Author's Note: I meant to make this more of a one-shot, I probably won't really extrapolate further with this idea, but I may reference something like it from time to time. I've seen many people who have their take on death with this game, and I figured a fresh approach was warranted. I admit, watching Bleach has influenced me quite a bit, but what I borrow from there will be slight, and will not detract from the experience of a Chrono Trigger story.
That, and this idea's been stuck in my head, so it's high time I got it out of there.
Oh yes, and I don't own either of the intellectual properties referenced in this literary work.
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Death God A Chrono Trigger side story--
His last memories could be summed up with brief pain, and bright light. Surely his noble sacrifice would at least buy time for his friends to escape. He thought about those that he knew would hurt most from this, and added his own mental anguish on not being able to spend more time with old, and new, relationships.
The swordsman stood up, noticing his surroundings were unchanged, though everything was hazier than he remembered it in life. He also noticed that time had stopped around him, bringing fear that he may be stuck in this forsaken area for an eternity.
Suddenly, a figure seemed to materialize out of the haziness, a young man with straight black hair, robed in unfamiliar garb to the swordsman. He appeared armed as well, carrying a similar weapon to the red haired one.
"Interesting, hero, you're the first person in a long time that actually got up before I could do my duty…"
The swordsman sneered, "Hero? Don't address me with such a lofty title."
The robed man chuckled, "And you speak! Amazing, to have such a spiritual connection… anyhow, your noble sacrifice should be reason enough for how I-"
"Don't presume that you can dissuade me from my pain. Especially when that still lives."
The swordsman pointed to the apocalyptic creature that had taken his life.
"If you will call me anything, my name is Crono. I suppose it is all that I am… what about you?"
The robed man pointed to himself, "My name is of no import, I suppose since you are not completely knowledgeable about the goings on of the spiritual world, you can refer to me as Death."
"The personification of death? You presume to tell me that you are the ferry to the afterlife? You barely look older than I am, and even still, death is personified as a skeletal abomination wielding a scythe… surprisingly, the Dark Lord Magus was first thought of to be the living death until he was eventually defeated-"
"By a group of heroes, right? Speaking of Magus…"
Time suddenly started moving at a slow pace and Crono watched as the Prophet unmasked himself. His eyes narrowed as the blue haired man challenged Lavos.
"A group of lesser heroes who did not even have the chance to defeat an even bigger problem. If they all knew what was best, they would run for their lives."
The robed man shook his head, "That doesn't sound like you at all, Crono."
"Death can change a person's resolve, if you were death, you would know that. I find you to be a far cry from the scythe wielder that haunts the living."
The man chuckled again, drawing his weapon.
"Truly? Very well, how about this…"
He seemed to mutter something under his breath as the katana changed to a long pole. As he changed his stance, the blade that was once the sword move and widened to form a longer, sharper blade at the top.
Crono blinked, "How-"
"This weapon is part of my soul. Contrarily, a true warrior will fashion his soul to his weapon, a warrior of the afterlife fashions his weapon from his soul. In essence, while in life, you pour your soul into using a material weapon, in the afterlife, you create your own from your soul."
He motioned to his scythe, twirling it expertly, "This is not even the true form of my weapon, I just wanted to prove a point on how your stories of Death are surprisingly accurate… as for being a skeleton, well, the living can sure come up with interesting things when they are bored…"
Crono raised an eyebrow before the movement of the still living caught his focus, "Wait… Schala's sending them away… I… I can't leave them alone!"
Death grimaced at the realization before explaining, "Crono! I need to send your soul before it's too late, and you start to become obsessive…"
"Can I at least follow them for as long as possible?"
The reaper put a hand to his chin before nodding, "I will allow that, but I must come with you… besides, I can take you to where they are right now."
As he said this, the injured team vanished in the light of teleportation. Death concentrated for a moment, and he and Crono also vanished.
The princess turned to where the spiritual form was, before slowly falling to her knees…
"Crono…"
As she fell, one thought still remained, "You may have won, Lavos, but this world still has its dreams. You can devour everything, but those dreams will still remain."
