in helping Crono up. "Can you breath in okay? I landed right on your ribs."

I know, scowled Crono. He gave a test breath with nothing less than an uncomfortable cringe, but frowned all the same. His hand went back to the gash on his head.

"Leave that alone, I'll clean it later," Lucca chirped, then turned to look around for where Robo had landed. They found him about a minute's walk up the slippery slope they had rolled down, half buried in the lighter packed snow beneath the overhanging of the cliff.

Crono pulled him out and made up jump in the front again. "Hey, I wasn't kidding," Lucca cut in, forcing herself into the front. "You're a terrible driver."

Crono mumbled something under his breath, but hobbled around to Robo's back end and grabbed a hold of the warped metal. He struggled to push it out and get it moving before jumping into the backseat himself, still mumbling under his breath. But the howl of the wind tore away all sound from their ears, and soon all Lucca could see was the endless, downwards slopes of white and gray. She had nearly been so entranced, so severely focused on the path ahead of her that she missed everything beside her.

A sharp nudge and point from Crono startled her, and she followed the direction of his finger to find (to her displeasure) another one of those terrible Lavos spawn off in the distance. It's acknowledging scream managed to pierce the screaming wind, but it was a way off and they were going too fast. She hoped she would never have to see one of those again.

She couldn't have been more grateful to finally reach the bottom of the mountain. Exhausted, they slumped from Robo's shell and dragged him to the Epoch, which they somehow managed to haul him into. Lucca hopped into the driver's seat and set the dial for the End of Time, pretending not to see the exaggerated sulk plastered on Crono's red-cheeked face as he peered over the metal frame of the machine. "Who's the better driver here?"

Whatever.

Before they knew what had hit them, they were walking along the cobblestone and into the warm air of The End of Time.

"Well, well, well," as usual, Gaspar was the only one to greet them. He had a little more semblance of life to his voice when he saw Crono, almost daring to take a step away from the street lamp he had glued himself to. "If it isn't my long, lost spiky haired friend! Good to see you!" Receiving a surprisingly strong slap on the back, Crono nearly lost his balance as he walked up to the Guru of Time with a weary smile.

"Whoa, Gaspar," chuckled Lucca despite herself. "I didn't know you had that in you. You're full of surprises lately."

"Indeed," he smiled, then smiled strangely at Crono, who gave him an awkward smile back. "And it seems that I'm not the only one full of surprises, am I?"

Crono blinked between the intent look Gaspar was giving him to Lucca's awkward shrug.

"You're very lucky to be alive, young man," the guru continued. "Nothing short of a miracle, I tell you. Your friend here had to go through quite a lot to bring you back here, you know."

The red-head brushed back his dirty locks with the same tense smile, though it was now laced with something more genuine.

"You got that right," huffed Lucca, rolling the stiffness from her neck slowly. "He owes me big time."

Gaspar smiled and took Crono firmly by the shoulder. "I'm sure he will make it up to you. You have a big destiny ahead of you, you know." The awkward smile slipped from the hero's lips, and an uncertain line took its place. Something in the old man's eyes made him nod his head very seriously, something he did not seem to cognitively do or understand.

Gaspar nodded his head. "Yes, you understand. Good." Withdrawing his hand, the old man sighed deeply and nodded his head again. "But before that, you have some friends to share the good news with, don't you?"

Lucca, who had watched their interaction with a decent amount of confusion, looked around the empty courtyard with a sight. "They didn't show up here, then?"

"No, I'm afraid it has been very quiet around here since you left." There was a rather long silence between the three of them, where Lucca bit her lip and Crono looked to her in concern. "Well then, I shouldn't keep you here long," Gaspar began again. "But it looks like your friend here needs a place to rest."

"Huh?"

The old man nodded towards Robo's dented and dripping frame. "He's had it quite rough, hasn't he?"

She looked remorsefully to the giant hunk of machinery that was Robo. He always remembered the important details… how she wished that he was conscious. She could try tinkering with him quickly… But no, it would take some time to have him safely operational again, time that she did not have at the moment.

"And speaking of friends, aren't you missing a few?"

Crono looked to Lucca, and Lucca looked to the ground. "Yep."

Gaspar straightened up a little. "Well then time is of the utmost importance, and I shant keep you from it."

"Right," nodded the inventor. "Gaspar, could you watch over Robo for me till I get back? He's had it pretty rough and needs a bit of fixing up… But we can't keep hauling him around. I mean, I know he looks heavy, but then you try to push him and- well, he's just really heavy."

"Of course," nodded the old man. "I'll keep an eye on him for as long as necessary. But you there, young man-" he pointed his cane at Crono- or shook it, rather, "you'll be more careful out there, won't you?"

It wasn't really phrased as a question, but Crono nodded his head anyway.

This seemed to suffice for the Guru of Time. He relaxed back into leaning on his cane and, Lucca could see a smile poking beneath his bushy mustache. "That's m' boy."

With a sly smile of her own, Lucca turned to Crono and nudged him. "You had better get used to that; your mom is going to be a lot less gracious with you."

Crono's quirky grin melted into something like a fearful line, and Lucca only laughed at him again. "You have no idea how justified I feel just thinking about it. But for now, you're off the hook." She patted Robo's shell lovingly, then turned to walk back down the walkway towards the Epoch. "We're going to have to go right to medieval times to find everyone; the Epoch is our best bet. We can take care of our other business later."

Other business?

"Yes indeed," Gaspar smiled. "I won't detain you any longer. I could use a nap myself… now that I think of it…" With that, his head fell to the side and he was instantly snoring.

"I kinda envy that," noted the inventor dryly.