Hero Undone Chapter 8
Clotho
By ZombieFrank
600 A.D.
"I've lost him twice. The first I lost to another, the second was lost to himself. My host knows more about pain then I hope I ever will. He is the only one who I have told. He understands. His life has been just as painful as mine, if not more so. He has told me that his old life is ending, and he can start anew. Live his life right. No more pain, no more sadness. Lucky bastard. He has, however, been most helpful in researching the other dimensions of this world. I have been able to restore his powers back to the level before his encounter with Lavos, as well as magnify my own. During my research, I made an interesting discovery. I have been able to move into these other dimensions, but I only remain a few moments. If I can further amplify my own power, I will be able to move through the dimensions permanently. Then, and only then, will I finally be free of the pain of my isolation."
Magus threw the sheet of paper down in disgust. How could he have allowed her to commit such foolishness is his own castle? Perhaps the joy, for that is what it was, of finding Schala blinded his sense of reason. Perhaps he merely wanted to offer shelter to a wounded child. He wasn't certain which. He was certain that he had to tell the others, although he was confident he could easily handle the situation himself.
"She doesn't even mention my name," Magus said as he began an intricate series of gestures, "Dammit." As he finished, space tore itself open forming a Gate to the year 1003.
1003 A.D.
Magus stepped through the Gate and into the morning light. The Royal Gardens. They looked the same in his era. Immediately he sensed power eminating from the large mass under the largest tree. He approached, placing his hands upon the blob, sending a small spell inside, to it's occupant.
"So, you aren't as dead as we thought you were." Magus allowed an arrogant smirk as he spoke.
"And you're an idiot." the other Crono responded. His voice dripped resentment as he spoke. "It must be so wonderful to be getting your Schala back."
"I must admit, it is quite a feeling, this......happiness. It will take some getting used to." Magus snapped back.
"Enjoy it while you can, Janus." The other Crono's voice softened as he spoke. "It is a dark future that rushes toward us. Misery is coming to the people of this world."
Magus feigned surprise. "I have little knowledge of the future, Crono."
"You can't lie to me. Your opening of this link allows me to send my own spells back out. You have been into the future. You know what is coming. You KNOW that her death will destroy them."
"All I care about is that my Schala will be returning soon," Magus said as he pulled his hands away, "And that is all that matters."
"Magus? Is that you?" Magus whirled, and Marle stood a few feet in front of him, hands on her Valkerye. "What's wrong?"
"Why do you assume something is wrong?" He asked.
"You never come by unless something bad's about to happen." Marle responded, walking to the other Crono's grave. "So go ahead and spill it."
"Very well then. Lucca came to my castle two weeks ago. I had begun researching ways to restore my power, and she helped me complete them. I am finally back to my proper strength. Lucca then began amplifying her own powers, in what I now know is an attempt to become one these 'planeswalkers'," Magus swept his hand out to include the other Crono. "I think she has succeeded."
"What?!" she cried in disbelief.
"I'm not repeating myself." Magus replied calmly, frowning slightly. "I don't think she can handle what she has done to herself."
"You go get Crono up then," Marle said, dashing toward the castle to get the rest of her equipment. "I'll start contacting the others."
"No." Magus replied flatly.
Marle stopped in mid-stride and turned, her eyes wide. "NO!? What do you mean, no? You let Lucca do something incredibly stupid, and now you won't help me?"
Magus stood as still as the statues decorating the graveyard. "I will handle this matter myself."
"No you won't!" the other Crono shouted into thier minds. "I won't allow you to do any more harm here, Clotho!"
Magus recoiled in shock. "What are you talking about!?!" He shouted, whirling to face the blob that held the other Crono. "Who do you think-?" Magus suddenly stopped talking and his eyes grew wide with shock. His gaze dropped to the bolt sticking through his chest, piercing the pendant Schala gave him when the Ocean Palace collapsed. With numb hands he grasped the end and snapped it off. Vision hazing, he turned to Marle, and another bolt punched though his chest, below the first. She wore a demonic grin, her own pendant blazing with unnatural light. Magus fell to his knees, and still grinning, she fired a final time, the bolt punching into his heart. "No....Schala-" He gasped with his final breath, before toppling to the ground.
Marle voice seemed to gain an almost musical quality as she spoke. "So, you finally figured it out. Good for you." She said casually. Inside his now roiling chamber, Chrono's face contorted with rage. "You shouldn't be here yet. He said that you wouldn't appear until the Time Devourer was dead!"
