The Fire When it Comes - Part 19: Defying FATE - In which FATE is not amused and another enemy rises.
A Crono-Trigger/Cross fanfic
By
Deborah J. Brown
Chrono-Trigger & Chrono-Cross and all associated characters belong to Squaresoft.

FATE howled with laughter as her circuits slowly readjusted to the change. Now she could see into both worlds. Now, at long last, she was one. She might not be able to touch Home World yet, but that would change. Soon. Soon she'd have the entire world at her command.

"Now, my pet. My darling, recalcitrant, pet. Now you will obey me perfectly." She focused her thoughts on her tool. "Well done, my Dark Serge. My Lynx that was. Now, destroy the Prometheus Code."

Lynx/Dark Serge bowed. "As you command, my lady." He looked at the Flame. "Flame. I command you to find and destroy the Prometheus Code within FATE."

Nothing happened.

"FLAME!"

There was no answer and turning her attention on the Flame she saw that it was at its utter darkest. Dead? she reached out through her link to the Flame. No. But so drained of energy that it may as well be. "Damn it! It deliberately used itself up destroying the Sea."

Dark Serge frowned. "What should I do, Mistress?"

"It hopes for rescue from that brat. It did it to stall me. To thwart me! Very well. Seek out your former body and destroy it, before that one finds his way here."

With a bow, her tool disappeared.

***

1020 A.D. - Both Worlds:
The time was close. The beings called the Dragon Gods could feel it. Could feel it in the flow of time. Could feel it in the way the power that held them in place had weakened. Without that power commanding the Elementals that had long guarded their infernal prison in this world, they could break free.

::Is it time?::

::Not quite yet. Bide a while longer.::

::That one is weak. Without it, her power alone is not enough.::

::It recovers quickly, ee'n though it hides the truth from Her. It will defend against us.::

::There is our tool.::

::She becomes untrustworthy. Her doubts make her weak. No. Wait but a while longer. That one seeks Her destruction as we do. Only then, when it is distracted by success, wilt the time be right.::

At last agreement was reached, a decision to help the Flame's tool, at least until it had completed its chosen task.

***

1020 A.D. - Home World:
Serge wasn't sure what it was that made him want to stop at the small island. He'd won the help of the dragons and it was high time he hurried to Steena and gained her aid as well. High time he took his own body again. Still, something was nudging him, an instinct that he'd learned to follow, to stop there.

Accompanied by Karsh and Riddel – another part of that instinct – they found a young warrior who the two recognized as Dario, Karsh's fellow Deva and Riddel's chosen husband. A Dario strangely changed. A Dario who had – somehow – gotten his hands back on the Masamune. Remembering Karsh's agonized retelling of how his friend, at least on Another World, had attacked him under the Masamune's influence, Serge was not surprised to find himself facing the berserk warrior down.

Driven by the maddened blade, Dario attacked his former friends and Serge with unrelenting power. In his hands, the Masamune's power seemed infinite, too great to be defeated, but somehow, they managed to win.

Dario defeated was brought back to sanity, but more importantly, something else happened. Voices came from the Masamune. Two confused, boyish, voices. They seemed to be coming out of a long sleep, their minds cleared of hatred. At the same time another voice – shockingly, coming from his own weapon – began to scold them.

Listening to the three, Serge felt another of those moments of familiarity. He ought to know who they were. Oh, they were calling each other by name – Masa, Mune, and Doreen – but that wasn't it. He never got to ask them anything though, for they seemed to come to some sort of agreement and suddenly he found his weapon, the swallow he had carried for so very long, starting to glow and burn. It had been changed and transformed to something much more powerful.

::We're with you, boss! With the Mastermune at your side the bad guys don't stand a chance!::

***

TIME'S HEART:
"She's beginning to suspect."

"I know," Janus agreed, resting on one of the fallen pillars within his false Reality. "But I'm milking this for all its worth. She knows that I'm fighting her. Up until now she's thought I wasn't in a state of mind to hold a grudge. Now that she realizes I'm her enemy she won't rest until she has me entirely under her control."

