Time to Dream
By GenoBlitz
“Chrono, Help!” The teenage boy with red hair spun around to see a blonde haired girl being dragged into a bright blaze of red fire and smoke.
“Ahhhh!!!! HELP!!!!” A strange voice called out from above. The child looked up to see a frog being lowered into a burning hot pot of lava.
“Chrono! Help me!” The familiar voice of a girl with thick glasses, a helmet, and an orange suit on cried out as she was grabbed by chains, pulling her to the blaze. The boy began to run to the aid of the blonde girl, whom was the closest to the flame. As he grabbed her arm, he heard a crunching noise in the distance. He looked over his shoulder to see a compactor, crunching a robot into a thousand pieces. In his momentary shock, his grip released Marle’s hand and she flew into the flame.
“Chrono, I do not wish to rush you, but…HELP!” The frog’s’ voice rang out from above. The boy shot out a lightning bolt toward the chain, and snapped it. But this was not a well thought out idea, as the frog fell straight into the lava. Chrono rushed to save the girl with the thick glasses, but it was too late. She was engulfed in flames. The young man fell to his knees in agony. He looked up with tears in his eyes, as he heard a rumbling from behind the wall of flame. He un-sheathed his sword, and began to charge into the fire. He could feel the flame scorching his skin, and his blood boiling. He ran to the center, burnt all over with 3rd degree burns. Collapsed on the floor, he looked up to see his nemesis, his eyes ablaze. Their before him stood not a man, but a machine. The mammon machine that had awakened Lavos from his sleep sat in front of him, rumbling like a volcano about to erupt. The symbol on the front began to glow and pulsate. A familiar voice seem to whisper… “The black wind howls…you will surely perish…” as it began to go faster and faster. The symbol emitted a banshee scream that tormented the boy’s ears. The symbol finally began to lift, revealing it was attached to a door. The door opened and there before him stood a dark figure with a scythe. He lifted it and with a bloodcurdling scream, jabbed it in the boy’s spine.
“Ah!” Chrono screamed as he sat up in bed. His eyes darted around his room as he wiped the sweat of his forehead. He looked out his window to see the moon risen over the hills of Leene Square. He breathed a brief sigh as lay back in his bed.
In a tall dark palace, far away from Chrono’s home, a tall dark figure stood reading from an old dusty book and chanting ominous words. A storm began to rumble the house around him, but he did not detour from his chanting. His eyes crept up and glared into the large engraved map on his wall of a palace in the skies. He continued to chant as he began to initiate spells like “Dark bomb”, “Dark Mist”, and finally “Dark Matter” over and over. Finally a flash occurred and a familiar sound took place as a small blue time gate appeared before him. An evil smile spread across the tall dark figure’s face as he reached for a small black and gold box. He held the box in front of him and began to slowly approach the time gate. He lifted the box above his head and mumbled something about “ the mammon machine.”
“Magus.” A voice said from behind him. His head quickly twisted around to see a small, caped figure with a sword in his hand.
“No! You don’t know what you’re doing!” The tall figure yelled as he put his hand out in a “stop” gesture.
But it was too late.
The short figure raised his sword and sliced the box in two. As his sword cut it, the inscription “MASAMUNE” could be made out on it. In the instant that the box hit the floor, a bright flash explosion exploded from the time gate and destroyed the earth.
Once again Chrono sat up in his bed, his eye twitching involuntarily. And the dreams did not stop there. Many more occurred, each leading to the destruction of him, his friends and in some cases the earth.
A month had passed and Chrono was beginning to fear going to sleep. Each vision was more horrid than the last. He would wake up, stare out his window and see the moon over Leene Square. Finally, something snapped in his head. Every time he had woke up, the moon had been directly over Leene Square. He grabbed his clothes, his sword, and a small pack of items and took off toward Leene Square at 3 A.M. When he finally arrived, it was completely baron. Nobody for miles. He began to look around, finally finding his way to the top, where Lucca’s first time gate machine had been, the thing that had started it all. He walked around the small area, thinking about all the things this site had caused. The summoning of Lavos, the loss of the world, and even Chrono’s death. Then again look at the things it had saved. The stop of Lavos, the rescuing of the world, and Chrono’s resurrection. He was about to leave when he heard a twig snap from the forest to the left of him. He drew his sword quickly and stood waiting. The steps grew closer and closer. The bushes directly in front of him began to rustle as a figure emerged, wielding a crossbow.
