How could they defeat this monster? Never had this group of young people ever faced such an enemy, never in all their travels. Chrono looked into the faces of his teammates. There was the dark man called Magus, the sorcerer from the middle-ages. His cloak was torn, hair blown out of its ponytail. His left arm hanging uselessly at his side bleeding since the creature singled him out for an attack. Beyond him was Lucca, Chrono's best friend, from the present day. The brilliant young scientist looked terrible now. Her glasses was gone, her small helmet long since cracked. She smiled at him and tried again to get up, but her shattered right knee wouldn't let her. Robo as present as well, the amazingly powerful robot from the future. Poor Robo had lost all mobility in his limbs a few attacks ago and all he could do now is watch and hope. Still struggling to fight was Glenn, another person from the middle ages. A knight turned into a frog by Magus long ago, Glenn was about the best off of all of them. The mighty Masamune was chipped and cracked now. But Chrono remembered the day Glenn first got the Masamune. The tremendous power that the sword let out then was incredible. Chrono now wished it could do the same here. There was Ayla, the young woman from the pre-historic age. The strongest human in the group, she was the only one still standing. Though bleeding from many places, she stood strong in front of the others. Then Chrono looked at Marle, the young woman he loved. The golden blonde hair was blowing freely in the mysterious wind. Her face was smudged with dirt and blood. She probably did not have enough strength to cure them all again, so Chrono didn't even ask. Valkyrie, her crossbow, was broken so all she had to fight with was her hands and magic. Boy is she a mess, he thought. Then again, I probably don't look that good myself. His Rainbow sword was also chipped, but otherwise in good shape. His spiky red hair stood up on all ends at the massive power in the shell of the monster. He clothing was torn in many places, and he was bleeding from the head. Chrono sighed. This was all they had left to fight this creature, this abomination they called Lavos. Lavos was some kind of gigantic robot attached through wires to connect directly to the power of the shell, and he had lost both arms so far, but Chrono didn't know how much longer they would hold out.

Then Magus turned to him, "Are we all ready again?" Chrono turned to the others. They all nodded. He turned back to Magus picking up his sword from the ground. "Yeah, let's get on with it." He turned to Lavos and with a quick symbol to Lucca, leaped up at him. Right behind him he felt the power of Lucca's fir stream hit his sword and then he plunged it into Lavos' head. Down below him, Magus, Frog, and Ayla attacked Lavos with a vengeance. Lavos counter-attacked with some kind of beam. It knocked Ayla and Glenn back, but Magus held. There was such a glowing of power in his eyes. He could feel the evil in this creature; he could sense its massive power surging through it. He could feel the pain of the lasers pierce the skin, but he ignored it. Then he screamed at Lavos, "This is for SCHALA!!!!" and drove his deadly scythe into Lavos' middle. The creature screamed in pain and started to shake. Chrono fell off, luckily grabbing his sword before he lost it. He landed on his back and looked up just in time to see Magus look back at him with a small grin on his face. But that was Magus for you, always loving battle of any kind. Chrono remembered the first time he, Marle, and Glenn faced him.

"YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME, YOU VERMIN!" The scream came from the man in black at the end of the room. Chrono breathed hard and yelled back, "YOU ARE THE VERMIN HERE, SCUM." And Chrono and Magus locked blades again. Back and forth they went, Samurai sword versus the black scythe. Then, with a quick chant, Magus blew Chrono back with a small spell. Chrono landed on his stomach and felt several ribs pop out of place. Gasping for air, he was dimly aware of Marle chanting a cure spell over him. Then the pain disappeared, but he still couldn't breathe very well. Magic can cure pain and sickness, but it couldn’t cure broken bones. He slowly stood up and reached for his sword, only to find it had shattered. "Chrono," Marle said, "Please don't fight again." " I must, Marle. I have to kill this man." "Chrono once in your short life would you listen to me? Trust your friends." "What do you mean?" Chrono asked. "I mean,” she told him, "To let Frog handle it, and from back here you two attack with double techs." Chrono looked up to see Frog attacking Magus. Grunts, cries of pain, cries of victory came from both fighters. There, Frog sliced Magus, a scream as Magus counter struck and connected. From what Chrono could see, Frog was tiring Magus out. Frog was probably the better swordsman, but Magus was infinitely more powerful then all three of them combined. Then Magus said, "I tire of this," and sent the same spell Frog's way that he used on Chrono. Frog fell back and landed on top of the Masamune. Marle gasped, and Chrono groaned, for both of them thought it was over. Then Frog stood up, holding the Masamune. "What?" said Magus in an unbelieving voice. "How could this be? That spell should have immobilized you and shattered your sword." "My dear Magus, how couldst thee think I was that stupid. This is the great Masamune I holdest in mine hand." When he heard that Magus trembled and Frog yelled to Chrono, "Sir Chrono, Spire attack now." Chrono nodded, but before they could get it off something weird started to happen to the room. It started to shimmer and fade back and forth from reality. "No you fools, you distracted me,” was Magus' last cry as he disappeared from the room. Marle screamed and started to fade. Chrono jumped up and grabbed her hands. "Don't let me go, whatever you do, don't let me go,” she screamed at him. "Don't worry," he said, "I won't." Then he gave her a big smile and started to pull her back down. But just then he started to fade also. "Chrono!" Marle screamed. Chrono jumped up and held her as they flew round the room and cried, "Whatever happens Marle, I love you." Then they disappeared.

"Chrono, wake up, come back to us." Chrono opened his eyes to see Marle and Lucca standing over him. "What the heck? What has happened?" "Magus is still fighting Lavos, and seems to be holding his own," Lucca told him in that squeaky voice of hers. Marle just brushed back some hair off his cheek and said, "I thought I had lost you forever." He smiled at her and said, "I am not that easy to get rid of." Then he jumped back to his feet and looked at Magus and Lavos. Magus was indeed holding his own against Lavos. Attack after attack Magus hit Lavos, and in return Lavos hit, or fired his beams at Magus. Sparing a glance toward Chrono he nodded then let Lavos hit him toward the group. He slid in the dirt until he came to a stop beside the rest of them. Magus slowly crawled to his feet and looked Chrono in the eyes. "I am glad you are still alive Chrono. Now I can count on someone getting the rest of them out of here." "What do you mean Magus?" He looked at Chrono and said, "I can defeat him, but I will never come out of here alive." "Don't do it Magus, please don't do it," Chrono begged. "I have no choice Chrono. It is the only way to get to the inside of Lavos. That is where I must count on you to finish the job." With that he turned to Lavos again. "Wait a minute,” Chrono yelled, "What's inside?" But Magus didn't answer him. Slowly they heard a chanting in the air, and then it grew louder and louder till it filled the whole shell of Lavos. Screaming defiance and rebellion against the creature from the starts he said, "THIS IS FOR SCHALA, AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!" And the man that was once evil, the man that was once a servant of the enemy of humans, the incarnation of evil, gave himself up for his world. Wrapped in black fire as the power released in him burst forth killing him in the process,

Magus saw a vision of Schala walking toward him, wrapped in her gowns that he remembered as a child. "Schala," he whispered. "Ah, my dear brother. Did you think I would never come to see you?" Magus was taken aback and said, "You were dead, how could I see you?" "Janus, you are in between the world of the living and the dead, so I can come and see you." Janus Magus started to cry and leaned into his dead sister’s arms. She enveloped him in an embrace and started to stroke his head saying, "My dear Janus, the horror you have faced and the evil you have done is nowhere near the goodness in your heart." "I love you Schala," he told her. Then hearing footsteps he looked up. There, walking toward them both came Queen Zeal. She walked up to them both, Schala the lovely young mage, and Janus, just a small boy but of great power. Then she spread out her arms and held them both. "I love you Schala," she told her. Then she looked at Janus and told him, "My dear boy, I love you more then you can imagine." Janus then ran to his mother and started to shed his tears. But they weren't tears of sadness; they were tears of joy and love. And his mother whispered into his ear, "Now is the time Janus, let it go."

