Chrono Trigger

Forget me Naught; a discussion of what lies beyond…

They walked the overgrown path toward the estate. To their right was deeper forest and to their left was the overlook of a scenic bluff. They could feel the salty breeze of the ocean, carried by a brewing tempest. They could see dark gray storm clouds forming on the horizon.

"Aye, there it is." Glenn said with a smile.

They passed an iron gate that had rusted and fallen off its hinges into the overgrown grass. A mixture of live and dead ivy clung to stone walls, it leaves twisting and breaking off from the building gale. Nature had taken back much of the property, but the buildings ahead still appeared in good condition.

The manor was prominent, with a steepled roof and graystone work. It was adorned with stained glass windows that were pale from dust. There was evidence of a fire, where part of the roof had caved in. Several windows were shattered, but the damage was not as extensive as they had thought it to be. In front of the manor were cozy looking barracks. They were newer, added years after the construction of the original manor.

Glenn laughed in mirthful astonishment, "Look there! That is where Cyrus and I would practice our fencing with Astor and his instructors! And over there! That is where our regiment would sit at campfires and sing every night!"

Chrono smiled while Glenn revisited his past. Off in the distance Lucca noted the harbor. Marle remarked, "You know, as long as it has been neglected, this place looks alright."

Glenn laughed, "Aye! The Astorian line had its share of artisans although they were mostly noted for their knighthood. Look at the work of some of those statues! Several of those were made by Cyrus' great-grandfather when he retired! And look over here!"

Glenn jogged toward one of the buildings that sat in the courtyard.. "'Tis a barrack that was erected after Astor lent out his estate. 'Tis only one of the score that are scattered throughout this property, but this was mine."

The building was simple, but was large enough to accommodate over eighty cadets in ten rooms. Glenn pushed open the door with a shuddering groan. Dust from ages past floated from the fixtures. The inside was dusty but was remarkably free from clutter. There was a small front room with a fireplace and a low-lying table flanked by wooden benches covered in thick wool blankets. Past the opening room was a hallway with five doors on either side, a final door situated at the end of the hallway. One of the doors had fallen from the frame and revealed that the ten rooms consisted of simple quarters. Each held four bunk beds with rusted chests that would have contained the possessions of the cadets.

"We can fix it." Ayla said with a nod.

"Aye." said Glenn. "Come. Let us see my environs. 'Tis been many a year since I hath set foot here. Mayhaps something of value may have been left behind. At the very least I know a picture had been commissioned of me by Astor when I commanded my first legion. It was a suggestion by Cyrus. I hath forgotten it 'til now. I wouldst like to take it with me."

"I didn't take you for the sentimental type." Magus said wryly.

"He's always sentimental." Lucca said with a grin.

Glenn chuckled and pushed the door at the end of the hall open.

There was no startled reaction. Rather, Glenn's face scrunched up in curiosity. He stepped into the room and the others followed. They could see the reason for his surprise. While the rest of the barracks were in decent condition, the commander's room was in disarray. The bed was overturned, tables were flipped on their sides, and shattered glass was on the floor.

"Where did this glass come from?" Asked Robo.

"Ink wells." Lucca stated, "Look, you can see blotches of it all over the floor."

"Not only that," Marle started, "but it looks like a mirror on the wall broke."

Glenn stooped over and investigated some papers. He looked as if he were searching and sighed. "I am not sure why, but either someone had searched through my quarters or a vagabond merely was brave and ransacked it."

"It couldn't be that." Marle said, "If it was, all the chests in the other rooms would have been open."

"Aye, thou hadst the right of it…" Glenn said, thinking for a moment. "Perhaps someone was searching for something? But whatever it was, they took my painting as well."

"Oh yeah," Chrono said, "It's a shame. I wanted to see what you looked like."

"Devilishly debonair. Thou wouldst have writhed with jealousy." Glenn smirked. He said it to lighten the mood, and it worked. He sighed while turning and said, "Well, it be of no use to cry over spilt ink. Shall we away? These quarters are easily salvageable. Ha! Nary a hint of ghosts either!"

There was the sound of intermittent rain hitting the roof as they left through the front door. The door was grabbed by the wind, swinging it violently on its hinges and clapping it against the wall. The trees swayed in the breeze, emitting cracking noises. While it wasn't pouring yet, the rain was quickly building up in size and frequency.

"When did this kick up?" Marle asked.

"''Twas over the sea," Glenn said. "If we move now we could take a look at the mansion."

