Chapter 5 / The Factory
I held the key in my hand as we walked. Certainly not what I had expected to be given...but it definitely beat walking all the way past the area they referred to as Lab 32. Marle had cheered up significantly. I understood why. After leaving the castle as we did...we had been left without a real purpose or plan for what to do next. By some twist of fate we ended up in the future. One that was desolate...lifeless and people didn't really know what it was like to live. They barely survived as it was. The residents of Arris Dome only lived in a certain section of the Dome...even though in reality the entirety of Arris Dome was the size of a city...but lots of it had fallen into disrepair...likely due to the lack of specialist...and capability of teaching others...things only got worse over time. According to the record...it was 2300 AD now...and the event of Lavos was then 300 years ago. Which meant Doan was likely the fifth or sixth generation and not the 4th like he had said. We wondered how that could have been but what we found out was actually the opposite of what we had thought. The truth was...he WAS the fourth generation. It turns out that somehow the use of the Entertron actually extended their lifespans. With the average lifespan being around 120 years of age. It was an oddity that likely we wouldn't be able to properly explain without knowing the real intricacies of the machine that kept civilization going. Especially since it didn't make sense from a physical aspect. The body needed to digest food...if it didn't...then other problems happened. Although Lucca hadn't been clear as to what could happen...it was obvious that nothing good came from having things in your body that were never used. She also speculated that the Enertron might actually repair that damage as well. She then went on to mumble that if she could take it apart she'd probably be able to figure out the exact reasons as to what it did.
As we had left Arris Dome we said our goodbyes after giving them the seeds. We talked to Elma and gave them to her...and the note from her late husband. We told her the basics of how to take care of the seeds and the best way for them to grow. Elma and Heather listened intently...it seemed like they were intent on fulfilling the wishes of their Husband and Father, Darrel. He might have been one of the few that didn't accept things as they were...and looked to change it. He even did manage to get past the killer robot that was equipped with lasers and into the food storage area. But he hadn't been a fighter...likely didn't have the reflexes needed.
After that we met with a young girl in her pre-teens named Lana. We finally passed on the message about Lars. She thanked us and said she wasn't worried. In our attempts of finding her we learned that Lars was a surrogate Father figure for Lana...and that her own parents had been killed by Mutants on one of the few expeditions to the other Domes. Unfortunately I knew that if we kept digging into the lives of the people here...we would only find one bad story after another. As we went to leave though we were greeted by Doan, the Elder of the Dome. He had given me a key.
"We don't have much but please take this," Doan placed the key in my hand after learning we were heading to Proto Dome. "I keep a Jet Bike there. I used to ride it when I was young, but not much use for it now. It might be a bit of a tight fit but the three of you should be able to ride it. Make it a much easier way to Proto Dome. Lab 32 is a pretty long distance after all."
Naturally we tried to give it back but he was insistent that he owed us. Now that we had cleared the threats down below they could hopefully do something with what was down there. I'm sure they could think of something. Still it wasn't good for us to linger and try to fix or help with every problem they had. We were aiming for this situation to never happen. That would help them more than anything else. Yet at the same time, the three of us couldn't help but want to help the people that were right in front of us. It was hard to see things as they were.
Marle walked next to me, as Lucca was slightly behind us. "I don't like it, Crono," she said softly from next to me.
"Generally I don't think anyone would want to know that the planet they live on will eventually be left in ruin," I shrugged slightly. Lab 32 was getting closer with every minute. "The smell in the air is awful, plants don't grow, and I don't think we've seen the sun more than a handful of times since we've been here. Not to mention having a life that is completely reliant on the existence of a machine isn't exactly the most cheerful thought."
"I couldn't imagine not being able to have food to eat. But I guess, its also because I'm a Princess. I've never had to worry about stuff like that before. What about you, Crono?" Marle asked.
"You mean, have I ever had to worry about not having food?" I asked for clarity and she nodded to confirm. "Probably after Dad died I guess. I was really young and Mom wasn't sure what to do. It wasn't like he ran off on us. Dad was a soldier, a knight of Guardia. Often times he was sent off with supplies being sent off to other parts of the Kingdom. One day, he just never came back. And no one is sure what mission he had be sent on. Mom and I waited patiently for a while. But time passed and soon we were running out of food. I was still young so Mom couldn't just go off and work either. That's when Mom took charge. She offered a day care to take care of the other children and became a teacher, for just about everything. Education, or fighting. So I don't really remember it at the time, but Mom talks about it being a bit rough for us for a while. I was too young. We heard sometime later, a year or so, that Dad had died somewhere between Truce and Porre while escorting a caravan. That was all that was said about it though."
"So your Father, worked for the Kingdom?" Marle seemed to be thinking about something related to that fact.
"Is it really so surprising? Supposedly my family line were once one of the most respected retainers to the Guardia line. I mean, there really isn't way to know that. My family also hasn't been too keen on keeping things written down because we were always warriors. But who knows," I could hardly know what my life would be like without being a warrior. Maybe less training sessions, less running...less being woken up before the first light of dawn. Now that I think about it, I went through some pretty gruesome training. Mom is pretty ruthless when it came to teaching me martial arts and the sword. I wonder what she would say to how things were now.
"Yet, Father, never cared who you were. He would have killed you, even with all that your family has done for Guardia," Marle shook her head. "I won't let that happen. Never again."
I looked back at her for a moment as we were entering the ruins of Lab 32. Fallen down buildings...and structures that I had no idea what they once were. Unlike the previous Labs, there didn't seem to be any Mutants hiding at the entrance. Was there a reason for that? It seemed like an ideal ambush point. "One thing at a time, Marle," I whispered as I focused my senses around us. I knew, more or less how Marle felt about what had happened. But we couldn't let that be a basis of our affection. I had thought about it, but it was more than possible for Marle to stick with me, simply because her Father didn't approve. Still it had likely been a motivator to rescue me. Sure we had an initial spark and I honestly felt like we had really connected ath the fair before everything had gone stupid crazy. I wanted to be cautious though. If our relationship really was going to go anywhere, I wanted to make sure it wasn't for any other reason than our own.
