Dreamwatch
A Chrono Cross Dramatization
by Renmazuo
What was the start of all this? But, for a certainty, back then,
When did the cogs of fate begin to turn?
Perhaps it is impossible to grasp that answer now
From deep within the flow of time...
We loved so many, yet hated so much
We hurt others and were hurt ourselves...
Yet even then we ran like the wind
Whilst our laughter echoed,
Under cerulean skies...
Prologue : Encroaching Shadow
Ex Nihilo, Beyond Time and Fate
"Memory destroys illusion. Yet, even now, I hide in dreams."
Here there was nothing, and then there was something. In the black, formless void drifted only the faint echoes of lost weeping, and the crackles and roars of nature's dying breath. Amidst the ghostly melody, sparks of light flared and faded as though ripped away, and within the pandemonium, a single platform of unearthly stone hovered in the turbulent air. A single shadow was cast upon the pristine, smooth white surface of the rock, its owner seated and huddled upon the platform. In other times, he would have looked a young man, perhaps no older than twenty-five, his attire a dark cloak limned in maroon and simple black garments beneath. His knees were hugged against his chest, his face hidden by unrestrained ebon hair that spilled down to his waist, and to the unseeing walls around him, the most notable feature about the man would have been the gold and obsidian ring, imbued with a bright amethyst jewel, placed on his finger. He was the epitome of the handsome highrolling hero, the kind of image that sprung to mind in folklore and fable when the adventurer appeared to save the day.
He sat there, oblivious to the chaos around him, and waited.
For insanity. For love. For death. It doesn't matter. Give me something...
"You keep even your tormented waiting, Lavos." His voice was light but tortured, and the words themselves were drowned out by the screams of the dying that streaked through the chaotic walls among the void. He did not stir for a moment, and then began to rock back and forth. How long had he been waiting here? Seconds, hours, days, months, millenia? It bothered him. No, it angered him. He hated waiting. Waiting made him remember and regret- two actions that he despised with all the ire in his heart. And only with great difficulty was he able to hide from that memory and sorrow.
So, to prevent remembrance, he talked with himself. No; less to himself than to the other occupant of this dark and foreboding place, adrift somewhere in the sea of deathly cries and pallid light.
"I never thought I'd be this morose at the end of the world...at the end of time," he murmured, not for the first time, and shook his head. "I'm disappointed in myself. Simply a dead, empty world of shadow...that's all this is, isn't it?"
Another scream died on the wind, one of a tortured woman. He only chuckled, genuinely amused. "Is that your answer, Lavos? Meaningless screams? I would have suspected as much."
He leaned back until he lay on the stone floor, letting his cloak form a thin mattress beneath him, and stared up at the turbulent sky- no, the turbulent black vortex swirling above everything, sucking in the strands of rainbow light that formed here and there. It gave no warmth, no chill, only darkness, and seemed to drown out all sound as well. The man could not even hear his own breathing over the vortex's fierce pull on existence. It was a cruel trick, that- the concept of his last breath was pleasant to him, and that wormhole sought to deprive him of it, his sole comfort.
He looked up at it, uncaring. Try as it might, it was never going to suck in anything other than the strands of light. His presence, as well as that of "It" here, guaranteed that. An odd balance, but efficient- for the countless times that the vortex had tried to venture closer to him, his body had tingled and the vortex remained in its current position. A curious balance, it was. As he glanced to the horrifying sight, he couldn't help but ponder it. Had it just been so long ago that the great 'calamity from the skies' had brought this hive of horror down upon the once-peaceful strands of time? When, oh, when, was the start of all this? When did 'fate' allow such a radiant world to suffer such a cruel death? I just want to know when...not even why...
Impossible to grasp such an answer now.
Suddenly, he was very angry. Rising to his feet, he craned his head up to glare in defiance to the vortex above him. "Damnation, just get it over with!" he said bitterly, narrowing his eyes at the only entrance to this dead void. "I know you'll be coming soon. I know I stand no chance. I know I'm as good as dead, so in the name of all the hells there ever were, come and fight, Lavos!"
His answer, as was too often the case, came from elsewhere.
"It only pleases him."
"It only pleases me."