And the last sight that any of them ever saw of Janus Magus, was of a small boy, wrapped up in his mother's and sister's arms, covered in a black fire. Then there was s tremendous blast of power and Janus Magus died. A great light came and blinded them all.

Blinking, Chrono became slowly aware of the light dimming and them traveling through some kind of weird tunnel. Colors flowed strangely and moved in ways he couldn't describe. He saw images of different places. Then he understood. He was seeing time as it actually was. Chrono felt a presence and slowly looked and almost gave up then and there. Walking towards them was a creature, human like yet not totally human. The legs were the same, but he had great arms ending in a type of claw. The head was barely visible, as it was covered in some kind of metal. Following behind it was two small things that looked like tops that floated. Chrono could feel the raw power and energy radiating from this creature of evil. It scared him. But what he did not know was that in Chrono's eyes, Lavos saw his end and death. And for the first time Lavos was scared of a mortal. Hidden inside his youth, was more power then Lavos could imagine to ever have or take.

Chrono knew none of this, save that everyone was standing there, armor healed, weapons restored, wounds closed up. Chrono turned and saw Robo up and about. "ROBO!" he yelled. Robo turned toward him and said, "Yes, I am here Chrono. It seems that even though Magus died and destroyed Lavos' armor, he healed us all in the process. I have run self diagnostic and found nothing incorrect with my system." "Now we beat big boy up?" Ayla asked anxiously. "No Ayla, we have to have a strategy before we just attack it." He thought for a minute then Glenn spoke up saying, "Sir Chrono, may I suggest a strategy to defeating this menace?" "Shoot Glenn." "I suggest we break up into two teams. Myself, Marle and you Chrono should make up on team and concentrate our attacks on one of those floating things. Ayla, Robo, and Lucca concentrate on the other." "Sounds like a plan to me," Lucca said. "All right then. Lucca, your team concentrate on the left side and we will take out the other one." They all nodded and started to encircle Lavos. During this time Lavos had just stood there waiting for them to plan and for battle to begin. Now that they were ready he attacked with everything he had. Blow after blow rained down on Chrono and the rest. This seemed to go on for hours. They would strike a blow to Lavos, but then he would attack back. Finally, it seemed he was out of magic. So the team re-grouped a little distance away from it.

Chrono could barely stand. His sword had broken on the last attack, even though he had chopped off one of the creatures’ arms. Robo had lost a leg and an arm. Most of his chest was gone too. Ayla was lying on the ground, beaten. Glenn was barely alive. Lucca looked dead. And Marle, beautiful Marle, was a total mess. This looks familiar, he thought to himself. "Man, it seems only a few minutes ago we were in this position you know?" They all let out a little chuckle, but they all knew the truth. They couldn't defeat it. "Well, now what should we do Chrono?" Lucca asked him. "I don't know,” Chrono admitted, "I have tried every attack I know, and nothing has barely hurt it." "Well think of something Chrono," Lucca practically yelled. Chrono yelled back, "Stop asking me. It is over. Don't you get that Lucca? We can't beat him. I give up." "No, you can't say that Chrono. Please don't tell me that," said Marle as she held his arm. "Sorry Marle, I can't do anymore." "Yes you can. What about the planet? What about all those people counting on us? Doan, Kino, King and Queen Guardia, my dad." "They will just have to survive somehow." "Ok, what about your mom Chrono?" His mom. Chrono hadn't even thought of that.

Chrono's mom had always believed in raising a child in a household of two parents. Unfortunately, his good for nothing dad left them when Chrono was only 6 years old. He had cried and cursed his dad after that. His mom had held them together. She was such a strong woman, never giving up no matter how hard it got. He could never see his mom dead.

