Editing Chrono Cross (section)

==Plot==

===Characters===
{{main article|Characters of Chrono Cross}}
''Chrono Cross'' features a diverse cast of 45 party members. Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities that are learned over time. If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available). Many characters tie in to crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all 45 characters in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through use of the [[New Game Plus|New Game+]] feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file.

[[Serge (Chrono Cross)|Serge]], the game's protagonist, is a 17-year-old boy who lives in the fishing village of Arni. One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before. Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world. He is assisted by [[Kid (Chrono Cross)|Kid]], a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame. Portrayed as willful and [[tomboy]]ish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor in order to obtain the Frozen Flame. Kid vows to find and defeat [[Lynx (Chrono Cross)|Lynx]], an anthropomorphic panther who burned down her adopted mother's orphanage.

Lynx, a cruel agent of the supercomputer FATE, is bent on finding Serge and using his body as part of a greater plan involving the Frozen Flame. Lynx travels with [[Harle (Chrono Cross)|Harle]], a mysterious, playful girl dressed like a [[harlequin]]. Harle was sent by the Dragon God to shadow Lynx and one day steal the Frozen Flame from Chronopolis, a task she painfully fulfills despite being smitten with Serge.

To accomplish this goal, Harle helps Lynx manipulate the Acacia Dragoons, the powerful militia governing the islands of El Nido. As the Dragoons maintain order, they contend with Fargo, a former Dragoon turned pirate captain who holds a grudge against their leader, General Viper. Though tussling with Serge initially, the Acacia Dragoons—whose ranks include the fierce warriors Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, and Glenn—later assist him when the militaristic nation of Porre invades the archipelago. The invasion brings Norris and Grobyc to the islands, a heartful commander of an elite force and a prototype cyborg soldier, respectively, as they too seek the Frozen Flame.

===Story===
The game begins with Serge located in El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans. Serge slips into an [[Parallel universe (fiction)|alternate dimension]] in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior, and meets the thief, "Kid". As his adventure proceeds from here, Serge is able to recruit a multitude of allies to his cause. While assisting Kid in a heist at Viper Manor to steal the Frozen Flame, he learns that ten years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived, and one in which he perished.<ref name="split-dimensions">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Viper Manor|quote= '''Prophet''': In your home world, you survived to live a happy and prosperous life. That is how you made it to the present point in time. However, here in this '"alternate"' world, you are, in fact, very dead and buried. You died 10 years ago, but this world's time line has flowed on regardless.}}</ref> Through Kid's Astral Amulet charm, Serge travels between the dimensions. At Fort Dragonia, with the use of a Dragonian artifact called the Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge. Unaware of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches. Lynx boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex. He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge (in Lynx's body) is her enemy. Serge escapes with help from [[Harle (Chrono Cross)|Harle]], although his new body turns him into a stranger in his own world, with all the allies he had gained up to that point abandoning him due to his new appearance. Discovering that his new body prevents him from traveling across the dimensions, he sets out to regain his former body and learn more of the universal split that occurred ten years earlier, gaining a new band of allies along the way. He travels to a forbidden lagoon known as the Dead Sea—a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins.<ref name="dead-sea">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform= PlayStation|level=Dead Sea|quote='''Member''': The waves are at a standstill&nbsp;... And&nbsp;... What is that dark shadow in the distance&nbsp;...?}}</ref> At the center, he locates a man named Miguel and presumably ''Home'' world's Frozen Flame. Charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel and three visions of [[Crono (Chrono Trigger)|Crono]], [[Marle (Chrono Trigger)|Marle]], and [[Lucca Ashtear|Lucca]] from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' explain that Serge's existence dooms ''Home'' world's future to destruction at the hands of Lavos. To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE destroys the Dead Sea.

