A Step Onto Chronos Chapter Two
Help to Save the Queen!
Shadic the Hedgehog
Disclaimer: I don't own Chrono Trigger. Squaresoft/Enix/Whatever does.
The Gate opened in the small, dead-end area in Truce Canyon. Crono and I stepped out of the Gate and looked around. The area was pretty much empty for the moment, but I knew that there were going to be Blue Imps appearing in just a couple minutes.
"Where are we?" asked Crono.
"Actually, Crono, we are in the same exact spot we were before. The question you should have asked is 'WHEN are we?' because we are now the second ever Time Travelers. Marle was the first. Welcome to the year A.D. 600. Oh... and you might want to pull out that sword of yours right about now," I answered, pulling out the Old Blade.
"Why? And just HOW do you know all this?" he replied, pulling out his wooden katana.
"I'll answer the second question later," 'much later,' I thought, "and the other answer will be along any second n--"
At that very moment the three Imps appeared. I instantly jumped towards the northern-most Imp and sliced it across the chest. It fell back with a fatal wound. Suddenly the wound partially closed leaving a torn shirt and a small scar. Crono, seeing this, followed my example and attacked the same Imp cutting diagonally across its head, doing quite a bit of damage. Suddenly the Imp started to disintegrate. I decided that what held Mystics together was their magic, and when they die their bodies return to molecules floating in the air.Crono and I finished off the rest of the Imps and ran as fast as we could to get out. We couldn't avoid the two Imps dropped by the birds across the bridge, but we beat them fairly quickly.
"Whew, what a rush!" said Crono. "I feel like a new person! And I just came up with this neat attack called--"
"Cyclone, I know. I came up with one named Uppercut. Oh, and the reason I know about the name was for the same reason I knew what year it is and that the Imps would attack and how I knew we were Time Travelers. So. Don't. Ask. We need to first go to the tavern, then go to the castle. I'm going to wait for Lucca after we get to the bar, er, tavern."
We walked over to the tavern, Crono still wondering how I knew all this, but not daring to ask. When we got there, we started to listen in on a couple of guards' conversation.
"I heard the Queen was found wandering up in the canyon."
"I bet she's glad to be home."
I looked over to the door and, sure enough, there was Toma, walking in the door. I dashed over to the only empty seat and sat in it. Toma stopped and muttered, "How rude..."
"Oh, I'm soeey, would you like to sit down?" I said, with a chuckle. I got up and moved aside to let him sit down.
"Hey, if you're buying I'll tell you a story," said Toma.
I told Crono to buy him a drink, 'cause he needed to hear the tale. Toma began, "The Queen went missing yesterday while visiting the cathedral to the west--"
"But we just heard they found her!" said Crono.
"What?! They found 'er? Oh, well. Thanks for the drink."
We left the tavern and Crono stopped and asked me, "Okay, WHY did we need to go in there?"
"Check the stories. The soldier said they found the Queen wandering in the canyon up north, where we came out. Toma said she went missing yesterday while visiting the western cathedral. Notice anything?" I answered.
"Yeah, the places conflict! They are at least two days apart, so she couldn't have vanished only yesterday!"
"To the castle to talk with the 'Queen,'" I answered to his confused thought. "Now! Off with yeh! Go! Go!" I ushered him off in the castle's direction and ran into the canyon again.
I stood at the entrance a short way away from the two imps kicking a balled up Roly. Or was it a Poly? Or maybe a RolyPoly? Anyway, I was waiting for Lucca to arrive through the Gate. I finally saw the blue flash of light and ran to meet her.
"Wow, I didn't think time travel would be like that! I thought it would be instantaneous," she was saying when I caught up to her.
"So what do you think of Gates?" I asked to walk out of the canyon.
"How do you know about that? I just created that name!"
"I'll show and tell when we return to your time. And only you get to see. Come on, we gotta catch up with Crono."
We ran as fast as we could to the castle, but it still took an entire day to get there from Truce Canyon. We charged in the front doors and the guards didn't stop us for some reason.
"Th-the stairway to the right," I panted. "That's where Crono's gonna be."
