Chrono Trigger: A Retrospective, Chapter 2

Machines aren't capable of evil... Humans make them that way.

Chapter 2: The Future

Appearing on the other side of the gate, our heroes fall from the time portal they had escaped through. Finding themselves in a cold metallic and rusty room, the group collapses on the ground as they fall. Wondering where they are, they get up off the ground and dust themselves off. Lucca makes note of the advanced looking technology which a locked doorway seems to be constructed of and is marked with a strange seal.

Stepping outside of the room they found themselves in, the party emerges from a futuristic dome fortress into a barren wasteland devoid of any signs of life. Vegetation does not exist, the ground is sick and discoloured, and ash falls from the sky with howling winds. Craters pock the landscape in every direction.

Travelling south along a ruined highway, they enter another domed fortress. Inside is more rusted metal, but they also find a small colony of dishevelled survivors dressed in rags. While no one seems to be in a position of leadership, a survivor standing beside a large machine explains it's called an 'Enertron'. It is capable of giving a full nights sleep in a few seconds, but can't do anything for the hunger. Realizing that was the extent of what remained, the group takes a survivors advice to head north to ruins called 'Lab 16' and cross the wastes to the north eastern part of the continent to reach 'Arris Dome'.

Upon entering the ruins of Lab 16 it appeared to be the remains of a vast city with decapitated buildings creating a labyrinth of paths, most direction which were impossible to traverse. Rats quickly scurried across open areas, ready to steal what few items the party had accumulated at that point. Fighting plant monsters, shadows and mutants across the hellish apocalyptic landscape, the 3 eventually reach the other side of the ruins.

Entering Arris Dome they are met once again by the same decor of broken technology and steel. Corroded and exposed piping lies in every direction. As they follow the path, they encounter the 2nd group of survivors that are still alive. An old man steps forward to ask the new arrivals where they came from and Lucca answers that they just came from the laboratories from the west. Surprised that anyone could survive the journey through the ruins, the old man informs the others. The old man introduces himself as Doan; the descendant of the Director of the Info center, which was the function of the building they were in. He informs them that there's food and a computer in the basement which they haven't been able to reach because of haywire robot guards.

Knowing they are the survivors only hope and wanting to see if they can recover answers from the computer down below, the heroes climb down into the sub-basement area. They first pass some old abandoned computer consoles which look to still be in working order. Balancing across a series of narrow support beams, passing an odd statue of a large rat, the group reaches an open area with a doorway head, a large mechanical guard drops down from the ceiling accompanies by 2 repair bots to attack. The trio defeat the large security robot and then enter the next room to find an empty and destroyed storeroom. The refrigeration system failed and the containment units that stored the foodstuffs had been broken open long ago and left to rot. They find a lone corpse leaning against a wall and in its grasp, a lone seed. It also had a note attached in the corpses final words. "The rat is more than just a statue! It knows the secret of this dome. Catch it!"

Once they return to the area with the narrow support beams they notice the rat statue has come to life. Chasing it down, it squeals and tells them the secret code that will unlock the passage using the computer console they passed earlier. Once they reach the decrepit consoles, they enter the code and a platform rises to allow access to a door to their right. Now a new series of platforms lie before them, littered with various security robots blocking their path as well as some mutated insects. Once reaching the other side of the obstacles, they enter the final room of the underground basement; the information centers main computer. A large screen takes up the far wall along with operational controls underneath it.

Lucca accesses the controls to input a command to look for time warps to locate another gate. The screen flickers to life and shows the party a satellite image of a path to the far east, past more ruins and a crumbling factory to a new dome city; this one called Proto Dome.

Curious about the technology, Marle pushes a random button by chance. Once again the screen flickers to life. A readout states: "1999 A.D. Visual record of The Day of Lavos.”

On the screen, another satellite image appears. This time instead of an image of a ruined wasteland, a green and lush continent becomes visible. Domes in good repair are scattered about, linked by roadways. Suddenly the sky becomes dark and the earth begins to shake. A large red, glowing crater begins to crack open across the surface of the earth and an impossibly large sinister form rises from the opening in the earths crust. A spine covered orb lifts from the molten chasm and huge, city sized chunks of terrain levitate in its gravity. As it reaches the surface, hundreds of projectiles shoot from the objects spines and descend upon the surface of the planet, bombarding everything in explosions. Every corner of the earth is laid waste, all in the span of a few minutes. The screen goes dark.

The trio stare in shock. "Lavos? Is that what's destroying our world!?" Lucca exclaims.

"We must truly be in the future..." Marle says. "No! No way! I refuse to believe it! This... can't be the way the world ends." She begins to sob. "There's only one thing we can do! We must change history! Just like Crono did when he saved me!"

