Chrono Break (Cancelled)

Chrono Break was a potential 3rd entry in the Chrono series that was canceled.

Masato Kato, who wrote the story of Chrono Trigger and directed Chrono Cross, had an idea for a final game that would have involved Kid and other "all-star" characters rescuing Crono, Marle, and Lucca. One of the themes that was speculated by Masato Kato was about leaving the past behind.

“The past is the past, and it should be left behind. You have to let go. To lay new foundations. To move on.” (Masato Kato)

• Potential Chrono Break Story

  A story by Audio Pulp based on the trailer above.

  Lucca Lives

  “It all began aeons ago, when man’s ancestors picked up a shard of a strange red rock. It’s power, which was beyond human comprehension, cultivated dreams. In turn, love and hate were born. Only time will see how it all ends.” (Belthasar’s Journals)

  “There are as many worlds as there are potentialities.” (Magus)

  The last time we saw Lucca was in Chrono Cross when Lynx and Harle had abducted her from the orphanage to make her unlock the Prometheus circuit’s lock on the Frozen Flame since it was Lucca, “who alone could release the Prometheus lock but the whole attempt only ended in failure.” Lynx ends up imprisoning Lucca on one of the satellite islands in Chronopolis until she changes her mind.

  Lucca is able to convince Lynx that if he wants her to unlock the Prometheus lock then he should give her old parts of Robo (most of Robo’s parts and programming were integrated into Fate as the Prometheus Circuit, but there are still pieces of the discarded Robo shell around such as his head) so that she can study them in order to figure out how to unlock the Prometheus lock.

  Chrono Cross ends when Serge unifies the dimensions and saves Schala from the Time Devourer but the socio-political state of the world would be largely the same following the game since the entire plot was essentially the machinations of Belthasar to free Schala and stop the Time Devourer.

  These include

  Porre, the major power of the East during the events of Chrono Cross (Glenn), took over Termina and Viper Manor

  Following Serge’s battle with the Dragon God, the Dragoons are investigating Chronopolis where they find Lucca alive. They release her and she flees with them to their home base in Viper Manor, bringing the crippled Robo with her. Porre has learned of the unique events occurring in El Nido and begun a full-scale invasion of El Nido. Under General Viper’s command, the Acacia Dragoons are resisting to save El Nido from being overrun but are being overwhelmed. At the Viper Manor, General Viper’s forces are making their last stand while Porre captures the Frozen Flame from it’s position atop Terra Tower.

  In Viper Manor, Lucca finds Belthazar’s lab from which he departed for the future (2300 A.D.) in the Neo Epoch with a Nu. There, Lucca meets Beach Bum, another Nu, which imparts shocking news to her. In the future, Belthazar has managed to understand a rudimentary basis of their native language and is able to communicate with the Nu. He learns that the Nu see time as a singularity leading Belthazar to realize that they are “temporally entangled” and if you can get the Nu to communicate to each other, then they can actually communicate through time which is how Belthazar is talking to Lucca from the future.

  Belthazar states that everything was for nothing, he played God out of necessity to save Schala and the to stop the Time Devourer but “the future refused to change” (Chrono Cross). Catastrophe has still befallen them and the future is worse than before. The Earth has still been destroyed, presumably by Lavos, and humanity remains mostly extinct. Those who have survived are not the starving people in the domes we once knew but a highly militarized coalition of despots, the remnants of the Porre empire. Even more disturbing, his communications throughout time with the Nu are going dark and he suspects someone is eliminating the Nu and is startled by their ability to do so in such a coordinated effort across time. Belthazar does not know how this happened and imparts his regret. He reports the Neo Epoch has been damaged beyond repair and although he’s trapped in the future, he’s instructed a Beach Bum to build a Time Egg there in the lab with materials at the manor. Balthazar tells Lucca that Lavos is an unknowable evil that must be stopped at its very origin on planet Earth. Although it is certainly dangerous to continue meddling with the flow of time, he cannot sit idly by and watch the world become what he sees before him.

  Back in 1020 A.D., Lucca’s time is running out as well as Porre forces are breaking down the gates to the manor. The Beach Bum gives Lucca the Time Egg saying that it will take her to the root of all the trouble. Viper implores Lucca to go. She cracks the Time Egg and disappears.

  Shortly before Lavos’ initial fall to Earth (65,000,000 B.C.), the Ioka and Laruba tribes (2 major establishments of humans in prehistoric times) are engaged in a war with the Reptites however in this time, both sides are employing futuristic laser weaponry.

  Lucca seeks help from the humans but finds that the humans are way different. Ayla and Kino are nowhere to be found but the new leaders, Migo and Gigi (unused characters from an early version of Chrono Trigger), are hostile to all humans not born of the divine dragon, who they have sworn allegiance to. Migo and Gigi attack Lucca who flees. During the escape, Reptites show up with futuristic weapons, making Lucca question where these futuristic laser weapons came from. Lucca is captured by the Reptites and taken to Tyranno Lair where Lucca meets Azala, Queen of the Reptites. Lucca knows her time is running out since the Red Star (i.e. Lavos) is going to hit the Earth and everyone is going to die. Lucca warns Azala of Lavos’ impending crash and eventually convinces Azala by showing Azala her fire magic, which none of the other humans at the time could use. Azala, still skeptically, decides that it wouldn’t hurt to move out of Tyranno Lair for a little bit until the Red Star passes and has her people evacuated.

  Lavos falls but, this time, the Reptites avoid extinction. Lucca and the Reptites watch the destruction caused by Lavos as he falls onto Tyranno Lair. Lucca, who at this point is a troubled soul (having already lived through her mother being crippled, having fought to save the future only to wonder how many lives they sacrificed from other timelines (“But sometimes I think of the darker side of what we did. What has become of the future that was “once” supposed to have existed? Where did the “time” that now is no longer allowed to exist “go?”), having seen the Porre kill Marle and Crono, and having the orphanage being burned down by Lynx and Harle) makes the decision to destroy Lavos at his earliest form.

  After the dust settles from Lavos colliding, she convinces Azala and the Reptites to join her in destroying Lavos. With the help of the futuristic weaponry, they kill Lavos. In front of the smoldering shell of Lavos, Reptites carry away the still body of the Lavos core, bloodied and dead, while Lucca examines one of the Lavos bits. This essentially creates a new timeline.

  The Time Bastard

  Dalton was last seen in the Dimensional Vortex at the end of Chrono Trigger where he promised Crono that he’ll “raise the greatest army the world has ever seen in Porre, and use it to wipe Guardia off the map”. This is confirmed as seen in a Chrono Trigger cutscene, the events of Chrono Cross, and the words of Masato Kato which states that the armies of Porre received assistance from “beyond the regular flow of time” in their invasion of Guardia.

  Like Queen Zeal, Dalton always wanted to achieve immortality via the Mammon Machine. The Mammon Machine was last seen at the Ocean Palace incident where Schala and the Mammon Machine were drawn into the Dimensional Vortex. Although there is a damaged Mammon Machine that is also seen later at the Black Omen, the Black Omen is a mysterious place that straddles time and as a result, the damaged shell of the Mammon Machine encountered in the Black Omen was a projection from the real Mammon Machine residing in the Dimensional Vortex.

  Dalton spends a lot of time in the Dimensional Vortex where time is relative. He studies the entrances and exits of the Dimensional Vortex, bidding his time and planning his revenge. Dalton eventually finds the Mammon Machine, drained of power, in the Dimensional Vortex, the final missing piece of his plan. He retraces the steps of Crono and the party after his final encounter with them and lands himself in 1000 A.D. following Lavos’ defeat by Crono (which will be considered canon as the ending of Chrono Trigger after Crono and party battle through the Black Omen as it hung over their homes).

  Dalton goes to the leaders of Porre, warning them of an impending attack by the mystics. He then coordinates an attack by summoning golems, blaming the attack on the mystics in Medina while saying they have never stopped their dark ways. Dalton then repels the golem attacks, appearing as Porre’s savior. He continues to gain the trust of Porre’s leaders by helping them stop repeated golem attacks and teaches Porre how to use gunpowder. He keeps a low profile as to not attract attention from Guardia. Once Dalton achieves a high enough rank in Porre, he secretly uses golems to transport the Mammon Machine from the Dimensional Vortex to Porre. Despite being drained of energy, the Mammon Machine is able to corrupt the minds of the Porre leaders. Dalton then stages mercenary attacks from the north of Porre to convince Porre that these are invaders from Guardia.

