Chrono Cross Condensed Plot Summary
by ZeaLitY
February 4, 2004
with contributions from
bubblebobby2000
Introduction
I have produced this condensed plot summary as a quick brush-up on the plot of Chrono Cross due to the intitial confusion that is delivered upon the first couple playthroughs of Chrono Cross. With this, I hope that discussors who are rusty on the basics of the game can review this knowledge, and that recent players will gain a better understanding of Cross's complicated but consistent storyline.
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Contents
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; Lavos merged with Schala with the intent of evolving to a being that could consume all space-time. in 2300 AD, as happened before Crono saved the world, Belthasar came in from the disaster to find the new future (that is, the future after Crono saved the world). He set about building a research institute on time called Chronopolis in the Sea of Eden that is powered by a splinter of Lavos that fell when he landed millions of years ago, called the Frozen Flame. The Flame allowed a kind of communication with Lavos; human contact in 3000000 BC was responsible for the evolution of humans to use magic. Belthasar constructed and ran a computer called FATE; in the process, he found that Schala was being integrated with Lavos and that the resulting being, the Time Devourer, would have the capacity to destroy all space-time if allowed to complete the merge. Belthasar here 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. He then departs to the modern era, around 1010-1020 A.D.; in the future, the Counter-Time Experiment failed, causing 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 to 12000 B.C. The planet felt it needed to counterbalance the introduction of this temporally foreign facility by pulling in Dinopolis from an alternate dimension in which the Reptites lived due to Lavos not falling to the planet in that dimension. 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. The people would be guided by several terminals called the Records of Fate that could neurologically control its users. The Dragonians also settled El Nido, survivors from Dinopolis; 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, names for their resident piece -- Water Dragon Isle, etc.
Settlement of El Nido
History proceeded here normally; the survivors of Dinopolis joined the humans of El Nido and are the Dragonians referred to several times throughout the game. 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 a sort of Element "innate color," representing the type of Element (Water, Wind, Earth) they are most in harmony with. The Dragonians also created an emblem known as the Dragon Tear. In 920 A.D., settlers from Zenan (remember, the continent on which Porre and Guardia from Chrono Trigger reside) found El Nido, and began colonizing it. 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, self-declared defenders of El Nido. The Viper Clan was responsible for its founding, and probably immigrated 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 The 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 3, Serge was wounded by a panther demon while playing and taken out to sea by his father, Wazuki, and his friend, Miguel, in an attempt to save him. Schala recognized 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's 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 a circuit called the 'Prometheus Circuit' 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 bega to shape him to FATE's will. Lastly, while the storm was down, the split Dragon Gods briefly came together to create a seventh piece, called 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. Harle, after this, befriended Lynx in order to get closer to the Frozen Flame. Time continued normally; 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 was assumed that 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 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 Salt for the Dead Sea). In 1020 A.D., Another World, Kid called Serge across the dimensions from Home World, as Serge is able to travel between them 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
He first met Kid at Cape Howl; the Acacia Dragoons had been dispatched to bring him in, as Lynx wanted to capture him and switch bodies in order to access the Frozen Flame at Chronopolis (remember, 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, eventually deciding to enter Viper Manor to learn more and possibly find the Flame. They did not succeed; Kid was poisoned, but eventually healed. The quest led 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 used the Dragon Tear of the Home World Dimension to regain his body; it is shattered and he retrieved a shard from it 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. Dinopolis rose again as Terra Tower. Serge 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, an artifact capable of wondrous and healing 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 ressurrected in Chrono Trigger, Serge ventured to the Darkness Beyond Time, where the Time Devourer resided, and freed Schala. The dimensions were unified into one; at this point, little is known of the resolution of Chrono Cross. Serge apparently forgot the adventure; 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 overaching storyline that involved Serge binding with the Time Devourer itself; in this scenario, Serge, if he did not defeat the Time Devourer with the Chrono Cross, would ultimately bind with it and cause the Devourer to mature, granting him the power to consume space-time. Chrono Cross Ultimania mainly 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. 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. A demi-human in Marbule states that "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 "extraodinary 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.
For specific events that occurred during Serge's quest, check the Chronology.
Good companion articles include Chronopolis, Viper Manor, and Serge. You can also read about who manipulated who at Chrono Cross (Manipulation within).
Lastly, these charts, explained further in the article Principles of Time and Dimensional Travel, better depict the progression of timelines and dimensions:
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Thanks be to the Compendium and its readers.
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