Author's Note: This "story" is a collection of several abandoned Chrono Trigger story ideas I had, all with the shared theme of the time traveling cast becoming stranded in a time-period not their own.

In this chapter I present an abandoned prelude to “Stranded in Time: 65 Million BC”, followed by my plot ideas for said story.

Stranded In Time - Stone Age 65 Million BC:

“Children of the Dawn” OR “Water, Fire, and Lightning”

A “Chrono Trigger” Alternate-History Fan-Fiction

by “Chronos the Cat”

As the sound of children laughing grew louder, Robo paused in his shoveling and glanced across the small village to where a group of seven fur-clad children were playing in the snow. The “snow-bot” two of them had been making stood unfinished, and not far from it the snow-sleds three others had been using lay forgotten. Now, all seven were in the midst of a snowball fight.

Not one to waste time, Robo resumed his shoveling, though he calculated a high probability that the children's antics would bring them in his direction, at which point his work would be interrupted.

A snowball splating against his chestplate soon verified his prediction. Robot glanced up to see a boy with long purple hair in a pony-tail hiding behind a blonde girl, while a girl with short red hair laughed nervously a few feet away from the couple. “Oops,” the red-head said.

Robo turned to the blonde. “Ayla, who threw the snowball that hit me?”

Silently, Ayla pointed at the red-head.

Robo turned to the red-head. “Leene, was your striking me truly an accident?”

With an uncertain hopefulness, Leene said, “Yes?”

Robo stood there a moment, then said, “I see.” He turned, and started shoveling again. The kids were just about to start playing again, when a shovel-load of snow went flying farther than the rest, and landed on Leene. With a silent chuckle, Robo said, “Oops!”

The children all started laughing, and with that, the snowball fight resumed, now with Robo launching snow with his shovel at anyone who dared throw snow at him.

...Later, the children sat around a fire inside Robo's house, warming up. The children were down to loincloths (and tops for the girls), and Robo was hanging the rest of their clothes nearby to dry.

When he was done, he walked back to the children, knowing what was coming.

“Tell us story!” Tata, a boy with spiked purple hair said. Crono, the boy with the purple pony-tail, nodded. “Yeah, tell story of heroes Crono, Marle, Lucca and Ayla!”

Leah, a blonde haired girl with glasses, added, “And Robo! Robo is hero too! Beat Reptites with others!”

As the other children added their encouragement, Robo sat down. He held up a hand for silence. “Very well, I will tell of the adventures of my friends and myself.”

“Yay!” the children cheered.

“It all began in the year 1000 of the Kingdom of Gaurdia...”

“Where that?” Grok, a boy who hadn't heard the story before, asked.

“Uncertain. The geography of the land changes considerably between now and now.”

“Huh?”

Leah told Grok, “It no matter. Kingdom no there yet.”

Grok asked, “Then where Kingdom now?”

“Nowhere. Kingdom not made yet.”

“But Robo say it was.”

Robo spoke up. “Actually, I was being inaccurate. As Leah has pointed out, Guardia has not yet been founded; as such, I should have said, 'It will all begin in the year 1000 of the Kingdom of Guardia...'”

“Oh. Why no say so?”

Crono, Leene, and Ayla glanced at each other conspiratorially. Always the bravest, Leene said, “Why don't you tell it right? Use 'future-tense'!”

Crono added, “Yeah! Future-tense fun!”

Ayla nodded.

Robo gave a theatrical sigh. “Very well. It all will begin approximately sixty-four million years from now, in the year one-thousand of the Kingdom of Guardia...”

Note: No, you don't have to tell the rest of the story in future tense!

Plans:

Azala escapes with the Gate Key. Team wants to follow him to Tyrano Fortress, but Ayla warns aren't strong enough for that yet. Will have to wait, and train.

Optional Storyline: “Reptite Time War”

Azala and his scientists figure the Gate Key out. Use it to send a team into the Mystic Mountain Gate. Team is more than three, so wind up at End of Time.

From there, investigate open time-gates. If Gaspar and Spekkio try to stop them, Gaspar at least is killed, and possibly Spekkio as well. In AD 600 and AD 1000 the reptites find humans to have taken control, the Reptite species almost extinct and most of the Dinosaurs completely so. AD 1999 and AD 2300, meanwhile, reveal the threat of Lavos, and see the rise of a new intelligent “species”, the robots.