The ruins of Lab 32 was hard to make more distinctive than Lab 16 for a few reasons, but overall the ruins seemed to head to the east over a much greater distance. Still the lack of any Mutants nearby was a little odd. We followed Doan's directions and came to a single garage that looked to be made from the remnants of other buildings. Just as he had said there was a keypad on the corner of it. Lucca inspected it before putting in the four digit code and suddenly the front of this building opened up. Inside was something that none of us had ever seen. This jet bike was certainly something different. Everything in our time was delivered by boat or wagon. Lucca had mentioned on occasion of a concept of a self propelling vehicle but the logistics meant changing the basis of the way roads were built and another problem was that there was a very fragile peace in our time line. So, our progress to something like this was halted due to a stalemate between nations? The thing about this...it didn't have wheels.
"Wait, how does this thing work?" I said as I walked towards it.
Unlike the ruins or anything else around here, the jet bike stood out with a vibrant blue and a lightning bolt type design on the back, was that a fin? Wait, how was this thing floating in the air? And it wasn't even on. Lucca had already pulled out her scanner and was eagerly trying to find out that answer. And likely a few more to questions I hadn't thought of asking.
"This looks unreal. It's like anything else we've seen here," Marle commented as she moved around the other side.
"That's because I look after it," a new voice entered. I turned to see a black man with dark shades and...wait was that wheels on his back? Not to mention he was surrounded by a lot of robots, similar to the ones we saw rusting in Arris Dome. Only these seemed to be well kept. "That belongs to old man Doan. I hope you can explain yourselves."
He didn't live at the Dome? And he didn't seem like the others. But...he also looked a lot different. Still I had nothing to gain from hiding anything from him. "My name is Crono, and this is Lucca and Marle. Doan gave us the key to the Jet Back...quite persistently for helping them clear out the robots that blocked the path below. And you are?"
It was hard to tell what he was thinking because of the dark sunglasses. Instead it was the collection of robots that spoke, "He's THE MAN!"
He chuckled, "Thanks for the intro guys." He walked forward and I heard a very mechanical walk to him. I eyed his legs for a moment.
"Hold on...your..." I started.
"You're bottom half is all mechanical, even your legs?" Lucca stepped towards him.
"More than that, babe. Try everything below my chest. Turns out a lot of things went wrong when I was a kid. And that's all I'm going to say on that. The name is Johnny. Still if you helped old man Doan then you're good in my book," he came closer and didn't seem to mind Lucca's inspection of his body.
"So you don't live in the Dome with everyone else?" I asked.
He shrugged, "Those guys are a little dull if you ask me. Besides the Doc who helped me as a kid showed me the ropes on how to maintain my body, since I'm more machine. So I attached these sweet wheels an me and fixed it so I can ride like the wind. You guys seem to be in a hurry, so how about I give you a proposal? I show you all the way the Jet Bike works and get you moving. In exchange, we have a little race across Lab 32. You get across faster and I get a little excitement for once. What do you say?"
It wasn't a bad deal, and from the way he talked he came across as more of a bored man in a world that was incapable of meeting his expectations. Unlike the others we had met, Johnny had found something he felt worth doing, felt living for. And apparently that was going fast. He had definitely been given a raw deal at birth. Yet someone quite intelligent had saved his life and given him a way to live. The fact that this man, who was around 70% machine seemed more alive than the humans we had met at the Dome's was not something I dismissed. I stepped forward and offered him my hand. "You got yourself a deal Johnny. You show us what we need to know, and I'll give you the best damn race I can give you."
He grinned after a moment, "You better pay attention then. If I'm not satisfied we'll have to go again."
We learned a lot over the next couple of hours. For one, Johnny had captured and reprogrammed the half dozen robots that followed him. According to him most robots had turned on humans almost overnight some time after the Day of Lavos a couple hundred years ago. The number of people capable of reversing such programming were few so there was little that could be done. Mostly because it was suspected that it was manually overwritten over the entire world from a central location. Meaning changing that programming had to either be done robot to robot and then subsequently disconnected it from any remote access or finding the central location and changing it globally. Anyway, that was his words and I couldn't understand a damn thing he was talking about. Lucca seemed to follow it well enough but that was because she knew so much more about how technology and other things worked as she called herself...what was it? An engineer? I think its that. She's just really smart when it comes to this stuff. I was just a fighter.
Marle was definitely fascinated by the whole thing as Johnny led me step by step how to pilot the Jet Bike. While I didn't understand how the Jet bike could hover or move (Lucca did and she was more occupied on that then the actual operation of it) it was relatively simple to actually drive. Control of its direction was used with a wheel and there were two pedals on the floor operated how fast it went or stopped. An accelerator and a brake was what he called them. then there was a lever that determined what mode it was in. It was either Park, Neutral, and Drive. Simple. Johnny just told me it might feel odd at first since I had never driven before. So he had me go out and do a small practice run and then come back. I went out on my own, kinda wanting to make sure I nailed it all before I had passengers and then came back.
As I pulled back in I put the lever into Park and sat their in amazement. The ride had been so smooth and responded instantly to anything I did. So I had been a little jerky at the beginning, but by the time I headed back I had a decent feeling for it. And I really wanted to open up and see how fast I could move it. I could definitely understand Johnny wanting to race. It was exhilarating to be moving in that vehicle. I hoped off.
"You ready to race, brother?" Johnny came up and the two of us high fived.
"I'm ready to really push this thing to its limit," I grinned.
"Yeah! That's what I want to hear. I'm getting pumped!" He smiled. "You get you and your ladies ready. Then let's start this thing."
