Start Date: April 21, 2023

Windwillow

A Masterpiece of Revenge

Part III: Black into White

Scene One

Zeal was gone, and similarly Lavos was no more. The combined efforts of a motley crew of time travelers witnessed the ends of both these mighty entities, and in fact destroyed the latter. To do this they'd traveled through era after era using mysterious time-space distortions called Gates, also utilizing the Guru Belthasar's "Wings of Time" to both travel through time and cross the world at near light-speed. With the destruction of their nemesis the team was dissolved, each member of the party returning to their own individual eras. One notable exception was the enigmatic Magus, formerly the prince of the Kingdom of Zeal. Rather than surrender his weapon and retire in peace he had decided to return to the era he had been born in - 12,000 B.C.E. - in search of his missing sister Schala. Schala had been lost in the cataclysm of the Ocean Palace Incident, and was nowhere to be found even in the aftermath of their world-shaking battles.

Magus had indeed returned to his own era, but had refused to settle with the survivors of the cataclysm. Instead, he searched every open corner of land that remained above the sea, only to find nothing but emptiness and disappointment. Nowhere he searched contained his sister, and as time went on his anger continued to build until it seemed ready to burst. As he stood at the northern cape of the largest surviving landmass, Magus stared out at the endless ocean that contained the remains of his fallen land, and felt only disgust; at Lavos, at the world, and at himself. The seas churned, though their winds were soft. Magus stood at the front of the northern cape, staring out into the emptiness that was once his kingdom. He grit his teeth, angrily blasting a nearby tree to bits with a blast of flame, but it couldn't satiate his anger. Instead, it only accelerated its impending escalation. In his hand was a strange, white sphere, one he'd been given by a former acquaintance.

"This is endless..." he hissed. He'd searched everywhere in the world that wasn't sunken into the sea, and had come up empty. If she was anywhere on the face of the planet, he hadn't found her, and he likely never would. Whatever happened at the Ocean Palace had clearly been even worse than he'd originally suspected. His eye turned to the sphere, and his grip began to steadily tighten. "This had better work, or I'll find some way to castrate him for lying to me!" snarled Magus, his fingers finally shattering the orb into bits.

When the sphere was shattered an immediate gust of air passed through the cape, its mighty winds ripping open the earth beneath and incinerating the dying grass that carpeted it. From beneath Magus' feet a tiny black circle began to form, which soon collapsed into a singularity that warped the very fabric of time and space and drew it in to an endless void. As the darkness receded and a faint light shone in the distance, Magus angrily tightened his fist when he saw the old man ahead of him, wearing a bowler hat and plain brown robes. Gaspar had long ago traded in his ornate red robes and ruby-tipped staff for more casual attire, and since his present garb was much more comfortable it was unlikely he'd change back.

The old man propped his head up, and he tipped his hat to the cloaked figure in front of himself. "I see you decided to accept my invitation, Janus?" Gaspar asked calmly. Referencing his former name immediately caused Magus' eye to twitch, but he said nothing as he walked towards the former Guru. "Did you find your peace with the world," he wondered, "or do you still insist on grappling on to your old demons?"

"Stuff it," growled Janus, his fingers wildly twitching before forming into a fist. Reluctantly he loosened his fingers, folded his arms over his chest, and sighed. "You said this thing would lead me back here. I'm assuming that means you can help me..." he murmured. A wicked gleam formed in his eye as he narrowed it at Gaspar, something that filled the old man with a horrible sense of dread. "If you can't, I'm going to gut you," said Janus coldly.

Flashing a wry smile, Gaspar snapped his fingers, causing a large door to form in the rear of his personal space, the End of Time, and he beckoned Janus to join him. As Janus followed close behind Gaspar opened the door, revealing a large, empty space that seemingly contained nothing but emptiness. No furniture, no colors, nothing. All that there was there were a few columns and a large, empty space.

"Is this your idea of a joke, you old bat?!" snarled Janus. As lightning licked his fingertips, he testily lifted his hand at Gaspar with clear malice. Before he could strike, however, Gaspar palmed a tiny blue orb, which immediately silenced the warlock. He'd give Gaspar one final chance. If he didn't deliver, he really would disembowel him. "I don't feel like bickering with you," he growled, "but if this takes any longer I'm inclined to change my mind."

