Chrono Crusade Fan Fiction ❯ Hell Hath No Fury ❯ Chpt 6: Departure ( Chapter 8 )

They had decided to wait until nightfall before going back to the Order. There were still a few things back in her room that Rosette had decided she needed. Little in the way of clothes. They would take care of her lack of “civilian” attire later. But just a few little things. Pictures mostly. A few of Joshua's old things that she lovingly packed away in the bag Merari had provided her.

 

He had offered to send an avatar in with her, in the form of one of her friends. But despite the suspicious (and frowned upon) act of her wandering the grounds at night alone, it could be explained away with only a small amount of difficulty. Explaining why a double of one of her friends had suddenly turned up on the grounds would be a little harder to tackle.

 

She picked up a few magazines of Gospel that she'd had stored in her room. Maybe it was stealing, but she was going to need them in the days ahead. Besides, it wasn't like there was a limited supply of these things. They had to give Elder something to do, right? And she had never had any qualms about stealing from him before. A small and (though she would never admit it) affectionate smile found its way onto her face. Elder she would miss. Stupid perverted old man.

 

She walked downstairs and found the hooks where all of the keys that belonged to the Order's cars were kept, and carefully placed the ones she had borrowed back into their place. Some things she didn't mind stealing, but a car was going a bit overboard. And, she thought, as she stepped out onto the sidewalk, it wasn't like she was going to need it.

 

Chrono and Merari waited for her outside the grounds. She had expected Chrono to accompany her, but when she stopped to let Merari out at the gate, Chrono had climbed out too.

 

“Aren't you coming?” She had asked him. He gave her a slightly wistful smile and reminded her that with his horns back he really was all demon now. The scant welcome that he had enjoyed would likely no longer be bestowed upon him. Not to mention it would raise more than one kind of alarm. Rosette had blinked a few times, staring at him. She had never considered that the ramifications that the decision she pushed him to make would affect him negatively. She stared at him a moment longer, wanting to say something, but instead just nodded, and entered the complex alone. In retrospect she was a bit grateful to have no company.

 

As she was she was walking out and away from the complex. The Order was behind her and, God help her, she wasn't going to look back. Having Chrono there would only have made it more agonizing. She could always feel when his eyes were on her, and she didn't think she could possibly take his worried gaze on the back of her head right now. It would make her start doubting her decision. It would make her think that she was being too rash.

 

'Nothing for it now but to just go on.' She thought to herself. 'You've just made the man make one of the more difficult decisions of his life. For what?' As she walked towards the gate her heart began to beat more quickly she was leaving and diving off into the horrible, terrible unknown, to witness God only knows what. And for all she knew Merari's plan could be complete shit, if in fact the man even had one. As far as she knew anyway, the extent of the plan was to come here and clean out her room. Merari had, up til now, kept her on a fairly “need to know” basis. What came next was a mystery.

 

The thought hit her like a freight train as her boots made a lonely click on the pavement. 'I have no idea where I'm going. I am leaving the kindest people I have ever known, and I have no idea what's going to happen. I have no idea what will happen to me. I have no idea what will happen to Chrono. For the love of God, I don't even know where I'm staying tonight.'

 

As she began to panic, she tried to think of the reason she was in this situation in the first place. This situation that she couldn't back out of now because of what she had asked Chrono to do. 'Oh God, Chrono I'm so sorry I'm involving you in this.' Though she knew very well that if she had involved herself in it, Chrono was going to be involved in it. There was no escaping that.

 

But as she was walking, her pace slowly picking up more speed (so that she could carry herself away from the building and her turmoil both at the same time), something in a pocket shifted. She stopped and pulled it out with her gloved hand to see what it was, and found one of Joshua's old dime novels from back in the day. It was one of the ones that always used to make him talk about adventuring, exploring. She always used to make fun of him for these. They were always giving him strange ideas. But they made him happy, and that was all she had really cared about. He would be an explorer, and that's what made his world spin round.

 

At least he would've been an explorer.

 

Rosette slipped the novel gingerly back in her pocket and resumed her walk to the gate. Her shoes no longer sounded lonely and timid, but struck the ground hard, and unyielding. What did it matter if she didn't know what tomorrow, or even tonight, would bring? At least for her it was coming. She had to make the best use of that time for those unfortunate ones who weren't so lucky.

