Chapter 20
Seeking the Trigger

"Hya!" Alex cried out as he spun around and kicked a Slasher Adult Golem back into the crowd of clay enemies. He then sliced through a few approaching Pet Golems with the serrated blade of his current Lockshield, cutting the monsters into clean halves that splattered onto the ground.

Edward juggled a fireball in his hands for a few moments before setting an Elder Golem on fire with it. The larger Golem slowly melted into a pile of black mud. Robo pulled back a fist and let it thrust forward, the arm extending at the wrist until it punched right into a Kid Golem, which fell back and dissolved into mud. Robo's hand came back to his arm, and he looked around for more targets.

Lucca fired a few shots, which simply glanced off a Warrior Golem's armor. "This isn't going quickly enough!" she exclaimed over the sounds of battle. Crono jumped back as another Kid Golem rammed into the ground, creating large spikes that stabbed into the air Crono had occupied moments before. Indeed, speed was of the essence here. If they couldn't take the Golems out quickly enough, they'd be overwhelmed by fatigue and the enemies' collective strength.

"Wait!" Alphonse suddenly exclaimed from the back of the group. He summoned magical energy and shouted, "Water 2!" The whole area around them was tinted blue as Alphonse's magical power coursed through it. A large wave of magical water crashed through the army of Golems from the side, washing through them. And since they were made out of hardened mud, the water made the Golems start to liquefy and dissolve into their basic components. The sheer force of the water added onto this effect resulted in the entire Golem army just washing over the side of the throne room's platform.

The blue aura faded, and everyone else was shocked by the fact that a room full of enemies had suddenly given way to a clear space. They looked back at Alphonse with varied looks, ranging from surprise to respect. Alphonse just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Man, I wish you'd had that back in Amestris," Edward joked to his brother. But then some warping sounds occurred behind them, causing them to look toward the throne with serious looks.

The Queen, Schala, the "Prophet," and Dalton reappeared in the room in small flashes of light. Dalton looked ready to burst with rage. "My poor Golems!" he wailed, shaking his fist at the party. "That was inexcusable!" He let out a wave of his hands again, and a small dark sphere surrounded the party for a moment. The sphere faded, and a pyramid of blue energy closed in on them.

Alex let out a cry and dropped to his knees as pain shot through his whole body. The others faced similar reactions. The energy of the pyramid was paralyzing them all. The Queen took a few steps down from her throne and sneered down at them. "Mwahaha... Fear not! You won't die... immediately, that is!" she assured them with a cackle. "But by the time we're through with you, you'll be begging us to end your suffering. What a delicious diversion!"

She cackled at the top of her lungs, but Alexander no longer had the strength to listen. He soon blacked out.

Later, in the hall of the Mammon Machine...

The six fighters floated in the golden column of energy that had once held the Mammon Machine. They were still unconscious, and had been so for quite a while. The Mammon Machine had most likely been moved down to the Ocean Palace, and the machine was now being used to detain them.

A few figures moved into the room. It was Schala, Janus, and the cat Alfador. Janus looked up at the travelers with disdain. "Hmph! Idiots..." he muttered with disdain. Looking toward his older sister, he asked, "What will you do, Schala?"

Schala turned back from the party and said, "Let us rescue them."

"I think it's useless," Janus remarked, not at all surprised by his sister's intentions. "Besides, if they escape, you'll be in trouble."

"Don't worry about me," Schala insisted. "They just might be able to rescue the Gurus. Besides..." she said, turning toward the machine and staring intently at Alexander, Edward, and Alphonse. "Those young men there... their energy is different from ours. From anyone in this world. They don't belong here." She stepped toward the machine and took her pendant off her neck, holding the jewel up to the machine.

A blue light shone through the room, and the six fighters floated out of the golden cylindrical light. They landed on the floor next to Schala, partially conscious now. As the party slowly got to their feet, Schala asked, "Are you alright? Quickly, escape from the palace! And, if you can, please rescue Melchior!"

The adventuring group was still in a daze, but Schala continued, "He was sent to the Mountain of Woe for opposing the Queen. Please! You have to help him!"

