JT: Why was that last chapter titled "Warning"? I have no idea, now that I really think about it. I named it quite some time ago. Although, I guess that chapter could have served as a warning.

Regardless, here's the next chapter. I hope you all (few that there are) enjoy it. :)

Caution: Yeah, still rated mature. Woooooah. No way.

Disclaimer: Don't own them, still. That's as shocking as the last one.

---

Chapter 6: Conflict

Schala sat on her bed, tears shimmering in her eyes once again. She fought them, trying to keep them from falling. Dalton would abuse her more if he saw even one on her cheek.

She stood up from the bed and walked around it, picking up the various articles of clothing that had been thrown off in any which direction by Dalton. Most were hers, some were his.

He watched her from the bed, taking in every move and savoring it. She hated him; that much was obvious. There had to be a way to get her to like him, though. And he would find it.

"My clothes," he stated.

Schala did nothing, instead continuing to gather her own in order to get dressed as quickly as possible.

"My clothes," Dalton said once again, this time more harshly. "Or do I have to go to drastic measures, whore?"

Her eyes nearly overflowed. She hated being manipulated and threatened by Dalton. "No," she sniffled angrily. "Get them yourself!"

It took him a moment to absorb what she had just said. "Excuse me?" he said, threateningly. "I believe you just said 'no'."

Flashbacks filled her mind of the numerous rapes Dalton had inflicted upon her. One lone tear managed to escape from her right eye, but it hit the floor before ever touching her face. Still bent over to pick up her bra, she whispered hoarsely, trying to keep the tears back, "You misheard."

Her clothes now gathered in a bundle under her arm, she went around the room and picked up Dalton's, still naked. She walked up to him and dropped them on the bed in front of him as soon as she had them all. "There," she sniffed.

He ran his eyes up her body once again, taking in her curves, her breasts, her features. "Mm, just one more thing," he said as she turned around, away from him.

"What?" she asked, and immediately regretted it.

He reached out from the bed and ran his hands down from under her armpits down to her hips, feeling the inward curve at the sides of her stomach once again.

She tried not to flinch or shiver, then when he was done, walked to the corner of her room to redress and wait for Dalton to leave so she could finally cry.

---

Chrono had left camp about a half an hour ago, wondering what exactly Magus had meant about Schala. Why had Schala run off like that, anyway?

A fiend walked toward him cautiously, and before even looking at it to see what it was, Chrono had sliced it in half. He was confused, but more than that, he was angry. Schala shouldn't have left without at least saying good-bye, unless she really didn't like him.

He swung his sword around again, for no particular reason, but being as there was nothing to hit, he twirled in a complete circle. He continued walking rather aimlessly, occasionally swinging his sword, and musing, always musing. Finally, his sword hit and got lodged in a rather large tree trunk and he had to take time prying it out.

Why did Schala matter so much to him?

Why did he care so much?

And why, more than anything at that time, did he wish she had never come into his life?

---

Ayla was off a bit from their previous position, pouting. Apparently, Robo had done well.

He severely regretted it.

Ayla and him simply could not be. Apparently they both wanted it, if her pouting was any indication. She "won't talk until happy thing again".

No, he couldn't do it again. They were from two different time periods; once the group defeated Lavos, who could say what would happen? Would it stay the same? Probably not. They would probably be sent back to their respective time periods. Of course, he had know way of knowing, he only guessed.

But it was a very depressing guess.

---

Lucca and Glenn had run from the woods, from the battle, hand in hand, and hadn't given it a second thought. The second they slowed down, though, Lucca took her hand away as slowly and inoffensively as possible. His hand was too slimy for her tastes. When they had been running, it hadn't mattered, but the moment she could focus on it, it was disgusting.

She almost felt sorry for him because of his condition. She had no idea what caused it, but obviously a talking frog wasn't normal. Then again, nothing that they were involved in exactly qualified as normal. Time-hopping, using high-tech machines, changing the world. None of it was normal. They were so far from normal.

Maybe, she thought, just maybe, something could work.

---

Magus sat on a log, in front of the campfire where he had been almost all morning. He was deep in thought, as he had been since Chrono had left.

Did he regret insulting his only sister? Yes, he thought so.

Why had he done it, then? Was it from the frustration that she was finally in another relationship, one that wasn't so wrong and that constantly put the pair of them in danger? Or had his feelings changed since he had seen her last?

Before he had much time to ponder that, Marle emerged from the tent once again. She had cleaned up; gotten into a fresh outfit and re-applied her makeup. Of course, she looked gorgeous.

