Squaresoft/Back to the Future Chapter 4
Pink Aeris: Light Side of the Meteor
By Fred Delles
“Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain,
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today,
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you,
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun…”
-from the song “Time” from the Pink Floyd album “Dark Side of the Moon”
(Lyrics by Roger Waters)
(Okay, it isn’t a good quote, but it’s the best quote I could find. Anyway, let’s just get back to the story…)
.
Crono just couldn’t grasp what happened. Just a couple of hours passed and his friends were murdered and he fell into some kind of dimension.
“Manipulation by Lavos? But he’s destroyed…” Crono was still musing at the situation.
He then saw a sign, which read “Cosmo Canyon 24”. Crono thought that it would be smart to investigate.
Crono was walking along the road for a couple of hours. He soon found Cosmo Canyon, but it looked radically different than he could remember. The area looked more primitive, with wooden buildings and many old-fashioned structures. All the roads were dirt. There were no vehicles except for a 1965 Shinra Prowler, one of the company’s first four-wheel drive trucks. The only structure Crono remembered is the observatory on top of a plateau.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Crono thought as he passed the Mako-powered truck. Mako was outlawed in 1970, about three years after the Lifestream explosion, and all Mako engines were removed from every vehicle on the Planet during the next four years.
Crono saw a billboard saying “Loveless… the ultimate drama of the century is now in Midgar! Call Ticketmaster at 555-5925!”
“Wasn’t that thirty years ago?” Crono thought as he went to the park.
In the park, Crono was walking around as a passerby threw a newspaper in the trash. Crono then picked the paper up. It read “Shinra Times, June 22, 1967” and told about how Rufus and the Turks were going to pursue Sephiroth.
It was then when Crono realized that he really went back in time. He just ended up in another temporal-displacement predicament.
Bugenhagen! Crono realized. He’s probably alive in this era! Maybe if I could call him…
The Cosmo Café was empty at this time of day, except for one blond, spiky haired guy with a six-foot sword slung behind his back. Crono didn’t notice; he just wanted to get the hell out of here.
He went to the cashier and asked, “Say, do you have a phone?”
The cashier replied with a simple “Yeah, it’s in the back.” Crono quickly went to the phone.
Crono searched his pocket for change and hoped that ten-gil pieces from 1995 will be usable in a 1960s phone. He deposited the money and searched the phone book for Bugenhagen’s number. It read “Bugenhagen – Scientist, 1040 Scarlet Lane, 555-4359”. He dialed it, but only got his answering machine. Crono hung up. Knowing that the only way for him to help was to meet him in person, he tore the page with Bugenhagen’s address and phone number off the book.
“Say, do you know where 1040 Scarlet Lane-“ Crono was interrupted by the cashier, whose business is going down the tubes.
He said rudely, “Well, are you gonna order something!?”
Crono quickly took a seat next to the spiky-haired guy and looked around. “All right, I’ll order a Tab. A Power Tab.”
The cashier was surprised at the freaky dialogue. “I can’t give you a tab until you order something!” Tab wasn’t a drink just yet…
“All right… a Cosmo Free,” Crono said.
“If you want a Cosmo drink, you’ll pay for it!” the cashier said, with increasing anger in his face. It was obvious that it was thirty years ago.
“All right! Gimme somethin’ without sugar, okay!?” Crono said in a louder tone.
The cashier gave Crono a cup of coffee. Crono threw a couple of coins on the counter. The cashier took a five-gil piece and rang up the order.
Crono was about to take a drink when he heard a voice. “Strife, I never thought that you’d be here!”
Crono turned around, thinking that it was meant for him. The blond-haired soldier also turned around. Four guys entered the café. One was wearing a long dark robe. Another was wearing red and green robes and scarves around her body. A third had pale green armor. The fourth had black armor.
“Strife, I’m talking to you!” the dark-robed guy said. He passed Crono and went to the other café patron.
The other three followed him and went to the “other” Strife.
“What the hell is going on here, Cloud!? You took Aeris away from us and she now has the risk of getting killed!”
“Don’t worry, Thanatos, she said that she could handle Sephiroth, and, well, she will kick his ass!” Cloud said, almost laughing. “At least, I hope…”
Thanatos was angry. He knew that the young Cetra was necessary to save his world on the other side of the continent, and Cloud was just going to let her throw herself away!
Cloud is such a knucklehead, Thanatos thought.
He rapped his knuckles on Cloud’s head as if he was knocking on a door. “Hello, hello? Anybody home!? Think, Strife, think!” The other three were laughing.
“We are headin’ north to the Icicle city, so you’d better not!” he said. “Anything happens to Aeris, you’ll destroy our country and you will be nothing more than a piece of Planet history!” The four abruptly left.
Another person walked in as the four walked out. Crono realized her.
“Yuffie!” Crono whispered to himself.
“Hey, Cloud, we’re ready to go! Let’s get a move on!”
“All right, I’ll tell them to mosey…” Cloud couldn’t finish his sentence. Yuffie reflected Thanatos by rapping her knuckles on Cloud’s head.
“Hello, hello, anybody home!? What do you think, you spiky-headed jerk? You’re no leader… Can’t you, like, say ‘Move out’ or something!? I’m only sixteen and I can kick your ass any day of the week!” Yuffie was still the arrogant brat thirty years ago.
“Well, all right, Yuffie. I’ll finish this and come outside.”