I moved over to the girls as Lucca was still going over her scanner and Marle seemed to be content watching over her shoulder. "You two ready to go?"
"Definitely, although Johnny and his robots are a lot of fun," Marle bounced over to me and briefly took my hand. "You think if we fix the future things will be better for him too?" I nodded, he was born after the Day of Lavos, which meant his birth might have been stunted for a lot of reasons and resulted in him being as he was. Still the only thing we could do was try. This certainly was not the way we wanted the world to end. A desolate wasteland that was slowly killing off what remained. This was not what I would ever wish for anyone in our own time line. Or any time line.
"I'm sure it will be better for everyone," I said after a moment. "Lucca, you ready?"
"Yeah," She turned and held out something to both Marle and I. "Take these. It should make it easier on your eyes when were going at higher speeds." They were goggles, much like what she often wore when she didn't want her glasses accidentally slipping off her head when she was working on something that put her at an awkward angle, or elevation. I think I remember her hanging upside down in order to work on Gato at one point. It certainly had been interesting to watch her work. I took them and handed one to Marle. She took it and slipped them over her head so the goggles were resting on her neck, and she adjusted her high pony tail to make sure the goggles fit snug before pulling them back down to rest on her neck.
My red spiky hair made it somewhat annoying to get on, but after a few frustrating moments I got it positioned and let the goggles rest on my forehead as I went over to the Jet Bike. Lucca and Marle were making sure all out stuff was on board before getting on to it. Lucca sat as far back as she could, and then Marle in front of her. The last one was me and although the girls were likely somewhat uncomfortable, I had the ability to control things without having to worry about too much. As I settled in I felt Marle's arms around my midsection. I put the key into the Jet Bike and turned it on.
A brief hum followed by the sound of what Lucca called turbines, turning at an alarming speed. I moved the Jet Bike forward and to a line that Johnny had previously said would be our starting line. Johnny rolled up next to us. His body had shifted into that of a bike. It was really strange to see, but the expression on Johnny's face made me realized just how much he was looking forward to this.
"Alright, my man. My buddy John-Bot 7 is gonna count off the start," Johnny said indicating the robot that was standing by. "Don't wuss out on me. We only got one speed on this highway, and its fast."
John-Bot huh? I chuckled, I wish I had time to spend more with Johnny. I'm sure we could become good friends. if we had more time. Time...an interesting concept when you are a time traveler. I pulled down my goggles and set myself up. "Goggles on, you two. Time to go."
"On your marks! Three, two, one! Go!" The Robot's voice boomed as I pushed the accelerator as much as I can. The Jet Bike immediately propelled us forward and down the road.
Johnny was next to us the whole time. I had an odd thought that maybe Johnny would have been at a disadvantage on wheels, as opposed to the jet bike, that floated in the air, but clearly I had been wrong. Then again it isn't like I had really driven much. My entire experience had only included the last few hours of practice and learning basics. Johnny was a seasoned pro and he knew this land better than I ever could. I pushed down further on the accelerator and the jet bike pushed faster.
"This is amazing!" Marle was yelling and tightening her grip on me. I could barely hear her with the wind whipping past us so fast. We pulled ahead of Johnny as we manuevered around a down building. The controls were so responsive at this speed that we could feel the force as we whipped around the ruins and back onto a straight road once more. For a moment I couldn't tell where Johnny was. In no way did I believe we left him behind. After a moment, Johnny was flying over our heads and landing in front of us.
"You'll have to move faster than that!" Johnny yelled back.
I had hesitated for a while but on his prompting I pressed the accelerator down to the floor. The jet bike jumped forward in response. I felt Marle squeezing my mid section tighter in response as we went down the road. It was a clear straightaway as far as I could tell and we caught up on Johnny fast, blowing past him. At least for a moment. He cranked up his speed too and in a moment we were neck and neck.
This moment felt long, as if it would never end. The wind rushed passed as we went faster and faster. We were coming up on the finish line and I kept my focus on the road. I could see his robots at the end with a very visible white line on the road for the finish line. The accelerator was as far down as it could go. We crossed the finish line and I released the accelerator. I relaxed a bit as the jet bike began to slow.
"That was pretty crazy," I said as I looked over my shoulder. Marle was smiling big.
"That was so much fun! Oh, we have to do that again some time," she was smiling. I couldn't quite see Lucca though.
"Lucca, how you doing back there?" I asked.
"Can we come to a stop soon?" Lucca responded shakily. Well I'm not really that surprised with how things had been. More than likely she had been more interested in how it all worked than anything else. She had never done well on the back of a horse when I took her out to ride a couple times, so I wasn't all shocked about this.
"This way," Johnny said pulling up next to us. "My garage is over here."
"Alright, right behind you," I said as I followed behind Johnny and we drove a little ways longer. In about two minutes we got to his garage. And I realized we were on the edge of the ruins. Looks like we had made it to the other side of Lab 32. It probably be better if we didn't rely on jet bike for transportation, considering we would be heading to a different time period and at least here someone could get some use of it. Johnny stood up from his bike...form? Anyway he opened the garage and I pulled the jet bike inside and brought it to a stop. Turning off the engine I hoped out. I helped Marle out and then turned to help Lucca. Instead she came tumbling after loosing her footing and I quickly grabbed her.
"Lucca," Marle was next to us after a moment. "Are you okay?"
"I guess I'm a little weak in the knees. I thought I would be okay since it doesn't really bounce," Lucca grabbed onto me as I helped her onto her feet. She faltered for a moment and instead held onto me. "Sorry Crono, just give me a moment."
I couldn't help it and chuckled, "Same as always, Lucca. But actually you are a bit better off. If we were riding a horse you would have definitely lost your lunch." Well we haven't eaten in a while because of the Enertron usage but that was fine.
