Sage Frontier Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of two Fakes! ❯ The Past is the past, and the Future is painful! ( Chapter 46 )

DISCLAIMER: I don't own SaGa Frontier. SquareSoft does, and they're willing to give me the deed. Their exact reason was `her story makes a far better game than we did.' I agree.

 

Blue had liked the idea of having a story to tell his coworkers back at IRPO, something that would've made him `part of the gang.' But that was before he had jumped into the black hole, before he actually understood what his so-called story would've been. It was difficult to fully grasp just what he was going through, as he and Rouge dove deeper and deeper into the abyss. On the one hand, it was like going through a blender - they were spinning mercilessly, and Blue felt sick! On the other, however, nothing was happening to their bodies in any way. They weren't being pulled apart like string cheese, and their organs hadn't ruptured yet. But on the third hand, the one that was only possible in space, it was like diving underwater and not needing to worry about drowning. It was just… it was a nightmare to a scientific scholar like Blue. And to Rouge, it was even worse.

 

The only good thing was that time didn't exist. Neither twin could count how many seconds, minutes, even hours they spent in that tornado of nothing, spinning and flying in all directions, but never truly going anywhere at all. Rouge even forgot how to count, after a few agonizingly long moments in that metaphoric blender. To him, that might've just been all right. The less he had to think, the more his brain could accept that they were doing the impossible. They were surviving a black hole. Take that, assholes of science!

 

But the glamour of the impossible faded just as quickly - who could say how long that was? - as it began. Soon, it was like watching the same thing over and over in an endless loop. Nothing but darkness and stars, some dimming as others brightened, but always in a pattern that seemed similar to Rouge. It was like watching a horrible movie, with the theater being locked on the inside.

 

“Blue, are we dead yet?” Rouge finally asked, his tone suggesting he was absolutely bored with their descent. Blue glanced over, and realized he couldn't answer. Clearly, they were alive, but was that actually true, or just some sort of illusion created from their oxygen-deprived minds?

 

“I doubt it,” Blue answered with a shrug, and thought it was best to leave it at that. But he forgot he was talking to Rouge. Rouge wasn't good when it came to letting shit go.

 

“I wish we were,” Rouge commented offhandedly, and gestured toward the stars as they continued to spin in that unseen cyclone, “I mean, look at this. This is getting boring. Same stupid stars, same black space, same everything! Are we even going anywhere?” Again, Blue couldn't answer. He wasn't even sure if Rouge expected one.

 

“Because, if we were, I'd have thought we'd be there by now,” Rouge continued distantly, as though he weren't trying to speak to anyone in particular, “Not like there's anywhere to really go, what with everything being destroyed and all, but you get it, right?” Blue blinked, and looked at his brother again. Maybe there was more damage done than the older mage originally thought. Rouge normally had more energy than this. Then again, that was before Ciato screwed him into a three-thousand light-year grave. Hell, that was before Ciato did anything this horrible.

 

“Rouge, it was explained that we wouldn't know where we ended up,” Blue reminded him gently, not wanting to be too harsh, “This could take some time.” He knew any bad push would break Rouge again. It was just too soon. Rouge let out a sigh.

 

“I know, I know,” he said, sounding a tad more like his old self, “I'm sorry, Blue. It's just… I don't know if I want to do this anymore. I mean, come on, not even I believe this stuff is happening.” Blue understood. There was no glory for this particular mission, and it might very well be their last. Why be modest? Chances were, after this, both twins would quit IRPO and just pay the rest of their debt with cash.

 

“We can't give up, Rouge. We have to get through,” Blue told him, and everything seemed to quiet, just a little, as he spoke to his little brother, “Even if no one believes us, we both know what happened. Remember when we were little, and we said that it didn't matter what anyone said, as long as we had each other?” Rouge nodded and smiled. They'd said that so many times, it was like a promise more than a simple statement.

 

“Yeah, I do,” he replied fondly.

 

“Well, think of this the same way. It doesn't matter if they say we're liars or lunatics, Rouge,” Blue said to him, and more of Rouge's old vigor seemed to return with that memory, “Look, I know these past few days have been hell for you. But it'll be okay. You'll see.” Rouge looked at his brother. Everything would be okay? For whom? How could Blue possibly say something so… so naïve!?

 

“And who'll make this better, Blue?” Rouge asked him quietly, eyes watering a bit, “We've been orphans since we were seven. Now everyone we know and love is gone. Tell me, how can this be better?” Blue's lips thinned. He was getting awfully close to breaking Rouge. He had to be careful.

