The assassin has a name: Sorin.
This next part will be intensive, and will sound superfluous originally. Just stay with me; its integral to the plot and development.
After the Frozen Flame goes crazy, the group is divided into three parties. Crono is by his lonesome, Marle, Lucca, and Robo form one, and Magus, Glenn, and Schala are in the other party. Crono finds himself in a nightmarish temporal flux; in truth, when the Flame went critical, the Time Devourer (which is forming according to temporal rules) has a split second to extract someone as they're vulnerable to temporal effects, much like Schala accidentally found herself in the Darkness Beyond Time. It naturally takes Crono, but his resilience throws him into a kind of limbo, in which realities and timelines come about to him, and the Flame plays on his fears. He awakens in Truce, and sees the Porre army in full force heading toward a group of civilians. Guardian retainers are cut down, and eventually another version of Crono comes on the scene. He attempts magic, but it doesn't work strangely; he is captured (fancy that) and taken back to Porre. The real Crono furiously pursues, fighting strangely VERY DIFFICULT battles; he reaches Porre, and the new Crono is under the guillotine. He attempts to go up and stop him, but William Ishito (a dark, red clad version) stops him and a fierce battle ensues. He must kill William Ishito, causing him pain; as he approaches Crono on the guillotine, Doan approaches him and asks if he would so quickly kill Doan again. A being called Prometheus arrives; the Robo sprite, but very damaged. He accuses Crono of causing him eons of eternity. The battle cannot be won; Crono sprawls on the ground, and watches as his nightmare-self gets the blade. Temporal Fluxes happen, and we switch to Marle, Lucca, and Robo.
They're on a frozen tundra; they have no idea what age they are in, but begin wandering. Immediately, Marle begins expressing turmoil over Crono's fate; Lucca is disturbed as well, and reveals that she still sort of likes the guy. Ensues girl talk. The party continues wandering near a mountain range; down a mountain, they spot a large mass, which turns out to be a primitive army bearing the brunt of the cold. Before they approach, they notice another army riding up the valley behind them; it is flying the Guardian flag, so they venture over there. The army is dumbfounded and nearly kills the travelers due to the weird robot with them (Robo), but Marle's pendant is the same as the leader - Cedric the Executor, later to become King Guardia I. Marle attempts to catch up, but the approaching army - the primitive tribe of Porre - is ready to fight, with spears armed. A massive battle takes place; as it did historically, it turns in Porre's favor, so Cedric the Executor books it out of there with Marle. Lucca and Robo can't rejoin the main forces; to save the wounded Lucca, Robo lets himself go. He is utterly vicious, protecting Lucca at any cost.
Back in an encampment and rudimentary shed, Marle converses with Cedric Guardia about the future. He notes that the divine forces were not on his side at the battle today, but that he shall "bring" them to the next encounter. Marle and the player learn that the angel in Manoria Cathedral is Cedric's mother, claimed to be of divine descent. At night, Robo drags Lucca in, and promptly collapses. Lucca is well-awake, and in a fit of rage; she blames herself for not being strong enough to fight on her own, and is starting to split down the middle in terms of science failing her and wanting to express herself violently. After they sleep, the party converse on the fact that it is indeed 1 A.D., a huge focal point in time. They wonder what's going on, and why Belthasar hasn't helped them. They resolve to get sleep and hope for better results tomorrow.
The army rides out early; with them is an Ark of the Covenant type box. They've goaded the Porre army into approaching their position in huge numbers; a secret attack from the side routs the army quickly. They stumble onto an encampment; Cedric orders the killing of everyone, including the women and children. Marle cannot stand this slaughter; Robo points out that changing things now might have an adverse effect in time, and Lucca notes that this could all be one of the bad Frozen Flame timelines anyway. Before the atrocity can be committed or prevented, Porre attacks again - a surprise retaliation! The Porrean leader arrives; his name is Antaeus. He wields an artifact called the RivenCrimse; Robo and Marle both recall that this battle, recorded in ancient lore, is the founding of Guardia. Though the story was glorified and edited as time went on, it nonetheless matches the prerequisites for the final showdown. Antaeus taunts Cedric the Executor, remarking that with the RivenCrimse, he just finished slaying a pack of Dorino filth escorting a Guardian chieftain. This sends Cedric into a fury; rather than fight, he opens the sacred box, and the Frozen Flame is revealed. Marle cries out; a light floods the battlefield. Robo is alarmed, however; while rumors have always been passed down that Guardia used an artifact to establish its kingdom, some of the energy emanating from the Flame registers in his Chronometer as being far in the the future of the Flame itself. Robo then remarks that Antaeus isn't being phased out of existence as he should be by the Flame. The Porre leader then appears in front of the party.
