And the next phase begins. Comments and criticism are more than welcome.

****

"What Falcon Hath Wrought"

A work of SquareSoft fanfiction by Glazius Falconar

The legalities, please...

This work and all new characters and situations are copyright ((c)) 1998 by
the author, Glazius Falconar. You can't alter the text in this story without
my permission. The characters, situations, and artifacts from Final Fantasy
VII and Chrono Trigger are copyright ((c)) SquareSoft. You can't charge
money for the express purpose of viewing this story without THEIR
permission. Good luck. H. G. Wells first put forth the concept of the
Internet in a story entitled "Men like Gods". Read it some time, if you can.
And my e-mail's at the end, for whatever reason. But I, like most authors,
will simply laugh disdainfully at any attempts to flame.

****

"Can we make this quick? I'd like to get back to work..."

"Work?"

The scholar in front of me sighed. I had to make an appointment several
pseudo-days in advance to even enter her ivory tower. Yes, pseudo-days. This
city kept its own time schedule, which differed enormously from the world
outside. In a few weeks here, a few years or a few seconds could pass
outside. I hoped it would be the latter, this time in.

"Yes, work. I never quite finished my research, so I'm continuing it here."

Now this sounded interesting. "What were you researching?"

"I am researching the mechanisms by which Materia is used."

"You realize the irony, with you being..."

"Trapped inside Materia myself? Don't remind me."

This vein of questioning definitely had potential. "So... what have you
found?"

The scholar sighed again. "I hope I don't have to go over the basics..."

"No, no, I've been trained that far..." And I had been, too. Bugenhagen
thought that I should know how the other half of my body worked, and so he
explained that Materia were really someone else's skills and memories, which
you used to your own ends.

She seemed pleased. "Excellent. You are no doubt aware of the concept of
magical reserves?"

I nodded, idly glancing around the room. "Spartan" would be an
understatement. She allowed herself only a cot to sleep in and a few simple
linen robes to serve as the occasional change of clothing. The rest of this
place was lined with bookshelves, desks, and the occasional massive setup of
glassware.

"May I continue?"

"Oh..." I could almost feel myself blushing, despite the fact that birds
don't normally do so. "Please."

"Very well then. Now, the true concept behind magical reserves is that
Materia involve imposing others' memories on the mind. Doing so
disassociates the sense of self for a brief period, leaving the body unsure
of whom it belongs to. Even the best-developed psyche can't take too much of
this, and so overuse of Materia can lead to a variation on the standard
split personality syndrome. Now, none of us wish to take on corporeal form
until it's time... the few who do are contained deep in the Lifestream and
never make it to the surface. So, when the mind exhausts itself enough, the
Materia which actively impose memories simply refuse to function."

"Astounding..."

"Yes. While I was alive, I worked on ways to lessen the drain that imposing
memories placed on the mind... a regimen of mental exercises, visualization,
and daily use of the Materia for minor things."

"Now... exactly what would your theories have to say about me?"

"Pardon?"

"I'm not exactly a usual case... the memories are already a part of me, in
case you haven't looked outside recently."

She seemed more than a little taken aback. "That's right... that's right...
well, you're just a special case... I'd say your magical reserves exceed the
norm by about three orders of magnitude, possibly more. I can't tell without
a full examination, and that's out of the question..."

Three orders of magnitude... hmm... perhaps I should drop in on a few of the
other mages...

****
****

"Crono!"

Crono stirred in his bed. This was getting entirely too familiar... at least
Leene's (or should that be Nadia's?) bell wasn't clanging away in the
background. He opened his eyes, wondering who wanted to talk to him this
time out...

And froze in fear at the face that stared down at him. The skin was so pale
it was almost white, the eyes were a muted gray, the features worn and
saddened... every sector of Crono's mind screamed at him that this was an
enemy. With a cry of surprise, he leaped from the bed, grabbed the Rainbow
from where it rested against his chair, and swung the strange sword in an
iridescent arc...

It clanged against another blade, forged of some strangely glowing red
stone. Crono withdrew the sword, preparing to take down two monsters...

"Strike not at thy allies, Sir Crono!"

That voice... it sounded familiar... oh boy. Crono shook off the haze of
sleep to see Magus and Frog in his room, looking more than a little confused
by his behavior. "Whoa... sorry about that. But I woke up to see..."

"Not exactly the most comforting sight, is it?" responded the mage, fingers
tracing the strange contours of his face. He turned to his fellow time
traveler. "I suppose I should have taken your suggestion, Glenn, and let his
mother wake him up."

"Seeing a blade aimed at one's throat will do wonders for perception, Sir
Janus," laughed the frog.

Something seemed a bit strange to Crono. "Janus... Glenn...?" Those weren't
the names they'd fought under.

"Our names by birth, Sir Crono. Surely you know that."

Crono nodded absently to the frog. "Yes... it's just that I'm used to
calling you..."