The others agree. They decide that if they have any shot, they need to get back to their original time to find whatever research on Lavos they can find.

Once topside again, the survivors ask the group if they found any food. They have to explain that there was none left and that all they could recover was a small handful of seeds.

"You're strange. You're different from us." Doan says.

"I think it's because we're healthy." Marle replies.

"Heal-thy? Got a nice ring to it. We'll try growing the seeds." Doan hands the group a key. "It's a key to the Jet Bike in Lab 32. I used to ride it when I was young. Hope it still works. Take care, and stay... healthy."

Before leaving for the next ruins, the band also hears rumours from the survivors of a crazy old man who happens to live on the other side of the sewers in another dome near a mountain called Deaths Peak.

Crono and the gang make their way for the ruins of Lab 32 and as they enter, the Jet Bike is sitting in the open, abandoned and in pristine looking condition. As the group walks up to put the key in the ignition, an alarm sounds and several robots emerge and surround them. As they draw their weapons to combat the threatening looking machines, a voice tells them to hold it. That's when a groovy looking animatron with radical sunglasses and wheels rolls forward into view. The robots announce: "Hey it's... the MAN!"

Thanking the robots for the introduction, the stranger poses and tell the group to call him 'Johnny'. He then challenges the team to a bike race along an old highway.

As the 3 enter the Jet Bike, it's engines roar to life. The bike races down the highway at break neck speeds as it collides with Johnny who keeps pace the whole time. At the very last second, Crono hits the boost and edges into victory across the finish line.

Rolling up to them as they disembark the Jet Bike, Johnny admits defeat and tells the 3 that they can challenge him to another race any time they want.

Now travelling past the crumbling factory they saw in the satellite image, the heroes travel east and then south to the Proto Dome. Once inside the group make their way to the back room and discover a broken down robot slumped over in front of some controls and a sturdy, reinforced door.

This particular robot appears to be a completely different make and model from any the group has encountered yet being far more humanoid than the others. Taking an immediate interest, Lucca speculates that she can fix it given some time. As Marle worries that it would attack them as soon as it's activated, Lucca reassures her that she'll see to it that it doesn't. "Machines aren't capable of evil. Humans make them that way."

"You pity them don't you?" Marle observes.

After some time of repairs, the robot comes to life. Upon activation, the robot dances until settling in one place, and addresses the group: "Good morning, mistress. What is your command?"

"I'm not your mistress. I'm Marle. This is Crono, and Lucca here, fixed you."

Thanking Lucca for fixing him, the Robot is asked his name. "Name? Ah, my serial number. It is R66-Y"

Saying that it will not do, Marle opts to give the robot a better name. The group settle on Robo (As a rule, I always call him Tinn, myself) The group then asks Robo where all the people are. Robo is surprised and doesn't know, as there were many humans and robots the last he remembered.

"I think something awful happened here." Lucca states.

"It would appear so. But how it is you survived?" Robo inquires.

"We came through a time warp from the year 1000. While exploring Arris Dome we learned there was a gate here." Marle replies.

They then explain that the gate is probably behind the door to the inner chambers. They then deduce that the problem is that there is no power connected to the main computers. It needs to be reactivated using the domes generator which requires travelling to the northern crumbling factory that they passed on the way here. However, someone will have to stay behind to open the door before the generator runs out of power.

From this point on in the game, the player has to make a choice for who will comprise their 3 person party. I will be ignoring all the various alternate options in the interests of simplicity and simply assume the most likely combination of adventurers. In this case, Marle will be staying behind as Lucca and Robo make the best pair due to their immediate friendship.

As the group says farewell to Marle and heads for the northern factory she tells them to be careful.

After the short trek back the way they came, the adventurers enter the factory, which turns out to be in far better condition on the inside than the outside. Just in front of the main entrance, Robo tries to override the security programs of the automated defence systems. At the same time as the lasers powered down, a sentient acid creature appears and attacks the party. Once defeating the threat the group moves forward as the area splits into 2 paths, each leading to an elevator. They take the right elevator down to the sub-basement where they discover a conveyor belt system where security drones are being constructed. After navigating various obstacles and destroying plenty of security drones they manage to reach a computer which gives them an access code; XABY.

Now returning to the first area where the 2nd elevator awaits them, they descend into the 2nd sub-basement; the laboratory area. Moving past what appear to be containment units for fully constructed robots, they reach a computer capable of shutting off the lower defence lasers, opening up access to the elevator to take them to the next area. Then when reacting the final computer console, they enter the password XABY, and the sealed door to the main generator room opens.

