FicWad

Sins of Our Fathers
Part 2, Chapter 3

Magus couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of this. Instead of holding an actual trial that may have led to the end of their experiments and perhaps even brought the Gurus and their ruler under investigation and possible trial, they had resorted to a mass cover-up; banning their failure to the Void just so they may try once again. And he had believed that the old man would be honest enough to allow him to view the experiment, while instead the old man had decided to try and keep them from the experiment so that he could try and deal with them later. If he didn't already know that killing the man would result in a massive time shift, he'd rip the man apart limb by limb himself, but as that wasn't the case he would find his own answers.
Magus led the two man charge through the castle, knocking over people as they came to be in his way, but this time there was no apology as Frog was in just as much of a hurry as Magus, and was having a tough time keeping up. Magus wondered what the importance of this event was that the gurus had tried to keep it a secret from not only him, but the entire kingdom. Was this the event that would push the Zealians and Earthbound into civil unrest? Shaking the thought from his mind he rounded the corner into the entrance of the throne room. It was only then that he stopped running and calmly brushed the wrinkles from his clothing. Looking around he found the frog knight, huffing and puffing a few steps behind him. Motioning for the man to come along, Magus entered the room, being careful to stay near the back of the room as to avoid detection. Any thoughts of detection were quickly squashed though as Magus noticed that all three gurus along with the King himself were embracing their dedicated element of magic.
The power of Lightning arced from the outstretched hands of Melchior, next to him stood Balthazar who joined Melchior's rain of lightning with the power of ice, Gaspar added the element of water, and his father embraced the power of fire magic. The four were arranged in a diamond-like array, each surrounding whatever, or should he say whomever, sat in the middle of that diamond. His father stood in front of his throne and next to him sat a very young, tired looking girl; Schala. The two were a good five or six feet above the gurus who stood level on lower ground level with their experiment. Magus diverted his attention from the magic for a moment to study his father. The man didn't look as youthful and joyous as he had in the portrait in Enhasa, instead creases wrinkled the man's face, his hair had turned from its true color to the that of the snow on the Earth below, and his stature had become that of an old man. He was still imposing, that was for certain as the amount of magic that he embraced far surpassed that of the gurus tenfold, but he lacked the look of a King.
As Magus studied the man he had never known, he felt a tug on his cloak. Looking down, he saw Frog urging him to follow. Nodding, he turned and followed the smaller man around the back of the crowd towards the other side of the room. The knight stopped when they were about three quarters around the other side of the room and motioned for Magus to follow him to the front of the crowd. Magus' eyebrow peaked at the man's insistence, but he did as he was told and squeezed through a few unhappy Zealians towards the front of the crowd.
As he got to the front he looked down at Frog and arched an eyebrow. The knight merely pointed towards the gurus, his face as grim as a frog's face could possibly look. Magus looked at the knight for a moment more, not knowing if he should lift his gaze as he had an eerie feeling about him. Ever since he had stepped foot in the room he had felt as if something was trying to tear him apart from the inside. At first he had thought it was nerves, but now...now he wasn't as sure. Slowly he lifted his eyes from the frog and looked out towards the gurus. It seemed that the knight had found a position to where he could see the subject of the experiment. Magus stared through the gleaming colors of magic that streaked from the gurus around and into their experiment, trying vainly to see what it was the Frog saw. There it was! For just a glimmer of a second he had seen what lay in the middle of the streams of magic, and it was all that he could muster not to die on the spot because there, in the middle of the experiment, lay a pregnant Queen Zeal.

Magus tore through the crowd, and as he did so murmurs began to erupt from the people he passed by. Madly he dashed for the door, behind him he could still feel the presence of the magic, he could hear it tearing through newly formed cells and rearranging them to the guru's liking. Meanwhile he could feel something within himself. Something new which tore at him like nothing he had ever felt before. He wondered if this was what it was like to be crazy, driven mad by the sight before him, but rationalized that if he could ask that question that he was not as crazy as he seemed.
As he left the throne room he was sure that he heard the frog calling out to him from behind, but it didn't matter. He wanted to know, he must know; what was he? Just some sort of freak experiment gone wrong? Was that really him, inside his mother's womb? Had he had some sort of lost sibling? No. He knew he hadn't; it had to be him, the timing was perfect.
