But with all the excitement in the celebration, and all the confusion that ensued as Crono's mother was sucked into the portal, they didn't have enough time to savor their planet in full grandeur. Fortunately for Crono, Marle, and Lucca, their mother wasn't very far away, about a year ahead. They saw as Crono's mother was deposited at Lucca's house and they conveniently picked her up for the trip back to 1000 A.D.
While Crono was finding his mother, Frog, or Glenn, was confronting his enemies for a final time. Flea and Slash tried to gain up on him while he was alone, but one slash dispatched both of the pestering foes. When he was done, he was met with extreme boredom from the same routine every day of the year. Knights at the castle didn't need him for his leadership, although he did get a recognition ceremony for his troubles.
Robo…Robo was spared from the possibility of disappearing in the future thanks to the genius of the saved future people. His memory was copied to a different robot, completely identical to Robo himself. He was busy, aiding in the new nature that was unfamiliar to him for that time. He met up with Atropos, unbelievably, and for a time, Robo was happy.
Ayla returned to Ioka Village to finish off the reptites and then returned to 1000 A.D. to visit Crono via timegate where she was dragged into language lessons by the royalty there. She also was given "proper" skins to not scare away the good people of Guardia. When she returned to Ioka, she still used the same crude language when speaking to her own people, but secretly practiced proper grammatical usage when she was alone, which was rare after she married Kino.
And finally, Magus, who drifted across time searching for Schala, his sister, now lost, somewhere in time. His experiences with time betrayed him as he floated around the very expanse of time and space itself. Gaspar didn't help him when visited, the two being basic enemies.
So, a year passes since the Nadia bell was placed in Leene Square.
***
"CRONO!!!!"
The red-haired swordsman covered his head with his blankets. That left no warmth for his feet and he shivered. The late fall chill had set in, now that it was early December. Crono tried to stretch what little covers he had over his entire body. No luck. By now his angry mother had arrived upstairs, banging on his door which Crono installed himself to separate his room and his mother's.
"GET UP CRONO!!"
Crono managed to drag one eyelid off of his eyeball. No sun stated that is was sunrise yet. He tried to sit up in the bed, but the cold draft from the door his mother managed to force open knocked him back into his sheets.
"Mom…. It's not even sunrise yet. You don't expect me to finish all my chores in this light, do you?" quipped the unusually quiet Crono. As if to spite him, a crack of light appeared over the horizon and the sun started awakening the birds and all other animals.
"See? So what if I'm a little early?" nagged his mother.
Crono groaned and grabbed his clothes before flinging open the bed covers. He put them one and grabbed his fur coat (compliments of Ayla-Reptite skin for inside insulation, Kilwala fur for outside warmth). And rushed down the stairs. He found a few of his cats waiting downstairs and the smell of a quickly cooked breakfast.
"Crono, Lucca said today that she wanted to see you about something or the other. She wants to show you some crazy new invention," said Crono's mom while flipping a pancake in haste, nearly having the entire glob of breakfast stick to the ceiling. "Try getting your chores done as quickly as possible."
Crono was reminded of his geeky friend. Lucca had made a teleportation device that contributed to the reason of their time travels. She was always tinkering, always fixing and doing some repairs on something. When it came to fighting, she favored fire magic, and used it often. Crono gobbled down his breakfast with ferocity of a wolf and nearly gave himself a stomachache. He quickly got his chores down (helping his mother mend the fence, feed the cats, chop the wood for the fireplace, and sometimes even sewing) and got ready to go to Lucca's house, a short four miles from his house. Donning the coat, mittens, boots, and a cap, he sheathed his Rainbow sword (just in case) and hurried over to Lucca's.
***
Sparks flew. Rattling and clanging was heard in the workshop as well as many other places in the house. Lara, Lucca's mother, greeted Crono over the cacophony and led him to the workshop. Crono stepped in, waiting for Lucca and Taban to stop drilling into the latest invention. At last Lucca put down the drill and removed the welder's mask she had protecting her face. Taban waved and said hello before going into the scrap heap to look for spare parts.
"Um, that's a great invention you've got here, Lucca. What the hell is it?" Crono asked, obviously oblivious to the mechanism's purpose.
"It's a motorized horse carriage! Of course, I'm still working on a better name for it…" answered Lucca, sparing the really scientific stuff and patting the hood of the car. "It's a misnomer. It doesn't even need a horse to pull it. It just goes. I needed to make it a different shape as well, but it's for the better."
"Great! Are you going to try it out?" inquired the spiky-haired teen.
