Crono fell to the ground, Marle by his side. He groaned in pain. Every pore of his body ached. He didn't want to move, but knew that he didn't have much of a choice. His eyes could see nothing, as the sudden transition between light and dark had left him blinded. Beside him, Marle stirred. She tried to get up, but collapsed in exhaustion. Crono's eyes began to focus. Up ahead he could see a dim light, and below it a figure.

"Welcome back." The person said, staring straight into Crono's eyes. "I see things did not go as planned. That's just the way fate works."

"Gaspar?" Crono asked, still dazed. He staggered to his feet and, helping Marle up, walked into the adjoining room.

"Yes." The old man nodded. He blew out a small cloud of smoke from his pipe and looked over the fence into oblivion. "You're back at the End of Time."

"What happened? The last thing I remember was..." His voice trailed off as he looked over his battered body.

"You were defeated by Omek." Gaspar told him. "He managed to open the Demon Gate. You were the first to be affected, since your timestream is the most vulnerable. It won't be long now."

"Until what?" Marle asked. She was leaning against the fence, her crossbow on the floor at her side. Gaspar didn't answer. He just nodded towards the docking bay. Crono and Marle glanced at each other. "What is it?" She was answered by a large crash as a gate opened over the horizon and something collided with the stone dock. Crono hobbled over to the entrance. A large ship, the likes of which Crono had never before seen, stood in the place where Epoch normally sat.

"Who goes there?" Crono shouted, his sword drawn. He took another step forward. A hand rose up onto the ship's railing. Then another. Grasping the rail, the person pulled himself up. He had long, dark hair, and scars on his face. He wore a long overcoat and seemed a bit dizzy. "Who the hell are you?"

"Celes?" The man asked, still in a daze. "Where's Celes?"

"Answer me!" Crono shouted back. He had been through a lot today, and didn't feel like being hospitable. The man on the ship opened his mouth to speak, but was cut-off by a startled cry from Spekkio. Crono turned towards the back room. "Spekkio?" From the door emerged two figures. One was a man of about twenty years who wore earth-tone clothes with a green cape. He had red hair and a scar ran down the left side of his face. To his right stood a woman not much younger than he. She was dressed in an open, dark blue cloak which fell to her knees, past a pair of black, leather shorts. She wore high blue leather boots which stopped just above where the cloak ended. The hood of the cloak was down, letting her long black hair flow out over her angelic features. The man spoke first in a calm voice.

"Where... is this?" Crono looked towards Gaspar, who seemed to have no intentions of replying. Crono's fingers flicked on the sword's hilt as he pointed it towards the newcomers. "Put your weapon away. It's not you I'm after."

"Then who would it be that you are after?" Crono replied coldly, his blade still drawn.

"A man named Hassim. Not that it's any of your concern." He shot back. "I ask again, where is this?"

"And just who are you?" Crono retorted, ignoring his question.

"What game do you play? If you have not yet noticed, I have made no move to draw my sword. Judging by the condition you're in now, you should thank me for that." He looked at the woman beside him and sighed. "And if you must know, my name is Ravel. The lady to my side goes by Jenah. With that aside, would you mind answering my question now."

"You're at the End of Time." Crono said dryly. The man who had exited the large craft now stood at the entrance to the main room.

"The what?"

"And who the hell are you?" Crono shouted at him, the anger in him rising. Marle walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Crono. If they wanted to attack us, they would have done so already." She looked up at Ravel and Jenah. "I'm sorry about this. We've been through a lot today."

"Haven't we all." Ravel muttered. "Might I ask what your name is?"

"Marle." She smiled. Crono shot another glance at the man in the entryway.

"And you are?" He asked, more calmly this time.

"Confused for the most part, but my name is Setzer." Gaspar now put out his pipe and looked up at them.

"Now that all formalities are out of the way, I believe I have some explaining to do."

* * *

Pahn and Cleo stood in a clearing in the jungle. They were surrounded by trees, but stared in utter amazement at the object in front of them. On the ground sat a large, shining metal object. It had many parts which looked like they could possibly move, but for the time it lay still and silent.

"What is it?" Pahn asked.

"Some kind of machine. Looks like something Juppo might find interesting. Beyond that, I couldn't tell you anything." Cleo said. She started to reach out to touch it, when a strange sound from behind them caused them to turn. A portal opened up, and from it fell a man in clothes covered with oil. He had blonde hair which was pulled back in a ponytail, and looked somewhat puzzled. As soon as he hit the ground, Pahn grabbed him by the shirt collar and threw him up against the nearest tree.

