We're Back?

1016 AD, omega timeline

-o-

The three of them stepped out of the red gate, and found themselves staring at the south wall of the Guardia courtroom, golden light from the window streaming over their shoulders.

Zeo pumped his arm in the air. "Yaha! We're back!"

"I didn't really think that would work," Kurt laughed.

"A wondrous place," Fina said, looking around. "Does this hall have a purpose?"

"It's a courtroom," Kurt said. "When people have a dispute, or someone is accused of a crime, they come here to have the case judged impartially."

The door opened, and a guard looked in. "Hey, how did you kids get in here? Get out or get in the gallery, the trial's about to start."

"Okay," Kurt said, "let's go."

"Actually, let's stay," Zeo said. "If they're trying someone the day after last night's attack, I want to watch."

"I think you want to surprise everyone and make a scene when they ask for witnesses," Kurt grumbled, "but you have a point." They slowly made their way to the staircase up to the gallery in the back of the room.

"Why did they not recognize you, Zeo?" Fina asked. "You are the chief's son, aren't you?"

"I'm in disguise," Zeo said, gesturing to his rough clothes.

"He didn't get a good look," Kurt corrected. "The word for Zeo is 'Prince,' by the way, and his father's the King." They came to the top of the stairs, facing the bench. Justice's stained-glass face stared serenely at them. "Uh-oh."

"They fixed the window," Zeo said. "Shouldn't that have taken weeks?"

"Months," Kurt said. "And that's for a rush job. I think we missed." People were coming into the courtroom, now, filling the gallery. Kurt and Fina helped Zeo to a good seat and sat on either side of him.

"Missed?" Fina said. "You mean, this isn't the exact time you left?"

"It can't be," Kurt said. "That window was definitely broken, Zeo and I both climbed through the hole. That bit of metal Zeo's been waving around is part of the thing." The galleries were almost full, and below them two men walked across the courtroom floor. "The Chancellor's prosecuting," Kurt said. "Either they're trying a noble, or it's a crime against the crown."

"And that's old Pierre defending," Zeo laughed. "He does like the hopeless cases."

"All rise!" a guard called out. They pulled Zeo to his feet. The old judge walked slowly across the room and sat at the bench. The court sat down again.

The gavel banged. "The court will come to order, in the case of the Crown versus Crono."

Zeo leapt to his feet and nearly toppled over the railing when his leg wouldn't support him. "Say what?"

The judge banged for order. Kurt pulled Zeo back into his seat. "He has fits," he explained feebly to the curious people around them. He leaned over and whispered in Zeo's ear. "Calm down. We know what year it is now. This has to be 1000, your father's on trial for kidnapping your mother."

"Interesting family," Fina muttered.

"Bring in the prisoner!" Crono walked in, his hands tied behind him, flanked by guards. Zeo stared, eager to see what his father looked like at seventeen. He looked… not very different than he did at thirty-three. He wore a pale yellow tunic that looked like it usually went with a belt, but the belt, and any sword it might have carried, were missing. "The charges are treason, rebellion, and murder of His Majesty's soldiers in the line of duty." Zeo tore his attention away from Crono and looked at the judge. That didn't sound right. "How do you plead?"

Crono lifted his chin defiantly, refusing to answer. "Not guilty," Pierre said hurriedly.

"Something's wrong," Zeo muttered. "This isn't the same trial."

"Yeah." Kurt put a hand on Zeo's shoulder and bent him over. "Keep your head down, and don't talk," he whispered. "I don't think we want anyone recognizing you."

"Is this perhaps your future?" Fina whispered. "Has some new king invented false crimes for your father, as Adan did to me?"

"It's possible," Kurt admitted. Below them, the Chancellor was calling a witness, an army officer.

"Kurt," Zeo whispered. "I don't want to look up. Is anyone in the royal box?"

There was a pause, while Kurt looked. "Yes. Queen Nadia, with her coronet, and. . . another man, with the crown."

Zeo hissed. "What does he look like?"

"Uh, skinny, dark wavy hair, pointy beard. At least forty."

"Earl duFrey? I wouldn't have thought he had the guts. How's Mom?"

Kurt didn't answer. "She is unharmed," Fina said. "Earl duFrey's hand is on hers. She is looking at Crono. There is a secret sadness in her eyes."

There was a long pause, while the army soldier described a red-haired swordsman leading an attack on one of His Majesty's military payroll caravans. "Thank you," Zeo said eventually. "The thief in white probably isn't in this era. I'll have to find Melchior, or Fritz Liedermark." Fina raised an eyebrow, not understanding. "I need a real sword."

"The Crown could present many more witnesses," the Chancellor was saying, "but this alone is enough for five death sentences."

"Does the defense have anything to say?" the judge asked.

"Your Honor," Pierre said, "we have a witness who can prove the defendant was nowhere near his Majesty's pay caravan. I call Taban to the stand."

The Chancellor smiled. "Taban has also been charged with treason. He is in jail awaiting his own trial. If you really want another known traitor as an alibi witness, we could fetch him for you...?"

