FicWad

Sins of Our Fathers
Part 2, Chapter 1

Now that he had set himself to traveling backwards in time, Magus was unsure that he really wanted to chance it. He was sure he could open a gate back to the correct era...well, relatively sure, but what frightened him was the prospect of traveling backwards in time only to be stuck there for the rest of his days. The whole possibility of time travel was an iffy one, and the only reason he felt compelled to do so was the growing desire to slap each of the gurus. But he supposed he wasn't really doing anything else in this time period, and he owed the ones that had served him for the entirety of his adult life enough that he would take the chance of his well-being in order to find out what exactly those fools were thinking.
Ironically enough he sat before the altar that his men had destroyed a year and a half ago. He was surprised that the humans hadn't just gone and demolished the place, but the Frog knight had told him that many were too afraid of the place to destroy it. And those who weren't afraid of the possibility of turning into a monsters were afraid to demolish a holy place and rightly so. Either way the Cathedral was a good enough base of operations and would serve the purpose of hiding the scum of Guardia for generations to come. Magus sneered as he stood, that alone would be punishment enough for their ignorance. He turned away from the altar and made his way out into the forest. Outside is was the morning of an early autumn day; the air was crisp and there was a hint of frost hanging in the air. Magus took in his surroundings and stopped to stretch his body as a great yawn escaped him. Now he just had to find that frog.
He searched the immediate surrounding of the cathedral only to find a couple of squirrels dancing around the ground picking up acorns and a couple of roly polys chasing after squirrels. Sighing he headed towards the spot in the forest he had chosen to perform the spell that would, hopefully, open the time gate. No, it would open that gate. He Hoped. Steeling himself he decided that he had no more time for foolish misgivings and that he had best get everything ready.
His spot was almost directly in front of the cathedral, though it was deep into the forest so that no passersby could accidentally stumble onto his gate and fly back into the time of Zeal. Not only would that be traumatic for the everyday person, it was possible that the gate would never open again afterwards. It was this reason that he had taken extra precautions and carved a variety of runes into many of the trees surrounding the clearing that he had chosen. Those would keep anything smaller, or stupider, than a human. Humans themselves would be warned of danger a number of times before happening upon the gate should they venture this far back into the forest, but Magus was inclined to believe that no one from Guardia would ever travel this far back into the forest.
When he reached the clearing he heard a rustling. Someone was out there, someone with magic. Magus crept towards the clearing and as he did so he drew his scythe from within his cloak. He stopped when a shadow stopped in front of him. For a moment he swore the figure saw him, but it turned away after a few moments. The thing was much like the shadow of a woman he had fought what was approaching three weeks ago. He lunged towards the clearing, and was startled when there was nothing there. A branch snapped behind him and he whipped around, bringing his scythe around in a crescent towards the sound. With a gasp he stopped the blade of his weapon inches from the throat of the thing that had made the sound behind him.
"Dost thou think ye are perhaps a might jumpy today Magus?" Frog asked as he eyed the scythe that would have decapitated him if he had not the faith in Magus new found heart; though the dark mage would never admit it, Frog thought the man had actually become a bit emotional since he had brought about the destruction of his psychotic mother and her downfall the alien being Lavos. The things that their group had found out about humanity were still more than a little disturbing to Frog. The fact that humanity had been undoubtedly changed by the appearance of Lavos was evident, the full extent of which was not. There was no saying that they would not be here without the appearance of the alien, but there was the possibility that Reptites would have won their war against the humans or maybe the peoples of the world wouldn't have developed at all. Maybe they would have been more developed than they were now. None of it really mattered, and it tended to make Frog's head hurt, but nonetheless the thoughts came to his mind every once in awhile.
