Shadic: Before I get started, I'd like to thank those of you that have reviewed. And thank you for pointing out my little typo of Ocean Palace/Undersea Palace. I seem to be on a writing spree this week, so expect Ch. 16 soon! I won't hold you any longer, so get reading!
A Step Onto Chronos Chapter 15
Revelations
By: Shadic the Hedgehog
I woke up staring at the ceiling of a hut. I sat up and glanced around. Crono and Glenn were over on the other side of the hut, whispering something. Crono glanced in my direction and grabbed Glenn's shoulder to spin him around. I stood up and asked them a question.
"What's going on?" I noticed my voice sounded like my throat was filled with phlegm. Crono and Glenn just continued staring, as if in awe or… could it have been fear? "I asked you what's going on! ANSWER ME!" I felt the rage rise up, unbidden. Then I looked about once more. "Wait…" my rage evaporated. "Where's Lucca?" Then it came to me. The last thing I saw before I blacked out: Lucca sacrificing her life. "It wasn't supposed to be her! It wasn't… supposed to be her…" I fell to my knees.
'Why…? Why can't I… cry?' I was sobbing, the saddest I had ever been, but no tears sprang forth. I punched the ground in my sudden anger and felt it give way, but quickly jerked it back from a massive surge of pain. I felt steam rise from the hole I punched. Curious, I glanced at my hand and gasped in horror. My hand was red. And covered in scales. With claws on the ends of my fingers instead of fingernails. I looked over my shoulder, suspicious, and, sure enough, there was a large, leathery, red wing obstructing my view.
I began laughing hysterically, "I see… You were right, Crono. Well, sort of. I'm not an emissary of Barog Firestorm. I AM Barog Firestorm!" I laughed a little more. "However, if I remember my own biggest weakness: I can't quite control my emotions. Let's just hope I can return to human form!" I groaned in pain as my wings and tail (yes, that's right, I had a tail) were being pulled slowly into my body. I was then swept over by a wave of flame that removed all the scales from my skin. There were some popping sounds, as well as a bit of pain, as my bones re-aligned (turns out I'm taller as Barog). Then I shook myself and blinked a couple times. "Wow, that hurt."
"But, My Lord, where be Lucca?" Glenn asked, still in awe. I felt something running down my face, and reached up to investigate. Tears. At last.
Crono answered Glenn his voice flat, "She's gone."
"Wherefore dost thou say 'gone?'"
"It's like he said, Glenn," I replied, tears still flowing, "she's gone. She died trying to destroy Lavos. But what about what happened afterwards? What happened to me, to make me Barog?"
Crono answered me, "Well, that what really freaked us out… There was this roar of rage as Lucca vanished, and, as it had come from your direction, I looked over. You were surrounded by flames of an almost unnatural heat. As I watched you transform, I realized just what you had said a little bit ago: that you were Barog Firestorm. You flew at Lavos and began carving chunks out of his shell and his eyelid.
"After that proved ineffective, you moved back and built up a ginormous fireball. You let it loose in a stream at Lavos' eye. It apparently hurt him a great deal, because he shrieked audibly. You stopped your assault and laughed, probably reveling in your power, which allowed Lavos a chance to blast you with some sort of ray. Like what got Lucca. Thankfully, it only knocked you out."
As Crono finished his tale, the Earthbound Elder entered the hut. He spoke to Crono for a little while then headed back out. We spent the night getting real sleep and in the morning we headed for the Commons to recover the Epoch, which survived and got wedged at the base of the mountain between some very hardy trees.
As we prepared to speak with the Elder, some fireballs flew in and exploded to either side of us. We spun around and I cursed. I had been so intent on grieving that I forgot all about Dalton's coup. We drew our swords and stood ready.
Dalton's guards flew in, making a path to us from the entrance. Dalton himself flew up to us just then and declared to everyone that he was now "King Dalton."
"You will never rule here, Dalton!" Crono spat.
"Hmph," Dalton turned around. "I recognize you three as the upstarts that tried to take out Lavos! If take you out, then I'll never be defeated!" Dalton waved his hand and a fireball flew at us. I stepped in its path and took the full force of the blow. Dalton began laughing, thinking he'd won.
"You're pitiful magic is no match for the God of Fire!" I laughed, dissipating the smoke with a couple beats with my wings. Yes, I had turned back into Barog, despite my mental instability.
"Then let's seen you handle this!" He waved his hand again and Crono and Glenn tensed. The relaxed two seconds later, when nothing appeared, and were taken from behind. So was I, as a matter of fact. It helped that whoever it was had hit the base of my skull with their staff, I think. I can't quite remember: I was falling unconscious.
---------------------------------------------
I woke with a headache that was probably caused by the vibration of my head against the floor, which appeared to be slightly melted where I was laying. I stood up and reverted to my human form, and just as I was about to rouse the other there was a flash of… something. It looked like a… memory?
--------------------------
There was a massive storm approaching, worse than any that had ever occurred throughout the Shadows. I heard a voice behind me, a voice that I knew commanded even my respect, yell something.
"Don't worry, Corwin! We'll keep the Chaos at bay!"
