Entering the room, it seemed that guards were too busy talking to each other to notice them and the closer they got, the more it looked like the winged creatures were statues.
The room was quiet, the faint sound of machinery somewhere in the distance. Crono led the way across the room, hoping they could avoid a fight for Janus’s sake.
As soon as they stepped onto the first platform in the room, the winged creatures screeched and flew to life, alerting the guards. Crono cursed to himself and moved to engage the creatures in combat.
He tried to strike at the flying creature only for it to fly up out of his reach. Lucca tried to cast a fire spell at the blue creature only for it to make a series of gestures and rain ice down on them.
Janus held his shield up to block the ice before it could hit Lucca or him. Looking to see Crono managed to dodge the ice, Janus quickly cast the barrier spell on Marle. While the barrier didn’t completely block the ice, it certainly hurt her less.
By now the guards where halfway across the room and closing in. Crono cast his larger lightning spell at them, knocking one off the platform. The red winged creature tried to cast some kind of spell that caused Crono to cry out in pain.
Marle gestured and sent a block of ice flying at the blue creature, sending it flying and crashing into the glowing below.
The guard who hadn’t been knocked of the walkway reached Janus and Lucca. The young prince held his shield up and blocked the guard’s sword but the force almost made him fall to his knees. He felt terrified as the guard tried to break through the shield.
“Just do like Crono showed you.” His thoughts cried out. “Swing the sword. You have to help them. You have to save Schala.”
Janus swung the sword in an attempt to hit the guard and missed, swinging too wide. The guard swung to hit Janus and was quickly shot point blank by Lucca, falling unceremoniously to the ground. Meanwhile the red creature flew around and dodged Crono’s attempts to attack and retaliated against his lightning and Marle’s ice with bursts of fire. Lucca turned to cast a fire spell at the creature. It shrieked in pain and vanished into ash.
Janus stood there, shaking. He found himself feeling so pathetic. Lucca and the others were brave and knew how to fight. He was just Prince Janus, the kid who didn’t try hard enough. The little prince who didn’t know what he was doing. Why did he think he could save his sister?
“Everyone okay?” asked Marle as she healed Crono and herself.
“I’m okay,” Lucca answered. She turned to Janus and said, “Thanks for blocking that ice.”
Janus looked at her surprised. Marle nodded. Crono smiled and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get better. That said, I’d rather not get into another fight too soon.”
Their praise caught Janus off guard. He found himself feeling sure that they were just taking pity on him. Yes, Schala would encourage him from time to time but she was his sister, of course she had to be nice. He barely knew these three and they didn’t know him like his people did. He saw Lucca frown and he started to cry at the thought that he was making her mad.
Lucca reached out and said, “Hey, it’s okay. We were all scared the first time we had to fight. We’ve just had more practice. You did fine, Janus.”
“I’m-I’m sorry,” Janus mumbled. Lucca said, “No need to apologize. Come on, let’s go get your sister.”
Janus nodded and followed them into the next section of the facility. True to the first guard’s warning, they encountered more guards and strange creatures. Crono, Marle and Lucca quickly figured out how to fight the strange winged creatures and other strange being. Janus did his best to shield them against the magical attacks but couldn’t bring himself to fight as Crono could. The sword resting in his hand unused each encounter.
Still, for all the mistakes he kept making and fact he could only cast one spell, Lucca and the others didn’t criticize him. Like back in the End of Time, they were encouraging and welcoming. It was baffling after years of being criticized for the smallest mistakes by everyone but Schala.
“Why aren’t you guys mad at me?” he asked as they approached another room. Crono looked at him confused, “Why would we be?”
Janus couldn’t bring himself to answer. He simply looked down at the ground. Why not be mad? Everyone else always seemed to be mad at him at worse or annoyed at best. Janus’s thoughts were interrupted by Lucca as she said, “I think this room is an elevator. I bet it will take us to the bottom of this place.”
Lucca walked over to a switch on the wall and flipped it. The floor shuddered and there was a brief sensation of falling as the elevator descended. Marle turned to Janus and asked, “What do you know about this Dalton guy? Who is he?”
Janus fidgeted with his shield-bracer, rubbing the gemstone so hard his hand hurt. The thought of Dalton made him both completely terrified and absolutely enraged. This was the man who had routinely screamed at him during training, hit him with a bokken and then lied to his mother that things had gone well. This was the man who murdered his mother who had trusted him for years. Janus found himself breathing faster and faster. Suddenly, he felt someone grab his hand. He looked up to see Lucca holding his hand. His breathing calmed.
“He… is head of the royal guard,” Janus spoke softly. “He always seemed to like working for my mom. I don’t know why he did this…”
Crono patted him on the shoulder. He looked determined as he said, “Well, we’ll stop him and rescue Schala.”
As the elevator came to a stop, Marle looked to the ruby blade Melichor had given Crono and asked, “So how is that suppose to destroy the Mammon Machine? Why not use any old sword?”
