Things Unseen
Chapter Six: Hope Realized
By Darknightdestiny

About half a minute later, the travellers found themselves underneath a dark grey sky. Ash fell down onto the hood of the Epoch in flakes that were violently caught up and carried away whenever the harsh winds would creep up on them. Directly above the ship, a red and orange ray broke through deep gray clouds, but that was the only source of light that could be seen. The lack of total blackness above was all there was to light their way.

Ayla bounded up the side of the ship and vaulted out of the just opened cockpit using her incredibly strong arms. She landed in a crouched position on the soft and rotting terrain, and she immediately put her hands out in front of her to catch herself, should she fall. She stood up and looked around the place, a blank expression on her face. "Lucca! Where this?" she asked.

Lucca watched Ayla's curiousity, though not whole-heartedly, since her attention was torn between the question posed to her and making sure that a certain wizard didn't fly off his hinges. Magus was, however, too busy leaning against the side of the ship to notice Lucca's discriminating glances.

Lucca stood up from her seat in the Epoch and placed one hand on the open glass shielding, while the other was placed on the edge of the cockpit. She stepped up onto the edge and hopped out, walking past Magus, and pretended to ignore his presence out of spite. "This," she said, as she approached the place where Ayla was standing, "is where Robo comes from."

Ayla nodded, though the others still doubted that she understood the concept fully. "Ayla know. This near Lucca's house?"

Lucca shook her head. "No...this is many days after."

Ayla held her head in frustration. "This hard." Then she scampered away to go and paw at the base of a fallen mass of wires.

"Miss Ayla," Frog exclaimed, "I emplore you, please...do not touch that-!"

There was a quick buzzing sound, and a few sparks flew, but that was about it. Ayla turned around and looked at the amphibious knight, a big grin plastered on her face. "Frog no worry. Ayla know. Lightning good!" Some of her hair was standing on end, due to the static charge, but otherwise, she seemed to be in an acceptible condition. Magus huffed and rolled his eyes, but to the others, who still had a pretty good memory of all the things they had done as a team, a different image was conjured in their heads.

The first time they had realized that Ayla could handle a high charge of energy, it had been an accident. They had been in the hunting grounds in prehistoric times, and Crono, Marle and Ayla were fighting monsters off, while Robo made runs back and forth from the entrance to the tropical forests and the trader's hut. He took all the odds and ends that the other three had managed to gather, and brought them to Frog and Lucca. They had stationed themselves within the trader's hut, and were in the middle of striking several deals.

It had started to rain, and one of the larger blue monsters had come out of hiding. They now knew that these creatures were called Nus, but at the time, they hadn't a clue that their species could possess so much knowledge. They were there for only one thing, and that was target practice.

While the Nus could be threatening and dangerous, they never attacked unless provoked on several occassions. What was more, they were very slow, and it was easy to keep tabs on them in the heat of the battle. Crono usually led the attack, and Ayla backed him up, while Marle stayed close by- but out of danger- in case anyone needed healing.

On this particular occassion, Crono had just finished focusing his energy towards summoning a lightning attack, and he was ready to let it loose. Without warning, Ayla jumped forward, flying with an incredible speed towards the monster, and right in his line of fire. To him, time slowed down and he felt the moment when he lost control of his energy clearly. His focus was knocked away from him, and the bolt let loose in the determined direction. Rather than hitting the monster, it passed through Ayla.

There had been a quick, bright flash, and then it was over. Crono and Marle uncovered their eyes to find Ayla standing over a rather charred-looking Nu as it lay on the ground. There were several bite marks on its body, all of them looking like they had been made by a human. Ayla didn't say much to it; she only demanded that it make reparations. "Ayla win! Now, give stuff." Or something to that effect.

Ever since then, whenever Crono and Ayla had fought side by side, they used their specially designed attack. The technique had happened by chance, but it worked quite well. Lucca had mentioned something once or twice about how she hoped Ayla would have no long-term damage, and how Crono was going to destroy the entire human race, or at least turn them into vegetables. But nothing bad had happened to them just yet, so they assumed they were in the clear.

The others were a bit disheartened at the loss of their friend, and since Magus was the only one who hadn't been around for any warm and fuzzy moments, not that he would have participated in them anyways, he felt nothing towards the simplistic scene. And to Lucca, it seemed like as good a time as any to take her frustrations out on him.

She sighed audibly. "Alright, we all know what we came here to do. Now, let's get on with it, so we can hurry up and bring Crono back, and then get this thing over with." She glared in Magus' direction. "That means you too, Mr. No Personality."

Magus shrugged the comment off casually. "Well, I hardly think that was merited," he replied in a smooth, rich and nonchalant tone.

Perhaps the comment wasn't merited. Lucca could think of many things to attribute to Magus' personality, none of them positive. Already being on edge, every little thing that Magus had done since they had left the End of Time had caught her attention, and it was pulling at some nerve hidden deep inside her body. This time, she had been angry with him for rolling his eyes at Ayla, and she had blamed it on the idea that he thought he was better than anyone else present. And most likely, anyone else not present as well.

No, he definitely had some kind of a personality.

In reality, Lucca was just angry overall, and she wanted someone to backhand. Magus wasn't going to be that person, simply because he was much bigger and stronger than she was. Instead, she would have to settle for a huff of annoyance and another short comment. "Look. You don't have to like everybody here-"

"You're catching on."