"You just finish the Pattern and we'll take it from there!" called someone else from my left. The voice was so confident as to be considered arrogant, but flowed like water through the air.
Through my feet, I heard from my right, "Barog. Once we finish with this, will you set a dragon as a guardian?"
"I was planning on doing that anyway, Gaia," I yelled back. "I'll probably leave a Blood Dragon so that only Corwin's family will be able to approach this new Pattern." As and after thought I added, "and us, just in case."
The scene began to fade out. The last words I heard were from the person to my left. "Why don't we call it the Progress instead?"
'Odd pronunciation,' I thought. It sounded like Pro (like professional)-gress.
--------------------------
"..oe! Joe! Wake up!" Crono was shaking me.
I sat up, Crono and Glenn moving aside. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I just had a flashback. On of my other's memories. The drawing of… the Progress?"
"The Progress!" exclaimed Glenn. "The mythical symbol that brought the world into being!"
"I guess you could say that… But really, it only made this world real. I heard an interesting name while I was remembering: Corwin." I stood up and rubbed my forehead. "I suspect that his full name was Corwin of Amber. And I have a book that explains some of his history. Only problem is, we, the Elementals, aren't mentioned in it at all."
"We can talk about that later," Crono interrupted. "Right now we need to get our stuff back and get out of here."
"Right." I walked them over to the ventilation shaft that was remarkably large enough that we could walk around in it comfortably. 'Now this is something good villains would never do,' I chuckled mentally.
We wandered a little bit until we found the main hanger, where Dalton was refitting the Epoch with wings. We watched for a moment until we knew what we needed to know about what he was doing. As we stood to go, I had another flashback.
--------------------------
A guy with blue skin and flowing aquamarine hair was grinning at me. I knew him to be Frigida, my brother. The arrogant God of Water. He was saying something, "So what'll be your contribution to the Progress?"
"As I said to Gaia earlier: there will be a Blood Dragon watching over the new Pattern," I replied, scornfully.
"I mean besides that." Frigida laughed. "I mean, Gaia's protecting the thing so that no ground based assault can break it, while Kaze's done nearly the same thing with the air. I've made it liquid proof, so that we won't have to get another one of these things drawn up. So what about you?"
"I guess I'll make it more chaotic. Tailz's Pattern is way too uptight about its precious Order, but on the other hand, Tobies's buddy, the Logrus, is far too Chaotic. So if this Pattern has some chaos thrown in, it'll be more neutral…"
--------------------------
I sat up and said, "Pattern plus Logrus equals PROgress. I get it now. Nice joke, Frigi. I guess you knew more than I thought you did at the time." Then I noticed that I had to sit up. I guess these flashbacks overload my human brain so much that I faint every time. Damn.
"Who's 'Frigi?'" asked Crono.
"Frigida, y'know?"
"Oh. What are the Pattern and the Logrus?"
"I'll just have you read the Great Book of Amber when we get back to the End of Time. It's explained in there. Now, shall we find our stuff?"
We descended to the main deck of the Blackbird and began wandering the halls. Every time we encountered an enemy, we beat them up with magic. I actually combined my limited Martial Arts skills, in which I had no actual training, with my magic, punching holes through the robots, and using my fist in place of my sword for Sonic Blade. We found Crono's stuff first, then Glenn's. Next came the gold, then finally my stuff. As soon as I had, I began falling.
"Not another flashback…" my words went into a mumble as the memory came through.
--------------------------
"So Gaia, why do you wear that armour all time?" I asked another of my brothers. I, nor any of my siblings have ever seen what Gaia really looks like, since he's always wrapped up in his earth-tone armour. We were walking through his favourite Shadow at the time, through one of the more scenic valleys.
"You don't want to know," came the reply, through my feet.
"That's another thing." I stopped walking. "Why do you always talk through the ground! When fighting in mid-air you never say a word! Use your real voice, man!"
Gaia stopped and turned towards me "That will only happen in the most dire of situations." Gaia sunk into the ground, vanishing from sight. Infuriated, I blew up the trees around me. Which was a pity, for they were such a dazzling red.
--------------------------
I stood up again. "That Gaia," I sighed. "He's always been a such an enigma…"
We continued through the ship, this time knowing where we were going. I knew where the exit to the left wing was, and I picked up our items as we went through the door. As the wind rushed over us, I felt slightly dizzy. I grabbed Crono.
"Another flashback comin' through." I said. And promptly collapsed.
--------------------------
"Though I doubt we'll really need much in the way of a plan to fight him, we should be prepared," commanded the man across from me. He wore a greenish-yellow general's outfit with a Ulysses S. Grant-style hairdo. He was Kaze, General to the Gods, and God of the Wind. "Six against one may favour us, but only two of us can hurt him." and he launched into complicated battle plans that, if not done properly, he said, could cause any of us to die and be absorbed by Absolute Evil Elemental, my fourth and worst brother.
About halfway through the plans, Frigida suddenly summoned his halberd, Tsunami, and ran out of the tent, screaming his name: "FRIGIDA ICESTORM!"