“AHHHHHHH!!!!!” The shrill scream of Marle rang out through Leene square. Chrono sighed and wiped the perspiration off his forehead. He put his sword away.
“Chrono!” Marle yelled as she ran up and gave Chrono a big hug. “You scared the heck out of me! Don’t do that!” She said smiling. “Why are you here?” She asked. He looked at her and his eyes said it all. "You’ve been having those nightmares too, haven’t you?” She said. Chrono nodded. She let out a big sigh. “What are we gonna do about it? The time gates have all been sealed and all our friends have long since been gone. For the only one we could possibly find is Lucca.” She said disappointedly. Chrono nodded reluctantly and began to brainstorm. He opened his mouth and was about to talk when a green time gate appeared behind him.
“What the…?” Marle said as she looked at the portal. Just then it opened up and engulfed Chrono. “Chrono!” Marle yelled and dived in after him.
“It’s ‘bout time you guys got here!” Said a familiar voice. Chrono and Marle looked up to see Lucca operating a large computer console hooked up to the recognizable time gate machine from Leene Square.
“Lucca!” Marle yelled as she jumped up for joy. “How’d you find us? And why?!” She
continued.
“Well, I knew you guys would eventually gather to talk about these reoccurring nightmares, so I just….”
“Wait a minute! How’d you know that?” Marle said.
“I didn’t. I was having these every night for the last month. I had no idea you guys were having them too, I just wanted to find you so I could solve them, seeing how you were in each of them. I spent the last whole month re-building this machine and trying to tap enough solar power from the sun to run it.”
“How’d you find us?” Marle asked as Chrono finally got back up.
“Well, this new altered machine has to lock on to a source to make a time gate. I, personally, re-configured it to lock on to traces of magic. When it locked on to you to, I saw you on the monitor, talking about the dreams. So, I teleported you here.”
“I never thought I would be doing this again.” Marle said, holding her head. “Well, lets get to it. We’ve got to go get Frog and Alya and Robo and..And..”
“Hold on beauty queen. This isn’t one of the usual time gates. We can’t go more than 500 years back or forward without risking it.”
“You mean…no Robo or Alya?”
“Nope.”
“You’re kidding! We need them!” Marle said angrily.
“Sorry. We can’t get that kinda power. We can however get Frog. He’s in 600 AD still.” Lucca said as she grabbed her gun and stuck it in her item pouch. “So what are we waiting for?! Let’s go!” She said as she put on her helmet. Chrono leaped up and jabbed his arm up in the air.
“Alright. Let’s go get Frog!” Marle said, just now perking up. All three of them jumped into the portal. Lucca was last, as she grabbed a little portable machine that was hooked up to the time gate machine.
“Come Glenn.” A tall knight covered in gold armor wielding a large sword.
“Coming Cyrus!” Yelled a little boy, with large green hair.
“You know Glenn, someday you’ll be taking my place. I think you’ll make a great warrior some day. Just promise you’ll visit.” The knight said.
“Oh don’t speak that way, Cyrus. I could never take your place. Anyway, you’ll be a great knight forever. There is nobody who could beat you.” The tall knight chuckled happily as he walked down to the door. As he opened the door, it creaked slowly. Glenn had a dark, cold shudder run down his spine. He looked to see a dark tall caped figure with pointed ears, standing there in the shadows. He pulled out a sword and shoved through Cyrus’ armor, and Cyrus fell to the ground. “NO!” The boy yelled. The tall figure looked at him with his glowing eyes. The green haired boy looked at himself as his skin turned green and slick. His eyes turned to slits, his tongue grew longer. He fell to his knees crying, as the door closed, with the dark figure still standing there.