 

“Because we're going to bring them back,” Blue said firmly, and there was something deep in his eyes that shocked Rouge, “We're going to do it. But we can't unless we wait and see where this takes us.” How did Blue know, and why was he so confident? Rouge asked him both questions, and Blue said, “Because we're both the most powerful magician in existence.” And that was the end of it.

 

Rouge did what Blue told him, and waited patiently for the end of the tornado, for the black hole to spit them out. It took a very long time - how long was still unknown - but it finally happened and he felt glad for it. Or, he would have been, if the black hole had spat them out somewhere he could recognize. With `recognize' being a relative term: anything with trees, grass, and dirt would have qualified as something Rouge recognized.

 

But instead, they were dropped off in what looked like the exact same place they had been just five seconds before, albeit without the constant spinning. There was no sign of a sky, of sunlight, of anything that would indicate they'd gone anywhere at all. Truth to tell, Rouge didn't know if he should feel angry, afraid, or just disappointed. All three would have suited him. He looked around, and sighed as he felt his brother stand up beside him, with Fuse crash-landing close behind.

 

“…does it look like we've gone anywhere at all?” Rouge asked his brother flatly, barely listening as Zozma shrieked, landing hard onto what looked like nothing at all. Blue's lips thinned. It did look like nothing had happened, but he knew very well something had. It was simply that they were still in the only place that existed thus far: space. And if they were going to where the terminal had been, then there was nothing else but that.

 

“Kylin!” Blue called, not knowing what else to do, but knowing he had no answer for Rouge. Unsurprisingly, he gained no response. He called again. Silence greeted him, along with Rouge's worried stare. Had they ended up at the terminal? Blue looked back and said, “Fuse, tell me we're where you said we'd be.” Fuse looked back, brow raised. He looked almost a little too amused.

 

“Hey, I don't remember promising we'd end up anywhere,” Fuse reminded him, and Blue audibly cursed, “I just said maybe it'd get us here. There's a difference.” Inside his mind, Blue cursed a thousand curses, some of which were in very colorful and ancient languages. Now wasn't exactly the best time to be guessing between warp-holes and atomically unstable planes. Then again, this was Fuse. He wasn't exactly Physicist McGee.

 

“Thanks for the heads up,” Rouge grumbled, and turned back to Blue, who was trying to find some way of seeing where they could've ended up. Maybe there was a new constellation or star he'd missed, or some asteroid he would recognize. But there wasn't; there was a chance constellations hadn't even been formed yet.

 

On the inside, Blue was worried now. Fuse's confidence made him believe that everything would be all right. He felt he should've known better, and now they were probably even deeper in space than they'd been before. And this time, they couldn't be sure they could create another black hole, should they need it. If they were going to get anywhere, they'd have to rely on instinct and some level of astrological knowledge. That meant that the Time Lord and Orlouge would be their best bets.

 

The only problem was that there was nothing to help them. Even as Blue tried to identify something in that vast darkness, the stars began to wink out of life, and darkness settled in vividly. If he had any hopes of using that instinct, he'd have to act fast. He turned toward his left; he saw that Ildon had landed relatively safely, and he saw Zozma dizzily trying to gain his senses. But he couldn't see if either of the elder Mystics had recovered yet. Then he saw stirring even further behind, and a gleam of light reflected off of a metallic surface when one star blinked out. It was the Time Lord's pocket-watch.

 

Quickly, Blue called out and waved the Time Lord over. Curious, and growing fond of the human magician, the old mystic heeded him and strolled over, checking his watch once to see if it started again. It hadn't. When he reached the young mage, Blue asked him to see if he could find any signs of where they had ended up. For an older creature like the Time Lord, it should've been an easy task. After all, he'd been at the Beginning many times before.

 

He had about as much luck as Blue had. As more and more stars continued to blink out, it became harder and harder to figure out where in space they had gone, or if they'd come any closer to finding Kylin. To a normal person, this was a wide-scale panic. But the Time Lord wasn't mortal, and he understood one vital clue to figuring this predicament out: it wasn't what he could see that mattered. It was what was happening that was important. The stars were dying out before their very eyes. And the reason for that was simple - in the beginning, the stars didn't exist. And though time didn't exist yet, either, it took just a little bit for the transitions to take place.

 

“Well, now, I do believe we're where we need to be,” the Time Lord assured them, with a smile on his face, “Everything is vanishing simply because nothing exists yet. Not even the stars that light the night sky.”

