Amor Vincit Omnia Chapter 18
Two Idiots' Mistake
By Minmei
Deep inside the cave ten minutes later...
"There it is!" Marle declared, pointing at the sleeping creature. What a sight. The monster, as hideous as its relative, took up a large portion of the area. The others continued to study the beast.
"It looks a lot like the first one," Lucca observed. "Spiky shell-I mean, isn't it even bigger than the first?!"
"Yes. I believe you are correct," Robo said. He turned to Schala. "Miss Schala, it's all yours."
Schala nodded, made her way past the big rocks and stopped, a good distance between her and the son of Lavos. Her pendant began to glow as she began a strange chant...
.
About five minutes later...
Schala groaned and shook her head. "No," she said. "This isn't working. I can't do it. The creature isn't weakening...let alone responding."
Marle looked at Schala. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"My pendant isn't strong enough," Schala told her. "I wish your pendant wasn't damaged, Marle. I could really use that power too."
"Oh," Marle sighed, and lowered her eyes to the ground. "I guess we lose, huh?"
"Precisely!" the familiar voice shot out from behind them. "You lose, because I win! You see, I am not done with you yet."
Lucca's eyes widened. "Dalton?!" she gasped.
"And company," he answered, chuckling wickedly. He stepped out from one of the rocks, revealing his hostage.
Lucca's jaw dropped. "Oh no, Dad!" she cried. Dalton was holding Taban, walking towards the team, with a knife to Taban's throat.
His expression was dripping with pure glee. "Yup. And that's not all! Got your mama here too!"
"You creep!" Lucca shouted angrily.
Shaking his head, Magus put a hand to his chin. "But how does he have Lara too? He must have had an accomplice," he said softly.
"That's what I like about you, Sir Magus," the voice from behind Dalton chuckled. "You're sharp." The figure stepped forward.
The blue-haired mage gasped. "Flea?!"
"So we meet again, Sir Magus," Flea sneered, an evil smirk painted on his face.
"You...survived? How?" Magus was baffled.
"I can't believe you would underestimate me," Flea pretended to pout, a mock expression of hurt on his face. "Beauty…always…survives." He blew a kiss to Magus.
Magus ignored it. "What about the others?" he asked, referring to Ozzie and Slash.
Flea cocked his head. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. They weren't beautiful enough," he replied snootily.
Beautiful? a few members mouthed the word in confusion.
"How did you even get here?" Magus wanted to know.
Flea chuckled. "Doubting me again!" he sighed. "When your silly little friends came to my era, I, uh, heh, STOWED away in the trunk of their vehicle when they weren't looking, ha ha."
"Wait a minute," Lucca said, giving the pink-haired mystic a rather dirty look. "There IS no trunk, you freak show reject!"
Flea giggled, finding it all amusing. "Okay, I lied. I held onto the bottom. I almost broke a nail too."
The group groaned, with a few rolling their eyes.
"Yes," Dalton said, beaming at Flea. "My sweetheart is quite the genius."
"'Sweetheart'?" Magus said in surprise. "So you two are-" his stomach churned in the worst way- "Oooohh. Excuse me...for a...s-second-" He turned around and ran behind one of the rocks. There everyone could hear him losing his lunch...and his breakfast...he was probably hurling up last night's dinner as well. The team watched as Magus came back, wiping his mouth. They then looked back at Flea and, with the exceptions of Atropos, Kino, and Schala, looked a little sick themselves.
Flea shot Magus a nasty look. "What was THAT all about?" Dalton demanded, an equally disturbed look on his face.
Magus shook his head and scoffed at Dalton's ignorance. "Idiot," he said scornfully. "Don't you know?"
"Know what, Janus?" Schala suddenly asked. "So what if Dalton has a silly new girlfriend?"
Flea raised an eyebrow, starting to show the least bit of annoyance. "For the last *@&$# time," he growled quietly, "I am NOT a girl!! I AM A GUY AND DON'T YOU FORGET THAT!!"
Dalton's jaw dropped. "Y-you are?!" he cried in complete shock. "No." Dalton shook his head slowly, remaining silent for but a second. "You-you can't be." He turned to the team, trying to justify what Flea had just said. "They…put you under a spell so that you would say that, didn't they, my darling?" he questioned Flea, staring blankly at the members.
Flea turned toward Dalton, an look of confusion covering his face. "Huh?"
"Yes, yes, they're…making you say that." Dalton's expression quickly turned hateful. "How dare you attempt to ruin my happiness with my love by making her say she's a guy!" he shouted. "No one with a rack like that could ever be a man!" He looked back at Flea. "Now, come on, my dear, get the other one."
Flea just stared at Dalton, his face expressionless.
"Flea!! Get the mother!"
"That's Flea, then?!" Schala cried.
"Oh yeah," answered Magus.
"Flea!!" Dalton yelled.
Flea seemed to finally snap out of it. "Oh, uh, right." The mystic hurried back into the shadows and reemerged with Lara, his arm around her neck.
"Oh no!" Lucca gasped again. "Mom!"
Both of her parents were too frightened to say a word. Flea and Dalton brought the hostages forward, directly facing the enormous monster that was Lavos' child. "Now you've made me angry," Dalton said menacingly, still walking towards the second Lavos. "Now I have to-oh my gosh, what is that?! Is that-it can't be!! Lavos is here?!"
"Idiot!" Magus yelled. "You just now notice? This is Lavos' son."
"Lavos the second," Dalton murmured, staring at the creature in awe. And then, an ugly, twisted smile spread across his lips. "Yes! Immortality is still possible. I must be a part of him."
"Wait, darling," Flea called. "I'm coming too." They continued advancing towards the monster, still with their hostages.
"You idiots!" Magus shouted. "You'll wake him and ruin our plans!"
As if on cue, the creature opened its angry, ominous looking "eye" and let out that gurgling shriek. Suddenly the eye shot out a beam of light, a beam similar to the one that had taken Crono.
"Oh no!!" Lucca cried. "Mom! Dad! They're directly in the path! Someone stop Dalton!"
Robo looked at Lucca and saw the panic on her face. He couldn't stand to see her hurt this way. He knew what he had to do, even if it meant risking his own life.
Robo ran towards the quartet to save Lucca's parents, to push them out of the way, but as soon as he stepped into the light's path, both the hostages and their captors disappeared, evidence that they had been teleported inside the creature to join it for all eternity.
"NOOOOOO!!!" Lucca wailed helplessly, completely horrified. The tears began to pour down her cheeks as she dropped to her knees and sobbed. She then lifted her head as she realized Robo was still standing in the beam of light. "Oh no! Robo, get out of the light's path!" she screamed. But it was too late.
Robo turned to give her one last look…of total defeat. "I'm sorry, Lucca! I did everything I could for them, for you..."
His last words seemed to disintegrate along with the rest of his body, which was melting away, layer by layer, the way Crono had in the Ocean Palace.
"Robo!!" Lucca shrieked.
"Oh no!" she heard Crono yell. She could also hear the others' cries of shock as well.
The monster roared again. It gave off another force, a force that surrounded the surviving members of the team. A familiar force. As the cave started to quake, the ceiling began to give way as the pink robot and her eight companions were drawn into the largest, most massive timegate they would ever remember in their lives.
...if they survived...
.