I do NOT own Chrono Trigger, any character, name or element of the story. I am not part of Squaresoft or any of its affiliated companies.
Thanks to the following for Beta Reading:
Lord Jareth
Jade Dixon
Feel free to email me with suggestions, comments, or anything else. But no flames, please.
Prologue
The
year is 4856 AD, long after the adventures of Chrono and his friends
touched, though just the blink of an eye compared to the amount of
time they traveled to have these adventures.
Resulting
from the rate of general advancement, technology beyond comprehension
of any human living in the year 1000 AD has been developed. There are
things much like the telepod invented by the prodigal inventor Lucca.
However, these were powerful enough to move huge amounts of matter
across time and space. Admittedly, Lucca's invention could move
things across time and space, but not as predictably, and not as far.
It was this invention, the "ultra-transportation machine" that
sparked the problem. This problem would very nearly bring about
doomsday.
Chrono Trigger: All Over Again
"The Ultra Transportation Machine's capabilities greatly exceed those of any transportation node invented so far..." Cronus shut off the universal broadcast receiver. He was sick of hearing about this new invention. Sure, it was miraculous to be able to transfer men across time and space at the same time, but what good did it do him? Albeit, had he any access to the thing at all, he could become rich, or immortal, or anything that truly explored the realms of greatness. He didn't. He'd been there when it had been invented. Of course, such a thing would, obviously, use too much power to go without notice. The power node would serve as a beacon, and the invention would be confiscated. Of course, he hadn't figured this out himself. His friend Luan, who was said to be a descendant of the great Lucca herself, had invented the thing. She was a genius. There was nothing else to it. She had figured out how to make the thing, and analyzed all of the potential ways of testing it. The authorities, however, did not want any technological advancement to be kept secret. In a way, he didn't really blame them. It was man's nature to be greedy, and what kind of people would we be if we didn't want everything for ourselves? At least, that was what everyone believed. The authorities claimed that it was "for their own good." Yeah, sure.
Yes, as technology increased, humans in general had become more vulgar, rude, and generally less like the mannerly people of the first and second millennia of this world, such as Chrono and his friends. If you, reading this, do not know who Chrono was, Cronus would pity you. However, this is a basic summary of what he did. The adventures began with Chrono, a teen at the millennial fair in the year 1000, bumping into a teen girl who introduced herself as Marle. Chrono, being the gentleman that he was, he helped her up and picked up her pendant, which she'd dropped. Now, Marle was alone at the fair, and asked if she could walk around with Chrono. After walking around for a while, they went to see the legendary Lucca's latest invention: the Telepod. Ah, the Telepod. Anyway, Marle's pendant began to glow mysteriously when she went on the contraption. She was sucked through a portal, now known as a Gate, which brought her through time into the middle ages. Chrono, again acting the gentleman, went to save her. After this, they had many adventures across time, acquiring many friends. Among these were Glenn, the Frogman, Ayla, a prehistoric chief who may have been half cat, and, some records say, the legendary Magus of the Night. But they also encountered many enemies, the fiercest of which was the monster Lavos. It was an epic battle, told ever after as a story of great courage and determination. Had they not fought this epic battle, on the Day of Lavos in the year 1999, the world ever after would have been broken from the apocalypse that the abomination caused. They saw the world as it would be without them. Everything wrecked, humanity huddling beneath domes and living off anything they could find, civilization itself completely obliterated. Machines would rule the entire world in a mere century had they not come and stopped it. What an adventure.
Suddenly, Cronus snapped back to reality. The UBR said there was an emergency broadcast.
"Attention, citizens. Before I begin this emergency broadcast, it is necessary that you remain calm," said the reporter. "On its first scientific mission since its creation, the new ultra transportation machine has mysteriously disappeared. No contact can be made with the crew. However, before communication was lost, millions of life forms were detected in the general vicinity of our craft.
