Chapter 3: The Future Is Now

JANUARY 11, 2300 AD

"OOF!" The three landed in a heap. "Lucca, do you think you could fix this sometime soon?" came from Marle at the bottom of the pile. Dusting themselves off, they looked around.

"Hm... at least we're inside a building this time." Crono observed. Lucca was more interested in details.

"The technology here is so advanced... I'd say it's fairly obvious we're in the future."

"But, how far?" Marle murmured. The other two shrugged.

Crono noticed a strange door in the back. Black, with gold & silver markings all over it. "Hey, that looks like a box I found in the inn once." He tried to open it. The next thing he knew, he was flat on his back. "Uh... what hit me?" Lucca and Marle were both standing over him. Lucca responded first.

"There was this flash, and the door was covered with a pyramid of blue light. You got thrown back, and this wierd voice said 'This door is proteced by the seal'."

"Huh." Crono grunted as he sat up. "I think we'd better leave those doors alone until we find a way to open them." The girls nodded, and the three went outside.

"Holy shit." Lucca spoke for all of them. The world... was destroyed. Brown, cratered earth was disrupted by large pieces of broken machinery. The sky was covered with black clouds, and acidic-looking rain was broken occasionally by flashes of lightning. Nothing grew anywhere, and there were no animals. The only signs of life were a dome to the south similar to the one they had just exited, and a junked area that seemed to be a passage through the dead, grey mountains to the East.

"What happened here?" Marle murmured, almost on the verge of tears. "What happened to the world?" Crono looked grim.

"I don't know, Marle. But we'll find out. And when we do, we'll make whoever did this pay."

"Hell yeah! No way anybody's gonna get away with this!" Lucca agreed. "Now, I think we should go to that second dome down there first."

***

Inside the dome, the three discovered the sorrowful remnants of humanity. Filthy people in brown rags, huddled around aimlessly. A gloomy fog hung over the mess. As soon as they walked in, a man yelled out "New people here!" They were met with bored glances, then ignored. Crono decided to try and talk with the man at the entrance.

"Hey, bud. What happened here, anyway?" The man looked at him incredulously, then laughed, a short, barking sound completely devoid of humor.

"Where you been, under a rock? Same thing that happened everywhere else. Welcome to hell, buddy. Where ya from, anyways?" Crono thought, then responded.

"Truce." The guy blinked.

"Truce Dome? Where the hell is that? I've heard of Trann & Arris Domes, and then there's Bangor and Proto Domes, but they're deserted. And there's that other place..." He shuddered, then continued. "And there's the psycho's dome near Death Peak. But I ain't ever heard of no Truce Dome." Crono shrugged.

"Hey, where can we get something to eat?" The man laughed again.

"Eat? You crazy, man? Ain't nothing to eat anywhere." He suddenly looked at Crono sharply. "Wait... did you have food at this Truce Dome of yours?" Crono thought fast. "Er... we did, but we ran out. That's why we came out here."

The man sighed, depressed. "Shoulda known. We ain't gonna get no breaks in this life."

"Er... just asking, but how do ya live without food?"

The man pointed at the far end of the dome. "See that machine? It's an Enertron. It gives you energy in an instant, but you stay hungry." He grunted. "Once, I was the best fighter in the world. I even made it to Arris Dome and back once. But now..." He snorted mockingly. "Wanna buy anything?"

Lucca stepped up. "Let's see what you've got, pal." It turned out he had an assortment of guns. She selected one, then payed him. He looked at the money doubtfully.

"You sure this is money? Ah, well, I need to lighten my stock anyways." As they turned to leave, he yelled, "Hey! Where ya going?" Crono turned halfway as he walked.

"We're heading to that ruined passage over to the east." The man looked shocked, then took a long look at them, and his expression changed.

"You three just might be able to do it. But be careful. The Mutants are tough fighters, and the Shadows are immune to ordinary weapons." Crono gave him a thumbs-up, and the three left.

***

As they walked in, Crono saw a sign that said "Lab 16". There were piles of junk everywhere, and giant rats ran rampant. One of them jumped into Crono's pack and pulled out a Tonic. "HEY!" He attempted to give chase, but tripped over something and fell on his face. "D'oh!" Lucca and Marle were laughing hysterically.