He shook his head at Marle," I wish I could save her, but I can't." With that he sank to his knees with a bowed head. Marle looked at him for a minute then screamed, "IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO KILL THIS THING, THEN I WILL." With that she turned and ran back at Lavos yelling spells and firing her broken crossbow. "Marle, no!!!" he screamed. But it was too late. Then things seemed to go in slow motion at Lavos saw her and turned to face her. An ice block hit his face, but it didn't even budge her. Lavos knew Chrono cared for this woman and if he killed her he knew Chrono could never defeat him. So Lavos reached out his hand and Chrono saw all this in slow motion as a great beam enveloped Marle. She screamed as a great pain hit her. Chrono reached her and caught her as she fell. Her destroyed body was very light in his arms and he knew she was dying. "Please, Chrono, save our world." "Oh my dear beautiful Marle, how could I ever think you weak?" "Beloved, do not doubt yourself, or your power." Hot tears splashed down onto her face as Chrono started to weep. "I love you Marle, I will always love you." She smiled at him and told him, "I know, I love you too." And with a last breath, Princess Nadia died.

Chrono held her in his arms for a minute, then he screamed. The pain inside of him was greater then anything Lavos could do to him. "NOOOOOOOOO, DO NOT LEAVE ME!!!!!" But she was gone, and nothing he knew could bring her back. Chrono remembered the first time he met Princess Nadia. He had been just an inexperienced youth at the time, not aware of the power inside of him. He had been walking at the Millennial Fair when he walked up to Leene's Square and ran right into Marle. Getting up he walked over to her and offered his hand. "I am sorry, are you ok?" She took his hand and pulled herself up. After dusting herself off she said, "Yes, I’m ok. Just watch where you are going next time." Then she looked down and noticed that something was gone. "Oh no, my pendant. It's missing!" She started to search the ground everywhere. Chrono spotted something on the ground nearby and grabbed it. It was a pendant. He quickly went over to the girl and offered it to her. "Oh my pendant, you found it. May I have it back?" Chrono nodded and handed it to her. "Thank you, it is very precious to me. It has been in my family for generations. My name is Marle. Who are you?" "My name is Chrono," he had told her. "What a lovely name. Hey I am kinda new to this place. Can I walk around with you?" He told her yes and she started to jump around. She quickly ran over to him and hugged him. They had had a good time together, seeing who could guzzle the most soda, dancing a few nights away, and walking in the Millennial Fair at night, watching the start and fireworks. Until that fateful day when they went to see Lucca's invention and the whole thing started.

But then he heard a voice and the Guru of Time spoke into him saying, [You can bring her back you know.] [How?] he asked. [I will show you, for in you all of our fates lie.] And then the Guru started to speak to him, and taught him the greatest Magic ever to be created. The spell of life. Then reaching deep inside of himself, Chrono saw the power that he had inside of him. He was amazed at what he found, but he ignored everything and concentrated. He couldn't live without Marle. It was impossible. A yellow aura started to surround him and he felt some of himself flow into Marle and heal her body totally. Then she took a deep breath. Still weeping he motioned the others over. "Take her Glenn and get out of here. " "But Sir Chrono, there is no way out." Chrono, now totally enveloped in his power, pointed a hand at a wall and a great beam sprung off the hand and blew a hole in the wall. Then he looked at Marle. She seemed asleep to him, in a deep dream. He brushed back some strands of hair off of her face and kissed her forehead. "Now go my beloved, leave this place and trust me to save you." He then turned to Glenn and gave her to him. Glenn was short, but strong. He easily lifted Marle up and walked out of the shell of Lavos. As he was walking from Chrono, Marle woke up and saw what they were planning to do and yelled out, "Chrono, don't do this. Glenn put me down." But it was no use, Glenn didn't put her down and Chrono had to ignore her lest he run to her and give it up again. This was for her, to save her. He gritted his teeth and walked back to Lavos for the final confrontation.

