Chrono Trigger Dimensions Chapter 15
By Jerm
"Protect the king!" Pret yelled over the din of the fighting, although his heart obviously wasn't in protecting the king.
The plan had been changed slightly, but to Pret's advantage. He didn't have to kill any king now, the Mystics had done him a favor. A big favor.
"Thank you," he stated casually to the imp before him, seconds before he hacked the confused thing with his sword.
He still had to dispose of his competition of successors, though. The Mystics could miss them by accident. He couldn't have that. He spurred his horse through the battle, looking for his first target.
There were humans and mystics mixed together in the fray, it had become very confusing. The humans had at first taken brutal casualties when the hordes had come pouring out of the forest. But now with chaos in command, both sides were taking huge casualties and it was deadlocked.
Pret shrugged. That suited him fine. Just as long as the king didn't survive. A person can always get a new army. But to gain the throne was a once in a lifetime chance, if even that.
Pret finally spied out the nobleman of Truce fighting a group of imps. He was on foot, apparently he had lost his horse. Pret tried to remember the name, which finally came back to him. Godfrey.
Well, old Godfrey would just have to be a casualty, wouldn't he? Pret thought to himself, smiling.
Pret slashed at a hench that had come too close to his horse. The thing fell down with a clean cut across its chest. Pret kicked his horse into a slight run towad Godfrey. He swung his sword around to keep the mystics away from him as he neared the competition.
Godfrey looked up at him, expecting help. He kicked one of the imps he had just killed out of the way and turned his back to Pret to cleave at another. The imp jumped out of the way of the swing and dived for a counterattack. It impaled itself on Godfrey's sword.
"Nice form," Pret said to his back.
Godfrey turned to Pret to answer him. Pret raised his sword and then heaved it downward into Godfrey's chest.
Godfrey looked at Pret in a state of shock as blood began to flow out of the fatal wound. His hands raised up to grasp the sword in a useless gesture. He tried to pull it out, but his strength was failing too fast.
"Traitor!" it sounded almost like a question, Pret couldn't tell, though, there was too much noise for it to be fully audible, "You..."
Godfrey coughed and blood began to pour out of his mouth. He struggled to wrest the sword out of him for a moment longer, then he finally gave up and slumped down, falling to the ground.
A soldier behind him suddenly yelled, "You traitor!"
Pret spun quickly to see a sword descending at him quickly. He threw up his sword in a meager defense that couldn't possibly stop the attack. Then suddnely the soldier was thrown to the ground, being tackled by a Mystic. The Mystic raised its weapon and stabbed the witness.
A silent witness.
Pret looked at his sword for a moment before turning back to the battle. He began to order commands for retreating.
He was going to have to survive to gain control. And one doesn't survive by fighting uneven odds.
The king opened his eyes to view the top of a small tent. There was a doctor hovering over him saying something he couldn't hear.
"Wha...?" the king asked groggily.
The doctor said something else that the king couldn't hear. The world started to fade into black and white...
The king shook his head, trying to clear away the spots. Noise began to enter his ears and he could see clearly again.
The doctor had turned away from him.
The king raised his hand, "Doctor?"
The medic turned back to the king, "I told you not to move, Your Majesty. You need to heal."
"I'm not going to heal. These wounds," he said indicating the bandages covering his torso, "don't look very li--...light to me."
Guardia started coughing as he finished talking.
"You're going to heal, Your Majesty--"
"Don't be so stupid," the king snapped, which caused another coughing fit.
Before the doctor could reply, a messenger entered the tent. He hurried over to where the king lay.
"Excuse me, doctor, but I've been sent here to tell you that we are retreating. We've got to get out of here."
"Retreating? Are we losing?" the king asked in a hoarse voice.
"No, Your Majesty, but we are taking heavy losses. Nobleman Pret ordered the retreat shortly after Maray and Godfrey were cut down in battle."
"Maray is...dead?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. And Godfrey, too."
"Damn it all! Not only have my mistakes cost me my own life, but others too!"
"You're not going to die," the doctor said reflexively.
The king ignored him, "If they ever find my daughter, she will succeed me. If she is eternally lost...then Pret is the only one that can take my place. The Guardia line will end with...end with me. If that is so."
The king started coughing again, the pain becoming much worse. The messenger looked crossly at the doctor.
"Don't just stand there, you idiot; get this place ready to move!"
The doctor went out of his shock as the messenger ran out of the tent.
The sound of battle continued outside.
"Are we ready now, soldier?" the general half-asked, half-yelled to one of the uniformed men standing around him.
"Almost sir!" the soldier replied.
They were standing in the room known only by the army as Project Lavos. The room was about 200 yards long and about half as wide. Inside was where the government's most trusted men and women studied the phenomena that had been dubbed mysteriously 'Project Lavos'.
Besides the fifty or so people inside the room, there were several computers aligned along the side wall. There two scientists recorded changes and discoveries during the experiments.
The room was also very tall. It reached about three stories high. On the far end was a door where they entered and exited the room. Above the door on the second story was a large glass window that stretched nearly the whole hundred yards across and was about twenty feet tall. There observations were made from afar. Below it was a large cargo door, which was the opening to the vast walkway that led to the elevator at the armoury.
Everybody was down here right now, however. The gate had begun showing some signs of energy, which had everyone in a fritz at the moment.
Since the phenomenon, they had tried for two unsuccessful years to discover how to open up what the scientists called a 'disturbance.' The general didn't know what that meant, didn't care either. He only did his job and looked for glory.
If this worked, he would receive a lot of it. And this time they were closer than ever. It seems that another disturbance similar to this one had occurred elsewhere a couple of days ago, and whatever they were studying had become a little less resilient due to that. However the scientists had put it, at least. This time they might pull it off.
The general broke away from his thoughts of glory and yelled at the soldier again, "Are we ready yet?"
"Give me five more minutes, sir. I need to check up on a few more things," the soldier replied, then remembering, added, "sir!"
The general grunted obscenely. The government must have been running low on good soldiers when they had sent him this rabble. Most looked out of shape, and even more looked like they couldn't tell a rainy day from a sweltering heatwave.
A rumbling noise could be heard suddenly, though it was very quiet. It was slowly becoming louder however.
"Well, finally," the general said impatiently, "is it started up?"
"Ummm...sir?" one of the scientists asked quietly.
"What is it? And why the hell are ya whispering?" the general asked in an agitated tone.
"Sir...uhhh...that's not the machines. We haven't turned on anything."
The rumbling had become quite loud now. It was easily heard and several soldiers looked around apprehensively. Some who were claustrophobic looked at the ceiling forebodingly.
"Then what the hell is that damn noise?!" the general asked, now having to yell over the din.
A crashing and crunching noise accompanied the rumbling, which grew even louder. The general had had enough of this and his pistol was in his hand.
He desperately tried to remember where he had heard that noise before. It was surely something that a soldier boy like himself should know. He desperately tried to place it.
"What do we do sir?" a pathetic soldier asked, his head whipping around madly as he tried to find the source of the rumbling.
The noise was deafening now. Another crash sent a small concussion through the titanium room. The general was sure he had heard that noise before. It sounded just like...
A tank came crashing through the glass observatory window above the shocked soldiers and scientists. Computers and glass showered down ahead of the quickly descending juggernaut, spilling and crashing onto the metal floor. Sparks from the disconnected wires that dangled from the computers fluttered down as well, giving the destruction the appearance of some sort of fireworks display.
"What in the hell is this all about!?" the general asked to no one in paticular.
The tank tipped forward slightly as it descended, nearly hitting the floor turret first. It managed to hit the ground before it had completed the nosedive, however, and the treads spun rigorously, pulling it forward. Another lasershow of sparks accompanied the tank as it righted itself, the wheels scraping on the floor. Then it began heading for the place of the disturbance, the gate.
