FicWad

Disclaimer: Chrono Trigger and all its attendant goodies belong to Square-Enix. I'm just playing in their sandbox. Further information can be found in the header for Chapter One.



Most of what Lucca remembered about the Denadoro Mountains was wind-related, mixed in with a few assorted memories of setting wooden clubs on fire. Her vindictive side had enjoyed the suddenly unarmed goblins' facial expressions perhaps more than was ethical.

While there were still Mystics living in the area around the falls, they no longer had the feel of a military detachment meant to keep any would-be heroes away from their leader's publically acknowledged weakness. Most of them ran for cover, but there were enough aggressive ones to impede the group's progress.

Feels like old times, Lucca reflected as Nadia shot a retaliatory arrow at a freelancer who had been pelting the group with rocks. Three crazy kids out to change the world.

"Lucca! Beware!"

She spun in time to see a bright blur cut through the distance between her back and a charging goblin. As the creature gurgled and tumbled backward in a spray of blood, Frog gave her a disapproving look. "Lower thy guard and thou art-"

"Deadeth?" Lucca hoped her grin was cheeky enough to hide how shaken she was. "Thanks for watching my back."

As Frog nodded and hopped off to scout ahead, she wondered how much of his enthusiasm for fighting served as a distraction from the memories that sang through the wind and rippled through the pools. Lucca would have staked her glasses on his having not been near the mountain range in the last eleven years, but he led the way now as easily if the map were drawn on his translucent set of eyelids. Obsession had carved every detail into his mind.

No matter how much Lucca obsessed, her carvings were whittled away. She wondered if envy was appropriate.

But no obsessing now. Obsessing gets us hit with hammers. Yelling for Nadia to stop trading volleys with the freelancers, Lucca followed Frog's trail into a shadowed grove.

Something flickered in the darkness. Lucca threw a handful of fire at it and was rewarded by a furious howl and a flash of burning wood. Before the goblin could collect itself, Frog leapt across the grove and brought his sword down in a decisive slash.

Lucca blew the imaginary smoke off her forefinger and said, "Guard un-lowered," before noticing Frog's expression.

"How came thou by such powers?" he asked. "Art thou a witch?"

"Nope. She's got the wrong kind of hat for it." Nadia paused to navigate a tricky section of roots before adding, "I think she learned it from some kind of super-kilwala."

Lucca nodded. "Er, more or less. But then that never actually happened, so I've concluded that magic is purely mental. Or spiritual, if you buy into that kind of thing."

Shaking his head, Frog turned and began to pick his way through the trees. "An uncanny pair, ye are. Hast thou any further revelations?"

You spared the guy who killed Cyrus and cursed you, and the bastard never even apologized. Out loud Lucca replied, "Well, you can create light by passing an electric current through a tungsten wire, diseases are caused by microscopic organisms, and the world ends in a little under fourteen hundred years."

"Not if we do something about it." Nadia shuddered as she brushed a fern out of her way. "I never want to see that future again."

Frog started to reply, but his voice trailed off as the group emerged into the sunlight on a grassy promontory that overlooked the heart of the Denadoro Falls. While Lucca didn't feel any emotional connection to the area, she could almost hear Frog's thoughts echoed in the roar of the water. The winds grew so strong that her overshirt threatened to come unbelted and fly away.

Nadia tapped her on the shoulder and whispered, "Is he okay?"

Before Lucca could answer, a gust caught Frog's cape and sent it billowing dramatically into her face. By the time she'd disentangled herself, Nadia was spitting the ends of her ponytail out of her mouth, and the moment was thoroughly ruined.

Frog shook his head as if clearing it, then shifted his grip on his sword and said, "Let us proceed."

As they followed the natural bridge of the land toward a small cliff, Lucca caught herself peering over the edge at the distant pools. He said he fell. How the heck did he survive that? Her musings were cut short when the wind tore past with such force that she almost lost her footing.

Nadia's hand closed around her forearm. "Gotcha," she said, then sputtered on a mouthful of hair. "Bleh. How come all your ideas are about places like this? When do we get to go to the beach or something?"

"Hey, I already took you to the beach, remember? Not my fault the water was a little funny."

"When we open up those adventurers' spas, yours isn't going to have a travel agency."

Another gust sent both girls scrambling for their balance. From just ahead, Frog called, "Press onward! Surely yon cliff affordeth shelter!"

