Chapter VI – Time Eggs and Ham

The companions could not rest long, as on the horizon; they saw the first light of dawn. Normally a glimmer of hope, each had a sense of dread floating over them as they saw that pale light. They didn't have much time left if the gates were to be open by dawn.

Magus drew on what little magic he had left and cloaked them in darkness as they moved through the continent. They approached the Zenan Bridge to find it heavily fortified and a contingent of armored vehicles passing over it. Each passed swiftly through the shadows, aided by Magus's spell to remain hidden in the darkness.

Finally they arrived on the other side, the former Kingdom of Guardia. They moved through the forest, Marle glancing sadly at the ruins of Guardia Castle. Crono placed his hand on her comfortingly. They had no time to stop and reminisce, time was growing short.

What remained of Truce was little more than a Porre military base, a few of the buildings had been rebuilt to cater to them, but it was a shadow of it's former glory. They avoided patrols and finally arrived at the ruins of the Ashtear home.

There was little left of the house, a few piles of rubble here and there, all of it now overgrown with weeds. They knew that it was the right place, Crono and later Marle having come here countless times in happier years now nearly forgotten.

"This is it," Marle said sadly, taking a moment of remembrance for their old friend. "We searched around here as best we could after the fire, but never did find anything." When they had originally returned to the site years ago, Marle dreaded finding her friend's body, hoping that they would find her alive. They found neither.

Glenn shook his head, looking around, "There's nothing here. Porre would have swept the area after the fire, hoping to find bits of technology that had survived or been left behind."

Crono nodded in agreement slowly, stoking his chin in thought.

"They did," Marle conceded. "And they found some of it, I'm sure. There was plenty we left behind here, not having the time or resources to recover all of it while avoiding the patrols. But there were no signs of Lucca or anything from our trip through time."

Serge walked through the remains of the house, retracing the steps he took when he rescued the children. He could now see vividly the burning walls, could smell the tick smoke, even did a few turns as if battling unseen demons. Then he stopped. He remembered his vision and slowly retraced the steps of Lucca through the flames, finally coming to where she stopped.

There was rubble here, but Serge picked through it until he found solid earth. He paused, disappointed that his vision was wrong.

"Then I doubt we will find anything now," Magus said slowly, having remained quiet until now, merely watching Serge and paying little attention to the conversation at hand. "Unless Serge can provide us with some insight."

Serge looked up at them, thinking of his vision. He was missing something. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he started digging.

At that point, pain ripped through his head and he gripped it, dirt and soot covering his hair.

Find me, Serge, a voice implored. Find me.

Serge gave out a shout, "KID!" then began to dig quickly, forgetting everything else.

The others could only stand back and watch shocked.

"I think he's finally lost it," Magus snorted. "We better hurry, Porre will have heard that shout."

Then, Serge's hand caught hold of something metal and he pulled with all of his might. At the same time, the sound of turning gears filled the air, grinding together from years of neglect and the earth swung open beneath Serge, sending him toppling over.

Crono and Marle both appeared shocked at what they saw, a staircase descended down under where the house would have been. Glenn could only star wide-eyed and Magus had a cold look of amusement on his face.

"Seems there was more to Lucca than what she told you," Magus said coldly. Crono flashed him a look of anger, and felt his hand ball up into a fist. Lucca was his best friend outside of Marle. What secret could she have possibly kept from him? Only the sound of Marle's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"She had her secrets the same as us," she said. It was only partially true, there was precious little they had kept from Lucca. Marle's tone reflected a degree of hurt that echoed Crono's thoughts.

Serge moved down the stairs. His vision had ended when she had descended the stairs in the house, and he needed to know what was down there. The others quickly followed him, Magus taking up the rear.

The stairs led down into a large laboratory, well kept save for a layer of dust that covered everything. As they entered, electric lights turned on automatically. There were devices in various stages of construction or repair in nearly every corner, littering the floor. A chalkboard still had complex equations written in nearly every free space on both sides and schematics covered the walls. One of the schematics was clearly the Epoch.

"It was here!" Marle exclaimed. "The Epoch was here!" The was an area large enough to house their time ship, but now it was empty save for the docking rig Lucca had set up.for it. Marle began to search through Lucca's desk, finding a leather bound book which she quickly flipped through. It was equal parts technical journal and personal diary. She found one of the last personal entries and took notice of the date. Our wedding? She thought, noting that it matched the day she and Crono were married. She tucked the book away and continued looking as did the others.

"Maybe she took it with her," Glenn suggested. Crono considered this as likely, and some things started making a bit of sense, Lucca no doubt didn't want either of the items to fall into the hands of Porre so she hid them away somewhere in the past. But still, he didn't think she would abandon the children.

