A Day In The Life

Chrono Trigger is owned by Squaresoft; they own the characters depicted therein. I make no claims to own them, nor would I ever even try. However, I do ask that, unless you're a lawyer for Square or something, that you not distribute this without my permission.

One other note: This does NOT conform completely to events in the story. Flames for that reason will be shown to friends and laughed at. See note afterwards.

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People have never understood what it means to be an inventor. Somehow, everyone thinks that it's a boring science, just tinkering with stuff like that. They can't see what I do, what putting together a few items can really do. I've traveled through time and space, invented weapons that harnessed the power of the sun, and have seen humanity at its beginning - and end. Thanks to my creations, we might be able to beat that overgrown porcupine.

Unfortunately, it won't fix everything.

Invention is an art. A new device is created, and the world is a better place for it. In a sense, we seek the perfection of the Kingdom of Zeal, but without the suffering that life created for others. We want to make the world as perfect as possible, and wipe every tear away. All do it to know the beauty of creation; some do it for love, some do it for challenge.

I didn't know why I got into it. Maybe it was because Daddy was all I had left; maybe I wanted to know where I went wrong. I didn't know why I started learning then; I do know now.

Part of me hurt when Crono died; part of me also hurt when he came back. Why did he get to come back, when Mom... didn't? In that beautiful, horrible moment, I would have given my soul to get my mom back. I should have known better than to even think something like that. After all we've been through, I should have known what was to happen.

The woods were cozy, comforting; Robo had done his job well. It sheltered us, in a way; we could all feel it giving us the rest we so desperately needed. It was a moment to try to feel at peace. The others rested. I dreamed.

I woke up with a start; I could feel something calling for me. None of the others awoke; I knew this calling was for me alone. It took only a minute's walk through the woods, but I knew what was waiting for me.

A time gate. To that day.

It was time - time for me to do what I'd waited a lifetime for. I stepped through the portal as though time were running out.

In an instant - actually, less than an instant - I found myself in surroundings both familiar and alien. Dolls were scattered around the room instead of machine parts, while an innocent diary lay at the foot of the bed. A little girl's room - a girl who'd vanished long ago. Part of me wanted to breathe in the memories of innocence here, but I knew I had no time. I stepped two-at-a-time to the bottom... to where my hopes lay.

Mom was already stuck; my stomach lurched as the conveyor started. Shielded from my old life by the machine, my fingers touched the keyboard. Four little touches, and all would be well.

I pushed the first, "L"; my mother started to scream in earnest.

The second, "A", came with modest effort; both mother and child were screaming now.

The "R" registered immediately; Mom was moving forward. I only had seconds; I pushed the "A".

Nothing happened. Panic rose in my throat; it couldn't happen, not like this! I stabbed my finger on the button repeatedly, offering prayers to whatever gods I could think of, just let my mom live, she doesn't... we don't...

I stopped pressing when I heard the final scream.

Marle said, the night before and ten years from now, that some force was likely behind all of this traveling we've been doing. If it weren't for the apocalypse we saw in the year 2300, I'd tell them what they could do with themselves. Dammit, they offered me a chance to save her - again - and... and... why? For what?

Downstairs, a little girl is sobbing over her mother's remains; I can't help but cry with her. I failed. I failed at the one thing I'd invented for, the one thing I'd wished for with every creation formed of my hands. I wanted my mother back; in every creation I made was the hope that someday, somehow... death - HER death - could be overcome.

I wanted my mother back, and the bastards couldn't even give me that.

When Mommy died, I never thought I'd see a day when I'd hurt worse than today.

Now, as I cry in a room that belonged to a little girl, I realize with sickening horror that I was right.

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2009 notes:

By the time I released this, I honestly wondered if I'd been snakebit.

Picture, if you will, you're playing Chrono Trigger, and you get to a certain scene. You know the code, you punch in the code... and it doesn't work! You try again - and again, it doesn't work! In that bit, I knew what it felt like to be Lucca - to try to save her mom from the machine, but being unable to, and to watch as this tragedy happens - again. When the final scream happened... to say I was shook up was an understatement. So shook up, in fact, that I didn't realize that Lucca's mom was actually alive - just crippled.

The shock fueled the story here.

Anyway, after being told about Lucca's mom by pre-readers, I thought it would have a lot of emotional impact anyway, so I released it. And got flamed for it. As usual, by this point.

People wonder why the FFML's a dead shell of what it used to be. My thought? It died of intolerance.

Original version: September 12, 2000

Released to fanfiction dot net: February 26, 2009