The three children looked at each other. "Then we had better hope Serge – the real Serge – gets here soon."

Janus nodded.

***

1020 A.D. - Home World:
Serge stepped through the doors into the great chamber, Lynx's robes rustling around his body as he walked. His palms felt clammy and he was terribly afraid. What if it didn't work? What if the Dragon's Tear in this world wouldn't help? Was he to be stuck in this shape forever? He shook his head. No, he wasn't going to stop. Wasn't going to give up now. Too much rode on him now. The fate of two worlds. If there was anything he'd figured out in the last few, horrible, days, it was that much.

A part of him would have liked to demand why he was the one who had to do this, but that was the child part of him that he'd left long behind. That part died when I read my own gravestone. He stepped up to the altar at the center of the room and placed the Dragon's Tear upon it.

Reaction was immediate. A voice began to speak. To tell a story, but not one he could fully comprehend. He had a feeling it was meant for others. A story told by dragons to their children. The story of humanity in this world, as seen from the eyes of those a bit closer to the earth. As seen through eyes that might not be tolerant of human frailty. As seen through eyes that had died off due to humanity.

He listened and waited, focusing his will upon the Tear. His own shape. His own body. Let it be restored to him. Let him be Serge again. He closed his eyes and felt a regard upon him that seemed to be searching his very soul. A pain began. He was drowning, transforming. In that moment a memory returned, a face, pale, hard and urgent. A voice "I don't like children. So don't bother me and don't cry for your daddy" an angry voice, a desperately unhappy voice and he had once feared it. Yet at the same time he knew it and felt an immensity of pity and sorrow and loss.

In another place and time, in yet another body not his own, or was it?, he faced FATE and the Flame and knew himself betrayed, only to come to a moment of understanding as it, in desperation, transformed him, wiped away his Self and sent him far, far away. A last thought echoed in his mind. Goodbye until we meet again...

There was a moment of confusion in his mind, but he was Serge, he knew he was Serge. That other, whomever he was, was someone else. The cries of a baby filled his ears and they were his own. Then, slowly, he rose to his feet, himself again.

Taking the remains of the Dragon Tear, he put it away with the other shard. It would be important, he sensed, perhaps the most important thing ever. Then he turned to rejoin his comrades. And then, FATE, it's time we met.

***

1020 A.D. - Another World:
FATE growled a curse at her tool under her breath. "Why is it you can't take that one brat human down?" she demanded of Lynx. "Now he's here, in Chronopolis, and it's only a matter of time before he makes his way to the Flame."

"I'm sorry mistress. Shall I attack him now?"

FATE, with part of her mind watching Serge's progress, eyed Lynx, then the Flame. It still seemed dark but she was fairly sure now that that darkness was a bluff, an attempt to pretend it was still incapable of response. Though she could not understand how, the Flame had a hidden agenda, a purpose that it had apparently been holding to despite everything she'd done to prevent it. Perhaps, then, this one too had an agenda beyond her own.

Reaching out with her mind, she grasped Lynx to her and drove her thoughts into his brain, joining what little was left of his mind with her own will. So. It seems he was loyal after all. No matter, the closer he is to me, the better a tool he shall be. Looking up through Lynx's eyes at her power source she spoke. "I know you can hear me, Flame. Wake up!"

There was a keening sound and the Flame flared to brilliant life again. Not since before the time split had it glowed so and FATE knew it was back up to full power. "Good. Now, this is what I want you to do."

***

Putting his palm on the door lock, Serge's memory flickered again, showing him another hand, slightly bigger, slightly older and much more scarred. He shook the memory off and focused on the now. Whatever else he was seeing didn't matter in this moment. As the door slid open he walked through, hands cold upon his newly strengthened weapon, heart beating double-time.

