A cyborg blew smoke from her laser weapon. "Always hated those little @#$%^&-ers."

Giga twirled her Blaze Gun expertly around one finger before slinging it into her holster. As markings on the tip of the gun's barrel tripped sensors at the end of the metal sheath, several gears came to life and the weapon receded into Giga's leg. A plate slid forth and bolted into place, sealing the mechanism in her thigh. She tapped her cheeks with her thumb and forefingers, activating the Head's Up Display in her eyepiece.

In seconds, she had Magus' location. Using his unique biosignature readings, she was able to pinpoint him at 2.2 kliks away. She uploaded the castle's blueprints and cross-referenced it with her monster archive, plotting the routes least and most likely to encounter resistance, the shortest, and the longest. Each route was diagrammed across the blueprints, with monster lists downloading in the corner of her HUD.

Giga set out on Route C, the shortest path, setting her buster charge to auto and keying a few commands into her telecom. This way she would be alerted as to any Gate activity on the premesis. As she strode down the twisting corridors, her HUD ticked off the remaining distance to her target and her systems gleefully whistled and chirped to each other, scanning for threats and further anomalies.

Suddenly, her internal alert went off and her eyepiece switched to mag-res imaging. All around her, the walls flashed purple and red in varying degrees, denoting spatial weakness. She knew that in each patch there was the potential for Gate creation. The greater in intensity the color of the patch became, the closer it came to opening. However, she knew that Gates rarely manifested spontaneously, and that rifts of this level were not dangerous. She made a note to return to this time later to explore the possibilities of these potential portals.

Turning a corner, Giga's seismometer picked up vibrations in the floor. Her microphone amplified a low whisper from across the hall. "...Squall? You there? It's me, Cloud. No, I don't think you have a dumb name..." With the speed of thought, Giga's thigh whizzed open and her holster popped out. Her hand flew at her weapon and drew it just as fast. With a single shot, Cloud lay spread eagle on the carpet, bleeding from the back of his head.

"..." She slung her Gun back into its holster and paused as it drew into her leg. "Filth."

As she exited the hall into an adjacent room, her mike picked up a distant scream. Her monster archive listed it as the hunting call of the prehistoric Dactyl, but her ears knew that screech anywhere. It was Ayla! She scanned the surrounding area hurriedly with her sensors, searching for her location. Her biosignature was .3 kliks away, through one room and into a corridor. She pushed open the nearest door.

Giga's mag-res imaging was flooded with light. Her sensors were blinded by the brilliance of a massive rift that encompassed the entire room. As her HUD adjusted to the glare, her mag-res classified the patch as a level 13 gateway, highly unstable and containing great potential for activity. Suddenly, a Gate appeared in the center of the room. As it expanded to full size, Giga whipped out her Blaze Gun and set her buster to maximum charge, ready for the worst. In the corner of her HUD, her archive uploaded a list of monsters with possible teleportation abilities. The list's top entry was "Flea."

* * * * *

Glenn stalked silently down the darkened corridors of his nemesis' home. In the ten years since he'd given up travelling through time and finally joined the Knights of the Square Table, he'd learned to repress the impulse to hop. He still however, was unable to walk fully erect, due to the overelasticity of his amphibian spine. His bare feet plod slowly, carefully, down the carpeted hall, his bulging eyes scanning the walls for any hidden doors, latches, clues that might lead him to the master of the house. As his gaze trained across his weapon, he noticed the fresh blood still dripping off of it. He hastily wrapped his forest cloak around the blade and wiped the swordsman's blood away. Slash was a bleeder, always had been. It hadn't taken much more than a minor effort to best him at swordplay and end his pathetic existence.

