Oh, and sorry I didn't get this up sooner. I was busy with some engraving stuff.
Quick Quote Quorrection: The previous chapter's quote was not said by Eleanor Roosevelt, this is my mistake as I was trying to recall the whole thing from memory. The quote was instead said by Margaret Thatcher.
A Step Onto Chronos Chapter 16
The Chrono Trigger and the Black Blade.
By: Shadic the Hedgehog
AS we re-entered the End of Time, Spekkio came running up to us with urgent news. He was different this time: I was already seeing him as a pink Nu. Wow, I was already the equivalent of level …
"Guys! Somethin' black, sharp, and thin just showed up in my room, and I think you guys have something to do with it!" We followed him back to his room and there it was, laying in the middle of the floor: the blade of the Murasamé . "I've already had Ayla and Robo try to peel it off the floor, but it wouldn't budge and I thought maybe one of you… Wait a tic, where's Lucca? And who's the Shadow Mage?"
"Didn't Gaspar tell you?" I asked. "She died, defending us against Lavos. As for him, this is-"
"MAGUS!" cried Marle from behind me. I turned and saw her, crossbow loaded and aimed at Magus' head. "What did you do with Lucca!"
"I did nothing, you silly girl," Magus replied coolly. "The girl's undoing was her own. As they say-"
"Play with fire and you get burned," I finished. "And don't speak so nonchalantly about her again. She saved your life, and your sister's too, y'know. Oh, and right then you were 'playing with fire.' Particularly the flame standing right beside you."
"My apologies, Master Firestorm." Magus sneered as he bowed mockingly. I was about to blast him with a fireball, since I was getting a little pissed.
"Um, guys? There's still a magical blade sitting in the middle of my floor. So if you don't mind, SHUT UP!" That immediately did the trick, as we all stared at the outburst from the Master of War.
"Fine," I muttered. "Let me give it a try, it used to be my father's sword after all." As I headed for it Crono suddenly remembered something.
"That's right! I just remembered you mentioning the disappearance of your sword when we met you!"
"And it seems it had an unusual reaction to the Mammon Machine when it re-appeared, turning into the Murasame." I finished my short walk and reached down for the sword. I tugged and tugged, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, I transformed to Barog, in hopes that his immense strength would let me rip the sword of the ground. But to no avail. The friggin' thing wouldn't budge! I was about to blow the floor around it away when I was suddenly incased in ice. Very PAINFUL ice. I changed back and shattered the ice with a small Flame Shield, drying myself at the same time.
"Pitiful," muttered Magus as Glenn took his turn. I glared and he knew not to say anything more. Glenn was just as successful as I was, even touching the blade with the Masamune didn't help. Magus then shoved Glenn out of the way. "Let me handle this." And the moment he touched the blade something happened.
There was a sort of anti-light shining (or unshining?) from the sword, making things appear as they would in a film negative (freaky experience I don't wish to repeat) and two figures appeared. Exact mirrors of Masa and Mune. Speaking of them, they instantly materialized from Glenn's sheath, the Masamune vanishing temporarily.
"Mura! Samé!" exclaimed Masa and Mune together. "What happened to you guys? You just suddenly up and vanished!" They went to hug their brothers, but jumped back quickly, smoke rising from where they had touched.
"We were sealed within the Mammon Machine," explained one calmly. "The Queen believed that in order to attract Lavos, she needed a source of extreme magical might."
"Dat's right, yo," said the other. "We was sealed 'til that sword stuck inta da machine. Oh, 'n' it seems we been changed, dude."
I stared in disbelief at the "Gangster Finori" until his brother spoke up. "Samé is correct. We have apparently been transformed into exact polar opposites of you and other magical beings." Ah, so the Vulcan was Mura and the gangster was Samé. Good to get that cleared up.
"So, what now?" asked Glenn. It was odd hearing him talk like a normal person. Well, except for the cloak.
"Like our bros that you with, ya gotta beat us up ta get us ta go with ya," Samé explained. "We gotta fight, dudes."
"I see," I replied. "And are there any special rules to this fight?"
"You must fight us using the same number of people, if not the same party, that you fought Masa and Mune with."
"There were four of you, if I remember correctly," said Masa, counting off the number on his four-fingered hands. "Crono, Joe, Marle, and Lu…cca…" He finished stutteringly, as he glanced in my direction.
I patted him on the head, "Don't worry about it. She'll come back soon enough. We just have to get the Chrono Trigger from Gaspar and a clone from Nornstein Bekkler."
"Oh." He looked puzzled. He and Mune turned back into a sword and re-sheathed themselves. We prepared. Crono sent Glenn out to bring Robo in, letting Marle stay for the fight. We were still one over, and so Magus, Crono, and I engaged in a game of Janken. We went for it ten times before Magus finally won with a scissors, pitting me and Crono against each other. I won in three tries, using paper over Crono's rock.
