Chapter 27 - Revelations Of Sin

Unceremoniously they were dumped on the floor, the air driven harshly from their lungs as they smashed into the ground. Slowly, Marle pushed herself up on her arms into a crouching position as she tried to catch her breath. Looking around, the room was filled with the same kaleidoscope of colours as she had seen in the room she had just left but there was something different. Looking downwards, she realised what it was. The floor was sheet metal, cold steel covering the entire surface, eventually rising up onto the walls and over, onto the high, arched ceiling.

"Well, it certainly looks high-tech enough for the kinda operation I'd expect the Hand of Kronos to have. I think this is the place," came a voice from behind her. Lucca stepped forward, placing her hands on one of the walls.

"Well, the door oughta be around here somewhere, right? Let's find it and get out."

To their surprise, they couldn't find a door anywhere. There seemed to be no way out of the room until a section of one of the walls slid open, revealing five figures all clad in black.

"Damn, we're glad to see ya! We couldn't find a way outta he--" Marle stopped as she saw a bead of red light appear on her pale blue top, likewise one appeared on Lucca's leather jerkin. "Oh shit, that can't be good."

With a loud bang, both girls crumpled down onto the floor...


"Sir, two figures were found in the Time Bay and they've both been apprehended. What are our orders?"

"Leave them be in the holding cells for now. Give them a few hours after they've woken up to drive themselves a bit crazy and then send them up to my office. Got that?"

"Loud and clear sir."

Switching off the videocom, he span his chair around to face the others in the room. "So, you believe you've got a way to track down Prometheus?"

"Indeed I do sir. It's a genetic virus with a simple mission of finding certain bits of code implanted in people's brains, the code being Prometheus' manufacture label, R-66Y, his name Prometheus and that of Atropos. Obviously, there will be a few other matches, such as the Mother Brain and our own database but we've programmed it to ignore those sources. What it should do is find this information and that should be stored and passed onto all other generations of the virus that come from it. We simply collect them at a later date and we should know where Prometheus went."

"Any problems?"

"Just one... there are two places where the virus won't be able to go to... the End of Time since there is no time there, thus the virus could not grow and here because so many people already know about those three bits of information. However, the End of Time has already been scoured completely with no sign of it and it's absurd to think that they could hide Prometheus here."

"Absurd maybe, but not impossible Doctor Crantham. Could you refine it to include the search here?"

"With time yes, but the semantics will be difficult to get around and it'll have to be a different type of infection... I'll get to work on it immediately."

"Fine, some operatives will be waiting for you when you return to the medical centre; they'll perform the infection. We'll have the improved one as a secondary infection."


He walked down the corridors leading up to the medical centre, not knowing why he had been called, only that he was ordered to get there quickly. Not that he was thinking about that, more important things were on his mind. Where the hell is she? Dammit! I need to talk to her now... that incident with the woman... what was her name? Deborah something... she needs to know about that now! Warren Stark knew his time was running out and that his only way out came in the shapely form of one Destiny Morad.

As he got to the medical centre, he recognised someone standing outside, presumably waiting for someone.

"You took your sweet time getting here Warren. Get your arse in there, we've got work to do."

"It's a pleasure to see you as well Sascha."

With a look of disdain on her face, Corporal Sascha Vicks strode through the doors as they slid open around her. Following her, Warren walked into the sterile white room.

Turning around as the two entered, Doctor Crantham looked them both up and down before speaking. "You're to take this to the creation of the world and to smash it, " he stated as he held a small vial aloft. "It's as simple as that."

"If it's that simple, why are there two of us taking it?" asked Sascha, her curiosity piqued.

"How would I know? I don't make the decisions around here. Now go and complete your mission."

Snatching the vial from Crantham's hand, Sascha stalked from the room. With a shrug at the doctor, Warren Stark did the same.


Marle and Lucca kept silent as they were taken through the warren of corridors, trying desperately to memorise the route they were taking so in the chance of escape, they'd have a clue where to run to. Not that they really contemplated escaping, they were both eager to find out what lay ahead of them and this was the only way to find out. The small party stopped at a simple grey door. One of their holders pressed a button on the wall and the doors parted, sliding smoothly into the wall cavities hidden from view. Pushing Marle and Lucca through the doorway, they closed the door behind the two, plunging them into darkness. As their eyes slowly grew accustomed to the lack of light around them, they gradually made out the shape of a desk before them and a figure sat behind it. A light flared up behind the figure, silhouetting him as their eyes stung, their dilated pupils letting in more light than they could handle.

"So you would be the infamous Nadia Guardia, the rebellious tomboy Princess who gave up her right to the throne to live the rest of her life beside the one known as Crono. Rather touching... it's a shame you died six years later in the war between Porre and Guardia. And as for you, " he said, gesturing towards the bespectacled young girl, "You would be Lucca Ashtear, scientist extraordinaire with a heart too big for your own good. Your soft heart will result in your death at the hands of one of your own creations."

"Wh... who are you?" stammered Lucca, unnerved by having her death prophesised before her.

Standing up, the figure turned to face the light and fiddled about with something. A few seconds later, a plume of smoke rose above his silhouette, the light streaming through it as it made an intricate pattern in the air like a living, breathing thing. "You don't know me yet Lucca, you abandoned me. You left me to fight on my own and you left me to... yet, there is a part of me you do know, something you have known your whole life. Not that it matters, nothing we do, say, think or know will matter at all once he arises..."

"You're trying to bring about the rising of Lavos? Are you mad!" whispered Lucca, Marle now not included in the conversation.

"Lavos! HAH! Don't make me laugh... I couldn't give a flying fuck about Lavos. Lavos is nothing compared to what I intend to unleash upon the world... No, Kronos' time is at hand and nothing can stop him in his awakening."

"Kronos? The mythological god of time? That's what you intend to resurrect? Some dead god? What nonsense! Everyone knows the gods don't exist!"

"Then what the hell resurrected me? I was dead! I had left this mortal coil and my soul was on the journey to beyond when it was snatched back and forced into my body once again! It spoke to me, it told me my true purpose in life! It told me the true nature of existence, of everything that lives on our plain of existence. It's false... everything is one big lie! We're a mistake, a pestilence upon the universe! Life was never meant to exist, we go against the laws of order. We were an accident, a simple fluke all because of one mistake. Kronos isn't dead, he never lived! He just is... and I intend to help him rectify his mistake." Spinning around, the figure strode around the desk in a gait that was familiar to the both of them. He stood to the side of them in the light, his red hair down to his chin clear for all to see.

"C... Crono?" she stuttered, her mind disbelieving what her eyes saw standing before her.

"Not any more... you left Crono to fight alone in the war. You left Crono to die... he is gone forever, never to return... no, I am not Crono, I am Lazarus, the one guided back to the realm of life by the son of God." Lucca shivered as she realised her one time friend was now well and truly insane...