Robo interceded, "I'm not sure. We don't know how well the building has held up. This storm seems stronger than usual. We probably shouldn't go through a damaged structure during a strong storm."

Glenn nodded, although he looked disappointed. "Aye, thou hast the right of it. What shall we do until then?"

Lucca gestured to the building they were in, "Well, we barely noticed the storm kicking up in here. I bet this place is safe enough. Who wants some hot chocolate?"

Within a few minutes there was a roaring fire and everyone was seated on benches. Within an hour the scene was picturesque. The mood was peaceful even as the storm raged outside, the wind rattling the window panes. The conversation between the group would be sporadic with long lulls of comfortable silence. Even Magus remarked that in his youth he used to play the lyre during times like this for Schala. He stared into the fire and smiled longingly, his eyes moistening for the briefest of moments.

Chrono sat on the end of one of the wooden benches, Marle leaning her head on his shoulder and his arms draped around her. He broke himself free from the serenity for just a moment and his eyes stared off into the distance as if he contemplated something. Lucca had noticed and was about to say something before Chrono beat her to it.

"Hey everyone. I have something I need to tell you." Chrono began.

Almost all turned toward him, watching him. It was more than the tone in his voice; a few noticed Lucca staring and sensed that she knew something was coming. He started but couldn't get the words out. He tried again, but started with, "Now, you have to promise me you guys won't freak out, okay?"
It was only Marle, being in a state of protected comfort, that barely noticed his seriousness. Her head was still against his shoulder, her breathing slow, deep, and steady. "What? Were you the one who finished off the marshmallows? I already knew it."

He smiled and nudged her gently. "It's a bit more serious than that. And no, for the third time, I did not. That was obviously Magus." Magus scoffed and muttered his dissent. Crono gently nudged Marle again and said, "Here, you should sit upright for this, okay?"

She did but still regarded him leisurely unlike everyone else. Chrono smiled and then turned his attention to the fire. He held out the arm that cuddled Marle earlier toward the fire, his face flush with concentration. They turned toward the fire and gasped as a ball of flame separated from crackling log and floated in the air toward Chrono. It landed and danced in his palm, as if it were a candle. They were quiet as they watched Chrono play with it, making it larger, smaller, and then change shapes. He was pleased. It wasn't shocked or frightened stares they had; rather, it was more like they were watching him perform a trick and they were trying to see how he did it.

Magus, being able to control multiple elements, knew what it was and went straight to the point. "That is no trick. You are truly controlling fire. Can you do that to other elements?"

"I can." Chrono said, still concentrating and not taking his eye off the flame.

That was when it connected with everyone else. They gasped and there was a little bit of shock now, but it was still more out of fascination. Ayla started, "How? And when? Why didn't you say anything?"

The ball of flame slowly dimmed into non-existence as Chrono released his control. He stretched his fingers and shook his hand loose. "I guess I didn't say anything because it wasn't big and grand. It was very tiny things at first and they almost seemed as if it were things reacting around my magic, rather than me influencing them."

Glenn, with slight smirk, took his cup of hot chocolate and said, "Chrono, canst thou stop this?"

Without warning he thrust his half-full cup of hot chocolate in Chrono's direction. Chrono's hands instinctively went up, halting the steaming concoction in the air. Glenn guffawed in astonishment and pointed, "I knew it! I know thou wert holding thy skills back! All those times I sparred with thee and thou still canst mislead me!"

Crono grinned, "It wasn't lying...it was...well, 'an omittence of truth.'" He guided the liquid back to Glenn's cup through the air, who proceeded to down the rest after he grinned back. "But, yeah, you're right. I just didn't want to freak you guys out."

"How strong is it?" Lucca asked.

"Not as strong as the elements either of you can control and nowhere near the ability I have with lightning. I'm not sure I can surpass where you guys are, but I'm getting better all the time."

"Well, who's been sneaking lessons and teaching you?" Marle asked playfully. She meant it more as a joke; she never expected the long silence that followed after Chrono breathed in deeply. She looked at him with a bit of foreboding

"You all have to promise me you won't freak out."

The room was quiet. He looked around and all leaned in forward, eyeing him with confusion and growing apprehension. After a few moments they either nodded or uttered their promise. With that, Chrono exhaled and leaned back so he was looking toward the ceiling. He was quiet a moment longer before he said, "After I fought Lavos in the Ocean Palace...I-I, well I went somewhere else."

"You mean you were alive somewhere?" Robo asked.

