Chrono Trigger

The Queen Returns; A discussion of current happenings and an abrupt disappearance.

Despite being in an impoverished kingdom, Crono had never felt more comfortable in his life. Of course, the comparison of wandering about the woods and sleeping on the floor had a large effect on how he viewed comfort. Even still, compared to his own home where everything seemed far advanced, the bed on which he slept was as soft as a cloud. He sighed comfortably as he let his limbs heal and rub against the clean bedding. Even while he was asleep he reflected on how lucky he was, having the queen save his life in such a strange turn of events. In his dreams he saw possible reasons why she would do such a thing. Of course, one of them was not such a pure reason, but with such a strange look on her face that suggested heart-felt emotion it was hard not to picture it. Still, he was most definitely certain that if that were to happen he would simply vanish, knowing that no force in the world would save him from the king's wrath.

Just as his dream sifted to different circumstances he felt himself being roused from sleep. He blinked slowly and tried to see the face of the person waking him. It was still dark and the only light that was in the room was a fireplace that lay opposite of him. The fire had long since dimmed, but coals glowed as wisps of smoke rose to escape through the chimney. He looked at the person, bewildered to see a woman watching him intently. He jumped with a start, scaring himself and the woman, who began to apologize profusely.

"W-What are you doing here?" Crono asked, touching his bare chest and feeling his rapid heartbeat.

"I am here by instruction of her majesty!" The woman said with a slight bow, "I am her maid."

"Oh," Crono said, "what does she want?"

"For you to meet her in her quarters immediately. If you will get dressed I will led you there."

Crono almost had a normal heartbeat until she said that. It began to beat wildly again as he swallowed hard, surprised and horrified by such an invitation. He looked at the maid dubiously, "Why does she want to see me?" Crono asked, almost cautiously. The maid shrugged in reply, showing that she was clueless on the matter, but she knew that the queen wanted to talk about certain things. She offered again to help dress him to which he refused with a bashful reply. She left the room long enough for him to get dressed again.

The castle itself was far creepier at night when there were only torches playing their light against the walls. There were empty suits of armor that flanked the grand halls on each side, almost seeming like ghosts that gleamed in the dim glow. The maid seemed unaffected, having been a resident in the castle and going about it for years. Crono, on the other hand, not only nervous about the queen's invitation was darting his eyes back and forth to take in his surroundings.

They entered the throne room which had a few attendants scrubbing and sweeping away any dust. They only nodded in salutation to the maid and Crono who began to walk up a stairway that led to the east wing of the castle. There were many ways to enter the east wing of the castle, but this seemed the quickest and the most private. Even when they had reached the east wing, there were still more corridors that seemed to have an endless amount of rooms, some empty and some serving as housing for the many servants or guests that stayed in the castle. There was another stairway that was gaudy with banners and marble statues of cherubs. Evidently, this was more of a feminine touch while the suits of the armor were far more suited to the king. It was only a sign that they were close to the queen's quarters. They went up the stairway which led to an area that was far more lighted than the rest of the castle.

These quarters were a little different from the rest of the castle. The rest of the castle had imposing marble colors while this had softer and more gentle colors that were far more inviting. He turned to the maid who offered an explanation on the quarters. "Well, as you can see, she has been expecting you. It is a little more lighted here than usual," which was to Crono's relief. "The baths are to your left, the visitor's quarters are straight ahead, and her room is to the right."

Crono asked slowly, "So, which room is she in?"

The maid replied equally slowly, saying, "In her bedroom."

Crono looked to his right as he gulped. His chest felt like it was going to explode and at that moment he felt it was very unfair for such stressful circumstances to constantly find its way to him. Even the maid seemed uncomfortable as he headed off towards her room to which the doors were opened. Even still, he knocked on the side of an open door, waiting for her acknowledgement.

"Come in."

He stepped into the heavily furnished room with all the meekness of a small child. He glued his eyes to the floor, not willing to meet the gaze of the queen. However, he felt her eyes that were fixated on him and only him. Then, he heard a giggle which made him look towards the queen. She had a toothy grin on her face, but it quickly vanished as she made herself out to be serious, "Crono, would you please come forward?" He obeyed, but only looked down at the ground once she said it. As he went a few paces forward he immediately told himself that if she made a move on him he would simply run away from her and the castle. He would try to go back and find where he came from and just head right back and ask for help. His heart was pounding in his ears as he was only a few feet from her now and suddenly she burst into a fit of giggles.

So sudden was this unexpected laughter that even Crono found his voice and asked, oh so timidly, what she found so funny. The queen looked at him now, not with a coy smile or an inviting stare like he was frightened would happen, but he found one that seemed amused. A single hairpin was holding her locks in place that was piled on the top of her head. With a single pull on her pin, it all came falling around her shoulders. It was beautiful blonde hair that seemed soft and light. She casually tossed the pin to Crono who was uncertain why she did so, so he mindlessly put it into his own pocket. She produced a braid from the depths of all the ruffles in her dress and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. After this quick transformation she looked almost exactly like…

"Marle? Is that really you?"