“Ah!” Frog yelled as he sat up in his bed and flipped the lamp on. He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed. “What is happening to me?” Frog said as he walked over to his dresser. He looked in the mirror and sighed. He opened his top dresser drawer and pulled out the Hero Medal. “Cyrus, this belongs to you.” He pulled out his white pants, green cape, and other clothes. Slowly he paced over to a large treasure chest and opened it. Inside sat the Masamune.
WAP! WAP! WAP! Chrono, Marle, and Lucca boiled out of the time gate like clowns out of clown car. They each stood up and dusted themselves off. “Well, now what?” Marle asked.
“Now we find Frog. He should be in his den in the Forest.”
“Right.” Marle said. They began to proceed to the hole when they heard a large commotion break out in the café. “Come on.” Marle said. They charged in to see a bar fight between Toma and some drunken group of guys. Chrono and his party stopped in amazement, because the latest they had seen Toma was dead. In this moment of silence, the group of drunken men grabbed Chrono, Marle, and Lucca and held knives to there throats.
“Don’t move or I slit ya.” One of them said. They took Chrono’s sword, Marle’s crossbow, and Lucca’s gun. The remaining two grabbed Toma and held him. “You made you first mistake rag boy.” One said to Toma.
“ Drop dead.” He said the drunk man. He was about to jab a knife in his gut when a sword went through him. The man fell to the ground and behind him stood Frog, pulling out the Masamune.
“Frog!” Lucca and Marle yelled. He proceeded to slurp cut the rest of the drunken gang, releasing Chrono, Lucca, and Marle. “Frog!” Marle yelled again as she ran up to him and gave him a hug. “It is good to see you to, Lady Marle.” Frog said grinning. “And is the rest of the party?” He asked
“Just great, now that you showed up.” Lucca said. “We came looking for you because of the…”
“Nightmares? I know all about them. No need to explain. I have determined the source of them to be with Magus at his castle, which was to be my next destination.” Frog said before Lucca could finish. “And I would be honored if you all would join me.”
“Oh Frog of course we will!” Marle said
“And you, Sir Chrono?” Frog asked. Chrono looked around and nodded with a big grin on his face.
The large eerie gargoyle seemed to laugh at them as they approached the castle. “I grow weary of this place.” Frog said as he went to open the door. He slowly opened it, and shuddered at the memory of his nightmare. All 4 of them proceeded in the castle, and cringed of memories of Flea, Slash, and Ozzie. They continued down hall after hall, with nobody to stop them. They had destroyed all of them in the 100 enemy gauntlet all that time ago. It took close to an hour to reach to final corridor, leading to Magus’ chamber. As they approached, the door swung open with nobody touching it. They cautiously walked in, with their weapons drawn. As they walked in, the blue flames ignited just as they had in there last battle, but with one difference, when it ended, no one was standing there. In fact, there was nobody in the entire castle.
“What is going on?” Marle said, looking around. “No Magus, no enemies, no nothing. Just a big empty castle.” She whined.
“Not exactly.” Lucca said, getting everyone’s attention. “There are large traces of magic here, and indications of a time gate that appeared…here.” She said as she stopped in a spot in front of a large map. She was holding the little device she had gotten earlier.
“What is that?” Marle asked.
“It is a remote time gate key, it controls the panel from here. It also can trace magic, like the machine.” The little control beeped uncontrollably when she stepped in front of the large map. “It seems he went into the future. Way into the future. I can’t get a precise reading on where it leads. In fact, that’s all I can get. Way into the future.”
“How far can we go?” Frog asked.
“Well, I don’t know. We can test it by warping as far as possible, but it might drain it pretty bad.” She said.
“That’s a risk we have to take if we are to find Magus.” Frog said. “Do it.” Lucca pressed the lock button and a portal appeared in front of the map. All 4 of them hopped in and took off.
They flew down the portal and their average speed when a flash blinded them and they began to speed at breakneck speeds.
“What’s….going….on….?” Frog croaked out.
“We have seemed…to lock on to the other portals signal. There….is a tremendous magic source…..directly ahead….” Lucca fell unconscious in the portal. They all flew down the portal and eventually everyone also fell unconscious.
