”So... You got ‘em?”
Magus nodded.
”Good.” Crono said and walked back to his corner.
”With him removed,” Magus said. ”The relationship between Guardia and Medina have increased.”
Marle looked up.
”Really? That’s good to hear.”
Frog walked in and sat down. Robo followed him, but then walked to Lucca.
”Lucca, there is a malfunction on my right arm. Can you look over it?”
”Sure.” Lucca said and leaned back for her bag with tools.
”Time to get that thing out of the air, then.” Crono said.
Magus nodded.
”Gaspar...” Crono said. ”How much have that thing changed peoples life?”
Gaspar scratched his hat.
”Far too much. The worst is that people think good of it. They even believe that you can tell the weather on the next day, by looking at it.”
”...”
Magus looked out.
”If you’re going to take it down, Crono... I volunteer to follow.”
Crono nodded.
”I know you are. We all do, right?”
All of them nodded.
”See...”
”Does that mean that only three can take it down?” Marle asked.
Crono shook his head.
”No. I think there’s enough magic to create a gate in there. We’ll change members after a while.”
Marle nodded and looked down.
”Call me in when you’re facing Zeal. I really would like a word with her!”
Crono smiled.
”Okay...”
Frog looked on the others.
”Who will go first?”
Crono looked up.
”I will. And Magus. Who else? Frog?”
Frog nodded.
”At your service!”
”Let’s go take that thing down!” Crono exclaimed. ”Which period?”
”Not a hard question.” Magus said. ”12000 BC of course.”
Crono nodded.
”Yes, that would be best. Let’s go!”
Crono, Frog and Magus jumped down to the Epoch and headed for 12000 BC.
 

Crono steered the Epoch upward, to get closer to the Omen.
”There.” Magus said and pointed on a bridge sticking out.
Crono nodded.
”Okay. We can’t land there, so we’ll have to jump out of the Epoch. Let’s hope no one get the idea of borrowing it. I’ll put her on hovering mode.”
Magus looked up on the Omen.
”Finally...” He thought.
Crono opened the glass and jumped out of the Epoch followed by Frog.
Magus wasn’t far behind.
Crono looked around as he landed.
A door was on the other side of the bridge.
Crono pointed on it, and Frog nodded.
They walked silently closer.
A laser beam stopped their approach.
Six cannons were placed by the door.
Magus waved with his hands and launched an ice shockwave, who killed all cannons.
”Let’s go.” He said.
Crono draw his Rainbow sword, and held it tight.
Magus pressed a button by the door, and it opened.
They entered the Black Omen.

Zeal was waiting for them inside.
”Fools! Haven't you learned your lesson?! We are immortal!
We shall live forever with Lavos, who devours this planet even as he sleeps.
Draining this planet’s power, Lavos will rule the world in a mere 14000 years.
The Black Omen is a path which leads to Lavos.
It is a shrine which provides us with limitless power.
As long as the mighty one reigns, your dreams are hopeless!”
She waved with her hand, and a black gate opened.
Out from it came a Mutant of some sort.
”You should sacrifice yourself to the mighty Lavos! HAAhahahahaha!”
Zeal teleported herself away.
Frog draw the Masamune.
”‘Tis a nasty one.” He said. ”Very smart.”
Crono felt himself hit by a new déja vú. He had seen all this. That night outside Medina.
He had wondered who the black caped man was, and who the shiny lady was.
Now he knew. But why had he been seeing the future?
The mutant roared and woke up Crono from his thoughts. By just instinct, Crono said:
”Let’s confuse him a bit.”
Crono leaped forward and circled around the mutant in incredible speed, while he was attacking with his sword. The mutant turned into a slimy mess.
Magus pulled down his scythe.
”So much for the primary defense...”
Crono looked around on the surrounding area.
They were standing on a platform, high up in the Omen.
The entire place was a big metal junk. Crono wondered if Lavos energy was running all this.
Magus took the lead and headed deeper into the Omen.
With Frog and Crono behind, Magus walked into the main structure, away from the platforms.
”You know this place?” Crono asked.
Magus shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