As the orb floated about his opened palm, Gaspar lifted his other hand to cup it around the sphere. "The Planet's been saved, and the Gates are closed... I have no way of leaving the End of Time, even if I wanted to," he said. When he'd first developed the idea it had been an idle thought, though when the plan came together it made for a very pleasant existence at the End of Time. "Makes a fellow awfully bored..." sighed Gaspar idly.

"Tell me what you're jabbering about! Now!" Janus screeched, a streak of lightning forming in his palm. As a deranged look formed on his face, the former prince's eye began to erratically twitch. His patience, such as it was, was waning, and Gaspar's very fate lay in the balance if he didn't deliver. Soon.

Gaspar responded by clapping his hands together, which caused the blue orb to compress inside his grip. Rays of light shot from between his fingers, then he laid his hand on a steel pedestal that slowly appeared behind him. When his fingers parted, the sphere had expanded into a huge, clear orb that hovered silently in front of the Guru. Gaspar laid his hand on what seemed to be nothing, but when he tightened his grip a yellow ball formed between his fingers and formed a small sphere atop its pedestal.

"I made a bargain with the big man upstairs... and Spekkio. The Planet's very grateful that we solved its Lavos infestation," said Gaspar wryly, "so I was offered a tiny concession to alleviate my boredom. I haven't really tested it out much yet, because I figured you'd come storming back here. So, I decided to wait."

"What the hell is it?!" snarled Janus. The electricity between his fingers expanded into a wild storm of crackling white lightning. As it did, his eyes became bloodshot and a single blood vein grew on his temple. This was Gaspar's absolute last chance. Then, he would slaughter the old man.

Loosening his grip on the yellow orb, Gaspar pressed his palm into it and it began to warp like clay. Once he'd fully enveloped his hand several blank white screens appeared in front of him that fizzled with electricity. With Janus staring on in shock, Gaspar stretched out his hand and a clear, crystalline console formed in front of his body. It lit up with many screens and other platforms that lit the entire room a bright blue color.

"Allow me to introduce my newest creature comfort. It doesn't have a name, since I never felt like getting all fancy and naming it like some people like to do," Gaspar grinned. "This is a system that allows me to look through time and research various things. People... places... events... It's been calibrated to search each of the time periods that the Planet selected for its mission. I can use it to watch everything from earth-shattering events to television programs from across the world. I've become quite fond of the nature documentaries, actually."

"You... you..." choked Janus, his mind blank as the lightning he held dispersed into static. He immediately grasped the implications of Gaspar's new device, and it etched a fragile smile onto his face. "So that's it. We can use it to search for my sister," he said as his mania began to escalate. So, the old bat did have some way to help him. It was a great stroke of fortune for Gaspar as well; Janus' words had been more than an empty threat.

Scene Two

"There are certain limitations, but that's more or less correct," said Gaspar. He turned from the console to face Janus with a soft smile on his face. As Janus stumbled towards him in something like a drunken stupor, Gaspar pushed a button and the entire device vanished into thin air. As it did, Janus' face dropped to the floor before surging up into a vicious, bloodthirsty sneer that chilled Gaspar's soul.

"Turn it back on!" snarled Janus, the lightning again surging from his fingers. If Gaspar really did want to live, he wasn't doing a very good job of showing it. "Do you want me to maim you?! Turn the God damned thing back on!" he screeched maniacally.

With another flick of his fingers, the screens again hummed back to life and Gaspar turned to Janus with a soft smile. "The limitations were put in place mostly in the event that you came and saw it," he said flatly. This was precisely the point: If Janus was given too much freedom, there was no telling what kind of unholy havoc he would wreak in his search for Schala. "We can't interfere with any events, nor can we see into the thoughts of anyone. What we can do is try to search for where Schala ended up. Then, I might be able to open a Gate to reunite the two of you. Keep that in mind, Janus: You only have access to this technology through my good grace."

