A Step Onto Chronos Chapter 12

The Magic Kingdom

Shadic the Hedgehog

"I apologize most profusely, Your Highness," I bowed in feigned reverence. "I was unaware that your battle platform could not take such strain. Also, it appears that due to our extensive travel my Master and I have become stronger without our knowing." I grinned under my collar. 'Otherwise I wouldn't have lasted that long against Sephiroth.' , then I frowned. 'But where did that tail come from? And how was I flying?'

"I accept your apology, and your fines have already been put to good use," Queen Zeal waved her hand dismissively. "Although, I must ask if you could train my soldiers to fight as well as you?"

"I would have to speak with my Master on that matter, but since I am sure they couldn't withstand even the troublemakers that are approaching, I will check on that immediately and get back to you."

"Very good. Oh, and could you get Schala here for me? She should be with her brother at the moment."

"Of course, M'lady." I bowed out of the Throne Room and encountered Magus, waiting for me. "The Queen's got my money working on the Undersea Palace, I think, and she wants me to train the Zealian soldiers in combat."

"Heh! That doesn't surprise me, after Dalton saw your display of Fire Magic. Are you ready to insult and betray your friends?"

"Err, something like that. I was a pretty good actor on my world, not that I was famous or anything. Oh, and the Queen instructed me to get Schala. Where are you and her right now? I forgot."

"I think we're-" Magus stopped talking as we saw Crono, Ayla, Lucca, and Glenn enter some room off to the side. "-in there..." He finished. "You better hurry, I'll meet you in the Throne Room."

"Right." I followed the group into the bedroom and walked up to Schala. "The Queen requests your presence." I used my lower, prophet's voice.

"Oh, all right," Schala said to me. Then she turned back to Janus, "I have to go, Mother's calling."

Janus grumped, "She's not our Mother. She's become something else. Something Evil."

Schala giggled lightly, "Well, in any case, I have to go. Take care." She walked over to me and we started out of the room, when Schala spotted Crono and the rest, I stopped next to Lucca, and looked into her eyes through my shades.

She looked... worried, almost frantic. But when she glanced at my shades she looked puzzled, then her eyes widened. Schala was asking who the team was, but I was forced to interrupt, "Miss Schala, we must hurry." Schala giggled a little and agreed and we left the room. I "led" her to the Throne Room, making sure that Crono and the gang followed. But I moved a little faster when I saw Lucca watching me inquisitively. Schala opened the door with her pendant and we stepped through, the door closing quickly behind us. I walked over to Magus as we waited for the team to enter.

"You're fidgeting," Magus noted. "Something happen?"

"I think Lucca recognized me," I whispered back. "Not sure how, since my shades are only one-way."

Just then the front door of the Throne Room slid up, Crono holding out a glowing, red pendent. Crono and the rest entered, one by one, interrupting Schala and the Queen. Schala moved to the left of the Throne, Dalton being on the right.

"These are the troublemakers we warned you about. They are here to stop the Undersea Palace project," Magus said, in his own prophet's voice.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Crono. "We're not here to stop anything except Lavos."

"You see?" I affirmed. "They want to stop you from giving your people the Eternal Life they deserve. The life only Lavos can give them."

"Eternal Life! Lavos only brings death and destruction!" cried Lucca. "Getting closer to it will only cause suffering!"

"You know nothing," Dalton said. "The Great Lavos grants us our greatest wishes. He gave us Magic, powers the engines that keeps our Kingdom in the air, and even lengthened our lifespans!"

"But thy people lie about and do nothing," protested Glenn. "They are weak and thou art doing nothing to make them stronger. This is a most grievous problem, and the only solution is to remove their dependence on Lavos!"

"If words will not open your eyes, then we'll have to use force," Queen Zeal announced. "Dalton, take them down."

Dalton nodded and made mystical signs with his hands. A black sphere appeared in the middle of the room, and a thing that looked like an upside-down ice cream cone made out of rocks with arms floated out.

Ayla walked up to the thing and patted its idiotic face, "What this? Ayla confused."

"It's a Golem, Dalton's specialty," I explained, still using my prophet's voice. "Your strengths are it's strengths."

The Queen waved her hand and a nearly transparent dome surrounded the party and the Golem. Crono drew his sword and attacked with his Confusion tech: running circles around the Golem, slicing it's sides. When he stoped moving, the Golem inhaled and spit a iron ball at him. As it flew, Ayla jumped in the air and kicked it away. She then spun around until the iron ball broke apart and mixed with some chunks of floor that had lifted out, seemingly of their own accord. Glenn began chanting and wind levitated the sphere of stone and metal. It was lifted to the ceiling and Crono finished his own spellcasting hitting the rock with a bolt of lightning from his right hand. It was absorbed by the bits of metal. Lucca added a halo of fire around the center of the rock sphere, which spread until it covered the entire surface, making the stone glow red. Glenn used the wind to toss the rock. When it hit the Golem, the stone and metal melted across the surface of the creature, the electrcity in the metal shocking the Golem. The Golem suddenly belched, filling the dome with an odd, grey gas. After a few seconds, the Golem disintegrated, making the melting stone flow back into the holes it had originally come from.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that. Apparently, Ayla has Earth Magic. She didn't in the game," I whispered to Magus.

"Then you're not much of a prophet are you?" he whispered back.

I elbowed him discreetly, smiling. "I'm only an apprentice."

The shield Queen Zeal had put up lowered. Queen Zeal said, "You're stronger than I expected. Fine, let us see how you fare against our newest and strongest fighters. The self-proclaimed Prophets of Doom!" and she pointed at me and Magus.

"The Nu must've told her our new title," I whispered. Then I spoke to the team, "The Black Wind is but one source that states of your loss. Let us fight." I drew my sword and Magus pulled out his scythe as we approached the party.

