A Step Onto Chronos Chapter 11

The Two Prophets

Shadic the Hedgehog

"Oh, Joe! Get up, you lazy bum!" called Lucca's voice. "Crono and Marle may be King and Queen now, but that doesn't mean we get to keep taking money from the Royal Treasury! Get up and find yourself a job!"

"Nnngh. The only jobs I'm suited for in this world are ones I don't want. Why don't you just build some more machines and we'll sell them! I'm sure the archipelago of El Nido could use 'em," I replied, stirring in bed.

There was a sudden pain in my side, and when I opened my eyes to look, I saw Lucca pulling her leg back. She had kicked me! "What the hell are you talking about, kid?" she asked, but her voice was all wrong. It sounded like...

"M-Magus?" I opened my eyes, shivering. Magus was standing over me, contempt in his eyes and covered by shadows. "What's going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know. What were you talking about with the whole 'this world' and 'in the game' crap?" He pulled me off the ground, his eyes narrowing. "And just how the HELL did you know how to get through my shielding!"

"I can explain that last question by answering the first one. I come from another universe. My name's Joe. In my home Universe, this world, More accurately this adventure, is a mere game. I have, personally, beaten the game about ten times. You're one of the boss characters. I came to this world through something similar to a Time Gate, the thing we went through to reach now, something I call the Universe Gate. Unfortunately, the third time I traveled through the Gate, it sealed itself, barring me from my friends and family. Oh, and if you're wondering when we are, I'd say we're in the year 12,000 BC."

"And why should I care about that?" Magus turned his back to me and scoffed.

"Fine, let me rephrase: Welcome to your home Era, Prince Janus Zeal." I bowed as he gasped and spun around. I looked up and grinned insanely before straightening up. "I'd just like to mention: you were always my favorite character. I always chose to have you on my team. My party never fought you, except in your castle."

"And what was that you said earlier, about it being your destiny to defeat Lavos?"

"He was the Final Boss of the game. Seven people from across the space/time spectrum gathered together to defeat Lavos. Three from the year AD 1000, and one from the year AD 2300 got together at the start to keep Lavos from destroying the world in the year AD 1999. Later, they were joined by the transformed knight Glenn, called Frog, in the year AD 600. Next in the party, was the prehistoric chieftan Ayla of 65 milliion BC; and finally, there was the optional character, you could kill him or have him join the party. He was out for revenge, Lavos having ruined his life. His name was Magus. Only three of them could travel to fight Lavos, but that was merely game mechanics. In this adventure, it'll be all eight of us fighting Lavos together. Together, all of us will save the world, and your revenge shall be complete."

"Amazing, so that's what you meant by destiny. And what about that 'Prophets walk with you' comment?"

"In the game, you pose as a Prophet in the Kingdom of Zeal, due to you having lived these events. The 'walk with you' was an obscure reference to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

"Hmm. And the until we meet again?"

"There's a four person limit in time travel. There were six of us. In the game, sorry to keep saying that, it was a three person limit and the main party was sent to 65,000,000 BC. I believed I would be sent with the other four guys in the party." 'I wonder how they're reacting to my absence?'

"Well, if we're going to survive, we're going to need a fire," Magus sat against the wall across from me. I looked around the cave and spotted some wood that looked like it was from some ornate banister.

"Can't you light the fire?"

"My magic is running on empty. If I could have done it, I would have an hour ago. But, I can barely see."

"So that's your side effect, besides being hard to see." I pointed my hand at the pile of stair rails and concentrated. From my red, burnt skin burst a small ray of fire that insantly lit the wood. "I get burned, as if by the sun. I'm nearly out."

"All from that 'Final Flare' spell, right?"

"Yeah." I sat down and heared a small clink in my jacket. "Eh?" I looked in and pulled out a small potion bottle. "Hawh... (A/N: some sort of gutteral gasp) An Elixir!"

"What!" Magus looked over at me. "Where did you find that?"

"Er, in my pocket. Here, you need it more than I do. Can't have you unable to see or be seen." I walked over to Magus and put it in his hand. "What could a blind Prophet predict? Besides, we REALLY roasted your butt." He grimaced and gulped down the Elixir. Instantly, all the burn marks on his skin vanished and he returned to his normal paleness.

After I returned to my side of the fire, I thought I heard him say, "Thank you." But it was said so quietly, the voice must have been a trick of my ears. I stretched and leaned up against the cave wall. I gasped in pain as my horribly burnt skin rubbed against my shirt.

"Here." I looked up and Magus was holding a bottle of Mid Ether. "I barely hurt you, so this should help with your pain."

"Thank you, m'lord." I drank it down, and saw the red on my skin change to my normal colouring. I shook his hand and said. "We should get some sleep. In the morning we'll head to Zeal and take up Prophetic residence there."

Magus returned to his side of the cave, putting another piece of wood on the fire along the way. As he lay down to sleep, he said, "just call me Magus."

When the sun rose the next morning, Magus kicked me awake and we set out for the Sky Gate (A/N: I think that's what it was called). Just before we got on the transport pad, Magus tossed me a cloak and one of two large hats he pulled from his own "Bag of Holding." After he handed me one, I had to ask.

