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Chapter Text

"The Chrono Trigger represents potential.  Results require action."

"The egg will have an effect equal to the effort you put into your search.  No more, no less."

The man once known as Janus Zeal pondered these words as he stared into the eternal darkness that was the corpse of existence.

He had already spent much time looking for Schala back in his home time period without any progress and had started looking in other times.  An encounter with Lucca flying her time machine in the era got him in contact with some of his former traveling companions; they aided him in his search, but results still turned up short.  Desperate for answers, he decided to visit Gaspar for any advice, and had recalled the old man's prior words about that enigmatic artifact known as a time egg or "Chrono Trigger".  It was a work of miracles, a testament to human will defying fate.  Had he believed such a thing was possible, could he have...found her?

There was only one way to find out.

A rough nudge on the man once known as the Guru of Time aroused him from his dream.

"Gaspar, I need to know if I could have saved Schala with the Time Egg."  The wizard commanded.

"Janus...I am sorry.  I know you must have felt terrible re-witnessing your failure at the Ocean Palace, but paradoxes are a real hazard when using the Time Egg.  You might negate your own existence or die of you where to pull out Schala from a moment she ought to continue existing in."

"What about just before she exited time?"

"You mean, just before she vanished into the Darkness Beyond Time?"

"Did I stutter?"  Magus snapped.

"Well...you'd have to know that exact moment.  Even so, I do not know what consequences could occur, or even if a doppeldoll would suffice..."

"Then I will know."

"Janus...your ambition consumes you..."

"So be it, Gaspar.  I know where Schala is, and it makes my failure worse."  He scowled.

"Janus...I...what?"

"She is suffering.  Consumed by despair and welcoming the end of everything." Magus grit his sharp eyeteeth.  

Gaspar's eyes grew wide.

"I saw her there connected with Lavos.  I don't know what happened, but it seems even after killing Lavos it somehow survives somewhere, and with Schala imprisoned within it!  I saw myself trying to rescue her but she told the other me that there was nothing I could to save her!"

"So Lavos remains in the Darkness Beyond Time, and so does Schala..."

"Tell me everything you know about how that happened!" Magus demanded.

“It seems that Schala vanishes from the time stream right before the Ocean Palace became the Black Omen.  I would postulate that shortly after her teleporting you and the other time travelers was when it occurred.”

“But…but how?”

“Lavos may have swallowed her because she was the arbiter of the Frozen Flame.  Queen Zeal may have punished her for teleporting away you and the others.”

Magus grew paler than usual. His eyes wide and withdrawing from his surroundings.

His hands shook and he brought them close to his face.  “You m-mean that maybe in the original timeline she…could have just died…but…but because she saved us she suffers a fate worse than death?” 

 He slammed his left hand on the cold metal of the lamp post right above Gaspar's head.

“THAT BECAUSE OF MY FAILURE AND THE INTERVENTION OF THE OTHERS SHE SUFFERS A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!?”  He screamed right at Gaspar’s face.

The back of Gaspar’s shoulders clung onto the lamppost as Magus’s imposing figure trapped him there.  Gaspar wiped his face and then sighed.

“That is one possibility, but it could have happened regardless…my sight does not look well into what occurred inside the Ocean Palace because of the heavy temporal distortions around it.”

Magus withdrew from Gaspar and folded his arms.  “I’ll have to find out myself then.”

“And then what will you do?”

“Whatever I can."  He looked down at the floor morosely.

“Schala would be proud to have you as a brother, even if you are hardly recognizable to her and even in spite of your failed attempts.  I have something for you.”

The morose expression on Magus’s face lit up as Gaspar presented him with a tiny spotted egg—just like the one that the time travelers had used earlier to snatch Crono from his doom.

“You..you had another?”

“No.  But Lucca was eager to create one herself for any reason that could come up.  I taught and guided her through the process as she learned how to weave magic and physics together.  After we finished, she let me keep it safe for any of you if needed.  I think this is reason enough to use this egg—your spirit is strong, and the Chrono Trigger would certainly respond in turn.”

Magus took the Chrono Trigger and carefully cradled it in his hands.  He started at the simple form in front of him, so full of promise and potential to do the work of miracles and gods.  It had the power to do things that if this treasure where widely known, whole armies and civilizations would have been obliterated for it.  Yet it was in the form of something so innocuous yet fittingly symbolic as a plain egg; from a plain egg could come the birth of something powerful if properly cared for.  Magus closed his eyes for awhile and concentrated on the object, trying to feel for what would be needed to hatch the miracle he needed to happen.

After a solid few minutes, his crimson eyes opened again.  He carefully pocketed the egg in his small dimension where he stashed his things, so careful as not to even come into contact with his other belongings.  He wrapped in a protective spell just in case it was fragile—he would dare not test its endurance even if he had remembered from experience that a Time Egg was durable enough to be taken in a satchel while hiking up a mountain.

He nodded at Gaspar and gave a traditional Zealian bow of reverence.  “Thank you.”

“I will be watching. I can only hope for the best.”

Magus nodded, then turned away to head for Epoch.

Magus handed the keys to Epoch back to Lucca.

“For someone who grew up with little machinery around, you picked up familiarity pretty quickly.”

Magus glared at Lucca.  “That machinery was built in a lost future, but was designed by someone from my homeland. You saw the Blackbird, didn’t you?”

“Oh, but you were just a-“

“I hung around for awhile as a prophet, you idiot.”

“Hey, I was just complementing how you picked it up fast! It even took my father awhile to teach me how to use a drill!”

“Well, you better pick up to think of what you say better.”

“Hey, you know I’m not the most social person around.”

“Neither am I.”

Magus sighed deeply and sat on the couch of Lucca’s home.  There were various pieces of hardware and electronic components in disarray; the interior landscape of a household of machinists was completed with random piles of books and diagrams.  Despite these obstacles to normal movement, the cozy hearth and the earthy wooden walls added an inviting warmth to the home.  It was cozy unlike the vast marble corridors of the Zeal Palace and the dank, dark halls of his old castle.  He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy around Lucca when he was at her house.

“What is it like?”  He said softly.

“What is what like?”  Lucca quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

“What is it like to…never mind."  He stopped himself from revealing too much.

“Oh come on, say it!”

“Nothing.”

“Oh come on….say it! You’re putting me on a cliffhanger!”

“Then I’ll have to drop you."  He retorted.

Lucca pouted for a moment, then went back to her chair in defeat, and continued sipping her tea.

Magus looked back behind the couch to watch Lucca’s mother prepare refreshments, then looked across the room to see Lucca’s father repair something.  His face fell rather noticeably.

After biting into some sandwich slices, Magus went to the topic he had planned.

“Lucca, I have spoken to Gaspar about the fate of Schala.  She is in a place known as “The Darkness Beyond Time”, a place that exists outside of the known space-time continuum.”

“Go on…”  Lucca was captivated by the anticipation of exposition.

“I don’t know how she got there, but it was sometime between when she teleported us away and when the Black Omen rose.  Lavos is there somehow as well, and the two have been bonded.”

Lucca went pale. “Lavos…still exists somehow?”

“Lavos’s…soul, or whatever equivalent.  Maybe something about Lavos’s extra dimensional nature allows it to survive in some way like that.  I wish I had the answers too but I do not.  All I know is that Schala is out there suffering at its hands and I dare hope that it was not because of our intervention.”

Lucca shook her head. "So...so it is true.  I was hoping what you were going to say wasn't what I heard from Crono. I…I wasn’t there, but he told me more about what you, he, and Frog saw that day and it still gives him the chills thinking about it.  It took a lot of effort to destroy Lavos, and Schala doesn’t deserve that terrible fate.”

“That’s why Gaspar gave me the Chrono Trigger.”

“So he did give it to you.  Well, if it can rescue Schala, then you may have it.”

“I didn’t ask permission from you.  When Gaspar handed it to me it was all the permission I needed.  If he somehow refused, I would have taken it from him without hesitation."  Magus snapped.

Lucca felt her heart jump a little at these icy words, but she quickly calmed down after she remembered that this threatening tone was actually normal for Magus.

Taban stopped polishing the rust out of a wrench.  He was about to call out on Magus for yelling at his daughter, but Magus’s imposing presence and wicked glare shot back at Taban before he could say a word.  Taban shook his head lightly and looked at Lucca with an eye twitch upon seeing her calm around this fiendish man.  He sighed and went out of the room.

“I know, but you know, just a formality… ”  Lucca broke the tension with a smile.

Magus sighed, took a warm cup of tea from the table and brought it to his lips.  He wondered if Taban had any idea what the two were discussing or if he just heard the biting tone of Magus’s statement.

The warmth of the house, the sofa, and the tea put Magus at ease a little—at ease enough to let something slip.

“I’ll ask again. What is it like?”  He asked, eyes closed in contemplation.

“Oh no, not this again."  Lucca sighed.

“What is it like…to have…”  He was holding his words back, but then they came out anyway.

“What is it like to have…parents…who…care about you?”

Lucca was wide-eyed at the question.  She remembered that of the family of Janus Zeal, only Schala was loving to him.  Maybe his mother had been warm to him much earlier in life before the activation of the Mammon Machine.  He probably did not remember his father much before he passed away.  Ozzie was more like a distant step parent or awful coach until the day when Magus usurped his position.  That part was conjecture for Lucca, after she saw how Magus turned against his former minions so easily she thought that maybe they were never close to begin with.

Lucca then thought of her own parents.  Without their support she wouldn’t have become the great inventor and scientist she was today.  Without her father to teach her these wonders she who knows what she might have become instead.  Lara tolerated Taban and Lucca’s mess around the house and provided a solid foundation of comfort.  Much of her own work involved collaboration with her father.  Inventing and experimenting was expensive and not very profitable, so she was thankful of her father's income from his regular job as a blacksmith.

It just occurred to Lucca that Magus might have been envious of her, maybe even jealous, but hopefully not spiteful.  She had to choose her words and gestures carefully.

She looked down and pursed her lips in hesitation.  She gripped her own mug of tea and glanced at the kitchen, then at where her father was working.

“Well…it’s like having a cushion where you can land on whenever you need to fall.  It’s like…having two best friends who will always be at your side no matter what and have always been there with you since you could remember."  She looked at him with a cheesy grin that said “don’t hurt me”.

