Confessions
By Silent Elegy
In a small forest clearing, seven travelers were gathered. They had
spent the past several hours here, talking about their adventure while the
inventor, Lucca repaired their robot friend, Robo. He had spent the
past four hundred years replanting an entire forest, but they all agreed
that it was worth the effort. The whole area, once a vast desert, was
now as green as a lush forest.
It was nearing midnight, but only five of them slept. Of the two who
did not, one was Robo who had, lacking the ability to truly sleep, simply
shut himself down. The other stood pondering his existence; sleep
didn’t come easily for him. The Magus had too many ghosts that
were waiting for the chance to get their revenge through nightmares.
Of the five that were sleeping, only two slept peacefully.
A sound woke Marle from her dream. She was grateful, however, because
she’d been trying to wake up for some time. In the dream, she
was reliving watching Crono die. It was bad enough the first time;
she didn’t ever want to have to go through it again. Next time, they
might not be able to bring him back.
A soft moan drew her attention to Frog, curled into a ball, and she realized
that he must have been responsible for waking her up. He shook his
head and muttered something incoherent. “I wonder what he’s
dreaming about,” Marle whispered, not intending to speak out loud.
“What do you think he dreams about?”
Marle gasped and whirled around to see Magus leaning against the tree behind
her. “Oh, Magus,” she breathed. “It’s just
you.” He scoffed.
“Only you, Nadia, would say that about me,” he laughed.
She moved over to sit against his tree. “Weren’t you over
there?” she asked, pointing across the campsite.
He shrugged. “I moved. What are you doing up, anyway?”
“I might ask you the same thing.”
“True, but I asked first, so you’re obliged to answer.”
Marle sighed. “I just keep thinking about Crono. I don’t
know what I’d have done if we hadn’t been able to get that Chrono
Trigger from Gasper.”
“You really love him, don’t you?” Magus asked incredulously.
Marle nodded. “Yeah, I do. I’d do anything for him.”
“I never understood that. How could anyone feel that way for someone
else?”
“I don’t know. I just do.”
Magus sighed and shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“Haven’t you ever loved anyone?”
Magus closed his eyes, remembering Schala. “No,” he lied.
“…Anyway, why are you up?”
“Why do you think? ‘Cause of him.” He gestured
toward Frog; as if on cue, the sleeping knight muttered,
“Cyrus…no…” and rolled over to face away from them.
“He’s dreaming about Cyrus?”
“Actually, he’s most likely having a nightmare about ten years
ago. I guess that was pretty traumatic for him.”
Marle blinked. “You killed his best friend in front of him then
turned him into a frog, and you guess that was pretty traumatic?”
He shrugged. “They shouldn’t have gotten in my way.”
Marle shook her head angrily. “I don’t believe it!
How can anyone be so cold?”
“Oh, you should try it some time. It makes things a lot easier.
No worrying about doing the right thing because it doesn’t matter.”
“Must be pretty lonely.”
“I’m used to it.”
Marle leaned her head against the tree and looked up at Magus. He was
looking somewhere off into the forest, carefully avoiding her eyes.
She sighed and looked at Frog. He was no longer muttering and tossing,
and appeared to be sleeping peacefully at last.
“You know, if I could undo it, I would,” Magus said quietly.
“What?”
“If I could undo what I did to him, I would. If I still had the
power to…I’d turn him back into a human, at the very least.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Lavos drained my power. I might never get it all back.
That spell took a lot of power.”
“I see.”
“But I would. I’d try to make things right.”
“You don’t need a lot of power to make things right. You
just need to want to. What you did for us, helping us save Crono, that
was a good start.”
Magus looked away, not wanting to meet Marle’s grateful eyes.
She could never understand the things he had done; never understand that
he could never be redeemed. No matter what he did, Frog would never
forgive him. He sighed mournfully.
“You feel sorry.”
“…Yeah, I do. But don’t you dare ever tell him I said
that.”
Marle smiled and, saying goodnight, walked back to the spot she had occupied
previously and went back to sleep. Magus turned away and sighed
sorrowfully. Neither of them saw Frog, his eyes still closed, smile
slightly, nor did they hear him whisper, “I forgive thee.”