JT: Well, that chapter ran a little longer than I intended. I guess I kinda got caught up in trying to get all of the characters in there the same number of times. I don't think I did a good job, but regardless, I decided to start a new chapter.

Also, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I have periods where I write a lot and periods where I don't. Oftentimes it takes a few "writing periods" for me to write another chapter of this, for whatever reason. I'll try to be faster next time, but my chapters are getting successively longer.

Caution: If you've cared to read the other chapters, you'll notice that this is a fanfic that is not suitable for children. Well, duh. It's rated Mature. So stop reading if you're not mature enough to handle it.

Disclaimer: None of the Chrono Trigger characters belong to me. I'm not making any money off this, either, so don't sue me please?

---

Chapter 5: Warning

Magus didn't hold the same attachment to Marle as Chrono held to his sister. Once she was asleep, even though her head was on his chest, he had no problem getting up and walking around. He stretched, proud of himself. He hadn't gotten that much in one night since he had gotten drunk in the same room as Flea. A mistake, that. He shuddered thinking back to that night, finding out the frightening truth about Flea. Granted, he was almost too wasted to care, but he still retained the memories from that night. This time, though, most certainly wasn't a mistake.

He looked back at Marle, exhausted as she was. Her expression was still blissful as she dozed peacefully. Looking at her like that, part of her left breast exposed by her shirt that had slipped off her shoulder, he almost felt bad for using her like he did. She had been so pure and naïve before, it seemed. Perhaps it was all an act, but he doubted it very seriously. But he had done what he had done, and was only hoping that she didn't want a serious relationship from him.

---

Chrono finally came back down to earth as Schala turned over and off of him. He sighed dejectedly, but decided to use the opportunity to get up and stretch a little. He wasn't used to the aches he was feeling, and although Schala was important to him, he was feeling pretty uncomfortable right then.

Through the tent he saw Magus' silhouette as he, too, stretched his arms. Bastard, Chrono thought for a moment. He crept over to the tent and, peeking in, saw Marle in just about the same position Schala had been not too long ago. Magus' back was to him as he continued stretching. Chrono slunk away, thoroughly pissed off at him. He takes Schala, and then he turns right around and does Marle. Who the hell does he think he is!?

Schala flipped over again and let out a soft cry of dismay. Her eyes opened blearily and she raised herself from the ground on her elbows. "Chrono," she moaned softly, "come back to bed."

He looked back to her. The way she was positioned gave him a full view of her cleavage, and once again filled him with lusty desire. "That's hardly a bed," he murmured, but obliged. As soon as he wrapped Schala in his arms again, she fell asleep. Chrono was still unable to, so he couldn't help but to clutch Schala tighter and let one lone tear fall on her cheek.

---

Ayla was completely nude, even though they were both finished. "Ayla like natural feel," she insisted when Robo gave her clothes back.

Robo had not been built to engage in sexual activities with humans or other animals, but he had, long ago (but in the future) been interfaced with a computer that taught him about human sexuality. He had downloaded a set of files on how to please women without intercourse. Raunchy as it had seemed at the time, it has served as very useful with Ayla.

At first she had been scared. Apparently in her tribe she had done things with men before, but since none of them were robots, she wasn't familiar with the way Robo's mechanical hands felt on her. However, since he was in a constant stream of accessing the data through his internal computer, he was able to convince her that he was rather skilled. He had no tongue, either, so he had to rely only on his hands. Robo felt bad because he could not fulfill Ayla's wishes as completely as he would have liked (he thought, at any rate). But when she was lying on the ground afterwards, her breathing still heavy and her expression indicating pleasure, he felt slightly differently.

Occasionally her hand traveled between her own legs and flicked around there for several seconds, then withdrew. Robo sat there, simply watching her sleep (since he didn't need to himself), part of him wishing she would put on her clothes so that no one else would see her that way.

The other part of him was begging her never to wear clothes again, and spend more time with him. Even if they were trapped in this time period, in this place forever, he knew he could handle it if she were there.

Something in his computing told him that what he did was very wrong, though. It wasn't fair to Ayla to do that. She was obviously in a very vulnerable position because of the tranquilizer. Under normal circumstances, she would never have said yes, he was convinced.

