Chapter Seven

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2300 A.D.

Marle was thrown out of the portal once again. She landed on the hard ground with a loud thud. "Ow... That hurt." She stood up and looked around in awe at the area. There was no grass, no trees, no sign of any natural life. The sky was covered in darkness. There were rocks and bolders all over the place. The cold wind was blowing her hair. She had to hug herself to keep warm. She looked around until she saw a building... at least, she thought it was a building. It was a giant black dome. But still, it had to be better than outside.

o O o

The people inside the dome were all wearing nothing but ragged clothing. They all looked scared, accept for the children, who were happily playing with the... rats! One child was playing with a ball and accidentally kicked it over in Marle's direction. She caught it by placing her foot on top of it. The little boy ran over to get it, but stopped in his tracks when he saw that Marle had caught it. She removed her foot from the ball. "Here you are... Be more careful with your toys, okay?"

The little boy just looked at her in bewilderment. "You mean... you're not gonna keep it?"

"Oh, no! This is your ball, not mine." She bent down to his level and picked up the ball, handing it to him. "Here. You take it."

Without another word, the little boy took the ball and ran over to his mother. She smiled at Marle. "Thank you... Most people would just keep the ball and sell it."

"Keep a ball from a little child?" Marle asked.

The boy's mother nodded. "Yes... But, I don't know how much anyone would get for an old thing like this. It was mine when I was a little girl. And it's his favorite toy."

Marle looked around at all of the other people in the dome. They all looked sad, sick, cold, hungry, and lonely. "What in the world happened to all of you?"

The woman appeared confused. "Please don't joke. Everyone knows what happened to this world."

She walked over and sat down next to her. "Well, can you... refresh my memory? In exchange for my retuning the ball?"

"Magus did it," the boy pipped up.

His mother covered his mouth. "Shh. You don't want everyone to hear you." She looked at Marle. "It all happened about three-hundred years ago -- in the year 1999 A.D. The world was at peace and was once beautiful."

"What year is it now?" Marle asked.

"2300," the woman replied. "Anyway, one day, a terrible mad man appeared. He called himself Magus and threatened the destroy the entire world. At first, the people just ignored his ramblings. But then, one day, he used all of his power to summon a terrible creature..." A tear rolled down her face. "Lavos."

Marle could not believe what she was hearing. "What happened after that?"

"Lavos was a terrile creature... I can't even begin to describe the things I've heard about it. But when Magus finally summoned it, he soon found that even he couldn't control the thing... and was killed by it's power, just before Lavos proceeded to take it out on the rest of the world, using the last of it's energy. After it was finished, it simply faded away, just as myseriously as it appeared..." The poor woman looked around at the surroundings. "Everyday, we have prayed that there will never be another Lavos, let alone another Magus."

Merle stood up, tears streaming down her face. "Thank you." She looked down at the little boy and smiled. "You take care of yourself, okay?" With that, she proceeded to leave the dome.

o O o

Outside, the wind had not yet let up, but Marle didn't feel worthy enough to stay inside the dome with the others. She looked out at the land. This devistation stretched as far as the eye could see. Who knew just how much farther? From what she had just been told, the whole worlds was like this!

"This is all my fault," she said to herself. "If I hadn't gone back in time, history would not have changed. Magus would be executed, he would never find a way to come to the future. The world would be better... not like this..." Finally, she broke down crying. "There must be some way to fix things... There's gotta be..." Then, as she dried her eyes, she noticed her broken gate key. She smiled. "Yeah... Yes, of course there is!" she looked out at the barron land with more determination now. "I'll go back in time, find a way to correct history, and everything will better! This world will have a future!" She pointed her gate key in the open area before her, pressed the button, and off she went.