  Dalton knows that the Mammon Machine is built of Dreamstone and controlled by Schala’s pendant. He also knows the Ruby Knife which became the Masamune was made from Dreamstone. He either needs Schala’s pendant or the Masamune to jumpstart the Mammon Machine and both of these items are in Guardia so he continues to bide his time and build up Porre forces until he is ready to attack Guardia.

  In 1005 A.D., Dalton has now amassed huge political influence and a huge Porre army and finally makes his move to attack Guardia. Guardia falls and Dalton claims the Masamune but is unable to locate the royal pendant or Queen Marle. Dalton attempts to jumpstart the Mammon Machine with the Masamune but discovers that the Masamune has lost its charge over time and has no effect on the Mammon Machine (we know that Dreamstone artifacts like the pendant lose their magic and must be recharged). Dalton, although upset, is still content at what he has accomplished so far. He raids the Guardia Keep and recovers the Rainbow Shell and the Sunstone to continue to develop Porre’s military might.

  Dalton tasks scientists to work on augmenting the Mammon Machine with the Sunstone as an energy source but the scientists fail, deeming that the Mammon Machine is too damaged.

  Dalton also recovers the Epoch from the Guardia Keep though the Epoch was dismantled by Lucca after Chrono Trigger. Dalton is unable to restore the Epoch’s time-traveling ability but he is able to restore the Epoch’s flying capabilities, naming it the Aero-Dalton Imperial Mark 2. Dalton begins a campaign of violence on Zenan (the main continent in Chrono Trigger), drenching the Masamune in so much blood that it becomes cursed. Dalton continues to dominate all countries, setting up Guardia as a puppet state to stage attacks on other countries and use Porre to repel those attacks thus making all countries reliant on Porre and kept in a state of perpetual war. He soon forgets about his quest for immortality and reviving the Mammon Machine.

  One day however, a mysterious panther-like individual named Lynx appears who knows a lot about top secret information such as times of antiquity lost to history and a giant alien parasite which used to live under the earth. Dalton meets with Lynx who tells Dalton about the Frozen Flame which has limitless power to be used as an energy source, hinting that Lynx knows about the Mammon Machine. Thus Dalton begins to conquer other countries in search of the Frozen Flame. Due to Dalton’s innate fire magic use with the power of flight via the Aero-Dalton Imperial Mark 2, he becomes known as the Divine Dragon of Porre.

  Dalton finds the region of El Nido interesting as magnetic disturbances there prevent him from flying the Aero-Dalton or any other aircraft there. He learns of 2 extremely adept warriors from El Nido, Viper and Garai, who have come to fight in Dalton’s manufactured war and discovers that Viper is a much beloved man in his home region, not knowing what sort of resistance he would face if he launched an invasion of El Nido or if it would be worth the cost of making Viper an enemy. Dalton instead chooses to infiltrate El Nido subtly by creating the Explorer Core team to “explore” El Nido. The Explorer Core makes an unprecedented discovery—miraculous and powerful tools of magic i.e. the Elements (Chrono Cross). Dalton investigates the place firsthand, immediately feeling the power of the location. He plants the Masamune there since after all this time, even Dalton has grown wary of the sword’s growing evil. He hopes that the aura of the location will recharge the Masamune to affect the Mammon Machine or cleanse the evil energy from the sword. Dalton ends up calling this area the Divine Dragon Falls. Dalton leaves El Nido and sends Norris as a spy to eagerly await what discoveries will result in El Nido.

  Dalton hears word that the Acacia Dragoons, including Viper, are dead but is still unable to fly over El Nido due to the magnetic influences.

  In 1020 A.D., after the events of Chrono Cross, Dalton’s spies report the happenings of Chrono Cross (the fight atop Terra Tower, attack of the Dragon God, etc.) to Dalton. Dalton then prepares to fully invade El Nido as whatever has happened in El Nido has halted the magnetic influence and now flight over the region is finally possible. He discovers that the Acacia Dragoons are still alive (Serge’s actions in Chrono Cross causes a unifying of dimensions which leads to them being alive again). Despite this, Dalton destroys the Acacia Dragoons and conquers the region.

  Dalton explores Fort Dragonia and he becomes fascinated by the historical murals there, particularly the depiction of Dreamstone and its abundance in prehistory (Dreamstone was everywhere in prehistoric times, the tribes traded the Dreamstone as currency). Dalton also recovers the Frozen Flame from atop Terra Tower and has his scientists work on the best method to interface the Frozen Flame with the Mammon Machine.

  While Dalton explores Terra Tower he discovers that in some timeline, the Dragonians dominated the planet and humans were subjugated to extinction (“This [Terra] tower is a fortress belonging to the ancient Reptites…a symbol of revenge, Brough against mankind by the Dragons”). Dalton is appalled, disgusted, and shook to the core by the idea of a reality where mankind is crushed underfoot. Furthermore, he is not able to fully grasp the advanced dimensional sciences at play and questions surrounding Terra Tower are as frightening as the history depicted within in—when will this reality come to pass or has it already.

  Research in Chronopolis allows Dalton to restore time-travel functionality to the Epoch. This leads Dalton to not just want to conquer the world but to conquer the world across time.

  Dalton’s scientists are unable to interface the Frozen Flame with the Mammon Machine, reiterating that Dreamstone is required to fix the machine. Dalton uses the Epoch to travel to the past to gather Dreamstone to repair and activate the Mammon Machine. He discovers humans warring with the Reptites. He deduces that the Reptites must be the predecessors to the Dragonians and begins trading advanced guns and weapons to the prehistoric humans in exchange for Dreamstone. When Ayla and Kino learn of this, they attempt to stop Dalton but are defeated and replaced by Gigi and Migo (leaders of the Ioka and Laruba tribes) who agree to an allegiance with the “Divine Dragon of Porre”.

  It is here that Lucca arrives and rewrites all of the future by eliminating Lavos.

  However before Lucca cracks the Time Egg and rewrites all of the future, the normal flow of history into Belthazar’s foreseen future would proceed as follows: Dalton (much like Fate in Chrono Cross) believed that he may lose his advantage if he altered the flow of time too radically. Thus he diligently transported Dreamstone from prehistory to 1020 A.D. to set about reactivating the Mammon Machine. He completes the Mammon Machine but discovers that he needs Lavos to draw power from but Lavos has already been defeated by Crono in this timeline so Dalton travels to 620 A.D. where Lavos still sleeps below the earth. Dalton builds a small city at the base of the Black Omen which becomes his headquarters and where he siphons energy from Lavos. He readjusts the seat of his power to 620 A.D. and reinforces his power into the future many times over.

  The Black Wind

  “Unimaginable is the power of Lavos. Anyone who dares to oppose it meets certain doom” (Magus)

  Continuing from the new timeline that Lucca created, a Reptite army led by a Black Tyranno, Nizbel (one of Azala’s primary henchman), Azala, and Lucca have just defeated Lavos.

  Lucca contemplates what her actions have done, what would happen to Crono, Marle, Frog, Kid, etc.? With her actions here today, would they ever even exist? These things were beyond her now, she has done what she has done and Lavos is dead. Maybe Balthazar had gone too far ordering her to do this deed but she’d complied hasn’t she. No matter the ultimate outcome, it was finished. All the people of the planet were now free of Lavos’ influences, free to write their own future. One thing was for sure though, no matter what came to pass, the Dalton-ruled nightmare had surely been averted. Now what would she do in this new timeline?

  After the battle Lucca returns to the crater to study the remains of Lavos but she doesn’t get the chance to as she discovers that right before Lavos’ crash, Migo and Gigi and gathered many humans to a staging ground near Tyranno Lair in preparation to stage a massive attack on the Reptites. Due to religious and symbolic beliefs, they coincided their attack with the falling of the Red Star which resulted the humans losing almost all their people when Lavos landed. When Lucca sees the surviving humans, she is reminded of Doan and other survivors from the 2300 A.D. timeline that she and Crono had met. They were completely defeated and helpless. The human survivors ask the Reptites for help, and the Reptites prepare to finally finish off the humans but Lucca and Robo stand up for the humans. Lucca asks Azala to show mercy in exchange for Lucca’s help earlier, after all Lucca essentially saved the entire Reptite race by warning them about the Red Star.

  Deep down Azala wants to destroy the humans but the clever tactician that she is, she decides to declare a ceasefire with the humans in order to take advantage of the opportunity before her. The human’s numbers won’t rebound for several generations and she can bide her time. In the meantime, the most interesting human, Lucca, may still serve her well. She allows the human refugees to settle in the surrounding regions without fear of Reptite aggression. She slyly gives Lucca and Robo the task of building a community suitable for the human survivors with the help of a handful of Reptites. Despite Lucca wanting to study Lavos due to her blazing curiosity and scientific wonder, she knows that helping the human survivors is more important right now, besides, there was Robo’s dream of healing the “enmity between the humans (FATE) and the Reptites (Dragons)”.