"Oh, haha, that was worth, heehee, a Tonic any day! Hahaha, Crono tripping over, hoohoo, a houseplant! WAHAHA!"

A houseplant? Crono looked. It was a plant, yeah, but not any housplant he'd ever seen. Two vines grew out on opposite side of the main "body" almost like arm, while a large purple blossom was positioned like a head. Suddenly, a blue octopus jumped out of the blossom and latched onto Crono's head. "YOW!" Quickly, Marle pulled out a crossbow and fired a shot which hit the slimy thing straight through the brain. Crono pulled it off, then yelled, "The plant's in on it too!" They quickly made a salad out of it. "Okay, lesson one: Anything around here could be an enemy. Be on your guards." The girls nodded, and on they went.

After a while, during which they fought more plants and octopi, the three found a sewer grate. As they started to walk past, something sprung out of it and caught Crono on the chin. The three turned and stared. It was a blob of light blue goo that seemed to be somehow alive. Crono grunted and swung his sword... which got stuck, doing no damage.

"This must be on of the Shadows that guy told us about." Lucca reasoned, and tried a Fire Wave, which succeeded in melting the Shadow to nothing.

Onward, past more Shadows, and past the huge monsters known only as Mutants. Finally, they came to the end of the road, and back out into the world.

***

Ahead was another dome, and beyond that another Lab. South, on the coast, was a tiny dome, which looked like some kind of access point. Crono saw a sign: Sewer Access. The three shrugegd and entered the Dome.

This place closely resembled Trann Dome, even down to the people. They expressed only mild interest in the newcomers. An old man slowly walked over. "I'm Doan, the leader here. Where ya from?" Crono told Doan much the same thing he had told the man in Trann. Doan shrugged. "Wish we had food. My son went down to the basement to see if he could find any, but he never came back." He gestured towards a woman and child. "Left his wife and baby. 'Spect we'll just starve once the Enertron runs out."

Marle turned to Crono. "We can't just let them die! There's food in the basement, you said? Then we'll get it!" Without giving either of them a chance to react, Marle dragged Crono and Lucca down the porthole. Doan's eye twitched involuntarily. "Kids these days..." He muttered.

***

The first room had two... computers? side by side, with a door next to each. However, the section of the floor in front of the door on the right was gone. Lucca examined the computers. "These raise and lower the floors in front of the doors, but they need a password to open. Lucky for us this one was up." The left door led to a long series of walkways and ladders. On the way, Crono noticed a statue that looked like the giant rats they had seen in the lab. At the top, they entered a wide room, with one big door at the back. However, as they moved towards it, a huge robot fell out of the ceiling and knocked them all flying!

"Guardian activated. Executing Security program... executing Bit program..." The three exchanged one glance, then lept to their feet, ready to fight. Two smaller robots of the same model floated down to the sides, and the fight began.

"Aim for the big one!" Crono yelled as he charged, slicing the Guardian across the front.

"Warning! Guardian under attack! Executing Delta Force program..." With those words, the three robots created a pyramid of light between them that blasted the three heroes with an incredible amount of energy.

"Argh!" Crono grunted. Lucca was nearly unconscious, and Marle wasn't much better.

"Crono! Do your Cyclone technique, but stay in one spot!" Marle called. Crono was confused.

"What?!"

"Just do it!" Shrugging, he complied. Marle shot a spray of silvery sparkles at his sword, and rainbow light swarmed over all three, healing them. Crono blinked.

"What was that?" Marle grinned.

"Aura Whirl. DUCK!" Crono did just in time, as a laser launched from one of the Bits went over his head. Lucca grunted.

"Okay, new plan. Frag those things!" She emptied both barrels into the one on the left. It stumbled, but did not die. Crono jumped to the side and shot a Slash Ki-Wave that went through all three, bringing down the Bit Lucca shot and damaging the Guardian and other Bit. Before they could react, Marle took down the other Bit with her crossbow. Crono looked at the big Guardian.

"All alone now, bud. Lucca! Fire Whirl!" The blazing attack simply rebounded off the armored shell. "D'oh!"