As he trudged noiselessly down the hall, the sound of glass shattering and a scuffle sprang from behind a closed door. Suddenly, the form of a bloated lizard crashed through the wall. Bleeding from his head and shoulders and dripping wet, Ozzie scrambled to his feet, took one look at Glenn, and hollered: "Ozzie's in a mutha#$*%@! pickle!" He looked frantically over his shoulder and scooted off down the hall. The cavewoman, Ayla, leapt from within the room through the hole in the wall and gave chase, clutching carefully her fattened tummy, already 8 months ripe. Positive she couldn't catch the lizard in her delicate condition, Glenn shot down the hall after him. In seconds, he found himself hopping toward his prey, covering a dozen or so feet in each jump. Suddenly, from behind, there came a blood curdling screech and Ozzie, pausing to check behind him, tripped over a section of carpeting. Falling on his face, he offered little resistance has Glenn set his blade at hi! s throat. Ayla came jogging up quickly. "Dactyl Call always frighten Reptites." She grinned, and then motioned for him to fall back. "No, Froggy. Not for you. Back off." He did. He turned away in disgust as Ayla ripped out the petrified Ozzie's throat with her bare hands and began chewing on his intestines. She smiled again at Glenn, entrails spilling out of her mouth. "Reptite guts good for baby. Him fat Reptite."

Just then, Ayla retched the lizard's innards onto the carpet and reared up, her legs and back stiffening. Quick as lightning, Glenn sheathed his weapon and dashed to her side, cradling her in his arms. She groaned. "Baby ready. Ayla fine. Find magic man. Let me be. I'll... be... fine..." She fought through the discomfort to say the words. She began breathing rapidly, and lay back onto the floor. When Glenn would not leave her, she commanded "Go, Froggy, now! Save Crono!" and she pushed him away with all her strength.

Glenn crashed against the opposite wall and bounded back to his feet as soon as he hit the floor. He looked a last time at Ayla before glancing down the corridor. At the end of the hall, a mammoth set of double doors stood slightly ajar, allowing blue light to spill out into the darkness. It could only be one man.

As he marched toward the doors, he heard shouts from a nearby room, followed by the crash of metal on metal. Obviously Lucca, no, Giga she called herself now, ridding the world of that meddlesome transvestite Flea. No need for him to interfere, that was Lucca... Giga's victory, not his. For a second, he thought he heard his named called out, but whatever it might have been was drowned out by the suction of a closing Gate.

Drawing his Knight Sword out of its scabbard, he walked down the hall, fully erect, ready for anything, ready for Magus.

* * * * *

Water particles in the air solidified into ice around Flea as Nadia completed her incantation. Frozen in a transparent block, he could only watch in horror as she loaded her Cross Bow. Silver arrows were particularly potent at disrupting magic, and even more potent at disrupting magic users. Casually bringing the weapon to her hip, Nadia released several shots at the magician. Each arrow tunneled through the magical ice, their silver auras dissipating the magic they came in contact with, boring straight into Flea's helpless form. Frozen as solid as he was, he was not even permitted a death scream.

Nadia jumped back as the pillar of ice began to shake. In his death throes, Flea was tapping into desperate, chaotic magic to melt the block. With a hiss the ice evaporated, leaving in its wake the frail form of an old man, pincushioned by silver arrows. Nadia ran her fingers through her hair and stepped over the dead magician's body, pausing only to retrieve a trinket from his neck that caught her eye.

As Nadia entered the next room, Cross Bow ready, she heard a blood-curdling screech from the hall over. Slinging her weapon across her shoulder, she ran quickly through the next few rooms but couldn't find a door that would lead her to whatever creature had made that noise. Her sprint came to a halt when the sounds of battle emanated from her right. As she rushed to the nearest door, she faintly heard a voice scream out: "Glenn!", and then there was a sucking sound. She yanked the door open to see a Gate closing in the center of the room. The room itself was ransacked, turned upside down in a confrontation of epic proportions. Whoever it was, they couldn't be helped now. She exited the room into a corridor. A few feet away lay Ayla, outstretched on the carpet, legs spread, breathing rapidly. Nadia ran to her. "Froggy... there..." she wheezed, pointing down the hallway. Bright lights flashed through the crack of the door. Magus. She left Ayla and ran to the door,! hearing laughter from inside.