Magus snarled something as he replaced his weapon back inside his cloak and turned towards the center of the clearing. Frog rolled his eyes and smiled, somewhat different from the smile of a normal person, but a smile nonetheless. He had actually become quite accustomed to this body, and really would not mind if Magus never found a way to change him back, but he still got the feeling from time to time that the mage was genuinely sorry for what he had done, even though he tended to cover up those feelings by consistently referring to him as the frog or the frog knight, but neither really bothered him. He hadn't really been doing a whole lot here in 601 AD for about as long as he could remember, so it was nice to once again be off and doing something that could change the fate of the world. He wondered what the others from their group were doing, if they were as restless as he and Magus, but the thought left him when he heard a voice from within the sword.
"So you're really going back huh?"
"Aye I suppose we are. Dost thou have a problem with Magus' plan?" he said as he fingered the hilt of his sword and looked to it.
"Nope, just making sure, it has been awhile since we've seen some action, and believe me after you sit around for a few millennia one adventure just isn't enough." A second voice within the sword snickered at this and Frog sighed. Magus looked over his shoulder from what he was doing.
"Could you have that thing shut up for a few minutes, it's almost time." Frog nodded, whispering that Masa and Mune should refrain from speech for just a few moments. The two entities that lived within the sword were none to happy about this, but since they had grown to like Frog they obediently quieted.
Frog watched as Magus used the butt of his scythe to draw some sort of circle in dirt. The thing was massive, nearly reaching the edge of the clearing where Frog stood, and consisted of dozens of inner circles, runes that Frog took to be ancient Zealian as he could not read what they said, and other lines that cut through circles and connected various pieces of the large drawing.
When he was done he replaced his scythe inside his cloak and pulled out the gate key. The key did not in fact resemble anything close to what could be called a key. The base of the key was a blue rod about the length of a normal persons hand and at the end of this rod was a large green orb surrounded by five smaller, blue orbs. He looked at the key for a moment and Frog wondered what the mage was thinking. He himself had his doubts about reopening the gates, after all hadn't they been created by Lavos, however Magus assured him that once a rift in space time was formed it was impossible to seal it forever...if you had the power and the remaining power within the gate key seemed to be enough to suffice for one round trip.
Careful not to set on any of the lines he had created, Magus ventured to the middle of the circle and placed the gate key in the centermost circle that was just big enough for the key to lie in. With that done he joined Frog on the outer rim of the circle. He looked to Frog once, and the knight swore he saw a glimpse of nervousness on the mage's face but only for an instant. Magus then heaved one big breath and began to chant.
"Ras en malena - 'Darkness part' - bari im diam en asi - 'show the true light of time' - hidei su ein nora cessemo! - 'and open a bridge for mortals to cross!'" As he chanted Frog was enthralled at the site before him. At the beginning of the incantation reality seemed to shiver at the words being spoken. Frog could not understand them, but he knew very well that the nature of the universe did. Reality shifted into what looked to be one of Magus' Black Holes but instead of sucking everything in around it the hole just sat there and Frog swore that the place was stiller than it had ever been in his memory. In fact, it was eerie how quiet things were.
Looking around Frog jumped when he saw a BlueEaglet suspended in mid-flight. Everything around them seemed to be frozen. Frog whipped around when there was a boom accompanied by a flash of brilliant light behind him. It seemed Magus had finished his incantation and the black hole that was there had been shifted by the power of the gate key and of Magus to the familiar form of a gate.
This gate was different though, lightning flickered constantly around it and its size seemed to fluctuate each second it was there. Frog looked around for Magus and found him kneeling before the gate, panting from exhaustion. Frog walked over to the mage and grabbed his arm, slinging it over his shoulder. Magus looked at Frog acidly when he did this but the knight ignored him and continued to drag Magus towards the gate. He paused only once when Magus whispered something about picking up the gate key. When he had this done he returned to his comrade and together they ventured towards the gate.
Using the key he touched the gate with the orbs and the blue vortex flared to life, lightning increasing dramatically, striking a nearby tree and turning it into splinters. Hesitant Frog looked to Magus for reassurance but the mage had passed out from exhaustion. Sighing, Frog shook his head as he entered the gate carrying his comrade, he had a feeling he would regret this.
