Chrono Trigger 1. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Chrono Trigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter I

BY

D A R T HV A D E R
    
    ** **
    
     

Magus felt an uneasy ping envelop him. He'd been in an unintentional trance for a while and had only now snapped out of it.   
He gazed about his lavish surroundings within his castle, east of the area that would've been known as Fiona's Continuent, depression filling his emptiness instantaneously. Here he sat, at the end of a long throneroom, ruling all of Guardia, and all he could do was wallow in his own self-pity.   
Not quite true. Everyone thought he ruled Guardia. They believed it without question. Everyone thought that except the one 'person' who had his own absolute control. That 'person' was a pickle named Ozzie.   
Magus had no intention of ever trying to rule the stupid kingdom. He only wanted privacy and secrecy, so no one would bother him or anything while he conducted research on Lavos and his home, the Lost Kingdom Zeal, in hopes of discovering a means to find his long-lost sister, Schala.   
Though Ozzie looked like a pickle, he was actually a pretty smart 'man'. He quickly realized, from the musings of the foolish boy, that the boy was actually the last surviving Mystic. This Mystic would prove ideal for motivating his troops. All Magus would have to do in exchange for his privacy, along with near-unlimited resources to conduct research, was act as the new leader of the army.   
All this paid off greatly for Ozzie. His army defeated Guardia, though with heavy losses, and they did this by disposing of the kingdom's greatest warriors: a spiky-haired mute, a tin can, and a cocky egghead with an unsightly pilot helmet and goggles that looked strong enough to see the back side of the moon.   
Magus, however, got the sour end of the deal. After years and years of tedious research, the man had finally found a chant that he thought could summon Lavos, so he could finally get some answers. The chant, which he had deciphered from an ancient tongue which existed even before the time of the Ice Age, translated out to say 'Neuga, ziena, zieber, zom...now the chosen time has come....Exchange this world for...!' and then he would say exactly what he wanted. In this case, Magus would say 'Exchange this world for Lavos!'.   
But, unbeknownst to the poor, tortured soul, he'd mistranslated one tiny word: He came up with 'Ninga' instead of 'Neuga', and so nothing happened when he recited the chant. He never even figured out what went wrong.   
And so, running out of ideas and research material, Magus reluctantly gave up his search and planned to live out his life in misery, for he would never see his sister again.   


"Janus?" Schala repeated.   
"Wha?" Janus snapped out of his trance. "What's up?"   
"Come on! We're gonna miss the celebration."   
"Huh? What celebration?"   
"Silly! The one that acknowledges the end of Lavos's evil reign over the world and the one that marked our decision to return to the ground! Remember? It was only two years ago." 

Janus thought back two years, to the Ocean Palace scene. He and the gurus had just shown up (along with Alfador, can't forget Alfador) at the Mammon Machine room. Queen Zeal and Schala were already there; three corpses lined the floor and five of Zeal's greatest scholars observed. The corpses were a spiky-haired kid, a frog, and a really good-looking blond wearing next to nothing.   
"Good! We're not too late," said Belthasar.   
"Melchior, now! Before it is too late!" said Gaspar.   
"Right," said the Guru of Life. He summoned up some magical power and Schala's pendant reacted by glowing blue, rather than the red it had been glowing. Gaspar and Belthasar unleashed their own power, and in an instant, they were all in Lavos's room.   
"Gurus!! What are you doing?! It's too early to..."   
"We know. That's why we're here!" said Gaspar.   
"We can't allow you and Lavos to tear the world asunder," said Belthasar.   
"Janus, now!" said Melchior.   
The boy joined hands with Melchior and Gaspar, and the four of them formed a circle. Schala, already exhausted from everything she'd already been forced to do, said, "What are you doing...?"   
"Ok," said Janus, "Neuga, Ziena, Zieber, Zom....Now the chosen time has come..." and he paused. The gurus joined him in chorus, saying, "Exchange this world for purity!!"   
And then a huge glow enveloped the four of them. Queen Zeal watched in horror as Lavos continued meditating, not expecting to be summoned this early and therefore unaware of anyone else being there with him.   
The glow transfered itself from them to Lavos in the form of a pure white laser beam, and the creature evaporated into ashes. Soon after, they were all in the Mammon Machine room again.   
"I'll take care of the machine," said Schala. No one was there to stop her; Queen Zeal had passed out when Lavos was destroyed and the scholars observing had run away in terror.   
Schala marched up to the Mammon Machine with her pendant in hand and raised it high above her head. She muttered a few words, and then hurled the pendant at the infernal machine. Both objects vanished forever. 

"Oh, THAT celebration," Janus agreed. "Ok, let's get this show on the road."   
They stepped out of their quarters in the palace, and Schala teleported both of them to the site of the parade, on a road right outside the cave once known as Algetty.   
Two years earlier, after Queen Zeal returned to normal, she immediately ordered that all the dreamstone still existing be completely destroyed. This, of course, meant that Zeal would no longer be able to float, so everyone would have to return to the ground.   
To the surprise of everyone, even after all the dreamstone was gone, the Enlightened Ones mysteriously retained all their magical power. They used this to their advantage by bringing the Ice Age to an end. Plant and animal life became abundant again, and soon the world was even more of a paradise than Zeal had been. Soon, some of the Earthbound Ones got their own magical powers, and by the time a year had gone by, everyone had access to magic.   
Back in the present, the Queen sat on a throne in the first float in the parade. In front of her and on either side sat the three Gurus: Gaspar, Melchior, and Belthasar. "Now," said the Queen, amplifying her voice through magic, "In honor of this great holiday, I'd like to give a very special thanks to the three Gurus of Life, Time, and Reason, and to my two loving children, Schala and Janus Zeal, who requested not to appear on the float this year. Everyone give all of these people a hand!"   


CLAP CLAP!   
"King Magus? Hello? Are you alive?"" asked the Chancellor.   
"Hm? Oh, yes, I'm alive. What is it?" asked the aging Magus. It had been almost 150 years since he'd accepted the offer of becoming the new king of Guardia, and 150 years since he and Glenn had bravely battled Lavos the Evil One. He had survived, but poor Glenn had not, and neither had the foolish boy--Tata--who had been accompanying them.   
"There seems to be a domestic dispute. These people are from Dorino Village, and one claims that the other stole a chicken and a cow of his. The accusee denies ever having laid eyes on the accuser's livestock. They want you to settle the agreement."   
Magus smiled. Though this might seem like boring work to an outsider, this was actually his favorite part of the job. He'd taken a special sort of joy in being the king of Guardia, one that had sort of filled the empty space in his heart that had been created when he lost his sister. In other words, he was actually content with his life. "Alright, send them in," he said, trying to sound falsely agitated with such a trivial dispute. The Chancellor knew him better than to buy it, though, and smiled to signify this. Both of them shared a brief laugh together, and then the Chancellor went to the front door and opened it to let the feuding parties in.   
  


"JANUS!!!!" yelled the rather preturbed woman.   
"What??? What's wrong?" Magus answered in a compained tone. "And I told you, it's Magus, not Janus."   
"You've been in a trance for the last five minutes. I've been trying to get you out of it. Now come on, let's go!"   
"Where are we going now?" Magus asked.   
"To offer our condolensces to Crono and Marle, since the king died and all. Now hurry up, we'll miss the boat," said Schala.   
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," said Magus. He sluggishly rose from the cushioned chair he was in and waited for Schala to give up and leave the room without him. Then he smiled. They'd argued playfully like this ever since a few weeks back, when Magus had finally got his sister back from 1999, after over twenty years of searching.   
"Allll aboard! This is your captain speaking. We will be taking a ferry ride to the harbor in Truce Village. Please enjoy your brief stay on our quaint little ship," said the captain. Magus got himself situated for the ride.   
  


Magus was sitting, cold, sick, and lonely, on the dirty, damp, rusted metal floor of the dilapidated dome. He'd been sitting like this for the past few weeks, barely even moving to breathe.   
He looked behind him. There was one of the doors, created by his wicked mother when Lavos came up. It was completely sealed, and the only means of getting inside was something Magus didn't have. Of course, that wouldn't really matter anyway, since the only thing of value ever contained within was long gone. That thing was a time machine, created by Belthasar and named Epoch by some idiotic juvenilles. They'd foolishly taken it to the Day of Lavos, hoping to have some sort of victory, when a stray bolt of energy shot upwards from the beast and crashed into the time machine, sending it hurtling to the ground. The resulting crash killed all six of them.   
Of course, Magus had no knowledge of exactly what had happened. He simply wwatched them leave and when they didn't return, he went to the future using Lucca's Gate Key and figured they hadn't succeeded. With a sunken heart, he decided to reside in Belthasar's old place.   
Also behind him were two computer terminals. Both had been burnt out during the Guru of Reason's experiment, which transfered his brain patterns into a poor, unsuspecting Nu robot.   
The robot. Magus scoffed at the long-dead thing and stood up to walk to it, just so he could give it a good, swift kick in the head. His hair extended all the way to his knees; he had stayed in that dome for a good five months. Plopping himself back onto the floor, he concentrated on a stain on the wall and forgot about everything else around him.   