We reached the stairs just as Crono reached the bottom.
"Crono, i-is the girl alright? Where is she?" panted Lucca.
"She's gone..." he mumbled.
"GONE?! Whaddya mean, go-" she began.
"She vanished into thin air because Marle, or should I say: Princess Nadia (at this point Crono made an expression that could only to be described as !!!!!!) was found instead of Queen Leene. Queen Leene therefore was not saved, but instead killed. and it was because of that that Princess Nadia has ceased to exist. The only reason we are still here is because we were supposed to save the queen in the first place," I explained.
"Yeah. If I recall my history crrectly, the Queen was found in a hidden section of the Cathedral by the Queen's bodyguard and two other people. But we are three, one of us must not have helped."
"I think that's where you are wrong. In your CURRENT history books it was only two people. Then I joined the story. Check the history book when we get back and you'll find it has changed in that account"
"Then I guess it's off to the Cathedral!"
Crono, Lucca, and I all left the castle and ventured west. We got into the Catherdral and I walked up to the front and showed Lucca the coral pin.
"Hmm? What's this? Wait a minute, this is Guardia's Royal Crest!" She yelled as I pulled out my sword.
All of the nuns in the room (a total of four) walked up to us and transformed, in a flash of blue fire, into Naga-ettes. Crono drew a metal katana, while Lucca drew her gun. I promptly charged at the nearestmonster and used my Uppercut tech. I stabbed my sword into her chest and - surprising myself in the process - did a perfect backflip, slicing it in half. We finished off the rest really fast, especially once I discovered Lucca knew Flame Toss. I told Lucca and Crono how to perform Fire Whirl.
Lucca then walked off before I could warn her and said, "Whew, I'm glad that's over."
The expected Naga-ette appeared and slashed at her viciously. She jumped back with a scream and then Glenn, er, Frog fell from the ceiling and destroyed the Naga-ette.
"Lower thy guard and thou art allowing the enemy in," he murmured, sheathing his sword.
"Lucca, don't freak. It's alright, he's the Queen's bodyguard," I said quickly.
"But he's a talking FROG!"
"My guise doth not incur thy trust. I will save the Queen on mine own," Frog started to walk away.
"WAIT! You don't seem like such a bad person - frog - thing, and anyway you are the Queen's bodyguard, and we're supposed to help you save her. My name's Lucca, that's Hugh and Crono." She pointed at each of us. "So what should we call you?"
"Frog will do," he said simply. "Mayhaps a hidden entrance lurketh nigh?"
"There's a secret switch in the piano, I think. But there's bound to be some sort of music you need to play," I said.
"How couldst thou know this?" asked an amazed Frog.
"I'll tell you later."
We walked over to the piano and I found inside it a little bear thing that was a Poyozo Doll. I squeezed it and the organ music started to play. I heard a rumbling noise and a sudden slam and I looked at the north wall on the other side of the room. The secret door was opened. I lead the party through to the room where I knew Leene was being held captive. Of course, I did pick up the "secret Naga-ette Bromide."
"Prepare-" began Yakra.
"Yakra!" I yelled when we entered the room. "It's time for you to die! Shed your false form of the chancellor and fight!" As I said the word 'fight' I drew my sword. It was one I found along the way, so it was stronger than my other one.
"Move out of harm's way my Queen. I and my new friends hath come to rescue thee," warned Frog.
The battle with Yakra began. I opened up with my newest attack: Cross-Slash (A/N: Yes, this attack was inspired by FFVII but I got it wrong). I slashed down from the top-left, then from the top-right, and finally I cut straight down slicing Yakra a great one. Crono and Frog used their first Double Tech, X-Cut. They held their swords out in front of them and ran at Yakra and nearly cut him in half. In retaliation, Yakra used his charge attack, which was proceeded by a growl of "Droooo....," and slammed us all into the ground. Lucca tried to make him sleep, but he was too strong. I yelled for Lucca to Flame Toss my sword and I performed Cross-Slash. Not only was he cut up, but the wounds were instantly cauterized so they couldn't heal. Suddenly I was thrown back by a slam from Yakra's claw, which was accompanied by a flash of light. After several more flashes his body began to disintegrate. He was finally dead.