"Executing Revival program... execution complete in 5..." Crono cursed.

"Damn! We gotta bring this thing down before it revives those damned Bits!" He began prying at a knop on the front as big as he was.

"4..." He kept prying. "3..." The knob came off, and he began hacking at the circuitry inside. "2..." He kept ripping stuff out, but it kept going. "1..."

There was enough room for him to fit in there now. He jumped in, and called, "Fire Whirl!" Lucca shot the fire wave at his sword.

"Zero!" Too late. The Fire Whirl melted the inner circuitry to slag instantly. Guardian began to shake uncontrollably, and Crono leapt out. "Break... dooooowwwwwnnnnnnn..." Guardian dissolved into dust.

***

The next room had hundreds of crates of food. A disgusting smell permeated the area. "Ew! What's that smell?" Marle commented. Lucca checked the crates.

"All rotten. The refrigeration system must have failed. There's nothing left." Crono saw something in a corner and ran over. It was a human skeleton, wrapped in a filthy rag like the ones the people upstairs wore.

"This must be Doan's son... poor guy... hey, what's this?" The skeleton had something in each hand. The first hand held a pouch of glowing green seeds. The second hands held a note.

The rat is more then just a statue. It knows the secret of this dome! Crono pocketed the seeds, and the three exited. On the walkways, they were greeted by the rat.

"So, ya beat the Guardian, eh? Good job!" The three stared at the talking rat, who continued on. "But I can't just tell you the secret like that. Tell ya what, if you can beat me to those computers at the bottom, I'll tell you! GO!" Before they could respond, the rat was off like lightning. Swearing, Crono ran after.

The Rat had the lead, but Crono was faster. Finally, he pulled ahead at the end and won. The rat grinned. "Good work! Okay, on those computers, the activation code is LRA. See ya!" With that, the rat disappeared into the shadows.

After inputting the code, the trio went through the door on the right. The room had a strange, spiderlike robot in the center of the room, and two rats were racing around it, apparently for fun. Then one rat put one claw too close. The robot shot a laser, and the rat disintegrated, while the other rat ran, yelping. Crono, Marle & Lucca carefully walked around it, staying as far away as possible, and it did not attack. The next room had a bunch of bulky robots following preset patterns. The three evaded them and went through a door in the back, noting another "Sealed" door nearby. This final room had a large computer screen, and below it, what was obviously a much more advanced computer. Lucca examined it.

"This is the main computer for this dome. Damn, most of the functions are broken. Hold it... I'll see if I can locate another Gate..."

Nobody spoke for a few minutes while Lucca worked. "Found it! It's east of Arris Dome... past the Lab.... some place called Proto Dome." Marle ran over.

"Lucca, you're amazing! I bet you could find almost anything with this computer!" She looked at the console. "Hey, what does this button do?" Before Crono or Lucca could stop her, she pressed a button and a new screen popped up. Lucca read it.

"December 31st, 1999 AD... visual record of the Day Of Lavos?" All three of them clustered around the screen, silently watching.

The planet's surface, seen from far above. The difference was, now the planet was lush and green. The Labs were clean highways, the Domes were sparkling clear. Everything looked fine. Then, the sky darkened. A minute crack appeared in the surface, shining a firey golden light. The crack grew bigger, bigger, then finally, broke open into a pit going straight into the planet's core. Slowly, out of the molten goo, rose a creature not of this earth. Gigantic and bulky, the THING was covered completely with millions of metallic spines. The head was a three-part, beaklike thing, with no eyes, nose or anything else. Instantly, Crono somehow knew that this was the most evil lifeform that he would ever encounter. With an evil roar, the spines glowed the same golden light as the core, then shot beams of energy into the air. All over the planet, destruction rained from the heavens, killing anything it touched. Forests burned, domes disintegrated, lakes evaporated. And the camera fuzzed out.

The three were in a state of shock. "No way... I don't believe it..." Crono murmured. He could almost smell the stench of death and destruction. Marle sunk to her knees, quietly sobbing.

"This can't be... this can't be how the world ends..." Crono straightened up, his face grim. For a moment, he was consumed by hatred for the vile creature that had destroyed the planet, but his hatred did not last. Instead, it stiffened into a resolve, a need to serve justice.

