by Jason Connor
mithrawnuruodo@hotmail.com
Chapter VII : Resolution
Edgar felt himself being torn between conflicting emotions as the six of them hurried on past the wrecked time machine. A part of him could have spent a lifetime exploring the palace, discovering its secrets and learning all he could of the ancient civilization of Zeal. His heart ached with a myriad of feelings as he knew that would not happen, his adventuresome side quickly overshadowed by his concern for Terra, guilt tugging at him as he helpless replayed the day's events through his mind. He of all people knew better than to secondguess himself, but he couldn't help wondering if he'd truly done enough to protect her, if all of this wasn't in some way his own fault.
Realizing it would not stop until Terra was safe, Edgar shunted the self-berating off into a corner of his mind and forced himself to focus. Ahead of him, Schala lead the way out of the hallway, stepping gingerly over the broken remains of the doors and into the domed room beyond, himself and the children close behind her. Gogo and a reluctant Setzer brought up the rear, staff and playing cards respectively held ready.
Edgar still had his less-than-ceremonial sabre with him, although he couldn't imagine what good it would do him here. He noticed the boy--Crono--curling his hands restlessly, as though apprehensive about following an enemy without the familiar hilt of a sword to grasp. The girl--Lucca--was the only one of the pair carrying a weapon, what appeared to be a strange gun she'd apparently had hidden on her person, but she held it with a confidence and ease of practice that allayed Edgar's own apprehension about the two being here with them. Given the choice, Edgar would have left them back at the castle, never one to willingly put children in danger; given that the two were able to wield magic, and that there was no way of knowing what Kefka had in store for them, there wasn't much of a choice to begin with.
"He was here," Schala announced, her tone oddly neutral, hiding the fears she had to have been feeling for her brother's safety.
Crono stumbled in behind her. "How do you kn--never mind."
The room looked as though a tornado had touched down inside it. The floor in front of them had been ripped to shreds, now littered with the broken and crumbled remains of black and white tiles. The carpets lining one of the sets of stairs on the other side of the room were burning, while the banister lining it had been demolished, reduced to broken pieces that now lay charred and smoking. Chunks of masonry were scattered around the room from where they'd been knocked out of the walls and the columns holding up the second floor, an entire section of which had partially collapsed where a column had been cut in half, covering everything nearby in a fine coat of dust that even now was still settling.
"Well," Lucca grunted, "that answers that question."
Edgar looked around cautiously. "What happened in here?" Then he shook his head and said, "Forget it, I don't want to know."
"This way," Schala spoke up, picking her way carefully across the rubble and heading for the darkened alcove on the far side. The others followed her, and Crono and Lucca were quick to recognize that it was a teleporter.
When they were all inside, Schala depressed the control panel, a beam of hazy light engulfed them, and a slightly disorienting moment later they were standing before a short, dimly lit hallway. Coming from the open door at the far end was a very familiar laugh.
"Terra!" Edgar called out, his heart suddenly clenching in his chest. No longer able to restrain himself, he began pushing forward past the others, ignoring their attempts to stop him. He drew his sabre and charged into the next room, the others close behind him.
"That's far enough, Figaro," Daryl called as she turned from where she, Terra, and the other Imperial imposter stood on the raised platform in the center of the room. She wrestled Terra in front of her, knowing the others wouldn't risk her safety. Terra didn't resist, her eyes glazed over from the effect of the mental slave crown.
"Let her go!" Edgar demanded, stopping at the statues standing to either side of the door, clenching his fists in frustration, knowing it was a futile attempt. Peripherally he noted the others spreading out to either side of him. "What do you want with her?"
The other smiled wickedly. "Why, I've come to have my innermost wish granted," she answered obliquely. "And Terra's going to make it for me."
Dramatically she moved to one side, pulling Terra with her, and gestured to what their bodies had been hiding from Edgar's point of view: a stone-like object the size of a man's head, its swirled inner portion glowing orange and yellow with an inner light, surrounded by a dark umber outer portion, like an almost chitinous shell, its segmented pieces retracted, heralding the five tendrils that sprouted above and arced in various directions. "Behold: the Sun Stone of Zeal."
To Edgar's right, Schala inhaled in shock and drew back.
"What?" Crono asked, alarmed. "Schala, what's wrong?"
She looked at him dumbfounded, unable to speak, because there was simply no way he could understand. He didn't have the memories she had, didn't recognize it the way she did, didn't know what it truly was.