Gritting his teeth nearly hard enough to crack one of them open, Janus fought back his fury and considered the deal. The conditions weren't ideal, but any chance he had at finding Schala was worth swallowing his pride for. Being indebted to one of his former subjects, however, left a distinctly foul taste in his mouth. He'd wanted to find Schala by himself, on his own merits. Even so, he grimly forced his head to nod as he stepped up to the console and stood beside Gaspar. For the next several days the pair used Gaspar's device to search throughout history, searching for Janus' missing sister. In between Gaspar had offered Janus some snacks, but received only stony silence. They stared into both the distant past and the distant future, and everything in between. They watched empires rise and fall, as well as the day-to-day dealings of the world's populace. Even so, through all the time and space they searched, they found nothing to indicate where Schala had ended up.

Gaspar summoned a cup of coffee to his hand and took a soft sip, then leaned back and fell into a comfortable lounge chair that formed as his back touched it. "See? We can't find her..." he said sadly. "But what I can do is offer you a chance to settle down. I doubt you'd want to end up in prehistory, but there are still a number of other excellent choices for you to start a new life in."

Janus wordlessly laid a hand on the console and input a few commands, causing the screens to display a futuristic world lush with both technology and natural beauty. There was still work to be done. "I'm not done," said Janus flatly. "We've scanned before and after, but we still haven't examined the elephant in the room: 1999 C.E. The origin of Lavos' devastation. I've noticed," he said dryly and much to Gaspar's displeasure, "that you've taken great care to navigate around that age. And I can't help but wonder why. Let's find out together, shall we?"

The era of 1999 C.E. was at the cusp of the world's pinnacle, when the era of Guardia ended and the Central Regime united the world into a single, massive entity. In that year the Kingdom of Guardia had steadily developed its technology and shared it with the other nations of the world, and by the next year Guardia transitioned into a true, international government that eliminated war, hunger, and waste. Nothing, however, indicated anything about Schala's whereabouts.

"See? There's nothing to find there either... Now, if you'd like to visit that era," Gaspar said smilingly, "I can see to it that you settle-"

The system flared up suddenly, streaks of black lightning coating the entirety of the device and plunging the room into a deep, distressing darkness. While Janus' grip tightened on the orb, the screens slowly shifted to show a bright, blue void streaked with white energy. And it was something Gaspar was distinctly horrified to see. Anything he'd seen during the last several days immediately faded into terror, terror that Gaspar had prayed he would never feel again. The last time he'd seen this dimension, Lavos had ripped apart time and space and sent him to this damned abyss.

"Y-You stupid fool!" screeched Gaspar. His grip tightened until his coffee cup broke open and spilled its contents on his hand. He immediately sprang to his feet and reached towards the device, but was repelled by the dark electricity. "Meddling in Lavos' dimension will result in nothing but suffering... For me, you, and the entire space time continuum!" he snarled. This was too much. Anything beyond this was outside the scope of reason; trying to interfere with Lavos in any way was next to suicidal. "You stupid-"

It was a hazy, shadowy image that silenced Gaspar immediately. While the image was coated in shadow and the screen crackling with lightning, the shape it displayed chilled both of their souls. They'd seen that being before, and though the screen cut out Gaspar immediately fell to his knees in horror. It may have been decades later, but seeing the outline of that abomination was enough to make his heart flutter, and nearly stopped it altogether. Lavos' visage, the image that had distilled in him such terror, stared back at him in silhouette. The idea that it was in silhouette was even more disturbing than seeing Lavos in the first place. What had taken place with that demon, that it couldn't even be seen by his technology?

"Convinced now?" Janus snapped. He placed his hand on the orb once again, and as it crackled with lightning the visage of an old man dressed in blue robes and wearing an odd hat appeared, though the static nearly fizzled out before he came clearly into view. Gaspar grit his teeth as Belthasar appeared on the screen. He'd talked with him several times before, but only about old times. Nothing Belthasar ever worked on would end well. "We need to consult with someone..." growled Janus.

