Chrono Trigger

Comfort shattered; Crono is home, but there have been great changes…

This day was perhaps the most beautiful day he remembered for quite some time. Although he could not put a finger on exactly why, his body felt as if it had not walked at such a leisurely pace for some time. It was almost like a great weight had been lifted and he was enjoying himself. He passed underneath the gentle shadows of pines that hid the beach from view. He smiled as his eyes found Lucca. She was sitting on a white, wooden bench. She was kicking sand as she tinkered with something in her hands. Even before he called out she had noticed him and called him over.

"Hey! You're actually on time for once!"

"Hey, Lucca. What are you working on?"

"What do you think?" She asked, feigning hostility. "It's only the part that you broke yesterday."

"What?" He asked, scratching his head.

"Oh, and I would appreciate it if that blonde bimbo weren't so mouthy with me next time." Lucca said, her teeth gnashing for only a moment at the memory.

"What blonde bimbo?" Crono asked, his eyebrows arching.

"Ha!" Lucca slapped her knee, "That's a good sign! I thought that she was going to start following us everywhere!"

"Wait a minute…Do you mean Marle?"

"Ah," Lucca clicked her tongue, "you remember her name after all. Well, I hope you don't mind me saying this; but I don't wanna see her again."

"I thought you two were friends!" Crono said. His head swam as he struggled to piece together his memories.

"Oh sure," Lucca began sarcastically, "we were very close…How can I live on without her and blah-dee-blah-dee-blah…Can you hand me the wrench?"

Crono mindlessly obeyed and watched her tighten a few key spots on her machine. He looked at her with eyes that were worried and she did not notice at first. She jolted back and said with an odd smile, "What? What's the problem? Don't tell me she proposed to you or anything! I swear, if I have to deal with her on a permanent basis I will go nuts!" It was then that Crono mentioned something that he could distinctly remember. "What happened at the fair?"

She gave him a humorous look and said, "What? Did you really hit your head that hard? It would be kind of hard to forget something like that."

"Come on," he said a bit forcefully, "just tell me what happened."

"Well," Lucca began, waving her wench back in forth in tune to the story, "starting from you showing up late; and when that Marle girl hung all over you like drapes over a window; and the machine messing up…"

"Yes! That! What happened?" Crono said enthusiastically. Lucca went wide-eyed in surprise as he demanded to know what happened.

Lucca sighed and said something about self-proclaiming heroics before she continued. "You came to the unveiling of my new invention, bringing that girl with you. You should have known that someone like her would try to challenge me. There is nothing I despise more than skeptics. Well, after she challenged me and stepped up to try out my invention something short circuited. We don't really know what happened and…" Crono leaned forward, hoping with all his might that she would say what he thought to be the truth. "…and our motor burst. You dove over Marle just at the right time. Oh, but I bet she loved that, didn't she?"

Crono shook his head. "Nothing else happened?"

"Well, if you consider that girl following you around like a love-struck puppy, thanking you over and over again…and unless there are some juicy details, which I am very thankful you haven't shared to me…then I suppose nothing else happened."

His head hung low. With that, Lucca's voice softened and her hand went to his knee, "Hey…Are you okay? You don't seem like yourself today…"

"Something doesn't seem right…This can't be…" He was going to say "real", but bit it back as Lucca watched him.

She broke the awkward air by rising from her chair and tugging on his arm. "You know what you need? You just need to have some fun. You hung out with that girl all day and did almost nothing with me and Elly."

Elly?

His world began to spin at that name. A deafening ring echoed in his head as a surge of memories poured into his mind. Lucca gave him a sideways glance that almost seemed alarmed. She asked him gently if he were all right to which he replied in the affirmative. She did not believe him, but choose to play along regardless. However, Crono began to grow almost feverishly weak as that name kept returning to him and he finally worked up the courage to ask Lucca the most difficult question he had ever asked…

He had an idea, but he needed to confirm what he imagined. "Who is Elly?"

