The Absence of Friends Chapter 7
A Summary of Adventures
By Cloud Strife
Lucca turned off her stopwatch. "Okay, it's been ten minutes. You can let go now."
Crono and Marle were still holding on to each other. Hearing Lucca's words, they quickly turned away from each other, blushing.
"You didn't have to say THAT." said Crono.
"Forget that. Crono, you owe us an explanation. Let's go to my house." said Lucca.
Inside Lucca's house, Lucca poured some tea and handed it to Crono. He stood in front of Marle, Lucca, Robo, Frog, and Ayla. Crono then began to summarize his entire adventure.
"It all began when Lucca woke me up out of bed one day. She was yelling about something serious, and she also repaired the Epoch! So I followed her. While were we in the Epoch, Lucca vanished. I was so confused, and even more so because she was about to explain what was going on. By the way, what were you going to say to me?"
"Yeah. I was searching for a part to another invention, when I looked in the chest that I kept the gate key in. But it was gone! I figured that in the wrong hands, someone could somehow recreate the gates, and change history." she explained.
Frog and Robo sat on opposite sides of a chess board. Robo moved his knight, took Frog's queen, and placed his king in check.
"Ahhh! Leene!" exclaimed Frog.
"You were exactly right." Crono continued. "When I went to see Marle, she disappeared right in front of me! The same went for Frog. I traveled to 601 A.D. and visited Frog. But Flea showed up again!" said Crono.
"Ayla remember Flea! Why he back?" asked Ayla.
"Someone deployed him in 601 A.D. I'll explain that later. Frog and I defeated him, and then I spent the night in Guardia Castle. The next morning, Frog was gone."
"Yes. I felt lightheaded during the night, and then I just passed out. (ribbit.)" added Frog as he watched Robo take his last rook.
"Next, I tried Ayla." started Crono. "She was already gone. I figured that Ayla must've disappeared first, and that caused Marle to disappear."
"Correct. You're getting good at this." noted Lucca.
"Ayla was training at Dactyl Nest! After 3 days, Ayla felt tired and lightheaded, just like tasty Frog said! After that, Ayla don't remember anything." noted Ayla.
"That's what Kino said when I saw him." said Crono. "After him, I visited Magus. He had a real attitude, and I left after having a brief conversation with him. I searched for Robo next. I found him, but soon after that, we were captured by Slash and Ozzie!"
"Slash and Ozzie captured you and Robo?" asked Marle, doubtfully. "Were you drunk or something?"
"But that must've been in 2301 A.D! What were they doing there?" asked Lucca, puzzled.
"It was the gate key. Their boss deployed them in 2301 A.D. They took us to the Geno Dome. They also stole the Epoch. We escaped, and we defeated Slash. But as we were escaping, Robo disappeared, too. After that, I stole the Epoch and flew away."
"Then what did you do?" asked Robo as he attacked Frog's king.
"I traveled to the End Of Time, just to see Gasper. I had really given up hope, But then I noticed some gates that were open. I asked Gasper if anyone had used them, and he said someone just went through the bucket to the Day Of Lavos. I also found the gate key inside the bucket! So I then realized that when we were together, fighting Lavos, someone could've killed any of us, and we wouldn't exist in the future." explained Crono.
"But that was 1999 A.D. Why didn't we exist in our times in the past when we were killed in the future?" asked Marle.
"I can explain this one." said Lucca. "When we defeated Lavos, we created a new era. Now if we were killed during the end of the "Lavos" period, we wouldn't exist in the new era created after we destroyed Lavos. Do you understand now?"
"Barely, But I'll take your word for it." said Crono. "Continue."
"All right." replied Lucca. "Ok, judging from the amount of information I currently have, you're saying that someone wanted to get rid of us. So someone traveled to that moment in time where we confronted Lavos, and killed us all except Crono. Crono, you managed to survive against our attacker in our past until you could figure out what was going on, and stop it. You arrived at the time of when this mysterious person first attacked, and you stopped him. Otherwise, we wouldn't exist in our present period of our lives. Think about when we saved Crono if you still don't understand. He died in the past, But we resurrected him in the future. We could've seen Crono if we traveled to 1000 A.D, But not any place past that, because that was where he died."
"I get it now." said Robo. "But who tried to kill us? (click.) And where's Magus?"
"All right. I'll get to that." said Crono. "When I reached the Lavos Core, I saw all seven of you standing there, including another one of myself. But the real culprit was basically.... Magus."
"Magus do this? But he fought with Crono and the rest of us!" exclaimed Ayla.
"Magus hath finally snapped?" asked Frog.
"Yes." replied Crono. "The Magus that we knew actually staged the whole plan. There was Magus fighting with us, But the future Magus stole Lucca's gate key, and re-created the gates."
"So that's why my key was gone." said Lucca.
"Yes. He stole it while you were making the Wondershot during our first adventure." said Crono. "You see, he had a back-up plan. He wanted to find his sister, But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find her. So in advance, he stole the key. Since he had no family left, the loneliness overcame him. He decided to take out his anger on the future, and he wanted to help Lavos destroy us. He traveled to 601 A.D, and deployed Flea, Slash, and Ozzie in the time-periods that we found them. Then, he put his plan into action. He traveled to 1999 A.D. and attempted to kill us. Then, I followed him soon after. He called himself, "Dark Magus."
"Dark Magus? Sounds familiar!" said Marle.
"Checkmate!" exclaimed Robo.
"Damn your artificial intelligence!" shouted Frog.
"I know exactly why." said Lucca. "You see, when something in the past happens to us, we have it implanted in our memory. Just like when I saved my mother's legs, I forgot that she lost them in the first place, because history was changed! The sane goes for Dark Magus. The fact that he appeared means that we all know the outcome of that battle, and we'll always remember that."
"Ayla...remember being cut badly." noted Ayla.
"Magus.... He sacrificed himself to save Lucca." said Frog.
"That's correct. He tried to kill me first, But the other Magus took the fall. Since he was Magus from the past, when he died, his future, or should I say, evil self would disappear. Dark Magus's own plan backfired on himself." explained Lucca.
"Defiantly a bittersweet victory." said Crono, sadly.
"He really wasn't that bad. He just needed some family." said Frog.
"I guess our friendship wasn't enough....?" said Marle.
"I'll miss him, that's for sure." said Lucca.
"Ayla miss Magus already..."
"(click, blip.) You think Schala's really alive?" asked Robo.
"I don't know." said Lucca. "If she is, then she must be stuck somewhere where Magus couldn't reach."
"We really should investigate that someday." said Crono.
"It's worth a shot, But for now, I'll dismantle the Epoch again. Everyone should return to their own times, and get on with their lives. Maybe we'll need each other again someday." replied Lucca.
So soon after, everyone returned to their proper time. Crono, Lucca, and Marle still reside in the Guardia area, and currently, everything is well. The experience was frightening, But Crono was still able to overcome the short Absence Of Friends.
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The End
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