  While Lucca and Robo help with the human resettlement project, Azala secretly has a team of Reptite sages gather and collect all useful and valuable information on Lavos from the crater site. The shell and other massive components of Lavos are left at the crater while the smaller components (including the Lavos bits) are taken to the Reptite magic lab. The bits are given scientific classifications derived from ancient Reptite mythology: Gobb and Pico.

  The Gobb bit is fully intact while the Pico bit is damaged from the battle. The Reptite sages sense no biological activity from either bit despite the bits puzzling refusal to decompose and instead shift their focus to the Lavos core.

  Weeks pass and Lucca and Robo’s task of resettling the humans and integrating them into Reptite society is going well. They also try to determine what happened to Ayla after her fight with Dalton but hit a dead-end. Despite Azala’s secret plan to genocide the humans in a couple generations, some of the Reptites are slowly coming to view the humans as equals and even friends. Robo believes that the current trajectory will eventually result in peace between the Reptites and Humans and suggests they return their attention to the study of Lavos.

  Lucca asks Azala if she can join the scientists studying Lavos. Azala’s scientists have already gleaned all they could from their research so Azala is overjoyed to bring Lucca in on the research to see what this human scientist can uncover. Azala appoints Lucca a lead investigator at the site with full access to the crater whenever necessary. Lucca's first priority is identifying the different forms of Lavos. She studies the dead core and shell exhaustively before moving on to the strange proxy forms that appear when Lavos assumed certain battle styles like that of the Black Tyranno. What relationship do those things have to Lavos? Which thing was even the real Lavos? Would Queen Zeal have become a proxy if given enough time under Lavos' corruptive influence? From what she'd seen of Lavos’ spawn, the shell was part of the creature but the core suggests that it was also a vessel for another organism.

  However, the thing that scared her the most was the remaining Lavos bits. Of all the forms of Lavos, Lucca finds the

  bit to be the most peculiar, being vastly different than any other life form she'd ever encountered. The bud-like rough-skinned pod had no visible organs for respiration or digestion. At surface level the thing was virtually lifeless but who knew. What were the vital signs for a Lavos bit? The Pico bit, as the Reptites called it, didn't breathe or anything but it didn't decay either while the Gobb bit did decay.

  For several weeks, Lucca catalogues and studies everything she can about Lavos but what of Lavos’ sentience. Was it a being of intent or an agent of instinct? To what capacity did it control its use of magic? She personally witnessed Lavos form Time Gates and powerful spells. Isn’t this proof of conscious effort and thereby proof of a sentient consciousness? The Reptite scientists believed that there was nothing to suggest Lavos was a creature of higher consciousness but Lucca was unconvinced. The combination of bio-organic and metallic substances redefined what an organism could be.

  Azala, in hopes of learning more about Dalton’s technology, cunningly suggests to Lucca that maybe if Reptite and Lucca were able to share scientific knowledge with each other, then they could uncover even more about Lavos and maybe they can develop new technology and forge a superior new world together. Although a younger Lucca may have been more suspicious of Azala’s suggestion, Azala’s earlier acts of mercy to the humans put Azala in a favorable light. Lucca was also curious about the Reptite’s magic (such as the psychokinesis abilities as seen in Chrono Trigger from the battle with Azala).

  As the reptile sages share their secrets, Lucca is surprised to learn that Reptite magic was engineered by utilizing the scientific method. The entire legacy of their archaic magical practice rested on a meticulous slow plot of progress made possible only by the behemoth longevity of the Reptite species. With thousands of years on the planet already behind them, the Reptites had discovered, dissected, and honed an organic magical toolset based on natural forces Lucca had never detected or even considered. During her time as a trainee in the lab she watched scientists use their ancient style of magic to create telescopes and other pseudo-machines to progress their research.

  In return, and much to Azala’s delight, Lucca then begins sharing her own brand of advanced scientific knowledge with the Reptites so they can understand the strange anachronistic weapons that Dalton had been importing.

  Time passes and a Reptite team discovers a small yellow shard which they bring back to Azala. Similar to Dreamstone but different, Lucca realizes that it can only be the immature golden shard of the Frozen Flame.

  During her time in Chronopolis, Lucca was allowed to study the Frozen Flame by Fate, in hopes of reversing the lock put in place by the Prometheus Circuit. As a result, Lucca knew most of what Chronopolis knew of the Frozen Flame. They believed it was a fragment of Lavos which splintered off during the impact (which is confirmed by the Reptite foraging team finding Lavos debris surrounding the site where they found the shard). Lucca knows that the Flame powered all of Chronopolis and was often used in their time experiments. Still, Lucca had never seen the Flame in person, having been locked up on a satellite island and not the main Chronopolis facility and she believed that Fate was still hiding some information about the Flame from her.

  As the Reptites and Lucca study the Flame, some of the Reptites theorize that the Flame may be an organic supercomputer built from Dreamstone by an unknown species. This leads Lucca to ponder that perhaps Lavos was not a malevolent creature but an agent of change, sent to recompose the DNA of those native forms on planets that it encounters. Her musings mimic the words of the researcher in Chronopolis (“perhaps the DNA of the ones who make contact with the Flame is recomposed by the sound they generate within? I wonder if life-forms are just dreaming in an endless flow of music?”) Perhaps Lavos’ true function was to supply creatures of a planet with magical abilities that might let them transcend the physical plane like Masa and Mune from Enhasa. Was the disastrous future that humanity encountered Lavos’ fault or Queen Zeals?

  Azala then begins conducting secret experiments on the Gobb bit (which she had led Lucca to believe disintegrated) and the immature Frozen Flame despite Lucca stating that these experiments should be off the table. Inevitably it came the

  day when Lucca arrived at the lab horrified to see the Pico bit and the shard of the Frozen Flame suspended for examination. Lucca goes into a panicked rage, yelling at the sages about the dangers of the bit, saying it should be kept on ice or eliminated altogether. Who knows what sort of reaction might be triggered by its interaction with the Flame? It's too late though as Azala simply tells her to watch. As she raises her reptile hand, Pico turns almost imperceptibly to face Azala—it was alive. Lucca watches as Azala closes her eyes and puts her hand on the bit. She says, “Fear, abandonment, confusion, curiosity”. Azala doesn't know if it was the Flame or simply time which woke Pico but touch alone was enough to feel what it was thinking. She implores Lucca to try. Cautiously and faithfully, Lucca touches the bit. Whereas before the thing was lifeless, now it was far from it. When touched it was a vastly empathetic organism which communicated emotionally. Lucca feels only an impulse; a deep emotional echo as the creature has no discernible language. The things she feels mirror Azala's list of emotions. Lucca had felt the same emotions from Kid in her early years.

  It was this strange wrinkle, a fleeting thought Lucca barely noticed, that shaped future history. For it was this impression drilled deeply into Lucca's psyche by this fragment of the super organism Lavos that convinced Lucca that the bit was only a pupa, the infantile form of a much larger creature, and, like all infants, it was an innocent and harmless thing. Had Lucca known the result of entertaining this notion she surely would have destroyed the bit then and there, however Lucca was never one to take an innocent life, especially one of such potential significance. In its infancy this bit was a clean slate upon which to forge a new understanding of this being, which could cause so much destruction but also held so much promise. What could they learn from this legitimate living extraterrestrial entity?

  Many years later, Lucca had to wonder had her mind been twisted by her work with the shard of the Frozen Flame. It's possible but if she faced the question honestly she knew it wasn't the whole truth. Any sort of brainwashing by the bit or the flame alone would not have been enough to get her to reopen the file on Lavos which she did. For Lucca there was another more personal reason to do what she did next.

  Back in 1005 A.D. after the Fall of Guardia by a Dalton-led Porre, Lucca lived under the shadow of tyranny occasionally putting in work with Lucia (Chrono Cross) in the Porre science lab in exchange for relative peace at her home. Despite wanting to challenge Dalton and use time travel to undo the timeline, Lucca knew that it was too risky messing around with time, that was the whole reason they dismantled the Epoch in the first place, and most importantly she had a baby Kid to take care of now. So Lucca lays low, she stays off Porre’s radar as much as possible and enjoys what she has. For the sake of Kid, she doesn't make waves. She carries on with her studies and complies when Porre troops occasionally demand things from her. Lucca eventually takes in other kids and forms her orphanage.