He bowed his head and exhaled through his nose, watching the rippling strands of dark-colored, watery walls all around the giant void. The voices were different- one of an apparently young woman, the other of...something- and spoke in unison. All the same, he only replied to one. "You're still here, eh? Haha...thought you'd gone to sleep, what with those snores that were streaming by earlier."
"Sleep isn't possible in this place."
"Neither she nor I will ever sleep as long as I live."
"That's all right." He grinned. "Any dream with me in there would not be pleasant."
There came a soft chuckle and a low growl at the same time. He turned around completely to face no particular part of the void, raising his arms up in a half-shrug. "Well? Is your father planning on joining us any time soon? When I- when we- die, it all ends. Existence is over. I'm looking forward to seeing what oblivion feels like, don't you?"
There was a sigh and a chuckle, but their origins were reversed this time. "So pessimistic. That is your way."
"Bleak, pitiful...well, at least you acknowledge your oncoming death!"
He'd long learned to put the latter entity aside, but it was still very difficult to have a decent conversation when they were speaking different things at the same time. "Well," he asked, "there aren't that many topics for teatime, so what brings you back to me? I'd thought you were drifting somewhere out there." He gestured openly to the impressive, endless gap to his left, which was but a small bucket of the void's massive sea.
The voice hesitated, a resonating breath flowing from it. He furrowed his brow- already, he could tell something had disturbed her. Since his "exile"- or Apocalypse, rather- he had grown to know her very well. Not intimately, but enough to know how she thought and felt like the back of his hand. At first, he had found it good company, and the thought of dying here hadn't been so bad. But gradually, the fear came again, and eventually, he just stopped caring. Now...now he felt disgusted by any presence he felt- be it either entity, or himself. But he had not yet gone past perception.
"A scream. I...I heard it."
"Such an exquisite scream!"
"A scream?" He cocked an eyebrow, returning his arms to his sides. "I hear millions of them all the time. Why, then, should this bother you?"
"It...it was so horrible, I knew his suffering, he was dying of horrible pain, poison, and I could do nothing but wait until his screams receded..." The woman's voice died into a choked gasp- and surprisingly, the other entity did not say a word. "And-"
"Enough." The man sighed, crossing his arms over his sternum. "You came here to tell me about screams? 'Princess', I am in no mood. I want my last, worthless moments of life to become nothingness, not waste them with talk of screams-"
"That's...that's not what I wanted to tell you about," the 'princess' said. Again, there was little response from her company. "He's different. Not like the others that haunt me...he's from the Project. The Arbiter."
He looked to the abysmal wall of dying light , his expression stunned. "'Arbiter'? As in, arbiter of...FATE?"
"Yes. He is the Chrono Trigger. And he's dying."
There was silence between them for a moment, other than the continued screams of lives being lost through the strands of the wormhole above. The man stood with a suddenly weighted feeling of awe...and even more so, a sense of encumbering disbelief. He narrowed his eyes to slits, suddenly very doubtful. "You're mistaken," he said dryly, a twinkle in one green eye. "Surely you know this by now. There is only one Chrono Trigger."
He felt her resonate again, and in his mind's eye, he could see her shaking her head as shimmering, light blue strands of hair wrapped around her face. "No. He is a Chrono Trigger, just like..."
As her voice trailed off, his eyes ignited with bitterness and anger all at once. Clenching his fists, he momentarily lost that sense of coolness and composure he was accustomed to. "Don't you dare say it!"
"...I know he is," she continued. "His crying hastens time itself. Where he wails, time is uncertain...just as with the original Chrono Trigger. If this boy dies, then It wins. Fate will continue to lead the world to this place...to the darkness beyond the end of time."
Again, the second entity said nothing. He began to wonder if It were as shocked as he was at this bombshell, or if Its voice had finally gone out. The princess continued. "I...want you to save him. His screams weren't like the rest, they weren't mindless...he was hurt. He was literally, truthfully crying out to existence itself to save him...I want you to answer his call. With my help."