Return to Azela to report on their findings. A plot is devised to see in the return of the reptites in AD 600. (Lavos is a problem for another day.) This plot involves building a colony in AD 600, and equipping it with the best of Saurian breeding and robot technology. (Possibly playing both sides of the Mystic War against one another, helping to raise the stakes and prevent either side from achieving complete victory.) When their numbers are sufficient, and the war between Guardia and the Mystics has reached its' conclusion, the Reptites will swoop in to subdue the winner and re-assert their dominance over the Earth.

A reptite base is set up at the End of Time, and the Gate Key is stored there. Work is begun to replicate it.

Finally battle Azela again. Gate Key is (lost into the lava below / still at the End of Time). Lavos falls to Earth, and the team finally realizes that they're in the right time to fight Lavos after all. Begin project to dig down to Lavos. However, will take years.

The Reptite colonists in AD 600 learn of the Giant's Claw, and join forces with the reptites and other saurians living there. These new saurians are the product of millions of years of breeding, and are far more powerful than the saurians of the past. However, they are without clear leadership, and suffer the weaknesses of the inbred (such as vulnerability to disease). The joining of the groups shall end the first problem immediately, and the second within a few generations.

The War between Guardia and the Mystics ends when Magus summons Lavos, only to have Lavos kill him and destroy his castle before returning to slumber.

The Guardians quickly force the Mystics into hiding... But before the Guardians can begin rebuilding, the Reptites attack, and conquer both Guardia and the Mystics' continent.

20 years after 65 Million years ago: Crono, Marle, and Lucca are all well into adulthood, and have kids. (Either Crono married both, or one of the girls found a cave-man she liked.) Dress like cavemen – Crono in boots and loincloth, Lucca in boots and torso-covering, Marle in fur bikini (not too daringly cut – the planet is cooling, after all).

Along with Ayla, go into caves, battle Lavos. Win.

Epilogue (basic storyline version): Crono, Lucca, and Marle are warped from the death of Lavos to 1000 AD. Lucca begins work on new gate-key so they can return to the Stone Age to get their kids. Marle returns to castle to try and reconcile with father – if he'll even admit she's who she claims to be.

Epilogue (Reptite Time War version): Crono, Lucca, and Marle warped to the future by the death of Lavos, leaving Ayla to head back to the village alone. Knows they'll be back for their kids, but promises to look after them in the mean-time.

Meanwhile, Crono, Lucca, and Marle find themselves in Truce, 1020 AD – but a Truce inhabited by technologically advanced Reptites!

Reptitite Time War, Part Two:

At the End of Time, the Reptites discover that the landscape of the AD time-periods has been altered - now several islands float above the surface of the landscape. (Without Lavos, only a civil war between the Enligtened and Earthbound ended Zeal, and not all the islands fell – just enough to break the cloud-cover and end the Ice Age.) Those who were in AD 620 at the time of the change now remember it having always been this way. Also changed is 1999 and 2300, which now show no sign of Lavos. In an odd quirk of temporal mechanics, none of the technology taken from the previous version of 2300 has been altered by the shift in history, and those in AD 620 at the time of the shift still remember Lavos...

Those traveling to 2300 are happy to report that in the new future, Reptites still rule.

In 1020, Crono, Marle, and Lucca set out on a quest to acquire or make a new Gate Key, Succeed. Travel into the End of Time and destroy the base there, and travel back to AD 620 to prevent the Reptite conquest.

Epilogue: A new future emerges... but Guardia has still fallen by 1020 – now thanks to the conquest by Porre in 1005!

Alternate Chrono Cross

Chrono's group must rely on Gates to travel through time, so preventing the rise of Porre is beyond them (short of figuring out what to alter in AD 600). Instead, they join up with the rebels. Among them is a 16-year-old girl by the nickname “Kid”. (Was raised by a kind villager who found her as a baby.)

Chrono's group are surprised to learn of El Nido – that region never existed before. When Kid decides to head down there for her own reasons, they decide to accompany her.

...And so, they become embroiled in a battle over the Frozen Flame, in which FATE will try to control mankind's destiny, and the Reptites will try (once more) to restore their empire...