Lucca's New Invention

Disclaimer: Chrono Trigger belongs to Square-Enix. The Legend of Zelda series belongs to Nintendo. Please support and play the official releases.

Face full of soot, grease, and grime, but with a twinkle of dastardly pride in her eye, Lucca raised her arms in the air, tossing aside her tools. "Victory is mine! Nya ha ha!"

One of the tools nearly struck her father, Taban, in the face. The aging gentleman ducked in the nick of time as her wrench soared over his head to strike the wall. "Goodness!"

Taban analyzed the mechanism Lucca had assembled. It had pieces and fixtures of disassembled teleport pods, the remainder littering the floor beneath him. Fortunately, he avoided stubbing his toe against a metal plate after he opened the door.

"I've upgraded the telepod!" shouted Lucca, embracing her new creation. Taban's eyebrow rose. What had his daughter conceived this time?

Her fingers delicately traced themselves along the smooth surface. "Mommy's a genius, isn't she? Yes, she is," she intoned.

Taban cleared his throat. "Whenever you two are, er, done, would you mind tidying up before your mother returns from her errands…?"

"Mommy's going to do so many things with you—" she continued until Taban returned her wrench with a flat look. Lucca casually took the wrench without a word and tapped the invention. "Yes, cleaning. Can't have mom give us hell, right?"

After the room was cleared of debris, Lucca draped a large white cloth over the upgraded telepod. As she and Taban settled down for dinner, Lucca watched her mother move around the kitchen, busying herself with additional fixings. Lucca never forgot what she did for her mother, preventing an accident that would've robbed the woman's mobility. Her mother never lost a beat in her cooking, though she was never without the occasional swipe of Lucca's cap and goggles off her head, reminding her not to wear hats at the table. Scolding or no, Lucca ate happily.

After a nice hot bath, Lucca peeked over the railing at her invention. Her hand reached the top of the cloth. "Goodnight. I can't wait to show you to Crono and Marle."

There was no Millenial Fair to celebrate the next day; that was over and done months ago.

On their way to set things up, Lucca stopped by Crono's house to wake him and send him to Guardia Castle to fetch Marle. Knowing Crono, she knew he'd be a while.

They then continued to the north section of Leene Square. Much of their equipment was left there under sheets to deter passersby. It benefitted Lucca as she didn't need to haul everything back to the house save the telepods, but the generator was what she concerned herself with the most. Biding her time until Crono and Marle arrived, she and Taban cleaned both control panels and the generator inside and out.

With only one telepod to worry about, they placed the device in the middle of the back, attaching large cables along the back and side that ran along the ground from the generator to the telepod. Lucca then produced the Sun Stone from her bag, an obsidian orb that shimmered a brilliant light from within like a slow heartbeat. She opened a panel from the front of the generator and placed the Sun Stone on a pedestal. "Generator's all set, dad. How are you on your end?" she asked.

Taban produced a thumbs up from his position, though all Lucca could see from her point of view was his hand. "We're good to go!"

Nadia's bell tolled ten times from the center concourse of Leene Square. "Ten O'Clock," whispered Lucca. "Crono and Marle should be on their way by now."

As the pair waited, they indulged in Lara's prepared breakfast she packed for them. Handmade and tied in a beautiful ribbon, the food that complimented the box was just as delicious. Freshly baked bread sliced thick and toasted, spread evenly by the most fragrant butter churned from the southern farmlands. Thick slices of cured smoked bacon, toasted slices of tomato, and two small wedges of cheese completed the rest with a container of freshly brewed coffee. Coffee was Taban's way of telling his daughter that "carefully crafted beans contain flavors that bless many gifted scientists. The perfect roast ignites the neurons and stimulates creativity. Never forget that."

Sharing a cup of coffee was also a silent rite of passage between parent and child, Lucca observed. The two shared in silence, allowing the flavor to stimulate the taste buds and giving them pause to welcome another day in the Kingdom of Guardia.

Marle and Crono arrived as they finished their cup. Crono tried to stifle a yawn but let it out audibly. It was almost contagious enough for Lucca to yawn herself despite the coffee.

"Lucca!" Marle shouted, waving. "Crono wanted me to see a cool, new thing you made?"

How does this girl have so much energy? What are they feeding her at the castle?!

