Chapter XVIII: Time Immemorial

Meanwhere, elsewhile.

'Madam, I beseech you to reconsider! What you are about to take will surely be your demise!' pleaded an old man.
A young lady; fair and proper, with all the beauty of a summer dawn, looked back at the old man, her eyes radiating with hope and sorrow. 'Sir Gaspar, I must! We have no other options! I fear if we don't act soon, all will be lost!' The lady could not have been much older than Crono and his company. She stood regally, yet it was evident in her crystal jaden eyes the amount of suffering she edured was enough for several lifetimes. She ran her hand through her lylac hair, that cascaded upon her shoulders like an Appalachian waterfall.
'Madam Schala, even if we do act now we can do nothing without them! They must be the ones to lead us. It can be no other way.' The Old Man was lean and a bit short and had a face full of snowy ivory hair. His eyes were wide and weary from sleepless nights full of anxiety and tension. His hands were rugged and gnarled from constant work.
'I know, but even as we tarry, Lavos' power grows so fast, that even if were to wait for them, Lavos would simply crush us and all we have sacrificed will be in vain.' tears filled her eyes, as her tone grew more urgent with each beat.
'Schala, if I were to lose you to that monster, we may not be able to pull through this crisis.'
'It is the least I can do Belthasar. We do not know who the Destined are or when they will arrive. I must buy them some time!'
'But we do know who the Destined are, we have met them! I have seen them! They can do it!'
'I pray so, but I cannot simply wait here idly while Lavos grows in power and consumes us. I must go. I have no choise.'
'I know the futility of arguing with you Schala, but please, I ask you not to throw your life away!'
'We're going to make it through this Belthasar. Lavos will fall, and I along with the destined will bring it down.'
Belthasar bowed his head, as a few tears leaked from his eyes. Schala tenderly kissed his brow, as if he was her own father.
'I wish it didn't have to be this way.' lamented Schala.
'NO! You cannot climb Death Peak! It must be the right time and THEY must lead the way! Anything else would be suicide!'
'But unless I can help the Destined, all we know will be no more.'
'Damnit Schala. Why must you throw your life away? None who have trekked up Death Peak have returned. Can you not wait for the Destined to lead?'
'Don't worry. We're gonna see the end of this. I know we will!'

IN a time that is not, in a place that may not be, Crono, and company found themselves on solid ground immersed in a pillar of ambient light. Crono stepped off on to a cold hard wood floor. The varnish was fresh and wafted into his nostrils. Lucca looked about and noticed they were standing upon the center of a balcony of sorts, and beyond the boundaries of the balcony, Lucca could see nothing. She did see two other pillars of light that flanked the one they arrived in. Marle and Robo looked about with equal curiosity.
'Where are we?' asked Marle.
'When are we maybe a better question.' amended Crono.
'I don't know.' Lucca stated, 'Robo can you detect anything?'
He clicked and buzzed and wizzed and hummed, and sounded out all sorts of noises that Lucca had no name for. 'Negative. I can detect nothing.'
'Are you sure?' Lucca wanted to know.
'From what I can determine surface we are standing on seems to be some sort of cellulos surface coated in a polyeurthane substance.'
'It's wood.' answered Crono. 'It comes from trees.'
'Ah. I do have some data regarding such organisms.'
'What about these pillars of light?' Inquired Lucca, 'Aren't these like the gates we travel through?'
A beam of orange light fired from Robo into the iridescant pillar. The lights blended like a swirling pinwheel. 'Inconclusive'
Marle looked about and spied a gate in the balcony fence. 'Hey there's a gate over there.' she stated while walking towards it.
'This doesn't add up.' noted Lucca. 'What are these pillars, and where are we?'
'I don't know either, but I bet we'll find out when we see what else is here.' Marle held it open and the others began walking over. Beyond the gate, they noticed a set of steps, and beyond that they saw nothing else.
Robo and Lucca stepped through first. Crono took the door and held it for Marle. 'Go ahead.'
She smiled. 'This little adventure of ours keeps gettin more and more interesting!'
'You can say that again.'
They crossed the threshold onto the steps. 'Better get our weapons ready gang, no telling what's out there!'
Lucca lead the descension down the steps and came to another door. She thumbed the trigger of her gun with one hand, and reached for the doorknob with another. Lucca took a deep breath, opened the door and her and Robo took a hard step into the room, weapons primed.
'There's no need for any of that now.' declared a stately, elder voice. 'Come on in now, I won't hurt you, no one here but an old man.'
Marle and Crono filtered in, and saw Lucca's look of bewilderment.
'Okay, this just gets weirder.' opined Lucca.
'Come now.' invited the old man. 'I always enjoy entertaining more guests.'
Lucca was still stunned. '"Guests?" Just where are we?'
'Why this is the End of Time of course! All lost travelers come by here at somepoint.'
They found themselved on another balcony of sorts. It was a square not much larger than a child's room. Beyond the fenced borders, the party could see nothing. The Old Man stood in the center of the balcony, next to a lamp post. The lamp post smealt of oil and sulfur paint, and radiated a halo of stark ambient light. There were two other doors than the one they walked through, One was an archway, that stood tall like two bending willows; the other was a short bridge that did not span a gap, and lead to apparently nowhere. There were also two buckets, each in a seperate corner. While they couldn't see the contents of the buckets, something was causing them to shine.

