Chrono Trigger: Timeless Angels Part 18

Time Change

By Mefathiel

Glenn’s mind started to race. It seemed to him like he had been swimming through the tunnel for hours. His arms were starting to ache and his lungs felt as if they would burst. But he had to keep going on. If he didn’t find an air pocket soon, he would die, and if he turned back, he would never make it to the surface. Either way, he would drown, so it seemed that the only choice was to keep going on the hope that he would find air up ahead.

The fact that he was swimming through salt water and had to keep his eyes closed didn’t help anything.

Oh please, oh please let there be air up ahead! he thought urgently.

Using one hand to feel ahead and steer himself, Glenn used the other to help paddle through the water. His heart started pounding in his chest with the exertion, and Glenn felt he wouldn’t make it. Suddenly, his eyelids turned from black to a slightly lighter shade of black, signaling to him that there was light somewhere up ahead. He allowed himself to float up through the water. Much to his delight, Glenn broke the surface. He thrust his head above the water and gulped in the air greedily. Swimming over to a nearby rock, he rested his aching muscles. Never before had swimming taken such a toll on him.

Of course, the only swimming he ever did in armor was when he was Frog.

As Glenn rested up from his swim, he failed to take notice of the dark figure approaching him. The first time Glenn noticed the thing was when it pulled him from the water by his hair. Pain shot through his scalp and he shouted to express annoyance. "Thou art ruder than an imp!" he shouted at the figure, which he assumed to be a child upon first glance. "People simply do not go about pulling other people’s hair!"

"Well, I should be ruder than an imp," the figure said as it stepped into the light for Glenn to get a better look. "I’m the rudest imp this side of Medina. My name is Upchuck, and I’m pleased to make your acquaintance."

The little, dirty imp stuck out a hand, and Glenn took it. As he shook the imp’s hand, he couldn’t help but notice a wetness in his gloves. When Upchuck pulled his hand away, he wiped his nose and smiled. Glenn looked at his glove and saw that it was covered in mucus. Upchuck started laughing at the shocked and appalled look on Glenn’s face. Just as Glenn was about to punish him, Upchuck ran off, kicking up a cloud of dust so Glenn could not se which way he went.

"What a rude little imp," Glenn muttered as he started making his way through the cave. "I doth not believe I’ve ever met one that was ruder."

He wound his way through the tunnels of the cave cautiously, being careful not to wake up anything that might be sleeping within. After nearly an hour of wandering, he stopped and looked around. "I believe I hath been to this part of the cave prior," he said. Just as Glenn was about to start walking again, he stumbled over a rock and fell. As his body hit the ground, the rock beneath him started crumbling, and Glenn continued falling to a lower level of the cave. He splashed into the water below and cursed as the salt stung his eyes.

But when Glenn opened his eyes, he found that there really wasn’t anything to see because the only light in this chamber came from the hole he made in his fall. Knowing it was futile to climb up to get out, Glenn searched through the dimly lit chamber to find another way out.

That was when a glimmer caught his eye. A golden stone was resting upon a pillar of gray rock in a distant corner of the room. Glenn started swimming toward it when he realized there was already a current pulling him toward it. Then Glenn noticed the strange roaring sound. How a person misses that right away is not exactly understandable, but Glenn managed to do it. And considering the current started picking up the closer he got to the roaring, Glenn could easily assume that it was a waterfall. Unfortunately for him, that waterfall was dragging him into it, and it was the only thing standing between him and the Angel Stone.

Glenn’s screaming was not even audible as he plunged over the waterfall. He thrust his arms out and summoned his enormous frog friend. The giant frog splashed into the pool of water below, then jumped high into the air. Glenn landed on the frog’s back as it continued ascending. As soon as they reached the platform where the stone was being kept, Glenn jumped off, and the frog disappeared.

He stood and grabbed the Angel Stone from its pedestal, placing it into his pouch for safe keeping. As Glenn turned around, he discovered that he was back where he started this quest, right next to the shore. Before he could question what had happened, a huge splash offshore distracted his attention. Considering everything that he had seen in his time traveling, Glenn was not surprised to see a Hydra emerge from the sea. He drew the Masamune and prepared for an attack from the hostile-looking beast.

"Glenn," Hydra hissed, "I am the guardian of the Sword Stone. If you wish to keep the stone, you will have to best me in battle. Are you ready?"

"Of course. Masamune Slash!"

The sword in his hand started glowing, and Glenn released a blade of energy with his swordstroke. The energy slammed into the Hydra and sliced off one of its three heads. Two more swordstrokes, and the Hydra had been decapitated. Its body fell back into the sea, and Glenn started walking away. But just as he turned his back, he was thrown across the beach by a huge wave.