"Why do you even have these?"

"There were some things I couldn't even trust Ozzie, Slash, or Flea to buy. The hats were a disguise. If one got ruined, I would have used the other."

"And the giant eye just above the brim?"

"Armies do cost money you know. I put myself up as a fortune teller and predicted my own attacks."

I put the stuff on over my clothes, pulling my shades down from my hair, and I lowered my voice. "Hm. So you have practice at this prophet thing. I suppose you can disguise yourself beyond appearence."

Magus put on his hat and said, "Of course I can. I didn't want my own spys to recognize my voice." He was pretty good, his voice sounded higher, much colder and aloof.

"Then shall we find an audience with your mother?"

"She's not my mother. My mother was destroyed by Lavos and turned into something different. Something evil."

I smiled knowingly under the cloak's collar and we stepped onto the transport pad. In a flash of purple light, we were suddenly standing on an elevated platform in the middle of a grassy field. We stepped off the platform and headed for the nearest city. Along the way we agreed, still using our disguised voices, that Magus would be the Master Prophet, and I would be his apprentice. Thusly, he would be making the majority of "prophecies" then I would make a few after Crono and the rest showed up. The main variable would be as to which of the team members besides Crono and Ayla would show up, but Magus said he remembered who they were.

We headed for the nearest city, I think its name was Kajar, and we walked around, activating the secret door. I muttered the order of the books under my breath, "Water turns to Wind, Wind makes Fire dance." then I completed the circle in my mind with 'Fire boils Water.' After the door opened behind the bookcase, we entered the room. Within was a small Poyozo doll containing a shining black stone. After we left the room, we had people crowd around us asking how we knew of the room. Magus explained that we were Prophets and it was ordained that we would need the Black Stone, and were shown visions of its whereabouts.

We were asked for more visions and Magus obliged, telling them what he could remember of his days in the city. After we got enough praise, they sent word to the palace about our amazing skills, or rather about the Master Prophet and his apprentice with the "black eyes." About two days later, a messenger from the Queen arrived. When we left the room, I gasped softly, 'Crap! It's Dalton!' Sure enough, the cyclops had come to see us "make predictions".

"So, I hear you two are able to predict the future!" He said loudly. As if he was trying to blow some sort of cover. "Why don't you tell me what's going to happen next?"

Magus nodded and said in his false voice, "I cannot tell the exact future. However, in a few moments there will be a loud noise, followed by a great mess caused by a child." Sure enough, at the end of the sentence there was a loud, yowling noise coming from our right, and a purple kitten ran out of a nearby room, with soap bubbles on her. Then the young Prince Janus came running out after Alfador, smashing into things along the way, and I noticed that his fingers were covered in small scratches. Eventually, he caught Alfador and returned to his room to continue the cat's bath.

Dalton gaped for a couple moments before he turned back to us. "Fine, you've proven your point. Come with me to the castle, Queen Zeal shall want to see your amazing abilities." Instead of taking the Sky/Earth Gates a couple more times, we got in something that looked like the Epoch with no wings, and it turned out to be a hovercraft. We "flew" over to the Palace and disembarked, our cloaks fluttering in the wind.

As we entered, Magus and I ran into Schala. She smiled and waved at us before she headed out the door and got into the Hover, and headed in the direction of Kajar. Dalton led us to the Throne Room at the back of the Palace, for our audience with the Queen. Magus and I vaguely outlined the journey of Crono's party up the part where we banished them back to where they came. It was at this point that I learned that Lucca and Glenn were the ones that were traveling with Crono and Ayla (Magus described them as "an amphibious man and a bespectacled lady").

Queen Zeal said, "Dalton, have a Nu set them up with quarters. We shall see if these Prophets are what they say. Return as soon as you finish, we need to discuss the construction of the Undersea Palace." She waved us away and Dalton handed us off to the nearest Nu, and then he went back to the Throne Room. Our quarters were like those from a hotel. they were two rooms, side-by-side, with a set of doors in between. Magus went on walks often, looking around at a world he had left behind.

I went on walks, too. Bigger ones than Magus, exploring the whole of the floating Islands. Since Magus' predictions made us famous, I had to insist I pay as much as any citizen of Zeal when I got meals. I also bought a new Crystal Sword, the Slasher not being my style. I kept it on the wall of my quarters (I planned to give it to Crono later). Eventually, I caught Dalton and asked him where I could find a place to train.

"Train? What are you talking about?" he scoffed.

"I'm a swordsman, as well as a prophet-in-training. I need to keep my skills up," I drew my sword and showed it to him. "I also have a new sword to get used to."

"Heh, just follow me. I'll show you the perfect place." He led me out to a small island behind the Palace, barely connected to the mainland by a bridge. "This is our battle platform. Ask for any opponent, and the platform will provide."

"I'm from a rather far-off place. What if the opponent isn't in the platform's database?"

"It draws from your imagination. So if you can think of it, you can fight it."

