From: "Blaine" Notes: Hi! I know this isn't exactly anime, so if the powers that be wish, just tell me and I won't post any more of it. Other wise, I'll see what people think. I have 5 chapters so far, and 2 in planning. I started this 3 years ago and stopped writing. If I get a good reaction and anyone wants more... then I'll probably find the spark to finish it. ^__^ So... Enjoy. This takes place at various times, but for referance, Crono's time is ten years later than the game. Also, watch out. A slight flaw is the mixture of Japanese and American names...ex, Chrono, Marl, and Luka, alongside Ayla, and Frog. Also, this takes place if Lucca had decided not to dismantle the Epoch, and Magus lived in the end. Disclaimer: "Chrono Trigger" and it's characters are owned by Squaresoft. Any characters not in the game but in here (Zulu, Junior, Morda, Jade, etc.) are mine, but if by some astronomical coincidence this thing is good enough to warrent others to use my charas in a fic, feel free, just so long as you acknowledge me and tel me. MSTings are also very welcome. CHRONO TRIGGER: FAMILY REUNIONS By J. Daniel Gibson (AKA Blaine "The Machine") Chapter 1: Reunion 1010 AD "Chrono. Chrono? Wake up, Honey." Chrono opened his eyes and looked at Marl in bed next to him. "Good morning, Chrono." she said and gave him a peck on the cheek. "You didn't sleep well, did you? You worried about the crowning?" "A little." Chrono admitted with a smile. I've never been king before." Chrono reflected on the past ten years. After he and his friends defeated Lavos, Chrono married Marl which made him heir to the throne. Two years later, they had a daughter. She was named Reene. Reene grew and was loved by all. Then Chrono and Marl had another child, last year. He was named William Gaurdia XXXIV, after Marl's family line. Life was good. The Chancellor took Luka under his wing and she learned what it took to be the King's right hand, for she was chosen for Chancellor's predecessor. In her spare time she tutored Reene and worked on the Epoch. But then tragedy struck. The King died. Now, Chrono was to become king. He and Marl got dressed and went to breakfast. 610 AD "Wake up!" Frog tipped over Tata's bed, dumping him out. Tata jumped to his feet and grabbed his sword. He quickly brought it up to parry Frog's sword. "Thou arte more alert this morning." Frog commented as he sheathed the Masamune, "That is good." "Yeah." Tata agreed, fingering the bandage on his right arm. He wasn't alert yesterday. After Tata had given the Hero's Medal to Chrono, when he was eight, he realized what a wuss he was. After training solo for five years, he went to Frog who brought him in and taught him the art of swordplay. Now, at age eight-teen, he is almost as proficient as Frog, but he was 'too damned cocky', as Frog would put it. "Get dressed." Frog commanded. "Luka will be here soon." 1010 AD "Luka?" Taban knocked on Luka's door. "Luka, are you up?" He was greeted by an inhuman groan. "I'm up." she moaned into her pillow. She looked at her clock. "6:00 AM! What's the big idea of getting me up this early." Luka continued to rant as Taban quickly sneaked away from the door. Luka went to her closet. She held up a bra and looked at it with disdain. She didn't have to wear one of these uncomfortable things when she was eight-teen; she was a slow developer and suddenly she was stuck with these big clumsy things. They got in the way when she ran, tried to work on mechanics, not to mention the guys that kept staring. Didn't they have anything better to look at? Luka finished getting dressed, ran downstairs, grabbed a piece of toast, and ran out to the garage. She ran a few quick diagnostic tests on the Epoch and got in. For the past two years she'd been studying Belthesar's blueprints. She had just figured out the schematics of the time dial a month ago. She had replaced the dial with a digital counter and she'd programmed a new time coordinate, to 2000 BC. She revved up the engine and set the time for 2310 AD. 2310 AD Robo finished shining his new body as Chrona labored over her homework. "Math sucks." Chrona announced disdainfully. "Math is the primary basis of life." Robo told her. "Well I don't like it." she said. She tugged at the dress she had to wear and looked longingly at her leather jacket and torn jeans. She looked around her room. On the wall was