As the gate closed the lightning tamed some, and among the charred remains of the tree it had destroyed a flame came to life. The wind began to howl in fury, and a nearby eaglet felt the wrath of nature scorned.

If Frog had thought the outer appearance of the gate was troubling, the inside would give him terrors for weeks. The lightning was worse in here, and a number of times it narrowly missed Frog and his companion. Masa and Mune however found the ride to be delightful enough to come out of the sword. Instead of the smooth transition that he had been used to in their previous adventures, this gate acted more like a whirlpool, sucking them round and round towards their destination. He thought for a moment he would heave when he saw the end coming in a flash of brilliant white light.
As if things within the gate hadn't been bad enough, the thing plopped them into the middle of a gigantic snow bank. They hadn't come out exactly where Magus had said they would. Sighing he dug a tunnel that he would be able to drag Magus threw when he heard giggling from within the sword. Well at least those two wouldn't be causing any more trouble. It seems that Magus' calculations to where they would come out of the gate were terribly wrong. There was nothing as far as the eye could see in all directions, so Frog picked one and began walking. As night began to fall so did the temperature and Frog's reptilian nature began to kick in. He was approaching a dangerous point to where he would freeze to death if he didn't find them somewhere to sleep for the night soon.
Luckily enough he seemed to have stumbled upon a cave. Setting Magus down at the entrance, Frog went in to check for any threats. He drew the MasaMune from its' sheath as he entered. It was actually lit fairly well for a cave, too well in fact. He stopped as he heard echoes of voices from within the cave. They seemed to be human, but he decided that he should make sure. Sneaking down the tunnel that the cave led to, he reached a turn where the light and voices seemed to be coming from. Carefully he poked his head around the corner and was startled to find that the voices hadn't been coming from a human at all, instead they seemed to be coming from a Nu that was talking to itself. The creature yelped as it noticed the shadow of Frog, which gave the impression that the knight was ten feet tall, and instead of waiting for its' company it mumbled about going back to the floating city and ran down yet another tunnel within the cave.
Frog sheathed the MasaMune, deciding that the Nu would be no trouble as they were solitary creatures and tended to shy away from contact rather than bring it. It was a little different for one to be here; in fact it was a bit different that he had stumbled upon this spot at all. Looking up he mumbled his thanks to whatever higher power was at work out there and returned to the entrance of the cave to retrieve Magus. When he arrived at the entrance of the cave where he had left Magus, Frog noticed that it was now snowing fairly hard and his comrade was covered in a thin layer of fluffy snow. At least it wasn't the real heavy, wet snow which would likely cause more problems than this which would blow away fairly easily. He slung Magus left arm over his shoulder and drug the still sound asleep man into the cave and laid him down next to the fire. Looking around the cave was actually very well designed...in fact it was too well designed to be the home of a Nu.
Frog walked around the room eyeing the objects as he tried to puzzle out who could have made the place. It was far too nice to be the home of an Earthbound, and not many Zealians ever traveled to the lower lands when they had the ability to create such fine artifacts with magic. The only two that had ever been known to do that were Schala and Melchior, but both were gone now, and this was recently created. Melchior was now banished to the time of Crono and Schala's whereabouts were a mystery. He frowned as he found a chair to sit on that sat in the corner of the room.
He picked the ladder backed chair up and brought it so that he could be somewhere near the fire. He found a spot where his reptilian blood reached just the right temperature; about three and a half, maybe four feet away from the fire. The chair was very elegantly crafted and was padded with a large, soft teal seat. He climbed up into the chair which was just a bit too tall for the short knight, and when he stood on the seat he removed the scabbard which held the MasaMune from his belt and propped it against the chair should he have need of it through the night. He the sat down and leaned against the back of the chair, letting his head rest on the middle rung of the backrest. He could once again feel all his extremities as the heat of the fire gently lowered him into a deep sleep.