When the water retreated into the sea, Glenn found him self splayed across the sand, face down on his stomach. As he pushed himself up, he could feel the pain of a dozen teeth sinking into each side of his torso. He saw his shadow slowly shrink below him as he was lifted into the air. He turned to see the Hydra had regenerated each head, and an extra head had also sprouted from each stump for a total of six heads.

Glenn screamed in pain as one of the heads shot forward and bit into his shoulder. Soon, all of the heads were upon him, biting and gnashing and tearing Glenn apart. His screams couldn’t be heard over the gleeful cries of the Hydra’s six heads. Suddenly, the Masamune started glowing and floating above the beach. One of the Hydra’s heads turned to see what the commotion was only to be stabbed through the neck by the sword. It screeched in pain and shriveled up when the Masamune pulled out.

The five remaining heads turned their attention from Glenn to the sword, allowing the knight’s body to drop into the sea. The Masamune flashed and became the twin sword spectres, Masa and Mune. Masa dropped into the water to save Glenn while Mune floated in front of the Hydra. "Look at me, I’ve finally become the wind!" Mune shouted in glee.

A head lunged forward, and Mune easily dodged to the side. A curved silver blade appeared in his hand and he sliced through the neck. Blood spilled from the Hydra’s new wound, but it did not give up. It realigned its trajectory and wrapped up Mune with its neck. Mune struggled to no avail to free himself from the Hydra’s grasp.

Meanwhile, Masa cut through the water as best he could. He could see Glenn just below him, air bubbles slowly trickling from the knight’s mouth. Masa started kicking harder and reached out. His small hand managed to catch a hold on Glenn’s cape, and he started hoisting the knight to the surface.

On the beach, Upchuck sat back in a beach chair and ate popcorn as he watched Mune get slowly squeezed to death by the Hydra’s neck. "Maybe I should help," he said, quickly adding, "nah."

Glenn broke the surface, and Masa lifted him into the air. "Mune, we have to become the sword again!" he called to his twin brother.

"I’m a little tied up now, bro," Mune strained to say.

Masa created a curved silver blade in his hand and sliced into the Hydra’s neck. Another head lunged at him, and he plunged the blade directly between its eyes. Mune was released, and two more heads shriveled into nothing. Holding Glenn up between the two of them, Masa and Mune became the Masamune Sword again and started pulsing. Glenn was pulled around by the sword.

"Masamune Slash!" emanated a voice from the sword. Masamune swung itself, and the swordstroke sliced through the Hydra’s torso, separating one head from the other two. It shriveled up and died.

"I will not be defeated!" Hydra bellowed as it opened its mouth.

Torrents of water rushed from the two mouths. Masamune flashed and created a shield. "Gee, too bad Glenn’s not awake to see this," Mune chuckled. "I bet he’d love to find out how to do some of this stuff with the sword."

"Nevermind for now, we have to kill this thing and get him back to the others before he gets killed. Masamune Slash!" Masa shouted.

Another swordstroke, and one of the heads was sliced apart vertically. The two halves of the head and neck fell in opposite directions and shriveled up. Masamune sailed through the air toward the last head and impaled it. As the Hydra died, Glenn and the sword fell through the air into an open Gate. Upchuck stood up and walked away.

"Well, I guess it’s back to work," he said happily as he belched loudly.

.

Five Gates opened before Rempha, and Robo, Marle, Lucca, Ayla and Glenn fell through them onto the ground. Spekkio cast a healing spell over them to heal whatever wounds they may have received from their quests. Marle stood up and looked around. "Where’s Crono?" she asked.

"He has undertaken his own quest," Rempha said. "He will arrive shortly. We have other things to worry about at the moment." Just then, the ground rumbled violently, and the world around them shattered. The Beginning of Time returned to the way it was before Rempha’s influence: a massive time warp of combined eras. "You five have to summon the power within those five stones and call upon the five Timeless Angels: Nathanael, Michael, Matariel, Sachluph, and Gabriel. Only their power can repair this damage to time."

"But what about Crono?"

"Don’t worry about him. He will be back in time to help."

The five stone holders stood in a pentagon formation and held their stones out. The fabric of time rumbled again, and everything started shaking itself apart…

.

AD 989, Truce Village on Guardia Continent:

The Gate opened up in an empty alleyway, and Crono jumped out. He looked around and saw signs of destruction everywhere. Houses were burned down, bodies littered the streets. He ran out of the alleyway and almost bowled over a small child. Crono looked down and gasped. The boy looked up at him. "Are you here to help?" asked the younger Crono.

"Uh, yeah, something like that," Crono told his younger self. "Say, do you know where your father is?" Young Crono pointed off in the distance to a man who was fending off a small group of elves. Crono patted his younger self on the head and started running toward the battle. "You get home now, Crono! We don’t need you getting yourself hurt!"

"How did you know my name, Mister?"