"No time like the present..." Marle offered with a smirk and small shrug. "And as for the creature that sent you here, I wouldn't listen to him. He lost his right to this world. We imprisoned him because he wants only to better himself, no matter what happens to this world. He is no better than this pathetic creature." She said, kicking Magus' corpse, then looking herself over. "Damn, this was the right form to take!"
The other Crono's chamber began to shake violently, and an intense glow began building inside. "You took my Schala away from me. You took my soul. Now I take a part of it back."
"Oh, please!" Marle groaned, rolling her eyes. "Like I haven't heard that before."
"It's the last thing you'll ever hear." As if one cue, the other Crono's chamber exploded in a flash of energy. Standing in the steaming crater left behind was the other Crono, the same as the day he arrived in thier lives.
"What was that supposed to do," Marle/Clotho said, brushing dust off her blouse, "consume me in an inferno of magical energy?" She smiled and wiggled her fingers at the other Crono, mocking him. "That's another one I've heard before. Don't you get it? I'm corporeal now! You can't hurt me without hurting this girl, and I don't think you'd kill the only thing keeping this world together."
"What do you mean?" the other Crono said, his eyes narrowing.
Marle/Clotho shook her head disapprovingly, sighing in mock exhaustion. "The past shapes the present, and the present shapes the future. If you were to destroy me, the embodiment of the present tense, I love that title." Marle/Clotho chuckled lightly. "Where was I? Oh yeah, you kill me, and Guardia collapses in ohh, let's say twenty years."
"You're forgetting something," the other Crono said, his eyes lighting with power. "This isn't my world."
Marle/Clotho seemed shocked by his words. "You'd actually destroy this plane just for your own petty vengence?"
"I did worse to the others. What makes this one any different?" He asked.
"I have to admit, there aren't many people who'd destroy every plane of a world just to avenge losing his girlfriend." Marle/Clotho began to applaud slowly. "You, my foolish mortal, have a lot of guts." Her/It's eyes began to glow a pale blue as she/it stopped clapping. "I think I'd like to see them for myself." She fired a bolt of energy from the Valkerye, sending the other Crono ducking behind a headstone. "Quick, aren't you?" She paused for a moment, then continued firing, the bolts knocking off chunks of the stone until the other Crono ducked to another, larger one. "I just realized something, Crono. This girl has ice magic in her." Marle/Clotho encased the other Crono's hiding place and everything within a few feet in foot-thick ice. "Very nice ice. Very cool." Marle/Clotho took a moment to laugh at her own clever remarks before pacing around the mass of ice. "This was so much easier than I'd thought. I expected at least some kind of resistance." Rounding the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Hey, where'd you go?" She whirled and saw nothing. "This is going to be more interesting than I thought. Good." She/It cupped her hands and shouted "I'll get started here, and some friends'll be waiting when you get back."
The other Crono wheezed loudly as he stopped running. One of her bolts had clipped his side, and the resulting burn stung. "I thought he said the armor would change me." He looked down at his hands. "Nothing happened, and now I'm defenseless." He cursed silently for being unarmed. In response, the air before him began to shimmer, and a large sword formed before him. The other Crono reached for it numbly, it's black, oddly hooked blade crackling with energy. "This...this is amazing." He thought for a moment, thinking of armor to battle Marle/Clotho in. His skin began to itch, and the other Crono watched as his skin began to swell then split and fall away, revealing large gauntlets on each hand, the fingers ending in short steel talons. The change extended up his arms to his shoulders, where overlapping plates formed, each edge razor sharp. His chest expanded and hardened into a breastplate of adamantine strength, while more plates cascaded down his legs to his boots, the toes now narrowed to dagger-points. A dome-shaped helmet formed, the bottom screwing into the collar of the armor, then turning completely clear. The other Crono tried to put his hand on his cheek, but the helmet stopped him inches away. He could only wonder what other surprises were in store for him as he stalked into the forest.
Time Unknown
She was alive. She knew it was true because her arms and legs ached like she had been working all day. She was also lying on the ground, a conclusion she reached by observing a flock of small white birds fly overhead. As she sat up, she felt an intense pain in the back of her head, and blacked out.
Some time later, she wasn't sure how long, she awoke again, this time opening her eyes only to be staring into another pair of eyes. The owner of the other pair backed out of view startled, then leaned back in, a puzzled look on his face. "Lucca?" She looked around again. This time she was inside somewhere, she could see firelight flicker across the ceiling, which appeared to be made of dirt. That meant she was either underground or in a very poorly built house. "Lucca, if thou can'st hear me, respond." There was something familiar about the voice, but she couldn't remember it coming from a handsome man. She groaned slightly, and a smile lit the handsome man's face, then quickly faded. "Lucca, something hast happened to the Magus. Something dread, I fear." Her mind raced as she recalled the last weeks, Magus and magic and power and blackness and voices. She tried to sit up again and the man helped her, though there was no pain this time. Lucca, she finally remembered her name, took in her surrounding. She was in a small hut dug directly into the ground, sparsely furnished. The bed she lay on and a dresser sat in one corner, while a small pot simmered over the fire. A small table and chairs sat in the center of the room, with a single oil lamp to provide light. The man that walked to the table sat down facing her was the only mystery.