Schala awoke abruptly. It was the middle of the night, and here she found herself, sitting up straight in her bed, panting heavily. "Stupid dream," she told herself, and laid back down.   
This was seriously worrying her. The same dream, five nights in a row. A strange man with semi-long, purplish-blue hair holding a sickle, beckoning for her to join him in another realm....   
She shook it off and decided to call Lucca the next morning, then went back to sleep. 

"What's up?" said Lucca when she finally answered the signal.   
"Hi Lucca, this is Schala. I think I need to get away from Algetty for a couple days. Can you arrange something for me?"   
"No problem. How long do ya want to get ready?" Lucca spoke through the trans-temporal communicator.   
Schala answered through hers, "Two hours should be alright. Is that good?"   
"Sure. I'll be there in two hours. See ya then! Bye!" said Lucca, and she hung up.   
Schala stepped outside of her hut and called a town meeting. The fifteen villagers gathered around. "Good people of Algetty," she said, "I am afraid I must leave the village for a few days. Urgent matters call for my attention. I am very sorry, but that's the way it is."   
After the meeting was over with (no one was particularly concerned about her leaving), Schala was overcame with an irresistable urge to go to the North Cape. With no idea why this was happening, she went over there.   
There she sat, on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the beautiful horizon. The sun was looming over the calm sea and creating dozens of beautiful reflections on the water. She was virtually in a trance and couldn't figure out what was coming over her.....   


# 


	2. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter II

BY

D A R T HV A D E R
    
    ** **
    
     

In another place, another time, another dimension, the Black Wind swirled frivolously about, watching the situations they were creating with delight.   
"Simply spectacular," a voice whispered.   
"Let's make it even more interesting," said another.   
"How?" asked one.   
"Watch and you shall see," said yet another. All these voices were coming from the Black Wind.   
  


# 


	3. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter III

BY

D A R T HV A D E R
    
    ** **
    
    ** **

"We'll take a large bag of popcorn and a cone of cotton candy," Schala said to the vendor. "Oh, and two medium chocolate milks." She held out five tablets.   
"That'll be three tablets and fifty-six tabs," said the man at the hotdog stand as he took the five tablets. He opened up the popcorn machine and filled up a big striped bag with popcorn, then took a cone of cotton candy off the pole they were hanging from and handed both items to Schala. She gave the candy to Janus and popped a handful of popcorn in her mouth. The man grabbed two small cartons of chocolate milk out of the cooler and handed one to each customer.   
"Thank you," said Schala as they walked away.   
"Thank you," said the vendor. "And enjoy the parade!"   
On the sidewalk, Janus and Schala got back to their places and resumed their floating stance. This was where they sat on the ground with their legs crossed and then floated up a good four feet off the ground. Much more comfortable than sitting on the sidewalk or even on a lawn chair.   
The floats of the three heroes who died trying to stop Queen Zeal (the spiky-haired kid, the frog, and the sexy blond wearing next to nothing) were coming up. No one really knew who they were, except for Schala, but since they died trying to save a world which they didn't even belong to, Queen Zeal thought it best to honor them out of respect.   
As the float of the sexy blond wearing next to nothing came around, the twelve-year old Janus stared at it without blinking. Schala noticed this and smiled, but said nothing.   
"Schala! Cool, I didn't think I'd be able to find you!" called a male voice, from behind. Schala turned her head and saw her boyfriend, Sonaro, hovering toward her.   
"Sony!!" she said, obviously surprised. Sony was her petname for Sonaro. She planted her feet back on the ground and hugged him as he arrived. "I thought you had to work today?" she said.   
"I did, but my boss let me off early! I guess he knows how it is to be eighteen and in love," he said, smiling. Schala blushed, and they kissed.   
Janus was watching them, and when they kissed a disgusted feeling traveled through his body. He rolled his eyes and turned around to watch the parade some more.   


"Hey Magus," said Ozzie as he strolled on into the throneroom, "I scheduled you to make a speech at the Ozzie Fairgrounds tomorrow at Noon. Can ya make it?"   
"Hm? What?" Magus replied, genuinely confused. He was looking all around the room. "Where's the parade? Where am I? Schala, is this one of your--"   
"Parade? No, there's no parade, but that's a good idea! We'll have one in a few weeks," said Ozzie.   
Magus looked directly at Ozzie, and the expression on his face made Ozzie feel a little nervous. "Ozzie? Is that you...?" said the wizard.   
"Um....yeah," said Ozzie. "Are you...feeling okay, Magus? Cause if not, I can always cancel the speech...."   
"Ozzie, I just had the most bizarre experience..." Magus said worriedly.   
"What happened?"   
"Well, I was a boy and I was with my sister, the one I've been searching for ever since I got here. We were standing beside a...a road, and a parade was marching down it. And there was one float that really stood out...   
"What was it of? Me?" asked Ozzie.   
"No....remember those three people you killed and that pretty much let you win the war?"   
"Yeah, the spiky-haired kid, the tin can, and that nerdball. What about 'em?"   
"The spiky-haired kid...One of the floats in the parade was of him. And I was eating cotton candy....this is all too weird for me. I don't think I can make that speech, sorry," said Magus.   
"Okay. I'll just reschedule it. You might wanna get some rest," said Ozzie, and he left the throneroom.   
Magus took Ozzie's advice and went directly to bed.   
  


BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP   
The sound of the broken alarm made Magus jump from his cozy sleep on the floor. He tracked down the machine making the noise and hurled his scythe straight at it. It made direct contact and the faulty contraption stopped beeping. Magus took a look around. He was still in the infernal Proto Dome, and the Nu was still curled up lifelessly on the floor in front of the burnt-out computer terminal. Fading memories of the inside of his castle and Ozzie annoying him about one thing or another sailed right out of his mind.   
For the first time since he'd arrived in the dome, Magus decided to step out for a while. He had, after all, been looking at the same exact scenery for five months, and he was getting a bit too bored.   
As Magus stepped outside, he got a little dizzy upon seeing the throneroom of Guardia Castle from the perspective of the throne and he fell to the floor.   
"Your Highness! Are you alright?" asked the Chancellor as he ran to his rescue.   
"What's wrong with the king...?" said a man with a cow and a chicken on either side of him.   
"Your infernal bantering and lies have made the King dizzy with confusion!" claimed another man standing a few feet to the left of the cow.   
Magus opened his eyes. He was expecting to see the harsh, battered, sickly-brown landscape of the future, but instead his eyes once again picked up all the familiar images of Guardia Castle's throneroom. "I'm going mad, that must be what it is..." and he trailed off as he looked up and saw the Chancellor's face. "Chancellor?! What happened? How did I get....oh...oh my," said King Magus, as all of his memories began to gather themselves. He remembered Schala buying him cotton candy, Ozzie telling him to make a speech, and being in the future in miserable conditions. That was about the extent of his memories.   
"What do you mean, Sir? You were hearing the case presented to you by these litigants, and suddenly, as the Defendant was making a statement, you stood up and collapsed for no apparent reason. Are you feeling alright?"   
"N...no, I don't believe I am. Let me finish up this case and then I think I'll retire to my chamber," said Magus. The Chancellor obliged, and Magus crawled back to his throne where he could sit down. "Alright, I think I've heard enough. Mister Lowry, you will return Mister Jaxon's cow and his chicken to him or you'll be thrown in the dungeon. That will be all. Get outta here."   
The defendant grudgingly gave the farm animals back to the plaintiff, and both left the castle, the defendant grumbling about the verdict on the way out. The Chancellor helped Magus up the various flights of stairs to his room and he went right to sleep.   
  


"Thanks, Lucca. You don't know how much I appreciate this. I'll tell you all about it once we get to your time," said Schala.   
"No prob, Bob," said Lucca as the cockpit hatch closed. She set the Time Gauge to 1000 AD: The Present and pulled the lever, and off they went.   
Half an hour later (or 13,000 years later, depending on how you wanna look at it), Schala, Crono, Marle, and Lucca were sitting at Crono's kitchen table, drinking some majorly sweetened tea and eating some home-made chocolate chip cookies. Schala was just getting ready to explain why she was there.   
"Ok," she began, "For the past five nights I've been having this weird dream about a guy with a purple cape and purple hair and a sickle, trying to get me to come with me to who-knows-where. It's been creeping me out and I fear I've been having it because I'm lonely or something like that, so I figured I'd visit you guys for a while. Is that ok?"   
"Sure!" said Marle. "You can stay in Guardia Castle. My dad won't mind."   
"I'm glad to see my trans-temporal communicator is working properly," Lucca boasted.   
"But Lucca," said Crono, "You just talked to Cyrus the other day with it."   
"Shut up Crono," Lucca said quietly through clenched teeth. When she turned away, Crono smirked. He just loved doing that.   
"So," said Schala, "What do you guys do for fun around here? There's not much to do for fun in my village, so anything would probably be better than there."   
"We can go to Leene Square and hang out by the fountain," Marle suggested.   
"'Hang out'? What does that mean?" asked Schala.   
"Hanging out is like, when you just sit there and talk about cool stuff," Lucca explained.   
"Yeah! Me and Crono do it all the time, except when we do it there's not quite as much talking going on," Marle winked.   
Crono blushed. "Ahhh...so, um...let's go! I'll get some stuff outta the fridge so we can have a picnic or something."   