Lucca's look of worry turned into something frantic and she lowered Crono down to the ground. It is odd how even the most gifted actors cannot reenact such powerful symptoms of shock that Crono displayed. That is why Lucca never questioned him, seeing that he was completely serious. She searched his head and found nothing, but still insisted that he stay on the ground. She did the usual tests; asking him to count fingers and state his name which he did perfectly. Along with that he asked again who Elly was.

"Crono…" she said in a tone that suggested the answer should be obvious, "It's your sister…"

That was when he fainted…

Imagined experiences, that were mostly created by the "what-ifs" and "should-haves" in his life, were violently thrust into Crono's reality. Was this a dream? How does the mind know when it is truly awake? The ground felt real; the glades of grass between his fingers felt real; even the smell of the nearby ocean seemed real. But it could not be real. His sister could not be alive. He told this to himself over and over, his heart beating wildly as he wondered where Lucca went.

He had regained consciousness and was sitting upright. He massaged his face with his hands. He could feel little grains of dirt that were in his palms and that reminded him that this must be reality. Why should it not be? This was just like his home. This was exactly what happened before his dream. Why did he feel so confused? Was he losing is mind? What caused him to despair so? Just as he thought on these things he could hear the shuffle of feet from a short distance away.

"Lucca? What happened?" Crono asked, shaking his head. "I'm sorry if I…if I…oh God…"

This was not an act of taking the Lord's name in vain, but an actual prayer, for he had never been so frightened and confused in his life. Something about this little girl that stood before him filled him with so much dread that he could barely speak at the sight of her. She stood, very innocent and sweet. Even though he had never seen her, he had imagined what she would have looked like in his most private and sacred moments. In comparison to what he imagined, she was a mirror image.

She was half his height, but was near the age where she would grow quickly. She wore a simple dress that came to middle of her shin with a tied wrap coming around the waist. Her eyes were apple-green just like his and her hair was nearly the same color of red, only a bit darker. A few freckles surrounded her bright smile which seemed so friendly and kind. Her mannerisms were quaint and polite; suitable for a well-groomed lady.

"Is there something wrong, brother?" She asked, tilting her head.

"No…" Crono said, his fear beginning to melt away. Tears began to trickle down his cheeks as he got on his knees and looked at her. She regarded him with a cautious look, but smiled as he gripped her tightly in a hug that warmed him more than anything. "No…there is nothing wrong…everything is wonderful…"

Unfortunately, there was nothing pleasant about this scene, for discerning minds who watched elsewhere have found the proverbial Achilles heel. Had these dark powers wanted to slay him at that moment it would have been so easy. The illusion that hugged him so affectionately could have gripped him with horrifying strength and twist his neck at a moment's notice. However, the creature was made to fulfill a certain design, and to gain its target's trust was the beginning. Elly had pulled away, her tiny hand still grasping her brother's. "Come on home." She said, "I told Momma that you shouldn't go out today!"

As they walked, Crono could not help but look at her whenever she wasn't watching. She walked about in thin sandals, her hand still grasping his as they walked. Would they have been this close and comfortable with each other if she were still alive? Oh, but what was he saying to himself? Of course she was alive, for she was at his side at that very moment! Forget the other world that continued to rise to the surface of his consciousness! May it be damned, for it could never be as enticing in its entirety as this single moment where his deepest shame never happened! There were no need for his adventures, and there was no need of his knighthood; this is what he wanted all along. His heart seemed to swell within him at the sight of her, much more than the dream of knighthood he relished before. Had anyone realized that there had been a reason for that dream? Had anyone wondered why he wanted to be the man on whom everyone depended?

A flash of his knighting under the hand of the ancient king passed before his eyes, and he shook it away. The visions of Lavos' reign of terror also began drift away. In fact, his many journeys through time were slowly being forgotten as he watched his sister walk. However, whenever he took his eyes away from his sister the memories would come back to him as would some pestering fly. It made Crono think that even with all this peace, there was something amiss. However, years of guilt and repressed memories are never dealt with during happy times and if all he had to do was watch his sister to forget them, it was a remedy he would gladly follow.

