-------------------------------------- "Aye mate, it was bloody good to know ya." Serge heard this voice, a small quiet whisper in his head as he witnessed Kid facing Schala. His feet were planted ona small piece of land, the darkness eating away at it's edges making it seem as though it was in the middle of nowhere.

He wasn't the only one there of course. Schala and Kid stood, facing each other, and his teammate Guile stood off to the side. The magician looked over to him as everything began to darken, "It was an interesting journey Serge... I will set out in search of a new enigma. Let us toast in hopes that our paths may cross again...!" His slender form began to shift away into nothingness.

Serge then turned his gaze to Kid, "Please... Kid. I can't leave you... not now..." It was the first time Serge ever remembered begging for anything, "Not after all that's happened... please."

Kid simply smiled back, "Don't worry Serge... I'll find ya... Sometime, somewhere, I'm bloody sure of it!" When she had finished everything had gone completely dark.

"KID!!!" Serge screamed as he shot strait up in bed.

"Serge, what's wrong!?" A surprised and worried Radius dashed quickly into the room several moments later. Serge was sitting up, his hair beaded with sweat and he was breathing heavily, "I'm fine Radius... It was... Just a bad dream." He sighed and lied slowly back down.

Radius nodded but took one last worried glance before slowly exiting Serge's room. He closed the door quietly and walked through the one across the hall, into his own room.

Serge got out of bed, took a quick shower, and then got quickly dressed. He stuffed his bandana in his pocket and walked briskly outside, letting the gentle morning sun dry his still wet hair, "What's with all these weird dreams..." He wondered aloud, "Could I really have done all that?" Something that disturbed him now was that the people other than himself in his dream were slowly fading from memory. He was beginning to forget what they looked like. The man that had spoken to him in his dream had already completely faded away.

The teen walked around the city for an hour, still deep in thought when a deep, calm voice came to his ears from behind, "You there, Sir, have we met somewhere before?"

"Huh?" Serge turned to see a tall man, of a slender but muscular build. He had long grayish blue hair, drawn tightly back into a perfect braid. His out fit consisted of white pants, and a long sleeved coat, it formed a V around his chest and buttoned off as it went down. All of which was gold trimmed. But perhaps the most striking aspect about him was the thin gold mask that he wore, covering the upper half of his face. He was standing, or rather floating, a few feet away.

"Who are you?" Serge asked.

"Forgive me, my name sir, is Guile and I'm currently working as a magician here in town... though I do tend to wander." The magician bowed low.

"Oh, hello there Guile." Serge responded. He couldn't help but feel he knew this man from somewhere.

"May I ask your name?" Guile inquired.

"Oh, sorry..." Serge grinned and scratched the back of his head, "I'm Serge. I'm visiting here from Arni village."

"Arni.... That is rather far away, have you ever been in Termina before?" The man questioned.

"Actually no. I'm a new comer." Serge responded, but somewhere deep down he knew that that wasn't true.

"Well then Serge, please allow me. I would be happy to guide you to some of the sights." Guile suggested.

Serge shrugged, "Sure I guess."

The masked magician guided him around the beautiful town, pointing out some of the better attractions and places. They had a very well stocked weapons and armor shop, and the street venders could be heard trying to attract just about anybody, sneakily persuading them to buy something. He ended the tour at the cemetery, "This is the place where both Garai and Dario are laid to rest." Guile explained.

Serge nodded. He had heard of the two expert swordsmen, Radius had told him all the stories of how they fought for the Acacia Dragoons.

Standing in front of their graves stood a young man, Glenn, Garai's son and Dario's brother. He was clad in dark brown leather with green trim, and armor over his clothes. He had very young features and light blondish brown hair.

The boy carried the Einlanzer, the legendary holy sword of the Dragoons.

Standing next to him was a young woman, whom everyone knew as Lady Riddle, Lord Viper's only daughter. Her dress was dark purple, and she had soft blue eyes and violet hair.

Behind the woman stood two of the four Devas. Karsh, with long, soft, light hair, wearing a strange white outfit with red flam trim. And Marcy, the Diva of the four Devas. She was only a child, wearing her pink frilly dress, and her blond hair tied neatly up in buns. Her bright blue eyes shining as she stood at Karsh's side. Zoah, the third Deva, was at the time absent, wandering around town.