On the ferry from Medina Village, Magus and Schala were getting off at the harbor in Truce Village. "Ok, come on. Let's get to the castle. I have the pass to get in right here," said Schala. Magus nodded, and they walked leisurely to and through Guardia Forest. They showed the castle guards their pass and were let on through.   
"Hi," said Schala as the two of them arrived in the king's room. Marle turned around to see who it was.   
"Oh, hi. Glad you could make it," she said, though not very enthusiastically. When Marle wasn't overly enthusiastic, you could tell something was wrong.   
"King Guardia got a little bit worse since we sent you the letter," Crono explained. He was holding Marle, comforting her like a husband should.   
Magus, however, wasn't paying any attention to any of this. He was still fixed on the memories he was slowly but surely regaining, and they were without a doubt troubling him severely.   
"Let me try and help," said Schala. "Marle, you said you already tried using your healing magic and it had no effect?"   
"Yeah," said Marle.   
"Well, maybe if we try combining our magic, we can help him. After all, I do have the strongest kind of pure magic, Lunar," said Schala.   
"It's worth a shot," said Marle, a little more excitedly this time. She walked around the bed and stood next to Schala. They both held up their arms. Magus absentmindedly stepped out of their way.   
"Cornum, martis, zengil, zive....The Time of Light, has arrived....Give the Gift of.....Health!!" Schala chanted. Shadow Magic had a chant of its own; so did Lunar Magic.   
Some blue magical sparkles rose from Marle's hands and a beam of dark yellow Lunar light shot at them from Schala's hands. The result was a large ball of green magic in the middle of the room. It slowly brought itself down upon King Guardia XXXIII and entered his chest. He slowly opened his eyes.   
"Daddy!!!" Marle shouted joyously, and she bent down to hug him. He winced a bit, but hugged back anyway.   
"So it worked? He's healed?!" said Crono.   
"Probably not completely; I can sense from his aura that he's not completely well yet. But he's definitely alot better. Two or three more sessions and he should be up and about again," said Schala.   
"...Something's not right," Magus suddenly said, his voice trembling. "Something's definitely wrong here...."   
Everyone turned to look at him. "What's wrong, Magus?" asked Marle.   
"I...I'm not sure...but I can tell...something's wrong....."   

    
     


	4. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter IV

BY

D A R T HV A D E R
    
    ** **

  
"Wonderful. I love this," a voice from the Black Wind whispered.   
"Torturing a man's soul can be so fun," said another.   
"Let's add to the confusion. Let's add another reality to the fray," said a rather sly voice.   

    
     


	5. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter V

BY

D A R T HV A D E R

** **

  
"Prophet!!!!! I'm talking to you!!" Dalton demanded.   
"What?" Where's Schala? Where's King Guardia..." and Magus trailed off.   
"You blithering fool....Schala died in the Ocean Palace. How many times do I have to tell you?! And I'm not even gonna ask about this 'King Guardia' person you're talking about. Now get to work and write me up a speech for tomorrow's big event. I don't wanna sound like an idiot up there."   
"Oh...yes...sorry, Sir Dalton..." said Magus, suddenly remembering it all.   
His memories carried him back to the Ocean Palace. He remembered Dalton coming back to the Mammon Machine room and boasting to Queen Zeal that he'd taken care of the spiky-headed kid and pals with the Golem Twins, and then...then when Lavos was summoned, Dalton somehow managed to tap into the Mammon Machine's power supply and become immortal....   
When Lavos tore up the Ocean Palace and thanked Zeal for supplying him with power by destroying it, Dalton immediately teleported to the inside of the Blackbird and hightailed it outta there before Belthasar's other architectural marvel got destroyed.   
From that point on, Dalton used his immortality to make all the remaining citizens of the world his slaves. Magus was stuck in the Dark Ages and decided that the easiest way to live it out was to get on good terms with Dalton, and he ended up becoming King Dalton's chancellor.   
Now, thousands and thousands of years later, on what would've been December 31st of 1998 AD if someone had decided to convert the timeline from BC, the world had re-developed from the tiny island left over from the aftermath of Lavos's attack, and Magus was in his quarters in Dalton Castle (where Choras Village would've been), faced with the challenge of writing up a nice speech for Dalton to make at Dalton Square (where Porre Village would've been).   
A comfortable existence, to be sure, but also a rather empty one. Cursed with the immortality that Dalton had forced upon him, Magus had had and then lost somewhere around 200 wives over the past 14,000 years. He remembered each and every one of them with crystal clarity, since fortunately, each marriage was a very happy and long-lasting one (an average of about seventy years for each). His memories would be the only things to keep him going, and now even these were being infected by visions of inexplicable alternate realities.   
When Magus was finally done compiling the five-page speech, he retired his quill into the ink bottle and got into bed.   
  


He was woken up from his peaceful sleep by Ozzie. The pickle had its hand on his shoulder and was shaking him. "Sheesh! Finally. I didn't think you'd ever wake up. It's almost 11:00, for cryin' out loud!!" the pickle complained.   
Magus rolled over to face Ozzie. "What..?"   
"Your speech, at the Ozzie Fairgrounds. Remember? I told you about it yesterday."   
"Oh, yeah, Dalton's speech is over on my writing desk. Unless he has some other assignment for me, I'd like to get back to sleep if you don't mind," Magus replied, and he rolled over again.   
Ozzie stared blankly at the already sleeping wizard. "Huh?! What are you talking about? Who's Dalton?"   
This woke Magus up once again, and he rolled over faster, more angry this time. "I told you! Dalton's speech is on--" and he stopped in his tracks. Now everything was coming back to him. He remembered everything that was going on in all of the realities, but had no idea what all this meant. He looked straight up at Ozzie and thought about whether to tell him.   
No, he thought to himself, he's too much of an apathetic, bumbling fool to care. I'll have to wait for the next shift...   
He took another second to review the things that were going on in this reality, and then said, "Oh, that speech. Forget about what I just said, I guess I thought I was still dreaming. I thought you were gonna cancel the speech cause I wasn't feeling well?"   
"Well yeah, but I figured you'd be better by now. Are you?" said Ozzie.   
"Yes, I suppose I can make the stupid speech. Now get out and make me breakfast while I get dressed. And have the speech ready at the breakfast table by the time I get out there. I wanna look over it and tweek it a little so I don't sound like too much of an idiot," Magus replied in the sourest tone he could muster.   
"Sure. No prob," said the pickle, and he left the room.   
Magus got dressed in his usual attire and went out to the kitchen. Flea had whipped up some fried eggs and snake meat (which tastes just like bacon).   
"Hey, Magus!" Flea said brightly. "How ya doin'?"   
"I..suppose I'm as well as one could be expected under these conditions," he replied, still keeping up the sourness in his voice. He sat at the table and picked up the speech in his left hand, then reached down with his fork and brought up a portion of a fried egg.   


As he bit into the cotton candy, he looked at his left hand to review the speech and decided to take a sip of the chocolate milk in that hand. Within seconds, he remembered the reality shifts and looked behind him. Schala and Sonaro were still in an embrace, and the float with Ayla on it had just sailed by.   
"Schala, I need to talk to you. It's an emergency," he said urgently. Schala turned her head.   
"What's wrong, Janus?"   
"Yeah, what happened, Bud?" asked Sonaro.   
"...This isn't the best place to talk about it. Can you teleport us back to...the palace?" he asked.   
"Janus, I'm not going to--"   
"Please, Schala," he pleaded. She sighed.   
"This had better be good," she said through clenched teeth, and turned to her boyfriend. "I'm really, really sorry, Sony....I'll try to get back here as soon as I can, alrighty?"   
"No biggie, Babe. I'll see ya then," said Sonaro.   
"Here's a little something so ya don't forget me," said Schala, and she kissed him for about ten seconds before they let go of eachother. She threw her arms in the air, and then she and Janus were back in their quarters in the palace. "Now what's SO urgent that we just HAD to come back here immediately?"   
"My consciousnesses from a whole bunch of other alternate realitied have somehow merged and now the merged consciousness is randomly leaping back and forth from one reality to another," he explained, trying to be as concise and comprehendable as possible.   
Schala just gaped at him. "What?! You drag me away from my boyfriend at one of the most anticipated holidays of the year just to play some stupid practical joke on me?! I don't believe--"   
"It's the truth," Janus said, more frustrated than she was. "I'll give you some examples of the alternate realities if you'd like."   
"Ok, let's hear it," Schala challenged, crossing her arms.   
Janus thought of a reality with characters and situations that Schala would be familiar with. "Well, there's one where Dalton managed to become immortal from the Mammon Machine, and also, me and the Gurus don't get there on time to destroy Lavos so he sends the four of us into time gates and then proceeds to destroy the Ocean Palace, Zeal, and most of the land in the rest of the world. After all that, Dalton uses him immortality to take over the world." He thought it best not to mention the part about his older self showing up as the Prophet.   
"How do you know he took over the world if you were sent through a time gate or whatever?" asked Schala.   
"Cause in the time I was sent to, he was still the King," Janus answered. He was ready for that one.   
"Ok, then if Lavos managed to destroy most of the world, how come he didn't stay out and rule over it himself? He could've easily stole away Dalton's immortality," Schala countered. Janus was beginning to see that Schala still thought this was some sort of childish game.   
"Forget that one then. Here's another example," said Janus. "There's another where Lavos destroys the palace and all that, except Dalton didn't become immortal. Then, 14,000 years later, Lavos decides to come up again to destroy the world that had developed during all that time, but those three people who died in the Ocean Palace in this reality went over there and defeated him. Now, that time period just happened to be the one you were transported to when Lavos--"   
"Janus, I'm worried about you. I think we should get you to a doctor or something. You're talking crazy talk!!" said Schala. She was genuinely concerned.   
Janus quickly realized that the Schala in this reality wouldn't be the ideal person to turn to for help in this situation. "I'm sorry," he conceded, "I was just making it all up. I didn't mean to make you all upset and worried. And I'll apologize to Sonaro when we get back, if you'll let me go back."   
"Yeah, you'll apologize alright. But at least you were brave enough to tell the truth, even though it did take you a while. C'mon, let's go back. I'll have to think about some kind of punishment later," said Schala. She had this twinkle in her eye that signified to Janus that she'd conveniently 'forget' about punishing him. She threw her arms up to teleport them back to the parade.   