”This is an elevator, right?”
Magus nodded.
The construction of the new room they came into was similar to the elevator in the Ocean Palace. Crono pushed the button, and the elevator moved down.
”How big is the Omen?” Crono asked.
Magus thought for a moment.
”Bigger than it looked from the outside. We’re on our way to the center of it, I think. Hard to tell. The way have changed since the Ocean Palace. I don’t know why.”
The elevator stopped after about 100 meters, and Crono, Magus and Frog stepped off.
Magus sneaked into the next corridor, with Crono and Frog just behind.
The rooms were richly marked with statues and gold walls.
Crono remembered a soldier in Zeal say:
”This is an example of who advanced Zeal culture is!”
He was then indicating on the Blackbird, but Crono felt this was a greater example.
How could they have built something like this?
Magus suddenly signed them to stop.
Two creatures came into the corridor.
They were not human, like the guards in the Ocean Palace.
No they were strange monsters.
They actually reminded Crono about the mutants he, Lucca and Marle interfaced in Lab 16, about a week ago. The Mutants didn’t walk forward; they hovered.
Magus sat totally quiet and waited until the mutants had turned into an other corridor.
Then he rose up and walked deeper in.
Suddenly a scream echoed in the corridor.
Magus turned around and searched for what it was.
A small creature with wings flied towards them.
Magus summoned his magic and let a dark mist go off.
The creature fell down dead, but the mutants came in instead.
Crono draw his rainbow and gave the first mutant a deep wound.
The mutant fired about ten blue balls on Crono as counterattack.
Crono was forced down.
Frog jumped up and cut the monster with his sword.
Magus summoned more magic and fired a line of fire around himself.
The fired made an explosion, who killed the first one and damaged the other.
Frog used his last power to create a water wave who took care of the other.
Crono rose up, but stapled down again.
”Let’s switch team.” Magus said.
Frog nodded and created a gate.
Crono managed to get into it.
Frog followed.
Lucca and Marle took their places.
”Where are we?” Marle asked.
”Cool!” exclaimed Lucca as she saw the architecture.
”We’re deep into the Dark Omen.” Magus explained.
Marle nodded and checked her Valkerye.
”Let us go.” Magus said and continued.