"That's easy for you to say, Mr. Low-Center-of-Gravity," Lucca muttered, putting a protective hand over her helmet. The grass and weeds whipped at her ankles as she fought her way forward. Frog had already reached the cliff, and Lucca concentrated on closing the gap between them. Two yards. Five feet. Four-

The scream of the wind was suddenly overpowered by Nadia's shriek as she grabbed Lucca's waist, dragging Lucca with her to the ground but saving herself from being swept over the edge. Before Nadia could try to get to her feet again, Lucca shouted, "Stay down! Crawl!"

"Thine hand!" Frog's voice was almost swallowed by the winds, but the message of his outstretched arm was clear enough. His other hand dug into the edge of the hollow he had found in the cliff face. With Nadia clinging to her legs, Lucca struggled forward and grabbed his wrist.

However much Frog might have despised his curse, it made him far stronger than anyone his size should have been. The muscles of his arms were visibly strained, but he managed to drag both girls into the shallow refuge. Outside, the wind raged more furiously than ever.

"What's going on?" Nadia called over the tumult. Her knuckles were white against the rock, and her hair framed her face like a burst halo.

Lucca pressed herself tightly against the cliff. "Nothing good."

By now the tempest had lost all semblance of a natural storm; gale-force winds blasted the area with more malice than mere chaos could account for, and even Lucca's limited knowledge of meteorology made it clear that the laws of weather had not been consulted during the storm's creation.

"This wind evoketh an ill feeling in me," Frog said. "Methinks there be something of the eldritch in it."

Nadia raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that some kind of tree?"

As Frog and Nadia attempted to bridge their communication gap, Lucca braced her feet against the stone and tried to collect her thoughts. Something unpleasantly magical was afoot, but while she felt that the cause should have been obvious, she couldn't seem to pull it into focus. What was it that had been guarding the Masamune?

Then the connection clicked in Lucca's memory, in form of a grinning but strange-eyed little boy who ran through a cavern with his arms spread like wings. "I'm the wind! Whoosh!"

"The sword's protecting itself!" she shouted over a gust. Another loose piece wiggled and fell into place: "What the hell did Tata do with the Hero Medal?"

"The what?" Nadia shouted back as Frog flinched.

As far as Lucca could recall, Tata had acquired the medal when Frog dropped it in Porre's café, and possession had passed to her group after Tata learned that being a hero involved being on the wrong end of a lot of murderous rage. Without a scrappy band of teenagers (or, more accurately, two teenagers and a robot) to show up and deliver the medal into the right hands, there was no telling who might have taken it.

As the storm subsided to a dull but still menacing roar, Lucca said, "I think whoever came after the sword last put them on their guard."

Nadia frowned. "You mean a bad guy tried to steal it?"

"I don't think the sword understands good and evil. Not the way we do, at any rate." Something Mune had said stuck with Lucca, about how what mattered wasn't who owned the sword but rather how it was used. Given her other interactions with the sword's spirits, Lucca suspected that the deciding factor was strength of will rather than nobility of purpose.

Suddenly the wind was reassuring. At least the blade was still unclaimed.

"'Tis a weapon, lass, though an enchanted one," Frog said to Nadia. "Even the noblest instrument may be turned to ill purpose if wicked hands wield it."

As if in answer, a blast of wind tore past the hollow, carrying an unlucky tree branch. Lucca mentally scratched "scale ladder during lull" from her list of ideas.

Nadia peered around the edge of the rock. "There went the eldritch."

As the wind calmed in preparation for its next assault, Lucca fumbled with her knapsack and withdrew the velvet-wrapped hilt of the Masamune. "Hey!" she shouted, waving the jagged edge out in the open. "We brought the rest of the sword! We're trying to-"

The gale resumed so suddenly that it almost tore the hilt from Lucca's hand before she could snatch her arm back under the cover of the cliff. Shooting a dirty look at the air, she passed the sword's remains to Frog and said, "Your turn."

No sooner had her fingers left the leather handle than the winds died. Biting her lip, Lucca tapped a finger against the hilt, resulting in a tiny burst of wind. Drumming her fingers on the pommel created a series of staccato squalls.

"Guess you're the golden boy," she remarked, just before Nadia touched the hilt and failed to cause any climatic reaction.

As Lucca crossed her arms and muttered rude things about the universe in general, Frog held up a hand to stay Nadia and took a cautious step into the open. The only disturbance in the air came from the waterfalls.