"A thousand fires have sparked within my mind! I see everything! I know all! And I know this: you must perish!"
Since the Flame in 1002 A.D. (or the enemy with King Zeal) is using its old version in 1 A.D. as a proxy, it pumps tons of energy into Antaeus making him a formidable opponent against Marle, Lucca, and Robo. They defeat him; Cedric acts as if nothing happened, confident that his using the Flame wiped him out. He then declares that since the Porre leader showed himself and died, he will now found Guardia, and makes preparations to return to Truce. The party find the RivenCrimse intact; stained with the blood of innocents, it appeals to Lucca as something that Magus could make good use of...
Crono Nightmare #2
Magus, Glenn, and Schala awake to find themselves in a maximum security section of a prison. They are utterly and totally sapped of energy. A guard comes in, and questions them; they have no replies, and the guard kicks Magus while he's down. This ... infuriates Magus, but he's powerless to do anything. They have nothing; Glenn attempts to make a reconciliation with Magus through laughing, and they joke away their tired history, even mentioning Cyrus. Schala meanwhile tells Magus that she is thankful for this last bit of life, feeling that she was fated to die in the fall of Zeal and the Ocean Palace Incident, and that she was never meant to live. Magus cannot take this, and stands up. He finds where sedatives were injected, and smashes the only computer screen reading schedules in the room. Using the fiberglass, he cuts himself and bleeds out some of the pooled sedative. The effects begin to diminish, and he can feel power enough to control magic return. Glenn comments on how his blood is very dark. Soldiers see him through the camera, and rush in; Magus sneers, and recognizing the guard who kicked him, casts his Black Hole spell. The guards are engulfed. Schala winces at the loss of life, but Glenn reminds her of the sheer gravity of their mission, even if it incurs cost.
They find a room with a computer terminal, and find out that they're in 2102 A.D. The Central Regime is emerging, but a resistance effort is remaining strong; they're in the maximum security prison of that resistance. They locate their weapons. They fight a series of difficult battles to climb out of the basements; along the way they find a deadly arm for Robo, the Clasp. A guard briefly seizes Schala, but Magus dispatches him. At the top of the facility, Serran awaits. He tells them that he escaped into the Flame, but that the bastard Glenn wounded him too greatly to attack on his own. Thus, he waited, and when the Flame displaced them here, he arrived and instated himself as director, and sprung all the difficulties and traps that befell the party. He notes that they are weakened, and will die. He shouts that his sword is tempered by a dark power, and begins the battle. After being defeated, Glenn worries that the sword was made of Dreamstone, but it disappears after he loses. He is a huddling mass on the floor; as payment for the trouble, Magus prepares to split him up the middle, but Glenn holds him back. He is merely a pawn of the Flame, and has been cast away. As the group prepare to escape the prison, Serran makes one last remark - that the prison is the progeny of Glenn.
Belthasar confirms prison is Vanguard establishment, and the very reason that contact with him was totally eliminated. He notes that for reasons unknown, shortly before the party ventured to get the Flame, time was horribly altered and Chronopolis was shunted to an area of temporal safety. This precluded any kind of contact, leaving the parties on their own. He notes that the Vanguard in general were somehow not wiped out from conflicts in the mid 1000's, and that this new incarnation is operating on some prophecy that causes nuclear winter in the near future. The party ransack the computer archives, and learn that deep within its motives are "prophecies" set out by a confidant of Crono, the Chief Knight of Guardia. It turns out that Lucca's diary entries prior to the hunt for the Flame, speaking of the incident in which Chronopolis came under attack and the future was altered (resulting in the elimination of hte Central Regime), caused the Vanguard not only to survive with something to cling to but also to try and instate this Central Regime. Their brightest minds believe that the only way to cause a world government to form is to wreak widespread destruction upon the world, frightening principalities into unconflicted union and removing all desire for war or other differences. Of key note here is that Lucca's diary caused this turn of events - her diary and it alone. Magus, Glenn, and Schala are then given the task of destroying the Vanguard. Plot to come on that point.