"I'm afraid I can't allow that..." a voice contended. The Prophet walked into the room, facing the weakened party. "Your meddling tires me," the enigmatic man spat. "You'll... just have to disappear!"

Schala moved in toward him with a worried look. "You mustn't!"

The Prophet looked surprised by Schala's movement, almost to the point that he looked stunned. Janus also moved in, shouting, "Stop!" Alfador also let out an anxious meow in protest.

"Okay..." the Prophet muttered, looking a little less cold than usual, "I'll spare them. But in return, you will cooperate, Schala!" Schala said nothing as the Prophet turned his attention to the party once again. "Now, show me how you came here."

The six fighters led them all the way back through Zeal, to the cave containing the Gate that had brought them there. Crono gestured toward the Gate as the Prophet walked through the entrance. "Hmm..." the Prophet mumbled, "so you came in through here."

Schala walked into the cave behind the Prophet, who turned toward her with an air of authority. "Now Schala!" he said commandingly. "After I throw them in, I want you to seal the portal shut."

"N-No!" Schala protested. "You can't make me!"

Geez, we'll just jump in ourselves if we're so unwanted, Joumae grumbled in Alex's mind.

The Prophet turned away. "Obey me! Their lives are at stake!"

Edward scowled at the Prophet. He was still weary from being in a comatose state for so long, but being treated like such a weakling brought some fighting spirit back into his body.

Schala cracked under the pressure, all the same. "I... Oh, alright..."

The Prophet nodded and turned toward the party, staring at them meaningfully. Alexander caught his intent and sighed. He summoned the Lightning Guard and held it toward the Gate. The Gate expanded and opened up, and all six fighters piled inside. After a moment, the Gate closed in behind them.

Schala slowly walked toward the Gate and held her hands out to it. There was a ringing sound that rang through the air as she worked her magic. All at once, there was a bright flash, and a violet pyramid of magical barriers appeared around the Gate, locking it shut.

The Prophet walked out of the cave, looking pleased that the intruders had been dealt with. Schala started to walk away, trying to keep a straight face, but she fell down and started to hold back tears. "Please forgive me..." she whispered sadly.

The Gate at the Tyrano Lair's ruins opened up once more, and the sextet climbed out of the portal. When the Gate closed, a violet pyramid closed in around it, blocking their only route to the dark ages. Lucca looked down at the ground thoughtfully. "The Prophet could have just done away with us," she noted.

Edward smirked and turned to Alex. "You called that guy Magus, right Alex? Heh, and you talk so much about not blurting out information..."

"I know!" Alex protested. "I know! It just... slipped out, okay!? Him, calling us 'evildoers'... Heck, I was almost willing to break my self-censorship policy!"

Robo looked toward the others and said. "Magus's presence isn't our concern right now. The key to defeating Lavos must exist in that era."

"The crest on those sealed doors..." Alphonse pointed out. "Are there doors like that elsewhere in time, do you think? With the powered up pendant, we can open those kinds of seals now!"

"Yeah..." Alex muttered. "There is one door like that." This immediately brought attention to him. "There is one path in the future era that eventually leads to another dome, which has a door with that seal in the back of the main room. That's our next objective."

"Alright, then," Lucca said. "Shall we change party members? I'm ready for some actual rest, myself."

Alex nodded and opened up a portal to the End of Time. Lucca and Robo went through, and they called in Marle and Frog. After the essential pause to let the memories of the travels during their absences sink in, Frog jumped back in shock. "That's where Magus resides!?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, but he's not doing much of anything there," Edward pointed out. "Anyway, we've got bigger fish to fry. Like finding another way back into that era of time."

Marle nodded and smiled. "We may yet find our way back into that era! Let's get cracking, guys!"

The party traveled to the southeast of the barren canyon to find that the six Dactyls they had left there were still meandering around. So the party mounted the creatures and flew back to the Mystic Mountains to the west. They traveled up the hills of the Mystic Mountains and jumped off the cliff leading into the Gate back to the End of Time.

