Chrono Trigger 1. Chapter 1: Cheating Death

All around Asteria, there was darkness. She got up slowly and glanced around. She then spotted something in the distance and approached it. Soon enough, a dark outline of Lavos was in view, with a person in the middle of it.

"Who… ?" she said, before thinking twice and deciding to get out of this location, seeing a time gate ahead. Looking around once more, she was rather confused. Where had King Zeal, the Prophet, and his friends gone? She shook her head and stepped into the gate.

She soon found herself on the snowy, freezing North Cape of 11995 BC. "What the heck is going on here?" she said, trudging through the snow. "Bah, this is fool's work…" She raised her hand. "Vengeance, I summon you!" Soon, a howling blast of shadow energy errupted from the sky, followed by the chilling neigh of Vengeance, Asteria's phantasmal steed.

Asteria slowly mounted it, glaring coldly back at the time gate. "Father… you are pitiful. I had thought you better than Mother…" She turned back to her front and gripped the reigns. "Ha!" she shouted, as the phantom horse began riding off, Asteria's cape flapping behind her in the cold wind.

A thunderstorm began to pick up as she rode, soon finding a village of Earthbound ahead and stopping before it. "I am sure to be recognised here. The last thing I want is to be bombarded by those people."

"_Schala? Schala!" a man would cry, as the villagers rushed over to her. "Fair Princess, we're glad to see you safe and sound!" The kids would also cry out in joy._

She shook her head. "I've no time for such foolishness!" she said, riding off to the north. Soon, she had arrived at the cave which Crono and the others had used. It was still blocked by she had cast what seemed so long ago, by the Prophet's order. "How weak…" she said as she remembered that day and chanting in Zealian tongue, making the barrier seep away. With that, she stepped into the time gate.

Once again stepping out of another time gate, she found herself in a place of metal and machinery. Robo was nearby, operating a computer, when he saw her. "The Fiendlady! But… how…?"

She glared coldly at him. "Where is the Prophet?" she asked coldly. Robo replied. "Magus… he's… gone to seek out… Schala - The… other one." She nodded, still with an expression of indifference on her face as she went into to the Temporal Dispatch Chamber's ward. Chronopolis' staff seemed to be on break.

As Robo came out, she turned to him. "What do you intend to do, Schala?" he asked. Asteria turned to him. "Where would Janus be going? I'll be following him…"

Meanwhile, Magus was in Time's Eclipse, fighting to break his beloved sister free from the bonds of the Dream Devourer. Schala smiled, a little sadly. "Janus, you were everything I could have asked for in a brother, but now it is time for you to be free… Live your life and forget me…" Magus was alarmed. "Schala!" She sadly looked at him. "Farewell…" she said softly as a gate sucked Magus in.

Schala was about to give in when the gate from which the others arrived in opened again, with the silhouette of Asteria stepping out and approaching Schala. "As I thought… weak!" she stated. Schala tilted her head. "I remember you… You are me from the altered middle ages from when Father stole the Masamune. The Fiendlady, Asteria, if I'm correct?"

Asteria grinned. "It seems Fate held misfortune for me, had Father not tampered with the undersea palace incident so long ago." Schala frowned. "If you intend to mock me, I have a request of you before the Dream Devourer's clutches consume me whole."

Asteria crossed her arms. "Very well. Speak…" Schala nodded. "I may or may not ever be released from this predicament. That is why… I request that our minds merge. Allow part of my mind to merge with yours. Know my memories yourself… We are the same person, but split by the altering of time. I do not know where you will go… but allow me to give to you my legacy. Live my life… as I would have…"

Asteria quirked an eyebrow. "This should be interesting…" she muttered. A ghostly replicant of Schala separated from the imprisoned Schala, gliding into the Fiendlady. Asteria gripped her head tight and afterwards looked back up to her counterpart, nodding. There was not really a need for goodbyes, being as Asteria was essentially now the replacement Schala and not a past Schala who had been thrown into the middle ages. Asteria was now one with her counterpart, having a sort of copy of her within. With that she turned and stepped through the gate.


	2. Chapter 2: Second Chances

Asteria, now one - in a way - with Schala, sat in front of a fire she had lit in her camp site deep within Guardia Forest, 1005 AD. She stared into the flames, the reflection crackling lively within her eyes. "Janus… where did I send you…?"

She stood up. "Free from the Dream Devourer… but now I am alone… These new feelings… anger… hatred… rage… nerve… Do I really feel expressive of them now?" Out of sheer curiosity she started remembering all those times she was abused by her mother, which started to anger her greatly.

"This feeling… it's new… I feel as if I wish to snuff the life out of Mother! But how? How did I accomplish this?" She then stuck her hand out and a roaring shadow spell disintegrated a tree and her eyes widened. "Such dark energy… this was inside me waiting to be released?"

At that moment, she heard footsteps. "Who am I? I feel as if I must find something, but what?" A memory-wiped Janus said as he held his head, walking in.

