The War Over Time
By Indon
Ch.6 Exodus
1/9/2300 AD
Robo stood at the inner gate to the Proto dome. It had taken him only a little while to locate the gate in his time, but obtaining enough dreamstone to open a gate had been a little harder. Now, however, he needed to make an important decision. What time is he to go to? He knew how to reach the end of time from any gate, all it took was a lot of energy to cause the disturbance which large amounts of matter could cause, funneling him to the end of time. However, what time will he travel to next? 1000 AD was out of the question. If Crono attacked him, then who knows what Lucca or Marle would do. 12,000 B.C would not help, Robo knew that Magus would be impossible to find, unfortunately. Same for Frog in 600 AD, and there stood a chance Frog has what Crono had. Ayla, however, could be of some help. If Lavos caused this, then Ayla could help him in 65,000,000 BC, before Lavos began its influence. That settled, he traveled through the gate.
Ch.7 Dark interlude
Unknown time
"Crono, Magus, What happened?"
The mage sat upon his throne and sighed. He had really grown accustomed to such human expressions, enough so that he almost seemed human himself. His body, on human standards, was handsome. About 6'9, with short black hair, brown eyes, and a well-developed frame for physical exertions. His body was also male, as the human race had two sexes (bipolarity truly disgusted him) and the male carried more command than the female, for some inscrutable, human reason. He usually wore his robes, and he was wearing them now, robes of a deep blue color with a white and gold mantle. He always had a magical wand concealed within the folds of his robe, for emergencies. His sword rested on the side of the throne, a real work of art. The blade had a diamond edge, and an obsidian hilt, treated with powerful futuristic technology to be unbreakable. The power of the sword had saved his life on many occasions, and he never fought without it, even if it was a hindrance. For sentiment.
Magus was the first to explain, "He was stronger than you had said he would be, sir. He was nearly my match in power, and he suprised me. He casted Dark Eternal alone. I believe, sir, that perhaps in our haste to escape, you may have taken us to the wrong world."
"I disagree, sir." Prometheus interjected, "Every one of your calculations were correct in my case. This world's Ayla is dead, along with Kino. From what you said, sir, there are no more threats in that era."
"Sir, a question, if you please."
Another sigh. "Yes, Crono?"
"Well, if Ayla is dead, then won't most of the heroes of this world die as well?"
"No, Crono, they won't. You see, the timeline often repairs itself minimalistically, causing as little change as possible. In that much time, as from 65,000,000 to 12,000 B.C.E. there are plenty enough humans to be the ancestors of the other heroes."
"All right sir."
"Well, Crono, explain your failure."
"All your calculations were correct, Sir. I hesitated, however, and was wounded."
"It's all right, Crono," the mage said. "Normally, I would not have sent you to do such a job, but as you three are all I have left from the war, and I have to examine this," the mage gestured behind him to the great doorway behind him, clearly visible though miles away, "An Aeon gate. I must find the reason for one being on this world, and I must get inside, whatever the reason. The power here could be enough for a new empire, easily. Hence, I cannot go.
"You two," pointing at Magus and Prometheus, "will teach him. You have both been with me for a long time, and have seen me subjugate many worlds. You trust my power, and have power of your own. give this knowledge to the young Crono. He needs it, as I must place responsibility in his hands too early for his experience. Now go."
As the three turned to leave, the mage said suddenly, "Wait!" they turned, "Magus has shown me that you two rely too much on my foresight. However, it may be erratic, due to the Aeon gate's unique energy outflow.
"Hence, you should begin taking initiative more often. I hate to burden you, but maybe you could learn from Crono some in this, even if he is a bit timid."
The trio left, and the mage turned back to the gate, and smiled in satisfaction. That boy is lucky, He thought, and the smile transformed into a sneer. Under normal circumstances, he would be dead for his nievete.
Ch.8 Infinity
The end of time
Robo appeared in the central pillar. He walked into the main room, and past the lamppost, saw Magus speaking with Gaspar, the guru of time. Magus saw Robo and said, "Hello, Prometheus."
"Please, Magus, call me Robo. Prometheus is the name Mother gave me."
"Pity. The god of foresight suits you. Well, if I am to call you by that foolish pseudonym, you could address me by my proper name, Janus."
"Janus." Robo took a quick scan of his memory, "Isn't that the name of another god?"
Janus grinned ironically. "And both from ancient pantheons, forerunners of Zeal."
"Well, why are you here?"
"To see Gaspar."
"Why?"
"Well, I was going insane, then I tried to kill myself. No, let me rephrase that. A person that looked like me, but wasn't, attempted to kill me."
"And," Gaspar added, "From what he has told me, The clone was stronger than Janus."
"Hmmm..." Robo sensed a connection, "I, too, was attacked by something similar, only it was Crono."
"This is a problem," Gaspar said, stating the obvious, "We must check on the others. Robo, you should travel to 1000 A.D.. Janus, you head to..."