the Rainbow, a katana that belonged to her ancestor, Chrono. The rest of her room looked like a tornado ran through it. There were maids in the castle but Chrona didn't want her stuff messed with. There were biker leathers all over, a shelf full of Grand Prix, Deathball, and Kendo trophies, and the huge spiky, metal game ball from her first Deathball tournament. Robo looked at her. It was amazing how she possessed the same rebel type qualities of both Chrono and Marl. Robo and King Doan, Chrona's grandfather, were the only ones who knew about time travel, here. When a person who lives in a future that is changed drastically time travels, memories of the original future and the new future are both in mind. Doan has both memories of growing up in a world destroyed by Lavos and of a world of peace and prosperity. He was lucky that he didn't go mad the first time he traveled to the year 1000. Chrona knew nothing about it aside from what the textbooks say about The Lavos Disaster, when he came from the underground and attacked with a rain of fire from the sky. Fortunately, he was defeat by a trio of strangers with strange powers. But, Chrona did know Luka, who to her was just an aunt that lived far away. It was Luka and Doan who designed the new, sleeker body Robo's brain chip now inhabited. "Hey, babe. How's it hangin'?" Johnny said as he rolled in and transformed to humanoid form. "Johnny!" Chrona jumped up and hugged his huge metal frame. "You ready to go?" he asked. "Yeah." She and Johnny were the #1 racing team in Gaurdia. Today was the Thirtieth Annual Grand Prix. When Johnny transformed into Chrona's bike, they were the fastest. Chrona went into her closet, closed the door, and took her dress off. Johnny turned on his x-ray eyes. "I see somebody's goodies." Johnny said in a singsong voice. Chrona and Johnny, aside from racing together, shared an intimate, platonic relationship. "Little, impudent punk." Robo said under his breath. 64,999,981 BC "Fuga!" Ayla swore "Where tiger skin." She dug through her clothes. "Kino!" Ayla looked over at her husband in the corner of the hut. He was asleep with a big snot bubble in his nose. Ayla threw a rock at him, which bounced off his forehead. He didn't seem to notice. "Kino big dummy." She went to him, gently caressed him, and bit his nose. "FUGA!!!" Kino screamed. "Where tiger skin!" "Me sleep on." he said, groggily. Sure enough, there it was under him... with a puddle of drool on it. "Yaahhh!" She punched him. "Hi Mom, Hi Dad." Junior, their eight-teen year old son, walked in. "Where you been?" Kino asked. "Me hunt." He held up a four hundred-pound baby tyrano. "Get ready go." Ayla said, "Luka come soon." 11,999 BC Magus stood on the beach and remembered what the sea looked like. Schala sat next to him. Three months ago she was princess of Zeal, now she was just a normal girl, stuck on this island. After she had helped the Prophet and Chrono's friends escape the Ocean Palace, she ran to an escape pod but there was only enough energy in it to get her to this island. From the island she witnessed the crash of the Blackbird, the Black Dream rising from the sea, and she saw Belthesar's time machine fly over a few times. Then, one day, she found the prophet lying unconscious on the beach. She took him to the little hut she had built and nursed him to health. When he came to, he was blind. He said he was blinded by a light in the sky while flying and he fell. He didn't know who she was and told her the whole story about him being Janus and on a quest to find her. Schala told him that she was his lost sister. Upon hearing that he broke down and cried into her shoulder. Now, sitting on the beach, things seemed so peaceful. Schala stood up and brushed the sand off her robes. Magus was standing, listening to the ocean, when he gasped and fell to his knees. Schala rushed to his side and helped him up. "What's the matter?" "Something's going to happen." he replied "The black wind begins to howl." 1010 AD Leene Square was packed. People from all over came to see the crowning of King Chrono. Chrono and Marl sat at the long table with representatives from Fiona, Porre, Choras, and even the Mystic's town of Medina. Frog and Tata stood near the front with Ayla, Kino, Junior, and Doan. Princess Reene was playing with Robo and Atropos while Luka talked with Doan near Nadia's