A Step Onto Chronos Chapter Twenty-Three
The Case of the Missing Rainbow
By: Shadic the Hedgehog
All eight of us were prepared for battle, in case the guards in Guardia Castle didn't want to let us in to see the King's trial. Especially since Crono, as well as possibly Lucca and myself, were wanted in Guardia. It didn't take us as long to get there as it would have normally, as we had a few methods of flying available to us, so instead of it taking three days to get to the Guardia, it only took us one. As we entered the castle, we heard a shout.
"Princess Nadia!" Not long after, the fake Chancellor walked in, seemingly uncaring about the fact that Crono was standing in the middle of the party, and was wanted for treason. "You had me worried, Princess! I understand your feelings, of course. The King places his realm above all else. It was the same even when your mother, Queen Aliza, passed away."
"W-what?" gasped Marle. Yakra XIII turned away, likely to hide his evil smirk at a successful manipulation.
"Oh, child... Forget I said anything." Marle started for him, to confront him directly about his words, but Crono put his hand on her shoulder, before whispering the word "trap" in her ear. Yakra XIII seemed to slouch slightly after a little while before walking away, then he commented. "Oh, and now that you've finally returned, won't you go see the King? His trial is due to start any minute now..."
The throne room doors shut before any of us could protest about the sudden change in schedule. Marle turned to face us.
"What kind of trap was it?" she demanded.
"That wasn't actually the Chancellor. It's a fake by the name of Yakra XIII," Crono explained. "Joe told me quite a bit about it last night, after you fell asleep in the forest. He wanted to get you mad and blame your dad for your mom's death."
"When really, from what I recall, she had a terrible and terminal illness," I said. "I also read some recent history back when Lucca and I were about to spring Crono from the jail, which mentioned that there was a doctor here who tried to heal her, but couldn't, so he closed up shop. Last anyone saw of him he was leaving for the El Nido Archipelago."
"Don't we have a trial to be interrupting?" grumbled Magus.
"Right, right. Lets go." We all walked off to the right side of the entrance hall and up the stairs to the court room. Two soldiers stood in our way.
"Entry is forbidden."
"You have no idea who you're talking to, do you?" I said. "First, we have Princess Nadia herself, followed by your greatest enemy from the past, Magus, along with the great hero Sir Glenn. I'd list off the rest, but I think that should be sufficient."
"Entry is forbidden." I sighed.
"Damn NPCs."
"LET ME THROUGH!" Marle screamed, prompting everyone else to put our hands over our ears. The guards jumped away in shock and Marle dashed in, but before the rest of us could approach, the guards stood in our way again. Several of us prepared to fight, but Crono asked us to stand down, Marle was the only one who needed to get in there.
After a minute or two, Marle came back out and explained to us that we needed to find the Rainbow Shell, placed somewhere in the castle, to free her father. We headed for the basement on the same side of the castle, as I knew that that's where it had been placed.
As we descended the steps, I could hear trace amounts of hissing laughter, which grew louder as we went further down. Just as we reached the bottom step, We could hear the conversation of two serpent Mystics.
"Looks like the boss is finally going to settle the score on his thirteen generation grudge!" Followed by more hissing laughter.
"Yeah, he's gonna get that king good with all that false evidence!" The two laughed again, but their laughter was short lived as Magus appeared behind them and swung his scythe, cutting their heads off.
"Idiots," I muttered as we walked along. "Never talk about you boss's plans where you can be overheard. Especially if you're just lackeys."
"Didn't do them much good anyway, though," countered Crono.
"True." We continued down the hallway, which was filled with a great deal of treasure that sorely tempted the hoarding dragon within me. Any enemy that appeared before us was quickly dispatched before they could get an attack in, as each usually had at least two or three attacks flying at them each.
It wasn't long before we reached the Rainbow Shell itself, it's radiance dimmed by the lack of sunlight, but still glorious by way of the torches lining the walls. One spot was quite obviously not shiny, due to the four-hundred year old note laid upon it. We approached and Marle pulled off the note, with Lucca reading it over her shoulder. I snapped off a reasonably sized piece to be used as evidence of the Shell's presence in the castle, when the girls finished reading the note.