  Lucca always had one curiosity regarding the magical abilities of Marle and Frog. Although both of them had shared the innate element of water, their skills manifested in 2 very different forms: Frog as water and Marle as ice. Could fire, lightning, or shadow have other forms as well? She'd seen Dalton summon golems from a place she knew not, he was a fire type like her, did she also have that ability? How about Schala's magic? She had really strange skills which Lucca didn't recognize but if what Spekio told them was true, she must have had an innate element as well. Was Schala perhaps a shadow or lightning type that operated in a different area of the spectrum than Magus or Crono.

  In the ideal ending of Chrono Trigger, we see Magus searching in Antiquity (the era of the fall of the Kingdom of Zeal) far and wide for Schala. Next time we see Magus, he talks to Cronos party before their fight with the Dream Devourer and says some unsettling things: “Whether that is the future of the world from which you've come, I do not know.” (Chrono Trigger DS)

  After Chrono Trigger, Magus goes back to Antiquity a short time after the Ocean Palace incident. While scouring the planet for Schala, he quickly finds that, although the changing oceans have removed the eternally cloudy climate, the world has become much harsher. Civilization is in shambles and nature is reclaiming her territory quickly with stronger monsters in Monster Spring

  In these conditions, Magus search is treacherous so to more easily survive in this new Antiquity, Magus rapidly hones his magic to grow stronger and stronger. Over time and due to his frequent, steady, and increasingly more powerful manipulation of dark matter, he gradually acquires a vague awareness and understanding of the place behind those black holes he’s making—the place where gravity bends everything including time and space; the place where the black wind howls; the infinite void that hangs behind the fragile veil of space-time.

  Magus wonders: Had he not summoned Lavos once before? Did he pull Lavos from the very core of the planet or had he perhaps latched on to the creature at another point in time and drawn it to him? Even more intriguing was when his summoning of Lavos had been interrupted by Crono, he’d been teleported through time to Zeal while Crono had gone to 65,000,000 B.C.. How much of the time travel at that moment had been caused by Lavos and how much by himself?

  Magus began using his powers to create singular points of gravity to study space-time with the ultimate goal of finding a way to reach the time and place where Schala was. One day Magus detects something drifting out there beyond the veil—a huge magnetic storm upon which rides a very familiar presence—it's Schala. He creates a portal and latches on and finds himself in the vaguely recognizable land of 1006 A.D. the year to which Schala directed the storm which set in motion the events of Chrono Cross.

  Magus eventually lands at Lucca's orphanage where he finds Kid. Magus senses Kid as his sister except it’s not really his sister. Lucca welcomes Magus and Magus stays at the orphanage still piecing together Kid’s connection to Schala. Magus helps Lucca confirm Kids true identity as Schala’s daughter clone and how Kid came to possess the Astral Amulet (i.e. Magus gives it to her).

  Magus’ ability helps Lucca confirm her theory about magical spectrums who believes that Shadow Magic and Gravity Magic are within the same spectrum. Together, Magus and Lucca create the prototype Time Egg with Magus’ abilities (as seen in a Chronopolis researcher who states “In the 11th Century, a scientist by the name of Lucca indicated the possibility of time travel through the use of a "Time Egg,” which utilizes miniature black holes.”)

  Between 1000 A.D. and 1013 A.D., Magus and Lucca continue to live in the orphanage and researching time. However the vastness of the cosmos behind the veil led them to new areas and Magus and Lucca pushed further. The Chronopolis researcher says “time is not absolute but elastic, relative, and subjective. That there can be individual differences caused by changes in time. Perhaps the same people and life forms can even exist in several different space times. An independent time that flows with a will of its own.”

  Eventually they stumble onto time elasticity and dimensionality and itdestabilizes their understanding of the foundations of reality. This had profound impacts on both their psyches which never fully faded. By the end of their research they were

  convinced of 2 things.

  First, the universe was a lot more complicated and multifaceted than they ever suspected; multiple dimensions and potentialities form a bedrock of uncertainty in which all of existence hangs. Magus echoes the mind-blowing implications of this when he says, “There are as many worlds as there are potentialities.” This is indicative of super heavy psychological trauma that Lucca and Magus had to face as their research took them down the rabbit hole and they glimpsed the true fragile subjectivity of the universe. Another ghost researcher at Chronopolis says, “Everything is purely a problem of possibilities and the world is only stabilized by the viewpoint of the one who observes it.”

  Second, in the final days of their research, they detected an anomaly i.e. the Darkness Beyond Time but they called it Time's Eclipse. The patterns emanating from the place brought them to a single terrifying and inescapable conclusion: there was something out there and that something was malevolent and wrong. Even though they knew not what

  this new foe was, its very existence shook them both to the core, for as much as they learned about the universe's plasticity and mutability, this presence seemed to defy those laws—constant, unchanging, and evil. Perhaps most unsettling of all, Magus felt the familiar presence of Schala which he had chased on the storm of 1006 A.D. in Time’s Eclipse entwined with this growing evil.

  Lucca asked Magus to let it go but Magus could not ignore the presence he felt so he left. He didn't ask Lucca to come with him. She wouldn't have gone but it hurt just the same; his departure was one of her most painful life experiences.

  Returning to the prehistory Lucca.

  One thing seemed certain to Lucca above all the rest; there was a key here. This bit could indeed communicate on some level. If she could learn to interpret what she'd seen, if she could learn about its motivations, its history, its life cycle, and its abilities maybe she could solve the mystery of the infinite void which Magus had disappeared into. She couldn't let it go; she had to know. Just like Magus couldn't let it go and had to know.

  Lucca agrees to press forward with the study of the Pico bit under the condition that she should be allowed constant access to monitor its condition. Azala believes Lucca is rapidly outliving her usefulness but she can't deny the helpful insights that Lucca has repeatedly brought to the table.

  Lucca’s first contact with Pico had shown her things; she'd felt connected, she'd felt its helplessness, its need for protection and to know what kind of world it inhabited.

  As Lucca and Azala agree to study Pico together, their initial plan is purely exploratory: they will use touch to make peaceful and regular contact in order to communicate with the bit and learn as much as possible from it. However they quickly realize this plan is flawed. Extremely powerful emotional exchange paints a clear picture—the bit, not Lucca or Azala, is the one that needs answers. Pico is a creature so consumed by fear and helplessness that perhaps it sparks the nurturing female instincts of both Azala and Lucca to assist it in this way. Azala impresses upon the bit the glory of the

  Reptite culture, their ancient language, and history. Lucca she does her best to foster concepts like compassion and love all the while listening and probing for insight. Over time their bond grows stronger and stronger and just as Azala comes to consider Pico her child or protegé so Lucca would have abdicated a similar connection if pressed.

  Surprisingly Pico learns to mirror Lucca’s emotional frequencies of patience, understanding, and friendship. After many sessions with Pico, Lucca starts to believe a Lavos bit might actually be able to possess these qualities which sends her thinking again that perhaps Lavos was not inherently malevolent and that Lavos was simply an innocent creature of the

  cosmos which had only been corrupted by the influence of Queen Zeal and the Mammon Machine. It reminded her of

  another theory she'd once heard during her imprisonment in Chronopolis where she'd come across some of Belthazar's

  files about a creature he believed existed somewhere beyond time, a twisted creature which he claimed was a blend of

  Lavos and Schala which had come into being some time after the Ocean Palace incident.

  Belthazar speculated that Schala's extended contact with the Mammon Machine had acquainted Lavos with her in the same way Pico knew Lucca. Belthazar theorized that when Lavos felt his existence threatened by Lucca and her friends, it reached out for Schala instinctively to land in Time's Eclipse where Schala must have also gone after the incident at the Ocean Palace. If Lavos had somehow absorbed Schala out in Time’s Eclipse, would Lavos have acquired her humanity? Could that have been the spark, the source of grief and malevolence which penetrated deep into the space-time from that unholy void?

  Belthazar's files had been inconclusive. He himself could not know. Was the creature he called the Time Devourer a revenge plot by Lavos or a mere accident i.e. the disastrous result of combining a human psyche with Lavos’ innate desire to create and become a higher life form.

  The more Lucca learned about Pico the less she believed it was hell-bent on destroying the world. As hopeful as this outlook may have been, it was equally as troubling were she and Azala not teaching it to be a thinking creature.

  As time went on, Lucca’s suspicions became tangible fears as Pico's communicative abilities developed. Before long Lucca was certain, Pico had become something more, a sentient creature with thoughts of its own. It’s tentacles became more active, basic problem-solving tests were met with emotional impressions of boredom or disdain for such lowly activities.