'Okay' responded Lucca, 'When are we?'
'Never and always at the same time. So tell me, where did you all journey from?'
Marle answered, 'Well Sir, the three of us are from the Kingdom of Gaurdia.'
'Yeah, circa 1000 AD.' Lucca added.
'I've heard of that kingdom.'
Robo answered, 'And I am from 2300 AD, which was where I met with them.'
'So why are we here?' asked Lucca. 'Every time we've jumped into a gate, we've ended up in other time periods.'
'Well, according to the Conservation of Time Theorem, "When four or more persons travel through a time warp, they will arrive at the juncture of the space time coordinates of least resistance." And that juncture, is here.'
Crono and Marle had no clue as to what was just told to them. Lucca simply nodded and replied, 'I see.'
'So just what brings you guys over here anyways?'
'I was hoping you could tell us.' answered Crono.
'I just did. What's your story? I'd like to know, and none of the others who've dropped in didn't tell me theirs, and I'd like to know.'
'Well, it all started with this fair.' Began Marle.
Each took turns telling their portion of the story. Crono would tell a stretch of it, and as he would, Lucca would interject with her comments that always seemed to portray her as the driving force behind the adventure. As they continued, Marle and Lucca told the tale almost exclusively, and Crono would have to fight to get a word in edgewise.

'My, you guys certainly have had quite an adventure, and I don't believe it's going to be over any time soon, if you are indeed wanting to stop this Lavos creature.'
'Do you know anything about Lavos?' Asked Lucca
'We've had our run-ins, you might say, but that's another tale for another time.'
'I have no record of this place in my data banks.' Stated Robo.
'Of course not. You can't record a place that isn't, or never was.'
'If we aren't, than how are we?' asked a perplexed Crono.
'You just are. It's that simple.'
Crono simply nodded.
'Disturbances in the space-time continuum, have increased recently. Far too many folks are just popping in here...'
'You mean other people have been coming here?' the idea seemed propsterous to Marle.
'Yes And I fear something is having powerful effect on the very fabric of time...'
'What kind of effect?' asked Crono.
'I can't say exactly, but if something is not done, all of time could be unravelled.'
'Well I guess that's why here.' said Crono. 'Stop whatever it is that is threating time.'
'That could explain why you four have endured the trials you have endured. Still, there is much that needs to be done in order to remedy the damage that has already occured. But not all of you can contribute at once.'
'So are you telling us that, if we were to go home one of us has to stay here?' inquired Lucca.
'Yeah that's how it is.'
'One of us stay Here!? ALONE?!' asked Marle.
'It is kind of bleak here.' the old man said of his home. 'But not to worry. All time periods connect here... You can visit your friends whenever you wish! But you can never travel in groups greater than 3...' he expalined.
'So one of us must stay here.' observed Robo.
'Yeah, who's gonna stay here Crono?' asked Lucca.
'Decide Crono.' said Marle.
'Well, we need to go back to our time. I have to tell my mom, I'm not dead, and Lucca, you and Robo really should see your father. And Marle, do you really want to return to our hope time?'
'Not really, but I don't particularly want to stay here, but if you want me to, that's perfectly fine.'
'ALright then, Marle, we'll come back for you as soon as we can.'
'So there you have it.' declared the Old Man. 'Just don't forget about this place as your galavanting throughout all time periods.'
'So just how do we get home?' Marle wanted to know.
'I'm sure you noticed those lovely pillars of light as you came in here. Those are warp points that hook you up to different eras. Once you've been through a gate, you can always use it to come back here. Just step into one, and you'll go through time, and get to wherever it is your gate leads you. It's that simple. well, not really, but it is.'
'Alright then, I guess we're off.' stated Crono. 'Are you sure you'll be alright Marle?'
'Oh yeah. DOn't worry about me, I'm just glad not to be in that damn musty palace!'
'Alright, we'll be back.'
'Take care guys!'
Crono and company turned to go, and as soon as he turned the knob to get to the gates, the Old Man called out.
'Hey, before you go, you all really oughtta have a look behind that door over there behind me.'
'What for?' asked Crono.
'Trust me on this one. There's no need for you to be in such a rush.'
Crono led Lucca and Robo over to the door the Old Man indicated. He looked up at the high archway. It was an ornate door, with some sort of arachaic scripting on it and the stones that set the arch were heavy and cold.
'Yeah that one.'

End Chapter