"Only one thing to do, then. We have to change time, just like before." The girls both stared at him. "We have no choice. We can't just let this 'Lavos' get away with this."

"Are you CRAZY?!" Lucca yelped. "You want us to FIGHT that thing? We'd be atomized!"

"Then we stop it when it's just a baby or something. We WILL NOT let this stand." Crono's eyes gleamed with the feeling within him. "This planet shall not fall while I stand." Marle stood up, her eyes also shining.

"He's right! We can do this!" Lucca finally grinned.

"Aw, what the hell. We've got nothing to lose except our lives..." She thought for a moment. "Okay, we'll look into Lavos when we get back to our time. Agreed?" They nodded, and Crono smiled, for the first time in a while.

"Next stop, Proto Dome!"

***

The three shut off the two doors. There was nothing back there for the people, and there was no sense in any of them getting killed down there. Besides, they could just reenter the password if they ever needed to go back for some reason.

As they stepped out of the hole, Doan sat up, surprised. "You made it back!" As he spoke, every person clustered around, eager to see if they had found any food.

The looks on their faces nearly broke Marle's heart when Crono told them, "We only found these..." Doan took the bag and opened it.

"Seeds...? These can't feed us! Where's the rest of the food?" Crono looked at his feet.

"Spoiled... all of it. Your son is dead, Doan. These seeds... were in his hand. Almost as if he was telling us to bring them back to all of you..." Doan was silent. The woman that he had pointed out as his daughter-in-law started quietly crying at the news of her husband's death. It was Lucca who broke the silence.

"These seeds may not feed you now, but if you plant them, and they grow..." Doan looked up.

"Huh. You're all strange... you have the hope we never knew." Nobody spoke. "We'll try planting the seeds. Where are you going?" Crono responded.

"Proto Dome." Several gasps came from the people.

"You crazy?" "Noone can go there no more!" "Bunch of lunatic robots!" "You got a death wish?" Doan interrupted them all.

"I think they can do it. Here... take this with you..." Out of his pocket, he produced a shining, silver rod. "It's the key to the Jet Bike in Lab 32. I used to ride it when I was young. Had races all the time with a robot... called himself Johnny. Hope it still works..." Crono nodded in mute thanks, and the three left, every eye on them.

***

At the entrance of Lab 32, a large, mechanical vehicle stood, unmoving. Crono examined it. "I assume this is the 'Jet Bike'. Where does the key go?" Suddenly, a group of robots dashed out.

"Stop! No touching the Jet Bike!" Lucca grunted.

"We'll see about that, won't we?"

The imminent battle was broken up when a wheeled pink robot dashed in, knocking everybody on their butts. It then unfolded into a humanoid shape. The newcomer had shades and a mohawk. All the robots cheered. "It's THE MAN!" He posed, dramatically.

"Like, thanks for the intro, babes!" He turned to Crono & Co. "You lowlifes can call me Johnny Turbo. Now, mind telling me what you're doing around here?" Crono glared at him.

"We're going to Proto Dome. We got the key from an old man named Doan." Johnny started at this name.

"Doan? Sheez, seems like just yesterday I was racing that punk across these highways! I forgot how quickly you humans age!" He thought for a moment, then grinned. "Howzabout we let you pass if you beat me in a race?" Crono grinned back.

"Johnny, you've got yourself a deal!"

***

Crono had picked up the controls quickly, as they zoomed across the highway. Neither of them kept the lead for any great duration, and Crono had already used up two boosts. Johnny looked over. "Hey, bud! You're looking a little tired out. You wanna quit?" Crono gritted his teeth.

"Never!" The robot shrugged.

"Suit yourself!" And they were off again.

The end was coming up, and Crono knew it. Johnny was in the lead. Desperately, he punched his last boost. The jet bike flew ahead, and smashed into Johnny, knocking him for a loop. "Hey! What the-?!" Johnny flew off the track and collided noisily with a pile of slag, leaving Crono to zip across the finish line, victorious.