Lucca ignored him. "But you do have to work together with us."

"Is that so?"

Lucca glared at Magus and kept walking towards the large dome where they had met Balthasar, previous to his disappearance. She called back to him over her shoulder. "I would think that you would be the most interested in this. After all, you did grow up with the man."

Magus sneered at her, and she turned back to her destination, mocking the evil look he had just given her. To think that she was the one who was bound to him in their agreement, while he hadn't had much of a problem with the others at all. At least, that was how it appeared on the surface.

Lucca followed Ayla up to the dome, at which point Lucca became the leader, since Ayla passed their destination completely. Frog went over to where Ayla was exploring, and directed her, with a small bit of difficulty, to where the rest of them were gathered at the front entrance. Robo seemed familiar with the place, since all of the buildings in his era were built to a similar design, even though he hadn't been with Crono, Lucca and Marle when they had first visited the area. That was long before they had any idea that there was a time machine hidden behind that peculiar door.

"...Can we get on with this already?"

Lucca was ready to lunge at Magus, but Marle cut in with, "Oh, yes! We're finally here...let's see what we can do!" The girl was over-excited, and it became obvious to Lucca that she was trying extra hard to not let her pain be a burden to everyone else, or a hindrance to the task set before them.

Distracted by Marle's sudden exclamation of happiness, or rather, lack of sadness and admittance of hope, Lucca forgot to send a biting remark the way of the Sorcerer. Instead, she placed her hnds on Marle's shoulders and gave her a sad smile while nodding. The rest of the group filed in, Magus bringing up the back of the line.

The air outside of the dome was cold and biting, and that one red ray of light from the sky did little to warm them. The air inside of the dome, however, was dank and musty. The temperature was still very cold, but it was also wet. The flakes falling outside of the building were nothing but dust, but within the steel walls, there was a thick feeling that spread through their lungs like a steam from a bath...only freezing.

Lucca quickly made her way down the stairs and around the giant computer that was centered on the lower floor. She climbed back up the second set of stairs on the left, skipping every other step as she went, and stopped when she reached the door with the strange crest on it. "Marle," she called to her friend, "I need you over here."

She turned around and Marle was already there. Apparently, she'd followed her from the start, being that she was the most excited for any possibility of Crono's return. Over Marle's shoulder, Lucca spotted the rest of the group standing in the area behind the computer. Frog was watching Lucca, and Robo was watching Ayla. Ayla was bouncing up and down on the metal floor, kicking it with the heel of her boot and marveling at the sound it made. Magus was leaned up against the computer, his arms folded on his chest, and his eyes closed.

Lucca almost wished that a fuse would blow, and that Magus would receive a nasty shock. She already knew that it wouldn't kill him, he being a dark mage and also no doubt having been hit with several bolts of energy in the past. Still, she felt she needed his help.

...If this didn't work, that is.

It still wasn't too late to call it off. Magus hadn't done anything much to help them yet; they hadn't fought against anything side by side, though he had told them that they needed to look for the Guru of Time when he'd been sitting in the Epoch, pointedly ignoring the glares that Frog had been sending his way.

"Lucca?" The scientist looked back over to the voice in front of her, Marle's sweetly innocent visage coming into view. "You said you needed me here, right?" She held up the pendant that dangled from her neck, and it began to react to the doorway.

Magus watched with half-lidded eyes from his vantage point by the computer. Somehow, the familiar light soothed his senses, and it looked much prettier through half-lidded eyes; the blue rays would thin out and lengthen, and the center of the light source would become brighter, while everything else would seem to fade...

That was how it had always looked best.

Lucca turned to Marle as the door began to slide upwards, back into the crevice that was given to the ceiling. "Marle...I think you should do this."

Marle grinned at her. "We can all do this!"

Lucca shook her head. "No...what I mean is, I think you should do this alone."

Marle tilted her head at her friend. "Why?"

"I seriously doubt there will be anything in there that you'll need assistance with. The door was locked, so there won't be any monsters in there. Just...I want you to have this time to yourself. This...this is for you."

Marle regarded her friend with a thoughtful look for a minute, and then she gave in. "I don't know what to say..."

"Don't say anything. Just go. We'll be waiting for you when you get back."

Marle jumped forward and hugged her. "Thanks, Lucca!"

"Yes, yes. Now go! The sooner you get in there, the sooner we can get Crono!"

Marle nodded enthusiastically and ran off. Lucca walked back to where the others were standing. She nodded her head once at Magus, letting him know that she was only acknowledging his presence and nothing more. Theirs was more of a business deal than anything resembling a friendship. She wasn't angry at him, but merely frustrated with his stubborness and smug attitude. She didn't really want the computer to fry his brains. She just wanted to deal him one good blow that would knock him off of his high horse.

Inside of the chamber, Marle turned to the left and immediately started running towards the other door, where Balthasar's Nu was waiting for her. It seemed to know she was coming before she had even stepped inside of the first door. It regarded her with a blank expression as always, but its eyes seemed to hold a secret that it was dying to tell her.

She stopped when she reached the Nu and opened her mouth to talk, but she was cut off. "To revive a lost loved one," the Nu began, "that person must be important to the space-time continuum..."

Marle listened intently to everything that the Nu had to say, and then she made her way back to the rest of the group.