Chapter 3 - The Missing Link
A clearing between some trees. A nice evening; a soft breeze blowing through, making the leaves rustle; birds flying in the sky and happily chattering away to each other. But slowly, it all came to an end as raw spiritual energy danced in the centre of the clearing, a mysterious portal opening up and the unmistakeable sound of someone screaming. Crono flew through the open vortex and smashed into the ground where he lay, desperately sucking air deep into his lungs. Looking around from his position on the ground, he saw three blue blurs come flying towards him. Swiftly he rose up, drawing his wooden sword from its scabbard, albeit rather shakily after the impact.
He recognised them as imps; ferocious though weak humanoids. Their sloping foreheads were crowned either side by their long pointy ears with tufts of hair sticking up from them. "D'ya think ya can take us, ya little maggoty human?" one screamed in defiance before charging headlong at him.
Crono deftly stepped aside of the imp and delivered a crashing blow to the back of its head as it streaked past him, tearing the top of its head off; brains splattering across the clearing. He spun around and quickly ducked a rock one of the imps threw at him, and then lunged at it, ramming his sword right through its chest, slicing clean through the spine. As he drew his sword from the shattered body, the third imp leapt onto his back; clawing at his neck whilst screaming, "Long live Magus!" Crono reached behind him and grabbed it by one of its ears, swinging it over his head and smashing it into the ground. Dazed, it tried to push itself up, but found opposition in Crono's boot pushing it firmly back down to the ground. Startled, it found his opponents blade tip hovering centimetres from its throat.
"Bastard! Why did you attack me? What did I do to you?" he asked furiously.
"Wha... what? Are you simple or something? We're your sworn enemies!"
"What do you mean? Where the hell am I?"
"The war, you know. Between the Mystics and the Humans? You're in Truce Canyon," sputtered the Imp.
Realisation struck Crono like ice-cold water to the face; somehow he'd travelled back in time 400 years to 600AD, during the War of the Mystics... He remembered the imp calling out the name Magus... Crono remembered it from History lessons... he'd been some mighty sorcerer who had led the Mystics into battle... Stunned, he lifted his foot from the Imps chest, which quickly ran away... This can't be happening to me... Crono shook his head clear and dashed off over a rickety rope-bridge, a crystal clear river running somewhere below him.
As he reached the other side, another two blue imps came running at him. Issuing forth a cry of guttural rage, Crono swung his sword in a curving arc from the ground upwards with immense speed, generating a wave of wind so thick it was visible to the naked eye and sent it slamming into the first imps body, shredding it into pieces. The second imp, seeing what happened to his comrade, dove to the side out of the way of the oncoming wave, crashing into a cliff wall. Crono seized the opportunity and rushed at the dazed imp, sword held high. As the imps sight regained clarity, the last thing it saw was Crono's sword come flashing down towards him...
Crono wiped his sword clean on the top half of the corpse lying in front of him. Charging down some steps, he skidded to a halt upon seeing two blue Imps playing football with a Roly curled up tightly, acting as the ball. It would have been comical, if it wasn't for the fact he knew that they'd try to kill him. Too tired after having already fought five imps, he carefully sneaked around them, hiding in the thick undergrowth, choosing to run to the nearest town, rather than face another confrontation.
Crono stopped in an inn to catch his senses... if that was Truce Canyon, then this must be Truce, my hometown... He sat at the bar and ordered a soda, whilst listening in on other people's conversations, trying to find out about the era he now found himself in.
"What a relief! They finally found Queen Leene wandering up in the mountains!" one soldier said to another.
"She must be glad to be home!" replied the other soldier.
"The Queen has been through a lot... She's been babbling about the oddest thing."
The doors swung open, some of the heat escaping from the stuffy room as a stranger walked in. Walking up the bar, he called out, "Anyone wanna buy me a soda?" to anyone that was listening to him. Lifting his hand, Crono nodded as he made his way over to him. "Thanks a lot mate. My name's Toma. Tell ya what, since you're buying me a drink, I'll let you in on a secret. It's about Queen Leene. She disappeared while visiting that cathedral to the West..."
He was interrupted by one of the soldiers; "They found her up in Truce Canyon today."
"Oh well, never mind then lad," Toma told Crono. Crono shrugged and left the Inn. If there'd been soldiers out looking for this Queen Leene, then some of them might have come across that girl Marle and taken her to the castle... it'd probably be a good idea to start looking for her there...
"Halt! Who goes there?" cried out one of the guards as Crono came into view of the castle.
"Check out that hair! Where're you from, son? Are you one of Magus' troopers?" asked the other as they moved to block off Crono's path.