The contrast between her friends was glaring. Crono yawned again, ruffling his ruby-colored hair, while Marle bounded about, poking and prodding every mechanism on display. "I remember this!" she shouted. "It was your teleporty thing, wasn't it?"

"Telepod, yes," Lucca corrected, easing Marle's hand away from the control panel. Pushing her glasses up, she switched the generator on. "But not anymore. I upgraded the old telepods into a single one."

Marle studied Lucca's invention, hand to her chin. Each sway of her blonde hair swung like a pendulum, mesmerizing Lucca. If she stared any longer, she'd be hypnotized. "So what does it teleport?" the Princess asked.

"I was about to ask that myself," said Taban, "but Lucca wouldn't tell me."

Crono could at least be enthusiastic about his friend's latest creation, but the lazy oaf kept yawning! She stalked over to him and jabbed his gut. "Come on, Crono," she said, pulling his arm. She situated him between Marle and Taban.

Once Lucca was assured of her audience, she signaled Taban to work the controls on one panel while she was on hers. The Sun Stone in the generator emanated a glow, astounding Marle. "Woah, what's going on there?" she asked.

"I'm using the Sun Stone to energize the telepod. The generator alone doesn't produce enough energy. So what better use for a stronger source than the unlimited power of the sun itself?"

Marle blinked. Crono was still indifferent but nodded. Marle elbowed him on the side to prevent another yawn from escaping his mouth.

"Dad? What's the energy level at?" Lucca asked from behind.

"One-twenty percent and rising!" Taban cried back.

"Give it more power…!"

Taban gave her an unexpected look, aware of their limit but unsure about their partner. "R-roger…!" he replied, turning several dials to the right.

Marle and Crono began taking a step backward and another until Lucca raised an eyebrow. "It's not going to blow up! Sheesh, you people. Never know awesome science if it kissed your butt with compliments."

"Uh, Lucca…?" Marle muttered. She and Crono had their eyes trained upward.

"What?"

She didn't understand why her friends were pointing to the sky. At first, she thought the impossible. No, it couldn't have been Lavos?! Did I do something excessive?!

Taban narrowly avoided a shock from the panel, shaking his arm. "Yeowch!"

Following Crono's and Marle's arms, she saw a vortex swirling in the sky. It should have affected the weather with storm clouds assembling above, but the skies were clear as day.

The display illustrated a wormhole forming and stabilizing several feet above the ground.

Rather than panic, Lucca began smiling.

Elsewhere, in another world, two people rode horses across the mainland of a kingdom known as Hyrule. The first was a maiden of unspeakable beauty and grace, hair of gold that shimmered under sunlight, blowing against the wind and long enough to reach her lower back. Her companion, a man whose face exemplified the word "hero," wore a matching blue tunic to hers, though her manner of dress was more conservative yet modest. His outfit afforded more freedom of movement, and his muscle tone implied athleticism that had seen its fair share of travel and combat, most notably based on the elegant blade sheathed on his back beneath a blue shield with red wings and a three-pronged pattern of golden triangles.

The maiden's steed, a pure white stallion that only one such as she could ever deserve to ride, became agitated. He stopped mid-stride and refused to continue, grunting and whinnying a warning not to proceed further. It was enough to halt the other steed the man rode on. "What is it?" the woman asked, soothing the stallion.

Disembarking first, the man motioned for the woman to stay on her saddle as he gripped the handle of his sword, ready to unsheathe at a moment's notice.

"Link? Do you sense something amiss as well?" the woman asked. The man named Link didn't answer, only searching with his eyes for the source of the horses' sudden panic. "Link, what is it?"

As Link was still unresponsive, she pulled a device attached to her hip. The screen displayed the land before her with a blinking light directly ahead that should not be there. "Strange. There is no unusual phenomenon in this area. We're still west of the Regencia river approaching Sanidin Park. Wait."

She disembarked and followed the light to the ruins. "Link, the source is from the body of water directly below the Horse Monument. I say we should investigate."

Before Link could protest, the woman had already jogged past him. Tightening his mouth, he released his grip on the blade and followed her. Thankfully the horses weren't spooked enough to flee the scene, yet they were tame enough not to venture beyond reach.

