Interesting. I'll take a stab at this...
Serge was originally in fact an Earthbound hunter from 12000 BC (who used a double-bladed weapon similar to his swallow in CC, even), a hunter who befriended the 3 Gurus and Schala during their frequent visits to Algetty before the fall of Zeal. Furthermore, he and Schala came to fall in love with each other, though it initially proceeded no farther than a very close and fond friendship, due to both his (Serge's) inability to use magic (and therefore access Zeal) and because much of Schala's personal life was controlled and stifled by Queen Zeal.
Also, Serge and Dalton were nothing less than the bitterest of enemies - Dalton earned Serge's undying hatred for the way he exploited and belittled his fellow Earthbound, for his tendency to emotionally (and during her capture, physically) abuse Schala, and for the countless times he used his magic to humiliate Serge at the drop of a hat, whereas Dalton hated Serge above any other Earthbound for what he sees as his lack of respect towards Zeal and it's people (especially in regards to Dalton himself), for daring to and suceeding in becoming friends with the 3 Gurus, and above all, his presumption in pursuing a romance with Schala. Basically, Serge sees Dalton as the personification of everything that's despicable and immoral about Zeal, and in turn Dalton sees Serge as an ignorant, presumptous beast who's barely worthy of licking the mud off his boots.
During the first visit Crono and his party made to 12000 BC, Serge helped guide them through the world's eternal snowstorm to the teleporter to Zeal after seeing them use magic (so he guided them thinking they were lost Enlightened Ones caught in the storm), and later guided them to Algetty. He later guided them to the path leading to Mt. Woe (and had tried to get to Melchior himself many times, but failed to get past the Beast Nest because he couldn't use the magic needed to kill the Red and Blue Beasts). After leaving them to their quest (since he couldn't help them much and had hunting duties to attend to), he later encountered Schala and Janus fleeing from Zeal, and once they told him what was going on (mainly, that the Mammon Machine was being moved to the Ocean Palace, and that Schala and Janus intended to hide from Queen Zeal and live another life far away from Zeal so it would never be activated, but that Dalton was hot on their trail and was willing to do anything and everything to get Schala back), he resolved to help them as best he could, and helped them reach Algetty quickly. Serge then went out again to try to single-handedly stop Dalton and end the threat he and Zeal posed to Schala, Janus, and everyone else, and challenged him to a fight. He gave Dalton everything he had, but Dalton's ability to use magic ultimately told, and Serge was beaten badly and left in the cold to die.
Only thing is, Serge didn't die. After recovering enough to walk, he then went back to Algetty, only to find Janus there, alone, crying into Alfador over Schala's fate and how helpless he was to do anything to stop it or change it. Emotionally crushed, but still aware that he wasn't alone in his grief from Schala's abduction, Serge comforted Janus and promised him that he'd do all he could to save Schala (and even give his life to save her if needed). In doing this, Serge finally earned Janus' trust enough for Janus to show him the route the Earthbound slaves used to get to the Ocean Palace as it was being constructed. He took this route, and was able to slowly but surely fight his way past the monsters in the Ocean Palace and into the room with the Mammon Machine just before Lavos awoke (so he was there alongside Crono, Schala, Magus, Queen Zeal, the party, and everyone else when Lavos summoned them all to the vortex and defeated them, which means he witnessed Crono's sacrifice, even though none of the others knew he was there with them, since he was still too weakened by his injuries to do anything). But before Lavos could deal he and everyone else a similar fate, the pendant teleported them all back to the Ocean Palace. Schala then teleported Magus and the party out of the palace with what seemed to be the last of the pendant's power, only to see that there was one last person she missed saving: Serge. Serge then ran to Schala and tried to carry her out of the Ocean Palace by foot, only to have the bridge leading across the fiery pit in the outer corridor collapse before they could reach it. Resigned to death, and pushed to their absolute physical, magical, mental, and emotional limits, Serge and Schala both collapsed against a wall and held each other as they finally admitted and declared their love for each other while they helplessly waited for Lavos to destroy the Ocean Palace.
However, Schala's pendant had more power than she thought, and opened up a dimensional vortex that swallowed Schala, Serge, and the Mammon Machine. However, since Serge was not magic-capable, and he did not have the aid of any source of 'time-manipulating magic' (artifact or innate magical power or whatever) he was not able to make it to the Darkness Beyond Time with Schala and the MM. Instead, he was gradually sucked away with stronger force the longer he and Schala continued on their journey to the DBT. Eventually, despite both their greatest efforts, Serge was eventually separated from Schala and was lost in the dimensional timestreams. But as he was taken, he gave her one final kiss, and once again told her that he loved her and would do everything he could to find her, come back to her, and save her. And so, Serge and Schala were separated.
Schala then wound up in the DBT, and was then finally overcome by the extreme depression that had always haunted her life; after living a stifling life full of sadness in which her love and dedication to her family and fellow humans were constantly used as tools to manipulate her, only to suddenly lose everyone and everything she held dear and be condemned to an eternally lonely existance, she was vulnerable to Lavos's evil thoughts and it's plans to merge with her and become the Time Devourer. One part of her, though (the part that still held her ability to love, her capacity for compassion, and the desire to save herself and the world), was saved by the Entity along with her pendant to be an important part of the means by which the Entity would ultimately engineer the salvation of all existence.
Serge, meanwhile, was fated to drift in the dimensional timestreams without control or direction, until the Entity came to him and asked him, after considerable questioning, what his greatest desire was. Serge answered that above all else, he desired to have the power to rescue and protect Schala, the Earthbound, and all he held dear from Lavos, Dalton, and anything else that would harm them. Pleased with his answer, the Entity revealed things such as Schala's fate, Dalton's machinations, and all other TD-influenced events, and told him that unless stopped, the TD would ultimately consume all of existence. However, if he so chose, Serge could be granted the ability to stop the TD, repair the timestreams and save Schala. The catch, of course, is that to grant Serge this power, the Entity would need to re-make him physically from a molecular level so his body could handle not only the ability to use all elements of magic, but the additional ability of using the long-lost 7th element: the Chrono Cross. He would need to be reborn/reincarnated, in an era and place that would best lend itself to his development as the future hero of all existence, with his memories initially sealed away and then gradually returned bit by bit until they fully came back by the time his body fully matured (17-18 or so). Serge chose to accept this power, and the mission that came with it, with the hope that he could one day be reunited with his beloved Schala and have the means to save her.
And so, in the year 1003 A.D, shortly after the rise of Crono as the 34th King of Guardia, and two years before the rise of the Once-King of the Last Village and now future Emperor Dalton of the Porrean Empire, a young red-haired scientific genius by the name of Lucca Ashtear came across a blue-haired baby girl on the side of a path leading through the forests near her home. A baby girl who's cradle held a familiar-looking pendant with a large blue gem mounted in the middle...
Meanwhile, far away, a blue-haired baby boy was born to a couple named Wazuki and Marge in the fishing village of Arni on the El Nido Archipelago. In what he would later claim was a moment of 'divine' inspiration, Wazuki would name his baby boy after a legendary hunter who's tales of bravery and generosity were passed down as an oral tradition in various cultures and races through the ages: Serge.
To be continued...
Specterace