Scene Three

It was a connection that Gaspar had made before, but it wasn't one that he intended to share with anyone else. Staring at the screen, Belthasar's grim face in view, Gaspar silently choked out an expletive and began to sweat. The only place that this situation could go now was south, by way of Hell. "Y-You... You're insane..." he hissed.

"It's just great to see you again, Belthasar..." said Janus sarcastically. "We need to discuss a few tidbits of information that we just found..." The look in his eye turned dark. "... and that you must have seen already. I'm not in the mood for moral debates and semantic nonsense, so out with it."

Clearly distressed by the connection, Belthasar quietly managed to gather himself to form what nearly amounted to a sincere smile. Even if he had been directly ordered, this was something that needed to be carefully handled. Although his plans were developing, involving Janus in them all but ensured that they would end in catastrophic ruin. "You don't want to hear this..." he said darkly, "but I'll say it anyway: Don't be an idiot."

"I said out with it, you crazy old sack of bones!" snarled Janus, the look in his eyes becoming manic enough that even he thought he would break through his limits and degenerate into a writhing mess. As close as he was, damned the consequences, he would have his answers. "If you'd like, I can use Gaspar as a bargaining chip," he said darkly, to both of their alarm. "Watching me rip his head off might be... disturbing for you to see."

With that final, absolute threat, Belthasar reluctantly gave up and sank down into his chair with a deep sigh. "When the Ocean Palace went down in the altered timeline, Lavos intercepted Schala and began to assimilate her..." he said. As he watched Janus' face twist in horror, Belthasar sighed and put a hand to his face. "They now reside in the final waste basket of space-time, the Darkness Beyond Time, where they are presently uniting to form an entity capable of consuming all of space and time," he said sadly. Even as he did, Belthasar knew what would come next, what Janus' reaction would be.

"Take me there. Now!" hissed Janus, his mania reaching its peak. To his shock he felt a hard sensation on his cheek, sending him flying back and into the room's Victorian era walls. As he staggered to his feet, he watched as Gaspar - who had now changed into a very different outfit - stood, narrowing a ruby-tipped staff at the warlock. Although he stared back in fury, Janus could tell that he had crossed a very tender line. He'd pushed his luck far enough that Gaspar was fully ready to fight him to dissuade him from his suicidal ambitions.

"That is enough. This ends here," growled Gaspar forcefully. Although he put up a brave face, Gaspar was well aware that he didn't have a prayer against Janus. All he could do was bluff and pray that reason overshadowed mania. "Even if you do kill me, I don't care. There isn't any way for you to access that realm... As it should be!" he snapped. "Give up now, and I'll kick you into an era of your choice relatively softly."

Janus staggered to his feet, wiping blood from his face with the back of his hand. His anger and malice building, he threw his hand forward at Gaspar. The resulting shock wave shattered his staff and pinned him against the wall, tight enough that he was unable to break free. No matter what, regardless of the danger, Janus intended to reach the realm which held Schala. He was willing to sacrifice anything, including his own life and whatever principles he still had left, to get there.

Belthasar grit his teeth and shook his head in disgust. "Not only is it impossible..." he said in a low voice, "I've been developing my own plans to save Schala..." said Belthasar forcefully. Even though he'd been encountering several issues, not least of them finding a way to bridge his own powers with a technique capable of freeing Schala. Everything he'd theorized ended only in ruin. "I'm on the cusp of reaching a breakthrough... I'll need a few variables to fall into place, but leave it to me. Please."

"Impossible? Don't toy with me," said Janus, oddly calmly. There was still an obvious solution, one that Belthasar certainly already knew of. The old man was too intelligent not to consider using it. "I still have an ace up my sleeve. All I need to do," he reasoned as he turned to the door, "is to, so to say, kick the bucket."

"You're mad..." choked Belthasar. "The connection is closed. Lavos is dead."

Janus bared his fangs angrily. "He looks alive to me!" he snapped. "That bucket is the closest and most potent remnant of his temporal distortion," said Janus flatly. "And if I do some 'hacking,' I ought to be able to figure something out. Now... Get out of my way."