Magus levitated over Glenn's fallen body. "Ha, ha, ha! Foolish creature! Did you think you could actually defeat me, the King of Monsters? Ah, ha, ha, haaa!" His hand flexed and his scythe lifted from the floor and flew to his outstretched fingers. Nadia tried to reload her Cross Bow but her trembling hands dropped a bolt. Magus turned to her and raised the blade far over his head, preparing to strike. "Not a move, princess, or the frog dies!" Nadia slowly placed her weapon on the floor. The wizard looked ready to spring but paused. He looked over his shoulder, eyes darting to the corners of the room. "Who's there?" he hissed. "Is it you, little inventor?" Without a word, Nadia struck.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 6: the Man
?????
Another iron ball thudded against the back of the cyborg's head. A familiar laugh filled the air. Red warning lights flashed all across Giga's HUD as her archive identified the prince of Zeal. Few of her systems were still online, and those that were were failing fast. As the Golem Quints geared up for another attack, she rerouted all of her remaining power into her buster.

Dalton laughed again. "How do like my little Limbo, girl? I always wanted to rule my very own world! Ha, ha, ha! Your friends may have defeated a single Golem, but you could never stand against 5 all alone!"

Giga cursed under her breath as her buster slowly charged. The safety gauge was already yellow, too far to abort. It was all or nothing now. In the corner of her HUD, her telecom announced the rapid open and closing of a Gate not far off. Who could that be?

"Ha, ha, ha! I guess it was just lucky that I stumbled upon you in that old castle. I really would have preferred another one of your friends, someone who might have given me more of challenge. I suppose I could always go back and find that Crono; I always did want a crack at him one on one."

All of the buster's caution gauges were in the red as Giga took aim at the tight group of Golems. Plasma crackled at the tip of the weapon and she fired. The white-hot blast melted the 5 beasts into a single organism, killing them instantly. Circuits sizzling and tiny explosions from systems failures wracking her humanoid frame, Giga dimly noticed as a black shadow lunged at Dalton and skewered him like a pig on some sort of blade. The man in black pulled his weapon out of the prince and let him collapse to the ground. He turned toward Giga and advanced swiftly toward her. Suddenly, static overcame her HUD and she saw no more.

* * * * *

Castle Magus, AD 600
Magus was stunned. Never in all his life had he been beaten. Sure, those kids had gotten the better of him the last time, but hadn't really been focusing then. But this... girl had taken everything he had and given it right back to him. All of his tricks, his spells, nothing had worked. Now, with his own scythe pressed against his neck, he was ready for what he knew was coming. He'd seen it in her eyes when she'd leapt at him. She was going to kill him.

Nadia almost couldn't believe it. She'd faced the King of Monsters in unarmed, magical combat and bested him. The novelty wore off rather quickly. No sooner had her final ice spell dropped the wizard to his knees, she'd grabbed his weapon and held the curved blade at his throat. "Crono is dead. I want him back."

Magus was surprised. All this for that... boy? Was it love? This girl was willing to die so that he might live? "There is nothing I can do, princess."

"I will not accept that. No one knows more about this business than you. Tell me!" Her hands were trembling from anger and frustration, and the honed blade sliced ever so lightly across the wizard's skin. A drop of blood crawled down his neck, leaving a crimson trail.

"There is nothing you can do! Nothing could save him, nothing could... no... no, wait!"

Nadia was overcome with rage. "Deceiver!" Tears blotting her eyes, she screamed and raised the scythe, ready to end the magician's life. He held his hands across his face, frozen in fear. Nadia kicked his face, throwing his head back and craning his neck, soft and white, a single tear of blood trickling down it. She brought down the blade.