He tore through the main square, and if the people had thought him violent before, they quickly learned otherwise. He ripped people away from his path, throwing them as hard and far as he could before finally the crowd began to scream and people parted in either direction as he approached. Clearly they thought him mad. Maybe he was. But it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did. Only answers.
He sprinted up towards the room Melchior had given them, but once inside the corridors he took a number of branches that the man hadn't shown him. Branches Magus knew to be secret laboratories kept by the gurus in this period of magic use. The labs had been abandoned before his birth, and they had tried to keep him from them, but only one had been locked. And he was beginning to think that now he understood why.
Once he reached the room that for so many years had been forbidden to him, Magus stood frozen, his hand latched onto the door handle. He was in such a trance that he had to be shaken by the frog knight before he could regain his senses. Oh yes the door. He began to turn the handle when a feeling like fire tore through his insides. He screamed and fell to the ground clutching his stomach with both hands. Shuddering from the intensity of the pain, he hardly noticed when the frog opened the door in front of them and drug Magus inside. He tried once to rise, but as soon as he did so the pain struck again. His vision blurred, and he staggered once before he began to fall as light shrank and gave way to darkness.

Frog gasped as Magus toppled to the ground, striking his head on the hard stone floor and lying motionless. He ran over to the mage and was relieved to find that he had only been knocked unconscious. Perhaps now the man would calm. It appeared that his suspicions about the pregnant Queen were correct, but he expected the dark mage to react better than he had. Then again, he himself couldn't be sure how he would react to such news. The man's last few moments of consciousness had been most peculiar as he doubled over twice in pain, but at least now they were away from prying eyes. For the moment anyway.
Deciding that it would do no good to brood standing over the mage, Frog decided to instead inspect the room that Magus had led him to. It wasn't a very large room, but it appeared to be someone's study; perhaps even a place of experimentation. There were tables and desks everywhere filled with books, papers, and all kinds of other assorted writing materials, but not much of the text made sense to him. It would have been helpful to learn this time's writing inscriptions at some point so he could read what many of the books said, but he found that there were just as many books that were scribed in the common language of his own time.
Curious, he began rifling through the notes he could understand. He found that a majority of the papers were regarding the experiments that had been done relating to the one known as Kazar. Frog found this most peculiar that this was the only thing mentioned in all these papers, but he kept looking. It was about a quarter of an hour later that he came upon something of relevance. He could only understand pieces of it, but what he could see was quite clearly written over and over in every language that existed at this point in history. It said: Double exposure has resulted in mutation and/or death in all cases. Double exposure to what? Frog began thinking about this, but could only come to one, obvious conclusion. The magic in the experiment. He had been aware of the large amount of magical energy being transferred throughout the room and at times he thought that his own magic was being sapped, but only in minor amounts. Could it be that the experiment being performed not only used that magic of the gurus but that of everyone in the room? If that was so, it was a sure fact that Magus had been exposed to the spell, and if that was him in the Queen...
Frog's thoughts were interrupted by a groan across the room. He turned to find that Magus had indeed woken once more and was propped up on an elbow rubbing his head. Frog hopped across the room to the mage and helped him to stand.
"Art thou better?" Frog asked. Magus shook his head to the negative, and Frog sighed. "I believe I hath found something that relates to your well-being."
With that he handed Magus the small bundle of papers he was holding. Magus took the papers and leaned against a nearby table. His tall body seemed to sway from side to side, but Frog was unable to tell if the man was truly that unsteady or if his eyes were betraying him. As the mage shuffled through the papers he hissed and began cursing as he threw the papers as far as he could, sending himself into another tizzy. He clutched his stomach and groaned but was able to keep his feet. Frog looked to steady the man but the mage pulled away. Well then, if his pride would be a factor let him fall to the ground again.
"Whatever they did to me, it's beginning to mutate. I can feel myself changing, almost as if I'm being torn in two."
"What shall we do?"
Magus shrugged. "I'm not sure but..."
