FicWad

Crono was sure that he was going to die. It just wasn't natural to be sucked up into a giant vortex of color. As he slid...at least it felt like sliding...down the vortex he had wide eyes as he attempted to look around. Janus was to his left, and the man showed no outwards emotion...nothing that could be seen from under that mask anyway, and so Crono surmised that the man had obviously done this before. Once again he wondered what he had gotten himself into by striking a deal with this mysterious man, but his gut told him that everything would turn out all right and he would be literally all the richer for it, but he had been wrong before.
Suddenly, as quickly as he had been drawn into the vortex he shot out from it, or rather, down from it, landing hard on his feet on some sort of platform. He tumbled to the ground due to the sheer force of his landing, but noticed that Janus landed perfectly. Yes, the man had definitely done this before.
Crono picked himself and brushed his clothes off. With that done, he looked around his new locale in an attempt to find some sort of bearing. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing around them. This platform of stone and mortar seemed to be the only thing in this place, and a mere steel fence stood between he and darkness.
"Yes, there isn't much here, but being it's the End of Time I wouldn't expect a whole lot more." Janus said dryly as he walked towards a small set of stairs. Crono wandered after the man, still gawking at the eternal darkness that surrounded them. How could there be a place at the End of Time? And for that matter how had Janus come to find that vortex? Is this where he came from? Questions bounded through Crono's head, and if that wasn't annoying enough a barrage of colors arose from the back of his mind. He struggled hard to keep his composure and shrug the colors and the questions away as he followed Janus.
Down the steps was a small wooden gate. Though he was unsure of the reasoning behind this gate Crono found it quite amusing that a gate would be needed at the End of Time. As he walked through the gate a new room seemed to unfold from the darkness. Inside was a single light-post that shone dully throughout the dark and a simple man sitting in a funny looking chair below it. The man seemed to be talking intently to Janus, so Crono decided that he should take a look around the place.
Unlike what he had previously believed, Crono found that the room contained a few more simple aspects. In the near corner was a small basin filled with some sort of clear liquid. He curiously touched the water and as he did so a tingling sensation ran through his hand and into his body. At first he was a bit startled by this, but after a moment Crono noticed that he felt better than he had in years. The liquid had the sensation of tonic, but there was something else...something extra in that water. He shrugged it off as he investigated the rest of the room.
He walked behind Janus and directly in front of the man he was talking to, but neither seemed to notice him so he continued on to the other side of the room. Here he found yet another set of stairs that he began to walk down, but stopped suddenly when he realized where the stairs led. Peaking over the edge of the last step he could see nothing...darkness. Who put a set of stairs in to act as a cliff?
Crono shook his head as he quickly retreated up the stairs. Things here were definitely a bit odd. As he continued through the room he found a door on the top wall, almost directly behind the lamppost. For a moment he considered just walking away from it, as he wasn't sure if it would turn out to be similar to the staircase to death, but something in the back of his mind told him that he'd done this before. Déjà vu? No, he was fairly certain that he had never been to such a peculiar place...had he? Curiosity soon got the better of him and he slowly opened the door, making sure to stand clear of opening when he did so.
When nothing happened, and he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, Crono peaked into the room. This one seemed to be almost as empty as the first, but sitting in the middle of an inexplicable light that seemed to come from nowhere in particular, was a funny looking animal covered in white fur. The thing sat upright, but Crono noticed that the monster was snoring away a storm, so he decided that it would be okay to take a look around. He entered the room and took a few steps in when suddenly the door slammed shut behind him. He winced at the sound and looked to see if the animal had come to its senses and much to Crono's dismay it appeared it had.
The monster yawned and stretched out much like Crono did every morning before standing and opening its eyes. When the thing saw Crono it jumped away a little in surprise which startled Crono, causing him to lift his sword to a defensive position. When the little monster saw this he smiled before laughing once, and then startling Crono once again, but this time it wasn't what it did, it was what it said.
"HA! You can't hurt me with that thing, I'm the God of War! Spekkio the Great!"
Crono was dumbfounded. Magic, vortexes, platforms floating in nothingness, and now a monster that could talk! This was beginning to become more than he could handle.
"Whoa there kid, no need to be alarmed." The monster said as it directed both hands towards Crono in a gesture to lower the sword and calm down.
"I see you've met Spekkio, he does have a tendency to talk a lot, but he sometimes forget to mention certain things of importance." Crono turned around to see Janus leaning against the inside of the doorway.
"Ooh you...": Spekkio trailed off, but Crono could tell by the slightly red tinge to his fur that he was angry. "I take it you haven't told him anything?"