Bell. After being crowned, Chrono began talking with the representatives to get a standing on the political situation. "Chrono sure looks different." Tata said. "To be sure." Frog replied. "'Twas ten years hence you saw him last. He has grown." "Queen Marl sure looks hot." Tata said. "Show respect for the descendant of our queen." Frog snapped. "Leave boy 'lone." Ayla said. "Him young." "This from you, lass?" Frog smiled, "You hit your husband just for looking funny." "That 'cause Kino big dummy." "Huh?" Kino looked up from the frog he was playing with. Ayla looked at him "Me talk 'bout you, not to you." Frog sighed. "'Tis a day of celebration. Tata, go and enjoy yourself." "Junior, you go too." Ayla said. Junior and Tata ran off into the crowd. "So, you've been altering the Epoch?" Melichior inquired. "Yeah." Luka said in between bites of her sandwich. "I've finally deciphered Belthesar's blueprints and learned how to program new time coordinates. The only new one I have now is to 2000 BC. That's the dawn of the non-Zealian scientific period." "What's it like?" Melichior asked. "I don't know. I haven't had a chance to go yet." "Well I'd like to go with you." Luka smiled and nodded. Nearby, Robo, Atropos, and Reene were throwing a ball back and forth. "You're fun, Uncle Robo." Reene squealed cutely. "Show me another trick." "Yes." Robo shot his Gatlin Arm out twenty feet, grabbed some flowers and brought them back to Reene. She smiled and hugged him. Suddenly there was a blood-curdling howl that ripped the air. People screamed. Chrono looked up and saw a pack of wild boar-dogs running through the crowd. People were yelling and running in all directions. Reene's little, blue cat, Alfedor, ran up a nearby tree. Frog leapt up to the staged area next to Chrono. "They usually don't attack like this." Chrono exclaimed. "Methinks I know the problem." Frog pointed. Junior and Tata were running through the street with a baby boar-dog in their arms. It squealed and screamed. Junior had picked up a scent and they started following it into the woods. Junior caught the boar-dog but the whole pack went crazy and chased them back to the town. "Drop the pup!" Frog yelled. They looked at each other, dropped the dog, and ran. But the damage had been done; the parents were out for blood. Frog jumped between the running teens and the dogs. He raised his arms and chanted his Frog Squash spell. A giant frog fell from the sky. The boar-dogs screeched to a halt. The frog expanded its air sack and eyed them. They tuned tail and fled. With all the commotion, no one saw Reene run off into the woods. In about five minutes, she came to a clearing. There was a little, black hole, just floating in the air. When she leaned over to get a better look, the key her Aunt Luka gave her on a necklace brushed the hole. It got bigger. There were swirls of blue and black inside. "Oh, pretty." she exclaimed. She stepped in and it closed behind her. "My sensor aren't picking Reene up." Robo said. "Neither are mine." agreed Atropos. Ayla was comforting Marl, who was crying into her royal robes. Luka, Melichior, and Doan were in the Epoch, searching from the air. Chrono, Kino, and Frog each had a company of about twenty men apiece, soldiers and townsmen alike. They were searching the woods. Robo shook his head. "It's like she just disappeared." From: "Blaine" CHRONO TRIGGER: FAMILY REUNIONS By J. Daniel Gibson (AKA Blaine) Chapter 2: Ancestors 11,999 BC Jade looked into the fire. Back on Zeal there was no need for it except for magical purposes, for it was always warm high above the clouds, surrounded by magic. She pulled out her photo album, one of the few things she salvaged from the now gone land of Zeal. Often when she was lonely, she would leaf through it and remember. There were pictures of her dead mother. And there was a picture taken at a picnic of Melichior the Guru of Life, Belthesar the Guru of Reason, Gaspar the Guru of Time, and her father, Morda the Guru of the Dark. Despite his field being the study of Darkness and its magic properties, Morda was a good man. There was also a picture of her, her best friend Schala, and Schala's little brother, Janus. He was eight and she was eight-teen. Though, sadly, both of them were probably dead now. Janus would be turning nine this month. She remembered when Queen Zeal had revealed her plans to build