Chrono Trigger Invasions Chapter 31
By Jerm
"So we're really starting the invasion?" Dalack didn't know whether to be happy or suspicious; after all of this time and it would suddenly occur.
"Do you have anything better to do?" Storimae asked, seeming almost to have a sense of humor forming, "I'm sure you didn't take that giant of a man just for ornamental purposes after all."
"It's not that at all," Dalack protested, "It seems very sudden in my point of view. . .Very sudden."
"From your point of view?" Storimae snorted, "You are part of the former council. If I recall, we have been sitting there planning to invade for well over half a year."
"It was four months," Dalack corrected, "And if I recall, we couldn't agree on enough of the preparations to actually come this far."
He had been slowly losing his fear of being killed by Storimae. Either Storimae considered him good enough to be a general in the upcoming struggle, Storimae trusted him, or Storimae wasn't the type to kill someone for mere words. All seemed to work for Dalack, though.
"Whatever it was, it was a long time," Storimae said, waving off the four months remark, "Now is the time for action. If we don't, sooner or later the humans will rebuild to full strength and we'll lose our chance of actually adding it to our 'collection.'"
"I never cared much for collecting worlds, Storimae," Dalack said dryly, "What's the point?"
Storimae turned away from Dalack and walked down the hallway of the spectres' home base. Other spectres were also heading in that direction, obviously already being ordered for the invasion. Dalack heard quite clearly the words drift to him from the departing figure, however.
"Get used to it, because we're leaving now. I'll decide what to do with you on the way. With someone that strong under your control, I'm sure you'll be of use."
* * * * *
"At least we stopped half of it," Cid said, after being filled in completely as to what had occurred during that brutal night on Death Peak.
"The easy half, I'd say," Crono corrected, "Like someone said earlier, The Lavos invasion was a bigger threat, but easier to solve. Now we got a real enigma on our hands and it's still a big threat, forget that fact that it isn't quite as large as the last."
"And they have to make the first move," Marle added, "We don't have any idea what they are doing, they've been fairly silent. . .except for the ordeal on the mountain, of course."
Magus had thought to remain silent as usual, but remembered what Schala had told him. He had no reason to listen to her, but he was doing so anyway, "We should return home and fortify our defenses. Sitting here and arguing over what we can't do won't accomplish much."
"Right, good point," Crono nodded, "Everyone ready to hop out of here?"
"Tis fine with me," Glenn shrugged, somewhat.
Cid drew out the small box that had been used for the time traveling. He gave it a small look for the first time in a while. It sure looked primitive, almost like one of the time machines from a bad sci-fi movie. Nabat probably modeled it after one of those, though, simply because they were the most common "prototype."
"Cid?" Crono asked, "We are ready, you can start it up."
Cid realized that he had been simply standing there for several moments while they were waiting, "Oh, right," he nodded hastily and began to adjust the machine.
The gate opened and they filed through it. Cid came in with them, a part of the group once more. For beter or worse, he was back in action.
* * * * *
"It seems you were right, the invasion is gone," Storimae noted as they exited the gate near their old stronghold on Denadoro.
Dalack walked up beside the new king of the spectres, though not very happy. Marshall was frowning darkly. The figure sighed, then answered, "Of course."
Storimae waited for a few more of the spectres to exit the gate, then spoke once more, "I'm leaving you in charge of the invasion. Choose a timeframe to attack first, though personally, I wouldn't start with this one, we're sort of infamous here now. Instead, go to the next timeframe maybe, it's close to this, but the people are far less suspecting."
"What is the other reason?" Dalack asked, seeing through the flimsy excuse.
"Those people that killed Morlis are there," Storimae ceded, "If we can use our full forces against them first, we won't have to worry about them when we're starting to dwindle."
"Dwindle?" Dalack shook his head, "You sure sound optimistic."
"It could very well happen. You know just as well as I that we are not immortal. We die and will in a war. If you are as good as I hope, this won't be a serious problem. We will lose a lot of our forces. But despite that, we will not lose. I have every faith I know placed in you. You were not chosen as a council leader for no reason at all. None of the council was. But, as most of us know, we are the only two of the council that are remaining."
Marshall looked down on the other spectre, "Why don't you lead it yourself, then? You are in control now because of your black blade."
"Politics, pure and simple," Storimae said, then turned and walked through the gate, disappearing and leaving Dalack with his army.
"What an excuse," Dalack shook his head, "Well, at least I'm in control, somewhat."
The gate shut, separating him from Storimae and proving that he did in fact have power now.
This might not be so bad, if I do it my way.
"Let's go, then," he said to the spectres who waited patiently for orders.
Like good soldiers, they followed his orders. Dalack did indeed have power. Time to march in on the good people of the eleventh century, he thought.
* * * * *
"It's good to be home," Nadia said as she crossed the drawbridge to her castle.
The others filed in behind her, looking at the improvement that had been made since the forced renovations made by the dark bahamut several months earlier.
The first two floors of the castle were clearly finished. One of the parapets was completed, while the other three were still merely halfway complete. Then third floor of the castle was missing the outer wall in a lot of places, and the ceiling still had holes all over it.
All around, there were still people working on the building, though not as many as there previously were. But there were still people there, showing that the chancellor was at least doing his job.
"Not bad," Crono said after several moments of staring.
"It would seem," Cid replied slowly.
"Oh, I know it's small," Marle said in an offhand manner, "But I like to call it home."
"Yeah right," Crono said, smiling.
"Nadia!" yelled someone from within the castle, "Damn, I mean Queen Nadia!"
"That sounds familiar," Marle observed dryly, looking into the castle.
The chancellor came bustling out of the castle's gates, roughly shoving the two guards out of the way. The glared at him behind his back but didn't do much else as he ran up to meet the group.
"Are you quite through with your vacation?" the chancellor asked, not quite hiding his annoyance, "Because we could dearly use you back."
Marle smiled at him, "Actually, no I'm not done with my 'vacation.' Come inside and we'll talk about it some."
She grabbed his arm and pulled him along with her to the inside of the castle. The others followed, noticing that the two guards were now smiling at the chancellor and his possible punishment, so they though.
* * * * *
Truce, 1000 AD, stood peacefully, as it had since Pret's overthrow. Now that the castle was in order again, everything seemed to be returning to normal. People returned to their jobs and the economy began to pick back up.
True the new Queen had only actually been in the castle half of her reign, but she was of the Guardian line, which had never failed the people for the 1000 years of its stay in power.
Unnoticed in the bustle of activity in the town, a small gate began to form in one of the small back alleys of the town. It grew in size until it was four feet in diameter, billowing out blue light onto the darkened alley. Something snaked its way out of the gate.
When it was free, it drew away from the gate, pulling itself against the wall and becoming invisible from the light. The spectre waited as yet another entered through the gate. Soon, they were pouring out like water; dozens of them.
When the flow ended, someone else stepped through. A large man standing over seven feet crept out of the gate. Due to its small size, he had to bend over to half his size. When he was through, he stood up, allowing the sun to shine of his face.
Marshall/Dalack smiled, then gave a small nod. The gate shut behind him as he and the small army fled back further into the shadows to wait for nightfall to make their move.
No one had noticed the strange blue light. Maybe because it was too far into the shadows to be noticed or the people were too busy to bother investigating.
Infiltration had begun, though, and that night was going to be very busy.
.