Frog woke with a start as something behind him crashed to the ground, creating enough clamor to wake the dead. He jumped to his feet and unsheathed his sword in one fluid motion and turned towards the noise only to find Magus ripping through the shelves of things that sat on the many surfaces next to the wall.
"What arest thou doing?" Sheathing his sword he rose an eyebrow in question, but Magus ignored him, deciding to instead keep ravaging through the items.
"It doesn't make sense." He murmured as he continued ravaging through the items within the cave in his search for whatever it was he was looking for.
"Pardon?"
"It doesn't make sense." He said as he threw a book that was obviously not what he was looking for across the room. He then turned to face Frog. "We've come to the wrong time."
"But the snow and..."
"Come, I'll show you." Magus said as he walked by Frog and towards the cave's exit. Curious, Frog picked up the MasaMune's scabbard and hurried after Magus. Magus was already outside the cave when Frog caught up to him, and he turned to the knight with disdain. "That is how I know we've come to the wrong time." As he said this he turned and pointed at something in the sky. Peering around Magus' arm, Frog gasped; it was the floating continent. Magus sneered as he nodded, "Yes, that's what I thought too. I was right when I thought that the blasted gurus didn't know what they were talking about - we undershot the date by some time, something that was theoretically impossible. Who knows if the experiments have even taken place yet, hell, for all we know the Kingdom could have been just recently formed- the gurus themselves may not even be alive yet."
Frog mulled the possibility over in his mind. "Then we must find ourselves some way to know."
"Which is what I was trying to do, with no luck as you may have noticed." Magus snapped. "The only way we're going to learn where we are is by going."
"To the floating continent? Surely you can't be..."
Magus looked at the knight with discontent. "I don't like it any more than you, but we have no choice. Now come on we have to find ourselves some means of disguise." Frog nodded, but stared at the floating continent for a moment as Magus brushed by, his cloak billowing behind him. Sighing, Frog followed the mage. He was right; he was going to regret this.

After pillaging the room within the cave for a good part of the rest of the morning, they had found enough scraps of clothing to put together some disguises. Frog's was easy as he was a bit smaller and the person that seemed to live here was not too much larger than the knight himself. The garment he had chosen was a white robe similar to what the Masa and Mune of this time period would wear, which is exactly why Magus had recommended it. After all, where else could you expect to see a talking frog but in Zeal?
Magus himself had a little more difficult time finding something that would be reasonably easy to fit into. So after a time he decided to use some of the fabric from silk sheets he had found in a cupboard. Fittingly enough the silk was as black as the night sky, and fitted Magus' perfectly. From the sheets he was able to make himself a pair of trousers and a short-sleeved shirt that mocked the style of his time in Zeal. He had the problem of his scarred hand as the pain still laced through the arm whenever he used it excessively or if he happened to look at the sword, but Magus supposed that he had received his due when he got the foolish idea of grabbing the sword. He hadn't had a choice then, but since his fight with Kazar weeks ago he had since remade his precious scythe and reinforced the shaft with an alloy of steel and wood he had been able to create thanks to his magical prowess.
After searching the room some more he came across a large amount of bandages. They would work to perfection, except they were white, and Zealians were very obsessive about the matching of garments. He would have to make the bandages black. When he was done he soaked the bandages in a full tonic which was, in essence, a tonic that had not been watered down as much as an ordinary one. This had two purposes; the first was that it numbed the pain, at least for a little while, and the second was that wet bandages tended to be easier to apply.
The now black bandages wrapped around his hand so that only the very tips of his fingers shown all the way up around his shoulder. Once the bandages were on he put on the magic scabbard that held his scythe and then changed into the trousers and shirt he had made for himself. All in all, the disguises were fairly ingenious, but as Magus stared at himself in the small mirror above the makeshift desk he noticed that there was still something wrong; his hair. So, as much as he detested himself for doing so, he took a small knife carving knife the knight carried on his person and cut his hair so that it no longer reached to the middle of his back; instead it stopped just short of his shoulders.