 

“Then where's the terminal?” Rouge asked incredulously, looking around. Blackness settled all around them as the last few stars ceased to be. The air felt both heavy and thin - heavy with the weight of nothingness, yet thin due to the lack of anything, and though the temperature was mild, Rouge felt a shiver run up his spine. Being here made him ill at ease.

 

“That, my friends, will be the tricky part,” the Time Lord explained, and there was a general sigh of disappointment around the group, “I don't remember.” Blue swore he heard something in the distance crack, and he felt the urge to strangle the old Mystic. It would've been nice to know this some twenty minutes ago, before they jumped into a void they couldn't escape from. But then again, Mystics delighted in tormenting humans. And sometimes that came in the form of complete forgetfulness at the most inconvenient times. And this time just happened to be conveniently inconvenient.

 

“You don't remember!?” Zozma repeated hotly, and threw his arms up, “Don't give us that crap! Stop playing and tell us!” The Time Lord looked at him with amusement, a brow arched as he watched his inferior throw a hissy-fit.

 

“I wish I was playing, but I don't remember where the celestial terminal is. There is literally nothing here; you expect me to remember where exactly one piece of equipment is?” he asked, and Zozma felt close to losing his mind. Now he understood completely why Ciato went ballistic. This was madness. And it certainly had nothing to do with Spartans.

 

“What a load of bullcrap,” the red-headed Mystic grumbled, shaking his head. Then he stared at the Time Lord and asked, “Can you maybe give an approximation? A guesstimate, if you will?” He should've expected the answer to come out as it was: half-assed, just like him.

 

“By my guess? Dear boy, that could lead us anywhere! Why, I could point in any of the billions of directions, and any one of them could be right!” Damn it all, logic won out over anything Zozma could've said. Technically, the Time Lord was right. But they had to think of something. Time was, ironically enough, running out.

 

“Oh, why get caught up in this useless mumbo-jumbo!?” Fuse burst out, tapping his gun impatiently, “Let's just do what the Time Lord suggested and just go! Hell, why not split up and make this damn trip easier!?” Judging by the looks on everyone's faces regarding that idea, they didn't feel it was a good one to follow. Not to mention that the Time Lord didn't actually suggest it. He merely said he could have. Sadly, Fuse didn't care.

 

“Let's not do that,” Rouge suggested, crossing his arms, “Isn't there something that could be done? We found the terminal once before.”

 

“That was when Kylin was with us,” Blue reminded him quietly, and Rouge frowned, “He knew where the terminal was.” Chances were, he was the only one who did. But Rouge didn't want to give up that easily. No one did. He turned to Fuse, a new thought coming into his head. Kylin adopted the older man as a surrogate nephew when Fuse managed to stumble into his realm. Kylin taught him the basics of physics and science. Kylin might have very well told him how to find the terminal, should something happen to the creature himself.

 

“Fuse, did he happen to tell you where to look if you ever needed the terminal?” Rouge asked, a shred of hope coloring his voice. Fuse perked a brow. He'd been Kylin's nephew for well over twenty years now, and he didn't remember if the old goat said anything about the terminal, or the beginning of the beginning.

 

“Not to my knowledge, boy, but that don't mean I can't take a crack at it,” the old cop replied slyly. He didn't even care to notice that he was the only one who thought he could do it. In his mind, he was Fuse the Super Cop, and if he wanted something to happen, it damn well happened. And right then, he wanted the terminal to just show up.

 

Being Kylin's adopted kin had its perks. At first, no one - not even Fuse! - knew what those perks were. But exactly two-thirds of a second after Fuse wanted to find the terminal, there was another rumbling deep in the abyss. This time, it was much more forceful than anything the black hole had created. Whereas the black hole just barely began to dent the fabrics of space, this new force definitely cracked the frames between the planes. Blue felt everything around him shift and shatter, like a ripple in the pond that suddenly grew violent and turned into a horrible tidal wave that wiped out everything around it. Even though there was no wind, Blue shivered, crossing his arms and holding himself rigid against a cold that wasn't truly there. Rouge and Fuse acted similarly. The Mystics, however, merely stood, watching in what looked like frozen fear. Blue looked with them, just to see what scared them so.

