Chrono Continuum Chapter 92
Two Concussions and a Nosebleed
By Cain
Timeless
Well, thought Derias, At least Gaston’s gone. Maybe next time I’ll be able to find a way to help. If there is a next time. Gaston could be anywhere in the universe. Anywhere at all. I’ll just have to go searching for him, though it won’t do much good. But first, I need to see how this ends.
He stared into the portal wishing he could do something. Anything. But he simply watched as the three heroes tried to kill their best friends.
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1999 A.D.
The spell started out as a sphere, rather purplish. It seemed to pulse with a life all its own as it hovered below the Magus’ palm. Slowly, the sphere seemed to... compress. It became thinner and thinner, and longer as well, until it was pointed on both ends, like a twisted piece of cloth. The odd-looking spell suddenly began to lower, dropping down as if someone had let it go, but it stopped about five feet from the ground. And with no warning, it shot forward. Straight at the Travelers.
Gaspar’s hands were outstretched, and a green field was standing at his fingertips. Masa and Mune were standing at his side, their small hands on the shield, adding their own bit to the magic. Glenn, behind them, threw his own bit of magic into the shield as well, though his knowledge of such things was limited. The Frog was all but useless at the moment without its magic-amplification abilities, but Glenn held it close, just in case.
It did them no good whatsoever.
The thus far misnamed Dark Horizon flew forward, and effortlessly smashed through the shield the Guru and two Finori had erected. It flew right over Gaspar’s shoulder, ignoring him completely. Glenn had time only to bring the Frog between himself and the spell. Once again, it did no good. The spell batted aside the black sword like a stick, and passed through his clothing as if it wasn’t there, slamming into his chest. The strange spell vanished into him, leaving no mark on his skin. But it wasn’t done yet.
Glenn screamed as his mind was opened completely to the Black Wind.
Darkness swept through his body, darkness that left him feeling cold, and soiled down to his soul. Elsewhere on the planet, a bird was eaten by a cat, and Glenn felt its pain. A man was disconnected from life support, and Glenn felt his life leave his wasted body. Glenn felt the pain and suffering and hatred and evil of every living thing on the planet. He could feel ripples of evil coming from the past and the future, and he could see every dark thought that lurked in his own mind. He could hear the thoughts of bloodlust from his companions, and when Melchior’s arm was cut off, Glenn was there.
Glenn screamed as very few humans had ever done before as he fell to his knees. As his head hit the ground, and he lay on his side, all he could see was the ground, stretching off into the distance. And to him, he who had seen the evil of the entire world for one brief moment, even the horizon looked dark.
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Same Time
Lucca cried out in pain as Corea’s knee slammed into the small of her back. The inventor fell to her knees, and then pitched forward onto her belly, to avoid the blow to her head that she had known was coming. Her suspicion was confirmed as one of Corea’s rods swept past where her head had been a moment ago. Lucca, still on her belly, swept her leg out blindly behind herself, and was satisfied to feel one of Corea’s legs give way. She rolled out of the way in the second it took Corea to regain her balance.
Taking the split-second advantage, Ayla flew, feet-first, into Corea’s chest. They both fell to the ground, and scrambled back to their feet in a moment. Corea, who had yet to actually react to any of the blows she’d received, simply blocked the flurry of punches Ayla threw with her rods, not taking a single hit from the cave-woman. But Ayla was determined, and knew Corea enough to be able to block all of Corea’s return attacks as well, though with a little more difficulty.
Ayla didn’t flinch as one of the metal rods slammed into her palm and she grabbed it. In a moment, she also had the other one. She couldn’t quite take them from Corea, but for the moment they were in a stalemate, Corea trying to wrench her weapons from the cave-woman and failing.
Ayla couldn’t even cry out as electricity surged into her, the two rods acting like conductors as Corea turned on a medium amount of Lightning magic. The moment Ayla’s stunned hands released the rods, Corea pulled back and punched the woman in the face, knocking her to the ground.
