Chapter 10
What haunts a robot's mind
The gate closed behind them and
they were once again in the kingdom of Zeal.
"That brings back memories." Marle said as
Crono helped her up.
"Well, it has been awhile since we all flew
through a gate like that." Robo said standing himself up.
"We've all changed a bit since our battle with
Lavos." Crono said brushing him off.
"Well, now that we are here, what do we
do?" Marle asked joining them.
"With the right scans I should be able to
locate a gatway that will lead us to the future." Robo stated.
"Well, if that's all there is to it, why don't
we just open a gate?" Crono asked.
"If it were that easy, what would be the point?
Your gate ability cannot go beyond a certain point in history." Robo said
continuing the scan.
"That being?" Marle added.
"The day of Lavos, August 6th 1999. A temporal
instability prevents us from going beyond the point without the assistance of
an already existing gate." Robo stated.
"But all gates collapsed, they were created by
Lavos." Crono said confused.
"Not really; you see, I hate to tell you this
but Lavos wasn't destroyed as we had originally thought." Robo informed them.
"What?" Crono asked.
"We thought we had destroyed him when in reality we
didn't have the power to do so. He still exists; in dormancy waiting for the
one that can end him." Robo said finishing his scan.
"How do you know all of this?" Marle asked
"I was
program with a black file I could never open by my creator. I never knew what
was in that file until this transformation occurred. Then suddenly I could open
that file. What I found was lithobytes of data regarding all of the temporal
possibilities in the universal pantheon. I have only been able to sort through
four percent of the information and it could take me years to decipher and
catalogue the rest." Robo answered.
"So whoever your creator was he, she, it had to
know that that information would someday be needed by us."
"Perhaps, or most likely they knew about the
universal pantheon and just put it in there."
"No, why else would the file have opened only
when you transformed, only after we started this journey? There is too much
here to be coincidence." Crono finished.
"True, very true. Anyway, we have more
important matters to attend to. The gate is this way." Robo said walking.
Marle looked over at the pondering Crono.
"What are you thinking about?" She
inquired.
"Something doesn't fit, who created him?"
Crono said following him slowly. Marle join him and placed her hand in his.
Crono's mind continued to race despite her gesture. Marle didn't understand
what he was thinking and decided to pick a little further.
"Why
would that be important now?" She asked.
"Because; whoever created him, knew of this
battle many centuries before and/or after it. How?! How could someone know of
something of this magnitude? Something doesn't add up and I think we will soon
find out what." He concluded as they followed him.
They reached the place they had crossed the entire
floating island to reach, the hanger of the Blackbird. Robo looked out over the
cliff of the island towards the little island they had never reached.
"So, where is this gate?" Marle asked
looking out over the scenery.
"Out there." Robo said pointing to the
skies next to the island where sun keep stood out of there reach.
"How do we reach it?" Crono asked taking Marle
into his arms. She leaned back and placed her head on his shoulder as they
shared the view.
"I have been thinking about that and have come
up with one conclusion." Robo responded.
"That being?" Crono asked as he and Marle stood
watching the sunset.
"Oh nothing really extravagant, we just steal the
ship." He said looking out over the cliff.
"We what?"
"Do you realize just how difficult that will
be?" Marle said breaking from Crono's loving grasp.
"Nothing we haven't handled before." Robo said
turning away.
"Three of us and me without even a weapon, it
would be suicide!" Marle burst out.
"How can you be so calm about this Robo?" Crono
asked.
"I don't know really, I guess I am just getting used
to these emotions." He answered.
"Actually, come to think of it; if we could find you
a weapon…" Crono said thinking.
"You are not going to agree with him are you?" Marle
asked looking deep into his eyes. Crono nearly broke out into tears we he saw
her. It had been so long since they had been together like this. He remembered
the moment that he first fell in love with her. He had been in the same void
that he had save Marle from in the beginning of their adventure. He looked
around and all he saw was darkness. The he heard a voice that he knew. It was
sweet and loving and had the sound of sadness behind it. He knew that the voice
had to be hers. He felt a tug on his heart and ran for the sound. He saw a
light envelope him and he was instantly transported from that place. He awoke
to find that the cold was still there until he felt the warmth of another
heart. He shook his head clear until he saw that the warmth was Marle. He took
her into his arms and dried her tears. She looked up at him and it was in that
moment, when their eyes locked that he could see right into her heart. It was
the most beautiful sight he had seen in his life and he knew that what he felt was
true love. He had the same feeling in this moment as he did then.
"You fought through it once alone. Nothing can stop
the two of us together." He said as he passionately kissed her. All the while,
Robo looked at the two with a pain inside.
