The Fire When it Comes - Part 17: Of Past Futures – In which a secret is revealed and a circle is completed.
A Crono-Trigger/Cross fanfic
By
Deborah J. Brown

Chrono-Trigger & Chrono-Cross and all associated characters belong to Squaresoft.

The huge metallic eyes watched Janus without blinking and, after a moment, she cocked her head. It was a mistake on her part, for the motion was so familiar, so terribly familiar, that in that moment he knew who and what she had to be. More, that knowledge reawakened old hatreds, old angers and simmering resentments. His mind, momentarily overwhelmed by the force of her personality and his fear for Glenn, began working overtime. Other ideas were coming to him. Other ideas and understanding of what it was he was going to have to do.

::Glenn. For what I am about to do to you. Forgive me.:: Before the knight could respond, he closed off their link, though he kept a part of his attention on those blue eyes. He never wanted to forget those eyes. He'd need to remember and to hope. Deep inside his Self he felt three souls begin to stir, awakened by his moment of need. Wait, he told them, not wanting the distraction. It is not yet time.

"So?" FATE asked, tired of waiting for him to continue.

"If if you will free him, I will serve you." Janus forced himself to stammer, to seem more frightened, more child-like, than he really was.

"Now, now, little one. Do you really think I am so foolish? I free him and he uses his command on you to overpower me. No. I think not."

"What if I do something that will make him no longer my Arbiter?" At FATE's raised eyebrows, Janus rushed through his explanation. "He is linked to me and to your security through his genetic structure. Change that. Change his very Self, down to the element to which his spirit is linked, and he will no longer be a threat to you, nor will he be able to command me." That wasn't the entire truth, there were links between himself and Glenn that could only be destroyed by death, but those links could not block FATE as the genetic one did.

"And you will simply transfer your affections to his new shape, and make him your Arbiter again."

Janus trembled. "N.. N.. No. I won't be able to. He'd have to touch me for me to register the codes and transfer them into the system"

"What is to stop him from trying?" FATE asked softly and Janus felt a moment of triumph, though it was darkened by the look of betrayal in Glenn's eyes. Still she seemed to be considering the idea, and that was what was important.

"Because after I change him, I will take away his memories and, most importantly, we will send him back in time a couple of thousand years, where he can be of no possible harm to you."

There was a long moment of silence and to Janus' relief, he saw the knight's expression change as he seemed to understand what it was his friend had in mind. The blue eyes turned sad, but he nodded, his movement turning to wild shakes of the head when FATE glanced his way. What she saw appeared to satisfy her, for she turned and smiled. "Very well. Do it. Then you will be mine and mine alone."

Janus forced himself not to sigh in relief as he reached out to Glenn. Once more he opened the link. ::You won't remember. But I will know you.::

::I know. I understand. Goodbye until we meet again...:: Glenn's eyes stayed fixed on his as Janus began to work. Reaching deep into the man's DNA he switched one strand, then another, knowing – even though he had no control over the result – exactly what it would be. At the same time he wiped away the memories in the knight's brain, creating a clean slate. Only one thing he left alone, those eyes. Even if FATE had demanded it, he could never have changed those. At last he looked into the clear, innocent, blue eyes of the dark-haired baby boy.

::Doreen. Take care of him. Stay with him. No matter what weapon he wields. No matter where he goes. Stay with him.::

::I will, Prince.::

Reaching out one last time, Janus used FATE's controls to fling the baby backwards through time, aiming him for a certain beach. In his mind he could see the spot and he timed the transfer perfectly, laying the child gently in the sands, just as two young people came through the trees. Be good to him, Marge, Janus thought as he pulled back and away. Farewell Glenn. I'll see you again, Serge.

***

FATE sensed satisfaction from her new toy, but decided that it was simply the satisfaction of having saved that stupid human's life. She'd have to teach it to be so damned sentimental, but for now it was more important to get started. "What are your current power levels?"

"It depends on what you want me to do."

"First off, I want you to forget about that human. I want you to wipe him from your memory. Can you do that?"

The Flame sounded utterly defeated. "Yes. I can bury the memory. It won't come back without the proper stimulus."

"And since he is far from this time that stimulus will never be. Excellent. Do it."

There was a moment's silence, then the Flame said, in a confused voice, "I think I just did something What was it?"

"Never mind," FATE laughed, a rich, deep and very pleased with itself laugh. "Now. Do you have the strength to take over this world's weather?"

The Flame considered the question silently. At last, just before FATE was about to administer a small shock to remind it who was master, it said, "Yes. I can."