“Too late. We’re already in the buggy and ready to fly to Bone Village.” She turned and walked away. As she was about to go out the door, she tossed some of Cloud’s materia back to him.
“And don’t be so gullible, Cloud! You’ve been that for the past thirty days or somethin’!” She left the café, complacent that she could be the new leader.
Crono turned to his father, who wasn’t his father just yet… just a naïve young ex-SOLDIER who doesn’t even know his true past just yet, or the unpredictable and volatile future.
“You’re Cloud Strife!” Crono said in an ecstatic, yet nervous mood.
Cloud tried to speak to his future son, the son he never knew he had. “Yeah, so…”
Just then, Yuffie opened the door. “Let’s get a move on, Cloud! NOW! Bugenhagen’s there too!” Cloud listened and quickly left, leaving only Crono.
“Hey, wait a minute… Dad!” Crono bolted out the door and started to give chase. He quickly spotted Cloud on a buggy with Yuffie and Vincent. “Hey! You on the buggy!” By the time Crono finished his sentence, Cloud vanished from his sight. Crono lost all thought of Bugenhagen and chose to run to his future father.
“It’s too easy…” Crono said to himself. “Bugenhagen AND Cloud will be at Bone Village… I just have to get there…”
Crono kept on running across a path that was imprinted with buggy tire treads. He kept on walking and running for thirty minutes before he came across a small airport. The airport only had a small ticket office and three planes, one of them about to take off.
Crono spotted the buggy that Cloud was on. He knew that Cloud was going to fly somewhere, but… where, all of a sudden? Crono ran to the ticket taker, budging through a couple of Planet Life scholars and elders.
“Say, where does this plane go?” Crono asked.
“Bone Village, north of here.”
Crono replied with a simple “thanks” and ran through the gate, bumping past two guards.
“Hey! You can’t pass without a ticket!” Crono ignored their warning and ran on the plane that had its engines running. The doors then closed in about a couple of seconds and it took off.
Crono was right; Cloud and the whole gang, save Aeris, was on board. Crono quickly took a seat and the plane took off. He saw Tifa, who will be his mother in thirteen years, sitting next to Cloud.
Tifa sat there, doing nothing, just minding her own business. It seemed surprising that Cloud and Tifa did little with each other despite being childhood friends.
Crono decided not to intervene until they actually got to the place, and when they get there, Crono would try to make some sense out of this whole mess. Crono then took a look at Barret’s machine-gun arm and had second thoughts of intervening.
Several hours later, the plane landed safely in Bone Village. Crono got out last; he didn’t want to get into too much trouble with the group.
He spotted them chatting with an excavation expert about Aeris and a “Lunar Harp”. Crono joined a small group of tourists and began eavesdropping.
“… the Lunar Harp will open a path for you in the Sleeping Forest,” the excavator said.
“Where’s Aeris?” Cloud said, acting impatiently. Tifa didn’t like the conversation and almost felt that she should just bow out of the love triangle as soon as possible. After all, Cloud’s only “real” date was with Aeris at the Gold Saucer, and Cait Sith believed that the two were the perfect match… Tifa believed that if she were to be Cloud’s, only Fate would help her.
“She passed the Sleeping Forest after using the Lunar Harp. And-“ The excavator couldn’t finish. Cloud and the group were gone.
“Wait! A guy… Two guys… in a black cape… Damn!”
After hearing the news, Crono followed.
The Sleeping Forest didn’t seem too welcome. Crono heard haunting visions as he walked across the path Cloud and the group took. Crono thought that they were all real; after all, he saw his parents, the city of Cosmo Canyon, and everyone and everything else thirty years younger.
It was evening by the time Crono made it to the Forgotten Capital. From the looks of it, it seemed to be a utopian and peaceful city during a time when it still existed. Many of the buildings-from the coral edifices to the shell-like homes looked very tranquil and calm, like the middle of a forest.
Crono searched for all the houses for Bugenhagen and Cloud. In the largest shell house, he saw a stairway down to some kind of lake. He walked through a small path that led to a bunch of steps and columns, with a stairway of columns leading to a beam of light… and a pink-dressed, brown-haired young woman locked in prayer.
Crono jumped up the posts, one by one, and leaped on the platform where Aeris was praying.
Crono heard a voice. “Hey, isn’t that Aeris?”
“Uh oh!” Crono said. He ducked behind a small post near where Aeris was praying.
Crono saw Cloud, Tifa, and Barret coming in his direction. Crono jumped up the columns and saw Aeris, locked in prayer. Somehow, somewhat, Cloud went toward her… and raised his blade. He tried to prevent himself from killing Aeris, but couldn’t… He took a swing… and missed.
Aeris opened her eyes and raised her head. She saw Cloud, and Cloud saw her. Their eyes met… and suddenly, Crono spotted something black hovering down toward Aeris and Cloud.
Crono didn’t hesitate. “Dad! Watch out!” He charged toward Cloud, and the impact knocked the two toward Aeris, knocking the three to the end of the platform. The black-cloaked assassin missed by just a couple of inches.
“Aeris… you’re alive…” They were the last words Crono heard before he fell into unconsciousness.
.
End of Chapter 4
Watch for Chapter 5 – “Erased From Existence”, coming soon!
.
Nitpickings:
As you probably know, there is no plane scene in the real Back To The Future, nor is there one at that point in Final Fantasy VII. It was just there so it would make more sense (to go from Cosmo Canyon to Bone Village without Tiny Bronco)
.