The group walked down the stairs to the central platform of the End of Time, and met up with the remaining party members. The old man standing under the lamppost grinned as they approached. "Aha!" he exclaimed. "So you've been to the Land of Magic... Now that the pillar of light is sealed, you'll be needing something that will transport you through time. I recall someone working on such a device. The Wings of Time, I believe he called it. I'm afraid he became a tad psychotic spending so much of his time doing research."

And that was all the old man would tell them. So the party walked back to the platform with the pillars of light, and took the Gate leading to Proto Dome in 2300 AD.

As they left the Gate and reentered the back room of Proto Dome, Marle disdainfully remarked, "I see this place hasn't gotten any less depressing since we left." Not that it was surprising, but it wasn't much comfort as they traveled through the ruined, dusty dome and entered the sand-whipped wasteland outside.

"So where do we go from here?" Edward asked, shielding his eyes from the blowing sand like the others.

"We have to go back through Lab 32!" Alexander replied. "There's a sewer entrance on the other side that'll take us under the ocean and onto the smaller continent of the dome we're looking for!"

Alphonse slouched a little. "Lab 32?" he repeated. "Does that mean we have to race Johnny across the highway again?"

Crono started walking through the sandstorm, and the others followed. They traveled back north and west along the road, into the ruins of Laboratory 32. Upon officially entering the ruins, they immediately found Johnny standing next to the Jet Bike.

"So, you decided to come back, babe?" Johnny said with a grin, the exhaust pipe of the racing contraption strapped to his back spouting purple smoke. "Gonna give the ol' Bike another ride?"

Frog looked at the highway ahead of them. "'Tis not an exceedingly great distance," he noted. "Perhaps we can accomplish the trek on foot?"

Johnny smirked and shook his head. "Wouldn't wanna do that, babe." Pointing toward the highway, he said, "Those black creatures have been gathering in the Labs en masse lately. Even if there's six of you guys, those monsters will overwhelm you before you can say 'chicken out.' It's been hard to ride like the wind these days."

"I see..." Alex muttered, looking between Johnny, the Jet Bike, and the stretch of highway before them. "So why would you want us to race you on the Jet Bike?"

"Hey, if I couldn't defend myself," Johnny pointed out, "I'd have been one of them by now. When I'm going at top speed, I can fend off a few of them. The robot ladies of mine on the other side of the Lab also have their own weapons, so they're alright as well. We just can't completely clear the highway for racing, is all. That is... not on our own."

Marle frowned. "What, so... you want us to help you clear the way?"

"You catch on fast, babe!" Johnny remarked. Stepping toward the Jet Bike, he said, "Ride with me through the highway, and then we'll take out all of 'em on the way! Besides, you guys aren't gonna be goin' to the other side without going through those creatures anyway, right?"

Alexander rolled his eyes and climbed into the seat of the Jet Bike. "Alright, alright..." he said with a sigh.

Johnny took his position beside the Jet Bike and grinned. "I knew you'd see it my way! Remember, there's still only three turbo boosts, with a pause between each use." The wheel structure shifted from Johnny's back to right under him, and Johnny laid flat on his stomach on the device.

Three pings sounded off around them, and then they were off. The Jet Bike raced along the highway, with Johnny right beside it. Alexander looked around from side to side, wondering how he was going to deal with the Heartless from inside the vehicle. We don't have much in the range department... Joumae agreed a little disdainfully.

He didn't have very much time to wonder, though, because Magnum Loaders and Hot Rod Heartless were closing in from behind them. As one of the Magnum Loaders came beside Johnny and tried to attack, Johnny suddenly tilted back and did a wheelie, gunning his engine to bring the wheels back on top of the Heartless, crushing it.

Alexander, having no better idea for the moment, lifted up his left sleeve slightly, better revealing the flame glove partially hidden under his normal fingerless glove. He quickly made sure his Lockshield was changed to the Crimson Catalyst design and then snapped the fingers of his left hand. A spark traveled through the air and caused an explosion between two Hot Rod Heartless, setting them aflame and causing them to weave from side to side until they finally went tumbling off to the side of the highway.

The explosion, though seeming not to be very close to the Jet Bike, let out strong enough shockwaves to make the Jet Bike swerve a bit. Alex was forced to abandon his assault and regain control of the vehicles direction. He managed to return the Bike's path to a straight line just before he was about to bump into Johnny.