Schala looked up and took off her fiendlady helm. "Hm?" she said, approaching Janus. Janus gazed at her. "Miss, I'm lost… I feel as if I must find something or someone, but… what?"

Schala thought this was a drag, as she had wiped his memory, unaware that her alternate self would walk right to her, giving her a chance to duplicate her soul to merge with Asteria's and thus live an active life instead of watching helplessly from the Dream Devourer.

She smiled as she placed a hand on Janus' shoulder. "You look stressed. Please sit." she said, gesturing to a fallen tree log by the fire. As he did so, she poured some herbal tea for him. "So, you say you're a John Doe?"

Janus nodded as he sipped his sister's tea. "Very odd… Your tea really has calmed me down. My mind is thinking warm, comforting thoughts." he said.

Schala chuckled. "I will take that as a compliment to the tea." she said. With Janus void of nearly all memory and her soothing presence, she was having quite an amusing time playing along. Her slightly mischievous thoughts, of course, were Asteria's. Still, since the original timeline's Schala merged with the altered timeline's, Asteria's rage began to quell. Though, it was likely Schala could boil up in rage if provoked, now. This was because of Fiendlady Schala being able to break the chains of passiveness during her reign of the Mystics in the non-Masamune timeline.

"Dear friend, you should really get some rest. Tomorrow may bring you wonders!" she smiled.

Janus nodded, though noticed her pendant. "Intriguing. You've the same pendant as I. Mine has an inscription from someone named Schala. Does that ring a bell to you?"

Schala paused for a moment, thinking how clumsy it would've been to leave brainwiped with that pendant in his possession had she not returned. "I am not entirely sure. I suppose I may have met someone by that name though, but my memory is elusive."

He smirked as she stretched on a stone slab. "I'm curious why a beautiful woman such as yourself is out here in these woods. What's your name?"

Schala glanced over. "Asteria… Dark Lady of the Risen Dead and Fiendlady of the Mystics."

Janus nearly spilled his tea. "You're a necromancess?"

Schala chuckled. "I suppose you could say that…" She turned away. "Pleasant dreams… uhm… sir."


	3. Chapter 3: Declaration of War

Truce was still recovering from the disbandment and destruction of the Guardia Kingdom. Porre soldiers occupied the town now. "Curfew is at 19:00. All civilians must be indoors or they will face summary discipline." a soldier announced.

A helmed commander walked through the town, with two soldiers at his side as they came across a family in poverty being harassed by a soldier. "Your taxes are due. Pay up!" he said, waving his weapon threateningly as they trembled. He turned around to see the commander. "Sir! These deadbeats have not given us their dues. Arrest them?"

The commander turned to the tearful family and sighed, lowering his head. "Leave them be…" he calmly said. "But sir-" one of them interrupted before being interrupted back. "I said leave them be! Look at them. They've lost everything because of our occupation! Leave them some dignity, man!" the commander shouted back. The soldier went white in the face. "Y-Yes, commander…"

West now stood Porre Central Command, making a base of Guardia Castle. The throne room was stripped of its decorations and now held a large table, with marshals in every seat. High General Montcrief, a bearded brown haired man dressed in badged uniform sat at the end.

"Where the hell did Dalton go?" Montcrief barked. "I haven't seen him since that blue haired man and his parading circus freaks massacred everyone here months ago! " A marshal looked up. "High General, if I might inquire… Porre now controls all of Zenan, does it not? Why so concerned?"

Montcrief thought for a moment. "There's still Medina… Who knows when yet another blue haired hooligan will encourage them to vaporise us! Magus was the beginning! Sure that pesky… 'Zeal'… person or whoever he was… Dalton addressed him as a king… Sure he was on our side but he obviously had ulterior motives! Him and his daughter! They might come back one day!"

"What's your point Montcrief? We all know this…" the marshal said.

"Simple. We wipe those silly Mystics out of existance and colonize Medina!" he said assuredly. There was murmuring about the table. "Very well. May it be so…" the marshal replied.

Meanwhile, Schala and Janus came across the vacant Fiendlord's Keep. Janus scratched his head. "Something of this place means something to me. I just know it!" Schala glanced around. "It appears this place is centuries old. No matter, just some slight touches. Janus glanced to her. "Slight? This place could collapse at any moment if it is disturbed!"

"Kenashi bero kol daru bari keno cino zieber zom!" she chanted as the structure began to reverse its own aging. Soon, the Fiendlord's Keep stood anew, flames crackling and all. Janus blinked. "Incredible, Lady Asteria!" Schala smirked back at him as she creaked open the large doors and went in.

The two soon made their way to the top where Schala sat down. "I can certainly get used to this." She chuckled and Janus smirked. "Well… Dark Queen of the Dead, I guess I'll leave you be." As he said this though, a marshal from Porre stood in the doorway..

"Mistress Asteria, we haven't much time…" the marshal said. At that moment, Kasmir, Asteria's majordormo, shed his disguise.


End file.

Chrono Trigger, Adventure, Fantasy