A tall dark figure walked toward a glowing orb in the center of the room. It began to swirl with black and white clouds. Figures began to form out of these clouds.
“The black wind is shifting” The tall figure said. “This was most unexpected.”
SPLASH! Chrono fell into the water, unconscious. Slowly he drifted down to the bottom, weighed down by his sword and armor. Eyes closed, he hit the bottom in a cloud of dust and algae. There he lay, as his body slowly filled with water. His heart slowed, and his mind began to shut down. Seconds before death, Chrono found himself high in the air, being carried by a wave. With a gigantic splash, he fell to a nearby island at the feet of Frog.
“Wake up!” Frog yelled as he knelt down to Chrono. He knelt down and got a faint heartbeat.
“Stand back, short old and green!” Marle yelled. She lifted her hands in the air and a mystical blue light engulfed Chrono.
“Ack! Cough! Gag!” Chrono wheezed noises out as he sat up.
“Lie down, Sir Chrono. You almost drown in there.” Frog said standing back up. “Where are we?” He said turning to Lucca.
“As far as I can tell, we’re in the future.” Lucca said. “But, where, I don’t know. We probably landed somewhere in 1000 AD, just in the middle of the ocean.” Chrono shook his head rapidly as he gasped trying to speak.
“Sir Chrono is right” Frog said looking all about. “I recognize these waters and this land. I can smell this place’s magical air.”
“You mean…” Marle said dramatically.
“Yes. We are in the lost city of Zeal.” Frog admitted. Chrono stood up, still dripping wet. “But now what?” Frog asked.
“I don’t know.” Lucca said. “I don’t even know how we got here. There was a large force pulling us here. There must be some magic left here.”
“We have to get out of here. Lucca, get your portal thing a majig.” Marle said demandingly.
“Can’t. It was broke in the fall, and our last time gate was way up in the sky.” Lucca said looking up. “Until we find a way to make it back up ther…” Lucca was interrupted by a large rumbling noise from beneath them. “What was that?” The ground shook again. It continued each growing larger and large, more violent each time. Finally, when It seemed that the ground beneath them would split, a gasping wheezing noise interrupted it.
“We’ve got to get out of here before the ground beneath our feet betrays us.” Frog said darting around looking for the source of the quakes.
“Uhhh…Frog, we don’t have that kind of time…” Marle said looking directly into a gigantic wave coming for them. The all dived down to the sand as a wave passed over them. Frog stood up and commanded in an orderly voice for the waves to heel, but his powers were too weak to stop this massive set of waves. “Look out!” Marle yelled again as she ducked over. Another wave crashed into the island.
“Look” Lucca stood up and yelled. She pointed over to a group of large ripples coming straight for the island. They calmly washed up on shore.
“What’s the big deal?” Marle asked.
“Look where they’re coming from. The waves and the ripples are starting in the same place!” Lucca yelled pointing to a small circle some distance out. “And from the feel of this land, this isn’t sand at all. It’s some kind of mixture of waste products. It’s like they’ve burned to ash and risen to the surface where they collected and solidified. Almost like magma after a volcano.” She said, as she stuck a bit of it in her pocket.
“I wonder what’s down there.” Marle said, looking over at the circle.
“Only one way to find out.” Frog said, standing up with his hands in the air. His arms began to spread apart, as did a small part of the water covering the area with the circle. “Hurry!” Frog said with a struggling voice. Chrono jumped into the water and began to swim toward the clearing. As he grew nearer, he didn’t even have to swim as he was sucked in and slid down into the hole. “Now you Lucca!” Frog groaned.
“Me?!? I can’t swim!” She yelled.
“And I’m not getting my clothes wet!” Marle said demandingly. “Stand back!” She yelled as she began to create ice on her hands. With a flash, Marle shot ice out from her hands creating an ice bridge from the island to the hole. “Let’s go!” She yelled as her, Lucca, and Frog ran down the bridge and plunged into the hole, as it sealed up behind them.