"Excellent. You will apply your control on this world, you will make this world a better place for humanity. You will make humanity so comfortable, so utterly complacent, that it will become weak. Then we will introduce my machines. Machines that will, ever so slowly, take over human duties. In the end, humanity's mastery will be ended, for they will not have the will or the strength to defy me. I will give them everything they want, until they die of it."

***

Janus only half listened to FATE's ravings. Oh, her plan might have been a good one. He didn't know many living beings that would not be happier letting their harder decisions be made for them. It was, however, a plan that he fully intended to sabotage.

Is she stupid, or just over confident? he wondered and heard Crono's voice in the depths of his Self say, ::Both, I think.:: He grinned. He hadn't been lying about being able to wipe out his upper memories, had even done so for the barest moment, but when three very determined minds were contained within him, supplying him with the very protection he needed from such commands, FATE's wishes were hopeless. For now she had his cooperation, for what little it was worth, but one day that would change.

"Have you begun?" FATE demanded suddenly and he realized she was done with her speech.

"Uh Begun what?" In the back of his mind Marle laughed out loud and Lucca muttered something about 'passive aggressive' behavior in the long-suffering tone of one who had dealt with children for entirely too long.

"Taking over the weather patterns."

"Oh, did you want me to start now?"

The sharp agony that FATE sent through him was utterly unsurprising, but it was still not at all pleasant. "Don't play games! DO IT!"

Janus gasped, "All right, all right. I'm doing it!" He stretched out his will and grasped the world. This was going to hurt, both him and the world itself. Which, unless he missed his guess, was going to be among the greatest of FATE's many mistakes in her long and misspent career.

The power flux twisted in his mental grasp, the world defying his effort to control and command it. For long years it had been free of Lavos. Had been growing in its own sweet, if somewhat chaotic, pace and now Lavos' power was commanding it again, was forcing it to obey. The screams of agony he was eliciting were echoing out of the time stream and he could feel another place, another time, respond.

***

65,002,400 A.S. (After Split) Dragon World:
In another timeline stood a complex not unlike Chronopolis in strength, its power source twofold, in its connection with that timeline's elemental powers and the sphere of mindless power called the Dragon's Tear. Across time and dimensional space itself that place heard the screams of another world. Heard and could do nothing but move to help.

***

2400 A.D.:
FATE frowned. This was taking longer than it ought to. Why? "What are you doing?"

"Trying The world resists me. It doesn't want to be controlled."

"Nonsense," FATE growled. "The world has no sentience. It's just a thing. A possession." She would have continued, but something was happening on her monitor. A time warp, one not caused by herself or her new toy, was forming to the west. Across Zenan continent a huge tower was coming into existence and from that tower "DRAGONS?"

Huge beasts came flying towards Chronopolis and she realized almost belatedly that they were attacking. "Stop them!"

"Do you want me to stop them or control the weather?"

"You stupid" FATE sent a mental 'kick' at the Flame through the connections. "Worry about the weather later. They're almost on us."

She could feel power being flung at her, power connected to that new structure. Power of a sort she couldn't comprehend and had trouble defending against. "Damnit, where did they come from?"

"From a time where the reptites survived," the Flame answered, its voice abstracted. "I can't fight them right now. I'm too weak for anything but defense and another timewarp."

"A time warp?" There was doubt in her voice. "You couldn't warp those children without me"

"Children?"

FATE realized that she was risking reawakening memories and rephrased the question. "I thought you couldn't create warps without me."

"I can move myself and a limited area around me. Chronopolis is just within my power. At your command I can carry us all somewhere in the far past. Too far for them to find us quickly, if they have the power to follow."

FATE thought about that. They could always jump back to the present once the Flame had regained the power it needed. And with a bit of breathing space, if the dragons followed, she'd be in a position to defeat them. Dropping her metallic guise as a waste of energy, she ordered, "Do it."

***

11990 B.C.:
Janus was unsurprised when Dinopolis followed them into the past. He'd known they would. He was, however, able to give FATE time to muster her own weapons and send them out, even as he used his power – combined with the power of his human self, far to the west on Gaea's navel – to command the elements to bind the six dragon gods to separate places.

::Sorry, guys. But you're just going to have to wait for your time,:: Janus told the dragons and ignored their howls of rage. Their world had become insular, unable to bear change and unwilling to accept anything that wasn't part of its cycle. In their world, that was fine, but this was the human world and change was very much a part of its nature. They'd have to learn that. He was sorry to have dragged them into the mess, but that too was inevitable, as was the return to this timeline of the Dragon's Tear. He'd have to wait to be reunited with his lost power, but with it, perhaps, what had to be done could be.

