A Melting Of A Heart Chapter 6

Prophecy

By Key Mima

Magus watched the younger him run out the door, and his memories told him of Janus's purpose. He was going to go comfort Schala, who was probably still lost in her own world.
 
He also remembered the time when he pulled Sunev into the bathtub with him and she took off her clothes in front of him. All the things that were happening to Janus were memories to him now. It was a weird feeling.
 
He stared at Sunev's back for a moment then put his hand on her shoulder.
 
"Zeal's not going to survive?"
 
"Magus, don't overreact. With all the things that have happened today, I'm not sure whether the future will be the same. But, originally, Zeal did meet its demise."
 
Magus sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. "How?" he asked simply.
 
"Magus... I... You don't want to hear it."
 
"I'm stronger than my sister, Sunev. I can handle anything." He watched her wince and gaze up at him before she started her explanation.
 
"Why did you come here?" she asked. Magus frowned.
 
"I came here because the gate sent me here. You know that."
 
"Yes, but I mean why did you decide to get close to the queen? What are you waiting for?"
 
"You probably already know that. You're Omniscient Girl."
 
"You want to destroy Lavos now, right?"
 
"Yes, yes. Get on with it." Sunev glared at him and he smiled coldly. He didn't want to be mean to her now that she was giving him important information, but he couldn't help it.
 
"You can't do it."
 
Magus stared blankly at her.
 
"What do you mean?"
 
"I mean that you can't beat him. No one can. He's too powerful. Crono is stronger than you and even he couldn't destroy Lavos." Magus grimaced at hearing that the little red-haired punk he had beaten was stronger than him, but that wasn't the most important thing at hand. Sunev continued. "The queen summons Lavos using Schala and you whip off your cape all proud, et cetera, et cetera, and you can't do it. He drains you. Crono and the others fight him. He beats them into oblivion too. Now there's nothing anything anyone can do and the queen is letting Lavos absorb you, your sister, and Crono's party. I don't know who he'll bring with him this time. And then, that the last minute, Crono stands up. He's too weak to beat Lavos and he knows it. Your mother laughs at him." Sunev paused, eyes filled with tears. "Lavos kills him. Crono sacrifices himself to save everyone. Including you. The power is entirely too much for Zeal and it begins to crumble and your sister sends all of you away using the last of her power. She goes down with the boat. Zeal falls into the ocean. Sayounara. Finis. The end."
 
Magus sat down on the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands. Was it really that way? Sunev wouldn't lie to him, would she? No, they had been friends for a while, long enough that she wouldn't lie to him just for the shock value. He let out a long, wavering sigh.
 
"How long do we have until it comes?" he asked quietly.
 
"I'm not sure. Time passes differently here." Sunev bit her lip and the conversation collapsed into an uncomfortable, tense brooding period.
 
"Well, that's quite ironic, isn't it?" Magus finally asked, breaking the silence. Sunev nodded solemnly. "But instead of sitting here whining about it, again we must be strong. Are you catching a pattern here?" Sunev smiled slightly and nodded again. "So, let's just prepare for this as well as we can. I'll train on all my time off. You should, too."
 
"Magus, that's insane! There's no way we can stop him!"
 
"Saying that is weak. Even if we can't beat him we should try and better ourselves, don't you think?" Magus looked up and caught Sunev's long-lashed blue eyes.
 
"The game can't be changed..." she whispered.
 
"Enough with your damned game already!" Magus cried, feigning more courage than he actually felt. "Let's say you powered up your characters until they were strong enough to beat Lavos and then sent them to Zeal. Could they beat him?"
 
"I..." Sunev paused a moment to think. "Beats me. I never had the patience to do it. It'd take hours and hours of playing to do it and even then I'm not sure there's anything that would make them... Magus, this is stupid."
 
"Patience is a virtue, Sunev. You should have tried and seen whether or not you could have beaten him."
 
"I didn't need to! I didn't think I'd end up in the game praying for my own life, ya know."
 
