The Story of Tata Chapter 8
Blood Relations
By The Man
Tata found himself once again in front of Guardia Forest. It was already night, and the meteorites burned large and bright in the black, moonless sky. Tata hopped out of the vehicle, exhausted, tired, and hungry. He had been gone the whole day, and he saw no one out in the streets of Truce, or anywhere. It was eerily silent, still as death, enough to drive a man into a wild panic. Tata felt no such urge, as that complete silence was the least of the things driving him insane.
"Let's move people! Let's go." Came a shout from the forest.
Tata whirled around in time to see Crono and the rest pile out of woods with Marle clutching the force field generator. He saw Magus, Robo, and Lucca step forward away from the rest as Atropos set up the force field. As Magus passed him, he looked at Tata intently, his expression set in a hard, stern look. Tata returned the stare, a quizzical look on his face. They kept walking, though, and Magus was forced to divert his attention to the task ahead.
Tata heard a faint whirring sound behind him, and then Tata saw a flash light up the sky briefly before disappearing.
"The force field is on." Said Atropos, staring up at the sky.
Then, there was the sound of a breaking stone, and it was realized that the force field was working, burning up the lesser comets. Soon, only the largest still remained, still coming, but smaller.
"Evil gods come close!" Ayla shouted to no one in particular. She craned her neck up at the sky, at the meteors. "Come, evil gods! Find fight with our gods!"
At that moment, a bright, powerful blast of pure energy flew up from where Magus, Robo, and Lucca stood. It shone like a rainbow, bright as a sun, and upon impacting the meteor, it shattered most of it, the broken bits crashing into the ocean off in the distance.
Then it happened. Tata saw a transparent, yet shadowy blast rise up from the west side of the woods. It quickly rose to meet the comet and then encircled it. Yet no one seemed obvious to this new energy's presence, though Tata could see it clearly.
Then Magus and Lucca shot out a huge black burst of raw shadow magic. It slammed into the meteor, a loud 'boom' sounding in the air, as well as another blinding flash. Tata thought that the meteor had taken this attack hard, it couldn't be very small anymore.
But the flash disappeared, and everyone's shock, it had barely changed size. And it was still coming.
Tata knew why. The translucent, blackish energy continued to protect the comet, protecting it from all harm. Tata began to panic, shaking uncontrollably, gasping for breath. But he was afraid of the asteroid, nor of the black energy surrounding it. This was something else, something that Tata couldn't find an origin to.
He searched inside himself, looking for something, peering into to rotting remnants of his soul. Then he found it, and in the same moment, flung the energy within him at the meteor.
Again, no one but him took notice. At that point, Magus was still widening the black hole he had created, even as the meteor drew deathly close. Then, impact occurred. Tata's beam collided with the black one, shattering it, driving it away. Tata had destroyed the dark shield with a telekinetic blast.
Then, there was a hissing noise. Tata whirled around only to find a young woman fall out of a small, bluish gate of sorts. She wore thick silk robes that hung loosely, yet firmly around her. Her face was normal enough, smooth, slightly pallid, but her hair was a rich, sky blue. It framed her face perfectly, running smooth and soft across her cheeks. It was tied in a long, loose pony-tail that went down to the middle of her back.
The woman looked around very briefly, before realizing the situation and running toward where Magus, Lucca, and Robo stood.
"Shala?" Tata heard Crono ask behind him.
"I… think so…" answered Marle.
Tata watched intently as 'Shala,' as the others called her, raced over to Magus, who was clearly weakening severely. She reached out, as the meteorite came only one hundred yards away from the mage. She touched his hand, and instantly the black hole grew even more. Then, the hole swallowed the asteroid, completely closed after it, and eliminated all traces of the evil orb.
That was it for Magus. Tata watched as he dropped to his knees and collapsed. Everyone cheered, everyone. All of Truce, all of Guardia Castle, and all of the heroes. Except Tata, who simply smiled.
Shala, Lucca, and Robo bent down and lifted up the limp form of Magus, and began to walk back to where Tata and the rest stood.
Tata raised his hands and stared numbly at them, as if viewing himself for the first time. How had he done that, he didn't care, rather why had he acted so bravely. Something inside of him had been released, shone for the first time in a long time. It had been as if the black, hard cover that had shrouded his heart in misery had been blown away, revealing his heroic nature. He had found his will to survive.
Then, the band of heroes arrived to where he and the others stood. The woman with the blue hair was looking at Magus curiously.
"My, god it's the prophet." She said as she looked down at the body of Magus. She looked up at the others quizzically.
"Where am I? What is this place?" she asked, looking at Crono in particular, her face turning to one of shock.
"Oh… my… it's you!" she said as they began to walk back towards the castle. "But… I saw you perish before Lavos!"
The questions didn't stop, and Tata was getting the feeling that this girl talked too much. "How can you still be alive and why in the world have you associated yourself with someone as nefarious as the prophet?"
