Time Warps: The Appearances Chapter 1

By The Man

I stared out at the ocean, at the abyss. The year was 1000 A.D, so the land I stood on was not North Cape. North Cape, one of a very few places to go in 12,000 B.C. As I thought of my own time, a tear trickled down my face. I looked at the amulet that I held in my hand. As I did, my mind wandered back to my days in Zeal, back to my days with…Shala. I always loved the way she used to play with me in the gardens of Zeal. I enjoyed it when she did magic tricks for me. I could always count on her to defend me against the other boys. They all thought I was cursed. She was the only girl I cared for, the only person, for that matter. Except for Alfador. But those days are gone. At the sound of footsteps approaching I wiped the tear from my face and looked out at the ocean again. "Does thou art also cometh here to review thine mind?" the voice asked. It was Glenn.

Glenn was human nowadays. He was changed about two months ago. We had put aside our differences and even become best friends. He sympathizes me. He knows what I’ve been through over the years. I appreciate him for recognizing that.

"Yes." I said flatly. "And to wonder what might have been."

"Well. I shan’t just waste thine time." Glenn said. "I came to tell you something. There hath been sightings of meteors headed towards this planet. We hath come up with a solution, though, the chances are slim, it might work."

"Is that all?" I asked. Frankly, the meteor ordeal didn’t worry me. I hated my life. Ever since I was separated from Shala, I had searched everywhere for her, hoping, wishing that I would turn around and see her. But years of searching proved she was gone, forever. Now I didn’t care if I lived or died. And that fact gave me an edge in every battle I fought.

"No," Glenn said. "The gates have reopened. Lucca is trying to find a cause at this moment. Also, people hath been falling through the gates. The robot, Atropos, for example. And it ‘tis increasing."

"Is Epoch still operational?" I asked as an idea came to mind.

"That be beside the point." Glenn responded, but paused. "What are you planning?"

"I want a closer look at those meteors." I answered.

"You don’t think…" he paused. "..they might be Lavos’ spawns, do you?" he asked.

I turned around to face him. I paused before answering. "Yes."

"Well, we hath better talk to the others about this." Glenn said. "Come." He said and we walked away, towards Lucca’s house. In no time my wish was granted and I was sitting in Epoch, ready for take-off. "I put a little radio in so you can talk to us." Lucca lectured. "Report anything unusual." And with that I took off. In no time I was high over Gaurdia. Soon I was able to see the meteors clearly. There were three small ones and two larger ones the smaller ones were the size of Gaurdia castle. The other two differed in size slightly. The smaller one was twice as big as the Sun Keep, and the other was half the size of the South Continent. Planet Earth was in big trouble. Suddenly, one of the smaller meteors broke a bit of itself off and that piece struck Epoch! "LUCCA!!" I screamed into the speaker. "I’ve been hit!!"

"Switch to the…!" The speaker exploded, showering in sparks.

Everything else that happened after that was a blur. One minute I was plummeting toward the ocean between Gaurdia and Medina, the next, Epoch slammed into the ocean and started sinking. I opened the ceiling and dived into the freezing water. I swam ten feet before stopping. I turned back just in time to see Epoch sink completely beneath the surface of the water. It was a sad moment. Epoch had served us many times and had gotten us out of many tight sqeaks, and it had saved our lives countless times. After a few minutes of mourning, I started to swim towards Medina, which was closest. After three hours of swimming, I spotted a small island. It wasn’t big at all, no more than twenty feet long an fifteen feet wide. A boat was parked halfway up the sand. I also saw the owners, two imps, one green, one blue. They were fishing. When I was maybe ten feet away, the green one spotted me and told his companion. "Hey, friend!" he yelled. "You look tired. Care to join us?" I didn’t really want to. I really wanted to take the ferry back to Gaurdia. But they had food with them, and I was starving, so I agreed.

They helped me up onto the island and sat me down. They offered me Jerky and cider. After eating, I dozed off. I slept soundly, until a yell from one of the imps awoke me. They were dragging a half-conscious woman up on the sand. They laid her down on her back. They had removed her cape, which was white. She had on white and gold boots, with the tops pulled down. She also had on brown tights, a small, red, miniskirt and a white vest. But what made me recognize her the most was that her hair was dark red and it was tied in a long, tight braid. It was Flea.