Edward leaned on a pile of rubble as the rest of the party waited for Johnny and Alexander to return. The others meandered about as well, equally bored. Though it was better than the alternative, Edward had to admit. All six of them, piling into that one seat while trying to take out the Heartless at top speed? Ridiculous.

It also gave them some time for the others to think as well. Frog was the one who started the first topic along that line. "What to do about Magus?" he questioned the open air suddenly.

Alphonse looked over at Frog from where he was sitting. "Well..." he mumbled, "if he's taking the role of some kind of Prophet, then that means he must know what's going to happen, right? I wonder if he'd seen the events at Zeal before, like Alex had?"

Crono gave Alphonse a strange look. The younger Elric immediately said, "I mean, not like from a game standpoint. But maybe he's more connected to the kingdom of Zeal than to the Mystics of the middle age era."

"If that were true," Marle cut in, "we would've seen two incarnations of Magus in the same time! The Magus we know, and the Magus who must've been there at Zeal when it was happening. But I don't think we found anyone like that there..."

Edward grunted indifferently. "That's not really what I'm worried about, honestly." Everyone glanced at him with questioning looks. "That Dalton guy," Edward explained as he pushed himself off the pile of rubble, "...he was in command of Golems, for Pete's sake. The Golem creatures could only be made with alchemy, so what are they doing under command of a resident of this world?"

"...Elaeus is part of Lavos right now, right?" Alphonse pointed out. "And if the Mammon Machine is taking power from the both of them, maybe Dalton gained some knowledge of alchemy from Elaeus somehow."

The Fullmetal Alchemist sighed. "Maybe, but... Well, when we destroyed that incomplete Philosopher's Stone in Siam-Sid, all of the Golems melted away, including Crowley." He paused for a moment to let the point sink in. "That means that the Golems were connected to that Crimson Elixir. When it was destroyed, they were destroyed too. They can't exist without such a catalyst."

"So..." Frog mused, "Dalton possess'eth such a stone? But where?"

Crono suddenly gasped, drawing attention over to him. He fished through the inventory bag frantically, before presenting Marle's pendant to the rest of the party. Everyone stared at it for a few moments as they tried to figure out what Crono was trying to say.

"Wait!" Marle exclaimed. "That Mammon Machine that powered up my pendant...! Alex said it seemed to be made out of the same red rock, right?"

Edward's eyes widened in realization. "The Guru's rock, the Dreamstone..." He shook his head in frustration. "So many damn names for the stupid stone, but it seems to do the job. The Golems are being powered by that Mammon Machine."

Alphonse stood up. "Does that mean that the Mammon Machine is another...?"

"Nah," Edward replied, cutting his brother off. "It certainly makes a good equivalent of the Crimson Elixir, but it definitely wasn't made the same way. The fact that it works as the Golems' catalyst is probably a coincidence in the long run, and probably wasn't its intended use."

They suddenly heard the sound of a couple of roaring engines approaching, and quickly stepped aside as Johnny and the Jet Bike rolled into the small lot. Alex jumped down from the Jet Bike and grinned at them. "The highway's clear!" he declared. "Let's get going!"

"Challenge me anytime," Johnny called out to the party as they left the other side of Lab 32. "We'll ride like the wind, babe!"

Alexander gave him a half-hearted wave and stepped out into the harsh wasteland, the rest of the party following him. He led them south a small way and then east into a small dome structure. The sign outside the structure, nearly faded due to erosion from the sand and wind, read, "Sewer Access."

The party entered a small room with a manhole in the center of it, with a ladder leading down into a passage below. They all climbed down and entered a dark, green-stoned series of passages, overlooking many streams of sewage. As the party finished climbing down, a strange bat-like creature with one large eye and small arms and feet frantically flew over to them. "Bandits!" it cried out, keeping its distance. "Must report to Sir Krawlie!" With that, it left as abruptly as it had come.

Alex took a step forward, but suddenly flinched as he heard an eerie moaning sound. "What the...!?" He then quickly turned around to see Edward doubled over and clutching his stomach. Alex just rolled his eyes.