Lucca took a few deep breaths and then took a step away. She then took another uneasy step and faltered a bit but Marle quickly helped stabilized her. "You two used to go horseback riding? I'm totally jealous. I used to be able to when Mom was alive. Father didn't like me going any distance away from the castle. It must have been a lot of fun."
"Lucca always enjoyed it at first, and then she'd start feeling sick after a while," I commented as I leaned up against the jet bike. "Still doesn't look like your feeling it as bad. Usually I would have to carry you home afterwards."
Lucca's face went red for a moment, "That was different! You also bounce when riding on a horse, and you were always going too fast!"
Marle frowned, "Crono! Take me horse riding!"
"Yeah, just as soon as your Father doesn't want me dead for kidnapping you," I laughed and scratched the back of my head as Johnny came into the garage.
"That was one hell of a race you put on, my man," Johnny approached and extended his fist towards me. I bumped his fist with my own. "Curious to see the outcome? It was pretty close. I got one of my John-Bots to record the finish. Come over here."
I followed him over to a screen on the far side of his garage where his John-Bot was plugging in to some sort of...terminal? I don't know what it is, I leave that stuff to Lucca. Anyway, he plugged something in and an image of us came up on the screen. It replayed in slow motion as both the jet bike, and Johnny's front tire came to the finish line. And if you blinked you would have missed that the jet bike squeeked in only .23 seconds ahead of Johnny.
"Whoa, we won?" I shook my head. "I was so focused I didn't realize how close you were."
"That, my brother, is the real beauty of the open road. The speed is what I live for, and you pushed me as hard as I could and I couldn't win. Amazing," Johnny was grinning. I guess we made his day...or week, maybe month. "I'll keep an eye on the jet bike, and whenever you want to come back and race, I'll be here. I'll make sure she's good and tuned."
"You got yourself a deal, Johnny. Wish we could stay longer, but we want to make it to Proto Dome before dusk," I said as we shook hands.
"Alright, be careful you three, it can be dangerous on this side," Johnny gave us a final warning before we started grabbing out equipment and walking away. I checked my katana as we were walking. Fortunately Lucca was back to her usual self in no time and didn't need help walking.
"So this Proto Dome is down to the south," I said and noting that we could see it off in the distance. There was another large structure we could see to the North East. "What do you think that is?"
Lucca had been looking through information on her scanner for a while now it seemed. Probably trying to focus on the information she had taken from Arris Dome's computer. "I think it is a factory of some sort, not sure what it had been used for, but the scans I have indicate that it has working power but that is about it."
"No point in thinking about it then," I shrugged. Either way it looked like we were about an hour's walk away from Proto Dome. Then we'd have to worry about any dangers that might be inside of it. Especially if Johnny said no one lived out here. Then again it wasn't like things had been a cake walk since we got here. One problem at a time I suppose.
After having to cut through half a dozen robots that had attacked us on sight we had made at least the immediate area safe for us. This place was abandoned but didn't look as deteriorated as the others we had seen before. From the looks of it, it seemed like it had been maintained for quite a long time. I wonder why there wasn't anyone living here.
"Looks like there is an Enertron here," Marle called to me from the other side of the room. I walked over to her and sure enough it was an Enertron. And it looked to be in a lot better shape than the one at Arris Dome. Probably because it wasn't being used at all.
"Well that's good. But I can't wait till we can get to a time where we can have an actual meal," I found myself sighing. Hell, if there was anything to hunt then I wouldn't be complaining too much. And I also wasn't willing to see how any of those weird mutated creatures tasted either. As a monster hunter this was just not acceptable.
"Me too," Marle sighed as well. The two of us walked further in to find Lucca. She was looking at some large robot that seemed to be broken, and it was sitting in front of the door that we likely needed to get through. Lucca was on her scanner.
"I think I can fix him," Lucca put her scanner down and turned to us. "The readings for the gate are behind the door, but I'm sure you've noticed that we don't have any power here."
Actually I hadn't but instead I just shrugged, "What does power have to do with going through a door? And why would you want to fix him?"
"Wouldn't it try to attack us like the others?" Marle asked.
Lucca shook her head, "No. Remember Johnny's John-Bots? He said all he had to do was cut off their capability to connect to the global network and then changed their behavior protocols personally. That shouldn't be too hard, plus I can modify my code I use for Gato as the primary behavioral code and then leave most of the original code work intact. With any luck, he'll know a way to get our power back up and able to open this door." She pushed up her glasses. "It might take me some time, though. He's in pretty bad shape."
"It's a better plan than us trying to force the door open. Which I suspect would not go very well," I scratched the back of my head looking at the massive metal door. I had to wonder why something would need to be so well secured. "Well, you get started on that and Marle and I will get a fire going and see if we can't scavenge something from around here."
"Sounds good," Lucca said as she pulled off her bag and started to take out some tools while she was scanning the robot.
I pulled Marle along and left Lucca to herself and her project. We were quiet for a moment until we were further away.
"Lucca, she pities these robots doesn't she?" Marle said softly.
"Well, we spent a long time fighting her creation at the fair, remember? Gato is her pride and joy, and she considers Gato her friend. To Lucca, a robot isn't something that should ever be used against people. I'm sure the whole time we've been in this future she's been keeping a lot to herself. And likely its part of her own motivation to prevent this future. I'm sure its tearing her apart to see all the technology and advances only for it to be used in violence and against people it should be protecting. I'm sure that is what she's been thinking about all this time. I think seeing Johnny was good for her though," I commented as I walked to the side of the dome and noticed a panel that looked like it could be moved.
"Yeah, he was like half robot himself, and knowing that he had been able to save those robots from whatever had happened. I think she was happy to see that. Plus they were kinda funny. It seemed like Johnny's own personality kinda rubbed off on his robots too," Marle giggled next to me and helped me as we both grabbed on the panel and pulled. It resisted us for a moment and then came free sending us both falling to the ground. I quickly pushed the panel to the side and saw a collection of bags inside.