Nadia followed, keeping one hand against the cliff face. "Well," she said, glancing back at Lucca, "I guess we were due for something creepy."

So who put the "Kick me, I broke history" sign on my back? Keeping an ear out for any surprise tempests, Lucca crept out of the hollow and clung to Nadia's arm in what she hoped was a casually dignified manner. The flicker of amusement on Frog's face told her that she'd missed her mark.

At least it was amusement, she reflected during her halting progress up the rope ladder, and not suspicion. For all his veneration of the Masamune, Frog seemed to have remarkably few delusions regarding its nature. The sword's spirits had no more moral constraints than machines did.

Lucca desperately wanted to be dealing with machines, with wires and switches and a binary system that reduced the supernatural to an unambiguous zero.

"Uh, Lucca?" said Nadia. "I can't feel my fingers."

Realizing that they had come to the entrance of the Masamune's cave, Lucca relinquished Nadia's arm and called, "Masa? Mune? Hello?"

The zephyr that tickled her ear almost sent Lucca scrambling for cover until she noticed the child-sized figure running around the cavern, backlit by the sunbeams that bathed the Masamune from above. Just playing. Okay. Beside her, Frog made a small noise in his throat and strode toward the broken blade.

Nadia pointed ahead and whispered, "So is that one of the freaky sword people?"

"Yeah. Mune, I think." Insisting to herself that she was no longer a target for the sword's hostility, Lucca followed Frog toward the world's largest extant piece of Dreamstone.

As soon as she stepped into the light, Mune darted over to her, let his arms fall to his sides, and fixed her with eyes that betrayed an otherwise convincing human form. The sclerae extended over the area where the irises should have been, encroaching on pupils that neither dilated nor contracted with the light.

"Well, hi, there," cooed Nadia, who apparently hadn't noticed that Mune was more creepy than cute. Her pendant swung forward as she bent down to his level. "Do you want a muffin? We've got apple-cinnamon, walnut, and-"

"Thought so." Mune's voice was a perfect replica of a child's, which only made his tone more unnerving. "Oh, big brooother..."

Lucca drew her gun and hissed, "No muffins. Weapons."

"Aye," added Frog, without taking his gaze from the area where an identical child had appeared. "Whosoever would seek the legendary blade must first be proven worthy of wielding it. When last I did trespass upon this ground-"

"You didn't talk like such a buffoon," said Masa, strolling past Frog to stare up at Lucca. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Lucca didn't realize she hadn't answered until Nadia said, "She kinda blew up history. But we're fixing it now."

"Are you?" Masa shook his head. "She's very upset with you."

Mune snorted. "Humans! How did anything so silly survive for so long?"

Indignation restored Lucca's voice. "Look," she snapped, "what's done is done. We're trying to set things right now, so if you know anything about what's going on-"

Masa shrugged. "The Time Axis is out of alignment."

Nadia put her hands on her hips. "Aha! Ernie said that, too! So you do know something!"

"We already told you what we know." Mune backed away from the group until he stood at the edge of the light. Breezes washed back and forth over Lucca, as if the cave were breathing. "What now, big brother?"

Before Masa could reply, Lucca said, "Oh, no, you don't. If you know about the Time Axis, and if you can connect it to me, odds are you know a lot more than you're telling."

Frog shook his head. "Perchance not. The Masamune discerneth the spirit of all who approach it. 'Tis not unnatural it should comprehend the weight of thine heart."

"Quite right," said Masa, from where he had joined his brother. "We knew something was wrong before you arrived, but your presence told us what. 'The Assassin of Time' has a good ring to it, wouldn't you say?"

Mune nodded. "Yeah. The best assassins are catspaws."

In a more sensible world, Masa and Mune would have been non-existent and therefore infinitely less of a headache. Lucca took a deep breath and said, "Look. I get that you're pissed off at me, but I'm trying to fix things. So just hop back into that sword and stop playing the meteorological mambo every time I touch it, and maybe we can get the Time Axis straightened back out. Okay?"

The space around Masa and Mune exploded into a tempest of light. By the time Lucca could see again, the spirits had assumed their more alien forms and begun to bob expectantly in place. That Masa's feet never quite connected with the floor didn't seem to impede his movement.

"The usual?" asked Mune. His child's voice was gone, replaced by what sounded like a coalition of echoes.