The queen nodded excitedly, giggling at the same time, happy that her name was not forgotten. "Yes! It's me! Marle! I knew you would look for me! I knew it!"

A wide grin spread across his face, and forgetting all his formalities, he embraced her in a tight hug. Marle returned it, only a bit softer, and probably a bit more meaningful than the one she was receiving. After a moment they parted and they looked at each other and a look of awe came over Crono's face. "I could hardly recognize you! You looked so different under all that conformity!"

She played with the layers of skirts on her clothing, twirling about like she was a ballerina. "I know! It was crazy! I came here and suddenly there were a bunch of soldiers that looked at me in a strange way, like they knew me!" She spoke very frantically with her mouth and hands as she recounted a large portion of her story. Obviously, when she arrived at this strange place, she was taken into custody. She told Crono how she was taken against her will and how no one believed her when she said that she wasn't their queen. She also told Crono that after she was dressed in these clothes she saw that she looked just like the queen, and at this point she showed him the picture of the woman she saw. It was a very striking resemblance. She also told him how she decided she would play along as their queen, saying that she admitted to the king that she was the queen and that she was ill. She then told him that she was looking for an opportunity to escape and find her way back.

After all of this, Crono explained his part of the story: the monsters, the trek through the forest, the farmer that betrayed him, the brutality of the soldiers, the lack of explanation of the reason for his arrest, and finally his arrival at the castle. He also told her that he was still not certain why they had arrested him in the first place. At this point, Marle was happy to explain to him what exactly had happened and why he was arrested…

He listened with great attention and it all became clear to him in a matter of minutes. Evidently, there was a queen that had gone missing, which he gathered as much. Additionally, she was last seen in the cathedral, but when the guards came along they said that some strange men were escorting her out the door and towards the mountains. Since that day, guards have been scaling the mountains from top to bottom in hopes of finding some sort of clue. She offered an explanation, saying that when Crono told the farmer that he came from the mountains, it seemed very suspicious to him. There was also a rumor circulating that fires had been seen on the mountain, indicating spies. So evidently, the farmer thought he was a spy, called the guards, and had him arrested.

"I see…They thought I kidnapped the queen because I came from the mountain!" He said, a light obviously shed on his doubts.

"Yes, and that is what led you to me." Marle said in a sing-song voice.

"Well, now that I found you, we need to get out of here and quick! These people are odd!" He began to tug on her arm, but she did not allow herself to be budged.

He looked at her, confused. "What's wrong? Don't you want to get out of here?"

He was shocked as he turned to see her hands clasped together and tears swelling in her eyes. She looked at Crono with so much adoration that it was slightly uncomfortable for him. She opened her mouth to say something, but for the first few times she could not. She only began to shake her head in disbelief as she repeated his name over and over. There was a moment of silence and finally she spoke very earnestly, "You went through so much trouble. You almost died in the woods and earlier today. And you did it for me…Nobody has ever done something like that for me before. You came all the way here to save me!" She fell on him and threw her arms around his shoulders and sniffled as she buried her head into his chest.

Crono felt a sense of happiness build in him and he felt the strength of her embrace, enjoying the warmth of it. She only said, "I knew that you would." She tore herself from the embrace and looked into his eyes as she wiped away the tears from her cheeks. "Excuse me. I really don't do this often. It's just been a weird day. But, I meant what I said. I haven't known you long, but for some reason, I knew you would be here…"

Crono smiled, but tried to break the awkwardness that began to dawn on the both of them, "Well, you can buy me some candy after all this."

They both laughed and it was Marle who finally suggested, "Let's go home, then."

They began to leave, but suddenly there was a cold feeling that engulfed the both of them, completely overwhelming the warmth of what just happened. Crono turned about to see Marle, white-faced, and seemingly horrified. Even Crono began to worry as he saw streams of tears running down her cheeks. It almost seemed as if she were in pain. She began to pant heavily as she fell to her knees. Crono quickly knelt in front of her, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look into his eyes. "Mare? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Without explanation, the soft smooth surface of Marle's skin suddenly gave way and it felt as if his hands were touching nothing at all. He looked away from her eyes towards his hands and he almost screamed as he realized that they were passing right through her! Even Marle noticed and she began to scream. Have you ever had a nightmare where all you had to do to be saved was scream? Usually, when it such a dream, you find that you cannot make a sound, or that it comes out in an inaudible whisper. Such was her voice at the moment. It seemed breathy and was so soft that Crono had to still himself and listen carefully. He could make out only a few words and they struck terror into his very soul.

"It feels like I'm being torn in two! It's so cold…Help me, please help me!"

"I don't know what to do! What is going on Marle?"

He kept grabbing at her image frantically, hoping that somehow she would come back. Instead, she kept fading and fading until she was completely gone. He felt immense confusion as he got to his feet. Certainly the disappearance of his friend plagued his mind, but what also bothered him was the fact that he was all alone in the queen's room and she was gone. What would the people assume? Without another thought, he ran out the door and to the maid's confusion, he bounded down the stairs. He swept past the long corridors, and he went out the large gates which had to be pried open by the doormen.

He was running through the small forest towards the town that lay in front of the castle before the maid could call for the guards…