Johnny slowly wheeled up, but surprisingly, he was grinning. "That was the best race I've had in a looong time! And on top of it all, I found the old race log in that pile of slag!" Crono smiled, even though he had no idea what a race log was.

"That's great, Johnny, but we gotta be going." The racer robot shifted back to his humanoid form.

"Hey, no sweat. Just stay clear of the Factory. Those dudes down there are way unfriendly." Marle nodded.

"Will do. Thanks!" He cheekily grinned at her.

"Come back any time you want another race. We'll ride the wind, babes!"

***

To the east was a large, blocky metal structure. Crono guessed that it was the Factory that Johnny had warned them about. To the south was another dome. "Proto Dome." Crono smiled. "Let's go home."

The dome was filled with spider-like robots like the one they had seen back in Arris Dome. The weren't as hard as they looked. However, at the back was something completely different. "What is it?" Marle whispered.

Lucca checked for several minutes, then stood up, her eyes shining. "It's badly damaged-but it appears to be an artificially intelligent humanoid robot! Incredible!" She looked at it again. "I think I can fix it."

Crono went ballistic. "Are you NUTS?! It could kill us!" Lucca shook her head sadly.

"No... I'll make sure it won't. Machines aren't capable of evil..." She sighed. "...Humans make them that way."

Nobody said anything until Marle whispered, "Lucca, you... pity them, don't you?" Lucca looked at her feet and took a while before responding.

"...Let me get to work, okay?"

***

Several hours passed as Lucca worked. The only place the Gate could be was the back chamber, but the door wouldn't open, no matter how hard Crono and Marle tried.

Finally, Lucca announced that the robot was ready for reactivation. "It's funny. It had the data for fighting, yeah. But it also had data not to attack humans." She shrugged. "Well, let's give it some juice!" With that, she pressed a button on the side of its head.

For a moment, it looked like nothing had happened. Then, surprising all of them, the robot leaped into the air, discharging electricity. It then spun around in a way that made Crono dizzy before stopping and turning to them. Marle smiled. "Good morning!"

The robot blinked. "Mor... good morning, madam. What is your command?" Marle sighed.

"My name isn't 'madam', it's Marle. That's Crono, and Lucca over there fixed you!" The robot turned to Lucca.

"Understood. Madam Lucca fixed me." This prompted Lucca to shake her head.

"Just Lucca will do." This caused a small error, it appeared.

"Impossible. That would be rude." Lucca insisted, however.

"Look, I hate formal titles! Isn't that right, Marle?" Marle giggled.

"Hate 'em!" The robot blinked again.

"...Understood." Crono spoke up for the first time.

"Hey, buddy, what's your name, anyways?" The robot looked at him oddly.

"Name...?" It seemed to be confused. "Do you mean my serial number? It is R-66Y." Lucca grinned.

"Cool!" But Marle wasn't satisfied.

"Everybody has a name!" The robot shook its head.

"No. Names were made for humans. Robots were forbidden from having them." Marle sighed.

"Well, forget those rules. You're with us now, and you're getting a name! Crono, think of one!"

The spiky-haired youth had been watching this exchange with an amused grin, but was caught completely off balance. "Er... a name? How about... er... ah... Robo?" Lucca snorted.

"Robo? Is that the best you can come up with?" Marle stepped in.

"I like it! It seems... perfect, for some reason." She turned to the robot. "Your name is Robo, okay?"

"I am... Robo. Data storage complete." Crono grunted.

"Now that that's over with... Robo, do you know how to open that door? We need to get back there." Robo turned around and examined the door.

"The power is off." He turned back to them. "Let us go to the Factory. I will be able to get you in, and we can turn the power back on." Crono was amazed.

"You'd do that for us?" Robo somehow managed to smile, even though he didn't have much in the way of a mouth.

"You fixed me. Now it is my turn to help you." He looked serious again. "But one of you will have to stay behind in order to keep the generator running once we turn it on." Lucca volunteered.

"I'll do it. I'm the best with machines." Crono nodded.

"Right then. Let's go, Marle & Robo!"

***

At the front of the factory was a large computer. At either side were a pair of conveyer belts, one going in and one coming out. The one going in was blocked by a security laser. Robo quickly typed some commands into the computer, which shut the laser off. Robo turned back. "The computer warns us that some chemical-based monsters have infested the Factory lately. We should be careful."