Magus had not moved a muscle.  He was still sitting with his eyes closed in quiet contemplation.  After a nervous minute that seemed like a torturous hour for Lucca, Magus finally replied.

“I see. I asked because you know well that is not a luxury I was fortunate enough to have, despite having other other luxuries when growing up. It would be useless to dwell too much in an alternate reality in which I grew up with loving parents. When I see your parents and Gina, it does makes me wonder how my life would have been. I admit it does make me feel jealous to an extent, but jealously is useless. Being jealous of you won’t bring back my parents nor Schala, and it certainly is not any will of your own to be born to caring parents.”

Lucca was confused at this tiny exposition of Magus’s internal world, but her confusion was from this tiny bit of exposition of his internal world in the first place rather than the words of that exposition itself.  She wondered if his goal-focused practicalness that became his bread and butter was also a shield from malingering thoughts that would threaten to tear his psyche apart.

She caught that those last words also vaguely echoed Frog's when he decided to spare Magus's life that fateful day.  She wondered if a little bit of Frog's honor and restraint had rubbed off on Magus.

“So, you’re not mad at me, you’re just curious?”

“Yes.”  Magus shrugged.

Lucca sighed.

“Be thankful of what you have, Lucca."  He said in a barely audible whisper.

He held out the Chrono Trigger from his pocket dimension and examined it wordlessly.  Lucca stared in amazement of that tiny miraculous object, and remembered the excitement of putting it all together.  A silent minute passed by and he held it close to his heart, then slipped it back into his pocket dimension.

“I will."  Lucca replied at last.

Magus stood up and left the house without any goodbyes.  Something about this conversation bugged Lucca, she wondered if Magus didn't require her permission to use the egg, why did he want her to know what he was going to use it for?

The man once known as Janus Zeal stayed over at Melchior’s cottage whenever he spent an extended amount of time in the era of Crono, Lucca, and Marle.  Melchior was happy to have him stay over, to him it felt somewhat relieving to finally have a familiar face from his own past appear again.  The unfamiliarity of that era compared to Zeal made Melchior feel like he was stuck in a dream or been flung into another world entirely.  Even if Magus did not look at all like “little Janus” it was still a confirmation that not all was lost since the day Lavos flung the three gurus and the little prince far into the future.

Magus in turn liked having a place to rest and research esoteric topics without the ceaseless snoring of Gaspar.

Magus was almost finished with breakfast when Melchior piped up with the question he was anxious to ask.

“So, you are going to use the Chrono Trigger to save Schala?”

“Yes.”  Magus answered flatly over waffles.

“Does that mean there is another way to save someone besides replacing them?”

“That is what I have been looking into.  First I have to understand the nature of it before considering that course of action might be.”

“I do know some about it, but not a lot.  That was more Gaspar and Belthasar’s expertise.”

“The Chrono Trigger is essentially a simulacrum of the universe that can break into a specific point in time and space of the real universe using Alister’s Law of Synchrony and Recursion Theory.  It is a powerful device that requires tremendous magic power to work and tremendous dedication of the heart to guide.  It is merely a vehicle of altering the universe, not something that alters the universe itself, it just gives the potential to do it."  Magus stated with a whiff of scholarly poise that proved he had indeed researched on it.

“If I understand correctly, Belthasar guided you and the other time travelers to Death Peak and to replace Crono with a doll.”

“Yes, I was there when Crono was retrieved from the time stream."  Magus paused to chew the last morsel of waffle.  “From what I have researched, this is the only way to save someone using the Chrono Trigger.”

“So you do have a doll of Schala?  I can help you even ma-”

“It’s going to take much more than a doll to replace Schala in the time stream."  Magus interrupted.

He continued, "This is now the focus of my research.  Crono was to be obliterated by Lavos and already had been favored by the Entity.  Retrieving him due to such factors was relatively easy—but Schala is an altogether different case.  Schala’s connection with Lavos might make it more difficult, the Entity may even stop me and consider Schala a threat.  I am the only one with a deep connection to Schala, Crono had the will of si…five friends backing him up, Schala has not traveled through time and so I am not certain if she is considered ‘important’ to the time stream.”

“Janus.  I too have a deep connection to Schala.  Crono and his friends cared about her even if they hardly knew her.  I am sure Belthasar and Gaspar also care deeply for her.  She doesn’t just have you, she has the hearts of all of us backing her up, and thus backing you up.”

“Maybe there is some way of manifesting your good intentions into something usable I can take with me."  He said sarcastically.

“Oh, but maybe there is!”

“I was just kidding.”

“You know I have crafted among the greatest magical artifacts of Zeal!”

“I need to get back to my research.”

Magus stuffed himself into a quiet area surrounded by books and magical tools.  The most useful books where those retrieved from stasis vaults from the ruins of Kajar, but they were more scarce than more recent books written by mystic authors.  Mystic authors seemed less concerned about the cosmos and more about warfare and survival.  This made sense considering their state throughout history in this region, when those two were the most important aspects of using magic.  What was written by mystic authors on magic involving time and space was extremely primitive by Zeal standards.

Either way, the vast majority of it did not help very much.  Magus hoped that at least if he pored through these esoteric tomes, it would spark the right solution to him—even those tomes that were difficult to understand through layers of purple prose and jargon that he had not had the opportunity to learn much at Zeal.

By afternoon, Magus had become frustrated enough to leave Melchior’s cottage without a word.  Melchior just sighed when he heard the door slam from his foundry.

He decided that being fixated on the dearth of magic research hardly even remotely related to his goal was not helping him at all.  Magus was one to learn magic more from experimentation and field experience rather than theory written by other wizards.  So the way to rescue Schala would have to rest on his own methods.

Soon he found himself walking around the base of the mountain nearby.  He saw the remains of a sharp chasm that cleaved the mountainside to reveal the entrance of a cave.  Ah yes, that was where Frog and his companions broke the seal to the entrance of his castle 400 years earlier.  Magus began thinking about that day he met those people, among other memories of bygone centuries.  He strolled along the shore's edge around the mountain to see where his castle once stood.  Like Zeal, its remains were swallowed by the ocean.  He had seen this patch of ocean before from Epoch's cabin and wondered what had become of his former fortification.  Perhaps a tidal wave or flood reclaimed it, perhaps a magical accident obliterated it.  Perhaps Lavos did rise from beneath the ground and upon seeing that the person who had disturbed its sleep was gone, decided to at least claim the strange place it would have been summoned into.

He finally snapped back to the present when he nearly crashed into a tree.  He stopped and cussed in his native tongue at the branch that hung just centimeters in front of his eyes.  After shoving the branch away from him, he looked at the stretch of land in the distance.

Across the sea was Guardia.  That kingdom rightfully once saw Magus as a monstrous fiend that could kill all who stood in his way.  In this time era, the memory of Magus was reduced to a sort of boogeyman that was slain; a boogeyman whose defeat would then be celebrated by building Leene Square. The young prince and princess of Gaurdia in this era knew the truth about that boogeyman and seemed to grow fond of him after that.  The thought made him want to smile a little, but instead he let out a proud smirk that he had conquered a little bit of Guardia after all.  

He then remembered something else, a detail that he had scarcely thought of but knew needed more attention.

Schala’s pendant.

He knew that would be a key component to his quest, but how was he going to convince Marle to hand it over?  There was a risk he might never give it back to her.

Years had passed for the prince and princess of Gaurdia, and so have many milestones in their life such as their first child and the intense training Crono had to go through to be proper royalty from being a commoner.  Marle’s father was aging yet still had many years left on him to rule and to make sure that his successors would take care of the kingdom that his own ancestors also took care of.

Marle and Crono stood in the balcony of their room in the castle, enjoying the breeze of day.

That is, until an ominous cloaked figure landed beside them.

The couple gasped.  They were unarmed, so they quickly took on defensive stances with their hands ready to release raw magical energy in defense.  But upon closer inspection, the cloaked figure felt familiar.

And let out a familiar chuckle.

Magus lifted his hood and leaned against the balcony rail.  Crono sighed in relief and relaxed, Marle on the other tensed her whole body and yelled.

“MAGUS!”

It was enough to summon a few castle staff to their aid, but Crono gave a bashful smile and waved them off to signal that everything was alright for the moment.

“Next time we might as well blast you!”  She snarled.

“Well, that wouldn’t be the first time, would it? I’ve endured worse from you."  Magus retorted.

“Fine. Why are you here?”  She crossed her arms.

“I came to talk to you about the pendant, and know how you two are faring if we have time.”

“Well, today we aren’t too busy, but we have to make preparations for meetings on the subject of appointing a new chancellor.”

“Did one of the Yakras finally get to him?”

“No, he’s just retiring soon."  Marle scowled a little.

“Do come in.”  Crono finally eased the tension between Marle’s annoyance and Magus’s snark.

The royal couple and their formerly royal and uninvited guest took seats in a meeting hall and were served refreshments.  Magus contently sipped tea in a very refined fashion that betrayed his royal upbringing.  Crono sipped tea in a manner that was refined at first, but then slurped his tea down casually when he was tired of behaving like a proper prince.  Marle did the same as well as soon as the last staff member left them alone.

“So, how are things going for you?”  Crono broke the ice.

“I am getting close to figuring out how to rescue Schala."  Magus said.

“You found Schala?  But why can’t you rescue her just yet?”  Marle asked with a tinge of fright in her eyes.

“Crono you haven’t told her have you?”

“I…." Crono fell silent.

"About...Schala being held captive by Lavos..."  Magus did not like explaining it again either.

"He did tell me."  Marle's face fell.  "I just...didn't want to believe it. I feel like it probably could have been our fault that happened to her!"  Her eyelashes were wet.

“Schala…” Crono whispered.

"I hope it wasn't my fault either...our fault..."  Magus said softly.

Marle was speechless for a moment, then quickly embraced Magus before he could even react.  His first instinct was to push her away, but then he felt something touch his chest.  Something cold, yet somehow warm, something familiar…the pendant, and that eased him.  He slowly put an arm around Marle for a few seconds, and then she withdrew.

“I’m…I’m sorry.  Do you know what happened to her?”  Marle asked.

“She somehow was sent to the Darkness Beyond Time, along with Lavos.  She remains connected to Lavos, who I think was attempting to absorb or merge with her in some way.”

Marle and Crono shuddered at the thought, as well as what terrible things that could imply.

“So…what…what now?”  Marle stammered, her face white.