It wasn't just a Sun Stone, wasn't just some artifact that contained unimaginable power. It was the very object that Kid had searched for her entire life, that had healed a young but dying Serge, that one version of FATE had sacrificed itself to protect, that had threatened the universe when it nearly merged with the Time Devourer. Now, after all this time, Schala was horrified to learn that it was at the heart of all her grief and torment, that it was the true reason for everything that had happened.
It was the Frozen Flame.
For seven long years the splinter of Lavos had drastically affected her life, and she'd never known. She'd never allowed herself to use the Time Devourer's powers to peer back through time to this era, never wanted to face the spectres of the past, the embarassment at her failures, and now she was beginning to regret the decision.
Because if the Frozen Flame was here, in this era, in this very room with them, rather than safely guarded by FATE in the future...then something had gone horribly wrong.
"If all of you are through gawking like imbeciles," Daryl sneered mordantly, interrupting her thoughts, "I didn't come back from the dead just to entertain you."
"Actually, Master," the Imperial imposter spoke up from her left, "that's not quite true."
"What?" she growled impatiently, too irritated by the other's interruption to question why he was even speaking in the first place. She turned to glare at him--
And pulled back in bewilderment as the imposter's features began to melt, flowing and changing as the man impossibly grew older, full lips turning thin and pale, soft nose growing hard and sharp, cheeks going hollow as skin sunk in, eyes changing into depthless black orbs, short blond hair becoming long and brown, streaked with grey.
"Dalton?!" Crono and Lucca exclaimed simultaneously. Schala covered her mouth in shock.
"Rozhenko..." Daryl murmured, her eyes narrowing as she realized the other was up to something but that it was too late to do anything about it. "What are you doing here?"
The Magi Master sneered cruelly at her. "Something I've waited thirteen thousand years to finish."
And before Daryl could react, he raised his hand, and a strangled cry escaped her lips as an invisible force suddenly wrapped itself around her. It pinned her arms and legs together and lifted her into the air, releasing her grip on Terra, who remained standing at the top of the stairs, oblivious to what was happening.
"What...are you doing?" Daryl managed to get out before she was forced to concentrate on breathing beneath the crushing force.
The Magi Master cocked his head to one side in amusement. "You don't know? You do realize that it's your own fault, don't you?"
The other's expression fell slack, her own words to Terra coming back to haunt her. "Who are you...?"
"You don't remember me? Hmph. I'm hurt," the Magi Master replied sardonically. "Perhaps this will refresh your memory..."
He spread his arms dramatically to his sides, hovered slightly up into the air, and once more he dropped the illusion, his clothing ripping to shreds or falling away as his torso doubled in size and his legs withered away to little more than skin and tissue, dangling loosely underneath. His arms shriveled down to almost nothing but bones, huge flaps of black leathery skin stretching between them and his waist, and his fingertips opened up as three-inch-long black talons slid out. His hair began to fall away in clumps, while his eyes and nose sunk inward into his head until they were nothing more than gaping pitch black cavities. His skin turned deathly pale, and foot-long bull's horns sprouted from his crown, changing his visage into that of Death itself.
"Sacre merde..." Edgar whispered, unable to believe what he was seeing. "It's Doom Gaze..."
Gogo grimaced. "I knew we shouldn't have let him get away." Next to him, the others were speechless. Understandable: Schala and the children knew nothing of this creature; Setzer was too preoccupied with the horrible truth that it might be too late for Daryl, the shock evident on his face from seeing Daryl's features dancing to Kefka's personality.
"You traitor!" Daryl spat at the demon Rozhenko had become, her expression screwed up in outrage. "I set you free! And this is the thanks I get?!"
"You betrayed me, Kefka," the other accused, his throaty voice little more that a rasp. "You knew I and the others would be no match for the Returners, but you sent us anyway, like lambs to the slaughter. You used us, and now it's your turn. All this time I've been playing you for the fool you are, and I've enjoyed every second of it. How does it feel to be in her place, Master?" he finished sarcastically, jerking a horn in Terra's direction.
The other's reply was an inarticulate growl of anger, followed by a somewhat less eloquent suggestion.
Doom Gaze brought his arms together in front of him, his talons pointed straight at her heart. "You've served your purpose. You may die now."