He grinned mirthlessly. "Certainly. Shall I take the legendary Epoch or simply catch a ride on some vagrant cab? Do you want anything while I'm there, saving the day? Some exotic entertainment or a trinket with 'Her Royal Daftness' engraved on it? Hey, don't sigh at me like that, I simply have to bring you back something, your Majesty!" He shook his head, the smile disappearing, and turned away to look up again at the vortex. "You still haven't given up hope of getting out of here. Utterly, utterly amazing..."
"There is a way."
He whirled back before the other voice could speak, his angry voice ringing through the void like the thunder that echoed with it. "Lies! Delusions! If your body could move, your mouth would have turned black with venom by now!"
"Listen to me! The vortex is not simply the Maw of Oblivion. It's our last chance for escape."
"Don't listen to her!"
He said nothing to either entity, closing his eyes and shrugging his arms back over his chest. The princess's voice continued. "I have a plan. I will create a new life to send through the vortex."
"No! Useless!"
The idea was indeed preposterous, and he was about to second the notion when she cut both of them off. "Listen, please. It is not impossible...it can be done. I am sure I can do it...I will use all of my magic, everything I can, to create myself anew. A...child, you might say. The magic inherent in the child might stand a chance of balancing both of your 'ethers' out if you enter it at the precise moment. With...Its presence, here, serving as a buttress, and forming that balance of magic between your corporeal form and the child's, you might escape oblivion.
"If so, then you could both propel through the past, and ride time itself."
Silence- from the princess, from It, and from the awestruck man on the platform. Her words registered, at first, but their meaning was a shock to him. He felt his jaw drop, just slightly; his knees wavered, and he almost fell. As it was, he dropped to one knee, not believing what he'd just heard. "...Ride time? You mean...go back? Before all this?"
"Yes."
"No, you fools! You'll all perish!"
The old part of him wanted to refute It, but he knew better. Dimly, he stroked the ring, its smooth texture somehow soothing the growing hope- as well as an almost insane fear- in his mind. The promise of being free once again, to have a second chance, was all too great for him. This empty, dead place was the last place he ever wanted to be- and yet, he felt horrified at the thought of leaving it. After so much darkness, after so much horror...could he handle anything else? Seeing the sun and moon once again, seeing flesh and blood, seeing eyes and lips curved into smiles and frowns...would it destroy him? Would he go insane?
Perhaps. But better to go insane in human company than in the presence of a crushed girl's soul and a horror beyond all human comprehension. And at least he would stand a higher chance of meeting his end at the hands of something better than Lavos.
"...You are willing to give this up?" he asked.
"Yes. I don't know how it will work, but there's a chance...and maybe my new life will survive, somehow. I do not know. But hope, however small, can work wonders," her voice told him.
"Brainless pawns! You sacrifice both your lives to allow me the victory!"
He shook his head, rising up with a long-forgotten look in his emerald vision- purpose. "Say all you will, Lavospawn, but I believe her." He stretched out his hand to the wide gap of the void, closing his eyes. From the depths of the dark infinity spiraled an object- long, slender, and curved. In mere seconds, a sheathed, slightly elongated katana sword was summoned to and clasped firmly in his outstretched palm. It sent tingles up his forearm, to have this old cherish of his back in his grip again. It was fitting, in a way- long ago, he'd vowed to die a swordsman. If the princess's plan failed, then, well, his vow was well kept.
"My sentence here has been long," he told her. "One way or another, it ends. If I am annihilated, then I won't have to go through the regret any more...I will no longer have to hide in dreams. If I can make it, then I will find this 'Chrono Trigger.' Maybe then, fate will at last be met with hope."
"Please hurry. You are that last hope."
"Yes. Hasten, and die."
He craned his head up to look at the spiral of death above him, the path to nothingness. Frowning, he looked back over his shoulder aimlessly towards the voice of the princess. If this works, I will owe you more than I can ever hope to repay. "I will protect both of these children," he said lowly, "with my life. All my life. Both the Arbiter and the Child. If I truly can ride time, I will protect them."
There came a ripple of something from her presence. Happiness, perhaps- maybe her equivalent of a smile, from her state of existence. "I know you will."
"You shall fail. You shall die."