"Looks like emergency supplies," I pulled a few bags out. "Sleeping bags and pillows? Looks like we got a good find." Well there wasn't any food but getting actual sleep would probably feel a lot better than just stepping into the Enertron. I found some scraps of metal on the bottom and I was struck with an idea. "With this I can make a fire pit. We should keep an eye out for Lucca. Odds are she's gonna collapse any moment soon from keeping so much in that head of hers."
"You're really close with Lucca. I think I'm a little jealous," Marle said as she was gathering up the bags. "Are you sure you wouldn't want to date her instead?"
I found myself chuckling at the prospect and shaking my head, "I love Lucca, sure. But we've been together since before I was even capable of remembering. She's family to me. I would call her a sister over anything else. I could never see her in a romantic way. Even thinking about it is kinda weird. Lucca feels the same way."
"So, the two of you have talked about it then?" Marle was smiling but I knew that she was legitimately jealous because she didn't have a childhood friend. If anything most of her time had been spent alone, only surrounded by servants. The relationship between Lucca and I was probably interesting to her.
"Well, sure. Lucca likes to think she runs on logic. And to a certain extent that is true, she has to have everything make sense to her. And if it doesn't then she wants to do everything in her power to figure it out. The same applied to me, I guess," I was picking up the metal pieces as I spoke. "Apparently her Mom had asked if she had ever thought of dating me. So we went out on one."
"Oh? You two went on a date! Now I'm super jealous," Marle was being playful so I couldn't help but chuckle.
"It wasn't anything different than how we had usually been, so at the end of the day we talked because I had no idea why she had wanted to do so at the time. She told me about what her Mom had said but at the end of the day she wasn't sure she felt anything like that for me. Talking to me like I'd take it personally for her not being attracted to me in that way," I shook my head. "I told her we were family, not lovers, and that was just how it would always be with us. She knew that but she also wanted to make sure she didn't have those feelings. To her it was re-affirming what she already knew."
"Are you so sure about that?" Marle's tone threw me off for a moment and I looked at her. "You sound so sure, but maybe you don't see it. It's possible she does feel something for you but she figured out that you don't feel anything for her."
"Even if that's true, it doesn't matter," I shook my head and found myself sighing. That also meant I hurt Lucca then, but there would have been a bigger problem if she admitted to have feelings for me rather than hiding them. "I would still feel the same regardless. She's family, a sister, and I don't think I could see her as anything else. There isn't much I can do about that."
"I know, and I wouldn't want you to," Marle said softly as she was now picking up bags. "You're the one that says you don't dismiss anything or judge right? But you also realize that there are things about your heart that you can't change. You and Lucca both came together and figured out where you stood with your hearts. Even if you both felt differently, in the end you both decided together that it wouldn't work. I'll go set up a sleeping area up near Lucca."
"Yeah, I'll be up soon. I think I'll go get some dirt from outside so I can make a somewhat safe fire pit," I said as I pulled out something else from the compartment. It was a decent size and would easily serve as a bucket. The handle was a bit awkward and was only on one side so I would have to likely grip it from the bottom one it was filled. Before Marle walked away I got her attention, "Nadia." I used her real name.
She turned to me for a moment and looked somewhat puzzled. "Crono?"
"I know what your worried about. You have been ever since you've gotten to know Lucca better. You feel like you've come in and taken something from her, right?" I had certainly noticed it when she had been more mindful of when she grabbed my hand.
She looked away from me. I guess that was a clear enough answer, "You make me feel special, Crono. Truly. No one has ever made me feel the way that you have. So I want to be selfish and I want to have you all to myself. That is how I still feel. Even though we're really only starting with this relationship, I feel somewhat possessive. Yet, Lucca has known you a lot longer and I know that I really want to be friends with her too. I just, want to clear the air with her. I don't want her to hate me if she feels that I swooped in and stole you from her. Maybe it doesn't make a lot of sense to you because you don't feel anything for her. But she could just be keeping it to herself thinking she'd be bothering you with her feelings."
Actually I had considered that a long time ago when we had done that whole business and gone on a date. In the end, we would only hurt each more by trying not to hurt the other. That was why in the end I decided to be completely honest with my own feelings to avoid the whole situation. I might have hurt her feelings then, I knew that. But if it turned out she really did have feelings for me, and I agreed to go out with her then eventually I would have hurt her a whole lot more. I just didn't have those kind of thoughts for her, and that was something I couldn't change. "Do you need some time alone with her?" I asked.
Marle smiled, "Give us like twenty minutes."
"Take your time," I encouraged her before she grabbed all the bags and pillows she could and walked off back to where Lucca was.
I took the bucket and headed outside and sat down. The air was cold, but definitely not one that felt good. I didn't mind cold air, but this atmosphere and just the odd presence felt wrong. Just sitting out here gave me the creeps. But why? How can air feel so stale and dead? How could the soil just not grow anything? Especially when it didn't feel barren and Lucca agreed that it looked like it shouldn't have any problem growing plant life. And yet, nothing grew. Because of that we advised the people of Arris Dome to grow the seeds inside and not in the Earth. Likely there could have been some sort of other life that was actively preventing things from growing. Either way it wasn't worth risking those seeds to find out. Maybe after a couple years when they had more seeds they could attempt it. Hopefully we could do something about this future so it wouldn't even be an issue to begin with.
I think I understood another reason why Marle wanted to clear the air with Lucca. If we were going down this path then there was no telling what we would have to face, or if we could even do anything to change it. And there was also the high possibility that we would die along the way. So Marle didn't want to have any regrets. No, not just her, but all of us.
Just what did lie in wait for us? Lavos caused the whole world to whither and die. Did we really have a chance against something like that? How would we even fight it?
"Well I guess when you are starting down an impossible quest you're going to have nothing but questions to start," I stretched and starting scooping dirt into my bucket. "If I have my way though. I'll make sure this future is full of life again. No matter what I have to do to obtain it."
