Disclaimer: No. I do not own Chrono Trigger. If I did, I'd be a happy person. Thank you for reviewing. Apparently, people like what I named Chrono's cat. It's humourous, I guess.
Chrono: But I don't think it's funny.
Lady Vella: Come now, I CONTROL you! You'd better not complain, or I'll kill you off right here.
Chrono: Shutting up...
Lady Vella: Excellent. On to chapter 3, shall we?
.O.
Chapter 3- The Queen of the Reptites.
The queen stood up.
Chrono mouthed wordlessly as he gaped up at the woman.
She was not a reptite.
She was human.
She had green hair, which was extremely matted. Her face was thin and pale, probably from lack of sunlight and proper nutrition. She appeared at least ten pounds underweight. Her clothing was strange, even for a Reptite. She was wearing a long purple robe that clashed horribly with her hair. It appeared to be made out of some kind of animal with thick, leathery skin, mixed with soft cloth that didn't come from this time period.
In fact, Chrono knew exactly where it had come from.
"Mom?" he whispered.
Magus looked at Chrno in alarm. "That's your MOTHER?"
The queen walked slowly toward Chrono. "So... what was that you called me? Ape?"
Chrono frowned. "What? Mom, what happened?"
"How'd the Reptites survive?" Lucca asked.
There was a meowing sound from the throne.
"Mr. Tinkle!" Chrono exclaimed.
Magus snorted again.
"Y'know-" Chrono began holtly before the queen inturrupted.
"I asked you a question, ape."
"Mom, what's wrong with you?" Chrono asked. "How'd you get here? How'd the Reptites survive that long?"
The queen nodded at her guards.
Chrono was yanked roughly to a side room, where the queen followed.
"Now. I want you to answer me a few questions, ape," she said, sitting on a cushion on a chair. "And none of this 'mom, don't you recognize me' nonsense."
Chrono looked at the ground, glanced at the two reptites still holding his arms, and sighed reluctantly. "Okay..."
"Where did you come from, and how did you get here?" the queen demanded, rubbing Thor, who purred contentedly.
Chrono sighed. "I came from... the future, in a time machine that flies."
The queen clicked her tounge disapprovingly. "Don't act as though I were stupid, ape. The reptites didn't survive the Ice Age by being incompetent fools, you know."
"I'm telling you the truth!" Chrono yelled.
The queen nodded at her guards again.
One of them took out something that looked vaugely like a gun, and shot it at Chrono.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!" Chrono yelled, as electricity shot through his body at an unbearably painful rate.
The queen nodded again, and it stopped.
"Ugh..." Chrono moaned.
"Talk, ape, and you may live," the queen said, almost bored. "Lie to me, and you will, undoubtedly, die."
Meanwhile...
Marlee looked up as screaming reached her ears.
"Chrono..." she whispered.
Lucca glanced back at the reptites guarding all possible exits. "There's no way out..."
"That was Chrono's mother?" Magus asked.
Lucca nodded. "But I don't understand... how'd they survive? And why is Chrono's mother working for them?"
"She's their queen," Schala said. "She doesn't work for them, they work for her."
"We gotta get our weapons back..." Marlee muttered, glancing up at the throne, where their weapons and equiptment were lying.
"I have a plan," Lucca said suddenly. "Schala, do you have ANY magic left?"
"Yes," Schala said. "I can create a temporary magic-proof force field."
"Excellent," Lucca said. "Listen carefully. This can go really badly on us really quickly..."
Back in the torture chamber...
"Where did you get your magic powers?" the queen asked.
She had finally accepted Chrono's answer to her first two questions, which was "we came from the last village of the humans, and we got here... on a ship."
"Um..." Chrono thought fast. Surely the queen wouldn't buy 'Well, we got the magic from a creature named Spekkio, who lives in a small room at the End of Time.'...
The queen tapped her fingers impatiently. "Well? Need more time to think up a plausable lie?"
"It's not a lie, you just won't believe me," Chrono muttered.
The queen rubbed her eyes. "I have things to do, Ape..."
"The Magic Kingdom," Chrono said. "The people there gave it to us..."
Satisfied, the queen asked a final question. "Why are you here?"
"We came... to save Schala," Chrono mumbled. "The first human you captured..."
"I see."
The queen stood up. "Well, if that's all... kill him. We don't want any trouble."
'Damn,' Chrono thought. 'This isn't going in a good direction...'
"Um..." Chrono said suddenly, "I have a question for you, your majesty."
The Queen turned around. "What?"
Chrono took a deep breath."How'd the reptites survive the Ice Ages?"
"Well, since you're dead anyway..." the queen mused. "Why not?"
Back in the throne room...
"Hurry," Lucca muttered desperately, building the fireball in her hands.
The fire grew to just the right size.
"Good..." Lucca muttered. "Magus, c'mon, hurry... Schala, get ready..."
"What are you doing?" a reptite asked suddenly.
