Chrono Cross

The story of Chrono Cross begins with Serge, who must collect colorful scales on the
beach for his girlfriend. The setting is El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by
ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans who are often
prejudiced against. While meeting his girlfriend, Serge slips into an alternate
dimension in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior. While searching for truth
behind his supposed death, Serge meets the famous thief Kid, a teenage girl intent on
finding the mysterious Frozen Flame. Serge joins her search, they recruit help, and
infiltrate Viper Manor, rumored to host the artifact. Viper Manor is home to the Acacia
Dragoons - the combative, affluent, and revered protectors of the island. While in the
manor's library, a mysterious old man, known as the Prophet of Time, reveals that ten
years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions - one in which Serge
lived (Home world), and one in which he perished (Another world). The shadowy
antagonist Lynx foils the break-in, poisons Kid, and causes the would-be thieves to
flee.

Kid eventually recuperates, and Serge prepares to travel to Fort Dragonia, an ancient
ruin left by the Dragonians - a mysterious race gone extinct a hundred years before.
There, the Acacia Dragoons intend to make a stand against an invading continental
army of Porre. While preparing, Serge gains the ability to travel between the
dimensions and secure further assistance and items - including the Water Dragon's
breath, capable of freezing lava. He attempts to voyage by boat to the fort's shores, but
is interrupted by the pirate Fargo. Initially imprisoned, Serge is freed when the ship
comes under attack from ghosts. After earning Fargo's respect, Serge enters the fort
and ascends to its highest floor. Through the use of a Dragonian artifact called the
Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge. Unknowing of the switch, Kid
confides in Lynx; he stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches in Lynx's body.
Lynx, now in Serge's body, boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm
called the Temporal Vortex. He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe
the real Serge is her enemy.

Serge escapes with help from Harle. Discovering that his new body prevents him from
traveling across the dimensions, he is marooned in Home world. He sets out to regain
his former body and learn more of the universal split ten years earlier. He speaks with
his mother and recruits new members to his cause. Hearing that a Demi-human sage
confined on a cruise ship may be able to help him, he journeys to the S.S. Zelbess. He
gains the sage's favor, and is given an artifact that allows access to the Dead Sea, a
mysterious body of water. While attempting to enter, he discovers the evil sword
Masamune and must counter it with the holy sword Einlanzer. Once inside the Dead
Sea, he finds a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins. At the center, he
locates a man named Miguel and presumably Home world's Frozen Flame. Charged
with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel battles Serge, but is
ultimately defeated. To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE then
destroys the Dead Sea. Still in Lynx's body, Serge is rescued by a Dragon, one of the
six mythical entities who inhabit El Nido.

Able to return to Another world, Serge finds the Acacia Dragoons in dire straits from
Porre's invasion and rescues General Viper's daughter. After collecting six relics from
the Dragons, he locates that dimensions Dragon Tear and travels to Fort Dragonia to
initiate a ceremony to recreate his body. He succeeds after staving off Lynx at the base
of the fortress. With the Dragon relics in tow, he enters the Sea of Eden, which is
Another World's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea. He finds a temporal research
facility called Chronopolis - inside are Lynx, Kid, and the Frozen Flame. Confronted
by Serge, Lynx bonds with the entity FATE (the main computer of the facility) to
defeat the boy in battle. He is unsuccessful, and with FATE's capitulation, the defense
systems of Chronopolis fall. After uniting in air, the six Dragons fly over the facility
and scoop up the Frozen Flame. Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party
goodbye to fly with the Dragons. The new villains soar to Terra Tower, a massive
structure raised from the sea floor and surrounding islands.

Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains in a comatose state.
Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the Masamune. He then uses the
Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the seventh mythic Element,
the Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid
from her coma, and they then prepare to assault Terra Tower. He outfits his boat with
an anti-gravity device and travels to battle the Dragons. At Terra Tower, the Prophet of
Time, who is revealed to be Belthasar from Chrono Trigger, visits him and imparts the
boys history. This information is later elaborated on by accompanied apparitions.
Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of
years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past. The introduction
of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance
from a different dimension. This was Dinopolis, a city inhabited by Dragonians, who
were the parallel universe descendants to Chrono Trigger's Reptites. The institutions
warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians. Humans captured their chief
creation, the Dragon God, which was an entity capable of controlling nature.

Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system, which
individuals could use for combat or trade. FATE terraformed an archipelago, erased
the memories of most Chronopolis staff members, and sent them to inhabit and
populate its new paradise. Chronopolis remained obscured from view by dense clouds
and was also surrounded by a poisonous reef. Thousands of years later, a panther
demon attacked three-year-old Serge. His father took him to find assistance at
Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by
Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal. She had long ago fallen to a place known
as the Darkness Beyond Time, and began merging with Lavos, the chief villain of
Chrono Trigger. Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis' defenses and allowed Serge to
contact the Frozen Flame. Approaching it healed Serge, but corrupted his father. By
touching the Flame, Serge was designated its Arbiter by a circuit in Chronopolis,
simultaneously preventing FATE from using the artifact by extension. The Dragons
were aware of this situation and created a seventh Dragon under the storms cover.
This Dragon was Harle, who manipulated Lynx by serving as his accomplice.

After Serge returned home, FATE manipulated his father to try and kill the boy, which
would release the lock on the Frozen Flame. His father drowned Serge and became
Lynx. However, ten years after the event, the thief Kid (presumably on Belthasar's
orders) went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions. FATE, locked out of
the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to Another world and
prepared to apprehend him. Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological
check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. When Serge defeated FATE, the freed
Dragons snatched the Frozen Flame and raised Terra Tower. Belthasar then reveals
that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid, and that
its final purpose would soon be revealed. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower
and defeats the Dragon God.

Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds three
apparitions resembling the original team from Chrono Trigger. More of the games
history is revealed, such as the revelation that Belthasar planned the entire plot to
empower Serge and free Schala from melding with Lavos. The resulting fused being,
called the Time Devourer, would consume and destroy space-time. Lucca explains that
Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid. Crono
entreats Serge to use the Chrono Cross to free Schala. Serge uses a Time Egg, given to
him by Belthasar, to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time
Devourer. He separates Schala from Lavos and restores the dimensions to one.
Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his
home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the
experience in her diary, set upon a desk on which a wedding photo of Kid and Serge
appears. She then embarks on a mysterious search for Serge as cutscenes depict her
walking through a modern city. The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the
characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.
Analytical Perspective
Origin of the Time Devourer
When Crono was at the Ocean Palace and the Red Knife was plunged into the
Mammon Machine, Schala was thrown into a dimensional vortex at the Ocean Palace
disaster along with the machine itself, where either Lavos or temporal disruptions
began a merging of the two beings at a place called the Darkness Beyond Time. This
went unnoticed, and Lavos merged with Schala with the intent of evolving into a
being that could consume all space-time. In 2300 A.D., before Crono saved the world,
Belthasar came in from the Ocean Palace disaster to find the new future. He set about
building a research institute called Chronopolis, in the Sea of Eden, that is powered by
a splinter of Lavos which fell when he landed on the planet millions of years ago. That
splinter was called the Frozen Flame. The Flame allowed a kind of communication
with Lavos, and additionally, human contact with the Frozen Flame in 3,000,000 B.C.
was responsible for the evolution of humans to use magic. Belthasar constructed and
ran a computer called FATE, and in the process, found that Schala was being
integrated with Lavos. The resulting being, the Time Devourer, would have the
capacity to destroy all space-time if allowed to complete the merge. Belthasar thus
planned an elaborate, if not needlessly complex, plan to save Schala and eliminate the
Time Devourer. Everything after this point is planned by Belthasar, who calls himself
the Prophet of Time.

Project Kid and FATE

Belthasar supposedly draws up plans for the Counter-Time Experiment, which, if
successful, would allow Chronopolis control over time itself. He then departs to the
modern era, around 1010-1020 A.D., and in the future, the Counter-Time Experiment
failed which caused the Time Crash. Lavos, awakened at the Ocean Palace according
to plan, thought it might mess up history by sucking Chronopolis back through time,
which had been exposed by the Time Crash. Through the Frozen Flame, it did so,
pulling it back to 12,000 B.C. The planet felt it needed to counterbalance the
introduction of this "temporal foreign facility" by pulling in Dinopolis from an
alternate dimension, in which the Reptites lived due to Lavos never falling to the
planet. The two institutions began warring. Chronopolis fought and won against
Dinopolis, and used the power of the Frozen Flame to split up its deity power source,
the Dragon God, into six separate entities. FATE decided that in order not to mess up
history, it should avoid contact with the mainland of Zenan if possible. It terraformed
El Nido so that it could set up its own paradise, and dispatched the workers of
Chronopolis to the new islands, erasing their memories in the process. The people
would be guided by several terminals called the Records of Fate that could
neurologically control its users. The Dragonians, who were survivors from Dinopolis,
also settled El Nido and they forged Elements, or devices which could have a natural
effect when activated. Lastly, it spread the remnants of the Dragon God around a few
special islands, named for their resident piece - Water Dragon Isle, etc...