"Hardly! This kid never would have made the cut! Show us your stamp collection, son!"
The second guard crossed his arms over his chest as he started laughing. "Now beat it, shrimp!"
His anger rising, Crono started fingering the hilt of his sword but was stopped by a voice crying out from behind the guards: "Stop that at once!"
Whirling around, the two guards identified the source and dropped down onto one knee. "Queen Leene!" Crono was left standing, completely confused by what was going on as a beautiful young woman glided into the entranceway, the hem of her pristine white dress skimming across the floor.
"Show your manners! This is a friend of mine!"
"But there's something odd about him!" objected one of the guards, but was met with an icy stare from the queen wearing a beautiful dress.
"Do you dare disobey a direct order from me?" she asked.
"Forgive me your majesty... You may pass sire."
As the guards sidestepped, clearing Crono's way, the queen left with a curious smirk on her face.
Crono charged up the steps after her, curious as to why she had saved him but she had gone. Bewildered, Crono climbed the right-hand tower. At the top was a knight guarding the queen's bedroom. "You may pass sir, Queen Leene is expecting you," he said as he backed away.
Crono passed through into the queen's bedroom where two attendants were serving on her. "Please leave me," Queen Leene said to them. "The man and I have matters to discuss." When the attendants had left, she beckoned Crono forward.
"W--why did you save me earlier?" he started to ask, but he stuttered because there was something about her he recognized.
"Come close sir, " she beckoned. As he did so, she cuffed him around the head leaving a ringing sound in his ears. "That's for almost running into me at the fair!" Slapping him again, she said, "And that's for letting me use that damn telepod-thingy!" With one final slap, she'd finished her recriminations.
"Oww! You're the girl who got sucked into that portal, Marle!" Crono guessed whilst rubbing his now bright-red and stinging cheek.
"Yeah, that's right," she replied tersely. "But everyone here calls me Queen Leene... what the hell has been going on?"
"This is gonna sound weird, but that portal-thing that sucked you in was actually a time warp. You were sent 400 years backwards into the middle of the War of the Mystics."
Marle burst out laughing, thinking he was pulling her leg, but slowly stopped when she realised Crono was being serious. "Holy shit..." The candles in the room started flickering until they simultaneously went out. A strange, luminescent glow started to fill the room as a grimace shot across Marle's face.
"Wha... what's happening to me? It feels like... like I'm being pulled apart!" A mysterious aura shone around her, glowing so bright that Crono could no longer see. With an ear-piercing scream from Marle, the light disappeared. As he slowly regained his sight, he realised that she had disappeared. Shocked, Crono staggered from the room and descended the tower.
He could still hear her screaming ringing in his ears as he heard someone call out his name. Whirling around, he saw Lucca charging at him. "You're OK... did you find the girl?" Crono quickly filled her in on the details.
"Hmm, it's just as I thought... I knew I recognised her! And this looks identical to the castle in OUR time! I'll bet they mistook her for her ancestor... you see, she's a member of the royal family in OUR time! She's Princess Nadia!"
"What the hell!" exclaimed Crono.
"Marle, that is Princess Nadia, is a descendant of Queen Leene! Back in 600AD, Queen Leene was kidnapped, but somebody saved her. However, history has been changed. When they found Marle up in Truce Canyon, they mistook her for the queen and called off the search. Now, with no one to rescue her, she gets killed and Marle is never born! There might still be time... if we find the real Queen Leene before she is killed, we can return time to what it's supposed to be!" explained Lucca.
"Right, then we'd better hurry, hadn't we? This guy I met called Toma said Queen Leene disappeared whilst visiting the cathedral to the West, so we'll start searching there."
Standing outside the cathedral, the pair looked at the dilapidated building filling their view. The towers on either side had crumbled and some of the moss-covered walls had large holes in them, with tree branches poking their way through into the inner sanctum. The overall impression was a stark one: God had forsaken this once holy place. "What the hell would a queen be doing here?" Crono mused. "It looks like this place has been dead for years... Well, this has gotta be the place, let's go in."
"I've got a bad sense of foreboding about this..." muttered Lucca before she followed Crono inside. The interior was finely decorated with a richly woven scarlet carpet flowing across the floor leading up to the altar. As Crono and Lucca walked up the aisle, the nuns just ignored them, continuing their work. "There's something creepy about this place, I mean why isn't it in our time zone? There's nothing here, just trees... what could have happened for this place to just disappear?" asked Lucca.
