Chrono Trigger Dimensions Chapter 9

By Jerm

"What are you going to do to us?" Marle asked, the first time she had spoken since being asleep.

"You are of no more concern to me. I'm going to kill you after the test," replied Nikades calmly.

Lucca gasped. Crono understood her horror.

Nikades laughed, "Just kidding. A deal's a deal. And this is a real deal. You will live." They could no longer see him, but his voice told them where he was. He was walking toward the Gatekeeper.

Crono could suddenly move. He stood up and looked around warily. He heard Marle stand beside him, she too was able to move. He put his arm around her to support her.

There was a humming sound as the Gatekeeper was started up. The humming slowly died away and near silence returned.

"But I still can't have you running around..." Nikades continued.

"What do you mean?" Crono slowly advanced towards the Gatekeeper, wary of Nikades.

"Now where should I test my machine?" Nikades asked himself, ignoring Crono for the moment.

He pulled out a coin and flipped it in the air. He was leaving it to blind choice. The coin spun in the air before landing in Nikades's outstretched hand. Nikades put the coin away and began adjusting the time gauge.

Nikades pushed a button on the control panel and the machine began humming again. A blue portal materialized in the circle. And it stayed this time.

"Good. Good girl," Nikades said as he walked around the controls, preparing to test the gate's realness; he replied to Crono's question finally, "It means I will have to banish you into another universe...after this test."

"Huh?" Crono asked, then demanded, "What do you mean 'another universe?'"

"Another world," Nikades responded, "That is the extent of the fifth dimension. Like the fourth dimension bridges time and the third dimension bridges points on a z-axis...geometrically speaking of course."

Nikades gave a slight glance back at the gate, "Where I'm sending you, the natives aren't intelligent. They live on instinct like any normal beast, which is what they, in fact, are. I believe they would look like a large dog, to you.

"I'm not going to kill you, but they surely will..."

"Hold it right there!" boomed a voice.

Nikades whirled toward the voice, hissing sharply, "Who dares yell at me!?"

A huge man and two royal guards stepped out from behind the house. The large man had a crossbow in one hand, a sword in the other. The two guards each had a sword. They walked menacingly toward Nikades.

"I don't know what you're doing, but from what I heard, you were just about to kill my 'money!'" the large figure said indicating Marle with the sword, but keeping the crossbow trained on Nikades.

"Oh no," said Marle, "It's The Marshal."

Crono and Lucca had both heard of the Marshall before. They knew his reputation...his criminal record, as well. Nikades didn't, however.

"Take one more step towards me and I'll add you to the list of soon to be deceased, personally," Nikades said, stepping away from the gate and into the shadows, where he was once again invisible.

One of the soldiers threw back his sword and charged where Nikades had recently been. However, a fireball erupted from the darkness and shot toward the hapless guard. It struck and enveloped him instantly, before he had time to dodge. There was a brief flash from the impact, then the remains fell to the ground, his body blackened. The sword clattered on the ground beside the charred lump, red-tinged and smoking.

The brief flash of fire had illuminated the black robes for a second however and The Marshal didn't need a second offer. He fired a quarrel toward the unvacant darkness.

The quarrel disappeared in a flash of blue light about halfway to its target however. The ashes fell to the ground. Nikades laughed briefly from the shadows. The Marshal quickly reloaded his crossbow.

The second soldier was looking around warily for a target. He disliked magic very much. Especially the kind that could kill.

Crono watched as the fight unfolded. He was so engrossed in it that he hardly noticed as Lucca started pushing him forward.

"Wha--" he began.

"Let's get out of here while the going's good!" Lucca exclaimed, giving him another push.

He moved out of the way and let her and Marle lead. They were heading for the gate.

The second soldier grabbed at his neck and started choking suddenly. Then, miraculously, he was lifted in the air, suspended by whatever had ahold of his neck. His sword fell to the ground. There was a cracking noise and he went limp. He soon followed the sword. The Marshal fired another quarrel into the night, but it too was destroyed.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Crono asked as they neared the gate.

"Trust me. I built it, remember?" Lucca shot back over her shoulder.

Crono sighed. No other choice. They ran to the gate. The Marshal loaded another quarrel, but looked to see that Nadia was leaving. She was the top priority. He could 'dance with Death' later. A fireball came streaking towards him as he broke into a run, narrowly missing him. He ran after the Princess.

Lucca jumped in and disappeared in the blue light. "I hope she's right," Crono said taking Marle's hand; they jumped in together.