Settlement of El Nido
History proceeded here normally, and the survivors of Dinopolis (referred to as the
Dragonians throughout the game) joined the humans of El Nido. Dragonian
technology, called Elements, was adopted by the residents of El Nido, and used as a
form of magic. However, it should be noted that this is not innate, but mechanical
magic. Element users are using manufactured devices to control the environment,
while innate magic users such as Magus and Crono are able to directly produce the
effect themselves. All people have an Element "innate color" representing the type of
Element (Water, Wind, Earth, etc.) they are most in harmony with. The Dragonians
also created an emblem known as the Dragon Tear. In 920 A.D., settlers from Zenan
(the continent on which Guardia and Porre from Chrono Trigger are located) found El
Nido and began colonization. The Dragonians slowly died out, perhaps leaving
Demi-humans behind as half children between humans and Dragonians (they may also
be Mystic remnants). A place known as Viper Manor was built at this time, and the
Acacia Dragoons were established, who are the self-declared defenders of El Nido.
The Viper Clan was responsible for its founding and probably emigrated from
mainland Zenan with others.

Serge and the Frozen Flame

In 1005 A.D., the kingdom of Guardia met a violent end in a war with Porre, who, in
this timeline, had become a military power (see the Compendium's Rise of Porre
article for theories on its military origins). Porre began creating plans for domination
of El Nido. In 1003 A.D., Serge was born, and in 1004 A.D., Kid was created by
Schala as a clone of herself, and sent into the world according to Belthasar's plan. She
was found by Lucca and raised in her house, which was then a converted orphanage.
In 1006 A.D., at the age of three, Serge was wounded by a panther demon while
playing outside. He was taken out to sea by his father Wazuki, along with Wazuki's
friend Miguel, in an attempt to save him. Schala heard his crying from across time,
and feeling empathy, she causes a huge magnetic storm to blow them off course to
Chronopolis, since the Frozen Flame alone could save Serge. The storm caused
Chronopolis' defenses to fail, leaving the facility entirely open. Serge was treated by
the Frozen Flame, but it corrupted his father. The defenses came back online; Serge
and Wazuki escaped, but Miguel was detained. By contacting the Frozen Flame, Serge
became the Arbiter, meaning that only he could access it thanks to the 'Prometheus
Circuit' which was built to limit access as part of Belthasar's plan. The circuit was
actually Robo, who volunteered to be part of the project. This was a huge setback for
FATE and Chronopolis, as the Flame was its power source. FATE took advantage of
Wazuki's corruption, and began to shape him to FATE's will. Lastly, during the storm
and while Chronopolis was down, the split Dragon Gods briefly came together to
create a seventh piece, known to us as the character Harle.

Chrono Cross Begins

In 1010 A.D., FATE succeeded in having Serge's father kill him; the act of doing so
permanently warped his father, Wazuki, into a being known as Lynx. After this, Harle
befriended Lynx in order to get closer to the Frozen Flame. Time continued normally,
and in 1015 A.D., FATE attempted to track down Lucca so that she may deactivate the
Prometheus Circuit, which was preventing Chronopolis from accessing its source of
power, the Frozen Flame. Lucca's orphanage was burned, and a few children were
presumably killed. Kid escaped the fire, and Lucca's whereabouts are unknown after
this event, but it is assumed she was probably killed for refusing to deactivate the lock
on the Frozen Flame. According to Belthasar's plan, in 1020 A.D., Kid went back in
time to 1010 A.D. to save Serge. She succeeded, and a new dimension was "fissioned"
off from the main one. The main dimension is now called Another World, and the new
one in which Serge lives is called Home World. Inherent properties of Home World
caused the future to end in ruin brought about by Lavos. This is reflected in the
formation of the Dead Sea, which is Home World's Sea of Eden (Chronopolis has
temporal links with the future and reflects its state - see the article Salt for the Dead
Sea). In 1020 A.D., Another World, Kid called out to Serge across the dimensions to
where he was in the Home World. Additionally, Serge is able to travel between the
two dimensions since he is absent from either one or the other at any given time.
Serge, seeking the knowledge of why the dimensions exist and how he plays into the
scheme of things, embarked on a quest, partly for the Frozen Flame.