"Right, like we're going to lose to the likes of you!" Lucca exclaimed.

"I know what you can do, I've seen it before!" I charged Ayla, in order to get rid of the wild card. I swung the blade diagonally and she jumped, sending me towards Crono. He swung at me and I changed the position of my sword to block his attack. I saw it was the same one he had when we fought Magus

"I have another sword for you," I taunted. "It's right... HERE!" I reached back with my other hand and pulled out the Slasher, stopping short of cutting his neck. He jumped back in surprise and took another stance. "What, are you afraid? You should be!" I jumped into the air just as Ayla was about to hit me with a jump kick, and she continued onward, kicking a surprised Crono in the head, accidentally knocking him out.

She turned around and jumped at me again. I stopped her attack with the Slasher, and, after she landed back on the ground, I tossed the sword aside, explaining I was no good at twin blading (Heck, I'm still not very good). I jumped into the air and landed next to Magus, who had just knocked out Glenn with the back end of his scythe.

"Let's switch dance partners," Magus muttered. I nodded and walked towards Lucca. Lucca reacted by throwing a bomb at me. I swung my sword and hit the bomb with the flat of my blade, in an attempt to knock it back. But when it hit, I noticed the fuse was gone. It blew up in my face, knocking off my hat and destroying the clasp on my cloak, causing that to fall off as well.

"I thought so," said Lucca. "I thought it was you when I saw the sunglasses! I knew only one person in the time/space continuum could have those glasses. Why are you fighting us!"

"Because I have to. I'm sorry." I replied, dropping the act. I ran forward at full speed, putting my sword at my side, as if to slice with it. But, instead I dropped it and slammed her head with mine, knocking us both out.

Everything I heard later was fuzzy, as if I was only half awake.

"What is the meaning of this?" yelled Queen Zeal's voice.

"It appears my so-called 'apprentice' was once a part of this group of troublemakers," said the cold voice of The Prophet.

"Not a very good Prophet, then, are you?" laughed Dalton's voice.

"I only do the future, I cannot see the past." Had I been concious, I would have smiled: Magus was keeping to our idea of how I was going rejoin the group. I was going to "betray" him and rejoin them by running through the gate after them, this just meant he would have to extend the betrayer thing a little bit further. Something picked me up, just before I became completely unconcious, and carried me.

I woke up later, though I am unsure to this day as of how long it was, to the sight of Schala and Janus, the latter keeping a lookout. Schala handed me my sword, which I immediately sheathed. And when Crono awoke she handed him the Slasher which he exchanged with his other sword.

"I have something to ask of you," Schala said, as soon as the rest of the team was awakened. "Could you stop my mother?"

"If it has anything to do with Lavos, we'll do it," Crono said, stepping in front of me.

"Then it's too bad that I can't allow you to interfere," Magus, as the Prophet, entered the room, gently pushing himself, AKA Janus, aside. "Now then, show me how you got here or the Princess will die." He pointed his hand at Schala and it glowed black.

Crono threw an arm aside, stopping Ayla and Lucca from doing anything. "Fine, just follow us." I stayed at the back of the group as Crono led the way to the Time Gate in the cave. It was the same one that Magus and I had spent the night in after that first major battle.

"I see. After they go through, it will be up to you, Princess, to seal their gateway." Lucca opened the Time Gate and we all stepped through. Then "the Prophet" faced me, "Don't you dare show your face around here again, traitor. To think I started teaching you the power of Prophecy only to have you join the people trying to stop the Great Lavos." This was a rehearsed speech, but it seemed to have more bite than it should have for something so rehearsed.

The Gate closed and we were sent through the whirl of blue and purple, emerging in the crater in 65 million BC, the spot where Lavos fell.

Crono and the group walked forward a ways, I was still trailing, and stopped, turning to face me. I kept walking 'til I was in the middle of the group.

"I'm sorry guys," I said, looking down. "I didn't want to fight you, but I didn't know the Queen would have me and the Prophet do that. I was only trying to keep my cover!"

"Look at me," spat Crono. I looked up and into his eyes. He was glaring at me, hatred in his eyes and the rest of his face. He pulled back his fist and slugged me right in the jaw. I stumbled over to Ayla, who kicked me in the shoulder. I turned around and walked up to Lucca, who was looking about as pissed as Crono, and she backhanded me. I moved to Glenn, dropping to my knees in case he wanted to hit me, too.

"Rise, Joe. I believe thou hath suffered enough for the trouble thy absence gave us," Glenn said. Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms around my shoulders.

"You had us all so worried, myself especially," said Lucca. I felt warm spots of water land on the back of my neck.

"Ayla console friends for two days before friends start search for Joe. It not until Laruba Village burn that they stop searching!" Ayla laughed, then reconsidered, deciding that the burning village wasn't something to laugh about.

Crono kneeled next to Glenn and looked into my eyes, "When we didn't see you or Magus when we woke up, we thought that whenever you had shown up at, Magus would have killed you with your father's sword. It was difficult enough going through that, let alone the Tyrano Fortress." I felt Lucca's warmth move off my back and her feet appeared next to Crono, and Ayla's next to Glenn. Crono held out his hand. "Now, let's get you back to the End of Time. Marle and Robo are worried about you, too."

I took his hand and he helped pick me up, leading us back to the Pterodactyls. The trouble was: there were only four, and Kino was still there waiting. After exchanging pleasentries, we tried to figure out who I was going to sit with, finally going with Lucca. We flew back to the Mystic Mountains, dropping off Kino at Ioka along the way, and we jumped into the Time Gate (The only reason we didn't use the crater Gate was because it was covered with a pinkish-purple pyramid).

"Necg pek, feh pek." (Risk big, win big)

-Cid, Final Fantasy X