"I think it might have something to do with Queen Leene's disappearance," was all that Crono said. Walking up to the altar, a glitter caught his eye. Crouching down, he took hold of a pin and looked at it. "What d'ya make of this Lucca?"
"That's the royal crest of Guardia on it, she's definitely been here," Lucca replied. Looking up, she saw the Head Sister glide towards her with what looked like a contorted grin on her face. Looking closer, Lucca saw that her features were moving; the lips drawing back, exposing her fangs, the nose extending to form a snout. Clutching Crono's arm, she cried, "The nuns! They're not human!"
Instantly, the five nuns all turned into Naga-Ettes, their ears extending into points and their legs turning into large tails. As they charged at Crono and Lucca, Crono cried out "Fire Whirl," a signal they had used before when scrapping it out against Gato. It was to let the other one know what to expect in the heat of battle. At his call, Lucca cast a thin line of fire, sending a stream of it right at Crono. Catching it on his blade, he pirouetted between the Naga-Ettes, holding his sword outstretched.
As he spun around them, he sliced their guts open, spreading the fire from his blade to their insides, leaving their blackened intestines to ooze out onto the floor. Only one was left standing from the fast attack, and as it turned to run, Lucca shot it in the back with her trusty Air Gun, an eruption of blood spraying from it's chest like a red mist, sending it crashing into the far wall. "Phew, that was close," she said, turning her back to the altar. In a burst of blue flame, another Naga-Ette appeared behind her and clawed Lucca across the back, tearing her jerkin to bits, blood seeping from the cuts. Dropping out of the rafters, a caped figure sprang up and swung a mighty broadsword at the creature, tearing its head from its shoulders, showering blood across the altar, making it look like a pagan sacrifice had taken place.
"Lower thine guard and thou'rt allowing the enemy in," croaked the mysterious stranger. Quickly he spun around as he sheathed his sword, showing his true form: a frog standing on its hind legs, fully dressed in human clothes. "Thou'rt here to save the Queen? The lair is deep within. Will thee accompany me?"
"A... a FROG! Crono, it's a talking FROG! I hate frogs!" Lucca screeched, nearly passing out.
"My guise doth not incur thy trust... Very well, do as thee please, but I shall save the Queen."
"W, wait! You don't seem like a bad... uh... person-frog-thing... I mean..." Confusion covered her face and she turned to Crono in thought. "What should we do?"
"Go with the frog of course, we could do with any help we can get," was all he replied.
"I'll just have to handle it... uh, I mean... deal with... him! What's your name?"
"Frog will do. Mayhap a hidden door lurks nigh? Let us search the environs."
The trio split up and started to tap the walls, looking for a hollow spot or a hidden switch. Crono slipped on a patch of Naga-Ette blood and managed to grab hold of the church organ to steady himself. A cacophony of noise sung out of the pipes, accompanied with a grating sound as a secret door appeared. "This is feeling like a bad detective story," muttered Crono as he righted himself. "Oh well, let's do it," he said as the three walked through the door into a hallway.
The trio charged into the hallway, coming face to face with three Diablos'. Frog leapt at the first, tearing a horrific gash across the creatures chest. Crono ducked and threw the second Diablos over his shoulder, quickly spinning around and driving his sword thought its throat. Blood bubbled up around the blade as the creature gurgled and then died. As the third one approached Lucca, she pulled out a large mallet, and swung it directly at the Diablos' head. It ducked quickly, snatching the weapon out of her hands and aimed it for her chest. Seeing this, Frog shot out his tongue, extending it over two metres and wrapped it around the mallets shaft, dragging it out of the beast's hand. Lucca kicked it in the shin, and drawing her gun, shot it in the face, a fountain of hot, sticky blood spraying all over her body.
"This just isn't my day is it Crono?" she asked. Turning to Frog with a bashful face, she said, "Thank you for saving me there, I really appreciate our help."
"Tis' no problem milady," he said bowing. Wiping the mallets shaft clean of his saliva, he handed it back to her.
Passing through the hallway, they emerged into a large hall, with sets of stairs on either side of a pathway up the middle. Taking the left-hand set of stairs, they entered a treasure room. Looking around, Crono spied three chests, and walked over to them, opening them up. Inside he found some potions and a set of female armour, which he threw to Lucca.
"Put that on, your jerkin is already ruined. Might as well trash their stuff as well," Crono said with a mischievous grin. "Whilst we're at it, we oughta do something about that wound of yours."
Applying a tonic to the gouges, they watched as the blue liquid reacted with her blood, congealing until it formed a large scab, covering them up. As she felt the tonic flow through her bloodstream, Lucca felt more refreshed and eager to get out to continue the fighting.
