Chrono Trigger Dimensions Chapter 14

By Jerm

"I see you're quite the tactician, Pret." the king said to the nobleman, as they stared at yet another harbour burning on the coast of the Medinians.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Pret replied, smiling inwardly.

They both reigned their horses and turned to rejoin the army down below, which was celebrating its victory.

The war had gone great for the humans. The harbors were burning, and the Mystics had been totally surprised by the attack. The ones that had managed to flee were cut down by the forces that were flanking them. Only Pret knew why the 'surprise attack' had been so successful.

The Mystics were now making a final stand at the old ruins north of Medina. Refugees and battered armies of the Mystic forces were gathering there, probably hoping they could gather enough to prove a match. The final battle would take place there. And there Pret would make his move.

"What do you say? Should we join in the finale?"

Pret turned to his king. So trusting now. It would be so easy for Pret to cut him down when the final battle occurred.

"Why not?" the monarch replied.

Pret knew an answer to that, an answer in the king's favor. However, it would damper his plans. Pret remained silent on that part.

* * * * *

Merbwa entered Ozzie VIII's tent, replying to a summon by his ruler. "Sir?" he asked.

During the beginning of the raid, the old mayor of Medina had been killed. Ozzie VIII had taken command after that and he had declared that the Mystics would fight against humans yet again, this time for their ultimate freedom. Now was their time to do so. The Mystics had rallied behind him and now their forces were ready for the final confrontation. So spirited were his minions now. Ozzie's forefathers would be proud of him.

Ozzie turned in his chair to face his general, "Yes? What news have the scouts issued?"

"The army from the southeast is approaching fast. Unfortunately, the king himself is leading an army from the northwest. It looks like we're trapped in a vise, sir."

Ozzie was quiet for a minute. Then he slowly stood up and began walking toward the exit, "Let them come."

* * * * *

All was quiet in the Heckran Forest. Silence seemed almost a noise in itself. Birds chirped every now and then, but they seemed to become less frequent as the air grew thicker with the tidings of a last stand. And the tidings of one of the worst battles in history. Then to the south came a steady drumbeat. Footsteps of many marched to the beat of it. Guardia had arrived.

Soon another army massed by the first and the two marched side by side. The beats of each group synchronized and melded together. They were now one army.

The other army sat in waiting, prepared to the utmost for this battle. Ozzie held his signal, wanting the attack to be at the perfect moment.

The human army stopped two hundred yards in front of the ruins. The drums and footsteps stopped. Quiet returned. The king sat atop his horse, in full battle gear. A sword was in his sheath, though his hand was ever ready to pull it out if necessary. Beside him sat Pret, also astride a charger. Pret wore chain mail and a sword. His shining helmet bore the appearance of the face of a dragon, he had a taste for flair.

Behind the two were soldiers, five thousand strong. A fifth of these men were calvary. The calvary made up the front line, their horses pawing the ground in anticipation of the emminent battle. Behind them marched the infantry. Each bearing a sword and shield, prepared for battle.

In the back were the archers. Bows in their hands, ready to fire at the king's command.

The king raised his right hand, giving a command to those behind him. The archers each pulled back an arrow on their bows. From the forest came nothing. Men looked into it left and right. No enemy could be seen.

Finally the king yelled out, "Where are you cowards?! Show yourselves and fight...or surrender to Guardia!"

There was a moment of silence, then a voice came from the forest, "What makes you think we Mystics would ever surrender to humanity? We are our own people, we have our own personal codes. Bowing before murderers is not one of them!"

There came a cheer from the forest in reply to the declaration. The cheer eminated from all around the army, the forest seeming to shimmer and shake in the noise as if it was alive. Men looked franticallly into the surrounding forest that had so suddenly turned against them, but no faces showed themselves. Horses began to become agitated and they neighed and backed up, the need to bolt rising in them.

Finally the yelling died down. Quiet returned. The quiet before the storm was the thought in every soldiers head. That thought made them ready themselves for what might be their last fight.

The king trotted his horse forward. He stopped after five feet. He was standing alone in the front of the mass, "Very well. Then you will die!"

After another long silence the voice returned. It was clear in what it said...and what it intended, "You first."

The king suddenly noticed that he was in danger. He tried to turn his horse, but too late.

Arrows struck him from all directions. The king dropped his upheld hand, a signal for the archers to fire. He then fell from his horse and men rushed forward to protect their king. They formed a circle around him and began to drag him away. The horse was also hit with arrows and it fell to the ground, an omen to the fate of the king.

The archers released their arrows in answer to the king's signal. The arrows flew into the forest, striking trees and random Mystics. After the first volley had subsided, there was another warcry from the forest. Then the mass of Mystics surged out of the forest. The King's army was surrounded.

'Funny,' the king thought as he was carried to safety, 'During this whole war, I haven't as much as caught one glimpse of those new Mystics.'

Then he was unconscious.

The battle had become a last stand, after all. But it was the humans who were in trouble. Without a king, they were heavily demoralized; and they were surrounded as well. The two armies surged into each other and met in a synchronous act of war. Then chaos reigned as men were thrown from their horses, swords were swung, arrows were shot, and the dying began again on both sides.

* * * * *

"Hmmm...no more guards," Crono said to himself as the four walked through the halls of the lower level.

"How perceptive," Lucca replied sarcastically, "You might also add something equally intelligent, like 'the floor is white.'"

Crono remained silent, but glared at her.

Cid eyed the two, but he wasn't worried as much as he had at first been. He had been around them enough to know that the constant arguing was all for fun; possibly an act of one-upsmanship. He didn't try and stop them, arguing wasn't his forte.

They walked down the empty halls toward double doors that loomed at the opposite end. The walls and ceiling were tinged with the grey that usually means metal. It was all steel, to be specific. Even the doors were made of steel. Whatever went on down here, they didn't want anything escaping.

"There aren't any guards down here because they don't suspect that anyone would make it this far in the first place." Cid said finally.

"Well that's almost as stupid as this plan," Crono said giving Lucca another glare, "the security is pretty much worthless, though. We made it in here too easily."

This time it was Lucca's turn to ignore. Cid decided to continue, "They spent a large amount of the budget on the actual building of this thing; not to mention the armoury. Security's light because they can't afford it on a stressed budget."

"Yep, stupid," Crono nodded, and Lucca agreed.

They reached the doors at the far end of the hall and stopped. On a sign above them read the word: Armoury. Crono was elated. Cid pushed on the door, but it was locked. On the side of the door was a electronic doorlock. He pulled out the passkey and put it in the door lock. Nothing happened. Aparently they had 'hijacked' some low-key soldiers.

"Great!" Cid declared, "What do we do now?"

Lucca thought about it, "Could we force the doors open somehow?"

"No..." Cid shook his head, then he brightened, "Wait! I can do this."

The others stood back as Cid examined the lock. Held in by 4 screws. He carefully inserted the corner of the passkey into the niche of the top of the screw, and turned. The card was too flimsy, and Cid pulled it back.

"Does anybody else have something more solid?" he asked, feeling around in his pockets. The others shook their heads. "Great," he exclaimed, "Why didn't I ever bother getting a pocketknife?"

Then another idea struck him. He quickly took off his glasses and looked them over. They were wireframe, but very sturdy. He stuck the hook of the earpiece into the niche and turned again. The frame began to bend and Cid began to fear it was too flimsy as well; then suddenly the screw began to turn. Cid reached in and began unscrewing the loosened bit with his hands and seconds later it was out.

"One," he said, going for the next.

When he was finished, he put his mangled glasses back on and reached out to slowly pulled out the lock. Wires connecting it with the wall came out with it. "Hold this," Cid said giving the mechanism to Crono, "and don't press any buttons!"

Cid reached inside the new hole and began to pull out certain wires as Crono examined his new toy. He stripped the sealing off of two wires and crossed them with the precision of someone who had done this before. There was a small beeping noise from the pice in Crono's hand and the doors opened.

Crono carefully handed the lock back to Cid, who replaced it in its rightful spot, only putting the screws halfway back in. His glasses had already taken enough beating. Then they entered the armoury.

"Good job," Lucca said to Cid as they entered, "You'll have to teach me that trick someday."

Cid hastily nodded back at her, "Anytime...Uh, you aren't gonna burglarize anybody are you?"

Lucca let out a girlish laugh and walked through the doors, "Nah, but if you want me to, I could."

"Uhh...Not really," Cid stammered, caught off guard.

"I was just kidding, Cid," Lucca said, giggling again.

Cid smiled back, "Good."

When they were all through the doors shut and the panel beeped again, locking it.

Crono didn't notice. The armoury was all he saw, "Wow," he said, awestruck.

Marle leaned over to Lucca and whispered, "We'll probably have to knock him out to get him out of here, you know."

Lucca nodded.

All along the left wall were tanks, lined up and numbering five. The right wall contained racks that held guns of all kinds, weapons for the serious warmonger. In the middle was a huge circle carved into the floor, an elevator pedestal for the tanks. Above it was another circle, this one a hole. It would lead all the way to the surface, obviously.

Crono slowly walked over to one of the guns and was about to pick it up, but Cid intervened, "You don't want to touch one of these, they're dangerous," he reminded.

"I know," Crono said matter-of-factly, trying to reach around Cid for a moment. After a few seconds, he finally stopped and began sulking about.

"What are those?" Lucca asked, indicating the tanks.

"Those?" Cid asked, following her hand, "Tanks. Large land vehicles, that are near invincible to normal guns. All terrain...40mm cannon...all of that fun stuff."

"They have all that?" she asked.

"I don't really know," Cid shrugged with a small smile, "I'm just guessing, I don't know anything about these things."

"Can we take one with us?" Crono asked, "I really don't think the army'd notice...all that much."

"Ummm..." Cid thought, "I don't think the government would approve."

"Too bad." Marle said, lying through her teeth.

"Show's over, folks," Lucca said suddenly, beginning to herd the other three out toward the other door, "Let's go look at exhibit B. Next door please. Everyone out."

They walked over through the armoury's exit which wasn't locked oddly enough. They came out in another hall, this one being just as drab and uncolorful as the other.

The door on the other side however, said something different than armoury, however. It read 'Project Lavos'.

The door was locked, but this time Cid was prepared. He ran back to the armoury, picking a survival knife off of one of the racks by the guns. He carried it back to the expectant trio. He made quick work of the support once more, then crossed the wires and replaced the console quickly. He was getting better at this. He casually pocketed the knife behind the backs of the other three and followed them in. Just in case, he told himself.

In the room were computer consoles. It looked like hundreds of them, lined up along the two side walls, and a circle of them in the middle of the room. All of them flickered with life, however there was no one in the room with them. At the far end of the room was a large window that was basically the whole wall.

Crono looked around uneasily, "You know, this has been way too easy."

Cid shrugged as he walked through the room, "I don't really mind if it's easy."

"Neither do I," Lucca replied, "but it's usually a bad omen."

Cid walked over to the glass window on the other side of the room, and casually peered through. Crono contented himself with walking around the room, glancing at the computer screens. However, he couldn't make out the flashing numbers and codes passing by his eyes.

"So this is the Lavos project," Crono said angrily, "No gate, no Lavos. Nothing but high tech computer equipment."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Cid said from across the room, "Have a look-see over here."

The others quickly ran to the window and looked through with Cid. What they was was a surprise. They peered downward to see a large room filled with soldiers and technicians of all sorts. Which explained why the computer room was currently empty. They were about two stories, or around 40 feet, up above it, so they could see everything below them quite easily.

The first thing to grab their eyes was a gate in the center of the room. It was deactivated and simply sat there, dark and boring. Numerous scientists and lab experts were around it taking notes on clipboards, some talking into recorders.

"How are we going to get through that?" Marle asked indicating the soldiers, around fifty in number.

Lucca simply smiled, "Plan E," she said calmly.

"What would that be?" Crono asked rolling his eyes, "We waltz in there and waylay all of them?"

"Don't look so glum, pal," Lucca said, patting Crono on the back," you're gonna love this plan!"

.

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