Her involuntary cries of pain and Setzer's anguished scream were quickly drowned out as lightning-like tendrils of blue-black energy leapt from Doom Gaze's fingers, crackling through the air and into Daryl's chest, lighting up the entire room as she was electrocuted.
Without warning Edgar charged up the stairs, ignoring the others' shouts, and while Doom Gaze was enjoying torturing Kefka, he wrapped his arms around Terra's motionless form, lifted her up and hurriedly brought her back down.
At last the lightning died away, Daryl's blood-curdling screams along with it. Doom Gaze lowered one arm, gestured with the other, and her body suddenly jerked away from him, tossed down the stairs to the left of the entrance like a rag doll. Setzer ran to her, tears streaming down his face, but even as her body hit the wall and stopped, it was obvious there was no hope for Daryl.
At the same time, Terra inhaled sharply and straightened up, released from the mental slave crown now that its manipulator was gone. "Edgar...?" she started, looking up into his face in confusion.
"Shh, it's okay," he murmured comfortingly to her, putting away the sabre and pulling his arms tightly around her. "Kefka's gone."
"Kefka?" Terra pulled back, glanced over to Setzer, and her expression melted into sorrow. "Oh goddesses... Daryl... What have I done...?"
"Now!" Crono shouted from the right the moment Terra was out of the way. As one, he, Lucca, and Schala suddenly let loose with a devastating barrage of magic, strobing the entire chamber as lightning bolts, tongues of flame, and beams of light ripped deafeningly through the air--
Only to dissipate into nothingness as they hit the magic barrier surrounding Doom Gaze.
"Oh, come on!" he taunted as soon as they stopped, having realized their attack was having no effect. "You didn't think I wasn't ready for this--"
He cut himself off abruptly, cocking his head oddly to one side, as though listening to something, then straightened back up, as much of an unamused look on his face as was possible. "Your brother still hasn't learned his manners, Schala," he said as he turned away from them. "After all, it's not polite--"
He stabbed downward with his fingers at the stairway behind the platform. There was a muffled curse from the darkness beneath, and suddenly Janus hovered up into view, struggling futilely in an invisible grip, the red Masamune dangling from his grasp, his scythe nowhere to be seen.
"--not to announce yourself," Doom Gaze finished smugly, leering at Janus as he directed him around the platform and over to where his sister stood waiting. "I figured you were stupid enough to get trapped here. You didn't think I'd forget about you, did you? I knew you'd be unfrozen as well, that you'd hide like a coward and wait to backstab me like your doppelganger. You're lucky you haven't met the same fate as him yet. But since this is the last time you'll ever see your sister again, I've make an exception."
"You haven't learned a thing either, Dalton," Janus growled back once he was safely on the platform. "It's not going to work. When will it penetrate that thick skull of yours?"
"Oh, that," the other snickered, remembering what his goal had been when they'd last confronted each other--thirteen thousand years ago for himself, yet only a few moments ago for his son. "I've had quite some time to ponder my mistakes, and I believe I've found something much better this time."
Janus frowned. "What are you talking about?"
The other merely smiled--an odd image, given that there was little more than exposed jaw to begin with--reached down into the pile of clothing he'd left beneath him, and pulled out a small, leatherbound book, at which Edgar and Gogo blinked when they recognized it.
"My diary..." Schala murmured in surprise.
"How did you get ahold of that?" Edgar demanded, then pressed his lips together as the only possible answer came to him. "Valorum..."
Doom Gaze inclined his head in amusement. "Yes, the late Chancellor was most helpful in that regard. A shame he'll no longer be of use to me." Abruptly his arm came up, and he tossed the book to Janus. "The bookmarked passage. Read it," he commanded.
Janus glowered but said nothing as he complied, opening the diary and finding what the other was wanting him to see. He read silently for a moment, then looked up, frowned and shook his head in confusion. "The 'darkness beyond time'?"
Schala looked up at Janus in alarm, inhaling sharply as she turned to Doom Gaze, understanding with horror what he was about to do. "No! No, no, you can't!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I can," the other mocked her, bobbing his head comically from side to side, laying to rest any remaining doubts as to his sanity. He whirled to the Flame, and before anyone could do anything, he laid his claws on it and made his wish.
The entire chamber eerily fell silent, as if in morbid anticipation, even the light from the sconces and the crystal spheres held in the gargoyles' mouths seeming to freeze in mid-flicker, trapping the scene in an eternal moment of time. Above, Doom Gaze was silhouetted briefly as the Flame began to glow brightly, falling dark again only a moment later.