“I am getting close to the solution.  I have already been given a Time Egg from Gaspar and Lucca.”

“I…I always wondered how you’d felt when we rescued Crono.  I saw you pause at the scene of what was to be his death for a moment before we left.  How you could have possibly used that moment to save your sister.”

“It would not have worked anyway.  I might disrupt things too much if I ever rescued her that moment.  Even so, I would need more than a replica of her to rescue her.”

“Is that why you came to talk to me about my pendant?"

Magus paused for a moment. “I am not sure. I feel it may be necessary to retrieve her.  I would like to borrow it, but I must warn you of the possibility you may never have it again.”

Marle did not answer, but instead looked down on the floor, then at Magus, then at her pendant. Magus remained calm and stoic—at least on the outside, but his gaze on the pendant betrayed the fact that he was not immune to the tension in the air.

“Well…this pendant is very important to my family.  If I loose it, there would be no end to daddy yelling at me about it and an important connection to my ancestors would be lost.  Then again…it…it was her pendant, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. The exact one.  It passed through many hands for thousands of years until it reached the Gaurdia royal line.  I never asked about having it back because I know the pendant has chosen its new owners.”

“What?”

“The elder at Algetty told me that he saw Schala’s pendant on you, as if it were protecting you when I asked if he had seen her.”

“I…well…there is probably a reason its with me and my family.  Then again…I know how much it means to you anyway."  She removed the pendant from her neck and handed it to Magus.

Crono gasped. Even Magus was surprised at this gesture.

The pendant seems to shimmer for a moment in the radiance it once had when fully charged.  It was warm, familiar, comforting in his hands.  It pulsed with a warmth that interacted with the talisman that Schala gave him on that fateful day.  The man once known as Janus Zeal held it tight with his eyes closed.  He opened his eyes and then handed the pendant back to Marle, who took it and then blinked rapidly in confusion.

“I want you to come with me instead." Magus said.

“To…to where?” Marle replied.

“To when I am ready to rescue Schala.”

Crono nodded.  “So will I.”

“I’ll come back when I’m ready. In the meantime, I still have more business to take care of before I do this.  When I return I will be certain about the role that the pendant will play if it does.  If it will serve no purpose, you do not have to come.”

“Wait, I never said I’ll do it."  Marle retorted.

“Well, do you refuse?”

“Uhm…no?”

“Then it’s settled."  Magus pulled and stretched his right glove.

“Do you even know where you are going to rescue her?”

“As of now, it looks like sometime back after the fall of Zeal.  I need to borrow Epoch a little more to make sure.”

“Well, good luck then. I haven’t thanked you enough for telling us how to rescue Crono!”

“At the time I wanted to see if the Time Egg was real.”

“Oh come on!”  Marle crossed her arms.

Magus smirked. “Crono, I know I called you weak before and after your rescue.  I just want to let you know that at the time, I may have been projecting on you because of my own failure.”

“It was kinda obvious."  Crono stated sheepishly.

Magus shrugged.  “I acknowledge you saved my life as well.  If you had not stopped me from summoning Lavos, I would have been easily killed.  I learned from Gaspar later that originally I was to be obliterated in the same manner that almost killed you as well.  I greatly underestimated Lavos and only until after my failure did I realize that I could never have done it alone.”

Crono quirked an eyebrow in disbelief that Magus would admit something like this.  He then smiled and patted the back of his neck.  “Ehehe, well no problem!”

Marle was about to give Magus another hug, but the moment Crono finished his phrase, Magus simply seems to have never been there, except for the empty plates and tea cup.

“Hey!” Marle yelled at nothing.

“I guess telling him how we’re doing is going to have to wait."  Crono shrugged.

Chapter Text

The man once known as Frog now lived in Gaurdia castle.  He no longer blended in with the locals at Medina after the curse seemingly fell apart on its own.  

Actually, Magus already triggered removing the curse before they departed the day after killing Lavos.   Magus would not be there to witness when Frog would collapse in front of Queen Leene and turn into his old human self.  Nor did Magus care to witness the shock on the surrounding people's faces and Glenn writhing in agony.  When asked about it, Glenn would say that being a hero and fulfilling one's duty was a cure.  

But a part of Glenn wondered if Magus had died.  The thought troubled him more than he would admit it to himself.  Perhaps the old fool was slain trying to rescue his sister again.  If that was the case, Glenn thought that he would have died nobly; an ironic and fitting end for someone who had also slain a hero.  

But would that mean he died in his own time period, or this one?

One could never be sure how curses and time mechanics played out, actually there were some people who knew but they were out of reach from Glenn.  

The man once known as Frog was now a knight, sworn to protect Guardia and its people.  He was lauded and well-known like his mentor.  Yet there was a slight specter about Glenn that still made people slightly fearful of him.

"Please don't cast magic!"

The celebrated knight had finished for the day and was tired. He was still clad in armor except for his helmet which he held with his right hand.  He wearily looked at the Chancellor. "The woods would hath been set ablaze!"

The Chancellor waved his staff angrily.  "Even if you were once a fiend, it seems you might still be one!" 

"I hath told thou already, the king, the queen, and the whole court that humans can use magic and hath been granted such along with Crono, Lucca, and the future Princess Nadia.  These powers assisted greatly in defeat of Magus, his army, and Lavos. I was no fiend, ever.”

"It still seems unsettling coming from a human, and you of all people who defended us against...them." He crossed his arms and looked sternly at Glenn in the eye.

"Thy discomfort shall ease in thy time.  If thine duty requires casting, cast I shall.  Man once wielded this power, but hubris taketh the knowledge away in ages past, yet still can be re-kindled in man now.  It is not an ability only for fiends.  I understand thou hath only seen it from fiends who ser'ed Magus and threatened the kingdom.  Thy hatred for fiends is great, as one kidnapped thou and masqueraded as thou to hurt Guardia, I understand.”

The Chancellor sighed and left. He seemed to mutter something incoherent.  Glenn did not care.

Glenn looked more like a shining knight than when he was last seen by Magus, he wore dark-brown and gold-trimmed enameled plate armor much like Cyrus’s from below his head, and a green cape with Gaurdia’s crest emblazoned on it. Though, unlike the typical Gaurdia plate armor, it seemed a little lighter, and leaner, more chainmail showed from underneath, perhaps suiting a warrior who was willing to give up protection for speed. Instead of gauntlets, Glenn wore blue leather boots and thick, blue leather gloves with chainmail beneath. Earlier, Glenn had cut his hair short much like the other soldiers of Gaurdia, but then allowed it to grow almost shoulder-length.

Glenn left to his private quarters, unaware that the man he just mentioned by his infamous pseudonym was listening in the shadows, cloaked by an invisibility spell.  

Magus carefully slipped through as Glenn opened the door.  At least he tried.  Glenn had opened the door too narrow for Magus to enter, but Magus was too determined to enter.  

As a result, what occurred was that Glenn felt a blanket of fabric rush by his legs that pushed him to the side a little.  He immediately closed the door and drew his sword.

"Come out, thou rogue!"

A familiar chuckle came from a nearby chair.  

Glenn groaned. “Speak of the Devil! Is that thou nasty fiend, even if thou'rt human?"

"Yes, I am your nasty fiend." Magus smirked as he drew down his invisibility.  He was calmly seated in the luxurious chair by a writing desk at the far wall of the room. Magus was dressed in more dark blue tones, including his pants and was without leather armor. 

"Magus..." Glenn sighed softly as he walked toward him, Masamune still in his right hand but lowered down.

Glenn would never admit it-not even to himself, that he was relieved to see that Magus was still alive.

"Considering the origin of fiends as products of magical experimentation, I do qualify as a "proto-fiend", as did you when you were a frog." Magus said matter of factly. His right hand supported his head with an elbow on the armrest rather casually.  

Glenn put the Masamune in its scabbard and walked to Magus.  He crossed his arms and sternly looked down at the familiar intruder.

"What is thy business?"

"I am close to finding out how to rescue Schala.  I...I humbly request your help.” Even those last words were hard for Magus to properly articulate.

“Humbly?” Glenn snorted.

“Glenn, I know we got to a bad start, but there is an apparition of Lavos in existence who has a fair maiden in hostage who needs my help.” Magus scowled.

“‘A bad start tis a feebly frail attempt to soften the blow, fiend.  A great shade hoverth over the air between us, yet admit I do that 'tis be redundant speak, for we hath much discussed our uneasy truce time a plenty in our journey to slay Lavos."

The knight shook his head and looked down before he continued.  "If skill I have shall aid this fair maiden, how dost I can aid thee?"

“I want you to come with me when I take Schala from the timesteam. The journey to the location that would bring be closer to her could even be too much for me to handle.”

“Ah! Thou needeth a blade by thy side?” Glenn smirked.

“Just in case.” Magus retorted flatly, his eyes narrowed at Glenn’s audacious tone.

Magus looked around the room, then back at Glenn. There was a thick silence in the air between them. Magus ran his hands through the back of his hair, then neck a little. He finally looked at Glenn straight in the eyes and spoke again.

“Glenn, before I bring you to rescue Schala, I have one more favor to ask you.”


“What is thy request?”

“I want you to take me to Cyrus’s grave.”

“Zounds! I find thy preposterous proposal a hair too much!” Glenn yelled.

“I would like to…make peace with you and Cyrus before I rescue Schala.”

“Surely, thou can make peace afterward?” Glenn’s eyes twitched a little.

“I…” Magus stopped to think more carefully about what he was saying. He was not entirely sure why he felt the strong need to feel a sense of…closure regarding those he traveled with and as well as people from his past. He really had not thought of Cyrus at all except when he and Glenn had a talk earlier about the matter, in which Glenn firmly stated that he does not wish to be consumed by blind revenge the way he saw how Magus was, and was willing to fight alongside him. After killing Lavos, no words were exchanged on the matter except that Magus had started the spell to lift his curse before Glenn left to his own time.

It was this moment that it finally dawned to Magus that there was a very important detail about rescuing Schala that he refused to acknowledge, but was subconsciously acting upon. Why did he feel he had to confess to Crono about his words to him? Why did he ask Lucca about her family? Why did he feel the need to make peace with Glenn? The thought crept up his spine and gnawed on his psyche. His pallor was now almost paper white.

Worse, there were actually two important details, and both were as dreadful at the moment to Magus as the other. They both held that awful property of relinquishment.

“Magus?” Glenn asked, concerned.

