I still don't own Chrono Trigger. I had a kick-ass dream about Janus last night, though.
The next day Lyn woke up with a headache. A very bad headache, and, as she discovered when she opened her eyes, occasional bouts of blurred or doubled vision. When Flea opened the door and the yellow firelight spilled into the darkness of Lyn's closet-sized room, Lyn groaned and flinched away.
"Oh, good, it's taking effect then. Well, come on, get up. I want to get you to Slash before I have to go," Flea said in reaction to Lyn's groan. The Mazoku was far too happy for Lyn's taste, and the sound of her voice was only making Lyn's headache worse.
Lyn crawled out of bed and went over to Flea, who was standing by the main door. When they entered the hallway, Lyn had to fight another groan, as the blue light seemed brighter than she remembered it. The quick journey through the windowless halls was made even more confusing by Lyn's difficulty focusing
Flea knocked on a nondescript wooden door and waited until it was answered. "What do you… Flea. Why are you here?" a bald, violet skinned man asked, half behind the door. From the fact that he gave Flea no title, Lyn assumed he was also a general, probably Slash.
"Well, you know I have to go to Chorun. And I can hardly take this girl with me," Flea answered calmly.
"So leave her in your rooms and make sure she's fed. Or send her to work somewhere else for a little while. Why are you bringing her here?"
Flea smiled sweetly. "Because I'm sure you can make use of her. I gave her that new potion I've been working on last night, by the way."
With a sigh, Slash opened the door all the way. "Fine, I can see I'm not getting out of this. I guess Maou Ozzie's boy can practice with her, or something."
"Thanks, love, I'll be sure and make it up to you later," Flea said, already walking away. Lyn, who had only followed the main thrust of the conversation, stayed where she was, looking at Slash uncertainly, and idly noticing he was wearing white as well.
Frowning at Lyn a little, Slash stepped out of the way, leaving the doorway clear for her to enter. Lyn did so, ducking her head as she passed the tall Mazoku. This room was fairly small, with bare walls and the same blue torches as everywhere else.
Going to one of the other two doors in the room, Slash asked, "How are you feeling, girl?"
Watching him move, Lyn realized that he was floating, booted toes hanging half a hands breath off the floor. She was so absorbed in her discovery that she forgot to answer Slash, and he had to repeat his question. This time she processed it, and replied, "Not… good, sir. Head… hurts. And… eyes."
Slash opened the door, and Lyn gave a cry, falling back. Sunlight spilled through the doorway from a dozen high windows in the next room, and Lyn couldn't see for the brightness. Slash frowned again and caught Lyn's arm, dragging her into the sunny room and shutting the door behind him.
"What is she doing here?" Lyn heard a male voice asking in surprised recognition. She didn't understand why the owner of the voice sounded that way; she had never heard his voice before in her life.
"Flea left her with me for a while," Slash answered, guiding Lyn to a wall before releasing her. "She's going through the change right now, so that she can see properly, though knowing what Flea used, there'll be other effects as well."
Blinking her eyes and shaking her head in an attempt to clear her vision, Lyn only vaguely caught the words. "See… properly?" she asked, shading her eyes and looking towards Slash.
It was the unknown male who answered, sounding incredibly superior. "Mazoku see differently than Humans. Past the blue and violet we see, and into a color called huelin. So yes, see properly."
Lyn was silent, working through the sentence, which had used a few words she was unfamiliar with. As she thought, her eyes adjusted to the light, and she was able to see the other person clearly. He was Human, or at least he looked it, about her age, but with blue hair. She'd never seen blue hair on a Human before, though she'd heard legends of a nation of blue-haired Humans, and her own green wasn't so far away from blue.
Then Lyn realized that she had seen a blue-haired Human before, at the infirmary in Choras. "You! You did not move!" she accused in broken Medinian.
Slash gave a snort of laughter at the clumsy complaint, having pried the story from Janus earlier.
"You were wearing the colors of a healer-mage!" Janus defended. "Hell, you still are!" he pointed at the necklace she was wearing. "Human's aren't mages here, so forgive me for staring a little!"
"That Grimalkin almost die because you not move! I not forgive!" Lyn yelled, taking a couple of steps closer while Slash simple stayed out of the way and laughed to himself at the spectacle.
"Well who cares if you forgive me or not!" Janus shouted back, moving closer himself. "I don't need your forgiveness! I am Janus, under Maou Ozzie!"
Lyn paused for just a moment at this declaration, but the burgeoning triumph in Janus' eyes convinced her to continue, and it felt good to yell at someone. "You care! You ask, so you care!"
"Bah! I knew someone who spoke like you once; she couldn't even understand me. You probably can't even understand me, either!" Janus snorted, turning his back on Lyn.
"I not done with you!" Lyn snarled, putting a hand on his shoulder and trying to turn him around, headache forgotten in the heat of the moment.
Much to Slash's pride, Janus did turn, using the momentum from the movement to throw a roundhouse punch at Lyn. It hit her cheek, but she didn't fall, as Janus hadn't put much power behind his blow. He wanted to shut Lyn up, not harm her.