There wasn’t even a pause before Corea was simply tackled to the ground by Christina, who was running out of ideas. Instead of trying to hold the girl down, Christina immediately rolled off, and tried to kick the prone girl in the side of the head. Corea’s arm came up to block, and in a moment the princess was standing again. Christina managed to block one rod with her metal hand, but she was too slow to do anything about the rod that came up from the other side and slammed into her head. There was a sudden explosion of sparks as her cybernetic eye was smashed. Christina fell to the ground roughly, and lay still.
Corea turned to fend off whichever of the two was going to come at her next. Ayla. The cave-woman was breathing hard and smoking slightly. But for some reason, she was smiling.
Corea only had enough time to turn and see what was coming before Lucca’s mallet, long forgotten, slammed into the side of her head.
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Same Time Period
She should have been crying. Marle knew that she should be on the ground, sobbing, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t. Tears had been burned out of her, and she was pretty sure that she was in a state of shock. But she didn’t let that distract her from what was important: Melchior. A man could bleed to death with an injury like the Guru’s, and Marle was damned if she was going to lose another friend.
But that didn’t mean it was easy. She’d never had to deal with a wound quite like this before. What do you do when someone’s missing half of their arm? She was more skilled than any of the others at healing, but she doubted she could fully regenerate Melchior’s arm. She’d probably just have to stop the bleeding and hope. After all, she was supposed to be the optimistic Traveler, right?
As she tried to save the Guru’s life, she chuckled bitterly. Optimistic. Once, maybe, long ago...
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Same Time Period
Robo’s fist shot out, aiming for Crono’s head, but of course the former King managed to dodge. Robo hadn’t really expected less. What was unexpected was when Crono’s own hand suddenly shot out (not literally) and grabbed the chain still attached to Robo’s arm. Robo pulled, trying to get his hand back, but was unpleasantly surprised to find that he couldn’t budge Crono. That armor really gave the Hero of Time an advantage.
Even as Crono struggled in the tug-of-war with the robot, he brought up his sword to fend off a double-handed strike from Wethreem’s sword from overhead, and easily pushed the winged man away back into the air. Crono suddenly stabbed his sword into the ground and ducked, just in time for Gedd to pass right over him and stumble to a halt a few feet away. Gedd managed to catch his balance, but no sooner did he turn than he saw something he really didn’t like: Robo flying straight toward him. Gedd tried to jump to the side, but he just wasn’t fast enough. Robo crashed into him, unyielding, and swept the middle-aged man aside as he continued moving around in a wide circle, being swung around with both hands by Crono. There was little the robot could do; he couldn’t accurately aim with his other hand or with his shoulder cannon, and using his rockets would only make things worse.
Crono suddenly released Robo’s hand, and the robot went flying right where Crono had aimed him: straight at the shell of Lavos. Robo tried to twist to minimize the damage the spiky shell would cause him, but he slammed into shell with the force of a train, back first, effectively crushing the rocket on his back. To his dismay, he soon discovered he was wedged in between several spikes, one of which had pierced the edge of his leg. He was stuck.
Crono turned unhurriedly to face his last challenge, the winged warrior. Wethreem dropped to the ground as Crono drew his Rainbow from the ground. Crono looked worn, but Wethreem looked absolutely ragged, and he felt it. Nonetheless, he charged, using his now-tattered wings to add extra speed, and met Crono, sword in hand. Wethreem attacked ferociously, slashing with both swords almost wildly. Crono blocked every single strike, as if he knew they were coming before Wethreem.
Wethreem tried an overhead strike, but his sword was batted aside. His other sword came up in a slice to the neck, but was knocked down to the ground, and Wethreem’s own momentum left his side wide open. Crono drew back his sword to make the finishing thrust.