Crono walked dejectedly over to Spekkio, who wouldn't allow himself to interfere with this fight, and crossed his arms to watch. It was actually kinda funny to see him grumpy, this being the first bit of adventure he didn't participate in since our first trip to 65 mil. BC.
Mura and Samé led off the attack with an Antipode spell on me. I shuddered as I froze, getting hurt a little by the ice, only to be healed when the fire freed me! Apparently Barog's fire immunity/healing crossed over to me completely after my transformation. I blasted Samé with a Point Flare, but it didn't seem to do anything. Magus was using a Dark Bomb on Mura, but also to no avail. Robo used his Uzzi Punch (Which I didn't even know he knew) on Samé, bloodying up his face to a pulp.
I added on to Robo's attack with a Kamehameha Blast, but when the smoke cleared, Samé was good as new! Magus and Marle were having just as much trouble with Mura: after Marle shot him full of bolts, Magus would use Dark Bomb and the bolts would fall out of him without leaving scars!
"I have a hypothesis," said Robo. "It appears that Mura and Samé are healed by any form of magic. Let us concentrate on physical damage instead."
"Right." We all nodded and Magus pulled out his scythe.
"I'm not very good at martial combat," Magus muttered.
"What's this?" I mocked. "Humility? Well, now's your chance to get better!" I charged forward with the Crystal Blade, going right into a Sonic Blade attack, which I combined with Robo's Uzzi Punch so that after I made one pass, he would grab me and pull me back. I called it, afterwards, the Boomerang Blade.
Magus was dancing around Mura, slicing him aplenty, while Marle aimed around him, putting more bolts in Mura. Eventually, Mura and Samé jumped back.
"Yo' good! But now we get serious, dudes!" You can guess who that was.
Magus raised an eyebrow, "Now you're getting serious?"
"That is what my brother said," replied Mura.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Watch." Mura and Samé jumped to opposite sides of the room an did their own Finori Fusion, only instead of a dark hole appearing where they were to show, it was a bright light that faded away to reveal MuraSame.
Marle healed us at the start of the battle, I moved over to Robo and Magus and explained a triple tech we could do naught but physical damage. Magus didn't like the idea, but went along with it so that we could get this over with. Robo grabbed Magus and I by the arm and we ran to either side of the spotlight in the center of the room. Marle, who had overheard us, jumped onto Robo's head to stay out of the way and distracted MuraSamé for us with her X-bow.
Magus and I nodded to each other, then to Robo, who began a Laser Spin, arms still out, I held out my sword as Magus held his scythe. And we began flying about the room. I changed into Barog partway to get some aerodynamics from my wings, while Magus had his cloak (I didn't hurt that he could hover, too). Robo's Lasers, being non-magical damage, sliced right after our blades went by, cauterising the wound after we made it. We finished and MuraSame began teetering, but quickly recovered.
Marle had been stationary on Robo's head, and worked on sniping MuraSame in the head. There was a quiet twang and the bolt appeared right between his eyes. He went cross-eyed and fell backwards, fading into sparkles as he went. The sparkles gathered together in two different spots and coalesced back into Mura and Samé.
"You dudes ROCK!" exclaimed Samé. "Not even those soldier peeps in Zeal coulda done dat!"
"I concur. You deserve to hold the Black Blade of the anti-magic sword," Mura bowed and he and Samé vanished back into the blade.
"Now we just need to find the hilt," I muttered. Then brightened as Magus handed me the blade and a weird-looking pin.
"The pin is known as the Shadow Badge, and was next to the Murasame when I found it. It seemed to have the same effect on this sword as the Hero's Badge does on the Masamune."
"Thanks. Now, let's go talk to Gaspar about getting Lucca back!" We all marched out of the room and surrounded Gaspar, I was putting the blade into the Bag of Holding and changing back from Barog as I walked. I put the Shadow Badge on and approached Gaspar.
"It seems you've been through quite a lot," Gaspar muttered. "And yes, I have a Time Egg right here." He held out his hand and I held mine out as well, but he didn't put the Chrono Trigger into my hand!
"What's the deal? Give it here so we can revive Lucca!" I was starting to get mad, and flames began whirling around my arms.
"Before I do that, let me ask you this: Why are you going to revive her? What does she mean to you?"
"I… I'm not sure…" I muttered. The flames died down around my arms and I looked into his eyes.
"I see. Just by looking into your eyes, I can tell." He grinned and reached out for my hand, then placed the Time Egg in my palm. "Go. And don't forget your feelings. Don't give up what you hold dear."
We walked over to the pillar for Leene's Square and activated it. Next stop: Nornstein Bekkler.
"He who does not live in some degree for others, hardly lives for himself,"
-Michel de Montaigne