“Listen, Glenn. I don’t know what is going to happen, but after we rescue Schala, I may never have the chance to speak with you again.”

“Why is that?”

Magus paused for a moment, then shook his head. “Nevermind, either way, I need to be ready to face my sister with a clear conscious.” This was only a half truth.

“Thou sincerely regret slaying Cyrus?” Glenn quirked an eyebrow.

“I don’t know.”

“Thou better not be tricking me into defiling Cryus’s rest!”

“I am not.”

“If thou prove treacherous and false, I shall dispose of thou!”

“I know, I know.” Magus sighed. It was clear he was as reluctant about the matter as Glenn was. Yet he felt he had to do it, but the reasons were not clear-what was clear was that it had to do with finding the way to Schala, and removing her from her fate.

Glenn would have doffed off his armor and called it a night, but he decided instead to escort Magus to the grave north of Choras to better conceal the fact he was even going there with him. Magus hid himself in his thicker blue cape and hood with gold fringe as he walked beside Glenn. People would undoubtedly approach Glenn and ask about the stranger if they were out during the day.

A cold fog enveloped the forest path up to Cyrus's grave. High-pitched squeaks, hoots, scurrying, and insect chirping filled the air. The bottom of Magus’s cape began to accumulate water and forest detritus at the bottom.

Glenn’s cape was too short to pick up the wet leaf litter and mud.

“Thy cape is getting dirty.”

“I’ll clean it later.” Magus scoffed. He did not have anything else warmer than it for frigid nights. It may have not seemed thick enough for even the cold wastes of the land once owned by Zeal, but a big of magic can help a bit of cloth rather well.

Glenn and Magus did not exchange any other words along the way. Glenn did try to strike up conversations but Magus did not say anything, his mind was too focused on a myriad of things, yet most of all at that moment, why he was doing this. Why was he going to talk to someone who tried to kill him? Yet he felt he had a few last things to tell the fallen knight.

When they arrived at the tomb, Glenn used his lamp flame to light all the torches in the room. Magus carefully followed, and then finally uttered something.

“You haven’t stopped me once during the way.”

“I trust thou’st words with Cyrus not be hostile. Thou'rt an enigma, a peculiarity-one sideth be a bloodthirsty fiend, the other a great heart.”

“What did you just say?” Magus snarled, pulling his hood off.

“Thou wish to speak to Cyrus or not?”

“Why do you think I am doing this? You seem very complicit in allowing such an insult to your friend to happen.”

“Thou think Cyrus doth not know of our allegiance?”

Magus’s eyes grew wide. “You…you told him?”

“Nay, not exactly. Yet I know he would cease ill will to you where he to know the purpose of our allegiance.”

“How do you know?”

“He said to me, he knew thou were still alive, yet did not beseech vengeance if Gaurdia is safe. Last I spoke to him was the day of mine knighting, he spoketh praise of me and glad that Leene is in good hands.”

“I guess he figured since he didn’t see me fall down to Hell.”

“I would hath think’st he passed on completely but says he will come back now for me until I am fully a true knight like him.”

“That is a very powerful will to be able to cling onto this world like that.” Magus’s brow furrowed.

“Mayhaps not, Toma waited 400 years for us to pour ale on his grave.”

“And is Cyrus anything like that? Aren’t you a full knight already?” Magus probed.

“Aye. Mayhaps there is one more thing to Cyrus before he departeth.”

Magus narrowed his eyes and readied his hands for any spell he might need to sling soon. He carefully approached the grave of the man he killed years ago. His footsteps where utterly quiet and slow, as if time around him was slowing to a crawl.  Yet no slowing spell was needed to accentuate the gravity of the situation. 

Magus was now about ten feet away from the headstone and simply stared at it.

There was no sign of any ghost.  Not even when Glenn came up from behind to watch what might unfold.

"Cyrus hath moved on long ago, unlike thou?”  Of course Glenn knew that wasn't the case.

Magus snapped, "Quiet, Glenn."

As soon as Magus's attention was back at the tombstone, a rush of ethereally cold wind rushed out from the direction of the tombstone.  Glenn merely closed his eyes and stretched out a hand to feel the presence of their host.  Magus lost his balance and fell to the ground bottom first. His legs where stretched out in front of him and his hands where behind him attempting to anchor him from being blown. His hair and cape violently blew backwards and straight behind him. He started to feel the breath from his lungs starting to somehow escape. His mouth gasped and breathed in the wind in an attempt to gain breath, but with each inhale more of his breath seemed to vanish. It felt like he was drowning and breathing in water as air escaped. In his thoughts he was furious, it seemed like Cyrus was trying to kill him right there.

Yet that other ominous wind he could always sense, was nowhere to be found.  

Then, just as Magus felt he might pass out, the wind died down. He was able to breathe again and coughed violently.

"So, you are just a man." An eerily calm voice resonated around, in his head.

Magus sat up and with his bloodshot, watery eyes, he gazed upon the spirit of Cyrus. Just as he had appeared when Glenn first sought his grave. A knight clad in Gaurdia’s most prestigious warrior regalia-black plate armor with gold edges, helmet open, and royal purple cape. His face was not forlorn, but still carried the heroic mien that Glenn admired.

"Why didn't you just kill me?"  Magus growled.

"Do you wish to die?  I could use some company over here."

Oh, that was cold.  Magus immediately knew where this was heading.  Cyrus had to make sure of what Magus's intentions where and if he would not be hostile.  So Cyrus decided to immediately gain the upper hand and put Magus in a position of weaknesses.  And oh, Magus deplored weakness, especially coming from himself.  

"I would make terrible company for you as the person who put you here." 

The ghostly knight in armor just chuckled and Glenn joined in the merriment.

"Oh, I see."  Magus interrupted.  "Glenn could not do the deed himself so he brought me to you for you to kill me right here."

"A clever plan that may be, yet t’was thou that requested this arrangement.”

"Oh just kill me already." Magus sighed, his hand already was starting to fish for his scythe in his pocket dimension.

"No, I will not kill you." 

"Why not?"

"Why are you here?" Cyrus demanded at Magus.  "Glenn, why have brought my murderer here?" he reprimanded at Glenn.

"Magus hast some parting words with thee."  Glenn was suspiciously calm.

"I...I..." Magus coughed out.

"Go on."  Glenn was smirking.

"I..." Magus closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  "I want to let you know that Glenn has fought more than just the enemies of Gaurdia, but a common foe we both had that threatened the world.  I have helped stop a resurgence of the war by dispatching my former generals.  The future of Gaurdia is in good hands centuries from now..." 

"Is...that it?"

"If there had been no conflict of plans between us, we could have at the very least be respectful rivals.”

Glenn was wide-eyed at this confession.

“I just want to know what you think about that.” Magus got up and stood, then pulled on a glove and wiggled his fingers in it.

“Why do you care?” Cyrus probed.

“To see the look on your ghostly face knowing that your precious squire calls me a friend now.”

Glenn tightened his fists, his face turned red and he shouted, “T’WAS ONLY ONCE!” He was about to pull the Masamune from his scabbard but Cyrus immediately shot a look at him and held his hand out to signal him to stop.

Cyrus sighed.  "Magus, or shall I refer to you as Prince Janus Zeal?"

Magus froze and his mouth agape as he took his hand from his face.  He then whipped around to face Glenn.

"You already told him you sonofa-"

Glenn closed his eyes and crossed his arms. His composure returned. ”Aye, though he hast not believeth me.  I did not say much but I took thy wish as mine opportunity to prove to Cyrus I am right, thou hath joined in our quest. As much as thou still hath my distaste, I was willing to at least consult Cyrus's opinion on the matter but he hath not believeth me.

"Indeed, Glenn you are more than right." Cyrus nodded.

"Thou were upset at me but still trusted I hath not betrayed thou.  I am proud of thou as well for thy faith in me."

"Indeed I am, Glenn."

"And you, former Fiendlord" Cyrus continued.  "I hope you find your sister, and I hope your soul will be at peace."

How self-righteous and knightly, forgive your enemies is the best vengeance.  Magus could only hear Cyrus's words ever so cynically.  He rolled his eyes.

"Fine" was all Magus could respond.  

“Did you really think that you could arrive here as an insult to me?” Was that your intention, former Fiendlord?”

Magus just shrugged. Even at this moment he was not entirely sure why he was here, why he wanted to tell Cyrus this. The most obvious intention was to get a last laugh at Cyrus, but even this reason was too foolish, did he really want to burn all bridges with Glenn? The pride in him wanted to believe that, but another part of him-the one that kept Schala in his heart felt there was another reason to all this. A part that was vital to his goal. Magus slumped forward a little, then sighed heavily and covered his face with three fingers on his forehead and thumb on his cheekbone.

“Are you here because you regret killing me?” Cyrus held his armored arms folded together, his ghostly glance held aloft.

Magus tried to think about what he would do if Schala were there. What would Schala have wanted him to do? Would his actions be dictated by just what Schala wanted from him or maybe something more?

Magus lifted his hand from his face. The area around his eyes noticeably damp.

“I will atone for my misdeeds in my own time.” He said, his head held high. “I am no longer a threat to Guardia. Glenn has learned from my mistakes to become a better person, who showed mercy to me when I was at my lowest point. Ironically his quest for vengeance against me saved my life, for if I had summoned Lavos, my true foe-I would have been slain. That is what destiny had for me, and Glenn stopped that. Thank you for Glenn.” His eyeteeth lightly touched, he desperately wanted to clamp his mouth shut before he could say that last sentence.

Cyrus spoke.  "So it is true.  The man who murdered me is dead, and before me I see someone else.  Glenn, I am proud of you."

"Whom dost thou see?" Glenn asked.

"I see a hero."

Magus cringed at those words.  He truly did not feel that much different than the Fiendlord, but rather that he he knew the destruction of his mindless pursuit.  

"I can still be the Fiendlord if I wanted to!" Magus snarled.

Glenn just smiled knowingly. "Did thou forget thy words already?"

Magus covered his face again.  What the hell was he doing anyway confessing like this?  It was better to keep everything under lock and key like always had been.  Better to be silent than to wear one's heart on one's sleeve were it could be easily hurt.

“I am doing this for my sister.” Magus flatly responded, eyes firmly shut.

Cyrus just smirked. “Whatever it is you need to do for her, it is likely she wants you to do it for yourself.”

