Search For Schala Part Eight

Death Peak

By Taran

“You did what!?”

“I gave them the chrono trigger and told them how to revive someone.” replied Gaspar.

“Why didn’t you keep them here?” demanded Magus.

“I didn’t know that they were the Schala and Dalton you were looking for.”

“How could you not. I mean, how many Schala’s and Dalton’s from 11,999 B.C., that fly around in a time machine called Epoch, pass by here!?”

“Calm down. Remember. The end of time isn’t like other eras. No time passes here so those two could have traveled to here decades after you found them or decades before. If I had held them here, I could have altered time and you would have never found Schala.”

“O.K. I've got to go after them. Which gate leads closest to Death Peak?” Gaspar pointed and Magus headed towards it. Soon he was standing in the middle of a town inside a dome. As he walked down the street towards the harbor people started staring at him. They had obviously never seen someone with pointed ears before.

When Magus got to the harbor he saw a sign that read, “Tour of Death Peak”. There was a ferry just departing. Using an ice spell, he froze some water into a block of ice. He jumped on it and then onto the ferry. The town got smaller and smaller while Death Peak came closer into view. Soon the ferry landed and a tour group got off. Magus joined them.

The group wandered around the base of the mountain but no one dared try to climb it. Slipping away from the group Magus did dare. He started up the snowy path. It got colder with every step he took. The wind stung him and the ice under his feet threatened to make him loose his footing. Magus couldn’t continue like this. Hiding behind a tree he kept out of the wind.

After regaining his strength Magus continued his climb until he had to rest again. Finally he reached the face of the cliff and he was sheltered from the wind. Following the path that he knew was correct he soon came upon a heap of metal and iron. He had never seen it before but somehow he recognized it. “Epoch...” Rushing to it he saw an old man crouched in it’s shadow. The man was scraping some cylinder shaped iron piece.

“Who are you?” asked Magus.

The man turned around. “Pro...phet?”

The man was Dalton but he looked more like Dalton’s grandfather. “What happened to you?”

“The monster... att...attacked us... after we c...rashed. It... got Schala but... I es...caped. I must... res...cue her.”

“No, you rest. I’ll rescue her.” Running towards the cave Magus wondered why Dalton seemed so old. Perhaps it had been years after Epoch had crashed. Hearing a roar Magus came back into focus. There was a huge worm like creature covered with snow. In it’s hand was an aged version of Schala. “Put her down!”

“HA HA HA. If anyone is going to give orders it’s me, Sir Krawlie!” With that a whip from Krawlie’s tail knocked Magus down. Magus counter attacked with a fire spell. “He He He He. That feel’s nice and warm.” Krawlie grabbed Magus and stung him with his tail.

“Nooooo!” cried Dalton as he hurled the sharpened pipe at Krawlie. It struck right between the eyes.

“Ahhhh. No one can defeat me!” In his rage Krawlie dropped both Magus and Schala. He stumbled on a rock and fell onto Dalton.

“Dalton!” cried Schala. “No!”

Magus used an ice spell to freeze Krawlie, forever. He looked at Schala. She was different. She was very old. It didn’t even seem to be her at a first glance, but he knew that it was. She was lying on the ground where Krawlie had dropped her. Going over to her he asked if she was all right.

“No, not really... I think I broke something. I’m bleeding too.” Indeed she was. There was a scar across he forehead that was dripping blood onto her wrinkled face. Magus could also see blood all over one of her legs. “Please prophet, help me to the top. I must... I must revive Janus before... before I die.”

“Schala, It’s me. I am Janus!”

Schala looked up at him. “Janus?” Her eyes closed and she past out.

“No! You can’t die.” Magus picked her up. Something dropped to the ground, it was the chrono trigger. “The chrono trigger... I must use it. I’ll exchange her for my Schala. The one I... love? I think so.”

Magus had Schala flung over his shoulder and held the chrono trigger in his hand. Soon he was at the top. There was an old and withered tree. A icy wind blew. Magus hadn’t been there when the others had revived Crono so he didn’t know how to use it. He placed it by the tree and started to think how it worked. The chrono trigger shattered.

“No! This can’t happen, it can’t!” Magus kneeled down and wrapped his cape around him. Looking at the sun he saw that an eclipse was occurring. It grew even colder. Before, Magus would have paid no heed to the bitter cold, he used to like it, it was like his heart. But now, his heart was warm and the coming freeze made him shiver. Why had he bothered to go on this miserable journey, why had he taken his time to recover his lost heart, if it was all going to turn out, like this?

Suddenly, while in the midst of despair, the scenery around Magus changed. Instead of being on top of a cold mountain of death, he was in some kind of vortex. The first thing that caught his eye was Lavos! “How are you still alive!?” After no response Magus wondered what was going on. Looking around he saw more people. Crono was attacking Lavos. Marle and Frog were lying on the ground as were Schala and Magus? “What the? The chrono trigger did work, it worked!” Magus took the old Schala that he was holding and brought her over to the other Schala. He took the young Schala and held her in his arms. He took the pendant she was wearing and gave it to the old Schala who he shook and eventually awoke. He told her what to do and then he disappeared.

Magus was holding Schala on top of Death Peak. She soon woke up. “Who, are you?” she asked.

“I’m your brother. I am Janus.”

Now, normally Schala would have instantly recognized him as “The Prophet” but as the entity had said, Magus had recovered his emotions and been transformed back into Janus and Schala could tell by the look in his eye, that it was her brother. As Magus carried her down the mountain they got to know each other again, they caught up on what had happened to each of them.

As for the Schala in the other time stream, she used the pendant to send Marle and Frog to the new town of Algetty where they continued there quest. She then parished with the ocean palace, and her long, hard life was finally over.

Magus dragged Dalton with them as he carried Schala. He gave the gate key back to the director of Aeris Dome, and then took everybody home, back to 12,000 B.C. where the winter was over, and the family was reunited.

THE END