After almost an hour of battling, and corridor crawling...
”Here.” Magus said. ”We are close to Zeal’s room now.”
”Good...” Marle said, holding her hand on a wound. ”Time to switch?”
Magus shook his head.
”No. I need your magic powers to beat the body guard. He’s weak against elementar combinations.”
Marle nodded and casted her cure spell on her wound again, but it’s didn’t seem to work.
”Will this ever heal?”
Magus nodded.
”Your cure spell won’t work down here. Zeal is using here magic to disrupt our healing magic.”
They entered the last door.
”Finally...” Lucca said.
”Where’s the bodyguard you talked about?” Marle asked.
Magus looked around.
”He... or it, should be here. It’s not like her...”
The room they entered was quite large, and had eight edges.
In the middle was a complicated setting of plates.
As Magus stepped in, they started to switch color.
”He’s here...” Magus said.
”Where...?” Marle asked.
In that moment, with a flash, a huge mutant appeared in front of their eyes.
”Now!” Magus shouted.
All of them summoned their magic, and Lucca started to spin around Magus in incredible speed.
Marle did the same.
Magus held up his arms and gathered all shadow, water and fire magic.
The room turned black with a red flash, and then it flashed blue.
As finish, the room was filled with white dots who circled around.
The spell ended with a white flash.
The mutant fell apart.
”Yeah!” Marle exclaimed. ”There he goes! What shall we call this new spell of ours?”
”How about...” Lucca said. ”DarkEternal! The ultimate Dark Bomb!”
Magus looked around in the room.
”Save the greetings for later... Someone’s coming!”
They looked around, but couldn’t see anything.
”To the edges!” Magus shouted.
Marle and Lucca backed of, while beams from the ceiling gathered.
Where the beams crossed, grew a black circle, and out from it came...
”Lavos!” Marle exclaimed.
”No... A spawn...” Lucca corrected.
”A bigger one then those we met on Death Peak.” Magus added.
The spawn roared.
”Marle!” Magus said. ”You have a magic resisting armor. Block it’s magic attacks!”
”Easy for you to say!” Marle replied.
The Spawn opened it’s mouth, and created a cylinder around Magus.
The cylinder became filled with blue and white lines, who pulsed up and down.
Magus was saying something, but it was unhearable.
The cylinder faded away, and Magus fell down.
Needles were launched from the spawn’s body.
Before, it had tried to hit all of them, but this one aimed for one: Lucca.
The needles fell down and appeared to be piercing her.
”Lucca!” Marle exclaimed and shot an arrow against the beak.
The arrow didn’t break through the hard skin.
The spawn roared and big rocks came out of nowhere and crushed down on them.
Marle ran to check Lucca, but a huge lightning bolt came from the Spawns beak and stopped her.
Marle was thrown into a corner, but thanks to her prism dress, she survived.
Magus rose up, but were knocked down by new rocks.
All of them were down.
The spawn roared, and moved slowly against Magus to make sure he was dead.
Marle opened her eyes.
The first thing she felt was the pain of the lightning, who wasn’t gone yet.
She looked up and saw that the spawn headed for Magus.
She took her crossbow and fired a new arrow on the Spawn, this time on the shell.
The arrow disappeared into the net of needles.
She wondered if the Spawn felt it.
Magus opened his eye and found himself looking straight into the beak of a spawn.
He rolled to the left, but didn’t get very far because his feet were stuck in the door.
The fought desperate to get away.
The Spawn got closer every second.
And so did the needles...
Finally, the door opened and Magus rolled away.
He got up on his knees.
”DarkMatter!”
A black triangle filled the room, and this time really hurted the spawn.
A new pair of needles were launched, hitting Magus in his chest.
Marle draw the attention of the Spawn.
It turned slowly around while a shockwave of ice came out of Marle’s body.
Big ice chunks fell down from the ceiling, but didn’t really damage the shell, nor the beak.
A shockwave came out of the beak, knocking Marle unconscious.
Magus was laying in a pool of blood.
Marle was also surrounded by blood.
And Lucca was... Dead perhaps?
Not quite...
A shot from Lucca’s wondershot came and made a scratch in the shell.
The Lavos spawn roared.
”You’re finished!” A bloody Lucca said. She held out her arms. ”If I gather all magic particles in one place and make them all go off...”
She made small movements with her hands, and particles from everywhere gathered in on center point.
Lucca pulled down her arms.
The particles exploded with many small explosions.
They didn’t even harm the spawn.
The spawn roared in victory.
But then,
Lucca spun around.
The real effect came.
A huge shockwave of fire came out from the center point.
The heat increased extremely around the spawn.
Once Lucca’s new spell was finished, the spawn looked like a burn spawn...
”Wh... what... was... that...” Marle tried.
”I call it... Flare.” Lucca said and walked over to Magus.
”Is... he... alive...?”
Lucca nodded.
”I guess so... I’ll take the gate key and call for a new squad.”
Lucca took the gate key and created a new gate beside Marle.
Marle succeeded to enter it, and Lucca followed in.
Magus was left alone for a second, then came Frog and Robo out.