"Your Honor, I object!" Pierre shouted. "My client is being railroaded."

"I don't see anything improper, counselor. Do you have another witness?"

"I - your Honor, can I have a one hour recess? My case is somewhat disrupted."

"Denied. The court has other defendants awaiting trial." Helplessly, Pierre bent over to whisper to Crono.

"I do not think this judge is impartial," Fina said.

"Of course not," Zeo said. "The King is the one person in the country who can never have a fair trial."

Pierre stood up. "You're sure?" Crono nodded. "Your Honor," he said aloud. "we have no defense. We throw ourselves on the mercy of the court." Crono and Zeo both chuckled darkly. In fact, mean laughter arose all through the gallery.

"Under the circumstances," the judge said, "that is equivalent to a guilty plea. In the name of King Guardia XXXIV, I sentence you to be executed by guillotine. The sentence will be carried out in three days' time. Court is adjourned." The gavel banged. The guards grabbed Crono by the shoulders. He spat straight into the slit in one of their visors. The other one clubbed him with the hilt of his sword, and they dragged him from the courtroom half-conscious.

People started filing out of the gallery. Zeo pushed off Fina's shoulder and climbed to his feet. "We should…"

"We should go into Truce," Kurt said, "get supplies, get our bearings, and come back with a plan." Zeo hesitated, and nodded. "You know it's bad when Zeo starts listening to reason," Kurt said.

"I already knew it was bad," Fina answered.

It was summer in this era, so Kurt's furs and most of Fina's went into bundles under their arms. Zeo kept his scarf and hood, though, to hide his distinctive hair and face. The theatric shivers and coughs he added gave onlookers a reason he was wearing them, not to mention keeping them well away.

"We should start at my parents' store," Kurt said once they were through the forest.

"Good idea," Zeo said. "It's a safe, low-profile place, we can get information, weapons." A sword. There was an usurper on the throne and his father was due to be executed. Zeo's hand itched for a sword so badly it seemed to burn.

"For that, too," Kurt said.

Zeo realized what his friend really wanted. "Oh. Don't worry, I'm sure your family's fine."

"Are they people of power?" Fina asked. "Could they be in danger from the false king?"

Kurt shook his head. "The only real connection is that I'm their son and I'm apprenticed to someone on the Privy Council."

"Dad knew them when they were kids," Zeo said, "but that's true of half of downtown Truce, it's where he grew up. They'll be fine, Kurt, there's no reason for duFrey to go after them." Kurt nodded, but he still looked worried.

They came into the Truce town center, and Fina looked around in wonder. "Miracles of modern technology, huh?" Kurt asked.

"What? Oh, I expected strange homes and tools. But there's so many people!"

"There, see?" Zeo said to Kurt as they came around a corner. They could see the store, open for business. "Not burned down or anything." Kurt nodded, but he didn't relax until they went through the door and saw Elaine standing behind the counter.

"Mom," Kurt sighed. "Thank goodness."

Elaine looked around the empty store, then back to Kurt. "What was that? You're looking for your mother?"

Kurt froze. He swallowed twice, and managed to say, "Yes."

"There was a woman who came in about twenty minutes ago, a redhead with two little girls. Does that sound like her?"

"No." Kurt slumped against the doorframe, staring at nothing, trying to understand. "No, it doesn't."

"Excuse me. I am Fina."

The shopkeeper blinked. "I'm Elaine, dear."

Fina nodded. "Elaine-trader, my friend's knee is hurt. May we sit down so I can look at it?"

"Oh, of course! Here, there's a bench next to the counter here, go right ahead."

"C'mon, Fina, I'm fine," Zeo groused.

"None of that," Elaine snapped. "Put your butt on that bench right now, young man." Zeo was so shocked that he obeyed. Family friend or not, he wasn't expecting to hear that tone from a commoner. Elaine always called him "Prince Zeo" and offered him something to eat when he came by. The closest she ever came to scolding him was a gentle, "Are you sure your mother would like that?"

While Fina was rolling up Zeo's trouser leg, Kurt spoke up again. "I'm sorry to ask a personal question M - uh, ma'am, but are you married?"

"No," Elaine said. "I never really had the heart, after Fritz. . ."

"After Fritz what?"

Elaine gave him a wary look. "Oh, you know."

"I'm afraid I don't." He hesitated. "This is Fritz Liedermark, right?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"I'm Kurt Liedermark, a relative of his." Zeo hid a smile. Kurt had always been the better liar of the two of them, and the ones where he didn't even really lie were the best. "I was trying to look him up."

"Oh, dear. Elaine looked nervously at the door and waved Kurt closer to the counter. "He vanished," she whispered. "Fifteen years ago, just before the Millennial Fair. He was one of the first."

Kurt went white. "The arrest. Crono and Mistress Lucca didn't get him out."

Elaine looked startled, and gave the three of them an appraising glance. "I never would have thought to ask them, back then," she said, even more quietly. "This was before the old King died. They hadn't started… well, they were still teenagers. No one even guessed where Fritz was until years too late."