Able to return to ''Another'' world, Serge allies with the Acacia Dragoons against Porre and locates that dimension's Dragon Tear, allowing him to return to his human form. He then enters the Sea of Eden, ''Another'' world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea, finding a temporal research facility from the distant future called Chronopolis. Lynx and Kid are inside; Serge defeats Lynx and the supercomputer FATE, allowing the six Dragons of El Nido to steal the Frozen Flame and retire to Terra Tower, a massive structure raised from the sea floor. Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party goodbye to fly with the Dragons. Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains comatose. Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the corrupted Masamune sword from ''Chrono Trigger''. He then uses the Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the mythic Element Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma. At Terra Tower, the prophet of time, revealed to be Belthasar from ''Chrono Trigger'', visits him with visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past.<ref name="remodeling">{{cite video game |title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Chronopolis|quote='''Ghost''': Originally, El Nido was nothing but ocean. The El Nido Archipelago is purely artificial, created by FATE. It was a remodeling plan that took place 10,000 years ago.}}</ref> The introduction of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance from a different dimension.<ref name="dinopolis">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher= Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|quote='''Kid''': Perhaps our planet beckoned Dinopolis into the past&nbsp;... maybe as a measure against Chronopolis and humanity.|level=Chronopolis}}</ref> This was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of ''Chrono Trigger''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Reptites. The institutions warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians. Humans captured their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.

Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system. FATE then [[terraforming|terraformed]] an archipelago, erased the memories of most of Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate its new paradise.<ref name="population">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation| level=Chronopolis|quote='''Ghost''': The research center staff, who had their memories of the future erased, left the center, and began a life outside amidst nature. This is how FATE's paradise came into existence.}}</ref> Thousands of years later, a panther demon attacked a three-year-old Serge. His father took him to find assistance at Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by [[Schala]]. Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal, had long ago accidentally fallen to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time and began merging with Lavos, the chief antagonist of ''Chrono Trigger''.<ref name="schala-banishment">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher= Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Opassa Beach|quote='''Lucca''': Princess Schala was sucked into a dimensional vortex with the Lavos Mammon Machine. Schala and Lavos became unified into one even more powerful entity that would evolve into the Devourer of Time.}}</ref> Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis's defenses and allowed Serge to contact the Frozen Flame; approaching it healed Serge but corrupted his father, turning him into Lynx.<ref name="magnetic-storm-healing">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross| developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Opassa Beach|quote='''Lucca''': Led by the pitiful crying the young Serge made as the panther demon's poison took hold of him&nbsp;... Princess Schala traveled ten thousand years in time to make contact with this dimension! This caused a raging magnetic storm that resulted in FATE's system malfunction, which led Serge to the Frozen Flame.}}</ref> A circuit in Chronopolis then designated Serge "Arbiter", simultaneously preventing FATE from using the Frozen Flame by extension. The Dragons were aware of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon under the storm's cover named Harle, who manipulated Lynx to  steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragons.<ref name="harle-birth">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Opassa Beach|quote= '''Crono''': In the meantime, the six Dragons had sent Harle forth to gain possession of the Flame. Harle made contact with FATE's biological incarnation, Lynx, and tricked him into temporarily joining forces.}}</ref>

After Serge returned home, FATE sent Lynx to kill Serge, hoping that it would release the Arbiter lock. Ten years after Serge drowned, the thief Kid—presumably on Belthasar's orders—went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions. FATE, locked out of the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to ''Another'' world and prepared to apprehend him.<ref name="cross-prediction">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level= Opassa Beach|quote='''Crono''': You see, FATE calculated that you would one day cross the dimensions and try to make contact with the Flame.}}</ref> Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. Belthasar then reveals that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God. Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds apparitions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca once more. They reveal that Belthasar's plan was to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos, lest they evolve into the "Time Devourer", a creature capable of destroying [[spacetime]].<ref name="quest-purpose">{{cite video game| title=Chrono Cross|developer =Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|quote='''Lucca''': And now, about '"Project Kid"'... the time control project Belthasar planned out. The whole project existed to lead you to this one, special point in time! The founding of Chronopolis, the Time Crash, and the battle between FATE and the Dragon Gods&nbsp;... It was all coordinated so that you would get your hands on the Chrono Cross and come to this place!|level=Opassa Beach}}</ref> [[Lucca Ashtear|Lucca]] explains that Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid.<ref name="daughter-clone">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|quote= '''Lucca''': Before the destructive mind-set could become dominant, she cloned herself and sent her copy into this dimension&nbsp;... That's right&nbsp;... Kid is Schala's daughter-clone!|level=Opassa Beach}}</ref><ref name="chrono-cross-use">{{cite video game|title =Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Opassa Beach|quote='''Crono''': The Chrono Cross&nbsp;... It alone can combine the sounds of the planet that the six types of Elements produce! The melody and harmony that brim within all life-forms&nbsp;... Use the '"song of life"' to heal her enmity and suffering&nbsp;... We entreat you, Serge! Please save Schala&nbsp;...}}</ref> Serge uses a Time Egg—given to him by Belthasar—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer, separating Schala from Lavos and restoring the dimensions to one. Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, noting she will always be searching for Serge in this life and beyond, signing the entry as Schala "Kid" Zeal, implying that she and Kid have merged and became whole again. A wedding photo of Kid and an obscured male sits on the diary's desk. Scenes then depict a real-life Kid searching for someone in a modern city, intending to make players entertain the possibility that their own Kid is searching for them. The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.<ref name="cross-resolutions">{{cite web|year=2006 |title=Chrono Cross Resolutions |url=http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Resolutions |work=Chrono Compendium |access-date=July 24, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004143/http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Resolutions |archive-date=September 28, 2007 }}</ref>

===Relation to ''Radical Dreamers''===
''Chrono Cross'' employs story arcs, characters, and themes from ''[[Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki|Radical Dreamers]]'', a [[Satellaview]] side story to ''Chrono Trigger'' released in Japan. ''Radical Dreamers'' is an illustrated [[Interactive fiction|text adventure]] which was created to wrap up an unresolved plot line of ''Chrono Trigger''.<ref name="weeklyfamitsu">{{cite web|year=1999 |title=Weekly Famitsu: Interview with Chrono Cross Developers |url=http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Weekly_Famitsu.html |publisher=[[Enterbrain, Inc.]] and [[Tokuma Shoten]] |access-date=July 1, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721173402/http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Weekly_Famitsu.html |archive-date=July 21, 2006 }}</ref> Though it borrows from ''Radical Dreamers'' in its exposition, ''Chrono Cross'' is not a [[Video game remake|remake]] of ''Radical Dreamers'', but a larger effort to fulfill that game's purpose; the plots of the games are irreconcilable.<ref name="weeklyfamitsu" /> To resolve continuity issues and acknowledge ''Radical Dreamers'', the developers of ''Chrono Cross'' suggested the game happened in a parallel [[dimension]].<ref name="radical-continuity">{{cite video game|title= Chrono Cross|developer=Square|publisher=Square|date=August 15, 2000|platform=PlayStation|level=Chronopolis|quote='''Kid''': Kid: Radical Dreamers&nbsp;...!? And me name's on here, too! What the bloody hell is goin' on?<br />'''Kid''':&nbsp;... This seems to be an archive from a different time than our own. / '''Kid''': Aside from the two worlds we already know about&nbsp;... there may be other worlds and times which exist&nbsp;...}}</ref> A notable difference between the two games is that [[Magil|Magus]]—present in ''Radical Dreamers'' as Gil—is absent from ''Chrono Cross''. Director Masato Kato originally planned for Magus to appear in disguise as Guile, but scrapped the idea due to plot difficulties.<ref name="weeklyfamitsu" /> Kato specifically felt that the game's large number of characters, as well as the difficult production schedule, did not allow him to develop the relationship between Magus and Kid.<ref name="mastiempo">{{cite book|title=Más Allá del Tiempo|publisher=Héroes de Papel|isbn=978-8494288166|language=es|date=December 1, 2015|pages=253}} [https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/2015_-_Masato_Kato,_by_Mariela_Gonzalez.html Translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803113132/https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/2015_-_Masato_Kato,_by_Mariela_Gonzalez.html |date=August 3, 2021 }}</ref> In the DS version of ''Chrono Trigger'', Kato teases the possibility of an amnesiac Magus.<ref name="magusdsending">{{cite video game|title=Chrono Trigger|developer=Square Enix|publisher=Square Enix|date=November 25, 2008|platform=Nintendo DS|level=Twilight Grotto|quote='''Magus''': Hmph. If this is to be the way of things, then let me abandon all that was and fade away as well. Should a part of me somehow even then remain, then perhaps that will be the birth of something new—something with greater meaning than all this. / '''Magus''': Who&nbsp;... who am I? What's happened? I&nbsp;... I don't remember anything. There was something&nbsp;... something I needed to do. Something I needed to&nbsp;... to find. / '''Magus''': I must find a way to remember. I will. }}</ref>