Epilogue
Kronos had been defeated, the Lavos brain destroyed and the world was saved... right? Everyone knows once the bad guy is defeated the world goes on to live happily ever after, that life becomes idyllic and all problems just drift away like clouds in a breeze...
As she came to, she saw Lucca above her, leaning against a stone pillar. She realised her head was resting in Lucca's lap, one hand absent-mindedly stroking her hair as she looked off into the distance. Looking around, she realised she was no longer in the ethereal reality but in the centre of the Millennial Fair, lying underneath Leene's Bell.
"Wh... where is he?" she whispered. As Lucca turned to look down on her, Marle saw the tears streaking her face.
"No... NO! He can't be dead!"
Rising to her feet, she saw a small gathering a few metres in front of her. Without looking at what was in the middle of them, she already knew. As she ran to them, those few metres stretched out to miles and miles. The only thing she could hear was her heart beating faster and faster and her slow breaths going in and out of her lungs. She could feel her temples throbbing as if someone was beating her around the head with a sledgehammer. Finally she reached them. Dreading what she would see but almost wanting it as well, an end to it all, she shouldered her way through the throng of people. She could smell the sweat of some burly men, the sweet, almost acrid and overpowering smell of perfume on some of the young girls. She could hear the hushed whisperings as they discussed what could have happened. They were all around her, pressing in on her, squeezing her tight, each and every one of them screaming the same thing at her: "HE'S DEAD, LEAVE HIM BE," over and over again
And then it all stopped. She saw him, lying in a contorted heap. Falling to her knees beside his corpse, everyone else faded away into nothingness, all was removed from her mind except him.
"Stop it! Stop playing around you idiot!" she cried, wanting to disbelieve it so much it hurt. Grabbing his arm, she tried to pull him to his feet but to no avail. Dropping him back down, she crouched over him. "Get up. Come on, stop pretending and get up you selfish bastard. You can't leave me like this, not after all we've been through..."
A hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to look up into Lucca's face. Her lips were moving but Marle couldn't make any sense of it, all she heard was an incomprehensible babble. Finally, one word got through to her.
"Dead."
It all snapped into place for her, she realised that what lay before her was not Crono anymore, it was merely a lifeless husk but that wouldn't stop her...
"NOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T DIE ON ME LIKE THIS! DEAR GOD, DON'T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME, NOT LIKE THIS!"
In the year 1003AD, the nation of Porre started a war with the kingdom of Guardia, seeking to seize power for itself. Without a strong leader in the battlefield like Crono, the war was quickly lost by Guardia. One week after Guardia Castle had been taken, the King and the Princess Nadia were both executed, a swift axe-blow each severing their heads. But none of this was of any consequence...
In the year 1999AD, the alien entity known as Lavos rose from its nesting place near the planets molten core to the surface, spraying fine needles of pure, focused energy into the air, causing it to rain destruction down on the inhabitants of the world. Slowly, the life was drained from the planet, the once mighty ranks of humans shrinking down to a mere pittance until they were finally extinct. The only life that was on the planet was the latest generation of Lavos', preparing themselves before they in turn sought out new planets to inhabit...
The new Lavos' found the universe a lot easier to conquer than their predecessor; worlds fell to them without much struggle, lives were lost in their feeble attempts to keep their planets for themselves against the alien invaders but it was all futile...
The story of the world that Crono and co. had inhabited was passed on down from generation to generation, turning from a factual story to a historical tale, from a historical tale to a legend and from a legend to a myth until it was eventually forgotten, the story as dead as the humans that had tried to oppose their destiny...
