Chrono Trigger: Dare Chapter 33
The Table’s Flip...
By Crono_12
The battle began as soon as we started moving. Bolts of energy lashed at us from Ibleess, forcing us to scatter. Walls of fire erupted ahead of us, but the combined water magics of Frog, Marle, and Ecin were enough to quench any flame. The closer we came to him, the more obstacles he threw at us as if he desperately wanted us to stop before we came too close. The walls of flame gave way to tidal waves, which Lucca and Magus evaporated in seconds. Easily blockable arcs of lightning came next. In the end, Ibleess cast spell after spell of Shadow magic, magic easily deflected using the combined power of the pendants that Marle and Schala had. We were almost close enough to start our attack when Tsern appeared, no more than a meter from where Ibleess was standing, facing the man and hovering where the other was. Shocked, I closed the remaining distance in a dead run only catching the conversation well after it had begun. An insignificant fly, I was ignored while they argued.
"What’s done is done. Why do you still come after me?" I heard Tsern say.
"Why? You know damn well why you murderer! You killed my family! Every single one of them! And what’s worse, you killed them in front of me!" Ibleess raged.
"How was I to know that you were sentient beings? To me, you were just more powerful parasites, sucking up the life out of the planet!"
"Every being needs nourishment! That’s the way we were engineered to live. That’s the way YOU engineered us to live! Weren’t you looking for a being that survived without wasting a planet’s resources? Well, you found it!" Ibleess’s voice thundered with fury, threatening to bring down the world we were in.
"Without wasting resources? You sucked life energy! Any planet you landed on would die sooner or later because you sucked all the life out of it! I didn’t want to create a destroyer. I envisioned you, my creations, as beings that lived off a very small amount of energy, and yet were capable of increasing it exponentially so that the sentient beings on any planet you landed on could use you as a fuel source. And, if they were smart enough, they could re-route some of their energy back into you, creating a perpetual motion machine of sorts. But I didn’t create that; I made a parasite, a leech!"
"Stop it! I’m not what you say I am. All creatures have the right to live, and I am no different. You denied my entire family that right simply because we chose to live the way you created us, and now, I shall deny you that right as well. Today, I avenge my family!" Ibleess shouted triumphantly, his wings, two glowing and nearly transparent wings, suddenly appearing on his back.
"Stop!" I shouted desperately. Tsern and Ibleess spun to face me, seeming to notice me for the first time.
"You! After I’m done with your father, I’m coming for you. And after I’m done with you, I’ll tear the world that created you apart," Ibleess promised.
"Not before you explain what’s going on," I shouted up at him. By now, my friends had joined me at my side, each staring intently at the two titans about to face off.
"Stay out of this Crono! This is my fight!"
"Shut up! He deserves to know why he and his father have to die! You didn’t even offer my family that chance!"
My friends gasped when they realized by my father, Ibleess meant Tsern.
"Crono, you didn’t tell us!" Cid eyed me suspiciously.
"I didn’t know until two days ago! I swear," I said defensively.
"Crono, why is your father trying to kill us?" Lucca asked. More questions followed, but I didn’t pay attention. All my senses were focus on Ibleess, who was about to speak.
"Shut up! You want an explanation? You got it! Tsern created Lavos as a planetary perpetual motion machine. After a bit of tinkering, Tsern, not King Zeal, created my race and me, sentient beings all. King Zeal only adopted me, took care of me. Well, Tsern failed at his task, and when he realized that we, sentient beings all, drained too much energy from planets, he tried to kill us all. And as the failure that he is, he couldn’t even do that. I was relatively young, and I watched him destroy my entire family, one by one, until he turned to me. I escaped, barely. And now, I’m here to avenge my family, starting with him!"
"I can’t be defeated! Fate, let your prophecy come true!" Tsern shouted desperately to the sky. Only the sound of Ibleess’s laughing could be heard.
"Fool! Don’t you realize it by now? Fate lies! He never tells anyone what is in store for him because by doing so, he alters what will happen. He simply tells a person a plain lie. Don’t you see? Fate has been playing you from the very beginning!"
"No! It’s not possible!" Tsern screamed impotently, his voice ripping through the air, rippling the word with unleashed energy.
"Fate...Fate lies?" I stammered. We had a chance! If Fate lied to me, we had a chance at defeating Ibleess and surviving!"
"Crono, this new factor changes my calculations. Ignore all previous assessments of the situation," Robo advised.
"Crono, we fight bad man now?" Ayla asked.
"Come on, Crono. The future isn’t written! We can win!" Ecin shouted. I nodded, drew my sword, and pointed it towards Ibleess.
"This ends here! My father might have wronged you, but that doesn’t mean you have to be like him. If you kill us, you’ll be exactly like him!" I argued.
"Shut up! You’re not part of my revenge. I’m killing you for one reason and one reason only. You were bred as a back-up plan to Tsern’s. You were bred to kill me."
"What?"
"You heard me. Everything that happened to you from the day you were born until now happened only to train you to kill me. The entire battle with Mostern or Lavos or whatever you call it was only practice for the real thing. This one. And the man who bred you is none other than your father, Tsern. And that best part is that he did it without even knowing he was training his son!" Ibleess told me, a smug look of triumph on his face. If the situation were different, he would be laughing.
I looked at him, stunned. Slowly, my gaze turned to Tsern.
"Is this true?" I asked quietly. Tsern nodded his head, too embarrassed and ashamed to even look me in the eye.
"It’s true. I wasn’t sure I could do it by myself, so I tried to make sure you were strong enough to kill Ibleess if I failed. Once I got the three artifacts, I didn’t need you, and since by then you were immensely powerful, I decided to kill you. But yes, you were bred to kill Ibleess."
My gaze shifted back to Ibleess.
"Then that’s what I’ll do. But I won’t do it because I was born to do it. I’ll kill you to stop you from killing. As I said before, it ends here."
"You can think that if you’d like, but now you know the truth. You’re right about one thing though. This ends here." Ibleess let fly with a terrible scream as a black-bladed sword suddenly appeared in his hands. Leaving no time for Tsern to react, Ibleess drove the weapon into Tsern’s chest, the black metal emitting an eerie dark light. The light expanded to encompass Tsern, and with a flash of mad light, he disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Ibleess then turned to us, his face contorted in a violent rage.
"It’s your turn now. Finally, after millions of years of waiting, I’ll do to Tsern what he did to me!"
"But you killed him!"
"No, I didn’t. He’s only powerless now, watching from a dimension where he cannot do anything. And I will make him watch while I destroy you, then proceed to destroy the worlds he loved," Ibleess promised.
"We won’t let you. We can’t let you. You’ve destroyed too many times. This time, we stop it."
"Ha! What gives you such power?"
"We’re human. We don’t give up. Ever," I answered, taking my battle stance. Ibleess only grinned.
"You won’t be human much longer. I guarantee it."
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