"So he's ready to go huh?" I asked as I was putting out the fire in the makeshift fire pit. I had used the spare metal strips from earlier to create a box and filled it with dirt. then after that I had went out and found plenty of wood from long dead trees not too far off from us. The warmth had done us a lot of good, but I would need to get more wood before the next night. Lucca had worked pretty late into the night until I had more or less forced her to take a nap and not just hop in the Enertron. I wasn't sure what kind of effect it could have long term on us since we weren't used to it. Eventually she agreed with me and laid down on one of the sleeping bags that Marle had laid out. I stayed up and kept watch. The front door of the building wasn't exactly the most secure. So I figured one night wouldn't be too bad. Plus I had napped earlier while Lucca and Marle were working away. Marle had saw fit to shine and clean anything she was able and spent a lot of time talking idly with Lucca. It seemed whatever heart to heart they had made the two of them closer.
"He's as good as I can make him with what I have here," Lucca sighed. I knew that sigh, it was usually associated with her not being satisfied with the outcome of something she had been working on. Except in this instance there wasn't anything she could do. Most of the time that sound was followed up with an immediate tearing down of whatever she was working on and starting from scratch. Naturally she realized that would be pretty stupid to do here. Not that it changed how she felt though. "Well, power on." Lucca pushed something on a panel and closed it.
Marle and I stood in front of it as the robot as a low hum started. Then slowly small lights started coming to life and finally the two eyes of it lit up last. The robot slowly got to its feet after a moment and was looking at Marle.
"Good morning, mistress," the robots voice was unmistakably mechanical in nature. Yet it seemed rather unique, and very easy to understand. "What is your command?"
Marle shook her head, "I'm not your mistress. I'm Marle, this is Crono, and the one next to you is Lucca. She's the one that fixed you."
The robot nodded, "Understood. Madam Lucca fixed me."
Lucca was half distracted watching him. She took a moment to register what he said, "No, please, just call me Lucca."
"Negative. Protocol dictates that addressing someone in such a manner is improper," the robot refused.
"Programmed with manners? Can't be one of Lucca's," I chuckled.
"Hey!" Lucca turned to me. "I'll have you know that Gato has plenty of good manners."
"Yeah he also has no problems punching me in the face," I replied dryly. "At any rate, Lucca and Marle both aren't ones for titles or things like that. So is there anyway to amend your protocols?"
"Affirmative, is this what you both desire?" the robot asked the girls.
"Yes, please," Lucca added.
"Yes, no titles," Marle confirmed with a nod.
"Confirming," the robot said, probably saving it or whatever it is that robots do.
"So, what's your name?" Lucca asked.
"Name?" the robot didn't seem to understand for a moment. "Ah, you must be referring to my production serial number. It is R66-Y."
"R66-Y? It must be a numerical designation meant to indicate type and number of production. That's really cool," Lucca said using a term I had never really heard her say which made me raise an eyebrow.
"That's kind of a mouthful don't you think?" I scratched the back of my head.
"Yeah, something shorter. How about Robo?" Marle took my arm and was smiling at the robot. "What do you guys think?"
I chuckled, "That works for me."
"I'd prefer to use his actual designation but I agree it is kind of a mouthful to say each time," Lucca sighed and turned to the robot. "Alright your new designation will be Robo."
"I am Robo. Confirmed. New designation accepted," Robo then took a moment before asking a question. "How may I be of service today?"
"Robo, would you know why there aren't any people living here? It seems well maintained," Lucca asked.
He looked around for a moment, "Error in backlog server, unable to connect to wide area network. Searching local data banks. When I was last operational there was plenty of people living here at Proto Dome. However my last record indicated that the humans were under attack from machines that originated from the factory to the North."
"Attacked? If that's the case then likely the power was cut here intentionally. Still how does the Enertron still work?" I speculated.
"Enertrons have dedicated power generators that can keep them going for upwards of ten years," Robo answered.
"That means the humans that lived here would have been attacked within the last ten years," Marle spoke softly from next to me. "Still because of that we can't get into the next room where the gate is."
"Gate? Is this a method in which you were able to avoid what occurred?" Robo asked.
"Yes, we arrived here from the year 1000 by means of an anomaly that allows us to travel in time. I'm still figuring out the particulars on how it is possible but I am able to search for other time gate anomalies by a very specific energy signature that they give off. We used the computer and satellites to find that it is located here in Proto Dome. However because of the lack of power we can't get to where its located," Lucca gave a brief explanation. I suppose it would be pointless to explain to a robot that Marle was a Princess, and we had all become fugitives in order to save my life from execution, and we only ended up in the future due to an incredible lack of options.
"So you require a means to open this door? Unfortunately it is a closed system. In order to do so we will have to go to the factory to the North. It is also a primary power station and we would be able to re-route the power to this location. However, if this was remotely closed off it is likely security would be alerted to such a change," Robo must have known the intricacies of the system. "If I was capable of connecting to the wide area network I'd be able to do so remotely."
Lucca shook her head, "Out of the question. Something is setting out a code that makes all robots that connect to the network to have their protocols rewritten and they attack humans."
"Attack humans? Why would someone reconfigure us to do that?" Robo sounded confused about that possibility.
"We don't know, but there are always a reason for people to do something like this. Either way, our priority is to get that door open," I didn't want to go too deep into that discussion.
"Affirmative. However, in order to get the door open, there will have to be an individual that remains here while I access security directly. It is possible that power will be redirected after we leave," Robo's words made me frown.
"Then it should be me," Lucca spoke up.
"No," I shook my head. I didn't want to leave anyone here on their own. But if I stayed then I couldn't be there to watch over them. This wasn't a great situation. "Damn it. Leaving someone here alone means if someone else comes while we're gone..."