Once she ascended the hilltop, she followed the blinking light. The device emanated a ping that matched the light at its apex, only for it and the light to accelerate. "Look! We're getting closer!" she exclaimed. A new discovery in Hyrule that the Shiekah had not yet seen? Oh, Purah will be ecstatic to hear this!

She was so engrossed in her device that she had not seen the edge of the concrete that separated the monument from the steep incline. A quick clutch of her shoulder halted her movement. Uttering a gasp, the woman peeled her eyes from her device for a moment to realize she nearly went rolling down the hills into the river below.

An even louder gasp came out of her mouth when she saw the pool of water directly below her that showed no reflection but a window to a different area. "Link! By the Goddess, look below!"

Link removed his hand off her shoulder to examine what she alluded to, and even he could not spare the look of shock on his face. The pair exchanged looks. "What could this mean? What sorcery is at work here?" she asked.

They watched until a young woman appeared below, wearing a strange hat. The goggles reminded her of Robbie in some fashion, and she wondered if the young woman was a practitioner of experimentation like him.

"I have an idea. Wait here," the woman said to Link. Climbing up an apple tree nearby, she retrieved one of the delicious red fruit from the branch. Juggling it in her hand, she nodded to Link. "I must confirm something."

Stretching her arm out, she let the apple fall into the pool, which went through the window to the ground, splattering on the cobblestones. Giggling, the woman hopped on her feet. "Oh, Link, this is remarkable! We've stumbled upon a portal!"

On the other side, Lucca narrowly ended up with an object crashing onto her head. It landed with a splatter behind her. The fall created enough of a shift of air that forced her to take a step forward. "What the—?!"

Spinning to see what fell, Lucca bent down on one knee to investigate. "What's this?"

She plucked the object from the ground, turning it over in her hand. "An apple?"

Marle and Crono cautiously approached Lucca, still fixating on the vortex above. "What is that?" Marle asked.

"An apple," Lucca said, showing them the remnants of the fruit. She sniffed at it and remarked how sweet it was. It smelled even sweeter than the apples of Guardia forest, somehow. The three stared back up at the vortex, which showed nothing but a blackened void that warped space around it.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" Lucca shouted. No response. Just then, other objects, smaller in size, emerged from the opening. Pebbles, dirt, and gravel rained on them, forcing the trio to back away. "Hey! Cut that out!" Marle shouted while brushing dust from her hair.

From Hyrule, the woman carefully climbed down the ledge with Link's help, holding her arm to keep her steady. "You can let go, you know. I'll be fine!" she said. Her foot had slipped accidentally, pushing debris from the hill into the window. "Oops! Uh, sorry, whoever you are down there!"

Link stepped off the ledge, sidling against the hill to maintain his footing. He pointed back upward. "No, I must investigate further. I want to see where this portal leads," the woman told him.

Link wasn't having it. He shook his head and took the woman's hand, attempting to pull her up with him. He was her protector, her Champion, and nothing, much less a portal to a strange world, would prevent him from fulfilling his duty.

"Link! Let go! I demand you release me at-!"

Like clockwork, the woman's resistance caused her to lose footing, pulling Link back to her. The pair then fell down the hill and into the pool of water.

From below, Crono was the first to see something stirring from above through the vortex. More dirt and debris fell through, which prompted him to ease Marle back. Lucca realized what he meant when she was pelted a few times by pebbles. "Uh oh," she whispered.

Two people emerged from the vortex, one holding onto the other. A man and a woman crashed onto the cobblestones, with more clumps of soil littering the ground around them. Marle let out a shriek, which prompted Crono to unsheathe his katana. Lucca's hand was at her holster, ready to brandish her weapon at the strange pair as a precaution.

The strangers were slow to rise, but the man was the first to react, reaching behind to unsheathe his sword and brandishing a shield on his other arm. Taban was beside himself, jaw dropped.

"Lucca! Do you realize what you've done?!" he asked.

"Dad, I really don't think this is the time—"

"Your telepod works! You've opened up a portal to another universe!" Taban finished. Marle and Crono nearly doubled over from the inane conclusion, while Lucca pushed her glasses back up, staring at the vortex and then back at Taban. "Of course, it works! Did you think it wouldn't?"

The woman dusted her leggings before correcting her posture. "Ouch! That was a nasty fall!"

