The Trials Of The King Chapter 6
Preparations
By Nanaki
June 13
"Come in." Nadia called as she heard a knock on her door, not putting down the book she was reading. But she did as soon as she saw who the visitor was. "Lucca!" Indeed, Lucca stood in the doorway, her purple hair hanging down to her knees.
"Yes. I brought back your little troublemaker." She stepped aside, and Aliza ran into the room, straight into Nadia's arms.
"Oh! I've missed you. Did you have a good time at Lucca's?" Nadia sat the wriggling girl on her lap.
"Yeah, except when Tam smashed my sand castle."
"It's a good thing Sira was there to calm her down." Lucca breathed a sigh of relief yet again.
"Oh? Sira stopped by your place?"
"For one night. Where is she now anyway?"
"She's allegedly in Porre, although I would have expected her back before now."
"In Porre? Uh... That isn't exactly the safest place to be at the moment."
"True enough, but Sira can take care of herself. Besides, we've been in much more danger than this, and I'm sure Maro is right now too. I've got enough to worry about with Nora and Zane coming back from Choras in the next couple days anyway."
"Okay, I suppose. She is almost eighteen."
Nadia laughed. "Now you sound just like her!"
"Well anyway, I have something here to show Crono, but you might as well look too, since you seem to be at the root of all this." Nadia frowned at the remark as she looked at the piece of paper Lucca held forward. But then she quickly forgot about it. "Whoah. Now that's a big gun. It looks like Schala's pulsar cannon..."
"Yeah. It's based on her specifications. When we use it in the battle, it'll be set to stun, although the people it's hitting won't know that. I'm just not as bloodthirsty as Schala is."
"Few people are." Nadia sighed. "Except maybe Janus, back when he was Magus."
Suddenly, Aliza shouted, "Booooooorrrrriiiinngg!!!" Nadia turned to glare at her. "Oh sure, kill the messenger." She complained, then ran out of the room.
Lucca looked up from the paper, and regarded Nadia strangely. "Why did you have so many kids anyway?" She demanded good naturedly.
"What do you mean "did?" Nadia demanded back. "I started early, and I plan to go on as long as I can."
"You started early all right. And so did Sira, actually. It was lucky she lived, being so early."
"Uh... We never told you about that?" Nadia asked apprehensively.
"About what?" Lucca looked at her strangely.
"I guess not. Okay then, Sira wasn't premature."
"But... There really wasn't time before the wedding. You two were constantly in the public eye. And there was certainly no time before that."
"That's where you're wrong, I'm afraid. The night we saved Crono, you and Magus left us alone up there after a while, and, well, it got cold. Sira's September 19th birthday is pretty much right on schedule."
Lucca gasped. "My, my. The king would be spinning in his grave if he knew that."
"The king would be spinning in his grave if he knew how reluctant Crono was to resist these people." Nadia countered. With that, Crono appeared at the doorway.
"Hello ladies. Our new allies have been keeping me busy all day, so I couldn't get up here before."
"Where have you been, anyway? And what do you mean, our new allies?" Nadia asked him.
"I found a force that's quite willing to help us out. I want you to meet their leader, although I think you have before." Crono stepped back to reveal Ozzie standing by the door.
"Ozzie!!" Nadia and Lucca both shrieked.
"Okay..." Lucca calmed down. "NOW the king is spinning in his grave."
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June 14
"I just know this is his way of getting back at me for making him fight this war!" Nadia complained as she watched Lucca assemble the modified Pulsar Cannon. Vincent was standing guard at the bottom of the hill, telling some of the troops about his days as a special agent. Near the entrance to Zenan bridge, some of Nadia's archers and Lucca's marksmen were practicing their aim. Guardia castle was dimly visible across the river and to the north. Nadia decided to change the subject. "Whatever happened to Dorino anyway?"
"The Shadows nailed it, remember?" Lucca said, not really paying attention. "Or maybe you don't. We did have to use a Chrono Trigger to get you back after that little fiasco." Nadia frowned. "Uh... hand me that conduit, would you?"