"Almost. Just got some finishing touches. Would you like to help paint it's exterior?" asked Lucca. Crono shrugged and nodded. Lucca handed him an inflammable paint and instructed him to paint from the hood to the rear.
"And don't paint inside. I know it's fireproof paint, but the engine can't take it," added Taban. So Crono started on another chore, painting while Lucca drilled and melded the final parts for stability of the new vehicle. Finally, after two hours of back-bending work, they were done.
"Now to rev her up! She's a lot simpler than the Epoch, just a control stick for steering. Now help us haul this load of metal out to the white expanses of my backyard!"
With much effort and sweat-breaking, the three managed to relocate the vehicle to the outside, via a wide back door. When they set it down, Crono began to fully study the finished vehicle. It was very narrow, only three people could fit in it. It was six feet long and three wide. Its red coat shined in the sun, and its smoothness reflected it, giving the car a very bright look. Car?
"Car…."
"What, Crono?"
"Nothing. I just thought to shorten the name of carriage into car. That's what Johnny told us what they were called in the future." Johnny was a robot in 2300 A.D. whom they had raced plenty of times. He was able to transform from a humanoid form into a super-fast racer.
"Sounds good to me. We'll call it a…car," said Taban, milling the new word around his mind. The three got into it, Lucca at the controls. With the three daring people in safely, Lucca pulled a lever to start the engine. A whir announced the gas exchange and the car started inching forward. While it started speeding up, though, it slowly lost the whirring sound as the gas was cut and the electricity started kicking in with a high-pitched whine.
"I wanted this thing to be environmentally safe, so I used batteries I saved from the future," Lucca told Crono as the car started going the speed of a horse at slow gallop. They were heading towards Taban bridge, separating Lucca's island house and the mainland. As they arrived on the mainland, a few passing people stopped in their tracks to stare at Lucca's new invention, which would revolutionize all of Truce history. Of course, Lucca's invention could have altered timelines, but she was the one who was supposed to invent it anyways, unbeknownst to them, of course. When they finally got back to Lucca's house, she announced that the invention was a success, which was very, very rare for a first time try. Crono congratulated her and Taban and said that he would go home now.
***
As he was going home, however, a figure about four feet tall and slim attacked him from behind the bushes, sending flits of snow. It leapt on to his back, knocking him down. Crono pulled out his semi-transparent Rainbow sword and pointed it at his attacker. The attacker was completely pitch black, not reflecting any light. It changed shape into a tiger and leapt off of Crono, getting ready to pounce. Crono readied himself in a battle stance, gripping both hands on the sword tightly. He took a step back and cast Lightning when the mysterious black thing jumped at him. The figure absorbed the damage like a sponge and was thrown off its trajectory. Having his attacker disabled, Crono swung his sword upside down in his hand and got ready to stab the blackness. It moved out of the way and morphed into a spear, floating in air, jabbing at Crono as if controlled by some invisible wielder. Crono dodged to the right and brought his sword down onto the shape-shifting object. The spear eluded the swipe and zoomed at Crono like a thrown javelin. It flew straight and true towards its target, which had rolled out of the way but was still pursued by the projectile. Crono cursed under his breath and held his ground, spinning around to face the fast-moving javelin. With the courage of ten regular men he risked his life trying to zap a Lightning spell straight through it. Unlike regular men, however, his spells went wherever he directed them, so the spear was struck down by lightning. Dissolving into a gooey mess, it splashed onto the ground, bubbling and frothing like some brew of a witch's. Crono stabbed the substance with his sword.
Upon trying to pull his Rainbow out of the glob, however, he could not. He yanked at it and struggled with the goo for he didn't want to lose his most prized possession. After three minutes of just plain pulling Crono let go with one hand and shot another bolt of Lightning at the blackness. Besides failing to loosen its super-strong grip, it only made it worse for Crono. In his final waning bits of energy, his palms raw and muscles sore, he gave a final tug. The weapon wouldn't budge. At last it was sucked into the void-like blackness, lost forever. Of course, Crono refused to believe it. He reached his hand into the goo in desperation, feeling an immense cold travel from his bleeding palm up his aching arm to his shoulder. Feeling the circulation stopping and numbness taking over, he resigned and pulled out, finding nothing. Since he had no weapon to fight the blackness with, he ran as quickly as he could to Lucca's house, for he was closer to hers than his own.
While he ran, the blackness finally recovered and transformed into a form of the Rainbow sword, except pitch black. Swinging midair and wielded by some invisible swordsman, the sword followed Crono….