The mage's thoughts were cut off by what seemed to be a ripple throughout the room. Magus screamed as it cut through him, and Frog was horrified as reality itself rippled towards him. He closed his eyes as the ripple passed through him, but when he opened them everything seemed to be okay. He looked at the mage who stared at Frog with wide eyes. He arched an eyebrow as he studied the man, but suddenly something hit him. It tore at him savagely, and as he looked down he saw that he was glowing. The glow was dark green but began to lighten as the pain increased. He screamed as he fell to his knees, clutching his stomach, and in that fraction of a second he knew that he had been right; this had all been a mistake.

Magus watched horrified as the knight disappeared with a scream. The man's scream seemed to echo throughout the room, but he knew that it was only in his head. Magus vaguely recalled something like this happening before, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember what it was. It was then that he decided that it was no longer safe here. If the gurus stumbled upon him like this he was a dead man. He very well could be anyway, but he would be damned if those blundering fools would be the end of him.
Blocking the pain away as much as possible, Magus shuffled out the door and into the hall. He looked both ways before deciding to try his luck at the secret passages that existed as a means of escape should one of the guru's projects ever backfire. Once he reached the location of the door he found that it wasn't there. The damn door wasn't there! He groaned at the realization of the door's true purpose. The gurus had likely devised it as a means of escape from his mother. He turned back towards the other side of the hall when he saw a contingent of men round the corner. At the head of the men was one of the guru's; Gaspar.
"Stop!" the man yelled as Magus turned to run. Magus looked over his shoulder once as he scanned the hall. There was nothing there but a window at the end of the hall. He groaned as he realized that this window was his only means of escape. As he ran towards the end of the hallway, a stream of water shot past him. He started to slip before he invoked his magic and glided towards his target. Bolts of lightning and balls of fire exploded around him as he tried to escape, and either these men were worse with magic than he had originally thought, they weren't trying to kill him; yet.
With one last glance over his shoulder Magus leapt through the window headfirst. Glass and wood exploded around him, cutting through his Zealian garb and through his skin. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he hurtled towards the ground, so much that Magus swore he could count the droplets of blood he left behind as he fell. He turned towards the window and extended his right hand, leaving the other to clutch his stomach. Invoking his magic was a chore, but he summoned up as much strength as possible and hurled a giant lightning bolt towards the top of the window. The blast struck the wall and from the crash and screams that ensued, Magus knew that the blast had sealed the exit.
With one threat taken care of, Magus knew he had to somehow survive this fall. As he looked below he saw nothing but trees. He grimaced as he brought his magic forth in an attempt to slow his fall. What his magic hadn't done, the trees had. As he broke through branches, he slowed until the ground stopped his fall once and for all.

Blackness turned to somewhat less darkness as he had evidently been unconscious through the passing of day to night. As he rose he startlingly enough felt no pain. That was soon cured by the familiar fiery pain that shot through his stomach and into his arms and legs. As he ground he teeth together he headed down the mountain and towards his only hope of freedom. It took all night for Magus to descend the mountain, deciding that it would be best to stay away from the small skyways since they would likely be guarded. He wanted to hide now that daylight could be used against him, but he wasn't sure how long he would be able to fight the pain that was crawling through him.
He headed towards the skyway, making sure to keep his distance from the road as to avoid anyone that might be looking for him. While he was traveling he began to think once again on where he had heard of an event happening similar to the disappearance of the frog. It took most the day, and it wasn't until he was nearing the skyway that he remembered the inventor girl telling him about how the boy swordsman and the princess had met. And then it hit him like a ton of bricks, sending him stumbling head over heels into the ground. The frog no longer existed.
As he came to realization with this twist he pushed himself to his feet. Why had the frog been effected by this turn of events. They hadn't done anything to change the timeline prior to this...or had they? Had their appearance had that much of an effect? No, it didn't seem possible. He shrugged the thoughts off as the pain climbed into his head: he didn't have much time.
He flew as fast as he could as the pain that shot through his body seemed to be inhibiting his use of magic, but he willed himself on. Just like the last time he had been through the skyway there wasn't registration, but a few Zealians looked at him funny as he passed by. He stepped onto the gate and beamed down to the surface to find him standing face to face with three startled Zealian royal guards. Magus punched the first man in the face as hard as he could and as he did so he felt the bones break from the force of his blow. The man was sent tumbling down the small set of stairs and lay there as his stunned comrades readied swords and came at Magus.
