Another Chance Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Chrono Crusade and it's characters... ...

I know my last chapter was not that good but I will try to improve in this chapter. I have to especially thank snekochan for supporting my every chapter. (daphne-06 wipes tears in gratitude) Hope that all of you will continue to support me cause' your support counts.


One week before the Halloween Party and Rosette Christopher is frantic..

"Azzy! What should I do?! The Halloween party is one week away only and I've got no date, no cash to buy costume and no idea what to dress up as! What should I do?!" asked Rosette as she and Azmaria walked towards the Christophers' home. Today, Azmaria is going to Rosette's home for a sleepover and so after school, she had found Rosette waiting for her at the school gate.

"Honestly, Rosette, you brought this upon youself. One, " said Azmaria holding up one finger, "you've got no date because you rejected half the guys in school who had asked you out."

"Two," Azmaria help up another finger, "you have no cash to buy your costume because you spent it all on arcade games and food for the last two days, remember? I mean just yesterday when we went to that new restaurant down the street, you had already eaten two burgers, three salads, three plates of spagetti, two yogurt and three cups of milk shake. What do you expect? " said Azmaria counting off the amount of food that Rosette managed to consume.

"Three," said Azmaria as she held up a third finger," you should have decided weeks ago, when Ms Kate informed us of the party, what you want to dress up as. Why did you have to leave it to the last minute?"

"But Azzy, when Ms Kate informed us of the party, that was a whole month away from the party!" whined Rosette." Which makes it four weeks away from the party, which also makes it thirty days away from the party, which also makes it seven hundred and twenty hours away from the party, which also-" Rosette was stopped by Azmaria holding up her hand to stop Rosette's rambling.

"Surprising how your Mathematics suddenly improves so much when you are trying to find excuses, huh?" replied Azmaria with a smile.

"Azzy," said Rosette wagging a finger," that's not a way to speak to someone olde than you, you know."

"I am your best friend and I am younger than you by not much! Just a year! Even if you want to add that extra two months, which makes you older than be by a year and two months, it still does not make much of a difference. because, it's less than a sixth of a dozen years and it's also much less than even one tenth of a century-"

"Azzy, that's cheating! You are using my method!"

"What method?" asked Azmaria innocently.

"Ack... I am really in no mood to deal with this... I should be worrying about the Halloween party! What should I do?!"

"Don't worry, Rosette. How about we drop by the mall after I put down my stuff at your house?"

"Ok."said Rosette"wait, but I don't have cash!"

"Don't worry. I will lend you."

"Thanks, Azmaria!"

" Welcome."


"Chrono! You have finally returned!" said Rosette as she ran towards Chrono, who was entering the small chapel limping, with all her remaining strength. Chrono opened his arms to her, rejoicing that he could finally see his love again, and she fell into them, sobbing hysterically.

"Rosette, I thought that I would never be able to see you again!" said Chrono as his arms enveloped Rosette, trying to comfort her. But still, Rosette continued crying. Sensing that something was wrong, Chrono asked," Is something wrong, Rosette?"

"No. Everything is p-perfect once you r-returned."gasped Rosette in between sobs. "It's just that I... I don't have m-much time l-left!"

"What do you mean, Rosette?!"exclaimed Chrono.

"I am so glad and relieved that you returned." said Rosette, ignoring Chrono's question as she suddenly fell back into Chrono's arms from lack of energy. She put her hands to Chrono's cheek.

"Take care, my love..." Rosette trailed off as she layed limply in Chrono's arms.

"NO! ROSETTE! DON'T LEAVE ME!"shouted Chrono.

"NO! ROSETTE! DON'T LEAVE ME! COME BACK TO ME!" Chrono woke up with a jolt.

"Master Chrono, are you alright?" asked Mrs Edwards concerned, as she entered the room. "You were screaming in your dream!"

"It's nothing, Mrs Edwards. Don't worry about it." said Chrono as he sat up in bed. "Besides, didn't I tell you to simply call me Chrono?" asked Chrono with a smile.

"So, Master Chrono," said Mrs Edwards, ignoring Chrono's glare,"what are you going to the Halloween party as?"

"What Halloween party?' asked Chrono, confused.

"The one organised in your school." replied Mrs Edwards.

"Oh, that one. I don't know."

"How about a demon? You mentioned when you were younger that you wanted to be a demon. Besides in your la-" Mrs Edwards suddenly cut off in the middle of her sentence with a faraway look.

"What were you trying to say, Mrs Edwards?" asked Chrono, confused.

"Nothing important. I just remembered something only." said Mrs Edwards. Sensing that Mrs Edwards did not want to talk about it, Chrono did not press on.

"Dressing as a demon is a great idea. Thanks, Mrs Edwards." said Chrono with a smile after a moment of silence.

" I shall send for the tailor then." said Mrs Edwards, getting ready to leave the room.

"Alright. Thanks again, Mrs Edwards." said Chrono, starring at Mrs Edwards retreating back.


"So, Rosette, after looking at so many stores haven't you decided what you want to dress as yet?" asked Azmaria as they walked into the third mall that they are going to shop in.

" I don't know... I mean, I want to dress as something special this year. Dressing as a princess wil be a bit too plain, don't you think? But dressing as a vampire is just plainly gross, especially on me..." replied Rosette in frustration. They had been shopping the whole morning but still she didn't see anything she liked.

"So basically you don't want to dress as something scary or something too common, am I right?"

"Yup. I want to make it to be something special. Something that no one else will wear."

"Hm.. That's gonna be difficult..." Azmaria trailed off as a store caught her attention. "Wait a minute, Rosette, look over there!" said Azmaria excitedly as she pointed out the store that caught her attention.

Rosette looked over to were Azmaria was pointing and saw a store with a sign saying "Costumes For All Occasions". On the display were some gowns and a vampire costume.