"Of course." Masa's voice was distinct from his brother's only in texture, as if his echoes had been born in caverns instead of between canyon walls. "This should be entertaining."

Frog dropped into a fighting stance, raising his sword. Nadia followed suit with her crossbow. As Mune crowed his approval of his brother's idea, Lucca threw a pre-emptive fireball at his head.

There was a chaotic moment during which Frog rebuked her, Mune patted the flames out of his robe, Lucca defended the distinction between "cheating" and "showing initiative," and Nadia, with a quick shrug, shot a quarrel at Masa.

"Heh, I like them!" said Mune, shooting a white whorl of energy from his palms. Frog dissipated the energy with a stroke of his sword and used the motion to close the distance between himself and his opponent.

After checking that Nadia was keeping Masa busy, Lucca began building up a stronger wave of magic. Her frustration made the process quicker. This is a waste of time. Stupid brawlers.

An unexpected flicker caught her eye. Before she could react, Masa's fist slammed into her gut with diaphragm-crushing force. Lucca's body jackknifed as she staggered backward. A wild blast from her gun failed to do any damage but interrupted his follow-up attack.

"Back off!" shouted Nadia, clubbing Masa over the head with her crossbow. Lucca took the chance to unleash the energy she'd stored in the form of a giant tongue of flame. Panting, she watched Masa spin away in a fiery dance, trying to extinguish himself.

A gale burst from the corner where Frog continued to slash at Mune. Lucca wouldn't have needed to watch to know what came next; the wind only exacerbated the burning, Mune's distraction gave Frog the opening he needed, and both spirits let out a howl as the cavern flashed white again.

"Not bad," said Masa as Lucca's vision began to clear. He and Mune appeared uninjured, and nothing in Masa's tone indicated that he had been recently set on fire. "Now let's get serious."

Mune whooped. "All right! Time to-"

"Don't bother," Lucca cut in, rather more testily than she had intended. "You just tried to blow your brother out like a birthday candle. Clearly I have the scientific advantage here."

Masa clucked his tongue. "Clearly someone doesn't understand the meaning of 'test.'"

"'Tis a trial as much of spirit as of strength, lass," said Frog. He showed no signs of exhaustion despite his intense single-combat with Mune, and Lucca felt a twinge of athletic jealousy. "One's true heart is oft laid bare in times of conflict."

Mune laughed. "Another point for the green guy. He's come a long way."

"But we've all got plenty of spirit," said Nadia, holding her arms out to demonstrate. "If you had any idea what we've gone through-"

"You're human," Masa interrupted. "You don't have time to go through much at all."

Lucca seized on the opening. "Exactly! We don't have time! Don't you want to save the planet?"

In a remarkably human gesture, Mune rolled his eyes. "You're such funny creatures. Lifespans like blinks, and you still manage to make such an impact on everything."

"We're not helping you," Masa added. "We're helping /her/. And maybe the frog."

Nadia blinked. "Who, me?"

The spirits laughed. "And so very arrogant," said Mune.

"Yeah, it's kind of endearing." Masa turned to Lucca with a wry smile. "You don't want to prove yourself here? Then prove yourself as you go. Show us you've got real strength of will, not just guilt and pure bloody stubbornness. Call us when you've had a turn in the crucible."

As Lucca sputtered angrily, Masa drifted back to the edge of the light and spun in a tight circle. His brother joined him.

"So what now?" asked Mune, hopping anxiously from foot to foot. "Will they fix us? Can they fix anything?"

Masa shrugged. "Maybe. Here's their chance."

Then there was another flash, and Lucca was still blinking the spots from her eyes as Frog walked forward and knelt beside the remains of the blade. "Cyrus's hopes and dreams," he said quietly, "and mayhap all the world's, as well..."

"That's what I'm banking on." Hesitantly, Lucca reached out to tap the blade and tried not to look too relieved when nothing blew her out of the cavern.

Nadia cheered. "Yay! They trust you now!"

Betcha they still wouldn't let me carry them. Aloud she replied, "Well, if you can't trust Lucca the Great to save the world, who can you trust?" Crono.

Lucca's thoughts weren't going anywhere helpful, so she turned to Nadia as Frog began to wrap the blade for less potentially lethal transport. "They're a real pain," she said, wiping a smudge off her glasses. "Obviously they want the planet saved, but they still wanted to pick a fight and slow us down. Idiots."