"Father, Dario, I shall not forget you." Glenn stated softly. He slowly looked up from the two graves, spying Guile and Serge on the bridge to the side.

"Guile!" Glenn nodded.

"It has been a while, Glenn." Guile replied as he floated over the water, to the small island where the two graves were located. He nodded briskly to acknowledge the dead, and then turned back to the young swordsmen.

"I haven't seen you in over a month!" Glenn stated, "Ever since you helped us defeat that weird dragon creature on Marbule."

"Yes. Please, let me introduce you to a young friend who I met this morning. Serge." The magician motioned over to Serge, who was just now walking up to the group.

"Hello Sir, It is an honor to meet the leader of the Devas..." Serge said as he took Glenn's hand.

--------------------------------

Serge now sat with Guile, Glenn, Karsh and Marcy in the town center, enjoying an early lunch. The Lady Riddle had left them, returning with her father to Viper manor.

Serge was startled suddenly when Radius's hand came out of nowhere and planted itself on his shoulder, "Serge, there you are!" He looked around at the people who were currently seated with him, "Huh... Glenn, Marcy, Karsh? How in the world did you manage to wind up with them?"

Serge shrugged, "Uh, long story?"

"Well, we have time..." Radius replied, taking a seat next to Glenn.

------------------------------

"Magus!" Crono called out, walking up behind the mage, "Finally. I've been looking all over for you." He glanced over the wall to where Magus was looking.

The Chrono Trigger was sitting with a small group of people.

"Crono, he may be the new Chrono Trigger... But we can not go easy on him."

Magus stated, seeing the look in the former Chrono Trigger's eyes, "He saved Schala from Lavos. I owe it to him, as much as I do hate to admit it."

Chrono nodded and Magus continued, "We must make him remember, and the only way to do so is to force him into it." The dark mage grinned, "Even if it is a little harsh..." He waved his hand and his scythe appeared out of thin air, "Heh."

The red headed teenager sighed, but knew the mage was right, "I agree. If he doesn't remember what he really is... then he's no real use to any of us."

Magus waved his scythe away and placed his hand on Crono's shoulder, "Well, it seems that the cast is complete. Six of them have gathered together."

"Yeah, time to reintroduce them to Kid." Chrono grinned as a blackish purple mist gathered around them, and they teleported back to their own group.

------------------------------------

"Zat stupid wizard!" Harle cursed in a foreign language, "He could have just sealed mon Serge's fate!" She carefully placed several dozen throwing knives into her pack, "Ze other dragons must be stopped, what zey plan to do cannot 'appen while moi is around. For Amore mon Serge, for Amore." Harle closed her pack and did a graceful back flip, disappearing just before landing.

-----------------------------------

"Very interesting." Radius commented, "What an unexpected event. What brings you all to Termina?"

"Well... Guile lives here..." Glenn explained, "But we were sent an invitation for all of the Devas to come to the town."

"Really?" Serge asked, "was it anonymous?"

"Actually, yes it was."

"How did you know?" Karsh asked, almost in a demanding tone.

"That's the same reason why we are here." Radius replied.

Guile nodded, "It truly is strange. I have found that about twenty or so people have appeared in town, at the request of an anonymous letter."

The magician was referring to the people whom had all come due to an anonymous letter, each stating different reasons. Though they were all strangers, each felt rather familiar around each other. He began to count them down on his fingers, his memory of the names of the people who he had just recently seen in town amazing. Some of the strangest and most interesting people had come, people such as the mad scientist Luccia and a robot named Grobyc.

The well-known sissy of the seas, Fargo was there. So was his son Nikki, Mikki the dancer, and the mermaid.

Macha, Korcha, Orcha, Orla, Doc and Mel had all come from their home among the Demihumans.

A strange little fairy named Razzly, and a clown named Skelly (For obvious reasons) had both come.

There was a Demihuman beast trainer known as Janice.

A man who worked for Viper, named Norris.

The small, strange dragon like creature and a fungus like person.

The last was, strangely enough, a small little alien named Starky.

All of these people Serge had met before, but he didn't know it.

When guile had finished the group looked at him with blank expressions. He sighed, "I notice all newcomers who cross my path."