Glenn placed a hand on Magus’s shoulder and squeezed gently. Magus did not respond to this gesture at all.

Magus glared at Cyrus. “Don’t even pretend to understand what I am doing, knight. It is more unbelievably complicated than you could even imagine.”

“We shall go with that then.” Cyrus smirked.

“Cyrus, I thank thou for your deeds and thy aid to me-and as thou can witness, I hath avenged thee is the best possible way.”

“Yes you have, Glenn, yes you have.”

“And you, Janus. Your sister would be very proud of you.”

Magus only sighed in defeat. “I am done here.”

“As am I” Glenn bowed.

"Both of you were the last I saw with my mortal eyes, and now it has come full circle.  Glenn, Janus, I am now ready to move on fully to what awaits me in the hereafter.  I wish you both well in your journeys and I know the Queen is safe.  Thank you both for restoring peace."

"Aye" Glenn said.  "Farewell my friend and mentor."

Magus was silent but nodded in affirmation.  

There was a flash of light and the cold air was gone.  Glenn left some flowers and other personal trinkets at the tombstone.

Magus left behind a small chunk of dreamstone he had carried around.  

They spent the rest of the night by a campfire in the woods.  Magus sat on the soft earth against a tree.  Glenn sat close to him.  Both were silent and had not spoken a word after talking to Cyrus.  Not even to request firewood, Glenn just sighed and sat down, and Magus simply nodded and made a fire right there.  There was an unusual synchrony of intent in this silence.

"Magus, I perciveth that thy purpose in confession is something greater than seeing Schala with a clear conscience."

Magus stared into the fire and nodded silently. “I said that to Cyrus, weren’t you paying attention?”

"Is thou closer to knowing how to rescue her?"

"....Yes."

"How close?"

"I already know how.  It's part of why I am doing this."

Glenn paused.   "How so, if I mayeth ask?"

"I already knew in a way, what must be done to retrieve Schala from the timestream.  I thought of it but kept looking for an alternative.  I had only hints before, but never fully realized it until now."

"Thou must confess thy sins?"

Magus leaned forward with a bare hand partially covering his face.

"It is much more than that,  it is part of the effort to hatch the egg."

"When Crono was obliterated, all that was needeth was a poppet to bear the horrendous fate."

"It takes a lot more to replace Schala.  She has given so much of herself to others including those who never had her best interests in mind.  She does not deserve the torment she is going through."

"Could thou mayhaps clarify the connection, prithee?"

"I have to think of what Schala would have wanted me to do.  I would have to think what Schala would do.  Otherwise I would be unfit to rescue her.  To reach her in the vastness of time, I have to be closer to her in spirit and forsake debts that would drift me away from her, and her away from me.”

“Thou will replace Schala with thy ego?”

Magus chuckled lightly. “No, that wouldn’t do.”

“Then I still do not seeth the connection.” Glenn frowned lightly.

"I am deliberately being vague about it."

"Obviously."

"Very well then.  Thou may keep thy secrets for now."

"You're not going to probe me further on the subject?"

"Thou haveth spilled one's self all over enough tonight."

"I see." Magus scowled under his hand.

"Thou hast any more labors in the area?"

"Yes.  I want to speak to my former generals.  They would be hiding at the Denadoro mountains."

"I wish to accompany thee."

"Sure" Magus shrugged.

After awhile staring at the fire in the frigid night over damp twigs and fallen leaves, Glenn spoke up.

"Tis cold." Glenn shuddered.

They could always have stayed at an Inn, but that would be risky for reasons that they avoided by traveling at night.  

"Let's stay in the Epoch, it would be much safer there anyway."  Magus flatly stated.

"Aye, tis good reasoning."  Glenn made a strange gurgling attempt to ribbit.

Magus quirked an eyebrow at that.  "Old habits die hard?"

"Aye, I hath been an amphibian for a decade, I mayeth need years to be fully human again."

Magus simply nodded and put out the campfire while Glenn stood up with a lantern to find Epoch.  When Magus joined Glenn, he softly levitated a few centimeters off the ground but still appeared to walk.  Rather than walking by Glenn's side, he seemed to follow him a few feet behind, enough to be only slightly perceptible by the dim light of Glenn's lantern.  Magus had his hood and cloak on tightly, to a stranger he would seem like a rogue ready to strike Glenn from behind.

Glenn paused after a few minutes.

"Thou ready to strike me?"

"I have your back." Magus sported a toothy grin when Glenn finally noticed where he was.  

Glenn turned around to see Magus's grin.  Glenn simply shrugged and continued off.

The two stuffed themselves at the back seats of Epoch after they put their armor and other belongings in the front seat.  They were close enough to come into physical contact whenever either shifted around a little-which both found a little awkward.  The seats were reclined as far as they could, which wasn't much.  Despite the tight conditions, it was warm and dry inside-and the glass cover provided protection from marauders.   Furthermore, Epoch was camouflage under a tarp and leaf litter-which was ideal to hide a valiant and celebrated knight next to the feared Fiendlord.  

Magus wrapped himself in his cape and leaned back stiffly.  Meanwhile, Glenn tried to do the same, but his head kept landing on Magus's shoulder.   

Well, at least he isn't slimy anymore, Magus thought.

Glenn's eyes opened and looked dead onto Magus's eyes.  

He made a ribbit sound.

Magus couldn't help but burst into laughter.  

"Thou art wish to be a filthy amphibian again?" Magus mocked Glenn's archaic speech in an aloof, dramatic tone.
 
Glen smirked, cleared his throat and said in a deeper, harsher voice, "Do not mistake these quirks for a desire to be in that form again.  Any idea of such a thought is foolish-bring it up again and I’ll slit your throat in an instant.” His tone was firm and venomous but carried a slight refinement to it.

"So are we going to switch voices now?" Magus folded his arms behind his head and pressed a foot to the back of the front seat.

"Nay, unless thou art desire to sound like 'a stupid frog'" Glenn smiled.

"I could make you sound like a wretched wizard." Magus retorted.

They both sighed and drifted to sleep.  Glenn leaned his head on Magus's shoulder.  

Magus wore his leather armor this time around, in case Flea and Slash did not want a peaceful resolution and Glenn was clad in his armor again for the same reason.

The whole situation was too uncanny for Glenn.  He was walking up the mountain path, side by side with the man who had killed Cyrus up the same route that Glenn took with Cyrus long ago that fateful day.  Yet speaking with Cyrus again put him at ease a little; it would never fully temper the eeriness and irony of the situation.  

And then Glenn was distracted by these thoughts at the wrong moment.

Glenn's foot landed on a loose rock that jutted at the edge of the cliffside, causing him to push it down, which sent his right leg down first, then his whole body slipping down the edge of the slope.

Or he would have fell straight down, but a familiar gloved hand caught his arm just in time.  

"Glenn!" Magus shouted.  He was at the edge crouched down with his left hand gripping Glenn's right arm as Glenn was close to slipping and then falling down a great height.  

Magus's brow was sweating, his crimson eyes widened for a moment then narrowed to asses the situation. His teeth grit as he used all his strength to hold onto Glenn and his heavy armor.  He eventually had to use both hands to hang onto Glenn.  

Glenn was startled to see that Magus indeed was trying to directly save his life.  Magus had already spared Glenn before and had dealt with enemies before they could get to Glenn in combat, but this still had required some mental energy to process.

But there was no energy to waste at this moment.  Glenn dug his left hand to the cliffside and pushed one of his plated feet to the dirt to ease the weight load on Magus.  Magus let his left hand free to cast a minor levitation spell on Glenn, which Glenn himself did not notice until Magus lifted him off the cliffside as if he were a light as a leaf.  

Magus caught his breath and wiped his brow as Glenn stood there still a little bewildered, but thankful.

"Thou saved my life!"

"I would find your ghost annoying to deal with." Magus scoffed.

"I am thankful for thee." Glenn ignored Magus's snark and made a slight bow to him.

Magus felt like putting a hand to the back of Glenn's head during the bow, but did not. 

The wizard and the knight continued up the path.

It was the exact spot where years ago, Cyrus had confronted Magus and been slain, and Glenn cursed into becoming a frog.  

Now, it was Magus himself, standing in the exact spot where Cyrus stood. Glenn was not behind, but beside.  In front of them, where Magus stood years ago, where now Flea and Slash.

Glenn drew his sword.  "We defeated thou before and we can do it again!"

Magus stepped forward.  "I'm surprised you two survived that beating earlier at the keep."

"This isn't funny, Magus!  We trusted you, you guided us, us mystics chanted your name in hope and prayer.  Now we know you cared not at all for us, and never intended to use Lavos to kill the humans!"

"Now Ozzie is dead as well, he suffocated in his own barrier after falling unconscious."  Slash added, ready to fight.

Magus let out an imperceptible micro-smirk at that.  

"Why are you hesitating, aren't you going to wail at me?"  Magus noticed the two shaking.

Glenn put his sword back in the scabbard.

"Oh yeah, even with those new items you weren't able to defeat us earlier.  Such a shame." Magus snarked,

"What happened, Magus?  Why are you doing this?"  Slash said.

"Do you wish to fight me?" Magus echoed those words from the North Cape.  Glenn found the irony too rich now and could only wonder if it would unfold the same way.

Flea and Slash hesitated for a moment as Magus cooly tugged his gloves again.  

"Well, do you wish to fight us?" Flea broke the silence.

"I have already stopped you from continuing the war have I not?". 

"This was your war!"

"This was Ozzie's war." Magus snapped.  "He used me and I used him.  That was the way things worked between us.  It was others like both of you who were the fools to place all your heart in someone like me."

"Fair point" Slash looked down.

"There's something important you never told us, why?” Flea asked. 

"Your first clue should have been how suspiciously human I looked as a kid."

Flea and Slash paled.  

"You...you're human after all?"

"Besides altering my own appearance, yes.  I came from a time portal from the ancient days when many humans had magic.  I vowed to work with your kind to strengthen my own magic and finally destroy Lavos who destroyed my homeland as well as everyone whom I held dear.  When the interlopers came, I fought them, but the summoning spell did not go right, and thus we were thrown back into the past.  After a few mishaps, we encountered each other again and recognized we both had the same goal to kill Lavos, and I came to the realization that I could not do it alone."

"And he told us the means to bring back one of our comrades from the dead." Glenn added.

"Isn't this Cyrus's squire?" Slash asked.  