  Azala was suddenly becoming more and more scarce around the lab. It was surprising and unsettling. How could Azala so readily forget about the very important work they were doing with Pico? Little by little, Lucca felt herself being marginalized and pushed out of the research. Her unease was punctuated by a moment of sheer panic on the day she made her final contact with Pico. Azala's work with Pico had finally taken root. There was no mistaking what happened next as Lucca heard in her mind and in perfect Reptite, the word “crater”.

  Lucca immediately goes to the crater where she finds a small floating blue orb. It’s a time gate. Lucca immediately returns to retrieve Robo and inform Azala that their actions may be having consequences far beyond what they could control. When she arrives at the Reptite lab she sees Azala and the sages performing some kind of ritual. The sage holds the diminutive damaged form of Pico high up in the air and Azala stands in front of it, around her neck dangles the immature golden shard of the Frozen Flame, and in her hands is a fully intact undamaged Lavos bit Gobb.

  Lucca demands answers but Azala says, “Quiet! Gobb says this is what must be done.” Lucca questions Azala in rage, demanding why Azala is doing what Gobb says however Azala ignores her and the ceremony continues. The sage brings Pico closer to Azala and when Pico is close enough to Gobb, it extends a tendril. Azala’s face wrenches in disgust as the weaker bit tries to interact with Gobb. Pico then extends past Gobb to the shard of the Frozen Flame. Nizbel, Azala’s faithful bodyguard, foolishly intervenes and snatches Pico from the arms of the sage when suddenly Gobb

  unleashes a massive energy blast which strikes down Nizbel instantly and Pico with him.

  Lucca screams out for Pico as everyone is shocked as Nizbel lays dead. In the confusion of the moment, Lucca reaches

  out to make contact with Gobb and comes to a powerful insight about its true calling. Gobb is a monster of pure hatred

  and violence. Magus’ words at Terra Cave ring out to Lucca: “Unimaginable is the power of Lavos. Anyone who dares to oppose it meets certain doom” (Magus).

  Azala, like Queen Zeal and Dalton, have become corrupted by the Lavos bits and the Frozen Flame, becoming an agent of the most powerful predator the galaxy has ever known. Azala pushes Lucca away with a powerful telekinetic wave of her hand but Lucca fights back. Azala declares Lucca a traitor and a confirmation of what she’s always expected from the apes. The immature Frozen Flame around Azala's neck glows brightly; she is now fully consumed by the dark influence. Azala renews her vow to eliminate the humans from the planet starting with Lucca and she orders all of the sages and soldiers around her to attack. Lucca destroys the whole reptile outpost with a single Flare. When the inferno subsides Azala is dead while Gobb lies next to her. In the distance, Nizbell’s still form clutches the corpse of Pico.

  Just then a legion of reptiles arrive to see their Queen dead, the horde descends to take their revenge but Lucca retreats rather than spill more innocent blood. Beneath the scavenged hollowed-out shell of Lavos, Lucca grabs a chunk of Dreamstone and holds it up to the time gate. As the reptile soldiers descend, she jumps through it with Robo.

  When they arrive, they're in the snowy plateaus of Antiquity, although this Kingdom of Zeal is quite different than the one she once knew.

  The Dusk of Time

  In 12,000 B.C., Lucca discovers that their efforts in prehistory have paid off. Reptites have evolved in Dragonians and live alongside humans in all spheres of society. However, instead of enmity between magic and non-magic users (as in the original Kingdom of Zeal timeline), there is conflict between the Earthbound magic-users vs the Sky-dwelling Zealians who use advanced technology instead of magic to rule over the Earthbound.

  Lucca and Robo enter one of the Earthbound strongholds and learn that the Earthbound live in a simply society. Although impoverished and little material wealth, basic magical powers and a unifying religious belief continue to motivate the Earthbound to fight against the Zealians. However, recently the Earthbound have suffered a demoralizing loss: mere months ago the Zealians, led by the Guru of Life, raided and stole the Earthbound’s most sacred and precious artifact, the Angel’s Whisper. The Angel’s Whisper granted the Earthbound their greatest weapon, magic, and it’s this weapon that finally gave the Earthbound a foothold and break free from their slave masters in the cloud. As a result, the Angel’s Whisper is highly religious with some Earthbounders revering it as an actual piece of their god, the Great Sleeper.

  Lucca knows that this artifact is in fact the Frozen Flame. As she tries to extract more information, she discovers that the Earthbounders seem to shut down when she asks for more information. As Lucca travels from colony to colony, she discovers mysterious ethereal pyramid-shaped devices which lay scattered along the landscape i.e. the Records of Fate. Lucca recalls seeing these in Chronopolis but ceased contact with them when she felt strange thoughts forming.

  Lucca eventually meets some NPCs who refuse to interact with the Records of Fate and have been ostracized by those that do. She learns that there is a high priestess who led the Earthbound. This high priestess and her daughter used the Angel’s Whisper to commune with the Great Sleeper. This high priestess had a husband who was once a rare voice of peace in those times who helped temper the high priestess’ combative nature however he went missing. Some claim that the husband was studying the energy source of the floating kingdom i.e. the Sunstone. After learning the Sunstone would eventually fail, he went searching for another energy source and never returned. The High Priestess and her daughter then vanished but not before prophesying about the Records of Fate and encouraging the Earthbounders to consult them. Another NPC theorizes that after the Angel’s Whisper was stolen, the Earthbound’s remaining leaders lost their guidance as they could “no longer see with his eyes.”

  Robo consoles Lucca who is distraught and suggests traveling to the floating kingdom to gather more information. Lucca finds that the floating kingdom is not the glittering haven of peace that it once was, instead it is covered in machines—grimy and industrial. After having a quick look around, Lucca curiously observes that although their technology is super advanced, it's also extremely old. It’s as if the whole kingdom was inherited from the wiser ancestors of these aliens and then they forgot how to maintain it.

  Lucca and Robo decide to head for the city in the distance and discover the city’s name is Kajar, the same name as the city in the alternate Kingdom of Zeal timeline. Lucca's mind finally coalesces and she shares a thought with Robo: There's something wrong here. Why are so many things the same? This world might look different but too many themes were being repeated for it to be a coincidence. Why are there Earthbound? Why is there a floating Kingdom, a Sunstone, a Guru of life? Why is the primary island in the sky a bizarre reflection of the one she'd been to before, even down to the name of the city of Kajar?

  Robo postulates that perhaps existence must run according to a certain template. Could there be unassailable constants embedded in the river of time which poked above the surface no matter which direction the river flowed? No doubt that certain ideals were universal. For instance, the forces of life, reason, and time as represented by the Gurus. Maybe it only makes sense for things to be similar as if thematic constants dictate there's only one real way the world can be and the finer details are simply randomized by the rich tapestry of history.

  Despite this, Robo says Lucca is right and the whole thing feels weird. Lucca and Robo enter Kajar and find it is mainly occupied by soldiers and engineers. She also discovers Records of Fate here and the inhabitants act the same as those on the land. Lucca finds Zealians who also refuse to interact with the Records of Fate but is unable to clearly distinguish them from those that do. A primitive and war-like atmosphere pervades the Zealians who whisper excitedly about capturing the Angel’s Whisper by the great General Melchior. Others believe that the Eternal War will soon be over and what would happen if the Sunstone’s energy was all used up, painting a picture of the hellish world they would inhabit if the floating islands fell into the ocean below. Ironically, both warring factions of the planet revere the Frozen Flame as the symbol of their salvation.

  One Zealian mentions that the dreamers in Enhasa have come up with beneficial inventions to make the lives of the Zealians easier but they also invented the Records of Fate which some Zealians are wary of. Lucca and Robo attempt to gain access to Enhasa but are unable to find entry. Instead they explore the only remaining accessible area, the Citadel (the fortress embedded in the mountain that was the Zeal Palace in the other timeline). Lucca discovers that the Citadel is mainly inhabitated by soldiers, always constantly training. These soldiers revere General Melchior however Lucca is unable to encounter Melchior. Lucca hears a rumor that Gaspar, the Guru of Time, is dead, having defied the other two, and how no one has seen Gaspar in quite some time. Lucca does encounter Belthazar who keeps a lab in the Citadel.

