The Rise Of Evil Chapter 8

By Citadel

Crono woke about an hour later with a minor headache. He tried to sit up and his head started pounding with pain. He realized that wouldn't be a very good idea and just lied back down. It was getting dark outside, he could tell because the cracks in the shutters didn't have much light come in. He rolled his head to the right and saw Janus and Roland eating dinner. They looked to be having some sort of steak, or meat. He didn't know where on this island they could've found meat. He then stared at the ceiling, hoping he could sleep again, but he smelled the meat and his stomach began to growl and churn. He again made an effort to sit up and the pain flooded in again, but this time he welcomed it. He sat up, with his head pounding and looked over at the empty chair. He got on his shaky hands and knees and crawled over to the table.

"Ah, glad you could join us, I prepared some deer for us to eat," Roland said.

"Really? I just want a little, my head is killing me," Crono complained. Roland gave him a big helping of deer on his plate and stabbed a fork into it. The fork seemed to be made of granite, but was much stronger than that. He grabbed the fork and pulled the whole thing up to his mouth and bit off it. It was almost too warm for his mouth, but it tasted great anyway. It was some of the best meat he'd ever had, he thought that might be because he was hungrier than an ox. He chewed the thing and swallowed it, his stomach actually warmed up from having something in it. Crono realized, with the more food he ate, that his migraine had been the repercussion of not eating in a day. By the time his headache was gone he was swallowing huge bites at a time. When he was done he wiped his chops and took a drink of water. "Hey Dad, where'd you get meat?"

"Oh, in the mountains and scattered around the icebergs around here there are some families of elk, moose, and deer. They feed on the little bit of trees that grow around here. I take care of them, and only kill what I must. If I were to kill too many I would run out of food."

Crono took all this in and readied his next question, "How did you get all this stuff?"

"I've been here ten long years. I did anything I could to keep form going mad."

"Oh," Crono nodded.

"We need to get going at first light tomorrow," Roland stated, "We need to get back to Janus's camp." Janus and Crono nodded. "Try to get to sleep early, that way we can leave sooner." Crono finished his water and went over to his blankets and crawled under them. He snuggled down on the bear rug and was asleep in minutes. Roland picked up his plate and put it over in the dirty pile. Janus pushed his plate away and went over to sleep in the corner. Unlike Crono he just slipped his cape around himself and leaned against the wall. Roland sensed he was asleep soon as well. "Well, tomorrow should be interesting," Roland observed. He smiled to himself and got the leftover blanket from the ground that Crono hadn't used. He pulled it over himself and fell asleep soon as well. All of them were tired from a very exhausting day.

***

It was beginning to darken over Janus's cave. Marle was very worried about Crono and Janus. they had been gone all day. Where could they be?

"What's taking them?" Marle asked no one in particular.

"Crono hasn't seen his father in ten years, give them some time," Lucca soothed. It annoyed Marle, and even more worried her, that Lucca was so calm.

Robo strolled over and placed a robotic hand on her shoulder. "It will be okay, I doubt that anything has gone wrong."

"Yeah, yeah," Marle replied for the millionth time that day. She didn't know why she was so worried, but something told her that they shouldn't be away. Something was going to happen.

"Who wouldeth liketh to retire for tonight?" Frog inquired.

"I for one am beat," Lucca replied. Just as she finished that sentence the mouth of the cave became a huge black portal into nothingness. It seemed to bend and twist, and then they could faintly make out the shape of a man inside there. Like the air you see right above a small fire, distorted and wavy. Out stepped a man dressed in black dress pants with a black dress button up shirt on. He wore a blood red belt, the only pastel in his whole ensemble. He was white, but very tan. He had dark black hair, slicked straight back and came down just shy of his shoulders. He had a square jaw, and royal blue eyes. He had normal sized ears, but on them both he sported a gold hoop earring. His smile seemed to spread from ear to ear. He had a remarkably clean shaven face, without flaw.

"Who are you?" the flat voice of Robo asked.

"What is the meaning of this portal oh strange one?" Frog inquired.

"Greetings, pardon my intrusion. I am Cameron Delecroix." The air seemed to disappear as the whole room collectively took gasps.

Robo pointed his gun at Cameron, but Cameron pointed his index finger at Robo and Robo flew into the wall. He slid down crushed the cot that Janus normally slept on.

"Please don't make this any harder than it really is." Cameron walked over to Marle. She raised her hand in order to cast a spell, but he shot a yellow ball into her and suddenly she felt weaker than she had in months. Her spell suddenly faded. she looked up and saw that he was mildly laughing. Suddenly he spun on his heels and delivered a back hand to Frog. He went sprawling into the wall. Before Lucca could react she was thrown up into the air and slammed back onto the ground, knocking her out. "Now, just relax and come with me." As soon as Marle felt his hand she felt sick all over. She fought the urge to hurl and tried her best to resist. He obviously had her under some sort of powerful drain spell. He had drained her of most of her energy, and she wasn't strong enough to even stand. Cameron picked her up under her arms and tossed her over his shoulders. He walked into the black portal and disappeared.

"Marle!" Frog croaked. He hopped to his feet and leapt as fast as he could to the portal. Just as he was about to reach it the portal vanished as if it hadn't even been there. Outside more stars glowed brightly and one shooting star shot across the nearly black sky. "Tis gone!" Frog exclaimed.

Robo used his cure beam on himself and stood up. He looked over at Lucca and saw she was incapacitated. "Oh dear." Robo walked over to Lucca and gave a minor inspection with his x-ray scopes. When he finished he changed over to heat sensors and concluded she was okay, just knocked out. He looked over and saw Frog was fine. When he looked around for Marle he couldn't see her. "Frog, where is Marle?" Robo called.

"Gone, taken by Cameron," Frog muttered sadly.

