Difference between revisions of "Fanfiction:V Translanka Magness 10"

Latest revision as of 01:19, 21 December 2007

The going was long and rough. It was like the worlds slowest, longest, and yet smallest, train, possibly some kind of a ferry. It was like a roller coaster from a dull and pounding hell. And yet, against all of his resolve and self-control, it was still very agreeable. Most of that, he would tell himself at least, was due to the medicines that Lucca had given him not long before they left. The rest of it, and probably more likely the most of it, was due to Marcy's warm, diminutive, supple, and tender body pressed (did some of that pressure seem a bit forced?) against him. That resolve and self-control part of his brain would wonder why he should care. This was just a girl. She was not what he was searching for; although, in a way, she was. Gil did not think of that, but it is something worth noting.

Marcy felt warm for several reasons of her own. She did not like cramped small spaces. She had been confined-practically restricted-to a life that was free and open to the world. No one in her knowledgeable life had ever confined her as a punishment or for any kind of crime. She was in fact a clean slate criminally. The small areas frightened her because of all the many places like them she was forced into, because in reality, she was just as confined as any inmate and just as restricted from the world as any germ-o-phobic psycho. She had no family to turn to, no higher purpose beyond revenge, and no one else in the world she could look to. That was, until Gil shone into her life, glaring into the sinister obscurity of her shady internal oceans. She was happy to have him.

Another reason, of course, was because Gato himself was a warm bunching of metal pistons and all arrangements of gears and triggers and switches. Gil had seen him before and had decided it very unimpressive. Although, now it seemed to follow other commands other than 'fight' and 'sing'. Lucca had gained much insight on her travels abroad, but she rarely looked at her current advances, instead choosing to look at how far behind she still was in comparison.

Gil telling her she would never complete the Time Egg was a shocking blow to her ego. In the years to come she would wonder about his words. Having told her that meant that she could still plausibly overcome that and begin to think differently and change things. Knowing the future and the limits to one's alternate selves enables one to become empowered in one's search for answers and the ability to push one's limits may still rise. Although, under these same conditions one may simply burn out faster upon such knowledge.

The Agency for the Reparation of Time Streams (aka The ARTS) is an organization created in the-common-event that time traveling may ultimately affect the future in any way. This is because almost every effect can be both beneficial and detrimental. The ARTS is based within a self-actualized temporal field that works as a worm hole to a negative dimension of weightless, timeless and unlimited boundary. Their station lies within this worm hole. They guide along various rips in time as best they can, trying to make sure no temporal anomalies are created. Many believe that this in itself is a kind of temporal tampering that is somewhat unnatural.

Only the hardest trained and most able bodied are given the ARTS's ultimate duty of being a Guardian. The Guardians are trained to deal with combat situations regarding the detainment or termination of temporal refugees and other chrono-sequential desperados. They are a group of hand-picked specialist mercenaries from all around the world and from all over time-some lifted before death and some even revived shortly after.

Guardians are required to conceal their identities at all times, even in front of their superiors. Members are selected from statistical information and special techniques. Each one is as big a killing machine as the once Mystic King, Magus or as heroic in their duties as officers of Temporal Code as the once Guardian King, Crono was in his own duties as the Light Bringer.

There were three such Guardians being led by the first officer following Marcy & Gil, who were inside of Gato.

"So, what does that thing do?" Marcy finally broke the dazing silence. Gil was still slightly under the stupor of Lucca's formidable drug. Gil had much experience in the doctorate field (war time necessity) and knew when a drug was potent or not. This was a very strong drug indeed. He hadn't expected it, due to the cause of his wounds, the radical scale of them, Marcy's staggering show of power, and his although-expected-still-surprising reuniting with Lucca. Marcy pointed up, towards the head of Gato, "Y'know...that thing..."

"It can bring the user to a point of frozen time." Gil said stolidly.

"So, time travel...it's...really...real?" She asked amazed.

"Real as Magic..."

For half an hour they sat-more accurately hunched-in quiet regard.

Gil knew what was coming. His power was returning to him as they approached. They had company closing in from behind. There were somewhere between three or six of them out there, waiting for him to emerge. His lesser worry was whether or not Gato would send them to the right place. Lucca had assured them that he was reliable in that sense. But what about when the fighting began? When the bullets flew? He assumed bullets, although he wouldn't count out more advanced weaponry, such as lasers. Whatever happened was going to happen quickly, he was counting on that.

Marcy felt this coming as well. She knew that the egg above them was something special. It was some sort of magic beyond Magic (she was not one to keep up with the Sciences, especially not the advanced mechanics involved in a device such as a Chrono Trigger). All of this was just the key. The gate would be swinging open soon and she would have to go through into whatever land it led to, whatever time it spit them out. She would do it with him and she would be very fast indeed.

Gato on the other hand simply trudged along the beaten path, completely ignorant and/or unawares of those following, occasionally humming out a little ditty of a whistle.