"While scanning for foreign objects such as life or components to support life that has existed within a 5000 year radius of this year, the sensors on our ultra transportation machine have stopped responding. Its crew cannot be reached. It may just be that interference or lack of power are disrupting the transmitters. As this is its first mission, we are uncertain of the reliability of the machine. This concludes our emergency broadcast. New information will be broadcast when it is discovered..." Again, Cronus shut off the UBR, but this time with a sense of urgency, that what it had said was actually something about which he cared. He had to talk to Luan. It was possible, if what he thought had happened had happened, that only the two of them could be of any help. If Luan was truly the descendant of Lucca, then she must have retained some of the fighting skills of her ancestor. In addition, Cronus was a very proficient fighter. However, he had to be content with antiques. He could wield a light-knife pretty well, but not as well as a sword. Of course, he could only wield one in his house, where Luan had somehow blocked the magnetic sealing mechanism that the government kept all over the world. They couldn't really monitor it, at least not as well as an energy weapon. Swords had become obsolete probably just after Crono's time. And yet...a sword just felt like another limb for Cronus. They might not be able to stop the titanic Lavos, but they could probably take a horde of space monsters. How strong could they be?
Cronus was talking to Luan on the contact unit moments later.
"Luan, did you hear the emergency broadcast?"
"Yeah. What are we going to do about it?"
"Well, you know about that guy Chrono?"
"Yeah, duh!"
"Well, he killed a monster from space."
"You're not saying...oh god, Cronus."
"What? Going and killing the monsters so that you could fix the machine would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"
"...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...wait...did you say me? Don't drag me into this, ok?"
"What?"
"Never mind. I suppose you can go ask O1-199 if you can go get yourself killed, but—"
"Ok! I'll see you there!"
"There's no talking him out of this, is there?" Luan sighed as she disconnected.
"I should have known this would happen." Cronus complained after waiting for two hours in the waiting room to see the overlord of sectors 100-199. Luan and he had determined that to make their theory known, and, Luan thought secretly, take away from the discrediting to her that had been done, they needed to talk to at least one overlord. He might then allow them to fix it. Luan was, however, very unhappy about "having to wait forever to see some guy in a uniform that I wouldn't waste a shot on."
45 minutes later, Cronus and Luan were standing in front of the overlord of sectors 100-199. He was not happy about them barging in at such short notice, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he had to be indulgent and listen. Had he been of higher authority, he could have had them thrown out. He wasn't. However, indulgent may not be the right word to describe his actions, however.
"I haven't got all day, so whaddaya want?"
"I have a theory," said Cronus, "as to what happened to the UTM, and I might be able to fix it."
"You?" said the overlord skeptically. "You don't know anything about this sort of thing, and your friend here didn't even see the problem. How could you fix it?"
"With all due respect," Luan broke in, "That's where you're wrong. There's nothing wrong with the sensors. At least, not before you sent it up into space."
"What're you implying?"
"I'm implying that something up in space—" Luan began, when Cronus interrupted, "A space monster attacked the machine and it made it go kaboom!"
"Er...yeah, that's what I was trying to say."
"And yer sayin' that you all can fix it?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I'll have to check with World Overlord, but don't get your hopes up. Now get outta here and I'll give you a call when I got the answer."
Thanking the man graciously, the two walked outside the building into the telepods outside. "So you'll gimme a call back when you get home?" Luan asked.
"Yeah, I guess so. Here's not exactly the best place to discuss private plans, is it?"
Cronus stepped into the telepod before Luan. This turned out to be one of the most important things that he did in his life. Upon his entering, the machinery that ran the machine began to spark and crackle with electricity. After that, Cronus wasn't sure of what happened. Luan, on the other hand, knew what happened.
As anyone even slightly informed in technological matters should know, the thing that Cronus stepped into was a Gate. At least, that was Luan's view. She was right, primarily at least. It was, actually, what would come to be called a Portal. Portals were much less predictable than Gates. They could take you to any place in time, any location...in short, you could easily go through a portal and land on top of yourself walking home after you'd gotten back to your own time. Not something you want to fool with. However, Cronus can't exactly be blamed. He didn't know what he was getting into. No one knew what he was doing. They had no idea that it could happen. If he'd known that he could have been transported to Earth before the beginning of the universe, he wouldn't have gone on the telepod. Really, what kind of person would?