"Uh, building a fire?" Marlee suggested. "Because we're... cold?"
"Oh, okay," the guard said.
Magus created a decent-sized chunk of ice in his hand.
Lucca's plan was simple. If she remembered science class well enough, which she did, of course, if you threw a certain amount of water on a large enough and hot enough fire, it would cause a large amount of steam to fill the room. (A/N- I dunno if this really works, I assume it does, though...) Schala would then create the shield to prevent the four of them from being blinded by the steam, they'd grab their weapons, rescue Chrono, and haul butt off the island.
"NOW, SCHALA!" Lucca yelled, throwing the ice into the fire.
Schala threw a shield around them, and they ran to the throne and grabbed their weapons, while the steam blinded the reptites, causing them to run into each other in their haste to keep the "apes" from escaping.
When the steam cleared, the reptites were facing a crossbow held by an angry princess, a gun held by an angry genius, a sword (that belonged to Chrono, actually) held by an angry sorceress, and a sythe held by an angry wizard.
The reptites screamed like sissies, and ran around in circles.
"Let's go!" Lucca yelled over the screaming.
BAM!
The door to the torture chamber burst open not five seconds after the queen had finished explaining how the reptites had survived.
"C'mon, Chrono!" Lucca yelled. "Let's blow this popsicle stand!"
"What?" Schala asked, confused.
"It's an expression my mom uses..." Lucca said hastily. "Point is, we gotta get off this godforsaken island, pronto!"
"How did you-" the queen stammered.
"Your guards suck, that's what," Marlee said. "Let's go!"
Schala thrust Chrono's sword at him, and they took off.
"Did you learn anything?" Lucca yelled as they ran through the forest.
"Later!" Chrono panted.
Magus came to an abrupt stop.
"What?" Chrono asked.
Magus held up a hand. "Listen..."
The wind blew softly through the trees.
Then, they heard it. A soft buzzing sound... from underneath them.
"RUN!" Magus yelled, diving into the bushes near a tree.
The others followed suit.
A large number of reptites swarmed up from under the ground, right where the five had been standing seconds before.
"Where apes?" one reptite hissed.
"Could not get far. Search," another commanded.
Magus slipped behind a tree, and counted the reptites. 'We're hopelessly outnumbered...' he thought. 'More than ten to one...'
He reached into the inside of his robes. 'Excellent, one left...'
Marlee spotted him. She held up her crossbow.
Magus shook his head, and held something up.
Marlee nodded, and prepared to run.
Magus peeked around the tree, and threw the smoke bomb.
The reptites were once again taken by surprise. By the time the smoke cleared, Marlee, Magus, Schala, Lucca, and Chrono were out of the forest and in Epoch.
Flying away.
Chrono slumped against the window. He was still weak from his torure, so Lucca had taken the controls. "I can't believe it..." he moaned.
Marlee looked over at him, and placed her hand on his hand. "It's not your fault..."
"Nope," Lucca said, steering toward the village, and landing. "It was Mr. Tinkle's fault."
"I don't have the energy left to argue with you..." Chrono said reluctantly.
All of them got out.
"So?" Lucca asked. "What'd you learn from the queen?"
Chrono sat down. "It's... I learned how they survived the Ice Ages."
Marlee sat down, too. "Go on."
"Well," Chrono said, heaving a sigh, "we forgot that there were still reptites in the Forest Maze, which was untouched by Lavos."
"Oh my God," Lucca whispered. "They lived the same way humans did, right?"
Chrono nodded. "They learned to hunt, they found the best places for food, and they figured out how to make fire. That's how they survived for... all those years. And my guess is that my mom was sent back ten years before the gate was supposed to, the remaining reptites found her, she was intelligent enough to get them to listen to her, and they made her queen."
Silence.
"So... we have to go and wipe out the reptites, right?" Marlee asked.
"That may not prove to be a wise move," Schala spoke up. "For all we know, your mother was saved by the reptites. Killing the reptites might kill your mother."
"Okay..." Marlee said. "I have an idea. Kill all but a small group of male reptites. Then they can't reproduce!"
Lucca shook her head and crossed her arms. "For all we know, male reptites are the reproducers. Plus, they wouldn't live for very long."
There was more silence.
"Well," Magus said finally, "it's been fun, but I have to go now. Good luck rescuing your mother, Chrono."
Schala nodded. "Yes. Good luck."
The two left.
Lucca stood up and brushed snow off her pants. "Well, let's head to the prehistoric age. Maybe we'll think of some way to do it... Plus, we could get Ayla to help, I'm sure..."
They headed back to Epoch.
.O.
Did you enjoy? I hope so. Sorry it took so long to update, but I've been busy. Again, thank you's go out to the few people who reviewed, namely NovMists, bluedranzer77, and VampireHunterSephiroth200. Sorry if you noticed a complete lack of detail in this chapter, but I'm not a good describer, and I've been feeling a bit off lately. I'll write chapter 4 as soon as I'm feeling better.