Chrono Trigger: Twins of Destiny Prologue

By Mox Jet

The sleek form of the LEA Flagship Weatherlight rocketed through the pristine vacuum of space, jumping from a Planeshift that had brought it to its current quadrant of the Galaxy. They had been through here before, but as Lavoid sightings were minimal, and the threat of hive presence practically non-existent, the LEA had never really given the area a second thought.

This time through was different, however, as the tinted view ports of the stark white ship reflected the image of a planet beneath them. Something here had attracted the attention of long range scanners that they had placed here when the ship Crusader had passed through not more than two months ago. Nothing had been picked up in all of that time, but somehow, a Lavoid must have suddenly made its presence known.

On the bridge of the ship, also colored white save for the computer displays and occasional black and steel paneling, a blip was being picked up from one of the scanning systems. Noting the sudden incursion of a signal, one of the crewman manning the forward radio station raised his voice over the silence of the bridge to let the situation be known.

"Commander," he said, some hint on confusion in his voice. "We have a peculiar situation on this planet here."

From the elevated command riser, a young man rose out of the seat designated for the Captain of the ship, who also happened to be the High Commander of the entire LEA. He was clad in a relatively elaborate uniform, consisting of white trousers with two streaks of blue running up each side, a white and gold vest worn under a long white coat with blue adornments on the shoulders and complicated gold and blue embroideries throughout. It was the uniform of a LEA officer.

This officer was different though. If the gold strips on his jacket, signifying his high rank, didn't give it away, the portion of him that wasn't concealed by clothing certainly did. His face was very soft, though somewhat pale, marred only by a scar that ran down one of his cheeks. He gazed over at the crewman one of his most haunting features, eyes in a deep shade of amethyst that seemed to carry the weight of the entire world. And then there was his most notable feature. Crowning the top of his head in series of spikes, his long hair hung down to his waist, tied in a pony tail. It was dark blue, with occasional streaks of a lighter blue highlight. Such hair could only belong to one person: Lathain of Zeal, more commonly known as Jack McKlane.

"What's the problem," Jack asked looking down from his vantage point trying to see what was on the screen in front of the crewman.

"Sir, we've got a Lavoid ping," he started to say, but trailed off momentarily. "But, we're picking up evidence of multiple Lavoid Energy based creatures. In fact…we're picking up a whole crap load."

"And how much is a crap load?" Jack asked, not sure if he should be interested yet. After all, they found Lavoids in planets all the time. This one shouldn't be different.

"Well, in addition to the main blip," the man said. "We have at least three more very strong blips that, while not matching an actual Lavoid, they match…well, they match your own Lavoid Energy emission rate, sir." Jack didn't respond for a moment.

"Is there a possibility that there is a large number of even smaller blips? Perhaps a series of blips spanning an entire country or land mass?" he asked hesitantly

"That's the other odd part, sir," the crewman said. "That's exactly what's going on. Here," he pointed to his screen. Jack quickly jumped off of the command platform and lightly floated over to the computer screen. "There looks to be some sort of massed use of Lavoid energy here. All of the people are permeating with it."

"Like Zeal…" he muttered, crossing his arms. He looked over across the bridge. "What information do we have on this planet from the Dominion records we accessed from that freighter off of Halverac VI?" he asked anyone that might know. Someone on the other side of the room spoke up.

"It's technically been claimed by the Dominion," the voice said. "But they don't fully acknowledge Dominion rule. The name of the planet is Celes. It's medium sized and the fourth planet from the yellow star known as Faro."

"We know that much," Jack said. "Give me readouts on political structure."

"Yes sir," the voice said, typing at the computer for a few moments until the information came up. "The planet is divided into three countries. The first two, Lyons and Denegrad are in, and have been in, a state of war for some time. The third country, Ithilmar, is actually made up of a series of aerial cities. According to the readout on the Lavoid Energy Readings, if appears that it is this country that is covered in it."

"And I'll bet my life I know how they got up in the air in the first place…" Jack mumbled. "And what about those other blips of strong Lavoid Energy."

"The emission rate is about the same as yours, sir. That would mean that their natural intake and release of Lavoid Energy matches that of a…"

"Of a what?"

"Of a potential Planeswalker, sir."

"Well I'll be…" Jack said, stepping back a moment and leaning against the railing that wrapped around the elevated command platform. Closing his eyes for a moment, he quickly touched a finger to his ear, activating his communication device. "Bridge to Colonel Tenser," he said. Sound soon poured back into his earpiece

"This is Tristan," the voice said. "Whaddaya want, Jack?"

"Just get up here quick, Tristan," Jack said. "We have…a situation."