When that half an hour was up, Gil's power was nearly restored, Marcy was uncontrollably giddy, and Gato was quiet as a mouse. The large and heavy latch in Gato's belly opened. Tiny servos and pistons kicked in and worked its head open, revealing Lucca's unfinished Time Egg. They were exposed to a very obscure and late nighttime. The moon was less than a tiny yellow thumbnail scratch at the very edge of the sparkling night sky; almost completely black and unseen as all the other little things in the shadows of the earth.

They had arrived.

Getting out of the mechanical beast was-believe it or not-a lot harder than getting into the clunky damn thing. An unknown fact to both Gil and Marcy was that Lucca had whispered something to Gato before they rushed off to their fate. She had given him some important instructions. Another fact, almost as important, was that, although Gato's punching glove was removed from its belly, it was not removed from Gato entirely. When the two of them exited and Gil took the Time Egg, a few more hissing noises could be heard within Gato, signifying not just his belly & head latch closing, as the duo thought, but also the glove being raised back into place.

They disembarked at the stairs leading to what was once where Lucca's Telepod demonstration was centered. That Telepod that seemingly started it all. It was a central area, but it was also a kind of out-of-the-way area as well; past the large, pristine, flowing fountain, past Nadia's Bell-proclaiming peace for all eternity-and into the trees of the very rear of the fairgrounds. The prime spots were taken by merchants and the various carnival games held around the front entrance near the spouting fountain. The red & white striped tip of Norstien's tent of horrors could be seen from almost every corner of the fair, including Lucca's isolated area.

Now, instead of two Telepods in the area, there stood a vast variety of vehicles having various and differing designs; some with large tread, some with large intermingled iron wheels, and some with great silvery sphere wheels. Some appeared to be trains, while others resembled all-terrain (there wasn't much use for anything that didn't cover rough environments) vehicles and still others were of completely unknown purpose to anyone but Lucca herself. Marcy glanced with curious wonderment at them until she saw that Gil looked past them all.

There was an open area at the very back of all of this. It was marked off in a circular chalk diagram. Gil staggered to the center of the circle, with Marcy following quickly-but timidly-behind. He held the faintly glowing Time Egg thrust upward to the shimmering, darkened sky.

"Work for me!" He said aloud, looking up at the thing in his hands, his only hope. He concentrated on the place he wanted to go, the time, the moment, and the person he wanted to save so desperately. A single spark flew from the Egg and struck upwards. His eyes widened at this. The spark of light faded like a dying firefly. But nothing else happened. Unless, that is, you discount the attack.

Besides the twinge of a feeling that Gil & Marcy both felt, both sensing something approaching very close, only Gato really saw it coming. This is because his sensors were on overdrive. Besides his poor eyesight-Lucca could not figure that particular sensory (optics) function out-Gato had tremendous hearing, along with several other forms of sensory transmission. He could hear their radio waves for one. The electrical outputs of their pursuers' devices were not unique in that not many existed in this time period, but because they were completely foreign to it. The people themselves gave off intense waves of temporal energy like no one had ever seen. This is, of course, due to their stay in the ARTS pocket dimension. All of this information reverberated within Gato's circuitry like yellow fire. He turned and saw the four of them with his limited cat-like black & white vision.

One curious thing about Guardians and how they're chosen for their missions is their relation to the target. They are chosen in this manner only if the ARTS believe it will help motivate them to complete their mission or debilitate their target. Animosity is a thing held with regard with the ARTS. It is sometimes how they recruit. It is the easiest way really.

The first officer stepped up, just in front of Gato now, and held a kind of rifle pointed past Gato towards Gil, "Stop all this foolishness now and come with us. Come with us or you'll die."

"Will I?" Gil asked in a faint voice. He was lost, studying the failed Egg held, now lowered, in his hand.

"Be cautious and protect them at all costs." Lucca had whispered to Gato. Now he went to action. His midsection opened up in a flash and his comical boxing glove hand sprung out and knocked the first officer out cold and flat on his backside.

"My name is Gato!" He sang the first words to his song like a war cry. The glove returned and Gato turned to the dark trio, who now stood around on three sides, and shot the glove out again. The first dark one side-stepped like greased lightning, drew a thin-bladed sword and cut the glove's spring. The glove plunked to the ground with an only slightly comical, mainly tragic, little plop. Gato retreated, but the trio shadowed his movement.

It was hard to see all of this for Marcy. The darkness of the night, accompanied by the three people wearing all black, made a kind of shadow-puppet show. The katana seemed to float in mid-air and move unguided. But she could see their eyes, floating, swimming, in the blackness like cartoon characters. Their eyes seemed to glow; yellow, blue, red.

Twelve small flashing lights reflected these colors and served to light the black figures dressed head to toe in their dim garb. Four flickers of yellow color like rotted teeth, four fluid dead-blues, and four fiery reds that seemed pulled straight from hell. These lights pulsed and twinkled in the gloom of night. They sent glares of shrieking colors reflecting into each of their eyes and across Gatos metal hide.

Gil saw it first; that triangle of light forming at the ground around Gato. Then it rose up in great walls of light-that reminded Gil of the future-that made Gato fade and shimmer slightly. Each wall was a different gleaming color and they began to melt into each other. It was a spell Gil had seen before.