"Indeed, 'tis I Glenn who was the frog before.  And now I stand beside my former enemy for the sake of greater purposes!"

"Greater purposes like what?"

"Lavos was a threat to all, human and mystic alike.  Thou foolish to wish all humans dead.  In the future, mystics and humans will live in peace."

"Eugh." Flea rolled his eyes.

"I'll let you two live, as long as you two lay low and don't restart the war.” Magus snapped the attention of the conversation back to his point.

"We don't have the means to anymore" Slash said.

"Good.  Now that is set aside, I would like to thank you for your support and the good times we had."

"What? but you said we were fools!" they both cried in unison.

"Exactly.  But I know I couldn’t get to where I am, or put up with Ozzie without your help. "

"Ugh, stop with the head games!" Flea said.

"I am afraid I might be a head game.” Magus smirked.

“Tell me something, oh great Mystic King,” Flea said snidely, “Even if you are human, I bet you really like being one of us, I mean you haven’t restored your human appearance!”

Magus turned to look at Glenn for a moment. He remembered how Glenn made habitual ribbits now and then despite being human again for some time. Meanwhile, Glenn had an idea of what was going through Magus’s thoughts at the moment due to the context, and he responded to Magus’s glance by inflating the area below his lip a tiny bit, which imitated the throat bubble of a frog. Magus turned to see Flea and Slash again, and took a deep breath before proceeding to come up with an answer.

“I really don’t care either way. I will only do so when or if it is necessary at all. For now, illusory disguises are enough.” He answered firmly.

Glenn knew that that was a half-truth.

“You have my word, Magus.” Slash bowed. “I will not incite the war again. Ozzie has been slain, and thus the mystics have not had a leader to incite the war again afterward. Even Ozzie’s son, Ozzie II is not keen to follow in his father’s footsteps after his defeat.”

Flea crossed his arms, “We were just following orders from Ozzie!”

“Well, there isn’t Ozzie around anymore.” Magus said.

Glenn approached both closer and removed a burlap sack from his side, it was the size of a rabbit but was obviously much heavier and lumpier. He offered it to both mystics.

“Here, a peace offering. So thou may move on with thy lives without the support of Ozzie.”

Flea took it immediately and opened it. Slash peered into the bag, eyes wide and glistening. “

“R-really?” Flea stammered.

Glenn nodded. “Tis offering comes from me and Magus. If thou incite belligerence again, we shall dispatch of thee.”

Slash shuddered at the thought of being on the business end of Magus’s scythe again. “You have my word, knight, and you as well my former liege.”

“I take it this is to make up for you flat-out being a lie to us mystics?” Flea said sharply.

“Take it as whatever you think it is.” Magus pulled on his right glove. “Just don’t ever do anything stupid. Like start the war again. Or summon Lavos. Do not even think about attempting to kill Gaurdia royalty, their descendants were vital to aiding me in destroying Lavos.”

“Aye!” Glenn piped up in agreement.

“Otherwise I’ll have your head on a pike and have it displayed on Gaurdia castle for all to see.” Magus narrowed his eyes at Flea.

Glenn sighed softly.

Flea gulped. “Yes, sir, I understand. “

“One more thing piques my curiosity, Magus.” Slash spoke up. “How did your human comrades learn magic, are they from your time as well?”

“No, all humans within this part of the world are descended from those of that ancient world. Assistance is needed to awaken that part of their ancestry, and they found someone who could do it for them.”

“Maybe us mystics and humans are not so different after all.” Flea mused.

“Well, you are one of the few mystics that can pass for human.” Magus added.

Slash laughed a little at that. Glenn thought maybe there was some needed context to this, but didn’t dare ask. Yet he could easily see one like Flea attempt to be around human company.

“So, this is goodbye?” Slash said.

“Hopefully, yes.” Magus nodded.

“Well, we don’t want to see your traitorous ass again!” Flea said.

“Good, I hope I don't have to.” Magus smirked. “But I wish you both well, you both still mean something to me.”

Flea and Slash looked carefully at Magus, then the bag, then at Glenn. They both sat down on a rock dejectedly. Flea looked up at the sky. Slash looked a little forlorn.

“At least we meant something.” Flea said softly.

“Goodbye then.” Magus nodded.

Magus dramatically turned his cape as he began his way down the mountain. Glenn followed and walked right beside him.

“Thou'rt strangely grateful lately.” Glenn brought up.

“So was Schala.” Magus replied.

“Thou must make thyself more like Lady Schala?”

“In a way. Yet part of me is beginning to appreciate it a little, as much as I loathe it.”

Glenn made that strange human ribbit sound and then laughed.

“How would thou monitor the actions of Flea and Slash?”

“I won’t, I’ll leave that up to you. I doubt if I made the threat that you’d be after them they’d listen. I don't plan on being in this era, much if at all, I have more important things to take care of.”

“I shall dost mine best to make sure that war is not restarted, for Gaurdia’s sake.” 

Glenn stated proudly. Magus simply nodded at that.

Epoch came to a slow landing in 1000 A.D near Melchior’s cottage. The whir of engines startled the old man who rushed to the door.

“Oh for crying out loud!” Melchior slammed the door open.

Magus opened the hatch and jumped out. Glenn followed.

“Janus! You’re back!” Melchior’s mood shifted instantly.

Magus stood in front of Melchior with a shine in his eye that wasn’t seen for a very long time, that shine that mystics would mention in their songs dedicated to him. There was a strange energy around him and Melchior could sense it.

“I take it you know how to save Schala now.” He bowed gently in the old Zeal fashion.

“Actually Melchior, I knew it for some time already. I will round up my allies for this. We’re going to head to era after The Fall.”

“We? I am going too?”

“Maybe not for long, there isn’t much left for you or I.” Magus sighed.

“I…I see. I expected much, but I think it would be nice to still talk to some old friends who may have survived.”

“Melchior, you can spend as much time as you need there after I am done-because when I am done, I don’t know how much time will pass until you ever see me again-if you ever do see me again at all.”

“What?” Melchior was puzzled.

“You will know soon, when you are ready. I will not let anyone stop me, not even both of you.”

Melchior and Glenn could only hope for the best when it came to him.

Chapter Text

The inside of the large earthbound hut was warm compared to the icy conditions outside.  Magus sat on the floor, near the hearth that gave an odd warmth to his usually cold visage.  Alfador was curled up in his lap, while his bare fingers ran through the cat’s lavender fur. 

But the situation was not as content as the fire or the cat.  The situation was actually very, very tense.  Even Magus’s normally stoic face fell at the edges.

Next to him was Lucca, who was sobbing violently.  Magus did not utter a word but looked down away from her.  After a few minutes she wiped the tears from her face, but did not put her glasses back on.  She scooted close to Magus and held him tightly.  Her tears dampened the edge of his cloak, but she finally way able to regain her voice.

“Janus, please there has to be another way!” She pleaded. 

“I spent too long looking for it, but this is the way to do it.”  Magus looked straight in her eyes.  Those eyes that no longer contained a trace of the fierce fiend lord they once belonged to, even if the vicious scarlet tone stayed the same.

“But…but..but…I…what is going to happen to you?  Will I ever see you again?”  Lucca dug her face between his neck and shoulder.   Her arms tight around him. 

“That depends.”  Was all Magus could say at the moment.   He rubbed a hand on her back gently.  This was no time to worry about personal space, or one’s stoic ego, there were more important things that made the air and the heart heavy at the moment.

Gaspar, still dressed in his coat and hat walked into the hut.  He stopped in his tracks at the sight of Magus not bothering at all to push Lucca away.  The old man simply tilted his hat, expecting someone else to initiate any words.

Lucca turned to see Gaspar and she loosened her grip on Magus. 

“Gaspar, please tell Janus this is insane!”  She yelled helplessly at the guru.

Magus looked straight at Gaspar and said, “Results require action.  The effort one puts into the Chrono Trigger determines the likelihood of success—no more, no less, am I correct?”

Gaspar removed his hat and placed it on his chest.  “Yes, but I never imagined it would amount to this.”

Lucca pleaded again to Magus, “Didn’t you ask Belthasar?  He helped us get Crono back!”

Magus sighed and looked at the fire.  He paused for a moment to decide how to best articulate the matter to Lucca. 

“I did speak to Belthasar about it, and while he did have is own solution to save Schala, the moment I heard it, the more it only confirmed my suspicions that he is mad.  His plan involved a ridiculously complex chain of events that many would die in, possibly including even you, Lucca."

Lucca gulped. 

"Yes, that is like him, sadly he was the one who thought about harnessing Lavos's power for himself." Gaspar chimed in.

“He did confirm my plan would work anyway.”  Magus spoke softly. 

One ungloved hand was stroking Alfador and the other held Lucca tighter to him.  He found the idea that his former traveling companions would react so…heartbroken at his announcement strange.  What had he been to them?  He insulted Crono, called Marle an idiot, made snarky comments like burning Queen Leene’s letter to Marle, and was overall the grumpy old man in the corner while the rest of the group was a cheerful ray of sunshine.  Yet these people actually cared about him, about what he was going to subject himself to.  If he had died, they would have attended his funeral and said great things about him instead of spit on the dirt and cheer.  If people later in life asked about what it was like to be with him, they would tell of the bad, but also speak highly of him.  The very thought of these people…being his friends.

Friend.  How odd, Magus thought.  He never could imagine himself with any “friends” other than of course, Schala and Alfador. 

Marle and Crono arrived inside the hut.  They were dressed in fine furs from their own age. 

“Take it to Magus to say something shocking and then walk away into a tent right after!”  Marle crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

At least one person was still irritated at him.

“How is it shocking?” Magus tried to deny it.

 Crono looked sadly at the floor.

A hearty, noble voice came from the entrance of the hut.  “Thou said that if thou confessed, thy friends would stop thee.  Mine own eyes seeth now, I admire your resolve, so I shal’t not impede thy path.”

“Thank you, Glenn.”  Magus uttered softly.  Crono and Marle were surprised to see Magus even say that phrase, nonetheless to Glenn of all people.

Melchior was next to enter, and he simply shook his head solemnly. 

“So you all do care about me.  That’s a surprise.”  Magus calmly said. 

“Maybe we should have said it sooner.”  Marle replied holding back tears.

Crono looked sadly at the floor. 

“Janus, are you really sure this is the way?” Melchior asked with a tremor in his voice.