"I supposed we could give it a try." said Rosette after some thought, "afterall, it could very well be our largest chance at getting any costume ready at all by Halloween."

They entered the shop to see a young woman wearing spectacles standing behind the counter.

The young woman seemed a bit shocked to see them.

Why did she seem surprised to see us? Doesn't she have customers all the time, what with so much festivals nowadays?

" I am Shader, can I help you with anything?" asked the young woman, seeming to be trying to calm herself down.

"Oh yes, please. You see, my friend and I are searching for costumes for an upcoming Halloween party and so we were wondering whether you have anything that might suit us." said Azmaria politely, pulling herself out of her thoughts.

"I see. I think I might be able to help you with that. What do you want to dress as?"

"Well, we have not made up our mind about it, you see. So we decided to look around and see if we can find anything that we like. But we do have special requirements though."

"What might they be?"

"My friend here," said Azmaria pointing out Rosette, even though it was not necessary as they were the only ones in the store, " wants to have a costumes which is very special. As in something that people will not normally show up as in a Halloween party. But as special as we want it to be, we don't want it to be some scarry characters like vampires or something like that. As for me, I will just wear something similar to whatever my friend is wearing, so as to make it matching."

"Ok. I think I might have some here that might suit your descriptions." said Shader as she brought them around the store and pulled out several costumes for them to try on.

Both Rosette and Azmaria decided to take turns to try out their costumes for each other to give comments on them. Rosette tried on first as Azmaria just wanted to wear something that was matching to her.

Rosette first came out in a rabbit suit holding a carrot which made Azmaria laughed and asked Shader, " Don't you think that some jokers might wear that to the party?"

Shader shrugged her shoulders and said, " Well, no one would thought to wear a rabbit suit to a Halloween party, would they? I mean, however much a joker they are, they might not wear that as it blocks their faces and it is pretty difficult to move around in that, you know. It will limited the actions of the person wearing it and jokers will find it an inconvenience to play pranks while wearing this so they won't choose this."

Next Rosette came out dressed as a Hawaii girl. Shader whistled as Rosette was wearing a bikini and a grass skirt but apparently Azmaria didn't like the idea that she had to wear a bikini to match with Rosette.

After that, Rosette came out dressed as Minnie Mouse. Both Shader (Rosette asked her to help give opinions seeing that she had a pretty good dressing sense.) and Azmaria shook their head. ("That would mean that I have to dress as Mickey!" whined Azmaria)

Next, Rosette came out dressed as a signboard. In fact, the signboard has Shader's shop name " Costumes For all Occasions" on it.

"I feel like a walking advertisement." grumbled Rosette while Azmaria fell to the ground laughing about Shader's way of advertising her shop.

"I do need some advertising." said Shader, shrugging her shoulders again but with a teasing smile on her lips.

"If she buys that, what would I be dressed as?" asked Azmaria.

"Me, of course!" exclaimed Shader as they, including Rosette started to laugh.

"As much as I would like to help you, but I must say NO to this uh...costume."

"Why? " asked Shader whining, pretending to be put off by Rosette's comment.

We just met each other and yet we already seem like old friends. Thought Azmaria.

"Hey, Shader, would you like to be friends with us? Cause' you seem pretty nice a person." asked Azmaria shyly while Rosette went into the changing room to change into the next costume.

"That's a good idea. Especially since I don't think that I am much older than both of you. Not to be rude but how old are both of you? asked Shader.

"Rosette is 16 but I am 15."

"I see. Well, I am 20 so that makes us pretty close in age, don't you think so?"

"Yup."

"But don't think that just because you are my friend now that I would give you discounts." teased Shader as Azmaria laughed.

Just then, Rosette came out in a blue dress which looked like what a nun would wear except there is a huge slit up the thigh on both sides. The high stockings underneath can also be seen.

Both Shader and Azmaria starred at Rosette.

"What? Do I look horrible? Cause' I sort of liked this costume but if you guys don't like it, I can try on another one."

"No, Rosette, this is the best among all those others that you have tried on! This not only a nice costume but come to think about it, it also fits our needs. I mean, no one would come dress as a nun, would they? Besides, that slit on both sides makes it so sexy!" exclaimed Azmaria.

"It's nice." said Shader, with a faraway look. "It's actually a dress for exorcists for the Magdalan Order." seeing their blank looks, Sahder explained. "The Magdalan Order is an organisation that deals with supernatural things in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The exorcists were mostly nuns, which explains why it looks like a nun course, in those time, girls were discouraged from wearing pants, and so they could only have dresses as their attire. This dress' high slits were meant for them to move around easier. "

"I see, but I am NOT wearing something that shows that much flesh. Shaded, do you have something that matches, but is not as showing?" Azmaria added.

"Of course." replied Shader as she pulled a similar looking dress which does not have any slits. Instead of being blue in colour it is white and it does not look as much like a uniform as Rosette's dress but still both dresses looked similar. Shader handed it to Azmaria.

"Go ahead, try it on." urged Rosette.

When Azmaria came out of the changing room, they all starred at her open mouthed.

"Azzy, you look like an angel! Oh, and that dress fits you so well too. Now we don't have to worry about lack of costumes to wear!" said Rosette happily.

Azmaria blushed and smiled." So does yours."

"Both of you just look so beautiful! I am so proud of both of you!" said Shader, giving them both a hug.

"We just got to know you and yet you are acting like our mothers already." teased Rosette.

"I can't help it." said Shader with a pout as they all laughed.


I am thinking about extending the series from my original goal of 10 chapters to about 15-20 chapters. What do you think? Please comment! And I will be rewriting the first few chapters to improve on them a bit, like correcting spelling errors and addind some minor details and improving the grammer and vocabulary. In fact, I have already done that for chapter one...