The unearthly screech of the beast of Armageddon bellowed before it made its next move.
--
The two spirits followed the group, as they fought on without the one who lead them thus far. Crono was happy to see that they could still be effective in the face of adversity, cheering them on as they defeated Dalton and retrieved the Epoch.
At the North Cape, he saw Magus admit to something he never thought possible, a way to bring himself back from the dead, and watched in amazement as Glenn called off his quest for vengeance in order to combat a much bigger threat.
Before his clone was retrieved, he saw a chance meeting between Marle and Magus in the evening, a restless night as it were, that strengthened the group for the task at hand. This meeting had no amorous intentions, indeed, it showed a lost connection between the two that Crono had not thought possible, the state Schala had been left in made such an event surprising, considering she had managed to somehow survive. Perhaps there was more to that story somewhere in the mists of time…
"Hers is a story left for the future to decide, Crono. Mark my words, like their coming quest, the Chrono Trigger certainly plays a large part."
He smiled, "The old man's device is that useful? To think that he had it all along… well, he certainly is the Guru of Time."
Death said no more, merely following Crono to their final destination, the top of the aptly named "Death Peak".
"This is our last stop, Crono. After this, your destiny awaits."
The swordsman nodded solemnly, hoping that the group would win out in the end, and the Guru's device would work as intended. He allowed a tear to fall as he hear Marle's desperate plea and pledged himself to showing how he truly cared if he ever returned to the world of the living.
But the device shattered. Crono saw the energies coalescing to do whatever was needed, and as he heard Marle's anguished cries of hope turn to despair, a fury overtook him.
"No! Work, damn you! I did not follow them all this way to have my hopes dashed! Curse you, Lavos!"
He leapt into the air, the energies of his lightning magic merging with his latent spiritual power as he suddenly released them into the dissipating maelstrom of the Chrono Trigger.
--
And for a brief instant, time eclipsed.
--
As Crono floated, he watched the exchange of his clone happen and slowly felt a pull unlike any he felt before. He wondered if Marle felt something similar when she had returned from wherever she went when she was erased from time.
He turned to death as he felt his existence begin to waver.
"I suppose I will see you again, Death."
The man smirked, "You may, hero, and yet, you may not. Still, it was a pleasure to escort you in this joyous time. Though whether I am there or not…"
The spirit merged once again with it's host, and though he would remember none of what occurred, something inside of him still felt closure as Marle sobbed against his body.
"Death will come for you, eventually, as it comes for all things."
--
The group had long departed, but the spirit of Death continued to remain, reforming his scythe back to a katana. As this happened, he moved a free hand to his face, morphing it back to it's original form.
Unruly red hair stood defiant against the corporeal wind of Death's Peak, and emerald eyes twinkled at a spiritual memory that had been forgotten.
Once he was Crono, a hero to his planet, but for now he was merely one of many personifications of Death. In his afterlife, he served as one of the ferries for the departed, and though he knew that it would have been impossible to ferry his own soul from the past, command had still requested that he be there in case events did not fall into place, as they should have.
While the cycle of Death and Life was endless and unchanging, Time was a different monster entirely, what may have happened in one pass may not happen in a second occurrence, and the future can be made to influence it's own past in the rarest of occasions.
He had been witness to this kind of phenomenon during his life, and one duty he gladly upheld was to make sure things still worked as planned, as it were, there were evil spirits that could easily influence the world of the living if they wanted to.
As he mused on this, he opened a portal with his blade, and a set of doors opened wide, allowing him passage. Through those doors, he would return to his afterlife, where others like him existed… where he would see his friends and loved ones again.
Looking back on his life, he did not envy it one bit, for the next was just as good to him as the first.
--
Author's Note: Hope everyone enjoyed it! If you enjoyed this and have a penchant for animated series of Japan, feel free to delve a bit into Bleach. Certainly if it weren't for a few friends of mine, I would not have even considered watching the series. However, it certainly shows an interesting idea of the nature of death.
- Novalon