"Ugh!" Edward groaned, his face slightly tinted green. "The smell doesn't differ between worlds, does it...?"

Alphonse looked worriedly at his older brother. "Um... do you want me to cast a Heal spell or something, brother?" he asked tentatively.

Edward waved away the worry, slowly composing himself. "No thanks... I just gotta get used to the smell. Again." He took a few slow breaths, and the color returned to his face. He then looked around at the place, as if searching for the best route through the maze of passages that awaited them.

Alex took the path to the left, stepping onto a metal bridge spanning a small stream of sewage fed from a pipe in the wall. As he took that step, a couple of Air Soldier Heartless appeared above the larger body of water, ready to attack. Marle immediately loaded her crossbow and shot at one of them. The bolt stabbed into the Air Soldier and pinned it to the wall. Crono used a Lightning spell that zapped that Heartless while it squirmed, destroying it.

Frog extended his amphibian tongue and grabbed the other Heartless, drawing it in before he retracted his tongue and slashed at the Heartless. Alexander snapped the fingers of his flame glove, blowing up the Air Soldier and making it fade into darkness.

As the party took a moment to relax, they heard voices around the corner of the passage. They came to the corner of the walkway and looked to the side, where they saw two strange yellow tadpole creatures conversing, gazing at a space spanning two platforms of the sewer walkways. "There was a bridge here!" one of them exclaimed. "I saw it, rrrribit!"

The other one turned away indignantly. "Fool! Grrribit! There's nothing here!"

"B...But it's true, ribbit..." the first mumbled quietly, looking at the cobblestone at its feet.

The second tadpole thing turned around and saw the party. Panicking, it shouted, "Someone's coming! Let's scram, grribbit!" The two creatures quickly ran toward the end of the platform and jumped into a manhole leading deeper into the sewers.

With the road clear, the six fighters walked to the spot the two creatures had been studying. Frog grunted upon the sight of it. On each platform, directly across from each other, was a small metal plate that would've fed into a bridge similar to the one they'd just crossed.

Edward rolled his eyes. "Lemme guess... There's a switch deeper in the sewers, and we'll have to go there and backtrack all the way back here before moving on?"

Alex chuckled. "You seem to be getting the hang of these RPGs, Ed." The fellow alchemist only grumbled something incoherent as the party approached the manhole the strangers had jumped into. There was a ladder to allow access to and from the second level of the sewers.

Marle shuddered, looking back and forth at the surroundings nervously. "This is a tad on the spooky side..." she admitted. Frog let out an amused ribbit, but said nothing in addition.

The party climbed down the ladder and entered the second level at a point where the path split in two. They first went to the right, which led across a bridge onto a platform with a small damp booklet laying on the ground. Edward raised an eyebrow and picked up the small book. "It's a diary," he said curiously, opening up the book to the end. "Here's the last page. ...It's all over. The dark creatures attack if I make even the slightest noise. I'd rather have my gums scraped than have to fight these fiends."

The whole group was silent for a few moments. Then, all at once, they made shushing motions to each other, communicating that they weren't to make the slightest noise if they wanted to avoid a battle. The party doubled back and started walking along the narrow winding path to the other side of the ladder. The stone path led all over the room, making wild turns almost at random through the sewage reservoir until it reached the next large platform.

At the first turn, they saw a small yellow cat sitting near the edge of the path, looking rather lonely. Alex cringed, knowing this image would be almost too much for Alphonse to take. Edward also became aware of this, it seemed, because he helped in restraining the armored soul as they slowly walked past the cat and made their way around the next couple of corners.

Then, after a couple of longer stretches, they found a soda can next to a small garbage bin. Marle walked toward it with a small smile, probably wanting to see if she could kick it into the can in one shot. But Alexander held out an arm to block her path and gestured toward the can, trying to indicate that the aluminum would make a loud enough clatter to attract unwelcome attention.

Further on, they found what seemed to be a slightly moldy block of cheddar cheese just sitting on the stone floor. Alex made sure to watch his step when moving around it, not wanting to incur the wrath of any sewer rats that had their minds on that cheese. A single squeak would bring the entire effort crashing down around their heads. The others took the same care to avoid the now-foreboding morsel.

