Fan Fiction ❯ Never Ever in a Million Years ❯ A Close Encounter ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the plot of this story.

The bright campfire beckoned to Lucca through the trees, but she didn't move an inch. This was her first chance to just sit, think, and be alone ever since-ever since, well, before they had went to Zeal. It wasn't pleasant at all, thinking about things, but it was something that had to be done.

She had been at her refuge, inside an almost impeccably crowded thicket of beeches about a hundred yards from the camp, ever since Crono and Marle had become all giggly and ran off into the forest together, probably doing God-knows-what on a log or something. After that, she had soon left in the opposite direction, not wanting the others to see her obvious distress. Her crush on Crono was a closely kept secret, and it was going to stay that way, especially now that Marle had become his new playmate. "What bitter irony," she thought bitterly, "Just when I was going to tell him how I felt after all these years…"

She could now see through the forest canopy, which rustled in the slight breeze, that the stars were out. Tonight's night was a fine one, with the temperature being just right to sleep out in the open (although she had no intention of falling asleep in this dark thicket). She kind of wished, however, that they had been in an area without trees. "I bet the constellations here in the Middle Ages are slightly different," she murmured to herself. "I could see how the stars have moved over 400 years. What a fascinating subject to study!"

But even her geeky love of science couldn't avert her thoughts for a long period of time. Her subject of contemplation eventually drifted back to Crono, as always. She absentmindedly pulled off her helmet and shook her shoulder-length purple hair from its confines, running her hands through it in the usual fashion when she was nervous.

Geez, it had been a long time, at least fourteen years for sure that they had been best friends, but probably they played together long before that. Day after day they ran around, playing games and traipsing all over the countryside together, each day filled with newness, fun, and excitement. Sometimes others joined them in their adventures, but mostly it was just she, Lucca, and her best friend Crono.

He was mostly a laid-back person, but could become the opposite when things got tough. He had a great sense of humor; even when she was in tears he could quickly make her laugh. There was also the fact that he was naturally curious and would always try out her inventions, no matter how wacky and far-out they were. She even liked his odd obsession with poyozo dolls; he had currently amassed about 40 of them in the cupboard in his room. And of course, she couldn't forget the fact that he was extremely handsome and his sweet, sexy smile could reduce her to a babbling puddle of goo in a split second. Yes, you could safely say that Lucca Ashtear liked pretty much everything about Crono.

She had realized that she had liked him as more than a friend about three years ago, when she was fourteen. Her raging hormones made her see that he was a pretty handsome, well-endowed guy, not her clever, smart-alecky best friend. From there it had escalated. However, she was painfully shy and would absolutely not even hint that she liked him. Even though he was her best friend and could talk freely with him about everything else, in this category she was painfully tongue-tied.

And so it went on, until now. Now Marle was in the picture. Lucca now realized that they had probably liked each other long before that scene up on Death Peak, but hadn't picked up on it. How incredibly painful. Just when she had finally mustered up enough courage to tell him how she felt…

Lucca hated Marle. She hated Marle with all her soul. She was the symbol of everything that Lucca wasn't…and also everything that Crono liked. She was rich, she was beautiful, she was a princess, and hell…if you wanted to get all technical and into the world of rude, immature boys, as ditzy as she could be sometimes, she was probably easy. Lucca had none of these traits. But it wasn't Crono's fault; it was hers. She shouldn't have had a crush on a guy as great as him in the first place. Prettier, richer girls were a lot more likely to go after (and probably get) him.

Lucca suddenly fought the urge to cry. "Am I unattractive, is that it?" she thought miserably. "He's not shy, and I was right under his nose for years. If he liked me at all, he would have acted on it, am I right? I just must be ugly. Ugly. That's what I am. And a geek. Not only do I have those horrible large glasses, but my love of science…well, that's enough to turn ANY boy off. WHY is nature cruel to the ones that aren't pretty?" With that last depressing thought, tears started to run down her face. She just couldn't hold them in any longer. She sat there for God-knows-how-long, allowing tears to run down her face, until…CRACK. A nearby branch suddenly snapped, causing Lucca to nearly pee her pants in surprise. Whatever had stepped on that stick, be it human or be it monster, was close by. No way was it one of her friends; they would have called out to her first. She lay against the rough tree trunk, petrified with fear and barely daring to breathe. She didn't know if she could fight whatever was nearby, since no small animal could have caused a noise that loud. Her gun was almost useless at such a close range, and she couldn't cast her fire magic without setting the entire forest on fire. Her friends were too far away for her to call them for help; if it was anything dangerous and she yelled, by the time they got there they might be too late. She just kept her head down, hoping that whatever it was, it didn't know that she was there.

"Oh, did I scare you, little one?" drawled a male voice, dripping with contempt. Lucca at this point normally would have screamed and ran off far, far away, but this time she merely started a little. that was because she recognized the voice. Magus.

She slowly looked up at him. Yes, there he was, standing right above her, looking at her like she was something nasty that had just soiled his shoe. His odd blue hair gleamed in the moonlight, and his nose, which turned up and indicated the snob that he was, wrinkled ever so slightly. His long midnight-blue cloak, which made him if at all possible even more intimidating, fluttered slightly in the small breeze. Suddenly she remembered what she had been doing before he showed up, and quickly put her head down. "Oh shit shit shit!" she thought in a panicked state. "I hope it's too dark for him to see that I was crying! Knowing him, he'll probably use it to blackmail me or something!"