"Knows just what to say, doesn't she?" chuckled Lucca.
"Too true, but right now, we have more important things to worry about!" I displayed the Rainbow Shard and we dashed away, moving even faster than before thanks to having cleared out all the enemies from the passage on the way in. We ran up to the courtroom to demand re-entry, Marle once again leading.
"I'm sorry, but the verdict is being cast right now, no entrance is permitted by anyone," answered the soldier.
Marle frowned and turned to the rest of the party. "Alright, there should be one more way in, but it might be a bit rough. Most of you should stay here and wait for the signal to enter. Joe, Barog's help would make things a lot easier."
I nodded and transformed, not bothering with being flashy and just transforming all at once. Marle lead me to a balcony as near to the courtroom as she could and pointed to the stained glass window. I grabbed her hands and picked her up, flying to the window at the back of the courtroom. Voices could be heard from within.
"A verdict has been reached! Five votes of Guilty to one Not Guilty! The defendant, King Guardia XXXIII, has been found guilty as charged."
The false Chancellor was trying to whisper his glee, but my newly sensitive hearing picked up his voice. "The line of Guardia has ended. This kingdom shall be mine!" Then, louder. "Take him away!"
At this point Marle shouted her own order. "WAIT!"
"Who said that?!" demanded Yakra XIII. Then there was a collective gasp as everyone (apparently) caught sight of our silhouette in the window. I flew forward, smashing open the glass, as Marle called out to her dad.
"Nadia!" "Princess!" shouted Yakra and the King at the same time, but the fake Chancellor continued.
"You're too late! His Grace has been found guilty! Not even a King is above the law!"
"Not when everything was a set-up!" I said, setting Marle on the ground.
"Nonsense! The King is a crook! He sold-"
"He sold nothing," I spat. "We found the Rainbow Shell, under guard by a pair of lackeys belonging to our dear faker here."
"And here's the proof!" Marle pulled out the Rainbow Shard and nearly everyone was blinded by the intense light that reflected off it from the sun shining through the window. That was the signal that brought the others through the doors of the courtroom, the guards on the other side apparently knocked out as well. Marle put the Shard away and we turned to Yakra XIII.
"Give it up, faker, your little scheme has failed." He looked at the floor, before his body started quivering.
"Heh heh..." We all reached for our weapons. "Hee hee hee! You're the ones who ought to give it up! If I can't avenge my ancestor the easy way, I'll just have to do it the hard way..." He began to glow as the judge, most of the audience, and the King fled the room. "Super, Ultra, Presto, TRANSFORM-O!"
"You'll go down just as easily as the first, Yakra XIII!" I shouted. The battle was over far too quickly, but that should have been expected with nearly three times as many people as should have been there. Oh, it was a little difficult to fight in such a confined space, but after Yakra XIII crushed the podium in the center of the room and part of the judge's bench with his charge attack, we gained more manoeuvre-room. He claimed that Yakra I had given him our secret weakness, but his weird spinning needle attack thingy barely did anything. I countered him with both my magic and the fact that we killed his ancestor long before he could divulge any secret weakness.
After he faded away, just like every other Mystic we'd fought, I picked up the key to the chest containing the real Chancellor, swiftly returning to my own form. As Marle and her father had their bonding moment, I quickly snuck out the door, intent on freeing the Chancellor as soon as I could. I was stopped in the hall by Melchior.
"Well, well. Quite the performance you put on in there, Master Firestorm," he chuckled.
"You knew I was Barog?"
"Why, yes. As the Guru of Life, I had to well acquainted with all the great legends dealing with the world, which was one of the reasons I never got involved in the Lavos business. Gaspar was always too busy working on his Time Egg, which I see turned out favourably, by Miss Ashtear's presence, while Belthasar was all about the philosophy of Nu. Drove us bonkers when he'd bring it up." We both laughed. "In any case, since I saw that there was actually a Rainbow Shell here, I was thinking of asking permission to make something out of it, that sort of material is very rare, especially here on the mainland. I shall talk with you later, perhaps?"