An eerie, ghostly wind stirred to life from out of nowhere, whispering in their ears like the Black Wind, ruffling the flaps of skin hanging from Doom Gaze's arms and the tattered remains of his clothing as it swirled about him. The wind descended beneath the platform, growing faster and louder as it spread out to fill the bowl-shaped area, its whisper quickly crescendoing into a tornado-like howl. Jagged ribbons of electricity suddenly crackled into existence, rippling along the edges of the maelstrom, and a portal of coruscating energy swirled into existence in the very center, spilling a brilliant blue light upward and casting the ceiling in shadows.
"Remember how you suggested sending me to meet my god, Janus?" Doom Gaze called to him tauntingly, an unnerving silence falling as the light died away. "Well you're about to meet him. Behold--the glory of Lavos...reborn!!"
A low, ominous growl, more felt than heard, rumbled throughout the chamber. The portal was like a window into another world, gazing down upon a bleak, apocalyptic landscape, stretching past the boundaries of the portal in all directions. A silent breeze lazily stirred up ashes, scattering them across the barren wasteland.
A wasteland, Schala knew, that could only be the Darkness of Time.
And there was only one thing there that Dalton could possibly have had in mind.
A single, rattling breath escaped what remained of Doom Gaze's lungs before he collapsed in a heap before the pedestal, his body vanishing a moment later, the Frozen Flame having exacted its price for granting his wish. No one, however, noticed, because everyone's attention was riveted on what was appearing below.
The portal remained where it was within the chamber, about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom of the chamber, but the other end of the wormhole had to be moving downward, because the portal appeared to be descending onto the dusty plain it revealed.
And centered in the view afforded by the portal, sporadically illuminated by the flashing lightning, given the illusion of rising up into the chamber by the descent of the portal, was a creature unlike any other, four times as large as the Epoch, a hulking, menacing thing. Its elongated head was like some alien horror straight out of science fiction, twin cat-slit yellow eyes set above a long, beaked mouth, all of it the same crimson, jagged rock appearance as the twin towering rows of crooked dorsal spikes lining either side of its spine. Two tentacle-like appendages sprouted from just behind its almost nonexistent neck, curving outward to support the front of its body, while pairs of short and stubby claw-like legs held up its rear. But despite the various minor differences, despite the long, scorpion-like tail that curved around it, the demonic creature looked for all the world like Lavos reborn.
Resting in the middle of its back was a giant, translucent purple crystal, shimmering with an inner, ethereal light that reflected off the spikes that cradled it. And sealed within the crystal, floating as if suspended in ice, unmoving as though she were merely asleep, was Schala.
The others drew back in shock, Janus and the children in astonishment, but only Schala drew back in horror, because only she truly knew what they were seeing.
The Devourer of Time.
And it was all too horribly clear what Dalton's purpose had been.
Just as it had been when Serge confronted it, the Devourer was within reach of the Flame, ready to merge with the splinter of Lavos and unlock its full power. But whereas Lavos had simply fed off of the planet, the Devourer would literally consume space and time, eating away at reality one piece at a time.
Once that began...there would be no hope of stopping it.
Edgar muttered a curse under his breath that would have made even Sabin blush, doggedly fighting the urge to run screaming from the room. "What is that?"
"It looks like Lavos," Lucca breathed. "But...it's different. And...is that--?"
"This is just a wild guess on my part," Gogo murmured, "but do we have to fight that now?"
"We can't," Schala spoke up, numbly shaking her head.
"And that would be because...?" Crono asked, a note of incredulity in his voice.
"Because it will create a paradox," Janus answered for her softly, an odd but hard look in his eyes as he focused on Schala. "This is what happened to you, isn't it? This is where you ended up after the Undersea Palace was destroyed."
She returned his gaze, feeling the awkward knot in her throat as she nodded, wishing she'd had the chance to tell him before now, unable to imagine what he had to be thinking at the moment. "We can't destroy it. The damage that the resulting paradox would inflict upon time itself would be unimaginable."
"In that case, anyone who has a suggestion feel free to speak up," Edgar growled, unconsciously moving to place himself between Terra and the creature, which was beginning to move around, as though coming awake.