Body-Switching and Betrayal

Serge meets Kid for the first time at Cape Howl. The Acacia Dragoons had been
dispatched to bring him in because Lynx wanted to capture him and switch bodies in
order to access the Frozen Flame at Chronopolis (the Prometheus Circuit only allowed
the Arbiter to enter, and one had to pass a biological confirmation of being the
arbiter). They defeated the Dragoons and went to Termina. There they decided to enter
Viper Manor to learn more and possibly find the Flame. They did not succeed, and
Kid was poisoned by Lynx, but she would eventually recover. The quest for the Flame
would then lead Serge to Fort Dragonia, where Lynx switched bodies with him by
using the Dragon Tear (it shattered in the process, and the party retrieved a shard later
on). This effectively allowed Lynx and FATE to access the Frozen Flame again, since
the 'Prometheus Lock' allowed biological matches of the Arbiter access to the Flame.
Serge, believing FATE is the enemy, journeyed to the Dead Sea and is empowered by
the Dragon Gods later. He uses the Dragon Tear of the Home World dimension to
regain his body, and in the process, also becomes shattered. Serge would also receive a
shard from this Dragon Tear as well. Serge eventually made it to Chronopolis and
battled FATE. After the computer's defeat, it is revealed that the Dragon Gods were
merely using him as a tool to regain the Frozen Flame. The Dragon Gods, no longer
subjugated by FATE, linked together to form the original Dragon God, and stole the
Frozen Flame from Chronopolis. Once this occurred, Dinopolis rose from the ocean
floor and from parts of Sky Dragon Isle, and formed Terra Tower. Serge then trekked
there and defeated the Dragon God. It is then revealed that the Dragon God had long
since been consumed by the Time Devourer.

Schala's Freedom
Belthasar explained that all of the transpired events were enacted simply so that Serge
would be empowered and able enough to fight the Time Devourer and free Schala.
Serge took the shards of the Dragon Tears to a Dragonian shrine, and they formed the
Chrono Cross. It is an artifact capable of wondrous things, including the unification of
the dimensions back into one strain, and the freedom of Schala from the Time
Devourer. Using a Time Egg, the same device by which Crono was resurrected in
Chrono Trigger, Serge ventured to the Darkness Beyond Time, where the Time
Devourer resided, and used the Chrono Cross to free Schala. The dimensions for
Home and Another were also unified. However, little is known of the resolution of
Chrono Cross. Serge apparently forgot the adventure after the cutscene when Schala is
freed. Additionally, Schala and Kid were said to have merged into one entity, and
Schala is hinted to have been sent into another dimension entirely. It has been
theorized that Schala went back to find Janus and would return to Serge again, even
though Serge may not remember her. This was not entirely known for sure to happen,
but it would explain Serge getting married to Kid someday who was said to have
merged with Schala into a single entity. This would also end Janus' search for his
sister Schala, since she would go back to find him. It is also unknown precisely how
the dimensions came together, and whether they adopted one dimension's history
predominantly or collated to form a sort of ideal dimension. Now that the Time
Devourer has been eliminated, however, Belthasar's plan is complete, and the future
can presumably continue on in prosperity.
 The Lost Storyline?

The story above may not be the plot as originally intended for Chrono Cross. Signs point to
another overarching storyline that involved Serge binding with the Time Devourer itself. In this
scenario, if Serge did not defeat the Time Devourer with the Chrono Cross, it would ultimately
bind with it and cause the Time Devourer to mature, granting him the power to consume
space-time. The Chrono Cross Ultimania supports this notion, claiming that the Arbiter of the
Frozen Flame must mediate between his fellow lifeforms and Lavos, or else he will inevitably
bind with the creature and spell destruction for other humans. The Ultimania also postulates that
Schala was an Arbiter of the Frozen Flame while it existed in Zeal, and that is how she came to
bind with Lavos. Apparently, the Time Devourer needed enough power before it could reach
maturity, and Serge would have been the final piece in the puzzle. Quotes in the game also seem
to hint at this possibility; three come to mind specifically. There is a Demi-human in Marbule
that states "anyone who touches that Flame will become a different being." Lynx, at Viper
Manor, warns Serge that "there shall be a deep enmity between you and the world" once
destruction occurs. Lastly, Belthasar notes that the Arbiter will gain "extraordinary powers...by
binding with the new seed of destruction, the Devourer of Time." However, this storyline is not
directly stated or implied in Chrono Cross, and neither has series creator Masato Kato confirmed
it himself. For the time being, it remains speculation made by the Ultimania authors.
Considering that in the same book, they contradict other canon (such as stating the Prometheus
Circuit is not Robo, when Masato Kato noted that the circuit is Robo), the veracity of Ultimania
is arguable.