"You bastard!" Lyn yelled in Zenese, having run out of words in Medinian. "You're a slave like me, and I am through letting arrogant pricks like you do whatever the hell they want!" She jumped Janus, trying to knock him to the ground, but satisfied with simply scratching and hitting him, no matter what happened.
Slash's laughter had become audible, but neither of the two fighting slaves noticed it. He knew Janus hadn't understood a word the girl had said in her native language, which was probably a good thing for the girl. Then again, Janus wasn't in a position to notice anything said to him, with Lyn clinging to him and beating at him with a free hand.
For his part, Janus was yelling at Lyn equally fervently in HIS native language. He was stronger than she was, and he knew more about fighting, so it wasn't any surprise when he managed to fling Lyn to the ground. Lyn started to scramble back up, but stopped as a deliberate chanting filled the air, similar to Janus' earlier yelling, but somehow more formal. A black orb grew at the end of the finger Janus pointed at her, and he glared at her, as though daring her to get up.
Slash had stopped laughing, and was now waiting to see if he'd have to intervene. Lyn snarled again at Janus, but recognized that black light was not something she wanted to risk. Breathing heavily, Janus used Medinian to ask, "Are you going to behave now?"
"Fine," Lyn agreed gracelessly. "What you want me do?"
Banishing the gathering spell, Janus smirked. "Heal my injuries, if you can," he sneered.
Lyn barely had to try, gathering the energy and practically hurling it at the arrogant boy, not stopping to think about the fact she had never healed from this distance before. While Janus healed, she also healed herself, only then remembering Slash's presence.
"Why did it take you so long to get her off of you, boy?" Slash queried.
"I never expected her to jump me! Sir," Janus answered indignantly.
"Always expect anyone to do anything!" Slash barked, gliding towards the middle of what Lyn now saw was a very large room. Stands of weapons stood along the wall opposite the windows, the occasional suit of armor among them.
Janus sighed, obviously having heard that advice before. "Yes sir," he muttered, arrogance leaking out of him.
"Girl," Slash called, getting Lyn's attention. "Today, just watch us, and learn what you can." He knew that she would most likely be a little out of it for most of a week from the effects of the potion Flea had given her, but then again, fights were rarely fair. Janus already knew what to expect, and prepared to attack his teacher and get his ass kicked, all in the name of learning how to fight.
Janus quickly learned that this time, it was not he who was supposed to be learning. Slash was only moving half as fast as he usually did, and he refused to go any faster, except when he had to dodge or block one of Janus' full speed attacks. Janus didn't exactly mind the slower speed, but he soon discovered it was difficult to keep himself slowed down. He hoped it was worth it, but he expected that the girl was too stupid and in too much pain from the change to learn much of anything from watching a fight.
For her part, Lyn tried her best to watch the fight and simply follow what was going on. As the sun moved across the sky, the angle of light coming in through the high windows changed, and Lyn felt her headache returning. Her vision began to blur, colors swirling around, and the two fighters in the middle of the room seemed to be leaving color trails. Lyn blinked and shook her head, groaning as the motion only worsened things.
Slash signaled an end to the sparring match and looked over at Lyn. Her eyes were crossing and uncrossing, and when she tried to watch him float over too her, he saw that her tracking was slow. Landing, Slash knelt by Lyn and looked at her, grasping her chin to turn her head. "How are you feeling, girl?" he asked for the third time that day. He had heard reports of Flea's new potion, and its expected results, but this was the first time he was able to watch. It was supposed to change something in the Humans, something more than just their vision. Flea had bragged that it 'made Humans presentable', and that there had been cases were a human gained a tech afterwards. That was why Flea had been looking for a human who already had a tech. The mage General wanted to see what would happen.
"I…" Lyn tried to decide what to answer. "Colors… are blurring," she said in Zenese. "Because… my sight is changing?"
"Yes," Slash answered in the same language. "Try to relax, don't fight the change."
Janus had also come up, but didn't understand the conversation. Remembering when his own eyesight had been changed, however, he asked, "Colors getting weird, girl?"
"It's Lyn, Janus," she hissed, feeling that she could risk at least correcting him. "Yes, colors weird."
"Fine, Lyn," Janus said, giving in mostly to avoid another pointless fight. "But when the colors go weird on you, just sit back and enjoy it. That's what I did."
"And with headache?" Lyn asked sourly.
"Try not to think," Janus answered, laughter in his voice. "That should be easy for you."
Lyn started to stand, but Slash, still kneeling by her, stopped her, holding her down with one hand. "He'll just beat you again," the Mazoku pointed out in a low voice. "Just take his advice." Lyn sighed and stopped struggling. Satisfied, Slash stood and continued training Janus.
With both Slash and Janus giving Lyn the same advice, she had little choice but to take it. Sitting on the floor in the warm sunlight, the Human girl watched the two men spar back and forth, one or the other leaving a trail of too-bright color. The bottom of Slash's long coat flowed as he spun and hovered, dodging Janus' attacks and giving his own in return. Likewise, the storm blue of Janus' hair seemed to float on the wind his motions created. It seemed less like a fight and more like a very complicated, beautiful dance to Lyn's confused mind.
As always, please review.