the Ocean Palace, so they could be closer to Lavos and take better advantage of his power. Morda advised against it and refused to go to the Palace. That was a good idea because Gaspar, Belthesar, and Melichior went and never returned. There were rumors that the Queen had them imprisoned and killed for treason. Finally, Morda's worst fear was realized. Lavos came from the ocean and delivered Zeal out of the heavens. Morda and Jade escaped with Dalton on the Blackbird. He dropped them off on an island because he said he had something to do. A few days later, they saw the Blackbird crash. A portal opened and Dalton crawled out, badly beaten. He said he had attempted to establish himself as king but Chrono's friends fought and defeated him on Belthesar's time machine. He soon healed and they fixed up some ruins of a Zealian house that had somehow survived the fall from the sky. Jade had found the cave she was in now and filled it with her memories; made it a peaceful place to come and meditate. Suddenly, there was a strange sound behind her. She turned around in time to see a little, redheaded girl gingerly step out of a blue and black portal. She had a key and a little medallion on a chain around her neck. The medallion had the name 'Reene' on it. "Where am I?" Reene asked. * * * "It's finished." Schala said. Magus smiled and nodded. He walked over and felt the little boat Schala had just finished sanding. "If I hadn't lost my pendant, I could just teleport us off this island." Schala said. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Magus said. "Destiny should not be questioned, nor can it be changed." "Well," Schala said, "you changed Chrono's destiny when you used the Chrono Trigger." "How do you know Destiny didn't chose for him to be brought back to life?" he asked, smiling. He had her there. He had changed since he found Schala. He changed from a suicidal depressive to a peaceful philosopher. Schala also found it strange about their age difference. She was born ten years before him, but because of his growing up in another time and coming back to this one, he was thirty-seven while she was still eight-teen. It gave her an eerie feeling. They gathered their meager possessions and packed them on the boat. They didn't need any food because it was an estimated two-hour row. * * * After rowing for four hours, Schala and Magus finally reached North Cape. Magus had a modest little hut there that he had built before starting his search for Schala. Schala helped Magus to the door. She looked around the small, one-roomed house. It was typical of her brother; she smiled at the sense of familiarity. There were books, maps, and charts strewn about all over. The only furniture he had was a shelf, stuffed haphazardly with books and papers, a table covered with maps and a few dirty dishes, and in the center of it all was a large, overstuffed, black chair that was obviously salvaged from Zeal. There was no bed, for what little sleeping he did was in his chair. On the wall was a coat hanger with a spare black cloak and assorted scythes of all shapes and sizes hanging from it. Magus quickly stumbled to his chair and plopped down in it. Schala almost laughed, for she had never seen such a deliriously blissful smile on him before. "There should be a pile of books near the door." he said, "There's something you might enjoy there." She started going through them. They were all Zealian. He had apparently salvaged them. Then she found what he was talking about. It was her diary. She smiled, but then looked at him with suspicion. He didn't have to see to know what she was thinking. "I didn't read it." he said, though he did have a bemused smirk on his face. "Hey, what's this?" Schala said. The picked up one of the books. It had a golden eye engraved on the leather jacket. The title page said, Magic of the Eye. The first page had an incoherent picture on it. She stared at it but when she got a headache and her eyes unfocused, she saw a map of Zeal pop out at her. Amazing. The rest of the book was various spells about eyes and sight, from how to change the color of your eyes, to x-ray vision, to how to cure blindness...wait a minute. "I've found it, Janus!" Schala said. She still called Magus Janus. "Found what?" He asked. "A cure for blindness." she said. He smiled. She started reading the instructions. "Oh no." "What?" "It says I need a 'magic amplifier'. I need my pendant." The smile left his face and he sat back in his chair. 