 

The answer was one that terrified him, and made him wonder if Fuse was even human at all. Out of nowhere, and still forming before them, was the celestial terminal. Being out of the context of time, the outlines around it were burning far brighter than Blue remembered. Amidst the darkness, the light was blinding; even through shut eyes, Blue still saw the fiery aura. For several long heartbeats, the blaze around the terminal pulsed, each pulse sending shivers of raw power up everyone's spines. Then, slowly, with each passing pulse, that power faded until it was nothing more than a residual feeling. Slowly, Blue opened his eyes to look at the terminal.

 

It was as if nothing had happened. Everything, from the monitor to the keyboard, was intact and pristine. Lines of light around the terminal's transparent edges blinked in and out of existence, and Blue could make out the symbols on each button on the keyboard. Of course, he couldn't read them - they were in a language more ancient than the gods themselves. But he had a feeling he knew someone who could. He turned to Fuse, wondering just how much knowledge the old cop was hiding. Or more accurately, how much the old cop didn't even know he had. There was a chance Kylin taught him more than just modern physics.

 

“Fuse, can you read any of this?” Blue asked, and the cop in question walked over to see what he could do. He looked down at the keys for a moment, tapping his chin as he read them. Blue noticed that he looked unusually focused at that moment.

 

“I can read a few of them,” Fuse began slowly, thoughtfully, “But not many. And they're not the kinds of keys you're expecting. You're expecting one key to represent one letter, but this language is a bit more complex. Some of these symbols represent whole phrases, and some mix words with letters and runes.”

 

“What language is it?” Blue asked him firmly, and Fuse bit his lip. He wasn't sure, so Rouge suggested, “Esper? Vampyric? Yiddish?” Blue gave his brother a flat look. Fuse just shook his head. None of them were correct.

 

“I'm not sure, but it's not a language you'd know,” Fuse explained grimly, eyes narrowing, “Kylin told me once, when I was twenty-two. But that was a long time ago, and I can't remember what he said. It might be Atlantian, for all I know.” If it was, then that didn't surprise Blue. The idea of Atlantis was considered a myth, but such a civilization was known throughout the farthest reaches of Oblivion; in particular, its knowledge on machinery, philosophy, energy, and the concepts of time and space were the focus of many of Oblivion's most prestigious scholars. If this terminal was ever `created' by `something,' then Atlantis wouldn't have been far from the mark.

 

“So mermaids made this?” Zozma asked with an arched brow. Fuse's look went flat. When the hell had he mentioned mermaids?

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Fuse asked the red-head in disbelief, as Blue shook his head in embarrassment and said, “We said Atlantis, not Atlantica. This isn't a Disney movie.” Zozma pouted in disappointment, and Fuse continued to stare blankly. It was pretty obvious that the old cop wasn't interested in children's movies, though Blue had to admit, he didn't know anyone who was.

 

“What the hell is a Disney?” Fuse asked Blue, and Blue's face began to streak with… well, blue. He wished Zozma hadn't asked such a stupid question. He didn't want to go into the history of Walt Disney, all for one tiny misunderstanding. Then again, the fact that he even knew such history worried him. And it worried everyone else, too. Blue found himself staring at Ildon, Zozma, and his own brother, and all three looked more than just a little spooked at his recognition. Rouge's brow rose expectantly.

 

“Blue, you know about Disney?” he asked his brother, and Blue knew he was screwed. Rouge's tone clearly told him that his dear, sweet, little brother knew he knew everything about Disney. And that he'd delight in dragging such information out as slowly as humanly possible. Blue's eye twitched. Why did his mother have to introduce him to Sleeping Beauty!?

 

“Well, no, but it's a common reference!” Blue exclaimed defensively, but Rouge didn't buy it. As far as both mages knew, no one compared anything to Atlantica. No one except Disney fans. Rouge grinned.

 

“Really? I've never heard it before,” he replied, “Tell me, big brother, what Disney movie did you watch recently? I hear they did a remix of Alice in Wonderland.” Blue twitched again. If it was legal, he'd have punched Rouge in the face. It wasn't exactly his fault that Fuse didn't know a damn about Disney. He shrugged. They had more important matters than Disney movies. He'd just have to remind them all of that.

 

“They did. Before the world was destroyed,” Blue stated, and Rouge's grin faded, “Now, if you want to make fun of me for my movie preferences, help me save the world first.” Well, now, that just took the fun out of everything. But Blue did have a point. Now wasn't the time to be bantering over movies. Time was something they surely didn't have. Rouge nodded and took a look at the keyboard again. He had no better luck than Blue did.