I smacked my forehead. "Oh, he did not just do that."
"He did it." commented someone over my shoulder…
--------------------------
"Damn that arrogant Frigida," I muttered upon waking. "I may not remember the outcome of that battle, but I get the feeling he got what he deserved."
I looked around. We were back inside the Blackbird, just off the wing. 'They must've brought me back in to keep me from falling off. I wonder what they're doing…'
"Ah, Joe. Thou art awake," Glenn spoke from behind me. "Crono is currently searching the vessel for rations. We doubted that Dalton wouldst leave his troops with naught to eat."
"And it's not like they'll need 'em. Since they happen to be dead."
"True. Thus was our reasoning."
"I think I found some really good stuff," Crono said as he came back in. He had a bag over his back that smelled of, well, FOOD!
Crono opened the bag and dumped out the contents. There were t least three cans of my favourite food were there in the pile. Most of the food was fruits or vegetables, but there was SPAM™! SPAM™! I was so happy! I didn't think Spam™ existed in this world! I ripped open a can, cooked the meat with my magic, and began chowing down, stopping occasionally to eat a carrot or apple.
After we finished the meal, we headed out for the wing again. Fighting against the wind, we made our way to the far end, and it was quite the hike. I think they must've really screwed up the proportions in the making of the game. Then, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
"There be a presence," Glenn muttered.
"It's Dalton's Golem King. But we won't have too much to worry about: he's afraid of heights," I laughed a little, but cut it short when the Dimensional Rift appeared. As I had said, the Golem King was CRAP! We just talked to him, and he ran, grateful that we let him live.
Suddenly, a silver streak went by out of the corner of my eye. It was Dalton in the Epoch, now that it could fly. I quickly transformed into Barog in a flash of fire (it was becoming easier every time, but no less painful), grabbed Glenn and Crono by the wrists, and ran for the front of the wing. I leapt off, and flew for the Epoch, holding my friends up by sheer determination. I landed on the nose of the Epoch and set the others down. Dalton opened the cockpit to fight us, and I grabbed his wrist. I told Crono of Dalton's modifications and carried Dalton off to the wing of the Blackbird.
When I dropped him off, he said, "So, all the 'Great God of Fire' is gonna do is leave me on my own ship?" He began laughing. "If that's all you're capable of doing, it's no wonder you girlfriend was killed by Lavos!"
I was instantly surrounded by fire. "That's the wrong thing to say, Dolton." I was also instantly angry. I knew it wasn't this guy's fault Lucca died, but he was pissing me off by using her. I flew back and moved my right hand in front of me. "Let's see if you remember this. Welcome to Barog Firestorm's BIG BANG ATTACK!" I built up a fireball four times bigger than the one I had used against Sephiroth and shot it at Dalton. He summoned an ice wall and stopped the attack, though I could tell his little shield wouldn't last much longer. "WELCOME TO OBLIVION!" I threw another fireball of the same size at the wall, exploding it and half the wing. I then caught Dalton's heat signature moving across the wing for the entrance. I flew over and grabbed him, flying over to deposit him on the front of the ship.
I flew off a ways and began charging another attack. Though I was now Barog, my spells and other fire controlling abilities still hurt like hell. I chanted the name of my attack, knowing it to be one he's not yet seen. "Ka… me… ha… me…" Dalton threw a humongous icicle my way and I broke myself and my fireball into pure heat energy, flying directly into Dalton's face before re-materializing. "HAAAAA!" My Flaming Warp Kamehameha not only destroyed Dalton sufficiently, but managed to finish destroying the Blackbird entirely.
"Well," I muttered as I headed for the landed Epoch, "I guess I was wrong, Magus: Dalton does die!" I laughed my head off as I descended to the ground, returning to human at the last second. "Well, guys. Let's go recruit us a new team mate."
"Who?" wondered Crono. I led Crono and Glenn to the North Cape, where we found Magus waiting.
"Magus. It's good to see you again," I said. Glenn drew the Masamune.
"Going to kill me now, you stupid frog? Now why would you want to do that, after you saved my life three days ago?" Magus chuckled.
"Joe, what's he talking about?" asked Crono.
"Guys, meet Prince Janus Zeal, also known as: The Prophet." I said. Magus turned to face us.
"However, I do not want to be called by that name ever again. Or at least not until we kill Lavos."
Glenn stood there, glaring at Magus. "If thou art truly out to slay Lavos. I shall spare thee until-"
"Hold on a sec," Magus interrupted. "I want to get rid of that annoying accent my magic gave you." He snapped his fingers and a blue spark raced towards Glenn's throat.
"What was that, you weirdo?" Glenn yelled, then blinked at his own voice. "I sound like me again!"
"But why didn't you change him back to human, too?" I asked.
"When I attacked Lavos, he drained most of my spells and magic power. I don't yet have enough strength to return you to full human form."
"Then when we beat Lavos?" Glenn asked.
"We'll see."
We spoke with Magus some more, then headed back to the Epoch. We piled in, Crono piloting, and we headed for the End of Time.
"Being powerful is like being a Lady, if you have to tell people you are, you aren't"
-Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady.