Sometime after Kallisto had stormed off to raid the wine cellar, Marle looked towards Ismene. The rest of the Mystics had reveled in the fact they had succeeded in capturing all the humans in the castle. Ismene, in contrast, looked absolutely miserable. She thought about Ismene’s remark that she was just as much a prisoner as them and how Ismene had shouted at the other Naga that she didn’t want to die. A realization finally dawned on Marle.
“…. Your parents were with Yakra, weren’t they?” Marle asked softly, breaking the awkward silence that had filled the room.
Ismene looked at Marle, utterly shocked. Before Ismene could say anything, Marle said, “I know it won’t bring them back, but I’m sorry. I was just trying to save my dad… Yakra and his followers had invaded the castle and hurt my friends and family. The Mystics never tried to surrender."
“Don’t try to apologize or lie that they left you no choice,” Ismene snapped, tears building in her eyes. “My parents were just herbalists!! Healers! You humans are all alike. You kill anything that’s not like you.”
Marle sighed. She recalled the day they fought the Mystics that had captured her father and the Chancellor. Maybe they could have shown them mercy, but Marle remembered being so scared and angry, she hadn’t stopped to consider anything other than to get rid of the intruders by any means. She and the others had always wondered if revenge would come. She wondered if this truly was the fall of her kingdom and the world. Remembering Lavos, she looked at Ismene.
“Ismene… Your leaders, they cannot summon Lavos,” Marle pleaded firmly, “It is a parasite from beyond our world. It will destroy everything on the surface of this planet. It doesn’t care about Mystics anymore than it cares about humans.”
Ismene scoffed and asked, “How would you know?”
“The queen… she and-“ Melchior began to speak in Marle’s defense but stopped mid-sentence with an agonized gasp.
“Please help him like you did for Janus,” Lucca pleaded as Melchior continued to gasp in pain, unable to finish his sentence.
“Even if I wanted to, I can’t,” Ismene protested. “I have no idea what toxins or poison that psycho-bird used. I might make things worse for him.”
"Yeah right, you just don't want to help," Crono muttered.
Ismene hissed at Crono and shouted, "Shut up! You think I want to be here, listening to your old friend dying or deal with your attitude?!"
She started to feel choked up, tears streaming down her eyes. "Besides, why should I help you?! You murdered my parents!!"
A silence fell in the room, save for Melchior’s struggled breathing and gasps of pain. Ismene pulled at her apron as she explained that it was pure luck she had the right medicine for Janus with her and that all she had left in her bag was a handful of dried herbs meant to relax its user and she had a bag full of several bottles of Ether that could replenish a Mystic's magic.
After an agonizing moment, Ismene said, "….There is one thing… Maybe… I can- I can just help him sleep through it."
"How can you do that?" Lucca asked.
Ismene bit her lip and said, "I learned a sleeping spell… Russ used to have night terrors and it was the only way to get him to sleep all night for the first few months… Maybe I can just cast that spell on the old man and he can just sleep… It won't remove whatever poison Belinay used, but he won't suffer if he's asleep."
She looked at the group and continued, "I hate all of you, let's not kid ourselves. You four are the monsters who stole my parents from me and I will never forgive you, but I am not a monster despite what your history books told you."
Turning to Melchior, she asked the ailing man if he wanted her offer. Melchior nodded and told her to go ahead and use the spell.
"Wait," Janus said hoarsely. He tried to move closer to the bars and looked over at Melchior. He spoke, his voice cracked with emotion and still recovering from his earlier asthma attack, speaking in Zealian.
Melchior weakly waved his hand dismissively and replied likewise in Zealian. He smiled through his pain and said, "I knew… th-the risk."
Janus nodded meekly and mumbled something once more in Zealian. He returned to leaning against Lucca who comforted him. Crono and Marle watched as Ismene slithered over to Melchior's cell.
"I'll never understand why you lived in Alastori, old man," Ismene said softly.
Melchior chuckled weakly, "It rem-minded me… of-of my old h-home…"
Whispering the incantation, Ismene kept her gaze low. Tears started trickling down her cheeks as she silently raged at Belinay for poisoning Melchior and putting her in this position. She bitterly thought that Belinay could've just thrown him in a cell with the others as a sacrifice but no, the stupid bitch had to be petty.
Melchior quickly fell asleep, his agonized breathing eased into a slow and quiet breathes of a sleeping man. Another quiet fell upon the room. Ismene let out an emotional sigh and slumped against the wall by the door, wiping the tears from her eyes. After several agonizing silent minutes where Janus and the others silently mourned Melchior's fate, Ismene heard movement outside in the corridor.