The general was outraged, "What in the hell?!" he asked, though no one answered him; they were too busy panicking.
Inside the tank Cid was desperately trying to figure out how to keep the tank from swerving. He didn't want to hit any of his fellow techies, who were backed up against the wall to his right with frightful expressions on their faces.
Crono and Lucca were yelling with adrenaline induced exuberance. They were enjoying this, obviously. Marle however, looked a little scared. They had just completed a fairly long drop; despite the fact that they were in one piece, she didn't like the jump one bit.
Lucca turned to Crono, "I told you this was a good plan!"
Crono looked at her with a smile, "You just told me I'd like it. It's still not a good plan, though."
Lucca fumed and Cid tried not to smile, which nearly caused him to lose control again. "Better get that gate key thingy ready. We're nearing the disturbance," he said.
Lucca pulled out the gate key and got it ready. She also had a small pistol tucked away. Crono had stated that as long as they were taking the tank, a few guns wouldn't be missed either. They might need them anyway.
Only Marle hadn't taken one. She didn't like guns. Crono had tried to point out to her that she liked crossbows; and guns were the same thing. She remained adamant, however.
Lucca was about to push the button, when she remembered something. "Wait! How are you getting back, Cid?"
Cid turned toward her, "What?"
"You'll be dragged in our time as well. How will you get back?"
Cid thought about it, "You can just send me back with that gate key."
Lucca suddenly looked downfallen, "I couldn't do that! I'd send you back to a heavily armed, trigger-happy group of soldiers who would be looking for someone to blame!"
Cid shrugged, "Oh well...I've always wanted to see what other times were like anyway. I'll stick around with you for awhile," he said, then added, "looks likes you're gonna have to get used to me for a while, eh?"
"I guess you can come along," Lucca replied, "I guess you have to come along."
Cid pressed the accelerators forward and the tank pushed ahead at a faster speed. The tank quickly passed by several stunned soldiers, the ones who weren't running in a panic at the moment. Lucca pushed the gatekey button.
The general yelled at his soldiers to stop the thing however possible. He readied his own gun, no matter how useless it would be.
Then behind him a blue light erupted from thin air. A large portal opened up there, which startled even more soldiers.
"That's it!" the general yelled, "I want any soldier with an antitank gun to open fire on that thing!"
Four soldiers came out of the confusion and drew their hellishly powerful guns from their holsters. They aimed, waiting for the general's cue.
The general sighed at their stupidity. He had already told them to fire. Oh well, he thought. "Fire!" he yelled dramatically.
"We're almost there," Marle yelled happily.
"Yep," Crono replied, "but it's still been too easy."
Lucca glared at him, "I do wish you'd stop saying that."
"Why?"
Gunfire erupted from in front of them.
"Damn!" Cid cursed, then quickly said, "Uhh...you all'd better duck quickly. I mean QUICKLY!", he did so himself."
They didn't ask questions and did as the driver had instructed. Bullets were starting to shower the vehicle and surprisingly, some of them were penetrating.
"What's going on?" Crono asked over the sound of gunfire and ricochets.
"Anti-tank fire," Cid replied with a grim smile, "Looks like I underestimated these 'idiots'."
Outside they heard the firing stop long enough for a loud voice to boom over them, "Stop the tank and come out with your hands up! If not we will open fire and shoot to kill!"
"Looks like we're out of options...And so close too!" Lucca said sadly.
Cid sat thinking. Oblivious to the countdown the man had started outside.
"Cid?! Stop the tank. We're outnumbered and apparently out gunned," Marle demanded, "We wouldn't make it."
Cid snapped out of his thoughts. He looked at them before turning to the controls. "Stay down here," was all he said.
Then he applied the brakes to the tank and they stopped. The gate stood thirty yards in front of them, its glow tantalizing them with its promise of freedom.
A now impossible freedom.
.