“From what I have learned about…and from the Chrono Trigger, yes.”  Magus solemnly nodded. 

"You...you will come back eventually?"  Marle shook her head in disbelief.

"Maybe in my perspective it will be an instant and an eternity for you.  Maybe it will be the other way around.  I will leave it in your hands if you wish to save me from the torment I will subject myself to."

"A fate...worse than death."  Crono sighed.

"Yes.  That is what will happen to Schala if I don't do this.  It only makes sense what I must do.  The doppeldoll that replaced Crono could have been an inanimate replacement due to it being obliterated.  To replace Schala requires someone close to her spirit and blood, and equal to her in magic.”

"And that...is you..."  Lucca choked.  She gripped Magus harder. 

There was a very long pause among everyone in the hut.  Magus pursed his lips, and wiped the salted dampness from his own eyelashes.  

“Yes.   I stand by my words.  I failed to save Schala twice.  It is up to me to atone for that.  The Chrono Trigger knows it as well.  This is not suicide, suicide does not bring anyone back, and neither does blind vengeance.  What I am doing is akin to age-old magic and age-old rites that balance the cosmos."

"Sacrifice." Marle said softly.

"Yes, but I am remaking what is wrong right.  Schala should not pay for my foolishness.  I alone will pay it and that is what I am doing."

Crono’s eyes dampened and he wiped the stray tears running down his face.  “You helped my friends take me from death by Lavos.  Now you’re going to run into Lavos’s remains to save someone else…”

"Cyrus was right.  Thou art a hero..." Glenn spoke.

Magus shook his head. "More like a fool and a martyr.”  A hero? Magus?  Even the former fiendlord still felt that what he was doing was not exactly heroic.  What was so heroic about fixing an error that one was partially responsible for? 

Everyone was silent for a moment.  So silent, nobody noticed Robo and Ayla slowly crawl in to join the silence.  Everyone’s eyes shifted downward uncomfortably, yet resigned.  It was as if Magus was attending his own funeral, and to his friends, that might as well have been the case.

The silence calmed Lucca enough for her to catch her words.  "Schala would be devastated if she knew about this."  

"She would, but she would understand.  I have made arrangements for her.  Once I do this I will put any hope of returning in her hands as well as yours.  Maybe there will be a way to save me, but in the meantime I would be the one suffering.  I said it before and I'll say it again-if Schala ever endured eternal torment, I would never hesitate to take her place."

Lucca suddenly perked up from Magus’s shoulder, and was able to sit up.  The expression on her face changed from sorrowful to terribly frightened in an instant. 

"I almost forgot!  What about the Dream Devourer?" Lucca piped up.

"Belthasar told me it gained power by merging with Schala."  Magus shuddered at the thought.  "It would grow and threaten to destroy all of existence with Schala's despair as it's fuel."

Everyone else gasped.  A wave of gooseflesh rose up on everyone except Magus.   

"I intend to feed my sheer hate of that thing to it.  I’ll make sure that wretched thing stays dead.” Magus smirked calmly. 

"What is the specter of Lavos anyway?" Lucca asked.

"It is what happens when something terrifyingly alien from the furthest reaches beyond normal time and space refuses to die.  A fragment, a ghost trying to crawl its way back into our world. Lavos isn't just from beyond our planet, Lavos and its kin are from somewhere closer to the Darkness Beyond Time itself."  Gaspar explained.

"The dark void beyond normal bounds of reality itself..." Melchior contemplated.  "Only a miracle can truly kill what exists beyond life and death.  That borne from strange aeons, from beyond the bounds of sanity.”

"And yet, we have made miracles happened!" Marle said.  Crono looked fondly at Marle.  Even at this dark time, even when facing that which one could not fully fathom, Marle remained optimistic.  Even if she was foolish and naive about it, perhaps she was justified in the notion of remaining a beacon of light even in the pitch darkness.  Crono admired that about her greatly.   

“Exists beyond…but how could that be?”  Lucca softly lifted herself from Magus’s shoulder but an arm remained around him. 

“It bothers me too.” Gaspar sighed.  “Lucca, there are things that don’t always have a rational explanation.  Even magic doesn’t quite fit it well.”

“It could also be that they do not fit rationality as we know it.”  Magus added.

Lucca didn’t want to argue about that.  There would be time later to argue these things.

Robo’s voice generator whirred, “If Belthasar spoke of a probable solution, then I am 90% sure there can be a way to reach and defeat the Dream Devourer.”

“Thank you Robo.”  Lucca softened her composure.  “I hope you’re right.” She wiped her eyes again.

“Magus strong!  Magus defeat dead Lavos again!” Ayla cheered.

For once, the wizard and the prehistoric woman understood the same thing. 

Magus continued to hold back tears as he glanced the direction of the two companions who were from almost diametrically opposite parts of the timeline.  “Ayla, Robo, thank you for your help against Lavos.” He simply nodded to them.  He wasn’t in any mood to be condescending to either of them, even if he still felt a little like that with them.  They nodded back in silence to him.

Magus continued, ”I leave all my possessions, including my weapons and spellbooks to Schala.  I will also trust Alfador to Schala.  I hope she will use these resources to become as strong as I am one day, even if she cannot save me."

Melchior nodded, "Yes, and I will acquaint her with the time period."

Magus nodded in agreement.

Alfador meowed and rubbed his face against Magus’s face, then plopped down on his lap.

“When do you plan to…go?”  Lucca asked.

Magus looked out the small vent in the roof for the smoke.  He caught a glimpse of the bright white overcast that diffused the rays of the noon sun.  He closed his eyes and put a gloved hand in the air, trying to sense something; only Melchior and Gaspar were experienced enough with magic to tell that Magus was divining the right hour for the ritual he planned to open the way to Schala. 

Magus opened his eyes and stated, “Close to sundown.  Just like when Crono was retrieved.” 

Lucca was puzzled by this gesture and said, “I want to learn how to do that one day.”

His head hardly moved toward her and shrugged.  “It would be useful if you probably want me back.” 

“Janus, why do you…we care about you, isn’t that obvious?”  Lucca sat back and removed her arms from him.  She wrinkled her brow at him in a way that was curiously concerned and angry at rejection at the same time.    

Magus replied in a stoic, yet somewhat sarcastic monotone.  “I have mastered the arcane arts, led armies of monsters, and slay Lavos.  I can tear open the fabric of time and space to bring the chill of the reaper to those who stand against me.  I have survived the onslaught of the Masamune diving into my flesh.  I have traveled to the edges of time and back…and I still must admit that the eager companionship of you and your little rays of sunshine toward me is quite a mystery.”

Crono took it upon himself to answer. “Well, your highness…”

“Yes, your highness as well.” Magus snorted.

Crono and Marle groaned a little.  Melchior let out a hearty chortle.  “There are three royals under this roof!” The old guru pointed out.

“FOUR!” Ayla yelled.  “AYLA CHIEF!”

Everyone in the room except for Ayla, Magus and Robo laughed at that.  Leave it to her to lighten even the dourest of times.

“Hahah…oh sorry about that, we can’t forget the mighty Ioka chief!” Marle went to Ayla and hugged her.

Yes, pay attention to primitive earthbounder.  Magus thought slyly.  He felt some relief that now the others were paying attention to Ayla and not him.  Unfortunately that relief would not last long.  A few minutes later, even Ayla herself walked up to Magus.

“Magus strong.  Ayla like strong!”  Ayla jumped up from where she sat and bounded off like a hyperactive cat that had just seen a mouse.  She bounded between the others and pounced on Magus, her great muscular arms grappled his shoulders tight enough to nearly crush him but eased the tiniest bit away from any real damage.  Magus struggled to free himself from her chokehold of a hug and growled.  Ayla then let go of her hapless quarry and bounded off next to Lucca where she sat legs crossed.  

“As I was saying, your highness…” Crono smirked.  “You do did help my friends save me.”

“Thou hath aided us all to save the world, and thou hath saved mine own life.  Thou had plenty of opportunity to slay me when unguarded but never did.”  Glenn said.

“You actually listen to me when I talk about science!” Lucca added. 

“You aided us in battle substantially that the lack of your presence would have assured us defeat.”  Robo chimed in.

“And…it’s great to have someone around who understands me when I whine about being raised into royalty!”  Marle smiled.

Oh no here it comes.  Magus groaned.

The group hug. 

The dark wizard held his breath and just grinned and bore it.

“Meow!” Alfador found himself under a cave of hugs.

Magus knew deep down there was a chance he couldn’t make it back, or even survive if they did choose to fight the Dream Devourer.  Magus didn’t want to speak of it to any of them, not even Gaspar, he wanted to focus on his one and true goal, and that was it.  If he casted doubt on them, he’d be covered in more hugs and tears he’d drown in them before he could even move an inch toward the North Cape. 

After a solemn last meal with his companions—no, his friends, he just couldn't get used to that term— Magus called for Lucca, Marle and Glenn to meet him behind the hut. 

Of course they gladly came.

“Glenn, Lucca, I need both of you to come with me when I retrieve Schala.  It is imperative that someone take her from the time stream while I stay behind.  I trust both of you to carry her from the time stream while I stay behind.  Marle, I need the pendant to be there too.  Got that?”  He ordered at them.

“Aye.  Janus.”

Marle nodded clutching the pendant.  

Lucca choked and nodded.

“Good.  We should head there now.”

“Now?”  Lucca yelled.  “But…but…”

“There is no time for yet another round of goodbyes.”

“Janus tis correct, Lucca.”  Glenn nodded.

Magus would have started the steps toward his doom, but Lucca’s yell alerted the others that Magus was about to depart. 

There they were.  Melchoir and Gaspar gave bows that they would reserve for the kings and queens; Crono imitated the bow.  Ayla was uneasily still and serious.  Robo stood there, and seemed to be staring at Magus and Lucca.  There where some others around too that Magus hardly recognized, but he remember seeing them at Zeal.  Those people were likely friends of the gurus or people who had been acquainted with the innermost circles of Zeal.  They also gave the same bow reserved for the highest royalty.

Tears could no longer restrain themselves.  Magus wiped them off his face but they continued to leak out.  Then he felt something deep within him, he wasn’t sure how to place it, but something deep inside him reacted to the Chrono Trigger.  He felt that the egg had spoken to him, and told him that both he and it were ready.

