//------------------------------// // Chapter 34 - Undoing that which has been done // Story: Celestia Trigger // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// The world around the six was dim and faded, but they couldn't mistake it for anything else. This...was the moment right before Crono had been vaporized. The cave, the massive beast, their friend standing with his sword drawn and facing Lavos. There were even copies of them scattered around the cave. This could only be the moment when Crono died...and they had somehow come back to it precisely. Nobody was moving, it was as though... "A Time-Freeze," Sombra said. "I did not think it possible..." "Time itself has been frozen?" Justice said. "It would appear so," Sombra said. "Quick. Let us exchange the doll for the one we came to save and be done with it." Slowly, the mare nodded and made to move, before finding out a terrible truth. She couldn't. It was impossible to move at all during this event. The one thing she had tried to do, save Crono...she couldn't. "No..." she whispered. "This...can't be. After all he's done for me...I can't do this?" The others also tried and found themselves similarly stuck in place. "If we cannot move," Gregory observed. "Then we cannot save Crono from his fate..." You did not put in the effort to climb the mountain properly, they heard from around them all. This is your punishment. You will never save him. "...Screw...that...noise..." Copper said, slowly, painstakingly, moving one hoof forward. "Crono's done so much for us all, for the world. He sacrificed himself to save us. I would return the favor if I could, and if I need to, I will." Impossible...you are moving? "I'm not just moving," Copper grunted as she pushed forward towards where Crono was standing. "I'm going to do what we came here to do. I'm going to save Crono. And once we have him with us again, we're going to save this whole entire world!" If you had put in the effort to climb the mountain, this would be explainable, but you are moving even after having not done that? What...what is the meaning of this? "I don't play by your rules, or anyone's!" Copper shouted as she continued her slow trek forwards. "If something's in my way, I go around or through! If something's going on, I see it through! If I put my mind to something, I don't stop until it's done! I owe everything to Crono, and I'm not gonna stop until he's safe again!" Remarkably, the mare had nearly reached the frozen human, and strained to touch him, to move him. After what seemed like an eternity of her hoof straining to move through the air...she touched him, grabbed him, and pulled him back. She panted afterwards, as though she'd just run a marathon, before grabbing the doll on her back and pulling it off. With a little positioning and work, the doll took up a stance similar to the one Crono had been holding. Thinking quickly, the mare pulled Crono's Gate Key off his belt and stuck it in the belt the doll was wearing, to avoid possible paradoxes. With that accomplished, she pulled Crono onto her back and grunted at the weight. No...this cannot be. You should not be capable of doing this! Who are you?! "I'm the mare that's going to help save the world," she said. "You think this little time-freeze trick is going to be enough to keep me in place? I've got more determination than that!" The world around them faded slowly, to be replaced with the peak of Mount Canterhorn, with its dead tree and lone rock... And the party that had finally been reunited. Crono blinked a few times before looking around at the ones who had saved him, before realizing where and who he was on. "You all, saved me?" he asked. "The last thing I recall is Lavos..." "It was more Copper saving you than us," Zehan admitted. "She did most of the work, especially at the end," Gregory agreed. "We were all frozen in time," Sombra said. "And she was the only one with the sheer determination to see you saved." The human slowly slid off of the mare and walked to in front of her, before kneeling down and looking her in the eyes. "Then I thank you," he said to her. "For saving me when I was certain I was about to die." "Just don't die again, alright?" Copper asked him. "We're fresh out of ways to bring someone back from death." "I'll try not to," the human said before hugging her in thanks. And in that moment, everything was good. "Ah, I see you have brought him back," Hora said as he leaned against his lamppost at the End of Time. "And it's good to be back," I said, rotating one arm before cracking my neck. "Last thing I knew I was facing down Lavos." "Something you still have to do," the stallion said. "You may have given the beast pause, wounded him, but there remains a battle to be fought. Loose ends yet to tie up. Things to do that will get you stronger for the fight ahead." "Then we'll do them," I said. "We'll get every scrap of power we can before we go back to fight that thing." "A wise answer indeed," Hora chuckled. "Well then, the first that I have seen...is a factory that remains operational in the future, churning out robot after robot in Baltimare's ruins. Why not go there and see what remains to be done?" "That shouldn't take us long at all," I said aloud, as the seven of us then proceeded to go back to the far future, where the Wings of Time were parked. It would probably take a little time before I got familiar with the new controls for the machine, but I was willing to take it slow until I learned how to fly it. It was only then that I realized that I had no idea where Baltimare even was. Oh well. That just gave us more time to explore the world and look for it ourselves.