"And if you stay here then you'll just be worried something is going to happen," Lucca sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, let's not waste time debating this. I'm more familiar with the technology here than either Marle or you. And if we only have a brief window of time then I can deal with the door and ensure it can't close on us. In the meantime, you can go with Robo and deal with whatever might happen there. More than likely there are a robots guarding the factory that you'll have to deal with. And you and Marle work really well as a fighting duo. Robo, are you capable of fighting?"
"I am programmed with defense subroutines capable of such acts," He answered.
"Excellent. New objective is to re-route power to this Dome and help protect both Crono and Marle along the way. Though they are highly capable of defending themselves, its nice to have someone watching your back," Lucca said simply.
"Updating objectives with new parameters. I am ready to deploy with Crono and Marle," Robo confirmed.
I was scratching the back of my head again, "It's going take some time to get used to him." I looked to Lucca. "I guess arguing with you is pointless as usual. You're right but still, be careful. I don't like the idea of you being here on your own."
"It's fine," she sighed and came up to me. "Besides I have a couple things I can work on in the meantime. And don't worry. I'll be as quiet as I can, I won't light the fire unless I am getting really cold and I'll stay back here so I can't be seen from the entrance. I would be able to hear anyone long before they know I'm here."
I kept my eyes on her, it still didn't sit well splitting from her. She then stepped forward and hugged me. "Lucca, I just don't want to leave either of you alone in this place."
"Crono, I know that. I know how you get. But we've chosen to try and save the future. We're going to be in danger again and again. You're going to have to accept the fact that you can't always protect me," Lucca spoke softly before she quickly squeezed me and then stepped back. "You're the same as always Crono, but the safest plan of action is this, and you know I'm right."
I nodded. I couldn't argue with her on this, she was right. "Alright, then we'll do this as fast as we can."
"Just don't be reckless and get yourself hurt," Lucca added.
"No worries, Lucca! I'll be watching over him the whole time," Marle grabbed my arm while smiling at Lucca.
Lucca returned her smile, "I'll be counting on you then. Robo, time for you to head out with the others."
"Affirmative, heading out to the Factory," Robo said and started walking towards the exit.
"Yeah, he is going to take a lot of time for me to get used to," I muttered before I gave a final wave goodbye to Lucca and Marle and I followed Robo out. Hopefully things went smoothly enough.
Such a lovely time we were having in the factory. At the moment alarms were blasting in our ears and we were running down a hall as we were now focused on trying to escape. Things had been going really well actually. Infiltrating the factory had been simple as there had been nothing to stop us from coming in. I had expected something but we waltzed through the front door. Any robots we ran into and tried to stop us were relatively weak. Not to mention Robo packed one hell of a punch. I could go less with the "Secondary Objective Accomplished, returning to Primary Objective," that Robo said after every scuffle we had.
Following Robo's instructions we had to flip some breakers to get past certain things and even tricked a different robot to giving up the main password we needed. I think Robo was legitimately surprised that the password was close to the name of the security protocol. I was beginning to sense that Robo had a personality that was unique to him, but we had only known him for a few hours now. Yet we were fighting by his side. He was definitely unique.
Not having Lucca here really bothered me. But it also served to motivate me to speed up. Unfortunately with whatever security that had been triggered we were forced to zig zag through the factory with the elevators cut off.
Robo rushed ahead of us and prevented a security door from fully closing. We rushed over top of him to the other side before helping him free. He seemed no worse for wear but that had to have done something to his...joints? Servos? I have no idea what a robot is made of.
There was no time to contemplate the inner workings of a robot. Or what their proper name was. I can just see Lucca rolling over knowing that I've improperly called something technological.
Finally we came to the final path before the exit, but Robo pulled ahead and stopped us. Then from the side of the wall it opened up and six robots appeared. Six robots that looked exactly like Robo, but they were a blue purple in color.
"This can't be good," I mutter. We'd seen what Robo could do in a fight. Fighting six of him would hardly be a good time.
"I don't like this, Crono," Marle said stopping next to me.
"R-64Y, R-67Y, and R-69Y! I am glad to see you all operational. It has been a number of cycles since our last meeting," Robo moved forward.
"Robo, be careful," I warned.
Robo looked back at me only for a moment before he stepped towards the others.
"R-66Y, your current actions are against our primary protocols. Intruders to the Factory are to be eliminated. You have deviated from your programming, meaning you have been tampered with. Resolution, you must be destroyed," One of the robots spoke, but unlike Robo the voice was nothing more than robotic monotone that had no semblance of life. In our short time it had been obvious that Robo was special. His voice actually had different inflections and could express a wide range of emotions. I'd go as far to say that he was a capable artificial intelligence. Okay you'll just have to take my word for it because I'm just repeating what Lucca had said earlier.
"Robo, back up, they aren't going to listen to reason," I said urging him to back up before they attack him. Just as I stepped forward, one of the robots hit Robo hard sending him tumbling to the ground.
"Stay back, they are my brethren," Robo said as he turned back to them. "It is as Lucca informed. Their behavioral protocols have been overwritten, the same as what had likely happened to me. If that is true, then it is likely I attacked the humans that were my masters. To think I did something so despicable."
"If its true, then we have to defeat them. We can fix them after if we bring them to, Lucca!" Marle pleaded.
Before we could do anything the robots charged at Robo and pulled him back. In an instant the six robots were pounding him.
Marle fired her crossbow nailing one of the robots in the open space in its joints. I threw my sheath away as I jumped into the air and stabbed my sword right into the opening at its head and then kicked it away. Marle and I went to work and the robots turned their attention to us. However we had been fighting with Robo against everything else in this factory and we were well aware of what he had been capable of. We were able to avoid the majority of their attacks. The most deadly being when they shot their first at you. It's deceptive if they use it at short range. So dodging to the side instead of back was a key factor.