In fact, Magus' breath caught in his throat. "Marle," he finally said, although it came out more like a lustful sigh.

Using her best girly voice, Marle replied, "Yes, my dear?"

She had no time to say anything else, or even think before Magus was beside her, planting kisses on her neck once more. He led her back into the tent. His musings could wait.

---

Queen Zeal was waiting impatiently in the antechamber of her room. She wanted all the details when Dalton got back, and she expected it to be soon.

And almost right on queue, the door opened and Dalton walked in. Their eyes met, Zeal's rather piercing. Dalton walked across the room in three great strides, and sat down across from the Queen.

"Well?" Zeal snapped.

For a moment, it appeared as though a look of lust passed over Dalton's face, but it was quickly serious again. "She's displeased. She hates it oh so much when I punish her. I'm afraid Schala just can't accept that she did something wrong," he said, almost lightly.

Zeal sat there for a moment, contemplating. She knew Schala hated being punished by Dalton, but wasn't Dalton supposed to dislike the punishment just as much? It almost seemed as though he enjoyed it, and that simply couldn't be. She was supposed to be his lover, was she not?

"Dalton," she snapped once more, trying to be harsh, "it seems that you like these…sessions quite a bit, is that correct?"

He hesitated. Whenever she took that tone with him, he knew the consequences would be dire if he said the wrong thing. "I thought that Your Majesty wanted me to perform this service?" he attempted, trying to spin it.

The Queen pursed her lips. "Dalton…" she began.

---

Glenn took Lucca to a town slightly to the south of the Cursed Woods, where supposedly a boy named Tata lived. First they stopped by the local inn and had a drink together; water, the only thing that either of them could manage to stomach at a time like this.

"Lucca," he ventured, "what will happen when we defeat Lavos?"

She sighed, placing her water glass back on the bar. "I…I don't know for sure," she whispered. She honestly didn't want to think about it, either. Although she liked the year 1000, she certainly liked time travel better. And the future, although depressing, was fascinating.

Not only that, but she would certainly miss her new friends. Admittedly, two came from her time period, so she would be far from alone, but…would she ever be able to go back to see Ayla, or forward to see Robo?

And that was, of course, only the beginning of it. What would happen to Glenn…?

"I'm sorry, Lucca," he said, seeing that he had upset her. "I thought that perhaps you would know, but I see you are trying not to think about it, as the rest of us."

She shook her head, trying to pretend otherwise. "No, it's because I don't know! And I've been trying to figure it out. But how am I supposed to know? We haven't done it yet!" Still trying to convince herself otherwise, she said under her breath, "The Gates won't work anymore."

Glenn turned away from Lucca, very downcast. "I hope not, Lady Lucca."

By that time, they had both finished their waters, and decided to continue trying to find Tata. Word had it that he had pretended to be the fabled Hero, and the pair wanted to get some information. And they wanted it now.

---

Schala slowly slipped back into her clothes once Dalton left. As usual, her tears fell freely. She knew the point was for her to dislike the punishment, but why did her mother make it that one? She'd prefer almost anything else besides that, she decided.

After a time, she stood up, walked over to her mirror, and began to brush out her hair. Dalton certainly liked to run his fingers through it. Unfortunate, because he always managed to put the worst tangles in it. Her brush snagged on a particular knot. Perhaps it was the anger caused by Magus, perhaps it was Dalton's fault, maybe it was the brush, or, most likely, it was everything together. Regardless of what caused it, Schala let out a piercing scream of frustration, threw her brush down on the floor, and cursed loudly.

This was the last time her mother and Dalton would do this to her. She was sure of it.

---

Robo decided to give up on Ayla for a while. She simply wouldn't cooperate unless he pleased her again, and he refused, no matter how tempting it was. So, instead of sitting there contemplating whether or not it was right for him to be with her, he was querying his internal databases.

Finally, after a lengthy search (his hard drive needed to be cleaned up, it appeared; it was extremely cumbersome to search through the masses of data he carried within), he found what he was looking for.

It was lucky that, for a moment in the End of Time, Lucca had let him hold the Gate Key so she would not lose it while fighting Spekkio. In that time, he had analyzed it. It was equally lucky that at one point in their quest, Marle had let him see her pendant. Simultaneously looking at their material breakdowns, he was able to determine what both of them had—what they needed to get back through the Gate.

"Ayla, I will be back. I am going to see if I can get us back to the other humans."

She immediately turned around and stood up. "Ayla ready! Ayla want to adventure!"

"But you said that you would not do anything with me unless it were—how did you put it?—the 'happy thing'."