Fina was doing her glowing-hand thing to his knee, but Zeo wasn't even paying attention. He was watching Kurt's face - it had that look he got when he was putting something together in his head. "So Crono was never in prison back then?"

"No," Elaine said. "He was well-behaved when we were kids. You never would have guessed." That didn't sound to Zeo like any way Elaine had ever talked about his father.

"At the Millennial Fair," Kurt said slowly, "do you remember Mistress Lucca demonstrating a new invention?"

"Sure," Elaine said, though her face said she thought these questions were getting odd. "The one that worked. Everyone was talking about it. It was this teleporter thing, one of her weirder machines. No one expected it to do anything except maybe explode, but the show went without a hitch."

Kurt was getting pale. "Do you remember anything odd about Crono that day?"

"Not really… well, come to think of it, he showed up with a girl I'd never seen before, a blonde from out of town. But we never saw her around again. I nearly forgot about her." Zeo and Kurt looked at each other. That sounded very, very wrong.

"We… we need to go," Kurt choked.

"You should buy something," Elaine said, "or it'll look odd. A healing tonic for your friend?"

"Sure." Kurt fished in his satchel for gold.

Elaine shook her head. "On the house. For the Red Rose, and good luck."

"Why did she mention a rose?" Fina asked, once they were out the door. "That was strange."

"That wasn't the strangest thing," Zeo said fervently.

"Someplace to talk," Kurt breathed, still pale.

"Grandma's house?" Zeo offered.

"Dangerous, and she won't…" Kurt raised his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We'll get a room at the inn."

"Okay," Zeo said. "You're right, if anyone has a link to Dad, she does. The inn, then." They paid for two rooms (the innkeeper barely even looked at Zeo except to notice his limp), and sat down in one of them.

"Kurt," Fina prompted. "You've figured out something about this situation?"

"None of it happened," he muttered.

Zeo tilted his head. "What?"

"Okay," Kurt said. "Okay, say… say Princess Nadia went to the Millennial Fair in disguise and ran into Crono."

"Princess Nadia did go to the Millennial Fair in disguise and run in to Crono," Zeo pointed out.

"Shut up and let me finish. They ran into each other at the fair. They walked around, played some games, had a good time. Finally they went to Lucca's telepad demonstration. Crono tried it first, it worked, everybody clapped. The Princess went next. She asked Crono to hold her pendant, let's say, because the clasp was loose from when it fell off before."

Zeo waited, and then the gold piece dropped and his mouth fell open. "Oh. Oh, crap."

Kurt snorted. "No kidding. None of it happened. None of them went to the Middle Ages, and so Crono didn't get arrested when they got back for kidnapping the Princess. There was no breakout, and no escape into the future to find out about Lavos. And, incidentally, they didn't rescue my Dad on their way out, and he got his head chopped off before he and Mom were even married. I don't exist."

"But that's not how it works," Zeo objected. "I know this part. When something makes it so you were never born you're supposed to vanish."

"Well, then, say good-bye fast, because my Dad is sixteen years dead and my old maid mother doesn't recognize me. For that matter, you don't exist either, Zeo. Your parents hung out for one day and then never saw each other again, and your Mom ended up marrying some nobleman, who is now the rightful thirty-fourth King of Guardia."

Zeo made a face. "DuFrey? Yuck! That's a bad deal even by princess standards. He'd have been twice her age, and he's a smarmy little weasel to boot."

Fina cleared her throat. "There is a tale that you both know but I do not."

"Huh?" Zeo said. "Oh, right. Well, here's how it was supposed to happen…" Zeo told her the family story, with occasional help from Kurt, up to where they found out about Lavos and swore to stop it. "And then they met other companions and had adventures and finally won, we can tell you that part later. But apparently, something's changed and they never even got started."

"I don't think our being in the past could have changed things this much," Kurt said. "Mistress Lucca and your parents were tearing around the Jurassic era killing everything that growled at them and taking influential people forward in time. If there was going to be any kind of subtle butterfly effect, it would've happened to them first."

"It had to be this," Zeo said, drawing the red stone knife. He stared at it moodily for a few seconds. "I don't know why we're still here, Kurt," he said, "but letting my father get executed when I'm not born yet can't be a good way to keep existing. Besides…"

"Of course," Fina said. "If we knew of a way to restore history, then we might have some difficult decisions to make. But we do not know such a way. Clearly, we fight for your family."

Zeo smiled at her. "Thanks."

She smiled back, but it was sad. "All the people are as one."

He nodded. "We might not have much time." Zeo started to lever himself to his feet (or at least, to his foot) but Fina pushed him back onto the bed. "Fina!"

"You may or may not be struck down by forces of time which we do not understand, but if you go into battle unable to walk, you will die." She pushed him over so he was lying down. "Rest, and hope you are fit to fight when the day comes."

"It's okay," Kurt said. "The execution isn't for three days. We have time."

Zeo hesitated, and then sighed. "Okay. Three days from now, at dawn." He closed his eyes and willed his healing knee to hurry up. "I'm coming, Dad. I promise."