  This Belthazar is a chattering, chuckling, horrible, insane version of the Guru that we know. Lucca proceeds with caution knowing right away that this is a very different man than her once friend and colleague and she best not reveal herself to him. Instead she watches him work and gleans what information she can. He answers Lucca’s questions but often trails off into tangents, speaking more to himself than to her. Starting with the topic of the war, Belthazar relates, with pride, the story of his people; how the technocratic enlightened ones have enslaved the Earthbound for millennia, carefully identifying bloodlines which acquired the gift of magic and delicately thinning the herd as to keep them only believing they had a fighting chance. He says, “Now there is war but also perhaps balance. If the enlightened ones had not enacted this culling through the genetic bottleneck surely the magically gifted on the surface would have overrun us by now.” He lauds his ancestors for employing this genius plan to keep the slaves sedated by hope.

  The Earthbound aren't all cattle, however, as he praises the high priestess for rightfully abandoning her people to work with the more advanced Zealians. It was all thanks to her that they learned the location of the Angel's Whisper. Balthazar says it's a tool of unknowable power and the key to upgrading his finest invention. They have so much to gain from the Angel's whisper though he has quite liked calling it by the name he dug out of the most ancient memory banks in the city: the Frozen Flame. Due to the thoughtfulness of the High Priestess, the Zealians will soon use the Flame to acquire the ultimate power which they will unleash on the Earthbound. bringing the war to an end and laying waste to the squandered genetic potential of the surface dwellers.

  After all, they won't be needing the slave caste in their new world. He theorizes that generations hence will bring about a new world where all people will be able to use magical abilities to their fullest under the watchful eye of his daughter. He laughs with gleeful pride and says, “She's really grown up, so much taller than me now”.

  When Lucca asks him what this ultimate power is, Belthazar stops what he's doing for a moment and stares blankly into space. He then giggles again and says bemusedly that he doesn't actually know. Lucca gestures to the unfinished Epoch in the corner and asks if he plans on finishing it. Belthazar sighs stating that the project was a great disappointment, being one of the Guru’s finest ideas. He thought to continue work on it alone when the short-sighted fool Gasper refused to cooperate with the Guru’s but he figures he won't be needing it after all.

  Before long, Belthazar tells her he'd best return to his duties in Enhasa. Lucca asks him about the Great Sleeper. Belthazar explains that it's quite ironic. Despite their Eternal War, long ago the Zealians and the Earthbound used to share similar religious myths although he says there still exists several superstitious Zealians who worship their own version of the Great Sleeper though they have a different name for it which predates their civilization. As he turns around to leave, he says, “They call it Azala’s Son”. Perhaps Lavos is another constant in the flow of time.

  Lucca and Robo hack into Belthazar’s computer. They are able to access the completed schematics of the Epoch as well as the ancient memory banks which Belthazar mentioned before which pieces together the history of Broken Antiquity.

  After Azala’s death, the Reptites erupted into civil war with 2 sides: those who wished to complete Azala’s genocide of the humans and other influential Reptites who had grown to see humans as friends. The Reptites on Azala’s side were defeated and there was peace for a short time however a new conflict soon arose.

  Fight For The Flame - The Age of Enlightenment

  The Frozen Flame would remain in possession of Azala’s descendants and would eventually alter their genome and grant them the use of magic, however this was still millions of years away. Meanwhile the high-tech weaponry and other advanced technologies brought to prehistory by Dalton combined with the technical know-how Lucca had imparted to the Reptite sages served as an organic springboard to advance both human and Reptite understanding of inorganic technologies. Eventually a highly knowledgeable faction of technology-using sages came to power, calling themselves the Enlightened Ones. This group viewed the Frozen Flame as dangerous because of its connection to Lavos. They legitimately saw the flame as an extraterrestrial threat and sought to destroy it. When those who possessed the Flame rallied to protect it, the Enlightened Ones sought violence to contain them. Reptite and human alike fell out on both sides of this conflict and thus began a long battle for power between a small group of ultra-powerful technocrats and the rest of the population. No matter how close the Enlightened Ones came to destroying the Frozen Flame, the Earthbound were always able to win the day through sheer numbers. Eventually the Flame was hidden away in a place undetectable by Zealian technology and thus the stage was set for the peoples of the world to become locked in perpetual conflict.

  War of Ascension - The Dominance of Zeal

  However, it would take a very long time for the Flame to augment the people of the planet with magical abilities and so those who utilize the anachronistic technologies developed an advantage early on. As the Enlightened Ones saw their environment being destroyed by never-ending war they set about trying to rise above it. They harnessed their understanding of gravity and leveraged the power of the Sunstone, raising several huge landmasses into the clouds. There was once again a kingdom in the sky, though hardly as peaceful as the Zeal we once knew. From their lofty position, the Zealians systematically enslaved and oppressed the Earthbound, raining down destruction whenever the threat rose too high. Having no immediate recourse the Earthbound became a slave caste and so the first Great War ended with the Enlightened Ones of Zeal as the victor. For eons the Earthbound lived in poverty below this wealthy ruling class of technocrats however time inevitably eroded the memory of the Zealians. As generations passed, they forgot the reasons why society had been structured this way. They grew forgetful and complacent, content to use the Earthbound as a slave caste as they saw fit. Their zealous desire to destroy the Frozen Flame was lost to the ages and war perpetuated itself simply because no one could remember who cast the first stone.

  The Outcasts - Rise of the Demi-Humans

  Given enough time the Dragonian and human race mixed giving rise to the demi-humans. On the surface, the arrival of the new race was celebrated as the Earthbound viewed the demi-humans as the next great leap forward however the technocrats of the skies carried in them a long tradition of xenophobia from the times of Dalton. Demi-humans born in Zeal were considered impure and were exiled to live as slaves among the Earthbound however this culture was unfit for life on the surface and likewise hated by the Earthbound for their complacence in Zeal's brutal domination of the surface. With no place to call their home, this group of exiled demi-humans used crude technology to lift their own continent into the sky, the land we know as Mountain of Woe. So the people that symbolized so much hope for the planet were cruelly locked away in a prison of their own design, halfway between the sky kingdom and the surface. Ever since those ancient times, they have been allowed to live in isolation provided they don't interfere with the Zealians or the Earthbound.

  As for the rest of the Earthbound, salvation would come slowly to those trapped below the technological dominance of the superpower Zeal but it would come. For those who had hidden away the Frozen Flame all these years, their faithful devotion would eventually pay off. Sometime around 300,000 B.C., an infusion of energy from the Frozen Flame, now called the Angel’s Whisper, evolved the genome of the Earthbound and bestowed upon them the gift of magic.

  Over the next few generations, the scales of power began to balance. Armed with this new power, the Earthbound slaves initiated a war for their freedom. Once again, fighting enveloped the planet and a war that continues to rage until this day. The Enlightened Ones knew well what was happening with the Frozen Flame and the advent of magic and, as Balthazar mentioned, they launched a nefarious plot to cull the strongest magic users among the Earthbound in secret—a genetic bottleneck which would keep the Earthbound just hopeful enough to keep fighting but without any true chance of ever toppling their slave masters.

  After hearing the new history of the planet, Lucca is spiritually drained. She remembers the words of Magus, “Gone is

  the Kingdom of Zeal, and all the dreams and ambitions of its people.”

  Robo says they should continue the investigation. Perhaps the people who have isolated themselves far from the war may offer a new perspective. So they head back to the surface and travel to the island between the North and South continents. There they find what they are looking for; the massive black chain as it stretches into the unseen. Lucca and Robo ascend the chain to reach the cloudy terrain of the Mountain of Woe. However, in this broken timeline, the Mountain of Woe is known by another name. The never-ending winds of the region have given the mysterious floating mountain, which lies halfway between the surface and the lands above, a new moniker: the Singing Mountain.

  In stark contrast to the worlds above and below, these demi-humans have a healthy society. Despite the environmental challenges of living on the Singing Mountain, they are thriving and they are mostly isolated from the war which consumes the rest of the world. Equipped with technological knowledge from Zeal as well as some level of magical ability, they've utilized the best of both worlds to create a truly harmonious nation. Indeed the demi-humans of the Singing Mountain are the most peaceful and productive people on the planet. This windswept place almost reminds Luca of the kingdom of Zeal she once visited on the Keystone timeline which does a lot to boost her mood.

  She travels the area, meeting demi-humans and noting that there are no pyramidal records here. While exploring the corners of the Singing Mountain, Lucca finds that as strangely as the Records of Fate do not exist on the Singing Mountain, the Nu do. Though she will one day learn how to communicate with them as Belthazar once did, this is a skill set she does not yet possess. So the Nu are as cryptic and aloof as they have always been.

  Lucca and Robo have a relatively nice time on the Singing Mountain and engage many of the locals in conversation but dread still looms in the back of Luca's mind about the bigger picture and the fate of the rest of the world.