"No."

What Chrono was trying to say slowly dawned on the group. They could feel his honesty, but that was the most off-putting thing about it. To be that sincere, you truly had to believe it happened. For that to be the case, either Chrono had to be telling the truth or crazy.

"I saw Elly."

Lucca gasped and Chrono looked to her and smiled, "She was exactly how I imagined she would be, but she wasn't a little girl. She was our age and she was so smart, Lucca. You wouldn't believe how much she knew. She seemed smarter than all the three gurus together and then some. I think there is something about being on the other side that opens your mind somehow, like we are limited here and other there we take to learning things like breathing. I think that's why I just...I just know certain things."

"Like what?" Ayla said, raising an eyebrow.

"That despite whatever happens, everything will be okay."

Chrono could feel his answer was too vague. He could also feel a deep well of doubt and sorrow within Marle. In his mind's eye he could feel the reason for her sorrow and continued, "Marle, you didn't have the same experience I did. You found yourself in a dark place, but what it really was is you couldn't see, hear, or feel."

"What do you mean?"

"When I died, I existed in time. I died, but I wasn't wiped out of existence. However, with you, you existed and suddenly you were wiped from time. You had felt things, knew things, heard things, and suddenly your body never existed."

"But if my body never existed, then I never would have existed." Marle said, her brow furrowing. She could feel her heart beating faster, as if Chrono was playing some cruel joke on her to make her feel better. She was beginning to feel as if he was lying to her to make her feel better.

"But you did. When you disappeared, I remembered you. I tried to bring you back. If you never existed, then I never would have thought to bring you back."

"That doesn't make sense." Marle said, her face softening a bit, but remembering that dark place brought back the fears she felt before about death.

Chrono sighed and said, "It's hard to put into words, but...you were waiting. You were waiting to be brought back. If not in your original body, you would have come back in another. It could have been in this world or somewhere else, but it would have happened. It could have been in a day, a thousand years, an uncountable amount of years, but it would have happened. That is just the way things are."

"What do you mean 'another world?'" someone asked.

"Just a moment," Crono said, stopping the flow of questions before it began. He looked to Marle, her eyes moist and shaky as if she were on the verge of tears. He took his hand and held her chin and stared into her eyes. He smiled as he did those many times during their journey, "I know you are scared, but I promise you: there is more after this."

"It doesn't end in the way I saw?"

"No."

She buried her face in his chest and cried. He rubbed her back, softly whispering that everything would be okay. Everyone watched, touched by the scene before them. Marle, in her cheerful disposition, would hold things in. In their countless hours together there were many conversations that haven't been recounted in this story. The rarest and most profound of her interactions was when she would recall what happened to her when she was erased from time. Her vivid recollection would frighten the others and instead of placing that burden on others she held it in to herself. It became the fear that everyone ignored, the worrisome phantom that would grace her countenance when she allowed her mind to wander, the specter that Chrono's presence would push away. And now it was suddenly gone.

He spoke softly so that only she could hear, "I wanted to tell you so many times. I'm sorry. It just wasn't the right time. I wanted to talk to you so many times. I wanted to tell you how proud your mother is of you and how she misses you too."

Marle sobbed even harder, but her chest was filled with a warm glow. Despite the tears, there was a smile on her face albeit tremulous. She kissed him and they rested their foreheads against each other. He brushed his hand against her cheek with his thumb, clearing away a tear. "We'll talk about this more later, alright? I promise." She smiled now in earnest and nodded.

She snuggled up to him again, the smile still on her face and her cheeks wet as she stared into the fire. She was still listening intently, but with a calm sort of happiness that she hadn't felt in a long time. Chrono breathed in again and said, "There are other worlds, here and beyond our own star. Even with everything I learned on the other side, it was not enough time to get a sense of how big and grand our own world is, let alone the places outside of it. But one thing I know for sure is this: if we stopped hunting for Lavos today, in the long term everything will be okay."

This brought about a stunned silence. Lucca began, her sarcasm flaring up, "Oh, so we can just let the world end and everything will be cookies and cream, you say?"

Chrono shook his head. "I didn't say it would be cookies and cream. Just like a river, eventually an obstruction would clear away and things will flow as they should. But there would be a great disruption to the flow of all things. Just like with Marle, there would be countless intelligences out there, trapped into non-existence. Their chance to come into being would be frustrated for an untold amount of time; an untold amount of time we could never fathom."

"Well, let us try to fathom it anyway…" Magus stated.

