Chrono Trigger: Timeless Angels Part 8

Caveman Calamity

By Mefathiel

65 Million BC, Ioka Village:

Kino had a worried look on his face as he placed a cold wet cloth on Ayla’s forehead. Her eyes were closed, but he could tell from the expression on her face that underneath the eyelids were two lifeless beads. Ayla’s face was twisted in pain, and she was sweating all over. Kino frowned.

"Ayla no get better," he said. "Not good for Ioka if strongest warrior die." He ran to the hut’s entrance and looked for the nearest people. "Ayla not better yet! Bring Kino more sweet water!"

"Sweet water hard to find," one passerby said. "No more to bring for Ayla."

Kino frowned. "If Ayla die, Marle die. This not good…"

.

The End of Time, just after Zephon, Natan, Schala and Tata leave:

"I hope they’ll be alright," Lucca said. "I’d hate to lose Zephon again."

"Don’t worry about it," Rempha said, "the Timeless Angels have yet to fail in their mission."

"Timeless Angels?" Glenn asked. "What be those?"

Realizing that perhaps he’d said too much too soon, Rempha refused to answer. Instead, the next thing said was: "What’s happening?" Marle asked.

Crono looked over at the princess, who was now transparent. "Oh no, not again," he said. "This can only mean one thing…"

Robo started whirring, and his eyes lit up. "My sensors are detecting a huge shift in the time continuum," he reported. "Searching for the origin…scanning…scanning… The source of the time disturbance is in 65 Million BC."

As Robo finished his report, Marle disappeared with a scream, leaving only the echoes of her cry behind. Everyone stood in shock. They all had one thing, or one person, in their thoughts: Ayla.

Lucca pulled out one of the Gate keys and looked at everyone else. "There’s only four of us left," she said, stating the obvious, "and there’s two enemies we have to deal with at the moment, soon to be three. The time change caught up to Marle first because she was the one most impacted by it. Soon we’ll all disappear unless we can realign the time streams."

"According to my predictions, Glenn will be next, then Crono, then Lucca, and then myself. This time shift seems to be working fast, so I believe we only have about an hour to fix things," Robo said.

"But there are four of us, and only three can travel through a Gate at any time," Crono said.

"Consider that rule null and void," Rempha said with a flash of light. "Now any number of people can travel through the time stream simultaneously."

"Where art the fiends Ozzie and Magmas?" Glenn asked. "If they art still residing in 605 AD, then I shalt deal with them personally." He drew the Masamune for effect. "They shalt pay for the fiendish things they hath done to Ayla and Princess Nadia."

"You shall find them in 605 AD, just where they’ve always been," Rempha said. "Now go, because like Robo said, you only have about an hour before the time change consumes all four of you."

Lucca and Crono jumped onto the Epoch Time Bike and launched themselves into the time stream. Glenn hopped onto Robo’s back, and the two were caught in the backwash of the Epoch, pulled into 605 AD with its riders.

.

AD 605, Ozzie’s Fort, northwest of Choras:

"I do not understand your reasoning," Magmas said to Ozzie. "Why did you kill the cavewoman?"

Ozzie put a clawed hand to his face and shook his head. "Look Magmas, if I kill Ayla, then the princess dies. If the princess dies, then those time traveling brats never time travel in the first place, meaning Magus isn’t killed, meaning less work for me," he said for the fifth time. "You got it now?"

"I see. So, you are simply lazy."

The Mystic put a finger to where his nose should have been. "You’ve got it."

Just then, the door to the throne room was busted in, and Crono, Lucca, Robo and Glenn rushed through the cloud of smoke that was thrown up by the door. "Ozzie, you’ll pay for what you’ve done to Ayla and Marle!" Crono shouted, drawing his sword.

"I don’t know what you mean," Ozzie said innocently. "After all, bubonic plague is quite natural."

Crono narrowed his eyes. "So it was the Black Death that did the family line in."

Lucca cocked the Wonder Shot and fired it at Ozzie. Magmas erected a barrier around himself and the Mystic. "It was necessary in order to satisfy the needs for our plan," it said.

Bolts of molten rock started shooting through the air. Glenn cast Water 2 and cooled the lava, causing it to shatter against the floor. He drew the Masamune and charged Magmas, swinging the blade against the barrier. Just before it made contact, the sword pulled itself back.

"Whoa, too powerful!" the voice of Masa shouted.