"Well, yeah. Anyway." Glenn stated, "That's really weird. What could these messages have been sent out for?"

Before anyone had a chance to reply, they all heard a large explosion. The small group stood up quickly and looked towards the direction it had come from.

The first thing they noticed was Zappa's shop up in flames. Seconds later the prestigious Gogh house got sucked down into the earth. "What in the world...!?" Serge exclaimed. Dust and smoke began to fill the sky.

There was a sudden whoosh of wings from over head, and a strong wind come down on the group. They all looked up to see six huge dragons circling overhead, roars and cries erupting from their lungs. One by one they swooped down, landing on the cold, stone covered ground in front of them.

"The dragons!" Radius stared intently at them. They didn't seem to be all that interested in him, more or less the group itself. Each one had its anger filled eyes on the young, blue haired teen at his side.

"You!" The sky dragon boomed, his deep, hate filled voice sending chills down everyone's spine, "Arbiter of time! You will pay for what you did to us!" He then began to glow with a radiant energy.

The other dragons roared, some showing their fangs, some showing claws, all looking quite angry. It was obvious what they wanted. Serge and his team prepared, each drawing their own respective weapons, knowing they had no chance in a battle against the six all mighty dragons. Strangely enough, all those who received letters came to the square, ready to help defeat the dragons.

"Wha' the heck'er those lubbers doin' 'ere?" Fargo inquired as he unsheathed his saber.

The black dragon looked around, dark energy seeping from between his razor like teeth. He backed up a few steps, "Excellent... we can get rid of them all now..." He roared fiercely as the dark energy fired from his mouth, the blast heading straight for the pirate.

Irenes saw what was happening, and cried, "NO!" as she rushed to push him out of the way. The beam of dark energy struck her frail mermaid form, killing her on impact. She was gone when the dark smoke cleared. "Irenes!" Fargo rushed strait at the dragon that had tried to kill him, "You'll pay fer that!" He jumped at it, delivering a wide array of strong blows with his saber. The blade, however, was nothing compared to the thick, rough scales of the mythical beast.

Fargo landed on the ground and quickly brought forth an element from his belt, pointing it at his target. He laughed, "See how ya like a Deluge!" He focused on the small marble in his hand and a large ice wall sprouted from the stone ground, followed by a raging river that came from and went to nowhere. The pirate smirked, thinking he had won the fight. He turned suddenly, his thoughts more focused on Irenes when a blast of black energy burned its way through the ice wall and struck, instantly leaving nothing but a cloud of black dust where Fargo once stood.

"Dad!" Nikki yelled, witnessing his father's untimely demise. The dragon turned his gaze towards the young rock star, the energy once again seeping from between its jaws.

Nikki braced himself, knowing he stood no chance when a sudden bright flash of light erupted from somewhere nearby. It formed a solid focused beam that struck the powerful dragon in the face. It roared in pain as the photon beam from Radius diminished.

"Someone, go to the element shop and get all that you can carry!" The old man yelled, barely heard over the chaos. The Ex-wrestler, Greco, who had come to help heard the command and rushed to Lisa's. While he began to quickly gather the small marbles the fight continued outside.

Serge had his own problems with the leader of the dragons, the sky dragon. He rushed forward, his swallow at the ready at his side as he gazed into the hate-filled eyes of the beast. The dragon jumped into the air as Serge swung his blade, missing his target completely. He writhed in pain as a sudden blast of holy fire consumed him from behind, sending him to the ground. He coughed suddenly and was on the edge of unconsciousness when he heard a girl cry out his name, then felt a soothing wave of healing wash over his body. He pushed himself to his feet; turning to Leena, he said, "Get out of here. It's too dangerous."

"No way!" She protested, she focused on a small element in her hand and prepared an ice lance, "I'm not just gonna let you get killed!" She saw one of the dragons, the fire dragon, and sent the ice soaring towards the beast. Luckily enough the small dragon was concentrating on another group of people and did not notice the attack.

The ice lodged itself right into the side of the creature, which roared and grinned, as much as a dragon could. It then pulled the lance out of his body. He prepared to counter with his magma burst ability, a lava-like substance dripping from his mouth and burning small holes in the ground. Before he could unleash his attack he was tackled from the side, by the large ex-wrestler who had just returned.