"Of course. Right now, I'm going to be freeing the real Chancellor from where this Yakra sealed him away. Er, could you please mention that to everyone for me? I'm not sure if anyone noticed me slip out, but if they suddenly wonder where I am...?"
"It is no trouble. Fare thee well."
"You too." We both continued on our ways, though mine took me all the way to the west wing of the castle, whereas his only took him a few floors down. The Chancellor, who was actually a fairly nice guy once I got the chance to talk to him, which was on the way to the throne room. I then apologized for stepping on his hands so hard back when we broke Crono out, because I had thought he was Yakra XII in disguise. He then informed me that it actually wasn't long after that that he had been locked in the box, though Yakra kept him alive to "refresh his form" or something like that.
I joined with everyone else as we walked out the door. Crono turned to me. "So, what's next on the list, Joe?"
"We've got only three side quests left. The Sun Stone, the Geno Dome, and the Black Omen itself. Fortunately, the first two start in AD 2300, so we can do the same thing we did for the Hero's Grave and the Rainbow Shell. Robo's needed for Geno Dome, because he was built there, whilst Magus and I would be good choices for the Sun Stone mission."
"I'll go with you on the Sun Stone mission, Joe," said Lucca.
"I'll go with Robo to Geno Dome," volunteered Glenn.
"Ayla go with Robo, too!" Ayla cheered.
"Hmm, I think that I'll do the Sun Stone thing with Joe, Magus, and Lucca," said Crono. "Guess that means you're going to the factory with Robo, Marle."
"That's alright," she smiled. "I'm sure we'll be alright."
We went separately to Proto Dome, where I informed them of how pretty much straight-forward the Sun Stone quest was, only it required us to travel through time more than them, so we got the Epoch after dropping off Robo's team at Geno Dome (which didn't actually have a dome over it). As I figured, the Sun Temple was a straight hallway to the eye-thing known as the Son of Sun. before we reached it, I started to explain the battle.
"There was a trick in the game that could be used to make this battle really easy, which is why Magus is here. Magus, you do have enough power to cast Dark Hole, right?"
"Yes, I do."
"Good. You and I will be absorbing the little flames that the Son of Sun uses to shield itself from attack until only the true heart of the boss is left. It's the only one that Dark Hole won't affect, so we should be good there. Crono, you and Lucca should have the most obvious tactic: attack the shield flames until you hit the heart flame. It will cast Flare if you get the wrong one, but I'll leave some attention to absorbing those while I work on the flames." I held up my hand and covered it in flame, before spreading it across my body in a very flashy manner, my wings and tail forming from their own fiery outlines in a very artistic (to my already warping mind) way. I smirked with pride and strode forward, expecting the others to follow me.
The battle started with the opening of the Son's eye, before it was surrounded by far more flames than I recalled there being before. But in my arrogant state of mind, I paid that fact no mind and simply started absorbing the flames, as Magus cast a few Dark Holes before he collapsed from magical exhaustion. Crono and Lucca set off a few Flares that I dutifully absorbed, but without warning the power behind those spells and the magical flames I was already absorbing started to make me giddy and more arrogant, my power was growing with every flame I absorbed and eventually I had absorbed every flame, including the heart one.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had steadily been growing larger with every bit of power I had absorbed, though I had perceived it as the Sun shrinking as it /lost/ power. I then picked up the eye in my hand, itself no bigger than my own eye at the time, and crushed it, absorbing the last of the fire within it. That's when things went from "arrogant" to "ass."
"Heh heh heh... Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA! I am all powerful! There is nothing in this world greater than I am, not even the pebble Lavos! I am UNBEATABLE! HAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"
The others (except for Magus) informed me later that they were terrified at my sudden change of heart. I hadn't looked at the party, either, until Lucca whispered my name in fear.
"J-Joe? What's going on?" I glanced at the party with contempt born of pride evident on my face.
"My power has grown stronger, my true self awakened! I will kill Lavos myself! The rest of you are unnecessary!" I walked towards the door, compressing my form to leave through the door when Magus grabbed my arm.