The room was familiar too. The room of FATE that he'd seen in that moment of memory back at Fort Dragonia. At its center were the two glass globes that surrounded a blazing light that he recognized as the Frozen Flame. He stepped forward as Grobyc and Norris stared. "Is that"

A voice spoke. It too was familiar, but for a different reason. It was Serge's own, echoing through the chamber with soft menace. "Exactly. The hearer of people's prayers... The provider of riches, fame, and power... The bestower of eternal life... The promiser of peace and happiness..."

Light flickered and suddenly Serge found himself facing himself again, that dark and evil side that was Lynx. The former demi-human smiled as Serge noticed the figure lying on the floor between them. Kid! Only good sense kept the young man from rushing forward to her side.

"This is the essence of what descended from the heavens in the prehistoric age," Lynx continued, glancing upwards at the blazing light. "The living crimson stone... the Frozen Flame!"

Serge eyed his enemy and waited. There'd be an opening, there had to be. Lynx raised a brow. "What took you so long? You had me worried. Worried that you might have perished on the way here."

Now that, I think, is a bluff. He hopes to make me worry. Hopes I'll do something stupid like rush him. No. Not until I have an idea of what I'm fighting. This is FATE's place and she's the real power here. He moved, however, ever so slowly and watchfully, to kneel beside Kid. She was breathing, her heart pulsing, but her eyes remained closed, even when his fingers brushed her throat. Damn.

Lynx laughed. "It's no use. I put her soul to sleep. I had to remove any potential obstacle from us having this talk."

It was Grobyc who demanded, "Who are you!? What are you after!?"

The former demi-human laughed. "You still don't know? I am the human incarnation of FATE... The living interface of the FATE computer system... Or put simply... I, too, am FATE!" As the three young men stared at him, Lynx continued, glee in his voice, telling the story of a fateful night fourteen years earlier. A night Serge barely remembered, when he had been dying of a feral cat's poison and his father and his father's best friend had set out to search for help in the middle of a storm.

That storm had forced them into the Sea of Eden and to a Chronopolis that had been forced off-line by the lightning. In the few minutes between FATE's blackout and her coming back online, the Flame had found Serge and had connected itself to him, making Serge the one person who could command its power. When FATE woke again, it was to find herself unable to control the Flame.

Worse, FATE was unable to act against the Flame's Arbiter. There was a program, hidden within her system, that prevented her from doing any harm to humanity, that commanded her to help. More, that same code forced her to obey the Arbiter's will entirely. With her access to the Flame gone, that program blockaded her efforts to re-establish control.

"Still, we now know that the program was there, and now" Lynx turned to the Flame. "Bring out the traitor, Prometheus..."

***

Janus sighed, drawing out the patterns of code that Lucca had created, in a long distant time and place, for another world entirely. Those codes had been copied and improved upon by Belthazar, until they formed a small sentience hidden deep within FATE's mind. As Lynx/FATE had said, a traitor or a rebel.

Allowing Prometheus access to the speaker had been part of FATE's requirements, but Janus had another purpose as well. He prompted the tiny program, told it what Serge needed to hear, what he himself could not say.

Prometheus sighed and Janus could feel his sorrow and his agreement with Janus' need. Greeting Serge, he said nothing of the Flame's full intentions, nothing of what the Flame required. Instead – as Janus had asked – he simply pleaded that Serge do what he could to help stop the battle between the dragons and FATE. He was cut short quickly as Lynx made his next command.

"Eliminate him." FATE ordered through Lynx.

I am sorry, Prometheus. So very sorry. Janus thought as he spoke aloud, unable to fight the orders he'd already been given. "Affirmative. Now eliminating Prometheus."

The boy Janus remembered as Eike gasped in protest. "NO!"

Somehow, even as Janus was wiping the last bits of code out of FATE's programming, Prometheus managed to gasp a few last words. "Serge... P-Please... For the future of mankind... F-For... th-the... f-fu...ture... o..."

There was a long moment of silence. FATE because she wanted to gloat, Serge and the others out of stunned shock and sorrow. Even the cyborg, whom Janus thought he recognized as having once been Reiken, appeared moved. Janus himself would have been shrieking curses at FATE if she hadn't ensured his relative silence.