"So this is what the reward for true love is… I wish
I could receive it." He said as he looked back out over the cliff. He could see
Lucca's face in the clouds as they went by. Had he the ability to cry he would
have. Crono and Marle broke their embrace and turned to him.
"Robo… what's wrong?" Marle asked.
"What's up?" Crono said soothingly.
"Seeing you two… love must be one of the greatest
feelings in the world and it will be something that I will never feel." Robo
said turning from them.
"I know she would have been happy to know that you
felt this way about her." Crono informed him. Marle just kind of looked at him.
"She's gone and there is nothing that I could have
done to avoid it. I killed her!" Robo said as he dropped to his knees.
"There was nothing you could have done, besides;
what we killed wasn't Lucca! It was simply some image that was prepared to test
our valor. We both passed my friend, now stand up. Lucca will be returned to us
after this ordeal is over with." Crono said standing before him.
"How would you know, you don't know anything about
will happen to us." Robo said looking away.
"But you do, whoever gave you that file knew what
was going to happen." Marle said shocked.
"That is correct." Robo informed them.
"I cannot begin to imagine what you know, but I will
tell you this; the future can be changed. We proved that and we shall do it
again if that's what it comes down to. We will get Lucca and all of our friends
back." Crono said kneeling with him.
"You will know what love is, I am sure of it." Marle
reassured him. Robo looked at both of them and knew that they were both naïve.
Only he knew what was actually going to happen, but strangely he did feel
better.
"You're right, this is something we can change just
as we changed time before." He said standing. He knew that he had blatantly
lied to them but he knew that he couldn't tell them what he knew.
"Yeah!" Marle said happily.
"That still leaves us with the question of who
programmed you." Crono asked.
"I cannot give you that information. My programmer
informed me that under no circumstances was their identity to be revealed."
Robo said stepping away from them.
"How are we supposed to change time if we don't know
how it turns out in the first place?" Marle asked.
"Follow me and I will make sure that we do what
needs to be done." Robo said looking back out over the cliff.
"I don't know why you are hiding this info from us,
but I know there has to be a reason; you have never led us wrong and you won't
now. For now, let us rest. We have all been through a lot. We will look at
getting the Blackbird tomorrow. It's a warm night, perfect for sleeping out
under the stars." Crono said sitting down looking out over the clouds.
"Great idea Crono." Marle said taking her place
beside him. Robo continued to move away from them with the thoughts what of he
knew still running through his CPU. He didn't like hiding anything from them
but he knew that this he had to do.
A few hours passed and Marle and Crono were looking
out over the stars. Robo was sitting in a tree a few feet from them looking
over them almost as mother eagle would look over her chicks. He listened as Crono told Marle about the
stars and watched as they moved progressively closer to each other. He wondered
why they did this; he was new at emotions and still had a lot to learn. Though
he wondered why he even bothered, he would never get the chance to use them
now; but still he watched.
"There are so many stars out there. I wonder how
many there are?" Marle asked Crono cradled her head.
"Lucca once told me that what see isn't the stars at
all, merely reflections of light." Crono said running his hand through her
hair.
"I don't believe that, reflection don't have this
kind of beauty." She said looking out.
"Reflections or not, their light pales to that of
your beauty." Crono said he kissed her.
"Crono… promise me that you will never leave me
again. I don't want to ever have to feel what I felt when Lavos took you from
me before." She said sitting up and looking up at him.
"I promise you here, now and forever; I shall never
leave you again. I love you and that love is eternal no matter what challenges
we face or even the distance between us. When Tempest took you I knew that you
were still there. Our hearts are connected and always shall be." He said as he
kissed her with passion that neither of them had felt before. They broke their
embrace and stared deep into each other's eyes. Marle knew that this was the
time that she had been waiting for all her life. Her dreams were about to come
true and her heart was about to be complete.
"Crono… I… can you…. will you…. make love to me…"
Marle said as they saw each other's hearts. Crono looked at her and saw himself
within her soul. She completed him and he knew that they would be together forever.
He answered her question by laying her down on the soft grass that they had
been sitting on and kissing her deeply again.
"So this is what physical love is." Robo said as he
watched from his vantage point the two lovers gave themselves to each other. He
wondered what it was like to give yourself to another person like that. His
thoughts drifted to Lucca and what he felt for her. He knew that it was never
to be but still he yearned for it. But he knew that Crono was right he said
that this was not what Lucca would have wanted. He looked back down at the
couple and then realized just how late it was.
"I
shall let them have this moment of happiness, for it will be the last one they
can share for quite sometime." He concluded as he looked back up at the stars.
He knew that what they were about to face was going to be the greatest
challenge of their lives. The battles ahead of them would test all of the
skills that had gone through the trials for. He knew that his fate was already
sealed, but he had hoped that they could take victory…