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The seven continued further into the maze of the Omen's bowels after they were all rested. It seemed that every corner and shadow hid some misshapen creature, usually more than one. Crono's magic was nearly spent, and he and the other organics were tired. Robo needed repairs. "We need to rest," he said after a narrow victory against a green, scaly hulk that had appeared in a flash of yellow light.
"We need to find someplace we can rest," Lucca sighed. "It's not safe here."
"Is anyplace safe here?" Crono asked. "We're inside a temple to Lavos."
"That hallway where we were last was safe enough. We need to find someplace where we'd be able to see an ambush coming, someplace wide, with none of these pools of light on the floor." The eerie glowing pools to which Lucca referred had on more than one occasion hidden attackers.
"If you're sure," said Crono, and they pressed on.
As they passed over a metal catwalk, there was a flash of yellow light exactly like the last one. "Run!" Lucca shouted. "I don't know if we can take another one!"
But just as they passed to the other side of the catwalk, the creature dropped in front of them with a snarl. Lucca looked back. "There's two of them!" she cried. "We're trapped!"
Crono swore and hit one with a blast of ionized air, but that only made it angry. Swearing again, he narrowly dodged a heavy blow from the monster's claw. "Ayla, Marle, come help me with this one! Lucca, Frog, Magus, take the one behind us!" he shouted.
Frog was already squaring off against the beast, landing a good blow with his sword when he could, though he was quickly being backed into a corner. Lucca threw fire at it, but missed due to her efforts not to hit Frog, as Magus sent a stream of shadows directly at its head.
The dark tendrils dissipated harmlessly against the monster's hide. The great scaly beast turned its head with a snarling grin, drew back its claw, and sent a mighty, backhanded blow into Magus's chest, sending him flying backwards a full twenty feet with the force of the attack. He passed out before he had a chance to feel his head crack against the metal wall.
Lucca froze as she saw it. Time slowed down as her teacher, her lover, her friend flew through the air and connected with solid metal, then crumpled on the floor, unmoving. A panicked scream, then a howl of rage and grief, then a glare of hatred. She wiped tears from her vision, leveled her gun between the beast's eyes, and pulled the trigger once, twice, again and again, blasting at its head and sensitive neck until, with a roar of pain, it keeled over, twitching. Quick as a wildfire, she dashed to its prone form, forced the barrel of her gun between its jaws, and fired again twice. Ichor pooled at the back of its head. Vengeance was hers.
Abandoning the beast's body, Lucca rushed to Magus's side and tugged him onto his back. His hair was tangled and wet with blood from the wound caused by slamming into the wall. She turned him onto his back - his face was damp with a cold sweat. "Marle!" she cried. "Marle, Frog! I need you, right now!"
Two sets of footsteps ran to help. Frog was panting, and Marle was nursing a long, fresh scar down the side of her neck. At the sight of their ally lying limp, blood oozing from his head, Marle knelt by Magus, closed her eyes, and laid her hands on his chest. A thin, pale blue light gathered, the bleeding slowed until it had almost stopped, then the light fizzled. Marle squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip, forcing more of her magic out of her hands and into the body of her fallen comrade, stopping once to ask Lucca for an ether - the last one - and gradually, the wound closed. She sat back and took a deep breath. "I don't think I can do any more," she said.
Lucca leaned over Magus's chest. She placed two fingers on the side of his neck, her brow furrowed. She moved her fingers, then again, panic growing on her face. "I can't find a pulse," she whispered, and leaned further to listen. "Oh gods... oh gods, he's not breathing!"
"What?" Marle sat back up and placed her hands directly on the skin of Magus's face, knitted her brow, and strained her hardest to squeeze just a little more healing out of herself. Four seconds, and she fell away, gasping for air. "I can't," she said. "I'm all burned out... I'm sorry."
"You have to! Marle, he's... oh gods, he's dying, and you can't do anything but sit there and apologize to me, and... and..."
"I can't!" Marle sobbed. "There's nothing left! I've used it all, the ether wasn't enough! It was too much with the head wound and all his broken ribs! I don't have any magic anymore to cure a paper cut, let alone this! I... I can't... I just can't..."
"Frog! Do something!"
Frog shook his head. "It is beyond my power to bring a man back from the brink of death," he explained. "I'm so sorry, Lucca."