Magus shrugged. Sunev wasn't being much help by not seeing his point. It didn't matter how long it took. He would train himself until he could go up against Lavos by himself and obliterate the fiend in a moment. He wouldn't let him tear down his homeland like it was just a picture on a wall. He groaned and fell back into his bed.
 
"Like I thought this would ever happen to me either, Sunev. I'm almost as human as you... if you get down to genetics." He grinned.
 
"Right, but not if you take sympathy or other normal human qualities." She smiled back and sat down next to him.
 
They remained that way for a good, long while, until someone knocked on the door. Magus shot up from his bed with a racing heart, thinking it might be Schala. He threw on his cloak and hood and opened the door, only to find a young servant girl who bowed deeply, more out of fear than respect.
 
"The queen wishes to see you, prophet," she said shortly, and waited for him to follow her. He looked over to Sunev, who made a neck-cutting gesture which he took to mean "No Doom Prophecies Allowed". He nodded and closed the door behind him.


Sunev heard the click of the door before she remembered seeing it close. This had to be the worst situation she had ever been in in her life. She wondered if in this world it was possible for her to die. The pain she felt at Magus's castle was quite real, and everything else seemed real other than their cartoon-ish qualities. But... Death was something she wondered if she was above.
 
"Damn," she muttered to herself. "I gotta find Janus."
 
When she got to her room she saw no trace of him or his sister. She asked someone in the hall and they said to try their room.
 
They were in there. She could hear the soft crying and sniffling before she reached the staircase. She laid back against the wall and listened to them talking through their tears. It wasn't polite to intrude, but it wasn't polite to eavesdrop, either. Well, with eavesdropping they might never find out. She grinned to herself at that thought.
 
"What will we do... when we die, Schala?"
 
"Shh... Janus, we won't die. Don't talk like that."
 
"But Sunev said Zeal would be destroyed. If Zeal dies, won't we die too?"
 
"No, Janus. We'll survive. I promise you. You can't mention any of this to mother though. Promise me?"
 
"But if we tell mother, can't she stop Zeal from... being destroyed?" Janus sniffled loudly.
 
"Janus, you really think mother would listen to us?" There was a brief silence.
 
"I see your point." There was a ruffling sound and Sunev guessed Schala had hugged her younger brother.
 
"It'll be okay Janus," Schala said, her voice barely above a whisper.
 
"Now I want you to go find Sunev. She's probably worried about you." Sunev made her move to leave.
 
"But should I face her after what I said?"
 
"Sure. I'm sure she'll understand that you were just worried for me."
 
"...I guess..."
 
"Believe me, Janus. Since when could you not trust me?"
 
"Never," Janus cried, hugging his sister again.
 
"Good. Now I think I need to go see mother. She told me to see her five minutes ago. I'll be back by supper, Janus, okay?"
 
"...Okay, Schala." They kissed. "See you at supper."
 
"See you."
 
Sunev bolted to a different room. There, she picked up a book and pretended to read some language she couldn't understand. Soon after, she heard Janus's tiny footsteps approach her, and she looked up to see him, blushing, with a tear-streaked face and stammering for words.
 
"I'm sorry what I said to you Sunev. I should have asked Schala before I assumed it was you. I'm sorry."
 
"That's alright, Janus. I'm sorry for hitting you. But no matter what you do, never touch the prophet."
 
"Why not? You touch him. Excessively, I might add."
 
Sunev laughed. "It's different. Only you aren't allowed to touch him."
 
"Why?"
 
"You'll understand later on your own."
 
"I hate waiting to hear things that affect me directly."
 
"Patience is a virtue, Janus. Use it." Janus didn't answer, just shuffled uncomfortably. "Anyway... wanna go to Enhasa?"
 
"Sounds like a treat compared to all this doom and gloom stuff that's been going on lately. It gets a bit depressing." Janus smiled and pushed back a lock of blue hair that had fallen into one of his eyes.
 