Marle started to struggle against Glenn as they all stepped outside. Lucca and Ayla were dragging Robo. They came out on the cliff of a mountain, similar to where they used the Chrono Trigger to bring Chrono back. "I am fine Glenn, you can put me down now." He complied and set her down. She looked back at the shell of Lavos, where Chrono would be fighting. [Oh Chrono, come back to me please] She started to cry and sank to her knees. Lucca came and sat down beside her. "Shhh it's okay Marle, he will come back, if only to see you again. Have faith." But Marle didn't hear her as she concentrated all her magical powers to help Chrono.

The hole sealed up again, as Chrono turned back to face Lavos for the last time. "Listen to me, demon from the skies. This is our world, this is my earth and nothing you can do will stop me from destroying you." Lavos stopped for a minute and called away his guardians. Then for the first and last time Lavos spoke to Chrono, "Yooooouuuuuu aaaaaarrrrrreeeee ggggggooooooiiiinnnngggg ttttooooo ddddiiieee. FFFFiiiigggghhhtttt mmmeeee hhhhuuuummmmaaaannn." "Alright, let's rumble." And so began the greatest battle of mankind. Lavos fired a fireball, but Chrono would put up a shield of energy and then in return, fire a lightning bolt at Lavos. This went on for awhile. But seeing that he did not have the power to use against Lavos, Chrono stopped attacking, allowing hit after powerful attack strike him. He felt his life being drained and helpless to do anything. , he thought. Then out of nowhere a voice came to him, Then out of the walls and shadows came Janus, Schala, Queen Zeal, Doan, Kino, and others that he had met on his journeys, all adding their strength to destroy Lavos. [Thine sword will always protect thee Sir Chrono] Cyrus appeared adding his power to Chrono's. [You kept us from starving, of course we will help you], Doan told him. [We are all fighting in this together], Schala said. [Me Kino, help friend Chrono, kill Lavos and reptites] [Even though we was enemies Chrono,] Magus told him, [I will give you my power, for I am at peace now.] Then the Guru of Time, Belthasar appeared and said to him, [In you lies all of our hopes, our dreams, and our future. If you fail here today right now, then nothing will stop Lavos from taking this world. Stop him Chrono, stop him my son] And finally the one person who mattered most to him, the one person who he was doing this for, Nadia appeared to him, [I love you Chrono, and I always will. If it wasn't for you, I would never have gotten this far.] Chrono grinned as his torn and beaten body was lifted up and healed by Marle. "Lavos, say goodnight." And as he said those words he gathered together all of the powers of every single person, animal, and thing on the planet. He gathered it all together. And as he did so, he felt a power surge through him that he had never known. "Now Lavos, you die." Then Chrono released it. A great amount of power ran through him as the massive beam of light ripped through Lavos, tearing him to pieces destroying him forever. The beam also destroyed the shell of Lavos and it started to fall to the earth.

Marle was still crying when a massive explosion ripped out of Lavos' shell. She gave a small cry and jumped up to look. But as the shell started to fall to the earth, Marle slumped back down to the ground. The whole team knew that Chrono had given himself to for them, and had succeeded. But when they reached the bottom of the mountain just as the shell exploded in the sky, a figure against the brightness was walking toward them. Marle gave a small stifle and looked, then her tears of sorrow became tears of joy and love. For walking toward them with his long spiky hair blowing in the wind, and his clothes whipping around him was Chrono. Marle shouted and jumped in the air. She started to run for him and as she ran she cried to him. He smiled and his eyes lit up at seeing her. When she reached him she jumped into his arms and he held her tight. Then he slowly put her down and bent his head and kissed her. They stood like that for awhile, in a loving embrace under the stars. Finally the parted and she said, "Oh Chrono, you did it. We are finally free." He smiled a tired smile, "Yes, but not without a price, I can no longer use magic Marle, and I suspect none of you can either." "Oh shut up you big porcupine and kiss me." Only happy to oblige he kissed her again.