He wasted no time thinking, instead he ripped his scythe from its holster and cut down the first man, but as he did so he realized he wouldn't be able to recover in time to block the other man's attack, so he put his body behind his scythe's attack and aimed his now free right hand across his body at the other man and summoned his magic. A small ball of fire shot out and hit the second man as his comrade screamed in agony. The attack wasn't powerful enough to kill the man, but it knocked him far enough away that his attack swung wide of Magus' body. The man whose nose had been broken seemed to be picking himself up, but Magus leapt up and planted both feet in the middle of the man's chest. The man screamed and Magus tore through the building and out into the blizzard that was ensuing outside.
He could hardly see, and wasn't sure if he would make it to the next skyway, but Magus continued, wishing that he had just stayed where he was. Some time later, though he was unsure how much time had passed exactly, Magus reached the second skyway. He rushed inside, and earned more than one shout of surprise at his appearance.
Though he couldn't see himself, Magus could smell the blood of the guards he had killed earlier and was sure that his clothing was in tatters from the glass window he had jumped through and falling though the trees after that. He was almost senseless now, and before he knew it he was on the other Earthbound island, with no Earthbound or Zealian bold enough to try to stop him. Magus was dazed, the pain pounded throughout his entire body, and he fell to the ground retching more than once, but he made his way into the cave that he and the frog had left their belongings in. He rifled through his things, as the knight's were just as gone as the knight himself, until he found the gatekey. He left everything else behind; clothes, armor, and even his scythe were all left in the cave as he crazily stumbled towards where the gate had left him...them...who had come with his again?...Was this really the end?...He stumbled, raving like a madman until he fell into blackness, and by some miracle his outstretched hand touched the gatekey to the open gate as he hit the ground.

"Janus? Save your strength, you'll need it." Voices faded in and out of Janus' dreams, but strangely enough there were only two voices that filled the parts of dozens. Each time the voices spoke a new face leapt into the forefront of these strange dreams, and he consciously wondered what had happened. The last thing he remembered he had been in excruciating pain, but now he seemed to be without that pain and laying instead in eternal bliss. Was he dead? No, why would he need to save strength if he was dead? His thoughts faded out, and the voices faded back in and visa versa for longer than the man could care to remember before he felt something shaking him.
"Wake up you no good, lousy..." one of the voices said as something struck Janus across the face time after time until finally Janus willed his eyes open. Sitting on his chest and holding onto the collar of his shirt was a small, pudgy white ball with two large brown ears and four stubby limbs. Janus let out a groan as he sat up.
"What..." he cut himself off as he looked at his hands. Both were heavily bandaged just as the rest of his body seemed to be. What had happened?
"I'm so sorry Janus, we've done what we could but..." the second voice trailed off sadly. Janus looked around the ball of white fur to see a lone man sitting next to a light that glowed faintly atop a tall pole. It was the only light given off in the place, which made Janus even more curios as to where he was. The man was shrouded in a dark brown cloak, the hood drawn over his face with only a long white beard and moustache protruding from the cloth. He sat in some sort of chair that oddly enough had two large wheels, one on either side of the chair.
"What happened, I..."
"Yes I suppose you don't remember do you. Or maybe it's just that you don't understand and therefore can't remember. Either way, I suppose it doesn't matter." The man, or at least Janus assumed it was a man, said as he reached down and took the wheels into his hands, rolling them so that he came closer to Janus.
"You remember traveling through the time rift yes?" Janus nodded dumbly and opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the man.
"When you arrived in your former kingdom you arrived at the wrong place. And seeking answers you did what anyone would do, you went to the source." The white ball of fur, which had gotten off of Janus and taken the old man's spot beneath the light post snorted. "When you did so you were exposed to a magic that you were only supposed to feel once; it was the birth of shadow magic. You see, in the times before you, there were only the four elements, but we were greedy; we wanted to be able to control all elements. So, we gurus devised a plan. At first we failed, but finally were able to achieve our goal; you.