"Delta Force..." He said under his breath, for a moment forgetting about the Chrono Trigger in his hand. Marcy looked shocked at this display, and well she should have. She barely heard his words. He seemed to continue in some vague way, like he was speaking in an unknown language, but she couldn't tell for sure. Everything but the dark three and their Magical power seemed to be occurring someplace miles away. Even Marcy's own breathing seemed somehow distant to her. It was as if she were having an out-of-body experience. She was being swept up in a world she would never truly escape.

The lights faltered and finally faded and Gato was a heap of burnt, smoking metal. An occasional spark jumped and numerous hissing noises could be heard from within, but Gato was for the most part completely inert. All songs muted. All systems down. The light in its eyes was gone. The light in the eyes of the dark trio, whom Gil could now identify, flared briefly as they all turned their attention to Gil, speaking words deftly over the Time Egg, and Marcy, who finally decided to put her fists up and go out fighting yet again.

The katana was lifted and pointed at them. A crossbow was cocked in place. A plasma gun was drawn and aimed. The dark trio had them pinned and surrounded. The night chill heightened at that moment, but none of them had the time to feel it. Wind blew all around them. A special wind blew for Gil. It was not a friendly blow. It was blacker and colder than the night surrounding them. It was a deathly wind that always licked at Gil at such times. This wind could not-would not-be ignored, but he kept his concentration regardless.

A warble of Magical power sounded through Gil as Dark Mist bubbled out of the dark cracks of the forest and erased all sight. The dark trio's eyes disappeared in the utter blackness along with the glaring stars above. Gil reached out at the last minute.

"Give me your hand!" He shouted to Marcy. She weaved her arms through the smoke-like black haze and finally caught onto him. Their hands laced into a tight knot of fingers. Marcy had always thought the world a terribly bleak place. She always had such little hope in so many things. But with his hand grasping firmly onto hers, she felt something she hadn't in a long time: love. She didn't recognize it just then, of course. That realization wouldn't come until later, when there were more things on the line than just the two of their lives. It did however pull her back into the moment.

"What are we doing?" She asked feverously. He didn't answer her. He had no answer to give. He was stalling. He knew who these dark people were. One of them he had just seen. Or did he? No, these people really were dark strangers. These people he had never truly met.

An arrow zipped out of the darkness and struck a tree somewhere behind them. It had been very close to hitting Gil. He heard the air being torn as it whizzed by his face. They were shooting only half blind. Marcy and Gil were still in their circle. Gil knew it was the place he needed to be. It was the only way out.

Then the 'it' happened that signified the true beginning of the end for Marcy; the point of no return. She didn't realize that either.

He never let go. That one thought would stay with Marcy longer than anything. No matter what Gil could do or what could happen to her because of him, she would always remember what he did there at that point in time. He never let go.

It was another dark red like those seas of hellish flame that Lucca would dream about; a small freckle of light that expanded and flared into a great line of flame. One of the dark Guardians seemed to have tossed this fire into the darkened mist. It sheared its way directly to Gil. He saw it coming.

"No!" He said raising a hand to shield the blast of Magical energy. But again, for the second time in a few lazy seconds, nothing happened. The fiery light and heat disappeared instantaneously. The Dark Mist began to dissipate. They could see the trio standing there, just beyond, weapons down.

Gil looked down into his hand-never letting go with his other-and into the Egg. It was disappearing. The infinity symbols were ablaze with gold-white light. The Egg was being sucked into itself like a black hole. But there was no noise. In fact, there was no noise at all. The night was still and in awe of the phenomenon occurring within Gil's hand. The Egg became a single brilliant light and it spread and burst between his fingers.

And now he and Marcy were fading as well. Gil looked one last time up at that trio. The one at the head, with the sword, took off his mask. He revealed a familiar face, but one that held more scars and hardship. There was more grit to it. A head with just as memorable, long, red hair pulled back.

"Go, then. There are other worlds than these." the red-headed man said briskly, "We have someone in mind here well-suited to hunt you."

And they were gone. Not just the trio. Not just the fairgrounds. Not just the Zenan mainland, but everything; the forgotten coolness of the night, the dusty mist, the glossy starlight, everything was gone. Just Gil and Marcy; their hands still clutched firmly together. But, in essence, they were gone too. Gone...from that continuum...

So the world was gone. Their enemies were gone. Their friends were gone. Their families were gone. Well, neither of them really had any friends or families...none available anyways. Either way, it was all gone; nothing but memories and fading after-images.

What replaced it was space. It was all just a blackness that they could not hear, or taste, or touch. And yet, there was also light; millions upon millions upon billions of iridescent gems of radiance. All of it went flowing past them like they were caught in a current of white-water rapids. It was white and fast, but it was not water. And it was far more dangerous.

"W-where..." Marcy sputtered. Her mind was reeling, but the one thing she held on to was that he had blocked with his other hand; the hand with the Time Egg, that which seemed to mean so much to him. He never let go. Their hands were still clasped together like Hansel & Gretel, abandoned, walking alone in that murky forest...toward the evil witch's lair of deception. But they had no bread to lead them back, even though no birds would eat it, and though they did not know it, there is always a witch somewhere along the path...

From: Fanfiction