  They eventually happen upon a modest looking hut and the old man who dwells inside is none other than the Guru of Time, Gasper. No one on the Singing Mountain knows his true identity but of course Lucca does. He's at first dismissive of her, telling her he doesn't know anything about any Guru of Time however when she identifies the project on his work table as the beginnings of a Time Egg his attention is peaked. Lucca methodically relates the tale of her previous adventures and supplies Gasper with some fascinating insight about their alternate timeline experiences together. After thoughtfully listening to her story, he stoically mentions that he's downright giddy with excitement.

  Like Belthazar, Gasper is a source of great insight about the bigger picture. Now with a better understanding of what his life might have been like in an adjacent reality, he confirms the sky kingdom is running out of power. They knew they needed an alternative energy source or they would lose their dominion over the Earthbound. Gasper says there is certainly no such thing as a Mammon Machine present here to replace the Sunstone so the Gurus thought of something else.

  Gasper recounts to Lucca how more superstitious Zealians who reigned generations prior had envied the Earthbound for their possession of an artifact which was a direct link to the gods. Inspired by their successes and dominion over magic, he says the Enlightened Ones sought methods to reach the same source. Sooner or later, they stumbled upon an alternate technique. They began using powerful dreamers to reach the divine for inspiration and to seek new technologies.

  In the original Zeal, life was so peaceful the Zealians took to the ultimate art form of dreaming. In this Broken Antiquity, the sleeping city of Enhasa has weaponized this art form of dreaming.

  Enhasa is now the research and development arm of the Zealian military and, as Gasper confirms, the base of operations for the Zealian’s dream project. Though the practice of tactical dreaming is centuries old, it has recently made huge advances thanks to the High Priestess’ daughter, a true prodigy who displays more talent than all the dreamers before her. It’s the dreamers of Enhasa, specifically the High Priestess’ daughter, who are responsible for creating the very thing which now puts the planet in danger.

  Gasper fears the machine which he calls “Belthazar's wicked creation”. He first went along with the plan to create the thing because it could theoretically replace the Sunstone however no one was prepared for the machine to literally take on a life of its own and then descend into madness. It corrupted the other Gurus and the High Priestess. Before long, they cared less about replacing the Sunstone and more about winning the war against the Earthbound by summoning the Ultimate Weapon, perhaps god himself from a distant future when he walked the planet in physical form.

  As the Guru of Time, Gaspar absolutely objected to their plan, describing it as frightful insanity. After this rejection, they scheduled Gaspar for execution but he escaped through secret channels in Zeal to the neutral territory of the Singing Mountain.

  He says that maybe it's hearing Luca's story that's giving him ideas or maybe it’s because he's the Guru of Time and that he was patiently awaiting this moment. Either way, the moment has come. If Lucca has the talents and power she spoke of in her tale of alternate timelines and other Zeals then she may be the last hope to stop the Gurus and the High Priestess and destroy Belthazar's machine. He tells her he can get into Enhasa and even volunteers to come along. So Luca, backpack Robo, and Gasper form a party with the aim of destroying Belthazar's machine and stopping the Guru's plan to summon the Ultimate Weapon.

  Gasper flies an old-style aircraft from the edge of the Singing Mountain to a secret location on the bottom of the southeast island of Zeal. There they enter the huge underground caverns of Enhasa where Lucca is surprised to see a huge cache of Dreamstone. Gasper tells her the Dreamstone is the true wealth of the Zealians and is kept here, away from the main keep, as an extra safety precaution against thieves. This ancient supply of Dreamstone is the reason why this piece of land, once known as Marle Island, was chosen to be part of the floating kingdom and was, in fact, the first continent raised.

  After a long journey to the surface, Lucca and friends reach the secret entrance to Enhasa. Lucca and Gaspar must sneak their way to the epicenter of the facility where Belthazar's machine is located. Lucca is able to use the Reptite sage magic to conjure up a disguise that resembles the soldiers in Enhasa. The alarm sounds and troops are coming, Luca and Gasper run through room after room of sedated dreamers connected to computers until they reach a small control center where Lucca plugs Robo into the computers. He hacks his way into the data banks to find a map of the facility. Robo confirms there is a highly guarded area on the upper plateau of the island that they are on. The highly magnetized chamber there can only be for one purpose—housing the Frozen Flame.

  It's then that Lucca finds a set of files called Dreamer Reports. She opens the files and comes face to face with images and artistic renderings of Lavos sleeping below the surface. The reports finally confirm Luca's deepest fears—Gob lives.

  From this point on, Lucca, Robo, and Gasper are fighting their way through the city.

  At last they reach the epicenter of the Dream Project, a large metallic amphitheater opens to a massive plateau on the very edge of the floating island in an endless wall of sky. Below the massive gravity well which contains the Frozen flame is a single capsule which lies in the center of the technological amphitheater. The capsule is artistically adorned with a massive statue of a woman. This statue's face tugs at Lucca's memory. Gasper says the capsule must house the young dreaming prodigy i.e. the daughter of the high priestess.

  When Lucca reaches the dreamer's bedside and sees the sleeping girl, she is crippled with emotion. It's the face of Schala. Suddenly the statue hovering over Schala's bed opens its eyes and Luca realizes that the result of the Zealian's Dream Project is the supercomputer FATE. FATE whispers a single statement, “So, you're the teacher.”

  Lucca and Gaspar fight and defeat FATE. Just then another avatar of FATE materializes from the mechanical depths of the cavernous technological amphitheater. FATE leaves no opportunity for a second battle and casually binds the party with a force field

  Fate declared Gaspar to be the lost Guru and musing that perhaps it is his destiny to be lost. Next she tells Lucca she'll soon realize the pointlessness of fighting because “his” plan is for the best. FATE says she's much stronger now thanks to “him”. FATE then turns her attention to Robo still mounted on Lucca's back. FATE inserts a finger into Robo's exposed circuitry injecting Robo with an extremely malicious package of code.

  Suddenly Melchior, Belthazar and the High Priestess arrive. Lucca recognizes the High Priestess as Queen Zeal and asks her how she could use her own daughter this way. Queen Zeal says that her daughter is a hero, that among all the

  dreamers of Zeal, Schala alone is talented enough to channel mechanical plans of such detail and complexity from the divine realms. It was only because of Schala's sacrifice that the Zealians were able to build FATE and the Records of Fate i.e. righteous tools which will soon grant peace not only to the Zealians but the Earthbound as well.

  FATE looks at Balthazar and says, “Now that the teacher is here, is it not time to proceed?” Gasper tells them one final time that they are pursuing a path of insanity however Balthazar, now standing near Fate by a control panel, states, “True progress has rarely sprung from anything else.”

  “Are you ready my daughter,” he asks FATE as he starts pushing buttons. From its magnetic container, the Frozen Flame burns brightly, the Cradle around it starts projecting laser beams onto it.

  Beyond the huge floating plateau, Lucca sees a maelstrom of pure chaos. Out in the distance, far into the endless Zealian sky, she sees a singularity. The air shimmers. Light bends around it as it would a black hole. Then stillness and expansion. Something is coming through. Out there, a large new patch of land is appearing.

  Around them the city shakes and debris rains from the ceiling. Suddenly the magnetic chamber containing the Flame shatters. Lucca finds the forcefield holding her in place has lifted. While Gasper makes an immediate dash for Balthazar, Lucca runs to Schala's capsule. Melchior steps in Gaspar's way and the two begin to fight

  Before Luca can get to Schala, a huge slab of stone falls from the ceiling. A thunderous clap directs her attention back to the event taking place in the sky. Through that massive shimmering curtain, a huge expanse of land floats just beyond the edge of the plateau. On it, a massive fortress of impossible design and there standing before it, Luca finally catches a glimpse of “him”, though not in the form she expected. It’s not the hulking shell of Lavos which descended upon the Ocean Palace when Queen Zeal and the Gurus summoned (Chrono Trigger) but a diminutive Lavos core clothed in ceremonial robes. Queen Zeal falls to her knees in adoration. Lucca charges the Lavos core but before she can even close a fraction of the distance she is removed from the scene with the dismissive wave of its hand. The Lavos core teleports Lucca away.

  Lucca and Robo arrive miles away on the surface. From there, they see a massive storm in the distance as FATE finishes the enigmatic process she'd begun. After that, silence rings for a dreadful moment before the Sunstone fails. Slowly, the main continent of Zeal loses altitude followed by all the others save for the southeast island with Enhasa and the new land which is now part of it.