Crono walked over to a chest of drawers, and opening one of them, found something strange inside. Holding it up, he asked, "What the hell is this?"
"That, is the Naga-Ette bromide, and we're gonna stop you from stealing it!" said a Hench; a burly looking, yellow skinned creature, decked out in strong blue armour. Two more Henchs stepped out of the shadows behind the first one, both attired as the first one. "Get them!"
Keeping his distance, Frog flicked out his tongue, wrapping it around the Hench. Dragging it towards him, he swung his broadsword, smashing through its helmet and continuing through the creature's head at eye-level. The Henchs body slumped onto a wall as the top of the skull went flying into the opposite wall. Not making the same mistake twice, Lucca shot out a ball of flame, scorching the very air between her and the second Hench. The wool layering inside of the Henchs armour caught fire; turning it into an oven the Hench couldn't escape as it slowly burned to death. Crono stood his ground as the third Hench rolled at him in a large ball. Timing it to perfection, Crono brought his sword slashing down just as the Henchs neck was exposed, cleaving it from its shoulders.
"I hope no-one heard all of that, it'd be a hell of a lot easier to get through here in one piece if we don't have every creature in here after our blood," said Crono.
Stepping out onto the landing, Crono, Lucca and Frog moved to another room. It was surrounded by large spikes, which quickly retracted when Frog hit a switch.
"How did you know that would happen?" asked Lucca, amazed.
"Lucky guess milady, merely a lucky guess," Frog replied with a wry grin.
Entering, they saw two guards from Guardia Castle. Catching him surprise, the first soldier said, "Yo... you're humans? They're hiding the queen in the back. Please rescue her!"
"Inside this building, there's a room dedicated to Magus... heard something about a treasure in there," said the second.
"Are you going to help us rescue the queen?" Frog asked.
"What with? We haven't any weapons to fight with so we'd just be dead weight," answered the first soldier.
Frog merely shrugged and walked away, quickly followed by Crono and Lucca. Going down the stairs, the trio dashed across the hall and up the right-hand set of stairs.
Walking into the first room, they came face-to-face with a Hench, a Naga-Ette and a Diablos sitting around a table, stuffing themselves with food. The trio were about to draw their weapons when the Diablos belched and then spoke, "Hey, what's with the disguise? No need for them here!"
As they walked up to the Diablos, it said, "It's almost my shift. I hate pretending to be human... it's so repulsive!"
"The ones we ate recently weren't SO bad, and those two soldiers we caught look rather plump and juicy," said the Naga-Ette, drooling, before belching as well.
"Yakra's so smart! His plan to capture the Chancellor and take his place worked perfectly! Now the Queen's captive and the castle's in an uproar. This is rich!" praised the Hench, not realising that he'd told three humans his boss's plan.
"I'll look in on Magus's statue before my shift," said the Diablos before leaving. Crono, Lucca and Frog quickly followed it. They entered a room containing Queen Leene, King Guardia and a soldier.
"Since when was the King kidnapped?" Lucca whispered to Crono.
"He wasn't," was the brief reply from Crono. "There's something going on here."
As Crono was about to walk from the room, Queen Leene giggled, "Don't be in such a hurry... enjoy yourselves first!"
Quickly, the three transmogrified into Gnashers; purple snake-like creatures with extremely long fangs. The first one leapt at Crono, but fell short as its head flew off from a quick swing of Crono's sword. It went over Crono's head into the corridor behind him. The second Gnasher charged at Lucca, which she caught underneath the chin with a mighty blow of her hammer, sending it flying out through a stained glass window. Frog dashed at the third Gnasher, skidding around it with his sword outstretched, cutting deep into its jugular, pumping blood out al over the floor.
"You'll never get that out of the carpet now," muttered Crono before walking into the adjoining room. Inside were three Diablos' and two Naga-Ettes all singing as one to a large granite statue at the opposite end of the room:
"Oh... dearest Magus... your flashing eyes... like stars,
And flowing hair... like waves atop the sea,
No sad sunny day
nor any frightful bright place can get us down,
As long as you're
near... there's nothing to fear...
Magus, oh Magus, our hero
Magus"
Seeing the large number of monsters in the room, they decided it'd be best to avoid a fight and so returned the way they came. Going up the pathway in the middle of the hall, they charged up some steps, with Crono and Frog quickly dispatched the two Gnashers in their path; both of them simultaneously decapitating them. They emerged into a dimly lit chamber where two figures were standing around an altar.