Greco had given all the elements he found to Radius, and was concentrating on the fighting now. The small creature was knocked several feet back, just as the wrestler prepared another tackle.

"Not bad... human." The dragon said as he started to glow a yellowish red, "But are you really prepared?" He roared as his small body began to grow, and he sprouted up about thirty feet, becoming incredibly more muscular and sinister.

Before Greco could even move he had been engulfed by the searing red flames, collapsing dead in a smoldering heat.

It was obvious to everyone that the dragons were clearly winning. Three of the heroes had already been killed, and the way things were going, more would soon die. The city itself was beginning to disappear, trampled and bulldozed by the fighting.

Korcha was trying to fight the water dragon, but it was to no avail. He had used all of his elements, and none had even affected the beast.

"Don'tCHA worry, time to start really cookin'!" Orcha grabbed three magma burst elements that Greco had found and focused on them. He unleashed all of them at once, and an eruption of flames unleashed themselves underneath the dragon.

The water dragon roared in obvious pain, but ignored it and stepped forward, "Fools! Dost thou think that I can be so easily defeated!?" He unleashed a very powerful ice glacier attack, crushing both Orcha and Korcha.

"Serge, this does not appear to be going well." Guile stated as he back up towards his comrade, "We can not beat them like this."

"I hadn't noticed." Serge yelled back as they both dodged attacks from the dragons they were currently fighting. Guile was busy with the green dragon, while Serge was avoiding the white one.

"I have an idea...It may just work." The magician stated.

"Shoot."

"Perhaps if we try combining our attacks?"

"It might work... What did you have in mind?" Serge asked, quickly dashing to the side to avoid the attack the sky dragon had unleashed. The magician and he had been forced back to back by the two dragons onslaught.

The white dragon then suddenly became distracted as someone used a gravity blow element against it. Guile nodded, "Give me your weapon! Hurry!"

Serge complied by quickly passing him the swallow. He watched, carefully noting to keep the white dragon in sight just in case he began to attack again, as Guile spun the double bladed weapon a few times. He levitated it between his hands, and then quickly closed his palms on each end, bringing his hands together, and making the swallow disappear like a child's magic trick. Guile then made a movement as if he were throwing something.

The dragon bellowed out fiercely as Serge's swallow appeared, implanted in the green dragon's chest. It tore itself free, sending a cascade of blood flying, and returned to its owner's hands. Serge caught it, and took a quick glance as the dragon, which now had a huge gash through his chest.

Though this attack was a minor victory, it was not enough to tip the scales. The dragons were still clearly winning, and they had already diminished ten lives.

Irenes, Fargo, Greco, Korcha, Orcha, Doc, Janice, Skelly, Orhla and Norris.

Glenn cursed as he looked around at the dead people who had come to their aid, "Deva's! Quickly, we must use the pride of the Dragoons!" He announced, as he charged up his elemental power. The four Deva's all lined up in a formation they had been practicing for a short while now. Pride of the Dragoons was a full forced attack that they together had formed.

Glenn charged forward, slicing the black dragon with a powerful dash and gash, jumping quickly out of the way so that Marcy could unleash a powerful Stringphone blow. Karsh followed that attack up with his own Axiomatic, once the child had gotten out of the way. He quickly dashed to the side to allow Zoah the room for the final blow.

Unfortunately, before the Final Deva could finish the attack, the dragon used a powerful free fall to launch him at least one hundred feet in the air. It roared triumphantly as he let go of his hold on the helpless man, who fell to his death.

"NO! Zoah!" Marcy cried as she saw what was left of her much older comrade lying on the ground. She and the other Deva's suddenly felt sick.

There was not enough time to grieve though; the dragons were still attacking full force.

Serge took a quick glance around at the bloody and body filled battlefield that had once been the beautiful city of Termina. Anger struck him and something within him snapped as he remembered something, an attack-one that had been unique to him-one that was extremely powerful.

He looked up at the sky dragon and smirked, his body beginning to glow with what seemed like soft white flames of energy. He began to levitate, the energy blowing his clothes and hair like a strong gust of wind. He was about eight feet in the air when he raised his hands above him, and closed his eyes, unleashing his powerful attack. Pure light.