Storming from the observatory, Janus slammed open the door to the space with Gaspar's lamp post, where the bucket that formerly led to the Day of Lavos reposed. He laid both hands on the bucket and shut his eyes tight, surging all the dark, unholy magic he had into it. If this was the final chance, the absolutely final chance, he intended to pour in his own life energy into it if that was what it would take. Though it took a considerable amount of effort, he managed to coat the thing with black lightning until it broke open, revealing a spherical black orb. This was it: the final Gate.

Before Janus could enter Gaspar clapped his arms over his left arm, and used all his strength to restrain the warlock. "If you want me to beg, then I will. I'm begging you, don't!" he said forcefully. "Trying to fight that thing is not only rash, it's insane. If you go there, you might muck up history in a way that the universe simply can't sustain. You'd risk ripping open time and space... and damn us all," screamed Gaspar desperately.

Although for a time he hesitated, having finally grasped the ramifications of what he was about to do, Janus brusquely shoved Gaspar away and stepped inside the sphere. Within a few seconds it expanded into a blood-red gap in space that dragged him inside, sealing up behind him. Gaspar stared in mute horror, and slowly managed to rise to his feet. He re-entered the observatory and activated the connection to Belthasar, who clearly shared his distress.

"Is there any chance that he doesn't wipe us out all of existence?" he choked.

Placing a hand to his chin, Belthasar carefully considered what had just happened. While Janus was likely to cause a disaster, he had a theory - a desperate, stupid theory - that it was possible that he'd make his own plans a reality. Finding a way to separate Schala from Lavos would require fissioning off a tremendous amount of space-time, transcending the very bonds of dimensions and reality, and the idea that Schala might lose control and open up an opportunity left Belthasar nearly breathless.

The odds are astronomical... But... if he really does cause a distortion in just the right way... Dear God. That imbecile might actually make it happen!

Scene Four

Traveling through Gates had always been a psychedelic experience. Torrents of energy, streaming at light speed all around you while the air itself seemed to breathe in and out with great rapidity was something you'd never get used to. This Gate, however, wasn't so much psychedelic as a horrifying onslaught of dark colors and black lightning, surrounding your every inch until finally you reached the end and fell into the realm where no mortal was meant to tread. The Gate's sphere shattered the air around it as it formed, and as Janus stepped out it vanished in a storm of dark lightning. He briefly turned back, but was unaffected that it had been a one-way trip. If he succeeded, his life would be complete. If it failed, then so be it; there would be no meaning left to existence. He'd lived the last several decades of his life with two purposes: kill Lavos, rescue Schala. There was no in between.

Janus took stock of where he'd landed, finding it somewhere very familiar. The ground was composed of blue and white ripples of light, each folding into each other in the strange kind of pattern you'd expect for the world of the unholiest being in existence. Wisps of smoke and the stench of blood and flame hung in the air, though its occupant was nowhere to be seen. Presumably, after all, he'd been killed. As Janus stared out into the colored void, he narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. Was this going to be another dead end, or would it be his final, absolute hope?

"Where are you?" he snarled. "Will you give her back, or will I have to kill you again?"

For the next several minutes Janus explored the void realm, searching for any trace of either Schala or his hated nemesis. All he found was an empty, colorful space devoid of life and hope, nothing there but bad memories and disappointment. As he reached the limits of his patience, Janus' fingers began to crackle with dark lightning that pulsed in and out of existence and seemingly warped the air around him.

"So you won't show yourself on your own? Fine. I don't intend to play with you, you bastard," Janus said darkly.

This was it, the final limitation, and he intended to break it open if that was what it took to make his ambition a reality. Dark matter was only a slight impediment with the true scope of his powers, and by manipulating it he could warp gravity and space, by extension twisting time as well. As he manipulated the very fabric of space and time, dissecting dark matter and reassembling it into a physical form, Janus' patience finally vanished and he slammed his hand to the ground, creating a titanic pulse of black lightning that seared his skin and ripped shreds from his cloak. The ground where he'd laid his palm began to crack, slightly at first, but it finally gave way and he dropped down into a new void.