1010 AD "The soldiers have been out for twenty hours." said the Knight Captain. "Call them back." Chrono told him. "We'll start again in the morning." The Captain bowed and left. Chrono turned to the grim faces at the table. Ayla was sitting with her arm around Marl's shoulders, comforting her. Kino, usually absent-minded, was unsettlingly sober. Tata and Junior sat quietly, thinking it partially their fault, because they made the boar-dogs rampage. Luka, Melichior, and Doan stood around a chart, going over a strategy of search in the Epoch. Robo and Atropos sat in a corner and recharged. One thing that made everyone feel easier was that Doan was still here. Since he was Reene's descendant, if she died, he would disappear. "We'd better get some sleep." Frog finally said. "Tata and I will depart and stay at the inn." "Nonsense." Marl said, "You will all stay here in the castle." "I doubt many of us will get much sleep." Chrono said. 11,999 BC Morda sat at the crystal in his chamber. Dalton stood behind him. Jade was looking in a picture book with Reene. Reene was dressed in a little. blue robe, for warmth. It was a robe that somehow found its way into Jade's laundry on Zeal. The tag on the inside had the name 'Janus' on it. "The child is definitely someone of importance." Morda said as he stared into the crystal. "I wonder where she's from." Jade mused. "I'm from Gaurdia." Reene piped up. She had told them many times but they didn't seem to know what she was talking about. "How old are you?" Dalton asked. He liked kids well enough. He had softened a bit since living here. It was the greed that for immortality that the Queen had infused in him that made him do the things he had done. "I'm eight." "Oh, so you were born in 12,007 BC?" (The people of Zeal had visions of a cataclysm in the future. It was an earthquake that split the continent. The people of Zeal started the years counting down to the year 0. BC stood for Before Cataclysm and AD was After Destruction.) Reene giggled, "No, 1002 AD." Morda saw something in his crystal. "How could you be born in the future, silly?" Jade smiled. "A time portal." Morda replied. * * * Walking south from North Cape, it took Magus and Schala thirty minutes to reach the Last Village. The village had grown in the last few months. Instead of just three straw huts, there were seven log cabins, sitting amongst the snow. There were a few Nu living with the humans, but no doubt, the hundreds of others still lived in the great, underground Kingdom of Nu. As they walked to the commons. Magus' sensitive ears heard a commotion. He heard Nu children teasing someone. "You ought to move away, Spekkio. You're a freak." one said. "I am not." said Spekkio. "Guru Gaspar was my friend, he said I was special." "Well he's not here is he, you red freak. All Nu are blue. And normal Nu don't have strong magic like shape-shifting." the bully laughed. "You're not a real Nu are you?" The bullies started to throw snowballs at him. "Stop it!" he yelled. "You better not do that." Magus said. The Nu looked at him. He grinned at them with his fangs. They ran off.. "Thank you, kind sir." Spekkio said. "That's all right." Magus said, "Maybe you could help me out sometime. Just remember me, in the future." Spekkio bowed and ran off. "I never thought you liked Nu." Schala said with a smile. "Spekkio is special. At least, he will be." Magus replied. They headed on into the commons, where a mason was laying a stone walkway. Schala looked around and saw the Village Elder. "Blake!" Schala yelled in joy. "Miss Schala!" the elder said. He hugged her. "We thought you dead." "I might have been if it wasn't for Janus." She gestured to Magus, who had sat down under a tree with a little, blue cat. Even though Magus was thirty years older, Alfedor still recognized him. "Sir Janus?" Blake said, "Is it really you?" Magus stood up and stared off into space. His blank, gray eyes rolling around searchingly and his pointed ears twitched to catch any stray sound. "Mr. Blake?" "By the gods," Blake said, "you're blind." Magus told him the story of how when he was taken into the time gate, he was sent to 570 AD, and how Ozzie had found him and raised him. Ozzie had just wanted world domination but Magus knew that was