By the time they had approached the house he had been fully convinced that this was his life now. He smiled naturally, free from any guilt and confusion that visited him before. He swung his sister's hand as they walked, sometimes lifting her in the air to her squealing joy. He made her step back as he reached for the front door, telling his sister that ladies should go first. He held the door open for her as a gentleman would and she walked in. He followed, his eyes closing shut.

"Did you really think that it would be that easy?"

His eyes opened and he felt his heart sink. The once beautifully bright world was now dark and gloomy. The clean and orderly home he lived in was in complete disarray as his test brought him to his most painful moment. Just as it had happened all those years ago, his life had suddenly changed. His sister was no longer there, but was growing within his mother as she lay on the ground. Standing before her, with its back toward Crono, was the monster that he most abhorred. Its fists were clenched, its back tensed, its nostrils flaring as it made crude accusations. Crono looked to the table and saw a knife, which glowed and beckoned him. He nearly reached for it, but the monstrosity turned around, grabbing Crono by his shoulders.

"What are you doing? What do you think you're going to do with that knife, huh?"

"Leave her alone…" Crono whispered.

A hand flew across his face and he felt himself being shaken violently. "What makes you think you can talk to me like that!?" His eyes closed and opened again and he saw the face of his sister.

What happened next showed Crono how foolish he had been. He felt himself fly backwards as if a strong arm gripped him. He landed roughly on the floor, that same creature standing over him who had the look of his sister, but not her voice. Although he focused on the face he found himself noticing the stained-glass sunroof. He was back in this time, in this place, in this horrid world where he failed to save the one life that truly mattered to him. He lay prostrate on the ground as the creature struck him repeatedly. It spoke with the voice of his sister again, yet in all his dreams Crono never imagined the voice with such hateful speech, "You still couldn't do it? You couldn't kill a murderer? You would let me die again?"

Crono said nothing as he allowed himself to be beaten. The hands of the illusion no longer felt like the soft hands of a child, but the bones of a specter. He began to lose consciousness, but then he heard somebody calling his name. Suddenly, something within began to fight back. His hands searched frantically for anything that could be used as a weapon. His hands gripped a rock, and then swung it with as much force as he could muster. The creature toppled over, yelping in pain. Crono tried desperately to crawl away, but felt the specter pull at his legs. Then, he saw it.

The knife from his past lay before him.

He reached for it while his foe clung to him, desperately pushing his hands out of the way. The bony fingers of the specter scratched him, drawing blood as his hand clapped against the brick walkway. Finally, his hand fell upon the knife. He turned to his back, his hand gripping the handle. The knife sunk into the image of his sister so easily it could have been air. The scuffling stopped and the specter's hands stopped grabbing at him. They shook for a moment and fell limply at its side. Crono watched, his eyes wide in astonishment as the illusion before him turned into sand that drifted away as if carried off by some unknown wind. The face of the specter, which still resembled his sister, disappeared last.

Crono's friends stood a distance off, watching with horror and sympathy. They knew he could feel them there, but he did not call them. Instead, he let out a cry that racked his whole body insomuch that he could not breathe. He made a horrible noise as he sucked in air and bawled it out as once. He felt the hands of his friends touch his back, trying vainly to comfort him. He did not have the power to shake them away or even acknowledge them. He could only sit on the dusty cathedral floor and reflect on what he had lost.

Magus said nothing. His head hung low as he felt the flow of all things. His eyes, which had been glowing red, dimmed for a moment as he reflected on this pain. However, a black wind howled and his eyes burned again in excitement. "He comes!" Magus announced with baited breath. His hands tightened around his scythe and he hoped that his cohorts would hold off his pursuers long enough. Yes, he would need much strength for what awaited him. It was a moment he cherished since he was delivered into slavery; a moment that nearly made him salivate; it was a moment that justified this pain he caused others.

It was his moment.