Instead of the parade, Magus found himself outside Keeper's Dome in 2300 AD. "Let's see...I'm back here. Who can I turn to for help?" he asked himself outloud. He then realized that he was extremely raggedy and very hungry, so he figured he'd better hightail it to the nearest time gate before he starved to death.   
After briefly going back in the dome to retrieve his only weapon, the wizard fought through the sewer access and wearily walked to Arris Dome, where he gathered up what little strength he could through the Enertron. Then he went to Lab 32 and hotwired Doan's racecar. 

While he was working on hotwiring the vehicle, Johnny stipulated that they would race down the highway, and who won determined whether Magus would be let through. Magus nodded nonchalantly, apathetic to the robot's musings.   
When the 'race' was over and Magus wound up losing, Johnny's robotic flunkies tried to carry Magus back to the beginning of the track. He simply tossed a Dark Bomb their way and they ran like chickens with their heads cut off.   
In the End of Time, which Magus accessed through Proto Dome with Lucca's Gate Key after another small energy refill in that dome's enertron, he approached Gaspar.   
"Hello, Prince Janus. Pardon me for saying, but you look ghastly. Go over there and drink from the bowl of water over there," said the old man, gesturing with his cane. Magus drank from the small bowl, and before he knew it, his hunger was gone, his clothes looked brand new, his hair was back at normal length, and he was cleaner than ever.   
"Wow...that stuff is powerful," said Magus.   
"It certainly is. How else do you think I'm able to stay here for eternity and never have to bathe or eat?" said Gaspar. "So, Prince, what brings you here?"   
"Magus. Call me Magus," said Magus. "And I'm here because I need your help, since I have no one else to turn to."   
"Well, Magus, it seems that you've come to the right place. But don't bother trying to kill Lavos and save the world. It's not worth the effort. If Crono and his friends couldn't stop him, neither can you."   
"I have no intention of trying to save this world," said Magus.   
This caught Gaspar off guard. "Then...what do you need my help for?"   
"I'm here because I'm somehow jumping back and forth between realities and I don't particularly enjoy it."   
Magus went on explaining things, much as Janus had done to Schala in the other reality. Gaspar listened quietly, much more understanding than Schala had been since he knew about all the people, places, and events involved.   
After Magus finished describing all the realities, Gaspar said, "This is indeed some predicament. I'm not yet quite sure yet what I can do to help, but I'm sure I can come up with something after a short while. In the meantime, I suggest you travel to 1000 AD and get Melchior, the Guru of Life, to come here. If what you're saying is true, then all of us might be in trouble."   


That's when Magus was in King Guardia XXXIII's room again.   
"Magus, what's wrong? You said you could tell something was wrong," Crono persisted. It took Magus a moment to remember what he was talking about.   
"Magus, are you feeling alright?" said Schala.   
"To tell the truth, no I'm not feeling alright. No offense, King Guardia, but is it alright if we leave early?"   
"Why would we want to leave early?" asked Marle.   
"So I can explain everything to you. Surely the king doesn't need all this stress after the ordeal he's been through," said Magus.   
"Go on," said King Guardia, "I'll be fine. Besides, if it's really that important, you'd better have it taken care of as soon as possible."   
"Don't worry, Daddy. We'll be back soon," Marle promised. The King gave a fatherly 'I know' smile, and they left the castle.   
  
"Ok, so what's wrong, now that you dragged everybody out of the castle?" asked Marle, a bit preturbed.   
"Listen and listen carefully," said Magus, "Because this will get complicated."   
"Alternate realities?" said Schala once Magus had explained. "Don't you think that seems a bit far-fetched?"   
"Absolutely. But I know what I've experienced and it can't be good, so I need your help."   
"The way I see it," said Crono, "If Gaspar is helping you in that one reality, he's the best person you could've asked. And his advice couldn't be any worse than the Gaspar's in any other reality, so you should probably just play everything out normally in all the realities and wait till you get to the one where he's helping you. That'd be your best course of action, rather than explaining this over and over again each time you jump realities and getting the same advice every time."   
Magus contemplated this advice. "You know, Crono, that's probably the best advice I could've received from anybody. Thanks. So now what do we do while I'm killing time?"   
"We're going back in the castle to keep my dad company," said Marle, and she grabbed Crono's arm. "You two are welcome to come along with us if you want."   


After Magus walked through the doorway to the King's room, he was suddenly in the king's bed. Inputting the situation into his mind, he realized that this was the one where he was the king of Guardia. He got up and quickly remembered that his body wasn't nearly as young as it was in the other realities--the body of a 180 year old Mystic is roughly equivalent to that of an average seventy year old human.   
He grabbed his cane and slowly made his way down the stairs to his throne, where the Chancellor was waiting for him. "Oh! King Magus, I see you're up early. That's wonderful! Can I assume this means you're feeling better?"   
"Yes, thank you, Clancy," said Magus. Clancy was the Chancellor's first name. "What's on the agenda for today?"   
"Well, all the paperwork's already been taken care of, and there are no scheduled appointments, so I thought today you might wanna go over to Leene Square."   
"To sit on a bench and feed the pigeons? I don't think so. I may be old, but I still have some energy left," Magus protested.   
"I knew you'd say something like that. And you don't have to worry. All this week there's gonna be a carnival in Leene Square. I didn't tell you about it sooner cause I wanted to surprise you," Clancy said with a sly grin. Magus let out an old person's laugh.   
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get a move on!" he said enthusiastically.   


Then, once again, Magus found himself just waking up in his bed, which had been happening alot during the past few reality jumps. A quick survey of the area indicated that he was in Dalton Castle.   
Seconds later, Dalton stormed into the room. "Prophet," he said sternly, "Where's my speech? It better be ready."   
"Yes, Sir, it's on my writing desk, next to the ink bottle," said Magus. Even though Magus had told Dalton his real name, Dalton stilled preferred to call him 'Prophet', and that was just as well.   
Dalton turned around quickly to face the writing desk, and perhaps a bit too quickly because his turning cape knocked over the ink bottle onto the speech. "Damn it!" he yelled. "Prophet, this is all your fault!! For your sake you'd better have that speech committed to memory!"   
Magus was used to this constant verbal abuse, mainly because he'd found long ago that none of the threats meant anything at all. "Don't worry. I have most of it memorized. I'll take care of everything. You go ahead and get ready." Since he'd gained all the memories from the other realities, listening to himself made Magus disgusted that he'd been degraded to becoming Dalton's mother.   
"Yeah, well, it better be taken care of. I'll be in my room shaving," said Dalton, and he left. Magus took the paper and used magic to clear away all the ink that hadn't yet dried up, which luckily included everything that had spilled from the bottle. All that was left on the paper was the speech.   
Deciding that he had some time before he had to present the speech to King Dalton, Magus fixed himself a bowl of cereal and munched on it for about five minutes, then went on over to Dalton's room.   
  


Schala collapsed onto the floor of Crono's kitchen as Crono hunted through the fridge for picnic food.   
"Schala, what's wrong??" asked Marle. She stopped making sandwiches and rushed to her side. Crono and Lucca stopped what they were doing, too.   
Schala said nothing. She looked dead, except her eyes still had a sparkle in them and she was still breathing.   
"Lucca, any ideas?" said Crono.   
"I dunno. I'm no medical scientist," Lucca answered.   
"Oh man....why'd mom have to pick today to go visit Aunt Mabel..." said Crono. Mabel was Crono's mom's sister, who lived in Choras.   
A few minutes later, Schala finally woke up. She looked disturbed.   
"Schala, you look disturbed. What happened?" asked Lucca.   
"That man in my dream, with the sickle...I think he just sent me some kinda telepathic message from beyond the grave...he said he was my brother...."   
"What? Your brother?" said Marle. Then she remembered something Gaspar had said to Cyrus a long time ago. She gasped. "That must've been Magus!!"   
"Huh? That guy Cyrus killed?" said Crono. Lucca snapped her fingers, as she always did when she had a revelation.   
"That makes sense!" she said. "Schala, what else did he say?"   
"He said something about all kinds of alternate realities, or something, and he was being thrown back and forth between them. He also said he really didn't have a point in telling me all this, but he only did it because the afterlife was boring...."   
"What?" said Marle. "That sounds a little screwy to me."   
"Trust me, it was real," said Schala.   
"I think we should see Cyrus and ask him if he knows anything about this," proposed Crono.   
"Good idea. I'll get the Epoch ready," said Lucca.   
  