Crono looked away from Shala's intense gaze. "Do you think we should tell her?" he whispered to Marle.
She nodded. "I think Magus would have wanted her to know."
Crono looked back to Shala. "Shala, I was revived from death. You're now in the Kingdom of Guardia, 1000 AD."
Shala lost her grip on Magus' head, and it almost hit the forest floor, but Robo quickly grabbed his hand.
"You, you mean the Earthbound survived?" she asked in astonishment.
"Yes, and rebuilt what had been destroyed." Continued Crono. "This is my home time, as it is for Marle and Lucca."
Crono sighed. "And this man," he said motioning with his right hand to Magus. "is no prophet. He is a powerful mage, and he goes by the name of Magus."
Crono locked his intense gaze directly into Shala's eyes. "But his real name, Shala, is Janus."
That was all it took for Shala to fall backward, but Tata grabbed her hand as she came close to cracking her spine on an uprooted root. But as soon as his hand gripped hers, Tata felt a soft tingling run through his body. It stroked every nerve, every sinew, soothing his body. Tata pulled her back on her feet, but waited a second before releasing his grip. As soon as he did that, however, the warm, comforting feeling died instantaneously.
Tata had the strangest feeling, but he tried to deny his intuition, tried to shake away the little voice in the back of his head. But the feeling stayed with him, even as he stared up at Shala with caring eyes. His intuition told him he could trust this woman, of course, but something else was saying he somehow knew her. Maybe not because he had met her before, rather that she was… connected to him, in one way or another.
Tata quickly shoved away the notion, and Shala began to talk again.
"No… it can't be." She looked angrily at Crono. "How dare you mock my brother! I watched him die! How do you even know?!"
Glenn sighed. "Shala, your brother did not die. The portal he was drawn into transported him to a different time period, much like the one you came through."
Shala held a look of doubt on her face. That's… right. I was watching the Ocean Palace crumbling around me. I heard a crack, looked up, and saw a large rock rush to hit me, but a.. black hole swallowed me up…" she trailed off.
Glenn spoke again. "Your brother thereafter made a name for himself by slaughtering thousands of men and women and children. He began a terrible war upon this kingdom four hundred years ago, burning towns, murdering innocent people. He became a hideously evil man, driven by an insane blood-thirst for Lavos. He did this because he wanted to destroy Lavos, because Lavos had destroyed his life. Lavos had destroyed his life by taking you away from him. He became an evil person, a driven madman, and a killing machine because he had lost you. That is what losing a loved one can do to a person. It can turn you into a completely different entity. Like him, or like me. But he is still human, just like me, and he is your brother. Janus, Magus, it does not matter what you call him. He is your brother."
Shala didn't say anything for a while. They continued walking, not saying much. Tata was thinking about how funny it was that Magus actually ad a sister. That everything he had done against Guardia, against Glenn and Cyrus, and against the human race had been for his sister that he cared for so much.
Then Shala reached out and lightly touched Magus on the forehead. She drew in a breath, as if she had found something astounding. She held it there for the longest time, her hand staying in place on his pallid head, and Tata thought she was in some sort of trance. Finally, she drew it away.
"It's him." She said. "The bond of the Zeal family still lives inside him."
Tata gave a small sigh. It was funny how some people were, trying to be the tough person everyone looks to for bravery, when in reality, they were as soft underneath as everyone else. Tata was like this, but he no longer hid it. His life was his own, therefore, his to live.
Then Tata did something he had not done on his own for far too long: Tata smiled.
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Tata entered the chamber of the Knights Quarters and the council room, also where Magus still lay, unconscious, dreaming, perhaps. By his side was Flea, who held his hand against her head and slowly and slightly rocked back and forth. Tata casually walked down the stairs, his boots sounding on the stone floor. Flea immediately heard him, but refrained from changing her position.
"Hey Tata." She murmured.
"Hello." Tata said. He stopped a few feet from the foot of the bed. Magus slept soundly, not making a noise, not stirring. Aside from Flea's breathing, no sounds echoed off the walls of the room. Tata looked at Flea. He saw again the nearly identical features of… her… in that face. Tata then moved to the side of the bed, opposite of Flea. He kept his eyes on the pallid mage as he let his hand drift toward him. This was an experiment. Tata touched Magus' other hand, and instantly the same feeling he got when he touched Shala. He felt warm, and calm, at peace. He slowly closed his eyes as the feelings washed over him like a tidal wave, consuming him, filling him with the warm. Until…
"Huh?!"
Tata opened his eyes and looked at a shocked Flea. She had spoken, and now held his wrist tightly. She looked horrified.
"There's no pulse!" she cried. Then she looked at Tata with a mix of fear and anger.
"What did you do?!" she yelled.
"N-nothing!" shouted Tata, dropping the mage's hand.