 

 

As she climbed deftly over the locked gates (the keys had been part of the set she returned), she tossed her bag down to the waiting Chrono below. Feet hitting the ground with a gentle thud, she uttered a thank you and went to retrieve it from him. The hands that passed her the bag didn't belong to the same towering demon who had gotten out of her car, minutes before. Looking up sharply she saw Chrono smiling at her, and in full twelve year old glory. A line creased her forehead and a question was on her lips when Chrono interrupted her, laughing.

 

“Just because I have the astral for my larger form now doesn't mean I can't still take the smaller one, Rosette.” He answered the unasked question with a grin.

 

“Oh. Of course. That makes... perfect sense.” Rosette said with a sigh of relief. “But... why?”

 

Chrono had honestly not expected that question. Taken aback he answered frankly “Because this is how every one is used to seeing me. Here especially.”

 

“Oh. Right.” Rosette said, more to herself than anyone else. It wasn't that she didn't like Chrono's little form. It was adorable. But the older form was... new and charming, perhaps. She was worried that perhaps it was gone. She didn't want it to be gone.

 

Merari spoke up from the shadows, “I think it's time we got moving.”

 

Little Chrono nodded and asked “Where to?”

 

“Follow me. You'll see,” Merari answered. “You're going to have to use your wings, so you'd better get out of that ridiculous form.”

 

Having spent so many years living as a twelve year old, Rosette had to admit, Chrono had the mannerisms down to a science. He gave Merari one of the cutest little indignant glares she had ever seen, and had she not known he was actually serious, she probably would've burst out laughing.

 

“Right in front of the Magdalen Order, Merari? How long did you want us to go undetected, really?” Chrono asked tersely.

 

Merari turned on his heel with a roll of his eyes, “Alright then, lets get far enough away until you're not scared anymore, Little Chrono. And for God's sake, get out of that form. It's creeping me out.”

 

Chrono grinned and ran up to Merari, tugging gently on his sleeve, “Does Uncle Merari have something against poor little helpless Chrono?” he asked, stirring up the most convincing and pitiful pout he could muster over an ill-concealed grin.

 

Merari's only answer was a swift thump to the head, leaving Chrono swearing and stomping in his wake. He had definitely spent far too much time as a twelve year old.

 

Rosette trailed far enough back to where she could laugh quietly undisturbed. It was so odd to see Chrono with a friend other than herself or Azmaria. Chrono at play. It was something all together different. She found that she liked it. It was a part of him that she had never been lucky enough to really experience. All she had of him was his devotion and friendship to her. And while that was one of the most important things in her life, it had been only a short part of his. He had lived for such a long time, done so many things, known so many people. It was so nice for her to be naive about it from time to time, but when it came down to it there really was just so much about him that she had never known. The thought disturbed her. She looked down to the watch hanging at her neck, faintly glowing.

 

'But that isn't an issue anymore, is it?' She asked herself. Now the one thing she had in abundance was time. Provided of course that she and Chrono didn't die by any other means. The morbid thought almost stopped her in her tracks. But it was fortunately at that time that Chrono had decided they were at a safe enough distance from the Order to attempt their flight.

 

“Alright, Rosette, we're ready.” Chrono turned and put out his hand to her, inviting her closer. He was no longer in his little form anymore (much to Merari's relief), and the hand that he held out to her was marked by slightly curving claws that she had only ever seen in times of nervousness, distress, and battle. It was still such a new feeling to see him this way in a state of perfect calm.

 

She hesitated only slightly, in her musings, and walked into his embrace. Wrapping his arms around her, he turned to Merari saying “You first.”

 

Merari took off like a rocket into the sky, astral energy flowing in his wake and lighting the ground around them. Chrono looked at the direction he was going, and snapped his wings out violently. Rosette, cradled in his arms as she was, could feel Chrono's strength, his energy, gathering up in his body. The skin he was holding her against tightened as he pulled his muscles tight. The grip he had on Rosette for a split second became absolutely crushing, just long enough for Rosette to feel it intimately as his muscles snapped and they rocketed from the surface.

 

In times past she was always so worried about the mission ahead that she had never stopped to notice this. She found her heart was racing at this new, before unnoticed experience. All of the sudden flying with him became a pleasure rather than a duty. Looking over his shoulder she saw his wings spread out behind him, rippling and shifting in the wind.