I said, "We are finished here. Let us free the REAL chancellor and head for the castle." Everyone looked at me questioningly until I walked over to the left chest. I kicked it open and the chancellor popped out, all tied up. I cut his bonds and he started to rant and rave about being locked up. Until he saw the Queen, that is.
"Oh, my Queen! As you can see I am unharmed!" he said hurriedly.
"Well, shall we return to the castle?" said the Queen.
The trip back to the castle was amazingly easy. Apparently every Mystic in the building sensed Yakra's death and fled. We took the day-long trek to the castle as quickly as we could. We got there faster than we should have.
"My lord King," muttered Frog, Bowing. "Thy Queen hath been rescued."
"Thank you. All of you. It pleases me to know that there are people who can destroy the fiendish troops of Magus," he replied.
"But I have failed my Queen, and shamed myself." Before anyone could stop him he turned and hopped quickly out of the throne room.
"Poor man. He was turned into a frog by Magus soon after his best friend vanished," said the Queen. "But I was just wondering: where is the girl that was mistaken for me?"
"Oh! Crono, I almost forgot about Princess Nadia! Come on, wherever she vanished she'll be reappearing there!" I said, stealing Lucca's lines.
We ran up to the Queen's chambers and saw an amazing sight: you could probably imagine something shatter into thousands of pieces, right? Well this was the same process, only in reverse.
"Welcome back, Princess Nadia!" cried Lucca.
Marle paid no attention what-so-ever to Lucca and myself, but did see Crono. "Crono! I was so scared! I was in a place that was cold and dark. Is that what it's like...to die?" she whispered.
"I wouldn't know, Your Majesty. But I have a feeling it was not death, but nonexistance. For this is the world of time travel and your ancestor was nearly killed by Yakra and his cronies. If Queen Leene had been killed , you would never have existed in the first place. So you ceased to exist until the Queen' guardian and the three of us saved her," I replied.
"H-how did you know I was the princess?" she asked, probably still shaken from non-existence.
"Well...then...what should we do know?" asked Crono.
"Head back to the canyon, then home," I answered.
We started out to leave, but ran into Frog on the way out. He looked at Marle closely and said, "'Tis true, thou doth bearest a strong resemblance to the Queen." and he hopped off.
"Froggy," Lucca muttered, "you weren't such a bad guy, either."
We walked out of the castle and went to Truce Canyon. We fought a couple of Mystics, but they were cake compared to Yakra. Finally, we reached the Gate.
"Okay, how do we get home?" asked Marle.
"Simple, Princess... I mean MArle, that is what you'd rather be called, right?" I began.
"Yeah."
"Well, Marle, we just have to use one of Lucca's best inventions: the Gate Key!"
Lucca pulled out the key with a flourish and pointed it at the point where the Gate was hovering. Closed it looked like just a point of light, but it opened with a quiet sound, like 'voosh,' or something to that effect, and sat there almost visibly waiting for us to enter.
"This is a Time Gate," explained Lucca. "It leads to the same spot on the planet, but in a different century. Most Gates are highly unstable, but the Gate Key allows us to use them as we please!"
"Lucca, you're a genius!" exclaimed Marle.
"Ain't it the truth! Er... um... I mean..."
"Enough with the false modesty. I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!"
"From what I've heard about royal life, that wouldn't be a very fair bargain," I put in. "But can we please head for the year 1000 now?"
"Not until we hear what you've heard about 'royal life,'" growled Marle.
"Lesse, Shut up in the castle forever, forced to go to classes you don't want or need," I counted off on my fingers, "other people choosing what you're going to wear the next day, the chef always making disgusting tasting dishes claiming they're for your heal-"
"Alright already! Yes, you're right about those things, and there are a few others you probably know. Let's go, I'm tired and want to get some rest back home."
We all stepped into the Gate when I suddenly worried about the Conservation of Time Theorem, but it was too late. We were already gone.
"Oh lookie: a basement,"
-Yusuke Urameshi, Yu Yu Hakusho