It erupted from his body, rushing out in all directions, shredding the ground beneath him and tearing up what was left of the destroyed buildings. It slammed into each of the dragons, making six very large craters.

------------------------------

"LUMINAIRE!" Crono cried out excitedly as he saw the attack that the new Chrono Trigger had let loose on the six dragons. His eyes shone as he grinned like a child who had just seen a fireworks show for the first time. "He can do it too!!!"

The red head was amazed to see the boy use the magic attack that he had thought was completely his own, unique to him in every way.

"I wasn't aware that he could even use magic." Magus commented.

"Wow, he might not need our help after all!" Lucca stated.

Crono shook his head, becoming serious once again, "No. It's a strong attack.

Heck, extremely strong. But right now it's not powerful enough to take out all six dragons. And there is no way Serge is gonna be able to fight now... he's gonna be exhausted. That attack takes a lot out of yu until you get used to it... it still leaves me winded ever time I use it." He took out his katana.

"Lets get going then!" Marle said as she loaded her crossbow, "They'll definitely need our help now."

---------------------------------------

Serge fell to his knees, breathing heavily, and shaking slightly. What the heck had he just done? He felt like he was about to pass out and could tell a lot of the others were staring at him with looks of many different emotions. He heard someone gasp and cry out, and quickly snapped his head up to see what had happened.

"Impressive Arbiter." The sky dragon's voice called out as his large clawed hand appeared over the edge of the crater, "You remembered that attack..." It spread it's six wings wide as it pushed pulled itself up, grinning like only a dragon could. His two different colored eyes focused fully on Serge, "It will not be enough to save you though."

Serge looked around at the other craters, each of the dragons was pulling themselves up now, some slower than others. The green dragon, who was hurt the most let out a fierce roar as he joined his brothers, who had gathered together.

The sky dragon was the last to join them, landing in the center of the dragons, "It is time to end this Arbiter... Good bye..."

Each of the dragons reared their heads back, and started to glow with power. One by one they opened their mouths, each prepared to fire off the flames of their own respected element type at the heroes. They unleashed it, and six powerful blasts combined themselves into one colossal beam of energy.

It flew towards Serge, tearing up a trail of ground as it went. Serge brought his arms up to defend himself, knowing that it was no use. It was only a short distance away, perhaps a few meters, when a sudden wall of lunar energy shot up to protect each of the heroes.

The energy from the six dragons attack was greatly reduced, and only minor damage was dealt out to each of the remaining heroes. Serge slowly let his arms down, and looked around.

"What?" Radius looked over himself, taking note that he was completely fine. The others let out similar responses.

Then, suddenly out of nowhere, dropped a girl that dressed like a jester, her face painted with a small tear under one eye. She stood up in front of Serge, "Mon Serge, I will not let zis 'appen. Vous must be saved, ze dragons, zey are no longer my brothers, but now foes." She said as she pulled out two gleaming throwing knives.

"Harlequin! How dare you betray us!?" The black dragon bellowed, "We reated you, why would you do this!?"

"For Amore, I cannot let you harm monsieur Serge!" She yelled as she ran forward, jumped into the air and fired off several strong beams of lunar energy.

The dragons were forced back by the jester's attacks, slowly but surely. The sky dragon roared angrily, and commanded, "Harlequin! Stop this now!"

Harle ignored them and quickly threw a dozen knives at them, each whistling as it blew through the smoke and dust filled air. Unlike the weapons used by the heroes, these knives easily penetrated the scales of the six beasts.

"It iz over!" Harle stated as she landed on the ground, she stood on one foot, holding the other leg out at the dragons. She gracefully raised her arms up, bringing everyone's gaze with them.

Everyone was amazed to sight that the second moon was eclipsing the sun.

"Lunairetic." Harle quietly said, as blasts of even more powerful lunar energy, pummeling them down as they were repeatedly blasted.

"It is not enough!" The red dragon bellowed as he rushed forward and slammed into Harle. She landed gracefully as the other dragons stepped slowly forward.

"Hmmm. Well zen. Moi shall use her true form. Aurevior my brothers." Harle stated, she began to glow and was about to transform when she sensed something nearby. She turned and let the moon move from it's position, allowing the sun to shine again. She spotted what she had sensed.

A small group had just arrived, among them the wizard she had met earlier.

