Lavos was confused.
It had existed for eons, feeding off the very strength of the planet itself. It had ruined anyone who tried, in their arrogance, to control it, and now it was finally time for it to take its place as this world's ruler.
Yet, now it was faced, for the first time, with an obstacle that wouldn't bend. These humans and their creation had already made their way through its two outer layers of defense, and Lavos was cornered in its own body, pulling scraps of power from every era of this puny planet's history. It should be beyond the trivial emotions of lesser beings, but it was now feeling things it didn't understand. Fear, desperation, anger.
And there, in the center of the group, stood that human that defied explanation. Lavos had utterly annihilated him fourteen thousand years ago, but nevertheless, he stood, brandishing his sword for the final blow.
Never! Lavos could not meet its end at the hands of such a creature! Harnessing the last vestiges of its power, it reached out across and beyond time and space, searching for something, anything that could save it from this fate.
"Crono, now!" Lucca shouted.
Crono nodded. They'd just destroyed both of Lavos's organic drones, and the one-eyed, humanoid alien was clearly on its last legs, covered in cuts and burns. Crono readied his sword, then leapt into the air, coming down toward Lavos with as much force as he could muster—
Suddenly, he was tumbling over himself in the air, surrounded by swirls of white and blue. It felt like passing through a gate, but somehow different. As he fell, the lines of blue got smaller and disappeared. He landed with a thud on a flat surface, although he couldn't distinguish anything in the white abyss that stretched out around him.
Groaning, both from the fall and the battles that preceded it, he pulled himself to his feet.
"Hello there," said a voice from behind him. It sounded like Crono himself, though it echoed and reverberated in an unsettling way.
Crono whipped around. Where before there had been nothing, now there was a bizarre figure sitting cross-legged. It seemed to mirror Crono's proportions, but it was completely white, visible only by the odd shadows that outlined it. The only notable feature was the mouth, which was made from gray lines, with a huge smile, as if drawn by a child.
"Who are you?" Crono asked, cautious.
"I am called many things," said the figure. "The truth, God, the world, the universe. I am all, and I am one." He pointed a finger at Crono. "And I am also you."
Crono squinted at the figure. Its strange mouth smiled even wider, and it laughed quite animatedly.
"It seems you're in quite the predicament," it said. "You've been cast away from your world. You don't even have a door to leave through."
Before Crono could respond, the figure leaned forward. "Don't worry, though. Not even the one who sent you here can get something for nothing."
He pointed again, this time behind Crono's head. When he turned around, a huge, ornately decorated stone door had appeared there. It was easily more than five times as tall as Crono.
"If someone's going in, someone's coming out," said the figure. "That's the Law of Equivalent Exchange."
The door began to open inward, and from the darkness beyond, black hands began to reach out. Crono went for his sword, only to realize that it was his old wooden one. Regardless, he batted at the arms and backed away, but they weren't deterred. One grabbed his ankle, and another his left arm. As more grabbed onto him from dozens of angles, he was dragged kicking and screaming into the door. Just as he was pulled through, he saw another boy, blonde with a red coat, being pushed out. He only got a glimpse before the door closed behind him, and he fell into unconsciousness.