"Why do they want to help save the world, though?" asked Nadia. "I thought you said they didn't care about good and evil."

"Sure, but they were born from Dreamstone. The planet matters to them." As Frog stood, holding both halves of the Masamune, Lucca added, "You'll have to carry them. I don't think they want me to."

Without a word, Frog removed his cape and fashioned a rather handy bag from it. Lucca was about to compliment him on his ingenuity when she realized how distant his eyes were. A slight frown played at the corner of his mouth. Was he remembering the thrill of victory, short-lived as it was? Or was he measuring his current companions against Cyrus?

Distractions were Nadia's province. No matter how many angles of approach Lucca considered, she couldn't think of any conversation starters that didn't involved Frog's personal tragedy or her own. I want to break the ice, not drop a glacier on his head.

Lucca elbowed Nadia and hissed, "Say something. He's brooding."

After a moment's hesitation, Nadia scampered over to Frog and beamed. "So are you ticklish?"





The group's mood had lightened by the time they reached the base of the mountains. Nadia seemed to have evaluated the quest as an unmitigated success, and her enthusiasm made it difficult to dwell on anything negative. Frog must have taken Masa and Mune's approval to heart, as his demeanor almost matched that of the Frog who had hopped fearlessly into Magus's castle.

While Lucca supposed the group could have demanded that Masa and Mune let them ride the wind back to the plains, she hadn't been willing to find out whether the spirits would send her careening into a cliff face out of spite. Their blame didn't strike her as entirely fair, either; it wasn't as if Lucca had opened the Red Gate herself, and she suspected that her guilty conscience made her seem more culpable to an outside observer.

Consciences, she decided, were never meant to have outside observers. Least of all amoral, aggressively pro-planet observers.

"Hey," Nadia whispered as Frog led the way back to Zenan Bridge, "how old is he?"

Lucca took a moment to connect math and memory. "About twenty-six. I think he said he was fifteen when Cyrus died."

"Really? He sounds older."

"Amphibification can do that to you."

"Okay, I'm calling you on that one. There's no way that's a word."

Lucca grinned. "It should be. Why'd you want to know, anyway?"

"Just curious." Nadia squirmed under Lucca's look. "Okay, fine. I'm wondering if he might be really cute."

Lucca's effort to feign disapproval turned into a snicker. "Well, Princess, why don't you kiss him and find out?"

Nadia's cheeks bloomed red. "Lucca!" she chided, then added in a brighter tone, "Do you think it would work?"

"Nah. It didn't in the old timeline."

As Nadia blushed crimson and demanded to know the context, Lucca noticed that Frog had stopped walking and had turned to face them.

"'Tis an uneasy thing," he said, "to have two maidens whisper and cavort at thy back."

Lucca almost apologized before she picked up on the humor in his voice. "Oh, really? Most guys probably wouldn't mind too much."

Frog laughed, and Lucca realized how much she'd missed the curious croaking sound. "Incorrigible, ye are," he said. "Pray walk at my side."

As the girls did so, Nadia peered at Lucca over Frog's head and mouthed, "Kiss?"

A lazy grin spread over Lucca's face. "You know what?" she drawled. "I don't think Nadia ever told me what happened with the real Renaldo."

Frog glanced at the princess. "Thy swain, perchance?"

"Nothing!" Nadia said, too loudly. "Nothing, nothing, nothing..."

The usual detachment of troops was gathered expectantly at the end of the bridge. One of them appeared to be running a betting pool, but Lucca couldn't begin to guess which aspect of her and Nadia's visits they intended to use as gambling fodder.

"Halt!" said the leader, rather wearily. He squinted at Frog. "Who's going there this time?"

Nadia grinned. "Our uncle."

A fascinated silence descended over the troops, and the leader sighed. "I might have known. Proceed."

Although he seemed irked by the lapse in Guardian security, Frog hopped after Lucca as she and Nadia headed toward the far end of the bridge. Behind them, the leader muttered, "I wish I was still stationed in Truce."

"'Were,'" corrected his subordinate. "The subjunctive mood-"

There came a smacking sound and a yelp, followed by a distant splash and a lot of shouting.

Nadia's eyes widened. "Just keep walking," Lucca said under her breath.

Frog let out an amphibian snort. "Such folly would ne'er have prevailed under Cyrus's watch."