Schala looked down at the creature, her expression a mixture of apprehension and the bitter taste of remembering what it had been like, to be a part of such a demonic creature, to exist in such a place of non-existence. "We have to close the portal," she said aloud, forcing the thoughts away with a shudder. "We can't let it come through and get to the Sun Stone."
Edgar bit back the sarcastic retort that sprang to mind; instead, he raised his eyebrows at Schala and asked, "So how do we do that?"
It was Terra who answered his question. "I know," she said, her voice soft but determined.
Edgar looked at her, saw her staring past him, turned to follow her gaze up the stairs, to the Sun Stone still resting innocently on its pedestal--
And immediately whirled back to her, anger and horror competing for control of his face, as he remembered what had happened to Doom Gaze and what Terra had to have in mind now. "Absolutely not!" he countered vehemently. "That is not an option!"
"Edgar," Gogo spoke up, an odd urgency to his voice, "I don't think we have a choice."
"No!" Edgar barked, turning to glare at him. "There's always a choice!"
"Not this time," Schala said softly, shaking her head sadly. "For once the ends do justify the means."
"And," Terra put in before Edgar could speak, "it's my choice. And I'm making it."
He turned to her, feeling his heart clenching in his chest, feeling as if the others were all betraying him, turning against him. "No, there has to be another way--"
"Edgar..." Terra said, covering his mouth with her fingers. "This is the only way."
"But why?" he moaned pleadingly, feeling his throat constricting with the realization that he was about to lose her. "Why can't it be someone else?" he whispered, desperate to think of anything to keep her, knowing but not caring how selfish or callous he might appear to the others.
"Because this is something I need to do," Terra said, taking his hands in hers, emphasizing her words by looking straight into his eyes. "I helped start this, and now I'm going to finish it. If my life is the price, then I'm willing to pay."
"But I love you," Edgar breathed, wishing those words alone were reason enough for her to stay, feeling his chest shuddering.
The hard expression on Terra's face melted, and she reached up, caressed his cheek lovingly. "I know. And I love you too. But I don't belong in this world. I never have." Her gaze fell, the skin tightening around her eyes bitterly. "And even if I stayed, it wouldn't last. I'm still dying. We would only be prolonging the inevitable."
Edgar tilted her chin back up, cradled her face between his palms, blinking away tears as his eyes roved over her features, trying desperately to memorize every detail, because he knew with a horrible finality that he would never see her again. Then he pulled her into his arms, running his hand through her hair, pressing his lips to hers in a fiercely passionate kiss that spoke more to her than he ever could.
She returned the kiss with equal fervor, her arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace, feeling the aching sadness and tearing grief welling up in her heart, and she forced herself to shut them away, knowing they would threaten to overwhelm her, tempt her to just forget about the world, to let someone else worry about the Time Devourer, to stay with Edgar for what little time she had left, and that was something that she simply couldn't do.
Sooner than either of them wished, Terra pulled away, breaking the kiss. "Take care of the children for me," she requested, knowing even as he automatically nodded that he would, before putting her hands to his chest and gently pushing him towards the door, where the others were waiting. "Now go, quickly, while there's still time."
I love you, Terra, Edgar mouthed silently, not trusting himself to speak as he forced himself to turn away. The children, Schala, and her brother were already hurrying out the door. To his right, Gogo was pulling Setzer along, Daryl's limp body cradled in his arms, his face void of any expression. Edgar ushered them ahead of himself then followed, wondering morbidly if he wouldn't be better off staying here and waiting for his death along with her.
I love you, too, Terra mouthed back, even though he was already gone. She turned away from the door, and a sense of finality seemed to settle over her, a strange calm that came from the freedom of knowing there were no options left, the liberating knowledge that there was only one thing to do, and then it would all be over.
Below her, the Time Devourer raised its head, its beak opening in an ear-piercing screech, its tentacles writhing convulsively, as if the creature somehow knew what she was about to do, but it was too late.
Terra breathed in deeply, her shoulders dropping, and she ascended to the platform, ignoring the creature's cries. She paused, allowing all of the joyful moments of her life to flash before her mind's eye, her precious few memories of her parents, the friendships she'd shared with the Returners, the happiness she'd found caring for the children of Mobliz, the love she'd discovered with Edgar, her gratitude for it all despite the pain and sorrow she'd experienced along with them, and then she placed her hands on the Sun Stone, a serene smile creasing her lips, a single tear falling from her eyes, and she made her wish.