"Prepare yourself Queen Leene," said one of the figures. As the trio ran up to the altar, they recognized the figures as Queen Leene and the Chancellor. "YOU! How did you get in here?"
"Frog!" cried out the queen.
"Majesty, stand back and allow us the honour!" said Frog.
"Gyah ha ha... it's useless to fight! No-one will leave here alive!" said the Chancellor. "Stupid Frog! It's time you jumped off this mortal coil! True-form-CHANGE!" The Chancellor span around in circles, a blue discharge crackling and snarling around him, as he shape-shifted into a writhing pulsating mass. Yakra was formed.
Crono, Lucca and Frog leaped back and drew their weapons. As Yakra approached, both Crono and Frog simultaneously leapt at it, swords first. Their swords sliced along Yakra's back tearing the flesh off him, but he carried on regardless. Yakra leaped into the air and came crashing down with his large bulk, shaking the ground beneath the trio's feet, knocking them over. Getting up, Lucca threw a writhing stream of fire at the unprotected flesh on Yakra's chest, scorching it; leaving the smell of charred flesh. Frog jumped at Yakra, swinging his sword in a wide arc downwards, slicing many of his tentacles off. Bellowing in pain, Yakra charged at Frog, bowling him over and then jumped on top of him, knocking Frog's broadsword away from him. Frog stretched out desperately, trying to reach his sword. Perched on top of Frog, Yakra never saw Crono come up behind him. Raising his sword above his sword, Crono ran forward and drove his sword straight through Yakra's brain, the blade bursting out of his forehead. With a twist, Crono drew his sword out and rolled Yakra's convulsing corpse off of Frog and helped him up.
"My Queen, let us retire to the castle," said Frog.
As they were about to leave, Lucca saw a chest moving about. Drawing her gun again, she opened the chest quickly and aimed her gun at the contents. Breathing a sigh of relief, she reached inside, and pulled out the real Chancellor and untied him.
"You had me worried, Leene," King Guardia simply said, never a great one for showing emotion.
"That no good Yakra! Impersonating me and kidnapping the Queen! We must create a criminal justice system to do away with such fiends," stated the real Chancellor.
"I failed to protect Queen Leene. I have disgraced thee," Frog told King Guardia. "I shall take my leave of you."
"Frog!" cried Queen Leene, but Frog just ignored her and walked away.
Crono and Lucca chased after him. Outside, he turned to them. "Twas a fault of mine, which endangered the queen. I shall depart for good... Crono, you hath potential to be a good swordsman!"
As he stepped down the small staircase, he faintly heard, "... Froggy, you weren't such a bad guy either," issued forth from Lucca's lips.
"Come on Lucca, back to the job in hand," said Crono before turning to go back into the castle. Lucca only sighed and then followed him. The pair dashed up the right hand tower, into the queen's bedroom. With a flash of light, Marle re-materialised in front of them, falling to her knees and clutching at her throat.
"Wha... what happened? Oh, it was so awful... I can't recall it all... I was somewhere cold, dark... and lonely. Is that what it's like to... die?" she said between gasps for air.
"Yeah well, you can start by telling us why you lied, saying your name was Marle. We know you're Princess Nadia!" shouted Crono.
"Yeah, and your problem is?" Marle shouted back.
"Quit it you two, this is no time to start arguing! We've got to get back to our own time-line, so quit bickering and get your rears into gear," finished Lucca.
They returned to the clearing in Truce Canyon where Crono had re-materialised earlier. As they stood there, Marle asked the obvious question: "How do we get home?"
"Your Highness, er, Princess...we..." stammered Lucca.
"Please call me Marle," she responded.
"Well then, Marle, observe!" Lucca reached into her leather jerkin and produced a cylindrical object with a sphere on the end of it. Pointing it at the centre of the clearing, Lucca pressed a button on the base and a vortex opened up.
"Wow! Lucca, you're amazing!" exclaimed Marle.
"Ain't it the truth!" bragged Lucca. Realising what she had just said, she look downwards and played with her hands, muttering, "Oh, um... I mean..."
"Enough with the false modesty, you have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!"
"Well, if you say so," said Lucca doubtfully. "Anyway, I call this thing a 'Gate'. It's a kinda portal that takes you to the same location in a different era. Gates are very unstable, so I used the principle behind my Telepod device to create a 'Gate Key'. Now we can use them as we please."
"But how did this gate appear in the first place?"
"Either the telepod had something to do with it, or... something else made it..."
"This is getting pretty weird. Let's at least head back to our own time!"
"All right. Coming Crono?" And with that the trio stepped into the gate, and were warped through time...