"We don’t want to break again!" Mune’s voice pled.

The barrier surged, and Glenn was thrown back into his friends. Robo whirred excitedly. "Energy level is off the scale! In fact, it broke the scale! I suggest we retreat to regroup!" he said.

"No!" Crono shouted, pushing himself back up. "Not until we get Marle and Ayla back!" His hand brushed against an object hanging from his neck. It was Marle’s pendant; she’d given it to him after they had found Schala. He was suddenly overcome with anger, an unseen rage toward Ozzie and Magmas. "Die!" he screamed, hurling the pendant at Magmas.

The pendant struck the barrier and shattered. Energy exploded out from it, and the barrier was destroyed. The combined energy from the pendant and the barrier caused an even bigger explosion, which swirled into nonexistence moments later. "What was that all about?" Lucca asked.

"The energy from the pendant and barrier caused some sort of flux," Robo said.

"Let’s get out of here," Lucca said. "I don’t think we’re ready for this."

But Crono stood his ground. "No, I’m not leaving until Ayla and Marle are back," he said.

"Aren’t we persistent?" Ozzie said. "Fire!"

He shot out his hand and a blaze of energy surrounded Crono. He screamed as he felt the magic burning him from the inside. Lucca cast a spell of her own and negated the effects of Ozzie’s magic. "Crono, we leave now," she insisted.

"Yes, Crono," Glenn agreed. "You may be our leader, but Lucca is the one with sense. This battle will be for naught, and if we’re killed, then we’ve gained nothing. We retreat now, or we don’t live to see tomorrow."

"Oh, I’m sorry," Ozzie said, "but since you took so long, I simply can’t let you go that easily. Magmas, do your thing."

As the four warriors ran toward the door, Magmas blocked the exit with a magic barrier, this time strengthened by Ozzie’s own barrier. Robo whirled around and faced the two strong opponents. He spread his arms and opened his chest cavity, revealing the energy crystal within. Plasma energy started crackling through the air. Bolts of the energy struck Ozzie and Magmas, but they didn’t let their barriers waver for a second.

Suddenly, the familiar sound of a Gate was heard from above, and a piercing cry echoed through the room. Crono looked up to see a gray and yellow blur shoot out from it in Ozzie’s direction. The object hit Ozzie, rebounded off a wall, hit him again, then dropped from above to hit him a third time. Crono recognized the attack immediately.

"Ayla!" he shouted.

Another figure dropped from the Gate and landed beside Crono. Marle stood to her full height and aimed her crossbow. Charging the bolt with some Ice Magic, she fired at Ozzie and froze him in a block of ice. One of the barriers dropped, leaving only Magmas’ barrier blocking the exit.

"Are you ready, Crono?" Marle asked. "I think it’s time for an Ice Sword."

Crono nodded and leapt through the air. Marle shot a burst of Ice Magic at his sword, and Crono brought it down on Magmas. The beast staggered back a few inches, but kept its concentration. With a flick of its wrist, Magmas sent Crono reeling back into Marle.

"Welcome back," he said. "You can explain this later."

"Any time," Marle replied.

Glenn pulled the Gold Rock from under his cape and flashed it at Marle and Robo. They all took their positions around Magmas and invoked the power of the Grand Dream attack. Marle cast Life 2 on Robo, who in turn used Cure Beam on the Masamune. Glenn aimed the sword, and a powerful beam of light was emitted from the Masamune. The sword flashed, and three giant Masamune monsters came crashing down on Magmas.

The barrier collapsed, and the Chrono Trigger Team escaped through the doorway. Ozzie stood up and shook off the effects of Marle’s magic. "Those brats," he muttered. Ozzie turned to Magmas. "Looks like we need a change in our plan."

.

As everyone reached the coast of the island northwest of Choras, the ground started shaking. There was a huge shift in the earth beneath them, and the six warriors were knocked into the ocean. A sudden, powerful undertow started dragging everyone under the island.

Crono closed his eyes as he prepared to drown. Instead, he never felt it as the water started calming around him. He looked up to see the island floating above him. "Oh my God!" Lucca gasped.

"The island, it’s just like in Zeal Kingdom!" Marle declared.

Suddenly, streams of energy started converging at a point just above Ozzie’s Fort. The island was converted into energy, and it disappeared. Crono looked at Lucca. "Looks like we’ve got some problems on our hands," he said.