At last, FATE/Lynx laughed. "Idiot. Destruction to those who oppose the Goddess of Fate!" As Serge's companions prepared to attack, Lynx smiled. "Hah... Come, Serge! Show me what the purpose of your life on this planet is... Teach me what it means to be "alive!!!" Then she took Lynx's body entirely and transformed it to a huge metallic form, attacking the three.

Janus growled under his breath, unable to act or help. Unless and until FATE fell he was bound to obey her now, and her orders – through the false Arbiter – had been not to interfere. Then he noticed something that made him smile to himself.

***

FATE laughed as she struck her enemies over and again, magics blasting the three humans in every way she had available to her. She didn't even need to use the Flame on them, she thought. Determinedly she flung power into the fight, tossing the three across the room with ease.

Yet somehow she seemed to be weakening. She couldn't understand it. What was happening to her? ::FLAME, why are you not helping me?::

::For one thing, you order me not to interfere. For another The Dragons are no longer bound to their islands in either time. They gather their power together and plan to attack. Shall I let them?:: There was a strange tone to that voice, a harsh mockery that she had never heard in its voice before. The frightened innocence was gone, replaced by cold hatred. In that moment she knew the Flame for her true enemy and felt a moment of fear.

Realizing that to command the Flame's help in that moment would be the greater of two evils, FATE concentrated her attacks on the three before her. After all, they were just human and she was FATE, all-powerful and all-knowing. They would fall

A scream of unbelieving pain started in the base of her non-existent throat as she felt the last of her strength dropping away under attack from a force of pure Yellow magic. One of the Elementals, she realized, the ones that had been guarding the dragons. No wonder the dragons were nearly free. The energies shifted and now it was the Black Elemental, thrown by the cyborg. Then, in a blow that left her sprawled and helpless, the White Elemental blasted her across the room and tore her metallic body free of the flooring.

Fleeing that body and sending her mind into the depths of her machinery seemed the only recourse. She broke free of the metal, flying back for the safety of her main system, only to find the way blocked.

In a place that was simply electrons, two forces faced each other. "I don't think so," the Flame said. "You're done."

"Get out of my way! I ORDER you to get out of my way!"

There was a harsh bark of laughter from the Flame. "Nope. You can't order me now. You're not the Arbiter anymore. Remember? You transformed yourself out of that shape. And you're not really FATE right now either, since you're not part of the main computer."

She couldn't believe it. "Sophistry"

"Oh dear. Didn't think I was capable of it? YOU have been. It's how you got your way for so long. Now, old woman, it's my turn."

"Why? Why are you doing this. We could rule the world."

"Oh, now you try to reach my venal side? Sorry, old woman. I don't have one. There's only one thing I want and you've been a blockade to that for over ten thousand years now." The Flame chuckled. "You've made your last mistake, old woman. Oddly enough, it's the same as your first one. Your very first one."

FATE couldn't understand what the Flame meant. "First mistake?"

"I know who you are. Who you really are. Those modules they found in Porre? They weren't pieces of another FATE from an earlier loop in time. Nor were they pieces of a Mother Computer from a timeline long dead and buried. No. They were from another complex entirely. You should never have taken that form, Zeal, should never have let me see you in a remotely human body. I recognized you. Recognized your mannerisms."

Gasping, FATE faltered. How did it know? How could it know? "Who ARE you?"

"Your mistake was simple. Of all the beings upon this world, I am one who knows you best and hates you most. You should never have thought that I would cooperate with you, not after what you did to me, what you did to my sister MOTHER!"

Stammering, shocked into sudden understanding, FATE – who once in a mortal life had feared death and longed for world control so greatly that she had used the power of Lavos to bind her very self within a deathless machine – whispered, "Janus? You?" She remembered now. Remembered his appearance that day he'd helped the Flame break her control. She'd not seen him since, though she had searched. Now, too late to do anything about it, she understood.