 

God there are even muscles in THEM, Rosette thought admiringly. She wanted to touch them, and was about to reach her hand out to do so when she remembered she was hundreds of feet in the air. Perhaps fooling around with Chrono's wings just now was not the best idea.

 

Another time. She thought, pulling her hands back to herself, shocked at her musings. She could never ask Chrono to touch his wings. That was like asking if she could touch...well any part of his body. When they touched, it was usually because she was hitting him. And she certainly wasn't going to ASK.

 

“Gah” Rosette shook her head slightly as she tried to rid herself of the horrifying scene that was unfolding in her mind of Chrono's reaction to a proposition like that.

 

“What?” Chrono asked her, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Nothing!” She answered quickly, looking away, cheeks reddening. 'Idiot.'

 

Chrono gave a small smile and asked no further questions. He certainly wasn't going to say anything, though it was perfectly obvious what she had been doing from the minute they had taken off. All Chrono had been tasked with doing was keeping track of Merari, and that certainly didn't call for his undivided attention. It also wasn't hard to follow someone's eyes if they were only inches from your own. Especially if it had been you they were inspecting.

 

Chrono wasn't surprised at the change in Rosette. This would take some getting used to, of course. It was another reason he had reverted to his smaller form in front of the Order. It had been so nice at first to be tall again, to be a man again, and feel at least that he looked his maturity. But after Rosette had gone onto the grounds of the Order, it had occurred to him that she wasn't quite as used to dealing with a man. Sure, Chrono was Chrono. And while he liked to think that packaging didn't matter, he certainly didn't have the slightest idea how he would react if all the sudden Rosette turned into an eight year old and he was supposed to just deal with it.

 

Chrono shifted his hands slightly in the hold that they had on Rosette, reminding him sharply of the soft curves in her waist and her thighs that had not been there on their first flight together those years ago. He blushed and clutched her slightly closer to him.

 

Chrono was very glad that Rosette didn't have an eight year old form.

 

 

Merari had watched the two of them since he had met them. Closely. He wanted to see if there could possibly be any chance. If this were to work at all he had to have them both. If for some reason he could only get one of them, it would've been better had he not solicited them at all. Originally he had wanted to just go after Chrono, and have him convince Rosette to come. Chrono had lost a love to Aion like he had. But it was decades ago. Magdalen wasn't the reason Chrono fought, and she never was. And Merari discovered that her memory was best left in the grave. Magdalen was an inflammatory subject, but not enough for what was needed. No, in order to get Chrono to take measures like this it was going to take an object of affection that was recent and fresh.

 

Certainly Chrono had cared about Joshua too, just as Merari did, but fresh though he was, Joshua had, in his heart, been dead for a long time. Merari thought he could save Joshua from that. But then again Merari had thought he could save Trista too.

 

No, Rosette was the only thing that could sway Chrono to help. He would follow her anywhere. And Joshua was the perfect subject to convince Rosette to help him. In fact, Rosette hadn't really needed any convincing. She had herself convinced. All Merari had to do was give her an opportunity, an opening. She had jumped at the chance, not even letting Merari finish his sales pitch. Chrono followed just as he was supposed to.

 

In all the years that Merari had known Chrono, he had never seen him this way with anyone. He remembered him as quiet, reserved. Chrono had always been clever and bright, but this was something all together different. He had never seen the purple haired demon smile so much. In the massive archive that was his memory, there was never a time Merari could remember this amount of happiness in Chrono. Now, of all times, when one would have every reason to be worried, or at least goal oriented, Merari could hear him laughing with Rosette in the air behind him.

 

He was almost too happy with her. That could prove detrimental. But he would worry about that when he got there.

 

 

By the time they landed, the mirth in the air behind Merari had died down. His feet touched down on dark damp soil with nothing but a tiny, run down shack to mark the property. There was nothing around for miles, and Rosette hadn't seen any city lights for the past few minutes of their flight.

 

“Where exactly are we?” Rosette asked as Chrono lowered her feet to the ground, looking around at her surroundings.

 

“It's better if you don't know, exactly.” Merari answered, walking towards the shack at a comfortable pace “We won't be here too very long anyway. Besides, it's not horribly important.”

 

Chrono followed Merari's example, tucking wings away before making them disappear along with all his other demonic accouterments. He turned to Rosette and prompted her to follow.

 

“In any case we are home. For now.”