"Those names fit warriors, Crono," said the mage. "Our battles are over. For
now. We came to you on a mission of peace." Janus held out a flask, filled
with what looked to be ashes. "In this flask... is all that remains of my
mother, Queen Zeal. I wish to give her the honor of a decent burial, and I
wish all those who fought beside me to be there." The mage sighed. "I have
no family, Crono. I was hoping that I could see her to her final resting
place beside my friends."

Crono blinked a few times, allowing everything to sink in. Then something
occurred to him. "How'd you get here, anyway? Lucca's taking apart the
Epoch."

"Sir Janus is quite the wizard, Sir Crono. He produced a Gate from the air
itself... what's wrong, Sir Janus?"

A worried look crossed the mage's face. "I'd hoped to be able to use the
Epoch. We've got to get there as quickly as possible." One of his gloved
hands grabbed Glenn's arm, the other took Crono's. He leaped off the ground,
and literally flew down the stairs.

"Crono! Dinner's at six!"

"I'll be there, Mom..." called Crono, as Magus's flight carried him out the
door.

Crono's mother sat on the couch and sipped idly at a cup of tea. "Where that
boy makes such strange friends, I'll never know..."

****
****

"Mind the fire."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"Don't step in the pool..."

"Right."

"Watch for the..."

"Tornado?" I responded, my feathers now pointing in every possible
direction. This was easily the most cluttered of the houses I'd visited so
far. And the clutter was actually somewhat dangerous... but would I expect
anything less from an elementalist?

"Sorry about that," she said, as the playful gust of wind toyed with the
edge of her robe, the shimmering fabric flashing briefly in a veritable
rainbow. "I try and keep them under control, really I do..." She cleared a
small space in the center of the hut, and I perched on a staff which was
jutting out from some pile of books and took out my notepad.

"So... how did you get interested in this?" I gestured to the minor
elemental storm raging behind us.

She blushed a bit. "Since I was a child, I've always had this... rapport, I
guess you could call it. I could feel the fire and the wind and the earth...
to me, they were always very much alive. And I found that, if I asked nicely
enough, I could get them to do things for me. I suppose that's how I met
Kjata."

"Kjata?"

"Yes, I was riding along on a small lump of earth and I sort of bumped in to
him. He was amazed I had already begun mastering the Art..."

"Art?"

"Yes, Kjata was probably the greatest elementalist..."

****
****

There. After a few months of studying the plans, she was finally done. The
Epoch lay in places on the workroom floor, and it was only through Lucca's
exceptional engineering skill that the disassembling had not opened a rift
in time and space. That was the last thing she needed. Now... what else to
do? Perhaps work on that battle robot prototype... she'd seen similar robots
on the trip through the Black Omen, but they were all much more powerful.

"No!" shouted three voices in unison from the doorway. Lucca wheeled,
drawing the Wonder Shot and getting ready to turn whoever it was into crispy
little puddles of goo...

She relaxed. It was only Crono, Frog, and Magus... Frog and Magus? "Hey,
wait a minute. Aren't you two supposed to be 400 years in the past?" she
asked, pointing to the frog and the mage.

Magus nodded. "Yes. However, something has come up. My mother..." So saying,
Magus withdrew a bottle of ash from his cloak. "Or what's left of her, at
least. I wanted to give her a decent burial, with all our allies at my side.
Glenn and I came here, in the hope that we could use the Epoch... but I can
see that is no longer an option."

"Why not create a Gate with your magic, Sir Janus?" asked the frog,

"Janus"? "Glenn"? Lucca had seldom heard the true names of the two time
travelers... but she chalked it up to the fact that they were no longer in
combat.

"I can do that, Glenn," responded the mage. "But I have to open the portal
myself, so I couldn't send you through time to retrieve anyone." Janus
snapped his fingers. "Do you still have that Gate Key, Lucca?"

She nodded, and withdrew a bright crystalline object from her tool belt.
"Sure do! I've kept it as a souvenir, since the Gates won't open anymore."

Magus gestured, and a strange blue energy crackled around the key for a few
seconds. "There. Now you can use it... I think about ten times, before the
magic fades from it entirely."

Lucca shifted her goggles nervously. "Use it? What for?"

Crono, who'd been staring out the window, turned to her. "To get the others
here."

Magus nodded. "Correct. Glenn, you head to Guardia Castle and see if
Princess Nadia will deign to mingle with the commoners one last time."

The frog laughed, and gave an impromptu salute, brandishing the blade of the
Masamune in the sun.

"Lucca, you'll take the Gate to the future and bring Prometheus back... if
he's been built."

"He has," she responded. "I saw him on that joyride we took with the Epoch,
before I started taking it apart."

"And I will head back to the Stone Age and talk to Ayla."

"And what will I do?" asked Crono, a bit insulted that he'd been left out.

Janus rubbed his chin. "I guess you'll have to stay here and be bored out of
your skull."

Crono kicked at a loose electronic component. "Great."

Lucca put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon. You've had enough adventure for
one lifetime. You deserve a break."

Crono brightened a bit at this. "Okay, okay. I'll wait for you."

"Good," said Janus. "I'll see you in a few million years." His glove
crackled with arcane energy as he drew a pulsing blue circle in the air and
leaped through it. It slowly faded away as the mage was flung back through
time.