Crono didn’t even make a sound as a solid block of ice, hard as rock, slammed into the back of his head. He fell, unconscious, his armor making a clatter as he hit the stone. Wethreem could only stare, still surprised, as Marle walked up to her husband’s form and sat beside him. The winged man shook his head. That woman is stronger than any of us, he thought.
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Same Time Period
Masa fell to the ground, moaning, beside his injured brother. Gaspar tried to rise from his hands and knees, but couldn’t manage it, even when the Magus went to stand silently over Glenn’s barely conscious form. The wizard stared down at the knight for a few moments as Glenn continued to shiver, trying to rid the shadows from his soul. Abruptly, the Magus squatted beside the knight.
“Do you understand now?” he asked, his voice nearly inaudible. Glenn managed to come out of his half-mad condition to stare at the wizard. Magus continued, “The darkness? It’s everywhere. You got the worst of it, but I’ve had to live with it my whole life. And people wonder why I’m a pessimist.” Then the Magus shook his head, as if arguing with himself. “I’ll... be gone, soon... I can’t resist its orders.” He looked Glenn in the eyes. “I’m... sorry, Glenn. I’ve lived my life with this darkness, but I’ve only ended up perpetuating it. I wish... I could have told that damned Frog... I wish...”
He closed his eyes, and when they opened again, they were emotionless. The thing in Magus’ body looked down at the knight, and decided there was no point in wasting magic. Calmly, it reached to its belt, and brought out a scythe, the handle of which extended from the blade. It raised the scythe for the killing blow.
“He... forgave you,” Glenn whispered.
Magus didn’t react. But he didn’t move, either. The scythe remained poised in midair, ready at any moment to fall and kill the knight. He didn’t even blink. His eyes simply stared, as if his body had been temporarily abandoned. And then, strangely, a drop of blood slid out of his delicate nose, and down to his lip. In a moment, the blood became a thin stream which ran down his chin. And he screamed.
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Same Time Period
Christina sat on the cold ground, dazed. Her cybernetic eye had been destroyed, crushed beyond repair. She’d have to replace it, something she didn’t look forward to. Maybe you won’t have to, she told herself. Maybe you’ll die, once you realize that Rakin really is dead. She shook off that thought. It certainly didn’t help anyone.
The three battle had spread to different areas around the huge shell, and none could see the other. She was considering going to check on one of the others, when she suddenly heard a shifting on the stone, and knew the Corea was coming to. She turned, but Ayla and Lucca were already there by the girl’s side, ready to help her up. Or kill her. If that hit on the head hadn’t knocked sense into her, Christina didn’t know what would. Maybe nothing.
Corea’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused. She simply stared up at the sky. Lucca cautiously waved a hand before her face, and the eyes blinked. They blinked again, and then they were sharp. The eyebrows tightened in confusion or anger, and the eyes darted around. They settled on Lucca’s face. There was a pause. And then Corea’s face softened, and she smiled, and Christina knew she was back.
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Same Time Period
Crono’s green eyes shot open and immediately focused on the first thing they saw: blue eyes. Familiar blue eyes. He stared, somewhat confused, as if he fully expected this to be a dream of some sort, and that if he reached for the eyes, they would fade away. Slowly, hesitantly, he raised an armored hand to the pair of blue eyes. With wonder in his eyes, he swept a loose lock of blonde hair out of the way, and blinked as the blue eyes began to water.
Marle could barely breathe in Crono’s abrupt hug, but she didn’t complain at all. Her tears hadn’t been burned out of her after all, but perhaps she wouldn’t be needing them much longer.
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Same Time Period
Magus fell to his knees and hands on the cold, hard ground, and the blood immediately began to pool beneath his face. His mouth and chin were a bloody mess, the same color as his eyes. There was another sharp pain, and then it happened. A small device, barely visible to the eye, dropped from his nose inside the flow of blood. The MC chip.
Magus smiled grimly. He was free now. Free. And you’ll pay, Valiod. You’ll pay in spades.
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”Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
-Unknown
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