”There!” Robo said and pointed on Magus.
Robo walked forward and opened his hull.
A cure beam came out of it and closed the wounds.
Magus opened his eyes, as Robo directed the beam on his head.
”You too, shall go back and let someone else take your place.” Robo said.
Magus shook his head.
”No. This is my battle. I’m okay.”
He rose up.
”Much of the blood there wasn’t mine anyway. The wound wasn’t very deep.”
”I know.” Robo said. ”But you ARE wounded. Crono pulled back for less.”
”I KNOW!” Magus said, quite irritated. ”But this is MY battle. If you wanna go with me, fine!”
He walked away to the door to Zeal’s chamber.
Inside was holographic images of the team.
The showcases stood two-by-two.
The first pair was a holo-image of Crono and Marle.
Behind them was Lucca and Robo.
And behind them was Ayla and Frog.
Magus wasn’t included.
”Nice photoalbum.” Magus said.
They walked to the far end of the room.
With a flash, Zeal showed herself.
”Behold, my pretties!” she said. ”Destiny, in its most brutal form.
All the dreams that might have been.
All the happiness, and sorrow, you might have experienced! Gone forever!!!
For you there will be no tomorrow!
The Dark Omen transcends time and space, waiting for Lavos to awaken!
Destiny has led you here.
And here you shall rest forever, unless you can defeat me, and smash the Omen!”
She waved them to come closer, while Frog draw the Masamune, and Robo switched to battle mode.
”Come, dear friends. Perhaps I can persuade Lavos to share his dreams with you!
Did I say dreams? I meant his eternal nightmare!”
In a matter of milliseconds, before anyone could do anything, a rainbow colored circle came out of Zeal, and drained Magus, Frog and Robo of their power.
Magus looked up on the laughing Zeal.
”I... Shall... Not... Be... Beaten...”
Zeal lifted her hand and suddenly Magus body levitated from the ground.
Zeal lifted her other hand, and lifted up Frog.
She tossed around with them.
”Feel the true power of Lavos!”
Magus was thrown into a wall.
”Ooouughhh...”
”Behold!” Frog said and reached for the Masamune, who had fallen out of his hand.
”Not!” Zeal said and pulled them against her, for in the next moment push them backwards again.
But she had forgotten Robo.
He opened his hull and launched an electronic shockstrike on Zeal.
”Ahhrrggg... You will pay!”
Zeal pointed on him and fired a lightning, who knocked out Robo.
This gave Magus a chance.
”DarkMatter!”
The triangle appeared and spun around in the room.
It made Zeal’s dress less shiny.
She was just going to put a new spell when she was overthrown by a waterwave.
Frog croaked.
He picked up an object from his bag.
”What is it?” Magus asked.
”Marle’s MegaElixir. It will hopefully restore us.”
He took the bottle and threw it on the floor.
Smoke came out from it and surrounded Frog, Magus and Robo.
They could feel how they regained their powers.
Frog leaped forward and cut Zeal with the Masamune.
”Argh!” Zeal yelled. ”My powers don't seem to work here! Wait!
I'll simply toss you into the Mammon Machine! You'll be one with the Omen, Lavos... and me!”
The room turned black, and suddenly found Magus himself facing the power machine.
”I’ll shut you off!” Magus said. ”DarkMatter!”
The triangle circled around, and damaged the machine heavily.
In that moment, Frog and Robo came into the... place?
Frog looked on his Masamune.
”Your move!” He said.
”Okay!” Mune said.
”Let’s give a new try!” Masa replied.
Frog leaped up and thrusted the sword into the machine.
Big sparks came out of it, and they were teleported away.
Soon, they found themselves on top of the Omen.
Sparks and Flashes came out everywhere.
The Omen was slowly going down...
Zeal came up in front of them.
”You cretins...
I plan to live with Lavos, and control the universe forever. You will not get in my way!”
Magus stepped forward.
”Idiots...
Nothing can live forever. Zeal... A pitiful woman, duped by Lavos.
I, myself, will bring an end to all of this!”
Zeal looked down on him.
”Prophet! You are doomed. I haven't forgotten what you did at the Ocean Palace.
You will now forfeit your life.”
Zeal disappeared with a white glow, and the appeared as a big head and two hands.
”I doubt it.” Magus said and attacked.

Frog would never forget the hell battle between Magus and Zeal.
How Zeal totally crushed him, but in the next moment he got up and counterattacked even worse.
Nor would he forget the scream Zeal made when Magus finally thrusted his scythe into the big head, and destroyed it.
Zeal appeared in front of them.
”How dare you insects come after ME! Oh almighty Lavos, lend me your power!
Mwa, ha, ha... At last, Lavos awakens! Compared with him, you are like germs.
But, I... I shall obtain immortality!”
With a scream, she started to scatter.
”Lavos!?! You... can’t... leave... me...”
Once she was all gone, Magus looked down on the roof.
”Rest in peace... Mother.”
Frog holstered the Masamune.
”She called for Lavos?”
Magus nodded.
”...And he didn’t come. Let’s go!”
Magus ran to the edge and jumped.
”Magus!” Frog exclaimed. ”What are you doing?”
The he realized that the Epoch could be just below them.
Magus came up with the Epoch and allowed Frog and Robo to escape before the Omen totally scattered in million pieces and was spread out over the land, 12000 BC.

.
 
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