"We can't go by our true names either." Magus said as he turned to Frog.
"Aye, tis easy enough, I shall go by Glenn...and you?"
Magus thought for a moment, the obvious irony would be to take the name Cyrus, but he didn't think the frog would appreciate his jest. "Chronas."
Frog's eyebrow rose in question. Perhaps the mage did respect those of the party that had defeated Lavos almost a year ago. Magus harrumphed at the knight's look as he walked by him. "Let's go." Frog nodded and hopped down from his sitting place when Magus stopped and turned to him.
"Oh, and you can't bring that." He said as he pointed to the MasaMune, which Frog had just picked up from its' resting spot on the ground.
"What? Why can't we come!?" the sword shrieked. Frog looked just about as confused.
Magus sighed at the sheer stupidity of both the sword and the knight. "Because you haven't even been made yet. The continent didn't fall until the boy swordsman threw you into the Mammon Machine, hence your full size, so we can't be trotting you around. For one you talk too much, and you also have the guru's name plastered on your side."
Frog nodded. "Tis right, I am sorry, but ye shall have to stay hither."
"Now hide that thing so we can be off." Frog hopped off around the corner and into another of the caves passageways. When he returned the MasaMune was nowhere to be seen. He began after Magus, who had just headed for the cave's entrance when he stopped and turned to the desk where his carving knife lay. Sighing he picked the small blade up, and as he left the room pulled it from its' sheath to make sure it was still sharp. He tucked the knife into the folds of his cloak as he exited the cave. Magus was already walking towards the nearest skyway, so Frog hopped as quickly as he legs would carry him in order to catch his companion.

Magus had chosen to head north because for whatever reason he believed that this was the direction that the skyway would lie in. Frog wasn't sure himself, but figured that Magus did have a little more familiarity with the lay of the land, even if he had detested being down here as a boy. The mage insisted that he had seen the ocean to the south, even though Frog had not asked about the length of their journey, but it seemed the mage was beginning to doubt himself. Just before Frog began to voice his doubts as well there was a glimpse of light streaking from the sky to the ground in the distance in front of them.
Magus grunted as he quickened the pace a little and Frog shook his head as he took off after the mage. A little while later they reached the front doors of the skyway. Something was different about the building. It seemed more...regal. At the entrance two burly Zealian men stood guard and bowed deeply to Magus as he and Frog walked by. Frog's eyebrow rose as he looked at both men over his shoulder as he followed Magus into the building. The knight looked to see if Magus had found something peculiar about the two men bowing, but the mage's face was as it usually was; stone.
Once inside Frog noticed that the building was very different indeed. In front of he and Magus was a fairly long line consisting of both Zealian and Earthbound. Magus leaned down and over so that Frog could hear him. "The last time they took names at the skyway was in the years before my father's death."
After saying this he stood straight so that he wouldn't look odd to any passersby, and Frog nodded. This was all very peculiar indeed. Though Magus had always insisted that the gurus were not nearly as talented and smart as they had thought they were, Frog had never seen an instance where they had failed; perhaps in this they finally had.
In was a matter of almost an hour before their place came up in line. Sitting in front of them was a fragile looking old man; Zealian, he looked over the ridges of his glasses at Magus for a moment before looking back down at his paper. "And the number of your party sir?" he said.
Again Frog's eyebrow quirked up, but he lowered it when he received a hot glare from Magus. "Two." The old man nodded. "And your friends name?"
"Glenn." Frog said. The man with the pen lowered the plume for a moment and starred at Frog. It seemed he didn't like the fact that Frog had answered his question.
"Glenn." Magus repeated. The old man looked to Magus and nodded. He scribbled two names down though due to his height Frog was unable to see the names he had written.