Magus hmphed in his usual manner and continued on, "Oh yes, you're definitely scared. Well, that's understandable. I'm easily the most frightening thing that's roaming the forest tonight…"

"Don't flatter yourself," Lucca shot back. She was quickly regaining her dignity and composure. Normally she wouldn't be so rude to anybody, but the few encounters that she had already had with Magus (when he wasn't scowling in a corner) had been quite unpleasant. He treated everyone (namely her) like he was oodles better than them and it ticked her off. He was so self-centered and snobbish and stuck-up and oh---it just made her so MAD!

"Listen, you little geek-faced, snot-nosed poindexter," he replied, his lips tightening and his eyes cold, "you're treading on very thin ice, talking to me like that-"

"And so it goes- yada yada yada," Lucca interrupted in a bored voice (although in truth she was really quite royally pissed; being called geeky right to her face brought back some unpleasant memories). "What's next? Oh, let me guess, I'm the King of the Mystics and don't you forget it, you little piece of slime, and if you speak to me like that again than I'll summon my little pet Lavos, which, by the way, the only time I did I failed, and I'll let you be tortured again and again until you slowly die, is that it? Well, now that we've established that, what, may I ask, was it that brought you, Mr. King of the Mystics, into my lowly presence?"

Even after that outburst on Lucca's part (which she was quite proud of, since he usually DID say things like that to everyone else), Magus still remained impassive. Leaning in very slowly and bringing his face very close to hers, he murmured in an extremely deadly voice, "And whose fault was it that I failed to summon Lavos? I don't recall it being a shortcoming on MY part. In fact, I happen to have a little flashback where I recall YOU setting me on fire even before Cyrus's pet frog cut me with his stupid sword! Yes, four-eyes, I'd be very, very careful if I were you. I hold grudges for a long, long time." At this, Lucca was now even more scared than when she heard him approaching. She would never, ever admit it, but he probably WAS scarier than anything she could possibly find in the forest. She tried to back away from him and out of the thicket, but he blocked her path.

"Will you-will you just let me go?" she inquired in a timid voice. For the life of her, she had NO clue why he would even go out of his way to scare her when he did that naturally.

The answer was short. "No."

"Well, then at least tell me why you're here!" She was already walking on "very thin ice", but she couldn't figure out why he was here. If he just wanted to annoy someone, then why wasn't he making fun of Frog's sewing kit or something? That's what everyone else did.

At this point, Magus decided to stop playing with her and cut to the chase. "I want you to fix the Epoch. Now," he declared in a bossy tone.

The idea about doing it now was almost laughable to Lucca. "But why? It's practically midnight, and I can't see much anyway. And we're not going anywhere…"

He crossed his arms and announced, "I don't know about you losers, but I am. I have to defeat Lavos. Don't question me. Currently, I am the only heir of Queen Zeal and I expect to be obeyed. NOW."

This was too much. This time, Lucca really DID laugh. "But Lavos will DECIMATE you! Don't you get it?! You'll be CARBON. Bottom of the food chain. Not that I give a damn about what happens to you, but I do give a damn about the Epoch. It's not fixed, I'm not fixing it now, and I'm waiting till morning. Crono said we should all have a rest anyway." The fact that he actually needed her conscious to fix the Epoch emboldened her.

"I don't CARE what that spiky-headed fool says. I want the Epoch fixed, and I want it fixed. NOW." He started bearing down on her until she was backed up against a tree. He was so close that she could smell that Jerky that they had had for dinner, much to her disgust. Lucca gulped. Things were taking a wrong direction, most definitely.

Magus continued on in a half-whisper, "Are you afraid of me?"

Lucca replied, sounding surer than she felt, "Hell, no! We wiped the floor with your ass and we'll do it again if we have to!"

"Really? Are you that sure?" He leaned his arm against the tree, trapping her against it. "Again, I seem to recall that there were THREE of you that wiped the floor with my ass, as you so articulately put it. There was you, that stupid frog, and that porcupine-headed idiot. That HARDLY seems like a fair fight, doesn't it? Look, helmet head, it's just you and me. If it came to a fight, who do you think would win?"

Lucca's reply was immediate. "Y-you."

"Right. Now I suggest you go fix the Epoch like I asked." With that, Magus released her and stalked off, leaving Lucca extremely bewildered at the previous exchange.

Still shaking a little, Lucca dusted herself off and prepared to go back to the campfire to get her tools. There was no avoiding it. Even if he WAS on their side, Magus was still very dangerous and she didn't want to cross him. "He might be the misunderstood prince of Zeal," she thought angrily, "but to me he's still just a bastard. I remember when he was a kid---gah, someone ought to have told that boy to take a bath!" She stomped off, getting rid of all evidence of her tears as she went. Nothing was going good. Her potential boyfriend material was going of with a ditz, her head ached from all the crying, and now the pale, friendless outcast of their band (although luckily his hygiene habits had improved considerably after 15+ years) was demanding that she fix the time machine at an unearthly hour. Life just wasn't fair.

Things were quiet back at the fire. Crono and Marle were back, sleeping in each other's arms. ("Bah," thought Lucca.) The others were still awake, but barely. Robo apparently was recharging. Ayla seemed to have had a little too much of Frog's ale, and Frog himself seemed to be dropping off. But wait…where was Magus? He just wasn't there. He for some reason was not back at the camp yet, and THAT gave Lucca an idea.

She sat down against a rock right next to Frog, who was definitely on the "I-hate-Magus-and-want-to-kill-him-someday" side of the river. Then she waited.

He came back about ten minutes later, cloak swishing slightly in the wind, scowling as usual. When he saw her just sitting there, it grew. She just sat there, gave him a little wave, and continued to smile cheekily at him.