Upon seeing the main power cell, they flip the switch, routing electricity to Proto Dome allowing Marle to open the door. However, this has the unintended effect of causing the security system to go haywire. Now the band is rushing to escape before security doors lock them inside. Robo rushes forward to block the final closing door with his own body, narrowly making it through to the other side.

As they continue their escape, the containment units they walked by earlier open up and 6 machines identical to Robo emerge.

"These are my friends!" Robo exclaims. "R-64Y, R-67Y, and R-69Y! Good to see you!"

One of the robots winds up and delivers a devastating punch to Robots main chassis.

"What are you doing?" Robo cries.

"You are defective."

"You have been tainted." R-64Y and R-67Y reply.

"Pardon? I'm... malfunctioning?"

"Affirmative."

"A defect... I'm a defect?"

"Have you forgotten our mission? All intruders must be eliminated." R-69Y commands.

"THAT was my purpose?"

"You shame us. You must be destroyed." Beeps R-64Y.

As Robo tries to process what is happening, the 6 machines gang up on him and deliver a multitude of devastating blows. As Robo begs them to stop, Crono and Lucca are powerless to intervene. Once Robo is incapacitated they throw his body down a disposal unit. "Now let's take care of the intruders."

"No! Let's take care of you!" Lucca retorts, readying her pistol. Fighting the 6 Robo clones, Crono and Lucca manage to turn them into scrap. Once defeated, they recover Robo from the disposal unit and drag his inactive body back to Proto Dome to be repaired.

As Lucca focuses on fixing Robo, she asks him what he plans to do afterwards. He realizes no one has ever asked him that before. After many hours of labour, Robo regains his functionality. He informs Lucca and the rest that he's made up his mind. He wants to accompany them on their adventures, hoping to give their planet another chance. They go through the now open door and find the gate they were looking for directly on the other side. Lucca activates the Gate Key, and the 4 step into the portal. As their teleported away, an electric current crackles across the gate.

Once on the other side, the 4 find themselves in a strange location. They stand in a room with no walls but a golden gate on each side of them and 3 bright white pillars in the center, one of which they emerge from. The only exit is a staircase on the south east side of the room. They can hear snoring in the distance.

After descending the stairs they find an old man in a brown cloak and a rimmed hat with a cane sleeping underneath an oddly placed street lamp that he's propped up against. The room is close to barren, although to the north is a doorway, along with a bucket with a shining light.

As the group approaches the old man, he wakes. "Ah, more guests!"

"What do you mean, 'guests'? And where are we?" Lucca asks.

"Why, this is 'The End of Time' of course!" He says. "All lost travellers in time wind up here. When 4 or more beings step into a time warp, the Conservation of Time theorem states that they will turn up at the space-time coordinates of least resistance: here."

"Which means one of us has to remain here." Lucca deducts.

"It is pretty bleak here, but you can visit your friends whenever you wish. But you can never travel in groups greater than 3."

"So how do we get back to our own time?"

"You see those lovely pillars of light? Those hook you up to different eras. Once you've been through a gate, you can always use it to come here."

As the party heads back to the staircase to the pillars of light, the old man calls out: "Hey! Don't be in such a rush! Before you go, take a peek inside the room behind me."

As they enter the northern room, the group sees a strange furry creature standing in the centre.

"What're you lookin' at?" It asks. "I'm Spekkio, the Master of War! I've seen all kinds of battles from here. How do I look to you guys?"

As the creature is quite small in stature and unintimidating, they think he seems pretty weak, as they've already defeated much more deadly looking enemies.

"Let's put it this way: If you're strong, I look strong. If you're weak, I look weak. You are strong of will. That's why the Old One let you through. Long before you were born there was a kingdom where magic flourished. Everyone there could use it! But in time, people began to abuse their powers. It got so bad that no one was allowed to use magic except wizards. But you have it; determination. Magic needs power of the heart. It needs inner strength. Magic is divided into 4 types: Lightning, Fire, Water and Shadow. You with the punk hairdo! (Referring to Crono) You're Lightening. The one with the ponytail (Referring to Marle) is Water. The one with goofy glasses (Referring to Lucca) is Fire. Not just magic, but EVERYTHING is based on the balance of these 4 powers.”

Spekkio then challenges the group to think 'magic' and walk along the room 3 times clockwise. Once the party does so, Spekkio imbues them with the power of their elemental magic.

"So, fortified with magic! Wanna test it out?" Spekkio asks.

The party then engages in a friendly sparring match with Spekkio, challenging them to master their newly discovered abilities. Once they defeat him, Spekkio congratulates them on their victory and slips them an item that will boost their magic ability.

Now, having mastered the first level of magic and becoming familiar with the End of Time, the heroes step onto one of the pillars of light and are ushered away on the next stage of their journey.