Magus was in his kitchen in his castle with a fork in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. He sighed with relief. The afterlife really was boring.   
Flea noticed him just sitting there, staring blankly at the portion of fried bat egg on his fork. "Hey Mag, wake up, Buddy. Are you alright?"   
Magus looked up at her. "Yeah, I'm fine, I guess," he said, and then remembered he was supposed to have a sour tone. "Why do you care?"   
"Well, you were just sit-- Oh, never mind," she said, and resumed washing the load of dirty dishes accumulated from the party the night before.   
Magus read over the speech Ozzie had prepared. It sounded surprisingly clear and thorough. He decided it was fine just the way it was.   
Just as Magus was finishing his last bite, Ozzie came into the kitchen. "Hey guys, we should probably go. It's 11:15, and it'll probably take us at least half an hour just to get to the fairgrounds."   
Ozzie, Flea, and Magus (Slash was killed during the war) got on a boat outside the castle and went on their way to the Fairgrounds. Once there, Magus got behind the stage and reviewed his speech for five minutes, and then he was called out.   


As he walked out through the curtains onto the stage, Janus appeared on the street by the parade again. Schala and Sonaro were already locked in a hug.   
He decided there really wasn't much to do but watch the floats go by, so that's what he did for the next five or so minutes.   


Then he was in the End of Time again, with Gaspar.   
"Well? What are you waiting for?"said Gaspar.   
"Huh? Oh, good, I'm back here again. I just went through a cycle of reality jumps. I'll get right to finding Melchior," said Magus. He hurried and found the gate to Medina Village, 1000 AD, and hopped in.   
S..Sir Magus?!" cried one of the little imp people occupying the house he'd ended up in. "You're...you're the legendary leader of the Mystic Army from 400 years ago!!! What are you doing in our lowly abode?"   
"Save it," said Magus, "I've gotta find Melchior."   
"That weird guy? His house is to the west," said the other imp person.   
"I know, but thanks anyway," said Magus, and he rushed to Melchior's house. 

"So Gaspar told you to get me to come to the End of Time with you?" Melchior echoed after Magus explained everything.   
"Yes. Will you please come?"   
"Sure. This sounds serious. We'd better hurry back before you jump dimensions again."   
Luckily, they made it back to the End of Time before any jumps had taken place.   
"Gaspar, hurry," said Melchior, "We've gotta put up a stability field around Magus before he shifts dimensions again. That should keep his consciousness here while we try and figure out a plan."   
"How do you plan on doing that?" asked Gaspar.   
"Just..here, I'll grab your arm so my powers get amplified by yours, and then I'll cast the spell myself," said the Guru of Life. He put a grip on Gaspar's arm and said a few magical chants, and a barrier was erected around Magus.   
"So as long as this thing is here, I won't go anywhere?" Magus asked, staring at the visible forcefield.   
"That's right. Also, I made the shield mobile, so it'll travel around with you wherever you go. It should come in handy," said Melchior.   
"Great. So what am I supposed to do about this?" asked Magus.   
"I came up with a theory while you were gone," said Gaspar. "I think I might know the reason for all this."   
"What? What's doing this to me?" asked Magus.   
"The Black Wind."   
While Magus stood there, stupefied, Melchior said, "Yes...yes, that makes sense...I'll bet you're right, Gaspar."   
"Wait a minute. How can the Black Wind be causing this? It's not a sentient being...it's just...just a condition that causes things to happen. Sort of like El Niño," said Magus.   
"No," said Melchior, "The Black Wind is very much a sentient being. Only us Gurus knew about it, though, and we didn't tell anyone because we were afraid of it and what it might do if everyone found out that it was actually pulling strings behind the scenes."   
Gaspar continued, "The Black Wind doesn't come from this realm. It's from another place, a very dark place, where it had already consumed everything and completely filled up all the space in that realm. In Zeal, when we stumbled upon Shadow Magic, a kind of rift opened up for a very brief period of time that led to this dimension that had been consumed by the Black Wind. A small piece of the wind escaped into this dimension before the rift closed."   
"How do you know about all of this?" asked Magus. He was getting a little nervous now.   
"From the natural enemy of Shadow magic: Lunar Magic," said Melchior. "Once the Black Wind entered this world and Shadow magic developed further, the natural order of things in this world called for the forces of darkness to be counterbalanced by a force of purity. That counterbalance was Lunar Magic."   
"Along with Lunar Magic, a sentient being was brought forth, just as the Black Wind had been brought forth with Shadow. This being was much more subtle than the Black Wind, but still equally powerful, only in a different way. Because of its subtlety, it was never discovered and therefore never given a name. But it spoke to us. It spoke to Melchior, Belthasar, and me, and it told us all about Shadow magic. It is also responsible for the creation of all the time gates. Robo was correct in assuming that an outside force other than Lavos was the cause of the time gates," Gaspar explained.   
"And if this unnamed presence is supposed to be a counterbalance for the Black Wind, then how come the wind has been able to do this to me?" asked Magus.   
"Because you gave yourself to the Black Wind once you adopted Shadow Magic as your magical affiliation. You weren't born as a Shadow Wizard; that's only what your mother wanted you to think. She saw to it that you become a Shadow Wizard as soon as your first signs of magical prowess started showing," said Melchior. "And once your soul was presented to the Black Wind, it had control over you."   
"So how am I supposed to solve this problem?" asked Magus.   
"I believe I have an idea," said Melchior. "Two ideas, rather. One, you could study tediously over a long period of time and attempt to change your magical affiliation to Lunar."   
"What's the other choice?" asked Magus, who wasn't particularly crazy about this idea.   
"The other is, you could try to defeat the Black Wind."   
"What..?" said Gaspar. "How is that possible..?"   
"There is only one way to defeat the Black Wind," said Melchior. "I've done alot of research on it, and I've found that Lunar magic cannot and will not destroy it. It can only balance it out. The only way to defeat the Black Wind is to use its own power against it. And Magus, given that you are the ultimate Shadow Wizard, you would be the ideal opponent." 
    
     


	6. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter VI

BY

D A R T HV A D E R

** **

  
"No.... no, this should not be happening..." a voice from the Black Wind whispered. "We must find a way to get him out of there and stop his returning to that reality..."   
"Do not worry. This pathetic moron cannot possibly defeat us. If he should manage to face us, we will prevail...." another voice whispered.   



	7. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter VII

BY

D A R T HV A D E R

** **

** **

** **

"Ok, then how do I confront the Black Wind? It obviously doesn't want me to know about it," said Magus.   
"I know a way," said Melchior.   
"Oh, really?" said Gaspar, "This should be interesting."   
"We're going to have to get you to shift realities again in order for this to work, but I'm confident it will," said Melchior. "No matter which reality you're in, there is one fixed point that interconnects all the dimensions. If you can get each of your counterparts to converge on that spot during a time when the Black Wind is strongest and then utter the chant of the Black Wind, asking to exchange this world for Reality, the Black Wind will be forced to concur due to the Law of the Black Wind."   
"The Law of the Black Wind?" asked Magus. "What's that?"   
"The Law of the Black Wind states that if the sacred Chant of the Black Wind is uttered, then the utterer's wish must be granted by the Black Wind no matter what," said Gaspar.   
"Unless the wish would cease the wind's existence," added Melchior.   
"So where do all these realities converge and when is the Black Wind strongest?" asked Magus.   
"The place is the Northern Cape, in 12,000 BC or as close to that time as you can get. Or at least it's called the Northern Cape in this reality. I don't know if it'll be called the same thing in the other realities," said Melchior.   
"Alright. However, there's one reality that I unfortunately go to where I'm dead and I'm forced to stay in the Afterlife. The only thing I can do is communicate with Schala. What am I supposed to do about that?"   
"That's perfect!" said Melchior. "I was thinking that this might work better if someone uttered the chant of Lunar Magic with the chant of the Black Wind. And don't ask why; the physics of it are entirely too complicated to explain. What you have to do is tell Schala to go to the Northern Cape (or whatever it's called) and upon your command, say the chant of Lunar Magic. You'll give her the signal just when you're about to say your chant. Got that?"   
"I think so," said Magus..   
"Good. Then let's hurry on over to the Cape in this reality," said Melchior. 