 

“Okay, so what are we looking at?” he asked, trying to sound as though he'd been completely enthralled with the terminal from the start, “What've we got here?” Blue just watched his brother flatly. That act didn't work ten years ago, and it wouldn't start now.

 

“A terminal none of us can read, and the only thing that might save our sorry asses,” Ildon replied, sharing Blue's disbelief. Personally, he didn't give a crap what movies anyone except Rastaban watched; he just wanted to get home. And maybe murder Ciato if the son of a submariner somehow survived. That was a story for a different day. Rouge just hummed.

 

“And what language are we looking at here?” he asked. Blue just stared, mouth dropping open. Did his brother suffer amnesia, or was he just being an ass? Blue was betting on the latter; Rouge remembered everything. At least, everything that would annoy the shit out of Blue.

 

“We don't know,” Blue reminded him in exasperation, “That's what we were discussing before you brought up Disney.”

 

“Bro, you brought up Disney and opened the window. I just jumped right through,” Rouge countered, and Blue was sure he'd lose it. What did it matter!? They had work to do! He shook his head.

 

“It doesn't matter! The point is, we can't read the damn terminal!” Blue exclaimed, throwing his arms up in frustration. Rouge chuckled; it was always fun to fuck with Blue's head. But the older mage did have a point. They had work to do, and right now, there wasn't a whole lot of ways to go about it. If only one of them knew Atlantian!

 

“So, how did Ciato read it?” Zozma asked, snapping both brothers out of their ridiculous argument. Rouge opened his mouth to speak, and then promptly closed it. That was a damn good question, now that he thought about it. Truth was, he didn't think Ciato had. After all, it only took one good mistake to blow up the world, and that was one thing Ciato did well.

 

“You don't need to read to destroy a machine,” Fuse pointed out seriously, and sighed, “It's pretty clear you boys have no idea what the hell you're doing. I did say I can read some of this shit. Let me take a crack at it.” No one was particularly confident, but it wasn't like they had much other choice. Blue stepped aside, and Fuse pushed Rouge out of the way. He looked down at the keyboard.

 

He couldn't read much, but he knew enough to crack the first few defenses in the terminal. He pressed three buttons with symbols Blue did not understand, and the mage saw that those symbols made the phrase `open the passage of time.' The terminal responded. It glowed brightly for a second, and there was a responding flash of light high in the black sky. That light trickled down, forming a line between the terminal and the flash up above. Additional lights - stars perhaps - began to wink back to life, but they were larger than Blue expected a star to be. He looked from the closest one, back to Fuse. The cop was perspiring as he tried to figure out the next defense phrase.

 

He cracked it in one shot. The phrase ended up being `Let those who seek, find.' Fuse smiled when more stars winked to life, creating additional lines of light to one another. Rouge and Zozma watched with mesmerized interest; Fuse was actually putting the timeline back together again! Fuse returned his attention to the monitor. Now it needed two phrases to unlock the next tier. Fuse swallowed hard. It wasn't because he was worried he'd mess up, however. It was because he knew the next lines, and was afraid of what he might unleash.

 

That didn't matter, when he weighed the consequences of not inputting the phrases. He typed them in, and when he did, all four phrases lit up on the screen like a short poem. `Open the passage of time, and let those who seek, find. Once the lines of light are crossed, all doors will be opened.' It flared, the words becoming so bright that they reflected off of the black floor, spelling the phrase on the ground as well. Everyone watched with awe. This was more than just magic. This was how the worlds began.

 

“Lines of light?” Rouge asked after a moment, and nothing further had happened. He looked from the words on the ground, to Fuse, “What does that mean?”

 

“Maybe we have to walk through those stars,” Zozma guessed, brow raised as he looked at them. They were glowing so brightly that they no longer had a discernable shape. The lines connecting them were thicker, too, and they pulsed with a warmth that hadn't been there before.

 

“No. We wait now,” Fuse told them grimly, eyes locked on the lines of light that connected the terminal to the farthest-reaching star. Zozma wanted to cut across the lines, but he knew doing so might seriously disrupt whatever it was Fuse just did.

 

The lines continued to thicken, and the energy began to crackle. Blue could feel the shocks running up and down his spine, and it made him feel hyper. He could only hope the lines would stop growing soon; he could see the ends of Rouge's hair beginning to stand up from the radiant energy, and saw sparks on Ildon's skin. Where the lines were thickest, there were actual bolts - tiny, but no doubt deadly to touch. Some were red and yellow; the weakest of energies. But ironically, the thinnest bolts were blue and white, which were the most powerful kinds of electricity Blue knew of. Those were the most numerous. Whatever Fuse was doing, he did it well.