"What the HELL do you think you're-" I cut him off with a light backhand to the face, sending him almost tumbling into the lava on the side of the catwalk.
"Never speak to me in that way again, Magus. It will not be tolerated." My eyes narrowed when I saw Crono step in view, sword held at the ready. "Please. Do you REALLY think you can fight ME? I am Barog Firestorm, the God of Fire!" Now, it is at this point in the story I must remind you that, yes, Barog is one of the Good Gods. But even the greatest of heroes can get lost in the heat of the moment, and with Barog's emotions, every second is the "heat of the moment."
"I shouldn't have to fight you. You're one of us!" Crono pleaded.
I laughed. "One of you? I am no more human than I am Mystic! I. Am. A. GOD!"
"But that didn't stop you from joining us. That didn't stop you from deciding to stick with us. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS!"
I reached for the Murasame, but found my hand repelled by the hilt of my sword, the pain too great to bear, stronger even than my power of Fire. I made it appear as though I had merely decided against drawing it and manifested flames in both hands. "A 'good guy?' Yes, I would even go so far as to call myself a hero. But that doesn't mean I need mortal help anymore." I reared an arm back to throw the fireball, when sudden footsteps came from off to my side, a pair of arms wrapping around me. Crono looked shocked, Magus's eyes had widened almost imperceptibly, and my overwhelming pride was quickly swept away by overwhelming confusion as I noted that the arms weren't trying to crush me. They were rather gentle, in fact. And accompanied by the sound of crying.
"Please Joe, come back to us," cried Lucca. Her voice softened slightly as she added. "Come back to me." Then, even softer, "I love you." My conscience seized that sentence and pulled up every memory I had of Lucca, and I found myself overwhelmed again, by a new form of emotional serenity. I changed back and quickly turned around before nearly crushing her with a hug of my own. Tears spilled down my face.
"I love you, too," I whispered hoarsely. "I love you, too." We looked into each other's eyes for what seemed the longest moment of my life before we leaned towards each other. I could feel her heart beating alongside mine, in almost perfect rhythm. I could hear her breath, my senses seeming to become greater than they had been when I was Barog. Our lips made contact and-
"Would you two cut the mushy crap?" growled Magus. "We're here for the Sun Stone, dammit." Fire burned in my eyes as Lucca and I turned to face him, the moment lost.
"Are you a masochist, Magus? Perhaps one who likes to burn himself? BECAUSE YOU SURE AS HELL SEEM TO LIKE TEMPTING ME INTO ROASTING YOU!" Lucca glared at him as well, and Crono was almost just as pissed. Magus sighed out his nose turning to follow the path further into the Sun Temple. Crono smiled at us gently and turned to follow.
"Now," I asked, "where were we?" Lucca giggled and we resumed our kiss.
"Just who the hell do you think I am?!"
-Kamina, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
A/N: And after nearly three-quarters of a year, I get inspiration again! It's actually because I started playing Chrono Cross and keep thinking about the sequel I had planned ever since I first played it. Can't start a sequel without finishing the first story!
As for the last scene, I've had it planned ever since waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in chapter nine, when I decided I was going to pair up Lucca with Barog-me. I should probably also mention that it was not at all inspired by the season finale of Ben 10: Alien Force's scene between Gwen and Kevin. Outside of this particular pairing, I'm actually quite the fan of LuMa (Lucca/Magus). There's another planned surprise for next chapter, then there's only two to go before the end!
I was thinking of trying to incorporate the new dungeons for CTDS in the story, just to confuse the hell out of the me in the story (who is, btw, fourteen and left our world in 2002). Then I noted that since this me had killed Dalton, his role in that one Rift wouldn't work anymore, and from what I've read the "hidden forest" or whatever one that has you running between Prehistoria and the Middle Ages is rather boring and convoluted, so I scrapped that idea.
Oh, and since "Kid" is a really dumb name for a kid, can anyone suggest a good name for her when Barog-Joe and Lucca adopt her?