"Hmm? Oh, haven't had time, he wandered in here before Gaspar or I could tell him anything."
Spekkio snorted. "Alright kid, here's the deal. You may have noticed that you can do things that you seem to remember doing, but have never done in your whole life...take that sword for instance. I know for a fact that Mystics don't allow humans to have weapons from where you come, and you handle that like you've done it every day for the last ten years. This is because someone in this room blundered through time into the past. This set of a chain reaction of events that have led to the present timeline, you follow?"
Crono wasn't sure that he did, but he nodded anyway. Spekkio sighed at the blank look on the swordsman's face and continued.
"Anyway, because of this certain things that were supposed to be done weren't, and as a result the timeline is beginning to fracture." Just then a boom shook the room that they stood in. Crono looked towards the ceiling in terror, halfway expecting it to fall on him, but the room soon settled down. "That, my friends is one of the effects of the damage done to the timeline. Soon a phenomenon that will look much like lightning will tear through the darkness out there. Those shreds of energy are pieces of the timeline as the rip themselves apart.
When this happens, things in those bits of the timeline will disappear forever. Friends, memories, even you could just poof and be gone should you not stop whatever caused this. That is why Janus here came looking for you. You are one of three Triggers remaining that can change the broken timeline. The Chrono Triggers...has a certain ring to it don't you think? Anyway, you along with Janus and one more must venture through time and attempt to fix the timeline before it shatters itself completely. Understand now?"
Crono nodded that he did, but he really had many more questions, but somehow much of what the little monster said made sense. Was that because of all the techno-babble he had heard from Lucca over the years, or was this monster right and he had done this before? Either way he was now more intrigued than ever, and he would probably do this job for free...but he'd never tell Janus as much. He heard Janus laugh once before leaving the room. Crono turned to follow, but the door slammed shut as he neared it.
"Not so fast kid, I've got something for you. A parting gift you could say." Spekkio said as he neared the center of the room. "Now come stand in front of me."
Crono hesitated for a moment, but followed his gut instinct that everything would be okay and walked to stand in front of the small monster. He looked down to see the monster stretch his arms out and close his eyes. Colors raced through his mind as stood there and it was a struggle to push them all back. He made it a point to be sure to ask Janus about those colors later, but now he was focused on the little monster in front of him.
"Ispo facto meeny moe, MAGICO!" Spekkio chanted the words and threw his arms towards the ceiling. A wave of something splashed up from underneath the little monster and a surge of energy passed through Crono's body. What had the monster done?
Crono looked at his hands and the rest of his body. Everything seemed to be the same. So why did he feel so different?
"You've just been endowed with the powers of magic!" Spekkio said. "And it looks like you're a Shadow magic user. In another time it may have been different, but your character definitely fits the magic."
Crono stared blankly at the monster for a moment but his blank look soon turned to an almost evil grin. Spekkio smiled at the eagerness of the swordsman and took a few steps back.
"So, wanna try it out? Your magic is just an extension of you so you don't need to do anything fancy like chant or some such until you are ready for the advanced stuff, so just use your killer instinct and you'll be fine."
Crono nodded and readied himself. He snapped his head once to the right and back to the left, but not to intimidate his opponent, no, this time his neck just really needed to pop. He studied the monster for a moment before deciding to make the first move. Energy flickered through his body and by listening to his gut he was able to push the colors aside and let loose the energy. The magic coursed through his body and out as he spread his arms wide. His feet lifted off the air and hung loosely as a barrage of lightning bolts flew from him and rushed towards Spekkio.
Spekkio was able to dodge the first bolt by throwing up a boulder of ice, but the next few bolts proved to be too much as they grazed the sides of the monster. The last bolt came from the ceiling, and impacted the little monster right in the top of the head. The energy contained in the bolt sent the little white monster flying into the far wall. He slowly slid down the wall and sat perfectly still at the bottom.
For a moment Crono was horrified. Had he killed him? But after another few moments Spekkio bounced to his feet.
"That was great! You're pretty good kid, come back after you've practiced and we'll really see what you can do!"
Crono nodded at the monster and smiled. He turned to head out the door which had once again opened, and he turned to wave to the monster behind him. Once again colors swirled through his head but this time they didn't bother him. In them he could see someone that looked just like him except cleaner...more innocent. And next to him was stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He silently wondered what the vision could mean, but his thoughts must have been plain on his face.
"You saw something in the colors too? Gaspar tells me that they are indeed memories, but they can only be correctly seen here because this place is apart from time. He says that they are our own memories; the one's that we should have, but due to my mistake they are not fully ours, and we cannot see them in the timeline. If you focus your mind you should be able to push them back fairly easily. Oh, and before we go why don't you get a little drink from that basin. It will replenish your magic and your strength."
Crono nodded thoughtfully as he went to the basin. So it was different after all. He grinned at his reflection in the basin. Could that have really been him? It almost didn't seem possible. But somehow...somehow it did. This trip was beginning to become more fruitful all the time, and if he was getting paid for this...well then, this was just plain fun.
After Crono got his small drink he once again felt rejuvenated. He then joined Janus at the gate next to bottom of the stairs. Janus opened the small gate and proceeded up the stairs as he talked.
"As Spekkio said there are supposed to be three of us. The third will wield this." He said as he pointed to his back. "He's from the middle ages, sometime around the year 600 AD, but with the timeline fractured the way it is we could land a few years before this, a few after, or plum right in the middle of a war so be ready."
Crono nodded as he tapped the blunt edge of his sword on his neck. Yes, this trip was definitely something.

Janus had talked to the guru about much, and much of that talk was now a bit disturbing to Janus. Now that the colors were explained he felt somewhat relieved, but he was not very happy about the fact that Gaspar still was unsure of what had really caused all this. It was hard to believe that a simple appearance would cause so much damage; even if it did split his self into two halves. The Dark One was key, but without knowing how he was key it didn't seem to help much.
Something else that disturbed him was the vision he had seen while talking to the guru. In it he had seen two beings become the sword he carried, and as such he saw the sword talking to his whole self. The sword had never uttered any sort of word since the moment he had received it, and it was beginning to worry him that perhaps the sword had lost some of its power.
As he and Crono reached the top of the steps he stopped. There were two more gates sitting here. Gaspar had said nothing about new time-gates opening. Janus sighed and looked back once towards the guru's room. There was no help for it now, first they had to find Cyrus. They could investigate the other gates at another time. He looked back one last time to Crono to make sure the man was still behind him and motioned towards the left pillar of light which he then stepped into.
As he was pulled up into the air towards the stream of time, Janus looked down over the End of Time once more. Spekkio had come from his room and stood next to Gaspar with one hand leaning on the old man's chair. Janus then looked directly below him to see Crono zipping up towards him. Satisfied he crossed his arms and closed his eyes. It would be a few minutes before they reached their destination so he thought a bit of relaxation wouldn't hurt.
The time-stream headed to 600 AD was even rougher than the stream had bee n his trip to 1000 AD which led Janus to only one conclusion; the stream as dissolving faster than the guru had originally anticipated. He wondered if there was any hope at all or if he was just on a fool's errand futilely trying to save something that couldn't be saved.
It was then that Janus opened his eyes. He was getting no relaxation from these idle thoughts. Perhaps it would be best to stay aware of their situation. Sure enough the ending began to creep up on the travelers. It seemed that he had gotten a little more rest than he originally thought. Dreams had a way of doing that to you; forcing you to believe one thing while in reality the truth was hidden in shades of gray.
The exit of the gate was fairly routine for Janus now, and it seemed that Crono had learned an invaluable lesson as well. It was fairly assuring that though the swordsman was quite a different person now that he still had the abilities and smarts of the old Crono. Once they had settled themselves Janus looked around their surroundings in attempt to find some sort of bearing, but try as he might he couldn't remember this place.
"Hmm, I'm afraid I have no idea which way to go." He mumbled. "Any ideas?"
Crono looked around for a few moments with a funny look on his face. He then squinted for a moment; it looked as if he was really straining to reach for something, and then he nodded.
"Well then let's see if we can find this Cyrus fellow." Crono nodded and led the way out of the small clearing they had been brought into. They headed west for a while before finding a rope ladder that made its way down to another ledge about twenty feet below them. Crono looked at Janus and peaked an eyebrow before sliding his sword into his belt and proceeding down the ladder. Janus hoped the swordsman really knew where he was going, but he supposed that even if he didn't at least they were going somewhere.
Once they were on the lower ledge Crono headed west again. After a good distance the found themselves at a wooden bridge. The thing seemed to be nearly as old as some of the trees that towered over everything on the mountain and Janus was a bit hesitant to cross. He watched as Crono crossed the bridge slowly, making sure to test each plank before putting his full weight on it. Janus sighed and slowly followed after the swordsman, and it appeared that whoever had constructed this bridge had most definitely known what they were doing.