Lastly, as they neared the small metal bridge leading to the end of that nightmare, they found a save point floating to the side. ...They just walked right past it. After crossing the bridge, they found a ladder leading back up to the first level, which they immediately climbed.

As soon as they reentered the main sewer passageways, a couple of Bookmaster Heartless appeared in front of them. Alex, his voice hoarse at first from restraining himself for so long, shouted, "These guys are immune to magic and can dish out fairly heavy damage, so watch out!"

As if in response, one of the Bookmasters lifted its large book into the air and hurled it toward one of the party members, making it crash into the ground where Frog had been moments before. The frog knight immediately unsheathed the Masamune and jumped up into the air, then stabbed into the Heartless's book with his sword and kicked at the creature's main body. While it was still pinned like this, Alphonse closed in and kicked it a couple of times before it disappeared and released a heart.

The other Bookmaster summoned a couple of small Blizzard crystals and shot them, which knocked into Alexander and Marle and threw them back. Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the ground, transmuting a couple of katanas from the stone. The blond alchemist spun sideways and slashed at the Bookmaster repeatedly with his dual katanas. Crono then closed in with his own weapon and spun around furiously with it, using his Cyclone technique to finish off the Heartless.

The party traveled forward, only to find that they were now on the opposite platform of the missing bridge they had studied earlier. At a loss of what to do, they started looking around. There was a bridge that led to a small, useless platform to the side, and there was another gap near the manhole they'd just exited that was also missing a bridge.

"Hey, look!" Marle exclaimed, gesturing toward a part of the wall she was investigating. There was a small corridor there, almost unnoticeable with a simple sweeping search due to how narrow it was. Edward, naturally, was voted to go through the gap and see what was on the other side. Alex could've sworn he saw a vein pulsing in the alchemist's forehead when the decision had been made.

Edward walked through the small corridor and exited into a small section of stone next to a drain pipe. On the other side of the gap he faced was a door. And to his left, there seemed to be some kind of large switch in the wall with a red light next to it. Edward lifted the switch up, the light turned green, and the door on the other side of the gap opened. The Fullmetal Alchemist quickly ran back through the corridor and told the others what he'd found.

Alexander nodded, and gestured toward the end of the path ahead past the lack of a bridge. He'd found that there was a rather small path leading around to the back of that door, but it was so narrow that there was a danger of falling into the sewage. Still, the party walked along the wall that way and found the other end of the door Edward had just opened.

As soon as they walked past the opened door, they looked ahead to a separate section of the sewers where they found the two strange tadpole creatures conversing yet again. One of them was standing in front of another switch, across from the second gap that was missing a bridge. "Press the switch," the first one – apparently an underling to the second – stated, "and the bridge opens, ribbit!"

The boss of the two grumbled something and then ordered, "So, switch on, gribbit!"

The underling moved toward the switch and jumped up to it, trying to lift the switch to the ON position. But even if he jumped, he didn't get anywhere near the switch. "Riiiiiiiiibit!" it groaned as it continued to fail in its efforts. "It's out of reach, ribbit!"

The boss growled something again and spat, "And you call yourself a frog, ribbit, gribbit!"

Alexander was not the only one who stole a glance toward Frog, who almost looked highly offended by the comedy playing out before them.

Suddenly, the boss tadpole ran to the side until he got a good view of the party. Quickly panicking, it shouted, "Someone's coming! Let's scram, grribbit!" The two tadpoles quickly ran off, leaving most of the party with strangely bemused states of mind.

The party rounded a couple of corners and crossed a bridge to a small platform, from which they turned right and crossed onto a much larger area. There to meet them was the strange bat guard creature from before along with a rather large insect-like creature.

This stranger seemed to be a cross between a scorpion and a slug, with spike appendages along its lower segmented body and its sides, but with two large pudgy arms with three-clawed hands. Its eyes shone a dull green, and there was a large curved spike coming out from the tail. On top of that, its purple tongue hung out a good foot and a half from its mouth. But, then again, it didn't have much height to it. Perhaps a tiny bit shorter than Alphonse.