* * * * *

Glenn struggled to stay awake. The magician's attack had left him weak, helpless; he could barely see as it was, the lightshow from Nadia's battle with the wizard notwithstanding. He tore at his cloak and wrapped a scrap of it around the gaping wound in his bicep. Oozing thick, amphibian blood, it clotted quickly as he applied pressure. His metabolism's rapid healing was one advantage of this curse he'd grown to enjoy the benefit of. He could feel strings of skin slowly stretch across the gaping hole in his arm as he healed. In another minute he'd be ready for action. He would not be at his best, but he'd be strong enough to help the princess defeat Magus once and for all. Of course, for that, he'd need his... no! His sword! Where was it? His eyes still dazzled from the spray of magic, he groped blindly for the familiar shape of his weapon. Nothing but cold stone crossed his fingertips. Wait, wait, there it is! His hand closed around the sturdy hilt and pulled ! the blade close to him. He placed the sword tip down and leaned heavily on it as he pushed his way to his feet. He pulled his hood over his head to shield him from the light. "Cyrus," he whispered, "Your salvation is at hand." In the corner of his eye, Glenn saw movement. He whirled around, sword ready, to see a great black shadow fly toward him. It was a man, dress all in black. He could not see the man's face, he wore a mask, but in those final seconds as the man in black drew closer, there was something vaguely familiar in the way the man moved, the way he ran, the way he held his blade. But Glenn would never know who he was.

* * * * *

Limbo
The man in black approached...

* * * * *

The Timestream
Blade outstretched...

* * * * *

Castle Magus, AD 600
And there was nothing they could do...

* * * * *

Grid 12, Truce Sector, AD 2316
But watch and wait...

* * * * *

The End of Time
For the end...

* * * * *

CHAPTER 7: the Boy
Castle Magus, AD 600
The curved blade arced toward Magus' neck. There was no question in Nadia's mind that this man should die. Then, an instant before the moment of truth, the scythe ricocheted off of something metal. In seconds, the wizard was torn from her grasp. A man in black had blocked her attack and was stealing her victim. She leapt at the man, determined not to let him escape. He sheathed his weapon and held out his hand. Yellow light throbbed from his palm, blasting her to her back. He tapped something under his tunic and a Gate materialized next to him. Nadia rose to her feet, lightly chanting a spell. The man raised his hand again, threatening another attack. "You cannot defeat me, Nadia. You never could." He grabbed the near unconscious Magus around the chest and with one arm, lifted him to his feet. His spell still aimed at her, the man in black backed slowly into the Gate. As the rift sealed, she heard his voice, calling to her:

"I'll be back soon for you..."

* * * * *

Death Peak, AD 2300
Nadia struggled with Crono's limp body as she dragged him down the mountain. It seemed that every ten steps or so she had to let him fall to the snow and fight some enemy. She wondered where they all came from, and why the hell they hung out on a snow-covered mountainside. After her foes had fallen, she'd pick up Crono for another ten steps and fight some new enemy. She hadn't seen this kind of endless antagonism since the war. Christ, that felt like a thousand years away. The weak enemies gave her time to think, as fighting was almost second nature to her now.

She could only ponder why the man in black had chosen to help her. She was still scared of him, but there was nothing she could do to him. She knew he'd killed her friends, and could kill her just as easily, so why had he given her the "C.Trigger" and this "Clone"? Where had they come from? How did he know what they were for? And how did he get that doll to look so much like her Crono? There were too many questions. Why had he killed her friends? Ayla, Glenn, Lucca, Robo, they were all gone. And why the sudden change of heart, if that's what it was. Why help her now? She had no indication that he wouldn't kill her and Crono as soon as they returned. Why didn't he come with her? What was this "other business" that he had to "attend to"? She could only wonder what that meant.

And then she was at the base of the peak. She powered up Giga's telecom and waited for a moment as the Gate materialized. Why couldn't she use the 'com from the mountainside? Why did she have to scale the mountain both ways, instead of just gating to the top and then gating back? There were too many questions now, the least of them being: "Who is the man in black?"