Magus looked around, moving almost casually. Serge was keeping his eye on Magus, thinking that he was up to something. Serge felt his pocket to make sure his rock was still there. It was. Then he jumped as something small bumped into his foot. It was a tiny robot that looked up at him expectantly. He picked it up and held it in his hand for a long moment. It cocked it's head slightly and pointed to a schematic on the wall. It appeared to be a schematic of the robot which he held. Serge shrugged at the robot who again pointed, this time with more urgency. Serge walked over to the schematic and pulled it down from the wall. There was a safe on the wall with a keypad.

Marle looked over with delight, "Prometheus!" She exclaimed. "He's tell us where the key is!" She approached the safe, wondering what the combination would be. Crono also looked on. Serge scratched his head at the symbols there, thinking. Finally, Serge inputted the code, having remembered something similar from when he rescued the children: LARA.

The safe opened and Marle gave a cry for joy, there was the time key. "How did you know?" Marle asked. Serge merely gave a wink and a shrug. His memory of those events was getting clearer, but he also wondered if something else wasn't guiding his steps, FATE maybe? He dismissed the thought.

"Obviously, she kept these things hidden away from prying eyes," Magus stated. "If stories of your, ahem our adventure spread, others would want to go back and right their own wrongs, no doubt causing more problems then you already have. Lucca was right to keep it here." It was almost comforting, strange to hear it from the enigmatic wizard.

"And now we have our own wrong to right," Glenn said. "What happened to Lucca and Schala."

"Well, we have the key," Marle said. "That's something, and we also know that at some point she met up with Sir Glenn."

"The gate at the fairgrounds," Magus said. "It will take us to the appropriate time. But the gates are still sealed after the Entity was destroyed. To even have a chance at opening them we would need to have a Time Egg, seeing as the Epoch is gone along with the one person who would know when or where it would be."

Serge frowned and he reached into his pocket, pulling out the small stone. He held it up for the others to see.

"Is that?" Marle asked, her eyes growing wide.

"The Time Egg," Magus finished.

They took with them several of the schematics relating to the Gate Key and Epoch. Porre would soon find the hidden lab as they were no doubt on their way. Time had run out. There was not much else of use, although Serge did keep Prometheus with him. Something was bothering him about his vision of Lucca, she seemed off from everything else he heard about her. There was something else in his memory that didn't add up, something else he knew about Lucca, but the memory had not come to him. Eventually, he knew that he would sort it out, but for the time being they had unlocked a big piece of the puzzle.

They emerged from the lab to hear alarms coming from Truce Base. Soldiers were already starting to mobilize.

"We need to move now," Magus said, cursing that he did not have enough energy left for another cloaking spell. They ran for the forest, disappearing into it just before the troops would catch sight of them. The sun still had not appeared over the horizon but the sky was bright enough for them to know it would at any moment.

The troops called out about their finding and cautiously descended into the laboratory. This provided the companions enough of a distraction that they could move towards the old fairgrounds.

They darted between the ramshackle buildings that remained in Truce or had been hastily rebuilt, arriving at the fairgrounds. The Porre base had been built on top of the site, and they had to be careful not to get caught by the troops on high alert after the earlier commotion. They could see the remains of the old bell which had rung so clearly all those years ago when Marle first met Crono, it was in the center of the base and served as a grim monument to Guardia's Fall.

Finally they arrived at the old clearing where Crono and Marle's adventure had begun so long ago, in another lifetime. Crono could feel the energy of the Gate there, as could Serge. The Time Egg quivered in his hand.

"I can feel the energy of the Gate," Magus said, eyes closed in concentration. "It's waiting for us. I can almost feel the energy of Schala… or Lavos. Something is on the other side."

"But how can we open it?" Glenn asked. They heard shouts of soldiers running towards the clearing. They looked back over their shoulders, they had been spotted with no where else to run.

"Now, Serge," Magus said. "Use the Egg, open the Gate!"

Crono and Glenn drew their weapons engaging the first of the troops as they arrived. Crono was obviously straining and Marle too drew her crossbow and was firing at the enemy soldiers as they poured into the clearing, threatening to overwhelm them. Magus had his scythe at the ready, but did not engage the troops.

Serge held the Time Egg high, energy swirling out of the egg around him. It reacted with the energy of the Gate. Tendrils of light and energy burst forth as the Gate opened, swallowing Serge with it.

"Serge!" Marle shouted, jumping in behind him. Crono grunted and fell, clutching at his wound, blood staining his tunic. A soldier had broken through Crono as he fell, engaging Magus. Magus quickly cut him down, but others were swarming in.

Cursing, Magus leapt through the Gate, looking back at Crono as he did. The Gate closed behind him just in time to see Crono and Glenn overrun by Porre's soldiers.

She felt it, a change in the darkness around her. For a moment she thought the Black Wind had finally caught her and it was over, then the pendant around her neck glowed, cutting through the darkness. She fell through, breaking free and then falling endlessly through the void.