"You keep walking, too," Lucca said before realizing that he had stopped to set down his bag. In the next instant Frog had leapt over the railing and dived into the water below. "Right. Just like that. Am I the only one who remembers we're in kind of a hurry here?"


Nadia gave her a sharp look and said, "Rats," before running to peer over the edge of the bridge.

So was that crazy other-Lucca, or was that just me? Frowning, Lucca lifted the Masamune's sack just long enough to feel the wind push her away, then slumped against the railing. "What are you looking at?" she snapped at the lone solider who hadn't joined the panicked throng. "I never wanted to be the hero. I was doing just fine as the brilliant, show-stealing sidekick."

Still scowling, Lucca watched as Frog bore the fallen soldier to the rocky beach below, where several of his comrades were already rushing to meet him. At least she'd have enough time to collect herself before Frog climbed back up.





"Of course it's not dangerous," Lucca insisted, tapping the Gate Key against her palm. "Ayla could use the old one, and she never figured out silverware."

Frog continued to regard both her and the Gate from a safe distance. "How hast thou wrought such a thing?"

After the awkward silence on the way to Truce Canyon, Lucca had expected things to be simpler once the group reached the Gate, even if experience had taught her that time travel tended to encourage questions. Frog's curiosity probably wouldn't have bothered her as much if he hadn't still been damp from his impromptu swim.

At least she had a solid theory to explain. "The Gate is a point at which the space-time fabric separating our plane from a timeless, parallel one has been breached, and the Gate Key-"

"Forget all that," Nadia interrupted. "Just think of that thing as a magic wand, and everything makes sense."

"I should hesitate to employ such a bold word as 'sense.'"

"Okay, then just think of it as a magic wand, and your head hurts less."

Lucca cleared her throat. "Getting back to the point," she said, "all you have to do is enter the unlocking sequence and hit the activation button while pointing this thing at a Gate. Hey, pay attention! You both need to know how to do this!"

Nadia raised her eyebrows. "Why? You're the genius."

Because I don't trust myself to stay stable. "Because we have to be prepared for anything. See the number pad?" Lucca pointed out the area on the device before continuing, "The buttons aren't labeled, but they represent numbers one through nine. The top row is one through three, the middle row is four through six, and I don't have to tell you what the bottom row is, do I?"

Frog shook his head. "Consider thou not this to be needlessly complex?"

"Compared to your grammar? Not really." Lucca turned the Gate Key to give her friends a better view of the buttons. "And it's not that complicated. The access code is 2-3-5-7." When they only nodded politely, she sighed and said, "I picked it so it'd be easy to remember. Am I the only one here who does prime numbers?"

"I don't see why we need a secret code," said Nadia. Frog concurred.

A touch impatiently, Lucca replied, "The original Gate Key got stolen once, and I was panicking the whole time because any idiot could have accidentally pointed it the wrong way and started ripping up history. So I added a code to this one. Just in case." Waking up to be confronted not only with her first hangover but also with the possibility of being trapped in the prehistoric era was a memory Lucca doubted she'd ever lose, no mattered how hard she tried.

"'Tis quite sensible of thee, then," Frog offered.

Lucca tapped the white button just above the number pad. "And this is the activation button. Got all that? Good. Who wants to volunteer?"

Nadia waved her hand overhead. "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!"

"Go for it." As soon as Lucca handed her the device, Nadia keyed in the code with a flourish and hit the activation button with her thumb. The Gate yawned open, to Nadia's visible delight and Frog's vocal surprise.

"One hundred percent safe," Lucca reassured him. "No witchcraft or devilry."

Frog straightened up and nodded. "I shall take thee at thy word, then. Shall we advance?"

As she caught herself after being tossed out in Leene Square, Lucca noticed that Frog did a commendable job of keeping his balance after his first trip through time. There was something to be said for a warrior's reflexes, even if Lucca was in no rush to acquire them. And she didn't need them, of course. Reflexes were for people who didn't think far enough ahead.

"Ahh, home, sweet home!" Nadia grinned and surveyed the lower tiers of Leene Square as if she hadn't seen them quite recently. The sun was already beginning to set, so at least she didn't startle any picnickers.

Frog took a probatory step and blinked at the cobblestoned plaza, which had taken on a reddish cast in the evening light. "Four centuries," he murmured, "in a single breath. 'Tis wondrous beyond all reckoning."