foolish. Magus just used Ozzie to gain the support of the Mystics. He only wanted to train and gain strength to summon and kill Lavos, and avenge his mother, and most of all, Schala. He then explained his adventures with Chrono's friends and being blinded by the light in the sky. "If only there was something we could do." Blake said. "We have a spell," Schala said, "but it needs a magic amplifier, like my pendant. But unfortunately, it was lost in the Ocean Palace disaster." "Your pendant could be anywhere." Magus said. Elsewhere, on a beach about a kilometer from the village, a boy picked up the pendant he had found. He could tell that there was something special about it. He put it in his pocket, took it home, and hid it. When he grew up, he gave it to his first born daughter, who in turn passed it down the family line. Eventually, one of his descendants became a king, and he too passed it down. 1010 AD Queen Marl sat in bed and fingered the pendant she had around her neck. Chrono finished the last of his hundred Hindu squats and climbed into bed. He looked at his wife, her face streaked with dry tears. He leaned over and kissed her. "It's gonna be okay." he said. She put her arms around him. Just then, Luka bust in. She saw them and stopped short. Marl was in her little nightie and Chrono was still sweaty from his exercises. Luka smirked. "Did I interrupt something?" she asked innocently. Chrono threw his pillow at her. She ducked, it flew out the door and beamed a passing soldier in the head. "What do you want?" Chrono asked. He jumped out of bed before realizing all he had on was a pair of briefs. Luka howled with laughter. "Tonight's just full of 'little' surprises!" Chrono quickly pulled the sheet around himself. His face red, he turned to Marl, who was giggling. "It's not that funny." he said. Marl looked up. "It's a 'little' funny." Marl and Luka bust out laughing again. "Think yer so damn funny, ought to make you the damn royal fool." Chrono grumbled under his breath. Chrono went into the closet and put a robe on. "What do you want," he asked when he came out of the closet. Luka choked back a laugh. "Well, Melichior and I think we might know where Reene is." "Where?!" The smile left Luka's face. "About one-hundred meters from where Reene was last seen, we picked up traces of a time gate." 11,999 AD Morda stood up from his crystal. He looked a bit dazed. "What's the matter, Father?" Jade asked. "I found out who Reene is." he said. "Who?" Dalton asked. "She is mine and Jade's direct descendant." Dalton gasped. "That means," Morda continued, "that Jade is to have a child at some time." Jade and Dalton traded glances. Jade put her hands on her stomach. This did not escape Morda's notice. "Jade?" Morda said. Dalton was a little worried. 'The jig is up.' he thought. "Father," Jade said, "I AM with child." Morda almost had a stroke. "What?" "I'm the father." Dalton said. He put an arm around Jade's shoulder. "Has my world turned upside-down!" Morda exclaimed. He closed his eyes and the huge vein in his forehead went away. "This should be a happy occasion." he said. He smiled and hugged Jade. He then turned to Dalton, who looked ready to run if he had to. "Welcome to the family..., Son." Dalton smiled sheepishly. "There's my daddy." Reene, who had been sleeping on a sofa, had woken up and was pointing at the crystal. Chrono's face was there. "Yahhh!" Dalton screamed, "It's him!" "Yes." Morda said, "The man whose friends beat you. But he also released Zeal from the queen and Lavos." Morda smiled, "And ironically, it seems that he's also your descendant." The look of hate left Dalton's face. "You're right. I thought he was wrong to oppose the queen. But had I not been blinded by the promise of eternal life, I would have been right there with him." "Well," Jade said, "Reene will have to stay with us until we find out how to get her back to her time." "Hey look, a horsy." Reene piped up. They turned to see her looking at the crystal. "I like this. I wanna see a cow." She touched the crystal and a cow appeared on it. She giggled. Dalton's jaw dropped. "I thought only a strong magic user could use that thing." "Exactly. She is, after all, of Zealian decent," he said, smiling with pride. "And related to me." To Be Continued in Chapter 2: The Beginning of a Quest. Send me your C&C. I love it all, good or bad...