However the spell had more than one adverse effect. It took the life-force of those that performed it; mine, the other gurus', your father's, and your mother's. You father was already a sick man, and the spell sent the poor man into seizures and soon after he died. The rest of us were cursed to an early old age, and your mother was cursed with the power hungry visions of Lavos.
Since we were afraid of your mother and her lust for power, we feared that you might be the same, and so we sealed you magic away secretly, fainting innocence and insisting that the experiment had been a failure. Obviously it was not, as you left our time period, sent away by Lavos and flourished into one of the most powerful mage's of all time; the Magus.
When you returned, the second bout of experimentally magic waves mutated your already altered genetic structure; in essence the core of your being. This mutation was much different from that of the other, failed experiments though. Instead of outright killing you or making you go insane with power, it separated you into two beings. The good and the bad, Janus of Zeal and the Magus of Guardia; otherwise known as the Dark One."
"Why the bandages? And why don't I remember my reasons for going back in time, and what of Frog..." the old man rose his hand to silence Janus and continued on.
"Luckily enough, I suppose, you were able to reach the gate and the split took place inside the wormhole. This way both halves of you were able to survive, but instead of being sent to a specific place as you were, the Dark One exists now in all times and all places. He can be anywhere and nowhere. Unfortunately for him, he cannot be nothing as this place is, otherwise we would all surely be dead. Spekkio here and I have taken care of you, nursed you back to good health so that you may fix what is broken."
"What? I don't understand...I have to fix myself?"
"No you big oaf. Time. You have to fix time." The white ball of fur that was now identified as Spekkio spat. "Gaspar why are we wasting time with this rubbish we..."
"He's the only one that can fix this. You know this as well as I. As for accountability, I am as accountable for this blunder as he is. We should have destroyed all records of our faulty studies...no, we shouldn't have performed them in the first place. The 'sins of our fathers,' a good term that you came up with Janus." He said with a nod. Janus knew he had heard the name Gaspar before, but he wasn't sure where...the guru!
"Guru Gaspar?" he whispered. The man nodded and removed the hood of his cloak from his face.
"Yes my dear boy it is I. I was hoping your memory would be better now, but I am afraid that may take more time that we may have. Since your delineation in time has affected the stream so much it has become unstable. Time itself is beginning to shake itself apart. You saw a portion of that when the timeline rippled in Zeal. You remember this yes?" Janus nodded that he indeed did remember. It was right before Frog disappeared.
"I can give you some information, and tell you what to do, but unfortunately I cannot leave this place, and neither can Spekkio here. We are the only strands left tying the timestream together, and if we were to leave everything would unravel into nothingness.
The bandages are necessary I'm afraid. In a futile attempt to kill you the Dark One left in such a manner that your entire body is covered in scars. These bandages are magical in nature and will protect you from death by small things such as infection and sickness. Later I will show you how to create your own things by willing them to be. In this place such a thing is possible, but for now let us begin as to where we stand. You remember the being Lavos?"
Janus nodded. "Yes I along with some other travelers destroyed the beast so that the world would have a future."
"Yes well, your other half had other motives, but that will suffice. Due to what has recently transpired, time has shifted as I said before."
"And due to this Lavos hasn't been destroyed." Spekkio said. Janus looked to the creature horrified at the news and Gaspar nodded solemnly.
"Yes, unfortunately key members of the party that were assembled were nonexistent and so the deed was never done. There weren't enough pieces to the puzzle, but since you and your counterpart are the lone constants in this reality and the last, you can mold yourself around the other pieces, even create new ones, making it possible to do what needs to be done."
"Which is?" Janus asked as he looked from Gaspar to Spekkio and back again.
"You must assemble a group to defeat Lavos; somehow the Dark One has made this a key event that must transpire in order to reassemble the timeline. Once that is done, you must use the Chrono Trigger to in effect re-make the timeline. If all goes well, the timeline will be restored and you will be able to come face to face with your other half."
"And, if you're lucky, become whole again." Spekkio said. "Otherwise you'll be cast into oblivion and he'll wander eternity powerless without a willing host."