Then, suddenly, there was a deafening "BANG," and Magus started choking, followed by a stream of blood that flowed out the corners of his mouth. His eyes shot open, but he hardly seemed conscious. His eyes clouded over with blood, and he shut them again with the blood spilling out of them. He began gasping for air, but couldn't get any. Tata fell back against the wall as he realized what had happened. His heart had burst.
Flea attempted a healing spell. The pink glow surrounded Magus' twitching form. But then the glow turned red and shot out back at Flea, knocking her backward. Tears began to stream in her eyes, small, yet angry sobs escaping her mouth. She quickly got up just as Crono, Robo and Ayla run into the room.
"What's happening?" demanded Crono, his eyes falling on the scene.
"S-something happened!" moaned Flea. "Tata just touched him and…"
A multicolored glow emitted from out of nowhere. Tata and the rest looked for a source, their eyes finally falling on Tata's right hand. Tata held up the hand, gawking at the radiant glow from his gloved hand. He was doing it again. He had the healing touch again.
Tata slowly walked over to Magus', who still choked on his blood-filled lungs. It had poured onto the pillow, now, and ran down his cheeks. Tata let his glowing hand to creep towards where his heart should have been. He made contact, and suddenly, Magus sucked in a deep breath and held it. His chest was high, his mouth open. There was a sound like mashing flesh from his chest even as the spilt blood began to creep back into his mouth. The blood stains began to turn into puddles of blood and pour back into his mouth along with the rest. All the while, the rest of the group gawked at the unbelievable scene happening before them. They all knew how to heal, but they did not know how to cure entirely. Finally, it was done, and Tata calmly removed his hand, staring at his work. Magus was now clean of any scars, cuts, bruises, etc. It was as if he had never been in a single battle for he bore no past injuries either.
Suddenly, there came the sound of footsteps running down the stairs. They all, except Tata, turned towards the sound. Shala appeared in the doorway, out of breath and apparently tired. She walked over to the bedside and looked down upon the now peaceful form of Magus.
"Where is it?" she asked.
Crono shrugged. "Where's what?"
"There… there was something wrong in this room. I felt it." She answered, her eyes searching the room.
Flea sighed in relief. "There was. Magus had a heart attack."
She nodded toward Tata. "Tata apparently possesses magic. He healed Magus."
Shala turned to the youth. "Was that it?"
Tata nodded casually. "Yeah. Just me pulling off some tricks."
He didn't tell anyone as they went back to whatever they were doing previously, but Tata felt the evil of that attack. It hadn't been a heart attack, he knew that. Flea had tried that healing spell, and it had backfired. And he certainly hadn't caused that, which left a mystery culprit yet to be unveiled. Tata somehow knew that whoever had tried to murder Magus minutes before was the same person, or thing that had tried to help the meteorite get to earth. Another evil… Tata wondered if he would ever be free of them.
.
"He's awake!"
The phrase sounded in Tata's ear like wedding bells. On and off he had been losing his heart rate, his pulse, and so on. Tata had stuck around to help protect him from whatever was trying to kill him. Now he awoke, Flea was in his arms, crying. She sobbed out some phrase that Tata couldn't make out. He was just looking at them, seeing her hugging him. Flea and Magus. Tata and… Minka.
Yes, the resemblance shone through. If she had been Flea's age, Minka would have been her twin.
"What time is it?" Magus asked aloud.
"It's 12:08 AM." Stated Robo. "You were out for quite a while."
"Yeah, we thought you were a goner." Said Lucca.
"I'd like to know one thing." Said Magus, sitting upright. "Who gave me that extra bit of strength to make the hole wider?"
Crono and Atropos moved to the side to reveal Shala to Magus. Magus quickly leaped out of bed and stood in shock at his sister. Tata surveyed the scene from the steps. He saw them embrace, saw Magus cry for probably the first time in his hard life.
"I missed you sow much." He said quietly.
"I'll make it up to you." She whispered. "I promise."
Tata smiled at the scene, again on his own accord. The hard-shelled magician found his long lost sister. Tata sighed, thinking about how such changes occur so suddenly. Yet somehow, he knew. The answer was already forming in his mind. Times change. He thought to himself. People move. Like a rivers flow, it never ends. A young mind will become noble ambition. Young love will become deep affection. The surface of a lake, the surface of the water reflects growth. Tata knew he would have to move on, would have to change. It was the only way to live on.
"Dost though wanst to attend the festival?"
Tata looked up and saw Glenn standing over him in his brilliant black armor. It shone like a diamond in the dirt. It was the handy work of Melchior, made completely out of Moon Stone. It resembled Cyrus' armor, the way it was.
"Festival?" he questioned.
"Marle and her father and, well, the rest of Truce want to hold a celebratory festival for escaping another apocalypse. Care to attend?" asked Lucca.
Tata smiled at them. "I'd love to."
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End of Chapter 8
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