"Anyone... Ayla... Robo... Someone... do something... please, anyone... anything..." She felt Crono put his hand on her shoulder, comforting, wordless as he often was.
And through the tears came a spark of hope. "Crono," Lucca whispered. "Crono! Help me get his armor off, quickly!" She wiped her tears again, bit her lip, and started frantically unlacing the leather breastplate. Crono nodded in agreement, if not understanding, and worked on the other side. He pulled Magus's armor off, and Lucca yanked off Magus's undershirt to reveal his bare chest. "Put your hands here," she instructed, placing one of hers just below his right collarbone and the other on his left side, then positioning Crono's as hers had been. "On my mark, shock him. Just once."
"Are you sure you know -"
"It can't make things worse! Just do it!"
Crono nodded, and looked to Lucca. She stepped back. "Now!"
A quick jolt of electricity caused Magus's body to convulse slightly. "Wait for it," Lucca instructed. "Can you feel a pulse?"
Crono placed two fingers on Magus's neck the way he had seen Lucca do. "No," he replied, worried.
"Do it again," Lucca instructed. "On my mark... now!"
Once more, Magus twitched. "Check again," Lucca told Crono.
"I feel something! It worked!"
Lucca breathed a sigh of relief, then her face hardened. "We're not out of this yet. Is he breathing?"
"No, I don't think so. But..."
"I know. It's all right, you don't have to. I will." She nudged Crono out of the way and knelt at Magus's side again, leaning over his face to check once more. He still wasn't breathing. Biting her lip, she tilted his head back and held his mouth open with one hand, then hesitated, nervous with four sets of eyes focused on her. It was too much like...
I can do this, she told herself, and shaking of her unease, took a deep breath and sealed her mouth over Magus's. Breathe.
Magus's chest rose as Lucca's fell. She breathed for him again, and again, and twice more after that, before coming up panting, her face next to his mouth. A thin mist formed on her glasses. She sat up, an exhausted, relieved smile on her face. "He's alive."
"Pardon," came Frog's soft voice. He stretched one hand over Magus's prone form, and a few golden sparkles gathered, then dissipated. Magus's shallow breathing became stronger, steadier. "He shall awake on his own now, on the morrow."
"Thank you..." Lucca replied. "I... need to rest too. Can we camp here? I don't think we can afford to be picky anymore."
There was a general nod of assent, and Ayla helped Robo to set up two three-man shelters. "All right, Crono, you and Marle share that one with Ayla," Lucca instructed when they were up. "I'll be in the other, keeping these two from killing each other in their sleep. Robo, you keep watch. Frog? Help me carry him, please?"
"Lucca, wait," Crono began as Lucca placed one arm behind Magus's back and supported his head with her other hand. "I've... never seen you do anything like that. I mean, not just the berserk rage thing, but then you went and..."
"I would have done the same for you!" she interrupted. "Or Marle, or Ayla, or... well, not Robo, he's much easier to fix than that."
"No, I mean, how do you know all that stuff? I thought you only did machines."
"My dad used to take me camping when I was a little kid," she replied. "He taught me in case anything went wrong. And the shock thing, well, I read about that being done with machines to re-start a heart. I'm just glad it worked."
"Well... so am I, I guess."
"Night."
"See you in the morning."
After she and Frog had gotten Magus, still asleep, inside their shelter and resting comfortably, Lucca smiled at his sleeping face. "You know, when I started on this whole thing, I never would have imagined in a million years that one of the lives I saved would be yours."
X~X~X
"We're close," said Marle as she tended to Magus the next morning. "I can feel it."
"Close to what?" asked Crono.
"The center," said Marle. "We've got to be. It's been two whole days."
"I hope you're right and that this really is almost over," Crono said by way of a reply. "Come on, let's go." He laid his hand on the door they hadn't come in by, and it slid open with a hum. It led to a small alcove, but before he reached the door at the other side, he stopped in his tracks. Beams of purple light shone from the corners of the room, and where they met, sparks flew as the familiar shape of a Gate popped into existence.