"I'll be right there." The communication ended and Jack slowly walked back up to his chair and sat down in it. Moments later, a man walked into the bridge. Not clad in the standard LEA uniform that the rest of the crew of the bridge wore, this man seemed like he had dressed much more according to his own standards. A pair of black pants, a black turtleneck shirt and a black leather trench coat made up his attire. His messy blond hair tied into a tight pony tail that went halfway down his back also added to his 'personalized' look.

"What's the deal?" Tristan Tenser asked, walking up to the blue haired man. "Besides another Lavoid, of course." Jack sighed.

"We've got Potentials, Tristan," Jack said. "Or at least, it looks like that."

"Others…like you?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah. They're energy gives off that same Lavoid Permeated signature that I do. Meaning, it wouldn't be out of the question that they were born from the Lavoid that's infested this planet."

"How strong is the Lavoid?" Tristan asked.

"It looks…like a Class B," Jack said, leaning his head back. "From the readouts, it's about 130 times stronger than Lavos was. It's one nasty mother."

"So wouldn't it be odd that the vessel at the time of the supposed Planeswalkers' births would be even able to withstand the power?"

"Maybe the power was split up," Jack mused. "There are multiples. Perhaps there were twins, or something like that. The question would be why, though."

"Why create a Planeswalker?" Tristan asked. "Isn't that their goal?"

"No," Jack said. "Why have more than one. Plus, that would lead us to believe that they are potentially more than one Epitorum on the planet as well."

"You want me to check it out, right?" Tristan asked.

"That's right, mister Watcher. It's your job ain't it?" came a new voice from behind Tristan. Both men turned around to meet the gaze of a tall blonde girl, garbed in officer's clothes similar to Jack. They both knew the stare of her ice blue eyes well, as did most of the LEA. Elosia's Epitorum was not to be trifled with.

"Sarah," Jack said, relieved to see her. "I was about to send for you."

"I know," Sarah said with a grin.

"What do you think, then?" Jack asked her. Sarah nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. Seconds later, she looked up.

"It's quite odd," she said. "The time stream around this area has somewhat of a blanket of distortion on it. It's hard to see down."

"Meaning what?" Tristan asked.

"Meaning that something in the near future is going to happen that will send the time stream into a split. That makes it hard for me to see."

"So this planet…" Jack said. "It's important." He sighed. "Should Tristan go down?"

Sarah considered it for a moment. "Yes," she said finally. "You…have others down there. There are definitely multiple potentials down there, and they're going to be at the forefront of the action that determines this planet's future."

"Fine," Jack conceded. He turned to Tristan. "I want you to make planet-fall by 0600, according to Celes Standard Time. You can make the plans from there. Go find one of these blips and gather what you can on it. Report back to me within 48 hours. We'll figure out what to do from there once we confirm the potential for a Planeswalker."

"Good," Tristan said. "You want I should call for Watcher reinforcements?"

"You think you need them?" Jack prodded.

"Of course not," Tristan said, semi-sarcastically. "I'm the Great Tristan Tenser, right?"

"So get your ass to Mission Prep and make planet-fall," Sarah finally said, getting annoyed.

"Yeesh," Tristan said with a grunt. "Okay, I'm going, I'm going. Anything else?" He asked.

"Get records of their methods of armed warfare," Jack said. "If we have to go down there in force, we might not want to stand out. So figure out if they use tanks, planes, submarines, or whatever."

"Gotcha," Tristan said with a nod. "I'm off, then."

"They fixed your gun, by the way," Jack said. "That new model of the Melta-gun?"

"My Firepike design?" Tristan asked. Jack nodded. "Excellent!" he exclaimed in with an Irish accent. No one responded. "Umm…okay, then," he said. "I'll be going." All three Adeptus saluted and Tristan spun on his heels and left the bridge.

"You know, it's amazing he's as good as he is," Sarah said. "I wouldn't have trusted something like this to Tristan. He'll probably find the Potential and get him drunk instead of testing their power."

"He's a powerful warrior, Sarah," Jack said with a sigh. "You can't forget that. If this area of the time stream is as important as you imply, we at least need one of our best down there."

"He's no more capable of taking down a Class B than any of us, leaving him just as helpless as the rest of us if he has to tango with the Lavoid."

"We don't need to worry about the Lavoid right now," Jack said. "One crisis at a time, right?"

"I guess."

"Then relax," he said. "We'll wait up here in orbit for the few days. Read up on information for this planet, in the mean time."

"You think we'll find anything substantial?"

"Didn't you just say we would?"

"I've been wrong. I want to know what you think."

"I think if we have a chance, we should go for it."

"But will we find anything?"

"I hardly consider myself one with premonition," Jack said, taking a deep breath. "But it looks like a situation identical to that of Zeal. The instance of a Vessel and a Planeswalker can't be to far behind."

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