While she dozed, he decided to redress her. No matter the protests he would face once she woke up. If he didn't redress her, he would crash; his desire was almost overpowering even though he wasn't technically programmed to know what that was.

---

Lucca woke up some time later, feeling refreshed and strangely happy. Glenn was sitting across the room in a chair in the corner she hadn't noticed in her initial scan of the room. He was looking at her, but she was okay with that.

The inventor sat up, stretched, and tried to discern the time by looking up through the hole. "Good evening," she finally decided on, "Glenn."

A hint of a smile played on his lips for a moment before replying seriously, "I hope this night finds you well, Lady Lucca."

She nodded, and sat down at the table. From her pocket she drew a piece of paper, all folded up, and a pencil. "So, what's the plan, Froggie?" she asked, preparing to write it down as he spoke.

---

It was near dawn when Schala lifted her head from Chrono's chest and went off to the river to bathe. She decided that doing it alone would probably be best, because her mother would be able to tell otherwise. She was frightening that way.

By the time she returned to camp, Magus was also awake. "Hello," he said to her bitterly.

Schala tried to sound bright and cheery. "Hello to you too. What are we going to do today?"

He looked at her incredulously. "We, or the group? Because in case you didn't notice during your love fest, Lucca, Glenn, Robo, and Ayla left."

She was dumbfounded at how cold he was acting toward her. "Like you were any better," she shot back angrily. "How do you think Marle feels?"

A smirk lit his face. "If you look in there, you'll see how she feels." He gestured toward the tent, and continued arranging firewood in the pit. Chrono was asleep beside it, but as far as Magus was concerned, if Chrono got burned it was his own fault.

Schala peered inside the tent out of curiosity. Marle still had a hint of delight on her face, and Schala saw a slight wet spot on her pants. She still looked spent. A very quiet moan came from deep within her, "Magus."

Still trying to be equally bitter toward her brother as he had been when she returned, Schala scoffed, "But you were just using her. You obviously didn't tell her that."

"How do you know?" he challenged.

Schala, at a loss for words (partially because she had no idea which statement he was referring to with that), attempted to turn around and stalk back to the castle, where she was supposed to return that day. She hadn't gotten very far before Magus said, "Tsk, tsk. Chrono so obviously cares about you, and you're just leaving him? What kind of a person are you, Schala?"

She turned around, still very mad at him. "Stop picking on me!" she screamed, surprising them both.

During this, Chrono had awoken. "Schala," he said, shaking his head and trying to get his bearings, "what's wrong?"

Magus had the balls to smirk at her. "Wouldn't want him to find out how you really are," he mouthed. She didn't know how she could tell he emphasized the really, but he certainly did.

After opening and closing her mouth without making any sounds for an entire minute, she said, "I have to go." And without even worrying about what would await her once she got back to the castle, she ran off, trying not to cry.

"What was that about?" Chrono asked Magus.

---

Lucca and Glenn climbed the ladder out of his place, once again seeing the raging battle. The side without the sorcerer was really doing very poorly, it appeared. Despite their plan, Glenn had an overwhelming urge to help them.

Glenn stopped, even though Lucca walked on for a few more paces. "I can't just let this happen," he told her when she moved back. "We don't know what changes will take place in the future if we don't help them out."

In her head, Lucca thought the opposite, but she did still want to help them out. "Okay, let's go!"

The pair ran into battle, Lucca pulling out her gun and immediately firing at the wizard, while Glenn drew his sword and began hacking enemy soldiers to bits. Both sides seemed to freeze for a second at they took in the frog and strange girl, fighting for them in some cases, against them in the other half.

Then Lucca's first bullet made contact with the sorcerer, who cursed and attempted to throw a fireball at her. The fighting continued almost immediately. The enemy soldiers were being gruesomely slaughtered by Glenn, despite their best efforts to hurt him.

Lucca continued pulling the trigger of her gun, aimed straight at the wizard, which seemed to be unable to move for some reason. Despite the fact that balls of the various elements (ice, water, fire, and lightning) were being hurled at her, she was able to easily dodge them and send another bullet toward the sorcerer. Each time he seemed to lose a little bit of power until he collapsed in his cloud and simply fell right through it. When he fell, conveniently on a pair of soldiers, the cloud disappeared, and the enemy troops began to take cautious steps backward, away from Glenn and Lucca, who had turned her gun to a soldier.