As Crono stepped forward, the Gate expanded into a pure black orb. Light glinted off of something chitinous within, and as the Gate collapsed in on itself again, a thirty-foot Lavos spawn crawled forward on its tiny legs. With a wail, it retracted its beak slightly and shot needles from its shell in all directions. "Watch out!" Lucca called to Magus, dodging a salvo that came at her while simultaneously casting a flame in front of him to incinerate the needles before they hit. Magus recoiled and caught the remainder of the needles with his cape as Robo launched his fist into the Spawn's beak, Ayla's foot close behind. Ayla scratched and bit as she pried Robo's fist from the Spawn's jaws and tossed it back to its owner.
The Spawn roared, and the floor glowed red and began tearing itself apart, chunks of it flying about the room. "Everyone down!" Crono ordered, and all but Robo ducked to avoid the flying stones. As soon as they settled, Crono nodded to Ayla and Frog, and the three of them converged on the Spawn's beak, hitting with both swords and a mighty kick. With a last blast of needles, the spawn shrieked and lay still. Marle stood up. "Is everyone all right?" she asked.
"I'll be fine," Lucca replied. "Tend to Ayla, though, she looks a little the worse for wear from those needles."
Marle nodded and laid her hands on Ayla's side, channeling the cool, healing power through her hands. Soon, Ayla's cuts were scarred over with new skin.
Once Marle and Frog had healed his allies, Magus opened the door the Spawn had been guarding. A curious sight greeted him: in the temple-like room, copies of Crono, Marle, Lucca, Robo, Frog, and Ayla hovered motionless, entombed in pillars of light. Lying enshrined on a pedestal at the back of the room was the rusted, broken form of the Mammon Machine. As the seven approached it, a brightly-glowing human form appeared in the air before it. The light faded, and Queen Zeal lit on the floor.
"Behold, my pretties! Destiny, in its most brutal form." She waved her hand at the six pillars of light. "All the dreams that might have been," she continued. "All the happiness and sorrow that you might have experienced. Gone forever! For you, there will be no tomorrow!"
She turned. "The Dark Omen transcends time and space, waiting for Lavos to awaken! Destiny has led you here. And here you shall rest forever, unless you can defeat me and smash the Omen!" The mad queen looked over her shoulder, eyes glinting. "Come, dear friends," she said. "Perhaps I can persuade Lavos to share His dreams with you!" Her crazed grin widened. "Did I say 'dreams?'" she cackled. "I meant His eternal nightmare!"
With that, Queen Zeal released a halo of bright, colored light that would have left her opponents barely able to stand had Frog not thrown up a buffer of healing energy. There was a spark of tacit understanding between Lucca and Magus as Robo stepped forward between them. "Crono, distract her!" Lucca shouted.
"On it!" said Crono. "Ayla, let's go!"
Ayla nodded and grabbed Crono, hurling him sword first at Queen Zeal. He sliced at her as he passed, tucked and rolled as he landed, and leaped at her again as Lucca and Magus murmured arcane words. Again, they flickered in and out of existence as Robo rose into the air. The world turned inside out as Robo fired his laser, and the mad queen fell to her knees.
"...powers don't work... wait!" she muttered, and her eyes lit up. "Toss you to the Mammon Machine!" she said, her voice gaining volume. "You'll be one with the Omen, Lavos... and me!"
Everything went dark. When Lucca could see again, she saw that she and the six with her were floating in a blue abyss, along with the silvery ghost of what the Mammon Machine had once been.
"Blast it!" Lucca shouted to the others once her head had cleared. It was a command, not an expletive. Gathering her power, she sent a wave of white-hot air at the machine just as Crono launched a great, ionized orb. The Machine flickered for a moment, then released a column of hot energy around the entire party. Thinking fast, Magus projected a shield to absorb the worst of it.
"All at once!" Lucca called Crono and Marle after she recovered from the hit. There was a sharp smell of ozone as Crono turned the air the bright blue-green of a static shock, and without a second of pause, Marle and Lucca released as much magic as they could at a time. The sharp change in temperature blew through the machine, and again, everything went dark.
As the world faded back into view, Lucca could hear the sound of engines. Thin, bright-pink conduits were the first thing she saw, and as she stood up, she realized where she was: on top of the Black Omen's hull. A beam of blue light shot upward, and Queen Zeal stood in the air before them.
"You cretins..." she said, face twisted in ugly rage. "I plan to live with Lavos, and control the universe forever. You will not get in my way!"
"Idiot," said Magus, looking downward. "Nothing can live forever." He turned to the woman who was once his mother. "Zeal... a pitiful woman, duped by Lavos. I myself will bring an end to all this!"