 

“This is so wicked!” Zozma exclaimed, eyes glittering as he saw those bolts dancing up the lines. He reached out, laughing as the hair on his arm stuck straight up, quivering as he inched closer. Blue just shook his head; sometimes, Zozma was a real idiot. Fuse didn't even need to look to share the opinion.

 

“I wouldn't do that,” Fuse warned flatly, still working on the keyboard, “You'll fry your brain.” Zozma blinked, and quickly withdrew his hand. As much as he loved mischief, he liked his brain. Preferably, he liked it uncooked.

 

“How much longer?” Rouge asked, having to almost yell when the bolts began to make a loud humming sound. Fuse's eyes twitched a bit. The electricity of the terminal was growing way too strong, even for him. By his estimate, either they'd walk through one of the doors relatively soon, or they'd be dead before the spells ended.

 

They didn't die. The electricity continued to grow, to the point where it physically hurt just to be near the light. Then, quickly and quietly, it died down again. Everything settled. There were no more bolts, there was no crackling in the air, and the stars remained as they were: no more came to life, and no more died out. Rouge, who had closed his eyes moments before, slowly opened one. The light didn't blind him. In fact, what he looked upon was no longer terrifying rays of light spearing through the rips of space. What he saw was akin to a spider's web; a large, vast one comprised entirely of lights, with the stars acting as `starting points' for each ray.

 

Zozma's initial curiosity came back tenfold, and he put his hand through one ray despite Fuse's warning. It did not sear him. In fact, it felt like nothing at all now. Even the warmth emitted seemed to have diffused as the spell simmered. The light merely came through, illuminating the Mystic's skin, as well as the bones underneath.

 

The spell itself was impressive, and Blue honestly never thought Fuse would be the one to pull such strong magic off. There was, with no doubt, much more to the cop than a person could see. But the spell aside, what truly impressed Blue was the fact that the spider web seemed to act as an additional portal. The terminal was no longer a terminal; the spell did far more than connect the dots, so to speak. It seemed to have shifted the terminal into a new shape. In particular, that shape was a set of closed double-doors. They were silver in color, with the edges and creases made entirely of pure gold. The handles sparkled, also made of pure gold. But they glowed dimly. And when Blue went to touch one handle, his hand slipped right through.

 

“What the hell!?” Ildon exclaimed in shock, as Rouge watched and said, “A ghost door.” Blue, however, wasn't nearly as surprised. He remembered the phrase clearly before the light completely erased it. They had opened the passage of time, and the lines of light crossed into a web of some sort. The door had appeared… but what did they need to find now?

 

“We have one more part of the spell to complete,” Blue said, turning to Fuse, “We need to find the last part. Any ideas what that could be?” Fuse, unfortunately, did not know this part. He had never gone this far before, and quite frankly, the fact that he did was beginning to terrify him. He knew he was severely changing the fate of all of Oblivion.

 

“Can't possibly be anything physical, for one thing,” the old cop growled irritably, “Nothing exists yet. So it's got to be something we want on the inside. Knowledge?”

 

“Knowledge of what?” Zozma asked pointedly, tapping his chin. As far as he was concerned, the door should've just opened. Then again, this branch of magic wasn't as simple as his own. Mystics, when they wanted something, made spells specifically to get that result as soon as inhumanly possible. And damn it, when they did it, they got it done. There was none of this riddling bullshit to contend with.

 

“Opening the damn door's a good start,” Ildon pointed out unhelpfully. He might as well have said nothing at all; Blue was already trying to figure out how to achieve that. But he just didn't get it. They had crossed the lines of light! What were they seeking? Was it the will to go on? Blue thought they all had enough of that for three worlds. Then, the Time Lord came up with something. Something Blue wouldn't have considered.

 

“Perhaps the light must go through the door, as well,” the old Mystic suggested, and turned to Orlouge, “Remember the realm of light in Luminous?” The former Charm Lord nodded, and judging by his expression, it wasn't the fondest memory he had.

 

“How on earth can I possibly forget? It blinded me for six hundred years,” Orlouge replied grumpily, and then calmed himself as he said, “But how do we manipulate such a light?” The Time Lord grinned. Mirrors were the only way to do it. Ironically, they weren't invented yet. But he had something that was just as good - his own silver watch! He took it out and placed it directly onto one ray. The ray of light was thrown back on itself, becoming twice as vivid. The Time Lord's grin grew. He turned the watch slightly, and the light hit the door in the center. Yet… it did not open.