Lucca and Glenn helplessly watched a few yards behind him.  Marle watched helplessly too, but stood a little closer to Magus, pendant held up where the sunset's rouge rays scattered light across its already glowing surface.  

Magus looked different out there in the North Cape.  It was the same place where he had joined the rest.  The winds whipped around gently, carrying faint dust from the shattered hopes and dreams that vaporized just years before.  That other wind, the one that had been with Magus all his life, that whispered imminent doom now and then, that inured him to the darkest depths of existence even when he lived among those who complacently bathed in false light—that wind was doing something Magus had never sensed it do before.  It was taunting him.  It was speaking of his own doom.  It was telling him to turn back, it was telling him all was lost, that he would—as he once put it—shortly perish.  Yet Magus had seen firsthand with the Chrono Trigger, that just because the black wind would accurately predict the demise of one, it did not mean that could be undone, it was not absolute destiny.  That there was a way to defy it.  The Chrono Trigger itself was laid gently a few feet in front of him and stood like a sentinel against him and the taunting phantom full of empty threats. 

The man sometimes known as Magus pulled a glove and glared directly into the horizon, his infernal gaze attempted to pierce the heart of the black wind itself. 

“No, not today.”  Was all he whispered back to it.  

His left glove was drenched in his own blood, the bleeding gash on his palm still stung beneath.  With it he made a circle all around himself, the warm trail of blood partially melted the snow beneath, but the cold chill reclaimed it into ice soon after.  It was just wide enough for him to stand in, and it was all that was needed.  

He removed both gloves from his alabaster hands that rarely saw the light of day, or even the moonlight of night.  They were caked in blood and sweat, the pale alabaster of his skin only showing unobstructed in a few places.  His delicate fingernails were outlined in coagulated blood and traces of any dirt that had made its way into those gloves.  Each glove was tossed behind him beyond the circle, they had no use for him where he was going.  Both hands had deep gashes in their palms but they stopped bleeding too much. 

Behind him was his cape, and armor.  They would not be needed here.  The cold bit his skin savagely, numbing his bare shoulders and hands like they were being smothered in searing flames-that strange point where one could not entirely tell if they were freezing or burning.  Magus welcomed it, he welcomed the pain, for it was needed.  He had spilt himself in heart with his friends, and he now spilt himself literally.  He concentrated furiously, pouring the entirety of his being—mind, body, and soul into a single thought—her.

Blood dripped down his palms turned to the sky, each hand was up as if he was carrying an enormous weight upon his shoulders.  He shut his mind away from the black wind, it did not matter anymore to him. 

Nothing mattered to him, nothing but her. 

The Chrono Trigger rose from the ground in front of him.  It hovered listlessly a few feet above him, then began to vibrate furiously, as if an enormous amount of energy was just scratching to get out.  Brilliant beams of light cut through cracks that were growing bigger and more frequent upon its unstable surface.  The charm that Magus carried with him for most of his life also also vibrated with the same furious energy.  Marle gasped as the pendant in her hand radiated enormous amounts of energy.   

The egg exploded in an enormous blinding bright light.  Nothing could be seen at all.  But Magus’s mind was awash in the thoughts of his sister. 

His mind slipped into a reverie, into a single memory in his mind.

He was about eight years old.  He was playing a game with Schala beneath a beautifully ornate garden trellis wrapped in thick layers of flowing vines.  Highly manicured trees shaded the two children, providing a quiet place for secrets.  Within the marble-tiled platform they sat on, one could still see the stunning view of the sun over the clouds below.  Sun rays filtered through the trees, a magical dust filtered those light rays to show them as heavenly beams as they touched the sparkling tiles.  Schala and Janus were wearing their typical fine lavender robes that denoted their status as royalty, but were not concerned at all about getting them dirty.  What was important at the moment was something that Schala had to bring up to her little brother.

“Janus?” Her pleasant and beautiful voice whispered.

“Yes, sis?” The little boy answered.

“Mother is starting to behave strange…” Her face looked down sadly. 

“I noticed too.”  

“I want you to promise me something, Janus…” He solemn gaze implied there was something she knew that she didn’t want to tell Janus. 

Janus responded, “What is it?”

Schala gulped lightly and whispered. “Janus, no matter what happens, if somehow I vanished one day, would you please look for me?”

Janus looked a little confused.  “What…what’s the matter?”

“Oh, just something I thought about, I’m quite worried about a lot of strange things lately.”  She tried to restrain her words.  “I would do the same if anything like that happened to you.”

Janus paused for a moment.  “Really?”

“Yes, I would.”  Schala smiled. 

Both siblings clasped their hands together.

“I would search to here and the ocean for you, sis.” Said Janus.

“I promise the same”, Schala replied. 

They both embraced each other.

Magus slipped out of that memory slowly, the bright light faded into darkness.  He opened eyes to see a terrifying sight.

He was within the pocket dimension of the Mammon Machine, but the ripples were still, and cast in a shade of purple instead of blue.

There was Schala, frozen in gray, fixed in an expression of absolute horror knowing that one would be swallowed into a terrifying otherworldly maw.  She clung to nothingness on the floor, her legs and feet futilely attempted to anchor onto the ripples of the warped space.  Even in the timelessness one could almost hear her desperate cries for help, her futile scream in the cold abyss.  Behind her, and in front of the Mammon Machine was a gaping black void.  Even when time was fixed, one could still feel a slight horrid pull from it, its malicious hunger extending somehow beyond time.  

Thankfully it was not powerful enough to pull in Janus at least not yet.  This was the moment he had built up decades of commitment and pursuit to.  The moment he would fulfill that vow, to find his sister no matter what; to undo to her what a callous universe had condemned her to. 

There was no time to contemplate the moment.  He had work to do. 

Janus held onto Schala’s form and lifted her up gently, away from that terrible black hole’s grip.  He could feel her silken robes upon his bare shoulders and looked at her fixed expression of terror. 

“I found you.  Like I promised.”  He said softly. 

Lucca entered the time freeze behind Janus.   She was astonished at the sight of him carrying his sister who appeared as if she were petrified by a monster. 

“Schala!”  Lucca’s scream resonated in the warped space. 

Janus handed her over to Lucca.  Schala’s form went limp suddenly in her arms, possibly thawing in exposure to someone whose time stream was not frozen.  Lucca heaved her frail form up, her legs dragged on the floor, and looked at Janus.  Glenn then appeared and immediately lifted the lower half of the frail maiden. 

"Schala!"  Marle appeared.  Her pendant was furiously pulsing like a heartbeat.  She noticed that Schala was pendantless—of course it left her before she disappeared, otherwise Marle would never have had it in the first place.  Marle wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew that the pendant ached for its original owner.  She slipped it out of her neck and placed it gently around the neck of the other princess.  

“….I guess this is goodbye?”  Lucca said. 

Janus nodded. “Yes.” 

Tears flowed from Lucca’s face.  She wiped them with a sleeve. 

“Thank you for everything, Lucca, Glenn, Marle.  Hopefully this will not be our last goodbye.”  Magus grimaced.  A few tears also leaked from his eyes.  Glenn’s eyes were also damp and he gave a high salute to Janus.

“Goodbye, Janus.”  Lucca said. 

“Farewell.”  Glenn said.

"Hope to see you."  Marle added. 

They carried Schala with her out of the time freeze. 

This was it.

Magus pulled an non-existent glove from his hand and gazed into the hungry mouth of the abyss.  He stood right in front of it, and laughed.

It was indeed his fate to be gripped in the clutches of his enemy.  All he could simply do was laugh.

And laugh he did.  

The time freeze cracked and thawed.  The ripples above and below turned blue and flowed once again.  The vortex pulled upon its new prey. 

The man once known as Magus was sucked into the Darkness Beyond Time.

The girl known as Schala Zeal would be incredibly touched by the sacrifice her brother did for her, but she felt it was her time now to fulfill her end of the promise.  Janus had given her time, and given her opportunities she never had.

Schala lived with Melchoir in 1006 A.D, where she would practice her skills to become stronger for the day she would finally slay that final remnant of Lavos and rescue her brother.  She would take up her brother’s scythe in battle to honor his memory, but sometimes would favor a small dagger as well.  She would use her skills to defend Gaurdia and Medina from the growing unrest from Porre.  She would start to gain status not of a damsel in distress, but a true warrior and hero.

She would gather her own party, with the full support of her brother’s companions.  She would track down the Frozen Flame and use it to locate where her brother might be, and finally destroy the hideous thing that held him captive once and for all. 

The creature known as the Dream Devourer, the final remnant of Lavos, never had the chance to transform into what would be the Time Devourer.  It would never have the nihilistic despair that a captive Schala would have fed it, instead it was force-fed hatred of its own being.  The thing would not remain much of a threat as long as no other force outside aided it. 

“Janus.”

“Janus, wake up!” 

A soft, soothing voice called out to the darkness.  A pair of groggy eyes wearily tried to open.

“Janus, it’s all right.  It’s me, Schala!”

Those soft, seafoam green eyes bolted wide open and darted to the source of the voice.

There was a beautiful smile upon the princess’s face.  Her gentle eyes welled up a little.  Yet there was something different about her.  She didn’t seem so frail anymore.  Her hair was a little shorter than he remembered, but still bound up in a ponytail.  She was not wearing a delicate silken gown, but instead wore red and purple clothes fit more for a wandering traveler.  Beneath her red open shirt was a leather armor bodice, her wrists had leather gauntlets as well.  Her hands were calloused from the use of a weapon. 

“Schala?”  A weary voice responded back to her.

She wove her fingers against his frail ones and held tightly.  “Remember our promise?”

He smiled.  “Yes, sis.” 

On the bed lay Janus Zeal.  The aftermath of countless aeons channeling sheer rage into the Dream Devourer, left him in a state that could only be described as atrophied.  He resembled the little boy who paced nervously around the halls of Enhasa more than he resembled the Fiendlord.  Yet one could still those scars and traces that the years as Magus had hardened him.  His muscular form withered, he seemed to regress in age to that of a young adult.  His hair was still long but retained his original hairline.  His ears were once more rounded, and his eyeteeth were no longer fiendish.  His pallor was at least human now, and not with the cadaverous tint it once had. 

“We did it.”  Schala smiled.  “We’re finally together.  The ghost of Lavos is destroyed forever!  We did it, brother, we did it.”  She hugged his frail form gently.

“We…we did it.”  Janus said back.  His lips curled into a bright smile.