As if to drive the point home, a orange blob fell from above and splatted on the ground, before reforming a pair of eyes. Crono grunted and used his sword-which got stuck, leaving the creature to shoot a burst of flame at his arm. Lucca shot it, but it still lived. Then Robo jumped in and splattered it with a punch. As Crono picked up his sword, he said "Okay. Whenever we see those things, we all gang up. Let's hope we don't see them in groups."

At the other end of the conveyer belts, there were two elevators. Crono shrugged, took out a Gold, and flipped it. "Door number 2."

It was a huge assembly line for blocky, wheeled green robots. "Proto 3s," Robo murmured. He pointed up above the assembly line, where a white mechanical claw was hanging. "If we get in the way of the line, the claw will drop us on the disposal line."

Unfortunately, their path was blocked by a pair of large steel barrels. They all thought for a while, but it was Marle who ultimately found the solution. "Is there a way to take control of that claw so we could have it move the barrels?" Robo blinked, then smiled again.

"Brilliant." He picked them up, and ignoring their protests, threw them up onto a grating walkway above.

"Ow! Okay, I assume the claw controls are up here. But how are you gonna get up?" Crono called down. Robo responded by firing his fist like a rocket, which grasped onto part of the grating and pulled him up.

"Rocket Punch technique. Standard equipment. Shall we go in?" In the next room stood a large computer. Robo accessed it. "Done." Sure enough, when they went back out, the barrels were gone, and they could walk through the door at the end.

The room was dominated by one large computer. "Will that send power to Proto Dome?" Marle asked excitedly. Robo worked for a few minutes, then turned back.

"No. However, this does provide the code we need to access the generator. It is 'Zabie.'"

***

They trekked back up to the first room and entered the other elevator. They walked past several empty slots the size of people. The only problem came in several green chemical enemies, cousins of the orange one they had seen earlier. Robo scanned them. "Interesting. The orange one was acidic in composition. These are basic, or alkaline, whichever you prefer."

"Let's stick with Acid and Alkaline, thanks." Crono grunted as they walked down a hall. The elevator at the end was walled off by more security lasers. Robo entered a room to the left and hacked at the computer. Soon, they heard the whine of the lasers shutting down. However, their relief ended when a huge group of Acids and Alkalines dropped down!

"Not good! If they chemically combine..." Robo didn't finish, so Crono asked.

"We'll be in a world of pain?"

"Precisely." Robo suddenly spotted something in a pile nearby. "Is that-?" It was. A Laser Spin module. Quickly, he plugged it into his circuits, then jumped into the midst of the enemies.

"Robo! What the hell are you doing?!" Crono screamed, but he stopped when the rainbow beams of destructive light ripped through the chemical terrors. When they were all dead, Robo turned to Crono & Marle.

"Laser Spin module. Lucky I found it. Shall we go?"

Taking the elevator down, they came across one last security laser with a computer to the left. Robo quickly put the password "Zabie" in and the laser shut down. Behind it was a large generator with a single switch. Robo flipped it-and jumped as alarms began blaring! "Oh, no! The security system has gone haywire! We must leave now!"

As to emphasize the point, as they ran out of the room, the walls behind them crashed together. The walls ahead began to do the same thing, but Robo jumped in and held them apart. "Go!" Crono and Marle ran past, then turned as Robo shot out of the trap like a cork out of a bottle rocket. After spinning around for a moment, he righted himself and the three ran for the elevator. The hall was uneventful, but when they ran up to the slots in the wall, six robots identical to Robo except for their blue color popped out!

Robo stared. "My... brothers! It has been so long!" He ran over and starting shaking their hands. "R-64Y! R-67Y! R-69Y! R-62, 3, and 8-Y! How good to see all of you!" He was not greeted warmly, however, as the one he had addressed as R-64Y punched him across the room!"

Crono drew his sword quickly. "Hey! What happened to brotherly love?" They ignored him and turned back to Robo.

"You fool. Have you forgotten the rules?" R-64Y spoke sneeringly. "All humans must be destroyed." This was apparently news to Robo, who stared at them.