They were losing steam, actually looking pretty worried about losing now that their main asset had fallen. Lucca ruthlessly pumped three soldiers full of bullets, and Glenn disemboweled several others, before the rest of the troops on that side began to run away, terrified.

Amidst the victory cheer from the winning side, Lucca and Glenn slipped away. "Back to the plan," Lucca insisted, taking Glenn's hand and running away from the woods with him.

---

Schala entered the castle, her eyes almost overflowing with tears. She had to wipe them away before her mother saw them, but somehow she couldn't. They wouldn't go away.

And why not? Her older brother, the one so special to her, had practically said he hated her. Since he had met Chrono and his group, he had clearly become heartless and cold. What would have compelled him to treat his own sister like that?

A fresh wave of tears threatened to fall down Schala's cheeks after a new set of questions swirled in her mind.

She walked as quietly as she could to her room, sniffling slightly, and opened the door, not really paying attention. She threw her bag down before hearing a deep, mocking chortle. Dalton.

"Why hello, precious," he said, getting up from her bed where he had been laying. "Did something go wrong with loverboy?" he said cruelly.

"Get the hell away from me!" Schala screamed, trying to turn and run. This could only end badly, she knew.

Dalton grabbed her arm and turned her around. Smirking, he said, "Come now, precious. Is that any way to treat me?"

Schala tried her best to stay silent. It would all be over soon, she hoped.

Then Dalton, despite her blatant resistance, picked her up and flung her onto her bed, from halfway across the room.

"Your mommy wanted me to do this, baby," he growled, trying to show his dominance.

New tears streamed from her eyes. "She is not my mother!" Schala screamed.

"Oh, but she is, precious," he said, attempting to pry her legs apart while removing what little clothing he was wearing.

Finally, once he was completely naked and had managed to separate Schala's legs, he proceeded to have his way with her, while she lay there sobbing.

---

"What the hell did you say to her, Magus?" Chrono said angrily. "Why was she so upset?"

Magus smirked. "I don't know what you mean," he said, almost as if he found it funny.

"I'm making myself as clear as I can!" he said, raising his voice. "What did you do to her?"

"Absolutely nothing," Magus insisted. "I suppose we can attribute it to…female problems."

"That wasn't it and you know it!" Chrono said, raising his voice more. "You know that's not it!"

"Of course I do. Then again, if you meant something to her, wouldn't she have told you the truth?" he emphasized. Screwing up Chrono and Schala's relationship was the best thing he could do for himself right now, he decided. And he was certainly enjoying it.

During their quarrel, Marle had risen inside the tent and composed herself. She stood up, made sure her outfit was in place, and dusted herself off. Even though she heard the two arguing, she walked out of the tent anyway. She felt Magus taking her in before she looked over and met his gaze.

Dammit, he thought, interrupting his and Chrono's skirmish. She's beautiful. How fucking complicated.

She stretched, raising her arms above her head, then walked over behind Magus and hugged him from behind, running her hands down his front. She kissed his neck before finally acknowledging Chrono. "Oh, hey, Chrono," she said. "Where's Schala?"

Chrono abruptly got up and walked away from the camp.

"…what?" Marle asked, concerned. "Where is she?"

Magus smirked, confident that she couldn't see his face. "She had some…business…to take care of at the castle."

---

Ayla's eyes fluttered open. She threw her head up and looked around wildly. Why would she have been on the ground except if she was attacked?

She caught sight of Robo at length and slowly the night's events flooded back to her. She remembered how much she really enjoyed it, too. Although, in the past such pleasure had never felt the way he had made it.

"Good morning," he said to her after a moment.

"Morning," Ayla said. "Last night we do happy thing?"

Robo searched his database quickly to see what she meant. "I suppose," he said momentarily.

"Do again?" she asked eagerly, ready to leave the confines of her clothing again.

Robo mentally sighed. "Ayla, we cannot."

Ayla frowned. "I want," she said quietly.

The robot shook his head.