A dark globe lay in the center of the room where Chrono, Lucca, Frog, and Marle were chained to the far wall.
“Where are we?!?” Frog demanded.
“It doesn’t matter. You can’t escape, and you won’t be around much longer.” A dark, ominous voice came from a tall, dark figure behind the globe. “You shouldn’t have come here, but since you did, maybe I should give you the proper welcome. He reached for a sickle in the far corner of the room. Chrono decided to make action. He began to lift in the air, and summon lightning. Just as the point came where the bolt should have struck the chains, he fell to the ground and nothing more. “Your weak powers won’t work here. I have already sucked them out of you.” The pointy eared figure said. “and now…” He said as he lifted the sickle above Frog’s head.
SHOOM! The figure dropped his sickle and ran back to the globe. It was beginning to glow with a white center. “It is time!” He yelled as he ran to a small black box on a pedestal. “Finally I will be rid of you, and your world, and I will be in power once again!” He yelled as he lifted the box above his long head.
“What are you talking about?!?” Lucca yelled. He looked at her evilly, and threw the box in the globe. It disappeared and fell into the globe. Nothing happened. “Well, looks like whatever you had planned didn’t work…” She never did finish her sentence. The globe grew very bright, and then shot out 4 lightning bolts that connected with the four, and then a bright flash exploded in they’re eyes, as they’re bodies fell dead to the ground.
Chrono had a felling that he was flying through the sky, up to a higher place. He felt as if he was at peace, going where no man had ever gone before. He opened his eyes and clouds everywhere. They were whisking by him at a million miles per hour. He cleared the clouds and saw green land below him, surrounded by baby blue water. Birds flew below him, white as the sky. He began to lift up, up, up higher and higher, then without warning he began to fly so fast he was sucked to the back of his seat. KA-BAM! “Ow!” Chrono yelled as he shook his head and looked around. He instantly remembered the familiar surroundings of the Epoch. But if he was sitting there, who was driving? He darted his head to the left where he saw Magus at the controls.
“I see you are awake.” He said, maintaining his eyes to the window in front of him. Chrono was to stunned to talk, he just nodded. “The rest of your current party is in the back, they’re still sleeping.” Magus said. “You have a right to be tired, you almost died back there. I got to swept you and your party away just before you fell dead.”
“Wha…where am I?” Marle said sitting up holding her head with one hand. “EEP!” She gasped as she looked up at Magus. “What are you doing here?” She said glaring at him. Magus chuckled.
“I am under the assumption that you thing I am the one that attacked you back there.” He said still staring ahead.
“Well, yeah, if it wasn’t you, then who was it?” She asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” He said. “We’ll be back there in a moment or two.” He said pressing some buttons.
“Whoa! Hold on! Back up! We are not going back there. I am going HOME!” She demanded.
“What home?” Magus said. “As of now, you have no home. It was destroyed in that explosion. That box was sent to 65,000,000 BC, and it held a time bomb that sent itself to every time period of Earth in out dimension. Everything after that time was destroyed, and now he can manipulate the human race to be his slaves.”
“Who? Who is going to enslave the human race? Who sent that box into the past?” Marle said desperately.
“Hold on tight. We’re going under the water. Try to wake up Lucca and Frog. We’ll need them.” Magus commanded as the Epoch made a nosedive under the water. Chrono was flung to the back as they hit the water and quickly regained himself to try to wake up Frog. He poured a full tonic into his mouth and Frog’s eyes opened. Lucca sat up as Marle had gave her a tonic too. “Here put these on.” Magus said handing 5 necklaces back to Chrono. “They’ll protect you from the effects of the box and allow you to use magic.” Chrono put it on and climbed back into the front seat. He looked up to see something he never thought he’d see again. Zeal Palace was crashed in the water, which seemed to be Magus’ destination.
The Epoch zoomed into the palace, crashing like an asteroid into a planet. Magus quickly opened the hatch and jumped out, followed by Chrono, Marle, Frog, and Lucca. They got out just in time to see the bolts fly out and the bodies of the party fell dead. Magus quickly jumped over and kicked the orb off the pedestal, and it shattered into the ground.