Chrono thought on it a moment, trying to put it into words. "To an intelligence waiting to come into being, a blink of an eye is our lifetime. An era to us is a slumber for them. They had been waiting for the chance to come into our world to live, to feel, to learn, to evolve, to grow...but if our world is destroyed, they will float through the eternities, looking for another chance. Even for them the disruption Lavos would bring would make their wait feel like an eternity."

"That sounds horrible." Lucca said after a long silence.

"Time goes on. Life goes on. Far beyond this world there have been others like Lavos. They may have operated differently, they may have looked differently, but their goal has always been the same: to disrupt the flow of life for some reason or another. Most fail, but some succeed. Those who succeed disrupt the flow of life, of knowledge, of growth. Where they succeed darkness reigns until time rights itself, which it inevitably does. That is why I say 'everything will be okay'; because it will."

"Why talk about this now?" Robo asked.

"As we sat here, I felt as if you are all like a family to me. I felt the same peace I felt when I walked with Elly and we talked as if we had known each other for a whole lifetime. I knew then that you guys were ready to think about what I have wanted to ask you all: are you ready to face Lavos again?"

They stammered. He held up a hand and said, "You don't have to answer me now. You can think about it. I told you what I told you so that you can choose of your own will. I don't want you to feel guilt about being scared. You are right to be scared. But there is a lot at stake. I will go, but I do not make the decision lightly. I could fail. Even with all of us, we could fail. But, I guess what I really want to say is 'don't be afraid.' It will all be okay in the end."

Ayla scoffed, but good-naturedly, "It is hard not to be afraid of that."

"I know," Chrono said with a smile. He let his smile fade and stared into the fire, "When I was on the other side, everything came so easy. You could feel the flow of all things...if you were open to it."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw my father there as well."

That made Lucca gasp, her hand going over her mouth. Chrono nodded and said, "Even in this world, we have people who try to stop the flow of life." He looked toward Magus and said, "You cannot understand how truly foolish the Queen of Zeal was in her attempt for immortality. It comes to all of us. You just have to wait."

Magus felt a horror in his chest grow as he thought upon his previous misdeeds, "What happened to your father?"

Chrono sighed, "When you leave this place, its like scales fall off of your eyes. It's like you crawled your entire life and all of a sudden you can fly. The knowledge of all that was and all that will be just floods into you...but you also see what you have done and the mistakes you have made. Not only do you see the wrongs you did, you see how it impacted every life that exists, like ripples in a pond. You see lives that could have been but weren't because of something as simple as a lie. My father saw that. He saw my sadness; he saw my trial at your castle. He saw the woman that Elly would have been, and it broke him."

"How did it break him?"

"He shuts himself out from knowledge because it shows him the weight of what he's done. He doesn't grow. Seeing what he has done causes him so much anguish that he can't open his eyes to see that in the sense of eternities it was nothing. It broke my heart; I hated him, but now I pity him. He begged my forgiveness but no matter how much I or Elly forgave him he never forgave himself."

"Will he?" Magus asked, his voice barely audible.

"It will take a long time. A very long time. But time heals all wounds. Even when he finally does, there will always be the regret of what you have done."

"Didst thou not harbor regret?" Glenn began, "Would I not as well? What of thy part of the battle at Zenan Bridge?"

Chrono nodded, "I wondered that as well. I had some regret, but I was not affected like my father was. I think the main difference was that I anguished over it in life; I felt sorrow for what I have done and did my best to make amends. Maybe that is the truly good thing about being in mortal bodies; you have the chance to finish your business and be prepared for where you go next."

Glenn thought for a moment, hesitated, and said, "How many people visited thee on the other side?"

"More than I could count and I felt like I knew them all."

Glenn felt a pang of worry in his heart, "Didst thou see Cyrus?"

Chrono was quiet for a moment and said, "No."

Glenn shook his head, "How couldst that be? I saw him die."

Chrono looked at Glenn and said, "There are some souls who hold so much anger and animosity that they reject the fact that they have died altogether. Even my father was able to accept that his life had ended...but there are some souls that do not…"

Glenn's face drained of blood when he realized what Chrono was suggesting. Chrono sighed, "I am sorry that I did not tell you, Glenn. But that is part of the reason why we are here."

"Dost thou mean to tell me that Cyrus is here?"

"Not yet."

"Yet? Well, where is he then?"

Chrono looked out into the storm that grew steadily worse. "He will be here. Very soon."