"Crono! Crono, Wake up! Don’t you remember what day
it is? Oh, you must have been so excited you didn’t get any sleep last
night..." Marle’s voice trailed off. She walked over the her husband, who
was just opening his eyes. "Remember? Magus is coming, and he has a big
surprise!"
Crono nodded and smiled, pleased that his old friend
was coming.
"Also, honey, I’ve invited everyone else to come,
as well. Lucca is even going to use her time key to bring back our friends!
It will be so wonderful to see then again. It’s been 10 years since we
all saw each other last. I’ve missed them so much..."
Crono got up with a huge smile and walked over to
his wife and gave her a hug.
"Oh, Crono, I love you as much as I did the day
we met."
Crono nodded and gave Marle a kiss before going
off to the bathroom, leaving his beautiful wife to think about their great
adventure so long ago.
About three hours later, all of the guests (with
the exception of Magus and his surprise) were assembled at the Palace.
They were all talking about what had happened and how wonderful it was
to see everyone again. More than a few tears were shed, and quite a few
tissues were used. Everyone got comfortable and waited for Magus with his
"good news" to arrive.
Magus opened the doors of the palace and walked
into the room where the feast was being held with a big smile on his face.
"Why, Magus, I haven’t seen you smile in such a
long time!" exclaimed Marle. "In fact, not since Schala.." she stopped,
not wanting to say the rest.
"That’s why I’m so happy!" Magus said gleefully.
"What...?"
Schala slowly walked into the light of the torches
and was rewarded with a huge gasp.
"Tis you, Schala!"
"Schala? Can this be?"
"Mistress Schala? How have you fared?"
Crono watched the pale girl with a puzzled look.
He shook it off and smiled a welcome, gesturing for her to take a seat
at the table. She sat down and gave a greeting to all of the people, and
then explained what had happened to the best of her knowledge.
Lucca brightened and said triumphantly " I know
what happened! You were obviously sucked into a time gate, and just now
dropped off! That would explain why you aren’t aged and you can’t remember
anything, not even how you got to Magus. And Magus must have somehow opened
the time gate, bringing you to him! This is simply AMAZING!"
Everyone accepted that idea and went back to eating.
Schala was very quiet and ate nothing, only speaking when spoken to. She
agreed to stay until tomorrow, sleeping in a guest room.
Schala looked around the table and then asked "Where
is King Guardia? I haven’t seen him yet."
Marle lowered her eyes and said softly, "He died
last year. It was a peaceful death..."
"I’m so sorry." Schala said, feeling bad she’d asked.
The rest of dinner was uneventful, and Schala finished without another
word.
She pleaded tiredness and walked away to her room
while the other guests stayed up for quite a time, talking and laughing.
As she walked away, Crono leaned over and whispered to his wife. She looked
at him strangely and said "No, Crono, I never noticed her eyes being green
before. It was probably just the light last time we saw her."
Crono looked towards the girl’s retreating figure
and frowned, then went back to eating.
Schala sat on her bed and stared at the wall. She
looked at her hands, then looked into the mirror. She felt...odd. There
was no other word for it. Also, though no one else had noticed yet, her
skin wasn’t warm. It was rather cold, in fact, but she didn’t feel cold
at all. And her eyes... they had been a beautiful sapphire blue before
she had gone to see her Mother that day, but now they were a strange color
green. It was all very confusing. Schala laid back on her bed and shut
her eyes, but sleep came slowly. Just before she drifted off, a small voice
in the back of her mind said "You don’t belong. Why are you here? You’ve
played your role to the fullest, haven’t you..?"
Her dreams were plagued by green figures and glowing
lights that night. She dreamt that plants twined together and she came
out of them, but that wasn’t possible. Was it...?
The next morning, Schala ate breakfast mechanically
with the others, and then Magus insisted that they go. She agreed, to lost
in her own thoughts to really take in the goodbyes or the odd look that
Crono gave her again. She smiled and waved, but her heart really wasn’t
in it.
Magus smiled happily and took his sister’s hand,
walking down the path to Guardia Forest. Her odd behavior didn’t surprise
him at all. "Does it feel strange to be here again after so long a period
of time out of action?"
"Yes, it feels almost like I’m not here.
Is that strange?" she asked.
"A little, but I suppose it’s to be expected. After
all, we have nothing to base it on. As far as I know, this is the only
time this has happened... Ever!" Magus exclaimed.
"You’re right. Where is it we were going again?"
Schala asked curiously.
"To my home." he said
"Oh. Say, Magus?"
"Yes?"
"Whatever happened to Mother?"
"Crono and his friends boarded the Black Omen and
beat her there, or that’s what they said." he replied.
"So... She’s dead?" Schala asked.
"Yes. Why?"
"I... oh, no reason. What happened when she was
defeated?"
"I’m not sure, I just know the Omen crashed back
into the ocean."
Schala pounced on the fact. "Where?!?"
"Over by the Castle... next to the Millennium fair
that was held in 1000 AD, I think." he said absently.
Schala nodded and they continued their walk.
Back at Guardia Castle a maid walked into Schala’s
room. "Oh, my ~ " she exclaimed in shock. "What happened here?" she wondered
aloud, looking around the room. There were clumps of dirt everywhere, but
especially on the bed. And on the pillow there were a few leaves and a
broken leaf stalk. She backed out of the room and hurried of, intent on
finding King Crono.
She found him walking down the hall up to his rooms.
"My liege, please wait!" she cried.
Crono stopped and turned around. The maid caught
up to him and told him breathlessly what had happened. Crono’s eyes widened
and he dashed to Schala’s room, the maid trailing behind him.
When he turned the corner and looked at the mess
of her room, he stopped. Slowly, he walked in and picked up a clump of
the dirt and rubbed it between his fingers. It was completely dry and crumbly,
very soft. He dropped it back onto the ground and walked to her bed, picking
up a leaf from the pillow. This too was smooth, and felt vaguely like skin.
He held it up to his nose and sniffed it. It smelled faintly of the perfume
Schala had been wearing last night...
Magus and Schala came to his castle around noon that
day. He showed her around the newly restored place, pointing out the occasional
death-trap-turned-couch-or-table, feeling very proud of his acomplishments.
Schala smiled and nodded, but her heart really wasn’t in it. She could
still hear the nagging voice in her mind saying, "Or have you..."
Magus finished the tour of the castle and led Schala
up to her room. On seeing it, see was snapped out of her revierie. "Oh,
Magus...Why?" she asked as she looked at a complete replica of her old
rooms at Zeal Palace. "It helped ease the loneliness, Schala... being able
to sit in here as I did when I was a boy, just sit and wait for you to
come back."
Schala gathered Magus wordlessly into her arms and
sat with him on the bed, rocking him back and forth as if he was still
just a small child. He cried, letting out the pain that had racked his
soul for so long. When he was done, she smiled at him, her eyes meeting
his. She understood his pain, it had hurt so much when her mother had become
possessed by that Lavos creature.
Magus gave a little sigh and curled up on the bed.
He closed his eyes and soon was asleep, the first restful sleep he’d had
in years. Schala stood up and headed for the mirror tucked against a window
in the back of the room. She found a pen and some paper and wrote Magus
a note - "Gone for a walk, be back later. -Schala"
She walked purposely away from the castle until
she was at the cave leading to the nearest village. She sat down and began
to chant the same words over and over again. A small wind blew, and then
intensified. Soon she was surrounded by a whirlwind. With a sharp command,
the air picked her up and swirled toward Crono’s childhood house.
Crono and his party worked their way through the
last border village and arrived at the entrance cave to Magus’s Castle.
A slight wind picked up, swirling Crono’s hair, but he hardly noticed it.
He and his friends, Lucca, Marle, Robo, Frog, and
Ayla were all there. They had been surprised when he had woken them up,
but after his explanation they knew they had to move fast. They had made
good time and in a few minutes they would reach the lair of their once
nemesis Magus.
Upon entering the cave, Crono shivered. It felt
like something was going to happen any second, like it had when he was
on his last full blown adventure. His friends picked up on his anxiety
and slowly drew their weapons. The party made quite a sight, a frog, a
queen, a genius, a cave woman, and a robot, all led by a man with red,
spiky hair. Their ages showed slightly, a few wrinkles around eyes and
smile lines near their mouths. Each was no longer in perfect shape, with
a few extra pounds here and a bit more cushioning there. The look in the
man’s eyes was mirrored in all of his companion’s features; determination,
courage, but the hint of weariness showed through. The way they carried
themselves showed that at one time they were accustomed to this work, but
it was no longer quite as comfortable. With the weapons each carried glinting
in the dim light, a person could imagine what a fearsome sight they must
once have made. Now, though, they looked... foolish. They seemed to be
part of a dance, following the steps perfectly but lacking the enthusiasm
that made it enjoyable to watch.