But Crono didn’t respond to his younger self, he just kept running toward his father. He drew the Rainbow and leapt into the fray, knocking away a few Dark Elves. Crono’s father looked over at him and smiled. "Thank you, young man," his father said. "I was wondering when reinforcements would arrive."

Crono drove his sword through another elf. "Well, I’m not exactly reinforcements, just a boy who wants to prevent something awful from happening," he told his father.

"Really? I wish we had more people like you, Mr.…"

"Crono."

"What a coincidence, my son’s name is Crono! I’m Marduk."

Marduk swung his katana was great skill and cut down two Dark Elves with one blow. As Crono watched his father fight, he wondered how he could’ve been kill in the first place. Then Crono’s memory of this day returned. He remembered the Dark Elf ride up on a black horse and run his father through with a rapier, stabbing him in the back. Crono shook the memory away and continued fighting. He wasn’t going to let that memory from his childhood remain any longer.

The group of elves had fallen to the swords of Crono and Marduk. "Daddy, Daddy!" came a cry from behind them.

Marduk turned to see the younger Crono running toward them. Crono motioned for his younger self to go back home, but he wouldn’t listen to him. Then Crono had another sudden flashback. The Dark Elf had stabbed his father as he was running to him. Crono turned to see the Dark Elf riding up on a horse. With a flash of lightning, the elf was knocked off of the horse long before he reached them. Marduk turned and looked at the elf’s regal clothing.

"He’s the leader of the Dark Elves," he told Crono. "Do you think you can hold him while I get my son back home?"

"Of course," Crono said through gritted teeth. This was a moment that he had always wanted a chance to relive, so perhaps his father could survive. He was getting the chance now, and he prayed he would not screw it up.

"How is it a human possesses magic?" the elf asked as he stood and drew his rapier.

"I learned from the Master of War himself."

The elf stopped for a moment and inspected Crono. Then his eyes widened in shock. "Crono! What are you doing here?!"

Crono narrowed his eyes. This elf definitely looked like a dark version of Natan, and the fact that this elf knew him… Crono gasped. "By the Kami, you’re Natan’s dark mirror twin!"

The elf smiled darkly and waved his sword about as he took a fencing stance. "Why yes I am. My name is Mira, Lord of Onseny Kingdom. So what are you doing here?"

Crono rushed forward and clashed swords with the Dark Elf. "I’m here to change history and prevent you from killing my father! Instead, it will have to be you who dies!" Crono infused his sword with magic, and the Lightning conducted itself through Mira’s rapier. The two warriors were thrown apart as Mira was fried by the attack. He shook his head to clear it and advanced on Crono. They clashed swords again, but Mira drove forward. Crono was knocked off balance and fell back onto the ground.

Mira stood above him and swung down in an arc. Crono raised the Rainbow and blocked the attack, but Mira kept driving downward. Crono reached up with the other hand and held the blunt end of the Rainbow’s blade to add strength to his defense. Unexpectedly, Mira let up and backed away. Crono stood and looked at the Dark Elf confusedly.

A smile formed on Mira’s lips as magic energy gathered around him. "Dark Green Magic," he said as he disappeared from sight.

Crono looked around but couldn’t see any sign of the Dark Elf. He was knocked forward by a slash to the back. Crono turned but couldn’t see anyone. He felt a stab into his side, and Crono turned again, still unable to see Mira. Blood started oozing from the wounds. "Mira, where are you? Show yourself, you coward!"

"I think not." Crono was slashed across the shoulder, and he dropped the Rainbow. Mira picked it up, and then the katana faded from view. Unfortunately, Mira didn’t move fast enough after doing that. Crono jumped forward and clotheslined the elf. Mira was thrown to the ground, and he released his grip on the swords.

Crono lifted the Rainbow and slashed Mira across the belly. "Don’t toy with me," he said darkly. Crono closed his eyes and started concentrating. "Luminaire." The energy was infused into his sword, and Crono drove the blade through Mira’s chest. "Luminaire!"

Mira’s body exploded with the Luminaire, and his existence ended. Crono turned around to see Marduk running toward him. "Crono, are you okay?" he asked.

Crono fell forward in Marduk’s arms. "I—I’ll be fine," replied. "Just need to rest." As Crono looked up at the battlefield, he could see this time period slowly being absorbed into the rest. No one else could notice it but him, and he frowned. "I don’t know if this is going to work at all."

"What are you talking about?" As Marduk finished his sentence, Crono disappeared, a Gate having opened up from inside of him. "Don’t worry, Crono, I’m sure that whatever you did worked just fine. After all, you killed the Dark Elves’ leader. The war is over…"

.

The time convergence stemming from the Beginning of Time:

As the stones started glowing, Crono appeared at the center of the pentagon when a Gate opened up. He stood, held the Rainbow above him, and shouted, "Let the resurrection begin!"

.

"But history has been changed!" —Lucca

.

Go To Part 19

Return To CT Fanfic