"Slash!" I sent the blade along the ground slicing through two of them. Marle covering my back while I fought in the midst of it. Despite them being better than what we had fought in this place before we had been too focused on attacking Robo, allowing us to take a few of them out before they could properly retaliate.
The last of them defeated I kicked one away and it fell to the ground. "Well I hope they can be recovered," I sighed as Marle came next to me and handed me my sheath. I put my sword away as we moved over to Robo who was crumbled on the floor. "They really did a number on him."
"Robo?" Marle knelt down. "Is he?"
"Let's bring him back to Lucca. I'm sure she can figure it out," I reached into my bag and pulled out the emergency blanket I had from before. "This should be tough enough to handle the trip. Let's put him on here and we can drag him back."
"Alright," Marle said and helped me get him onto the blanket. I mean he is a robot, so he's pretty darn heavy. Still we somehow managed and started dragging him and out of the factory.
We were outside once more and the wind and dreaded atmosphere surrounded us. "I really don't like it here," I mutter under my breath.
"Hey, Crono," Marle said as we were somehow managing to keep a steady pace. "Do you think, Robo felt bad for his brothers?"
I thought about it for a moment, thinking of how Robo had acted, "Yeah, I do. I think he understood the weight of what we had told him before. He realized that his brothers had been changed from their original purpose. And he hesitated."
"He didn't want to hurt them. He was looking for a way to save them, right?" Marle was feeling down after what we had seen.
"I think there is a lot more to Robo than we know," I commented. "Still I'm impressed in that situation you managed to keep yourself focused and your aim was incredibly spot on."
"Yeah but it wasn't fast enough to help Robo," Marle said glumly. I could understand her wanting to help him, but things had happened really fast.
"Then we get better, stronger and faster. After all we want to save the future right? In the new future, Robo wouldn't have to worry about that. Still, we don't know what we'll have to face, or fight. So we need to keep moving forward, but also become stronger too," I said as we got closer to Proto Dome. We had been walking for quite a while now. Our conversation had been slow and quiet. I knew Marle was still feeling affected by everything so her mood had often done this since we had learned about the Day of Lavos.
"Yeah, you're right. So, Crono, could we train together? To get stronger, I mean. Like exercise and all that?" Marle smiled and looked to me. This was more like her.
"That's a good idea," I returned a smile. "Making sure we properly stretch and everything else can go a long way in making sure we don't get injured or overextend ourselves."
"That's right we have to stay at our best. For Doan, Johnny, Lars and Robo and all his brothers. For everyone here, for everyone that comes after us. We can't let the world come to an end," Marle's energy was back to what I had grown accustomed to. At least before we had come to this time. This was her new motivation now. I couldn't help but believe that it was her upbringing as the Princess that made her so passionate about other people. Especially people that she would potentially rule.
Sneaking out to see the Millennial Fair would also serve to show her more about the people in the Kingdom, something that was hard to deal with when your forbidden to leave the castle. Marle had a strong mind though, and despite how horrible things had been she had been able to keep going. Well, I was doing my best to keep her spirits up, and I'm sure if I didn't she would be consumed by it. Quite the situation I suppose. We were in the year 2300, a world that was dying, and Marle a Princess had determined to fix it, much like how I had saved her life by saving her ancestor in the past. Well, hopefully with all of this we'd be able to head to another time.
But where would we go? What was the next step in finding out about the creature known as Lavos? I suppose there was no point in trying to figure out a plan. We'd be going through a different Time Gate. And there was no way in knowing where we would end up at on the other side.
A/N:
The time in the future is a very key point in the game, and looking back on it now, I didn't realize how quickly it gives off some very key changes in the story. Learning of Lavos and them coming to a resolution to change the future took only 8 lines of dialogue. Their interactions with Doan and the others are equally as limited. So a lot of the message of the group is conveyed with just the visual of the world around them. And yeah, the game does a good job of showing us a bleak world, but there is a lot of other things that are shown that imply things far worse. First of all, there are a lot of robots. We find out later what the main culprit of it is but until they know that, it could have been any number of reasons or people that turned them against other survivors. There is a darker side of humanity here, that you never quite see in the game.
This story for me is to try and explain a lot of aspects that never made sense to me. Along with deepening the relationships of the cast in a more meaningful way. When I got to Robo, I was kinda stumped for a bit on how I wanted to go with him. However there also seems to be a large gap in his memory. As if he had been disabled since the Day of Lavos. But that doesn't explain how he got to where he was and everything else. Not to mention he doesn't seem all too surprised about the state of the world. That was why I had Lucca actually give more of a reason to this. Plus I already explained that robots were affected by a change to their programming via wi-fi, haha. Scary thought actually. So I wanted to tie it all together so that when we eventually come back to the future we'll see a much bigger impact. So Lucca's modifications have made some influence on the way he speaks for now. Plus he had always sounded so normal in the original game, like he wasn't a robot. Other than the sound effect he makes it doesn't really distinguish him too much. Which I hope to change as the story goes.
How successful I am is up in the air. We still got quite a bit of game to go through. Johnny was a fun bit to write, and I wanted to give an explanation as to why he can turn into a bike for the race. I mean he has wheels on his bike when he's standing there and, I thought it be cool to do. Johnny is, after all, the oddity in the Future, who seems to have found a way to enjoy himself. So even if his state of being is somewhat unorthodox and definitely not the happiest he still smiles and enjoys himself. Plus it was an easy way for me to cover how robots had been modified to not be raging machines of death. Overall I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you did too.
In the end it serves as motivation for Crono and the others as to why they want to change the future. From here on out, once we get to the End of Time it becomes a bit more complicated. The party of 3 limitation is going to keep me up at night as I decide which characters will be there when certain events happen. Not to mention the challenge of attempting to give a more feasible explanation for this is...going to be near impossible. I shall do my best though. Well I guess check back next month to see how successful or not I am.
Any way, let me know what you think of this months chapter and I'll see you all next time.