“Nooooo!!!!” The tall dark figure yelled as it burst on the floor. The dead bodies of the four disappeared and the light from the orb that was misting out from the pieces disintegrated. “What have you done! My life’s work! Gone!” The figure yelled. It’s complex quickly turned from remorse, to being set on revenge. He grabbed the sickle and ran at Magus. He grabbed his scythe out and the collided in the center of the room. “You ruined everything! You could have joined me and we could have ruled together!” He yelled.
“No! You tried to destroy me and bring back an evil machine! I could never rule with you.” Magus yelled as he struggled to stop the other figure from knocking him over. Suddenly, another sword sliced through both staffs, sending them both in opposite directions. Frog stood in the middle with the Masamune, standing victoriously over them.
“Stop this.” He said simply. He turned to the figure that had fallen in the shadows. “Who are you and why are you trying to destroy us?” Frog said glaring at him. “Well? Show yourself!” The figure stood up and walked out of the shadows. He was the exact height of Magus, his hair flowed long and blue like Magus, his cape wafted in the wind like Magus, and his eyes seem to glow at you like Magus.
“Who are you?” Marle said walking forward.
“Don’t you remember me? We’ve met before, but I was very young.” The Magus look-alike said. Suddenly, Lucca’s eyes lit up.
“Janus!” She yelled. He nodded with an evil grin. It all made sense now. This is why he looked like Magus except for his purple and white clothes. He must have survived in another dimension of Zeal, and grown up underwater, someday planning to come back and destroy us. “This is why our dreams always seemed to involve Magus somehow. It was really Janus!” Lucca stated, as if she had just solved the puzzle.
“But your attempts are still in vain. You may have saved your world for now, but I still have immeasurable power just waiting to be received.” He said starting to walk backwards.
“What is that man talking about?” Frog said to Magus.
“The Mammon Machine.” Magus replied, making no facial reaction.
“The Mammon Machine?!?” Marle yelled. “We have to stop him!” She said running for the door that Janus had just disappeared behind. She burst through the door followed by Chrono.
“No wait!” Magus yelled running after them. Frog drew his sword and ran in, and Lucca turned on her gun and followed Frog.
They emerged in a room where the massive Mammon Machine sat, glowing and humming but not rumbling like before. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Janus said. “I channeled power from your dimension’s Lavos to get it running but I need the prints of three of the family to start it. You two will do just fine.” He said as he threw his left hand in the air and two chords reached down from the ceiling and grabbed Marle and Magus. They pulled them up to a control console in front of the Mammon Machine.
“Chrono!” Frog yelled pointing to the cables. Chrono nodded and drew his sword. The both rushed at the cables using and X-strike to cut them both. They fell from the clutches of Janus and hit the ground. Seeing this, Janus decided to wise up and head for the exit. Magus instinctively made the hand motions and cast Black Hole. It enveloped Janus successfully, but also pulled of a piece of the Mammon Machine. Flame burst out of the gap, and caught the wall on fire. The whole structural integrity of Zeal Palace was compromised, and it began to shake like an earthquake.
“Come on!” Lucca yelled from a corner of the room. She was operating a control panel in the Epoch. The hood flew open revealing a time gate sucking up the engine and the rest of the ship. “Get in!” she yelled. They all jumped into the front of the epoch and disappeared. Lucca was the last, her clothes on fire, just escaping the final flame.
They all awoke lying in front of Lucca’s experimental time machine, the thing that had started it all. Frog was the first to awake, standing above everyone. He made a large water bubble above them all, that popped and woke everyone up.
“I believe it would be safe to say that we succeeded.” Frog said as they all stood up.
“Don’t be so sure, my medieval friend.” Magus said standing up. “I sucked Janus into a Black Hole, but I didn’t destroy him. He was taken somewhere else, probably to a suspended limbo.” Magus began to walk away and stopped. He turned around and looked the whole room over.
“What is it?” Marle asked, looking around.
Marle looked a lot smaller from an orb. “The black wind howls….for this they will surely pay.”