Queen Zeal glared back at him. "Prophet!" she spat. "You are doomed. I haven't forgotten what you did at the Ocean Palace. Your life is forfeit!" She glowed a blinding white, filling Magus's entire field of vision. When the light faded, Queen Zeal was transformed: a huge, gold-crowned mask of her face, flanked by two enormous hands.
Marle got out her crossbow and leveled a bolt between the mask's eyes just as the transformed queen's left hand pointed with its longest finger and shot a bright yellow ray at her. She dodged, and her shot went wild, narrowly missing the other hand, which swooped forward to grab Marle and squeeze. With a shout, Crono leaped at the mask, breathing heavily and dodging about in a blur of slashes. The mask's expression changed briefly to one of pain, and the hand dropped Marle, crushed nearly to death.
Ayla distracted the great face with a flaming kick courteousy of Lucca as Frog leaped to Marle's aid. Ayla's foot hit the mask's eye, momentarily blinding the queen and giving Marle a chance to get back on her feet. "We need to guard ourselves!" Marle gasped. "She's too strong with no wards!"
Magus nodded and threw a faint, green shield around as many people as would fit, and not a moment too soon. A glowing magic circle containing a six pointed star appeared on the floor beneath them, then erupted in a huge gout of water, leaving all six living people choking and Robo in a short-circuited heap - had it not been for Magus's shield, some of them might have been swept away. Gasping for air, Marle braved Queen Zeal's bolts of energy to get Frog, then the rest of them, back up. Crono, Frog, and Ayla converged on the mask, and in Queen Zeal's moment of distraction, Lucca pulled the pin from one of her strongest explosives and hurled it at the queen. It hit just as the other three fell away, and burst in a sphere of roiling flame.
As soon as the flame cleared, Magus was on the mask, his scythe jammed between the eyes. He wrenched it downward, leaving a huge gash. The mask fell in two, then it and the hands dissolved, forming themselves back into the human Queen Zeal. She panted, enraged.
"How dare you insects come after me!" she shrieked, and stood up straight. "Oh almighty Lavos, lend me your power!"
A cold wind blew through Queen Zeal's cloak as she cackled. "At last, Lavos awakens!" she said, her face showing not a hint of sanity. "Compared to Him, you are like germs! But I... I shall obtain immortality!"
Deep under the sea beneath the Black Omen, Lavos stirred. The surface of the water took on an eerie blue glow, and the Black Omen - and every being touching it - dissolved.
X~X~X
Having visited the new Mariglenn shortly after they destroyed both Mother and the Demon Battleship, an eldritch abomination consisting of Valkog, Norma, Izel, and the Emperor from the Daytron corporation, on the same planet, only ten thousand years ago, as well as going through Arabis's ghost ship and an alternate version of the area, the Dorgengoa Pirates were on the bridge of the Dorgenark, enjoying everlasting peace until the naviglobe started beeping.
Steve, who was one of Dr. Poccachio's greatest inventions, noticed the naviglobe beeping and turned his head completely around to face the captain.
"CAPTAIN!!!!" Steve screamed over the beeping, holding the wheel of the ship.
"What is it, Steve?" Dorgengoa asked, looking at the robot from his perch above the control room.
"A beast of gargantuan proportions has made its home on Earth and is rousing from its slumber." Steve said, craning his head to see his captain.
Upon hearing this, Simon Wicard swerved his chair around to look at Steve.
"You're joking, right?!" Simon asked, looking at Steve. "A gargantuan beast waking up… C'mon, are you serious?"
“I don't know.” Steve replied, looking back at the front deck.
Leaning against the section of the ship that Dorgengoa sat in, Jaster Rogue, who used to live on the former Longardia controlled desert planet of Rosa, was thinking to himself.
"How are we supposed to get to Earth of all places?" Jaster asked himself, thinking.
"Beats me, Jaster." Zegram said, leaning against the wall next to Jaster.
Dorgengoa leaned back in his chair and thought to himself before his feline first mate, Monsha, noticed something in deep space.
"Look over there, mates!" Monsha said, pointing his paw forward.
As to answer their questions, a massive wormhole appeared in front of the ship.
"Full speed ahead, dogs!" Dorgengoa ordered, looking at Steve and Simon.
"Aye-aye!"