He'd embraced the darkness. He'd sacrificed everything. As Janus slowly opened his eyes, they quickly widened as he saw at where he'd arrived. It was a realm of shadow and death, unlike the colorful aura of Lavos' personal space. While at first there was no light, Janus caught sight of something in his peripheral vision and turned his attention to a large, crackling distortion. It showed the image of a ruined future, while another soon appeared that he recognized as the inside of the Ocean Palace. As more and more images flashed through his eyes, Janus realized: he was watching events that had been denied existence, the end result of his travels and battles through time.

"Past... present... future... It all means nothing here. I really am at the edge of existence... Have I really made the right decision? It even scares me..." gasped Janus. The thought that this was a bad idea pounded in his head, but that meant nothing to him.

For several minutes Janus watched the visions of displaced space and time, paying close attention to the flashes of the Ocean Palace's inner sanctum. It took several cycles of ruined buildings and dead flora, but at last he caught sight of it: the Mammon Machine. He immediately slung a blast of dark lightning at it, causing the void to crack open and engulf him in a massive flash of light. It was bright enough that it seared his eyes and tanned his skin, but at the end he knew he would find his quarry, and he was unable to suppress his smile as the light overtook him.

"Show yourself," he snarled. "It's far past time we ended this..."

He was unprepared, however, for the sight that awaited him. He'd seen Lavos multiple times, stared at its beak-like mouth that was focused inside a carapace of vicious spikes. It really was evil incarnate, but this was something else entirely. The shell was pockmarked with cavities and its spikes broken and shattered, with the mouth hanging wide open to reveal its dead eye. The very atmosphere of this place struck him; the stench was unbearable, the air heavy, and as he gazed at Lavos' rotting corpse Janus was filled with the kind of dread that he never thought he'd feel again. The only time he'd felt it before was when he first laid eyes on the creature.

"D-Dear God! It's hideous!" choked Janus. He felt his foot inch slowly away from the carcass, something he quickly put an end to. Staring at the cracked and tattered shell before him, he finally came to the realization that it was over. He would never see his sister again, nor would he escape this unholy graveyard. Gritting his teeth, he summoned his scythe and prepared to slash what remained of Lavos' eye, but when he caught sight of something just above him his blood ran cold and he nearly dropped his weapon in horror.

He'd found her. But it was a reunion that chilled him to the bone. Contained in a large, rippling bubble of sorts, Schala hung limply from her bound wrists and ankles, all the life drained from her skin. Her purple locks, signifying the royalty of Zeal, had begun to fade into a dirty blonde color. Her robes were tattered, her flesh covered in bruises, and her eyes were shut tight as if in unbearable agony. It was more than he could take. He barely managed to choke back the contents of his stomach before turning to the lifeless carcass before him, the source of all his pain. Janus unsteadily lifted his scythe, took it in both hands, and slashed at the dead Lavos' mouth, but it shattered on impact and he was sent flying several yards back as if struck by a train. Still he managed to right himself, if only barely, and Janus staggered to his feet as if in a drunken stupor.

"Damn you! Let her go, you worthless chunk of rock!" snarled Janus. He watched the remnants of his weapon crumble to dust, which he cast away and prepared another attack. "I'll kill you again, you-"

Janus stopped suddenly, a grim realization striking him that his memories of his time with Gaspar had begun to fade away, as if they were simply melting into nothing. The images he'd seen through Gaspar's apparatus, the foul words he'd spewed, everything had begun to seep from his mind into an unknown darkness. Overwhelmed with fury, Janus put his face in his hands and loosed a demonic shriek.

"Bastard! What are you trying to do?!" hissed the warlock.

Simply staring at the husk only seemed to hasten his draining memories, and he could feel the last of his curses at Gaspar dissolving into nothing. Finally at his limits, Janus reared back and slammed his fist into Lavos' mouth, which only bruised his wrist and knocked him back several paces.

"This is madness!" choked Janus, his anger beginning to overwhelm him. The emotions he felt, which had already begun to bleed into nothingness, lingered only out of sheer will power. This was it. This was it. And he refused to let that be so.

"Janus..."