  From her vantage point on the mountain, Lucca and Robo have front row seats to the end of this world. The tsunami washes indiscriminately across the land, submerging all lowland colonies and spelling the death of millions. After FATE’s attack on his circuitry, Robo is badly damaged. He knows his time is short and he doesn't have the luxury of giving this moment of global destruction the silent respect it deserves. Robo had the wisdom that came with pondering existence for

  400 years while he sat in Fiona's Forest (Chrono Trigger) and many more years while Lucca was imprisoned on Chronopolis.

  Robo asks Lucca to not be afraid and to not lose hope, that the world is a miraculous place and he will leave it

  satisfied and without regret for they have lived long lives and succeeded in creating a world where both human and

  Dragonian live side by side. Robo expresses that he was built to infiltrate and understand humans and he is truly grateful for having done so. Then he says goodbye. At last his eyes go dark as most of the surface is devoured by the waves Lucas sits there holding the last parts of Robo’s shell. His essence will never be recovered.

  Interlude - Azala’s Son

  After Lucca fought Azala and escaped prehistory, the last Lavos bit did as its biological imperative compelled it to: burrow deep into the planet to grow. However, due to it’s unique experience in prehistory, this Lavos developed in a much different way. For any normal Lavos with no conscious thought, 65 million years of gestation just feels like a long nap. However for a Lavos who was taught how to be conscious and who has an innate knowledge of a unified space-time dimensional fabric, struggled to put these concepts into a Reptite construct of mind. For this Lavos, it’s gestation process was a jail sentence.

  In addition, the results of the repeated exposure to the Frozen Flame gave this Lavos a bizarre cocktail of infinite perception and comprehension. Slowly, Azala’s son begins to understand the space-time continuum and dimensionality as well as see and interpret it. This mirrors the original Belthazar’s position in Chronopolis: able to monitor various space-time continua by peering through the green void of hyperspace.

  Azala’s Son’s ability to view multiple realities in space-time continua grant it the full knowledge and awareness of the entire Chrono Saga up until this point. It knows everything that happened in Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. It sees the day of Lavos and its destruction of the planet which is a horrifying revelation for it as it now viewed the planet as its home. It sees the Time Devourer, Schala, Belthazar, Project Kid, the Mammon Machine, and Queen Zeal's oppression of the first Lavos. It witnesses other events, which in this timeline would never come to be, including the time crash of Chronopolis and the Polis War (Chronopolis vs Dinopolis). It saw the savage dominance of El Nido by the supercomputer FATE.

  Completely alone, this Lavos lacked guidance. From a finite and mortal Reptite construct of mind, this Lavos the truth as it played out in countless realities—eventually all life on the planet would be affected by him, then try to take advantage of him or kill him. Insanity and horror swam around this Lavos for millions of years polluting the planet with malice fear and confusion via his link to it the Frozen Flame.

  Time in the planet is long and adaptation is inevitable. Over the aeons, this Lavos’ insanity slowly coalesced into an illusion of personality and renewed purpose. So with full knowledge of all events to this point, Azala's Son searched for a way out, a way to break this terrible loop and thus it had a plan to save itself.

  It waited and waited until a short time before Luca arrived in Antiquity. It’s no coincidence that Lucca found herself at this particular time because the entirety of Azala’s Son’s plan hinged on Lucca, this very specific time period, and a very specific pair of gifted magic users i.e. Schala and Janus.

  Though Lavos could see all events of its time or dimension, it was unable to travel to them or to affect them directly from its shell until one particular civilization began prioritizing dream research in order to hone their weapons of war. Azala’s Son began a steady process of taking over the minds of the Zealians, striking at the world through the dreamers of Enhasa for he knows this is where the timeline is the most malleable.

  Azala’s Son’s plan was to create a Time Crash (this idea of blending different coordinates in space-time so that two different points in a timeline inhabited the same physical space). If Azala’s Son could not affect events on the planet until it was free of its shell, could it not accelerate its freedom by time crashing the present moment into the distant future when it was free. He also needed a way to ensure he was able to survive to maturity since he would be vulnerable while he was hibernating as he had seen in previous timelines. As a result, he needed FATE which could perform the complex calculations necessary for a Time Crash and could install records across the entire landscape to ensure that no one exploited or killed Azala’s Son before his desired future. Azala’s Son used Schala’s powerful dreaming ability to relay the advanced plans for FATE and have the Zealians build it. Once FATE was built, Queen Zeal would betray the Earthbounders and allow the Zealians the opportunity to steal the Frozen Flame to power FATE as well as allow FATE to evolve like she had always wanted. Thus FATE caused a Time Crash of 12,000 B.C. into the broken future of 2280 A.D.

  Azala’s Son knows that he is always vulnerable to an attack through time so he seeks to travel to the Dimensional Vortex. He deduces that the Dimensional Vortex is the enigmatic place behind time and space and concludes that all actions carried out in the Dimensional Vortex are embedded in the fabric of all timelines. Actions originating in the Dimensional Vortex cannot be erased no matter how much the timelines change unless the source and the Dimensional Vortex itself is altered.

  11,995 B.C. - Five Years After the Time Crash

  The waters have receded and society has been rebuilt. The ancient island which supports Enhasa is now four times its original size with a small bridge connecting it to a vast expanse of indescribable futuristic oddities adorned with a massive fortress. The Singing Mountain and the demi-humans were also spared during the catastrophe although the chain is now broken and the island is in complete isolation held aloft by an invisible impenetrable forcefield.

  The war between the Zealians and the Earthbound is finally over now that the Records of Fate influence has been stopped.

  We now focus on Janus from the Broken Antiquity era. Janus is a young man, originally from Algetty, who is a truly talented magic user. He was forced to leave his home and conscripted into the Earthbound Army when a construction accident displayed his powerful magic abilities. He proved himself an extremely useful soldier against the Zealians but the war left him damaged.

  After the flood ended the war, Janus returned home to Algetty and did his best to drop off the radar, living a tormented life of solitude due to the atrocities of war and for being the son of Queen Zeal, the hated woman who betrayed her people. One day, Lucca finally tracks Janus down. She confirms Janus’ suspicions about the fake peace between the Zealians and the Earthbounds and recruits him to help her take down Lavos and FATE. Janus agrees, wanting to save his sister.

  Due to Lucca’s extensive work with Magus at the orphanage, Lucca is able to rapidly train Janus’ to be one of the strongest iterations of Magus in any timeline. They work on their Omega Flare triple tech with the remnants of Robo.

  Finally the day arrives where Lucca and Magus attempt to take down Lavos and FATE. They travel to the Fortress adjacent to Enhasa and battle through robots and Reptite engineers. Lucca and Magus take down FATE. They then encounter the Lavos bit. However the Lavos bit is too powerful, the Lavos bit grabs Janus and shows him all the failures of Magus in previous timelines. Though they are not his experience, Janus knows them to be a reality somewhere and this Janice is but a young man and instantly overcome with the futility of resistance. Lavos also puts Janus on trial for Magus' crimes. Janus sees a clear picture of many of his alternate selves, he sees how in another world he committed exactly the same crime his mother did—he gained the trust of the mystics only to use them to get close to Lavos before bringing about everyone's destruction with his own personal ambition. In another, he appeared in Zeal as the prophet only to fail once more and force Schala into an infinite downward spiral of hatred as part of the Time Devourer.

  Lavos dismantles this young man's mind and reshapes it to his liking, turning Janus against Lucca. The Lavos core then extends a hand to Lucca. Lucca hesitantly touches the hand and it is revealed to Lucca that this Lavos core is in fact Pico.

  Pico has Janus create a portal. Lucca sees that it’s Time’s Eclipse. Lucca realizes the meaning of FATE’s initial words to her: “So, you’re the teacher”. Suddenly she understands that Pico was ahead of her from the beginning. He needed Luca to come to Antiquity and he needed her to see him at the sky palace so that she would train Janus and teach him how to unlock his abilities. Because Pico needs a catastrophic dimensional distortion to reach the Darkness Beyond Time and Janus is the only one with magic capability enough to cause such a distortion. This particular Janus, who was already too broken from his tragic life to resist Pico's influence, is the perfect tool to carry out Pico’s will.

  Lucca disregarded Janus’ desire to leave the fighting behind, powered him up to levels he'd never dreamed of, and led him right to Pico. Everything since her trip through the time gate had been part of his plan. Even the trip through the time gate to arrive here. It was all orchestrated to create this moment. Now that Pico has Janus, he can make his escape from time and leave FATE here to rule over the time loop they have created. Pico and Janus disappear through the portal leaving Lucca alone once more.