Nadia giggled. "If you think that was cool, wait till you see a blender. Oh, and ice cream! Let's go show him ice cream!"

"We're not on vacation," Lucca said, catching Nadia by the arm before she could dash off in search of modern conveniences. We're here on my personal wild-goose chase. "We're here because we might have a shot at fixing everything." To Nadia's reproachful look, she sighed and added, "Okay, we can stop for ice cream, but you have to eat it while we walk."

Confronted by an exciting array of unfamiliar terms, Frog redirected the conversation. "By the by, to what end do we now labor? Never didst thou confide thine intentions for the Masamune."

"It's going to take some explaining," replied Lucca, heading toward the steps to the lower plaza, "so I'll talk on the way." Once she had confirmed that Frog and Nadia were following, she continued, "When we saved the world before, everything kicked off because Nadia's pendant set off a reaction with my matter transportation and activated a Gate. I built the first Gate Key around the principle of using concentrated electrical pulses to-"

Frog coughed politely.

"Right," said Lucca, deflating a bit. "Anyway, what happened with the Telepod was that the pendant acted as a catalyst to amplify the electrical energy and I'm doing it again, aren't I?" When Nadia and Frog expressed agreement, she sighed and said, "Let's just say that the pendant makes energy more powerful. Later I found out that this was because it was made of Dreamstone. Which is, I might add, also what the Masamune is made of."

The lack of footsteps alerted Lucca to a problem. Turning, she saw that Frog had stopped at the base of Leene's Bell and was gazing up at the arch.

"'To my beloved Queen Leene, 600 AD," he read aloud. "'May our prayers for peace ring on for eternity.'"

Lucca tapped her foot. "Yes, very optimistic of them. Are you-"

Frog looked slowly around the plaza, as if drinking in every detail. "'Tis indeed the future. To think all this was once untamed wilderness..." With a bright laugh, he resumed walking. "The kingdom I dearly love hath flourished, and her people have prospered. 'Tis more than dreams have dared."

Nadia beamed. "I told you you'd like it."

"Anyway," said Lucca, crossing her arms, "we're going to make a Gate."

That got their attention.

Nadia held up a hand. "Okay, woah. I caught some of what you were talking to Melchior about, and I'm pretty sure he said human beings can't do that. Fire Goddess Lucca is not a real goddess."

"All Melchior said was that the energy needed to breach and navigate the timeless planes was beyond human capabilties. So I'm bringing in some superhuman energy enhancers."

"The Masamune," Frog deduced.

Nadia's hand flew to her pendant. "Lucca, have you lost your mind? How could we even make sure it went to the right time?"

Lucca shrugged. "That's the easy part, actually. Dreamstone seems to be pretty much condensed willpower. Just grab a piece and hope like hell you end up at the moment that needs to be changed."

Nadia tightened her grip on the pendant and said, "Okay, see, when I think an idea is crazy-"

"Just trust me. Please."

There was a moment's silence before Nadia nodded and let her hand fall to her side. Putting on a determined smile, she said, "Well, I guess it might be kinda fun."

"Someone approacheth!" Frog's sharp whisper came as a shock against the quiet of the empty plaza. "By appearance a man, now running hither in great haste."

Lucca spent too long squinting into the distance before spotting the figure rushing across the lower plaza. She cursed under her breath. While the angle of the stairs probably blocked Frog and Nadia from any view from below, the man's speed could only mean that Lucca, standing too close to the steps, had been spotted.

"Hide in the bushes," she whispered, in a tone that brooked no arguments and had an equal intolerance for questions. "Hurry! Let me handle this!"

Nadia's ponytail had scarcely disappeared when the footsteps indicated that their creator had reached the stairs and was no doubt taking them two at a time. Lucca turned to face the noise and tried not to look furtive.

The man charged up into the plaza, where he towered over Lucca with an almost tangible aura of righteous indignation. "Lucca Marie Ashtear! Where in God's name have you been? Your mother and I have been worried sick!"

Any bright ideas for disentangling herself burned out. With what she hoped was a suitably contrite expression, Lucca looked up and squeaked, "Hi, Dad."



Author's Note: The phrase "The Assassin of Time" and the second part of the inscription on Leene's Bell have been gleefully lifted from Chrono Cross, if only because I'm such a reference junkie. Lucca owes her middle name to Marie Curie for pretty much the same reason. :)