Chrono Crusade Fan Fiction ❯ Hell Hath No Fury ❯ Chpt 5: Contracted ( Chapter 7 )

“Go on,” Rosette prompted Chrono slightly with a nod of her head. “They're yours. Take them.”

 

“Rosette have you really actually thought about what all this entails? Things aren't going to be the same, everything will change, can you honestly -” Chrono began, his words picking up speed as he spoke.

 

“Chrono.” Rosette interrupted him. Her face was calm. Dispassionate. Resolute. This was just another step to her. If her mind mirrored at all the turmoil taking place in Chrono's heart, it did not show. Though her look softened slightly as she said, “I know things will change. But it's time for things to change. Once upon a time I needed to give you my life so that you could help me find Joshua. Now I need for you to take yours back, because our plans have changed.”

 

Under that logic, Chrono had no defense. He could argue the morality, or the rightness of it, all day long. But he had no rebuttal for her argument. Their mission wasn't over, and it was undeniable that Chrono would be much more help with full demon powers, rather than a child running around, refusing to let Rosette release him. It may throw his conscience into chaos, but this really was the best choice.

 

Decision made, Chrono turned slowly towards the table where his astral organs lay lifeless and dull. As he reached out to take them up, Merari said nothing. He watched the display through hooded eyes, maintaining the delicate balance between the private moment taking place in front of him, and staying involved in the deal he was orchestrating. He sat silent, the only movement being his constant cigarette smoking.

 

Eyes down, Chrono squared his shoulders and faced the table. “Release the seal.”

 

Rosette pulled the seal open and after the swirl of the clock's hands, a dark, tall, and devastatingly handsome demon stood before them. It had been ages since Rosette had needed to break the seal. She had missed this view. She could remember from time to time that Chrono's child form hid a demon, but she had forgotten just how beautiful he was. He just felt so much more real in this form. She couldn't help but stare.

 

Chrono stretched his wings out behind him, reminding Rosette a bit of a cat the first time it moves after a long nap, and cracked his neck a time or two before laying he hands on either side of his head. Grasping the circular covers near his temples, Chrono braced himself. He needed to remove these covers before the horns could be reattached. Grunting, Chrono pulled, and the covers broke off. Rosette saw the rough, broken stubs that had once been his horns. She could easily see why he covered them. But she refused to look away. This was her request, she would see it happen.

 

Chrono took only a moment to take a breath, and grab his horns. Creasing his brow, and with one final grunt to silence the caution in his brain, he slammed his horns against the stumps in his temples. Even just removing the covers had been painful, but as the pieces made contact, there was a flash of blinding pain, accompanied by an equally powerful blast of light.

 

Merari, ever cautious, had turned his face away at the last moment, but Rosette, determined to witness the whole process, yelled in pain and fell to the floor. As the light faded and her sight returned, Rosette looked down at her pocket watch. The hands, which she had expected to stop, were instead flying. Convinced her assaulted eyes, and the recently accompanying headache, were distracting her from the truth, she looked again. The hands were indeed moving, but the strangeness was that they were moving forward, at such a speed that her eyes hurt to follow it. She felt lightheaded, and her headache became unbearable, and her eyes closed, welcoming oblivion.

 

 

Rosette awoke some time later. However long it had been, she didn't really know. She woke slowly, little by little. And when she opened her eyes to see the person who had been calling her name, the person who was kneeling on the floor, cradling her, her stomach did a somersault.

 

“Chrono...” she whispered softly as she looked up at him. She was familiar with unsealed Chrono, but only in full battle regalia. The man over her now showed no trace of horns, wings, or anything else that would mark him as a demon. It was as if the devil she knew had become human. Only... only a grown human rather than a twelve year old. Secretly all those years, Rosette had been glad Chrono's sealed form was that of a boy. It made her job, and her life, a little bit easier. She forced herself to think of him that way. Whenever other thoughts came to her heart she buried them as far as she could. Sister of the Magdalen Order, she should never even consider it. Tasked as she was, and with such limited time, she didn't have the opportunity for it. When Chrono was sealed, so were the thoughts that really made her a woman.

 

But he wasn't sealed anymore. And his inconspicuous form was no longer quite as resistible. Child Chrono was perhaps gone forever, leaving in his wake this new, unfamiliar, true Chrono.

 

“Rosette, thank God you're awake.” Chrono's eyes bored into her, and the longer she stared at him, the longer she found she couldn't respond. But she didn't have to.

 

“What the hell did you do to her?” Chrono growled, looking up at Merari angrily. “What the hell happened?”

 

When Chrono had regained his horns and become a full demon again, he had expected the pain. What he had not expected was for Rosette become so overwhelmed and faint as she did. When she had opened her eyes, Chrono could tell that it was from more than seeing him as a demon. That was hardly enough to sway her anymore. There was something else to this that Merari hadn't told them.

 

Chrono looked down as he heard the pocket watch around Rosette's neck click softly. The hands, which had been flying at an incredible speed before had stopped. The glow was still radiating from it, and Rosette was still very much alive. But the watch was stopped. Chrono turned to look over his shoulder, facing Merari for answers again.

 

Standing up from his chair, Merari began to walk over to them. “You're still contracted, Chrono.”

 

'God how could I have been so stupid' Chrono looked down again at Rosette, whose brow furrowed, trying to comprehend the explanation Merari gave.

 

“What does that mean?” Rosette turned her eyes away from Chrono and towards their new ally.

 

Merari knelt down beside them. “When you made a contract with Chrono, it was for life. Not so surprising as it's usually the contract that kills the contractor. However, you two were a special case. And now that Chrono is again fully demon, replenishing his own astral energy with his horns, he has more than he needs, and inadvertently channels it to you.”

 

Rosette tried to raise her head, and Chrono pulled her to a sitting position. “So that means... I'm not going to die?”

 

Merari smiled affectionately at the question, worded as innocently as the lights shining from Rosette's eyes. “No child. Not now, and not for a very long time.”

 

Chrono gave a small smile and looked down at her. “Not until I do.”

 

Rosette's eyes widened sharply. “So you mean that...”

 

“As long as I stay alive, you stay alive. As long as I can supply astral for you, you won't die. Highly probably that your body won't progress past maturity. You won't decay. You will heal as I do.” Chrono chuckled softly. It was a deep laugh that Rosette was completely unfamiliar with. And at the same time, it was the same laugh she'd heard time and time again. Her little Chrono was not little anymore. But he was still Chrono. 'And he is still mine.' She thought to herself, a small blush rising to her cheeks at how forcefully that unconscious thought had come to her. She could feel the beginning of an internal argument that she could not afford to have with herself right now. 'Later.' she promised herself. 'I'll have this conversation later.' But all the same she couldn't manage to draw her eyes away from the smile that had spread over Chrono's face.

 

The smile only deepened as he said, “Looks like I'm your contractor now.”