I smiled and handed Dalton my cloak and hat. "Then I'm gonna fight Lord Sephiroth, the strongest fictional character ever." The island pulsed physically under my feet. Dalton stepped off the other side of the bridge and pushed a button, withdrawing it. There was a bright light in front of my eyes as Sephiroth descended out of the sky. I drew my sword at the same time as Sephiroth, his dire katana twice as long as my sword.

I charged and Sephiroth blocked my sword, jumping off to the side and bringing his Masamune around to strike at my back. I backflipped over it and swung at his neck, making Sephiroth duck. He swung upwards, dragging the blade on the island for a little while. I slid to my left and stabbed at his side. He jumped and landed back-to-back with me. Then I heard him whisper, "Ah-mourn" or something like that, causing three pillars of fire to rise up around him. I got caught between two pillars, but because of my own magic, the flames didn't harm me. Sephiroth turned around and frowned. I grinned and breathed fire at him, by way of my modified Purification. He blocked with his arm and grimaced in pain as the clothing was ill suited for such high temperatures.

Sephiroth jumped back to the edge of the island and started waving his hands in a mystical way, leaving glowing trails. As he did so, he said, "Sin Harvester" and I noticed a red glow coming from above me and within me, when I looked up I noticed the red glow was in the shape of a halo. I looked back at Sephiroth and saw him complete the spell, causing me extreme pain. My skin suddenly turned crispy, as if I had used all my magic at once, and my vision was fading in and out of bright, furious RED.

I shakily reached into my pocket and pulled out a bottle of blue liquid, as I watched Sephiroth approach me. I drank the Mid-Ether quickly, my skin clearing up. I was still seeing in furious RED, as if it was connected to my physical pain. I quickly dismissed it and focused my magic into a ball of fire in front of my right hand, after passing my sword to my left hand. I floated into the air and cried out, "Welcome to MY Big Bang Attack!" I blasted the fireball at Sephiroth who caught it on the side of his Masamune. I rose even higher, actually hovering ten feet above the ground. Sephiroth's guard was focused on keeping my fireball away from his body, so I decided to split his attention. I created another fireball and threw at his head, yelling, "Welcome to Oblivion!" He gasped, genuinely surprised at my strength of magic and my tactics. Unfortunately, my power was so great that the double explosion of the fireballs broke the battle platform into many little fragments.

Sephiroth survived my attack, however, and grew wings. Six shimmering, white wings, and one glittering, dark wing. I don't quite remember how, but since I was flying, too, we started an ariel battle. I spun at him, head first, with my sword out, slicing vertically. Sephiroth dodged right and sliced down, but just as my sword came around. I unfolded and turned my sword, pushing along his Masamune towards his body. He quickly flew upwards to avoid the Crystal Blade. I blasted fire at him, but he blocked with a dark shield. Sephiroth blasted me with spheres of dark energy, knocking me towards the mainland. We traded sword strikes, each of us blocking the other's attacks until finally, he not only sliced at me but kicked at me, too. I coughed up blood, staining my red shirt even darker.

I flew back over the mainland, leading Sephiroth on. He sliced at me again, and when I blocked, he kicked with his other leg. That's when I blocked with my tail. 'Wait, tail?' I glanced down at the new serpent's tail of fire growing out of my butt. In my moment of sudden weakness, Sephiroth hit me on the head with the hilt of his sword.

I woke up in my quarters, Magus standing over me. "You IDIOT! What the hell did you go and break the battle platform for!"

"I didn't mean to..." I gasped. My voice was raspy, a side effect of my Fire Breath. "I thought it would be stronger than that. I mean, don't Zealian soldiers train there?"

"They don't have magic as strong as ours. And that's because they don't usually have battles!" He pulled me out of the bed. "And just was that beast you created?"

"That was Sephiroth, greatest villain in all of the fictional world." I pulled my coat out of his hands. "His power exceeds that of three Lavoses. By the way, what happened to him?"

"Once you fell unconsious, he vanished. Your 'Sephiroth' was an amazing sight, or so Dalton says."

"He was watching? That's just peachy. Now he knows about my Big Bang Attack and my Fire Breath move. They'll be useless when we fight."

"When you fight? Dalton gets killed?"

"Actually, he banishes himself to the realm his Golems live in. Unintentionally, I might add."

"Hm, in any case, I had to clean out your money pouch to pay for the damage. Your friends have arrived in Kajar by now. In fact, you've been out of commision for two days straight."

"Damn, Lord Sephi certainly packs a whallop. I suppose we should prepare for their arrival at the Palace." I turned around and put on my prophet ensemble, complete with shades. I lowered my voice. "Did you predict the death of one of them?"

"Huh?"

"The whole 'Black Wind howls' thing?" He gained a look of understanding and nodded. "Yeah, he might end up dying, but he'll come back soon enough. In any case, I shall make my formal apology to the Queen. Then our friends will meet the Prophets of Doom. Master," I nodded to Magus, "and Apprentice." I gestured to myself. We laughed in our false voices, in an evil sort of way.

Until the Nu outside peeked in and shushed us.

"Black, white, magic is only magic. It is the way that it is used that makes it good or evil."

-Tarreiz, The Seventh Mage