"Where am I?" She spoke at last.
"Thou art in my humble abode." Lucca felt something in the back of her mind as he spoke. Only one person she'd ever met spoke that way, and he was now an amphibian. She furrowed her brow in thought.
"Frog? Is that you?" She said at last.
The man smiled and stood. "Yes, Lucca. It is Frog, but I am Glenn once more." A look of pain covered his face. "Which means only one thing....."
Lucca gasped. "Magus is dead!" Glenn nodded grimly. She was just in his palace. The memories of that trip were still fresh in her mind. "We have to get back to my time!"
"I agree, but we cannot." He passed a cup of water to her. "Something has happened to the Gate. It will open, but nothing may enter, as if sealed from the other side."
Lucca drank, considering what he said. "Sealed from the other side.... That's possible, considering who we left there..." Her mind drifted again, this time to the man she'd met and fell in love with for a second time. He was dead now. "Fr-Glenn, we have to go to that Gate and get it open again." She stood shakily, then began to head out. Glenn grabbed the Masamune from the dresser and followed her out of his hut, into the warm sunlight.
1003 A.D.
"Crono, it's about time you got here!" Marle called to her beloved. "Look at what the other you has done!" Crono ran to her, and came to a stop next to Magus' body. He examined the three puncture wounds before turning to her.
"He did this? To the Magus?" He asked.
"He did! I saw him come out of that thing and he killed Magus!" Tears forming in her eyes, she broke down now. "He said he was coming back for us!"
Crono drew his Rainbow and stepped in front of her. "The hell he is! Which way did he go?" Marle pointed to the south. "He's a dead man." Crono said, and ran into the forest after him. Marle's pendant began to glow.
"He's not the only one." Marle/Clotho said, smiling. She spread her hands wide, and the air around her began to shimmer. From the haze, three figures took form and stepped through. Marle/Clotho turned to the first. "Ahzi Dahaka, your master needs you." The tall, lean lycanthrope dropped to his knees before his master. He stood and scanned his surroundings, the wolf's predatory look in his eyes. Sniffing the air he spoke, slowly drawing the twin gladius on his belt.
"We are here to hunt, yes?" he asked in an calm, soothing voice, hadly fitting his form.
"You better believe it." Marle/Clotho nodded to him, then turned to the next arrival. "Ah, Thothgor. It's been too long." The second arrival, a massive bruise-colored cyclops stepped forward and kneeled, resting his four fists on the ground.
"Thothgor think you done with us." He rose, towering over Marle/Clotho. "Thothgor think you don't like us anymore."
"I think Thothgor needs to stop thinking." Marle/Clotho smiled back. "Thothgor is here to do what I say." He pulled a pair of massive war hammers off his back and nodded violently, slamming the hammers against his armor-like hide.
"Thothgor smash!" he bellowed.
"I know you will," Marle/Clotho said, chuckling softly. "Brute force and minimal intelligence are so much fun."
She/It turned as the third figure began to speak. Her flowing blue gown seemed to generate a continual shroud of fog around her, giving only glimpses to her true appearance. Her left hand stretched from the fog and she touched the ground. Stripped of flesh, it had a ring on each bony finger. "We exist only to serve you, master." Her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. "What would you have us do?"
Marle/Clotho sat on a stone bench and spread her hands. "A simple task, Xevea. There's someone, make that two someone's in that forest." Both visible heads turned to the woods as She/It continued. "Those right there. I want them dead. Both of them."
Ahzi Dahaka's eyes widened in anticipation. "What may we keep, master?"
"Whatever you think you should, weapons, eyes, fingers, it's all the same to me," Marle/Clotho stood again, a stern look on Her/It's face. "But the heads belong to me, understand?" All three nodded. "What are you still doing here then?" The three hunters immediately moved into the forest and were out of view in moments.
"This is gonna be the best day ever." Marle/Clotho said to herself.
.
"Unconcious, or am I concious?
Fell from the sky like a star,
Sometimes I feel as though I'm frozen in heaven......"
-Fear Factory, "Invisible Wounds (Dark Bodies)"