Upon seeing me, she quickly scrambled to her feet. She looked fairly surprised to see me, and if my face ever showed any expression, I might have looked the same. She stared at me wide-eyed and her mouth hung half open. Finally, I broke the ice.

"Well, well, well," I said nonchalantly. "If it isn’t little miss Flea. Come to wreak havoc on the world?"

"N-no! I just..!" I didn’t even give her a chance to finish. Quicker than even my eyes could follow, I slapped her across the face. It was enough to knock her to her knees. I walked over to her and yanked her to her feet by her braid. As I held her, I turned to the now-quiet-stunned imps.

"Go get your local law enforcers." I said to the imps. "Bring them here to arrest this woman." They didn’t need to be told twice. They quickly packed up and rowed away.

"P-please," she whimpered pitifully. "I don’t want to fight."

"Then you found the wrong man." I said, menacingly. And with that, I gave her a kick with the toe of my boot in her gut. She crumpled face-first into the sand. I dug her head into the sand until she was choking on a big mouthful of sand. She could hardly breath, so I punched her in her gut and threw her into the water to drown. But she was able to drag herself out of the water. I grabbed a handful of sand and stuffed it in her mouth and dunked her in the water and held her there. She struggled to get out of the water, but I had her in an iron grip, and finally, she lay still. I let go of her and sat down against the nearest tree. To my great surprise, she suddenly pulled herself out of the water and turned around to face me. I was surprised. I thought she was dead, but I reminded myself of how crafty Flea had been in the past. I rushed at her, but she blew a kiss at me. It hit head on and knocked me to the ground.

"I’m sorry I had to do that, Magus," she said, quietly. "but I need you to listen to me."

"I’ll listen." My mouth responded. My actual mind was yelling things like; ‘She’s going to kill you! Fight it!’ and ‘No! Don’t listen! Kill her!’ also ‘Don’t let her poison infect you!’ But I did listen, I had no choice. Her charm spell was a powerful one. And so she began her tale.

"I really don’t want to kill anymore. It is no longer my pleasure. I only do it to defend myself, now." She sighed, and then continued. "When Crono and the others eliminated Slash, Ozzie, you, and me, along with almost the whole Mystic race, I realized how futile are attempts against humanity were. I realized that the three of us couldn’t defeat the humans because you and the others would always stop us, no matter how powerful we became. But Ozzie was still hungry for revenge against you and the rest. Slash and I wanted the fight to be over, no more war. But he and I still had a taste for human blood and Ozzie knew this. And so he tried in every possible way to get us back into the fight, such as bribing, manipulation, and other ways. He even tried stealing from us and blaming it on human thieves. He took away privileges, eating rights, and he destroyed our beds, so we had nowhere to sleep."

"Finally, we couldn’t take another day. One day while Ozzie was out, Slash and I packed up what little we now had and slipped away during the afternoon. We were going to go our separate ways. Slash was going to go live with some friends of his and I was going to visit my mother and younger sister on the tip of the south continent. After two days of non-stop travel I arrived to their house. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. They rarely left home for fear of being caught by humans. Then, an awful thought ran through my head. As the fantasy quickly became a reality through calling inside the house and pounding on the door, I panicked and kicked the door in. The first room was empty, except for the furniture, as well as the second room. For a minute, I thought my nightmarish fantasy was just my imagination. But then, as I turned to leave, I spotted a tiny puddle of blood on the stairs leading up to my sister’s room. As I ran up the stairs, I found more puddles of blood on the stairs. When I finally reached the door, I found it locked tight. I blew the lock with a lightning spell and opened the door. Inside, I saw a horrific sight. There was blood everywhere, I mean, everywhere. The ceiling, the walls, the furniture, but mostly on the floor. Then I saw the cause. There, lying on the floor, was what was left of my mother and sister. It looked as though they had been cut multiple times with a blade. I started crying my eyes out. For a minute I couldn’t except what I saw, but when I looked again, I knew it was true; they had been brutally murdered. I knew the humans had done it, and it made my blood boil. But as I was leaving, something caught my eye: a small, white piece of torn cloth on mother’s spinning wheel. I took it off the wheel to examine it. The first thing I noticed was that it was not human-made, but made by Mystic hands. It also didn’t smell human, but like an imp. Lastly, I saw that it was royal in origin, made for higher-up Mystics. It could’ve only belong to Ozzie."