It was a small band of people that met for the last time at the End of Time. The Guru of Time was gone forever, passing away to give his power to Chrono. It had been a few months since the destruction of Lavos. All of the people of the world had celebrated Chrono and the others. Robo was fully repaired, though he couldn't understand why so many people leaked in their eyes when they looked at Chrono. The King of Guardia had approved of the marriage of Nadia and Chrono, and Chrono's mother had been really happy when she found out. But now it was time to say good bye, for after this last trip to their own times, Spekkio would close up the portals for the last time and would dismantle Epoch. There were many hugs and crying all around. But each of them had plans of what to do in their own time. Glenn was going back to help the relationship between Mystics and Humans. He was the perfect Ambassador for he was both, a human and a mystic. Ayla had no plans other then to go back and live out her life. Little did she know that her very descendant would someday save the planet? Only the Guru of Time and Spekkio knew. Robo went to help the clean up effort on his time. But he thanks them many times and would hardly leave Lucca's side until she forced him too through tears. Then he stepped into the pillar of light and disappeared. As for the rest, Chrono was the most reluctant to leave. Marle found him just looking out into the void thinking. "Come on Chrono, it is time to go home." He nodded and slowly went and stood in the pillar of light to his home. His last sight of the End of Time was of Spekkio waving to them and of the ghost of the Guru just waking from sleep. Chrono smiled, and then left, never to see the End of Time again.

Finally the week of the wedding day dawned. Marle was very proud, so was Chrono's mother. But two days before the wedding Chrono disappeared. Marle and Lucca both looked for him for a long time. But could not find him. Lucca eventually went back to inventing and finally healed her mother. She was also the first person to make a humanoid-robot. As for Marle, she remained Princess, for she refused to marry anyone but Chrono. It wasn't until a year later that Marle was journeying to the southern continent on business for her father that she saw Chrono standing on the bridge between continents. In his hand was her pendant that had been missing. She slowly called to him, "Chrono, is that you?" He sighed and said, "Yes Nadia, it is me. You can come close, I won't run away." She slowly walked to him and stood beside him, looking at the sunset. Finally Chrono broke the silence saying, "I have finally figured out how we all got into that whole mess." "How?" "This," he said, as he gestured to the pendant in his hand, "If it wasn't for this little piece of jewelry we would never have had to fight Lavos, never would have had to kill those people. Magus wouldn't have had to die." She looked at him and saw a tear in his eye. "What happened Chrono?" He didn't say anything for awhile, but finally turned to her and said, "When I brought you back to life, I lost some of my life for you to live. You actually died in my arms. I was so hollow like something inside of me had died. Then I filled it again when I brought you back to life. But when I was in the shell, I would have lost the fight, but then many people came to me, in spirits and gave me their lives and powers. With their help I was able to destroy Lavos. But it was what the Guru of Time told me was this, 'Stop him Chrono, Stop him my son'. I have been brewing over that. Thinking of how the Guru of Time could be my father, but I can't figure it out." "Maybe you weren't meant to figure it out Chrono", Nadia suggested. He looked at her and asked, "What do you mean?" "Well," she responded, "In the past few years I have learned more about time than I ever wanted to. Maybe your destiny was not to figure out who is the Guru of Time, but your destiny was to save all of us. Including me." He smiled. "Come on Chrono, let's go back home." He nodded his head, then stopped, considered for a moment, and then with a laugh threw the pendant into the sea. Then he and his future wife walked off the bridge in the sunset, not seeing where the pendant landed, nor even caring. For if one thing they have learned was this, Love is stronger then anything, more powerful then time, stretching through time, Love is always stronger.

Editor's note: This story was probably written early in 1999 sometime, so it was long before the CC storyline had been written. Because of this, it has some story inconsistencies. I'm not sure how plausible it was even at the time of writing, but still... I hope that you were able to enjoy the story for what it was, a *fan* fiction. Like Promises Fulfilled, this was also a fan fiction that a RPG page said "Wasn't what they were looking for at the time," but I thought it was worth putting up on this page anyway. The only editing I did was HTML, spelling, and some rudimentary grammar changes, so the story has had few to no words changed from its original form. Anyway, thanks for reading!