"Hey, Ismene. Humans giving you trouble?" Kallisto appeared at the doorway.
Ismene looked up and sighed as Kallisto entered the room with a bottle of wine in each hand. “Are you ever sober, Kalli?”
Kallisto looked down at the two half-empty bottles of wine and said, “Nope.“
She took a swig of the red wine, then asked Ismene if she wanted some too.
“First of all, I don’t want your back-washed booze,” Ismene snapped. “Secondly, you think your glorious leaders are gonna be happy that you’re drunk?”
“First of all,” Kallisto replied mockingly, “I’m buzzed…. Secondly, Nocturna doesn’t care as long as I’m not blackout drunk.”
She glanced over at the cell. Crono, Marle, Lucca and Janus were still restrained in their cuffs and chained to the wall. Taking another swig of wine, she noted that the humans practically watch themselves so it doesn’t matter if she has a few drinks.
“They can’t do shit,” she announced. “Ain’t that right?”
While Lucca and Janus did not look up to acknowledge Kallisto, Crono and Marle glared at the naga as she mocked them.
“Kalli, shut up,” Ismene said, getting up and putting herself between Kallisto and the cell bars. “It’s not worth arguing with them.”
Kallisto scoffed and slithered away from the cell. She took another swig from the bottle and glanced over at the cell containing Melchior. The old man was laying still and no longer gasping in pain. She shrugged and remarked that the old man seemed to have finally kicked the bucket.
"I guess you're right, Ismene," she sighed. "These murders aren't worth my breath…. but come on, don't you want to let loose on them?"
"What's there to say?" Ismene muttered. "Nothing I could say to them will bring my parents back. Not even Oz summoning Lavos will do that."
Kallisto rolled her eyes and took another swig from the bottle in her right hand. Finishing it off, she threw the bottle at the cell's bars and let it shatter, sending glass towards the group.
"What the fuck is your problem?!" Ismene shouted. "Why don't you get the fuck out of here if you're gonna be like that?!"
"Yeesh, fine," Kallisto grumbled. "I want to go and try a rose I saw in the wine cellar anyways… I promise I'll save you a bottle for the victory party even though you're being a sourpuss."
As Kallisto slithered out of the room, Ismene sighed heavily. She went over to the cell and started picking up the pieces of glass that she could reach and began tossing them at the far end of the room away from everyone. She told herself she was just cleaning up so she didn't slither across any shards, she was keeping busy… She wasn't trying to be nicer than she already had been.
Meanwhile, Crono silently struggled against his restraints. Marle sharply told him to stop, noting that all he'd accomplish would be breaking his wrists or shoulders. In response, Crono quietly answered back that he was tired of sitting around. Magic or no magic, he was going to do something about their situation.
"Crono, I know it's ironic coming from me but we need to be patient," Lucca whispered. "We need to trust that Liz and Oren will get help and come back. Remember, the gate they probably found goes to the future. Maybe they met Robo and they're on their way back now."
"Lucca, it's been nearly two hours," Crono retorted. "Besides, how are you so sure the Gates didn't change? Remember-"
Crono stopped and glanced over at Ismene who was flicking the last shard of glass down the way to the far end of the room. She didn't seem to be paying them any mind, all the while cursing to herself about how much she hated the other Mystics and how they had dragged her and Russ into their madness.
He sighed and whispered, "Remember, Janus used his magic to come back here straight from his time. What if connecting those two gates messed up the others? I love Liz and Oren and I know they are more than capable but we have to take matters into our hands if we can."
"I can hear your dumbass plotting," Ismene said, not bothering to face the group. She continued, with her voice cracking, "Besides, that key on the wall will only open the cell doors, so you may as well make peace with dying now, okay?!"
Slumping against the wall, Ismene wiped the drying tears from her cheeks and sniffled as her breathing hitched and she fought the urge to cry more. She glanced over at the humans to see that they were looking her way.
"What are you looking at?" She muttered.
"Ismene, I know you hate us and you have every right, but can you truly want to sit here and accept that we're all doomed?" asked Marle.
"Are you seriously suggesting I help you more?!" Ismene asked incredulously. "I just told you that key only opens the cell doors."
"But surely you know who has the keys to these cuffs," Lucca remarked.
Ismene truly wasn't sure how many copies of the keys existed. She was certain Belinay or Silence had a key on them, but it would be suicide to try and get the keys off of her and she told the group as such. She let out a sharp sigh and said, "I don't want to be here anymore than you do, but I can't fight any of those assholes. Trust me, I want to, but there's no way I can take on an agent. I don't know any helpful spells or how to fight."