Fortunately, they had no trouble in arriving at the Northern Cape by using a teleportation spell once they got to 12,000 BC, though along the way, Magus had some minor dizzy spells.   
"It's the Black Wind trying to get to you through the force shield. You weren't experiencing it in the End of Time because that in itself is one of the most difficult places for the Wind to reach," was Melchior's explanation.   
Once they got to the Northern Cape, Melchior instructed Magus precisely where to stand in order to get the best results, and then he said, "Ok, now we're going to have to take the force shield off of you, and the Black Wind probably won't allow your consciousness to travel back here anymore since all this has happened, so you're going to be alone. Are you ready?"   
Magus took a deep breath, and nodded.   
"Ok, I'm taking the shield off....now," said Melchior.   


  
Magus was back in King Guardia XXXIII's bedroom again. Schala was beside him and Crono and Marle were on the opposite side of the bed.   
"Schala, I want to thank you for trying to heal me," the king said warmly. Schala smiled.   
"It was my pleasure, Your Majesty."   
"If there's anything you need, please, feel free to ask."   
"You've already given me your thanks for allowing me to live in your kingdom," said Schala.   
"Um...I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have to go now," said Magus. He started out the door.   
"Magus, what's wrong?!" said Schala. "What's SO important that you just HAVE to leave right away??"   
"Quite possibly, the fate of the entire universe," said Magus.   
After he was gone, Marle said, "Do ya think this has anything to do with what he said about jumping back and forth between parallel universes or whatever?"   
"Probably. Is it alright if I go with him, Hon? Just to make sure he's alright?" asked Crono. Marle sighed and rolled her eyes.   
"Fine. Just don't get killed or anything," she said reluctantly.   
"Thanks," said Crono, and he sped out after him.   
"Schala, do you wanna go with them too?" asked Marle.   
"No. If I'm not here, your father might get worse again. Besides, they're grown boys. They can handle this themselves, whatever it is." 

"Magus!!" Crono called, just as Magus was about to open the gate in Guardia Forest.   
"Crono?! What are you doing here?"   
"I'm here to help you out. C'mon, you can explain what's going on on the way."   
"I'm perfectly capable of--"   
"No you're not. You don't have a Gate Key, remember?" said Crono, and he pulled it out of his pocket.   
"No, I suppose not," Magus said disappointedly. He sighed. "Alright then, if you insist on coming with me, then come on."   
  
"Alright, genius," said Magus, as they stood on the coast of a tiny island in 11,999 BC containing the cave with the time gate inside, "What do we do now?"   
"We go back to the present and get the Epoch," said Crono, and they retraced their steps.   
  


As Magus walked into the cave, he found himself in one of the cars on a Ferris Wheel. He was holding a cane and Clancy was in the car with him. "We've gotta stop the ride," he said immediately.   
"What? Why?" asked the Chancellor.   
"No time to explain. I need to get somewhere," said Magus.   
Clancy called out, "Stop the ride so we can get out!! It's an emergency!"   
The operator of the Ferris Wheel did as he was told, and Magus rushed towards the very back of Leene Square, hoping that a Time Gate would be there as it was 150 years ago.   
Unfortunately, there was a circus tent in the way, and a large one at that.   
"Sir, I wish you would just tell me what you're trying to do," begged Clancy.   
"I need to get around to the other side of this tent," said Magus. He found a door and peeked inside. He was ready to charge on through. The Chancellor managed to peek in, too, and tried to stop the king.   
"Sir!! You can't go through there! They're in the middle of a show!"   
"Watch me," said Magus, and went straight through the middle of the stage to the other side, everyone watching him in disbelief. When he got to the other side, he took out his pocket knife and cut himself a door.   
Sure enough, the time gate was there; Magus could feel it in his bones. The problem was finding a way to access it. The Chancellor had already given up on trying to figure out what he was trying to do.   
With no other recourse, Magus did the only thing he could think of: he prayed to the sentient being behind Lunar Magic. Like wonders, the gate opened up, Clancy staring at it wide eyes. Magus leapt into it, and Clancy followed just before it closed. 

As he appeared in the End of Time, Magus realized something: He would have the same problem in this reality as he did in the last one, except this time he wouldn't have access to an Epoch to bail himself out with. Following this revelation, he figured that he'd have the same problem in almost every other reality. He sighed, at a loss, and decided to confide in Gaspar, ignoring Clancy's constant blubbering.   
"May I help you..?" Gaspar asked as the two men approached. He didn't recognize either of them, but one of them had a vaguely familiar aura about him.   
"Gaspar, it's me, Prince Janus," said Magus.   
Gaspar adjusted his glasses. "Prince Janus?! But...you're old...older than I am," he said.   
"I know. Now listen, I don't have time for small talk. I need to find a way to get to the Last Village in 12,000 BC. If I take the light pillar to 12,000 BC, I'll end up in a cave on a tiny island with no way to get to the village, so I need your help."   
"Hmmm...I believe I trust you because I'm beginning to recognize your aura's signature. I'll help you, but I need to think about how we're to do this. What about using a boat?"   
"Where are we gonna get a boat?" asked Magus.   
"Sir," said Clancy, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but may I point out that you have full access to any boat in Guardia?"   
"Clancy, you're a genius!" said Magus. "All we need to do is find a canoe or something. Small enough so it can fit through a time gate, but sturdy enough to carry both of us to the Last Village. I think we can do that! Thanks, Gaspar! Come on, Clancy, let's go."   
  


After Magus stepped into the light pillar leading back to Leene Square, he reappeared outside of Dalton's room in Dalton Castle. Mere seconds after he found himself there, everything started shaking. The empty cereal bowl on the kitchen table fell off and broke on the floor.   
Dalton stormed out of his room and unintentionally knocked Magus down. "Prophet!! What's going on?? I demand that you tell me!"   
Magus thought about this for a moment, and then remembered what day it was: January 1st, 1999 AD. He'd been the only one in the world keeping track of the date according to the timeline that incorporated AD and BC into it. "Sir, I believe it's Lavos."   
"What?" said Dalton. "Lavos..? But that's impossible!!"   
"No it's not," said Magus. He was unusually calm (to Dalton, anyway). "It's not like Lavos died back in the Ocean Palace. He just went back down underground. Now he's coming back for revenge."   
Dalton thought about this for a second. "You're right!! I've gotta get together my army! We have to get rid of this thing before it destroys everything I've accomplished over the milennia!" and he ran out of the room.   
Magus sighed. This, of course, meant that he wouldn't have a chance to get to any time gates any time soon. He'd have to wait until Lavos was dealt with. After another sigh, he teleported directly to Lavos and hoped that Dalton's military would be a good diversion so he could make a sneak attack.   
  
Lavos roared really loud, just like he always did whenever something happened.   
"Ok, you stupid turtle, prepare to die. I have more important matters to deal with than you, so try not to drag this out too long," said Magus, brandishing his scythe. He made the first attack and sprung forward at the beast, slashing deeply into its hypnotic eyes. It roared in pain and fired a spike-missile from its shell. Part of it scraped Magus's shoulder pretty bad and it bled.   
Next, Magus tossed a Dark Bomb at the creature, further damaging its putrid face. It sucked up some of the surplus energy from the bomb and spewed it back at the wizard. He jumped out of the way and fired a laser blast of pure darkness in mid-air. That acted as the final blow and the head disintegrated into nothing.   
"Well, that was easy enough," said Magus, and he strolled into the shell to fight Inner Lavos.   


  
"Whoa...." said Schala. Lucca was just starting up the Epoch.   
"What?" she asked.   
"The man from my dream...he's talking to me again..."   
"What's he saying?" asked Marle.   
"He's telling me to go to the Northern Cape in 12,000 BC.....Something about all reality being at stake," said Schala. She sounded scared.   
"What should we do?" Lucca asked Crono and Marle. "Go see Cyrus, or do like this Magus guy says?"   
"Let's go see Cyrus first. After all, this Magus-dude is supposed to be all evil n' stuff, so I don't think we should--"   
"Take me to the Northern Cape," said Schala.   
"Huh?" said Lucca.   
"Just do it. Take me there. Trust me, I know what's going on."   
So, Lucca set the time gauge to 12,000 BC and pulled the lever. She drove the ship to the Northern Cape as Magus directed her, using some previously- installed floatation devices on the Epoch to exactly the right spot to stand. Immediately she felt a strong connection with the man in her dream, as if he was standing right next to her. Then, she started feeling the presence of somebody else...   


"Gaspar....look," whispered Melchior. Gaspar looked up from the snowy ground of the Northern Cape and gaped at what he saw. Standing there beside Magus's entranced body was a see-through version of Schala, like a ghost of her.   
"Gaspar...? Melchior? Is that you? What are you doing here? And why do you look like ghosts?"   
"Schala....from our perspective, you're the one who looks like a ghost," said Melchior.   
"Ok, but what are you doing here?"   
"That would take some explaining," said Gaspar.   
  


Janus was still watching the stupid parade when he came to. He turned around and said to his sister, "I've gotta go now. I'll catch ya later. Bye," and he teleported away.   
"Janus?! Janus!!!!" Schala yelled. "I'm so sorry, Honey..." she said to Sonaro.   
"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault. Go on and look for him. I'll be right here if ya need my help or anything," said her boyfriend. She winked at him and disappeared.   
  