"I expect we had best be going as well, Lady Lucca," said Glenn, gesturing
to the door with his sword. He hopped out, headed for the Guardia Forest,
and Lucca followed him, stopping to wave to Crono before she left her
workshop.

"Wonderful," thought Crono. "All this and I have to sit here and wait."
Another piece of the Epoch went flying across the room.

"There are better ways to alleviate boredom, child," said a calm voice.
Crono leaped up, a bit ashamed that he'd been caught, and turned to face the
voice. Lucca's mother was walking down the stairs, a faint smile on her
face.

Crono started to apologize. "I'm sorry, Mrs...."

She held up a hand. "Lara will be fine, Crono. Now, would you care for a few
games of checkers?"

Checkers. Well, it sure beat doing nothing. Crono nodded, and followed Lara
into the storage room.

****

To tell the truth, Lucca had been getting bored lately. Even with the
fantastic piece of technology that was - well, had been - the Epoch in her
workshop, she felt that something was missing. She missed adventure, life on
the road, not knowing what was going to come next and actually enjoying that
uncertainty...

She was getting a few of those old feelings back as she raced through the
Guardia Forest, trying to keep up with Fr... no, Glenn. That was his name
now. Hmm, let's see, where were those... ah yes, straight ahead. "Glenn,
hold on a second!"

The frog grabbed a tree limb in mid-leap and swung himself around. "Yes,
Lady Lucca?" he inquired, landing gracefully a few feet in front of her.

"I just wanted you to be clear of the blast radius."

"Blast radius?" responded Glenn, a puzzled look crossing his face.

Lucca's only response was to smile almost devilishly as she pulled a small
canister from her pocket and clicked the targeting scope she had built in to
her goggles. "Remember these?" she asked, tossing the canister between her
hands.

Glenn smiled - a difficult thing for a frog to do. "Indeed I do." He bowed
graciously. "The first strike is yours, my Lady."

Lucca clicked a button on the side of the canister and lobbed it into the
center of the clearing ahead. It ruptured inches above the ground, sending
flaming torrents of liquid in every direction, and turning most of the
vegetation within 20 feet into ash... including the somewhat sentient fungi
which would have tried to digest them, slowly and painfully.

Glenn resheathed the Masamune. "I wager that I shall not be needing this
today, what with the need for battle so strong in your eyes," he said,
tilting his head slightly as he looked up at Lucca.

Lucca smiled at the frog's rather frank appraisal of her current state of
mind. "No, you can take on the next pack all by yourself, Glenn. I won't
mind."

Glenn bowed to her. "You are most gracious, my lady." He then hopped away,
down the forest path, and Lucca fought to keep herself from laughing as she
raced after him.

She heard the ringing of a bell from somewhere just ahead; Glenn had
apparently come in sight of the next small party of monsters. She heard the
frog mutter a few arcane words, followed by the sound of a torrent of water.
She turned the corner in the path to find Glenn, the last glimmers of magic
fading from his gloves, standing in front of a huge mud puddle.

"Methinks I require more in the way of control..." he muttered, looking at
what had once been a nice circle of grass. He turned to travel down the next
path and caught sight of Lucca. "Oh, I beg your pardon, my lady. Did you
wish to watch as I trounced the vermin?"

Lucca shook her head, chuckling softly. "No, it's quite alright. What say we
take down the next pack together... for old times' sake?"

The frog nodded. "Indeed. I have found myself ill content with the mock
battles in Guardia's court... this has proven to be a most welcome break
from peacetime, has it not?"

Her thoughts exactly. "That it has, Glenn. Now... the Red Pin?"

Glenn looked somewhat taken aback, but his bewildered expression swiftly
changed as what Lucca said dawned on him. "Yes, I think that will do quite
nicely. Forward, then!" he cried, brandishing the Masamune and striding
toward the next clearing.

"Watch your head!" Lucca called, as she sent a snake of fire whizzing
through the air. Glenn noted its trajectory, tensed himself for a leap, and
sprang into the air, catching the fire-snake on the blade of the Masamune
and stabbing it into the heart of the fungus growth as he landed. The
Masamune pulsed for a moment, and ribbons of fire shot out of it, burning
away the last of the carnivorous mushrooms.

"Well played, my lady," said Glenn, as he pulled the Masamune from the soil
and wiped it on its cloak. "Well played indeed. But I fear that it is here
we must part company." He gestured with the blade of the sword to the ivory
towers of Guardia Castle. "Journey safely, my Lady," he called to Lucca as
he began leaping down the trail to the castle which had not been his home
for four centuries.

Lucca jogged toward the clearing where she knew the Gate would be, thankful
that she had had one last chance for adventure before everything was over.
She withdrew the Gate Key, and Ma... er, Janus's arcane enchantment crackled
outward, opening a very familiar hole into swirling blue mist. She leaped
inside, going on her next-to-last trip through time...

****
****

Don't worry, we'll get to the crossover... I think in two more parts.
Perhaps less, perhaps more.

--G. Falconar