As they emerged from the cave, they broke into a
run for the castle. Something had just hit all of them, the premonition
of something horrible, something cataclysmic, about to happen. Ayla reached
the door first, pounding on it as hard as she could. Age hadn’t dulled
her reflexes, even if the muscles she had once boasted were not as sturdy.
"Magus! Mage, we need to talk to you! NOW! Important,
sis-ter could be in danger! OPEN DOOR!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Magus opened the door sleepily and was nearly bowled
over by the party. He stared at them in shock, taking into account their
clothing and drawn weapons. "Wha..?!? What is the meaning of this?" he
said in confusion.
"We need to talk the Schala urgently." said Lucca,
her eyes shadowed.
"You can’t..."
"Why NOT?!?!" Lucca practically screamed.
"Let me finish. You can’t now, she’s taking a walk."
he said calmly.
"Where to?"
"I don’t know... just around the island."
"But we never saw her... Don’t you have ways to
check on her?" asked Lucca desperately
"Of course I do. Is it that important?" Magus said,
beginning to get worried.
"YES!" they all chorused.
Magus led them into his personal lab, pulling a
book off the shelf. He brushed the cobwebs off of it and opened to a page
marked "Tracking". He traced his finger down the page and stopped at a
spell written in runes. "Ah. Here it is... Just hold on, This’ll take a
few minutes".
Marle bit back the urge to shout that they had
no time, deciding that it would only make things worse.
He said the spell and mixed a few things together,
ending by adding a strange leaf to the mixture. A small cloud of fog rolled
over the edges of the bowl, settling on a flat spot on the table. "Where
is Schala?" he asked the fog in a deep voice.
The fog seemed to solidify and a picture formed.
It showed... nothing. Blackness. "Huh? This can’t be... Fog, where is Schala?"
Magus demanded, his voice growing slightly hysterical. Nothing happened
and the fog’s picture didn’t change.
"Magus..." Marle said softly. "She isn’t Schala...
listen to me. She is a... creature, of what kind we don’t know. She was
formed for who knows what purpose. Magus, she isn’t your sister."
"Liars! LIARS! She is Schala, she
has to be! She couldn’t know half of what we talked about if she wasn’t...
She is my sister! GET OUT!" he shouted.
"Magus..."
"OUT!"
The party left, leaving Magus in solitude. He looked
at the fog and his face emptied of all emotion. "Schala, are you using
magic to block me?" he wondered out loud. His head jerked up and his eyes
snapped open. "No..!" he cried, horror coloring his voice. "Fog, show me
the land above and around the Black Omen’s final resting place!"
The fog swirled and slowly cleared, showing first
a piece of clear ocean, then a small whirlwind coming towards it. "Fog,
show me that whirlwind... zoom in on the middle of it." Magus said dully,
already knowing what he would find.
In the middle of the swirling air he could faintly
make out a body’s outline and a wisp of blue hair.
Crono and his friends sat in a tavern, talking around
sips of cider.
"I just don’t know what happened!" Marle said, very
frustrated.
"He not want to believe his sis-ter was not back."
Ayla said.
Crono nodded solemnly and finished off his cider.
"But... Hath thee considered the possibilities of
Magus being right? Did thou think, even for a second, that we are wrong?
What if she is just the poor girl gifted with a talent who just had an
extreme run of luck?" Frog mused.
Lucca opened her mouth to respond, but stopped as
Magus barged into the inn. "Come with me, quickly!" he said, urging them
out. Magus threw some coins at the innkeeper and followed the confused
party outside.
"My sister is heading for the black omen!" he announced
once they were clear of the town.
Crono stopped in his tracks and stared at Magus.
"But we destroyed it!" Robo said.
"Yes, but did you check to see if my mother was
dead?" Magus asked.
"No, but the possibility of her living through that...
added onto the fact it’s been ten years... the odds are highly improbable,
if not impossible!" Lucca said, her voice barely below a shout.
"But, my friends, my mother has an annoying tendency
to beat the worst odds." Magus whispered. He turned on his heel and began
running toward the forest, leaving the startled and shocked group members
behind.
Schala slowed the wind until it was directly above
the water. "I can feel it!" she said in amazement. "And... there is life
down there! Could my mother be alive? And if Lavos is dead, she’d be herself
again... Oh Mother, I’m coming! Hold on a little longer, please!"
With that, Schala dived into the water, using magic
to allow her to breathe underwater and not be effected by cold or pressure.