"It appears the island has moved from this time period into another," Robo said. "At the moment, I am unable to trace the energy path through the time stream. I suggest we go back to the End of Time for a more detailed analysis."

.

The End of Time:

Rempha looked up from his lamppost as the team of six warriors returned to the End of Time. "It looks like you’ve got Marle and the cave girl back," he said. "It’s nice to meet you, cave girl. I am Rempha, Master of Time."

"Me Ayla," Ayla said. "Nice meet you, Rempha Time Master."

Glenn leaned back against a fence on the main platform. "Ayla and Marle, what hath happened to saveth you from Ozzie’s fiendish plot?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Marle said. "All I know is that I suddenly reappeared at the End of Time with Ayla. Rempha sent us through a Gate, and we arrived at Ozzie’s Fort."

"Ayla think me know," Ayla said. "Ayla die, and then come back because of big great energy. Kino say pendant from Marle show up over Ayla and make energy go into Ayla. Then Ayla born again."

"The pendant?" Crono asked. "I threw it at Magmas’ barrier and it shattered, then exploded. You mean to tell me that somehow the pendant went through time and revived Ayla?"

"It is a feasible theory," Robo remarked. "After all, many of the Dreamstone’s properties are still unknown. Perhaps if enough energy is fused into it, it can transverse the time barrier."

"It doth not matter," Glenn said, "because we have Marle and Ayla back on the team. And soon, the five new warriors shall return to us as well."

As Glenn finished his sentence, there was a flash of light, and the five warriors appeared at the End of Time. "We’re back," Zephon said.

Cyrus stepped forward and bowed. "I am humbly honored to be a new addition to this team," he said to Crono. "I hope thou wilt accept me as one of thine own."

"Hey, any friend of Glenn’s is a friend of ours," Crono said.

"Did thou say Glenn? You knoweth him? Where is my old friend?"

Glenn stepped forward. "Greetings, Cyrus," he said. "Tis good to see thee again."

"As well as tis good to see thee once again, Glenn. We hath much catching up to doeth."

"It’ll have to wait until later," Rempha said, interrupting, "because we have some bad news on our hands now. I hope the Timeless Angels filled you in." Cyrus nodded. "Good, so you know about Magus then." A ball of light appeared before Rempha. "I’m afraid to say that Ozzie is now at the Beginning of Time, and he’s about to resurrect the wizard Magus."

"Hold on," Crono said, "just who or what are the Timeless Angels?"

"The five warriors you see before you."

Zephon, Schala, Natan, Tata and Cyrus all bowed when Rempha motioned to them. "It’s true," Schala said, "we are the five warriors known as the Timeless Angels."

"Our job is to protect time," Zephon said. "We are spread throughout every epoch on this planet in order to protect it from time disturbances that would tear the Earth apart."

"But what makes you so special?" Lucca asked.

"We have had our souls fused with the beings of our guardian angels," Natan said.

"So most of us don’t need to learn magic," Tata said.

"So those weapons you carry," Marle surmised, "are the weapons that represent your guardian angels, right?"

Cyrus nodded. "Tis correct," he said.

"I really hate to interrupt all this," Rempha said, "but I think that Magus’ resurrection is more important at the moment." He looked into the light orb before him…

.

The Beginning of Time:

Ozzie Island floated through the void that makes up the Beginning of Time, the point with the strongest time coordinates, making it almost impossible to reach, unless you have the right means. It also contains the most energy of any time period, because every other time period stems from this single point in time.

The Mystic stood at the center of his chamber with his hands held apart. "It’s time," Ozzie said, "for the resurrection. Nuega, zeina, zeiber, zom, now the chosen time has come… All energy across time, heed my command and converge on this point… All time heed my command, make yourself known and converge to revive your dark lord… Return, Lord Magus, to the earthly realm in which you belong!"

Streams of energy converged in front of Ozzie, forming a small blue portal. The portal opened up, revealing a tall, thin, dark figure lurking within it. The figure stepped out of the Gate just before it closed. With a single brush of its hand, the figure’s long blue hair was thrown back over his shoulder.

A smile formed on Ozzie’s lips. "Lord Magus, welcome back," he said.

"Ozzie, it’s good to be back," Magus replied.

"Sire, I have a small request for you…"

.

"Heeere’s Johnny!" —Jack Nicholson, The Shining

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