"Let's see...." said Janus. He was in the royal library in the castle, looking over a map of the world and trying to remember what the map of the ruined 12,000 BC looked like so he could compare. ".....the Northern Cape would be......Here!" and his heart sunk. On this map, in this reality, there was no land in that location. It was pure ocean   
Just as quickly, he realized that his powers were about ten times stronger in this reality than in any other, and he could just float himself to the precise spot or something like that. He was ready to teleport there when Schala appeared beside him.   
"JANUS!!! You are in SOOOOO much trouble...." she said angrily.   
"Look, Sis, just go back to the parade. I'll be fine. There's just something I have to do," said Janus, and he disappeared. Schala was ready to chase after him, but decided to give up and let him go for now. She had more important things to worry about.   
Janus reappeared at the nearest coastline to the point in question. Luckily, the place he was supposed to be wasn't terribly far away; maybe half a mile. He raised his hands and they glowed. The glow transfered itself to the ocean water, and the entire surface of the water froze completely for a full five miles off the coast.   
He teleported his pair of ice skates from the castle to where he was and put them on. Then he skated across the ice and kept his senses alert so he could tell where he was supposed to go. He finally found that spot and skreeched to a halt. He took off his ice skates and carefully stood straight up on the ice, and he concentrated.   


This was definitely the spot; he could actually feel himself in three realities at once, seeing each one with crystal clarity and having full control of his bodies in the two where he was still alive.   
"I'm back," he said to the others, and he saw Schala's ghost-form standing there. "Hi," he said, "I'm the one who's been appearing in your dreams and telling you to do all this stuff. I'm your brother, and it's nice to see you."   
"Um..." said Schala, "Nice to see you too...."   
  


Then his consciousness was torn from those realities and transfered to the reality where he was ready to step out on stage and give the speech which Ozzie had prepared. He stood there dumbfounded for a moment, and a low mumble circulated through the huge crowd of monsters.   
Finally, Magus threw the speech to the wooden stage and ran to the microphone. "We're doing great. You're all a good crowd and the Mystics shall prevail. Gotta run, see ya," he said, and he jumped off the stage, encasing himself in a magic bubble in midair and zooming through the sky. Luckily, this was one reality where his powers hadn't diminished too much.   
Ozzie and Flea looked on as he left with disbelief. "What's he doing?!" Ozzie cried.   
"I don't know, but you better get up there and think of something! The crowd's getting restless!!" said Flea. 

As Magus sped toward Medina Village in pursuit of a time gate (the fairgrounds were a little to the north of where the village would've been), he remembered that there wasn't a Medina Village in this era, nor was there a time gate. He realized he'd have to cross the ocean in order to get to Truce Canyon, and his powers weren't strong enough for the magic bubble to carry him all that distance.   
With increasing irritation, he reluctantly entered the Magic Cave, the same cave that Crono and Frog would've used to reach his castle, had they survived that long.   
After a tiresome trek through the cave, Magus emerged east of Slash Village. The humans had named it SanDorino, but it was re-named in honor of the war hero who died there.   
He crossed Magus Bridge (formerly Zenan Bridge) and sped toward Truce Canyon. By this time he was completely worn out, but he forced himself to continue on to the time gate. He could replenish his strength in the End of Time with that bowl of magic water.   
As soon as he arrived in the End of Time, he went straight for that bowl of water. Sure enough, it totally re-energized him. He waved to Gaspar and then ran back to the light pillars to find 12,000 BC. 

In 12,000 BC, Magus sat on the beach of the tiny island with the cave on it. He knew how he would get across. It would be difficult, but he could do it. It was just a matter of endurance.   
Getting up and dusting himself off, Magus took a deep breath and took a flying leap off the coast, catching himself in his magic bubble again. He flew as fast as he could in the direction of the Last Village, stopping every now and then on a stable piece of ice in the water to give his magical powers a little rest.   
He finally made it, but just barely. He was ready to collapse when he finally arrived in the village. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to even stand up straight in the Northern Cape, Magus decided to spend the night in the inn/shop, run by the last surviving Nu from the Ocean Palace disaster.   
  


"Thanks, Lucca," said Crono. She'd just finished giving Crono a brief tutorial on how to pilot the Epoch. He'd never done it before because she always insisted on it.   
"Don't mention it. Just don't crash into anything and be careful," said Lucca. Crono nodded and turned the ignition. The Epoch levitated up from outside Lucca's lab at her house, and Crono set the time gauge.   
"Crono, I appreciate you doing this," said Magus.   
"No problem, man," said Crono. He pulled the lever and then they were in 11,999 BC again. Crono flew to the Last Village and landed in the middle of it.   
"This is my stop. You can come with me if you wish," said Magus as he hopped out of the cockpit.   
"You bet! I wanna see what's up just as much as you do," said Crono, following him.   
Magus stopped in the correct spot, and then he felt himself in all four realities at once.   
"Magus?" said Crono. "Are you okay?"   
"Yeah, Crono, I'm fine," said Magus. He looked down. "Uh oh...this ice is getting a little too warm. Hold on, lemme re-freeze it again."   
"What?" asked Melchior. "Magus, what are you talking about?"   
"You're not standing on any ice," said Crono.   
"He's obviously standing on ice in one of the realities," said Schala. The gurus had explained everything to her already.   
"That's better," said Magus. Then he jumped realities again.   
  


"There! This one's perfect," said Magus. He was looking over the boats in the harbor at Truce Village.   
"Good. Alright, guys, pick it up and follow us," said Clancy. The group of soldiers picked up the canoe and followed Magus and Clancy back to Leene Square. Magus had already ordered that the carnival be closed for the day and in return, it would stay an extra day.   
  
After going to the End of Time, Magus ordered that three of the men take the canoe through the appropriate gate and leave the boat in the cave they'd appear in, then come back and allow him and Clancy to go through. He did this because of the Law of Conservation of Time.   
Magus and the Chancellor rowed the canoe slowly but surely toward the Last Village. They got there after about two hours of rowing, one of the longest times he'd spent in a single reality while still awake. Magus walked up to the appropriate spot at the Northern Cape and concentrated. He was in five realities at once this time.   
"Wow...it's weird being in a young body and an old body at the same time," he said.   
"Oh! So that's what's happening. You're in five realities at the same time?!" Crono exclaimed. "How can you keep up with everything?"   
"I don't know. It just seems to all fit together somehow," said Magus.   
"What seems to fit together?" asked Clancy.   
"Forget it," said Magus.   
"Forget what?" said Gaspar.   
Magus sighed. "Alright, so this gets a little less confusing, I think it would be a good idea for everyone to huddle around me a little closer. That way, I think everyone should be able to see and hear everyone else, no matter what reality you're in. Got that?"   
They all did that, and in an instant everyone could see and hear everyone else, though somewhat unclearly due to the fact that none of them were in the best spot like Magus was.   
  


"Oh, ok, I'm about to fight Inner Lavos," Magus reminded himself. He continued into the cave and met up with the large creature.   
A few swift blows and well-timed spells got rid of the two remaining forms of Lavos. Magus asked Dalton for some time off, and he was granted it since he did, after all, save the world.   
Using this free time, he searched for a time gate somewhere in the world. He finally found one in Dalton Square (where Porre Village would've been). Somehow, ever since he'd first prayed to the force behind Lunar Magic in that one reality, every time gate he came near automatically opened itself up for him.   
Just like before, he traveled to 12,000 BC, and in this reality he had more than enough magical power to float all the way to the Last Village in his magic bubble. He'd been honing his magic skills for the past 14,000 years, after all.   
And then he was in six realities at once. There was only one more to go, and in the last one he was already in the Last Village.   


After some time spent waiting, Magus jumped back to the last reality, where he woke up suddenly. He got up and tossed a few hundred gold pieces on the floor beside the Nu, and sped out to the Northern Cape.   
  


"Ok, I've done it!" said Magus. "I'm here in every single reality."   
"Good," said Melchior. "On the count of three, Magus, say the Chant of the Black Wind, and Schala, you say the Chant of Lunar Magic. Both of you make sure and ask for Reality as your request. Do you understand?"   
Magus and Schala nodded.   
"Neuga, Ziena, Zieber, Zom.....Now the chosen time has come....exchange this world for..." said Magus, as Schala uttered,   
"Cornum, martis, zengil, zive....The Time of Light, has arrived....Give the Gift of....."   
And then, at the same time, Magus and Schala said, "Reality!!!!!!!!!!"   
Poof.   



	8. Chrono Trigger: Alternate Realities // P...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Crono Thrigger or

the characters, just the plot in this story.