A chill ran down Janus' spine as he heard her voice, causing his head to snap up to stare at his captive sister. Ever so slightly she stirred, her weary limbs fighting feebly against her restraints. As Janus' horror and outrage built, he nearly fell to his knees, although he managed to catch himself at the last moment. This was almost it, almost too much. Any more and he thought his heart might literally split apart.

"It's over, Janus. This being, the Dream Devourer, feeds on thoughts, feelings, and memories across all of time... As it's presently doing to you. Soon, all your memories will vanish, and you'll be left a soulless husk... You need to leave. Now."

He'd thought he'd had enough before. Now, as his memories began to drain, all the mental barriers and emotional dams he'd erected finally broke down and Janus desperately leapt towards Schala. Before he could reach her a line of energy lashed out at him, badly scarring his face and dropping him back to the ground writhing in agony. He slowly reached up to his wound, which covered almost his entire face, burning his vision and making it difficult to see. As he did he stared up at his captive sister, the person he'd slaughtered hundreds for and fought tooth and nail against evil incarnate to rescue. This couldn't be it. It just couldn't. He refused to let it be the end of it all.

"No power can free me... It's over. But I do have something to ask of you... Live. The only wish left in my heart is for you to find happiness, somewhere, in some corner of the universe. Seeing you suffer is even more unbearable than my own predicament..."

Clutching the bloody wound that seeped streaks of red down his face, Janus angrily tightened his grip and hardened his eyes, staring up at Schala with a kind of horror he'd never thought he'd feel. "I don't give a damn! Please, come back to me!" he begged, his blood soaked fingers slowly reaching towards his captive sister. "All I've existed for - the hate, the despair, the violence - was because you left me! Even if you steal my memories, I will never stop searching for you! Even if..." Pausing, Janus carefully weighed the words he was about to utter. This would be the final barrier, all that remained to save his soul. "Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, I don't care!" croaked Janus, his spirit broken utterly. "Come back with me! I'm begging you!" he screeched.

From inside her prison Schala's tattered body started to tremble uncontrollably, a lone tear falling from her eye. Janus wasn't aware of the dark sphere that had appeared behind him, but he became aware when a strong force kicked him through it and into the Gate. His last act, tears flying from his face, was to reach in futility towards his sister before the sphere collapsed and he fell into the Gate. As he did, Schala's body began to convulse, overwhelmed by her emotions as her tears began to flow in earnest.

"I'm sorry, Janus... All I want is for you to be happy. Until it all ends... please... do not cry for me. All I've ever wanted was for you to be happy. Find peace and happiness if not for me, then for you. Even if the Time Devourer takes us all, if you can live a carefree life I'm fine with being the harbinger of death... So long as you can laugh and smile, I..."

Schala's thoughts were suddenly interrupted, the sad sound of a crying child's agony piercing her consciousness. It was a cry she'd heard before, when her brother had hurt himself or felt sadness. Even just hearing it filled her with more emotion than she'd felt in years; the sound of her brother suffering had always been difficult for her to withstand. Slowly, with all her might, she raised her shackled hand and desperately reached out into the darkness. If there was any hope...

Scene Five

It's over... really, truly over. I can feel it all slipping away; my memories, my emotions... I can't even remember killing the bastard in the first place. Forgetting those idiots is one thing, but seeing the look of satisfaction on their faces when it was all over? That was enjoyable. Watching my mother finally find peace... the closing of another door in my life. If I forget all of that... I guess I can live with it... Not that I have a choice at this point, dammit...

Realizing that his memories continued to drain, Janus fought to reclaim them, but in vain. His battle with Glenn, their final meeting at the cape, and even the sight of that red-headed brat being embraced by the annoying blonde soon vanished from his mind. As he remembered the final moments at the Ocean Palace, when he'd first been separated from her, he vaguely caught sight of her face and reached towards it, only for the image to vanish entirely.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. I'd never appreciated it while I lived it, but my life... I want it back. And yet... if all she wants is for me to be at peace, then I... I can't...

