Accessing the Darkness Beyond Time

[aiox82]

Having been a fan of this series since its inception (bought a CT cartridge with paper route money in '95), I've had a lot of time to spend thinking of CT/CC. I am trying to put together some filler material to lead into a story that takes place after CC. Really just a fanfic but I was also doing it to help my understanding of the complex plots. My question here is:

Was it established what the requirements are for sending someone to the darkness beyond time (DbT) without wiping them from time? Specifically by erasing their timeline.

It has happened twice, Serge and his party in CC and Magus in the DS ending. I was trying to separate which plot points in CC were needed just to access the DbT and it seems that while the Chrono Cross helped free Schala, it was not needed to simply get there. Serge was able to get there with just a Time Egg and a convenient 'special portal' made by Belthasar. Theoretically, would that be all that Magus needed? A Time Egg and some undefined special breaking point between dimensions? If so, it seems like there are many possibilities for how Magus went to the DbT.

I have been scouring the Compendium for any information on this but couldn't find any (may have missed it). Can anyone provide any insight or new info to help answer my question?

Thanks.

[Prince Janus]

It was my understanding that while Crono party/Serge party/Magus may or may not have actually been temporarily erased, there was no safety rope of any sort at all. They simply had to go in and hope something would get them back out. In all three cases, either Schala or Belthasar's crazy clockwork plot were responsible for their rescue. There probably is more to be said about it though.

[aiox82]

Gotcha. Good points on the return trip.

Actually, what I was trying to ask was about getting to the DbT. I am trying to weave in Magus' trip to the DbT into the timeline of CC. We know from the DS ending that he got there and what happened once there, but how did he get there?

My thought was that since Magus was in 12,000BC looking for Schala at the end of CT, he likely got a front row seat for the Polis war. If he was able to sneak into Chronopolis and learn where Schala was being held from Belthasar's records, he theoretically could have stolen a Time Egg (assuming there were some stored there) and found a way to the DbT. The only limitation would be the 'special' portal Belthasar made for Serge and the non-canon bucket at the end of time. Both of which seam like just a quick fix to the issue. If so, I could take liberty with the process and find a way to get Magus transported so long as he had a Time Egg.

[Prince Janus]

 It is hard to say for sure, but of one thing, I am certain.

Magus's search for Schala is completely uncompromising, to the point I'm not actually sure Magus knows what he'd do with her once he found her. Tell her he's Janus? Sure. Hold each other awhile/cry/fanfic drama? Yeah probably. After that... what?      It's a variation of the journey being better than the destination, in a weird sort of way. It gives him purpose in life... but I digress, point is, he is ridiculously dedicated to it, even if it ultimately succeeds yet he fails to save her. Wiping his own mind and becoming Guile in order to continue searching for her "correctly" is, in a sort of paradoxical way, the only way you'd get him to stop (and this is assuming Schala didn't just pay Guile a visit and fix it up somehow anyways)

 There's a lot of both games that have been on my mind as far as what wouldn't be a completely cop-out or cheap shot in terms of a potential continuing story. I'm debating actually writing this down somewhere at Compendium.

[Acacia Sgt]

This makes me wonder, did Radical Dreamers addressed the issue? Since if I remember right, the main ending was likely the only time they ever reunited without something happening to separate them again.

[aiox82]

I think you're right Captain B. He probably wouldn't know what to do in the long run. The thing about Magus is that he is essentially grew up partially in Schala's shadow after losing his father and mother (more or less). Then, Lavos stole his life and was told he was the golden child by Ozzie and the mystics. So 'Got family troubles? Take it out on those weaker than you' is what he was fed during his angsty teenage years. It's all about Magus.

So, I will take it that the way Magus got to the DbT is not really an issue since we know it happened. Cool.

To ask my next question, I'll start a new thread.

[Prince Janus]

Pretty much. it may not be clear *how* he got there, but he definitely did, to the point of obsession.

I've observed that unsurmountable obsession seems to be, fittingly enough, a recurring trait amongst the "Zeal" family. In some cases it gets used for evil (achieving immortality, wanting Lavos's eyeball on a stake, probably something to do with the Time/Dream Devourer too), but in other cases it can be used for good (Searching for Schala, searching for Serge, wanting Lavos's eyeball on a stake.)

 The fact that this trait also seems to apply to Dalton (see: Porre) leads me to reconsider the possibility that he is more than just Zeal's general...

[aiox82]

Good points all around, and interesting inference towards Dalton. Aside from no purple hair, he seems to be Zeal royalty (or at least used to being in power). Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Lennis]

Being erased from the timeline is one way to get there, but an erased person cannot escape (under normal circumstances) from that dimension because that person cannot exist anywhere else.  He/she is only a possibility or a reflection of something that came before - such as a previous timeline.  Another way, I think, to get there is to have been erased from existence at some point and then been brought back to reality by outside intervention, meaning they can enter and depart at will under the right conditions.  A third way to enter the DBT probably involves being in an unstable timestream traveling between time-periods.  This third method is probably how Magus was able to enter the DBT, since he got thrown into an unstable timestream following his battle with Crono in the middle-ages, and he figured out how to duplicate the process later on.

All this being said, I don't think anyone can handle the DBT question decisively without the use of McGuffins.  It is a completely fictional state of being that confounds all existing logic, so we just have to kind of roll with whatever feels good.