The guard reported, "The six of them are almost here!" The creature it was reporting to was apparently the Sir Krawlie it had mentioned before.

Krawlie angrily declared in his deep voice, "Coming through the sewer like they own it! They must have a death wish! We shall teach them a lesson!"

"Let's show 'em," the guard agreed with a laugh. "Heehee!"

Sir Krawlie started clapping its hands together with crushing force, as if in practice. "Just let them come through here!" he continued, oblivious to the fact that the party was already on the same platform as them. "They'll be chopped liver!"

"Hahahahahaha!" the guard cackled, equally oblivious. "Heeheeheeheehee!"
"Harharharhar!" Sir Krawlie added to the mix.
"Hahahahaha!" the guard laughed insanely at the top of its lungs.
"Heeeeheeeeheee!" was Sir Krawlie's addition, clearly riding the wave his guard had created.

Edward cleared his throat rather loudly, cutting short the cycle of maniacal laughs. "Uh, hello?" he muttered tersely. "We're right here."

The guard let out a surprised yelp and flew away from the scene. Krawlie just mumbled, "Huh?" as the party surrounded him and got into fighting stances.

Alexander grinned and summoned the Lightning Guard Lockshield. "Hah!" he chortled. "This guy's hardly even a boss. A couple of good dual techs will take him down easy."

Krawlie snarled and muttered, "I'll shred ya."

"Al, here we go!" Edward suddenly shouted. He transmuted a gigantic spiked pillar from the ground, which Alphonse took hold of. Everyone ducked as Alphonse spun around quickly with the pillar, almost creating a small whirlwind as he bashed Krawlie repeatedly. The insect creature was eventually thrown against the far wall.

"Crono, Frog!" Alex shouted. "Let's get a couple of lightning rods in that thing, shall we?" Crono and Frog immediately nodded and brandished their swords. The two warriors ran toward Krawlie and stabbed their swords into the segments of Krawlie's back, making the creature howl in pain. Alex and Crono then summoned up their magics, creating Lightning bolts that struck the twin swords, zapping Krawlie twofold through the metal.

As Frog and Crono retrieved their swords, the room began to shake slightly as Krawlie was overtaken by a white light. The monster slowly became transparent before it finally faded out of existence.

Edward sighed as he transmuted the surroundings back to normal. "Alright, I'm ready to get out of this stinking sewer, myself... But maybe that's just me."

The party finally left the sewers, reentering the wasteland on the outside and noticing that they were on the continent just south of Laboratory 32. There was a rather large dome further to the south of them, so that's where they headed. The sign outside read, "Keeper's Dome."

As soon as they entered the dusty dome, they walked along some of the small metal platforms until they reached a large computer terminal. There was a strange Nu-like creature standing in front of it, snoring. Alphonse shook it awake, but when the creature came to, it only said, "Please, do not disturb my slumber," before going right back to snoring.

The party moved on around the first large terminal, reaching the back of the main room. There were two smaller terminals on either side of the room, but between them was a small corridor leading to what they were looking for in the first place. An obsidian door with Zeal's crest emblazoned on it. Crono pulled out the pendant and held it up to the door.

A bright light shone through the room as the pendant shimmered with its own internal light. The obsidian door slowly lifted into the wall above it, revealing a passage leading deeper into the dome. They entered the next room, finding a long winding path that went to the right corners of the room before heading back to the left side of the room, where there was another doorway. They took a few steps, but then they heard a strange voice. It sounded like a recording. "Huh...?"

As they continued along the path, the voice continued speaking to them. "To those who opened the door... I am Belthasar, the Guru of Reason. I once lived in the Kingdom of Zeal. A great disaster in Zeal somehow threw me into this era. To my surprise, Lavos and Elaeus exist here, and, I suspect, other periods as well. Aeons ago, Lavos descended from the heavens. Burrowing deep into the world's core and dragging Elaeus along with him, they began to consume our planet's energy, and grow stronger."