Using occasional boosts of speed Schala found the
wreck within 15 minutes of diving. She looked at it, and in shock realized
it was glowing faintly. Casting another minor spell, she opened a hole
in the side and pulled herself through without letting any water in. She
dropped her protective magic and stopped to catch her breath. She leaned
against a wall of the ship and then jumped away with an exclamation of
surprise. Tentatively, she reached her hand out again and touched the wall.
It was warm. Schala looked around her and began to take in her surroundings.
This closed space was actually much larger than it appeared and was pleasantly
warm.
She began moving debris around looking for her mother.
Everywhere she searched, though, she could find nothing.
After a while, she sat down and began to cry.
"There there, child. What’s wrong?"
In halting phrases, Schala began to tell her story.
"I...I came down here looking... looking for my
mother, b-but I can’t find her, and every-everything is mixed up..." she
said, sobbing.
"Oh, that’s awful... who is your mother, childling?"
Schala stopped crying and looked around her. "Who
said that?"
"Only me. Now, calm down, dear. Who are you looking
for?"
"My mother... The Queen of Zeal!"
"Really? You don’t look like her son."
"I’m not. I’m her daughter, Schala."
"Schala?!? But she was swept away in a confrontation
with Lavos."
"But I’m back, and I have reason to believe my Mother
is here."
The figure stepped out of the shadows and into the
light. Schala looked at her mother and began to laugh happily. She ran
to her and embraced her. "Mother, you haven’t changed at all! You look
like the day I left you, even."
"Well, you know, my beloved daughter, what I always
said..." Queen Zeal said, hiding a smile.
"What?"
The Queen tightened her grip on Schala. "Lavos
provides well for his minions!"
"No! This can’t be happening!" Schala screamed,
trying to wrench away. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake her mother’s
iron grip.
The Queen threw Schala against the wall. Schala’s
head connected hard and she fell to the ground, slumped over and barely
conscious. Her mother walked over and grabbed her chin, holding it up forcefully
so their eyes met.
"What have we here? I see my Schala’s bright little
soul and magical ability... but nothing else is hers! What trick is this,
brat?" she shouted in rage.
Schala only stared at her mother in horror.
"No matter, all we really needed was your magic
to help revive the great and powerful Lavos. I won’t make the same mistake
twice and you can’t get away without your little friends!"
"But how?" Schala asked weakly.
"You see, they only killed the physical aspect of
Lavos... at that moment, our souls connected, and his presence is in me
until we find another host for him."
Schala blacked out.
Magus doubled over in pain.
"Are you ok?" asked his companions in worried tones.
"No... Schala is in grave danger... I feel an evil
presence with her.. And... No! It cannot be! I am sensing... Lavos!"
The group ran even faster.
Schala woke up chained to a wall. Her toes were just
above the ground, but her position wasn’t uncomfortable.
"What do you want?" she whispered hoarsely.
"Well, we’ve decided that you would be a
good host, m’dear." Queen Zeal said, her eyes glowing red. "With your youth
and magic, you would be perfect. I’m so proud that you are my daughter
today!"
Schala spit. "You aren’t my mother, you horrible
creature! Now let me go!"
"I’m afraid we can’t do that, dearie. Hold still,
this won’t hurt after we knock you out. Trust me, the joining of souls
is magnificent..."
Zeal hit Schala just above her temple, knocking
her out cold. She sat down next to the limp figure in a chair and closed
her eyes.
A red fog slowly drifted out of the Queen’s body
and collected above her head. It drifted over to Schala and settled in
a thick smoke around her head, being absorbed more with every breath. As
the last of the smoke was inhaled by the girl, she moaned and opened her
eyes. They turned green, then sapphire blue. From there, they turned bright
red.
The Queen gave a small shudder and then woke up.
Her eyes turned to Schala and became almost worshipful. "Great Lavos, are
you there?"
"Yes, Zeal, I’m alive again. Thanks to you, I am
complete! Now, receive your reward... Oblivion."
With that, Schala/Lavos turned her palm towards
the still-weak Queen and sent a burst of fire at her, throwing her like
a rag doll across the room. Schala/Lavos began to twirl and sparks flew
from her body. The ship began to rise out of the water and repair. Within
seconds, the ship was restored to it’s full glory.
Magus and his group skidded around the screen of
trees just in time to see the majestic and glowing black ship rise from
the waters. Magus gasped and Marle cried out, "Oh NO! We’re too late..."