"Him again!" She groaned and vanished.

Crono stepped forward, his katana held loosely in his hands, "Robo, get Serge and them out of here. I think we can handle the dragons."

"Affirmative." The large robot replied, and set off to do his task. Crono rushed forward, his team following his lead. Each chose a separate dragon.

The red headed leader jumped forward, plunging his blade into the white dragons back, right at the joint of it's wings. The dragon cried out in pain as Crono removed his sword, then jumped down to strike the dragon in the chest. He quickly dodged a powerful sweep of the beast's claws and summoned his magic. He sent a quick cascade of lightning through his sword, sending it searing through the dragons body. It roared one last time before falling over, dead where it lay.

Crono removed his sword, took out a rag from his pouch, and cleaned of the blood. He then turned to see how the others were fairing.

"You foolish human!" The black dragon bellowed as it unleashed a blast of dark energy towards his opponent. A tall man with long bluish silver hair.

Magus simply stood there and raised his hand, deflecting the blast completely. He laughed deviously, "You want to see some real dark magic!?"

"What?" The dragon slowly backed up as the wizard used his Dark Matter. But it was too late.

Now two of the dragons had been killed, and the others appeared to be gone soon.Marle and Lucca decided to take on the blue and red dragons of water and fire.

But apparently they seemed to be arguing about something.

"Come on Lucca lets use Antipode!" Marle whined.

"We always use Antipode!" Lucca replied.

"So!"

"Fine. Version three then."

"Yay!" Marle said with a laugh as she waited for Lucca to cast the powerful fire attack, Flare. Marle added her own ice attack to the blast and both dragons were dropped by the combined magic.

Frog had chosen to take on the green dragon, as Ayla battled the yellow. The blond curly haired cave woman dashed on all fours to her opponent, then used a combo of kicks, punches and, oddly enough, bites.

She finished the beast off with a strong, triple kick, cracking the skull of the beast.

Meanwhile, Frog used his Masamune to deliver a leap slice that slew the dragon, cutting him in two.

----------------------------------

"You should all leave now." Robo stated, "Except the ones who are called: Serge, Radius, Glenn, Marcy, Karsh, Leena, and Guile."

"No. We're staying too." Nikki stated as he and Mikki stepped next to the remaining seven.

"Da, I vould like to stay as vell." Luccia said, joining Nikki.

"Grobyc-will-stay-with-Luccia." The robot added, following the mad scientist. He shared a strange look with Robo before doing so though.

"Starky stay too." Said the small alien.

"Affirmative. Twelve will stay instead of seven. Logical. Hazard risk goes down with increase of group numbers." Robo computed as he walked away, but glanced at Grobyc. He didn't trust the strange, human-looking robot. He would keep his sensors on this one.

The remaining twelve looked towards the scene of the battle, the ruined half of the city that was no more. Flames and smoke still filled the air, as the group that had helped them rushed to put them out with their magic.

"Amazing... those six managed to kill all the dragons..." Radius said in awe, "They are all so young..."

"Yes, but who was the small jester that saved us?" Glenn said, "She was doing quite well."

A thought suddenly struck Guile as he turned to Serge, who was sitting, his back against a wall. He was leaning his head back and had his eyes closed, exhaustion still clinging to his features, "Serge, where exactly did you come across that attack you used?"

Serge opened his eyes and looked up at them, "I... I don't know. It just kind of came to me... I guess." He turned his gaze, fixing his eyes on the seven people who were coming his way.

"Who are they!?" Leena questioned.

"I guess we're about to find out." Karsh answered as they all turned they gaze in the direction of the newcomers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucca turned way from the group to face the remains of the slain dragon.

"Amazing."

Marle turned to her companion quickly and angrily. "How can you say that's amazing? People died here today, half the town is in ruins and just because it's not your town doesn't mean that you can just sit back and ... ohhhh!" Marle's words ran quicker than her ability to think up new ones.

"No, not at all. I'm really sorry for all of this but the Dragon War wasn't supposed to have started for another one hundred years." Lucca explained as she took her glasses off and wiped them clean.

"So we changed time. We've done that before. Big deal."