The Black Wind

_Part IV_

Chapter VIII

BY

D A R T HV A D E R

** **

** **

"Well done," a voice whispered.   
"Eeeek!!" Marle yelped. "What's going on??"   
"Where are we?" asked Schala.   
"These surroundings are unfamiliar to anything in my memory banks," said Robo.   
"Ayla no scare! What happen?"   
"This doesn't look good..." said Lucca.   
"What hath brought us here?" asked Frog.   
"That's a good question," said Cyrus. He looked at Frog and squinted hard. "What are you...?" he asked.   
Frog freaked when he saw Cyrus. "Cyrus!! 'Tis me, Glenn! Magus transformed me into the form you see today! Now, why art thou here?"   
"I believe I can offer somewhat of an explanation," said Magus. Cyrus turned to look at him.   
"Magus!!!! What are you doing alive?! I thought I killed you already!" he shouted.   
Magus was already shaking his head. "No, no, no. There's no time for bickering. For now we have to work together to defeat the Black Wind!"   
"You believe you can defeat us," a voice whispered.   
"What was that?" asked Crono.   
"That," said Magus, "Was the Black Wind."   
"Black Wind....my memory banks tell me that you mentioned the Black Wind at two separate occasions during the time we've known you," said Robo.   
"Yes, that's correct. Once when I was a boy in Enhasa, and once in my castle. However, I seriously doubt that any of you know what the Black Wind is. I didn't even know up until not too long ago," said Magus.   
"What Black Wind? Ayla eat for breakfast!" said Ayla.   
"Magus, what is this Black Wind which thou speakest of?" asked Frog.   
"The Black Wind is a sentient being, made up of many other sentient beings. It's a purely evil force that seeks to devour everything it can. Whatever and whoever it devours is added to its collective consciousness and adds to its already-surpeme power. Now what we must do is defeat it before it overcomes the counterbalancing force created to stop it when it entered this world in the year 12,014 BC," said Magus.   
Everyone stared at him in silence. "Wow....even I don't understand all that," said Lucca.   
Magus sighed. "Ok, let me put it in terms that even Ayla can understand. Black Wind, baaaaad. Must stop Black Wind. Everyone got that?"   
Everyone nodded, and to Magus's dismay, no one seemed to notice the extreme sarcasm in his voice.   
"Oh we noticed it, alright," said Schala. "We just chose not to say anything."   
Magus looked at her funny.   
"I can read minds, Bro," said Schala, smirking.   
"Enough small talk," a voice whispered, "It is time to fight."   
And then Cyrus and Schala vanished.   
  


"Ack!! Schala!" Magus yelped. He looked up. "Why did you do that?! What did she ever do to you??"   
"She does not exist," the whispering voice replied. "She ceased to exist ever since the Ocean Palace incident."   
"And what of Cyrus?" asked Frog. He was pretty shaken up too.   
"He ceased to exist when Magus defeated him in the Denadoro Mountains, 590 AD. Those two were simply illusions, just like the synthetic realities we threw Magus into. Though they were real and not simply a figment of someone's imagination, they were created--and then destroyed--by me."   
"And who are you?" asked Marle.   
"I believe I have already answered that," said the voice. Then, "Enough!! Let the battle begin!"   
And the blackness of the surroundings shrank and gathered itself in one place, and now they were in what appeared to be,   
"Hey, this looks like temporal limbo!!" said Lucca.   
"You mean the place we go to whenever we're in between two time periods?" asked Crono.   
"Yes, this is precisely that place," said a shape that had just been formed from all the blackness. It was as if they were in a glass bubble and up until now, ink had been completely covering the inside glass of the bubble. "Now, have at you!" and it raised its arms. Everyone else got lifted into the air by an imaginary force.   
"My sensors are detecting an impossibly high energy reading--!" said Robo. "Almost a thousand times that of the Black Omen..."   
"Ayla no scared! Ayla fight! Fight, or die!!"   
The featureless silhouette squeezed its hands together like it was grasping something, and everyone felt as though they were being crushed.   
Things looked bleak. No one could even get a chance to make an attack. Finally, Magus thought of something. It'd be a longshot, but he didn't have much of a choice.   
He managed to hold his scythe and concentrate enough to imbue it with some shadow magic power, remembering Melchior's words:   
"There is only one way to defeat the Black Wind. I've done alot of research on it, and I've found that Lunar magic cannot and will not destroy it. It can only balance it out. The only way to defeat the Black Wind is to use its own power against it. And Magus, given that you are the ultimate Shadow Wizard, you would be the ideal opponent."   
Summing up all the strength he had left, he hurled the empowered weapon straight at the entity that was the Black Wind. It tore into the entity and stopped halfway through, so that half of the curved blade was sticking out.   
It howled in pain and dropped its arms. Everyone dropped to the invisible floor and the crushing pressure was gone.   
"Quick, everyone let loose on it as much as you can! It's the only way to defeat it!" said Magus.   
Crono opened up the attack with Luminaire, and the lunar-like properties of the spell weakened the Black Wind because of the counterbalancing properties.   
Frog followed up with a flying leap-slash attack and Lucca accompanied it with Flare. Marle saw to it that everyone got totally healed from all the damage done to them while Robo fired a concentrated laser beam at the entity. Since Robo's laser beam's energy patterns are similar to the energy patterns of Shadow magic, they hurt the Black Wind twice as much.   
Ayla ran to the monster and kicked the crap out of it with her bare fists and fast kicks while it struggled to remove the scythe from its chest. Finally, he got the thing out and slashed Ayla with it. She reeled back to where everyone else was and Marle healed her.   
Magus responded to his recovery with his strongest spell, Dark Matter. Shadow energy materialized in the form of a huge, two-dimensional triangle and converged on the Black Wind. That hurt it almost as much as the shadow-imbued scythe had.   
"Insolent wimps," the entity whispered, "You cannot kill me. I am completely invulnerable to anything you have to dish out. Your efforts are useless."   
"My scythe certainly looked like it caused you some pain," said Magus. "Don't listen to it," he continued to the others, "It's trying to trick us into giving up. We can beat this thing!"   
"Of course! We can beat anything!" said Lucca. She fired her newly developed proton cannon at the entity. It seemed unaffected and in return it shot seven balls of pure black shadow energy, one at each of his opponents. Magus was the only one able to dodge it by using teleportation. He threw a Dark Bomb at the enemy and ran over to help Marle.   
Once Marle was a bit better, she used her magic to cure everyone else and soon everyone was all better again.   
"You...you're just delaying the inevitable!" said the Black Wind. "I'll defeat you eventually. You can't keep fighting forever!"   
"Don't hesitate! Hit him with all you have!" Magus coached.   
Crono leapt up to the beast and swung his sword repeatedly at it non-stop. Magus cast a spell on the sword so it had some properties of shadow magic in it, and by the time his arms got tired and he jumped back, the entity was severely hurt. It was stumbling all over the invisible floor, trying to regain its balance.   
"Now! Here's our chance! Everyone join hands and act like you're about to do your strongest magic attacks! If we all combine our powers we'll be fine!"   
"What about Ayla? Ayla no have magic power."   
"And I am unable to perform magic due to the fact that my soul is only artificial," said Robo.   
"You two can physically attack it while we're onslaughting it with magic," said Lucca. "Y'know, punch it, kick it, ram it, that sorta stuff."   
"Yeah!! Kick the crap out of it!" said Marle.   
Everyone but Robo and Ayla joined hands and acted like they were about to cast their strongest spells. Magus chanted, "Neuga, Zie--"   
"No!!" a voice shouted. Magus opened his eyes to see who said it. It didn't appear to be anyone.   
He was quickly brought back on track by a glance at the Black Wind sort of regaining its balance. He was about to start the chant again, and then realized something.   
Instead of the normal chant, he said, "Cornum, martis, zengil, zive....The Time of Light, has arrived....Give the Gift of....um....Give the gift of Destruction!"   
And all at once, everyone's magical energy gathered up on Magus, and from him fired a huge beam of pure black energy, laced with a hint of yellow light.   
This laser beam slammed into the Black Wind and it gave a shriek of extreme pain and terror. Robo and Ayla followed up with a swift beating, and the Black Wind was lifeless on the invisible floor inside a minute.   
"I....." was the Black Wind's last word, and then it dissipated into nothing.   
  
  


  
Just like that, everyone wound up in Leene Square, 1000 AD, and this time it was the right reality.   
"Whoa!! What a rush!" said Lucca.   
"That kicked....butt!" said Marle.   
"Ayla happy! We win!"   
"Magus, what was that all about?" asked Frog.   
"That, my friend, is a long story. Very long, in fact," said Magus. He stood up on the cobblestones and took in his surroundings. The soft, green grass was moving gently with the cool breeze and the sun was shining brightly from the blue sky above. He took a big whiff of the nice, pure air and was finally satisfied that this was definitely where he was supposed to be.   
"Would you mind telling us exactly what has just occurred?" asked Robo.   
"Of course. But not here, not right now. Is there somewhere nice and homey that we could go and maybe get a meal from?"   
"Sure, we'll go to my house," said Crono. "My mom's a great cook."   
Magus thought about something in one of the realities. He asked, "What year is this? Is it 1000 or 1001?"   
"It's 1000," said Marle. "Why?"   
Magus looked back and forth Crono and Marle, standing side by side. He remembered the reality where the two of them were married, the one that they'd saved Schala from Lavos in. He grinned. "Are you two...what's the term....Going out?" he asked.   
"Magus...? Art thou feeling alright?" asked Frog.   
"I'm fine," said Magus, still expecting someone to answer.   
"Well....yeah, we've been on a few dates. Why?" said Crono.   
"Good. Very good. Now come, let's go. I'll tell you why I asked that while I explain all that just happened." 


End file.

Chrono Trigger