 

Blue understood now. The light didn't open the door, but it caused the door to solidify and reveal a tiny keyhole underneath the knob. They were looking for a key. And when the Time Lord shifted the light, pointing it away from the door, the keyhole vanished and the door became transparent again. Blue understood it perfectly. The light was the key. It had to cross the lock to open the door.

 

Without warning, Blue grabbed the Time Lord's watch, earning a shriek of surprise from the flustered Mystic. But Blue didn't pay it any heed. He immediately reflected the light back onto the door, and when it lit up again, he maneuvered the light just so slightly; even the subtlest shake of the wrist could knock the light clear off the door. He hit the keyhole, and it sparkled for a second. Then, everything around them dimmed for a moment as the edges of the keyhole began to glow in every color recognized. The light shot out again, this time colliding with the large star far above them, and that star exploded in a rain of flaming sparks. Blue heard Rouge scream, and then he heard the door open, revealing even more light within. It was blinding. And it beckoned them to go through.

 

They came so far already. They weren't about to let terror and light stop them. Blue grabbed his brother's arm, and they leapt through the doorway. He felt several others - his friends! - follow him, and they fell for several minutes before landing on another hard surface. Like before, there was neither hot nor cold. But when he opened his eyes, he knew now where they were. It was almost a relief, and awfully convenient that the Time Lord had mentioned the place at all.

 

The Hall of Light was just as Blue had left it, when he took the trial in Luminous three years ago. But this time, there was no puzzle to solve. The light simply shot straight through, blowing a hole clear through the walls. As soon as the dizziness wore off, Blue ran toward the line of light, ducking through the hole and coming out the other side. Rouge watched in a dazed trance. Then, he realized his brother wasn't with him.

 

“Blue, where the hell are you going!?” he called, as Zozma and Ildon crashed onto the floor, Fuse landing smack on top of them. Blue turned back and poked his head through the wall for just a minute. He was smiling.

 

“I'm following the light,” he replied gently, “That's the only way out of here.” And with that, he was gone again.

 

Rouge followed him quickly, not wanting either himself or Blue to get lost. Not that there were many places to go in the dungeon, but with what they just did, they couldn't be sure what awaited them around the next corner or within the next room. Blue had stopped in the final room after following that destructive ray for three minutes; the ray merely blasted through the walls, creating an easy route to follow for everyone behind it. At the end, as he expected the last time, was another set of double doors, also closed. Like the doors in space, these ones were transparent as well. The only difference was, the light that seared through did not open them. Nor did it reveal any keyhole.

 

Blue looked around for any clue to the next key as Rouge skidded to a stop behind him. This room, unlike the last one, was dark even with the line of light going through it. And, unlike last time, there were no mirrors anymore. Blue remembered that when he finally solved the puzzle, the crossing lights had literally shattered all of the mirrors in the dungeon. That meant that using light wasn't the answer now. But… damn it, what was!? This was the dungeon of light! How could light not be the answer!?

 

Looking to his brother, Blue asked, “What do you make of it?” Rouge, unfortunately, was just as bewildered.

 

“Maybe we need to extinguish the light,” Zozma suggested, and both brothers turned to him questioningly, “Think about it. Where does the light lead us? Into a dark room. Why?” That was a good question, but the answer was so obvious to Blue, that it made no sense.

 

“The room's dark because I shattered the mirrors when I came through here,” Blue reminded him. That's when Zozma's grin returned. It was the very one that said he knew this, and he knew there was an inconsistency with the story, too. It was one Blue had never considered before.

 

“And why would that happen to you when so many others had passed the trial before?” the red-headed Mystic asked him, and Blue found that he couldn't possibly answer that. He couldn't say why, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know why. He didn't often like believing in fate, but that small detail was obviously part of it. And apparently a larger part than he'd have assumed.

 

“…so how do we get rid of the light?” Blue asked, knowing any answer he'd give would sound more like an excuse. Zozma's grin turned knowing; he didn't blame Blue for not bothering. He sighed dramatically, and looked down at the line. It blazed in the darkness, and truth to tell, it really hurt to look at. Destroying it, he decided, would be doing everyone else who came here a favor.