They now headed southwest and came to yet another rope ladder that led down to what seemed to be a bit smoother decline below. Once they had climbed down they headed south through the trees towards the base of the mountain. This seemed to be a fairly recent game trail, but what had Janus concerned was the lack of activity in the forest. In 1000 AD the forest had been deathly silent as well, but that was because of hundreds of years of Mystic rule...wasn't it?
When they reached the base of the mountain it was almost time for the sun to set. Apparently they had spent nearly half of a day at the End of Time. Thinking back, Janus realized that he hadn't slept in about a day and a half. After he thought that he yawned.
"Maybe we should make camp for the night." Janus said as he stifled yet another yawn. Crono looked almost disappointed but nodded. By the look on his face he was quite tired as well. They found a small clearing a little bit east of the game trail and set up a makeshift camp consisting of a fire-pit and, well a fire. Janus reached to his back and unlatched the MasaMune's belt. He then set the sword down on the ground near the fire and lay down next to it. For a few moments he stared into the fire, but for some reason he felt a little uncomfortable staring into the fire's light so he rolled to his back and stared out towards the bleak nothingness of the night's sky. He could hear Crono fidgeting restlessly on the other side of the fire before finally the swordsman lay still and began snoring.
Thoughts clouded Janus' mind, threatening to keep him awake, but just before he gave up on sleep the colors came. They seemed different though, somehow comforting instead of the pain they usually brought with them. As Janus drifted closer and closer to sleep he wondered what he should really be seeing in the place of swirls of blue and purple, but darkness consumed him before he could reason out an answer.

He had let them both die. There right in front of him he had been beaten but neither of them would go. They refused to go. Why? Why had he let them die? Why did he have to live? They were both so much stronger than he. They always had been, but they had been to humble to see their own courage. They had always looked to his skills, his raw talent, to lead them when really he should have been the one to follow. Why?
Cyrus contemplated falling on his sword right there and ending it all. It wouldn't be to horribly painful, and it would be a good end to a failure of a knight, but he couldn't. His cowardice made him want to laugh, but instead he began to cry. Glenn...Sara...why did you sacrifice yourselves for me? Why?
His sobbing continued until he no longer had anything to form a tear. Cyrus the Great indeed; Cyrus the Coward was more accurate, no, Cyrus the Despicable was perfect. Part of him wanted to die, but the other part held on, it was too scared to die. Or did that part of him think he could avenge his friends' deaths? No, he was afraid. He always had been.
Cyrus stood up and sheathed his sword. He had come back to the mountain where the damned mage Magus had killed his friends to kill himself. To die with them, to show them his sorrow, but instead he found himself retreating yet again. If only he had retrieved the MasaMune, but the sword was gone when they had reached its shrine. Magus had gloated at the fact that he had searched for the legendary sword and not found it first, but if that was the case who had?
He shrugged off these thoughts and shrunk back down within himself; back down into his depression as he pulled on his cloak. He tied the thing shut so that it hid his clothes and his sword. His clothes were the tattered remnants of his uniform, but the mark of the Knights of the Square Table had been burnt away by one of the Magus' magic spells, and the rest of him was covered in hardened mud, blood, and tears. He then pulled his hood up over his face so that he could only see the ground directly in front of him. He would be well enough like this; able to see his path and use his swordsman training to sense anyone around him.
Once he had come down from the mountain, Cyrus decided to forgo the towns and head straight to the cursed forest he had come to call his home. It wasn't much, and the wild animals had given him much grief at first, but they had come to expect his presence there, and some even decided to join his meals every now and then. Others occasionally brought him food, but the best thing was their company, and so Cyrus had come to love his new home. There he wasn't Cyrus the knight, or even Cyrus the human. No, in that forest he was just another one of the animals; probably the lowest of them all, a good place for a depressed shell of a man.
It took only hours to reach the edge of the forest, and it was at this time that Cyrus was grateful for his training as a soldier. He could move from one side of the continent to the other much faster than any ordinary person, and since he was carrying nothing in the way of armor or supplies his journey had been that much easier.
The forest was unlike any of the others Cyrus had ever ventured through, which was perhaps the reason it was said to be cursed. The trees were not those of the mountains; instead of needles and cones decorating their branches they were filled with large leaves of green that made them look more like flowers than trees. It hardly ever snowed in the area, but in the few winter months and those leading up to them the trees changed their colors as if mourning the ending of another year. Their yellow, red, and orange leaves made Cyrus think of the giant plants even more like flowers, but it was rumored that the curse of this forest was what made the leaves turn color and fall off.