"What about that other Naga, the drunk one?" Crono asked. "Do you think she has a set of the keys?"
"What, Kalli? Maybe… but you've seen her, she's twice my size and I know she's three times as strong," Ismene said. "I might be able to do something if she was black-out-shitfaced… Not that I can recall her getting that far."
Ismene went silent as she considered Crono's suggestion that she go find the keys to their cuffs. She wrung her hands and thought about her situation. If she showed these humans any more mercy, it would no doubt lead to her and Russ's deaths…. but she knew in her gut that they were probably doomed either way. She knew that the humans were outnumbered and out-magicked…
"Ismene, if you can get us out of here, I will grant you amnesty," Marle suddenly declared.
The others shared a look of surprise with Ismene as Marle said this. As Crono protested his wife's words, Marle gave him a stern look and reminded him that Ismene was not the one who had pointed weapons at them or threatened their lives and, in fact, had aided Janus and tried to help Melchior.
"Amnesty won't do shit for me," Ismene retorted. "I'll just be arrested or killed when I go back to Medina."
"Then we'll grant asylum as well and you could stay here in Guardia," Marle offered. "We already have a small community of Daemon living outside Truce. They fled Alastori because of your Elder's cruelty."
Ismene scoffed but she knew Oz was cruel. She had experienced it firsthand. She raised an eyebrow and asked Marle what did she mean about Daemon living in Guardia, citing the treaty and the fact Mystics were restricted to Alastori.
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'? The Daemon that escaped told us everything. Your Elder sent those Noctis jerks to take over their town and lands," Crono declared. "Families torn apart and everyone treated like prisoners or worse."
Seeing Ismene's surprised expression, Lucca said, "You had no idea, did you?"
"Of course not!" Ismene hissed. She paused then continued, crossing her arms, "But it doesn't surprise me that Belinay and Oz've been keeping Medina in the dark about their bullshit."
"The other human nations refused to accept refugees," Crono said. "But we decided we couldn't do the same."
Ismene said nothing. She had been told by her Nana and countless others that Daemon were deceitful and untrustworthy, but no one who told her this had never met a Daemon or so they said. So, privately, Ismene had doubted that belief. She thought to herself that the humans had everything to gain by lying. Marle's offer felt too good to be true. Yet, something told her they were being sincere.
"If… and that's a big 'if'… If I help you, I want this amnesty and asylum thing for Russ too," Ismene said quietly. "He wouldn't have done any of this if those jerks hadn't threatened to hurt me."
Janus wanted to vehemently protest Ismene's counter-offer. Russ was, in his mind, solely responsible for Zarya's disappearance and Janus strongly felt that Russ needed to pay for spiriting away his child. However, before Janus could find the words to voice his anger, a chillingly cheerful voice called out from the corridor beyond the cells.
"Ah, Zora! Have you seen Russ?" Belinay's voice rang out from beyond the door. "I've been expecting him at the stone for a bit now."
Everyone froze and didn't say a word as they barely heard the stammering words of Zoradysis as she claimed she didn't know where Russ was, that maybe he was resting in one of the rooms to prepare for the ritual, but she wasn't sure which room he had gone to. Zoradysis could not hide her nervousness as she rambled to Belinay that Russ and the rest of them had been awake all night and that Russ wanted to get some sleep before the ritual so he could be of use to her.
"Well then, I will go fetch him," Belinay replied in an eerily cheerful voice. "Why don't you go down and wait with Oz..."
"M-maybe-" Zoradysis began to say.
Ismene and the others watched Belinay stride past the doorway with two other agents and Silence. They heard Belinay say something in a cold tone, Zoradysis gasp in fright and then the two agents practically drag Zoradysis downstairs.
A long moment passed then Belinay returned and peered into the room. She eyed Melchior's still form and glanced over at Ismene. Approaching Ismene, she remarked, "Seems my toxin worked quicker than I expected."
"The human was old, it's not surprising," Ismene muttered.
"Or… someone granted him mercy," Belinay said coldly. Without warning, she struck Ismene in the stomach with the baton and cuffed the surprised Naga. As Ismene laid there, gasping for air, Belinay said, "I'll let you in on a little secret…. Silence memorized and wrote down the real recipe for Ether when you made it for us last night. I have no use for you now. When the ritual occurs, you and Russ will be among the sacrifices to Lavos."
Ismene struggled to speak as she asked Belinay why she was doing this, reminding her of her promise to Russ.
"I don't need to explain myself to a lesser Mystic," Belinay replied. "Russ is useful, but he has never had a place in my new world."
Ismene watched helplessly as the agents from before returned and removed the humans from the cell and took them away down the staircase. Belinay left as another agent entered the room. The agent grabbed Ismene by her arm to force her to stand and dragged her out into the stairwell.
"You heartless bitch! All those times you were nice to Russ was just an act?!" she cried out, struggling against the agent's firm grip.
Belinay stopped ascending the stairs but didn't turn around. Her voice devoid of any emotion as she plainly replied, "Russ was merely a curiosity and I've held no true hatred towards him unlike I have for you. If he hadn't shown he had a powerful magic to unlock, you two could have been blissfully unaware of your fates…"
"Take her down so she can be sacrificed alongside the humans," Belinay ordered, resuming her ascent up the stairs. "I will fetch Russ and then we can start."
Ismene could only watch helplessly as Belinay disappeared out of sight. With a shove from the agents holding her, Ismene and the humans were forced down the steps into the depths of the prison tower.
I am so close to finishing my first ever playthrough of Chrono Trigger
I will say i 100% understand why people say this is among the best JRPG of all time. My one regret is that I did not play this earlier in life.
Will I make a Transformers AU based on this game someday? Maybe. If people tell me they’d like to see that, cuz while i adore this game i also know that turn based JRPGs are quite hated here in the West. So I would not be surprised if people told not to base one of my AUs on a JRPG
“Shit… Robo, get the others,” Crono said. “Just head for that dome once you’re all here. Hopefully we can stopped him so we can come up with some kind of plan…”
Robo nodded and activated the Epoch. Crono and Marle wasted no time and chased after Lucca and Janus.
They arrived at the Skyway just as Janus stepped on to the platform, followed by Lucca who was still trying to stop the young prince. Marle glanced back outside as Janus and Lucca vanished in the shimmering light.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” she asked as Crono started up the stairs.
“They can catch up,” Crono replied. “I told Robo to come here. We have to hurry before Janus gets himself hurt.”
They hurried onto the platform and were surprised to find themselves across the lake with Kajar in the distance.
They saw Janus running down the path and Lucca catching her breath. Crono and Marle ran up and asked Lucca how was it they had arrived on the main island from that skyway.
“I don’t know,” Lucca replied. “Janus did something to the runes on the platform…”
They found Janus catching his breath at the lakeside by the bridge. Crono approached and said, “Janus… We need to wait for the others.”
“No!!” Janus protested. He took off running across the bridge. Crono groaned and chased after Janus with Marle and Lucca following close behind.
“How can this kid keep running?!” Crono thought as he tried to keep up with Janus. His armor made it impossible to run for long. Lucca ran past him and caught up with Janus. Despite the sunny day, it looked like a shadow loomed over the young prince. She remembered the strange occurrence with the lamplight back at the End of Time when Janus had demanded to come home and the old man’s words about Janus.
“Janus, please… We want to help but we can’t if you run ahead like this,” she said, trying to catch her breath. Janus slowed down and looked at Lucca. She looked down, keeping her gaze away from his eyes. “Can I help, please?”
The shadow over Janus seemed to lessen. He looked up at the palace on the mountain then back at Lucca. He slowly nodded. “Please… Lucca. Schala… she-“
“We will save her,” Lucca said. “I promise.”
Janus nodded. By now, Crono and Marle had caught up. He looked towards them. He started to cry as he pleaded “Please. We can’t wait… Dalton is going to hurt her, I just know it.”
Crono sighed. “Okay… the others are probably on their way. They’ll see us from across the bridge.”
Reluctantly, the three of them followed Janus across the lake and towards Kajar. Crono kept glancing back, wondering where Robo and the others were. He hoped nothing had happened to them on the way to the Skyway. As much as he wanted to wait for them, Crono also knew that they couldn’t waste any time. Dalton had to be stopped as soon as possible.
It was nearing sunset as they approached the gates. Still no sign of the others which continued to concern Crono. Reaching the entrance, Janus froze. Crono, Marle and Lucca looked back. Lucca walked over to him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Janus shook his head and said nothing. They would never believe him about the Black Wind. No one ever did. He pulled at his bracers and hurried past the group. Black Wind or not, he had to tell his mom about Dalton’s betrayal and save his sister.
Entering the palace, it was clear something was amiss. The main foyer was quiet and no guards were to be seen, but Janus didn’t care. He ran up the stairs to the throne room door only to remember he didn’t have a pendant to enter. Lucca, Crono and Marle caught up to him. Marle held out her pendant and the door opened…