"You're still not getting this. Think for a minute." Marle stuck her tongue at Lucca for what she perceived to have been an insult. "We didn't cause the dragons to attack. Somebody else must have done...something." Lucca threw her arms into the air in confusion.

"Who are these people and why do they look so familiar?" Serge whispered cautiously to the closest person next to him, which happened to be Guile. Guile smiled slightly and stepped forward. Everyone else was too taken back by them to even move.

"It's so good to see you again," he said as he bowed at the waist to Magus.

Magus nodded his head as an indication that the man should rise. Looking at the two standing side by side, there was a definite resemblance between them.

Only their postures seemed different. Guile stood tall and proud. He accented his every movement with mysterious flair and egotism. Magus carried himself much differently. He was dangerous. There was no doubt about it. You could watch him, for just a minute, and tell that much.

It wasn't just arrogance either. It seemed like a natural fact that he could kill anyone in the area if it chose to suit his purposes. His muscles seemed constantly tense as if he carried the weight of the world upon him.

"Allow me to make the introductions." Guile said stepping between the teams. "I owe this man my life."

Magus looked at him coldly. "You owe me so much more than that."

........................................

"Help me out here. Please?" a voice came out distracting Leena from the strange group. Quickly she began to search through the rubble for the survivor.

The voice continued to call for her. "Hello?"..."Help me"..."Anyone?" he voice went on.

"I'm coming!" Leena called out.

"Alright." the voice said with some relief. "I could really use a hand here." there was a small chuckle after the last statement. When she saw the source she was jumped back in shock. "Actually I could use a whole body." A charred skull said to her. Hints of makeup still clung to it's face

"You're...you're..." Leena stuttered unsure of what to do.

"Dead. Yeah. I'm used to it. If you don't mind though could you pick me up here? I need to find my bod." it said again. Leena cautiously bent downward to pick up the talking skull. As she touched it, the skull crumbled to ash.

"Man. That sucks." she heard the voice fade away.

................

"There you are." Serge said as Leena returned to the group. "Guys, this is Leena" he introduced her to the newcomers. "This is Crono, Lucca, Marle, Robo, Ayla, Frog, and Magus." Serge gestured to each of them as he said. "You've missed quite a bit here. These people said they're going to be taking us to see...who was that again?"

"We're going to go see The Guru Gasper. So far a lot of what's happened lately doesn't seem to be what's supposed to be happening. I'm having a hard time explaining it," the red head that was introduced as Crono said.

"Lucca, I think that's your cue." Marle said.

"Basically it boils down to this, whenever you travel to the past not only do you affect your present but your memories of the present as well. The flow of time seeps around what you've done. Basically fixing and adjusting to your presence. Time travel is okay. Sometimes things actually improve. The problem lies in what happens when you step across realities into not a different time but rather a completely different now. So what happens is..." Lucca, the girl with glasses explained.

At that point Leena was completely lost. She couldn't understand anything that they were saying at all. She felt a little better when she looked around at the others and noticed a similar confused expression on their faces.

"You're losing them," Marle said.

"Yes. You're losing me as well and I journeyed with you and saw the events forthwith." the frogman seemed to smile but judging by the composition of his face, it was hard to tell.

"Simple. Keep it simple." Crono told Lucca.

"When you jump through time your still part of the main scheme of things. When you jump to a different reality, you're in a totally different picture. You don't belong at all. The reality itself often becomes your enemy."

Karsh crossed his arms in disgust. "If you don't have anything to say other than gibberish, I'm taking the Dragoon Devas and leaving. I can very well handle whatever threat is left, by myself."

"Hold you tongue" Radius raised his staff to block Karsh's retreat. "If what they're saying has the slightest bit of truth in that would me-"

"That vould mean that some vun here doesn't belong in zis reality" Luccia smiled as she interrupted him.

"It's much worse than that, I'm afraid." Crono looked skyward.

"Sounds far out." The blonde Porre soldier that had helped them earlier walked from the ruins. His head was slug in an unnatural position.

"What's everybody looking at? You didn't act this way when I was walking around without the skin.

Just because it's not my natural body..."

"I refuse to believe that you people are, as you claim, time travelers." Karsh grunted.

"Ignorance always assures me." Guile crossed his arms and leaned, chuckling, against the ruined wall of one of the buildings. "But the question isn't who are they. The question is 'what now?'"