The Marshal dove to the ground as another fireball came after him, grunting with the forced impact. He quickly got back on his feet and ran toward the gate. He didn't know what it was, but the Princess was in there. He fired off one more crossbow quarrel, simply because he liked having the last 'word' in any given argument. Stashing the weapon back into one of the many pockets of the inside of his cloak, he bent and ran full tilt towards the gate. The arrow quickly burst into blue light yet again, disintigrated.

He then followed his quarry into the gate. Blue light surrounded him, and then he was moving at high speeds down a road he didn't understand.

Nikades stepped out of the darkness after the large man had left. The large man was a worthy adversary. Too bad he had ran away. But there was good with the bad. The four of them had tested the gate for him.

If they survived, he would begin his plan. Of course, they had merely crossed time with the gate rather than universes, but they were out of the way.

And he could always follow them later. Or he could just leave them in the future, forever. There was no way back. The machine switched off, sealing that fate.

Nikades laughed briefly, his plans would come into fruition soon. And then no one would be able to stop him. He wouldn't be stopped this time...

* * * * *

Cid walked swiftly down the halls of RoboTech, inc. Others watched as he went by, wondering what he was doing this time and why his pace was so fast.

Cid was only a kid, 18 and nearing 19, but he already knew more about machines and computers than most of his peers. He was highly respected despite his age. Though respect was hard won when the group of adults had found that they were going to be working with a kid, it had finally been won. 'Cid the Kid' they had called him at first. Now they called him just 'Cid'. Unfortunately, they still thought of him as a kid. Intelligent, but still a kid. Making friends among people like that was difficult.

He had short brown hair, which matched his brown eyes. He wore glasses, a long white lab coat, and grey pants. He was a sight to see as he stormed down the halls, nearly running.

He was in a hurry. There was something peculiar going on in the storage room. His computers had picked up a disturbance, and then suddenly there were life signs in there. Large life signs, as well. Nothing small like the rats that sometimes managed to find their way in. He suspected that his computer might have messed up or glitched, but there was little chance of that. He had built that computer himself.

He took a left, nearly running over someone. He maneuvered around the person, apologizing, and went straight for the door. His hand stopped short however. He instead pressed the intercom button and said into the speaker, "Is there anybody in there?"

There was silence for response. Cid shrugged and reached for the door when a voice finally came from the other end. It was female, "Yeah, we're in here. Can you let us out?"

He thought. If it was a harmless person he would be okay. But if it was a dangerous person he would be in trouble. He finally decided to take his chances. After all, science was one big risk after another. He didn't even notice that the person had used 'we' and 'us.'

"Okay. I'll let you out." he said.

Cid reached for the electrical lock and pressed the unlock code. There was a hissing sound and the door slowly swung open to reveal the trapped mystery.

Inside he saw a three people looking at him warily. One male and two females. He stood there staring at them, trying to decide what to make of them. The female he had been talking to, though, drew his attention as she stepped up to the door.

The girl spoke, "Are you going to open the door only to replace it with yourself or can we get out of here? It's getting cold."

"Wha--Oh! Yeah. Sorry," he stuttered as he stepped out of the way.

They shivered as they left the room. Cid asked, "Where did you come from?"

The group looked at each other, wondering whether they should tell him. The boy finally spoke, "Where are we now?

"You are in the Robotech, Inc. building. In Arris City." Cid replied.

"Look, I don't want to be rude or anything, but can we go to a place to sit or something before we cross examine each other?" the other girl said.

Cid thought about it, "I'm about to get off work. Afterwards, I guess I can talk to you after that."

Cid knew that he was being too trusting, but he couldn't stop himself. He was curious. Cid was about to shut the door to the room, when suddenly there was a bright burst of blue light from the room.

The three others all looked fearfully into the room. Had Nikades followed them?

They carefully reentered the room expecting the worst. They looked down at the figure. Not Nikades. Lying on the ground in a state of confusion was The Marshal. He gazed around himself briefly, dizzy and disoriented from the ride. "What the hell...?" he muttered, he lost consciousness.

"Uhh..." Cid stared at the figure on the ground, "What was that?"

The boy turned to him, "Is there anyway you could leave early? Like before he wakes up?"

Cid thought. This was something he didn't understand, he doubted anyone of his coleagues would understand. If he ended up discovering something big with this, he could become famous.

"I'll take you to my house right now," he replied, "Er, after I sign out."

"When will that be?" the boy pressed, looking at The Marshal inpatiently.

"In a few seconds," Cid smiled, "I'll pull a few strings."

.

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