"What the hell is going on here?" He growled through clenched teeth. Before anything else could happen, Cleo pulled him away.

"Pahn, give it a rest! He probably doesn't know any more than we do." She looked at the man and smiled. "I'm Cleo. This big idiot is Pahn." The man brushed himself off and looked at her.

"My... my name is Mustadio." He looked over his surroundings, his eyes falling on the metal machine. "Is that what I think it is?" He breathed.

"Maybe." Pahn shrugged. "I sure don't have a clue." Mustadio walked excitedly over to it.

"It is!" He exclaimed. "A humanoid robot!" Pahn and Cleo exchanged skeptical glances. Neither one really knew what to make of this stranger, who was now looking over the robot. He picked up two pieces of frayed wire and held them up. "Main power cord is cut. Should just take a moment to fix."

"Is it safe?" Cleo asked.

"Probably." After about a minute of work, he looked back up. "There. Now all we need to do is..." He flipped a switch on the robot's back, and it whirred to life. It stood up and flashed a series of lights.

"Retrieving memory database." It beeped. After a few seconds, the lights stopped flashing. "Greetings. My name is Robo."

* * *

"Where am I?" Clive asked to no one in particular, rubbing the bump on his forehead from where he had smashed into a rock as he fell out of the gate.

"Truce Canyon." A voice from behind him responded. Clive spun around to see a young woman with purple hair and tattered clothes sitting on a large stone.

"What?" He asked, perplexed. "Truce?" He stopped for a moment to think. "Is this a part of the City-State?"

"City-State?" The woman asked, now confused as well. "No, you're in Guardia."

"Doesn't ring a bell." He told her. "The name's Clive." He extended a hand in greeting.

"Lucca." She said, shaking his hand. "I saw you fall out of that gate. Where are-"

"Gate?" Clive cut-in. "You mean you know what that... thing was?"

"Well, yes." Lucca said, giving him an odd look. "I'm just surprised that it dropped me here of all places. Do you mean to say that you just stumbled upon one?"

"Stumbled is hardly the word. Yuber and Vara unleashed it."

"Who?" Lucca asked. Clive sighed.

"This is getting us nowhere. We have to-" He stopped in mid-sentence as two more gates opened up, dropping out two young women.

"More?" Lucca asked. The first of the two women immediately jumped up, her sword drawn.

"What the hell is going on here?" She demanded. "First the damned machine goes haywire, and the next thing I know, I'm dropping out of the sky."

"Hey, at least you didn't get sucked out of an airship." The other said, rubbing the back of her head. "Setzer's going to hear about this..." She mumbled.

"Who are you people?" The first asked. "And where am I?" Lucca sighed.

"This may take a while."

* * *

"Hang in there." Glenn said as he cast another healing spell on Tata's wound. The boy coughed up some blood, but otherwise remained unconscious. Glenn's head snapped up as something rustled in the bushes in front of him. His hand instinctively went to the Masamune as he slowly began to rise to his feet. Before he had risen to his full height, a large lizard leapt out of the bushes, its claws flailing towards Glenn's face. He quickly brought up the Masamune, catching the lizard across the chest just enough to knock it off of its course. It landed on its feet a few feet away, a green ooze dripping from its chest. It let out a slight growl and four other monsters like it emerged from the brush. Three others stepped out behind them, and they started to surround Glenn. "Perfect." He braced himself, preparing for the first one to make a move. The first sound came from one in the back shrieking in pain. Glenn looked to the source of the sound, where he saw a man with black hair and mustache, wearing blue armor with gold trim. Following the man's arm down, he saw him pulling his sword out of the back of one of the lizards.

"Dost thou need a hand?" He asked, strangely not seeming startled at the sight of an overgrown frog in knights' clothes. Glenn grinned and nodded. The man lopped off the head of the lizard he had just stabbed, and then swung his sword at the next one beside it. One of the other lizards jumped onto his back, digging its claws into his skin. The man spun around quickly, tossing the beast off of his back into another one. He found himself in the center of the ring of lizards standing above Tata's body, with Glenn on the other side.

"I thank thee for thy help." Glenn told him. "My name ist Glenn. Might I inquire about thy identity, sir?"

"My name is Cyan Garamonde." He replied. "There seems to-" He stopped as a gate opened above them. From it dropped a man in Samurai armor, who landed on his back between Cyan and the lizards. One immediately leapt towards him, and he brought up his sword just in time so that it met the lizard straight between the eyes. It fell dead to the ground by his side, a pool of green ooze forming around the skull. He jumped to his feet and, seeing Cyan and Glenn, stood between them and the lizards, his head shooting back and forth not knowing who to attack.