Nor was Janus surprised when a certain old man paid Chronopolis a visit, using his knowledge of the codes that permitted him access to the building to get past all the security FATE had in place. He carefully failed to mention the fact that Belthazar was poking around to FATE, while she studied the layout of the land. "What is this? There's no islands? No Zenan? Nothing?"

"According to the databanks," Janus told her, keeping his voice neutral, "There is a legend that the islands and Zenan just rose out of the water one day. Perhaps this is that time. It is the end of one era, the end of the Enlightened Ones and the time when the Earthbound rise to power." He 'looked' at her innocently, not wanting her to realize that he knew who she really was, nor for her to know him.

FATE went silent a moment. Then she asked, "Don't you know when we are?"

"I was rushed. I know we're over ten thousand years in the past," Janus pointed out. "But I couldn't say the exact date."

::Take it back, jack, take it on back: Crono thought at him and he had to force himself not to chuckle.

"Then you must return us to our time."

"I can't," Janus answered. "I used so much power binding the dragon entities that time travel of that distance is out of the question. More, even if I had the strength, I'd have to drop my control on the dragons and while I was preparing the warp they'd attack. I can't defend against them and time warp. They'd expect it this time and block me."

"Then protect us. Put up guards against any survivors reaching us. I will think about what to do."

I thought you'd never ask, Janus thought sourly as he force a ring of mountains up out of the water and concealed what would become the Sea of Eden under a bank of clouds. Just in time, too, for his earlier self was approaching and that Janus still had many things to see and do before he would reach this point.

::So it begins,:: Lucca said softly. ::This is where you came in.::

::Yes, Lucca. This is the beginning. Now we just have to wait. It will be a long time. A very long time.:: Janus felt a touch of regret. Perhaps he should not have asked this of these three.

::Then it's a good thing we're here.:: Crono said and Janus could feel his wry smile. An image formed in the depths of his mind, the three children, looking much as they had when he'd first known them. Grinning, they took up their posts in the seeming of Leene's Square and waited for their first guests to arrive.

***

END OF TIME:
Belthazar took a deep breath and stepped back from the timestream. "So," he murmured. "That's the answer."

Gaspar and Melchior nodded. "It does appear to be." It was elegant, the solution the dragons had found to dealing with Lavos. Without all the time travel to interfere with their development and confuse matters, the dragons had been able to form a greater understanding of that being's nature and needs. Using their segment of Janus' power, they'd been able reach into depths of creation and create a harmonic that broke their half of Lavos out of their timestream.

Unfortunately, Lavos' nature was such that as long as any part of it was trapped, it all was. It was all well and good to have it released from the reptite line, but unless the same thing happened, at the same time point, in the human timestream, it would still be trapped.

Looking into the human timestream, Belthazar and his brothers weren't sure if the attempt had or hadn't been made. The time in question was unreadable, the point when that small break Janus had caused saving Guardia had come back together. Certainly Lavos' physical self was still there all the way until 1999, when it would be defeated by Cronos, but they agreed that this might be necessary to keep the timestream steady.

"So," Belthazar said at last, "our main purpose must be to get this knowledge to Janus and to help ensure the last bits of his plan come together. Then we must hope that that point in 1020 A.D. will be the resolution of our hopes, and not the end."

Taking a deep breath, Belthazar dropped back into the timestream, seeking a way to reach the Flame without FATE's knowledge.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:
I played around for a while with variations on who Serge was. In the end, it became obvious that with Glenn being one of the main focal points of the story he was almost going to have to be involved in the end. I could, of course, have made him the Dragoon Glenn, but it seemed to me that of all the characters he was best suited to, it was Serge. After all, he'd gone through so much to get to the point of meeting FATE, it hardly seemed fair that he not be allowed to complete the task as the main hero. Skahducky, I hope the change in the above section clarifies the question of memory you had earlier.

Hopefully, Alexiel, the question of whether Janus is the Flame of Chrono Cross is answered here with a resounding "YES". He's playing a very dangerous game of cat and mouse with FATE and unfortunately for him, he's currently the mouse. But this *is* Janus, after all, and he has plans and a fair number of ideas about what's to come.

The upcoming chapters partake more from Chrono Cross. I tried to focus on those segments that were important to the plot, so there's little to no mention of many of the important characters and incidents of Cross unless it directly involves getting Serge to his final destination.

Next time we rush through a few millennia and FATE's plans begin to take root.