"Lavos and Elaeus disappeared briefly when they were summoned away by a mighty wizard who lived in Guardia, in the year 600. In 1999, Lavos and Elaeus claim this area, and reign from high atop Death Peak. Lavos continues to replicate... like a giant parasite, he is consuming our world. And Elaeus simply oversees the effects, apparently waiting for something to confront him."

"Forced to live here, I continued to conduct research on Elaeus and Lavos. But I am growing old. And it's impossible to keep sane in such trying times. So before I lose it completely, I shall safeguard my data, and my ultimate creation..."

"How I long to return home... But I have grown frail... So you... you, who have opened the door! I leave things in your hands. Only by mastering time, itself, do you stand a chance against Lavos and Elaeus."

"The odds will be against you... But you are true heroes. The world is in your hands. Open, now, the last door, and take what you find there. My last invention... My 'Wings of Time'..."

By this point, the party had found another obsidian door, and the recording had ended. "Mastering time itself, huh?" Edward echoed thoughtfully as Crono held up the pendant to the door. The pendant shimmered for a moment, and the door opened.

They entered the large room ahead of them, and the entire party (including Alexander) was amazed at the spectacle before them. It looked like a rather large pod, made out of white metal with a golden trim. There was a large golden fin coming off the top from just behind the cockpit, which had a dome covering it. The party moved all the way around it, inspecting the machine from the strange machinery at the front to the engines at the back. The invention was almost symmetrical from the front to the back.

Frog blinked a couple of times. "This... moves through time?" he inferred hesitantly.

Marle was equally dumbstruck. "Wow... this is amazing... How do you tell the front from the back?"

Still, they couldn't figure out how to work the thing, so they started walking back out of the room... Until their path was blocked by an odd rectangular metal thing moving toward them. They party quickly moved aside, and they saw that it was just the Nu-like thing pushing a set of seats toward the machine.

The strange creature grinned at them. "Scared you, didn't I? It's me... Belthasar! I copied my memory into this thing. What do you think?" Before anyone could answer, he continued, "Anyway, there's something I need to explain."

Alex looked toward the block of seats that the creature had prepared. Instead of the usual three seats in the game, there were six seats in two rows of three. Alex guessed that the cockpit would be equally accommodating. Lucky.

"Namely," the Belthasar creature stated, cutting off Alex's thoughts, "how to transcend time! You can use the time gauge to select an era, then the button right next to it to activate the warp. ...Oh, yeah! Before you go, why don't you–" The creature suddenly closed its eyes and started snoring for a few moments.

Just as suddenly, it woke up and said without missing a beat, "...name my time machine!"

Alexander grinned. "Alright..." He looked toward the others and said, "How does the 'Epoch' sound?" He got a generally positive reply to that suggestion, and he nodded toward the strange creature.

Belthasar nodded back and gestured toward the seats. "Hop aboard!" The six party members quickly got into their seats, with Alex at the foremost seat and the Elrics to the sides of him, while the Chrono Trigger party members got into the back seats. Alex noted that it was a fair bit roomier in the cockpit than he had first imagined by seeing it in the game. There was a good amount of room, even for Alphonse to fit in without being cramped.

The Belthasar creature mumbled something before going back to sleep. Marle grinned and said, "Well, I guess we'll just take off, then!"

Alex looked toward the controls, quickly finding the time gauge. It was a C-shaped dial that had points connecting to each major era of time, going from the future to the apocalypse to the present, all the way down to the prehistoric era. He could even push it past the point of the future to set the time gauge to the End of Time.

Thinking quickly, he set the dial toward the third to lowest point, which created a readout on a small screen next to it: 12000 B.C. – Dark Ages.

With great aplomb, Alexander mashed the large red button sitting next to the time gauge. A bright light surrounded the Epoch, and it started to move forward at high speeds. It moved so quickly that the rest of the room seemed to stretch out forever...

And suddenly, it looked like they were flying through a sea of flame, startling the entire party. They were moving so fast that they were catching fire! "Eeeeeek!!" Marle screeched.

"Whoa!" Frog exclaimed.

"Woohoo!!!" Alex couldn't help but shout out as the Epoch sailed through time, and his comrades simply looked at him with annoyed expressions.

Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix.