Canon Couple

Lucca thought she knew what it was like to know you were going to die. She was wrong; but life had stopped making total sense seven years ago. So being tied to a metal chair in a R&D/Temporal Maintenance facility somewhere just short of 1,500 years in the future with a silk clad cat putting his sword against her throat, with blood starting to seep out, it shouldn't have been quite as terrifying.

"Listen, uh, Lynx, I don't know what you're talking about. I swear. I dismantled the Epoch years ago," a half truth at best, "and I've been running my orphanage for the last six. I don't know anything, and if you've hurt any of my kids I'll kick your ass so hard you'll kiss the moon! Then I'll skin you alive for a nice fur coat and bury you in your own litter box!"

Lynx took his sword away, some blood coming off of it and some coming out of the light wound on Lucca's throat. "Tsk, tsk tsk," he intoned finger, wavering back and forth "I assure you Ms. Ashtear, all of your 'little brothers' and 'sisters' will be well taken care of, in the People's Orphanarium."

"You bastard! They'll pump them full of their Marksist crap and send them off to die."

"Isn't that the Guardian way? Only before it was for the 'benevolent' Little Father, the King, and The Great Father and his most holy Church. Now the youth die for the Revolution and the dictates of the Porrian Soviet. And relax; the Civil War will be over before your little brothers can become cannon fodder. And like Byzantium, Guardia will remain untouched because the Genoans won't let the other powers gobble her up, lest they become more powerful than Genoa herself."

"Besides dear Lucca, everyone in Guardia remembers you were one of Crono's Gang, who foiled the Yarkan Coup. You were the heroes of the Millennial Fair for that. Your face, on the front cover of every paper in the Kingdom; in Truth, Von Trot called for your head."

"'Truth' is a shitty little periodical full of lies. It's unfit to serve as my toilet paper!"

"All very correct, but the fact remains Linen will eventually sign your death order with the same fanatically passionless distain with which he ordered your King killed, and all other 'counterrevolutionaries' who have ever gotten in his way. You can't be allowed to live. You were best friends with the Prince Consort AND his wife, if only for one fateful summer. You can't fight the Red Army; with Lavos, my dear, you could concentrate firepower, but it wouldn't take more than 500 troops to put you down with good sharpshooters. While you kill the cannon fodder, the snipers out of range take chunks out of your head. Either way, your kids end up in the hands of the Reds. You cannot win against the flow of history."

"Now I have taken the trouble to bring you hear, to burn your orphanage, to explain the direness of your situation, to make a point. What happened is inevitable. I am not your enemy, and FATE is not your enemy. Your enemy is Vladimir Ilyason Linen and the Porrian Soviet. You can defeat neither. You will have to leave Guardia and your orphans in one of two ways: on a boat over the ocean to Usonia or a boat over the Styx to the gates of Hades, your choice. Your usefulness to history came to an end LONG ago, but I can help you if you help me."

He grabbed her hand. His paw had a cat's cushioning on them. "Lucca, I understand the significance of that scarf you're wearing. It's a friendship scarf you bought with Crono over a decade ago. If you help me set FATE free, I can snatch your friends from any given moment where they were being hunted down like animals…and take them here. Lucca, I can give your friends a new lease on life, the Civil War cannot be won, but you can go anywhere you choose." He came close to her and softly whispered in her ear. "I can give you Crono and Marle back…Or maybe just Crono."

"Or maybe just Marle," Lucca replied bitterly. "Surely you've heard the rumors. I hate Marle because she stole my little Dutch Boy."

"But I don't believe that."

"Some days I believe it myself. And worse, I think my parents started to believe it. So kill me already! What else am I gonna do? Go spinster and shrivel up till I'm 80 years old and die an Old Maid. Hell, why not just bring me my Wondershot so I can blow my own brains out. At least that's dignified!"

Lynx thought he was getting somewhere, "Tell me…"

"I'll tell you! I'm tired of being looked at with pity. I'm 24 goddamn years old. At worst I've got 15 good child bearing years left in me. Lynx, I don't know if there was anything between me and Crono. Happy now? Sigh, I never got the chance to see if there was anything between me and him. I was 17 years old, I wasn't ready for a relationship, I'm not ready for a relationship NOW. But hey, thanks for dragging it out." She breathed heavily, "I'm not giving you anything. What happened here? Where are all the personnel? Did you kill them too! You're not giving me anything no matter what I do. So get on with it."

"Oh now Lucca, don't be foolish. I've drained your magic, taken your weapons and tied you up." He grabbed her by under the face hard, his claws digging into her flesh painfully, "We have nothing but time here. I bleed you out for days should I desire. You can either help me willingly and profit or you can resist, and I can find entertainment."

There was a shwing of sword being unsheathed followed by the command of, "Let her go." Lynx looked over but before he could say anything Lucca shouted

"Crono!" And it was, disheveled and dirty and looking like hell. Lucca wasn't sure if it was because of the heavy stubble or the dark circles under his eyes but he looked 20 years older than the last time they'd seen one another.

"And here's the Prince Consort. I could have sworn you dead."

A voice, very artificial, with a very Genoan accent piped in from the overhead speakers "You and FATE have crossed the line. I will not allow you to bring my friends into this matter."

"Prometheus, you should have thought of that before you gave Lucca here the override."

"I've had a lot time to regret many things since the Crash, Wazuki," that name seemed to annoy the cat "but not this one. I will not let you do this. Let them go, your struggle is with me."

"Let her go kitty, NOW!" Crono screamed, his Rainbow in attack position.

"Don't you DARE threaten me. Your swordsmanship is no match for mine!" and so Lynx leaped forward to teach Crono a lesson. As he readied his backpaw and closed the distance, Crono's left hand left his katana, under his right coat pocket and withdrew a standard issue .45 caliber officer pistol and shot Lynx not more than ten feet away. Lynx was sort of stunned he hadn't seen that coming, while Crono emptied the other five shots into Lynx, who collapsed into a heap. A pop from an overhead ceiling was heard and an Acid and Base fell right beside the stunned feline.

"What'dya know, these new fangled things are good for something after all." Crono remarked about the gun.

"I told you that 10 years ago." Lucca rolled her eyes at him over her shoulder.

Prometheus interjected. "I would advise you two to leave immediately, as FATE is now aware of our activities. Lynx will regain consciousness momentarily."

Realizing this, Crono quickly holstered the gun, sheathed the sword and took out a knife and cut Lucca free. "Here, he said, handing her the pistol and a satchel full of ammo. "Crono, I'm so glad you came for me!" Lucca cried as she hugged him in relief.

"We gotta get going, and thank Robo" So Lucca nodded without a word.

"I'll lead you out. Simply follow the open doors." And then the alarm system sounded. "I will try and keep the security bots at bay, but you must hurry." A door open and they ran through it right as the Acid and Base combined right on top of Lynx. The ensuing explosion nearly knocked him off their feet, but they scrambled on, especially as Lynx's wake-up roar told them he was not in a good mood. The white, sterile walls took on a dark pulsating red as security bots poured in from all directions. They ran blindly from one open door to the next in a seemingly endless maze, fighting Bits, Buggers, and Proto models it seemed they'd fought a lifetime ago. Crono cut down any that stood in the way, and Lucca covered the rear, most of the time trying to down Lynx who slashed through the bits in a wild attempt to get at them. Unfortunately, Lucca was way out of practice.

Every time they got to a new room, the old door would close and a new one would open, buying them precious seconds. Crono took tonics, Lucca reloaded, and then away they went. Finally they came to the Master Control Center; at least, that's where Lucca had remembered. And there was only one way out.

"My friends," Robo proclaimed, "this is how we are to escape! Wait…" The door lifted into the ceiling again and Lynx walked confidently into the trap. With an audible swoosh, the door slammed down on him. Had he been in any way ordinary, it would have sliced him in half just below the lungs. Instead, he was pinned to the ground, too angry to do anything but snarl at Crono. "Crono, quickly, cut off his head." Crono unsheathed, but could not strike the feline down.

"I can't do it. He's unarmed."

"Illogical, stupid, but not surprising. 7000 years and you haven't changed at bit. Now, wait and don't attack." The entire room went white for a moment and then a familiar R-Series frame came out of a bot storage unit, spinning across the floor, airing out and powering up its systems.

"Robo! There you are" Crono and Lucca cried out.

She hugged the big boiler of his torso as hard as she could, "It seems our fears were well founded with FATE, huh? See Crono, we needed a defense against traitorous computers, and trust me; the restored future has its share of wars with them. Robo was efficient intelligent and loyal first to humanity. Right?"

"On the contrary Lucca, FATE is running exactly as designed." This caught Lucca off guard. "I will explain later."

Robo went to the control center and began interfacing with it. "We have to leave, now. Listen carefully, I'm locking the system down; it will blind and cripple F.A.T.E. but Lynx will never stop looking for me. I've had a long time to develop this protocol; it will take FATE approximately 10043.76 years to crack. I've got to get you two out of Guardia, Lynx will not pursue you beyond its borders; there is negligible chance of a paradox once you leave the old Kingdom's borders. Besides, no one will want to live in Guardia for the next 250 years. This is the new 'Time of Troubles.' The Civil War is lost, and it needs to be. Listen carefully in case something happens. There are two evil men, one in Vien and the other is in Truce. Both with lead their nations within 30 years, both will kill millions without a thought, but destroying one man means the other will enslave world, and if you kill both, there will be a paradox which effects I dare not predict. Crono believe me, I have run the calculations, the Reds must win and I could not save Marle, there was simply no way and you know why."

"Too many people around her. Too many guards, too many servants, me."

"I cannot tell you how sorry I am for that."

"Not as sorry as I am," Crono sounded very old.

There was a "Borong!" sound from the left and a big blue portal opened. But that wasn't the only sound. Several buggers had there legs under the door, beside Lynx trying to get the thing open. "Go!" shouted Robo, and Lucca almost ripped Crono out of his boots into the portal, she herself caught in the momentum. The door opened, and Lynx leapt to his feet, only to find Robo's first waiting for him. The chain extension leant the punch didn't stop there, but threw him into the bulkhead with broken teeth and a broken nose bone. FATE would fix those in no time, but it was enough to conk him out and allow Robo to throw himself into the closing portal.

Author's note: Hello. I haven't posted anything for a while, but I wanted to get back in the game. Honestly, I don't know if this is any good or not. See my writing's pretty good when it gets long, but if I ever want to do this regularly I guess I have to shorten it up. BTW, Robo's supposed to be a little more ruthless after seeing the big picture of time for the last 7,000 years or so. I haven't actually played Chrono Cross, I just imagined Geno Dome all clean and played the Chronopolis theme for inspiration. My goal is to write a story, about five chapters, all about this long. Nothing's in stone though, so tell me what you think! Thanks for reading!