"This one?" Nadia picked up the long tube, and handed it to Lucca, accidentaly smacking the back end against a computer monitor behind her. It began to spin around wildly, just as a call from Ozzie came in.
"Queen Nadia?" His blue, bloated face asked as the monitor whirled past. Receiving no response, he tried again. "Queen Nadia!!"
"Will someone turn off the rotating fat guy?" Lucca called to the air as she screwed in the conduit. Nadia steadied the monitor and pushed a button on the side.
"Ah, there you are. Is the Pulsar Cannon finished yet?"
"Getting there." Lucca called.
"Getting there?" Ozzie began to turn red in the face. "Crono wants it finished as soon as possible! The Matuyamas could strike at any moment, you know."
Nadia frowned at him. "First off, that's King Crono to you, next, Lucca's working as fast as she can, and last, I've been wondering why they haven't struck already!"
"Why you-!" Ozzie began, but Nadia turned the monitor off.
"Were we just yelled at by a pot roast?" Lucca giggled.
"That, or something similar." Nadia had to laugh too. "At least that Pillage turned out to be fairly civil. I can't say the same for Plunder and Ozzie."
"I'm starting to wish the reason they're here would show up, so we could get this mess over with."
"I do wonder what's keeping those Porrians. Well, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
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"I think I've got it!" Zeik burst into his "house," which was really a small cave carved into the rock. Sira looked up from where she was poring over some musty manuscripts. "The perfect monster for summoning!" Sira had figured out summoning fairly easily, and had summoned some imps and a Nu, but they had needed something better than that. Zeik and his men had gone in search of some reference to anything more powerful.
"Okay. What do I have to do?"
He held out an ancient hide, with writing and drawings in a faded black pigment. "These are known as Weapons of the Planet. Apparently, they were monsters that could be summoned by the planet itself, in times of trouble. If we can get any one of these, well, that's pretty much it!"
"What do you mean, they "were" monsters? What are they now?"
"I think they're all dead, unless I'm greatly mistaken."
"That's going to take an awful lot of power."
"Yeah, but just think! These things are huge, and have ton of powerful magic..."
Sira sighed. "Well, I can give it a shot. If I'm going to do this, I might as well go all out. Which one is the most powerful?"
"Here." Zeik pointed to a decidedly fierce looking creature. "That one is called the Surge Weapon. It's the leader, I think. Over 50 feet tall in basic mode."
She whistled appreciatively. "Yeah, that would pretty much do it for you. I don't know if I can command enough energy, but I'll give it my best shot."
Zeik smiled. "Thank you. I know this isn't the easiest thing for you to do, fighting against your own people..."
"Like I said, this is a stupid war. It should never have happened. I'm trying to help end it fast."
"You know, you're pretty cool Sira."
She smiled a little. "You're pretty cool too, even though part of me is screaming that I should kill you."
"Whoah. Um, thank you for not doing that." Zeik scratched the back of his head nervously. "You know, I kind of want to ask you out, but, uh, I'll sort of be beaten to death if I show my face anywhere around Porre."
"Hmm... I think I'd accept, were you able to."
"That's good to know." The smile returned to his face. The impending awkward silence was interrupted as Kaneta walked into the abode.
"Hey 'Eta." Sira called genially.
"What?!" He suddenly looked incredibly angry, and a vein seemed to throb on his forehead.
"Um, Kan?" She gulped, wondering what his problem was.
"Chill man." Zeik put a restraining hand on Kaneta's shoulder. "She didn't know what that meant. She's not saying that."
With effort, he managed to control himself. "Zeik, you better take a break from all this magic to teach her a little about us. Someone else might not be so slow to draw." Then he stormed back out of Zeik's place.
"What did I say?" Sira asked quietly.
"I don't think it's overly important. Just make sure not to call anyone else that."
"Okay. You know, I'm kind of in over my head here."
"We all are." Zeik grimaced. "This whole mess is like trying to breathe underwater. You know it's possible, 'cause other things can do it, you just don't know how."
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"So who summoned you?" - Vigo
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