Janus nodded as he took in all the information. "So all I have to do is gather two of our party and defeat Lavos once again? Sounds easy enough..." Spekkio rolled his eyes and Gaspar coughed a few times.
"Not exactly Janus. You see, as I said before the changes altered the reality. Many of your party no longer exist. Frog for example, in this reality he was killed by the Magus instead of his companion Cyrus. Unfortunately Cyrus was chased into hiding when the Magus and the Mystic horde succeeded in winning the war against Guardia. Because of this the princess Nadia no longer exists as her line was slaughtered at the end of the war. The inventor Lucca was killed while trying to organize a revolt against the Mystics in 1000 AD, and as such the robot Robo was never fixed, and thus never takes place in the timeline. And the primitive member of the party Ayla was killed in the battle with the Reptites as there was no help for her in the battle from Crono and Frog."
Janus stood there stunned. Spekkio looked to be sick, but was still grinning wickedly. Gaspar looked solemn, as if he was about to cry, and Janus felt like giving up right then. No one was left. What could he do alone? Even if he was to gain Crono's help, how could they alone fight what it had taken three fierce warriors to defeat the first time?
"There is hope however." Gaspar said as he pulled open his cloak and reached inside, pulling from underneath a glimmering sword.
"We're still here." The sword's dual voices chimed. Gaspar smiled weakly and nodded.
"Indeed they are, however there is only one person left in the time stream that is worthy of wielding the sword, and he is in hiding somewhere in 600 AD. The other that you will need still lives in 1000 AD as a teen blacksmith apprentice. He will be much the same as you remember him, though I am unsure of how you will be able to convince either to accompany you."
Janus nodded as he mentally etched each of the instructions Gaspar was giving him into his brain. He would worry about the how. He reached out and took the sword hesitantly from Gaspar, but it did not hurt him. Seeing Janus' hesitance to take the sword, Gaspar faintly smiled.
"The sword will not hurt you now as you have little darkness within without the Dark One, however you will not be able to wield it to its' full potential. Only Cyrus can do that."
Janus took the sword into his hands and looked over it. If he wasn't to use the sword he would need a weapon, not to mention some clothes. As if reading his mind, Gaspar grabbed the younger man's arm and a warm fuzzy sensation passed out of the man's hand and into Janus. Suddenly he understood how to create things here at the End of Time. It was almost as if he had already know, that somehow the man had unlocked some sort of memory from his mind, but he let it rest.
The armor he chose was familiar to him, as he had left it lying in the cave in 12,000 BC. The clothes he chose were much different though. His bandages were white, and overtop these and his armor was a white shirt, black boots, and dark blue trousers and vest. Overtop all of this he wore a white cloak, and to top it all of he created a mask. The mask was an art form all by itself. It was metal, chrome to be exact, so it shined dully. The mask itself was that of a lion that ended right above Janus' mouth, with two large fang like extensions on either side of the mouth. He knew he needed this because he was able to see his face in the reflection of the old man's eyes and it had been horrifying enough to himself. As for a weapon he kept his scythe in its' magic holster beneath his cloak, and he strapped the MasaMune to his back. All in all he figured that he must look like a great war machine, but he didn't feel the same as the first time he had set out to destroy Lavos.
"There are three pillars of light up on the platform above." Gaspar said as Janus turned to leave. "The left leads to 600 AD, the middle to 1000 AD, and the right to 1999 AD. If I were you I'd take either the left or the middle." He finished with just a hint of sarcasm. Janus nodded and began to leave when he heard Spekkio.
"Hey, don't forget this; Ipso, facto, meeny moe... MAGICO!" White light flashed throughout the End of Time, and Janus began to feel much more like himself.
"Thanks." He said as he opened the small door to the platform above.
"You're gonna need all the help you can get; besides it's not as strong as what you had before. I can't give you that without the trouble within your soul. Instead you have magic similar to that of your sister; prism magic." Janus nodded, not fully understanding what the creature said, but knowing that the magic did indeed feel different. As he climbed the stairs to the gates, he looked over the pillars of light that streaked high into nothingness as he approached. It wasn't until he reached the gates that he chose his first destination, and as he stepped into the middle pillar and was whisked off into the wormhole, he hoped he had made the correct decision.