In Time All Things Come Together

Chapter 3: Demise by Cats

Crono shook his head, cheeks stuffed with the tastiest bits of chicken he had ever had the pleasure of having in his mouth. "Em neft a purg. (I'm not a pig)."

Marle chuckled at the distraught look on the cute boy's face.

With a small effort of swallowing the large mass of chicken in his mouth, Crono composed himself and offered up the rest of the yummy meat to the beautiful young girl at his side, and frowned somewhat as she politely reclined. However, that didn't stop him from happily snacking on the rest of the cooked meat as the pair searched around for Lucca's display.

"Crono. Do you know where we're going?" Marle put a hand up to her brow and squinted off into the distance.

The spiky haired boy raised his eye brows and quickly licked his fingers. "Why um.of course I do." He glanced around quickly, while idly picking up another piece of tender chicken, trying to spot a walkway that led to the back of the fair grounds, not wanting to seem lost. After all, he was trying to show this absolutely gorgeous girl around, and avoiding seeming like a fool was most important.

"Oh there look!" Marle screamed in ecstatic excitement.

Hastily, Crono scoped the area trying to follow Marle's gaze. "Did you find a.way?" The boy's brow furrowed in confusion as the young girl bounded over, not to a walkway but, to a small black cat lazing about in the shade.

"Oh Crono, isn't it cute!?"

The red haired boy's handsome features relaxed and he smiled softly walking over to Marle. "Yes, deffenatly cute." He kneeled down and watched on as Marle gently stroked the shining ebony cat which purred and nudged her hand with its cold wet nose. His eyes glimmered, and he thought, 'Marle's so cute when she smile's like that.'

"Crono.Crono."

"Oh, um.what Marle?" Crono blinked slightly as the blue eyed girl summoned him back from his delightfully happy daze.

She had bundled the small cat up in her arms. "Who do you think it belongs to?" Her small hand stroked the lucky cat behind its ears.

"Oooh," Crono thought. "I have no idea." With a hand, he reached out and rubbed the small cat's brow, and the small critter wasted no time in sniffing and then licking the remains of some tasty chicken off his hand.

Marle directed a large grin at Crono. "Oh, look.he likes you!"

The young man blushed and took his attention away from the cat, captivated by the way Marle grinned at him. "Oh, you.you think so?.OUCh!"

The blonde haired girl's blue eyes took on a look of surprise as she stared down at Crono, who had fallen backwards on his rear and was nursing a finger with a freshly acquired bite mark. "Are.are you okay?"

Crono sorely stuck the injured finger between his lips with an expression that looked much like defeat. 'So much for not looking like a fool'. He chanced an angry glance at the cat. "I'm not food you know." But the little fur ball only licked its lips in satisfaction, and leapt from the soft embrace of Marle's arms. For just a second, Crono could have sworn the eyes of the cat looked oddly red.

Marle frowned, but Crono couldn't tell whether it was because he was hurt or because the 'cute' cat had left her. He hoped it wasn't the latter. "What a strange cat." She said before standing and offering a hand to Crono with a warm smile. "Come on, we're late aren't we?"

The young fighter sighed, but more than willingly took the offered hand of help. He spotted a small path to the right of where the devilish cat had napped and wandered down the trail hoping it led to Lucca's display and far away from any more cats.

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"Crono!!!!"

He had just barely stepped into the clearing before a pair of arms, belonging to a certain magenta haired girl, wrapped themselves around his neck. Crono teetered on his feet before leaning forwards and returning the warm and much excited hug from his friend. "Hi Lucca."

"I thought you weren't going to come!" The small framed, but big minded, girl took a step away from Crono showing him a look of worry and distress.

"I'm sorry.I got a bit distracted."

"Distracted? By what?" Lucca peered curiously at Crono through her glasses, but her eyes traveled a little ways and standing behind her life long friend was a very pretty girl. Someone Lucca had never seen before. "Oooh." Her gaze returned to Crono and gave him a wink accompanied by a small smirk.

Crono's eyes widened in horror. "No, no, no Lucca." His cheeks flushed with a dull red. "I was just showing her around.I took her to see Gato."

"Ooooh!" Lucca immediately left Crono's side and hurried over to Marle quickly grabbing her by the arm. "So what did you think of Gato? Marvelous isn't he? One of my greatest inventions.though he does tend to get out of control once in awhile.but still a great fighting machine, right?"

"Oh.um." Marle blinked and stared at the strange girl. "He was . fun."

"Fun? Oh really? You didn't have any problems with him?"

Crono sighed and put a hand on Lucca's shoulder to gently drag her away from her prey. "Lucca this is Marle.Marle this is my friend Lucca. The one I've told you about."

Lucca adjusted her glasses, and sighed getting the hint. "Hello Marle." She said with a smile. "Ready to see something awesome?"

The blonde haired girl let out a long held sigh and smiled warmly at the other girl. "Sure, what is it? I'm guessing you made it?"

Lucca's smile broadened into a grin. "Oh, you bet I did. It really is a masterpiece this time. Dad!" She called over her shoulder. "You almost ready?"

"Ready dear. Let's go people! This is the show of a life time! Presented by my own genius daughter Lucca!!" With Lucca's dad bellowing like that.it was no wonder why she contained no modesty.

Following Lucca's lead, Crono and Marle walked across a small clearing with people gathering around from all sides to see a pair of large machines covered in lights, tubes, and a rather large assortment of buttons. When seeing the buttons, Crono reminded himself to stay far, far away from them. He wasn't quite sure what this could be, but it looked as if it could do something extraordinary.or cause quite a bit of a fireworks show. Throwing a glance over to Marle, he could see that she was quite excited by this. "Oh, Lucca! You really made that!?"

"Yes, I did." Lucca beamed with pride like none other. "Hey.you wouldn't happen to want be a volunteer would you?"

"Oh cool! Of course I would! What do I do?"

Crono grimaced remembering all the past times when he had volunteered to be the guinea pig. This didn't seem to be a good idea.

"You just wait a minute and I'll demonstrate it first." Lucca grinned happily and skipped off to man her machine.

"Umm.Marle.you sure you want to do this?" The red haired boy asked carefully.

"Oh of course I do! What could go wrong?" Her smile was so big and her eyes so blue and glimmering with excitement that Crono couldn't say another word to stop her. Not that he could have as Lucca's dad screamed at the top of his lungs for everyone to gather round and watch once again.

Lucca stood in the center of one of the two machines and gave her dad the thumbs up to flip the switch. There was a distant hum, a few sparks, and then a small pop as Lucca disappeared for a few seconds, in which Crono looked on worried, but then there she was again. Good ol' Lucca grinning from ear to ear and throwing her arms up in the air like a good showman. Crono couldn't help but smile and clap enthusiastically as his friend bounded over to him to draw Marle away. For the moment, Crono's earlier fears were calmed and he stood with the other clapping audience members to watch as Marle was transported through the air in some overly complicated way that he would never ask Lucca about. That risked having his ear talked off for an unknown amount of hours.

The beautiful Marle stood grinning and waving.

Crono gladly waved back.

Lucca gave the thumbs up.

Her dad flipped the switch.

Marle was gone.

A few seconds passed by.

A pop.

But Marle wasn't there.

Instead of a gorgeous blue eyed babe reappearing..there was a small black cat with the reddest eyes Crono had ever seen.

Lucca's hand flew over her mouth.

And there was silence.

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Author's Note: Okay, guys. This is where the story changes. I didn't want to just redo the whole story of Chrono Trigger. ^^; That would take an enormous amount of time. ^_^ Anyways.hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you all are wondering what's up with those cats. ^_- Don't forget to review!!!!