"Hold on. Do I look like your errand boy? In fact, do I look like a boy at all? No? Well, it is because I need information that I am here, not to do your bidding."
"You may get the information you seek if you travel to 600 A.D. and see your old friend Glenn," Gaspar smirked knowingly.
Janus narrowed his eyes, "Damn you and your prescience, Gaspar. If I had divinatory powers," Janus seemed to find humor in this statement, "I would use them to take action. All right, have it your way." Janus walked into Spekkio's room.
"Goodbye, Gaspar."
"See you later, Robo." And Robo stepped through the gate.
Ch.9 The undersea savior
12,000 B.C.
"Wha- who are you?"
"Call me Elise. I am your ally."
"Ally in what? And how am I on the surface..."
"Instead of inside the Undersea Palace?" The two were standing in a field outside the cave containing the single gate in the era. "Well, A great task needs to be accomplished, Schala, and you are vital in this task."
"But how did you save me? And I have my pendant? Don't you realize what you've done to the timeline, Elise? I was destined to die in the Palace!"
Elise chuckled, "Don't worry, I removed you from the timeline. My powers can combat the adverse effects of time distortion."
"So, what do I do from here?" Schala said, confused with good reason.
"Head through the gate."
"And you, Elise?"
"I'm not quite done yet. I'll meet up with you at the end of time."
"The end of time?..."
"Go through the gate in the cave, I set it to come out at that destination." Elise turned, and walked away. As she walked, she faded into transparency, and disappeared.
"Wait!" Schala called after her rescuer, "What about Janus? I guess she doesn't know..." She sighed and walked into the cave.
Ch.10 The time soldier
1999 CE (common era)
Robert woke up late, as usual. He glanced at his alarm and smiled. So he only had half an hour to get to the barracks for his assignment. Easy. He leaped out of his cot and dashed to the bathroom and hopped into the shower. "Aaah! That's cold." He reached through the timestreams and pulled out a water-heating spell. He mouthed a few words in a foreign language and gestured with his right hand, an invocation of a god of fire. God of fire? What timeline did I get that spell from? Robert wondered. Ah, well. He finished the shower and went to get dressed, erasing the mostly generic spell from his memory to save space. He kept the invocation in his head, though. Being an avid magician, he was interested in studying all aspects of the Art.
He pulled on his jacket and remembered that he had forgotten his keys. Again, he reached through the universe seeking information of it's whereabouts in this time stream. In one stream, he looked two hours for the keys, and found them... behind the couch!
He grabbed the keys and left. With that done, he started driving to Truce Military HQ. What would I do without these skills, He asked himself smugly. "Wake up earlier," he answered aloud.
................................................................
"Well, Robert, in the doors just in time again, I see." Odd. Robert's immediate superior, General Dracos (Who was, by the way, a mystic, hence the name),was waiting for him. Robert said, "Sir, you've never left your office for something so trivial as greeting one man at the gate like this, even when the president came. Something's up, and it's probably an assignment involving time travel." Robert was a master of obvious (at least to him) deduction.
"You are correct. And, I might add, perceptive. Yes, you are going on an assignment, would that I could send someone else. Unfortunately, of all the army's time travelers, you are the only one both alive and not AWOL."
"Is it Lavos again, sir?"
"You know very well the Lavos threat has been neutralized, in 12,000 B.C.,” The general frowned, “And that none of ours participated in the battle."
"But they must have done something..." Robert said, defending his comrades.
"Yeah, like skip out to some utopic time period in the future and kick back," the general snorted in contempt.
"Sir, the assignment. What is it?"
"Oh, sorry. I was getting off track. Well, you know the professor's theory of temporal fabric resistance, before he left?"
"Only that it allows the creation of gates, Sir."
"Well, it states that 'all points in time have equal temporal resistance, affected only by energy'."
"Oh."
"However, there is a similar theory that he was working on before he... well, it states that there may be one point of time for each continuum, an 'eternity' of sorts, that has zero resistance, a kind of temporal funneling point for unstable gates. We are going to build an unstable gate and send you through, and hope you arrive at this place, and not spinning off into the void."
"If you say so, Sir."
"Good. You aren't backing out."
"No, Sir, just give me supplies and show me to my fate. However, I would wish to know why."
"A temporal disturbance."
"When and how large?"
"From 65,000,000 BCE (Before Common Era) and on to past 4000 CE. And to answer your second question, it gets stronger the further into the future you go, and tears the continuum to shreds at about 4000.
“However, we can’t send you directly to 4000 C.E. to investigate, as there is too much disturbance. However, you could reach there via that ‘funneling point’. In theory, that is.”
"Tears up the continuum, you say? That strong, huh? Well, 'My life for the country, All Myself for the world' As the army morale officers say."
"Good luck beforehand, Robert."
"Thank you, Sir."
.