The man spread his arms wide to keep the woman at bay. Crono regained his senses to adjust his posture, ready to engage. Marle instinctively reached behind her until she realized she hadn't brought anything. "Shoot, I left my crossbow back at the castle."

"Excuse me?" said the woman behind the sword-wielding man. "Could you tell us where we are if you would be so kind?"

She tapped the man in front of her, encouraging him to lower his arms. When she stepped forward, Marle gawked at her. The Princess immediately went red in the cheeks.

Lucca had to do a double-take, looking back and forth between Marle and the woman with similar golden locks that she fluffed with gloved hands.

Marle stepped forward, which prompted the other woman to stop and stare. The two women eyed each other cautiously before they pointed at each other. "You!" they shouted simultaneously. "You're a princess, aren't you?!"

Lucca pointed at both. "How do you know that?"

Marle posed with her hands on her hips, smirking. "Royal intuition, my dear Lucca."

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing, thought Lucca.

She decided to forgo the formality and address the woman's question. "You're in the Guardia Kingdom, er, your highness," she said, electing to believe Marle's assumption the woman was indeed a princess. She then spotted a strange tablet in the Princess's hands.

"Ooh! What technology is this?!" Lucca inquired, leering at the device. The man kept her at bay with his shield, prompting Crono to step forward. All that yawning and boredom on his face were replaced with the determined gaze of the warrior Lucca knew. Crono was ready to fight.

"Can we be civil, please?" Marle asked the two gentlemen, but they stared at each other too much to acknowledge her. Marle pleaded with Lucca, who shrugged her shoulders in response.

Crono led the man away from the group with how he approached him. Neither swung their blade yet, but each one was ready to strike first at a moment's notice. Once they had space to move freely, Crono's blade swung down and clanged against the other man's shield while blocking a counterstrike from the sword with a strange triangle pattern etched on its surface.

The princesses watched the two fight, one whose hands were clasped in prayer while the other's arms were crossed, rolling her eyes at the display. "Honestly, Crono…," Marle whispered.

"Well, this was unexpected, your highness," Lucca said to the woman. She then addressed Lucca, adjusting her clothes to look as dignified as she could.

"I suppose we should introduce ourselves," the woman said with a formal curtsy, even though she had no dress to emphasize her gesture. "I am Princess Zelda, emissary to the Goddess Hylia, and heir to the Royal Kingdom of Hyrule. My companion is Link, Champion of the Goddess and wielder of the legendary Master Sword, forged eons ago to slay evil. We apologize for our unfortunate intrusion upon your kingdom."

Marle looked starstruck after Zelda's formal introduction that she had no way of countering such grace. "Hi! I'm Marldia!" she giggled. "My castle's a Princess, and I'm above a forest!"

"Subtle," Lucca said, rolling her eyes. "Don't mind Marle, Princess Zelda. Could you show me your device?"

"Certainly," said Zelda, showing the screen. "This is a Shiekah Slate. I don't have all the information on its construction, but it is quite a versatile device. Huh."

Zelda flipped the Slate over and tapped her finger on it. "It doesn't seem to be working."

Lucca adjusted her glasses to examine the Slate more closely. "Maybe it doesn't work due to spatial interference from this dimension. Seems like your world and our world work differently from one another."

"Oh shoot," said Zelda, pouting. She slid the Sheikah Slate back onto her hip. "I was looking forward to taking many pictures of this place to show Purah!"

Lucca's lips curled into a smile. "Purah? Is she a scientist as well?"

"Why yes!" Zelda exclaimed. "She has been quite helpful in excavating and researching ancient technology to benefit our kingdom, but that was so long ago. I'd tell you so much more, but I won't bore you with the details."

Lucca hadn't felt a rush of endorphins since her meeting with Melchior. "I'd love to meet this scientist," she whispered.

"Lucca," said Taban out of the blue, pointing at the vortex. "About the telepod. By any chance, is it two-way?"

The color drained completely from Lucca once she rationalized Taban's question. "Oh no. How could I have been so stupid?!"

"What? Is there a problem?" Zelda inquired. Lucca gazed up at the vortex with an air of dread. "Yes. A serious problem."