Even the image of Lavos' rotting corpse and Schala's bound body began to vanish, and along with it the hatred and pain he'd carried with him throughout his entire adult life. Slowly his hand inched towards his face, fingers trembling, and when he laid his quaking palm on his scar a silvery mask formed around the wound, the last of his magical power having been spent. From there the darkness thickened, and as his eyes closed for the final time Janus quietly murmured his sister's name before everything went dark.

"Peace and happiness... would be quite a welcome change..." he murmured weakly, the darkness overtaking him completely.

Slowly he opened his eyes and saw the shining spring sun staring back at him through a canopy of trees. Janus somehow staggered to his feet, unbalanced as he was, and noted that a strange sensation was present on his face. He unsteadily reached up and removed the mask, but he was so horrified by what he'd seen in its reflection that he immediately clapped it back onto his face. Placing his face in both hands he loosed a heart wrenching scream before dropping to his knees to the forest floor.

Terrifying... terrifying! What the devil am I?! Who the devil am I?! Where is this? Why am I alive?! Is... there any real purpose? Do I really-

The man who was once known as Janus had changed his appearance quite radically. While his hair remained a deep purple, the darkened pigment and pointed ears he'd worn as Magus had receded and he now resembled a normal human in every way. He stared down at his attire, and with a shaking hand he ripped off his cape and cast it to the ground. Now unencumbered, he turned his eyes to the sky and listened to the ringing of church bells in the far distance. As a smile crossed his face, the first sincere smile that he'd had in decades, he stumbled away from his resting place and towards the sounds of civilization.

My very being is an enigma, a puzzle whose pieces have been scattered to the four winds. Why not search for a mystery even greater yet? That sounds meaningful...

Scene Six

The connection with Gaspar had been closed, by mutual choice for the remainder of time. His friend had earned peace and respite, and involving him in his complex machinations would only hasten his eventual demise. It was bad enough that he had to live with watching Janus stumble through life not knowing of the one person he'd sought for his entire life. And yet, there was the hope that seeing his former prince search for happiness would still bring a smile to his face. After all that they'd gone through, both together and separately, he deserved only to rest and not dwell on his own fantastic, ungodly complicated scheme. The things he meant to accomplish stepped into the realm of the divine, at a level even deities would scarcely dare to dabble. If Zeal had engaged in hubris on a global scale, he dabbled in it on an inter-dimensional scale. Would the gods frown upon his actions, or would they simply strike him dead for his audacity?

His fingers danced as if he were a master musician playing a piano, each digit rapidly clicking and clacking against the soft keys of his masterfully constructed console. Before him he watched as calculations and theorems moved across his screen. He manipulated hundreds of folders of data, categorizing them and using them to calculate countless variables with skill that reflected his eccentric genius nature and an indomitable determination to make things right. Slowly, his work began to take shape and his ultimate plan began to come together. With a smile on his face, Belthasar prepared to take his final steps in his plan. The Neo-Epoch was prepared, the experiment ready to proceed, and all that remained was to wipe the computer's memory so that it wouldn't interfere with its assigned duties. FATE had its own purposes. Even his own plans estimated that FATE would desire its own sentience, control over its own literal fate. Perhaps his entire scheme was a sick joke that laughed in the face of morality altogether.

"Schala..." he choked, tears forming in his eyes. He brusquely brushed them from his face and broke into a manic smile. This was it. He would do it. That child, heaven sent, would bridge dimensions and reunite him with his long lost princess. "I'll be right there, princess..." said Belthasar smilingly as his trembling finger clicked the final command into the computer.

"Program initiated: Full data wipe in progress. All access to the program 'Project Kid' will be restricted in three... two... one..."

Author's Notes

And so the BS ends for the time being. Again, I've framed these segments vaguely around the Chrono Compendium's information and theories, which imply that Schala's despair at losing Magus led her to reach out to Serge and instigate the events of the game. I obviously threw in some of my own material, as usual, but I wanted to base the fic after the theories from the Compendium, which I frequently visit to both entertain myself and embrace their highly detailed theories on the Chrono universe. In particular, Gaspar's machine may play a part in some future works, so it wasn't a one-off concept. If and when I do create a "Magus Cut" of Chrono Trigger, it'll play an important role.