"Very well then, have a nice journey milord." Magus nodded as he walked up the platform and into the ring of the skyway. As Frog walked by the desk he heard something about magical creatures and disrespect, and though he hadn't caught it all, he pieced together what the message would have meant. He gave Magus another funny look before turning to face the back of the old man. He starred at the line of people that seemed to grow and grow for just a moment more before they were beamed off towards the sky.
When a person used the skyway they never felt what it was like to be shot thousands of feet into the sky. Lucca had tried to explain this to the knight once; something about dematerialization and a ridiculously large amount of enormous words, but the knight had no ear for modern jargon and was still puzzled by the skyways. He most definitely preferred the slight disorientation the skyways gave him to the nausea the time gates tended to give him, but he had no more time for thought as Magus had already headed towards the exit.
When Frog had caught up to Magus, who seemed to increase his pace each time Frog seemed to get close, he looked up at the mage and quirked his eyebrow once more. "Doest thou have an idea as to why everyone seems to think you are some sort of lord?" Magus glanced down at the frog knight but quickly brought his gaze back up to the road in front of them.
During the silence Frog took the opportunity to take in how different the weather was here above the clouds. Sunshine rained down upon the floating continent, basking everything in warmth. He was much more comfortable here than down below in the eternal winter, but somehow being thousands of feet up left a little to be desired.
"I don't know why people keep acting this way but I'm beginning to think I'm going to need a new disguise." Magus said, breaking the silence and Frog's concentration on their surroundings. Frog only nodded in agreement as they headed down what was becoming and increasingly short path to the next skyway. "We should stop in Enhasa. Maybe then we can find out who these people think I am, and find a different disguise if it's going to pose a problem." They then came to the branch in the road and turned down the right branch that led to the city of Enhasa.
The two walked in silence for the rest of the way, but the people they passed on the road murmured among themselves as they passed. Some even went to the extent of bowing, which made Magus increase his pace even more, making it even harder for the short legs of Frog to keep pace. Frog still found it odd that they passed some Earthbound people on the path, but supposed that since the gate had registration in this time period, obviously there were strangers things than the two races of the world coexisting.
Enhasa was much like Frog remembered it. The place was grand, but not so grand as to take away from the other, larger cities on the various floating places that made up the floating continent and the Kingdom of Zeal. Inside much was also the same except for the fact that instead of a peaceful, serene group of citizens, there was a large, bustling crowd. Many of the libraries were gone as well, replaced by vendors that sold all sorts of things from clothing to food stuffs, supplies, and just about anything else that could be needed. Crowds seemed to hush as Magus brushed by, not bothering to even say excuse me when he bumped into someone or waiting for any kind of talk. Frog walked a few paces behind his companion and helped more than one man to his feet, all the while nodding to many of the people who seemed so in awe of the mage.
As the crowd began to close again behind them whispers began to spread in the crowd like they feared the man who had just passed through their midst. Soon the whole place was a bustling marketplace again, and it actually took a bit of searching to find Magus who had somehow disappeared in the crowd. Frog had to worm his way between the legs of a few crowds and stop and ask if a few of the local merchants had by chance seen his companion. Indeed most had, and they were even courteous enough to point out the direction he had traveled in though they seemed to be in no hurry to follow after him.
Finally, after a good quarter of an hour search, Frog found Magus leaning up against a statue of some Zealian goddess. The man looked an absolute wreck, holding his hands to his temples, gently rubbing the side of his head in small circles.
"What hast happened?" Frog asked as he approached. Magus didn't talk, just put his left hand on Frog's back and pushed him around the corner as he came away from the statue. Now in the middle of the city, there were bustling crowds almost as far as the eye could see, but Frog knew it wasn't the crowds that bothered Magus. No, far above the crowds, painted on the wall on the very end of the city was a massive portrait of the Queen Zeal and, sitting next to her, a slim, middle aged man with shoulder long hair surrounding a stern, chiseled face. Sitting next to the Queen, all dressed in black, was a nearly picture perfect portrait of Magus, except it wasn't Magus; it was his father.