"Yeah. Let's go, then!"
 
At Enhasa Sunev was confronted with something she really had not expected to see. She and Janus had been there for about two hours and had both had relaxing naps, but as she sat there talking with Janus, who was pacing around behind her, she looked up to see Crono, Frog, and Marle coming toward where she was. She stood up, gaining their attention, and the soft whirl of the Black Wind caressed her cheeks again. She shivered. Janus stood alert as well. Janus came forward first, staring at them quite frankly.
 
"The Black Wind howls... One among you... will shortly perish." With that, he went on his way.
 
Sunev watched him leave the building, presumably on his way to supper with his beloved sister. She then brought her eyes to land on Frog, who was obviously the most affected by her choice to go with Magus.
 
"Hello, Sunev," he said shortly, eyeing her.
 
"Hi, Sunev," Crono and Marle said in unison. Then they giggled and Marle punched his arm playfully. Sunev frowned and finally decided that they were a good couple despite Marle's personality shortcomings.
 
"I would assume since we are in thine presence that mine enemy lurketh around, eh?"
 
"Frog, sorry to say it, but you gotta shut up. I don't have time to put up with this Magus hate crap. I've been through more shit today than I have in my whole life. It's very stressful."
 
"And by saying that, thou'rt telling me that watching mine best friend die before me is not considered 'shit' or 'stressful'?"
 
Sunev almost laughed at Frog's use of a vulgar word, but he would have killed her or something. Instead she said, "Frog, I'm very sorry about Cyrus. I know Cyrus was a great man and what Magus did to him was wrong. I know. But... I dunno. Nevermind. I'm sorry."
 
Frog sighed deeply and nodded. "I'm sorry too, Sunev. I know thou'rt not against us nor for us. But just knowing that thou lefteth to side with mine worst enemy was... terrible, to say the least."
 
"I'm all for you, Frog. I'm on your side. I'm just... very good friends with Magus. But if you think about it, no matter what side I choose, I'll still be on your side. Both your goal and Magus's is to defeat Lavos, right? I'm fine with that."
 
"Although I've madeth up with thou, Sunev, it dost not mean that thou canst tell me that Magus is a good man. I shall never thinketh of him as such."
 
"Sorry," she mumbled, looking down at her toes. Frog smiled and nodded, and turned to buy some goods from the lady in the corner.
 
Crono made a muffled cry and embraced her when Frog had left them, and he immdiately started with an explanation. "I was so worried for you! I didn't think you'd survive after what you looked like back at the castle. No offense, but you didn't look like you had a chance."
 
"No offense taken, I know. I looked like death was sitting on my back and he was fat." Crono laughed and patted her on the shoulder.
 
"Actually, Frog felt really bad about the whole thing. I think he was glad to get that off his back."
 
"Didn't look like it..."
 
"Oh, now don't be mad at Frog now, Sunev," Marle said smiling brightly. "After all, he's been through a lot, and that *was* his worst enemy you ran off with."
 
I would have sworn we just clarified that, Sunev thought, her eye twitching.
 
"Cometh, Crono and Marle!" Frog called from the door. "I'm glad we've madeth up, Sunev," he added.
 
"Yeah," Sunev replied. "Bye, Crono. I'll see you around. I'm the prince's babysitter."
 
"You are? Wow. Sounds like *fun*." Crono grinned and shook her hand. Marle followed his example and shook Sunev's hand as well.
 
"Goodbye, Sunev," they said in unison again.
 
"Bye Crono, Marle."
 
The door closed again, and Sunev started off to Zeal a few moments later. She sighed and rubbed her arms as she looked around the beautiful country. The sky was seeping with purples and blacks now, it was getting late. The rivers that flowed off the side of the main continent reflected the sky and gleamed gold, copper, and ruby. It was a shame this beautiful land was cursed with such a ruler. There was so much more it could have done, had it survived. Sunev started walking again, but not before she felt the soft, deathly touch of the Black Wind.

.

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