* * * * *

The Day of Lavos, AD 1999
With a great wail, Lavos died. His death scream echoed throughout the world, calling for all life forms to lament his demise. None would. As the scream subsided, Nadia and the man in black saw a hole in the beast's carapace. "He was too easy," Nadia said, "There must be more."

"There is," replied the man in black, sheathing his sword. "Inside. But that is not our battle."

"Then whose is it?" Nadia screamed at him. She jabbed her finger fiercely into his chest. "I'm not afraid of you anymore! I want answers! Why did you kill my friends? Why did you help me save Crono? Who are you?"

The man in black stepped back. "Calm down, princess. If you want to know, I'll tell you:

"I didn't kill them. I saved them. Lucca thought Robo had been disintegrated. He wasn't; I removed him from that time before his final attacker had charged its weapon. I killed Dalton after he attacked Lucca, before he could summon any more Golems, which would have surely crushed her. Frog would have been killed had he tried to help you fight Magus. The energies the two of you were controlling would have warped his body and mind in unspeakable ways, so I took him and later Magus to the past, to allow him his final vengeance. When Frog died, he died human. Finally, the drop down the light shaft would have killed Ayla's child, so I took her from you."

"But why? Why did you do all this?"

"I... I can't tell you... Nadia, there is something you must know. After I saved them all, I transported them to the End of Time. They were too weak to leave, and I trusted they would heal themselves in time, so I left them there. Nadia, when I came after you, they were gone."

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know! I think that I sealed their fates. Everything I did led up to saving Crono, but they all came from a world where Crono wasn't saved. I think that in saving Crono, I have destroyed them all. They cannot survive in this reality, since there is no basis for their presence here."

"What about me?"

"I don't know. You may die, you may sleep, you may explode. Only one thing is for sure; you will not live to see tomorrow, and the only way to stop it is to kill Crono, and I won't do that, not after all I've been through."

Suddenly, a white light washed over Nadia, and an emptiness welled up in the pit of her stomach. Her time had come. The timestream was washing her away. "No! Nadia! Not now! I had so much to tell you!" The man in black reached for her hand and tried to hold it, but his fingers passed through it like air. He whipped his arms madly about, trying to find some part of her that was still there, but to no avail.

"No, no, it's fine," Nadia said, her voice calm and soothing. She smiled and whispered to the man in black, "It doesn't hurt at all. Don't worry about me. Take care of Crono." Her legs began to disappear, and the light was getting brighter. She struggled to speak. "Please..." she wheezed, "Please... who are you? Let me see your face..." The man in back pulled off his bandana. Nadia smiled. "I'd hoped it was you... I don't know how, but I think I always knew..." She smiled again and her eyes twinkled with blue light. The white light grew steadily until, in a blinding flash, she was gone. The man in black knelt and held his face in his hands, and he knew that she would never be back.

* * * * *

The End of Time
The man in black hid in the shadows as the light shafts shimmered to life and produced a beautiful young Marle and an energetic young Ayla. Marle was trying to calm Ayla, still livid at the others' departure. "Now, Ayla, what can the two of us do? We can't save Crono by ourselves." He could see that Marle was doing her best to hold back tears. He knew what Crono had meant to her. He could only smile knowingly to himself as the two girls "found" Crono, sitting neatly under the statue. The boy shook his head, stood up, and without so much as a word, led his friends into the Old Man's bucket, off to defeat Lavos. The Old Man chuckled. He was sure, as was the man in black, that they would defeat the demon. But the Old Man only hoped, the man in black knew. The man in black smiled to himself as he pulled off his mask and let it drop to the ground. With tap to his chest a Gate silently opened before him, and he stepped inside. As it closed, he offered a final grin and! a wholehearted laugh; he had fulfilled his quest, and he was going home.

* * * * *