Lucca darted to her side of the controls and observed the vortex on display. After adjusting a few dials and levers, she hung her head, slamming a fist on the panel. "I should've known! Stupid, stupid, stupid…!"

"Hey, Lucca, you're scaring us here," Marle said. All the bravado of meeting a genuine princess she knew she couldn't compare herself to in the formal sense ebbed the more concerned she was for her friend. Zelda echoed her worries and approached her. "Tell us, Miss Lucca."

Lucca spun to face royalty, easing herself against the panel. "I upgraded the telepod to bring something from an alternate universe. In my haste and ambition, I forgot to account for the other way around." Both Marle and Zelda looked visibly confused, blinking simultaneously.

"Could you simplify it a few layers for us?" Marle asked.

"It means that anything that emerges from Zelda's world can't go back. She can come here, but we can't go there."

"Wait! Woah! Hold on, here!" Marle yelled. "That's not cool! Wasn't this supposed to work like the gates we used before?"

Lucca retrieved a notebook from her bag, rifling through the pages. "I must have made a miscalculation somewhere when drafting the upgrade."

"How many drafts did you go through when crafting this?" asked Taban, which made Lucca withdraw in herself. "One…?"

"Goodness, girl! You went and did all this willy-nilly without testing it first?"

"I thought it was easy!" Lucca cried, showing Taban her notes. "I had the notes from the telepods, plus all the information I accumulated from Robo and the central computer system in Geno Dome while we were in A.D. 2300! Using Lavos's residual effects on the space-time continuum, Temporal Physics made it possible to upgrade everything!"

"I'm lost," Marle muttered. "As am I," Zelda added. Both girls stared blankly at the panels.

Taban marched over to the generator. "Until we figure a way to fix this, we should shut this off to prevent anything else from falling through."

As his hand reached for the off switch, a high-pitched voice was heard inside the vortex. "Hello…?"

Zelda's pointed ears perked up. "I recognize that voice! Purah! Are you up there?"

"Snappity-snap! You got it, Princess!" replied the voice, which sounded oddly like a girl's. Taban, Marle, and Lucca all gazed up at the vortex. "Your scientist friend is a child?"

"How rude! I'm a hundred and eight!" the voice cried. Zelda sounded amused, yet Marle, Taban, and Lucca were left speechless. "A hundred and eight?!" Marle mouthed to Lucca.

"We seem to be in a sort of predicament down here," Zelda explained to Purah.

"Don't you worry your darling head!" Purah replied. "Glasses told us everything."

Lucca pointed to herself, staring at the vortex. "Glasses? You mean me?"

"Who else?" Purah shouted back. "We can see everyone down there! You, other Zelda, and Mister scruff with a missing button on his overalls!"

Marle pointed to herself, then back at Zelda before going red in the face. "Um, thank you…!" she giggled.

Taban examined his clothes and found that he had been missing a button on his left strap. "Aw, Lara'll give me hell when she sees this," he muttered.

"So, what do you mean when you said not to worry?" Lucca asked. This Purah must know something she didn't.

Purah explained how she and her lab assistant intercepted a signal from Zelda's location in Hyrule and dispatched a team to investigate. Several Shiekah warriors from Kakariko village migrated to Hateno to aid in rebuilding efforts now that Calamity Ganon was defeated and the crisis was averted. She then explained that she had seen similar technology from the portal Lucca generated and promptly dropped a few rod-shaped devices. "Here! Attach those to your box and make it snappy!"

That girl's obsessed with snapping. Any more talk like that, and I'll snap her butt.

Lucca scooped the rods and turned them over in her hands. "Attach to the box…? Does she mean the generator?"

"They're stabilizers! I had them for some other purpose I forgot, but I'm certain they'll work on your box!" Purah shouted. If only Lucca could have a face to attach to that shrill voice!

Four in total, the rods were placed inside the generator, surrounding the Sun Stone. With a few adjustments to the wiring, the rods were nearly in place. After securing the last one, Lucca was sent flying back with a jolt.

"Lucca!" Marle yelled, helping her to her feet. "Are you okay?!"

Lucca examined her hands, shaking them. "Wasn't prepared for that. Oh!"