"Where am I?" He asked, the point of his sword moving from the lizards to the two knights and back. One of the lizards jumped at him, and he cut it down immediately.

"I... I don't know." Cyan told him.

"What? Who are you?" The man asked. One of the lizards started circling around them and jumped towards Glenn, who stabbed it in the chest and then flung it into a tree.

"I am Glenn." He informed. The man looked directly at him, noticing his appearance for the first time. He gasped and took a step back onto the tail of one of the lizards. It snapped around and bit him in the calf. The man let out a painful gasp and drove his sword down into the reptile's skull. "Do not mind my appearance. I mean thee no harm."

"I suppose not." He said. "My name is Arashi." A lizard leapt at Cyan, who drove his sword through the monster's stomach and then thrust it upward, slicing the beast in two. The remaining two both jumped towards Glenn. He stabbed the first one in the throat, and it dropped to the ground. The second landed on top of his head and cut its claws into Glenn's face. He cried out in pain, and threw it off of his head. It landed a few yards away at the feet of a new person who had stepped into the clearing. He pulled out his own sword and chopped off the lizard's head. Wiping the ooze off of his blade onto a nearby bush, he looked up at the three who stood not far away.

"My name is Lepant." He said before any of them had a chance to ask. "Perhaps one of you could explain to me what is going on here."

* * *

"Son of a-" Locke mumbled as he clambered up the side of a cliff. He had dropped onto a small ledge when the gate opened up, and didn't feel like hanging precariously over a canyon. "What kind of treasure was that?" He grabbed onto a root which stuck out of the cliff's edge, and pulled himself up closer to the top. He reached up with his other hand and grasped a rock which jutted out of the side. As he tried to gain a foothold, the rocks crumbled beneath his weight. The hand on the rock slipped loose, and he hung from the root alone. Frantically, he tried to get a grip on something, his feet flailing below him. He reached his hand out to grab something, when an arm shot out at him from over the ledge.

"Grab ahold." A voice said. Locke couldn't see who had said it, but considering his options, hastily grabbed onto the man's arm. Within a few seconds, he had been hoisted onto the snow-covered ground.

"Thanks. I owe ya one." He said, after catching his breath. "The name's Locke."

"Not a problem. I'm Beowulf."

"So, you from around here?" Locke asked. He had looked over the surroundings, but could see nothing of familiarity.

"Couldn't tell ya. I don't have a clue where this is." Beowulf told him. Locke was about to ask something else, when something moved beneath the snow a few feet away.

"Kupo!" It shouted. Locke jumped to his feet.

"A Moogle?" He asked aloud. He started towards the pile of snow, when a small, white creature popped out. It looked around and, seeing Locke, ran towards him.

"Good, you're okay." It sighed.

"Mog?" Locke exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I followed you." The Moogle explained. "You're not as stealthy as you may think."

"I didn't know that I had a reason to be stealthy back there." He smirked. "I should probably-"

"Move!" Mog shouted, jumping towards Locke and Beowulf, knocking them both into the snow a few yards from where they had stood.

"Hey!" Beowulf shouted. "Why'd you do that?" Mog responded by pointing towards the sky, where a portal was opening up over the place where they had stood. From it dropped a large, red beast. Locke immediately drew his dagger and started slinking towards it.

"Why do these things always have to happen to me?" He mumbled. The beast turned around to face Locke, and took a startled step backwards.

"I suggest you put down your knife." It growled. Surprised, Locke almost fell over.

"You... you can talk." He stammered.

"Yes, and you wouldn't have known that if you had just gone and stabbed me in the back." It said bitterly. "Never attack just for the pure sake of attacking. Always see what you're up against first."

"Well, now that I know..." Locke twisted his dagger in his hand and took another step towards the beast.

"Locke, stop!" Beowulf shouted, walking quickly up to him and grabbing him by the arm. "Just because its looks are out of the ordinary doesn't mean that its intentions are bad." He turned towards the beast. "How did you get here?" He asked calmly.

"It's good to see that someone has some sense. I came through some kind of portal. That's really all I know."

"So the beast is in the same predicament as us." Locke said, looking towards Mog.

"Nanaki. My name is Nanaki, not beast."

"Let's continue this conversation elsewhere." Beowulf said. "It's getting dark, and as cold as it is, we'll need to find a place to stay for shelter."

Chapter 2

IcyBrian's Fanfiction