"That was not my purpose! What are you talking about?"

R-64Y did not listen. "You are obviously malfunctioning. You... are a defect."

As soon as Robo heard this, his eyes went dim, and he clasped his head. Crono heard him moan, "Defect... I'm a defect..."

"You are a disgrace to our 'family', and you must be destroyed!" With that, they immediately threw him to the ground and began a massive group attack.

"Robo!" Crono charged, but he was thrown back in the melee. Marle simply stared, her face frozen in horror. Robo crawled towards his friends.

"Please stop. Please..." But there was no mercy in the R-Series, and Robo was silenced. R-64Y disdainfully tossed him into a trash chute, which Marle ran over to.

"Robo!" R-64Y appeared to notice her and Crono for the first time. "Now to take care of the intruders..." Marle turned, her face a mask of fury.

"You cocky boxes of bolts! You'll never get away with this!"

***

Crono opened the fight with a Cyclone that heavily damaged three of the R-Series. However, the robots were not down yet, as the three damaged each launched a rocket punch to Crono's face. "AURA!" Marle cast her healing spell, which rejuvenated him.

R-64Y looked at him, then called out. "R-67Y! R-69Y! Battle plan Beta!" The first one ran over to Crono and picked him up, then threw him to the second, who punched him back. They hit him back and forth several times, then finished by smashing him into Marle. Undaunted, the hero unleashed another Cyclone that seperated the three he had wounded before from their lower halves. R-64Y was not pleased. "Battle Plan Beta again!" However, this time Crono was ready, and as R-62Y charged, he was cleaved in two by the Slash Ki-Wave that continued on to kill R-63Y. R-64Y growled, then charged between Crono and Marle. "AREA BOMB!"

Before they could react, a wave of fire radiated out from him and exploded. R-64Y exulted as the smoke cleared and he saw no trace of the humans. He had killed them! That's when he felt the point of Marle's crossbow on the back of his head. "Surprise, bastard."

***

Marle stepped away from the corpse of R-64Y and leaned into the trash chute. "Crono! He got stuck partway down! You should be able to get him!" The red-haired one pulled their friend out.

"Ouch. He looks pretty bad. Let's get him back to Lucca." Marle nodded tearily.

"Oh, Crono! He did so much for us, and now...! What if Lucca can't fix him?" He hugged her.

"Hey, cheer up. She can fix anything. Robo will be fine."

"I hope so."

***

Back at Proto Dome, Lucca grinned. She had recieved the power a while back, and had managed to keep the generator running. She knew they'd be back any time now.

Lucca was completely unprepared for the sight of Crono & Marle dragging a trashed Robo in. "Holy shit! What happened to him?!"

Crono grunted. "His brothers. Bad blood. Fix him." With that, he pitched forward, fast asleep.

Lucca was working through the night. Around midnight, she reactivated his speech, but he still needed work, so they talked while she did. "Lucca..."

"Yes?"

"As... I understand it... you three are trying to stop... whatever ruined the Earth?"

"I don't know how far we'll get, but that's the general plan, yeah." She looked up. "What about you, Robo? What are you gonna do now?"

He did not speak at first. "What am I... going to do?" She nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, what are your plans?"

"Lucca, nobody has ever asked me that before..." He stopped talking then, and Lucca didn't try to start the conversation again. He obviously had a lot to think about.

***

In the morning, sure enough, Robo was up and running. Lucca looked exhausted, but after a trip to the Enertron, was as happy as Crono and Marle. However, she still muttered, "Hope I never have to do that again!"

Robo had an announcement. "I would like to join you when you travel through time." The three were startled.

"What? Why?" He smiled.

"There is nothing left for me here. Together, maybe we can give this planet of ours a chance." He paused. "Only one thing concerns me. My brothers. I do not remember them being like that. My memories of them are of them being like me. Something must have happened to them..." Lucca looked at him. "Maybe we can find out next time we come here, but for now, we need to get going."

Crono led them in, and there the portal was. "Hold onto your shorts, cause here we GOOOOOO!" But something went wrong. As they went in, blue lightning flashed outward, and they all disappeared with a blinding flash, to who-knows-where.