So far Cyrus had encountered no curse, only a few monsters that he had to believe were much smarter than those of other places, and the forest seemed to exist only for these special beings. The most curious of these beings was the one that resembled a blue ball with four stubby limbs. The thing wasn't like the other monsters as whenever Cyrus approached it the thing shouted what Cyrus took to be the things name, Nu, and then ran off into the forest screaming. The other animals seemed to caw and hiss in laughter every time this happened, and Cyrus was beginning to think that the stupidity of that one monster had earned this forest its name.
As he walked towards his home's entrance a couple of snakes jumped from their hiding spots on either side of the path, but when they smelled their forest companion they snuck back into the forest to wait for a victim that would be scared by their antics. Further up a few more monsters came from their familiar locations and greeted Cyrus. He smiled as his friends welcomed him back and showered him with gifts of fruit and other plants that he had found to be edible. He thanked each with a friendly pat and a few scratches behind the ears before the scurried off, and soon he was at the entrance of his home.
Before entering, Cyrus looked around to make sure there were no signs of human life around. He had no need or want of human contact, and the longer his home remained a secret the longer he would have his wish. Once he was satisfied Cyrus pushed the limbs of the bush that camouflaged his hole back so that he could climb down the stairs he had carved into the little cave's walls.
The inside of the cave was filled with simple hand-made furniture that Cyrus had made for the place from fallen timber and some strong vines that appeared to be nearly as tough as the wood itself. It was nothing like what he had been privileged with at the castle, but it was his thought that it was much more than he deserved.
Now that he was inside, Cyrus pulled back the cloak's hood and began to untie the sash that held it closed. He slowly removed his travel things; cloak, belt and sword, boots, and made his way towards his bed. For a moment he contemplated doing something constructive, but decided that it didn't really matter and so he let himself fall on the cushion of leaves that rustled as he found a comfortable spot. As he pulled his blanket up over him, Cyrus began to think once more of things past, and as he began to drift off towards another night of nightmares and guilt, a lone tear streaked down his face.

Janus awoke at first light, but it appeared that his traveling comrade would not be waking anytime soon so he decided to set off on his own for a bit. Scout the immediate area and come back, or so he told himself. It soon turned out to be that Janus would scout out the town of Truce and see what was going on in this time period. Finding the village was fairly easy; all he had to do was head due south of where they had camped for the night. Finding someone to tell him what was going on...well, that took a little more effort.
The town was basically a ruin when he arrived, with most of the buildings either burned to the ground or still burning, and others looked like they had been ripped apart by something gigantic. What had happened here? As he began to investigate further, Janus began to find the bodies of humans and Mystics alike; a battle had taken place here. For a moment he considered giving up his search for Guardian survivors and returning to collect Crono before venturing further, but instead his nagging curiosity got the better of him.
Searching the half-torn houses seemed like the most logical thing to do as piles of ashes didn't seem to bode well for survivors and he didn't think those inside the burning buildings would be doing much talking either, so that's what he began to do. He made his way through the entire east side of the town; the bar, inn, even a half-dozen or so residences that had somehow made it through the carnage, unfortunately there were no signs of life to be found. Somewhat discouraged, Janus decided that the most likely place for survivors to be would be the castle Guardia itself. The war was most definitely in full swing, and where else would thousands of humans be able to hold up?
He thought once more that he probably should return and wake Crono, but decided that all he was doing was looking, and that it couldn't possibly hurt anything. Besides, Crono was fairly new to fighting with weapons and magic; he couldn't possibly make that much of a difference. That decided he pressed on, heading west towards the entrance of the forest that stood in front of the castle. When he arrived he found no signs of life, not even a battle, but in the distance to the south he could hear the sounds and screams familiar to that of a battlefield. That was most definitely not a direction that he wanted to go right now, so with a nod he turned to head north to the castle.
As he did this, a sudden dark passed over him. He looked around and the shade had only appeared for about a few hundred feet around him. The first thing he thought was how odd that the cloud had so suddenly appeared. Colors seemed to flash through his mind and it was at that moment that he realized that something was most definitely wrong. Looking up he uttered a long string of silent curses before wishing that he had listened to his first instinct and returned for Crono. The fires and ripped apart houses within the city now began to make sense because there, directly above him, was quite possibly the largest thing with wings that he could ever remember seeing. The beast roared as it began to land in front of him and fire burst from its mouth, engulfing the forest near the castle in red-hot flame. For a moment it seemed the beast would pass him by until a small green blob clothed in white turned towards Janus and pulled on what seemed to be a very large harness. As the beast towards to face his it roared and Janus could feel the heat on his breath. When the monster was done, the thing on its back cackled.
"Death to all humans!"