The vortex shifted, shaping itself into something different. From the looks of the dark void that warped space, it took the shape of the other side, where a group of individuals watched them from above. The one in the middle had pure white hair with a red streak along her bang, peering back down at them with glasses on her face. "Who're you calling glasses, girl?" Lucca muttered, adjusting her spectacles.

Zelda waved her arms, excited to see familiar faces. "Purah! We can see you now!"

The girl posed with a hand gesture to her face. "As expected! Genius Purah never fails! Oh ho ho ho!"

Lucca couldn't help but glare. Steal my thunder, will you?

"Where's Linky? I don't see him anywhere."

Lucca and the others wondered what had happened to Link and Crono after they began their sword fight. Anxious, Marle searched the area. "I hope Crono's alright," she whispered.

"Well, he better return soon because this portal will not stay open for long. Is your Shiekah Slate working, Princess?" Purah asked Zelda.

Zelda pulled the Slate from her hip and showed it before the portal. "It hasn't been working since we arrived here!"

"I was afraid of this," said Purah. "Those rods won't last long either. Better get back up here unless you want to take a permanent vacation."

Lucca couldn't blame Zelda for looking mortified. Stuck in an alternate universe with no means to return home? She figured there was some way of bridging the technological gap between her world and Zelda's world, even if it meant working with such an upstart like Purah.

Lucca would've loved the opportunity to study more properties behind the telepod and how technology from another world could enhance it even further. The girl must have a library of research material at her disposal.

Time was of the essence. As tempting as it was to indulge this Princess Zelda about Hyrule, a look from Marle assured her that she and Link needed to return to their world. "Yes, I know."

A pair of ropes were lowered from Purah's location, held aloft by Shiekah warriors. Their faces were veiled, leaving slits for eyes and delicately crafted hairpins that secured their locks. Marle observed their behavior and whispered to Lucca that they looked cute in their outfits. "We haven't much time, your highness!" shouted one of the warriors. "Please retrieve Sir Link and bring him back in haste!"

Lucca glanced at the display on the panel, and her heart sank. "They're right. We only have a couple of minutes tops before the portal collapses and closes for good. Marle, find Link and Crono. They can't have ventured too far."

Marle nodded and sprinted down the steps across the concourse of Leene Square, shouting Crono's and Link's names. Lucca bowed formally to Zelda, knowing that despite how brief, she still paid her respects.

"It was an honor to meet you, your highness," she told her. "Once I re-work my calculations, I should be able to re-open the portal to your world so we may visit someday."

"I would be delighted to welcome you all to Hyrule, Miss Lucca. Do not give up on your invention; it is remarkable technology," Zelda replied, taking Lucca's hands in hers. Even with the gloves on, Zelda's hands were incredibly soft as they touched hers, raising the heat in Lucca's cheeks. The woman was even more exquisite up close.

With a curtsy, Zelda grabbed one of the ropes and began climbing as the Shiekah warrior pulled her up. She waved one last time at Lucca and Taban before safely reaching their end.

Marle returned, followed by Crono and Link, whom the latter was soaked completely, dragging his sword along the ground with an annoyed look. He said nothing as he passed Lucca and Taban, only sheathing his sword and holstering his shield before climbing the rope.

"I found them by the fountain," Marle noted to Lucca. Crono was still dry, casually sheathing his katana before breathing a sigh. He was surprised to see both Lucca and Marle shoot blaming looks his way, but Marle quickly noticed that Zelda had ascended back up to their world. "Aw, I missed saying goodbye!"

"You still can. You have about ten seconds," Lucca told her, pointing at the timer on the panel counting down. Marle waved her hands frantically to get Zelda's attention.

"Bye! See you soon, I hope!" she cried before the image of Hyrule faded gradually. Zelda waved back along with Purah.

"Now I have my work cut out for me," Lucca said, but not before one last object fell through the portal. A glowing blue sphere struck the cobblestones and bounced around before it rolled to the telepod. Lucca, Marle, Crono, and Taban had no time to react as the sphere exploded, taking out the telepod and panels. The shockwave scattered the four to the lower concourse. Crono caught Marle first, but Lucca ended up perched along the branches of a tree while Taban crashed into the stall of a candy salesman.

Coughing, Lucca stared at the destroyed telepod, then at the portal, which shrank to the size of a coin before vanishing. "Aw, fu—!"

The End