"Oh no, she's been kidnapped!"

***

"Crono! Get up son!" was the first thing Crono heard the next morning. She was being shaken violently.

"All right, just stop shaking me!" Crono looked up at his dad who was shaking him furiously.

"I've been yelling and shaking you for ten minutes! Does your mother go through this every day?"

"Pretty much," Crono smirked and sat up. He stretched his arms over his head and noticed Janus standing in the doorway letting in cold air.

"Come on boy, we have to go," Janus coldly sneered at Crono. Crono was lifted from the floor and landed on his feet.

"You couldn't have helped me earlier by doing that?" Roland asked.

"Yes, I could have." Roland gave him a dirty look that went wasted because Janus didn't notice it. Crono walked over to Janus and Roland joined them. "Are we ready?" Janus asked as if he'd been waiting quite a while.

"Yes, finally we are," Roland answered, and gave a dirty look at Crono, this one was well used because Crono noticed it.

They stepped outside into the area in front of the hut, but before the collection of trees, and they lifted off back to the Janus's cave.

On the ride back home Roland was amazed at the amount of ocean, he kept his face plastered to the side of the orb the whole time. Crono and Janus had seen this bird's eye view before and were accustomed to the heights. Roland couldn't believe the size of the world. He hadn't seen anything like this since he fell from Zeal. They traveled for about an hour and then the Last Village came into view.

"We're almost there," Crono told Roland. They flew on for another two minutes and finally slowed down in front of a small cave. They started descending when four things ran out of the cave at a mad dash to greet them. "Gee, they look awful happy to greet us, don't they?" Crono observed.

"Hmmm, yes, over anxious, I believe," Janus agreed. They set down in front of Frog and let down the shield, as soon as they did they were hit with the news.

"Crono! Crono! Cameron hast been here!" Frog shouted.

"No way! While we were gone!" Crono exclaimed.

"Yes, Crono," Lucca said with weepy eyes, "he was here and he beat all of us easily. He also took Marle with him."

"No," Crono barely managed to utter.

Lucca continued, "His portal covered the whole entrance to the cave, there was no escape. He wanted Marle, he could've killed all of us if he had wanted. He only wanted her for some reason. He took her away in a flash," she ran up ti him and sobbed on his shoulder. "We couldn't have stopped him no matter what we did. He was so strong, I had no idea!" Crono wrapped his arms around her back and went through the motions of condoling her. He patted her back, but his face showed no condolence. It was twisted with a rage that he'd never been able to muster in his whole short life. He was breathing hard, as if he'd run a sprint, and his face flushed red as his hair. He held Lucca out in front of him.

"Lucca, I will find her. If it is the last thing I do I will find her."

"Oh Crono, what if he hurts her?" She sobbed.

"Then so help me God I will destroy him personally, I will watch him whither and die. The last thing he sees will be my face, I will watch him breath his final breath. I will get Marle."

"Crono," Robo stated, "he is extremely powerful, all of us together couldn't even touch him."

"He backhanded me into the wall with not looking upon me!" Frog added.

"Well, then Dad, we have some work to do now don't we?" Crono addressed.

"Yes, we do then. You and I have a lot of training."

"This is your Dad?" Lucca asked now wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"Yes, I am Roland, father to Crono," he introduced himself with a deep bow. "I am also the Bearer of Light." Lucca gave him a questioning look. "I will explain, but first, please tell me all your names." They all introduced themselves, and Roland marveled over how Lucca had changed. He told her she'd become a lovely young woman. She'd said thanks and introduced Frog. He gave the whole story of his time as Glenn all the way up to killing Lavos. Janus didn't try to defend any of the things Frog said about him. Mostly because he didn't care. He, like Crono, was starting to develop an immense hate for Cameron. So far they both had lost someone special to them because of him. Although they weren't sure whether Marle was alive or not. Robo told his story from being activated until being deactivated when Lavos came.

"Interesting friends here, Crono," Roland observed.

"Yes," Crono halfheartedly responded. He seemed to be in another world. They were in the cave and stood there for a few minutes without a word spoken.

Roland began telling them of his time in Zeal, and what he had done for the past ten years. Not much. He also told them of the Bearers of Light and how he was the strongest magi around, except for the other three Bearers. they all took it well.

Robo was the first one to speak, "We need to get to work."

"How?" Frog asked.

"We need to find Ayla. We will need all the help we can get, plus we need to get back to the End of Time so we can tell Gaspar of what has happened." They all nodded soberly. Robo looked at Janus.

"What? Do you think I know how to make a time gate?"

"You're the only one who would." They all glanced at the blue, and closed, portal in the corner of the room where Marle was captured.

"Let me try," Roland offered. They moved out of his way so he could have a crack at opening the gate. He sat in front of the gate and closed his eyes. A low hum came from his throat. He sat there for a few minutes analyzing the gate with his mind.

"What's he doing?" Lucca whispered to Crono.

"What he does best," Crono answered, "help people in need. It's his job." He stood up after a few more moments and shot a small, thin as thread, beam of light into the blue gate, it opened.

"Now, have anything else for me to do?" they all stood in amazement and slowly stepped in. Crono was the last one. Before he stepped on he patted his dad on the shoulder. Roland returned the pat by bringing in his son for a big hug. Crono burst into tears. "It's all right, we'll find her, we'll find her," he soothed.

"Oh God," he wailed, "Please, oh please! I can't lose her! She's all I've got; she's all I have! I loved her so much."

"Don't worry, she's okay, we will find her." Crono continued to sob and wet Roland's shoulder. He shook violently as he cried his eyes out. He had lost the person who mattered more to him than anything; he had lost the person who loved him more than anything in her life; he had lost his Marle. She was gone, and he had no idea of where to find her.

.

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