 

The problem was, there wasn't much to work with. Blue really did do some massive damage when he came here. And even though the dungeon should've probably been restored to what it had been originally, for some reason, it retained every ounce of destruction Blue had caused. Anything that could've been a mirror, a glass shield, a glass cube, or some sort of deterrent had been smashed apart. Even the smooth surfaces of the walls and floor had been chipped away, revealing only pools of darkness in their wake. In all honesty, it looked more like a raving lunatic had come here, swinging a massive battle-hammer. It didn't really look like Blue's handiwork at all. Except that, interestingly enough, there weren't piles of glass shards on the floor, waiting for them to step in. That was Blue's style, even if massive destruction wasn't.

 

“Well, how did you destroy the light last time?” Zozma asked, and at Blue's incredulous stare, he pointedly added, “In particular, what happened to make you smash everything in sight?” Blue's eye twitched. That wasn't even his fault. The light had become so blindingly powerful that everything had been blown apart. Including him! He had to be sent to Dr. Nusakan's assistants in Yorkland for three weeks because of that. Besides, he hadn't actually seen the light blow everything up. He had heard only because of the angry letter he got from Rouge, cursing him for taking the gift of light magic and `destroying half of Luminous in the process.' For that matter… Blue looked at Rouge.

 

“I'm not sure, since I would've been unconscious,” Blue replied sardonically, and he saw Rouge's face drain of color, “How did it happen, Rouge?” Well, shit, that wasn't a question Rouge ever expected to come up. Mainly because he was sure that, when he did come to try the trial for himself, he promptly caved the place in - after he'd found Blue beat him to it, of course!

 

“I… might have gone ballistic and used Vermillion Sand on the place,” Rouge admitted, and saw Blue visibly twitch. Double shit. Rouge backed away when Blue advanced and cried, “But I was mad! I wanted light magic!” Like that excuse was ever going to work on Blue.

 

“So you just decided to throw a temper tantrum and destroy a historical landmark, possibly killing thousands of people, and destroying one branch of magic forever?” Blue asked him, halting his movement to emphasize how stupid that answer was, and how stupid the next one would likely be. Rouge stopped for a minute. Now that he thought about it, perhaps he overreacted a tiny bit.

 

“…yes,” he replied, and Blue lost it. Rouge was always the baby in the family, but that didn't excuse him for being an idiot, too. Blue grabbed his brother by the collar, and before anyone could stop him, he hurled his twin right into the two doors.

 

“YOU'RE GROUNDED!” Blue yelled, not knowing why he'd say that or what he was actually trying to do. Right then, he just wanted to hit Rouge for both causing this, and making him look like a moron to Zozma.

 

But Rouge didn't crash into the doors. Instead, he flew right through them, screaming all the while. And as soon as he passed, his screams were cut off. Blue blinked for several moments, and then looked back at the others. All of them were similarly bamboozled. Such a high-velocity impact should've murdered Rouge, splattering his brains all across the chamber. But he didn't even appear to hit the door in any way. Blue blinked again, and this time ran to the doors. It never occurred to him that transparency could work both ways. The doors weren't real. His hand went right through it, just as Rouge's body had. He was such an idiot! They had done exactly as the phrase said! The light led them right to the exit, and like an ass, he just tossed Rouge through it. And possibly into the jaws of any monster on the other side.

 

“Shit!” he hissed angrily, and then turned to Fuse, “I found the exit.” Fuse just stared with amusement scribbled all over his face. That part, he knew, was obvious simply because Rouge wasn't there, and he wasn't dead.

 

“Oh, did you now? Good for you,” Fuse replied mockingly, and gathered everyone else, “All right, people. We got our answers, so now it's time to go and make sure Rouge ain't dead yet. Anyone too chicken to leap out had better go running now.” That was just cruel, considering there was nowhere to even run to. Unsurprisingly, no one said boo to jumping through the doors. Blue swallowed hard, turning to them. As punishment for his idiocy, Fuse was definitely going to make him leap through first. Damn father figures…

 

He just had to hope whatever he'd thrown Rouge into didn't kill the young mage. Then, he shrugged. He'd find out in about three seconds. That was probably enough time to count his blessings. And however many curses he knew toward Ciato.

 

-----------------------------(End Chapter)

 

Fuse's plan worked! With the terminal now activated, our heroes ventured through the dungeon of light. Or more, whatever Blue and Rouge left of it. After the truth about the dungeon's destruction, Blue took it upon himself to send Rouge prematurely to another world, possibly even another time zone. But was it for better, or for far worse? Did Rouge really destroy the gift of light magic? Will Fuse be a good father figure? And where did Rouge end up? Find out next chapter, so click that Review button!