"I got back to Ozzie’s Fort as quickly as possible, and stormed through the castle to the throne room. I blew the door down and walked in. On the throne sat Ozzie with a big grin on his face. Standing in front of him was Slash, who was a little red, which meant he was infuriated. Before either of them could speak, I screamed ‘OZZIE!! You butchering piece of crap, you killed my family!! I went to my house only to find that they were murdered! I knew that you were the only scum sick enough to do it!’ Ozzie grinned and said ‘Well, how do you know that the humans didn’t do it? They’re sick enough.’ ‘That’s exactly what I thought, until I found this!’ I said as I held up the torn piece of cloth. Ozzie rubbed his chin and said ‘I was wondering where that went.’ Slash stepped forward and yelled ‘Ozzie!! I arrived at my friends’ only to see them dead at the hands of three Lancers. I killed them, but spared one long enough for him to tell me it was YOU who sent them to kill my friends!’ Slash drew his sword and said ‘I should slice your belly open and let your blood pour out onto the floor, along with all the pus that has been festering in your body since the day you were born. You didn’t even have the courage to do the job yourself!’ Ozzie chuckled and said ‘Well, I can’t be in two places at once, can I?’ I said ‘I don’t believe this!! You’re willing to kill members of your own race so we can join your pitiful cause? And your proud to admit it?!’ ‘Anybody want some chicken?’ Ozzie said with a laugh. ‘Ozzie!!’ Slash yelled. ‘This is a day of reckoning. You are going to die!!’ ‘You two flunkies can’t touch me!’ Ozzie said. ‘We’ll see.’ I said and with that, I cast a fire attack. But he repelled it and knocked me down with his own fire attack. After that, the whole battle went to Hell. Ozzie seemed to have a solution to all of our attacks. We really couldn’t do a thing against him. He finally defeated us by slamming me hard against the back wall, and stabbing Slash through the gut with his own sword. We were both barely alive, and astounded at how powerful he had become. He now stood over us with a big grin on his face. I could tell he was just teeming with power. He looked ready to defeat us in the same way ten more times, maybe more. Finally, Slash popped the question: ‘How, how did you become so powerful?’ he said through gasps for breath. Ozzie’s grin widened. He then pulled out from what seemed to be nowhere a small vial of red liquid. ‘This is called Hinn, and it is the only bit of it on Earth.’ Ozzie said. He continued. ‘Just by drinking it, you’ll instantly become younger, more powerful, and act lot nicer.’ He held the vial close to my face. ‘Care to try some?’ ‘NEVER!’ I yelled. ‘I’ll never sink to your level!’ Slash pulled the sword out of himself, but after a minute of violent coughing, he shuddered and died. Before I could do anything, Ozzie put the vial to his mouth and poured some of the Hinn in his mouth. Almost instantly, Slash sat straight up, alive and well. In fact, he didn’t even have a single injury or any signs of past injuries on him. He also looked younger, maybe 23 years old. ‘Works like a charm.’ Ozzie said. Once again he held the vial to my face. ‘Sure you don’t want some? You look like you could use it.’ I really didn’t have a choice, so I took the vial and drank the rest of its contents. Instantly, all my wounds healed. I got up on my feet, because I was feeling great. ‘Flea,’ Slash said. ‘you look wonderful.’ I did look wonderful. I was so young! At the time, I was 25 years old, but after drinking the Hinn, I looked closer to 19. But the part about ‘being nicer’ was that both Slash and me felt compelled to obeying Ozzie’s every order. ‘Now, come,’ said Ozzie. ‘we have much to plan for.’

"After that, when you and the others came and defeated us, I didn’t really die. I had gotten sick of killing all the time, so I staged my own death and ran away from Ozzie’s Fort. For two months, I lived in secret. Then, one day, a black hole opened up underneath me and suddenly, I was in the water. Two an a half days later, I arrived here."

She was crying by now. She lifted the charm, and then put her head in hands and started crying harder. For a minute, I just thought about the tale. Had this really happened? Was she telling the truth? Was this all a dream?

Finally, I looked at Flea. She looked so helpless and sad. I walked over and sat down next to her and looked at her. After a minute, she said; "I’m sorry for taking up your time. You can kill me now. I’ve got nothing left to live for."

I put my arm around her shoulders and said; "Neither do I. But I’m going to try to live on any- way."

End of Chapter 1

Go To Chapter 2

Return To CT Fanfic