For once, he responded to It. Gripping the ageless sheath tightly in his hand, he bowed his head and gritted out a reply. "My vows are never made lightly. You will choke on those words, Lavospawn." He slung the long katana over his shoulder, closing his eyes as more light swarmed into it. The actual jump into the vortex wouldn't be so hard, he assumed- the problem was jumping at the same time that the new essence was sucked into it. And, of course, the idea that his clothes might get sucked off in the attempt wasn't that appealing to him. Nonetheless, it was a small price to pay for the reward of ultimate freedom...to once again ride time itself.
He felt the presence of the princess flicker, like a candle caught in the wind, and he realized she was preparing for her final venture. In response, he crouched down upon the platform, coiling up on his knees to make the jump. It had been a while since he'd exercised, but his frame was relatively light, and with the vortex's pull, the feat would be completed.
All around him, the screams suddenly faded into quiet. He felt another ripple, as though he were caught between motion and rest, and nausea washed over him in vanishing fits. For comfort, he tightened his ring hand, the familiar touch of the hybrid ring giving him solace. The princess's voice came out in a gasp, paralleled by Its snort; as if punctuated by both noises, all lights flickered and then dimmed, and then everything was dark.
Darkness.
Just perfect. It was the only thing that truly terrified him anymore, the dark. Since he was a child, he had always feared it- he still remembered laying in bed, when all lights were out, and hearing the ominous creaks in the stairway outside his bedroom. He remembered holding his pillow and praying to his then-god that he would last another night, that those sounds weren't the footsteps of someone who was coming up the steps. How many times had he felt that same way, whenever he closed his eyes at night...? No; rather, how many times had he felt that way, ever since the day when his light had finally gone out?
Enough! Didn't your life teach you anything? His self-vituperation was enough to keep him in a sane frame of mind, so he held his crouch and waited. Yet that darkness...the air only filled with horrible wails and the gnashing of teeth, the vortex's grim bass moan a maddening melody. Still again, he clutched the ring, and waited- waited for anything that would take him out of this abode of nothingness, away towards something better than what he had seen in this unearthly void for weeks, months, maybe even years. Something that might give him hope again.
And then there was light.
It stung the man's pale green eyes, at first, how brilliant the light was. For a moment, he thought it was the sun, until he realized it was rising from all around the void. It illuminated the entire platform he stood upon, and he traced its strands to find the source- a vermillion ball of light, hovering in the turbulent air like a newly born red star. Its rays knew no bounds, its brightness no limit, and he dared not look at it a moment longer. He closed his eyes and felt it flare once, feeling neither heat nor cold, yet witness to a tremendous pulse of energy that sent him teetering on his feet-
-and then there was balance again, and something was thrumming at his free hand. His eyelids fluttered open to see the darkness lightened by the sole, fist-sized ball of white light nestling against his palm. His eyes displaying something between fascination and horror, he lifted up the hand, staring deeply into the shining, yet not entirely blinding, miniature sun in his hand. Is this...a life, at its core?
"...So fragile," he breathed in quiet wonder. "So small, but so...humbling..."
He suddenly felt the platform groan and crack beneath him, the chaos again picking up- but with violence that he had never seen before. The air suddenly whipped up towards the vortex, stinging his cheeks, and in terror, he found that the life was being carried up towards it. Before it could vanish, he gripped it gently and drew it back to his chest, shielding it with his cloak. "What's going on!" he screamed over the reborn screams of agony.
The response was very weak, nearly inaudible, and broken over the current of pandemonium. "Serge..." the princess's voice croaked. "Fi...erge...find Serge of Ar...st ch...ce!"
"Serge..." The man brought the meager life closer to him, realizing that it would require not an accurately timed jump, but a grip on both their lives, to make it through the vortex. Assuming they could, at that. He gritted his teeth, casting away that last shard of fear within him- there was nothing to live for but this chance. History needed to be rewritten. History could not end this way- humanity could not end this way. Gripping both life and sword in his hands, the man crouched for the final time, sucked all of his breath in, and let it out with a powerful leap from the platform with all of his might. As the wormhole sucked him forward with lightning crackling in its maw, he shouted what very well may have been his last words.
"No more hiding! I will find you! Chrono Trigger!"
Then both lives were drawn in with vicious force, and the man yelled in surprise as the abyss drew him in, and then there was nothing else.