It was dark. Cronus couldn't see anything except blurred images, rushing past him. What were they? Could it be that he'd inadvertently stepped into a gate? You as the reader know that he'd stepped into a Portal, but he didn't. Besides, no one even knew that such a thing existed, not even the great Lucca. So how can he be blamed? Anyway, back to the story.
Cronus found himself, once he regained consciousness, in a place like none other he'd seen before. For one thing, the only thing that kept him from freezing solid was the excruciatingly hot gas venting from a hole in the soil. The terrain itself was bizarre enough. Huge boulders littered the otherwise flat landscape on which he was lying. In the far distance, he could see mountains, all of which were taller than Death Peak...that was rediscovered...about 50, maybe 100 years ago by...someone. "Damn my inability to pay attention!" hethought. It had become dimensionally unstable or something like that. Something about Gates opening up. Not that it mattered right now whether or not he'd paid attention in his classes. All he wanted was to get out of the place. Where was he, anyway? Who knew? He was probably on some other planet. Yeah, the only thing that could make his predicament worse would be a horde of monsters or something like that.
Cronus jumped. A particularly odd-shaped boulder next to him had just shifted. At once, he jumped up and was ready for a battle, his hand at his sword hilt. Then his sword was plunged deep into a section that was about six feet high at the base of the thing. How, he did not know. For now, all that mattered was getting out of here. However, that might include figuring out what had moved, which might be fatal at least. The boulder let out a roar, shaking the ground around it. Then he saw it. Wrenching his blade out just in time, he dodged the raw power of destruction that rained from the heavens. The ground around him shattered, and everything went black.
'Death take me. I want to die!' thought Cronus. Death did take him. At least, it came for him. But somehow, death was driven back, banished. He could not die. He could see now. He was in a tremendous cavern, probably underground. There were about twenty of the rocks, which he now realized were immense creatures, looking disturbingly like Lavos. all standing in a circle around him. By some strange magic or technology, they communicated by sending messages to each other's brains: telepathy. Cronus could not understand them, as was to be expected with a race of alien monsters. 'Even if I could', he thought, I probably wouldn't want to listen. Who knows what they're planning to do?' Cronus didn't have much time to ponder this question; moments later, he saw something that made his blood run cold. Luan, also strapped down. He could not see any straps, but he could see her struggling as if there were straps. How advanced was their technology? Yeah, this would be my kind of luck. Holy crap, how am I going to get out of here? Where am I? Oh well. At least I can talk to Luan. These things can't speak English. Then again, that would be my luck. Oh well. I really hope it can't hurt to try. "Hey, Luan!"
YOU WILL NOT SPEAK
So they can speak English. Well that's just great.
THOUGHT WILL BE PRIMARILY ERASED
Great.
Suddenly, the room was abuzz with activity. Somewhere between ten and fifteen creatures surrounded him. Thirteen, he thought. He realized now that he still had his sword strapped onto his belt. The creature didn't even think he could reach it, or even defend himself from them if he could. That was most certainly not a good thing. However, one thing that no one knew about was that the dimensional instability that going through a portal made gave the traveler the temporary ability to predict all possible variations of the future. This is not to say that it gave them some psychic ability to tell fortunes. It merely let them see into every parallel universe. Someone who traveled through a Portal could actually shift the universes so they were a certain distance from ours. The space between the universes, more simply known as Void, took less time for mass to travel across than light, for reasons incomprehensible for those of us who live in any universe. Luckily for Cronus, one of the parallel universes was one in which he'd learned to operate these creatures' machinery. After all, any conceivable (or inconceivable) combination of events could occur in a parallel universe. So, watching another version of himself, he telepathically destroyed whatever magic made these things work, without knowing what he was doing or how. However, it was too late.