She frowned. "Ayla want happy thing, but want adventure too." She bounded up to the robot. "Where we go?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Do you know of any place where we can find placilite imagnious?" (A/N: I bet you couldn't tell that I made that up. :P)

"Use big words, Ayla no understand," she said.

He once again searched his database for a picture, but since he had no printer within him, he couldn't show it to Ayla directly. "Placilite imagnious is a silver stone, that, when broken, yields in equal parts pure silver and blue sapphire. We need these two components to get back to the others."

The prehistoric woman thought about it. "Silver rock, reptites have."

Internally, Robo groaned. "Reptites. How…fun."

---

Apparently Chrono had been travelling in a circular pattern without realizing it. He came upon the camp once again about an hour into his ponderings. As he got closer, he heard rather heated moans, and chose to take a wide circle around to avoid interrupting anything. Even in his depression, he knew how to be courteous.

He was approximately equidistant between the castle and their campsite when he looked back, toward the tent they had set up. What looked like a single silhouette showed up clearly against the canvas; he knew immediately that it was Magus and Marle.

His annoyance was immediately refreshed. How could they be so nonchalant about this entire affair? He and Schala were not going well, and that was just the start. Neither couple had even thought about where the other four might be, and of course they'd have to find them soon enough.

Without thinking, he took several angry steps toward the tent, then paused. He wondered if this was this really the best thing to do. But reason was forgotten as Marle shouted out, "Magus!" Not even worried about what he would see, he walked up to the tent, and tore the flap back.

The two now laid side by side, apparently done for the time being. Magus sat up, the sheet sliding down his chest and stopping at his waist, while Marle pulled the sheet up higher, covering her previously semi-exposed breasts.

"What the hell, Chrono?" Magus asked, still seeming totally calm about the situation.

He balled his hands into fists. "You bastard!" he cried angrily. "Here you are, fucking Marle like everything's okay! Your sister is obviously upset, and you just made it worse! She's gone back to the castle and is doing…who-knows-what!"

Still calmly, Magus said, "Well, if you stopped thinking about her so hard, Chrono, maybe you'd realize this isn't a crisis situation." Chrono tried to butt in, but Magus continued. "And I actually do know what Schala is doing. You won't be happy with it—I'll admit that I'm not, either. But she could have avoided it, by not coming out here to be with you at all."

Chrono's eyes widened. "Okay, Magus, you win. What is Schala doing right now?"

He smirked. "I knew you'd come around. Well, right now, Schala is undoubtedly crying in the corner of her room."

"Why?" Chrono couldn't resist asking.

"Well, enough time has passed since she's been there for Dalton to…finish, if the timing is normal."

"Dalton is—Dalton did—that bastard!" Chrono said.

Marle sat up, holding the sheet above her breasts still. "Chrono, I'm sorry to ask, but are you done? We were busy, in case you didn't notice."

Magus rested his hand on the small of her back, evoking small chills from her. He turned his head and kissed her neck, hoping to get Chrono to leave.

"Just rub it in," he grumbled, but turned around and left the tent anyway.

"Now, where were we, baby?" Marle asked, sliding on top of Magus under the sheets as soon as Chrono had gone.

---

Schala stormed out of the castle towards the camp. Completely oblivious to the fact that Magus and Marle were still completely intimate, she ran up to the flaps and tore them back, much like Chrono. Once again the pair broke apart, Magus cursing softly.

"Is Chrono here?" she asked, looking around the tent, her eyes finally settling on Marle, who was wrapped in her brother's arms.

Magus answered instead. "He was just here, but I told him what you were really doing at the castle, and he got pissed. Although, I don't know what he did, or where he went…"

"Shit," she said under her breath. But, she still stood there in the doorway, her eyes trained on Marle. She was jealous of her, that was for sure. She wanted to make it as awkward as possible before leaving. No way would she just let them get on with it.

After a minute or so, she cleared her throat pointedly, and said directly at Marle, "I hope you two have fun." She left the tent, but stood outside for a moment to hear whether or not they had actually continued. Much to her chagrin, moments later she heard the undeniable slap of flesh to flesh.

She stalked off, angry at them both, to find Chrono and set up some revenge for her mother…eventually, anyway.

---

JT: This will probably be the only chapter that I put an endnote on, but seriously, I just have to assure you guys—this will be the last chapter where I'm trying to make you feel sorry for Schala. It's just getting excruciating writing her like that. She's getting annoying. Cry-cry this, boo-hoo that. massive eyeroll I mean, yeah. I know. I wrote her like that.