"Yes. I. You tried to absorb a piece of Lavos into yourself and I was born of that union. Whether or not I had a human father as well doesn't matter. I am Lavos' child, its heir, if you will. From the day you first summoned Lavos and stole my sweet sister from me, to the day you forced me to betray my greatest friend, to this time and this place when you face MY chosen champion – that friend transformed, I am your enemy."

"Janus I never I only wanted" She tried to reach out to him. To touch him. To somehow change his mind, but in that mind she could see only determination.

"I've spent millennia listening to your ranting. I only wish I could return the favor, but I have no time. Goodbye, mother." There was a final flare of energy. Then nothing.

***

1020 A.D. - Both Worlds:
It was done. FATE was destroyed. They could feel her death through their tool. Could feel the last dregs of power fade from their prison. In the depths of the Sea of Eden they sensed their tool, and the girl from whom Harle had been copied, facing off over the Frozen Flame.

It came as no surprise that their tool tried to stop Kid. Her fears and torn loyalties had been growing from the day the two had – for a brief moment – mixed thoughts and purposes when they'd been thrown through time by their twin necklaces. Nor was it a problem, for even as Harle's purpose had been confused, so too had Kid's. Where Harle could not be used, Kid could.

As Kid caught up the Flame, Harle flew forward to stop her, only to be blasted by the power the Dragons were putting through Kid. That same power struck the Flame and clutched it tight.

::FATE has fallen... Fate has died...::

::Finally, the time has come...::

::Indeed... The long, endless night shall finally come to an end.::

::Now... For mankind...::

::I shall make you bleed!!!::

::Feel a million years of this planet's pain and suffering!::

Rising into the air, breaking the barrier of Time, the dragons joined together and flew to capture the Flame.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Alexial: In the game I think Kid helped Evile Serge because he brain burned her somehow. She certainly acted like it. So that's why she ends up on E.Serge's side in this story. Serge as Glenn, well, I had to find a way to keep the Hero of Legend involved in the story yet not take the glory away from the main character. Only way seems to be to make him be the main character without his knowing it. SquareSoft helped out by putting that line in about coming from the sea and returning to it. (I know, it probably means coming and going to the Sea of Dreams, but) Anyway, at least he *isn't* a frog anymore. And yes, that's why I used Glenn in the rescue scene earlier. I *told* you Serge was rescuing her from a memory. grin

Nasuka-chan: Kowaiiiiiiii desu! (still hiding under the desk and trying to type.) Whether the ending is good or not is something you'll have to decide when you reach it. Suffice to say, Kosagi is a sentimentalist. (Janus: I have another few names for her, too.) Speed well the main work *is* done. A few rough spots here and there that I clean up before posting, but in general This is the first time I've posted a fic that wasn't complete when I started the posting, so it's been an interesting week or so. Especially those three 4 hour long writing sessions in the middle of the night last week. What happened to Janus? He's still there. And much happier now that he's dealt with mama dearest.

Let's see.

That dadnabit Masamune. I don't don't don't know how it got to Dario. Don't ask me. The FAQ says it went to him after the Sea was destroyed. Obviously it found its way there. (shakes head and tries to avoid the hole in the plot).

The Flame/Janus playing dead. Only explanation *I* could find for not destroying the Prometheus code sooner. Otherwise FATE was even stupider than usual villains. If she'd destroyed the code as soon as Lynx got to her then she would have had no trouble taking over completely. Didn't anyone ever tell her not to play with her food?

FATE as Zeal Eh heh That's entirely my take on it. SquareSoft probably didn't mean her to have any relation to her loonieness. Yet another of those dramatic bits intended to give a character a chance to do something they've wanted to do. (Janus: I didn't get to throttle her, though, drat it all.)

I know, I know. In the game you'd never be able to throw all three elements like that. *shrug* I like sturm und drang.

So... We're about at the end. Two more chapters and we'll be there. (Waves another flag of thanks to Skahducky, just because. It's nice to still get reviews from you!)